Chapter Text
“Your roots are starting to show,” Ivan said while using a finger to press into the black hair on top of Till’s head.
Till swatted the hand away without bothering to turn around in his seat to stare the man down. “I like it better when you skip class,” he muttered over his shoulder. He would never know Ivan’s reaction to that, but he could safely assume it was that same devious smile he had when terrorizing Till.
He was right, though- Till had run out of bleach for touchups and would need to make a grocery run for it. He texted in the group chat, which unfortunately meant the text was sent to Ivan as well.
Till: anyone going on a grocery run soon?
There was a buzz behind him, then a snicker from Ivan after presumably reading the text.
Sua: Mizi and I were planning to this weekend.
Mizi: Wanna come?? Or we can pick something up for ya!
Till ignored the chat for the time being. He would most likely need to tag along for odds and ends, but he needed to check what he was low on later after classes.
Speaking of class, what the fuck was the professor even on about? Actually, Till started to wonder if he was on the right page? Whatever- who cared. College was wonderful like that and he wasn’t behind in any of his classes.
Till started to mindlessly scribble his pen in his notepad after deciding it would be too attention-grabbing to get up and leave. His phone buzzed, but it wasn’t the group chat.
Ivan: Bored (º︿º)
Till audibly sighed loud enough for Ivan to know he was getting ignored.
Ivan: Coffee after?
Damn, coffee did sound good.
Till: sure.
Ivan: It’s a date!
Till: stop being weird
Ivan: ♡
Ivan: So you don’t want me to pay?
Till: never said that.
Ivan: Change my name in your phone to sugar daddy then
Till: thats it. blocking you
He didn’t, of course. It was an empty threat just as it usually was. Not that he didn’t want to block him, but the shame of inevitably unblocking Ivan was far too great of a tragedy to bear.
After class, they went to the cafe closest to their dorm building.
No matter which barista was working, they seemed to always recognize Ivan and Till and went so far as to make their usuals without having to take their order.
They tried not to charge them at one point, but found out pretty quickly that was the wrong move; Ivan enjoyed paying for them. Till figured Ivan had some moral dilemma surrounding the free drinks, but he wouldn’t think too much about it for it to make no sense.
This time, the barista was Sabrina- Till only knew her name because she stared at Ivan almost as much as Ivan stared at Till. He wasn’t jealous since he had a crush on Mizi, but it was still annoying that she never said anything to Ivan. If she wanted his number why not ask? He wasn’t paying attention, so it was obviously not working.
“You know she’s staring at you again, don’t you?” Till asked, putting his fingers through his own hair to lean against the table.
Ivan knew, how couldn’t he know? He was incredibly aware of his surroundings, but he chose instead to watch Till play with his drink’s straw. Ivan teased with a simple, “Who?”
Till glanced up with a scrunched face. “Sabrina.”
Ivan grinned wider after seeing the perplexed look on Till’s face. He repeated, “Who?”
It was a physical challenge for Till not to scream at Ivan, especially since Sabrina would notice. “The barista, Ivan…”
“Maybe she’s staring at you,” Ivan reached for Till’s drink and put the straw in his mouth where Till was playing with it. He took a sip with a gentle smile, reveling in the way Till’s thin face showed off his embarrassment so easily.
“Shut up!” Till snatched back his drink and stood up. “I’m going home.” He walked out with the echoing laughter fading behind where he left Ivan. Bastard.
Till worked on his music for the most part, a few assignments done here and there towards the beginning of getting home. Luka, Till’s roommate, entered the dorm after his classes must have ended. The two nodded in greeting, but they were never too big on talking to one another.
Luka was an upperclassman with a double major in English and Film Directing, so he had a lot of work at all times. That, and he thought Till pursuing music was childish and stupid… or something like that.
The thing that brought Luka and Till to sharing a room was that they both enjoyed silence at the end of the day and space to be unapologetically themselves without outsiders judging.
However, Luka had one fucking annoying habit- his situationship with Hyuna.
Despite Hyuna having the bigger dorm, she always chose to visit Luka’s to terrorize Till while she was at it. “Hi, Tilly-boy!”
Till grumbled and closed his composition notebook since work would be useless. “Are you going to be here all night?”
“You bet!” She sat on Luka’s bed, smiling at Till still. Luka seemed in his own world chewing on the cord of the headphones he still had on.
“Great.” Till stood up and collected his phone.
He exited the dorm and made his way across the hall. He knocked until the door opened.
“Hyuna is in my room,” Till said as if the greeting made any goddamn sense. Or, maybe it wouldn’t to anyone other than Ivan.
Ivan leaned his head against the door he had held open. “And?” He knew Till wanted to be invited in, but Ivan would rather not give him the easy way out.
“It gets really awkward when she visits Luka.” Till explained further, hands in his pockets while he dug his shoe into the outside floor.
Black eyes followed Till’s gaze down to his feet, then quickly focused back to the man in front of him. “How come?” He must have asked in an insinuating way judging by the fit of rage that seemed to coarse through Till. He wasn’t about to say Hyuna and Luka might have sex, but he certainly also wouldn’t admit Hyuna was a bit mean and teased Till to make him mad.
Not that Ivan was any better on that front.
“Are you going to let me in or not!?” Till huffed, impatiently shifting his weight to his other foot.
Ivan smiled and opened the door wider, accepting the question as though Till had politely asked; it was as close as he was going to get and Ivan knew when a win was a win. “Always room for you,” he said sweetly, eyes watching carefully as Till entered the room like he lived there.
Till coming over wasn’t new and Ivan never sent him away for wanting to stay, but it was funny to mess with him even a little bit. Till sat down on Ivan’s shitty dorm bed, barely passing as a full sized bed; at least they were decent enough to make the mattress an XL twin.
He could have sat on the other bed, but it was reserved for Ivan’s dorm-mate. Who, since the start of the semester, decided last minute to study abroad and leaving Ivan with the pleasure of having no one to room with. Twice the amount of room for him, but Till still decided to sit in Ivan’s bed.
The first time Till came over, there was way too much shit on the spare bed for him to lay on it- books, notes, song lyrics in progress- since then, it became a habit to stay in Ivan’s bed even when the bed was clear.
“Were you studying? I can be quiet if so, I just need sleep before my test tomorrow.” Till complained, legs crossed and eyes focused on his phone.
Ivan closed the book he was previously studying from and placed it in the pile of schoolwork on the other bed like it was his own desk. “Nope.” He lied, sitting next to Till before scooting closer to the wall to insinuate he wanted Till to lay on his usual side of the bed. Till did just that, locking his phone after setting alarms and placing it on the wireless charger he had left in Ivan’s room.
He was always surprised to see it still waiting there, but maybe Ivan was just too lazy to move it or also used it.
Till rested on his side facing away from Ivan, who positioned himself against Till’s back and gently rested a hand across Till’s waist almost as if they were spooning (they are).
It wasn’t anything romantic or weird, just how they had always been. Till and Ivan grew up close to one another and had been friends for so long that it didn’t really matter since the bed was so small anyway. He would have slept the same way with Sua or Mizi or anyone else, too. Sure it hadn’t… come up yet, but Ivan was the closest to his dorm.
Besides, it would be weird to start after all that time with someone else. Ivan had always been clingy like that since they were young, and Till let him; it became their normal.
Some nights, Till could immediately fall asleep against Ivan’s warmth. That time was not one of those nights.
Till turned his torso slightly like he was leaning to face Ivan, but only his side profile could be seen by Ivan. “Did Mizi tell you about her dance performance this weekend?”
Ivan didn’t open his eyes, but breathed out into Till’s hair. “Mhmn.”
“Are you gonna go?” Till asked curiously. “We can go together, if so. I’m trying to decide what to wear.”
Knowing the conversation wouldn’t end with his disinterest, Ivan opened his eyes and stared into the side of Till’s eyelashes. “Does it matter what you wear? If you want something nice, you can wear something of mine.”
Till clicked his tongue. “No, your clothes would be too big on me.”
Ivan sat up and braced himself on the bed with the hand that was across Till, making his upper body lean over Till in an attempt for eye contact. “I’m sure I have some things from high school that would fit you. Why not give it a try? I think you would look nice.”
“Like I would wear your old high school shit! Why do you still have your clothes from back then, anyway?” Till sneered, cheeks a but red in embarrassment; Ivan had to think he was a child, still!
Ivan flashed his teeth and single pointy canine, a twisted smile showing he was about to say something that would likely rile Till up. “Maybe I saved them in hopes of seeing you wearing my clothes someday.”
Predictably, Till kneed Ivan and made him fall off the bed overtop of Till. The impact made a thud, followed by Ivan’s crazed laughter. “Fucking sadist!” Till followed up by chucking a pillow at the man on the floor.
Ivan took the pillow and swung his arm to hit Till in the face harder than Till had thrown the pillow. In retaliation, Till sat up and stomped his foot one solid time on Ivan’s chest.
Still smiling like a lunatic, Ivan grabbed Till’s ankle and yanked him off the bed. He hit his head on the frame on the way down, only fueling his rage more and making the two do their best to hit the other harder than before.
There was an aggressive knock on the door, followed by Hyuna’s voice. “The fuck you two doing in there? Goddamn, you’re louder than Luka when he cries during-“
“Hyuna…” Luka’s sad voice trilled.
“Shh,” Till put a finger up to Ivan to keep his close proximity to his face at bay. “Maybe she will go away…”
“Whispering ‘maybe she will go away’ only makes me wanna come inside.” Hyuna called through the door.
Ivan blinked, still staring at Ivan with deep black eyes. Carefully, he bit the finger that was in front of him.
“OW! BASTARD!” Till kicked Ivan away and stood up to get the door. “You’ve already infested my room, what more do you want from me!”
Hyuna laughed, then put her hands up in a dramatic shrug. “Nothing, nothing. You two kids have fun~”
The door slammed and locked in her face before Till went back to Ivan, who was still lying on the floor like a kicked puppy. “Are you done being a jerk or do I need to sleep on the other bed?”
Something about that threat should have felt weird to Till, but he knew it was going to work and didn’t think any past that. Of course, it worked. “No- no, I’m sleepy. Come on.” Ivan got up and went back to his side of the bed with open arms and a lifted edge of the blanket. Till rolled his eyes at the shitty grin and protruding canine tooth that was flashed his way. He crawled back into the bed where they could totally-not-spoon again.
Falling asleep with Ivan was always incredibly easy for Till, despite his usual insomnia. Maybe having someone else in the bed that was warm soothed his mind. Whatever the reason, it was nice to have a friend he was comfortable sleeping next to.
Waking up was not as easy.
Till always woke up cuddled much closer into the other’s warmth and sometimes he would even be turned over and rested on the gentle rise and fall of Ivan’s chest.