Chapter Text
Armitage binned his empty highlighter, and dug a fresh one from his desk drawer. He pulled his advanced military theory textbook closer and continued his review of the finer points of chapter seventeen.
He could hear the quiet strains of some coffee house indie music coming from Ben’s room, soft notes passing through the open doors of the shared bath suite that connected their dorm rooms. When he had first met Ben, he was sure he’d be subjected to loud death metal at all hours. It was Ben’s black clothes and slightly long hair; Armie had jumped to conclusions. He was delighted to be wrong.
”Hey Tidge?” Ben was suddenly filling the doorframe. “Do you have plans tonight?”
”Oh hey. Uhhh, not really. Typical Friday for me, I thought I’d study until I can’t keep my eyes open. You?”
Ben crept into the room, stopping near the desk and folding his long form to the floor so he was sitting lower than Armitage.
”Poe gave me his Netflix login, I was going to set up something on my laptop. Wanna come watch with me? I have popcorn, and you have a microwave…”
”Sounds like a match made in heaven.” Armitage laughed, then felt a flush creep up his cheeks at what he’d said. The last thing he needed was for his tall, dark and handsome roommate to realize that Armie was attracted to him. Attracted to him big time; he had spent more than a few evenings with a hand down his pajama bottoms thinking thoughts about Ben that went well beyond ‘just friends’.
Ben had tipped his chin down and hidden his smile.
“So…I’ll go set up the laptop?”
“Yeah, yeah…let me just get this stuff packed up for the night and I will be right there.”
Within thirty minutes they were side by side on Ben’s bed, laptop open on Ben’s thigh, popcorn bowl jammed between them. Armitage wasn’t terribly fond of popcorn, but tonight he couldn’t get enough, because of the way their hands kept bumping gently together as they dipped into the bowl at the same time.
They had chosen a spy thriller, full of action and explosions. It stood zero chance of keeping Armie’s attention, given that Ben was pressed shoulder to shoulder with him, warm and solid and smelling faintly of his green tea shampoo.
Armitage dropped his hand into the popcorn bowl again, feeling around for any remaining pieces. Instead he found Ben’s hand. Ben teasingly twined his fingers around Armitage’s, lifted their joined hands to his mouth, and pretended to take a bite from his roommate’s hand.
“Oh hey!’ Armitage laughed, and then his breath caught when Ben pressed one gentle kiss to Armie’s fingertips, then released his hand. Smiling, Ben slouched a bit further down on the bed, and tipped his head onto Armitage’s shoulder.
“Cozy.” Ben mumbled softly, and focused back on the movie.
When the movie ended, Armitage readied himself for bed and took his turn in the shared bathroom. Ben came in to brush his teeth as Armie was closing the door to his room, and he wished him a good night.
Crawling into bed, he was surprised to find himself drifting immediately toward sleep. As his eyes closed, visions of Ben seemed to appear from the darkness, and he fell asleep thinking of those warm lips pressed to his fingers.
The creaking of the door woke Armitage. Peering over toward the bathroom, he could see a tall shadow moving slowly toward him.
“Ben?” He called out, trying to shake the drowsy sound from his voice.
“Hi… sorry to wake you. I was having trouble sleeping.”
“S’alright. Are you ok?” Armitage pushed himself up on one arm, scrubbing sleep from his eyes with his free hand.
“I umm…I was trying to sleep and I couldn’t stop thinking about you. How nice it felt to be so close with you earlier. You’re so warm, and it felt so good to be near you and just…thought that might help me sleep.”
“So…you come to my room and wake me up at 4 am, to… cuddle?” Armitage could barely suppress a smile.
He couldn’t see Ben blushing, though he was confident that he was. No verbal confirmation came, but he could see Ben nodding.
Armitage flipped back the covers, and slid back to one side of his bed.
“Well. Come on then.”