"Jacob, could you come in here for a moment, please?"

Jake looked up slowly from the spectroscope and it was a moment before the lab swam into focus. He remembered where he was, and what the sounds from the other room signified. He was at school and that was a human voice. Dr. McKellen needed his help.

Rising from his stool, Jake buttoned the top button of his white coat, adjusted the pens in his pocket protector, and pushed the black-framed glasses back up his nose. He hurried into the next room, intent on rendering whatever aid he could, and saw Doc, as some of the more irreverent students called the chemistry professor, holding a glass vial over a flame.

"Jacob," Doc said over his shoulder. "Would you turn on the auto-clave for me?"

Doc watched with avuncular affection as Jake obeyed with alacrity. The tall, lanky young man was rumpled from finger-combed hair to an untied shoelace, but his brain was a well-ordered marvel of rapidly firing synapses. With a pair of contact lenses, and a change in wardrobe and grooming, Doc thought that Jake would be more than presentable. As the young man bent to push the habitually loose plug back into the electric outlet, the professor was momentarily distracted by the way Jake's lab coat was stretched tight across a pair of firm-looking cheeks.

A nano-second later, an intense purple-white flash lit up the lab like a lightning strike. The reflection off the metal surface in front of Jake nearly blinded him. He blinked, trying to clear his vision of the St. Elmo's fire that bloomed and floated across the surface of the real world. "Professor?" he called out. There was no answer, and he could see no one else in the room. Running to the door, he banged into the corner of a table with his hip and reeled into a stool, nearly going to the floor. He hung onto the edge of the lab table for a few seconds, rattling the Pyrex, willing his heart rate to slow, waiting for his vision to clear a little more. With a deep breath, he straightened up, patted his pocket protector for luck, and strode into the next room. "Professor?" he called again.

"Hello! Excuse me. Could you let me in?"

Jake spun toward the thick door that led to the hall. Someone was peering in the small window set in the top of door, knocking and trying the handle at the same time. Still dazed from the silent explosion, Jake stared back. With detached curiosity, he wondered what a jock like Heath Ledger was doing in the chem lab.

"Hey! You! In the white coat. You want to let me in?"

Jake snapped out of his stupor. "I can't let you in yet. There was some kind of explosion, and I need to make sure there aren't any… dangerous gases," he trailed off, realizing he had already breathed in anything hazardous that might be permeating the atmosphere. "Will you go to the next lab and get help?"

"Yeah, right. I've heard about you science guys, and how you like to prank us dumb jocks. I didn't hear any explosion."

"It was…" Jake sighed in exasperation. There was always the intercom. Before he could make his way to the professor's cubby office, he heard the door open behind him. "That's supposed to be locked," he said, as he turned back around.

"Look, I'm just here to pick up some stuff for the cheer squad, all right? Doc McK was making up some fireworks for them, and said they'd be ready this afternoon."

"Fireworks?"

"Yeah, you know, the sparkly, whooshy things that go up in the air and make pretty designs."

"I know what fireworks are," Jake said a trifle peevishly. "I just can't believe the professor would waste his time on something so trivial. In any case, I don't know anything about your fireworks, so if you'll excuse me…"

Heath lifted his head, sniffing loudly, and interrupted. "What's that smell?"

"I don't smell anything. Well, nothing unusual. Fireworks are made with sulphur and I assure you, if there were sulphur burning in here, I'd be able to smell it. Would you mind leaving now so I can deal with this?"

"With what?" Heath looked around, walking a few feet toward the next room. "I can't see anything wrong here."

Jake didn't want to admit it, but Heath was right. The lab looked just as it always did. The only thing missing was Dr. McKellen. And Jake didn't see how his mentor could have left the lab without him knowing. True, Jake had been disoriented and half-blind, but still, where could the professor have gone? Heath would have seen him, if he'd left by the main door; the lab was at the end of the hall and there was only way in.

"You really don't smell that?" Heath asked. When Jake ignored the question, Heath spoke again. "It doesn't smell bad; in fact, it smells yummy."

"Yummy?"

"Yeah. Like… bread baking. No, wait, it smells like bacon frying and… fresh coffee."

"You smell breakfast?"

"No. I can't really tell what it smells like. It keeps changing. Now I smell pine and… snow."

"And what does snow smell like?"

"Um, going skiing with my family over Christmas break? Seriously, if I could describe how snow smells, I'd be passing English Lit."

"I don't have time for this," Jake tried to move past Heath. "I need to find the professor."

"Maybe he's just taking a leak."

Jake refrained from rolling his eyes. "Would you please move?"

"Mmm, I can smell coconut and the ocean; those are two of my favorite smells."

"Hey!" Jake recoiled from Heath when the other boy stuck his nose in Jake's tufted hair. "What are you doing?"

"Your hair smells amazing," Heath said, moving even closer, sniffing audibly. "What kind of shampoo do you use?"

"None of your business. Go away." Jake walked quickly into the lab Dr. McKellen had been working in when he vanished. "I need to call campus security."

"Don't do that," Heath said. "Only a complete loser would call the cops before having a good look around first. If Doc comes walking in with a frappaccino and finds security here, you're gonna feel really stupid."

"It's the right thing to do."

"You always do the right thing?"

"Again, that would be none of your business."

"Nerd," Heath said under his breath. "And come on, you have to smell that. Smell it," Heath sniffed loudly. "What does that smell like to you?"

"Did you hit your head before you came in here? You're acting like someone with a concussion. Let me get to the phone and I'll page security."

"I'm not hallucinating," Heath insisted. "I can still smell coconut, and the surf, and ginger, and that smell of sweat mixed with suntan lotion melting in the sun and a lot of other things. You really don't smell it?"

"No," Jake said firmly. "I don't. All I can smell is you because you're standing way too close. And you're still in front of the phone."

Jake tried to reach past the other young man and Heath inhaled deeply, leaning toward Jake like a sleepwalker. "Is that your cologne?" he asked, his voice dropping a quarter of an octave. "Cause it rocks."

Jake looked over his shoulder, the phone to his ear, and Heath plucked Jake's glasses off his face. "Hey," Jake put his hand out. "Give me those. I can't see without them."

Heath didn't answer; he was staring at Jake like he'd never seen anything half so wonderful in his life. "Whoa," he breathed. "You're a hottie."

Jake made a face, and put the phone down. "Give me my glasses," he said again. "Just because you think I'm a nerd, doesn't mean you can push me around."

"And you have the most amazing voice. Do you sing? Cause I think you'd be good."

With an exasperated sound, Jake turned back to the desk. The corner of a piece of paper, just a blurry white triangle protruding from the edge of the professor's leather covered journal, caught Jake's eye. He pulled it out, held it close to his face and quickly scanned the formulae and notes that crowded the page in the professor's elegant handwriting. "This has to be a joke," he said. "The professor wouldn't…" Jake paused. If Dr. McKellen had started doing things like making fireworks for the rah-rah crowd, anything was possible.

"Man, I am so incredibly horny," Heath drawled.

"And why would that be of any interest to me?"

"Well, if you were horny too, we could do each other a favor."

Jake's eyes bugged out and he went around to the other side of the desk. "I bet you think you're really funny, but you're," he searched for a clever word, and ended with, "not."

"Lots of people have told me I'm funny. You're the only person that's ever told me I wasn't. Now, who do you think I should believe? You? Or the rest of the world?"

Jake did roll his eyes on that one. "Isn't there someone else you should be charming right now? I wouldn't want to deprive your many fans of the wonder of you."

"Good one. I like the way you talk."

"Could you stop being a cliché for just a minute and give me my glasses?"

"You're calling me a cliché?" Heath said in disbelief. "If I'm the jock bully, doesn't that make you the brainy virgin?"

"You're an asshole."

"You're gorgeous." Heath swayed toward Jake, bringing his face close to the other boy's neck. Jake moved back and ran into the desk. Heath set the glasses down on the journal, as Jake reached for them. Their hands brushed, and Heath fingers closed around Jake's wrist. "Leave 'em off, please?" he requested.

"I need my glasses."

"I want to see your eyes," Heath continued as though Jake hadn't spoken. "I've never seen eyes like yours before. They're beautiful."

"Jeez!" Jake exclaimed, trying to slide sideways along the edge of the desk. Heath's hands on either side of Jake's hips stopped the young lab assistant from going anywhere but backward. Hopping up onto the polished wood, Jake scrambled away from his pursuer. With a delighted grin, Heath leaped easily onto the desk and leaned over Jake. "Cut it out!" Jake said, as Heath knelt astride him. "If you think I won't hit you, you're wrong."

"Why would you hit me?" Heath's hands landed on Jake's shoulders and before Jake could react, their lips were touching.

Jake had the brief mental image of a welder igniting his torch before his normally well-structured thought patterns were shuffled at hyper speed, too busy processing new and exciting input from his nerve endings to do anything else. Jake wasn't ashamed of being a twenty-year-old virgin; it was something he'd chosen, like vegetarianism. He was waiting for the right one, his one true love, to share his heart and body with; he just never expected it to be the popular, handsome and indisputably male captain of the track team. When Jake pictured his wedding, he envisioned a bride and groom, not two grooms. It was true that he'd felt what he considered an attraction to a male before, but he'd read that it was normal for people to experiment with both genders when first becoming sexually active. He wasn't repelled by the fact that Heath was a guy; he just didn't like the circumstances. And if he'd been able to form a coherent sentence, he would have demanded that Heath stop on the grounds that permission had not been asked nor granted, Jake was not a slut that slept with someone ten minutes after meeting them, and the desk was really uncomfortable. He would like to have said all those things, but he had found better use for his tongue.

Heath finally relinquished Jake's mouth to nuzzle aggressively at his face and neck, letting his hands drift along the sleek lines of the body beneath the white coat. "This is wild," he said. "I've seen you around, but I never would've thought about making a play for you. I must have been blind, or something. How could I not have seen how hot you are?"

Jake's answer was a wanton little moan of innocent greed as Heath punctuated his words with another deep, slow kiss that sent a liquid pulse of pure pleasure rippling through Jake's groin. Unable to resist the siren call, Heath knelt on the desk and took the other boy in his arms. Jake looked up with an unfocused gaze and it seemed such a natural thing for Heath to lower his face and kiss the offered lips. The petal softness parted under his mouth, and his tongue accepted the tacit invitation, reveling in the lack of any resistance.

Jake moaned softly again and the sound triggered a sympathetic vibration in Heath's crotch. His hard cock quivered in anticipation of imitating the actions of his tongue. Jake found himself pressing as close as he could to Heath's solidness as the jock plundered his mouth. His fingertips thrilled to the coarse velvet of Heath's close-cropped hair, as he groped blindly for something to hang on to. When Heath broke the kiss, Jake whimpered, shocked at the pleading sound that had come out of him. The abandoned noise made Heath pause as well, gazing at Jake with a perplexed frown.

"What's going on?" Heath said muzzily.

"Don't stop," Jake gasped. "I love the way you kiss me. Kiss me again."

Heath complied gladly. He loved kisses; couldn't get enough, but his previous lovers hadn't shared his passion for foreplay. Excited by Jake's excitement, Heath slipped his fingers under the waistband of Jake's trousers. He found the other boy's arousal with the ease of long practice, and stroked the stiff shaft, as he indulged his passion for kissing. Heath's was the first hand, other than Jake's own, that had touched his dick since the days when he was in diapers, and the effect was rather overwhelming. Jake groaned, writhing against the polished wood, as Heath explored his mouth while caressing his yearning length. He didn't protest by word, or deed, as Heath unzipped him and opened the front of his pants.

"Nice, very nice," Heath breathed in lustful admiration of the equipment he'd bared. Though Heath was unabashedly fond of both genders, he preferred a male partner, and had bedded just about everyone that caught his fancy, but he had never looked twice at Gyllenhaal before. It was a mystery to Heath how he could have missed seeing that Jakey was a volcano under all that snow.

Leaning in again, Heath inhaled another hit of that incredible scent that made him want to bury his cock to the hilt in Jake. And made him want to kiss every inch of Jake. And made him want to give Jake as much pleasure as Jake could stand, a goal to which he applied himself with eagerness. Sliding a hand down over Jake's tight balls, pausing to rub lightly at the silky skin just below, Heath circled the furled opening in the cleft. Jake tensed, and relaxed again as Heath prodded the musky rosette, nudging lightly with a saliva slick finger. Easing a fingertip past the resilient muscle, Heath probed until he found what he sought, and Jake made a small hungry noise against his lips. Diligently rubbing the springy bump, Heath provoked a series of muffled moans that led up to a strangled sound and a convulsive shudder. Jake bit at the other boy's lower lip as his entire body was galvanized by a pleasure-strike so powerful that he was deaf, dumb and blind, existing in a realm of pure sensory input for several ecstatic seconds. When the sweet grip of orgasm eased off, Jake floated back on a pervasive cloud of afterglow. Opening his eyes, he looked up at Heath.

"I neh-never…" he stuttered languidly. "Never… ever… felt anything like that."

Heath didn't answer for the simple reason that he was giving Jake's sticky cock a first class tongue bath. Jake moved restlessly as the other boy licked and sucked, teasing the head of Jake's shaft with little kittenish swipes of his tongue. Heath nibbled his way down the vein on the underside of the quiescent length and drew one of Jake's balls into his mouth. Jake half sat up in reaction, and Heath eased him back down with a hand splayed across the taut, quivering belly.

"I'm not sure I can stand anymore of that," Jake groaned.

Heath smiled around his mouthful of delicate flesh, as he ran a finger up Jake's crack. Jake could take a lot more; Heath was surer of that than he'd ever been of anything. He was also sure that this was what he'd been born for: to love Jake and be loved by him in return. It was not a thought Heath had ever had before, but it seemed perfectly natural to him now. He had found what had always been missing from his life, and to think he had almost told the cheer squad to do their own errands. What if he hadn't walked into the chem lab today? Heath didn't even want to think about that; he just wanted to wallow in Jakeness.

"Just… just a minute," Jake said dazedly, as Heath's lips closed around the head of his cock and slid downward. "We just did this."

Heath raised his head and grinned wickedly. "Well, we're gonna keep doing it until we get it perfected," he said. "We'll take care of me later."

"Stop. Please. I was confused before, but my head is clearer now. You're only doing this because you're affected by the professor's experiment."

"Huh?" Heath looked up again, his tongue poised to dip once more into Jake's alluring navel.

"It's true. Please stop for just a minute and let me explain."

"You don't like what I'm doing?"

Jake bit his lower lip. "I love what you're doing, but… I know you're only doing it because you're under the influence of Dr. McKellen's formula."

Jake's words finally penetrated the soft, red fog in Heath's brain. "Formula?"

"He must have been working on this when the explosion happened," Jake picked up the now wrinkled paper. "You came in right afterward and started acting strangely."

"What was he working on?"

Two spots of rose appeared over Jake's cheekbones. "Well, it seems to be a… love potion."

Heath snickered, and then instantly sobered. "Shit! Hey, listen; I don't usually… I don't know why I attacked you like that. I just couldn't help myself," Heath paused. "Are you okay, man?"

"You didn't hurt me," Jake took a deep breath. "This is hard to say, but I really loved what we just did, even though I know you didn't really mean it."

Heath frowned. "Are you sure about this? I mean, a love potion? Is that for real?"

"There's been a lot of interesting research on pheromones," Jake said, sliding off the desk, turning his back and fastening his trousers.

"Come on. Do you really believe in love potions?"

"You have another explanation?"

"Yeah, I do. You're hot and I was horny."

Jake shook his head. "There's no point in talking to you, is there?"

"Cause I'm just a dumb jock that wouldn't understand?"

Jake thought a moment before he answered. "I'm sorry," he said. "You're right; I was making a judgment about you."

"See, we're communicating. This is great. So what do you think? Can a dick and a brain learn to get along?"

"I don't want to misunderstand. Are you saying you want to… continue this… beginning?"

"For a smart guy, you don't talk so good," Heath grinned to show he was joking. "But yeah, I'd like to try and build on it, if you want to. What's the harm?"

"You could break my heart," Jake answered. "What if you have no interest in me once the… formula wears off?"

Heath opened his mouth, and Jake had to resist the fierce impulse to kiss those enticing lips, as he waited for whatever the other boy would say. He was destined not to hear those words for a flash of light as bright as the one that marked the professor's disappearance ate all the shadows in the room. When he could see again, Dr. McKellen was standing a few feet away, blinking like a man wakened from a sleepwalk.

"Oh my," the professor said. "How extraordinary."

"Sir!" Jake exclaimed. "What happened to you?"

"I'll explain in a moment. What formula were you speaking of when I arrived?"

"Oh," Jake blushed from hairline to collar. "The uh, love potion," he said, handing over the paper crumpled in his hand.

Ian McKellen glanced at the writing and chuckled warmly. "My dear boy, this is something I wrote for a colleague I'm passing fond of, just a little joke between old chums. I'm rather surprised that you of all persons would take it seriously."

"I don't understand," Jake said. "That formula works."

"I can assure you that it doesn't."

"I'm just as sure that it does."

"Jacob, you look flushed. Are you feeling well?"

"Dr. McKellen! You disappeared," Jake looked up at the clock, "almost twenty minutes ago. What happened to you?"

"Twenty minutes? Really? Unprecedented."

"Sir?" Jake voice took on a plaintive note. "What's going on here?"

"I was mixing some black powder for a firework and it ignited. I'm going to have to sort through my impressions before I can answer your question in full. Even then, without a frame of reference, you're not going to understand much of it, I should imagine. Well, hello, Mr. Ledger. What are you doing lurking back there?"

"I'm came to pick up the fireworks and… I was going to say there weren't any, but that's not quite true."

The professor looked from Heath to Jake. "I can see there's a story here," he said. "But the pep squad must not be kept waiting. I take school spirit quite seriously, you know."

"No, I didn't actually."

"Well, ours has been a very professional relationship, though I have some hope that might change, unless I mistake a certain softening of your demeanor. Now, if you'll excuse me, Mr. Ledger no doubt has more pressing errands, so I'll just go and fetch his package."

Heath suppressed a grin at the professor's double-entendre until the man had left the room. "No love potion, Jakey," he said.

"There must be some scientific explanation. And don't call me Jakey."

"I don't need any explanations. I just want to get close to you again as soon as possible."

"So it's lust? Hormones gone wild?"

"Is that such a bad thing?"

"Yes." Jake paused and thought it over. "No. Maybe. I don't know."

"Do you want to find out?"

"I'm a scientist; of course I want to find out."

"I hereby volunteer to be your test subject."

"I will need a lab partner," Jake said slowly. "Would you agree to a limited trial run?"

"If those are your terms."

"Will you agree to any experiment at least once?"

"Is that a deal breaker?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Done, then," Heath held out his hand. Jack took it, and both felt the erotic electricity that raced along their nerves leaving a warm glow in its path. Heath didn't mention the strong feeling he'd gotten about finding his soul mate for fear Jake would think him too strange. They knew they were physically compatible, but that wasn't enough for either of them, and Heath was willing to do the work to get to know this one better. And for once, he found himself praying that his new lover felt the same.

"This is all very weird," Jake said. "But I'm intrigued."

And isn't that what really keeps us coming back for more, in love, in literature, and in life?