A/N: I just had to do this! Mentions of cutting and thoughts of suicide. I don't own Evan, Ethan, Dwight, Reed, Shane, or Han, they all belong to the wonderful CP Coulter. All others belong to Ryan Murphy.
I based this little one-shot off of the cute less-than-a-second scene during "Here's To Us" where Nick is air drumming and Jeff is smiling back at him. Enjoy!
Nick couldn't help but smile as Rachel came out on the stage and started singing.
We could just go home right now
Or maybe we could stick around
For just one more drink, oh yeah
Get another bottle out
Lets shoot the breeze
Sit back down
For just one more drink, oh yeah
That song was just too perfect for the moment, he and Jeff had just gotten together and they couldn't be any happier. He looked over to his right and saw Jeff looking back at him. Nick could tell he was thinking the same thing.
Here's to us
Here's to love
All the times
That we messed up
Here's to you
Fill the glass
Cause the last few days
Have gone too fast
So let give em hell
Wish everybody well
Here's to us
Here's to us
Everybody started clapping along, even the Warblers. Jeff gave off one of his most adorable smiles and turned back to watch the performance.
Stuck it out this far together
Put our dreams through the shredder
Let's toast cause things got better
And everything could change like that
And all these years go by so fast
But nothing lasts forever
All those times Nick had spent with Jeff before they got together were almost like hell. The inability to hold his hand in a more-than-friends kind of way. How he knew he could never tell his best friend he was in love with him. That pain was almost too much to handle at one time, and he also considered hurting himself just to get to Jeff's heart in any way possible.
Here's to us
Here's to love
All the times
That we messed up
Here's to you
Fill the glass
Cause the last few nights
Have gone to fast
If they give you hell
Tell em to forget themselves
Here's to us
Here's to us
Jeff had always assumed his very good-looking boyfriend was straight. He'd known he was gay since he was thirteen but he never told his family for fear that they wouldn't love him anymore. Before he met Nick, his life was horrible; his parents always asking him if he had a girlfriend and pressuring him to go out with someone that he didn't even know.
Transferring to Dalton was one of the best decisions his family could make for him. They knew he wasn't as cheery as he used to be. What they didn't know was that the whole school knew that Jeff was gay and they constantly bullied him for it. They didn't know Jeff was cutting himself, they didn't know the pain he faced every day at school. They only knew what the school counselor had told them, and Jeff had a secrecy pact with his counselor. Only the information he wanted his family to know would be told to them.
Here's to all that we kissed
And to all that we missed
To the biggest mistakes
That we just wouldn't trade
To us breaking up
Without us breaking down
To whatever's come our way
Here's to us
Here's to us!
Here's to us
Here's to love
All the times
That we messed up
Nick never told Jeff that he was bisexual, and Jeff never told Nick he was gay, they didn't mention it ever. The one time it came up was during a truth or dare game late one Friday night.
The boys were all in Blaine's dorm room playing a weekly game of truth or dare. Some of the Warblers were there, along with their friends. Nick, Jeff, Kurt, Blaine, Trent, David, Wes, Thad, the Tweedles (Evan and Ethan), Dwight, Reed, Shane, and even Han participated.
"Blaine! Truth or dare?" Wes asked him.
"Dare! Give me a challenge Wesley." Blaine was one to be daring half the time.
"I dare you to put on a pair of socks and keep them on for at least a full minute. I'll time you." Blaine's face paled and everybody was trying to stifle their giggles. The entire school knew that Blaine hated socks and he never wore them unless he absolutely had to.
Blaine stood up and went to his dresser, pulling out one of his very few pairs of socks. He slipped them on and sat back down, a smile on his face.
"I could do this all night. You've run out of good dares, Wes," Blaine remarked. That's when he started fidgeting, the tightness and the scratching against his feet was bothering him. Every one saw his discomfort and started giggling again.
"Shut up you guys, you sound like little girls," Kurt snapped. He hated seeing his love when he was uncomfortable. Kurt laid his head on Blaine's shoulder and rubbed his back.
"Time's up!" Wes declared. Blaine ripped the socks off and threw them out the window.
"I'm gonna ask this question to the group as a whole, and don't you dare tell me there's a rule against it, Han." Blaine said as he sat back down. "I know this might be a little personal but I've never really asked you guys this kind of question, it's a curiosity thing."
Blaine looked around at all his friends and studied their faces, confusion was most distinguished.
"What is it, Blaine? You can ask us anything, you know that." Shane told him, he would always be there for his brother, even if Blaine didn't believe it.
"Okay," Blaine took a deep breath, "Sexual orientation, go." He pointed at Wes.
"Straight," Wes replied. Blaine pointed at Reed and Shane next, "Gay as the fourth of July," they both answered. They giggled together and somehow Reed managed to bump his knee on a stack of books that were next to him. Shane took him next door to Reed's and Kurt's room to fix him up. Blaine just shook his head and pointed next to Han, David, Trent, and Dwight. Their answers were, "I don't believe in labels", "straight", "I don't see why I should answer this, y'all know already", and "If I release that information the spirits could use it against me and I don't have quite enough holy water and rock salt to hold them off," respectively.
The Tweedles were a different story, though. When Blaine pointed at them all they said was, "No." Everyone would later realize that they meant they didn't have any orientation. When Blaine pointed at Thad, all he did was look down at his lap and mumble something that sounded like, "I don't know." He looked back up and was not expecting to see looks of understanding. Kurt stood up from where he was sitting and went and gave Thad a hug, what everyone else was not expecting was for Thad to start crying into Kurt's shoulder. Kurt led him out of the room and sent Blaine a quick text saying he would talk to Thad.
Blaine was surprised his question had so many different reactions, but he just pointed to the next person in the circle, which was Nick. He just shrugged, grinned, and said, "Bisexual." Jeff was stunned; he had no idea that his friend was anything other than straight as an arrow. Blaine pointed at him next, he hung his head in shame and played with his fingers.
Finally he answered, "I haven't told my parents yet, in fact, I haven't told anybody but myself." He looked back up and focused in on Blaine's face, "I'm gay."
It seems both boys were reliving that night and their pasts, because the next thing they knew, the performance was over and they were being pulled back stage to prepare for the announcement of the winner.
"Nick, Jeff, what was up back there? You just sort of blanked out for a good minute," Thad said.
"Just thinking," they both replied at the same time.
"Yeah well you better start thinking that we're gonna win," Sebastian interrupted rudely.
Everyone was up on stage and they had just announced third place. The Warblers walked over to meet the New Directions in the middle and waited for first place to be said.
All sound was blocked out when it was announced, but Jeff didn't care. The only thing he cared about was his boyfriend being happy. He looked down to where Nick was standing, in the middle of the middle row and just had to smile. Nick was looking back up at him and smiling with no care in the world.
Walking back to the Warblers' cars, Nick and Jeff had their interlaced hands swinging in between them.
"Yeah, get some Niff!" Trent yelled from his car. Trent had always betted on them getting together (secretly of course) and he shipped them the hardest. If anyone tried to deny it he would rant for about 3 hours before that person backed down.
"Shut up Trent, everybody knows you ship them, you don't need to announce it to the world!" David yelled. In response, Trent flipped him off and drove away with a car full of singing Warblers.
Nick and Jeff arrived at Nick's car and got in. Jeff actually got to drive it today; Nick never let him drive it for fear of it getting scratched. But he made a promise to Jeff that no matter what place they came in he would let him drive back.
"Hey, Nicky?"
"Yeah, Jeffers?"
"What were you thinking of during that last song the New Directions did?"
"That stupid Friday night truth or dare game, the one where Thad cried like a girl and Reed bumped his knee on non-existent books. It was also the one where I realized there was a possibility you could love me back."
Jeff laughed, "Great minds think alike, me too."
"I love you so much right now," Nick looked over at Jeff driving and couldn't help but smile.
"I love you too Nicky."
