Salvage ~ V1: Nuts and Bolts (Steampunk/ Gaslamp Romantasy ~ F/M, M/M)

Chapter 43: Not What I Expected ~ pt. 2

"He and I entered the University in the same year," Tamyn said. "We were both eighteen. We had a literature course together. He was very attractive, so of course I noticed him, but I was even more shy then than I still am, and didn't make friends easily - and he always had a flock of girls following him around-"

"Yes, the same was true at home," Kazia laughed.

"So many girls that people called him 'The Rooster.'"

"Thats-"

"Crude, yes. Young people are crude."

"I've noticed," Kazia said, remembering the students at the University lectures she'd attended.

"And so I thought, even if it weren't for all the girls, he would never look at me anyway, and I gave it no more thought than a distant admiration."

"Oh..." Kazia said sympathetically.

"Our literature professor would ask us to pair up with reading partners for some assignments," he continued, "and of course one of the girls would always snag Zhen right away, and I'd always end up with whoever else was left at the end.

There was another boy in our class with a reputation as a bully. He liked to prank people in often cruel ways. I don't know how I attracted his attention, but he began to target me regularly.

One day our professor handed down a new assignment, and when he instructed us to pair up, this boy shouted my name across the lecture hall and began walking toward me with this chilling grin on his face - but as he passed by, Zhen put his foot out and tripped him."

"Oh, dear!" Kazia said.

"The boy sprawled on the ground cursing, and Zhen just ignored him and walked around him to me - and asked me to partner with him. The first time we met to study, he said that we should just partner permanently, so that if anything like that happened again I could say I was already paired."

"And did the bully leave you alone after that?"

"No, he doubled down until, two weeks later, Zhen beat him senseless - which he was almost expelled for."

"Oh, no!"

"That's what he was like then," Tamyn said with a wistful sigh. "He carried a deeply hidden anger, and could be quite bellicose, but he only ever unleashed it on those truly deserving, like that miscreant. He would always step in if he saw a man harassing a woman, or an upperclassman picking on younger students. He hated to see anyone being mistreated."

Kazia was quiet for a moment, but then asked, "So, then you were together?"

Tamyn shook his head.

"That took longer, almost to the end of that first year."

He became very thoughtful.

"When you are like us... you have to be careful. Most people in our glorious Five Nations are accepting and even welcoming of differences, but everyone isn't. Sometimes men can be very insecure in their identities, and that can make them dangerous. They can become violent if they feel they've been offended.

So if you like someone, you have to tread cautiously - feel them out slowly. You want to be sure of them before you confess anything. It can take a long time. Back then, I was far too timid to even try it.

So, we were just study partners for a long time, but I liked him very much, and I was a flustered wreck around him all the time - clumsy and dropping things, and I was sure that he must think me the most ridiculous character. Until one night, we were studying in his dorm room.

There were four to a room, so being alone was impossible, but somehow that night all of his roommates were out. He was reading a poem aloud, and I was taking notes as he read. It was a love poem, and some of the imagery was quite..."