The last month of the semester was the hardest. Coursework deadlines and exam dates never had more than a few days breathing room between them. Mikleo had been pushing Sorey throughout the whole semester so they weren't as unprepared as many of their other course mates, but it was a hard few weeks.
Mikleo had said the previous week should be spent apart, as he couldn't truly concentrate on revision when Sorey was around. Sorey understood, but found it was a different case for him. Mikleo's presence made him focus on his work better, and without him he spent to long watching Netflix on his 'breaks' and found his eyes glazing over, not reading the worksheets and books in front of him. He only managed to buckle down to do revision when he realised it was the only way to stop himself thinking about his and Roses prior conversation.
He was glad when the last written exam was over. He and Mikleo had gone to get milkshakes together straight after it had finished, as a short break of sorts, but it didn't take very long until the conversation turned to the next matter of business. The final coursework hand in. The paired project.
Mikleo may have well moved in for those last four days. He only went home for his four hours sleep and a shower, all work, even all meals were taken in Soreys room. For the bulk of their time they assumed the same position - Sorey sat at his desktop, Mikleo sat right next to him on his laptop at his desk. The first two days were spent planning, doing research and turning a scrappy mind map in pencil and sharpie into a detailed bullet-point plan. The next two days were for writing it up long form and formatting and illustration. Mikleo had a better way with words than Sorey so handled the bulk of the text, and Sorey handled formatting, drawings, diagrams, and selection of accompanying photos. By the evening on the fourth day they weren't anywhere near as close to finishing as they thought they would be. Neither of them made a comment on the time, despite being highly aware of its passing. When the sun started to come back up Sorey couldn't keep his eyes focused on the screen and couldn't tell if the feeling in the pit of his stomach was hunger or nausea. Red and blue zigzags lines decorated Mikleo's screen. But they were almost done.
The birds started singing. Sorey tried to whistle along in response. He couldn't remember the last time he had heard the dawn chorus.
The desktop made a quiet bing noise, to indicate that new discoveries in Viking burials and what can be learned final had been saved.
"That's it," said Mikleo, standing up briefly before dropping down onto Soreys bed. "That's the last of the referencing. We're done."
"Good. I'm so tired."
Bags were forming under his slightly reddened eyes but he was smiling. Neither of them looked their best, at six am after pulling an all-nighter, after weeks of exams, at the end of the year. Sorey's hair had gotten longer again and was starting to get in his eyes. Locks of hair from the crown were poking in all the wrong directions due to grease and Soreys habit of always running his fingers through it and pulling at it when he was stressed. Mikleo's hair had gotten longer too, and was mingling with his glasses. They were both wearing knee length denim shorts and t shirts that almost certainly stank, although they wouldn't be able to tell as they'd been in the same room with only each other for the past twenty two hours.
"We're finished," Mikleo said, taking his glasses of and detangling his hair with his fingers. "Completely finished for the year. It's just summer now. I can't quite believe it."
"Yeah."
They were done for the year. Done with the paired project, done with university, done with their evenings spent together in the library, done with all their petty bickering. Who knew what it might be like in September? Looking at Mikleo, messy hair, eyelids flickering in an attempt to stay open, a soft smile on his lips, he began to feel afraid of the future.
"Mikleo."
"What?" he said, violet eyes wide, meeting Soreys.
Pushing the question to the back of his mind hadn't helped anything.
Sorey dove forwards, placed his hands around Mikleo's jawline, eyes shut, and pushed his lips against his.
He didn't understand what he was doing.
He didn't know what to do from this position. Mikleo was immobilised with shock.
He had promised to be careful.
He pulled away.
"I … I'm so sorry. You should know that wasn't premeditated."
Mikleo didn't respond for a while, but stayed still, eyes wide but staring forwards blankly.
"Sorey I … didn't know. If I'd had known …"
Mikleo looked up at Sorey, and for a brief moment Sorey forgot to be embarrassed.
He's so beautiful.
In the next moment he could feel Mikleo's fingers in his hair, and the next, his lips on his.
Maybe that's all there is to understand.
The next time either of them pulled away was when Mikleo jumped up to sit back at the computer.
"I mean, when I said we were finished I meant we were finished with the actual writing part, we haven't proofread it yet. We still need to export as a pdf and make sure that that doesn't mess with the formatting. Then upload it onto the system, and we have to go to the library to print off two copies each, and then hand those in at the main office and to our tutors. We may have got the hard part over with, but we can't relax yet."
The next hour was spent proofreading, a task that they both agreed would be easier when not sleep deprived, and a further half hour fixing the formatting so that the pdf printer didn't mess it up. Then there was an unexpected forty minutes needed to shrink down and replace all the images because the file was too large to upload. There was a queue for printing, and all in all, it took them an additional four hours to get to the point of handing it in.
After it all was truly done they both stood outside the office, in a drab corridor in the archaeology department.
"So," said Sorey, breaking what would have been silence if it wasn't for the metallic hum of the air conditioner. "You kissed me."
Mikleo's face turned pink.
"You kissed me first!"
"So I guess we just call it even?"
They walked through the corridor in silence, eyes to the ground, both of them pretending not to notice the embarrassed smile on the others face.
"I'm going to go home now. Go to bed. I'm so tired."
"Me too I think," Mikleo replied.
They walked halfway together and parted in silence.
During Soreys four hour midday nap, he dreamt of Mikleo. They were both astronauts for some reason.
