The moment he handed in his last exam, Brett felt a heavy weight leave his shoulders. Another semester finished, and now he had a full month vacation before he had to go back to studying. He closed his eyes and drew in a deep, full breath. He'd always hated exam season, the constant stress, the neverending flow of work. He'd been so happy when he'd left High School behind with no intention of going to University, considering the whole taking exams thing well over and done with for the rest of his life. Going back to study at 25, after years of not opening a book to do other than read, had been considerably harder than he'd expected, and the only thing making it bearable was the fact that it was music he was learning. Music was the only thing he would have ever considered going to Uni for, and, as it was, he found that, as long as he could attend violin lessons, he didn't mind his other classes all that much. Still, the holiday reprieve was a welcomed one, and he found his spirits lifting after weeks of roaming the halls like a tangible ghost, eyebags deep under his eyes.
He headed back to the dormitories to drop his things, and found them empty. All his friends were in the cafeteria, celebrating the end of their examinations. He briefly contemplated joining them, but then a sudden urge seized him, an urge to see Eddy after nearly three weeks of no contact, not even in violin lessons, which were cancelled during exam season. So instead of heading up, he went down, straight to Eddy's room. He knocked softly. There was no answer. He pulled at the handle, expecting the door to be locked, but to his surprise, it wasn't.
He peeked inside the room and found it dark and empty. He then glanced around the hall, saw no one, and quietly slipped in.
♪ ♪ ♪
Eddy came back several hours later to the sight of Brett flopped face down onto his bed, wrapped in his blanket, snoring softly. He approached the bed quietly, so as to not wake him up, turned on the little lamp in his nightstand, and sat beside him. He watched him sleep intently for a while, his breathing unconsciously slowing down to match that of the boy in his bed. He raised his hand to slowly glide his finger along Brett's cheek, the skin smooth and cold beneath his touch. Brett stirred slightly, but didn't wake up.
"Yang!!!"
Brett inhaled sharply and jerked his head up from Eddy's pillow, that he'd been holding on for dear life until that point. He blinked owlishly at the other man, trying hard to focus his vision without his glasses on.
"Geez, Eddy," he mumbled.
The man smirked.
"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty."
"Go fuck yourself," Brett answered, and plopped back into the pillow.
Eddy snickered. "I would, but you're right in the middle of my bed, and the bathroom's just not that comfortable for that kind of activity."
Brett groaned.
"Come on, roll over, you greedy little thing."
Brett did as told, as Eddy removed his shoes and pants to get into bed. Brett felt himself blush, and buried his face up to his eyes into the covers so his teacher wouldn't see. Eddy sagged against the bed with a long, weary sigh, worming his way up and under the covers until he was at eye level with Brett.
"Are you all done with your exams?" Eddy asked, his voice soft.
( It always was when they were in bed together , Brett had noticed).
He opened his arms, an inviting gesture, and Brett scooted closer, resting his head in the other's chest. "Yeah."
Eddy hummed quietly, and Brett could sense the smile on the man's face. "And you now have a full month without lessons, huh?"
Brett nodded. "I will use the time to practice, though," he added quickly.
Eddy chuckled. "Pity. I had some ideas to put that free time to good use."
Brett blushed harder at that, and hummed noncommittally. He felt a warm hand sneaking up his t-shirt and softly stroking his back. He closed his eyes and buried his head in the crook of Eddy's neck, breathing deeply. Eddy's smell was everywhere, enveloping him and making his head light.
It was in the pillow he'd been holding, swiftly pulled aside so his owner could take its place.
It was in the blankets that kept the biting cold of the room away from his now naked body.
It was in the clothes Eddy was wearing, or so he assumed, because he couldn't really smell them now that they were scattered around the floor.
Brett could even swear he could taste it on his lips when they pressed against his own, biting, hungry, desperate.
It was also in the man's hair when he slipped down to bite his neck, his chest, his thighs.
It lingered a bit on his hands after he pulled at Eddy's hair, when a wave of pleasure so strong made him arch his back and cover his face with them in embarrassment.
It was on Eddy's breath when he whispered in Brett's ear relax and I've got you and you are so pretty and you feel so good and fuck and ah .
It was now on Brett, covered in both their sweats, panting, trying to grasp up to the last strand of that smell that threatened to suffocate him under his weight.
It was also on Eddy's soap, the one he always used when showering, the one he now also smuggled in for Brett to use in his own bathroom, because the boy seemed to have taken a liking to it.
It was in his chest when he opened his arms for Brett to rest his head in it.
And it soaked the t-shirt Brett slept on, so, come morning, when he left Eddy's room, the smell still lingered on him for a few more hours.
♪ ♪ ♪
Brett hated peas with a passion.
He was far from a picky eater, but there were a few things he just couldn't stomach, and peas were one of them. He kept pushing them around his plate, waiting for his friends to finish dinner so they could all go play some games together. They seemed to be taking their time today, though, the conversation flowing animatedly, but Brett's thoughts were far, far away, back in Eddy's room, where he'd spent the whole of that day, and some time yesterday, and then some time the day before that. The man, true to his word, had endeavoured to seize the free time they both had now and put it to good use. Brett found he didn't mind, not one bit, but this new state of things left his brain scattered, eyes moony and far away, a small smile ever-present in his face. It also made paying attention to everything else much, much harder, as he often found his thoughts drifting, heedless of the world around him.
This time, though, his attention snapped back when he heard Eddy's name.
"... Chen even told her that he was very proud of how far she's come and what a good violinist she is. She..."
"Who?" Brett interjected.
"My friend, Sophie, you know her. She's a student of Chen's. We saw her recital last month, she played Mozart, remember? Anyway," she continued, "she was shaken. She told me that not even in her wildest dreams did she expect Chen to give her such a compliment."
"She's a bit of a prodigy, though, I don't know why she was surprised." Patrick said. "It's obvious that Chen adores her."
"Yeah, but he's never been so... vocal about it, has he? And that's not all," Phoebe went on. "This kid I'm helping with maths, Evan, he's also a student of his, and he was telling me the other day how Chen had been complimenting him on his vibrato. He said he'd never seen the teacher so happy about his playing, ever, poor thing." She laughed softly.
Ibo shrugged. "Yeah, I've also heard that he's being far nicer lately. Not even Bretty here complains about him all that much anymore, now, do you?"
Brett gave a noncommittal grunt.
"Huh, that's true. Maybe he's getting old," Shaun suggested.
"Do you think he's getting laid?"
Brett nearly spat the water he was drinking through his nose. Noises of disgust arose from the group of friends.
"Good God, Ibo, don't ...!"
"...a mental image I did not need, thank you very much!"
Phoebe rolled her eyes. "Oh, grow up, the lot of you. Besides, Chen's not one to go sleeping around. I don't think he's been with anyone since..." but she didn't finish the sentence.
The mood at the table suddenly shifted. It was obvious that this was a sensitive topic.
But Brett was damned if he was going to let it go. "Since what?" he asked.
Ibo shuffled on the bench, Phoebe licked her lips nervously, and Patrick was suddenly very interested in the peas on his plate. Brett crossed his arms. "Guys! Come on! Phoebe?"
"I don't know, Brett. I'm not sure I should be telling..."
"Oh, come on, Phoebe," Ibo shrugged. "He's going to find out if he goes around asking about it. Everybody knows everything here. We might as well tell him."
Phoebe glared at him, but caved in with a sight.
"You see, there was this girl, Clara. She was rescued along with some other musicians while they were being transferred from one prison to another. Our people got wind of it and organised a big raid, one of the biggest ones I remember. They managed to seize the truck the officials were using to relocate the prisoners. They were gone for days, but they all came back practically unscathed. Looking back, that should have made us suspicious, but..."
"Nah, don't say that. We couldn't have known." Ibo shook his head gravely.
Phoebe went on. "She lived with us for a few years. Completed her education, got a job in administration, she was very good with numbers. She never presented as a musician, though, but nobody thought it was weird back then. They, well, we all just assumed there had been some mix-up in the government's papers and she'd been captured by mistake. It was not the first time it had happened. But they couldn't let her go, not only because she was still a target according to the government's records, but because she knew about us. So they let her stay. She made some friends, eventually started dating Chen. They were a thing for... I don't know, two years?" She looked up to Patrick for confirmation. The boy nodded. "Yeah, roughly two years, maybe a bit less. That is, until the day you got here."
Brett suddenly forgot how to breathe. "What do you mean, until the day I got here?"
Phoebe eyed her friends warily, then looked back at Brett.
"The night of the first raid, when you were taken to prison, something went wrong. I don't know much about it, but apparently there was someone within the complex feeding the people outside information about us. They found out, and it was an absolute mess. It took them around a week, but eventually, they discovered it had been this girl all along. Apparently, she had volunteered for a job in administration so she could have access to otherwise classified information, and she had started dating Chen only after finding out he was quite a high rank within the military here. Chen didn't know anything about the whole thing, he was out trying to rescue you and the others from that prison. Apparently, he totally lost it when he came back."
Ibo huffed. "You sound like you pity him."
Phoebe glared at him. "Do you have a problem with that?"
Ibo crossed his arms. "I have a problem with him. If he didn't want this to happen, he should've kept his mouth shut."
"Come on, Ibo," Shaun interjected. "You just said it yourself, he couldn't have known. None of us could've."
At that, he seemed appeased. Still, he grumbled and added, "I still believe that he should not have gone around spilling secrets to anyone ."
"Can you blame him, though?" Phoebe said softly. "He fully trusted her. They were engaged, after all."