3 - It's pronounced 'quiche'. 'Kee-sh'

Horknath smiled gently at Carleen when she seemed self-conscious about the mess he could find. "Please - you've seen our living room, right? And our bedrooms are even worse. I don't mind some chaos", he commented, rolling his eyes when he heard Asterius lowly comment something on the lines of 'Speak for yourself'. He mostly looked curious when she revealed her workshop - there were so many things he had no idea what they were, so many mysterious objects, so much thread and cloth and color! "It looks really lived in in here", he commented, smiling broadly at her. "You must love this place a lot. I bet this is where you pass most of your time!"

By looking at Asterius, Theseus would probably guess that he was feeling rather impressed. Indeed, the place was tidy - but it just showed just how proud the other man was of this room, wanting to keep it orderly and always ready for use. And all those different appliances and accessories- alright, maybe he was a little envious. He always needed to get to a gym to find even half of this stuff. "It looks very professional", he commented, peeking a little better inside. "You're very lucky to have a space like this."

"I do," Carleen replied to Horknath with a smile - pointedly ignoring her brother after sticking out her tongue at him. "Sewing really calms me down, when I can afford to sit down and just pick whatever I'm working on." She was pleased that Horknath actually showed interest in what she liked, and didn't instead go and look at the sports room, like most of her exes did. She did still mention it, though. "And Theseus has got his own room to work out in, so we don't walk over each other."

Theseus puffed his chest slightly, indeed proud of his little space. "Thank you! I actually funded all of the appliances by myself, with the pay I get from modelling. My pretty face pays well," he said with a grin, patting the weights that currently sat on the bench. "We could train here this afternoon, if you'd like. And at any other time!"

Horknath threw a glance behind him, getting a glimpse of Theseus' much-prized sports room. "That looks pretty amazing", he commented, unable not to sound admired. He did turn back to Carleen though, peeking again inside her tailor's workshop. "The only private rooms me and Asterius have are our own bedrooms - so they end up being quite stuffed. It must be nice to have a space all for yourself like this! What are you working on right now? Anything I can see or is it a state secret?", he joked.

Asterius huffed, holding back a smile when Theseus commented about his pretty face paying well. "Maybe another time then. We have other things to do this afternoon", he reminded him, unswayed. He did blink when his attention was caught by a glimpse of color on Theseus' hand as it rested on the weights. Right, he had said he had his nails just painted. "Magenta", he observed with a somewhat amused tone, nodding towards his hands.

Carleen chuckled. "No, it's no secret. Come on in!" She invited him inside and laid the book on her desk to show him the shirt that was on the mannequin. "I'm working on this for Dean, as a thank you for helping me last time. His measurements are a bit like Theseus', they're really easy to work with." She turned around and looked around a bit, so that she could find a long, pretty piece of red cloth. "And I'm working on this dress too! For Selena, this time. I still have so much to do!" She was really excited about her craft, and was clearly holding back not to show Horknath everything in this room.

Theseus's confidence deflated a bit when Asterius reminded him they were supposed to study, but grinned again when he gestured towards his nails. "Ah! Yes. I bought it this week, after our talk. Thought I'd try it on a little bit and see if it's not too corrosive, so that you might use some on your beautiful horns." He came back towards Asterius, looking at his nails. "It's a nice color, it'd definitely look great on you!"

Horknath couldn't find Carleen's eager expression more adorable - and had to fight his wish to kiss her smile right there and then, both for fear of being too bold and because their brothers were in the very nearby room. "I'm sure it'll look great", he observed. "It's kind of incredible to me how an actual dress like the one you're wearing can be made from scratch just starting by cloth like that. And by a single person, even." He chuckled to himself. "My mom's terrible at it. She has tried to repair some socks once and the hole that was on them magically became larger." They had thrown them in the bin at the end.

Asterius felt himself get a little flustered at the thought that Theseus had actually gone as far as buying a precise shade of nail polish, and had his nails painted, just to test it out for him. Nobody had ever called his horns 'beautiful', either. "Thank you. That's very thoughtful of you", he commented softly. "And it... looks very nice on you as well." It brings out your eyes, he'd liked to say, but it sounded way too silly, and definitely unfit for the kind of relationship he and Theseus had.

Carleen chuckled. "Well, to your mom's credit, socks are a pain to work with. Anything knitted is a pain, actually. I struggle to see where I'm going with knitting, but sewing is much more defined in my head. Probably because my dad encouraged me down that path since I was a kid," she admitted with a smile. "And mending stuff can be quite tricky, too."

"Does it? I actually haven't taken a look at the whole ensemble," Theseus replied with a grin, and a shrug, before he lowered his voice a little. "I actually offered Carleen to paint my nails to help her relax a bit. Her blooming friendship with your brother is making her a little nervous, I think. I can understand that," he added with a wink. "So! How about we head on to my room?"

Horknath smiled back at her. "I see. Well, we never really gave her too much flak about it anyway - and since you're telling me it's quite difficult to mend something, let alone socks, then it only makes sense." He paused. "... she can knit... a little bit. The only thing she manages to never fail at is knitting terrible Christmas sweaters. Try to ask for a scarf and you'll end up with a sweater anyway."

Asterius blinked. Oh - so Theseus still didn't know that their siblings were actually dating? Maybe Carleen hadn't mentioned it to him, but... c'mon, you really needed to be completely blind in order not to notice the wishful glances they shared every time they were in the same room. "I see", he replied in the end, not wanting to be the one who'd spill the beans. "Sure, let's go."

Carleen chuckled, but her face lit up. "She can knit sweaters! Christmas sweaters! oh, if my dad knew, he'd be insufferable." She shook her head. "We don't really celebrate Christmas at home, but he looks for an ugly Christmas sweater every year. We tried to gift him one two years ago, but he admitted that it didn't hold the 'handmade' feel he's looking for. He's terrible."

Theseus grinned at Asterius and guided him towards his bedroom, that was just next door, and invited him inside. The place didn't look as tidy as his sports room, but it still looked quite neat, safe for an overflowing laundry basket in a corner, sneakers where he had left them on the night before. He had a wide bed, and a desk with a laptop sitting on it. For a guy's room, it was almost impressive, but Theseus was vain- and he needed a clear background for his Instagram shots, of course.

Horknath laughed. "Well - maybe I can ask mom to make an exception to her 'family-only' rule for knitting sweaters and make one for your dad this Christmas", he suggested. "That would be an unexpected gift, at least!" Yes, he had implied he and carleen would still be a couple - could he even say that? A couple? it made all of his inside transform into jello, it felt great - by Christmas time.

"Impressive", Asterius murmured automatically, politely ignoring the full laundry basket on the side. For as much as he liked to poke Horknath for being a mess, he wasn't actually that much better - he was quite sure you'd find at least a couple of pair of underpants laying around, fallen from the batch of clean laundry he'd put away, and that he never bothered to pick up. "It's very... neat", he observed, a little awkwardly. Well, it was a nice room.

Carleen chuckled, but she grew a little more shy. She sure hoped they'd still be together by Christmas, but maybe it was a little too soon to know. After all- they still hadn't completed their third date. "Please, don't have her go through this before she gets to meet him - I know from experience that people need to actually meet my dad to feel comfortable gifting him clothes or things like that, given his job. To... See what kind of person he truly is."

"Why, thank you!" Theseus replied with a grin, as he grabbed an extra chair to bring it near his desk. "I do my best, especially given that a messy room would give a bad impression of me on my Instagram! I still need to be careful for my pictures not to involve the laundry basket, though. I prefer to keep things on the side and give them to our housekeeper whenever we get back home." he replied genuinely, without even bragging about his obvious wealth. But that was also one of the reasons why people either loved him or hated him: he didn't hide the fact that he was rich.

Horknath grew more shy when he took conscience of what he had just said. "Of course, you're right", he answered embarrassedly, shuffling a little on his feet. "So, um- was there anything else you wanted to show me, before we get going? We still have some time before we get to the cinema", he added with a little smile. "I was hoping to take a little stroll."

Asterius snorted. Of course they'd have a housekeeper. "That sounds like less troubling than doing laundry yourself", he observed, sitting down on the chair Theseus had grabbed for him. "It was a nightmare when I had to learn." Especially when he learned, over his skin, that no. It's not sufficient to just chuck all of his clothes inside the damn machine and then tell it to go and do its job.
Ariadne the Mom would probably laugh forever and forever retell about the panicked phone call she had gotten from her sons about how all the underwear they had put to wash had shrunk down two sizes - and was now also half-stained of pink, thanks to Horknath's red rugby shorts.

Carleen beamed. "Sure! I'll just put the book in my room- you can follow me, I don't have anything weird lying around." She took back the book he had come to lend her, and took him to her room. It wasn't as neatly tidied as Theseus' (her brother was a freak), but it was quite home-y, and had a board covered with pictures of her with her best friends. There was even one with Aria on it, but Horknath probably wouldn't get the time to spot it if his gaze got caught by the library she had on one wall, covered with books he had been recommending on his blog. She laid the one he was lending her on her bedside table and grabbed her purse. "So- that's my room. Not perfect, but less of a mess than my workshop, that's why I always show that one first," she admitted with a smile.

"I'll be honest," Theseus snorted. "I've tried once, to save Maddie the trouble of doing my laundry in a rush every now and then. I've never seen my father as angry as when he found out I had blow-dried one of my suits." He held back a smile. "I'm not equipped for dry-cleaning and I don't have the patience to learn how to clean what." Carleen did, but they had already established that she wasn't doing his laundry.

Horknath indeed didn't spot his sister among all those pictures - he just had the fleeting thought that it was quite nice to have a board like that with many pictures on, and that he should definitely think of something like that for his own room instead of plastering his favorite photos on the wardrobe like a savage - but his attention got instead immediately caught by the very extensive library Carleen had on one side of her room. "You have all my favorite titles!", he blurted out, eagerly looking through the books - barely restraining himself from touching them. "Aside from some of them - but I'll be suggesting those soon in my blog-" He rumbled a little by himself before he remembered that maybe it wasn't very polite. "I mean-" He cleared his throat. "It's a- very nice room."

Asterius chuckled. "Fortunately for me, I have nothing that needs to get dry-cleaned", he commented as he grabbed his bag to get his books out. "I only know at what temperature whool shrinks, and how to separate laundry. I still need instructions for all the rest." He opened his notepad. "So. Let's get started."
Welp. End of the fun.

Carleen grinned, and followed Horknath. "Thanks. If you want to know the truth... I bought these-" she showed up his favourites "Because of your blog. I wasn't kidding when I told you you actually helped me to find good romance to read!" She was quite pleased with her collection. There were a few also that Selena had recommended to her, and although she liked them she kept them in a drawer. To avoid awkward conversations.

Theseus deflated a bit yet again, and sighed. He actually hesitated a bit, weighing whether or not he could afford to bargain it out with Asterius. He eventually figured out that he couldn't exactly weasel his way out of it either, and would better make an effort if he hoped to get on to working out with his friend a little later. "Alright," he sighed, before turning on his laptop.

Horknath turned to look at her, eyes widening a little bit before his expression suddenly turned sheepish and... pleased, too. "I'm glad you enjoyed them", he commented, gently tapping against the back cover of one of the books. "Some people think you can't find good stories anymore - that all the great romance stories have already been written in the past. I've never agreed with that - and if you've read these and liked them, then it just means that I might be right", he concluded with a grin.

Asterius hummed in approval - he had thrown a glance at Theseus when he had hesitated to answer. "Good. Where would you like to start from?", he offered, showing him the dreaded Sociology book of the first year of their major. "I've already passed this exam, so I believe I could help you out on anything you don't understand."

Carleen nodded. "Yes! I agree. The modern ones you recommend to your readers are actually really good," she approved with a smile. "I can't want to start reading the one you brought me, but..." she entwined her fingers in his. "We have an actual romance to live until then," she kindly teased him.

Theseus pressed his lips together, and he actually had to admit to Asterius that he didn't even have the basic notions of sociology. They were starting things from ground zero.
He really, really hated sociology, more than any other of his theory classes.

Horknath flushed. "Yes", he just answered, holding abck a smile, gently squeezing her hand in his. He actually decided that it wouldn't be half a bad idea to kiss her now before they got out, so he leaned down to press a chaste kiss to her lips - curving more so that she wouldn't have to stand on her tippy toes to reach for him.

Asterius took the news in his usual calm, non-judgemental way. He assured Theseus that it was fine if they needed to start from the basics - he had been at the same point when he realized he needed to ask for help - and flipped the pages back until they hit the very first chapter.
That would have been a long afternoon - but he didn't know yet just how frustrating it would have been too.

Carleen still raised on her tiptoes as soon as Horknath leaned towards her for a kiss, and she smiled at him, a little shyly still. "Shall we go?" She murmured, gently squeezing his hand in hers.

Oh, and frustrating it would be, alright. Theseus maintained his focus for a total of one hour - a record - before his attention started to drift away. He first took the excuse of a word sounding this or that way to tell a story to Asterius. Then he was squirming endlessly on his seat, his legs shaking one after the other. And then he blatantly told him, after two hours: "I can't do this anymore Asterius, it's driving me mad. Wouldn't you rather we do something else? Something actually interesting?"

Horknath smiled back at her, just as shyly. "Sure. Let's go." He led her out of her room and back to the entrance - after yelling at his brother that he'd be back after dinner (he and Carleen would have gone for a quick bite after the movie). "I'll let you pick the movie - I always end up choosing terrible ones", he commented with a sheepish expression when they had closed the apartment's door.

Asterius was well known, both among his friends and his family, for his legendary patience. Rarely something moved him enough to get him angry. Maybe irritated.
"You are driving me mad", he muttered lowly. Well, irritated was what he was right now as he put down his notes and rubbed on his temples. "Theseus. We've been studying for one hour. One hour, which is really nothing", he repeated before his friend could interject. "The past hour has evaporated in the air just like your focus. I know it's not fun or interesting, but how are you supposed to pass your exams if you don't get on it?"

Carleen chuckled and went out with Horknath, to watch a movie with him indeed! She probably picked anything and, let's be real: if the movie sucked they had something to complain and laugh about afterwards during their dinner!

"I don't know!" Theseus exclaimed, frustrated as much as Asterius was - if not more. He had intended on making an effort, really, but- "It just drives me mad, to sit down and sit still. I don't see the point of it on the short nor the long term! Is it really going to be useful to us in any way? It's so-" he groaned. "So abstract!"

Yes! All in all they'd have a grand, good time together - taking a short walk before going to the movies, laughing together about the one they'd pick, and then have a nice dinner in a not-too-fancy place that had probably been suggested by Dean in his endless search for a good meat-oriented restaurant.

Asterius groaned. "What matters isn't whether it will be useful or not - but that on the long run it will get you a degree. It doesn't get more concrete than that", he answered, shaking his head. "We're friends, right? I don't want you to be blocked in University forever. What could motivate you? What could help you find some motivation?"

Absolutely! and Carleen would even thank Dean through messages - and ask him how things were going so far with his new 'roommate', given that Castiel was supposed to arrive on that day for his trial period. Speaking of which, he was really making efforts to get on Dean's good side and convince him he'd be a great roommate - especially given that he liked his place a whole lot! - and had baked a pie as soon as he had arrived, to thank him.

"I don't know!" Theseus repeated, frustration getting him all fidgety. He got up and started pacing around his room. "We're friends, and of course I like you and would rather catch up with you than remaining stuck in first year! But it's not like I have an actual goal in life!, or plans like you do! I can't model for the rest of my life, I can't play football until I grow old, and I can't sit on a chair long enough to open a fitness center on my own-" There it was. The talk he had avoided with his own family, and he was having it with Asterius instead: future. He ran his hands on his face, trying to collect himself.
He was Theseus Mishra, he was a cool guy, everything always went his way. He could do this. He could... bring the conversation back to something else. Prevent Asterius from ditching him as a friend because he wasn't perfect.

Dean was grinning as he typed to Carleen that she was welcome, along with a thumbs up, before pocketing back his phone. "Well! I'd say the moving part of things went down pretty good", he commented, eyeing the pie that Castiel had just gotten out of the oven. Damn, it smelled amazing. He felt his mouth water at the thought of getting a slice! "You like the place? I hope your room is okay - I had to clean it up, the one living here before was kind of messy."

Asterius was so taken aback by Theseus' sudden outburst and outpour of emotions that he didn't know how to react at first, and merely observed him as he paced messily through the room, blinking stupidly and absorbing those words that sounded so... uncharacteristically scared and insecure. He got up from his chair and put himself in the middle of the room to interrupt his friend's pacing. He placed his hands on his shoulders too, for a good measure. "Theseus, breathe", he said then, lowering his voice trying to sound as calm as possible - he used to do the same thing when Aria would get fidgety and anxious when they were younger. "I promised you I would help you, and I will. As for figuring out what you want for your future, you will get that along the way. You don't have to know now, or tomorrow." He seemed to be thinking about something now, as if he was trying to come up with something. They just need to give him a... more heads-on objective. Something that he would be physically obtaining with any exam he'd pass. Like a prize, or something. "Look, it's clear that by forcing my hand we won't go anywhere. We can stop here with the books for today, if you wish."

Castiel smiled at Dean as he put the pie down, and closed the oven door. His pie looked good, granted - he was kind of proud of himself about this one. "I do, don't worry. I come from the university's dorms, so this feels like luxury to me, so... I hope things will go well between us."

Theseus took a deep breath in. Then another. He blinked at Asterius, surprised he didn't even make fun of him for not knowing what he wished to do in his life after uni. He nodded absent-mindedly for a bit, before he shook his head. "I wish to apologize. I know I am driven by short-term objectives only, but as I've told you, it's impossible to envision a short-term objective regarding all of these abstract things. With sports it's much simpler. I exercise on my own, my body gets stronger. I exercise with a team, we get stronger, and better." He sighed. "Truth be told, Asterius, I wished to spend time with you today. But not like this. This- this is frustrating, and harming our bond, and I do not wish to lose you over something so trivial."

"Well, if that pie tastes as good as it looks, I'm sure things will go swimmingly", Dean answered as he smiled back at Castiel, rubbing his hands together. "Oh, yeah the dorms are a mess. That's why I was trying hard to look for a roommate - I haven't got the slightest intention of getting back there!"

Asterius shook his head. "You don't need to apologize. It would take much more for me in order not to want to see you again", he reassured him, letting go of his shoulders. "Maybe I've overstepped our boundaries a little. I shouldn't have pushed you." He threw a glance to their discared books and notes. "We can exercise a little bit instead, then. Whatever you want. Your pick." He wasn't behind with his own studies anyway - he could've always read a bit in the evening.