Shane sighed as he slumped down on the bed, saying nothing to the man on the other bed. He wanted to be with Kian, but oh no, it would be such a good idea if they mixed up a little within the group now they had a new line-up and all, get to know each other.

So, as Mark couldn’t possibly share with anyone, Kian and himself had had to share with the two Dubliners. Ok, he was happy he got Nicky at least, he wondered if Kian would be able to cope sharing with Bryan. The new line-up had only been together about a week, but Shane already knew to stay out of Bryan’s way if he didn’t want to get totally exhausted. He couldn’t understand where Bryan got all that energy!

He felt Nicky watching him and it took a lot of effort to keep calm and not flip over it. He had to admit he felt stressed, and Kian had seemed distant lately, which didn’t make him feel much better.

"Shane…" Nicky said finally, "I know you don’t want to share with me but…" Nicky sighed, "well, it doesn’t look like we’ve any choice so maybe we should just try to make the most of it?" Shane sat up and looked at Nicky before he nodded slowly.

Nicky smiled. "What did you do before the band started?"

Shane had to smile back as the young man smiled genuinely at him. "Well, I was in the original line-up and has been since I finished school… I did accountancy in college for a while. What did you do, except from soccer?"

"I wanted to join the Gardai… be a police man you know…"

"Oh."

Silence followed, but comfortable this time, less tense now the ice between them had been broken.

"Was there… did you want anyone else to be in the band?" Nicky finally said.

Shane quickly shook his head. "Not really… I just feel bad about the lads that didn’t make it. They were all good friends… actually, Michael was my best friend… well, apart from Kian…"

Nicky nodded. "I’m sorry."

Shane sighed. "It’s not your fault, they just didn’t fit."

"So, you’re together with Kian?" Shane looked up and looked like he was gonna so no. "Come on, I’m not stupid. I won’t tell anyone."

Shane nodded, "Yeah, make sure no one knows though. Especially not Louis or something like that…" He looked at Nicky, "By the way, you’re clever. As far as I know the other guys in the old line-up didn’t know…"

Nicky smiled, "Shane, you talked about him in your sleep last night." He laughed, as a slight blush rose in Shane’s cheeks.

"Oh."

To be exact, you said "’I love you Kian Egan’, I’d be quite stupid not to know after that." Shane blushed even more and mumbled something. Nicky secretly wondered what exactly Shane had been dreaming.

Shane stood up. "I’ll just go and have a shower so, I think we both need to sleep, recording tomorrow you know."

Nicky nodded. "Yeah, good idea…" Shane grabbed a towel, shower gel and clean boxers and went into the bathroom.

Nicky’s eyes fell on the door as he closed it behind him. "Oh lord, this is not going to be easy." He sighed before taking his clothes off and creeping up under the duvet, deciding not to worry about it until the following day.

Chapter 2 >>