CHAPTER ONE: in which things are introduced and the whole idea of "liking someone" comes into play earlier than expected

Poe Dameron pressed the home button on his phone furiously. The damn thing wouldn't unlock and he was still the first to arrive in the extremely cold dorm. Poe shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans, which his mother had just bought for his first day at college. The suite seemed even emptier than it had last night; the old floors creaked whenever Poe walked across them and sometimes almost made him jump out of his (admittedly very smooth) skin. He fixed one of the many posters of planes that he had just taped to his wall with one hand, the other one poised over the "CALL HOME" button.
Whatever. I'll call Mom tonight, he thought. Poe made his way into the common area, all stark and white and sterile, waiting for him to do exactly what he was about to do. He took a neatly folded pride flag out of his suitcase and taped THAT to the wall. If any of them were homophobic, they'd know to keep that inside around him.
Creak.
Poe whipped his head around and took his feet off the table that he'd casually placed them on, knocking over a chair with a BANG. "Great job, Poe, just fantastic," he muttered, not quite realizing he was saying it out loud.
"You all right in there?" Oh shit, Poe thought, that's probably my roommate. Great.
"I'm fine. Come on in," Poe said in a voice that was just a little bit too cheery.
The door shuddered open and in stepped a boy a few inches taller than Poe. He was completely alone; no parents, no guardians, just a handful of papers under his arm. The boy pushed his thin, gold-rimmed glasses up his nose. "Hey, I'm Finn."
"Poe, like the author," said Poe, trying to look into his eyes in a kind way and not in a FUCK-YOU'RE-GORGEOUS type of way. "So we're roommates! Nice." God, he sounded like such an idiot. Finn rolled his suitcase across the floor, and Poe noticed that he didn't have much else with him. Not that Poe would judge, of course; his family wasn't and never had been rich, but hey, he needed a reason to not stare at Finn's deep brown eyes and perfect bone structure.
"We in here?" Finn asked, walking into their room. "Nice decorations. I don't really know much about planes myself, but you know."
"My dad was a pilot," Poe blurted. His father had been a pilot for over 25 years, until a nasty plane crash had cost him the use of his legs, and Poe admired him unendingly.
"Cool!" said Finn distractedly, unpacking a pair of jeans from his suitcase. He turned around and looked at Poe, a smile playing on his lips. "Was that flag out there yours?"
Oh, fuck. "Yeah, that's mine," he said, hoping to the gods that this beautiful man wasn't some kind of homophobe.
"Sick, thank god you're not awful. I'm gay, too." Finn said. Poe hoped he wasn't blushing. "Anyway, I saw our suitemate downstairs. I'm not sure which one he is, but he looks..." Finn trailed off, trying to think of a word. "Edgy. And huge," he finished.
Poe laughed. "That should be fun."
As if on cue, a loud voice came down the hall and through the walls. "Dad, what the fuck. Ugh. Dad," it said, coming closer and closer until Finn and Poe, who were looking at each other in silence, heard the sound of a key unlocking their door.
"We're gonna have to live with this guy?" Poe whispered. Finn snorted.
"I can get the goddamn suitcases myself," said the same voice from down the hall. Poe glanced through the doorframe and saw that it belonged to a very, very tall man. He didn't even want to call him a boy, even though he was probably only eighteen, because he was just gigantic. He also had a long, pale scar under his eye and all the way down to his neck. He looked like a badass.
"Beefcake," Poe whispered again. Finn started to laugh just a bit too loud. The tall boy lifted his head, and Poe could only think of a bull flaring its nostrils, which made him smirk.
"Ben," the woman who Poe assumed was his mother said in a warning tone.
"I told you not to call me that," Ben (or whatever) said, looking away from where Poe and Finn were. "I can get everything. Just go, okay?" He crossed his arms in front of his (extremely large) chest and frowned. Reaching into the bin where his luggage was, Ben pulled out a bar, which he began to fasten to the doorframe of his room.
"No way," said Finn, holding back laughter.
Ben turned around. "What the fuck are you looking at?" he said to Finn, who simply raised an eyebrow.
"Ben," his father said. "Relax."
"Don't tell me to relax—" Ben began, but a look from his mother silenced him.
"Go meet your roommates," she said softly. "We're going to head on home. Call us if you need anything. I love you, Kylo." She reached up and hugged him, planting a kiss on his cheek that he reluctantly accepted.
"Stay safe," his father said. "Like your mother said, call us." He started to head out.
"Han, really?" The woman pulled her husband in by the back of his shirt, causing Poe and Finn to chuckle and come out of their room a little bit. She smiled at them warmly, flipping her long brown hair over her shoulder, and Poe immediately liked her.
Han gave her a sidelong look and turned to his son. "So long, Ben. Love you." They have each other a quick hug and they were both gone, leaving Finn and Poe to stare at this BRICK of a boy.
"I'm Finn."
He turned around, his long black hair falling into his eyes. He gave Finn a weary glance. "Kylo," he said. "Not Ben. I know the door says Ben because that's how my dad signed me up, but it's Kylo."
He has a special EMO NAME, Poe thought, but didn't say a word because he really, really wanted to start out on the right foot with everyone, even if it didn't stay that way.
"I'm Poe. So that leaves your roommate as..." Poe grinned.
"Armitage," Kylo said, cracking a smile. "What kind of name is that, do you think? I'm gonna go put my stuff away." He rolled his eyes, tossed his hair in exactly the way that his mother had, and lifted three suitcases up into the air and put them in his room effortlessly. Finn tried not to gape, got up from the couch where he was sitting, and went back into the room. Poe followed behind him, feeling a little uneasy from their interaction with Kylo, but not too bad.
"He seems interesting," Poe said. He started to mime doing pull-ups.
Finn burst into giggles (VERY CUTE, Poe thought) and shoved his hands in his pockets like Kylo had. He really was gorgeous, everything about him. But a roommate, Poe knew, was off-limits when it came to his many romantic pursuits. What if they had to break up and live together? What if Finn saw Kylo doing fifty pull ups in a row or something and Poe got jealous? It just wasn't realistic.
Still, he really was gorgeous.
Fuck being off limits, Poe thought, allowing himself to entertain the idea of a relationship with Finn. Poe already seemed to be getting along with his roommate, and the voice in his head relentlessly said "you never know" over and over.
Finn leaned toward Poe, grinning. "Can you fucking wait, though? No rules, really. This is going to be amazing!" His excitement was contagious, and Poe had to laugh too. Soon, their two voices overlapped as the boys talked over each other, talked over the punk music blasting from Kylo's room, and talked over any thoughts that Poe had that Finn hated him or was annoyed by him.
"And we won't have to see our parents," Poe said, his voice rising higher. "Not until Christmas!"
Finn didn't meet his eyes. He glanced away for a second, his smile wavering for a fraction of a second. Poe looked at him quizzically.
"Oh," Finn said quietly. "I don't really know who my parents are. I was put up for adoption when I was four. I've kind of been in the foster system since." He shook his head quickly. "Just thought you should know, like, I didn't want to bring down the mood or anything, it's just that—"
"Don't worry about it, man," Poe said. And then, something happened that wasn't premeditated, no matter how much he would have liked it to be a suave gesture toward the breathtaking figure across from him. Poe sat next to Finn and hugged him from the side, just around his shoulders, but he could feel Finn's body relax.
"Thanks," Finn said, looking at Poe just along enough so that he'd notice.
Click-click-click.
Finn whipped his head around toward the door to the common area. It was just slightly ajar, and the boys could hear the now-familiar sound of a luggage bin entering the room, accompanied by the clicking of dress shoes. Poe sauntered out, catching Finn's eye and mouthing "Armitage" before he left.
The boy who stood with his back to Poe crisply closed the door and whirled around. He caught sight of Poe and stumbled back a step, then glared at him so ferociously that Poe second-guessed the severity of his own actions.
"You're, uh, Armitage?" Poe struggled to keep a straight face.
"No," not-Armitage said, not meeting Poe's eyes.
What a charmer, Poe thought.
The boy sniffed. "What are you staring at me for?" He had the poshest voice Poe had ever heard. "If you must call me anything, you can call me Hux."
"Come on, couldn't it just be Bill or something?" Poe said. He really couldn't stop himself. "James? You could definitely be a James."
Hux performed an eye roll so pronounced that Poe could have sworn he did it in slow motion. "I think we'll get along fine if you just don't call me anything." He started to roll one of his many, many suitcases into Kylo's room, and Poe almost felt as though he needed to warn Kylo, but he figured the clacking of Hux's shoes was enough. Poe sat down, resting his feet on the table as obnoxiously as he possibly could.
"You still have roughly fifty more suitcases," Poe said loudly. "Is that one monogrammed?" He heard Finn snicker. "How'd you get all this shit on a plane from Merry Olde England, you—" Poe felt a poke in the middle of his back. He turned around and Hux was right in his face, like WAY too fucking close. "Kiss me, darling," Poe said. God, I really can't stop myself, can I?
"Perish," Hux hissed. He sniffed, straightened up, and went back to his suitcases.
"I do love the way you roll your R's," Poe continued, backing into his room. "Perrrrish. Anyway, my name is Poe Damerrrrrrron, nice to meet you." He closed the door behind him, and erupted into laughter. Finn joined in until the two of them physically couldn't laugh anymore. And they really didn't have to, at that point. It was fine with the both of them to just lie on the floor together, in silence.

—

Beep.
Kylo's eyes flew open.
Beep.
He slammed a hand down on the alarm clock, which had a blinking 6:00 on its front.
Beep.
Shit. Missed the button.
"What the hell?" Out of the corner of his eye, Kylo could see his roommate check his phone. "You're not a bloody morning person, are you?" Hux said, closing his eyes. Over his bed were a dozen paintings hanging from brass hooks. Most of them looked classical, with deep, rich colors and bold brush strokes, but a few were much darker and more twisted. A skull leered at Kylo from one, and a cloaked figure stood silently in another. Kylo decided he liked those the best.
Right under the skull painting, a similar thin, white face rose back up from the covers. "We don't have class, you know." Hux's voice, which had sounded very crisp and clipped the day before, was slurred and groggy. He sounded like a human.
"I what?"
Shit. He said it out loud. "I didn't say anything. Just, uh, go back to sleep." Even in his sleep he was annoying, though. Where most people tossed and turned, Hux lay completely still, only his eyelids fluttering. It looked like he was in a coma, or a seizure, or maybe the type of deep-sleep spell that a princess gets stuck with in a fairy tale. Why did Kylo have to get stuck with this pretentious private-school boy when there were so, so, SO many other people he'd rather have as his roommate? Hux had already asked Kylo to take down his posters (he didn't), to turn his music down (he didn't), and to "get his things away from my things" (he didn't). It was like living with his father again, but if his father was mixed with Draco Malfoy and Regina George.
Kylo had always gotten up earlier than most people. He just wasn't really one for sleeping, and anyway, he liked being awake when no one else was. It was quiet, almost eerily so, especially since the thick concrete walls of the dorm nearly masked all sound that came from outdoors. All he could hear was his own breathing, the hum of the air conditioning unit, and, every once and a while, Hux making a micro-movement in his sleep. He really does look like he's in suspended animation or some shit, Kylo thought before realizing that looking at someone in their sleep was a very weird thing to do. He shook his head, threw off the covers, and tried to maneuver past the many suitcases that seemed to be everywhere. Why would ANYONE need that many suitcases, Kylo wondered, kicking a small leather one out of his way.
"Watch it," came the sleepy voice from the other side of the room. Kylo chose to ignore it. He padded over to the bathroom, and proceeded to get in the shower. Kylo hadn't taken a shower that was shorter than an hour for as long as he could remember. As usual, the shower curtain was too low, and he had to duck his head ever so slightly to get all of his hair underneath the shower head. And of course, to add insult to injury, his speaker wasn't working.
"Fuck," Kylo muttered. He slapped the speaker with one large hand. It crackled to life, blasting at full volume.
"MAMA, WE ALL GO TO HELL—"
"Shut the FUCK up!" he growled, furiously trying to turn the speaker down.
"Correct," came a voice from behind the door, followed by a quick rap on the door. "I couldn't sleep at all because of your incessant alarm. So yes, kindly shut the fuck up."
"Go away," Kylo sneered, clenching his fist.
"I have to use the toilet," Hux replied. "You have been in there for quite a while."
It had only been forty-five minutes. Kylo was just getting started, and he was not going to give this limey, sniveling asshole what he wanted. He poured shampoo into his hand especially slowly, even though he knew Hux couldn't see.
Five minutes passed in sweet, sweet silence. Kylo started to sing quietly, until he heard a loud flush.
No fucking way. He turned off the shower and grabbed his bathrobe. There was no way— and yet there he was. Hux finished washing his hands and dried them on Kylo's towel.
"My Chemical Romance. Very edgy," he said, turning to face Kylo.
"How the fuck did you get in here?" Kylo asked, feeling his arms tense up.
Hux picked up a single, stretched-out paper clip from the edge of the sink. "Next time, don't make me go through all the trouble. Or at least turn your music down so you know I'm coming in." He twirled the paper clip between his pale fingers, lightly dusted with just the most minute hint of freckles, and smirked.
The bastard had broken in. He didn't look like he'd know what a lock was, let alone how to pick one. Kylo used every ounce of strength he had to stop himself from whacking Hux with his already balled fist, but alas, even all of his strength wasn't enough to stop him. He swung at Hux, and hit... nothing. Hux straightened up and smiled again, the same cringing, constipated smile that had been sliding on and off of his face for the past twelve hours.
"Missed," he said simply, and left the bathroom.