Into the Woods 7b

[manipulant]

After almost half an hour they arrive, so late to the ball that the rest of the carriages are already queued and quiet, the drivers gone for a pint or six to the servants' gathering rooms in the belly of the castle. Spencer's driver melts away not long after he holds the door open for him, and Spence gazes up at the huge castle, fear striking a couple of nervous chimes on his ribs as he starts to climb the stairs to the front entrance.

Nobody bothers announcing him, for which Spencer is incredibly grateful, and everyone seems to have paired off or grouped together in small clusters, huddled around flutes of wine and heavy hors d'oeuvres. There's a small group of musicians at the other end of the huge ballroom, and an insistent and mostly young whirl of dancers on the dance floor. Spencer hopes Crystal found someone to dance with her.

A few of the older, matronly women near the entrance give Spencer long, disdainful once-overs and Spencer squares his shoulders, shooting them both a nasty look as he holds his chin up and walks down into the main of the ballroom. He keeps an eye out for Brendon, or the hallmarks of a group containing Brendon, but nowhere in the room is laughing particularly raucously, or bursting into impromptu choruses of summer camp songs, so Spencer's sort of flying blind. He grabs a glass of wine, downs it, and then he takes another, as plates of them whiz past him.

He laps the huge room twice, zigzagging through the first time and then circling around for the second. Some guy who looks to be about seventeen cuts straight in front of Spencer and holds him up, giving him a small, slightly unpleasant smile. He stammers a little as he asks if Spencer would like to dance the next with him.

Spencer blinks, flabbergasted, and gapes at the boy for a second before he notices that the kid's eyes keep sliding over to the right. Spencer looks over, and notices a group of four boys of about the same age, smirking or sniggering as they watch. Spencer feels his cheeks flush hot, and turns back to the boy, raising one extremely expressive eyebrow.

"Well?" the boy asks, smirking a little.

Spencer considers for a second, and then steps on the boy's foot, hard, with the heel of his glass shoe. "Why don't you go fuck yourself," he says as he walks past, not glancing back to watch the boy crumple and try to bite off the howl coming from the back of his throat. He remembers that high school shit, he remembers watching asshole guys do that to girls in P.E. class. He could never figure out why.

He endures a couple more stares and an open leer from some guy a foot shorter than him (seriously? Seriously?), and then Spencer thinks he sees his mother edging closer to him in the crowd, which, no, so he grabs a glass of wine and slips deeper into the crowd, not stopping til he reaches the end, where the mass of people pauses just before it reaches the wall.

He slides along the perimeter, and eventually finds an open door that leads him outside, into the well-manicured gardens. Spencer stops and takes a couple of deep breaths, feeling the cool night air swirl all through his lungs and back out, closing his eyes as he exhales a long, low fuck.

When he opens them again, he moves towards the center of the garden, where there's a small, dense hedge maze. Curious, he walks the edge of it until he finds the entrance, and then Spencer glances back at the ballroom, the crush of people and the heat of the room. He has two seconds where he feels really bad for Gabe and how he's going to be so let down that Spence didn't even see Brendon, and then Spencer ducks inside the maze.

The difference in temperature is amazing - even at night, inside the maze is a few degrees cooler than just outside, and Spencer rubs his bare arms irritably, folding them tight around his chest as he starts to walk to his right. He only makes it around one curve before he comes to a dead end, so he sighs and stops and goes the other way, passing the entrance again and turning right, starting to get into the body of the maze itself. The hedgerows are high, higher than they appeared to be from the outside, and Spencer glances up every now and then just so he can see the night sky and the stars and regain his equilibrium, his place in the world.

And then, Spencer turns another corner and almost groans as he sees another dead end. On closer inspection, though, he notices that the figure sitting on the ground, slumped back against the bulk of the hedgerow is actually Brendon, with his eyes closed.

Spencer can't help it, he laughs.

Brendon frowns irritably, and waves dismissively at Spencer, not opening his eyes. "I don't want to be disturbed," he grumbles, tilting his head so his chin is almost resting on his own shoulder.

"Wow, you're in for a lifetime of disappointment," Spencer tells him solemnly, smirking a little as he watches Brendon's eyes fly open, and then sees his head whip around.

Brendon stares at him for a few seconds before Spencer remembers oh, right. Dress and cringes, looking down at himself in dismay. "Dude, you don't even want to kn - "

"Pretty," Brendon breathes, eyes shining up at him. Spencer knows enough about the glassiness in Brendon's eyes to know that he's not entirely sober, but he's not so far gone that Spencer should start worrying about trying to remember which way he came, so he can get them out of the maze quickly.

He lets his mouth twist, and makes a face at Brendon. "Shut up," he mutters, shuffling his feet a little, digging his heels into the dirt.

"No, hey," Brendon says, clambering up onto his feet, only swaying a tiny bit, "seriously. Were you - oh shit, did you have a fairy godmother?"

"Godfather, actually," Spencer tells him loftily, managing to hold off on the smile for a good five seconds. "It was Gabe."

Brendon's reaction was as good as Spencer'd hoped - he immediately dissolves into laughter, reaching for Spence, taking a closer look at Spencer's outfit before he leans his head on Spence's shoulder and laughs until he almost starts hiccuping. "He did good work," Brendon says, tilting his head up again, giving Spencer a fond smile. There's a pause of only a second, and then Brendon's smile turns kind of wry. "Boy, am I glad to see you," he says, poking Spencer in his side gently.

"Yeah, me too," Spencer confesses, shifting so he can prop Brendon up against the hedgerows a little.

"I had to dance for four hours with - god, everybody," Brendon says, his voice going kind of small and sad. "And I kept waiting for you to show up, but you kept not being there."

Spencer bites his lip and rubs Brendon's arm lightly, wincing a little as he thinks of Brendon having to humor every girl's mother in his kingdom. "I'm sorry," he says, meaning it. "I got here as soon as I could."

"After Gabe made you into a pretty pretty princess," Brendon smirks, blinking up into Spencer face. His smile sharpens after a second, though, and Brendon frowns a little, standing up a little straighter. "Hang on, it's smudged," he says, reaching a hand slowly up to Spencer's cheek, weirdly hesitant before he rubs against the crease of Spencer's eyes and just under it, swiping away some shadow that had fallen onto his cheekbone.

Spencer can't help it, it's conditioning from all the fucking touring and makeup and makeup removal - he closes his eyes and holds preternaturally still for Brendon, barely daring to breathe.

When he opens his eyes, Brendon's staring at his hand, and at - shit, at Spencer's mouth, with a sort of uncertain, intense look on his face. Spencer sucks in his breath, chest expanding almost painfully quick, but otherwise doesn't move for another few seconds until, "Did you get it?" Brendon doesn't answer right away, not until Spencer's eyebrows have lifted up expectantly and he knows he's gone a little pink-cheeked.

"I...no. Not yet," Brendon says, his eyebrows furrowing as he darts a glance up to Spencer's eyes and then back down to his mouth again, curling up a little closer as he just, oh. Spencer's toes fight to curl in his glass shoes as Brendon, god, he brushes his fingertips against Spencer's cheek ineffectively and then traces them down over the corner of Spencer's mouth, his bottom lip. There's a small quirk of a smile flitting over Brendon's face, and Spencer makes an inquisitive noise, his breathing stuttering as Brendon rubs his thumb against his bottom lip.

"That's one big smudge," Spencer finally manages, long after he should've said something.

Brendon nods, shifting up a little closer, til Spencer can feel his breath on his own chin. "Yeah, it's," Bren mumbles, his breathing going uneven and weird as Spencer darts his tongue out, mostly trying to lick his lips but swiping over Brendon's thumb along the way. "Spence," he whispers.

"Fuck," Spencer breathes, his eyes fighting to close, wanting so badly to draw his mouth over the swell of Brendon's thumb, pull it into his mouth and lick. He didn't know that - fuck, he didn't think it'd be like this.

"Shit," Brendon breathes, his eyes wide and sort of transfixed on Spencer's mouth around his thumb before he pulls it away and just - Spencer's totally unprepared, he isn't ready, all of his what-ifs and lazily dreamt-up scenarios and not one of them is helping him deal with watching Brendon move in to kiss him. His eyes close and his heart starts rocketing around in his chest and Spencer's pretty sure he's never, ever going to stop blushing.

Brendon tastes like wine. Which is okay, because Spencer's pretty sure he tastes like wine, but the difference is that Spencer can almost taste the salt from Brendon's thumb on his lips, and he can hear the soft clack of their lips pressing together, and he can hear these little guttural whimpering sounds happening at the back of Brendon's throat. Fuck, he can almost feel them, pressing up and into his mouth desperate and quick, like Brendon's tongue is flicking up behind his teeth.

Spencer shivers and slides his shaking fingers further into Brendon's hair, holding on tighter than he should, but fuck Brendon makes the greatest noise at that and seems to approve, so whatever. "Oh my god," Spencer hisses, trying not to shiver or whine as Brendon's hands slide over his mostly-bare back. They're hot, fuck, Brendon's warm hands on his skin are making his brain short-circuit. "Hang on, Bren, we - "

"No, come on," Brendon says hastily, pressing his lips to Spencer's to keep him from finishing, moving his mouth to lick at the corner of Spencer's lips and start moving down towards his neck. Which - shit. Spencer shudders and tries not to tear Brendon's hair out in his rush to tilt his head to just the right place and - yeah. Brendon's mouth finds that spot that Spencer only ever knew about by accident (thank you, Haley's inexhaustible curiosity). His eyes fall shut for a second or two, and white explodes behind his eyelids.

Spencer's knees threaten to buckle, and he has to press his lips tight together to keep from just moaning outright, loud enough that someone would come to investigate.

"Yeah, you like that?" Brendon mutters against his skin, obviously pleased with himself. Startled, Spencer props one elbow on Brendon's shoulders and starts snickering quietly.

"Shut up," he mutters, twisting his head to try to exact revenge by tugging Brendon's earlobe into his mouth.

"No, hey," Brendon says, his voice sounding gratifyingly strangled as Spencer nips at the soft skin just behind his ear, "it's okay, I'm sort of an e-expert, fuck," he gasps, holding on tight to Spencer's back. "Shit."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were the guy who didn't know what a clitoris was," Spencer purrs, delighting in the way Brendon shivers at that.

"Shut up, I was about eight years old," Brendon says, another gratifying hitch in his breath as he ducks his head, giving Spencer easy access to the rest of his neck.

"You were a junior in high school," Spencer points out, in the interest of fairness.

"Less talking, more molesting," Brendon grumbles, reaching up to slide his hand into Spencer's hair and tug him forward.

"Yeah, okay," Spencer smirks, craning his neck to lick at the very back of Brendon's neck, relishing the small groan he gives. "So hey, tell me if you're going to come, I don't want it to stain the silk," he says, pointing to the material he's wearing.

Brendon stills, and then starts laughing softly, his hand warm on Spencer's back, his fingers brushing back and forth across bare skin. "Deal," he says, ducking his head a little, shuffling his feet. He looks almost...well, shy.

Fuck, Spencer thinks, sort of wry. It's ridiculous, how stupid I am for you. Instead of saying it, though, he loosens the death grip he has on Brendon's hair, and smooths his fingers down through it, carefully brushing away the tangles and peaks.

Eventually, they get over themselves enough to actually look at each other, and Spencer can't help grinning a little, fuck, Brendon's mouth is so red.It's awesome and hilarious and sort of crazily hot.

"What?" Brendon asks, beaming too, though he's narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

Spencer shrugs his shoulders and grins some more, and leans forward, carefully, til he's just resting his forehead against Brendon's.

He pretends not to notice how Brendon tensed for a second as he was moving in. Eventually Brendon sighs and sags against him. Spencer is suddenly so, so much more sober than he was two minutes ago.

Their breathing goes steadier and steadier, and Spencer can feel his grin starting to slip off his face in increments as they both realize that yeah, this all really just happened. They get to deal with it now, hooray! Consequences!

And it's not that Spencer thinks Brendon's going to react really badly, or anything, but - seriously, since they were both seventeen. That's how long he's been thinking of this, exactly this. Knowing how Brendon tastes, and the noises he makes, and what they feel like against his chest.

Spencer shivers a little, and tries not to grab at Brendon, or suddenly pull him so tight it's obvious something's going on in his head, but he suddenly really really needs to memorize absolutely everything about this moment that he can and fuck, it's already mostly slipping away.

His breath hitches.

"Spence," Brendon murmurs, and Spencer closes his eyes and swallows. "Hey, what - um."

Spencer shrugs a shoulder, tilting his head so they're almost temple to temple, unable to see each other. "What happens now?" he asks, trying very very hard not to sound accusing or nervous or...much of anything, really. Neutral.

Brendon exhales, long and loud and against Spencer's ear, the fucker. And then he shrugs, too, and traces his fingers over Spencer's back idly."Did - did you not want," he starts, before biting his lip and cutting himself off, looking sort of worried. "Um."

Spencer blinks, and waits.

"It can be what - what you want," Brendon says after a second, glancing up at him for just a second, cutting his eyes away quick.

"What do you want?" Spencer asks him quickly, genuinely interested in the answer.

"...Spence," Brendon manages after a second, and Spencer stills, shocked at how wrecked Brendon's voice sounds.

He pulls back, and watches Brendon for a second, the way Brendon visibly curls in on himself just a little, and feels almost sick.

"Hey," he mutters, crowding back in, walking Brendon the few steps back it takes them to be pressed into the corner of one of the hedges. He slides his arms down, curling them tight around Brendon, til Brendon takes a deep breath and sinks against him gratefully, arms sliding up around his shoulders. "It's okay."

"Yeah?" Brendon mutters, almost into his shoulder.

Spencer ducks down, til he can almost see Brendon's face, and loosens one arm, bringing his hand up to coax Brendon's chin up a little bit. He can't help it, he smiles a little, crooked, once Brendon actually looks at him. "Yeah," Spencer assures him. Fuck it, seriously, he thinks, and he tilts his head down and covers Brendon's lips with his own again.

Brendon's shoulders go up for a second or two, but then he sighs and goes boneless, sinking into Spencer and making this one small, utterly contented sound that sends sparks singing through Spencer's veins. It isn't rushed this time, or a battle of wills, and Spencer thinks fuck yes to himself as he feels Brendon's mouth slide against his, wet and undemanding, just exploring for a second or two.

Spencer sighs softly and lets him feel things out, darting teasing licks against Brendon's lip every now and then just to throw him off, make him smile (and seriously, feeling Brendon's smile? is as amazing as it sounds). This is what he was after.

Spencer can't help the small groan that escapes him when Brendon finally gets tired of teasing and bites a little. "Yeah?" Brendon asks him, pleased, grinning against his mouth.

"Yeah, actually," Spencer mutters back, not very embarrassed at all.

"Good," Brendon breathes, almost faint enough for Spencer not to even catch it, but his cheeks burn and their lips touch again, twice in rapid succession, and Spencer opens his mouth to - fuck, he doesn't even know, say something or lick at Brendon's lips again, which is - of course - the minute the clock in the castle's tower starts to toll.

"Seriously?" Spencer asks the world, squeezing his eyes shut for a second and sighing as he pulls back a little. "It's midnight, isn't it," he says, not really a question so much as a statement.

"Um," Brendon mutters, and Spencer can feel him searching around in his pockets, finally producing a fob watch. "Yeah," Brendon says, sounding kind of surprised. "Why?"

Spencer opens his eyes, and gives Brendon a look. Brendon blinks, and takes a few seconds to remember what story they're in, and slumps unhappily. "Oh. Seriously?"

"Yeah," Spencer sighs, taking a step away from Brendon, letting him ease away from the hedges. "I've got to head back," he says, gesturing behind them, back the way he came through the maze.

Brendon nods. "Okay," he says, and falls into step beside Spencer, giving him another private, halfway shy smile before he reaches and grabs for Spencer's hand, squeezing it. Something inside him shivers happily and goes still, and Spencer can't help ducking his head and grinning a little too as they wander back through the maze.

The clock chimes stop long before they manage to get out, but Spencer figures that five minutes won't hurt Gabe's record too much. He and Brendon quietly move across the lawn, towards the front of the castle where all the carriages are, walking in companionable silence, their linked hands swinging.

"Remember to give me your shoe," Brendon tells him, glancing over.

"Okay," Spencer nods. He thinks about that for a second, though, and frowns. "...Actually, could we." He stops, unsure how to proceed, but finally just blurts out, "It fucking sucks at home, dude. Can you just. I can tell you how to get there, can you come tomorrow?" He can feel his cheeks getting hot again, and seriously, when is the whole middle school crush thing going to end?

"No, yeah, totally," Brendon says quickly, looking sort of concerned. "It sucks?"

"It's mom and Crystal and Jackie, but they're being the evil sisters and stepmom," Spencer explains shortly, not really wanting to think about it much. Brendon sucks in a sympathetic breath, and squeezes Spencer's hand again, bringing it up to press against his cheek.

"Yeah, tell me how to get there," he says. Spencer breathes a little easier, and ducks their heads together, whispering intently to him as they make their way back to the carriages.

Spencer still beats his family home, and he staggers into the house, hobbled by having only shoe. The trek up to the attic room seems to take forever, and he's starting to get really tired. He can sort of feel the beginnings of a headache from the wine starting to make itself known behind his eyes, but he can't stop grinning.

His mouth feels raw. Spencer brings his fingers up to it reflexively as he shoves open his bedroom door, and sucks in a breath as he relives Brendon dragging his fingers there.

Then he catches himself and feels sort of ridiculous, so he drags his hand down and drags himself inside, collapsing down onto the uneven mattress and groaning happily.

"That was amazing, dude," Gabe says, popping up behind him, setting a big glass of water down on his rickety bedside table. Spencer groans again, less happily this time, but rolls over and squints up at Gabe's glow. "Seriously. I might get a promotion from that shit, you are a champ."

"Happy to help," Spencer mumbles, before he shuts his eyes and rolls back onto his stomach. "Sleep now." Then he actually processes what Gabe said, and opens his eyes again. "Wait, you were watching us?"

"Just checking in!" Gabe says, waving his hands to ward off Spencer's accusations. "Every now and then! You guys were sweet. And you looked smokin' in that dress, dude, I have to say."

"Oh my god," Spencer groans, sinking into the mattress, pressing his head down harder into his pillow. "Gabe, go away."

"Sure, okay," Gabe says, still sounding ridiculously excited by Spencer's - and by proxy, his - great success. "Seriously, way to go."

"Fuck off," Spencer growls, turning his head enough to glare at where the room is still glowing.

"Drink your water," Gabe admonishes him, and Spencer feels himself being patted on the head kindly, and then the room is blissfully, blissfully silent and dark.

Spencer stretches happily, and sits up enough to drink half the glass of water, before he sinks back down onto his bed and curls up around his pillow, pressing his face into it and grinning as he tries and utterly fails to stop from thinking about Brendon.

It's barely sunrise, when Spencer wakes up to someone banging frantically on his bedroom door. He sits up, and groans and immediately puts his head in his hands, feeling like he's barely holding the pieces of it together. Seriously, fuck some wine. He needs to remember that wine is not his friend.

Eventually, he manages to yell "God, shut up, I'm coming," over at the general area of the door, and he wraps a bedsheet around himself as he stumbles towards the door. "What," he grumps, as he opens it.

"SPENCER," Crystal shrieks, hopping from one foot to the other frantically. Spencer almost drops the bedsheet he's holding around himself like a cape, and whimpers as he presses the heel of his hand to his eyes.

"God, quiet," he pleads. "What?"

"Spencer oh my god Prince Brendon is here, Prince Brendon, and he says he wants to talk to every girl who lives here and he said I had to come and get you and fuck, Spence, fuck, he's even hotter in person, you have to come see. Mom's about to die, and Jackie's so fucking hungover, it's hilarious, you have to see her, she's trying to look all cute and seductive while she's trying not to throw up."

Spencer blinks at her, unseeing, before he manages to process the first five or so words of Crystal's babble. "You...Brendon is here?"

Crystal nods excitedly. "Seriously. Unf. I think he's wearing the same thing he had on at the ball, you should come and - "

"Yeah, give me like three seconds," he says abruptly, and closes the door on her. Spencer lets the sheet drop and looks down, and breathes his thanks to Gabe that he's back in his dad's shirt and trousers, not still in the dress. He runs to the mirror and - fuck, well, his eyes are still smoky but whatever. He takes a few precious seconds to try to smooth his hair down a little, but part of the reason it's so crazy is Brendon, so he doesn't try overly hard to fix it.

And then he takes a couple of seconds to breathe, before he opens the door to Crystal glaring at him, her arms folded across her chest. "Okay," he says, fidgeting with his cuffs. "Let's go."

Crystal raises an eyebrow and glances down at his clothes, but shrugs and heads in front of him down the stairs. They don't talk anymore, not even when they both file into the sitting room. Crystal exchanges small smirks with Jackie, and both Mom and Jackie look sort of horrified at Spencer's lack of care in his appearance when hey, the Prince is in their sitting room. At seven in the morning.

Spencer looks over, and can't help smiling so hard his face feels like it's going to shatter - Brendon's tired-looking, and sort of disheveled, and he is still in his ball clothes, but he's beaming over at Spencer. "Hey," Brendon tells him.

"Hey," Spencer says back, reaching up to rub the back of his neck awkwardly. "God, you couldn't wait til like. Ten in the morning?"

Brendon's smile softens around its edges a little. "Nope," he says firmly, still smiling, and Spencer thinks oh, just before he moves across the room. Brendon seems to anticipate him - enough to stand, anyway, and reach for Spencer just as he's getting there, twining his arms around Spence's middle just as Spence's arms go around his shoulders and they both hold on, startled and bewildered and so fucking happy that they can do this now. Brendon finds Spencer's jaw and brushes his lips across it lightly, and Spencer shivers and cards his fingers through Brendon's hair.

"What," Jackie says flatly.

"Holy shit," Crystal says, gleeful.

"Oh my," his mom says.

Brendon presses a kiss to the side of Spencer's neck, and hums there happily, and seriously he saw what that did to Spencer last night, he has no excuse. Spencer shivers and pulls away, giving Brendon what he hopes is just an annoyed look, he doesn't need Brendon turning him on right now, but Brendon just beams at him some more, and then turns to his mom.

"Mrs. Smith, I'm sorry for visiting your house so early, but I - um," he falters, glancing over at Spencer and laughing lightly.

"I went to the ball last night and Brendon's taking me back with him," Spencer says helpfully, giving them all a placid smile. "So...see you around, I guess."

Beside him, Brendon's shoulders start shaking with laughter, and Brendon presses his mouth in Spencer's shoulder to muffle the sound, before he grabs Spencer's hand and tugs him toward the door.

"But," his mother says, feebly. "But."

"You weren't even allowed to go!" Jackie wails. Spencer doesn't even turn around, just follows Brendon out the door and down the path, almost tripping over himself to get to the carriage in their drive.

"SPENCE," Crystal calls from the doorway, hanging out of it, still in her nightgown and curlers, "you better fucking invite me over! And throw a ball!"

Spencer snickers and hops into the carriage first, reaching a hand to help Brendon in, sliding it around him as the door snicks shut. Brendon ducks his head out of the window, though, and shouts "I PROMISE," to Crystal as they kick into motion, sending up swirls of dust as the horses drag them away.

Brendon doesn't stop giggling for a good three minutes, curling up close to Spencer and twining his arms around him like a vine. Spencer sighs and closes his eyes happily, still halfway asleep. "I can't believe you came at sunrise," he murmurs. "What sort of asshole wakes up before it's light outside?"

"The sort of asshole who maybe doesn't go to sleep at all the night before?" Brendon hints gently, giving Spence a wry smile when he cracks his eyes open and gives him a surprised look. "I...yeah, that." Brendon pauses, and his smile fades a little. "Spencer Smith," he sighs, "I have such a ginormous crush on you."

Spencer blinks, and sits up a little, enough to see him properly. "Seriously?" he says, completely confused. It's too early and he's still kind of hungover and Brendon has just admitted to having a crush on him. Spencer's stomach swoops crazily, and he has absolutely no idea what to do.

"Me too," he says, wincing and biting his lip and thinking awesome, way to go, squeezing Brendon closer. "On you, I mean. ...You didn't know?"

"You didn't know?" Brendon counters, pouting up at him. "I was so obvious, dude!"

"What was so obvious, I didn't see anything so obvious!" Spencer says.

"I was so obvious," Brendon insists, shifting closer. He props his chin on Spencer's shoulder, and tilts his head a little as Spencer ducks in, pressing their lips together lightly. His licks his lips after, and then sits back, looking satisfied. "Dude, years of being obvious. So. Obvious."

"That's not actually an argument, you're just saying the same thing over and over," Spencer says, half pretending to be irritated and half not really faking it, as he slumps in against Brendon and closes his eyes. "And it's too fucking early for this shit."

Brendon snorts and wraps his arms around Spencer's shoulders comfortably, holding him there. "Too fucking early for my love," he sighs sadly. "This isn't an awesome start, Smith the Fifth."

"Most awesome start," Spencer argues, smiling a little at the old nickname. He reaches for his hand, bringing it up so he can kiss Brendon's palm and then turn his hand over and kiss the back of it too. "It's us arguing on the road, you can't get more quintessentially us than that, dude."

Oh, quintessentially, Brendon mouths, pretending to look impressed, nodding slowly. Spencer grins and settles back against him, sprawling on the bench in the carriage. "So, what..." Spence starts, before he notices that the light outside the closed carriage blinds is getting way too bright, too fast.

Spencer's stomach drops and he quickly sits up, suddenly really awake as he looks at Brendon and fuck, fuck, the edges of the carriage are already fading into white too.

"Spence, what - " Brendon starts, but Spencer has a momentary attack of flail and kisses him fiercely, licking into his mouth and staying there for a few seconds before pulling back. Brendon looks sort of stunned.

"This one's ending," he says quickly, reaching a hand up to cup Brendon's cheek. "New story. Look, I'll find you, okay? Everything's going to be all right, and this is okay. Don't worry," he says quickly, glancing around, his breathing growing shallower as he watches the blank white rise up their legs. "We're going to be good."

Brendon blinks, and tilts his head, giving Spencer a small, fond smile. "Yeah, I know," he says, as if it's a foregone conclusion, and he tilts forward enough to kiss Spencer again, sweet and promising. "Going to be so good, Spence. See you in a little bit," Brendon says, his breath sliding against Spencer's lips, and then he's gone.

Spencer barely has time to take a breath, and then he's gone too.

Eight