Disclaimer: I do not own anything but the plot!

Chapter 9: Contagious

Miley's pov

I could feel his hands on my hips as he guided them to the rhythm of the music, flirting openly under the influence of several beers. I could feel his hands move downwards, cupping my ass covered by the thin, slutty dress Taylor had picked out for me.

Opening my eyes, I stared at the ceiling of my bedroom, wondering if last night had really happened. Hearing a groan from beside me I turned slightly to face a hungover Nick, shielding his eyes from the bright sunlight pouring in through the half opened blinds. I was quick to close them completely, making sure his headache wouldn't be any worse than it had to.

"How are you feeling?" I enquired gently, making sure not to startle him.

"Like I've been run over by a truck." He mumbled, his face buried in one of my pillows. It looked like it took him a second to realise who had been talking to him: "Wait... Miley?" He shifted with difficulty and pried his eyes open, cautiously peering at me.

"Yeah, that's my name." I joked.

"Where am I?" He groaned, obviously not appreciating my lack of sympathy. If only he knew how sympathetic I could get... I scolded myself for letting my thoughts wander once again.

"My apartment." I told him quietly. "I brought you here, thought it would be better not to wake Kev and Dani at 2am."

"Oh gosh" he held his hand to his forehead and groaned once again "I'm so sorry."

"Don't worry about it." I climbed out of the bed and grabbed a robe to shield myself from the cold. "I'll get you some coffee and aspirin. Don't move." I ordered. He nodded like an obedient child wanting to be left in his state of unconsciousness. I laughed to myself, he certainly still looked like a child when asleep.

After gulping down the aspirin, he was out again, sleeping soundly as soon as his head hit the pillow. Taking a few seconds to breathe and get used to my own headache starting at the back of my head, I watched him sleep. His lashes fluttered while his breathing evened out in long, deep breaths. He was everything I remembered and more.

Upon entering the living the first items that caught my eye were the many samples sprawled on the wooden floor. Taylor's dress still didn't have a pattern for the corset and a choice was waiting to be made so the dress could finally be put together. Putting the task off till after my shower, I stalked down the hall, entering the bathroom to take the long relaxing shower I needed to start a day after an eventful night.

No POV

Looking over at the clock beside her 'workshop' table, Miley noticed it was long passed lunch time and none of her friends had called to check up on her or ask for Nick. She found it surprising but didn't give it any more thought as Nick entered the living room, rubbing the sleep away from his eyes.

"Hey." She greeted softly with a warm smile. He didn't have the time to return her greeting as he stumbled upon a pile of materials she had discarded earlier on. Quick with her reflexes, she was by his side in a split second, holding onto his arm as he lost balance. "I'm so sorry! This room is such a mess these days, I should have warned you!" She rambled, making sure to keep her voice quiet so his headache wouldn't get any worse.

"It's fine." He reassured, leaning onto her as he stood on his two feet again. "Looks like you've been making progress on Taylor's dress." His eyes scanned the room and fell on the mannequin and the pieces of cloth attached to it. It was clear that the corset was missing for the dress to be complete.

"Yeah... I'm stuck on the corset." She sighed, looking over at the mannequin pensively. Nick made his way to the couch and sunk in, holding his head as it throbbed with every violent movement.

"You doing alright, there?" Miley asked as soon as she snapped out of her 'fashion world'.

"Yeah, just the lovely effects of too much beer." He crinkled his nose as she let out a small laugh. His low, raspy voice had Miley's stomach churning, reminding her of times when he'd used such a husky voice on her. Although unintentional, she found herself feeling like her 19 year old self. Letting out a slight cough to cover her groan she escaped the moment with a:

"I'll get you some coffee."

While Miley was in the kitchen Nick leaned his head back against the couch and looked over the 'half tailored' dress pinned on the mannequin. The finery of the designs was a wonder to him just like the whole fashion world was. He had seen most of Miley's collections, several of his dates had even worn Miley Stewart when out with him, as ironic as it was. He was awed by the way she could appropriate any kind of clothing to herself. Whether it was fancy gowns, laid back, comfy yet stylish pants and shirts, eccentric outfits that earned everyone's attention... it was truly inspiring and he understood why Taylor had asked her best friend to design her wedding dress. She had full faith that Miley would design her fairytale princess dress.

"You should consider yourself lucky" he didn't miss the playful glint in her eye as she caught him staring at the gown in making "you're the second one to see it after Charlie."

"Should I be jealous?" He raised his eyebrow in challenge.

"No!" She laughed. "He's the key to my success." She smiled. Handing him a cup of steaming black coffee, she settled down on the opposite side of the couch – she considered physical closeness unsafe at this point.

"Taylor is going to love this." He pointed his chin towards the dress before taking a sip from the mug. The strong liquid soothed his dry throat and he instantly felt the caffeine kicking in as Miley made her way to the mannequin to make a few adjustments. He was left to stare at her naked back as she bent over and her shirt rode up and as his eyes trailed lower he was reminded of the firmness and beautiful curves her ass had held all those years back... The years of maturity had only served to accentuate those delicious curves. He choked on his coffee as he realised where his thoughts had drifted and proceeded to scold himself. Why was it that all he could think was of Miley in bed? In his bed... Of course, she had been his best sex, ever... but that wasn't the point. No. She was now his friend, assuming he hadn't said too much nonsense the night before. He could only imagine what had come out of him and it left him slightly flustered...

"The one of the left looks better." He was surprised to find his voice, advising her on a choice of fabric for the infamous corset. Miley seemed as surprised as he was when she turned around, her mouth gaping.

"Did you just give me advice on one of my designs?" She asked, bewildered. He smirked when he noticed the playful glint behind all that surprise. Nick had never been good at advising anybody when it came to fashion, but himself of course. He was, after all, on the top 50 Best Bachelor's in the whole States of America. "It goes with the roses you stitched onto the strap... it goes well together whereas the other... it just doesn't go together." His lack of words had Miley giggling.

"Alright then, this one it is." She held up the sample of material chosen by Nick.

"Did you actually listen to my fashion advice?" He teased revengefully. He marvelled at the way her eyes sparkled and the way she threw her head back whenever she laughed out loud.

"I'll make sure to give you credit on this one." She went along, winking playfully as she waltzed around the room, searching for the measuring tape.

"You're making me dizzy." He whined from his seat on the couch.

"Are you okay?" Her immediate concern warmed his heart and it was all he could do not to hug her close to his heart. Instead, he chose to play it safe and smiled warmly.

"I think we have a few things to talk about..." He groaned when her eyes went wide. "Was I that bad?"

"Just a little." She brought her finger and thumb together to illustrate.

"I'm serious! How much of my reputation did I damage?" He joked, referring to the previous night's events.

"I think living out in the country where no one could find you wouldn't be enough." She told him with a smirk.

"Miley!"

"Alright, alright, I exaggerated." She huffed. "Never could let me have my fun." She muttered.

"What did I do?" His panicked expression made her want to laugh again but she restrained herself and proceeded to explain:

"You dirty danced... and then you went down memory lane and reminded me what happened when I got drunk..." She swallowed down a big gulp of air, hoping desperately that her cheeks wouldn't betray her by turning red. "And then you assumed I wanted to jump you... and then you trapped me in bed with you." Unable to control her laughter, she clamped her hand over her mouth and laughed harder as Nick's horror stricken expression went to suspicious.

"So did you jump me?" He narrowed his eyes playfully, obviously wanting revenge on his embarrassing moment. He was returning the 'favour'.

"What?!" She shrieked. "No!" Grasping the corner of the small cushion sitting behind her she tossed it at his head.

"So what were you doing in bed with me?" He teased, catching the flying object before it hit him.

"Excuse me! You begged me to stay with you and I merely obeyed your orders." She responded coyly.

"How do I know you're not lying?" He countered with a smirk.

"Nick!"

"Alright, alright." He gave in, smiling warmly as he added: "Thanks for dealing with me... You didn't have to."

"Was just returning the favour." She smiled. Nick's cheeks turned red as her remembered the times he had taken care of her when she was drunk and how things turned out most times because he was unable to resist her. He coughed uneasily and looked out the window, hoping that once the playful banter over, the moment wouldn't turn into one of those awkward ones.

Miley hid a smile at the sight of his flushed cheeks, she was glad to know that she wasn't the only one who turned all kinds of colours of red when talking about her drunken experiences. Catching onto Nick's uneasiness, she decided it was time to change the subject and jump in head first. She swallowed her pride and spoke up:

"I owe you an apology."

As expected, Nick jerked his head in her direction, unsure of whether he had heard her right.

"You owe me an apology?" He repeated dumbly. "You took care of me last night and put up with all my crap and you owe me an apology? I should be thanking you, Miley." He spoke in one breath. He regretted it as soon as he stopped talking and his head started throbbing. "Ah, damn hangovers." He cursed under his breath.

"Want some more aspirin?" His eyes met Miley's sympathetic ones and he couldn't help the smile that crossed his features. "I'll be fine." He assured her.

"So as I was saying... I owe you an apology." She held her hand up to silence him when he opened his mouth to interrupt her. "I know how much you hate people lying to you and I did just that... I don't know why I did it and I hope you won't hold it against me... I'm just... sorry." She told him sincerely, her eyes betraying the slight bit of pain that came along with the subject of her past.

"Is this about the other day in your office? Because if it is you don't owe me anything, Miley... I had no right to ask you that." He repented.

"Actually, you had every right to ask me that." She looked him in the eye as she added. "I owe you that much after all what I put you through."

"Miles-"

"No, no, let me talk. I need to do this." She took his slight nod as encouragement to continue. "I know it might be awkward to talk about the past and I don't want to reopen old wounds but I can see that you never understood my decision to have a complete career change and I owe you an explanation.... even if it doesn't make much sense, I at least have to give it a shot."

"It's up to you. You don't owe me anything... that doesn't mean I don't want to know cause I wouldn't be human if I wasn't dying to know. But it's your choice and I respect it even if I don't understand."

"You know what..." She smiled fakely and quickly dropped her gaze to the floor. "You're hungover, talking about this is probably the last thing you want right now..." She cleared her throat and stood up nervously. "Do you want to take a shower while I make something to eat? It's way passed lunch time and you should probably eat something."

"Mile-"

"I have some of Joe's old clothes here... You could wear that. I'll get them for you." She left the room as fast as she could, and Nick was left looking completely puzzled by what had happened. One minute she had been ready to open up to him and the next she couldn't get away any faster.

Nick's POV

Something in her eyes told me that the reasons behind her sudden career change went deeper than she would let on... Had I missed something? Taking a deep breath, I followed the path she had taken moments earlier and stood in the doorway to her bedroom, watching as she searched her drawers. I leaned against the door frame and waited for her to acknowledge me. I wasn't going to push but it was clear that we needed to have this conversation at some point or another.

"Is everything alright?" I asked softly, my throbbing head preventing me from being any louder.

"Everything's fine." She replied dismissively. "I found some sweats and a tee, should be fine, right?" It pained me to see how hard she was trying to avoid my gaze.

"Miley, look at me." Taking a few steps I stopped in front of her and let my arm reach out for hers. Her skin was as smooth as I remembered and it took me all my self control to focus on her eyes rather than on the rest of her body. "Look at me." I repeated softly, grabbing her arm softly as she tried to move away. Her eyes finally fell on mine and I was taken aback by the turmoil that could be seen within the wide blue orbs. "We don't have to talk about this today..." I swallowed thickly as her eyes became glassy with a layer of tears. "But some day we are going to have to... Just know that I won't push." My fingers rubbed her arm softly as I continued: "But I will be here, waiting, the day you want to tell me." I knew it was presumptuous to think that she wanted to tell me but somehow, deep in my heart I was convinced that talking about it would help the both of us: it would help me understand and it would help her get rid of the guilt she was carrying – consciously, or subconsciously.

I dunno how to feel about this chapter, I felt like it was too early to have them go into 'confession round'. Lol. Dw, there will be more embarrassment for Nick when he really finds out all what he did ;) patience, people!

I want your honest opinion!!

Do you guys think I should have let the scene continue and make her talk?

How do you guys like the POV switches? Miley's pov, no pov and then Nick's pov. It kinda switches back and forth and I think it's a good way to find out how either of them are feeling. What do you guys think? Do you have any preferences?

Thank you all sooooo much for the amazing reviews, you have no idea how motivating it is! As soon as I was done with my assignment I rushed to write this to get it out for you guys!!! So I really hope you like it :D

Xoxo

P.S Completely forgot to tell you but you might have already noticed! I changed my penname from Jennyxoxo to XoXoNiLeY2010 and my twitter changed from bblover3 to WishUponaStarM (don't use it very often since I lack the time!)