"Yeah, so."

"Uh huh."

The two boys looked at each other. One was sipping a mug of hot chocolate. The other was munching on one of Mom's Best Cookies.

The first - taller, paler, blonde with larger-than-normal eyes and glasses, sighed and set down his mug on the last part of the floor unconquered by pillows and duvets and cushions, then looked at his friend, his best buddy, his partner in crime and travel of space and time.

The second - dark and white simultaneously, braced and also bespectacled - looked up and for a moment their eyes met. It was the first who spoke, in a manner most definitely accusatory.

"You like Isa."

The second exploded with a blush that very definitely screamed yes, and embarrassed stutters that tried to say no but certainly didn't mean it. The first, his answer found, huffed irritably and almost punched the floor with his fist.

"Nor-ty," He whined, glaring at the second. 'Norty' shuffled uncomfortably under the first boy's gaze and mumbled excuses. He wasn't a confident thing. Not like the first, who was disliked by everybody and always had been, but still found the guts to go on screaming rampages and keep glaring even until his face was kicked in. Norty secretly called it stupidity, but the other boy was his only real friend so he never did out loud.

"I'm sorry, Even," He mumbled, wringing his hands a little, an age-old habit. "I can't help it. He's just so.. so..." And Norty couldn't find the words describe the object of his affections.

The boy called Even hissed a little in the back of his throat, removed his glasses, wiped them clean, and put them back.

"Wanna blow up an egg in the microwave?"

"Sure."

They pottered with their dirty cups and plates into the kitchen and found an innocent looking egg to torture.

"Put a hole in the top, it looks like a volcano if you do."

"Have you ever put a grape in a microwave?"

"No, what happens?"

"Nothing much."

"Oh. Okay."

"But you can weld paper clips together."

"What, with a grape?"

"No, in a microwave."

"Cool. You got any?"

"No."

They popped the egg in and watched it play ballerina until its insides expanded too much with the heat and forced the shell to fragment into a thousand pieces and explode rather satisfyingly all over the inside of the microwave. Even popped open the door and found a piece of half-cooked egg white, waving it in front of Norty's face until it broke and flopped with an eggy splat onto the floor.

"That's your breakfast!"

"Eww. 'Nyway, mom said she'd make us bacon sarnies."

They spent twenty minutes clearing up the mess of the microwave and returned to the sitting room.

"Did you bring your World of Warcraft games?"

"Of course."

Even rummaged in a plastic bag and pulled out a stack of keep cases, laying them with great care and respect in front of his friend.

"All of them."

"Oh, wow."

"Snrk. WoW."

They laughed at their little joke, knowing full well that it was Lame, and played until the birds outside woke up and began to chirp. Only then did they admit that they were, after, all, only human, and had to sleep at some point because once Even went home they'd still have all their homework to do and tomorrow it would be Monday and they'd have school and teachers and jocks to deal with.

"But you still like Isa. I can't believe you."

"At least I don't like Lumaira,"

It was Even's turn to redden furiously, but this was in anger, not his body's unwitting admission of secret love.

"I do not like that effeminate, perverted, foul-mouthed son of a-!"

Norty put his hands up in awkward surrender, scared of Even's hot temper even if they were Best Friends For Life.

"Okay, okay. Sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

Even settled back down a little, still scowling beneath his glasses.

"Fine."

"Wanna swap glasses?"

"Sure."

"Ahaha. You look ridiculous."

"I can't see a thing. Can we swap back?"

"Okay."

Glasses back with their rightful owners, the two boys sat back and blankly watched the empty TV screen. Norty hated the moments like this, when they weren't doing anything scientific or nerdy or downright stupid, when they were just sitting there. It felt so tense to him. It drove him mad.

Even eventually twisted to face the curtains until his back clicked, and yawned widely enough for Norty to see right down the back of his throat.

The boys happened to glance at each other. They both blushed and looked away. Then they wondered why they'd blushed, and hesitantly turned back.

"I like you better, though," Norty found himself saying reproachfully into Even's #00FF00 lime green eyes.

"Yeah," Even replied a little distantly. "Me too."

"But I thought you hated Lumaira."

There was a bit of a pause.

"I do." Even said and to Norty he sounded a great deal like he was trying to convince himself of that fact and wasn't succeeding. But he didn't say. "I like you a lot more than that moron."

"Hm." Norty said, still contemplating Even's eyes. They were unusual - perhaps not so unusual as Norty's orange ones, but unusual nonetheless in their sheer greenness. Norty didn't think he'd ever seen something so green as Even's eyes. There were lots of kinds of greens; bluey greens and yellowy greens, sludgy greens and baby greens. But none were so green as Even's eyes.

"Norty...?"

Norty snapped from his daze of contemplating the meaning of life, the universe and everything in Even's eyes (because obviously, and everybody who was cool knew, it wasn't green, it was forty-two).

"Yeah?"

Norty wasn't sure, but it seemed a bit like Even had leaned a little closer since the last time he'd had a reality check.

It was sort of nice.

"You kinda spaced out."

"Yeah." Norty said. He felt like he still was, a bit. Isa swam distantly in his mind but Isa was unreachable and Even was here, right now, and closer still.

"Shoulda brought me with you."

Norty realised that Even was getting closer because he was also leaning closer, and they were still staring a little blankly at each other and both sort of dazed and both thinking about other people and both, regrettably, as inexperienced as hell.

"Yeah."

Norty suddenly realised that he could feel Even's breath on his face - smelling a bit like hot chocolate - and his eyes were slowly but surely crossing to keep Even in focus so he didn't look like a Cyclops.

"Yeah."

Never mind that, Norty knew that Even was thinking about Lumaira, and Norty also knew that he was thinking about Isa with every inch of his mind and body, as they both closed their eyes and pretended they hadn't just kissed their best friend, but their would-be could-be never-ever-in-a-million-years lovers.

It was quite scary how easily Norty could imagine Even's thin lips being Isa's, and how long blonde hair became long blue hair, and how it still felt the tiniest bit wonderful just pretending when Even pushed him slowly down into the duvets and pillows on the floor. Because that was the only thing they ever did, wasn't it? Pretending? Pretending that the bullies didn't exist, pretending that they weren't the most unpopular boys in the school, pretending that they were a great deal smarter than they really were, pretending that they were knights and elves and dragons and now to add to the list secret crushes as well...

The first thing either of them said when, a moment or twenty later, Even rolled away from Norty with a pink blush written all over his face, was:

"Wow."

Neither of them dared to say 'first kiss' because the thought of that was a bit weird, and they both hardly even dared to think 'we should do this again' even if they both sort of wanted to, because pretending was fun and so much better than lying in bed feeling miserable and lonely and sorry for oneself every night.

Even swallowed thickly and sat up.

"Okay. So maybe I like Lumaira a little bit."

Norty smiled despite himself.

"At least he likes you back."

"I suppose."

"Yeah."

"So..."

"Wanna explode another egg?"