"Are you sure you've packed everything?" Keith asked and Carmen glanced in the back of the car and then looked at his brother and shrugged.

"I would have thought you'd ask me this before we left the house," he said and Keith just continued to worry on his lip as he leaned out of the window and paid to park in the airport parking lot.

It was the day that him and Osmond were to fly to Georgia and Carmen swore that he was less nervous than Keith was. The night before, the older had sat on his bed until midnight, wasting both of their time by asking questions he had asked already previously or already knew the answer to.

How are you feeling?

Fine. For some reason, he was actually a bit excited.

Well, maybe to be spending all of his time for the next couple of weeks with the mysteriously sexy boy who seemed both cold and caring at the same time. But he would never tell his brother that.

Do you want me to go through security with you?

Carmen had explained that Keith wasn't able to do that, though the older should have known this because he had flown even more than Carmen had at this point.

Are you sure this Osmond boy will take good care of you?

If Carmen hadn't been sure a week ago (which he had been- He had trusted Osmond since the beginning) he was sure as hell confident about it now. Since the day Keith had come into his room and told Osmond that he didn't like to eat the black haired boy had sat by him at lunch every single day and watched him eat. For two weeks he had been watching him eat.

They didn't talk much during these lunch periods. It was mostly just Osmond listening to his music through his earbuds and eating his salad as Carmen did his homework and ate whatever Osmond had brought him for lunch, which was usually something bigger, such as a burger or hot dog, something much more than the salad that Osmond got to eat. I'm not the one who weighs twenty pounds, Osmond said whenever he asked and then pushed his tray closer to him.

Once Osmond had realized that if he let Carmen get his own food he would come back with a plate full of French fries and chocolate chip cookies and call that lunch, he had taken to going up and choosing Carmen's food for him.

It was was frustrating and annoying and... sweet.

"What are you doing?" Carmen asked as Keith climbed out of the car after parking. "I can get it from here, Keith".

"Fuck no," his brother said simply and Carmen bit his lip, wondering if this was a battle he wanted to fight.

It wasn't, so he climbed out of the passenger seat without another word and pulled his violin from the back seat. "I can take that".

Keith had moved around the side of the car with Carmen's suitcase and was holding out his hand to take the violin case from him. "Why do you feel the need to do everything for me?"

Carmen turned and began to walk away, his hand still wrapped around the handle of his case and he heard Keith swear from behind him and then sigh. "Because your my little brother and I love you". That was actually a bit touc- "and," Keith added, "if you're going to go down on the plane I want to always remember that I was very sweet and considerate to you". Carmen rolled his eyes.

"You know as well as I do that if that bitch goes down you're going to go into a deep depression and then live with mom and dad forever," Carmen said, glancing over his shoulder to catch Keith's grimace. He laughed, turning as the automatic doors opened for him and he walked into the airport.

Every summer they went on some sort of family vacation. A long time ago they had driven wherever they went, but as Keith and Carmen aged and their parents grew more and more apart, spending ten plus hours in a car together seemed less and less appealing.

When Carmen was in seventh grade they began to fly to their vacation destination rather than drive, so he was quite accustomed with how the local airport worked.

He waited in line for twenty minutes with Keith to check his bags, trying his best to ignore his brother but failing miserably as usual.

"... and you're going to call me every single night and if you don't call I'm going to call Osmond and make him give his phone to you..."

That was another thing that had occurred since dinner two weeks ago. The exchanging of numbers between Osmond and his brother one morning when Keith had dropped Carmen off at school. So I can check on you, Keith had insisted, and it bothered Carmen to know that Osmond, who for some reason respected Keith, would answer and force him to talk to his brother.

When it was their turn in line Keith hauled his suitcase over to the scale and dropped it on. The woman looked thankful as Carmen pulled out his form of identification without him having to ask.

"One way flight to Savannah, Georgia?" She asked and Carmen nodded his head and smiled. She put the tag on his bag, and then eventually his violin case after it had been weighed. "Enjoy your flight, hun".

"Thank you". Keith gripped his arm, looking annoyed and pulled him away from the counter. "Jesus, what's your problem?"

"I don't like girls who stare at me," he said, sounding grumpy. Carmen hadn't realized that she had been staring but usually didn't notice these kinds of things about other people until they were pointed out to him.

Sure enough, when he glanced over his shoulder the woman's eyes were on them as the walked away, or more specifically, on Keith.

"You're not interested?" Carmen asked, trying to recall the last time his brother had been in a relationship. It wasn't that hard.

Keith's last relationship had been years ago during his time in high school, and the only reason Carmen could recall it was because the breakup had been bad. It was probably the reason why Keith, still to this day, refused to date.

"No," Keith grumbled and Carmen sighed, allowing himself to be pulled through the airport by his arm.

His other hand reached into his pocket and traced the outline of his boarding pass. Every couple of minutes he would feel for it and miss, and then suffer from a mini, silent, but very real, panic attack until he checked again and his fingers grazed the edge of the paper.

"This is where I leave you," Keith said and when Carmen looked up they were standing in front of the end of the line for security. "Mom and dad paid for you to have the fast lane, right?"

Carmen nodded. "Of course". The word was barely out of his mouth before Carmen was enveloped in a bone crushing hug.

"Okay Car. I love you. Call me-"

"Why are you talking so fast?" Carmen asked and Keith pushed him back by his shoulders and turned his body.

"Hurry up so you can catch up to him right away". For a moment Carmen didn't know what he was talking about, but after a second he saw him.

Osmond was reaching down to remove his shoes, the hem of his shirt pushing up his back as he did so, revealing a sliver of smooth white skin. Carmen swallowed heavily and then glanced at his brother out of the corner of his eye only to find him watching him. "Stop staining at me, weirdo".

Keith laughed and hugged him one last time. "Alright," he pushed him in the direction of the shortest line. "Hurry your ass up. I'll be less worried about you if you're with him".

The line moved quickly, as it was supposed to, and Carmen wasn't too concerned about missing Osmond, since when he neared the front of the line he could clearly see the other boy sitting on a bench on the other side of security.

When he got through without the machines beeping he was able to slip his shoes back on and join the other.

Osmond looked up at him, surprised. "I thought you were here already," he claimed and Carmen was just about to ask, then why are you waiting, when they were interrupted by a voice saying:

"That lady just groped me". Osmond's eyes flicked past Carmen for a moment before saying in a blank voice:

"Did you refuse to take your phone out of your pocket?"

When Carmen turned he was stunned into silence for a moment. He recognized the man in front of him immediately from the night he had first seen Osmond outside of school, sitting against the wall with this guys head on his shoulder, but it had been dark then and Carmen hadn't really gotten to see exactly how attractive this man was.

He was tall- so Carmen had to tip his head back to look at him- and had brown hair and stunning blue green eyes. Freckles dotted his face and when he smiled at Carmen all he could think was one thing. Dimples.

"Hi, I'm Ezra".

Carmen shook his head and was vaguely aware of mumbling his name.

Then it occurred to him that Osmond's boyfriend had gone through security with them.

Did he think he was coming with? Carmen wondered, and then realized that Osmond could have invited him along if he really wanted.

But then Carmen remembered that Osmond had specifically said this boy was not his partner, so he went back to wondering why he was here.

"Don't worry about him," Osmond said, standing from his spot on the bench and looking down at Carmen. "He was so desperate to see his boyfriend that he bought a plane ticket to wait outside of his gate".

"Wha-," Carmen began but the stunningly handsome man cut him off.

"I can't just let Adrian come through the gate and see that no one's there for him," Ezra said.

It all made sense now. Carmen could clearly remember Osmond telling him that his best friend was coming back into town. He just hadn't known that it was going to be today, or that his best friend had an incredibly attractive boyfriend. Or a boyfriend at all, for that matter.

"That's what literally everyone else will be doing," Osmond pointed out and Ezra rolled his eyes.

"Adrian is not everyone else". Osmond looked away and smiled at this before looking at Carmen.

"Are you okay if we stop outside of another gate for a bit. It says his flights on time and if we run out of time I swear we'll leave," he asked, looking intensely into Carmen's eyes.

"Uh, sure," He said, a bit confused but not minding at all if it meant he had more time to take in the tall man standing to his right.

Osmond led the way through the airport with Ezra, surprisingly, trailing behind him at Carmen's side. "So what's your deal?" He asked and Carmen raised his eyebrows, "you play the violin, right?"

"Yeah," Carmen said, smiling at the back of Osmond's head. So he talks about me, he thought, and then reminded himself that he shouldn't care whether or not Osmond talks about him or not because of Jordan.

And then he had to remind himself that he shouldn't care about Jordan either because he didn't have time.

Though, despite this, he seemed to actually be making real progress with Jordan these days. Multiple times in the last couple of weeks had he caught the boy staring at him as he did his work, and each time it turned Carmen into a blushing, fumbling mess.

"My Adrian plays the saxophone," Ezra said and Carmen nodded slowly.

"Adrian Vang, right? He graduated last year, I heard. Isn't he crazy smart?"

Ezra looked so proud that it damn near hurt his heart. Never in his life had Carmen wanted something like that more. "He is. Hence abandoning me for Harvard". They slowed to a stop and Carmen looked up, biting his lip as he noticed that this gate was across the airport from the one they were supposed to be at.

For both of his and Osmond's sakes, and also Ezra's, since the boy was damn near jumping with excitement, Carmen hoped that Adrian Vang's flight got in soon.

***

Osmond knew it, and he knew it, but neither of them said anything. They were supposed to board their flight in thirteen minutes and they had agreed to leave the gate fifteen minutes prior if Adrian's flight still hadn't landed. Osmond's time was up but Carmen didn't have the heart to say anything.

He watched as the black haired boy checked the time on his phone and then Carmen did the same to his own. Twelve minutes. Just as he watched Osmond's shoulders drop and his body begin to turn, the door's to the gate burst open and people began to trickle out.

And sure enough, about ten people in, a short asian boy, who Carmen had seen in a framed picture on Bensen's desk, emerged, his head down as he fiddled on his phone.

Both Ezra and Osmond moved at the same time and it caused Carmen to jump in surprise.

Osmond's hand shot out to stop Ezra. "Me first," he said, his voice low and Carmen watched as Ezra's excited face shifted to one of disbelief.

"No way," he began, "he's my boyfriend, Osmond-"

"Exactly!" Osmond snapped and Carmen's eyes raked over his face but the boy was only looking ahead of them at small figure that was Adrian, still having not noticed them, "he's your boyfriend. You get him every other day of the year. You get him today, Ezra. I just want to say hello to him before I leave". Ezra was quiet. "Please, Ezra. You're the one who gets to love him. Just let me say hello". And Osmond looked so broken at that moment that Carmen had to curl his hands into fists to keep himself from hugging the other.

Of course, he though. It all makes sense.

The way Osmond got whenever he spoke about Adrian. How excited he had gotten when he learned Adrian was coming back to town. The look on his face every time Ezra said his name. Osmond was in love with Adrian Vang, and he couldn't have him.

And then Ezra gave the black haired boy his permission and he looked so deliriously happy that Carmen didn't know if he should be delighted for the boy, or jealous because he had never gotten Osmond to make that face for him.

But of course he wasn't jealous because he had no reason to be... right?

"Adri," Osmond said when he got close to the boy but was still in earshot of Carmen and Ezra. The boy froze, slowly looking up at his phone and then his face broke into a dazzling smile and Carmen couldn't blame both Ezra or Osmond for falling in love with him.

"Ozzy!" The boy cried, throwing himself in the tallers arms and Osmond let out a real laugh, sounding and looking happier than Carmen had ever seen him.

And after a hug the length of that two best friends would share, Adrian pulled back, of course it was Adrian who pulled back, and he smiled at Osmond.

And then there was a gasp and Adrian was pushing Osmond to the side and sprinting full speed towards Carmen.

For a second he was concerned that Adrian was going to hit him, and then the boy jumped into the arms of Ezra, wrapping his legs tightly around his boyfriend's waist and meeting his lips in an open mouthed kiss that probably made both of their toes curl.

Carmen watched with jealousy, wishing that he could be kissed like that, or kissed at all, and barely noticed when Osmond nudged his side.

"Can we get going?" The black haired boy asked, shocking Carmen for a moment with his look of absolute, heart brokenness. "Please".

"Yeah," Carmen said, and then Osmond's hand was on his wrist and he was being pulled away quickly, leaving kissing couple behind them in the airport.

A/N Poor Osmond and his poor heart