A/N: Heya! If you’re a new reader, I suggest you go to my profile and read my story Quinntessential to get who these characters are.

If you’re an old reader, heya! If you read the last segment, I got a ton of reviews saying that a lot of you can relate to Ria... and apparently, that was a good and bad thing. :)

Okay, well, this scene was actually supposed to be added into the story, but I decided not to because… I think I forgot about it, haha! I’m currently going through a lull in writing Quinntessential so I found this and finished it to get my momentum back up. So yeah, this entire thing happens between chapter seven and eight, after Elliot finds out that Quinn is gay and before they go out on their trip. :)

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BECAUSE ELLIOT RHYMES WITH IDIOT

o3. A LITTLE TOO FRIENDLY

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It wasn’t like Elliot was new to gay people.

He had some gay friends in college and they were all normal, cool guys. He had been to San Francisco. He had watched two girls make out before and he was perfectly fine with it because it was pretty hot – okay, never mind that. So yeah, Elliot was familiar with gay guys… but he had never actually lived with a gay guy before. He knew that he should act normal because well, Quinn was still Quinn, nothing had changed, and Quinn’s personal life didn’t include Elliot whatsoever so he had no right to pry.

But still… he had never lived with a gay man before.

And now he was deathly scared of insulting Quinn without knowing it.

Elliot knew he could put up a decent fight, but he was pretty sure Quinn was smart enough to be able to find a way to kill him and hide his body without anyone ever knowing what happened. So yeah, Elliot didn’t want to inadvertently hurt Quinn’s feelings due to his own idiocy – but at the same time, he feared for his safety in case he did.

They were coming home from a late night at work. Someone had reserved the entire café for a late night birthday celebration and while everything had gone smoothly, they were both horribly tired. Even Chuck was falling asleep on his paws. As they trudged down the hallway without saying a word to each other, Elliot fished out the keys from his pockets and opened the door as Quinn leaned against the wall, sliding his eyes closed as he held onto Chuck’s leash.

“Hurry up,” he muttered.

“Okay, okay, it’s open,” Elliot said after hearing the door unlock.

“Great.” Quinn pushed himself off the wall and was about to step inside, but Elliot was blocking his way. Elliot was still standing in front of the door, his hand around the knob as if torn about what to do next.

Elliot stared at him. “Uh…”

“What is it?” Quinn said, narrowing his tired green eyes at him. “Elliot. Get inside.”

“Oh, s-sure,” Elliot said, clearing his throat as he twisted the knob. He opened the door and quickly stepped inside, but this time, instead of leaving the door for Quinn to hold like he usually did, Elliot awkwardly stepped to the side and kept it open for Quinn to come in.

Quinn stayed at the doorway and stared at him. “What are you doing?”

“Umm… come in?”

Elliot closed the door behind Quinn as he stepped inside.“Um, hey, what’s for dinner?” he asked quickly, deciding that rambling was the best diversion tactic. “Are you still hungry? Too tired to make anything? Let’s have pizza. I’ll order?”

Quinn was a smart guy, so it was obvious that he knew something was up. But maybe because he was so tired, he didn’t bother to dwell on it. He rolled his eyes and unhooked Chuck from the leash before sitting on the couch. He tilted his head back on the backrest. “Sure,” he murmured, closing his eyes one more time.

After ordering the pizza, Elliot set the phone down on the coffee table. The pizza was going to arrive in thirty minutes, so he had some time to kill. He checked his watch and decided he might be able to catch the last quarter of a basketball game so he took his seat on the couch. He was just about to turn the television on when he stopped. He stared at an open Hoops magazine and a thought occurred to him, so he set the remote on the coffee table and turned to Quinn.

“Quinn…” he began slowly.

It was a while before Quinn answered. “What?”

Elliot swallowed. “Well, now that… well, now that I know you’re gay…”

Quinn lifted one eyelid and peered at Elliot. “What about it?”

Elliot cleared his throat. “If you want to subscribe to some gay magazines, you can.”

That got Quinn to sit up so fast, the entire couch slid back an inch or two. “What?!”

Chuck, who had fallen asleep by his usual corner, actually lifted his head up to see what was wrong.

Elliot had not expected that sort of reaction. He thought Quinn would be… well, relieved or something because Elliot was showing him that he really had no problem with it. But now Quinn had a mix of incredulity and ‘I-can’t-believe-I’m-living-with-you’ on his face. Elliot winced. “Well… you know I have my Hoop magazines… so, if ever you controlled yourself from subscribing to like, porn, because of me – “

“Elliot, I would much rather discuss the anatomy of a frog than gay pornography with you.”

“… Oh, okay,” Elliot said, turning his head away as he flushed. “Okay, just saying, you can go back to sleep now.”

It looked like all the drowsiness in Quinn had vanished. Now he looked more annoyed than sleepy. “Seriously,” he said, shaking his head. “What is wrong with you sometimes?”

Elliot didn’t answer and instead, turned on the television. They didn’t say anything to each other as Elliot watched his game. It seemed like Quinn had fallen asleep, but woke up when the doorbell rang.

“Pizza!” the delivery guy hollered.

“I’ll get it,” Elliot said, quickly getting up to his feet.

Quinn groggily pulled his wallet out of the back pocket of his jeans. He flipped it open and took out some bills and handed them to Elliot. “Here – “

“No, it’s okay, I got it,” Elliot said, shaking his head and bounding for the pizza.

Quinn got up to follow him. “What are you doing now?”

“Nothing, nothing.” Elliot handed the delivery boy the money (which was everything in his wallet) and closed the door. Balancing the box of pizza on one arm, he headed for the island counter and set it there. He could feel Quinn watching his every movement so he made sure to keep his head low as he got some cans of soda.

“You know what,” Quinn said, shaking his head as he walked toward the counter. He opened the box and took out a slice. “It’s late and I’m tired. I’m not going to say anything anymore.”

Elliot nodded.

Damn. Why was being nice to Quinn so hard?!

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Elliot and Quinn got to the restaurant earlier than usual the next day. The delivery trucks came every Thursday with the meat, bread, and other ingredients the café used for an entire week. That meant the guys went to work extra early on Thursdays to help unload the truck.

Elliot was going back inside the restaurant when he spotted Quinn helping the other staff unloading the vegetables and fish from the trucks. Elliot never liked unloading duty. The boxes were always heavy and his back almost always ended up hurting after, and he always ended up smelling of fish – but today was different because he had a nagging feeling to go help Quinn to make up for the embarrassment the night before. When he spotted Quinn pulling out a large box of fish, he automatically rushed over.

“Oh, let me carry that,” Elliot said, taking the box of haddock he was carrying.

It turned out that the box was much heavier than he had expected so his legs slightly wobbled under its weight, but he managed to keep himself upright so he wouldn’t look like a complete idiot.

Quinn narrowed his eyes at him. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“C-carrying this inside,” Elliot said, stumbling slightly. It’s easy, he told himself. One foot over the other… left… right… holy crap, this is heavy.

“But you hate unloading things,” Quinn said, easily strolling beside him.

“I know, b-but today’s different,” Elliot muttered. At the same time he wanted to snap at Quinn and tell him to quit bothering him because he was doing it for him. But of course, he didn’t do that.

It seemed like Quinn could read his mind because he stopped and glared at Elliot. Only Quinn would glare at someone for helping him out.

“Elliot. I’m gay, but I’m not a girl.”

That got Elliot to stop in his tracks – and because the box of fish was so heavy, he set it down before looking back at Quinn. “I… I wasn’t thinking that!”

“Really?” Quinn asked, disbelief written all over his voice. He tilted his head to the side. “You’ve been opening the doors for me all day, you paid for the entire pizza last night when we always split – and oh, yeah, just for shits and giggles, you told me to subscribe to gay porn.”

Elliot flushed. Okay. So maybe he was over-compensating just a bit.

“I didn’t tell you to,” he said defensively, looking away from Quinn. “I meant that I was fine with it if ever you did.”

Quinn bent down and picked up the box of fish, his legs perfectly fine with the weight as he set it in front of him. He glared at Elliot before he started walking toward the restaurant kitchens. “Well, stop… whatever it is you’re doing,” he said darkly. “It’s getting more and more annoying.”

Elliot followed after him and frowned. “I was just making sure… you know, that I wouldn’t insult you without knowing it.”

Great. His plan had successfully backfired. “Sorry, then,” he finished.

When Quinn stopped walking, Elliot looked up to find Quinn looking at him. Quinn did that more often, Elliot noticed. He always had this look in his green eyes that made it seem like he was going to say something, but at the last second he’d either change it or not say anything at all. It was all quite unnerving, so Elliot looked away. “What?”

Quinn sighed and turned his head away, his eyes unreadable. “Elliot, I prefer you… just the way you are now.”

He quickly started walking again before Elliot could say anything, but Elliot stayed where he was, his eyes wide as he replayed Quinn’s words. When Quinn noticed Elliot wasn’t walking beside him anymore, he turned around to see what was wrong.

Elliot waggled his eyebrows in an amused sort of way. “Hey, you better watch yourself, Quinn,” he said, a smug smile forming on his face as he waved a finger at him. “You might just start forming a crush on me!”

Before Quinn could even say anything back, Elliot’s eyes widened in horror and he quickly rushed over to Quinn’s side. “Wait, I was kidding, okay? That was a joke! Don’t hurt me? I’ll carry that for you!”

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A/N: So there. Randomness to get the creative juices flowing… and on a totally unrelated note…

HOLY ‘EFFIN GOD ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS JUST FLEW IN FROM AUSTRALIA AND SHOWED UP AT MY HOUSE WITHOUT EVEN TELLING ME.

You have a very happy author right now. :)

Here is a wonderful letter from Lem:

[Ode] To the milk bottle,

You are Aubrac awesomeness,
bovine beverage,
cow concoction.
The ABCs of milk!

Your calcium deficient friend,
Your name

Now that is true creativity. If you have any other ones, send them in! :)