Hello! I love you people, I really do. You are definitely worth all the late nights and eyestrain this fic has given me (I write best at night. Go figure.) I firstly want to thank all the people who reviewed, notably Raining Petals and :-D, because I couldn't reply to your reviews and thank you then, so I thank you now.

And to Raining Petals: Fred Astaire was a famous American dancer, and singer, and movie star, and he was way before our time, so I wouldn't worry about not knowing who he is. There's a ton of stuff about him on if you want to find out more.

Disclaimer: They're not mine; I'm just having my wicked way with them for a while. It's fun. Try it.

Warning: Bad words, slashy guy-on-guy action, and kinky bondage sex. Wait…I made that last bit up…

Notes: I'm probably going to fail my GCSEs because of this story…any attempts I make at revision get railroaded by plot penguins and it's very, very worrying. Actually, the truth is that I'm just bone-idle and I can't be bothered to concentrate on anything school related. (shrugs)

Dedication: This is for everyone who reads it and reviews. Without you, I'd just be an obsessive girl with a computer and too much time on her hands. As it turns out, I am an obsessive girl with a computer and too much time on her hands anyway, but you guys give me an audience, and therefore a purpose. So thank you.

Chad walked down the hallway, checking out girls as he went past.

Nice ass…cute smile…perfect tits…

It was after the fourth girl gave him a 'talk to the hand' that he realised he was being way too obvious and definitely overcompensating. Asserting the fact that he liked girls was not going to change the fact that he had kissed Ryan yesterday. He couldn't figure it out. Was this dancing thing turning him soft? If he pulled out, would these feelings for Ryan stop? Chad's mind wandered to Troy, and he realised the answer was no. Troy had done the full musical show tune thing, and he was still into girls, if the way his eyes went all gooey whenever Gabriella was around was anything to go by. Nope, the Ryan thing was all down to Chad. So the question arose: What was he going to do about it?

"Hey Chad!" Troy appeared out of nowhere with Gabriella glued to his hip. They walked up to Chad with matching excited grins. "Guess who's agreed to partner you…"

Chad looked at Gabriella and smiled. "Really?"

"Yep. I wasn't gonna at first, but then Troy told me you were having real trouble, so I said I'd do it."

"You have no idea how much you just saved my life!" Chad pulled Gabriella into a huge hug, stopping just short of picking her up and swinging her round in elation. Now he didn't have to spend any more time alone with Ryan, which meant there was no risk of yesterday being repeated.

"Uh, could you put me down now?" Gabriella was tugging painfully on Chad's shoulder, obviously struggling to breath. Chad apologised and let her go, blushing slightly. She grinned and rubbed her neck. "So…Troy mentioned something about a video?"

"Video?" Chad frowned. "Oh! The video! Yeah, I need to talk to you about that…"

Gabriella shrugged and let Chad pull her aside. Troy called after them, telling Chad to remember she was his girlfriend. Chad laughed and watched him disappear round a corner, then turned to Gabriella, all serious and agitated. Her trusting, expectant face fell into a concerned frown.

"What's wrong Chad?"

Chad sighed. How to phrase this? "There is no video." Okay, good start…

"What do you mean?"

"Ryan is the video. He's been teaching me."

Gabriella scrunched her nose in confusion. "Why?"

Good question… "He said I was good and he wanted to help."

"Okay…but why did you lie?"

"We have to keep it a secret from Sharpay. She'll kill him all kinds of dead if she finds out."

"True…but why not tell Troy?"

Chad paused. Extremely good question… "I…I'm not sure exactly. It was just easier with no one knowing I guess."

Gabriella chewed her lip. "So now that I'm in the loop, am I expected to lie to Troy as well?"

"Yes. Well, no. I mean…no. He can be in the loop too. But he has to understand the importance of this remaining secret, right?"

Gabriella nodded and gave him the Girl Scout salute. Chad laughed, feeling a little relieved that he would be able to talk to his best friend about this dancing thing, like he wanted to when he was meeting Ryan for the first time. Then again, events had since occurred that Chad was most definitely not going to be sharing.

Gabriella smiled, eager to start now that she could let her boyfriend in on the secret. "So when's our first session together?"

"Ah…" Chad did an awkward little shuffle. "I'm supposed to be meeting Ryan during free period today."

"You say that like there's a problem."

"Well, Ryan might not be talking to me anymore…"

"Why not? Did you have a fight?"

"Not exactly…"

"Were you mean?"

Chad grimaced. "No, I was real friendly actually."

"Well then what?"

"Nothing! A line was just crossed, okay? Look, I have to go. I'll see you free period?"

"Sure." Gabriella watched Chad stalk off in completely the wrong direction for his class and sighed. There was something weird going on, and now Chad had gone and piqued her curiosity by being all defensive. She knew she was going to have to tell Troy about how weird Chad was acting. Maybe she could rope him into sleuthing a little with her. One thing was for sure though; Gabriella was now itching for free period to come round.

HSM

The first thing Gabriella noticed when she met up with Chad was his painful reluctance to go anywhere near the classroom where Ryan was supposedly waiting.

"He's probably not even there." he squeaked. Gabriella rolled her eyes.

"All you have to do is apologise for whatever it is you did, and get on with practising for the competition." She gave him a gentle shove through the door, ignoring his squawks of protest, and then followed him inside. They were greeted by a very moody Ryan, perched upon a desk and looking every inch as miserable to be there as Chad was. Gabriella was fascinated. Chad glanced at her, pleading with those big brown eyes of his. She nudged him pointedly in the ribs and he sighed.

"Look, Ryan, I'm sorry about…what happened…yesterday. I don't know what came over me. I should never have done that and…"

"It's fine." The blonde interrupted him. "You apologised so it's fine. We don't have to talk about it anymore."

Chad seemed shocked. "Really?"

"I said so, didn't I?" Ryan snapped. He winced at his own harshness, but remained unapologetic. He nodded towards Gabriella. "Is she your new dance partner?"

Chad nodded.

"Fine. How many of the steps do you know?"

"Uh…none?" Gabriella answered. She was itching to ask what it was that Chad had done yesterday, but something told her if she did then she would probably regret it. The tension in the air was so thick it would take a chainsaw to hack through it.

"Okay." Ryan rolled his neck, limbering up. "Looks like we're going to have to go over everything again. Chad can show you all the positions. I'll start the music." He hit a button on a battered old stereo dug out from some forgotten department of the school, and they began. Gabriella struggled to pick up all the steps Chad had already learned, but she was able to follow his lead, and both boys were patient with her. Occasionally, Ryan would stop them and adjust her position, or take Chad's place momentarily and demonstrate a certain move. Gabriella noticed that when she wasn't quite right, Ryan would immediately step over and physically correct her, but when Chad wasn't quite right, he corrected him verbally. They never touched. She wondered why.

Suddenly, the bell rang for next period. The time had gone real quickly for Gabriella, but judging by the way both Chad and Ryan eagerly jumped up and left before the last note stopped ringing, time had moved much more slowly for them. Gabriella drew her eyebrows together in thought, going over every little detail she had managed to pick up between the two boys. She couldn't quite piece it together enough to make sense, but she was going to eventually. All she needed was a second perspective…

HSM

Chad made it to class with just one emotion running through his body - relief. He was going to make it through this dance competition, thanks to sweet, beautiful little Gabriella. With her in the picture, there was no need to touch Ryan, and without touching Ryan, there were no temptations or brief moments of insanity. Granted, it was still so awkward he felt like ramming his own fist down his throat just to make it stop, but there was no touching. He could cope.

He was still confused though. Even though he wasn't making physical contact in any way with Ryan, he still felt him, like every nerve in his body was tingling with the blonde's presence. He tried his best to concentrate on the dancing, but one thought kept running through his head on an endless taunting loop.

You kissed him. You kissed that boy. That one, right there. You kissed him!

It was torture, but he had survived, and he knew that it was only going to get better. He just had to focus on Gabriella as his partner, and getting the steps right, and not thinking weird thoughts about Ryan. He didn't even care about winning the competition anymore; he just wanted it over with as quickly as possible so he could return to some sense of normality. He refused to think about the possibility that there might not be any going back…

HSM

Weeks passed and it still didn't get any less awkward between Ryan and Chad. Gabriella had told Troy as soon as possible, and though at first he reacted by bursting out laughing in Chad's face, within ten minutes the novelty had worn off and Gabriella was able to rope him into her little project entitled 'What did Chad do to make things all weird between him and Ryan?' She was a sweet, bright girl, but naming things had never been her forte.

Eventually, Ryan had upped Chad and Gabriella to his prestigious tango, and Chad worked hard at it despite the painful reminder of what he was trying to forget that he had done. He managed to get through it purely by fixing his eyes firmly on Gabriella's and acknowledging the presence of no one but him and her. Except Ryan had an annoying habit of breaking this illusion by snapping every five minutes: 'Where's your passion? I'm not feeling it!'

Chad tried to ignore him. After all, he was fighting every day to make sure Ryan didn't 'feel it', even if it meant his dancing sucked…but then one day Ryan upped the bar and said,

"Come on Chad, it's about desire. You were so close before, why can't you get it now?"

He had mentioned that session. The session they never spoke of. Chad gritted his teeth as memories flooded back, memories he had been denying himself for a good couple of weeks now. It wasn't fair; he'd been coping. Why do this now?

It's about desire…so close…

And then suddenly it wasn't Gabriella in front of Chad anymore. He was back in that empty classroom, pulled flush against Ryan and feeling everything all over again. Except this time, he didn't lean in for that kiss. He just danced, like Ryan wanted him to, like he wanted to with Ryan, and they swept across the whole floor, spinning and snapping, moving so quickly until they were out of breath and the music stopped. Slowly, the classroom faded away, and Chad realised that he hadn't been dancing with Ryan after all, that it was Gabriella in his arms all flushed and awe-struck. His eyes slid over to where the real Ryan was and he saw something burning in his eyes. Something he didn't care to be seeing. The blonde was right: this dance was about desire…and it was definitely dangerous.

HSM

Ryan was officially miserable. When Chad had kissed him, he had been beyond shocked. Then slowly, the shock faded away into anger. How dare Chad Danforth make fun of him like that? Just because he loved drama and wore stylish clothes and actually co-ordinated his outfits, because he actually cared about his appearance, everyone assumed he was gay. He was, but that was beside the point. He didn't know what kind of statement Chad was making when he kissed him, but Ryan could definitely eliminate the possibility that Chad had done it because he was attracted to him. The basketball jock was as straight as they came…that had been made strikingly clear when he had apologised the next day with Gabriella egging him on. He had obviously been boasting about what a fool he made out of Ryan, and then Gabriella had guilt tripped him into apologising. And then…then Chad had danced that tango with Gabriella…

It was Ryan's own fault. He kept going on at Chad to put more passion into it, and then he did. Maybe a little too much for Ryan's liking. God, it had looked like Chad was going to eat Gabriella alive during that dance…and Ryan couldn't help thinking he had done it on purpose, to prove even further that the kiss had been nothing more than a joke. And even worse was the fact that when Chad had danced like that with Gabriella, Ryan had felt a spike of jealousy. He had liked that kiss, fake as it had been. And he hated himself for it. He hated himself because he couldn't bring himself to hate Chad. It was all his fault for letting his guard down. Chad was a jock, for crying out loud! What had he expected? Oh God, he just wanted it all to be over so he could put as much distance between him and Chad as possible, before Chad could make a fool out of him any more than he had done already. It wasn't fair! All he was doing was helping, why did Chad have to do this? And why was he letting him?

Suddenly, something clicked into place in Ryan's head. Chad was trying to mess his head up before the competition! Well, he had almost succeeded. Almost. Ryan was onto him now, and he wasn't going to let him get away with it. If Chad could play dirty, then so could Ryan – and he had just the move to do it with…

END PART 4