Fame's new roommates were the best he could have asked for. And for all the things he'd expected to ruin his stay, he would never have believed that his agony would come in the form of angst and a lack of communication between his roommates.

They were fine for the first few weeks until Fame had to go on a retreat with the Megastar employees. When he got back, though, it was almost as if he was walking around on eggshells made of trip bombs. While Alari was the obvious guilty party in the situation, Tolu seemed determined to ignore both Fame's and Alari's presence.

"What's going on with you two?" Fame asked one day as Alari laid out his cones on the laundry room windowsill, while Fame filled the washing machine with clothes.

"Who two?"

"You and Tolu."

Alari scoffed.

"It's nothing. It doesn't mean anything."

"I heard you crying..." Fame said, letting the words drift off on their own as Alari dropped the last cone, failing to keep his hands from shaking as he pulled them away.

"That wasn't about him."

"What was it about?"

It took Alari a few seconds, but he eventually said:

"I don't know."

Not that it was Fame's business, but he figured he'd help. So, he offered Tolu companionship. He tried to get him to spend some time with him and Alari. He even tried cleaning up Tolu's studio one Sunday, when he had free time. He'd never expected to be on the receiving end of a barrage of insults for moving Tolu's things around.

After that, Fame gave up trying.

~|~

It wasn't very hard to see what was going on once Fame stopped trying to infuse himself into his roommates' lives. As much of a dick as Tolu was, he seemed to graduate to a whole new level every time Alari brought someone home. After Fame had noticed this for three consecutive booty calls, Fame was taken back to his first day in the apartment when Tolu had made Alari and Fame promise not to fuck each other.

"Ahh," Fame said to himself as Alari looked up at him from where he was stringing out a newly made painting.

"What 'ahh'?"

"I just solved world peace," Fame told him.

"Congratulations," Alari replied dryly as he went back to his work.

Tolu was in love with Alari but was too chicken to do anything about it. And Alari was completely oblivious of Tolu's feelings because he was too busy banging everyone. And so the jealousy led to anger which led to discomfort which led to Fame poking his nose into things that were not his business. Which meant all he had to do was open Alari's eyes.

"Tolu likes you."

"Of course, he does."

"I'm serious."

"I know you are."

"Alari-"

"Look, I've been up all night on this because I have to ship it in three days, so I'll tell you now: anything you say, I'm just going to agree with you because I'm that strung out. So please, don't expect much from me in this conversation."

As Alari went back to work, Fame threw on his jacket and went to work.

~|~

Later that night, as Alari threw something together for Fame's dinner, he decided to bring it up again. Alari laughed. As jovial as Alari had always been, Fame didn't remember a time he'd heard something so pure come out of Alari since he'd moved in. His laughter sounded real and happy and Fame wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that.

"Okay," Alari replied, placing a plate in front of Fame.

"It's true," Fame argued, wondering why Alari had just laughed him off like a good joke.

"Tolu doesn't do dicks."

"Have you tried?" Fame asked.

"Of course, I've tried," Alari said, looking insulted. "I think you're the only guy I haven't tried to fuck."

And then he stared at Fame's lips for a few moments before he blinked and seemed to come back to himself.

"You're always so serious," Alari smacked him on the back, laughing a little. "Who knew you had a sense of humor?"

As Alari left, Fame knew there was only one way to do this. If Alari wasn't going to step up and unclog that blocked being of frustration that was Tolu, Fame was damn sure going to do something about it.

After all, he'd only promised not to fuck Alari. He'd never made the same promise about Tolu.

~|~

"What are you doing?" Tolu asked the moment his room door closed behind Fame.

"I wanted to talk to you," Fame said. They were home alone, and this seemed like the perfect time to approach Tolu. He seemed easy enough. He was wound so tight that Fame was sure Tolu would snap like a twig if he applied enough pressure.

"I don't want to talk to you," Tolu said, tossing the small towel he was using to dry his hair on the bed in favor of paying attention to his pajama drawer. "Get out."

"Nope," Fame said, unbuttoning his shirt and pulling it off.

"I'm really not in the mood for your-" Tolu turned around and saw Fame shirtless, beginning to start on his pants. "Mbete Okoi, you put your clothes back on right this moment."

"You're too wound-up. Let's let loose for a minute."

He moved in on Tolu as Tolu tried to move away but Fame had already gotten close enough that by shifting out, Tolu's towel fell to the ground, leaving him completely naked. Fame would have laughed at the shocked, cornered look on Tolu's face... if only Tolu hadn't recovered and kneed him in the groin, causing Fame to double over in pain.

"What the fu- uhh?" Fame groaned, kneeling on the floor.

"What the fuck, you too," Tolu raged. "What? You don't like your room? You don't like to stay here? I can make it really easy for you."

Fame shook his head, struggling to breathe so that the pain would not overpower him. Shaking a little, he got to his feet, picked up his shirt and quietly exited stage left. This was too much of a non-concern for Fame to get hurt like.

He was definitely out!

~|~

While Fame iced his balls in his room, he heard the unmistakable click of Alari's room door clicking shut, but not before he heard giggling and loud smooches that usually signified a new one-night stand.

In that moment, Fame decided he was never getting in the middle of that. If the other two were just going to keep hurting each other, he didn't want to be a part of it.

Except, a few moments later, his room door opened and closed, and Tolu was standing there, now dressed for the night, but looking anything but at ease.

"Is your offer still open?" Tolu asked, breathing a little too erratic for someone who'd only just walked across the hall.

"Will you try to castrate me again?"

"No," he said. "And I'm sorry about that."

Fame took the ice off and wiggled on his bed, noting that while the pain had subsided, the ice had turned his dick a little numb.

"You'll just have to wait a few minutes," Fame said, dropping the icepack on the table as Tolu quickly covered the distance between them.

"I'm sure I can get blood back in your dick in seconds," Tolu said, climbing into Fame's lap as he attacked his lips with vigorous enthusiasm.

"Wait- wait!" Fame said, trying to pull Tolu away but all that succeeded in happening was giving Tolu access to his neck as he felt nimble fingers begin to tug at his fly. "Ground rules," Fame said as he finally got Tolu to stop and look at him. "No strings attached. I wanted you to loosen up and now you're here because Alari is fucking some other guy. So, no strings attached."

Tolu nodded.

"No strings at all."

When their lips clashed this time, Tolu wasn't the only one keyed up about it.

~|~

Fame woke the next morning to Alari barging into his room as usual to wake him up when Alari stopped in his tracks and stared.

"What?" Fame asked, absentmindedly.

"Is that..." Alari faltered. "Is that Tolu?"

"Yes. Why?"

Alari didn't reply, but the seething look of anger that appeared on his face shook Fame's sense awake.

But that didn't make any sense.

Tolu was the one in love with Alari. It wasn't the other way around... or both ways. Fame had watched them for weeks and weeks. Tolu's feelings were obvious to anyone with eyes. He'd never had a clue that Alari might... It never crossed his mind that Alari might also have the same feelings.

Unless Fame had seriously miscalculated.