Chapter Text
“Wow, Nezumi! Look at the campus! Isn’t it splendid?” Rikiga called from the driver’s seat of the car. A duffel bag was buckled into the passenger’s seat and Nezumi, a lanky and rather surly 18 year old, sat in the backseat of the sedan with the rest of his luggage. He hadn’t wanted Rikiga to take him to college for move-in day, but Nezumi was a freshman, and freshmen weren’t allowed to have cars, so he had needed someone to take him. Rikiga had volunteered. So, here they were, pulling into a visitor’s parking spot on campus in front of the dorm building he would be spending the next year in. “Well, the drive wasn’t too bad, was it?” Rikiga said cheerily, turning the car off and stretching as he climbed out. It was a wonder how he could fit his large body into such a compact car. “Come on, Nezumi, let’s go! Don’t you want to meet your roommate?”
Nezumi sighed and clambered out of the car, pulling his smaller bags out with him. “Yeah, super pumped,” he said, not even trying to hide the sarcasm in his voice. Rikiga ignored his attitude and went around to the other side of the car, grabbing the duffel bag out of the passenger’s seat. Nezumi tried to grab it from him. “I can carry it; you can go. Thanks for the ride.”
Rikiga pulled the bag out of Nezumi’s reach. “Ah ah ah! I want to meet your roommate and see your dorm as well, so I’m not going yet.” This was partly true, but a big part of it was that he knew it would piss off Nezumi if he stayed longer.
“Ugh, whatever. It says my room is…” Nezumi checked the email on his phone that detailed where his room was and who he was rooming with. “Third floor of the Apis building, room number 6.” He scrolled down, admitting to himself he was slightly - only slightly - interested in who he’d be spending the year with. “Shion Kazuki,” he muttered the name to himself. Nezumi had only known one other person who was going to this college, and he knew for a fact that that person did not want to room with him, so when he had to pick a roommate, he chose to do random assignment. He figured that, since he didn’t really talk to people that much and he figured he’d spend most of his time studying or reading alone, it didn’t really matter who he roomed with. All he wanted was a roommate who would leave him alone.
Rikiga’s voice broke through his thoughts. “Well, here we are!” he boomed. “Room number 6!” The large man bounded into the room, eagerly viewing the bare dorm walls, desks, and beds. Nezumi walked in behind him, glancing quickly around the room from underneath his long bangs. He realized a second before Rikiga did that the room was not, in fact, completely empty.
“Oh, hello! You must be Shion’s roommate!” A woman who looked to be about thirty but was probably actually closer to 40 was smiling at Nezumi and Rikiga. Beside her stood a short, thin, very strange-looking boy. Before Nezumi could process what exactly he was seeing, Rikiga’s loud voice replied to the woman.
“Yes, this is Nezumi! He will be living here as well and -” Suddenly Rikiga stopped, his eyes widening in shock. “Wait...It can’t be...K- Karan?!”
The woman - Shion’s mother, Nezumi supposed - gasped. “Rikiga?!” The shocked looks on Rikiga’s and Karan’s faces turned into smiles and they hugged like two old friends who hadn’t seen each other in a long time. Which is what they were. “It’s been - oh, how many years?” Karan said, her eyes a little bit wet.
“Oh, I don’t know, but Karan, whether it’s been twenty or fifty years, you look as beautiful as ever,” Rikiga said.
Smooth, as always, Nezumi thought, rolling his eyes. He took the opportunity of the two friends catching up to inspect his new roommate, Shion, a little more closely. He certainly was a strange-looking guy. He was shorter than Nezumi by several inches, and was rather thin and not very muscular. Probably a nerdy kid, Nezumi thought. What was weird, though, was that Shion had white hair. Not like patches of it that some kids get due to stress - no, his entire head of hair was white. Nezumi saw that his eyes were also red, and would have thought him to be an albino except that his skin was much too tan for that. Maybe he dyes his hair? Nezumi thought. And wears colored contacts? Why though? Additionally, he seemed to have a strange kind of scar on his face and neck. Nezumi wasn’t sure what kind of scar it was though - he had seen his fair share of burns and knife scars, and this didn’t look like either.
After watching his mother talk and laugh with Rikiga for a bit, Shion turned his gaze to Nezumi and caught him staring at him. Nezumi looked away quickly, hoping it hadn’t seemed like he was staring at Shion. He started walking around the room, putting his bags on one side, silently claiming it to be his half of the room. He wondered if Shion was watching him like he had been inspecting Shion - if Shion was looking at his long black hair pulled into a messy ponytail, his bangs obscuring his face; if Shion was looking at his eyes and thinking that it was weird that they were such a dull grey color; if Shion was - Nezumi shook his head. Why do I care if that kid is watching me? It’s not like I care what he thinks. Nezumi pushed all thoughts out of his mind and just worked on unpacking, humming quietly to himself as he worked. He stayed in his own little world until he heard his name being called by, of course, Rikiga’s booming voice.
“Oh yeah, this is Nezumi! He’s not my kid, but I drove him out here since freshmen can’t have cars. I’ve known him for a while; when he moved to the town I live in, he didn’t have anywhere to live and he didn’t have a job, so I set him up with a place to stay and some people who needed work. I’ve been his, ah, benefactor, you could say, ever since then!”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Nezumi.” The woman - Karan - was smiling at him. “I’m sure you’ll love your life here. I hope you can get along well with Shion - although I don’t doubt that you two will be fast friends.”
Nezumi nodded, giving the woman a polite smile. He was also sure that he and Shion would get along well - as long as Shion left him alone.
“Alright, well, I believe it is time for me to head out,” Rikiga said, checking his watch. Finally, Nezumi thought. “Would you like to walk out with me, Karan?” Rikiga asked.
Karan glanced at Shion, who had started unpacking as well, and nodded. “It is time for me to say goodbye as well.” She turned to Shion and they hugged. “Goodbye, Shion. I love you very much! Make sure to call me sometimes! Get plenty of sleep, eat enough food, and make sure you stay on top of your schoolwork! Oh, but don’t forget to have fun too!”
Shion laughed. “I know, Mom, I know. I’ll be good. I’ll call you when I can.”
Rikiga turned to Nezumi. “Bye kid,” he said gruffly, trying to hide his wet eyes behind his curt voice. “Do well in school. Remember, I’m putting you up for this, so -”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t fail out, don’t get expelled, et cetera et cetera,” Nezumi said. “I’ll be fine. Thanks for the ride. See you.”
And with those two very different goodbyes, Rikiga and Karan left the room and, subsequently, the campus, leaving the two very different boys to unpack and get to know each other. It was like leaving a time bomb and expecting it to explode into flowers and butterflies.
The two new roommates continued unpacking. It was quiet in the small dorm room, the only noise the sounds of clothes and various school supplies being pulled out of duffel bags. Nezumi was glad for the quiet. Shion, on the other hand, tried to make conversation.
“So, Nezumi, where are you from? I mean, how far do you live from here? It took me and my mom about...three hours to get here. Was it a long drive for you?”
Nezumi kept unpacking, his back to Shion. Shut up, kid. Let me unpack in peace, he thought. All he said was, “It was an hour and a half for us.”
“Oh, that’s not too bad at all! So, what made you want to go here? If you don’t mind my asking.”
Oh. My. God. Stop talking to me. “I dunno. I just liked it.”
“Oh, okay...Well, for me, I just love the mountains - the air is so cool and fresh up here, you know? And this school has a really good science program, so that’s awesome, because I want to major in some kind of science, but I’m not sure what yet. Maybe biology? I’m not sure what I want to do though. I’ve been thinking about maybe being a doctor, but I really want to do research as well, and I’m not sure how much research doctors get to do, and -”
Oh my God stop talking kid. He’s just prattling on and on about what he’s gonna do in his future. I don’t give a fuck what you’re gonna do. Just shut the fuck up and let me set up my part of the room. This year is seriously gonna be hell.
“...Nezumi?”
Shit he said something to me. “What?”
“Um, I asked if you knew what you wanted to study…”
“Oh. Um, I’m not totally sure. I have to take the required freshman classes this semester so I really only have time for one extra class.”
“What did you pick for your extra class?”
“Uh, theatre.”
“Ooh, that sounds interesting! What class do you have for your freshman colloquium? And when do you have Humanities? I placed out of some of the freshman classes, so those would be the only two we might have together.”
God forbid I have a class with this kid. “My colloquium is like a biology class I think, like Biology 110 or something. I have to take it if I want to take animal science. And my Humanities class is Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11.” Please don’t have a class with me please don’t have a class with me please don’t -
Shion’s eyes lit up. “My colloquium is biology too! And I have my Humanities class at the same time! I bet we’re in those classes together! Oh man, that’s so exciting! We can do projects together, and study together, and -”
Nezumi stood up and looked over his shoulder at Shion. “Kid. Please. Shut. Up.”
Shion stopped, surprised. “What -”
“Stop talking to me. I’m not your best friend all of a sudden just because we’re roommates. You’re being really annoying. I don’t give a damn about what you want to do with your life, I don’t want to do projects or whatever the fuck with you. I just want to unpack my shit in quiet. So stop talking. Please.” Nezumi turned away from Shion and continued to unpack his stuff, folding his clothes and slipping them into the drawers below his desk space.
Shion had, apparently, been shocked into silence, which was fine with Nezumi. He felt a little bad about being so rude to the kid, but at the same time it had worked and gotten him to stop fucking talking. They both finished unpacking in complete silence, and when they were done Shion quietly announced to the room in general that he was going to go walk his class schedule. The door clicked behind him, and Nezumi was alone in the dorm room.
He sighed, feeling a bit guilty about how he’d spoken to Shion. He really shouldn't've been so mean, but he was just being so annoying. Nezumi sighed. I guess I’ll apologize to him later, he thought. For now I’m gonna go get dinner.
Later that evening, after both boys had gotten dinner alone, they were reclining in their room. Nezumi lay on his bed, lofted above his desk and drawers, reading an old battered copy of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Shion was sitting up on his lower bed, which sat next to his desk and drawers, poring over his Biology textbook. The two hadn’t spoken since the earlier events of the day. Nezumi was slightly uncomfortable with the silence, conscious that he was the cause of it.
He cleared his throat. “So, uh, I guess we didn’t get off on the right foot earlier today…”
Shion didn’t look up from his textbook.
Nezumi sighed and put his book down. “Look, I’m...sorry about what I said earlier. I’d had a long day, and I just kind of snapped.”
Shion’s strange red eyes met Nezumi’s grey ones over the top of his book. “It’s fine. I was overly excited. I get that I was being kind of a nuisance.” He paused, thinking. “Wanna have a fresh start?”
Nezumi nodded. “Sounds good to me. We’ve got Humanities tomorrow at 11, right?”
“Yeah. Want to just grab lunch afterwards?”
“Sure.” Nezumi thought that maybe he’d judged this kid wrong at first. He didn’t seem too bad now. Then again, Shion was reading a textbook for fun and had just used the word ‘nuisance’ in a sentence like it wasn’t weird. Oh well. “You ready for lights out?”
Shion nodded. “I’ll get the switch, I’m closer.” He hit the lights, and they both went to sleep pretty quickly, tired from a stressful move-in day and nervous about classes the next day.