A/N Haven't written for Matt and Mello (or written in general) in ages so bear with me as I get the hang of it again! This first chapter is sort of an introduction, since I hope for this fic to be quite long. They'll start out as acquaintances and then progress from there. If you've read my old MxM fic titled "Punch" on my old account 'renaxxakat', this is sort of a revamp/replacement so I might reuse a couple little things that happened in that fic hehe. So if you've read that one, you might recognize some references/similarities!

I also hope to update this fic a minimum of once a week.

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Not too bad… bigger than I thought it'd be.

Mello had been the first to arrive to the dorm and thus had the chance to look it over without having a stranger breathing down his neck or getting in his way. It was small, like he'd expected, but he'd always imagined that dorms were… much more cramped and he'd assumed that he wouldn't have much room for things other than his bed and perhaps a personal desk. The way the room was set up though included a twin-sized bed against opposite walls with a window on the wall between them. There was enough space to fit end tables or a pad on the floor between the beds if they had a guest and in the remaining area of the room there were two small desks and two small dressers on their respective sides. He moved his mouth to the side in thought as he mentally rearranged the furniture to accommodate to his TV and other things he'd brought that would need places. Though, he decided he'd wait to retrieve those things from his car until after he'd met his new roommate and they'd worked out something together.

Roommate…

The blonde took in a deep breath and chose the bed on the left, tossing down his heavy backpack and then dropping to sit comfortably on the edge. He really hoped that he'd have something in common with whoever would be joining him and that the semester wouldn't end up awkward or annoying between them. He also hoped that said roommate wouldn't be some sporty asshole or a rude, extreme party-goer. Not that he disliked going to parties or anything like that, but having someone who was constantly irresponsible and rowdy would get on his nerves very quickly. Though, he supposed he'd just have to wait and see what happened.

In the mean time, he stood and carried his bag over to the dresser closest to him and began unpacking his clothing. He didn't have a whole lot, so the task went by quickly and he simply left the backpack next to it on the floor when he was finished and then returned to his bed to mess around on his phone and such as he waited.

Matt was… almost lost. He wasn't admitting to himself that he'd gotten turned around a couple times while trying to find the correct dorm and that the reason he was sitting in his car in one of the parking lots was because he was looking up the name of his building name and where exactly it was on campus.

He finished off his cigarette with one long, last drag and flicked the butt out the window, pushing his sunglasses up onto his head afterwards as he breathed out the smoke and looked back down at the names and directions on his phone.

Foster

Once he'd found the name, he flipped back over to the campus layout and found where the building was supposed to be. He seemed to only be a couple streets over, so with a cough he put his phone back in his lap and put the car in reverse, backing out of the parking space and heading back on his way. With everything still fresh in his mind, it only took him a few minutes to locate the building and park his car. Though, he took a moment to prepare himself before actually making the effort to begin moving in. Not that he had much to carry in, really… it was more of a mental preparation. Matt wasn't exactly all that good at making new friends or… starting up conversation or things like that. He was a little socially awkward, to be honest, and the suffocating reminder that he'd have to live with a complete stranger starting today had been the reason for his cigarette just prior. Hopefully he'd get lucky and end up with someone like himself.

Eventually, Matt hauled himself out of his car and slung his backpack over his shoulders, freeing his hands up so he could grab his other bags and carry them in with him. He left his TV in the car for now though. There was no way he was going to try and juggle that up stairs and whatever else while carrying other bags as well so he locked his car and began in towards the building. The area was busy with students moving in and meeting friends and such, but Matt kept his mind on his mission and repeated the number of his room over and over again in his head as he followed signs and tried to find his way. When he'd finally found it, he was on the second floor and nearly halfway down the hall. However, the door was already open so he could only assume that he, unfortunately, was not the first to arrive and would now have to awkwardly make his entrance.

When he brought himself to make that entrance and set his eyes on the boy inside, he was partially relieved and partially nervous.

The nervousness was simply his social anxiety of the situation that had decided to stick around, while the relief was spawned by the fact that this blonde boy seemed to definitely not be a total weirdo or an intimidating beefcake. Matt's two main fears. In fact, this boy seemed to be alright. About the same size as he was, long hair (which sent dozens of plausible stereotypes racing through Matt's mind), casual clothing like himself, and… a rather attractive cat-like presence that caused a thrill to go through Matt's chest and make him look away. He breathed a heavy laugh in response and grinned, setting down his heaviest bag near the assumingly-unoccupied dresser.

"Hey."

Mello's eyes had flicked up from his phone the moment he noticed someone enter the room and when he heard the humble tone of the greeting he smiled in response. Thank God… he was even cute, but the fact that he seemed to be normal was what was most important to Mello right then. Shaggy, deep auburn hair and casual clothing. Expressive face, relaxed posture… the way he carried himself seemed to be almost awkward but Mello assumed it was perhaps just due to the circumstances. Regardless, he was happy with who he ended up with. For now, at least…

"Yo." He replied, pausing for a moment before speaking again. "I'm Mihael, but friends call me Mello."

"Aiight" Matt replied. There was one thing they had in common already… they both seemed to not go by their first names. He spoke as he sat down on the bed left for him, setting his laptop bag next to him. "I'm Matt. ...I don't know how to have a roommate, so..." He joked, laughing afterwards and moving back on his bed to make himself a bit more comfortable for the time being. Jokes were how you made things less awkward, right? 'Mello' laughed with him, so he felt a bit relieved.

"It's cool. I don't either." He smiled again and brought his legs up onto the bed, crossing them as he looked over at 'Matt'. It was still pretty early in the day… he had no idea what they were supposed to do until bed and there wasn't class until after the weekend… maybe he'd just walk around campus and check things out. First though, they should get moved in.

"Do you have anything else to bring up?"

"Ah- yeah just my TV"

Mello parted his lips slightly at the mention of the TV, then laughed a bit. "Looks like we have two TVs then." Matt seemed just as surprised but held up his hands a bit as if to propose an idea, though he laughed as he spoke.

"Shit, well… that's totally fine dude, we can just…" He smiled and glanced around the room a bit before looking back to Mello, "I can just use mine or the smaller one or whatever as like… a computer monitor or just use it for games or something. Two TVs is not a problem." He was actually a little grateful, to be honest. This way they wouldn't have to share a single TV between games and Netflix or whatever. Besides, he'd always wanted to try hooking up his TV to his laptop but it had been such a hassle before. "How big is yours?"

"24-inch"

"Cool, mine's 22 so that solves that." He was nervous and talking a lot, but he realized it and tried to slow down, bringing a hand up to rub at his face. Before he could say anything else though, Mello spoke up.

"How do you wanna set up this room then? I figured I'd wait before I tried to figure anything out." He laughed, looking out towards the room and trying to piece furniture together in different ways in his mind. They definitely wanted to have enough space…

Matt hummed a bit in response and looked out towards everything as well. He hadn't had much time to really look anything over and at first glance it seemed to be alright how it was… but, he figured there was probably a much better way of doing it. He had a friend who started college last year in another city and he'd visited the dorm once or twice, so he had a few ideas as far as freeing up space goes. The dressers were pretty short and could be stacked on top of each other and that'd give a good amount of room right off the bat. He sucked on his teeth a little as he thought.

"Well…" He began, hesitating for a moment before continuing. "I have a friend who like… stacked the dressers up, so… we could do that and that'd give us some more room?"

As Matt spoke, Mello listened and mulled the suggestion around a bit. He hadn't even thought about stacking them… they were pretty small, weren't they? It'd probably be easy. He nodded and agreed, making a few comments to mirror his thoughts before adding some of his own possibilities regarding the desks and such. They talked it over and worked things out together, almost as if solving a puzzle. It was still a little awkward, of course, since they weren't much more than strangers… but they both stood up and got to work on moving things around soon enough. Once they were finished with everything around fifteen or twenty minutes later, the room looked much better. Throughout the next couple weeks or so they would probably adjust things, but for now it seemed good for them both. Mello's bed remained in its original place, but Matt's was now turned so the two beds formed an 'L' shape against the corner and walls with the foot of Matt's bed near the head of Mello's. One of the desks sat against the wall at the foot of Mello's bed and they planned to put said blonde's TV on it and angle it roughly towards the adjacent corner so they could both see it clearly. Matt's desk was positioned on the opposite wall but down closer to the door, jutting outwards towards the center of the room rather than parallel to the wall. The redhead had spoken up about how he had a habit of staying up a little late sometimes on his computer, so they arranged things where he would be facing the beds and the screen of his laptop wouldn't be too bright if Mello was trying to sleep. The dressers were stacked atop one another and placed against the wall in front of Matt's desk to even up the clutter of the room and in the end, the room had significantly opened up and they now had a fairly large area of free space in the center of the room.

Matt sighed in relief and looked at the room. He'd taken off his hoodie and discarded it on his bed at some point when they'd been moving things around and now stood in a black and rust-colored Tshirt and his baggy black skinnies, his sunglasses still resting atop his head. Mello hadn't changed since they'd begun and was simply dressed in a muted teal Tshirt, though a little more fitted than Matt's, and grey skinnies.

"I'll go grab my TV"

Mello let out an 'okay' and waved Matt off as he began walking towards the door, but then mentioned his plans as well. "I guess I'll get mine too." He laughed softly, but waited a few moments until Matt was definitely gone before he headed out to his own car so they wouldn't have to awkwardly walk with each other to the parking lot. He liked Matt a lot as far as roommates go, but he still wasn't sure about conversation topic. Besides, they'd have all weekend to do nothing but find things to talk about when they were in the room together.

Eventually he'd made it back to his car and he unlocked it, grabbing another fairly large bag out of the back seat. He slung the strap over his shoulder and pushed it behind himself, leaning into the back seat again to carefully tug out his TV. It was thankfully pretty thin so it wasn't all that hard to carry and he propped it against his car so he could close the door again and lock it. Afterwards, Mello lifted the TV once more and headed back towards the dorm building. He assumed Matt was already back inside but he didn't exactly rush since the TV was a little awkward to carry even if it wasn't heavy and he definitely didn't want to accidentally drop it on the steps. That'd be an absolutely terrible first day of his college experience. However, he eventually got it back to the room and like he'd suspected, Matt was already inside and plugging in his own TV.

After they'd both gotten things set up, Mello laid down onto his bed with a sigh, resting his arms up over his head. Matt was currently busy putting clothes away in his dresser (which was now the top dresser of their stacked-dresser combo) and unpacking other miscellaneous things such as his laptop, game consoles, and whatever else he had. Mello didn't really care much.

Though, now that they were finished unpacking for the most part… should they find something to do?