FIC: Star Trek RPS - Our Thing (2/2)

[the_deep_magic]

Title: Our Thing (2/2)
Author: the_deep_magic
Pairing: Pinto
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 10,464
Warnings/Promises: semi-public bj, frotting, mirrors, bits o’ angst, mutual masturbation
Disclaimer: I do not know these gentlemen, but it pleases me to tell you lies about them.
Summary: In which Chris is unduly tense and Zach is willing to help…
A/N: See part one

Chris had his pride.  Not much of it, but he did.  Enough to completely stonewall Zach on the way to the airport and through their flight back to LA, which would have been much more effective if Zach hadn’t been doing the same thing.  Fortunately, most of their cast mates seemed too hung over to notice, and they had all been together long enough for little tensions to crop up anyway.

This didn’t feel like a little thing, though, not when Zach grabbed his bags and left, saying goodbye to everyone but giving Chris naught but a silent, curt handshake.  Chris was still in a bit of a daze when he stumbled into his apartment, dropping his bags on the floor and falling straight into bed.  He slept uneasily, his eyes popping wide open at precisely 4:03 am.  He floated for a while in the twilight zone between tired enough to sleep and alert enough to actually get up.

He replayed the events of the past few weeks in his head, trying to pinpoint the exact moment he had fucked up.  Sure, okay, he supposed saying another man’s name in the heat of passion was some kind of boundary-crossing event, but then again, Zach had been so casual about his initial offer in the first place.  Chris hardly knew why that particular detail would bother him, not after sucking Chris off in most of the major European countries.  Their thing had been working, too, until Chris had (apparently) so rudely insisted upon returning the favor.  What kind of twisted logic was that?

They had another five days before they had to get back on a plane and do it all over again in Tokyo, and Chris spent most of that time trying very hard not to think about Zach.  He was actually succeeding by the time he had to re-pack his bag.  He planned a strategy on the way to the airport - quietly take Zach aside and apologize, ask if things could go back to how they had been, and promise he would never offer to touch Zach again.  That seemed to address all major points of contention.

Except that Zach was waiting for him at the airport with a smile and a hug, which confused Chris so completely that he nearly left his luggage alone on the curb.

“Chris, are those your bags?” Zach asked, looking genuinely concerned.  “Because if you leave them alone, you won’t have any clean underwear in Japan.  Oh, and they’ll probably put the whole airport into lockdown.”

But everyone else seemed to be acting normally.  Anton was hopping around like a puppy, asking Karl if they really sold tentacle porn in every convenience store over there.  Eric and John were both on the phone with their wives, assuring they’d call as soon as they touched down in Tokyo.  Zoe and Zach were chattering on like old girlfriends, and if Zoe noticed something odd, she sure wasn’t showing it.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), he was sitting next to John, not Zach, on the plane.  He risked asking whether John had talked to Zach at all since Europe.

“Nope,” said John.  “Something up?”

“I don’t know.  Did he seem… weird to you on the flight back?”

“Chris, the only reason I made it through the flight without my head exploding was all the little bottles of vodka I swiped from the flight attendant’s cart.  I couldn’t even tell you who sat next to me.”

Then John got out his phone and showed Chris the obligatory kid pictures, which was actually a tolerable experience since it was John and he had a hilarious story to go with nearly every picture.  After that, they passed John’s Nintendo DS back and forth, playing alternate levels of the original Super Mario Bros.  Chris wouldn’t have admitted it except under torture, but he kind of wanted to be John when he grew up.  If he grew up.

After dinner had been cleared away and Princess Peach had been saved, Chris saw a hand come to rest on John’s shoulder and when he looked up, sure enough, it was Zach.

“Hey, can I switch with you for a bit?”

“Depends,” said John, looking deadly serious.  “Who are you sitting with?”

“Zoe.”

John appeared to think it over.  “Acceptable.”  He popped up and Zach sat down, and Chris braced himself.

“Hey, Chris, look, I’m sorry for freaking out on you.”

Chris eyed him suspiciously.  “Is that what that was?”

“Yeah.  It’s my fault - I shouldn’t have let it get that far.”  He looked truly repentant, and Chris wasn’t sure how to take that.  He was glad Zach had apologized for storming out, but he wasn’t about to accept an apology for… what, letting Zach let him give him a hand job?

But Zach was talking to him again, looking like he wanted to forget that night and continue on like they had been, so Chris let it slide.  “Hey, don’t worry about it.  I think we just spent too much time together, got on each other’s nerves.”

“Yeah,” said Zach, a little too quickly.  “Let’s just forget about it.”

“Sounds good to me,” Chris said.  And then, without thinking, he asked, “So… our thing?  We’re still on for that tomorrow morning.  Or night.  Or whatever time it is before our next interview, right?”

He couldn’t miss the way Zach’s jaw tightened as he said, “Um… no.”

“No?”

“Look, Chris,” Zach said, leaning in and folding his legs up under him in the seat.  “I can’t… I can’t be your crutch, alright?  You’ve done tons of these interviews, and you know you’ll do tons more in your career, and I’m obviously not going to be there for all of them.  You need to know you can do this on your own.  I know you can - you’re so good in front of the camera, even with the whackjob interviewers.  You don’t need my help anymore.”

It sounded the slightest bit rehearsed, and Zach’s accompanying smile looked like it had been practiced in a mirror.  Chris’ heart started to sink before he caught himself.  The nervousness - that’s what this had been about.  So he wasn’t getting pre-interview hand and/or blowjobs anymore.   So what?  If he wanted to, he could go out and find any number of women willing to provide that service.  Sure, they might not be quite as good at it as Zach, but a blowjob was like pizza, right?  Even when it’s not great, it’s still not bad.  But Zach was right - he shouldn’t become dependent on sex as a way of banishing jitters.  It probably wasn’t healthy.

“Okay,” Chris said cheerfully.  “I guess that makes sense.”

Zach looked immeasurably relieved, and Chris didn’t take it personally.  No reason to.  “Good,” Zach said.  “Oh, and I’ve got Bananagrams in my carry-on.”

Chris smiled, genuinely this time.  “Bring it, Quinto.”

&&&

The interviews went fine - better than fine, actually - and no one was more surprised than Chris.  The nausea was there at the beginning, but he got through it without Zach laying a hand on him.  The only problem was that his body’s conditioned response to an interview situation was an extremely inconvenient erection.  He managed to keep it in check, but that didn’t stop his abs from clenching reflexively whenever Zach’s hands moved or he pursed his lips or… did much of anything, really.  But it had the surprising upshot of keeping Chris from overthinking what he said.  Damned if he wasn’t still relying on Zach to get him through the interview.

He expected the problem to go away once he got away from Zach, but it didn’t.  He finally got some relief when they all scattered to their various hotel rooms to get ready for a night out.  His belt was unbuckled before the door slammed shut, his pants and boxers shoved to his knees by the time he got to the bed.  It was no use pretending he was thinking about that hot interviewer or the concierge with the cleavage - his brain refused to compromise, shooting straight to the image of Zach, on his knees, his tongue teasing Chris’ cock mercilessly.  He came with Zach’s name on his lips again and laid there in the aftermath, trying to figure out just what the hell was going on.

It was the pounding on his door that shocked him out of his revelry, and he yanked his pants back up so fast he nearly maimed himself.  “WHAT?!” he shouted at the door.

“We’re leaving in, like, twenty minutes,” Anton shouted right back.

“I still need to shower,” Chris said, a little quieter now that he was standing right next to the door.

“Make it fast.”

He showered in record time, then spent nearly ten minutes staring at his suitcase deciding what to wear.  Then mentally kicked his own ass for spending so much time on it, then changed twice until he settled on jeans and a soft grey shirt.  The thought of facing Zach again so soon made him irrationally nervous, but they’d been planning karaoke night since they found out Tokyo was on the list of tour stops.  He was just going to have to tough it out.

&&&

Turned out that the hardest part of “toughing it out” was not interacting with Zach, but trying to retain his dignity while his cast mates and former friends forced him to sing a Disney princess medley and videotaped him while doing so.  He ended on “Part of Your World,” dropping to his knees as he belted out that last note.  Everyone sat stunned for a second (What, they didn’t think he could sing?  He was a classically trained actor, he could fucking sing) before bursting out into whoops and applause, none louder than Zach.

By the time he returned to his seat, Simon had already started in on a particularly loud Spice Girls song accompanied by Anton and John on the tambourines, so Zach had to pull him close to tell him, “That was fucking inspired, man!”  And he couldn’t know what he was doing to Chris’ insides - could he? - as his lips brushed Chris’ ears when he said, “You have got to do musical theater.”  Because that wasn’t their thing.

Fuck their thing.  It was good - had been good - but it was over now, and it wouldn’t have been enough anyway.  They needed a new thing.  Now.  Right now, before Zach got any drunker and Chris got any soberer.

“Those goddamn tambourines are gonna give me a migraine,” he all but shouted into Zach’s ear.  It was actually the truth.  “I’m gonna go back to the hotel.  Come with?”

Zach spared a moment to look around the room, coinciding nicely with the exact moment Simon hit a high note and Anton took the tambourining into overdrive.  “Yes.  Please.”

They slipped out, making for the subway.  Once on the train, Chris started up a bit where he pretended not to hear Zach over the ringing of his ears, but they quickly got the evil eye from so many commuting businessmen that they quieted down.

“We are those people that everyone complains about,” Zach moaned once they were back on street level, walking towards the hotel.  “We’re the obnoxious Americans.”

“To be fair, the standard of complete and utter silence in a subway car is tough to maintain,” Chris posited.

“That what you’re going with?”

“Yup.”

They lapsed into companionable silence through the hotel lobby and up the elevator.  “My room or yours?” Chris asked.

“Mine,” Zach said without hesitation.

“That was quick.  Got something against my room?”

“No.  But I have shitloads of Pocky and those Koala Yummies and about three gallons of C.C. Lemon.”

“Your room it is, then,” Chris said cheerfully.

Half an hour later, they were both sprawled on the bed, surrounded by candy wrappers.  “Remind me never to move to Japan,” Zach groaned.  “I’ll get fat and they won’t let me be Spock anymore.”

“How do they do it?” Chris wondered aloud, licking the Japanese version of peanut butter off his fingers.  It was more like peanut-flavored marshmallow cream than peanut butter.  “Have all this around and not turn into bloated heifers like Americans do?”

“Hmmm.  I could say something intelligent about our Puritanical roots fucking us up by insisting on abstinence instead of moderation, the unrealistic expectations leading to total gluttony… orrrrrrrrr I could continue staring at the ceiling.”

“Ceiling’s nice,” mused Chris, letting his arm fall back to the bed.  By accident, his hand landed against Zach’s and the older man silently flinched away.  Chris couldn’t take it anymore.  “Zach?”

“Mmm?”

“Why’d you run out on me?”

“Huh?”

“In London.  You know what I’m talking about.”

“I already apologized for that.”

“I know.  And I forgive you; I just want to know why.”

“Chris…”  Zach trailed off, and Chris let the silence drag on until Zach had to speak up again.  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Tough shit,” said Chris, wrappers crinkling under him as he rolled on his side to face the other man.  “Was I that bad?”

Zach didn’t take his eyes off the ceiling.  “No, it was…  It’s not about that.”

“Then what’s it about?  I thought we had a good thing going on.”

“We did.  Fuck,” Zach groaned, a hand coming up to rub harshly at his eyes.  “And it’s my fault for starting it in the first place.  Look, I thought I could just, I don’t know, give you something.  And that would be enough.  But it wasn’t.”

“See, that’s why I was trying to even things up, why I insisted on-”

“I’m not talking orgasms, you daft bastard.”

“Well then, what the fuck are you talking about?” Chris asked, stumped.  “Because I’m sure as hell not getting it.”

“Are you really going to make me say it?”

“Say what?”

“I couldn’t do it, alright!” Zach all but shouted, sitting up abruptly, his eyes boring holes into Chris still down on the bed.  “I couldn’t touch you and hear the sounds you made and watch you come without wanting more!  And you can’t give me more, so I just had to end it.  For my own sanity, Chris.  Do you get that?”

It felt like old, rusty gears were cranking to life in Chris’ head.  “So, you… wanted me?  Want me?  And were trying to settle for, what, Diet Chris?”

“Jesus tapdancing Christ,” Zach moaned.  “I don’t want to fucking talk about this.”

Chris understood Zach’s frustration, he really did, but the lights were starting to turn on and Chris wasn’t about to let it drop.  “So what was it that freaked you out?  Help me understand!”

“You touched me!  Goddamn it, Chris, you’re straight.  You don’t do that.  You can’t jerk me off and hump my ass and say my fucking name when you come and not expect me to have a nervous breakdown!”

It all fell into place, and Chris felt like a particularly slow child.  “So… the problem is… that I’m straight?”

Zach fisted his hands in his hair, looking like he was ready to tear it out.  “No, the problem is that you have the most inconsistent fucking stage fright in the history of acting and I, like the utter jackass that I am, offered to give you a hand job.  Now if you will please leave and leave me to my own self-loathing-”

Just then Chris’ hand shot out and grabbed Zach by the front of the shirt, yanking him down until his lips were planted squarely on the younger man’s.  Quite frankly, it surprised even Chris, but Zach had been saying something and Chris couldn’t hear the words, could only see the movements of Zach’s lips and wanted suddenly to kiss him.  It was a terrible kiss, their faces mashed together and Zach flailing on top of Chris, but it was Zach and he tasted like strawberry Pocky.

“-the fuck?” gasped Zach when Chris finally let go of him.

“Let’s try this again,” Chris said determinedly, rolling and maneuvering until he and Zach lay side by side.  “I’m going to kiss you now,” he said, plucking an errant candy wrapper from Zach’s hair.  The older man just nodded, utterly bewildered, and Chris tugged him by the back of the neck - gently this time - until their lips met.

Much, much better.  Zach’s lips were softer than Chris expected and unyielding at first, until Chris ran his tongue across Zach’s lower lip and hummed inquiringly into the kiss.  Then Zach opened to him - slow, tentative, oddly sweet.  God, it was good.  Why the hell hadn’t they been doing this all along?  Chris shifted in even closer, wrapping a hand under Zach’s arm to pull their chests together.  Zach tightened his fingers in Chris’ hair then, holding him as if Chris would pull away at any moment.  Finally, Chris did have to come up for air and had to struggle briefly in Zach’s grip, push back against his chest before the older man would let him go.

Chris propped himself up on his elbow to look down at Zach, whose eyes were squeezed tightly shut.  “Chris,” he whispered, as pleading as Chris had ever heard him.  “Don’t fuck with me.  Please.  I can’t take it.”

“I’m not,” Chris said, biting down hard on his lower lip.  “I’ve been an idiot, but not a malicious idiot.  Look at me, please.”

Zach opened his eyes and he looked so lost, his lips so temptingly wet and swollen that Chris couldn’t help but kiss him again.  “What do you want from me?” Zach murmured against his mouth.

“Our thing.  What we had before.  But maybe with… additions.”

“Like what?”

“This.  Kissing.  This is good,” Chris whispered, letting his lips ghost over Zach’s cheek, his jaw, up to the tender patch of skin beneath his ear.  “And I want to be able to touch you, too.  And watch you.”

“But you’re…” Zach trailed off, squirming a little as Chris’ lips made their way down his neck.  “God, this sounds facile, but you’re straight.”

“Well, yeah.” Chris grinned against Zach’s skin.  “But I’ve been considering… heteroflexibility.”

Zach stiffened beneath him and Chris pulled back to look the other man in the eye.  “I can’t- I wish I could say I won’t be your experiment,” Zach said, his voice strained.  “But if you ask me, I won’t say no.  You need to know that if this doesn’t work out, if we try and you decide you can’t do this, I won’t be able to just shrug that off.  So just… think first.  Please.”

“Whatever happened to ‘it’s no big deal’?”

“Goddamn it, Chris-”

“Sorry, sorry!  Shit, I was trying to be funny and it wasn’t…” On impulse, Chris grabbed Zach’s hand, watching intently as his thumb rubbed the other man’s palm.  “I can’t promise you anything, but I can tell you - what happened in London, before you left, I liked that.  I liked it a lot.  I loved watching your face and it just felt right, all of it.  That means something, right?”

“Yeah,” Zach said slowly, sitting up and drawing Chris’ gaze.  “You’re comfortable with… what we did in London?  And you want more?”

“Well, I don’t know that I’m ready to, like, be tied down and take it up the ass or anything-”

Zach smacked him on the arm, but the corner of his lip was threatening to twitch up into a grin.  “It’s not all ass-ramming and bondage, you freak.”

“I know, I know!  And I’m not saying never, just… not yet?  So maybe let’s just pick up where we left off and go from there?”

Zach searched Chris’ eyes for a long moment, and Chris tried to project all the sincerity and desire he could.  “Okay,” Zach finally said, “but you need to learn how to say it.  I think we both do.  No more of this ‘thing’ bullshit.”

“Fine,” said Chris, taking a deep breath.  “I want to see your body.  I only got a glimpse before and I want to see all of you.  And then I want to touch you, to… to wrap my hand around your cock and watch your face as I stroke you.”

Zach was clutching Chris’ hand with considerable force now, his eyes closed and his breath rising in his chest like Chris was whispering the filthiest words right in his ear.  “I want the same, to touch you the same way,” he said, his eyes opening, pupils so wide that Chris could hardly see the brown iris around them.  “No more pretending it doesn’t make me crazy when you jerk and writhe under my hands.”

Chris nodded, words deserting him completely at the prospect of Zach no longer holding back on him.  His fingers went to the hem of his own shirt, but Zach got their first.  “Here, let me,” he said, tugging Chris’ shirt up and off.

Zach practically growled at the sight of Chris’ naked chest.  “God, you look good,” he murmured, so softly that Chris wasn’t sure he was meant to hear it.  Zach ran his hands down Chris’ sides, then let one hand drift across Chris’ belly so lightly that the touch made his abs clench with ticklishness.

“Careful,” Chris gasped as Zach brushed his thumb over the line of hair leading from Chris’ belly button down to the waistband of his jeans.  To Chris’ surprise, Zach’s hand stopped there, sliding back up to rub his palm deliberately over Chris’ nipple, making the younger man gasp.  Zach had never touched him like this before, a slow, calculated exploration of his body, forcing Chris to relish the anticipation of more.

He let it go on as long as he could stand.  Finally, when Zach’s fingers closed over a nipple, pinching the tightened bud, Chris whined deep in his throat and firmly pushed Zach away.  “Your turn now,” he said, crawling over the bed and pulling Zach up to a standing position.  He untucked Zach’s shirt and started on the buttons, face flushed, not quite able to meet Zach’s eyes.  It felt intimate, this slow unveiling of skin.  He pushed the shirt carefully over Zach’s shoulders and down his arms, pressing a kiss to the other man’s collarbone.

Chris let his fingers brush through the hair on Zach’s chest, a hand drifting down to feel the solidness of Zach’s ribs, the lean curve of his waist.  He froze there for a moment, suddenly unsure of what to do next now that the rules were gone.  Luckily, Zach was feeling impatient enough to lean in and kiss him again, pulling their bodies flush.  Chris gasped at the sudden closeness and Zach seized the opportunity to plunder Chris’ mouth, stealing the air from his lungs.

Zach wrapped an arm around the small of Chris’ back to steady them, and Chris suddenly became aware of the other man’s growing erection pressing into his hip.  He resisted his urge to grind against Zach - only partially because he didn’t want to ruin another pair of pants.  With great difficulty, he managed to stop kissing Zach long enough to gasp, “Pants off!”  Zach grinned and nodded, stealing one more kiss before concentrating on unbuckling his belt.

With shaking hands, Chris pushed his pants and boxers to his knees, picking them up to fold them instead of kicking them away like he normally would.  He couldn’t remember seeing Zach completely naked before and he was nervous.  Not that he wouldn’t find Zach attractive, but…  “Hey, Zach, if I laugh, please know it’s just nerves.”

Zach chuckled.  “Thanks for the warning, man.”

When Chris turned around, Zach was sitting comfortably on the side of the bed.  Not hiding, but not exactly displaying himself either.  “Take your time,” he said softly, and Chris looked.  And looked.  Zach’s legs were skinny (and hairy, of course) and his skin looked almost unnaturally pale compared to the flushed red of his cock, but he was gazing at Chris with such admiration and heat that the urge to laugh never bubbled up.

“Wh-what now?” Chris stammered, inwardly kicking himself for his smooth transition.

Zach bit his lip.  “I was thinking…”  He trailed off and got on his knees on the bed, sweeping the rest of the candy wrappers onto the floor before sitting back against his heels and motioning for Chris to do the same.  He shifted so they were facing each other and spread his knees just a little to slide one thigh between Chris’.  “We can see each other.”

Chris nodded, lost for words at the moment, and kissed Zach again before reaching for him as Zach did the same.  He held his palm out for Zach for a slow, wet lick and then took hold of Zach’s cock with a confidence he was trying desperately to feel.  Zach let him get a few good strokes in before palming Chris’ erection, pressing it up flat against his belly with a teasing caress before getting down to business.

It was so hard to focus with Zach’s expert hand on him - Chris had never been a multitasker, and his rhythm faltered whenever Zach twisted his wrist.  But he kept at it, drinking in the hunger in Zach’s eyes as he watched Chris’ face.  God, this was what had been missing, these lustful looks, the sounds they made, the way Zach’s hand sped up just a little when Chris thumbed the ridge of his cock.

Chris tried to hold on, but it was becoming too much.  He tilted forward, his forehead coming to rest against Zach’s.  “I can’t-” he gasped.  “I’m gonna-”

“’s okay,” Zach slurred, his own breath coming in pants hot against Chris’ lips.  “Do it.”

His grip slackened on Zach’s erection as the pressure building in his own body neared the breaking point.  For once, he didn’t try to hold back the soft ah, ah, ah that left his mouth at the apex of every perfect stroke of Zach’s hand.  “C’mon, beautiful,” Zach whispered.  “Come for me.”  And Chris did, moaning and spilling himself over Zach’s fist, clutching Zach’s shoulder tight with his free hand to anchor himself.  When Zach swallowed the last of Chris’ moans in a soul-deep kiss, a full-body shiver ran down the younger man’s spine.

“Good?” Zach whispered against Chris’ lips.

“Yeah,” Chris replied, willing the nerves in his arms back to order so he could grip Zach again properly.

As Chris gathered momentum, Zach’s hips jerked up and he gasped, “Chris, please.”

“Say it again,” Chris demanded softly, tightening his hand but slowing the pace.  “My name.”

“Chris,” Zach groaned.  “Wanted this for so long.  Feels so fucking good.  More, faster, please, Chris.”

Chris kissed him once, hard, then pulled back to see Zach’s face as he came.  He looked so sweetly vulnerable that Chris felt a hot surge of emotion hit him in the solar plexus.  Zach’s eyes were still closed, so he allowed himself a smile and a silent laugh - shit, he was in this so deep.

Zach rested his head on Chris’ shoulder as they both caught their breath, but soon Chris became aware of the sticky mess drying on his hand.  He was still pretty new to this whole thing, so he wasn’t sure what the proper procedure was here.  When Zach started to sit up, Chris reached over and grabbed the tissue box off the bedside table.

When Zach saw what Chris was doing, he laughed.  “At least you didn’t wipe it on the hotel comforter.  That would’ve been a dealbreaker.”  Then, still looking Chris straight in the eye, he brought his hand up to his face and stuck one long finger in his mouth, hollowing his cheeks as he sucked it clean.

“Fuck,” Chris groaned.  “Give a guy some recovery time.”

“Straight guys are so easy to mess with,” Zach chuckled, and Chris was glad to see the glint of mischief in his eyes.  “Okay, I’m sweaty and probably covered in Pocky crumbs - I’m gonna shower.”

“Wait, um, could we…?” Chris gestured awkwardly toward the bed as he stretched out, resting his head on a pillow.

“Never would’ve pegged you for a cuddler, Pine,” Zach said with a roll of his eyes, but he lay down next to Chris anyway, throwing an arm around his waist.

“Never really got the chance before,” Chris said, then suffered a sudden bout of nerves.  “That okay?”

“It’s fine.  Truth be told, I kind of missed it.”

“You romantic son of a bitch,” Chris said around a wide yawn.

“I can be when I feel like it.  Just don’t fall asleep on me before I get that shower.”

“Okay.”

Spent and happy, Chris promptly fell asleep.

&&&

They were walking up to the rest of the group for breakfast at the hotel restaurant when Zach froze and turned to Chris.  “We didn’t decide…  Are you comfortable telling people?  Do you want to keep it private?  Shit, we should’ve-”

“It’s okay,” Chris chuckled, surprised at his own calmness.  “We’ll just play it as we go.”  They got to the table, and as their friends looked up to greet them, Chris grabbed Zach’s collar and pulled him in for a hard, wet kiss.

Zoe cheered and John wolf-whistled.

“Goddamn it!” Karl said, yanking out his wallet and counting out bills.

“I’m so glad you ladies made it official,” said Simon, a greedy sparkle in his eye as he held out his hand to Karl.  “So very, very - two hundred, Karl, we went double or nothing after London - very glad.”

“Don’t embarrass them!” Zoe hissed and patted Anton gently on the back as he tried to dislodge the melon slice he’d just inhaled from his throat.

“Play it as we go, hmm?” Zach murmured accusingly at Chris, his threat mostly negated by the adorable blush creeping into his cheeks.

“I felt… inspired?” Chris hazarded as he plopped down in his chair.

Across the table, Zoe looked like she was bursting with questions, but fortunately she held back.  For now.  Chris was sure she’d get all the details out of Zach before noon.  Anton still looked a little startled, but everyone else seemed to have turned their attention back to breakfast and the conversations they’d been having before.

Chris only pouted a little.  “Thought we’d make more of a splash than that.  Cause a small riot, at least.”

“Sorry, sweetie, we’ll take out a full-page ad when we get home,” Zach groaned.

As he unfolded his napkin and laid it in his lap, Chris remembered something.  “Hey, Zach, you never told me what happened with that guy.”

“What guy?”

“The guy you told me about when we started all this.  The costume tech that, uh, gave you a hand before your show.”

“Oh, him,” Zach said lightly, eyes focused on the menu.  “We dated for two years.”

“Uh-huh.  And you didn’t mention it because…”

“Didn’t seem relevant at the time?”

“That what you’re gonna go with?”

“Yup.”