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They were sitting in the improvised dressing room. All four of them almost soaking wet with sweat and yet they still found the strength to play games.
It was Woody who came up with it. He was probably joking, or at least trying to be funny, when he mentioned they should play truth or dare.
“Isn't that what kids play when they have a crush on someone and want another person to dare them to kiss their crush?” Kyle complained.
“Okay, no kisses.” Woody decided and put his chair in the middle of the room, so it was clear he wanted to make a circle with them.
“It's not even a proper game, we should play cards or something.” Will said also moving his seat.
“Do you have cards, then, Will? Because I don't.” Kyle asked, full of hope.
“No, they're probably in the bus.”
“I'm not going anywhere.” Dan uttered from the corner of the room and took a sip of his lemon water.
“I'll help you up.” Will offered and walked up to Dan.
“It's alright. Thanks.” Dan said as he took Will’s hand and let him pull him up.
Will’s hand was cold, but he knew that already. Will always had cold hands after playing a gig.
When they finally had their chairs more or less in the centre of the room, Woody stated he's going to start.
“Alright, Kyle, truth or dare?”
“Uhh, truth?” He almost choked on his drink, in-between the words so he coughed like hell.
“If you had to choose between chopping off your hand or losing one eye, which would you choose?” Woody asked, sure, he already kind of knew the answer.
“Is this truth or dare or did we switch to would you rather while I was suffocating?” Kyle looked a bit offended.
Will sat beside Dan, who was dozing off and looked like he's going to fall off the chair.
Will lightly touched his shoulder and said quietly: “Dan, don't sleep just yet.”
Dan blinked a few times and smeared away the tear that formed in the corner of his right eye. Will just smiled at Dan lightly until Kyle spoke again.
“Well, of course I'd rather sacrifice my eye than my hand, Woody, what kind of a question is that?”
“The first one that came to my mind obviously.” Woody turned his chair the other way so he could sit on it like all the cool guys in the movies.
“Well at least it's my turn now,” Kyle looked to his right and pointed at Dan, “Don't you dare to fall asleep!” He almost yelled at him.
“I'm not sleeping, I want truth.” Dan yawned and mumbled in response.
“When did you first...Uh...I dunno... Kissed someone?”
“You said no kisses!” Woody shouted at Kyle.
“I meant it like no dares to kiss, alright?” Kyle looked at him over his shoulder.
“Whatever.” Woody rested his chin on the back part of the chair, that was now in the front, because he was sitting on it the other way around.
“What was the question again?” Dan looked around.
“When did you have your first kiss?” Will repeated it for Dan.
“That would be in primary school, I think it even was while playing truth or dare.” He tried to remember more about it, but as he was tired it wasn't of much use.
“Cool.” Kyle just said.
“Now I’m asking Will?” Dan asked to make sure.
“Yeah.” Woody said.
“Alright. Truth or dare, then, Will?” He looked at the guitarist who smiled back at him, because he thought it was cute how sleepy Dan was.
“Dare.” Will simply said.
“Oooh!” Woody and Kyle exclaimed in unison.
“Uh, alright. I dare you to go and get me a blanket.”
“Fuck no, he isn't getting you anything else than maybe coffee. I'm gonna tell him a dare myself.” Kyle spat the words out as fast as he could with a bit of stuttering.
“Whatever.” Dan crossed his arms on his chest.
“I dare you...to play Dan like your bass.” Kyle laughed.
“How the hell does one even do that?” Will asked.
“Work it out yourself.” Kyle chuckled and rubbed his hands together.
Woody just raised an eyebrow at him.
“Fine.” Will got up and walked behind Dan. He put his left hand on Dan's stomach and his right one on his right leg. He tapped on Dan's thigh with his fingers and then added the left hand.
Dan started to laugh as Will tickled his belly.Everyone else also broke out into laughter, including Will who was still a bit more concentrated on Dan's reaction than anything else. He looked so cute as he squirmed under his hands.
When the laughter slowly stopped, Will also ceased to tickle Dan. Finally, he patted his shoulder and then went back to his seat.
“Well then, Woody, what about you?” Will smirked at the drummer.
“Dare!” He looked back at Will with a grin on his face.
“Alright, take my bass and play something, then we're gonna guess what it is.”
“That’s pretty hard, innit?” Kyle pointed out.
“It’s alright, I can try, there’s no punishment if you don’t guess it correctly, right, Will?” Woody turned his chair so he could sit on it normally and walked up to Will’s guitar cases and opened the largest one.
“No, of course not.” Will smiled and then instead of watching Woody picking up his bass, he looked at Dan.
It must have been in a quite adoring way, because after a while he heard Kyle do a quiet “Aww”.
“Okay, listen to me now.” Woody tried to catch attention of the others.
Woody moved his hand around the neck of the bass and everyone saw his fingers move, but no one heard anything.
“Try to go over to that table and put it so the body of the bass touches the top of it.” Will advised.
“Okay, maybe it’s for the better that you guys didn’t hear it, because I made a ton of mistakes.” Woody said and sat on the table. When he started playing it could be finally heard what he was trying to play.
“I know that one!” Kyle pointed at Woody. That made him stop.
“So what’s its name, then?” Woody asked full of hope that he won't have to play it again.
“Sorry, I can’t remember right now.” Kyle answered honestly and curled his moustache.
Will had a guess, but it was only because he knew a bit about Woody’s taste in music and because he took in count only half of the tones Woody actually played.
“Was it Smoke on the water?” He asked and as Woody’s face lit up he knew that he’s got it right.
“Yes! Cool!” Woody got up and put the bass back inside its case.
“Look at the time guys, we should go to the hotel.” Dan said sleepily.
“Okay, well, it's not of much use to stay here, is it?” Kyle uttered.
“Whatever. I have everything packed I'm good to go.” Woody said.
“If you put my bass back I'm also ready.” Will got up and looked for his jacket. He found Dan's first and so handed it to him.
“Thanks.” Dan took it and put it on.
They picked their instruments up and left the venue. The hotel wasn't far from the place and it was probably the cheapest one they could get. None of them really complained. It was still better that the bus.
“Two rooms again?” Kyle asked.
“Yep.” Dan answered, and gave Kyle one of the keys.
“Who wants to be with me?” Kyle rattled with the key and looked at Woody and Will.
“Ugh, I think it's my turn to share with Kyle today.” Woody grunted.
“What's your problem?” Kyle sounded offended.
“Oh, nothing, just that you steal the blankets.” Dan answered instead of Woody.
“Good night, then.” Will chuckled and waved at them as they entered the room. Then he waited until Dan unlocked their door.
There were two beds in the room, but Will still hoped that Dan would crawl into his bed throughout the night. He's done that a few times already and Will was always more than happy that it's happened. It helped both of them to sleep more contently.
Dan put his bags next to the bed on the left and without taking any of his clothes off, he just lied down onto the soft mattress.
“At least put down your shoes, Dan.” Will sat down on the other bed and stepped out of his own ones.
“I don't want to. I wanna sleep.” Dan murmured into the pillow and then turned over so he laid on his back.
Will walked over to Dan and started untying his converse shoes.
“Thanks.” Dan looked at him, “You're so nice today.”
“You think I'm not nice on some days?” Will pulled one shoe off Dan's foot.
“Sometimes. When you're under a lot of pressure you suddenly turn all bossy.” Dan sat up and tried to take his jacket off.
“Okay. That's true.” Will moved his hands to the other shoe.
“But everyone's like that I guess.” Dan gave up and lied down again.
“Do I have to undress you too?” Will asked playfully.
“Seems like it.” Dan smirked, but internally, he was screaming, and he also felt his heart beat faster. Just thinking about Will touching him again made him feel excited. And suddenly he wasn't so tired anymore.
“Okay.” Will put Dan's other shoe down and bent over him, “Sit up, I can't take your jacket off like this.” He frowned at him a bit.
Dan did lift himself off the bed a bit in the end. Will put his hands underneath the jacket at Dan's shoulders so he could take it off of him. Just that contact made Will wonder if Dan noticed how bloody nervous he's been.
When Will was almost done with the jacket, Dan suddenly wrapped his arms around Will’s neck and pulled him closer.
Will almost fell down on Dan, but he reacted quickly and supported his weight by placing his hands next to Dan's sides. He didn't expect this at all, but when Dan laughed lightly, he calmed down and laughed with him.
“Sorry.” Dan whispered and held Will’s gaze.
“It's alright.” Will smiled again.
“What if you just lied down here with me and we went to sleep?” Dan prompted.
“That would be awesome, because it's killing my back when I'm bent over like this.” Will straightened his back as Dan let go of him and then he undid his jeans. He put his phone on the nightstand, let the trousers fall to the ground, turned the lights off and waited until Dan also pulled his jeans down, without even gritting up, and put his phone next to Will’s.
“Do you mind me sleeping like this? I mean...should I find my pajamas somewhere?” Will pointed over his shoulder at the bag next to the other bed.
“I don't mind, Will.” Dan smiled and finally threw his jacket onto the floor.
“Alright.” Will smiled too but more at the mess on the floor than at Dan.
Dan moved in the bed so he almost touched the wall with his back and waited until Will settled down next to him. Then he shuffled closer to him and put his hand over Will.
Will trembled a bit and that made Dan retreat his hand and apologise.
“Sorry, I...”
“No, it's just that, uh, I'm a bit cold.”
Will was able to take a whiff of Dan's shampoo. That's how close they laid to each other. It always reminded him of his childhood, although he wasn't sure why. It brought back the feeling of safety, his carelessness and the washing detergent his mother used.
Dan was clearly trying not to fall asleep so quickly, but what Will did next completely wrecked his plan in the end. It took all of Will's bravery to do it, but when he softly touched the side of Dan's hair and then slowly moved his hand to the middle part, he became convinced that it was very much worth it. Will continued running his hand through the middle and he could clearly see how Dan enjoyed it as much as he did. Even with the occasional tugging, because of the way the hair wax Dan had used made his hair stuck together.
“Does it hurt?” Will asked as he stopped the movement.
“No, not at all.” Dan looked up at Will, “Can I touch your hair?”
Will was a bit surprised by that, but smiled and agreed anyway: “Sure.”
Will's hair was much shorter but still soft. Dan traced the back of Will's head and he could feel all the little unevenities of Will's skull.
It seemed to him like Will would start purring, if that thought didn't make Dan chuckle and by that he didn't interrupt Will.
“I'm sure Woody and Kyle would laugh at us,” Will said as he opened his eyes.
“I don't think so. Maybe Woody wouldn't let us touch his hair, but Kyle would be pretty much in.” Dan answered and then added, “But I'm glad I'm here with you.”
That sentence made Will feel all warm.
“I'm also glad you're here.” He smiled at Dan.
In return Dan kept smiling and moved his hand to cup Will's face. Will was surprised, but as his heart told him, he didn't stop Dan.
“Good night,” Dan whispered.
“‘night,” Will answered and caressed Dan's side.
“Just...one last thing. Would you object much if I gave you a good night's kiss?” Dan avoided Will's gaze suddenly.
“I won't, go on.” Will smiled after he realized he's not asleep yet, and that this isn't just a dream.
Dan moved forward, but was too scared to kiss Will on the lips. Instead, he kissed his forehead, which was a much cuter gesture in Will's eyes.
“That was sweet.” Will stated nervously, “Can I also give you a goodnight’s kiss?” He asked and felt his heart race again.
“Sure.” Dan's eyes lit up.
Will held the back of Dan's head so he half pushed Dan, half moved forward himself, until finally their lips met.
It was just a small peck, but neither of them didn't know how to react to it. Will felt slightly ashamed and called himself an idiot in his mind and Dan couldn't believe what just happened. Will shifted a bit further from Dan, but shortly after that, Dan carefully pulled him closer again and snuggled against his chest.
“Thank you.” Dan said and the way he said it actually calmed Will down a bit. It also somehow made the atmosphere less tense, so Will just held Dan closer and messed his hair. Dan breathed out contently and both of them were finally ready to call it a day and fall asleep.