**
Two months. That was how long it took for Jun to stop pretending he didn't know exactly where Duan was at any given point of the day.
---
Duan was waiting outside the Interior Arts building when Jun came out.
Jun looked at him. "You're early."
"Your lecturer let you out early," Duan said, falling into step beside him. "I've been here two minutes."
"I didn't ask you to come."
"I know."
Jun glanced at him sideways and said nothing.
They walked toward the architecture building and Jun's steps were slower than usual, his bag hanging off one shoulder, eyes slightly heavy. Duan noticed.
"Go home and sleep," he said. "I'll come by after."
"Mm."
"Jun."
"Your lecturer isn't strict," Jun said simply. "I'll sleep in your class."
"You can't just—"
"Is your lecturer strict?"
Duan opened his mouth. Closed it.
They kept walking.
---
Jun picked a seat beside him, put his bag down, folded his arms on the desk and put his head down. The lecturer hadn't even started yet.
Duan looked at him. "You're really doing this."
Jun said nothing. He was already closing his eyes.
Duan looked at the board. Looked at Jun. Looked at the board.
The lecturer started. Duan uncapped his pen.
Sometime in the first twenty minutes Jun's hand found his under the desk. Duan stared at his notes and felt Jun's fingers settle between his and go still.
He wrote three words on his page and then stopped retaining anything.
---
The lecturer wrapped up and the room started moving.
Fah turned around and took in the situation immediately — Duan with one hand under the desk, the other trying to manage his bag, notes sliding everywhere. He reached over without a word and started collecting things, packing them neatly while Duan held the bag open with his elbow.
Dom turned around.
He looked at Jun asleep in the next seat. Looked at their hands under the desk. Looked at Duan.
His face split into a grin.
"Look at—"
"Dom," Duan said quietly.
"I'm just—"
"He's sleeping."
"I can see that. I can also see that you two look like a—"
"Finish that sentence."
Dom pressed his lips together. His shoulders were shaking.
Duan turned away from him and looked at Jun. He reached over and ruffled his hair once, lightly.
Jun stirred. He turned his head and blinked slowly, taking his time coming back.
"Over?" he said.
"Yeah."
Jun sat up and stretched his whole body out and then looked at Duan with the calm of someone who had slept very well and felt completely fine about where.
"Drive me home."
"Okay." Duan was already reaching for his bag.
Jun stood and walked ahead toward the door without waiting.
Dom appeared immediately at Duan's shoulder. "Hard work is really paying off," he said with deep satisfaction.
Duan shoved him out of the way and went after Jun.
He could hear Dom laughing all the way down the corridor.
---
Jun was asleep before they even left the campus.
His head found the window and stayed there. The afternoon traffic moved slowly around them and Duan drove with one hand on the wheel and the radio on low and said nothing the whole way.
A few months ago Jun would step onto a random bus just to get away from him. Would hand his bag to Jet rather than let Duan come near it. Wouldn't reply to a single message.
Now he was asleep in the passenger seat like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Duan kept his eyes on the road.
It was the best feeling he'd ever had in a car.
---
Jun made it through the front door and approximately four steps before he gave up entirely and dropped face first onto the bed.
His bag landed somewhere near the door. His jacket came off and stayed where it fell.
Duan stood in the doorway and watched this happen.
Then he came inside, picked up the jacket, picked up the bag and set it by the desk. He found the spare blanket and laid it over Jun. Crossed to the aircon and turned it down a degree.
Jun was already gone.
Duan looked at him for a moment — the blanket rising and falling, hair all over the place, one hand loose by his face.
He went to the kitchen to find something to do with himself.
---
Jun woke to the smell of something warm coming from the other room.
He lay there for a second. The room was the right temperature. The blanket was over him. He hadn't done either of those things.
He washed his face and came out.
Duan was at the stove with his back to the room, completely at home, stirring something like he'd been doing it for years. He turned when he heard Jun's footsteps.
"Almost done," he said. "Sit."
Jun walked over and poured himself a glass of water. He looked into the pot. Ramen, rich and deep, steam coming off it in slow curls.
He sat down.
Duan brought both bowls over and set them on the centre table and settled across from him. Jun looked at his bowl. Looked at Duan's.
"Mine is bigger," he said.
"I know."
"That's not fair."
"Jun—"
"We should have the same amount."
Duan looked at him. "It doesn't matter who gets more." He picked up his chopsticks. "I'll always give you whatever I have. There's nothing wrong with spoiling you a little."
Jun looked at him.
Duan was already eating, eyes on his bowl, completely unbothered, like he hadn't just said something that landed quietly in the middle of Jun's chest and stayed there.
Jun looked down at his food.
He picked up his chopsticks and ate.
It was good. Really good. He finished the whole bowl without looking up and when he was done he felt full in the way that only happens when someone cooked with you in mind.
He didn't say that.
Duan did the dishes after. Jun sat on the couch and listened to the water running and didn't think about how comfortable it all felt.
---
Duan came back drying his hands and dropped onto the couch beside him. He spread his arm across the back of it and looked at Jun.
Jun looked at the arm.
Looked at Duan.
He shifted over and settled against his chest without making a thing of it. Duan's arm came down around him and he reached for the remote with his free hand and put something on.
Jun pulled his knees up slightly.
It was warm. Steady. Like leaning against something that wasn't going anywhere.
He closed his eyes for just a moment to sit inside it properly.
He opened them when the movie started.
They watched without talking. At some point Duan's lips pressed to the top of his head. Soft and quick. Then again a little later. Not asking for anything. Just there.
Jun felt it both times.
He said nothing.
He let it be.
---
The credits rolled.
"I'm going to my parents place this weekend," Duan said.
"Mm."
A pause.
"Come with me."
Jun looked up at him. "What?"
"Come home with me." Duan looked back at him, easy and open. "Meet my parents. We could go together."
Jun was quiet. "You want me to meet your parents."
"I want you with me," Duan said simply. "That's all."
Jun looked at him for a long moment doing what he always did — reading underneath things, making sure.
"I'm not pressuring you," Duan said. "If you don't want to it's fine. I just—" he shrugged, "I think it'd be nice."
Jun turned back to the television.
"Okay," he said.
Duan's dimple appeared.
Jun looked at it for exactly one second and looked away.
---
Duan's phone went off.
He picked it up. An alarm. The label said *FINISH YOUR ASSIGNMENT DUAN* in full caps. He stared at it.
"Go," Jun said.
"I don't want to."
"You set it yourself."
"I was clearly not thinking straight." He looked at Jun. "Five more minutes—"
Jun stood up and started walking toward the door.
"Jun—"
"Come whenever," Jun said, not turning around. "The door's open for you."
Duan sat there for another second. Then he sighed and got up and collected his things from around the room. Jun was already at the door holding it open with the expression of someone who had made a decision and was seeing it through.
Duan walked through it.
He stopped on the other side and turned around.
Jun stood in the frame looking at him. Neither of them moved.
Then Duan leaned in and kissed him on the cheek — quick, warm, gone before it even fully registered — and turned and walked away down the corridor.
Jun stood in the doorway.
He heard the elevator open. Heard it close.
The corridor was quiet.
He touched his cheek once, briefly, without thinking about it.
Then he stepped back inside and shut the door.