Yasuhara knew he was not the only one thankful for the peace and quiet in the house in the coming days. Sure, it was still awkward between certain people, but at least everyone was being polite to each other.

One thing the house had collectively agreed over was ensuring that Marcus was seen nowhere near Mai at any point, ever again. Yasuhara was not sure if Mai had realised they were taking it in turns to walk her to lectures etc. But as she had not complained, they continued.

Yasuhara had even seen Oliver leave early for lectures to walk ten feet behind Mai all the way to the university campus and ensure she got to her building without incident. Mai and Oliver still weren't exactly talking…

Then again, neither was he and Gene…

The fact that Gene liked him was still something of a shock to Yasuhara. As far as he was concerned, Gene was out of his league. Like, way out of his league.

But this still left the question of what to do… Did Yasuhara like Gene enough to want to pursue a relationship?

Yasuhara lay on his bed late on Sunday night, contemplating the question. Gene was definitely a good friend — Yasuhara cringed at the memories of him insisting how good a friend Gene was, oh how that must have hurt him — and he was definitely attractive. But Yasuhara did not want Gene to think he was pity-dating him.

He rolled over and shoved his head into his pillow.

What if Yasuhara agreed to a date and it all went horribly wrong? They would still have to live together for at least another six months! Yasuhara could not afford to move and why would Gene move from his parents second house where he had basically free rent?

Yasuhara groaned.

He was overthinking it all. It was late. He needed sleep.

Yasuhara left his second lecture of the day and started towards the university canteen. It was the last week of the semester and he was done with saving money and being sensible. He was going to pay the extortionate prices and have hot food for lunch and he was not going to stress over the money. He had to last until the end of the week and then he would be home and his parents would feed him to his heart's content.

Yasuhara was so focused on food that he almost walked straight into someone.

"Sorry—" Yasuhara realised who he had bumped into, "Chris! Hey!"

"Hey," Chris responded. "Actually, I'm glad I bumped into you. You remember I asked about your housemate—"

"Gene?"

"Yeah, right, him. Well I've been invited to this end of term party and I was thinking that maybe I could invite him as my date but you never got back to me on that matter so…" Chris trailed off with a hopeful expression plastered across his face.

Yasuhara froze. Shit. He had yet to turn Chris down on Gene's behalf for… For being a biphobic dickhead…

"Actually, Gene is… Seeing someone! Yeah, he's got a boyfriend and so he can't really go on a date with you," Yasuhara lied quickly.

"Oh really…" Chris did not sound convinced.

"Yeah, it's pretty recent but—"

"Why are you lying to me?"

Yasuhara gaped. He was a better liar than this normally. Fuck.

"I'm not—"

"Hey, Yasuhara!"

Both Chris and Yasuhara looked around to see Gene jogging towards them. Yasuhara whinced.

"Gene!"

"Sorry to intrude, I was wondering if you were heading back to the house now or not? I don't think anyone is available to walk Mai home and I'm happy to if no one else is, I can probably make it back in time for my afternoon lectures but—"

"Is it true you're dating someone?" Chris demanded.

Gene blinked stupidly, looked from Yasuhara to Chris and back again.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Gene asked.

"I'm Chris."

"This is the guy I told you about," Yasuhara prompted quickly. "I just let him know you couldn't go out with him because you were already dating."

"Which is a lie," Chris finished.

Gene blinked.

"You're the guy that turned Yasuhara down because he's bi, right?" Gene asked.

"Well yeah."

Yasuhara looked away.

"Oh I see what's happened here," Gene said. Yasuhara could not bring himself to look back around. "Yeah, Yasuhara lied to you in an attempt to spare your feelings. I don't date biphobes."

"I'm sorry, what? Biphobia isn't even real."

"Of course it isn't," Gene muttered. "Come on, Yasuhara, we have better places to be."

Gene started to walk away, but Chris shouted after him.

"I would have dated him if he'd just picked a damn side!"

Gene stopped dead in his tracks.

"Just leave it," Yasuhara urged.

Gene growled.

"I'm only leaving it because the last time I punched someone I got puked on," Gene hissed.

"Come and get some lunch with me," Yasuhara said. "My treat, come on."

"But Mai—"

"Is a grown woman, she'll be fine. We can't babysit her forever."

"But—"

"Food. Now. I am starving."

Gene gave in.

"Fine, but I'm going to text her."

Yasuhara rolled his eyes. Together they walked the remainder of the way to the canteen, each picked up a large portion of lasagne and chips and found a table.

"Hmm, food was a good call," Gene muttered. "Thank you, I'll pay you back for this."

"Nah, we're good. You saved me from Chris. I'm usually better at lying but he just saw straight through it."

"Yeah," Gene agreed. "For a lawyer in training I would expect better."

"Cheers…"

"Besides, I have a bone to pick with you on that front. I thought you said he was — and I quote — 'super cute'. That guy was like a five slash six."

Yasuhara paled.

"Well… I wouldn't say he was out of my league," Yasuhara mumbled. "But he's up there for me…"

"Yasuhara, you can do way better than a five."

"I thought you said he was a six."

"That was too generous. I'm downgrading him to a five on looks alone. He goes down to a two if we add in personality."

Yasuhara chuckled nervously.

"Alright then, well what should I be aiming for?"

"Well at least a ten, duh," Gene said.

Yasuhara right out belly laughed at this.

"Gene, seriously, if I can't get a five to date me I'm not—" he cut himself off, remembering Gene's crush on him. "Where do you put yourself on this scale?"

"Where would you like to put me?" Gene asked.

Yasuhara suddenly felt very hot under the collar. Was Gene flirting with him? He tried to keep his cool.

"Ooh, I don't know. Maybe an eight?"

"Well then, if you're not up for a ten right away, you could start with a 'maybe eight'..."

Yasuhara blinked. Definitely flirting. Wait, of course Gene was flirting. Gene liked him. Yasuhara's cheeks flared red.

"Is your lasagne too hot?" Gene asked. "You look a little flushed."

"You're too hot," Yasuhara retorted without thinking, causing Gene to choke on his next mouthful. "Shit, are you okay?"

Gene managed to swallow his food and reached for his cup of water. After a hasty gulp, he grinned at Yasuhara.

"Yeah I'm fine."

"Maybe we should park the flirting until we've both finished eating."

"So you want to continue flirting after we've finished eating?" Gene asked, without missing a beat.

"I— uh— Maybe?"

Gene looked down at his food.

"Sorry, I shouldn't push it."

"No, it's fine," Yasuhara said. "I just… Like I never even thought about you that way because you are so out of my league. My brain hasn't got used to the idea that someone like you could like me…"

"You really shouldn't idolise me like that. Like I fuck up too. Look at what happened last week. I'm human too."

"Yeah but you're clever and gorgeous and…"

"Have had the biggest crush on you for months. Noll called me pathetic a while back because I literally just stared at the door after you left through it for like ten minutes." Gene sighed. "Like, I'm happy for us to be just friends, I value your friendship more than anything. But if that's the case, I want it to be because you want us to be friends. Not because you think you're not good enough to do anything else."

Yasuhara gaped, unsure what to say. Gene finished eating his lasagne and checked the time.

"I should get going, I have a lecture to get to… See you later."

"Yeah… See you…"

Yasuhara watched Gene walk away with a strange sensation in his stomach. He mindlessly continued to eat his own food and then headed to his next lecture.

But he could not concentrate. All he could think about was Gene.

What would be different about their relationship if they were together, he wondered. They would get to spend more time together. They would probably cook together. They would probably touch more.

Yasuhara felt the blood rush from his face.

Well, at least he was sure he was not opposed to that part of a relationship…

Yasuhara groaned and tried, once again, to turn his attention back to the lecture.

Author's note: Thank you all for your reviews, I'm trying to get better about replying to them! I need to finish this story today because camp nano starts tomorrow and I haven't finished this yet... Almost there though. My usual crappy rushed endings aside, please review :)