Roommates - Not in Bangkok anymore [completed]

Chapter 3

Can's POV

"Where am I?"

Can murmured as he slowly opened his eyes.

The room he was in was pitch dark and cool as if someone had turned down the AC too much. He blinked a few times and started to remember.

England. He was at his new school.

As his senses started coming back to him, he also remembered that Coach Lavinia had told him that he could go to the night watch room to get something to eat if he was hungry – which was a good thing to remember, since he was starving.

He had no idea what time it was, but it was still dark, so it wasn't morning, yet.

Now that he had been staring at the darkness for a while, he could make out silhouettes of furniture in the room. There was a faint light seeping in from the corridor outside through a crack under the door.

He carefully climbed out of the bed and searched the floor with his hand for his trousers – but even though he crawled through what felt like most of the room, he couldn't find them. His luggage also wasn't standing in the middle of the room anymore.

Shit.

He had no idea where the nearest light switch was – and now that he had been awake for a while, he could hear the soft regular breathing of his roommate. Can had no interest in waking the guy up. After all, Coach Lavinia had been so reluctant to let him sleep in this room that she had suggested he shared it with someone else.

In the faint light by the door, he could make out the silhouette of a coat, hanging from a hook on the wall.

A plan formed in his head.

Slowly, he crawled towards the door, stood up to grab the coat, wrapped himself in it and quietly left the room. The coat was a little too long and bulky for him, the roommate must be taller than him.

The light in the corridor felt too bright, coming out of the darkened room. Can took a moment to give his eyes time to adjust. Then he sneaked into the direction of the night watch room, careful not to make any noise and wake up the entire floor.

The door of the night watch room was ajar.

When Can pushed it open lightly, several things happened all at once.

The door flew open. Someone grabbed his wrist and before he could make a sound, he was flipped on the floor in a judo move. The move was done so expertly it didn't even hurt. But he looked up in horror into the face of a grizzly looking man.

The first thing Can noticed in his shock were the four deep, parallel running scars on his face, as if something had scratched him with sharp claws.

"You must be the new kid," the man said.

He held out his hand for Can to grab and get up. Can took it automatically, surprisingly unfazed for the fact that he had just been thrown on the floor by a stranger. There was something about the routine, no-nonsense attitude of the stranger that inexplicably calmed him.

He had no time to ponder this, anyway.

"Rule number one: never sneak up on me," the stranger continued, "I'm sorry. Battle reflexes work as intended."

And grumbling to himself he said something along the lines of "must tell off the headmistress" and "bloody dangerous".

"B-battle reflexes?"

"Used to be in the military," the man answered, absent-mindedly running his hand over the scars on his face as if remembering something fondly. "Name's McNeil. P.E. teacher. Occasionally on night watch. Lav-, I mean, Coach told me to keep something to eat for you here."