Just One Kiss

“You’re an idiot,” Anthony said.

“I know,” Ian replied, staring at the computer screen blankly. He was scrolling through the script sent by the winner of their latest contest.

“We can’t film this, dude.”

“We have to,” Ian said, sighing. “They won the contest, and now we have to film their script. That was the rule.”

“And whose idea was it to have the winner decided by voters rather than judges?” Anthony muttered, rolling his eyes.

“Shut up, dude. I never thought something like this would win.”

“Me neither,” Anthony said. The script was good: Well-written, funny, even better than some of the stuff he and Ian had written. But one line stood out on the page, making him wish they’d never had this stupid contest: <i>[Anthony and Ian kiss]</i>. “God, dude, I can’t do this.”

“We have to,” Ian repeated, frustrated. “Come on, it’s just one kiss. Closed mouth, no tongue. It’ll be easy.”

“I’m not kissing a guy, Ian.”

“It’s not just some random guy, it’s me,” Ian replied. “We’ve been friends for years, man. It won’t be that bad.” He grinned and leaned in towards Anthony, who shoved him away, blushing furiously.

“That’s not fucking funny,” he said, shuddering.

Ian rolled his eyes. “Look, I don’t want to do this either, but we have to. They won the contest, and we have to stick to the rules. Do you want to look like a douchebag to the fans?”

Anthony sighed. “No,” he muttered. “Fine, we’ll do the video. It’s just acting, right?”

“Right,” Ian agreed, nodding. “It’ll be fine.”

Anthony sincerely hoped he was right.

The camera was rolling. Ian said his last line. Anthony barely noticed what it was. It was time for the kiss. Ian leaned in. Anthony’s mouth went dry as he stared at Ian’s lips drawing closer. Fuck fuck fuckfuckfuckfuck –

“Shit, I can’t!” Anthony cried, turning away at the last second. He groaned, half-laughing. “Fuck.”

“This is terrible.” Ian sighed. “We’ll never finish this video.”

Anthony shook his head, his laughter fading. “I’m sorry, man. We really do need to get this done.”

“Hmm,” Ian mused. He ran his fingers through his hair awkwardly, staring at the floor. “Maybe we should… you know…”

Anthony was confused.

“You know,” Ian persisted. “Just kind of… get a… a feel for it…”

“You mean, practice?” Anthony guessed.

“Yeah, exactly,” Ian replied, sounding relieved. “Unless, you know, that would be too…”

“Awkward?” Anthony finished. “Nah… I mean… come on, man, It’s just acting. Or… research, I guess. Right?”

“Right!” Ian agreed. “Okay, let’s practice.”

They knelt on Ian’s bed, facing each other tensely.

“I guess we should just… give it a try?” Anthony said, looking down at his hands. He felt vaguely nauseous from the thought of kissing his best friend.

“Okay, yeah, let’s do it,” Ian said. He placed two fingers under Anthony’s chin, tilting it upwards until they made eye contact. Ian was blushing, his eyes wide with apprehension.

“Here goes,” he said softly. He leaned in and hesitantly pressed his lips to Anthony’s. Anthony tried to kiss back, but Ian’s lips were stiff and he couldn’t quite make his own lips move properly and the angle was all wrong. He pulled away, shaking his head. “God, no, Ian, I can’t,” he groaned.

Ian shook his head. “We can get this,” he said, determined. “We just need to relax.” He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “Okay,” he said, eyes still closed. “Kiss me.”

Anthony reluctantly leaned in. Ian kept his lips relaxed, turned his head slightly, and returned Anthony’s soft kiss. Anthony could feel Ian’s heart pounding through his t-shirt, or maybe that was his own. He wasn’t sure.

Ian pulled away. “That was… better… right?” He asked, averting his eyes from Anthony’s gaze.

“Yeah, much better,” Anthony replied. “I think we’ve almost got it.”

Ian shook his head. “Not yet. I mean, we got the lips part down, but my face probably looked terrified.” He laughed a little.

“So… more practice?” Anthony asked. He was hoping Ian would say no; kissing Ian was awkward and a little scary and God knows what it would do to their friendship. But some small part of him wanted to continue.

“Umm… I dunno,” Ian said. “I mean, we could probably work with what we have, but it wouldn’t be, you know, perfect.”

“Well, I guess we should try to make it as good as possible,” Anthony said, against his better judgment. They were putting a lot of time and money into this video; a bad kiss might ruin the whole thing.

“Yeah, probably,” Ian agreed. “So… take three?”

“I think you only say that when you’re actually filming,” Anthony said.

Ian shoved him playfully. “Shut up and kiss me, you douchebag.”

“Alright,” Ian said. “Last try. I think we’ve basically got it.”

Anthony nodded. “Sounds good.”

In the last half-hour they’d improved a lot. They’d finally gotten past most of the awkwardness, and the few test shots they’d tried didn’t look bad at all. It wasn’t that bad, once Anthony had gotten used to the idea; in fact, Ian wasn’t a bad kisser at all. He had been right; it was just acting. No big deal.

“Alright,” Ian said again. “Last practice kiss. Let’s go.” Anthony leaned in, brushing his lips softly against Ian’s before kissing him fully. He counted down the time in his head. Five… four… three… two… one…

Ian wasn’t pulling away.

Anthony kept kissing him.

Ian still wasn’t pulling away. This was longer than it was supposed to be. Five seconds too long. Ten seconds too long.

Ian was still kissing him.

Anthony didn’t even realize that he’d opened his mouth until his tongue brushed against Ian’s. His eyes flew open and he pulled away, startled.

“Oh God,” Ian said, blushing furiously. “I didn’t… I didn’t mean to… Shit, I’m sorry, dude.”

“Yeah, same. I didn’t even realize…” Anthony’s voice trailed off. “But… maybe it would look… you know… more… natural. I mean, not if we did that in the video, but… if we kind of… practiced some… some deeper kissing?” What the hell am I saying? he thought.

Ian nodded, biting his lip awkwardly. “Yeah, I mean, we should get, like, totally comfortable with this, right? It should look… you know…”

“Exactly,” Anthony agreed. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was agreeing with, but it sounded great to him.

“Good idea,” Ian said, and they were talking in circles now, so Anthony leaned in and kissed him. Ian returned the kiss deeply, twisting his fingers into Anthony’s hair. Anthony’s tongue tentatively nudged against Ian’s, and Ian’s pushed back, harder. Anthony had to a stifle a moan.

What am I doing? He thought as he pulled Ian closer. This is my best friend, my best friend who’s a guy, I shouldn’t want to do this, but right now he couldn’t think of anything he wanted to do more.

Ian pulled away, sucking gently on Anthony’s bottom lip before breaking the kiss completely.

“What are you –” Anthony began, but Ian cut him off with another kiss. He pushed Anthony backwards, down onto the pillows, and climbed on top of him. Their legs tangled together, Ian’s right knee sliding between Anthony’s thighs. Anthony kissed him again, hard, and Ian moaned against his lips. The sound drove Anthony crazy.

“Maybe…” Ian panted between kisses, “we shouldn’t… be doing this…”

“Maybe you’re right,” Anthony agreed breathlessly, but Ian didn’t stop. Anthony pulled him deeper into the kiss, too aroused to care about the consequences anymore.

Ian pressed closer and Anthony could feel his erection rubbing against his hip and he knew that he was getting hard too and soon Ian would feel it against his thigh and oh God, Ian was rocking his thigh against Anthony’s crotch and it felt so fucking amazing that Anthony moaned out loud and bit down softly on Ian’s lip. Ian let out a muffled whimper and it was the sexiest thing Anthony had ever heard in his goddamn life and before he knew what he was doing he was fumbling with the zipper of Ian’s pants and then he was touching him and Ian was moaning against his neck and thrusting into his hand and his own erection was throbbing against Ian’s thigh and he felt like he might explode.

“This is so wrong,” he murmured, his voice gravelly.

“I don’t care, Jesus Christ, Anthony,” Ian whimpered, and at the sound of Ian moaning his name Anthony threw his head back and groaned.

“Holy fuck, Ian, I’m going to… fuck…” The last word came out as a pleading whine, and Ian yanked Anthony’s jeans open, taking hold of him and squeezing gently.

“Fuck!” Anthony nearly shouted. He arched up, every nerve in his body tingling as he came. He was dimly aware of feeling Ian explode over his fingers, hot and sticky, but all he really registered was Ian crying out his name over and over.

“Oh god,” he moaned, kissing Ian desperately. Ian kissed back over and over, pressing their bodies closer together, and Anthony never wanted to stop. Gradually, as their heartbeats slowed down, so did their kisses. Ian rested his forehead against Anthony’s, catching his breath. Anthony reached over to the bedside table and grabbed some tissues, wiping his hand off. Ian wiped his own hand on the bedspread, laughing at Anthony’s disapproving look. They kissed again, softly. Ian gently rolled off of Anthony and sat facing him on the bed, legs crossed. Anthony couldn’t quite read his expression; it was somewhere between amusement, nervousness, and residual lust.

“So…” Anthony murmured, looking up at him from the pillows. “What just happened?”

Ian bit his lip. “I’d say we just hooked up,” he replied.

Anthony nodded. “That about sums it up,” he agreed. He shook his head, smiling. “God, who would’ve thought I could find my male best friend so hot?”

Ian grinned, his nervousness seeming to evaporate. “I am very attractive, you know.”

“So where do we go from here?” Anthony asked.

“I don’t know,” Ian said. His smile faded as he thought about it. “How about this,” he suggested. “Let’s go on a date.”

“A date?” Anthony asked skeptically. “Where could we go? You know pictures would end up on the internet.”
“We’ll have our date here,” Ian suggested. “I’ll get some takeout food, and we can just talk and… and see what happens after that.”

“So, you’re saying you want to have sex after this week’s Lunchtime With Smosh,” Anthony said, grinning.

Ian shook his head. “Anthony, I’m serious. I’ll get us some nice food, light some candles, we can get dressed up, it’ll be perfect.”

Anthony sat up. “You’re really asking me out?” he asked.

“Yes,” Ian replied. “Anthony, will you have dinner with me?”

Anthony’s heart was pounding and his stomach was filled with butterflies, but the answer was on his lips before he even knew what it was. “I’d love to,” he said.

As soon as he saw Ian’s smile, he knew he’d made the right choice.