A/N: So I spent a lot of time writing this really long description of their nightly encounter, but after reading it a few times in draft form, I realized it wasn't really needed. So I am going to bypass it and let it ... just be lol. 

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Scott was pulled out of his wonderful dream by the obnoxious sound of his cell phone alarm. He slipped from Mitch's arms just enough to grab it before Mitch's arms tightened around him in his sleep and he was pulled right back again.                                                                                           

It made him laugh softly as he turned the alarm off. 

He SO didn’t want to get up. He didn’t want to move at all as he looked down at the gorgeous man on the bed next to him. Mitch looked so sweet and innocent. He was just indescribable. He let his eyes slowly roam over Mitch’s face. His full lips that were always just begging to be kissed, his angled nose, those long eyelashes splayed over his cheeks… he wanted to touch it, kiss it all.  

He tried to resist, so he wouldn’t wake the sleeping man, but his fingertips had a mind of their own and they moved to gently brush over his face. 

You have to get up. You have to go to work. You can’t just lay here staring at Mitch all day, no matter how much you want to. Damn, he’s perfect.

He wasted a bit more time just enjoying the scene in front of him, before he set about untangling himself from the other’s limbs slowly and gently so as not to wake him. 

However, he’d barely made it out of the bed long enough to grab his boxers and pull them on when those brown eyes turned up at him sleepily. 

“Where you going?” Mitch whispered out in half yawn. 

“Work. Go back to sleep.” He smiled sweetly and put one knee on the bed and leaned over to give Mitch a small kiss, but Mitch wasn’t happy with just that and he pulled him down onto the bed again. 

“Don’t want you to.” 

“I got to” Scott grinned against the lips that were messily pressing against his own. He felt them purse out in a pout. 

“Then I’m coming with you.” 

“Mitch you don’t have to. You should sleep and relax.” 

“Want to.” He smiled and eventually, after a dozen more kisses, let go of him. 

Scott shook his head but could not stop his grin as he stood next to the bed. He was in love and everything seemed so much cuter when you were in love. It was perfect. Everything about Mitch was fantastic and everything he did was too cute, absolutely adorable. 

“I’m gonna go take a shower.” 

Mitch was up and out of bed in a flash. 

“In that case I’m definitely up!” He hobbled over and jumped onto Scott’s back, still stark naked. 

Scott couldn’t help but laugh. 

“You’re gonna make me late aren’t you.” 

“Would I ever do such a thing?” Mitch grinned and kissed the back of Scott's neck sweetly as Scott headed for the bathroom, both of them laughing. 

~

Scott wasn’t late, but he wasn’t early like usual either.

Mitch stayed through all of his classes and sat in the corner learning the dances from the waist up. It was kinda fun actually, but he really wished he could be out there with him. 

Scott was in the greatest of moods and his students were more than grateful for the complete 180. Scott was quick to help whoever needed it and everything went smoothly.

He and Mitch had lunch together and when Kirstie arrived for class afterwards, Mitch kept giving her a hard time about the way she was dancing. It was all in good fun. 

The day seemed so perfect. 

Scott drove them all back to Mitch's and a night of laying around and doing nothing but being silly and talking followed. 

Finally Scott looked over at Mitch with a hesitant, nervous look. 

Mitch never liked that look. It was never followed by anything remotely good. 

“Am I staying here again tonight? I mean, do you want me to? I mean… can…” Scott made a face as he tried to sound as not-stupid as he possibly could, but the result was just not even close to what he wanted.

Mitch watched him, amusement playing over his face as Scott stumbled over his words. 

Kirstie rolled over onto her stomach and looked up at him from the floor with a grin, planting her chin on her knuckles as she sat interested. 

Mitch shook his head with a grin. “Um, are you really seriously asking me this?” 

Scott blushed slightly. “I just didn’t want to assume.” 

“Assume away.” 

“Yeah, assume is Mitch's favorite word. It contains the word “ass” and asses are his favorite thing, so naturally…” Kirstie ducked and the sofa pillow whizzed over her head harmlessly. 

Mitch stuck his tongue out at her. 

“Well, if I’m ASSuming…” Scott smirked, "then I should go by my place to get some clothes and stuff. I think I’ve exhausted all of the clothing options of yours that fit my body.”

Mitch nodded. “Want me to come?” 

Scott shook his head. “There’s gonna be a fight and I don’t want you getting caught in the crossfire.” 

“Why will there be a fight?”

“I know he meant well, but what he told you…” He hesitated because Kirstie was there and she didn’t know.  He wanted it to stay that way. “I trusted him with that and he betrayed me. I don’t even know how to face him right now.” 

Mitch chewed on his lip. He felt kinda bad that he’d gotten Zac in trouble. 

“Okay.” 

“I’ll be back soon.” He got up quickly, pressing his lips to Mitch in a fleeting goodbye kiss and left.

Mitch sighed and looked at Kirstie who was just staring. 

“What?” 

“That was the first time I’ve seen you guys kiss. I’m just replaying it over again in my mind.” She smirked and she had to duck to miss the other pillow. 

~

Scott didn’t know what he was going to say if Zac was there, mostly he just hoped that he wasn't. When he parked and saw Zac’s car sitting there, he could feel the tension in his body.  

He took a deep breath as he walked in the door. 

Zac was sitting at the island in the kitchen picking at a salad. He headed right for him, and took a seat on the stool next to him.

“You and Mitch make up? I assume so since you didn’t come home last night.” He looked up at Scott with a small smile. “I’m glad.” 

“Yeah, we did.” He didn’t know how to broach the subject, but decided to just spit it out.  “Why did you tell him about...” Scott hesitated biting the inside of his cheek “How could you?” 

“Your past? He needed to understand you. I know you trust Mitch, not just as a boyfriend but as a best friend… I knew you wouldn’t tell him and I think he needed to know. If he was ever going to be able to be with you, he needs to know why you are the way you are. You're perfect, but sometimes you need a little more of an emotional cushion than usual.  That's all.”

Scott didn’t know how to respond to that. 

“You don’t think I’d ever try that again do you?” 

Zac didn’t answer at first, obviously considering his words, “Scott, you’ve gotten pretty depressed before, but I don’t think you’d ever go to that extreme again… at least I really hope you wouldn’t.” 

“I’m not that person anymore!” 

“I know, I know that, but I just thought that if this guy was worthy then he should know stuff like that. It helped me understand you, so I thought it might help him.” 

Scott played with his fingers a bit and looked at his lap. 

“I wouldn’t. Just so you know.” 

“I know that.” he lifted Scott’s chin gently with a curled finger. “Now, get your stuff and go back to that pretty boy of yours and leave me here all by my lonely bored self.” He smirked and kissed him gently. 

Scott responded but pulled away after just a couple of moments. Kissing Zac had always been second nature, but he couldn’t do that anymore. 

“Zac, we can’t. I’ve got a boyfriend.” 

Zac raised an eyebrow. Scott actually blushed.

“You had a girlfriend and we still kissed.” 

“Yeah but, that was different.” 

“How?” 

“You know how…” 

“Fine.” Zac pouted dramatically. Scott thought it was too adorable. He wondered if he'd ever seen Zac pout like that before. He couldn’t recall.

“I’ll see you later.” He kissed Zac’s forehead before getting up and going to his room. 

Zac’s smile disappeared when Scott did. 

He really did want Scott to be happy, and Mitch seemed to make him happy. 

It just hurt. 

It hurt that he’d been the one who had always been there for him, been the one to comfort and take care of him.

Still Scott had chosen someone else….

Yeah it hurt. 

But all he could do was be there for him again, just like always, and hope that maybe things would one day turn in his favor. 

 ~

Scott felt immensely relieved that he didn’t have to be mad at Zac anymore. Yeah, he had given up his secrets, but it was only to Mitch, and somehow Zac had a way of putting his mind at ease, even though he hadn’t given him any more of an excuse than Scott had already known.  He just couldn't stay mad at him.

He smiled to himself as he packed some clothes, enough for the rest of the week. 

He was happy. He was happy that everything in his life seemed to be falling into place, for once. He would still have to figure some things out, his family, how open he wanted to be with his friends, and a host of other things, but he didn’t want to let them bring him down at the moment.

He couldn’t wait to get back to Mitch. 

He finished packing and hurried out with one last glance at the pictures in the hallway and headed for the door. 

Zac intercepted him at the last minute. 

“One last thing…” 

Scott didn’t have a chance to even reply as Zac grabbed him and pulled him against him, kissing him roughly… deep and lasting.  Scott kissed back, not really processing what was happening just reacting on instinct. 

When he finally released him, Scott didn’t know whether to punch him or kiss him again.

Zac simply licked his lips and grinned. “Since I don’t get to do it anymore.” 

Scott laughed a bit and picked up his bag which had been dropped mid-kiss. 

“Later Zac” 

Zac only nodded and watched him leave. 

He let the façade fade completely and he sat on the couch, pulling slightly at his hair, wondering where he’d gone wrong. 

 ~

“So GUESS what I found!” 

“Something really pointless?” Mitch was too busy thinking about what was going on over at Scott and Zac’s apartment to think about what Kirstie had to say. He picked at the fabric of the couch, imagining the conversation going on across town. 

“Oh, no! This was about as pointy as it gets! So, yesterday I kind of snooped through Scott’s bedroom while he was in the shower-” 

“Wait, why were you at Scott’s?” Mitch looked up at her.

“Because he needed to talk, but that’s not-” 

“talk about what…?” 

“About you. Now hush-”

“What about me?” 

“Mitchell! Shut up and listen!” 

Mitch pouted but didn’t say anything else. 

“Thank you! Now, as I was saying… I snooped, cuz I’m nosy-” 

“We know this…” 

“still TALKING!” She made a face at him and he grinned but closed his mouth. 

“SOO, I found mostly boring stuff. Y’know CDs, DVDs, pictures of you...” 

“That’s not boring.” 

“If you will let me finish…” 

“Ok Ok, jeeeez.” 

“SO I opened his nightstand, which of course has a picture of all of us on it and inside were our coloring pages and those stupid drawings we did. But that’s not the best part…” 

Mitch stayed quiet, waiting for her to finish, but this time she was waiting for a response…

He wrinkled his nose and rolled his eyes as he realized this. 

“What’s the best part?” he asked dutifully.

“Scott’s journal.” 

Mitch's eyes widened to the size of saucers and his mouth opened in a small "O" of surprise.

“You didn’t….” 

“I did!” 

“Kirstin Taylor! That was personal! I can’t believe you read it!” 

“You wanna know what it said…?” 

“Fuck yes!” 

She grinned. 

“Ok, well besides the fact that Scott was a really disturbed teenager, I skipped all of that and moved to recent things. I read some of the things he was thinking about you when you first met…” 

“Go on…” 

Kirstie started to relay some of the naughty thoughts she’d read in the pages of Scott’s journal, in great detail.

Mitch's eyes got bigger and bigger. 

“No way…” his grin seemed to grow and grow. 

“Yes way! Oh, and um - he was kind of sleeping with Zac. But there was a reason!” 

That made Mitch's face crumble and his heart stop. He hadn't been crazy.  Zac was a threat. What in the hell was he supposed to do with that information.

“Mitch, its because of you…” 

That left him dumbfounded. “HOW WAS IT BECAUSE OF ME?!”

“He kept thinking those naughty thoughts about you and he was sooo sexually frustrated that he had to get it out or he felt like he was going to explode or implode or something with the word plode... I don't remember. He wrote in SUPER detail about how he was thinking of YOU the entire time!!!! He actually said your name once by accident but Zac didn’t hear him.” 

Well that changed things.  But who in their right mind would think of HIM when they had that body on top of them? Seriously? But it was in Scott's journal.  Scott wanted him..

He didn’t want Zac. 

It said so in his personal journal. 

He wanted him. 

All of those nights he’d spent dreaming of Scott, maybe he’d been dreaming about him too. He pulled himself back into reality to catch that Kirstie was still rambling...

“--was all this mushy stuff about how special you are and how gorgeous you are and blah blah” She rolled her eyes and made a face “but I skipped to more dirty stuff.” 

She smiled cutely. 

Mitch couldn’t believe it, nor could he stop grinning. 

“Mitch… EARTH to Mitchie… you can’t tell him. HELLO?” 

“Hmm? Oh right… can’t tell him. I won’t.” 

“Mitchhhh, if you tell him he’ll kill me!” 

“I swear I won’t tell him.” 

“Good! Now since you love me so much right now…   tonight when you two go all out could you try to either be quieter or louder? Because all I could hear last night was Scott and you making funny noises, faintly but I couldn’t make out what you were saying. So it was enough to keep me awake but not enough to keep me entertained so it was annoying.” She gave him an evil grin. 

He jumped off of the couch, still careful of his ankle, and started tickling her.

He was still mid-tickle when Scott walked in. 

He stopped immediately and sat on the floor next to Kirstie who was catching her breath from laughing so hard. 

“How’d it go.” 

Scott shrugged a bit and sat his bag down on the floor. 

“We’re ok now.” 

After finding out about Scott’s journal entries Mitch's animosity towards Zac waned a bit. …just a bit. I mean he had been sleeping with Scott, so it was still hard to forget that.

Scott moved to take his place next to Mitch on the floor. He laid down and put his head in Mitch's lap. 

Mitch smiled sweetly down at him. 

“You two are like a Hallmark card. It’s sickening…” 

She made a face but couldn’t stop her smile. 

Scott laughed as Mitch pulled the hat off of his head and put it on his own. Then he started running his hand over Scott’s head gently and massaged with his fingertips. 

Scott let his eyes close enjoying the feeling. 

“I am going to leave you two alone. You’re making me gag with sweetness.” She stuck out her tongue in mock disgust. 

Mitch gave her the finger. 

“That’s Scott’s job, Sunshine.”  She winked as she left. 

Scott simply smiled. 

“You like that baby?” 

“Mmhmmm…” Scott replied lazily. 

Mitch grinned. 

"Sunshine. I think I'm gonna start calling you that from now on." 

Mitch laughed. "Why, because I'm so radiant?" 

"No, because you're the worst morning person EVER" 

"HEY!!!!" He laughed and Scott gently rubbed his leg as he joined in. 

“C’mon, lets go to bed.” 

Scott raised an eyebrow, his eyes still closed. 

“It’s still early.” 

“I know.” 

Scott laughed and opened his eyes to look at Mitch. 

"It's your fault you know. I'm addicted to you. Also that one thing you do with your mouth. That is ...like cupcakes and Disney World all rolled into one happy." 

Scott laughed. He didn't want to tell him he could thank Zac for teaching him that. 

"Well..."

He hopped up and helped Mitch up as well. 

"Maybe we should explore some other things shall we?" 

"Are you trying to seduce me?" 

"Is it working?" 

Mitch gave him that sly smile that made his knees weak.

Scott just grinned and helped him into the bedroom again.

Sleep was the last thing on their minds.