( sharing a living space with someone had always been a foreign concept to seifer. it meant not coming and going when he pleased and returning to the dorm without friends or the occasional hookup if the mood suited. being courteous to a stranger seemed annoying, which is why he ended up avoiding it as soon as he moved in. he kept his clothes in the closet and a few of his books on the desk that was his, but for the most part, seifer never stayed where he was supposed to be living.
he partied, crashing with friends or anyone willing to share their bed with him. he attended class and kept his grades reasonable for someone attending on a scholarship. he coasted through, and for the most part, that worked for him.
but at some point, several months after the semester had started, seifer had gotten bored enough to begin texting his roommate about things a little more consequential than the fact he wouldn't be stopping by until a week. they'd exchanged numbers when they'd met in case of an emergency, and usually, seifer just sort of forgot about it. yet, this sporadic thing had eventually evolved into a few times a day to every day all the time, even if it was mostly conversations about school or the professors they had in common, and it happen until a break approaches, things moving back to a standstill.
and it's one of those rare moments when seifer returns to the dorm without a warning after having left him on read a few days prior. squall's sitting at his desk, probably studying for something he doesn't need to study for, and seifer thinks it's the perfect opportunity to bug him, shedding out of his coat and just leaving it in a pile on the floor next to his bed. )
What are you doing tonight?
( because that's certainly the kind of thing he should say to someone he hasn't purposely spoken to in a while. )
( it's the same every year. as the holidays loom ever closer, the energy in garden begins to take on a frenetic quality. it crests in the air, kinetic and boundless. a culmination of giddy whispers and listless wandering. the distraction creeps in slowly and scratches at the edges of squall's mind like a cat at a window until eventually even he finds himself at its mercy and his thoughts lean towards the inevitable promise of what winter break means: tradition.
they are not traditions like the rest of balamb knows them. what squall has is what he and seifer have carved out for themselves after years of being the garden's leftovers; the ones who don't have families waiting for them.
squall isn't sure what it means that everything he knows of christmas he has learned from their secondhand experience of it through stories and programming and haphazardly collected traditions. they are precious to him all the same and he's not sure what that means either. it is one of the few things squall does not need to be forcibly dragged into even if he remains mercurial in nature, choosing which tradition will net him as a willing maverick and which will see him grinding his heels to the finish line.
today, he is much more the former as they make the walk to balamb, bundled up to protect themselves from the first snowfall of the season. ahead, the sleepy, coastal village is a spectacle of string lights and promised warmth. he draws the fur of his coat higher up his neck to help with the job his scarf has failed to do. )
Nothing too crazy this year. We barely made it back with last year's tree.
( accomplice he might be, but that didn't mean he wanted to invite the shore's monsters to follow their tracks of pine needles when they eventually made their way back to garden. )
( they were both there on scholarships. it was one of the few things squall knew about his roommate, ghost that he had been all semester. squall too had been a phantom of his own though so it had worked out rather favorably. there had scarcely been a day where he wasn't glued to a textbook or typing out a report late into the night. the solitude suited him and allowed him to focus on what he was there for.
of course there had been whispers on campus. he was technically a governor's son and so naturally everyone had their assumptions on how he'd gotten into the university despite it being in an entirely different state than the one his father ran. a rather deliberate choice on squall's end considering he'd grown up with the distinct privilege of not knowing the man most of his life and had only recently been claimed as kin. just like that all of the merit he'd worked so hard for had vanished and been attributed to government string pulling.
it was a vexation that had reached new heights as talks of christmas and coming home began to flood his phone with increasing frequency, matched by his roommate's own budding interest in more than just class notes. the peace and quiet squall had grown accustomed to was nearing its end, evident in the way seifer came bustling inside in a blunder of movement that disrupted squall's train of thought.
he doesn't look up. not right away. somewhere, he can feel the last tendrils of a closing argument still in his mind and as his hands hover over his keyboard, squall reaches to reclaim the thoughts that had been interrupted.
they don't come.
sighing, he pulls the pen from between his teeth and scratches a few things into the notebook while finally addressing his roommate. )
Finishing the last of my papers before break.
( normally he isn't one to put these things off but he had guiltily let himself get distracted with the conversations they'd begun having. a small thrill that he indulged a little too heavily in and was now feeling the hangover from. the silence stretches on for another moment, weighted by seifer's presence in the room. his roommate is infuriatingly attractive and it's only upsetting because squall can't help but to notice it whenever he's around. he chooses to focus on the coat that's now a lump on the floor and nods to it as if it's evidence for what he says next. )
Done for the night then? ( in truth, squall doesn't even know what time it is until he finally flicks his gaze to the corner of his laptop's screen. he takes stock of the hour and tries not to notice it in conjunction with how long it's been since their last text. )
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
university au.
he partied, crashing with friends or anyone willing to share their bed with him. he attended class and kept his grades reasonable for someone attending on a scholarship. he coasted through, and for the most part, that worked for him.
but at some point, several months after the semester had started, seifer had gotten bored enough to begin texting his roommate about things a little more consequential than the fact he wouldn't be stopping by until a week. they'd exchanged numbers when they'd met in case of an emergency, and usually, seifer just sort of forgot about it. yet, this sporadic thing had eventually evolved into a few times a day to every day all the time, even if it was mostly conversations about school or the professors they had in common, and it happen until a break approaches, things moving back to a standstill.
and it's one of those rare moments when seifer returns to the dorm without a warning after having left him on read a few days prior. squall's sitting at his desk, probably studying for something he doesn't need to study for, and seifer thinks it's the perfect opportunity to bug him, shedding out of his coat and just leaving it in a pile on the floor next to his bed. )
What are you doing tonight?
( because that's certainly the kind of thing he should say to someone he hasn't purposely spoken to in a while. )
holiday traditions
they are not traditions like the rest of balamb knows them. what squall has is what he and seifer have carved out for themselves after years of being the garden's leftovers; the ones who don't have families waiting for them.
squall isn't sure what it means that everything he knows of christmas he has learned from their secondhand experience of it through stories and programming and haphazardly collected traditions. they are precious to him all the same and he's not sure what that means either. it is one of the few things squall does not need to be forcibly dragged into even if he remains mercurial in nature, choosing which tradition will net him as a willing maverick and which will see him grinding his heels to the finish line.
today, he is much more the former as they make the walk to balamb, bundled up to protect themselves from the first snowfall of the season. ahead, the sleepy, coastal village is a spectacle of string lights and promised warmth. he draws the fur of his coat higher up his neck to help with the job his scarf has failed to do. )
Nothing too crazy this year. We barely made it back with last year's tree.
( accomplice he might be, but that didn't mean he wanted to invite the shore's monsters to follow their tracks of pine needles when they eventually made their way back to garden. )
no subject
of course there had been whispers on campus. he was technically a governor's son and so naturally everyone had their assumptions on how he'd gotten into the university despite it being in an entirely different state than the one his father ran. a rather deliberate choice on squall's end considering he'd grown up with the distinct privilege of not knowing the man most of his life and had only recently been claimed as kin. just like that all of the merit he'd worked so hard for had vanished and been attributed to government string pulling.
it was a vexation that had reached new heights as talks of christmas and coming home began to flood his phone with increasing frequency, matched by his roommate's own budding interest in more than just class notes. the peace and quiet squall had grown accustomed to was nearing its end, evident in the way seifer came bustling inside in a blunder of movement that disrupted squall's train of thought.
he doesn't look up. not right away. somewhere, he can feel the last tendrils of a closing argument still in his mind and as his hands hover over his keyboard, squall reaches to reclaim the thoughts that had been interrupted.
they don't come.
sighing, he pulls the pen from between his teeth and scratches a few things into the notebook while finally addressing his roommate. )
Finishing the last of my papers before break.
( normally he isn't one to put these things off but he had guiltily let himself get distracted with the conversations they'd begun having. a small thrill that he indulged a little too heavily in and was now feeling the hangover from. the silence stretches on for another moment, weighted by seifer's presence in the room. his roommate is infuriatingly attractive and it's only upsetting because squall can't help but to notice it whenever he's around. he chooses to focus on the coat that's now a lump on the floor and nods to it as if it's evidence for what he says next. )
Done for the night then? ( in truth, squall doesn't even know what time it is until he finally flicks his gaze to the corner of his laptop's screen. he takes stock of the hour and tries not to notice it in conjunction with how long it's been since their last text. )