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It was late when the knock came, waking Brian from a dream. He had the same dream frequently, but only ever remembered bits and pieces of it: blond hair, blue eyes, and his hands on fair skin.
He turned over to shake Nick and get him to answer the door. His hand fell into the empty spot in the bed before he remembered that Nick's family was visiting for the video shoot and he wasn't there.
A second knock woke him enough to get him up. On the other side of the crack in the door, Nick chewed his lip, looking up and down the hotel-bright hallway.
Brian gave him a sleepy, "Hey."
Nick immediately focused an Brian. "Brian, I need your help. I can't remember any of the choreography," he said.
Brian closed the door to undo the chain, and Nick invited himself in when the door opened again. He paced the short distance between the door and the bed, chewing his nails, while Brian dressed, his eyes watching Nick.
"I woke up, and I realized that I couldn't remember any of it. Not one step. I turned over and you weren't there and I kind of panicked, snuck out, and came here. "
Nick stopped and stared at Brian, his big eyes supplicating.
"Why didn't you ask AJ?" Brian asked. "He probably knows it better than me."
"He'd make fun of me for forgetting. You just help."
Brian looked up from tying his shoes. "Did you bring something we can play the song with?"
Nick started running his hands through his hair and pulling on it. "Shit! No! What are we going to do?"
"Don't panic." Brian tossed a few things around in his bags and came up with his old Walkman and the demo tape for the song. "See? Look. Not the best, but we can make it work."
A sheepish smile bloomed across Nick's face.
They ran around, trying the door to every conference room on the second floor until they found one that was open. The lights came on automatically, the halogen lights way too intense for the middle of the night.
Nick located the dimmer switch while Brian pushed the tables up against one wall; they set the tape player on the nearest one. If they turned the volume up all the way, they could just hear the strains of "As Long as You Love Me", tinny and distorted, playing through the headphones.
They got to work, but Nick was feeling better already. They settled into the groove of the familiar; this was comfortable, doing what they both loved. They laughed and smiled as Brian demonstrated the steps, then as they did them together, over and over again.
Once, Brian suggested they head up to their beds, that Nick knew it all by now, but Nick protested. "I'm not tired. Let's stay. Please?"
Brian was watching Nick, correcting him, when the music got quieter and quieter over the space of a couple of seconds, before they couldn't hear it at all. The batteries on the Walkman were dead.
A brief look at the player, a little chuckle and, looking back at Nick, Brian began singing where the tape had left off. Nick met his eyes and joined him in singing, humming the parts with no words.
Brian looked into his eyes, the corners of his mouth slightly turned up. Nick smiled back. As they sang together, Brian didn't look away, but gazed at Nick over the bridge of his nose, his chest rising and falling.
Nick felt a change in the air; it felt hot and chill at the same time. He could feel a heat spread outward from his face and down his neck and to his chest, where it stayed.
As they got to the bridge, Brian sang alone. "I've tried to hide it so that no one knows ..."
Nick had stopped dancing, and Brian began to walk slowly towards him.
"... but I guess it shows, when you look into my eyes ..."
Brian was close enough that he had to look up to see Nick's eyes. Nick swallowed.
Brian softened his voice. "... What you did, and where you're coming from, I don't care, as long as you love me ..."
Brian sang the last word of the refrain, almost at a whisper, "... baby," and then he stopped singing.
They stood there, in the intimacy of the moment, eyes searching, frequently flitting down to their lips and back again.
As the tension grew, Nick grew more nervous, more fidgety. Finally, he looked down at his hands and suggested that they needed a break, before turning around and heading to the chairs against the wall.
Brian sat down next to him. He pulled Nick's head down so that it lay on his chest and put an arm around around his shoulder.
"Are you finally tired?" Brian asked.
Nick said nothing, but rested his head in the crook of Brian's neck and let his eyes close. He took in a big breath of Brian's scent and the tension drained from his body.
Brian let him rest there for a few moments, stroking his hair, but didn't want him to fall asleep. When they had come down to practice, he wasn't expecting this to be the night, but now the thoughts of it buzzed inside his head, so that he could think of nothing else.
Brian lifted Nick's chin with his finger, and looked down at his face, so very close to his own. Nick's eyes fluttered open. His lips separated and he smiled a sleepy, but genuine, smile. Brian could see the trust and love in his eyes.
It was easy, then, for Brian to smile in return as he bridged the inches to Nick's lips, bringing them together. They both exhaled with a soundless sigh, as relief and joy washed over them.
Nick -- more wakeful now -- sat up again, breaking contact for only a moment, before he leaned forward to kiss Brian again. He placed his hands on either side of Brian's face and, enthusiastic, pressed his open lips against Brian's, pulling Brian to him. Brian opened his mouth and tilted his head, allowing Nick to deepen the kiss, while he surrounded Nick with his arms. Placing his hands on the small of his back, he pulled Nick into him, and Nick's arms came to rest around Brian's neck.
As they kissed, discovering one another, they held each other tight, not daring to move. Sitting there, making out on the uncomfortable conference-room chairs, was simultaneously the closest they had ever had ever felt to anyone in their lives and the closest they had ever felt to themselves.
The choreography was forgotten; the video shoot was forgotten; all that existed for them was each other and that moment.
Brian woke up with a crick in his neck and a sleeping Nick in his arms. They were laid out on the chairs, Brian half-falling off the edge, Nick snuggled between him and the wall. He didn't remember lying down, or falling asleep.
His eyes opened, then squinted. Someone had turned the overhead lights on full-power again, and he heard a vacuum running nearby.
He gave Nick a gentle shake.
"Nick, wake up. It's almost morning and we have a video shoot to get to today."