Hello there :)

Happy Easter for the ones who'll be celebrating it tomorrow (like me XD) ~ aaaand here you have an early Saturday chapter. Wheee~

Thank you again for the reviews, favs, alerts and reading, this is amazing. Really.

My beta felt the need to remind me that I promised I'll start listing facts about the characters if I get to 30 reviews XD Well, only if you'd be interested. I wouldn't mind XD

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or the Sue Silvester attitude Wes had tried to adopt for a little while. XD

Here you go, bunnies ~

Chapter 11 – Twirling efforts

A smaller shirt, he could understand – it wasn't the first time he was told that his clothes were slightly oversized – but this...this was, he looked with goggly eyes at a pair of white jeans, this was beyond his limits already. Does he really think I'm ever going to wear these?

"Problem?" the other grinned slyly, looking actually offended by Nick's glare afterwards. "It's an experiment," he defended himself.

"Like you changing my whole wardrobe?" the victim raised an eyebrow.

Lewis shook his head in discontent. "That, my dear friend," he threw his arm over Nick's shoulders, "was a rescue mission."

"What?" greenish eyes scanned his face.

Unperturbed this time, his friend laughed light-heartedly. "If you're not going to make a move on any of them," he gestured at an invisible crowd, "let them jump you. I merely helped in triggering them."

"I don't see the big difference," Nick scowled, gazing at his clothes.

"Trust me, you look way better now. You just need to find your audience."

"Are you on something?"

Lewis put on a dirty smirk. "You wish. Now put these on."

He grabbed not the scandalous white pair, but a dark blue one. Still within the uniform's limits, sure enough. He had been very careful with that, for one that usually doesn't respect it.

"And this," he threw a white cotton shirt at him.

And then, just as Nick was looking for his blazer, a mental sticky note hit him hard. "Did you leave me anything for sports? We'll rehearse choreography this week."

Instead of talking further, Lewis simply pulled two drawers open, showing his roommate whole sets of T-shirts and long sweatpants. He mouthed a 'welcome' and fled the room.

o0o0o

"Cayden, calm your girlfriend!" Aaron crossed the room in a hurry, keeping the phone far from his face. Blond hair in a mess, he was not going to negotiate about it.

"That's not my name and it's not my fault! Whatever it is, you've angered her!" the brown-haired teen said with finality and ran before anyone could have stopped him. Not like anybody except the singer would.

A few blameless onlookers drew back in their chairs as the blond looked with annoyance and possibly fear at the mobile. Therefore, it was no doubt that the atmosphere in the room had become visibly lighter when he left it. Some of them could have even sworn that the air was colder around him back then.

"No, I'm not going to call him!" were the last words they heard before the closed door muffled them.

Sure enough, Cade didn't stay a refugee for too long and before they knew it, he was back in the common room, spreading his History notebook and a few books on a table near a window. At the slight shudder of the wood, Nick raised his eyes to look at his best friend for a brief second before he continued his essay.

"It's amazing how you can work in all this noise," Cade gestured at the door and at a few chatting teens around the room. The rest of them – it was a relatively crowded day – were, like them, studying or trying to do so.

"The library's full," Nick mumbled, this time not raising his head from the paper. His fingers were already smudged with ink – he couldn't find a good enough pen – and in front of him were already two full pages of scribbles.

Cade gulped at the amount of work his friend had already done, remembering that they were taking the same History class. "How long is it since you started?" he whispered, fearing the answer.

"Two hours or so," the brunet replied in the same way, turning the paper and starting a new paragraph on the other side.

That was it; he let his head fall on the desk. "I'm never going to finish," he wailed softly.

"You haven't even started," came the motherly words immediately and he was offered a pencil. "Go on, we have physics too after this."

A longer whine. "Why couldn't we just have dropped it?"

Nick's hazel eyes finally looked directly at him. "The deal?"

Cade nodded instantly and let his head fall again. That was right; after their first physics class that year, they had agreed not to complain about it, simply because they could feel how horrendous it was going to be anyways. He, for one, didn't really know if it was really helping their cause, but Nick seemed actually more relaxed about the subject as long as they were not talking a word about it, so he decided to play along. Who knew, maybe God was going to make it easier for him too.

"Can we go for a movie this Saturday?" the teen finally asked after scribbling three messy paragraphs. "I'll ask the others too," he added when Nick didn't respond.

"Can't. Regionals this weekend," he muttered and ran his eyes over the newly finished page. They were already glassy with effort.

Cade blinked. "The entire weekend?"

"They didn't want it to be crowded," he answered, putting his essay pages in order. "We'll stay in a hotel around there."

He thought about it for a minute. Anything was more interesting than his long homework, of course. "Then...I'll come in the second day, is that all right?"

Closing the History book, Nick shrugged. "That's when I'll sing."

"Cool," his friend grinned and kept looking at him, running over subjects of discussion in his head, but one heavy glance from the brunet was enough to send him back to work.

"Physics," Nick sighed, pulling the notebook from his bag and rushing through the exercises. He wasn't going to be late for practice, after all.

o0o0o

Later that day and not so early in the evening as they were used to – some of the day students had, obviously, to complain, but now it was settled – the large school gym came to life again when Wes turned on all the lights and then ran down to the small group of Warblers that was already there.

It was as funny as it was strange to see their most serious council member dressed so informally, in baggy grey pants and a simple red T-shirt. His gaze, however, did not waver even a bit from the one he always gave them. The one that said he would have order no matter what.

"Forgot your gavel, captain?" David patted him jokingly on the back and his friend jumped in surprise, diminishing the tension that had accumulated in the air around them until that moment.

"Shut up. Where are the others?" the senior's eyes immediately fell on the door and just then it opened and half a dozen students stumbled in, all in various stages of a sports outfit. Some of them, less expecting for a change of pace, were still in their uniform, apart from the blazers. "Jeff, up here, in front," he raised his voice in order for it to reach the blond at the far back of the small crowd and he hurried to the appointed place.

After that, Wes was gone to haunt the hallways for the absent members – it was still early, not even their meeting hour, but one could never argue with their one-third of a captain once his mind was settled on something. Jeff exchanged a half-amused, half-expecting look with David, who soon enough took a place on the floor, waiting for the others to come.

The blond looked around once, pulled his black-rimmed glasses down on his nose, looked again, put them back up and was going to pull them off when the room was filled with new voices again. Oh, well, maybe going without them wouldn't have been such a good idea anyways, the lights made everything even more of a blur than normal. So he rocked on his blue sneakers, taking his hoodie off once Wes closed the door behind him and the rest of the team, remaining in a loose white T-shirt.

"Mark, front. Aaron, Nick, Cameron, front. Dave, front too. Thad...just stay here," Wes marched two times in front of them, analysing something only he knew.

"What do you mean 'just stay here'?" Thad's jaw fell as he waved his hands in the air.

The other rolled his eyes. "Fine. Aaron, here, Thad, here, Jeff, beside them."

Aaron simply yawned soundly and stepped forward as he ruffled his hair, pulling a few strands out of the sloppy ponytail he had previously made. Thad reluctantly took his place near him, eyeing everyone suspiciously and Jeff obeyed without making a sound, hands deep in his pants' pockets for the moment.

"We'll change as we work it out, but you two," Wes pointed at the first two in line, "need to be synchronized."

"W-why?" Thad did not hold back his sour look and the head Warbler near him barely gave any attention to the speech.

Slightly from behind them, David raised an eyebrow. "Didn't we tell you? Duet."

"I really hoped you were making a bad joke..."

"Enough, let's get started," the third council member made his way to the stereo at the far left side of the gym, leaving them a small amount of time for further chatting. Really, it was worse than in some of their mandatory classes.

While Wes was fiddling with some old CDs – no wonder, used by the previous choir members too – Jeff took the opportunity to turn and share a quick smile with Nick. It already didn't feel that bad anymore; maybe the butterflies had nested in his stomach or they simply liked him and were gentler now, but seeing Nick was again a pleasure more than a mess of a hundred feelings put together.

But then again, this was only when he was momentarily forgetting about the promise at the party. That, that thing wasn't planned, but Jeff could not back out now, not when he knew his confession could actually – in a very twisted way – help Nick. That didn't make him any less scared of the outcome, however, but he was going to think about that later.

"I'm really not eager to do this," Nick mumbled, looking at a fixed point in front of him and Jeff chuckled before putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Warm.

"S'okay. Just look at me."

At this, the brunet laughed light-heartedly. "Yeah, I think that's the very reason Wes wants you in front."

"True," Jeff grinned and drew his hand back as the music started playing at their left.

"Right then," Wes looked at them sharply, hands on his hips and eyes unwavering. "After me."

o0o0o

...choreography. Nick couldn't breathe after only twenty minutes of continuous dancing. They had a few – no more than three, he was sure – breaks at the very beginning, when Wes was just explaining the first steps, but they were spared even of those once Jeff and Aaron got it.

And Nick's whole being – and most likely he wasn't alone – was screaming 'UNFAIR' at the whole situation. However, it seemed that Wes was sure that, without them having the slightest idea of what they were doing, they were going to get it right if they did it enough times. Everything would have been a collective mess and he wouldn't have felt half as bad if only some of them didn't eventually start to catch up to the moves. That was alarming.

And Nick had never been good under pressure. He didn't get it and he didn't feel like getting it anytime soon by the look of things. As his body continued to move on its own, completely out of pattern – he thought – his throat and chest started to ache and he was just waiting for someone – other than Thad – to complain and stop. Where was all that ambition coming from, anyways?

They weren't really respecting the initial formation anymore, so at first he wasn't surprised to see Jeff right in front of him. But why was he not moving? A quick look around showed him that the others were still struggling. His knees almost buckled when the blond put his hands on his shoulders to steady him and looked him in the eyes. Breathless; breathless and thirsty, that's what Nick was at that moment. No wonder he disliked sports.

"Come on," Jeff released his shoulders and he found himself quite sure-footed again. "After me," the blond shoved the fringe out of his eyes, but did not turn his back to him. Nick blinked.

As the song reached the chorus again, Jeff started the dance slowly at first, mirroring the movements Nick was supposed to make. It took a few moments for the brunet to actually understand, but then he involuntarily started to move again. It wasn't instantly easier now, especially after his muscles had relaxed unhelpfully during his short break, but this time Jeff was correcting him every time he strayed from the pattern. Surprisingly, it didn't happen quite as often as he would have expected.

And then a mighty break had been announced and Nick flopped on the floor, wide eyes gazing at the tall ceiling. A few breathless 'oh's could be heard from the others as their feet gave in too and he finally closed his eyes, focusing on evening his breath. It was probably quite late and a good part of them had to go home, but he doubted that Wes was going to let them go to their dorm too. No, that would have been too easy.

When his heart had calmed down a little, he heard a soft shuffle of fabric very close to him and then he felt the cold surface of a water bottle make contact with his cheek. Obviously, he leant into it. "Feeling better?" Jeff's voice was low as he blocked the distressing light that was hurting his eyes.

Yeah, he was certainly better now. He nodded, propping on his elbow and receiving the bottle. It was at times like this that most of them really appreciated the miracle that was water. Really, they could have done anything for it right then. Nick wondered if this was how mass manipulation worked.

Maybe his brain needed some oxygen too. "Are we still staying?" he eventually asked, looking at the day students as they left the gym. He wanted nothing more than to shower for a long time and to sleep even longer. Or maybe to fall asleep in the shower, that was more like him, at the moment.

"Wes is exhausted too, but he'd never admit it. We should play dead," Jeff giggled as he stretched his legs in front of him.

Nick pondered his options for a moment. "Okay," he fell back down and closed his eyes. If Wesley, with his four intense years of dancing, was exhausted, then he was more than entitled to be so too.

"Really?" the blond looked at his still form with wide eyes and, when he realised the other was not going to move anytime soon, he did the same. This had better work.

Fortunately, it did. Well, maybe David's full-force puppy eyes had something to do with it too or maybe Wes was just getting tired of Thad's whines, but the essential fact was that they were set free. True, they were set to do this every day until Saturday, but at least they could sleep now and not think about the pains that waited for them in the morning.

o0o0o

This is it, right? Jeff frowned at the bluish ceiling, holding the blanket up to his neck. It was slightly cold, somebody must have turned off the heating during the night. Why would they do that? It's still early spring! He shifted under the covers, overly aware of his frozen feet.

It couldn't have been more than 5 am, judging by the lack of light. Miles was breathing softly in his bed, totally unaware of his roommate's distress. That was weird, Jeff could have sworn that he was already emanating some sort of dark aura from the past few nights of restless sleep. However, if his friend still didn't feel like anything was wrong, he was soon going to. After today, for sure.

Jeff had no idea what he was going to do, how he was going to choose his words or where it was going to take place. After all, this was going to be his first confession. It was the first time he had something of this sort to confess too, but he didn't like to think of that, it was just added stress.

What if it backfired? He wanted to do it because it felt like a secret and he didn't like keeping them, but also because it felt like something Nick ought to know. For all the different reasons. Of course, he had thought about waiting until his feelings were in the past and then tell him, but that didn't sound so great.

That sounds like cheating, he bit his lip. He didn't even want to think of how Nick would feel if he said it later. No, that was not going to happen. Nick deserved better. I'll die for sure. I'll die. I'll die. I'm already dying. Somehow, he felt better now.

o0o0o

At the teacher's words, Jeff's heart dropped in his chest. Last two classes cancelled meant that he was caught unprepared. He couldn't go to his room now. He had avoided it all day; even when he had forgotten his Chemistry notebook in there, he didn't go and retrieve it. It was as if that place was waiting for him to come and eat all of his fragile courage.

"Jeff?" he turned instantly on his heels, startling the brunet a little and delaying his smile. "Come over for a bit."

As his friend turned and went for the stairs, Jeff blinked incredulously at the world. Was this really happening? The Universe hadn't been so obvious with him since he had bought a whole trilogy of games in a single day. This was definitely his chance. No matter that he wasn't prepared, he had to succumb to it.

If only his throat didn't start constricting at the first steps…

Was Nick's room always this close to the rest of the school? A short laugh escaped him. When did that happen? Nick was with his back to him, mending an old, funny-looking stereo. And Jeff had never been fascinated by fingers before. Like, really. He swallowed, his eyes fixated on the other's hands as he felt his legs getting close to buckling.

"Here, have you heard about them?" Nick played the cassette and turned towards him. He doesn't look well, the smile faltered as he approached his suddenly pale friend. "Are you alright?"

Don't act creepy, Jeff shook his head, trying to pull the corners of his mouth upwards. Get it out of your system and you'll be able to breathe. Quickly. "I'm okay," his voice didn't break, but it came out really low and maybe childish. Concentrate on not losing him. It's possible. "Nick?"

"Yeah?" Nick sat on the edge of his bed, watching him with a motherly concern that made him feel so inappropriate in what he was going to do. The music was nice, calming, a ray of help from the high heavens. "Jeff?"

Nick winced internally at the flicker of unexpected pain that had passed by his friend's eyes at that moment. This was absolutely not normal and he felt helpless while facing the other's visible anguish. He had used the name to give himself a stability pole.

"I'm going to say this really quickly, okay?" Jeff breathed out, fidgeting and looking straight into his eyes.

Nick, thankfully, nodded silently. You're not going to look so calm in a minute, the blond paused for a few seconds. These were the short moments in which one knew that he could still stop and hold on to his slightly normal life, but he wasn't going to.

"I…well…you see…" He stopped. Was Nick smiling?

"Don't hurry," the brunet murmured, still trying to look comforting.

Thank you, the other spared him a moment. His chest hurt. "Right. This is really…" Don't keep your eyes on the ground, Jeff. "I…like you." A moment.

And then he saw the acknowledgement on his friend's face. One, two, three blinks and Nick was already looking hazy.

"But!" the blond raised his voice, making the other look at him calmly. "I…I'm q-quite positive it'll pass…someday. I promise it'll be soon! Just…" Nick was really quiet. Really, really, really. Why wasn't he better at reading emotions? Jeff! "I'm sorry…" he finally whispered, prepared to go out of the room any second.

With a sudden gasp, Nick seemed to come back to reality and his gaze hurriedly searched for Jeff, who was still not gone. Involuntarily, he even got up and walked slowly to him. "No, it's…" he saw the blond's shaky breath. "Jeff, it's okay," he stopped himself before touching his arms. "It's okay…" he said it again because he felt that Jeff needed it but, on his part, he had no idea what he was doing.

"Yeah," his friend kept looking at the floor. "It will be. Nick…" he looked up, but he didn't quite know what he wanted to say anymore. His mouth was dry. "I'll go now," he felt his legs turn to melting jelly. Never good, never good. He closed the door behind him with trembling hands.

And now Nick was dreadfully alone in his room. After he took a long gulp of air into his lungs, he looked around. Baby steps; first, he had to sit down. Good thing his bed was relatively close. He blinked and shook his head lightly a few times, but it did not help so, in the end, he resorted to running his hands agitatedly through his black hair. Better now, he could think.

A pill full of feelings dissolved quickly in his chest and he bit his lip in order to contain them. Okay, one by one, he exhaled, looking at the wall ahead. Surprise; of course he was surprised. Somebody had just confessed to him. He bit harder. Not just somebody, but Jeff. Why did that seem to diminish the emotion? It wasn't as if…he had expected that. Even a little. No, he certainly didn't. Right? It just felt so natural.

What else? He could feel now and then light stabs of fear. That was temporary, even he could tell that. But what was he scared of, exactly? He thought about Jeff and how vulnerable he looked in the last few moments. All this had taken him a lot of courage and Nick could barely start comprehending how someone had put himself in that position for him.

And from that he reached an alien feeling of happiness. It was there for sure, so there was no point in denying it, but he thought he wasn't supposed to experience that. But…this was the first time anyone had felt something like that for him. It gave him hope and not even the reminder that that person was Jeff had let it falter. In fact, it was quite…nice.

Jeff was his friend and Nick wasn't going to let him spreading his heart out go by as if it was nothing. Because it mattered. It mattered so much that he felt unworthy of all that effort and that sentiment. That confession needed someone able to deal with it correctly and Nick was not that person, but he still had to try.

But you can reciprocate, a voice whispered inside his head and he hurriedly shut it off. It was too easy to take the most desperate way right now. Unconsciously, he had started biting his fingers a few minutes ago. For the past few months – maybe a year, maybe two – he had dealt with his yearn for somebody, he had buried that part of him in some dark place and now it was coming to surface again.

In this analyzing moment, he knew that he had been too lonely, wanting for somebody to care about him more than in the careful way friends usually did, to jump to conclusions now. He needed to think about it hard and good and only when he was entirely sure tell Jeff what he was actually feeling about it.

Easier said than done, he whined softly into his hands just as the door opened again, flooding half of the room with the hallway light. He hadn't seen that the curtains were closed. After a quick glance, he saw that the person was Lewis, so he returned to his silent mumbles to calm himself down.

"Are you okay?" the other came closer, trying to examine his face behind his hands and bangs. Nick only raised his eyes in response; he didn't think he could talk coherently just yet. "Dude…" Lewis peered even closer, making him drop his hands and give him a questioning look. "Are you sick?"

The brunet simply shook his head and got up, intending to change in his practice clothes. Maybe some mindless effort was going to help him put things in order. But Jeff will be there…probably, he swallowed dryly.

"Then," his roommate looked straight at his face for a moment, before his features took a slightly amused turn. "You're blushing," he grinned slyly and Nick's eyes almost bulged out of their orbits, causing him to laugh. Successful fishing.

o0o0o

"You don't look good," Miles stared at him over his thick comic book.

On the opposite part of the room, Jeff was soundly battling with a pair of long, black trousers that simply refused to go up. Damned socks. "What?" he muttered, leaning back on his bed and prompting his legs on the closed door of his wardrobe.

"You look ill or poisoned," the other went on with the same tone.

"How," he won the battle with his right leg, "would you know?" he hit his foot in the desk and hissed loudly.

"Dad used to keep snakes, remember?" boredom was clear in his voice. "Are you going to be late again? You have two more days until the contest, you're going to die in that gym."

"I'll try my best," the blond groaned and he was finally half dressed. Practice! Practice after the most stressful even of his life! Jeff could barely start on how scandalous the situation was. What was Nick going to do? What was he going to do?

The other marched over to the desk and retrieved a Mars bar from the bag of supplies under it. "Care to tell me what did you do before committing suicide?" he asked indifferently and the very fact that he was not waiting for an answer triggered Jeff.

"I told him," he put on his glasses after pulling a yellow T-shirt over his head.

Back on his bed, Miles frowned, munching. "Told what? To whom?"

Jeff inhaled deeply, looking around himself. "Nick." As if that was going to explain everything.

"Nick?" the ginger raised an unconvinced eyebrow. "What did you tell him?" The hopeless, hurt look in his friend eyes turned a light bulb on. "Oh!"

"Yeah," he mumbled.

"You-..."

"Yep. I'm going. Plug my Xbox for me, please," he reached the door with numb, frozen fingers.

"Sure..." his friend still gaped, staring at him as he went out.

o0o0o

Changed formation. That was their miracle for the day. They had spent the entire time at opposite parts of the room, not even doing as much as looking at each other more than two times in three hours and a half. Good thing Wes had been on a roll and went on with the singing parts too. Good, despite the fact that Jeff wasn't prepared for that unexpected solo that had been thrown at him.

When he got back to his room, Miles had kept his word – the console was prepared at the foot of his bed – and, at the moment, he was heavenly quiet. Once he showered and changed his clothes again, Jeff gathered half a dozen games from under his bed – never mind the dust now – and took his place on the floor.

There were two possibilities. Either the games were going to diminish his stress or do further damage, making him forget. He was okay with either outcome, as he didn't have much time. It was already late in the afternoon and Wes wanted them back to practice after dinner.

A knock on the door had been enough to make his heart skip a beat, but then the door actually opened. It can't be Nick, he gulped and his theory had been proved correct when David peeked into the room, a big grin on his face. Miles was already in defensive.

"Surprise!" the senior walked over to Jeff, giving him a CD along with two sheets of paper. "You're dismissed today from dancing if you want to practice it. I suggest you do, you're already our best dancer," he offered him a friendly smile when he saw that Jeff was still dumbfounded.

"So this is..." he grabbed the CD.

David grinned some more. "Your solo, yes." Oh.

Oh, brave little Jeffrey. *pats* very brave...

Little Nick too *pats him*

Proud mommy feels XD

Next chapter, next Tuesday :)

Regionals are starting! Wheeee~

Thanks for reading :)

*cookie*