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Alex was really glad he and his new roommate got along well. Willie was a very open and cheerful person and not even a week after moving in, he already acted like he knew Alex his whole life. It took a little longer for Alex but eventually, he got there too. The apartment was quite small with two bedrooms, one bathroom (mornings were really fun), a living room connected with kitchen, and a small closet by the front door, but it did its job.
His old roommate was either in his room or out doing who knows what so when Alex moved the internet router from the centre of the living room to the left wall which was also the wall of his room, he never complained about it. Alex eventually redecorated and moved the whole living room so it didn’t look too out of place. When Alex set a date for his new roommate to move in, he was worried about having to move the whole living room again but after seeing the internet works just a little slower even in the farthest corner of the other’s room, he decided it wouldn’t be necessary, and since Willie never complained even after two months of living there he just kinda forgot about it.
“Hey, you know how I’m your favourite roommate, right?” Willie asked Alex, who was currently cooking them a very cheap and easy mac’n’cheese. “Is this a trap? Oh god, what did you do this time?” he answered, remembering the last time Willie started a conversation like this (“I swear it was an accident! Flynn said it would look really cool- and in their defence it did, look!” Willie exclaims, jumping up to sit on the counter, showing their phone in front of Alex’s face. “You don’t just set your skateboard on fire because Flynn said it would look cool, and you especially don’t while you’re wearing my shoes- which you borrowed without asking, may I add” Alex said while watching the video Willie is so desperately trying to show him. “Oh shut up you love it when I borrow your stuff, hotdog” Willie replied quickly before focusing on the video again. Alex didn’t reply because as much as he didn’t want to, he did, indeed, love it when Willie borrowed his stuff, and even though he hated that his favourite pair of Vans was now slightly burned and on the verge of falling apart, Willie looked pretty hot in the video so he let it slide, this time).
“Nothing like last time, I swear!” Willie said, pulling Alex from his daydream, raising up two fingers while holding the rest of them down, “Scout’s honor, see?” a bright smile appearing on his face. Alex didn’t know a lot but he knew that this was not the scout’s honor sign, “That’s not- okay, what is it this time then?” he said, making sure the food he’s making won’t blow up if he turns away for two minutes to talk to Willie.
When he did finally turn around, Willie finally started talking again “So, I’m going to this party tonight, right? The one I invited you to but you said you had to study and then we argued for a bit and you got mad and went to your room?” Alex rolled his eyes, nodding slowly, no idea what Willie was trying to get to. “Well, my friend just told me my ex is going to be there and he’s kinda, how to put it? Not the most understanding person? A little toxic? That should do it, yeah” Willie mumbled the last few words, pressing their eyes together, shaking their head a little before looking out of the window behind Alex and resuming their speech.
“The thing is the last time I saw him, I was seeing someone so I just borrowed something from their closet to let him know I’m taken because that’s the only thing that seems to keep him from trying to drug me- but that’s not important right now!” Alex begged to disagree, he wanted to tell Willie not to go to the party but they’ve been talking about it for the last week and a half, it was their only chance to see his friends before they had to go back home, which was apparently far away. But before getting the chance to talk, Willie already continued, “Basically I was just wondering if I could borrow something from you? Like a jacket or hoodie? I’d wear something of mine but the only new things I bought since we broke up he already saw me in so that wouldn’t work. You don’t have to, I could ask Flynn for something from her latest visit to the thrift store but I thought you know, it would be easier to just ask you and if you said no I’d go to Flynn because you’d probably get that hurt face if you found out I didn’t even ask you and-“ Alex cuts off their rambling with a simple, “Yeah sure,” Willie stops and blinks a few times before running towards Alex, pulling him into a quick hug. “feel free to grab anything from my room, there should be some jackets hanged on the wall and under that some hoodies I forgot to hang up last night:” he finished, letting himself lean into Willie’s touch before pulling away and clearing his throat.
Willie pulled away too, shooting a satisfied grin at Alex before heading towards his room with an overly excited, “Thanks, man! I owe you one!” Alex turned back to check on the food and slowly began stirring it again. He didn’t even realise how long he’d been standing there when the alarm on his phone alerted him it was time to turn the stove off. Alex was an amazing cook but sometimes he’d get lost in doing something simple, letting himself think about all the times he cooked with his mum before the whole... you know, so alarms to pull him out of his daydreams were a necessity. He stirred it few more times before pouring half of it for himself and the rest for Willie, he wanted to make sure they at least ate enough before going drinking with their creepy ex.
Speaking of Willie, Alex would definitely notice if Willie walked beside him in Alex’s clothes but that didn’t happen yet so where was he? “Okay so I officially don’t owe you anything anymore, how the hell is your internet so fast and everything?” they say, staring at their phone before looking up at Alex. He could try to play the i-don’t-know-that’s-just-how-it’s-always-been card but somehow Willie can tell anytime Alex is lying so he just puts on the most adorable smile he can do and starts explaining.
When Alex stops talking Willie just rolls his eyes, “I mean usually I’d make you put it back to the centre but this looks really good plus you’d probably get me to help you and I don’t really feel like moving this huge couch right now so I’ll just have to live with it” they chuckle lightly and sit down to eat the food Alex prepared, eating in comfortable silence. Alex can see the pink hoodie Willie threw over the back of his chair and he blushes because (even though Willie has no way of knowing that) that’s his favourite hoodie.
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Alex is finishing up his report for biology class when he hears a soft knocking on his door. He glances at the clock on his nightstand, 2:37 softly glowing at him, before mumbling, “Come in” towards the door. Willie pushed their head in, already wearing their please-let-me smile, Alex nods and Willie steps in completely, closing the door behind them.
Alex furrows his brows to get Willie to explain what they’re doing in his room at nearly three am. “I was just downloading this thing for school and it was taking really long and then I remembered your room gets better wifi and now I’m here, I promise it won’t take longer than like five minutes!” Alex rolled his eyes and waved his hand towards the old armchair, he knew that Willie could have gone to the living room but he was too frustrated with biology to care right now. “Make yourself at home” Willie was the one rolling his eyes now but he did sit down because hell, it was three am, no sane person would keep standing if they were offered a seat.
Eventually, Willie started spending every evening he wasn’t out drinking on Alex’s armchair. Sometimes they were doing school work and sometimes they were just watching movies with their headphones (because “oh my god I haven’t seen a movie with quality this good since I moved in!” they exclaimed one night. “You’ve watched tons of movies on our actual tv, shut up” Alex replied, running his hand through his hair, focusing on some dumb physics homework. “You know what I mean” Willie replied, putting his headphones back on to block out any answer Alex may have).
Alex was over at Julie and Luke’s place, because of an “emergency band meeting”. It turned out to be a convincing Reggie we still love him by watching Star Wars with him and letting him ramble about it afterward meeting, but Alex didn’t mind. They were all wrapped together yet somehow still very comfortable when Alex’s phone rang. Instead of getting up he just accepted the call after seeing it was Willie. “Hey sorry for disturbing your band thingy but I was wondering if I could go watch a movie in your room? I didn’t wanna just walk in since you’re out” they said and Alex could hear that they were smiling, he didn’t know how, but he could. “Yeah sure, no problem. Just turn off the lights when you leave and shit” he replied and after hearing a quiet thanks followed with a bye, he hung up.
It was a little after 2 am when Alex got home. The first thing he noticed was that the door to his room was open and soft light was peaking from inside, second thing was the living room lamp which was also turned on. Alex sighed and turned it off as he walked towards his room.
There wasn’t a lot of light in his room but he could clearly see Willie asleep on his bed, their laptop lying next to him, screen black. Alex froze, unsure of what to do now, he didn’t wanna sleep on the uncomfortable couch but he didn’t want to violate Willie’s privacy by sleeping in their room but he definitely didn’t want to wake Willie up because, even though Alex thought it was impossible, he looked more adorable than he did when he had his daydreaming face on. So he reached over to at least put their laptop off the bed on the bedside table, trying to convince himself the couch isn’t such a bad idea.
Apparently, Willie was a light sleeper because as soon as Alex closed the laptop, his eyes fluttered open before closing again. Alex thought that was it but before he turned around to go to the living room, Willie was suddenly raising up one side of Alex’s blanket, inviting him to lay down, and who was Alex to say no, right? Plus he was very very tired and in a touchy mood from band night so it really wasn’t his fault he just pulled off his hoodie and dropped on the bed next to Willie.
Alex started to close his eyes, realising how tired he actually is. The last thing he felt was Willie turning around and snuggling onto his chest and frankly, Alex had never felt so at ease.