"Final project", it said in big letters on Sebastian's calendar. On one hand, the database algorithm was going to be a lot of work, even in a three-person group. On the other, just seeing the word 'final' was enough to make Sebastian's heart leap. He was so ready to graduate that it was unbelievable how far away June still was, and even the massive amount of work waiting for him between then and now couldn't dent his enthusiasm.

So the last thing he needed was to start his group meeting by retching furiously in the bathroom. They'd been hanging out at Moira's place, waiting for the pizza to arrive before they really started getting into this week’s work, and everything had seemed fine right up until the moment that Brandon had come back into the living room with the pizza box and the smell had hit Sebastian like a punch in the throat.

His stomach turned over so vigorously that he could almost hear it move as he scrambled to his feet, and stumbled his way into the bathroom. The bathroom smelled of lemon cleanser and bleach and it wasn't amazing, but it was better than whatever was wrong with the pizza. Sebastian leaned over the sink, intending to splash some water on his face, but moving his head made him retch again and he practically fell to his knees over the toilet, acid hot in the back of his throat. He coughed again, staring down into the watery depths, clutching at his stomach, and waited. Nothing.

Tentatively, Sebastian leaned back against the wall behind him. Okay, so far, so good. Minor head motions seemed to be back to normal. Standing up was more of a challenge, but he managed to get all the way to his feet without puking, and even to swish some water around in his mouth to get rid of the acid. He took a deep breath, staring into his oddly flushed face in the mirror, and stiffened himself to leave the bathroom.

The smell of pizza – hot grease, pepperoni, and something almost fishy – lingered in the air in the hallway and nearly sent Sebastian diving back into the bathroom, but he forced the nausea away and headed into the living room again.

"You okay?" Brandon said around a mouthful of pizza. Sebastian blanched.

"Can't you smell it?" he said, putting his hand over his mouth as he sat gingerly on the couch. "There's something off in the pizza."

Moira sighed, reaching for another slice. "You told me that two kinds of sausage were okay with you," she said dismissively. "Don't get dramatic about it now. You could have asked for something else when we were ordering."

"It's not that," Sebastian protested. "There's something actually wrong with it! Can't you smell it?" He sniffed the air again, and instantly regretted it, gulping back the bile in his throat. "Maybe it's gone off."

"It's fresh, hot pizza," Brandon said dubiously. "I don't think food can go off when it's still warm from the oven." His brow furrowed as he thought this over carefully. It seemed to be taking him some time.

"Also, you're on your fourth slice," Moira said, laughing and nudging Brandon with her foot. "So it had better not make you sick all over my bathroom, buddy."

"I feel fine!" Brandon protested.

"For now," Sebastian said darkly. He eyed the pizza with suspicion, trying not to breathe in too deeply.

"You going to be okay to work on our project tonight?" Moira said, looking sympathetic.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sebastian said, lying through his teeth.

"Well, if you think you're going to puke again, go do it at your house," Moira said, regarding him affectionately.

"I didn't actually puke," Sebastian grumbled. "I just felt like I might, because of that gross pizza."

"Right," Moira said, taking a large and obvious bite of her slice. "You want to play secretary?" she added, her voice muffled by crumbs. "We can get started right now, if you're not going to be eating."

"Fine, fine," Sebastian said, pulling out his laptop and opening up the document that contained all three lines of their current project outline. "Okay, this is what we have so far..."

Typing gave Sebastian something to focus on other than the roiling in his gut, and the three of them made decent progress over the next couple of hours, both in figuring out the shape of their project and in dividing up the tasks. It was easy to look past the long hours of coding that were in his future and focus on how awesome it was going to be to be almost done.

"Do you ever think about how close we are to being done?" he said rapturously as he shared the planning document with his project partners.

"This meeting? Sure," Moira said, huffing a faint laugh. "This project? Have you even been paying attention to what we've been doing all afternoon?"

Sebastian waved her off with an airy hand. "Can't you feel how close we are to freedom?"

She snorted. "Is there a gas leak or something? First you're telling us that perfectly good pizza is poisoned, and now you're making eyes at a database project like it just hung the moon."

"I feel fine," Brandon volunteered.

Moira eyed him, looking patient. "It was a joke."

"Right." He nodded firmly. "I get it."

Sebastian laughed, stretching his arms out over his head. "It's a good thing you're cute," he told Brandon. "Also, very good at database design, have I mentioned that?"

Brandon wrinkled his nose at them both. "I got that one," he said, a little grumpy.

"I'm just in a good mood," Sebastian said, patting Brandon's shoulder. "Don't mind me."

"You're such a weirdo today," Moira said.

Sebastian grinned at her. "Too bad it's too late for you to join another team."

"We could still kick you out," she pointed out. "Don't get too cocky."

"We need three people," Brandon said.

"Details." Moira waved a dismissive hand and leaned back on the couch with a sigh of comfort. "So we should probably meet again in a week? Two weeks?"

"Two weeks for sure," Sebastian said, laughing. "I need to actually have something to show you guys, after all."

"What happened to being almost done?" Moira said.

"Don't quote me out of context," Sebastian said, grimacing at her. "Two weeks work for you, Brandon?"

"Sure," Brandon said with a shrug. "Thursday afternoon?"

"Fine by me," Sebastian said. "Can we get pizza from somewhere else next time, though?"

Moira grinned at him. "You chicken?" She laughed when he glared at her, and added, "Sure, whatever. I'll see you in class."

"See you," he echoed, rising to leave. He wasn't going to argue with her now, but he knew he wasn't just being picky. This project was basically the biggest thing in his life right now. He wasn't going to let anything jeopardize it, and with it his chance to get out of town. Anything at all.