A Little Relief
Part 27
Eventually, sensing eyes on him, Nick drifted back onto consciousness, blinking his eyes in the fading light. It was now getting quite late, and the sun was beginning to drift beneath the horizon, turning the sky beautiful shades of orange and purple.
Nick finally saw Howie and AJ, arms around each other at the side of the bed, smiling down at him. His smiled a sleepy grin of his own, before stretching his muscles gently, trying not to wake the angel in his arms.
Brian stirred slightly, feeling Nick move away from him. Nick immediately stopped and turned back to Brian, gently rubbing his back to soothe him back to sleep. AJ and Howie watched this with a smile as they took in the peaceful expression on Brian's face, and the loving smile on Nick's.
Once Brian was once again asleep, Nick managed to get up and he picked the long forgotten comforter back up off the floor and covered Brian with it before motioning for AJ and Howie to leave the room.
Nick grabbed his shorts from the floor and followed them out of the room, shutting the door silently behind him. He pulled the shorts back on and followed AJ and Howie back up to the main deck.
"I take it everything's okay then?" Howie asked.
Nick grinned. "Oh yeah. Everything's more than okay."
"Kaos got lucky." AJ cackled.
Nick frowned slightly, not sure how to take that comment.
"I didn't do this to get laid y'know."
AJ realised what Nick was thinking and immediately tried to soothe his friend. "I know Nick. I didn't mean it that way." AJ laid a hand on Nick's arm to reassure him.
"Sorry. It's all just a little bit weird y'know. I never in a million years expected this to happen."
"We know Nick." Howie spoke softly. "Believe me we know what that's like. But are you okay with all that has happened? Is everything going to be okay between you two after this?"
Nick looked out across the ocean at the sunset, which was now fading to the dark blues and purples of twilight. He hadn't really thought about it. Up until this point he had been relying purely on instinct, his only goal to bring Brian out of his bout of depression and make him and feel better about himself. Now he had achieved that, he had no clue what was going to come next. What was Brian going to think, and how was this going to affect their friendship? He had no idea.
Suddenly he felt afraid, worried that this was going to fuck everything up between them, and cause even more problems than it had solved. He knew that he had made the silent vow to Brian that he would be there for him, but what if in the cold light of day Brian was upset or angry at him? Where would that leave him?
Howie and AJ became alarmed at Nick's long silence, and at the emotions they could see playing out across his features. They knew that it was going to be a difficult question to answer, but it was important that Nick and Brian worked this out between them so that everything would be okay. They had done it themselves when they had first admitted their feelings to each other, so that they did not fuck up their friendship if things went wrong. If they didn't talk about it then things would get swept under the carpet and not talked about, which would cause a whole lot of awkwardness and trouble in the long run.
"I don't know." Nick finally replied, his voice barely above a whisper.
"I thought this was going to help him, and I think it has. But what if it fucks everything up between us? What if he hates me for it? He's not gay, hell he's about as straight as they come. What if he thinks that I was taking advantage of him whilst he was in a fragile emotional state? How the hell would I ever be able to live with myself? Where do I go from here?"
"Why don't you just ask me?" A voice spoke up from behind them. All three spun around to find Brian standing behind them, tears in his eyes.
"Brian" Nick cried, his own tears threatening to fall. Brian took a step towards them and held his hand out to Nick. Nick looked into Brian's eyes for a moment, looking for something only he could see. He found it and he smiled. At the same time Brian saw the recognition flash in Nick's eyes, and he smiled as well.
Nick stepped forward and took Brian's hand, allowing himself to be pulled into Brian's warm embrace. Behind them Howie slipped his hand into AJ's, smiling as he felt AJ squeeze it gently. It looked like everything was going to be okay after all.