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 Six:

When Daniel woke up the next morning it was to bright sunlight and no sign of his newfound lover. He rolled over onto his side, away from the window and rubbed his eyes to look at the cracked door. Did Shayne just leave? Abandon him? Maybe he was horrified….the thought struck Daniel sudden and hard. He didn’t want Shayne to hate him because of this. He didn’t want to Shayne to hate him at all.

The door creaked and he looked up to see the blonde entering the room with a tray. "Breakfast." He said, "I was gonna wake you up." He set the tray beside the bed and settled down in his chair across the room, clutching a cup of coffee.

"Thanks," Daniel said and quickly realized that this might be even more awkward than when they had first met. He shifted up in bed and picked at a piece of toast. "Uh, last night."

"What about it?" Shayne said, bracing his chin in his hand.

"Do you…hate me?" Daniel whispered, fidgeting.

Shayne laughed and raised an eyebrow. "Do I hate you? Daniel, I course I don’t hate you!" Shayne came him a reproachful look and silence descended again. Daniel offered Shayne the tray, but he waved it away.

"Our parents should be home soon." Shayne said, nursing his coffee.

"Yeah." Daniel muttered.

"Look, Daniel, I, uh…I understand, if you don’t want to talk about what happened last night. We can just forget about it. I mean…." He trailed off, shrugging, eyes on his coffee.

"I don’t." Daniel said and Shayne’s gaze snapped up to his.

"You don’t what?"

"Want to forget about it." He shrugged. "I…it was good, Shayne. You don’t know how good." He cracked a smile and gave a small chuckle, "I never imagined."

"You’re not upset?"

"No!" Daniel laughed, "Why would I be upset? I was the one who kissed you."

"I kind of encouraged." Shayne said shrugging.

Daniel set the tray over on an endtable and smiled, motioning the other over. "Shayne, will you…uh, will you come over here?"

"Why?"

"I just want hold you." His smile was so sincere, but he was still fidgeting.

Shayne set the coffee down and came over to the bed, crawling under the covers and settling himself against Daniel’s chest. "I was worried."

"Hey, uh, Shayne?"

"Hey, uh, yeah?"

Daniel rolled his eyes and playfully slapped Shayne’s shoulder. "Last night, why…why didn’t you fuck me?"

The blond was silent for awhile before he sat up on his elbows to stare at Daniel. "I wanted to. I still want to. But-I wanted you to be sure. That’s a big deal for some people and…I didn’t want you to regret it.

"I wouldn’t have."

"You don’t know that. I…I think we should wait for awhile-you know?"

Daniel starred up at the ceiling and nodded. "Yeah, you’re probably right." Shayne shifted and laid his head on Daniel’s shoulder.

"Besides, I wanted to be the one to get fucked."

Daniel laughed. "Are you trying to make me feel better?"

"Is it working?"

Daniel shrugged and grinned. "Does it hurt?"

"What? Trying to make you feel better? Well, sometimes…"

"No, being fucked you asshole."

Shayne raised an eyebrow. "Interesting wording. But, no, it doesn’t hurt THAT much…if you do it right."

"That much?"

Shayne rolled his eyes. "Tattoos hurt, but people still like them. Rollercoasters make you sick, but people still come back."

"You act like you’ve rehearsed that. Do you use that on all your victims?"

Shayne slapped his arm. "I had a friend named Ricky. He was THE gayest little thing-stereotypical bastard. Anyway, he would not for the life of him bottom. I was always trying to convince him. We had daily debates going on and we were always trying to one up each other." Shayne shrugged.

"You still talk to him?"

"My parent’s won’t let me."

"Oh. I’m telling James." It came out in one breath, so fast Shayne almost didn’t catch it. They stared at each other in silence before Shayne finally looked away.

"Oh."

"It’s just….he’s my best friend and all, you know?"

"No, Daniel, I get it. It’s just…my parents."

"He won’t say anything."

"You don’t know that."

"He won’t say anything."

"Alright, I believe you. He won’t say anything."

From downstairs came the sound of a door closing and then his mother was calling up the stairs. "Daniel! We’re home!"

"Shit, that’s my parents." Daniel jumped out of bed, throwing his clothes on.

"So I noticed. Calm down, baby, they won’t know." Shayne said, stopping him with a quick kiss. "I better get on home. Okay?"

"Okay. I’ll go over to James’ later."

"Call me? "

"Yeah."

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

The door looked foreboding. Daniel let out the breath he’d been holding and rang the doorbell, fiddling with the end of his sleeve. The door opened to revel James’ little brother Martin, grinning ear to ear.

"Oh man, Daniel, I owe you a big one."

"What?" Daniel asked, confused.

"Dude, he so pissed at you…completely forgot that I wrecked his truck. You’re a god."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Where is he?"

"In his room." Martin grabbed his jacket and slunk out the door, "Hey, if mom asks you, I’m in the basement." He winked as he turned to stroll down the driveway.

"James?" Daniel tentatively asked when he’d taken the stairs and arrived at James’ room.

James looked up from the guitar he was leaning over, "Hey."

"Hey."

"Didn’t think you’d come over here."

"We kind of need to talk."

"Oh? Last I remember, I’m not your diary."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Yeah, man, look, I’m sorry about that. It’s just, this thing is, well…It’s kind of personal and I don’t know how you’re going to react."

James shrugged. "I’m your friend, you son of a bitch. Just tell me."

"Okay. Well, there was something that happened on that trip."

"No shit."

"James, quit bitching at me. I’m trying to tell you something."

"Alright, alright. Go on."

"You remember that club we were at, when you were hanging all over the blond?"

"Yeah." James idly played a couple of strings on the guitar

"Well, I was, uh, checking out this real beauty. I mean, red head. Freckles." He laughed.

James looked up. "So? Why didn’t you pick her up?"

"Well, that’s just the thing. Freckles wasn’t a her." James stopped playing with the guitar and set it aside, a confused look on his face. Daniel stepped fully into the room and sat down across from James. "I was so upset when I woke up. I mean, I was after a guy. A GUY. And you know it was haunting me all week and…"

"You were drunk."

"No," Daniel said shaking his head, "He didn’t even look like a girl, so I can’t even use that excuse." He shrugged. "I was just pinning after a guy."

James starred at his friend like a deer in the headlights.

"Okay," Daniel continued, "Well, then, I met Shayne and we started hanging out. He lives next to me, you know. Anyway, uh, last night, we…well…I kind of…." Daniel trailed off, shrugging.

"Did he seduce you? Cause if he did, I’ll kill him."

Daniel laughed and waved him off. "No, I initiated it."

"So, you’re….gay. Wow. I….I don’t think I can handle this."

"Yeah. Look, I’m sorry man." Daniel stood up. "I’ll let you thinking about it for awhile. But, listen, if you don’t want to hang with me anymore, I understand, but please PLEASE don’t spread this around. Okay?"

"Yeah. I won’t."

Daniel slunk out the door and down the stairs, his hands in his pockets. He had made it to his car and was pulling out of the driveway when James came running out the door.

"Hey, Daniel."

Daniel stopped the car and hung his head out the window. "Yeah."

"Look, there’s this new club opening in the city, a couple of hours away. I was thinking of going up there this weekend. You wanna come?"

Daniel smiled. It was as close to acceptance as he was going to get. "Yeah. That’d be cool."

"Hey, bring pretty boy. If you’re screwing him, I might as well get to know him."

Daniel laughed. "Sure," he said, smiling, "I’ll bring pretty boy." He waved to his friend as he backed out of the driveway. Maybe, just maybe, things wouldn’t be so bad.



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