"Have I told you your dad's a dick?"

Sam slid his fingers under his round glasses and rubbed at his tired eyes, the sound of Touya spinning his pen in his fingers ringing in his ears. He fought back the urge to snatch it from him and launch it across the room; the noise had been bothering him since the moment they'd sat down.

"Yeah, for like the tenth time this lesson."

When he reopened his eyes and cast his lab partner an irritated, sideways glance, he noted how the lid of the pen hadn't even been removed and rather than taking notes, its owner merely rested his head idly against the palm of his hand.

"Oh." Touya responded in a deadpan tone, his pen suddenly coming to a halt only for it resume it's irritating noise; it clicked tediously against the work surface like the hands on a really loud, really fast clock.

"Well, he is." And Touya's eyes cast a dark look towards the man in question.

Professor Gaster, Sam's father, stood at the front of the class. He was a tall, bespectacled man with a receding hairline and a lopsided face. His monotonous manner of speaking did little to help maintain Sam's wavering attention. That, along with Touya's continuous interruptions would most likely result in another sleepless night of catch-up for Sam. It didn't particularly help that his 'lab partner' was a total slacker either.

Touya was a rich kid, though you wouldn't have guessed it by looking at him. He had somehow managed to slip his way into higher education despite having seemingly no interest in learning. Although, the fact his father was a wealthy and influential man, probably had a lot to do with it.

When Touya first took his seat next to him back in freshmen year, Sam remembered internally criticizing his unusual appearance; you didn't usually see many facial piercings in physics class. Since that year, not much about his edgy appearance had changed except the fact that he now stood at 6f4, almost a whole foot taller than Sam. There wasn't a day that went by that Touya didn't remind Sam of this fact.

He wore his lab coat with the sleeves rolled up and it constantly open because, apparently, wearing a lab coat for its intended purpose looked too nerdy. His many rings always clanked against the glass vials whenever he actually made the effort to help Sam, even though it mainly comprised of him holding stuff while Sam did all the work.

After a brief and blissful silence of approximately 5 minutes, upon which Sam could actually make some progress on the set assignment, Touya once again piped up.

"So how's life livin' with the new chick?" He asked, picking his teeth as he rocked back on his stool.

"Great. She seems cool." Sam responded off-handedly as his brow furrowed in concentration. He crossed out what he had just written only to try again the second after.

"She hot?"

"Dude," Sam responded with a click of his tongue. Touya's endless interruptions were already costing him precious hours in bed and it was only the first day back. His brows knit together as he tried to refocus his attention on his work. "Y'know I don't think I've seen you use that pen once since I met you."

Touya grunted a laugh. "What? Yeah I do." Then, tearing away the corner of his unused notebook, he stuffed it into the lid of his pen and blew hard. The projectile was sent flying straight towards a lone girl sat in the front row.

The spite-soaked ball of paper bounced off the back of the girl's blonde bob haircut causing her to turn around. The bewildered round eyes behind her large, round spectacles blinked cluelessly at the two young men sat in the back row. Touya shot a sly grin her way, the flirtatious gesture making her flush and bashfully spin around to burry her nose back in her textbook. Meanwhile, Sam had to hold back from chuckling despite himself.

"It's all fun and games now but wait until her girlfriend shows up at your front door." Sam muttered, nodding towards the girl his lab partner had just used as target practise.

"Wait, she's gay?" Touya blurted, leaning over onto Sam's side of the table as he asked this. Sam couldn't help but scrunch up his nose at that familiar smell of smoke that hung on his lab partner's breath.

But a lazy grin pulled at his lips nonetheless as he found amusement in his friend's genuine surprise. "Yeah, you remember my old roommate? That muscly girl on the women's basketball team?"

Touya's eyes widened in recollection and realisation.

"She's dating Undyne?!"

"Yup."

Touya leaned back on his chair with a look of total disbelief etched across his features.

"No shit.."

*

Towards the end of the two hour lesson, Sam had eventually given up on trying to perfect his formulas and instead listened to Touya recount his debauchery filled summer break. It was only when he shamelessly shared the events of his drunken antics outside a sorority house that Sam spluttered a loud laugh behind his hand.

Professor Gaster needn't have turned around to know where the sound of stifled laughter had come from. His low voice floated across the room just as the bell sounded.

"Sam, Touya. My office. I expect to see you in the next ten minutes."

"Fuck that." Touya grumbled as he hastily packed up his belongings. After a swift 'see ya,' he was out the door and out of sight leaving a sighing Sam to begrudgingly make the short trip down the corridor to his father's office alone.

It was the usual spiel about his eldest son's questionable choice of friends and the need to focus on his studies. Etc. Etc.

His father had tried multiple times to remove Touya from his classes. And Touya would have happily obliged. But unfortunately for both student and teacher, Touya's large, loud-mouthed father had seen to it that his eldest son stay in college. Professor Gaster had despised both men ever since, and the feelings were mutuel.

As the lecture dragged on, Sam scratched idly beneath his beanie as his eyes drifted absentmindedly over to the window. How he wished he could be zapped up and spat out literally anywhere else than here. His father's last line cut cleanly through his daydream about cold beer and hot pizza.

"...Do I make myself clear?"

Finally.

"Yeah, yeah, that all?" Sam heaved, rolling his eyes back to the professor's frowning stare.

Though he nodded his head and waved a hand to dismiss him, his face looked far from impressed at his eldest son's lack of caring.

And just as Sam reached for the handle, Professor Gaster called out one last time.

"Oh and Sam..."

Oh boy

"Have you and Russ found another roommate yet?"

Phew

"Yup. She arrived yesterday."