Chapter Text
The List of Oddly Personal Things Aaron Knew About His Roommate, Call:
- He was terrible at keeping his toiletries organized.
- He was full of spite and sarcasm. Do not attempt to challenge. For further info, see The Detailed Lists of Call and Jasper’s Fights, Lists One through Twelve.
- He was terrifying when pressed to be, but only when pressed to be.
- He had an unnatural love of anything even vaguely flavored or related to coffee and/or chocolate.
- He was probably a vampire, if not definitely. See The List of Evidence Against Call’s Humanity.
- When he wanted to be, he was surprisingly sweet.
- When he wanted to be, he was unwaveringly loyal.
- He was strong enough to pull Aaron out of a very deep well, as well as various other feats. For more accomplishments involving Aaron, see The List of Times Call Has Saved Aaron’s Ass (which was named and maintained by Call).
- He had a mole on his left shoulder.
- It was quite probable that Aaron had had a crush on him since fourth year. For more analysis, see The Redacted Lists.
-
After everything that had happened at the end of last year, the kiss probably shouldn’t have been the thing that stuck out the most when Aaron thought about it. He absolutely shouldn’t remember it in as much detail as he did. And he definitely shouldn’t think about it as much as he did.
But still. Call, acting of his own volition, had kissed him there in the Wavering Woods, just before everything had gone to hell. It had been a complete surprise to him. When Call had whirled around in the forest, Aaron had been sure he was about to find out once and for all whether or not his roommate was a vampire. The look Call had on his face in that moment had been downright carnivorous and Aaron had thought that he was about to get fangs to the neck, even though he knew Call well enough to trust him.
Then Call had kissed him instead and everything had been perfect for one fleeting moment.
It had been clear that, between the two of them, Call was the one who’d known what he was doing. He’d been the one to gently put his hands on Aaron’s waist, and he’d also been the one to adjust the angle at which their heads were meeting to a more comfortable one. All Aaron had been able to do was to kiss him back, which felt rather feeble in comparison.
Then they’d broken away, both panting lightly from the length of the kiss. Call had been about to reach up to cup Aaron’s cheek when Tamara had called for him, frantic about something. He’d never actually found out why. (One’s priorities tended to change in the middle of a kidnapping.)
“You’d better go, I guess. It sounds important.” He’d looked bored as he said that, gazing out at the tree line, but Aaron had known better. Call was disappointed.
Later, he would curse himself ten thousand times over for not saying no, it’s probably nothing. Tamara yelling for him was practically a daily event. But instead, Aaron had said:
“Yeah, okay.”
And then he’d left.
Leaving to talk to Tamara was a mistake unto itself. It had resulted in all sorts of chaos when Aaron had been kidnapped by the Humdrum only minutes later, and then again, when he’d barely managed to get them back to Watford via flying into the graduation ceremony taking place in the chapel and collapsing. But the feeling of walking away from Call- his eyes glued to his shoes, the lingering taste of his roommate’s mouth, the faint tingle that signified Aaron’s magic acting up- that had been the worst part.
And now, over two months later, Call was officially late for school. Call was never late for school. In fact, in every year but this one and first year, when they’d been matched up, Call had arrived first. He would be habitually sprawled out on his bed, listening to music on his (technically illegal) MP3 player, with Havoc lying at the end of his bed, big golden eyes staring up at Aaron. That was the way things had always been on the first day. It was calmingly routine, no matter what bizarre things had happened last year. And now…
Aaron didn’t want to say he was putting two and two together, but he was certainly coming up with four.
-
Item Seven from The List Of Times Call Has Saved Aaron’s Ass:
In sixth year, Aaron had gotten stuck in a dried up well.
To be precise, he had been pushed down a well by an angry dryad, and managed to catch himself with magic. He just really hadn’t yet worked out how to get himself out. His magic, while powerful, was a goddamn mess. Professor Rufus was always insistent that he would learn how to control it the way everyone else’s did, but Aaron wasn’t holding out hope. He had his sword to rely on, but swords didn’t come in handy when you needed to climb thirty feet out of a hole.
That meant that, for now, Aaron was stuck glaring up at the darkening sky. He shivered a little: it was cold in the forest, especially at night. Really, he needed to get out as soon as possible, but it looked hopeless. Aaron had already tried pulling himself out with the stones, but there had been too few footholds and his arms had given way, plunging him back into the darkness.
The bottom of a well was not a pleasant place to be sitting, Aaron found quickly. It wasn’t a pleasant place whether one was sitting, standing, squatting, or leaning against the wall. He tried stretching, just to distract himself from the situation, but it was hopeless. The dryad lady had made a good choice in trying to punish-slash-kill Aaron, even if he disagreed with her motives.
Eventually, he gave up on everything and just sat in the centre of the well, glancing up at the opening every now and then. Aaron wondered when people would start to come looking for him; he went missing a lot, for the Mage’s missions or for his own purposes, and that meant that no one worried when he was gone for a few hours. That meant that probably, no one would think anything of it until Tamara realized that he hadn’t made it to breakfast. By then, Aaron would be cold and hungry, and he doubted he could get any sleep in that time either. Plus, he would need to explain why he’d been out in the first place, and that was definitely not something Aaron wanted to do.
But after what felt like only an hour or so, something hit his shoulder and Aaron looked up. It had been a twig, which he might have been able to brush off as just coming from a tree if not for the face staring down at him.
“How the hell did you even get down there?” came Call’s voice, and Aaron wanted to groan. Of course, when help came, it had to be Call of all people.
Despite the fact that they’d been roommates for the entire time that Aaron had been at Watford, they’d never really been close, or even friendly. They were never quite hostile either, though. Call was sarcastic, callous, biting, and had even openly admitted he would be the one to kill Aaron on more than one occasion, but somehow they had never quite crossed the line of no return.
That was certainly not enough to merit him coming out to find Aaron, though. They were barely cordial at best.
“Why are you even here?” he called back, irritated. “Shouldn’t you be busy lurking in the shadows and eating chips dipped in milkshake or something?”
There came a snort from the figure above. “First, that’s too weird, even for me. And second, isn’t this supposed to be the part where you go, ‘Oh, Call! I’m so glad that you happened to walk by? Would you, in your infinite graces, help me out of this hole I’ve fallen into?’ Because you’re not exactly in a good spot there, bud.”
“I’m not asking you for help. One night in a well isn’t that bad.”
“Maybe if it wasn’t supposed to rain tomorrow, it wouldn’t be, but we’re supposed to get, like, three inches of water overnight. I might be destined to face you in battle some day, ending your life in a poetic symbol of the Mage’s defeat and all that bullshit, but killing you in battle and killing you by letting you catch pneumonia at the bottom of a well are two very different things.” Call leaned forward nonchalantly. Aaron could just barely make out the general shape of his face.
Gritting his teeth, Aaron had to admit he’d lost. A night outside wasn’t lethal, but rain was a different story altogether. “Help me, then.”
“What’s the magic word?” Call sing-songed, like the complete and utter asshole he was sometimes.
“You do know that I tend to make things explode when I say anything remotely magical, right?” he spat back, annoyed and cold and done with his weasel of a roommate.
“Then don’t say it with intent.” Call seemed completely calm up there, playing teasingly with his wand. “I know you can do that much.”
“Call, will you… please help me?” Aaron gritted out after a moment, really not wanting to be in this god-forsaken hole a minute longer.
Instinctively, he knew that Call was smiling. “Of course!”
Then, he straightened up and pointed his wand down at Aaron. If this had been any other member of the Old Families, then he would have shouted, fought, or drawn his own wand as a final measure. But Call was, despite everything, honourable. If he said he was going to do something, then he would do that, and he would make sure that no one was hurt (unnecessarily) along the way.
Aaron couldn’t quite make out what Call said for his spell, but in a moment he was floating gently upwards under Call’s direction. He kept the pace steady; sudden jolts and flying spells were a dangerous combination, and they often took lots of concentration.
Everything seemed to be going well until Aaron was about halfway out, with just his legs left before he could be safely placed onto solid earth again. He could see the details of Call’s face now, his silvery-grey eyes almost hidden by his eyelashes from concentration. Then, there was a loud howl from one of the mer-wolves. It wasn’t close or long, but it was still enough to shake Call’s concentration, which Aaron felt in a moment.
There were words to describe the feeling of falling a great height for the second time in one night, but all Aaron could come up with was “fuck, fuck, fuuuck”, which summed things up rather well in his opinion. How was he going to break his fall? What had he done the first time? Well, he hadn’t actually done anything the first time, his magic had just kicked in and he had been fine. Would that happen again? What if-
Something grabbed onto his hands, bringing Aaron’s plummet to an abrupt end. He looked up and there was Call, grimacing and half into the well himself, but holding onto him with a strong grip.
“Are you okay?” he asked stupidly, gaping up at Call.
“Shut up,” Call said, and Aaron could see the effort those words took. “‘M tryin’ to focus.”
Aaron shut up.
Inch by inch, Call pulled them both up. The action was made more difficult by the fact that Call’s wand was jammed in between their hands, preventing him from adjusting his grip too much. But he did it, bringing Aaron ever closer to freedom, until finally, with one last colossal heave, they were both falling back onto the grass behind them. Call was panting from the exertion, and Aaron was honestly just wondering how the hell they had made it out safe and sound.
After a moment, he rolled over to look at Call, who was lying on his back, chest heaving. But even as Aaron looked, his breathing slowed down and evened out unnaturally fast. Supernaturally fast, he thought to himself. Because Call was a vampire. A vampire who had probably been out in the forest to feed. A vampire who was probably feeling even hungrier after lifting Aaron out of a well.
All of a sudden, he felt afraid again.
But Call barely even looked at Aaron when he stood, brushing some dead grass off of his pants. “Come on. The drawbridge is going to close soon and I don’t want to be stuck out here any more than you do."
“The drawbridge,” Aaron echoed, trailing after him. “Right.”
Despite himself, he couldn’t pull his eyes away from Call the whole walk back.
(The next morning, they didn’t speak about what had happened because Call had gone to breakfast early. They didn’t speak about it during class because they never spoke in class, and that would have been weird, you know? They didn’t talk about it the morning after that because Call slept in after staying out late that night, and then they didn’t speak about it the morning after that, or the one after that, or the one after that. At some point, “they didn’t speak about it because...” turned into plain old “they didn’t speak about it”.)
-
Two days after the back-to-school picnic, Aaron was just about ready to pull his hair out.
Truth be told, Tamara was probably more than ready to do it for him, but he had always been her favourite. Still, she had made it clear that his “Call induced madness”, as she liked to call it, was getting on her nerves.
“Listen, if you’re so worried about it, why don’t you just ask Master Rufus? He loves you, he’d totally tell you whatever he knows,” Tamara said, leaning forward and propping her head up on her hand. They were in their Political Science class and were paying very little attention to what was going on around them.
“I’ve already asked him,” Aaron admitted. “Told him I was worried about my roommate, although I don’t think he bought that. He doesn’t know any more than I do. I don’t think any of the teachers do.”
“Then ask the Mage, if you really need to know,” she sighed, jotting something down into her notebook. “He listens to you sometimes, which is more than can be said for anyone else.”
“I’m not asking the Mage about Call,” he said stubbornly. “I want to know how worried I should be, not send an inquest down on him.”
“Tell that to fifth year you,” Tamara murmured to herself, then sighed again. “I don’t know what to do, Aaron. Between the two of us, you are the certified Call expert and I’m the one who knows about his archery practice sessions.”
“I don’t know either. This is just so-” he stumbled to find the right words, “out of character!” he said finally. “Call’s never- would never do anything like this.”
Tamara didn’t say anything to that, and, after a minute, Aaron turned his gaze back to his notes. His mind stayed on Call.
-
Item Ten from The List Of Times Call Has Saved Aaron’s Ass :
As usual, the Humdrum chose the worst times to attack. Two days before his seventh year exams started and Aaron was facing off against a bloody fucking hydra in the woods so that it couldn’t reach the school.
No one else was with him, because when he went into the Wavering Woods it was either for quests or to be alone and clear his head. Still, Aaron had his sword by his side and his wits about him. The monster shouldn’t have had a chance.
Key word: shouldn’t have.
Nothing ever went the way that Aaron wanted it to around exam season, especially fights with supposedly mythical beasts. The hydra was a smart one, flailing its heads about rapidly and breathing fire, which made it very hard to get close enough for a swipe at the heads with a sword, or to have enough accuracy to hit it with a spell. In good news, they were succeeding at keeping the beast away from Watford, but that was mostly because it was more interested in them. So really, everything was going terribly.
But then Aaron spotted an opening. The hydra was turning away from him, getting ready to spit a circle of flames again, and it wasn’t guarding its leftmost neck. He darted torwards it, sword firmly in hand and fire-starting spell on his lips.
About three-quarters of the way there, the hydra abruptly turned back towards Aaron with lightning speed, mouth already opening to shoot flames. He scrambled back, trying to zig zag and confuse it, but the hydra had locked onto him like a missile. Nearby, he could hear Tamara yell his name, but he knew she couldn’t help.
But suddenly, the great beast reared back, heads thrashing as it roared in pain. Had Tamara managed to cast something at it after all? But then Aaron caught a glimpse of black fur in between the necks of the hydra, a glimpse of black fur that looked suspiciously like Havoc, Call’s weird but loveable service dog, and his stomach sunk. There was no way he would last for a minute against a hydra. And how the hell had he gotten out here? Wasn’t he supposed to stick with-
And then Call came barreling into the small clearing too.
Of course. Right when Aaron thought that this day couldn’t get any worse.
But Call didn’t even look at him. Instead, he just gripped his wand tighter and took aim.
“ Off with their heads! ” he said, loudly and clearly. Almost instantaneously, all three of the hydra’s long necks were severed in the middle, their heads sliding off the body and into a dirty, bloody mess on the ground.
The hydra’s neck remained eerily stationary, even as they started to slowly grow and split in two. Havoc, now on the ground again, was circling and snapping at the monster.
“Havoc, here,” Call said, gaze still locked on the hydra. The dog obeyed quickly and without question, bounding over to his master. Then he inhaled and Aaron knew that he was preparing to cast a spell.
“ Love is a burning thing ,” he sang softly, so quiet that Aaron could barely hear him over the hydra’s blind wandering. “ And it makes a fiery ring; bound by wild desire. ”
Just like that, the fire was kindled. They were both outside the circle, but the hydra was only a few feet from the foot-high flames.
Call hummed the next few bars, which was unusual for spells- normally, the whole thing had to be said aloud, but the spell was already working, so Aaron didn’t care as long as it killed this hydra in time for him to study. He could cast while doing a headstand if he wanted to and Aaron would have praised him for it.
“ And the flames went higher! ” Call came back in suddenly, and Aaron jolted when the fire obligingly jumped up. “ And it burns, burns, burns, the ring of fire; the ring of fire .”
The hydra, who had almost finished growing in its six new heads, reared back again, but the flames hadn’t just grown considerably, they had also come in close. There was no escaping now.
Aaron looked away before he could see the monster burn. With no head, it was unable to scream, so he avoided the worst of the gory scene, but the smell of burning flesh was undeniable.
When the crackling of the fire stopped, he dared to look up again. The first thing Aaron saw was a large lump of charred flesh; the second was Call, one hand buried in Havoc’s ruff. He looked a little pale, but his face was mostly neutral.
For some reason, Aaron felt incredibly glad to see him. Glad enough that he walked past the burnt body, glad enough to not look at Havoc first, glad enough to take his hand and hold it with both of his own.
“Thanks for that,” he said honestly, and Call’s eyes landed on him for the first time. Almost imperceptibly, his cheeks pinked. “I don’t know if I could have managed that without you.”
His gaze slid back to the carcass, but his hand curled gently around Aaron’s. “I meant it when I said it’s gonna be me who kills you, not some stupid beast.”
Coming from Call, that was downright sweet.
-
Naturally, just when Aaron was worrying most about Call, was when things with Jasper got complicated. Again.
Truth be told, his relationship with Jasper was always complicated. Aaron was fully aware that Mr. deWinter had told Jasper to get close to him as some sort of political play, but he also knew that they were genuinely friends and that their romance was unscripted.
Still, sometimes he wondered.
There were times during the dinners they ate together when Aaron would notice Jasper’s eyes drifting over to the table where Call was eating, sitting alone as always. When their dates out on the Great Lawn went stale and silent without Tamara to support them. When he couldn’t help but see how Jasper didn’t look at him like he used to.
He looked at Call that way sometimes. And honestly, Aaron didn’t blame him. (Well, okay, he kind of did. He blamed all three of them, Aaron and Call and Jasper, depending on his mood.) Call was attractive, and he and Jasper had always had a sort of chemistry that Jasper had never had with Aaron. They had been friends- or at least friendly- since day one. They didn’t challenge each other like that.
But that was another train of thought that Aaron would deal with only when he absolutely had to. Now, he needed to deal with other things. Namely, the way that he and Jasper were only kind-of, sort-of, talking to each other. Aaron wasn’t sure what Jasper’s deal was, but his own was simple; whenever he looked at his boyfriend, he thought about that kiss in the forest with Call, about how much better, how much more meaningful it had been than any of the ones he’d shared with Jasper in recent history.
Regardless of the details, it was making breakfast really awkward. Tamara spoke to both of them, Jasper spoke to Tamara and didn’t look at Aaron, and Aaron ate more in that first week back to school than he usually did in a whole month. Full mouth meant you couldn’t talk, right? Right. Manners to the rescue!
“Alright,” Tamara said on day thirteen, tossing down her fork and knife. “We’re dealing with this right here, right now. Couples therapy style. What the hell is going on with you two?”
“Nothing,” Jasper said in a tone that did little to suggest that their relationship was fine and everything to suggest he wanted to murder Tamara. “We’re fine. It just takes a while to get used to being back to school and face to face.”
“And I’m Elizabeth the Second, reigning Queen of England. Cut the bullshit Jasper, you haven’t been speaking to Aaron over here since last term, before the whole kidnapping fiasco. Listen, I don’t care if you two break up or whatever you need to do, as long as you’re not going to mess with our group, okay? Because it is tiring to be the only one talking at the breakfast table,” Tamara said crossly.
Aaron smiled fondly. That was Tamara for you, always taking charge. “We’ll be fine, Tam. It’s just taking us a little while to get warmed up to each other again.”
She snorted, but smiled along with it. “Alright, if you say so. Now, just to make sure, I’m going to get some more butter for the table and when I come back, you two are going to be okay and we can go back to being everyone’s favourite power trio.”
And with that, Tamara rose, taking the empty butter dish with her, and walked towards the kitchen. He and Jasper were alone.
“So,” Aaron said. He realized that both his hands were on the table, which felt awkward, but removing them would feel even more awkward, so he left them. “We haven’t exactly been the perfect couple lately.”
“No, we haven’t. Listen, I don’t know why you’re not talking to me, but- but my reason’s stupid.” Jasper seemed to make a decision in the split second between his opening and his conclusion. “So I think we should go back to the way things were.”
The way things were. Aaron wanted to laugh and tell Jasper that there was no way they were going back to the dream couple they’d been in their earlier years. They weren’t those people anymore, plain and simple.
But on the other hand, this was Jasper. For all his flaws, he’d always been good to Aaron. He was stable enough to give him a port to return to, and they were the sort of fairy tale pair that people always wanted. The school year sweethearts who got married and rose into their roles in life. Jasper was secure; he was what Aaron expected.
“Yeah,” he found himself saying. “My reason was pretty stupid too.”
Jasper looked relieved when he said that, although he thought that he saw a flash of sadness fly across his boyfriend’s face too. He placed his hand over Aaron’s, a faint grin on his face. “That was easier than I thought-”
But whatever Jasper was about to say was cut off when the doors swung open and the room’s attention pivoted towards them. Almost immediately, whispers started to ripple through the room and Jasper’s face paled quickly. It took Aaron a moment to find out what had caused the disruption, but when he did, he understood the hubbub.
Strolling through the entryway was Callum Hunt, acting as though he was merely late for breakfast instead of two weeks late for the start of school.