A Slice of Life

Incredible New Heights of Denial

Aleksei was quite adept at ignoring noise and chaos around him. Frankly, it was a necessary skill when living in his house with all his siblings and his parents and today was no different. He didn't even realise the tip of his nose was about to reach the page - he was that focused on his homework.

Sam felt more than welcome to walk in through the backdoor, now that Aleksei was officially his boyfriend. And it wasn't like the parents minded his presence either. The Popov's felt more like a family to him than his own family.

And the fact he was welcome to just walk in at any time was confirmed when he opened the back door and stepped into the kitchen. He was met with Aleksei's father automatically pushing a cup of tea in his hands as a greeting.

"Hi Sam," he greeted Sam with a nod.

"Cheers," Sam answered, shortly holding up the cup before his eyes settled on Aleksei. For a few seconds, he stood still, staring at Aleksei with a content smile on his face. He felt like the luckiest guy on earth for having such a handsome boyfriend. One that was completely focused on his homework, not noticing his family bustling around in the kitchen.

Eventually, he took a seat next to Aleksei, nudging him to gain his attention.

"Wait a moment Roman," Aleksei mumbled, frowning and hastily scribbling on to finish his sentence.

Sam rolled his eyes at Aleksei's answer, leaning his head onto Aleksei's shoulder without paying attention to the father. "Earth to handsome Aleksei," he sang happily, hoping Aleksei would catch on that he wasn't Roman.

Aleksei certainly caught on, but not in time to prevent himself from drawing a big fat black line in his exercise book in surprise.

His eyes anxiously darted to his dad, who took a seat at the other side, sipping his tea like nothing happened. Aleksei couldn't help but wonder if he was wilfully blind and ignoring this, or if he truly believed he and Sam were just friends.

Aleksei turned to Sam. "Hey, I didn't expect you here yet," he greeted his boyfriend, not quite daring to call him handsome in front of dad. No matter how much he didn't react.

"I came over early because I couldn't wait to share some good news with you," Sam replied, his eyes shortly darting over to the father. He had to keep himself from kissing Aleksei, but the fact Aleksei seemed highly aware of his presence told Sam he needed to keep himself from being too obvious.

Instead of kissing his boyfriend, he opted for holding hands, taking Aleksei's hand in his own.

"Remember we talked about performing together? And finding an open stage?"

Despite his anxiousness about having his dad right there across the table, Aleksei let their fingers stay entwined and rubbed his thumb across Sam's palm. "Yes, I remember."

"I've been asking around in bars and everything. Remember the Irish pub we went to after the concert? The owner told me about an open stage next Saturday," Sam explained while he scooted closer to Aleksei. Honestly, every inch apart was too much, especially when Aleksei was rubbing his thumb across the palm of his hand.

Aleksei's eyes went wide. For a moment he forgot his dad being near in all his enthusiasm. He squeezed Sam's hand. "Really? That's great! We have to practice right now!"

"We could practise..." Sam drawled with a smirk on his face. He tickled the palm of Aleksei's hand, then his wrist, staring right into his eyes. "Wanna go to my place?"

"Sam!" Aleksei hissed, feeling his face grow at least five shades darker. It wasn't so much what he said, but how he said it.

Dad, however, simply blinked and smiled. "Will you be home for dinner? Your mom's got something special planned tonight."

"I, uh, sure I'll be home in time," Aleksei replied.

Really? Just, really? Dad still wasn't reacting, even after Sam talked to him like that? It wasn't like Aleksei wanted him to say or do something, but this was getting ridiculous. After a brief hesitation, Aleksei leaned forward and kissed Sam on the cheek.

"Let's go."

After a kiss on his cheek, Sam completely forgot about their surroundings, and everyone in their close vicinity. He was way too hyped about the fact that Aleksei wanted to go to his place to think straight.

Instead of thinking, he acted, and leaned in to press a kiss onto Aleksei's lips.

Even after all that, there was still no reaction from Aleksei's dad. Aleksei's head was reeling when they stepped into the hallway. He breathed out through his mouth, pulling a disbelieving face.

"These are incredibly new heights of denial," he muttered to Sam.

Sam chuckled, and pulled Aleksei into his arms. "It's okay, at least they're not kicking you out for it," Sam remembered Aleksei things could be worse. And since he could kiss Aleksei, it was exactly what he did.

Aleksei kissed Sam back and smiled against his lips. "That's true. And they do like you, my parents. They think you're a great 'friend' to me."

Sam smiled back and let out a light chuckle. "Oh, I'll be a great friend to you," he muttered, wiggling his eyebrows. "Let's go to my place."

*****

When Aleksei took a seat behind the piano his eye fell on one of his shirt buttons, which was still left open. His cheeks heated up as he casually closed it, hiding the evidence of what they'd been doing instead of practicing their music.

"So, let's get started?" he suggested with a small cough.

"Don't bother buttoning up, I don't mind undressing you again later." Sam answered with a smirk, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Aleksei snorted at Sam's remark, knowing he was blushing even harder than before. He should be used to Sam's flirting by now, but he wasn't.

"You're right; your messy hair will show people what we were doing anyway," he jokingly retorted.

Sam's hand immediately shot up to his hair, and he tried taming it while his cheeks flushed. It was useless, and eventually he gave up, taking his bow in hand. "Let's practice music for now."

Aleksei smiled. As a reply, he flipped his sheet music to the right page and started playing the piano intro to a piano cello version of Let it Go.

For a while, they were messing around with the song, trying to find a timing that complimented each other. It wasn't hard for them to find a rhythm together, and soon, they were creating beautiful music. Just like everywhere else, their chemistry while playing together was off the charts and Aleksei actually felt his stomach doing little flips when they made eye-contact.

Sam had goosebumps, caused by both their music, and the eye-contact with Aleksei. That was, until the door opened and they were interrupted by Jordy, and the magical moment was gone in the blink of an eye.

Jordy looked back and forth between the two boys, smirked, and turned to Sam. "Jeez, get a room you two."

Sam rolled his eyes. "We already got a room, idiot."

"But we can get another one. After practice," Aleksei blurted, so pleased he actually understood Jordy's remark and the double meaning that he forgot to be shy.

Jordy laughed over Aleksei's joke, and pointed in his direction. "Sam, please, keep him around. He's funny."

Sam again rolled his eyes. Or course he wanted Aleksei around, and Jordy should know that. "He's more than just funny and obviously he's going to be around more."

"Uh..." Aleksei had his hands folded in his lap, back to his usual state of not knowing what to say. He was glad he was more than just funny to Sam, because if he only had funny going for him... well, that wouldn't be good for him.

He turned to Sam. "Can we start over again?"

"Yeah," Sam agreed with a nod. "Let's take it from the top. Jordy, get lost, we're practising." He turned away from Jordy and further ignored him, getting ready to play the cello again. Sam then turned to Aleksei. "You can start playing, I'll join you."

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