Teddy woke up alone with a post it note attached to his forehead. He didn't notice the post it at first, he was too busy freaking out about the fact that he'd woken up alone. The space next to him that should have been occupied was empty and cool to touch. Teddy liked to think he was relaxed enough to not jump to conclusions but that was a lie he told himself between freak outs. He was jumping to conclusions and those conclusions were not good.

That's when he noticed the post it. He pulled it off his head and read.

'Check your phone.'

The words, while not exactly relieving were distracting enough to prevent a total break down. Teddy wasn't sure if the fact that they were written in Luke's hand writing was better or worse. He was still hurtling towards a full blown panic attack, and he almost fell off the bed in a rush to reach his phone on the bed side table. He grabbed it and opened it so quickly he didn't see the preview. The little red number above the message app looked like an alarm waiting to go off. Or maybe it was already going off and he hadn't noticed. Teddy took a deep breath and opened the message.

Luke: Stop freaking out. I'm at the gym. I love you.

Oh, thought Teddy letting the calm wash over him like a wave of painkillers muting his rising anxiety. He was admittedly a little bit embarrassed that Luke knew him well enough to know that Teddy would wake up and automatically freak out. But any embarrassment was out weighed by the pulse of joy he felt at the casual use of the words 'I love you.' Luke had typed that, like it was something they did all the time, like it wasn't a massively huge thing.

Like the leading lady of a trashy teen comedy Teddy had the urge, suddenly, to perform a sort of worm dance in his bed. He didn't, but it kind of felt like he had and he wasn't ashamed in the slightest. He was happy. He was still smiling when he got out of the shower and discovered the empty space in his bed had been occupied again.

Luke was lying, face up legs open, wearing lose shorts and a sleeveless top pulled up to reveal his abs. Glistening with drying sweat, his hand thrown across his eyes as though trying to block the light, chest still heaving a little from exertion.

Fuck, thought Teddy, trying to take in the sight before him with any kind of decorum. He was fairly sure he was literally drooling so he wasn't doing the best job of hiding his infatuation. Except he didn't have to anymore. Suddenly Teddy remembered, Luke loved him, they loved each other. They were dating - or something like that - he could lust as much as he wanted.

"You're fucking gorgeous," said Teddy raking his eyes over Luke's body, enjoying the way Luke's lips curled into a smirk.

"I stink," replied Luke.

Taking his words as a challenge Teddy climbed onto the bed, crawled up Luke's body until he was nestled on top of his chest so that his face was almost resting against his arm pit. He performed an exaggerated sniff, feeling Luke's face contort in horror.

"Yeah, you really do smell."

Luke laughed wrapping his arm around Teddy pulling him into a hug, kissing the top of his head.

"I really need to shower."

"Can I join you?" asked Teddy.

Luke's eyebrow quirked in question, "You're just gonna turn around and get back into the shower?"

"I think I missed a spot," replied Teddy trying to sound sexy but unable to stop the small half laugh that slipped out with his words.

"You're not as cute as you think you are," said Luke throwing Teddy off him as he jumped out of bed.

"I'm the fucking cutest," yelled Teddy pouting.

Luke laughed, grabbing a towel and heading for the ensuite, and Teddy let out an exaggerated sigh just to make sure Luke couldn't miss his displeasure. This was not going at all like he imagined it would when he'd first crawled on top of Luke. Just as he was about to close the door Luke looked back at Teddy.

"Are you coming or not?"

In a morning filled with embarrassing behaviour, the speed with which he got from the bed to the bathroom was probably the worst. He didn't care though. Nothing could touch Teddy anymore, Luke loved him and that's all that mattered.

***

Three days later Teddy was still riding the same high of happiness. He was young, he was in love, and he was in fucking Paris for goodness sake. He was living the dream and there was nothing that could ruin it, except maybe Teddy himself. Before Luke left for the interview he had with a morning television show, he'd said something to Teddy that set of a series of anxiety dominos inside Teddy's head.

"I've got the afternoon off," said Luke like it was a question.

"Cool," Teddy had replied barely listening because Luke was not wearing pants.

"You're so fucking oblivious sometimes," said Luke kissing Teddy's forehead softly. "You're lucky I love you."

"I love you too," said Teddy a smug smile on his face.

"Good so when's the date then?"

"What date?"

"The one you asked me on."

"We already went on date."

"That wasn't a date."

"It was supposed to be a date."

"I didn't know that so it doesn't count."

"Not my fault you didn't get it," said Teddy folding his arms across his chest.

"Pretty sure it was," said Luke with a wink and a light slap against Teddy's thigh.

"So a date huh?" asked Teddy relaxing a little.

"I deserved to be wooed Theodore, unless you're not up for it."

"I'll fucking woo you all right!" said Teddy a little too defensively. "I'll woo you better than you've ever been wooed! Prepare to be dated dickhead!"

"Awesome," replied head tilting back in triumph. Apparently the conversation had gone exactly the way he wanted it to.

"See you later," said Luke pulling his pants in quickly and running out of the hotel room like he's worried Teddy'll take it all back. He was worried with reason, Teddy really wanted to talk back what he'd said. Not because he didn't want to date Luke, he really very much did want to do that. The problem was that he still didn't have any idea of how to actually date someone.

Within thirty minutes of Luke leaving, Teddy was dressed and banging on the door to Rah's room. It was too early, outside the hotel it's still dark enough to be night but that doesn't matter because Teddy only has a few hours to figure out how to date someone.

"Fuck you fucking fuck," said Rah as she opened the door dressed in pyjamas, hair messed and wild.

Ignoring her words Teddy pushed past Rah and into the room, relieved to find she was alone he really didn't want to have to kick some poor woman out in the middle of the night. He wouldn't do it on purpose. He always tried to insist they stayed but Rah made them leave and then Teddy felt bad, it was a whole thing he really wasn't in the mood to deal with.

"How do you plan a date?" Teddy asked Rah.

"What the fuck?"

"I need you to help me plan a date. Something super romantic."

Rah seemed to snap into default action, it was a state he saw her in daily when they were on tour or doing an album release. It was more robot than person, very useful in a crisis, not very good for Teddy's current predicament.

"Okay do you want it to seem natural or do you want a planned photoshoot, both are easy but the second requires more planning," she said.

"No, NO, no no no no no," said Teddy throwing his palms up. "It's a real date. A normal date. No pictures!"

"Wait," said Rah snapping out of robot mode. "You woke me up at 4am to make me plan you an actual date that has nothing to do with your professional career at all and therefore nothing to do with my job."

"It's not like that," said Teddy frowning.

"Nope," said Rah herding Teddy back towards the door.

"But—"

"Nope," said Rah again.

"Please," said Teddy one last effort.

Rah sighed and said, "ask me again at breakfast."

"After the sun is up," she added slamming the door in Teddy's face.

It wasn't a win, but it wasn't a loss either, honestly Teddy thought it went better than he could have imagined. Rah must have felt pretty bad about that latest round of articles. Teddy had been too caught up in his love bubble to care but he was still aware that there had been a certain amount of backlash from so called 'family groups' against his coming out. They said some stuff about him corrupting children, and he knew a couple of performances he had planned in Singapore were cancelled. It wasn't good. It was kind of exactly what he'd been afraid of, which was why he was so focused on Luke. Luke made it all worth it. As long as he had Luke it was all worth it. He just had to focus on Luke that was all.

Googling "how to plan the perfect date" only caused more confusion. Four hours later, Teddy was not any closer to figuring out where to take Luke on their date. He had learned that Paris was a great place to take someone for a romantic getaway but it mostly stopped there. All they said was, go to Paris and that was the end of the advice they didn't say what to do if you were already in Paris. When he googled things to do in Paris the list was so long it made his brain feel like it was going to burst so he took a break by checking Twitter and ended about as well as could be expected. Rah finally found him, on the floor next to the bed, about two thousand tweets deep in a trending hashtag he should have known better than to click on.

"Do I have to fucking lock you out of your account again?" asked Rah surprising Teddy who hadn't noticed her enter his room.

"I'm fine," Teddy said rubbing his eyes to rid them of the moisture that had started to accumulate.

"Never said you weren't," said Rah lowering herself to the ground next to Teddy.

"I thought you had a date?" asked Rah continuing the conversation Teddy couldn't.

"He's not back til after lunch."

"Did you find any date ideas in the hell pits of Twitter?"

Teddy laughed without joy. The kind of laugh that comes from the acceptance of something so horrible it's gone from bad to funny.

"You don't have to be fine Teddy," said Rah taking his hand.

The comforting touch reminded Teddy of the girl on the flight from New York to London. She'd been so desperate and she'd looked at him like he held the world, like he was the future.

"Yeah I do," said Teddy with a sigh. "Don't you know I'm a role model now."

"Fuck that Teddy," said Rah. "Just fucking admit it's shit. I know what it's like, maybe not on this scale but I know and you know I know."

He did know. Rah's family had rejected her sexuality. They hadn't rejected her, they still saw her, they just refused to acknowledged she was gay and that was worse in a lot of ways. Rah couldn't cut them off, she still saw them regularly and every time she did it sucked at her happiness until she was nothing but robot Rah for weeks afterwards.

"Okay maybe it's a bit shit."

"We knew there's be some initial back lash," said Rah seriously.

"Yeah," sighed Teddy.

"They'll get bored soon, they've got the attention span of fucking fleas."

"Until the album."

"There's a a plan for the album."

"If they even release it," said Teddy his teeth grinding a little in anger.

"You think I'm gonna let them bury you?" asked Rah raising a single eyebrow expertly as if to say 'do you not know me at all.'

"They're gonna try and you know it," said Teddy. He shouldn't be taking his anger out on Rah, he knew that, but she was a safe outlet and the rest of the time he had to pretend he was cool with it. Rah was all he had.

"I said I had a fucking plan, so fucking trust me asshole."

"Fine," agreed Teddy reluctantly.

"I know you don't think so, but it's going to be okay," said Rah.

"You gonna tell me it gets better?"

"You're a fuckwit," Rah said with a smile.

"At least I'm getting laid on the regular now so that's a positive," said Teddy with a sad attempt to laugh at his own situation.

"How's that going, with Luke? No messes for me to clean up yet."

Teddy eyebrows flicked up and he giggled at the implication of Rah's word.

"Well fucking done, you're disgusting, answer the question dickhead," said Rah.

"It's good," admitted Teddy. "Or it was until Luke tricked me into taking him on a date."

"How did he fucking trick you into something you want to do?"

"I do want to," said Teddy. "I just thought we could wait until we were back in Sydney then it would be easier."

"It's not going to be easier in Sydney."

"It so will be."

"It will not," replied Rah signing, flicking her fringe out of her eye. "Teddy it's always going to be fucking weird."

"It's not weird," insisted Teddy indignantly. "At all."

"Have you done anything except fuck?" asked Rah blunt as ever.

"YES!" said Teddy a little too quickly.

"Have you done anything except pass the time between fucking?" Rah raised an eyebrow at Teddy as though daring him to argue.

"We've been preoccupied! You would be too if you'd seen—"

"Nope," said Rah cutting him off. "I think you're about to mention Luke's dick and I'm not having that."

"The point is," said Teddy slowly punctuating every word. "Nothing is weird."

"You were already fucking weren't you?"

"What?"

"Before you finally fucking admitted to having feelings - which took too fucking long by the way you're an idiot, not important - before that you guys were already fucking?"

"You say the word fuck a lot."

"I'm aware, it is my favourite word, stop changing the fucking topic."

"Yes we were already fucking okay."

"That part hasn't fucking changed then has it?" asked Rah tapping her leg impatiently.

"It is a bit different," said Teddy running his hand through his hair, a visual gap in his certainty.

"The only thing that's different is that you don't have to hold back the 'I love you' every time you cum."

Teddy didn't say anything, and Rah took that as a sign of defeat.

"Your relationship with Luke has changed and that's a good thing right?"

Rah waited for Teddy to nod in acknowledgement before continuing.

"A good change is still a change and that means it's still going to take a bit of adjustment right?"

"I guess," replied Teddy pouting a little.

"So just accept it's going to be fucking weird and get on with it."

"I guess," repeated Teddy petulantly. He often needed Rah's advice, and he knew she was always right, but that didn't mean he liked being told what to do.

"I don't know why you're fucking worried though," said Rah.

Teddy tossed his hand out in a gesture of annoyance, "You just said I should be worried!"

"I said it would be weird, but that doesn't fucking matter does it?"

"Please stop talking like the mentor in a super hero movie that's about to die before giving me the most important piece of information."

"You really don't get it do you?" asked Rah, her body leaning back so she could take in more of Teddy as she searched for an answer she knew she probably wouldn't find.

"Get what?"

"You could take Luke to a sewage plant and he'd think it was the shit, that's how much that dude fucking loves you. It really is fucking ridiculous actually."

A blush crept across Teddy, hiding his face, turning away. He tried to push aside Rah's words, they felt too powerful, but there was something in hearing that Luke was maybe just as gone as him that was too satisfying to ignore.

"You're both fucking ridiculous," added Rah.

"But you love us?" teased Teddy.

"I love you and as long as Luke makes you happy I guess that covers him too."

"So you'll help me plan a date then?" asked Teddy hands coming together like a prayer.

Rah made a sort of groaning sound before finally nodding her head in agreement. Teddy hugged her, tightly, and not just for helping him plan the date. For everything.

They ended up back on google, because Teddy was more experienced with dating than Rah was. Pulling up a Cosmopolitan article with one hundred romantic date ideas they went through the entire list before settling on a simple dinner. Rah pointed out that there was a chance they could start a riot if they went to a tourist trap and Teddy had to admit it was probably best they had the chance to actually talk. He managed to somehow resist the temptation to plan a grand romantic adventure, Rah said there would be plenty of time for that once they got past the inevitable awkwardness of their first date.

It was a perfect plan. Teddy felt good about, and when he told Luke he smiled as though Teddy had actually hired the skywriter he'd thought about. They both dressed up, and they dressed themselves, which was a strange but nice piece of normalcy. It was all smiles and giggles and blushes and held hands until suddenly they were seated across from each other in an empty restaurant and Teddy couldn't think of anything to say.

The soft music, the low lighting, the awkward waiters trying to pretend like they weren't watching them from the bar. It was all so strange and Teddy didn't know how to make it less strange.

"This is weird," said Luke cutting through the awkward silence. His voice low because he knew, like Teddy, that the staff were all eves-dropping.

"It's really fucking weird," agreed Teddy with a laugh. Of course Rah had to be right, she was always right.

"What's so funny?" asked Luke, trying to sound casual but there was an edge of uncertainty to his question.

"I'm not laughing at you," insisted Teddy quickly. "Rah just said it would be weird and I didn't believe her."

Tension fell with Luke's shoulders, "Why wouldn't you believe Rah? That woman is ALWAYS right. It's like magic dude."

"Statistically she has to be wrong at some point!"

"I don't reckon it works like that," said Luke. "I would bet against science if it came for Rah."

"You might not want to break my heart then," teased Teddy. "Rah basically said she'd kill you."

It was Luke's turn to laugh almost inappropriately.

"What's so funny?" questioned Teddy, arms crossing against his chest.

"Nothing," said Luke still laughing.

"Rah could definitely take you," said Teddy defensively.

"Oh I have no doubt about that," said Luke his laughter fading.

"What's funny then?" asked Teddy never knowing when to drop something.

"Nothing, just you're not the one likely to get their heartbroken are you?" said Luke.

Luke sounded confident, but he couldn't make eye contact. His face was moving around, eyes darting all over the place. He was nervous, Teddy realised.

"Maybe we try to avoid all broken hearts this time," said Teddy quietly.

"Sounds like a plan," said Luke with a shy smile.

"This is still fucking weird," added Luke after a moment.

"Kind of a good weird?" asked Teddy.

"A really good kind of weird," replied Luke, smiling.

Conversation didn't flow continuously, there were more than a few awkward moments, but when it does it's unreasonably easy. It's only when Teddy remembers that this is different, that this is a date, that he starts to choke and forgets what to say. If he concentrates on Luke everything's fine. Talking to Luke was never hard and they've got a lot to catch up on. Luke talks about working on the film they're promoting, how good it felt to play someone open about their sexuality for a while and how that inspired him to come out finally. Teddy talks about how he'd been avoiding writing before the whole tweet fiasco because deep down he knew this album was going to be different.

"Do you have to start again?" Luke asked after Teddy talked about some of the songs he'd been working on. "Now that we're not breaking up."

Teddy held his lips tight to fight off a smile, "It's less heartbreak and more longing but we'll see what happens when it all comes together. The label does't want it to be too gay."

"What the fuck is 'too gay'?" asked Luke.

"I get the feeling that any gay is too gay but since that ship has sailed who knows."

"I will give you one thousand dollars for every specific mention of sex you get onto the album."

"That is a heavy bet," said Teddy smirking. "Do you have the funds to back it up?"

"I just renegotiated my contract for the Mick Roy movies so I'll be picking up the check for a while don't you worry."

It continued like that for the rest of the night until they made their way back to familiar territory and into each others arms. Maybe it wasn't as easy as Teddy thought it would be, maybe it was going to take a bit more work than he'd considered, but after one evening in just Luke's company Teddy knew without a doubt it was all definitely worth it. He thought about what Rah said about how Luke would love being anywhere with Teddy and he knew it worked both ways. The truth was there was no such thing as a perfect date, but anything involving Luke was as close as it was going to get.