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 Three:

They were silent until they pulled into Daniel’s driveway. "The house might be a little messy. Sorry if it is."

"Oh, that’s fine. It looks like a nice house."

"Oh, well, you know. It’s livable."

He unlocked the door and held it opened for his new houseguest. Shayne smiled. "I hope that our classmates won’t think anything of you taking me home," the blond said, studying the pictures on the wall.

Daniel’s hand slid to his back pockets and he rocked on his heels, a bad habit when he was nervous. "It’s a small school. They all know me. There shouldn’t be any complications."

"Well, that’s good. Are these your brothers?" He pointed to a picture of Shayne squished in-between the twins.

"Yeah, uh, Matt and Marcus," he pointed respectively, "they’re in college. I’m the only one here."

"Oh."

"You got any siblings."

"No. I’m an only child. A curse and a gift."

They both chuckled. "Uh, you want something to drink? We’ve probably got every kind of soda."

"Oh, I don’t drink soda. Water, though, if you could."

"Sure!" Daniel perked up and headed into the kitchen, "Make yourself at home! The livingroom’s on the left!" Damn it. Why was he so perky all of the sudden? And anyone could spot the livingroom from the second they walked into the door. Idiot!

He made it back to the livingroom with the two glasses and upon entrance, stopped short. Shayne was sitting in a large armchair near the T.V, his legs folded neatly under him, shoes off and set by the chair. He was leaning over the side of the chair, studying the DVD collection and his predicament caused his shirt to ride up, exposing light skin adorned with the occasional freckle. Since when did Daniel notice freckles?

"Uh, here you go," he said, unsure.

Shayne straightened up. "Thanks. So, you’re an anime fan?" he said, pointing down at the collection.

Daniel shrugged. "Yeah. James kills me for it. I have to hide them in the cabinet when I know he’s coming over."

Shayne smiled again. Those dimples. God. "Are you a fan?"

"Yeah." The blond looked over, smiling something wicked, "But I’m betting me don’t have the same taste."

Daniel glanced away, looking for a new subject. "Where’d you move from?"

He shrugged. "The city. Doesn’t really matter which." He was looking down and fiddling with the glass. Daniel wondered if he’d hit a tender subject.

"Uh, why’d you move."

Shayne shrugged and pulled his legs closer to him and Daniel was afraid he would curl up into a ball. "My parents, they thought if I came here I’d get over my ‘phase’." He exaggerated the last word.

"Your phase?"

"Being gay. It’s a phase."

"Oh." Was all Daniel could think to say.

"They tried a shrink. He didn’t work. So they thought they’d move me out to the country where I wasn’t around all the bad influences."

Daniel wondered if he was under any bad influences. Surely, he’d been thinking of it lately. "That sounds rough."

"Yeah. You get over it, I guess."

They sat in silence for awhile, Daniel just staring at Shayne. The blond boy shifted under the scrutinization. "You’re staring," he finally stated.

"Huh? Oh! Sorry."

"It’s alright…you’re curious aren’t you?"

"Curious?"

"About me. About homosexuality?"

"Oh no. I mean, I don’t mean to act like you’re a zoo animal or anything."

Shayne laughed. "No, baby, you’re okay." He suddenly stopped and his eyes got impossible wide. "Shit! Oh, I’m sorry! It’s just a habit. I didn’t mean…"

Daniel stared at him floundering and found it rather funny. "No, it’s okay. Makes things a little more personal. James calls me sunshine." That seemed to make him feel better.

"So, uh, is there any of those questions running through your head that I can’t answer?"

Daniel was really blushing now. "I…uh…."

Shayne leaned forward a little. "You got girl friends? I mean friends that are girls. You know."

"Yeah." Daniel said, shrugging, not seeing where this was going.

"Well, just treat me like one of them."

Daniel had to smile at that. "Yeah, but I flirt with them." He said.

Shayne shrugged. "I don’t mind."

Daniel choked on the swig of soda he’d taken. Shayne chuckled. "I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that."

"No, it’s okay. I kind of brought it on myself." He thought about flirting which lead him to that study comment again. New subject!

"So, you have any homework tonight."

"No, my school was ahead of yours. I’ve already done the homework for most of the chapters."

"Oh, well, that’s cool." Daniel looked up at the clock. It was three thirty. Suddenly, he was regretting bringing Shayne home. Another hour like this was bound to be long. "You want to watch a movie or something?"

"Sure. I mean if you want."

"Let’s go up to my room. I have more DVD’s up there and a bigger T.V then this." He headed upstairs with the blond trailing behind him. His room wasn’t exactly big, but it was spacious and he landed on his bed with a small creak of the springs. He motioned for Shayne to sit beside him as he flipped on the T.V.

"So, are you going out with Lizzie on Friday then?"

Well that question came out of nowhere, Daniel thought. "I think I kind of have to unless I find a good excuse."

"What constitutes as a good excuse?"

"I don’t know. Going out with someone else, breaking my leg, dying."

Shayne laughed and laid on the bed beside him. Daniel could feel the other’s body so close to his and his heartrate sped up a little. "Would I count as a good excuse?"

He turned to stare at the blond like a deer in the headlights. Did he just-he didn’t just-ask me out, did he? Daniel’s mind reeled. "I mean, I need to see the town and stuff," Shayne went on, "I don’t know a thing about this place. Surely, she would let you off the hook to play a nice guide."

Daniel let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding. "Yeah, maybe she would. We’ll see."

"So I guess since you’re going out with her, you don’t have a girlfriend."

"No. There was this one girl but eh. We ‘broke up mutually’ meaning I dumped her ass." Shayne gave a lopsided smile and Daniel switched off the T.V. It had obviously been forgotten. "You should hang out with us sometime. I’m sure James will get over it after awhile."

"Maybe I will. I don’t know. I don’t want to make them uncomfortable."

"Stacy’d probably like you. Then again, she’d want to dress you up like a rag doll so you might not like her." He yawned which reminded him sorely that he hadn’t gotten to bed till one.

"You tired?"

"Yeah. I had this long trip and didn’t get home till late."

"I could go. Let you sleep."

"No….that’s okay. So what was Chad like?"

"A bastard."

"That bad."

"Actually, a cowardly bastard. And, yeah, that, bad."

Daniel was studying him again. "You don’t look like the kind of person that someone just dumps." Damn it! Now Shayne was just staring at him wide-eyed. He sat up on his elbows. "Wow, I really need to think before I speak." His eyes were on his fidgeting hands.

"It’s okay. I’ll take it as a compliment."

Shayne touched his shoulder and Daniel jumped at the contact. "Why don’t I go? You really look tired."

"No, you don’t have to go. I kind of like it. It’s gets a little lonely coming home to an empty house.

Shayne didn’t remove his hand. Instead he laid his head down and closed his eyes. "A nap sounds nice, though, doesn’t it?"

"Yeah." Daniel said, his eyelids already drooping.

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

Daniel woke up thirty minutes later to a blaring alarm for the second time that day. "Wha." He mumbled.

"I set it," muttered a sleepy Shayne, "you’d fallen asleep."

"Oh. Thanks."

He slapped the alarm, but didn’t move to get up. The other boy was curled in a chair across the room. "Did you sleep too?"

"Yeah."

"Why’d you move?" Not that he’d practically wanted to sleep with his new neighbor, he told himself, he was just curious.

"I didn’t think you’d appreciate it if you woke up and found me spooning you. I have a habit for curling up next to warm things."

Daniel shrugged. "Well, thanks." He was just about to drift off to sleep again when he heard the front door slam, followed by a "Danny! Honey, are you home?"

"That’s mom." He said, sitting up and stretching. "Yeah," he called downstairs, "Be down in a minute."

"Oh, I’d better go then," Shayne said and leaned over to slip on his shoes.

"Meet mom before you do. She’ll get fussy if I had a new neighbor over and didn’t introduce you."

"Alright," the blond said, following Daniel downstairs. By the front door there was a discarded coat thrown over a briefcase, but no sign of his mother.

"Mom! Come here, I want you to meet someone."

"You brought home people again?" A pretty business suit-clad woman immerged from the kitchen, wringing her hands on a towel. "Oh, hello, dear, and who are you?"

"This is Shayne," Daniel said, perking up, "He’s our new neighbor."

"Oh that’s wonderful, dear." She said, giving Daniel a slightly reproaching look, "We’ll have to have your family over for dinner sometime," she told Shayne, "but in the meantime, I have a lot of work to do, so if you’ll excuse me…"

"Oh that’s okay, I was just leaving anyway. Sorry if I’m bothering you."

"Don’t worry about it dear; it’s perfectly fine."

Shayne made his way to the door with a little wave and a smile. As soon as the door clicked, his mother’s arms were crossed and an eyebrow raised, "What have I told you about bringing people here without letting me know?"

"Sorry, mom," he muttered.

"You and your father," she said, shaking her head and picking up the briefcase, "Honestly. I’ll making dinner, so if you want to help you can wash the rest of the dishes from last night."

"Sure." He mumbled, dragging himself into the kitchen.

Contine to Chapter Four

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