Disclaimer: Now mine, I could list all the people and companies who own them but really, that takes up farr too much space.
One Night in New York
Chapter 1
Hotshot
Michael dug through his uncle's liquor cabinet, desperate in all of his seventeen-year-old glory to forget about life for the entire night. All that Vic had was that strong shit that Brian liked. Michael couldn't stand the stuff, the way it burned his throat and had such a quick effect on him.
He growled, slamming the cabinet shut and hurried toward the kitchen. He opened the fridge and sighed in relief, a full six pack of beer sat on the shelf.
He grabbed it, completely unashamed of the fact that Vic would notice it missing later.
Vic was a gay man, and one who had grown up with his mother at that, so he would understand. It was Michael's first night in New York for the summer and Vic had picked him up at the bus station, dropped him off at the apartment and gone out for the night with nothing but a less than stern reminder to behave himself.
So here he was.
Things were so fucked, he thought to himself as he climbed the stairs of Vic's apartment building to the roof, the one where Vic tended to pitch bottle caps down at late-night passersby.
His mother was on his case about absolutely everything; his schoolwork, his friends, his love life, well, particularly his lack thereof.
Brian was no help. He had a job for the summer, one that kept him busy. As Brian put it he was the bitch at the art department of some advertising firm. He ran around from the second he got there in the morning until he left at night. And after that he went out. Even if Michael went with him he only had a few moments worth of attention before Brian disappeared off into the abyss of the dance floor.
He'd only be staying with Vic for the month but he needed to relieve some stress.
He popped off the cap of the bottle against the edge of the roof and took a long swig. It wasn't particularly good but it was cold and it would get him relaxed.
Ben had learned to hate coming home from school. The summer was just a miserable time of year. It wasn't that he didn't love his family, he did. They just seemed to be overwhelming and far too supportive.
He'd found his escape in a few friends from school who lived near him in the city, in the club scene, in fucking around.
He'd been avoiding his father for two days now, avoiding the discussion they had to have about his future, about the fact that they were sending him to an Ivy League school and he was majoring in something as useless as English. He couldn't help it; that was what he was drawn to. And he was good at it, god damn it. Everyone told him he had talent, but that didn't seem to be good enough.
He'd gone to a party with a few of his friends tonight, and for once watching the drugs and alcohol float around, and having a few guys cruising him, wasn't doing anything to improve his mood. He'd often found solace on the roof of his family's brownstone so he let himself out of the apartment, sure no one would notice his absence.
He pushed open the door to the roof, thankful it wasn't locked, only to step out and find that he wasn't alone. Up toward the front of the building he could see the outline of a male figure.
That was fine; there was plenty of room for both of them to vent their frustrations up here. Not paying him any heed Ben walked toward the back of the building, digging a pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of his pocket. He lit one and inhaled deeply, sighing as he let out the breath. It had a calming sensation that he couldn't describe.
He looked over his shoulder as he heard the clack of glass hitting the roof, and watched as the other guy reached down and pulled another glass bottle out of something in the ground at his feet. Snapping the cap off he raised it to his lips and took a long swig.
Drinking alone?
Well, it looked like Ben wasn't the only one having a night that could have been a hell of a lot better.
He started across the roof slowly, looking the other guy over. He was young, Ben could tell that much, at least a year or two younger than himself. He had on a t-shirt and a plain, baggy pair of jeans. He was short and dark haired.
He didn't look upset but the empty look in his eyes and across his face led Ben to believe there was definitely a reason that he was up here drinking alone.
He didn't quite look familiar, but Ben couldn't count him out as another one of Brandon's guests.
Dark eyes barely glanced up at him as he reached the wall, looking back down at the street after a moment. This guy didn't react so Ben figured he wasn't going to get his head bitten off for asking a simple question.
"Mind if I have one of those?"
Michael had been watching out of the corner of his eye as this guy came out and calmly began smoking a cigarette. He didn't know many of his uncle's neighbors, and they had changed too many times over the year for him to bother trying.
He'd been too absorbed in his own thoughts to hear the man approaching until he posed a question.
Michael turned his head and looked at the intruder on his solitude.
He couldn't help but be surprised. This guy was probably in college, but he couldn't have been that much older than Michael. He had the look of a football player about him, a little on the heavy side but a lot of that was obviously muscle.
"Sure," he said nonchalantly, turning back to staring into the empty space in front of him.
He was ready to lose himself again as he listened to the sound of a bottle being taken out of the limp cardboard box and being opened.
It wasn't until the older guy leaned against the wall next to him; arm bumping against his that Michael was startled out of his reverie once again.
"You didn't hear a word I just said, did you?"
"Sorry," Michael replied automatically.
"Did you come up here from Brandon's party?" he asked again.
Michael shook his head, "I don't know any Brandon. I'm up here visiting my Uncle Vic for the month."
He tipped the beer he was holding, pressing the cool glass against his palm and listening to the cool liquid slosh around inside.
"Isn't your uncle going to be kind of pissed that you drank all his beer?"
Michel shrugged, "Maybe."
He looked over into his acquaintance's startlingly blue eyes as a grin stretched across his face.
"So, you're what, eighteen, nineteen?" he guessed.
"Seventeen," Michael said, surprised, as he was usually mistaken for being younger than he was. He looked up, horrible at guessing, especially when guys were staring at him like this one was.
"What about you?"
"Twenty," he replied, "as of last month."
A grin pulled at the corners of Michael's mouth. At least he wasn't the only one who shouldn't have been drinking.
This older guy seemed to sense that, and things just seemed a bit easier between them as he held out his hand, "I'm Ben."
"Michael."
Ben watched Michael downing his beer. He was young, that much could be told in a glance, but he was certainly not unattractive. Too bad he hadn't come from Brandon's party. He had no way of knowing who this kid was, what he was. Nothing that Michael had said had tipped his orientation one way or another.
"So Michael," the name rolled easily off his tongue, "Shouldn't this uncle of yours be keeping an eye on you, instead of letting you wander aimlessly around his building and drinking all of his beer?"
Michael grinned, choking back a chuckle, "That's not exactly how my uncle works."
"Care to enlighten me?" Ben asked.
"Alright," Michael consented, reaching for Ben's still-lit cigarette and taking a drag like an old pro.
Ben watched him expectantly as he accepted it back.
"He's my mom's younger brother," Michael explained, "And every year since I was twelve my mom's sent me up to spend a month of my summer vacation with him. It's just a break from her, from all the shit that goes on back at home. And sure, when I was younger Vic took me all over the place, but he steps back a little more each year, makes me do more and more on my own, which is a lot more than I can say for my mom."
Ben chuckled. His mother had her overbearing, controlling moments too.
"What about your dad?"
"He's not in the picture," Michael said, moving on as though there was no issue there, "but uhh… this summer I got up here, this afternoon actually, and he just told me that he was going out tonight with a few friends, gave me my keys, and told me to leave him a note if I was going out."
"I guess the privacy's nice though," Ben shrugged, "and obviously he left the fridge fully stocked."
"Yeah, usually my friend Brian comes with me, but he's working this summer. I'm sure we'd be out getting into trouble, but instead I'm stuck here with nothing to do and Uncle Vic is out partying it up at The Works."
Ben's eyebrows shot up and he let his drink clang against the wall, "The Works?"
He knew that bar; he'd even been there a few times. It certainly said something about Michael's uncle.
"Yeah," Michael said, "My uncle's gay."
He didn't sound ashamed of it, not in the least. In fact he sounded more proud of his uncle than any other emotion Ben could place. And that tone put Ben at ease about something else.
"And so are you," he said to Michael.
Michael's eyes widened just a bit, but it was enough that Ben understood. He had suffered through some bad experiences coming out to people.
"Yeah," Michael finally nodded, picking up the last two beers and holding one out to Ben.
Ben smiled, accepting the drink.
"So, what about you?" Michael asked Ben, trying to shift the focus off of himself for a while. "Why'd you skip out on the party at this Brandon guy's place?"
Ben let out a chuckle, handing over the cigarette once again.
"It just gets boring, I guess," Ben admitted, "I go to school with a lot of the people, and others I've known for a while and there's only so much you can take before it gets monotonous and old,"
"Right," Michael nodded in agreement.
"But, I can't go home," Ben took a sip of the beer. It was starting to get warm, "At least not for a few more hours. Not until I'm sure my parents will be asleep."
"Avoiding them?"
"It's worked all week."
"Yeah, I'm going to be trying to do the same thing, phone-wise, all month."
Ben smiled and nodded, understanding how trying to avoid one's family worked. The two of them drank in silence, listening to the noises of the city; the cars and the people on the street below, probably some of the noise wafting up from the part on the second floor.
"I should get back," Michael said, finally breaking the silence, "You know, try to sober up a little and get to bed before my uncle gets home."
Ben tipped his head back, draining the rest of his drink before dropping the bottle to the ground where they had left the other five.
"I'll walk down with you," he said as he turned and began making his way back to the door and the stairs.
"Yeah, you should be getting back to your party." Michael seemed to be indifferent and he dropped his own bottle to follow Ben.
"Yeah," Ben agreed as he held open the door for both of them and together they walked down to the fourth floor.
Surprisingly Ben didn't continue down the stairs when they reached the floor that Vic lived on. Instead he followed Michael down the hall.
"What kind of host would I be if I didn't make sure you got home safe?" he asked, jokingly, as they walked. He'd noticed Michael's raised eyebrow as they walked.
"I'm pretty sure the fact that I'm the one who actually lives in the building makes me the host," Michael replied.
Ben smiled. He loved guys with a sense of humor. Michael would have made him laugh if it hadn't been so late, if he hadn't had an altogether shitty night before heading up to the roof. As it was he did practically live in Brandon's apartment so he could probably make an argument for living in the building.
Not paying attention he crashed, chest-first, against Michael's back as Michael stopped abruptly in front of room 401. The contact made his skin tingle and he forced himself to take a deep breath, not noticing Michael do the same.
Michael's hands shook a little as he dug into his pocket for the keys and as he and Ben stepped away from one another. He hated that his body reacted that way, making it obvious. He had never managed to be as smooth as Brian around other guys, which probably accounted for his lack of a social life.
"Well, thanks for the conversation on the roof," Michael said, "It was nice to have some company."
"Yeah, we'll have to do it again sometime," Ben agreed.
Michael immediately lowered his eyes. Right, like that would ever happen.
Ben sensed the tension and didn't say anything as Michael unlocked the door and pushed it open and prepared to go inside, turning back to bid him a simple goodnight.
Ben reached out, not sure what possessed him, placing his palm against the back of Michael's neck he pulled him forward a few steps. Using courage summoned from their conversation on the roof he bent down just a little and pressed his lips against Michael's.
Michael completely froze.
He didn't say anything as Ben pulled back and just stared after him as he turned and walked silently away.
Ben glanced back just once, only to see Michael still staring after him. As he turned back he nearly collided with an older man coming up the stairs.
"Sorry," he muttered, edging past him and hurrying down.
Back downstairs the sound of the pulsing music had faded and although there were still people in Brandon's apartment the party seemed to be winding down. Brandon opened the door when he knocked.
"Where have you been?" he asked Ben, giving him a look that obviously implied he hoped Ben had gotten laid.
"Had a few cigarettes up on the roof," Ben explained, letting him down easy, "Do you mind if I crash on your couch tonight?"
"Nah, feel free," Brandon said, picking up some empty beer cups, "I'll give you a ride home in the morning if you need."
"Thanks."
"So, you get lucky tonight?" Brandon asked, still stuck on the idea, "I didn't see you around very much."
Ben stared at him for a moment, thinking about the night that he'd had.
"Yeah," he nodded, "I guess you could say that."
"Good for you," Brandon patted him on the back as he walked by, "You know where the blankets and stuff are. I'm going to work on kicking the last few stragglers out so I'll see you in the morning."
"Who was that?" Vic asked he walked up the hall, catching sight of Michael still staring in the direction of the stairs, frozen in the doorway.
His voice seemed to knock Michael out of his daze.
"Uhh… just some guy who I ran into. He was at a party downstairs."
"Oh," Vic glanced back down the hall, despite the fact that Ben had long since disappeared from sight, "Not too bad on the eyes, is he?"
"No, I guess not," Michael finally backed into the apartment.
Vic entered with him closing and locking the door. He was staring at Michael with interest.
"Is there something you should be telling me about?"
"Yeah right," Michael rolled his eyes. He was still a bit thrown by the kiss. Had Ben just had too much to drink? Was it some kind of strange 'thank you' from him? Had Michael just imagined the whole thing?
There was one thing of which he was certain. There was no way that this guy was gay. He was too… There almost wasn't a word for it, stereotypically straight.
"What about you?" he shifted the focus to his uncle, "you didn't bring a trick home with you."
"Well, I can't very well be myself when I need to be responsible around 'young, impressionable minds'," Vic quoted his sister.
Michael stared hard at his uncle for a moment. Maybe he wasn't as bad as Brian but he was a seventeen year old male.
"Well, I should be a good role model."
"Right, I'll remind you of that next weekend when I see half a dozen guys breeze through here."
Vic leveled a glare at his nephew, leaning forward just a bit and inhaling through his nose.
"Have you been drinking?" he asked in a mockingly parental tone.
Michael rolled his eyes and turned to walk in the direction of the guest room calling over his shoulder, "Goodnight Uncle Vic."
A/N: I really cannot just work on one project at a time. It's simply impossible for me. The next chapter of this is written. It just needs to be beta'd. I'm hard at work on the next chapter of Call Me Hunter, so that should be up relatively soon too. I do need to work out some of the rough mechanics of this story but I do have a pretty good idea as to where I want to go with it. Leave me a review telling me what you think of it. I wasn't around when the show was actually on so I don't know if there are a million more of these buried in here.
Enjoy,
Megan