Day 4 - First kiss - goal length: 1k-2k
1999 November
The crowd roared as one of the biggest songs on the setlist (so far) rumbled to its end. They continued to clap and scream and wail and cheer as the guitar feedback faded away and Mark called out "Alright, settle down, settle down. Listen." holding his hands up behind the mic, grasping his pick in one hand.
"I can hear your mom masturbating backstage from here." Tom loudly and crudely comments as he keeps his unwavering fixed gaze on Mark and nothing else. As if it's just them fooling around, as he can't seem to process anything else anyways. Despite having admitted to their feelings only several days ago, on the same tour they were still on, he already found himself staring like they were married. Looking him up and down and fixating on the places he loved the most-which, really, was almost everything -as he awaited an equally, or even more crude response to his remark. Finally in a state where he didn't care if people saw him staring or if they thought it was weird because it simply didn't- couldn't, matter to him right now. All he wanted was to be here with Mark, and he was.
"-and I could hear you in the bathroom earlier screaming 'MARK, MARK, GO FASTER' but I didn't say anything, did I?" Mark asks Tom curiously, playing up his reenactment of all this screaming he never heard, to which the crowd cheered and howled.
Mark watched as Tom retreated toward his side of the stage and chuckled nervously as he turned back to his mic to inform the crowd. "We're gonna leave now- but the show's not over. It's not actually over yet. We're just gonna leave for a second and pretend we're not gonna come back and then we're gonna come back and play a few more songs."
Tom nervously added his own little "Surprise!" to the end of Mark's explanation and waved his slim hands around in the air to make his point clear.
Mark tries to add onto Tom's comment, "Yeah, what he said. We just-"
"There's an orgy going on backstage and we just- we couldn't miss it for the world. Everyone keeps talking about how gnarly it is and I'm getting all worked up." Tom explains instead, apparently having other plans as he overdramatically tugs on the waistband of his pants behind his guitar. He'd quickly perked up out of his flustered state, his face lit up and his body swaying excitedly as he watched Mark react, the space between his words feels endless but it'll never be anything intolerable as long as he's there. Even when he's silent and not talking directly to Tom it still captivates him, watching Mark simply be there like he's in the presence of an otherworldly higher being. He feels so close and so far away at the same time, mostly because this is a ginormous arena stage...
Mark laughs and quietly mutters "...Okay. Alright." into the microphone as he chuckles and watches Tom, watches him exude pure contentment and happiness, finally presenting as though he was actually having fun and not just putting on an act because of how he'd felt throughout the tour, having been so full of fear and nerves...he could release everything now and it was all because Mark had told him it'd be fine. Enthralled by the idea that he'd made Tom happy, knowing Tom must be excited by the prospect of this long-awaited exhilaration was shared, traded back and forth between them simply from the energy they put out into the world. Unable to resist any longer, he turns back to the microphone and adds "Well, we're gonna go now. Just hang in there." lifting his guitar up over his head and making his way over to Tom rather than heading backstage to hand his guitar off to his tech.
As soon as he was close enough, Mark wrapped his arms around Tom's waist and pulled him as close as possible before grabbing his face with both hands and giving him a big, comical kiss before pulling away almost instantly to see his bewildered expression. He tried to run his hands through Tom's hair for a moment, brushing it away from his eyes as he ignored the initial crowd reaction, but the feeling that overwhelmed Tom was far too full and addictive for him to simply let this slide.
He knew it would feel good, far more than good, as he'd been practically drooling for the past few days waiting for Mark to initiate some sort of kiss. Even if it was just on the cheek, or the nose, or the neck- but this was far too much of a tease. He knew what Mark was doing and he knew what he wanted so he grabbed him back and tilted his head to lock their lips into a real, much deeper kiss, already reeling as he could feel Mark melting against him. The warmth of their bodies pressed together felt hotter than the heat of the sun, and he couldn't get enough of it. He really couldn't wait until they were finally somewhere private, now that he thinks of it...
Tom hesitates to pull away, doing so hastily as he looks up to get a look at the crowd. He knew it was a mistake to have done this on stage, even if it be more off to the side where people wouldn't think to look, feeling his euphoria begin to falter as the mixed reactions bounced around in his mind as they came straight to him from the overwhelmingly loud arena crowd.
Though, upon feeling Mark stumble back into him to press a kiss to his cheek, it was almost like everyone had vanished instantly and he could see the concrete floor again. Hearing Mark's gentle words remind him "It's okay, it doesn't matter. Just look at me. You're alright." as he guided his head in the other direction with a hand under his chin and pressed against his cheek, offering more stray kisses as he embraced Tom as best he could.
Mark gives him one more kiss and a tight squeeze before leaving him there to tremble with his thoughts and sensations, walking up to the microphone to listen to the crowd as he wanted to do something about what both of them were hearing. Even if it meant ruining the warm, exuberant state he was in, even if he wasn't expressing it like Tom was.
The booing certainly didn't do him any good, but the cheering sure did. So he simply said "If you're gonna boo, get the fuck out. You can go screw off. Have fun fucking your cousins and making more deformed babies that pay for concerts just to boo happy people because they're so fucking miserable having you idiots for parents." and then walked off to grab Tom by the wrist and drag him across the stage to where he had set his bass down, bending over to lift it up and dragging both of his beloveds backstage to let all the people decide what they want to do with themselves before the encore arrives...
(will continue in a (probably way better) bonus chapter if i feel like it at any point)
