The F5 (Fraternal Five)

Housewarming

Thursday evening the gang gets together at Earth's newly renovated condo. He holds a housewarming party of some sort, to celebrate Mix moving in with him—officially.

"Congrats, you two. It's a big step to take." Tay comes with Off, New, Gun, and Krist. Bright's already there with the hosts.

"Thanks, guys." Earth beams. "And thanks for the coffee maker."

"And the cup set." Mix adds.

"Huh, it came with a cup set?" Earth turns to Mix.

"And ... a huge ass framed photo of us?" Mix grimaces, unsure. "Is that from you, too?"

"Yes! It's from Papii and me." Gun raises his hand cheerfully. "For a newlyweds touch, hehe. So spill, what's the story?" He leans forward and wiggles his eyebrow funnily.

"Yeah, even me and P'Sing spend the night at each other's house a lot but never actually speak of living together." Krist joins in with the same curious eyes.

"Oh, it's nothing much. Just, Mix sleeps over often and I've been planning to renovate my condo and it has plenty of vacant rooms anyway, so why not decorate one to his liking." Earth smiles, casually draping his arm around Mix's shoulders. "And it's closer to campus, too, so it's convenient."

"Did you come up with a proposal or something?"

"More like he bribes me." Mix rolls his eyes.

"Aww! With what? Gucci? Rolex?" Gun guesses excitedly.

"Ooi you little big spender! Are we talking about a bribe or a dowry here??" Off immediately scolds him. Everyone laughs at him, and Gun moves to hug Off and buries his face in his chest, embarrassed.

"Why, it's obviously a pointer for you, Peng." Tay chuckles. "So you won't waste your money on the wrong brand."

"Work hard, P'Off." Earth smiles playfully.

"Assholes." Off cusses at his two friends.

"I don't know ... it still feels too soon for me." New mutters absentmindedly. An idea suddenly crosses his mind, and his head jerks toward Mix. "Ai Mix, don't tell me—"

"Hahahaha! Of course not, P'New!" Mix hurriedly drowns the rest of New's sentence, hissing in low voice, "If you know it, just shut up, Phi."

"Ai Earth, you stupid ass!" New curses at Earth instead.

"What? What? What did I do?" Earth looks between the two in confusion.

Witnessing that, Gun quickly pulls Off and New to the side. "What is it, P'New? I wanna know!" He whispers in hush hush.

"Why am I here ...." Off rolls his eyes, amusement in his face.

"Shush, Papii! Just listen." Gun says, all while giving New big, expectant eyes.

"Err ...." New steals a glance at Mix. Gun sees that and without thinking pulls the nong in.

"Aw, me want in, too!" Tay whines.

"So bothersome, just shoo Earth somewhere else or something." Off remarks shrugging.

"On it!" Krist springs into action at his phi's words.

"It's okay." Mix sweeps in, stopping Krist mid-shooing and addressing everyone. "Honestly, it's nothing important, just P'Earth always asks me to accompany him everywhere. Even to the noodle stall just across the street. My house is quite far from here and in result he's driving a lot. I couldn't live with it so I decided to just move in."

"Ai Earth ...!" Off immediately scolds Earth. "You put Mix in a difficult position, you know that?!"

"Aw, what's wrong with wanting to see my own boyfriend?" Earth sulks. "And it's not like I'm locking him up here! He's free to come home anytime!"

"Still. Hold back a little, will you?!" Tay helps out. "Nong Mix has a life outside of you!"

"No but ...." Earth trails off as he turns to Mix, crestfallen at the sight of his boyfriend not denying anything. "Is it true? Aw Mix, why did you never tell me this? Am I ... am I the only one looking forward to this? Oh my God, I'm so—"

"No, it's true but it's really no big deal where I live, really." Mix offers him a genuine smile, hand stretched out to squeeze Earth's arm comfortingly. "I know you get lonely a lot. And it's not like I mind so IDK, pointing that out just feels like guilt-tripping you."

"Well Nong Mix and I aren't the same person but still, careful not to let history repeat itself, okay Earth?" New says more softly. Looking back, what they were was nothing serious to begin with, but that was New's dealbreaker. Tay's a lot to handle but he's not half as needy, his affection doesn't come in the way of New's freedom.

"Okay, okay ...." Earth says dejectedly.

Mix moves to pupu him. "Cheer up, yeah? You know I'm not one to hold back. If I'm not comfortable with anything, I promise, you'll be the first to know."

"And should there be any disagreement, just consult these two. They've been living together for three years now." Off gestures at Tay and New, pausing to study his two friends. Chuckling, he then corrects himself, "On second thought, never mind. They disagree a lot, too."

"Yeah, not exactly ideal role models." Krist giggles.

"Te started it." New starts.

"No, you!" Tay quickly takes the bait.

"Oh? When?" New cocks his brow tauntingly.

Gun turns to watch the two's bickering,
absentmindedly snaking his hand up under Off's sleeve and touching everywhere he can. Off glares at him in bewilderment but says nothing.

"Just last night! I went back late and you greeted me with scolding!"

"Aw! You made a mess of the whole two door wardrobe! I was late because I had to tidy up after you!"

"No one asked you to! You could've done it after class, or wait for me to—"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence! We all know you'd just leave it as it is for all eternity."

They keep on bickering as everyone just quietly moves on.

"Will we ever get to that point?" Mix stares at them in amazement.

"Please don't jinx it, Ai Mix!" Earth whines.

"I don't know ... you have the potential." Off chuckles.

"I think they're cute in their own way." Gun smiles at Tay and New, who hear it and in response envelope him in a hug.

"You're the cute one, Nong Gun." Tay chuckles drawing back.