Work Text:
“Move.”
Jesper glanced up at Kaz from his spot at the dining room table. He had been trying to come up with a design for his metalworking class, but was so far unsuccessful. But Kaz didn’t know that. For all Kaz knew, the incredibly rough sketch of a jurda blossom on the page in front of him was Jesper’s greatest work.
“Lovely to see you as well, Kaz,” Jesper grumbled, pulling his work toward himself to make room for Kaz to sit down across from him.
Kaz lifted a hand, very elegantly flipping Jesper off before pulling out a tiny notebook from seemingly nowhere and glaring down at it.
Jesper stared at him, one eyebrow raised, for a long moment, trying to decipher what could possibly be going on. Just as he was working up the courage to ask, the front door opened and Nina came sailing in, Inej and Matthias in tow.
“Guess who lost a game of chess,” Nina crowed. Kaz visibly bristled, turning his cold gaze away from the notebook and onto her.
“Why are you in my home, Zenik,” Kaz said, not so much of a question as a dismissal. Seeing Kaz emote so much, albeit angrily, had taken Jesper aback so much that only now did he comprehend what Nina said.
“I live here too, Brekker.”
“Wait, Kaz lost a game of chess?” Jesper asked in awe. Kaz immediately whipped around to look at Jesper, who raised his hands in surrender. “Sorry! I’m just shocked!”
“He lost to a first year,” Matthias put in, a little bit too gloating for someone usually so stoic. Clearly they were all reveling in Kaz’s defeat. It was so rare to see.
“We don’t know how old he was,” Inej said, ever the peace-keeper, but Nina shook her head emphatically.
“Oh no, he’s a first year. I had Math 340 with him last semester.”
“Why is a freshman in a 300 level math course?” Jesper asked, but no one else seemed interested in that topic.
“I don’t remember his name because he was super quiet, but I don’t think he ever missed a question on an exam. He always destroyed the curve for the rest of us,” Nina finished.
“Yeah, and he destroyed Kaz at chess,” Matthias said, chest puffed out in pride as Nina reached up and high-fived him.
“He did not destroy me,” Kaz snapped. “It was a very close game. I took his queen and-“
“And you lost.” Nina looked far too pleased by this, but Jesper couldn’t blame her. It was nice to see his usually emotionless friend a little ruffled, especially by something that mattered so little in the long run.
Kaz stood abruptly from the table, slamming the notebook shut and swiftly exiting the room.
“You’ll get him next time!” Nina called after him, but Kaz was already gone, his cane thumping its way up the stairs to his room.
“Maybe we were a bit hard on him,” Matthias said once Kaz had left, but Nina just scoffed from where she was rummaging through their cupboard.
“He’s hard on us every day. Jesper forgot to switch his laundry two weeks ago and Kaz still hasn’t put him back on the schedule,” she said. Jesper nodded. He was still lugging his clothes all the way down to the coin laundry a block away.
“Humility is a good trait for men to have, but sometimes they must learn it the difficult way,” Inej said. She had perched on the counter, holding a mug of tea between her hands, which made Jesper do a double-take. When had she made tea?
“So who was this kid?” Jesper asked, turning back to Nina. “The one that beat Kaz.”
“I don’t remember his name, which makes me feel like a dick, but he didn’t talk much in class,” Nina said. She took a bite of a cookie, thinking. “Nice guy, though.”
“He looked very frightened when he won,” Matthias offered, which made Jesper snort.
“That’s not surprising. I’m sure Kaz threatened to kill him if he ever showed his face at chess club again,” Jesper said, then paused. “Wait, KU has a chess club? And people actually go?”
“It’s in the south library every Wednesday,” Inej said.
Jesper grinned.
“Oh, I know what I’m doing next Wednesday.”
———
Which is how Jesper found himself navigating the cramped, bookshelf lined hallways of the south library after class the next week. The north library closer to the center of campus was much nicer, with computers from this century and working air conditioning, but the south library had its charm.
The five of them had been south library regulars during their first year (Matthias’ second), always coming after classes to get homework done. But as Jesper’s classes became more hands-on, he stopped coming, needing to spend more time in the architecture and art buildings to get work done. But his friends apparently continued to go, and chess club became a part of their routine. Every Wednesday, without fail, Kaz would beat some poor sap in chess like it was the easiest thing in the world, then go back to studying.
But not last week.
According to Nina (who had given him a full play-by-play of what happened while at lunch the next day), Kaz had won two matches and was about to get back to studying when a new kid sat down across from him. Whereas most of the other chess players constantly had an obnoxiously smug face (Nina’s words, not Jesper’s), this kid had looked ready to bolt. And then they’d played, and, after a while, the kid called checkmate. Kaz got up, shook the kid’s hand, and never returned to studying.
Jesper was hoping that this week’s match would be equally as exciting.
Of course, he was banking on the kid actually showing up again. If Jesper had been at the receiving end of one of Kaz’s death glares, he probably never would’ve returned.
Jesper finally made it to the basement study room, where chess club apparently met. Nina, Inej, and Matthias were already hunkered down on the couches just a few feet away from a long table with chess boards set up, games already started. Kaz was nowhere to be seen.
“Did Kaz bail?” Jesper dropped onto the couch beside Inej, tugging his scarf off. The snow was starting to come down outside, but not too hard yet.
“No, he’ll be here,” Inej reassured him.
“He loves to make a dramatic entrance,” Nina said with a wink.
As if on cue, the elevator let out a discordant ding! and the door slid open, revealing Kaz in all his melodramatic glory.
“Who wears a trench coat to class?” Jesper heard Nina mutter.
Kaz walked out of the elevator like he had all the time in the world, strolling over to the chess table and sitting in front of an unoccupied board. All of the other players paused in their games and their chattering to look at him. For a long moment, no one sat across from him.
Just when Jesper was about to decide that this was too boring (which he should’ve expected from chess club), the door to the stairwell opened, and a boy walked out. He was absolutely bundled up in winter gear, but his cheeks were still flushed red from the cold. He took off the many outer layers he was wearing, folding them neatly and placing them on one of the old leather loveseats in the corner, revealing an incredibly thick knitted sweater beneath.
Sky blue with little sheep, Jesper thought, watching the kid tug off his beanie, letting ruddy blonde curls out. Oh. Jesper was staring.
The kid glanced around the room, nervously looking at the chess table, rubbing his hands together in front of him. His gaze caught Jesper’s for a moment. Obviously, Jesper grinned at him. The boy’s flush doubled, and he quickly turned to walk to the chess table, apparently finding a game of chess with Kaz to be less intimidating than a flirty smile from a man.
He sat down across from Kaz, reaching across the table to shake his gloved hand. Jesper realized that he no longer heard typing from his friends, and turned to find them all watching as well.
“Wait, is that the kid? That beat Kaz?”
Matthias nodded, eyes trained on both of them. Inej only seemed partially interested, and Nina had her phone out, probably hoping to get Kaz’s loss on video.
Now, Jesper did not claim to understand chess. He knew what the pieces did and how to win the game, but he didn’t understand the strategy at all. He’d grown up playing Kaelish Rat Slap and Red Light, Green Light. Not stuffy merch games like chess or gin rummy. But from the limited understanding he had, the kid was losing.
It was honestly disappointing to watch. Matthias had gone back to studying, and even Nina had started scrolling on her phone rather than recording. Other games had ended and the players were either leaving or just chatting. Jesper sighed and leaned back in his chair, intent on taking a nap.
He must have drifted off, lulled to sleep by the soft sounds of pages being turned and chess pieces tapping against the board, because some amount of time later, Jesper was jolted awake by a single word in the otherwise quiet library.
“Checkmate.”
Spoken in the most lilting, posh accent Jesper had ever heard. He turned around and saw the boy sitting across from Kaz, a flush high on the apples of his cheeks.
“Damn. I missed it,” Jesper heard Nina murmur.
Kaz was staring at the board, and though his expression was a carefully schooled as always, Jesper could see a frown tugging at the corners of his lips.
The two of them sat like that for a long moment, Kaz studying the game and the boy looking increasingly nervous, when Nina suddenly stood.
“You lost, Kaz,” she said. The boy startled and Kaz’s head whipped around to glare at her. “Give it up.”
The kid began to move, standing and tucking his chair in, murmuring what might’ve been a soft, “Good game.” Kaz looked back at him, nodding curtly, and then walked away briskly, forgoing the elevator to take the stairs, probably to leave faster.
Sore loser, Jesper thought.
Jesper’s friends all began to chatter behind him, settling back into their studying or messing around, if you were Nina, but he barely registered it. Instead, Jesper kept watching the boy as he quietly cleaned up after Kaz, resetting the chess board with long, nimble fingers.
Without really thinking about it, Jesper stood and walked over to him.
“That was a good game,” he said. The boy’s head snapped up to look at him, and- Saints. His eyes were the most crystal clear blue Jesper had ever seen.
“Ah, thank you,” the boy said, ducking his head as a flush crept up his cheeks once more. “I got lucky though. He’s a much better player than me.”
“Clearly not, since you’ve beaten him twice. I don’t know much about chess, but that doesn’t seem like luck.”
Jesper was pleased to see a smile inch its way onto the boy’s lips. He shrugged casually, but his voice was a little stronger, a little prouder, when he spoke again.
“Maybe not.”
He finished resetting the board, straightening the pieces so that it looked almost picture-perfect, like an advertisement for a chess board.
“I’m Wylan.”
Jesper’s gaze jumped from where he’d been shamelessly staring at the boy’s hands to his face. He wasn’t quite meeting Jesper’s eyes, looking far too nervous.
“Jesper. Pleasure to meet you,” he said.
“Are you a friend of Kaz’s?” The boy, Wylan, asked.
“I don’t know if he would call me a friend, but I’d say so, yeah. He’s my roommate,” Jesper said, propping his hip against the chess table.
“Sounds like a fun living situation.”
“Keeps things interesting, that’s for sure. You should’ve seen him last week. He came home from chess club all grumpy because he lost to some first year,” Jesper said, voice teasing. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
Wylan ran a hand through his hair with a nervous laugh. “In his defense, I’m a second year in credits.”
“Doesn’t count. I’m never going to let him live down his loss to an eighteen year old,” Jesper said.
“Nineteen,” Wylan corrected. “Winter birthday.”
“Still.”
“And how old are you?” Wylan challenged. “To act like nineteen is so young.”
“Twenty-one. Summer birthday.”
“You’re a third year?” Wylan asked.
“Nah. I took a gap year before university. Had to figure some things out,” Jesper said, and admitting it didn’t make him feel as embarrassed as it once had. He had a good therapist and better friends to thank for that.
“Figuring things out is good,” Wylan agreed, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I like your sweater,” Jesper blurted, reaching out to tug on Wylan’s wooly blue sleeve. Wylan blushed (again. Jesper was worried he was going to pass out), eyes not leaving Jesper’s face.
“My mum knitted it for me when I was little.”
“You must not have grown much.”
Wylan rolled his eyes, swatting Jesper’s hand away from where he’d still been toying with the sleeve. “She made it so I could grow into it.”
Jesper hummed like he was considering the validity of that statement, before nodding. “She sounds like a smart lady.”
Wylan smiled softly, fingers curling into the soft wool around his arms. “She was."
Jesper felt that familiar tug in his chest that he always felt when mothers were brought up, but for once, it felt like maybe he wasn’t the only one who felt it.
“My ma was brilliant too. Didn’t knit me any sweaters, but she could mend a roof like no other,” he said. It’s a horrible thing to share, the loss of a mother, but Jesper couldn’t help but feel as though this boy could understand the draw to someone else who understood the feeling.
“Mothers tend to be smart, don’t they?” Wylan said. And when had he moved closer?
Jesper took a deep breath. Wylan smelled of orange zest and cinnamon. This close to him, Jesper could see the freckles dotted across his face.
“This is maybe the most depressing flirting I’ve ever done in my life,” Jesper admitted, and Wylan laughed, ducking his head down.
“It’s a bit sad, yeah,” he said. “Maybe we could talk about something a little happier next time?”
Jesper grinned. “I know a coffee shop just off campus that makes for some great conversations. Very happy, I can assure you.”
Wylan smiled, small and still a bit nervous. He opened his mouth to say something before a voice interrupted.
“Excuse me, are you using that board?”
They both turned to see an annoyed looking man watching them, tapping his foot against the ground. His glare was almost as scathing as Kaz’s.
“No, sorry,” Wylan said, scrambling to move out of the way, grabbing Jesper’s wrist to tug him along with him.
They moved over to the chair Wylan had dropped his stuff in earlier. He looked down, seeming to realize that he was still holding on to Jesper. Wylan let go, that wonderful blush back in full force.
’Blush’ is going to be a much more common word in my vocabulary if this goes right, Jesper thought happily.
“Sorry,” Wylan said, looking embarrassed.
“Not a problem, love.” Blushing again.
Oh, this would be fun.
“Let me give you my phone number, yeah? We can arrange a time to meet. And talk about happy things, of course,” Jesper offered, hoping that this wouldn’t end here. Wylan was sharp and sweet and interesting, and he wanted to see him again, in all his sheep sweater glory.
Much to Jesper’s delight, Wylan dug an old looking phone from his back pocket, passing it to Jesper. He entered his number with a heart next to his name.
Wylan started putting his layers of clothes back on, and only then did Jesper realize how worn they were. His coat looked like it had been nice once, but had been beaten down by the elements over time. His gloves were knitted in a similar shade of blue to his sweater, which made Jesper assume they were also from Wylan’s mother. The whole ensemble made him look wonderfully cozy, and Jesper couldn’t help but reach out and zip Wylan’s jacket all the way to his chin.
“I’ll see you around sometime, yeah?” Jesper said. Wylan nodded, smiling that shy smile once more. “Stay warm, Wylan.”
“You too, Jesper.”
With that, Wylan turned and walked back the way he entered, climbing up the stairs to the main floor of the library. Jesper stared as he went, unable to tear his eyes away even after Wylan’s bright hair had disappeared from sight.
“Get some, Jes!”
Jesper spun around at the sound of Nina’s whooping voice, far too loud for the library. The other occupants in the room glared at her, but Jesper couldn’t help but grin.
He had a date to look forward to.