A/N: I've had this story posted on AO3 for awhile, but I decided to post it here as well. I should update every couple of days until I catch up to where I am over there. Hope you all enjoy!

Thomas wasn't sure how he had ended up here. He and Teresa (his neighbor and best friend since he was three) had been talking about moving out and getting an apartment together. Neither of them could afford something on their own, and at twenty-two, both were ready to get out of their parents houses. Somehow, the "let's be roommates!" speech Teresa had given him had turned into an "I found the perfect place! One small thing…"

Yeah, that "small thing" consisted of three other guys.

Apparently, a friend of Teresa's, Minho, had bought a house a year ago and shared it with two other guys. They currently had two rooms open and had offered one of the rooms to Teresa – who in turn had pulled Thomas into renting the other room.

So, now here he was, staring at a two story house while Teresa started pulling various items out of the back of Thomas's dads truck (he had borrowed it so they could bring over the box's – the bigger items, such as beds and dressers, had been moved when Thomas was at work the day before).

"Thomas! Are you going to help me or are you going to stand there?!" Teresa demanded, placing her hands on her hips in annoyance and glaring.

"T, I don't even know where I'm going yet," Thomas reminded her, rolling his eyes, "In case you forgot, I haven't been here."

Teresa grimaced slightly, "Right. Well, I let Minho know we are here and he said he'd be out in a minute to help us move the boxes in."

As if summoned, the front door of the house open and two young men, both around his age if Thomas remembered correctly, spilled out onto the lawn. "Teresa! Hi!" One of the men yelled, running toward them with a bright smile on his face. He was Asian, with broad shoulders and strong arms. "You guys need help? You must be Thomas! I'm Minho! This is Gally," he said quickly, motioning to the other boy beside him.

Gally merely nodded, his arms crossed over his chest as his eyes raked over Thomas. Thomas nodded back, his stomach sinking. Something about this guy didn't sit well with him – something he had been afraid of when Teresa suggested moving into a house full of people he didn't know.

"Gally, help Teresa unload everything and I'll give Thomas a quick tour! We'll come back and help move everything into the house!" Minho rambled, grabbing onto Thomas's arm and pulling him toward the house. Thomas looked over his shoulder to Teresa, eyes wide, only to see her smirking back at him.

"Alright, living room," Minho started, gesturing to the open room with a worn out sofa and two recliners that were facing a television that looked to have several gaming systems around it. "Do you play?"

Thomas nodded, "Some."

"Awesome! Next is the kitchen," Minho continued further into the house, showing a small kitchen with mismatched chairs at a table. Minho just waved his hand around, obviously not having much to say about the room, before leading them back into the living room and down a hallway. "Main bathroom, my room is across the hall. This," he pushed open what Thomas thought was just a door to a closet, only to show steps leading down, "is the basement. When I got the house it was unfinished and a freaking mess. Newt, he's not here right now, you can meet him later, fixed it up and it's his room. Not going down there, privacy and all." He pulled the door shut once more and pointed to the staircase leading up. "Come on then."

Thomas followed him up the stairs and into another hallway. "Gally's room," Minho said, motioning to the first door on the right, "across from that is bathroom. You and Gally will be sharing that one, Newt and I share the one downstairs. Not that you cant use it or anything, its just easier in the morning's when everyone is trying to get ready…" he shrugged, motioning to the door beside the bathroom. "Teresa's. We gave her the master bedroom. It has its own bath so we don't have to worry about…" he trailed off, blushing slightly as he turned and pushed open the door across from Teresa's. "Tada! This one is yours."

Thomas stepped in, looking around the room curiously. It wasn't huge, but it definitely wasn't small. Actually, it was about the same size of his room at his parents. The queen size bed had been set up in the middle, the headboard pressed against the wall, while the dresser was positioned on the wall on the right. His computer desk was on the left, with the bookshelf beside it.

"I don't know how much Teresa has told you… did she explain food and stuff?"

Thomas snorted, shaking his head, "The only thing I got from Teresa was "I found the perfect place for us! Don't argue Thomas!"."

Minho laughed, rolling his eyes, "Yeah, I can see that. Basically, you pay rent to me every month and it goes towards all the bills. I take some of that and put it into the grocery fund and every week someone goes shopping. We keep a list of the refrigerator of what we need. There is a calendar in the kitchen that we write down if we are going to be here for meals..." He rolled his eyes. "I'm not good at explaining it, Newt is better. Basically, everyone's name is on a board and we write our schedules down there. That way whoever's turn it is to cook knows if someone is going to be here or not. We take turns making breakfast and dinner, lunch is fend for yourself… did that make any sense?"

Thomas nodded, making a mental note to go write his information on the "board" and see when it's his turn for cooking. "Do we have a schedule for other things, too?"

Minho nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah. Just like cleaning after the meals and taking out trash and stuff. We added you guys in last night."

Thomas nodded and the two went back downstairs, not surprised to see that Gally and Teresa had moved most of the stuff out of the truck. "What do you have in here, Greenie?" Gally huffed, holding one of the boxes and passing it off to Thomas as soon as he walked toward him.

Thomas groaned at the sudden weight, but raised an eyebrow at the nickname. "Greenie? And books."

"Thomas is a nerd," Teresa teased, walking past him into the house with her own box.

He rolled his eyes, used to the comments by the other girl, and followed her into the house. Between the three boys and Teresa, it took about thirty minutes to get the boxes where they needed to go, and then the two were left to unpack.

"Well," Teresa huffed from across the hall, her hands on her hips as she looked around her room. Thomas just chuckled as he watched her from his open door. "We should go check out that schedule – Minho told you about that, right?"

Thomas nodded, "Yeah. I think he said it was in the kitchen?"

The two made their way back down the stairs, Thomas laughing when they passed Minho groaning on the couch about heavy boxes, and made their way into the kitchen. Gally was there, cramming his mouth full on a sandwich. "Looks like I have cooking breakfast on Tuesday," Teresa said, staring at the board hanging on the wall, "and cleaning on Thursday. You have dinner Monday and cleaning Wednesday."

Gally swallowed quickly, motioning to the calendar beside the board, "Write your schedules down there. That way if someone has something to do one day and can't cook or whatever, we can change the schedule around."

Teresa grabbed the sharpie beside the calendar and began to fill out her schedule, every so often frown in concentration like she was trying to remember something. After a few minutes, she let out a sigh and passed the sharpie to Thomas. "I need to unpack," she muttered, making her way out of the kitchen.

Thomas sighed, slowly filling in his own schedule. They had moved on a Saturday, one Thomas had taken off work for, so let's see… he worked nine to three tomorrow, and had classes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9 to 2. Tuesday and Thursday he only had a lab from 10 to 12. As least the classes didn't change… until next semester, anyway. His work schedule was a little trickier.

Thomas worked at a local coffee shop, and his hours tended to change drastically depending on the week. Monday he worked from 3 to 8, Tuesday he had the morning shift from 5 to 9:30, Wednesday was 3 to eleven and he was off Thursday and Friday, and working 12 to 8 on Saturday. That meant it was going to be hard for him to cook dinner on Monday, and do the cleaning Wednesday. He let out a sigh, turning to look at Gally. "If you can't-"

"Just look at the schedule and see if someone will trade you," Gally muttered, rolling his eyes as he looked over Thomas's shoulder. "You get your schedule a week in advance? We can try to work around it."

"Usually two," Thomas answered, scanning the calendar to see if there was anyone that could take his time – and he could take theirs. Teresa had late classes on Monday's, so that was out. Gally was open, but his day for cooking was Wednesday, so that wouldn't work either. Minho was also open Monday and he had the breakfast shift Monday morning, maybe he would just trade him?

"I can trade cleaning days," Gally muttered, marking his name off of the Friday slot and placing Thomas's in, while placing his own over Thomas's Wednesday. "Hey, Minho! Trade Thomas cooking on Monday!"

"Why?"

"He works late! You take dinner, he can do breakfast!"

"Fine!"

"See Greenie? All worked out," Gally muttered, smirking slightly.

Thomas nodded, looking over the board and noticing Newt's name was on most of the cooking slots. The others only had to cook one day a week, but Newt had the rest. "Why is Newt cooking so much?"

"Huh? Oh. Newt goes to school but he doesn't work. He trades his rent for doing most of the cooking and klunk. He also fixed the basement so it's actually livable. We just do the cooking and stuff on the days that he has classes or can't be here."

Thomas nodded in understanding, looking at the calendar toward Newt's name. He was on for dinner tonight, but it looked like Minho had been on breakfast. "He went out of town with his girlfriend yesterday, should be back before five," Gally answered the unasked question, shrugging his shoulders. "Girls a menace. Wish he'd just get rid of her."

Thomas wasn't sure how to reply, but he didn't have too. Minho took care of that for him, "Oh, stiff it, Gally." He muttered, walking into the kitchen and looking at Thomas's schedule before whistling. "Busy, aren't you?"

"You don't like her either," Gally snapped, moving back toward his sandwich.

"No, but I also don't make comments about it. You know how Newt is, even if he wants to end it with her, he won't because it would prove you right. Back off and he'll do it sooner or later," Minho said calmly, crossing his arms over his chest before turning his eyes to Thomas. "She really is horrible. No clue why he started with her in the first place."

"Maybe he liked her?" Thomas questioned, smiling lightly as Minho chuckled.

"Wait until you meet her. You'll understand then. I don't know how anyone could like her."

Thomas nodded, motioning toward the stairs. "I gotta unpack."

It took a little over two hours to get everything out of boxes and in some semblance of order. He needed to redo his books and his movies, but otherwise things seemed to be where they needed to go. He had just sprawled out on his bed, exhausted, when Teresa barged into his room, a smile on her face.

"You know, you should know by now not to do that," Thomas remarked mildly, remembering the times his best friend had come into his room unannounced and seen him in positions they would rather both forget.

Teresa's smile instantly dropped at the memory. "I figured you were unpacking. God, we've only been here three hours!"

Thomas just laughed, sitting up and looking toward his friend. "What's up?"

"Dinner! You haven't got to meet Newt yet, right? He's been here for about an hour, but he said you haven't made an appearance. He made chicken!"

Thomas moved to his feet, feeling somewhat nervous to meet the last member of the household. He guess Gally wasn't too bad, he had helped him in the kitchen after all, and Minho seemed great. He really hoped the last guy was alright.

He followed Teresa down the stairs and into the kitchen, seeing Minho and Gally already sitting there with some sort of chicken on their plates. "Hey, I'm Newt," an accented voice sounded from Thomas's left, making the male freeze slightly. He always had a thing for accents.

Thomas turned his head to see a smiling blonde. A very attractive smiling blonde. He smiled back, mentally cursing Teresa for not warning him. "Hey, I'm Thomas."

Newt's smile grew as he motioned toward the table. "Help yourself."

Thomas slid into the seat beside Teresa who was fighting back a grin. He shot her a glare before taking a piece of chicken as Newt sat across from him, beside Minho. "Unpacked?" Minho asked threw a mouthful of food. Teresa shot him a disgusted look in return.

"I am. And Thomas was passed out on his bed, so hopefully he is too," she teased.

"Mostly," Thomas agreed, once again ignoring her. "Just need to fix the bookshelves-"

"Of course you do," Teresa laughed, cutting him off. She turned to look at the other boys, shaking her head, "Those bookshelves – he knows where every book is. If you move one, he'll know."

"Bloody hell, Tommy," Newt said, raising an eyebrow, "that important, are they?"

Thomas blinked, a little taken back by the nickname, but shrugged in return. "I like to read. And this one," he said, elbowing the laughing girl beside him, "likes to take my stuff without asking. Or hide it."

Newt turned to her with a questioning look, only to receive a shrug in response. "It's funny to watch him freak out."

Minho laughed brightly, looking from Thomas to Teresa and back again. "How long have you two known each other?"

"Since we were three," Teresa replied easily, taking a small bite of her chicken, "my parents moved beside his and we were the only kids in the neighborhood. It was either hang out with the loser or be by myself."

"We were three!" Thomas said, rolling his eyes, "Pretty sure we didn't have much of a choice in the matter. My mom used to babysit you."

Teresa waved away his words, "Not the point. Plenty of people are friends when they are little and ignore each other when they get older."

Minho laughed while Newt let out a smirk. "She's right about that."

"So, you two aren't…?" Minho trailed off, wagging his eyebrows.

Thomas felt his nose scrunch in disgust while Teresa recoiled, "No! Oh no! That's disgusting!"

"Thanks!" Thomas replied sarcastically.

Teresa shrugged, "It would be like kissing my brother."

"Some people find that attractive. The brother thing," Minho replied seriously, making everyone turn to him in horror. He shrugged, smiling brightly. "Well, they do!"