*Krillin voice* GAAAAAAAAAAY
I ship Tien/Yamcha so fucking much like you have no idea I love the ship to death I will be running around shouting about it in hfil when I die. Why won't Toriyama embrace my ship

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Thank you for reading; I hope you enjoy it! I'm always open to feedback if you have any.

Summary: Everyone is fed up with Yamcha and Tien beating around the bush, including them.

"Tien, do you like baseball?"

The question came out of left field and Tien shot a confused frown at Yamcha. "I guess? Why?"

Yamcha grinned and casually tucked some hair out of his face. "There's a big game on Saturday night-the Taitans vs. the Lyons for the championship. I'm having a bunch of guys over to watch."

"Anyone I know?" Tien asked, pouring himself a coffee. He'd been invited to get-togethers outside of work before, but if he was only going to know the person who invited him, he didn't go. He had once, but he'd ended up just awkwardly following Yamcha around the entire time and arguing about martial arts with some friend of Yamcha's.

"So far only Krillin and Goku are coming. You remember my friend Goku, right? He's the one who brings his kid in here all the time."

Tien thought. Goku was the one he'd had the martial arts argument with. "Is he the one with even weirder hair than Vegeta's?"

Yamcha laughed aloud and Tien's heart did a weird little fluttery dance. It wasn't fair, he decided, that Yamcha had to be not only impossibly handsome and incredibly sweet, but he also had to have a cute laugh. Not fair at all. "That's the one!" Yamcha said. "I invited the twins from IT and Lazurite, but Lapis and Lazurite are going on some nature bird hike thing and Lazuli said she'd rather eat glass." Tien snorted. That sounded like her, even if her boyfriend was going. "So far it's just the three of us," Yamcha continued. "Five, if you and Chiaotzu come. The invitation's open to him, too."

Tien picked up the coffees he'd poured for himself and Chiaotzu. "I'll probably be there," he said. "Don't know about Chiaotzu; baseball isn't really his thing."

"Tell him I'm making guacamole," Yamcha said. "I make really nice guacamole."

"I'll tell him," Tien said, walking out of the staff room.

As soon as he was out of Yamcha's line of sight, he heaved a sigh of relief. He had to constantly be on guard around Yamcha. Every time it was just the two of them alone together he had to stop himself from blurting out whatever stupid thoughts were on his mind, usually embarrassing ones like "you have amazing hair" or "I want to practise martial arts with you so badly" or (most embarrassingly) "I think I fell in love with you a while ago do you want to go for coffee sometime maybe?"

And it wouldn't be so bad if he thought he had a chance, but he was pretty sure Yamcha didn't feel the same way. Yamcha had been openly bi for a few years now, but Tien didn't want to assume that he was interested just because he could be interested. He'd had that conversation a few times with people himself and he didn't want to subject Yamcha to it.

He walked back downstairs and forced himself to breathe deeply. This was a silly crush and he'd get over it. Even if it took another five years.

"Are you still here?"

Yamcha looked up from his phone. Bulma had come into the staff room with an empty coffee mug. "You're not drinking coffee out of that thing, right?" Yamcha asked. "That's probably not good for the baby."

"Thanks, mom." Bulma absently rubbed her ever-expanding belly as she went to the fridge. "Of course not; I'm only putting straight vodka in it." She smirked at him over her shoulder when he made a strangled noise. "How dumb do you think I am, Yamcha? I'm drinking milk. Milk. It just feels weird to use anything other than this thing at work." She held up the mug, displaying the words "Paperwork is my nemesis" on the side. Yamcha remembered that mug; it had been a Christmas present from the staff several years ago, back when they were still going out.

"Just checking." Yamcha sat back in his seat and checked his phone. He still had a few minutes before he had to be back at the desk. He hoped Pilaf wasn't causing too many problems. Yamcha hated leaving him in charge, but after Yamcha he was the most senior staff member at Information Services and he didn't have any other options.

"So, while you're here." Bulma sat down across from him gingerly, movements stiff and awkward thanks to the baby. "We've gotta talk about you and Tien."

Yamcha flushed. "What? What about us? Not that there is an us," he added hastily. "We're not going out or anything-"

"Oh my God, would you relax, you nerd?" She took a sip of her milk and peered over the rim of her mug at him. "I've seen the way you look at him. The way you've been looking at him for years. Years, Yamcha. That's not healthy and I'm sick of it."

Well, the cat was out of the bag, he supposed. He sighed and put his phone away. "It's driving me crazy, Bulma. I don't know what to do. I don't think he even likes guys."

"Are you serious? Oh God you're serious right now."

Yamcha threw his hands in the air. "It's not like he's given me anything to work with here! For all I know he's straight! Hell, with my luck he's probably aromantic! As far as I can tell he's never even been interested in anyone! I don't know!"

"Yamcha," Bulma said slowly, "Tien is super into you. Like, 'probably wouldn't even go out with the sexiest man alive if he could get a date with you instead' levels of into you."

"First, ouch, how dare you imply that I'm not the sexiest man alive." She snorted. "Second, what makes you so sure? Half the time it seems like he's avoiding me, and the other half he's so awkward around me." He sat back and ran a hand through his hair. "Honestly, I kinda wish we'd just go back to the way things were when he first got hired."

Bulma frowned. "You guys hated each other when he first got hired. Remember how he 'accidentally' knocked that ladder over and you broke your leg?"

"Yeah, but at least I knew where we stood."

She slapped his arm. "Don't be so melodramatic; it doesn't suit you. Look, you're having that big baseball thing this weekend, right? Ask him out then."

He squawked. "With all the guys there? No way."

"Then ask him out for coffee the next morning or something, I don't care, just do it soon already!"

Yamcha stood. "I'm going back to work."

"Ask Tien out, you nerd!" she called as he shut the door behind him.

Tien fidgeted with the collar of his shirt as he waited for Yamcha to answer the buzzer. He'd forgotten to use fabric softener when he did laundry this week and now all his clothes felt scratchy. "Hey," Yamcha's voice said over the intercom.

"It's Tien," Tien said.

"Come on up! Careful, the door's kinda sticky." There was a click as the door unlocked itself and Tien had to give it a solid tug to get it to open. Yamcha's apartment was in an alright neighborhood, but the building itself was clearly not well maintained. There was water damage on the baseboards and the walls were yellowing. The hallways smelled like cigarette smoke and fish.

The two-bedroom apartment he and Chiaotzu shared may have had a high rent, but at least the building was clean.

Yamcha opened the door as soon as Tien knocked, and Tien's heart fluttered wondered if he'd been waiting on the other side of it for him. "Hi! Come on-" He cut himself off as a small blue blur went speeding by him. "Shit! Sorry, make yourself at home, I have to get my cat!" Yamcha took off down the hallway and Tien stood in the doorway, blinking. He stepped inside and took off his shoes, taking the time to look around Yamcha's apartment in the process.

It was small, but clearly better taken care of than the building at large. The walls were clean and white, with photos of friends framed and hung randomly around. It was tidy for the most part, aside from the kitchen, which looked well-used. From the looks of things, he'd been cooking when Tien showed up-there was a pot on the stove and at least three bowls on the tiny counter. All the furniture looked secondhand and none of it matched, but somehow that added a cozy feeling to the place. When all was said and done, it was a pretty nice apartment, despite Tien's misgivings about the building itself.

"Sorry about that," Yamcha said from behind him, and Tien jumped out of his skin. "Puar likes to explore." He kicked the door shut behind him and released the cat in his arms onto the floor, where she immediately started rubbing against his ankles. "Yeah, yeah, you suck-up. Don't make me lock you in the bathroom when Krillin and Goku get here. She thinks she's an outdoor cat," he explained to Tien. "And I'd love to let her outside more often, but, well, you know the city."

Tien was staring at her. "She's blue."

"Right, I forgot you've never seen her before." Yamcha headed into the kitchen to stir the pot on the stove and only then did Tien notice that he had his hair up in a messy ponytail and it was really attractive. "No idea why she's blue; she was blue when I got her and she's blue now."

"Oh," Tien said when he got his tongue unstuck from the roof of his mouth. What had they been talking about? He'd been distracted by the back of Yamcha's neck. He mentally slapped himself across the face. It wasn't like he'd never seen Yamcha's neck before-he'd had his hair short before! But seeing him with his hair up, bustling around the kitchen, and now he was putting on an apron it was too domestic and adorable and Tien had to say something before he did something embarrassing. "I brought chips," he blurted, shoving the grocery store bag in his hand forward for emphasis.

Except now Yamcha turned to him, beaming, and Tien wasn't sure he could move ever again. "Great! Can you just put those on the coffee table?"

"Uh," said Tien.

Mercifully, the buzzer went off and Yamcha hurried off to answer it. Tien scurried into the small living room while he did so, dropping the bag on the table. When he looked down, to his surprise, Puar had followed him and was sitting a few feet away, staring at him. "Hi, kitty," he said gently, kneeling down and holding a hand out for her to sniff. "Puar, right? C'mere, Puar." She tilted her head and he got the distinct feeling he was being judged. After a moment (that he refused to admit he sweated over) she moved forward to rub her head against his hand. "Oh, you're very sweet," he murmured, scratching her behind her ears.

"That's just what she wants you to think," Yamcha said, popping into the room with an empty bowl. "You should see her trying that sweet act when she wants to be fed at three in the morning." Puar meowed. "Yeah, you know exactly what I'm talking about," Yamcha said, opening the bag of chips Yamcha had brought and dumping them into the bowl. "Krillin and Goku arrived together; they'll be up in a second."

Tien straightened and looked around. "Need me to do anything?"

Yamcha grabbed the remote and turned on the television. "Nope, just hang out and watch the game. I'm mostly done with the food."

"WE HAVE ALCOHOL!" Krillin declared, barging right into the apartment with Goku in tow.

Puar was off like a shot, Yamcha not quite fast enough to catch her before she zipped out the door again. "Puar, come back here!"

"So the guys with the yellow shirts are the good guys, right?"

"Technically, there aren't any 'good guys' or 'bad guys' in baseball," Krillin started.

"Yes," Yamcha said. "The Taitans are the team we want to win, therefore, like Tien says, they're the good guys."

"Just for that, I'm rooting for the Lyons."

Yamcha gasped in mock despair. "Krillin! After all these years! How could you?"

"It's only fair after you told Goku to root for the Shields during hockey season last year!"

Goku wandered in from the bathroom and flopped back into his seat on the couch between Yamcha and Krillin, effectively ending the argument. Tien was on the floor; Yamcha had offered him his spot on the couch but he'd declined. "So Krillin," Goku said, in the faux-innocent way he had of saying things, "when do Chi-Chi and I get to meet your girlfriend?"

Three pairs of eyes turned to Krillin, the first inning of the ball game already forgotten in favour of watching their bald friend squirm. "Uh, well, we've only been going out for a couple of months-"

"But everyone's met her except for me," Goku whined. "Even Chi-Chi's seen her at the cafe before!"

"What do you want me to do, tell her I'm bringing her to meet my family and then show up at your place?!"

"Well, yeah."

Yamcha watched Krillin sputter and Goku be completely serious and shook his head at Tien. Goku and Krillin had known each other for longer than anyone else, and they'd always had this sort of dynamic. Tien, bless him, was trying to pay attention to the game. Yamcha leaned his chin on his hand and tried to watch the screen as well, but his eyes kept wandering back to Tien.

Tien really was handsome. He'd always been handsome, but he was even more so now that they were both a little older and he'd filled out some more. Thinking back on it, part of the reason he'd hated Tien so much when they first met was because he'd been vehemently denying his bisexuality and being attracted to Tien, even superficially as he was at the time, hadn't been helping. That and he'd been a grade-A asshole. Snide comments, outright insults, and constant bickering had been pretty common between them in those days.

Except then Yamcha broke his leg.

Technically, it had been Tien's fault for "nudging" the ladder Yamcha was on, and apparently he'd actually felt awful about it later. He visited Yamcha in the hospital more than anyone else, even Bulma, who he'd been dating at the time. He offered to help pay for Yamcha's treatment if he couldn't afford it (he wished he'd taken him up on it when he saw the medical bill). After Yamcha was back at work, he followed him around for weeks afterward to make sure he was okay. And through all of that, Yamcha got to see what a great guy Tien could be, and the realization that he thought Tien was attractive had been about as subtle as a bag of nickles to the face.

He hadn't said anything about it, of course, since he was still dating Bulma and he was pretty sure Tien was only being nice to him because he felt bad. But once he and Bulma broke up for good and he'd had the time to really pick through his feelings, he came out as bi and hoped Tien would take it as a sign to ask him out.

He didn't.

So, three years later, here they were watching a baseball game in Yamcha's apartment with Krillin and Goku arguing in the background, and this was fine, really it was. But sometimes when he was with Tien there was a little voice in the back of his head reminding him that they could be holding hands or making out or...other things right now if Yamcha would just stop being a coward and say something already.

"Yamcha? Are you okay?"

With a start, Yamcha realized he'd been staring at Tien for a solid five minutes. The man in question was peering up at him in concern. "Fine!" he said, a little too loudly, downing the rest of his first beer. "Just fine," he repeated. "I'm just gonna...I'll go get more guacamole." He grabbed the empty bowl and tried not to rush back to the kitchen. He was getting more and more obvious and oh he had it bad.

There was hushed conversation from the other room that he couldn't quite make out over the noise from the TV. Probably just Goku ribbing Krillin about Lazuli again. Those two made a cute couple, really. Sometimes Yamcha would walk into the staff room and find Krillin snuggled into Lazuli's side on the couch. Krillin would always get embarrassed, but Lazuli would just look Yamcha dead in the eyes as though daring him to comment. He never did, mostly because he valued his life.

"Uh."

Yamcha yelped and stumbled backwards right into Tien's chest. Why was he right behind him and trying to get his attention? With a shaky smile, he turned to look up at him. "You scared me," he said. Tien had him pretty well trapped between him and the counter and their proximity wasn't helping the thoughts he'd just been having go away. "Couldn't wait for more guacamole?" he tried. "I was just about to bring it out-"

"Yamcha." Tien had one hand on either side of Yamcha, leaning on the counter and pressing Yamcha back against it. Tien swallowed. "Will you go out with me?"

Yamcha's heart sank. So that's what the whispering from the other room was about. Krillin had put him up to this, the bald bastard. He was going to kill him. "Not cool, Tien," he muttered, lightly pushing at him to get him away. "You don't toy with a guy's feelings like that. Now-"

There was a hand on his chin, forcing him to look up at Tien. "Seriously, Yamcha," he sounded desperate, "will you go out with me? Please?"

His eyes flicked across Tien's face, looking for any sign that he was just playing with him. He found none. "Holy shit," he murmured, "yeah. All you had to do was ask."

If someone asked him later who first started kissing who, he wouldn't have an answer for them. All he knew was when Krillin shrieked on finding them making out in the kitchen, he couldn't bring himself to give a fuck.