The two siblings were seated beside each other on a plush couch in the den as they waited for Noah to come back from upstairs so that they could watch a movie. It was warm and cozy in there but Austin felt cold and uneasy -probably as a result of his memory of last night.

"Austin," Nicky spoke to her brother. "You're literally shaking like a leaf!"

"Am I ?" Austin asked rhetorically, "I didn't notice."

"I know this is a lot and very confusing for you but you're gonna be alright. I promise."

"Quick recap: I spent most of yesterday with my tongue down the throat of .....Sir Flirts-A-Lot and I probably might have hooked up with him given slightly different circumstances. I got drugged as a result of whatever shady crap he was involved with wherever he is from and you're making me spend my Saturday night in the same house as him." He went on a rant, "And guess what, here's the twist of the knife on the already open wound that is my life; staying at said house , also, are the two people I want to strangle to the point of watching their faces change to a very dark shade of blue for hurting my baby sister -and I'm not kidding!" He finished, already out of breath.

"You don't need to worry about the whole Michael situation, ok?" She tried to calm him down, "You know I'm a big girl..and I'm also super smart. "

"I don't understand how you can be so calm right now." he said while shaking his head and creasing his forehead.

"After I went to Gina's, I cried so much I couldn't see straight; I also ate every snack in their fridge and went through two boxes of tissues. Anyway, after I was done, I realized that crying about it was useless and the moron didn't deserve it. In short, the bastard and his bitch are gonna pay ..dearly."

"I get the feeling Gina helped you realize that."

"She's the best."

"I don't wanna stay here, Nicky." Austin said, his tone a tad terrified.

"You have given me a lot of reasons why you don't but which one takes the cake?" Nicky asked him.

"It's more of a tie really," Austin replied.

"Why do you keep stressing about it?" Nicky questioned, "Noah is a really nice guy and you will realize that once you stop being so closed off."

"I'm sorry..closed off?"

"Did I somehow stutter?" She asked jokingly.

"What kind of great guy has ties to psychopaths!" Austin argued.

"Please, that dweeb is downright a stalker..maybe even a serial killer!" Nicky countered.

"Still not doing anything to subdue my stress levels here sis!"

"Think of it this way; you get to sleep in the guest room this time, which means that you can lock the door if you're worried Noah might sneak in and have his merry way with you when you're out...now that I think about it, that's hot." she teased.

"There are some things that a sister should never say to her brother regarding some activities involving her brother!"

"And I think we're way past that speech, Aussy." Nicky brushed him off.

"Still." Austin rolled his eyes while saying.

"Hey guys!" Noah came back, dressed in a pair of black basketball shorts and a grey tank top. He went over and plopped himself onto the couch next to Austin, which made Austin flinch and visibly stiffen. Nicky cheekily got off and sat on the beanbag chair, picking up the remote to the amazingly bitching entertainment center that belonged to the Dawsons -every part of it was literally high-tech and had the latest models there were.

Austin wanted to jump onto the other beanbag but he was having trouble moving. Noah was also sitting dangerously close but it was not intentional.

He had noticed his close proximity to Austin when it was too late to move. He figured the moving would only make it more awkward, which would possibly make the situation more complicated.

"So, which movie should we watch?" Nicky asked to break the thick tension in the air.

"How about...Prometheus!" Noah suggested.

"Bored!" Nicky said.

"Really, what did you have in mind?" Noah asked suspiciously.

"You're gonna love it, trust me." She said with a wide, enthusiastic smile.

"Please don't say it!" Austin knew her so well that he immediately knew exactly what she was about to say -it was the movie she had once blackmailed him into watching ,twice!

"Eating out 3: All you can eat!" Nicky said sensually.

"Please don't!" Austin begged.

"Why, I love that movie!" Noah interjected. He had seen the last half of the movie and at the time, it had captured his attention but never got around to re-watching it.

"Majority wins!" Nicky cheered.

"I know what you're trying to do." Austin said with a monotone.

"I don't know what you're talking about but here's something I definitely know; I have the remote, so I select the movie and you just sit there and look pretty!"

"Can I pay you not to play it?"Austin asked.

"You can give me the money but I'm still putting it on."

"I'm going to grab some drinking water..and hopefully drown in it." Austin said sarcastically as he stood up off the couch and started leaving the room.

"Where are you going?" Nicky asked, stopping him. "There's a minifridge right over there."

"Is there?" Austin asked, "I hadn't noticed. But the kitchen seems so much closer now..ok!" Then he walked out in a hurry before Nicky could make his exit longer than necessary.

The den was in the basement so he had to go upstairs and halfway across the huge house to get to the kitchen -which took a little longer since he didn't have sufficient prior knowledge of the layout of the house. He finally found it and went straight to the cabinets to find himself a glass.

As he was standing by the sink filling himself up, Noah suddenly appeared behind him.

"Are you ok?" Noah asked, "you seem a little bit out of it."

"What gave it away?" Austin retorted without turning towards him.

"Sorry if I'm overstepping, I'm just...worried about you. You look pale." Noah stated.

"I just got out of the hospital, what do you expect?" Austin said a bit too harshly.

"Alright, you don't need to get worked up. I apologize..I'm gonna leave you alone." Noah seemed terrified as he started leaving.

"No, I'm sorry," Austin apologized too. "I didn't mean to sound so mean..it's been a really confusing day and you gotta admit, this is extremely ...." He spaced out a little while trying to think of the right word to say.

"Awkward?" Noah filled in.

"Yea." Austin said almost silently. The tension in the air was so solid you could probably pierce holes in it.

After a moment of both of them not knowing what to say, Noah finally broke the ice, "I didn't mean to make you do those things." he said hesitantly.

"What are you talking about?" Austin asked as he knitted his eyebrows a little, not really getting why Noah was apologizing.

"I know you're not gay and I've been bothering you so much since I came here, which led to all this crap that happened yesterday and I feel horrible about it. So, I'm very sorry about that."

"You know, nothing would make me happier than to blame you for all this ...or to punch the living daylights out of you because a part of me really believes that it would make eighty percent of the whole situation better but I just can't. We're equally as culpable -and somehow, weirdly, me more than you and I would just be a coward to lay it all on you."

"It's ok, I don't blame you."

"I do!" Austin said and Noah's face fell immediately, "Oh no, I didn't mean I blame you. I blame myself." Austin corrected hastily.

"Oh." Noah sighed with relief, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Why did you kiss me?" He asked but he was treading lightly and trying his best to sound as non-threatening as possible. "You don't have to answer!" He added quickly before Austin could formulate a response.

"Good question." Austin began, "what good reason could I possibly have for kissing the one person I've disliked since day one and to make matters worse, it's a guy!"

"Uhhhhhhhh...." Noah had no idea what that meant.

"Honestly, I don't really know why I did it. I was drunk, I guess."

"Ok." Noah said, "I'm probably gonna kick myself later for this but, it really affected me when you did it."

"What do you mean?" Austin stared unblinking at Noah, hoping that he wasn't about to say what he was thinking. He repeated in this head multiple times within the short period of time as Noah tried to compose what to say, Please don't say it. Please don't say it. Please don't say it!

"I can't stop thinking about it and every time I do, I just want more and more and I can't stop myself from wanting it no matter how hard I try! It doesn't help when I see you now because it takes me back to that moment and ....and my feelings for you are kind of going bonkers!"

"What feelings ?!" Austin asked, which was not the actual question he wanted to ask but he blurted it out anyway before he could stop it.

"You know..." Noah left it dangling, hoping Austin would get it without being spelled out for.

He did. But he didn't wanna admit it.

"I don't." He responded with fake obliviousness.

"I..." Noah paused. "I like you Austin..like..I really, really like you. And I think you already know that."

"No! No, I don't!" Austin denied as he set the glass of water he had been holding onto the kitchen island. He and Noah were standing on opposite sides of the island which meant they were inevitably facing each other.

"Why are you denying it?" Noah asked.

As Austin looked into those magnificent green eyes, all he saw now was vulnerability, sincerity, and incredible gorgeousness.

And as Noah stood there trying to emote exactly what he felt, Austin didn't know what to do about it. In one hand, he wished he could just stomp on the poor guy's heart and rescue himself from this sticky situation. On the other, he needed to see it through, to try and see if there was anything real behind the foreign feelings he had been having lately.

"This is crazy," he said while still looking deep into Noah's eyes.

"What is?" Noah asked.

"What you're saying! You've only known me for three days Noah !" Austin argued, "So, you saying that you have feelings for me is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. You can't...you simply can't !"

"Austin -"

"No! Stop it, ok?" Austin averted his eyes away from Noah and let them wander around the room instead, "Just stop it!"

He was afraid...Afraid that Noah might be serious. He kept hoping against hope that Noah would say that he was joking and go back to that pain in the ass he had been till yesterday -at least that guy he could easily shun and kick around with no trace of remorse.

Not this version of Noah though. It would be like kicking a puppy. The man who had taken the blame for the death of the doc just so Austin felt better; the man who gave him his shirt when he needed it; the man who apparently shed tears when Austin got hurt; the man who had kissed him so heartily that he almost forgot all his troubles, who was now baring his heart with no hint of flippancy: that guy was almost indelible.

"I can't, Austin." Noah said as his voice started to break, "I just want one more chance to hold you once again. Maybe even feel the tenderness of your lips again -even briefly. I wouldn't mind. But what I want and what could actually happen are two different things and I have no clue how it's gonna play out for me."

"You're insane, you know that?" Austin said.

"What about those things you said to me last night?" Noah challenged, "About how you don't wanna like me but you do.. Or how you think of me, too, sometimes!"

"That is a low blow, dude!" Austin protested, "And I was stone cold drunk. You can't hold it over my head."

"A drunk mind speaks an honest heart.." Noah said. He didn't mean to sound so douche-y but he was desperate for Austin to admit he liked him back -that is if he really did. So, he was really walking on pins and needles.

"Where did you get that?" Austin mocked irritatedly, "Bernie Stinson's lame, unpublished Playbook?!"

"I'm sorry, that was uncalled for." Noah apologized, "But you know I care about you..I wasn't kidding about that last night." He was making it so much harder for Austin to keep up his rising denial of everything Noah was saying.

"No, you don't. You're just saying stuff !" Austin said.

"I'm really not, Austin. I've spent so long not caring about anybody or anything and now you're in my life and I don't know how to slow it down. There's just something about you that drives me out of my mind ...for some reason. I wish I could just turn it off so I don't have to bother you but that's impossible for me. I -" he started walking along the island as he advanced slowly towards Austin.

"Please, stop it." Austin begged but part of him still wished Noah would get to him faster.

"What if I can't ?" Noah asked in a soothing, low voice that sounded extremely sexy to Austin.

"Figure it out." Austin was starting to freak out and also partly excited as Noah came closer, so he began taking a few unsure steps back to maintain the distance.

Noah was totally done for. His mind tried to protest but his heart and rest of the body were all set on Austin. It didn't help when Austin kept nibbling on his lower lip nervously as he subconsciously backed himself into a corner connecting the wall and the fridge.

As Austin wet his lip and bit on it slightly with his hair blanketing half of his face, his resolve doubled . His eyes were deeply set on those plump, pink sexy lips that had him drawn like a moth onto a flame.

"I wanna have something special with you, Austin, and I'm determined to pursue it." he was getting closer and closer.

"Please don't come any closer." Austin begged shakily. He kept flashing back to last night when they had kissed and how amazing it had felt to have Noah run his silky tongue over his lower lip. He hadn't really regretted that , which made him wonder what would happen if the same thing happened when he was sober with only a few painkillers in his system.

"But I need you so badly." Noah was a few inches from Austin now.

"If you come too close to me, I'm punching you!" It was a weak threat which did not convince even himself.

"Please let me kiss you again ..." Nothing in Noah's eyes or voice suggested any trace of joking. He was dead set on his mission to kiss Austin.

"Why are you doing this?" He just had to ask.

"Because we both want it." His voice was so low that only Austin could hear him. He also sounded a tad more confident now.

"H-how would you know that?" Austin asked as his eyes trailed down to Noah's lips involuntarily while grabbing the wall behind him. His chest was rising and falling rapidly due to the heavy breathing he was doing in an attempt to calm himself -it was not helping. Noah just looked so damn sexy with his muscular arms exposed like that. Good thing he was well endowed in the bicep department!

"The way you're looking at me. You're afraid that you wanna kiss me again. Maybe you wanna know if it is as good as it felt yesterday but when you're sober. You don't want to admit it though because you still don't wanna like me as much as I like you." Damn, he is an evil genius! Austin thought to himself as Noah reached up and swept his hair away from his face.

They were now eye-to-eye and the pure lust in Noah's eyes had the temperature in the room rising abnormally. It might have just been his own body overheating.

"Let me, please." Noah begged as he moved his face closer to Austin's so that his breath fanned Austin's lips lightly.

"Uhhhhhhh.." Was all Austin could say.

"There you guys are!" Nicky shouted from the hallway as she made her way into the kitchen. As soon as they heard her voice, they both jumped apart from each other in a startled motion, both their cheeks turning rosy from blushing, "I was wondering where you two went but now I can see what was keeping you."

"Th-that was -" Noah started to justify.

"I know!" She cut him short, "I was just watching the exact same thing on tv five minutes ago!" she was displaying the widest smile she could and she had the most triumphant look, in general, on her face.

"Hey Nicky." Austin said awkwardly.

"Yes, Austin !" She said, "How is the water coming along?"

"Oh..that!" Austin realized what had brought him to the kitchen in the first place.

"I get it, there are more important things in life than water." And then she winked at him.

Austin's face was now bleak but Nicky just wanted to keep embarrassing him some more.

"Aren't you supposed to leave and go to Kelly's to braid each other's hair or something?" He tried to change the situation.

"You don't need to kick me out so you can turn into total freaks!" She responded, "There are so many rooms in this house, I'm sure one of them is a dungeon -"

"Oh, god !" Austin exclaimed as his face turned an unflattering shade of red.

"Yea, I know Noah will have you moaning that in no time!"

"Nicky!" Noah came to Austin's rescue, not to mention that comment had his mind going to some dark places where he only wished to be accompanied by Austin.

"What?" She asked innocently, "You two started it. And, seriously..kitchen? That's basically the beginning of every porn movie ever made!"

"And we're very appreciative of your extensive knowledge on that -not even gonna ask how you came to know in the first place but, will you please stop with the teasing already?!" Austin asked.

"Can't, it's too much fun!" She continued, "And you guys would understand that if you saw the faces you're both making." The two boys turned to look at each other to confirm what she had said. It didn't last a second though because they were quickly looking away out of sheer embarrassment.

"I'll be in the basement," Noah said after a short while. "Excuse me."

"What was all that about?" Austin asked when he was alone with his sister.

"I don't know," she responded. "You tell me."

"I don't know either..." Austin said as he looked away, not wanting to look directly at Nicky.

"I thought you didn't like Noah!" She whisper-yelled at him but there was a lot of amusement in her voice.

"I didn't !" He confirmed.

"Didn't ?" she asked, "so,now you do?"

"No!"

"Tell that to the two guys I just walked in on, about to rip each other's clothes off!"

"That was never gonna happen!" He protested harshly.

"Which part?" She continued to challenge him.

"The clothes part."

"Oh, so just dry humping then?" She mocked further, "That's hot!"

"No humping of any kind either!"

"You do realize that nothing you're saying is convincing me, right?"

"Why?"

"Because we both know you're into Noah as well, it's so obvious!"

"Nuh-uh!" He denied childishly.

"When I came in here, it looked like Noah was about to rip your pants off and carry you onto the island...and you were definitely gonna let him!" She crossed her arms defiantly.

"You're one seriously twisted witch!" He attempted an insult.

"Try to deny it."

"I just realized something," Austin said. "I don't have to stand here and take any of this. So, sayonara!"

"Wait, Aussy," she stopped him. "I'm sorry. I'll put a pause on it."

"Not good enough."

"You really think you're gonna win this negotiation?"

Austin considered it a bit then realized that she was right. So he let it go, "Fine..wicked witch!"

"Alright, have you taken your painkillers?"

"I was....interrupted." he began blushing.

"Oooohh!" She started, again.

"You promised!"

"I technically didn't say the word 'promise', but ok."

Austin went for the glass of water and as he took his pills, Nicky said, "Gina just pulled up into the driveway so I gotta go."

"Oh, bollocks! So soon?" He said sarcastically in a fake British accent.

"Yes, Downton Abbey!" She said while referring to the accent he had just used, "I'm not so comfortable hanging around here."

"I get it. Call me if you need anything," he said as he kissed her cheek. "Even if you need me to suffocate Michael at night with one of his ridiculously expensive pillows."

"I would but I like to take care of business personally..eliminates the element of a failed operation ." She said as she walked out.

"Bye."

"Bye Aussy ," her voice echoed through the walls as she walked away hurriedly.

Austin debated whether to go back to the den and catch a movie with Noah or find himself a room to lock himself up in. Being in a room alone with Noah when there was nobody else in the entire house just didn't sit well with him.

They had been in a lot of awkward situations lately that now it couldn't be described as awkward. There had to be another word to describe it but Austin couldn't think of any.

He eventually sucked it up and decided to put on his big boy pants and go watch a damn movie. He dragged his feet across the mahogany floors as he reluctantly made his way to the den. He walked in and found Noah playing with his phone on the couch and absolutely ignoring the tv.

Austin paused at the door, second guessing his decision to be alone with Noah in a small room and he quickly decided against it. He didn't wanna have to handle the tension.

"Nope!" He mumbled to himself as he took a step back, "Can't do this!" Noah heard him though and he turned in his seat right before Austin started to walk out again.

"Where are you off to again?" Noah asked.

"I'm gonna go get some air." Austin responded, all the while wishing Noah wouldn't try to stop him.

"Why?" Noah asked as if the thought of Austin getting some air made no sense, "Come on, let's sit down and watch a movie together...or play a game?"

Austin thought about if for a second and shook his head, "No, thanks. Air sounds fine."

Noah clearly wasn't having any of Austin's excuses because he got up and went over to Austin, who was still by the door.

He could see the tension in Austin as he stared at him for a second. Not that he himself was totally calm in that moment, but he was really trying to act cool so as not to scare Austin away.

But the truth was that being alone with Austin without anybody else around was his dream. And partly a nightmare considering how hard his heart was pounding in his chest.

It did not take him a minute to start thinking about how perfect it would be if they could finish what they had started earlier before Nicky had interrupted them.

"Well.." Austin stuttered, "I'm gonna be outside."

In that moment, a sudden strange wave of confidence swept over Noah. A kind that filled him with a need to not let Austin take another step away from him. So, before he could get second thoughts, he placed a firm hand against the wall behind Austin, blocking his way.

Austin instinctively looked up at Noah, wondering what was happening, "What are you doing?"

"I don't know either." Noah responded while holding his position. He was looking at Austin as if he was carefully studying every inch of his face. It was perfect.

So perfect he leaned closer to look into those eyes he kept falling for. And then those beautiful lips he was dying to taste. And so he kept going closer as if they were calling to him.

Before he realized it, there was barely an inch of space between their faces.

Austin, too, was staring and unmoving. He wondered just how fast the air had changed.

All he could see was Noah's face and the unbridled desire held in his eyes. In his head, he knew that there was no way he could escape this version of Noah. He didn't even want to.

For reasons unknown, he pulled his lower lip into his mouth to moisten it. He did not waste any time telling himself how much this was wrong or why he shouldn't be pulled in by Noah's aura.

He moved towards Noah as well.

No words were needed to express what both boys wanted more than anything at that moment. It was all made crystal clear when Noah grabbed the back of Austin's neck and Austin reciprocated by grabbing onto Noah's sides.

The minute or so that followed was a pure moment of ecstasy and yearning as they groped, licked, sucked and caressed each other with an urgency neither of them had realized they had for the other until now.

It was a moment that would last forever in their hearts.

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