The Art of Discovery

Title: The Art of Discovery
Pairing: Shayne/Daniel
Genre: Original, General/Romance
Word-Count: 9400
Rating: NC-17 in later chapters for a male/male relationship, language, and sexual situations.
Other Distribution: Adult Fan Fiction (Temporarily Down),Bent-Fiction, Livejournal , and Original Slash Fiction on Yahoo Groups
Summary: COMPLETE! Daniel has just returned from a weeklong school trip and has a few questions floating around in his brain. Will Shayne, the new kid in town, be able to help answer them?
Author's Notes: None




The Art of Discovery

Chapter One:

The alarm clock blared and flashed a blood red 7:15 as Daniel Anderson groggily sat up in bed. Damn it! For reasons unknown, his disobedient body had decided to wake up a minute before the alarm had gone off. What a lovely frustrated start to the day. A slap at the top of the screeching box silenced it and he rolled ungracefully onto the floor, managing to stub his toe on the edge of the bed for the third time since he’d been home.

He crossed the short distance and reached into his already opened closet, grabbing something that resembled to be clean. He didn’t know how he was going to make it thorough today. He’d only made it home at about one in the morning from his track team’s weeklong trip and one of the first things anyone learned about Daniel was that he HAD to have eight hours of sleep.

He glanced up at the mirror and noticed that his hair was sticking out in all directions, like a dusty brown tornado. That’s what he got for going to bed with it wet. He reached for a brush and managed to get it halfway under control, not really intending to fight with it much this morning. Today was a slob day, he’d decided that at 7:14.

He stuffed books into his backpack and tossed it over one shoulder as he sauntered on down to the kitchen. His parents had already headed off for work and now that his twin brothers, Matt and Marcus, were in college, he was the only one left in the house. Matt had told him that he could always call if he got lonely. Marcus had laughed at the display of brotherly affection and told his twin that if Daniel got lonely he wasn’t HIM he’d be calling.

The backpack was thrown disgracefully on the floor and the clink of bowl on spoon filled the silence several minutes later. By the time Daniel was out of the door, he had already forgotten what kind of cereal he’d had. His mind was reeling and he knew it wasn’t from the lack of sleep.

The damned trip. That stupid damned trip. As he threw the backpack into the backseat his cell phone rang. A quick check of the number told him it was his friend and team member, James. He checked the clock. Seven thirty.

"Yeah, James, what do you want?" he asked as he started up the little red Chevy Cavalier.

"Morning to you too, sunshine."

"Ha ha. What do you want?"

"Just wanted to make sure you were coming."

"You called me to make sure I’m coming to school?"

There was silence on the other end.

"You’re calling to ask me to pick you up, aren’t you?" Daniel said, rolling his eyes.

"Maybe."

"Lazy ass-bum."

"It’s not my fault this time. My little bastard of a brother decided to drive my truck into a tree. Found out this morning. Come on, man. It’s just, like, two seconds out of your way."

Daniel rolled his eyes, "I’ll be there in five but if I’m late to school, it’s your ass that’s getting the detention." He hung up before James could mutter anything else and backed out of the little driveway, heading the opposite direction from school.

He tried not to think about it, but it still kept creeping in. That trip. He had been drunk, he thought. Anyone looks attractive when you’re drunk. As he pulled into James’ driveway, though, that gripping thought still lurked in the back of his mind. What if he was….you know….he couldn’t even bring himself to think it. Shitty little town. He probably wouldn’t have been so close-minded if he hadn’t grown up in the middle of nowhere.

James wasn’t anywhere to be seen. He waited for a full three minutes before he gave up and honked the horn. A few seconds later, a blur came flying through the door followed by a little skinny sixteen-year-old. "James!" the younger boy said through gritted teeth, "I told you I was sorry. Besides, it wasn’t my fault!"

"Whatever, Martin. See you after school." With that James hopped into the car, slamming the passenger door.

"Be carefully, man. You break that door and you owe me another freaking car." He stated as he backed out and headed off to their little high school.

James ignored him. "Not his fault! Whose fault you think it was? The tree?" He rolled his eyes as he clicked the seat belt into place

"Just forget about it. I’m pissy enough as it is, you don’t need to be too."

That started him off. "So what’s going on with you? And don’t give me that bullshit that you didn’t get enough sleep. You were like this yesterday too."

"Nothing’s ‘going on with me’. I’m fine."

"You don’t act fine."

"Drop it, okay, dude?"

"Alright, fine. I can pick on someone else, then. Oh, god, there’s this new kid in school, right?"

"New kid? We’re gone for a week and there’s a new kid?"

"Yeah, really pansy."

"And how the hell do you know that?"

"Didn’t sleep last night. Went to Sanders."

"Snuck out to Sanders."

"Same diff. Anyway, there’s a new kid. Name’s Shayne or some crap like that. He’s from up north I think. Don’t really know. Anyway, he’s gay."

"Because you’ve met him before and you know."

"Sander’s met him before and Sander knows."

"Fine." He pulled off of the main highway to the school and found a decent, if not ideal parking lot.

"You’re not fretting over that blond, are you?" James suddenly asked as they climbed out of car.

Daniel raised an eyebrow, "Are you saying I’m jealous?"

"No…I…was just wondering."

"No, I’m not fretting over that blond and you better stop talking about before Stacy comes and hears. She’ll go mental on your ass."

James shrugged. "So I cheated. Not a big deal."

"It is to her. She thinks your gonna marry her someday." The backpack was haphazardly swung over a shoulder and the doors locked.

"Whatever. Maybe you just need to find someone man. Lizzie Anderson would go out with you, I’m sure."

"Like I wanna date that slut of a cheerleader."

"Well, sorry man but you ain’t gonna get Anna. She’s head of the squad, better than you’ll ever be."

"Thanks, James. My self-esteems been boosted so much."

They reached the sidewalk just as the bell rang, announcing that they had five minutes to get to class. Daniel waved as James headed toward the outer building for shop before he headed toward the main building and English

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

It wasn’t until the last ten minutes of English that he finally decided that he couldn’t take it anymore. The voice was droning on about Robert Frost and his attention had finally accepted that listening was a futile effort.

His mind strayed. The night after they’d had their competitions, they had slipped out of the little cheap motel and had got drunk. Well, Daniel hadn’t gotten drunk. He’d had a few, but he hadn’t been drunk. All five of them. Best friends, complete high school idiots looking for an excuse to have fun.

No matter what he did, he’d have to face the facts sooner or later. James had been off with a little skinny blond from a choir competition and the other guys were either hanging off the blonde’s friends or laughing it up. In other words, ignoring Daniel. He’d been bored and had been scanning the crowd around the club when someone caught his eye. A very beautiful redheaded something. A male something.

He’d been loose enough to indulge in some harmless flirting but he’d been lucky that the others had drug him away at that moment. He couldn’t bear to think what he would have done if they hadn’t.

The next morning it had hit him like a bombshell. He hadn’t cared then, but now, it was burning into his brain. He wasn’t….he couldn’t be….he was just getting desperate, that was all. And besides, that redhead and looked enough like a girl that if was just barely feasible he had mistaken him. But he hadn’t. And he knew he hadn’t.

Someone poked his arm and he turned to see a smiling Anna. "The bell rang," she said, smiling. He smiled back, a little lopsidedly.

"Thanks," he muttered before following her out of the classroom. He felt a blush rising to his cheeks. Everyone around them was snickering. But he wasn’t blushing because of her attention; he was blushing because of theirs. What if everyone he knew was wrong about him? What if he was wrong? Maybe he wasn’t even attracted to Anna at all, like he told everyone. Maybe he was attracted to James. He nearly snorted. Even if he was gay, that would never happen.

He walked over to choir, eyes downcast, brow wrinkled in thought. As he neared the outer building, set far apart from the rest of the campus, he could hear the piano playing quietly. It sounded familiar, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He opened the door, expecting to see his short music teacher, Ms. Dalager, but she was nowhere to be seen. Instead, sitting at the piano, head bent-obscuring his vision-was what Daniel presumed to be Shayne.

"Hey," he said, hoping he wasn’t interrupting, "That sounds familiar. What is it?"

"It’s ‘In the End’ by Linkin Park’." The boy said without looking up.

"Oh," Daniel stated. Well, it was obvious now. He needed to say something. ‘Oh’ was just a lame comment. "Uh, I’m Daniel."

"Shayne Thrasher." The other said, finally looking up. Daniel noticed his eyes were blue. He was still playing.

"You’re really good."

"Thanks." The other smiled and played the last few notes before stepping away from the piano. "I hope the teacher doesn’t mind. I got here late and they sent me here from the office about twenty minutes ago."

"Oh, she won’t mind," Daniel set his backpack down and eased into himself into one of the wooden chairs. "So you’re new, right?"

"Yeah."

"So, what are you bass?"

"Tenor."

Daniel smiled. He looked like a tenor with that slender built, not unlike Daniel himself. "I am too. It’s nice to have another one. We’ve only got three."

"Oh." Shayne said as he started digging in his backpack, pulling out a sketchpad and a pencil.

"You draw?"

"Yeah. Why do one art when you can do them all." The blond smiled.

Other students started to fill in but Daniel couldn’t take his eyes off of Shayne. He wondered if what James had said was true.

Contine to Chapter Two

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Adult Fan Fiction (Temporarily Down), Bent-Fiction, Livejournal , and Original Slash Fiction on Yahoo Groups