First day of classes and Ray was already losing his mind again. It was the car ride all over again—dreamy, full of hopeful, lovely scenarios only to be crushed incessantly by his brain's inability to filter out the Worst Case Scenarios Of The Century. Ray, with his hair looking stunning (it was his best feature, by far, right next to his p e r s o n a l i t y) and brand new book bag to boot.
Ah, yes, Ray de Lucía was ready to kick his Official, Actual First Semester of Freshmen Year in the ass.
Ray swept his backpack onto his shoulders and swung open the bedroom door. The instant he did, Sora's door opened and Ray was reminded that he had a roommate he hadn't anticipated. He didn't expect that news to be so refreshing. A roommate. While it cancelled out every chance he had of calling this apartment a bachelor pad, it was still a relief to have a place occupied by someone else—anyone else.
He was sick of spending every morning, day, and evening alone. It wasn't at the fault of his aunt, by any means. Ever since his grandmother passed away—the soul subject of Ray's attention before and after grade school—Ray realized how much time Aunt Natalia spent away.
And, so, Ray stepped out with a cheery, "Good morning—!" like he was on a radio talkshow. He spun to the side and found Sora dressed in his everyday best, one strap of a backpack over his shoulder.
In that moment, Ray wondered why Sora being a student never crossed his mind.
"Wait—You're—" Ray started, and Sora sighed, walking ahead. Clearly, he was already done with the day. "You're going to class? You're a student?"
"Yes, I'm a student. I'm a freshmen, dude."
"What?!" Ray screamed, and Sora flinched. It was far too loud for the morning, but Ray's energy levels were skyrocketing faster than he anticipated that day. "What college?"
"USFC."
Ray's heart leapt into his throat. They went to the same college. Ray was so shocked by this that he didn't say a damn thing, not even as Sora started for the foyer and opened the door to leave.
Ray kicked back into gear. He leapt across the pathetically empty living room and to the door where he slipped on his sneakers and said, "Since we go to the same college, we should—"
"I'm not commuting with you," Sora said all matterof-factly. It came out in such a way that Ray felt borderline offended by it. Was there something wrong with him? Why wouldn't Sora want to commute together?
Sora turned to him, his hand on the door handle. Ray straightened, dropping his foot to the floor as Sora said, "And if you see me on campus, do me a favor and don't talk to me."
Sora punctuated the request by opening the door and promptly shutting it in Ray's face.
Ray collected every last shard of his self-worth that Sora shattered right then and then. With it, he mustered up his fury and muttered under his breath, "Well fine, wasn't like I wanted to walk with you anyway."
Campus wasn't all that far from their apartment, but in San Francisco's January temperatures, the Pacific brought a morbidly cold breeze through the city's streets. Ray was certain his car privileges would come in handy in winter and, for that reason and that reason alone, he was grateful to have brought it to the city. Traffic may have been shit and parking may have been even shittier, but at least he'd be warm.
Internally, Ray was just waiting for the day Sora would decide that he couldn't stand the cold walks anymore. Sora would have to depend on him to get to classes without freezing his butt off.
Then I will be the superior roommate, Ray thought, but Sora had to cave first.
Ray paused at the apartment building foyer.
The chances of Sora caving first were slim to none, he could just tell.
"Dammit," he grumbled, pushing through the door and onto the streets. Sora was already at the end of the block, crossing the street.
When Ray peeled away from the curb in his dinky little car, he glided past the intersection and slowed where he could see Sora's head of ruffled black hair on the sidewalk between parked cars. Ray slowed to match Sora's walking pace and put down his passenger window.
Sora glanced at him, immediately cursed, and looked away as if he didn't recognize Ray.
"It's really cold outside!" Ray said, teasingly, and Sora rolled his eyes. "I'll drive you to class!"
"Fat chance!" Sora shouted back. "Leave me alone, de Lucía."
Ray frowned. He knew what he was supposed to do, but he didn't want to do it. But he was a man, dammit, and 'no' meant no! So Ray scowled as he put up the window and drove on ahead. He hated being a gentlemen sometimes—that shit was hard work. He just wanted to give Sora a ride, so what was wrong with that?
These thoughts simmered inside of him all the way to campus where he found a parking spot two blocks from his lecture hall. Perhaps if he had ignored that exchange with Sora, he would have gotten over it by then, but nope. He couldn't forget or forgive the way Sora dismissed him all of that morning.
Sure, neither of them expected to be roommates, but the least Sora could give him was an ounce of respect.
It was for this reason that Ray sat, scowling in the lecture hall, arms crossed, brooding, and muttering under his breath. It was for all of these reasons that no one should have approached him, but by some stroke of luck, one of his peers was idiotic enough to engage anyway.
"Is this seat taken?"
Ray looked up. A guy that, quite possibly, was shorter than him was standing there looking dapper in a jean jacket and khakis. Ray's jaw dropped. How did I already snag one? he thought, amazed, before stammering, "Y-Yes—I mean, by you."
The guy smiled. He had the most powerful set of eyebrows Ray had ever seen.
"I don't recognize you from last semester," he said, and Ray nearly blushed. Nearly.
"Y-Yeah, I just transferred here," Ray confessed.
"Interesting. Classes are pretty small here so I'm sure you'll get to know all of us," he said, shifting close with his elbow on the armrest between them. He put a hand out to Ray and they shook on it. "Leo."
"Ray."
"Nice to meet you," Leo said, and the two of them shared sheepish, eager smiles. Ray turned away, giggling, and clasped his hands together between his legs.
In that moment, Leo gasped, and Ray jumped to attention. He followed Leo's wave towards the door to the small lecture room where a buff, stocky guy walked in. The guy froze, slapped a hand to his chest as if shot, and Leo followed up with fake shooting noises like, "Pew! Pew!"
"Oh! God!" the guy choked out, falling against the doorframe. As he did so, an older gentlemen approached from behind, looking disinterested and slightly annoyed by the scene.
Leo gasped and signaled for the guy to cut it out. When he turned, he cursed and staggered into the room, saying, "Sorry, Professor."
Ray put a hand over his mouth as the class giggled to themselves.
"Take your seat, Mr. May."
Mr. May, it seemed, saluted their professor and took to the steps. Leo was beside himself next to Ray, hands over his face, a smile on his lips as his friend came to join them. He claimed the seat on Ray's other side and slung an arm back behind Ray's chair and the chair opposite him.
Ray flushed, overwhelmed by the attention when the guy leant over and said, "Nice to meet you, newbie. Houston, but everyone just calls me Huey."
"R-Ray," Ray said.
Huey inclined his head in a half-bow and said, "R-Ray, nice to meet you."
Leo reached over to slap Huey on the knee. Huey propped his ankle up on his opposite leg and snickered, looking thoroughly amused and not at all ashamed of what just transpired at the front of the classroom.
Their professor went to the whiteboard as the class continued to mingle. Ray watched as the man wrote Professor Bradford on the board and followed up with contact info and office hours.
"Are we making a new friend this semester?" Huey asked, drawing Ray's attention back to him, and then to Leo, who the question was targeted towards.
"Of course we are," Leo said. "I called dibs."
"Dibs?" Ray squeaked.
"So, Ray," Huey said, and his intimidation level skyrocketed to nine thousand. Ray started sweating despite himself as Huey leant in, a deadly expression on his face. "What dorm are you in."
"I-I'm not in the dorms," he confessed.
Leo whistled low. "Oh, wow. But you are a freshmen, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Interesting," Huey hummed, stroking his chin, eyes narrowed skeptically. "Commuting?"
Ray smiled, emotionally and mentally weak. "Sort of. I'm still pretty close to the dorms, though. They were full, so... I got an apartment instead."
"Are you kidding me?" Leo gasped, and Ray jolted, looking back to Leo, who's jaw was in his lap. "That's awesome! God, I can't wait to have an apartment. I'm sick of having to share a room."
"It's been one semester," Huey said.
"Yeah, and I'm sick of it," he insisted.
The clock ticked closer and closer to the starting time of class. Within the last minute before lecture, however, the door to the room opened and Ray's attention honed in on the brightest goddamn thing in the room—that black hair, wire-frame glasses, and pale complexion of a very, very familiar face.
Ray knew what Sora had told him—or, more accurately, threatened him to do—and so the brief flit of tension in his shoulders dissipated. He wouldn't acknowledge Sora. He'd give Sora what he wanted and, in due time, Sora would regret deciding to alienate himself. Ray was sure of it.
He folded his arms, knowing that Sora had seen him, and as he did, he heard a soft curse being uttered by Leo and, likewise, Huey.
Huey sucked in a sharp breath and all but groaned, "Fuuuck."
"What is it?" Ray said. It seemed too coincidental that his two new lecture buddies would curse within the same few seconds of Sora's entry.
Leo put out a hand to Ray, silencing them both. "Okay, okay, this is something that needs to be explained ASAP or so help me God, one of us might make a mistake and by 'one of us' I mean Ray."
"Right," Huey agreed.
"What mistake? What am I doing?" Ray said, straightening a little. Both Huey and Leo slapped their hands onto Ray's shoulders as if to stop him from lurching out of his seat and straight into Sora's arms. Huey shoved Ray back into the seat—not that he was going anywhere in the first place.
The three of them discretely (albeit, quite obviously) watched as Sora climbed the steps to the very back of the classroom. He shed his backpack from his shoulder, set it on the ground, and turned to take a seat. The three of them whipped back around to avoid being spotted as stalkers.
Only then did Ray catch several other people in the classroom doing the same exact thing. A group of girls all turned to one another, whispering and giggling to themselves as Ray eyed Leo wearily out of the corner of his eye.
"That," Leo said, "is Sora Ikeda."
Ray waited for more, but that was all Leo had to say on the matter. "That's... it? What's so special about him?" Ray said.
Huey sighed obnoxiously. "He's, like, the only bi kid in our major. That we know of."
The gates of Heaven opened. A chorus of angels swept a chorus of beautiful melodies through the air. Ray's gay heart opened like his legs manspreading in that lecture hall the way he desperately hoped for some beautiful queer boy to live in proximity to him. Initially, that daydream meant a dorm or two over from his own, but alas, he was living within the 900 square feet of their apartment.
But that wasn't for Huey and Leo to know.
"So? Bi people exist," Ray said, completely chill, like he wasn't living with the sole, bi individual in their major.
"So?" Huey hissed. "He's hot as fuck, aced every midterm last semester, and has a full ride here. The dude got a perfect score on the SAT in high school."
"And he's super emotionally unavailable and I think that's hot," Leo sighed dreamily, slumping against his seat.
"So... I take it you both are gay," Ray said.
"I am," Leo sighed, wistful like a Disney princess. "Huey's repressed."
Huey gasped, horrified. "Am not! I'm also emotionally, mentally, and physically unavailable," Huey explained. When Ray rose an eyebrow at him, he went on to say, "I'm on the USFC track team. I don't have time for relationships."
"Ah," Ray said, though he didn't understand at all.
"Alright, class," Professor Bradford declared. "This should be your first semester of theory and if it isn't, I'd highly suggest revisiting your schedule to make sure you're in the right room."
Ray thought about Sora's sexual orientation all through lecture, which consisted of syllabi being handed out, and an overwhelming sense of dread upon reading about the entire repertoire required of the course that would be graded. It was all on one page, just like Ray's mind hyper-focused on Sora being bisexual.
He thought of those girls several rows ahead of them, chattering away shortly after Sora's entry.
Twice the competition, Ray thought.
His brain followed up with, "No, I shan't," as he exited the lecture hall with Huey and Leo.
"What? What shan't you do?" Leo asked.
Ray put his hands to his cheeks, shaking his head. "Nothing. I've just been thinking too much lately."
In that exact moment, someone burst through the three of them, startling Ray and nearly tripping him out of this existence and into the next. He caught his heart in his chest, gasping, as a guy the size of Mt. Everest latched onto Huey with a hearty laugh and said, "Who's this slick new gal you've found?"
"Barry, meet Ray. Ray, this is Barry," Huey said.
Ray's heart was barely restraining itself. He managed to smile lightly and shake Barry's hand, though, as he said, "Nice to meet you. And not a gal—guy, actually."
"Ah. Sorry about that. My default is always 'gal' because men are trash," Barry said, and Ray couldn't contain the laugh that bubbled up. He giggled, completely enamored by Barry's stupid, crooked smile and crooked nose.
"You're despicable," Leo said to Barry, who put a hand over his heart, offended. His other hand was still slung over Huey's shoulders until Huey took a moment to lift it off and set it gently against Barry's side.
"I am loveable, dammit," Barry said. He put his arm immediately back around Huey, who rolled his eyes. Barry nodded to Ray and said, "Nice to meet you, Ray, but I have to steal this idiot away for practice."
"Okay—nice meeting you both!" Ray said and followed up with an eager wave.
Huey sighed as he spun after Barry. He glanced back with a half-hearted wave and said, "See you," before turning to punch Barry in the stomach and say, "Were you waiting for me to get out of class, or was that just a coincidence?"
"Just a coincidence—unless...?" Barry said, and Ray and Leo snickered at the way Huey roared with frustration on their way out of the building.
As soon as they were gone, Ray turned to Leo to say, "They seem fun."
Leo rolled his eyes. "I'm glad ya like 'em. They can be kind of unbearable at times."
The two of them paused, standing just outside of the room. The door was propped open, so they could see the exact moment Sora approached to leave. Ray glanced across the hall where that same group of girls were gathered. He realized then that they were waiting for You Know Who to leave the room, and Ray found himself shocked by the sheer size of Sora's San Francisco fanbase.
He was just shocked that Sora had a fanbase, if he was being honest.
When Sora exited the room, Ray's breath caught in his throat the same way Sora's eyes caught his. Don't look at him, don't even acknowledge him, Ray thought to himself, turning away at the same exact time Sora did, looking more or less perturbed by Ray's presence there in his class.
Sora left then, eyes on the ground. When he pushed his hand to the exit door, he caught Leo—that guy who made a point to talk to everybody in the class—whisper to Ray, "He looked at you? What the fuck?"
The instant Sora was outside, he groaned and dragged his hands over his face. Of all of the majors Ray could have been in...
Now wasn't the time to fuss, though, nor would it ever be. He just had to make it through these first couple months—perhaps sooner—until he had enough money to put down a deposit, break the lease, and move into a new place.
Easy.
Right?
At least I came to the apartment with a shit ton of my family's furniture—they won't even know it's missing, Sora thought as he headed for the nearest bus stop that would take him to work.
a/n: Sora: