“I’m so, so sorry,” Ryan had stuttered with a red face as he was given a towel to wrap around himself, just a second after class had ended. In a gulp, his eyes darted about, his embarrassment as clear as day. “You know, this never happens. I, uh, that’s totally a first, uh—“

The girls chuckled. “It happens more often than you think,” one of them said, granting him the tiniest bit of reassurance, allowing him to finally exhale a stuttered breath. 

But panic took a tight hold of him again when he watched, in the corner of his eye, how Elias reached for his backpack, and began packing everything up, wanting to leave as quick as possible.

“W-Wait, Eli—!” With his fingers clenching around his towel, making sure he didn’t expose himself once more, he rushed over. “Let me get dressed! Wait for me!” 

“Why should I?” he hissed right back. Was Ryan the only one that had felt a connection in their gaze, as Eli painted him, and Ryan sat muse? Was Ryan truly imagining things, even though it had all felt so real, and so damn intense? 

“But, Eli,” Ryan pouted.

“Stop calling me that. How many times do I have to tell you?”

Ryan slithered over, and allowed himself a peek at the life sketch Eli had drawn, which took his breath away almost completely, but it was just as weird recognizing his own, nude body, drawn with such attention to detail. 

“Thanks to me, you got such a good sketch, though! You’re really gonna ditch me?” Already, Elias made efforts to leave. “Eli!! Wait for me! I got all naked for you, at least get me a snack for that!”

“No one told you to do it!” Elias grumbled through clenched teeth, and Ryan sulked, still holding onto his towel around his hips. 

Ryan flinched all the harder when Eli added on, his voice turning sharper with every single word. “And why are you still naked? It’s been like ten minutes since class ended! Are you a pervert?” 

“H-Huh!” Completely perplexed, Ryan stared at Eli.

“No—! I’m telling you, that earlier was just a normal human reaction. Everyone staring at me was so weird so, I, I—“ There was no way Ryan could admit that it was only Eli’s gaze that had given his body that intense effect.

“You got a boner because everyone stared at you. So, you are a pervert, and next time I know you’ll walk around naked underneath some coat.” 

“Hey! No, hell no! I’m not—No!!!” 

“Well,” Eli sighed. “At least, there was something to hide, after all.”

“Uh—Eh? Y-Yeah?” Ryan’s stutters dominated his voice, and he could no longer think clearly. 

He’s flirting, isn’t he? He’s totally, totally, totally flirting with me! 

“You—You think so? I told you I was average, maybe even above average—It’s pretty good—“ 

“Get dressed already!”

Ryan flinched, and rushed behind the curtain, reached for his stuff, and got dressed in record time, hopping into his jeans more clumsily than he would have liked, and as he pulled his shirt down and returned, his heart beat all the higher knowing Eli, who could have easily left, had truly waited for him. 

Well, he hadn’t waited for Ryan, per se, not the real Ryan. As the room emptied, with classmates rushing past in their hurried steps, trying to make it to their next lecture, or some food, or whatever it was, Elias had kept his gaze stuck to his sketch, watched over it like a hawk over its prey, all to make sure no one even dared to look, and especially not touch it. 

And Ryan, who still hid behind the curtain, with only his head poking out, was yet to be noticed by Eli, who then approached the canvas once he was fully alone, or presumed to be, still waiting for the real Ryan to make his return fully clothed. 

He stared and stared, and his body squirmed as if Eli touched him directly. When those slender finger reached for the sketched lines atop the canvas, tracing the drawn lines, the muscles that barely showed, along Ryan’s arm, down his stomach, and every single spot Eli had so meticulously drawn, Ryan was about to lose it.

Why did Elias stare at it so … longingly? Or was Ryan seeing things, again?

And then, in a move much too hasty, so sudden, it surprised even Ryan, Elias flipped the canvas around, making it impossible to see the sketch any longer, all they could see was the back of the canvas, and not a single drawn line. 

“…?” No one else had turned theirs around. Everyone had left their sketches in the room for the professor to grade, but only Eli had flipped his around in an effort to hide his talent, or whatever he’d tried to do. 

Only then did Eli exhale all the louder, and twisted around on his soles too quickly for Ryan to react. With quick, hurried steps, Elias made efforts to leave the classroom, and Ryan panicked.

With only one shoe on his feet, he followed in crooked steps, trying to get his shoe on as he walked, daring to trip over his own feet in the process. “W-Wait for me!” 

To his surprise, Eli halted, and Ryan tripped right into him as he’d hopped on one leg, trying to get his other sneaker over his heel, only for it to get stuck again, and again. 

With a gulp, Ryan apologized, all that followed stutters and awkward chuckled.

But Eli’s gaze remained stern as they looked at one another, Ryan rubbing his neck and standing on a half-worn shoe. 

“Tsk. You can’t even get dressed properly, or what?”

“H-Huh?” Ryan flinched when Eli’s hands reached up towards his face, almost worried, as if Eli was going to punch him in the face for being so glued to him all morning. But what happened instead was something Ryan  could have never seen coming, and made his heart race all the more.

Eli’s fingers held onto the crooked collar of Ryan’s flannel, fixing it by folding it the proper way, and flattening it the way it was supposed to be. Before, it had stood up on one side, tickled Ryan’s chin, and the other side had been tucked into Ryan’s neck and shoulder, all thanks to the way he’d hurriedly thrown it on.

“If you’re wearing something this egregious, at least wear it properly,” Elias hissed. “Do you even iron this ugly thing? It’s got wrinkles all over.”

“H-Hey,” Ryan pouted, but he couldn’t muster up anything else besides that. He was too focused on Eli’s eyes, once again so concentrated, but this time completely on Ryan and his crooked, ruined clothes. Their eyes never met, but Eli went on, and on.

You’re fixing my clothes, and even that, you do so carefully … Anything Eli’s hands touched, Ryan was sure, would get the most gentle, caring treatment of all. Unless, of course, it was his own work he hated on. 

And this touch, so sweet … the complete opposite of the sharp words that left his mouth. 

Rubbing his hands over Ryan’s shoulders, Eli gave it a valiant effort at flattening out any wrinkles the flannel might have had, and then he slipped lower towards Ryan’s sleeves, and fixing even those crooked ends.

Ryan gulped when Eli’s soft, silken hair tickled his clothes, that’s how close Eli stood before him. Only a few millimeters more, and they could have hugged; only a few millimeters more, and Eli could have fallen right into Ryan’s chest, ready to hear his pounding heart.

Like a scolded child, Ryan stood there, holding his arm up ever so slightly so Eli could fold the cuffs properly, and there was something oddly too tender in the touch of Eli’s slender fingers, and the care he put into Ryan’s flannel he hated so much. 

Something intimate; something attentive that went beyond just this flannel. 

Obediently, Ryan raised his second arm, only for Eli to flinch away too suddenly, hissing all the same, and never once looking at Ryan. “Why am I fixing your clothes?! Can’t you dress yourself? Are you a kid, or what, and you need help?”

“But—“ Ryan sulked. “You—You did that all by yourself. I never asked you to help me!” 

“Whatever!” Elias stomped away. “Put your damn shoes on properly. You don’t know how to tie your laces, either?”

“I’m not a kid! I was just in a hurry!” Ryan pouted. “Don’t act like your much older than me! We’re both adults, and you can’t be more than two years older than me! Stop lecturing me!” 

Eli hissed. “I’m 25.”

“Eh—“ Ryan stared, and stared, and stared. “Are—Are you for real? 25?! You’re like … You’re pushing 30!”

“Watch your damn mouth, you—“

Ryan chuckled, and rushed after Eli as he made efforts to leave Ryan behind, abandon him all alone in the arts faculty. “You’re five years older than me. Should I address you a certain way, sir?”

“Will you shut it?”

“I never would have guessed, honestly,” Ryan mumbled. “You look so young~!”

Those words made Eli stop right in his tracks, and glare at Ryan with the most killer gaze he ever could have mustered up. “Will you stop pretending I’m old?”

“Well—I’m … I’m just surprised.” Whenever Eli looked at him that way, with those intense eyes he had, Ryan lost all sense. “You’re a fourth year, right? When did you come to uni? Did you work before? What did you do?”

“I took some time off,” Eli grumbled.

Ryan’s eyes lit up in even brighter green, and immediately, Eli flinched away, and avoided all eye contact. “O-Oh! Like a gap year? That’s cool! I was thinking about doing one, too, but I thought I shouldn’t waste any time on it… What did you do during that time? Did you travel? Did you go to Australia? I hear lots of people go there for this kind of stuff—” 

Twisting away on his toes, Eli grumbled. “It’s none of your business. I don’t even know why I’m telling you this. Piss off.” 

“Eli, you’re so mean …”

“Are you lost? Get out of my sight!” 

Ryan’s chasing steps slowed down as he sulked. 

There was something in Eli’s voice. When he meant it, and when Ryan shouldn’t push it any further. A tremble, just like before, as if Eli was ready to burst out into tears if Ryan continued on, and an earnest tone so different from usual, not even Ryan dared to test it.

“I’ll see you later, then, Eli! I had fun … letting you draw me.” And he watched Eli waltz off with quickening steps, and not much later, with a thick cloud of his vape enveloping him like a mysterious mist.