Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Campus life at Eden’s Garden isn’t quite what Damon imagined it to be.

For starters, for an academy with a name so prestigious that simply even muttering it around the average person elicits a gasp so loud you would have thought they were told something much more devastating, he certainly had not expected to be forced to live out his days here with a roommate.

When he’d first heard the news, he was absolutely beside himself. Was it too much of him to ask for private living quarters so he could pursue his studies with no interference? If this was truly a place where the best of the best attended and graduated from, then wouldn’t it make sense to dedicate a room to each student? 

It’s not just Damon’s lone-wolf attitude coming through to formulate this opinion, but taking into account the quality of life. These are Ultimates that they’re talking about, and he argues that he, the Ultimate Debater, deserved to have a room to himself. At the very least.

Alas, those were his thoughts before he met Kai Monteago.

His belief after the two were formally introduced to one another actually only strengthened. At the time, he couldn’t believe that he was stuck with the likes of the Ultimate Influencer, as it had nothing in common with his much more significant talent. Something just had to be awry, so he finally decided after a few days of being on campus to beg admissions to switch him to a different room, preferably alone, but it had been no use.

He was stuck with the guy for the rest of the year, and therefore forced into interactions with him. No matter how hard he tried to ignore him.

As a result, since his living situation basically revolved around the guy, it was hard not to start an argument with him, or pretend that he didn’t even exist in the first place. The first day, Kai had put a line of tape split down the middle of their room to establish “sides” when he realized he and Damon weren’t going to get along, but it didn’t take very long for one of them to cross the – literal – line. It was a stupid idea in the first place, and it did nothing to establish boundaries since the man loved to push his buttons anyway.

For a while, Damon’s lasting impression of Kai was that he was an obnoxious, crybaby who whined when he didn’t get his way, and faked his online persona to get more people to like him because he liked the attention it garnered. Really, he didn’t need to know anything else beyond that.

However, somewhere towards the end of the first semester, they were unfortunately paired up for a group project by their professor, and while Damon was indifferent, he can admit that it taught them how to work with each other. Not without the occasional badgering, but that was something they were both used by then.

He supposes now that he would call that their turning point. Eventually, Damon started to find him a lot less insufferable the more they worked together, and Kai himself seemed a lot more chilled out when they were in one another’s presence, as before he’d normally make some wild comment just to purposely piss Damon off. It turned into some kind of “tough love” kind of thing, even though he for sure doesn’t love the guy. That’s just the only words he can think of to describe it.

He presumes that being paired with him was a good thing in that case, even though Damon initially dreaded the damn thing. Making peace with the person he’s going to be living with for the rest of the school year gives him a little relief, and he’s glad that there won’t be as much drama between the two anymore since, even if he sometimes started it, it was beginning to get old.

They still bicker a lot, but it’s playful more than anything now. Yes, Kai knows how to irritate Damon like no other, and vice versa, but they’ve both done good in containing that inaugural hatred they had for the other when making first impressions.

That being said, the day that they present said project, they knock it out of the ballpark. 

Damon was really proud of the work that not just he did, but that he and Kai did together. Typically in group projects, he likes to think that he’s the leader, and is usually the one who ends up doing most of the work, but it was different this time around. He felt like it was actually done pretty split and even, and he can’t argue that Kai had a certain charm to him when he spoke up in front of the class.

But Damon digresses. It’s all said and done, and they won’t have to pull their hair out over the stress of the long awaited presentation day anymore. Thankfully they got through everyone’s project in one class, so it was all condensed down into one, long day.

All there’s left to do is relax until next time comes around.

“Sooooo?” Kai speaks up when they’ve made it back to their dorm room, a slight hopefulness surrounding the air of his tone. They had just arrived back from said class, and if he recalls correctly, it should be their last one of the day for the both of them.

“So?” Damon throws the question back at him, a chill shooting up his spine when he takes his shoes off to leave at their front door.

It’s barely a mere few days into December, but the floors of the establishment aren’t as insulated as one would expect them to be. Damon can feel the ice cold wood even through his socks, and makes a mental note to himself that he should probably buy some slippers for casual wear around his dorm.

Kai claps his hands together, batting his eyelashes. His golden eyes gleam with expectancy, “What does this make us?” He specifies, ever-so slightly leaning over to the side.

“What do you mean?” Not catching on to whatever it is he’s trying to ask, Damon folds his arms, awaiting further explanation from him with a quirked brow arched high on his forehead.

His vagueness has always been something about the other that he hates, and he thinks Kai is aware of this fact. It’s like he’s itching to get a reaction out of him sometimes, but he doesn’t get too agitated this time around because his insinuation seems like it’s coming from a genuine place for once.

“Well, if we’re not partners anymore,” Kai walks closer and closer until he's point-blank in front of him. “Do you think we could… be friends? You know! To keep the peace going?”

Friends.

The word has always felt so bitter on the tip of Damon’s tongue, like sucking black venom out of a deadly snake bite. Throughout his entire life, he would say that he’s had more acquaintances than friends, and if he had to guess his real last, real friendship was somewhere in the midst of middle school. But these days he really only makes relationships that have some type of professionalism as an underlying principle. 

If he is to be pressed about it, he would consider Eva to be the first real friend he’s made at this academy thus far. 

They share a few interests, though very little, but the most important factor is that she isn’t as insufferable as some of his other colleagues. Her talent as a mathlete may seem shallow, but getting to know her a little better has proved him to be wrong about that. She’s well versed in many other areas as well, and even though she can be a little strange most of the time, it’s in that endearing, quirky way that Damon just can’t bring himself to dislike.

Kai, though, is a lot different from her, but Damon thinks that the difference between them has really reworked both of their worlds. A couple of months ago, he definitely would’ve seen this as a bad thing, and scoffed at the very mention of involving himself in the influencer’s personal sphere, but now…

Now he supposes he can understand it a bit better than before. Not entirely, and he still thinks that there’s still that barrier between them because of how drastically different their talents are, but they’ve broken the ice dividing them beforehand. It seems sensible of Kai to ask to be friends because of that.

“That sounds like the most reasonable course of action, yes.” Damon says, coming at it from a logical perspective since he doesn’t know how else to approach it.

He’s always been under the assumption that most friendships are built out of convenience. If not, then he doesn’t see any other point to them the older he grows. If it’s done in the means of upholding the peace as well, it makes the most reasonable sense. Why disrupt it when it’s gone surprisingly well so far?

Kai gives him a muddled look, apparently confused by Damon’s choice in words. “Dude, why do you talk about it like you’re making some dire decision?” He asks, the pitch of his voice rising to a loud lament, and faking a sniffle. “If you don’t want to be friends, you can just say so!”

It takes a lot for him not to roll his eyes at Kai’s dramatics, but he’s gotten quite good at that recently. “Save the tone Kai, It’s not that. I just-” Damon cuts himself off when he realizes that he really doesn’t know how this properly works, an uncharacteristically nervous sting throbbing at his temple.

He usually feels so much more confident in himself in most areas of his life, but he just can’t shake the unsettled feeling away. After all, it still stands true that Damon had made most of the class hate him within their first day of class by more or less insulting them, and Kai was undoubtedly grouped into the ones he had aimed fire at.

But maybe it’s best to just forget about that. It could be forgive and forget, or something completely different, but questioning it now would be a waste of time. Especially since Kai has already made up his own mind about it.

“How should we do this? Shall we shake on it?” Damon eventually asks after thinking so closely on it.

A seal of trust would best be done through a physical gesture, and since handshakes are a sign of shared respect often used against his opponents at debate competitions, it’s the only thing he can think of to do. It doesn’t guarantee anything, but it establishes that there should be the existence of integrity within the agreement, and he thinks trust frankly cannot form without that.

“Um… I guess we can if you want to?” Kai is even more puzzled than before, but does Damon the favor of outstretching a hand for him to grab anyway, and tries to make his smile seem as authentic as possible. “So how ‘bout it?”

Almost reluctantly, Damon firmly takes Kai’s hand into his own and shakes it with as much gusto as he finds appropriate for the occasion. “I believe that sounds good to me then, fine.”

He says it in a way that could come off as hostile, but he does mean it in spite of that fact, and even tries to offer a smile back to lighten the awkward atmosphere. It’s not big in the slightest, but it’s undoubtedly noticeable, and he really doesn’t see it being a huge deal.

But when Kai’s eyes fixate on something particular and light up like he’d just struck gold, it is made clear to him that it was.

“Hey, I didn’t know you had a dimple!” He points a finger at his left cheek when their handshake has concluded, marveling as if he’d made some grand discovery. “But now that I think about it, have you ever even smiled before now? I think that was the first time I’ve ever seen it!”

Damon tries to regain his composure, clearing his throat with an elbow to hide the way his face drops nearly immediately after it being pointed out. “Yeah, and what about it?” He retaliates defensively, lowering and tucking his hands behind his back to come off as unbothered.

“Well, that’s totally cute! Don’t ya think?” Kai basically purrs, smugly bemused when Damon clenches his jaw to abstain from immediately telling him off. “A hardass like you with a feature so strikingly adorable? Is that what you’ve been hiding behind that frown this entire time?”

What the hell is this guy on about? And why is this sudden, casual teasing…

Why is it actually flustering Damon?

“Kai…” He says his name in a warning, right eye twitching and cheeks involuntarily tingeing a light red. “Don’t make me revoke what I just said. We may consider each other friends now, but make no mistake in how fast I’m willing to take it back.”

“Alright, okay! My bad!” Kai laughs, holding his hands up to indicate that he’s picking up what Damon’s putting down, and sauntering over to his bedside table to where his phone is charging. “I’ve got places to be anyway. Diana and I are going out for lunch pretty soon, and I can’t be so fashionably late this time around since she’s on a pretty tight schedule.”

Finally, he reaches to unplug his device, teetering it side-to-side when in hand, and winking at Damon in a mockingly flirtatious manner just to mess with him further. He practically skips across the length of their dorm room, pausing as his hand meets the doorknob, and looking over his shoulder to leave Damon with one last comment to dwell on.

“I’ll see you later, good-lookin’! Don’t have too much fun without me, ‘kay?”

With a bit of sass in his turn, Kai makes his grand exit, leaving Damon stunned and disgruntled by his remark that was very obviously said to tantalize him. A hand automatically goes to protectively cup over his left cheek, though his dimple isn't currently visible. But even knowing all of that, the racing of his heart persists all the same, and leaves him breathlessly spiraling over what this new sensation could possibly mean. 

Ultimately, he knows that it’s just Kai up to his usual antics again, but why did he have to make it sound so genuine? Why did he have to leave Damon with that proclamation, and why is it actually managing to get to him like this?

…Well, whatever. He may not know now, but there’s always time to answer those questions later.

So, muttering to himself in annoyance, his cheeks finally calming down now that he’s more settled down, Damon sits down on his bed, staring at the polaroids posted on the wall across from him filled with depictions of the man in question, and tries to regulate his breathing back to normal again. His heart is still pounding in his ears like tinnitus, but at least it’s somewhat better than the sound of pure silence.

He just wishes that it wasn’t caused by none other than the roommate he begged to escape from at the beginning of the school year.

Kai Monteago… Yeah. He’s definitely going to be trouble, no matter how friendly of terms he and Damon may come to.

—

Later that month Damon is at his desk studying for final exams coming up in the next week, and is putting off every and anything else that isn’t deemed important enough to interrupt him.

This includes his own needs. He has barely slept or eaten in the past few days because of the stress he’s putting on his body, and the exertion caused by all the effort he has put into reading the same textbook pages start to finish, taking notes about every single possible thing, is most definitely starting to catch up with him. There’s a strain forming in his knuckles the harder he squeezes his grip on his pencil, and a sting in his eyes when he blinks or flits them across a page too quickly.

He’s aware it’s not healthy, but he can’t stop now. If he doesn't pass these finals with flying colors, what is even the point? His efforts would just go to waste. 

As a result of his dedication, Damon doesn’t hear the door open and close, and he doesn’t catch on to his name being called out to him. The only sound he registers is his fingernails mindlessly scratching the surface of his scalp, and the persistent scribbling of his lead pencil against sheets of graph paper. He’s so deep into the groove of practicing his mathematics right now that the numbers don’t even seem real anymore. 

Not until-

CACHINK!

A plate is placed down on his desk, a provided fork rattling against the porcelain and snapping Damon right out of his immersive trance.

“Hellooooo? Damon?” Finally, he hears the jarring voice that’s been calling out for his attention, belonging to Kai, who is just now returning after hours of being gone. “Are you even listening to me right now?”

Damon sheepishly rubs his eyes, suppressing a yawn as he looks up at the other, beyond dazed. He can feel the effects of working so endlessly start to seep into his under eyes, and he doesn’t doubt that it’s most likely the caved-in bags lining his lids have grown pretty visible considering he’s been going for a while. 

“...Sorry. What did you say?” He asks him to repeat himself, deciding that it’s not above him to apologize for his inattentiveness to his arrival.

Kai groans, joining Damon’s side and standing high above him. “I said that you missed dinner, but that I made you a plate before everything was snatched up.” He reinstates himself, propping a hand on his hip. “Then I asked how long you’ve been studying because you were at it when I left, and you’re still at it now that I’m back.”

From the way his eyebrows knit up in concern, Damon can tell that the tone he has isn’t an angry one. Maybe more so annoyed that he hasn’t budged from his spot in so long that, when he takes a glance out the window, it’s pitch black outside. Time sure does pass fast when he’s in the zone.

Damon leans back in his creaky chair, stretching his arms up and nonchalantly crossing them behind his head. “At least five to six hours.” He states like it’s no big deal.

“For fuck’s sake Damon! You can’t just go M.I.A. like that and skip dinner, dumbass!” Kai berates him, now most definitely a little angry. He jabs a finger into Damon’s desk just to emphasize how dire this is. “First of all, that’s like- way worse torture than uploading a cringey video to Flashgram reels and reading the top comments, and second of all, you totally missed out on some important conversations about class. That’s not cool man!”

Damon scowls, his head spinning the longer he listens to Kai yowl about his absence. “What the hell are you even talking about? I understood maybe half of what you said just now.”

Kai closes his eyes, his nostrils flaring as he puts a hand over his chest to breathe in deeply, and out slowly so he doesn’t completely lose his shit. Damon doesn’t really understand what the deal is, but he clearly cares too much about him being a no show. He doesn’t know when Kai started to notice whether he came down to the dining hall during the evening or not, but it must’ve been pretty recently. This is the first time he’s skipped in a long while.

“You know what? Forget it.” Kai drops it. Thankfully, since Damon didn’t really want an explanation for the usage of his peculiar internet slang. He then points at the plate of food growing cold by each passing second wasted on this meaningless argument. “Just eat. I’ll brew up some tea so you have something to drink as well.” 

Kai insists upon it like he’s his mother or something, glued to his spot until Damon physically closes his notebook and drags the plate closer to himself to finally eat. He wants to be snide, but decides to hold his tongue for once because a pain coming from within his stomach reminds him that he really hasn’t had much sustenance recently, so he might as well just take what he was given.

Now, this may be Eden’s Garden Academy, but by no means does that make any of the meals they serve worth the trouble. Kai had brought him a plate of meatloaf with a side of salad dressed with different vegetables from the dining hall. It’s not exactly the most appetizing thing in the world, and the lettuce is incredibly soggy, but food is food nonetheless.

And Kai really didn’t have to go through the trouble of bringing him any.

“Before I forget, the mathlete wanted to know where you were.” Kai remembers to tell him as he boils some water in a blue, portable kettle he most definitely stole from someone else since Damon’s never seen it before in his life. “What’s her name again? Ava- Eve or something?”

“Eva.” Damon corrects him after properly swallowing a mouthful of salad. He has some audacity to not know her name after almost a full semester of being classmates together, but he’s too busy stuffing his mouth to make a comment on it.

“That’s right, Eva.” Kai says her name like he’s truly never heard it said up until now. “Anyway, she asked where you were, if you even care.” He repeats back to him like a report.

“And what did you tell her?” Damon inquires, interest piqued.

“The truth.” He claims. “That you’re working your ass off studying for absolutely no reason.

“Hah.” Damon imitates a laugh, taking his first bite of meatloaf shortly afterwards, and doing his best not to recoil at the taste. “I find that rich coming from you. I haven’t seen you studying once this entire time and exams are next week.”

Kai incoherently mumbles something under his breath, probably mocking him since, even though they’re supposed to be friends, they still consistently get on each other’s nerves. However, when they’re not fighting, it’s usually done in good fun. At least from Kai’s side. Damon doesn’t start anything big he doesn't absolutely need to anymore, even if the urge is still strong sometimes. 

He just makes it so easy to want to, so who can blame him?

“She said to tell you that she’s coming over here to see you tomorrow.” Kai relays to him, choosing to ignore his previous remark. “Didn’t say what for, though.”

Damon rubs a hand up the side of his face, gritting his teeth frustratingly since he knows this is going to interfere with the plans he already had for this weekend. Don’t get him wrong, he likes hanging out with Eva in his free time. Actually, she probably understands him more than anyone else here does, but she has this thing where when she sets her mind on something, she’s going to do it regardless of if he advises against it.

“Did you tell her to consult me about it first?” He asks, hoping he at the very minimum told her that.

“Nope.” Kai answers to his horror, popping his lips for flare. “Why would I? Sounds like a good way to spend a Saturday to me… If you consider a mathlete to be good company.”

Damon shakes his head in disbelief, slumping over in his chair defeatedly. Her company is normally welcome, but just not now. Not when his grades are on the line like this, and not when he’s already cultivated a strict schedule for him to follow this weekend.

Kai taps his shoulder after maybe a minute later, grabbing his attention. “Here.” He hands him a hot mug of tea, his demeanor much softer than before. “It’ll make you feel better. Zero cal, and has uh- healthy minerals that give you some energy.”

The way he says it comes across sort of suspicious, but Damon’s so thirsty that he doesn’t even question it. No, instead he accepts it into both hands, puckers his lips to blow cool air in hopes to keep the steam out of his eyes, and takes a few sips before deciding he likes it. It tastes as good as it smells – like honey – and soothes a soreness he hadn't even noticed growing in the back of his throat.

After drinking about half, Damon offers Kai a grateful nod, who is now pouring himself a cup as well. “I appreciate the food… and the tea.” He says modestly, meaning it despite the attitude they had given each other previously.

“Don’t mention it dude.” Kai replies, the tension leaving his shoulders when he sees Damon’s empty dinner plate. He takes a sip from his  own mug, shuffling back over to pat a hand on his shoulder. “Also, don’t skip dinner tomorrow. I’m gonna be pissed if you do.”

The rest of the night is a bit of a blur from there. Damon remembers pushing his plate to the side and picking back up his pencil, and when Kai changed into sleepwear to get comfortable under the covers of his bed, but he doesn’t recall much else. After consuming a meal and drink, his eyelids were working against him, and no matter how hard he tried, the temptation to sleep only increased the heavier they grew. 

Eventually, his vision became so foggy that he had no other choice but to close them, and before he knew it he was asleep.

He can conclude this because he awoke the next morning to what he thinks is a knock at the door, groggy with a backache spreading down his spine since he’d fallen asleep at his desk. Some of his textbooks are still open to the pages he had been on before deciding to rest his head, and papers are sprawled underneath his arms, creased and a bit crumbled from when he’d probably been moving in his unconscious state.

Only when he shifts in his chair is when Damon feels the weight of a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. A pink, fluffy one that he’s seen Kai use before, and was clearly placed by him as well. It’s warm, and smells faintly of him. He’s about to get lost in the senses coming at him all at once, but then-

Another knock at the door reverberates, confirming that it hadn’t just been his imagination.

“Damon? It’s Eva.” A familiar, raspy voice comes from outside. “I told Kai to tell you I was coming today, but I doubt he ever remembered to inform you.”

Damon shimmies the blanket off of his body, letting it fall to the floor, and lets out a quick yawn before standing up to unlock the door. “Coming.” He responds, not failing to notice the dishes that were still left behind. 

Kai brought the mess, but couldn’t clean up after himself before leaving to wherever he is now? How typical of him to make Damon do the dirty work when he knows he’ll be too busy studying again all day.

He opens the door, greeted by the sight of Eva, who looks at him like he’s a sight for sore eyes. Most likely because of his unkempt appearance. 

“Hello,” he greets her simply.

“Hello,” she responds, stepping inside. Her hair swishes past him, creating a slight breeze. “You look like you just woke up.” 

“That’s because I did.” Damon shuts the door behind her, watching as she confidently takes a seat on his bed, and crosses one leg over the other. “You do know I’m busy today, right?”

“I’m not here to distract.” She attests, pushing her glasses up her nose as she observes the state of their marginally messy room. “It looks like you could use some help cleaning up, though.”

“Don’t bother.” Damon says, sighing as he swipes his mug up to rinse it out in their bathroom sink. “I didn’t make it, but I suppose I’ll be the one cleaning it up.”

Eva’s eyes seem to land on something, squinting as she holds out an arm and points a finger at the object in his hand. “What is that?”

Damon flits his pupils down and back up, confused by her confusion. “A mug?” He replies, holding back a snicker.

“Not that.” She straightens her posture, folding her hands into her lap. “There is something on the back of it.”

Hearing that, he flips it around to look at the other side, finally noticing a pink sticky note planted on it that he never would’ve seen had Eva not told him. The handwriting is most definitely Kai’s, and he’d left quite the length note.

It reads as such,

Hey Damon, you’re still asleep as I’m writing this, so I’m just going to leave you a note in confession to what I did since I feel a bit guilty but… That tea was to make you fall asleep!!! I feel bad for lying and saying it would give you energy, but you’re a real asshole sometimes when I tell you to go to bed for your own good, so I had to do it to you, okay?

Reminder: Don’t work yourself to death, and don’t forget that Eva is supposed to come over to see you sometime today (time non-specific). I’ll be over at the campus StellaDolla with Cass, so if you catch the place on fire and need me or something, that’s where I’ll be. 

-Kai

…He had even written some on the back because he ran out of room, and it makes him wonder why he didn’t just use a piece of actual paper instead. Not only that, but his signature is just as unique as his gaudy personality, butterfly wings attached to the first letter in what’s otherwise a pretty simple print.

It’s stupid, but it takes everything in Damon not to grin at the sight, and the simple realization that he thought to bring him dinner, made sure he went to sleep at a reasonable hour, covered him up so he wouldn’t be cold in the morning, and left him a note causes the unfortunate return of heat to rush to his cheeks. 

It’s unprecedented, out of his control, and most of all, very uncomfortable for Damon to even think about. Why is this cause for him to blush? The guy was just looking after him, that’s all… Yet he’s acting stupid about it anyway, and the tingling in his cheeks won’t go away no matter how hard he tries to deter it.

Not to mention he has an audience right now. It’s just Eva, but her stare is deadpan and oppressive when he peeks back up, and he’s all too aware of the red all over his face.

“So, what does it say?” She asks, and he swears there’s a menacing air surrounding her tone.

He carefully peels the note off of his mug, crumbling it up before tossing it into his trash can. “Nothing of much importance.” He tells her, which he guesses is true. It doesn’t pertain to her, and even the part that does is old news at this point in time.

Before he’s able to make his grand escape to the bathroom, Eva calls after him. “Hey Damon,” she says, waiting until he turns around to inquire about the question she’s apparently had in her short time of being here. “May I ask why you smell faintly of Japanese Cherry Blossom perfume? It is kind of hard to miss when you walk past.”

Damon stammers for a second before turning back around, his hand turning the knob and creaking open the bathroom door so he can finally get out of this situation.

“No.” He answers bluntly, and is swift in locking the door behind him so she doesn’t have the chance to press him any further.

He rinses the mug of any leftover tea stains, and then does the same to his face, hoping that the cold water will lessen the burn on his face. He can’t comprehend why someone as primitive as Kai Monteago is managing to affect him in this way, but he’d really, really rather be thinking about anything else. This is not the time to be feeling so conflicted, and Damon wants him to just get the hell out of his head for once.

So, after he has brushed his teeth to get rid of morning cottonmouth, and has calmed down more, he returns back like nothing had even happened, striking up a conversation with Eva about anything he may have missed at the dinner table yesterday.

Because he’ll be damned if he lets Kai get the best of him.

—

Winter break comes and goes by fast, and Damon finds himself particularly relieved being back at the academy when it’s over.

Don’t get him wrong, having some time to recuperate and visit his parents was nice. Incredibly nice, at that. It’s just that being back on his own, independent and free from their constant concern, is an environment he became so used to that it was hard not to miss it.

Although, he conjectures that is what being an adult truly is. The idea of growing up was always something he yearned for more than anything as a kid, but now that he has it, it seems underwhelming if anything. 

…Well, that’s not the issue on his mind anymore. A good few months have passed since arriving back, so he’s gotten back into the swing of his normal school routine again.

Actually, it’s something a lot simpler than that.

Today was a long and grueling day of March for no one reason. Though, the blame mainly goes to the clocks turning back an hour for daylight savings the night prior, and he thinks it can be universally agreed that it’s the most annoying part about springtime. Personally, it’s Damon’s favorite season, but he can admit that the loss of some sleep left him a bit sluggish most of the day. As it did to most of everyone else.

The main event, however, went into clockwork the minute he’d finished homework for some of his core classes. If he could go back in time to tell his past self to just read a book, or relax in bed afterwards, he would. Anything but decide now is the best time to do all of his dirty laundry.

But it’s too late for that now.

Before he went to the dining hall for dinner, he put his clothes on to wash for forty-five minutes, knowing that he’ll spend most if not all of that time chatting with Eva about whatever is relevant. He grabs himself a mediocre meal before he sits down next to her at their usual spot, listening as she brings up and begins rambling about some obscure internet forum she’d stumbled across recently. 

It happens so fast, and Damon is completely clueless on half of her references, but he stays attentive anyway. She is passionate enough for him not to question it, even if he doesn’t understand, so he silently nods along for her to keep going every once in a while, and sooner or later their time concludes. Her winded rant makes him feel as informed as it does lost, an impression that Eva is prone to leaving him with, but it’s not one unwelcomed.

His clothes are done by the time he makes it back up. He switches them from washer to dryer and decides that he’ll take a shower while it runs its course. That way, when he gets out they’ll already be clean and warm to the touch. It was the perfect, formulated idea in his head. There was nothing that could make it go south.

But oh, how wrong he’d been. How innocent the thought was.

He’d left the shower with a towel around his waist, only slightly damp since he wanted to make sure that he wouldn’t be dripping down the hallway as he made his way back to the laundry room. The only problem being is that when he actually got there, his clothes were gone from the spot that he left them. The only thing that remained was someone else’s spinning in a nearby washing machine, like it was taunting him for not being in the universe's favor.

“What the hell? Where did it…?”

Mumbling to himself, Damon made sure to check every single dryer in the room. Though, he had no such luck finding his laundry or a single sign of where it might’ve gone, like it had never been here in the first place. It was as if it had disappeared into thin air, and all he’s left to do is to ponder on what he’s even supposed to do in this situation.

That’s what he does on the walk of shame back to his dorm. There are the clothes he was wearing before his shower still sitting in his hamper, but he’d really rather not sleep in a button-up and jeans if he could avoid it. The options are looking pretty thin, though, so he might have to do just that.

How unfortunate…

Upon entry into his room, he becomes acutely aware of a presence that hadn’t been here beforehand, locking eyes the instant he opens the door.

Kai seemed to have been in the middle of something on his phone while lounging comfortably in his bed. Most likely scrolling or posting on social media since that’s kind of his whole thing, but now he’s visibly scrutinizing Damon instead, and a wave of embarrassment begins to wash over him because of his lack of clothing. Only now is it settling in how severe the situation is, like a wet, pathetic dog caught in the middle of a rainstorm.

Could this get any worse?

Closing the door behind him, Damon folds his hands into the pits of his arms, covering his bare chest in hopes of saving himself from some of the humiliation. It’s rare he ever becomes mortified, but this is certainly an exception. 

“Dude,” Kai doesn’t do a job well done at hiding a snicker, which doesn’t make Damon feel any better about the predicament he is in. “Where are your clothes?”

Damon looks away, curtly turning his nose up. “I don’t know.” He admits, too beside himself to give context for why he’s standing here half nude.

“What do you mean you ‘don’t know?’” Kai asks with air quotations, setting his phone aside for now as he throws his legs off the edge of his bed and sits up.

“Well,” Damon begins to elaborate. “I put my clothes on to dry before showering, and now they are gone.”

The other hums, stroking his chin thoughtfully as he attempts to determine what could’ve possibly happened during such a short time span. “Do you think someone took them by accident?”

“I don’t see how.”

“Then on purpose?” Kai proposes, simultaneously shrugging with his shoulders and hands when Damon shoots him a perplexed look because who in god’s name would do such a thing. “I don’t know man! …Do you not have anything else to wear?”

Damon rubs the back of his neck, a crick already formed from the stress. “Those were all of my clean clothes.” He imparts, a bit miffed that Kai unintentionally exposed him for not having any consistency when it comes to his chores.

Most of the other students here have what they call “laundry day,” but Damon didn’t want to be involved in something he could do perfectly fine on his own. Besides, he’s left his clothes in the laundry room sitting on a much larger time frame before, and he’s had no problem with them poofing out of existence then. So why now?

What the hell is he supposed to do now?

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Kai sighs, standing up from his bed, and trudging over to his dresser. “Ugh, fiiiiine… I guess you can borrow some of mine.” He says like Damon had been asking, even though he certainly had not. “But please tell me you at least have a pair of underwear.”

Damon scoffs, finding the question utterly ridiculous. “Yes I do, thank you very much.”

“Good.” Kai opens the second drawer from the top, rummaging around as if he’s really putting some thought into what he wants to lend him. “Cause I wasn’t gonna go that far for you.”

Damon wouldn’t want him to anyway. He didn’t ask for this, and having to wear someone else’s clothes because he has no idea where his own apparently just walked off to is embarrassing enough as is. This entire situation is disastrous, and he curses himself for not having a stricter schedule for his laundry days. It’s just one of the many things he’s going to have to write down in his calendar as a reminder now, just so he can avoid this from happening again.

In the end, Kai hands him a black sweater he’s commonly seen wearing around and some pink pajama pants patterned with butterflies. It’s not close to anything Damon would willingly wear, but it works as a placeholder to sleep in. So, grabbing the offering out of Kai’s hands, he strides into their bathroom as fast as possible, the steam from earlier now formed into precipitation on the mirror, and begins dressing himself. 

The result ends in him finding himself rather comfortable despite the circumstances. Kai’s sweater is baggy on him, and his pajama bottoms are loose and a little too long even though they’re nearly the same height. He has to tie the strings in the front tight just to get them to stay put on his waist, but Damon isn’t complaining. It’s surprisingly snug.

In fact, it’s the first thing Kai comments on when he comes back out to go to bed.

“Haha, hey! Not bad!” He laughs at the sight of the other in his own loungewear. “You feelin’ comfy yet, Damo?”

Damon unfortunately feels his face begin to warm again like the previous two times. It was fine when he was looking at himself in the mirror, but being perceived by Kai like this is overtly embarrassing. Maybe even more so than when a towel was the only barrier between him being completely naked.

“It suffices.” He tries to deflect, but even his ears are burning hotter than a grease fire trapped in an oven. The nickname doesn’t make it any better, either. “And don’t call me that. You’ve been spending way too much time around that gamer girl.”

“Uh? Her name is Cassidy, rude” Kai corrects him, falling backwards into his bed with a sigh, and whisking his phone back out to resume his nightly routine again. “No need to be so coy about it. I know you're totally digging my style.”

“If I were five years old, then yeah. Maybe.” Damon returns fire, provoking Kai to flip him the bird without looking back up from his obnoxiously bright phone screen, and thankfully marking the end of that exchange.

The sensation burning his skin still remains as he lays down in bed, as well as the inexplicable racing of his heart. It leaves him restless, and what is usually a very quick attempt in falling asleep turns into unmistakable insomnia. 

He tosses and turns more than he needs to until he eventually lands on his left side, sight in the trajectory of Kai’s side of the room. His piercing, green eyes are shot open and leering at the other, who’s completely oblivious to what’s going on with Damon because he’s still smiling and snickering quietly at the stupid, stupid phone in his hand. 

He doesn’t know why this irks him, nor does he know how long it’s been since he first laid down in bed either. It could’ve been an hour ago, maybe thirty minutes?

Far too long, that’s for sure.

“Why do you insist on doing that every night?” The question falls right past Damon’s lips before he has the potential to stop it. 

Now alert that he's awake, Kai jolts in his spot, jerking his head to look over at the voice interrogating him. He obviously didn’t expect him to still be awake, so Damon decides to add on to the thought to make it seem like he’s not still up by his own accord. 

“You do know that the activity spent on your phone is just keeping your brain awake for longer, right?” He asks. 

Kai pulls his comforter over his shoulder as he relaxes further down into his mattress. “Then what do you suggest I do, Mr. Know-It-All?” He retorts back.

“Just close your eyes. You’ll fall asleep eventually.”

“If I’m keeping you awake, you can just tell me instead of being passive aggressive about it, y’know?”

“...”

Damon doesn’t respond to that, too focused on not breaking away from the intense eye contact they’ve been holding for the past couple of minutes. It felt like he was being challenged when it had first started, so now he feels like he can’t pull out of it. Although, it is unsettling him more than he’d like to admit. He can make out pretty much every prominent feature of his because of Kai’s dim fairy lights, sharp shadows cast on the crevices of his face, and eyelashes the longest he’s ever seen on another guy before.

If Damon didn’t know any better, he would call him pretty, but he does know better, so he doesn’t. 

“I just remembered.” Kai opens his mouth, ruining the moment instantaneously. “You never thanked me.”

Damon stays unimpressed at the mention. “So?”

“So,” Kai isn’t pleased by his lack of gratitude even though he’d done him such a selfless service. “Thank me! You would’ve been sleeping naked if not for me.”

“I had other clothes.” Damon counters. “They were just already worn, and not something I’d normally sleep in.”

“Will you just thank me already?” Kai whines, sniffling a cry that is most definitely fake.

Annoyed, Damon decides to give up on this staring contest of theirs to turn over on his other side, vision meeting the wall. He hears the other grumble at his initial refusal, but Damon decides that for him, he’ll rationalize what Kai is asking. Just this once.

“Fine,” he mutters from underneath his covers. “Thank you.”

Kai lets out a satisfied hum, voicing no more complaints on the matter. Damon believes that even though he came to his “rescue,” this is still a hell of a situation he’s wound up in, and it doesn’t make up for all of the clothes that are still currently missing. He can’t even feel at peace when closing his taut eyes, but does so anyway just so he can fall into an uneasy sleep.

It happens at a snail's pace, but his consciousness fades out sometime in the middle of his contemplation. At the very minimum, he can temporarily escape the issue through whatever he may dream of that night.

The next morning is when it hits him all at once, awoken once again by a firm knock on the door. Then, through his bleariness, Damon remembers his situation when he finds some energy to sit up. It’s hard to miss since he slept in clothes that are not his own, and the dread that had been dormant all comes rushing back the second he’s made aware that he needs to deal with this one way or another.

“Ughhh…” Kai groans, half-awoken by the knock at the door as well, and slurring some of his words while stirring a bit in place. “Damon, you get it. ‘M sleepy.”

Damon slinks on his slippers, standing and glaring at the pampered state Kai is still in. “Way ahead of you.” He says, slightly sardonic since he’d volunteered him up without even considering the fact that Damon may have still been asleep.

Kai is similar to that of a sloth sometimes because of how lazy he can be. Most people wouldn’t know it since as soon as class ends he’s usually the first to stand and get the hell out of there, but when he’s on his ass he hates having to do even the simplest of tasks. Damon found that out quickly because he lives with the guy and gets frequently swindled into doing the most straightforward things for him, but he’s also easily convinced, so he almost always answers the door on both of their behalf no matter who may be behind it.

What a courteous roommate he is, isn’t he? He’s starting to think he may be too generous, but he made the right decision this time around when he swings the door open and sees who is standing there.

Although, he’s not so enthused to see Wolfgang either since, quite truthfully, he doesn’t care for the guy, but there is something of interest held within his hands.

“Ah, Damon. Just the man I wanted to see.” The elder man looks him up and down, observing his outfit with a knowing gleam shining within his eyes. His poker face remains the same, though, as he holds out a few plastic bags filled to the brim. “I think these belong to you.”

Taking a quick glance inside of one of them proves that he’s being true to his word. These do belong to Damon. Seeing that it’s the return of his missing clothes causes an immediate relief to wash over him now that they’re back in his hands. However, it doesn’t take too long until the realization dawns on him.

Why did Wolfgang have his laundry?

“What were you doing with my clothes?” Damon prods instead of expressing any indebtedness. He would die before he said any thanks to the man.

Wolfgang averts his dark eyes, adjusting his tie as a look of guilt flashes across his face. “To be precise, it was not I that stole them.”

“So someone did steal them?” Damon clicks his teeth together to keep his jaw from dropping. The fact that Kai somewhat called it is astonishing, 

Wolfgang nods. “To be transparent, it was Ms. Madison who took them directly from the dryer on her excursion to do my own laundry. I apologize for the… inconvenience it may have caused.” He says, his pupils shifting in the direction of the now snoring Kai, meeting Damon back in the middle as if to feign innocence.

Damon doesn’t know what to say to that because of how absolutely ludicrous it sounds. He’s aware that he and Grace aren’t on the best of terms, but in no way shape or form are they enemies. Their conversations are pretty lukewarm, but rarely do they clash very often.

“What? Why the hell did she do that?” He asks, pinching one of his shirts between his fingers and holding it up in demonstration. “And why are they still slightly damp?”

“They had not yet finished their cycle when I found out she had taken them, and it was quite too late for her to return them back at that point.” He explains the latter part of Damon’s question, basically admitting he has the poor women do his chores for him.

A man four years older than him, yet he doesn’t do his own laundry. How sad, he can’t help but think.

“As for why she did it… She told me that she overheard you telling a fellow classmate that you believe the title of an Ultimate should not be bestowed upon an athletic individual, and took it very personally.” 

He explains it like he’s repeating something he was told to say, clearing his throat to continue elucidating why Grace felt the need to commit such a heinous act.

“She said it was to teach you a lesson about ‘opening your mouth when you have no clue what you are on about,’ so really this is an act of mercy. You are very lucky I convinced her to let me return it back to you so peacefully like this.”

…Damon can not believe his ears, to say the least.

If he’s fishing for a thank you, he’s not going to get it out of him. This is far from mercy in his eyes. Wolfgang had brought him damp, wrinkled clothes that he’s going to have to put back on to dry and iron later anyway, and now he’s basically asking for his gratitude? Just because his own roommate can’t control her anger when he says something she disagrees with him on?

Forget this guy.

Damon slams the door in his face and turns his back to the door. He was so incredibly close to blowing up in his face, but it wouldn’t have done any good, and it without a doubt would have awoken the entire floor. It was better for him to just regulate his heavy breathing, clear his mind, and collect his thoughts so he can decide the best course of action to take from here.

His fellow classmates are seriously a prick in his side sometimes. Damon recalls the conversation that Grace had apparently been eavesdropping on, but it transpired weeks ago, so he has no clue why she’s still mad about it. Sure, he supposes that she falls under the athletic category he was referring to, but if the shoe fits, right?

And how could he forget about the lawyer? The one that outcaste him and Eva and at the very beginning of the year for speaking out about some of these ridiculous talents. He acts so pure and righteous with every step he takes and action he carries out, but under that composed mask of his is just some big man child who apparently lacks the basic cognition to do his own laundry. He can't even express how pathetic that is in words that will do him justice.

Those were his reassurances as he opened the door again, having already heard Wolfgang take off down the direction of where his own dorm is located. The hall is fortunately empty when he peeks out and bolts back towards the laundry room so he can dry his clothes the rest of the way, plastic bags swinging from side-to-side. This time, he decides he won’t take his eyes off of them, and though it was annoying, he considers the mystery of his missing clothes fundamentally solved.

What comes afterwards, though, is all one discombobulated mess after the other.

It is evident that Damon forgot that today is some of the other student’s “laundry day” upon walking back into where the crime scene had taken place. He really, really tries to ignore the conscientious smile Ingrid offers him, Toshiko’s playful comment about how this was “quite the unexpected turn of events,” and lastly, Grace’s boisterous laughter when her vengeful eyes lay on the sight of Damon in the clothes Kai lent him as a result of her method of revenge.

Well, isn’t today already off to a great start?