Chapter Text
Dan was upset. He should be for many reasons in fact and rightly so. It was his second semester at college and frankly nothing had gone right. He’d been told that none of his classes could be changed, so all of them were bloody early in the morning, half of his things wouldn’t arrive until next week due to a problem with shipping from his parents and now some idiot had tried to overcharge him for a simple burger. Dan had only been on the campus for twenty minutes and he was already done with the semester.
As he headed over to the dorms where he was going to stay he dreaded talking to the RA. Last year, this particular RA had forced him to go to their ‘floor party’ which was the fancy pushover term for ‘you aren’t getting laid so come on anyway’. Maybe this time would be different. Dan looked down at his room assignment and noticed that it was empty. He had applied for it last minute due to his family going last minute to India for Christmas (who does that?) but hopefully he’d have a room or he was purely out of luck.
Once at the RA’s desk, Dan cleared his throat to get the attention of anyone who would talk to him. A short fat brown haired gentlemen turned around and rolled his eyes at Dan.
“Can I help you?” He nearly growled out.
“Yes. I was here last year and my room assignment is empty. I’m guessing that I do have a room since I did fill out paperwork for it though.”
“Empty?”
“Yes. See?” Dan handed him the small paper, showing the other guy that he wasn’t exactly insane.
“Interesting….well we only have one room open and that’s because his roomie dropped out.”
“Dropped out?” Dan asked, raising an eyebrow. This university was hard to get into so dropping out was rather uncommon.
“Yes, dropped out. Left, decided not to come here, isn’t taking classes---”
“I get it. So what room?” He interrupted getting slightly annoyed.
“105. Down the hall to the left.”
Dan picked up his bags, or what he actually had with him anyway, and started heading down the hall. That guy had been a total weirdo and the last thing he needed was for him to be their RA. All he hoped was that his new roommate was normal.
‘Room 105’ and underneath it where the two names for the people living there was the sloppy handwriting of whoever was behind that door: ‘Phil Lester’
Dan didn’t know if he should knock or just walk in, not knowing what he was about to find. But he decided since this was technically where he was going to live, he could just walk in with no problems. So he did.
The room was incredibly small for two people. It had two beds, two desks, and one window. Dan smiled to himself thinking it was somewhat similar to a jail cell, only slightly fancier. ‘Phil’ whoever he was had claimed the right side due to the green and blue duvet already covering the mattress. He had to give Phil props for the Muse poster next to the bed, put up with tape due to the ‘do NOT put nails in the wall’ strict rule. Maybe they would have something in common after all. Dan put the small amount of things he had on his mattress and looked at the dull walls. It was already late afternoon and he was getting hungry. Decorating would come second to food as always. Fishing out his dining card, he headed out to the cafeteria.
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At the cafeteria, Dan went straight for his favorite section (also the only real edible part of this college food): the waffles. He didn’t mind having breakfast for lunch or dinner, as long as there was good maple syrup. With his bad day he could use a sugar rush and there was no where better than to down some carbs with pure syrupy goodness.
Dan got his plate full of his favorite breakfast meal and looked around the cafeteria. As school hadn’t even started yet, it was relatively empty. He had either the choice to sit alone or find the random stranger and try to make a friend. Dan nearly laughed and sat in the corner, wanting some internal peace. It almost worked.
“I thought I was the only one obsessed with waffles!” He tried to ignore the voice, hoping it wasn’t talking to him. But there definitely was a man standing next to him, and surely enough a tray with a plate filled with waffles doused in syrup was placed on the table right next to his. Dan looked up and saw just who had disturbed his silence. “I love waffles and apparently you do too by the amount of syrup you have on your plate. We will probably end up diabetic.”
“Mhm…”
“Don’t talk much huh.” The man said. Dan eyed him, almost daring him to walk away but unfortunately he just sat down and started eating the almost identical meal. “That’s okay. I just finished unpacking and I got so hungry. What’s your name anyway?” Dan would have refused to give away any information like that but making enemies this early was a bad idea so he gave up.
“Dan. Yours?”
“Phil.”
“Phil that likes waffles. Good to know.”
“Dan as in Daniel? Cool. I’m here 2nd year for English and Linguistics,” Phil paused and took a bite. “Don’t know what I’m gonna do after uni but it’s a start, you know?”
“Yeah.” They talked about a few school topics, teachers Phil had found to avoid and general tips that he could give. While Dan found this all to be very helpful, he was glad that him and Phil would not be hanging out on a regular basis. They just didn’t seem to have much in common and Phil seemed unnaturally happy.
Once finished with their sugar enthused dinners, they got up to ‘go separate ways’. Dan headed towards to dorm only to find Phil right behind him. He kept looking behind him, at first only thinking maybe Phil actually lived in the dorms but in one nearby. Two thirds of the way there, it hit him. The name plate he had seen his other flatmate and he stopped dead in his tracks, nearly causing Phil to collide in him.
“Are you Phil Lester?”
“Um yeah. How do you know my last name?” Phil asked, tilting his head a bit.
“Oh my god. You’re my freaking new roommate.”
“What? How do you know that? I unpacked my things and he hadn’t even moved in yet!”
“Because I saw your name on it and I was there of course.” They paused, letting the information sink in.
“Hi. I’m Phil and I like waffles. Nice to meet you.” Phil extended a hand to which Dan shook.
“Nice to meet you too Phil.”