AN: Urm yeah, not exactly another chapter of The Reason, but it is another Marco/Dylan ficlet and that's good, right?

Right??

Erm, yeah. This was just inspired by the fact that another of year of school emerges with the turning of the leaves.

And to KaitlinBell, I'd gladly marry you, if you also get out more of those wonderful one-shots that you write. I am in love with you and your fics (and completely shocked that you reviewed my stuff because to me, you are my M/D Goddess)

If it weren't for a pop-up blocker gone horribly wrong, I'd be reviewing things more. I can only respond when I get to my father's comp. Grr.

Disclaimers: I don't own Degrassi: TNG 'cause if I did, Dylan's leaving would have been addressed in 'The Power of Love'

Familiar

College was a hectic life of midterms, papers to write, deadlines,
homework, tuition, games, and all night studying until 5 am only to have
to go class at 7 that very same day. It was hard the first term, only to get
harder winter term, then everything seemed to be spinning out of control
by the final week of spring term.

But he was able to make it through.

Second year hit him harder than the first, it didn't matter that he had
spent his first summer off in summer classes, studying the art of studying.

That year was mixed with the feelings of homesickness and the weird
sense that things were falling into a familiar routine that he was steadily
growing use to.

Walking up the familiar steps to his front door made him feel slightly
detached at the strange thought that it wasn't really his front door
anymore. It was his parent's.

Knocking on the door was a whole other emotion, reminding him that
last year the only reason he would ever knock on his front door was if he
had forgotten his keys. Now this strangely familiar brick home with the
fence breaking off the lawn and the flowers that he didn't remember
being there before, were all adding together to remind him that hadn't
been back in town for two whole years.

The door opened to reveal a face that he had secretly missed more that
he had thought he would. His sister smiled widely and pulled him into
the entryway in the midst of a big hug.

Her hair was longer, the blond had even lighter blond streaks in it now.
She seemed to look even older than she had two years ago and seeing
that happy look on her face made him wish he had made it home for the
holidays.

"Dylan! I'm so glad you made it!" Paige pulled out of the hug long
enough to grin at him in that oh-so familiar way.

Her step back gave him time to drop his duffle bag to the tiled floor.
"Sorry I missed your graduation. How was it?"

"Oh it was great!" she began to ramble off the details, everything from
the gowns they wore to what it felt like to sit in the humid weather in the
all black drapery, from the speeches to the stray beach ball that made
it's around the graduating students.

He let her talk, just like he always did.

She ended her elaborate speech with a soft, "I missed you Dyl'"

"I know you did." he answered back in the same soft voice. "You have
know idea what I had to do to maintain my scholarship. Too bad I tended
to slack off my first year. Wasted that summer just trying to even things
out. Daily practices, weekends included, didn't help either."

Paige nodded and led him into the living room, which had a new couch.
"I just hope things won't be like that when I start."

"Still can't believe you are going to a school twenty minutes away from
me."

"Shut up," she smacked his should, the both of them falling easily back
into their sibling routine. "You know you miss me."

"So tell me all about your last year. Last I talked with you, you broke up
with Spinner. What's been going on?"

"Oh just Spin being the jerk that he is. We are very much back together."
she smiled. "And he worked hard this last year and was accepted to the
same school that I was. He is still freaking about the costs. But his mom
was just so happy that he made it in that she said she was committed to
helping him pay."

"That's good. Go Spinner then." not trying to be too obvious. "And your
other friends?"

"You mean Marco?" she laughed her familiar laugh. "He was
Valedictorian. Got a full ride to the college of his choice. He tried very
hard not to say 'I told you so' when we got the news. We spent a better
part of the years at Degrassi making fun of him being the slight but
fashionable nerd that he was."

Paige observed the expression on his face and sighed. "Don't worry. He
never got over you either. 'Course it would have helped if you had
called him more than twice every three months."

"I know, but you wouldn't believe how busy I was. Full credit load,
games, practice, papers, the works." he sighed. "I even had a part-time
job too, if you believe it. I time-managed myself three hours of sleep
each night. It was crazy."

"No you were, for taking all those classes. You went to school on a
sports scholarship, not academic. All you needed to do was keep about a
C average and you were good."

"I didn't want to be known as the dumb jock." he defended himself
weakly. "There's more to me than that."

"There's the familiar Michalchuk spirit. You were looking pretty
defeated when I opened that door."

He slumped down on the strange new couch and tried not to sigh out
loud again. He had put everything into those first two years of school
and look where it got him. Five pounds lighter, permanent circles around
his eyes, and a heavy addiction to coffee, plus the lost of his friends and
contact with his family.

No one probably even knew that he was finally home.

Paige left him to brood by himself which didn't bother him, he was use
to being by himself. By a stroke of luck, he had managed a dorm room
with out a dorm mate, so sitting alone, reading alone, eating alone, living
alone, wasn't unfamiliar.

He heard the front door open and someone enter the house without
knocking which meant that his mother or father was home. Getting to his
feet turn to welcome them with a smile.

The smile froze as he met the familiar large eyed gaze of Marco del
Rossi. The other boy had paused in the process of removing his shoes
when he had entered the Michalchuk household and was staring in shock,
a look that was reciprocated.

"Marco?"

"Dylan?"

Marco hadn't changed that much since he had last seen him. The hair
now had lighter streaks of brown in it and it was a bit longer. He was
still as short as he had been when he had left, being cursed with equally
short parents tended to breed short kids and he still wore his up-to-date
fashion.

"I didn't know you were already here." Marco finished kicking off his
shoes and edged closer. "Paige just told me you were coming in some
time today."

"Yeah, I just got here like five minutes ago." he too, moved closer.

Things were still unsure between them, but that feeling had always
lurked on the edge of their relationship. He couldn't help but feel that this
was going to be their last summer together before Marco would leave to
whatever top-notch school he would choose.

He felt slightly foolish for harboring notions of Marco applying to his college.

"So how long to you have back here?" Marco asked, shoving his hands
into his jean jacket and staring up his with his wide eyes.

"Until September 15th, then its time for fall term again."

Marco nodded as if he already knew that answer.

"So, uh, Marco, how long do you have before you leave for...whatever?"

Marco tilted his head in the familiar way that he was used to before
Marco would start teasing him. "September 15th and then I leave
for...whatever." he mimicked.

He couldn't help the double take. "Wait, are you...?"

He suddenly had his arms full of Marco as the younger boy gripped him
in a hug that would rival the one Paige had given him. "I applied to your
school. I'm starting there fall term too." Marco mumbled into his shirt in
the same way he would always talk whenever they held each other.

To say he was floored would be an understatement. So would be to say
he was happy; the summer just now seemed brighter. They wouldn't be
repeating the good bye that had happened two years ago.

His hands remembered their places on Marco's waist as did his chin on
top of Marco's head. "That's good to know." he murmured over Marco's
hair. "I really needed to get a dorm mate."

Everything seemed like that had been two years ago. Everything had that
distant familiar feel to it. And now he knew that when the days were to
grow colder again, as they did every year, a bit of that familiarity was
going to be going back with it him.