Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is owned by people far more rich and powerful than
I am (for whatever that's saying).
Warnings: AU, shounen ai (1+2)
Author's Ramblings: Okay, when I went off to college, I started writing
these "everyday life" stories. This is sort of the culmination of them,
since it depicts what I think would happen if the guys lived "normal" lives
and met in college. I know that this idea is far from new, but hey, you
know what they say; you write what you know.
Welcome Distractions
By Rapunzel
Chapter 17: Frantic Searches
The moment Heero walked into his room, he knew from the look on his roommate's face that something was afoot. "Alright, Wufei, what did you do?"
"Whatever makes you think I did anything?" Wufei asked, still smirking slightly.
"Because you look entirely too smug," Heero said, regarding the other suspiciously.
"Let's just say that Dorothy should find an interesting surprise when she gets back," Wufei answered. "It won't quite make up for the incident with the door, but it will help settle the score a little."
Heero wondered if it would be futile to try and explain to Wufei that his actions didn't mean that the score was settled, but simply that it was Dorothy's turn to act now.
~*~*~
"I swear, Dorothy," Relena said, "I didn't leave the door unlocked."
"How else could he get in?" Dorothy demanded angrily. She moved restlessly, like she wanted to pace around the room, but she couldn't, due largely to the fact that the middle of her floor was occupied by a large, continuous structure of Dixie cups, each one stapled to its neighbors and full of water.
"Maybe he got in the same way you get into his room," Relena suggested, eager to clear herself of any charges of negligence.
"Couldn't be," Dorothy said dismissively. "As far as I know, he doesn't know anyone at the Area Service Desk. Anyway, that's not the point. The point is, that prick is going to die! The cups are bad enough, but I want to know what the hell he did with my posters!" She eyed the cups with irritation. "And how am I supposed to clean up this mess?" she demanded to no one in particular. "It's too wide to fit through the door."
"It's easy," Relena said. "Just get a stapler remover and take it apart. And have a mop handy, just in case you fail."
"I don't remember where I left my staple remover," Dorothy muttered. "I think it's in there." She headed towards her desk. However, on the way across the room, her foot hit one of the cups, and the entire structure shook ominously. Water sloshed over the floor, and the next step cause her to slip. She was vaguely aware of Relena's horrified cry as she went down, crushing the cup structure and spilling water across the floor.
When she sat up, Dorothy was not a happy camper. Her clothes were soaked, and Relena was standing at the edge of the room, trying to avoid getting her feet wet. "Not a word of this," Dorothy snarled at her roommate.
Relena shook her head timidly. "Not a word," she repeated. Then she spotted something, and moved gingerly over to the area next to Dorothy's bed. Bending down, she retrieved the item, and when she straightened, she had several soggy sheets of something in her hands. "Um, Dorothy?" she said, apologetically. "I think I found your posters."
"WUFEI!!"
~*~*~
"It was perfect, don't you think?" Wufei asked at dinner, still looking smug as he poked at the dinning hall's version of spaghetti with his fork.
Heero cast a glance across the room to where Dorothy and Relena were eating with several other girls from the dorm. At least, Relena and the others were eating; Dorothy seemed to be trying to burn holes in Wufei's back with the malevolence of her gaze. "I don't know," he answered. "I think you'll end up regretting this."
"Feh!" Wufei scoffed. "What would you have me do, anyway? Give up and let that conniving woman win? Where's the justice in that?"
"Maybe then said woman would stop persecuting you," Heero mumbled into his slice of pizza.
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
"Hmph." Wufei didn't look convinced, but he didn't press, preferring instead to go on about Dorothy. "Of all the bad luck, getting stuck in a building with her was the worst thing that could have happened to me. If they hadn't put me in a co-ed dorm, there wouldn't have been a problem. At least next year I'll be safe. I know what apartment complex she's living in, and it's far away from me."
The last bit of that statement took Heero by surprise. "You mean you both already know where you're going to live next year?"
Wufei stopped waving his fork around as he ranted and stared at his roommate. "You mean you don't?"
Heero shook his head.
Wufei let out an exasperated sigh. "Where have you been, Yuy? People have been signing leases since February. You have to start early if you want to find a place."
Wufei quickly went back to his rant against Dorothy, but Heero had stopped listening. He was wondering just how much trouble he was in.
~*~*~
"Apartments, huh?" Duo paused, incidentally blocking the walkway with his book cart. Fortunately, no one else was around to care.
"Yes. When did you find yours last year?"
"I think we signed the lease in March," Duo said, looking thoughtful. "Why? Have you found a place?"
"Not yet," Heero muttered sullenly.
"Better get a move on," Duo told him. "Most places have vacancies in March, but they go fast, depending on the place."
"It's almost April." Heero sounded gloomy.
"Well, then I'd say you've got some apartment hunting in you future."
"I'm starting tomorrow afternoon," Heero said. "Do you think you could come with me?" he added hopefully.
"I've got to work," Duo reminded him. "Anyway, I really wouldn't want to. Apartment hunting wasn't that much fun the first time around."
That only served to make Heero even gloomier.
~*~*~
Heero kicked the door closed behind him rather harder than was necessary. Feeling that the gesture was insufficient to convey his frustration, he kicked his book bag, which was lying on the floor next to his bed. Then he kicked it again. This might have gone on for quite some time, had he not decided to kick his bedpost. Unlike the previous objects, the bedpost did not give ground under his foot, and the end result was Heero jumping up and down, clutching his bruised foot and cursing fluently in English and Japanese.
"I take it the apartment hunt did not go well?" Wufei asked mildly, having set aside the homework he was working on to watch his roommate make a fool of himself.
Heero's continued swearing was answer enough.
Shaking his head in a sage manner that Heero found terribly annoying, Wufei said, "I told you you should have started looking earlier."
"If you had told me that earlier," Heero snarled, "I might have."
"Well," Wufei replied irritably, "it's not my fault that you can't be bothered to keep up with such things."
With a wordless growl, Heero snatched his abused book bag up and flung a random folder and book into it. Closing it, he stalked back towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Wufei asked.
"To the library," Heero answered shortly before slamming the door behind him.
Wufei stared at the closed door for a moment. "I almost pity Duo," he muttered. Then, shaking his head, he returned to his books.
~*~*~
"Don't worry so much, Heero," Duo said consolingly. "You'll find something."
"I've been looking for days," Heero muttered. "I'm even starting to fall behind in my schoolwork, and I still haven't found anything that's not a million miles away from campus or too expensive."
"I'm really sorry, Heero," Duo said. "I'd help you if I could, but I haven't heard of anything. And you can't come and live with me, unless you want to share a room with Hilde. Somehow I don't think you do, and she'd probably have a fit if I even suggested it."
Heero groaned in frustration and let his head fall against the desk in a gesture of despair.
Moving to sit on the desk, Duo reached over and ran his fingers through Heero's hair comfortingly. "It's not all that bad. You won't wind up living on the streets next year. If worst comes to worst, you answer some of the advertisements for roommates. There are always plenty of people looking for one more person to split the rent with."
"Just what I want," Heero muttered sarcastically. "To live with a bunch of people I've never met before."
"There are worse things," Duo said. "You're sulking, Heero, and that's not going to get you anywhere."
Heero raised his head to glare at his boyfriend. "I am not sulking," he asserted.
Duo rolled his eyes. "Yes, you are."
Heero moved his head away from Duo's hand. "I am not! Anyway, what would you know about it?"
"Now calm down," Duo said, raising his hands in the air in a placating gesture. "Don't get all angry with me."
Heero let his head drop again. "I'm sorry," he muttered. "I'm just frustrated."
"I know you are," Duo said comfortingly. "But getting mad at me won't help."
"I know," Heero said glumly.
Duo looked down at the other sympathetically, then brightened. "You know what you need? You need something to take your mind off this. Stick around until closing, and I'll show you something, okay?"
"Alright," Heero said, curious as to what Duo was up to.
"Great!" Duo beamed at him. "I've got to go earn my paycheck now, and I assume you need to study. Meet me at the periodicals room in an hour and a half."
"But it will be closed by then," Heero pointed out.
Duo winked at him. "That's the point."
~*~*~
The periodicals room was already locked when Heero got there, but Duo was inside and let him in. Grinning mischievously, he gestured Heero over to the part of the room where the newspapers were kept.
"See this?" he asked, holding up a wooden holder with a newspaper in it. "What does it look like to you?"
Heero studied the holder, which Duo was grasping by its handle. At the other end, the wood was split in several places, allowing the newspaper to be put into it. A rubber band kept the pieces held together. "It looks like a newspaper holder," he answered.
"Ah," Duo said knowingly. "It looks like a newspaper holder now. But watch this!" He removed the rubber band, took the newspaper out of the holder, and set it aside, replacing the rubber band at the end. Then he flourished the holder. "En Guard!"
Heero suddenly saw what is was Duo was getting at. The holders by themselves did rather resemble wooden practice swords. He also noticed that Duo had already removed the other newspapers, leaving their holders in a pile. "So what do we do now?" he asked, picking up a holder.
"Well, first, we make sure there are no administrators or senior librarians around," Duo said. "Technically, we're not supposed to do this, and if we break one of the holders, we've got a problem on our hands. These things are a pain to replace." After cautiously checking around to make sure they were alone, Duo posed dramatically with his holder. "The first move is yours."
It was great fun. They fenced around the basement, dodging in and out of the shelves where the magazines were stacked. Heero had to remind himself not to swing too hard, for fear of breaking his "weapon." As they danced their strange dance among the periodicals, Heero found himself forgetting all about his trouble finding an apartment. His irritation vanished, and he laughed along with Duo as they playfully whacked each other.
However, it ended rather abruptly when the door to the maps section of swung open and a short, Korean girl came into the room where they were, carrying an armload of papers. She looked up and caught sight of them, flushed and sweating, with the "weapons" in their hands, both of them trying unsuccessfully to look innocent.
"Duo," she said reprovingly, "are you sparring with the newspaper racks _again_?"
"Um... yes?" he answered, grinning sheepishly at her.
She pouted at him. "I want to play too!"
"Don't you have work to do?" Heero asked her.
"I could ask you the same thing," she replied.
"I'll let you know next time I do it so you can play too, okay? Promise," Duo said.
The girl went off, apparently placated, but Duo set his "sword" aside. "We should probably stop now," he said. "Don't want to get caught, after all."
Heero nodded and set his aside as well. "I should be going," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Duo nodded and leaned over to kiss him lightly. "Good luck with the apartment," he said.
Heero nodded and headed out the door.
~*~*~
"Oh, Heero, you're back! Good."
Heero warily eyed the blond menace that confronted him. "What is it you want, Dorothy?"
"Just a word with you," she said, smiling sweetly. Oddly enough, he found the smile almost as threatening as a glare would have been. "I hear you've been looking for a place to stay next year."
"Who from?" he asked. For a moment he wondered if Wufei had told her, but decided that that was unlikely, as the two of them were not on speaking terms.
"That's not important." She waved it aside. "Anyway, Relena and I are going to live together next year, and we've got a three bedroom apartment lined up. The problem is that our third roommate backed out. She's decided to take a year off. We were thinking about advertising for another roommate, but we'd rather live with someone we know. Anyway, we were wondering if you'd be interested."
Heero stared at her. He couldn't believe she was offering, just like that. While she didn't despise him the way she did Wufei, the two of them were still not on great terms. Still, the offer of a place to live was not to be cast aside lightly. "Thank you. I'll think about it," he told her.
"There's just one thing," she said.
/Ah,/ Heero thought. /Of course, there's a catch./
"My grandfather isn't really thrilled with the idea of me sharing an apartment with a guy," Dorothy continued. "He's a bit old fashioned like that, but he's also helping to pay for my college education, so of course, I have to honor his wishes."
"Of course," Heero echoed, wondering why she'd made the offer in the first place if she couldn't live with a male.
"But Grandfather isn't completely unreasonable. It's just that he'd feel much better if he knew the man I was going to live with was already committed to a girlfriend."
Suddenly, Heero had a nasty feeling he knew where this was going. Still, he waited, hoping he was wrong.
"I'm sure he wouldn't have a problem with you living with us if you were, say, dating Relena."
"Excuse me?" Heero glared at her, wondering that she had to audacity to make such a suggestion, until he realized that she probably didn't know about his relationship with Duo.
"Relena's totally fine with this," Dorothy said, implying that he should be as well. "Especially since it would really be the only way we could allow you to live with us."
Heero glared at her venomously. Damn her for attaching strings like that! And she seemed to expect him to take up her offer too!
"Well," she said, seeing that her suggestion was going to be met with stony silence, "think it over. You know where to find me when you decide."
"Is that all?" he asked her coldly.
"Not quite," she said, smiling evilly. "Tell your roommate not to sleep too soundly."
TBC...
Author's ramblings: If I don't get the next part of this up fairly soon, it's because my organic chemistry class has once again eaten my life. Please be patient.
Welcome Distractions
By Rapunzel
Chapter 17: Frantic Searches
The moment Heero walked into his room, he knew from the look on his roommate's face that something was afoot. "Alright, Wufei, what did you do?"
"Whatever makes you think I did anything?" Wufei asked, still smirking slightly.
"Because you look entirely too smug," Heero said, regarding the other suspiciously.
"Let's just say that Dorothy should find an interesting surprise when she gets back," Wufei answered. "It won't quite make up for the incident with the door, but it will help settle the score a little."
Heero wondered if it would be futile to try and explain to Wufei that his actions didn't mean that the score was settled, but simply that it was Dorothy's turn to act now.
~*~*~
"I swear, Dorothy," Relena said, "I didn't leave the door unlocked."
"How else could he get in?" Dorothy demanded angrily. She moved restlessly, like she wanted to pace around the room, but she couldn't, due largely to the fact that the middle of her floor was occupied by a large, continuous structure of Dixie cups, each one stapled to its neighbors and full of water.
"Maybe he got in the same way you get into his room," Relena suggested, eager to clear herself of any charges of negligence.
"Couldn't be," Dorothy said dismissively. "As far as I know, he doesn't know anyone at the Area Service Desk. Anyway, that's not the point. The point is, that prick is going to die! The cups are bad enough, but I want to know what the hell he did with my posters!" She eyed the cups with irritation. "And how am I supposed to clean up this mess?" she demanded to no one in particular. "It's too wide to fit through the door."
"It's easy," Relena said. "Just get a stapler remover and take it apart. And have a mop handy, just in case you fail."
"I don't remember where I left my staple remover," Dorothy muttered. "I think it's in there." She headed towards her desk. However, on the way across the room, her foot hit one of the cups, and the entire structure shook ominously. Water sloshed over the floor, and the next step cause her to slip. She was vaguely aware of Relena's horrified cry as she went down, crushing the cup structure and spilling water across the floor.
When she sat up, Dorothy was not a happy camper. Her clothes were soaked, and Relena was standing at the edge of the room, trying to avoid getting her feet wet. "Not a word of this," Dorothy snarled at her roommate.
Relena shook her head timidly. "Not a word," she repeated. Then she spotted something, and moved gingerly over to the area next to Dorothy's bed. Bending down, she retrieved the item, and when she straightened, she had several soggy sheets of something in her hands. "Um, Dorothy?" she said, apologetically. "I think I found your posters."
"WUFEI!!"
~*~*~
"It was perfect, don't you think?" Wufei asked at dinner, still looking smug as he poked at the dinning hall's version of spaghetti with his fork.
Heero cast a glance across the room to where Dorothy and Relena were eating with several other girls from the dorm. At least, Relena and the others were eating; Dorothy seemed to be trying to burn holes in Wufei's back with the malevolence of her gaze. "I don't know," he answered. "I think you'll end up regretting this."
"Feh!" Wufei scoffed. "What would you have me do, anyway? Give up and let that conniving woman win? Where's the justice in that?"
"Maybe then said woman would stop persecuting you," Heero mumbled into his slice of pizza.
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
"Hmph." Wufei didn't look convinced, but he didn't press, preferring instead to go on about Dorothy. "Of all the bad luck, getting stuck in a building with her was the worst thing that could have happened to me. If they hadn't put me in a co-ed dorm, there wouldn't have been a problem. At least next year I'll be safe. I know what apartment complex she's living in, and it's far away from me."
The last bit of that statement took Heero by surprise. "You mean you both already know where you're going to live next year?"
Wufei stopped waving his fork around as he ranted and stared at his roommate. "You mean you don't?"
Heero shook his head.
Wufei let out an exasperated sigh. "Where have you been, Yuy? People have been signing leases since February. You have to start early if you want to find a place."
Wufei quickly went back to his rant against Dorothy, but Heero had stopped listening. He was wondering just how much trouble he was in.
~*~*~
"Apartments, huh?" Duo paused, incidentally blocking the walkway with his book cart. Fortunately, no one else was around to care.
"Yes. When did you find yours last year?"
"I think we signed the lease in March," Duo said, looking thoughtful. "Why? Have you found a place?"
"Not yet," Heero muttered sullenly.
"Better get a move on," Duo told him. "Most places have vacancies in March, but they go fast, depending on the place."
"It's almost April." Heero sounded gloomy.
"Well, then I'd say you've got some apartment hunting in you future."
"I'm starting tomorrow afternoon," Heero said. "Do you think you could come with me?" he added hopefully.
"I've got to work," Duo reminded him. "Anyway, I really wouldn't want to. Apartment hunting wasn't that much fun the first time around."
That only served to make Heero even gloomier.
~*~*~
Heero kicked the door closed behind him rather harder than was necessary. Feeling that the gesture was insufficient to convey his frustration, he kicked his book bag, which was lying on the floor next to his bed. Then he kicked it again. This might have gone on for quite some time, had he not decided to kick his bedpost. Unlike the previous objects, the bedpost did not give ground under his foot, and the end result was Heero jumping up and down, clutching his bruised foot and cursing fluently in English and Japanese.
"I take it the apartment hunt did not go well?" Wufei asked mildly, having set aside the homework he was working on to watch his roommate make a fool of himself.
Heero's continued swearing was answer enough.
Shaking his head in a sage manner that Heero found terribly annoying, Wufei said, "I told you you should have started looking earlier."
"If you had told me that earlier," Heero snarled, "I might have."
"Well," Wufei replied irritably, "it's not my fault that you can't be bothered to keep up with such things."
With a wordless growl, Heero snatched his abused book bag up and flung a random folder and book into it. Closing it, he stalked back towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Wufei asked.
"To the library," Heero answered shortly before slamming the door behind him.
Wufei stared at the closed door for a moment. "I almost pity Duo," he muttered. Then, shaking his head, he returned to his books.
~*~*~
"Don't worry so much, Heero," Duo said consolingly. "You'll find something."
"I've been looking for days," Heero muttered. "I'm even starting to fall behind in my schoolwork, and I still haven't found anything that's not a million miles away from campus or too expensive."
"I'm really sorry, Heero," Duo said. "I'd help you if I could, but I haven't heard of anything. And you can't come and live with me, unless you want to share a room with Hilde. Somehow I don't think you do, and she'd probably have a fit if I even suggested it."
Heero groaned in frustration and let his head fall against the desk in a gesture of despair.
Moving to sit on the desk, Duo reached over and ran his fingers through Heero's hair comfortingly. "It's not all that bad. You won't wind up living on the streets next year. If worst comes to worst, you answer some of the advertisements for roommates. There are always plenty of people looking for one more person to split the rent with."
"Just what I want," Heero muttered sarcastically. "To live with a bunch of people I've never met before."
"There are worse things," Duo said. "You're sulking, Heero, and that's not going to get you anywhere."
Heero raised his head to glare at his boyfriend. "I am not sulking," he asserted.
Duo rolled his eyes. "Yes, you are."
Heero moved his head away from Duo's hand. "I am not! Anyway, what would you know about it?"
"Now calm down," Duo said, raising his hands in the air in a placating gesture. "Don't get all angry with me."
Heero let his head drop again. "I'm sorry," he muttered. "I'm just frustrated."
"I know you are," Duo said comfortingly. "But getting mad at me won't help."
"I know," Heero said glumly.
Duo looked down at the other sympathetically, then brightened. "You know what you need? You need something to take your mind off this. Stick around until closing, and I'll show you something, okay?"
"Alright," Heero said, curious as to what Duo was up to.
"Great!" Duo beamed at him. "I've got to go earn my paycheck now, and I assume you need to study. Meet me at the periodicals room in an hour and a half."
"But it will be closed by then," Heero pointed out.
Duo winked at him. "That's the point."
~*~*~
The periodicals room was already locked when Heero got there, but Duo was inside and let him in. Grinning mischievously, he gestured Heero over to the part of the room where the newspapers were kept.
"See this?" he asked, holding up a wooden holder with a newspaper in it. "What does it look like to you?"
Heero studied the holder, which Duo was grasping by its handle. At the other end, the wood was split in several places, allowing the newspaper to be put into it. A rubber band kept the pieces held together. "It looks like a newspaper holder," he answered.
"Ah," Duo said knowingly. "It looks like a newspaper holder now. But watch this!" He removed the rubber band, took the newspaper out of the holder, and set it aside, replacing the rubber band at the end. Then he flourished the holder. "En Guard!"
Heero suddenly saw what is was Duo was getting at. The holders by themselves did rather resemble wooden practice swords. He also noticed that Duo had already removed the other newspapers, leaving their holders in a pile. "So what do we do now?" he asked, picking up a holder.
"Well, first, we make sure there are no administrators or senior librarians around," Duo said. "Technically, we're not supposed to do this, and if we break one of the holders, we've got a problem on our hands. These things are a pain to replace." After cautiously checking around to make sure they were alone, Duo posed dramatically with his holder. "The first move is yours."
It was great fun. They fenced around the basement, dodging in and out of the shelves where the magazines were stacked. Heero had to remind himself not to swing too hard, for fear of breaking his "weapon." As they danced their strange dance among the periodicals, Heero found himself forgetting all about his trouble finding an apartment. His irritation vanished, and he laughed along with Duo as they playfully whacked each other.
However, it ended rather abruptly when the door to the maps section of swung open and a short, Korean girl came into the room where they were, carrying an armload of papers. She looked up and caught sight of them, flushed and sweating, with the "weapons" in their hands, both of them trying unsuccessfully to look innocent.
"Duo," she said reprovingly, "are you sparring with the newspaper racks _again_?"
"Um... yes?" he answered, grinning sheepishly at her.
She pouted at him. "I want to play too!"
"Don't you have work to do?" Heero asked her.
"I could ask you the same thing," she replied.
"I'll let you know next time I do it so you can play too, okay? Promise," Duo said.
The girl went off, apparently placated, but Duo set his "sword" aside. "We should probably stop now," he said. "Don't want to get caught, after all."
Heero nodded and set his aside as well. "I should be going," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Duo nodded and leaned over to kiss him lightly. "Good luck with the apartment," he said.
Heero nodded and headed out the door.
~*~*~
"Oh, Heero, you're back! Good."
Heero warily eyed the blond menace that confronted him. "What is it you want, Dorothy?"
"Just a word with you," she said, smiling sweetly. Oddly enough, he found the smile almost as threatening as a glare would have been. "I hear you've been looking for a place to stay next year."
"Who from?" he asked. For a moment he wondered if Wufei had told her, but decided that that was unlikely, as the two of them were not on speaking terms.
"That's not important." She waved it aside. "Anyway, Relena and I are going to live together next year, and we've got a three bedroom apartment lined up. The problem is that our third roommate backed out. She's decided to take a year off. We were thinking about advertising for another roommate, but we'd rather live with someone we know. Anyway, we were wondering if you'd be interested."
Heero stared at her. He couldn't believe she was offering, just like that. While she didn't despise him the way she did Wufei, the two of them were still not on great terms. Still, the offer of a place to live was not to be cast aside lightly. "Thank you. I'll think about it," he told her.
"There's just one thing," she said.
/Ah,/ Heero thought. /Of course, there's a catch./
"My grandfather isn't really thrilled with the idea of me sharing an apartment with a guy," Dorothy continued. "He's a bit old fashioned like that, but he's also helping to pay for my college education, so of course, I have to honor his wishes."
"Of course," Heero echoed, wondering why she'd made the offer in the first place if she couldn't live with a male.
"But Grandfather isn't completely unreasonable. It's just that he'd feel much better if he knew the man I was going to live with was already committed to a girlfriend."
Suddenly, Heero had a nasty feeling he knew where this was going. Still, he waited, hoping he was wrong.
"I'm sure he wouldn't have a problem with you living with us if you were, say, dating Relena."
"Excuse me?" Heero glared at her, wondering that she had to audacity to make such a suggestion, until he realized that she probably didn't know about his relationship with Duo.
"Relena's totally fine with this," Dorothy said, implying that he should be as well. "Especially since it would really be the only way we could allow you to live with us."
Heero glared at her venomously. Damn her for attaching strings like that! And she seemed to expect him to take up her offer too!
"Well," she said, seeing that her suggestion was going to be met with stony silence, "think it over. You know where to find me when you decide."
"Is that all?" he asked her coldly.
"Not quite," she said, smiling evilly. "Tell your roommate not to sleep too soundly."
TBC...
Author's ramblings: If I don't get the next part of this up fairly soon, it's because my organic chemistry class has once again eaten my life. Please be patient.