Xaviers!

Unlike a lot of the others, Basil was in a great mood. When he was told to move his things, he loaded all his excess belongings in his trunk. He was going to have to do it soon anyways, no time like the present.

Because of that, his side of the room looked fairly barren.

The empty suit of the invisible man laid casually on his bed with his laptop in his lap.

After playing "Shave and a Haircut" on the door with his knuckles, Diego opened the door a crack and stuck his poofy head through.

"Heeere's jaguar!"

"Heeeeeey Mate! Welcome to the most boring dorm in existence.

I'm your host, Basil Oliver Benson. But only for a few more weeks."

"You're moving out?" he asked as he came in, modest baggage in tow.

"Yes. I graduate soon, and I had already decided to buy a house for Madame. Someone will have to be at the house, and it can't be her."

"Seriously?"

He grinned. "Well, congrats man. On graduating and moving in together with your lady."

"Thank you, thank you.

Situation puts a damper on my masters, but I suppose I can enroll in online classes at another university."

"Oh my God, dude, the new rules suck donkey nuts. Seriously, we can't even use the D.R. after hours without express written permission. So dumb."

"I hate that thing anyways... but I know your girlfriend Chisaki is a fan. I'm sure she's feeling put out."

Diego stared at Basil with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeeaahh... not my girlfriend."

"What?! Why?! She adores you! She talks about you all the time."

"She doesn't like me that way. She... made it clear she wants to just be friends."

Judging by his expression, he was disappointed by the fact.

"She said that?"

"A bit more complicated than that but yeah."

Basil was silent for an awkward amount of time. Then, he reached over the edge of his bed to open the lip of his satchel And dig something out.

"Catch." He called, before tossing his flask to Diego. Whatever was inside of it was citrus-y, with just a hint of juniper.

He caught the flask almost as gracefully as Chase would have. He took a sniff and looked questioningly at Basil, before shrugging and taking a pull of the contents.

It tasted rather like it smelled, but it definitely had the kick of alcohol that people who didn't drink hard alcohol wouldn't be a fan of.

If Diego knew his booze, he'd be able to identify it as gin

He started coughing right after swallowing. Clearly he was a hard liquor virgin.

"Dear God, what did I just drink," he coughed.

"Beefeaters. Gin." He replied, sounding amused.

"I forgot the man from the city of sin can't handle his liquor." He teased.

"It's hard to drink underage when both your parents are cops," he said a little defensively.

"Aaannnnnd your excuse for the last several months iissss.....?"

"Not having a suicidal liver?" he smirked.

"Sounds like the Yank is giving up to me. Toss it back mate, if it's not to your liking."

"You can keep your deceptively fruity-smelling liquid fire," he said, capping the flask and tossing it back.

"So you really thought Chisaki and I were an item, huh? We do hang out a lot, so I guess I get why."

Catching the flask, he dipped in himself to not have Diego at a disadvantage.

" Well yea. I mean, she's been gone a lot lately. I thought she was with you."

"Nope. Haven't seen her as much lately. I assumed she just had extra coursework or something."

"Her loss." Basil replied casually.

"Who else do you fancy?"

"No one comes to mind really. But if I did, she'd probably just want to be friends. Because I'm terrible at picking girls to like."

"Have you ever considered it's your approach?" Basil asked.

"Of course I have. But I don't know what I'm doing so wrong unless being my goofy self is the problem."

"I mean..... kinda?

If you approach them as nothing but a comedian, they will assume you just want to be a friend.'

"So you're saying I should come out flirty right away?"

"I mean... a little. If you're interested. You don't want to be a creeper either, obviously.

And If you're uncertain you can keep it reigned in until you've talked a bit, but making them your bestie as if you have no other ulterior motive is ensuring that they perceive your relationship as purely platonic."

"I... see what you're saying but I don't always have the romantic feelings right away. That's not to say I don't feel physical attraction as quickly as any other dude."

"You don't have to have romantic feelings immediately. As long as you don't hide the fact you might have some physical interest in addition to an academic one.

Come on then. Pretend I am an attractive female. That shouldn't be hard, considering.


What would you say to me to get me to talk to you?"

"I'd say... Hey, I like your hair?" he said, obviously feeling awkward.

"No, that's lame. No wonder I can't get a date."

"It's not bad persay. You just don't open on that." He replied. " Compliments about how she carries herself definitely help set the precedent that you're not just there because you thought she looked friendly, but you don't want to start a conversation with one unless you legitimately are only looking for a quick roll in the hay and you're in the sort of environment for that type of behavior isn't frowned upon.

And it's going to be frowned upon in most environments because most people aren't looking to get hit on when they're just randomly going about their day to day business."

Basil quite enjoyed talking with Diego about this, and sat cross-legged on his bed, setting aside whatever work he had been doing to give this his full attention. "Try again.

Wait! Pretend I'm in the canteen, eating my lunch. That's a pretty normal thing to do."

Diego thought for a moment before nodding to himself. He mined carrying a tray of food and approached.

"Hey. Mind if I join you?" he said, starting with basic courtesy.

"No, not at all!" Basil replied, his ability to drop into falsetto easily being employed to try to be somewhat convincing.

Diego pulled over the room's desk chair and took a seat.

"You must be new, because I think I would have noticed you."

He grimaced. "Yeah, no. Do over."

"Diego," he said, smiling as he extended a hand, "Or Ocelotl if you're into the codename thing."