BANG!
BANG!
BANG!

Wylan jolted awake. "Are we being shot at?" he yelled desperately to Paja. Matthias wasn't anywhere in his immediate sight and he was still exhausted. The world was blurry.

Paja blinked. "Nope, go back to sleep," she shouted in response. "Just some idiots at the door."

Wylan nodded and rested his head back onto the table (he would later wonder how he moved from the counter to being seated on the warm chairs with his head resting on the table top, but until then he was fine where he was) and tried to sleep again.

BANG.

"LET US IN!" Somebody from the outside shouted. Wylan frowned. It sounded really familiar. "It's below zero out here and my ass is frozen!"

"No!" Paja shouted back. "I'm not letting in any random strangers!"
Wylan paused and tiredly raised his head up again, thinking about the voice. "Hold on Paja, I think I know who…" he trailed off as the insistent banging got louder somehow.

"WY-LAN!" Another loud voice boomed. This one sounded like… Nina? "MATT-HIAS! ANSWER YOU LOSERS!"

"Well now we're even less likely to let you guys in," Matthias grumbled from somewhere behind him. Wylan started and he realized that Matthias had been in one of the tables behind him the entire time.

"WE'RE NOT LETTING YOU IN!" Paja screamed. "YOU COULD BE SERIAL KILLERS!"
"Wait guys!" Wylan interrupted. "Guys, I really think that their not serial killers but actually-"

"YOU LITTLE INFERNAL HEATHENS LET US IN BEFORE WE DIE OF THE COLD!"

"Are you going to let them in anytime soon?"
Wylan, Matthias, and Paja all twisted their heads to see Inej standing in the hallway leading into the bathroom casually, smiling as if she had been there the entire time. "How long have you been here?" Paja asked concerned.

Inej shrugged. "Not too long. Only about… oh, ten minutes?"
Their eyes all got even larger and she hid a small smile. "I'm joking," she reassured them. "It's only been around," she checked her watch, "nine minutes. So really, basically ten."

"Inej are you-" Matthias started.

"Hold on - if you're here," Wylan interrupted Matthias' next words. "Who's outside?"

Inej hid a smile carefully. "Oh, only an angry Kaz, Nina, and Jesper who've been standing there for a good fifteen minutes in the snow to make sure you guys are alright and not murdered/frozen to death."

"Fuck!" Matthias jumped up to his feet and rushed to the door, desperately trying to loosen the door. "It's not our fault the door won't op-"

The door swung open seamlessly and they watched in silence as it hit Matthias in the face and brought him down with a loud thud.

Wylan winced and twisted around the table to see Jesper and Kaz casually step right over his body and hurry into the cafe. Nina was the only one to shut the door and actually help him up. It would have been a nice gesture, but she was cackling so loud it made the action less significant.

"So who's idea was it to lock us out for fifteen minutes?" Kaz demanded loudly as Jesper's eyes scanned around the room. Wylan's cheeks burned red with embarrassment and he fought the urge to slip under the table and hide.

"Technically it was all Paja and Matthias' fault," Wylan blurted out. "I was sleeping."

Jesper, Nina, and Kaz all looked at Inej, who nodded sagely. "It's true."

"My fault?" Paja demanded loudly. "You were knocking so loudly I thought we were going to die!"

They all looked at Inej again, who simply kept on nodding. "Wylan woke up thinking we were being shot at," she volunteered plainly.

Jesper raised an eyebrow at Wylan who's cheeks flushed again. "Okay, in my defense I've never actually been shot at, and you were knocking really loudly."

"But Matthias!" Jesper pointed accusingly at the blonde who had now gotten to his feet, limped to a table and shot them all a ferocious glare. "You know our voices! You can identify us."

Matthias shrugged calmly. "I thought it was amusing."

"Oh come on," Nina complained. "Don't be a Kaz."

Kaz shot an offended look at Nina before biting his lip and agreeing with a "That does sound like something I would do". Inej silently scooted toward him and hit him sharply on the shoulder.

They all let out a collective sigh of disgruntlement before Paja picked the conversation up once more. "You knew who they were?" she asked accusingly. "You helped me think they were serial killers coming to murder us!"
Inej hid a smile and calmingly patted Paja's shoulder. "No serial killer goes to a coffee shops and kills people inside of them."

"Literally none," Jesper added, sauntering over to where Wylan sat and throwing an arm around his shoulder. Wylan shivered at the cold that had reached his bones while they had waited outside, and a flash of guilt rushed through him. "Not even second rate coffee shops."

Nina and Kaz rolled their eyes to the sky and Wylan felt like this wasn't a new complaint of Jesper's.

"You're freezing," he whispered to Jesper. "I'm so sorry for not making them let you in. I was asleep for most of it."

Jesper shook his head calmly. "Don't worry about it," he said in response. "Especially if you're willing to warm me up?" he winked seductively and Wylan contemplated whether he wanted to make a response to that.

Well, he was pretty guilty that Jesper was freezing…

… he was completely insane for thinking of this.

"Fine," Wylan whispered back before huddling closer to Jesper, practically on his lap by the end of it. He edged himself backward until Jesper's chin came in contact with the back of his head and he rested it against his chest. "Better?"

Jesper purred - yes, an actual purr that reminded him freakishly of the cat he had once wanted when he was younger - and wrapped two arms around his chest, effectively locking him in place. "Much."

Wylan looked back up to see Nina wriggling her eyebrows at them and Kaz making a face. "Oh shut up," he told them both sharply. "As if you two don't do it with Matthias and Inej. In fact, Inej and I have a story about you and Matthias."

Inej snorted with badly concealed humour and he felt a flush of gratefulness that she was the only one not mocking them. "Ah yes, Wylan," she said exchanging a small smile with him. "Exactly what were the two of you doing before the campus phone service cut out?"
Matthias' splutters filled the room as Jesper quietly tilted toward Wylan to whisper - in a really hot breathy whisper Wylan totally didn't swoon out (because who swoons these days? Also, Jesper's arms were thankfully saving him from that particular embarrassment) - "Oh yes, I was reading those texts and were you laughing at my heroic struggles?"
Wylan's chest shook as he tried not to laugh too hard as he remembered their conversation. "To be fair, it did look pretty intense."

"Also," Jesper made a face, "in what world would I even remotely be into Kaz?"

Wylan bit his lip to keep from laughing. "I'm glad," he finally told Jesper jokingly. "I don't think my heart would be able to bear the heartbreak if you left me for a six foot tall grump with a permanent scowl."

"That sounds more like Matthias," Jesper whispered, just as Kaz interrupted.

"Anything to tell me Wylan?" he asked sharply, arching an eyebrow up.

"He also read the text messages," Jesper said belatedly.

"Um… well," he looked around and nobody seemed to want to help him out. "Huh, please don't run away to Tahiti with Jesper and get married?" he finally blurted out awkwardly, laughing in a very high pitched tone.

Nina, Matthias, and Paja all gave him strange looks while Jesper laughed so hard he shook. Wylan let out a quiet shriek and gripped Jesper's arms tightly. Inej wasn't far from where Jesper was - her face had contorted and she looked a bit like she was trying not to laugh at a funeral - and Kaz had just raised an eyebrow.

"Exactly how much thought did you put into this?" Kaz asked after a beat.

They dissolved into laughter once again after that.

#

"So how exactly did you end up here?" Wylan asked Jesper after a while. "How were you let off the main hall?"
Jesper shrugged and Wylan inwardly revelled in the body heat Jesper was exuding. "It is surprisingly easy to get out of a highly secure main campus building with permanent locks on and no power," he informed Wylan.

"Seriously?"

"No." Jesper made a face. "We had Nina distract her while Kaz picked the lock and Inej glided out and created a safer exit for us. Then we booked it. Seriously, we're lucky Nina doesn't have Professor Rollins or else we'd be screwed."

"Professor Rollins?" Wylan asked incredulously. "You mean the scary one with the really creepy glare?"

"Yeah, he hates Kaz too," Jesper said snickering. "And Kaz does the same to him. Something about him mistaking Rollins for another professor he actually needed and Rollins making a fool out of him for that. He's never forgiven Professor Rollins, and Rollins by default hates him now. And because we're friends with him…" he trailed off.

"He hates all of you guys," Wylan finished.

"Pretty much," Jesper nodded. "Oh, and you too now."

"Wait what?" Wylan asked sharply. "I'm not… part of your group though."

The taller boy shrugged and Wylan instinctively held tighter to Jesper's arms as the motion ran through his body. "Well, almost all of the campus has seen you hang around us on a daily basis. And the YMCA thing was pretty big, as well as the fact that you were stuck in the elevator with Nina and Matthias for a long time, and the rumours surrounding you after that spread it even more."

"How do you know all of this?" Wylan asked, partly confused and partly joking. "Do you like, keep an ear out so you can call yourself a Gossip Queen?"

Jesper made a face. "Actually, Inej would be great at gossiping if she actually… y'know, gossiped. She's scary good at catching all of this, and most of the time she doesn't even try. If you need to know anything about anybody, she's your girl."

Wylan nodded, impressed. "Cool, cool," he said after a pause. "So Inej is the gossip queen in your group?"

Jesper flashed Wylan a smile - a real one, wide and it made Wylan smile himself. "Technically, Inej is our gossip queen and the cool aunt that makes sure we're all good."

"Would that make Kaz the uncle?" Wylan wondered aloud.

"Absolutely not," they heard loudly and Wylan jumped. Jesper instantly tightened his arms and Wylan went back to relaxing in them. They both stared at Kaz who was casually lounging on the couch, legs stretched on the table. "As if I would be the uncle to a crowd of handwringing nursemaids."

Jesper rolled his eyes. "Old joke," he muttered to Wylan. "Apparently we were being to cautious about Inej almost dying."

"Do I want to know?" Wylan asked, and as Jesper shook his head he decided he didn't.

"Okay, so Kaz is totally the uncle that pretends he's too cool to be seen with the rest of the family," Jesper whispered. "Inej is the cool aunt we all love. Matthias is totally the mom. Like, no jokes."

"Matthias?" Wylan asked squinting at him. "You're sure?"

"He's always telling us to put a jacket on and eat our vegetables," Jesper confirmed. "And when Kaz was sick that one time, he wouldn't stop bringing him chicken soup and more blankets. You would have thought he doubled as a raccoon in his free time if you saw the small mountain of blankets Matthias had given him."

Wylan stifled his laughter. "Matthias even brought me to the table after I fell asleep on him," he told Jesper, who in turn raised an eyebrow.

"You fell asleep on him?" he asked. "Should I fear for my relationship?"
"Is that what this is?" Wylan asked hesitating. "Are we dating?"
Jesper frowned. "Do you want to date?"
Wylan bit his lip nervously, reaching his hand up to run a hand through his hair but he stopped as he realized that he would probably hit Jesper's chin if he did. "I mean, if you want to then I wouldn't be entirely opposed to it…"

"Wylan," Jesper said gently, forcing the other boy to twist around until they were facing each other. Lightly putting a hand on his chin, he forced him to look the taller boy right in the eye. Wylan swallowed. His eyes were so dark. "Do you want to officially go out?"

"Yeah," Wylan whispered softly. "Yeah, I would really like that."
Quietly he reached forward just as Jesper began to lean down and lightly, ever so lightly their lips began to tou-

"Finally!"

Wylan let out a shriek and pulled away in a second, almost falling out of Jesper's lap. Quickly the other boy wrapped his arms around him and kept him from falling, making sure he stayed square on his lap, practically straddling him.

"What the hell Nina?" It was Matthias, and Wylan craned his head backward to see the scene going out. Oh god, he thought terrified. Oh my god that entire ordeal happened like, five yards away from everybody else.

"Seriously?" Jesper demanded loudly, his voice carrying out through the room. "We have one moment and you won't let us make out like the dignified college students we deserve to be. We're like, not even friends anymore. Don't like, sit next to me at, like, lunch."

Wylan cringed as another barrage of voices hit and he silently sank back into Jesper's embrace until he paused. "Jesper," he asked quietly. "Do you have something in your pocket?"
Jesper froze alarmed, and just as Wylan's incredible luck went, the entire room had heard.

A/N: Behold guys, the next chapter. I apologize for this one coming out so late (ha ha, oops? I got hit by major writers block). On the other hand, I spent the few days watching Netflix's Madame Secretary which is both funny and a really good show and display of female power, as well as has a pretty strong female lead (which is like, yay, finally! :). On another hand, who watched Spiderman recently! I did and it was really good overall (including the fact that most male superheroes are like, 'heroic one tear pouring down their cheek' instead of full out sobbing, which they made Peter Parker do in the movie so it was like, 'finally, no super drawn out showings of masculinity where nobody talks and therefore saves half the plot and half the bruises from even happening'.) On top of that, they had an incredibly diverse community of actors so there were Asians as well as an inter-race couple. If any of you have watched Wonder Woman, please tell me how it was! I really want to watch it but unfortunately, I haven't gotten the opportunity to.

Also, I finally started publishing on Archive of Our Own! I'm probably going to update it like I do Wattpad, so you can keep up on it if you want but it's schedule will remain similar to the way I do with Wattpad. Special thanks to KateWinters97 for giving me incredibly clear directions to getting an account on there. I'm called keiyara on there (I have no idea how and that will prob be changed soon) but if you want to check out TWVE there, go for it! Any support is always welcome.

Thanks for reading,

Acka