Joe met up with Steve after school, since he felt he'd neglected him a bit in the last time because of Sav. The two of them went to a park nearby, a content silence between them for the whole walk there. But as soon as they were seated on the grass in front of the park's little lake, Steve began to talk. And Joe knew which topic it would be even before the latter opened his mouth.

"Joe, let me in on your thoughts, please. I'm your best friend and I want to know what's going on inside your head", he started and Joe immediately dropped his gaze to the floor, Steve not knowing what would come next. He inwardly prepared for Joe throwing a temper tantrum because he wouldn't let the topic go. But his best friend remained silent instead, still staring at his sneakers. Just as Steve thought there would be nothing coming out of him anymore, the latter began to speak.

"I... I don't know what's going on, Steve. All I know is that this isn't normal."

Steve stayed silent because he knew his best mate had more to say. And he was right, as usual.

"When I saw him for the first time, I couldn't identify the feelings bubbling up inside me. But they felt so good that I presumed it was good to feel them, but then I realized all they were were wrong. And they start to annoy me too, especially all those doubts that come with them. I want him to feel the same things I feel whenever I look at him, but I'm not sure if he does."

Joe was staring out at the lake then, lost in his thoughts of the young and handsome teen that had come into his life.

"So you agree with me when I say it was love at first sight, at least from your side?"

Joe was startled by that and looked over at Steve, the latter being surprised to not see denial in the depths of the bright green eyes but a kind of an agreement instead as if he was finally coming to terms with his situation and stopped all the denying.

"I guess, yeah. I guess that's how it's supposed to feel when you find your one and only. And that's the point. Why the hell should I feel that way when I look at another guy? I was always into girls."

"Well, did you ever feel that way towards a girl? Can you compare it somehow?", Steve asked and Joe leaned back onto the grass, the wind playing with his dark locks as he looked up at the blue sky, retreating into his thoughts and memories.

"Honestly? No, I never felt like this. Except maybe with that one girl, Jessica, you remember her? But even with her, the feeling was much weaker than it is now with Sav. Maybe that means I've never been truly in love before."

Steve nodded in agreement, laying a gentle hand onto Joe's arm and squeezing supportingly. He could only imagine how much Joe was fighting against himself inside of his mind.

"Hey, just know that I'll be here for you if you need to talk about it. I'll never ditch you because you just so happen to fall in love with another guy, know that if you should have that doubt. I'm your friend and there is nothing like that getting between true friends."

Joe smiled wanly up at him at that from his lying position on the grass, Steve being able to see that his words had reached and soothed the heart of his friend. And that was enough for that moment. Steve suddenly remembered that Sav and Joe had spent some time together while he had a lesson and therefore couldn't observe it. And he knew that enamored people always loved to talk about the one they were in love with.

"So tell me, what did you two do in history and the free period? Anything worth telling?"

Joe's face immediately lit up at the memory and he started to tell his best friend everything that had occurred. From Sav grabbing his hand during the documentary in history to the whole scene in the changing room. And Steve listened carefully with a smile on his face.

"So you're physically attracted to him, too?", he finally asked as Joe told him about not being able to keep himself from watching Sav changing and how he had caught him staring. Joe just nodded with a smile, his eyes getting dreamy and Steve realized just how hard he had fallen for their new classmate.

"Yes, he's beautiful. In every aspect. Have you looked closely at his face yet? Those eyes and lips can beat every girl's. I almost kissed him because the urge was so strong. But thankfully I didn't, it surely would've scared him off."

"I'm not interested in him in that way, but even I think he's very pretty for a guy. And why didn't you tell me you almost kissed him?", Steve asked and Joe blushed, biting his lip.

"I couldn't reach that point for now, we got stuck when I told you about my fail at not watching him. Well, I wanted to kiss him because he was just so close to me. He embraced me as a thank you because I saved him from the jocks beforehand, and then he looked at me out of those beautiful blue eyes and I almost gave in to the urge. But I could restrain myself and he stepped out of the embrace with a kiss on my cheek. I swear, Steve, I can still feel his lips on my skin."

His best friend watched him as he talked with a smile on his face, thinking about his girl in the meantime. He didn't have feelings that were so strong towards her, but he figured they could develop with time. He was a shy one after all. But the longer Joe talked, the surer Steve was that his best friend could gain enough confidence to talk with Sav about his feelings.

"Oh, and did I tell you that he agreed to come over to my place on Saturday? What do you think? Should I tell him then or not? Or should I wait a bit longer?", Joe asked his best friend after a while, an insecure expression on his face. He really wasn't so sure if it was such a good idea to take a chance if they only knew each other for such a short time.

"Well, I can't tell you that. I think that you should tell him what you feel sometime, though. And see what Saturday brings, let your instincts lead you, mate. And this is just my opinion, but I honestly think Sav might return your way of thought. I saw him watching you with a certain expression quite some times now", Steve replied and Joe's heartbeat sped up at the sole possibility of Sav liking him back. But he had to admit that he had a quite good feeling about the events on Saturday so far.

~~~~

Joe's favorite lesson of the week had finally arrived. It was Thursday and they finally had music class in the first two lessons. The tall nineteen-year-old teen had woken up even earlier than normal and had excitedly waited to be able to go to school, finally making his way over there, as usual meeting up with Steve. They went up the bunch of stairs to the highest situated room in the whole school building that was the music hall. And as they arrived, they took a seat next to each other in the chair circle their teacher had set up in the middle of the quite big room. Almost everyone was there, Joe however not being able to catch a sight of his crush yet. But he had said that music was one of his favorite hobbies, so Joe guessed he would join in on the course in some time. But their teacher started the lesson either way.

"Good morning, I hope you slept well and are motivated to make some music now! I've been collecting requests for topics that students would like to do in music class last year, which you all know of course. However, there was a topic that got asked for very often and therefore I chose it. And that specific topic is creating your own songs. So you might find yourself a group now in which you'd like to work."

Joe almost cheered in joy, he had wished for that topic for so long already! Steve had, too, and they quickly agreed on working together, Joe rummaging in his backpack until he found his little notebook, already full of song lyrics that he had scribbled down whenever they had come to his mind. Maybe they could use some of them for their song.

"You're a bit late, are you Mr. Savage?", their teacher's voice said from the side and Joe's ears perked up, his head turning in the right direction. And there he could see his crush with those perfect curls and the blue blue eyes talking to their teacher, apparently telling her the reason why he was late. Almost as if he had felt the familiar eyes on him the curly-haired then turned his gaze from their teacher's, looking over to Joe and Joe had the impression, that his smile doubled as soon as he had spotted the tall teen sitting there with his best friend. Their teacher filled him in on what they had to do and Sav nodded, then walking over to Joe and Steve. The green-eyed noticed the way he walked with a bit of an unconscious hip-accent for the first time, and it just made him want him more. God, Savage was starting to make him crazy.

"Hey guys, you maybe have another free place in your group for me?", he finally asked shyly as he reached them and Joe just nodded with a smile, patting the chair next to him. Steve grinned at his best friend's antics, but also examined how the big blue eyes of their newest member sparkled as he looked at Joe. Steve really hoped they would get together sometime soon, even though he had to admit that the shyness and the dancing around it was quite cute.

"So, has everyone got a group? Fantastic! Then you may start working now, you know where the instruments are. And for lyrics you can get yourself some paper and pens from the front here", their teacher finally announced and they grinned, Steve standing up to get a guitar for both himself and Sav while the other two stayed in their seats, Joe concentrating on his notebook once more.

"Are those lyrics?", Sav asked from beside him and Joe nodded in return, feeling the curly-haired leaning closer to him and resting his chin on his shoulder, his breath ghosting softly across the skin of Joe's cheek and making the latter close his eyes for a moment.

"Can I see them?"

"Yeah, but most of them are just some ideas that I wrote down randomly. So be warned, it might be confusing", Joe answered with a chuckle and felt Sav chuckle in return, his shorter breaths tickling his skin, and Joe opened the notebook, handing it over to Sav. The latter started thumbing through the pages, finally stopping as he caught eye of a few specific lines.

"Oh yeah, that's probably the best I have so far. What do you think?", Joe asked, noticing the way the other had paused turning the pages and reading attentively after having seen those few lines he was so very proud of.

"You're such a secret, misty-eyed and shady
Lady how you hold the key
Oh you're like a candle, your flame's slowly fadin'
Burnin' out and burnin' me - that's awesome! You're a really good songwriter, Joe", Sav replied and Joe blushed at the compliment, ducking his head a little because of not just someone but Sav complimenting him.

"Thank you, I really appreciate it."

Sav just smiled some more, ruffling one hand through Joe's wild dark brown curls in a friendly gesture. A friendly gesture that let Joe's heartbeat speed up quite heavily. But luckily Steve came back just then, giving him a reason to focus again and not lose himself in the presence of the handsome teen next to him.

"There you go, Sav, how long do you play already?", Steve asked, handing Sav an acoustic guitar and sitting down on Joe's other side with his own in his lap afterward.

"A year or two, maybe? But I warn you, I'm not that good."

"I'm sure you are."

The curly-haired blushed and ducked his head as Joe had at the latter's words, Steve watching the two of them with a smile. God, today really was a day on which he had to restrain himself from taking both of their heads into his hands and push them together to get them to finally kiss. They were so damn obvious, but apparently, neither of them noticed the obviousness of the other. 'What a shame', Steve thought and inwardly rolled his eyes. He then began playing a riff that he had been working on, something that needed a bit more perfection but sounded good already. And both Joe's and Sav's ears perked up upon hearing it.

"What's that, mate?"

"Something I've been working on. It's still not perfect but I think it could turn out to be something quite good", Steve replied and Joe smiled, obviously seeing the same potential in it. He then turned his attention to Sav again.

"Can you sing, mate? Because neither Steve nor I can."

Sav looked at him with widened eyes in return and wanted to give some sort of answer but Steve interrupted first.

"No no no, you're gonna sing, Joe. Your voice is amazing, stop denying it all the time. Don't make Sav do it against his will. You didn't want to, either way, am I right?", he then added directed at Sav and the latter nodded shyly, his cheeks still flushed crimson.

"My voice is not good, Steve, I'm not gonna sing."

"Well, Joe, let us tell you what we think of it, then we go on. Besides, Sav never even heard you sing, so it's hard for him to believe your voice is bad without even hearing it", Steve stated and Sav nodded in an affirmative, Joe nervously running a hand through his curls. He didn't want to do this, but by Sav's appreciating gaze and Steve's expecting one, he had no real choice of refusing.

So he nodded at Steve, indicating for him to play anything he knew to demonstrate his singing capacities, that weren't there in his opinion. Steve started playing Stairway to Heaven and Joe took a deep breath and closed his eyes before starting to sing. After the first verse, he got more confident and poured his heart into it, finally opening his eyes to look at Sav's expression in order to gain an impression of his opinion. The latter was watching him in awe as if he hadn't expected him to be able to sing as he did at all, and Joe felt the pride rising. He finally interrupted at the third verse and Sav and Steve both started to clap.

"So, how was I?", he asked, either way, just to be sure, and gained an eye-roll from Steve in return. Sav just continued to watch him in awe before he leaned forward to hug Joe, the taller teen feeling his heart almost bursting out of his chest because it pounded so heavily.

"You were amazing, Joe. And there will be no other singing this song we create than you. Everything else would be a shame", he said as he pulled back and overlooked Joe's flushed face, his teeth gripping his bottom lip and his blue eyes still holding that admiration in them. And before he knew it, Sav had placed a kiss on his cheek again, only that it was the other one this time. Steve watched carefully all the time, practically being able to see how his best friend's breathing picked up the pace significantly and how the blush on his face intensified. But he also saw the way Sav had placed his lips on his skin, eyes closed and making contact in a very loving way, and he was immediately sure Sav returned Joe's feelings. And now he really hoped they would let their feelings speak at their meeting on Saturday.