The Tiger and the Dragon by George deValier

Chapter 11

Yao shut his door behind him, raced down the stairs, and nearly ran into Francis, Arthur and Alfred in the entranceway. He couldn't stop. If he stopped, he would start to think. He gave them a brief wave and tried to step around them, but was forced to a halt by Alfred's grip on his arm.

"Hey, Yao! Where are you going?"

"I am going to Ivan's and I am going to have sex," said Yao determinedly. Not thinking about it, not thinking about it...

Alfred's eyebrows shot up to his hairline. There was a silent pause as he turned and gave Arthur and Francis an incredulous look. Francis whistled. "Nice."

"Are you drunk?" asked Arthur uncertainly.

"Not yet. Excuse me." Yao again tried to walk past, and again Alfred held him back.

"Oh no, not before you explain yourself. And have you forgotten?" Alfred held up a large paper bag and shook it before Yao's face. "It's takeout night."

"Sorry, gotta rush..."

"You can't spare half an hour to eat?" asked Arthur.

"Yeah, apparently you are going to need your strength," laughed Francis.

"No because if I don't go immediately I might actually stop to think about this and then I'll probably freak out and then I may just never go at all so please move out of my way before I oh God, too late, now I'm thinking about it, aru." Yao closed his eyes and felt himself turn bright red. Oh God I said that out loud earlier didn't I...

"Yao," said Francis.

"Yes?" Yao refused to open his eyes.

"How are you even getting there?"

"I, um..." Yao opened his eyes to see his three friends staring at him as though he had gone mad. "I didn't think that far ahead."

"Okay," said Arthur. "Take a deep breath, turn your brain back on, and come have a burger."

"I don't think so, I really better, aru, leave, because now I'm actually a bit embarrassed and..." Yao broke off when Arthur grasped his other arm and, along with Alfred, hauled him into their apartment. "Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"That's it, we're staging an intervention," said Alfred, not releasing Yao until they threw him onto the couch. Yao groaned loudly.

"I've had enough of these."

"We're only doing this because we care about you. You have to admit you have a problem, it's the only way we can help you!"

"Alfred, what are you on about?"

"Ignore him, he's been watching too much Dr Phil," said Arthur.

"But he has a point, chéri," said Francis. "You have been late for work three times this week. And that's not counting the times you just haven't shown up. I am happy you're happy but really, Yao, this is taking over your life."

"You're not even like yourself anymore," added Arthur.

Yao narrowed his eyes in annoyance. "You mean I'm not boring and predictable? You were the ones who said..."

Arthur interrupted him. "We never said you could completely ignore us and we definitely never said you should start acting like a stupid teenager without a brain in his head." All three of them stood looking down at him. Yao felt like a naughty child being scolded. It was incredibly irritating.

"Please stop treating me like a child."

"Well then, stop acting like one."

"Would you rather me act like an 'old man' again? I know you're used to me always dropping everything for you guys, or rather having nothing to drop in the first place, but I have a boyfriend now, or, well, something along those lines, and..."