Archive of Our Own ^beta

Of cause he was stressed, not only had his roommate for the last 2 years changed colleges without so much as a goodbye, but Robert also now had to move buildings. They had sprung it on them earlier that week. He remembered his heart drop, and something lodged in his throat at the flyer left on his door, they had a week to move their stuff out before the building underwent construction, and they had to move to the new building to meet their roommates.

He had read the list of people on his floor several times, it was imprinted in his brain. Cassie Newman and Natasha Trace were the only woman on the floor and were roomed together. Across from them were Reuben Fitch and Bradley Bradshaw, an unfortunate name. Roberts’s room was next to theirs; he was paired with someone named Micky Garcia. Across the hall from them were Javy Machado and Jake Seresin.

So many things could go wrong, what if his roommate hated him? What if they were messy? What if they were the type that left things out for days? Or had toe fungus? Or worse. He shuttered, what if they were the type to stay up late to party and bring girls home?

So yes, he was understandably stressed, he liked having things planned out. The administration had not taken kindly to his plan, he liked being prepared. He hated being unprepared it was one of his fears, he had been like this as a kid. His mum used to tell him about it, bringing blankets and winter clothes to the beach in case they had a sudden snowstorm despite the fact they were in Miami. He was always prepared, it’s just who he was.

When Robert stepped into his newly designated dorm room, he honestly hadn’t expected the man to be lounging back on his bed with a comic in hand.

“Superman or Spider-Man,” the boy said to him causing him to stop in the doorway blinking in confusion. Had he missed something?

The boy on the bed rolled his eyes and sit up “who would win?” he clarified. “Oh,” Bob flushed slightly at the boy’s attention, “uh- Spider-Man?” He answered hesitantly, the other boy’s face turned into a grin as he stood suddenly crossing the room wrapping his arm over Robert’s frozen body.

“Ah, I knew you would be a good man, come come. Let’s get you settled in” the boy said as he pulled him into the room, he extended his hand to the shorter boy “Micky” he offered. Bob found himself smiling despite being overwhelmed, “Robert”.

He had hardly unpacked his second bag, taking careful time to ensure his colour coding hadn’t been disrupted as he filled his drawers when the door bust opened. He startled flinching as the door slammed into the wall, he felt fiercely underdressed at the sight of the woman at the door. He quickly reached out and pulled on an oversized sweater in an attempt to feel safer with the unfamiliar person in his close proximity.

“Micky” she drawled, the boy on the bed hadn’t even acknowledged her he patiently flipped the page of his spiderman comic. Where did he keep getting them from? “Natasha” Micky replied in the same drawl, she rolled his eyes “Bradley’s not back for another day, Cassie is back and being a complete dick about it. Reubens went out with his boyfriend for the night”. “How is that my issue?” he asked her a small tilt of his lip showed he was listening to her rant, “I’m bored,” she said flatly, her eyes filtered over him and there was a spark of interest, oh no.

“Who’s this?” she asked, “Robert Floyd, the roommate remember?” Micky said flatly, already annoyed with the woman. “Come on Mickey, let’s show the newbie the grounds”, she grinned at him, and he swallowed sharply feeling small under her gaze, she reminded him of a shark, and not the friendly one from Nemo.

Books were safe he decided, they had sent him an odd look but hadn’t commented when he had grabbed the books from his bedside and carried them as he followed. They weren’t really guiding him; they were more just gossiping occasionally remembering to point things out.

He bit his lip quietly and drifted back grateful the two hadn’t noticed he was now walking a foot or two behind them. Deciding how quickly he had to be to escape back to his dorm.

He had been silently trailing behind Natasha and Micky when he stepped away, it had only been for a moment. Apparently, that was enough, he had turned the corner away from the pair only to collide with a firm chest throwing them both to the ground. The perfectly styled blond hair, and strong jaw that clenched. The stormy green eyes that gazed back at him, along with the hard earnt buff body. It was almost enough to steal his breath away; it was the collision he blamed. The man was built like a bolder.  

He was not prepared to meet Jake Seresin.

The man glared at him from the ground, standing without bothering to give him a hand to gather the books that had spilt from his arms onto the floor when he braced himself for impact.

“Watch where you’re going” he hissed in anger at him as he stormed off, the other man who had been by the man’s side and sent him a small apologetic smile before hurrying after his counterpart.

“What an arse” Micky scoffed lending him a hand, Natasha rolled her eyes “that’s Seresin for you, a rich boy who doesn’t even try in class”. She leaned in as if to share a secret “they say his parents sent him here just to get away from him”, she had an unfamiliar glint in her eye and her smile put him on edge. He silently stood his books firmly in his arms, he didn’t respond to the others as he muttered “I’m going back to the dorm”.

He stopped in the hallway hesitating at the closed door he knew was Serein’s, the whiteboard on the door had rubbed the bottom of the name off, if he squinted, he could see the leftover of it.

‘Jake Seresin’, underneath it was ‘H_ngm_n’. Next to it was a stick figure with a smile on its face jumping from the side of a cliff with a noose around its neck, he grimaced. That had to be a sick joke he didn’t waste a thought closing the distance between him and the door, at the absence of an eraser he pulled the end of his sweater over his hand and used it to rub out the stick figure. He didn’t think about it when he slipped the cap of the marker and scribbled on the board. Nor when he returned it to its place in the side of the board.

Determined to be a good Nambour, he looked down at his bundle of books in his arms and picked one out, Mayday by Clive Cussler and placed it outside the door. With a small smile, having filled his quoter of people for the day he stepped back to his door and walked inside.

Unaware behind his closed door that Jake Seresin had heard someone outside his door and the familiar whiteboard creak and scowled, still upset having found the dam message left for him when he returned to the dorm.

Javy watched him wearily from his side of the room, as Jake waited for a moment as something was dropped to the ground outside the door it was unfamiliar. He waited until the click of another door shut before he jumped up from the bed starling Javy with the sudden movement, caused the boy to curse as he quickly dabbed the spilt water with a tissue.

“Jake” Javy hissed, he ignored him opening the door to his surprise to find a book waiting for him he looked at it in confusion picking it up and turning it over. Clive Cussler? Where had he heard that before it had an old plane flying on the cover and he held it thoughtfully. He turned to go back into the room and his eyes stilled on the whiteboard that had moments before been the cause of his rage. But he found a void space where the morbid stick figure used to be, left behind was a single classic smiley face. Two eyes and a mouth. 

He found himself lifting a hand absently to trace it carefully not to smudge it. He pulled out his phone and took a photo. After living with these dick heads for years, he had grown used to their taunts and hostile behaviour, he had assumed the new roommate Micky had gotten would be no different with the company he keeps. Maybe the roommate wouldn’t be so bad, his eyes flickered briefly to the door across from him reading the new name, Robert Floyd.

His lip twitched; Robert didn’t suit the small innocent man he had met moments before. The one he had ran into shoving to the ground, the one he had spat at and neglected to help. He couldn’t help being defensive around the others it had been drilled into him at this point, he still felt a small sliver of guilt. Despite how he treated the man, he had still scene the morbid image and whipped it away. Replacing it with something of positivity.

“Do you want me to leave while you have a moment with the door?” Javy dry comment pulled him back into their room, he rolled his eyes and stepped into the room book held protectively in his hand as the door shut. “Shut up” he scowled at the man who had become his only friend at this stupid university, who took his attitudes in stride.

He dropped onto his bed, swiping his phone open and placing the image as his home page background where only he would see it. He had an image of he and Javy on his lock screen dressed as cowboys when they went out for his birthday to celebrate, despite that they got arrested in the end it was the single happiest day he had had with anyone in a long time.

He chucked his phone to the side and laid back on the bed, the book in hand. He opened it carefully not to damage the spine, finding an inscription on the inside of the cover.

‘To Robbie,

With lots of love, Your sister xx

Don’t have to much fun at Uni without me’

The soon becoming smiley face was scribbled in the corner of the page, something that clearly was often shared through this family. Robbie, that suited him better. He wasn’t aware of the smile on his face until Javy scoffed, “wow, you’re falling hard” the man said quietly as Jake threw the pillow from his bed at the man, “don’t be a dick”. He didn’t deny it.

He picked out a book he had in his collection from a English class, he remembered reading it many years ago and for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to get rid of it. He pulled out the Jane Auston book and that morning before his normal 4am run, he dropped it quietly outside Robbie’s door.

He had already been running for 15 minutes when the man stumbled out his door, still dark out yawning quietly as he looked down at the offending object. He blinked slightly, a book.

Who was leaving a book outside the room? It was clearly for him, having heard Micky venomously declare he lived by comics and all books could die before he gave them up. He picked it up, it had clearly been read by not for a while by its yellowing paged, his eyes flickered to the whiteboard on their door and couldn’t help the small smile at the now slightly wanky smiley face next to his name, matching the door across from him.