Chapter Text
Connor kept piling things up until finally he put it down on a table in the middle of the room. Felix watched him warily as he picked out individual items, and then a pair of shoes and a pair of slippers.
“Put these on,” he said, holding out the clothes and shiny black shoes.
“Uh,” Felix said, stalling even as his hands took them automatically. “Where?”
“Here,” Connor said, gesturing. “I want to be able to pack up your things for storage before I show you to your room.”
He looked around the room, hoping a door to somewhere more private might appear since he last checked. Alas, it remained four walls and various shelves, but not much privacy.
“I won’t look, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Connor said, a twitch of the corner of his lip giving away his amusement.
“You might,” Felix shot back. “For all I know, that’s why you’re here.”
He’d quickly noticed after Connor’s explanation that he had the blue tie and blue bands around the wrists and neckline of his sweater signifying he had applied for this school. He’d chosen to come here. And he’d been here long enough to be trusted with initiating new students all alone. Felix didn’t have any experience of college, but that felt like something pretty important.
“Here, I’ll turn around,” Connor said, doing it at the same time until he was facing the opposite wall, hands on his hips. “I promise not to look.”
Felix shifted from one foot to the other, but figured he wasn’t going anywhere unless he did as he was told. It kinda seemed like the philosophy of the whole place. Do as they said or else.
He kicked off his shoes, already mourning them. He hadn’t noticed, but they even gave him new socks. Jesus.
He managed to get everything on — he’d give them one thing, everything was made of nice shit. Thick like it was quality. The sweater wasn’t itchy, just soft as he ran his fingers over it. The pants were weirdly stretchy, but he figured it made them more comfortable than any dress pants he’d ever worn before. There was just one problem.
“I, uh,” he said, clearing his throat. He hated admitting weakness, but he didn’t have a choice. “I don’t know how to tie this.”
The red tie lay limp in his hand, and he held it away from himself a little, as if it would rise up like a snake and bite him.
“You decent?” Connor asked, not moving. “Okay with me looking?”
“Yeah, whatever,” Felix mumbled, and he finally turned around.
He felt Connor’s eyes appraising him, raking up and down. It didn’t feel invasive or like when other guys would look like that at him because they thought he was hot, just… thoughtful.
“You need to tuck your shirt in,” he said, walking over and taking the tie.
Felix waited for him to show him how to tie the damn thing, but then realised Connor wasn’t going to do anything until he did what he wanted. Scowling, he lifted the sweater slightly to shove the shirt into the top of the slacks, making furious eye contact the whole time. Connor didn’t react, just waiting expectantly.
“Alright,” he said once Felix was done and his sweater was back in place. “First, you need to lift up your shirt collar.”
Before he could do it himself, Connor’s fingers were at his neck, pulling the shift material so it stood up, and wrapping the tie around his neck.
“You want the thicker side to go over the thinner one,” he said as he did it, voice softer now. “And then back under and over again. Pull it behind up through the top here and now down through the loop. Tighten it by pulling and then tuck your collar back down.”
Having his fingers so close, his entire body mere inches away, Felix wanted to fidget. Connor was taller than him — what was new? — and normally he hated it. But something about the older body teaching him this, and the gentle way he did it, didn’t feel patronising.
“And now,” Connor said, grinning mischievously. “Your turn.”
He immediately whipped the tie down and off as the knot undid itself, and Felix jumped as it escaped from under his collar.
“Hey!” he protested. “What was that for?”
“I can’t tie it for you every day, Felix, you need to learn to do it yourself,” he said, holding out the tie again. “Show me you were paying attention.”
Felix unfolded his collar again, the edges brushing at his ears. He snatched the tie from Connor’s hand and laid it around his neck, thick side on his right, the way he’d just been shown. He hesitated then, eyes quickly glancing up at Connor, who nodded.
His movements were a little unsure, especially after only being shown the once, but every time he checked in with Connor, he got a little nod, and eventually he had a — much messier, but fuck it — tied sitting at the top of his collar.
“Well done,” Connor said, tweaking it a little to straighten it. “Keep practicing and you’ll be a pro. Now, tuck that into your sweater, fold up your other clothes and we’ll get you to your room.”
It took everything in him not to fight against the instructions, to just do as he was told, but that little ‘well done’ was zapping through his body like electricity. Managing to put on a piece of clothing didn’t really feel worthy of praise, but it was so rare he got any that it would seem he’d take anything he could get.
“Every reform student is placed with a volunteer,” Connor said as they left the storage room, leading him towards a staircase at the far end. “You’re rooming with Alfie. He’s a freshman too, but started at the beginning of the summer, as some of our application students do. Let’s them settle in without worrying about anything else. You’ll also have a dorm supervisor. That’s me. Any trouble you get into in class will result in a punishment from me. Trouble at school, trouble at home still applies, even if they’re both the same building.”
Felix bristled, just about biting back a comment. He had the feeling there were going to be a lot of stupid, unfair rules like that, and he wasn’t keen to learn if Connor really was serious about the threats he’d made. Something was telling him Connor O’Grady wasn’t the type of guy who joked about that kind of thing.
The longer he followed the older boy, the more convinced he was that he would get just lost every time he went anywhere. It was one of those buildings so old that the layout was utterly insane, all twists and turns. How Connor seemed to know where he was going, Felix had no clue, but eventually they came to a stop at a short corridor with four doors on either side and one at the end.
“This is your dormitory group,” Connor said. “Two boys to each room, and then my study and room at the end. You’ll be in here.”
The door he went for was directly next to his, the one on the left hand side, and Felix could have groaned aloud when he got a look at it.
Plain, boring. Boring wooden furniture — the bed frames, nightstands, desks and closets all matched. There was a lamp and old fashioned alarm clock on one nightstand and a book on the other. It was one of the only signs that the room was also occupied by someone else.
“You have a bathroom through that door there,” Connor said, pointing. “I’ll bring you some pyjamas after dinner. Lights out at nine thirty. Any nonsense after that and it’ll be a trip to my study and you’ll be sleeping on your stomach. Your alarm is set for six thirty. Breakfast at seven, classes start at eight. Lunch at twelve thirty, then more classes until three. Study time from then until five thirty, dinner, and then some free time from six thirty until bed, unless you’ve got a prior punishment scheduled. You’ll be inside the building by eight and in bed by nine, ready to go to sleep at nine thirty.”
Felix wasn’t sure he could actually remember all of that, and his head swam with all the numbers. What really got him though was having to go to bed at nine thirty, like a little kid.
“What if I’m a night owl?” he said, dumping the uniform items he had on the bed he guessed was his.
“Then you’ll quickly find yourself becoming an early bird,” Connor said. “Your student handbook is in the top drawer of your nightstand. Read it thoroughly, because you will be presenting yourself to me after dinner to go over it. I will be quizzing you and it would be in your ability to sit’s best interest to answer all of my questions correctly.”
“Do you ever say anything that’s not a threat?” Felix retorted, and then, before he could really comprehend what had happened, there was a loud smacking sound and a sharp pain bloomed on his ass. “Ow!”
“I told you earlier, little boy, I don’t make threats, I make promises,” Connor said, now standing at his side as Felix furiously rubbed at the sting with both hands, it quickly dawning on him that Connor had just swatted him. “And there is plenty more where that came from if you want another taste.”
He shook his head, feeling his bottom lip sticking out but finding himself unable to pull it back in again.
“You are here to learn to behave, Felix,” Connor said, voice lower now and placing a hand on the back of his neck. “The faster you get your head around that, the better. Understand?”
His eyes had widened at the heavy, warm palm just lightly squeezing below his hairline. It took a moment for his mouth to catch up with him.
“Yeah,” he croaked.
The hand squeezed harder.
“A ‘yes, sir’ wouldn’t go amiss in your time here, Felix,” Connor said softly.
The little voice in his head that normally argue, fight against any attempts to get him to submit to any for of authority, was silenced.
“Yes, sir,” he said instead, just quietly echoing what he’d been told to do and instantly feeling a hot sense of shame in his gut, his teeth gritting as he came back to himself as soon as the hand left his neck.
“Good boy,” Connor said, and he clamped his mouth shut to hold back any response he might have to that. “Now, I’m going to go check your suitcase for you. I’ll get Alfie to bring it up for you once I’m done. I would suggest you put your things away — neatly — and get to reading.”
It was pretty hard to focus on studying when Alfie knew his new roommate was probably upstairs at that very moment, and the curiosity was killing him. But he had chosen Saturday study blocks for his schedule, and that meant taking them seriously. He may get more leeway than the reformers, but the leash was still short. And at a level three, he really didn’t want to drop to a two for bunking off a voluntary study block, when he had some privileges he didn’t want to lose.
His roommate, he knew, would start on as a level one. There was still space for them to drop — but zeros normally only lasted for a week or two before they worked as hard as they could to get back to a one. Alfie had only heard about a handful of boys who had ever been on a zero, and it had sounded pretty miserable.
Still set his stomach twisting at the idea. Bedtime spankings every night while you were at a zero. Top ups every morning. Needing to be lead everywhere by a buddy. The slightest infraction being cracked down on. He didn’t think he could handle being bad enough to really get there, but he’d thought about it a lot.
He’d especially thought about who might be assigned to keep him under control. Peter Michaels, best friend of his dorm supervisor, Connor O’Grady, would be his first pick. Alfie saw the senior often enough over the last few weeks and blushed enough each time that the guy probably thought he just had a naturally red face. He’d had a crush since the first time he’d seen him in Connor’s study, when he’d turned up for a bedtime spanking for missing a piece of homework in his first week. Having a spectator to his punishment had only made the moment imprint on his mind all the more. Peter had passed him a tissue once he was all back together and squeezed his shoulder, and Alfie had been gone.
He’d never say anything, too chicken shit to do something like that, but it didn’t hurt anyone to fantasise.
“Alfred,” a stern voice called, and he realised he was daydreaming, immediately sitting up straight and feeling his face flush.
“Sorry, sir,” he said.
“Eyes on your work, or I’ll give you something to help you focus,” Mr Richards said, the professor in charge of the Saturday study sessions that week. He was fair but when you pushed him too hard, you regretted it, and at that moment, he was walking up and down the room with a small paddle in his hand.
“Yes, sir,” he said, catching a few of the others smirking, even with their heads still down over their own books, and he shifted in his seat slightly as he did the same.
Getting lost in his thoughts wasn’t exactly unusual for him. It was partially why he had chosen to attend Thistledale, and why he’d taken the option offered to volunteer students to give up his summer break to settle in. The semester was about to start on Monday, but Alfie had been there since June, taking a few elective classes to get a feel for the school. It also gave everyone the chance to back out and apply elsewhere if it turned out to not be for them. A few faces had disappeared, but most of them remained. And soon their half empty classrooms would be filled with those who hadn’t made the choice to come to Thistledale.
He shifted in his seat again, forcing his eyes to read the line in his History textbook for the third time.