Nick loved Jeff in the autumn.

Well, that wasn't fair. Nick loved Jeff all the time, from when they were cuddling on the couch watching movies to when they were trying to study but Jeff couldn't focus so decided to try to distract Nick instead. He even loved him when Jeff had had a bad day and was in a foul mood and just glared at everything, as if the salt shaker had personally offended him.

But there was something ridiculously adorable about his boyfriend in the fall, walking through the grass with leaves crunching under his feet (and how when he walked down the street would go out of his way to step on a stiff leaf), not to mention the fact that Jeff was never able to fight the temptation to just roll around in the leaves for very long. Nick loved when Jeff started to pull his cold-weather clothes out of the closet because god he looked gorgeous and cute in sweaters. And there was something to be said about how he was partially convinced that the autumn had actually been made to compliment him.

The thing was that Nick had always loved the fall. He loved the crunchy leaves and he loved the beginnings of sweater weather and hot drinks at Starbucks, and he had always thought it was the most beautiful season. Every fall, he and his father liked to go out as far as he could into the woods and just drive for hours, stopping occasionally to take pictures but mostly just to enjoy the beauty. There was just something ridiculously breathtaking about being in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by the oranges and reds and browns of fall.

(Once, after he had gotten his license, he had run out of gas and had to make an embarrassing phone call back to his father asking him to come get him.)

And then there was Jeff. The color palette the fall leaves presented complemented Jeff perfectly. His blond hair was just the perfect contrast from the leaves and he remembered once walking to class with Jeff and stopping to pick up a yellow leaf and holding it up to Jeff's hair just to laugh at the comparison. And, of course, there was the beauty of Jeff's eyes in the fall. Accumulatively, Nick was sure he had spent hours staring into Jeff's eyes, and he was sure he knew them, knew their brownish-greenish-hazel, better than anything else in the world. But then, against the warm-colored backdrop, the colors he knew so well jumped out so vividly that they took his breath away.

(And then there was the fact that he first met Jeff in the fall, but he wasn't sure that that really counted.)

So maybe, just maybe, when he asked his aunt if he could borrow her house out in the Shenandoah Valley (she was living somewhere in New England at the moment, anyways, so it wasn't like she really needed it) and invited Jeff to spend their fall break there, it was a little bit selfish. But only because Jeff was so damn pretty, and really, that wasn't fair, either.

When they arrived at the house, Jeff was asleep (it had been a long car ride, after all).

Nick couldn't help but laugh as he leaned over the console and nudged at his boyfriend to wake him up.

He just grumbled a bit, leaning into Nick's touch. "Sleeping," he mumbled.

"But we're here," he said. "And you missed the ride up here. You missed miles and miles of gorgeous farmland."

"I apologize, sincerely," Jeff said, rolling his shoulders. Slowly, he opened his eyes and glanced out the car window. "But I think we should go inside and cuddle. We have time to worry about farmland and mountains and leaves and all that later."

Nick's first instinct, really, would be to go out and find a trail to hike, and see if he could convince Jeff to come along with him. But Jeff had never been as outdoorsy as him, and fine, he had been driving for a while and Jeff was really cute when he's sleepy.

So he got out and went around the car to open Jeff's door, only to find the blond boy just looking up at him with a hopeful look in his eyes.

"No," he said, "you're heavy."

"You've carried me before," Jeff said, "and I know for a fact that you're really strong." He winks and reaches up to squeeze at Nick's bicep, but he's tired enough that there's no heat behind the move.

With a loud sigh, Nick leaned over and pulled him from his seat, carrying him over his shoulder. Jeff laughed and wiggled so that Nick let him move down his body, locking his legs around his waist.

"Ugh, Jeff, you're fat," he grumbled.

He just laughed again, turning his head and kissing Nick's cheek. "No," he said brightly. "All muscle, duckster, all muscle."

Nick couldn't help but laugh at that as he made his way towards the front door; their bag would have to wait.

Gettingg the key from his pocket and unlocking the door was a bit of a task while carrying Jeff, but he managed it with relative ease (Jeff loved to be carried and it was a matter of necessity to learn how to do things around him). He swung the door open and was immediately greeted with the distinctive smell of the wood that made up the house.

He crossed the foyer and entered the living room, tossing Jeff onto the couch. "I'll be back," he said when Jeff grumbled.

When he returned, carrying an overstuffed duffel bag, he found Jeff up and about, and had found his way into the kitchen.

"This place is nice," he said, glancing over at Nick before returning his gaze to the window over the kitchen sink. "The view is great."

"It is," he agreed, joining him in leaning against the kitchen counter. "We used to come visit here a lot when I was a kid, but I haven't been in a while."

Jeff nodded slowly, and then turned fully to face him. "So this is kind of nostalgic for you?"

"Yeah, I guess so," he said. "It's every bit as beautiful as I remember it."

Jeff leaned closer to Nick. "Not as beautiful as you," he said, grinning because he knew how cheesy it was. He grabbed the bag from Nick's hands and pulled it up on his shoulder with a groan. "So, where are we sleeping?"

Nick let out a laugh, taking advantage of their proximity to steal a quick kiss before turning and walking towards the stairs. "There's a nice guest room upstairs," he said, "because staying in her bedroom would make me uncomfortable."

Jeff laughed, following him up the stairs and down the hall.

The second Nick opened the door to the room they'd be staying in, Jeff tossed the bag on the floor and threw himself into the bed.

"Don't you need to change into pajamas?" Nick asked, grinning as he watched Jeff roll over onto his back and look up at him.

"Or," Jeff said, "we could just… not wear pajamas."

He climbed into the bed, raising an eyebrow. "I thought you were tired," he said.

"I am," he replied, tugging Nick closer. "We don't have to have sex to be naked." His hand moved towards the hem of his boyfriend's shirt, and Nick let him pull it off.

Jeff hummed, pleased, as he reached down to undo Nick's belt as he moved closer so that Nick could start to unbutton his shirt.

Nick smiled as he worked on the buttons. Cuddling while naked or in their underwear, he knew, was one of Jeff's favorite things ("Just... I love that feeling, ducky, just skin against skin, and not even in a dirty way but just in a 'I love you' sort of way," he had tried to explain once). And he wasn't going to deny the fact that he enjoyed having a smaller number of layers between them.

So when they were completely naked, he sat up on his elbows to smile down at Jeff and watch him smile back up at Nick.

"Come on, you," Jeff mumbled, reaching up to drag him down on top of him, then kissing the top of his cheek. He ran a hand up and down his back for a moment before moving up to the back of his head, his fingers tangling into his dark hair.

Nick grabbed Jeff's hand, making it follow his head as he moved down and turned to lean his head above his heart. Ever since they had gotten together and cuddling became a regular activity for them, he had fallen in love with just sitting there, listening to Jeff's heartbeat. "You're so comfy and I love you," he whispered.

Jeff laughed quietly, the vibrations from which hummed underneath Nick's head. "I love you, too," he said, bringing up his other arm to wrap around his waist.

Nick closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again. "It's seven o'clock," he said, "it's silly to go to sleep now."

He shifted slightly, pulling his hand from Nick's hair and shrugging one shoulder. "You've been driving all day," he said, "so I know you have got to be tired." Tilting his head down to kiss the top of Nick's head, he murmured into his hair, "Not to mention, this is our vacation, and we make our own rules."

"Not that you'd follow the rules if anyone else made them, anyways," he said, tilting his head up to face Jeff and wink at him.

"You say that as if you haven't always been right there beside me when I was... I wouldn't say breaking the rules, because they're always up for interpretation, but you get me," he said, laughing.

"You're such a dork," Nick said fondly, laughing a bit as he tucked his arms up underneath of Jeff's shoulders. "And all that goes to show is that you're a horrible influence."

"The best horrible influence," Jeff replied. After a moment, his fingertips resumed playing with Nick's hair, and he mumbled, "Just go to sleep, ducky."

Nick sighed, his breath tickling against Jeff's chest and making him wriggle a bit. "Sorry, baby," he said, pressing a kiss to his bare chest before lowering his head back down and letting his eyes fall closed.

Neither was sure who fell asleep first, but they both slept soundly.

Nick woke up slowly, the way you only got to do on the weekends or on vacations. It was one of those mornings where the warmth of Jeff's arms and the almost imperceptible sound of his snoring was far more appealing than even opening his eyes to just see what time it was.

When he finally did force himself to check the clock, he found that it was ten in the morning. He laughed (because of course they would) then made himself slowly push himself up using his arms, even though he still felt heavy with sleep and the effort felt like too much.

"Jeff," he whispered, leaning over his boyfriend and starting to kiss him awake.

When Jeff started to kiss back and brought his hand up to cup his face, Nick pulled back, sending Jeff's hand reaching out desperately to try to get him to come back.

"Nick," he whined.

"Nope," he said. "I have plans for us today, and you have to get up."

Jeff made no move to get up, just smirked up at Nick. "Was that meant to sound as dirty as it did?"

There was a moment's pause as Nick repeated his words back over in his head, and then he dropped his head in defeat. "Just get up, Jeff," he said.

"Way ahead of you."

Nick had to bite the inside of his lips to keep himself from smiling at that crack. Leaning back, he grabbed Jeff's hands and started tugging him toward the door. "Shower," he said.

"Shower?"Jeff asked, grinning.

Nick let out an overdramatic sigh, and nodded. "Shower."

Once they finally got out of the shower and dressed, Jeff disappeared downstairs first.

When Nick followed him down, he found him in the kitchen, glaring at the counters in the kitchen.

"Problem?" he asked.

"There has been a grave oversight on our part," Jeff answered, turning to face Nick with a frown. "There is no food."

Nick laughed. "I know where a grocery store is, really close to—"

He was cut off from finishing his sentence by Jeff flinging himself at Nick and wrapping his arms around him. "You've saved us all!"

Nick laughed as he lead Jeff back out the front door. "Something like that, anyways."

It wasn't until they were out in the car and they were pulling out onto the street that Jeff asked, "Are we bringing breakfast back to the house, then? Are your plans time sensitive?"

Nick glanced over at him, smiling at the fact that Jeff did seem genuinely concerned about his plans. "So you assume my plans weren't to seduce you into shower sex?" he asked with a laugh.

"Well, I suppose you could, but this seems like a long way to go," Jeff said.

He laughed and nodded. "But yeah, we are actually doing something today," he said. "And we're going to go to the grocery store just to grab some breakfast slash lunch food, and then on our way back to the house we're going to go ahead and actually get groceries for our stay."

"Mm-hmm," Jeff said, considering Nick's statement. "Okay, so are we eating at the grocery store? Because you know how I feel about that."

Nick chuckled, rolling his eyes fondly. "Of course I do," he said, "and I'm pretty sure that this grocery store doesn't even have a place to eat."

"Oh, so it's that kind of place."

Nick snorted. "God, just… I can't handle you right now. I'm driving."

Jeff tilted his head back at that, just grinning up at the ceiling of the car as if that was the greatest thing he'd ever heard Nick say. After a moment, he pointed out, "But you never actually did answer my question."

"We're eating wherever it is that we're going today," Nick offered.

"Which is…?" Jeff asked.

He shook his head. "No dice, babe," he said. "I'm telling you once we're there."

"But then you won't need to tell me!" Jeff pouted.

"I might, actually," he said with a shrug.

"But what does that mean?" Jeff asked. "God, you're the worst boyfriend ever."

"I'm not, though," Nick said, grinning. "I'm… well, I would say the best, but, well, second best."

Jeff laughed, rolling his eyes fondly. "Alright, ducky, I'll give you that much."

Nick stuck his tongue out, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye.

After that, they sat in relative silence until they reached the grocery store. Jeff took this opportunity to check the radio stations they could get down in Virginia before declaring it a lost cause and plugging in his own iPod and poking around with that until they reached the grocery store.

Once they were back in the car, their food (bread, peanut butter, bananas, and Goldfish; or, the lunch of champions) tucked away at Jeff's feet, he frowned.

"We're not doing something like hiking, are we?" Jeff asked.

"What?" Nick asked, glancing over at him.

"You're not telling me what we're doing, and that makes me nervous," he said. "And I hate to break it to you, Nick, but we're beyond the point in our relationship where I'm willing to hike up a mountain for a few hours just hoping to impress you."

He couldn't help but laugh at that, because during their senior year of high school, he had managed to drag Jeff up not quite a mountain but still a decent hiking path. "I'm actually still surprised there was a point like that," he said.

"I had to," Jeff said, and he looked like he was going to say more about it before he leaned back and teased lightly, "Not that you ever went out of your way to impress me."

"Pretty sure that was the entire first few years we were friends, actually," Nick pointed out, grinning at Jeff because he knew he had won.

Jeff snorted. "Alright, alright, you've got me there," he admitted. "But for the record, I think I really started loving you when you stopped trying to be what you thought I wanted you to be." He looked away then, starting to blush, and Nick couldn't help himself but to smile. The thing about Jeff was that he wasn't normally a very sentimental person, not outwardly anyways (Jeff, Nick knew, was one of the most touchy-feely people he had ever met), and, as even he would admit, he was still at times a bit caught off guard by how damn much he felt for Nick.

The moment passed quickly enough, though, when the next song came on through the speakers: Superbass by Nicki Minaj.

"Yes!" Jeff called out before attempting to rap along with the radio (the effective word being 'attempted'). After a moment he stopped, grinning when he saw that Nick was shaking his head slightly. "What?" he asked, "You don't like my rapping?"

"Rapping," Nick repeated, nodding slowly. "Right. Now, honey, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but that was… you made noises that sounded slightly like the tune of the song."

"I am a master rapper, Nick, and it's not my fault if you can't tell that," he said, pretending to be offended.

Nick chuckled, listening as Nicki Minaj said something about a guy with a thing on his eye, furrowing his brow at the line. "You know, Jeff, for someone who says he doesn't like Nicki Minaj, you seem to, I don't know, like Nicki Minaj?"

Jeff laughed. "I am just trying to understand," he said. "As you may have noticed, I don't even have a handle on what the words are, much less what they mean."

"But you have it on your iPod, so, you know, that's telling," Nick pointed out, grinning.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you it was because of a class, would you?"

"What class?" he asked.

Jeff paused, and Nick waited for a moment before letting out a bark of laughter.

"Exactly," Nick said, amused.

"Okay, no," Jeff said, "you didn't give me time to think—"

"Because you need time to think about what class you have," he said. As soon as he said it, though, he closed his mouth and frowned. "Right, you actually probably do. You need a moment to think about what your name is when people ask."

"Don't even play like you don't forget sometimes," Jeff pointed out, pointing a finger at Nick accusingly.

"Your name? Never, gorgeous," Nick said, winking at him.

"He says, using a… pet name?" Jeff said, his tone raising to a higher pitch at the end as he tilted his head. "Does an adjective count as a pet name?"

"I'm not really… Just accept the fact that I called you gorgeous," he replied, shaking his head fondly.

Jeff grinned. "But I already know I'm gorgeous," he said, running his fingers through his hair like he was in a shampoo commercial.

"And humble," Nick said. "Always so humble."

Jeff laughed, leaning back and kicking his feet up on the dashboard (a habit that Nick didn't particularly like, but he had come to terms with and, maybe just maybe, started to love in a weird way just because it was Jeff doing it). "When you've got a body like mine, you don't have to be humble," he said, grinning.

Their back and forth continued until Nick turned at a sign reading, "Shenandoah National Park".

"We're hiking," Jeff said, "We're hiking. You're a horrible liar, we're hiking—"

"Okay first, I never said we weren't hiking," Nick pointed out, "but we're not."

"What do you do in a—Skyline Drive? What is that?"

Nick paused before answering to pay their entrance fee. "Skyline Drive," he started after they started moving again, "is a road."

Jeff blinked, looking around. "A road?"

"Yep," he confirmed, nodding. "But the thing about this road is that it is super pretty, especially in the fall."

"So the car is hiking, then?" Jeff asked, grinning.

Nick paused as if to consider this, tilting his head. "How does your brain work?"

Jeff blinked owlishly. "Hm?"

"You… I never would have made that connection," he said.

"Oh," Jeff said. He didn't say anything for a second, then leaned forward and nodded self-affirmingly as he added, "But the car is hiking."

Nick laughed, and pulled off onto one of the overlooks. "Grab your camera or phone or something," he said as he stopped the car and stepped out into the car.

Jeff did as he was told, twisting to reach into the backseat of the car where his camera bag rested and grabbing it before getting out.

There was something magical about watching someone see something spectacular for the first time. If you ever take someone to the beach who has never been to the ocean before, watch their face for that inevitable moment where they realize how damn big the ocean is. (Once, on a trip to New York, they'd climbed the Fire Island lighthouse and at the top, seeing almost nothing but water all around, Jeff leaned in close to Nick as the wind buffeted them, and asked, "How many buckets do you think it would take?")

Jeff's reaction to seeing the Shenandoah spread out before him did not disappoint. His jaw literally dropped slightly and his eyebrows rose as he looked out and saw nothing but layers upon layers of autumn-colored trees on mountains fading into the horizon. "Damn," he said.

Nick laughed. "And this isn't even as high up as we're going to go," he said.

He pulled out his camera and started taking pictures. Jeff was one of those people that had just a ton of lenses that all had a specific purpose, not that Nick had much of an idea what that purpose was at all, and would always know just what lens to take any given picture with. He was also the sort of person to all but roll around on the floor in search of the perfect shot.

After a few minutes of watching his boyfriend leaning and crouching and tilting in order to get better pictures, Nick finally cleared his throat and said, "You know, Jeff, there are going to be more overlooks."

Jeff snorted and, after quickly taking one more shot that appeared, to Nick anyways, to be pretty much un-set up and was probably more for the humor of it, got back into the car.

They continued in this fashion for several more overlooks, until Nick remembered that they had gotten stuff to eat. He pulled onto another overlook and got out of the car.

His favorite thing about his car was that it was short. Sure, being low enough to easily climb on top of came at the expense of having an SUV (which, sure, you could climb up onto the roof of, but that was harder and more dangerous when you're drunk, and when you're at an elevation of a couple thousand feet, the extra couple doesn't make a huge difference), but when you counted in the price of gas, his sedan was a win-win.

They had it down to an art by now. Jeff set the food on the roof of the car and then helped Nick up before climbing up himself. If he left scuffmarks, then it really couldn't be helped.

Jeff opened the Goldfish bag, staring down into the valley. "Where," he started, popping a Goldfish into his mouth, "do you find places like this?"

Nick laughed, pulling out the bread and peanut butter. "Did you forget the fact that we're staying in my aunt's house?"

"Well, I mean, you always find the prettiest places."

Nick resisted the temptation to say something about also finding the prettiest faces, and instead grinned and said lightly, "While it may seem to you that I'm trying to woo you with impressive atmosphere, the truth is I'm mostly just with you to have an excuse to go to pretty places."

"Mm," Jeff said, tilting his head side to side as he weighed this in his head. "Then why haven't we gone to Paris?"

Nick glanced over at him. "You want to go to Paris?"

Jeff shrugged, leaning back and laying out across the top of the car. "I have no idea," he answered. "I mean, apparently it's supposed to be really pretty. But I mean…" He trailed off then and hummed quietly.

After a moment, Nick glanced over and saw that Jeff's eyes had fallen closed. For a moment he started to consider ways to wake his boyfriend back up in the cruelest way possible without making him fall off of the car before returning his attention to the bread in his hands.

"Jeff, we have made a dire mistake," he said, frowning at the peanut butter.

"Okay, look, I know that that one time when—"

"Wait, no, don't," Nick said, "I don't want to know what it was that you were about to say. We didn't buy anything to put the peanut butter on the bread with."

Jeff blinked, sitting up. Grabbing the jar of peanut butter and twisting it open, he laughed, mumbling something along the lines of, "And they call me the dramatic one."

"What are you going to do?" he asked.

Reaching for a slice of bread, Jeff waggled his fingers. "Nature's butter knife," he said. Setting the bread on his knee, he was about to dive a finger into the peanut butter when Nick grabbed his wrist.

"Where has that finger been?"

Jeff looked down at his hand, then back up at Nick. "You know exactly where that finger has been," he deadpanned before proceeding to collect peanut butter with his fingers. "And now I'm making you a sandwich, so, I mean, best day ever, really."

Nick laughed, watching as Jeff spread the peanut butter. Once he was finished, he popped a Goldfish in the middle of the sandwich before closing the second slice over the first.

They ate in silence for a bit, save for making snarky comments under their breath about the people driving up and stopping at the overlook (to be fair, those people were probably also making snarky or else downright rude comments about them).

After a bit, Nick felt Jeff shiver beside him. "Are you cold?" he asked.

Jeff blinked, looking down at himself as if he was not consciously sure that he was cold and that his body might give him a hint. "Yeah, actually," he said.

"I have a hoodie in the back of the car if you—actually, I'll get it for you myself," Nick said, hopping off of the car before Jeff had a chance to say anything. Looking in the trunk, he grabbed the hoodie, tossing it up to Jeff as he grinned down at the trunk before closing the lid.

By the time he got back up on top of the car, Jeff had gotten the hoodie on, and was snuggling into it reminiscent of a bird cozying up in its feathers. He couldn't help himself but to pull out his phone and snap a picture, because if there was one thing Nick loved more than Jeff in the fall, it was Jeff wearing his clothes in the fall (which, really, was not an uncommon occurrence, seeing as Jeff had developed a habit of "forgetting" sweaters and hoodies just to have an excuse to borrow Nick's).

Another habit that Jeff had was that as soon as he got warm after being cold, he wanted to cuddle. As Nick had expected, he scooted in close to him and pressed their sides together wordlessly as he tore the crust off a slice of bread.

"I wish there were birds," Jeff said.

"Birds?" he asked, glancing over at him.

"Mmhmm," he affirmed, looking at the bread in his hand. "Birds love bread, and I love watching birds eat bread."

Nick laughed, and Jeff took the opportunity to pop a torn-off bit of bread into his mouth. "But I'm not a bird," he protested.

"Yes you are!" Jeff said, grinning. "You're my ducky, aren't you?"

"Awful," he said, chuckling, "absolutely awful."

Jeff laughed again, leaning over and kissing the tip of Nick's nose and then his lips before leaning back and getting back on the ground. "We should move on to another overlook," he said, opening his car door before Nick could say anything.

Nick laughed. With Jeff it was always either a couple miles an hour or a hundred, and very little in between.

It took them longer than it had ever taken Nick to get to the highest point on Skyline Drive, because they stopped often and took long stops, be it to take pictures or find cell phone signal or to make out.

But once they did reach the top of Skyline Drive, Nick urged his boyfriend to sit on the short stone wall that, in theory, kept park visitors from falling over and sending themselves rolling down the mountain. This had not, however, stopped them from earlier climbing over the wall to climb onto a rock just down the hill that begged to be climbed on.

Jeff looked at him dubiously and tried to get back up when Nick retreated back towards the car. "What are you doing?" he asked. "If you're about to leave, I will cry."

He laughed, shaking his head as he popped the trunk. "No, I am not leaving," he said. "You would probably find some nice tourists and convince them to take you in and the next thing I know you'll be performing at one of those Vegas shows."

Jeff furrowed his brow. "That's oddly specific."

"A guy has to think about all of the possibilities," he said with a shrug, earning another laugh from Jeff. Reaching into the trunk, he pulled out an acoustic guitar.

"Whoa," Jeff said, leaning back perhaps a bit riskily on the wall, "what are you doing? God, I didn't even realize that you still had that."

Nick didn't say anything, just shushed him as he moved to sit down beside Jeff on the wall and started playing.

Jeff blinked quickly as he started to realize what was happening. "Are you about to—"

He grinned as he started to sing, ignoring the fact that he felt eyes from other people at the overlook on his back, "I do not love you for the way you kiss, though your lips, they can put me at ease." He took the small pause in the lyrics to blow Jeff a kiss. "I do not love your for your sweet brown eyes, though I love when they're looking at me."

As Nick continued to sing, Jeff looked torn between melting at the fact that his boyfriend was serenading him on a mountain and blushing and trying to hide because he was being serenaded and there were people around.

Nick scooted closer to Jeff, stopping playing for a moment to gently grab Jeff's hand and squeeze lightly. "And I do not love you for the way your hands, can touch me and quiet my soul. I love you for all of this and so much more."

Soon enough, though, Jeff gave upon caring what anyone else around might think or say, because the fact was that he was Jeff Sterling and Jeff Sterling never gave a shit about that kind of thing and besides, his boyfriend was singing to him and god, how did Nick get so damn sweet?

He had to force himself not to protest when Nick withdrew his hand to continue strumming at the guitar. As the song went on, he was having trouble focusing on the song and instead was focusing on not crying because that would be weird, wouldn't it?

"And all I know, is you're the part of me that keeps me strong. And what I want is for us to face forever, standing up together, eyes turned towards the heavens, arm in arm."

"I do not love you for the way my heart," Nick sang, reaching out and placing his hand on Jeff's chest over his heart, "seems to live somewhere inside your chest." His hand remained there for the remainder of the song.

When he finished the song, he grinned sheepishly up at Jeff, who was slightly (slightly) openly weeping, but immediately leaned forward and kissed him, hard.

Nick smiled into the kiss but pulled back after a second to discard his guitar and move closer to Jeff. Bringing a hand up to Jeff's face, he ran a thumb along his cheek to wipe away the tears. "I didn't mean to make that happen," he said.

"Ducky," was all that Jeff could say, hoping that Nick got what he wanted to say. He laced his fingers with Nick's and closed the small space between their lips again.

"I'm glad you liked it," Nick murmured quietly against his lips.

Jeff couldn't help but let out a soft laugh, because he sure as hell more than "liked" it. "How did you even get so perfect?"

Nick grinned at that as if he had been hoping Jeff would ask. "Beautiful, I'm only as perfect as you make me."

"That was cheesy."

"But still true," he sing-songed, wrapping his arms around Jeff's shoulders.

They stayed like that for a while, eventually deciding that they were going to stay until the sun set because they were on vacation, and vacations were all about cuddling on cold stones in state parks while watching sunsets. Once they got cold, they retreated to sit in Nick's car, sitting in the backseat, not with any sort of sexual connotation, but just to be able to be closer to each other.

After a long silence as they watched the sky fill with vibrant color as the sun descended, Nick leaned over suddenly and whispered, "I thought about proposing to you, right after I sang to you."

Jeff sat up quickly in surprise, blinking his eyes quickly as what his boyfriend had just said sunk in. "Oh my god, Nick, you—"

"I thought about proposing," he continued, smiling, "but I figured that would've been too predictable."

He raised his eyebrows, wishing he could force his heart beat to slow down as he said back, "Tell me, Nick, what part of that was at all predictable?"

"I sang," he offered, "after I pulled out the guitar. I think that counts."

Jeff laughed, and leaned back into Nick's embrace. Shrugging, he offered, "You could have thrown the guitar down into that, like, valley or whatever." (He was slightly impressed with himself for being able to actually coherently respond after Nick stated his intent to propose.)

"Because that would have been so predictable," Nick responded, rolling his eyes. (He, too, was proud of himself, for not wimping out and not telling Jeff that he wanted to propose.)

"Shut up, you ass," he replied, playfully swatting Nick. Grinning, he added, "Just remember, this means that when you actually do propose, you have to top this."

Nick seemed to consider that for a second, then turned his head to kiss Jeff's temple. "I can handle that."

In case you're wondering, Skyline Drive is indeed a real place, and it is indeed really gorgeous. :)