Caged

Several hours passed, but to the three boys, it seemed like absolutely no time at all.

Brian spent nearly all of the time with Zack, helping and teaching him the basics of guitar. He seemed to be coming along nicely as far as progress; Brian had been able to teach him a few basic chords and melodies with no problem. Right now, he was strumming away at those chords absently, a meaningless song, as Brian listened and improvised a harmony, a lead.

Jimmy had disappeared again into the back of the house, to find his small Congo-type drums, he’d said. They were playing acoustically, now, after hours of Brian’s discovering the amps Jimmy kept in the supply room. Zack had found fascination in simply watching his friends, not having interest in producing the louder music.

Once, however, when Jimmy had gone off to do something like now, Brian had caught Zack’s attention by playing ‘Wait for You’; the first song he’d performed for him.

Zack had glanced up immediately at the sound of the first few familiar notes, a wide smile splayed onto his perfectly plump lips.

Brian had smiled in turn, continuing through the song until it had hit the portion where the vocals were supposed to have come into play.

Once again he’d hesitated, the lyrics teetering off the edge of his tongue as he continued to play. He wanted to sing for Zack; simply because of the song, and how symbolic it could have been for the two of them now.

However, he had held out once again, wanting the time and place for that to be just right. He would do it tonight, when he took Zack out to see the stars as he’d promised.

The instrumental serenade had been enough to earn him a tender kiss on the lips, though, and almost as soon as Zack’s lips met his, Brian had set the smooth electric guitar aside and pulled the other man against his chest gently.

Jimmy hadn’t allowed much beyond that point, in any case, coming back into the room with a bass guitar in hand and claiming that he could barely leave the two alone for more than two minutes.

It was much the same situation now as then, as the tall, crystal blue eyed boy strode back into the room, carrying the small drums.

Both Brian and Zack glanced up and stopped playing, earning a confused expression from Jimmy.

“No, you guys had something going there, keep playing.” he smiled, sitting on the ground opposite the other two boys.

The pair smiled, glancing back at each other as they began playing once again. After a moment, Jimmy delved into a gentle beat, and the scattered tunes and thoughtless melodies began to come together as a song.

As it went along, Brian continued to improvise riffs while Zack kept the rhythm, trying his hand at following a few of Brian’s leads. The angel stumbled a few times, struggling to keep up and eventually moved back to the basic rhythm.

This went on for a few minutes before Jimmy jumped slightly, stopping his rhythmic tapping to the tops of the drums to reach into his pocket and extract his cell phone from his tight jeans.

He shot the boys an apologetic glance before answering the call. “Yeah, hey Matt.” he spoke into the phone.

Zack and Brian each stopped playing a moment afterward, and Jimmy stood and walked into the kitchen. “Yeah, you hear guitars, I’ve got some new friends.” he mumbled, smirking as he went.

“Wonder who that might be…” Zack murmured, his gaze lingering on the acoustic guitar set out in his lap. Brian shrugged.

“Dunno… but are you ready to head out?” he smiled. “It’s half past midnight.”

Zack’s expression brightened immediately as the original plan came back into mind. “Sure.” he beamed, setting the guitar aside and automatically standing, taking a hold of Brian’s hand and pulling him up from the couch.

The older boy chuckled at his love’s enthusiasm, setting his own instrument aside before pulling him into his chest and holding him there a moment. A few seconds later, the two parted and walked into the kitchen after Jimmy.

Zack’s wings caught the doorway as they entered the white-tiled room, creating a soft thump, which caught Jimmy’s attention.

“Hang on, man.” the oldest boy said into the phone, holding it down, away from his face for a moment. “What’s up guys?” he said, looking from Brian to Zack.

“Think we could head back to my place..? Zack and I have plans…” Brian said softly, and Jimmy nodded, replacing the phones speaker against his ear.

“Listen M, I gotta… Yeah, yeah, chill out, I’ll ask them. Night.” he laughed, hanging up the phone and shoving it back into his pocket.

“S’go.” he said plainly, purposely pushing between the two to detach their linked hands, but making coughing and spitting noises as he received a wing full of Zack’s feathers to the face in doing so.

Brian laughed, and Zack folded his wings down sheepishly. “Should watch where you’re going, Sully. We both know that wasn’t Zack’s fault.” the dark eyed boy smirked, leading Jimmy to shake his head.

“Yeah, what the fuck ever, Haner. Pile into the car and no porn this time.” he warned,
shaking his head once again.

The boys shook their heads incredulously and followed the oldest man’s orders,
making their way to the car and into the back seat once again.

This time, however, it was nothing more than what one might have called a “cuddle-fest”; arms around waists, legs crossed together, wings encompassing shoulders. Zack’s face was nuzzled quietly into the crook of Brian’s neck, his eyes closed. He appeared to be asleep, as his breathing was peaceful and even.

If he were asleep, Brian allowed him to stay that way—allowed him to rest.

Jimmy broke the silence, though, minutes from pulling into Brian’s driveway.

“That was my friend, Matt, on the phone earlier… he’s got the same ideas that I do. He wants us all to get together and fool around as a band. He’s the vocalist I mentioned earlier…” the crystal eyed man explained, catching Brian’s attention.

He bit his lip, glancing down at Zack, who hadn’t stirred yet. He had to have been asleep. After a moment, the spike-haired boy looked back to the man sitting in the seat before him.

“Then we’ll have to work something out.” he smiled. Jimmy, however, detected the hesitant note in his friend’s voice and smiled.

“Don’t worry about it, man. I’ll brief him on the basics of you and your winged lover boy, there. But I warn you, he’s slightly more homophobic than I am.” he laughed.

Brian laughed quietly in turn, nodding. “Tell him we’ll set a date, then.” he smiled, subconsciously tightening his arms around Zack’s waist.

Jimmy gave a mere nod, and not 40 seconds later, they were pulling into the Haner household’s driveway.

Brian quietly thanked his friend for the night and for the ride home, deciding it best not to wake the young angel beside him just yet.

Slowly, he scooped Zack out of the back seat and into his arms, bumping the door with his hip to close it as he stood from the car carefully.

He nodded as Jimmy waved and began backing out of the drive. “Take care of lil’ Zacky, there, Haner.” he called in a babyish tone, leaving Brian to carry a very heavily asleep Zack towards the front door.

Admittedly, it was sort of a struggle at first for Brian to keep his legs stable carrying Zack’s weight; his massive wings, not surprisingly, added a few pounds to the dead weight of his body.

However, the older boy got used to it quite quickly, as he shifted his love’s torso into one arm and pushed his front door open.

He knew that he’d have to wake Zack now, though, since he would be carrying a guitar
toward their next destination, and to say the least, he didn’t want to lose his grip on either of them.

So, as he shut the door and set the angel down on the couch in the living room, he shook Zack’s shoulder softly.

“Z… Hey, Zack…” he murmured, placing one guitar calloused hand on the younger man’s cheek. When Zack didn’t budge, he smirked.

The grin on his angled face grew as he leaned in to press a zealous kiss to his partner’s full lips. Immediately, a tired groan sounded in the back of Zack’s throat, and his wings arched and stretched as his hands found their way to Brian’s hair.

Brian giggled into the kiss, moving to kiss the other man’s nose. He heard Zack yawn.

“Good morning, Zacky beautiful.” he smiled, peering into his archangel’s tired eyes, his own sparkling as he mimicked Jimmy’s baby-tone, stealing away the nickname he’d used as well. Ironically, Brian found it quite cute.

“Zacky, huh?” the smaller man smiled jadedly before giggling. “How long was I out?”

Brian smiled gently as he spoke, thumbing under Zack’s eye and smearing his makeup to the side. He would hear about that later. “Maybe 30 minutes, at the most. Are you still willing to go out tonight, or would you rather wait until tomorrow night?” he asked, and Zack seemed to perk up immediately.

“No,” he grinned, sitting up attentively, “no more waiting.”

This earned a gentle smile from his human companion, who reached out to help him from the couch.

“In that case, let me get Storm. Don’t worry; the place is within walking distance. Six, seven minutes max.” Brian smiled, jogging up the stairs and into his bedroom to retrieve his beloved Storm. As he cradled the instrument, butterflies pulsed in his stomach at the thought of what he would be doing for Zack.

As he made his way back down the stairs, he saw Zack, one wing folded opposite across his chest as he attempted to reach the back of that wing’s crest.

“Need help love?” Brain smiled, and Zack looked up. His purple fringe hung over his blue eyes as he nodded.

“Please… I just can’t reach…” he laughed, shaking his head. Brian stepped forward, setting his guitar carefully on the couch before reaching to scratch gently at the crests of Zack’s wings, all the way up and down each of them.

A soft, almost purr-like sound came from the back of the angel’s throat as the older man hit the right spot. Brian grinned as Zack’s wings arched into his touch.

“Mmm… Thanks…” the younger boy smiled as he turned, burrowing his face into Brian’s shirt.

Smiling happily as well, the brown-eyed boy took his love in his arms and held him there before releasing him after a moment and collecting the black beauty, Storm, again.

“Should we go?” he grinned, anxious for Zack to know what it was that he had in store for their night’s agenda. The shorter man nodded, and soon, the two lovers were out the front door and headed down the street, hand in hand.

Zack seemed quite anxious; Brian understood this, though, and did his best to reassure him the whole way along.

“Is someone behind us..?”, “Do you think we should’ve brought the blanket?”, “How far away are we?”

All questions that Zack would ask Brian. Brian would attempt to make a joke of the ponderings, but it seemed to prove useless. Zack was just too nervous.

So it was a relief for the both of them when they finally stepped down onto a small dock, which led out into a moonlit ocean.

It was wide enough for the both of them to sit on the edge, and the sky glimmered and shone brilliantly above them.

Brian heard a small gasp being stolen from the chilled night air beside him, and immediately turned to Zack, smile brightly in place.

“Do you… like it?” he smiled at his young friend, biting down on his lower lip out of nervous habit. Zack merely nodded.

“This is… is amazing… so gorgeous…” he sputtered, eyes still painting the sky with his aquatic gaze, star by star, planet by planet. There were so many of them—planets and stars—that his eyes couldn’t recognize a number.

“I thought you would… the moon always makes the ocean so beautiful, and the moon is so big and bright and wonderful tonight…” the older of the two spoke, his gaze all the while lingering on Zack’s face.

The moon and stars were gorgeous, but it seemed that their luminous glow only helped in adding to Zack’s innocent beauty. The shorter man nodded.

“It really is…” he smiled, turning back to face Brian. “You were so right about this.”

A slight laugh escaped the larger boy as he stepped forward, sitting on the dock’s edge and dangling his feet down over. He patted the spot beside him, and Zack immediately obliged, taking his place beside Brian.

“Well, I sort of… wanted to show you something more…” he said, plucking each string on his guitar gently as he looked into Zack’s eyes. The younger merely nodded, a soft, passionate smile taking his features.

Brian nodded and began playing the same song he’d already played for the man next
to him twice. When the point came for him to begin singing, he fumbled slightly, but continued, face flushed.

“It started with a kiss, and turned out something else, his blood coursing through my veins, I think of no one else… I never believed in much, but I believe in this, I’m incomplete without you, I’d kill to taste your kiss… I’m lost and lonely, scared and hiding, blind without you…”

Brian stuttered and stumbled through the first verse and bridge, but gradually, his voice began to grow stronger, more confident.

“When the world comes crashing down, and my skies begin to fall, I’ll wait for you… When the days grow old and long and my skin turns into stone, I’ll wait for you… When the pain, it seems too much and my heart starts beating out of touch, I don’t need a thing; I’ll wait for you…”

As soon as Brian finished off the chorus, he glanced up, finding Zack’s mouth slightly ajar and the ghost of tears creeping over his cheeks. At this, he smiled, and continued though the song.

Each time he glanced up from his strings, his smile grew more radiant, his voice stronger.

“Ohh, I don’t need a thing, cause I’ll wait for you…” he almost sighed the last line, hands still shaky as he looked up toward his love once again. Now, the nerves had returned.

“Brian, I… I just…” the smaller man mumbled, shaking his head as he wiped the tears
from his cheeks. “That was amazing and beautiful…”

The russet eyed boy blushed immediately, a small smile peeking at the corners of his lips. “Thanks… I never much liked my singing voice… but I guess it’s my way of asking officially… if you’ll be my… boyfriend?”

Instantaneously, Zack gave a small giggle, snatching the smooth, wooden instrument from Brian’s grip and setting it aside as he pushed the older man back onto the wooden planks of the dock, attacking his lips passionately.

Caught by surprise, Brian gasped and began to move his lips against his lover’s, winding his arms around the angel’s waist. After a moment, he smirked.

“Does this mean yes..?” he smiled, combing a hand through Zack’s hair to detach their lips as he spoke. The smaller man nodded and smirked.

“Glad you caught that…” he giggled, resting his hands on Brian’s shoulders to hold him down as he sat with his hips braced over top of the other man’s.

“You made it pretty obvious.” the older boy smirked, pulling his new boyfriend’s lips back down to meet his own.

Seconds later, Brian swore that he felt Zack mumble against his lips: “No more interruptions…”

However, despite their position, the kiss didn’t go nearly as far as their kiss in the back seat of Jimmy’s car had gone. After a moment, Zack pulled away from his lover, looking into his eyes deeply. There wasn’t a care in the world. Right here was exactly where he wanted to be.

“Brian, I love you.” he spoke suddenly, his voice firm and solid. Now, it was Brian’s turn to blush and tear up.

“Oh Zacky…” he sniffled gently, smiling both at the use of Zack’s new nickname, and as a few tears escaped. “I love you too.”

The beautiful younger man giggled. “Why are you crying?” he asked gently, brushing his lips over his partner’s cheek to whisk away the moisture there.

Brian blushed more so than before, and then nervously smiled, reaching up to caress the blue-eyed boy’s cheek. “It’s been a long time since anyone told me they loved me… even more than that, made me feel that they loved me…” he explained, thumbing underneath of Zack’s eye once again.

The angel smiled. “I told you I’d love you.” the smaller boy smiled, leaning in to press a more innocent kiss to his boyfriend’s lips. “And I always will.”

The only thing that Brian could manage was a nod, as more tears fell.

There had been more promise to Zack’s first statement in the alley than either of them had known.