Both boys sighed in defeat as the twins angrily left the ballroom. Zack looked around and groaned irritably. Quickly thinking, he couldn't come up with an easy way to help the situation. Cody gave Zack a swift glance; watching and waiting for any reactions. As time went on Zack found no other method out. He looked at Cody and then towards the judges. He pulled Cody in close.
"Look there is only one way out of this position; we're going to have to dance with each other." Zack whispered into Cody's ear. Cody backed away shocked at such a ridiculous suggestion. Cody looked around worriedly and gave up any will to not do what had to be done.
"I guess it's alright, I mean I don't see any other people we can dance with…" he sighed again "It just sounds a little too farfetched. There has to be another option right?" Cody asked.
"Do you see another option?"
"N-no,"
"Now just trust me on this, we'll be alright… I hope." He mumbled the last part.
The twins waited for the music to start. Tango music poured from the high speakers and grew fast fairly quickly. Absorbing the music, Zack began to circle is brother whilst Cody did the same. Zack saw a rose and hastily grabbed it and put the flower into his mouth horizontally, like he'd seen in movies numerous times before. Bringing their bodies' close Cody dodged away from Zack's mouth but grabbed said flower into his own mouth. Zack feeling the loss of the rose he noticed it in his brother's mouth and furiously threw it aside. Once again bringing their bodies' close began a different movement. Zack grabbed Cody's hand and they turned to face the opposing direction, another move he had seen demonstrated in the movies as well.
As the tango music began its ending verse, they grabbed each other's waist and kicked the air in perfect tone with the symbols clashing. Getting carried away was an understatement. They danced as if a real couple. When Zack pulled Cody in with a twirl that was when the situation dawned on him. Zack looked at Cody and began to panic. 'What am I doing? This is Cody! My own brother, why is it he looks so…' Zack's mind raced and he leaned closer to Cody's face without thinking.
"Zack what…!" Cody watched his brother's eyes cloud over with something he couldn't put finger on. Before they both knew it, the dance was over and the crowd cheered and chattered approvingly. The haze lifted from Zack's eyes and his faced paled.
"I-uh…" Zack stuttered. He looked around to see if anyone had noticed how close they were or even what just happened. Letting out a sigh of relief he softly loosed his hold on Cody. Cody searched Zack's eyes and was at ease that his brother seemed to be back to his old self. The dance competition went onward and everyone didn't seem to notice what exactly had happened between the twins. It was the final group of contestants for the competition, Esteban was worrying over who he was going to dance with.
The nurse stepped forward and shyly stated that she could perform with Esteban to win the competition. Everyone seemed uncertain until Esteban presented a tiny dance move that she seemed to have pulled off with ease. Each person looked at each other with a confident smile and a nod in agreement. With her they would win. Zack couldn't meet Cody's eyes without blushing profusely. He began to argue with himself on how stupid he was for acting like that over a silly dance. Cody watched his brother closely; he didn't seem to be acting like himself unlike what Cody had originally thought. He began to notice that Zack couldn't look him in the eye.
"Zack, are you alright?" Cody hesitantly asked.
"Hm? Oh yeah I'm fine." Zack brushed off his brother's concern as smoothly as possible. Cody didn't seem to buy it, he eyed Zack suspiciously. They both watched the rest of the contestants dance and try to capture the judge's attention to guarantee the win. It seemed as if everyone was watching Esteban and that nurse. Zack peered over towards Cody; he quickly looked back on the dance floor when he saw Cody look back at him.
"I'm uh- I'm gotta go to the bathroom." Zack stated openly. Cody gave him a questioning look.
"Okay then," Cody said. Zack left the ballroom hurriedly, not bothering to look back to see the puzzled look on his brother's face. Cody waited a bit and then followed Zack. Trying to be stealthy he stayed a good ten feet behind Zack. Zack entered the bathroom and sighed deeply, he began to talk to himself.
"This is so stupid! Why am I getting so worked up? Urgh! Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!" Zack growled angrily. Cody watched his brother in curiosity as he started to pace back and forth. He leaned in further to listen in on his brother's ramblings. One of the floorboards creaked under Cody's weight and just about scared him half to death, and it must have done the same to Zack because he yelped in surprise.
"Whose there? Come out here!" Zack dared the intruder to show himself. Cody stepped forward. Zack's body physically slouched and looked as if the color drained from his body.
"C-Cody what, did you hear anything?"
"A- a little bit, what are you so worked up about?"
"Um, it's nothing."
"Don't lie. You're a terrible liar and even you know that you are." Cody urged on.
"No, seriously it's nothing." Zack tried to seem as if it really was nothing.
"I don't believe you. I'm not leaving until you tell me what is going on. First you give me strange looks and now you're all flustered about something. Tell me." Cody marched up to Zack and stared into his eye looking for the answer of why his brother was acting so funny. Zack shifted uncomfortably under the sudden tension of the situation.
"Well… I'm waiting," Cody said impatiently. Zack jumped and fidgeted more with trying to keep his attention on everything else but his brother. Cody was getting annoyed that getting a simple answer was so hard. He watched Zack move awkwardly and just kept getting more frustrated. Zack glanced toward Cody and immediately looked away.
"Zack!"
"Something happened ok? I'm a little bothered by it, god why are you even here? Just leave me alone." Zack tried to get past Cody and shoved past him effortlessly. Cody watched in disbelief as Zack left so quickly and furiously.
Later that night Cody didn't have a chance to see Zack until he just about went to bed. The contest was a success, Esteban and the nurse won. The whole hotel was in an all around good mood, everyone was happy over the victory. Cody walked into their room of the suite and notice Zack already in bed. He was facing away from Cody and was all but asleep. Cody unbuttoned his dress shirt and got ready for bed.
"Are you still awake?" Cody received a small grunt.
"I'm sorry for forcing you to tell me what happened today. I was concerned that's all." Cody coaxed.
"Whatever," it was another grunt.
"Oh, oh fine be all horrible to me when I'm worried for you. Fine be that way." Cody spat out.
"It's better this way…"
"How is that better?"
"I'd rather have you hate me."
"Why would hating you be better?"
"Because when we were dancing I started to feel something I shouldn't have." Zack sat up and snarled. Cody watched intently for something, anything to help him understand what was going on in his brother's head. Much to his distress nothing happened and the silence was beginning to get exceptionally uncomfortable. Cody heard Zack sigh and lay back down; giving up trying to explain as best he could without giving too much information.
"When- when we were dancing I… something happened and I couldn't control it. God why isn't this bugging you as much it is me?"
"When we were dancing…? What, when your eyes hazed over and you started…to…" The sudden realization made Cody audibly gasp. He kept quiet, hoping that what he just realized wasn't true. Zack felt extremely restless and wanted anything to be somewhere else. To be someone else or possibly an undo button for life; until the words just slipped out.
"You looked beautiful."
"Zack, no this… this isn't right. You're just delirious."
"See this is why I said it would be better for you to hate me…" Zack sounded hurt or maybe even disappointed. Cody winced at the tone of voice his brother had.
"Can we just forget about it; we should have never danced together. It was my stupid idea and I probably just ruined our lives." Zack stated.
"No, I don't want to forget it."
"Just let it go…"
"No I don't want to because I had fun, if we had danced with the twins we would have been miserable. I- I mean I'm still a little iffy on the whole uh dancing predicament but other than that I had a lot of fun. Why would want me to forget that?" Cody confidently said. Zack looked at his brother in utter bewilderment. Did that really just happen? Was he dreaming; this had to be a dream. He practically just told his brother that he had feelings for him and it didn't even faze him.
"But what about the whole um- you know." Zack muttered out the end of the sentence.
"I haven't gotten that far yet. Just give me more time to think, I'm not turning you down or accepting either. Just wait for me ok?" Cody explained hoping Zack would comprehend. Zack let out a sigh in relief and started to laugh a bit.
"What's so funny?" Cody questioned.
"I'm just happy that I didn't ruin anything. You know, I'm really good at that." Cody watched his brother laughing and laughed a bit himself. It was better than not doing anything at all.
"I'm sorry for being a stupid jerk." Zack finally stopped laughing and said openly.
"It's alright, you were just conflicted by strange feelings that you were bottling up inside."
"Um… I don't know how to say this but can I just try something? And promise you won't turn away." Zack squirmed, obviously embarrassed.
"Sure, what is it?" Cody's curiosity is going to get him killed one day Zack knows it.
"A kiss…" A stilled silence filled the room; neither knew what they were getting themselves into.
"J-just this once, I mean it won't kill us right? No one has to know…"Cody was clearly self-conscious of just what was about to happen. Zack got up and sat down next to Cody on his bed. Both of them couldn't meet each other's gaze. Looking everywhere but where it mattered. The shared nervous laughs and waited for the other to move. Zack shifted closer and cleared his throat. Cody thought on how Zack would most likely be the one to make a move first. Cody cleared his throat and laughed a little just to disrupt the aweful silence.
"Well… we should just get this over with…" Zack shared that same anxious laugh. They leaned in, slowly closing the gap between them. It was a clumsy and awkward kiss; showing just how inexperienced they were in this sort of thing. They leaned back and laughed uneasily until Zack lean forward placing another small kiss onto Cody's lips. This time it was a little more in control than the last, to say the least. Longer and more curious at best, it had actually taken Cody a moment to recognize what was going on. He was enjoying it, he knew that he shouldn't but why did this feel so good? He let out a small breath and watched Zack under hooded eyes.
"Um… that was…"
"It felt really good, or at least I thought it did…" Zack bluntly said.
"It's-! It's not like I didn't enjoy it, I did." Cody got flustered and looked the opposite way.
"Hey don't get upset about it, I-uh thanks for doing that...I mean it was kind of weird but we both enjoyed it right?"
"I guess we did both enjoy it, but what happens now?" Cody looked into Zack's eyes searching for answers that he knew Zack couldn't answer even to himself.
