[chapter three: 2-6-4-3-5]
[chapter written: july 20, 2004]
One of the best things about New York City is that sometimes, you can't tell how nice someone's apartment will be just by the location. When Mush gave our next taxi driver his address, I was fairly certain that it wasn't a pretty area of town, and this gave me hope, since my own apartment is quite a hellhole.
However, when we climbed out of the cab, we stood in front of a shining building which, at least from the outside, did not appear to be the kind of place where one worried about cockroaches. In my building, the cockroaches have names and get cranky if you don't take them on walks once a week.
"Hey, Vinny," Mush said to the doorman, who was large and Italian and was someone that I personally would never mess with.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Meyers," Vinny answered.
Mush tugged me forward. "This is Trey, and he'll be over often to see me. He always has my permission to come up, even if I'm out for a few minutes."
Vinny eyed me for a moment, then bowed stiffly and nodded. "Of course, Mr. Meyers." He opened the door for us.
"They're so stingy around here," Mush whispered to me, after we were safely in the elevator. "If my apartment weren't so goddamn pretty, I would move in a heartbeat."
"Okay, see, what you call, 'stingy,' we in my neighborhood call, 'security to be admired and wished for'," I teased him. The elevator opened on the third floor, and Mush and I stepped out onto plush carpet. "Good God, how much is your rent?"
Mush smiled cutely. "I'll never tell," he answered in a singsong tone. He stopped in front of his apartment door, which had a keypad where a normal keyhole would be. "It's 2-6-4-3-5," he told me. "Guess why."
I had the answer ready. "A-N-G-E-L," I answered breathlessly, knowing the line from Rent immediately. "C'mon, what measly Rent fan do you think I am?"
He grinned. "There's a deadbolt inside too, but I never lock it with that when leaving. I figure if anyone is a great enough thug to get past Vinny, or Matt, who's the night watchman, and he can figure out my code, my stuff belongs to him anyway. So, now you can get into my apartment whenever you choose. Just don't put this information on the Internet or anything, or I'd be forced to end this relationship." His eyes twinkled.
"Relationship?" I asked coyly, flattening myself over the keypad before he could type in his code. "One kiss is required to gain entrance to your room."
"Relationship," he answered first, firmly. "And gladly." He leaned forward and kissed me gently, reducing my knees to cinders and instantly kindling the desire inside of me. His hands played with my hair, twisting my strands to his fancy, while my fingers rested lightly on his hips, beautiful hips.
"Ahem," came a loud sound from behind us. Ahem."
Mush broke away, though I wished he wouldn't, and stared behind him. "Oh, hi, Mr. Johnson. Lovely afternoon, isn't it?" He rolled his eyes as he turned back to me, clearly indicating his disinterest in this distraction.
"Young man, this is a nice building," the man, who appeared to be about sixty, said with determination. "Your particular sense of decorum is best appreciated behind your closed door, if you don't mind."
Mush snickered to himself. "Like he isn't a bigger fag than I am," he whispered to me. Then he turned back to Mr. Johnson. "Right away, sir. I only thank you for your telling me now, before I did something inane and unappreciated like humping my friend here on the hallway floor."
Mr. Johnson made a horrible sound in the back of his throat, and walked down the hall. Mush rolled his eyes and pushed 2-6-4-3-5 on his keypad, which resulted in the sound of a sliding lock within. The two of us headed inside, where I could only gasp.
"It's beautiful in here," I whispered. Neutral colors with dashes of pastels greeted me, in a large apartment that seemed almost illegal to only belong to one person.
"Thanks," he answered. "I hired Thom to design it for me."
I thought for a minute. "You mean Thom from Queer Eye?"
"Yeah," he answered. "You know, being Angel kinda makes you friends with every other Angel. Jai totally got me the hookup."
"I want to live your life," I said enviously. "Friends with the most famous gays since Ellen and Elton? Amazing. Money to spend frivolously? Fabulous. This incredible apartment, all to yourself?" I was about to go on, but he crossed to me and pushed a finger against my lips.
"Don't," he said. "Don't ever envy someone else. What you have is wonderful too, I'm sure; you just don't know it."
I could only laugh. "Mush, I have a roommate. Named Lloyd. Who actually owns a collection of stuffed llamas."
He could only blink at me. "Oh, dear," he said, then burst into giggles. "I'm sure he's a nice fellow, at least."
"If by 'nice,' you mean 'inane idiot,' then you hit the nail on the head," I answered, stretching my body out on his beautiful sofa. "Oh, this feels awesome," I moaned. "I never realize just how achey my muscles are until about a few hours after an audition."
"Sit up, massage time," Mush answered. "I sincerely hope that you're as good, if not better, than I am at these. Because I get the feeling we'll be doing this a lot during the show."
"My first unofficial class that I took at Denton's was massaging," I laughed, then grimaced as his kneeding, probing fingers loosened a stubborn knot in my left calf. "Oh, God, that feels amazing," I groaned, lying back on the cushions again as he started in on my right leg.
Over the next hour, I was treated to the best massage of my life, and through an incredible conversation, learned that Mush and I had many more things in common than I could ever remember having with any other person, ever. We had both come out of the closet when we were thirteen, we both loved Thai food and thought tattoos and pierced tongues were sexy, but were both too chicken to get either. Rent was our favorite show, and we both had unhealthy obsessions with retro Billy Joel and Reel Big Fish. We both cried at Homeward Bound and Dirty Dancing, and we shared red as our favorite color. Our fathers had the same first name, and we both hated the relationship we had had with them. We each had an older sister that we had always been closest to in our families, and the name of his sister was the name of my best friend in high school, while my sister's name was the same as his mother's. And, of course, like any self-respecting young men, we had both fallen in love with our therapists.
"So, I think that was the first time I knew I was gay," Mush laughed, grinning in nostalgia as he played with my hair, my head resting in his lap. "Mr. Beamer said he'd seen the signs forever, but wanted me to come to the conclusion. That night, I told my parents I was gay. They never let me go back to my therapist again."
"My therapist was hired for me in hopes to 'get the gay out,' or something of the like," I giggled. "I was fourteen. All it really did, however, was give me a concrete person to think about while masturbating, instead of, like, Joey Lawrence."
"I completely was into him, too!" Mush said in delight. "For some weird reason, I also had a huge crush on..."
"Greg Brady," we said at the same time. We both stared at each other before cracking up. "The later episodes?" I added.
He was laughing so hard he was nearly crying by this point. "In syndicated reruns."
"Lay down with me," I coaxed.
He frowned. "This is an awfully narrow sofa, Blink."
I caught his hand in mine, halting the braid he was twisting a lock of my hair into. "I promise I won't let you fall," I told him, kissing his fingers one by one.
That seemed to convince him. He stretched out with me, with him on his side with his back to the cushions, and me facing him with my back to the rest of the room. "You're so beautiful," I told him, meaning every word. "You astounded me as Angel, but you're even more gorgeous as you."
A smile creased his face, and he leaned closer. "That's the best compliment I've ever received. Seriously."
"I mean it," I whispered, staring into his intoxicating eyes. Beautiful, large and chocolate, and so filled with expression. My hands reached into his curls on their own accord, and our lips crushed together with an intensity that I thought would forever remain unmatched. His hands traced my face, then trailed down my stomach, causing me to quiver slightly wherever his fingers burned. They stopped at my waistband and hooked themselves there, hanging eternally on the brink of obscurity and forever.
And then, the theme song from Fraggle Rock began playing.
"Shit, my phone," I murmured, tearing myself reluctantly away in order to make the cell phone's electronic song stop. I checked the caller ID. "Goddammit, it's Lloyd."
"Your llama-loving roommate?"
I grimaced. "I wonder if it's actually important, or if I can let it go."
"You can answer it," Mush answered, propping himself up on his elbow. "I'm not going anywhere, you know."
Annoyed as all else with Lloyd's poor timing, but in complete adoration of how adorable Mush was, I flipped the phone open. "Hey, Lloyd."
"Hi, Trey!"
Making a face at Mush, I ran a hand through my hair. "What's up?"
He sounded completely frivolous. "I was just wondering where you are. We usually go out for pizza after you get cut from auditions."
His lack of charm annoyed me. "Gee, thanks. Actually, I got a part this time."
"No shit!" He sounded impressed. "Then we should do something even better. We could go out for... pizza with two toppings."
I felt like pounding my head into a wall. I consoled myself with flopping back against Mush's stomach, and he began running his hands teasingly up and down my back. It made it quite hard to concentrate on Lloyd. "Actually, I'm hanging out with ..." I turned and looked at Mush's face, and he winked at me. "My boyfriend," I finished.
Mush sat up behind me and kissed the back of my neck.
"Your what?" Lloyd asked. "I thought you were single. Ever since Ryan dumped you. Shit, that was horrible, wasn't it? Remember how you sat around for weeks, moping and watching Pretty Woman while eating Ben & Jerry's?"
Trying hard not to moan in delight at Mush's doings, I fought to keep my voice normal as Lloyd kept babbling about my dark moments. "I'll fill you in later, okay? Now, I've gotta go."
"Can I call your mom and tell her you got a role?"
"Yeah, yeah, sure. Call my sister too, if you want, and my whole goddamned extended family," I said, eager to get off the phone. "I just really, really gotta go."
"Ooh, am I interrupting a little pillow talk session? A little this 'n' that? Screwing? Fucking?"
I wanted to scream. "'Bye, Lloyd," I said in a singsong voice. "Have a nice evening."
"He sounds like fun," Mush said teasingly, now sitting with his legs on either side of mine. He began to massage my back again, forcing out my tension, this time accompanying his soothing action with exciting kisses, pressed to my neck. "This would be easier with your shirt off," he said, cutting straight to the chase. I helped him get it off, accompanied by the wifebeater that I had worn to the audition. From that point on, the massage was nothing more than pure inhalation of the senses, as he laid kisses along my spine and upon my shoulder blades. I kept my own hands busy by running them up and down his muscular thighs. He was undoubtedly one of the most godlike specimens alive on the Broadway stage.
As much as I enjoyed the massages, and as good as he was at giving them, the need for my mouth to meet his overwhelmed the pleasure of just sitting there, and I was forced to turn around, kneeling on the floor now, and fit my mouth to his hastily. He was momentarily taken aback, then relaxed into the kiss. I unbuttoned his lavender blazer and he shrugged it off, and I was treated to the sight of his bare chest, with only his ascot upon his skin. I unknotted it with precision, then threw it onto a nearby chair.
As the lights of the city started to turn on, countering the faltering of the sun, I explored Mush's chiseled chest with my tongue and kisses, and he wrapped his legs around my torso and locked me there, as if afraid I would leave. I pulled his face down to mine and kissed him again, and again and again. His kisses were unlike anything I had ever encountered before.
I finally looked at the clock, and realized that I had been at Mush's place for hours upon hours. "I need to get back home," I whispered, halting his hands, which were writing indistinguishable letters upon my back.
"Do you really?" he said, sighing a little disappointedly. "How far do you live?"
I laughed. "About five subway stops that way," I answered, pointing north.
He scrutinized me. "Are you taking a taxi?"
"I can't afford that," I answered, giggling. "Subway for me. Hence the whole saying of, 'five subway stops that way.'"
"Well then, I'm coming with you," he answered. "It's too dangerous for such a beautiful boy as yourself to go on the subway so late at night."
I waved him off. "I'm a big boy," I answered. "Thank you for the offer, though." I stood up and looked around for my shirt, but could only find the wifebeater. "Let me know if you find my shirt, will ya?"
"Is this really goodnight?" he asked softly, standing too, watching me pull on my white wifebeater.
"I think so," I answered. "For tonight, anyway."
He grabbed my phone and punched some numbers in it. "Call me once you're off the subway," he told me. "So I don't worry all night about you."
I took my phone from him and slid it back into my pocket, then leaned in to capture his lips again. "Thank you, for everything," I breathed.
"Why?" he whispered back, kissing me slowly. "You're the one who's making all of my dreams come true."
Though I didn't want to, I ducked out of his room before I ended up staying the night. When I got to the elevator, I let out a huge breath of air, clinging to its mirrored walls. I seemed to be in big trouble in regards to this one.
It did not seem possible for me to escape this time unscathed.
But, for the first time in any of my relationships, I did not feel the need to escape.
[i'm that voice you're hearing in the hall
and the greatest miracle of all
is how i need you and you needed me, too
that hasn't happened for the longest time]
[billy joel]
[shoutouts!]
Queen Kez The Wicked ][ crayon!mush: cheers and eats half the box in one gulp Now, see what you did. I just took him to the dentist to clean off the last stains. Goodness. And for the record, there never was happiness in "Will I?" to change into sadness. So, um, yeah. So there. Aww Kezala, you are totally the bestest. huggles you!
The Second Batgirl ][ Smut-free. This is quite a PG-13 story. I learned my lesson with Pretend... angry! LOL. Sorry, m'dear. But if you persuade me, I might write the smut for you faster. Sigh. The things I do for you, sweetie, the things I do for you. ;)
V-channy-chan ][ Awww! You are such fun. And Blush all the time... dreamy look crosses face Dude, you should patent that idea. And then enforce it. I hereby call you police of FFN... gives you a badge!
Aura ][ I met Jai after I saw him as Angel, too. And I just talked to his manager on the phone last night. (HOLY SHIT THAT IS SO WEIRD TO SAY... OO) Uhh, so I lead a kinda weird life... and believe me honey, no one in this world loves Jai as much as I do (you can ask around, it's general knowledge). It's in homage to the wonderful B that I had Mush choose Blink over Jai. Because seriously, can you IMAGINE Aaron/Jai?! happy imagining! Oh yes, and Mush's wearing lavender in the story is a direct reference to the beautiful polo shirt Jai wore after the show. Hehe!
TheBetterKP ][ awww! gives you cookies and such Thank you so much, hun! I'm glad you enjoy the story so much. XD
DreamlessMermaid ][ I'm really glad that my story is getting you to read slash. big smile! (I'm currently in a huuuge battle with a jackass at work who's a real homophobe, and it drives me CRAZY) And thanks for reading through my old stuff too, though most of it completely isn't worth reading, haha! Glad to have you on board with me. :)
geometrygal ][ coffee=gross. Lavender on boys=yummy. That's basically the entire basis of this story. Ahahaha! Yes, you would never guess that I waitress from reading this story, eh? Eh? I'm so subtle in my demanding that people tip better... whistles innocently I AM SO GLAD THAT YOU'RE READING THIS AS YOU ARE ONE OF MY FAVORITE REVIEWERS EVER. Goodness. Glad I got that off my chest... ;) Huggles and snuggles, darling!
misprint ][ There is no review such as a Misi review. Good lord, you're totally like the coolest person I know. And did I mention that Jai wore lavender when I met him? Hence, I shall forever be putting newsies and random characters in lavender shirts at every opportune moment. And and and... you need to like kick my ass and make me post my reviews for Bloodflame. They're totally typed up on my comp. I'm just a lazy-ass. I lose at life sometimes... XD Hahaha Love ya!!
[enjoy it while it's going on, kids... the next chapter is THE LAST. DUN DUN DUN]