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“You got another ‘D?’” Riz asked incredulously, staring at a paper full of red marks.
“Yeah, I guess my head just wasn’t in the game,” said the jock next to him.
“It was a test, not a game,” Riz growled.
“Same thing.” the jock grinned. His lone silver eye gleamed mischievously, and Riz couldn’t help but notice his dimples when he smiled like that.
“N… no, not ‘same thing!’” the nerd stammered. “In a game, you’ve got teammates, but in a test you’re alone – and that is not an invitation for you to cheat!”
“Well, from now on I’ll consider you my teammate, so help me out some more.” The other teen playfully nudged the goblin as he said it, and Riz had to turn his head so the other teen wouldn’t see him blush.
The jock was the most popular kid in school and captain of the bloodrush team, Fabian Aramais Seacaster. A wealthy half-elf who had ambitions of college and professional sports, he had recently been having a slump in some areas of his studies and was coming to Riz for help to get his grades up, lest he fail and be unable to continue playing bloodrush. Riz had been offering tutoring lessons since the beginning of senior year in order to earn extra money for college, and Fabian had been the first (and only) person to sign up for his services. It was a little strange, Riz thought, that shortly after he began his tutoring with Fabian, all other inquiries into his services stopped and the posters he put up were being torn down almost immediately. He would definitely have to look into this bullying, but he was spending so much time with Fabian that he barely had time for anything else.
Fabian was a very demanding client, Riz found. When he wasn’t practicing bloodrush, he was having Riz come by for a study session, even insisting that he stay for dinner or overnight so they could stay up late and quiz him on equations or practice sword fighting or learning new bard spells. He would have Riz come by all weekend just because he was stumped on a problem, and then, when Riz finally got him to understand it, he’d invite Riz to watch a movie or hang out by his pool. Riz had time, and Fabian insisted on paying him by the hour no matter what, so it wasn’t that bad, but it was really odd all the same. Especially because he knew that Fabian was really smart. So why was he constantly failing his tests and coming back to Riz time and time again?
“Fabian,” Riz said. “Help me out here, because I’m at a loss.”
“Hm?” Fabian stretched his arms up and out, and then hooked one casually over Riz’s shoulders so he could lean in and look at him.
That was another thing about Fabian. He was very… well… he was a very… close-up person. He liked sitting close to Riz and was always draping his arms over him and leaning in. Riz wondered if he needed glasses or had trouble hearing but was too proud to admit it, though he never saw him squinting or asking people to repeat things. It added an air of mystery around him.
“Why is it that you’re acing all your homework and projects, but you’re failing your exams?”
“Oh. Well. I guess my mind just freezes up during tests.”
“That’s no good. You’re going to fail at this rate.”
“Nah, I’ll get there. I know it.”
“Fabian, I don't know. I’m looking at your cumulative scores and it’s not looking good. Your test average is just too low. If you don’t pass the midterms, you really are going to be in danger of not graduating.”
Fabian set his jaw and moved off of Riz. He sat back on his bed that the two were sitting on and let his legs dangle off the edge. He began to idly kick them.
“Maybe if I had more incentive to pass the tests,” he mused.
“What? What kind of incentive do you need? Isn’t your plan to go to Bastion U as a bloodrush player and then go pro? That’s what you’ve been saying for half a year so far!”
“Yeah…” Fabian said dismissively. “But things change…”
“That’s too big of a change this close to your goal, Fabian.”
“Well, what about you? What are you going to do when you graduate?”
“I’m going to Bastion U. Going to study criminology and keep adventuring.”
Fabian sat up. “Same school, huh?”
“Yeah. IF you graduate, that is.”
“Well then, how about this? If I pass my midterms, you promise to be my roommate at Bastion U.”
Riz blinked in confusion. “Wh… what kind of incentive is that?”
“One that will work for me. So you can keep tutoring me in college. I’ll keep paying, of course.”
“I, uh…”
“I’ll pay for the housing, too. I just need my tutor by my side.”
“Um…” Riz’s head was spinning. This made no sense. “...Why me?” he asked weakly.
“Because you’re a great tutor. And a good friend.”
“...Friend?” Riz squeaked. The tip of his tail twitched nervously. Outside of his babysitter, he’s rarely had anyone but Adaine – the girl in the AV club – consider him a friend before, let alone call him one.
“Yeah. We hang out all the time, don’t we? Doing friend stuff. So we can keep doing that in college. Those are my terms. Promise me you’ll be my roommate and I’m sure I’ll ace those tests.”
“I’ve, um… got to think about this. A little.” Riz stammered out.
“Oh, yeah, go for it. Can I touch your tail while you think it over?”
“My tail?”
“Yeah, it looks so nice. Wish I had one.”
“Um… thanks? And, I guess you can…”
“Thanks,” Fabian smiled again and once more Riz felt his face go warm. He tried to think about why Fabian would want to room with him in college, but then suddenly Fabian was running his hands up and down his tail, fingers dragging along the bones and triggering a portion of Riz’s brain that felt like an enormous itch was being scratched. The half-elf’s fingers expertly massaged his tail, moving towards its base, and Riz felt his brain turning into a puddle of goo.
“Blurg…” Riz managed, to Fabian’s amusement.
“So, what do you think about my proposal?” asked Fabian, and suddenly Riz realized that he was in no shape to bargain.
“We… we’re going to have to set some… uh… ground r-rules…” Riz said, trying not to go catatonic from how good Fabian’s fingers felt.
“Oh? Like what?”
“Um… I’d prefer if you don’t bring any dates over… or if you do, be quiet?”
Fabian chuckled, a joke Riz didn’t get, apparently. “That won't be a problem.”
“Um? Okay?”
“Anything else?”
Riz did his best to think. He had an opportunity to bargain, here, and he really shouldn’t let it go to waste, but ohhhh, that tail massage felt so good.
“Buy me coffee sometimes?”
“Is that it?”
“And give me more tail massages.”
“Oh, you drive a hard bargain,” Fabian said coyly. “You’ve got a deal.”
Riz smiled, and then wondered why he had a nagging feeling that he had just been hoodwinked.
Three weeks later when Fabian passed all his tests with perfect scores, Riz was certain that he had been hoodwinked. As he looked over the papers, wishing he could find a mistake that the teachers missed, he swished his tail around in agitation, and pulled his ears flat against his head.
“Hey, what’s with the bad attitude?” asked Fabian, once more putting his arm over Riz’s shoulder to study his test scores.
“It’s just… unbelievable…how you managed to turn your scores around so quickly.” Riz glanced sideways at the half-elf, giving him a suspicious glare.
“I’ve got a great tutor who knows how to motivate me,” Fabian said with a dazzling grin.
“Well, with grades like these, I feel like I’m not needed.”
Fabian’s grin dropped immediately.
“Don’t say that,” he intoned, dead serious. “I can’t do this without you.”
“Oh really? Because I really feel like you can. I looked into your past grades and you’ve been a star student! Why on earth do you need a tutor??”
“Senior year hit different…” Fabian mumbled. “I… couldn’t handle the stress.”
“Mmm-hmm. I’m sure of it.” Riz pushed himself out of Fabian’s arm. “Well, I won’t accuse you of cheating,” and Riz was glad to see that Fabian didn’t look guilty with that word thrown around, “but I feel cheated. I’m not sure why you decided to hire me, but consider your tutoring finished!”
“But-!”
“And forget about any promises made. I’m not going to put up with someone who just wants to play me for a fool.” Riz stood up, tossed the papers at Fabian, and stormed out of the room (as best as someone three and a half feet tall can storm), leaving Fabian sitting flabbergasted on his bed.
The next day at school, Riz pointedly avoided anywhere that Fabian might be. Sure, he was going to hurt financially from dropping his tutoring with Fabian, but he could find more people to help, like some lower classmen. He printed out new fliers and started putting them up around school again, keeping an eye out for whoever might be tearing them down. But as he made his way to the library to put up a couple, something caught his eye: tutoring posters. For him. That he definitely didn’t make. They looked… better, to be honest. They were more eye-catching and had all the information in an easy-to-read layout. He frowned. Was it some sort of joke? But the crystal number was right and nothing on the flier made promises he couldn’t keep. He sought out the librarian to see if they knew who put it up.
“Oh, there were a bunch of kids from the bloodrush team in earlier. It could have been one of them.”
That didn’t sit well with Riz. Maybe he couldn’t avoid Fabian after all.
He stomped through the hallways of the school, suddenly noticing all the fancy tutoring fliers that were plastered everywhere. As he rounded a corner, he spotted him, his back to him as he was stapling a few fliers to a bulletin board across from the freshman classrooms.
“Fabian!” Riz shouted, as he made his way up the hallway towards the half-elf.
The jock had the decency to not run away, and instead slowly turned around, an arm full of papers and a stapler in the other.
“What do you think you’re doing!?”
“...Helping. I hope.”
“Well…” Riz froze; why was he upset? “Um. Thanks.”
“Look, I’m sorry about lying to you,” Fabian said.
“So you did!” Riz pointed an accusatory finger at Fabian.
“Well, yeah… I’m sure it was pretty obvious after a while. I just…” Fabian darkened with embarrassment.
“Just what?”
“Just…wanted to spend time… with you.”
“What? Why? Why me?”
Riz watched in amazement as Fabian hid his face behind the sheaf of papers as he mumbled “Because I think you’re cute…”
“...what.”
“I think you’re cute. And cool. And I have a crush on you and I didn't know how else to get close to you and then you put up your tutoring fliers and I thought ‘now’s my chance’ so I hired you and I didn’t want to let anyone else see how cool and awesome you are so I monopolized your time and I’m really sorry, I’ve just never felt this way about a guy before and I didn’t know how else to get your attention. Please forgive me!”
“...what.”
“I’m sorry.”
Riz stood there, his turn to be flabbergasted. His papers shifted in his arms and then fell to the floor.
“So the dinners… and movies… and sleepovers… and hangouts… and coffees… and tail massages…”
“Because I like you.”
Riz stood there, unsure what to say. Someone liked him? And it was the most popular guy at school?
“...You’re kidding, right?”
“No. I’m dead serious.” And Riz could see it on his face that it was true. It was Riz’s turn to begin blushing as the reality of it hit him.
“I- I’m sorry for trying to force you to stay with me in college. That… that really underhanded and wrong of me.”
“Damn right,” Riz growled.
“But the offer is still open. Without the tutoring. I’ll buy your coffee and give you tail massages and not bring anyone over and pay for housing. If you’d consider staying with me. No obligations attached.”
“Um… before we get there, how about we start small, like a legit date?”
Fabian’s face lit up like a parade.
“Really!?”
“I'll chalk your behavior up to ‘stupid and naive’ and we can start over.”
“I’d like that very much! Thank you for giving me a chance!”
“Seriously, why did you think it was a good idea to fail your tests?”
“...Because I just wanted to spend more time with you. You’re really cool. I don't know why you don't have more friends.”
“...Being a nerd doesn’t help.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’ve got bullies, like the people who tore down all my tutoring posters earlier in the year.”
“Someone was tearing down your posters!? That’s terrible!”
“Are you sure it wasn’t you trying to keep me to yourself?” Riz asked, eyeing Fabian.
“Look, I’m not that low as to sabotage you.”
“Hmm, well, someone still has it out for me.”
“Then let me make it up for you by catching them and teaching them a lesson.”
“I don’t think that’s necessary.”
“What? Really?” Fabian looked a little crestfallen at having his suggestion turned down so quickly.”
“Yeah, it’s ok. The school year’s almost over, and if that’s the worst they plan to do, let them.”
Fabian still looked unconvinced.
“As a favor to me. To your potential boyfriend.”
“Oh, now I can get behind that!”
“Potential!” Riz warned, baring his fangs.
“Joke’s on you, I think that’s pretty hot,” Fabian pointed out with a smile. He bent down and began to collect Riz’s fallen papers. “So how about tonight at 8 PM? I can pick you up at your place.”
“What? Tonight?” Riz jumped at the thought.
“Yeah, why wait? Unless you’re already got something planned?”
“No-”
“Then it’s a date. See you then!” He handed the papers back to Riz and walked away, happily humming to himself. Riz simply watched him go, a little perplexed yet happy. He had a date. HE HAD A DATE!!!
“-and then suddenly he was asking me out on a date tonight and I didn’t say ‘no’ so now I have my first-ever date tonight!” Riz sat hunched in a desk chair at the AV club, explaining to his good friend Adaine why he looked so high-strung and nervous.
“I’ll admit this sounds too elaborate for a joke,” she mused, thinking over everything Riz had mentioned.
“Can you go invisible and follow us tonight?” Riz suddenly blurted out.
“Why? I’m not really into stalking people.”
“Pleeeeeaaaaaase?”
“No, stop being weird about this, Riz. You spent all that time together studying – and not studying! – before, so what’s the big deal now?”
“Because now it’s actually a date! With connotations behind it!”
“What connotations?”
“Like… sex stuff. And kissing. Making out. I don’t know if I want to do that.”
“So be forward with him,” Adaine said matter-of-factly. “Don’t drag it out and lead him on. Maybe you’ll find he’s cool with it.”
“Yeah, right, who could be?” Riz muttered.
It was around 8:30 that night when, at Basrar’s, Riz decided to rip the bandage off and come clean to Fabian.
“I”m asexual.”
“I know.”
“That means- what? You know?”
“Yeah. You came out to a couple people at AV club last year, and when I asked around about you it came up.”
“You were asking them about me?”
“Yeah. You didn’t know? For a rogue and a clever guy, you sure don’t pay much attention to yourself socially, do you?”
“I shouldn’t have to.”
“Well, that just means that you’re my best-kept secret,” Fabian said, smiling over his milkshake. Riz’s face burned.
“And I don’t mind. You’re the first guy I’ve liked, so I don’t know how I feel about stuff right now, either. But I do know that I want to respect who you are. And if you’re asexual, why’d you agree to the date?”
“Hey, technically I never agreed-!”
“But you’re here now so you did. So why?”
Riz squirmed a little in his chair. “I had fun before, when we were hanging out or having dinner or watching a movie. And I thought maybe it would be similar.”
“Hey, I wouldn't want to change anything. Except maybe I get to scratch you behind the ears.”
Riz’s ears twitched at the thought of the sensation. It did sound like a good time.
“...Maybe.”
Fabian just continued to smile as he enjoyed his shake.
Around a month and many, many dates later, Riz had to admit to himself that he was really enjoying his time with Fabian. Maybe being roommates wouldn't be so bad. Spending the night was always a chaste thing; Fabian offering a guest bed or a sleeping bag, or whatever made Riz comfortable. And sure, the half-elf could be very fussy about certain things (especially his sleep schedule), but no one was perfect. The ear scratches were phenomenal (something Riz never expected) and once or twice while they were watching a movie, RIz resting against Fabian, the half-elf would reach up a hand and scratch him and Riz would catch himself purring at the sensation. So yeah, he was enjoying his time.
His crystal chimed and Riz was torn away from his daydreams of ear scratches. It was Fabian, asking to meet up for a drive on his motorcycle. Riz hesitated. He’d been ‘introduced’ to it before; a literal hell-spawn vehicle that was aggressive and a bit mean, to be honest. But Fabian promised that the bike would behave and he wouldn’t go too fast if it upset Riz, so he agreed. A few minutes later, Fabian was there along with his bike and an extra helmet. He also shrugged off his jacket and put it over Riz. When the goblin gave him a puzzled look, Fabian explained that they’d be driving for a while and didn’t want Riz to get cold, since it was still winter.
“And because I like seeing my name across your shoulders,” he said in a shy voice, which made Riz feel very warm indeed.
After about an hour of driving, the sun was getting low in the sky.
“Are we almost there, Fabian?” Riz shouted over the roar of the engine and the winds.
“Yeah, just a few more minutes,” he shouted back, and then took the next exit.
Riz peered around his back the best he could, trying to figure out where they were going on a Saturday evening in late winter, but he could only see hills until suddenly, the sparkling of water caught his eye. He watched as Fabian pulled off on a road and made his way down to a beach along Harroway Bay.
He parked high up on the sand, protecting the motorcycle from the sea spray and sand, and pulled a blanket and another jacket out of the packs along the side of the bike. He passed the blanket to Riz and shrugged on the jacket. He then grabbed some firewood and tinder from the other pack and began to walk down the sandy slope towards the sea. Riz slid down the embankment after him, only scowling slightly as he got sand in his shoes.
Fabian quickly got to work setting up a small campfire and spread out the blanket beside it. He sat down and patted for Riz to join. “I thought we could enjoy the sunset today,” he explained simply. When Riz sat down, Fabian scooted himself closer and wrapped an arm around Riz.
“So,” he said, “what’s your verdict?”
“Verdict?”
“Do you like being my boyfriend?”
Riz’s heart suddenly was in his throat.
“Um…”
Fabian chuckled. “Okay, maybe I jumped the gun a little. “Do you like spending time with me?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. because I like spending it with you, too.” Fabian looked down at Riz. “Sit in my lap?”
Once again Riz was at a loss of words, but he silently nodded and climbed between the jock’s legs and looked out over the sea. Fabian wrapped his arms around Riz in a hug and nuzzled his face next to his. “This is nice,” he said quietly, his words almost getting whisked away with the winds. It was nice, Riz had to agree. He leaned into the embrace and closed his eyes a little, the setting sun leaving afterimages against his eyelids.
“What do you like about me?” Riz asked suddenly, surprising himself.
“Well, initially I just thought you were cute. And then as I learned more about you, I thought you were cool, too. I’ve seen you over the past few years, saw what you were capable of during adventuring party demonstrations. You’re a good rogue. I feel like your party underestimates you.”
“They might, but at least I have Adaine.”
“Your friend in AV Club?”
“Yeah.”
Fabian nodded. “I see. Anyway, then when you were tutoring me, I thought you were funny and clever and seeing you close-up I thought you were kinda handsome, too. And I just really fell for you. Hard. To the point that I started trying to come up with reasons to keep you around. Sorry again for that.”
Riz smirked. “Well, you pulled the wool over my eyes there. I really had no idea why you were doing so well everywhere but the tests. So while it pissed me off to learn what you were doing, I was also impressed. So you’re lucky, really, otherwise I may not have forgiven you.”
“Thanks.” Fabian leaned down and planted his lips against Riz’s temple and gave him a soft kiss.
“...Huh?”
“Was it bad? Sorry. Should I have asked? Ugh. I thought against the forehead would be alright, but-”
“It was!” Riz blurted out. “It was! I just… was surprised.” Fabian freed a hand and rubbed it through his hair. “I promise I won’t kiss you elsewhere without asking. Sorry.”
Riz leaned up and kissed Fabian on the cheek beneath his eyepatch. “Oh, stop with the apologizing. If you upset me, you’ll get my fangs, so don’t worry!”
“I feel like I should really worry with that threat!” said Fabian with a stifled laugh.
Riz grinned, and looked up at the half-elf above him. He could see the sunset reflecting in his beautiful silver eye. As far as dates went, this one was probably the best.
Fabian bent down and once more kissed his forehead. “Be my roommate?”
“...Yeah, let’s go for it,” Riz said.
The jock smiled.