Chapter Text
Roger glared at Freddie from across the living room, eyebrows knitted together. He had stopped twirling his pencils in his hands, dropping one of them onto the floor in the process as he tried to take in the information.
“You’re… fired.” Freddie’s facial expression hadn’t changed the entire duration of the conversation. He looked like a scared puppy. “How the hell do you get fired.. from a coffee shop?”
Roger’s incredulous reaction seemed to make the older man’s breath hitch, and if he wasn’t upset before, he sure was now.
“You know, I don’t.. I don’t even want to know. But, Fred, we have rent to pay.”
“I’m sorry,” he finally said. “Roger, I know this is unexpected, and I’m truly sorry. I’ll find another job as soon as possible, I--”
“What are we gonna do? If we don’t watch up on rent by next month, we’re going to get kicked out. You knew that!”
Freddie took a deep breath. “You don’t think I fucking know that?! You think I got fired on purpose?”
“No, but--”
“My friend is moving in.”
Roger went silent, and the two of them stared into each other’s eyes for a few long minutes. Freddie was always full of surprises. Bringing home stray cats, almost burning the kitchen down trying to boil water, hell, he’d even written a song in the bath with the door wide open. But none of them really affected Roger too much in the long term.
This one would, though. “And so is his friend.”
“You invited people to move in without my permission? Freddie, you can’t just-- ugh. When?” When Freddie avoided the question, drawing circles on his thigh, Roger cleared his throat.
“Later.”
“Later. Right. What does that mean?” More circles. “Freddie, answer my question.”
“They’ll be here at five.” Roger gasped, dropping his other pencil.
“And we haven’t even got a place for them to stay?”
“We both have queen mattresses. I thought it would be simple enough.” Roger stood, forgetting about his pencils and the notebook he was scribbling in. He walked out of the room, leaving Freddie just where he was for a few minutes. And then he returned, a bit more calm.
“Freddie, you know that I can’t sleep with other people. He wouldn’t be able to sleep at all.” Freddie didn’t speak. “Fine. Come get me when they’re here. I’m going to finish my studying.”
“I will. Have fun.” Roger gave him the evil eye before leaving the room.
***
“Yes, yes, I promise he’ll like you. He’s not too much of a grump.” Roger heard his friend’s voice and took his headphones off of his ears, spinning around in his chair to see who he was talking to. That’s when his bedroom door opened, and he was greeted by an incredibly tall young man, curly hair framing his face well, even though it was messy. He had a nice smile plastered on his face as he dropped his bags and stuck a hand out.
“Hello. I’m Brian.” Roger nodded to himself and stood up out of his chair to shake the hand.
“Roger.”
“Nice to meet you.” The handshake broke.
“You, too.”
“Roger, I trust you’ll be nice?” Freddie said from the doorway. The blonde nodded.
“I promise.”
Freddie left the room, and Roger helped Brian put his heavy bags on the bed, where they unzipped them to reveal his stuff. But Brian seemed more interested in the textbook sitting on Roger’s desk.
“Human anatomy,” he read aloud. “Oh, cool. What are you learning about now?” Roger shrugged.
“We’ve got a test on Thursday. Nothing new, really.”
“Oh.”
“What do you do?”
“Astrophysics,” the curly haired man said with a big smile. Roger was shocked to hear such a big word. He almost didn’t understand.
“Cooler than me.” He chuckled. “I’m just a biology student.”
The conversation died there in awkwardness as Brian started pulling his stuff out of his bag. “Where should I put my clothes?” Roger opened the top drawer, quickly taking out what was in it to let Brian have it. But when something fell out of the blanket he’d pulled out, Brian looked down to find a few unopened condoms and a small packet of what appeared to be lube.
“S-sorry.” Roger blushed as he bent down to pick them up.
“Oh, it’s alright. It’s good to… stay safe.”
Roger avoided eye contact as he put them in the drawer of his nightstand. “Right. So.. did you want to sleep in the bed or…?”
“If that’s alright with you. I know I’m sort of intruding in your flat all of a sudden, and I really don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
“Oh, I don’t mind.”
“Good. Then I would much prefer the bed over the floor.” Roger smiled shyly, thinking that this new roommate of his wasn’t going to be entirely bad.
***
Dinner went by quickly. The four of them talked about classes and family and all the usual stuff. They’d ventured onto topics about the cat Freddie kept in his room, which John, Freddie’s friend, seemed to already know about.
Roger did seem to notice that John knew where the cups were, and when Brian got up to get a drink he had to ask. He found that a bit odd, but he guessed John had probably been over a few times while he was studying.
They agreed to split the rent a bit differently for the coming month because of Freddie being fired, and Freddie agreed to find another job soon.
But after dinner, they each retired to their rooms. Thankfully, neither Roger nor Brian minded getting dressed in front of the other. And as Brian settled into his side of the bed, Roger walked over to the door, looking the deadbolt with a key as fast as he could, not wanting to scare Brian. He also shut the window, making sure the top lock on it was secure before going back to bed, as well.
“You… lock the door?”
“They can still open it from the outside. Don’t worry.”
“That’s not what I was worried about.” Roger handed Brian the key.
“That unlocks it. You can put it wherever you want if you want to be able to reach it in the night, but I can’t know. Or else I’ll unlock the door.”
Brian raised his eyebrows in shock, but still took the key. “Okay. Why?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing you need to worry about.”
“Okay.”
Brian hid the key right next to Roger’s condoms, feeling a bit strange about it, but the two of them fell asleep okay. It wasn’t but a few hours when things weren’t okay.
Brian woke up to screaming, which immediately scared the hell out of him. He jumped out of bed, wanting to make sure everything was okay. But when he turned back around, he saw that it was none other than the blonde making the horrid noises.
“Roger?” He climbed back into the bed, confused. But still, Roger continued to scream. He looked like he was in complete agony. As if somebody was stabbing him over and over again, and he couldn’t cry for help.
Brian wondered if he was having a nightmare or if he should be woken at all. He decided he better when tears started rolling down Roger’s cheeks, but he didn’t quite have the guts to.
Instead, he fell back asleep as best as he could, hoping the morning would come soon.