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the_deep_magicTitle: Somewhere That’s Green (or, Suddenly Christopher) 3/3
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: underage sexuality (both are 17), past Chris/Beau and Zach/Matt, um… dental roleplay?
Disclaimer: I don’t know these people; this is complete fiction. All lyrics and quotes from Little Shop of Horrors are courtesy of Howard Ashman
Summary: High school drama club AU
Part One / Part Two
It was surprisingly easy, maybe because Zach had let himself imagine it. Only once, but in great detail – the way Chris would shyly take his hand, stroke his cheek, and then press his lips gently to Zach’s.
Except Chris wasn’t doing anything shyly or gently. He was still holding Zach firmly by the shoulders, hardly allowing Zach any movement at all as their mouths meshed together. It took Zach three full beats to catch up, then another to lick back against Chris’ lips as he planted his feet firmly and pushed back into the kiss.
Chris pulled back gasping, his mouth red and wet, but before he could dive in again, Zach planted a hand against his chest. “Look, Chris, if you’re just doing this to, like, thank me or something…”
Chris utterly shocked him by throwing back his head and laughing. “To thank you? You think I— For that? Fuck, Zach, you’re insane. How did I not know this before?”
“Hey,” Zach said, feeling like he should be offended but not quite able to pull away from the heat he could still feel coming off Chris in waves.
“Zach, you’re crazy and you’re crazy hot and for some reason I am so fucking turned on right now.”
Chris may have had more to say, but Zach didn’t let him get it out, just launched himself back at Chris, who only stumbled a little. Walking backward, Chris managed to tug them both into the handicapped stall in the back, which could really only mean one thing…
“Here?” Zach gasped.
“You got a better place?” Chris asked with a grin, nipping just a little too hard at Zach’s lower lip.
The school had been mostly empty and Zach was pretty sure the janitorial staff didn’t show up for a few hours, but the thrill of getting caught was still enough to send a jolt of arousal through him. He surged forward against Chris, feeling the impressive hardness in Chris’ jeans press against his hip. “Chris,” Zach groaned, mouthing aimlessly at his jaw and neck. “What do you—?”
“Just fucking touch me” came the impatient reply as Chris clawed at his shoulders.
Feeling bold, Zach dropped his hand from Chris’ hip, placing it squarely over the bulge in his jeans. Zach grimaced in sympathy; Chris was so hard it had to hurt. But he didn’t appear to be in any pain now, not as he rocked his hips spastically against Zach’s hand, and Zach squeezed him through the thick fabric, feeling out the shape of him, working the length of his cock from root to tip and back again.
Chris moaned loud and long, and Zach had the passing thought that they could probably be heard out in the hallway, but the sound was so fucking sexy that he couldn’t bear to stop. That didn’t even take into account Chris’ face, gorgeous even when contorted with pleasure. Zach rubbed his thumb rhythmically over the head of Chris’ cock, trapped so tightly in his jeans, and Chris’ whole body trembled with it. He was moaning steadily now, burying his face against Zach’s neck and that just spurred Zach on more, because now he could feel every gasp, every curse.
Until Chris jerked his head up. “Zach, wait, stop, I’m gonna— Oh, oh!” His voice shot up an octave as his whole body went rigid, his pelvis grinding against Zach’s hand. One tight little thrust of his hips, then two, then three, and Chris went still. Zach couldn’t feel the wetness seeping through the material yet, but it was obvious Chris had just come – and from the look on his face, was absolutely mortified by it.
His cheeks flushed beet red. “I’m sorry, I— Shit.” Chris tried to pull away, but Zach refused to let him go, just held on to him and mashed his lips messily against Chris’ until Chris started kissing back, slowly relaxing under Zach’s hands.
“It’s okay,” Zach murmured against Chris’ lips. “It was… really hot, actually.”
“Yeah?”
“Totally. Uh, sorry about your pants, though.”
“Ugh,” Chris groaned, glancing down. “Might have some old basketball shorts in the car. But first, uh…” He looked at Zach with wide, vulnerable eyes… and began to sink to his knees. “Gotta make it up to you.”
Zach’s mouth fell open, too shocked even to curse. He’d fantasized about this, sure, but he would never have considered bringing it up to Chris. And, though he certainly wasn’t about to tell Chris, Zach’s entire sexual experience thus far had consisted of three glorious weeks at drama camp last summer, where he and a gorgeous guy named Matt had traded kisses and furtive hand jobs after lights out. But he’d never… And Chris was… Zach couldn’t even think.
“I don’t, um,” Chris muttered, his fingers fumbling with Zach’s belt. “I’ve never done this to someone else. And I’ve only had it done to me once. So just, like, tell me if I’m doing anything wrong? Because I don’t want to hurt you, or—”
“Chris,” Zach said, batting away Chris’ hands and undoing his jeans himself. “You’ve barely even touched me and I’m about to fucking explode. Anything you do is gonna be fine as long as you do it.”
Chris nodded eagerly as Zach drew himself out of his underwear, feeling wholly exposed. He and Matt had never really taken the time to look at each other like this, though it certainly didn’t cool Zach’s arousal any when Chris fixed his cock with a determined look and licked his lips.
The first touch of Chris’ tongue to the tip nearly made his knees buckle. Chris’ hands flew up to steady himself against Zach’s hips, and Zach was secretly glad for the extra support. He swayed into Chris’ hold, barely able to keep from thrusting into Chris’ wet, waiting mouth. Luckily, Chris didn’t make him wait long, just took a deep breath and fit his mouth around the head of Zach’s cock, sucking it like a lollipop. The noise Zach made was somewhere between a whimper and a whine. And when Chris began to lick, curiously poking his tongue into the slit, Zach made a sound he wouldn’t have even thought humans were capable of.
How long he managed to hold off, Zach didn’t know, but it couldn’t have been more than a minute before Chris figured out he could suck and use his tongue at the same time, and then Zach was gone. It was so much better than his own hand in the shower, better even than all his nights with Matt, because even though Chris was sort of wincing, he didn’t pull away, just held Zach’s cock tight in the wet heat of his mouth until it stopped pulsing and Zach’s knees turned to water.
The air felt cold on his wet, softening dick as it slipped from Chris’ mouth, but Zach had to focus all his energy on staying upright, his body was still so shaky with bliss. He had to put his hands on Chris’ shoulders for balance, swaying with him as Chris yanked a handful of toilet paper off the roll and spat into it.
Zach grimaced. He’d tasted his own spunk once, out of curiosity, and he still wasn’t sure he was ready to deal with a whole mouthful of that. “Okay?”
“Tastes kinda gross,” Chris said, tossing the crumpled tissue into the toilet. And then he grinned. “But worth it. Did you know your eyes crossed just then?”
“Nuh-uh.”
“Yup. Like this.” And then he pulled an imitation of Zach’s O-face, complete with tongue half-hanging out of his mouth.
Zach went red, but he couldn’t honestly say that he hadn’t looked like that. He really, really hadn’t been thinking about what his face was doing at the time. What Chris’ face had done, on the other hand… “Oh yeah? Well you looked like this.” Zach rolled his eyes back in his head and let his eyelashes flutter and his lips quiver exaggeratedly.
Chris laughed loudly, struggling up to his feet as Zach tucked himself away. “Hey, any time you’d like to help me make that face, I am perfectly okay with that.”
Chuckling, Zach tugged Chris closer until he hesitated. “Do you, I mean,” Chris mumbled. “You don’t have to kiss me. Not after—”
Zach kissed him anyway, the taste of himself in Chris’ mouth barely giving him pause. It was kind of hot, actually. He let a hand slip down to fit around Chris’ ass and groaned a little at how round and firm it felt. Zach had never been one to notice asses, but he was pretty sure this one could change his mind.
Eventually, Chris pulled away, wiping the back of his hand over his wet, swollen lips and then glancing at his watch. “Shit,” he muttered. “I need to get going, I—” He took two steps toward the door and grimaced, groaning and readjusting himself in his pants. “I really fucking hope I have those extra shorts.”
&&&
Chris felt like he should be freaking out. Why wasn’t he freaking out? Not only had he swapped fluids with Zach Quinto; he’d been the one to initiate it, not five minutes after his former teammate had taunted him about it. Shouldn’t he be having some sort of identity crisis, or big gay meltdown, or something?
Instead, Chris felt happier than he had in weeks, actually light in his loafers. Did anybody even say that anymore, or had he just picked it up from his slightly inappropriate grandmother?
Besides, he didn’t have the time to freak out. As opening night got closer, Mr. Abrams dropped a bit of the cool-guy persona and kept rehearsals incredibly focused. Chris was glad for that – if they’d all been allowed to joke around together, who knows what he would’ve let slip.
As it was, he would catch Zach’s eye and get a quick, knowing grin in return. He would see Zach coming up the stairs, see the confident set of his shoulders and remember back to the face he’d made when Chris had sucked him dry, and think Yeah, I hit that. It was like a secret they shared. The only problem was he had no one to tell.
He came very, very close to telling Beau. She sat next to him at lunch one day and for the first time in a long time, he didn’t have the urge to flee. He just asked her how the studying was coming along.
“You look good, Chris,” she said. It sounded like something the long-suffering twenty-something girl in a romantic comedy said to her heartbroken ex-boyfriend, and Chris almost laughed. But he felt good. He had to bite his lip to keep from telling her why, just to see the expression on her face.
Even though he and Zach hadn’t touched each other since that night, Chris beat off almost religiously to the thought of Zach’s hand tight around his cock, the idea that Zach might get down on his knees, smile in that wicked way of his, and… That was usually as far as he made it before he was groaning into his pillow and coming in hot spurts all over his hand.
The only part that was awkward was That Scene, as he’d started to call it in his head. They’d been visibly shyer around each other on stage, but Mr. Abrams seemed to assume it stemmed from the debacle with the old dentist’s chair (which Simon had dragged to metal shop and now swore up and down would support the weight of a dancing elephant). They’d reblocked the scene to make it less physical, though now Zach’s line “The things I’m gonna do to that mouth” was quickly becoming the most hilarious thing he’d ever heard, and he had to dig his short fingernails into his palm to keep from laughing.
Tech rehearsals flew by, and dress rehearsal did much the same. By that point, only a fraction of his brain was free to think about whatever this thing with Zach was, because most of it was occupied with the desperate desire not to fuck up while on stage. For some reason, he kept messing up his lines with Audrey II, thrown by having to speak to a large, fake plant while Karl’s voice came booming out of the speaker behind it. All Chris could picture was Simon curled up inside the enormous papier-mâché flowerpot with the trapdoor in the back, working the plant’s wide “jaw” with one arm and wiggling various roots and tendrils with the other.
All he got from Zach was a quick, sloppy makeout after dress rehearsal in the small pocket of space beside the stage after everyone else had left.
“I have to be getting home soon,” Zach sighed against his lips, but he didn’t make a move to push away from the wall that Chris was pressing him into.
Chris groaned, nuzzling Zach’s cheek. “Just a little while longer?” He hated the pleading tone in his voice, and pressed his mouth to Zach’s neck to suck and nip.
Zach laughed a little, and Chris could feel it rumble up through his chest. “Wow, when you go for something, you really go for it. That’s totally hot.” Chris shivered at the words, accidentally biting down a little too hard, and Zach yanked his head up. “Hey. We said no hickeys.”
“Sorry,” Chris murmured, trying very hard to regret it, but Zach just grinned.
“Not until after the show,” he said, kissing at the corners of Chris’ mouth. “Then you can mark me up all you want.”
Groaning again, Chris pressed Zach harder into the wall, their bodies flush together from shoulders to knees. He ground his crotch lightly against Zach’s hip, sighing at the shock of heat that suffused his body, wanting more but remembering all too well that he hadn’t replaced that extra pair of shorts in his car. Plus, they really didn’t have much time. His mom would be wondering where he was and calling him at any moment. But with Zach curling his fingers around Chris’ hips and sucking at his bottom lip, he was able to forget all of that.
It was Zach’s phone that rang first, though. Chris pulled away reluctantly, unable to tear his eyes from Zach’s reddened, swollen lips even as Zach reassured his mom that yes, everything was fine and yes, he would be home soon.
“Gotta go,” Zach sighed, tugging Chris close for one last kiss. Or rather, one last lewd, wet lick into Chris’ mouth that left him gasping.
&&&
“Red leather, yellow leather. Red leather, yellow leather. Red leather, yellow leather,” Zach chanted hypnotically as he paced the hallway beside the auditorium.
The first of his many roles in the show, apart from some narration on a handheld mike behind the curtain, was that of a hobo in the song “Skid Row,” so he did his usual vocal exercises in a crumpled old flannel shirt and an oversized pair of grimy khaki pants. The pants were from a brief period in middle school when he’d worn all of his clothes three sizes too big, though they were still short enough that his ankles stuck out. The shirt, fittingly enough, belonged to Chris.
Speaking of which, he hadn’t seen Chris since they all split to get dressed. They didn’t have a dressing room, which meant they separated by gender to change into their costumes, then reconvened in the ladies’ room to do makeup, since it had a separate section with a large full-length mirror. Zach had gotten stubble and grime sponged onto his face, but Chris still hadn’t made it to their improvised makeup studio.
Zach found him back in the men’s room, clutching the sides of the sink like it was the only thing keeping him vertical. Realizing there was no one in there with them, Zach set a hand on his shoulder and leaned in to kiss him… but got shoved rudely away.
He stumbled back, shocked and hurt until Chris looked up at him and shook his head pathetically. “I puked,” he muttered, his face as pale as Zach had ever seen it. “I might not be finished. With the puking.”
“Yeah, I got that,” Zach said, fighting hard not to laugh. Chris really didn’t need that right now, but he looked so utterly wretched that Zach sort of wanted to rub his head and scratch behind his ears. “Get it all out now.”
“I was fine in dress rehearsal,” Chris groaned. “What’s wrong with me?”
Zach hazarded a commiserating hand on Chris’ upper arm. “It’s really common.”
“Do you ever get stage fright?”
“Well, uh. No.” Chris glared at him. “Maybe when I was little? I don’t remember. But if you told me to, like, go stand at third base while you hit balls at me, I’d be terrified, too.”
Chris’ pitiable expression suddenly broke into a giggle. “You said ‘balls.’”
Zach rolled his eyes. “Feeling better now?”
“Well, I’m thinking about your balls now, so…” Chris scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Yes.”
“Excellent. My nuts cure stage fright. Good to know.” He leaned in again to kiss Chris on the cheek, then changed his mind at the last second and licked him instead from jaw to temple. “Finish puking and go get your makeup put on. You don’t want to go out there looking like that.”
Grimacing, Chris wiped at his face with his sleeve and flipped Zach off in the mirror. “I swear, you say the sweetest shit to me.”
&&&
Despite not having any visible pockets, Simon had managed to produce a tin of Altoids from somewhere, so at least Chris’ mouth no longer tasted like something had died in it. His hands wouldn’t stop shaking, though. It was awful. He tried to remember back to his first baseball game on the varsity team – he must have been nervous the first time he went to bat, but he couldn’t remember anything like this.
Karl, Rachel, and Jennifer had already told Chris to break a leg. Anton nearly wished him good luck, but Karl managed to clamp a hand over his mouth just in time. He seemed to be seriously considering making the poor kid run around the theatre three times and ask for permission to come back in (“To defunk the bad hoojoo” explained John), but Mr. Abrams insisted they didn’t have time and shepherded Anton off to the lighting and sound “booth.”
The audience was filling up – Chris caught bits of crowd noise whenever the door to the stage swung open. “How many people, you think?” Chris asked as Simon came back out from fiddling with something on stage.
“’Bout three-quarters full, I think,” Simon said with a grin, and Chris felt the color drain from his face.
John threw an avuncular arm around his shoulders and said, “Some people will tell you to picture the audience in their underwear. I never really got that. What helps me is picturing Zoe in her underwear.”
Unfortunately for John, Zoe was not only right behind them, but she had already changed into her pointy-toed shoes, and quickly kicked him in the back of his knee so that his whole right leg went dead. His arm slipped off of Chris’ shoulder and he slumped to the floor.
Well, at least John hadn’t said anything about picturing Zach in his underwear. That would just be… Oh fuck, now Chris was doing it.
“Hey.” A hand clamped down warm and firm on his shoulder. Zach. “You know what to do. Just go out there and kill it.”
Chris risked a shaky smile. “And by it you mean you, right?”
Zach grinned. “Eventually, yes. Try to wait until the end of Act One, though.”
“No promises,” Chris said, his heartbeat returning to some approximation of normal.
He saw Zach glance around quickly – everyone seemed distracted either by their pre-show jitters or by each other. For just a moment, Chris felt a hand squeeze tightly around his. Then it was gone, but Zach was still smiling faintly at him. Chris felt like he should say something, but before he could, Mr. Abrams was coming back in, telling them to get to their places.
This was it.
Chris looked down at John, who was still on the floor and making soft whimpering noises. “Need any help, man?”
“Eh, he’ll be fine,” Zoe said, hooking her arm in Chris’ and pulling him through the door.
&&&
Zach would’ve loved to see how often he could grab Chris’ ass between scenes without anyone noticing, but Chris was onstage for essentially the entire length of the play. He really had to give Chris credit – Zach wasn’t sure he’d been in anything that required this much stage time.
The audience was really responding to Chris, and it was easy to see Chris gaining confidence from their attention. Zach changed into his business suit for his next quick role just in time to see Chris sing “Grow For Me,” his love song to the still-tiny plant. He milked the moment Seymour first feeds Audrey II his blood for all it was worth, wrinkling his face in agony as he mimed squeezing a drop of blood out of his finger. On the last strain of “Won’t you please… grow for me?” the audience burst into applause.
The scenes flew by and before Zach knew it, he was onstage in his leather jacket, wielding a shiny dental pick and backing Chris into the chair. All the giggles they’d had in rehearsal drained away, replaced by the audience’s gasps as Chris shoved Zach off of him and pointed the gun with a shaky hand. But Zach’s can of laughing gas killed him before Seymour could get the chance, so with an exaggerated glance around the stage for witnesses, Chris hooked his hands under Zach’s armpits and dragged his lifeless body offstage, ending Act One.
“That was awesome,” Chris gasped, still breathing a little hard from dragging Zach across the stage. His cheeks were flushed but he was grinning like a madman, finally able to celebrate his first taste of performing for an audience.
“I know, right?” Zach said. “We’ll make an applause junkie out of you yet.”
Chris tugged him to his feet, and Zach almost, almost leaned in for a kiss, but then his other castmates were surrounding them, doling out high-fives and fist bumps and babbling about the fact that John had nearly dropped the tiny Audrey II, just barely managing to catch it before it fell.
“You guys are acting like I was juggling the goddamn thing,” John hissed. “It was not that bad.”
“It wasn’t. I was right next to him and it really wasn’t,” Chris chimed in, clapping John on the shoulder.
John shot him a look of profound thanks, and Zach had to zip backstage before he made a fool of himself and really did kiss Chris in front of his friends.
&&&
Chris didn’t have to fake the emotion – he was literally about to cry when Zoe died in his arms, begging him to feed her to the plant. The lights went to black, since they didn’t have a budget that allowed them to build an actual man-eating plant. How Karl and Simon had done what they’d done with the money they’d had sort of baffled Chris anyway, but he was quickly learning that with Simon, it was better just not to ask.
Chris quickly darted offstage after Zoe, nearly running into Zach. It was their final scene together, and the beginning of Chris’ final scene, period. Chris barely had a moment to catch his breath before the lights went back up, but the light pinch on his butt made him smile, ready to take on the scene.
His own death wasn’t nearly as poignant and drawn out as Zoe’s had been. As he charged the Audrey II with a fake machete, Simon brought the plant’s head down on him and the lights faded to black again. All he had to do was sing the finale with the others who had been eaten by the plant. He quickly rumpled his costume and smeared some stage blood on his face and hands, doing the same for Zach when he returned wearing his Orin costume again.
They lined up with John and Zoe, went onstage, and exhorted the audience not to feed the plants, the cuttings of the Audrey II that had been sold around the world. As the song came to a close, Karl started up his maniacal laughter over the speakers, Simon shook the plant’s roots for all he was worth, and at the back of the theatre, Anton tugged the string that would make green crepe-paper “vines” fall from the ceiling on to the audience.
Even though Chris had thought the whole thing seemed a bit tacky in rehearsal, he could hear the audience shrieking in some combination of glee and terror as the curtain closed. There were some thudding sounds and soft swearing as Simon climbed out of the plant machinery to join the other for the curtain call.
When the curtain opened again, Chris nearly tripped over his own feet on the way back out. They all lined up and bowed together on Zach’s cue. The three chorus girls stepped forward and took their bow, followed by Zach and John, who got a few playful boos. Zach mugged it up, tugging at the lapels of his leather jacket and shooting a perfect “fuck you” look at the audience – they cheered and booed even harder.
Then Chris took Zoe’s hand and stepped forward and people started standing up. Chris wasn’t sure where his family was, exactly, but they weren’t the ones to start the standing ovation. Zoe had to raise Chris’ hand for him and squeeze it to remind him to bow, which he did a little too hastily before stepping back to join the line. Karl and Simon took their bows last – well, Karl bowed and Simon gave a delicate little curtsy. When the whole cast bowed again and the audience remained on their feet, whooping and hollering. Chris thought he heard Eric’s voice from somewhere on the left and made a mental note to smack him later for being so loud.
By the time the curtain closed for the second time, Chris felt high as a kite. He didn’t walk off the stage – he practically bounced. Backstage, everyone was giving each other congratulatory hugs, so he didn’t feel the least bit ashamed of throwing his arms around Zach. The little kiss he snuck against his neck when no one was looking, though, that he felt a little silly for.
&&&
Zach had to let Chris go pretty quickly, unfortunately, lest people get suspicious. Besides, they had costumes to change out of and adoring fans to attend to.
Chris must have changed and made his way back out into the auditorium first, because Zach spied him talking to a couple of big, burly guys. His former teammates, had to be. Zach quickly tamped down the twisting he felt in his gut and pushed through the crowd to find his mom.
When he found her, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed both his cheeks loudly. “Mo-oooom,” he whined, but blushed hard at the adoring smile on her face.
“Amazing, Zachary, as always.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Now you can start studying for your tests earlier than the night before,” she said, not unkindly, but Zach felt a burning in his throat. Did that really have to be the second thing she said to him after a show he’d worked all semester on?
Suddenly, Zach felt a light tap on his shoulder and turned to see Chris’ parents standing behind them. He greeted them politely and turned back toward his mom. “Mom, this is Mr. and Mrs. Pine.”
When Zach had told her who Chris’ dad was, she’d gone on and on about how handsome he was on TV. Ever since, Zach had been dreading this moment, certain his mom was going to embarrass the hell out of him, but she just said, “Nice to meet you both” and shook their hands politely. Though possibly, in Mr. Pine’s case, just a little bit too long.
“You must be very proud of Zach,” Mrs. Pine said with a warm smile.
“Oh, yes,” Zach’s mom replied. “I just don’t know how he does it, memorizing all those lines.”
“He’s really very talented,” Mr. Pine said. “I could see him having a future in the business, if that’s what he wanted.”
Zach’s mom’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh?”
“I’ve gotten to talk with him a little bit and he takes it seriously, puts an incredible amount of work into it. It’s just hard to tell because he makes it look so effortless.”
Zach stared intently at his shoes, trying to keep his face from bursting into flames.
His mom said, “I know he’s talented, I do. If it were up to me, he’d be a movie star tomorrow. But it seems like such a hard business to get into, and I don’t want to see him get hurt.”
Geez, did his mom even still remember he was there? But Mrs. Pine spoke up quickly. “It can certainly be difficult. But for someone willing to work hard, with the right connections…”
Zach’s mom looked like she had something to say to that, but Zach couldn’t take any more. “Uh, Mom, I think Mr. Abrams wanted us backstage… for a thing… he was going to talk to us.”
“Okay, go on,” his mom said, not letting him go until she’d planted another kiss on his cheek, then continuing her conversation with the Pines. Zach slipped through the crowd as fast as he could without being overtly rude to the friends and parents who wanted to congratulate him.
When he got backstage, Chris was standing flat up against the wall as if trying to make himself invisible. “I’m not going back out there, man. I was just talking to Eric and some old lady kissed me. On the mouth. I don’t even know who she was! I feel sort of violated.”
Zach just laughed. “Get used to it. If you keep this up, women of all ages will be throwing themselves at you.” That actually seemed to frighten Chris, his eyes going even wider, and Zach laughed even harder. “You… you have no idea, do you?”
“What?” Chris said, looking genuinely confused. Two months ago, Zach would’ve wanted to punch him in the throat for it, but now it was just sort of endearing.
“You’re a fucking star, you idiot. You’re stupidly good at this,” Zach said without a hint of jealousy, for once. “Though I have to say, I’m pretty happy that the thought of women sexually assaulting you doesn’t turn you on.”
“I’m not afraid of women, Zach.”
“Course not,” Zach said. He figured Chris wasn’t lying when he said he still liked girls, too, but that was no reason not to give him shit about it at every possible opportunity.
Their conversation lulled and Zach could hear the commotion still going on in the auditorium. The rest of their castmates were probably out there by now, and soon the cameras would come out and the moms would start demanding group pictures. He and Chris should really get back out there. But maybe not yet. Not just yet.
The backstage hallway was deserted. Chris leaned toward Zach with unmistakable intent. “You looked so fucking hot in that leather jacket. Can we… I mean, not here, but maybe in the bathroom…?”
Zach would’ve made a joke about Chris’ erotic predilection for bathrooms, but his eyes were so wide and blue and inviting that laughter was the farthest thing from his mind. He felt himself growing hard at just the thought of having some time alone with Chris, but… “We’d better not. The cast party and everything.”
Chris’ sad puppy eyes did make Zach laugh, though – he was too adorable to be real. In the end, Zach couldn’t help indulging him a little. “Alright,” Zach sighed, as though it were some kind of burden to him. “Just a ki—”
Before he could even finish the word, Chris had pulled him close by the front of his shirt, his lips surprisingly soft and sweet against Zach’s. Zach just grinned and looped his arms around Chris’ waist, enjoying this one private moment before they had to go out and face the crowd again.
&&&
“And, to conclude this toast, I would like to say that I feel God in this Applebee’s tonight.” Most of the people around the large table chuckled, and John grinned and said with a final flourish, “Congratulations to all my castmates and a huge thank you to our amazing director and mentor, Mr. Abrams!”
Everybody clapped loudly, and Rachel even stuck her fingers in her mouth and whistled, drawing the attention of the few remaining patrons who weren’t at their table. With that, John sat back down, rightfully pleased with himself, and set to polishing off the last of his fries. Not that he had long to enjoy it.
“Ripping off lines from The Office?” Karl muttered, shaking his head and stealing a fry off John’s plate. “That’s your big idea for a toast?”
“I didn’t rip it off, it was an allusion to a pop culture staple.”
“Uh-huh,” Karl said. “You know, one day you’re going to have to make up your own jokes.”
John spent a few seconds longer than was comfortable trying to come up with a witty reply, and ended up just sticking his tongue out at Karl. “Shut it, plant boy.”
Karl clapped a hand over his heart. “Oh John, you wound me deeply.”
Trying to quickly change the subject, John nodded in the direction of Zach and Chris, who appeared to be arguing very intensely over something. Then Chris rolled his eyes and Zach broke out into peals of laughter. “Hey,” John said to Karl, “you think there’s anything going on there?”
“Well, I think they’re finally getting along now. Thank god. We didn’t need to have two divas around here. Divos? Divas? Assholes, anyway.”
John shook his head at Karl’s thickheadedness. “No, I mean do you think. There is something. Going on?”
“Do I—?” Karl looked at John, then over at Chris and Zach, and then back to John again. “Between those two? No way. Are you mental?”
“Well, look at them, they’re all…” John turned back around to see Zach cramming the last of his burger into his mouth and Chris facing away from him, talking to Zoe now. “Well, they were.”
“Sure they were, John,” Karl said, looking at him with pity. “Suuuuure they were.”
Epilogue
“Shit. Ooooooh, shit. Shitshitshit, Zach, you gotta— Oh, shit.”
Zach pulled off Chris with a wet pop. “Is that the only word you know? Charming, Christopher.”
Chris groaned, his head thumping back against the ground. “Well, I was about to come, but since my grandma’s the only one who calls me Christopher…”
He broke off pretty abruptly when Zach wrapped his lips around him again. As fun as it was to feel Chris squirm with every twist of his tongue, Zach’s whole face was starting to ache, so he went back to sucking hard and playing with Chris’ balls, as he had been when Chris had started up his litany. Soon enough, Chris’ cries went up in pitch, a sure sign that he was about to erupt over Zach’s tongue. Zach did try to swallow, but Chris just kept coming and coming, and soon Zach was coughing and wiping his mouth on his sleeve and trying to look like a sex god instead of a teenage boy with numb lips and a sore jaw.
Chris wouldn’t have noticed either way, though. He’d gone limp against the ground, not even bothering to tuck himself away. “Fuuuuuuck,” he groaned. “There is no way that’s the first time you’ve done that.”
“Well, I uh…” Zach crawled up to lay beside him in the grass. “I may have looked some stuff up. On the internet. And practiced on a cucumber.”
Still panting, Chris laughed a little. “I can’t decide if that’s sick or kind of hot. Maybe both. I’m gonna be jerking off all week to the thought of you sucking off a cucumber.” He blindly reached over to slap Zach. “And now I can never go grocery shopping again.”
Zach almost made a comment about how the girth of the cucumber left something to be desired from Chris, but really, there hadn’t been as big of a difference as he had thought. Seriously, Chris must have been the talk of the locker room, not that Zach wanted to remind him of that. Though the mental image of Chris wandering around naked, oblivious to the jealous stares of the other guys…
“Fuck, I’m getting hard again,” Zach moaned, reaching down to rub himself through his jeans. His dick was still a little too sensitive for it, but even the slight pain felt good, a reminder of Chris’ hand roughly stroking him not fifteen minutes ago.
“Hey, slow down there, porn star,” Chris grunted, finally pulling up his pants and underwear, then groping himself lightly through the fabric. “Next time I want to try you jacking us together, like you were talking about. That sounds really hot.”
Zach knew Chris was teasing him by calling him a porn star, but still… Chris had gotten pretty loud there at the end. Luckily, there wasn’t anyone around to hear. The lot had been abandoned since Zach was a kid – he and his brother used to go there and build forts and play jungle, long since the age Zach suspected Joe really enjoyed it as much as Zach had.
Now, though, Chris and Zach had staked out a little spot under the open air and beaten down the grass – mostly by rolling around in it – to make an area to comfortably lie in. They’d had to fib to their parents to make it happen, the classic “each told his parents he’s staying at the other’s house” gambit. Zach did feel a little bit bad about it, but he finally had Chris to himself – all to himself, no danger of somebody walking by or bursting in – so he couldn’t bring himself to really feel sorry for it.
They just laid there side-by-side for awhile, looking up at the few stars they could see and listening to each other’s breathing. Zach was actually kind of glad they weren’t facing each other – it was the only way he could ask his next question. “So… you think you’re going to audition again next year?”
He could practically hear the gears whirring in Chris’ head and his heart nearly stopped. He was pretty sure Chris wouldn’t go back to baseball, but he’d said before that he’d only be doing this one play. But it wasn’t the end of the world if Chris said no. They could still see each other, when Zach wasn’t at rehearsal and Chris wasn’t… doing whatever he did when he wasn’t acting or playing sports. If Chris still wanted to see him, that was. They hadn’t talked about it – hadn’t talked about much of anything really, except the play and some books and what, precisely, Zach wanted to do to Chris’ body. Maybe Chris wouldn’t be interested in hanging out if they weren’t doing a play. Maybe…
Zach had nearly worked himself up into a stomachache when Chris finally asked, “Will you be mad if I say yes?”
“Nope,” Zach said, suppressing a smile even though Chris couldn’t see it. He fisted his hands in the grass to keep from rolling on top of Chris right then and there. “But don’t think I’m just gonna let you have the lead role again.”
Chris snorted. “Uh-huh. ‘Cause that’s totally what happened. What play are we doing in the fall, anyway?”
“I don’t think Mr. Abrams has made up his mind yet. But I’ve been pushing for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.”
“Seriously?” Chris turned his head to look at Zach. “You want to memorize Stoppard dialogue? You can’t bullshit that – you flub one line and you’re screwed.”
Zach was momentarily impressed. “You know the script?”
Chris looked away again. “I, uh. May have a bit of an artistic crush on Gary Oldman.”
“Artistic, huh?”
“Yup.”
“Purely aesthetic.”
“Yup. Well, no, not like that.”
“Whatever you say, Chris.”
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Date: 2011-10-23 11:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-24 01:43 am (UTC)