Verve Part Two
Title: Verve (part 2)
Beta: None.
Pairings: Joe/Nick, Joe/Meagan.
Word Count: 2155
Part One
Chapter Two: Fine-tuning.
It was a week later and they had just gotten back to school from checking out the competition when Joe pulled Nick aside. It had started as a gentle, bare elbow to a clothed arm. Joe was wearing jeans and a t-shirt while Nick was in tight black pants and a matching button down shirt, complete with tie. Despite the heat outside he suddenly had chills as Joe pulled him into a corner of the room. “Hey, Lucas, do you think you could help me practice over the weekend? I mean, you’re - well, you’re really good and I’m not.”
“Are you kidding me?” he asked, mouth hanging open. How could this wonderful, foolish boy think he wasn’t any good? “You’re incredible!” He stopped himself, “I mean, yeah, you could use a little fine-tuning, but you have an amazing voice.” While Joe did have that awesome voice, he wasn’t exactly practiced in vocal technique, proper breathing, etc. This was what Nick was talking about.
“Yeah, so, um . . . I don’t really know what you’re getting at by fine-tuning, but does that mean you’ll help me?” Nick blinked stupidly and shook his head and just nodded. Wonderful, foolish and stupid he edited. And hot, oh so incredibly, mouth wateringly hot. “Great, want to meet at the school or somewhere else?”
He smirked, a small quirk of the lips as he was tempted to tell Joe to meet him at his house, but he didn’t think the classic jock would do well in that kind of environment. No, better to win him over first before bringing him home to meet the parents, even if that would be comical. “Sure, we can meet at school,” he said, smile growing as he looked away, a faint blush coloring his cheeks. “Unless you can think of somewhere better?” he asked.
Joe seemed to actually think about it, a dangerous past-time, apparently, thick eyebrows furrowing together. Sometimes Nick looked at the jock and wanted nothing more than a pair of tweezers, other times he wanted to run his fingers over his thumbs. Normally the tweezers urge came when Joe was with Meagan, though, so it was probably jealousy. “Uh, well normally I’d say my place ‘cuz I’m lazy, but I don’t really have a piano or anything.” Nick chuckled and then Joe smiled and his heart melted. “Hey, you got a guitar, right?” Nodding stupidly Joe’s grin broadened and he would do anything to see it again. “Why don’t you bring it over to my place, we can practice there.”
And that was how Nick Lucas wound up at the home of Joe Verlee, the mouse in the den of the lion. So far, so good, and he got to listen to Joe sing, and since he was helping he sang with Joe sometimes and sang the female’s part. At the moment they were singing a song from Rent, and he was supposed to sing the guy part with Anna Maria, this cute Asian girl who stuttered that really wasn’t his type. He wanted to sing with Joe and needed to find a way to convince Efron to let him and Joe pick a song with two male leads. He was sure they could find one since Alyson Stoner was just not in Joe’s league, vocally. True, it was untraditional to do this, but there had to be a song.
Joe’s voice cut in on cue, “Oh the wax, it’s-”
“Dripping. I like it between my-” Nick smirked, meeting Joe’s eyes.
“Fingers, I figured,” and was Joe actually blushing? “Oh well, good night.” He kept strumming then made a knocking sound. “It blew out again?”
“No, I think that I dropped my stash.” He let his eyes wander down to Joe’s long neck, admiring the muscles as they worked while Joe sang.
“I know I’ve seen you out and about…your candle’s out.”
“I’m illin’ I had it when I walked in the door, it was pure…is it on the floor?”
“The floor?” Nick almost laughed when Joe looked at the floor, rolling his eyes.
“They say that I have the best ass below the fourteenth street, is it true?”
“What?” Those almond-shaped brown eyes were wide and they skipped down Nick’s body as if trying to see his ass and the geek knelt, turning and wiggling his butt.
“You’re staring again.”
“Oh no, I mean you do…have a nice - you look familiar!”
“Like your dead girlfriend.”
“Only when you smile but I’m sure I’ve seen you somewhere else.”
“Do you go to the cat-scratch club? That’s where I work I dance, help me look!”
“They used to tie you up,” Nick turned back around, face flushed as he saw Joe blush probably at some mental image.
“It’s a living.”
“I didn’t recognize you without the handcuffs.”
He almost bit his lip as he imagined Joe handcuffing him, and the next few lyrics flew by until suddenly it felt really intimate at the end of the song. “Big hands.”
“Yours too,” Nick sang breathily. “Wanna dance?”
“With you?”
“No…with my father,” he set the guitar down and stood up, dancing towards Joe who got to his feel hesitantly.
“I’m Roger…”
“They call me, they call me,” he pulled Joe closed and slipped one of his legs between the those muscled thighs, pressing them together groin to hip and smirked when he felt Joe shiver against him. “Mimi!”
He felt Joe’s hands on his back and put one of his own between them, pressing one hand just under the other boy’s collar bone. “What are we doing here?” Nick did bite his lip then, not really sure how to answer. “Because when…when I’m around you, I just feel different, ya know? Not bad different, I guess different in a good way, but it’s definitely weird.” Nick had learned by now that Joe wasn’t great at expressing himself, at least not with words and he swayed closer as their chests touched lightly. Crisp white button down shirt against gray ACDC tour t-shirt showed how different they really were and for a moment Nick didn’t know if any of this was going to work, and then Joe tripped as he took a step back and fell towards Nick.
The younger boy landed spread eagle on the carpet, his elbows hitting hard and Joe was sprawled on top of him as their breath mingled, each inhaling each other’s exhale they were so close. “I, uh, sorry,” Joe mumbled and Nick brought one hand up and traced the curve of that eyebrow, one that had a scar just above it. It stilled the jock and Nick did it again, feeling the soft hairs beneath the calloused pads of his fingertips and he smiled. Suddenly he felt warmth against his mouth as Joe pressed closer, lips touching as weight pressed him into the carpet, and a jock weighing you down was not an easy thing to bear. But Nick took it with aplomb, wrapping his arms around Joe’s Neck and kissing him back eagerly. And oh God, was that Joe’s, uh, penis pressed against his leg? Hot and hard and mmm they were grinding, it was enough to make blood rush from one head to a lower one, filling up his own member as he pressed closer.
His tongue darted out, sweeping along the press of Joe’s lips as if pleading for entry, and those soft lips opened, pliant and welcoming as Nick plundered it. He felt Joe grind into his hip harder and then he stopped, pulling away quickly and looking anywhere but at Nick. “We…really can’t do this,” he said, “I need to, I mean, have something to do. You should go.”
Confused didn’t even begin to describe what Nick was feeling. Dumbfounded, stupefied, shocked and hurt. Had he done something wrong? Joe had initiated it, hadn’t he? All he’d done was deepen the kiss, respond to Joe. He thought they were both enjoying it, at least, it had felt that way and the evidence was all in. He sat up shakily and grabbed his guitar and the case, turning his back on the jock jerk and leaving without looking behind him.
He’d driven and it didn’t take him long to get home, and by then his hard-on was way gone. Still, it hurt. Nick had gotten rejected before, but not like this - never like this. Then again, he’d never made out with a guy that had a girlfriend before. Well, he’d never actually made out with anyone, before. That had to be it, Joe was technically with Meagan; it was probably a guilt thing. It was enough to keep him from letting it really get to him and he just didn’t know why Joe had pulled back when they were really starting to enjoy it.
***
“Fuck my life,” he whined, pounding his fist into his pillow angrily. Obviously, thinking of the mail (or the mailman he’d accidentally his when learning to drive) was no longer a solution to his problem. And he definitely had a big problem. At least Meagan was mostly ok with it, and with her being head of the school’s virgin club or whatever they were calling it, at least it wouldn’t be a big deal for a long time. He’d read online that it was mostly mental, usually some psychological or emotional reason behind premature ejaculation, but how did he solve a problem he had if he didn’t know what it was that he had or that he had it in the first place? Alright, now he was just confusing himself, and he took a seat on his bed rubbing the heels of his hand against his eyes.
It was embarrassing that he’d had to change his clothes after Nick left, and that was another thing. What was he doing messing around with someone like Nick? Joe was popular, star of the basketball team and dating the head cheerleader. So what the Hell were he and Nick even doing? Nick was Joe’s opposite, and he hadn’t even known Nick was gay - wait, did this make Joe gay? Oh, wonderful, this was going to be so good for his reputation. No one, no one, was going to find out about this. What was it about Nick that made him stop caring what the world thought about him? Well, whatever it was it was going to stop. He couldn’t keep doing…whatever it was they were doing with Nick. He had a girlfriend, for crying out loud!
The next day at school he decided to just ignore what had happened, maybe Lucas would get the hint and never, ever bring it up again. Yeah, that worked for him as he acted like it had never happened. The only trouble with that was every time he saw Nick smile he felt butterflies in his stomach. “Hey, why don’t Joe and Nick take the next song even though it’s technically for one male voice, we’ll be making it for two. Joe, you’ve got the first verse and Nick can take the second. Everyone will come together in the chorus and Joe and Joe and Nick can sing the refrain together. Then it’s everyone again. Kiss the Girl, Broadway style.”
He was handed a set of sheet music and swallowed visibly. A song with Nick. True, everyone else would sing most of it with them but this meant they’d have to practice together again. He said, “I don’t need a solo, Mr. Efron,” and got a dubious look in return. “Right,” he nodded and asked for his parts again so he could mark them with his pencil. They started blocking and he couldn’t help but watch as Nick danced, much more graceful than himself, and when they were finally done he saw the curly-haired boy walking towards him.
“So, a song together,” Nick said, an ironic smile twisting his lips. “We, uh, should probably practice together again, that is” he noticed as Nick’s eyebrows drew together. “If you don’t have anything else to do,” Nick finally concluded, and Joe had to look away from those accusing eyes. It was then the double doors to the auditorium opened and his girlfriend walked in, clad in her red uniform as always with two of her friends in tow. When he turned back around to finish talking to Nick, the other boy was gone.
***
He hadn’t even asked for a song with Joe, he’d been too upset over being rejected that this was kind of a blow. Well, now they really did have a duet together they were performing in front of the entire school, and neither of them wanted to sing with each other. He didn’t think they’d rehearse together like they should, and he doubted Joe wanted anything to do with him, but that wouldn’t stop him from perfecting his part of the song. He could do this, even if Joe couldn’t.
Beta: None.
Pairings: Joe/Nick, Joe/Meagan.
Word Count: 2155
Part One
Chapter Two: Fine-tuning.
It was a week later and they had just gotten back to school from checking out the competition when Joe pulled Nick aside. It had started as a gentle, bare elbow to a clothed arm. Joe was wearing jeans and a t-shirt while Nick was in tight black pants and a matching button down shirt, complete with tie. Despite the heat outside he suddenly had chills as Joe pulled him into a corner of the room. “Hey, Lucas, do you think you could help me practice over the weekend? I mean, you’re - well, you’re really good and I’m not.”
“Are you kidding me?” he asked, mouth hanging open. How could this wonderful, foolish boy think he wasn’t any good? “You’re incredible!” He stopped himself, “I mean, yeah, you could use a little fine-tuning, but you have an amazing voice.” While Joe did have that awesome voice, he wasn’t exactly practiced in vocal technique, proper breathing, etc. This was what Nick was talking about.
“Yeah, so, um . . . I don’t really know what you’re getting at by fine-tuning, but does that mean you’ll help me?” Nick blinked stupidly and shook his head and just nodded. Wonderful, foolish and stupid he edited. And hot, oh so incredibly, mouth wateringly hot. “Great, want to meet at the school or somewhere else?”
He smirked, a small quirk of the lips as he was tempted to tell Joe to meet him at his house, but he didn’t think the classic jock would do well in that kind of environment. No, better to win him over first before bringing him home to meet the parents, even if that would be comical. “Sure, we can meet at school,” he said, smile growing as he looked away, a faint blush coloring his cheeks. “Unless you can think of somewhere better?” he asked.
Joe seemed to actually think about it, a dangerous past-time, apparently, thick eyebrows furrowing together. Sometimes Nick looked at the jock and wanted nothing more than a pair of tweezers, other times he wanted to run his fingers over his thumbs. Normally the tweezers urge came when Joe was with Meagan, though, so it was probably jealousy. “Uh, well normally I’d say my place ‘cuz I’m lazy, but I don’t really have a piano or anything.” Nick chuckled and then Joe smiled and his heart melted. “Hey, you got a guitar, right?” Nodding stupidly Joe’s grin broadened and he would do anything to see it again. “Why don’t you bring it over to my place, we can practice there.”
And that was how Nick Lucas wound up at the home of Joe Verlee, the mouse in the den of the lion. So far, so good, and he got to listen to Joe sing, and since he was helping he sang with Joe sometimes and sang the female’s part. At the moment they were singing a song from Rent, and he was supposed to sing the guy part with Anna Maria, this cute Asian girl who stuttered that really wasn’t his type. He wanted to sing with Joe and needed to find a way to convince Efron to let him and Joe pick a song with two male leads. He was sure they could find one since Alyson Stoner was just not in Joe’s league, vocally. True, it was untraditional to do this, but there had to be a song.
Joe’s voice cut in on cue, “Oh the wax, it’s-”
“Dripping. I like it between my-” Nick smirked, meeting Joe’s eyes.
“Fingers, I figured,” and was Joe actually blushing? “Oh well, good night.” He kept strumming then made a knocking sound. “It blew out again?”
“No, I think that I dropped my stash.” He let his eyes wander down to Joe’s long neck, admiring the muscles as they worked while Joe sang.
“I know I’ve seen you out and about…your candle’s out.”
“I’m illin’ I had it when I walked in the door, it was pure…is it on the floor?”
“The floor?” Nick almost laughed when Joe looked at the floor, rolling his eyes.
“They say that I have the best ass below the fourteenth street, is it true?”
“What?” Those almond-shaped brown eyes were wide and they skipped down Nick’s body as if trying to see his ass and the geek knelt, turning and wiggling his butt.
“You’re staring again.”
“Oh no, I mean you do…have a nice - you look familiar!”
“Like your dead girlfriend.”
“Only when you smile but I’m sure I’ve seen you somewhere else.”
“Do you go to the cat-scratch club? That’s where I work I dance, help me look!”
“They used to tie you up,” Nick turned back around, face flushed as he saw Joe blush probably at some mental image.
“It’s a living.”
“I didn’t recognize you without the handcuffs.”
He almost bit his lip as he imagined Joe handcuffing him, and the next few lyrics flew by until suddenly it felt really intimate at the end of the song. “Big hands.”
“Yours too,” Nick sang breathily. “Wanna dance?”
“With you?”
“No…with my father,” he set the guitar down and stood up, dancing towards Joe who got to his feel hesitantly.
“I’m Roger…”
“They call me, they call me,” he pulled Joe closed and slipped one of his legs between the those muscled thighs, pressing them together groin to hip and smirked when he felt Joe shiver against him. “Mimi!”
He felt Joe’s hands on his back and put one of his own between them, pressing one hand just under the other boy’s collar bone. “What are we doing here?” Nick did bite his lip then, not really sure how to answer. “Because when…when I’m around you, I just feel different, ya know? Not bad different, I guess different in a good way, but it’s definitely weird.” Nick had learned by now that Joe wasn’t great at expressing himself, at least not with words and he swayed closer as their chests touched lightly. Crisp white button down shirt against gray ACDC tour t-shirt showed how different they really were and for a moment Nick didn’t know if any of this was going to work, and then Joe tripped as he took a step back and fell towards Nick.
The younger boy landed spread eagle on the carpet, his elbows hitting hard and Joe was sprawled on top of him as their breath mingled, each inhaling each other’s exhale they were so close. “I, uh, sorry,” Joe mumbled and Nick brought one hand up and traced the curve of that eyebrow, one that had a scar just above it. It stilled the jock and Nick did it again, feeling the soft hairs beneath the calloused pads of his fingertips and he smiled. Suddenly he felt warmth against his mouth as Joe pressed closer, lips touching as weight pressed him into the carpet, and a jock weighing you down was not an easy thing to bear. But Nick took it with aplomb, wrapping his arms around Joe’s Neck and kissing him back eagerly. And oh God, was that Joe’s, uh, penis pressed against his leg? Hot and hard and mmm they were grinding, it was enough to make blood rush from one head to a lower one, filling up his own member as he pressed closer.
His tongue darted out, sweeping along the press of Joe’s lips as if pleading for entry, and those soft lips opened, pliant and welcoming as Nick plundered it. He felt Joe grind into his hip harder and then he stopped, pulling away quickly and looking anywhere but at Nick. “We…really can’t do this,” he said, “I need to, I mean, have something to do. You should go.”
Confused didn’t even begin to describe what Nick was feeling. Dumbfounded, stupefied, shocked and hurt. Had he done something wrong? Joe had initiated it, hadn’t he? All he’d done was deepen the kiss, respond to Joe. He thought they were both enjoying it, at least, it had felt that way and the evidence was all in. He sat up shakily and grabbed his guitar and the case, turning his back on the jock jerk and leaving without looking behind him.
He’d driven and it didn’t take him long to get home, and by then his hard-on was way gone. Still, it hurt. Nick had gotten rejected before, but not like this - never like this. Then again, he’d never made out with a guy that had a girlfriend before. Well, he’d never actually made out with anyone, before. That had to be it, Joe was technically with Meagan; it was probably a guilt thing. It was enough to keep him from letting it really get to him and he just didn’t know why Joe had pulled back when they were really starting to enjoy it.
***
“Fuck my life,” he whined, pounding his fist into his pillow angrily. Obviously, thinking of the mail (or the mailman he’d accidentally his when learning to drive) was no longer a solution to his problem. And he definitely had a big problem. At least Meagan was mostly ok with it, and with her being head of the school’s virgin club or whatever they were calling it, at least it wouldn’t be a big deal for a long time. He’d read online that it was mostly mental, usually some psychological or emotional reason behind premature ejaculation, but how did he solve a problem he had if he didn’t know what it was that he had or that he had it in the first place? Alright, now he was just confusing himself, and he took a seat on his bed rubbing the heels of his hand against his eyes.
It was embarrassing that he’d had to change his clothes after Nick left, and that was another thing. What was he doing messing around with someone like Nick? Joe was popular, star of the basketball team and dating the head cheerleader. So what the Hell were he and Nick even doing? Nick was Joe’s opposite, and he hadn’t even known Nick was gay - wait, did this make Joe gay? Oh, wonderful, this was going to be so good for his reputation. No one, no one, was going to find out about this. What was it about Nick that made him stop caring what the world thought about him? Well, whatever it was it was going to stop. He couldn’t keep doing…whatever it was they were doing with Nick. He had a girlfriend, for crying out loud!
The next day at school he decided to just ignore what had happened, maybe Lucas would get the hint and never, ever bring it up again. Yeah, that worked for him as he acted like it had never happened. The only trouble with that was every time he saw Nick smile he felt butterflies in his stomach. “Hey, why don’t Joe and Nick take the next song even though it’s technically for one male voice, we’ll be making it for two. Joe, you’ve got the first verse and Nick can take the second. Everyone will come together in the chorus and Joe and Joe and Nick can sing the refrain together. Then it’s everyone again. Kiss the Girl, Broadway style.”
He was handed a set of sheet music and swallowed visibly. A song with Nick. True, everyone else would sing most of it with them but this meant they’d have to practice together again. He said, “I don’t need a solo, Mr. Efron,” and got a dubious look in return. “Right,” he nodded and asked for his parts again so he could mark them with his pencil. They started blocking and he couldn’t help but watch as Nick danced, much more graceful than himself, and when they were finally done he saw the curly-haired boy walking towards him.
“So, a song together,” Nick said, an ironic smile twisting his lips. “We, uh, should probably practice together again, that is” he noticed as Nick’s eyebrows drew together. “If you don’t have anything else to do,” Nick finally concluded, and Joe had to look away from those accusing eyes. It was then the double doors to the auditorium opened and his girlfriend walked in, clad in her red uniform as always with two of her friends in tow. When he turned back around to finish talking to Nick, the other boy was gone.
***
He hadn’t even asked for a song with Joe, he’d been too upset over being rejected that this was kind of a blow. Well, now they really did have a duet together they were performing in front of the entire school, and neither of them wanted to sing with each other. He didn’t think they’d rehearse together like they should, and he doubted Joe wanted anything to do with him, but that wouldn’t stop him from perfecting his part of the song. He could do this, even if Joe couldn’t.