Psync by Zile Elliven

Chapter Five

Eli

:Cold! Way too cold!:

Eli was jolted out of his dreams by the sensation of being drenched in ice water.

“What the actual fuck?” He was on his feet now, shivering from the cold. He shook himself to get some of the water off, but he was . . . bone dry?

“What’s wrong?” The muffled voice of his roommate emerged from the pile of blankets Jace had buried himself in.

Eli looked at the time and saw it was five minutes to six.

“Nothing, man. Go back to sleep.”

It was one thing for the Voice to harass him day in and day out, but it had another thing coming if it thought it was going to mess with his roommate too.

Jace was the best roommate Eli could have ever hoped for. He was gone for most of the day, quiet when he was there, and relatively neat. And he was super cool about all of Eli’s little quirks. He was so great that Eli was officially terrified of meeting any new people, because the law of averages meant they were bound to be horrible.

A shiver went through him, causing goosebumps to race up his arms. Why the hell was he so cold?

He grabbed a towel and his bath accessories from the closet and made for the shower. He wasn’t getting back to sleep now, and it was a great way to warm up.

However, when he got to the shower room it was out of order. He worried at his bottom lip with his teeth. Maybe he could try a different floor?

The one under him was only for girls, so he tried the one below that.

Steam billowed out of the partially opened door.

Score.

He was so excited, he nearly ran head on into a wall of towel-wrapped muscle. His arms windmilled frantically as he fought not to plow face first into a very bare chest. Once he steadied himself, he was about to issue an apology when a drop of water caught his eye as it leisurely made its way down golden skin.

“I have eyes, you know,” a painfully familiar voice said.

Eli swallowed and looked up.

It was Haruka.

“Sorry! My shower’s broken, and I was just so happy to see this one wasn’t. I didn’t think—”

Haruka held up a hand to stall Eli’s apology. “I don’t need your life story. I need pants.”

Eli held his change of clothes tightly to his chest. “Well, you can’t have mine.”

“I don’t want your pants, they wouldn’t make it halfway up my legs, chibisuke.” Mahogany eyes glinted in amusement. “What I want is for you to get out of my way, so I can go get my own.”

Face burning, Eli realized he was blocking the doorway. He stepped aside, plastering himself against the wall so Haruka wouldn’t accidentally brush against him on his way by. “Bring your clothes with you next time then.”

Haruka paused, then turned to face Eli. “If it bothers you that much, then don’t look.”

“It-it doesn’t bother me!”

An elegant eyebrow rose. “So, you like looking then?”

A sad, strangled sound was the only thing Eli was able to produce in response. How badly would his no-touching thing punish him for kicking a mostly naked stranger?

“You wish!” He finally managed.

Haruka leaned into Eli’s personal space with an evil look in his eye.

Eli held his breath and did his very best to squish himself through the wall behind him. His heart was beating so hard Eli thought it was possible it might actually break through the wall all on its own.

Haruka laughed and pulled away. “You’re too easy.” He raised a hand to ruffle Eli’s hair but stopped when Eli jerked away.

“I’m not a pet.”

Haruka shrugged and turned to go. “Don’t use the first shower, chibisuke. It’s busted.”

“Thanks . . . I mean, I’m not short!”

The low rumble of Haruka’s laughter sounded down the hallway long after he was out of Eli’s sight.

✽✽✽

Late late late! He was so late!

It wasn’t Eli’s fault all the buildings on this side of campus looked the same. He’d been inside three before he’d finally found the right one.

And now he was late for his first geometry class. He barely glanced at the room number as he scurried into the room and squeezed himself into the first free seat in the back.

He opened his bag and pulled out a notebook, doing his best to avoid the teacher’s eye as she stared him down for daring to interrupt her class.

“You’ll have to share with your neighbor. I’m out of syllabi now.” The edge to her voice let Eli fill in the, If you’d been on time, maybe you would have gotten one, she’d left out.

He turned to his neighbor, and, to his horror, it was Haruka giving him a smug smile. Eli decided he’d let hell freeze over before he asked to share anything with him.

“Early risers usually tend to be on time,” Haruka whispered.

“I don’t usually get up that early.” Eli ground out tersely.

“Why the special occasion this morning? Was it just to see me?”

Eli snorted and ignored him. For the next few minutes, he used all his compartmentalizing powers on paying attention to the teacher. Since he’d missed the beginning of class, he didn’t get to hear the usual introductory speech. The teacher—who’s name he’d also missed—had decided to dive right into the curriculum, and Eli already felt lost. This was a 101 class. Why was did he feel so out of his league?

And what was Haruka doing here? According to Alice, he was a junior. He should be well past 101 courses at this point.

His eye fell on the pen his neighbor was rhythmically tapping on his denim-covered knee.

“At least you’re wearing more clothes than you were this morning.”

The pen paused.

Shit. Had he just said that out loud?

Reluctantly, Eli raised his eyes to Haruka’s face and then immediately wished he hadn’t. The man had the devil in his eyes.

“I knew you missed me.” The slow smile creeping across Haruka’s stupidly attractive face forced Eli to look away.

“Who would miss you?” Eli muttered to his desk.

“I know it’s the first day, but I want to you pull out Deductive Geometry so we can go over chapter one before tomorrow,” the still-nameless teacher said. Eli was really going to have to learn her name before the end of class.

Wait. Deductive Geometry? He only had Geometry: A Comprehensive Course. Fuck, he was going to have to hit the campus store immediately after class, but until then . . .

Apparently, hell was about to freeze over.

“Um.” Eli ventured.

Haruka didn’t respond, but something about his body language told Eli he was listening.

“I don’t have the book with me today.”

Haruka narrowed his eyes and sat back in his seat. “So, you were late, need to share the syllabus, and the textbook—” He held up a hand and was ticking off each transgression on his fingers as he went. “Do you want me to take tests for you, too, while I’m at it?”

Eli scowled, and for some ungodly reason this prompted Haruka to smile. One that actually reached his unfairly pretty eyes this time.

“Are you going to share, or do I need to move and find someone else to partner with?”

In response, Haruka scooted his desk over until it was touching Eli’s.

They both bent their heads over the book as the teacher went over the material. While Eli fought to follow along, the strangest sensation crept over him—he was warm and tingly, and it felt good. Really, insanely good. He started to sink into it until he realized the warmth was Haruka’s body heat.

That was when it finally dawned on him exactly how physically close they were.

Adrenaline coursed through him as he waited for his body’s defense systems to kick in and punish him for getting too close to another person. But nothing happened. Maybe it was because they weren’t actually touching?

Just to be safe, Eli put several inches of space between them. Haruka noticed and raised an eyebrow at him but didn’t say anything.

“Is it just me, or is this a little hard to follow?” He finally asked.

“You’re able to follow it?” Haruka asked, faint surprise lacing his tone.

“Well, yes, but it’s making my head hurt.”

Haruka leaned closer and gave him a measuring look.

When the teacher finished her explanation and told everyone to split in pairs, it only made sense to stay with Haruka since they were already sharing a book. As it turned out, his partner was actually useful. He broke down difficult problems in a way that made perfect sense to Eli. Once he was able to understand the basis of the formula he was supposed to be using, he sailed through the rest of the work, finishing well before the rest of the class, aside from Haruka.

His paper was snatched out from under his hand. “Hey!”

“Partners check each other’s work.” Haruka placed his own notebook in front of Eli.

The handwriting was neat, almost like it had been printed from a computer rather than written by hand. Eli went through each problem but couldn’t find any mistakes. Instead, he saw one place where he’d gone wrong on his own work. At least he could fix it when he got his paper back.

“Wow.”

“I know, I got number 10 wrong, but I know how to fix it now.”

“No, I mean, wow, I can’t believe you got any of these right, considering you’re in the wrong class. You even got the extra credit one . . .” Haruka trailed off as he frowned at Eli’s paper.

It took a moment for what Haruka said to sink in. “Wha—wrong class? What do you mean, wrong class?”

“I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to be across the hall in Geo 101. This is 209, baka.”

Being called an idiot in Japanese went right over his head as the blood drained from Eli’s face. “I’m in the wrong room? I missed my first class?” Where had all the air in the room gone? An iron clamp began to tighten around his chest. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wanted to see your face when you realized. I thought you’d notice right away when the material was introduced, but you managed to keep up.” Haruka leaned forward. “Are you okay? You don’t look good.” He reached out a hand to Eli’s forehead.

Hastily, Eli scooted his desk away, hating the loud, attention-grabbing screech it made as it moved across the floor. “Please . . . don’t touch.” He choked out. Being touched by a stranger was the last thing he needed right now.

He couldn’t miss his first class. He was a scholarship student. He couldn’t miss any classes, ever. And if he did, it couldn’t be over a stupid thing like going to the wrong class. What if he got sick later and needed to take a sick day? The iron clamp around his chest tightened another notch.

“Hey,” Haruka’s voice grew soft. “You’re okay. It’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong. Just breathe.”

Just breathe, huh? Easy enough to say, less easy to do at the moment. It took everything Eli had to suck in a thin, shuddering breath.

“There you go, just like that. Good job.”

While Eli worked on breathing, he tried to console himself with the fact that he wasn’t going to need to worry about Haruka irritating him anymore. After this, the man was likely to turn and run the next time he saw him.

Time seemed to pause as he focused on taking in another breath of air while he listened to Haruka’s deep, soothing voice.

As his breathing began to normalize, the rest of the world started to filter into to his consciousness. At some point, class had ended and everyone in the room had left, leaving him and Haruka alone in the room.

“Feeling better?” Haruka had scooted his desk back from Eli’s, but he was turned in his seat, leaning toward Eli.

It didn’t feel intrusive. It felt protective.

What a stupid thought. No one was here to protect Eli.

He’d chosen a to go to a college that was hours from home, so he could prove he could take care of himself. So his mom could stop looking at him with sad eyes. So his sister would stop overprotecting him and verbally dancing around the Incident. Some days it seemed like everything she said was deliberately designed to not reference it. How exhausting that must be for her.

He sat up and pulled himself together. Pulled the mantle of normality around himself. Then he turned to look at Haruka and smiled. It was his best smile. It was his, hey, anything you saw just now couldn’t possibly be as bad as you thought it was if I can look at you like this now smile.

“Yes, much better, thanks.” He took his notebook and placed it calmly and meticulously back into his bag, making sure it went in the right spot. One thing at a time, with no focus on the past or the future. All he needed to do was the next right thing and then the next so he could get the hell out of here and lick his wounds in peace.

When he stood, Haruka stood too, towering over him, his face serious and not looking remotely like he bought Eli’s act.

He might need convincing to let Eli leave here alone—or perhaps not. Eli was nothing to Haruka. Just an annoying kid who’d slammed a shopping cart into him and irritated him during a class.

Eli considered the situation and what he knew of the man. He was smart enough to be put on stage during orientation, but self-absorbed enough to all but ignore the responsibility once he got up there. His expensive clothes and painfully good looks gave more evidence to Eli’s theory of Haruka being self-absorbed.

He should be fairly simple to shake. Especially if Eli got clingy.

He was revolted at the very idea. Even if there was some tiny part of him suggesting that not being alone right now would be an excellent idea. Even if there was another, louder part of him that kept remembering how warm Haruka had felt when they were so close earlier.