diff --git a/dev-python/future/future-0.17.1.ebuild b/dev-python/future/future-0.17.1.ebuild
index e99e2709bfab3..0aee1d1a9313c 100644
--- a/dev-python/future/future-0.17.1.ebuild
+++ b/dev-python/future/future-0.17.1.ebuild
@@ -14,25 +14,38 @@ SRC_URI="mirror://pypi/${PN:0:1}/${PN}/${P}.tar.gz"
 LICENSE="MIT"
 SLOT="0"
 KEYWORDS="~alpha ~amd64 ~arm ~arm64 ~hppa ~ia64 ~mips ~ppc ~ppc64 ~s390 ~sparc ~x86 ~amd64-linux ~x86-linux"
-IUSE="doc test"
+IUSE="doc"
 
+distutils_enable_tests pytest
+
+# TODO: make numpy unconditional when it supports py3.8
 BDEPEND="
 	dev-python/setuptools[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
 	doc? (
-		dev-python/sphinx[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
-		dev-python/sphinx-bootstrap-theme[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
+		$(python_gen_any_dep '
+			dev-python/sphinx[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
+			dev-python/sphinx-bootstrap-theme[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
+		' python{2_7,3_{5,6,7}})
 	)
 	test? (
-		dev-python/numpy[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
-		dev-python/pytest[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
+		$(python_gen_cond_dep 'dev-python/numpy[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]' \
+			python{2_7,3_{5,6,7}})
 	)
 "
 
-PATCHES=(
-)
+python_check_deps() {
+	use doc || return 0
+	has_version "dev-python/sphinx[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]" &&
+		has_version "dev-python/sphinx-bootstrap-theme[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]"
+}
 
 python_prepare_all() {
 	sed -i "/'sphinx.ext.intersphinx'/d" docs/conf.py || die
+	# tests requiring network access
+	rm tests/test_future/test_requests.py || die
+	sed -i -e 's:test.*request_http:_&:' \
+		tests/test_future/test_standard_library.py || die
+
 	distutils-r1_python_prepare_all
 }
 
@@ -42,7 +55,3 @@ python_compile_all() {
 		HTML_DOCS=( docs/_build/html/. )
 	fi
 }
-
-python_test() {
-	pytest -vv || die "Tests failed under ${EPYTHON}"
-}