FIC: The Convention (2/?)
Jan. 23rd, 2008 08:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nowadventuringTitle: The Convention (2/?)
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
serotonin_storm
Fandom: Drake & Josh
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Drake/Josh UST
Warnings: stepcest
Word Count: 2400 words
Summary: “Come on, all we need to do is get used to it.”
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Notes: Edited 12/9/08.
In the week that led up to the convention, Josh didn't talk to Drake much. Drake wasn't worried; Josh wasn't avoiding him, or it'd be a little more obvious – Josh was taken to dramatics. But life always seemed kind of unbalanced when they weren't living it together. Plus he kept failing tests without the extra tutoring.
When he got home Thursday, his brother was already there, sitting at the table building a house of cards. It was something he always did when he was frustrated and couldn't come up with a solution inside that big head of his. “Aggression?” Drake asked. Josh nodded. “Mindy again?” That Creature caused more problems than all of the girls Drake had ever gone out with, combined.
“Nah,” Josh said. “She's not speaking to me much.”
“Oh, did she finally find the dead rat I left in her locker?”
Josh whirled around, and the cards tumbled to the table. “You did that?” he demanded, hysteria already edging its way into his tone. “You killed a rat and put it in Mindy's locker?”
“No,” he said, crossing his arms. “I found a dead rat and put it in Mindy's locker.”
“You!” Josh cried, lunging for him. He side-stepped just in time, and Josh tumbled to the ground with a bang. “Ow,” he grumbled, rubbing his head.
“I don't know what you're making such a big deal about,” Drake told him. “It was funny.”
“Oh, funny, funny, funny,” Josh mocked, waving his arms. “We're all laughin' now!”
“Dude, calm down.”
“No, man, okay?” his brother sighed. “She's not talking to me now.”
This was confusing. “Wait, aren't you guys broken up, or what? I can never keep track.” Whenever he thought Josh and the Creature were officially over, he'd come across them swapping spit somewhere. Disgusting and it messed with his mind. Mindy was probably proud of herself.
“Yeah, me neither,” Josh admitted. “I don't think it's that important.”
“So you're still on for Saturday, right?” he asked, disappearing into the kitchen for a soda. Josh followed, scrubbing a hand across his face.
“I guess.”
Now that wasn't promising. “You gonna back out on me?”
“No,” Josh protested vehemently. “I said I would help you out, and I will, bro. It's just a little...weird, that's all.”
“Um, duh,” he said, ducking into the fridge and grabbing a Mountain Fizz.
“Don't “um, duh” me!” A hand touched his shoulder lightly, and he turned to look at Josh's uncertain face, tossing the soda can back and forth between his hands. “Look, are you sure you want to do this, Drake?” Josh asked. “Absolutely positive?”
No. “Yeah! Come on, all we need to do is get used to it.”
“Get used to it?” Josh repeated warily.
“Yeah, like the touching and everything.”
Eyebrows contracting, Josh instantly took a step back. “That's alright,” he said quickly. “I've touched you before. I really don't need to practice. In fact, I'll bet I'm really good at it. So good that no practice is needed. None at all.”
“Chill,” Drake said, rolling his eyes. “Look.” He tugged on Josh's wrist, and his brother stumbled after. “Just relax and put your arms around me.”
Josh looked seriously freaked. “What?”
“Put your arms around me.”
“I don't think – ”
“Just do it.”
“But I don't want to – ”
“Do it.”
“I think it's a really bad – ”
“Josh!”
“Oh fine!” Warm arms wrapped around him. “Happy now?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Now if you'd just stop holding me like I'm going to bite you, we might be convincing.”
“Picky, picky man,” the voice in his ear griped.
He pushed Josh back with his arm. “Here, get behind me.” The other boy went pale. “Don't be such a baby; I'm not asking you to do anything weird.”
“Is that so?” Josh muttered, but he moved.
“Alright,” Drake instructed, “now put your arms around my waist, like I'm a girl.”
He heard a chuckle. “You're actually volunteering to be the girl?”
“No,” he said. This whole “gay” thing was more complicated than he'd anticipated. He'd forgotten about that weird guy/girl thing. “But I'm smaller, so it makes sense. Not that I'd be the girl,” he snapped before Josh could speak. “That you'd be the one doing the holding.”
“You're just making me do it so you don't have to.”
“I am not! It's just because I'm a little shorter, that's all.”
He could practically feel Josh smirk. “A little shorter? You're a lot shorter, and thinner. You're a dainty little fairy man!”
“Dainty? Fairy?!” He gaped. That jerk! “I am not dainty! I'm just – slight, that's all.”
“Petite!”
Drake didn't exactly know what that meant, but he was positive it was something for girls. “You used to be fat!” he blurted.
Josh did an impressively dramatic double take and gasped loudly. “How cruel!”
“Josh.” Josh glared at him, lip stuck out in a pout. “Look, Josh, I'm sorry. Now can we get back to what we were doing?” he sighed. Josh stuck his chin out sulkily, but nodded. “Okay, arms,” Drake said, and he felt them slip around him. That was better. Except... “Stand a little closer.”
“What, why?” Josh demanded.
“Because no one is going to believe we're together if we have to have two inches of space at all times. I don't understand what your problem is. You touch me all the time. How is this any different than standing with your arm around my shoulders?”
“It's way different! It's romantic!”
“Only fake romantic. Now relax.”
“I am relaxed.”
“Dude, you're tensed up like I'm about to stick a needle in your arm,” he protested. “Come on – it's me, Drake. No one is going to know about this, so stop acting like we're on candid camera.”
Wait... Candid camera...
Megan!
He pushed Josh away from him instantly, then bit his fist and flinched as his brother toppled over the table and to the ground. “Oh, sorry.”
“Sorry? Sorry?” Josh shouted. “What'd you do that for?”
“We're not being careful enough. Megan probably has cameras everywhere. She could use this to blackmail us forever, man. We need to go somewhere safe.”
Josh pursed his lips thoughtfully as he stood, hand massaging the hip he'd landed on. “Well, where is that?”
And because they'd been eerily in sync for years, at the same moment they turned to each other, realization dawned on both their faces. Drake hooked his arm with his brother's, and they turned toward the door.
“Ready?”
“Let's do it, brotha!”
--
“Mocha Cola, brotha?” Josh offered, grabbing a can of soda from the cooler next to them.
Drake took it, cradling it against his chest with one hand. “So Robbie really doesn't use this tree house anymore?” he asked. He popped the top and watched it fizz.
“Nope,” Josh answered.
“So we built it for no reason?”
“You betcha.”
“Good to know.”
He took a sip of his soda, then tried his best not to make a face. Josh looked over at him curiously. “Oh, man, sorry,” he said, tossing Drake another. “I forgot you hate diet.”
“S'alright.” He held up the already open can in one hand. “You want this?”
“No, you already drank some. I don't want your spittle!”
“Josh,” he said, placing his free hand on Josh's shoulder. “People are supposed to believe we're voluntarily swapping...spittle...in our free time. Now are they ever going to do that if you won't even take a drink from my soda?”
Josh shrugged. “We could just tell them I've got Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.”
“Wait, that's the thing where someone needs to clean all the time?” he asked. Josh nodded. “Uh, you do.”
“Do not! I'm just cleanly, unlike some people sitting here a drinking a Mocha Cola.”
“You are sitting here drinking a Mocha Cola, Josh.”
“No,” Josh said, poking him in the chest. “I'm drinking a diet Mocha Cola.”
“Josh, you organize your underwear drawer,” he said. “You organize my underwear drawer!” And the thought of Josh touching his boxers, and then the boxers going on his body afterward? Yeah, that was weird.
Josh narrowed his eyes. “Are we going to work on this or talk?”
Drake took one last sip before setting the soda down. “Work. Okay, come here.” He patted the floor in front of himself.
His brother didn't move. “What're you going to do?”
“Sexually assault you,” he said sarcastically. For all that people called Drake slow, there were some pretty obvious things that Josh just didn't get. “What do you think I'm going to do, you moron? I'm going to let you lean on me!”
“Do I have to?” Josh whined.
“Yes,” he replied forcefully. “Now get over here.”
Josh scooted over between Drake's legs and sat there, back poker straight. Rolling his eyes, Drake grasped his shoulder and pushed until his brother sunk down, his head resting against Drake's chest, his arm resting over Drake's leg. “Be less tense,” he hissed, and as he watched, Josh squeezed his eyes shut and, limb by limb, forced his body to relax.
“That's better,” Drake told him reassuringly. “Now don't freak out; I'm going to put my arm over your shoulder.” Josh nodded stiffly, and Drake draped an arm over his brother's sweatshirt. When Josh's hair immediately started to tickle his chin, Drake pushed the other boy over until his head rested in the crook of Drake's neck. At least that way it was pushed down by Drake's chin, and the flyaway strands wouldn't drive him crazy.
“There,” he said. “Comfy?”
“No.”
He slapped the side of Josh's head, rustling his hair. “Stop pouting. This isn't so bad.”
“Yeah, not for you,” Josh said grumpily. “But it's hurting my back. Lumbar problems, remember?”
Drake huffed with exasperation. This was beginning to look like a lost cause. Josh was making him nuts. If there ever was a guy who couldn't just go with the flow, his stepbrother was it, and it annoyed the heck out of Drake sometimes. But just as he was seriously thinking of getting up, Josh muttered, “Here, just let me – ” and sat up, his back sliding up Drake's chest slowly.
The next time Josh spoke, it was directly into Drake's ear, their heads resting together against the back wall of the tree house. “Is this okay for you?” he asked quietly. Drake supposed he had to, because they both knew if that if Josh blew his eardrum and Drake couldn't play or sing, Josh would literally be dead.
“It's fine,” he said shortly.
“Okay.” There was another pause and then, “Drake?”
“What?”
“Can I have my book please?”
He leaned over quickly, grabbed the paperback sitting by the cooler, and dropped it into Josh's lap. Josh picked it up, hand brushing the cover over and over again. “Happy?” Drake asked
His brother didn't answer him, just opened his book silently and started reading.
--
Drake didn't know when exactly he fell asleep, but he woke pretty darn abruptly, head jarring against Josh's as he jumped. They both yelped at the impact, and then Drake realized who it was holding him and relaxed.
“Oh, good,” Josh grumbled. “You're up.”
“How long have I been out?” he asked, rubbing his eyes sleepily. It was dark outside the little window. Josh was reading by the light of a flashlight. Where the flashlight had come from or why Josh had been carrying it in the first place, Drake didn't know. He honestly didn't think he wanted to.
“A couple hours,” Josh answered. He put down the book, but left the flashlight shining. Drake took it from him without thinking and started playing with it in his left hand.
“Do Mom and Walter know where we are?”
Josh nodded, hair brushing softly against Drake's cheek. “I left them a note that said we'd be at Craig's.”
Well, that wasn't believable at all. And Josh was supposed to be the smart one. “Why would I be at Craig's?”
“He's helping us study for the big chemistry exam that's coming up,” Josh answered smugly.
“What're you talking about, there's no – ohhhh.” Okay, Josh was the smart one.
“So you wanna get back in?”
It was getting pretty cold. But there was something in the back of Drake's mind, something he felt as if he'd forgotten. He knew he had one more – oh! “But we haven't kissed yet,” he said.
The proceeding jump from his brother must have been ten feet in the air, and Drake couldn't help wondering if there was a record for that sort of thing. If there was, Josh was getting pretty good at it. Maybe they could videotape the next time Drake freaked him out.
“K-kiss?” Josh stammered.
“Well, yeah,” Drake said. “We're gonna have to kiss if we want people to think we're together.” He laughed; how obvious. “Duh.”
“I'm not kissing you!” Josh said loudly, and Drake was really glad his brother wasn't right by his ear at that moment. He knew it was a bad idea letting him stay there.
“Come again?” he said.
“I am not kissing you!” Josh repeated.
“Josh, you've kissed me before.” Josh stared at him in total flabbergasted disbelief. “Oprah... Tickets... Megan and her flash photography... Ringin' any bells?”
“That's hardly the same thing,” Josh said defensively. “Oprah is kiss worthy.”
“Josh, just kiss me.”
“No.”
“Come on, kiss me.”
“No, Drake.”
“Kiss me!”
“I said no, mister! I'm layin' some ground rules right now.” He slapped the floor with one hand. “No kissing.”
“Fine,” Drake pouted. “Do you wanna just go in now?” Josh nodded with a smile, and they both stood, shaking the sleep out of their legs. Josh grabbed the cooler, and without really thinking about it, Drake picked his brother's book and flashlight up, and then they climbed to the ground.
“Hey Josh?” he said as they snuck across their neighbor's yard.
“Yeah?”
“Just a little kiss.”
“For the love of Bejesus, no!”
“Just one?”
“None, Drake. N-O-N-E. I know it rhymes, but it ain't the same word.”
“I'll give you a foot massage. A foot massage, Josh.”
“Give it up, you big freak!”
“Foot massage!”
“I said no!”
“Okay, okay. Calm down. Just asking.”
“Hmph."
“So, hey Josh?”
“What?”
“...Just one little peck?”
< Part 1 | Part 3>
Author:
serotonin_stormFandom: Drake & Josh
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Drake/Josh UST
Warnings: stepcest
Word Count: 2400 words
Summary: “Come on, all we need to do is get used to it.”
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Notes: Edited 12/9/08.
In the week that led up to the convention, Josh didn't talk to Drake much. Drake wasn't worried; Josh wasn't avoiding him, or it'd be a little more obvious – Josh was taken to dramatics. But life always seemed kind of unbalanced when they weren't living it together. Plus he kept failing tests without the extra tutoring.
When he got home Thursday, his brother was already there, sitting at the table building a house of cards. It was something he always did when he was frustrated and couldn't come up with a solution inside that big head of his. “Aggression?” Drake asked. Josh nodded. “Mindy again?” That Creature caused more problems than all of the girls Drake had ever gone out with, combined.
“Nah,” Josh said. “She's not speaking to me much.”
“Oh, did she finally find the dead rat I left in her locker?”
Josh whirled around, and the cards tumbled to the table. “You did that?” he demanded, hysteria already edging its way into his tone. “You killed a rat and put it in Mindy's locker?”
“No,” he said, crossing his arms. “I found a dead rat and put it in Mindy's locker.”
“You!” Josh cried, lunging for him. He side-stepped just in time, and Josh tumbled to the ground with a bang. “Ow,” he grumbled, rubbing his head.
“I don't know what you're making such a big deal about,” Drake told him. “It was funny.”
“Oh, funny, funny, funny,” Josh mocked, waving his arms. “We're all laughin' now!”
“Dude, calm down.”
“No, man, okay?” his brother sighed. “She's not talking to me now.”
This was confusing. “Wait, aren't you guys broken up, or what? I can never keep track.” Whenever he thought Josh and the Creature were officially over, he'd come across them swapping spit somewhere. Disgusting and it messed with his mind. Mindy was probably proud of herself.
“Yeah, me neither,” Josh admitted. “I don't think it's that important.”
“So you're still on for Saturday, right?” he asked, disappearing into the kitchen for a soda. Josh followed, scrubbing a hand across his face.
“I guess.”
Now that wasn't promising. “You gonna back out on me?”
“No,” Josh protested vehemently. “I said I would help you out, and I will, bro. It's just a little...weird, that's all.”
“Um, duh,” he said, ducking into the fridge and grabbing a Mountain Fizz.
“Don't “um, duh” me!” A hand touched his shoulder lightly, and he turned to look at Josh's uncertain face, tossing the soda can back and forth between his hands. “Look, are you sure you want to do this, Drake?” Josh asked. “Absolutely positive?”
No. “Yeah! Come on, all we need to do is get used to it.”
“Get used to it?” Josh repeated warily.
“Yeah, like the touching and everything.”
Eyebrows contracting, Josh instantly took a step back. “That's alright,” he said quickly. “I've touched you before. I really don't need to practice. In fact, I'll bet I'm really good at it. So good that no practice is needed. None at all.”
“Chill,” Drake said, rolling his eyes. “Look.” He tugged on Josh's wrist, and his brother stumbled after. “Just relax and put your arms around me.”
Josh looked seriously freaked. “What?”
“Put your arms around me.”
“I don't think – ”
“Just do it.”
“But I don't want to – ”
“Do it.”
“I think it's a really bad – ”
“Josh!”
“Oh fine!” Warm arms wrapped around him. “Happy now?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Now if you'd just stop holding me like I'm going to bite you, we might be convincing.”
“Picky, picky man,” the voice in his ear griped.
He pushed Josh back with his arm. “Here, get behind me.” The other boy went pale. “Don't be such a baby; I'm not asking you to do anything weird.”
“Is that so?” Josh muttered, but he moved.
“Alright,” Drake instructed, “now put your arms around my waist, like I'm a girl.”
He heard a chuckle. “You're actually volunteering to be the girl?”
“No,” he said. This whole “gay” thing was more complicated than he'd anticipated. He'd forgotten about that weird guy/girl thing. “But I'm smaller, so it makes sense. Not that I'd be the girl,” he snapped before Josh could speak. “That you'd be the one doing the holding.”
“You're just making me do it so you don't have to.”
“I am not! It's just because I'm a little shorter, that's all.”
He could practically feel Josh smirk. “A little shorter? You're a lot shorter, and thinner. You're a dainty little fairy man!”
“Dainty? Fairy?!” He gaped. That jerk! “I am not dainty! I'm just – slight, that's all.”
“Petite!”
Drake didn't exactly know what that meant, but he was positive it was something for girls. “You used to be fat!” he blurted.
Josh did an impressively dramatic double take and gasped loudly. “How cruel!”
“Josh.” Josh glared at him, lip stuck out in a pout. “Look, Josh, I'm sorry. Now can we get back to what we were doing?” he sighed. Josh stuck his chin out sulkily, but nodded. “Okay, arms,” Drake said, and he felt them slip around him. That was better. Except... “Stand a little closer.”
“What, why?” Josh demanded.
“Because no one is going to believe we're together if we have to have two inches of space at all times. I don't understand what your problem is. You touch me all the time. How is this any different than standing with your arm around my shoulders?”
“It's way different! It's romantic!”
“Only fake romantic. Now relax.”
“I am relaxed.”
“Dude, you're tensed up like I'm about to stick a needle in your arm,” he protested. “Come on – it's me, Drake. No one is going to know about this, so stop acting like we're on candid camera.”
Wait... Candid camera...
Megan!
He pushed Josh away from him instantly, then bit his fist and flinched as his brother toppled over the table and to the ground. “Oh, sorry.”
“Sorry? Sorry?” Josh shouted. “What'd you do that for?”
“We're not being careful enough. Megan probably has cameras everywhere. She could use this to blackmail us forever, man. We need to go somewhere safe.”
Josh pursed his lips thoughtfully as he stood, hand massaging the hip he'd landed on. “Well, where is that?”
And because they'd been eerily in sync for years, at the same moment they turned to each other, realization dawned on both their faces. Drake hooked his arm with his brother's, and they turned toward the door.
“Ready?”
“Let's do it, brotha!”
--
“Mocha Cola, brotha?” Josh offered, grabbing a can of soda from the cooler next to them.
Drake took it, cradling it against his chest with one hand. “So Robbie really doesn't use this tree house anymore?” he asked. He popped the top and watched it fizz.
“Nope,” Josh answered.
“So we built it for no reason?”
“You betcha.”
“Good to know.”
He took a sip of his soda, then tried his best not to make a face. Josh looked over at him curiously. “Oh, man, sorry,” he said, tossing Drake another. “I forgot you hate diet.”
“S'alright.” He held up the already open can in one hand. “You want this?”
“No, you already drank some. I don't want your spittle!”
“Josh,” he said, placing his free hand on Josh's shoulder. “People are supposed to believe we're voluntarily swapping...spittle...in our free time. Now are they ever going to do that if you won't even take a drink from my soda?”
Josh shrugged. “We could just tell them I've got Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.”
“Wait, that's the thing where someone needs to clean all the time?” he asked. Josh nodded. “Uh, you do.”
“Do not! I'm just cleanly, unlike some people sitting here a drinking a Mocha Cola.”
“You are sitting here drinking a Mocha Cola, Josh.”
“No,” Josh said, poking him in the chest. “I'm drinking a diet Mocha Cola.”
“Josh, you organize your underwear drawer,” he said. “You organize my underwear drawer!” And the thought of Josh touching his boxers, and then the boxers going on his body afterward? Yeah, that was weird.
Josh narrowed his eyes. “Are we going to work on this or talk?”
Drake took one last sip before setting the soda down. “Work. Okay, come here.” He patted the floor in front of himself.
His brother didn't move. “What're you going to do?”
“Sexually assault you,” he said sarcastically. For all that people called Drake slow, there were some pretty obvious things that Josh just didn't get. “What do you think I'm going to do, you moron? I'm going to let you lean on me!”
“Do I have to?” Josh whined.
“Yes,” he replied forcefully. “Now get over here.”
Josh scooted over between Drake's legs and sat there, back poker straight. Rolling his eyes, Drake grasped his shoulder and pushed until his brother sunk down, his head resting against Drake's chest, his arm resting over Drake's leg. “Be less tense,” he hissed, and as he watched, Josh squeezed his eyes shut and, limb by limb, forced his body to relax.
“That's better,” Drake told him reassuringly. “Now don't freak out; I'm going to put my arm over your shoulder.” Josh nodded stiffly, and Drake draped an arm over his brother's sweatshirt. When Josh's hair immediately started to tickle his chin, Drake pushed the other boy over until his head rested in the crook of Drake's neck. At least that way it was pushed down by Drake's chin, and the flyaway strands wouldn't drive him crazy.
“There,” he said. “Comfy?”
“No.”
He slapped the side of Josh's head, rustling his hair. “Stop pouting. This isn't so bad.”
“Yeah, not for you,” Josh said grumpily. “But it's hurting my back. Lumbar problems, remember?”
Drake huffed with exasperation. This was beginning to look like a lost cause. Josh was making him nuts. If there ever was a guy who couldn't just go with the flow, his stepbrother was it, and it annoyed the heck out of Drake sometimes. But just as he was seriously thinking of getting up, Josh muttered, “Here, just let me – ” and sat up, his back sliding up Drake's chest slowly.
The next time Josh spoke, it was directly into Drake's ear, their heads resting together against the back wall of the tree house. “Is this okay for you?” he asked quietly. Drake supposed he had to, because they both knew if that if Josh blew his eardrum and Drake couldn't play or sing, Josh would literally be dead.
“It's fine,” he said shortly.
“Okay.” There was another pause and then, “Drake?”
“What?”
“Can I have my book please?”
He leaned over quickly, grabbed the paperback sitting by the cooler, and dropped it into Josh's lap. Josh picked it up, hand brushing the cover over and over again. “Happy?” Drake asked
His brother didn't answer him, just opened his book silently and started reading.
--
Drake didn't know when exactly he fell asleep, but he woke pretty darn abruptly, head jarring against Josh's as he jumped. They both yelped at the impact, and then Drake realized who it was holding him and relaxed.
“Oh, good,” Josh grumbled. “You're up.”
“How long have I been out?” he asked, rubbing his eyes sleepily. It was dark outside the little window. Josh was reading by the light of a flashlight. Where the flashlight had come from or why Josh had been carrying it in the first place, Drake didn't know. He honestly didn't think he wanted to.
“A couple hours,” Josh answered. He put down the book, but left the flashlight shining. Drake took it from him without thinking and started playing with it in his left hand.
“Do Mom and Walter know where we are?”
Josh nodded, hair brushing softly against Drake's cheek. “I left them a note that said we'd be at Craig's.”
Well, that wasn't believable at all. And Josh was supposed to be the smart one. “Why would I be at Craig's?”
“He's helping us study for the big chemistry exam that's coming up,” Josh answered smugly.
“What're you talking about, there's no – ohhhh.” Okay, Josh was the smart one.
“So you wanna get back in?”
It was getting pretty cold. But there was something in the back of Drake's mind, something he felt as if he'd forgotten. He knew he had one more – oh! “But we haven't kissed yet,” he said.
The proceeding jump from his brother must have been ten feet in the air, and Drake couldn't help wondering if there was a record for that sort of thing. If there was, Josh was getting pretty good at it. Maybe they could videotape the next time Drake freaked him out.
“K-kiss?” Josh stammered.
“Well, yeah,” Drake said. “We're gonna have to kiss if we want people to think we're together.” He laughed; how obvious. “Duh.”
“I'm not kissing you!” Josh said loudly, and Drake was really glad his brother wasn't right by his ear at that moment. He knew it was a bad idea letting him stay there.
“Come again?” he said.
“I am not kissing you!” Josh repeated.
“Josh, you've kissed me before.” Josh stared at him in total flabbergasted disbelief. “Oprah... Tickets... Megan and her flash photography... Ringin' any bells?”
“That's hardly the same thing,” Josh said defensively. “Oprah is kiss worthy.”
“Josh, just kiss me.”
“No.”
“Come on, kiss me.”
“No, Drake.”
“Kiss me!”
“I said no, mister! I'm layin' some ground rules right now.” He slapped the floor with one hand. “No kissing.”
“Fine,” Drake pouted. “Do you wanna just go in now?” Josh nodded with a smile, and they both stood, shaking the sleep out of their legs. Josh grabbed the cooler, and without really thinking about it, Drake picked his brother's book and flashlight up, and then they climbed to the ground.
“Hey Josh?” he said as they snuck across their neighbor's yard.
“Yeah?”
“Just a little kiss.”
“For the love of Bejesus, no!”
“Just one?”
“None, Drake. N-O-N-E. I know it rhymes, but it ain't the same word.”
“I'll give you a foot massage. A foot massage, Josh.”
“Give it up, you big freak!”
“Foot massage!”
“I said no!”
“Okay, okay. Calm down. Just asking.”
“Hmph."
“So, hey Josh?”
“What?”
“...Just one little peck?”
< Part 1 | Part 3>
