It was 8 pm, right after dinner...

LXXVI

There were only a few days left before Christmas Eve and their modern art of a Christmas tree actually did a very good job at getting Brett into the right mood. Maybe he also felt more Christmassy, because it was the first time for many years, where both him and Eddy didn't have a ton of work to do. Be it for Twoset in recent years or playing ballet, pieces like the Christmas Oratorio by Bach and/or live to projection film music (mostly Harry Potter) back in their days as orchestral musicians.

But maybe, they were both in more festive spirits because of what had happened recently.

Yes. They had agreed, unspoken however, to leave things the way they were for the time being. But being in love with your best friend AND knowing the other kind of felt the same was a dick situation for keeping everything seemingly unromantic.

Needless to say, Brett and Eddy found themselves in an increasing number of encounterings with the other, where it was close to impossible to not act on their suppressed desires.

For example on the same evening after the fateful revelation, when they shared a homecooked meal prepared by Eddy and caught themselves staring at each other without saying a word until the food went cold.

Or when they decided to watch a film afterwards and had cuddled a bit too intense for what best bros would do. And not just the innocent head on the lap or an arm loosely around the other kind of thing, which they'd done before occasionally. It may have started this way, all very platonic with a polite gap between them and no touches, even if they'd have tried. But as "The Winter Soldier" progressed, the more tired Brett grew and his upper body tilted increasingly towards Eddy, until his head landed on the taller's upper leg. That itself  wouldn't have been an issue, but Eddy started to trace his fingers up and down Brett's side as soft as feathers, coming to a halt just above Brett's waistband and then moving back up, past his collarbones and throat to play with Brett's hair, every now and then grazing his very sensitive ears. It was not long until Brett's sleepiness was replaced by a lingering fire, slowly burning, until small moans escaped his half parted lips here and there, his breathing went laboured and his temperature rose a couple of degrees, or so he felt.
When the movie came to an end, Brett felt so hot he quickly had to excuse himself and flee into the bathroom, so Eddy wouldn't see the result of his nimble violinist fingers. Brett couldn't help but notice the pretty obvious buldge in Eddy's sweats though and had to escape even faster to keep himself from jumping Eddy right then and there. He couldn't believe the nervous giggle that broke out of him after he locked himself into the bathroom.

Sleeping in the same bed was an even worse idea, both for their resolve to wait and their sanity. So, at around three in the morning, where neither of them had gotten a wink of sleep because they were too busy being nervous and staying as far away from each other as possible on Brett's single bed, Eddy decided to grab his stuff and move back to his own room. And it was the first time for weeks, where Brett didn't try to stop him.

Early in the morning, at an hour where under normal circumstances one would never find an active Eddy in the wild, Brett suddenly felt an arm around himself.
"Eddy?", Brett mumbled with his sleepy voice.
"Hmmmm...."
"You back?"
"Hmmmm..."
Not a very enlightening conversation, but it made Brett smile fondly, before he closed his eyes and dozed off again, with Eddy's breathing as a lullaby next to his ear.

The next morning he realized, that Eddy probably hadn't slept a minute without Brett beside him. It took all of Brett's willpower to not press a kiss on his best friends lips as he allowed himself to stare at Eddy's sleeping face, or when Eddy got up around noon and stepped into the living room, where Brett had decided to relocate to after mentally slappling himself hard so many times just to keep his wanting self at bay.

(Un-)fortunately, Brett was still quite weak most of the time. One hour of practice was his limit momentarily and he'd be absolutely beat afterwards. Everything work related was still left for Eddy and the team to do, so he was spending most of his time hanging around on the couch. Sometimes watching a dumb or not so dumb movie, sometimes scrolling through social media, but most of times just watching Eddy work or hearing him play the violin.