Chapter Text
“Bearman…Bearman…Bearman…”
Whirls of hallucinations of random imaginations of recurring scenes flashed like a projector onto a screen in Oliver’s head, and when he meant random, it truly was random. Snaps echoed in the large lecturer hall with what looked to Oliver to be scribbles on the whiteboards presented to the rest of the students attentively listening whilst Oliver had his chin resting on his palm, looking all so interested until the professor called upon his name for the umpteenth time.
“Hm?” was all Oliver could muster all the moment, blinking slowly at the bearded professor right by his seat, leaning his body over to Oliver sitting in the middle of the long wooden desk, as the professor’s cotton blazer was almost dragging against the surface. Oliver just glanced at the professor, tilting his head like a tired little puppy, except his hair was messy, and he was in the same clothes he had slept with.
“You’re inattentive, quite strange considering you said you loved this topic in the admissions interview.” The professor pointed out, straightening his back, stretching some of his leg muscles while still on the carpeted stairs.
“I–” Oliver tried arguing back, but his head collapsed on the desk, as the sound of wood echoed throughout the lecture hall, with small gasps accompanying the thud like some form of weird symphony, and there were so many hands covering mouths with people looking around, eyes widened, wondering what to do. Eventually, everyone figured out without a communication of word or the non-verbal, just a simple stare in the same direction would do, and all the eyes became arrows pointing at one specific Brazilian looking in every other direction.
“What?” Gabriel asked loudly to the rest of the lecture hall, with the rest of the people calming the nerves in their eyes, relaxing it slightly, like all they needed to hear was that Gabriel was aware they were staring like he was the reason why Oliver suddenly fell to his desk. The lecture hall remained silent, which led to Oliver’s soft snores to be the only thing heard in the room, which had some head turns for the people near Oliver, which excluded Gabriel. “He’s just tired, leave the dude be.” Gabriel dismissed the situation with frustration in his voice, turning his body and head to face the front of the lecture hall, where lay the untouched notes, handwriting on the board in greek letters and numerals in pristine condition, and some objects hovering in the air with a blue aura surrounding it.
“It’s just unnatural.” The professor murmured, walking away as his heel clicked against the carpeted flooring, with the objects slowly drifting to him, as he continued the lecture with a slightly more distraught tone in his voice, joking along as the rest of the lecture hall laughed along like nothing happened.
But everything happened the previous night.
Oliver was pacing faster than Kimi in the dormitory halls as Kimi tried catching up; Oliver’s sneakers were dragging against the carpet, catching pixie dust from the idiots they want him to call them his neighbours on the way, as it releases a sound like crystals clanging against each other, very aesthetic, but Oliver did not want to deal with any messes. Gabriel opened their dormitory door from the inside, reading a book and looking seemingly interested, and pushing up his reading glasses, before being hit by an oncoming Oliver Bearman. Gabriel only made the smallest action to look up before being pushed back into the dormitory with the door shut so loudly, it caused a reaction between the both of them.
“The fuck?” Gabriel whispered, shutting his book surprisingly loudly in the almost empty space called their room, and Oliver swore that the items in his room started vibrating for a moment.
“This dude has been following me around for no apparent reason—” Oliver pushed his own back against the poorly painted wooden door, his head turning ever so occasionally to look through the peep hole made just right for his height, and he shuddered the moment he saw the curls in the Italian’s head standing outside. Gabriel glanced at Oliver’s gestures that kinda only showed the dude’s height, and practically nothing else, but Gabriel already could guess who it was with a disappointed look crossing the Brazilian’s face.
“Of course he would!” Gabriel threw the book to the bed, waving his arms in front of Oliver in even more frustration, almost shouting at the Brit, “You offered to guide the guy around campus!”
“I didn’t know he would be this clingy!” Oliver argued, his head already producing perspire, as his eyes were like they were glued to that full head of hair that belonged to Kimi.
“That’s natural for a dude that barely knows anyone on this campus!” Gabriel countered, covering his face with his palm whilst shaking his head slowly side to side, “He only knows you and me, Ollie!” He had his other hand held to his chest-level, bending the tip of his fingers forward to the door, and soon enough, a green aura of some sort started forming around the tips of his fingers. Oliver immediately stepped away as Gabriel lifted his head to show a tired and annoyed expression, his eyes showing no form of light in them.
“Jesus, since when were you this confident in controlling your magic?” Oliver commented, stunned almost by Gabriel’s magic as locks summoned out of nowhere and fasted against the door at lightning speeds, with more than five different types of locks against the gap between the door and the door ledge, ranging from numbered locks to the medieval-ish lock and key.
“Oh, won’t you shut up?” Gabriel complained as the green aura around his finger tips disappeared as two keys spawned in his hands as soon as they did; the Brazilian straightened his posture slightly, slotting that same hand into his pocket. “Just so you can relax. I don’t want to talk to you with you being constantly anxious about that darn pretentious freshman at the door.” Gabriel explained, a hand raising to pointing the countless locks on the door, as he walked to the bed. His cargo pants addressed the cotton bedsheet of Oliver’s bed as he sat down on the thicker-than-expected mattress for the standards of the dormitory.
“Y’know, you could always just lock the normal lock that’s already installed there. Now, we might face complaints from our residential advisor!” Oliver complained, examining the locks drilled into the wall particle by particle like his life depended on it, as if the locks were laced with something.
“You’d say the freshman would break in easily, and there’d be a bigger argument to go through before getting to this point—”
“Yada yada,” Oliver interrupted, joining Oliver by leaning against the wall by his bed, pulling his roller chair to the bedside, and as he was sitting down on the barely-cushioned seat, the armrest almost made him slip, “we have something even more important to settle—”
“Our winter break assignments that you refused to finish?” Gabriel deadpanned, raising his eyebrows and crossed his arms as Oliver laughed awkwardly to himself whilst shaking his foot underneath the seat.
“No! It’s the fucking party we owe to the seniors for welcoming us last year!” Oliver elaborated, generating a red aura around his finger tips, which he snapped against his palms to reveal some banners, confetti, and balloons already around his room. Gabriel scanned the room with not a care in the world, absolutely unimpressed by the array of decorations Oliver had revealed to the Brazilian with the way his eyes didn’t show a flicker of inspiration. He nodded alongst to whatever Oliver was yapping about, till the slightest mention from Oliver’s lips of the word ‘drinks’, which caused his eyes to light up, and the surrounding colours seem to brighten along with it too.
“I have some good alcohol suggestions.” Gabriel inputted awkwardly, his hand immediately reaching for the back of his neck, as his cooler palm touched the warmer back of his skin, as he looked up to see Oliver already delighted with how close his face was to Gabriel’s.
“You do?” Oliver asked like he was a puppy of some kind, though to Gabriel, it was sort of endearing in a way, but out of the blue as well: it had been a while Oliver was interested in something Gabriel partaken in, but at the same time, it was alcohol, and any good alcohol suggestions meant usually two things, cheap, and guests coming in because ‘a little birdie told them’.
“Yeah, it’s down the street.” Gabriel nodded. Gabriel stood up, pushing his hand against the mattress to boost himself up, whilst another hand unlocked the rest of the locks against the door, but of course, it was only when the process of unlocking said locks was occurring, Oliver’s eyes widened, and he made a beeline to the door, pressing his back onto it again, and sticking his palms firmly against the almost corroded wood. “So, is cheap and good alcohol something we’re not preparing for the party anymore, Ollie?” Gabriel sighed, dropping back to the bed, crossing his legs while waiting for the Brit in front of him to respond, who seemed to be too preoccupied with the door being unlocked.
“Dipshit! Who knows if that freshman is still waiting outside like the stalker he is?!” Oliver shouted through his teeth, leaning his entire spine against the carvings of the door, his cheekbone pressed against the wood, as his eyes could only focus on the peep hole. It was only after his pupils drifted to scan through the sight he could see that Oliver hunched his posture over, sighing relief, and twisting the knob clockwise. Oliver glanced over his shoulders to show Gabriel the sight behind the door, which inherently was nothing, but considering that he expected a curly-haired Italian outside, it was already more reassuring than Oliver would think it would be. Gabriel had his arms crossed again, shaking his head in disappointment to Oliver’s instincts of the supposed freshman stalker.
“If he really was a stalker, he’d be trying other methods.” Gabriel commented, walking outside the dormitory room whilst Oliver held the door open. Oliver rolled his eyes, walking right behind Gabriel, slamming the already-pretty-ancient wooden door behind him. Soles of sneakers dragged against the dustiest carpet imaginable, their heels kicking up whatever dirt could be found buried in the manufactured cotton in a consistent beat. Oliver kept behind Gabriel in a manageable distance, following his Brazilian buddy in his path, though considering the fact that Gabriel almost knew nothing about alcohol, it was a wonder why suddenly Oliver started trusting the Brazilian. Gabriel started humming a song to himself, just soft enough for only him to hear, it was a song he could barely recognise, he didn’t know the lyrics to it nor most of the instrumental, but he recognised the drum beat–the kicks, hi-hats, and snare–and one thing led to another, so he began humming the chords played by the string ensemble. “It’s a pretty old place, been around since Poseidon’s been here.” Gabriel started introducing the place out of the blue as the two exited their sleeping quarters. They were greeted by the cooling spring breeze angled to their direction by the heights of the multiple suburban apartments nearby, which was one of the reasons why Gabriel even considered this college in the first place–he couldn’t live with poor ventilation.
“How’d you find this place?” Oliver asked, quickening his step to follow Gabriel down an alley the Brit never considered to walk through, wincing to himself every time he stepped on something that didn’t look like a clean tile or something that may look like tar. Gabriel didn’t even look back, he just continued walking along the alleyway, looking like he was ignoring Oliver, but a simple “Hm?” from the Brazilian, and a slight head turn to the right didn’t leave Oliver fully stranded.
“Someone who’s been here for a while told me,” Gabriel answered, gesturing to Oliver to follow him through a corner that looked like it led to a dead end, but like the reluctant and gullible Brit Oliver was, he followed Gabriel anyway. And Oliver’s thoughts were right as soon as he turned to see Gabriel facing the Brit, his eyes pointing to Oliver’s pocket, which of course the Brit saw, but he couldn’t understand from looks alone what Gabriel was trying to communicate. “Wand.” Gabriel commanded, snapping his fingers, pointing to the obvious slim bulge in his pocket that looked like a wand, especially since a slimmer of it was poking out.
“Why can’t you use your own magic?” Oliver asked, standing further from Gabriel as the Brazilian tried reaching for Oliver’s wand in his own pockets. Gabriel sighed, patting the wall made of cinder blocks for Oliver to observe;then, he turned to the Brit as if that answered anything.
“It needs concentrated magic.” Gabriel tiredly explained, leaning against the wall as his feet pressed against a cornerstone. Oliver gave the Brazilian a glance as his pupils darted between the Brazilian and the cinderblock wall, his hands started shaking as if it was an examination to test his own magical ability. “Just shoot some magic,” Gabriel dismissed Oliver’s doubts, as his fingertips produced some colored aura again like back at their room, and the closer Gabriel’s fingers got to the cinder block wall, the more the wall revealed what lay behind it. “Apparently if you shoot a random spell, the wall would disappear for a few seconds.” Gabriel elaborated, sending more magic through his veins as the wall gave a bigger circumference for the two to look out of. Another gesture from Gabriel brought Oliver to look out of the same giant peep hole through the wall. Behind was a humble hotel establishment decorated with neon light banners of names of famous wizards and witches as well as presumably the hotel’s name. The lights glowed slightly in the midst of the afternoon sun, with a bell boy standing in front of the entrance, waving to Gabriel and Oliver already.
“Is this it?” Oliver questioned warily, his eyes fixed at the sight of the hotel they could see, and his fingers drummed to his side, and his shoes were begging to stop being tapped so much against the poorly maintained concrete tiles of the alleyway. The Brit waved cautiously back to the bellboy, glancing at Gabriel ever so occasionally. “Are we sure this isn’t an illusion?” Oliver quivered, slowly moving away from the peep hole, molecule by molecule, pulling out his wand to hand to Gabriel. Gabriel took it gracefully, tossing it around, provoking Oliver a few times by almost dropping it a few times.
“Nah, this is just the tourist attractions for the entertainment district.” Gabriel smugly smiled, playfully pushing himself off Oliver as the temporary peep hole they had slowly shrunk until it became solid cinder again.