Big Book Of Smornby One Shots

A Late Night Raid (S)

TW: University!AU

The knock on his door came as a surprise, especially at 2am on a Saturday, when he had assumed majority of the apartments in the student halls would be empty, or at least filled with partygoers too inebriated or too anxious of being reported to leave their rooms and pester somebody else.

Alex had been bent over his computer, at the desk below his window and within earshot of the door just down the hall, for at least the last few hours whilst his roommate Chris "Call me Sips" Lovasz was out doing only-god-knew-who-and-what at only-god-knew-where, and the last thing he had expected was for somebody to come wandering up to his dorm room and bug him mid-Warcraft session. With a groan, he retracted his hands from the keyboard, pushing himself back from his desk with his feet and groggily rising from his chair. Stretching one arm, then the other, he blinked himself back into reality, squinting against the darkness in the room.

He heard another knock on the door, and sighed, looking over his shoulder and down the hall. "All right, all right, I'm coming, I'm coming..." He dragged his feet almost reluctantly along the faux-wooden flooring, opening the door slowly and squinting out into the brightly-lit corridor. The sound of obnoxiously-loud house music and raucous laughter hit him like a tidal wave, and he crinkled up his nose in distaste. At the very least, they could have decent music taste, and that wouldn't have made it so bad. "What do you want?"

He met a pair of icy-blue eyes, the incredulous expression on the man's face clearly due to the manner in which Alex had answered the door.

"Well, uh..." Ross scratched the back of his head, messy with his usually unkempt brown mop, and pulled a face. His Swindon accent was like nails on a chalkboard to Alex, who more than anything wished he could crawl back into his apartment and return to his game. "Sorry, did I disturb you? I mean, I can come back another time if you're-"

"I was about to go on a raid with my guild. God, you make it sound like I'm actually lucky enough to get some action, mate." He stepped back, swinging the door open to let in his friend. "Come in, it's too loud out here." Alex scrubbed at his face with one hand to wake himself up as he held open the door with his other, and Ross stepped into the dark apartment, seemingly grateful to be away from all the noise of partying students on their weekend off from studying and assessments.

"Cheers, mate. Are you seriously playing Warcraft on a Saturday night? Not going out?" Ross sounded confused, and Alex closed the door behind him, more to block out the noise than for privacy within his own apartment, shaking his head. "Why's it so bloody dark in here? Seriously, Smith, do you know what a lightbulb is?"

"Yeah, I do, I just didn't see the point in having lights on when I didn't think I'd be entertaining any guests, mate. And anyway, I was in the zone, Ross, I was gonna go on a raid, man. You know how hyped I get about raids." Ross rolled his eyes at his friend's words. "What? There's not much else I can do when Sips isn't about, he's never around these days."

"Get a girlfriend. Get a bloke. I don't know, go make a new friend or buy a puppy or something."

"Buy a puppy?" Alex laughed as he dropped down onto the chair at his desk, turning to face his friend as he flicked on the lightswitch. "Mate, I forget to feed myself sometimes, can you imagine what it'd be like to look after a puppy, too? The geckos are enough." He smirked as Ross shuddered at the thought.

"I could help look after it, in case you forgot." The dark-haired man shrugged, dropping down onto the cracked leather sofa. "Might give you, I don't know. Something to do, besides play video games?"

"Oi, I go to classes, too."

"That doesn't count - you wouldn't be here if you didn't go to classes." Ross kicked his feet up onto the sofa, lounging out and wriggling to get himself comfortable.