Chapter Text
It started one night a few days before the semester began.
Etho was playing on their Wii, racking up a good buzz—probably more than a buzz at this point—with his cup of vodka and whatever off-brand 7-Up they’d bought for less than a dollar.
Wii Sports had started to take too much brain power and coordination, so he’d switched over to Mario Kart. Doc had been on a mission to unlock all of the characters and vehicles, and Etho figured he could put in some effort to the cause while Doc was at some engineering party with Ren and Beef. Granted, his consistent place in 10th wasn’t exactly doing much to help, but it was still a try.
There was a knock at the door. It took a few moments for Etho to realise that he was probably supposed to answer. He stood up, taking a moment to make sure he wouldn’t fall. He glanced into his cup that he didn’t remember emptying.
The knocking became more insistent, and he walked over, one hand braced on the door frame as he opened the door.
“Hey, Doc.”
Doc made a noise that could maybe be classified as a greeting if Etho did a floor routine of mental gymnastics.
“Dude, how drunk did you get?”
Doc shrugged, and Etho stepped aside so that Doc could stumble inside and into his desk chair. Etho headed over to their dorm fridge, pulled out a water bottle, cracked it open, and handed it over.
“Wanna watch me play Mario Kart?”
The slurred response sounded somewhat like an agreement.
Etho pulled his desk chair next to Doc’s, grabbed his Wiimote, and unpaused the game.
He played a few games while Doc watched in his not-quite-awake state.
“Should go to bed.”
“Dude, you are not climbing that ladder,” Etho said, watching Doc barely make it across the room without falling. “Sleep in my bed.”
“Not kicking you out of your bed.”
“I’ll sleep in yours.”
“You’re drunk too.”
“Yeah, but I can still stand. I’m Ladders. I can climb up yours,” he answered even though he wasn't that confident he could. He probably shouldn’t have poured himself a second cup once Doc got back.
Doc shook his head. “No, you’re too drunk.”
“You’re drunker than I am.”
“No one can climb the ladder,” Doc decided in his drunken stubbornness.
Etho knew they weren’t going to get anywhere, so he nodded. “We can both fit.”
“In your bed?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.”
Doc sat on the edge of Etho’s bed and struggled with his shoes for a solid minute before finally flinging them across the room—narrowly missing Etho’s shins. Etho was glad he at least had the thought to move back against the wall before knocking out once his head hit the pillow. Etho shut off all the lights and crawled in beside him.
They found themselves in a similar situation two weeks later after they celebrated surviving the first week of the semester with some of their friends in Beef and Iskall's room. Neither of them was that drunk but drunk enough where it was just easier to not argue, kick their shoes off, and squish in Etho’s bed.
“Dude, why is your pillow so thin?” Doc groaned directly into his ear in the morning. They were a lot closer this time— spooning his mind helpfully supplied. Maybe it was like this last time too, and neither of them had noticed in their drunkenness and subsequent hangovers.
“It’s not that thin.”
“I might as well be sleeping on the mattress.”
“Then grab your pillow next time,” Etho muttered, prying Doc’s arm off his middle to lean over and grab his nearly dead phone. “It’s 8 in the morning. Go back to sleep.”
The third time was a bit of a different situation. It was getting late, and Etho was watching and drunkenly supporting Doc continue the grind for all 26 characters and 36 vehicles.
“I’m tired,” he mumbled.
Doc checked his phone. “We should probably go to bed.”
Etho stood by his bed, looking confused as Doc walked to the end of their bunk beds.
“Something wrong?”
“Ladder?”
“I didn’t drink.”
“Oh.” Etho’s face went red. “Right.”
Doc climbed up the ladder to his bed, but before Etho could get into bed, Doc came back down with his pillow.
“I don’t like your pillow,” he explained, throwing it on Etho’s bed and lying down with his back against the wall.
The next few times were simply out of convenience since Doc kept forgetting his pillow on Etho’s bed. Plus by the time they’d finished their homework after a day of classes and work, reconfiguring their sleeping situation was too much work. It’s not like it happened often either, just one or three times a week.
The October cold seemed to hit out of nowhere, and everyone in their dorm complained in their group chats about how bad the heating was.
“Are you asleep?” Doc whispered one night.
Etho barely heard it over the biting wind rattling their windows.
“No.”
“Are you cold?”
“A bit. Are you?”
“Yeah, it’s freezing.”
“Wear thicker pyjamas or socks.”
“I refuse to stoop to your level of wearing socks to sleep.”
“Then get your blanket and come down here,” Etho retorted, not quite sure if he’d meant it as a joke or an invitation.
Less than a minute later, Etho was sliding back into his bed after Doc got comfy, wrapped up in his thick comforter.
And so began their routine.
Their imperfect and admittedly a bit odd routine didn’t last very long. A twin XL bed wasn’t really meant to fit a person over 6 feet let alone two. There also wasn’t much room for them to each have their own pillow, and with how close they had to sleep to fit, they usually ended up on the same pillow anyway. The problem became Doc thinking Etho’s pillows were ungodly thin, and Etho swearing that Doc’s were too thick and left a crick in his neck.
It led them to the campus department store early on a Saturday morning, poking and prodding all the pillows from the dorm essentials that had been banished to the clearance section.
“How’s this one?” Etho asked, tossing a pillow to Doc.
“We’ve seen this one three times. It’s so hard.”
“No, I just picked that one up. Fine, uh, this one?”
They swapped pillows.
“Are you good with this one? It’s thicker than mine.”
“No way.” Etho took the pillow back. “Yeah, this one seems good. It’s way softer than yours.”
“Do we need a blanket?”
“No, you have your comforter.”
“But that’s too warm for you.”
“I don’t need a blanket.”
Doc shook his head. “You need a blanket.”
“I always kick mine on the floor. We’ll just throw mine in the closet or something until it’s warm, and you can have yours.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m always too warm.”
“If you wore less clothes to sleep—” Doc cut himself off as his words registered in his tired brain.
Etho pressed a fist over his mask so that his laughter was muffled enough that the poor workers who had seen them argue over pillows for the past 40 minutes wouldn’t hear.
“I didn’t mean you should—”
“Stop digging yourself a hole. Let’s just go.”
“We should get breakfast.”
“Coffee?”
“You need actual food. Your ribs are going to slice me open one day.”
“I’m not that thin— Fine, food and coffee.”
“Sounds good.”
When they got back from their stop at the dining hall, Etho folded up his blanket and put it and their individual pillows up on Doc’s bunk before setting their new pillow down.
That was a new part of their developing routine too: Doc’s bunk had started to become a shelf for stuff. Sometimes it had laundry baskets, their backpacks, random cables and charging cords, and other miscellaneous things that they didn’t need right this moment but would probably need soon. It made cleaning up when their friends were coming by easier too because they didn’t need to try to cram everything into their tiny closet.
“Are we getting old?” Etho asked as he changed into a sweatshirt and sweatpants later that night.
“What do you mean?”
“We’re getting excited over trying out a new pillow.”
“Ugh.” Doc grimaced at Etho’s observation. “We are getting old.”
“We better get Bdubs to start writing our eulogies after he finishes Beef’s.”
Doc gave a content sigh as he got into bed and pulled the comforter over himself.
“How’s the pillow?“
“Good.”
Etho got into bed, lying on top of the end of Doc’s comforter. An arm emerged from the comforter and snaked around his waist.
“So how is it?” Doc asked.
“Give me a second. I have to analyse,” he muttered in a serious tone before laughing. He patted Doc’s arm. “You know you don’t have to hold me down.”
“You keep nearly rolling out of bed.”
“Mmm, I think you just like holding me,“ he teased, and when Doc started to retort, he began to fake-snore.
The new pillow that was both of theirs made everything a lot more casual. They used to go to bed at the same time if they shared Etho’s bed because otherwise it felt awkward. But now that it was definitely their bed—evidenced by their pillow, their winter comforter, and their spring blanket—it was simple.
It was no longer weird for Doc to throw down his backpack and take a nice afternoon nap between his classes, and Etho had quickly gotten over facing away from Doc when they chatted at night.
They didn’t say anything about it to their friends when they came over to hang out on the weekends. There was nothing to say. They were just roommates solving the issue of the broken dorm heaters and avoiding drunken ladder incidents.
A few times, someone—usually Tango or Bdubs—commented on how much stuff they put on Doc’s bed and how they didn’t have to clean up that much for them, considering how much of a hassle it’d be to take it all down when it was time for Doc to sleep.
Trying to explain their arrangement would be too difficult and lead to never-ending teasing, so Etho and Doc just shrugged it off because it truly wasn’t a problem.
“We should probably start actually working on the presentation,” Beef said, shoving the last few of his fries in his mouth.
“We could go to mine,” Ren offered.
“I’d need to grab my notebook from my room," Doc said.
“Yeah, and our dorm is closer anyway. Is Etho there?”
Doc glanced at the cafe clock. “He’ll be back by the time we walk there.”
“Dude, what? How do you know that?”
“He usually gets back around half five from practice.” He got looks from Ren and Beef. “What? We live together. I just notice when he gets back.”
“Yeah, and I live with Iskall, but I don’t know what minute they get back from classes on Tuesdays.”
“I don’t know what minute. I was just saying— Whatever. I’m going to order some coffee. Do you want any?”
“Nah.“
“No thanks.”
Doc threw away his trash and got in line at the counter.
Doc: do you want coffee from the cafe
Etho: west or east
Doc: east
Etho: yes please
Doc: just sugar or do you want cream too
Etho: do they have the blue one again or just the red
Doc: blue
Etho: sugar & cream
Doc ordered a coffee for himself and one of Etho, stopping by the condiment station to pick up some sugar packets and cream containers before returning to their table.
“Two coffees?”
“One’s for Etho. They had the creamer he likes, and I have to stop by anyway.”
“You know what creamer he likes?” Beef asked incredulously.
“I know all of your coffee orders.”
“What? No way.”
“Ren drinks hot black coffee. Unless it’s summer or Starbucks then he gets cold brew, and you get iced oat milk lattes.”
“And Bdubs?”
“Iced white mocha if there's no seasonal drink."
“What the hell? How do you— What?”
Doc shrugged. “We all get coffee a lot.”
“Yeah, but I don’t know what you get!”
“You get black coffee, don’t you?” When Doc nodded, Ren laughed, “I think you’re just a bad friend, my dude.”
There came a point in winter when the already bitter cold worsened tenfold. The first few times it happened were late in January right before the spring semester picked back up.
Doc woke up before their alarms went off and was surprised at how warm he was. Usually, he debated trying to crawl out the foot of the bed without waking Etho since he tended to wake up earlier, but considering how cold the dorm air was on his face, it seemed like a good day to stay in bed for a while. It wasn't like he had any plans for the day.
As he continued to wake up, he noticed some odd things. He’d gotten used to Etho sleeping on top of whatever part of the comforter Doc wasn’t wrapped in, but today, Etho was completely under the comforter, and the top of his head pressed against the underside of Doc’s chin. Etho always slept with his back to Doc with one of Doc’s arms around his middle to keep him from rolling away and out of bed again. Today, Etho also had an arm around Doc, and one of them—or maybe both—had tangled their legs during the night.
The unfortunate thing that remained of their normal routine was Etho’s socks. Doc still never understood why he wore socks to bed or why he had separate pairs of socks that he put on specifically to go to bed. Granted, he couldn't complain much about that because at least Etho wore clean socks to bed, but it was still mind-boggling.
“G'morning,” Etho muttered at some point, mostly still asleep.
“Good morning.”
“Why’s it cold?”
“Because we live in Canada.”
“Mmm,” Etho answered before going back to sleep, wrapping his arm tighter around Doc as if they could possibly get closer.
Beef: have you picked up your meds this month
Etho: not yet
Beef: dude
Beef: doc said youre almost out
Etho: im not gonna die if i dont have them for one day
Etho: why are you two talking about my meds anyway
Beef: i just want to make sure youre okay
Etho: im fine mom
Etho: but seriously though im okay
Etho: i havent had a seizure in months
Etho: ill get them after class
Beef: good
As soon as Etho got in line at the pharmacy, he was tempted to walk back out and come back for his meds another day. Though he knew if he did, Beef would hunt him down and drag him back. He stared at the shelves of the aisle he was waiting in. At least with how far back he was, he was in the candy aisle.
He browsed through the selection for a good twenty minutes, barely making it any closer to the counter. At the end of one of the shelves, there was a small “exotic candy” section. He didn’t know what was so exotic about Switzerland, but he wasn’t going to deny that European chocolate tasted good.
A familiar maroon label on a metal tin caught his attention, and he reached down to grab it. Every time he and Doc went to a grocery store, they went on a hunt for that brand of malted milk balls. It had been months, and they were yet to find any store near them that sold them. Doc was going to be stoked.
“You’re home late,” Doc commented as he walked into their room.
“Yeah, I had to pick up my meds.”
“Ah, Beef messaged me about that.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I’m fine, you know. I can take care of myself.”
“I’m aware.”
“Then why were you two discussing my meds?”
“You said we could.”
“Well, yeah, you’re my roommate, and Beef’s… Beef, so obviously you two can talk about my meds. I just don’t get why.”
“You know why he worries.”
Etho sighed, “I don’t know why he blames himself for that. It wasn’t his fault.”
“He was the one driving, so he feels responsible.”
“Yeah, but he wasn’t trying to crash the car, and it’s not like I got that hurt.”
“I wouldn’t call a missing eye and seizures not that hurt.”
Etho shrugged.
“I don’t see what the problem is with you two caring about each other.”
“It’s not a problem. It’s just… like I don’t get on him about therapy—” He was cut off by Doc snorting. “What?”
“Yes you do.”
“I do not."
“Look up the word therapy or appointment in your texts with Beef,” Doc challenged.
Etho pulled his phone out only to shove it right back in his pocket when the number was not an insignificant amount as Doc snickered all the while.
“Whatever.” Etho emptied the bag on the bed to deal with later. “Catch.”
Doc barely caught the tin thrown to him before it nailed him in the arm. “Wait, what? Where did you find these?”
“Pharmacy.”
“Dude, do you know how hard these are to find?”
“Considering all the stores we’ve checked, I think I have an idea.”
How much do I owe you?”
“Nah, I’m not gonna make you pay me for some candy.”
“Come on.”
“We’ll just share and that’ll be payment.”
Doc cracked open the tin. “Want one now?”
“No, they’re gross,” he answered, opening the chocolate bar he’d bought for himself.
Something in Etho’s chest lurched when he unlocked the door to their dorm and saw all the stuff from the top bunk shoved into the laundry baskets and left on the floor by the closet. Their winter comforter was on the top bunk, and their spring blanket was on the bottom.
Etho: is everyhting okay? whys everything moved
He heard Doc groan as his phone chimed, and a hand emerged from the comforter lump to drag the phone under.
“I’m sick,” Doc croaked after a few moments.
“Oh.” While that wasn’t a good thing, it was far better than Etho’s fears. “Should I go pick up some meds and food real quick?”
“You don’t have to—”
“Even if we didn’t sleep in the same bed, I’d still catch whatever you have. Text me if there’s anything you want besides the usual.”
It didn’t even take until the next day for Etho to start feeling sick. He was tempted to say maybe it was partially placebo, but the placebo effect couldn't even dream of being able to make him as ill as he felt.
While he hadn’t actually expected them to be completely nonfunctional, he and Doc stayed in their room for the next few days with a box of tissues on each of their mattresses because whatever college sickness they’d picked up was intent on killing them via congestion.
Etho loathed to admit how much harder it was to sleep when he wasn’t squished for space with an arm around him on what they’d nicknamed “the compromise pillow.”
Though when Doc echoed his thoughts during their nightly talks, he didn’t hesitate to agree. Granted, that “nighttime talk” may have been in the daytime, considering they’d lost all concept of time and everything but their miserable symptoms.
Doc felt better a few days later, but it took a solid week and a half for Etho’s hacking to subside. Their classes were easy to catch up on thanks to recorded lectures—and their friends’ notes. Even so, the first day back to classes was absolutely draining, especially since it was their turn to take notes for their now sick friends.
If they had their nightly conversation facing each other that evening, it was no one’s business but theirs.
“So,” Etho asked, resting his elbows on Doc’s shoulders while the other stared at his laptop. “What’re you looking at?”
“I’m trying to find the form to apply to stay here over summer.”
“In the dorms?“
“Yes, but I can’t find the stupid thing.”
“Do you need to do it now? The semester just started.”
“My advisor said they make you go through all these stupid hoops, so it’s better to start it now.”
“Why don’t you come home with me?”
“What?”
“Yeah, I mean, if your visa isn’t weird, you could stay with me. You’ll save money, and I can help you find a summer job.”
“Are you sure?”
“Why not? My parents are gone half the time. They won’t care.”
“Can I think about it?”
“No, I need an answer right now,” Etho joked. “As long as you tell me before I take the train home, we’re good.”
“Good because I can’t think with two knives digging into my shoulders.”
“I’m not that bony!”
Doc set down two plastic baskets on their table before sitting down.
Etho set his phone down, pulled his sandwich closer, and smiled. “Wow, I’m getting spoiled. Two pickle spears.”
“I always order you double pickle.”
“Thanks.” Etho watched Doc open up his sandwich. You know you can order your sandwich without tomato.”
“Yeah, but you like tomato,” Doc answered, putting the slice on the paper lining of Etho’s basket. He took the two pickle spears from his basket and gave them to Etho too. “Four pickles.”
“Wait, is that why you always order your sandwich like that?”
“The sandwich comes with tomato, and it’s probably made ahead of time. Less work for them and more tomato for you.”
“Oh, I— uh, thanks,” Etho said, crunching down on one of the pickle spears.
Not Being Homeless Planning
Bdubs: i cant find an 4 bedroom places
Bdubs: any***
Doc: 3 bedroom?
Bdubs: theres like 7 billion of those
Beef: that means someone has to share
Beef: and you are all my friends but i refuse to share a room ever again
Bdubs: same
Doc: etho and i can share
Etho: yeah im good sharing
Bdubs: are you sure
Etho: yeah
Doc: yeah we get along well
Direct Messages
Etho: we could split the cost of a full bed and actually have room
Etho: dude we could have our own pillows
Doc: isn't that weird
Doc: they'll come in the room at some point
Etho: oh snap youre right
Doc: we could always do bunk beds again and have a shelf
Doc: we’ll figure it out
Etho: sounds good
Etho: i wouldnt ask this if it wasnt an emergency
Doc: ?
Etho: can i borrow your sweatshirt?
Etho: please
Doc: why
Etho: all mine are dirty and i can’t find my navy one
Etho: i think iskall still has it
Doc: you borrowed it to tango
Etho: what
Doc: tango asked to borrow it at the party beef wasn't at
Etho: that’swhy iskall keeps ignoring me when i ask for it
Etho: but can i borrow yours im cold
Etho: im going to die of frostbite
Doc: hmmm a whole bed to myself
Etho: rude
Etho: im cold and i have to go to class
Doc: which one
Etho: dark green
Etho: but not the zipup one
Doc: sure
Doc: isn’t going to be big on you
Etho: no ive gained a bunch of weight
Etho: the doctor said im in the middle of the healthy range now instead of the low end
Doc: good. you're eating enough than
Doc: i don’t believe you were ever in the healthy range before
Etho: i was
Etho: i just don’t have muscle like you and beef
Etho: [1 file attached]
Doc: am i supposed to compliment you
Etho: yes
Doc: you look beautiful
Etho: ew no i was joking
Etho: please dont call me that again
Doc: yeah that was uncomfortable even for the joke
Doc: but you were right it does fit
Etho’s one-time borrowing of the dark green hoodie quickly turned into double digits.
“Dude, are you wearing my sweatshirt again?” Doc asked as he tossed his backpack up on the top bunk.
Etho stopped writing and looked down at his sweatshirt. “Oh, yeah, oops. I can take it off.”
He shouldn’t have been surprised really, considering how easily something that was one of theirs became both of theirs. It just wasn’t fair that it was only his sweatshirt that was communal property—a complaint he more or less voiced.
Etho shrugged and pointed to the closet. “I have that red Pokemon one. I think you’d like that one.”
Etho was right: he did like borrowing the red Pokemon hoodie every so often. Slowly, the green hoodie and the red one became theirs, and as the pattern tended to go, pretty much all of their sweatshirts became shared. Then their shirts did too. It made organising their closet a lot easier since they didn’t really bother separating their clothes anymore.
Doc squeezed his middle as soon as Etho woke and shifted to stretch.
Etho yawned, "Morning."
"Good morning, so I was thinking."
"When'd you start doing that—? Ow!" Doc had pinched him. "Fine, what were you thinking about?"
"If your parents really don't mind," Doc started, and Etho grinned because he'd called it. "It'd be easier to go with you for the summer."
"Good, I already got you a train ticket."
"Wait, what?"
"I know you. I knew you were gonna say yes."
"How much do I owe you?"
"You don't owe me. You bought coffee last time."
"A train ticket is more expensive than coffee," Doc argued.
"Then let's go get coffee, you pay, then we're even, and we can go back to every other."
"Okay."
Etho pried his arm off. "Come on."
"What?"
"Coffee."
"I didn't know you meant right now. How are you already thinking about coffee? You just woke up."
"Well clearly you woke up thinking about me— Hey! Stop pinching me."
"Then stop saying stupid things."
“Man, what is going on? This is the third time someone’s tried to talk to me in German!” Etho complained as he caught up with Iskall after having to use his two sentence vocabulary to explain to the excited stranger that he didn’t actually speak German.
“Wait, do you actually not know why?”
“No?”
Iskall started laughing so hard that they had to stop walking.
“What?”
“I think you mixed up your laundry.”
Etho looked down at the dark grey sweatshirt with red and yellow text: “ Ich spreche drei Sprachen: ironisch, sarkastisch, zweideutig. ”
“Oh.”
“How do you mix up your clothes?”
“I don’t know. We just throw everything in the closet. What does this say? I speak… three? Speaks?”
“Languages, they corrected. "I don’t know what zweideutig means, but ironic and sarcastic are the first two words,” they said, snapping a photo of Etho.
“Are you asking Doc?”
“Mhm.” Their phone dinged after a few seconds. “It’s ambiguous.”
“The word?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s it supposed to mean?”
“No, it means ambiguous. He also wants to know where you found that.”
“Uhhh, back of the closet.”
They snorted and typed a response before putting their phone away.
“I thought we were going to the bulgogi truck.” Etho pointed down to the truck they walked past.
Iskall pointed to one of the trucks further down the street. “I think we should go to the one that sells bratwurst.”
“What? No! They’re going to try to speak to me in German.”
Iskall grabbed his wrist so that he had to keep following. “Exactly.”
Beef: wanna get lunch
Etho: sure
Etho: that burger place on main blvd? i have to go downtown anyway
Beef: why
Etho: dutch bakery
Beef: what
Beef: etho?
Beef: yk what sure ill come with
Beef: meet me at the bus stop at 2
Etho: okay
“So why are we going to… yeah, I’m not even going to try to pronounce that.”
The little bell at the top of the door chimed as they walked into the bakery.
“They have this Dutch bread— Ooh, they have really good doughnuts too.”
“We came all the way downtown for bread?”
“Yeah— hang on.” Etho walked up to the counter when the bakery owner waved him up. When he finished ordering and paying, he returned to Beef, brown bag in hand. “I got you a Bavarian cream doughnut.”
“So why did we come all the way here?”
“Doc finished his physics final.”
“See, so you say things that don’t make sense and pretend they do.”
“I always get him some bread when he finishes his worst exam, and this is the only European bread place nearby.”
“Why?”
Etho shrugged, sitting on the bench of the bus shelter. “He gets all anxious about them after, and he likes the pepper bread or whatever it’s called from here. It’s like a ‘good job on surviving’ present.”
“You two are weird,” Beef muttered as he sat next to them.
Etho handed Beef his doughnut and took the glazed one for himself. “How?”
“You just know each other too well.”
“We’ve been friends with Doc since forever. He’s just actually here now. It’s not weird that we’re close.”
“Yeah, but we’ve known Iskall too, and me and them aren’t like that.”
“It’s not bad, is it?”
“No, it’s not bad… It’s just—” Beef paused for a few moments. “Let’s just say whoever dates you two are lucky girls.”
“What?”
“We took a 20 minute bus downtown, so you could get some fancy bread for Doc, and he gets you food if we go out without you and he’s going back to the dorm after. Like— it’s not bad. It’s just very… intimate?”
“Are you jealous?” Etho teased.
Beef laughed, “No, I’m not jealous.”
“Good, and don’t say I never got you food, Beefers. I bought you a doughnut.”
“Oh, wow, a whole doughnut to myself. I feel so special— Hey!”
Etho chewed on the chunk of doughnut he’d leaned over to take a bite from, trying to stifle his laughter so he wouldn’t choke on it.
“You’re literally the worst. Doc can keep you.”
“I…”
Doc twisted around in his desk chair to look over at Etho. “Hm?”
“What happens if you date someone?”
“I don’t know.”
“I was talking to Cleo— I didn’t say it was you though, obviously, but she said I should talk to you about it.”
“About dating someone?”
“Yeah.”
“I wasn’t planning on dating anyone. Were you?”
Etho shook his head. “No.”
“Then we’re good.”
Etho lifted his head up from the pillow. “But what if—?”
“I don’t think many people would be okay with our friendship.”
“Yeah,” Etho agreed hesitantly.
“So we’re fine.”
“Yeah.”
“Everyone would say we are dating.”
Etho nodded. “Just without kissing.”
“Yeah,” Doc agreed. “Unless you want to.”
“What?”
“Kiss.”
“I— Uh, I don’t know.”
“We don’t have to. I just meant… just to try.”
“We can try it, but, uhm—”
Doc got up from his desk, walked over to their bed, set his hands on either side of Etho’s head, and kissed him.
It wasn’t magical in any sense of the word other than extraordinarily awkward.
“Your lips are chapped,” Doc commented, standing back up.
“So are yours.”
“How’d you feel about that?”
Etho shrugged. “Weird.”
“Have you ever kissed a guy before?”
“Not sober.”
“Oh?”
“I lost a bet at a party and kissed two people freshman year.”
“And they were guys?”
“One was, one wasn’t.” Doc gave him a look, and Etho held his hands up in surrender. “I can’t say more than that because I know you know both of them. And have you?”
“I have not.”
“What’d you think of it?”
Doc repeated his sentiment: “Weird.”
“Do we want to try again? Like not now, but maybe like tomorrow?”
“Like a free trial?”
“7 day money back guarantee.”
They both laughed for a while before Doc went back to his desk chair to work on his paper while Etho went back to his nap.
After what they called their “free trial week,” it became something casual, just like sharing a bed had. They didn't kiss often, but it wasn’t that weird when they did.
“Are we settling this now?” Doc asked as he fumbled with the house key.
“Are Etho’s parents home?”
He pushed the door open and shook his head. “No, they come back the week before we go back.”
Beef followed him in. “Did you know he pretty much used to live with me in summer?”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Wait, can I have a Pepsi? I’ll get the cards.”
“Okay.” Doc headed into the kitchen, grabbing some drinks and snacks before returning to the living room, sitting on the couch as Beef dug through the drawers of the TV stand. “So you were saying—”
Beef pulled out two decks of cards and sat across from him on the couch. “Yeah, they used to be gone more in the summers, so he’d stay with us. But since he got his licence, he stays here.”
“They’ve been gone since the end of June. How could they be here less?”
Beef handed him a deck of cards before setting up solitaire with his own deck. “They used to leave in April or May and come back around September… Okay, are you ready?”
Doc looked at the cards in front of him. “Yes.”
“Go!”
Somehow, he and Beef had gotten into an argument at work over solitaire of all things, and each of them was convinced that they were faster at solitaire than the other. Clearly, a best of three competitive solitaire game was the way to figure out who was the best.
When Etho had said that he could help Doc find a summer job, he hadn’t expected his options to be working at the pet store with Etho or a diner two towns over with Beef. It was super convenient: either place was willing not only to hire him but to set his schedule to match Etho or Beef’s so that he didn’t have to worry about transportation. Doc hadn't realised how true it was when Etho and Beef had said their town was less of a town and more woods that happened to have a handful of houses, a gas station, and a post office.
That wasn't to say he didn't like the town though even if a car was needed to get practically anywhere. Beef lived a seven minute walk from Etho's, which meant he was over all the time, and the living room couch had pretty much become his.
Doc had an air mattress on the floor of Etho's room. It was surprisingly comfortable and also funny that it was a bit bigger than Etho's twin XL.
Granted he never slept on it anymore. When they lived in the dorms, there were a couple times when one of them was gone for a few days. Doc never had trouble sleeping when Etho was gone, and Etho agreed he never did either.
Now in Etho's house, they lasted about a week sleeping separately before Doc crawled into bed behind Etho. It was just something about knowing the other was a whole foot away for no reason.
"Ha!" Beef shouted. "Two for two!"
Doc set down his cards with a nod. "Good job."
"Told you I was the better solitaire player!"
“Are you going to wait for Etho to come back so you can brag to him? I think we're making tacos."
"No, he doesn't understand true games like solitaire. He'd just make fun of us."
"You could still stay for dinner."
"I gotta help my mom clean the house. My aunts are coming over tomorrow, but we should get some pizza this weekend and have a movie marathon again."
"I think Etho is off Saturday."
"Awesome. See you tomorrow, man."
"See you."
Not Being Homeless Planning
Beef: so has everyone ordered furniture?
Etho: not yet
Beef: dude we move in in a week
Bdubs: in in
Bdubs: i have
Etho: we have desks and chairs and a dresser
Etho: were getting stuff from ikea tmrw itll be fine
Doc: i already bought some dish sets
Bdubs: and ive got cooking stuff
Etho: my parents have an old tv and doc has his wii
Beef: have you figured out your room?
Etho: wdym
Beef: like fitting your beds and desks and everything
Direct Messages
Etho: what if we just ask them
Doc: we could also just tell them we are
Doc: i don’t think they’ll care
Not Being Homeless Planning
Etho: so what if we got a full bed
Beef: are you going to have room for that?
Etho: yeah a full bed in the corner will take up less room than 2 twin xls
Doc: and it’s cheaper
Beef: there’s two of you
Etho: im glad you can count
Beef: youre sharing a bed?
Etho: i mean why not
Bdubs: are you dating?
Etho: no
Doc: i’m not dating anyone
Beef: yk what you two can figure out your bed
Beef: have fun cuddling
Bdubs: ^^ lol yeah
Direct Messages
Etho: they def think its a joke
Doc: yeah
Etho: thats gonna be funny
It was good that they all arrived early as sin to their apartment because they had an ungodly amount of furniture to assemble. They stopped five minutes into putting together their coffee table to go for actual coffee because Bdubs was the only one to be awake by 6 in the morning, and trying to find the coffee maker in the depths of whatever box was out of the question.
Once caffeinated and on a sugar high from doughnuts, Etho and Beef went to tackle the living room furniture while Bdubs and Doc started on the kitchen table and chairs. Their teams were put together strategically because Beef and Doc always read the instructions while Etho and Bdubs preferred to just screw pieces together. It only took a few hours to get the furniture put together and all their kitchen and living room stuff unpacked.
“Can one of you help?” Bdubs asked, poking his head into their room long after they’d all gone to their rooms. “I can’t figure out the desk!”
“Have you tried reading the instructions?” Doc answered.
“They don’t make sense!”
“Doc and I are working on our bed. Go get Beef.”
“Beef!” Bdubs called as he went down the hall.
Once they finished their bed and got the mattress and sheets on, Etho flopped down onto it. “You should go help Bdubs.”
Doc raised an eyebrow. “While you nap?”
“No, I’ll get up in a minute and do the desks.”
“Mhm.” Doc rifled through one of the boxes for a pillow and dropped it on Etho's face. “Enjoy your nap.”
“Not napping,” Etho murmured, leaving the pillow on his face as Doc left the room to see if their roommates needed help.
He was pleasantly surprised when he returned an hour later to see Etho asleep on top of the pillow and both desks built. He decided they could build their chairs later as he climbed into bed.
"Not gonna fall," Etho mumbled amused in his half-asleep state when Doc wrapped an arm around his middle out of habit. "There's more room."
He shrugged and didn't move his arm. "You could still roll out. It's not that much bigger."
Etho murmured some sort of agreement before falling back asleep.
“Bdubs is picking up food after work,” Beef said, voice growing closer. “If you want anything, you gotta— What the hell?”
“Go away,” Etho groaned. “I’m sleeping.”
“Why do you only have one bed?”
Doc’s arm disappeared from his middle, and the mattress shifted as he sat up.
Etho rubbed his eyes and yawned, “We told you we were getting one bed.”
“Yeah, but we thought that was a joke! You said you weren’t dating.”
“We aren’t,” Doc said.
“So you’re sleeping in the same bed, and you’re wearing his sweatshirt—”
“Is he?” Etho rolled over and looked at the red Pokemon sweatshirt. “Oh yeah.”
“Yeah, I bought it for you!”
“It’s a good sweatshirt.”
Doc hummed in agreement.
Beef sighed and rubbed his face. “So you’re sleeping together and share clothes, and you get each other food and everything, but you’re not dating?”
“Yeah, it’s not weird. It’s just convenient, you know?”
“How is that convenient?”
“It was warm when the dorm heaters were broken,” Doc explained. “Laundry is easier too when we don’t have to separate clothes.”
“You’ve been doing this since last year? I—” Beef paused for a few moments. “You know no one’s gonna care if you’re dating, right?”
“Well, yeah? We didn’t think anyone would care.”
A realisation seemed to dawn on Beef. “Oh my god, you two are genuinely this dense.”
“What?”
“You— I— Nevermind. What do you want from the diner on 3rd?”
“Hey, Doc?”
“Yeah?”
“Are we dating?”
“I don’t remember dating you,” Doc answered, spinning his chair around to face the bed.
“Well, yeah, but everyone says that we do all these date-y things.”
“Like what?”
“Like everything Beef said yesterday, and we go out of our way for each other and know each other’s food orders—”
“I know that for all our friends.”
“Yeah, but it’s like a different level with us.”
Doc raised an eyebrow. “You sound like Beef. Are you letting him get in your head?”
“No!” Etho huffed, “Maybe. He’s not the only one to say it’s weird though. Tango and Iskall and Bdubs have too. Beef’s just been saying it the longest.”
“Them saying it’s weird doesn’t mean we’re dating.”
“Yeah… but they kind of have a point. We’re essentially dating just without an anniversary.”
“Do you want to date?”
“I don’t know. Do you?”
Doc shrugged. “I’ve never thought about it.”
“But if we date, what if we break up?”
He chuckled, “I don’t think thinking about breaking up before a first date is a good way to start a relationship.”
Etho threw a pillow at him. “I don’t mean like that! I mean like we have one bed and share most of our clothes and live together. What do we do if we break up? Like if we don’t date, we can’t break up.”
“I don’t think that’s how it works.”
“But if I say ‘Doc, we’re breaking up,’ now, it doesn’t do anything, but if we were dating, then everything would change,” Etho argued.
”Then we won’t date, and we don’t have to worry about breaking up, and nothing will change."
“Can we do that?”
“Why not?”
Etho nodded after a few moments. “Okay, just friends.”
“Just friends.”
“Can I have the pillow back?”
Doc turned back around, holding the pillow to his chest. “Nope.”
“But that’s my pillow!”
“You shouldn’t have thrown it then.”
“We should’ve started dating, so I could break up with you right now."
“Yes!” Doc yelled. “Finally!”
“Did you do it?” Etho rounded the corner, nearly crashing into Doc as he dropped down onto the couch. Doc wrapped an arm around his shoulders, Wii remote on his wrist whacking Etho’s elbow.
They watched quietly as Doc backed out of the game and reloaded his save. The classic chime they’d heard a million times played, and “Congratulations! You have unlocked Mii Outfit B!” covered the screen.
Etho grinned and snapped a quick photo of the screen before one of Doc’s equally wide grin because they “might as well have a celebratory photo of the victor.”
“Are you sending that in the group chat?” Doc asked, resting his head against Etho’s shoulder to watch his screen.
“I was just gonna send it to Beef, but I can send it in the group chat.”
“Why only Beef?”
“I bet him 30 dollars that you’d unlock everything by the end of the week.”
Doc lifted his head up. “Is that why you offered to do my chores this week?”
Etho shrugged before laughing and showing Doc Beef’s less than enthused and incredibly unfamily-friendly response.
“Do I get any of the prize money? Considering I’m the one who did all the work.”
“Mmm, how about a different prize?”
Doc raised an eyebrow at him.
“I may have convinced Bdubs to bake that bread you like.”
“Doesn't he only like baking cookies? I thought he hates making bread."
“He does.” Etho leaned against him. “I have done a lot of chores this week.”
Doc snorted, “Poor baby, having to clean the bathroom and wash the dishes.”
“Hey, I also vacuumed and cleaned the kitchen!”
“And I’m sure Bdubs will make you clean it again after baking.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me.” Etho groaned, dropping his head to Doc’s chest dramatically. After a few moments, he looked up at Doc, still grinning, and kissed him. “Man, I can’t believe you finally did it! What are you going to do next?”
“Mmm, maybe beat the fast ghosts or find a new game, but you should grab another remote.”
“Why?”
“We’re going to play.”
“But you’re going to destroy me.”
“Maybe, but we have to try out the new character. What if I let you win one?”
“That’s no fun. I’ll beat you fair and square.”
“You think you can?”
"Nope." Etho grinned and pressed his back against Doc’s shoulder, legs propped up on the armrest, as he put on the wrist strap. “I know I can.”
3
2
1
GO!