[Drake and Josh] what was once us now is gone
Title: what was once us now is gone
Fandom: Drake and Josh
Rating: PG13
Pairing: Drake/Steve, Josh/Mindy, Steve/Josh if you want to see it. Josh/Drake.
Warning: Slashy boy things such as boys kissing and boys liking boys.
Disclaimer: I don't own Drake and Josh or anything in Dan Schneider worlds.
Word Count: 2952
Summary: Josh is his, has always been his, and he’s more than determined to get him back.
Note: for dans_backhouse ticket prompt. Took me longer than it should have thanks to being sick and real life getting in the way. Thanks, real life. The title is a bastardized lyric from You Might Have Noticed by The Academy Is. The real lyric is what was once us now never was.
Note2: thanks for the beta, modern_epitaph
Drake hates Mindy Crenshaw. Really hates her, and not just because she tried to get him kicked out of school (which honestly he didn’t think was that bad of an idea because hey, no more Mrs. Hafer), but because she has Josh.
She’s dating Josh. Dating. Which means she’s at the house all the time and all of Josh’s spare time is focused on her. All the time he used to spend with Drake is now placed elsewhere and Drake doesn’t like it. Not one bit.
Josh is his, has always been his, and he’s more than determined to get him back.
+
“Drake, I’m busy,” the exasperation in his brother’s voice is like crystal, “you don’t need free tickets right this second,”
“Joshie,” Drake pleads, all but sitting in the taller boy’s lap, “please? The movie starts soon,”
Josh glances over at Mindy, who shrugs, and then back at Drake as he rolls his eyes. “No,” he says forcefully, “now get off of me and quit interrupting us!” Somehow he manages to shake the smaller boy off and turns back to his girlfriend.
“Well, fine,” Wrinkling his nose Drake stares down at the two of them, “don’t give me free tickets then. See if I need you!” Stalking over to the ticket counter he slouches against the wall and sulks, grumbling all the while. “Stupid Josh won’t give me free tickets. Too busy for me now. Stupid Mindy,” He makes another face at the pair and continues to mutter, “never wants to hang out anymore. Never around. Stupid both of them,”
“I can,”
Drake bolts to a more upright position as he tries to not have a heart attack, “What?” he asks when he’s fairly sure he’s not going to die.
“Give you free tickets,” Steve is watching him, cautiously, “I can do that,”
He brightens a little bit at this. “Yeah?” Glancing back over at Josh he asks, “You can?”
“Sure,”
“Awesome. Thanks, man,”
When he looks back at Josh again before entering the theater the other boy’s gaze meets his and his mouth is set in a hard line. Drake furrows his brows but shrugs and enters the movie room. It isn’t until later that he realizes why Josh was scowling at him.
+
He never really meant to start using Steve. That’s not true. He did. Steve is Josh’s weakness and Drake is fully aware of this. His brother is much more protective of the other man than he really should be and Drake knows that whenever they work together Josh always has one eye on the other man. He’s always at least somewhat aware of what he’s doing and who he’s with.
That’s why he had been scowling at him the other day. He knows that Drake doesn’t like Steve, has never really liked Steve, and he wasn’t happy with the fact that the smaller boy had been talking to him when Josh wasn’t there to intervene.
But the way Drake sees it is if he starts hanging around Steve more often then Josh will at least have to acknowledge his presence. He’ll always be in the back of his brother’s mind which is a start and a heck of a lot more recognition than he’s getting now anyway.
So he did. He did mean to start using Steve. He just never meant for it to go as far as it did.
+
“So, Craze, uh, Steve,” Drake edges up to the snack bar and smiles brightly at the other man, “What goes on?” Taking a bite from the Oreo in his hand he glances around the rest of The Premiere, “Josh here?”
Looking up from the popcorn machine Steve tilts his head to the side and studies him for a moment before responding, “Yeah, he’s here,” He doesn’t mention the fact that he knows Drake is already fully aware of the fact that his brother is working today instead his glance shifts to the cookie in his hand, “Is that an Oreo?”
“What? Oh, yeah,” Offering the package to the taller man, who shakes his head, the singer shrugs, “I don’t see him anywhere,”
“I hate Oreos,”
Drake raises an eyebrow, startled, and looks back at him as he laughs, “What? Who hates Oreos?”
“Well, you see when I was younger my father wouldn’t let me have cookies. Fat kids didn’t need sweets he said. One time he caught me with a package of Oreos,” Steve stares at a spot somewhere over Drake’s shoulder and sighs, “it didn’t end well,”
“Uh, okay. Whatever, man.” Drake takes a step back away from the counter as he speaks. This is exactly why he never talks to Crazy Steve. The man is just weird.
Bringing his focus back to the boy in front of him Steve smiles gently, “But I’m guessing you didn’t come here to hear about my family troubles. You want some free tickets don’t you?”
As he’s speaking Drake’s attention is pulled to some sudden motion over his shoulder; Josh walking into the lobby from the back with an armful of cups.
“Yeah, yeah. Hold that thought,” He waves at Steve absentmindedly as he moves to intercept Josh’s path. “Oh hey, Josh!” Letting surprise flutter across his face for the briefest of seconds when he accidentally backs into his brother he smiles at him brightly, “What are you doing here?”
“I work here,” Josh replies, narrowing his eyes and setting the cups down, before glancing between his brother and his co-worker, “what are you doing?”
Drake keeps his smile in place as he answers cheerfully, “Oh, you know. Just hanging around, going to see a movie, having a nice chat with Steve,” Turning back to the other man he continues, “He was right in the middle of telling me why he hates Oreos,”
“Oh,” Josh’s smile is tight around the edges as he faces Steve, “well I could use a hand in the back, Steve. If you aren’t that busy,”
“Sure thing,” He hands Drake a ticket and grins at him, “Here you are,”
“Thanks, man,” Drake responds, pushes passed Josh and heads off towards the theaters leaving the other boy to stare after him as he shouts over his shoulder, “I’ll catch you later!”
+
So Steve isn’t that bad once you get to know him. Drake has grudgingly come to accept this over the past week or so as he spent more and more time with him. He’s kind of funny. Sometimes. He can be. And he’s really not that crazy. For the most part. He’s still kind of scary.
They’ve even had a handful of music conversations. As it turns out Steve knows some stuff about music. Who’d have thought that?
All in all he’s actually not that bad of company and Drake has almost started to enjoy spending time with him just to spend time with him outside of making Josh jealous. Almost.
“Can you believe those two?” Drake asks, huffing out a frustrated breath, “Being all kissy and what not. It’s gross,” Pulling a face he turns back to Steve, “Someone should do something,”
Steve’s brows are furrowed and he’s watching the couple intently. “But he’s happy,” his eyes meet Drake’s as he speaks with the question in his voice, “Why would you want to take that away from him?”
Because she’s not me Drake almost screams but he catches himself just in time and snatches the tickets from the other man’s hand, “Because it’s just not right,” he gives as an answer before narrowing his eyes and stalking away.
Did he mention that Steve is he’s actually insightful? More so than Drake would have thought.
And that’s kind of annoying.
+
“What are you doing with Steve?” Josh corners him in their room one afternoon and Drake’s heartbeat speeds up just from the way Josh is suddenly right there. Invading his space. Towering over him. Getting closer than he has since he started going out with Mindy.
“What?” He scrunches up his nose like he has no idea what his brother is talking about as he glances up from his guitar, “I’m not doing anything with Crazy Steve,” his fingers trip lightly across a few strings and he looks back down, concentrating on remember how to breathe, “He’s giving me tickets now that you’re to busy with Mindy,”
Josh doesn’t believe him. He can tell from the way the other boy is still standing rigidly in front of him with his fists gripped into unconscious fists until suddenly he’s gone just like that and Drake can breathe again. He looks up discreetly from under his lashes to watch Josh pacing back and forth across the room.
“What are you really doing?”
“I told you. Nothing,”
“Drake!” Josh throws his hands up in the air as he faces his brother and accuses angrily, “You hate Steve. Don’t tell me that you’re doing nothing.
Setting his guitar to the side Drake crosses his arms across his chest and sighs, “I don’t hate Steve. I just didn’t know him that well,”
“Oh, and so now you do know him well?”
“Well, yeah,” Drake shrugs, “I think I do,”
“Drake. If you hurt him,” The taller boy doesn’t finish his sentence, just trails off as he stares at his brother.
“Why would I hurt him?”
But Josh doesn’t respond. He shakes his head and runs a hand through his hair before turning and storming out of the room.
+
He’s hanging out by the popcorn machine, glaring at Josh and Mindy, when it happens. A customer approaches, asks a mundane question to Steve, and the other man snaps. He barks out a sharp answer and the woman backs warily away muttering, “never mind” as she leaves.
“Steve?” Drake turns around and rests his forearms on the counter, “What’s wrong?”
But Steve doesn’t answer him. He just stands still and breathes heavily through his nose. His face is anxious and his hands are clenching into fists and unclenching at his sides restlessly, like he doesn’t know what to do with them and Drake’s stomach drops.
“Um,” he spins around, quickly scans the room and squeaks out, “help?” but no one is paying them any attention and Josh is still busy talking to Mindy in one of the booths.
Slowly turning back around he assesses the situation. It’s not a bad episode, at least not yet, and he’s seen Josh deal with this like a thousand times before and while he’s never actually had to deal with it himself (he’s never really cared all that much) he’s fairly confident that he can take care of it now.
He’s closer to Steve than he used to be.
“Hey,” Drake snaps his fingers to get the other man’s attention and starts to sing, “She’ll be coming ‘round the mountain when she comes,” He inches around until he can approach the taller man without the barrier of the counter and reaches out his hand as he continues to sing softly.
Steve’s eyes meet his and Drake smiles encouragingly when he joins in and starts singing loud enough to draw attention from surrounding customers. Drake takes his hand gently, and smiles wider when the other man grips it tightly. From the corner of his eye he can see Josh standing as if he had been getting ready to dash over to help.
Except he didn’t come over because he didn’t need to. He wasn’t needed this time and Drake smirks just a bit before edging Steve towards the back of the lobby. When they get there Drake chances a look over his shoulder.
Josh is still standing there, poised to move, and he has this look of utter betrayal and hurt on his face which makes Drake feel the tiniest bit guilty. But then Mindy places her hand on the other boy’s shoulder and that guilt is gone.
He lets go of Steve’s hand and wraps an arm around his waist, in the guise of keeping him close, and leads him out of the lobby with a new smirk firmly in place.
+
“I want to thank you,” Steve announces before Drake even has a chance to greet him.
“Oh yeah?” Cocking his hip, he crosses his feet and leans against the counter as he questions the other man further, “what for?”
Steve’s face flushes and he ducks his head before muttering, “For helping me the other day,” Looking up and meeting Drake’s eyes, face turning redder, he slowly admits, “Josh is the only one who can do that usually. No one else… has been able to get it right,”
Shrugging, and ignoring the thrill that races through him with those words, Drake glances nonchalantly around the room, “S’no problem, man.” He can feel Josh’s eyes burning a hole into the back of his neck and he smirks, “Just glad I could be of help,”
“Yeah, well. I really appreciate it,” Steve is looking at him with this look on his face, and Drake knows that look. He knows that look well. All of the girls he’s ever dated, or even just kissed, have had that look. It’s a look that says ‘Drake Parker, you’re something amazing’.
But it looks different on Steve. It looks… genuine and like it means something. And it makes a guilty pit form in his stomach. But he knows an advantage when he sees one and he knows that Josh is still staring at them. So he does the thing he always does when someone has that look.
He leans up on his tiptoes, grins just slightly, and presses his lips gently against Steve’s. He lets the kiss continue just long enough for it to qualify as something more than a peck but pulls away, plucking the tickets from Steve’s fingers, when he feels the other man’s mouth start to open.
“No problem,” he says, “and thanks.” Stepping away he smiles at Steve again before heading towards the back.
He doesn’t even dare a glance over his shoulder at his brother.
+
“What you did today was completely out of line,” Josh’s voice is low and deadly serious as he stands in front of his brother with his arms crossed. He’s glowering and Drake knows he’s fucked up pretty bad. He’s never seen his brother this angry before.
And the part that sucks the most about all of this is that Drake is pretty mad at himself. He knows what he did was wrong. It wasn’t fair to Steve, who never did anything to him, but he keeps his face neutral when he silently meets Josh’s eyes.
“Why are you doing this? Is this because of the ticket thing? Because I wouldn’t give you a ticket?”
But Drake remains silent, refusing to admit anything, and moves his gazes back to the ground.
“No, that’s not it,” Josh says slowly, watching Drake with a guarded expression, “this is because of something else. This is because of Mindy isn’t it?” The smaller boy flinches and Josh’s eyes narrow even more, “Drake. You can’t use Steve because you’re mad at Mindy!”
“I’m not mad at Mindy!” Drake finally explodes, “It’s you! I’m mad at you!” Pushing at Josh’s chest he worms his way out from between him and the wall and paces to the other side of the room. “You’re never around anymore. You’re always with her. You never want to just hang out, and, and, you aren’t acting like my brother anymore! What else was I supposed to do?”
Josh doesn’t say anything for a long moment, but when he does it’s very soft, “Anything. Anything else. You could have talked to me.” His eyes are sad when they meet the singer’s, “You’re going to hurt him,”
“I know! Okay? I know,” Drake collapses on the couch and covers his face in his hands. He feels the couch cushion dip as his brother sits down beside him and the next thing he knows Josh’s arms are open and he’s moving into them, gripping his shirt and burying his face into the other boy’s shoulder.
God, he’s missed this.
Quietly Josh asks, “If I stop spending so much time with her do you promise to leave Steve alone?”
Against his chest Drake nods.
+
“Hey, Steve,” He approaches the counter slowly and shoves his hands into his pockets.
The other man’s face noticeably brightens when he sees the other boy and only succeeds in making Drake feel like a bigger asshole, “Hey, Drake!” He pauses when he sees Drake’s face and asks, “What happened?”
“I don’t think I can accept tickets from you anymore,” It comes out before he has a chance to stop it, and he freezes, scared of Steve’s reaction.
But the other man doesn’t do anything. He looks at Drake, considering, and asks, “Why not?”
“I just. I don’t feel like its right,”
Steve studies him, and then his scrutiny shifts to where Josh is sitting with Mindy. “I see,” he says slowly, “so you two made up then?”
“Uh,” Drake ducks his head, letting his hair fall in front of his face as he shrugs, “yeah. I guess we did. Kind of,”
“Good.”
Raising an eyebrow, Drake says, “Uh, yeah. So, I guess I’ll see you around?” He raises his hand in a half wave, feeling more than a little bit bewildered at Steve’s response, and heads back to where his brother is sitting.
“Hi, Drake,” Mindy smiles at him when he reaches them and moves over to make room next to Josh for him to sit down.
Giving her a tentative smile back he settles back against his seat and relishes the feeling of Josh’s thigh pressed warm and solid against his.
fin.
I don't know. Maybe one of these days I'll write a normal D&J fic. LOL.
Fandom: Drake and Josh
Rating: PG13
Pairing: Drake/Steve, Josh/Mindy, Steve/Josh if you want to see it. Josh/Drake.
Warning: Slashy boy things such as boys kissing and boys liking boys.
Disclaimer: I don't own Drake and Josh or anything in Dan Schneider worlds.
Word Count: 2952
Summary: Josh is his, has always been his, and he’s more than determined to get him back.
Note: for dans_backhouse ticket prompt. Took me longer than it should have thanks to being sick and real life getting in the way. Thanks, real life. The title is a bastardized lyric from You Might Have Noticed by The Academy Is. The real lyric is what was once us now never was.
Note2: thanks for the beta, modern_epitaph
Drake hates Mindy Crenshaw. Really hates her, and not just because she tried to get him kicked out of school (which honestly he didn’t think was that bad of an idea because hey, no more Mrs. Hafer), but because she has Josh.
She’s dating Josh. Dating. Which means she’s at the house all the time and all of Josh’s spare time is focused on her. All the time he used to spend with Drake is now placed elsewhere and Drake doesn’t like it. Not one bit.
Josh is his, has always been his, and he’s more than determined to get him back.
+
“Drake, I’m busy,” the exasperation in his brother’s voice is like crystal, “you don’t need free tickets right this second,”
“Joshie,” Drake pleads, all but sitting in the taller boy’s lap, “please? The movie starts soon,”
Josh glances over at Mindy, who shrugs, and then back at Drake as he rolls his eyes. “No,” he says forcefully, “now get off of me and quit interrupting us!” Somehow he manages to shake the smaller boy off and turns back to his girlfriend.
“Well, fine,” Wrinkling his nose Drake stares down at the two of them, “don’t give me free tickets then. See if I need you!” Stalking over to the ticket counter he slouches against the wall and sulks, grumbling all the while. “Stupid Josh won’t give me free tickets. Too busy for me now. Stupid Mindy,” He makes another face at the pair and continues to mutter, “never wants to hang out anymore. Never around. Stupid both of them,”
“I can,”
Drake bolts to a more upright position as he tries to not have a heart attack, “What?” he asks when he’s fairly sure he’s not going to die.
“Give you free tickets,” Steve is watching him, cautiously, “I can do that,”
He brightens a little bit at this. “Yeah?” Glancing back over at Josh he asks, “You can?”
“Sure,”
“Awesome. Thanks, man,”
When he looks back at Josh again before entering the theater the other boy’s gaze meets his and his mouth is set in a hard line. Drake furrows his brows but shrugs and enters the movie room. It isn’t until later that he realizes why Josh was scowling at him.
+
He never really meant to start using Steve. That’s not true. He did. Steve is Josh’s weakness and Drake is fully aware of this. His brother is much more protective of the other man than he really should be and Drake knows that whenever they work together Josh always has one eye on the other man. He’s always at least somewhat aware of what he’s doing and who he’s with.
That’s why he had been scowling at him the other day. He knows that Drake doesn’t like Steve, has never really liked Steve, and he wasn’t happy with the fact that the smaller boy had been talking to him when Josh wasn’t there to intervene.
But the way Drake sees it is if he starts hanging around Steve more often then Josh will at least have to acknowledge his presence. He’ll always be in the back of his brother’s mind which is a start and a heck of a lot more recognition than he’s getting now anyway.
So he did. He did mean to start using Steve. He just never meant for it to go as far as it did.
+
“So, Craze, uh, Steve,” Drake edges up to the snack bar and smiles brightly at the other man, “What goes on?” Taking a bite from the Oreo in his hand he glances around the rest of The Premiere, “Josh here?”
Looking up from the popcorn machine Steve tilts his head to the side and studies him for a moment before responding, “Yeah, he’s here,” He doesn’t mention the fact that he knows Drake is already fully aware of the fact that his brother is working today instead his glance shifts to the cookie in his hand, “Is that an Oreo?”
“What? Oh, yeah,” Offering the package to the taller man, who shakes his head, the singer shrugs, “I don’t see him anywhere,”
“I hate Oreos,”
Drake raises an eyebrow, startled, and looks back at him as he laughs, “What? Who hates Oreos?”
“Well, you see when I was younger my father wouldn’t let me have cookies. Fat kids didn’t need sweets he said. One time he caught me with a package of Oreos,” Steve stares at a spot somewhere over Drake’s shoulder and sighs, “it didn’t end well,”
“Uh, okay. Whatever, man.” Drake takes a step back away from the counter as he speaks. This is exactly why he never talks to Crazy Steve. The man is just weird.
Bringing his focus back to the boy in front of him Steve smiles gently, “But I’m guessing you didn’t come here to hear about my family troubles. You want some free tickets don’t you?”
As he’s speaking Drake’s attention is pulled to some sudden motion over his shoulder; Josh walking into the lobby from the back with an armful of cups.
“Yeah, yeah. Hold that thought,” He waves at Steve absentmindedly as he moves to intercept Josh’s path. “Oh hey, Josh!” Letting surprise flutter across his face for the briefest of seconds when he accidentally backs into his brother he smiles at him brightly, “What are you doing here?”
“I work here,” Josh replies, narrowing his eyes and setting the cups down, before glancing between his brother and his co-worker, “what are you doing?”
Drake keeps his smile in place as he answers cheerfully, “Oh, you know. Just hanging around, going to see a movie, having a nice chat with Steve,” Turning back to the other man he continues, “He was right in the middle of telling me why he hates Oreos,”
“Oh,” Josh’s smile is tight around the edges as he faces Steve, “well I could use a hand in the back, Steve. If you aren’t that busy,”
“Sure thing,” He hands Drake a ticket and grins at him, “Here you are,”
“Thanks, man,” Drake responds, pushes passed Josh and heads off towards the theaters leaving the other boy to stare after him as he shouts over his shoulder, “I’ll catch you later!”
+
So Steve isn’t that bad once you get to know him. Drake has grudgingly come to accept this over the past week or so as he spent more and more time with him. He’s kind of funny. Sometimes. He can be. And he’s really not that crazy. For the most part. He’s still kind of scary.
They’ve even had a handful of music conversations. As it turns out Steve knows some stuff about music. Who’d have thought that?
All in all he’s actually not that bad of company and Drake has almost started to enjoy spending time with him just to spend time with him outside of making Josh jealous. Almost.
“Can you believe those two?” Drake asks, huffing out a frustrated breath, “Being all kissy and what not. It’s gross,” Pulling a face he turns back to Steve, “Someone should do something,”
Steve’s brows are furrowed and he’s watching the couple intently. “But he’s happy,” his eyes meet Drake’s as he speaks with the question in his voice, “Why would you want to take that away from him?”
Because she’s not me Drake almost screams but he catches himself just in time and snatches the tickets from the other man’s hand, “Because it’s just not right,” he gives as an answer before narrowing his eyes and stalking away.
Did he mention that Steve is he’s actually insightful? More so than Drake would have thought.
And that’s kind of annoying.
+
“What are you doing with Steve?” Josh corners him in their room one afternoon and Drake’s heartbeat speeds up just from the way Josh is suddenly right there. Invading his space. Towering over him. Getting closer than he has since he started going out with Mindy.
“What?” He scrunches up his nose like he has no idea what his brother is talking about as he glances up from his guitar, “I’m not doing anything with Crazy Steve,” his fingers trip lightly across a few strings and he looks back down, concentrating on remember how to breathe, “He’s giving me tickets now that you’re to busy with Mindy,”
Josh doesn’t believe him. He can tell from the way the other boy is still standing rigidly in front of him with his fists gripped into unconscious fists until suddenly he’s gone just like that and Drake can breathe again. He looks up discreetly from under his lashes to watch Josh pacing back and forth across the room.
“What are you really doing?”
“I told you. Nothing,”
“Drake!” Josh throws his hands up in the air as he faces his brother and accuses angrily, “You hate Steve. Don’t tell me that you’re doing nothing.
Setting his guitar to the side Drake crosses his arms across his chest and sighs, “I don’t hate Steve. I just didn’t know him that well,”
“Oh, and so now you do know him well?”
“Well, yeah,” Drake shrugs, “I think I do,”
“Drake. If you hurt him,” The taller boy doesn’t finish his sentence, just trails off as he stares at his brother.
“Why would I hurt him?”
But Josh doesn’t respond. He shakes his head and runs a hand through his hair before turning and storming out of the room.
+
He’s hanging out by the popcorn machine, glaring at Josh and Mindy, when it happens. A customer approaches, asks a mundane question to Steve, and the other man snaps. He barks out a sharp answer and the woman backs warily away muttering, “never mind” as she leaves.
“Steve?” Drake turns around and rests his forearms on the counter, “What’s wrong?”
But Steve doesn’t answer him. He just stands still and breathes heavily through his nose. His face is anxious and his hands are clenching into fists and unclenching at his sides restlessly, like he doesn’t know what to do with them and Drake’s stomach drops.
“Um,” he spins around, quickly scans the room and squeaks out, “help?” but no one is paying them any attention and Josh is still busy talking to Mindy in one of the booths.
Slowly turning back around he assesses the situation. It’s not a bad episode, at least not yet, and he’s seen Josh deal with this like a thousand times before and while he’s never actually had to deal with it himself (he’s never really cared all that much) he’s fairly confident that he can take care of it now.
He’s closer to Steve than he used to be.
“Hey,” Drake snaps his fingers to get the other man’s attention and starts to sing, “She’ll be coming ‘round the mountain when she comes,” He inches around until he can approach the taller man without the barrier of the counter and reaches out his hand as he continues to sing softly.
Steve’s eyes meet his and Drake smiles encouragingly when he joins in and starts singing loud enough to draw attention from surrounding customers. Drake takes his hand gently, and smiles wider when the other man grips it tightly. From the corner of his eye he can see Josh standing as if he had been getting ready to dash over to help.
Except he didn’t come over because he didn’t need to. He wasn’t needed this time and Drake smirks just a bit before edging Steve towards the back of the lobby. When they get there Drake chances a look over his shoulder.
Josh is still standing there, poised to move, and he has this look of utter betrayal and hurt on his face which makes Drake feel the tiniest bit guilty. But then Mindy places her hand on the other boy’s shoulder and that guilt is gone.
He lets go of Steve’s hand and wraps an arm around his waist, in the guise of keeping him close, and leads him out of the lobby with a new smirk firmly in place.
+
“I want to thank you,” Steve announces before Drake even has a chance to greet him.
“Oh yeah?” Cocking his hip, he crosses his feet and leans against the counter as he questions the other man further, “what for?”
Steve’s face flushes and he ducks his head before muttering, “For helping me the other day,” Looking up and meeting Drake’s eyes, face turning redder, he slowly admits, “Josh is the only one who can do that usually. No one else… has been able to get it right,”
Shrugging, and ignoring the thrill that races through him with those words, Drake glances nonchalantly around the room, “S’no problem, man.” He can feel Josh’s eyes burning a hole into the back of his neck and he smirks, “Just glad I could be of help,”
“Yeah, well. I really appreciate it,” Steve is looking at him with this look on his face, and Drake knows that look. He knows that look well. All of the girls he’s ever dated, or even just kissed, have had that look. It’s a look that says ‘Drake Parker, you’re something amazing’.
But it looks different on Steve. It looks… genuine and like it means something. And it makes a guilty pit form in his stomach. But he knows an advantage when he sees one and he knows that Josh is still staring at them. So he does the thing he always does when someone has that look.
He leans up on his tiptoes, grins just slightly, and presses his lips gently against Steve’s. He lets the kiss continue just long enough for it to qualify as something more than a peck but pulls away, plucking the tickets from Steve’s fingers, when he feels the other man’s mouth start to open.
“No problem,” he says, “and thanks.” Stepping away he smiles at Steve again before heading towards the back.
He doesn’t even dare a glance over his shoulder at his brother.
+
“What you did today was completely out of line,” Josh’s voice is low and deadly serious as he stands in front of his brother with his arms crossed. He’s glowering and Drake knows he’s fucked up pretty bad. He’s never seen his brother this angry before.
And the part that sucks the most about all of this is that Drake is pretty mad at himself. He knows what he did was wrong. It wasn’t fair to Steve, who never did anything to him, but he keeps his face neutral when he silently meets Josh’s eyes.
“Why are you doing this? Is this because of the ticket thing? Because I wouldn’t give you a ticket?”
But Drake remains silent, refusing to admit anything, and moves his gazes back to the ground.
“No, that’s not it,” Josh says slowly, watching Drake with a guarded expression, “this is because of something else. This is because of Mindy isn’t it?” The smaller boy flinches and Josh’s eyes narrow even more, “Drake. You can’t use Steve because you’re mad at Mindy!”
“I’m not mad at Mindy!” Drake finally explodes, “It’s you! I’m mad at you!” Pushing at Josh’s chest he worms his way out from between him and the wall and paces to the other side of the room. “You’re never around anymore. You’re always with her. You never want to just hang out, and, and, you aren’t acting like my brother anymore! What else was I supposed to do?”
Josh doesn’t say anything for a long moment, but when he does it’s very soft, “Anything. Anything else. You could have talked to me.” His eyes are sad when they meet the singer’s, “You’re going to hurt him,”
“I know! Okay? I know,” Drake collapses on the couch and covers his face in his hands. He feels the couch cushion dip as his brother sits down beside him and the next thing he knows Josh’s arms are open and he’s moving into them, gripping his shirt and burying his face into the other boy’s shoulder.
God, he’s missed this.
Quietly Josh asks, “If I stop spending so much time with her do you promise to leave Steve alone?”
Against his chest Drake nods.
+
“Hey, Steve,” He approaches the counter slowly and shoves his hands into his pockets.
The other man’s face noticeably brightens when he sees the other boy and only succeeds in making Drake feel like a bigger asshole, “Hey, Drake!” He pauses when he sees Drake’s face and asks, “What happened?”
“I don’t think I can accept tickets from you anymore,” It comes out before he has a chance to stop it, and he freezes, scared of Steve’s reaction.
But the other man doesn’t do anything. He looks at Drake, considering, and asks, “Why not?”
“I just. I don’t feel like its right,”
Steve studies him, and then his scrutiny shifts to where Josh is sitting with Mindy. “I see,” he says slowly, “so you two made up then?”
“Uh,” Drake ducks his head, letting his hair fall in front of his face as he shrugs, “yeah. I guess we did. Kind of,”
“Good.”
Raising an eyebrow, Drake says, “Uh, yeah. So, I guess I’ll see you around?” He raises his hand in a half wave, feeling more than a little bit bewildered at Steve’s response, and heads back to where his brother is sitting.
“Hi, Drake,” Mindy smiles at him when he reaches them and moves over to make room next to Josh for him to sit down.
Giving her a tentative smile back he settles back against his seat and relishes the feeling of Josh’s thigh pressed warm and solid against his.
fin.
I don't know. Maybe one of these days I'll write a normal D&J fic. LOL.