Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You were vaguely aware of Giovanni Potage’s existence.

Keyword: vague. You’d seen him around on the campus of your school, shared a class or two with him, and sure you had occasionally heard of his rebellious exploits, but that seemed to be it for what you thought about him. You didn’t really give him a second glance when you saw him in the library this random Monday morning.

The library was a place you chose to take solace in, away from your loud roommate and the nosy RA. It wasn’t the kind of place you would have expected to see Giovanni Potage in at all. He was sat at one of the smaller study tables, pouring over what you easily recognized as the textbook for your shared English class. His brow was furrowed in concentration, as he absentmindedly chewed on the tip of his pen and flipped the page he was on rapidly back and forth. He frowned at the page and groaned, wincing when the librarian shushed him from the nearby front desk.

You couldn’t help but be a little nosy, wandering over and peering over his shoulder. You tried to be nonchalant about it, just wanting a glance at what he was struggling with is all, but the moment you were near close enough to try and squint at the book, he whirled around.

You jumped, embarrassingly enough- how had he even noticed you were there?- and he had the nerve to smile a little at you being caught. You stuttered on the thought that he had a somewhat nice smile, before it twisted into more of a smug smirk.

“Heyyy, don’t I know you from somewhere?”. He said, and his eyes darted down to your own textbook in your hands for the exact same class. How he’d spotted it while it was mixed in with several other books, you had no idea.

You pushed your glasses up your nose- a nervous tick, they truly didn’t even need adjusting- and huffed. “Mrs. Smiths class. You having trouble with the homework?”. You taunted a little. If he was going to tease you, you were going to tease him right back.

But he didn’t rise to the bait, sighing as he slumped back in his chair. “Yeah you could say that again. Her work is always the worst! She just never explains stuff right, y’know?”.

You did know. Mrs. Smith had a tendency to go off on tangents, assume students could understand the subtext she left behind and would move on from unit to unit without a trace. You could keep up pretty easily, you’d always been good with English, but you could definitely understand how someone could get confused and left behind. And it seemed that Giovanni had.

You felt a little bad, after all you’d had major struggles with math before in the past and it was never fun to be seriously stuck on a school subject.

“Do you uh, want some help? With the work?”. You tried to sound casual about it, ready to immediately rescind the offer if he decided to tease you for even offering but to your surprise his face lit up.

“Really?!”.

The librarian shushed him again and he lowered his voice. “That would be so awesome! This class has been totally kicking my ass”. He moved to slide another nearby chair over and you glanced at the library clock. You had some time before class started to try and steer him onto the right path. You sat, scanning over the rough notes he had written down. Rough being an understatement. His thoughts seemed to have been scrambled all over the place, and the random doodles scattered throughout the page didn’t help.

“Alright”. You flipped his notebook to a clean page. “You’re working on the essay due this Friday, yeah?”.

He nodded. “Mhmm, but I’ve never been good at writing essays. I mean, who decided that we needed a certain amount of words for some of this stuff? Some things can be said in like, two sentences, easy!”. He crossed his arms and you nodded, silently agreeing with him.

“Well you seemed to have an idea of what you wanted to write but it isn’t very.. organized? I usually try to get down the specific why’s of my topic. Y’know, why I’m writing about it, why it matters, stuff like that”. You continued on about details and paragraph organization, only belatedly realizing you were somewhat rambling before snapping out of it and turning to look at Giovanni.

“What?”. You questioned at the weird look he aimed at you.BHis smile was entirely too bright, an eyebrow raised as he spoke.

“You’re smart, huh?”.

You blinked. “Well, I mean, I guess? I-“.

“Let me guess, 3- point something gpa?”.

You hoped you weren’t blushing right now, but you could feel your face heat up anyways. “3.5”. You murmured.

“What was that?”. He placed a hand to his ear, to mockingly attempt to hear better.

“3.5!”. You shout, and the librarian glares at the two of you so hard you both avert your eyes with embarrassment.

How dare he get a rise out of you like that anyway? Did he want to get the both of you banned from the library or something!?

He looking at you when you finally turn your eyes away from the floor and he nods at the paper. “So all that organization shit really works huh?”.

You nod and he grins. “Well I guess I’ll just have to try it. Thanks dork”.

Dork.

It’s not said with any malice or cruelty like you’ve often heard it said before. It’s only laced with a teasing tone and a thankful smile that he sends your way.

With that he checks his phone, stands, and casually says. “We’re gonna be so late”.

You frown, confused, and glance at the library clock again, eyes widening. How had time flown so fast?!

You copied his movements, gathering your books in your hands and rushing out of the library, with Giovanni close behind you. Your class was all the way across campus, there was no way you’d make it in time without running.

“Gimme those!”. You heard Giovanni shout and suddenly he was taking your books in one arm and grabbing your hand with the other, pulling you along with him faster than you’d been running on your own.

You absentmindedly wondered how he was so fast, but the thought quickly dissipated as you put all your energy and focus  into pumping your feet against the grassy ground of the campus lawn. You both shouted out apologies as you cut through the crowds of your fellow students, zigzagging around without knocking into anyone or dropping any of your stuff.

You arrived outside of the classroom, out of breath and significantly more sweaty than when they’d left, but on time. With less than a  minute to spare.

The two of you shared a glance, holding each other’s gaze for a moment before bursting into laughter, trying but failing to quiet down. Eventually your laughter subsided, and you wiped at your eyes, looking up and catching Giovanni staring at you, a smile way too soft to point at practically a stranger painted onto his face. His eyes were a unique shade of light salmon pink, you noted absentmindedly. He turned and busied himself with readjusting your books in his hands, as soon as he caught on to you looking back at him.

You were about to question why he was gazing at you like that at all, but the sound of heels clicking against the floor echoed out loudly from down the hall, cutting you off, and startling you both out of your shared glance. The two of you shared another quick glance as you both rushed in tandem into the classroom.

-

Mrs. Smith was strict about being on time, tardiness was usually rewarded with being constantly called on in class and being harshly glared at while she waited for an answer. If she even let you into the room at all once the class had officially started. 

But surprisingly she wasn’t in the classroom yet, which was entirely rare and practically unheard of. Still the two of you weren’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth, and you both hurried to sit down.

Your spot was typically more towards the front, but as you sat down, you realized you’d instinctively followed Giovanni to sit with him. You were both seated towards more towards the back, and Giovanni settled in easily enough that you could tell it was his ‘unassigned-assigned’ seat. You realized you didn’t entirely mind sitting with him instead. But it was the principle of the thing.

Mrs. Smith walked in and you realized you wouldn’t be able to move with her targeting you anyways, so you settled down more into your seat. You caught Giovanni looking slightly surprised at you choosing to sit there, but all he did was give you one of his grins- they were starting to become slightly insufferable-like he knew something you didn’t. You ignored the thought though, and turned to face forward and focus on the lesson.

It was as annoyingly distracted and unorganized as all Mrs. Smith classes were, and you listlessly followed along, rather bored. You chanced a glance over to Giovanni who was frowned down at his papers, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Seemed to be that he was struggling again.

You didn’t necessarily mind the thought of helping him again with the work later either. You looked up from your notes, checking to make sure Mrs. Smith wasn’t watching, and slid your foot over to nudge against his. He startled slightly, relaxing when his eyes met yours. You tilted your head towards your professor who was droning on about something entirely off topic and rolled your eyes with a grin. He stifled a snicker, bumping his foot back against yours.

It was a weirdly intimate exchange between two people who were nothing but strangers less than an hour ago.

You pushed the thought away, and got lost in the lecture. A few minutes later a note was slid your way. You turned, peering at Giovanni over your glasses. What was this, fourth grade?

‘U gettin any of this?’

You glanced towards the front of the room to make sure your professor hadn’t spotted you, before scribbling back a response.

‘For the most part, yes. Are you?’ You slid the note back, watching slightly amused as Giovanni read it and huffed. He slid the note back over a moment later.

‘Smarty pants’

You stifled a smile.

‘If you want, we can study together after class?’

Giovanni read the note, and sent you a thumbs up, with a silly over exaggerated wink.

 The smile fully bloomed across your face.

Chapter Text

The party was loud and full of energy when you both arrived together. Your roommate had ditched you immediately as she spotted her boyfriend in the crowd and you weren’t at all surprised by that. Not that you disliked her, you guys just didn’t mesh well together. Not like the way you and Giovanni did.

Between weekly study sessions, tutoring, and classes, slowly but surely, the walls of academia came down and melted into genuine camaraderie. A slow friendship bloomed between them, until the two of you were hanging out basically every single day. Case in point, here you were at a party that you’d been halfheartedly invited to by your roommate who happened to know someone from the frat house you were at. Alpha kappa beta zeta, something or other; you weren’t a Greek life fanatic. Giovanni had agreed to come with, and you found you were glad for the company. 

Giovanni seemed content to just hang out with just you at the party, together in the little corner by the staircase that you’d staked out, people watching and making stupid jokes that probably would’ve been more funny if you were tipsy.

You hadn’t even worn anything too fancy. An casual pink gingham thinly strapped dress that was a bit short from being bought when you were still in highschool, chunky beat up white sneakers, and your comfiest brown bomber baggy jacket thrown on top, sliding down off your shoulders to hang by your elbows as it wasn’t as cool in the crowded house as it had been outside.

Giovanni seemed to like it. He wasn’t subtle at all. His eyes kept flickering up and down your frame, and his face would go slightly scarlet.

It was cute.

You wondered what was making him so flustered. You were pretty sure Giovanni was an extroverted person, so you doubted it was the party that had him looking a little antsy. Maybe he was into fashion and wanted to know where you got the dress from. The faded Forever 21 tag didn’t exactly scream luxury.

You absentmindedly tugged your dress’s strap back up on your shoulder from where it had been sliding down and Giovanni cleared his throat, face once again slightly red in the face. “Y’know what, I’m gonna go get a drink, you want anything?”.

You asked for a soda, watching with rising confusion as he maneuvered through the crowd of drunk and rowdy college kids to hopefully find a cooler with drinks. Why was he acting so weird?

You sighed to yourself. You’d never understand boys it seemed.

“Hey, babe”.

You startled at the voice that came from the stairs behind you and you raised an eyebrow at the sight of a guy that you might’ve vaguely recognized from one of your other classes. 

He swayed a bit with the obvious dizziness that came with being one or two drinks away from wasted. His eyes shamelessly trailed over your body and he leered towards you with a smirk.

“..Hi?”. You replied, unenthusiastically.

You weren’t particularly interested in making conversation with whoever this guy was, but he didn’t seem to be able to tell as he walked closer to you and came to a stop, far too close in your personal space for your liking. The smell of beer on his body made you frown. 

You took a step back, and he took a step forward. 

“You look bored. I got a room upstairs, I could help show you how to have a good time”. He raised his eyebrows suggestively and a chill of disgust went down your spine.

”No thanks. I’m good”. You said definitively.

Almost scowling at this point, you glanced behind you towards the general direction that Giovanni had gone off too. Where was he? A hand on your shoulder startled you and you turned back around to find the creep closer than he was before. You shrugged his hand off you and he frowned.

“Come on, don’t be a buzzkill”. He slurred. No one around you in the dense crowd seemed to sense your growing distress. The creep seemed to know it to as he got closer and closer into your space and you were pressed too far back to the wall to get away. You glared, opening your mouth, ready to stand up for yourself. Possibly with an addition of the presence of pepper spray from the bottom of your purse if things went south, when-

“Hey! Back the fuck off!”.

Giovanni’s voice came strongly from behind you and his presence unconsciously made you relax. You’d never seen him angry like this before. If anything the guy seemed to take frustration in stride, if not with a little overdramatic ranting here and there.

“What, are you her boyfriend or something?”. The creep huffed.

“I’m gonna be your problem if you don’t leave her alone. Ever heard of no means no, asshole?”. Giovanni moved past you to get in the guys face and that finally made him stumble backwards into another party goer who rolled their eyes at the him. Sure enough, people were turning to look at the scene with curiosity. Giovanni’s piercing glare and clenched fists seemed to say enough anyways, because the creep scurried off and disappeared into the crowd.

Giovanni huffed, turning to you and seeming much more calmed down. “You okay?”. He handed you the drink he’d left to get, grip relaxing on his own drink. “Sorry I took so long, that asshole didn’t do anything did he? I can’t stand people who try to take advantage of others”. His voice petered off into a growl.

You felt a bit flustered at how protective Giovanni was being, but you pushed that aside and shook your head. “No! You got here just in time. Like a knight in shining armor”. You joked at the end. His typical dorky smirk appeared and he popped his drink open and took a swig.

“All in a days work. Night? Whatever you get it”.

You laughed, cracking open your own soda and sipping, absentmindedly listening to Giovanni go on about the commotion that caused him to take forever to get the drinks in the first place. He paused to take a sip of whatever cheap alcohol the party had to offer and your eyes absentmindedly caught on how his Adam’s apples bobbed as he did so.

A new song started blaring through the speakers and Giovanni perked up, startling you out of your thoughts. “Oh dude! This is my jam! Dance with me?”.

You didn’t think you could say no if you tried, and the two of you downed another swig of your drinks before moving to squeeze through the crowd of to the heart of dancing college students.

-

An hour later- or several hours later, you weren’t particularly sure, time seemed to fly when you were with him- you and Giovanni made your way out of the party. You were never one to stay at parties like this for more too long, but something about Giovanni being there made just made the event far more tolerable than usual.

Giovanni giggled at nothing in particular as you walked through campus back to your dorms, the streetlights above you casting a soft fluorescent glow down onto the two of you.

“What’s so funny?” You asked, as the two of you walked side by side, hands occasionally brushing each other. 

He laughed again, and you raised an eyebrow as he seemed to sway on his feet a bit as he walked. “Nothin…”. He laughed again.

“Are you okay?”. Had he drunk that much at the party?

“Yeah, m’ good. Fun party. Good music! That soda you had was really good by the way”.  He said, before he went on humming a song you couldn’t make out.

“Wait, what?”

Giovanni snorted like it was obvious. “Your soda! I dunno if i remember what kinda soda it was but like, it was sooo good”. He frowned for a moment. “Which is weird, because I’m not really a soda guy, y'know milkshakes I can get behind but-“.

He continued rambling but at that you paused and zoned him out- all you’d been drinking was coca-cola all night…and something finally clicked. Your heart dropped.

“Gio, I think you got roofied”.

Giovanni stopped from where he’d continued to shimmy to a beat you couldn’t hear, when you’d stopped and he turned around to face you and cocked his head.

“No shit, really?” He said, genuinely seeming surprised before he started giggling again. “That’s why the soda s’ good! And why everything’s a little dizzy…Makes a lot more sense”.

“Oh my god, you are so roofied”. You groaned, feeling slightly panicked. “I let you hold my drink when I went to the bathroom and you forgot that it was mine and you were drinking it when I got back so I let you have it, and now you’re roofied and it’s all my fault and-“.

“Someone was tryin’ to roofie you?” Giovanni asked, growing upset. “Why would they do that!” He titled right suddenly and you rushed forward to help catch him before he could hit the sidewalk. Jesus, guys were heavy. He looked deceptively skinny but he was solid as a rock!

“Okay, how about we take it easy?”. You said, moving so you could balance him. With his arm around your shoulder you continued the walk back to the dorms. He laughed, more of an offbrand villain cackle than any of the typical laughter you’d heard from him before. 

”I’m a tough guy, I can handle it a little roofie”. He paused. “Probably”. 

It was a long walk, combined with Giovanni’s drunken clumsiness and him being just a few inches taller than you, but eventually you make it back to his dorms. It’s a bit awkward to pat him down and fish out his keys but you manage to unlock the door and get into the room without either of you falling over.

You dump him onto his bed, and he giggles again as you pull out your phone to do a quick panicky google search for what to do in this situation. There’s so many articles related to the problem, and you scan through them with a laser sharp focus, ignoring the sounds of Giovanni wiggling around on his bed.

”How are you feeling? Any sweats? Chills? Nausea?”. Your frown deepened as you read through the list of symptoms. You recognized the dizziness and lack of coordination.

”M’ fine”. 

“You don’t feel off besides feeling dizzy?”.

”Tired”. He groans, as if just now realizing he’s feeling the sudden exhaustion. “And a little sick in my stomach”.

”No fever like feeling?”. You continue to question, glancing up to see if maybe his face seems warm, when you’re met with the sight of Giovanni half dressed and sprawled across his bed. Apparently all that shuffling around had been him shucking off the graphic band tee he’d been wearing previously. Currently he was halfway through inching out of his jeans, the top of his boxers on full display.

”Umm... not anymore”. He says, obviously frustrated at how hard it is to remove jeans while horizontal, slightly drunk, and assumably drugged.

The warmth that spread across your body was fast and hot, and you forced your brain to focus. Focus on anything that wasn’t Giovanni’s lean chest or broad shoulders or-

Focus!

”Do… do you need help with that?”. The cliche line sounds entirely un-sexy with how hesitant you say it and with how unfortunate the situation was.

”Yeah”. Giovanni grumbles, sounding so pathetic that you can’t help but feel bad. It’s as clinical as it can be to help someone remove their pants.

If that hadn’t drained any fluster from you, the next thing Giovanni says immediately does. “I miss my mom”. He mumbles, so quiet you’re not sure if you were meant to hear it.

You ask on reflex. ”What?”. 

“Never been away from her so long b’fore”. He mumbled again, words slightly slurred together. 

“Oh”. And a wave of homesickness washed over you too. You blinked hard. You hadn’t realized how much until this very second, but you were in the same boat as he was. The urge to call your own mom flowed through you, but it was so late right now it bordered on early morning, and there was more pressing matters so you stifled it down for tomorrow.

Scouting around Giovanni’s room, you spotted a small trashcan and dragged it over to be near where Giovanni’s head was on his pillow, just in case. It’d probably be a long night for you, seeing as the only other place to sleep besides the bed was a red beanbag chair he had in the corner, but the main thing every article you had read specified was ‘Do not leave the person alone’ so you’d have to make do.

Before you could plop down into the well worn beanbag chair, Giovanni’s tired voice called out to you. “Jus’ sleep over here”.

You froze. Slowly turning around. Giovanni’s eyes were always halfway closed, clearly he was struggling to stay awake at this point. His tiny twin sized mattress probably could fit the both of you (barely) but you didn’t like the idea of doing so and accepting while the offer while he was mentally compromised.

”You’re thinkin’ too hard, just c’mon”. He even scooches over to make room for you. Ignoring the fact that he was nearly naked, it was rather temping. The party and panic of the night had worn you out too, and before you can talk yourself out of it you kicked off your sneaker and strode over to climb into his bed.

You at least attempt to leave some room for Jesus between you, but Giovanni moves an arm forward  to pull you away from the edge of the mattress before the hand recedes and he curls up near your back, and his snores start to echo around the room within moments.

It’s late, you’re tired, and you let out a bone weary sigh as the tension leaves your body and you finally let your eyes slip closed and fall asleep.