Nikki yawned as he cuddled up to his boyfriend, feeling Tommy wrap his arm around his body and pull him closer.

Nikki pushed Tommy down flat on the familiar, old couch, laying down on top of him.

They had decided to watch Dirty Dancing, for old time's sake. Neither man paid attention to the movie, similar to the first time, instead opting to study each other.

Fingers roamed along body parts, always chaste. Their eyes rarely broke contact. Nikki kissed Tommy sweetly a few times during the session, feeling his boyfriend's hands tracing up his spine and along his shoulder blades.

Nikki closed his eyes, skin jumping and shivering with Tommy's touch. Tommy's skinny fingers traveled along the small of Nikki's back, playing with the waistband of his jeans, which had been unbuttoned for comfort. There was no lust in Tommy's stroking motions along his body, it was more like the taller man was blind and he was feeling Nikki to get a picture of him in his mind.

After a good half hour, Tommy was satisfied with the back of Nikki's torso. He gently turned Nikki around on him, burying his nose in the younger boy's hair. His thumb trailed down the center of the smaller man's chest, dipping into his belly button before making the trip back down to his waistband. Tommy's hand and wrist gently rubbed Nikki's belly, slightly swollen from the dinner they'd shared earlier. Nikki gave a soft sigh of appreciation, shimmying his already-undone jeans down his hips about an inch to give Tommy more workspace. Nikki had a secret fondness for belly rubs that only Tommy had learned of, on his own account, and exploited. Nikki never spoke of it, but always purred in gratitude when Tommy rubbed him. So, Tommy did that more. Never once did he mind being allowed, even encouraged, to touch one of Nikki's most vulnerable areas.

"I love you." Tommy whispered, interrupting the quiet dialogue of the movie that only sounded like faraway gargling to them.

"I love you, too." Nikki's voice was strained and hushed in the darkness surrounding them. It was clear he was falling asleep, to the tune of Tommy's heartbeat that had been stuck in his head since his lover turned him around and to the blissful feeling of Tommy's fingers everywhere and nowhere at once.

Nikki rolled over, into the nook between Tommy's body and the back of the couch. He swung a leg over his lover's hip, resting his head against Tommy's chest. He was desperate to hear his heartbeat again.

"I've been writing." The bassist murmured, holding onto Tommy so tightly, the older man almost worried Nikki was afraid of him being taken away.

"Oh?"

Nikki nodded.

"It's about you."

"Oh, baby.. why don't you sing a little to me?" Tommy gently pet Nikki's hair, sitting up with him. He pulled Nikki into his lap, softly rocking him.

"Without you in my life, I'd slowly wilt and die. But with you by my side, you're the reason I'm alive." Nikki sang quietly, almost more like whispering to the beat. The beat of Tommy's heart.

"Baby.. I.. it's beautiful." Tommy smiled broadly, nuzzling into Nikki's neck. His smaller boyfriend yawned, wrapping his limbs around his body and latching on.

"Thank you.. I don't know if it'll ever get used, but.. it's your song. I'll show you the full thing later."

This made Tommy's heart squeeze. Nikki yawned again, a soft squeak from deep within sneaking out. He blushed, burying his warming face in his boyfriend's neck.

"Baby.. I wanna go to bed."

"Okay."

Tommy tried to get up to turn off the movie but Nikki wouldn't budge from his lap. He held on like a monkey as Tommy struggled and finally stood, hitting the power button on the television before trudging to his room with Nikki clutching to his front.

Tommy flicked off the lights as he entered the room, knowing that Nikki wouldn't be letting him go tonight.

Nikki finally released Tommy to crawl under the covers, attaching himself again as soon as the drummer was settled.

"Feeling cuddly tonight, kitten?" He chuckled softly, running his hands through Nikki's hair until he set them around his back, pulling him close.

"Mhm." Nikki practically purred, eyes fluttering open against Tommy's Adam's apple every time they slipped closed against his will.

"Sleep, baby. I'm here. You're safe. You're mine, and I'm yours." Tommy murmured, kissing the top of his love's head.

"I'm always safe when I'm with you." Nikki hummed, the darkness invading the corners of his eyesight becoming more appealing by the moment. The moon shone in from the window, shimmering on Tommy's bare chest and making his lover glow like the angel Nikki saw him as. It was all Nikki could see as the exhaustion of the day sat on him like a paperweight, holding him down against Tommy's fit body. His glittering eyes of green fell closed one last time against Tommy, knowing he was secure in his lover's embrace.

Tommy's heart swelled as Nikki began to snore lightly against him, the need for sleep tugging at his body. Although his weariness was more than apparent, he stayed up, watching Nikki sleep. It calmed him.

The rise and fall of Nikki's body with his soft breathing fell into step with Tommy's heartbeat as it slowed and he trickled into sleep, still fighting it and still gazing down at the angel asleep on top of him.

He had never been in love; not like this. Tommy had said that he loved many people before, told people that he was in love before, but now he truly knew what it meant to be in love with another person. It was not only to accept all their flaws, but to naturally view them as their best features; it was to see them at their best and their worst and still feel your heart leap at just the sight of them; it was to see them as the one and only, there was no one above them, not even a god itself. Tommy half wanted a chance to lay down his life for Nikki, just to show that he would do it without hesitation.

But something told him that Nikki already knew. That was the funny thing about Nikki; he seemed to be able to read Tommy's mind. Although it was simply because Nikki knew Tommy's emotions to a greater extent his own, knew Tommy's facial expressions better than the back of his hand, all from months of studying them and trying to figure out exactly how a man so perfect existed, Tommy was still convinced Nikki was some type of warlock who had put a spell on him.

Although it was a funny thought and one he knew not to be true, it still made Tommy wonder. Gazing down at Nikki now, pale cheeks glowing in the moon's rays through the window, raven-colored hair sprawled out everywhere, Tommy felt his heart leap. Yes, that beautiful man was his. Nikki was beauty. Tommy twirled some of Nikki's hair around his finger in his near-sleep daze, allowing his eyes to slide shut and his breathing to slow so it matched his own.

Nikki was peculiar. Nikki was a new kind of problem and an old kind, and not a problem at all at the same time. Nikki was the waves crashing onto the beach, but without their cataclysmic sound. Nikki was the center of the universe, and when Tommy was with him, he, too, was the center. The world whizzed by them as if chasing its tail until it slowed down and eventually stopped, leaving them isolated, lost by all and found by themselves. Nikki was serenity. Nikki was tranquility. Nikki was more than just a name. Tommy gazed down one last time at the sleeping beauty on his chest.

He was soft. He was vulnerable. And he was loved.