Let's spend the night together
Now I need you more than ever
You know I'm smiling, baby

Mick Jagger & Keith Richard

**Warning for mild sexual content in this chapter**

"Yeah, I'm here, wait a minute," Julian calls, putting on the lamp as he gets out of bed.

"Let me in," Noel says quietly.

Julian opens the door, trying to think of something cool to say. He leans in the doorway, looking down at Noel who stands in the dimly-lit corridor. 

With a little smirk, he says, "You can come in, but you can never leave."

"That's fine. I haven't got much on," Noel replies with a grin. 

Julian laughs as he opens the door wide, and Noel throws his arms around him in a hug. It feels so good holding Noel, and Julian nuzzles him gently while pulling the door closed behind them.

"Hey, you didn't wait for me," Noel says with a little pout at seeing Julian already undressed.

"Oh ... no, I wasn't asleep," Julian protests. "I was, er, just lying in bed."

"Sorry I'm so late," Noel says. "The dinner went on for ages, and then I got taken back to my hotel, and had to call a taxi. It's quite a long drive."

"That's alright," Julian said, standing back to have a proper look at Noel. He is ... breathtaking. "Wow. You look ... you look .... wow."

"Oh well, I thought I'd better make a bit of an effort," Noel says, preening himself slightly. He's wearing white flared trousers with a pink and white floral shirt, open to the navel, and high heeled white boots. "Jeannie took me to a really fancy restaurant – French. I didn't even recognise most of the dishes."

"You look ... really different."

"Different to what?" Noel asks, wide-eyed.

"Different to the other times I've seen you."

"Well, I was in my pyjamas, or been playing football," Noel smiles, closing the gap between them and snuggling into Julian. "They got me these clothes at the hotel, and did my hair and make-up for me. Way smarter than what I could do myself. Like it?"

Julian strokes a finger through Noel's honey-blond hair, almost golden in the warm lamplight. "Yes. You look ... really pretty."

"If you met me like this at a party, would you think I was a girl?" Noel asked.

Julian looks at him again. "Well, if your shirt was done up. And if it was dark, and if I was a bit pissed ... yeah, maybe."

"What if you snogged me and found out I wasn't a girl?"

"I wouldn't really mind either way," Julian says, and leans in to touch his lips against Noel's. He begins unbuttoning Noel's shirt, skimming his hands over his delicate collarbones, his nipples. Julian trembles slightly as he bends down and worships Noel's bellybutton with his mouth, running his tongue down his stomach, into his groin. "Mm, definitely not a girl."

"You need to take my pants off to make sure," Noel says with an excited little giggle.

Julian undoes Noel's trousers and pulls on them, before saying, "Jesus, these are tight."

"It's my thighs," Noel says. "They're all muscular from playing football." He pushes his trousers past his knees, as Julian caresses his thighs, leaving a kiss high between them.

The trousers are pulled down, the boots unzipped and kicked in a corner.

"You wanna get into bed like this?" Julian murmurs, once Noel is just down to his little blue pants.

Noel nods, and Julian pulls back the covers, getting under, and holding Noel's hands to tug him into bed. Noel turns to Julian, his blond hair falling over his shoulders and onto the pillow, his pale skin creamy under lamplight. His body all bones, like a baby bird, so that tall, broad-shouldered Julian feels huge next to him.

You look like an angel, Julian thinks.

"I'm not though," Noel says with a little smile. "I'm just a person."

"How do you do that?" Julian asks.

"Do what?"

"Keep reading my mind."

"I dunno. How do you know when to kiss me, just when I'm hoping you will?"

Julian kisses Noel's cheek. Noel gives a smile like sunlight, he's all teeth and cheekbones and big blue eyes, radiating happiness. He wraps his arms around Julian and pushes his hips against him, as if checking that he's hard. There is a low groan from Julian, who pulls Noel into him, so that they rut together like horny teenagers.

Their kisses are wet and sloppy, biting each other's lips, their tongues together. Julian's big hands hold Noel's pointed face, trying to be tender, even as Noel pulls at his hair in his impatience to chase Julian's mouth with his own.

"You ever get off with another bloke?" Noel pants out. "I mean, more than snogging and messing about?"

"No," Julian says. "You?"

"Never really felt like it before. But I do now. Joo'n, please -"

"Yes. God, yes."

They keep kissing, harder and harder, their hands in each other's pants. Noel moaning at how heavy Julian is in his hands, Julian trying not to blow his load at once in the excitement of holding Noel. Stay cool, stay cool, he tells himself desperately, but he can't stay cool. Not with this hot, tight feeling in his gut and Noel's warm little paws jerking off his raging stiffy. Fuck, fuck. He couldn't hold on any longer.

Swept away, at the crest of his wave, Julian moans out something he has never said before.

"I love you."

There is a gasping giggle from Noel, who waits for his own orgasm to subside, before he replies, "I love you too."

They kiss and kiss, and fall asleep holding each other, warm and sticky, and very, very happy.

Julian doesn't think he has ever been so happy before.

**********************

Julian falls straight into a dream. He dreams of his mother again, but this time she isn't soothing him. Her voice is angry. She is talking to someone, and sounds tearfully furious, as if she would shout, or swear, or start crying if she wasn't trying to control herself.

"Stop talking to me like I'm some daft woman. I tell you, he smiled. It wasn't just a reflex movement. Do you think I don't know my own son's smile?"

Mary told him to let the dreams go, so he lets go of the dream, falling deeper into sleep.

When he wakes, he will have no memory of it at all.