Alright my friends, I did say no more posts for a while, and it has been a while, and yet, I have not gotten anywhere on my next chapter...so, I hate to do this because my next one isn't finished yet, and I promised myself that I wouldn't do it like this, but the time has come to update...meh, it's not that big of a deal...I'm sure i'll finish tomorrow, when I have some alone time...uh...maybe...anyways, here's chapter eleven, thanks for waiting so long, and I'm really sorry, and I'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as possible!

Chapter Eleven

Tai lay in his bed, willing his brain to go to sleep. His entire head was heavy with fatigue, and his eyes were closing on their own, but he was thinking so fast that he just could not get any sleep. Of course, snoring beauty beside him wasn't exactly helping.

Finally giving up the battle, he propped himself up on his elbows and looked over at Toby. His friend's hair fell across his face, blowing around as he breathed. He looked so cute…

They still shared a bed, even though they didn't have to. Ms. Hift had ordered a bed to be brought up to the room a few days after he had moved in, but Tai never slept in it. He just found that he could sleep a lot easier with another warm body in the bed. And sometimes, when he woke up after a bad dream, and felt Toby's arms around his waist, it gave him the feeling of belonging, like he was finally where he was supposed to be, and he could almost grasp at memories of something just like it.

So they shared the bed. Toby never complained, he seemed to enjoy it just as much as Tai. Not like it was sexual or anything…although he had woken up a few times with the other boy staring at him with a hungry expression on his face…but they were just good friends…right?

Ok, so they had kissed a few times…well, Toby had kissed Tai, but it still counted. But it's not like it was a gesture of passion…what's a kiss between friends...he just hoped that Toby felt that way too.

Tai's thoughts were interrupted by moans coming out of Toby's mouth. The boy started thrashing back and forth on the bed, throwing his limbs everywhere.

"No…please don't…please…no…" Tai crawled over and tried to comfort him by rubbing his arms and shoulders.

"Toby, wake up!"

"No…please…get away from me…no…AHHHH!" Toby screamed as he sat straight up in the bed, right into Tai's arms, breathing heavily. He sat there panting for a moment, then pulled away to look at his friend.

"Tai?"

"Are you okay? You sounded so scared!"

"It was nothing."

"But—"

"You wanna go somewhere?"

"Um…what? Right now?"

"Why not?"

"It's like…twelve o'clock…we're waaaaay past curfew…"

"So?"

"So…we can't…get caught?"

"You got it. Let's go!"

Ten minutes later, fully (well, at least partly) clothed in their "party" clothes, that Toby had secretly bought for them both…Tai could only imagine how long he had been planning this for.

Catching a glance of himself in the mirror, Tai froze in his steps.

"Oh my god…I look like a crackwhore." He tugged down at the hem of his leather short shorts, and his tiny tank top. "Where did you buy these clothes anyways?"

"Atthesexshopyouwannagonow?"

"…the…sex shop?" Toby looked sheepishly at the ground.

"Are you mad?"

"No…just surprised that they let you in…"

"Funny…" Toby moved into the view of the mirror, standing behind Tai. "You look fine." He rested his head on the smaller boy's shoulder.

"I know. But I look like a crackwhore…a fine crackwhore to be sure, but a crackwhore nonetheless."

"I like you as a crackwhore…it suits you."

"Gee thanks, just what I've always wanted to hear."

"You're welcome." They stood and stared into the mirror for a moment, secretly admiring each other's costume until Tai spoke up.

"Wait a second…how come you get to dress like a normal person?" Toby moved a little to the left, revealing his clothing choice of the night. A white wifebeater, plus a pair of long, but incredibly low slung Hawaiian shorts made a simple, but drool worthy outfit.

"Why don't I get the long shorts?"

"Because I don't have the legs for the short ones…you do, look at those sexy things."

"Ha ha…let's go."

"Ok."

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Eiri sat at the bar, slowly sipping his drink and contemplating his past, and people tend to do when they drink…He chuckled to himself as he remembered the look on Tohma's face when the cheese goo splattered all over his expensive suit. Some guy leaned over towards him. "Wha…what's so….so…so…fun…" But he couldn't finish his sentence, as he was now lying on the floor unconscious.

Blearily, Eiri peered over the edge of his glass at the man. Hmm…some people just couldn't…hold…their…um…how do you hold liquor…? It's a liquid…crazy Americans and their crazy sayings…whew…he was dizzy.

The bartender leaned over the counter to him.

"Hey buddy?"

"Hmm…are you…talking to me?"

"Yeah, I think you've had about enough. I'm cutting you off man."

"Fine," Eiri pouted childishly, "But I'm not…leaving…"

"That's okay…just no more booze for you."

"Hnnn…" The writer propped his head up with his hands, trying to squeeze the negative thoughts out of his head, since he no longer had the help of alcohol to smush them…

Meanwhile, at the entrance of that very same bar, a confident looking blond boy, closely followed by a smaller friend, who could have been a girl if one didn't exam his chest too closely walked into the room.

(A/N: Bwahah what a coincidence!)

Toby stopped in the middle of the floor, sizing up the crowd of the night. After bumping into him due to the abrupt stop, Tai noted that he seemed pretty familiar with this. And strangely enough, the raging music, sweaty bodies, and smell of alcohol on everyone's breath was giving him a much welcomed rush. He imagined the adrenaline flowing through his veins as he turned to ask Toby to dance.

But the boy was already gone. He looked around frantically for a second, then left out his breath as his eyes fell on the blond haired boy leaning over the bar. Toby seemed to be flirting with the man beside him; he was moving closer to said man, and was giggling excitedly.

Tai snorted in disgust. They had only been there for (he checked his watch) one minute, and already he'd been ditched for a stranger. Well, he could fix that!

Sneaking up behind the pair, Tai was almost run over as they suddenly stood up with the apparent intention of going to the dance floor. Deliberately not looking at Toby's "friend", he leaned into his friend's arm, gazing up into his face through thick eyelashes.

"Where have you been," he purred in his most sultry voice, "I was looking everywhere for you…" He put special emphasis on "everywhere" and smiled idiotically at Toby.

"Uhh…" Toby looked, for all the world, like the boy who was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Right here?"

"Who's your friend?" He purposely drew out the last word, and began tracing circles on Toby's chest. The recipient of all the affection didn't seem to be able to concentrate on an answer long enough to respond, so Tai drew his hand away.

"Uh…" Stuttering, Toby tried to recall the name of the man.

"Eiri." The sound of the man's deep voice shot through Tai's head, and alarm bells started going off. Eiri…Eiri…where had he heard that name before…? Tai stole a look over at the man who he saw was Asian…although he did have blond hair. He looked relatively familiar, considering they were in a club, and Tai could barely see his face. Up until now, the man had been standing there watching the interaction between the two with a disinterested face. Now, he wasn't even sure what the guy was doing.

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Eiri gurgled incoherently. It was so dark in that bar, that he couldn't even see the face of the boy who intended to steal away his would-be dance partner, although he sure as hell wasn't giving up on Tony anytime soon. Is that what he said his name was? The music was so loud…

Anyways, he wasn't going to give up his claim so easily. Well, he wasn't going to, until he saw that boy shoot him a curious glance. Then a memory came zooming back to completely take over his vision.

It was that time that he had been dragged to an all night club by…guess who? His hyperactive lover. Well, for an act of revenge, Eiri had decided to ignore the singer, just for the first hour or so, and talk to a heavily made up girl in the corner. As was expected, the brat took it pretty hard…except instead of running over to whine at Eiri as he normally would have, the smart ass had found a girl too, and spent the entire night chatting her up. After a couple of hours…well, maybe it was more like minutes…whatever, but Eiri had gotten really pissed off, and went over to convince Shuichi to get away from that…whore.

And the look that…that boy had sent him, reminded him exactly of the face Shuichi had made when Eiri tried to get him to follow him, and the boy had pretended not to know him, cuddling up to the girl.

Needless to say, after that, the author was a little nicer to Shuichi.

Eiri snapped out of his daydream just in time to see the Shuichi-look-alike leading his potential date away from the counter. For a moment, he considered following them, continuing the battle for Tony (or was it Moby…?), but as a rush of dizziness threatened to knock him over, he decided that the young'uns were best left to the young'uns…or some stupid saying like that.

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Tai, who had been dragging Toby across the floor by his hand halted against the far wall. With a glance towards the bar, he saw that the man had apparently given up, and although he was strangely disappointed, it was more the relief that he was concerned with.

"Did you have to leave me so soon?" He turned mournful eyes up to his friend.

"…I just felt like dancing, with the mood and all! I didn't think that you would mind…"

"If you picked up some random drunk guy and left me alone in the middle of a club in a strange country?"

"Strange country? You live here!"

"Yeah…but it's weird…" Tai giggled. "Besides, you can't just ditch the guy you bring, even if you're trying to pick up an incredibly hot older guy."

"He was, wasn't he…"

"Oh yes…"

They stood in silence for a moment, watching all the couples dance to a hot, fast song on the dance floor.

"You wanna dance?" The question took Tai by surprise.

"Uh…not really…"

"Oh, that's fine…" Toby sounded a little hurt, but when Tai looked up to examine his face, there was a mischevious grin there. "I guess I'll just go dance with that guy…I'm sure HE would dance with me."

"Okay, I'll dance with you!"

"I knew I could talk you into it…" Toby lightly grabbed at the smaller boy's hand, and led him onto the floor. They positioned themselves right under the flashing strobe light…very close to the speakers, so there was no need for conversation.

A rush from the music, the noise, and the heat of a so many other bodies went straight to Tai's head, and impulsively he pulled the blond boy right against him. At first, Toby was surprised by his initiative, but soon fell into the rhythm of the dance. Encouraged by his acceptance, Tai moved even closer to his friend. There was an invitation in his eyes, and Tai threw all caution to the wind as he closed the remaining distance between them, until their bodies were flush together. As he leaned up to kiss Toby, he slowly ground against the blond boy, letting his hands roam around his chest.

Immediately, his friend responded, pushing harder against the small boy, and falling into the kiss. Hands and limbs ran wild across their bodies, as they tried to let off all the tension that had been building between them since they met.

Tai broke the kiss, and stared up at the older boy, who had his eyes closed, and a look of perfect bliss on his face. An thought flickered through Tai's mind, and he slowly started rubbing him thumb along the waistband of Toby's pants. As soon as his eyes flew open, Tai sunk his thumb in past the top and began to massage the skin under there.

Delighted moans began escaping Toby's mouth, and Tai could feel his friend starting to get hard. Suddenly, Toby broke away.

"I have to go to the bathroom."

Confused, but a little relieved to have been interrupted, Tai stood there staring after his friend. That had been so good…but what was he thinking. The poor boy was so disoriented that he absently accepted something shoved into his hand. Looking up, he saw a girl motioning for him to put it in his mouth.

For one reason or another, he complied. Although he found himself regretting the decision a few moments later when his head started to hurt.

Tai really knew that he was in trouble when the room started spinning precariously, and he fell to the floor giggling. Seconds later, Tobias was by his side, saying something…but the pretty lights bouncing around above his head were too interesting to listen to meaningless ramble.

"Okaaay, I dunno what you took Tai, but I'm taking you home now…"

"No! The pretty lights!"

"Uhh…right….well there are pretty lights in the dormitory too, okay?"

"Promise?"

"Uh, yeah, I promise, now let's get you home…"

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Eiri was watching that boy being picked up off the floor and carried home with partial interest, until he realized that it was the same two that he had run into earlier. As clouded as his mind was from all the alcohol, Eiri still recognized the signs of drug usage, mainly from the boy clutching at what could be heard all the way across the floor as the "pretty lights" with a very confused, unfocused look on his face.

Man, he look stoned…his Shuichi would never do that…never get into drugs, or anything that could be bad for him. Heck, he barely tolerated Eiri smoking, although recently, Eiri had taken to putting out a cigarette when it was half way done…it just no longer appealed to him anymore.

It was definitely time to go home…the crowd in the bar was starting to thin out…that meant it was probably getting close to dawn, and since he wasn't allowed any more booze, he might as well go back to the hotel room and see what he could find in the fridge…

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Author's Note: Okay, you don't even want to know how long it took me to write this goddamn chapter…it actually took me one and a half months…excuse, I'm going to a corner to cry at my pathetic lack of talent…sniff…