Dis-disclaimer: Either Cols and Jer are mine or I'm theirs. I haven't had a chance to figure out which.

Warnings: Slash, of course. Mild profanity and sexual references.

Author's Note: Thanks to Arina for the quick beta job!

Just Because

Jeremy was having technology problems again. His fairly-new computer was being slow, which wasn't usually a big deal, but it was also refusing to play music for him while he waited, which was definitely a big deal because now he didn't have anything to do while he waited for Internet Explorer to open. All he wanted to do was check his e-mail! Why wouldn't the computer let him? Did it hate him? Were computers even capable of that kind of emotion? Probably not, but what if this was a special prototype that had accidentally been sent out from the manufacturer's and sold, but no one was alerted because the government hadn't wanted to start a panic because not only was this computer capable of human emotion, it was malicious and evil and had the capabilities to drive at least one nineteen year old boy insane, if not the entire world's population except for those people who were stuck in third-world countries without access to a computer, though if this computer had driven everyone in the first and second world countries insane, what was to stop the people in third world countries from taking over the other countries and be sucked into the dementia that this computer caused?

"Jer? Are you having one of your crazy space outs again?" Colin asked patiently.

"No," Jeremy snapped, a little harsher than he'd intended. "This stupid computer is refusing to do anything I tell it to!"

"That's beside the point. You were having one of your crazy space outs," Colin replied with a knowledgeable nod of his head.

"So what? Maybe I was. But this computer won't let me check my e- mail. Cols, fix it!" Jeremy backtracked on this plea. "Did I really just ask Colin "The Technology Impaired Gremlin" Peterson to fix my computer? The computer must be driving me insane quicker than anticipated." He quirked a smile at that, even though Colin wouldn't understand the joke.

"Right. Have you given it a name?"

"A name? What are you talking about?"

Colin grinned. "It fixed my computer, and Carter's, too!"

"Naming it. Naming the computer fixes it?" Jeremy asked, as if he'd never heard anything so bizarre, which of course he had, being Colin's best friend.

"I think it looks like a Hermosa, to me. You know, kind of an exotic Spanish female feel to it." Colin said with complete sincerity.

"I'm a homosexual American male. What makes you think that an exotic Spanish female name would appeal to me or my computer in the slightest?" Jeremy asked dryly.

"Oh, right, the gay thing. Forgot about that." Colin looked perplexed.

Jeremy rolled his eyes and turned back to his computer, clicking a few times with his mouse before pounding a fist down on his keyboard. "I hate this stupid computer!"

"Respect the computer and it will respect you," Colin advised. "Do you think I should go into counseling? I could totally do the mediation between man and computer -- you know, dysfunctional technology-human relationships and all that."

"Don't think there's very many job opportunities in that field," Jeremy answered distractedly.

"Marriage counseling, then. I mean, women and technology aren't that different." Colin grabbed a piece of bubblegum from the open package next to Jeremy's elbow.

"Why do I have the feeling that you're going to make some incredibly witty remark about electric sex toys or computer porno?" Jeremy asked.

Colin raised both eyebrows and looked amused. "That's good. I was going to say something vague about how they're both impossible to understand without some sort of manual, but I like yours better. Points for you, Jer."

"Goody goody gumdrops," Jeremy said sarcastically. "Look, Cols, if you're not going to help, could you leave? I promise we can hang out later, but I'm really frustrated and if you don't stop talking now, I'm going say something that I'll have to apologize profusely for later on."

"I am trying to help!" Colin cried with an air of mock hurt. "The naming of the computer, remember?"

Jeremy's glare could have cut steel. "Colin," he said warningly.

"Okay, okay, I'm leaving!" Colin said, backing out the door. He paused, went back for the package of bubblegum, and retreated quickly.

"Why do I have a feeling that I'm going to be stuck thinking of you as Hermosa for the rest of eternity?" Jeremy asked his computer mournfully.

"Because that's her name!" Colin replied from the other room.

"Stop listening to me talk to myself!" Jeremy yelled back, but any anger he felt was quickly replaced by elation when the computer started beeping to itself and unfroze. "You rock, Colin!"

Colin peeked through the doorframe. "Is this a clever ruse to get me within firing distance so that you can throw stuff at me without leaving the convenience of your chair?"

"Like I'd tell you if it was. My computer started working again."

Colin reentered the room, a pleased smirk gracing his face. "Told you naming it would work."

"I don't even like the name Hermosa!" Jeremy protested.

"Because it's not the kind of name that a homosexual American male would ever dream of liking, right?" Colin mocked.

"Sure, make me out to be a prejudice bastard. Jerk." Jeremy started typing on the computer again, logging on to check his e-mail.

"It's my job. Besides, I like the name Hermosa just fine and I'm as homosexual American male as you are." Colin's eyes dropped to the ground as Jeremy spun around in shock.

"Was that your way of coming out to me?" Jeremy demanded.

"More or less," Colin admitted, a guilty blush falling across his face.

"Well why are you looking so ashamed, idiot? You know I'm not going to punch you or hate you or any of things I thought you were going to do to me when I came out to you. You have it a lot easier than I did! Stop playing the part of the ever so shy gay boy-with-an-i; it doesn't suit you at all."

"I promise to stop if promise to stop playing the martyr," Colin bargained, a weak shadow of his usual impish grin flickering across his face.

Jeremy swatted Colin's shoulder impatiently. "You're still acting weird. Is the shock of finally admitting that you're gay to your already- gay best friend that bad?"

Colin laughed, and Jeremy was dismayed to hear a nervous pitch in Colin's familiar laugh. "A little, yes," Colin admitted, "but mostly I wanted to ask if you have a boyfriend. I mean, I know you don't, you would have told me, I think, but I figured I should double check."

"Because you want to ask me to go out with you in some heart- wrenching confession and you'll expect me to answer that yes, I've loved you for years but I've always thought you were straight, then we can kiss passionately and watch the sunrise despite the fact that it's only five in the evening. Right? Can I finish checking my e-mail first?"

Colin stared at Jeremy, and then his regular smile slipped comfortably into place. "Honestly, Jer! I thought you knew me better than that! I don't want the gushy confessionals and do you know how boring it really is to sit through an entire sunrise? Especially if the other person starts in on the 'where do you think we'll be in ten years, darling?' intimate whatever talk."

Jeremy looked at Colin, relief etched across his features. "So you haven't been pining away for me all this time?"

"Of course I have! Except the pining has been more like having wild fantasies about you naked in bed," Colin said, but then winced. "Sorry, was that too forward?"

Jeremy shoved Colin playfully, then leaned on the taller boy. "Not forward at all. I'm just glad you quit with the 'ooh, look at me be shy!' thing."

Colin grinned. "So what would you say if I propositioned you for sex?"

"I'd say that the e-mail could definitely wait."

Author's Note: Read and review, please?