Title: Flawless
Author: I_nv_u50
Claimer: All characters, the world and the setting are mine. Including the plot. If you want to use them (yea right) ask please ^^
Rating: PG13…
Warning: Shounen ai/slash ahead. Not yet, but it's definitely coming (did I really need to tell you that? O.o;)
Author's Notes: New Story. I'm crazy. The 'unposted' plot for the 'How Do' series thingy I've got going on. Enjoy! Tell me what you think, and please review! I'll update if there's enough interest ^^
"Alison, would you just shut up and listen to me?"
A high whining sound came from the other end of the phone, and Skylar held the phone away from his ear, rolling his eyes and grimacing. Once the high pitched noise ceased for a minute, Skylar put the phone back to his ear, twirling a silver strand of his hair absently around his finger.
"Are you ready to listen now, Alison?"
Reluctant, pleading agreement.
"Right. I can't go out with you tonight. I can't go out with you on Saturday, or on Sunday. I just can't go out with you at all."
"But why not sweetie?"
Skylar repressed a shudder before he remembered that Alison couldn't see him. He let the shiver out, and took a deep, calming breath. "Mainly, because I'm seeing Diane tonight, and Brenda on Saturday, and Sheila on Sunday. There's just no more time for you."
"I'm better than all of them. I can give you what they can't, sweetie, please let me see you."
Skylar rolled his eyes again openly and ran a hand through his hair, turning to look absently out of the window. "Alison, no. I don't want to date you."
"Then you shouldn't have given me your number," Alison's tone was suddenly scathing, and Skylar began to feel hopeful that he might escape from her persistence.
A knock on the door interrupted him before he could make up a reason to give to the girl, and he breathed an inaudible sigh of relief. "Hold on, Alison. Someone's at the door."
He pushed the hang up button before he could think otherwise, not even noticing the buzzing dial tone that signified Alison was no longer available for contact.
Instead, Skylar opened the door pulling his hair absently back into a loose ponytail and blinked at the school counselor who was standing in the hallway.
"Hey," Skylar said casually. "What's up?"
The adult shook his balding head silently. "Skylar, we have your new roommate."
Skylar stopped smoothing his hair and stared at the counselor in shock. "But I requested my own room. I shouldn't have a roommate."
"Yes, I know that, Mr. Golding, but we don't have any other space for him."
Skylar stared for a minute, contemplating how much trouble denying them access to the room would get him in, and then sighed in annoyance and stood back. "Fine then."
"Thank you, Mr. Golding." The counselor followed him in, looking over his shoulder at someone.
Skylar sprawled back in his desk chair and stared at the open door, fingers drumming impatiently on his thigh as he waited. After a minute, he turned his attention to the increasingly flustered counselor. "Sorry, Mr. Bradshaw, but I don't think he's coming."
Mr. Bradshaw stared straight back. "Mr. Golding, your new roommate is not accustomed to sharing his room, or with being around such relaxed boys such as yourself. Give him time to adjust."
Skylar rolled his eyes heavenwards, and then pointed at one of the other doors in the room. "All right. He sleeps in there, because my room is the other one."
"I realise that, Mr. Golding," Mr. Bradshaw told him. "He may have the second room, and we will be putting another desk in here for him."
Skylar nodded, and looked towards the door as the sound of shuffling feet alerted him to the arrival of his new roommate.
Dark chocolate brown hair hid eyes from view, but the entire body posture screamed tenseness. The hand that wasn't carrying the small required night bag was curled into a tight fist by the boy's side. He didn't look too muscular, Skylar thought idly as his eyes skimmed over the figure, so he probably wouldn't be any good at the school sports.
"Mikah, this is your roommate, Skylar Golding. Mr. Golding, this is Mikah Allard."
Mikah gave a tiny nod, his cheeks stained red with what was probably embarrassment, and Skylar felt a twinge of pity for the new boy.
"Mikah," Mr. Bradshaw continued, "your room is through that door, all right? Skylar will sleep through there, and this entrance room is for both of you. Sort of a mini common room. You're only allowed here when you're fetching something or after the main common room is closed for the night. Clear?"
Mikah nodded again, his eyes still downcast and screened by his hair. Skylar blinked, not able to understand why the other boy was so shy, and he felt slightly annoyed that the other boy wasn't even looking at him.
Mr. Bradshaw turned back to Skylar, who returned the adult's gaze with a sheepish grin that was nevertheless mischievous.
"And as for you, Mr. Golding, remember what I said. And try not to get into trouble again, I don't want to see you for another week at least. Let's try and hit that mark, shall we?"
Skylar managed to smirk both slyly and innocently. "Of course, sir," he said.
The counselor just shook his head and walked out, moving carefully past the other boy who was still standing half in and half out the door.
"Well, are you going in or not?"
Mikah started slightly, then scuffled to his bedroom doorway. Skylar watched him go silently. And jumped slightly when Mr. Bradshaw knocked on the door post again.
"Skylar? Would you do me a favour and help Mikah please?"
"Why?" Skylar asked bluntly.
"He doesn't make friends easily," the adult said. "You, on the other hand… you could probably help him with that."
Skylar shrugged nonchalantly, silently agreeing to think about it, and the counselor nodded thanks before going back down the hallway. Skylar turned his attention to the closed door Mikah had gone through, frowning thoughtfully.
And almost fell off his chair when the phone started ringing again. Cursing, he picked it up and answered cautiously, the apprehensive expression on his face fading to one of good natured friendliness.
Mikah looked around his room closely, taking in the bare wardrobe and single sized bed. The room was dark, the curtains pulled, and it was actually smaller than he had thought it might be, but if all the rooms in the school were arranged the same way, then he supposed it was only logical. He sat down cautiously on the bed, settling his weight down slowly and letting himself relax.
Heaving a deep sigh, he glances around again, checking to see if he was really alone, then opened his night bag and pulled out something, burying his face in it.
He had just hunched over it, and was getting ready to talk, when the door opened, the light silhouetting Skylar as he stood there.
Mikah froze, crouched over his knees guiltily.
Skylar walked further into the room, squinting in the still dim light. A half smile half smirk played around his lips. "A teddy bear?"
Mikah stayed silent, his face burning with both embarrassment and irritation towards the silver haired boy.
Skylar snorted slightly. "Anyway, I'm going out to meet with some friends. You want to come with?"
Mikah wordlessly turned away and fell onto his side on the bed, blatantly ignoring his roommate. Another annoyed snort sounded from behind him, and Mikah only opened his eyes once the door had closed behind the retreating footsteps. After a few more minutes, he buried his face back into the soft white fur of the teddy bear, dampening the short strands into clumps with silent hot tears.
He didn't say a word.
A few hours later, Skylar was walking down one of the dormitory corridors, creeping along and glancing around every few steps. Behind him were two older looking boys, both with red hair, although slightly different shades. Their eyes were different kinds of blue as well, but it was obvious they were twins. In front of Skylar was a younger looking boy, with black hair and studiously laughing dark brown eyes. The twins were teasing each other loudly, but Skylar's conversation with his friend was slightly more confidential, so the volume was quieter.
"So you're saying he's just unsure?"
The younger boy shook his dark hair away from his eyes. "Lonely. New boy feelings. Basically though, yea."
Skylar mused thoughtfully, then nodded, satisfied with the reasoning. "Maybe you're right."
The younger boy smirked teasingly. "I'm always right."
"Yea right, Kael," one of the twins put in, grinning. "What about that time when you –"
"Okay, okay," Kael interrupted, laughing. "But I am always right when I'm the only one around."
The other twin cut in dreamily, his eyes vacant and faraway. "Ever wonder what would happen if we tied Nikita's brother to Pandora for a week?"
Skylar stopped and turned to blink at the redhead. "Chad, what the hell are you talking about?"
Chad grinned back vaguely. "Darryl and I talked about it," he started, exchanging a look with Darryl, his twin. "And we decided that the only way to get Pandora to stop liking that jerk was to put them into forced companionship."
Darryl grinned at Kael and Skylar. "Actually, he came up with the idea, I'm just going to have to do the dirty work."
Chad elbowed him. "I didn't hear you complaining."
Darryl grinned , a curious light in his eyes that had flickered away by the time Chad looked at him again.
"Speaking of Nikita," Skylar asked casually, not noticing Kael's warning look. "Have you asked her out yet?"
Chad pouted dramatically. "No. Her school doesn't have private phone lines, remember? But I won't give up!" He struck a pose mockingly, and didn't notice when Darryl didn't laugh with the others.
Skylar's laughter faded faster than Kael's. "I need to get back to my room though. Bradshaw specifically said he didn't want to see me again."
"Yea," mocked Darryl, grinning again. "We wouldn't be able to stand your face either if it didn't bring us laughs."
Skylar rolled his eyes and put a lot of emphasis on his sigh. "Why am I stuck with you people? Other people deserve to know the brilliance that is me."
"And yet you wonder why girls won't leave you alone," Kael remarked dryly.
Skylar hid his sudden blush. "That's not my fault."
"No, of course not," Kael countered chidingly. "They just happen to acquire your phone number by some unknown means."
Skylar grinned. "That sounds about right, yeah."
Kael sighed and shook his head. "Anyway, I'd better get going as well. I can't wait until I'm 17 like you, Skylar. Then I get my own room."
"It's smaller than yours right now though," Skylar replied, and rubbed his eye idly.
"Mmm. But I have to share it with a roommate and I don't get a private common room either."
Chad chuckled. "The common room isn't so great anyway, seeing as we're not allowed to use it until certain times."
Kael pouted sulkily. "But it's still better than my room! You don't have sully coming in everyday trying to get your roommate into bed."
Skylar started laughing. "Can you honestly see that prat trying to get Chad or Darryl to sleep with him? The other would kill him first."
"What about you?" Kael asked sulkily. "You're his major crush."
Skylar shrugged. "I don't sleep with guys. And from what I've seen so far of Mikah, Sully wouldn't stand a chance with that one."
Kael grunted grumpily, and turned off down the 16 Years corridor, waving goodbye to the others before he turned into his room.
"See you tomorrow then, Sky," Darryl slung an arm around Skylar's shoulders, ignoring the reflexive frown the nickname got. "We're going to be in one of the corner tables working something out during breakfast, so look for us there."
Chad nodded, and started dragging his brother away. "And bring your new roommate!" he called out, over Darryl's bright red head. "We'd like to meet him!"
Skylar lifted his hand in wordless agreement and farewell, and started off for his own room, his thoughts occupied with his new roommate.
In the dark room of their small suite, Mikah lay sprawled out on his bed, fast asleep and still fully clothed. One arm was flung over the side of his bed, and the other was carelessly hugging a silver bear to his side.