On Monday morning, Michael somehow managed to drag himself out of bed when his alarm went off at seven. It was a normal for him to be awake at that time, but his earliest class that semester began at eleven so he typically got to spend a few hours lounging about in his pajamas doing homework or wasting time on his cellphone. That Monday was different, since he had an exam scheduled for eight thirty, and if felt slightly strange to be getting ready so early on a weekday.

He changed out of his pajama pants into an equally comfortable pair of sweatpants, pulling a well worn t-shirt over his naked torso as well. Exam week was the one time– well, two times– a year that he ignored his parents rule that he must always look presentable in public, choosing instead to maximize comfort over a professional appearance. If his mother had seen him, Michael was sure she would be greatly distressed.

He left his room to go down stairs, hoping to find Shelly in the kitchen with something for him to eat before his test. As he closed his door softly, he shot an envious look down the empty hall, knowing that behind two of the doors were his sleeping brothers. They were also in Business Stats, but because they had more adjustable schedules than Michael– having only one major to work around– they had been able to get in the session with the final at two that afternoon. It was frustrating, because Michael had spent his entire Sunday studying from dusk until... well, practically dusk again, while they had both been in bed at eleven thirty and would undoubtedly get at least twelve hours if shut eye.

One more week, Michael reminded himself as he went down the stairs, holding the rail since his mother had paid some guy to come in and polish the hard wood the day before and it made it slippery under his socks. One week and then it's summer.

At the bottom of the stairs he paused, his nose wrinkling in surprise as he inhaled deeply. Whatever Shelly has made for breakfast smelt amazing. He turned down the hall toward the kitchen, eyebrows drawn together in confusion. It wasn't that Shelly was a bad cook or anything, but cooking wasn't the main part of her job, so she typically would prepare something easy in the mornings before going on her way to begin her usual chore. What Michael was smelling wasn't the usual toast and bacon. It was something exceptionally sweet, like cookies or some kind of pastry.

He moved the five feet necessary to step into the doorway of the kitchen, his mouth open to ask what she had prepared that morning, but the words stuck in his throat, eyes widening as he watched Ian put a gallon of milk into the fridge. His first thought was that he should back away and get breakfast somewhere on his way to campus, but before he could fully think that throught Ian looked up at him and paused, hand lingering on the open door of the refrigerator.

When had they even decided to hire him?

They just looked at one another, both of them frozen, and then Ian breathed out a little laugh and his face broke into a smile. It was a different sort of smile from the ones Michael had seen so far, this one slightly nervous, but it caused his eyes to light up all the same. "You and your brothers look a lot alike, but there are definite differences for sure," Ian claimed, swinging the fridge door shut and moving over to the oven.

Michael followed him with his eyes before sighing and moving further into the room to take a seat at one of the stools along the peninsula. In his head he considred Pierce's husband's words from a few years back,

"I've always remembered it this way. You're the pale one, Dan is the angry one, and Joe is the pretty one".

At the time, Michael hadn't considered the fact that it was true. He had just laughed and responded with, "I'm pretty sure you're dating the angry one," referring to Pierce's assignment of anger in their group chat. This hadn't phased Tyler any, had actually made him snicker as he slid an arm around Piere's shoulders.

Michael wondered how Ian had categorized them after such a short period of time. "So, which one am I then?" he asked, propping his elbow up on the granite counter top and resting his chin in his hand. Ian was still crouched before the stove, but he shifted his gaze upwards to look at him as he answered.

"You're the oldest. The one that flirted with me in the grocery store," Ian answered with confidence. Sighing, Michael pressed his forehead into his palm to stare down at the counter.

"Ah... yeah. Thanks for not mentioning that to my family members, by the way".

"No problem," Ian dismissed and Michael looked up again to watch him rise to his full height and come to stand on the other side of the peninsula from Michael. "You're up awfully early. You mentioned that it was exam week, correct? Is there a test that you have this morning?"

"Yeah," Michael confirmed, thankful that Ian had chosen to ask him about school instead of expecting him to further elaborate on his sexuality.

"That sucks. Early exams are no fun. Were you up late studying last night?"

"I was," Michael confirmed. "I'm not sure that it was the best idea though. I'm exhausted".

"You drink coffee?" Ian asked immediately, smiling politely. Michael nodded in conformation after a pause, still needing time to process that smile. "Great. That'll wake you up some. One moment". As Ian went to get him a mug, Michael thought about how weird this was.

It had always been easy for him to ask Marvin for food and drinks because it was something he had done his entire life, but making Ian do these things for him felt very wrong. Ian, the exceptionally beautiful man Michael had hit on in the grocery store, shouldn't be serving Michael. Just three days ago Michael had wanted to have sex with this man, and now he was in his family home handing him a mug of coffee with a grin designed to appease ones employer. It was wrong.

He took the coffee, grumbling a soft, "thank you," as Ian continued to smile at him in that bothersome way. Dropping his gaze down to the dark liquid, he raised it to his lips and took a tentative sip

The kitchen was quiet then, and Ian returned to crouch before the stove, peering in at whatever it was that smelt so sweet through the dark glass. Unable to help himself, Michael watched him over the rim of his mug, gaze greedily tracing his flawless profile.

He's so pretty and I am so gay. This is probably going to be very bad.

"Michael?" Ian's voice reached him as if he was underwater and the man was addressing him from above the surface. Slowly, he blinked his eyes back to focus, taking note of the fact that the man was now looking back at him. "Staring is just kind of your thing, huh?"

"Uh-"

"I asked you if you wanted something to eat before your exam but you were distracted," Ian explained, and Michael felt his face warm slightly. It was probably noticeable– damn his pale complexion– but Ian had no reaction to his embarrassment.

"Sorry. It's not usually my thing, it's just... I'm going to need to get used to this. I'm just kind of blindsided. No one mentioned to me that they decided to hire you so I wasn't exactly expecting this," Michael explained. "Our old chef was like... in his late seventies so this is going to be an adjustment for me".

For a moment, Ian looked confused, but then his expression fell into one of understanding. He stood and leaned back against the counter, arms crossed over his chest. "Do you mind me being here? I mean... I'll always know about you, but you don't need to worry about me telling anyone".

It occurred to him then that Ian didn't fully understand his dilemma. He thought Michael was still worried about him outing him rather than Michael unintentionally outing himself by not being able to keep his eyes to himself. He was reminded of Ian in the grocery store, seeming so surprised that Michael was taking an interest in him. It was absolutely perplexing that someone so beautiful could look in the mirror every day and not understand why he mannaged to send poor gay Michael into crisis mode.

Explaining this would be very embarrassing, so Michael just insisted, "I don't mind you being here. I don't mind at all".

Ian smiled at him then, and it wasn't the polite smile he had been using the whole morning, but the warm one he had shown Michael in the grocery store. "Are you hungry?"

"I am," Michael agreed, cupping both of his hands around his mug of coffee. "Whatever you're making smells amazing".

"Thanks," Ian replied a little sheepishly. "They're scones. I have some from the first batch that are finished already if you'd like one".

"Sure". Michael watched him go and grab a plate, already seeming familiar with their kitchen. "Scones aren't french".

"Yeah," Ian confirmed with a shrug, moving towards the back of the kitchen and pulling open the small hot box they used to keep food warm when it wasn't eaten right away. With all of them having separate schedules– though Joe and Daniel's were very similar– they often ate at different times. "I just really felt like making scones when I got in this morning". Ian returned to him, carrying a plate with a warm scone on it. "You don't mind chocolate, right?"

"Mind chocolate," Michael grumbled, accepting the plate with a little smile. "Who minds chocolate?" A chuckle left Ian, and he watched expectantly as Michael took his first bite. Bitter sweet chocolate melted against his tongue and he groaned at the taste.

"Good?"

"Better than good," Michael admitted, taking a second bite. He had been unsure of what to expect from Ian's food after missing his interview, but he was more unpleasantly surprised. "I was really surprised when I found out you were a chef, but it makes sense now".

"I suppose I wasn't exactly forth coming with information about myself," Ian responded, gaze slightly to the left of Michael's face. "Sorry about that. If I had known who you were I wouldn't have been so closed off".

"Don't apologize," Michael insisted, washing down a bite of scone with a drink of coffee. "I was a little too forth coming with information. Because of that day, you know something about me that very few people know".

Ian looked at him for a long second, unblinking, before a mischievous smirk came across his lips. "You also told me false information if I remember correctly," he accused, and Michael communicated his confusion with a frown. "Aren't you supposed to be living on campus?"

Their conversation came back to him then. "Oh". Ian looked amused. "Well, how do I explain to someone I just met that my family is super rich and I don't know how to do anything because I've had people do it for me for my entire life? It's easier, and less pathetic, to say I never go to the store because I eat on campus". Humming, Ian turned away from him and went to the stove, this time pulling it open to peer inside. "I'm sorry for lying. I've made a terrible first impression, haven't I?"

"It wasn't awful," Ian said, a teasing edge to his voice that had Michael's eyebrows rasing. "If you're really worried about it though, how about we just forget about it".

"Huh?" Michael voiced, watching as Ian slipped his hand into an oven mit in order to reach into the oven and grab the hot tray.

"I mean," Ian paused briefly as he put the tray on the stove top to cool, "how about we pretend like that afternoon never happened. It was... weird, right? So how about I'm just the new chef and you're just a straight college kid living at home and we never had an encounter that says otherwise".

Michael considered it. It would probably be easiest to act like it had never happened, because it shouldn't have. They never would have met before now if Michael had enough common sense to not openly gape at attractive men he ran into at the grocery store. It was great that Ian was so understanding of him, that he was willing to start over and forget what had happened. Many people would have loved to cause drama for the Bradford family. "Yeah," he agreed. "Okay. A fresh start could be nice. I won't lie to you again".

"All college boys lie," Ian accused, and the statement came off to Michael as strange, but before he could ask about it Ian was speaking again. "I guess this would technically be our first time meeting again, unless we're considering you answering the door for me, but we didn't really exchange names then".

"Um-"

Ian moved to stand across from him again, this time with his hand held out. "Hi. I'm Ian Donnelly and it seems I will be preparing your meals from now on".

Michael looked at his hand for a long moment before deciding to shake it. "Michael Bradford".

***

Nothing on his test came as a surprise to Michael, and he finished it with about an hour to spare. He was never one to check over his answers before he turned things in, and that seemed even more like a waste of time than usual with the three other exams he had to study for, so he left the room immediately after he finished, handing his test in at the front.

One down, three to go. It wasn't much of a reassurance.

As he walked across campus to his car– he had miraculously found a spot in a somewhat close parking lot that morning– he checked his cellphone. Very rarely were important messages sent to him so he wasn't expecting anything exciting as he shifted through all the messages in the group chat he shared with his brothers.

From: Lust

No one is going to wish us good luck on our tests today?

From: Anger

It's not going to help you any, you're still stupid.

From: Lust

Rude

From: Greed

Good luck.

From: Prefection

Good luck guys!

From: Pride

What test?

Michael supposed none of that was too surprising. The majority of the messages in the chat involved Joe being needy, Pierce being angry, and Garett being confused. Without dignifying any of these with a response, Michael exited the group chat and checked to see if he had any additional messages from people who were– hopefully– less annoying.

He was surprised to notice one from Josh. It wasn't necessarily unusual for Josh to text him, he actually did that quite often, but he hadn't since they had last seen each other on Saturday night and discussed the end of their arrangement. Michael had taken the last day and a half of silence to mean that Josh would no longer be texting him, which he had felt was for the best given the strangeness of the situation.

He wondered if he should just ignore the most recent text but decided it wouldn't hurt to at least look at it. Almost immediately, he was glad he had.

From: Josh

I know you said we should call off this whole causal sex thing, but we didn't get to end it the way both of us wanted and I wouldn't be opposed to getting together one last time and sorting that out. Let me know if you're interested.

At the end of the text, there was a winking face.

As he drove home he thought about it. It was going to be a stressful four days, and meeting up with someone at some point during it could be beneficial. He could take the time to go on his app and find someone new to connect with, but that would take even more time away from studying, and there was always a trial and error stage when finding a new sexual partner that was satisfying. Josh was already guaranteed to be a good lay.

There was just one thing that he couldn't possibly ignore.

Daisy.

Michael had thought about her a lot lately. Seeing her again had pulled up some old memories, memories that helped him be sure that not getting in contact with her was the right choice.

He kept thinking of the first time Daniel had arranged for her to meet him and Joe. They had been sixteen at the time, Daisy fifteen, and had met at a restaurant near their house. It was such a long time ago that he couldn't recall much of that afternoon, couldn't even remember talking about any thing, but he would never forget the sound of Daisy laughing and the way Daneil had looked at her.

Daniel and Daisy had been something special, and Michael didn't think his brother would ever fully get over the loss. If Michael befriended her again, and Daniel learned that Michael was seeing her behind his back, there was no way that he wouldn't take it the wrong way. Further ruining his relationship with his brother was something Michael wanted to avoid at all costs.

When he got home, thirty minutes later, he still hadn't decided if he was going to text Josh back. How he had worded the message made it possible for Michael to not respond without being an ass, but he wanted to respond and tell Josh he could see him again, one last time. Absently, he unlocked the front door as he thought about their kiss in the hallway and the familiar warmth of the man beneath his fingertips and tongue.

"Hey!" One of his brothers, most likely Joe since Daniel wasn't one to shout his greetings, called from one of the rooms on the right. Michael wasn't sure which, so he walked through the living room to the dining room instead of the hall to find them.

Their house had a peculiar lay out, especially on the first floor. There was the foyer, which narrowed into a long hallway that had three separate archways on the right side, leading to the livingroom, the dining room, and the kitchen respectively The hall extend beyond that, where there was the staircase, as well as the game room and theater room, along with the three oldest boys old bedrooms down a shorter hall that split off.

The entrances to the first three rooms via the hallway were kind of pointless, Michael thought, since they had an open floor plan and all three rooms were connected to one another, but he didn't necessarily mind that he had the option easily avoid anyone in any of the rooms by moving through the hallway.

He found his brothers in the dining room, both of them slowly picking at their own plate of food. Joe smiled widely at him as he approached. "How did the test go?"

"You care?" Michael asked, taking a seat beside Joe, dropping his backpack down into the empty chair to his right. Quickly, he shot a look over the counter into the kitchen where Ian was at the sink doing dishes.

"Of course I care," Joe claimed, stabbing at an egg on his plate with a fork. "I'm going to have to take the exact same test in like three hours". Instead of answering him, Michael sighed and crossed his arms on the table in front of him, making a pillow for him to rest his head on.

I am so tired.

"Mike," Joe whined, nudging Michael with his elbow. "Three hours. What do I need to know?"

"You need to know a little bit of everything we discussed over the semester". It was a bit of an exaggeration, but it was a safe one to make, since he was positive Joe hadn't payed attention at all that semester and wouldn't be able to tell if what was on the test covered everything or not. At the distressed noise that left his brother, Michael scoffed, lifting his head to turn it in the other direction, away from both of them. "Why does it even concern you? You could leave the whole thing blank and you'd still get an A in the class no matter what".

A thoughtful noise left Joe then, and Michael was fully expecting him to launch into some sarcastic soliloquy about how he was such a great student. Instead, he announced, "That's the way to fucking do it, man. Maybe you shouldn't talk to your professors about grading you fairly and stuff next semester and take it easy. Reduce some of that stress so you can focus on that love life of yours".

Michael lifted his head again to look blankly at Joe. For a brief second, he considered telling him that he wouldn't actually be taking classes the next semester because he was scheduled for student reaching, but that had the potential to start an argument.

"Love life?" Daniel asked, finally looking up from his plate to stare across the table at them, eyebrows furrowing together in confusion.

"Mikey went out that same night you went on that date," Joe informed, and Daniel's full attention shifted to Michael, waiting for conformation.

"To study," Michael told him, the lie coming out extremely easily. Daniel, who either believed him or didn't care, shrugged his shoulders and looked down at his food once more. To his left, Joe scoffed. Ignoring him, Michael addressed the quiet triplet. "How did your date on Saturday go, Dan? I haven't really really spoken to you since then".

There was a long pause in which Daniel said nothing, and Michael began to wonder if he was just going to be ignored, but then the boy sighed heavily. "It was alright," he supplied. "I think we're going to go out again sometime".

"Oooo, you kiss her?" Joe teased. "Walk her to her front door when you dropped her off. Did you-"

Michael tuned him out, turning to his backpack in the chair beside him to pull out his French notebook where he had written the final draft of the speech he was to give for his final. It was perhaps the class he was the least worried about, but also the class he would be the most disappointed in himself for doing poorly in so he wasn't going to slack off in studying.

He got about five minutes in before Joe's attention shifted back to him. It was easy enough to ignore him until a finger began to incessantly jab into his side repeatedly. For the first minute of this he pretended as if it wasn't getting to him, but it became clear Joe was going to continue until it did, so Michael had no choice but to smack his fingers away. "What?"

"Want some?" Joe inquired, pushing his plate against Michael's notebook until it was pushed away and he was staring down at food instead of words. The plate was filled with various appetizers, most of which Michael couldn't identify. "They're really fucking good. These... deviled egg looking things are my favorite. You'd like them. Theres some kind of shellfish in them".

While everything on the plate looked and smelled exceptional, Michael had to decline. "I'm actually going out to lunch in about an hour and I don't want to ruin my appetite".

Joe whistled. When he was finished, he explained why. "Lunch? That's some kind of third or forth date shit right there. Can't even just casually go back to their apartment to have sex afterwards. You have to be seen with them in broad daylight-"

"I'm going with our brother," Michael cut in, exacerbated. This revelation seemed to surprise even Daniel, because he looked at him again.

"What? Which one?" Joe demanded.

"Pierce," Michael grumbled, pushing away the plate and drawing his notebook near again. It wouldn't be hard for them to determine why Michael would be meeting up with their older brother– the only one of them who had ever backed out of the business major their father had expected of them... well, besides Kalen, but that was different because Kalen could get away with anything and Pierce could not– for lunch. He was going to let them figure it out for themselves.

It didn't take long.

"You're going to talk to him about dropping your major". Joe's voice came out loud and whiny, but Michael had been expecting both things and didn't flinch. "Are you actually serious, Michael?"

"Joe," Daniel voiced softly, his eyes down.

"This is fucking ridiclous, Michael," Joe accused. "What about all we worked for? What about what we've spent our entire lives preparing for". Michael wondered if Joe would ever be able to drop the idea of the becoming some kind of powerhouse trio in the business world. As Joe stood from his chair, his chair scraped loudly against the hardwood. In the kitchen, the sink turned off and Micahel didn't need to look to know Ian had begun to pay attention to them. It was hard not to. "You literally have this opportunity, that anyone in their right mind would kill for, being handed to you and you want to just give it up to be a fucking teacher".

Sighing, Michael finally looked up at his brother, squinting slightly at him to convey his distaste. "I don't want the things that have just been handed to me," Michael pointed out softly. "You've always known that". There was a tense moment in which they stayed like that, with Joe angrily glaring down at Michael, and Michael calmly looking back at him. Then, with one last huff, Joe left the room with Michael and Daniel looking after him.

Daniel's eyebrows drew together in concern, and then he shrugged and began eating again. "Is Tyler tagging along with you for lunch?" he asked casually, as if Joe hadn't just blown up at him. Relieved, Michael allowed himself a little chuckle.

It was nice to know that at least Daniel didn't hold his asperations against him, though he also never wanted to talk about the with him. "No," Michael answered. "He's not".

After that, Daniel didn't say anything further, and Michael was finally able to study without distraction.