This is ridiculous.

"Honestly, lav, it's not that big a deal."

"Not that b-I'm going to ignore that."

"It's just test. It's not even an important one, my god."

"All tests are important, you stupid-head. I like to study, what is wrong with that exactly?"

"...stupid-head? See, all this school crap is messing with your head, babe. I'm telling you, getting a 'B' will suffice."

"But I want an 'A'. Shouldn't you be helping?"

"Nah. I'll wait until you get distracted and maul you then."

"You're an animal." Klavier squealed loudly when Daryan leaned over and nipped at his neck. "Honestly, get out! If you're not going to be of any use to me, go make me a sandwich or something."

"Really, babe?"

"Extra mayo, please and thank you."

The Russian teen sighed loudly before getting off the bed and trudging down the hall. "I had better get a kiss for this!"

"Honestly…" the blonde laughed to himself before turning his attention back to his government textbook.

Honestly, he had no interest in studying for a test. Klavier was ridiculously smart, there was no point in studying for anything. He liked to give some sort of air that he tries harder than in reality-after all, not studying means giving Kristoph a reason to bother him. He loves his brother, but sometimes he could be unduly overbearing. He likes to think that it's because he loves his little brother, but Klavier knows better than that, and even when Kristoph is at his most sincere, there's an unseen power play going on in the background.

Any time one sees just how much potato salad one can bring to a picnic involving one's enemy who also stated he'd be making potato salad in order to defeat said enemy in a roundabout way is nothing less than insane. Besides, while Klavier would never tell Kristoph to his face-or over the phone anywhere within a five hundred mile radius-Mr. Wright's food is the best in the world. Really, it deserves its own copywright (ha!), his little book of recipes.

But he digressed.

His mind is decidedly on other things at the moment, like his future, and who will still be there in five years. He knows, in his heart, that no matter how mad at him Apollo may be, that he's not one to just abandon his friends, even though that's how he feels about Klavier. He wishes he could say the right combination of words that would allow him to assuage Apollo of his fears, but Apollo doesn't even want to inhabit the same space as Klavier, which makes it quite hard to actually say anything to him at all. No, this is going to require precision and hard thinking. Some intelligence-something which Klavier has in spades-and someone willing to help him. He loves Apollo, romantically or otherwise, they were good friends and rivals once, and he doesn't want that to end. Ever. He wants that light and laughter in his life. And...and...he loves Daryan...but-

"Here you go. Now where's that kiss, rasputnyy?"

He needed to talk to Daichi.

"Tadai-ma~~~" a boyish voice calls down the hall, purposefully mispronouncing the word. Scuffling could be heard in what Seito knew as his son toeing off his shoes in great haste. He's never understood why his son is so excitable in the evenings, but knows that he gets it from his mother. Who was also ridiculously energetic in the evenings...e-hem, that's-that's not what he meant oh my-

"HUG ME DADDEH!" Daichi twirled in a moment later and flung himself into his father's unsuspecting arms. Said father took a tumble into the couch along with his son.

"D-daichi, you're t-too big to be doing such things…" Seito coughed, patting his son's back, who simply made a very satisfied cat like noise. "R-really, you're bigger than me already…"

"Hm, we're the same height! Stop being wimpy~" Daichi looked down at his father with adoring eyes, ruffling his hair. He ignored his dad's sputtering and hopped away and into the kitchen. "What's for dinner?"

"Hm...pasta I suppose. We're gonna have company. And you've already bulked up a bit-you said you wanted to be an astronaut after all-

"Cosmonaut, dad. I want to see everything! And well, yeah, I do play baseball-wait, company? Who, who, who?" Daichi whirled around and peered at his father with discerning eyes.

"Hm? N-no one you don't know. Your teacher is coming over."

"My teacher? Oh god, what did I do? I turned in all my homework, I studied for the last Russian test-I didn't think it was possible to flunk out of a study hall, but-but I-

Seito walked over to his son and gently pat his head. "Calm down, son. When we were discussing your disproportionate test scores, Mr. Warrington and I got into a discussion about-well, space." The older man sighed and patted his chest. "He's made some very interesting points about space travel and the viability of humanity should we see fit to branch out to other locations in the cosmos. It was very interesting and we decided to set a date and discuss it, is all."

Daichi noticed his father twittering slightly, even though he wasn't making any noise. He knew his father better than the man himself, and if there's anything he knew, it was that Seito had extreme anxiety about meeting other people. Meaning that he had already managed to break through the fear of rejection and managed to start something of a rapport with his teacher. Which would have otherwise taken years, as his dad isn't even friends with the Wrights despite knowing of them for the entirety of his and Apollo's friendship. And, well, Mr. W was like, the most amazing human being on the planet, next to his mom, dad and Apollo, so he figured it was a mix of the redheaded teacher's enthusiasm about space and the (more than likely present) inherent need to protect such a fragile little bird like his dad-he's seen it; women flock to his dad because he looks like he can't take care of himself, what with his rumpledness, his stuttering and huge blue eyes. Daichi himself has wanted to wrap his dad in a blanket and feed him custard creams until he stopped being so damned jittery. Has tried it actually, but his dad is a hell of a lot stronger than he looks and promptly threw his son right out the door of his room the moment he started coming toward him with the Michael Bublé record. Thanked him and reprimanded him all in one breath and threw him out. He can't lie that he was a little out of breath and a little bit in love with his dopey dad after being hefted bodily into the hallway. It was impressive.

But he digressed.

"...oh. Wait, disproportionate test scores?

"...you've never noticed th-that your scores on things actually involving things other than space are absolutely dismal?"

Damn, his dad knew how to hurt. The look in his eyes suggested that he wasn't surprised at his son, though, and therefore not angry, but still. The teen rubbed the back of his head and stuck out his tongue. "Heheh, whoops. I, uh, I'll do better."

"I know you will, hun. Now, are you gonna help me get the food ready? I know you love to knead the dough for the pasta."

"Whoa, doing it from scratch, daddy-mine? Youse gots a problem, me thinks," Daichi teased, elbowing his dad a few times. He simply laughed at his father's embarrassed squawk.

"So...what do you think I should do? I mean, Daichi is really, really nice. Really nice. We've been friends for…," Apollo paused, eyes up and to the left as he tried to recall. "...ever, and I love him to death, but, I mean...his...his…-

"Come on, say it. You can do it. Boyfriend."

The brunet's face exploded in a flash of crimson and he pulled at his hair. "N-no, don't say it! It's weird!"

Robin laughed at their friend and slapped his back, ignoring how his face hit the table. "What's the problem? Seems like you like him to me. Actually, seems like you've liked him for a while."

"Wh-what makes you think that?!" the teen bristled at the insinuation and angrily sipped at his drink.

He and Robin had somehow managed to become good friends in the span of a week after the fiasco with the school paper, and he liked talking to them-he learned that Robin had a specific method of referring to himself and tried to remember to use it-because Robin had an outside view of his situation. First it was just Klavier they had been discussing, but now that Daichi had told him…

He's not upset that his best friend told him how he felt. Not at all, he's quite flattered and on fire inside at the idea of someone as cool as Daichi liking him in that manner. But, this was his best friend...wouldn't this change something in their relationship if they were to…?

"Well, yeah, obviously, you'd go from friends to boyfriends."

Apollo realized he spoke that last part aloud and slapped his hands to his face. "Argh! DAMMIT!" His exclamation startled a woman walking past with her kid, who laughed loudly. Apollo couldn't be arsed to care.

"Do you need to break more stuff?" Robin reached over and gently poked the teen's forehead.

"We completely destroyed your workshop last time. Breaking stuff would be extremely gratifying right now, but-

"I restock that thing every week. D'you know how easy it is to fashion a clay plate?" Apollo looked up at Robin with a raised brow. "...very. It's very easy."

"...and that bust of Jupiter?"

"I...messed up his nose and didn't notice until it had set. So. Yeah."

"Ah."

There was silence as Apollo sadly sucked at his straw, vaguely paying attention to his friend painting on their tray using a fry and some mustard. A few minutes passed until a thought struck him and he put his soda down.

"How's Hugh?"

Robin spat out the fry they'd been chewing on, barely missing Apollo's head but hitting an innocent passerby who startled and looked around wildly. The teen's ahoge twitched and he smiled victoriously.

"Ha! I knew it! I knew it, I was right, talk. Now." Apollo's eyes cut at Robin and he slammed his hands down on the table. "Just a crush, or a full-blown harlequin roma-URK!"

Robin continued to eat their fries after throwing the napkin holder across the table. "He's fine, I suppose. Still gonna be a better defense attorney than you," they sang.

"NOW YOU WAIT JUST A DAMNED MINUET," Apollo began, unconsciously using Athena's phrase for when she was especially pissed off.

"I will not, and you're just gonna hafta live with it, second-base."

"Sec-SECOND BASE?!" That yell made everyone in the restaurant turn their attention to their table. Apollo had the nerve to look sheepish. "Uh..cause...um, Martino totally could have gone farther! The umpire called that wrong! He was safe, I tell you! Safe!"

Robin abruptly turned their head and snickered into their hand. "Omg, dude, I cannot with you right now."

"Shut up, we're leaving. Come on." The annoyed teen stood suddenly, but paused as he felt buzzing in his pocket. "Hm?" He peered down at his phone and saw a text from Daichi had arrived. He huffed and opened it.

"OMG MY DAD IS DATING MY TEACHER I KNOW IT TEACH KNOWS IT ONLY ONE WHO DOESN'T IS DAD SEND HELP and cookies. LY~~~"

Apollo shuddered at the use of emoticons following the message, and shook his head. What teacher did he even mean? How was he supposed to help if he didn't know who he was dealing with?

Another text appeared and Apollo scoffed at it, before stopping, rereading and staring at it.

"It's Mr. W, btw. Yep, I gots me two space daddies now. Haha, read em and weep, loser."

"What-does that even, how the-DAMMIT, DAICHI." He was not jealous. After all, he had two lawyer daddies, so ha. Take that! He texted exactly that to his friend.

Approximately thirty seconds passed before his phone rang.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW APOLLO DID YOU JUST USE THE LAWYER THING YOUR DAD DOES I'M SO DONE I HAD BETTER EXPECTATIONS YOU OF, NUGGET."

"...first of all," Apollo said, using the severely prissy voice he knew would make Daichi laugh. "We're are not arguing about who's got better parents. We know who wins that battle." He ignored the indignant 'hey!' and kept on. "Secondly, the phrase 'take that' is not coined by dad, as I'm sure you're aware that you can't patent words or phrases. Donald Trump tried that already. And Thirdly," he began, a finger pointed in the air though he knew Daichi couldn't see him. "I cannot help you if it's Mr. W. Because he is a very smart man, smarter than Dad or Miles, actually, and liable to pinch my cheeks and coo at me if I even so much as try to outsmart him."

"...he already pinched mine. I'm pretty sure he pinched Dad's too, but. You know. Different cheeks."

"OH MY GOD WHY WOULD YOU-NOPE, LOVE YOU, BYE." Apollo had enough time to hear a laughing 'love you too~~!' before he hung up and shoved his phone back into his pocket. He sighed, hair flopping in his face for a moment before he turned to his friend.

To notice them dying on the table. He gave Robin the evil eye and began to stalk out of the restaurant, leaving a handful of bills under his tray.

"No-wait, I'M SORRY, MRS. JACKSON~" Robin called loudly after their friend, leaving a tip under their tray and rushing out to catch up with Apollo. "I AM FOR REAAAAL~"

"SHUT UP."

"Geez, man, relax. You two are really made for each other, though. I got a diabetic rush from that convo."

Apollo just walked faster and ignored the startled faces passing by as he speed walked away.