What Happens on the Cruise

6. Wake Me Up

Tim awoke with the pleasant warmth of Austin against him. His mind played back over the night before. They'd made a game out of undressing each other. As each piece of clothing came off, the other man would slowly explore with fingers, hands, mouth, skin on skin, until it felt almost unbearable, Tim's shirt, then Austin's; Tim's shoes and socks, then Austin's; Tim's jeans, then Austin's...

As Austin had reached for the waistband of Tim's underwear, Tim's body had betrayed him.

He'd let out a huge yawn. Austin had raised his eyebrows. "Am I boring you, Tim?"

"No," Tim had assured him. "I'm just tired. I didn't get nearly enough sleep. Really, I'm..." He tried to stop it, but another yawn seized him.

Austin had rolled off him, flopping onto the bed with a slight huff.

"Sorry. It was really, really sexy," Tim said. "Please, don't be mad."

Austin had chuckled a little, then rolled over and kissed the tip of his nose. "I'm not mad. We can pick this up in the morning."

"No, we don't have to stop," Tim protested.

"Hm. Yeah, we do. We've got all morning. No sense in fighting sleep." Austin had given him an evil grin. "Get some rest -- you're going to need it." Then he leaned down and pressed a kiss to the head of Tim's cock through his underwear. "And I'll see you in the morning."

Despite the shot of adrenaline that had coursed through him at that, Tim had drifted off to sleep holding the other man.

And now he really needed to go pee.

Tim tried carefully extricating his arm from underneath Austin without waking the tenor, till Austin sleepily muttered something, turned over, and curled back up to sleep.

Tim padded into the bathroom, relieved himself, and stood looking at his reflection as he washed his hands. His lips looked really red and he had an odd smudge of black on his cheek. There was also a rather spectacular hickey on his throat right over his jugular. "Might have to cover that with some makeup," he commented to himself, then huffed out a laugh. Makeup, of course. He and Austin had done a bit of making out before Austin had removed all his stage makeup.

After removing the remnants of Jean Valjean from his face, Tim returned to the bed, pulling a notebook and pencil from the bedside table, and settling down beside the sleeping man.

Some time later, Austin murmured, "Hmmm?" and turned to curl up closer to Tim. His eyes blinked open. "Hey," he said, his voice sounding sleep rough.

"Hey," Tim answered, brushing Austin's hair from his face and leaning down to press a kiss to Austin's forehead.

"Gotta piss," Austin said sleepily, slipping out of the bed and toward the bathroom. "Whatcha doing?" he asked when he returned.

"Working on a song," Tim answered.

"Oh, can I see?"

"Sure," Tim answered.

Austin snuggled in beside him, and Tim slipped an arm around his shoulder. "I do some songwriting, too. We should compare notes sometime."

"We should!" Tim agreed.

"Hmm. 'I've Seen'. You did this the other night, didn't you?"

"We did."

Austin began flipping through pages, pausing to read lyrics and hum bits of the tunes, commenting on things he especially liked. Soon the two were lost in the world of Tim's music, the time drifting past.

"And I will sing, and let it ring..." Austin sang. Tim joined him and Austin found a harmony part. "Oh, I love this one," Austin said. "Y'all should record this."

"I've recorded it as a single. Didn't make it on to my solo album."

"You have a solo album out and you're just now mentioning it? Where can I get a copy?"

"I think we have a few with the Home Free merch," Tim answered.

"Then I'm hitting up your merch table first thing tonight."

Tim smiled, then leaned down to press a kiss to Austin's lips. Austin turned, deepening the kiss, his tongue flicking out to trace along Tim's lower lip. His stomach let out a loud rumble.

Tim started laughing, breaking the kiss. Austin joined him in giggling, their foreheads touching. "Oh, Timothy Foust, I'm beginning to think I'm never going to get in your pants."

***

"Hey, you two are up late," Rob greeted them as they walked into the breakfast / brunch buffet. "Chris and Matt just left. Haven't seen Adam. Oh, never mind, there he is."

Adam had his phone out, listening. He gave them a distracted wave as he got to the table. "Okay, Honey. Mom and Dad are right there if you need them." He paused. "Yeah. I love you, too. I'll talk to you tonight." He ended the call and pocketed the phone. "Sorry."

"Everything okay at home?" Tim asked.

"Yeah. Ericha just stepped wrong and is worried she's sprained her ankle," Adam answered. He looked at Rob's empty plate and coffee cup. "I take it everyone else has eaten?"

"We just got here," Austin said.

"Really?" Adam asked, glancing quickly between Austin and Tim.

"Yeah," Tim volunteered. "We'll keep you company."

"I'm headed out," Rob said. "See you all later."

"Oh, they're just putting out fresh crepes," Austin said excitedly. "I'll be right back."

Tim and Adam said their goodbyes to Rob, then the beatboxer turned to Tim, nodding to Austin who was piling a plate high with strawberries. "The other night, you didn't--"

"No!" Tim responded, sounding offended. "I don't do non-consensual. You should know me better than that."

"Sorry. It's none of my business anyway." The two of them started walking toward the buffet. "So what have you been up to this morning, or should I ask?"

Tim gave a casual shrug. "Going through my song notebook" he answered, carefully avoiding mentioning what he and Austin had planned to do that morning. "Austin's got all sorts of opinions on ones Home Free should do."

"Yeah? Well, he might have a say," Adam said. "Matt tells me he's interested in joining."

"Who, Austin?" Tim asked.

"Yup. I mean, if we're losing Matt, I think he'd be a great fit vocally, don't you?" Adam looked back where Tim had stopped dead in his tracks. "Tim?"

"Um. Yeah. He'd be great," Tim answered and gave Adam a smile, but the smile didn't quite reach his eyes.