Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I’m really passionate abt this cause and I will give you this flier if I have to shove it down your throat

Kaz frowned.
His arm ached almost as much as his leg, and that was saying something, considering the “epic rainstorm” last night, as Nina had so eloquently put it.
Why was he doing this again? He tried to regret agreeing to doing this in the first place, but then he glanced over at where Inej stood with her own stack of fliers, talking to another student enthusiastically enough that the student accepted her flier almost immediately. His heart clenched as she threw a grin his way, along with a questioning eyebrow raise.
He shook his head. He’d managed to give away one (1) flier in the two hours he’d alternated between sitting and standing in the center of the quad. And it had been to his roommate, Wylan, who’d apparently taken immense pity on him and retrieved one Kaz knew would be shoved somewhere and never looked at again. Kaz wasn’t altogether certain Inej hadn’t texted the other man to get him to come down to the quad, but he shrugged the thought again. He’d managed one, at least.
A tall, lanky man sauntered by him.
No, he was going to get at least two fliers handed out by the next hour. It was a pitiful goal, to be sure; especially when Inej so effortlessly beamed and handed them out like candy. But it was potentially achievable, which was all that really mattered.
He stuck out his cane in front of the man, who didn’t notice it until he’d totally tripped over it.
“What the hell?” he shouted from the ground, getting up in a windmill of limbs, dusting his pants off.
“Take one,” Kaz said smoothly.
The man glared at him. “What? No!” he protested, voice raising.
Kaz caught the amused look Inej passed him before being distracted by a curious passerby. “Yes,” he said flatly. “Take the flier. Now.”
The man looked more confused than anything. “Why would I take a flier from a man who just tripped me with his cane?”
“It’s not my or my cane’s fault you’re not looking where you’re going,” Kaz argued immediately, shoving the flier into the man’s face.
“Yes, it is,” the man insisted, folding his arms petulantly.
Kaz sighed inwardly, grinding his teeth. “Listen. I need you to just take the flier and leave.”
The man narrowed his eyes. “Why? So you, the rudest person I’ve ever met, can fill a quota? I think not,” he spat.
Kaz scowled, huffing at the insult. “I swear to God, if you don’t take the damn flier, I’m going to shove it down your throat. Take. It,” he snarled.
The man’s eyebrows jumped. “You’re threatening me,” he said incredulously. “You’re threatening assault over a flier.”
Kaz ground his teeth harder. “No. I’m persuading you using my impeccable diplomacy skills. Are you going to take it or not?”
“What are you actually gonna do if I don’t?” the man challenged.
Kaz blinked before steeling his expression. “I’m going to find out which dorm you live in, and sicc my roommate on you.”
“Who’s your roommate?” the man asked, sounding genuinely curious.
“A Music major. You’d think that would mean he’s good at it, but I’m not so sure. All screeching pretty much sounds the same to me,” Kaz shrugged, hoping Wylan wasn’t nearby enough to call him out on it. He actually rather liked some of the pieces Wylan practiced as quietly as he could around dinnertime, but he wasn't about to threaten assault again.
Well, not yet.
The man frowned. “How would you even be able to find my dorm?”
Kaz smiled thinly. “I work in the IT center. You could say I’m good with computers, but that would be the understatement of the century.”
The man frowned deeper. “I’m not sure if I should be accepting a flier or calling the cops. Or at least an RA.”
Kaz almost rolled his eyes. The campus cops were, by and large, useless, and the RAs didn’t have the authority to do much of anything about any of his vague threats thus far. “I’d accept the flier, if I were you,” he said instead.
The man huffed and accepted a flier. “You don’t mind if I immediately throw this away?” he said snidely.
Kaz shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind, but she might,” he gestured at Inej, who chatted to someone he thought he vaguely recognized.
The man looked over at Inej briefly. “I might care about her opinion more than yours,” he admitted, shoved the flier into his backpack awkwardly, probably crumpling it anyway.
“I do too,” Kaz answered wearily, sitting down as his knee screamed.
The man looked down at him, and Kaz distinctly did not appreciate the subtle power shift in the slightest. “What, she’s your girlfriend or something?”
“Or something,” he mumbled, not willing to get into it with him.
“What’s her name?” the man pestered.
“Why don’t you ask her?” Kaz snapped, annoyed.
“But I’m asking you,” he returned with a grin Kaz couldn’t decide how much he hated.
“Her name is Inej, and she’s insanely out of my league,” Kaz said shortly.
“Hey, Inej!” the man called out to Inej, who swung her head around wildly looking for the source of her name. Her sharp eyes landed on the man quickly. “He’s got a huge crush on you,” he gushed, batting his eyelashes.
Kaz narrowed his eyes at the blatant mocking.
Inej laughed, and Kaz’s gut flipped at the sound even from so far away. “I would hope so,” she said cheerfully. “Considering we’re dating,” she said smoothly; not for once, but certainly for the first time in a long time, surprising Kaz.
The man laughed as if they were sharing a delightful joke. “Well, maybe there’s some hope for him after all,” he said with a wiggle of his eyebrows as he left the scene.
Inej came over to him. “How many?”
“An entire two,” he said distractedly. “Did you just upgrade our relationship without consulting me?”
Inej laughed again. His stomach flip flopped happily. “Why, something wrong with it?”
“Of course not,” he said with a curt nod, holding out his gloved hand for her.
She took it with a smile, and handed out another flier effortlessly.
Kaz half smiled and tuned out Inej’s newest conversation in favor of focusing on how her hand felt so perfect in his.

Chapter Text

my roommate’s boyfriend is staying over so can I pls sleep on your floor?

Inej sighed, rubbing her temples with her fingers.
“Nina, again?”
Nina looked incredulous, eyebrows raised. “What do you mean, again? It’s not like he came over three days ago!”
Inej rolled her eyes. “Yeah, because he came over yesterday, Nina. Matthias can’t come over every day, much less every night. Nina, please,” she pleaded.
Nina shook her head. “Sorry, Inej,” and to her credit, she did look sorry. “But Matthias said he needed to talk and it sounded really important. What else was I supposed to do?”
Inej sighed, dragging her hands down her face. “Well, what am I supposed to do? It’s not like I can stay here and listen to you two make-out all night long.”
Nina looked offended. “We do not! Not all night.”
“Oh, right,” Inej scoffed. “I forgot about the few minutes where you come up for air and eat waffles before going back.”
“Inej! Come on, please. Only for tonight. If Matthias comes over, I won’t ask for the rest of the week.”
Inej raised an eyebrow. “Nina, it’s Friday. There’s only 2 days left.”
“Then next week. Deal?”
Inej considered this.
If he came over today, then all of the next week would be Matthias-free. But put Matthias in a room alone with Nina, who used her wily charms on him, and all was lost.
If she could get all of next week make-out-noise free…
Inej stuck out her hand. “Deal.”
They shook and Nina grinned.
“Perfect. I’ll go get ready then.”
She leaped up and brushed past the table.
“Wait, Nina.”
Nina paused, looking back at Inej, who raised an eyebrow. “Where am I supposed to go for the night?”
Nina opened her mouth, then closed it. She tilted her head, tapping a finger on her chin.
Her eyes suddenly lit up and Inej groaned at the twinkle in Nina’s green eyes.
“What about Kaz?”
Inej’s heart flipped at the name but outwardly, she glared.
“No.”
“What do you mean, no? It’s perfect! You can hang out and share puppy eyes with each other the whole night until one of you falls asleep on the other.”
Inej’s glare deepened, but her face flushed.
”No, Nina. He already said he was busy. I don’t want to bother him, so there’s no chance of that. End of discussion.”
Nina’s grin widened and she pulled her phone from her pocket. She wiggled her eyebrows and tapped her screen.
Inej realized too late what she was doing and lunged for the phone as Nina held it to her ear and backed away from Inej.
“Hey, Kaz?”
“Nina,” Inej hissed, grabbing for the phone again, but Nina evaded her.
“I have a favor to ask.”
Inej heard a heavy sigh and Kaz’s muffled response.
Nina smiled sweetly at Inej, who had given up trying to take the phone and decided to glare at her instead.
“Matthias is coming over and Inej wanted to get away for the night. Would it be possible for her to sleep over at your place tonight? Pretty please?” she added, after the long silence.
Kaz’s voice was too quiet and muffled for Inej to hear, but from Nina’s pleased expression, he said something she liked.
“Oh, thank you, thank you! That sounds wonderful. Bye, Kaz.”
She tapped her phone and beamed at Inej. “He said yes, provided you bring your own bedding.”
Inej face-palmed, but inwardly, her heart fluttered all over the place. “Nina, why did you do that? I can’t go over to his place! What if I get there and it’s too weird and awkward and he thinks I’m weird and awkward —?”
Nina pulled her into a hug. “It’s okay. You’ll be fine. It’s just one night. It’s okay.”
“Thank you, Nina. I really needed that.”
She could hear the smile in Nina’s voice as she answered, “Anytime, Inej. I got you.”
A knock on the door broke their embrace.
“I’ll get it,” Inej offered and Nina nodded.
“I’m gonna go get ready.”
Inej smiled as Nina raced to the bedroom.
She walked over to the door and opened it.
“Oh! Hi, Matthias. Come in,” Inej said, stepping aside to let the tall, blond man enter the apartment.
He smiled at her and nodded his thanks. “Where’s Nina?”
“In the bedroom getting ready. Not that she needs – ”
Inej broke off as she realized what Matthias held in his hands.
Deep red roses surrounded by pink peonies and a white ribbon tied at the base. In his other hand, he held a small, dark blue box embroidered with gold floral designs.
Inej raised a hand to her chest, pleasantly surprised as the pieces clicked together. “Oh my gosh! Matthias, you’re gonna pro – ”
He clamped a hand over her mouth, a pleading look on his blue eyes. “Shh, don’t say it so loud.” He sighed, but he looked pleased. “Yeah, I’m gonna ask her. I really hope she says yes. I’ve been really worried about it, so – ”
Inej smiled and put a finger to his lips. “She’s gonna say yes, trust me. She’s head over heels for you and she’s gonna be so excited.”
Relief washed over his face and he nodded.
“What are you talking about?”
Nina’s voice entered the room and Matthias quickly shoved the box into his pocket and hid the flowers behind his back.
“N - nothing! Just…asking Inej where she’s gonna spend the night,” Matthias said, desperation written across his face as he looked at Inej.
Nina rolled her eyes, opening her mouth, but Inej spoke first.
“I’m going to spend the night at Kaz’s because Nina volunteered him and I couldn’t stop her.”
Matthias raised an eyebrow and his lips twitched. His eyes twinkled.
“I see. Have fun.”
He winked at her and she playfully glared at him, swatting his arm.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go plan someone’s murder,” Inej said, glaring at Nina and grabbing her purse.
She slipped on her shoes and moved past Matthias, but not before squeezing his hand comfortingly and nodding.
She closed the door before Nina could make any comment about what that meant and walked to the car.

Once she reached Kaz’s apartment, her nerves raced and her heart thumped wildly, nervous for the night ahead.
When she walked up to the door, she released a few shaky breaths before shakily knocking.
Something thumped inside and Inej gave a little jump at the sudden noise but waited for the door to open.
The silence that followed made her antsy and she raised a hand to knock again.
The door suddenly swung open and Kaz stood there, his hair disheveled and falling over his face.
She swallowed thickly, trying really hard not to focus on the way his hair accented his face.
“H - hey. Sorry about barging in, but Nina was really insistent that I come over and Matthias is planning on – ”
“I know. Come in,” he said simply, and if he noticed the way she tripped over the door frame, he ignored it.
As soon as the door closed behind her, she mentally face palmed.
She had forgotten her blanket back at her apartment!
Inej turned around and found herself face to face with Kaz.
She swallowed hard. “S-sorry. I forgot my blanket, so I need to go back and get it. I’m really sorry for the inconvenience but – ”
He held up a hand and her mouth clamped shut. “Don’t worry about it. I think I have an extra blanket on my bed. Let me go get it.”
“O-oh. It’s fine, you don’t need to – ”
Kaz waved her off and disappeared into a room down the hall.
Inej stood there awkwardly.
Scuffed footsteps sounded in front of her and Inej turned to see Kaz coming toward her, a large blanket in his hands.
“Here.”
He held it out to her and she took it with shaky hands.
“Thanks,” she murmured and he nodded.
She pulled off her shoes, fully aware that Kaz’s eyes watched her.
Stepping toward the living room, she stretched out the blanket and placed it on the floor. She started kneeling so she could lay down, but a tap on her shoulder stopped her.
She glanced up at Kaz, one eyebrow raised.
“What?”
He shook his head. “You’re not sleeping on the floor. Put the blanket on the couch.”
“Kaz, it’s fine. I can sleep on the floor. I’ve done it before. It’s not a big deal.” She shrugged nonchalantly to emphasize her point, but Kaz didn’t buy it.
“You’re sleeping on the couch, end of discussion.”
Inej sighed, knowing her energy would be wasted trying to argue.
“Fine.”
She picked up the blanket and plopped down on the couch, stretched out, and pulled the blanket over her.
“Goodnight, Kaz.”
Kaz briefly smiled. “Goodnight, Inej.”
He turned and left, clicking off the light.
She pulled the blanket closer and inhaled, Kaz’s scent filling her nose. Her eyelids dropped and she fell asleep, surrounded by his scent.

Chapter Text

hey, I had to photograph someone for class, will you be my model?

“Hey,” Wylan leaned against the door frame of their small dorm.
Kaz didn’t look up from his homework. “What,” he said, penning in an answer, eyes darting over the equations.
Wylan swallowed, trying to decide how to even ask.
Kaz looked up at his silence, his eyes sharp. “What, Wylan?”
Wylan gulped. “I have to photograph someone for class,” he got out in a rush. “Will you…be my…model?” he cringed at his own choice of words.
Kaz blinked at him. “What,” he said for the third time in even fewer minutes.
Wylan swung into the dorm, closing the door. He shoved his hands into his pockets, looking at his feet. “I have to photograph someone for class,” he repeated. “Will you be my subject?” he looked up then, trying to gauge how terrible this new term would be received.
Kaz set his pen down, looking the picture of calm.
Wylan’s heart thrilled as his roommate began to pack up the contents of his backpack.
“Why don’t you ask literally anyone else?” Kaz asked as he slipped his pencil and pen into their case.
“I don’t know anyone else to ask,” Wylan mumbled, the truth of the matter gaining air in that simple sentence.
He’d only seen Kaz look kindly at one person – a lovely girl with a lovely laugh from one of his early morning classes – but somehow he’d earned the same look just now.
Kaz cleared his throat to get his attention. “Do I have to stand?”
Wylan blinked. “Uh, no, you can sit. We could go to the library?” he suggested.
Kaz considered. “What exactly is the assignment?” he asked flatly, using his cane to stand.
“To take a picture of a person in a relatively simple position with a specific kind of lighting,” Wylan got out in a rush. “And one of the study desks in the north end of the library had a window that achieves a really good example of it.”
Kaz’s lips quirked. “Alright. The library it is, then.” he gestured for Wylan to lead the way.
Wylan snagged his camera bag off the backpack hook by the door and led the way.
The trip to the library, as uneventful as it was, turned out to be perfect, considering few students were available in the hallways to bump into Kaz.
By the time they’d walked – and limped – in through the doors to the large campus library, Kaz had to sit down as soon as possible. He didn’t say as much, but the way he leaned on his cane told Wylan everything.
“Here is good,” Wylan directed, and Kaz sat heavily on the long sofa.
“Do I need to do anything except sit here?” he asked in his raspy voice as Wylan fiddled with the settings on his camera.
“Nope. Well – no, you don’t,” he corrected himself.
Kaz raised an eyebrow. “Wylan. Do I need to do anything except sit here?” he asked again.
Wylan winced. “Could you cross your legs?”
Kaz looked mildly amused. “Yes,” he agreed. “Ankles or knees?”
“Knees,” Wylan said almost apologetically, but Kaz obeyed without a second thought. “Okay?”
Kaz looked steadily at him. “If it hadn’t been okay, I wouldn’t have done it,” he told him curtly, and Wylan nodded hastily.
“Yes, yes, of course,” he said hurriedly, kneeling on one of his own knees in front of Kaz. “Okay, you can, like, breathe or whatever, but try not to move much more than that.”
He could see the ghost of a smile on Kaz’s lips through his lens. “Okay,” he echoed, holding perfectly, eerily still.
Wylan snapped a few angles, pleased at the way the light streaming through the window caught Kaz's black hair, shining the small crest of a rainbow in the corner of each photo.
About fifteen photos later, Wylan nodded at his snapshots through the viewfinder. “That looks good,” he finished, beaming up at Kaz. “Thanks,” he said earnestly.
Kaz waved him off. “Find someone else next time,” he said bluntly, and Wylan nodded. That made sense, what with Kaz being…who he was.
“Hey!” Wylan turned to see the girl from Kaz’s early morning class hurrying up to them. He hung back, pretending to be looking through his photos again as Kaz stood to talk to her.
“...saw you and thought, ‘That better not be Kaz,’” she smiled.
Kaz raised an eyebrow. “Well, since it did happen to be me, what’s the verdict?”
The girl laughed and Kaz looked incredibly pleased with himself.
Wylan wondered how sneakily he could take a photo of that shy smile of Kaz’s.
“The verdict is, come help me with something,” she said cheerfully, tugging her backpack around her body to grab something from it.
A stack of fliers, it turned out.
Kaz started to protest. “Oh, no, Inej, I can’t, you know I’m not good with people –”
“-- well, then, I guess it’s a good thing I need you to help me print more, not hand them out, right?” Inej grinned, handing him one off the top.
Kaz stared at it.
Wylan started to slink away.
“Wylan would love to help you print more,” Kaz volunteered him. “In fact, why doesn’t he print more, and you and I go elsewhere?”
Inej batted her eyelashes. “Kaz Brekker, are you asking me out?”
Kaz Brekker flushed. “Not in so many words,” he mumbled.
Inej laughed again. “Wylan? You know which buttons to press?”
Wylan balked. “I don’t do well with…printers,” he hedged.
Inej’s eyes sparkled. “Well, then I guess Kaz and I will print out more fliers, and then go elsewhere,” she suggested.
Kaz’s breath hitched.
Wylan shouldered his camera. “Thanks for being my model,” he said loudly, throwing Kaz under the bus he’d just gotten out from under.
Kaz’s face burned.
Inej laughed. “Model?” she teased.
Kaz’s face said murder.
Wylan’s feet said not today.

Chapter Text

It’s pouring and my final paper is in my backpack, so I guess we’re stuck under this tiny awning together. Do you think they deliver pizza here?

Kaz growled and the rain fell harder, as though agreeing with him.
His backpack flopped heavily against his back and he limped quickly down the sidewalk, trying really hard not to touch anyone who rushed by.
His cane clicked against the sidewalk as he shoved his way through the other bodies surrounding him, keeping his eyes ahead of him as the rain dripped down his hat and splattered into the cement.
Something wet brushed against his back and he steeled himself against the sensation, forcing himself to focus on stepping forward with one foot in front of the other.
As he walked briskly down the sidewalk, his eyes darted every which way to find some shelter. His final paper currently resided in his backpack and he worried that it would get wet and ruined.
A large awning built into an arch with a clear plastic backdrop nestled against the back of it sat a few feet away from him.
Thunder rumbled nearby and the rain poured down harder, forcing him into a staggering run as he gripped his cane tightly and headed toward the awning.
A little ways away, he spotted a girl sprinting down the sidewalk holding a large book over her head to protect herself from the rain.
Not that it seemed to be doing much as her pants were splashed all over at the calves and her sleeves were soaked, most likely from holding up the book.
She seemed to be heading toward the awning too, but Kaz was in no mood right now to give up his only chance at shelter if it meant saving his final paper, no matter how polite he treated women.
Just as thunder rumbled, louder this time, Kaz and the girl reached the awning at the same time and ducked under it as the rain created a waterfall effect in front of them as it poured down the edge of the awning.
Her shoulder bumped against his before he could prepare himself and he inhaled sharply through his teeth, creating a hissing sound.
He scuttled away from her, backing against the wall of the awning and dropping his cane. It clattered onto the floor next to him, followed by his backpack.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to – bump into you. I just – was in a hurry and didn’t – realize – until – I already – did.”
The whole time she spoke, the girl panted heavily, waving her hand in apology, her other hand resting on her thigh and her body bent over in an L shape.
Kaz nodded curtly, not wanting to engage in conversation while his brain whirled and he focused on breathing.
In. Out. In. Out.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the girl looking at him with a knowing look and she straightened, slowly stepping toward him, hands stretched out.
He glared at her hands, his chest constricting painfully and he hissed at just the thought of even remotely touching her.
She stopped, standing away just enough for him to reach out and take her hands without much effort.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to take them now. Just take your time. I’m right here.”
Her words, simple and odd coming from a stranger, but comforting coming from someone who seemed to understand his problem.
He stared at her hands, trying to move, to reach out and touch something real, but his arms refused.
He finally raised his eyes to look at her and his breath hitched involuntarily.
Her dark, wet hair stuck to her heart shaped face and her soft brown eyes gazed comfortingly at him. Her lips formed a small but sweet smile and her soaked clothes framed her body, hugging her curves.
Kaz gulped, trying to ignore the fact that he had just a) caught his breath at a stranger, and b) noticed her beauty while she attempted to help him.
Just take her hands, you idiot. Stop making it awkward by checking her out and take her hands!
He growled and the girl started pulling her hands back.
Before she took them away completely, Kaz threw out his arms and he gripped her hands tightly, inhaling sharply at the contact.
Despite being in the rain, her hands were warm and alive, not cold and unpleasant. Her touch calmed him and his tense shoulders relaxed.
“Sorry,” Kaz mumbled, not daring to meet her gaze. “I wasn’t growling at you. I was…growling at myself.”
He gulped, wanting desperately to wipe away the heat on his cheeks, from both embarrassment and the pleasant tingling on his hands from her warmth.
Her hands gently but briefly squeezed his and he slowly raised his eyes to look at her.
Her kind brown eyes gazed at him with sincerity as she said, “It’s okay. I know how hard it can be to do something as simple as this, especially if you really want to. You’re fine.”
She smiled at him and the warmth from her hands spread all the way to his toes.
He looked down again, not ready for the emotions she stirred inside him and the way he wanted to be with her for as long as he could.
“Inej.”
His head jerked up and his eyes focused on her. “What?”
She smiled again. “I’m Inej. What’s your name?”
“Kaz.”
She nodded, still smiling. “Kaz. Is that short for something?”
Kaz snorted. “No. But if you asked Jesper, he’d say it was short for Kazzle Dazzle.”
She – Inej – laughed and the sound made his heart beat hard against his chest.
If he could take her laughter with him, he’d keep it on his nightstand and listen to it every night.
“Kazzle Dazzle? Really? That sounds like the name of a candy store with a stupid logo like, ‘Get your snazzy candy at your local Kazzle dazzle store!’”
Kaz shrugged, trying really hard not to smile at her words. “Jesper has a knack for making something as simple as a name into a joke. But if you ask me,” Kaz said, rolling his eyes, “He makes everything into a joke and doesn’t take anything seriously.”
Inej smiled and her brown eyes twinkled, making his breath hitch.

A loud boom sounded nearby and Inej shrieked.
She dived into Kaz’s chest and wrapped her arms around him, her body trembling and her eyes squeezed shut. Kaz stood there, shocked and completely taken off guard by her actions.
Another round of thunder crashed in the air and Inej tightened her grip on him.
He slowly wrapped an arm around her back and draped his other arm across her shoulders.
“It’s okay. It’s just thunder.”
He tried to make his voice comforting and from the way her eyes slowly creaked open and her hold on him loosened, it worked.
She slowly pulled away from him until her hands rested on his upper arms. Kaz shifted with her, gently cupping her wrists.
Inej looked sheepishly at him. “S-sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable or anything, I just…thunder brings back some…unpleasant memories.”
Kaz nodded. “I get it. It’s hard not to think you’re back in the moment. No need to apologize.”
And he found himself smiling at her.
Inej gently smiled back and lifted her hands off his upper arms and took a step back. Kaz let his hands fall away from her wrists and tried to ignore the disappointment in his chest as she stepped away from him.
He quite liked the way she seemed to fit perfectly in his arms and the way she clung to him for comfort.
A quiet grumbling broke the brief silence and Kaz raised an eyebrow at her.
She blushed, and lowered her eyes to the ground. “Sorry. I guess I’m really hungry now.”
Kaz immediately pulled out his phone from his pocket, shaking himself from his thoughts of how Inej fit so perfectly against his chest.
“How about pizza?” he asked as he swiped his screen a few times to get to the app.
Inej raised her eyes to look at him, an amused smile stretching her lips.
“Do they even deliver pizza here?”
Kaz shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”
Inej laughed and his heart danced.

Twenty minutes later, the rain let up and Inej poked a hand outside the awning, waving it a little in the air.
She turned and smiled at him. “Rain’s gone.”
Kaz gave her a small smile in return. “That’s good. Now I can go home and – ”
His words were cut off by the sound of footsteps.
A pizza delivery worker stood in front of the awning, looking up and down the sidewalk. His gaze finally found Kaz and Inej.
He stepped up to the awning, one eyebrow raised. “Did you guys order a pizza?”
Inej and Kaz shared a look and she laughed.

Chapter Text

hey, I have to take someone’s blood pressure for class. Will you be my victim?

“Hey,” Nina grabbed Jesper’s elbow.
He stopped walking, turning back to look at her with his dazzling smile. “Yep?” he asked, adjusting his backpack on his shoulders.
Nina’s grin matched his. “I have to take someone’s blood pressure for class? Will you be my victim?”
“I’ll be your victim,” Matthias cut in. “Jes’ blood pressure isn’t exactly gonna be all that level, don’t you think?”
Jesper laughed. “I guess that’s fair,” he shrugged her hand off his elbow. “See you in Human Bio?” he asked as a parting.
Nina laughed. “See you then,” she said, grabbing Matthias’ hand and tugging him down the hallway. “Now, Matthias, come sit down. The less walking you do beforehand, the better my results will be,” she directed, forcing him to sit down on a sofa near an incredibly fake looking plant.
Matthias beamed up at her. “I can do that,” he agreed, holding his arm out to her as she sat down next to him.
She pulled her small wrist cuff out, and her larger, more unwieldy armband device from her backpack.
“Whoa, why both?” Matthias asked, suddenly looking nervous.
Nina looked at him, a little confused why he might be so anxious. “...one of them is more accurate than the other, and that one is not the one I’m supposed to be using,” she said matter of factly. “Wrist?”
Matthias frowned and handed his wrist over. “Is this the accurate one? Or the class approved one?”
“Accurate,” she said distractedly, pushing the velcro together and directing his arm up to fold over his chest.
He obeyed immediately.
The cuff lit up a few moments later.
“Aha!” she said, pleased. After writing his numbers down, her fingers pried the cuff apart and their eyes met.
Matthias had started blushing.
“What?” Nina asked, bewildered.
“Nothing,” he said unconvincingly.
“Matthias,” she warned, taking her cuff back and shoving it into her backpack. Then she paused her task of unwinding the armband to stare at him. “No, really, what?”
Matthias looked to be trying to control his flushed face to dubious results. “Did you…happen to…note my blood pressure?” he said haltingly.
“What? Of course I –” she started before realizing she’d written the numbers down without checking to be sure they were in the right area.
She looked down.
She looked back up. “Matthias, are you…dying?”
Matthias laughed. “Not dying,” he got out past his own chuckles.
Nina looked back down at the numbers. Then her own cheeks grew red and she kept her face down, as if she could hide her matching blush. “Oh, Matthias,” she giggled, putting her face into one of her hands. “You old romantic, you,” she scoffed. “How did you even know it was spiking?”
Matthias shrugged. “I’ve gone with Wylan to some of his appointments, he’s got a spiked blood pressure too. The nurses always comment on it.”
Nina shook her head. “Only you would know how to read a blood pressure cuff because it’s the same as Mr. Chronically Ill’s,” she said, trying and failing to unwind the tubing. Her fingernails kept catching on the plastic.
“Here,” Matthias offered, and he easily unwound it for her.
“Thank you,” she said primly, strapping his arm into the armband and beginning to pump the air through it. “So,” she said leadingly.
“So,” Matthias echoed.
“So, are you going to ask me out, or what?” she said bluntly.
Matthias spluttered.
Nina laughed. “I’m kidding,” she sang, but Matthias had already started speaking.
“Nina, will you do me the honor of going out with me to do activities that are notably not taking my blood pressure?”
Nina grinned. “Yes, Matthias, I rather think I will,” she said loftily, and he smiled up at her as the armband deflated.
“Good. ‘Cause my arm is really rather abused at the moment, so I’d love to soothe it with a nice coffee with a beautiful woman,” he said smoothly, and she gaped at him.
“Matthias Helvar, when did you get so witty?” she said in shock, jotting the still ridiculously high numbers down without looking at her paper.
“About when you stopped writing in cursive and started writing in chicken scratch,” Matthias said quickly, and she looked down at her – frankly atrocious – handwriting.
“Okay, you know what?” she said loudly, gaining the attention of a few nearby students. “That’s it. No date for you,” she decided, stuffing her folder back into her bag.
“Wha –?” Matthias started, mouth open. “Nina!”
Nina giggled. “I’m literally joking, Matthias. Come on, let’s get coffee before the line gets ridiculous,” she held out her elbow to him.
He stood, took her elbow, and led her down the hall.
Nina practically glowed the whole way.

Chapter Text

I know I keep coming to this cookie shop and for some reason, it’s always your shift but don’t you dare judge me I need this for my sanity

Nina’s stomach growled and she groaned out loud, startling Matthias.
“What’s wrong?”
Nina sighed. “I’m just hungry again, that’s all. Even though I just ate!”
They were sitting on the couch in the library, Matthias with his back against the back of the couch and Nina with her back propped against his chest, playing with his hands in her lap.
A student seated at the computers turned around in their chair and glared at the two, raising a finger to their lips and shushing them.
Nina rolled her eyes at the student, but noticed Matthias’s softer tone as he chuckled quietly against her, saying, “Of course you are.”
Nina huffed, but she smiled. “What can I say? My stomach’s just a bottomless pit of hunger that needs cookies.”
She glanced back at Matthias, raising her eyebrows and pursing her lips, pleading with her eyes.
He sighed, shaking his head, but she didn’t miss the smile that stretched across his lips. “Then let’s head over to Rotty’s bakery and get you some of your favorite cookies. How does that sound?”
Nina grinned and clapped her hands excitedly.
“Ooh, yes, please! Thank you, thank you.”
She leaped up from the couch and by the time she had slipped on her jacket that was lying across the arm of the couch, Matthias had just risen from his seat.
“Let’s go, let’s go!”
Matthias laughed and walked over to her, placing a kiss on her cheek before looping his arm around her and resting his hand against the curve of her waist.
From the other side of the desk, Nina noticed the librarian pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at Matthias touching Nina.
When the librarian lowered her eyes back to her computer screen, Nina stuck out her tongue and glared intently at her until Matthias rapped his fingers against her waist and tore her attention away from the librarian.
“Ready to go?”
He nodded. “Let’s go.”
Nina grinned and they exited the library, Matthias holding her close and her holding his other hand in hers.

The familiar smell of cookies wafted across her nose and Nina inhaled deeply, relishing the scent.
She released a sigh of pleasure as she stepped up to the counter and waited for a worker to take her order.
A familiar face popped up from behind the counter and Nina smiled at the coincidence of it being her shift again.
“Hi, Inej.”
Inej sent her a kind smile. “Hi, Nina! How’s my favorite customer today? Craving more cookies?” she said with a wink.
Nina rolled her eyes. “You know what, Ghafa? I need these for my sanity to keep up with all the homework I have, so don’t you dare judge me.”
Inej laughed, wiping her hands on a towel. “What cookies do you want today?”
Nina didn’t even need to look at the menu behind Inej to know exactly what she wanted.
“I want 3 of the chocolate and caramel, 2 snickerdoodles, and 4 chocolate chunk supreme.” Nina’s mouth watered at the thought of the delicious desserts and she wiped her mouth before she could start drooling all over the counter.
Inej nodded and quickly plucked the various cookies from their places on the pans before packing them away in the small red box she procured from under the counter.
Nina smiled at Inej as she paid and snatched the box off the counter. “Thanks for the cookies.”
Inje returned her smile. “Have a good day!” she said as Nina and Matthias left the store, waving goodbye.

Three days later, Nina went back to Rotty’s bakery and when she stepped up to the counter, Inej appeared behind the register.
“Oh! Hi, Nina!”
Nina sighed, placing a hand on her hip and shaking her head. “Again? I think fate’s messing with us or something. Why is it always your shift? This is the fifth time!”
Inej shrugged, but her brown eyes gleamed. “I think fate wants us to know each other because it knows you love cookies so much and I’m the best candidate to serve them to you.”
Nina rolled her eyes but her lips stretched into a smile. “I suppose.”
“Same order as last time?”
Nina stuck out her tongue playfully and winked. “Do you even need to ask?”
Inej laughed. “I guess I don’t,” she said, proceeding to stack the cookies into a red box, close the flaps, and slide it across the counter toward Nina.
As Nina turned away from the counter and started toward the door, a voice called her back. Her head swiveled to the source of the sound and her eyes landed on Inej.
“What do you need?”
Inej’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “Just wondering when your next cookie run is going to be.”
Nina stuck out her tongue but laughed, waving goodbye as she left the bakery she knew she’d be back to a few days later, if only to save her sanity from college homework and maybe see a new friend.

Chapter Text

Inej hummed to herself as she entered the library, stopping to look at the sign up chart for that one specific study room. It had two large bright windows she loved to bask in while she worked on her various classes from this semester, and gathered almost utter silence. She’d found the beautiful little space when she’d been knocked down the list a few months ago at the start of the new semester to accommodate the freshmen who desperately needed the quiet atmosphere.
She’d been pleasantly surprised to find how much she enjoyed the small paradise, especially in the summer months, and hoped to keep it all to herself, reserving it at every possible chance.
Unfortunately, someone else had found its allure as well.
Inej scowled down at where a messy scrawl of pen glared up at her. She couldn’t even read the spiky cursive – not because it was cursive, because it was practically illegible – but whoever this person was who kept reserving that little room either didn’t know what they had on their hands, or definitely knew.
She didn’t even know how they kept getting ahead of her! She came here first thing in the morning, so unless they were breaking in after library hours to reserve the tiny room, she didn’t know how else they could possibly be beating her.
She almost didn’t do anything other than find a new one.
But no, you know what? She needed that quiet space for her calculus homework, and if that meant she had to oust some poor freshman from her space, then so be it.
She marched over to the corner of the library, steeled herself, and rapped on the door.
Technically, typically, it was frowned upon to knock on the study rooms unless there was a clear, objective emergency.
But maybe subjective emergencies could be added to the list of valid reasons to interrupt someone’s studying.
There was no answer.
Were they just not there? Maybe they weren’t even there yet.
She tried the doorknob. It was unlocked.
Even more reason to assume no one was there, she decided quickly, opening the door and slipping inside.
She’d just closed the door behind her when a gravelly voice spoke calmly.
“Can I help you?”
She jumped, losing her grip on the doorknob. “Oh! Sorry, I just…” she trailed off, looking the man up and down.
He was striking, first of all. Sharp cheekbones, sharper eyes, and a light frown on his thin lips.
He wore a suit, secondly. Why he needed to wear a full suit and thick leather gloves to study, she wasn’t certain. Maybe he had a music recital right after. Who knew.
His eyebrow raised higher, repeating his question for him.
“Oh,” she said, gesturing at the door. “I thought…you didn't answer so I…assumed…no one was…” she trailed off again.
The man raised his other eyebrow. “Okay, but I am here. So? Leave,” he said as sharp as his jawline.
Inej nodded quickly. “Yep, I’m leaving,” she agreed, turning to open the door again. The doorknob rattled. She shook it. “It’s not…what’s wrong?” she asked the doorknob, who gave no answer. She slowly twisted and pulled on it. It didn’t open.
She turned back to him, her cheeks hot. “It won't open,” she explained as he stared impassively at her.
He sighed heavily, getting up and used a cane to limp across the room to where she stood dumbly staring at the stuck door. “Move,” he rasped, and she moved, stepping backwards to get out of his way.
He pulled sharply on it. It refused to do much more than squeak. He sighed again before yanking on it.
It stayed stuck.
Two little metal rods slipped into his gloved fingers and he poked them carefully into the keyhole, feeling around.
She got the dawning suspicion that her earlier assessment that he’d been sneaking in after hours to reserve this very room might’ve had more weight than she’d initially given the idea.
He pulled the rods out and leaned forward to lay his forehead on the door in defeat. “It’s not locked, so it’s just stuck,” he said hoarsely, looking at her as if it were her fault.
And maybe it was.
Inej put up her hands, unsure if she’d just accidentally gotten herself into a dangerous position. She backed up a few steps, hoping he didn’t decide to take his obvious anger out on her. “I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to –” she began, but he just sighed deeply again and limped back to his seat.
“Sit down and study,” he ordered, settling back onto his own chair. “We’re not getting out of here for a while.” He pulled out his phone and dialed a number quickly enough that he had to have had it saved in his phone. He held it to his ear and spoke quickly. “Two students are stuck in a study room in the east corner of the library, B14. They need immediate assistance.” He hung up, slipped his phone back into his pocket, and returned to his homework.
Inej blinked and watched his eyes dart around his calculations spread out over his various papers. “That’s it? We’re just going to wait for campus maintenance?”
The man looked up at her as if confused why she was talking. “Yes? What else did you want to do?” he asked, a wry smile hitting his lips that she found herself staring at for entirely too long.
She jerked her eyes off of his light smirk. “I don’t know. Something more than that?”
The man shrugged, regripping his pen in his gloved hand. “If you can think of anything else to do, let me know. Otherwise, I have work to do,” he said bluntly, looking back at his papers.
Inej stared at his bowed head for a minute longer before sitting on the floor and beginning to pull out her binders.
The man cleared his throat.
She looked up at him expectantly.
A light flush had begun to creep over his ears. “You don’t have to sit on the floor,” he muttered. “There’s two chairs.”
Inej looked pointedly at where his papers took up the majority of the only desk in the little room.
He looked down at the desk as if surprised to see how widespread his work happened to be. “I can move this,” he decided, gathering up some of the farther papers that encroached on what could be her side of the table.
Inej nodded, grabbing her few binders off the floor and standing again, walking over to the now clear side of the desk. “Thanks,” she offered as she pulled the other chair up.
His blush grew. “No problem,” he mumbled, moving his hips so his legs stuck out to the side of him.
Inej laughed.
He glared at her.
She stopped laughing. “Sorry. You don’t have to…move like that. I won’t touch your legs,” she promised.
His face looked thunderstruck, as if he couldn’t believe she’d correctly guessed his motives. Although, even if she thought about it for longer than two seconds, she couldn’t really come up with another reason that made any sense. “Okay,” he said, bringing his legs hesitantly back under the table.
She veered her own knees away from him as she opened her calculus notebook.
They worked together in silence, the sun streaming through the windows onto them. She tried not to bask too obviously, but by the soft smile she caught the man giving her occasionally, she wasn’t doing a very good job.
“I’m Inej,” she offered when the campus maintenance crew finally arrived, their loud attempts to get the door open interrupting both of their focuses.
The man glanced over at her, as if sizing her up. “Kaz,” he returned as the door swung up with a loud creaking protest.
They exchanged a quick look at the relatively minor issue the door had given the maintenance crew before Kaz sat back down and allowed her to leave.
One of the maintenance men wolf whistled at her as she left.
She turned to glare at him.
He smiled cheekily, but then Kaz said, loud enough for them to hear, “I sure hope that wasn’t Rojakke, whose under-the-table earnings might get him in deep trouble with the IRS.”
Rojakke’s face drained entirely of color.
Inej flashed Kaz a quick grin he just nodded at before she left to find another study room with a not stuck door.

Chapter Text

Neither of us bought the expensive textbook but there is only one copy in the library and it can’t leave the building

Inej glared down at her scribbled notes and then back at the paper listed with the assignment requirements.
She let out a huff of frustration and slammed her pencil on the table.
Kaz looked up from his own work and his dark eyes found hers. “What?”
Inej sighed heavily, rubbing her forehead. “I don’t have the textbook we need for this assignment and I don’t know if the library even has a copy of it.”
“You mean the stupidly expensive one with the multi-colored fish on it?”
Inej and Kaz turned to see a brown-haired girl sitting with a blond guy at the table next to theirs. A thick book sat in front of them, open to a page with various arrows and labels pointing to different areas of the human body.
Inej nodded. “Yeah, I need it for Human Biology. Do you know where it is?”
The girl stood from her chair and picked up the book from her table, heading toward Kaz and Inej. The blond guy looked surprised and stood up. “Wait, Nina. We need that! You can’t just – ”
“Pfft! Come on, Matthias. We can share.”
The guy - Matthias it seemed - sighed heavily, rolling his eyes to look at the ceiling before following the girl - Nina - to Inej’s table.
Nina placed the book in front of Inej and sat down across from her, Matthias taking the empty spot next to Nina.
Inej nodded at the book. “Is this the textbook?”
“Yeah, that’s it. But the library only has one copy and it can’t leave the building, so if we both need to use it, we’ll have to share.”
Inej looked over at Kaz, who shrugged and went back to his work. She moved her gaze back to Nina and Matthias. “I guess we’re sharing then.”
With that, Inej and Kaz spent the next 3 hours pouring over the textbook with Nina and Matthias, Well, Inej used the textbook. Kaz simply asked the occasional question about some part of the assignment, Inej or Matthias would give him the answer, and Kaz would nod and then go back to his own work.
Inej suspected that Kaz didn’t need the textbook because he already knew everything about the class and only signed up for the class so he could spend more time with her, though he would never admit it if she asked.
Nina proved to be quite the chatterbox, talking to Inej about all the different parts of the human body that did something she deemed “cool and weird” but saw how it did its part to help “our crazy, complicated bodies.”
Inej nodded, only half paying attention to what Nina actually said and she caught Matthias sending her sympathetic looks every time Nina went on a tangent about some part of the human body.
Inej smiled at him and shook her head, silently telling him she didn’t mind. Matthias rolled his eyes, but his lips twitched and his blue eyes twinkled.
The librarian walked up to the group and slightly narrowed her eyes at Inej, who glared back.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Kaz starting to rise from his seat, hands placed on the table.
Inej reached out a hand and gently grabbed his, squeezing it and shaking her head a little to stop him from doing something that would get them permanently kicked from the library and, quite possibly, the school because of a jerk librarian.
The librarian cleared her throat and Inej noted the step back she took from the table and the way her body leaned away from Kaz.
“You four need to pack up and get out of the library. It’s closing soon.”
No one made a move to start gathering their supplies and after a moment of tense silence, the librarian briskly walked back to her desk and sat down.
The group released an audible and unisoned breath before cleaning up their supplies. Inej sent Kaz a small smile, who gave her a single nod in return before gathering up his papers and pencil.
Inej shared a look with Nina, who winked at her, and Inej couldn’t help but grin.
“We should do this again sometime. You know, without the racist librarian.”
Nina laughed and the librarian loudly shushed her, sending the whole group a severe glare and resting her gaze on Inej a moment longer before returning to her computer.
Nina pointed a finger at her open mouth, rolling her eyes. Inej smirked and bit her lip to keep back her laughter.
“We really should. It would make such a great double date. Wouldn’t you agree?” Nina wiggled her eyebrows at Inej, who blushed.
Kaz sent Nina a death glare. “That’s none of your business,” he snapped. “You shouldn’t be going around suggesting things like that without people’s consent.”
Nina simply winked at him. “Oh yeah? Maybe you actually do like my suggestion, you’re just too stubborn to say so.”
Kaz’s glare deepened and his eyes gleamed dangerously. “You better watch your mouth or you’ll find your throat stuffed with all your assignments one day and you’ll never talk again. How ‘bout that? Maybe then you’ll – ”
“Kaz doesn’t really mean it. He’s just…joking,” Inej tried, knowing full well that he did not.
“Oh don’t worry. I plan on stuffing your throat when you least expect it, so I suggest you be prepared.”
Nina opened her mouth but a loud thump interrupted whatever she had been planning on saying.
They all turned to see the librarian standing up from her chair with her hands on her hips and her lips pursed into a thin line. She looked at them with a glare that rivaled Kaz’s. “Get out of my library before I throw you all out!”
Nina chuckled silently as she finished packing her bag and the unanimous sound of backpacks being zipped up filled the air.
“Well, farewell to you two,” Nina said as a goodbye, bowing slightly. “Have fun dealing with Mr. Grumpy.”
Kaz sent her a glare but Inej smiled. “I’m not too worried about him." She dropped her voice. "Don't worry, his bark is worse than his bite.”
Nina nodded and Matthias rolled his eyes but Inej saw the upward twitch of his lips.
With that, the group left the library and parted ways, wondering if they would ever meet again.

Chapter Text

we’re studying in the library, and there are two people very obviously making out in the stacks and we keep sharing embarrassed glances

Matthias frowned, analyzing his homework. The big issue with choosing history of any kind as his primary focus was memorizing dates. Matthias wondered who they thought they were kidding, giving the students a slew of dates with important details that varied in overall importance with seemingly no rhyme or reason to the provided list, all to memorize by Friday. Surely someone else was struggling as much as he was.
He glanced up at Kaz, laser focused on his math. Kaz would be great at this, he reflected, jabbing at the third date on his list in annoyance. He wasn’t convinced the other man didn’t have an eidetic memory, quite frankly, but even if he didn’t, numbers were his bread and butter. He seemed to just…get the formulas, with little to no effort. Although, according to Inej a few days ago, he sometimes threw his pen down in frustration late at night before running his hands down his face and going back to it, so maybe it wasn’t all natural.
“You’re staring,” Kaz said, not looking up from his equation.
Matthias sighed. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “Just…trying to memorize.”
Kaz looked up at that, giving him a quiet smirk. “Trying to memorize dates? Or my hairline?”
“Your cowlick, actually,” Matthias returned in kind, earning the barest hint of a real smile before Kaz dropped his head again.
A loud moan startled Matthias out of his daze. He glanced at Kaz to be sure he wasn’t getting auditory hallucinations from lack of sleep, but Kaz’s chin slowly lifted as well.
Kaz’s eyes narrowed and he leaned back in his seat as if stretching.
A louder wet noise sounded and Kaz’s face contorted into one of disgust.
Matthias, based entirely on Kaz’s expression, realized the issue in a flash of comprehension. He rolled his eyes and tried to focus on his homework again.
Loud panting before an even more raucous suction noise broke the gathered silence.
Kaz frowned deeply, his attention thoroughly shattered.
Matthias tried to stick it out, but Kaz was having none of it. He began to pack up his binders, his gloved hands flying around in an effort to leave as quickly as possible.
Another softer moan escaped someone’s very busy mouth, and Matthias cringed.
Kaz, fully packed, half stood unsteadily before sinking back into the chair, a look of annoyance passing over his eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Matthias asked, curious why he’d sit back down after clearly deciding to vacate the premises.
“Leg,” Kaz grumbled, looking increasingly frustrated.
Matthias waited, finally rewarded with his own private view of Kaz running his gloved hands down his face. “That bad?” He asked, not commenting on the obvious display of frustration.
Kaz rifled around in his backpack, his face gaining a hard edge as he realized something unsatisfactory. He glared at Matthias. “Left my diclofenac cream in my dorm, it seems, so I just have to wait,” he spat, another wet noise sounding from behind the bookshelves behind him.
Matthias nodded sympathetically. “I can go grab it for you?”
Kaz shook his head, giving absolutely no explanation for the denial.
“No, really, I can,” Matthias offered again. “Where is it?”
Kaz shot him an almost desperate look. “Don’t leave me here alone with…” he trailed off, stony expression returning in full force.
Matthias knew asking for help or assistance or aid in any way made Kaz incredibly uncomfortable, so what could he do but say, “Of course I won't. I guess we’ll just wait.”
Kaz’s face went mostly unreadable, but he thought he saw a light sprinkle of something close to gratitude in it anyway.
Matthias dug into his backpack, pulling out a pair of headphones. He’d just gotten them, but he didn’t know if they would be thick enough to block out the kissing noises.
Kaz’s eyes trained on them.
He didn’t ask. Not verbally, at least.
Matthias offered them. “Do you listen to music while you study?”
Kaz took them immediately, before even answering the question. “I can put on loud white noise,” he rasped, pulling out his phone quickly with those magician fingers.
Matthias hid a smile at Kaz’s desperation, watching him hook the Bluetooth up quicker than Matthias could’ve.
Kaz looked very different with the over the ear headphones on his head – less uptight, at least – but he seemed able to pull his binders back out, going back to his work.
Leaving Matthias to listen to the furious noises behind that damned bookcase.
Finally, after a ridiculously long period of time where Matthias seriously contemplated asking Inej for one of her self defense knives to at least threaten the enthused couple to find a less public area at least three times, the sound of two people breathing heavily and whispering to each other was like music to his ears.
Their whispers punctuated by one of them laughing in a rather familiar way, the couple left their hook up spot separately.
Matthias watched as Wylan Van Eck of all people, looking disheveled and happy, turned the corner.
The breathless man stopped short, looking like a deer in the headlights as he caught Matthias’ eyes. “Hey…Matthias,” he greeted hesitantly before noticing Kaz and blanching even further. “And Kaz. Kaz is here too. Of course,” he muttered, shouldering his backpack uncomfortably.
Kaz didn’t look up, seemingly fully engrossed in his calculations.
Matthias grimaced. “I’d leave before he sees you, you know he’ll put two and two together –”
Wylan nodded furiously, backing up and tripping over his own feet in his efforts to get away. “You’re so right, I’ll just leave you to it –” he rambled before turning and basically running out of the library.
Matthias tapped the table to get Kaz’s attention.
Kaz looked up slowly, his eyes taking longer to get off his formulas than it took his head to lift. He took off the headphones cautiously, as if truly afraid to overhear even one more second of kissing. “Gone?” he verified softly.
Matthias nodded. “Gone,” he promised.
Kaz unhooked the Bluetooth connection and handed the headphones back over. “Thank. You,” he said haltingly, a blush hitting the tips of his ears.
“No problem. Your leg good enough to get to your diclofenac?” Matthias changed the subject.
Kaz nodded slowly as he packed up. “I think so,” he said, standing to test it. Then he nodded firmly. “Yes.”
Matthias stood as well, shouldering his own backpack and following Kaz out of the library, pretending he wasn’t staying close in case Kaz didn’t make it to his dorm.
“I just really hope Wylan’s not there,” Kaz sighed as Matthias held the library doors open for him.
“Why not?” Matthias asked.
Kaz shot him a look. “Wylan’s a good liar, but a terrible secret keeper,” he grumbled, leaning on his cane more than usual.
“What secret would he be spilling?” Matthias asked tentatively.
Kaz grimaced. “The one where he made out with Jesper in a library incredibly loudly within my earshot,” he said shortly, pushing ahead. “I’m not interested in having that conversation.”
Matthias laughed. “Of course you knew,” he shook his head at himself for thinking he hadn’t.
Kaz threw him a quick smirk.
Wylan wasn’t in the dorm, a fact that made Kaz sigh and sink into a chair in obvious relief .
Matthias smiled to himself and helped him find his pain cream.

Chapter Text

I thought I was the only one who likes the waffle station in the cafeteria

Nina sighed, arching her back. She clasped her fingers together to stretch them out, popping them. She glanced at her phone to check the time and see how long she had been working on her stupid English assignment.
Noon.
2 hours later and time for lunch.
She snapped her book shut, half-hazardly putting her papers back inside her binder and placing her pencil on top of it. Nina picked up her backpack and plopped it on the seat she just vacated so no one would steal her spot.
She grabbed her wallet from one of the side pockets and flounced out of the library, heading for her favorite place in the whole school: the waffle station at the cafeteria.
A blond-haired man seemed to be heading for the cafeteria as well but he kept glancing over his shoulder every now and then, as though making sure no one followed him.
He also seemed to be following her, which was weird, but she shrugged it off because this was college and people always did weird things.
When she reached the counter, Anika greeted her with a simple “The regular?”
Nina nodded, smiling. “Yep.”
Visiting the waffle station 3 times a day made Nina well-known at the station and she knew Anika well.
She pulled out her card and waited for Anika to authorize the amount before inserting her card.
Someone came up behind Nina and she heard the panting in their breath.
A man’s voice muttered something about waffles and Nina couldn’t help but peek over her shoulder to see who stood behind her.
The blond-haired man she had seen sneaking into the cafeteria stood behind her and Nina couldn’t help but be surprised. After all, as far as she knew, she seemed to be the only one who liked the waffle station.
Anika handed Nina her order and as Nina turned around holding her waffles, she caught the man’s eye and she smiled at him.
He blushed and something clicked inside her brain.
She knew he looked vaguely familiar. It was Matthias from her English 201 class. She had flirted with him a few times, so she recognized that blush, but she would also ask him questions about the assignment because she needed clarification and she knew that he knew the answer. She also liked the way he explained things. He always looked so confident and enthusiastic whenever he answered her questions.
Nina raised an eyebrow. “I thought I was the only one who came here.”
He shrugged as if saying Now you know.
“Well, I guess now I have to share my waffles with you,” she said, winking. Matthias blushed.
“I do have a question to ask.”
Matthias seemed to prick his ears, as though waiting excitedly for her to ask her question, the way she always did whenever she said she needed to ask him something.
“Why were you looking over your shoulder earlier? It was kinda strange.”
Matthias rolled his eyes and folded his arms, scowling slightly. “That’s because I don’t want my roommate making fun of me. He always teases me for coming here and always says he’s gonna shout out the reason to the whole school so everyone knows.”
Nina giggled and Matthias looked like he wanted to glare but instead, his blue eyes seemed to light up at her laugh.
“Why do you come here then?”
The twinkle in his eyes disappeared as he blushed again and looked down, mumbling, “I only come here to see you.”
His words both surprised and flattered her. She smiled, saying, “I wouldn’t mind coming here just to see you again either.”
His blush deepened, but he smiled at her and his blue eyes glowed. “I’ll be waiting here for you tomorrow. Until then,” he finished, bowing.
She giggled and curtsied. “It’s a date.” Nina winked at him before walking away, waffles in hand, grinning widely.
She just got a date with a sweet gentleman who seemed to love waffles as much as she did.
It was a match made in waffle heaven.

Chapter Text

we are both donating blood in the blood donation van in the quad to get out of the same class

Jesper skipped down the stairs, exiting the main building to get out to the quad, searching for his destination by standing on his tiptoes to see over the heads of various milling about students.
There.
He ran for the blood donation van at the edge of the sidewalk, then decided that maybe that would mess up his blood enough that he wouldn’t qualify. He knew nothing about blood, but that seemed like it could be correct, so he slowed down.
He walked casually up to the small line, standing and catching his breath behind a familiar looking woman.
Wait a minute.
He tapped her shoulder, and she turned to look at him, her green eyes sparkling and her mouth full.
“Hmm?” Nina asked around whatever she sucked on.
“It’s…Jesper,” he introduced himself, and her eyes flashed with recognition.
“Oh!” she said, swallowing her food – or candy, he corrected himself as she pulled out another lemon drop and fiddled with it before popping it into her mouth. “Shouldn’t you be in Chem?”
Jesper laughed. “As if you’re not also supposed to be in Chem,” he said lightly.
She laughed. “True,” she admitted, rolling her candy around her tongue as the line moved up a few inches.
Someone came into line behind him and he stepped a little closer to Nina.
She noted him closing in on her with vague interest, but said nothing about it, choosing instead to say in a cheerful voice, “Well, Professor Rollins can’t say we weren’t at least being productive.”
The line moved up another person and Nina waved cheekily at him before being whisked to the side.
Jesper tapped his foot on the ground. He wasn’t impatient, he just needed to fidget and he’d left his fidget ring in his dorm that morning.
“Well, you’re surprisingly eager to be giving blood,” the person behind him commented.
He turned and looked into the bluest eyes he’d ever seen. “Not eager to get it done,” he argued. “Eager to get it over with.”
“Ah,” the short man said knowingly, giving him a shy smile Jesper could’ve sworn he’d seen before. “Perhaps you should be less eager. Chem class isn’t over for another twenty minutes.”
Jesper frowned. “Are you in our Chem class?” he asked point blank, scrutinizing the cute guy up and down.
“No, I’m in the Chem class after yours,” he said, fiddling with the straps on his backpack, ducking his head.
“Next?” the volunteer waved Jesper forward in the corner of his eye.
Jesper jumped around, following the woman around the side, his eyes staying on the other man for far longer than was strictly necessary.
“Don’t worry, you can go back to your boyfriend in a minute,” the woman said easily, sitting him down and tying a piece of rubber around his upper arm. A tourniquet? Was that what they were called? She wiped the inside of his arm with an alcohol pad.
“He’s not my…” he trailed off, craning his head around her to see if he could see that guy again.
The woman chuckled, pulling out a very long looking needle. “Do you need me to do anything?”
Jesper looked back at her, snapping his focus back at the task at hand. “W-What?”
The woman smiled. “Do you need to prepare in any way? Have me count to three? Watch the needle go in –?”
“-- oh, no, I’ll just keep looking for my future boyfriend,” he declined quickly. “Do it quickly.”
The woman nodded. “Try not to move,” was all she said before a pinprick seared into his arm. He gritted his teeth, but held still, not eager to do anything to mess this up.
It took longer than he’d anticipated to collect a good bit of his blood, but by the time she’d handed him a juice box and crackers, Jesper had found the cute guy…when he sat down at a station next to him.
The woman moved on to the cute guy after disposing of the needle in a large red sharps container.
Jesper took longer than necessary sipping at his juice box, sitting next to where the other man whispered to the woman.
The woman nodded along, saying something quietly to him in response.
Jesper stood at the same time the short man did. “Uh, not gonna get your blood donated?” he asked as they walked back around the van to get to the quad. Jesper munched on his crackers.
“Sometimes they let me donate, sometimes they won’t, it usually depends on…specific factors,” the cute guy said abruptly, eyes ahead and perhaps deliberately not on Jesper’s.
Jesper threw away his cracker package and juice box container as they passed a trash can. “So, is it time for your Chem class yet?”
The cute guy smiled. “If I get going now, I should make it in time,” he said, making no move to do so.
Jesper grinned saucily. “Well, if my Chem class can wait, so can yours. What’d you say we ditch yours too and get something to eat? Donating blood makes me hungry,” he invented.
The cute guy ducked his head, turning slightly away as if embarrassed. “I can skip one Chem class,” he agreed, fiddling with the straps of his backpack again.
“Sweet,” Jesper said triumphantly, heading for the waffle station where he could see Nina again.
“I’m…Wylan,” said the cute guy, and Jesper smiled down at him as they approached the line for waffles.
“Jesper,” he returned, and then tapped Nina on the shoulder.
She turned, sucking on another lemon drop. “Hey, Jesper. Wylan,” she greeted.
Wylan waved shyly.
Jesper’s eyebrows scrunched. “You know each other?”
Nina nodded. “Yeah, he’s in the Chem class right after ours. It’s way more advanced,” she offered.
Jesper turned to look at Wylan, who ducked his head again. “So you’re a science nerd,” he summarized.
Wylan shrugged. “I’m a science guy, yes,” he said, pulling at the buckles on his backpack straps.
The line moved ahead.
Jesper wanted to know more about Wylan and his apparent affinity for science, so he ended up asking the first thing that came to mind, namely: “What’s your favorite element?”
Wylan’s eyes lit up. “Oh!” he exclaimed a little too loud. “Oh, that’s a good question. Um,” he mused, eyes darting around as he thought.
Cute, Jesper’s brain supplied.
Quiet, you, he ordered it.
“Oh! Gallium!” Wylan crowed, and Jesper laughed at his enthusiasm.
Wylan blushed.
Cute, Jesper’s brain insisted.
Alright, he conceded. Cute.

Chapter Text

Wait I actually have a competent lab partner?

Inej groaned as Professor Haskel announced to the class that they would be doing another lab assignment on copper and nitric acid.

With a partner.

Inej let her head drop onto her crossed arms on the table and sighed out her disappointment. The past three lab assignments with partners had ended in Inej doing all the work because her partners were all guys who either let her do all the work and didn’t care about it, only wanting a good grade or they didn’t know anything about the topic because they never paid attention in class and wanted her to do it for them simply because of her gender.

She hated it and really didn’t want to have to deal with another lab partner who only cared about getting a good grade and could care less about her.

As Professor Haskel went down his list of partners, Inej inwardly cringed, waiting for her name to be paired with a guy's and get this over with.

“...Wylan Van Eck and Jesper Fahey!”

Inej briefly raised her head to glance at Wylan, who blushed when the man called Jesper winked at him and scooted closer in his seat toward Wylan.

She smiled to herself, happy for her friend. She had been trying to get Jesper to notice Wylan for a while now, after her friend had confided to her that he wanted to get to know Jesper more because he really liked him.

Inej had done her best, “accidentally” pushing Wylan into Jesper while walking in the halls, “coincidentally” leaving one of her binders on Jesper’s desk so Wylan would have an excuse to talk to Jesper, and “conveniently” texting Wylan that she needed help with a Chemistry assignment, suggesting to meet up at the cafeteria and then ditching him to tell Jesper the same thing so they would both end up in the same place and “have” to work on the assignment together.

So far, her efforts had only partially worked, getting Jesper to actually greet Wylan every day instead of not noticing him and asking Wylan a question about whatever assignment they were supposed to be working on.

Now, Inej was nervous about her own predicament, anxious to just get this stupid lab done and over with.

Professor Haskel glanced down at his list one more time before announcing the last pair of students.
“And Inej Ghafa and Nina Zenik!”

Inej perked up, relieved that the name tagged along with hers wasn’t male. It was female, which meant she might actually have someone who would help her with the assignment and not slack off the whole time, letting Inej do all the work.

“Everyone, please have one of the partners come up to the podium and grab the assignment sheet before getting started on the lab. You will have the remainder of today and all of class tomorrow to work on this lab, so use your time wisely. Now get to work!”

Inej walked up to the podium, weaving through the other students, and snatched a worksheet off the tilted surface before returning to her seat.

She had just plopped down when she spotted a brown-haired girl walking up to Professor Haskel, her face curious as she said something. The professor nodded before pointing a finger at Inej and responding.

The girl nodded and then turned away from him, her green eyes scanning the room until they landed on Inej and she smiled as she walked up to her.

“Hi! Inej, right?”

Inej nodded, returning the girl’s happy smile. “Yeah. I suppose you’re Nina?”

The girl nodded. “Yep! Now,” she said as she sat down on the empty seat next to Inej, “why don’t we get started on the assignment before Jesper thinks he’s high and mighty just because he got teamed up with Mr. I’m-so-good-at-Chemistry-I-don’t-even-need-to-be-in-this-class.”

Nina rolled her eyes and Inej couldn’t help but giggle at her comment. “No kidding. But at least Wylan doesn’t rub it in everyone’s faces. He’s really proud of the fact that he’s so good at Chemistry, but because he doesn’t know how to read, he knows that it’s really hard for other people so he sees no point in doing something like that.”

Nina raised her eyebrows and glanced at Wylan and Jesper, who were currently leaning over the assignment, heads together while Wylan’s face turned red.

“He doesn’t know how to read? Huh. Never would’ve guessed, but then again,” she said, turning back to look at Inej, green eyes twinkling, “he’s got a smart friend like you who’s also my lab partner so I shouldn’t be surprised that he’s doing so well in the first place.”

Inej smiled and shrugged. “You’d be the first. My past lab partners have been…less than full of praise and I had to do everything myself, so at least I now have someone who actually appreciates my efforts.”

Nina scoffed, waving a hand. “They clearly don’t know a thing about women. Now, let’s go over the material so we can kick their butts,” she said, green eyes twinkling as she jerked a thumb backward in the direction of Wylan and Jesper.

Inej nodded, smiling and very glad that her new lab partner was actually going to help, eager to go through this process with someone as kind and spunky as Nina Zenik.

Chapter Text

you deck me in the head while you’re playing frisbee golf

Wylan didn’t have a very long bucket list. It was fairly modest, as bucket lists went.
Getting decked in the head with a frisbee wasn’t on his bucket list, but he might have to add it just to cross it off.
“Ouch!”
The world went white, then black, and his feet stopped carrying him.
At least the grass was soft, he found himself thinking as he hit the ground it covered head on.
“Ow,” he mumbled, his hazy arm coming up to dab at where a suspiciously wet spot had appeared on the back of his head.
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” someone stood over him, chanting the words like a preemptive prayer in case Wylan suddenly gained enough awareness to kill the offender.
“‘Oh my god’ is right, what the hell was that throw?”
“Shut up, he looks actually injured,” the first voice said, clearly panicking.
The second voice scoffed. “If he can get actually injured from a plastic frisbee, maybe he deserves to be hit in the head with one.”
Wylan wanted to protest, but found he couldn’t say much of anything at the moment.
“I’m gonna – should he stay there? Like, should I…help him stand up?”
“You can do as you please, but if you think I’m helping you –”
“– I didn’t even ask! Okay, I’m gonna help him stand up.”
“You do that.”
Strong arms helped haul Wylan to his shaky feet.
“Oh, god, Kaz, I made him bleed,” the first voice said. Something firm patted near the wound Wylan could intimately feel throb under what he thought might be fingertips.
“So? Make him stop bleeding? I don’t understand how that’s my problem,” the second voice said callously.
Wylan gave a low whine as his entire head took a turn throbbing.
“Hey, you okay? God, Kaz, what do I do –?”
“– take him to someone who knows what they’re doing? Why am I suddenly Google?”
“Okay, it’s okay, I’m just gonna take you to a nursing student. I can find one. I can –”
The person supporting his arms let go of one of them, and he distantly realized they were talking into a phone.
“Nina? Okay, this is so stupid, but I just hit someone in the back of the head with a frisbee and he’s bleeding, and I don’t know what to do –” the voice panicked higher and higher in timbre. “Okay. Okay, I can do that.”
Wylan’s knees tasted the grass again, scraping his shins across the firm ground as he fell again.
“God, I’m sorry, hang on –”
Something pressed against the back of his head. Something soft.
Wylan knelt half propped up by his accidental attacker, trying to blink away the dizziness. “So…rry…” he tried to explain, but the person holding him up gave a high pitched, shrill giggle.
“You’re apologizing? Dude, I’m the one who should be apologizing.”
“No, I mean…I don’t heal…fast,” Wylan stammered, his vision clearing enough to look wonderingly up at the incredibly handsome face peering down at him.
“I don’t know what that means,” the cute guy admitted, and Wylan had to admit he wasn’t making as much sense as he’d been meaning to.
“I’m…oh, never mind,” he mumbled, bringing his hand up to feel where the soft thing pressed against his wound. “What’s –?” He blinked the rest of the stars and other floating lights out of his sight so he could peer up at the hesitant smile of the man keeping him from face planting on the grass turf. He felt around the soft thing, trying to determine what it was.
“Sorry, it’s my extra pair of socks,” the cute guy said, as if the sentence made a lick of sense. Wylan wasn’t sure if it was just the head injury, but he wondered how much sense it would’ve made to him if he didn’t have one. “I mean, I packed extra socks for after I – never mind, the point is, they’re clean and I didn’t wanna get my hands bloody. You know how it is,” he grinned down at him.
Wylan nodded vaguely. “Valid,” he mumbled, and the man laughed.
“I just…blood’s not my favorite. Feeling any better?”
Wylan nodded slowly. No sense in making himself tip over anymore than he already was. “What’s your…name?” he finally finished.
The man smiled down at him, a radiant sun to Wylan contrasting the actual sun trying to peek around this gorgeous man’s head.
Because he was. Gorgeous, that is. And also radiant. A literal sun? Unlikely, Wylan thought hazily.
“I’m Jesper,” said the gorgeous man with the figurative sun of a smile.
“W-Wylan,” Wylan managed before pitching forward to face plant the grass anyway.
“Oh, god, sorry, I didn't realize you were –” Jesper started, but Wylan could only focus on squinting to look at Jesper’s nice face again. “What?”
Wylan didn’t have a very long bucket list. Getting a date with a really cute guy happened to be on it already, but getting one with this cute guy? A brand new entry.
He hoped he’d get to cross it off.

Chapter Text

We started racing up the three flights of stairs to class for some reason and we can’t stop

Matthias panted at the top of the stairs, hands on his knees as he hunched over.

The girl didn’t even look slightly winded as she adjusted her long braid that lay across her shoulder and started walking down the hall.

“I’ll beat you next time!” Matthias called after her.

She glanced back and smiled at him, her dark eyes gleaming. “Challenge accepted.”

Matthias smiled as he straightened and started after her, adjusting his backpack straps on his shoulders as they entered the classroom.

They met at the bottom of the stairs the next day, staring intently at each other for a few seconds as they entered their usual stances before she yelled, “Go!”

Matthias rushed forward, stretching his tall legs and leaning forward, bouncing the weight of his backpack between his shoulders.

He leaped up the steps, easily overcoming the first flight of stairs and leaving the girl behind two steps farther than yesterday.

Matthias considered it a win if he could get ahead of her even a little bit. If it happened to be only one or two steps, then so be it. He still got ahead of her.

Footsteps rushed behind him and Matthias pushed further, quickly reaching the middle of the second flight of stairs.

But she had already gotten there and was running up the start of the third flight.

The last flight.

Matthias leaped over four steps, barely managing to stop himself from tripping over his feet.

He reached out a hand, carefully but swiftly tugging on the jacket she wore, bringing her to speed with him.

She stumbled a little but kept her pace and shot him a playful glare.

He smiled innocently at her before pushing past her, springing his legs and launching forward.

His feet landed with a painful thud at the top of the stairs but he used the step bar to balance himself.

Matthias turned around triumphantly as the girl reached the last step, panting softly.

"How dare,” she glared but the twitch of her lips let him know she didn’t really mean it.

He shrugged. “What can I say? I guess I’m faster than you thought.” Matthias winked at her and she fully smiled, her dark eyes twinkling as she poked his side and he laughed.

“Matthias! What are you doing? You’re gonna be late for – ”
Nina’s voice broke off as she spotted the girl standing next to Matthias, her green eyes lighting up. “Inej!”

The girl – Inej apparently – turned toward Nina and her smile grew. “Nina!” She hugged her and then pulled away, doing some sort of secret handshake that looked complicated.

Matthias gave up trying to figure it out after step 3.

Nina glanced at Matthias before turning back to Inej. “What are you doing with Matthias?”

Inej half shrugged, half smiled. “It’s just something we do. We started doing it at the beginning of last semester and we couldn’t stop. I’ve beaten him a lot but there were a few times, like today, where he managed to beat me using trickery.” Her brown eyes sparkled and she poked his stomach again.

Matthias laughed a little at the contact but slowly moved away from her so she wouldn’t poke him anymore.

Nina scoffed, waving her hand. “Pfft! I’m sure it’s not that hard. I mean, Wylan could probably do it.”

Matthias raised his eyebrows at his girlfriend and inhaled sharply. “I don’t know, Nina. Inej is pretty fast. I don’t think you or Wylan could do it. Jesper maybe, but not Wylan.”

Nina’s own eyebrows rose and she got a familiar spark in her green eyes that made him groan internally. “Oh yeah? Try me. In fact,” she said, eyes narrowing in challenge, “let’s all five of us try it. Tomorrow, we meet at the bottom of the stairs and we race each other.”

This time, Matthias couldn’t suppress his groan, and face palmed while Inej laughed.

“Let’s do it, Matthias. Come on,” Inej said, reaching up to playfully punch his shoulder. However, because of her height, it felt more like a soft jab rather than a punch.

Inej’s smile won him over and he sighed, trying really hard to suppress his own smile from stretching across his face.

He dragged a hand down his face and rested it on his chin, glancing only at Nina before finally giving his decision.

"Fine.”
Nina cheered and Inej’s smile widened.

“You three! Class. Now!”

Professor Rollins glared at the three students standing at the top of the stairs and whipped a finger toward the classroom door.

Matthias shared a look with Inej and Nina, who smiled and giggled before they finally walked toward the classroom.

As he passed the professor, he could’ve sworn he heard him mumble, “Students these days and their stupid competitions.”

Matthias smiled to himself as he entered the room and sat down, eager to see how the next day would play out.

Matthias met Inej at the bottom of the stairs as usual the next day but they were joined by Nina’s delightful grin, Jesper’s cocky finger guns, and Wylan’s hesitant smile.
The five of them stood in their stances and waited for the signal as some students passing by gave them all a weird look.

“Go!”

Inej’s voice started them off in a frenzy of delighted shrieks and giggles but Matthias only gazed ahead, risking a glance at Inej, whose brown eyes twinkled with a challenge, and rushed forward, determined to not let her beat him.

Not this time.

Chapter Text

my friend dragged me to this party, and I just saw my ex quick make out with me

Jesper rolled his eyes as Inej dragged him down the hallway, stumbling over someone’s foot as they lay propped up against the wall, legs sticking out. “Where are we even going?”
Inej laughed. “To the kitchen,” she said. “There’s someone I want you to meet.”
Jesper rolled his eyes again. “And this person is in the kitchen?”
Inej shot him a look. “Should be,” she said cheerfully, continuing to lead him.
They made it to the kitchen soon after, Inej pointing proudly to the fridge. “There he is. Go say hi,” she commanded.
Jesper laughed, pointing at the fridge. “What’s the fridge’s name?” he teased.
Inej scoffed. “Not the fridge. The guy,” she stressed, moving his pointed finger until it lined up with –
Oh. Hello.
He dropped his arm, walking over to the guy standing by the fridge. Too late, he turned around to face where Inej’s face resembled a self satisfied smirk. “What’s his name?” he shouted over the music.
She gave him a sly look. “Why don’t you ask him? I’m sure it’d be a great conversation starter,” she said wickedly, turning on her heel and deserting him to his own devices.
He scoffed to himself, hands on his hips, and turned on his heel, sauntering over the timid looking man. “Hey,” he said, grabbing a cup from the counter as if that had been his entire plan for coming over here.
The man looked at him with wide blue eyes. “Hey,” he breathed.
Jesper grinned. “What might your name be?”
The guy swallowed thickly, his eyes wandering unsubtly all over Jesper’s body. “W-Wylan,” he stammered.
Jesper held out his hand. “Jesper. Pleased to make your acquaintance,” he said.
Wylan shook his hand carefully, as if he were afraid it might explode. “Pleased to make…yours,” he mumbled into his cup.
“Do you happen to know someone named Inej?” he had to make sure.
Wylan nodded enthusiastically. “I do. We have the same English class this semester,” he explained.
“Aha,” Jesper said brightly. “What would you say to –?” he began, his eyes mostly scanning Wylan’s body in return when he saw something in the background. “Oh, hell.”
Wylan started to turn to see what he was groaning at. “What’s –?”
“-- kiss me,” Jesper pleaded.
Wylan turned back around, eyes wider if that was even possible. “W-What?” he squeaked.
“Please kiss me,” Jesper asked again, trying to hide from the grinning woman and the tall, broad man on her arm. “I just – my ex – right there – quick, make out with me?” he asked again, searching the man’s eyes for signs that he’d have to duck behind the counter instead.
Wylan’s eyes turned sharp and he nodded just as curtly.
Jesper pressed their mouths together, kissing Wylan like there was no tomorrow.
Wylan’s little gasps against him between every movement made him buzzy down to his toes.
He pulled away to see if Nina was watching.
“Hell,” he whispered, going back in for more, acutely aware that she stood stock still just outside the kitchen, watching him kiss a cute guy.
Both of Wylan’s hands came up and cupped his face.
It made him feel precious, and he wanted more.
He grabbed Wylan’s hips to pull him closer, earning himself a small startled noise that he swallowed like fresh air. “Okay?” he murmured against his lips.
Wylan gave a quick nod before pressing up against him again, his body leaning forward and surging up to keep kissing him.
Jesper’s head spun as they kissed. He forgot why exactly they were kissing in the first place until Wylan pulled away and whispered, “Good?”
It took Jesper a moment to realize what he was asking. He raised his eyes to see where Nina frowned and turned away, talking to the blond man she’d brought with her as if she didn’t care.
And maybe she didn’t.
Jesper nodded, slowly, reluctantly disentangling himself from Wylan. “Good,” he said a little dismally.
“We can…we could…keep going, if you wanted,” Wylan said, blushing so bright he might as well have been the lightbulb hanging above them.
Jesper shot him a saucy smirk. “That good, huh?” he said gleefully.
Wylan looked down.
Jesper gently grabbed the tip of his chin, lifting his head back up. “We can keep going, if you wanted,” he echoed.
Wylan’s eyes shone. He dove back in, his soft, wet lips meeting Jesper’s again.
His toes tingled again as they kissed.
Wylan’s hands cupped his face again, and he could’ve died right then and there of happiness if not for the fact that Wylan still kissed him.
He wanted to keep kissing Wylan.
So he didn’t die.
He just kissed him.

Chapter Text

You’re really good at using the right search terms for the academic databases and I am on a deadline

Inej ran a hand through her hair, staring frustratingly at the calculus equations and her handwriting, not quite sure where to move the three and if she should even move it in the first place.

Maybe move it by the forty? Or maybe the twenty-three?

Inej sighed, her frustration seeping into her hand until she almost snapped her pencil in half, sick of these stupid equations.

She finally threw her pencil down and it clicked against the library table before bouncing off and landing on the floor.

She sighed again and scooted her chair back, leaning down to pick it up.

A familiar pair of brown shoes appeared in front of her and she raised her gaze to see an anxious Jesper looking down at her.

Inej straightened and placed her pencil on top of her paper, gesturing with a hand to the seat in front of her.

Jesper threw down his backpack and plopped down in the seat, leaning his forehead against his clapped hands.

“What’s up?” she asked as a way of greeting.

Jesper sighed and moved his head, resting his chin on his hands. His gray eyes were anxious and one of them twitched slightly.

“Jesper, what did you do?” she warned, not in the mood for guessing games.

Her stupid calculus assignment had almost fried her brain and she really didn’t want to play the usual game of trying to think about what Jesper could’ve done this time.

“I didn’t do anything!” he protested, his eyes widening.

Inej raised an eyebrow, not really believing him.

He sighed again.

Inej almost sighed with him. They both seemed to be sighing a lot today.

“I didn’t do anything bad per se, I just didn’t do…something that I probably should’ve done last week,” he said, mumbling the last few words.

“Jesper! We talked about this,” Inej said, brow furrowing with worry.

“I know, I know, I just…may have lost track of time last Friday when I should’ve been working on the assignment.”

Inej smiled, her dark eyes twinkling. “Oh really? And did it have to do with a certain blue-eyed, curly-haired blond?”

Jesper’s cheeks flushed, confirming her suspicions.

"Oh, Jesper,” she said, shaking her head in mock disappointment, though some of it was real.

"Please help me,” he said, gray eyes pleading. “I’m on a deadline here and you’re really good at using the right search terms for the academic databases. Please help.”

Inej stared at him, pondering if she should let him deal with his own problems or help him.

After all, he had done this to himself. But then again, he probably really hadn’t meant to lose track of time on Friday.

Maybe she should help him out.

He really was a good student for the most part and always turned in his assignments on time, so if this one time he was on a deadline and really needed help…

“Okay. I’ll help you. Let’s go over to the computers.”

His gray eyes lit up. “Really? Thanks, ‘Nej!”

Inej smiled and left her calculus assignment strewn across the table to replace it with a computer and mouse while Jesper grabbed his backpack.

She sat in front of the screen with her feet crossed under her while Jesper took the empty chair next to her, placing his backpack next to his chair.

She logged into the computer and Jesper pulled out his binder and a pencil.

“What class is it for?”

“Uh, History 201. Our assignment is to find five different army generals who changed a specific army tactic or fighting style and how that change affected future armies in battle.”

Inej tilted her head, thinking for a moment before nodding. “I can work with that. Did the teacher give you names or do you have to think them up yourself?”

Jesper rolled his eyes. “Are you kidding? It’s Professor Geels! Of course he’s not going to give us names. You think he wants to make things easy?”

He snorted, as though the thought didn’t even make sense. “No, we have to find them ourselves. I did find five names on Friday that I think would work, so I did something on the assignment.”

Inej smiled and hovered her fingers on the keyboard. “First name?”

Jesper looked down at the paper in his open binder and tapped a bullet point with his pencil. “John Churchill.”

Her fingers danced across the keyboard, entering a brief sentence of ‘John Churchill fighting style’ and pressed enter.

A list of websites were listed across the screen and Inej read through the first three before clicking on the second website.

She read some of the main points to Jesper, who either nodded and wrote down what she said or shook his head and said that wouldn’t work.

They continued the pattern of him telling her the name he had chosen and her entering it into the database along with a very brief description of what she was looking for, then reading off the information and Jesper picking what he did and didn’t need.

Half an hour later, Jesper’s assignment was finished and he tossed his pencil down on his binder, stretching his arm.

Inej pushed herself away from the computer and laced her fingers together before pressing them together, the satisfying popping sound filling the air.

A hand touched her shoulder and she turned to see Jesper smiling at her, the anxious look in his eye no longer there, replaced with a relieved gleam.

“Thanks for helping me, Inej. I really appreciate it.”

Inej smiled and patted his hand. “No problem, Jesper.”

He removed his hand and put his binder and pencil back into his backpack before zipping it up.

Inej logged out and turned off the computer, standing and scooting her chair back in as Jesper stood and did the same, slinging his backpack over his shoulder in the process.

She walked back to the table where her calculus homework lay and groaned aloud as she sat down in her original chair. Jesper stood next to her, glancing at her papers.

"What class is this for?”

"Calculus,” Inej said hopefully, raising her eyebrows.

Jesper laughed and a nearby librarian shushed him, raising a delicate finger to her lips.

He winked at her and her cheeks slightly flushed before she hurriedly looked back down at her work.

Inej and Jesper shared a smile before he took the empty seat next to her, placing his backpack beside his chair leg.

“What are you having trouble with?”

Inej pointed with her pencil at the three, forty, and twenty-three.

"These guys. I don’t know where I need to move the three. I thought it had to go over with the forty, but when I added this equation,” she explained, pointing again with her pencil, “I thought it had to with the twenty-three. But now I don’t know. Because for this equation…”

She explained the rest of her problem and Jesper listened patiently, his brow furrowing in concentration.

"Well,” he said when she finished. “I think the three needs to go here,” he said, pointing to the twenty-three, “because you used this equation here.”

He continued to walk her through his thought process and by the end of it, she actually understood what the heck he was talking about.

“Thanks, Jes,” she said, smiling gratefully at him.
He returned the smile and reached forward, gently squeezing her hand.

"Anytime, ‘Nej.”

Chapter Text

my computer crashed and you’re the student worker at the IT center

Inej sighed and closed her computer. She needed to stop trying to fix it, because for all she knew, she’d just made it one hundred times worse.
She put the computer in her backpack, shouldering it as she exited her dorm. Heading for the student IT center on campus, she tried to come up with a good excuse for the contents of her computer.
Well, she really needed to come up with an explanation for what the problem even was.
A virus embedded into the PDF, probably. A glitch in her server?
Something funky was going on.
She opened the door to the IT center, but didn’t go through it. She just stood there until someone grumbled behind her and she forced her feet to carry her over to the line.
She waited anxiously in line for what felt like forever or maybe just two minutes.
Then she approached the desk to speak to the blonde student staring expectantly at her. The name badge read Anika, and Inej wondered how much she needed to even say.
“How can we help you?” she asked brightly.
Inej hesitated again. “Um, well, I think I accidentally downloaded a virus,” she described briefly.
Anika nodded along. “That sounds like a Kaz job,” she said confidently.
Inej almost asked what a Kaz job was when Anika turned and called into the backroom. “Oh, Kazzle Dazzle! I got a job for you,” she nearly sang.
The curtain covering the doorway rippled before a scowling man limped through it up to Anika, his frown digging deeply into his face. “Stop calling me that,” he snapped in a raspy voice.
Inej held her breath. She didn’t really want to deal with such a grumpy person, but then his eyes landed on hers.
And his scowl softened so much she almost believed it hadn’t been there in the first place. “Hey,” he said in a notably less harsh voice. “How can I help you?” he said rather stiltedly, as if he rarely asked it.
Inej decided to give a bit more detail to him as she unloaded her computer from her backpack. “I downloaded a PDF that I think had a hidden virus in it.”
He held out his – curiously gloved – hands to retrieve it.
She handed it to him, and he took it very carefully. As if it were precious.
Well, it was somewhat fragile, she supposed.
He jerked his head to his left. “Come over here,” he directed, limping over to a small station where she could sit down while he worked on it in front of her. “What was the file?” he asked as he opened the computer. “Pin?”
Inej rattled off her computer’s pin and hesitated again. “I’m actually a little worried you’re going to judge me. For the file,” she confessed nervously.
Kaz looked at her oddly. “I’m not allowed to judge the contents of the customer’s devices,” he said flatly.
She laughed a little, earning herself another, differently odd look. “Internally? Or out loud?”
He gave a crooked smile. “Mostly out loud,” he granted.
She forced herself to breathe. He seemed chill about all this, maybe it’d be okay –
“– I promise not to judge you or the contents of your files. I’m sure it’s fine though,” he shrugged. “You’d be surprised by the kinds of…material I’ve seen on these things. And you don't seem the type.” His eyes flitted quickly across her screen. “How big was the file?”
“Uh, I don’t know, maybe 10 MB?” she suggested.
“What about 13 MB?” he asked.
She frowned. “I don’t know. What’s that one?”
Kaz did something on the computer. “Okay, I don’t think this is the one. But I’ll say this: this is basically the opposite of some of the things I see on other people’s devices,” he said casually.
Inej chewed on her lip. “What do you mean? Which file was it?”
He looked over at her. Struck by how pretty his dark eyes were, she raised a questioning eyebrow. “Self defense stuff?”
She shook her head. “That’s not it,” she agreed.
“Okay,” Kaz said a little leadingly. “Mind telling me the correct contents?”
“It’s…it’s…” she trailed off.
Kaz looked at her almost kindly past his hard gaze. “I promised not to judge.”
“Sex trafficking statistics. And prevention…talking points,” she got out.
He nodded as if it didn’t surprise him. “Okay, cool,” he went back to his task. “I’m incredibly intrigued by the contents of your computer,” he said conversationally.
Inej blinked at him. “What?”
“Sex trafficking and self defense? You’re, like, really interesting,” he said almost to himself. He didn’t look at her, so Inej wondered how much he was talking to her computer and its files.
“I’m in a club for self defense,” she explained. He nodded along distractedly. “Maybe you should join.”
He looked sharply at her. “I’m…I’m kind of…I’m disabled,” he said through almost gritted teeth. “In a really specific way.” He looked a little angry now.
She ignored that in favor of explaining herself. “So? You can still learn self defense. I’d argue it’s even more important that you do.”
He looked at her in a third odd way. Like…like she was the most interesting and smartest person he’d ever met.
She didn’t know what to do with that, but then the expression left and she didn’t have to worry about it anymore.
“Hmm,” he said noncommittally, eyeing her. “Maybe I’ll look into it.”
Inej smiled at him. “Cool. We meet on Tuesdays. I hope to see you there sometime.”
Kaz looked back down at her computer. “Well, I think I found the problem – it’s actually a specific kind of virus that’s really hard to get rid of – so if you don’t mind, I’ll keep your computer overnight. You can pick it up in the morning?” He looked up at her now.
Inje nodded assent. “How much do I owe you?”
Kaz started to say something, but Anika came over at that moment to say, “Here, I’ll ring her up.”
He scowled at Anika. “I can ring her up,” he said in a brittle tone
Anika blinked in surprise. “Okay,” she said finally. “Be my guest.”
Kaz limped over to the cash register. He punched in some buttons with one hand, seeming to be writing something down with the other.
Finally, the total came up. Being way less than she’d been anticipating, she almost said something before noticing Anika’s expression.
The blonde woman looked like she wanted to say something as well, but finally looked away to deal with something else.
Inej paid quickly before someone could change the price, and Kaz handed her the receipt.
“You’ll be here tomorrow?” she confirmed quietly.
Kaz nodded. “I’ll be waiting for you,” he said mildly, staring into her eyes.
Anika’s face looked like something had just dawned on her.
Inej took her receipt and her empty backpack, and walked away. As she left the IT center, she unfolded the receipt to see where the discrepancy had been, only for something to fall out of it.
She picked up the scrap of paper from where it had fluttered to the ground.
It was a hastily scrawled phone number titled, “For general updates.”
She could almost guarantee that it wasn’t the number for the IT center itself. She had a floaty feeling it was Kaz’s cell phone.
She smiled to herself and walked home with an extra skip in her step, trying to decide when she should call for a “general update.”

Chapter Text

We’re always at the fitness center at the same time and end up competing on the treadmill

Jesper wiped his forehead, panting heavily as his feet skidded swiftly across the treadmill and his arms pumped at his sides.

Imagine Dragon’s Believer blasted in his ears through his Airpods, cheeks puffed up as he inhaled and exhaled quickly. Jesper stared straight ahead, focusing on breathing and moving his legs.

Something moved out of the corner of his eye and he turned his head slightly, trying not to fall off the treadmill in the process.

A familiar face panted next to him, her dark eyes narrowed and her own cheeks puffed up a little as a bead of sweat trickled down her temple.

Jesper knew her, and he knew that he did because he definitely saw her every time he was at the fitness center and they always seemed to end up competing on the treadmill but the way she ran seemed vaguely familiar.
Like he had seen her run somewhere else besides here.

She turned just then and caught his gaze, her eyes twinkling with a challenge.

Jesper grinned and nodded, urging his already weary legs into a full-blown sprint as she did the same, her body lithe and swift.

He pumped his legs faster, the numbers on the treadmill screen rising as his chest felt strained from the faster intake of breath, but he risked a glance at her.

Her face was tight and focused but he still saw the drops of sweat that ran down her face but whether she didn’t want to bother wiping them off while she ran or she didn’t notice them herself, he didn’t know.

Her focus was undeterred, her own numbers shooting up and quickly matching his own before her wet lips lifted in a small smile and the numbers lifted, much higher than his own.

Jesper’s chest became even more rigid and stars suddenly started dancing across his vision.

He caught her eye and shook his head, pressing a button to slow the treadmill until it finally came to a stop.

Jesper collapsed on the no longer moving treadmill, his side aching and he panted heavily as his chest heaved. His breathing sounded wheezy and his head spun a little from the effort he had put into his run.

He pulled his Airpods out of his ears and slipped them into his pocket, the music still blasting through the small speakers.

A small thud sounded next to him and he looked over to see the girl also sitting on her treadmill, resting her chin against her arms draped across her bent knees.

“...I…don’t…know…how…you…do…it,” he panted, taking huge gulps of air to try and stop the cold flow in his chest.

The girl shrugged but didn’t reply, her own chest rising and falling rapidly, her eyes closed as she exhaled shakily.

Jesper tapped a tired finger on her shoulder and her eyes slowly creaked open, resting her gaze on his face. He held up his hands in defeat, shaking his head.
“I really…don’t…understand how…you can…do that!” he got out, the slow air finally circulating through his lungs without the cold sting.

She shrugged again, but a small smile flitted across her lips, lighting up her weary face. Jesper managed to return the gesture before it fell and he leaned forward, inhaling a huge breath before slowly releasing it.

He wearily raised his head and stared at her profile, his brain itching with recognition but not quite able to figure it out.

The longer he stared at her, the more his brain focused on everything about her that seemed even remotely familiar. Her button nose and dark lips. Her long black lashes accentuated by her dark eyes. The long black braid nestled against her back and the occasional loose hair brushing her dusty red cheeks.

His mind suddenly clicked so hard that Jesper barely caught the name that popped inside his brain before it disappeared.

“Inej,” he whispered, testing the sound on his tongue and it registered a memory from a few weeks ago.

Running footsteps. Tired legs. Sweaty palms. A petite figure dashing in front of him, neck in neck with a blond head.

“Inej,” he repeated, louder this time and the girl turned at the sound.

She quirked an eyebrow and her dark eyes flashed with recognition. “Jesper,” she said, as though testing the name to see if it was the right one.

He nodded in response. “Yeah. I know you. From the stairs race.” He chuckled at the memory and the girl – Inej – smiled along, her eyes softening as though she too was remembering.

“You beat us so hard!” he laughed, playfully nudging her shoulder and her smile grew as her dark eyes lit up. “I still can’t figure out how you did it.” He paused, remembering something else from the race.

Jesper smirked and caught her eye. Inej tipped her head slightly. “What?”

He pointed to the treadmill. “Is this how you manage to keep one-upping Matthias on the stairs?”

Inej shrugged and smiled. “Yep.” Jesper laughed and she joined him, his deep and slightly throaty, hers light and tinkling.

After their laughter died, they both got up and stretched, Jesper’s long limbs overshadowing her shorter ones.

Jesper packed up his stuff into his duffle bag and Inej did the same as they chatted about classes and what they were doing for their projects for Professor Rollins’ class.

“See you later, Inej,” Jesper smiled, holding out a fist for her to bump. Her small hand gently hit his larger one and she returned the smile.

“Bye, Jesper. Don’t forget about our next race on Friday,” she added, her dark eyes twinkling. Jesper laughed and nodded. “For sure. See you later.”

She pulled away and waved as she walked out the door before turning her back on him. Jesper smiled at her disappearing figure and left the fitness center, pushing open the door and letting the cool breeze wash over him.

On Friday, Jesper grinned as Inej arched an eyebrow, both of their fingers poised to press the button. “Ready?” she asked, bending her finger against the button.

Jesper’s gray eyes twinkled. “Ready.”

“One, two, three!” they shouted in unison and slammed the button. The treadmills started up and Jesper’s legs, already used to the motions, bent quickly as his feet pounded against the treadmill.

“You can do it, Jes!” someone shouted from the group surrounding him and Inej.

Jesper glanced up from the treadmill’s screen and locked gazes with Wylan, who smiled and clapped while Nina whooped and jumped up and down. Matthias gave Jesper a small smile and nodded, his blue eyes sparkling.

Jesper grinned as other cheers erupted from the crowd. Anika shouted something at Inej, who nodded and smiled but scarcely took her gaze off of the treadmill’s screen. Rotty pumped a fist into the air, his face lighting up with excitement. The janitor, Specht, folded his arms and smiled at the scene, his expression full of fun.

Kaz sat in a corner, watching Inej with a soft look in his dark eyes and his face encouraging. His gaze caught Jesper staring at him and he scowled, the softness from before completely gone.

“Keep your eyes on your own screen, you podge!” he shouted at Jesper, who grinned as chuckles shifted through the crowd.

“Better keep your eyes on your girlfriend instead of her opponent. Maybe that’ll help her not lose!” Jesper yelled back, earning a variety of laughter from the group.

Kaz’s dark eyes flickered dangerously.

Jesper pretended he hadn’t just earned Kaz’s murderous wrath and ran faster.

Chapter Text

there’s a bouncy castle in the oval, and I am very excited!!!

Nina squealed, bouncing on her toes. “Wha –? When did this get here? Oh, Matthias, I have to go do this, come on, come on!” She tugged on his arm, finally getting the reluctant man to follow her to where a huge bouncy castle sat in the oval. A few other people filtered in and out of the entrance, but Nina didn’t care how many or which people had or hadn’t partaken in this joyous occasion.
She wanted to partake in it herself, and nobody – not even Matthias – was going to stop her.
Nina let go of his hand, running for the entrance like she was a small child and had never been in one before.
A giggling Wylan came out, falling on the ground as if beyond dizzy. Jesper followed him out, helping him up and escorting him away with a big grin on his own face.
Nina began to enter, only to accidentally bump into a small someone. “Oh! Sorry,” she apologized before the small woman turned to face her, a bright smile that sparkled her dark eyes. “Oh, hey, Inej!”
Inej beamed at her. “Nina! Let’s bounce together!” she suggested, pulling on Nina in much the same way she’d been yanking on poor Matthias’ arm.
“Yes!”
They entered, the floor immediately caving under them enough that Nina almost lost her balance.
There were a few people inside bouncing, one of whom Nina recognized as Anika, and one who Inej seemed to recognize because she waved at him and he gave her a cheeky wave back before continuing to bounce higher and higher.
Nina bounced Inej a little to see if she could get her off her feet.
But of course she couldn’t, Inej was a master at balance no matter the situation.
Inej gave her a sly smirk before suddenly bouncing Nina off her own feet.
Nina fell with a loud shriek, sprawled across the ground, lightly bouncing as the other people in the large space continued to bounce without a care in the world. “Oh, I’m gonna get you for that,” Nina said fake angrily.
Inej just laughed. They both knew it was as empty of a promise as you could get.
Nina went to the screened window, peering out as she jumped a little on the colorful edge. Outside, Matthias stood watching her, a smile plastered on his face as he watched her jump.
She waved at him.
He waved back, looking delighted.
Inej came up behind her, jumping a little on the edge with her. “Why isn’t Matthias in here?” she asked.
Nina shrugged. “Not sure,” she admitted.
Inej grinned. “Maybe he just likes seeing you so happy,” she suggested with a twinkle in her eye.
Nina smiled at her. “Why isn’t Kaz in here with you?” she returned, as if her sentence made any sense.
Inej laughed loudly. “As if,” she scoffed, leaping backwards into the middle of the area. “He can’t always keep balance on one foot on a good day, let alone in a bouncy castle. Could you imagine? Kaz, in a bouncy castle?”
They laughed at the mental image together, Nina wishing she could see it anyway.
“Or maybe he just likes seeing you so happy,” Nina echoed her, and Inej looked pleased until her expression turned thoughtful.
“You know…” she trailed off, looking pensive.
“What?” Nin asked, bouncing so high the top of her head brushed the ceiling.
Inej cocked an eyebrow with a growing smirk. “Maybe we could get him in here,” she said.
“What’s the plan?” Nina asked, immediately on board.
Inej shrugged. “I’m just gonna blackmail him, gimme a minute,” she said cheerfully, leaving Nina at the same time Anika and the other man left.
Nina bounced by herself for a bit until suddenly the entire bouncy castle vibrated. The entrance wobbled hesitantly before letting up as if nothing had happened.
She could hear Kaz saying something to Inej. She came a little closer to the doorway to hear better.
“– if anyone’s in there,” he said firmly.
“It’s just Nina,” Inej protested.
Kaz’s voice sounded tart. “You being there’s bad enough, you think Nina’s somehow better?”
Nina sniffed to herself but kept quiet. It sounded like Inej had Kaz on the brink of agreeing.
Inej said something quietly enough that Nina knew it was for Kaz’s ears only.
Finally, the entrance vibrated again, the entire thing wobbling as someone tried to limp into it.
Kaz’s red face appeared inside the main room, eyes avoiding Nina’s.
Nina stopped bouncing a little to give him a chance to figure himself out. She wasn't even moving anymore, but he glared at her like she was. “What?” she asked defensively.
Kaz scowled and said nothing, looking the most hesitant that Nina had ever seen him.
Inej came up behind him, walking carefully around him. “Hands?” she asked softly.
He nodded, putting out his hands. He didn’t have his cane with him – probably a good thing, it might’ve punctured the castle – but he did have his gloves, and he used them now to grab Inej’s hands tightly.
Inej walked backwards, getting him further in. “Okay, a little bounce,” she warned him, nodding at Nina.
Nina bounced without letting her feet leave the ground.
Kaz gritted his teeth, gripping Inej’s hands so tightly Nina wondered if they’d be sore later. His feet actually stayed on the ground, he didn’t fall.
Nina grinned. “Okay if I bounce a little higher?” she asked.
Kaz nodded jerkily, eyes moving rapidly from Inej’s face to his own shoeless feet.
Nina did bounce a little higher, but the movement was enough for Kaz to have to bend the knee that could in order to stay on his feet.
Nina continued to bounce a little, Kaz visibly getting used to her rhythm.
Until she stopped bouncing abruptly, which seemed to catch him entirely too off guard.
His eyes went wide as his feet slipped out from under him and he went down. Inej still held his hands. She crouched down with him instantly, whispering something to him as he swore loudly trying to get back up and failing.
He nodded at something Inej had said as Nina passed by him to leave. Her legs were incredibly tired already.
Nina hopped down out of the bouncy castle into the comparatively cooler air outside.
“Have fun?” Matthias asked with a grin.
Nina beamed at him. “Not as much fun as Kaz is trying to have,” she said gleefully.
Matthias laughed at that. “Yeah, Inej could persuade him to do just about anything,” he agreed comfortably, holding out his free hand for her to take. The other held Kaz’s cane.
She took it, loving the feeling of his strong palm against hers. They swung hands as they looked through the window to the bouncy castle where Kaz stood again inside. He held Inej like a lifeline as she cautiously bounced him until he shook his head at a suggestion and she nodded, helping him leave out the way they’d come.
Matthias walked forward, lightly pulling Nina along with him as he handed a scowling Kaz his cane again. Inej knelt and helped Kaz put his right shoe back on before smiling at him and taking his gloved hand again.
Nina touched Inej’s arm as they passed her. “Know if this’ll be here tomorrow?” she asked.
Inej shrugged. “I don’t know, but I can ask around,” she suggested.
Kaz hissed in what sounded like pain next to her and they continued past Nina and Matthias.
“I can’t believe I just did that,” Nina heard Kaz grumble as they left the open space.
Inej laughed. “Was it at least a little fun?”
Nina didn’t hear Kaz’s response, but Nina figured it was probably something dismissive.
Inej’s second laugh said otherwise.
Matthias looked down at her. “Want some waffles?”
Nina perked up. “Would I!” she shrieked, gaining attention from some of the other students. “Lead the way, good sir.” She held his hand primly.
“Follow me, my lady,” he chirped back, and they made their way to the waffle station where Matthias was a perfect gentleman and paid for her towering stack of them.

Chapter Text

What do you mean we’re under a tornado warning?

Kaz grumbled to himself, frustrated with the calculus equations because they refused to add up and go where they were supposed to go.

Scythian Suite Op 20 by Sergei Prokofiev blasted in his ears, completely drowning out the annoying chatter of the cafeteria and allowing him to actually focus on his assignment.

This is the last time I ever do this again.

But while he hated the arrangement, Inej had wanted to meet Nina in the cafeteria so they could talk about a History assignment and she wanted Kaz to come with her in case Nina had any questions that Inej couldn’t answer.

And he couldn’t say no to that, not when she smiled sweetly at him and looked at him with adoring brown eyes, making his stomach flip flop.

So here he was, working on his Calculus homework with both Airpods in because Nina said she didn’t have any questions for him before dragging Inej off to who knew where and leaving Kaz alone with his homework.

He sighed and tried moving the numbers again, but that just made it worse and ruined the entire equation. Kaz growled out loud and angrily erased what he had just written, swiping away the pieces of eraser from the page.

The music soared and something that sounded like an angry trumpet roared in his ears as he scribbled the first few steps he had done earlier before trying something different. He carried the four over and divided it with the two hundred and six, creating a new equation that was a lot more manageable than before.

Something violently shook his shoulder and he scuttled away from the hand, both repulsed and startled by the sudden contact.

He ripped his Airpods out of his ears and before he could even realize who was standing in front of him, he opened his mouth.

“What is your problem? Can’t you see I’m working on something? Why would you touch me like that any – ”

He broke off as he realized who had touched him and his anger level went from an eleven all the way down to zero.

“Oh. It’s you. What did you need me for – ?”

He paused at the frightened expressions etched into her and Nina’s faces.

“We’re under a tornado warning, Kaz!” Inej said urgently.

He frowned slightly. “What do you mean we’re under a tornado warning? There’s no – ”

A loud, obnoxious beep suddenly rang across the cafeteria and Kaz winced a little at the sound as it rang in his ears.

“Oh. That tornado warning.”

Inej stared at him like he had lost his mind a little while Nina looked over at the windows, her green eyes fearful.

Kaz put his Airpods back in their case and started putting his stuff away with Inej's help. His assignment went back into the binder pocket and his pencil slipped into its regular place in the side pocket of his backpack.

Inej closed the zipper and gave the backpack to Nina, who took it but slung it none too gently over her shoulder and Kaz scowled at her before using his cane to pull himself up.

He placed a hand on the table and tried to stand but his leg groaned and he fell back into his seat heavily. Inej held out a hand for him to take and he stared at it for a moment before he finally accepted it.

She got him to his feet and pulled her hand away, turning to Nina, who was twisting her fingers together nervously.

“Nina. The safe room downstairs.”

Nina turned to Inej and nodded.

Kaz took a step forward and almost fell over but he managed to catch himself on his cane. Inej shifted her worried brown eyes to him.

“Are you okay? ‘We’re gonna need to get to the shelter really quickly and I don’t want to push your leg too far.”

Kaz gritted his teeth. “I’m fine. Just lead the way.”

Inej fell back to stand beside him while Nina walked behind them as they exited the cafeteria and turned a corner.

There was a small flight of stairs in front of him and Kaz almost groaned out loud at the sight, not sure if his knee could take it.

He caught the guilty glint in Inej’s eyes but he gave her a curt nod and allowed her to help him down the steps. Nina’s steps followed slowly behind them and he could practically hear her nervousness in the click of her heels.

They got to the bottom of the stairs and Kaz looked down at the ground, panting from the effort as his leg screamed.

Inej’s voice broke through his panting. “One more flight of stairs.”

Kaz sighed heavily and prepared himself as he said, “Fine.”

Inej got him down the next set of stairs but as they got to the last step, Kaz hissed with pain and his leg nearly buckled from under him but Inej caught him, her hand gripping his wrist and shifting his cane so it was more supportive.

Just as quickly as she had touched him, she snatched her hand away. “Sorry. Instinct.”

Kaz shook his head. “It’s okay.”

Nina suddenly rushed down the steps towards Inej, her face frightened and her green eyes wide. “We need to get into the room now. The windows are starting to shake.”

Inej carefully led Kaz into the safe room that stood in front of them and Nina shut the door behind her, breathing a short, audible sigh of relief.

Inej led Kaz toward one of the chairs that stood near the door and he sat down heavily as his leg throbbed painfully. Nina took a seat on the floor and pulled her knees toward herself, wrapping her arms around them. Inej sat down next to Kaz and gazed at him, her brown eyes soft.

“How does your leg feel?”

He half shrugged, trying not to growl at the pain. “It’s still really bad but it does feel a little bit better now that I’m sitting. It’s gonna be a while, though, until I can stand again.”

“That’s okay. We can stay here as long as you need to.”

Kaz sent her a tiny smile before another painful throb attacked his knee and he hissed again in pain.

The door was suddenly thrown open and Jesper, Wylan, and Matthias came barreling into the room, all three of them panting heavily as Matthias closed the door behind them.

Wylan and Jesper collapsed next to the door while Matthias walked over to Nina and sat down next to her.

Relief washed over Nina’s face and she uncurled herself, throwing her arms around Matthias and starting to cry. Matthias gently rubbed her shoulder, a soft look on his face.

Wylan leaned his head on Jesper’s shoulder and Jesper rested his own head on top of Wylan’s with his eyes closed as he panted. Wylan reached out and held his hand.

Kaz turned to Inej, who was bent over on her seat, cradling her hands in her face with her shoulders shaking. He hesitated, trying to figure out how much he could handle, desperately wanting to comfort her but at the same time, not wanting the contact.

Just do it! It’ll only be for a few seconds. You’re fine. It’s not going to be skin-to-skin contact, so stop freaking out!

Kaz growled to himself before slowly stretching out a hand and touching her shoulder. Inej jerked away from the contact and pulled her hands away from her face.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, already regretting it. He started taking his hand away but she sat up and gently took it, pulling it back towards her. Her soft brown eyes met his dark ones.

Her cheeks were wet and her lashes clung to her skin.

“What’s wrong?” he asked gently, briefly squeezing her hand.

“I just - I was so worried about getting to the safe room and even though we’re here, I’m - I’m still really scared that something’s going to happen,” she answered quietly, her voice trembling slightly. “I know that’s stupid but – ”

Kaz interrupted her. “It’s not stupid, it’s completely valid, but it’s okay. We’re safe. Nothing’s going to happen to us in here. If you need to,” he added, his chest tightening at the thought but he pushed it away, “just keep holding my hand. It’s okay.”

Inej stared, her eyes wide. “But I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or make you freak out.”

“Don’t worry about it. I can take it. Just keep holding my hand.”

Inej gave him that sweet smile he loved so much and his heart fluttered.

Her hand stayed in his, warm and real, not cold and dead, as Kaz focused on how well her small hand fit so well in his and how he wanted to keep holding it forever.

Chapter Text

I’ve ordered takeout every night this week and you always seem to be my delivery person

Matthias sighed, closing the fridge again.
“I don’t know what you’re doing other than wishing something would magically appear, but stop it. It’s cold enough as it is,” Kaz’s bitter voice came from behind him, and Matthias sighed again, walking out of the empty kitchen so he wouldn’t be tempted to do it again.
“That’s it, I’m ordering pizza,” Matthias said, grabbing his phone.
Kaz didn’t object – a rarity, so his roommate's physical pain must be as bad if not worse than Matthias’ mental pain.
He searched for cheap alternatives to the usual bigger chains. “A Pizza My Heart?” he mumbled to himself before selecting the phone number for that search result.
The line rang until someone’s chirpy voice answered. Matthias wanted to be just as excited, but he didn’t have the energy to.
“A Pizza My Heart, how can I help you?” they asked directly.
Matthias balked a little, his brain shutting off at an inopportune time.
Kaz sighed deeply and held out a hand for his phone.
Matthias passed it over gratefully.
Kaz spoke distinctly and sharply. “A large pepperoni pizza. No add on, no extras. Do you deliver.”
The answer seemed to be a positive one because Kaz began to rattle off their address.
Kaz hung up, handing him his phone back. “Ten minutes. You’re gonna have to answer the door,” he said flatly. “Don’t freeze, cause I can’t help you then.”
Matthias nodded and sat down to wait.
Kaz ignored him, but that was nothing new.
Matthias managed to zone out for apparently ten minutes, because the sound of the door jolted him back.
He got up quickly, opening the door wider than strictly necessary before closing it a little again in surprise.
The most gorgeous woman stood on the doorstep, presenting him with the pizza they’d just ordered.
He found himself staring at her for entirely too long; long enough that she gave a peal of laughter that made his chest clench.
“Well, never gotten quite that obvious of a reaction,” she giggled, her arms dropping a little.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, dropping his gaze.
“It’s perfectly alright with me. That’ll be $10.65,” she said primly as she handed it over.
Matthias took it limply before setting it down on the floor inside for a minute, digging into his pocket for the cash.
The woman smiled at him, and his brain stopped working again.
“$10…” he mumbled to himself as he counted it out.
“.65,” the woman finished for him patiently.
He dug around for change, a frown appeared on his mouth without permission.
“You okay?” she asked curiously.
Matthias sighed, pulling out three quarters and another five dollars for a generous tip. “I mean, as okay as I could be with this depressive episode,” he muttered to himself, presenting her with $15.75.
She took it carefully, slipping it into her small cat purse. Somehow that seemed appropriate. “I get that,” she said sympathetically, still standing there. She made no move to go back to her car. “Maybe you should try a sunlamp,” she suggested.
Matthias looked at her. “What?”
“A sunlamp,” she repeated. “To help the depression.” And with that, she flounced away, her long brown hair bouncing across her shoulders as she left.
Matthias stared after her until Kaz called for him to close the door, he was letting all the cold air in.

The next day, Kaz’s knee still wasn’t much better – he couldn’t even go to class – and Matthias had ordered a sunlamp. It couldn’t hurt to try, at least.
Dinner came from A Pizza My Heart again, and Matthias jumped up at the knock at the door, Kaz looking at him oddly as he answered it again.
To his relief, the woman stood on the doormat again, cheerfully handing him another pizza. “Got a sunlamp yet?”
“Just ordered one,” he confirmed, digging around for more cash. “Hopefully it gets here tomorrow.” He presented her with another $15 and change.
“Crossing our fingers,” she said brightly.
“What's your name?” he asked before he could decide it was a bad idea.
Her eyes sparkled. “Nina. Yours?”
“Matthias,” he said.
“Matthias,” she said as if savoring the name.
He liked the way she said his name.
She left again, and he brought the pizza back to Kaz, who shot him another weird look before ignoring him in favor of eating.

Kaz vetoed pizza again on Wednesday night, so Matthias found a different restaurant with a similarly silly pun for a name – I Wanna Taco ‘Bout It – to order from.
He mourned the loss of not being able to see Nina again, but it seemed he needn’t have bothered.
Nina stood on his stoop, holding out the back of tacos. “Matthias,” she greeted him.
Matthias grinned. “Nina,” he returned, taking the bag. “How much, then?”
“$6 even,” she said.
He gave her $15. “Do you work two jobs?”
“Whatever gave it away?” she laughed, setting his stomach afire.
“Ugh, that reminds me, I need to call in sick for Kaz, oh, hell,” he moaned as she began to leave.
“Who’s Kaz?” she asked.
He looked at her, pointing inward. “My roommate. He’s got chronic pain in his knee, he hasn’t been able to go to work because of a flare –” he stopped. Maybe he shouldn’t be telling her all of this.
Nina didn’t seem to notice his abrupt stop. “Could he take a lemongrass bath?”
Matthias frowned. “...what?”
“Lemongrass. Bath,” she enunciated. “For his knee. Or even just an Epsom salt soak might help.” She turned on her heel and walked away.
He hated to see her go.
“Lemongrass bath,” he muttered to himself as he closed the door, taking the tacos in. “Hey, Kaz,” he began.

Their dinner came from A Pizza My Heart on Thursday, because Kaz seemed too tired to protest, and Matthias wanted pizza.
So he just hoped Nina was his delivery person again.
His luck seemed in abundance this week, because who came up to his door bearing his pizza than Nina herself.
“Hello, Matthias!” she crowed, handing over his pizza.
“Hey, Nina,” he greeted her, and went to say more when Kaz’s annoyed voice reached him.
“If you’d stop attempting to flirt so I can eat, that’d be great.”
Matthias frowned and wished Nina a good night.
“Taking a walk can help me when I’m depressed. If I can get up the energy to do it, I mean,” she said in a low tone. Then she winked at him and sashayed away.

I Wanna Taco ‘Bout It would earn a bit more of Matthias’ cash this week, it seemed.
But Kaz’s knee seemed much better, to the point where, when Matthias left the living room to go find more cash at the same time someone knocked on the door, he could hear his roommate answering it.
Matthias came out with the money in time to hear Nina’s disappointed voice asking, “Is he here, at least? I’d like to give him something.”
He smiled to himself and came up behind where Kaz was lying to her about his whereabouts. “No, I’m afraid he’s just left, goodb–”
“– oh, would you look at that? I’m back already,” Matthias announced behind him, earning himself a glare over Kaz’s shoulder.
“Whatever. Pay for these, I’m taking them,” Kaz scowled harder, whisking the tacos away.
Matthias paid the $6 even, grinning at Nina. “What did you want to give me?”
Nina beamed at him. “I have a message for you,” she said, pressing something paper into his hand as he handed over the cash and tip. “That was it. See you next time?”
Matthias smiled confusedly, but waved at her as she left. He hated to see her go, but oh, how he loved to watch her leave.
He looked at the paper in his hand, pleased to see a 10 digit sequence of numbers written across the top. Under that read, have you tried eating chocolate? – Nina, the cute delivery girl! The question mark and exclamation point had hearts instead of dots at the bottom, details that made him tuck the paper neatly into his pocket, careful not to crease it.
He closed the door and made his way back into the apartment to see if he had any chocolate he could eat while he texted Nina.

Chapter Text

I can’t help but notice you’re watching a show I like instead of studying in the computer lab

Inej tugged frustratingly on her braid, glaring down at her scrawled History notes. The dates and names were neat and tidy on the paper but there were so many that her head swam with all the information.

A small giggle sounded a few seats away and Inej paused, setting down her pencil.

She glanced over at where the sound had come from and the person sitting in the chair where the giggle had come from was not who Inej had been expecting.

Nina sat in front of her computer but instead of the focused expression Inej had imagined, her face was excited and her lips were lifted into a wide grin.

A pink Airpod rested in her ear and Matthias sat behind her, huddled against the back of her chair, the other Airpod sitting in his ear.

He smiled at something on the screen, his blue eyes lighting up with laughter.

Inej raised an eyebrow and leaned back in her chair just enough so she could look at Nina’s screen.

And almost fell out of her seat.

She whipped a hand to the side of her chair and uprighted herself, scooting back so her chair rested against the long computer table behind her.

What in the –? Why is she watching that?

Inej looked, baffled, as the images on Nina’s screen played out and Inej almost quoted out loud, the words so familiar to her.

"Everyone knows there’s no such things as ghosts!”

“Yeah, but does the ghost know that?”

Cue the laughing track that Inej could practically hear through Nina’s Airpods.

Velma rolled her eyes as Shaggy leaned a hand against a very obvious secret door and he jumped back, startled at the door moving, and stated the obvious.

”A secret door?”

Inej’s gaze wandered to look at Nina, surprised and yet not to see her watching Inej’s secret favorite show.

Somehow, it fit. It made sense that Nina would like that show.

However, for Inej, it didn’t seem to make sense that her of all people would like that show so much.

How her friends would react to learning that she liked such an old, household name show.

Jesper would laugh at her, clutching his stomach in his hands as he doubled over. Wylan would grin and shake his head in playful disbelief. Matthias’s eyebrows would raise while he smiled and patted her head. Nina would grin and laugh at the same time, most likely on the floor while she panted from laughter, her face red. Kaz…

Well, Kaz would raise an eyebrow, say something along the lines of “And? What’s the problem? Plenty of people like that show.” and go on with his day with a little smile on his face whenever he looked at her.

A pair of bright green eyes suddenly appeared in front of her and broke Inej’s train of thought.

She focused on Nina’s face that had appeared in front of her, her brown-haired friend sitting in her chair with the back in front of her.

“What, Nina? What do you want?”

Nina shrugged but the twitch of her lips proved otherwise.

Inej narrowed her eyes. “Nina,” she said in a warning tone, not in the mood for her antics. “I have a History exam to study for and if memory serves me right, you do too, so stop watching Scooby Doo and study!”

Nina’s eyebrows shot up in surprise before her lips trembled and her face started turning red.

Here we go. Inej groaned, mentally facepalming for letting it slip that she knew the name of what Nina had just been watching.

“You…know the…name of it? Oh my gosh!” Nina giggled, throwing her head back as her body shook with laughter.

An angry “shh!” sounded nearby and Inej glanced at the student who had made it.

Her blue eyes were narrowed and a finger was pressed against her lips, like she had been shushing a toddler.

Inej shrugged at the girl, who rolled her eyes and pressed her headphones tighter against her ears, sending Nina a quick glare before turning back to her work.

Inej turned to Nina, who was still laughing and she jerked back in her chair, toppling backward and falling to the floor.

“Nina! Are you –? Oh, of course, you’re fine. You’re laughing your butt off!”

Her friend clutched her stomach as she sat on the floor, her face red and her cheeks puffed up as she panted with laughter.

Just like I thought. Why am I surprised?

Inej inwardly rolled her eyes and folded her arms, glaring down at Nina.

A moment passed before Nina inhaled deeply and loudly, her face still red but more pink as she finally looked up at Inej.

“Sorry, it’s just…I can’t believe you…know what it is,” Nina explained, her green eyes lit up playfully.

Matthias, forgotten in his chair, scooted forward with a smile on his face as he patted Inej’s head. She gave him a begrudging smile before he winked at her and she giggled.

“Why don’t we watch it together?” Nina suggested, finally done laughing. “There’s only one other person in here and she has her headphones on, so why don’t I disconnect my Airpods and we can watch it together, all three of us?”

Inej glanced over at her dreaded History notes and sighed heavily.

“Fine. But just one episode. And then we’re studying.”

Nina cheered and Matthias smiled.

Inej couldn’t help but return the smile and scooted over to Nina’s computer as she unhooked her Bluetooth and started Scooby Doo.

Three episodes later, Inej finally put her foot down and Nina whined a little but the stern look from Inej silenced it.

As the trio turned to their History notes, Inej smiled to herself, happy that she had gotten to watch instead of study, if only for a little bit. And her favorite show nonetheless.

She raised her gaze from her handwriting to look at Nina, who had the familiar eyebrow scrunch and pursed lips of her “Focused Face” as Inej called it.

Matthias looked up from his work and winked at Inej, his lips widening into a grin.

She gave him a playful glare before ducking her head and smiling to herself again as she turned back to her History notes.

Chapter Text

You live above me and I’m going to murder you if you don’t stop throwing parties Sunday night

Kaz shook his head at where Inej sat on his phone screen. “No, not Sunday night,” he said with a heavy sigh. “My upstairs neighbor has loud parties on Sunday nights.”
Inej shrugged over the call. “Okay, Sunday afternoon, then,” she compromised, and he agreed.
Sunday afternoon came quickly. He opened the door at exactly 3 pm, when Inej knocked.
“Hello, hello,” she said, coming in and setting her backpack down. “Ready to study?”
Kaz nodded, leading her a little further into the apartment to where he had his Calculus spread out over the floor. “I –” he began, but she shrugged.
“I’ll be sure not to move anything. It seems you’ve got quite the system,” she smiled, her dimples appearing just like that.
“I do,” he confirmed, sitting down on the ground by sitting on the couch and then sliding off of the cushion.
Inej didn’t comment on it – she’d seen him do it several times by this point; instead choosing to pull out her own Calculus.
“Okay, Chapter Eight test,” she announced, already looking wiped out as she sat cross legged next to him.
They studied for a while, long enough that the sun outside disappeared without either of them noticing.
Kaz took off his left glove. Inej held his left hand in her right as she continued to write an equation.
A small tremor went up his arm, but he’d just got done noting that the waters stayed at bay when a loud thump sounded above them.
They both looked up, Kaz glancing at the clock. Then he groaned.
“Your upstairs neighbor’s party?” Inej guessed.
Kaz nodded glumly.
“I can stay, we can just put headphones on,” she suggested, and he nodded eagerly.
Anything for her to stay.
They tried to use the same headphones for a minute before that proved to not be enough to block out the increasing noises above. Then Inej used her own and they tried that for a minute.
Kaz closed his eyes, trying to focus on the classical music in his ears.
Unfortunately, the music that turned out to be louder was decidedly not classical.
Kaz opened his eyes, tearing his headphones out. “That’s it,” he grumbled, getting to his feet. “I’m going to say something.”
Inej looked up at him. “Do you want me to come with you?”
He shook his head. “No, it’s okay. I’ll be back in a minute,” he sighed, exiting his apartment to take the elevator up.
He found the source easily, banging on the door with his cane head.
No answer.
He finally rang the doorbell, getting a short curly haired man to answer the door.
“Hey, what can I –?” he began, but Kaz cut into his pleasantry.
“Do you live here?” he asked bluntly.
A tall, lanky man came up behind the shorter man, hugging him from behind.
Kaz chose to ignore the ugly twist in his gut that came when people touched in ways he couldn’t.
The taller man tried now. “Hey, are you here for –?”
“– turn down your damn music, some of us are trying to study,” Kaz snapped.
The taller man frowned. “Of course, I didn’t realize anyone, like, cared,” he said.
Kaz rolled his eyes. “Well, I most certainly do. Turn it down or I’m going to seriously murder you,” he spat, storming away.
As he went back to the elevator, he could hear the shorter man ask, “What was that about?”
“Not sure,” the owner of the apartment said in a muffled voice as Kaz got farther away. “But he seemed really pissed.”
Their door closed.
Kaz got back, locking the door behind him and crossing back over to Inej.
But the music had been turned down, so he sat back down to study with Inej.
They held hands again.
The music above suddenly grew so louder Kaz could hear the actual words to the song, then, just as abruptly, turned down again.
Kaz gritted his teeth in anger and mild confusion.
“Come on, let’s go see what the problem is,” Inej offered, helping him to his feet again.
They made it back up to the other apartment, holding hands the whole way – albeit with Kaz’s glove between them.
Inej knocked this time, squeezing his hand reassuringly.
The taller man answered this time, taking in Inej before noticing Kaz. “Hey, sorry ‘bout that,” he apologized to Kaz. “It got bumped. Hope you’re not here to murder me,” he grinned warily.
Inej looked at him. “You didn’t tell me you threatened him,” she said mildly.
Kaz kept his face blank. “You didn’t ask,” he said.
Inej rolled her eyes. “It’s okay,” she told the man. “We just really need to study right now.”
“Study, huh?” he said with a wider grin, as he looked at their joined hands. “Just studying?”
Kaz doesn’t like that implication – at least coming from him – but Inej smiled.
“Yeah, actually,” she confirmed. “So if you could keep it down, that’d be best right now.”
The lanky man saluted her. “Got it, sweetheart –”
“– do not,” Kaz growled. “Call her that.”
Inej laughed a little, squeezing his hand silently.
He forced himself to shut up.
“Okay then?” the man said, sounding bewildered now. “My bad, not trying to start anything.”
Kaz bit his tongue while Inej bid the other man goodbye and dragged Kaz away from the now closed door.
“Doing okay over there?” she asked as they got back to his apartment.
Kaz sighed. “I just really want to study with you,” he said as they locked the door.
Inej smiled at him with her cute dimples. “Study? Just study?” she echoed in the same tone the man used.
Kaz’s face heated up. “...yes,” he mumbled.
Inej laughed. “Come on, then. Let’s study,” she helped him sit down on the floor again. “And then maybe later we can ‘study.’”
Kaz sat back to study, Inej choosing to sit in front of Kaz between his stretched out legs so she could lean back almost against his chest.
Calculus was harder to study when a beautiful woman sat between him and it, but he could still see over her shoulder. He could probably rest his chin on her shoulder if he so chose.
Instead of finishing the Chapter Eight practice test, he dipped his head to kiss the curve of her neck.
Nothing too terrible happened. He got a violent chill down his spine and tingles across his lips, but otherwise braved that particular storm for now.
“Hmm,” Inej said contentedly, tipping her head to the side so he could potentially kiss her again. “I see the quote unquote ‘studying’ has commenced.”
Kaz gave a short laugh, his response drowned out as the music above began to get progressively louder. The ruckus also increased, and Kaz groaned in continued frustration.
“It’s okay, leave it,” Inej said. “We can still ‘study’ for a minute.”
Kaz nodded, trying to focus on her and only her.
And he mostly succeeded, enough that when she turned her head to kiss his cheek, he was able to focus only on the feeling of her soft mouth on his face.
Inej leaned back against his chest fully.
He tensed up.
“Sorry,” she began to get back up.
“No, it’s…okay. Right now,” he assured her.
She nodded, settling back against him.
He finally did rest his chin on her shoulder as they sat quietly together, the party raging on above them, their math spread out abandoned.
The back of Inej’s head met his collarbone as she adjusted her position. He sighed in satisfaction as she tipped her head further back to look up at him upside down.
“What?” she whispered, amused.
“You’re perfect,” Kaz whispered back, reaching up to stroke her hair with his bare hand.
She closed her eyes as he carded his fingers through the top of her braid. “You’re perfect,” she said.
The music above them seemed to intensify again.
They both ignored it as Kaz kissed the crown of her head.
She hummed, letting him.
Just when Kaz thought it couldn’t get any louder, the music managed to sound as though he had his own speaker in this very apartment.
He frowned. “I’m gonna go murder him, hang on.”
Inej laughed, putting a calm hand on his forearm. “Or you could keep ‘studying’ with me,” she suggested.
Well. Kaz knew which one of those options he’d greatly prefer.
His neighbor’s homicide would have to wait.

Chapter Text

Dude, your headphones are really loud like I can make out most of Taylor’s lyrics and I’m sitting across the freaking room

Matthias grumbled to himself, glaring down at the mess of Calculus papers scattered in front of him across the library table.

Nina sat next to him, her brow furrowed in deep concentration as she gazed over her own work, scribbling something down every now and then with her bright pink pencil.

Matthias smiled to himself and leaned forward to kiss her temple and she leaned into his touch, raising her eyes from her papers to look at him, a brow raised in question while she smiled.

“What was that for?”

He shrugged, unable to stop the blush that heated across his face as she gazed at him through half-lidded eyes. “Just because.”

She laughed, her green eyes sparkling as she lifted her head and kissed him. He leaned into the kiss and threaded a hand through her hair, pulling her closer.

“...soundtrack, I could dance to this beat, beat forevermore…”

They broke apart and Matthias turned away from her to gaze across the room, expecting the source of the sound to be standing right next to him.

But no one stood behind the table. Just bookshelves.

“...but they never blind me, me. Welcome to New York, it’s been waiting for you…”

Nina quirked an eyebrow and he looked to his other side, but there wasn’t anyone there either. Matthias was now beyond confused and couldn’t figure out where the sound was coming from.

“Everybody here was someone else before. And you can want who you want. Boys and boys and girls and girls. Welcome to New York, it’s been waiting for you. Welcome to New York, welcome to New York.”

Matthias rose from his seat to see if he could see the person the music belonged to because they were most likely bobbing their head to Taylor’s beat, so if he could just spot some sort of movement…

His blue eyes scanned the library carefully, bouncing over the stationary heads and zoning in on the shifting ones, the music ringing across the room the whole time.

“It’s a new soundtrack, I could dance to this beat, beat forevermore. The lights are so bright, but they never blind me, me. Welcome to New York(New York), it’s been waiting for you.”

A quick side-to-side movement caught his eye and Matthias turned his attention toward it, focusing on the bobbing head with orange headphones.

On the other side of the room.

Oh for the love of –

Matthias rolled his eyes and sighed heavily as he realized who was playing the music.

He plopped back down in his seat, wanting to forget the music and go back to his Calculus.

“Who was it?” Nina asked, not looking at him as she scribbled something on her paper.

“Take a guess,” Matthias answered wearily, not having the energy to deal with it at the moment.

“Oh dear,” Nina laughed, raising her gaze from her work and trying to hide her grin behind her hand but epically failing.

“Yeah, exactly,” Matthias sighed, rubbing his temples. “I don’t think he even realizes how loud it is but if he does and he’s doing it on purpose, I might just sicc Kaz on him.”

Nina laughed again, her green eyes twinkling. Matthias smiled, kissed the crown of her hair, and went back to his homework, trying to wrap his head around the complex equations.

Not even five minutes later, the sound came again, but it was different. A different beat and different words.

Not again. Matthias groaned, gathering the mental image of snapping his pencil in half and then having Kaz snap his neck. I just want to study, dude! Come on!

“...hoping that the fire won’t burn me. Just one time, just one time…”

Matthias shared a look with Nina, who giggled and rolled her eyes. He snorted and rose from his seat, determined to go over there and smack him.

As he did so, the music continued to blare and the lyrics were quite clear, even from the other end of the room.

“Still I know that all it takes is to get it right. Just one time, just one time.” The music soared and the chorus became more evident. “All I know is this could either break my heart or bring it back to life. Got a feelin’ your electric touch could fill this ghost town up with life. And I want you now, wanna need you forever. In the heat of your electric touch…”

Matthias unconsciously started humming along as he stormed over to where the music started, then paused, cursing himself for allowing himself to do such a thing as hum along with the culprit, who currently sat in his chair quietly doing the same thing, his pencil scratching the paper he was looking at.

Matthias loomed over him, glaring daggers into the back of his head. The culprit didn’t notice and continued to hum along with the song, his head bobbing to the beat.

The music roared in Matthias’s ears as he stood next to the chair, trying really hard not to tap his foot to the very loud beat.

“And maybe I call you mine. And you won’t need space or string me along while you decide and just one time(just one time). Maybe the moment’s right(the moment’s right). It’s 8:05 and I see two headlights…”

Matthias tapped him on the shoulder and a familiar pair of gray eyes met his blue ones. The man’s face lit up with a grin as recognition crossed his face and he slipped the headphones off his ears and hung them against his neck.

The music continued to blare through the speakers, the lyrics still loud enough to understand.

“Hey, Matthias! What’s going on?” Jesper asked, quirking an eyebrow in curiosity.

Matthias sighed heavily and glared down at him. “Dude, your headphones are really loud. Like, I can literally make out most of Taylor’s lyrics and I’m sitting across the freaking room. I’m begging you, please turn it down!”

A nearby student shushed him but Matthias ignored them.

Jesper’s other eyebrow joined its partner as it shifted position to surprise. “Oh. I didn’t realize it was that loud. Sorry, I can turn it down.”

His friend lifted his headphones off his neck and pressed a button. The volume decreased considerably and Matthias had to strain his ears to even hear the beat, much less know what Taylor was saying.

He sighed in relief. “Thanks. I’m trying to work on my Calculus homework and it’s really hard to do that when I can hear Taylor singing instead of focusing on a bunch of stupid equations.”

Jesper’s eyebrow twitched playfully and his gray eyes gleamed as he grinned. “How did you know it was Taylor Swift?”

Matthias realized too late what he had said and tried to get out of it by stammering an explanation that made no sense.

“I – you – I just – I mean, it’s – your music was – no?” His voice squeaked on the last word and Jesper roared with laughter, his shoulders shaking from the effort as he clutched his stomach.

Another shush from the same student was ignored by both Jesper and Matthias.

“I…never would’ve…oh, Matthias! You’re hilarious!”

Matthias rolled his eyes and held up his hands in defeat, slowly backing away from Jesper.

“I said nothing.”

Jesper laughed once more before finally stopping and waving goodbye to Matthias, who smiled and waved back as Jesper put on his headphones again.

Matthias turned back in the direction he had come, making his way back to his table and plopping down next to Nina.

She looked from her work and grinned. “Got it figured out? Or do we need to sicc Kaz on him?”

Matthias smiled and shook his head. “Nah, I got it. He didn’t realize it was that loud, so he turned it down.”

“Good. Now…” Nina wiggled her eyebrows and pursed her lips, tilting her head up towards Matthias, speaking with her eyes.

He laughed quietly and leaned forward, cupping her face with his hands as their lips met. Nina slipped her hand behind his neck and tugged him forward.

“Oh! I just died in your arms tonight!”

Matthias broke the kiss by growling and turning his head, shouting, “Jesper! Really?”

There were several nearby shushes but the only sound Matthias heard was the laughter that erupted in the direction he had shouted at.

Nina giggled and Matthias rolled his eyes before turning back and tugging her face toward him, asking with his eyes.

Nina obliged and leaned forward.

Chapter Text

There’s only one study room left in the dorm basement and I don’t want to walk to the library let’s fight for it

Jesper walked confidently up to the last study room in the dorm basement. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a really cute guy coming toward him.
No. Not toward him. Toward the same door as him.
He sighed to himself as they reached the study room at the same time. “Also need a study room?” he asked, trying not to sound too exasperated.
“Yes,” the cute guy said, his voice wavering a little, as if nervous. “I have a final tomorrow.”
“So do I,” Jesper let him know, frowning in concentration. “Tell you what: let’s fight for it. Anyway you want. Arm wrestle? Thumb war? Battle of wits?”
The cute guy blushed, elevating his cuteness up another degree. “I’d rather not –” he began.
Jesper shrugged. “Then I guess I’m taking the study room by force,” he said flippantly.
The cute guy narrowed his eyes. “I’ll arm wrestle you for it,” he decided.
Jesper nodded, and they entered the room together, sitting down across from each other at the table inside.
Jesper held out his hand to him.
The cute guy hesitated, then grabbed his hand tightly. Tighter than Jesper had been expecting, really.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Ready,” the cute guy agreed, eyes narrowing again.
“Go,” Jesper said, pressing down on the cute guy’s hand. He’d been expecting it to go by quickly – the cute guy, while incredibly attractive, didn’t look to have much meat on his bones, let alone muscle – but surprisingly, the cute guy held his own.
For a while, actually, but Jesper knew he was about to win a few minutes later, when the cute guy’s grip on him readjusted a little and gave him a slight advantage he’d hadn’t had before.
Jesper pushed down, not quite reaching the table before the cute guy’s eyes sharpened and he began to push up against Jesper.
“Get out,” a raspy voice ordered them, and Jesper looked to the doorway at the same time the cute guy did, the tension between them dissipating instantly. Their hands fell away from each other.
“Who are you?” The cute guy asked.
Jesper sighed. “Kaz, we’re trying to decide who gets the study room —“ he began.
Kaz cut in. “— well, congratulations. It’s neither of you. Go to the library,” he ordered again, coming into the room to glare at Jesper harder.
“I don’t wanna, though,” Jesper informed him.
Kaz just raised an eyebrow, looking down at his cane pointedly before looking back at Jesper. “Well, I can’t. And I will kill both of you over it,” he said flatly. “So move.”
Jesper grumbled to himself as he and the cute guy simultaneously stood and left the room.
Kaz shut the door harshly behind them.
They exchanged quick glances before the cute guy said, in a low tone, “Friend of yours?”
“Kinda,” Jesper sighed. “He’s my roommate, and he’s a piece of work.”
The cute guy gave him a small smile that made Jesper’s heart clench tightly as they walked away from the now probably locked door. “Well, thanks to that piece of work, we’re just gonna have to go to the library. Both of us. Together,” he said as if it were a huge burden on him.
Jesper gave him a wide grin. “Oh no,” he said flatly as they left the dorm, pushing open the side by side doors together. “Whatever shall we do?”
“You could introduce yourself, for starters,” the cute guy said pointedly.
Jesper blinked. “Oh. I hadn’t realized…I guess I was too caught up in the fact that I was winning to bother with names,” he shrugged as they crossed the street.
“It’s okay,” the cute guy said flippantly. “I just can’t keep calling you ‘the cute guy’ in my head, you’re gonna have to give me something else to work with.”
Jesper let out a bark of laughter.
“What?” the cute guy asked a little anxiously. “Should I not have –?”
“– oh, you definitely should’ve said that,” Jesper countered. “Considering I was about to say the exact same thing.”
The cute guy’s face burst into fiery flames and he ducked his head absolutely adorably. “It’s…Wylan,” he whispered.
“It’s…Jesper,” he said in the same tone, not mocking. Just the same.
“I like that name,” Wylan said confidently, lifting his chin to let his blue eyes rest on Jesper’s face again.
“I’ll tell my Da you said so,” Jesper said cheerfully as they made it to the doors of the library. “I happen to like your name too.”
“I’ll be sure to never mention it to my father,” Wylan said just as comfortably. “He thought my mother was silly to even suggest it.”
Jesper shrugged as they walked in through the doors to get to the study rooms on the west side. “I think your father is entitled to his wrong opinion,” he whispered as they got to two separate open study rooms.
“He’s entitled to a lot of things,” Wylan whispered back. “None of which is information on the guys I find cute as hell.”
Jesper batted his eyelashes at him. “Lemme know when I’m as cute as heaven; then we’ll talk.”
Wylan just ducked into one of the study rooms, before poking his head back out. “Walk me back to the dorm when we’re done?” he asked breathlessly.
Jesper grinned. “I’ll walk you to the moon and back if you ask me to.”
“We can’t walk to the moon,” Wylan dismissed immediately. “You can fly me to the moon and back, though.”
“Deal,” he agreed, heading into his own study room before another Kaz could steal this one from him either, all thoughts of studying replaced entirely with thoughts about the cute guy next door.

Chapter Text

Hey, this semester is almost over and I have way too much money on my cafeteria account. Do you want anything??? This stuff is just gonna disappear into the colleges pocket otherwise

Wylan’s stomach grumbled loudly, the sound popping into the air as every eye in the room turned to look at him. Some glared while others looked sympathetic.

It was almost lunchtime, after all.

Professor Haskel’s glare, however, was deadly and sharply narrowed.

Heat rushed to his cheeks and Wylan looked down at his desk, trying really hard to ignore the fact that everyone was looking at him.

A slipped giggle sounded next to him and this time, Wylan was the one turning to glare at the culprit, whose gray eyes were lit up with laughter and his lips trembled with the obvious fact that he was trying to hold in his laughter and epically failing.

Wylan glared intently at Jesper, silently pleading with his narrowed eyes for him to stop. Laughing.

Jesper didn’t.

Instead, his gray eyes twinkled brighter and another slip of laughter escaped his lips.

“Mr. Fahey! Stop that infernal laughter at once or you’ll be getting another zero on your test!”

Professor Haskell’s face was stern and slightly flushed, his dark eyes intently scouring Jesper’s face.

Jesper coughed into his fist. “Sorry, Professor. It won’t happen again.”

The professor scowled. “See that it doesn’t.” His sharp eyes landed on Wylan, who was still glaring at Jesper. “Mr. Van Eck!” he barked.

Wylan stiffened and turned away from Jesper to reluctantly meet Professor Haskell’s dark gaze. “Yes, Professor?”

The professor’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Get back to work or you’ll retake the test in the library. With me.”

Wylan gulped, really not wanting Professor Haskell to follow through with that option.“Yes, Professor.”

The class shifted as everyone turned back to their tests, a deep silence filling the room.

Wylan refused to look at Jesper as his boyfriend whispered the next question to him, his pencil hovering over the bubble sheet as he waited for Wylan’s answer.

Wylan thought for a moment, running through the options Jesper had given him before quietly declaring, “A. It’s A.”

Jesper filled in the bubble and read off the next question.

Throughout the process, Wylan occasionally glanced up at the clock, silently begging time to speed up so the class would end and Wylan would be free.

Free from Professor Haskell’s death glare. Free from Jesper’s ridiculous laughter. Free from –

Wylan caught Jesper’s gaze, who smirked as his gray eyes lit up with, you guessed it, laughter. Again.

He pleaded with his eyes and lifted his brows, mouthing the words Please stop.

Jesper rolled his eyes but thankfully stopped and returned his gaze back to the test as he repeated the next question.

“How long did King Charlemagne reign? A. 643-712 B. 743-856 or C. 768-814?”

Wylan paused, trying to remember the date that Jesper had helped him memorize, along with a little joke he had to help Wylan remember it.

Wylan smiled as it slowly came to him before realizing he had his answer.

“Oh! It’s C, 768-814,” Wylan exclaimed quietly.

Jesper nodded and filled in the bubble. “Last one. It’s a short essay question. What was the name of the country Charlemagne reigned over and what is the name of it today?”

Wylan thought hard, closing his eyes to try and remember the map Jesper had shown him as he pointed out the answer to the question.

Think. What did the country look like?

“Um…is it…wait, hold on,” Wylan said, holding up a hand.

He squeezed his eyes shut and the mental image of the map suddenly popped into his head.

That’s it!

Wylan’s eyes popped open and stared directly at Jesper as he said triumphantly, “The country’s name was Franks, a Germanic tribe, which is part of present-day Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and western Germany.”

Jesper smiled and scribbled down Wylan’s answer. “Okay. You’re done. Good job.” He raised a hand for a high-five and Wylan softly slapped it, careful not to let it make any noise and disturb their classmates.

Jesper’s fingers curled over the back of Wylan’s hand and he did the same, the heat rushing a little to his cheeks.

“Everyone, please turn your tests over and leave them on your desks. If you’ve finished, please place your tests on my desk. Class is over.”

Professor Haskell’s orders were met with mixed reviews. Some people sighed in relief while others groaned in despair.

Wylan grinned at Jesper and let go of his hand, leaning forward and grabbing the papers from Jesper’s desk and standing.

He made his way over to Professor Haskell’s desk, standing behind another student before they walked away and Wylan stepped up, placing his test on the long desk.

Professor Haskell glanced up at Wylan, who didn’t meet his eye, and instead looked past him.

“Mr. Van Eck.”

Wylan couldn’t stop his back from straightening at the sound of the professor’s voice. “Yes, Professor?”

“Take care of your stomach before class. It’s…disruptive,” he said, as though the word wasn’t quite the one he wanted but he wanted to spare Wylan’s feelings.

Wylan nodded once. “Yes, Professor.”

He returned the nod and then waved a hand and Wylan turned from the desk, heading back to where Jesper was packing up his and Wylan’s backpacks.

“Where do you want to go for lunch?” Jesper asked as he slipped a pencil into his backpack and zipped it up before doing the same to Wylan’s and handing it to him.

Wylan thought for a moment as he slipped his backpack on. “Well, the semester is almost over and since I have way too much money on my cafeteria account, do you want anything? It’s just gonna disappear into the college's pocket anyway,” Wylan finished with a shrug.

Jesper grinned. “Sounds perfect. Let’s go.”

He leaped to his feet and followed Wylan out of the classroom and into the crowd of students filing out into the hall.

Jesper held Wylan’s hand as they walked through the crowd of students, allowing Wylan to stay with him through the ordeal.

Nina and Matthias stood off to the side at the end of the hallway, talking about something…exciting.

Err, at least Wylan thought it was. That’s what it looked like.

Nina’s hands were waving in the air, her face lit up while Matthias was smiling at her and nodding along to whatever she was talking about, saying something that made her grin and she poked his stomach.

He was laughing as Jesper and Wylan made their way over to where they were standing, weaving their way through the other students.

“Hey, guys,” Wylan said as he and Jesper scooted over to the couple.

“Hi, you two!” Nina exclaimed happily, her green eyes sparkling.

“What’s going on? We saw you laughing from the other end of the hall,” Jesper said, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder.

Nina actually bounced up and down, clapping her hands together like a child. “There’s a new waffle station in the cafeteria and we’re gonna go check it out.”

Nina gasped loudly, excitedly waving a hand at Jesper and Wylan, her green eyes gleaming. “You two should totally join us! That would be so much fun!”

Wylan looked at Jesper with pleading eyes, who laughed and shrugged. “Sure! Why not.”

Wylan looked at Nina and released Jesper’s hand, leaning forward and clasping hands with her, grinning together.

“Waffles, waffles, waffles!” they chanted together, earning a laughing sigh from Matthias and straight up full blown laughter from Jesper.

“Oh! Hey, Nina?”

“Yeah?” She looked expectantly at Wylan.

“I have a bunch of money on my cafeteria card, so you can get all the waffles you want!”

“Really?” she squealed.

Wylan nodded vigorously.

“Yes!” she yelled over the chatter of students still in the hall, earning a few strange looks from some of them.

Wylan and Nina ignored them as they swung hands and skipped off to the cafeteria, Jesper and Matthias in tow, chanting, “Waffles, waffles, waffles!” again.

Wylan heard Jesper sigh to himself but when he glanced back at him, Jesper had a smile on his face.

Wylan smiled to himself as he and Nina marched into the cafeteria, charging toward the new waffle station. Nina eagerly pointed to it and she and Wylan declared together, “Waffles for lifers!”

They giggled together as the group stepped in line to wait for the deliciously smelling waffles Wylan could hear sizzling.

He looked forward to a fun lunch of waffles and laughter.

Chapter Text

we both work really late shifts on Friday nights and you give me a ride home so I don’t have to walk alone in the dark

Inej stood at the register, smiling her customer service smile and gritting her teeth to get through the rest of this interaction.
“If I’d known such beautiful women worked here, I would’ve been a regular customer much sooner,” the man said, leaning on the counter in a supposedly casual way that still made her take a small step back.
“Well, that’s very kind of you,” Inej forced herself to say. “That’ll be $3.54.”
The man swiped his card, but didn’t move to leave after. He left his food on the counter as he leaned a little further toward her.
Inej veered away a little. “Have a good day, sir,” she said with a fake grin.
“I’d have the best day if you’d show me what those hands of yours can do,” he said in a low tone.
Inej desperately wished another customer would come up behind him and force him to move.
But it was too late on a Friday for that to be a reliable method to get rid of him.
“Hmm,” she said instead of agreeing to anything that came out of his mouth.
His expression changed – subtly, for sure, but enough that she knew she’d need to play this very safe. “In fact, I’ll buy another one of these,” he gestured at his meal, and Inej walked back over to the preparation station to the right.
“Would you like it exactly the same?” she asked.
“If you could take your hair out of its braid for me, that would help,” he said with a smirk.
Inej swallowed. “I have to keep it tied back, it’s regulations –”
“- but isn’t the customer always right?” he argued.
Inej smiled thinly. “I’m sorry,” she lied. “I don’t want to get fired over it.”
“Well, if they fire you for obeying me, I can give you a different, better job working for me,” he said casually. “And with me. And on me.”
Inej wrinkled her nose. “Can you leave me alone?” she finally asked, finishing his second meal and ringing him up.
His face fell into obvious anger, but he kept that horrible grin. “I’d rather leave with you,” he returned, leaning over the counter toward her.
“And I’d rather you stayed the hell away from her,” a raspy voice said behind her as Kaz limped out from the backroom. “She told you to leave her alone. I suggest you do that before I call the cops.” He stopped next to her, glaring at the man.
“I get that she’s workin’,” the man assured him. “I’ll just wait for her shift to get done.”
Inej stewed in the subtle threat, but before she could come up with something to counter it with, Kaz spoke again.
“If I catch you here again, I will call the police,” Kaz said firmly, folding his arms.
“Why?” the man challenged. “I haven’t done anything wrong.” He winked at Inej.
She wrinkled her nose again, thoroughly grossed out by the implications.
He looked murderous.
Kaz’s neutral face didn’t change. “Harassment is pretty wrong,” he shot back. “Get out.” He pointed at the door.
The man grumbled to himself but took his two meals and left.
Inje watched him go, her hackles slowly falling.
“Hey,” Kaz said next to her, and she looked at him. “If you need a ride home, lemme know.”
She nodded vaguely.
The whole rest of her shift, she kept one eye on where the man hadn’t left the premises; instead standing just outside waiting for her.
She tried to shake the anxiety that threatened to choke her out, but she couldn’t.
When the time came to clock out, she did so slowly, trying to stall.
Two of her coworkers walked away from the register, chatting to each other as they left.
Inej hung back, watching as Kaz clocked out quickly. She didn’t say anything, but he noticed her presence anyway.
“That offer still stands,” he said as they walked almost side by side toward the door.
The closer they got to the door, the more the man seemed to realize she was coming, because he grinned to himself and licked his chapped lips.
Inej stopped short almost fully through the darkened lobby, freezing at the sight of the man looking at her through the window, his eyes dragging down her body.
Kaz stopped in front of her, near the door. He didn’t open it. He just stood between her and the door. “Hey. I can still take you home,” he offered again.
“I can…walk home,” Inej managed past her numb lips, sounding the least confident she ever had.
“Inej,” Kaz said softly. “It’s dark, and I’m not convinced he’s not gonna follow you. Will you let me drive you home?” His dark eyes stared into hers.
Inej took one more look at where the man looked more and more angry before deciding. “Yes, please,” she whispered.
Kaz nodded. “My car is the black one in the handicapped parking. Stay on my left.”
“Mhm,” Inej said, reaching into her purse for her brass knuckles.
Kaz glanced at her weapon, nodding approval before opening the door. He stood between her and the man – who looked furious as he continued to leer toward her.
Inej walked into the cool night air, watching as Kaz’s flat face now looked mad as hell as he glared down at the man who paced a little.
But he didn’t say anything, just escorted her to his car. He opened the passenger’s side door for her. “Lock it as soon as the door closes, I’ll get in with the key.”
She nodded, and he closed the door, effectively cutting off most sounds from outside.
She couldn't hear what Kaz said to the man, but they seemed to be talking now.
Kaz stopped halfway in front of the car, looking at the man sharply.
Inej didn’t know what was going on, but the man came up to Kaz a little. Her heart seized.
But Kaz ignored him, walking over to the driver’s side. The man didn’t follow him, shouting something inarticulate at him instead.
Kaz opened the driver’s door with his key, so all Inej heard was the last part of what he’d been saying to him. “- as if you ever had a chance.” He got into the car.
Before he could close the door fully, the man yelled at him, “You don’t get to threaten me, boy!”
Kaz looked unimpressed. “I will run you over. Move.”
He closed the door to the man’s obvious fury, ignoring him again to turn the car on, shining his lights into his eyes.
Kaz pulled out, heading away from the store.
Inej sat quietly as he stopped at a stoplight, surprised to hear the sound of the car doors unlocking again.
Kaz turned to her. “Okay?”
She nodded, but kept a hand on her brass knuckles.
He seemed to notice, but didn't mention it, instead saying, “Where would you like me to drop you off?”
“I thought you were taking me home?” she asked.
“Well, yes. But I didn’t know if you wanted me to know where you live, so I figured I’d ask that way,” he said smoothly, accelerating again.
Just him saying that eased her enough to let go of her brass knuckles and say, “You can take me home, I don’t mind. It’s on Cypress St.”
Kaz nodded. “I have a friend who lives near here. It’s the tree area?”
Inej blinked. “...what?”
“You know,” he said leadingly. “Cypress Street. Oak Road. Spruce Boulevard?”
Inej laughed. “You do know the area,” she said cheerfully.
Kaz nodded, continuing down the road.
They turned down Cypress St.
“Lemme know when to stop,” Kaz instructed her.
She pointed at her apartment building. “There.”
He pulled over.
“Thanks for driving me home, I appreciate it,” she said.
“Well, I didn’t want to see your death in the news,” he said with a shrug.
Inej laughed a little, opening the car door.
Kaz smiled at her a little. “See you next week?” he asked.
Inej paused getting out. “...do you want to come in?”
Kaz looked surprised.
“I just…my roommate’s home, probably, but…maybe we could have some…tea?” she ventured.
Kaz looked at her strangely, turning his car off in response.
He got out, locking his car when she closed the passenger’s door.
He limped up to the apartment building with her.
“What did he say? To you, before you got in?” she asked as she unlocked the door.
Kaz’s face went dark. “He said I was costing him his chance with you,” he spat.
Inej nodded gravely and opened her door for him. “Follow me, then,” she said, catching his smile as she continued with, “I’m gonna boil some water.”
“Cool,” he said, sitting heavily on her couch.
She smiled to herself. Mostly because the creepy guy didn’t stand any chance with her, but Kaz?
Maybe he did.

Chapter Text

Lecture room bingo for annoying things your professor says

Nina grumbled to herself as Professor Haskell droned on and on about the fermentation process of different types of alcohol.

She mouthed his next words perfectly, practically expecting them at this point as he said it every. Day.

“Don’t ask me any questions, it’s in the textbook.”

Nina could feel the eye roll of the entire class when he said it and she followed suit, so sick of the lesson that she was one hundred percent sure had nothing to do with Charlemagne.

Professor Haskell kept on talking and Nina glanced at Kaz, who seemed to be scribbling something in the margin of his notes, his brows scrunched together in what she and their friends called his “Scheming Face”.

Nina turned back to her own notes, scratching a mark in the corner of her page next to the six other ones she had made earlier.

That’s seven in the past twenty minutes. How much is he gonna talk? I could literally make a game out of this! Nina grumbled to herself, her body itching to run out of the classroom and never come back.

“...and that’s the fascinating process of fermentation.” Professor Haskell was saying as Nina finally tuned back into the sound of his grating voice. “Now, there’s going to be a test tomorrow on Charlemagne’s rule, so everyone be prepared. Class dismissed.”

The class groaned in unison at the word test and grumbled about it as everyone started packing up.

As Nina slammed her binder shut, ignoring the small jump that Wylan gave at the sound of it, she turned to Kaz with one eyebrow raised.

“So. What were you writing over there, Kaz?”

“None of your business,” he snapped, frowning deeply.

Inej walked in, dodging the other students who were leaving, and gazed around the room, her lips lifting into a happy smile as she spotted Kaz.

She came up to him, a pencil tucked behind her ear and into her thick braid, a purple notebook in her hands.

“Hey, Kaz,” she greeted, glancing down at whatever he had scribbled in his notes. “What’s this?” she asked, pointing.

Kaz’s face immediately softened at her voice and he even smiled a little.

Nina rolled her eyes. Leave it to Kaz to snap at others and then do a complete 180 whenever Inej was around.

“Just a small idea I had for the end-of-the-year project for my class with Professor Rollins,” Kaz replied, shrugging a little.

Nina didn’t try to stop the snort that escaped her and she scoffed when the others turned to look at her. “Yeah, as if any idea you have is small. You’re hilarious, Kaz.”

She leaned toward Inej, holding a hand against her mouth but not bothering to lower her voice as Nina loudly whispered to her, “He had his Scheming Face on the whole time.”

Inej laughed and Kaz gave a short growl before glaring at Nina, who winked. Wylan gave a laugh that was immediately silenced by Kaz’s stern gaze switching to his face.

“Hey, guys! What’s going on?” Jesper asked as he walked toward the tables, Matthias behind him.

Nina jabbed a thumb over at Kaz. “Kaz was just denying the fact that he had his Scheming Face on during class.”

Jesper laughed but unlike Wylan, he didn’t stop when Kaz glared deeply at him. “Oh, I can totally see that happening! Dude, you literally have it on any time you come up with some idea,” he said matter-of-factly, the grin on his face not matching his tone.

“Miss Zenik!”

Professor Haskell’s voice cut through the moment and Nina turned to see her teacher standing at his desk, a peeved expression on his face.

“Yes, Professor?”

“You and your friends need to exit my classroom now. Class is over.”

“Yes, Professor,” Nina said, not caring about the angry tone of his voice, and took her sweet time collecting her supplies.

“How was class?” Matthias asked as he helped her get packed up and she slipped her backpack straps over her shoulders.

Nina shrugged. “Same old, same old. Guess what he said for the millionth time?”

Matthis raised an eyebrow as Wylan and Nina said together, “Don’t ask me any questions, it’s in the textbook.”

Everyone except Kaz laughed as they all headed toward the classroom door.

Nina noticed Professor Haskell eyeing the group as they left, his dark eyes lingering on her and Wylan.

She rolled her eyes as they turned the corner and headed for the stairs. “It’s like, broski, maybe find something new to say!”

Wylan laughed and Kaz rolled his eyes while Jesper spoke up, sharing a look with Matthias.

“At least it’s not like with Professor Van Eck, who says ‘and that’s how my family is so successful’ all the time,” Jesper said, Matthias joining in on the professor’s words.

Wylan sighed heavily, raising a hand to his forehead. “Yep. That sounds like him. At least he doesn’t say ‘I know other teachers are giving you the day off but we’ll still be having class that day and there will be a quiz’ every time there’s a small break,” Wylan said, mimicking stern-eyed Professor Rollins.

Nina glanced at Inej, rolling her eyes heavily as her friend morphed her expression into one of pure disgust.

“At least you don’t have to deal with Professor Van Houden’s degrading comments about women,” Nina said, frowning at her own words.

“No kidding,” Inej agreed, shaking her head as she started down the stairs with the rest of the group.

“Such as,” Nina said, clearing her throat and raising her tone in order to mimic the Drama professor. “‘Sit up! Don’t slouch at your desk!’ and even ‘Your beauty is your currency.’ It’s ridiculous and – ”

Nina glanced over at Inej, who was staring down at the floor with a pained expression on her face. Nina stopped, feeling guilty for having said the words in the first place, despite quoting them.

Kaz growled, startling Nina as she briefly raised her eyes to look over at him, watching her step in the process. “That’s ridiculous. You two shouldn’t have to deal with that. You need to report her to the superintendent or I’ll take matters into my own hands.”

Inej and Nina started shaking their heads before he even finished, but it was Inej who spoke next.

“Kaz, it’s fine. The semester is going to be over in 2 weeks anyway and I was only taking the class to be with Nina. Please don’t do anything,” she said, looking at him with pleading eyes.

Kaz huffed in anger and growled, his cane clicking harshly against the tile as he reached the bottom of the stairs. “I don’t care. That’s stupid and – ”

“Hey, I think we should play bingo, guys!” Nina interrupted, ignoring the sharp glare Kaz sent her as she completely changed the subject, smiling in return at the grateful look Inej sent her.

She jumped over the last step and turned around to face her friends, clapping her hands together.

“I have the perfect bingo game we can play. It’s regular bingo, but instead of getting-to-know-you questions, it’s annoying things your professor says.”

Her gaze bounced across the group as the rest of them joined her and Kaz at the bottom of the stairs.

“Well? What do you think?”

Jesper shrugged, grinning. “Sure. I’m game.”

Wylan smiled. “Sounds fun.”

Matthias shook his head at her, but she didn’t miss the way his lips lifted into a fond smile.

Inej shrugged. “Yeah, I guess.”

Nina turned to Kaz, who was twisting his cane with his hands and not looking at everyone.

There was silence for a moment until he seemed to notice it and raised his gaze to look at them. “Absolutely not. I refuse to participate in something as stupid as that,” he snapped.

Inej stepped toward him and whispered something Nina couldn’t hear. Kaz jerked away from her, shaking his head firmly and saying something else.

Inej looked at him with a twinkle in her eyes as she whispered to him again and Kaz started to protest but she tilted her head and he sighed heavily, a slight snarl at the end of it.

“Fine,” he snapped, turning his sharp gaze to Nina. “I’ll play your stupid game.”

“Yay!” Nina cheered, clapping her hands in delight before whipping around and starting down the hallway. “Last one to the lecture room has to buy everyone waffles for lunch!”

Her challenge was met with laughter and the pounding of feet racing down the hall. Nina sped up, determined to not be the sucker who had to buy waffles for everyone.

Instead, she was going to be the winner of the new bingo game she had just invented, based on all the annoying things their equally annoying professors said on a daily basis.

Chapter Text

We were both running for the bus and it didn’t wait for us so now we’re at the bus stop together alone.

Kaz limped out of the school the second the bus he needed pulled up. He started to limp as quickly as he could toward it, but about halfway there, he just knew he’d missed it.
A girl sprinted ahead of him, backpack thumping against her shoulders, but she wasn’t going to make it either.
He slowed in frustration, but she sort of chased the bus for a minute before finally dropping into a jog and stopping, defeated, just past the bench Kaz headed for now.
She turned back and came toward him, an annoyed look crossing her face.
He could only imagine what his face looked like.
They both sat down heavily on opposite ends of the bench, the girl panting and Kaz trying to breathe evenly.
He caught a quick look at her face – beautiful, truly, with gentle slopes and full lips and big brown eyes that could’ve lulled him into a false sense of security easily and taken him for all he was worth, but that was neither here nor there. He tore his eyes off of her in favor of staring at his much less pretty shoes. This was his fault, of course; less because of his leg and more so because he just had to speak to Professor Rollins after class, god –
The girl had caught her breath by now, enough to ask him a confusing question, anyway. “Do I know you?”
Her slightly accented voice sent sparks of something down to his toes.
Kaz just looked at her. “No, pretty sure you don’t,” he declined. Not least because he was certain he’d remember such a beautiful face –
“I think…nevermind,” she cut into her own sentence.
“Whatever,” Kaz mumbled, but then, the girl took to grumbling to herself.
“I just had wait until the very last moment to grab Jes’ homework,” she mumbled furiously.
Kaz looked at her. “What did you just say?” he asked.
The girl looked back at him with confusion.
“Did you just say ‘Jes?’” he pestered.
The girl slowly nodded.
“As in, Jesper? Fahey?” Kaz continued.
The girl brightened. “Yeah, he’s been steadily dating one of my friends, so I’ve gotten to know him pretty well, but he’s also in my chem class –”
Kaz threw his head back to give a short, throaty chuckle.
“What?”
Kaz decided to enlighten her. “We’ve been friends since high school.”
The girl blinked before laughing and twisting his gut like a knife. “I’ve been to his apartment a couple times, he’s got a picture of you two in the living room.”
Kaz stared at her. “He – what?”
“Yeah, you look really young, like teenagers,” she continued brightly.
“...what’s the picture?” he asked, almost scared of the answer.
“It looks like a dance? You’re both in suits,” she explained, waving her hands a little as she explained.
Kaz scoffed in disbelief. “I told him to destroy that,” he frowned thoughtfully.
The girl laughed again. He rather liked her laugh. “So, what’s your name?”
He hesitated. “Kaz,” he answered soon enough.
“Oh! He’s mentioned you a couple times too!” she crowed.
Kaz shook his head in exasperation. “God, that man – what’s your name?” he returned, finally realizing that might be the polite thing to do.
“I’m Inej,” she says.
Kaz nodded. “Inej,” he said in a low tone, trying to get the inflection right.
Inej looked pleased. “Most people don’t care to get it that right,” she said, almost in awe.
“Get what right?” he asked, lost.
“My name,” she explained.
“Well, if it’s yours, then it deserves to be gotten right every time,” he shrugged.
Inej laughed at that, and his stomach flip flopped. “That’s very kind of you.”
Kaz looked down, unable to keep looking at her for some reason. “Whatever,” he dismissed. “Why are you getting Jes’ homework?”
“He’s sick,” Inej said by way of explanation. Then she paused. “Well, he says he’s sick, but I wouldn’t put it past him to ditch because of a hangover or something equally ridiculous.”
“Sounds about right,” Kaz agreed.
“Do you always take this bus?” She changed the topic.
“Yeah, I just had to ask my professor something after class. Guess maybe I should’ve gotten here early so I could do it before, but alas,” he tsked his tongue.
“Well, if you’d done that, we wouldn’t have met,” she said matter of factly. “So I’m glad you didn’t.”
Kaz stared at her.
She smiled at him.
She had the cutest dimples he’d ever seen –
He cleared his throat. “Hmm,” he said noncommittally.
Another bus pulled up, Inej getting up.
Kaz followed her onto the bus, sitting on of the handicapped seats so he could stretch his leg out. He really shouldn’t have tried to run on it.
She sat across from him, lithe body angled toward him. She continued to smile. At least, she smiled every time he occasionally looked at her.
He wondered how awkward it would be to ask Jes for her number.

Chapter Text

Crap you found me on the roof please don’t be an RA

Nina giggled as Matthias playfully growled, poking her stomach at the suggestion she had just made. She almost fell out of her seat at the lunch table and onto the grass.

“Aww, c’mon, Matthias! Wouldn’t that be perfect for our wedding?”

Matthias shook his head but she didn’t miss the smile stretching across his face as he did so.

Since his proposal over a month ago, the same night Inej had gone to sleep over at Kaz’s apartment, Nina and Matthias had only lightly discussed wedding plans but it hadn’t been until last week that he had asked her about actually planning it.

Jesper and Wylan were on the other end of the table intently discussing a class project, Wylan’s hands waving in the air as he spoke and Jesper shaking his head before explaining something else.

Nina opened her mouth to make another suggestion but the sound of footsteps interrupted her and all four of them turned to see Inej running toward them, a worried expression on her face.

“Hey, have any of you seen Kaz?”

Nina, Matthias, and Wylan shook their heads but Jesper inhaled sharply and Inej’s dark gaze darted to his face.

“Jesper?”

Jesper cleared his throat. “I, uh, saw him a little while ago. He was heading towards the Ag building. He looked like he was having a really bad touch day.”

Inej’s face fell at the news and Nina jumped up from her seat as she said, “I’ll help you find him, okay? C’mon, let’s go.”

Nina grabbed Inej’s hand as she looked at Nina gratefully and they headed off toward the Ag building.

Soon after they had reached the building, Nina heard an unfortunately familiar panting sound and she ran toward it, releasing Inej’s hand.

She went along the wall, Inej behind her, while she tried to figure out where the sound was.

“Do you hear that, Nina? It sounds like – ”

“Kaz, I know.”

“Yeah, but Nina, it sounds like Kaz is having a panic attack.”

Nina’s heart sank. “Then we better hurry.”

She spotted a ladder and as she and Inej got closer, the panting noise got louder and it sounded like it was coming from…the roof.

“Wait here,” she instructed, starting up the ladder while Inej stood at the bottom.

When she reached the top of the ladder, Nina gazed across the roof and soon spotted Kaz slumped against a large generator, his pale face white and his dark eyes unfocused. His cane sat next to him.

Nina climbed onto the roof and leaned over the edge to say down to Inej, “I found him and he looks like he needs you. He’s breathing really heavily.”

Inej’s face dropped again but she quickly started up the ladder and Nina turned away from the edge to walk over to Kaz.

Nina knelt beside him, her voice soft as she managed to say over his loud panting, “Kaz. Kaz.”

He didn’t look at her. Instead, he mumbled something she didn’t quite catch but decided to ignore it.

“Kaz, what’s wrong?”

He just stared blankly at the other side of the roof but his face looked scared.

“...you found me. Just leave me alone.”

“Kaz, what’s going on?” Nina tried again but he interrupted her with “Don’t be an RA. Just leave me alone.”

Nina kept her voice soft as she said, “I’m not an RA. It’s me, Nina. Inej is with me.”

Inej climbed onto the roof and rushed over to kneel next to Nina. Her voice was somewhat softer than Nina’s, but Nina ignored it as Inej whispered, “Kaz, it’s me. It’s Inej. What do you need?”

Kaz didn’t respond but Nina noticed that his breathing started to slow a little at Inej’s voice.

Nina took that as a good sign and ventured to ask softly, “Kaz. Are you having a bad touch day or is it also a bad leg day?”

There was silence before Kaz slowly mumbled, “Bad touch day.”

Inej leaned forward slightly. “Hey, Kaz. Is it okay if me or Nina help you by touching you or is that completely off the table?”

Nina shot her a questioning look and Inej whispered back quickly, “When he gets like this, I ask him simple questions like this so he can set boundaries and I know what I can and can’t do.”

Nina nodded in understanding as she and Inej waited patiently. A long moment later, Kaz mumbled, “Inej, wrists. Nina, hands.”

“Can I touch you now, or do I need to wait?”

“Wait.”

“Okay.”

Nina suddenly remembered something and stared directly at Kaz, keeping her voice soft. “Kaz. Can you look at me? I’m going to try and help you with your breathing but I need you to look at me, okay?”

Kaz stayed silent for so long, Nina almost wondered if he completely blocked her out but he slowly moved his head towards her, looking first at Inej. His gaze cleared a little before he finally looked at Nina.

“Hey, Kaz,” she whispered, smiling a little. “I need you to focus on the sound of my breathing, okay?”

She inhaled slowly before expelling the air the same way, repeating the process as she kept her breaths slow and steady.

Kaz’s eyes narrowed a little as he seemed to start focusing on the sound but his own breathing still came out fast and his chest rose and fell rapidly.

“Kaz, I need you to breathe with me. Can you breathe with me?”

She inhaled deeply and then exhaled, doing it a few more times as Kaz continued to stare at her for a moment before slowly joining her.

His face started to get a little bit of its color back as Kaz kept breathing with her.

“Hey, Kaz," Inej said softly. "Can I touch your wrists now?”

Inej waited patiently until Kaz nodded slowly and she carefully grasped his covered wrists with just her fingers.

Nina noted the sharp intake of breath from Kaz when Inej touched him but Nina nodded toward him and smiled reassuringly as she continued to breathe with him.

She waited a few moments before hesitantly asking, “Kaz, can I touch your hands?”

Kaz immediately shook his head and Nina simply nodded.

After a while, Kaz slowly nodded at her and then his hands. Nina reached out and gently touched his hands the same way Inej did his wrists, letting her bare fingers grip his gloved ones.

Nina kept breathing with him until the color – well, what little color Kaz had – eventually returned and his breathing slowed to its normal pace, his dark eyes no longer glazed over.

Kaz stayed like that for a moment before slowly pulling his hands and wrists away from Nina and Inej, setting them in his lap.

“Are you okay now or do you need some time alone? Do you need Inej? I can – ”

“No, you stay.”

Nina turned to Inej, completely taken aback but Inej said, “I’m going to go wait with the others, okay? I’ll see you later.”

She smiled at him and Kaz gave her a small smile back before she turned and disappeared down the ladder.

Nina turned back to Kaz, an eyebrow raised. “Why do you need me?”

“If you’re going to ask me stupid questions, you can leave,” he snapped.

She rolled her eyes but her voice was quiet as she asked, “What do you need me to do?”

“Sit.”

Nina obliged, taking the spot next to him but leaving a generous amount of space between them to make Kaz comfortable.

They sat in silence for a long while and then Kaz said, “When’s the wedding?”

Nina squeaked at the sudden comment but managed to say, “We haven’t decided yet.”

Kaz’s lips quirked up into a tiny smirk. “Because Matthias is now regretting everything?”

Nina glared at him. “No, that is not why.”

Kaz’s lips lowered and he stared at the sky for a moment before saying quietly, “You and Matthias are lucky to have each other.”

Nina smiled. “And you and Inej are lucky to have each other.”

Kaz stayed silent for a long moment and then he said, “Yes. Yes, we are.”

Nina smiled. “I guess we’re all lucky to have each other in our lives.”

Kaz raised an eyebrow but didn’t look at her as he continued to face the sky.

Nina turned to look with him, the color reminding her of Matthias’s kind blue eyes and how they sparkled whenever he looked at her.

She closed her eyes and imagined saying “I do” to those beautiful blue eyes, to the life they would share together, to him.

She hoped to say those lovely words soon and she opened her eyes, ready to face her future with the man she loved.