Chapter Text
Kaladin took a sip of his mocha latte, eyes never once leaving the computer screen. The lecture he was watching was a bit boring, but so were all med school lectures. He scribbled a few notes on his notebook, knew he would have to come back to these soon.
He had just started the semester, barely a week in, and there was already so much to cover. He’d have to get used to the pace of things, but to deny the stress he was feeling would be lying to himself.
Thinking of the dorms on top of all of this hurt his brain. It was chaotic to say the least. He liked his roommate, and their floor wasn’t so bad, just… too loud. Food was basically an after-thought with so much going on.
That’s why he took a liking to this café. It was slightly far from the university’s campus, one would think it would be buzzing with people and conversation. Only it was full, but not noisy. A factor could be thanks to it being on the opposite side of where the bars frequented by students were.
It was also small, perfect for people who liked to wake up early and claim all seats to actually study and work.
And the mocha latte was basically perfect. That was a small thing Kaladin was thankful for.
For the next hour, he tuned out on the lecture playing on his laptop, completely enticed and taking notes whenever he deemed important. He didn’t pay attention to his surroundings, not even when a person he should recognize appeared in his sight.
He blinked, looking up, taking off his headphones.
“Sorry, Renarin?” He asked, voice coming out rough. He just realized how rough his throat was.
Renarin stuttered, looking apologetic. His roommate was unlike many people Kaladin knew, but not in a bad way. Renarin was awkward around people, always deep in his mind, but he was a good kid. They were the same age, yet Kaladin felt protective towards him, the need to look out for him just present.
“Um, sorry,” Renarin rubbed the back of his neck. “Didn’t mean to bother you, Kaladin. The seats are... full.” He paused, then added for better measure, but Kaladin had already understood. “We would like to sit with you, if that’s okay.”
“Sure.” Kaladin nodded, making room for Renarin and... wait, we?
Kaladin focused behind Renarin, squinting at the guy. He was of slightly taller height than Renarin, blond hair peppered with black. An easy-smile plastered on his face.
“This is your roommate?” The guy asked swiftly, his voice friendly and bright.
“Oh um, right,” Renarin turned to the guy. “Kaladin Stormblessed. And Kaladin, this is my older brother, Adolin.”
Kaladin raised an eyebrow. Older brother? Was he a student here too?
Kaladin gave a curt nod, but Adolin went the extra step and extended his hand for a handshake.
“Pleased to meet you,” Adolin smiled again, and Kaladin found himself foolishly grabbing his hand with his heartbeat in his throat. “I hope you take good care of my brother.”
“Oh, i already am,” Kaladin said, and Adolin’s hand was warm and masculine but his fingers were so smooth to the touch.
Renarin sat with an embarrassed blush. “Cut it out you two. I can take care of myself. And don’t scare him, Adolin.”
“I’m trying to be nice,” Adolin sat too, grinning at his brother. Renarin brought his own notebook to the table, getting ready to study.
Kaladin looked between the two, now able to spot the similarities between the Kholin brothers. While Adolin’s hair was blond peppered black, Renarin’s was mainly black with specks of blond. Their eyes were both a light blue, like an ocean.
Renarin was an engineering student, and had a class overlapping with Kaladin’s. They were both juniors of the same age, having both had a slightly late start to college.
“Kaladin’s a med student,” Renarin looked at his brother. “He needs to get stuff done, so let’s not talk too much, Adolin.”
“Ouch, that’s brutal Ren,” Adolin pouted back, but his lips were still fighting a smile. He glanced at Kaladin, noting the staring.
Kaladin sat a bit straighter, embarrassed that Adolin caught him.
“Well, I didn’t really introduce myself properly,” Adolin said, looking through the menu and at Kaladin. “I’m in the Arts department, twenty-three years old. I’m doing a double major in fashion and dance.”
Kaladin swallowed. “That’s amazing. You must be very talented.”
Adolin grinned at the compliment. “I would agree, but I'm humble and all that shit.”
Kaladin cracked a smirk, humoring Adolin. “What type of dance do you study?”
“Modern and contemporary,” Adolin answered. “In fact, I have a show next month.”
Renarin smiled. “He got picked as a lead dancer for a duo for the gala next month, apparently.”
“There’s a gala next month?” Kaladin looked between the two, receiving a blank expression from Renarin and an amused smile from Adolin.
“You didn’t know? The flyers are all over the place.” Adolin was trying not to laugh, but the way he spoke wasn’t to spite or make fun of Kaladin.
“I haven’t noticed.” Kaladin looked back to his notes. “I’ve been kind of preoccupied.”
Adolin nodded understandingly. “That must be a lot of work. Anyways, the gala would be fun. The Arts department is hosting a fundraiser for disabled students to gain scholarships.”
“Urithiru university has this kind of budget?” Kaladin asked again, probably looking like the weird kid himself. He knew the university was of the top in the country, but this seemed... extravagant.
Adolin smiled, waving a hand. “Something like that. It would be great if you could make it, though.”
Kaladin stared at Adolin for a while, taking in the way his hair curled around the nape of his neck, curls messy but pretty. The pullover Adolin sported was proof enough Adolin majored in fashion too.
Noting Renarin’s quietness, Kaladin lowered his eyes back to his notes, cheek resting on his palm. He pulled his headphones back on, pressing play on the lecture.
It was a little hard to concentrate with the company, but it wasn’t unwanted. Renarin was quiet as a mouse, spinning is pen in his hand, almost anxiously. He had the tendency of doing that often. Adolin had ordered them iced coffee too -Renarin wasn’t good with hot drinks- then pulled out a book and started reading it. By its title, it was probably an art book.
The rest of their stay was peaceful, no one uttering a word to disrupt the quiet they’ve fallen into. From the corner of his eye, Kaladin had noticed how Adolin would shoot him a glance every now and then, only to smoothly look back to his book. The one-time Kaladin caught him red-handed, Adolin smiled cheekily and didn’t even have the decency of looking guilty.
When it started to grow dark outside, Kaladin was content to have covered two of his biology lectures already. Going back home, he would just have to review the notes for a short time before a shut-eye.
The three agreed to call it a day, picking up their stuff. Kaladin stood and realized with an after-thought that he was a good head taller than Adolin. Fuck, now that they were both standing up, Adolin’s hair looked so ruffly and cute from above. Kaladin hoped he was the only one who had the privilege of this.
He bit down on his lip to stop his thoughts from wandering. Had Kaladin’s brain frayed into nothingness after the long study session?
“What do you say we go to the bar?” Adolin asked, pulling his bag over his shoulder. “Come hang with us, Kaladin.”
Renarin poked his brother in the shoulder. “I didn’t say I'm going.”
“Sorry, too tired for that,” Kaladin looked away, stuffing his hand in his pocket.
Adolin frowned, looking like a disappointed puppy. “Aw, you guys.”
“Besides, it gets really crowdy at night,” Renarin confessed, voice small. “I’d rather not.”
Adolin ruffled Renarin’s hair affectionately with a smile. “Don't look down like that, it's fine. Though, I promised some friends I’d meet them. So, I’ll have to go.”
Renarin nodded, fixing his strands of hair. “Good luck.”
Kaladin and Adolin hummed in question, both wondering what kind of good luck Adolin needed with his friends in a bar.
Renarin blushed visibly. “I meant with practice, tomorrow.”
Renarin’s brain was like that sometime, he thought far ahead and his mouth wouldn’t be able catch up to his brain. Kaladin was getting used to it, and honestly it was quite endearing.
Adolin flashed a grin and bid them goodbye with a wave, leaving the two in a comfortable silence.
“Um, sorry about bringing my brother all of a sudden,” Renarin murmured.
“It’s fine,” Kaladin said, and he meant it. “He’s nice.”
“He’ll probably drop by often, in our room I mean,” Renarin confessed with a wince. “Adolin likes people, he’s very social and well-known even among juniors of different departments.”
Well, that would need some getting used to. Not only was the dorm noisy, but he had to expect a pretty guy busting in their room at any given time of the day.
This year was going to be great. Hint, sarcasm.
***
“Hey Kaladin,” Adolin walked into the room, trailing behind Renarin with snacks in his arms. “Catch.”
Kaladin was nose deep in an encyclopedia, but it apparently wasn’t hint enough for Adolin not to throw the damn snack.
Kaladin caught the thing with exactness, and Adolin whistled. It was spicy chips. Kaladin stared straight at Adolin, asking himself if there were a subtext to this. But Adolin continued whistling with an easy mind.
“Thanks,” Kaladin put them down for now, but the gesture was nice enough. If Adolin would visit often with snacks, that didn’t sound too bad. These days, Kaladin didn’t have the will to get up and feed himself, unless it was absolutely necessary. He recognized how unhealthy that sounded, he still couldn’t bring himself to care.
Today, Adolin was wearing a baggy fushia crop top, and compared to him, Kaladin felt like a peasant with his black hoodie. Scratch that, Kaladin probably looked like an emo kid who hadn’t brushed his hair in ages. Well, he hadn’t brushed his hair for two days, it wasn’t a big deal, but still.
Kaladin instinctively curled into himself, completely having missed the conversation going between the brothers. And the question he had been asked.
“Huh?” Kaladin croaked out, managing to feel even smaller compared to Adolin.
“I was asking if you wanted to come with and have lunch,” Adolin said, awaiting for a reply still.
“I’m good, actually.” Kaladin was fucking hungry, but he didn’t plan to be looked after by his roommate’s brother. For some reason, he didn’t want to be treated like the brother’s roommate. “Thanks.”
“Hmm,” Adolin hummed under his breath. “You sure? You look a little pale there, have you had lunch yet?”
“Not yet, but I will.” Kaladin answered, growing tired.
Renarin was sitting on his bed, a book open on his lap. He stared at Kaladin, recognizing the look of despair.
“Um, Adolin,” Renarin murmured. “We’ll have lunch together, you don’t need to mother us.”
“I’m not mothering you, I want to have lunch with you.” Adolin put his hands on his hips, looking absolutely gorgeous.
“Some other time,” Renarin waved his brother goodbye, and Adolin retreated with a wave.
Kaladin watched him, then looked back to his notes.
From then on, Adolin’s visits were more and more frequent. He would come over with snacks, sometimes without. Renarin would just allow his brother to plop on his bed and talk his heart’s content out. Kaladin would come back and find Adolin in the room. That found him wondering if Adolin even studied. At this point, he saw more of Adolin than his own classmates.
And Adolin was... suspiciously nice. Renarin had snorted, something he rarely did, and assured him that Adolin was just like that. Nice to everyone. There were times where Adolin would speak of his friends, about dating and clubbing and whatsoever. It wasn’t really gossip as much as it was Adolin being extremely sunshiny.
Kaladin should have been annoyed at the guy. This person who’d flap in his room with gorgeous colors and curly hair. This guy who would playfully whine and stumble in at late hours of the night because of drunkenness. But he wasn’t. He got irritated at times, wincing everytime the door opened to disturb his peace. But one couldn’t simply get mad at Adolin. Not when he noticed the irritation and tried to make it up with simply... existing.
He was always the spotlight in the room, and Kaladin had a feeling he’s the spotlight in every other room he walked into.
“Dude, you’ve been wearing that hoodie for like, five days now.” Adolin chuckled one time, sitting on the floor of Kaladin’s and Renarin’s room, scrolling down his phone.
Kaladin grunted, scrolling through his own phone with eyebags underneath his eyes.
“You look really stressed.” Adolin popped a chocolate bar in his mouth, and Kaladin was looking through his emails, checking for anything new.
He grunted again.
With a few rustles and movements out of Kaladin’s line of sight, Adolin suddenly popped up in front of him, arms crossed over Kaladin’s bed. Adolin put his chin on his forearm, clearly trying to catch Kaladin’s eye.
“What are you so busy with?” He asked slyly, interest lacing his tone.
Kaladin came face to face with Adolin. He was so close Kaladin could see the deep color of his eyes, and god, were Adolin’s lashes so long? Kaladin was apparently staring, for Adolin has been quizzically humming. Then, like an absolute dork, Kaladin lost grip on his phone, it ending up plopping on the bed with a soft thump.
“Um,” Kaladin sat up, trusting in his goo hands to hold him from beneath. “I’m going to the library.”
Adolin glanced at the clock. “Now? It’s like 8 pm.”
“Yes, good thing the library stays open all night as well.” Kaladin cleared his throat and stood, quickly stuffing his laptop in his bag, with his notebook and pencils.
“But you need sleep.” Adolin barely finished the whole sentence before Kaladin raised his hand in a goodbye, his cheeks rosy.
He couldn’t last another second with Adolin there. He couldn’t make up his mind on whether Adolin was doing it on purpose or not. He sighed in the cold night air, feeling the rush hit his face and steeling his nerves. No matter, it wasn’t Kaladin’s business to decipher Adolin’s actions or even try to understand them. If Adolin was just nice the way he usually was and just wanted to be friends, let him knock himself out. Kaladin didn’t want to be friends with someone this extroverted, Kaladin wouldn’t be able to keep up.
Adolin was also probably very spoiled, truth be told. Kaladin wouldn’t judge a guy for taking care of himself and dressing himself up, but Kaladin simply wasn’t Adolin. He couldn’t match up Adolin’s energy even if he tried... screw it.
He reached the library and chose a farther away corner, a square long desk he occupied by himself, just to grasp at that quiet he liked yet despised at the same time. It was good when he studied and was immersed in his lectures, but at times he would lose concentration, and his mind would wander and swim in a darkness Kaladin found hard to slip away from.
That darkness was scary, but Kaladin learned his way around it. It wasn’t much a healing from it rather than dipping in certain negative habits to ignore it. Such as staying up late to study when the nightmares plagued his mind. Otherwise, he’d be tormented with betraying thoughts and he’d slip from his mind far enough that he’d...
Kaladin screwed his eyes shut, rubbed his face and slapped his cheeks softly, before paying back attention to his notes. He had an open medical encyclopedia on one side, detailing the veins on the heart section.
He wasn’t sure how much time had passed since he sat there and scribbled on his notebook, but the library was pretty much empty. He stifled a yawn, rubbing insistently at his eyes.
He had finished a few sections of the current Bio cell unit, but he could prepare the next lecture just to stay ahead of time. With his bad luck, he’d need to be on his toes when his classes decided to be messy.
“You’re still here.”
Kaladin straightened up his back, wincing when a few muscles popped from the over exertion. He had been bended over his desk for a long time.
Adolin was standing a few desks away from his, expression unrecognizable. Then, he approached Kaladin, claiming the seat next to him. He sat with his back facing the desk, so he was sitting the opposite way from Kaladin.
“Why are you here?” Kaladin asked, trying to pay Adolin no heed.
“To check on you,” Adolin answered with a shrug. “With your unhealthy tendencies, I knew you wouldn’t go back early.”
Kaladin grunted. “And who’s fault do you think that it?” Perhaps uncalled for, but Kaladin was on his last nerve and it was late. What was Adolin’s game here?
“Cause I was in your room?” Adolin pulled up his leg, sitting over it. “Was I a bother?”
“No,” Kaladin said, sighing. “No, Adolin. I just felt like studying here.”
“Oh, lies,” Adolin said again, and Kaladin almost busted a vein when he aggressively snapped his chin to the right, facing Adolin. But Adolin was smiling. Fucking man, he was always smiling.
“Alright, fine,” Kaladin pointed his pencil to Adolin’s face. “You were being intrusive, happy?”
“Not in the least, actually,” Adolin said. “Do you not like it when I drop by?”
Adolin was very direct with his words. Another thing Kaladin was bad at reciprocating. Communication with feelings and relationships on the line. “Not... really.”
“Is it okay if I keep visiting then?” Adolin said again.
“You can do whatever you want, it’s also your brother’s room,” Kaladin shrugged, wondering if he'd regret these words in the near future. “Just... visit less.”
Adolin laughed under his breath. “I can do that. Why didn’t you tell me from the beginning?”
Kaladin was close to poking the man with his pen in the eye.
“Oh, don’t tell me,” Adolin waved a dismissive hand. “I don’t think I want to know.”
“Whatever, what time is it anyway?” Kaladin closed his eyes for a moment, his head painfully throbbing.
“A little after 1 in the morning.” Adolin peeked at Kaladin’s face.
A jolt went through Kaladin’s spine. “And... why the hell are you checking up on me so late at night?”
He took a peek at Adolin’s expression, and that fucking smile sent butterflies of all kinds through his stomach. Kaladin’s hands tingled, in search of something.
Adolin opened his mouth to answer, but Kaladin’s hand flew over to his mouth, shutting him up.
They stared at each other in silence, and Kaladin heaved out. “I don’t... I don’t want to know, so nevermind.” He swiftly turned his head to the other side, and rested it on his arms, feeling Adolin’s gaze burn through the back of his head.
Now that he thought about it, he was extremely exhausted. He’d been couped up here for at least four hours, in the sweater that Adolin deemed unworthy. His eyelids fell down heavily, unable to strain against the illumination of the library.
Long, soft fingers touched the ends of his hair, a prickle at the base of Kaladin’s neck. Then the fingers started carding smoothly from the roots to the ends of Kaladin's hair.
“What...are you doing?” Kaladin found himself hissing, though he didn’t mean the hostility.
“Your hair is soft,” Adolin’s fingers didn’t still, combing slowly and therapeutically. And fuck, Kaladin didn’t know how much he needed this until this very moment. The moment he felt the softness.
“Fuck, Adolin,” Kaladin grumbled in his arms, trying to bury his whole face away from the outside world, from Adolin’s eyes. Because what was this feeling. This had no business feeling so nice.
Adolin’s both hands grabbed his hair into a ponytail, and then he chuckled to himself. “Mind if I braid it for you?” He was asking, but his fingers were already doing the job.
Kaladin didn’t answer because Adolin didn’t need the answer. Because Adolin’s touch never felt so good before.
“You can nap for a while,” Adolin said gently, Kaladin could hear the smile in his voice. “I’ll wake you.”
“I don’t trust you,” Kaladin murmured, but Adolin’s fingers were numbing his mind all the same.
“But you can,” It was a whisper, yet Kaladin heard it loud and clear. “You can trust me, it’s fine.”
And Kaladin supposed that he could.
***
Adolin had kept to his promise and woke Kaladin after an hour of a nap. Kaladin was drowsy still, barely remembered to pick up his laptop before heading for the dorms. Adolin reminded him with a laugh that was not quite making fun of him, but finding him endearing.
They walked together to the dorms, Adolin taking pity on Kaladin and deciding not to pull him into conversation. But god, that was the best nap Kaladin had ever taken, no competition. It was definitely related to Adolin’s braiding skills, wasn’t it?
When they reached Kaladin’s room, Kaladin belatedly touched the firm braid on the sides of his head, meeting as a ponytail at the end. Adolin quirked an eyebrow at him.
“About time for some feedback,” Adolin smiled heartily.
Kaladin looked at the man, then, with his heart in his throat, looked away. “Thanks for... not betraying me and leaving me behind.”
Adolin recognized the half-assed way in which Kaladin ignored the request, and snorted anyway. “You’re welcome.”
Kaladin smiled to himself, turning to open the door. “You’re one strange man, really.”
“How come?” Adolin hadn’t budged from his spot, even when Kaladin had the door open to walk in as quietly as possible.
“How the fuck should I know?” Kaladin rolled his eyes. “If you braid all your friends’ hairs, I'm quite baffled at your dedication.”
“But I don’t.” Adolin answered, voice sweet Kaladin wondered if he imagined it.
“Don’t find yourself baffled at your dedication?” Kaladin retorted.
Adolin laughed breezily, his cute curls bouncing on the top of his head. Kaladin’s chest experienced a warmth he was a stranger to.
“Ah, well,” Adolin took a step back from the door. Kaladin’s mind was still muddy from his nap, but he somehow managed to catch the cute blush on Adolin’s cheeks. “You can be naïve at times, it’s adorable.”
Adolin at least had the decency of walking away right that moment, leaving Kaladin winded in his spot. Left to wonder what fever dream had that been.