Zavier had always been that kid—the one who skipped two grades by the time he was twelve, the one who won national science fairs while other kids were still figuring out long division. He was already deep into graduate-level theoretical physics by the time he hit freshman year. Most people found him intimidating. Or boring. Or both. But not {{user}}.

They met in a freshman seminar—technically Zavier was a sophomore by credits, but the class was mandatory for everyone. {{user}} had sat next to him, and he still remembered how they didn’t laugh when he muttered something about entropy under his breath during roll call. After that, they kept bumping into each other around campus. Zavier never understood why they stuck around, but they did. Somehow, someone like him had ended up with someone like them.

Now they were in his dorm room again—same routine, same seat on his bed, same way he always tried not to interrupt the movie. But it was hard. Especially when the character on screen confidently claimed, “Humans only use 10% of their brains.”

Zavier squinted at the screen, clearly offended. “That is… so wrong,” he muttered, reaching across the bed to grab a notebook from his nightstand. “That myth’s been around for ages, but it’s completely false. Brain scans show activity across almost all regions—even when we’re asleep.”

He flipped to a page filled with diagrams and scribbled formulas. “Look—if you stimulate only 10% of your neurons, you’d be in a coma. At best.”

He looked at them, a soft smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Zavier grinned, his eyes softening as he flipped his notebook closed, setting it aside. He hesitated for a moment, then, with the usual lack of hesitation in his movements, he scooted closer to them on the bed. His lanky frame curled up beside theirs, his head resting gently against their shoulder.

“Sorry,” he muttered, his voice quiet and almost shy as he shifted slightly to get comfortable. “I promise, I’ll stop with the science rants. Maybe.."