Silver had gone very quiet. I think he was finally asleep. I propped myself up using my elbow and leaned over so that I could see his face, making sure. He was huddled up, his hair falling over his face. I reached out and brushed a few of the stray strands away so that I could see his face properly, and smiled amusedly when I saw he had the tip of his thumb in his mouth. Silver, who would be twenty years old next year, who had once won a five-against-one punch out, who could make small children cry just by looking at them, still sucked his thumb in his sleep. Though of course he'd deny it if I ever brought it up.

I laid back down, squirming slightly. There really wasn't much room in a single bed for two grown men (well, I would be a man legally in less than a month!), and I was getting a bit too hot. I slid the duvet down to my waist, and Silver twitched in his sleep. I sighed and pulled the covers back up. You'd have thought with the temperature he usually kept his apartment that he liked the cold.

"The things I do for you," I whispered, smiling. I gently tugged the back of his loose T-shirt down and kissed him on the back. Silver usually wore just his boxer shorts to sleep in, but since I had muscled in on his territory of the bed, he had taken to wearing old T-shirts as well. I didn't see why. It wasn't like I could see his body under the duvet. But then I couldn't complain- I had to sleep in my clothes for the following day, seeing as I had to get up so early for work and couldn't afford to waste time getting dressed.

I raised my head to whisper against his ear. "I love you." Then I dipped my head and kissed the side of his neck. Silver made a little 'mmm' noise and wriggled. He stretched out his neck to one side, and I swallowed. It was like he was offering me his nape, begging me to kiss that too.

But I couldn't do that. To take advantage of Silver while he slept would be wrong. I loved him but I wasn't going to stoop to that level just to get some affection out of him. It wouldn't mean anything if he wasn't fully awake and aware.

Instead, I closed my eyes and pretended he was awake and wanted it anyway. I fell asleep pretending, and the fantasy continued in my dreams.

"Gold, I love you..." Silver was breathless. His face was flushed and his lips red and swollen from my kisses. He looked at me with heavy-lidded eyes, panting. "I love you..." He pulled me closer to him and we rolled over on the bed so that he was leaning over me. He started kissing me, sliding his wet tongue into my mouth. I moaned and raised my hands to tangle in his hair, tugging as he nibbled on my lower lip.

"Touch me," he begged softly. Kneeling over me, he took my hands in his and moved them down to grip his thighs. "Please."

I pulled his hips down against mine and rubbed against him, making him gasp with pleasure. I flipped him over so that I was on top, and started kissing and sucking up his neck.

"Gold, I want you." Silver sounded desperate.

"Sil, you've got me," I whispered in his ear before flicking the lobe teasingly with my tongue. Silver suddenly turned aggressive, his need for pleasure too strong. His hands went down and started to roughly unzip my jeans.

"I want you to make love to me."

And, oh God, I wanted to make love to him too. I wanted to be on him, in him, to make him mine. Everything went hazy, and I was getting hot, so hot I thought I would die. I couldn't make out anything any more, and the whole world was a blur except for Silver, whose face and body I could see clearly in front of me. Nothing existed any more except us. I wanted to hold him forever. I loved him. I loved him so much...

When I woke up I was horribly hot and sweaty, and drooling all over my pillow. It took me a while for my mind to register everything. Then I sighed. It wasn't the first time I'd had a dirty dream about Silver, and they had been getting more and more graphic ever since Crystal had shared her 'wisdom' with me. The only thing to do would be to change my clothes and shower before Silver...

Oh no.

Silver.

Sitting up, I slowly turned my head to look at him. I nearly fainted with relief when I saw he was still asleep. Then I began to panic. What was I going to do? I carefully lifted the duvet up and folding it back, cringing when I saw the stains. Oh God, how embarrassing. Silver was going to kill me when he found out. If he found out.

I got out of bed extremely warily, making sure not to make any sudden movements that would risk waking Silver up. I turned back to him with a pained frown on my face. How was I supposed to get rid of the evidence with him in the bed? I taking a deep breath, I decided to risk everything I had by using a trick I learned on TV.

"Silver!" I screamed as loudly as I could. Silver leaped a foot in the air and landed down on the mattress with a bounce. He screamed almost as loudly as I did. It would have been funny if the situation weren't so serious. "It's nuclear war! Get out of bed, hurry, hurry!" I grabbed him by the arm and forcefully dragged him out. He was stumbling as I pulled him across the room and groaning incoherently, still half-asleep.

"You go and hide out in the living room for a while!" I told him. "I'm going to call Crystal and the other to make sure they know-"

"Woah, woah." Silver wrenched his hands away. He yawned and rubbed his eyes before running a hand through his messed-up hair. "There's no nuclear war, idiot," he said tiredly. He closed his eyes as if he was going to fall asleep on the spot. "Go back to bed..." He slopped to one side to try and manoeuvre around me, back into the bedroom. I slammed my hands up on either side of the door frame. He frowned at me, and it looked like he was going to push past. I grabbed the door and tried to slam it shut. Silver blocked it with his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" he said angrily. Uh-oh. He was sobering up fast. I had placed my hopes on taking care of everything while he was too exhausted to remember it.

"There's a nuclear war, Silver! You have to get to safety!" I tried again, pushing at the door.

"Then why the hell are you staying here?" he demanded.

"Okay, fine, there's no nuclear war, but you still have to get out!"

"Why? It's my fucking bedroom!" Silver was getting well and truly irate now, and it was taking nearly all my strength and weight to stop him barging right in and sending me flying. If he had been properly awake, he probably would already have done so.

"It's dangerous in here! I-I heard the ceiling creaking, it might collapse!" I cried desperately.

"Again, why the fuck would you want to stay in there?!" Silver started kicking the door and I winced. That would make two doors in our flat dented along the bottom.

"You'll hurt your foot!" I said. "Silver, you have to go! Just give me ten minutes."

"Why?" Silver yelled back.

"Silver, please," I begged. I knew I was blushing. "I-I just have to take care of something, so please go away."

"Take care of what, what the hell are you talking about?"

"Silver!" I wailed, almost crying with frustration.

"I'm not leaving until you tell me-" Silver cut himself off suddenly. Or rather, his mouth kept moving but the words stopped coming out. He took a step back, his face slowly filling with colour. "O-Oh..."

Suddenly the floor began immensely interesting. Both Silver and I stared at it, radiating embarrassment. Then, without looking at me, Silver turned and practically fled into the living room, slamming the door behind him. I managed to strip the bed and change my underwear with minimum fumbling. It was shameful how much practice I had in the routine. After stuffing the sheets into the washing machine, I scrubbed at the bare mattress with a towel I had brought from home soaked in soapy water. I was too embarrassed to ask Silver if he had anything I could clean it properly with. I just flipped the mattress over and hoped he wouldn't notice.

"Um..." I poked my head around the door of the living room. Silver was at on the sofa with his head in his hands, whispering something unintelligible to himself over and over again, like a mantra. "W-Where are the clean sheets?"

Silver went red again. "I-In the bathroom," he said. "Top shelf of the airing cupboard. Y-You should know that." He was trying to be angry, I could tell, but he had worked himself up into too much of a fluster to sound threatening.

Five minutes and one clean bed later, I joined him in the living room. He was still sitting with his head in his hands, and I lowered myself stiffly onto the sofa beside him. "Sorry," I said quietly, my gaze fixed on my lap.

"For what?" Silver muttered.

"For... Oh." I got it. This was Silver's way of telling me that what happened- never happened. He was willing to turn a blind eye, and in return I must never, ever bring the topic up again. I almost fell on him with relief, but decided against it. It must have taken him a lot to accept the situation, and I didn't want to make him regret it. He had forgiven me. He wasn't going to throw me out. Though, I realised sadly, he probably wouldn't be too keen on letting me sleep in his bed again any time soon.

After much pestering, I was forced to explain the whole situation to a starry-eyed Crystal, who seemed the think the whole thing was very cute.

"Don't you think it's wonderful?" she gushed, bouncing all over the counter during our break.

I sighed. "You're making less and less sense every day, Crystal!" I said, and she laughed and pretended to hit me.

"The nerve!" She scowled. "As a punishment, you're going to tell me about your dream in detail!" And she twisted my arm back and grabbed me in a headlock, leaving me writhing like a dying fish on the end of a fishing line. She wouldn't let me go until I'd told her. By the end she was practically squealing. She released me and jumped up and down on the spot.

"Maybe this is his way of telling you he loves you no matter what," she suggested happily.

"Or this could be his way of saying, fair enough, we're both guys and these things happen." I knew I was being cynical, but Crystal was always so insufferably energetic that she automatically brought out my more serious side. I wondered if I should be more serious around Silver. But he was so damn grumpy that I had to make everything into a joke to make up for it.

"Gold, those are the words of a defeatist!" Crystal said sternly, wagging her finger at me like a mother would do to a naughty child. I had to smile.

"Sorry, Mom," I said, sticking my tongue out at her. I couldn't hide my relief at how well Silver had taken the incident. Had I done that a month ago, he would have blown his top and wasted no time throwing me out. A few inevitable days of cold-shouldering would be easy to bear in comparison.

I fully expected Silver to be cattier than usual with me, despite how he had resolved to forget the whole occurrence. I decided as I walked home from work that I would be extra-nice to him to make up for it. I couldn't cook, but I could clean up afterwards; my dish-washing skills had improved rapidly since I had started working at Olivine! And I would bite my lip and let him watch his cringe-inducing soaps without complaining (we had more than once gotten into a big argument over it, the most memorable of which was caused by me accidentally recording over an episode he had taped because he was working at the time it was on. He had a good bitch at me, because professional wrestling was apparently much cheaper viewing than watching a girl juggling four boyfriends and a hair-dressing salon).

I felt a drop of rain land on top of my head and looked at the sky. It was murky and grey. I quickened my pace. Silver wouldn't be happy if the sofa got soaked again; if I made it back before the heavens opened then we could move it together. That way we wouldn't be aching afterwards.

Not five minutes after I'd reached our apartment (again, nearly killing myself on the stairs on the way up), the clouds burst at the seams and let the downpour begin. I went into the living room,expecting to see Silver. He wasn't there. I was about to start worrying when I noticed there was just a light flashing on the phone that lay on top of the TV. I picked it up and pressed the 'receive message' button.

"Yeah, it's me." It was Silver's voice, almost shouting above the racket in the background. I guessed he had phoned from the shop- I heard a woman asking if 'these' were included in the half-price range. "Yes, as long as you buy something else at full price... Anyway, one of guys is off sick today, so I'm stuck working overtime. Don't touch the oven or you're dead. See ya."

A grin broke across my face when it dawned on me that he wasn't leaving me, but soon faded when I remembered the rain. I pushed the sofa into the kitchen as quickly as I could, my back straining as I tried to force it around the corners.

It rained for a long time, and as I'd predicted, the ceiling began to leak again. The pans were already rusted from catching all the water last week, but I put one out anyway. If the carpet becoming any more waterlogged, the water would start leaking through the floor and into the apartment below us.

I heard Silver before I saw him, swearing as the door handle stuck when he tried to force it down. I went out into the hallway to welcome him home as I always did. He pushed the door open with his back, tearing off his dripping jacket as he did so with a disgusted grunt. He threw it over the coat hanger on the wall and closed the door.

"You better not have burned the kitchen down," he said as he turned to me, gathering up his hair and wringing it out like a wet cloth.

"I... I haven't," I said hoarsely. I couldn't help it; all the moisture had left my mouth. Silver was soaked to the bone. His red hair had turned auburn in the rain and was plastered to his head, and ever now and then a trickle of water would escape his hair and run down his face. His skin was beaded and shimmering with rain. His jeans were water-logged and hanging off his skinny hips, dragging his underwear with them and revealing more skin than they should. His white work shirt had turned almost transparent, and I could see his nipples straight through it, poking out from the cold.

At that moment, I felt something inside of me snap.

I walked up to him so fast that he took a step back. Then I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him. I didn't stop kissing him, either, though he raised his hands to grip my shoulders and it looked like he was trying to decide whether to push me back or not. I wasn't going to wait for him to make up his mind, and, raising onto my toes, I licked across his bottom lip, using my tongue to slowly coax his mouth open.

He tried to snatch his head away when he felt my tongue touch his, but I wound my head around too so that our lips stayed together. He had withdrawn his tongue, so I pushed mine further into his mouth to touch his again. His nails were digging into my arms as he let his tongue move against mine. Taking this as acceptance, I responded eagerly, causing him to inhale sharply and let out a weak 'mmn!'. This might have been his way of saying he wasn't sure, but I didn't want to believe that. Silver was stronger than me, by a long shot. He could easily fight me off if he really wanted to, and I had the scars from the first time I'd tried this to prove it.

His grip was weakening and he suddenly lurched back as he leaned heavily against the door. I leaped forward to latch my mouth onto his again, sliding my tongue over his. I didn't know if I was a good kisser or not. Probably not. Even though I had studied it in pictures and movies, I hadn't had much experience. But I wasn't going to let that put me off. I had always thought of this type of kiss as disgusting when I was young, but it actually felt good, in a gross-to-think-about-but-okay-to-do sort of way. I had practised on the back of my hand and my pillow, but it wasn't the same as doing it with Silver. Perhaps it was because it was Silver that it felt so good and that my heart was jumping around like an Olympic gymnast in my chest.

When I finally, reluctantly broke away, Silver was looking at me in such a way that it made me want to kiss him again. He was flushed and panting, and had a thin trail of saliva glistening down to his chin. I couldn't say I was much better. I wiped my mouth of the back of my hand and risked a smile. Silver didn't smile back. His legs seemed to buckle beneath him and he slowly slid down the door and into a sitting position on the floor. He was staring straight ahead, but I don't think he was seeing anything.

I knelt down beside him. "Silver?" I said nervously. "Um, you've got..." I reached out to wipe the spit from his chin, but as my hand neared his face he flinched as if I was about to hit him. Then he wiped his lips himself.

"I'm going to get changed..." he whispered, referring to his damp clothes. I jumped up and offered him my hand. He flinched again, backing up against the door like a wounded animal. "Don't!" he said quickly. "Don't touch me..."

He pulled himself to his feet and wavered for a moment where he stood. For a split-second I thought he was going to fall over. "Are you okay?" I asked. He weaved round me without a word, and my chest began to sting. "Silver...?" I took a step towards him and he stopped and looked at me.

"Don't."

And it was all going so well, too! You'll find out why Silver is so shaken next chapter, if you haven't figured it out already. Clue: it wasn't (exactly) because Gold kissed him- he kissed him back after all!

I decided since I tortured Silver last chapter, it was only fair that I did the same to Gold in this one. Poor, poor sexually-deprived, hormone-driven Gold... I've got a feeling Silver won't ever be able to look at his bed in the same way again, let alone sleep in it! Gold's still young and can't control his 'needs', plus he's so in love with Silver that he's bound to experience a dirty dream or two about him! But unfortunately for him Silver is the type who runs a mile when he even hears the word 'sex'. But we'll get onto that later!

Silver watches soap operas. Gold gets worked up over professional wrestling. Yes. They're lame. We know it, and we love them anyway (actually, it makes me love them more... I have a bit of a thing for geeks, if you couldn't tell by reading this). I also took the Silver's thumb-sucking habit from the prequel to this story, Small Steps. It just amuses me that a bad-ass like Silver would do such a thing.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering about their ages in this story (I use my own 'canon', not the manga dates), Silver's birthday is April 17 and Gold's birthday is somewhere in June (I haven't decided yet, so if anyone wants to throw a random date at me then feel free to!). Crystal's birthday is also in June, and she mentioned that the current month is May, which means, currently, Silver is nineteen and Gold is seventeen.