Seriously

a/n: hey guys. just so you know this is a fan tribute for the awesome Tumblr fan comic 'welcome to walt academy'. if you're looking for any in-depth explanations for the universe, that's where you should go but all you really need to know here is that Jim and Aladdin are roommates in-comic, and Aladdin is the enthusiastic, lovable goofball who's always trying to make Jim lighten up and Jim is the sassy dry-humored buzzkill who always tries to get Aladdin to shut up. they're a good match.

"Jim."

...the mechanics and physics…

"Jiiimmm."

…of such a practice could be considered…

"Jimmyyy."

…hardly a science at all…

"Jim?"

"Aladdin," there's way more of a bite in my voice than I think I meant to have, but at the moment I can't bring myself to care. "My final is in twelve hours, and I still haven't gotten past the first paragraph." I gestured to the huge textbook balanced unsteadily on my knee. "Unless you're holding a coffee with my name on it, you've got about three seconds to make your point and shut up."

"You should be more careful, Jim – someone might start thinking you don't like me or something." He plopped himself down on the edge of my bed, drawing his knee up to his chest, teasing grin plastered all over his face. "Lucky for you, though, I happen to be very forgiving. So I'll let it slide this once."

"Okay, yeah, I'm reading now." Ever since I met my roommate, I've been clinging to the hope that maybe if I ignore him enough, he'll go away. It hasn't worked for me yet, but you know me. I'm an optimist.

"Jim."

"Aladdin. I'm studying."

"Jimmm."

"If you make me fail my last final—

"—then you'd fail because you hadn't studied earlier than right now, twelve hours before the test, and the blame would go to you either way."

"Alright," I slammed the book shut, "just spit it out. I want the short version, I want everything summed up in exactly three seconds, and then I want you to leave me alone so I can study."

"You've got to quit sending me these mixed messages, Jimmy."

"Aladdin."

"You make this relationship so confusing—

"If you don't spit it out right now—

"—and when we're such great besties, too—

"—I will take this book and stuff it up your—

"—I mean, we even have our bracelets!"

"Our…" I paused, lowering my textbook slightly to look at my roommate. "Our what? B-bracelets?"

He moved so quickly it was like he'd been waiting for me to ask; with an unnecessary flourish and huge, shit-eating grin, he drew something small out from behind his back and leaned far over my legs to drop it down onto the front cover of my book. "Our bracelets," he repeated, all smiles.

I just stared for a minute at it, sitting on top of my textbook, a thick leather cord with a single, clumsy knot in the back and a small 'J' scratched into the tough brown. I didn't look up at him, but I could feel his dark eyes raking over me, waiting for me to say something. It took me a minute to find my voice again. "What. The. Hell."

"Well," he sat up off my legs, closing his eyes and putting a hand to his heart like he was getting ready to give a speech, "let's review the facts, Jimmy – we've made a lot of memories together, you and I. And since we won't see each other too often next year – or, you know, at all…"

No, Aladdin was right about one thing – we wouldn't see each other. Probably at all. Not after this week. Once our bags were packed, once I stepped off the train and went back home, we probably wouldn't see each other again. No more three in the morning conversations about dumb things that didn't matter. No more panicked, last-minute cleanups five seconds before inspection. No more Jimmy or Jimster – no more stupid nicknames.

This was a good thing. This was a really good thing. Why should I miss any of that?

Then I realized Aladdin was still talking. "…so what better time to get our friendship bracelets?"

"What?"

"Yeah, do you like them?" He took out his own, practically the same as mine except for the small A scratched lightly into the back.

"Friendship bracelets?"

"Yeah, I just said that. Soooo. Do you like it?"

"Un-unbelievable," I sputtered. "If you think, for one second, that I'm actually wearing that—

"Well, I guess you don't have to—

"—if you think I'm even keeping it—

"What?!"

"You aren't serious right now." I stopped a minute to study him, but he was looking at me like I'd just tried to strangle a kitten. "No, no, you aren't serious. You aren't being serious. This…" I picked up the bracelet. "…this is garbage. First opportunity. Now get off my bed. I have to study." I dropped the leather on the floor and opened my book back up.

It was weird.

More than anything – more than good or bad or familiar or exciting, it was weird; it was weird to walk the newly cleaned carpets of the empty dorm; to plop down on the little bed I'd spent nine months calling my own, half-packed bag lying open on the floor at my feet; to lie back on the mattress and listen to weakened springs creaking and groaning, to look over at the other bed by the window with blankets all tucked up and pillows all in place. It was weird, to sit on this bed and know next fall it'd be someone else's; somebody else was going to have this bed and that window and this floor and this ceiling…it wasn't a good feeling, and it wasn't bad. It was just weird, to think this place wasn't ours anymore. Not bad, I repeated to myself. Just weird.

"Well…" My roommate's voice broke through my thoughts so suddenly I started a little, "…guess this is where we part." On the other side of the room I could hear him, zipping his pack, now smoothing out the blankets, now looking out the window.

"Yeah." My own voice came out as blank and flat as a wall. "Guess it is." I hauled myself reluctantly off the bed – not mine anymore – and picked my bag up from the floor, doing one last sweep of the room to make sure I hadn't missed anything; when I spotted a couple socks shoved half-under my bed, peeking out just far enough to be seen, I went to my knees to get them, setting my bag behind me for a second to get it out of the way. I would say I wasn't down there for more than a second before a shout came from behind me.

"Wait a sec—Jim—is that—is that the bracelet?"

"What?" Running on instinct, I lifted my head to look at him – and cracked it on the underside of the bed. "Ow!" I crawled back out on my knees, eyes stinging slightly from the sudden pain, rubbing lightly at the tender spot to try and find a bump. I couldn't feel anything, and guessed I'd probably walk away with nothing worse than a red mark. "I don't even know what…" My voice just kind of gave out when I caught sight of my roommate, standing motionless beside my open bag – with a tiny leather cord sitting in his palm.

Damn it.

I could have faked it – could have gone up and grabbed the stupid thing out of his hand with a "that's where it was!" and lobbed it in the trash can in the corner, but I could feel heat crawling suddenly up my neck, and rising steadily to flood my cheeks in silent, cherry-red giveaway – so I just kept on sitting there, eyes darting uncertainly from his face to the door, waiting for a reaction, a sign that I needed to either start talking or run from the room.

"It is!" Aladdin finally ended the excruciating silence with an excited shout, raising his head so I could see the humongous, smug as hell grin unfurling on his lips. "This is—you actually—and you were gonna take it with you?"

"No!" I stumbled to my feet, cheeks burning, and made a wild grab for the stupid thing; he gave a small, disbelieving laugh and a little shake of the head, closing his fingers around the cord.

"Well, you did a really good job not keeping this," he teased, laughter dancing in his dark eyes as he looked down at me.

"Shut up! It wasn't like—

"I mean, this bag down here," Aladdin nudged my pack with the toe of his battered black sneaker, "looks just like the trash can—

"I…I wasn't ever going to wear—" I tried to keep going, but he cut me off with a hand on my arm, placating smile on his face.

"No, seriously—if you squint, your bag does look just like—

My ears began to blaze almost as hot as my face. "Would it kill you to—?"

"Ah, but I always knew you had a heart somewhere, Jimmy," he continued, bright beam still fixed in place. "Just took a while to get past all the scowling and eye-rolling…"

The scalding knot in my stomach pulled tight. This…this had all been a joke. He'd pulled some stupid prank. And I'd actually been dumb enough to fall for it.

"…and then of course the exaggerated sighs and death glares…" he tried to rest his elbow on my shoulder, but I pushed away from him, the knot in my stomach searing suddenly. I wanted to move – across the room, out the door, out of the dorm, I wanted to run, I wanted to leave, straight out of the Academy if that was what it took for my breath to find its way back to my lungs, my hands to unfurl from the fists they'd formed, I just wanted to get out, I needed to get out. But I stayed where I was, frozen to the spot, ears ringing so loudly that Aladdin, with all his jokes and gestures and laughter, was barely even a buzz in the background to me. I didn't even know why the hell I'd ever thought he was okay to begin with.

"…and you actually had feelings! The whole time! D'you care if I go tell Jasmine? We kind of had a bet on when you'd admit it. 'Course, we also had a bet on when you'd finally smile…I had to take a picture, I swear, she wouldn't believe me without—

Something in me snapped kind of suddenly, and words started falling from my mouth before I could stop them. "Shut up! It isn't funny! I'm actually gonna missyou, asshole!"

I was hot as hell all over, hands shaking so badly I had to stuff them in my jacket pockets. A second passed before the weight of my own words hit me, humiliation crashing over me like a wave. My face started turning red again, and I looked away from him, pulling at a loose thread on my sleeve just to give myself something to do. Now that the truth stood in front of me, I couldn't believe it hadn't hit me until now; it wasn't the bed or the window or the floor or the ceiling I'd miss. I only ever missed stuff that didn't stay.

"Jim."

I kept staring at my sleeve. Maybe ignoring him would work this time.

"Jim," he sighed softly, sitting suddenly down on the edge of the bed, stupid bracelet still clutched tight in one hand. I could feel myself reddening again when I so much as looked at the thing; if he hadn't pulled the damn joke in the first place…

"Look." He leaned back on his palms to look up at me, voice breaking suddenly through my thoughts. "I'm not…I wasn't kidding, okay?"

Burning anger renewed, I finally tore my gaze from my sleeve and met his eyes. "Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Wait—

"It was a stupid prank and I fell for it! Believe it or not, I get it, okay?"

"Yeah, okay, fine." Aladdin pushed himself to his feet, brows drawing low beneath his dark hair. "Fine, yeah, it was a joke, but you aren't the punchline!"

I was silent for a minute, thinking over the words.

"This was a joke," he repeated quietly, holding the bracelet between his fingers as he talked, "but you were supposed to keep it. I meant what I said when I gave it to you."

"Oh." Fresh humiliation flooded me, and I sank onto the bed Aladdin had just left.

"You wanna know something?" He sat himself down beside me, smile tugging at his lips.

I could feel my cheeks starting to turn red again when I met his gaze.

"I'm going to miss you, too." He swatted lightly at my knee as he talked, grin starting to widen. "Seriously. I'm gonna miss your sarcastic remarks. I'm gonna miss your death glares and eye rolls and sighs. I'm gonna miss when we stayed up 'til three in the morning and end up talking about blue Jell-O versus green. I'm gonna miss making up dumb nicknames just to see which one gets under your skin the most. I'm gonna miss being roommates with you."

I realized I was starting to smile as he went on. "I might start missing you so much, I have to call you, maybe every day. At seven. in the morning."

My smile faltered. "Aladdin—

"And I'll send you so many selfies, your phone won't have room for them."

"You aren't—

"And you have to send me a couple, too."

"I don't—

"Yeah, yeah, I know, you don't 'do' pictures of yourself, or whatever. But I won't know what you look like if I don't. And who knows? Maybe by next fall I won't even recognize you. Maybe I'll have to put up signs. Oh, I can see it now – 'name: Jim Hawkins. Last seen: Glaring. Warning: Scowls when spoken to.' What do you think?"

"You are such an ass."

Aladdin's grin vanished, and he rose from the bed. "Just when I was starting to think about hugging you."

"Good. Don't." I pushed myself to my feet as I spoke.

"What?" His smile reappeared so fast it was almost scary. "You don't want to hug your bestie?"

"Aladdin…" I took a step back.

"Aww, c'mon, give me a hug…"

"You get any closer and I swear—

"I mean, we even have our bracelets…"