Morning Troubles

Emil hated early mornings. Mid-morning was when he could begin to respond coherently, but anything earlier than 9 he was considered a zombie. Especially did he hate them when he stayed up past two in the morning to finish a paper (that he had procrastinated on), and usually the morning after he did not care to make human contact with anyone, not even his housemate Sadiq.

Unfortunately for him, Sadiq was an early riser and usually woke up around six to go for a jog and start his daily routine. It consisted of loudly eating breakfast, squirming around his room while making an insanely large amount of noise by searching for his shoes, turning on the television—which was on incredibly high from the night before—to listen to the news and weather, and when he came back from his jog, the young man loudly sang in the shower. Emil woke up to this on most days, but easily returned to his slumber once he put ear buds in to drown out the Turk.

This morning however, it had been unnaturally quite in the large three bedroom home. It was Friday, with no early morning classes for Emil until the afternoon or work until the evening. He had planned to stay in bed until lunch, but for some reason, the lack of noise unnerved him… That and his stomach began to protest for nutrition.

Groaning for having to lift his body out of bed and desperately wishing he had levitation powers, the university student struggled with putting on sweatpants. He normally went out into the living space in his boxers, but mornings were slowly becoming more and more crisp as the leaves turned colors. Thus, after the pitiful wrestle with his sweatpants, he forewent his shirt and cringed a little as the cool morning air hit his bare torso. Normally, Sadiq would forget to close the door properly after his run and the cold air would fully wake Emil up, but that day the door was shut and the cool air wasn't strong enough to snap him out of his languorous state.

Living in that house with his former crush and now best friend for over a year now, Emil could navigate his way to the kitchen without a problem. Therefore, he only had his untamed platinum locks that assisted in distorting his vision to blame as he groggily bumped into someone far smaller than his large Turkish friend.

"Sorry," he mumbled inaudibly and continued his way. It wasn't until he was pouring milk into his cereal with an amused Sadiq staring at him that he registered what had appended in the hallway right outside of his room.

"Enough milk there?" Glistening olive eyes peered up into dilated blue violet ones, ignoring the white pool flowing out of the bowl. "Y'finally awake to help me with the housemate interviews?"

Emil pulled back the half empty jug of milk and jumped out of the liquid's path to the floor. "Fuck, that's today? That's right now?" He received two patient nods from Sadiq before asking, "Then I really did bump into someone on my way here… Who'd I bump into?"
An alluring snicker that he knew all to well was heard behind him at the kitchen's entrance. "Good morning Emil. It looks like you've spilled a bit of milk there. Let me help you."

At once, the brunet began to mop up the milk around Emil's feet and "accidentally" brushing against the young man's toes.

Again, he jumped away from the incident and saw hazelnut eyes glance at him in a way he could only describe as seductively. All of this was not lost on the Turk as he happily watched the exchange between the two.

"X-Xiao, what are y-you doing here?" The light blond cursed himself for stuttering and slowly crossed his arms to somewhat shield himself from the other's examining eyes. A warm blush soon followed and could easily be seen as it spread down his neck and around his collar.

Xiao let his eyes slowly travel up before he answered. "I'm here to apply to be your new roommate."

"Housemate," he quickly corrected him and immediately regretting it when the teen before him stood up and smirked.

"Same thing," he tossed the drenched napkins, aiming to impress, but that plan sunk as a wet splat filled the empty air. Quickly, Xiao properly disposed of the trash and sat at the table along with Sadiq. "I didn't know you two lived together," he threw a nervous glance at Emil before turning all of his attention to his larger friend. He was quickly losing his cool at the thought of living under the same roof as Emil. How many times had he fantasied about it? Far too many, but they usually ended smoothly, something his heart didn't know how to do whenever the Icelandic boy was near him. Although he tried hard to appear calm, cool, and collected around him, his appearance would occasionally slip. Xiao prayed to every deity he had learned about that he could continue it without making a fool out of himself.

Sadiq laughed, "I didn't know I had to tell you. Hell, I didn't even know you knew each other. Please enlighten me."

"He's that one idiot in my math class," Emil slowly inched towards the door to go put on a shirt.

Olive eyes danced in amusement. "You mean that one idiot you couldn't stop tahhhh!"

Mock innocence peered up at a milk drenched housemate. "I'm so sorry Sadiq! You know how clumsy I can be… One of the many things you'll have to deal with if you move in here, Xiao."

The taller man stood up and glared at Emil. "We'll be right back. We have to go change." Once they were safely out of earshot, the Turk hissed, "What is wrong with you?! I thought you liked him?"

Still exposed, Emil fought to keep his blush under control, but found that he couldn't. "Yeah, but I don't want him seeing my imperfections right away! Sometimes I have drool on my face when I wake up or something! I wouldn't be able to relax with him always around!"

Sadiq chuckled after he sighed, "Your imperfections are adorable." His hair was ruffled, belittling the excuse. "Well let's just get through this interview and the other two before we begin to fight each other."

x. X. x.

The other two interviews ran more smoothly than the first, but it mostly had to do with the lack of innuendos and this time Emil was expecting them. The last of the two dragged on a little bit longer than than the rest which caused Emil to be a little late to class. He might as well have not gone to class because his thoughts wondered back to Xiao throughout his journalism and ethics classes. Then, during math, his eyes kept wondering towards the actual person.

He hadn't meant to look at the door as students filled into class and catch Xiao's gaze, but there was no stopping the millionth blush that day spread across his face when the other winked at him. Fortunately, he sat in his usual seat two desks across from him, however because he was in his field of vision, he snuck glances at him. As the other took notes, Emil daydreamed about the possibility of him living with them. Every morning he'd have to be prepared for the day before stepping out of his room, but there'd be a chance he'd get to see all sorts of sides of the man. Sleepy Xiao and anxious Xiao might be a cute to see, yet he wouldn't want to meet angry Xiao or disgusting Xiao. Then again he couldn't even imagine the other anxious of angry because he always looked to damn suave!

"Must be the Asian-ness," he muttered under his breath.

"Like, what about my swaggy Asian-ness?" The main focus of his daydream sat before him in their now empty classroom.

Pencils and papers went up in surprise as Emil tried to remember to breathe. Words failed him as well, but he managed to gather his belongings before rushing out of room with a shout of, "Work!" as his only explanation.

His day was exhausting with Xiao running across his mind constantly, even throughout work. Needless to say, he did not want to discuss potential housemates with Sadiq when he returned. Emil bypassed his awaiting roommate, dragged his feet over to the couch, plopped down, and turned on the television, officially starting his weekend.

"Soooo, I was thinking we should let Xiao live with us. You two already know each other," there was an eyebrow wiggle, "and he can cook!"

"So can Elizaveta," Emil didn't even twitch away from the TV at the mention of his crush. He was too tired to care any more for the time being.

At this the large remark, the Turk wrinkled his nose,"I just don't like her. She's… Pretentious."

Doubt deepened Emil's frown, "I don't think she is… Xiao's too nosy and annoying."

"And yet you still like him."

"Seems I always fall the the annoying ones," he finally turned to glare at Sadiq.

Unknowingly, he felt a little guilty, but pushed forward. After a few more arguments against each others preference in housemates, they remembered the final applicant.

Gupta, a second year from Egypt, moved in the following weekend, but he wasn't the only one. Once Sadiq took the initiative for his little Icelandic friend and set him up on a date with Xiao, they gained another housemate.

There wasn't a spare room for him, but he decided to share it, and the bed, with Emil.

x. X. x.

Mini-Omake:

A few months later, Gupta and Sadiq were quietly eating breakfast in the kitchen when suddenly a picture frame fell crashing down from the wall.

"I think it's time to charge Xiao. He practically lives here," Sadiq said around a mouthful of cereal while Gupta hummed and nodded.
"That's the fifth frame they've broken."

I'll post more later, I'm sleepy...