Title: Unexpected Places 5/?
Author: SP
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nickelodeon and Dan Schneider and whoever else own everything.
Rating: K+
Pairing: it's complicated--one sided from both sides Drake/Josh?
Summary: Because of the evil Mrs. Hayfer, Drake is stuck doing a project with that dorky Josh Nichols. But it turns out to be not so bad after all…AU.
Author's Notes: God, I struggled with this one. It's a tad shorter than the others, but that's okay, right?
"I have my ways," Drake purred.
"Oh, you do?" Josh replied with a smile.
"I do."
"So what are they?"
Drake was about to answer, but something stopped him. It suddenly occurred to him to wonder what he was doing. No, scratch that--he knew what he was doing. He was flirting with Josh. But why was he flirting with Josh? And wait a minute--Josh was flirting with him too. Drake felt like an idiot. Of course Josh was flirting with him. Everything made sense now. Josh acting weird--jealous, Drake now realized--when Drake brought up girls. Josh and Mindy both emphasizing that she didn't have a crush on Drake--that meant that someone did. And Josh's "I highly doubt that y-he's--", followed by relief when Drake asked, "He?" suddenly added up too. Josh had been terrified that Drake would catch on to the aborted word, and was relieved that he hadn't (well, until now). It was all falling into place.
Josh didn't just have a crush on a guy.
He had a crush on Drake.
"Drake?" Josh asked, when Drake didn't say anything for a few minutes. "Earth to Drake."
"You should leave," Drake blurted out.
Josh looked confused. "What? Why?"
"It's getting late," Drake said quickly, grasping for a plausible reason to get Josh to leave.
Now Josh looked confused and hurt. "But…it's not even nine o'clock yet."
Drake shook his head. "I know--look, could you just--I have to--please leave."
Josh, biting his lower lip, got to his feet. "Okay. See you soon."
"Right," Drake said shortly. "See you."
Josh sighed and exited the room.
As soon as the door clicked shut behind him, Drake leapt to his feet and started pacing. "Okay, so Josh has a crush on me," he said aloud. "That's okay, I can handle that much. I can even handle him flirting with me. But…" But he couldn't handle his own flirting in return.
Drake had had his share of crushes before. A couple of them had even been on guys. But he had never thought about those crushes too much. Well, except for the one he had on Devon Malone, but that was a special case. He guessed he was bisexual, but it really wasn't something he dwelled on.
Now, it looked like he might have to.
It wasn't that it was Josh. As averse to Josh as Drake had been only a week ago, he genuinely liked him now. And besides, he'd never disliked him.And it wasn't that Josh wasn't attractive--he was totally cute. The problem wasn't even that he was a he.
There were a few more things that suddenly made sense now--starting with Drake's flirting. Which, Drake discovered, thinking back over the past few days, hadn't been limited to tonight. He'd started in flirting and making suggestive comments the very first day they worked together. It could have been written off as just the way Drake was. But that would have been a lie. And so, Drake concluded, the problem was that maybe he liked Josh back.
Sure, Drake had had crushes on guys before. There were probably more guys than Josh that had had crushes on him. But none had ever been mutual.
And the idea of being in a relationship with another guy? It was absolutely terrifying, even more than the idea of someone really knowing him. Drake had no experience with that. He was absolutely clueless about how to be with a guy. And no, not how to be with a guy, although he didn't know a whole lot about that either. Just the ordinary day to day of being with a guy. And then, as if it wasn't enough to think about what to do in the relationship, he'd have to think about what the world was thinking. Even though people weren't quite as hateful anymore, gay people still got a lot of crap. But if the relationship was kept a secret, that wouldn't matter. That led to the pressure of a secret romance and keeping it secret and just acting like friends in public when really what he'd want to do would be--It was really way too much to think about, let alone deal with.
"Hold it!" Drake told himself. "Just because we have a mutual crush, that doesn't mean we have to have a relationship." He sat down again, breathing hard from his frantic pacing, and ran his hands through his hair.
Did he want to have a relationship? As scary as it was, there was also something appealing about it. But wait a minute--did Josh want to have a relationship? Maybe, but how was he supposed to know?
He needed to talk to Josh, he realized. But he'd probably made him angry again by basically kicking him out. Or if not angry, then made him unhappy. But in that case, he needed to talk to him more than he had before. And apologize.
Drake really wasn't looking forward to that conversation. Nonetheless, he scooped up his cell phone, checking the time (nine thirteen, it wasn't too late) before dialing Josh's number.
"Hi Drake," Josh answered on the second ring, sounding uncertain.
"I'm sorry," Drake said immediately. "I shouldn't have kicked you out. Um, we need to talk."
Josh sighed. "Yeah, we do."
"Is it too late for me to come over?" Drake asked.
"No," Josh said slowly. "Do you want to?"
"Yes," Drake answered honestly, after considering it, "But I don't just want to."
Josh sounded uncertain again. "What else then?"
"I think I have to."
"You don't have to do any--"
Drake shook his head, although he knew Josh couldn't see it. "Yeah, I do. We have to talk in person. This isn't a conversation for the phone."
Josh remained quiet for a moment, before saying, "All right. See you in a few minutes, then."
"Right." Drake closed his phone. And then, both to avoid questions and just because he could, he snuck out his bedroom window, rather than going downstairs and out the front door.
He took a deep breath and then walked down the street toward Josh's house, not exactly sure what the outcome of the upcoming conversation would be--or what he wanted it to be.
