Barcelona, Spain: the Count city: where every street is a work of art; where you get lost and don't want to find your way; where the whole world seems to meet just to have fun with each other, so that the day is always bright and the night is always brighter.

Also, on a lighter note, Barcelona was the city where the students of East High were going on a two-week-long excursion for the end of the year. For most of said students nothing really interesting could be said: Troy and Gabriella were slobbering over each other; Taylor along with her merry gang of scientists was touring every sight there was to see, from Guell Park right down to the Cathedral, going through all the bookstores, and museums on the way; and of course Sharpay was securing herself the best tickets for the best theatre in town: the Lyceum of Barcelona.

But there were two students for whom something decidedly different was going to happen. Ryan and Chad were about to get their love lives turned over, so to speak; and it had all started a few months, before when Miss Darbus –it was done like this for there to be no trouble amongst the classmates- had announced the pairings for the rooms:

"…Ryan Evans and Chad Danforth"

The two were very surprised.

"You've got to be kidding me..." whispered Chad to Troy "I'm going to have to sleep with friggin' Gene Kelly"

"What?" whined Ryan to Sharpay "No! He'll never let me redecorate the room in floral motives!"

But the truth was that, secretly, perhaps so secretly that even they themselves didn't know it, there was a little part of them that was very, very happy to have a chance to sleep with the other; and a very particular little part at that.

Yet still, they spent the rest of the year pretending like nothing happened. But sure enough, when after several hours of plane ride they got to Barcelona, took the bus and were sent to their the hotel rooms in Majestic Hotel –they didn't get a chance to see much of the city on the first day; it was already night time- Chad and Ryan were sent up to the same room.

The place was well worth its name: it had a plasma screen TV well-sculpted classical commodes and a mirror, and beige wallpaper with charming fleur-de-lis motive that gave it all an air of European luxury. But there was one minor detail that set the two boys off. And Chad was the first to notice:

"You've got to be kidding me!" exclaimed the black boy, letting his suitcase fall on the ground in astonishment "They've only got one bed?"

"Great, now this…" thought an exasperated Ryan, laying his head on the wall. Then, he said out loud "Now what do we do?"

The air was so tense you could cut it with a knife; no this; definitely not this: it had already taken a lot of energy for poor Ryan to accept he was going to stay in the same room with that jock from the basketball team, the same way Chad had worked hard to get himself used to the idea of sleeping with the musician. And now they only had one, king-size bed? This was just too much!

Of course, if any of them had really wanted, they could probably have done something about their being in the same room.

"They probably made a mistake" said Chad finally "I'm sure we can have them put us somewhere else next morning"

"But what about tonight?" whined Ryan.

"Well, dude" said Chad, looking at him "I guess we'll have to make due with this"

Ryan gaped in astonishment

"You mean we're going to sleep together?"

"That's the plan" said Chad.

"But… but… I really wanted to sleep in my new, imported silk Barcelona boxers!"

"You bought them outside, Ryan. They're not imported if you're still in Barcelona"

Ryan stayed in place, a bit too exhausted from the plane trip to answer few seconds; then, he saw that Chad had already begun undressing, and at last spoke up:

"I'm going to go take a bath…" declared the blond haired boy. He really didn't want to see Chad change into his pyjamas; or, rather, he didn't want to be seen seeing Chad change into his pyjamas. And so he went into the bathroom.

Of course, said bathroom was just as luxurious as the rest of a hotel. Just the bath was like a small swimming pool, with complete Jacuzzi functions; for some reason it had no curtains. That's modern designing for you Ryan got undressed, into the bath and began to pour water on himself. Not too hot, not too cold; it trickled down his head, arms torso, and everywhere else, soothing his tired body beyond explicable extent.

"This is the life" he thought to himself, as he looked through the array of soaps and creams the hotel had to offer.

It wasn't all that bad, after all. Looking on the bright side, he thought, the room, was fantastic; and God knew he was at thankful not to have Sharpay whining over him twenty-four hours a day; and plus, he might get a chance to see a few things he'd lost out on for not being in the basketball teams and getting to share locker rooms with Chad…

As he reflected on all this, Ryan lazily lay down in the bath, letting the water run down his chest. By now, he was too tired to even think anymore; he knew there was some reason he couldn't fall asleep in the bathtub, but he couldn't remember it. At this point, all his thoughts were just jumbled up in his head. The hotel room… water… Sharpay… Chad… Barcelona… Chad…

He fell asleep.

***

Several hours later, in the main room, Chad woke up. The bright Mediterranean sun shone through the open windows. As he recalled where he was and what he'd been doing, it effectively came back to his mind he'd fallen asleep on the bed while taking a rest from undressing, without taking the time to even get under the covers. He was just that tired. Messing up his hair, that had the uncanny habit of getting flat on one side when he slept, Chad got up.

"Oh s—t…" he thought, as he saw himself "This can't be good"

He was only wearing his black boxers; He hadn't even finished putting on his pyjamas.

"Great, now Ryan saw me in underwear" he muttered.

His mouth tasted like hell –he hadn't washed his teeth-, and he definitely needed to wash his face. Then he looked down at said underwear and noticed that, on top of everything else, there was something in his pants that was a lot harder than usual; and that really just made everything worse.

Then, unaware of the ironic surprise awaiting him therein –a surprise that would teach him that there are things worse than being seen in underwear- he went into the bathroom.

"Wow" he thought "Nice sink"

At first he didn't notice anything but that. It was, after all, indeed very ornate and shiny. But when he'd thrown some water on his face, and washed his teeth and he turned it off, the black boy was surprised to hear that, though he saw no water running, he heard a trickling noise. And then he noticed that the water was coming from the bathtub; he turned around, and his jaw dropped.

Sure enough, laying there in the bath was Ryan Evans; Ryan Evans fully naked, with white foam here and there, asleep with the shower phone in his hands and the water –it hadn't overflowed because no-one had plugged the tub- up to his chest. And what a chest it was! To Chad, those were the whitest, best-sculpted pectorals he'd ever seen (except perhaps his own) and he stood gawking for almost a minute before he got back to his senses.

"Holy…" he finally muttered to himself.

But Ryan woke up. And a lot of things happened together in a very short time:

First off all, for a split second Ryan's eyes just now returning from the realm of sleep glared at Chad as if he was a dream; then the whole of Ryan, getting (almost) to his senses, jolted up in surprise; of course, the instant after he noticed that was probably not the best move in the current situation, and he reached for the very first towel he could find; unluckily for him, it was a small pink towel with little flowers on it, but still, he quickly covered himself, or at the very least the front part of himself, so that the scene became almost decent, when he finally said something.

"Eh… sorry about that."

"No… no worries" said Chad.

Still, they'd both seen each other naked, and both witness how fit each on was. And, a plus for him, Chad did got to get a flash of Ryan's parts of which of course he didn't say a word, but which nonetheless did not help one bit in making that bulge in his boxers go away.

***

The day that followed out little encounter went by in a very average fashion. The students were taken to see the Sagrada Familia Church, and had lunch on Las Ramblas. But when the evening came, and our two boys were back in the room, as if the whole of the world outside their door had vanished, once again the atmosphere became incredibly tense; what's more, they hadn't yet gotten the chance to complain about their unfortunate room arrangement. Chad, trying to ignore everything lay on the bed and turned on the television, zapping through channels he didn't understand just for the hell of the pretty colours, whilst Ryan, in a similar attempt at friendly distancing as practicing some new dance moves he'd learned from a street performer. Allegedly, they were an ancient Catalan dance, but the more he practiced them, the more they became suspiciously reminiscent of an Enrique Iglesias video clip.

But it wasn't long before the black kid got tired of the silence and turned off the television:

"So" he said trying to start a conversation "Nice city, huh?"

"Yeah" said Ryan, still practicing "Step-step, turn, jump… Yeah, it is"

"The church was pretty, huh?"

"Oh yeah" said Ryan, not stopping his dancing "Really nice"

"Lots of colours"

"Definitely; looked like ice cream"

"Yeah"

There was silence; so much for the Sagrada Familia. Chad made a second attempt.

"The food was good, huh?" he said.

"Hmmm…" replied Ryan "Tasty. But I heard paella is a lot easier on the tongue than it is on the hips."

Again, there was silence; Chad made a third try, hoping this one would work "You know" he said "I never knew you were so well-toned"

At this, Ryan stopped; it was so straightforwardly awkward, he couldn't really do anything else.

"Well" he said, after some thinking, and sitting down beside Chad "What do you think, that dancing isn't as good a sport as basket?"

"Hey" said Chad with a grin "I said you looked good. Nothing is as good a sport as basket."

"Oh yeah?" said Ryan "I'll admit, you have a good body too, but you can't beat me."

"Want to try?" said Chad.

"Come and get me" said Ryan.

And Chad tackled him, pinning him down on the bed. Ryan, however, was not to be outdone so easily and pushed the black boy over, and found himself on top, though not for long, and burst into laughter when Chad's foot kicked him off the bed. Then, the tension went down in a fit of arms, legs, flying sheets and laughter, and they both finally fell on the ground. It was a long time before any of them recovered their breath. They looked at each other with a bizarre blissful look. And then Ryan made a very strange remark:

"You know" he said "I've never actually kissed a girl"

Chad smiled at him with a sarcastic look:

"You don't say?"

"What?" exclaimed Ryan "You think I couldn't?"

"Well, it's not exactly that…" said Chad.

"You can't be telling me you think I'm ugly!" said Ryan.

"Oh, no" said Chad "No, it's definitely not that. But I just… oh, don't get offended! I've never kissed a female either"

"What?" said Ryan "You? I don't believe it"

"And yet it's true" said Chad.

"Really?" said Ryan "Then how about Taylor?"

"Her?" said Chad "Oh, we're together alright; but she won't let me do a thing…"

"Wow… really?"

"Yeah… it sucks"

They fell silent for a minute; there were certainly a lot of awkward silences this evening…

"So then…" said Ryan "None of us has kissed a girl yet?"

"Nope" said Chad.

"Well, that's not good" said Ryan.

"I know…" said Chad.

"We should try" said Ryan.

"Yeah" said Chad "It would be good

"No" said Ryan, looking him in the eyes "I mean, now"

Chad looked at him with a face so astounded. He couldn't make out if Ryan was hitting on him, or just that stupid. Or both!

"What the hell are you talking about?" exclaimed the black kid.

"Well" said Ryan "It's just to see how it feels! I mean can't go around the school at this age never having kissed anyone; that's, like, a disgrace. This isn't some Disney musical… Besides, no-one ever has to know."

"So… you're suggesting we kiss each other… to see how it's like?" said Chad.

"That is the idea I intended to convey… officially" said Ryan, quoting one of the many musicals he'd played in.

Chad thought for a bit. This was way too weird.

"Well…" he said reluctantly "If it's just to see how it's like…"

"Strictly"

"…let's go for it

And then, closing his eyes, and putting his hand on Ryan's cheek, Chad Danforth leaned in on Ryan Evans; and Ryan, closing his own eyes as well, opened his mouth expectantly. And if it seemed like a century while their lips were getting closer, when they touched all the time in the world exploded in one moment: Chad violently pushed his tongue into Ryan's mouth with all the impetus of his young age, whilst Ryan, not wanting to become the girl in the situation (at least not so easily) fought back with just as much passion. They lost all timidity, all restraints, and all their doubts about each other fell to the ground. This was a real kiss: they were both quite certain in their hearts that they were doing this for any reason but to just see what it was like. By now, they were swimming in love.

"Wow" said Ryan, gasping for breath, when Chad finally pulled out "Just… wow"

"Huh?" said Chad, with a charming grin "Am I or am I not the best?"

Ryan wearing a silly smile on his face nodded, and they stood glaring at each other with that stupid bliss lovers are wont have. And then, Chad's grin became one level slyer:

"You know what else I haven't done yet?" he said to Ryan.

Ryan looked puzzled for a moment; but when he got on his jaw dropped:

"You want to…" he said, not believing his ears.

"Come on…" said Chad "It's about time to see what we're both worth under the hood… Of course" he added "It's not that I haven't seen some of you yet"

"I guess" said Ryan with a smile "If you do something, you have to do it to the end…"

And then they started kissing again, but this time to the love was added fierce, male, animal passion. Chad unbuttoned Ryan's shirt, without ever for a second getting his mouth off his lover's, and threw it off; then Ryan put his hands on Chad's behind and moved them down to the front, unbuttoning the pants which the other boy then promptly kicked off. And Ryan got the upper hand and rolled over; and Chad fought back and got back on top. And without ever letting go of each other, without parting their lips, without stopping for even a second their searching, grappling and fondling of each other's bodies, they got undressed down to their underpants and got onto the bed.

"Well" said Chad in the end, breathing with happy anxiety, laying down with his hands under his head "You're definitely just as sexy now as I remember you from this morning"

"And you certainly live up to your reputation as a sexy basketball jock" said Ryan cheerily.

"So" said Chad "You want to go on?"

Ryan looked at him in the eye, and smiled at him.

"Chad" he said "If there's one thing that I learned from theatre, it's this: the show must go on!"

And with that, he got his head down to right under Chad's belly, and began doing things that we can't say if we want to keep this story teen-rated..

"Oh…" cried Chad in ecstasy "Oh, s—t, Ryan!"

***

"My God" said Ryan, a long time later, gasping for breath as when they finally both fell on the bed exhausted "Chad Danforth, you are one black, afro-haired basketball sex fiend"

"Well" said Chad with a naughty grin "I do work out a lot"

"No, seriously" said Ryan, overjoyed "I mean, at first it was pure agony; but then I came like seven time! I didn't even think that was possible!"

"I am good…" said Chad "But you weren't any worse"

"What are you talking about?" said Ryan "Chad, that thing between your legs: It's like, I knew mine was big, but... yours is like a cucumber… and that's before you start playing with it"

"Well, I am black" said Chad "Though I don't think I'll have to play with it by myself anymore"

And he laughed; then, they looked at each other in perfect bliss; laying there, on the sating sheets and sculpted bed, with the velvet covers thrown on the ground, Ryan snuggled on Chad's chest, and Chad hugged Ryan a bit tighter.

"You know" said the black boy "I don't think we really need to tell them to change our room anymore"

"No…" said the other with a smile "No, I don't think we do"

And they kissed. Then, Chad grabbed Ryan with a mock roar, and in a fit of laughter they went for an eighth round! They were very lucky Ryan was on good terms with Miss Darbus and managed to convince her the next day that they needed to stay in to sleep because they were sick.