On the basis that Mai did not leave during their second first-date, Oliver surmised that it went well. She had allowed him to walk her home. That was promising, right?

"So, this is me," Mai said, pointing to her building.

"Right," Oliver said. He frowned. "Well."

"Do you want to come in?"

"For what purpose?"

"Ice cream?"

Oliver's frown deepened.

"I don't like ice cream."

"Tea?" Mai offered.

"Am I to take it that this means you don't want to end this courtship here?" Oliver asked.

"Well definitely not in general if you're not free tonight," Mai said with a smile. "When you're not deliberately being an arse, you're not that bad."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Oliver replied with a chuckle. "But I really ought to get back. Perhaps we should give in to Gene's suggestion of a double date?"

Mai groaned.

"Seriously, Yasuhara has been acting like they're getting married next week."

"Then we can suffer the idiots together."

"Sounds good." Mai smiled and rocked back and forth on her feet for a moment. "Well, I better head in so…"

"Gene told me if this went well I had to kiss you," Oliver stated. "Do you want me to?"

"Do you want to?"

"I'm open to trying these things."

Mai leant forwards and gently pressed her lips to Oliver's cheek.

"Goodnight, Oliver."

She turned and headed inside. Oliver raised a hand to his cheek, touching the point where her lips had touched his skin. He smiled and walked away.

When he reached home, Gene greeted him with an expression reminiscent of an over excited puppy.

"Well? How did it go?"

"Mai said she'd come to your stupid double date idea," Oliver replied.

"So you didn't do anything stupid?"

Oliver rolled his eyes.

"No. I have enough brainpower to eliminate stupid activities from my—"

"Did you kiss?"

Oliver narrowed his eyes.

"No…"

"You had to think about that," Gene accused. "What technicality are you getting out of giving an affirmative answer?"

"I did not kiss Mai."

"So she kissed you?"

"Yes."

Gene squealed and grabbed a cushion to hug.

"That's so cute!" Oliver rolled his eyes. "I'm gonna tell Mum, she's gonna be thrilled."

Oliver scowled.

"Why?"

"Because Yasuhara and I won't be producing grandchildren any time soon so—"

"You're an idiot."

"Noll, do you need a biology lesson on why two men can't have child—"

"I think you'll find," Oliver interrupted, "That if you put a fertilised fetus next to a man's intestine—"

"Neither of us are doing that. And we'll need to be a lot more stable before anyone let's us adopt so—"

"I have had one date with Mai. We're not having children," Oliver insisted.

"Yes, but Mum won't see it that way, will she?" Gene pointed out.

Oliver sighed.

"I regret all of this."

"Oh, and you know you agreed to this double date thing?" Gene went on. Oliver nodded. "It might be at Mum and Dad's… I need to introduce Yasuhara to my girls. I think I should run Mai by them too. If they don't approve, then you can't date her."

"Excuse me?"

"If my bees do not like Mai, you can't date her. Or have children with her. Or anything," Gene said, deadly serious.

"You're an idiot."

"But you love me."

Oliver did not say anything. Perhaps this had all turned out alright after all.

The big moment had come. Mai and Yasuhara and been approved by Martin and Luella — although Mai and Luella got on far too well for Oliver's liking — and now they were going to meet Gene's bees.

"Shouldn't we be suiting up or something?" Mai asked as she trailed behind Yasuhara.

"Nah," Gene said. "They'll only hurt you if you're a bad egg."

"You talk as if you have them trained to sniff out weirdos," Yasuhara mumbled.

"Not weirdos, just bad people," Gene rectified. "Our mum hired a cleaner this one time and they stung her and it turned out she'd been stealing stuff. So they know their stuff."

Both Mai and Yasuhara regarded the beehive with apprehension. Oliver, who had followed only to escape his mother, rolled his eyes.

"Well, it is beautifully painted," Mai teased, looking at Oliver out of the side of her eye.

Oliver scowled, then smiled as Mai laughed.

"So what do we do?" Yasuhara asked. "Just walk up to it?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Gene agreed.

"I really shouldn't have worn a bright t-shirt," Mai muttered. "Right, let's get this over with. I've been tasered before, how bad can a bee sting be?"

The three young men watched as Mai marched right up to the beehive and stood next to it, hands balled into fists and her face screwed up in a vain attempt to protect her eyes.

A few bees lazily flew out of the hive and away, taking absolutely no notice of Mai.

"So do I pass?" Mai asked, eyes still shut.

"I think so," Gene said with a smile.

Everyone looked to Yasuhara who groaned and walked towards where Mai stood. Once beside her, he eyed the hive nervously.

A single bee flew out and towards him. Yasuhara's eyes opened in horror, but he did not move. Everyone watched as the bee flew once around him and then continued on its journey.

Yasuhara sighed a breath of relief.

"That one definitely wasn't sure about you," Mai teased. "Perhaps you should wait here a little longer just in—"

"Nope, she approved. I'm out of here!"

Yasuhara took off back across the lawn towards Gene and Oliver, Mai following in his wake.

"Wait up!"

"Boys! Bring your guests in, it's time for cake!" Luella called from the house.

The quartet of young adults headed back, all laughing — well, all except Oliver, who deigned to smile — and looking forward to a future together.

Author's note: Ta-da! All done! Go read Beegene's Bees fic because it's cute I am listening to her right now planning the ending and it's gonna be so cute and like just do it okay?! All of your reviews were so sweet, thank you so much I don't deserve such kind words so I'm gonna go and write something decent that actually deserves decent reviews!