Chapter Text
This is Stiles’ list:
Go to college.
Get a degree.
Meet someone special.
Get married.
Have a career.
Start a family.
Live happily ever after.
For as long as he can remember, this has been his life plan. Small adjustments were made as he grew older of course. College in New England because he thinks the New England falls are romantic. A degree in business because his dad refuses to pay for a liberal arts degree and well 9th-grade biology class proved to him that anything that has to do with dissecting is out. Same with the medical health club. The idea of having to puncture anyone’s skin whether with a needle or a knife is just eww...no...just no. Meet someone special. Hmm...well he has someone, but he is pretty positive they aren’t the special one he is looking for, the let's get married and have 2.5 kids special. That’s okay, it is only the beginning of college, he still has time. Those parts of the list will happen eventually. The one thing Stiles is certain of, everything happens for a reason and they will happen when they are meant to.
************
The end of summer is here and Providence is everything he is expecting. It is a city, but honestly, it feels more like a larger town. He really doesn't need his jeep unless he wants to actually head out of town or state. (Let’s be real, Rhode Island is so tiny he really only needs the vehicle for road trips and this is only if he doesn't want to take a bus or Amtrak.) Everything he needs is within walking distance. He lives on campus, lucky to snag one of the rooms in the freshly built Snowden Hall due to his good grades and his dad’s willingness to foot the bill for a premium living quarter. Perks to that dorm, one roommate, and a private bathroom. Yeah, thank God for such an awesome dad.
Life is good. Stiles is settling into the routine of college pretty well. He doesn’t have many friends yet because he is a little spastic and flaily and yeah a little shy too. He is friendly to his classmates and has found some people that are easy to talk with, but that is it. Stiles really doesn't have anyone that he hangs out with after classes except for three other students who have the exact same schedule as him even though they are all studying to be something different.
Stiles is realistic and honest enough to know that his lack of socializing has a lot to do with already having experienced the dorm life and living away from home in high school. For many of his classmates, this is their first real taste of freedom with no parents hovering over them and laying down rules. So parties and late night trips to the bar is the norm for most of his peers. Flitting around from one dorm room to another instead of studying is typical, but for Stiles, this part is old hat. Stiles had spent his junior and senior year of high school living at a residential high school three hours away from home in hopes the name on his transcript one day would help him get some scholarships to help pay for college. He would go home for some weekends, holidays and the summer, but otherwise, his time was spent mostly away from his dad. So he has already experienced the highs and lows of living away from home and learned his lessons. Besides he is here to study and maybe meet his future Mr. or Mrs. Right (which is not going to be on the college party circuit thank you very much.)
************
Stiles starts his first year of college as a taken man. He is in a fairly serious relationship with someone from back home for the past eighteen months, but reality is starting to creep up on him and he knows he needs to stop ignoring the truth. The problem is that Stiles is sure Heather is not the one. Signs all point toward this reality during their last year of school with Stiles’ adamant refusal to even consider going to the same college as Heather. The problem is, Heather has fallen in love and well Stiles hasn't. Stiles thinks that 18 is too young to be in love. Seriously, how can a high schooler think they know what love is? So Stiles never says those words even though Heather does. Eventually, his conscience gets the better of him and he knows that it is time to let Heather go, even if he knows it will break the girl’s heart. So Stiles' second month of college begins with a sad whimper of a regretful goodbye over 1,500 miles of phone line.
************
As the end of summer fades into the beginning of fall, Stiles gets a job at the local mall. A little extra spending money is always good and he gets bonus points with his dad by showing that he is willing to bear some extra responsibility. With the extra money comes the added reality that maybe living outside of the dorms will be a better choice. His roommate is a little crazy and it’s not like the other guy will be upset if he leaves. Hell, he will probably be thrilled to have the room to himself for when his boyfriend visits from Boston. So with this in mind, Stiles talks to his dad about moving out and renting a place of his own. Now all he needs to do is find a couple of roommates to split the cost of rent.
The answer comes to him at a bus stop one evening while waiting with his new friend Allison. Allison and one of her roommates, Lydia, live in the dorms at the edge of the city furthest away from the business campus. It turns out that Allison and Lydia aren't too fond of their overly small dorm room or their own two crazy roommates and have been on the hunt for both a place to live off campus and two more people to share the financial burden with. An older friend of Allison’s is in their senior year of school and is about to do an internship out of state. The problem is that the apartment needs someone to take over the entire lease, so the place is offered to Allison and Lydia. Since Allison and Lydia already know each other, they think it is only fair for their new soon to be roomie have his own friend added to the bunch. Enter Scott, a really nice guy who lives on the culinary campus and is desperate to escape all the late night partying of his entire dorm hall. An added bonus is that Allison has met him a couple of times before and likes the guy and Lydia trusts Allison’s instincts, so in everyone’s mind it is all good to go.
Fast forward several months to the next season. Winter in New England is a bitch. Huddling on the blue velvet couch kindly left behind by the previous residents, reality is kicking their asses big time. Thick plastic covers the windows along with blankets they have tacked up. They have come to the realization pretty quickly that heating can only do so much in an old Victorian house with shitty insulation. On good days Stiles likes to joke with his roommates that there is nothing better than sitting on the couch and watching each other's hair gently blow in the breeze past their faces from the drafts seeping through the cracks around the window frames. On bad days, he likes to huddle under a mountain of blankets (one even being electric) and cursing the day he ever listened to Allison’s brilliant idea of being roommates in this shitty ass apartment, large living space be damn. As the winter wears on, Stiles proves to be really fluent in cursing Allison.
Eventually, the snowstorms let up and with the gradual warming of the weather there comes a gradual thawing of Stiles's heart towards Allison. Winter fades into spring and spring back into summer. Happy grins start adorning Stiles' face instead of the usual dirty looks when Allison enters a room now.
One year is in the past now and it is inevitable that there will be new housemates moving in. The first meeting comes on a hot June day with Allison and Stiles parking behind a large moving truck in front of the house being unloaded by two well-built guys. The strangers peer over at the new arrivals and give big grins and waves. Allison and Stiles politely smile back and tentatively return their waves from the inside of the car. Maybe this won’t be so bad they muse together.
************
After running inside to grab some things and leaving again to run errands, Allison and Stiles return home desperate to try and find relief from the oppressive heat and humidity. If they thought winters were bad in New England, they are quickly becoming acquainted with just how awful summers can be, especially if one happens to live in a house with no air conditioning like they do. Too hot to stay in their rooms, the two roommates are going back and forth between the kitchen and the living room, trying to catch a cross breeze of some sort. A sound of voices walking by their living room windows has them peering outside at their new housemates as they stroll by.
“Well, uh…they seem...nice,” Allison says skeptically as she eyes the two disheveled guys from behind. “Maybe you can get to know them,” Allison snickers with a wink as she elbows Stiles in the side. "I mean they look kind of cute."
Stiles side eyes his roommate with a look of disbelief. “Yeah no, no thanks. There’s nothing about an ugly ass blue Hawaiian shirt, basketball shorts, untied tatty sneakers and a wicked fro that screams attraction. Granted it's gross out and they've been moving, but who changes into that afterward. I'll definitely pass. We’ll leave them to Lydia or Scott.”
The two roommates just stare at each other a moment before cracking up, both imagining their other two roommates reactions to these new neighbors.
The sudden ringing of the doorbell and a loud rapping of knuckles against the door startles the two of them, causing an abrupt halt in their laughter. Exchanging a quick look with Stiles, Allison walks to the door with a chuckle only to look outside in confusion to an empty porch.
“Who is it?”
“Uh...No one’s here, but you should come check this out.”
“What?”
“Just come here Stiles,” Allison calls back with a weird laugh.
Stiles approaches his roommate and peers onto the porch.
“What am I looking at?” he asks in confusion, not seeing anything out of the ordinary.
“Eh, keep looking. Nope other direction. Little further. There you go,” she directs him.
“What the fuck is this shit?!”
Stiles can only gape in disbelief at what now occupies the corner of their porch stoop.
“Apparently a welcoming present from our neighbors,” Allison suggests skeptically.
“Oh, hell no!” Stiles snaps, already offended at who he's going to be sharing the house with now.
In the corner sitting on an old faded blue dining room chair next to their front door is a dusty tattered brown bear with a red velvet bow tie and a 40 oz bottle of beer between his legs. The two roommates just stare at the sight, one in bemusement and the other in horror. In silent agreement, they slowly inch backward into the house and quietly close the door before Allison turns the lock.
“Err...Right. So...Hmm...I don’t know what to think,” Allison mumbled, blinking her eyes rapidly in confusion before rubbing the side of her face and sighing.
Stiles just stares at her before spinning on his heel and stomping his way back into their living room. “Oh hell no,” he mutters under his breath. “Bunch of smart asses.”
“Well they seem nice,” Allison calls out from behind him with a weak laugh. “Right…” She stops and just scratches her head, not knowing what else to do. “Right…”
To say that Stiles is unimpressed with their new housemates is an extreme understatement. It turns out that the new people living on the top floor just happen to be friends with the ones moving in on the second floor. Neither group had known the other is living there until everyone had moved in at the start of summer before parting ways again for their respective jobs back home. To say both groups were ecstatic about the potential of their senior year is an understatement.
************
Stiles grits his teeth as he feels his bed vibrates again to the base of a song blaring from the room above him. Fists clenching tight into his covers and eyes screwed shut he tries to pretend that his knick knacks and photo frames rattling on the shelf aren’t in severe danger of falling to an untimely death within the next several seconds.
That’s it! Stiles fumes as he throws his covers back and hops out of bed searching blindly in the dark for his green lizard bedroom slippers. It is 2 a.m. in the morning and he has a 8 a.m. shift at Hot Topic in the morning. At the rate the party is going on upstairs, he isn’t going to be getting any sleep until the following afternoon after his shift. If I’m so lucky, he snarls silently.
Storming outside and over to his neighbor's door, he grasps the knob, happy to find the door unlocked. Stomping upstairs to the second floor he pounds on the door with his fist. The door swings open and his eyes are met with the sight of a happily intoxicated man with impressive eyebrows and a silly grin on his face sitting in the middle of the empty room on a dining room chair with a girl on his lap. “Hi,” he says brightly with a giggle and a wave of his beer bottle. “Come on in, do you want a beer?”
Stiles gawks at the guy.
“Hey! It’s our neighbor! Hi, neighbor! Do you want a beer? Come on in and join us. Relax a little!” Another voice from the right side of the room calls out. When Stiles looks, it's to find ugly Hawaiian print shirt guy waving a bottle of beer drunkenly from between two giggly girls draped on either side of him.
Stiles stares at him, hardcore judging taking place. He takes a deep breath and watches the guy hold his beer up with a smirking salute before taking another swig of it. The guy flashes a sly smirk and a wink before cocking an eyebrow, waiting for Stiles response.
Incensed at the guy's blatant mockery, Stiles snarls back a loud, “No, I do not want a beer, thank you very much! I would like some sleep. You see, I have work at 8 a.m. and your party is right above my bed. I would like it very much if you would tone it down a bit so my room will stop shaking and my things won’t fall off my shelves!”
Stiles is pretty sure his face is red since it feels hot, and hell even his ears are feeling a little toasty at the moment. He can care less though about what he looks like though, to anger fueled at having to even bother wasting his time dealing with these people. He’s sporting an old Avengers t-shirt and athletic shorts with his trusty lizard slippers rounding out his attire. There’s no saving his appearance so why bother he thinks.
“Oh…” Stiles' head snaps back around to the guy in the chair who smiles back weakly. “Sorry about that, we’ll tone it down a little. We’re sorry, we didn’t know anyone is living downstairs right now. We’re only here for the week before heading back home for the rest of the summer. We thought it was the same for you too.”
Stiles stares hard, eyes trying to convey his ultimate displeasure of the situation to the guy before taking a deep breath to reply. “That’s fine,” he says through gritted teeth. “Obviously we’re still here, though,” he continues with a gesture at his own body. “If you’ll excuse me I’m going back to bed.” With a quick nod and a ferocious scowl, not waiting for a response, Stiles spins on his heel and stomps back downstairs, all the while grumbling under his breath about idiot housemates who have shit for brains and no consideration for others. “No one downstairs. Ha! How does that explain the cars parked in our parking lot every freaking day,” he snarls under his breath in fury as his left eye begins to twitch.
“What a bunch of morons,” he hisses as he slams his front door and locks it before stomping back to his bed. With a huff he slips off the lizards and climbs back into bed, noting how the music has decreased exponentially and no further loud noises can be heard from above. With a smug smile to himself and a little body wiggle to get more comfortable, he drifts off to dreamland content that he is the ultimate victor.
************
It’s late July and the weather is sweltering. Dressed in a too big baggy t-shirt and a pair of yellow boxers with anchors that Heather had once gifted him, Stiles opts to stay at home instead of heading out to catch the 4th of July fireworks. Scott is still back home in New York until next month, so Stiles is happily sprawling across his bed in the dark watching Allison's DVD boxed set copy of Jane Austin's Pride & Prejudice ( the British version with Colin Firth! ). This is it, the boy internally squeals, leaning forward in excitement to watch his favorite part when Mr. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth.
Suddenly, there's a thumping noise coming from somewhere and it's increasing in volume.
“What the fuck?!? That's not part of the movie is it?” he whispers in bewilderment at the random noise. Furrowing his brow in confusion, Stiles leans over and turns down the volume, holding his breath to see if he can hear the sounds again.
The sound is repeated only this time it's accompanied by the vibrating rattle of the walls.
"Jesus Boyd, fuck! Right there, baby. Harder! Dammit, I fucking said harder! OhGodohGodohGod! I'm coming! I'm coming!!!”
Sitting in the dark, Stiles gives a soft whimper staring blankly at the frozen screen where Elizabeth Bennet is about to read Mr. Darcy the riot act. Before his eyes, he sees his perfect sophomore year going up in a fireball explosion of drunken parties and sex-fueled screaming.
************
Three hours later Allison finds Stiles staring vacantly from his seat on the living room sofa.
"Aww... That's one of my favorite movies too. Ooh, look at you staying in to watch this," Allison croons teasingly to her roommate. "Hey Stiles, are you okay?" Allison waves her hand in front of Stiles's unresponsive face, the concern now lacing her voice. Stiles slowly looks up with a blank look in his eyes. He stares at Allison a moment before wetting his lips with his tongue.
“So...,” he says slowly while tapping his fingertips together in his lap, hunching over a little as he remembers his evening. “I met the new neighbors upstairs?” He tilts his head a little to the side, like a puppy who is confused over something.
“Oh, you met them? What are they like? Anyone, we know? Are they cute? What are their names?” Allison asks with enthusiasm.
Stiles hesitates a moment before replying, thinking about how he’s going to phrase tonight's experience.
“Well I didn’t meet them per say, like face to face,” he says with a little cough.
Allison’s smile kind of fades into an odd half frozen look of confusion at her roommate's vague reply and odd facial expressions. There is a series of looks flitting across Stiles’ face like it can’t decide on what it wants to do.
Stiles looks at her and takes a deep breath. “Well one is a guy named Boyd and the other one is a female who um, well, is a definite screamer who apparently likes it really hard...” His voice fades away at the end. Stiles clears his throat, looking away before peering back up at Allison wide-eyed.
Allison looks at him with her brow furrowing in confusion as she tries to process what he has just said. Stiles stares at her waiting to see if she gets it, mentally urging her to understand so that he doesn't have to think about it anymore.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Yeah, umm...so...you and Scott have fun with that.” Stiles flaps his hand vaguely in her direction before standing up and handing Allison her DVDs back. “Pride & Prejudice has forever been ruined for me,” he mutters under his breath. He hunches his shoulders in horrified remembrance before hastily walking into his own thankfully quiet room.
Allison looks after her roommate in bewilderment unsure if she heard Stiles correctly. “I’m sorry, what? What do you mean the other one’s a screamer? Does that mean what I think it means? Oh God! Stiles! Stiles! Stiles! Stop walking away from me! Stiles!!! Answer me dammit!!!”
************
It’s been two weeks since the screaming incident of which Stiles does not think about and Stiles is back in Scott’s room again. It’s cooler in this part of the house for some reason so he’s going to take his chances that no more sexual activities will occur that he may inadvertently overhear. So far neither he nor Allison have actually met the other two new neighbors. Apparently, everyone’s schedules are just enough off sync that they never run into one another coming or going into the apartments. Honestly, Stiles is a-okay with this twist of fate and he’s keeping his fingers crossed that it will continue throughout the school year.
As Stiles is settling down to start another movie to watch, the deep tone of their incredibly loud doorbell echos through the apartment. Stiles sits in the dark and contemplates answering the door. He’s sweaty and gross, his face needs to be washed and he’s back in another faded t-shirt and boxer combo. Sighing he stands up and shuffles out of the room, scrubbing his hands roughly through his hair and creating his best approximation of a hedgehog. Maybe if I walk slow enough they’ll go away, he thinks grumpily. As if to mock him, someone knocks hard repeatedly on the door. Stiles yells out an sharp, “Coming!” He quickly unlocks the door and throws it open in irritation. “Yes,” he snaps out before actually looking at who is there. Well fuck, he thinks as he stares at the very holy shit attractive person standing before him.
“Oh, hi. Sorry about that,” the guy says sheepishly, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his jeans and rocking back on his heels in embarrassment. “Is...Uh...Allison here?”
Stiles just stares back for a moment before blinking dazedly and saying awkwardly, “Yeah, no, sorry, I’m not sure where she’s at tonight. Maybe at work?” He fidgets for a moment before shrugging, the stretched out neck of his t-shirt slipping down his right shoulder a bit from all the movement.
“Oh,” the cute guy says, eyes following the action of Stiles’ shirt before bouncing back to look Stiles in the eyes. “I actually work with Allison at the Westin and I just left a little while ago. She told me to give her a call so we could meet up, but she wasn’t answering. I figured I would just come over and see if she was home.” The man smiles timidly, eyebrows raised in hopefulness.
Stiles awkwardly runs a hand through his hair before responding. “Right. Well Allison’s definitely not here. I haven’t seen her since she left for work this afternoon. Do you want me to let her know that you stopped by?”
The guy’s face falls in disappointment. “Uh, yeah, sure that would be great. My name’s Parrish. Thanks.”
“Sure Parrish, no problem. I’ll let Allison know and um, yeah, have a good night.”
The two guys continue to stand there awkwardly, staring at one another in silence, neither making a move to leave.
“Oh, right, thanks again, good night,” Parrish mumbles sheepishly, ears turning a little pink. Parrish clears his throat and stares at Stiles another several seconds before turning around and walking down the stairs, throwing a quick peek back over his shoulder at Allison’s odd roommate.
Stiles flails a hand in return, face flushing in embarrassment when he accidentally whacks the door frame. Mortified he tries to make up for it by blurting out goodbye again, but his voice cracks like he is going through puberty and he ends up strangling out a garbled mess of words instead. Hastily he steps back into the house and shuts the door quietly and relocks it. He stands there staring at the door in disbelief at his own ineptness socializing with another human being that doesn't live with him. With a sudden groan he rubs his face and looks down at his clothes wincing when he realizes just what he is wearing.
“Jesus, I just can’t catch a break ,” he breathes out in disgust. He puts his face in his hands and strangles out a scream of frustration at his lack of everything . Walking back into the main part of the house he decides to torture himself further by going into the bathroom to look at his reflection in the mirror. Oily skin, wrinkled t-shirt and sweaty hair in utter disarray. Worn old t-shirt with a stretched out neck sliding down his right shoulder like he’s an extra in some 80’s dance flick. Awesome, he thinks, fucking awesome. With a smack of the light switch he leaves the bathroom and heads back to Scott’s room to face-plant back onto the bed. With flailing arms and legs he wallows in self pity lamenting about his pathetic existence.
************
The end of August brings the return of Lydia and Scott. Both spent the summer at their respective homes working at whatever job they happened to get for the short period of time they were gone. School is starting back up in a week and all the college kids are returning to the city, including all of the new housemates upstairs.
“Hey, so have you met any of the new people yet,” Lydia asks, while munching on some ruffled potato chips.
“Well, Stiles told me about the party at the beginning of summer,” Scott says, before snagging his own handful of salty goodness.
“Oh yeah, party, what party?” Lydia perks up in interest.
“Eh, just two of the guys from upstairs threw a party on the second floor before heading home for the summer. They had their stupid subwoofer going so loud my room was literally shaking. I went upstairs and yelled at them because it was late and I had to work early the next morning,” says Stiles, with a roll of his eyes.
Lydia and Scott laugh together. “Sounds like they’re a lot of fun. Well, fun as long as you don’t have early classes or work the next morning,” Lydia teases.
“Uh, yeah, guys, remember, we always have either one of those. We all opted for early morning classes so we can work longer shifts,” Stiles reminds them ruefully.
“Oh yeah, I forgot,” Lydia says with a grimace. “Why did we do that again?”
“Because we’re broke college students,” Scott points out helpfully.
“Right...We’re idiots!” they laughingly chorus together.
“So what do they look like?”
“Yeah Stiles, are any of them cute?” Scott asks eagerly.
At this moment, Allison walks out of her room. “Hey what’s going on?” she asks, before stealing some chips from Lydia.
“They want to know about the new neighbors living upstairs,” Stiles gestures with a laugh, before he grabs another handful of chips for himself.
“Oh jeez,” Allison chuckles. “Yeah, poor Stiles here has all the luck with them.”
“The first day that two of them were moving in, one was dressed in this really loud blue Hawaiian print shirt, wearing these nylon basketball shorts and these really old tatty sneakers and a crazy 'fro sitting on top of his head. The other one, I didn’t get a real good look until later when they threw that party, but he has these impressive eyebrows and these adorable bunny teeth when he smiles. His hair was pretty crazy too,” Stiles snorts out.
"Yeah they ended up ringing the bell and knocking on the door. They left this ugly ass bear on a chair by the door with a 40 oz beer bottle between its legs. Real classy, " Allison chimes in.
"Wait, I'm sorry did you say a bear on a chair with a beer?" Lydia repeats with a snort.
"Yup," Stiles said with a pop of his mouth. Beside him Allison shakes her head vigorously in agreement, all wide eyes and cheeks full of chips.
"Well that was generous of them to share their beer," Lydia says with a laugh.
"Did you save the bear," Scott asks hopefully.
His roommates look at him strangely.
"Uh...Nooo…,” Stiles says slowly. “Allison threw it out with the trash. It was dirty and ugly and who knows where the hell they found it," Stiles remarks, wrinkling his nose in disgust.
“Honestly, it looked like one of those cheap giant stuffed bears people win at a carnival,” Allison chimes in.
“Are they cute?”
“Uh, honestly I couldn’t tell you. I never really looked too closely at their faces other than the one guys teeth and eyebrows. I was too appalled by the horrible thing they call fashion,” Stiles snarks. “I think one of them, the eyebrow guy, might have a girlfriend. He had someone hanging all over him at the party when I spoke to him.” Stiles just gives a shrug of disinterest after this statement.
“Tell them about your Pride & Prejudice experience,” Allison leers at him before digging an elbow into his side snickering as Stiles flinches and yelps.
The other two roommates look at Stiles with identical raised eyebrows. “Pride & Prejudice experience? That sounds...special,” Lydia comments as she consumes another chip.
Stiles groans before going into the whole story about what happened that night. “Yeah, so the thumping I was heard during the proposal scene was the bed upstairs literally moving across the room from one wall to the other from all the sex.” He gestures wildly moving his hands from one side to the other to try and emphasize the movement of the bed. “I mean, it was my favorite part of the movie and now I’ll never be able to look at Mr. Darcy the same way again,” Stiles rants, arms waving wildly before pausing to catch his breath. “Sorry Scott,” Stiles says with a wince and a gentle pat on his friend’s shoulder as he looks at Scott’s horror stricken face. Allison is giggling madly and Lydia is snorting half chewed chips into her hands, face red from the exertion of not spraying everyone with soggy crumbs.
“Jesus!” Lydia gasps for air. “It sounds like Stiles has had quite the exciting summer.”
Stiles gives a twitch of his nose and purses his lips into a grim moue of distaste. “Well hopefully this is the extent of my fun with them.” Allison looks at him with an amused look while Lydia and Scott look doubtful. Each were thinking the same thought, knowing grumpy Stiles and his luck in life, this was only the beginning.
************
Classes start back up again and new routines form for the roommates on the first floor. Stiles takes Scott over to the culinary campus every morning for 6 a.m. classes. Apparently the school likes to follow the typical restaurant schedule of real life early morning preps. To make things easier for his roommate and to make sure he gets up in time and ready for his own day, Stiles ferries Scott to school. On days when Stiles doesn’t feel really up to it or doesn’t have a class, he just hands his keys over and mumbles not to get in an accident. The rare days when the weather is really nice and Stiles doesn’t want to fight for a parking spot downtown (or go head to head with the meter lady between classes), he walks to school with Allison after dropping Scott off. Those days always include a mandatory stop at the Dunkin' Donuts on Thayer Street. Each get their usual medium hot coffee (two sugars, extra extra whole milk please) and if they have extra money a toasted cranberry bagel (loaded with cream cheese!) before cutting across Brown University’s campus. It’s a good start to their mornings and they agree they wouldn’t have it any other way.
************
“Hey, so Liam’s dad came up with a name for us after I told him about all of our adventures on what we’ve seen since living here.”
“Oh yeah, what did he come up with?” Stiles inquires with an amused look, curious as to what a local has to say.
Allison grins big and wraps an arm around Stiles before throwing her other arm out in an arc towards the sky. “Life As Flat-landers See It! You know, since you’re from that tiny southern town and I’m from the Midwest and well the land is pretty flat.”
Stiles gives a snort. “Allison, I’m from the foothills of the Ozarks, we have hills. Lots and lots of hills. Actually we have more hills and curves than what can be found around here.”
“Eh, don’t ruin the moment, Stiles. Just go with the flow,” she retorts, tightening her grip around his shoulders. “Look, see there’s something I bet you don’t see in the Ozarks,” she says as she gestures across the road at a 6 foot plus tall well sculpted black man dressed in head to toe gold with gold colored dreadlocks, gold shades and gold lace up Doc Martins.
“Nope,” Stiles replies with wide eyes, a little stunned at the walking living statue sauntering down the sidewalk. “We definitely don’t have that. Or the jolly Santa looking guy wearing a baby blue t-shirt and stone khaki shorts driving a little blue matching colored scooter either.” At this point both roommates have drawn to a stop to gawk at the sight across the street.
“Well it is the Rhode Island School of Design, and RISD students are known to be special,” Allison muses aloud.
“Yeah, that explains Mr. Gold, but what about Santa?” Stiles turns his face to look Allison in the eye.
Stiles stares at Allison, waiting for a reply. Allison looks back with a shrug, “Guess Santa’s reindeer needed a rest.” She then gives him a sly shit eating grin before breaking out in a cackle.
“Wow, just wow,” Stiles deadpans, as he shrugs Allison off his shoulders. “I’m leaving now.”
************
The day has flown by fairly quickly and Stiles is slowly plodding his way up the hill toward Brown’s campus, oversize backpack stuffed to the brim, channeling his little inner turtle as Allison likes to fondly call it. The late summer sun is beating down on him pretty strongly as it is only a little after 11 a.m.
After cutting through Brown’s quad and up Thayer Street, Stiles slowly continues to meander his way up Hope Street letting his mind wander aimlessly, not paying any real attention to what is going on around him. As he approaches his apartment, he looks up and pauses, startled as he sees someone sitting on his front porch in the old dining room chair. Stiles squints his eyes. “Is he seriously drinking a beer already? It’s not even noon, the fucking lush!” He looks around, wondering if he can slip around the back before his neighbor notices him and he’s forced to socialize. Suddenly a voice calls out a hello and Stiles turns back around with a sigh to see the guy waving at him with a sly smirk. With a small huff Stiles begrudgingly starts shuffling slowly towards the porch.
“Well who do we have here? I’m Peter Hale. I believe I'm your new third floor neighbor. Would you like a beer?” The attractive man stands, holding out a open beer bottle in invitation.
Stiles freezes, gaping at the guy smirking at him, not knowing which question he should answer first. With a little shake of his head, he looks at the guy before responding. “Hi, I’m Stiles, Stiles Stilinski. I’ve been busy and it’s not even noon, why the hell are you drinking already?” he blurts out without thought, and okay a lot of judgement.
The guy just grins again not phased at Stiles’ attitude. "Hey it's college, no harm no foul. Plus, I’m done for the day with classes." He shrugs and takes another sip of his beer, eyeing Stiles over his bottle.
Stiles eyes the guy up and down, taking in the form fitting v-neck grey t-shirt, fitted jeans and nice leather shoes. The guy's, no Peter's, he corrects himself silently, blonde colored hair is slightly disheveled, like he's been running his hands through it and he has pretty sun kissed skin. Slightly chapped lips quirked in amusement, straight nose and sharp blue eyes make up his face. Not bad, Stiles thinks, especially when you add in the height and broad shoulders and dear God very defined chest and yeah those are some sexy biceps too . Top it off with that teasing sly voice and it's a pretty sweet package. Too bad the guy left a creepy ass bear on his porch and only seems to know how to offer him beer every time they meet.
Stiles hefts his heavy backpack up on his shoulders, a little unsure of what to do now. "Umm... Right," he says, scratching his head awkwardly before grasping at his backpack straps again. "I'm going to go inside now. It was nice meeting you." He gives a small finger wave while trying to edge his way around Peter.
Peter just gives a small smirk and rocks back on his heels, "Sure Stiles, I'll see you later." Stiles' feels a little curl in his stomach at the sound of his name from the other guy’s lips as he fumbles with getting his key into the door, cheeks flushing when it takes too long and cringing when the key becomes stuck halfway in the lock. Time to get out the W-D40 he thinks, internally cursing his luck that this has to happen with his audience of one still observing him.
Peter takes another swig of his beer and hums softly under his breath, watching with hooded eyes as his cute neighbor struggles with his lock. Instead of offering to help out, he takes another swig before stepping closer. “Need help?” he eventually asks with amusement when the key becomes stuck.
A quick glance over his shoulder has Stiles giving Peter a startled look when he realizes how close they now are. A hasty, “No thanks, I’ve got it, goodbye,” is his reply as his key thankfully, about fucking time, cooperates. He mutters a quick, "finally," under his breath and steps inside into the cool front hall and shuts the door, wincing in embarrassment when it gets caught in a cross breeze and slams shut. Husky laughter can be heard from outside, causing a shiver to run over Stiles’s skin. Stiles lets his head fall forward with a thud against the wall. Fuck!
************
“So, where did the other dining room chair come from?” Allison asks as she pauses in her imitation of a dying woman in the Sahara after her daily two hour run and workout at the culinary campus gym.
“What chair?” Stiles asks in confusion.
“Seriously, Stiles, how did you not notice? The porch is right outside your bedroom window. Don’t you walk by it every day at least twice a day?”
“Umm...No. I use the back door,” Stiles replies with a shrug of his shoulders.
Silence descends on the kitchen. Crickets chirp from outside. Lydia coughs and clears her throat. “I’m sorry why are you using the back door all of a sudden? It’s completely on the opposite end of where you live,” she states flatly.
“It’s not all of a sudden,” he protests. “I’ve been driving my jeep, so I use the back door. My jeep is parked there, so therefore I naturally use the back door which is closer,” Stiles explains patiently with a shrug.
“Yeah about that, the weather is nice. Why have you been using your jeep so much? Usually you walk or take the bus because between paid parking and the meter maid your ass is dead broke,” Allison states with a raised eyebrow.
Stiles stares back at his two roommates. “What, can’t I be lazy? I just don’t feel like walking lately. Between all the noise upstairs late at night, school and work, I’m not getting much sleep so I’m staying in bed longer to try and catch up.”
Both Lydia and Allison wince in sympathy. The neighbors are pretty noisy. Several of them don’t have classes until late morning or even early afternoon so they are taking full advantage of their open mornings by socializing late into the night. It’s cool, except the gathering place of choice is the second floor living room, which happens to be directly over Stiles’ bedroom. Add in the subwoofer they love to turn up to full volume and you have Stiles investing in 20 packages of ear plugs, backups for his backups for his backups to ensure he doesn’t run out anytime soon just so he can try to sleep.
“Good point,” they both agree in unison.
At this moment the front door opens and they hear Scott’s cheerful call out of, “Honey I’m hooooome!!!!” echo through the house.
Allison snorts water and starts hacking, gasping for air. Lydia helps her out by pounding on her back while barking out, “Deep breaths woman, nobody’s dying on my watch!” Stiles just rolls his eyes at the spectacle.
Scott waltzes into the kitchen, bright smile on his face. “Hey guys! What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Stiles replies with a sigh. “We’re just catching up on our day. How was work?”
“Eh, same old same old. Didn’t open any credit cards at Eddie Bauer so Missy had to have a ‘talk; with me,” he says, rolling his eyes in frustration. “Oh yeah, by the way the guys from upstairs say hi. They say they haven’t seen you in awhile Stiles. They were wondering if everything was okay.” Scott frowns in confusion before continuing, “Peter says he usually sees you when he’s sitting on the front porch after morning classes, but he hasn’t seen you all week.” Scott looks at him with concern. “He says he’ll look around the corner and there’s your jeep, but he never hears you in the house. Is everything okay?” Scott looks at him worriedly, wondering what he may have missed in his friend’s life.
The kitchen falls into silence again. Crickets continue to chirp outside. Fucking crickets, Stiles curses in his head, avoiding eye contact with his roommates. Allison and Lydia are looking at him and Scott still has a concerned look on his face.
“Stiles…,” Lydia drawls out, “are you avoiding Peter?”
“What? No!” Stiles protests, holding up his hands in innocence. “Why are you looking at me like that?” he sputters.
“Holy shit,” Allison breathes, before breaking out into a cackle. “Stiles, are you seriously driving your jeep so that you can use the back door? And are you seriously sneaking into your own house just to avoid our neighbor?”
Stiles looks back, squirming a little under the scrutiny of his roommates, hunching his shoulders a little when he realizes his roommates are too smart for their own good and have caught onto him.
“Honey, that’s just...pathetic,” is all Allison can manage before howling in laughter.
“Oh come on!” Stiles stomps his foot. “You don’t understand!” he snaps in frustration. “He parks himself on the front porch after class every single day with a bottle of beer and just sits there until I come home. After I go inside he always goes upstairs. It’s fucking creepy as hell! Why are you still laughing? It’s not funny. Stop laughing!”
“Aww...Someone has a crush on Stiles,” Lydia coos.
“By the way,” Allison gasps, “his name is Peter. Saying his name won’t make him appear suddenly.”
Stiles just looks at her as she struggles with getting enough air in her lungs between cackles of merriment.
“Seriously, does no one see a problem with this behavior?” Stiles demands in exasperation.
“Well it is kind of creepy,” Scott admits while their other two roommates clutch one another and try to muffle their laughter into each others shoulders. “On the other hand though, it’s kind of sweet.”
Stiles just gives him a are you fucking kidding me look.
“What?” Scott defensively asks. “Look, here is a hottie of our neighbor who likes to sit out on our porch every day just to say hi to you. I think it’s kind of sweet. You should be nice and stop avoiding him. Maybe smile and say hi back to him. I’ve talked to him a few times and he actually is really nice. You should try and get to know him, you might find that you actually may have something in common. And yeah, maybe use his name too. That would be nice. You know, instead of calling him ‘that guy’ all the time.” Scott gives him a hopeful look.
Stiles sputters, “Are you serious? He sits outside with a bottle of beer at 11 in the morning. Every. Single. School. Day. He waits for me to come home and all he does is smirk at me and says, ‘Hi Stiles’ and nothing else. Doesn’t that seem a little creepy to you? I don’t know, maybe, a little stalkerish? Seriously, you think this is sweet? Need I remind you that this is one of the guys that smoked out our apartment just last week with weed !!! Oh my God will you please just stop laughing already,” he shrieks, flailing his arms in frustration at the situation as a whole.
With this exclamation, whatever control Allison and Lydia has gained falls to the wayside as they slide to the floor in a pile of giggly limbs at the memory of Stiles freaking out over their smoked filled apartment, running frantically from window to window flapping his hands and turning on fans in hopes of airing out his bedroom.
“Oh yeah,” Scott smiles weakly, ruffling the hair on the back of his head in memory of that ordeal. “I forgot about that. They did apologize when I told them about that. They said they would try to be more careful in the future.” He lifts his shoulders in a what can you do look before sticking his hands into his front pockets.
Allison and Lydia shriek with more laughter. Stiles just covers his face with his hands and screams.
************
“Hey, so how are you guys doing?” a familiar voice floats through the living room.
Stiles freezes, his breath catches, and he stops, hands hovering over the keyboard of his laptop. What the fuck are they doing here? No no no, he silently screams as he carefully eases back into his desk chair, taking extra caution not to make any noise. Stiles contemplates sitting quietly versus sneaking over to his bed and pretending to be asleep. Choosing the latter, he carefully gets out of his chair and starts to tip-toe over to his bed, body hunched like a cartoon burglar.
“Hey Stiles! We have company!”
Shit! Fucking Allison! Stiles yells silently in his head as he hastily tiptoes back to his chair, grabbing his headphones and jamming them on his head quickly when he hears footsteps approaching his door. Body tense he opens up his music player and starts blaring some Dixie Chicks singing about a cowboy taking them away to drown out the soft knocks on his door less than two feet away. He quickly returns to his paper that he had been typing, hoping against all odds his roommate will take his non response as a hint and leave without opening his door. Fuck! No such luck. Going to kill her! Going to kiiiiillll her! he chants inside his head as he spots the edge of his accordion doors crack open. Pretending not to notice his door opening, he continues to type his literature paper like it's the most important thing in his universe.
“Hey Stiles,” Allison calls out softly to the back of her roommate's head, before catching sight of his earphones. A noise behind her distracts her for a moment and she looks over her shoulder to see Chris plopping down on their blue couch near Lydia and Peter walking towards Stiles’s door. “Is this Stiles’s room?” Peter asks slyly with a smile, trying to peer into the room. “Uh yeah,” Allison replies in amusement before turning back around to try and get her stubborn roommate’s attention.
“Stiles,” she calls out again, tapping him lightly on his shoulder this time, causing the younger man to flail out and twist around.
“What?” he barks out to Allison as he pulls his earphones down around his neck. Allison raises her hands in front of her and smiles. “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. Ahh...we have company over. Just thought I’d let you know, so you can come out and maybe socialize a little,” she says with a subtle twitch of her eyebrows.
Stiles stares at her for a moment before movement from his left catches his attention and causes him to frown.
Allison turns around to see what has made her roommate look this way, but she already has a pretty good idea.
“Hey Stiles,” Peter smirks at him, hooking his chin around the edge of door. "How are you? Are you okay from this afternoon?" he asks in concern.
Allison looks between the two guys, brows furrowing in confusion at this question.
Stiles just stares back at the guy, his left eye twitching a little. He turns back to look at Allison with a blank face, ignoring the question in his roommate's eyes. “Hi Peter, I'm fine thanks for asking,” he replies in a voice void of emotion. “I have a paper to write, go away.” He makes a shooing gesture at the two, ignoring Allison’s widening eyes that are screaming at him to stop being a fucking asshole you douche bag! So to appease his roommate, he looks back over to Peter and tacts on a quiet, “please,” before turning back around in his chair and placing his earphones back onto his head, hands returning to the keyboard and pounding out one hundred words per minute of embarrassed desperation.
Allison gives a silent groan, resisting the urge to wrap her hands around her roommate’s scrawny little neck. With a cough she turns around to apologize to Peter, pausing when she sees that Peter has an fondly amused look on his face as he stares at the back of Stiles’ head.
“Ahh...sorry about that. He’s a little grumpy, this is a big paper that he has due next week and he hasn’t really had a lot of time to focus on it lately,” Allison says apologetically.
“Oh a big paper already? It’s still the first month,” Peter responds with raised brows.
“Honor society,” Allison simply replies with a weak smile.
“Oh, that makes sense,” Peter agrees, giving another look at the back of Stiles’ head before turning around to go and join the other people already socializing in the living room.
Allison peeks around the door quickly to check and see where Peter is. Spotting the other guy now on the couch she spins back around and leans down, pulling the earphones away from Stiles’ ear. Leaning close with her lips almost touching her roommate’s ear, she quietly hisses out, “You’re a fucking asshole. I don’t give a shit if you think this guy is creepy. He came downstairs with his roommate to spend some time to get to know us and you will make an effort even if it fucking kills you. If you don’t step out of your little hermit cave while they are here, I will go through and personally scratch all of your cds, including your brand new Dixie Chicks.” She gently replaces the earphone and rubs her roommate’s tense shoulder in comfort before turning around and walking back into the living room, quietly closing the door and joining in with the ongoing conversation.
Stiles stops typing and stares blankly at his screen, whining a little in the back of his throat knowing that Allison is right about his attitude and that Allison will also keep her promise for the destruction of his cds. With a quiet groan he rubs his hands down his face and ruffles his hair in frustration. With a huff of angry breath, he moves his cursor over to the file button and saves his work for later. Flexing his fingers he imagines Allison’s neck under his hands and then maybe Peter’s neck too. Chewing on his bottom lip for a moment, he takes a deep breath and stands up to go outside. He stops when he hears Peter’s husky laugh. Stiles shakes his hands out and rolls his shoulders to ease the tension, all of a sudden nervous to step outside.
He’s successfully avoided Peter for the past two weeks except for earlier today when he forgot to drop his blinds, and Peter had spotted him through his window reading a book on his bed. Red flushes his cheeks at the recollection of Peter calling out a teasing, “Hey Stiles” to him as he laid sprawled on his pillows, giggling like a schoolgirl at a cute moment in the story he had been reading. His squawk of surprise at seeing Peter and the mortification of potentially being caught reading a romance novel had caused him to tumble off his bed in a flurry of limbs. Peter’s hasty, “Oh shit, Stiles are you okay?” as he ran over to the porch railing in hopes to try and see into the other guy’s room to check if he was alright had kept Stiles lying on the floor in embarrassment. He had strangled out a humiliated, “Yeah I’m okay, no worries,” through the window before face planting into his lizard slippers and biting a tail to muffle his cursing.
To say that Stiles has even more reason to not want to spend time with Peter tonight is a huge understatement. With another quick huff of breath and shake of his hands to pull him out of his embarrassing memory, Stiles straightens up his back, takes a deep breath and hesitantly reaches over to lightly push open his door.
************
“Wait, you read Tolkien?” Peter asks with a delighted laugh. “Like honest to God, have read the books and not just watched the movie like everyone else has at this godforsaken college?”
“Uh yeah,” Stiles says, giving the other guy a suspicious side eye look. “What’s so great about that?”
“Well not many people have actually read the books. You are literally the only person here I have met who has. Have you read all the books? What about the Hobbit?” Peter demands.
Stiles just blinks his big eyes at the other guy who is now leaning forward in excitement as he spews forth his questions. “Yeah, I’ve read all three and The Hobbit as well. Haven’t a lot of people?” Stiles looks around at the other people in the room who are shaking their heads at him in a definite no motion. Stiles now has a new focus for some hardcore judging, and surprisingly none have the name of Peter, he begrudgingly admits to himself.
“Aww…,” Chris says teasingly, “they grow up so quickly.” He brushes his finger under his right eye, pretending to wipe a tear away.
Allison adds on, “It’s so nice to see the nerds of the house making friends with one another.”
Stiles just shoots the two a dirty look and says with a sniff, “It’s not my fault you guys don’t know good literature.”
“Yeah,” Peter agrees enthusiastically. “How can you guys not have read the books? Tolkien is like hands down the best writer ever!”
Stiles nods his head in agreement, trying not to dwell on the fact that he does indeed have something in common with their pothead lush of a housemate.
Lydia catches his eye and smirks while Scott just beams at him like the proud mama that he is.
Peter smiles widely, blue eyes crinkling at the corner from finally being able to connect with the guy he has been stalking for the past month.
Stiles smiles weakly back at him, before lowering his eyes a little shyly.
It is at this moment that Stiles realizes that he does indeed have something in common with Peter.