Rain drops knocked against the window, punctuated by a gust of wind that left leaves, already turned yellow during its passage, clinging against the glass. Brian and Nick didn’t even know when it had started to rain, maybe some time after they finished arranging Nick’s clothes and before they lied down on the bed. Their  bed. Even if it was only the beginning, Nick could already see the change in their relationship, a step that went deeper and holding a much more important meaning: though still being two different individuals, there was no more distinction between things that had to be labeled as “mine” or “yours”. There was only one label that Nick couldn’t wait to use. Ours. Just like him and Brian ceased to exist as two lonely guys. 

Inside Brian’s arms, his head resting upon his chest and fingers caressing him through the hair, Nick realized that there wasn’t any other place where he would be able to feel so safe and protected. Moreover, he wasn’t scared anymore to let out his feelings or emotions and discuss about them in the open. Before meeting Brian, he had considered them as a weakness, a misleading flaw that made someone blind and unprotected against the enemy’s attacks. To him, it didn’t exist a serious and stable relationship but only a series of faces that could last longer than one night but never enough to admit “yes, we’re in a relationship”. It didn’t take a scientist to know where that conviction had started to grow inside his soul and, though Nick had already talked about with Brian, there were still some details he had left out. 

“My parents divorced when I was just ten years old. It wasn’t something dramatic, at least they never fought in front of me or else. They told me that they were staying together only because of me. Only some years later I found out that dad had found someone else, fell in love with her and left us. Mom... mom didn’t take well the news of dad’s second wedding. I guess she was still in love with him. I don’t know. But... she started looking for her true love. They never lasted more than a month, two or three. Mom always asked them to move in the house or we were the one moving in. And when they broke up, I was the one that had to pick up her pieces, comfort her and remind her that there would always be someone who would always love her, though I was just a kid and I wasn’t supposed to be the one in charge. So, I told myself that I would never be like her. I would never give away my heart so easily.” The fingers in his hair never stopped their soothing motion, not even when Brian’s lips left a kiss as a symbol of words there was no need to say out loud in that moment. 

Brian had changed everything, most of all Brian had changed him. Because Brian had showed him a world he had only dreamed about, a world he had wanted to touch and be part of but never let himself close enough. With kisses and smiles, he had brought down every objections, every walls that surrounded his heart. Because of Brian, now Nick knew that the greatest thing was to love and be loved, even though sometimes it hurt and it didn’t last. 

“Surely we are the perfect couple.” Brian said out of nowhere, managing to make Nick smile. 

“Didn’t you say once that it was destiny for us to meet and fall in love?” 

“Yes. One way or another, we were meant to be together.”