"Who are all these people? I didn't know Brennen even had so many friends." Colby said to Shea as they stood in their friend's living room, cups of punch in their hands.

Shea shrugged. "He told me most of them are Meggie's. She invited them so that they could actually call this a party. I'm glad you and Sam could make it, though, I don't really know a lot of these people."

Colby shrugged it off. "It's not like we have anything else to do, is it?"
Shea huffed a laugh, nudging him with her elbow.

"By the way, you two seem very comfortable around each other recently. Is there... something I should know about?" she asked curiously, eyeing him as she took a sip from her cup.

Colby tried to ignore his friend's wide smirk and felt a blush creep up his cheeks, dying his ears a soft pink in the warm, mildly loud, darkened room.

Yes, he wanted to say, yes of course there is, Shea. We've been together for two months now, and I love him, god, I love him so much. I never thought I'd like someone like this again, I didn't think I could. I didn't think I could love Sam, but I do, I do.

"No. I don't think we could actually be together for more than two days without pissing each other off. I mean, not like physically together. We are already kind of together. I mean we're friends. We live in the same apartment. But like, I don't think we could be in a relationship. We'd be at each other's throats in no time and not in a sexy way..."

He stopped with a slight frown, asking himself what he was even trying to say. Shea burst into laughter, working hard not to spill her punch all over her hand and her blouse.

"Bloody hell, Shea, you're the nosiest person I know." Colby grumbled, and when she didn't stop laughing and the other guests started throwing them looks and whispering, he knocked his elbow into her side, which led to her finally spilling her punch all over her arm.

"Goddammit, Brock! You should go find your boyfriend and ask him to protect you, because as soon as I will get this stuff off of me, I will find you and I will skin you!" she shouted, glaring and pointing her finger at him sarcastically.

Colby started giggling, trying to hold his hand as still as possible to not end up the same way as her, his shoulders pressing harder into the wall. She threw him a grin before turning and disappearing into the kitchen.

Colby took a sip of his punch and asked himself if it contained alcohol. If so, it probably wasn't that much, he told himself. Colby let his eyes wander around the room, look at the people crowding it and the decorations Brennen and Meggie had put up.

There were fairy lights, snowflakes and fir branches that spread a wonderful, festive smell. The lights had a soft golden gloom to them. Or was that just the punch? Colby took another sip of said bitter-sweet drink and suddenly spotted a small, green object above the dining room door. Was that a mistletoe?

Colby narrowed his eyes in an attempt to get a better look at it, but soon just shrugged it off.

"We still need to put up some stuff at our place soon." Colby thought and decided to go look for Sam to not look too introverted.

He strolled out of the lounge into the dining room, where he spotted Maggie, offering cookies to the people that stood by and chatting with them.

"Hey Maggie!" Colby said, pushing his way through the other guests as he walked up to her, his punch at his shoulder level which was, as always, a bit higher than average.

She turned around and smiled when she saw Colby, stepping forward to make way for a girl with blue hair and glasses.

"Have you seen Sam anywhere?" he asked her when they met somewhere in the middle of the room, surrounded by the loudly chatting crowd.

"Yes, I have, actually. He was in the kitchen, helping Brennen with the curry. He took all my vanilla biscuits. Do you want some?"

She offered him the plate with a grin. He thanked her and took two chocolate cookies, then waved her goodbye to go to the kitchen.

Following the scent of rice and Indish food, he soon found it and saw Brennen, Shea and Sam, all gathered around a gigantic, bubbling pot of rice.

"Hey guys." Colby greeted them, leaning against the doorframe with his free hand buried deeply in the pocket of his black skinny jeans. The three looked up, and Sam smiled at him widely.

"Where have you been, Colby?" Sam asked and left the others to stare at the rice. He came towards Colby and stood next to him, pressing a swift, soft kiss to his clothed shoulder, making Colby blush a little.

He saw Brennen smirk slightly, and Shea gasped, tugging at Brennen's sleeve and whispering something into his ear that Colby couldn't quite understand.

"Out in the wilderness of Brennen's crowed flat, looking for you." Colby answered and frowned as Brennen and Shea started giggling quietly, both trying hard not to laugh and covering their mouths with their hands.

"What's so funny?" Colby asked them with a confused look and barely noticed Sam's hand, touching his wrist, tapping his palm, desperately searching for some sort of discrete physical contact. Colby didn't mind.

He was so used to Sam's touch by now; it really didn't make a difference anymore.

What did make a difference though, were Shea and Brennen, who were now both bubbling over with laughter, Brennen's hand clinging onto the edge of the counter for dear life.

"Look yourself, Colby!" Shea croaked out, pointing at a spot right above Colby and Sam's heads.

The two lifted their faces slowly, to see a small, green mistletoe, dangling off the doorframe innocently, unaware of the walls it had just brought down around the two boys.

They both took a moment to process what this meant.
"You two have to kiss!" Brennen shouted, and Shea shot Colby a wolfish grin, which probably meant that she'd planned this whole thing in advance.

Suddenly, the flat was a lot more quiet, and everybody in the lounge had stopped talking to stare at Colby and Sam in the doorway.

"What?!" Colby shrieked, backing away from Sam, his heart thudding loudly in his chest at all the sudden attention. When he looked at Sam for moral support, he was surprised to not see him freaking out, too.

No, Sam looked totally fine, a shy smile playing around his lips. Colby swallowed hard and looked around himself.

He'd kissed Sam so often over the past two months, a hundred times in their apartment, in public toilets, hidden from society's gaze, in dressing rooms and cars, hotel rooms, cinemas, hallways, the backs of theatres and alleys, hell, even on the street sometimes, but never in front of other people, his friends.

No, it wasn't kissing Sam that bothered him about all this. It was the environment he'd have to kiss Sam in.

Their relationship was something very private and intimate to him, and he wasn't ready to show it, to share it with anyone else. He was too afraid it'd shift somehow, twist and turn and change into something else, something different.

He was too afraid it'd get out of hand, go viral, somehow end up in the hands of their fans for them all to pull and tear at it.

He didn't want this. He wanted people to stop staring and to stop giggling, wanted them all to stop shouting, cheering, saying encouraging things, and he wanted everyone to stop smiling.

He didn't want to be in this place, he just wanted to disappear.

"Colby."

He was ripped out of his anxious thoughts when Sam said his name quietly and took his hand. Colby's widened eyes found his, and he was smiling, and Colby tried to hold onto them, focus on them, focus on Sam and how much he loved him.

Sam lifted his hand to caress Colby's cheek softly, eyeing his twisted, sad face up and down, searching, adoring.

"Don't be scared. It's okay." He whispered, and of course, everybody could hear it, but Colby knew it was just for him to hear. It was only meant for him, and somehow, it managed to make him relax.

It managed to make him believe it was okay.

Colby swallowed, and nodded slowly, and before he could change his mind, he put the annoying cup aside, took Sam's face into his hands and leaned down to kiss him.

Sam's lips were soft and warm, they tasted of punch and slightly of curry, and most importantly, they made Colby forget where they were. Sam pulled him closer at the collar of his shirt and smiled against his lips.

Neither of them noticed their friends shouting, cheering around them. They were too caught up in the intimacy of the moment, and what it meant.
It meant that they no longer had to hide their relationship; it was out anyway, and proving all of Colby's doubts and fears wrong, it didn't feel weird at all.

It was just another one of their kisses, with Sam wrapped around him and his heart fluttering in his chest like a tiny bird that flew across rooftops and trees, ascending further and further into the light of a beautiful day.

It wasn't a particularly long or deep kiss, but the intimacy and the meaning Sam managed to put into it made Colby want to stay in this moment forever. Here, where he didn't have to hide his love, surrounded by the people that loved and supported him no matter what he did or was.

They broke away at some point, both struggling to catch their breath and pressing their foreheads together.
He heard someone say "Finally." and everybody laughing faintly.

"So, it's out now, huh?"Colby whispered as Sam opened his eyes that Colby love so much. This time, Colby was pretty sure only Sam could hear him. The other boy grinned softly, wrapping his arms around Colby's neck.

"Yeah. How do we feel about that?" he asked.
Colby huffed a laugh. "Not so bad after all."

Sam smiled and pressed another quick kiss to his boyfriend's lips before pulling away to make room for Brennen and Shea, both carrying pans and pots and screaming "We knew it all along!!" to get everyone's attention.

The two stood in the doorway a little longer, their fingers intertwined and Sam with his head leaned against Colby's chest.

"Are you hungry?" Sam asked after a while, lifting his head and replacing it with his flat hand.

Colby nodded wildly and put his arm around Sam's shoulder. "As hell." he said, and wrapped in each other's arms, they left the kitchen and followed their friends into the warm, welcoming dining room.