I.

End of term. It was always the most stressful time for any student, whether they were like Roxy and studied every day (more like five times a day), or like Eggsy, who only studied when his grades dropped below a 2:2, or his mum called him up and guilted him into it.

Eggsy hated studying. He made a point to take classes he was pretty sure he could pass without too much of it, actually, but exam time couldn't be avoided with easy classes. Every professor was required to set an exam for the written material they had covered over the term, and so Eggsy was scrambling (like always) to find notes that seemed to have gained sentience and walked all over the flat he shared with Roxy, his sister. Some had even made it to her underwear drawer, of all places.

It could have been awkward for Eggsy to be rummaging around in his sister's underwear drawer for his wayward schoolwork, moreso if one considered that they weren't blood related, since Eggsy and Rox had both been adopted. However, Eggsy was more into blokes than birds and was quite unimpressed by the lacy thongs he encountered while retrieving said homework, having seen them more often than not as Roxy wandered around their flat.

He merely collected his papers and made a mental note to tell her that she needed to upsize her bras.


It was the first day of the last week of revision before finals, and Eggsy had finally tracked down all his notes, including the ones hiding in Roxy's drawers, compiled them by subject and importance (well, Roxy had helped with most of that), and was ready to sit down and study until his eyes bled. There was only one problem: the walls in their flat were paper thin, and the bloke next door was making hacking sounds that indicated he was about five seconds from dying. Eggsy managed to ignore it for a while, but after about half an hour, he'd had enough. Thin walls might have been a side effect of him and Roxy refusing to let their parents buy them a house in this part of the country while they were at university (dead serious, that was the sort of people their parents were; rich without being snobbish and incredibly generous), but that didn't mean he was going to let said walls and plague keep him from studying.

Tossing his notes down in defeat, Eggsy stood up and went to rummage through the cabinets in their small, but serviceable, kitchen. Thankfully, it had been Roxy's week to shop; Eggsy always forgot he didn't have to worry about money anymore and usually never bought enough food to actually last the week. A side effect of spending his formative years hungry more often than not, he knew. Their mum and dad had tried to teach him he didn't have to be afraid to ask for more food when he was hungry, but he still had a tendency to buy only the bare necessities. It drove Rox mad. Ten minutes (and two fights with the can opener and microwave) later, Eggsy was carrying a steaming bowl of chicken noodle soup out of his apartment, along with some cough drops and Lemsip. He wouldn't normally have been so generous, but he just wanted to study in peace. He may not have ever expected he would make it to university when he was younger, but he wasn't going to let that keep him from making the most of the opportunities he had been given.

The lights flickered in the cheaply wallpapered hallway as he walked over to the neighbour's equally shabby, dingy paint covered door. It really wasn't too bad of a place to live (Roxy would never have agreed to a council run slum, or anything near it), but the landlord didn't really care much about maintaining the common areas - he was quick enough, of course, to fix any problems they had in the actual flat, which was all Eggsy and Roxy really cared about anyway. "Oi," he shouted as he knocked. "Yer coughin' is drivin' me barmy. Come out 'ere!"

It was a few moments before he heard shuffling behind the door. When it clicked open, an older gent was on the other side. Well, not too old, but older than the college ages of Eggsy and his sister. A distinguished age, like he had a proper career that his cold was making him miss. And even in a ratty old bathrobe and house slippers that had seen better days, he wasn't too bad looking. His nose was red from blowing it so much, but that just made him look adorably pathetic. He had hair that was barely salted with grey, and just a few laugh lines starting on his face.

It's nice, Eggsy thought. He was a nice looking bloke.

A nice looking bloke with a posh accent, Eggsy registered when the man finally spoke. "What on earth is all this?" asked the gent, looking at the items in Eggsy's arms as though they were foreign objects.

Suddenly feeling sheepish, Eggsy shrugged into one shoulder. "Just some stuff fer your cold. I'm tryin' ta study fer finals and ye're making it a bit hard ta concentrate."

Eggsy discovered long ago that attempts to emulate Roxy's upper class articulation just made him seem even more pathetic, but now he sort of wished that he'd put more effort into it. He was sure the bloke in front of him thought he was just a piece of trash, like most everyone else assumed when they heard him speak; it had never bothered him quite as much, though, until now. Probably just cuz I'll end up wanking over him later, thought Eggsy. And that'll be the end of it.

He hoped.

The gent looked at him suspiciously for a few seconds before the moment was broken by another coughing jag. When he was done, he looked even more miserable than before, clutching his chest delicately, and took the steaming soup and other items from Eggsy with no more fuss. "Thank you," he nodded, looking a bit sheepish himself. "I'll admit, this cold took me a bit by surprise, or I would have been better supplied myself. I apologize for the disturbance."

"No problem, guv," Eggsy answered, giving a little salute. "Just try ta get better, yeah? Me mum'll skin me if I fail." With a wink, Eggsy turned his back on the gent and crossed to his own flat.

There was no more coughing after that, which Eggsy and his studying both appreciated immensely.


A few days later the bowl was left clean in front of the door, with no note or anything. Eggsy tried to tell himself he wasn't mildly disappointed.