Prompt: Dalton has an unexpected lockdown during Warbler Rehearsal and the boys cannot leave. From Different Child

Characters: Warblers! You have NO IDEA how happy I was for this! And… I think you should know, but ask if you want clarification :p

Words: 699

He hadn't realised how much he needed him until the world went black.

Okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but exaggerations are a common side effect of near-paralysing fear.

They'd been in rehearsal. Just an average after school rehearsal. And Wes had suddenly thrown in a my-balls-in-a-vice-A# to grab their attention before hurriedly cutting them off, his face losing colour by the second.

"Code blue. I repeat, code blue. This is not a drill. Code blue."

His stomach dropped. All the practise drills in the world could not have prepared him for this. Flashes of home and his teachers and friends not in choir crowded his vision, but at the same time he saw himself from above, locking and barricading the doors and windows, drawing the curtains, ushering silent Warblers into hiding places…

He didn't re-enter his body until he stepped into the wardrobe, now against the oak doors… Even if a bullet got him, it was bulky enough to keep the rest of the boys safe…

There was a muffled sniffling, and the air around him shifted… He wasn't alone. Reaching out, his hands hit warmth, and suddenly their fingers were interlaced, familiarity and reassurance washing over him with each fleeting squeeze.

Nick.

Somehow, in a time where there was no thinking, no planning, intuition had lit a path between their hearts like the tiny lights on the floor of a plane walkway… They'd found each other.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Nick whispered back. "You?"

He shuffled over, feeling nothing at first but old uniforms made of dust and the slight vector force from his companion, but still he trusted, still he moved, inch by inch, until finally there was a chest pressed against his, and arms around him, and a neck right in his neck, the chin against his back, the forced-steady breaths and thumping of a heart rushing through his body, mirroring his own… just like they always did. "Fine. I have you."

There was the sound of breaking glass and a scream in the difference. They both jumped, moving closer still.

Nick sniffled again, his breath, despite the horrible hopelessness that accompanied it, sending shivers down his back, the sound jumping down the fine hairs. "I was meant to outlive Clara."

"Hey. You… Don't say that." He stretched back to pull Nick's head back, trying to see any sort of light reflecting in those deep pools of his. "We're… we're okay. I'm here…"

"I know you are. I know. I know." Nick sobbed… There was no sound, but he could feel it in the swelling of his chest, and the patter on his collar.

It was now or never. He did the only thing he could to reintroduce Nick to solid ground.

He started slowly by stepping back, trailing one hand up through Nick's shirt, the other pulling through his hair and down to his jaw, tracing the soft bone right to that joint near his ear. He leant forward, his mouth ghosting right by his ear, feeling the ripples of electricity shoot through his body, then tilting, his lips moving to touch, so gently, so softly, all along his cheek, his jaw, his ear, his neck. He bit down on his ear, grinning at the moan that only he was able to elicit. Then he moved his way back, never lifting his hand from Nick's chest, taking a deep breath before licking around Nick's lips and then pressing his own right against them, slipping his tongue down into Nick's mouth and feeling his actions mimicked… They shared one breath, one thought. It was them and only them.

There was a softness, sure, as one can only expect from two frightened boys in love. But there was also desperateness, an urgency… a what-if, an in-case. So they stood there, exploring the other, bringing a timeless distraction, just bathing in the only thing certain they had – each other.

They didn't notice when the police sirens wailed through the halls. They didn't notice the announcement ending the Code Blue.

They didn't even notice when Trent opened the closet door, amidst wolf-whistles, and promptly shook his head.

"So, who was it that said the closet idea never worked?"

Howdy!

So, Code Blue was what our school did in lockdown... I think it was introduced when I was in year 11. Basically, we had to hide ourselves out of view from the windows and lock the doors... Never had to utilise it, but the drills were fun!

... Also, because somehow my only thought to this was NIFF IN A CLOSET NIFF IN A CLOSET and I just missed writing for the two soooooooooo much... Also because, while I would most gladly LOVE to take this and turn it into something (the prompt, that is) there's no way I could have done it justice in 500-700 words.

I cannot WAIT to see what everyone else comes up with though. The Warblers are my babies, all of them... But I am very much looking forward to seeing the others! Though, I may have to remember that Jeff isn't actually Aussie... Do you hear that? That is the sound of my heart breaking...

Nah.

Like it? Hate it? Want someone to high-five me in the face with a chair? Please let me know!

Keep smiling! :D