Work Text:
Bdubs walks out of the campus library with an annoyed huff.
All the tables are being used by other students right now and in the back where they shelve the classics, where he normally sits on the floor to study, is a couple making out.
The brunet would go back to his dorm, but his roommate Scar is rewatching Starwars and Bdubs would rather not have to sit through the man’s commentary during their watch, again, even as he’s trying to do his work.
The college student decides to head down to the soccer field since it should just be the team practicing there, and relatively not a lot of people in the stands.
Bdubs gets there, easily finding a spot on the bleaches, pulling out his laptop and popping a pair of earbuds in, putting some music on as he goes through his text book, writing out some note for the homework he was assigned from one of his classes earlier that morning.
Bdubs is not really paying attention to the other students on the field, split apart into two teams, a dark blue pinnie and dark gray separating them.
He’s about 30 minutes into his work when he looks up from his computer.
His eyes land on the players, as he takes a break from his work, watching the team play against itself for practice.
The brunet notices himself staring at one player in particular more than the others.
The player that has caught Bdubs’ attention has long, pure white hair, pulled back in a ponytail so it’s not in his face as he plays. Speaking of face, on it he wears a black face mask, which is confusing since he’s currently playing a sport where there is a lot of running and movement involved, but to each their own.
The brunet does not notice as time slips by, his work long forgotten, computer closed and placed back in his bag as he watches the game.
He’s never really been into soccer, or sports in general, but this practice game has enthralled him.
“Heads up!” Someone shouts as the soccer ball goes flying into the bleachers over where Bdubs is sitting.
A brunet with a green streak in his hair stands on the field in a gray pinnie, looking like he’s the one to have accidentally kicked it that way.
The ball lands about two rows behind Bdubs, about three feet down.
The white haired player is already jogging up to the bleachers, climbing up them to retrieve the ball.
Bdubs can feel his heart pounding as the man gets closer.
He’s gorgeous.
Bdubs can’t see much of his face, but what he can see, makes his heart flutter.
“Sorry.” the man says, grabbing the ball, a Canadian accent in his voice.
“It’s g-uh, fine…uh…you guys are really good.” Bdubs says, cheeks tuning a little pink.
“Uh, thanks.” the man says, “I’ll tell Joel to try and not hit you again.” he says, winking at Bdubs with mismatched eyes before walking down the bleachers, soccer ball in hand.
When he gets back to the ground, he runs over to the man with brown and green hair, saying something to him before handing him the ball.
-⬘♡⬘♡⬘♡⬘-
Bdubs runs down the path to the building his class is in, arm up, trying to shield himself from the rain.
He accidentally slept in a bit this morning and if he does not hurry up, he’ll be late.
The brunet runs inside the campus building, panting as he races towards the room where he is supposed to be for his class.
He races down the hall, skidding to a stop right in front of his class door, quickly checking the time on his phone.
‘7:58’ looks back at him and he grins, just barely here on time.
He takes a deep breath, trying to make it look like he was in fact not sprinting across campus to get here.
After a few seconds, he opens the door, walking inside.
Thankfully, other students are still talking as their professor organizes her stuff.
Bdubs goes to sit down at his usual desk, but sees a shorter girl with red hair sitting there, chatting with a brown haired, taller girl.
Bdubs huffs in annoyance a bit, eyes looking over to find any other empty spots.
He finds one that’s both empty, and still next to the big windows against the other wall from the door he likes to sit next to.
Bdubs trots over there, sitting down right as the proposer clears her throat, signaling the start of their lesson.
The brunet pulls his laptop from his bag, opening up his notes before pulling a small smooth stone from his pocket to fidget with as his professor starts to talk about their gen-ed biology class the university assigned to them at the beginning of the year.
Bdubs does not notice the guy sitting next to him, hood up, mask over his mouth, mismatched eyes on the processor, but occasionally flicking to Bdubs.
At the end of the lecture, Bdubs sets his fidget rock down on the table in front of him, closing his laptop, putting it away in his bag.
Bdubs picks his rock back up, going to put it back in his jeans, but he misses his pocket and it drops to the floor.
The brunet leans down to pick it up, but the boy next to him picks it up instead, his pale skinned hand grabbing the small stone before Bdubs’s own can.
Bdubs sits up as the either man does, and the man hands him his stone, a smile on his face, hidden behind a black mask.
The brunet feels his heart flutter in his chest, cheeks dusting a light pink as he takes the rock from the man, their hands touching for only a second or two as he takes it, only causing his cheeks to get warmer, redder.
The man stands up before Bdubs can thank him, (or get his name, (or get his number)), walking down the row of chairs behind a long table, walking out of the classroom door, and out of their class.
Bdubs sits there, a little stunned.
That was the same man who retrieved the soccer ball that had gotten kicked at Bdubs only a few days ago.
-⬘♡⬘♡⬘♡⬘-
Bdubs walks down the hall to his class.
His heart is fluttering in his chest, a little anxious about now knowing that the guy from the soccer field is in his class.
Bdubs walks in, and surprisingly sees the same girl in his favorite spot again.
‘That’s fine, that’s okay’. He thinks, eyes scanning the empty seats, also surprising seeing the one he sat in a few days ago when he last had this class, empty again.
The brunet swallows the anxious feeling in his chest, going over to sit next to the white haired boy.
He sits down, eyes flicking over to the man a few times before he bites his bottom lip, making himself pull his laptop from his bag.
He opens up his notes for the class right as the professor clears her throat, “I would like you all to pull out a pen each, we will be having a pop quiz before I teach.”
‘I got this, I’m fine.’ Bdubs tells himself, he’s been studying, he knows this class, he just needs to grab a pen from his bag.
He reaches into his bag, digging around for the green, black inked, gel pen he keeps in his messenger bag.
But he can’t seem to find it.
That’s when he remembers, he let Scar borrow it so he could sign some papers, but forgot to get it back, and he never keeps extras in his bag like an absolute idiot.
He takes a breath, ‘it’s fine, it’s fine.’ he thinks, all he has to do is ask someone to borrow an extra…proublem is, nobody is sitting behind him, and the only other person near him that’s close enough he can easily get their attention is the white haired boy.
Bdubs turns, mustering up all his courage, tapping on the man’s shoulder.
The man turns to him, pulling his hoodie’s hood down, revealing his white hair, pulled up into a bun.
“C-can I perhaps borrow a pen from you?” Bdubs asks, ear burning, both from the embarrassment of having to ask for a pen when he should have his own, and the fact the man is looking at him with a goddamn beautiful face.
The man’s eyes crinkle at the corner like he’s smiling under the black face mask over his mouth and nose, “ ‘course you can.” he says, a canadian accent clear.
He grabs something from his bag and hands it to Bdubs, a thin black pen.
“Thank you.” Bdubs says, turning away.
The stack of quiz papers are passed to their row after a bit and Bdubs takes his, handing the rest of them to the man beside him.
Bdubs starts to take the quiz, writing down the answers as he goes, thankfully knows most of, to all of it.
When he’s down, he heads to the front, turning his paper in.
As he heads back, the white haired man stands up, turning in his own quiz.
When he sits back down, Bdubs gives him back his pen with a whisper, “Thank you…”
“Etho.” the man whispers back, a smile in his voice, “My name’s Etho.”
“Bdubs.” Bdubs whispers back, smiling back, his heart dancing as he turns back to his laptop, working on some homework he got yesterday while they wait for the professor to start the lecture.
-⬘♡⬘♡⬘♡⬘-
Etho closes the door to his dorm behind him.
A smile is on his face as he walks towards his bed.
He got to talk to the cute boy who’s been in his biology class today and finally learned his name.
Bdubs.
Etho drops his bag by his bed, flopping backwards onto it, staring up at the ceiling of his dorm room where a Canadian flag hangs, a love struck look in his eyes as he thinks about rich brown curls and chocolate eyes full of life.
“You okay mate?” Joel asks, pulling out an earbud from where he’s working on his computer, sitting in his own bed, Planetary (GO!) by My Chemical Romance distantly playing from the earbud, up just a little too loud.
“I’m fine.” Etho says, pulling down his mask to take a deep breath through his nose and out his mouth.
Joel raises an eyebrow at his best friend, “Suuuure.” he says, rolling his eyes, looking back at his screen, putting his ear bud back in.
Etho lets himself lay there for a few minutes more, allowing himself to indulge in the fluttering feeling, thinking of Bdubs makes in his chest, before he pulls himself up.
The white haired man sits up in his bed, mirroring Joel, grabbing his own laptop, pulling up some class work he has to get done from his classes he had today (though he barely paid attention in most of them (very unlike him) to busy thinking of chestnut locks, warm brown eyes, and a kind smile). If Etho is going to let himself go to the party Joel wants to go to tonight, he needs to get a good amount of his work done so he can study over the weakened, then hang with friends.
-⬘♡⬘♡⬘♡⬘-
Bdubs is sitting at his desk, working on an essay for one of his classes when his roommate, Scar, taps him on the shoulder.
Bdubs pauses his music, taking out his earbud, turning to look at the taller man.
“ ‘Dubs, are you going to the party tonight with me?” Scar asks.
“Uhhh…”, Bdubs bites his lip, looking away from Scar.
He’s not really a party person, all the music and people are too much for him, but he does need to get out, enjoy life.
“I’m sure there will be some cute girls and guys there.” Scar says with a sly smile, knowing Bdubs is single, but now knowing of his massive crush on the white haired boy, Etho.
“I, uh, I’ll go.” Bdubs says, closing his laptop, “But not because of the girls and boys.” he says, “I need to get out, live a little.”
“That's it!” Scar says, grinning wide, “Now we can help each other pick out outfits, I’ve had my eye on this one guy I ran into on campus last week and I’m hoping he’ll be there.” Scar says, walking towards his dresser, taking as he goes, “He’s really cute, dirty blond hair, nice laugh.”
Bdubs smiles, knowing Scar and his crush on the as he calls him ‘red sweatered man’.
-⬘♡⬘♡⬘♡⬘-
Bdubs knew this party was going to be a mistake.
He knew the second Scar pulled up to the party, parked his car and got out.
Scar had gone with an awning striped, button down shirt, tucked into blue jeans with a gold chain hanging from his left hip, a small clock charm hanging from it (Bdubs has the same charm on his messenger bag, something given to him by Scar when they first become roommates that became an inside joke between them).
Bdubs just threw on a white tee shirt and blue jeans, pulling on his favorite moss green hoodie.
As they are walking up to the house where the party is at, Bdubs can hear the music from outside, and see people everywhere.
He goes to ask Scar if he could get the car keys and sit there, but the easily distracted man runs off the second he sees someone he knows, a tall man with black hair and a small mustache.
Bdubs swallowed, he’s fine, he can do this.
-⬘♡⬘♡⬘♡⬘-
He can’t do this.
He had tried to socialize for around thirst minutes before it all became too much for him, the noise, the people, the lights, the smells, everything.
Bdubs had run down the hall where some bedrooms were, hoping he could hide in one till Scar was ready to go, but thought better of it when he heard sounds coming from inside.
His breath is coming in and out in ragged breaths and he is starting to cry, everything being too much for him at this moment.
He makes it to the stairs that lead upstairs, seeing a small spot below them that is empty except for a small wooden table there, covered in red silo cups, filled with various colored liquids.
The brunet curls up under the table, under the stairs, hiding like a small child, hiding in the corner as their parents fight.
Bdubs pulls his knees up to his chest, not wanting to have some trip over his short legs, and possibly have them scream at him, or at the very least be in their way.
His hands slide into his slightly curly brown hair, tugging on it, trying to ground himself as he breath in and out rapidly, face tingling as hot tears pour down his face, heart racing in his chest.
‘I should not have come, I should not have come, I should have not come,” he repeats softly with a trembling up, tugging at his hair, “I should not hav-”
“Hey, are you okay down there?”
Someone crouches down to Bdubs’ level, white hair falling delicately around their shoulders, red and gray eyes widening a little as they realize what’s going on.
“Do you want me to stay or go?” Etho asks, voice gentle, more gentle than the loud music.
Bdubs stares at him with red eyes, he does not want to be alone right now, he wants someone here, “S…s…st…ay.” he says between gasping breaths.
Etho gets down on his hands and knees, crawling closer, moving under the wooden table with Bdubs, “Do you know what’s happening?”
“N…No.” Bdubs says, gasping hair air, his heart pounding too hard.
“I think you're just having a panic attack, okay.” Etho says slowly, “I get them a lot, I find it helps with something or someone is distracting me, do you want that?” he asks in a slow and calming voice, opposite of their environment.
Bdubs nods his head, gasping for air as he does so.
Etho starts to talk to him, voice slow and even, “I was in 10th grade and my school had made it to the state championships for the school’s robotics program.” Etho says.
Bdubs tries to focus on Etho’s words, trying to think only about them and the man they are coming from, blocking out the chaos of the world around them.
Bdubs does not even notice as his breathing returns back to a more normal rate, his body relaxing a little more.
Eventually Etho stops, “Hey, how are you feeling?”
Bdubs wipes at his eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie, sniffling, “B-better, thank you.”
“You're welcome.” Etho hesitates before continuing, “Who did you come with?”
“My roommate, Scar, but he ran off with the car keys as soon as we got here.” Bdubs says, “I need to find him, he’s my ride.”
“I can take you home if you want.” Etho says, cheeks turning pink before he says, “I mean to your place.” he adjusts the mask over his nose, pulling it up a bit, fiddling with his hands in his lap after that, “My uh, my roommate said he was going to sleep over his girlfriends tonight so…I can leave whenever.”
“I would like that.” Bdubs says, “Thank you.”
-⬘♡⬘♡⬘♡⬘-
They both pile into Etho’s car.
Bdubs gives Etho his dorm building, and Etho laughs, “That’s the same as mine.”
Bdubs chuckles, “That’s funny.” he says, smiling.
“Do you want me to put music going before we go?” Etho asks.
Bdubs nods, “Sure.”
Etho connects his phone to the car’s speakers before playing a song on low.
Bdubs recognizes it, “Is that Arabella?”
“You know it?”
“I love Arctic Monkeys." Bdubs says, smiling,
Etho’s eyes crinkle, clearly smiling behind the black mask on his face, “Me too.”
The white haired man puts the car into reverse, putting his hand on the back of Bdubs’ seat, looking out the back window as he reverses.
Bdubs’ cheeks redden, heating up, ‘that’s really hot’ he thinks.
After he backs out of the parking spot, Etho sits back into the seat normally, putting the car into drive, starting to talk about his favorite song by the Arctic Monkeys.
-⬘♡⬘♡⬘♡⬘-
Bdubs gets out of Etho’s car with the white haired man.
They both walk towards the building a chilled gust of autumn wind blows past them as they walk through the night.
They get to the building, heading to the same excavator.
Etho chuckles as Bdubs pushes the button for the 3rd floor.
The taller man reaches forwards, pressing the bottom above it, 4th, "Seems like you're right below me.” he says, eyes slowly dragging up Bdubs, or at least Bdubs thinks they do, cheeks pink.
“Yup.” Bdubs says, swallowing, "isn't that funny.”
His heart flutter with want, he wants to kiss Etho, ask the man out, confess to him how much h-
Ding!
The doors of the elevator open up to Bdubs’ floor.
“Looks like this is my floor.” Bdubs says, laughing awkwardly, definitely a little flustered.
“I’ll see you around.” Etho says with a wink Bdubs misses as he steps off the elevator.
Bdubs waves back to Etho, “thank you for the ride.” right as the elevator doors are closing.
Once they close, Bdubs runs to his door, unlocking the door before running inside, locking it behind himself, and running to his bed, kicking off his shoes before collapsing into his bed, exhausted, not caring to change before bed.
‘Well today was interesting.’ he thinks, eyes fluttering closed, it was indeed a long day for him.
-⬘♡⬘♡⬘♡⬘-
Bdubs puts his stuff down on the desk, sitting down in the seat next to Etho the next Monday when they have their biology class again.
Etho pulls his hood down, smiling at the brunet through his mask, “Hey, how’d ya sleep Friday night?”
Bdubs wets his lips, looks Etho in his mismatched eyes, “Yeah, I did.” he says, smiling, “thanks for the ride.”
“No problem.” Etho says back, relaxing into the chair.
Their attention is pulled, taken to the front when the professor starts class.
-⬘♡⬘♡⬘♡⬘-
Their class is over, Bdubs is sitting next to Etho, packing up his things, getting ready for his next class.
Etho taps his finger against his left thigh, nervous, “Hey, Bdubs.”
Bdubs turns to look at him, chocolate brown eyes staring at heterocromic ones, “Yeah?”
“Do you want to swing by my dorm later and help me study for this class?” Etho asks, biting his lip under his mask, nervousness running throughout his whole body, “I’ve been falling behind a bit, and would appreciate some help.”
Bdubs’ lips part slightly as the shorter man thinks about Etho’s request.
“Uh…That sounds like fun.” he says, “I can help you, do…do you want my number so you can text me your dorm number?”
A smile tugs at Etho’s lips, “Uh, yeah.” he says, pulling out his phone, setting a new contact.
He hands Bdubs his phone and the shorter man punches in his number and name before handing it back.
“Well, I’d best be going.” Bdubs says, “I’ve got another class in ten minutes.”
“Me too.” Etho chuckles, “I’ll see you tonight," he says, sending Bdubs a quick text, “I’ll send you my dorm number later.”
He hears the shorter man’s phone ding with a text.
Bdubs stands up, “I’ll see you.” he says before walking towards the door.
Etho smiles to himself, adding a little heart next to Bdubs’ name, ‘<3 Bdubs’.
-⬘♡⬘♡⬘♡⬘-
Bdubs looks down at his phone as he pushes the button for the fourth floor.
‘Hey, this is Ethos :3’ stares back at him, right next to, ‘dorm room 163, knows when you're here’ right below it.
Bdubs takes a deep breath as the elevator goes up.
Nerves light up his body, ‘this is just a normal study session between friends, totally not anything more than that.’ he thinks, repeating it a few times in his head before the elevator door pops open with a ‘ding’.
Bdubs slowly walks down the hall, past dorm number ‘151, 153, 155’ all the way on the right till he sees ‘163’ stare back at him.
Bdubs slowly draws in a breath as he raises his fist to know.
He knocks 3 times, ‘Knocks, knock, knock’ before it opens.
“Hey, you're here.” Etho says, opening the door with a smile, “How was the trip?”
Bdubs smiles, chuckling, “Pretty short.” he says, grinning, “Your floor is literally above mine.”
“Oh yeah.” Etho says, cheeks dusting pink below his mask, “Uh…would you like to come in?” he asks, stepping aside to let the shorter man inside.
Bdubs walks in, finding the dorm is much cleaner then his own, not a random article of clothing haphazardly thrown around, not a single piece of trash on the floor by the waist basket.
Bdubs chuckles, looking around at the neatly made beds and clean desk, eyes landing on a messy one on the left side of the room, the same side that has a british flag handing above the bed, just like the Canadian one on the other side of the room, mirroring it, “One of you a neat freak?” he asks, eyeing Etho.
“Not really.” Etho says, cheeks reddening, “We just cleaned up over the weekend.” (which Bdubs could not tell was a lie, Etho had been madly cleaning the whole dorm for 2 hours before Bdubs showed up, all except Joel’s desk, he did not want to die, thank you very much).
“Ahh.” Bdubs says, “Oh uh, which bed’s yours?”
Etho’s ears turn red at that, but Bdubs’ back is to him so he does not notice.
“That one.” Ethos says, pointing to the one with the Canadian flag.
Bdubs walks over, setting his messenger bag down on it, sitting on the edge, pulling out a small stack of note cards from his bag, “Figured we could start with my study cards.”
Etho nods, walking over to his bed, sitting down on the edge.
Bdubs turns to look at him, holding up a card and reading it, “Which of the following happens last during mitosis? A: Microtubules emerge from the centrosomes, B: Tetrads form, or C: The sister chromatids separate.”
Etho twists the ring on his left middle finger, “Uh, C?”
Bdubs smiles at him, “That’s right! Now, Which of the following best describes the flow of energy through an ecosystem? A: Chemical energy enters, is converted to other forms of chemical energy, and is washed out of the ecosystem as medium-sized molecules, B: Sunlight energy enters, is converted to chemical energy and is released as heat, or, C: Sunlight energy enters, is converted to chemical energy then is permanently stored as fossil fuels.”
Etho wets his lips behind his mask, he knows this one too, “Uh…is it B?”
Bdubs nods again, “Yeah.” he says, pulling out the next card.
-⬘♡⬘♡⬘♡⬘-
This goes on for a few hours.
Etho ends up putting music going with a small speaker, gently playing in the background he puts a playlist of all Arctic Monkeys songs as they study.
Eventually, they start to joke around, smiling, laughing, enjoying each other's company as they study.
They’ve gotten through all of Bdubs’ note cards twice now when Etho gets up, “Do you want a granola bar or something to eat?”
Bdubs smiles, “Sure.”
Etho throws him one from the cabinet by his bed.
Bdubs catches it, opening it and taking a bite as Etho walks back to his bed, pulling down his mask as he sits down, biting into his own bar.
He catches himself looking at Etho as he eats because he’s more gorgeous than Bdubs thought.
“Bdubs…” Etho says, throwing his wrapper into the trash can by the head of his bed, “You're staring at me.”
The brunet’s eyes are indeed looking at him, watching as his lips move as he talks.
“Bdubs?”
Bdubs talks before he can think about what he’s saying, “You really pretty, Etho.”
Etho’s eyes widen a little, cheeks darkening, “Uh…” he says, unconsciously wetting his lips with the tip of his tongue.
Bdubs feels blush creep up his cheeks and ears as he realizes what he just said.
He swallows, clearing his throat, looking away from Etho, “I-I’m sorry, I just…” he’s looking at the floor now, anxiety gripping his chest at the same time his heart pounds, blushing making his face hot, “I like you.”
He feels Etho shift his weight beside him before the white haired man speaks, “I like you too.” he says.
Bdubs looks up, looking him in the eyes, seeing honesty in them.
He feels drawn closer to Etho, pulled in by his loving eyes and warm smile.
Etho leans in closer to him, waiting with bated breath.
Bdubs closes the short distance between them, connecting their lips gently.
It’s slow and gentle, hesitant and new. Bdubs enjoys it.
When they part, it’s with red cheeks and loving eyes.
Etho clears his throat, “So I guess I owe you a proper date now.”
“I like that idea.”