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LXX

“This is the stuff man.”
“Yeah…”
“Do you do this often?”
“You mean skinny dipping during the night or lying in the grass stargazing?”
“Both?”
Brett was silent for a moment as a gentle breeze further dried their hair and made the blades around them dance. 

“Way too little”, Brett stated with a small sigh. 
“Might turn this into a regular thing, not gonna lie.”
“Really?”, the smaller turned his head, the grass underneath rustling.
“Why are you so surprised?”, Eddy chuckled. 
“Well, weren’t you like shitting yourself before we went in?”
“Nicely put. I might bring my trunks next time. Don’t want to be expelled because I get fined for public disturbance all the time.”
Brett snorted. “Good thinking. Maybe I’ll do the same? It’s good exercise too… but then again, it takes forever to get to the beach and back and I do need time to practice.”
“You could transfer to the Sydney con! Then we could go for a swim together all the time.”

Brett moved his head again and blinked at Eddy.
“You’d like that?”, he couldn’t help but ask.
Eddy sat up a bit, his dark eyes on Brett. “Of course!”, he went, sounding like it was the most obvious thing in the world and accelerating Brett’s pulse in the process. 
“Oh…”
“Sydney con’s a great music uni, you know”, Eddy winked while Brett’s brain produced a shitload of scenes of them walking through the gangways of the castle-like building, chatting in the cafeteria, bickering about the bad food and practicing together in one of the tiny practice rooms, all through a haze of light pink and glitter. 

Studying, with Eddy, at the same conservatory, spending every day together, maybe even live in the same dorm… it sounded like a dream come true.

Eddy heaved a sigh and laid back down again, arms crossed behind his head. “However, it wouldn’t make much sense I guess. Sticking to your teacher for the time being is important, and judging from your skills, they must be doing a great job.”
Of course Eddy was right, Brett thought as all the wonderful pictures shattered into a million pieces. Normally if a teacher was legit, there was no reason to change and would only be a waste of time. It was more likely that a student changed unis because their teacher was transfering.

Still… it wasn’t impossible. And there were great and experienced teachers in Sydney too. Maybe if he’d win some competition and get a scholarship, he might even be able to afford studying here, with Eddy. 

Although, going through all this trouble just to be with one’s crush was kind of stupid… right…?

“You know”, the person responsible for Brett rethinking his whole curriculum meant, a melancholy weighing on his voice, “I generally have a hard time opening up to anyone, as you can probably tell by the way I acted in the beginning. It got even worse after my dad died.”
Brett stilled. His rollercoaster moodswing which had reigned his mind just seconds ago seemed ridiculous and trivial all of a sudden. “How so?”, he asked softly.
“When you lose someone you love, you hope and pray that it never happens again.” 
The heaviness, the pain lingering in every word Eddy spoke. Brett shivered despite the warmth the evening air carried.
“So I closed myself up. If no one’s close to you, you also can’t lose them, right? You won’t ever have to feel that pain again. Practicing wasn’t an excuse to not make any friends, I really did want to practice all the time. But I’d lie if I didn't say it came in handy.”
“You must have been so lonely”, Brett whispered before he knew it and he felt tears just right underneath his eyes, threatening to turn his face into the same ugly mess only hours ago, when he’d told Cole how he felt for Eddy. What was it with him being all sensible today, for God’s sake? He, Brett Yang, king of deadpan, who never, ever cried?

Eddy shrugged. “I’m an introvert to begin with, so I didn’t feel lonely.”
“Then what…”, Brett started, swallowed the lump down and tried again, “What changed…. Why did you…”
…let me close to you?

A rustle before Eddy’s soft expression appeared in front of Brett’s field of vision. 
“I don’t know”, he answered with a small, wondrous snigger, as if Brett had actually finished his sentence, “There’s something about you, Brett… it kind of let me think that it might be worth it, opening up to someone again, you know.”
Where was all the air when needed? Certainly not in Brett’s lungs anymore it wasn’t! And when Eddy’s fingers found Brett’s trembling ones, he was sure his brain was making all of this up. Something so wonderful couldn’t be real, right?

However, the callouses on Eddy’s fingertips brushing around his knuckles told him otherwise. 

“And it kind of scares me… but I can’t help it. I can’t go back to practicing by myself in a practice room all day long and not talking to anyone. I don’t want to, in fact!”
“I… I’m glad you don’t, Eddy”, Brett stuttered, once again struggling hard to keep a clear head, but at the same time, there was a relief filling him beyond anything he experienced at the moment. 

Even if there was no chance Eddy felt the same for him, if the only thing Brett would have accomplished during this camp was to help Eddy open up again, it would be more than enough.