Dirk stretched his arms, reaching high above his head until he heard a satisfying pop. Grunting, he stood up, letting his arms fall limp against his sides. He was particularly sore today. Reaching down he touched his toes then proceeded to place his palms flat on the floor. Stretching further he hugged his arms around his legs. Being flexible had its own rewards. Like feeling fucking incredible after stretching your leg pretty much past your own head. He slowly straightened out, arching his back as he went back into a standing position. A few more pops later he grabbed a shirt off the floor and headed out of his relatively tidy room. Yawning he slowly tried to get the shirt over his head, failing miserably in his tired state. Giving up he tossed the piece of cotton to the couch, not really caring where it went at the moment. Strutting into the living room he yanked out a chair from the beat-up table in the center of his apartment.

"Morning.", Dave yawned from behind him. Dirk grunted and then proceeded to lay his forehead against the cool wood.

"Huuuuurrrghh…" Dave had pushed his face further into the table as he passed by on his way to the kitchen. Clenching his nose, he sat up in his seat. Little punk. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the smug look on his lil' bro's face. Why were teenagers so annoying?

Picking himself up he walked over to the kitchen, grabbing the bowl of AppleJacks from Dave's hands. "Hey!" Dirk grabbed the milk, ignoring the small rant his brother was throwing over his stolen cereal. He was desperately trying to get his bowl back, reaching over Dirk's shoulders and trying to steal it.

"Nope." Said Dirk nonchalantly as Dave bounced in front of him, swiping at his hands. With his leg Dirk pushed him back and then proceeded to stick his foot literally on Dave's face while taking a few bites of his cereal. Dave tried to pry Dirk's foot away from his cheek but was pushed back into the table. Dirk continued eating his cereal, foot planted firmly.

"God damnit Dirk the fuck bro?" Dave had pulled his foot far enough away from his face to spew out coherent words.

"Payback you turd." Dirk spoke between bites, finishing the cereal. As he downed the milk, Dave grabbed at his leg, trying to twist it out of his face. Dirk flung the now empty plastic bowl into the sink and grabbed Dave's arms. He eventually lifted him onto his shoulders as the heavy and irritated teenager struggled in his grasp. Dirk walked over to the couch.

"No-Bro! Hey let- LET ME DOWN!" Dave struggled and Dirk smirked.

"Well… you asked!" He then proceeded to chuck Dave onto the old creaky couch, pushing it back several feet from impact.

"OOOF!" Dave landed face first, arms out and legs flailing. Grabbing the TV remote off of the coffee table in front of the couch, Dirk took a spot on Dave's back and made himself comfortable. In the process of doing so Dave emitted a muffled grunt smothered into the couch cushions. Dirk took this moment to lightly bounce himself into a better position on Dave's back getting another uncomfortable moan from Dave.

"I… am not… a couch you fucker!" Bucking upward Dave tried to roll out from underneath the larger guy but to no avail. He just squirmed until he accepted his fate as an appliance for the time being. Dirk kicked up his feet onto the coffee table, flipping through channels.

Suddenly the sound of a horrible rap song filtered through the door of his room. Damn his phone. Glancing up he considered not getting it, not wanting to relinquish his spot on his human back sofa.

"You getting that? It could be something super important, like I don't know, some booty call or Roxys up to something again. Its probably the latter." He grumbled.

Dirk patted Dave's head, getting a nasty glare from behind his aviators in response, and stood up quickly jogging to get the phone. With his brother off his back, Dave sat up huffing grumpily and took over the TV.

Scrambling to his bedside table, Dirk lifted the phone up to answer the call just in time.

"Strider Martial Arts academy. We'll teach you to fight for the right price. This is Dirk speaking how may I help you?" He droned out. Dirk used his personal phone for keeping track of most of the calls made to the dojo. He didn't care about socializing too much anyway so why not use the phone closest to him for the more important stuff?

There was a nervous sigh on the other side of the phone then the sound of someone clearing their throat. Dirk leaned on the side of his bed letting his eyes wander out of boredom. This was probably another parent trying to enroll their kid for the first time. Slowly putting a hand down on his bed side table he breathed heavily and impatiently out of his nose.

"Uhh… Sorry for not calling back. I've been pretty swamped with the university and exams and it slipped my mind." Oh god. His hand slipping on the wooden table he lost his balance and the phone flew out of his hands. Scrambling back onto his bed he tried to catch it, the phone flipping wildly. Finally having it securely back in his hands he cleared his throat and replied.

"Oh its cool. I totally understand." A creeping blush started to blossom in Dirk's face. It had been about two weeks since he met the attractive Englishman who had passed his window and about a week and a half since he decided to call the number said guy gave him. It was a rushed conversation ending with Jake apologizing and turning down Dirk's coffee offer until further notice. He was apparently busy with exams and all that and just couldn't get away. It was understandable. Dirk was enrolled in college as well and understood the 'struggles' . Well he didn't quite understand since he breezed through his classes and was further ahead in his studies than most of the students. He was often busy with managing the dojo but excelling in academics was something he was very good at.

Sitting up he swept a hand through his hair and went to tug at his shirt. Realizing he still didn't have one on he brought his hand behind his head to rub at his neck. "So about that coffee…"

"Oh! Yes! About that, uhh how about tomorrow? Its a Sunday and I don't have any classes so I'm free for the afternoon." he replied cheerily.

"Yeah sounds good to me. I know a good place up the road. Its called the Midnight Café. I can text you the address and we can meet up there." Dirk said. He was relieved to finally make plans with this guy, although the thought of actually sitting down and talking with him made a cold nervousness creep up his spine and butterflies flutter through his core. God he was a mess.

"Alrighty then! Its a date! Well… like not a date-date… you know… I just.. yeah," he coughed nervously again. "I'll see you tomorrow! Goodbye!" And with that he hung up the phone.

Dirk slowly dropped his hand from his ear and buried his face in the other. What on Earth was he doing? God he could feel the heat literally radiating from his cheeks.

"Snap out of it." he told himself. Shaking his head he put his phone back on the bed-side table and walked slowly out into the living room.

"So," Dave said not looking up from his place on the couch. "who was that? Since you're not running out of the apartment I can only assume it wasn't our drunk cousin or her sister."

Dirk walked over to the couch to retrieve his shirt, almost tripping over Dave's outstretched legs as he passed between him and the TV. Grabbing the wadded up shirt he swept back into his room.

"It was no one Dave." he called from over his shoulder. Closing the door he tossed the cloth onto his bed and just decided to take a shower instead of getting dressed. It was going to be a long day waiting for tomorrow.

Jake huffed into the library, shuffling his feet to shed the cold still clinging to him. Walking past the receptionist he scanned the aisles, looking for his study partner. She sat in a back corner, books open and glasses teetering on the tip if her nose.

Jake smiled and took a seat at the small table. She glanced up as he did and continued to stare.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" He asked, rubbing at his face worried that there was something there.

"No your face is just... Well a bit flushed. I know it chilly but thats quite the red." She said smirking. Jake flushed even deeper with embarrassment. "Did something happen on your way here? A lovely encounter with a special stranger perhaps?" She jested, teasing him relentlessly.

"No! Well... Yes but no! I just... I don't- I saw him and he came and I we chatted... I don't like men Jane!" He said raising his voice as he went.

She looked a bit taken aback at his sudden outburst. "I was just teasing come on sit down." She said.

"Oh... Yeah right, sorry. I guess I am a bit flustered." He took a seat in the empty chair in front of her.

"So a guy?" She gave a quizzical look, placing her chin on top of folded hands propped up on the table by her elbows.

His blush was even deeper now as he fidgeted with a string on his jacket. "Yeah and what of it...?" He mumbled.

"What happened? Tell me every detail."

"You know we should be studying right?"

She furrowed her brows and gave him a dramatic look.

"Fine! Alright I'll spill!" He said, he was never the one to stand strong against stares. He recalled the scene to her describing each detail.

"...So after all that he came running out into the cold to talk to me. I hadn't gotten a good look at him until he came running out but… he was… well… how should I put this… really really attractive." He said slowly sliding his face into his hands. Jane could barely choke back her giggling.

"I'm not gay! I think… Don't give me that look Jane!" He raised his voice again only to be shushed by the receptionist a couple aisles away. His face a furious red he turned back to Jane. She was still having a hard time keeping herself under control. Finally she just started cackling. Jake buried his face into his arms and groaned.

"Oh my goodness, Jake." She said between spouts of laughter. "I think… you might just have a boy crush. You're completely smitten!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!" she leaned forward and tugged at his ear. "Just look at this ruby red!" He swatted her hand away tugging the collar of his jacket to his ears.

"Its not bad to have a crush, honey!" she said reassuringly. He really did not want this right now. Just talking about it only made himself sure that he did, in fact, have a small crush on the bloke he just met. Or maybe he didn't… ugh he didn't know! All he knew was talking about it with Jane was not the best of choices. He just hoped she wouldn't get her gossiping drunkard of a friend into this.

"So are we going to study or what?" He asked, wanting to drive the conversation away from its current topic. Jane gave him a sympathetic look and nodded, finally letting up her relentless chatter about his sexuality.

"Thank you Jane. Anyway I've been needing help here…"

It had been a few weeks since Jake's study session and he had received word from the handsome Dirk about coffee, but he unfortunately had to turn it down due to his exams. He was sort of grateful. He really didn't want to face him now that the thought of being smitten with him was driven into his head by Jane and, of course, Roxy, the best friend of his study buddy. She had ways to get Jane to tell her literally every juicy detail of gossip she possesed. And oh did she spill.

She had burst into his dorm room with Jane in-tow completely intoxicated and shouting about Jake's raging homosexuality. He was completely embarrassed by then and tried desperately to shove the two out of his room before Roxy's loud mouth woke up every bloke in the building. Apparently some had heard her shouts because every so often he got cat calls and whoops and hollers from down the hall. God the humiliation was stifling.

Now after two full weeks since his first encounter with Dirk, Jake was finished with his exams and everything was calming as the stress of the end of the semester died down. Jake stretched his shoulders over his just finished english essay. God it felt glorious to get stuff done. Looking at the clock he was surprised at how early it was. It was only about one in the afternoon. Taking this golden opportunity he jogged down to the dorm lobby to grab something out of the vending machine to snack on until he felt ready to commit to a full meal. It was quiet and peaceful today and a little warmer. He could take a walk or maybe he should go to the library he had a few books to return. Thinking about the library got his head recalling the conversation between him and Jane about… Oh… Right.

Sighing he rubbed his face with his free hand already feeling a blush creep up his neck. What was he going to do? He had to call him back it was just rude not to. He headed back up the stairs to his room, trying mentally to prepare him for the conversation.

Taking a seat on his bed he held his phone in his hand, rolling the device over his palm. 'Alright just call! What do you have to lose? Be a man Jake!' he thought to himself, trying to build up the nerve. Sitting there here stared at the wall, brows furrowed and anxiousness filling up his stomach with fluttering butterflies. Finally he dials the number and lifts the phone to his ear.

"Strider Martial Arts academy. We'll teach you to fight for the right price. This is Dirk speaking how may I help you?" A deep voice droned out from the other side of the phone. A sleepy air hung around it. It sounded like he just woke up.

Clearing his throat, he awkwardly fidgeted and looked around nervously. He was silent for a while unable to form words. What the hell was he supposed to say?

Hearing an impatient sigh over the line he decided he had to say something, so coughing he finally spoke up.

"Uhh… Sorry for not calling back. I've been pretty swamped with the university and exams and it slipped my mind." He says, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. A rustling sound and several muffled curses come from the phone. Right before Jake could ask if he was alright Dirk replies sounding a bit flustered and his voice strained.

"Oh its cool. I totally understand." He says, voice crackling over the receiver. Jake sighs, tension easing off his shoulders. He hadn't realized he was holding his breath until he released it.

"So… about that coffee?" Dirk questions and they proceeded to schedule their meetup.

After their quick conversation and a scheduled time for sunday afternoon, Jake set down his phone and flopped down back to into the plush comfort of his bed. Sighing, he tried to rub the pink from his face to no avail. Unable to do anything, he threw his arms out his sides making a 'floofing' sound on his comforter. It was going to be a long afternoon of waiting.