fic; life in the dorms
I've seen some people posting their fics from the meme, so I wanted to too. Since I really liked writing this. XD
Title: Life in the dorms
Pairing/Characters: Shige-centric, NewS, KAT-TUN, mentions of other JE boys
Rating: PG
Summary: Shige starts his first year at college and discovers the joys of living in an all-boys dorm.
Author’s Note: 3795 words. For the JE AU Comment Ficathon of Doom, requested here. Prompt: Dorm!life AU.
Can you tell I like these college-AU prompts? I wrote that other one for the genfic meme awhile ago, but this was more interesting. XD And definitely something that I might end up coming back to and including more JE members or just other random dorm-life antics. XD But I only wanted to fic NewS and KAT-TUN, so they are the main ones in this. XD
His mother hugs him while she cries, pats his head and says, “I’m going to miss you.”
Shige smiles and hugs his mother back. “Me, too,” he tells her as he pulls back and then reprimands her for crying. “I’ll be fine, Mom.”
“Be careful! The dorms can be dangerous sometimes. Find some nice people to befriend, okay?” she says, sniffling.
Shige nods and his parents smile and hug him one last time before getting into their car and driving off. It is move-in day for Shige’s first year at college and he’d just finished putting his things into his dorm room. He sighs as he sees the car turn the corner and disappear, and then pulls his duffel bag over his shoulder and heads inside, climbing two flights of stairs to his room.
The door’s open, which it hadn’t been when he left to see his parents off, and he grins because it probably means his roommate is here. He shoves his way inside and drops his things onto the desk next to the door, then jumps as a voice says, “Can you take the desk by the window? I want that one.”
Shige turns to face a boy a little shorter than him with exceptionally feminine features and says, “Sure,” though it irks him a bit (he’d gotten to the room first, dammit, and he wanted the desk by the door).
The boy grins and extends a hand. “I’m Tegoshi Yuya!”
“K-Kato Shigeaki,” Shige replies, a little blown by the boy’s bright smile.
“Can I call you Shige?” Tegoshi exclaims, bouncing on his feet and getting into Shige’s space.
They’ve barely known each other for three seconds and he’s already thinking about nicknames, Shige muses, unsure whether to be amused or frightened. Instead, he just nods slowly, if only to get Tegoshi out of his face. “O-Okay,” he replies uncertainly and the boy beams.
“Great!” he says. “By the way, I took the top bunk, is that okay?” He turns and gives Shige a look that tells Shige he really has no choice in the matter. When Shige nods, Tegoshi continues, “And I took this closet. You can have the one in the corner.”
Shige’s mind is spinning. Tegoshi talks too fast and moves at a mile a minute and is jumping about the room claiming spots and discussing where he wants to put the TV and the fridge and the microwave. Shige just follows along because it seems easier than putting up a fight and he doesn’t want to have to mess things up with his roommate - it’d be too problematic trying to find a new one.
“Say, Shige, what’s your major?” Tegoshi asks, climbing up onto his top bunk and swinging his legs over the egde.
“L-Law,” Shige replies.
“Oooh, you must be really smart then,” Tegoshi says, looking at Shige with awe.
Shige flushes and rubs the back of his neck self-consciously. “No, not-not really-” He cuts off as he realizes Tegoshi isn’t listening, now laying on his back and looking up at the ceiling.
“I’m a psychology major!” Tegoshi announces, then turns to Shige and grins deviously. “You’ll let me use you as a subject for all of my cool experiments, right?”
Shige stares at him, a feeling of dread sweeping through his veins. It is going to be a very, very long year.
*
His resident advisor is a small upperclassman who glares at everyone. During the first floor meeting that night, he barks, “I’m Nishikido Ryo, meaning Nishikido-kun to all of you freshman, and I’m not here to be your mother. Be smart and don’t do anything stupid. If you do, I’ll kill you.”
And the look he gave the group of them made it clear he really would.
“If you break something, fix it. If you need something, go find it yourself. If you can’t find your classes, go look at the map in the hall,” Nishikido continues. “Basically don’t bother me unless someone’s dying. Got it?”
All of the freshman nod quickly while the few upperclassmen on the floor just roll their eyes - clearly having dealt with Nishikido before. One of them even grins and calls out, “Don’t worry, kids! Ryo-chan’s really nice. Don’t let him fool you.”
“Shut up, Akanishi,” Nishikido snaps, looking decidedly flustered. He turns to the freshman. “And stay away from him,” He jerks his head towards Akanishi, “if you know what’s good for you.”
Akanishi pouts and his friend standing beside him laughs. Akanishi glares at him and says, “Some friend you are, Pi.”
“Shut up, Akanishi,” Nishikido says again. He stands and glares around the room. “That’s all. You can leave.” He stares at them and the young ones all scutter off, frightened, while the older ones leave at their own pace.
Shige blinks, feeling a little winded. Tegoshi bounces beside him and says, “He’s so cool, don’t you think?” Shige gives his roommate a weird look and Tegoshi continues, “I want to be friends with him.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea-” Shige starts but Tegoshi is already halfway across the room and peering up at Nishikido who’s talking to the Akanishi and Pi guys. Shige braces himself for Nishikido to yell at Tegoshi, getting to his feet to go pull his roommate away, when he realizes that Nishikido’s actually smiling at Tegoshi, eyes soft and affectionate and Shige doesn’t even know what to think anymore.
Sighing, he thinks it’s best to leave Tegoshi to his own devices - clearly the kid knew what he was doing - and leaves the common room to head back to his own. As he passes down the hall, someone crying for help catches Shige’s attention and he pokes his head into a room a few doors down from his own.
“Hello?” he says and a gasp greets him.
“Can you help me?” answers a voice from behind a TV, Shige can barely make out a head of hair over the top. “I can’t see where I’m going.”
“Sure,” Shige replies, stepping inside and grabbing the other end of the TV and together they manage to get the TV set up in the corner. Shige smiles at the boy he sees, slightly shorter than him but more built, a roundish face and a bright smile to rival Tegoshi’s.
“Thanks!” he says, grinning. “I’m Masuda Takahisa. Are you a first year?”
Shige nods. “I’m Kato Shigeaki,” he replies.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Masuda says. “I’m a sophomore. If you need anything, you can ask me. Where’s your room?”
“Just a few doors down,” Shige answers. “And thanks for the offer. I might need the help, since our RA doesn’t seem very keen on that.”
Masuda laughs. “Nishikido-kun is really kind. Really,” he adds, when he sees Shige’s skeptical face. “He’s just a little hard to get to know. He is really nice.”
“That’s what some other upperclassmen said, but I don’t know.”
“Akanishi-kun and Yamashita-kun, probably, right? They’re his best friends, so they would know,” Masuda explains and Shige’s eyes widen.
“Friends, really?” he exclaims.
Masuda nods. “Last year, Akanishi-kun and Yamashita-kun had a room on a different floor, but they were here all the time anyway. If you ever want help from Nishikido-kun, it’s best to go when the other two are there, because then he tends to be nicer or they always make fun of him.”
Shige just shakes his head. “Good to know,” he says.
Just then someone walks into the room, stopping short when he sees Shige. “Hi,” he says a little awkwardly.
Masuda jumps in to say, “This is Nakamaru Yuichi, he’s my roommate.”
Shige smiles and introduces himself properly and Nakamaru says, “We were going to go to dinner soon, why don’t you come with us?”
“S-Sure!” Shige accepts quickly, glad to not have to eat alone on his first day. “Can I ask my roommate to come along?”
“Of course!” Masuda replies happily. “The more the merrier.”
Shige grins and excuses himself, heading back to his room. Tegoshi’s not there, so when Masuda and Nakamaru come by to get him for dinner, he leaves a note on the boy’s desk to let him know where he went.
*
Classes don’t start for another few days, so Shige’s slowly getting into the swing of things. It’s orientation for the freshmen, and Shige only attends everything that’s actually required of him. He doesn’t want to go to the random friend-making-dances or game-events on his own, and whenever he decides to ask Tegoshi, his roommate’s no where to be found.
Shige doesn’t mind, though, because he finds himself hanging out in Masuda and Nakamaru’s room instead. The two of them are fun and easy to talk to, so they become good friends pretty fast. And as they’re upperclassmen, Shige gets the scoop of the dorm and college life. They let him in on the people to avoid, the ones that are nice, the RA’s that’ll help you in trouble and the ones that won’t. They show him the best places to hang out, and the quiet ones to study, and Shige’s finally begins to actually look forward to classes starting.
*
It’s the night before classes starts that Shige learns the downside to dorm life. The fire alarms go off at two in the morning and he’s hauling himself out of bed, dragging a barely awake Tegoshi along with him. Nishikido’s shouting about idiots and slowpokes and Shige catches up to Masuda and Nakamaru when they get outside and are standing the correct distance away from the dorm.
“Does this happen a lot?” Shige asks them sleepily.
“More than you’d think,” Nakamaru replies and Shige groans, which makes Tegoshi glare at him from where he’s trying to sleep against Shige’s shoulder.
They’re out there for twenty minutes because the building has to be searched and when they learn it was just Akanishi and Yamashita cooking something in the dorm kitchen, everyone grumbles and the older students roll their eyes, muttering about those two idiots. Which is exactly what Nishikido yells at them about when they return inside and find Akanishi and Yamashita sitting in the common room looking guilty.
“Look on the bright side!” Akanishi exclaims to the bleary-eyed first years. “This will be a great story to tell your classmates tomorrow during class!”
Yamashita wisely grabs his roommate’s hand and drags him away.
*
Because of the night’s excitement, Shige oversleeps and misses his alarm. Tegoshi’s not there when he wakes, which Shige supposes is a good thing because he’s cursing and flailing about the room trying to grab everything he needs while brushing his teeth and changing his clothes. He makes a mad dash to his first class where he almost runs straight into another student hurrying from the other end of the hall and they both tumble to the floor with a thud.
“I’m sorry!” comes a nervous voice and Shige looks up to find a brazen haired boy peering down at him from his small eyes. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.” He offers Shige a hand up and he takes it gratefully.
“No, it’s okay. I wasn’t paying attention either,” he replies, smiling. He nods at him and then heads into his classroom and is pleasantly surprised to find the other boy follow him and sit down next to him. “You’re in this class, too?”
The boy nods. “It’s an entry level class and I’m a senior but I need the credit to graduate,” he replies. “How about you?”
“I’m a freshman,” Shige replies and the boy grins.
“Yay! I love meeting the new students here! I’m Koyama Keiichiro,” the boy introduces himself happily, his small eyes bright.
Shige can’t help but smile and introduces himself as well. As their professor hasn’t arrived, they chat quietly amongst themselves and Shige learns that Koyama is a Literature major and is excited to find out that Koyama lives in his dorm, just on the floor below.
“I’ll have to come up and visit you sometime!” Koyama says. “I have some other friends on that floor, too, so I’m there a lot.”
“That would be fun,” Shige agrees and then their conversation comes to an end as their professor enters the room.
“My name is Sakurai and this is Math-101,” he says and smiles at them all. “And even though this is a lower level class, it’s not going to be easy, so make sure you work hard.”
Koyama whimpers beside Shige who smiles at him reassuringly.
“Okay! Let’s make sure you’re all here,” Sakurai says and begins roll-call.
*
Shige has no classes with Tegoshi, which he doesn’t mind in the slighest. He likes his roommate, they get along well enough, but Tegoshi’s just a little too much for him. He does have his art class (taught by Professor Ohno) with Masuda, and is taking a gym class (taught by Domoto Koichi - who prefers to be called Koichi so as not to get mixed up with the other Domoto on campus) with Nakamaru. He even has a class with Nishikido, which scares him a little, seeing as how Nishikido clearly recognizes him from being on the same floor and insists on sitting beside him during every class. He also picks on Shige relentlessly and Shige can’t tell if he does it to annoy him or because he’s bored (probably both) or if that’s just his way of being “friends.”
Shige ends up hanging out most with Koyama, with whom he instantly clicks. Somehow they just fall together naturally; meeting up for lunch and dinner and studying for math together. Koyama, Shige learns, is not exceptionally bright, and math is clearly his downfall. Koyama claims it’s because he’s a Literature major and you didn’t need math in that field, but when Shige catches him misspelling the simplest of words in his notes, he figures it’s a problem that runs much deeper than that. Koyama is also good friends with Nakamaru, as they’re the same year, and knows Masuda by proxy, so the four of them spend a lot of time together as well.
Shige meets Koyama’s roommate by sheer luck, really. His name is Taguchi, though he insists Shige calls him Junno, and is in Shige’s gym class with Nakamaru. He makes lame jokes but is smiling all the time and Shige can’t really hate him. He only realizes he’s Koyama’s roommate when he goes back with Junno to their dorm and finds Koyama sitting in the room that Junno says is his own. Junno is fun in his own right and whenever Shige’s in the mood for video-games, he knows exactly who to go find, even though Junno kicks his ass every time and Koyama laughs from where he’s trying to study on his loft. Shige glares at him and refuses to help him with math, and when Koyama pouts and whines at him, Shige just ends up laughing in response, feeling warm all over from just being able to hang out with his friends.
*
At the end of the first week of classes, there’s a dorm meeting. Shige meets the other RAs for the first time. Ueda is the RA for Koyama’s floor and he seems much more cheerful than Nishikido at any rate - that is until he has any contact (physical, verbal, or any other form of contact) with Nishikido himself.
“They hate each other,” Yamashita explains, startling Shige as he didn’t realize the older student was behind him, and Shige had just asked Masuda why Ueda looked liked he wanted to murder Nishikido.
“Why?” Shige asks.
Akanishi replies, “They’ve known each other for a long time and have some issues or something. It’s just best to ignore it.”
“All they do is try to outdo each other on who can keep the best floor. There will be weird competitions later in the year, so be prepared,” Yamashita says.
“They’re not that bad,” Akanishi adds, seeing Shige’s nervous face. “But just be careful.”
Shige nods slowly and replies, “T-Thanks, I guess.”
Yamashita grins at him and says, “You’re Shige-kun, aren’t you?”
Shige blinks, startled that Yamashita knew his name - the nickname even, that Tegoshi gave him - without ever having been properly introduced. “Uhm, yeah. That’s me.”
“Ryo-chan’s mentioned you. You have lit togethere, right?” Yamashita says and Shige nods again. “Tegoshi-kun also talks about you a lot.”
“Oh, is that where Tegoshi’s been? With you guys?” Shige says.
“You don’t even know where your own roommate is?” Akanishi scoffs.
“Not all roommate pairs are like you and Yamashita, Jin,” Nakamaru says with a roll of his eyes.
“That’s right, we’re special!” Akanishi exclaims, and Yamashita grins beside him and they do some kind of complicated handshake that has Shige’s head spinning as he tries to follow and almost laughs out loud at the way it ends in a heart.
Akanishi notices the twitch of his lips and glares at him. “Come on, Pi, let’s go,” he announces, grabbing Yamashita by the elbow and dragging him off as he shouts back, “We should hang out sometime, Shige-kun! Come by our room, okay?”
Shige just blinks and nods slowly, then turns to Masuda and Nakamaru. “Are they always like that?”
Nakamaru nods solmenly. “Yeah,” he says. “I went to high school with them, too. They’ve been best friends, along with Nishikido, since they were in preschool.”
“Well, that explains a lot,” Shige replies as they all make their way back to their floor, only to stop in the staircase up to the first floor as someone starts rapping loudly and the other students are cheering and clapping. Shige cranes his neck around Masuda to find a short guy in baggy clothes and a shaved head rapping words to a made up beat in the middle of the staircase. Someone is standing beside him with his arms crossed, looking annoyed, but Shige notices his lips quirking in amusement.
Then Nakamaru is laughing beside him and yells, “Koki, you’re blocking the staircase!”
The rapper stops and scans the crowd, grinning when he finds Nakamaru. “Yo! Come join me!”
Nakamaru shakes his head but the other students cheer and Koki shouts at him until he’s shoving his way up three more steps. He and Koki glance at each other and then break out into a rap-beat-boxing duet that has the boys in the dorm cheering and laughing.
“They’re good,” Shige says, surprised, as he never knew Nakamaru beat-boxed.
Masuda beams next to him. “Aren’t they?” he says. “They do this a lot randomly in the halls and the sidewalks and stuff. People know their names all over campus.” Masuda nods at Koki and says, “That’s Tanaka Koki, and the guy next to him is his roommate, Kamenashi Kazuya. They live on the first floor.”
Shige nods and then turns back to the duo who are finishing off their routine, to a tumtultous round of applause. Then he’s being shoved away as Ueda grapples his way up the stairs and shouts, “That’s enough, clear out! This is a fire hazard!”
“Then someone better keep Akanishi and Yamashita away from the stoves right now,” replies Koki, grinning at Ueda who laughs.
“I heard that, jerk!” Akanishi’s voice comes from above Shige and he turns to see the older boy peering over the railing.
“Love you too, baby,” Koki replies, winking and Jin gives him the finger, though he’s grinning back before disappearing.
Shige is starting to wonder exactly what kind of dorm he’d found himself in when Masuda’s pulling him up the stairs beside Nakamaru and the others. Nakamaru smiles at Shige and says, “Guys, this is Shige. He’s a freshman this year.”
“Ooh, new blood!” Koki says, grinning even wider.
“Don’t scare him, Koki,” Kamenashi reprimands and Ueda rolls his eyes at both of them.
The proper introductions are made and Shige forgets about his thoughts concerning the nature of the dorm, laughing along with the others as Ueda threatens to write up Koki and Nakamaru for violating safety rules. Just as Koki starts to invite the second-floor group to their room to hang out, Nishikido walks up the stairs and shouts, “Leave my floor alone, Tanaka.”
Koki rolls his eyes and Ueda visibly flinches in disgust at Nishikido’s appearance. “Go bother someone else, Nishikido,” he says, then grins and drops an arm around Shige’s shoulders. “This lowly freshman needs some real guidance.”
Shige tries to open his mouth to say something, but then Nishikido is pulling Shige away forcefully by the arm. “Yeah, if he wants to turn into a Gackt-worshipping freak.” He looks at Shige who is more than a little freaked out, and asks, “You don’t want to become that, do you?”
“Uhm-” Shige starts but doesn’t finish as Nishikido turns back to Ueda and says, “See? Now go away.”
“You’re the one standing in front of my floor, idiot,” Ueda retorts. “Why don’t you get your scrawny ass back upstairs?”
Nishikido pushes Shige away and gets into Ueda’s face, eyes dark in a glare, and replies, “As if you have any right to call me scrawny.”
Ueda sighs and examines his fingernails as if Nishikido’s not worth his time. “I could take you out and you know it.”
“I’d like to see you try,” Nishikido shouts.
Shige’s wondering if maybe someone should stop them when Masuda pokes his shoulder and nods his head towards the door to the first floor. “Come on,” he mouths and Shige sneaks around Nishikido and into the safety of the hall, finally breathing a sigh of relief.
“Shouldn’t someone stop them?” he asks and Kamenashi and Koki laugh.
“It’s safer for everyone to let them go at it,” Kamenashi replies. “They do this at least once a month.”
“Sexual tensions run high in an all-boys dorm,” Koki replies with a wink and Shige’s eyes widen. He laughs seeing Shige’s expression and says, “Just leave them alone. They’re really harmless. Now come on, newbie. Let’s see how you do at video games.”
“What game?” exclaims Junno, poking his head out of his door a few rooms down.
“What the hell, Taguchi!” Koki shouts. “Do you have video-game super hearing or something?”
Junno just smiles brightly and says, “I want to play.”
“No,” Nakamaru replies. “You’ll end up beating all of us.”
“You can use my game system!” Junno offers and Koki groans, knowing Junno has the best system in the whole dorm.
“Fine, fine,” Kame says and they all make their way into the room.
Shige climbs up onto the loft where Koyama is sitting against the wall with a book over his lap.
“Not going to play?” Koyama asks him.
“I think I’ll just watch for now,” Shige replies, grinning, and turns to do just that.
end.
note; sorry for the abrupt ending, but this really could go on forever, so. yeah. >.> anyway, hope you enjoyed~ thanks for reading! ♥
Title: Life in the dorms
Pairing/Characters: Shige-centric, NewS, KAT-TUN, mentions of other JE boys
Rating: PG
Summary: Shige starts his first year at college and discovers the joys of living in an all-boys dorm.
Author’s Note: 3795 words. For the JE AU Comment Ficathon of Doom, requested here. Prompt: Dorm!life AU.
Can you tell I like these college-AU prompts? I wrote that other one for the genfic meme awhile ago, but this was more interesting. XD And definitely something that I might end up coming back to and including more JE members or just other random dorm-life antics. XD But I only wanted to fic NewS and KAT-TUN, so they are the main ones in this. XD
His mother hugs him while she cries, pats his head and says, “I’m going to miss you.”
Shige smiles and hugs his mother back. “Me, too,” he tells her as he pulls back and then reprimands her for crying. “I’ll be fine, Mom.”
“Be careful! The dorms can be dangerous sometimes. Find some nice people to befriend, okay?” she says, sniffling.
Shige nods and his parents smile and hug him one last time before getting into their car and driving off. It is move-in day for Shige’s first year at college and he’d just finished putting his things into his dorm room. He sighs as he sees the car turn the corner and disappear, and then pulls his duffel bag over his shoulder and heads inside, climbing two flights of stairs to his room.
The door’s open, which it hadn’t been when he left to see his parents off, and he grins because it probably means his roommate is here. He shoves his way inside and drops his things onto the desk next to the door, then jumps as a voice says, “Can you take the desk by the window? I want that one.”
Shige turns to face a boy a little shorter than him with exceptionally feminine features and says, “Sure,” though it irks him a bit (he’d gotten to the room first, dammit, and he wanted the desk by the door).
The boy grins and extends a hand. “I’m Tegoshi Yuya!”
“K-Kato Shigeaki,” Shige replies, a little blown by the boy’s bright smile.
“Can I call you Shige?” Tegoshi exclaims, bouncing on his feet and getting into Shige’s space.
They’ve barely known each other for three seconds and he’s already thinking about nicknames, Shige muses, unsure whether to be amused or frightened. Instead, he just nods slowly, if only to get Tegoshi out of his face. “O-Okay,” he replies uncertainly and the boy beams.
“Great!” he says. “By the way, I took the top bunk, is that okay?” He turns and gives Shige a look that tells Shige he really has no choice in the matter. When Shige nods, Tegoshi continues, “And I took this closet. You can have the one in the corner.”
Shige’s mind is spinning. Tegoshi talks too fast and moves at a mile a minute and is jumping about the room claiming spots and discussing where he wants to put the TV and the fridge and the microwave. Shige just follows along because it seems easier than putting up a fight and he doesn’t want to have to mess things up with his roommate - it’d be too problematic trying to find a new one.
“Say, Shige, what’s your major?” Tegoshi asks, climbing up onto his top bunk and swinging his legs over the egde.
“L-Law,” Shige replies.
“Oooh, you must be really smart then,” Tegoshi says, looking at Shige with awe.
Shige flushes and rubs the back of his neck self-consciously. “No, not-not really-” He cuts off as he realizes Tegoshi isn’t listening, now laying on his back and looking up at the ceiling.
“I’m a psychology major!” Tegoshi announces, then turns to Shige and grins deviously. “You’ll let me use you as a subject for all of my cool experiments, right?”
Shige stares at him, a feeling of dread sweeping through his veins. It is going to be a very, very long year.
*
His resident advisor is a small upperclassman who glares at everyone. During the first floor meeting that night, he barks, “I’m Nishikido Ryo, meaning Nishikido-kun to all of you freshman, and I’m not here to be your mother. Be smart and don’t do anything stupid. If you do, I’ll kill you.”
And the look he gave the group of them made it clear he really would.
“If you break something, fix it. If you need something, go find it yourself. If you can’t find your classes, go look at the map in the hall,” Nishikido continues. “Basically don’t bother me unless someone’s dying. Got it?”
All of the freshman nod quickly while the few upperclassmen on the floor just roll their eyes - clearly having dealt with Nishikido before. One of them even grins and calls out, “Don’t worry, kids! Ryo-chan’s really nice. Don’t let him fool you.”
“Shut up, Akanishi,” Nishikido snaps, looking decidedly flustered. He turns to the freshman. “And stay away from him,” He jerks his head towards Akanishi, “if you know what’s good for you.”
Akanishi pouts and his friend standing beside him laughs. Akanishi glares at him and says, “Some friend you are, Pi.”
“Shut up, Akanishi,” Nishikido says again. He stands and glares around the room. “That’s all. You can leave.” He stares at them and the young ones all scutter off, frightened, while the older ones leave at their own pace.
Shige blinks, feeling a little winded. Tegoshi bounces beside him and says, “He’s so cool, don’t you think?” Shige gives his roommate a weird look and Tegoshi continues, “I want to be friends with him.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea-” Shige starts but Tegoshi is already halfway across the room and peering up at Nishikido who’s talking to the Akanishi and Pi guys. Shige braces himself for Nishikido to yell at Tegoshi, getting to his feet to go pull his roommate away, when he realizes that Nishikido’s actually smiling at Tegoshi, eyes soft and affectionate and Shige doesn’t even know what to think anymore.
Sighing, he thinks it’s best to leave Tegoshi to his own devices - clearly the kid knew what he was doing - and leaves the common room to head back to his own. As he passes down the hall, someone crying for help catches Shige’s attention and he pokes his head into a room a few doors down from his own.
“Hello?” he says and a gasp greets him.
“Can you help me?” answers a voice from behind a TV, Shige can barely make out a head of hair over the top. “I can’t see where I’m going.”
“Sure,” Shige replies, stepping inside and grabbing the other end of the TV and together they manage to get the TV set up in the corner. Shige smiles at the boy he sees, slightly shorter than him but more built, a roundish face and a bright smile to rival Tegoshi’s.
“Thanks!” he says, grinning. “I’m Masuda Takahisa. Are you a first year?”
Shige nods. “I’m Kato Shigeaki,” he replies.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Masuda says. “I’m a sophomore. If you need anything, you can ask me. Where’s your room?”
“Just a few doors down,” Shige answers. “And thanks for the offer. I might need the help, since our RA doesn’t seem very keen on that.”
Masuda laughs. “Nishikido-kun is really kind. Really,” he adds, when he sees Shige’s skeptical face. “He’s just a little hard to get to know. He is really nice.”
“That’s what some other upperclassmen said, but I don’t know.”
“Akanishi-kun and Yamashita-kun, probably, right? They’re his best friends, so they would know,” Masuda explains and Shige’s eyes widen.
“Friends, really?” he exclaims.
Masuda nods. “Last year, Akanishi-kun and Yamashita-kun had a room on a different floor, but they were here all the time anyway. If you ever want help from Nishikido-kun, it’s best to go when the other two are there, because then he tends to be nicer or they always make fun of him.”
Shige just shakes his head. “Good to know,” he says.
Just then someone walks into the room, stopping short when he sees Shige. “Hi,” he says a little awkwardly.
Masuda jumps in to say, “This is Nakamaru Yuichi, he’s my roommate.”
Shige smiles and introduces himself properly and Nakamaru says, “We were going to go to dinner soon, why don’t you come with us?”
“S-Sure!” Shige accepts quickly, glad to not have to eat alone on his first day. “Can I ask my roommate to come along?”
“Of course!” Masuda replies happily. “The more the merrier.”
Shige grins and excuses himself, heading back to his room. Tegoshi’s not there, so when Masuda and Nakamaru come by to get him for dinner, he leaves a note on the boy’s desk to let him know where he went.
*
Classes don’t start for another few days, so Shige’s slowly getting into the swing of things. It’s orientation for the freshmen, and Shige only attends everything that’s actually required of him. He doesn’t want to go to the random friend-making-dances or game-events on his own, and whenever he decides to ask Tegoshi, his roommate’s no where to be found.
Shige doesn’t mind, though, because he finds himself hanging out in Masuda and Nakamaru’s room instead. The two of them are fun and easy to talk to, so they become good friends pretty fast. And as they’re upperclassmen, Shige gets the scoop of the dorm and college life. They let him in on the people to avoid, the ones that are nice, the RA’s that’ll help you in trouble and the ones that won’t. They show him the best places to hang out, and the quiet ones to study, and Shige’s finally begins to actually look forward to classes starting.
*
It’s the night before classes starts that Shige learns the downside to dorm life. The fire alarms go off at two in the morning and he’s hauling himself out of bed, dragging a barely awake Tegoshi along with him. Nishikido’s shouting about idiots and slowpokes and Shige catches up to Masuda and Nakamaru when they get outside and are standing the correct distance away from the dorm.
“Does this happen a lot?” Shige asks them sleepily.
“More than you’d think,” Nakamaru replies and Shige groans, which makes Tegoshi glare at him from where he’s trying to sleep against Shige’s shoulder.
They’re out there for twenty minutes because the building has to be searched and when they learn it was just Akanishi and Yamashita cooking something in the dorm kitchen, everyone grumbles and the older students roll their eyes, muttering about those two idiots. Which is exactly what Nishikido yells at them about when they return inside and find Akanishi and Yamashita sitting in the common room looking guilty.
“Look on the bright side!” Akanishi exclaims to the bleary-eyed first years. “This will be a great story to tell your classmates tomorrow during class!”
Yamashita wisely grabs his roommate’s hand and drags him away.
*
Because of the night’s excitement, Shige oversleeps and misses his alarm. Tegoshi’s not there when he wakes, which Shige supposes is a good thing because he’s cursing and flailing about the room trying to grab everything he needs while brushing his teeth and changing his clothes. He makes a mad dash to his first class where he almost runs straight into another student hurrying from the other end of the hall and they both tumble to the floor with a thud.
“I’m sorry!” comes a nervous voice and Shige looks up to find a brazen haired boy peering down at him from his small eyes. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.” He offers Shige a hand up and he takes it gratefully.
“No, it’s okay. I wasn’t paying attention either,” he replies, smiling. He nods at him and then heads into his classroom and is pleasantly surprised to find the other boy follow him and sit down next to him. “You’re in this class, too?”
The boy nods. “It’s an entry level class and I’m a senior but I need the credit to graduate,” he replies. “How about you?”
“I’m a freshman,” Shige replies and the boy grins.
“Yay! I love meeting the new students here! I’m Koyama Keiichiro,” the boy introduces himself happily, his small eyes bright.
Shige can’t help but smile and introduces himself as well. As their professor hasn’t arrived, they chat quietly amongst themselves and Shige learns that Koyama is a Literature major and is excited to find out that Koyama lives in his dorm, just on the floor below.
“I’ll have to come up and visit you sometime!” Koyama says. “I have some other friends on that floor, too, so I’m there a lot.”
“That would be fun,” Shige agrees and then their conversation comes to an end as their professor enters the room.
“My name is Sakurai and this is Math-101,” he says and smiles at them all. “And even though this is a lower level class, it’s not going to be easy, so make sure you work hard.”
Koyama whimpers beside Shige who smiles at him reassuringly.
“Okay! Let’s make sure you’re all here,” Sakurai says and begins roll-call.
*
Shige has no classes with Tegoshi, which he doesn’t mind in the slighest. He likes his roommate, they get along well enough, but Tegoshi’s just a little too much for him. He does have his art class (taught by Professor Ohno) with Masuda, and is taking a gym class (taught by Domoto Koichi - who prefers to be called Koichi so as not to get mixed up with the other Domoto on campus) with Nakamaru. He even has a class with Nishikido, which scares him a little, seeing as how Nishikido clearly recognizes him from being on the same floor and insists on sitting beside him during every class. He also picks on Shige relentlessly and Shige can’t tell if he does it to annoy him or because he’s bored (probably both) or if that’s just his way of being “friends.”
Shige ends up hanging out most with Koyama, with whom he instantly clicks. Somehow they just fall together naturally; meeting up for lunch and dinner and studying for math together. Koyama, Shige learns, is not exceptionally bright, and math is clearly his downfall. Koyama claims it’s because he’s a Literature major and you didn’t need math in that field, but when Shige catches him misspelling the simplest of words in his notes, he figures it’s a problem that runs much deeper than that. Koyama is also good friends with Nakamaru, as they’re the same year, and knows Masuda by proxy, so the four of them spend a lot of time together as well.
Shige meets Koyama’s roommate by sheer luck, really. His name is Taguchi, though he insists Shige calls him Junno, and is in Shige’s gym class with Nakamaru. He makes lame jokes but is smiling all the time and Shige can’t really hate him. He only realizes he’s Koyama’s roommate when he goes back with Junno to their dorm and finds Koyama sitting in the room that Junno says is his own. Junno is fun in his own right and whenever Shige’s in the mood for video-games, he knows exactly who to go find, even though Junno kicks his ass every time and Koyama laughs from where he’s trying to study on his loft. Shige glares at him and refuses to help him with math, and when Koyama pouts and whines at him, Shige just ends up laughing in response, feeling warm all over from just being able to hang out with his friends.
*
At the end of the first week of classes, there’s a dorm meeting. Shige meets the other RAs for the first time. Ueda is the RA for Koyama’s floor and he seems much more cheerful than Nishikido at any rate - that is until he has any contact (physical, verbal, or any other form of contact) with Nishikido himself.
“They hate each other,” Yamashita explains, startling Shige as he didn’t realize the older student was behind him, and Shige had just asked Masuda why Ueda looked liked he wanted to murder Nishikido.
“Why?” Shige asks.
Akanishi replies, “They’ve known each other for a long time and have some issues or something. It’s just best to ignore it.”
“All they do is try to outdo each other on who can keep the best floor. There will be weird competitions later in the year, so be prepared,” Yamashita says.
“They’re not that bad,” Akanishi adds, seeing Shige’s nervous face. “But just be careful.”
Shige nods slowly and replies, “T-Thanks, I guess.”
Yamashita grins at him and says, “You’re Shige-kun, aren’t you?”
Shige blinks, startled that Yamashita knew his name - the nickname even, that Tegoshi gave him - without ever having been properly introduced. “Uhm, yeah. That’s me.”
“Ryo-chan’s mentioned you. You have lit togethere, right?” Yamashita says and Shige nods again. “Tegoshi-kun also talks about you a lot.”
“Oh, is that where Tegoshi’s been? With you guys?” Shige says.
“You don’t even know where your own roommate is?” Akanishi scoffs.
“Not all roommate pairs are like you and Yamashita, Jin,” Nakamaru says with a roll of his eyes.
“That’s right, we’re special!” Akanishi exclaims, and Yamashita grins beside him and they do some kind of complicated handshake that has Shige’s head spinning as he tries to follow and almost laughs out loud at the way it ends in a heart.
Akanishi notices the twitch of his lips and glares at him. “Come on, Pi, let’s go,” he announces, grabbing Yamashita by the elbow and dragging him off as he shouts back, “We should hang out sometime, Shige-kun! Come by our room, okay?”
Shige just blinks and nods slowly, then turns to Masuda and Nakamaru. “Are they always like that?”
Nakamaru nods solmenly. “Yeah,” he says. “I went to high school with them, too. They’ve been best friends, along with Nishikido, since they were in preschool.”
“Well, that explains a lot,” Shige replies as they all make their way back to their floor, only to stop in the staircase up to the first floor as someone starts rapping loudly and the other students are cheering and clapping. Shige cranes his neck around Masuda to find a short guy in baggy clothes and a shaved head rapping words to a made up beat in the middle of the staircase. Someone is standing beside him with his arms crossed, looking annoyed, but Shige notices his lips quirking in amusement.
Then Nakamaru is laughing beside him and yells, “Koki, you’re blocking the staircase!”
The rapper stops and scans the crowd, grinning when he finds Nakamaru. “Yo! Come join me!”
Nakamaru shakes his head but the other students cheer and Koki shouts at him until he’s shoving his way up three more steps. He and Koki glance at each other and then break out into a rap-beat-boxing duet that has the boys in the dorm cheering and laughing.
“They’re good,” Shige says, surprised, as he never knew Nakamaru beat-boxed.
Masuda beams next to him. “Aren’t they?” he says. “They do this a lot randomly in the halls and the sidewalks and stuff. People know their names all over campus.” Masuda nods at Koki and says, “That’s Tanaka Koki, and the guy next to him is his roommate, Kamenashi Kazuya. They live on the first floor.”
Shige nods and then turns back to the duo who are finishing off their routine, to a tumtultous round of applause. Then he’s being shoved away as Ueda grapples his way up the stairs and shouts, “That’s enough, clear out! This is a fire hazard!”
“Then someone better keep Akanishi and Yamashita away from the stoves right now,” replies Koki, grinning at Ueda who laughs.
“I heard that, jerk!” Akanishi’s voice comes from above Shige and he turns to see the older boy peering over the railing.
“Love you too, baby,” Koki replies, winking and Jin gives him the finger, though he’s grinning back before disappearing.
Shige is starting to wonder exactly what kind of dorm he’d found himself in when Masuda’s pulling him up the stairs beside Nakamaru and the others. Nakamaru smiles at Shige and says, “Guys, this is Shige. He’s a freshman this year.”
“Ooh, new blood!” Koki says, grinning even wider.
“Don’t scare him, Koki,” Kamenashi reprimands and Ueda rolls his eyes at both of them.
The proper introductions are made and Shige forgets about his thoughts concerning the nature of the dorm, laughing along with the others as Ueda threatens to write up Koki and Nakamaru for violating safety rules. Just as Koki starts to invite the second-floor group to their room to hang out, Nishikido walks up the stairs and shouts, “Leave my floor alone, Tanaka.”
Koki rolls his eyes and Ueda visibly flinches in disgust at Nishikido’s appearance. “Go bother someone else, Nishikido,” he says, then grins and drops an arm around Shige’s shoulders. “This lowly freshman needs some real guidance.”
Shige tries to open his mouth to say something, but then Nishikido is pulling Shige away forcefully by the arm. “Yeah, if he wants to turn into a Gackt-worshipping freak.” He looks at Shige who is more than a little freaked out, and asks, “You don’t want to become that, do you?”
“Uhm-” Shige starts but doesn’t finish as Nishikido turns back to Ueda and says, “See? Now go away.”
“You’re the one standing in front of my floor, idiot,” Ueda retorts. “Why don’t you get your scrawny ass back upstairs?”
Nishikido pushes Shige away and gets into Ueda’s face, eyes dark in a glare, and replies, “As if you have any right to call me scrawny.”
Ueda sighs and examines his fingernails as if Nishikido’s not worth his time. “I could take you out and you know it.”
“I’d like to see you try,” Nishikido shouts.
Shige’s wondering if maybe someone should stop them when Masuda pokes his shoulder and nods his head towards the door to the first floor. “Come on,” he mouths and Shige sneaks around Nishikido and into the safety of the hall, finally breathing a sigh of relief.
“Shouldn’t someone stop them?” he asks and Kamenashi and Koki laugh.
“It’s safer for everyone to let them go at it,” Kamenashi replies. “They do this at least once a month.”
“Sexual tensions run high in an all-boys dorm,” Koki replies with a wink and Shige’s eyes widen. He laughs seeing Shige’s expression and says, “Just leave them alone. They’re really harmless. Now come on, newbie. Let’s see how you do at video games.”
“What game?” exclaims Junno, poking his head out of his door a few rooms down.
“What the hell, Taguchi!” Koki shouts. “Do you have video-game super hearing or something?”
Junno just smiles brightly and says, “I want to play.”
“No,” Nakamaru replies. “You’ll end up beating all of us.”
“You can use my game system!” Junno offers and Koki groans, knowing Junno has the best system in the whole dorm.
“Fine, fine,” Kame says and they all make their way into the room.
Shige climbs up onto the loft where Koyama is sitting against the wall with a book over his lap.
“Not going to play?” Koyama asks him.
“I think I’ll just watch for now,” Shige replies, grinning, and turns to do just that.
end.
note; sorry for the abrupt ending, but this really could go on forever, so. yeah. >.> anyway, hope you enjoyed~ thanks for reading! ♥