“That was fucking terrible!”
The rest of the band sighed, rolling their eyes at the older boy in front of them. “I thought it was pretty good.” Derek ventured, making his way to the cooler to pull out a beer.
The other three nodded in agreement with Derek, all looking at the frustrated Jimmy. “You’re just stressed, dude.” Justin added, “Calm down, we’ll do fine.”
“I don’t think you guys understand how important this is!”Jimmy ranted, pacing now back and forth along the length of the garage. “Fine won’t cut it! We’re playing fucking Chain Reaction tomorrow and we-“
“Jimmy,” Brian cut in, and the vocalist’s head instantly snapped his way, “We’ll be okay.” He pushed off from the wall he had been leaning against and opened his arms for the older boy. “I promise.”
Jimmy sighed and went to his boyfriend, burying his face in his shoulder. “Yeah, I guess I’m just stressed…”
Brian smiled softly and wrapped his arms around Jimmy, rocking him from side to side. “Just kiss me and I bet all that stress’ll just melt away.”
“No making out during practice!” Buck shouted, throwing his drumstick at the pair. “Maybe we should run through Nosferatu one more time or something.”
“And maybe the last half of McFly.” Justin put in. “Then I’m going home.”
Brian exhaled forlornly, pulling away from the older boy and grabbing the neck of his guitar. “Fine.” He agreed, throwing the neck strap over his head. “Then I’m taking my boyfriend home so we can-“
“I don’t wanna hear it!” Derek cried, covering his ears with his hands. “I don’t wanna hear any of that shit!”
Jimmy chuckled and he and Brian exchanged a look. “Alright, let’s go through Nosferatu and McFly, then let’s get the hell outta here.”
~*~
“Brian?”
The guitarist groaned, burying himself in his blankets and covering his head with his pillow. “I don’t wanna get up, mom…”
“Brian, it’s me.”
Brian’s eyes snapped open at the sound of the familiar voice. “Jimmy?” he asked groggily, sleepy eyes taking a while to focus on the wild-haired boy beside his bed, “It’s the middle of the night. What are you doing here?”
“I couldn’t sleep. I’m nervous about the gig tomorrow. Like butterflies in my stomach nervous. So I snuck through your window.” Brian could see the glint of moonlight on Jimmy’s teeth as he smiled softly. “Can I sleep with you?”
Brian grumbled a little, scooting over to make room for his boyfriend, although he did find it funny that Jimmy, exuberant afro-and-kimono Jimmy, had butterflies in his stomach. “Shut the goddamn window first.” He grunted.
“Already did.” Jimmy slid in between the sheets in the space Brian provided, and the younger boy wrapped his arms securely around the vocalist, settling down to fall back asleep.
He was in between dreaming and wakefulness when a voice called out again. “Brian?”
Brian grunted in response. “Yeah?”
“Are you nervous about the gig?”
“’Little bit. Now shut up.”
Jimmy sighed, and Brian closed his eyes once again, letting himself doze off.
“Bri?”
“What do you want?” he groaned, starting to get a little pissed off.
“What if we mess up? What if we play badly in front of all those people and we lose what little fans we have?”
“We won’t.” Brian assured. “Now go the fuck to sleep.”
Silence filled the room, and Brian almost began to believe that Jimmy had really gone to sleep this time.
“Brian?”
Almost.
“Whaaaaaat?” he whined, opening his tired eyes to look at the silhouette of his boyfriend.
“But what if we do?”
“Just don’t worry about it right now. Get some sleep.”
“But I can’t help worrying.” Jimmy countered, “This is our biggest show yet.”
“If we do a shitty job I will take you back here and I will fuck you until you can’t remember your own name, much less that the gig even happened okay? And you are going to love it. Now. Go. To. Sleep.”
He pulled his arms away from Jimmy and turned over so he was facing the wall. Maybe then the drummer would leave him alone. “Besides,” he mumbled, “you’ll do worse tomorrow if you’re tired because you didn’t sleep at all.”
Jimmy settled down, and Brian sighed, closing his eyes once again and pulling the covers tight around him. He cracked an irritated eye open when a frustrated fist came in contact with the bed beside him. “But I can’t sleep! I’m trying, but I really can't!”
Brian heaved a deep breath and rubbed a hand over his face. It looked like he wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight either. He turned back to face the vocalist and kissed his cheek. “What can I do to help that?” he asked, trailing his lips from Jimmy’s cheek to his lips.
Even in the dark he could see the smirk that played on Jimmy’s face. “Well, you could help to distract me…”
Brian cocked his eyebrow at his boyfriend. “Oh? And how would you suggest me going about doing that?”
Jimmy’s eyes were alight with mischief and excitement. He pulled Brian on top of him so that he was straddling the vocalist, and pulled on his shoulders so that Brian could feel minty hot breath on his lips. “Like this.” Jimmy whispered, and pressed their lips together. Brian smiled into the kiss, cupping Jimmy’s face in his hands and stroking his thumbs over the older boy’s cheeks. But he soon found those hands getting tangled in Jimmy’s hair as the kiss was deepened, Jimmy’s hesitant tongue slipping past the barrier of Brian’s lips.
The kiss was shy and soft, gentle tongues and quiet gasps and cerise blush creeping across porcelain cheeks. They were slow and sensual, light and tender and absolutely perfect. Eventually, they pulled away, both slightly breathless, and Brian smiled. “Better?”
Jimmy just smiled warmly at the guitarist, still relishing the taste of Brian on his tongue. He cupped one of Brian’s cheeks in his palm and looked at him fondly. “You’re amazing, you know that?”
Brian’s cheeks flushed an even deeper shade of red that they already were, and he looked down bashfully, mumbling some sort of response. He never really was one to take compliments. He replied to the vocalist with a question of his own. “So do you still have those butterflies over that gig?”
Jimmy rolled his eyes playfully, pecking Brian’s lips. “Yeah, a few. But I’ve got reassurance now. And if we fuck up, that just means we get to make up for it later.” He winked at the guitarist, who just blushed deeper, burying his face in Jimmy’s side.
“Yeah, whatever.” He brushed it off, peeking up at his boyfriend to see Jimmy looking down at him fondly, a sleepy smile on his face.
“I love you, Bribri.” Jimmy murmured, kissing the top of his head.
Brian smiled softly and tilted his head up to meet Jimmy’s lips once more. “I know.” He smiled softly. “And I love you too. But I’ll love you even more if you settle down and get some sleep. Tomorrow is a fucking huge day for us.”
“Well,” Jimmy began, settling down in the blankets and wrapping his arms around the guitarist, “I think tonight is a fucking huge night for us, don’t you?”
Brian gave Jimmy a small smile, kissing his chin gently. “I’ll say.” He agreed. He gazed up at Jimmy’s face, his eyes were closed and he was slowly slipping off to sleep. He kissed the dozing vocalist’s cheek and whispered, “Tonight is the fucking best night. Even if we did have to fight the butterflies to get here.”
