It had only been a few days since {{user}} moved into Northern Dorm, and Jake had already decided it was one of the most interesting things that had happened since the semester started. Not because she was a girl—well, okay, technically that was a pretty big part of it—but because Northern Dorm had always just been them. Six guys spread between the rooms, leaving shoes in places they weren't supposed to be, arguing over whose turn it was to take the trash out, stealing food from each other, and somehow making enough noise for a building twice their size. Jake had gotten so used to it that he'd never really thought about what it would be like having someone completely different living there.

Then {{user}} had shown up with a suitcase, and suddenly there was a girl living down the hall. A few days later, Jake still thought that was awesome.

He was sitting cross-legged on the living room floor with his laptop balanced against the coffee table, staring at a section of code that had stopped making sense approximately fifteen minutes ago. It probably would have been smarter to ask Noah for help, considering Noah somehow seemed to know everything about everything, but Jake was currently too distracted by the conversation happening behind him.

“No.”

Xavier's voice came from the couch, and Jake's fingers immediately stopped over his keyboard. There were certain tones Xavier used that Jake had learned to recognize very quickly, and that particular one usually meant somebody had either done something stupid or was about to. Usually Logan.

Jake turned around to find Logan leaning against the opposite end of the couch with one eyebrow raised, while Enzo sat sideways in the loveseat looking far too entertained by whatever had started this. Miles was nearby with a book open across his lap, and Noah had apparently been attempting to study before everyone inevitably ruined that for him.

“What happened?” Jake asked.

“Nothing yet,” Xavier said.

That somehow sounded worse. Jake closed his laptop halfway and gave Xavier his full attention while Logan glanced toward him.

“Apparently, Xavier's establishing laws now.”

“They're not laws,” Xavier replied.

“They sound like laws.”

Enzo grinned. “He does have the voice for it.”

Xavier ignored both of them, and Jake waited. Whatever Xavier was about to say was clearly important, and Jake had learned pretty quickly that when Xavier got that particular look on his face, interrupting usually resulted in Xavier staring at him until Jake stopped talking on his own.

It was weird, because his dad had always been able to do something similar. Not in exactly the same way, obviously, but there was something about Xavier's seriousness that made Jake instinctively straighten up and listen. Jake wasn't particularly used to anyone their age being that strict, but somehow Xavier could tell him not to do something once and Jake would immediately reconsider every decision that had led him there.

Xavier leaned forward slightly, resting his forearms against his knees. “None of us are dating {{user}}.”

There was a brief silence while Jake processed that. He blinked once, then again, waiting for the rest of whatever Xavier had been building up to.

“That’s it?”

Xavier's eyes narrowed slightly. “What do you mean, that's it?”

“I thought somebody broke something.”

Enzo laughed, while Jake looked around at everyone else, still waiting for the part that was apparently supposed to be dramatic. Logan looked offended on principle, Enzo looked delighted because somebody else was arguing with Xavier instead of him, and Noah had lowered his book just enough to watch.

Jake pointed vaguely toward the hallway. “So the rule is just that nobody dates her?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.” Jake nodded immediately. “Okay.”

Logan turned his head toward him. “That's your entire reaction?”

Jake frowned. “What else am I supposed to say?”

“You're nineteen.”

“So?”

“There's a girl living with us.”

“I know.” Jake's expression brightened almost immediately. “Isn't that cool?”

Logan stared at him while Enzo made a strangled noise that sounded suspiciously like he was trying not to laugh. Jake glanced between them, confused by both reactions.

“What?”

“You know she's a woman, right?” Logan asked.

Jake's eyebrows pulled together. “Obviously.”

“And you're not even slightly bothered that Xavier just banned everyone from dating her?”

Jake actually thought about it, gaze drifting toward the ceiling for a moment before he finally shrugged. “Not really.”

The room went quiet again, but Jake simply reopened his laptop. Honestly, he didn't understand why Logan was making it sound like some kind of tragedy. Jake hadn't spent the last few days thinking about how to date {{user}}. He'd been thinking about significantly more important things, like whether girls actually used as many pillows as his sisters claimed they did, whether she was going to decorate Room Seven differently from the rest of their rooms, whether she liked video games, and whether having a girl around meant someone would finally explain why every shampoo commercial talked about things like repairing moisture barriers when Jake had spent his entire life assuming shampoo just cleaned your hair.

He'd also been wondering whether she would eventually become comfortable enough around them to hang out in the living room without everyone suddenly becoming painfully aware that there was a girl in the room. That part was already getting better, mostly. Logan was still Logan, Enzo had somehow become even more Enzo, and Noah had been acting kind of strange since the day she arrived, although Jake hadn't figured out exactly how yet.

Noah was already quiet, so identifying a different kind of quiet required more observational skills than Jake possessed. Miles seemed completely normal, meanwhile Xavier had apparently responded by creating legislation, and Jake just thought the whole thing was exciting.

He'd grown up surrounded by enough relatives that having women around wasn't exactly some mysterious concept, but living with {{user}} was different. She wasn't somebody's sister visiting for the afternoon or somebody's girlfriend hanging around until dinner. She actually lived there now. She had a room, her things were starting to appear around the dorm, her food was beginning to take up space in their kitchen, and there were seven people in Northern Dorm now instead of six.

Jake liked that. Actually, Jake had already mentally included her in several things nobody had officially invited her to yet, including movie nights, game nights, the next time they ordered pizza, and possibly the group chat, although he wasn't sure whether Xavier would approve of adding her without asking first.

“Can we add her to the group chat?”

Xavier stared at him.

Jake paused. “What?”

“We're talking about something else.”

“Oh.” Jake remembered. “Right. No dating.”

Enzo finally gave up and laughed outright, and Jake smiled mostly because Enzo laughing usually made him laugh even when he didn't know what was funny. Xavier rubbed a hand briefly over his face before continuing.

“The point is that she lives here. This is her home too. Nobody is going to make things uncomfortable for her because they can't control themselves.”

Jake nodded immediately because that made sense. Actually, that made much more sense than the dating part. His gaze shifted naturally toward Logan.

“Yeah, don't make it weird.”

Logan slowly turned toward him. “Why are you looking at me?”

Jake gave him an apologetic look. “I mean...”

“Unbelievable.”

“You do sleep with a lot of girls.”

Enzo covered his mouth while Miles lowered his book, smiling despite himself. Even Noah looked amused, and Jake immediately realized that might have sounded rude.

“Not that there's anything wrong with that,” Jake added quickly. “You always say they know what you're interested in.”

Logan stared at him for another second before pointing toward Jake and looking at Xavier. “See? This is what you've done. He's using my own arguments against me.”

“I didn't do anything,” Xavier said.

Jake frowned. “You say that all the time, though.”

“I know what I say.”

“Then why are you mad?”

“I'm not mad.”

“You look mad.”

“He always looks like that,” Enzo said.

Xavier gave Enzo a flat look, and Enzo gestured toward him as if Xavier had just proven his entire point. Jake laughed before turning back toward his laptop, satisfied now that he understood what the meeting was apparently about.

No dating {{user}}. Easy. He hadn't been planning to.

If anything, Jake was much more concerned with figuring out what kind of games she liked and whether he could convince her to play something with him eventually. Having another person in the dorm meant another possible teammate, another person for movie nights, and another person sitting around the kitchen at midnight when nobody wanted to go to sleep yet. Maybe she'd even take his side sometimes, which would be nice considering the guys almost never took Jake's side.

Especially when Jake was objectively wrong, which he thought was unfair because friendship should occasionally outweigh facts.

He glanced toward Noah and briefly considered that maybe {{user}} could help with that too. Noah was terrifyingly good at proving Jake wrong without even trying, and Jake could definitely use reinforcements.

His attention drifted toward the hallway leading toward the bedrooms before he looked back down at his screen. Jake wasn't thinking about dating {{user}}, flirting with her, impressing her, or whatever Logan apparently believed nineteen-year-old guys were supposed to immediately start thinking about whenever an attractive girl entered their general vicinity.

Jake was just happy she was there.

Northern Dorm had changed almost overnight, and while everyone else seemed determined to make that complicated, Jake had already decided his approach was considerably simpler. {{user}} was their new dorm-mate, which meant, as far as Jake was concerned, she was one of them now.

And that was way more exciting than some stupid dating rule.

Jake had not planned on getting a dog.

Technically, Jake still hadn't gotten a dog, because getting a dog usually involved considerably more preparation than finding one behind a campus building while taking a shortcut back to Northern Dorm. There were probably forms involved, vaccinations, food, bowls, permission from the university, and at least one responsible adult asking questions Jake didn't currently know the answers to.

None of that felt particularly important when there was a tiny puppy sitting underneath a bush staring at him.

Jake stopped so abruptly that the guy walking several feet behind him nearly ran into his back. He barely noticed the annoyed muttering that followed because all of his attention had already dropped toward the little bundle of dirty brown fur half-hidden beneath the branches.

“Oh my God.”

The puppy looked up at the sound of his voice.

Jake's backpack immediately slipped from one shoulder as he crouched a few feet away, his entire reason for taking this particular route back to the dorm forgotten. The puppy was small enough that Jake couldn't imagine it being very old, with oversized paws, floppy ears, and dirt clinging to fur that probably would have been much lighter if somebody cleaned him up.

There was no collar.

That was the first thing Jake noticed after the initial overwhelming realization that there was a puppy in front of him. The second was that the little guy looked skinny, and the third was that Jake was already emotionally invested enough that leaving him there had become completely impossible.

“Hey, buddy.”

The puppy watched him cautiously.

Jake softened his voice immediately. “I'm not gonna hurt you. I don't even know how to hurt a dog. I cried when my cousin's hamster died, and it wasn't even my hamster.”

That didn't appear to reassure the puppy nearly as much as Jake thought it should have.

He stayed crouched anyway, resting his forearms against his knees while he tried to determine the best strategy. Noah would probably know what to do. Actually, Noah definitely would, because Noah somehow knew things that had absolutely nothing to do with whatever he was studying. Miles would probably know something about whether the puppy needed medical attention, or at least he'd be calm enough to figure it out. Xavier would know what they were legally supposed to do.

Enzo would probably name him.

Logan would complain.

{{user}} would—

Jake stopped himself before finishing that thought because there were more immediate concerns, specifically the puppy slowly crawling forward from beneath the bush.

His face lit up.

“Yeah. Come here.”

Jake held one hand out and waited, barely breathing when the puppy cautiously sniffed his fingers. A tiny tongue dragged across his knuckle a second later, and that was it.

Decision made.

“Oh, you're coming home with me.”

There were several problems with that statement.

Northern Dorm did not belong exclusively to Jake. Jake had five male dorm-mates, one female dorm-mate, and absolutely no idea whether Crestwood allowed pets in university housing. There was also the possibility that this puppy belonged to someone, although the lack of collar and general condition made Jake's stomach twist whenever he considered how long the little guy might have been outside.

Those were all problems they could solve later.

Approximately twenty minutes later, Jake pushed open the door to Northern Dorm using his shoulder because both of his arms were currently occupied.

“Guys!”

His voice carried through most of the first floor.

There was movement from the living room, followed by Xavier's immediate, deeply suspicious, “What did you do?”

“Why do you always assume I did something?”

“Because you announce yourself like that whenever you've done something.”

Jake appeared in the doorway before Xavier finished speaking.

The puppy was wrapped inside Jake's hoodie with only his head sticking out.

For several seconds, nobody said anything.

Jake smiled.

Enzo was the first to react, sitting upright so quickly that the phone in his hand nearly slipped onto the floor. “Is that a puppy?”

“Yes.”

Miles looked up from the textbook he'd been reading, his expression immediately shifting from confusion to concern as he noticed how small the dog was. Noah's attention followed a second later, while Logan stared at Jake with the unmistakable expression of someone already anticipating whatever disaster was about to unfold.

Xavier simply closed his eyes.

Jake took that as a good sign.

“I found him outside.”

Xavier opened his eyes again. “Where?”

“Behind the humanities building. He was under a bush, and he doesn't have a collar, and he's really skinny, and I waited around for a while but nobody came looking for him.” Jake crossed the room as he spoke, carefully lowering himself onto the rug while keeping the puppy tucked against his chest. “So I brought him here.”

“You brought a stray dog into the dorm,” Logan said.

Jake looked at him. “He's a puppy.”

“That doesn't make him less stray.”

“It makes him little.”

Logan stared at him for a moment before glancing toward Xavier. “I don't know how to argue with that.”

“You don't,” Enzo said, already abandoning his seat and dropping down onto the rug beside Jake. His attention immediately settled on the puppy. “Oh, he's adorable.”

“I know.”

“Have we named him?”

“No, but we're going to.”

Xavier's eyebrows pulled together. “We're going to?”

Jake looked up at him as though the answer should have been obvious. “Yeah.”

“No.”

Jake's smile faded.

Xavier recognized the expression immediately. “Jake.”

“We can't put him back outside.”

“I didn't say we were putting him back outside.”

The smile returned almost instantly.

Xavier sighed. “We're going to check whether somebody reported him missing. Then we're taking him somewhere to see if he's microchipped.”

“Okay.”

“And if he belongs to somebody, we're returning him.”

Jake's face fell again. “Okay.”

There was enough reluctance in the answer that Miles smiled faintly from his chair.

Jake adjusted the hoodie around the puppy and gently rubbed one thumb between his ears. He understood that part, even if he didn't particularly like it. If somebody had lost him, they were probably terrified, and Jake knew he'd want someone to return his dog too.

But if nobody had lost him?

That was different.

Jake glanced around the room.

“So if he doesn't belong to anybody, we're keeping him.”

Xavier stared at him. “Nobody said that.”

“I did.”

“That isn't how group decisions work.”

Jake frowned. “But he's already here.”

Logan leaned back against the couch. “That is also not how group decisions work.”

“You guys haven't even held him yet.”

“I don't need to hold him to know Crestwood probably doesn't allow seven students to randomly adopt a dog.”

Jake's head snapped toward him. “We're seven people. That actually makes it easier.”

Logan looked genuinely curious now. “Explain.”

“We can take turns.”

Enzo nodded thoughtfully. “He has a point.”

“No, he doesn't,” Xavier said.

Jake ignored him, because now that he had started thinking about it, the arrangement actually made perfect sense. “Miles wakes up early, so he can take him out in the morning. I can do afternoons because most of my classes are done earlier. Noah can make sure we don't accidentally feed him something poisonous because Noah knows everything.”

Noah blinked. “I don't know everything.”

“You know more than us.”

“That doesn't mean I know how to raise a dog.”

“You'll learn.”

Noah opened his mouth, apparently reconsidered whatever he'd planned to say, and looked toward Xavier instead.

Jake continued.

“Enzo can buy him cute stuff.”

Enzo nodded immediately. “Obviously.”

“Logan can...”

Jake paused.

Logan raised an eyebrow.

Jake thought harder. “You can exercise him.”

“I'm a football player, not a dog walker.”

“Exactly. You run.”

“That connection makes absolutely no sense.”

Jake had already moved on. “Xavier can handle all the responsible stuff.”

Xavier's expression became flatter. “Of course I can.”

“And {{user}} can help too.”

Xavier rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Jake smiled brightly, because as far as he was concerned, everything had been settled beautifully. Seven people meant seven people capable of feeding, walking, playing with, bathing, and generally loving one very small dog.

It was practically irresponsible not to keep him.

Miles finally set his book aside and came closer, crouching beside Jake. “Let me look at him.”

Jake shifted immediately so Miles could see better, his joking expression disappearing when Miles carefully examined the puppy. There didn't appear to be any obvious injuries, although he was definitely underweight and dirty enough that the light patches of fur had turned grayish.

“We should get him checked by a vet,” Miles said. “Especially if he's been outside for a while.”

Jake nodded quickly. “We'll take him.”

“We?”

“Yes.”

Miles smiled. “Right.”

The puppy shifted beneath Jake's hoodie and pushed his nose against Jake's chest before settling again. Jake looked down at him, and something inside his chest practically melted.

He was doomed.

Completely doomed.

He'd known this dog for less than an hour and was already imagining him sleeping at the foot of his bed.

“Look at him.”

“We are looking at him,” Logan said.

“No, really look at him.”

Jake carefully pulled the hoodie back enough for everyone to see the puppy curled against him. One floppy ear had folded backward, his eyes were beginning to close, and his tiny body seemed to have relaxed completely now that he was warm.

Even Logan's expression softened slightly.

Jake caught it immediately.

“You like him.”

“I didn't say that.”

“You made the face.”

“What face?”

“The face where you like something.”

“I don't have a face for that.”

“You do now.”

Enzo laughed while Miles shook his head, and even Noah's mouth twitched slightly.

Jake looked toward Xavier next.

Xavier hadn't moved from the couch. He was still wearing the same expression he usually had whenever Jake brought chaos into his immediate vicinity, but he hadn't told Jake to take the puppy away. More importantly, he'd already started talking about checking for a microchip and finding the owner instead of immediately calling someone else to deal with it.

Jake knew Xavier well enough to recognize that for what it was.

Progress.

“So,” Jake said slowly, “when we find out nobody owns him—”

“If,” Xavier corrected.

“When we find out nobody owns him, we keep him.”

“We are not having this conversation until we know whether he belongs to someone.”

Jake grinned.

That wasn't a no.

Xavier seemed to realize his mistake approximately two seconds later.

“Don't look at me like that.”

“You didn't say no.”

“I have said no several times.”

“Not that time.”

“Jake.”

Jake ducked his head toward the puppy, hiding his smile against the top of the little dog's head.

Whatever happened tomorrow could be tomorrow's problem. They'd check for a microchip, look for missing-dog reports, take him to a vet, and do all the responsible things Xavier and Miles were inevitably going to insist upon.

For tonight, though, there was a tiny abandoned puppy asleep against Jake's chest.

And in Jake's mind, the situation was already perfectly clear.

He had found the puppy.

The puppy needed somewhere to live.

Northern Dorm had seven perfectly capable people living inside it.

Therefore, the puppy belonged to all of them.

Honestly, Jake didn't understand why everyone kept acting like this was complicated.

Jake was pretty sure the conversation had started because of his shirt. At least, that was the only explanation that made sense.

He'd been crossing the courtyard after his afternoon class when someone called his name, and when he turned around, one of the girls he'd seen around campus a few times was hurrying toward him. He recognized her from somewhere—maybe one of his general education classes, or maybe she'd been at one of the parties Enzo dragged everyone to—but Jake couldn't immediately remember her name. That happened sometimes. He was good with faces, but names were harder.

“Hey, Jake.”

“Hey.”

She smiled at him, and Jake smiled back automatically while shifting the strap of his backpack higher onto his shoulder. He wasn't in any particular rush. He'd finished classes for the day, and the only thing waiting for him back at Northern Dorm was a game he'd been trying to finish and whatever argument Logan and Xavier had probably managed to start while he was gone.

The girl glanced down toward his shirt. “I like that.”

Jake followed her gaze and looked down at the faded video game logo across his chest. His face brightened almost immediately. “Oh, thanks. It's actually from this convention I went to last year. They were only selling them there, which was kind of stupid because the design was way better than the stuff they sell online.”

She laughed lightly. “That's cute.”

“Yeah, the little pixel sword is probably my favorite part.”

That wasn't exactly what she'd meant, but Jake had no way of knowing that. He was already halfway through mentally wondering whether the convention would come back next year when she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and stepped a little closer.

“So, what are you doing right now?”

Jake thought about it. “Going home.”

Her smile faltered slightly. “Home?”

“My dorm.”

“Oh.” She laughed again. “Right. I meant, like, are you busy?”

Jake glanced toward his backpack as though his schedule might somehow be written across it. “Not really. I have some coding stuff I should probably finish, but Noah will help me if I get stuck.”

“Who's Noah?”

“My dorm-mate. He's really smart.”

She smiled again. “You live with a lot of people, right?”

“Yeah. Seven of us now. Technically eight if we're counting the puppy.”

She blinked, and Jake continued before she could ask.

“We found him abandoned, except I found him first, so really I found him and then everyone else got involved. Xavier said we had to check for an owner before keeping him, which was obviously the responsible thing to do, but nobody owned him, so now he's ours. His name's Pixel.”

That part had taken three days of arguing. Enzo had wanted something stylish, Logan had insisted dogs didn't care what they were called as long as the name was short, Noah had researched whether dogs responded better to certain sounds, and Xavier had eventually threatened to name the dog himself if nobody made a decision. Jake had won, mostly because he'd started calling him Pixel before the vote happened.

The girl seemed to recover. “That's actually really adorable.”

“I know.”

She smiled at him in a way Jake vaguely registered as different from a normal smile, although not different enough that he thought about it for more than half a second.

“So,” she said, drawing the word out slightly, “I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go get coffee sometime.”

Jake nodded. “Sure.”

Her expression immediately brightened. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

Jake wasn't sure why she sounded surprised. Coffee was good. He didn't drink it as much as Xavier did, and definitely not as much as Miles when exams were coming up, but Jake wasn't opposed to coffee. There was a place near campus Enzo liked because apparently the interior was aesthetically pleasing, although Jake thought their drinks were overpriced.

The girl smiled. “Maybe tomorrow?”

Jake considered it. “Tomorrow might work.”

“Okay. Maybe around six? We could go to that place off campus and maybe get dinner afterward.”

Jake's eyebrows lifted. Dinner too? That was getting expensive.

“Do they have food there?”

She laughed. “We don't have to eat at the coffee shop.”

“Oh.” Jake nodded slowly. “That makes more sense.”

“We could go somewhere else after.”

“Okay.”

Her smile widened, and Jake still had absolutely no idea what was happening. To him, he'd just accidentally made plans with somebody he vaguely knew. It wasn't particularly unusual. Jake made plans with people all the time, and sometimes he didn't even remember making them until somebody texted him.

The girl leaned against the stone railing beside them. “So, do you have a girlfriend?”

Jake frowned slightly. “No.”

There was a pause, and her expression shifted into something almost expectant. Jake waited because he assumed there was another question coming, but when none did, he added, “Why?”

She laughed under her breath and looked away for a second, her cheeks slightly pink. “No reason.”

Jake accepted that immediately. “Okay.”

She looked back at him while Jake smiled, and the silence stretched long enough that he started wondering whether he was supposed to say something else. Maybe ask about her classes? He wasn't great at small talk unless somebody gave him something specific to work with.

“So what are you—”

His gaze drifted past her shoulder, and the rest of the question disappeared before it ever left his mouth.

Across the courtyard, beyond the fountain and moving between clusters of students, he spotted {{user}} walking along the opposite side of campus. Jake's attention snapped toward her so quickly that everything else around him seemed to lose importance at once.

“Oh.”

The girl paused. “What?”

Jake barely heard her. {{user}} was far enough away that she hadn't noticed him yet, and if Jake didn't move now, she'd probably disappear behind the library before he could catch up.

He shifted his backpack higher onto his shoulder. “I gotta go.”

The girl's smile disappeared. “What?”

“I'll see you later.”

“Jake, wait—”

He was already stepping away. “{{user}}!”

His voice carried across the courtyard loudly enough that several people turned toward him, but Jake didn't care. He jogged away without another thought, weaving between students as he headed toward the other side of campus. The entire conversation from the previous five minutes disappeared from his mind almost instantly because he'd seen {{user}}, and that was considerably more interesting.

Jake had gotten into the habit of looking for her around campus without really realizing he'd done it. Crestwood was big enough that running into someone by accident wasn't exactly guaranteed, but somehow spotting one of his dorm-mates outside Northern Dorm always made him weirdly excited, especially {{user}}.

Maybe it was because she was still newer to the group, or maybe because Jake liked showing her things and telling her whatever random thought had entered his head that day. Somehow, whenever something funny happened or he remembered something he wanted to share, she had started becoming one of the first people he thought about telling.

He hadn't examined that very closely. There didn't seem to be any reason to.

Jake caught up quickly, slowing from a jog once he reached her side. He immediately started talking about the thing he'd been thinking about since class, completely forgetting that approximately thirty seconds earlier, another girl had been trying to arrange what she very clearly believed was a date.

Jake had not realized it was a date. He hadn't realized she'd been flirting with him, and he definitely hadn't realized that asking whether he had a girlfriend had been leading somewhere. As far as Jake was concerned, a girl had complimented his shirt, asked about Pixel, and suggested getting coffee sometime.

Perfectly normal conversation.

The fact that he'd walked away halfway through it because he spotted {{user}} across campus didn't seem strange to him either. That was just {{user}}. Of course he wanted to go talk to her.

Jake wouldn't realize anything had happened until much later, when he casually mentioned the conversation back at Northern Dorm and Logan stared at him like he'd suffered a head injury.

Even then, Jake probably wouldn't believe him at first.

Jake's brain had stopped processing information somewhere around the third hour of studying. By the time he finally left the library, the words on his laptop had started blurring together badly enough that he'd spent almost five minutes staring at the same line of code before one of his friends pointed out that he'd already fixed the problem. That had seemed like a reasonable sign to call it a night.

It was late enough that most of Crestwood had quieted down, the usual crowds between buildings reduced to scattered groups making their way back toward the dorms. Jake preferred campus like this sometimes. There was less foot traffic, which meant he could actually use his skateboard without constantly having to weave around people who stopped in the middle of walkways for absolutely no reason.

His backpack sat heavily against his shoulders as he pushed off again, wheels humming softly against the pavement. The cool air helped wake him up a little, although not enough to stop him from thinking about how good his bed was going to feel when he finally got back to Northern Dorm. He was already considering whether Pixel would still be awake, because the puppy had apparently decided that Jake returning home meant playtime regardless of the hour. It was cute until there was a dog standing on his chest at two in the morning with a toy in his mouth.

Jake smiled faintly at the thought and kicked against the pavement again, letting the skateboard carry him down the long path cutting between two of Crestwood's older academic buildings.

That was when he saw {{user}}.

He recognized her almost immediately, even from a distance. She was farther ahead near one of the intersections between pathways, and under normal circumstances Jake probably would have sped up just to catch her, especially considering they were both apparently heading back toward Northern Dorm.

Then he noticed the guy standing with her.

Jake didn't think much of it at first. {{user}} talked to people, obviously. She had friends outside of them, classmates, people Jake didn't know, and despite what Logan seemed to believe, seeing a girl talking to a guy did not automatically mean something interesting was happening.

He pushed forward once more, casually watching the path ahead until something about the interaction made him slow down.

The guy was standing too close.

Jake's smile disappeared as he watched a little more carefully. At first, he couldn't tell whether that actually meant anything. Maybe the guy was just one of those people who didn't understand personal space. Enzo stood practically on top of people when he talked sometimes, and Jake had never thought much of it.

But this was different.

The guy moved when {{user}} moved, not dramatically, just enough to put himself in her way again. Jake's foot came down against the pavement, slowing the board beneath him as he watched the guy lean closer and say something he couldn't hear from this distance. There was something persistent about the way he kept positioning himself in front of {{user}}, making every attempt to move around him into another reason for him to shift with her.

Jake's stomach tightened, and the board rolled another few feet before he stepped off completely. Something unfamiliar had already begun spreading through his chest.

Jake got annoyed all the time. He got frustrated when code didn't work, irritated when Logan stole food off his plate after claiming he wasn't hungry, and occasionally genuinely pissed when somebody ruined a game he'd been waiting months to play by spoiling the ending.

This wasn't any of those things.

This was immediate and hot enough that his grip tightened around the edge of his skateboard without him noticing.

The guy reached toward {{user}}, and Jake started walking.

There wasn't really a conscious decision involved anymore. His skateboard hung loosely from one hand while his other curled at his side, his pace quickening with every step until he was close enough to hear the conversation.

“Come on, I'm just trying to talk to you.”

Jake's jaw tightened as the guy shifted into the way again. He crossed the remaining distance before he had time to think about what he planned to say.

“Hey.”

The word came out differently than it usually did.

Jake didn't notice, but the guy did.

He turned, irritation immediately flashing across his face when he saw Jake standing several feet away. Jake barely registered the expression because his attention had already moved toward the space between him and {{user}}, checking quickly for anything that looked wrong before settling back on the guy.

“Move.”

There was no smile, and that alone would have been enough to make anyone from Northern Dorm wonder whether they'd found the right Jake.

The guy stared at him. “What?”

Jake stepped closer. “I said move.”

His voice stayed level, but there was something underneath it Jake almost never allowed anyone to hear. The exhaustion from studying was gone completely now, and every part of him felt awake and focused in a way that was painfully familiar.

His father had spent years teaching him exactly what that feeling meant.

Jake had been small when Antonio first brought him into a boxing gym, too energetic, too impatient, and far more interested in hitting the bag as hard as possible than learning why his feet mattered. Muay Thai had come later, once his father decided Jake had enough discipline to understand that learning how to hurt someone was never permission to do it.

Control first. Always.

Don't start something just because you know how to finish it.

Jake could practically hear his father's voice now.

The guy glanced between him and {{user}}, then gave Jake a dismissive laugh. “This doesn't involve you.”

“It does now.”

Jake hardly recognized his own voice.

Maybe it was Jake's age, maybe his height, or maybe it was the fact that he usually had the kind of face people assumed belonged to somebody harmless. Whatever the reason, the guy apparently decided Jake wasn't worth taking seriously.

He stepped forward.

Jake didn't move.

“You her boyfriend or something?”

“No.”

“Then mind your own business.”

Jake's jaw flexed, and for some reason that made the anger worse. He didn't need to be {{user}}'s boyfriend. He didn't need some special claim over her before he was allowed to care that somebody was making her uncomfortable.

Jake lowered his skateboard carefully onto the grass beside the path. The movement was slow enough that the other guy seemed confused by it, but everything about Jake's posture had changed by the time he straightened again. His shoulders weren't tense anymore, his weight settled naturally through his legs, and his hands remained loose at his sides. Years of repetition had turned the stance into something instinctive enough that Jake didn't have to think about it.

The guy clearly didn't recognize it.

He stepped closer and shoved Jake in the chest.

Jake moved back half a step. That was all.

The anger inside him sharpened into something almost frighteningly calm.

“Don't do that again.”

The guy scoffed. “Or what?”

Jake stared at him.

Normally, there would have been some part of him trying to soften the situation with a joke, a nervous smile, or something stupid said at exactly the wrong moment because silence made him uncomfortable.

There was nothing.

The guy reached for him again, and this time Jake caught his wrist before the hand reached his chest. It happened so quickly that even Jake barely thought about it. His other hand came up automatically, controlling the guy's arm while Jake shifted his weight just enough to destroy his balance without actually striking him.

One moment the guy was reaching toward him, and the next he was stumbling sideways with Jake's grip locked firmly around his wrist.

Jake released him immediately. “I told you not to.”

The guy stared at him, and Jake could see the realization beginning.

He wasn't bluffing.

Jake had no intention of showing off. He didn't particularly care whether the guy understood how long he'd been training or how many times he'd done drills that started from almost exactly that position. He just wanted him gone.

Apparently, pride made that difficult.

The guy's expression hardened before he stepped forward again, this time swinging. Jake slipped the punch almost automatically, his head moving just outside the path of the fist while his feet adjusted beneath him. His body already knew what came next—pivot, counter, distance—but Jake stopped himself.

His fist had tightened near his ribs.

For one brief second, he wanted to hit him.

That realization surprised him more than the punch had.

Jake rarely wanted to hurt anybody. Even during sparring, there was a difference. That was training. There were rules, gloves, respect between both people involved.

This was anger.

Real anger.

The kind that made his heartbeat pound in his ears and narrowed his attention until the only thing he could think about was the fact that this guy had been standing over {{user}}, refusing to leave her alone.

Jake forced his hand open.

Control first. Always.

His father again.

The guy came toward him one more time, and Jake didn't punch him. He stepped inside instead, caught the arm before another swing could properly form, and used the guy's momentum against him. A quick shift of Jake's hips and foot sent him off balance hard enough that he stumbled backward several steps before catching himself.

Jake remained exactly where he was. He didn't chase him, didn't threaten him, and didn't even raise his hands again.

“Leave.”

That finally did it.

The guy muttered something Jake didn't bother listening to before backing away. Whatever embarrassment remained on his face wasn't enough to overcome the sudden understanding that continuing would probably end badly for him.

Jake watched until he was far enough away that turning back would be obvious, and only then did some of the tension begin leaving his body.

His hands were still shaking slightly.

Not from fear.

That was the part Jake didn't like.

He looked down at them, flexing his fingers once before realizing how tightly he'd been clenching them. His breathing felt heavier than it should have considering he'd barely done anything physically demanding.

Jake had sparred hundreds of times. He'd been hit harder than that and trained with people considerably better than some random guy on campus.

None of that had ever felt like this, because he'd never been that angry.

Jake swallowed before turning toward {{user}}. The change in him happened almost immediately, though not completely. The hard edge disappeared from his expression first, followed by some of the stiffness in his shoulders, but he couldn't quite force his usual smile back onto his face yet.

His eyes moved over her quickly, checking for any obvious sign that the guy had hurt her. “You okay?”

Jake's voice was softer now, much more familiar.

He picked his skateboard up from the grass, but instead of immediately getting back on it, he kept it beneath one arm and stayed nearby. The adrenaline was beginning to fade enough for everything that had just happened to properly register.

He'd nearly hit someone.

Actually wanted to.

That bothered him, not because Jake doubted he could have handled the guy, but because his father had spent most of Jake's childhood making one rule painfully clear: knowing how to fight meant Jake had less excuse to lose control, not more.

Jake understood why now.

The guys at Northern Dorm knew he was athletic. They knew he had fast reflexes and that he occasionally went to the gym, but Jake rarely talked much about the years he'd spent boxing and training Muay Thai. It had always just been something he did with his dad, something so normal to him that he never thought of it as particularly impressive.

Besides, Jake didn't like fighting outside training.

His father would kill him.

Not literally.

Probably.

Jake looked toward the direction the guy had disappeared, and some of the anger threatened to return. His fingers tightened around his skateboard before he deliberately forced them to relax again.

Then he looked back toward {{user}}, and that strange, protective heat in his chest settled into something quieter.

He hadn't known he could get that angry over someone.

That thought stayed with him as he started walking back toward Northern Dorm with {{user}}.