Chapter Text
It was a dark, cold, and windy friday evening, near the end of the first term at Welton. The poets, along with the rest of their class had just got done with P.e. Which, to Todd's dismay meant that they had to shower. Much like the beginning of the year, he still sat and waited until everyone got done for him to begin. Sitting in the changing room, he zoned out, and thought about what their teacher had said. He had talked about how the next section they're doing revolves around dancing, in preparation for the big school dance at the end of this semester. Todd was almost sure that everyone could feel the uncomfortableness that oozed from him while the teacher talked. Their professor also mentioned that the dance was mandatory, and unless you were sick you had to go. Todd didn't really understand what they meant by that, "what are they going to do if I lock myself in the dorm?" he had asked Neil as they exited the hall. Neil had not answered him, just a small chuckle and a smile. That was okay by Todd, at least Neil had heard him. Which was not an easy thing to do, he learnt that fast. His first month just consisted of people saying "can you repeat that?", "what did you say?" and "speak up, Todd". But as fast as Todd learnt that he was hard to hear, Neil made an effort to quiet everyone down when Todd talked. It was a small act, maybe the bare minimum, but it still made Todd look at Neil with a softness he did not have for the others. Speaking of Neil, there he was again, snapping his fingers at Todd, just like he did the first P.e lesson. When Todd was zoned out and Neil wanted to know if he would come to the meeting that night. Todd looked up, meeting Neil's gaze, he realized that everyone else had gone now.
"Wrapped in your thoughts' again?" He asked.
"Uh, yeah, I guess so" Todd answered looking away, laying his eyes upon the floor again. "I should shower."
"Sure would hope so" Neil grinned, adverting his eyes from Todd to the door, then Todd again. He tapped him on his shoulder, so they had eye contact once more. "What do you think about the dance?"
"Not really my thing, I think I'm going to pretend to be sick" he sighed, looking at Neil "what do you, um, think about it?"
"Wait, first off, you can't pretend to be sick, Todd. I refuse to go there alone with the rest of the group, you're like the only one i can bear to be around in such environments. And second-"
"Am I the only one you can bear to be around at a dance? I don't even do anything? The most I've done at any dance ever has been to walk to the bathroom in order to get away from all the noise." Todd was in disbelief, he had always thought that Neil loved all the motion and action of a dance or a party. Sure, he had mainly been with Todd every time they were served alcohol or it started to get hectic.
"Exactly" Neil said with a smile, "have you seen Charlie under the influence? He gets very, very excited and up-beat, more than usual. And I cannot handle that..Then he falls and breaks something, or hurts himself, which i have to take care of." He added the last part with a sigh and an eye-roll. Which made Todd laugh a bit.
"Yeah, yeah, understandable." He then answered. "I still don't think I'm going to go though, Neil. I'm sorry, but places like that..." He adverted his eyes, looking down at his fidgeting hands.
"What if I change your mind?" Neil said, it seemed like he really wanted Todd to go with him, like that first meeting of the dead poets society. Which made Todd flush a bit.
"Oh, Neil, please." Todd chuckled.
"What?"
"What are you boys still doing in the changing rooms?!" A man's voice sounded, but it was not their sports teacher, "I believe your physical education lesson ended for close to thirty minutes ago!" he yelled from the opposite side of the door.
"My apologies, sir." Neil said, "Our teacher wanted to keep us in the hall to help clean up, we are soon done!"
"You better be telling the truth, young man." Neither Neil nor Todd could come up with who the man on the other side might be.
"Yes, sir"
They listened as the man's footsteps slowly got quieter. Todd looked at Neil with awe, even though he knew that Neil was an actor it was always so fascinating watching him being able to switch between being normal Neil and actor Neil. If Todd had been alone, he would probably just have frozen and stayed quiet until the teacher gave up.
"Oh, I hadn't realized that we were here for so long" Neil said, puzzled.
"Eh, me neither" Todd agreed, "I really need to shower now, if I want any dinner at all. You should probably, uhm, get going too."
"No, it's only fair if I wait for you, I mean, I held you back." Neil argued, "but I can wait in our dorm if that's more comfortable for you."
"Uh, yes, sure. If you want to" Todd said. He had never really grasped the appropriate response to when someone insists on doing something for you. Even if, in this case, he kinda wanted Neil to wait. The taller of the two nodded and made his way out of the changing room.
It took Todd around 20 minutes to shower, get dressed and gather his things before making his way towards their dorm. When he made it inside Neil was there as promised.
"There you are" He welcomed him.
"yeah, yeah" Todd mumbled, he threw his gym wear on his bed.
They made their way down to the others shortly after, laughing about something their professor had said.
"Look who's here!" Charlie exclaimed when he saw the two. Neil did an extravagant wave which made Todd look at him with mild concern. "Where have you been?" He continued when they were a bit closer to the table.
"Just waited on Anderson so he'd be spared walking down here alone" Neil answered.
"And that took fifty minutes?!" Charlie's gaze switched between the two, "You really need to get a move on, Todd." He added sarcastically.
Todd looked up at the mention of his name.
"I, uh, yeah" He managed to say. He shot Neil a glance, hoping to get him to help. Which did not go unnoticed by Charlie.
"Or was that really what you did?" He questioned.
"Oh please, Charlie. What are you suggesting? I also tried convincing him to go to the dance, because you turn into such a fool when you drink, and i do not want to be a part of that." Neil answered, the other poets started to snicker at the last part, Todd was grateful that the attention had been turned to someone else.
"Defensive much, Perry?" Charlie shot back, delighted to finally get a reaction. Neil just rolled his eyes.
The rest of the dinner went by quickly and smoothly. Apart from some flying comments from charlie.
When back in their dorm, Todd and Neil conversed about the weird beginning of dinner. They both agreed that it was totally normal for them to stay late, just the two of them, talking. After all they do that in their dorm a lot, late nights, when neither could seem to fall asleep, they would talk. About anything and everything. They both cherished those nights dearly, though they would never admit it to the other. A while later, and after another one of those nights. Both of them fell asleep.