Author's Note: Chapter Three, yippee! Okay, this is actually the chapter that decided me in regards to writing this fic. See, during Spring Semester 2007, I had to take a class called Social and Political Implications of American Music, which on one hand sounds like it would be awesome but on the other hand was in reality a big gigantic bore…once a week we spent two and a half hours sitting in a classroom listening to our professor lecture us on basics of US history sprinkled in with listening to important songs of the era and the occasional thirty year old independent low-budget documentary. We all mostly just passed notes and worked on other homework during that class, but one day I had no homework to do, decided to try and work on The Other Half a little bit (clearly THAT didn't work), and ended up writing this really fun and yummy scene with the boys in a dorm room. So that ended up being what made me decide I had to write this sequel, and I've been waiting for almost a year to get to this scene. Oh, it was fun to finally finish writing. Sexual frustration is always a blast, don't you agree?

...or not, according to Oishi. So I'll just let him talk now, okay? Okay!

Chapter Three: Too Late to Stop

Is it safe now?
Will your arms be open?
I just have to kiss you
Try and stop me.
-Imogen Heap, "Closing In"

As my friends and I walked through the drizzle back to campus, I told myself over and over again that it had all gone fine. All of my university friends, with the exception of Nishida which was hardly a surprise, seemed to enjoy Eiji's company as much as they did mine, if not more. Uchida in particular seemed to approve of him in her quiet, affecting way; she had smiled at him more than she usually did and he seemed to put her at ease. Uchida was a bit on the shyer side, having come from an international school in Okinawa, and while she was always friendly and sweet, she rarely seemed to genuinely like someone just on their first meeting. Itou had told me that same thing after I had first met her, explaining that I was the first person he had seen her smile at since he had met her a week earlier. It was a huge relief to know that she already trusted Eiji that much.

Enough to join in the interrogation about my "girlfriend" back at home.

Oh dear god.

And there it was again. I kept trying to push that conversation out of my mind and focus on all of the good things that had happened today, but it kept coming back anyway. What Eiji must have thought! I couldn't even begin to sort through all of the thoughts that had flown into my head when Akizuki had asked if Eiji knew about this mysterious girlfriend I didn't even know they were gossiping about…what had Eiji been thinking, then?

It wasn't like I had been trying to hide him…that was the problem. I hadn't been trying to hide him, but for some reason I had never told anyone about him, not really. Nishida had started cozying up to me during the very first week of school and then Omori had tried asking me out while I was still trying to get the hang of school, and while I knew I hadn't told them I had a girlfriend, I hadn't exactly said I was dating my doubles partner who just happened to be another man, either. I'd told them I was involved with someone back at home, and they hadn't pressed so I hadn't told them anything else. Even when my other friends began asking questions about it (and they hadn't even asked that many…how was I supposed to know they were obsessing about it?), I hadn't said anything. It just hadn't come up.

It was such a simple and sensible excuse. And it was absolute shit. I should have known better. What had I been thinking?

It wasn't as if Eiji and I were really, well, out and proud I guess would be the saying…once we had told Ryuuzaki-sensei about the two of us, we hadn't bothered to try and keep it a secret at school anymore, but most of that was due to the fact that both of us knew that keeping the rest of the team quiet would be absolutely impossible, especially since they had figured it all out without us telling any of them. So everyone at school had known, and in high school as well, but we had never actually told anyone. Word just got around. And as for our families…oh no…what was Eiji thinking when he found out I hadn't told anyone in Kyoto? That must've been like a knife in the gut. How could I have been so stupid?

Eiji had actually come out to his family, but not at all in the way he wanted to given that his brother had caught up in his room one evening, told their other siblings, and fought until Eiji eventually exploded at the dinner table and told everyone what was going on; I'd been luckier, so to say. My little sister knew because she had done nearly the same thing as Eiji's brother during our second year of high school, which was definitely not an experience I looked back on with any fondness since my little sister had walked in on us practically nude while engaging in activities I didn't even want to think about her knowing about, but other than that and me briefly trying to explain things to my father before my sister got to him and asked about what we had been up to, no one really knew about me. Not my mother, not my grandparents or extended family…and not my friends at the university.

Eiji had had no choice and I still didn't even have the courage to tell my friends, "Yeah, I'm dating my best friend from my junior high tennis team, his name's Eiji Kikumaru and by the way, yeah, he's a guy." Some boyfriend I was.

Still…Eiji hadn't made a scene at dinner or anything. Maybe he hadn't minded. Or maybe it hurt so much that he couldn't even think of what to say to me. Or maybe he thought…I didn't know. It hurt my stomach just thinking about it.

I decided to try and be amused by the way that Nishida kept giving Eiji the cold shoulder the rest of the way back to the dormitory she and I both lived in. The girl really had no idea how jealous she could get over even the silliest things.

Or that her jealousy is justified, for once, I thought, and had to pretend to cough to keep from laughing out loud at the irony.

Itou and Kakashi split off from the group first, since they lived in a different building than the rest of us, and Akizuki left not soon after for the station that took him back to his apartment on the outskirts of the city, being our upperclassman and all. Uchida was the last to depart as we left her at the front of the building next to ours. She bowed to Eiji with a sweet smile and offered me an apologetic embrace before hurrying inside out of the chilly air. I could have thanked her forever for those simple gestures. They said everything that needed to be said right then.

At last, Eiji and I made it back up to my room, with Nishida following us all the way and chattering away while rather pointedly ignoring Eiji at the same time. At last, I turned to wish her goodnight. "It was a fun evening, Nishida. I'm glad you felt healthy enough to come back again."

She shook her head dismissively and waved her hands more dramatically than she needed to. "It was only a cold, Oishi! I wouldn't miss meeting up with you all unless it was really serious, you know that!"

"I know." I smiled back and turned to unlock my door. "Maybe we'll see each other again before classes are back in session."

"Oh…" Nishida's voice was a bit annoyed, but she sighed and began heading back down the hall towards the stairs to her own room again. "Yeah, maybe. Have a good Golden Week."

"You, too," Eiji and I called in unison as she disappeared down the stairs.

When the door closed behind us and we were alone at last, I wasn't even sure what to say. It was sudden and disconcerting. I always knew what to say to Eiji. But I didn't know where to being this time. It wasn't a feeling I liked at all.

Thankfully, Eiji seemed to know exactly what to say. "Nishida's not the friendliest girl, is she?"

"She's nice enough," I answered as I took his coat and hung it next to mine on the back of the door. Eiji's gaze followed me as I did so and he snorted in amusement for some reason, but I had no idea why. "She's actually very friendly in class," I continued. "Pretty much everyone likes Nishida as long as they haven't made her mad."

"I bet she's a demon when she's mad," Eiji commented as he walked to the center of the room and looked around a bit. "Isn't your roommate back yet?"

"We probably missed him. He's staying with his girlfriend this week so the room doesn't get too crowded with you here." I studied the room myself with a faint frown. At last I realized what was wrong and strode over to the other desk. "Yeah, we missed them," I added as I ran a hand over the soft, decorative scarf draped over the back of my roommate's chair next to a wide-brimmed, feminine hat. "It looks like we'll see them sometime tonight, though. I think his girlfriend forgot these."

I looked up to catch Eiji's expression without thinking, and he grinned hugely. "Great! You already know my roommate, so it's only fair that I get to know yours, too."

"How did you and Taka end up getting roomed together, anyway?" I asked curiously.

"Tennis. We're all in the same building and rooms, and there aren't that many of us on the team so it was easy to get into the same room. If Nishida's so friendly, why was she treating me like I'm contagious or something?"

It took me a split second longer than it used to, but I was getting used to Eiji's rapid changes in topics again faster than I thought I would. "She's a bit possessive. She doesn't like anyone that she thinks is going to interfere with her spending time with me, that's all."

"Oh, and obviously I…wait a second." Eiji frowned in thought and tilted his head at me. "Why you?"

I felt my cheeks grow suddenly warm. It didn't matter that I wasn't interested and Eiji knew it…it was still embarrassing. "Ah, Nishida has a bit of…she…well, she's interested in me. Romantically, I mean. So…yeah."

I watched my friend nervously, unsure of how he would react after the events at dinner. He stared back at me with wide, surprised blue eyes…and burst out laughing.

As I reeled in confusion, Eiji fell onto the couch, laughing uproariously. "She…she honestly thinks…even though you told them…"

I couldn't help but laugh with him. It was funny, after all. "Well, she doesn't know about you specifically…"

That just made him laugh even harder, until he fell onto his side, his head pressed right against my leg, shaking with breathless amusement. I had no idea why he found that so funny, but his laughter was contagious and soon we were both gasping for breath, slumped in our seats, clutching our stomachs and trying to stop. The problem was the minute our eyes would meet…that would just set us right off again.

At last I managed to get myself under control and pulled myself back onto the couch. Eiji sat up, wiping his eyes and trying to breathe deeply. For a long time we just sat there, not quite leaning against each other, recovering. Finally I turned to Eiji a bit uncertainly. I had to ask. "You don't mind, then?"

He knew exactly what I meant without me explaining, and snorted again. "Not really. No one at Bunkyou knows your name, either. They just know I have a boyfriend somewhere. Why would I care?"

I shrugged. It seemed silly, but I still wanted to know for sure. "Boyfriend being the key word. It never came up here."

Eiji rolled his eyes. "Get a grip, all right? Syuichirou, if I minded, would I have started teasing you at dinner? They know you aren't available. Honestly, if Taka weren't in so many of my classes, I probably wouldn't have said anything, either."

"Oh." Now I really felt silly, but still, I was relieved. "…wait, what does Kawamura have to do with anything?"

Eiji grinned wickedly. "Can't you just see the look on his face whenever I start talking about 'my boyfriend' when he's around? Plus, all the girls flock to us now that they know I'm off-limits, and he gets even more flustered around them."

That startled another laugh out of me, though it made my sides ache again for a moment. "That's terrible, Eiji!"

"I know," he smirked. Without warning, he hopped off of the couch and grabbed Hashimoto's girlfriend's hat and scarf from the back of his chair. "Well, you'll have to tell them one of these days. In the meantime, though…" He threw the scarf dramatically over his neck, set the hat on his vivid hair at a rakish angle, and struck a pose. "Am I a convincing enough girlfriend?"

I started at him for a moment and pretended to consider. "You look like an idiot."

"Too bad. I'm not putting on a dress, no matter how much I love you." My friend pretending to glare at me for a moment, then grinned and plopped back down beside me, bouncing a little on the cushions like a child before looking back at me. "What?"

I mentally shook myself. Who knew what it was? There was just something about that moment, the way the hat still sat crooked on his head, the little bounce as he sat...it was all so totally Eiji. I hadn't realized how badly I'd missed him till that moment. "I'm just glad that you're here. That's all."

Eiji positively glowed, but all he said was, "Can we get under that blanket? It's so damp here. I'm never getting warm again."

I reached for the wrap draped over the arm of the couch and shook it out, tossing one side to Eiji so we could pull it over our legs. "It's no rainier here than inn Tokyo."

"Yes it is."

"No, not really."

Eiji leaned over to tug the blanket more fully over my legs. "Yes, it-"

His eyes widened in momentary surprise and then closed as I pressed my lips to his. God, how long had I wanted to kiss him? His laugh, his eyes, his breath against my face, the chill, wintry hint of his toothpaste, his fingers through mine, his heartbeat against mine as he pressed himself against me…I'd missed him so, so much.

Eiji leaned into the kiss, breathing in deeply, and just…sighed, this little shuddered gasp of breath against my mouth, and tightened his grip around my waist. I fell back against the back of the couch and he pushed the blanket aside as he swung his leg over mine, pressing against me as our kisses grew more heated and fierce. My fingers pulled shakily at the edge of his shirt, then found their way beneath it, running up over his back and tracing the line of his spine, the curve of his ribs, over his chest, everywhere they could get to. His skin was on fire, burning beneath my touch…the cold was no longer an issue. The entire room was too hot, and we didn't care.

Somewhere in the haze of heat and need, a part of me marveled at Eiji's ability to work the buttons of my shirt so deftly with only one hand, as the other was still firmly wrapped around my waist. Everything narrowed and faded until it was just me and Eiji, just us, nowhere but with each other. We were so absorbed that I don't think we even knew what we wanted anymore.

Although devouring Eiji whole seemed like a pretty good option to me.

I broke free of his lips and trailed kisses along his jaw, down his neck, over the pulse in the hollow of his jaw, and he let out a slow, shaky moan that vibrated through my lips on his skin. Eiji ran his hands over my chest maddeningly…and there was a knock at the door.

I froze.

After a moment, Eiji whispered into my hair almost inaudibly, "Should we answer?"

I thought for a brief…very brief…moment, then shook my head. "Ignore it," I answered quietly, and looked up to catch his earlobe in my teeth.

Eiji pressed a hand to his mouth to muffle the throaty cry I could feel pulsing in his throat, but before I could see what other reactions I could get out of him, whoever was at the door knocked again, this time more persistently. "Oishi? Are you there?"

I pulled back with a hiss of frustration. "It's my roommate's girlfriend."

Eiji sighed and rolled off of me, pulling his shirt back into place as he did so. I shoved my own underneath the blanket on the couch and reached for my closet, hoping I had a clean sweater hanging near the front. "Coming!"

It took only a second to pull the sweater over my head, and I didn't think that Hashimoto's girlfriend suspected a thing when I let her in. She bowed quickly and glanced over at where Eiji sat on the couch curiously. "Oh, is this your friend?"

"Ah, yeah. This is my friend Eiji Kikumaru. Eiji, this is my roommate's girlfriend, Hokuto Yamaguchi."

"Nice to meet you," Eiji managed with remarkable friendliness, given the circumstances.

The pretty young woman bowed again. "Likewise. I'm sorry to interrupt," she added, "but I left my hat and scarf here…?"

"Yes, you did. They're right here…" I trailed off as Eiji picked the two items off of the floor to bring to her. "We accidentally knocked them down earlier and I guess we forgot to pick them up again. Sorry."

"Not at all," she replied, but as she said her goodbyes and left again, I thought I caught a glimpse of suspicion on her face.

Eiji breathed a heavy sigh of relief as I locked the door again. "That was awkward."

"Really?" I replied wryly. "I didn't notice."

"Awww," he cooed at me as he patted the couch beside him again, "poor Oishi. Need to relieve some of that tension?"

It was impossible not to smile when he teased me in that tone of voice. I happily made my way back to the couch, pressed my lips against his again, and rested my forehead against his. "Well, if you insist."

"Oh, I do, nya," Eiji replied with a wicked grin. "I really do."

It didn't take long to get back to where we had left off. It was strange…I don't think that Eiji and I had done this more than a few times and the overwhelming sensations we seemed to be able to bring out with each other made that clear enough every time, but at the same time it was just so familiar, so eternal, so right. I'd thought the same thing the first time we'd crossed that line and maybe it shouldn't have felt that way the first time but somehow it did. It was like we already knew everything about each other's bodies already, even if we had never gone so far before. Not that everything was perfect…Eiji managed to elbow me in the face and give me a black eye at one point, I'd drawn blood unintentionally while nibbling on his shoulder, Eiji complained that he'd hurt his neck getting pushed up against the wall, and of course it had all been over way too soon for either of our enjoyment…but it wasn't like a discovery. It was familiar. It was forever. It was everything I imagine married couples who have been together for decades feel together…it just happened to us about twenty years earlier than I expected.

Although it wasn't as if either of us ever complained about being bored or not being in the mood. And since we hadn't seen each other in months, we weren't about to start right then!

Eiji had taken the lead this time, and I had to bite my lip to keep from moaning too loudly as he ran his tongue over my chest and slipped one hand deftly past my waistband, running his fingers along that line and refusing to go any further until I thought I was going to scream if he didn't get on with it already. As if he knew was I was thinking, Eiji snickered and went to work on the buttons again.

And there was another knock at the door.

"You have got to be joking," Eiji hissed. "Don't answer it this time."

I really, really wanted to agree. The whispered words were on my lips when a voice called out. "Oishi! It's Kaneda! Are you finished with my notes yet?"

I managed not to groan and extracted myself from Eiji's limbs, yanking my sweater over my head again and pulling it down as far as it would go just in case. Eiji rolled his eyes and yanked the blanket up from the floor to cover himself. It was probably for the best. He'd managed to lose a lot more clothing than me this time.

I wondered if that just meant he was more impatient, or if it meant that I was.

I opened the door to pass the notebook out to Kaneda without inviting him in. "Sorry. I forgot to give them back to you this morning in class."

"No problem. At least you gave them back at all." Kaneda suddenly frowned and peered over my shoulder. "Did you know your blanket is undulating?"

"I found a stray cat," I replied without turning around, mentally cursing Eiji and telling him to stop whatever it was he was doing right that second. "I'm trying to warm him up."

"But we aren't allowed-"

"See you later, Kaneda," I interrupted gently, and closed the door and locked it yet again.

The second the bolt shot home, I whirled to look at the couch where Eiji's head had just popped out from underneath the blanket. "Do I eve want to know?"

Eiji pretended to think about it for a moment. "Yes," he answered at last and stood up.

The blanket dropped to the floor and I stared without speaking for a full minute. I think my brain simply overloaded for a moment…or…something. "Can I ask," I managed at last, "how you managed to get completely undressed underneath a throw blanket?"

Eiji grinned. "I'm bendy and flexible, remember?"

I definitely did. It was just hard to think when all of your blood has completely left your head.

I started to make my way back to him when there was another knock at the door. With a mental scream, I started to turn, trusting Eiji to get back underneath the blanket while I answered the door. Instead, he grabbed my wrist and yanked me back away from the door even as the person outside knocked again.

"If you answer that," he growled at me in a low voice, "I will kill you here on the spot. And no court would convict me."

"We don't know who it is," I protested weakly. "What if-"

"I don't care who it is," Eiji snapped back. "I swear, Syuichirou, if you don't fuck me right now, I will make you miserable for the rest of this vacation." His voice dropped ominously and his eyes were furious and oh god hot as all hell and I was going crazy looking into them…

"I know you're in there, Oishi," a voice called, "I ran into Hashimoto and his girl downstairs and they said she was just up there. Come on, open up?"

I turned out of habit, and Eiji shoved his body up against mine, knocking me into my closet as he devoured my mouth with his own and pressed his hips insistently against me.

The door could wait, I decided dizzily, and slid to the floor with him.

It took no time whatsoever for Eiji to yank my trousers down past my knees and yank me on top of him while I struggled out of my sweater yet again. I don't think either of us were able to breathe properly, but it didn't matter at all when Eiji arched up against me and buried his face against my neck. I briefly thought about the drawer in my desk that we hadn't even gotten to yet, but it was too late at that point to think about going the rest of the way tonight. There was no way we were going to last that long now.

It was all over almost too quickly, the friction of our own bodies enough to send us both gasping to orgasm, but then again, we'd wasted most of the evening just fooling around to get to that point instead of finishing up before we were interrupted. I wasn't going to complain. Given the way that Eiji wrapped his arms around me after it was all over, pulling me back down so that we lay with our stomachs damp against each other while he kissed me long and deep, it didn't seem like he was going to, either.

At last I sat up and Eiji released me reluctantly. "You're a mess."

"You too," he shot back. "You've still got your pants on one leg, got a handkerchief in the pockets somewhere?"

I tossed him mine a second later and had to grin when he mimed waving it at me like a trophy wife before throwing it back to me when he was finished. "You would be a good girlfriend," I teased gently.

"I can think of at least one reason why you'd hate it if I was."

Before I could retort, there was a clack as a key shot into my door and my heart stopped.

I met Eiji's eyes and they widened without me even having to say a word. Within seconds, we were both scrambling for clothing as the tumbler in the lock turned, too fast, much too fast. I silently cursed everyone I had even known as I yanked my pants back up and fumbled with the buttons with shaking hands. Not too far away, Eiji was just getting one leg into his own, an expression of righteous anger at his clothing on his face as he tried to get the other one to fit in the same trouser leg. The door opened before he could figure out what he was doing wrong.

Hashimoto stared at us for a moment, eyes wide, mouth hanging open slightly. I couldn't really blame him. There was certainly no doubt what he had walked in on with me half-seated with my fly open and no shirt and Eiji the next thing to completely naked on the floor next to me. My roommate held up a finger and opened his mouth, then closed it again and let out a burst of air through his nose. He scratched his head, started to speak and stopped again, and finally managed to find his voice.

"Ah…" He cleared his throat nervously. "Didn't mean to interrupt anything. Sorry."

I dropped my head into my hands. "This is not happening," I groaned.

"First Tetsu, then your sister, now this," Eiji mused aloud. "If this is going to become a pattern, we're going to need a bomb shelter to keep people out."

"I just came up because Kirika came downstairs asking to be let in since you weren't answering the door," Hashimoto protested. "I wasn't trying to get a glimpse of…um…"

"Do you need details to finish that thought?" Eiji asked with perfectly honest curiosity.

"Now is not the time," I hissed at him.

Hashimoto shook his head and frowned for a moment. At last he spoke again. "Well, thanks again for having your friend use your bed this week," he managed with only a small cough. "Really."

The door closed again and I let out a breath I hadn't even known I was holding. "That was an experience I could have done without."

"Hey, at least you were halfway decent," Eiji pointed out. "I think I might be branded in that guy's mind for the rest of eternity. I feel really guilty!"

That startled a weak laugh out of me, and at that moment Hashimoto opened the door. This time he wore a wry grin, though he did pointedly hold up a hand to block Eiji from his vision while he spoke.

"By the way, you just cost me two thousand yen," he told me. "Hokuto's suspected since she first met you. I was giving you the benefit of the doubt saying you were straight. You owe me my money back, Oishi."

This time when we laughed as he closed and locked the door again, it was genuine.