Andante

CLXXXVI

Eddy floated up to the sky that night and back down to earth as time suspended and shimmered around them where they lay, loving, touching, healing.
'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.' he had read in his English textbook not long back and the sentence floated around his brain now. He hadn't known at the time how applicable to real life that sentence could be... but he discarded the thought quickly as he bent forward to kiss Brett again, and again, and again. 

His head was on Brett's chest and the sky outside was growing dark when his stomach growled loudly. Brett grinned. 
"Yeah, we might want to consider eating at some point. You think you're up for that?"
Eddy sat up and rubbed his eyes. He was... well, he was feeling okay, really. All his limbs felt loose, somehow, like he'd literally been put through one of those old-fashioned laundry wringers. 
Well, metaphorically he guessed he had been. 
He put his hand on Brett's side, and he wanted to thank him, thank him for sitting with him like that, for listening to him like that, for giving him advice and then loving him like that. But he held his tongue, because all he could see in Brett's face was a glow, and an openness. 
"How do I look?" he asked instead. 
"What, beside gorgeous?" Brett said, lifting that glorious eyebrow of his again. 
Eddy shoved him lightly. "You know exactly what I mean."
Brett smiled. "You look okay. Honest."
"Okay. In that case I need to go toilet and we can head out and get some hotpot, or pizza. And bubble tea."

They walked through the Perth neighbourhood until they found a Chinese takeaway. Brett may have told him that he looked okay, but Eddy had seen his own face in the mirror in their little bathroom, and he knew just how raw he was feeling. No, this was definitely not a night he wanted to spend among people. So he waited outside in the dark while Brett walked into the restaurant and ordered them the hotpot they had been after. Then they picked up some Bubble tea and took the same route back to the hotel. Eddy took one look at the grey cloth chairs and sat back down on the bed with his cardboard box of hotpot and crossed his legs. Brett put the plastic bag of food on the little table and unpacked the rest. 
"Chopsticks." he mumbled as they were already flying through the air, landing just in front of Eddy on the bed spread. 
"Thanks. Wanna sit here?"
"Sure." 
Brett scooted onto the bed and sat right next to Eddy. Did he understand what his closeness was doing for his boyfriend?
Eddy broke his chopsticks apart and rubbed them together reflexively. 
"I wanted to get some practice in before bed, but I guess it's gotten too late for that, now. We'd be kicked out of the hotel."
Brett shrugged. "You'll be fine, though. And you can practice a bit tomorrow in the theatre before the masterclass starts."

They didn't say much, as they ate. There was a silence in Eddy now, that was seeping into his every cell, that made his limbs heavy, sleepy. He put his head on Brett's shoulder and snuggled into him. 
"Thanks, for tonight." he mumbled. 
Brett turned to him with his mouth still full. 
"Nah."
He didn't really want to move anymore, but he still got up like a good boy and brushed his teeth, put on his bed clothes. Then he slid back into his spot, but this time under the covers, and waited for Brett to turn up. 
"It'll be fine." Brett said in his sonorous tenor as he slipped into the bed next to Eddy and put his arm around him. "You'll see."