Chapter Text
Rory walked next to Annie as they made their way to the room where introduction week was about to start. The two of them had met the day before and Rory had taken a quick liking to her. She was quick and outspoken and didn’t seem to mind that Rory was not. She still couldn’t quite believe she had gotten in while Annie walked with the confidence of someone who knew they belonged. Rory hadn’t known her for long enough to know if that confidence was fake or not, but she liked the energy Annie brought with her.
“Ohohoho.” Rory looked in the direction Annie was looking at. By the door they were heading to stood an older man. Was that their professor? They were still a bit away and the man would be unlikely to hear them.
“You’re not seriously going to lust after our professor?” Annie rolled her eyes (Rory could almost hear them in her skull).
“Of course not. If that silver fox was our professor he would’ve let himself in. I am pretty sure he is a fellow student and therefore free game.” She waved at the man as they came within earshot.
“Hello there! Are you here for the engineering introduction?” The man looked up from where he had been staring at a wall. Now that they were closer and the man had turned to face them Rory could give him a better look over. The man was already very grey, but Rory would put him somewhere in his forties. His grey hair was short and his mustache was perfectly trimmed. He wore dark brown trousers, a white dress shirt, suspenders and a green jacket. He was also holding a matte black cane. His clothes gave him even more of an old man vibe, but they also looked very well maintained. The mustache, neat clothes and the very straight posture the man had gave Rory a distinct military vibe.
“Yes, I am. I assume that this means all three of us are here for the same reason.”
“Jup! I am Annie, medical engineering! And this muppet next to me is Rory who is also doing medical engineering” “Captain Theodore Bone, biomedical engineering. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” Captain Bone offered his hand to shake and Annie took it gladly. Rory had to keep in a giggle at the juxtaposition between the two. Captain Bone being so straight laced he looked like he came from the forties and Annie being several years ahead of the curve with how she dressed. Rory also shook the man’s hand. It was a very firm handshake.
“The pleasure is all mine, Cap. I wonder what you’re captain of.”
“Nothing anymore really.”
“No need to be coy,” Annie winked. “but you can save your story for when we’re all introducing ourselves later to the group. No reason to have to repeat yourself.” Captain Bone seemed to have no reaction to Annie’s flirting. That didn’t mean he was stupefied, but that he just simply didn’t seem to notice or chose not to respond in any visible or audible manner. The three of them talked a little more about their expectations for the courses as more people arrived, including their actual professor who opened the door.
They all got themselves situated in the room and their professor (Peter) gave a quick introduction to the year before starting off the round of introductions.
The first one to speak was Sam who made it very clear to the group that they used they/them pronouns and that they did kickboxing in their spare time. The challenge was very clear and some of the people in the group looked even a little scared. Captain Bone didn’t look scared. He looked more like he approved. Rory was sure that being approving of the young adult who looked ready to fight God and win as a clearly military man who was probably used to order and authority made sense to the man himself, but to Rory it was somewhat funny. Sam wore a garish flowery short sleeved dress shirt and blue and white striped trousers. They also had a piercing in their brow ridge.
The second person to introduce herself was Annie. Rory already knew some of the things she talked about, but she hadn’t known Annie also liked to write. Rory could imagine her orating her stories before large groups of people as she stood there talking about herself. She would probably make a great public speaker some day.
As Rory had been sitting next to Annie, she had been the next person to introduce herself. She managed to speak without sounding like a complete idiot and when she mentioned she enjoyed tabletop roleplaying games Sam looked interested, which Rory took as a good sign. Maybe she could set up a game with the group? That would be so cool.
Captain Bone was the next one to introduce himself. It turned out that he had been in the military for twenty years before getting medically discharged. That would explain the cane. He had been an engineer in the artillery branch, but had not been interested in pursuing that type of engineering after he left. His description had been very short and to the point and Rory got the impression that he had no desire to talk about it any more than he had to. He declared that his rank was perfectly useless now, but Sam argued that Cap was such a fun nickname and he didn’t seem to have much of a problem with that. He apparently enjoyed birdwatching and the outdoors in general.
Next up was Hakeem who dressed and spoke like he wished superpowers were real and that his power was invisibility. Rory liked the sound of his voice a lot, it was very comforting. She hoped that she was going to hear more of it and that he wasn’t going to try and merge with the wall for the rest of time. He liked to play the piano, but currently had none to play on. Peter was quick to recommend some places with publicly usable pianos.
Mathilda introduced herself next. She was dressed like she would be more at home at an economics master, but Rory was sure as hell that this was the place where she belonged and that she hadn’t gotten lost. Like Sam and Cap she didn’t seem like a person who tolerated arguments much, but more in the way of Cap than Sam. However, she looked a bit more approachable than Cap, who was rather standoffish. Annie had just not cared about that when she approached him. Mathilda liked to go out and watch movies with friends. She had also an interest in history, something they quickly learnt was another shared trait with Cap.
The last one to introduce herself was Femke. She was from The Netherlands (not Holland, which was apparently split into two provinces. No, she came from Friesland ) and had a pretty distinct accent. She was also very tall. Only Hakeem and Cap were taller than her. She enjoyed sports, especially field and track and something called fierljeppen which sounded a lot like pole vaulting for distance across a body of water. It sounded nuts and Rory was going to look it up on youtube like Femke suggested they all should do. The way she dressed seemed to be mostly based on comfort and contained a lot of dark colours, but she made it work.
Peter then told them all that there was actually another person in their group called Nick who hadn’t been able to make it today due to illness. Rory hoped that he would be alright soon and wouldn’t miss too much.
They all talked some more before it was time for a break. As they all left Rory got her sleeve stuck on the door handle. Rory managed to fall over and land on the ground with a loud thud. A softer pinging noise alerted her to the fact that the button on her jacket sleeve had come off. She knew she was rather clumsy, but she had hoped she would be able to hide that for after full first impressions were made. At least it happened as they were leaving and not as they had been entering. With a sigh she grabbed the button from the floor and started to get up.
“Are you okay?” Said Mathilda. She had quickly made her way next to Rory and helped her up from the floor.
“I will be.” Rory sighed and looked at the button in her hand. “Guess I’ll have to figure out how to sew a button now.” She added with an awkward laugh. The group continued to walk as they talked.
“I am sure there are plenty of videos on youtube explaining just that.” Mathilda was most likely right. Youtube was full of useful instructional videos.
“No need for that.” Those words were accompanied by a slight tinkling of metal. Rory looked in the direction of the voice and the tinkling noise. It was Cap holding a very small sewing kit. No one said anything for a moment, just silently staring at Cap and the sewing kit he was offering. It was Cap who broke the silence by clearing his throat as he did a little bounce.
“One should always be prepared. As you must agree, my preparedness has come into use now.”
“You know how to sew a button?” Femke asked.
“Yes, it is quite simple actually. I could give a demonstration if you like.” And with that declaration they moved to a place where Cap could give his demonstration. Rory took off her jacket and handed it over to him. His description of what he was doing was very clear and precise. He was correct, it was actually quite simple. In the middle of it all Sam interrupted.
“Why is there a little vial of disinfectant in your sewing kit?”
“Blisters” Rory wasn’t sure what to think of the revelation that the needle that was being used to reattach her button had most likely also been used to pop blisters.
“I thought you weren’t supposed to pop blisters.” Rory had to agree with Annie. This was also something she had heard.
“You aren’t, but it is better to pop it yourself than risk it popping on its own due to continued stress.” Cap’s tone of voice was rather matter of fact and it made Rory think of long military marches. How many blisters would the man have had to pop?
Cap returned her jacket once he was done. The rest of the day continued in a similar manner. They all got to know eachother better and generally got along well. Even Hakeem was talking more by the end of the day. Rory hoped that Nick would fit in just as well. Eventually they all parted ways until only Annie and Rory were still together.
“And, still interested in our Silver fox?” Rory said with a slight grin as she fiddled with the button Cap had reattached for her.
“Nah, I prefer my silver foxes single and ready to mingle and this one was wearing a wedding ring.” Oh, Rory had not noticed that and Cap had not mentioned a spouse. It seemed that even with how much they all spoke to one another today, there was still much to learn.