Summary: A freak thunderstorm causes Josh & Mindy to be stuck in the Nichols-Parker household with no power and no one to supervise them.

A/N: I do not own Drake & Josh, no copyright infringement is intended.

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Drake used his key to get into the house after what could only be described as an awful night. After discovering the torrential rain pouring outside after the movie, Drake was forced to stay at the movie theater with not only his date, but also Josh's boss Helen, fawning all over him. That had actually been the highlight of the evening, but it went downhill from there. Drake's car stalled out twice on the way to dropping his date home, his cell phone had died, and his car stalled out again on the way home. He was soaking wet from the rain and bummed out that his date had turned down his advances in the darkened theater. He was Drake Parker – he was in a band, for crying out loud! It was pretty rare when he couldn't get by merely on that fact alone.

As these thoughts ran through Drake's head, he noticed that something wasn't right in the Parker-Nichols household. All the lights were turned off and the house seemed eerily quiet in the storm that was still continuing outside. He flipped on the foyer light-switch and blinked when the light shone in his eyes. Drake was able to tell that the power had gone off at the way the VCR clock was flashing 12:00 repeatedly, but something still wasn't right.

"Josh?" Drake called out, slipping off his wet jean jacket. He wrinkled his nose as he muttered "Gross." Walking into the kitchen, Drake turned on another light to see the empty room but there was a familiar looking purse and jacket hanging over one of the chairs.

Dismissing the items, Drake threw his soaked jacket over another chair and shook his wet hair out as he headed toward the stairs. Bounding up them, he realized that he left his comb in his room and would want it after his much needed shower (the thought of warm water was incredibly appealing to him at that moment). Instead of taking a left toward the bathroom, Drake made a sharp right and turned on the hallway light as he twisted the doorknob to his room.

To say that he was surprised was the understatement of the year. Shocked, appalled, and dismayed – all things described something remotely close to what he was feeling when the door swung open. The light behind Drake from the hallway gave more than enough illumination to what was going on in the bedroom.

Flashes of skin. Inappropriate noises. Mindy digging her fingers into Josh's most definitely naked back. Body parts of his brother's girlfriend that he should never, ever have seen. The images came hurtling at him so fast; it took Drake far too long to comprehend what he was seeing. And by then, it was too late.

There was screaming, yelling, and gasps of shock heard, but he wasn't sure who had done what. Drake managed to fumble out a sort of broken apology and crashed the door into the doorframe a little harder than intended. Walking quickly down the hallway, Drake couldn't have gotten away fast enough and slammed the bathroom door shut with certainty.

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If he could've stayed all night in the bathroom, there was no question that Drake would've done just that. Just hidden away in the bathroom and curled up into a ball next to the bathtub until the images disappeared from his head. He tried to prolong his exit as much as possible – he took the longest shower, made sure his hair was extra dry, took his time folding (and refolding) all the bathroom towels.

Eventually, the floral print on the wallpaper began to feel like it was closing in on him in the tiny space. Opening the door, Drake stuck his head out and listened for any signs of Josh or Mindy. Instead, he heard the faint sounds coming from the TV downstairs and someone coming up the staircase. Before he had a chance to duck back into the bathroom, Drake saw the familiar flip of his mom's auburn hair.

"Hey sweetie, what are you still doing up?"

"Uh…nothing. Just taking a shower. A long shower. I didn't realize you were home."

"We got home about ten minutes ago. Luckily, the roads are much drier now than before," Audrey said, shifting the basket of clean laundry she was carrying from one hip to the other. "It's late; you should probably be in bed by now. I'm sure Josh needs to use the bathroom to get ready."

"Okay. Good night mom."

Audrey leaned forward to kiss her son on the forehead and made her way down the hall to her own bedroom. Drake sighed and tightened his grip on the fluffy towel wrapped around his narrow waist. In his hurry to get out of the bedroom, he hadn't had time to grab pajamas. The awful scene replayed in his head again as he felt a little shudder trickle down his spine. Oh yeah, seeing Josh in their bedroom wouldn't be awkward at all.

Finally, Drake just sucked it up and headed toward his room. Maybe if he pretended it never happened, they wouldn't have to talk about it. It was a flimsy plan, but a plan that he desperately clung to for the moment. Cautiously opening the door, he was only slightly relieved at the sight that beheld him this time: Josh sitting on the couch with his feet propped up on the coffee table watching some rerun on Nick at Night. His arms were crossed, his face expressionless, and he held the remote as if poised for action.

"Hey, uh…" Drake said awkwardly, clearing his throat. "Bathroom's open." Josh nodded as Drake crossed the room, making a beeline toward his dresser to grab his blue flannel pajama bottoms. When he turned around, Josh was nowhere to be seen (much to his relief).

When Josh returned, the room was dark and Drake was already tucked into bed, pretending to sleep.

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Avoidance was simple and complicated in one fell swoop. On the one hand, the boys didn't have too many classes together. After school was easy because Josh was tied up at The Premiere and Drake rehearsed with his band. It became tricky when the two of them were home together. Dinner was often excruciatingly quiet, much to the confusion of their parents and Megan. The two of them denied anything was wrong between them, but everyone noticed that the two boys rarely ever made eye contact or hung out together.

The strange behavior continued for a whole week, taking a toll on their brotherly friendship. It came to a boiling point when Josh came home from work one night, tired from his six hour shift of Helen pretty much yelling and getting on his case. Josh trudged up the stairs, looking forward to crashing into his bed and forgetting about the world while he slept.

Opening the door, he almost literally ran into Drake, who was looking for a way out. They both looked at each other and tried to move around one another, but they both kept blocking the other one from moving forward. After a few minutes of wiggling, apologizing, and side-stepping, Josh had had enough.

"Okay, stop!"

"Well, just stop moving for one minute-"

"No Drake, I mean just stop with everything. Stop avoiding me, stop not talking to me, and stop being in my way." Josh placed his hands on Drake's arms and pushed so that he could get past his brother. He tore off the stiff, red theater vest and un-did a few buttons of his blue oxford-shirt as he sank down into his bed, grateful for the relief from his feet.

"Hey man, I wasn't talking to you because you haven't been talking to me," Drake said, turning around to face Josh. Whatever he wanted to leave the room for now didn't seem so important. He shut the door behind him and crossed his arms over his skull-covered t-shirt. "You're the one who's been avoiding me!"

"Excuse me, that is most certainly not the case." Josh kicked his sneakers off and raised his head to meet his brother's eyes, something he hadn't done purposely in what felt like forever.

"Uh yeah, it most certainly is!" Drake exclaimed. "Ever since you and Mindy…ever since last week, I've barely seen you except for school and dinner." The two of them became enveloped in silence as they looked each other. It was the first that either of them had mentioned the incident out loud. It made them both feel uncomfortable, but it was like an elephant in the room – try as they might to avoid it, they certainly couldn't ignore it for much longer.

"It's not like you don't know where I am," Josh finally pointed out, breaking the silence. "I told you last week that Helen was having me work extra hours this week to cover for some people."

"Yeah well…maybe I just didn't want to talk," Drake admitted, uncrossing his arms as he made his way to plop down on the couch. Josh looked at the back of his head over the top of the faded sofa and drew a sigh under his breath. He got up from the bed and crossed the room, opting to sit in the mud-colored arm chair.

"I don't see why not. It's not like we did anything to shock you."

"Trust me; you did plenty to shock me."

"You know what I mean," Josh replied, rolling his eyes.

"No I don't – what are you getting at?"

"C'mon Drake, you know perfectly well what Mindy and I were doing," Josh said, feeling the red, hot blush creep up the back of his neck. "I'm surprised you're so uncomfortable in what you clearly have the most experience in."

"What? What!" Drake exclaimed, surprise registering on his freckle sprinkled face. "I clearly have the most experience in sex? Where did you get that idea?"

Josh stared at him blankly, wondering if Drake was yanking his chain. He had to have been kidding, right? Judging by the surprise in his brother's face, it was clear that he was very serious.

"Where did I get that idea?" Josh repeated slowly, waiting for the other boy to give him some kind of clue that this was a joke. It never came. "Oh I don't know Drake. It can't possibly be the fact that you're the most popular guy in school. Or if you're not hanging out with your band, you've got some girl hanging off your arm. You strut around here like you own the place and you have, at minimum, seven girls' phone numbers in your pockets. Where do you think I got that idea!" His hands gestured wildly to illustrate his points as Drake watched him, his gaze even and the shock slowly fading from his face.

Drake stood from the couch, unsure of where to go from here. He made his way toward the mini-fridge with the intent of grabbing a Mocha Cola, but changed his mind once he got there. Drake was beginning to feel pretty uneasy under the watchful gaze of his brother.

"I don't know Josh," Drake replied, making his way back to the couch. He plopped down in his usual manner and let out a sigh as he grabbed for the remote and flicked the TV on. "Maybe things aren't as they seem."

Josh stood up and changed seats so that he was now on the couch next to Drake, still as confused as ever. "What are you talking about? C'mon, give me the remote so we can talk about this."

"No! Back off Josh, Celebrities in Speeding Buses is on and I want to watch it."

Josh did what only seemed natural when he wanted to grab Drake's attention – he lunged at him, taking his brother by surprise as they both let out a scream. Josh snaked his arms around Drake's body, trying to find the stupid remote to turn off the even stupider reality show blaring at them. Drake was pretty sly though, hiding it underneath him and using his own hands to keep blocking Josh's advances.

As they pummeled each other with slaps and pinches, thoughts rolled around in Josh's head. Why was Drake acting so weird about this? He'd heard Drake brag about his girlfriends before, but once the word sex was mentioned, he'd gone all weird. He said things weren't as they seem and if that were the case…

Drake gave Josh an opening to grab for his shoulders. After more struggling and pinching, it was Josh who came out victorious, pinning Drake's shoulders against the sofa cushions and his body weight against Drake's knees.

"Drake, are you a virgin?"

It would be so easy to lie. To let the words tumble together into a tiny fib and let Josh keep up this ridiculous image he had of him in that crazy, big head of his. Let the lie live somewhere between Josh's love of Oprah and chicken wings. But with Josh's palms digging into his shoulder blades and the weight of his body against Drake's knees, Drake found himself saying the complete opposite.

"Yes! Yes! Yes, Drake Parker is a virgin. Get off of me!"

Josh obliged as Drake rolled off the couch, bringing his hands up to his head to smooth out whatever hair that had been mussed. The quiet settled in the room again as Drake paced and Josh watched him move. He wanted to say something, but Josh wasn't sure of where to begin.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," Josh said quietly, watching as Drake pinched the bridge of his nose as he closed his eyes. "Weirder things have happened."

"I know. I'm not ashamed of it," Drake replied, still keeping his eyes closed as he leaned against the loft for his bed. Josh raised his eyebrows in surprise, not expecting that answer. Obviously, there was more Drake was keeping from him, but did he trust his brother enough to tell him the story?

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To be continued...