#college au

*gasp* and they were roommates

study buddy, SamxKevin+studying prompt for @theboykingsthrone, ~900 words, teen+

Kevin has slept maybe ten hours over the past seven days, so his judgement is questionable at best but he can’t help feeling the heavy stare of his study partner. Sam is older by almost three years, taking the course because he didn’t fulfill his core requirements early, and Kevin may be taking the class ahead. But out of everyone in the class, Kevin feels that Sam, at least, isn’t a complete idiot. His focus is more on the arts and humanities side, and Kevin understands that different kinds of intelligence apply better to different subjects, so he tries to be patient when Sam asks questions that he feels are obvious when it comes to advanced calculus. Really, these questions should have been addressed in the intro course to calculus, but one cannot necessarily rely on the competence of teachers or the difference between passing with an A or with a C.

Sam is not a difficult study partner when it comes to the material. He is intelligent and quick witted. He asks the right questions, and he does not ask them twice.

But Kevin is weak and kind of a hermit and having someone like Sam sitting across from him for hours while they study, broad shoulders straining against a tight plaid shirt, soft brown hair falling into his eyes, easy smile always ready with a question. It’s difficult.

Saturday night. Exams won’t start until Monday. There were others that had come to the study group, but they slowly dissipated with excuses of parties or even, weakly, sleeping, and now at one am there is Sam and Kevin in the small study lounge of the dormitories and Kevin’s brain has been producing steady white noise for the past half an hour and maybe they should at least break some for some food other than Mountain Dew and pretzels.

“Hey, Kevin, man you should probably get some sleep?”

Kevin blinks, shakes his head. He has some caffeine pills in his bag somewhere. “It’s fine. What were we talking about?”

“Something you know like the back of your hand, and you’re just indulging me,” Sam smiles, broad, those dimples popping and it’s really unfair. “Seriously, if you need to go to bed, don’t let me keep you up.”

Sam says this, like they haven’t been studying together until three or four am for most of the past week. But he always asks if he’s keeps Kevin up too late. If he’s bothering Kevin.

“It’s fine,” Kevin tries to wave off, focus on the text in front of him.

“Really,” Sam says, “I think I’ll get at least a B because of you, we can stop. I probably won’t make much more improvement between now and the test on Tuesday. But your effort is valiant, and appreciated.”

Kevin rolls his eyes, hand still rummaging through his bag for the bottle of caffeine pills, ah and there they are. Taking two with some Mountain Dew, Kevin focuses back on his text book.

Sam’s hand is warm - and huge - when it settles on his own over a book. “Really, man, do you ever sleep?”

Kevin blinks up at him, “Provided the correct balance of chemical stimulation, humans don’t need more than a few hours of sleep a night.”

“Uh-huh,” Sam nods, the thumb of his hand sweeping over Kevin’s wrist, moving higher to span out over his forearm. “But maybe…” Sam starts, and he doesn’t finish that though.

Sitting a few feet away from each other at a round table in the communal space of the dorm which windows look out over a very scenic alley to the science building, Kevin keeps his eyes focused on his textbook as his fingers start to play in Sam’s grasp, doing their own thing it seems despite what he would tell them. 

There is a warm, strange tingle building along his spine that he is not entirely familiar with, as Sam sweeps a hand up higher and closes an arm around Kevin’s shoulders, leans closer so that he is warm and present and undeniably there. Kevin is not a hundred percent certain about what he should to do with this situation. He is perhaps eighty five percent certain on what he should do with it. And ninety seven percent on what he wants to do with it. But what he should do with it? He doesn’t have the experience to calculate that. What he has an impending week of important exams and papers to finish and friends and acquaintances who are depending on his tutoring help.

But Sam.

Sam will pass with or without him.

Sam is there, and soft, and undemanding. Kevin’s heart is moving too fast with the concentrated caffeine, and other stimulation, but he wants. It’s not rational, which, frankly, offends him.

So he tilts his head to the side, offers his mouth to Sam, clumsy in how he moves. Sam makes a pleased soft sort of noise, holds his face and moves him, presses a tongue deeper into Kevin’s mouth as a hand falls on Kevin’s thigh and grips up tighter.

“Relaxation can really help with studying, too…” Sam says, like an afterthought, like it’s really that easy.

Kevin tenses, relaxes, tenses, as Sam shifts closers and kisses him deeper.

“C’mon, let’s call it a night.”

Kevin is hard and he wonders at that, because it’s never this easy, but he’s been watching Sam for weeks, for months, charismatic and lovable Sam with his sharp wit and agreeable nature, and this is Sam now looking at him with something raw writ across his face and all his focus is on Kevin.

Maybe… maybe with the right person it could be this easy.

So Kevin, he tilts his head and kisses the corner of Sam’s mouth. He’s not going to sleep anytime soon with these caffeine pills, but surely Sam can think of something to do that’s not the monotony of studying. So he says, “Yeah. Okay.”