I can't bear to keep you assholes in suspense for longer than I have to, okay? You people are lucky I like you.

Thanks to r2metoo and Keefer for your reviews to last chapter (yes, I know, you didn't get a whole lot of time to read and review, but DON'T COMPLAIN!).

It was only about two in the morning local time when he landed back in California, so the airport was nearly deserted. He knew he should have been exhausted, but he was wired from the nap he'd just taken on the plane and anticipation of seeing Balthazar again. His mom was right—he needed to get this sorted out and he would wake up Balthazar if need be. They were done with putting off conversations they needed to have.

Bones roared to life and it seemed like it had been longer than a day since he'd been in the car last. Part of him still wasn't exactly sure what day it was even though he reminded himself it was Monday morning. His dad wasn't even in the ground yet, wouldn't be until twelve-thirty California time. He didn't know what his mother was going to say to smooth things over with the paternal side of the family, but he didn't really care. He didn't owe them anything, anyway. The only ones in his family he really owed anything to was his mom and Raphael's family. They were more his family than anyone in the Harrison or most of the Pellegrino family had been to him anyway.

By two-thirty, he'd pulled back up to the house, relieved to see that Lindsey was parked out front. He dragged his duffel bag and garment bag out of the back and hurried inside, unlocking the front door with his house key.

To his utter surprise, the TV in the living room was on, and Balthazar was sitting right there on the sofa. He was awake, too, to further Lu's surprise. The moment the door open, he spun around, his expression visibly puzzled in the flickering light of what looked like an episode of Torchwood. "Luce?"

Lu immediately set down his bags and closed the door behind him. "We need to talk."

"It's Monday, isn't it? You're not supposed to be back until tomorrow afternoon."

"I came back early."

Balthazar blinked and shook his head. "I'm just having a very vivid dream right now."

Lu very nearly rolled his eyes. "No, you're not. I am actually here right now." By this time, he was directly in front of Balthazar, and he reached for the remote to turn off the TV before flipping on the lamp next to the sofa.

"What... what are you doing here?"

"I told you. We need to talk. My mom's covering for me at the funeral."

"You're going to miss it."

"I don't give a flying fuck, Balthy. We need to figure this out. This thing with us."

"There's nothing to talk about."

"Like Hell, there isn't. I don't even know if we're still together right now, but you can bet your ass I want to be, okay? I don't know how you came to the conclusion that I'm embarrassed by you, because I'm fucking not. I also don't know why you wanted to wait until I was about to leave for three days before we had that argument, but..." His voice trailed off. There was just a full stop there. He had no idea why Balthazar freaked out right before what would no doubt be a brief but emotionally draining separation. "Why aren't you asleep, anyway?"

The singer didn't look up at him. "I'm sorry," he said hoarsely. "I seem to have... gotten more attached than I previously anticipated. I don't know how to... how to say this. Maybe it's for the best, though. I'm almost glad you didn't tell them about us. They won't have to—"

"Whoa-whoa-whoa. Back the fuck up. You said you got more attached than you expected, and then in the same breath, you tell me we should break up. Those are some mixed fucking signals, if nothing else is. I'm really confused right now. Do you want to break up with me or not?"

After a moment, Balthazar shook his head. "No. I don't. Honestly, it's the last thing I want."

"Then why even bother bringing it up?"

"I... I don't want to get hurt."

Now he could see it. He could sense what was really going on under the surface there; he probably found it as difficult to sleep on his own as Lu did, but Balthazar needed to say it. Lu crouched down in front of him so Balthazar was forced to meet his gaze and held his hand. "That's right at the top of my list of Things I'm Not About to Do. So why don't you explain what's really going on, huh?"

He'd never seen such a vulnerable expression on his face, and Lu wished he could give him a reassuring kiss. Both of their facial piercings were still healing, though, and each other's germs certainly wouldn't aid the healing process. So quietly his lips barely moved—although the hoops through his lips caught the light as he spoke—the blonde murmured, "I don't feel like this about anyone. I just don't."

"Feel like what?"

"I... I love you."

Lu's heart stopped for a moment before it started beating faster than ever. He was so overwhelmed by the desire to kiss him that he very nearly did. At the last second, though, he remembered and just rested his forehead against Balthazar's, moving his other hand to the back of his neck. "Really?"

Balthazar hesitated for a minute. And then he nodded, two quick twitches of his head. "Yeah. I do. I love you."

"You know I can't sleep without you next to me," Lu said. "You've seen me at my worst—a lot more than I ever expected—and you still love me. I don't get it, but believe me, I love you, too. You fought to get me to even take this chance with you, so I'm not just gonna let you let it go so easily." His heart was pounding and he felt a bit dizzy but he suddenly knew without a doubt that he was definitely in love with Balthazar Roché. There was not a single part of him that was unsure. He just was. And damned if he was going to give him up so easily, not after he'd been so convinced to even consider something this outrageously stupid. Maybe it was stupid, but he was in too deep now to not see it through to the end, whatever that may be—death or breakup, he had to know.

"You love me?" Balthazar sounded almost afraid to believe him.

"Yes, I do. Okay? I know we both need work, but I want to see where this goes. You just have to be patient with me. I want to be with you. I want to be able to tell the whole fucking world that I love you. You just have to give me a little bit of time, okay?"

Balthazar nodded, the beginnings of a smile tugging at his mouth. "I can wait." Now that they'd acknowledged the fact that they were actually in love with each other, it was easier. Everything had taken on the fuzzy sheen of the newly enamored. It was better than Lu had felt in a long time, and he moved his head to nuzzle the side of Balthazar's neck, half-tempted to just take out his tongue piercing so he could bite at his neck.

Balthazar's hands went right to his hair, running through the strawberry-blond strands falling over his ears and down the back of his neck. Lu raised himself from his crouching position and maneuvered so Balthazar was lying back on the sofa, never breaking contact with each other.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," the singer murmured, "but I believe this is about when our young couple usually retires to the bedroom."

"Shut up. I'm enjoying myself," Lu joked, still nuzzling his neck while one of his hands slipped under Balthazar's shirt.

"If you insist. As long as there's some hardcore shagging going on in my future."

"There will be. Just give me a minute. I missed you."

"You were only gone for a day."

"Too long. You were right. You should have come with me."

Balthazar made a pleased humming sound. "I'm right—just what a girl likes to hear."

Lu snorted with laughter. "I love you," he said, just because he could.

The blonde froze for a moment before wrapping his arms tightly around Lu. "I love you, too."

They lay there for a few more minutes, holding each other and enjoying being close again. He loved the feeling of having Balthazar right there, no tension between them, only cleared air and a sense of satisfaction, shirts and jeans and boxers and the bike lock around the singer's neck. But then Balthazar shifted underneath him and Lu felt a definite bulge in the singer's jeans. "Hmm," he murmured, sliding his hand back down the blonde's side to his hip. He pushed himself up to look down at him. "Maybe you've waited long enough."

"I could have told you that," Balthazar said. There was an expression of such extreme petulance that Lu could tell it was an act. He was still just pleased to have things between them mended.

"Come on," Lu said, taking Balthazar's hand again and helping him off the couch.

Neither of them liked to not be able to kiss each other, but Lu was determined to make this as enjoyable as possible. He pressed Balthazar against the bedroom door and swept his shirt over his head, running his nose over his skin as if he could absorb the singer's scent. Without the smell of menthol cigarettes clinging to him, his scent was even more intoxicating.

He felt Balthazar tugging at his shirt, too, and he leaned back just long enough to remove it. Then he leaned back into Balthazar, nuzzling into his neck again as the other man asked softly, "Where's your chain?"

"Pocket. Hang on."

But Balthazar was already reaching into his front pocket and pulling out the chain with the key attached to it. He slipped the chain over Lu's head and brought their foreheads together again, as intimate as they could get without kissing, and Lu could feel that he wouldn't take this chain off again.

The bedroom door slammed behind them as they shimmied out of their jeans, easing back onto the bed. It was the worst kind of torture to not be able to kiss each other—Lu was desperate to bite him, to mark him, to claim him as his own, and damn the whole world, and it was pretty clear that Balthazar would have been okay with it.

It's not like we're swapping spit, he reasoned to himself before he lowered his head and sank his teeth into the singer's neck.

Balthazar let out a ragged groan, immediately fisting Lu's hair and raising his hips to grind against the taller man's. Oh, yeah, Balthazar was definitely tired of waiting around. With a small smile, Lu scraped his teeth over the older man's skin as he drew back and started pushing off the blonde's boxers. Balthazar groaned again and wiggled to facilitate Lu's stripping of him before dragging down his underwear, too.

Lu leaned in to kiss him but remembered at the last possible second that they couldn't; he diverted his mouth just in time and nuzzled his cheek against Balthazar's, smiling as he realized neither of them had bothered to shave that day.

"Come on, love," Balthazar murmured. "Not gonna make me wait forever, are you?"

"Hadn't planned on it," Lu breathed, taking a moment to nibble on Balthazar's ear before he reached for the lube in the drawer.

The singer's moans filled the room as Lu slowly slipped one finger inside him, and then a second. With the addition of a third, Balthazar's grip on his hair sent sparks of pain and pleasure through him, and the blonde arched into his touches. "Please, love, need you so bad," he pleaded. "Missed you so much, need you to fuck me, missed you—oh, God, Luce, please..."

"Not letting you go again," Lu whispered, scraping his teeth over the shell of his ear. "Never."

Balthazar let out an unintelligible groan and rutted against Lu, desperate for friction and trying to fuck himself on his fingers.

Oh, Jesus, but if that wasn't the hottest, most debauched thing Lu had ever seen, he couldn't imagine what was. "I've got you," he breathed, withdrawing his fingers and running his nose across Balthazar's chest, reveling in how flushed and eager he was. He wanted to kiss him so badly it was almost a physical ache, but he knew they couldn't. It just made him more desperate to reacquaint their tonsils that he decided, the moment they could kiss again, they wouldn't leave the house all day. They would just stay home and make out.

And if it led to gratuitous sex, so be it.

He slicked up his cock and leaned his forehead against Balthazar's for a long, deliberately teasing moment, cradling the back of his neck. "I love you," he whispered, and without waiting for an answer, he pushed himself into Balthazar.

The singer gasped sharply and let out a long, wordless moan. As Lu set a slow, steady pace, Balthazar grabbed his arm and the bassist shifted his weight to slide his fingers through his lover's. It was more complete, more in-sync than he'd ever felt with him before, and all he wanted to do was leave hickeys on every inch of his flesh that he could reach. You're mine. I love you so much and you're mine now. All mine. The words, the intensity, stuck in his throat, and all he could do to convey how much he loved Balthazar was make tonight as sweet as possible for him. His rhythm never faltered and Balthazar was panting, arching against him, wrapping his legs around Lu's waist. "Please, love, faster!" he begged, tugging sharply on Lu's hair with his free hand. "Please..."

Lu didn't want to be rushed. Not tonight. He wanted to make love to him all night, wanted to never let him go again. The rest of the world could just go fuck themselves, in his opinion. He had no intention of leaving Balthazar able to walk for the next week.

He actually slowed his pace, and Balthazar let out a frustrated groan, murmuring something Lu couldn't quite make out. With his next thrust, Balthazar's moan got louder, and Lu realized why he couldn't understand him: the singer was speaking French. Oh, fuck.

As if some barrier had been lifted, Balthazar started crying out in French, almost nonstop and even more desperate than he'd sounded before. Lu couldn't understand most of what he said, but he was pretty sure he caught "je t'aime" which, he knew, was French for "I love you," but aside from that, he was clueless. It didn't matter, though. He didn't know what Balthazar was saying, but he sure liked the way he said it. And he'd been right—the blonde speaking French, especially in the throes of passion like this, would have gotten him turned on if he hadn't already been fucking him senseless, and apparently unable to speak English.

All of Lu's self-control snapped at once, and when his next thrust was harder, faster, Balthazar let out another loud moan, gasping out something in French, and he was lost. It devolved from tender lovemaking he'd been trying to make this to hard, dirty fucking that had Balthazar whimpering in pleasure and scratching up his back and tightening his grip on Lu's hand.

He bit down on Balthazar's ear and breathed, "God, that's so fucking hot... you're so fucking sexy... Come on, Balthy, I wanna hear how loud you can get."

The blonde groaned something before Lu gave another hard thrust and Balthazar nearly screamed something French. It should have been illegal to sound that sexy, but Lu wanted to hear more. He gave up all hope of redeeming the night and just fucked into Balthazar as hard as he could while the singer gasped out something that sounded like it was encouragement and then the older man was clenching down on him, his grip on Lu's hand nearly crushing, and the loud moan had the right note of desperation, of completion, to let Lu know he was about to come.

He hadn't even touched the blonde's cock, and he wanted to see if he would actually come just from Lu fucking him. He cradled the back of Balthazar's head with his free hand, locking their gazes, and the singer's eyes never left his face. He let out a broken moan and breathed out what was definitely "je t'aime" and came a beat later, waves of ecstasy crashing over him as he cried out, his bright blue eyes still fixed on Lu's.

Just like that, the intimacy returned, and Lu let out a small gasp, rocking his hips once, twice more before he spilled over, filling Balthazar and silently praying he never stopped coming because his lover was giving him a look that said he just wanted more.

But it ended and they clung to each other, panting and sweating but thoroughly satisfied.

"I'm bloody glad you're back," Balthazar finally said, laughing softly.

"Yeah, me too." Lu nuzzled into the side of his neck. "That was amazing, by the way."

"What was? The sex?"

"In general, yeah. I meant you speaking French, though."

Balthazar snorted. "What are you on about? I wasn't speaking French."

"Like Hell, you weren't. You were like, 'Oh, oh, oh, je t'aime!' I couldn't understand most of what you were saying."

He was silent for a moment. "I really was speaking French, wasn't I?"

"That's what I've been saying."

"That... that's never happened to me before. Not consciously, anyway," he admitted sheepishly.

Lu grinned and wrapped his arms around his lover. "Well, then, I feel special." I fucked him so hard he reverted to French. Nice.

Balthazar sidled under the covers, dragging the bassist along with him. "I don't want to go to the studio tomorrow," he murmured.

"You wanna stay here with me?"

The blonde nodded, gently running his fingers through Lu's hair.

It was hypnotic and almost put Lu to sleep, but he managed to keep his wits about him. "We'll just go in late. Around noon or something. It's..." He turned his head to look at the alarm clock on the nightstand. "It's almost four. That'll give us some time to sleep."

"Or we can just go in on Tuesday."

"We could, but... I don't know, Balthy, I was kinda thinking we could... we could tell them about us."

The silence was probably only about five seconds long, but to Lu it seemed like an eternity. "You're sure? You want to tell them?"

He loved Balthazar. Balthazar loved him. They wanted to make this work, to stick this out for the long haul. It was as much of a commitment as Lu could ask for right now. It was exactly what he'd been waiting for, even though he hadn't realized it too long ago. "Yeah. I'm sure. I absolutely want to tell them."

Even through the darkness, he could see the huge grin that blossomed across Balthazar's face. "Alright, love. We can go in tomorrow. Late, though. I'm going to be utterly useless until at least eleven."

Lu grinned as Balthazar rolled over in his arms, pressing his back to the strawberry blonde's chest. "I can live with that," he murmured. "Night. I love you," he added softly.

Balthazar gave his arm a reassuring squeeze. "I love you, too."

I can't even describe all the brainwaves I had for this chapter. I heard Seb speaking French and I just knew, one day, Lu would fuck Balthy so hard he accidentally hit his language reset button and then FRENCH EVERYWHERE. Fortunately, my grasp of French is about the same as Lu's (read: virtually non-existent) so that wasn't too hard to feign.

And some of you thought Balthazar was gonna be with some slut or something. For shame! He has eyes only for Lu!