Brian's mouth was dry when he woke up the next morning. He smacked his lips together and ran his tongue along the roof of his mouth. He swallowed, but it was no use. He drank too much and now his throat was like sandpaper.

He rolled over, pulling the rough hotel sheets closer up to him. There weren't many of them - in fact he had nothing. He pulled at them again. What the hell?

He peeled open his eyes and there laying beside him was Nick. His back was facing him and his blonde hair was a dishevelled mess, but there he was. Just as Brian had left him the night before.

Brian gulped. His stomach dropped. Everything came rushing back. The drinks, the laughing, the limo and his stupid idea to innocently walk Nick to his hotel room.

Yeah, right.

Obviously that wasn't all that had happened, and Brian remembered it clearly. This boy was laying here beside him, sleeping it all off. Like they hadn't drank half the bar and spent half the night kissing and touching each other.

“Fuck,” Brian swore, sitting up and putting his head in his hands. He had to get out of here. Then he glanced over at the clock. 7:40am. “Fuck,” he said, louder this time. He had to be awake and showered and ready to go to the airport in twenty minutes.

Of course Brian wasn't exactly being quiet and Nick stirred. Brian clutched the sheets, trying to stay perfectly still so Nick wouldn't wake up. Because then he could just get out of here and as much as he knew that was a shitty thing to do the alternative was so much worse.

But Nick didn't stay asleep. Instead he rolled over. He kept his head lazily on the pillow as he opened his eyes. “Hey,” he said softly, his voice raw.

“Hey...” Brian said uneasily. How could he have let this happen?

But Nick surprised him. He rolled onto his back and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “Look, you don't have to say anything...”

Brian swallowed, a dry lump forcing its way back down his throat. Just because it had to be this way didn't mean he really wanted it to be. Instead of them having an easy morning after, the sexual tension was thicker than it ever had been.

“We probably shouldn't have...” Nick started slowly, darting his eyes over to Brian.

“I have a girlfriend,” Brian cut him off. He didn't even know why - maybe Nick was testing him. Hoping that he'd tell him that everything was fine and that this was fine and that they could see each other again. But they couldn't. They definitely couldn't.

Nick just looked at him for a second with narrowed eyes. “Uh huh. Guess you better go then.” He rolled back over and pulled the sheets back over himself.

Brian sighed to himself. That was shitty - but what else could he do? It wasn't like it wasn't true. Plus he really did have to get going. He shuffled out of bed, quickly pulling on his clothes as he picked them up off them floor.

He took one final glance at Nick before walking out of the room and towards his own.

As luck would have it, when he made it to their floor Howie was walking towards him holding a cup of coffee. “Brian?” he asked cautiously, looking him up and down. Obviously he noticed he was wearing the same clothes as the night before.

Brian gulped. “Morning.”

“Walk of shame?” Howie laughed.

Brian took in a deep breath. Maybe Howie was like that. And AJ. And Kevin. But he wasn't. He really wasn't - especially not with another guy!

“When did you go back out?” Howie laughed. And Brian clued in - he must have thought he'd gone to find a girl after they'd all come back to the hotel.

“I uh... I didn't...” Brian said lamely, and then he berated himself. Maybe it was better to just let Howie think that. “I just fell asleep in Nick's room.”

Howie gave him a look. “Are you sure?” he asked with a bit of a laugh. “Come on, I won't tell Leigh.”

Brian just laughed. He forced everything he had into it. Because Howie couldn't know that he was right on the mark. Even if it seemed like he didn't suspect a thing about Nick.

“Oh, hey,” Kevin said, turning the corner and holding his own cup of coffee. “You're up.” He also gave Brian the once-over. Just like Howie had and then raised his eyebrow.

“I fell asleep in Nick's room,” Brian said, shrugging and holding up his hands like the two of them were crazy.

“He's lying,” Howie laughed, giving Kevin a knowing look. “There's girls everywhere, dude.”

“Yeah, but then he'd have been in his own room,” Kevin said, bailing Brian out.

“Right!” Brian said, pointing at Kevin. “Exactly!” Maybe he was a little too excited about that, but he didn't care. Kevin had just given him the perfect alibi, because the thought that he might've done anything with Nick wasn't even going to enter their minds, apparently. And Brian was fine with that. They didn't need to know, and he didn't need to remember, and everyone could just forget about that blonde guy who only had one song.

Brian swallowed. Or two songs. And the thought of Nick singing flashed through his mind again. “I gotta get ready for the flight,” he said, turning towards his room. He would just have a shower and get dressed and leave Europe and this whole mess would be behind him.

* * *

Nick sighed to himself after Brian left. He wasn't going to go back to sleep - he just made it look like that so Brian could have an easy escape. Because it was obvious he regretted being there. That the whole thing was just a drunken mistake.

As much as Nick hated it, he knew Brian was probably right. They couldn't get mixed up in a scandal together and destroy both of their careers in the process.

Still, Nick couldn't help but go over the events of the night before in his head. Brian had totally come onto him - hadn't he? Maybe Nick had sought him out by going over to their table. But Brian was all over him the whole night, touching his leg and shoulder as the two of them giggled together while the alcohol kept flowing.

And Brian was the one who suggested Nick go back to the hotel with him and the rest of his group. Brian was the one who declared he was going to Nick's room.

Okay - Nick was the one who kissed him. Fine. But as far as Nick could recall Brian was basically begging him to do it. Also - Nick stopped and Brian was the one who kept it all going.

So what the hell? Oh right, girlfriend. Nick groaned. Obviously Brian had a girlfriend before he started flirting with Nick, so why the hell even do that?

It didn't make any sense. Nick rolled over and stuffed his face into his pillow. The whole bed still smelled like Brian's cologne. Or maybe he was just imagining it. He didn't know - he didn't really care either. He just took a deep breath and relished in it for another moment.

Then he sat up.

He had to forget about this. He thought he was cute and he got what he wanted and now it was over. It couldn't go on anyway. Girlfriend or no girlfriend. Plus - potential scandal and life-ruining revelation of having a relationship with a guy aside - how could he have a long distance relationship anyway? He was on the go literally all the time.

He walked over to the window and opened the curtains. Light streamed into the room and burned his eyes, but he kept staring outside. He leaned his arm against the cool glass. Life was supposed to be easier when he was in a hotel room.

* * *

Brian leaned his head against the airplane window as they took off. He sighed to himself and closed his eyes. He didn't even feel tired - he probably should have considering how late he was up the night before, but he didn't.

This whole thing with Nick was a mess. The worst part was, it wasn't even a thing. It happened and now it was over. But that didn't stop Brian from replaying the entire evening over and over again in his mind.

Brian glanced up once the flight levelled off. He sighed - he was never one to keep this kind of thing inside. He always had to talk it out. So he stood up and walked over to where Kevin was sitting.

“Hey,” he said, leaning on Kevin's seat. He glanced over at AJ, who was sitting in the window seat beside him. “Can I sit with Kevin for a bit?”

AJ sighed, but he uncrossed his arms and shuffled past Kevin so that Brian could sit down. Once AJ was gone and presumably sitting in Brian's seat beside Howie, Brian sat down.

“What's up Cuz?” Kevin asked, still sort of flipping through the Dutch newspaper in his hands.

Brian sighed. “I spent the night with Nick last night,” he said, surprised at how easily the words came out. Probably because it was Kevin, and Kevin was easy to talk to. He thanked god that there were just two seats in each row so they had a bit of privacy.

“Yeah, I know,” Kevin said, still looking down at the paper. Brian rolled his eyes as he glanced down at the paper too. It wasn't like Kevin could speak Dutch or anything.

“No...” Brian said slowly. This was worse now because he was going to have to explain it. Why couldn't Kevin just get it? “I mean like...” he trailed off, hoping Kevin would just understand.

Kevin turned his head slowly towards Brian and sighed. He folded up the newspaper like he knew he wasn't going to be getting back to it anytime soon. “You slept with him,” he said, more like it was a statement than a question.

“No!” Brian held his hand up. “I mean... yeah, but not like...” he put his head in his hands. “We did a lot of other stuff, though,” he muttered. Maybe this wasn't going to be as easy as he thought, because his face felt like it was on fire.

Kevin sighed. “I knew y'all were getting along real well. I didn't realise it was like that.”

“Well it was,” Brian mumbled, pulling his hands away from his face and actually daring to look at Kevin. “I don't know how it happened,” he groaned putting his face in his hands again.

“Are you gonna break it off with Leigh?” Kevin asked. He was never one to beat around the bush.

Brian shook his head. No, that he was sure of. If nothing else, anyway.

“You're not.” Kevin leaned back in his seat. “You just spent the night with some guy-”

“He's not some guy,” Brian stressed, suddenly keen on defending Nick. Or defending himself from the accusation of sleeping with someone random, anyway. “AJ and Howie know him.”

“Yeah, well, you didn't.”

Brian shrugged. He supposed that was fair.

“You're just gonna go back home and pretend like nothing happened?”

Brian shrugged again. “Yeah?” he asked, like he wasn't sure of it himself.

“And like nothing's ever gonna happen with him again?”

“I guess?”

“Are you sure?” Kevin pressed. “Cause you're here talking to me about it.”

Brian slumped down in his seat. “I just felt weird about it. I wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy.”

Kevin chuckled at that. “I don't think you're crazy. I didn't know you liked guys,” he paused for a second. “But I don't think you're crazy.”

“Yeah, I didn't know that either,” Brian said. This was useless. He was getting nowhere with Kevin. Truthfully he wasn't even sure what he wanted out of this chat. Maybe he wanted Kevin to yell at him and tell him how stupid he was. Then he'd feel justified in never speaking to Nick again. Like this was just something he had to get out of his system.

“Look, Bri,” Kevin continued, because he could never just leave anything hanging. He always had to offer some kind of advice, even if he didn't really know what that was. “If you're not planning on breaking it off with Leigh, you should probably cool it with Nick. Don't see him, don't call him-”

“I don't even have his number,” Brian interrupted. He couldn't even call Nick if he wanted to. Which was total bullshit because if he really did want to get a hold of Nick, there was probably a way.

“Good, you don't need it,” Kevin said, looking at Brian seriously. “If this was just some drunken thing, then it's over. Just move on. Go home and be happy with Leigh.”

“Yeah,” Brian mumbled. Kevin was right - even if part of him didn't want to believe it. It was like his cousin could read his mind. This thing with Nick couldn't ever move forward. He had to let it go. “You're right.”