Chapter Text
Pulling into the parking lot of his new dorm building, Michael put the car in park and just sat there, taking all of it in. He had graduated high school and was moving onto the next step in life: college. He tossed and turned the night before, anxious to finally be moving into his dorm the following day. He lowered the volume of the radio in his car and shuffled around, locating his phone and other smaller items before finally removing the keys and exiting, popping the trunk in the process. His parents pulled in behind him, their car also filled with items he would be bringing along.
He began to rummage through his trunk, picking out the more important boxes containing his Xbox and other electronics, choosing to take those inside first. His parents grabbed other boxes containing clothing or personal items and followed him inside the building, making their way up the staircase to the second floor. “Are you excited to have a roommate, Mikey?” asked his mom, grinning. He shrugged.
“I guess so; I mean, it’ll be different, that’s for sure.” He wasn’t used to having to share a room because he was an only child, so he was a little apprehensive about this whole room sharing thing. He wanted a single room but they didn’t offer those until junior year, some bullshit about the students getting to meet others and make friends. He was much more content with being by himself, sitting in his room and playing his Xbox or making YouTube videos.
Michael never really had friends in school, only socializing with a select few people, but even then they all moved away after graduation, leaving Michael by himself once again. He wasn’t what some would call anti-social, but he wouldn’t be the first to volunteer to go to some party either. He came off as rude ninety percent of the time, mostly using it as a defense mechanism because he didn’t like getting close to people, and it worked. People left him alone and that’s the way he liked it.
Well, sometimes, anyway. There were times he wished he had a close friend, someone who he could hang out with and play video games with. Then he would witness, back in school, a falling out with two friends or he would witness all of the unnecessary drama that comes along with friendship and he would just chuckle to himself because damn, what the fuck had he been thinking? Being alone was much less hassle.
“Maybe you two will grow close,” she suggested, placing a hand on his shoulder as they made their way up the stairs. “I remember when I started college way back in the day, I had this roommate…”
“Oh look, here it is!” Michael interrupted her. He had heard all of her “I remember when…” stories, and even though he loved his mother she still didn’t understand that Michael was nothing like her, aside from his looks. While she was president of everything in school, Michael quietly got by just focusing on his academics; she had multiple boyfriends and Michael had only had one girlfriend in his life. He liked being alone and she just couldn’t understand why. She scoffed at his obvious attempt at steering the conversation away from her story and his dad just chuckled.
“Smooth, Michael,” he laughed. Michael rolled his eyes but didn’t open the door, sticking his ear to the frame instead. He heard faint sounds of laughter and noises that sounded vaguely electronic, like a video game of some kind.
“Bollocks!” came the shout through the door and Michael jumped back, running into his parents in the process.
“Fuc—freaking heck,” he stopped himself, giving his mother an angelic smile when she glared at his almost fuck up in front of her. She knew he cursed like a sailor, but she preferred he keep a clean mouth when she was in the room. He reached out a hand and turned the doorknob hesitantly, pushing the door open to reveal a decent sized room. Two beds were at the opposite ends of the room with a bathroom off one end. Half of the room was bare, containing just the standard sized bed, a desk, a dresser, and some small shelves. The other half was decorated with bright posters and other personal items, including a huge TV hooked up to an Xbox, which was currently being played by…
The boy’s eyes lit up at the entrance of Michael and his parents and he smiled brightly, looking like a little kid who just got a brand new toy. Fucking Christ, Michael thought, he’s going to be one of those. “Gotta go Geoff,” he said into his headset. “Yeah, my new roommate is here.” And he’s British. He listened for a second before rolling his eyes, “No I am not going to ask him that, bloody hell. Goodbye Geoff.” He punched a few buttons on his controller before removing his headset and jumping up, rushing over to the group. He stuck out his hand to Michael. “I’m Gavin.”
Michael fumbled around the (heavy) box he was carrying and managed to give a quick shake to Gavin’s hand before having to set the box down on the bed. “Oh sorry mate, let me help you,” Gavin said before taking the boxes from his parents and setting them on the bed as well.
“We’re going to go get the other boxes Mikey, so you can start unpacking,” his mom said, smiling at the two boys before she and his dad left the room. Michael smiled nervously at Gavin before reaching into the boxes, pulling out items here and there.
“So your name’s Michael?” asked Gavin.
“Yeah, my mom likes to call me anything but that though,” he laughed, pulling out a few of his favorite video games. “She’s still under the impression that I’m five years old.”
Gavin laughed, motioning to the boxes and asking silently if it was okay to help. Michael nodded and Gavin began rummaging, pulling out clothes. “You should have seen my mum when I was moving in; we got here a couple days ago because she had to catch a flight and as I was unpacking she was sniffling and doing the whole ‘my little Gavvy, all grown up’ thing.” Gavin shivered at the memory, causing Michael to snicker. Wait, why was Michael snickering like he and Gavin had known each other for longer than ten minutes?
“Just wait until my mom has to leave, I guarantee she will do the exact same thing.” Michael began surveying the room for plug-ins, debating where to set up his smaller TV and his console. He finally decided on a spot near Gavin’s giant TV and got to work connecting the wires and letting everything connect to the WiFi.
“Who’s this?” She’s bloody gorgeous,” Gavin commented, causing Michael to turn around. He was holding a picture frame in his hands, admiring it, and Michael stood up, his heart thudding painfully in his chest.
“That was my girlfriend,” he said softly. Gavin’s face fell as he looked at Michael.
“’Was’?” He nodded, gently taking the frame from Gavin’s hands. He didn’t elaborate, and frankly he didn’t know how the picture ended up in there because it was just a painful reminder of what happened his junior year of high school. “Was it a bad breakup, or…?”
“Just drop it, Gavin,” Michael said, an edge to his words. He set the frame face down on his dresser and got back to work unloading the boxes. His parents came up and brought the rest of the boxes, his mother insisting on helping set up part of his room before they left. “Mom, you don’t have to help me; I can unpack alone,” he insisted.
She looked at him, teary-eyed, and sniffed. Oh no. “My little Michael is all grown up. Didn’t we raise such a handsome son?” she asked his father, who simply rolled his eyes at his wife’s emotional state and clapped his son on the back.
“Yes we did, Susan, but you’re embarrassing the boy; I think we need to let him set up by himself, dear,” he said, winking at Michael to let him know he was on his side.
“I think we need to capture this moment,” his mom insisted, rummaging through her purse. Michael’s eyes widened and he rushed at her, giving her a hug and all but shoving her out the door.
“No no, mom, no. It’s fine. You don’t have to take a picture of me right now; wait until Thanksgiving break or something, okay?” he begged. Gavin just sniggered at Michael’s embarrassment and Michael flipped him the bird behind his back, causing him to emit a bird like squawk.
His mom pouted but stopped the search in her purse, instead pulling him into a bone-crushing hug. “Okay, fine, but you can’t stop me at Thanksgiving from taking a picture of my grown up little man.” She began sniffling again and Michael sighed.
“Using ‘grown up’ and ‘little man’ in the same sentence is contradicting yourself mom, and I won’t stop you at Thanksgiving, I promise,” he whined, desperately wanting them to leave. His father gave him a one-armed hug and his mother planted kisses on his face, causing him to grunt in annoyance. He thought they were about to leave the room when his mother shot past him and latched herself onto Gavin, who gave Michael a look of surprise before wrapping his arms hesitantly around her.
“Take care of my boy,” he heard her tell Gavin and Michael let out a frustrated noise.
“Don’t worry, ma’am, I will,” he replied, smiling at Michael behind her back.
Finally they were left in peace and Michael got to work putting clothes on hangers and setting his games on the shelves. Gavin helped out, asking where Michael wanted thing to be placed. After about a solid thirty minutes of meticulous placing, choice swear words, and a giggling fit that had Gavin on the floor making high pitched noises, Michael’s side was set up. Posters were on the wall, clothes were in the closet, and his Xbox was booted up, waiting on Michael patiently to decide if maybe he wanted to play game or watch a bit of Netflix.
Gavin was telling story after story and Michael was genuinely interested in them, even though he wasn’t sure why. He wasn’t used to talking to someone for long periods of time, especially not someone he felt extremely comfortable with after only knowing him for about an hour. He was uneasy about how well he and Gavin were getting along and he didn’t know how to react.
“Dan and I could not get the bloody balloon to pop. I did all kinds of front flips, back flips, ass hops, nothing worked. Finally we called a couple of our friends over to help and with all four of us it finally popped. My ass was sore for a fucking week," he laughed, painfully recalling the memory.
Michael was messing with his phone, browsing through a gaming website. “And why exactly did you do that again?” he asked, looking at Gavin with a ‘what the fuck’ face.
“I told you, you donut, Dan and I make slow motion videos for YouTube,” he replied, rolling his eyes. Michael’s ears perked up at ‘YouTube.’
“You make YouTube videos?” he asked. Gavin nodded. “Me too. Although mine don’t sound half as interesting as yours. I just make videos of myself playing video games, mostly. Most of them are just me rage quitting or I’m doing a guide on how to get achievements or something.”
Gavin’s eyes lit up as he realized they had something in common. “Really? What’s your channel? There’s a channel that I’m absolutely obsessed with; he does all kinds of funny rage commentary on the most random games. I’m usually in stitches by the time it’s over. The channel is-“
“LtMkilla,” Michael said, causing Gavin to squeak in surprise and nearly fall off the bed.
“You like him too?!”
Michael shook his head, amused at Gavin’s fangirling, and knew he was about to probably get tackled off the bed. “No, you idiot, I’m LtMkilla. That’s my channel.” He moved out of the way just as Gavin lunged for him. Called it.
“No fucking way,” he shouted, muffled by the fact that his face was in Michael’s pillow. He sat up, his face red with excitement. “My roommate is fucking LtMkilla?”
“Er…” Michael lifted his arms in the air. “Surprise?” Although it sounded more like a question because the way Gavin was staring at Michael was starting to scare him. “I feel like you should be frothing at the mouth or something, dude. You’re frightening me.”
Gavin jumped off the bed and tackled Michael to the floor, knocking the wind out of him. “I watch all your videos! You’re bloody brilliant!”
“Gavin that’s great,” grunted Michael, annoyed at the boy’s excitement and struggling to catch his breath, “but would you please get the fuck off of me?” Gavin just started giggling and Michael smirked. “I warned you.” He started tickling the boy’s stomach and, just as Michael predicted, he began to flail wildly.
“MICHAEL!” Gavin shouted, trying to get away but failing as Michael’s attack became even more aggressive.
“Is someone ticklish? Is Gavvy wavvy a ticklish little boy?” he asked teasingly, continuing his assault. What the fuck am I doing? I barely even know this guy and yet I’m tickling him on the floor of our dorm. What the hell has gotten into me? I didn’t even want a roommate to begin with, so why am I acting like this is the best thing that could have happened to me?
Even with all of his doubt, he realized he was having fun with Gavin and he was laughing, laughing so hard that his sides were beginning to hurt. In the midst of all the fun, the two boys didn’t even hear the door open.
“What the hell is going on here?” asked a loud voice, causing the two to break apart. In the doorway stood two guys, one with a mustache and a smirk and the other with a beard and a confused look on his face. The voice belonged to mustache guy and Michael felt his face flame up with embarrassment.
“Geoff!” Gavin squeaked from the floor, jumping up to greet the two new visitors. Michael got up as well, fixing his glasses, which had gone askew, and smoothing down his clothes. He could feel Geoff’s gaze on him but he purposefully avoided looking at him, choosing instead to look at his phone.
“Is this the roommate?” asked the other guy, whose voice was a very pleasant baritone. Gavin nodded.
“Jack, Geoff, this is Michael. You’re not going to believe this but guess who he is?”
They pretended to ponder for a second before Jack humored the Brit. “No idea, who is he?”
Gavin bounced around excitedly, announcing, “He’s LtMkilla!”
“Who?” Geoff questioned, clearly taking pride in messing with Gavin as much as he could. Gavin gasped loudly, smacking Geoff on the shoulder.
“Only the YouTuber I’m absolutely obsessed with!” Gavin shouted, believing that Geoff truly didn’t know who he was talking about. Michael snickered, finally looking up from his phone.
“He’s fucking with you, asshole,” Michael laughed, finally putting an end to the look of pure disappointment on Gavin’s face. Gavin paused before he sighed with relief. Michael walked to them and extended his hand to Geoff and Jack. “Nice to meet you guys.”
“Likewise,” Jack said, smiling.
“Maybe Gavin will finally talk about something else for a change,” Geoff laughed. “You’re honestly all he talks about for weeks at a time when you upload new shit. Now that he’s finally met you I hope he’ll find something else to obsess over.”
“I do not talk about him for weeks at a time-“ Gavin argued before Jack started laughing, cutting him off.
“Really? I have text messages from you from the fucking ass crack of dawn where you’re going on and on about Michael’s new video. You have a problem, my friend.” Gavin rolled his eyes and blushed, causing Michael to laugh at his new roommate’s obvious discomfort.
“Jack, shut up,” he hissed, turning his attention back on Michael.
“I think I’m going to like your friends,” Michael laughed. “And as for my videos, I honestly don’t think they’re anything special.” He shrugged. “It’s just something I do to pass the time when I’m not working or at school.”
“Do your friends know you do these videos?” Gavin asked, smiling. Michael bit his lip.
“No… not really,” he replied hesitantly. Gavin raised an eyebrow at Michael but something on his face must have told Gavin to back off because he didn’t inquire further. It was quiet for a few moments before a loud rumble disturbed the silence.
Gavin looked down at his stomach and grinned, scratching the back of his head. “I think I might be hungry.”
“Yeah no shit,” cackled Geoff. “That’s why we came up here in the first place, to see if you wanted to go grab some food. Michael’s welcome to come too, of course.”
“You hungry, Michael?” asked Gavin, smiling at Michael. He shrugged, resisting the urge to smile back.
“I mean… I could eat,” he replied, stretching. The aching in his side was gone now that he was no longer laughing. Jack raised an eyebrow at him, seeing through his bullshit.
“I mean we can just leave you here to fend for yourself if you want,” he said, amused. Michael’s eyes widened and he waved his hands frantically.
“No, no, I’m fucking starving, let’s get food,” he said, grabbing Gavin by the wrist and dragging him out. Geoff pulled him back, causing Michael to stop. “What’s up?”
“You and Jack go on ahead, I’ve got to ask Gavin something; we’ll be there in a few,” Geoff said smiling, waving them on. Michael and Jack looked at each other and shrugged, leaving them in the room and making small talk on the way to the café.
“Have you and Michael talked much today?” asked Geoff, looking at Gavin curiously. Gavin shook his head.
“No, not really, why?”
“There’s just something… off about him, I guess. Nothing bad, I’m sure, but I feel like there’s something he’s trying to hide, something he doesn’t really want you to know about him,” Geoff explained.
“I mean, I picked up that picture frame over there, and he talked about his girlfriend briefly, in a past tense I might add. Maybe he’s still hurting over her,” he suggested, shrugging.
“Maybe. I just… I feel like we should watch over him, you know? Especially you, idiot, since you’re rooming with him for the year.” Geoff wrapped an arm around the Brit and they left the dorm, heading in the direction of the café.
“Yeah, I get that vibe too,” Gavin responded, careful not to bump into any passing students.
There was a brief silence before Geoff said, “He’s pretty cute too, don’t you think?” in a teasing voice.
“Yeah- wait, Geoff, no. I forbid you to do any hocus pocus bullshit to try and get me a date, especially with someone who’s as straight as Michael is,” Gavin warned, pushing away from his friend. “You know what happened last time, and you know that the guy won’t even talk to me anymore!” Geoff sniggered at Gavin’s panic.
“Relax, asshole. I’m not going to do anything. Besides, how do you know he’s straight? He could swing both ways, for all you know.” Geoff wiggled his eyebrows, causing Gavin to laugh.
“I just want to survive my first year of college, is that too much to ask for?” Gavin whined.
“Fine, fine. I’ll stop. Now let’s go get some food.”