be a new man

She looked at him with a smile on her face and nodded, “That is very rue and I am pretty sure I am surrounded by most great people anyway.” She smiled softly looking over at him and nodded, “It’s great word to use to describe how i am feeling. You now it’s going to sound so childish and teenage but basically, Raphael asked me to be his girlfriend.” She smiled looking over at him. 

Warren looked over at her in happy surprise, “you have a boyfriend now? That’s fantastic! Congratulations, Kara. He seems really sweet. How long have you been dating?” He didn’t actually know much about the other guy, aside from what he noticed from Raphael’s frequent trips to the Java Jolt. “And I think that’s a perfectly legitimate reason to feel amazing. Though I’m biased because a lot of the reason I’m so happy is because of my boyfriend.”

Evan glanced around, chuckling when he noticed that it was, in fact, getting a bit darker. “Yeah, you’re right. Let’s get going then,” he agreed, smiling as he glanced back to Warren and leaned forward to press one more small kiss to his lips. Then, releasing one of his hands, he gently tugged him toward the stairs that would take them back down and out of the building.

Smiling as Evan pulled away, Warren let his boyfriend lead him to the staircase, the two of them exiting the building not too long after. “We lucked out with how many places there are to eat in Charlton, though now we have so many options,” he added, laughing softly. “Is there a type of food you’re craving right now?”

“That is very true, which is why I don’t understand why we’re not allowed one.” She pouted giggling a little looking at the guy and nodded smiling softly at him, “Well I am very glad you have been well.” She smiled and nodded, “I have been pretty amazing  and yeah it’s been a great semester so far.”

He tilted his head, chuckling softly at the pouting face she pulled while talking about the pet restrictions. “It’s hard not to be when I’m surrounded by so many great people.” His eyebrows went up and Warren looked at her in curious amusement. “Amazing? What’s been going on in your life to warrant such a big adjective choice?”

Evan lifted a somewhat surprised eyebrow. And he almost wanted to laugh that he was even surprised at all. It wasn’t unusual at all for couples to go out together, but funnily enough, none of their previous dates had been spent at actual restaurants or anything like that. A warm smile forming on his lips, Evan’s hands dropped down to take hold of Warren’s, squeezing them. “I would love to, Mr. Turner.”

Warren squeezed Evan’s hands in reply, smiling happily as they agreed to head out to dinner together. “In that case, I think I’m ready to go whenever you are. Not that I’m in a rush, but it’s later than I realized,” he added, noting how far the sun had already dipped in the sky compared to when they first arrived on the rooftop.

Kara sat there tilting her head to the side before looking at the guy who spoke and she couldn’t help but smile, since she last spoke to Warren, a lot had change but either way she missed him. She sighed as she frowned a little, “That’s really sad you know it would be good company, and they are very cute.” She stated as she looked up at him smiling again, “How have you been anyway Warren?”

“Yeah, it’s hard not to love pets. Especially when you see how happy they make their owners,” he thought aloud, imagining the happy expressions on people’s faces when they took their dogs for walks or played with their rabbits. “I’ve been doing really well.” It was a relief to know he could say that and mean it for the first time in a while. “What about you? Good semester so far?”

Kara was decided that she needed to do something else other then read books but she wanted to read something. So she headed to the local towards shop and picked up a magazine, she hardly read them but she had decided to do something different. After paying for it, she walked out of the shop and towards the campus and to the quad before taking a seat on a bench and she started to read before looking around and sighing, she was bored until she saw a cute page of puppies. She smiled softly looking around, “Oh my god I want one of these puppies, do you think I would be allowed to get one here?” She asked the person who had just sat next to her. 

When his shift came to a close, Warren decided to take the long route back to the house in order to allow himself some time to take a mental break before he cracked down on his assignments. On his way, he spotted Kara reading a magazine, and lowered himself onto the bunch next to her. “they look adorable,” he told her honestly, smiling as he leaned over to glance at the dogs in question. “But unfortunately, I don’t think you’re allowed to keep pets in Kingsley. Not even fish.”

Evan definitely wasn’t considering marriage quite yet, but if he and Warren continued to be together for as long as he wanted them to, he knew it would definitely start popping into his mind. But, for now, he was content to just be with Warren and continue loving him. Evan could see the moment something popped into Warren’s mind and he gave a slightly amused grin, quirking an eyebrow. “I don’t, no. Did you have something in mind?”

Warren nodded in confirmation, aware he had probably seemed a little overenthusiastic at the moment. “I was wondering if you’d like to go to dinner.” Going out for meals was something Warren never did. He had his meal plan and his one free meal from the Jolt depending on the hours he was working, and that was pretty much it. But he felt as though this deserved maybe something a little out of the ordinary.

Maia looked down at herself before nodding. “I think that was enough bouncing for the day, I’m tired now,” she pouted. “And I wouldn’t look very professional if I was jumping around and the professors saw me.”

“Alright, then take a rest,” he told her, still vaguely amused as he reached out his arm a bit in case she wished to lean on him and catch her breath. “Fortunately, we’re nearing the end of the engineering section, so you’d only be caught by professors you don’t really know.”

Evan’s hand moved, gently curling into Warren’s hair as they kissed, not being able to help the way he slightly smiled into it. And, when Warren finally pulled away to catch his breath, Evan was glad he had still stayed close - he didn’t want him to move too far away from him. “Yeah? I do, too,” he replied, a small laugh falling from his mouth as he pressed their foreheads together once more. “Call me a romantic, but I figured that it’d be suitable for this to be where our relationship gets a bit deeper since this is really where we started,” he smiled. “If I ever bring you here again, be wary of a ring,” he added teasingly. Granted, it was only a joke. Evan loved Warren very much, but he was happy with where they were and was in no rush to move things along that quickly.

Warren hummed in agreement, nodding only the slightest amount with their faces still so near one another. “Some roots are worth returning to,” he considered happily, knowing this was one place of origin he held in incredibly high regard. Laughing in slight surprise at the joke, he just smiled. “If you suggest returning to Charlton after this year, I’ll have to get a little curious,” Warren joked in reply. Maybe he wasn’t quite ready to think that far ahead, yet the prospect of still being with Evan months from now made him very happy. A thought entered his mind, and he looked at Evan with a slightly excited expression. “Do you have a lot of assignments to do this evening?”

“Well, I do,” he spoke, his voice somewhat quiet. “And, honestly, I don’t see that ever changing.” The words were bold, but he meant them. Evan had only known Warren for several months, but he had quickly fell for the other man and had fallen hard with no intention of ever stopping it. His smile only widened when Warren reiterated his love for him and all he could do was pull Warren in just slightly more and lean up to press a deep kiss to his lips, one of his hands coming up to rest on his face.

Bending down, Warren easily met Evan’s lips with his own. While he’d always enjoyed kissing the other young man quite a lot, he was pretty sure he’d never felt as happy about it as he did right now. His hand spanning across the small of Evan’s back, he urged his boyfriend a bit closer, deepening the kiss. When he drew away to take a breath, he barely parted from Evan. “I really like this rooftop,” he murmured, chuckling softly.

Evan bit his lip, listening carefully to each word Warren said. As much as none of the things Warren was saying were bad, Evan still couldn’t rid himself of the nerves that had come back so quickly. It was only when Warren flat out said the words back to him that he felt his body relax and said nerves finally melt away for good as his face split out into a wide, happy smile. “Wow,” he said, and then his hands released Warren’s only to wrap around the other man and draw him in closer to him. “I really am the luckiest guy in the world, huh? I never imagined I’d find someone like you, but I’m so unbelievably happy that I did,” he stated, only being able to gaze upon Warren with a massive amount of love and affection as he held him close and looked into his eyes.

Feeling himself pulled closer, Warren moved his arms around Evan, unable to stop smiling at the moment. There wasn’t really much that kept a constant smile on Warren’s face since he didn’t usually smile that much in the first place. Then again, over the past year or so, he’d been doing that a lot more often, too. “I’d agree, but I think I’m a little bit luckier. I didn’t want to get too hopeful about you ever feeling this way about me,” he admitted, growing quieter and flushing slightly. Warren leaned down and pressed his forehead against Evan’s, his tone soft when he spoke again. “But here we are. And I am so, so in love with you, Evan Li.”

Evan gave his boyfriend a small, relieved smile, just nodding once in reply. He took a deep breath and fell silent for a moment, collecting himself and willing the nerves away long enough for him to speak in a way that would better get the words across. “I love you,” he started, the words blunt as his eyes met Warren’s. “You just… you make me so happy. Nobody makes me smile the way you do. Honestly, it’s weird. With this being my first serious relationship, you’d think I’d be more uncertain about the whole ‘love’ thing, but… I’m not. There’s a lot of things I’m not sure of, but not this. If anything, one of the things I’m most sure of is that… I’m very, very much so in love with you,” he expressed, a warm smile tracing his lips. “So, I… guess that’s all I really wanted to say. I don’t want you to feel like you have to say anything or say it back or anything like that,” he slightly rambled. “I just… wanted to be honest with you about what I’m feeling. But I’m, uh, gonna stop now before I ramble too much and let you talk.” His smile turned slightly bashful.

Whatever was on Evan’s mind, it was clearly something significant based on the way he was acting. However, when Warren heard it, he found himself rather surprised. That hadn’t at all been what he expected, and it took him a moment to process exactly what had happened as Evan continued to speak. By the time Evan mentioned letting him talk, Warren could feel his pulse racing, and suddenly he feared saying something the wrong way. “I should mention... this is not at all what I thought you had on your mind,” he laughed a little, his tone somewhat nervous. “Though what you said is very true for me, as well. We’ve been dating for so many months now, and even with all of the ups and downs life’s thrown my way, I don’t think I’ve ever felt this happy before. You’re always so supportive and kind and wonderful when really you’re the one who deserves all of that more than anyone else. I guess I... I kind of knew for a little while now, but I... well I had no idea what the proper time to say something like this was, if there ever even is a ‘proper time.’” Warren took a deep breath to gather his thoughts. “What I’m trying to say is, I love you, too.” For the first time in as long as he could remember, Warren felt himself grinning.

Evan gave a light laugh in reply, shaking his head. “Well, I have to admit that I’m relieved you find spending time with me to be more eventful than your books,” he teased. A fond smile forming on his lips at Warren’s next comment, he reached over and took hold of the other man’s hand, intertwining their fingers. “It does, doesn’t it?” Evan paused for a moment, wondering whether he should get to the point or try to make more casual conversation first. “Truthfully, I… didn’t just bring you up here for the hell of it,” he admitted, turning a bit more towards Warren and then taking hold of Warren’s other hand as well. “I wanted to tell you something. And, uh,” he stopped, letting out a small, nervous chuckle. “I probably should have made a bit more small talk, but my nerves are all over the place and I just need to get it out there.”

Warren smiled down at Evan, giving his hand a small squeeze. His features morphed into an expression of slight surprise upon hearing what Evan was saying. Though he was curious, he remained silent to let Evan say whatever was on his mind. With both of his boyfriend’s hands in his own, Warren simply hoped whatever Evan had to say wasn’t bad news. Judging by the slight laugh, it seemed nothing negative was on the horizon. “You don’t need to be nervous with me. Feel free to say whatever’s on your mind,” he replied, growing a bit anxious, himself, as he waited to hear what Evan wished to share.

“I know I’m not stupid! But the alcohol makes me stupid, it’s a horrible substance that changes me. Not good at all,” she shook her head. “If I was a kangaroo then I’d throw in some kicks like this!” Maia demonstrated by kicking the air in front of her, she eventually came to a pause a few minutes later. “I’m more like a rabbit.”

“That’s what it does to everyone,” he told her by way of agreement. Warren stood there and watched in amusement as she kicked and hopped around the hallway. “Well, rabbit Maia, do you feel bounced out for the moment?”

Evan was nervous. He didn’t know if there was even such a thing as a ‘right moment’, but he was using this as his. Tonight, he was determined to tell Warren that he loved him. It was funny, really. This had been his first relationship that had gone this deep and you’d figure that he’d be very unsure with all of this, but he wasn’t. If anything, he was more sure of the fact that he was in love with Warren than he was about most things. Evan had decided that the rooftop garden was where this should happen. It was the place where their relationship had officially started and bringing Warren here felt like bringing it all full circle. “It’s so pretty up here at night,” Evan sighed contently, leaning slightly against the railing and glancing down at the campus below. He turned his head towards Warren and shot him a small, sympathetic smile. “I hope you don’t mind me dragging you up here. We haven’t been up here together since I asked you to be with my boyfriend, so I just figured it’d be nice.”

As the semester continued, schedules grew busier and busier, and Warren became aware of how secluded he was growing again for periods of time. Old habits died hard, and yet, no longer living in a large dormitory, he made an effort to resume spending time with his three housemates. Evan’s suggestion they head back up to the roof of the art building came as a pleasant surprise, and Warren set aside his textbooks in favor of going on a walk with his boyfriend. Looking away from campus and over toward Evan, he shook his head, smiling softly. “I don’t mind at all. I may really science, but this is way more eventful,” he said jokingly. “And as you said, we haven’t been back here in a long time. It brings back some pretty great memories.”

“Not a fan of alcohol anymore, I do very stupid things. I don’t like being stupid,” Maia added, more to herself than to Warren. Her intelligence was everything to her, she didn’t need to let alcohol dumb her down. “I’ll let you know if I’m about to explode or you’ll probably hear around campus that I’m not in one piece anymore. Not that I’m saying I’ll explode! I…I’m going to stop talking now,” she chuckled. Maia’s eyes lit up and she bounced up and down on the spot for a few moments.

“You’re not stupid,” he told her, his tone determined. Of course Maia knew she wasn’t dumb, but he wasn’t about to let her imply that could ever be the case. Then again, alcohol could certainly change people. “Maybe just stick with the jumping.” Warren couldn’t help but smile when she started doing just that, and he paused in place to let her bounce. “I can’t tell if you have more rabbit or kangaroo qualities about you.”