Author's Notes- You know, I could have ended this story very easily on the last chapter… But since I know that would get mobs with torches and pitchforks sent after me, I decided to continue. Aren't you all so lucky.

Disclaimer- Outlaw Star and all of its characters still seem to elude my grasp… Ah, the unfairness of life.

Warning- This is really getting redundant people… Shonen Ai. Yaoi. Got it? Good.

                                                                                ***************

                Gene held a sheet of paper in his hand as he walked, eyes fixed on the words that ran sloppily across the lines. He'd have to re-write it eventually, if he wanted it to be at legible, but at the moment… He was fine with what he had. He ran through the lines repeatedly in his head, replacing words, moving verses, and generally tweaking what lyrics he had so far.

                Contrary to the usual way of things, he was quite pleased with what he had down.

                Smiling, the redhead reached out almost absently, sticking his key into the door of his shared dorm. Hearing the rather harsh scratch, he blinked, looked up from his lyric, and cringed upon seeing the lovely scratch he had just put in the door.

                "That was brilliant…" Still muttering under his breath, Gene took more care this time in inserting the key into the lock and turning it, pushing the door open rather grumpily. He couldn't decide who he was more vexed at: himself for being such an idiot, or the door for not realizing that he clearly had something else on his mind that deserved far more attention than keys and locks.

                The first was more likely, but the second did have a nice ring to it. Besides, it exonerated him, placing the blame completely on an inanimate object. All things considered, the latter was much more favorable.  Much more insane, yes, but still more favorable.

                Grumbling quietly, Gene returned his attention to the lyrics, shoving the key into his pocket and kicking the offending door shut quite violently. Truly, this was just not a very good day for the door.

                "What did the door ever do to you?" Gene blinked, attention jerked from his lyric once again. Glancing up, he spotted Fred, who he hadn't noticed before. The navy-haired young man was lounging on his bed, book in hand. The book was closed, but he was holding a place with his finger.

                "It had the gall to annoy me."

                "Ah. I see. And so it has rightly suffered for this atrocious offence."

                "Yup."

                "Ok, just so long as justice is being served…" Fred went back to his book, but not before shooting a cheerful grin at his roommate. Gene couldn't help but laugh.  However, soon his mind was back on his lyrics. It stood to reason, considering the inspiration behind them was sitting less than ten feet away.

                Gene tossed his book-bag on his nightstand casually, plopping down on his own bed rather gracelessly. Lying back, he held the sheet of paper above his head, reading over it for the hundredth time. Reaching over to his previously discarded book-bag, the redhead rummaged around until he found a pen, clicking it open and making a correction on his—now quite messy—lyric sheet.

                Seeing if the words flowed a bit better, Gene wondered idly what would happen if he asked for Fred's advice. Would he ask who the song was about…? Possibly. Would he figure it out himself? More than likely.

                In any event, Gene needed to finish the thing before he did anything else with it. At least that seemed like a safe enough goal.

                Adding another line and scratching it out quickly, Gene hummed softly, trying to put a tune to the words. He didn't really expect to get anything, but it was worth a try. Besides, it kept him occupied. He cleverly avoided remembering that his time could be better filled with schoolwork and the like.

                "What're you writing?" Fred, it seemed, had finished with his book for the moment. Gene looked over, discovering that his roommate was watching at him, eyes half-lidded. It was unclear as to whether the look was caused by tiredness or a seduction attempt. Gene decided to give Fred the benefit of the doubt and go with the former. But really, who was he kidding?

                "Just a lyric."

                "What about?" The navy haired young man leaned back onto his elbows, eyes still on Gene.

                "Just the usual." Shrugging slightly, Gene reached up to replace another word, creating yet another scratch on his already scribble-filled paper. It was going to become truly illegible soon, even for him. He'd have to find a new sheet.

                "Oh, poorly written woes of love?" Fred grinned.

                "No." The redhead made a face. "Definitely no. Very nicely written words of… well, I don't know, but not woes of love." More like confusions. But he wasn't going to say that.

                "So not the usual, then." Fred's lazy grin was still in place, and his eyes continued resting on Gene. It wasn't as though a change had been expected, really.

                "Depends on your definition of usual." Gene scratched out one line completely, quickly replacing it with one whose variations, however slight, flowed infinitely better. "Mine, apparently, differs from yours."

                "Apparently." Getting up slowly, Fred stretched in a leisurely fashion, arching his back as far as it would possible go. Gene made the fatal error of glancing up just as his roommate's shirt slide up over his lightly toned abdomen, and, despite his most valiant efforts, he couldn't help but stare.

                Fred's grin only grew.

                "Did you have any plans for dinner tonight?"

                "Huh…?" Gene blinked quickly, trying to bring his attention back to current events. Well… current events that didn't involve a severely distracting expanse of newly exposed skin, anyway. It took quite a bit of willpower. "Dinner…?"

                "Yes, dinner. You know… One of the main meals of the day? You eat it around 6-ish? After lunch? Before dessert?" Though he knew very well what was distracting the redhead, Fred purposely did not come out of his stretch, continuing to grin as Gene fought to tear his eyes away. This was so much fun!

                Finally, though not nearly soon enough to save his dignity, Gene managed to tear his eyes away, forcing down the blush as he tilted his head back slightly to meet Fred's eyes. "I know." He tried to make the statement as cold as possible, but it didn't really have the same effect as he had hoped. Possibly because the blush was threatening to surface at any minute, and most of his concentration was focused on that.

                "Well?" The navy-haired young man raised his eyebrows, slowly standing upright once more, letting his shirt fall down once more to cover his stomach. Gene gave him a blank look. "Plans? Yay or nay?"

                "Oh. No. Not that I'm aware." It was now that Gene remembered the sheet of paper in his hand. Or, rather, what had been a sheet of paper. Now, it more or less resembled a crumbled ball of something that might have, at one point, been of the paper-ish persuasion. "Fuck."

                "What?" Fred glanced down at what his roommate was staring at. "Oh. Dear." He tilted his head to the side slightly as Gene slowly attempted to straighten out the paper, apparently determined to salvage the thing. "Is it ruined completely?"

                "If it is, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to spend the rest of the night beating my head against a wall…" The redhead frowned slightly in concentration, dead-set on not harming the paper any more than it already had been. Gently, he spread it out on top of his bed, taking great care not to smudge the writing further. Running his eyes over the words quickly, he sighed in relief. The lyrics were still there. Barely discernable, but there nonetheless.

                "Wonderful, your skull has been saved." Gene jumped slightly at the voice in his ear, though he at least knew better than to turn around. He wasted a good minute wondering how the hell Fred had suddenly appeared behind him, then abruptly came to the conclusion that he had been far too engrossed in saving his lyric. He glared at it for causing such troubles. It didn't appear fazed; rather, it seemed to glare right back, insinuating that it was his fault in the first place, considering he was the one who had crumpled it.

                Gene scowled. When had he done that? No, no, the paper itself had spontaneously crumpled. That was it.

                He believed this for all of fifteen seconds.

                Then he remembered how his hands had automatically clenched the sheets when he had seen half of Fred's naked torso. And how the sheet of paper had had the great misfortune to be located between his right hand and the bedclothes.

                And, of course, it was then that he realized, rather belatedly, that Fred was now resting his chin against Gene's shoulder, and, in general, being far closer than was truly necessary. The redhead bit his bottom lip as he felt his roommate's warm breath on his neck.

                "Hmmmm…." Gene could feel his hair move as Fred exhaled. "I would have thought you'd be screaming by now, or something equally unpleasant…" Gene didn't even have to look to know that his roommate was grinning. "What a nice surprise."

                The red-haired young man swallowed almost audibly, wondering how, exactly, it was that his body was refusing to do anything he told it. Run fast and far in the opposite direction, for example. Jerk. Draw back. Push Fred away. Anything along those lines, he wasn't picky! And yet…nothing.

Instead, his eyes had the nerve to glance down at his (now rather soiled) sheet of lyrics. "You're not like anything I've ever known before…"

Fuck.

"Oh, yes." It appeared that Fred wasn't going to be moving any time in the immediate future. Gene couldn't bring himself to push the other man away. "I'm making dinner, if that's all right with you."

"…You can cook?" It seemed safe. Perhaps it would have been more so if Gene had managed to skip the breathless pause that had preceded it. "I didn't know that." That probably didn't help much, but it gave Gene something to think about other than the close proximity of his roommate. For the moment, anyway.

"Mmhmm…" Fred let the affirmative reply drift into silence. Gene was foolish enough to think that he would truly leave it there. "I can do a great many things you don't know about."

The redhead's azure eyes widened considerably. He most certainly did not need the mental images that statement led to… He sputtered slightly as he realized that his lower body disagreed vehemently.

Fred laughed softly, turning his head slightly to kiss the sensitive skin behind Gene's ear. He smirked as he felt his roommate tense up, and stuck out his tongue, slowly moving to trace the delicately curved shell of Gene's ear.

The red-haired young man's eyes widened even further at this. What did Fred think he was doing? What the hell did he think he was doing? What…the… hell… Gene's thought slowly trailed off as his earlobe was taken between his roommate's lips and sucked on gently. His eyelids, instead of defying all laws of physics and attempting to open further, drooped slightly in pleasure.

This is…Wait, no! This wasn't right, he couldn't actually be enjoying this! He didn't like guys, he didn't think this felt insanely good, he didn't… didn't… Fred slid a hand up Gene's shirt to toy with one of the redhead's nipples, and Gene quite forgot what, exactly, it was that the next 'didn't' was supposed to be. Really, he quite forgot a lot of things, and it was very lucky that he had let go of his precious sheet of lyrics, otherwise it would have been quite ruined indeed.

Fred couldn't help but grin as he slowly dragged his teeth down over Gene's earlobe, causing the redhead to make a mewling noise in the back of his throat. Goodness, and he had thought that teasing his new love interest with a cleverly exposed bit of skin was fun. Oh no, this was far better. Far more enjoyable for both parties, certainly.

Sitting back, Fred pulled Gene into his lap, wrapping his free arm around the other man's waist to hold him in place. Gene whimpered softly as his roommate's hand danced across his chest.

This… can't be good…The redhead's eyes fell completely closed. I'm quite certain… that… I… shouldn't be… enjoying this… Gene felt Fred's tongue on his neck and came very close to losing whatever amount of resolve he had managed to hang on to thus far. No… I can't…

Mind winning over in the end, Gene finally came out of his daze, jerking out of Fred's loose hold and nearly falling off of the bed in his (overly) zealous escape. Gasping for breath, the redhead quickly hauled himself to the opposite end of the bed, stopping only when the wall prevented him from moving further. Half-expecting his roommate to pounce on him, Gene turned slowly, ready to bolt immediately, should the need present itself.

However, he was prepared in vain. Fred was still in the same spot Gene had left him, lounging on the mattress in a leisurely manner with a rather satisfied smirk on his face. The blue-eyed young man stared, breath still coming in deep gasps. What the HELL was that?! The statement was supposed to have come out as a rather earsplitting exclamation, but somehow it had become lost on the way to his throat. Probably all of that rapid air intake. Yes, that was it. Of course. Without a doubt.

"Nuh…" Well, that was something. A pathetic, incomprehensible something, but a something nonetheless. Gene swallowed (almost audibly) and tried again. "That…" Ok, now he was breaking into intelligible words, this was a good sign. " That…" Repeating said intelligible words, but at least he wasn't babbling incoherently. So to speak. "That was…"

"That was what?" Fred's smirk didn't appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. Gene felt the urge to wipe it off of his roommate's face. He blanched as ways of doing that wandered into his mind. Complete with visual aids. "That was…?" The navy-haired young man held out a hand, gesturing for Gene to continue.

Oh, sure, like I'm going to voice some of the things that are going through my mind now… The redhead gave himself a quick mental shake, trying to regain some sense. It wasn't as successful as he had hoped. He tried a mental kick. "Inappropriate." There, that was good, stay on that track… "Wrong." Very good. Keep going, you can do it… Gene blinked. He was out of derogatory adjectives. Damnit, I can't stop now… "Upsetting."

"Was it really…?" Fred slowly raised his eyebrows, smirk leaving his lips. Gene bit his lower lip lightly. "Do you really think that…?" The young man was beginning to look hurt, even though Gene could tell he was trying to keep the emotion from reaching his features.

No… Yes. No. Yes. NO! The redhead continued to worry his lower lip as the debate raged in his head. He stared fixedly at the bed coverings in front of him, not able to face his roommate after lying so blatantly and hurtfully to his face. Lying…? Yes. He didn't notice the bed move. He didn't hear the footsteps retreating from his location. He didn't hear the kitchen door open, then shut.

Slowly, Gene's gaze roved over the rest of the bed, and he was mildly surprised at finding a crumpled sheet of paper sitting beside him. He picked up the lyric, so quickly forgotten, and stared morosely at the words.

You're not like anything I've known before…

He set the paper down, no longer really seeing the paper. This wasn't right. Why had he said those things? He hadn't meant them… he'd just been… A coward. Gene sighed. Yes, that was it. Cowardice. And denial. Definitely denial in there somewhere.

Now what was he supposed to do?

Three guesses, dumb ass. Gene scowled at his inner voice. And the first two don't count.

It was true, though. He knew exactly what he should do. What he had to do. What he wanted to do, on some level. But the problem was… actually doing it.

Fuck fuck FUCK.  

Gene crossed his legs, resting his elbows on the mattress in front of him and resting his face in his hands. Why did I do that… He scowled. Because I'm straight… I'm straight, I do not like other guys. I don't. And I most certainly don't like… most certainly don't… I quite assuredly… I mean, there's no way I could like… The thought kept trailing off. The redhead just couldn't seem to finish it. I couldn't…

But I do. He sighed deeply. I do. Very much so. Quite assuredly. Most certainly.

Fuck.

Slowly, Gene removed his face from his hands, blearily staring at the kitchen door, which some part of his mind knew Fred was on the other side of. Which some part of his mind knew he had to go through. Soon. He wondered where the other part of his mind had gone. The one that usually screamed every time it saw Fred.

… I wouldn't be surprised if it had recently died from a nosebleed. Gene placed his hands behind him, leaning back as he continued to stare at the door. He knew what he had to do. Why did it have to be so hard…?

It doesn't have to be. The redhead blinked. You just seem to delight in making things difficult for yourself. This time, he scowled. Now get your cowardly ass in there and do it.

Gene inhaled deeply. He had gotten himself into this. He had to get himself out. He needed to get himself out. He… wanted to get himself out. Letting out the breath, the young man stood. His eyes remained locked on the cheap wood of the kitchen door, which seemed to be daring him to come forward. Well, he would just have to meet that dare, and meet it well.

Features working themselves into a determined frown, Gene stepped forward.

                                                                **************

Author's Notes-  Dearie me, I'm so cruel to you people… Though really, I've never had a cliffhanger, this is a new experience for me… Goodness. And remember, threatening to murder the author in her sleep (or at any other time) only forces her write from a secure location, from which it often takes much longer to produce a decent chapter.