Chapter Text
Zayn pulled his student ID out of his pocket and put it against the little gray square. It beeped and the door unlocked. Zayn slid through the tiny gap between the door and the frame and made his way up to the second floor of the building. He was a Resident Assistant for the dorm down the hill, but had to complete some of the last minute check outs for his friend that worked on this floor. Gigi, the RA of the floor, had to go home a day early since her parents were flying out to Germany the following day. So Zayn was being a good friend and filling in her shoes. It didn't matter that he could barely fill out a form properly and didn't have any real inclination to spend another couple hours checking out dirty dorm room after dirty dorm room, but if it meant he would be one step closer to getting into her pants, it would be worth it.
He tugged his beanie down over his ears as he walked down the hall. The majority of slips on the doors had been filled out, both residents checked out with a signature and date scrawled in messy cursive. Zayn got about halfway down the hall when he noticed a dorm room without either signature on it. He knocked on the door, three simple sequential knocks. He waited for an answer, pausing before saying, "RA."
He didn't hear any movement behind the door, so he pulled out the key he was given. He put it in the lock and turned it to the left, the dead bolt sliding back into the wooden door. He pushed it in, eyes dropped in case there was anything going on that he didn't want to see. There's been more than one occasion where he accidentally walked in on open containers of alcohol or people covering their privates at the last minute even though he previously announced his presence. He learned to duck his eyes a lot as an RA.
The room was empty. It looked like the majority of the clothes were packed and gone. Only a few t-shirts were left lying around, hanging off the freshly made bed. The TVs were cleared and it seemed that both were gone, they just forget to sign out. Zayn sighed. He checked the outlets behind the beds and desks, making sure that the two desk lamps in the room were unplugged. The third lamp in the corner of the room was plugged into a spare outlet, so Zayn yanked out the plug, mumbling under his breath. He checked the drawers for alcohol or drugs, luckily finding nothing in them. He didn't want to get strapped with paperwork because Gigi couldn't scare her residents into not smoking pot.
Zayn glanced around the room one more time to make sure there weren't any glaring holes in the walls before exiting. He turned the key in the lock, the lead pipe thunking into the wooden frame with finality. Zayn continued down the hallway, the remainder of the dorms seemed to be closed with signatures on the door. Maybe he would have some luck after all.
His shoulders slumped when he reached the very end of the hall. Of course the last door in the hall would have another blank sheet of paper. Zayn rolled up his sleeves, pushing the waffle-print shirt to his elbows. His tattoos twitched as he knocked on the door. He waited for a minute, about to say the that he was an RA, when the door swung open and a blond-haired boy popped into the door frame. He had on a sweater and black pants. Zayn paused for a second, mouth slant.
The boy smiled at him, speaking before Zayn could get a word in edgewise. "Come on in! Are ya lookin' for 'arry? Wow. I didn't think you'd be able to get in on the floor. We're high tech around here. Did summon let you in? No matter!" The boy turned around, leaving room for Zayn to follow in behind him. Zayn did so with measured step. "Sit down on the bed. Please make yourself comfy."
Zayn glanced at the boy, his eyes squinted. He didn't know what the kid wanted from him and he didn't know which question to answer first; the boy fired off at least five in the past thirty seconds and his head was spinning with possible responses.
"Sorry, have you been waiting around long? 'arry should be back relatively soon, but I'm sure you don't mind that. That man'll drive ya crazy, I'll tell ya."
Zayn chuckled, rubbing his left arm absentmindedly.
"Huh." Niall flopped onto the bed across the room. "I didn't think you would be so quiet. But then again 'arry's a chatty fella."
"You mean he can get a word in your guy's conversations?"
Niall cracked up. His head swung back and then his whole body seemed to rock forward, his left foot banging into the ground as he let out a roar of laughter. He snorted a second later, following with smaller, more humorous snorts to accompany them.
Zayn laughed along, eying the boy with a certain amount of restraint. He didn't know why this boy had invited him into the room. They had no way of knowing each other, and now he was laughing rather loudly at his lame comment. Zayn had no idea what to do or how he was going to get out of this conversation.
The blond boy stood up, swiping his arm to collect a swab of drool that collected at the corner of his mouth. The huge smile took up the majority of his face, happiness following him around like an aura as he moved across the room to Zayn. He threw an arm around the darker lad, sitting down beside him. "Ya know what? I like you. 'm Niall."
He nodded. "Zayn."
Niall gripped Zayn's shoulder, giving it a hard squeeze. "It's good ta meet ya. I hope I'll be seeing you around more."
Zayn laughed, his mouth crooked into a nervous smile. "Me too. You're definitely... something."
"Ugh. Love it." Niall laughed again, clapping him on the back once more. "Where are ya from, anyway?"
"Bradford."
"Oh shit. I thought 'arry said you were from London or something, but you don't sound quite posh enough for that."
"Where are you from?" Zayn asked. He heard plenty of Irish accents in his time. There was an Irish girl that lived on his floor, but he thought it would be polite to ask.
"Mulingar! I've been there since I was about ten or so. We lived thirty miles north before that in another small town. Ireland - if you can't tell by the accent." He let out another raucous laugh. "I enjoy school here though. Wouldn't trade you brits for ta life of me."
Zayn give him another smile, shying away from Niall's touch. The kid was getting a little too liberal with his shoulder. There wasn't a lot of meat to Zayn's body and he didn't need this guy bruising what little amount of soft muscle he had.
"I'm sure Ireland is nice though. I bet you miss your family."
"Oh yeah." Niall leaned away from him, turning his head to look at a pile of pictures that were hap-hazardously posted to the wall by the bed across the room. "Lovely, lovely place. But I get to go there for the breaks, so it's not like I'm completely without. My buddies and I party enough to make it feel like I go to school there." He laughed, but it was softer this time. "Are you attending college or anything?"
"Uh, yeah. I'm in my sophomore year."
"Oh, I'm finishing up my second semester. I started a semester late because we had to sort out the funds for me to go here - all that fun stuff, but I was lucky that 'arry had a bed available. Great guy really. You snagged a good one."
Zayn blinked. "I- what?"
"Harry? You and Harry? Are-Are you guys not dating?" Niall turned back to him, his eyebrows furrowed. His hand grew limp on Zayn's stiff shoulder.
"I've never met the guy!"
"Oh." Niall removed his hand entirely. He stood up, pacing towards his bed. He smoothed his palms over the thighs of his jeans repeatedly. "I'm sorry. There's been a mistake."
"It's okay. I'm filling in for Gigi, your RA. She left early so I'm just checking the rooms that she hadn't gotten to." Zayn tried to smile, one corner of his mouth faltering. "Don't take it too hard."
"I'm sorry. He said that his boyfriend was stopping by and when you knocked I just figured it would be him since, ya know, the whole campus is pretty much empty. Well, compared to usual, it is." He turned back towards Zayn, a nervous smile on his face. "I'm sorry, truly."
"No worries. At first I thought you were hitting on me. I got a little worried." Zayn let out a small laugh.
"Yeah, that'd be crazy." Niall chuckled along, his pitch high and smile tight. "What's the chances of two random roommates being gay, amiright?"
Zayn glanced at the posters covering the wall. Boybands, musicians, golfers, rock and rollers covering both sides of the room. Niall's collection of photos of friends back home. Harry, the assumed roommate, had scattered pictures of what looked like family. It didn't really seem to go beyond that.
"Right." Zayn dragged his eyes from the shirtless picture of a men's underwear ad lying on the desk next to him. "Since you're here, just make sure you unplug everything before you go. And make sure you keep the heat on - we can't have the pipe explode, all right?"
"Yessir." His voice turned formal, his back straight.
Zayn stood up. "All right. I'll see you around then. Have a good vacation and safe travels, all right?"
"Tanks, you too."
Zayn gave him a nod as he exited the door. He shook his head, the beanie rising. He tugged it down then continued down the hall.
"Ey!" Niall popped out in the hallway, his cheeks visibly red from halfway down the hall. "Would it be a problem if I wanted to hit on you?"
Zayn turned back to look at him. He looped a finger on the belt loop, a smirk turning up. "Depends. How much time before your roommate comes back?"
"At least twenty minutes." He seemed out of breath, like his heart stopped working and he had to manually push the words out.
"I can work with that."
The blond grew red, standing sheepishly at the end of the hall. Zayn made his way back with added energy. When you only had twenty minutes, there's really no time to spare.