He was nervous. Of course he was. It was his first day of college, it was fine to be nervous. It was normal. Everyone was nervous. Nobody looked as nervous as he felt though, walking up the stairs and along the corridor. He hauled a suitcase behind him with a box of stuff under his arm and a key in his hand.
When he reached his room, he stood there at the door for a second, staring at the four numbers on the wooden door in front of him. 2187.
He took a deep breath in and caught the scent of cologne and beer. That was a slight comfort for him, it was similar to the old rooms back at the academy. Boy, was he glad to finally get out of there. Training, day in, day out, no real friends, awful teachers...
But this was going to be different. College would be better. He could finally express himself and live the life he'd always dreamed of.
Before he could get the key into the door, it swung open and something came charging out, knocking his legs out from under him and he fell to the ground.
"BB!" A voice came from above him. "Dammit, get back here! Oh hey, sorry about that!"
He looked up and saw someone standing over him, holding out a hand with a sheepish grin on his face. He took his hand and the other boy pulled him up to his feet.
"Oh jeez, your stuff. I'm so sorry about this, BB-8... Really got a mind of its own that animal."
He stood awkwardly by the door while the boy picked up all of his scattered CDs and books.
Poe picked up a CD with a smile of recognition, "Hey, you have Bowie, nice one."
This jolted him out of his daze.
"Oh, yeah! Great album!"
Then they were inside the room with all possessions neatly arranged on the spare bed.
"Nice to meet you, by the way. My name's Poe. Poe Dameron." He said, holding out a hand which was hesitantly shaken.
"I'm um... F... F..." He stuttered.
"Finn?" Poe suggested.
"Well, not exactly, but-"
"I'm gonna call you Finn."
Finn found himself smiling. Something about Poe just seemed to draw him to him and feel instantly at ease. "Nice to meet you."
"You too, buddy. Now how about we go look for my cat, huh?"
"Alright."
They ran around from room to room, yelling after the cat. Then Finn spotted him through a window, jumping around in the quad, chasing his own tail.
"There he is!"
Poe also found his pet and tore down the stairs. When Finn caught up with him, he was holding the white and ginger cat in his arms.
"Thanks so much for helping me find the little guy." Poe beamed.
"No problem."
"You wanna pet him?"
Finn stretched out a hand nervously towards the cat and it nuzzled against his hand and purred.
"Hey, looks like he likes you."
"I guess so."
They smiled at each other for a moment until suddenly someone bumped into Poe hard as they ran past and yelled "fag".
Finn saw the rage and hurt in his face well up as he handed BB-8 over to him.
"I'll see you later, Finn. I gotta take care of something. Just keep BB in the room if you can. Thanks."
Then he ran off after the person who'd yelled at him, who'd joined a group of boys, all broad-shouldered and wearing varsity jackets. Finn watched as they started to argue and then some ran away, pursued by Poe.
Looking on, perplexed, Finn then made his way obediently back up to the room.
On his way up the dorm building steps, BB-8 wriggled in his arms and he accidentally stepped on something. He looked down to see it was the black hem of a coat worn by a scowling figure sitting on the ground with a guitar. He was wearing all black, with a long black coat and dark hair to his shoulders.
"Oh, sorry!" Finn smiled apologetically at the boy.
He didn't respond, only glared.
Finn secured his hold on Poe's cat and headed back into the dorm building.
Finn placed BB-8 down on the floor and shut the door behind him. After unpacking a few clothes and books, everything he had, he flopped down onto his bed.
Why had that horrible word been yelled at Poe? People back at the academy had said about boys who liked other boys. Did Poe like boys? Did Poe like him? Nobody had ever liked him before, nobody as nice as Poe...
Finn felt his face get hot. Then he heard an excited squeak from BB-8 and a second later Poe came bursting through the door. He was panting and sweating and there was blood on his face.
Finn jumped to his feet. BB-8 pushed the door shut with his nose and nuzzled against Poe's legs.
"Are you alright man?" Finn asked.
"My head, I-"
"Come here, sit down."
Poe sat down on his bed. Finn ran quickly to the bathroom and came back with a wash cloth, accidentally shutting BB-8 into the bathroom on his way. He sat down beside Poe and tentatively pushed back his dark hair and began to dab at the bleeding on his head.
Poe winced and his hands clenched into fists.
"Do you wanna tell me what happened?" Finn said gently.
"I got in a fight. With some jerks from my high school. Unfortunately they all came to the same college and made more jerk friends." He sighed. "And just because I secretly dated one of them for a year, they think it gives them the right to do whatever they want."
"You dated one of those guys?" Finn raised his eyebrows in disbelief.
"Oh, don't look at me like that. It was three years ago, I was just figuring things out!"
Finn smiled sympathetically, "Still, they shouldn't call you names though."
"I know. They're just jerks. Screw 'em, I don't care what they think of me."
Finn put the towel down on his lap. "You should be alright now."
"Thanks, man."
"Welcome."
Poe was so close he could feel his warm breath on his face, and he started to lean closer, his eyes moving over Finn's face, his lips parted. Then a loud and very indignant squeal came from inside the bathroom.
Poe stood up.
"BB-8?"
Another squeak.
He opened the door and the cat came running out, very indignant about being shut in the bathroom even though he had gone in there himself in the first place.
"I should have a shower." Poe said, stretching.
"O-okay." Finn stammered, standing up too.
A strangely knowing smile appeared on Poe's face. "I'll be out in a minute."
Finn almost collapsed on the floor the second the bathroom door closed.
He had just finished doing some deep breathing, BB-8 sitting beside him looking confused, when the bathroom door opened again.
Poe strode out, rubbing his hair with a towel, another one wrapped around his waist. When he smiled at Finn he was staring straight ahead, BB-8 on his lap, batting at one of the toggles on his hoodie with his paw.
Poe stretched and mentioned casually "Hey, I heard the dorms are gonna be getting pizza for everybody if you wanna go down soon and check that out."
"Sure." Finn said shortly.
"I'll just get dressed." He reached down for a pair of jeans.
"Right."
Finn grabbed the towel he'd used to tend to Poe and disappeared into the bathroom with it. He sat down on the lid of the toilet and stared at the ceiling.
Calm down, calm down, calm down.
Why couldn't he have gotten dressed in the bathroom? Why?!
There was a knock on the door.
"Finn," He could hear the smile in Poe's voice. "You can come out now."