Please be gentle. (Erik)

[Darian Barker]

It was the second coming of the great Pillow-fort, and Darian was clearly either in a playful mood or in a very bored mood. Whatever the way, he found himself once again within Room 502, blankets and pillows taken inconsiderately off of everybody's beds (Then, he knew that Walther didn't mind, and he had yet to really talk with Tomer. He hadn't even considered how Erik would feel about it.) 

The pillows all stacked up to make a bigger fort, a better fort than the first one, and it stood right in the middle of the room, looking proudly up from the floor. Fishboy himself sat within its walls, with a flashlight and a book written up in simple words. It was clearly a learning book, and he quietly read it aloud to himself, sounding things out. Usually, the bigger words, the ones that were harder to spell or understand. And when he heard the sounds leave his mouth and he recognized them (usually at this point much earlier than when he would finish the word), His lips would draw into a satisfied smile, it was a little victory for him. Every sentence was a little victory.

It used to be that exercises like this were more frustrating than anything else. Throughout elementary school, his grades would tank and nobody would find out why, and it was his fault that he was too embarrassed to tell anyone what was going on. This was why so much of his time was spent sport-swimming. Then, it wasn't until Hammel that he decided to a face this disability, even if he didn't share it with anyone. This was something he wouldn't do outside the safety of the pillow fort, and these kids books were things he honestly didn't want to show anybody. Not the teachers, not Walther, not anyone. People already all thought he was dumb enough as it was.

And they weren't frustrating anymore! They were just work... and it was actually a little exciting that he was starting to get it. He pulled one of the blankets close and wrapped it around himself, causing the leftmost wall to cave in a bit, but still remain sturdy and standing tall. To clean up the pillow mess didn't occur to him currently, either, nor the idea that anyone could come in and have a problem with this. It worked the last time just fine...

[Erik Stewart]

Erik came out of the shower and back into his room, expecting to settle down for the night after he’d watched some things on his laptop. He pulled on his shirt he used for sleeping in and his sweatpants, and everything was going swimmingly until he realized his pillow was missing. At first he was simply confused. He didn’t recall misplacing it. It wasn’t like it ever moved from its spot in the bed. Erik moved the towel through his hair, slowly, eyes drifting up towards the ceiling in thought.

‘My roommates must have taken it’ was slow in coming. They were all pretty reluctant to get into confrontations with him, and the idea that they’d willingly walk into his room to retrieve his property was inconceivable at first.

“What the hell, DJ,” he said. “You’re supposed t’be watchin’ my stuff.”

The rat snake sat on his bed, flickering his tongue in and out. He didn’t answer, of course.

When he found his pillow, it was in the obvious form of a pillow fort, or whatever, situated in the middle of his third roommate’s room – a Damian or a Darian or something like that – and Erik stopped in the threshold, putting a hand on his hips. His nose was wrinkled. Darian’s childlike fantasy was not charming to him as far as he was concerned; he wanted to get some god damn sleep.

“What ‘r you doin’?” he demanded.

[Darian Barker]

Shit. When Darian heard his voice, sounding less inquisitive than patient, he recognized it to be that of his dormmate's. Immediately, his response was to hush up and scoot back against the inside of the fort in silence, pretending he wasn't there. He knew that wouldn't work, however, so the jig was up in no time. Poking his head against the opening in the front of the fort, he gave Erik a quick lookover, probably to make sure he wasn't armed (Obviously he wasn't.)

"Uh.. Just messing around, I can take it down." he replied, quickly shutting the book and slipping it beneath him, sitting on it. Knowing Erik, it was bad enough that he was caught messing around with the pillow fort, the last thing he needed was to let the secret of why he was even in here in the first place surface.

He was a goofy kid, after all. He knew what people said about him. Maybe his own childishness could be reason enough? Not to say it didn't actually play a huge role.

So he pushed some pillows off the roof and stood up, and in no time of course, the entire structure of the pillow fort collapsed in on him and it was just a pile of assorted pillows and beddings. He folded his hands behind him, gently kicking some of them away from his feet, looking apologetic.

"I can er-- I can fix this."

[Erik Stewart]

Erik didn’t look too pleased, obviously. Some wet strands of hair stuck to his freckled cheek. It curled up just on the edge of his lips. His cheeks were still red from the hot water. Luckily for Darian, after he got out of the shower he was accustomed to relaxing, and his habit carried over: he wasn’t looking to be aggressive, he didn’t feel like exerting any energy over it, all he wanted was the pillow he’d taken right out of his room.

The pillow fort collapsed. He made no move to help, just wrinkled his nose at the view. Erik watched Darian stick his little blond head out of the mess; the boy was met with a pair of icy (and exasperated) blue eyes.

“You’d better,” he said.

Erik stepped in to grasp one of them by the edges. He held it up and squinted at it. He would only be satisfied with his own; he didn’t want one his roommates had been laying on. That would be disgusting.

“What’ve y’got t’look in my room for?” he demanded. “You stay outta it.”