If Eugene has learnt anything from his time living with Lance as his roommate, it's that the man has no respect for personal space.
Usually, he can deal with it when his morning routine gets interrupted by his roommate bursting into the bathroom with important news to tell. Or when he's in the kitchen and has almost set Lance on fire when he's attempted to squeeze himself between Eugene and the stove. Or even when he has insisted on sleeping on Eugene's floor and kept him awake all night by his loud snoring.
The point is that most of the time his complete ignorance for distance doesn't bother Eugene.
But when his overly enthusiastic friend crowds him against the headrest after he's been awake for all of 5 minutes, that's when he draws the line. He's not really the one to ask, but he is certain that there is a list of rules when sharing an apartment and he's sure that not jumping into the others bed first thing in the morning is high on that list. He has missed him this past week sure, but this isn't the roommate reunion he was looking for.
The sun has only just made its full appearance outside the window and that's far too early for his first words of the day in his opinion.
"Do you have a death wish?" He grumbles, batting away the hands Lance has now insisted on using to pull the covers away from him.
"Why, do you have a thing for murder?"
He makes sure that the glare he gives off is almost certainly one that could kill. "Not usually, but today feels like the day for trying something new."
Lance, unsurprisingly, isn't fazed one bit by that threat and continues his fight to pry the covers away from his sleeping friend.
Oh, and on top of it all, he's smiling.
A broad, feral grin that Eugene is far too familiar with and knows that whatever has gotten Lance so riled up must be something life-changing. The mischievous glint in his eyes almost makes Eugene too scared to ask. He doesn't get the chance to question his motives though before his roommate is opening his mouth again and further breaking up the silence of the once calm morning.
"You met a girl."
It may be due to how foggy his brain still is from the lack of consciousness, but he wasn't expecting that at all. The statement is simple, straight forward and said with the utmost excitement.
"You actually met a girl" he repeats, more to himself than to the actual person in question, and that feral smile grows into something more of disbelief.
"Lance-"
He tries to warn him, he really does, but his attempt is immediately squashed when he feels the space beside him become empty once more and sees Lance bounding into the middle of the room. There are cheers and whoops and what he thinks is a chant and-
-and now he's dancing.
It's 8 am and his roommate is smack bang in the centre of his room shaking his hips and waving his arms in a completely ungraceful manner. He comes too close several times to things Eugene has left sprawled on the floor that he is very concerned for his safety. However, it appears that his friend doesn't share any of those same concerns as he has now introduced kicks into his routine. High kicks.
"My little Eugene is all grown up!" He carries on spinning in circles and fading into his own little world of Lance. It's when he gets out a high-pitched squeal about little Eugene babies that he decides that that is just about enough for today.
"Lance" he demands again striding over to him and pulling him to a halt with two firm hands on his shoulders. "Lance buddy, I am saying this for your own safety. Please, please, stop-" he gives a pointed look up and down his body "-that."
A disapproving sigh slips out of Lance's mouth as he begins to shake his head furiously. "No can do Eugenie".
Eugenie grumbles at the nickname, eyes trailing his friend as he wiggles out of their current position and flops back onto the bed, which to Eugene's dismay, is now vacant.
He kicks one of his legs onto the other and plants both hands behind his head. "This is the first time you've ever talked about a girl and as your best friend I'm obligated to annoy you about it."
At this moment in time, Eugene is very quickly realizing that sending a text to Lance last week with the simple admission "I met a girl" was a huge mistake.
Unfortunately for him, however annoying he's being about this, he is also verycorrect. Throughout his time in college, Eugene's love life has been more along the lines of a blank space type of situation. It's not like he's had that many opportunities to delve into the dating world, what with hiding in the library and all, and it's not as if he doesn't want to date, but just that he would rather be at home with a good book.
But for some reason, Rapunzel is just different. With only 5 minutes of awkward conversation, and even more awkward staring, she is already infiltrating every one of his thoughts. When he got home from the library that night, he spent the next few hours on every social site he could think of to try and track her down feeling very thankful that Lance was out of town. It was almost 2 am by the time he had come across her on Instagram after a long stalking session, although he would never admit that to anyone if they were to ask. And now he checks that same page every day trying to summon up the courage to actually hit the follow button.
Letting out an exasperated sigh, he turns his attention back to his roommate who has now burst out into a song about love at first sight. If he didn't have such a good singing voice Eugene would have probably throttled him by now. But alas, his roommate can sing and who can blame him if he enjoys listening to him.
Instead, he decides to settle on a pillow and cocks an eyebrow as he grabs the one at the end of the bed and pushes it straight into his face. "Don't you have somewhere to be, like a class?"
Lance's words come out muffled and only slightly annoyed. "The theatre can wait, my friend. First I need details".
And that freezes Eugene to the spot.
How can he give details when there really aren't any details to give? Can he even qualify it as meeting a girl when all he said was his name? The most action that was had was by his book fort, which of course had met its untimely death in Eugene's haste to escape. And he really doesn't think his friend will be too impressed by his tactic to see a pretty girl and run.
The pillow drops from his hands as he removes his grip and uses the brief silence to shuffle over to his desk, perching himself on the edge. He finds a particularly interesting stain and focuses on that. "There's nothing to tell".
"Come on, there must be something."
"There really isn't".
"Did you get her number? Do you know what building she lives in? What course she's on? Anything?"
He shakes his head to every one of his inquiries adding little shrugs to amplify the sympathy factor. This is his first attempt at this, how was he to know he was supposed to get her number?
Lance apparently has no sympathy to give today, as his focus is no longer on his struggling friend but rather on his phone that sits close by on the bedside table. It's switched on, unarmed and the perfect opportunity for Lance to strike, which of course he does, and before Eugene can even mutter his objection the phone has been swiped up and settles in his friends' hand.
He can see the exact moment in which Lance gets his phone unlocked and his eyes settle on the evidence of what Eugene got up to last night. After a whole day of classes and pining over Rapunzel, he was too exhausted to even move let alone remember to close out her profile page. And now it's there, shining brightly, ready for the taking.
Sliding his eyes back up, the wide grin appears again on Lance's lips and this time Eugene certainly is too afraid to ask him what he's got planned.
There's a brief pause before he is leaping off the bed, literally, and making his way over to Eugene, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him from the desk. He's promptly walked out of his room, through the dimly lit hallway and brought to a stop right outside their front door. It takes him a few seconds to register that his arms are being hoisted into a jacket he hadn't even realised Lance had picked up.
"Your girl just posted," he says, finally managing to get Eugene to cooperate and slide his hands all the way through the dark brown sleeves "looks like she's an early riser".
"What?" his voice is laced with every bit of confusion and he gets a light smack on the head for it.
"She's at the café, buddy." Two hands find their way onto Eugene's shoulders before he's being pushed out of the front door that he's not even sure how Lance got open. "You've got some wooing to do my friend."
He tries the best he can to plant his feet firmly on the ground, grab a side of the door frame and halt any movement. Using his free hand and glaring behind himself at Lance, he gestures wildly at his current state of undress.
"I'm still in my underwear."
There's a brief pause, a moment of pure peaceful silence before they are moving again, this time Eugene being pulled in the direction they just came from. Lance's voice is now surely waking up everyone else on their floor when he announces a new addition to his plan.
"First, we change, then we woo!"
.
.
.
.
.
.
It's quite surprising to him just how quickly finds her.
It's even more surprising that he finds her in the exact place he thought she would be.
Corona coffee is the quietest coffee shop in town, with it being at least a ten-minute walk away from campus. Its hidden away and never busier than a few full tables, making it the perfect place for one to come and escape the real world for a while. In his case, it's the ideal place to curl up with a good novel. In Rapunzel's case, it's the perfect place for sketching, especially with the large glass windows located in the downstairs area leading out onto the cafe's courtyard.
Which is exactly where he finds her.
She's sat at the table tucked away in the corner, hand moving furiously, head buried in her paper and completely ignoring everything else around her. It makes him pause in his tracks, halfway on the stairs, mouth slightly open.
He's not exactly sure what it is, but there's just something that makes her so intriguing to him and it's something that goes way past her golden hair and a bright smile. He watches every stroke her pencil takes and is drawn in every time she freezes, sticks out her tongue and erases the line she just made. Only when she's happy with the line correction does her tongue retreat and her lips pull into a smile once again.
There's just so much concentration and respect for what she is doing that he can't help the way something blooms in his chest. She's like magic and all he wants is more. To know her more, talk to her more, see her more. Just be more.
He's known that ever since he looked up and saw her standing at the end of the aisle in the library. It became more apparent when scrolling through her pictures and seeing just what type of person she is. And it hits him again now as he watches her flip her book this way and that to find just the right angle.
After a few minutes of simply staring, when it reaches a point that is bound to be considered creepy, he draws in a long breath and glances down at his phone one last time, reading the message that Lance sent for what he thinks is the 100th time since he left their building.
You got this buddy.
Just don't be a dork.
Don't be a dork, right. He's got this, hasn't he?
There's one more intake of breath, sharp this time, before his legs are moving and taking him over to put his plan in motion - whatever that plan might be. Thanks to Lance, he didn't really have the time to think about what he was going to say or do and now that he is finally seeing her again there is no hope in that happening now. His brain has other priorities.
He shoves his hands into the pockets of his jeans and crosses his fingers tightly hoping that this would be enough to get him the rest of the way over to her table. It does, thankfully, and he's almost to the vacant chair when his luck gives out and sends his foot directly into the path of a backpack strap lying across the floor.
What had intended to be a smooth glide had now resulted in him tumbling haphazardly into the seat before him, his hands grabbing onto the back of the wooden chair to stop him from falling any further.
However, it doesn't stop his legs from flying around under the table and sending the half-full coffee cup plunging to the ground. If he wasn't already fully embarrassed, the loud crashing noise of mug meeting floor is quick to get him to the max level.
So much for not being a dork.
His fall gets Rapunzel's attention almost immediately, her eyes snapping up to meet his before falling to the table in front of her and sending a look of alarm across the table. She stands up quicker than he can really register what's happening and is instantly in action, scooping up all her sketchbooks and supplies and snatching up her phone before its drowned in a sea of coffee.
It's seconds before Eugene is following suit, a chorus of apologies spilling out of his mouth. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that honestly."
"It's fine" she replies, a little breathless but with no annoyance, using a couple of napkins she had nearby to absorb all the liquid she can.
Despite her apparent calmness, he's still a fussing mess, trying his hardest to get the rest of her sketchbooks to safety, especially the one he saw her drawing in when he first arrived. It's already half full and with the way she was focussing on it earlier, it must be one of importance.
The book is barely an inch off the table when he hears a cry comes from opposite him.
"No! Don't touch that".
His head raises slightly to see Rapunzel with her arm stretched trying to grab the sketchbook off him, her cheeks now blooming red from anger. No, not anger but what he thinks is embarrassment.
Eugene is really not the type of person to snoop and with Rapunzel only inches away he knows he really shouldn't, but he can't help his eyes from flickering down to the pages in front of him.
He's surprised when there is no more objection coming from Rapunzel as he flips through the rest of the pages.
He's even more surprised when he sees that the pages are full of him.
His eyes find their way back to Rapunzel and catch the small shrug she gives in her defence.
"I told you not to touch it."
And for once he's really glad he didn't listen.
.
.
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Thank you for all the reads and comments so far! Just a heads up, if you read this on a03 or head over to my tumblr (fitzherbertssmolder) this fic also comes with instagram posts and messages. I've tried to find a way to upload the links on here too, but the last time I did that for a fic all the links were deleted, so make sure to head over there if you want to see the pictures too!
