adjective

       • windless; still, unruffled; quiet, peaceful.

noun

       • the state of being calm; stillness; tranquility.

transitive or intransitive verb

       • to become or make calm.

The bell to the campus coffee shop chimes distinctly through the open air, a cool rush of wind from outside floating in as the door swings open. Connor steps through first, hand across the glass handle to hold the entrance open for the other, and his heavy boots thud against the tiled floor with a sound like stomping hooves. Troye's arrival is quieter, converse grazing silently and hands folded firmly into the pockets of his borrowed coat. Either way, they both draw the attention of a small group of students gathered in the back corner.

"Connor!" an overly enthusiastic voice calls out, warm smiles spreading across familiar faces as he waves three fingers back in greeting. Ricky beckons them over with a sweeping gesture, one that has Connor flicking a nervous glance over his shoulder to the boy hovering behind him. Troye's expression is hard and unreadable, tight lips and a frown just like the day they first spoke.

Swallowing hard, Connor tries to shake the trademark worry sweeping its taloned hands across his shoulders and pulls a chair out for Troye before settling into his own. There's some modicum of effort put into ignoring the way Troye shifts said chair away from Hannah, who's huddled in close on his other side, and moves it until he's settled just outside the tight group of friends. Connor doesn't want to feel the twinge in his stomach that the action brings, but he can't help it.

"Hey," he greets, leaning closer to the small table they're all bunched in around. He darts a glance back a foot or two behind him, trying to make his expression as open and comforting as he can because his hurricane has a tendency to quiver in the face of equal winds. "This is Troye."

There's an almost awkward silence that follows, accompanied only by the weird look Troye darts his way and the shifting of smiles on faces that are trying equally as hard as Connor to be welcoming. Then, Hannah moves in a little closer with a lopsided smirk of sorts and that knowing glint to her eye that Connor's always been decidedly wary of.

"So," she says, looking the youngest of the gathering up and down rather thoroughly. "You're the boyfriend."

Connor freezes, heart dropping and eyes wide as he fixes the man currently undergoing inspection with an apologetic look because they're not boyfriends, not really, or maybe they really are? But they aren't because they haven't said they are, but maybe it's not something they have to say, but Troye doesn't like pinning things with words or calling things what they really are and Connor knows this, he does, and oh God, Connor called him his boyfriend to Beth, didn't he?

Troye raises an eyebrow, expression just as unreadable as the moment they walked in. His voice is slow and careful when he repeats, "Boyfriend?"

The way his eyes fix firmly on Connor's uncertain gaze says more than any repetition of a simple label ever could.

Hannah chances a glance between the two of them, her own expression shifting from knowing to both hesitant and perplexed as the rest of the group watches on in tense silence. Her smile is a little less genuine this time, but still marvelously magnificent. "Yeah, Connor's," she says, ignoring the eye roll it earns her from three quarters of her peers.

Troye leans back almost imperceptibly in his chair, lips no longer a tight line of wariness, and snorts derisively. "No shit," he deadpans, earning himself a much more enthusiastic round of quiet chuckles and a mock glare from Hannah that does nothing to hide her grin. The tension is obvious in the air, radiating from the group and reflecting off Connor with added heat, bouncing off Troye with extra nerves and uncertainty.

Then, Troye shifts his careful gaze back to the one person he actually knows here and there's something in it, something masked by the half-smile quirking at his lips and sapphire eyes darkening to midnight.

"But yeah," the newcomer adds after another moment, turning back to the gathering as a whole. "I'm the boyfriend."

Connor can't help the way his heart twinges at that, but he doesn't really want to, anyway.