Dorian fought down the slightly awkward nervousness that plagued him as he strode through the halls of Institute for the first time in more than a month, toward his room. He tried to avoid attention- for once- though he was sure that the professor knew he was there.
He pushed the door to his former room open.
It opened to a view of a room in flux. Half of it was near bare...his half...with his things missing from the walls and dressers. Every trace of the mark he'd left here packed away in brown boxes by the door. In its place, bags of someone elses' things were piled in the corner by the standard issue bed.
And in the center of it, holding a box of Dorian's things with a stunned and speechless expression was Bobby Drake.
"D-Dorian? you're back?"
Dorian's expression of shock matched Bobby's as he stared at the room.
"Did you throw out my things?"
Bobby nearly dropped the box-in fact, it fell out of his hands, with a fumbling gesture he encased it in protective ice, freezing it in midair.
"W-what?" He frowned "n-no way , man. We're just putting it in storage...b-because nobody knew if you were coming back."
Some of the stunned betrayal left Dorian's voice- leaving room for the bitterness.
"Ah. Storage. Of course. Wouldn't want to waste space.," he growned. "I see you're getting a new roommate."
"Don't be like that, Dorian." Bobby ran his hand through his short hair, and stepped away from the frozen box. He put his hands on his hips. "You know the policy. Hard to room with someone for team building exercises when the guy ain't even there you know? So of course the Prof's moving the new guy in. When you come back, I'm sure he'll give ya another room."
Dorian looked away with his frown deepening.
"He won't have to worry about that then. -Do you know where they put my things? I'm here to get them."
"Some of it's in the storage room." Bobby's frown deepened in return "...and some of it's by the door. Want me to get a teacher to help ya out? ...You aren't coming back, are you? Like. at all."
"I'll get it myself," he said firmly. "And you're not exactly begging me to stay, are you?"
He grabbed one of the boxes by the door.
"Dorian. I..." Bobby looked away. He took a nervous step forward, "That's not it at all, you know? it's just...It's...it's complicated. Come on...if you're already here, why don't you talk to Ororo, or Kitty, or hell..even the Professor? you don't have run away just because things got… rough..between us."
"I don't want to talk to them!" Dorian scowled, his nails digging slightly into the cardboard box. "In case you've forgotten, when things got 'rough' between us everyone decided I was some kind of monster for wanting to be able to hold your hand on team movie night."
"It...it's not that." Bobby bristled. He looked away. "Yeah, look, I wanted to hold your hand too, you know...b-but I...I was scared, you know? I wasn't ready to fuckin' be out in the open like that. And..and people got mad at you because you didn't respect that and just threw me onto the hot seat, man."
"Threw you into the hot seat," he snapped. "as if it was something to be ashamed of! As if Jean doesn't spend the entire evening in Scott's lap." He snorted at the absolute indignity.
"W-well yeah but...everyone already knows about those two, and...and... you know? " Bobby muttered , turning pink as he flushed. Slowly, ice began to creep over his skin, forming a protective layer between him and the world. A second skin, of sorts. "I was trying to take things slow,, Dorian, and that wasn't good enough for you. You know the kind of shit I went through back at my parent's place! You know how bad I was hurt and you didn't even ask me, you just went outed me to everyone!."
"I shouldn't have to ask if it's okay to show affection in my relationship! No one here would have batted an eye if you hadn't freaked out about it!" he snapped. "But clearly we have *different priorities* and that's why we broke up."
The room had started to turn cold around Bobby, as he gestured towards Dorian with an ice-covered hand. Tears had beaded in his eyes, but like everything else on him, they were soon covered by the crawl of ice.
"I freaked out because you didn't warn me! I didn't know anyone'd be fine with it, Dorian. How the hell was I supposed to know? I wanted affection too, but fucking forgive me for being afraid of what might happen if everyone knew I was gay! Not everyone's as open fucking minded as they turned out to be. Fuck"
"I just can't believe that you would-"
Dorian's replay was cut off as Greg's shadow loomed behind him in the doorway.
"Hey. Is there an issue here?"
"N-no." Bobby tensed, and some of the ice crinkled and cracked on the floor under him. He shook off the ice, working to defrost it by taking a few deep breaths. "Dorian was just getting his things."
"Really?" Greg snorted roughly, glaring at Dorian. "Cause it looked like he was making a scene. You need help with those boxes, pal?"
"I'm fine," Dorian hissed, scooping the other box into his arms despite difficulty. "Have fun with your new roommate."
He shouldered past Greg roughly and stomped down the hall.
"Yeah. I will." Bobby muttered , looking away "Good luck out there, Dorian."
He walked over to his bed, and laid flat out on his sheets with a low groan "what a fucking mess."
Greg shuffled into the room after glaring at Dorian's back to make sure he left.
"Man, what is that guy's problem?" he demanded, a little awkwardly. "every time I see him he's hassling someone."
"it's not his fault. Maybe it's mine, I dunno. It's all 'cause of that fight we had." He looked over "...you didn't hear much, didja?"
Greg rubbed his neck, not wanting to lie, but... he heard... enough.
"A little," he admitted. "Sorry."
"Great." Bobby covered his head with his pillow as the ice finally receded from him in its entirety. "Welcome to the exclusive club of 'people who know Bobby Drake likes men', Greggy. Sorry, fresh out of fuckin' t-shirts."
Greg looked away, sitting down on his own new bed.
"Heh, yeah don't worry about it. Sounds like you don't exactly wanna broadcast it anyway."
Bobby burrowed his face in the pillow, muttering an inaudible reply.
"Sorry," Greg repeated. "I don't blame you, anyway. People can be shitheads right?... sounds like it was a nasty falling out." He got up, and started getting out some of his stuff
Bobby tensed on the bed.
"It...sucked. I get why he did it, you know? it ain't like I didn't want to be close to him...but people...I've..." He started to sniff, and smothered it with the pillow "the whole thing sucked. It still sucks."
Greg grimaced as he heard him sniffling.
"Y-yeah... I... don't really have a lot of experience with relationships," he admitted in a mumble. "But it sounds awful."
"Yeah. Yeah. It...is. I cared a lot about him ya know? I...I still do, at least as a friend if nothin' else. But it fuckin' hurt when he just up and told everyone without even askin me first."
"Yeah... betrayal of trust, right?" he said, putting clothes away in drawers.
"Yeah, that's...that's what it was." Bobby rolled over onto his back to look at the ceiling. "And of course he went and ran the fuck away...like, we couldn't find him all summer and now that school's started again he's downright mad at us."
"Threw a tantrum and then didn't wanna communicate? Yeah... no matter who you're dating you can do better than that, Bobby."
"Heh." Bobby grinned at him weakly "you think so, huh?"
"Yeah, seriously. He seems really immature. I wouldn't date somebody who treated me that way..." Greg paused in his unpacking to look over and nod.
"I mean, we ain't dating anymore." Bobby murmured "Sounds like he's moving on if he found a place to stay, too. So...you know, whatever."
"Exactly," Greg nodded, staring at the dresser. "Move on and live your best life and that stuff."
"My best life, huh?" He closed his eyes "yeah. Maybe I'll like, find a way to move on too. I dunno."
"I mean, you gotta move on one way or another, right?" he shrugged. "You don't have to like, date asap or anything though. Live the bachelor life for a while..."
"The bachelor life. Yeah, i've uh, I've been doin' that all summer, man. Trust me, I get it. Got more important things on my mind right now anyway. Like, you know. New roomie. Classes here...school."
"Yeah, plenty of that." he nodded. "Heh, sorry if the new roommate thing is a little awkward or anything."
Bobby sat straight up
"It's awkward? Fuck, uh...shit. Can I like, get you a soda or somethin' will that help?" He ran his hand through his hair "no wait shit, stop it Bobby, you're just making it more awkward."
"Oh no, i mean, like, awkward for you," he mumbled awkwardly, holding up his hands. "Like, going from rooming with uh... with you know, to just some guy."
Bobby sighed, trying to smooth out his flippy hair.
"Man, don't worry about that...like. Yeah, it was nice while it lasted, but it got real awkward when we like, argued or whatever."
"You know, I bet," he sighed, and changed the subject a bit. "I know from experience living with someone you're fighting with sucks."
"Your sis, right?" Bobby asked, leaning on the edge of his bed to watch him unpack.
"Yeah. We even got in a fight when I went to pick up my stuff. Last time, I guess."
"Last time, at least until she can like...grow up a little I guess. " Bobby grinned "ah well, you're one of us now man. You don't gotta deal with that no more. Maybe it'll help, like, give you guys the space to work things out!"
"I sure hope that's what it means," he nodded. "Maybe a little distance can do everybody some good."