Dresden Academy

Who: Luka, Arnaud, Anastas
What: Luka's birthday is horrible. He accidentally kisses his roommate and then runs off for a smoke and chats with Stas.
Where/When: His dorm room; the older kids' smoking hangout on campus. Backdated to March 15th.
Rating: NSFWish (lots of language, drug use, themes)


What compelled him to do it, looking back even an hour later he couldn't say. He'd shaken Pickle, which... What the fuck Adelaide? He had no idea what sending her owl to spend his birthday with him was all about. Sure he got attention all day long from all the girls because Pickle couldn't help being adorable, but it was a distraction.

Finally he managed to shut himself in his room with Arnaud, found the bottle of liquor Thorn left for him and started to drink in earnest. Arnaud offered him some of the good grass, his very special birthday present all the way from Jamaica and the boys smoked themselves silly.

Feeling loose and a little on edge, Luka leaned over in a moment of sheer insanity and kissed Arnaud.

Luka couldn't take it back and things were just going to be unbearably awkward even though Arnaud was the perfect gentleman. It took him by surprise, but he was gentle. He never expected Luka to kiss him, or that he'd like it despite it being the worst possible idea. They lived together; if this turned into something they couldn't just ask for new rooms when it ended. And with Luka Nikitin, relationships always ended. Before he could articulate any of it, Luka was pulling away, looking for his jacket, a packet of cigarettes and a lighter.

He apologized twice before leaving.

"It's all right," Arnaud said with a slight frown as Luka shut the door on him.

Nothing is all right, Luka thought. He punched the wall on his way out, bloodying his knuckles. Pickle was back and flitting very close to his ear. "Fucking Christ, Pickle. Go fuck off!" He jerked his bloody fist at the owl and felt terrible for scaring the poor, stupid thing off. Except that Pickle was sure to get a nice solid nip on his middle finger before flying away.

It was shaping up to be the worst possible birthday in Luka Nikitin's life.

Rushing down the lawn he found a quiet spot and lit up his cigarette. A lot of the older kids hung out here to smoke away from prying eyes and disapproving professors. Tonight it was mostly empty except for one other.

Anastas flicked his head up in greeting as Luka snapped his lighter to life. The scent of cloves drifted out of his mouth and the end of his dark cigarette. He'd come out here to think; his head was too clogged up with other thoughts. In another hour curfew would be up and he'd be forced inside again. He intended to enjoy the little amount of precious time he had alone, but Luka wasn't so bad to share it with.

They had enough in common and Stas seemed to get Luka's sense of humor. Add to it that here was someone he could speak Russian with. "Nice evening," he said in his mother tongue.

Luka laughed harshly, blowing smoke as he did. "Not so much." He picked his way closer to Anastas and leaned against a tree. There used to be a bench here, but the teachers discovered it and had it removed. The students made do with the trees, or the ground when it wasn't so cold. In a few weeks it would be nice enough to drop on the ground, but for now the ground temperature was still a bit below comfortable. "It's my birthday and I want to celebrate it by jumping off a bridge."

"That bad?"

"Worse," Luka answered in English. He shook his head slowly. "Of all the fucked up things. My ex-girlfriend decided to send her owl to keep me company today. I don't know if it was some kind of special torture or if she was really trying to do something nice, but it just... It fucked up my whole day."

"If it makes you feel better, I am caught between two girlfriends." Stas didn't think about it being such a secret, given the ruse of dating 'Abernathy.' He trust Luka, thought this might be a good time to show him how much.

"I thought you were with Abby?" Luka said with some measure of disdain. He'd never gotten along with her, and he wasn't terribly willing to give her another shot at friendship, even if she was dating Anastas.

"I am," he answered carefully. "But there was another girl I was seeing first."

Luka was sufficiently distracted to end his own little pity party. "Does Abby know?"

"She knows. She is surprisingly patient while I decide."

"Pick the other girl," Luka replied.

Stas laughed. "I know you are not a fan."

"I doubt I ever will be. What even attracted you to her in the first place?"

We have history would have been a lie. Stas grinned as an incredibly simple and perfect answer came to mind. "You would not believe me if I told you."

Luka laughed. "Then I don't want to know." He shook his head slowly, took another long drag on his cigarette. He closed his eyes and figured if Stas could trust him with this secret (because it had to be secret or Shell Horton and Carly Travers would be all over this), then he could trust him with the final disaster of his evening. He had to tell someone and why not Anastas? "I kissed my roommate."

Anastas looked at him. He didn't know Luka's roommate offhand.

"Arnaud," Luka supplied at the puzzled look.

"Oh." Stas regarded him quietly and then smiled. "He is quite attractive, is he not?"

Luka laughed again, some of the tension released in that little moment. "I wouldn't have kissed him otherwise."

"You could do much worse," Stas agreed. "Was he the first?"

"Kissed him at that ridiculous party," he admitted. "During spin the bottle. I think you missed that bit."

"I missed quite a bit at that party." The kids at Blue Ridge thought they knew how to throw a barn burner, but he'd never been to a party like the one at Bernadine's house. He wondered if there would be more parties like that over the summer. "This one is in the vault," he promised when the silence lapsed.

"I appreciate it," Luka replied, switching back to English again. "I just can't quite believe how stupid today has been."

"Perhaps next year will be better?" Stas asked quietly. He finished his clove and tossed the butt into a small canister that the kids installed on one of the trees with a nail. Once a week someone would take the liberty of emptying and returning it, but no one seemed to know who.

"I fucking hope so," Luka answered. He shrugged, sighed as he finished his cigarette in record time. While he didn't know how he was going to deal with his own awkward situation, he felt better having it off his shoulders.