"Alright what's next on the agenda for tonight, gentlemen?" Charlie asked over the smoke and sounds of munching on the stolen cookies. A slight scuffle started and stopped as Pitts grabbed the apple Meeks was munching on and began eating it. Out of the depths, a very soft and unexpected voice came up.

"I-I want to read."

After a slight pause, the group of hormone-ridden teenagers began clapping as, for the first time, Todd stood up with a folded piece of paper in his hand. Neil beamed with pride and excitement – maybe his outgoing nature was finally rubbing off on his shy roommate. But with the way Todd was holding the piece of paper, he didn't look very relieved to be reading… so why was he putting himself through this?

Coughing a bit to clear his throat, Todd stuttered out the title of the poem he had found that morning when he had finally made up his mind to seize the day. Seize the day; seize the way you want to feel with him. "…A l-love poem…" He momentarily paused to the hoots and jeers of his fellow classmates, hoping they didn't see his real intentions, especially Neil… but he did want Neil to see his true intentions, for him to know how much it was for him that he was risking looking stupid. "By Courtney Kuchta…"

Very slowly, Todd let his sight stray to the warm brown eyes he saw every day… the eyes of his best friend, from the spark of his love of poetry… the flame of his own love. Apprehensive for once, Neil stared back, holding the blue eyes in his own, feeling a strange knot in his stomach. The words dripped from Todd's lips, like warm honey running down Neil's back. Both shivered.

"If I could have just one wish,
I would wish to wake up everyday
to the sound of your breath on my neck,
the warmth of your lips on my cheek,
the touch of your fingers on my skin,
and the feel of your heart beating with mine...
Knowing that I could never find that feeling
with anyone other than you."

The cave was silent, rank with the awkwardness of the troop of men stumbling upon a rare secret that they were unsure about. Todd stood, panting, face flushed and mind racing, painfully exposed in such warm brown eyes widely staring back at him. No one moved, least of all Neil, who was shocked beyond logical thought, only able to find colors in his mind, no words. How could it be that Todd read it for him?

Loudly, a twig snapped as Pitts shifted on his feet, mouth hanging open. Charlie, Knox, Meeks, and Cameron were all staring at Todd, knowing who he had read for, and unable to understand why. Guilt drove Neil to do something, anything, because he had caused Todd to take this action, to rip himself open in front of their friends. "Todd-" he began, taking a step forward. In that heartbeat, Todd was gone, running as fast as he could out of the cave, into the darkness, disappearing like an afterthought. Neil ran after him, following the sound of leaves crunching from ahead, leaving the others in the cave to talk and converse about the events that had happened so quickly.

Todd was sitting on his bed, ripping his bangs down over his hot face. Nothing helped, even when he closed his eyes he saw the shocked look on Neil's face. Seize the day. The day had seized him by the neck and shook until he had run out of life. It was hopeless – Neil would stop talking him, and the chance for happiness he had longed for would vanish forever.

Painful to his ears, the door opened and closed, heavy footsteps carried the object of his torment into the dark room. Neil gently began again, always being the one to start what neither wanted to say, "Todd, you-"

"No, Neil. Don't try to say it…" The darkness between them was thick, but through the window, a small amount of starlight lit the outlines of the two young bodies. Swallowing deeply, as if they were the last words he could say, Todd continued. "I-I screwed up, alright? I didn't know how you would react but I did it anyways and I shouldn't have and I-"

"Todd, you stupid ass, I-"

"Stop it Neil! Let me tell you what I want to say!" for the first time in his life, Todd was angry with Neil, with poetry, with his whole life and how it had reached this one point. "Because if I don't explain myself I think I'm going to die, so just listen!"

Very quietly, Neil muttered, "…sorry…" looking at the form on the bed in front of him. He let his coat drop to the ground as he watched the lips form the sentence he knew was coming.

"I-I love you, Neil…"

"…I know, Todd…"

His chin was about to drop with the weight of Neil's rejection, but Todd was stopped by two soft hands on his jaw. Above him, the brown eyes glittered mysteriously, warming the tips of his fingers. Forgetting the embarrassment and the reservation and the way he should act, Todd leaned up and kissed the lips he had been watching since the beginning of the school year. Such warm lips rubbing back against his made his arms bolder, wrapping around Neil's slim waist and pulling him down against him on the bed, into the blankets, never parting the comfortable lips, housing two souls meeting. Those lips that had spouted verse after verse now melted to the silent mouth. The tongue that had recited lines for hours was pursued by the shy, quiet tongue, now powerful and moving.

Sighing against his lips in a brief interlude, Neil whispered, "I love you, Todd." Todd wasn't about to forget. Throughout the night, poetry moved them to frenzy, and words took shape in their actions and molten sweat. Exhausted at the first morning star, Todd collapsed on top of Neil, finding solace inside of him, on him, and beside him. As the two listened to the creaking floorboards hailing the return of their friends, they smiled in their own world. Neil breathed against Todd's strong neck as they fell asleep, and the next day when they woke up.

I wrote this in one hour, at ten o'clock at night. Woot. READ AND REVIEW. No flames.