Chapter Text
Like almost every Tuesday morning, Jon sits in the lecture hall. Trying to keep up with whatever his professor is telling them this time, taking notes so he might be able to retain the information they’re sharing. At least, until after the test they’ll get on this subject. Suddenly his professor’s monologuing gets interrupted by the door of the hall creaking open.
As his professor abruptly stops talking, Jon looks up. Trying to see past the other students to look at whichever professor deems it necessary to disturb them in the middle of a lecture. When he finally manages to see a gap in between the people sitting in front of him he notices that it’s actually another student, seemingly rambling apologies or whatever.
Jon sighs and looks back at his notes, now his focus has been disturbed he once again hears the buzzing of the lights, the whispering between other students and the scratching of pens. Even more annoyed than he already was, he tries to focus on his notes again. He’s trying to decipher what he’s written so far while waiting for the professor to continue their lecture.
“Sorry, could I sit here please?”
Jon looks up in confusion and then realises it’s the student that was just talking to his professor at the door, the one that was late and interrupted his focus. Before he gets the chance to respond, his professor tells the student that’s still standing, who is apparently called Martin, to sit down.
So, Martin does. Right next to him. Jon feels the air around him briefly getting disturbed as this guy who he’s never seen before sits besides him. Oh this is just great, he thinks to himself as Martin loudly fumbles through his bag, trying to find something he deems necessary for this lecture, apparently.
Jon tries to pull his focus back to his professor. Although, thanks to Martin, he’s still rather distracted. He picks up his pen to start writing before he gets interrupted yet again, by the same voice.
“S-sorry for bothering, do you have a spare piece of paper? I forgot my notebook at home”
Jon looks back up at Martin, who’s now got an apologetic smile on his face. Jon ignores his annoyance, swallowing the urge to make a remark about how messy this...Martin guy is. “Yeah I think so, let me check.” He says, not being able to fully mask his annoyance.
There is a short moment of silence between them, only interrupted by the faint speaking from the lecturer in the background and by the rustling of papers as Jon searches through his bag.
“I’m Martin, by the way. Nice to meet you”
“Jon”, he answers while handing Martin a few sheets of lined paper he found in his bag. Martin mumbles a “thank you” at him. Jon turns back towards the lecturer to continue taking notes, trying to tune out Martin who, once again, seems to be going through his bag to find another thing.
About an hour later Jon gets pulled out of his focus by the bell going off, announcing the end of the lecture. He grabs his cane off the floor and uses it to pull himself to his feet. He closes his notebook, still lost in thoughts about the lecture that just finished.
“Nice stickers”
Jon jumps up at the voice, he didn’t expect Martin to still be standing there. He follows Martin’s gaze to his (now closed) notebook, the cover of which is filled with stickers from bands, books, videogames and lots of cats.
“Oh! T-thank you” he stammers in response, realising he had just been staring at his notebook for a while without having answered Martin yet. He looks around and notices most people have already left, so he rapidly shoves his notebook and pens into his bag and leaves Martin behind in the lecture hall.
In the hallway he contemplates whether it was rude to just...walk off. However, he thinks to himself, I don’t know him, and I might not see him again either way. So why would it even matter.
He pulls his phone out of his bag to check where he has to go for his next lecture. To his surprise, the history lecture he normally has on Tuesdays got cancelled, so he’s free now. According to his phone it’s only 2pm, so he still has most of his afternoon left over. He did receive an Email from his history professor, telling them that she’s sick and won’t be able to teach today. She did inform them that they still have to make the assignments they were supposed to do. Jon sighs. He normally doesn’t do the assignments in class. Now he’s got no reason not to make them, however, since he didn’t have anything else planned for the day.
He decides to head back to his apartment so he can do the assignments and finish up some work for his other classes since he’s still got a lot to do.
Walking through the corridors he passes only a few other students, hurrying to their next lecture. He puts on his headphones, fumbling around with his phone to try and find music he feels like listening to on his long walk home. He doesn’t notice that he’s outside until his there are already a few droplets of water on his phone’s screen. He looks up to see that it’s raining rather heavily. Exactly what I needed, he frowns.
He walks back into the building to prevent himself from getting completely soaked by the rain while checking the weather on his phone. Oh great. The rain will keep going for another hour or so. He debates for a moment whether he should just stay and study in the library until the rain passes, but then comes to the conclusion that, considering the weather is usually not that accurate, it might continue raining for longer than expected. So, he steps out into the rain once again.
After walking for a couple of minutes, he abruptly feels that the rain is no longer beating down on him. The moment he turns around he is greeted by Martin, looking right at him with an umbrella now held over both of their heads.
“Oh christ, what are you doing here?” He exclaims in confusion as he yanks off his headphones, hearing his heart beating loudly in his throat.
“I’m sorry, I- I didn’t mean to startle you, I just noticed you walking through the rain all alone, and you didn’t seem to have a coat or anything! S-so I thought Oh, maybe he needs an umbrella so then I-”
“Yes, yes. I get it,” Jon interrupts, hints of bewilderment still evident in his voice. “I think I can make my way home through the rain just fine, though.”
“Do you have to walk far?”
“I, uh...” Jon considers for a moment if it’s a good idea to share this with someone who is, quite frankly, still pretty much a stranger. Well he doesn’t seem like a murderer... “Like another twenty minutes I think?”
“Twenty? You’ll be completely soaked by the time you get there! Come on, I’ll walk with you so that doesn’t need to happen.” Martin answers cheerily.
“Look, Martin, I don’t think that’s necessary. A little rain won’t do much harm.” Jon knows that it will, in fact, do harm and that he will have to change the moment he gets home to get the feeling of wet clothes off of him.
Martin is taken aback slightly by the fact that Jon remembered his name, but he doesn’t let that show. “It’s absolutely pouring! No one can make it home through this without turning into some sort of...wet cat, or something. I’m walking with you, that’s that.”
Both of them seem rather surprised by how insistent Martin was. After considering his options for a while, Jon seems to give in. “Fine. Though I still don’t get why you feel like you need to do this for me.” Martin grins at his victory, trying not to let it show. “Well lead the way then!”
They continue walking quietly for a couple of minutes, having fallen into a synchronised walking rhythm where they perfectly keep up with each other. The only sounds being the clicking of Jon’s cane as he lifts it with each step, the rain dripping down onto a variety of surfaces and an occasional car slowly driving past.
“So, Slay the Princess, huh?” Martin eventually breaks the silence. “Hm? What?” Jon replies.
“Your, erm, your notebook? I might’ve seen it wrong though.”
“Oh, that! Yeah, I think it’s a pretty cool game.” Jon’s face reddens slightly. He didn’t realise what Martin was referring to and feels slightly embarrassed that he didn’t catch on to it immediately.
“I’ve heard of it before, never actually got to play it. I have seen some playthroughs of it, that’s why I recognised it.”
“Ah, makes sense.” They’re slowly getting closer to Jon’s apartment, and he still feels just as awkward walking next to Martin. Jon clutches the strap of his bag tightly so he has something to hold onto to keep his other hand busy. Martin doesn’t seem to notice as he’s fidgeting with the umbrella he’s still holding over them, Jon notices.
A few more minutes pass by in silence. They come to a halt as Jon slows down until they’ve stopped in front of a small apartment complex. The building seems quite old and has a collection of buzzers right next to the door, intended for visitors to ring if they’ve come to visit one of the residents.
“So...this is it. Thank you for accompanying me.” Jon mumbles, looking down at his feet to avoid Martin’s eyes on him.
“It’s really no problem! I suppose I’ll see you Friday for our next English lecture?” Oh shit. Jon’s forgotten that they have another English lesson later that week and that he will probably see Martin quite soon.
“I, ah, suppose so.” Jon answers quickly. “Well I hope you have a good journey back home?” Martin nods. “Thank you.”
Jon heads to the main door, grabbing his keys from the pocket of his bag he keeps them. He turns around once more and gives an awkward wave to Martin, who waves back and then turns around to leave so he can also head home, Jon presumes.
Despite his earlier annoyance, Jon can’t help but be less upset about this stranger that walked into his life this morning. He does seem quite kind although he is a very different person than Jon expected when he first met him.