#randex

It takes about three months before Will is certain he's over his hero worship of any and all members of the Samwell Men's Hockey Team.

Wait, that makes it sound like it was everyone. It wasn't. He came to Samwell not quite believing that Jack Zimmermann would be here and playing with him and then he got to Samwell and Jack was a little intimidating and incredibly good at hockey and it took until Hazeapalooza for Will to actually remember that Jack is just some guy.

And then there was Ransom.

Ransom, who introduced himself to the frogs with a smile that basically made Will's brain short-circuit, who's pretty much the smartest guy on the team and looks good in the most ridiculous outfits and is a total social butterfly, not to mention that he's kickass at defense.

Then midterms happened, and Will learned about coral reef mode, and logically that should have put Ransom into the category most of the team fits in: namely, a whole lot of 'just some guy's.

Only it didn't.

Sure, he's no longer under the impression that Ransom does it all effortlessly. And Will's pretty sure that coral reef mode isn't actually healthy. But when Ransom's only flaw seemed to be his penchant for boat shoes, he was unapproachable, some kind of weird, inhuman perfection.

Nah. Ransom's a normal person. He's still incredibly smart, great at talking to people, and 'swawesome at hockey (which is an adjective Will is trying to get used to). Will is still a little wary of actually being around him, because whenever Ransom addresses Will directly he feels on the verge of seriously embarrassing himself in one way or another. (Mostly because Ransom looking at him seems to be the key to making his brain cells evaporate.) But he's normal. He gets stressed out over classes and has neuroses Will can honestly relate to and organizes his entire life via Excel sheets, which is something Will kind of wants to try.

So this isn't a hero worship situation.

It's a crush.

turns out there are only so many hours you can spend in the basement or the attic of the house before Weird Shit starts happening. even sophomore-year dex has spent so much time down there fixing the dryer that he’s picked up on it

Over the summer, Dex gets a Snapchat from Ransom. It's a shitty, slightly-blurry picture of his computer, featuring an Excel sheet prominently titled MED SCHOOL OPTIONS. He's captioned it wish u were here X(.

Dex has absolutely no idea what to do with that.

After about two minutes of deliberating (it can't be too long, he can't overthink too much, because it's Snapchat so Ransom knows Dex has seen what he sent), he takes a similarly shitty picture of a bunch of lobsters on the deck of his uncle's boat and sends it, captioned Wish I was there too.

He's in so deep.

Fuck.

Med school options. This fall, Ransom's going to be a senior, and he's going to be co-captain, and just... time moves so fast. Soon they'll be back on campus for pre-season, and then it'll be midterms, then winter break, then spring semester and Ransom's last semester at Samwell.

Gah.

Ransom arrives at Dex's house and Dex is pretty sure he's going to spontaneously combust at some point over the next forty-eight hours.

It starts with his mom going "Oh, Justin, we've heard so much about you!" and it continues with his brother conspicuously mouthing He's cute at Dex behind Ransom's back and it's been like a minute and a half and Dex is ready to vibrate out of his skin.

He cuts in before his mom can get into an actual conversation with Ransom. "Come on in, I'll give you the grand tour."

They wind up squeezing into Dex's twin-size bed to watch bad rom-coms on his laptop, and Dex gets so absorbed in talking shit about the movies and trying to make Ransom laugh that he forgets to be nervous.

He's trying to come up with increasingly terrible puns on the male romantic lead's name in the third generic movie with the generic title and the even more generic plot...

And then all of a sudden it's morning.

He knows it's morning, because there's light shining on his closed eyes, which is unpleasant. He's still sitting in his bed—he must have fallen asleep leaning into the corner of the walls. And there's a warm, solid weight against his side.

Dex opens his eyes a little.

Ransom.

He's asleep, head on Dex's shoulder, as peaceful-looking as if this happens all the time, which it most certainly does not.

All of a sudden, Dex feels extremely awake. Which one of them fell asleep first? Was it Dex? Did Ransom notice he was asleep and decide to stay here instead of switching to the air mattress on the floor? Dex definitely fell asleep without noticing if Ransom was still awake or not, and he thinks he would have noticed if Ransom fell asleep, but it's not like he can be completely sure.

Does it really matter, though? The fact is, both of them fell asleep sitting up, crammed into this small bed. They spent so long watching movies. Ransom had plenty of opportunities to move.

He didn't.

Dex didn't, either.

And, well.

Obviously Dex isn't going to move now and risk waking him up.

He smiles a little to himself and closes his eyes again, shutting out the sunlight as best as he can for just a little while longer. He's not expecting it to go anywhere, especially not when Ransom's only here for the weekend and a decent fraction of that time will probably be taken up by his family trying desperately to embarrass him, but it's nice.

So, yes, it's April and Dex is still very much into Ransom. Yes, he's started to rival Holster for knowledge of how best to support Ransom during finals, midterms, tests, quizzes, et cetera. Yes, he's a little bit worried about the fact that this doesn't seem to be going away.

But it's fine, okay? It's all fine. He's figured out how to behave like a functioning person around Ransom, mostly because if he didn't he'd be a puddle of nerves on the floor by now, and Dex is many things but he is not a quitter and being a puddle of nerves would make it really hard to keep playing hockey.

(That being said, he's never going to be good at beer pong. Ransom tries to teach him at every kegster, and Dex genuinely tries to learn at every kegster, but it's hopeless. He's never going to learn when Ransom is right there, close enough to brush against his shoulder, reaching out to adjust his form every so often, grinning at him whenever he does even marginally better than he did last time. Dex is too busy trying to cover up his flusteredness to actually improve at the game. At least he can blame the flush on the alcohol, when it's a kegster.)

Anyway. He can function.

That's good enough.

It's good enough, which is why it absolutely cannot bother Dex that Ransom has been hanging out with March from the volleyball team a lot. Because he's functioning, and part of functioning means not making his crush incredibly obvious.

Even if it does bother him.

Even if it bothers him a lot.

It's fine. He's fine. Everything is fine.

Dex is great at repressing things.

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Check Please! (Webcomic) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Justin "Ransom" Oluransi/William "Dex" Poindexter Characters: William "Dex" Poindexter, Justin "Ransom" Oluransi, Poindexter Family (Check Please!) Additional Tags: Supportive Poindexter Family, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Pining, I mean like strong hints at it being requited but I seriously needed to just. finish this fic, Sharing a Bed, Kegsters, Snapshots Summary:

Ransom's a normal person. Will is still a little wary of actually being around him, because whenever Ransom addresses Will directly he feels on the verge of seriously embarrassing himself in one way or another. But he's normal. He gets stressed out over classes and has neuroses Will can honestly relate to and organizes his entire life via Excel sheets, which is something Will kind of wants to try.

So this isn't a hero worship situation.

It's a crush.

That's worse.

--

HERE'S A SNEAK PEEK FOR EVERYONE:

image ID: text reading ‘So, yes, it’s April and Dex is still very much into Ransom.’ /end image ID