Chapter Text
“York, if you’d please just calm down—”
“I’m not gonna calm down D!” Delta pulled the phone away from his ear at his friend’s shout. He sighed, hitching his bag higher on his shoulder as he made his way across the busy campus green.
“I don’t see how you pitching a fit is going to make matters any better,” Delta chided him dully. They’d been having the same conversation for the course of the last week, since they had both received their room assignment letters in the mail. It had been quite a surprise to see mismatched numbers on each form, breaking the illusion that they were to live together for the upcoming school year.
They were both coping with the sudden change with varying degrees of intensity.
“It’s better than being so damn accepting about the whole thing,” York grumbled into the phone, his statement punctuated by what sounded like him managing to knock over a stack of boxes. “We have been separated against our will and wishes! And I for one am not going to stand for it.” Delta resisted the urge to rub at his temples as he walked into the dorm building.
“Tone down the dramatics if you would York, they are completely unnecessary. We live just a building apart, it is not the end of the world.” He started up the stairs, rolling his eyes at the huffy sigh that answered him over the phone. “You are such a child.”
“You say that like you’re just realizing this.” Delta could physically hear the smirk on his friend’s lips and the thought alone made him want to groan as well as grin. York was one of a kind, and for all his ridiculous behavior, Delta knew he would sorely regret a life without York in it.
“Trust me, I’m very familiar with your immaturity,” Delta chuckled into the phone in spite of himself, shouldering open the door to the third floor wing of dorms. “Now are you going to open the door for me or not? I’m just up the hall.”
“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” The phone call disconnects, and a door opens further down the hall. York’s head pops out and despite the mood he was undoubtedly still stewing in about the room assignment, because York just did not let things go easily, he’s grinning at Delta. Delta can’t help but smile back. Even when York leans against the doorframe, grin shifting into a smirk that pulls at the old scars that carve up his face and says, “Took you long enough. Just a building over my ass.”
“Hello to you too York.” Delta rolls his eyes, slipping past his friend’s long body without hesitation. “I’m not surprised you weren’t listening when I told you over the phone I was coming from the tutoring center, not my dormitory.”
York just grinned at him in response, propping the door open with a wedge before walking up, slinging an arm around Delta’s shoulders. “Of course I was listening, D. Just slipped my mind is all.”
“Of course.” Delta rolls his eyes up at him, skirting out from under York’s arm, but he’s smiling. He takes the opportunity to scan around the common area that connected York’s bedroom to his roommate’s. There were boxes stacked on either side of the room, some he recognized as ones he had helped York pack up, leaving the others to logically belong to York’s roommate. Which speaking of…
“Dude, are you sure you don’t want me to help?”
It was clear that the question was not directed at him, but Delta still turned to York, a question halfway to his lips. The question immediately died in his throat as he saw exactly who it was that York was talking to.
Striding into the common room was a tall, broad shouldered figure, carrying a stack of boxes with surprising ease, clearly defined muscles rippling under the weight of them. Delta was barely aware of the way his eyes tracked the figure as he moved across the room, setting down the boxes, or the way his gaze followed the curve of this stranger’s spine.
Well then.
“It’s fine, that was the last of them.” The voice was smooth and deep, and surprisingly quiet considering the size of the man it belonged to. He stood up to his full height, turning to face them while running a broad hand over his shaved head. “Thanks for offering, though.”
Delta felt his breath catch at the tip of his tongue as he caught sight of this man’s face. Now, Delta was not really one to get caught up in the aesthetics someone’s appearance. He’d spent long enough around York to be immune to the charms of a well sculpted jaw and a winning smile. But yet here he was. Stunned by what was easily the most beautiful man Delta thinks he’s ever seen.
Everything about his features seemed to suggest they were carved, hard and intense with the lines of his bone structure under a dark, even skin tone. But there were little things that seemed to soften the look about him. The curve of a mouth that looked like it hid a stunning smile, the slope of a nose just the slightest bit bent out of shape, the soft gentleness of a pair of near golden brown eyes. Delta wasn’t one for aesthetics, but apparently this was a different case altogether.
“Not a problem.” York shrugged, motioning toward where Delta stood at his side a moment later, clapping a hand to the shorter man’s shoulder with a smile. “This is my buddy Delta. The one I mentioned I was supposed to be living with. We’re horribly codependent and I will perish without him in my life, so you’ll probably see a lot of him around.”
The man smiled in answer, offering out one of those broad hands in greeting and, wow Delta had been right. He had a beautiful smile. He couldn’t even attempt to muster up any form of annoyance that York’s teasing would have normally brought about, not after catching sight of that smile. “Nice to meet you. You can call me Maine.”
Delta composed himself, smiling back a bit in return as he reached out with his own hand to return the offer of a handshake. Maine’s hand engulfed his warmly. There were calluses on his palm and in the edges of his fingertips. Delta suppressed the urge to shiver. “It’s a pleasure.”
Their hands seemed to linger past the point of polite formalities, if only for a few seconds, but neither commented on it. York seemed oblivious, starting off toward one of his stacks of boxes with a comment about something that Delta really couldn’t care less about, not when he was still held under that stunning gaze of Maine’s.
The smile on the taller man’s lips stretched just a bit. Delta felt his cheeks burn hot and he was the one to drop their hands, and the connection that tethered them at their gazes, his heart stuttering unfamiliarly in his chest. He needed to get a handle on himself before he did anything embarrassing. York was the embarrassment in their decade long relationship, not him.
True to the observation York was squawking at the coffee maker he was attempting to set up in the small kitchenette, calling Delta’s name over his shoulder. Delta shook his head, with a small sigh, the movement allowing him to gather his bearings a bit more.
“If you’ll excuse me, Maine.” He chanced another smile up at the man, who seemed content to just observe, his eyes resting steadily on Delta’s face and… well Delta wasn’t really sure what to make of that. “It was nice to meet you. I… look forward to spending some actual time getting to know you later, when York doesn’t require my… assistance.”
“The feeling is mutual.” Maine smiled again, warm and slow. Delta just barely caught himself before his teeth could catch on his lower lip. What was happening right now? He wasn’t sure. He took the opportune moment of the coffee maker beeping loudly and York cursing to slip his attention away from Maine, walking quickly away as his heartbeat skipped all over the place.
Delta slipped a hand to York’s shoulder, gently pulling his friend away from the machine, and got to work on sorting out the problem (he’d manage to reset the time to a completely different timezone and set an alarm for 3 am continuously, York why). York breathed a sigh of thanks and relief, but the sound that Delta was honed in on was the soft padding of steady footsteps retreating into the bedroom on the far side of the room.
He had a strange feeling that this was going to be a very interesting year.