#chadthan

“Movie night?” Ethan repeats, watching Anika as the beta digs out multiple pillows from the giant sparkly pink tote bag she’s brought along with her.

He’s not sure how she’d managed to get so many to fit in there and as impressive a feat it is, frankly, he’s afraid to ask.

“Movie night,” Mindy parrots from where she’s lounging atop Ethan’s bed— because she steadfastly refuses to go anywhere near her brother’s bed because, and Ethan quotes, she doesn’t, ‘know what kind of bodily fluids are all over that thing.’

She holds out both hands and moves her fingers back and forth in a spirit-fingers kind of way as she echoes the words.

It’s disconcerting.

Mindy Meeks-Martin is a rollercoaster. Ethan is terrified of rollercoasters.

So, his slight fear of her checks out.

“And this is… a weekly occurrence?” he inquires, brows furrowed as he continues to watch Anika.

She’s kneeling atop the seemingly endless layers of blankets and bedsheets she and Chad have stretched out onto the floor between the beds, meticulously organizing the countless pillows against the dresser that he and Chad share— the one they’ve split evenly down the middle so each of them gets four drawers.

Chad’s desk chair is rolled out in front of the makeshift futon on the floor and his laptop is perched atop the seat, lid open and ready to go— the screen proudly displaying a slideshow of pictures of the Meeks-Martin family and friends.

It’s kind of endearing.

Ethan refuses to acknowledge the way it makes his chest ache a bit. He doesn’t have a single family photo on his phone. Only a few pictures he’s taken with Quinn over the years. And a single solitary snapshot of his mother from when he was a kid, before she’d passed.

“Every Friday!” Chad calls from where he’s got his head shoved in the closet— successfully pulling Ethan out of an inevitable dark swirl of thoughts. “We rotate. We had it at Tara’s last week but you missed it cause you were trying that study group thing. Next week it’ll be at Mindy and Anika’s and this week we get the pleasure of hosting, babe.”

Ethan feels his cheeks flush horribly, despite the fact that he tries his damned hardest to ignore the way his heart kind of trips over a beat in response to the flippant way Chad calls him babe. The alpha’s continued and incessant usage of pet names has been steadily increasing over the past two and a half weeks that they’ve known each other.

“You ditched us for study group last week?” Mindy inquires, face twisted in clear disgust. “Nerd.”

Ethan’s still reeling over babe so he can’t even bring himself to remind her she’s a horror movie fanatic and that, in and of itself, also makes her a nerd.

“Hey!”

Ethan’s gaze slides over to where Chad has pulled his head out of the closet.

“He’s the cutest nerd in all of Hortense Tower,” Chad declares with a playful smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. “Put some respect on his highness’ name.”

Ethan wishes he had a shell he could retreat into and hide.

Princess definitely seems to be the alpha’s favorite pet name for him— thanks to Quinn and her downright mortifying stories— and he uses, ‘his highness’ to refer to Ethan when talking to others more often than not. It’s embarrassing as hell. But Ethan doesn’t… dislike it.

Babe is a close runner-up, followed by the more pretentious-sounding ones; Baby, Darling, Sweetheart, etc.

Ethan’s sure at some point he’ll have to draw the line. Probably somewhere around Honey or Pookie.

He shivers at the thought.

“Debatable,” Mindy decides in monotone, giving Ethan one of those sweeping once-over’s before she turns her attention back to Anika.

Chad’s lips purse in an almost disappointed pout but Ethan smiles softly at his roommate when their gazes meet and Chad grins before he returns to whatever he’s attempting to do in the closet.

Anika is kneeling beside Ethan’s bed, stealing his pillows to add to the collection already on the makeshift futon on the floor. Mindy’s still sprawled on his bed though and is holding a few pillows hostage and Ethan watches as the alpha flops around, groaning dramatically and refusing to move when Anika reaches for them. She only relents when the beta huffs and sweetly asks for them with a gentle smile.

Ethan is still trying to figure out if they’re dating or not.

If they aren’t, they absolutely should be. Sometimes, when Anika goes on these long-winded, passionate rants, Mindy stares at her like she hung the moon and all the stars in the sky.

It’s downright adorable.

But Ethan’s not going to say anything. Despite the fact that he’s Chad’s roommate and Chad seems to like him well enough, Ethan feels like he’s on the outside looking in most of the time. Chad, Mindy and Tara had grown up together. And Mindy and Anika had met at summer camp years ago.

He’s kind of the outsider in this equation.

There’s a sharp knock at the door and Chad pulls his head back out of the closet for a moment to shout an enthusiastic, “Come in!”

The door is thrown open with such force that Ethan physically winces when it slams into the wall with a loud bang.

“The party has arrived, bitches,” Tara drawls, her fingers clutching a downright impressive amount of chips and snacks. She sweeps into the room, toeing off her shoes, and depositing all of the snacks onto the futon on the floor before she looks up at Ethan and waves.

Ethan lifts a few fingers in response to what he naively assumes is her greeting him, but when he glances over at the open door the other omega’s left in her wake, he stills and his hand drops to his side.

Oh, he realizes, that must be his cue.

He sniffs and resolutely does not frown.

“Okay, so— um,” Ethan mumbles, reaching up to run a hand at the back of his neck anxiously. “What time should I come back?”

All at once, four pairs of eyes turn to him.

Even Chad's, who finally seems to find whatever it is he’s looking for in the closet— it turns out to be an old, ratty red-and-green plaid blanket that the alpha tosses over at his sister, who catches it one-handed, even while she arches a sharp brow up at Ethan.

“Back where?” Tara questions, her nose scrunching and her brows furrowing. “What are we talking about?”

Chad’s eyes are narrowed at Ethan and there’s a distinctly grim frown on his face.

Ethan squirms, shifting from one side to the other as he avoids the alpha’s gaze.

“To the room?” he squeaks out, motioning in the general direction of his side of the room. “I mean, I can like… kill a few hours in the library or something but, um, I— I don’t really have anywhere else to like… sleep and stuff.”

Anika drops the pillow she’s holding, her mouth gaping as she stares at him like he’s suddenly grown another head or something.

A muffled sound comes from where Chad’s standing by the closet, something like a wounded noise.

Ethan doesn’t look.

And he gets the feeling he’s said something wrong.

When do you ever say the right thing, a mean little voice that sounds suspiciously like his father’s hisses from the recesses of his mind.

He takes a step back, lifting both hands to wave in front of him frantically.

“I— I mean, sorry, never mind,” he croaks, his face positively flaming once more in shame. “It’s fine, I can— I can figure something out.”

He turns abruptly, and almost trips over Tara’s discarded shoes in his haste to grab his backpack and flee.

Maybe Jason from his film class will let him stay the night, Ethan thinks as he shoulders one of his backpack’s straps and groans internally. If he does that, he knows he’ll have to deal with an infuriating barrage of subtle anti-omega bullshit Jason’s roommate, Greg, is sure to throw his way.

It’s ridiculous that in this day and age there are still people who think omegas are less-than for some reason.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.”

Ethan’s head jerks back hastily as Chad rushes forward and steps into his path, effectively blocking him from their open dorm door.

“Slow your roll there, sweetheart,” Chad reasons, regarding Ethan with what looks to be a mixture of disbelief and amusement. “You’re not going anywhere.”

Ethan grips his backpack’s strap tightly and does not think about the fact that even though Chad’s eyes look almost black from a distance, up close they’re very much a deep chocolate brown color that Ethan definitely doesn’t think is the most gorgeous he’s ever seen.

“Yeah, it’s your turn to pick the movie,” Tara calls out, and despite the fact that she’s clearly speaking directly to Ethan, he’s unable to pull his gaze away from Chad’s to look at her. “Thank fuck because I don’t think I could survive another one of Chad’s picks.”

“Whoa, hey,” Mindy pipes up, shooting up from her horizontal position on Ethan’s bed. “First of all, how dare you? Secondly, Empire Records is God tier.”

Mindy is kind of fiercely protective of her brother. It’s unexpected but admirable as all hell. Ethan highly respects her for it.

Quinn is the same way with him. Although, she’s probably the only person in the world who even cares about him at all so it’s probably not saying much.

“God tier?” Tara guffaws. “You and Chad literally just spent the whole night drooling over Liv Tyler.”

“So did Anika!” Mindy squawks, pointing up at said beta accusingly.

Ethan kind of half tunes them out— as they continue to bicker back and forth for a moment, until Anika steps in, in an attempt to mediate— and gulps quietly under Chad’s intense stare, the alpha refusing to look away from him.

“My turn?” Ethan queries uncertainly, licking at his lips nervously and staunchly disregarding the way the alpha’s gaze flickers down for a second. “Are— you want me to stay?”

Chad’s lips stretch out into this lazy reassuring smile, a few of his top teeth digging into his bottom lip as he reaches back with a foot and pushes at the door.

It closes with a soft click.

“Your turn,” Chad promises, one hand lifting to slide the strap of Ethan’s bag off of his shoulder.

Ethan lets him do it and relinquishes his backpack, which Chad immediately tosses into the corner.

Then, Ethan’s eyes widen and his face flushes furiously as Chad wraps an arm around his shoulder and pulls him into his side, ducking his head just the slightest bit so his lips graze against the shell of Ethan’s ear.