Darren traced circles on Chris' bare chest, watching the moonlight shining through the window dancing over his pale skin. The room was silent, but that comfortable silence that felt like a hug from a friend you hadn't seen in a long time, and the wind swirled gently outside, some wind chimes in the distance gently twinkling out melodies. Darren relished every moment his fingertips connected with Chris' skin, mapping every detail in his mind to recall later when Chris would eventually get up for his five am call and he would be alone. Chris shivered slightly as Darren continued to draw patterns on his skin, and Darren couldn't help but grin, stopping his drawing to reach his arms around Chris and shuffle him closer. Chris snuggled into the crook of Darren's neck and Darren pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead. They lay still for a moment, Darren closing his eyes, content to listen to nothing but the quiet breathing they shared together, the metronome he chose to live by. He took a moment to do nothing but feel – the warmth of Chris at his side, the beating heart that was thumping along against his chest, the cool breeze that was cooling them from the heat of their bodies so close underneath the covers.
"How did we get here?" Chris whispered, his breath tickling Darren, before he placed a sweet kiss to his throat. Darren kept his eyes closed as he answered, tiredness prevailing, enjoying the sensation of Chris' soft lips connecting with the skin of his neck.
"Well, we finished on set, came back to my apartment, had some dinner, then had some truly mindblowing sex, then - "
Chris cut Darren off with a slap to his chest, but he felt Chris smile into his neck as Darren let out a throaty laugh mid-sentence, opening his eyes to quickly catch the offending hand in his own and intertwining their fingers.
"You know what I mean. Plus we were totally having a romantic moment just then and you had to ruin it."
Darren looked down at Chris, who burrowed further into Darren's side, glaring slightly up at him through his long lashes, but not without a smile playing at the corner of his mouth.
"Please. I am romance personified."
Chris snorted with laughter and Darren smiled at the unrestrained joy on his face, smiled at the knowledge he put it there – and squeezed his hand gently before continuing.
"I don't know how we got here. What I do know is I'm glad we did."
Chris stopped laughing then, his face turning soft and the best kind of vulnerable. He propped himself up on his elbow, moving to press a kiss to Darren's lips. They instantly molded together, their lips content to enjoy the lazy, sleepy, easy nature of a kiss that has been shared so many times before. It was the kind of kiss that said so much more than the words could, because the simple nature of it made it obvious that this was something that was a necessary part of their lives, as easy as breathing and Darren had no intention to stop breathing - or kissing Chris - any time soon. Darren deepened the kiss, exhaustion be damned, and rolled Chris over onto his back, sliding on top of him with ease; their bare chests warm against one another a comforting reminder of the reality they were now sharing, the reality they were now facing together.
It was easy to forget their careers completely in these moments, the potential problems their relationship was going to possibly cause and the uproar, both good and bad, that would possibly occur if they finally came forward and confessed to the media, which already was speculating wildly about the nature of their 'friendship'. Most of their cast members had already guessed before they gathered them one night and told them – Lea was the first to demand the truth from the two of them, fiercely perceptive as she was and aware of the connection between the two of them before they had even realized it themselves. They had gone to Ryan first, and he had been nothing but supportive, happy to see them so happy, but that didn't mean that there weren't issues to work out in terms of the media and the show.
Darren couldn't have seen it coming the day he met Chris – he had known Chris was talented, smart, and very attractive, but it was only over time that he was lucky enough to bear witness to the little details of Chris that made him so goddamn special – the way he was so witty, ready with a comeback to anything that would leave even the most refined, uptight person laughing till they cried. The way he had secret hidden talents, like being able to tie a cherry stem into a knot with his tongue (something that had left Darren with a strange heat in his stomach that he had quickly dismissed as a buzz from the fishbowl margherita he had sneakily shared with Chris at a cast dinner) or his insane, internet-learned proficiency with sai swords. The way he was so strong, how he had gone through so much and yet saw so much goodness in the world, and lived his life through his bubbling laughter and his ravenous hunger to always be better – a better actor, a better writer, a better friend.
Slowly over time, the lines between the intimacy of their characters and their own had blurred. They had gotten closer and closer as their storyline had become more involved, naturally, but something broke in Darren one day and it was as if just like Blaine, he finally saw Chris for the first time – the way that everything he had needed was already right there next to him, and he'd just been too wrapped up in his own excuses to let himself see it. It had nothing to do with sexuality – someone had wrapped a package for him that contained everything he had ever wanted, and all the things he'd never even known he wanted, and when he looked at it, the wrapping was the last thing on his mind. It was simply everything to do with Chris being everything he needed.
After one particularly intense scene they had shot, full of stolen kisses and whispered words, words that Darren slowly realized were no longer lines on a page, but words that he wanted to whisper to Chris late at night, Darren had gone straight to Chris' trailer and wordlessly backed him up against the wall, a mess of lust and want and fear on his lips, so much fear, of rejection, of his own feelings, of what this could mean once he pulled away. Chris had frozen at first and Darren had just kept kissing, clinging desperately to the fact that he hadn't been pushed away yet, and though he knew they'd shared this moment so many times before, this time was different, and he had to show Chris that it was different - so he kissed. It wasn't until Chris' arms were snaking around his back and up through his hair that he finally relaxed, heart pounding but flooding with warmth, letting himself fall entirely into the kiss and entirely in love, fear be damned.
It had progressed naturally from there, just like their friendship had. They would send each other flirty, ridiculous, sarcastic texts when they were only a few seats away from one another, often bursting into seemingly unwarranted laughter that meant questioning looks from everyone. They had their first date, which consisted of Chinese food, bad movies, and Chris' couch, something they had done a thousand times before, but that ended with desperate hands and whispered names, and that was the night Darren knew no music he could ever write would ever sound as right or as beautiful as Chris saying his name, breathless, as he convulsed beneath Darren's hand.
Darren had accidentally told Chris he loved him for the first time one night, snuggled up together on the couch when Chris had accidentally shifted the wrong way and fallen to the floor, leaving Darren shaking with peals of laughter until he finally managed to wipe away a tear and come out with "Oh my god, I love you." Chris had instantly stopped glaring up from the floor, his face taken aback, and Darren had stopped laughing too, his face so filled with apprehension and shock at his own revelation that Chris had laughed out loud and leapt back up on the couch to connect in a kiss with Darren, muttering his reciprocation between kisses and smiles.
Darren pulled away from the kiss they were sharing to take a moment to gaze at Chris, his face slightly flushed as he searched Darren's eyes for a reason why he'd stopped. Darren chuckled at his frustration, tucking some of Chris' hair behind his ear gently before pressing a kiss to the tip of his nose, causing Chris to scrunch up his nose and make a face.
"I love you, Chris."
"Who wouldn't? Especially after all that mindblowing sex."
Darren rolled his eyes at Chris' self-satisfied, grin before shifting off him to slide in next to Chris, throwing one arm around him before quipping, "Moment ruiner."
Chris just turned to face him and hummed his approval against his chest, and Darren closed his eyes as he pulled Chris closer, hand playing gently with his hair as Chris breathed patterns into his shoulder, slowing as he fell asleep against his boyfriends chest.
There was no way this moment, or any other moment with Chris for that matter, could be truly ruined for Darren.
Chris was his moment.