SINCE MOVING IN, DEIDARA had made it his personal mission to cover up every square inch of his side of the room. Itachi thought it was first, impossible. He would've needed an entire photo album's worth of pictures and multiple cases of double sided tape to accomplish such a feat. Either that, or a year's supply of ink cartridges if he planned to print them out. At which point, he thought it was ludicrous. In the end, he was quite successful in his endeavor, hanging a few canvases he'd painted in high school, a mess of pages ripped directly from sketchbooks of all shapes and sizes, detailing birds and other small creatures and colored using different mediums, and photographs he'd taken himself and printed out before hand as he neglected to bring a printer with him.

While his roommate used his free time before the official start of the semester to decorate, Itachi chose take advantage of it by reading through his class syllabi and getting a head start on a few of the week's assignments which Deidara later chided him for.

"Still doing homework, Itachi?" Deidara asked him the following Monday, throwing his plate onto the table with more force intended, making Itachi jump in surprise. "It's the first day of classes, you can't possibly have that much homework, yeah!"

Itachi, still taken aback that somebody had willingly sat down to eat with him, even though he had long since finished his meal, changed the topic of conversation. "What are you doing here?" He asked him instead.

"What am I doing here?" Deidara scoffed, throwing his hair over his shoulder as he sat in the chair opposite Itachi. "I'm eating with my roommate, yeah. Roommates gotta stick together, you know."

Itachi didn't know that there was an invisible contract that bound roommates together for their freshmen year of college. Across from him, Deidara was attempting to shove half of a sandwich into his mouth like a squirrel stores acorns in it's cheeks and attempted to smile at him. If people know that Deidara's homosexual, will they think of me that way too? He wondered to himself and shook the thought off. Most people weren't raised in closed-minded households such as he was and judging by the mobs of laughing college students around them who were too busy to pay attention to two freshmen, he decided that it wasn't relevant. Besides, having a lunch companion couldn't hurt, could it?

"Seriously though." Deidara started again, swallowing the food in his mouth. "You've been doing homework all weekend. You've probably completed every assignment up to midterms by now, yeah."

"I'm a double major. I need to work twice as hard to stay ahead of schedule because I can't afford to fall behind."

Deidara raised a questioning brow. "Please. I'm a chem. major. It's practically the same thing as double majoring."

I hardly think so. Itachi thought but didn't argue with him. It wouldn't be long before Deidara started pulling all-nighters studying at the last minute when he could've taken the same initiative as Itachi had. And when that happened, Itachi would simply carry on with his own studies, content with the thought that he was already ahead of the game.

"So what're you studying right now?" Deidara asked. "Darwin's theory of evolution? The Big Bang Theory? Quantum physics?"

"Logical fallacies." Itachi replied. "It's for my philosophy class." He elaborated in response to his roommate's obvious confusion.

"Studying already, Itachi? It's the first day of school!" A familiar voice boomed, pulling a chair up to the table.

"Shisui," Itachi greeted warmly. "How have you been?"

"Good, good." Shisui replied, leaning back in his chair to stretch his legs underneath the table. "Spent most of the summer working and interning." He exhaled. "Just the life of your average twenty, almost twenty-one year old, you know?"

"That's right, you'll be turning twenty-one soon, won't you?" Itachi asked evenly. He hadn't forgotten when Shisui's birthday was, and he hadn't forgotten how old he'd be turning when that day came, or what he'd most likely spend this birthday doing.

Shisui offered a smug nod. "Yup. In one month and 18 days, I'll be legal."

He was even counting down. Out of the corner of his eye, Deidara's head was bowed as he continued to eat his lunch in silence, overpowered, outnumbered, and forgotten by the very roommate he was sticking together with. "Shisui, this is Deidara, my roommate."

Shisui raised his eyebrows as if he hadn't even noticed that another student was sitting with them before a wide smile spread across his face. "Yo! Nice to meet you man, I'm Shisui!"

"Deidara, yeah. Itachi's roommate." Deidara said with a bright smile. "But I guess you kinda already knew that since he just said it, didn't you?"

Shisui cracked a small grin. "You're adorable."

It took all of Itachi's restraint not to roll his eyes or shake his head at his cousin's innocent comment. Surely, Shisui wasn't dumb enough to think that Deidara was heterosexual and would know that he was joking, right? He prayed that Deidara would forget about it by the time he returned back to their room.

"You guys get along?" Shisui asked, looking between them both.

"Of course yeah!" Deidara responded.

"We have our differences." Itachi muttered and attempted to continue reading the text lying in front of him.

"It's hard to have a roommate lunch when all your roommate wants to do is study all day. I mean, who does that?" Shisui asked him.

Deidara vigorously nodded, a tiny shard of lettuce protruding from between his lips from the last bite he had taken from his sub. He immediately sucked it in swallowed what he was chewing before agreeing "I know, right?! He was reading all weekend too, yeah!"

Itachi could feel Shisui's accusing stare on him. "Seriously, Itachi? Seriously? Your first week of college and you're already studying? What the heck? Seriously, who does that? I'm a junior and I don't even study that hard!"

"Right?" Deidara quickly agreed.

"What's your major?" Shisui asked Deidara.

"Me? I'm a chem. major with secondary certification and a minor in art, yeah." Deidara informed him.

Itachi actively attempted to ignore the two. If he couldn't hear them, he couldn't be bothered by them, he reasoned.

"So you're like a double major too – chemistry and education, plus an art minor! Let me tell you, art courses are not easy and to add to that, each one is like four hours long." He said and turned to Itachi. "Deidara's not studying that hard, so why are you?"

At this point, reading further was futile, Itachi closed his book and offered Shisui a knowing stare. "I can't afford to fall behind. If he wants to decorate the room with pretty pictures and wait until the last minute, be my guest. But I want to stay ahead of the game while I still can."

Deidara glanced to the side, seemingly hurt at Itachi's jab concerning what he spent his free-time over the weekend doing. "Itachi, Itachi, Itachi." Shisui sighed and put a hand on Itachi's shoulder. "Your father's not here, so what are you worried about?"

"I think I made my point perfectly clear, Shisui—"

"Eh-eh-eh-eh-eh! I'm not done talking yet. Didn't your mother teach you not to interrupt your elders?" Shisui chided. "You're going to go gray way before you're fifty if you keep this up, Itachi, believe me."

"Like you'd know. You're only twenty."

"And soon to be twenty one. And when I turn twenty one, I'll try to sneak you a drink or two to loosen you up, okay?" Shisui said, patting his shoulder as he rose to take his leave. "Well, I best be going; my class is starting soon." He sighed. "It's tough being a junior, you know? Nice talking to you again, Itachi and take it easy, okay?"

Itachi raised his eyebrows apathetically.

Shisui raised a hand at Deidara. "Nice meeting you, Deidara."

"Nice meeting you too, Shisui!" Deidara called over his shoulder.

"See ya, guys. And Itachi, I mean it; take it easy."

"Will do." Itachi muttered, opening his book to the page he'd left off at.

"Cute." Deidara sighed.

"Hn." Itachi hummed, ignoring the comment. If Deidara wanted to venture into uncharted territory with Shisui, he was in for a rude awakening. And Itachi wasn't going to stop him.

I really like this story. I think the emotional undertones are kinda complex. Just sayin'.

And the third chapter has yet to be started, so whenever I get some free time, I will be sure to work on it!

Until next time!

~Sasori33-001