A/N: I've posted this before at the livejournal community Rypay (community . livejournal . com / rypay), but decided to post it here so it could get more publicity. Please comment because I love to hear what everyone thinks:D I'd also like to shamelessly plug the Rypay livejournal community. If you love Rypay you should definately check it out and join (just remove the spaces in the above link). It's brand new and we need more shippers:) Enjoy the story!

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"Lets practice our audition in my room tonight," she whispered in frustration into my ear. Her breath was so warm against my neck I could barely concentrate on the words she spoke, let alone the scene we were spying on. Kelsey, Gabriella, and Troy were in a practice room, smiling and singing the words to their audition song on a piano bench. Sharpay, despite her congratulations she gave to Gabriella after they won the leads in Twinkle Town, still was quite upset by their failure and did not plan on it happening again this year. I could feel anger radiating off of her as she twirled a strand of hair around her index finger.

"But there's more room downstairs. And it's cooler." I said simply.

She huffed, turning her head to face me. "Do you think we should take any chances on them being able to peek in through our living room window and seeing?" She shook her head, blonde curls bobbing back and forth. "I swear," she started, her voice rising in volume and she continued, "if Troy and his girlfriend have some stupid spy people coming over so they can steal the leads from us I will-"

I put a hand over her mouth, "Sharpay, they're RIGHT on the other side of the door!" I whispered loudly.

I peeked through the small window on the door, and Troy's eyes left the sheet music and glanced in my direction, obviously hearing something. With my hand still cupped over her mouth I grabbed her arm and pulled her around the corner, setting her against a locker. It was then that I became quiet aware of the feel of her lips on my palm, and I released her in a hurry.

"Ryan! You left a mark on my ARM," she said, pointing to where I had grabbed her.

"You almost got us caught spying!" I replied. "I will not get blamed for something that was TOTALLY your idea."

She sighed, rolling her eyes. "Whatever," she said under her breath. Then she turned on her heel… a pink high-heel, to be exact… and started walking down the hallway in a huff.

I groaned. I knew I would only be giving her what she wanted if I followed her, but I couldn't help it. "Sharpay!" I said, starting into a small jog to catch up with her fast pace. If those shoes made it hard to walk, she definitely didn't give any signs of that being true.

She kept walked, her chin held high and her curls continuing to swish behind her back. I groaned yet again, jogging faster. I didn't stop until I was at her side. I grabbed her hand, and she stopped. I could tell she was trying to avoid eye-contact.

"Why are you so upset?" I asked in a soft voice, trying to comfort her and bring her anger down to a safe level. My thumb stroked the back of her hand and I held it there, and surprisingly she didn't pull away.

"I'm fine," she sighed, her mouth pouting a bit. "I just want to win is all…"

"We will," I said. "We've been practicing for weeks, Sharpay, and we'll practice more tonight. We're going to do amazing. And Troy is not going to send anyone to spy on us in our house." She blinked blankly for a few moments before looking into my eyes. I gave her a small smile and her pout was finally forced upward a bit. "But if you insist on doing upstairs, I have no problem with that."

She finally then let herself smile. She always had a way of getting her way with me. "Thanks," she said, squeezing my hand slightly before letting it go. We walked down the hall together, our paces in time with each others. "We should probably start after dinner," she said after a while, in a commanding voice.

"Alright."

"We'll do it all night if we have to," she said sternly with a nod.

"Hopefully we don't have to…" I muttered.

"There will be no whining, Ryan," she said, giving me a last look before turning the corner. "If you want to be a WINNER, you should have no problem losing a bit of sleep." And then she had gone, turning the knob of a classroom door and making her entrance in science class.

Oh, I have no problem losing sleep, I thought to myself, I do it every night… thinking about how wrong it is to love you…

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I entered her doorway around 8 or 9 o'clock. We had been sort of delayed… Sharpay had to write a paper or something and I was giving Sharpay's orders to our rehearsal pianist, who was going to play for our audition the next day. It took awhile to get everything perfect. By the time we were both finished, night had come. Even if Troy had spies outside, I bet they wouldn't see that much.

When I walked in she was sitting on her bed, pink pajama pants ruffled against her legs. Her hair was feathery looking and not done-up like it usually looked. It seemed flatter, more natural, as it hung limply over her shoulders. Make-up was mostly absent from her face except for a few small traces of eyeliner the she, apparently, had been unable to wash off in the shower.

"God, it's about time, huh?" she said, standing up off of the bed. "I thought we were never going to have time."

"Yeah," I said nonchalantly, giving her a small grin as she approached me. "But, like you said… winners can lose a few hours of sleep, right?"

"That's right!" she said. "Those few hours are what is going to make Troy and Gabriella crash and burn," she said confidently, a small smile on her face.

As she stood before me in her bare feet, the bottoms of her pants bunched up around her ankles, I realized that no one in the world ever saw her like this. With a plain face and her clothes simple… she was just Sharpay, simply herself with no mask. And I realized that she was the only person who saw me like a normal person too. After all. I wasn't wearing a dress shirt, designer pants, or even a hat. I was in her bedroom in nothing but a loose East High t-shirt and a pair of plaid shorts. My hair probably looked horrible too, but I didn't feel like I needed to fix it. With each other alone, we didn't have to try to impress anyone.

The realization of this made the situation feel a lot more intimate than usual. And as I considered Sharpay in her casual clothes, I realized that this was when she was most beautiful. And this amazing, pretty Sharpay was just for me… no one else. I could feel my heart beat steadily in my chest.

She leaned over to reach the stereo, hair falling over her shoulder blades as she moved. She adjusted the volume and I just watched her, waiting for some kind of cue. She tilted her head back to me as she started the track, a small teasing grin on her face. "So do you plan on dancing tonight, Ryan?" she said, "or are you just going to stand there staring at the radio?"

"I wasn't staring at the radio," I said defensively.

"What were you staring at then?" she said, tilting her chin. My mouth fell open a bit, struggling for a reply.

"Nothing. Just… air," I said stupidly.

She gave me a quizzical look before laughing a bit. "Okay, freak. Well are you ready to practice now?"

"Of course," I said, smiling.

As she placed a hand on my shoulder, my hand mechanically brought itself to her hip. I could feel the top of her pajama pants.

"I know I was kind of uppity earlier today about practicing," she said, as we took hands and began the steps to the routine. We had practiced so much we could do them and hold a conversation at the same time without much effort. "I guess actually, we don't need that much…I mean, we've danced hundreds of times… our choreography is really good…"

"Why, thank you," I said playfully, dipping her low. The small of her back was pressed against my forearm, and it took more effort to resist showing how much is pleased me than it took for me to remember dance steps, or even lines. When she popped back up she smiled. "I do put together a pretty sweet routine," I continued.

"Not without my help," she replied, raising an eyebrow. "Without me, we'd be no where."

I laughed. "True… you're brilliant." I though I may have saw her blush, but I may have imagined it. I never knew Sharpay to get too flattered, she's heard all the compliments hundred of times before. Still though… that smile seemed peculiar.

The dance eventually became more fast paced, and the conversation lessened. That meant my thoughts and desires rang louder inside of my head that I wanted them to, since a conversation wasn't there to distract me. I really didn't like that I had to shun such powerful thoughts away, but the things I was feeling were too odd to actually act upon or fully realize they exist. I was content enough to think to myself about how much I loved the feel of her shirt on mine, and how soft her hands felt after she moisturized them at night… except for those nights where I couldn't sleep…

I was relieved when she began to talk again. "Do you think Ms. Darbus will still like us as leads?"

My eyes looked around the room. "I don't see why not."

"I just don't know," she said with a groan. "I mean, I know we're pretty much awesome at acting, but… she seemed so charmed by them…" I looked down at her and she looked back up at me for a second before shaking her head. "And I mean, they were pretty good in the play…"

"We have a really good chance," I said, trying to sound confident. "We have so much experience, Sharpay. You've worked your ass off for this. So have I. She will consider that."

"I know," she muttered, without sounding really convinced.

"Yet you're still nervous about Troy and that girl?" I asked, hearing the concern in my own voice.

"Not nervous really," she answered. "I just… don't want to take any chances, that's all…"

A few moments of silence passed, and I looked down at her once more.

"Why do they bother you so much?" I asked.

She lowered her eyebrows confusedly. "Um, why do you even have to ask? They took our roles, we lost… you know all this. They bother you too."

"Not as much as they bother you," I said. "Seriously Sharpay. This whole week you've been nothing but frustration. I've never seen you less confident before." My hand had somehow found it's way to holding the middle of her back, and I wondered how it got there. I could almost feel skin underneath that shirt…. But I blocked the thoughts out quickly. "It just concerns me, my sister being upset and all," I finished.

She didn't say anything for a few eight counts. I stared at her eyes, thought hers were looking off into a corner deep in thought. Eventually a small sigh escaped her lips.

"She's really pretty, isn't she?" she asked quietly.

Her lips were doing that pout thing again. She looked almost devastatingly sad, so I could tell she was sincere. After looking deep into her face for some time I shook my head. "She's okay…" I said. Her frown got sadder. "Not really my type though." I recovered.

I watched her hair bob up and down. It always did stuff like that. I wondered why no one else's hair moved like hers. Though her hair was bouncing though, her face remained motionless.

"She is pretty," she said. "And nice. And her voice… is actually really good. And she's so freaking smart, Ryan…" She trailed off and became silent. I saw small pools of tears form in her eyes, but she held them back. I thought she was going to be okay until I heard a small sniffle from her nose. I stopped dancing and she looked up at me, horrified.

"You just can't stop, Ryan!" she said, trying to grab his hand and continued dancing. "You have to practice like it's the real thing or we'll never be perfect and we'll never beat them!"

"But you're crying!" I pointed out.

She sniffled, crossing her arms. "So?"

"So!?" I exclaimed. "Sharpay…"

Before I had any words to console her with she had run into me, her face dampening my shoulder with her tears and her arms wrapping tightly around my waist. We were so close… like she thought the closer we were, the more she could get a hold of herself. Little did she know, the closer we got, the more my heart lost control.

I hugged her tightly, trying to be a good brother. Trying to comfort her like family, like a plutonic protector. Yet the way we held each other didn't feel like the way I would hold one my cousins. The way she was pressed against me, and the way she dug her face into the crook of my neck, and how I wanted to kiss more than her cheek to make her feel better. It's the kind of hug I would have broken with guilt if mom or dad had walked into the room. But no one was here but us, and all I wanted to do was let her get my shirt soaking wet until she couldn't cry anymore.

"Sharpay,," I said, when I heard her sobs slow. "You have nothing to cry for. You're… just perfect. You're amazing."

She took her face out from my shoulder, though her arms stayed locked around me. "Of course you say that. You always say that. You're family, you have to."

"My opinion about you being perfect…" I started, clearing my throat. "Goes much deeper than brotherly affection." I saw her eyes get wide, so I recovered, for fear that she would release me, push me out of the room, and tell me to never touch her again. "I mean, you're my best friend. You're my partner. You're my everything. Without you, like you said, we'd be no where."

She smiled and a small, laugh came out, as well as more tears. "Ryan…" she said simply.

"It's true though," I said. "You have so much that Gabriella could never have. You're the best dancer I know. You memorize lines the moment you get them… Gabriella might be good in math, but she could never get off-book faster than you." She laughed a little at that, so I continued. "And you're witty, and clever, and have so many creative ideas. You bring so much to theatre, you have no idea. You cannot be replaced. You wont be replaced." There was a pause. "Oh, and you're hair is the blondest, most gorgeous thing I've ever seen on a female's head."

She laughed even harder, rolling her eyes at herself and wiping her tear-stained face with one hand. "For the record, your hair is the blondest, most gorgeous thing I've ever seen on a male's head," she said with a thankful, acknowledging look. My heart skipped a beat.

"And that's why we're good together," I said, playing along. I was doing anything to boost her ego and to get a smile on her face.

"It's also why you shouldn't wear hats so much," she said with a small grin. "You shouldn't cover up your beauty."

"Neither should you," I said.

"I don't wear hats, though."

"I meant your make-up," I replied back. "You don't need that stuff. I love the way your face looks tonight." It was only after the words came out that I realized how awkward they could have made her feel. Had I taken it too far? Was I flirting too much? I had no idea. All I knew was that heat was rising in my cheeks like crazy.

Instead of becoming embarrassed though, she pulled me into another hug. "You make me feel so happy," she whispered onto my neck. As she was coming back up her lips brushed my cheek, but it felt so much more different than when she kissed me there after giving her a Christmas present or something. It was soft, and she lingered. I pulled back, staring at her wide-eyed, and she looked just as surprised as me.

Before I knew what was happening our lips were touching.