Home Sweet Home (REVISED)

Chapter 39

When they got their rooms, it was already ‪nine P.M.‬, and they were starving. They were all dumping their stuff on the floor when Vince came in. "What do you guys say, you wanna go out and eat somewhere?", he asked, leaning to the wall of Tommy's hotel room. Nikki was, not surprisingly, in there with him. "Mick's coming too", Vince added. "Sure", Tommy shrugged, "Nikki, you're joining us, right?" He looked at Nikki, who hesitated. Nikki didn't know if he wanted to go or not, since there was a minor chance that Vince might find out about him and Tommy. It wasn't going to be a problem if Mick found out though; he tolerated that kind of stuff, but Vince... Unlikely. But heck, it was only an hour or so on a restaurant. "Uh, sure", Nikki finally decided; he did it for Tommy's sake.

They all went to some classy pizza place nearby. Finding a table, Vince called for the waitress, who came with only three menus. "Uh, we're four people", Vince remarked as she put the menus on the table. "Oh, sorry", she apologized, looking at Mick, "I didn't see you there". Mick looked at her with his expressionless face. "I may be quiet, but I'm not invisible", he said, kind of offended. Tommy laughed. "That's alright", he said, giving Mick his menu, "Nikki and I'll share one". The most of the time at that restaurant was spent looking at the menus, deciding what kind of pizza to order. "What do you want, sweetie?", Tommy asked Nikki, making him panic a little. "Don't call me that here!", he whispered behind the menu. Tommy laughed; he wasn't taking Nikki seriously. "Uhm, I have to go to the bathroom", Nikki said quickly while getting up and running to the toilets. "Me too", Tommy added, running after him. It must have been hard for Vince and Mick not to suspect anything.

As they went inside and made sure the door was properly locked, Tommy started asking Nikki tons of questions. "I thought you didn't mind any nicknames? What's wrong with 'sweetie'? You have to throw up or something? Why did you run to the toilets?" Nikki looked around at the dirty floor. "No, I'm OK, and there's nothing wrong with 'sweetie'", he responded, "But not in public... alright..?" He knew immediately that he shouldn't have said that, but lying wasn't an opportunity with Tommy; he didn't want shit like that in their relationship. Tommy sighed and looked at Nikki, getting kind of mad with him. "Goddamnit, Nikki, why are you so embarrassed? If it's something I said or something I did, or just me in general, just tell me!", he said, louder than he really had to. Nikki started crying, and there was no way he could manage to hide it. "I'm sorry", he sobbed, throwing himself at Tommy for a hug. "God, you're such a crybaby...", Tommy replied, kind of rolling his eyes. "I'm sorry, I promise I'll get better", Nikki went on, "It's just so weird, you know... I'm not used to stuff like this..." He buried his face in Tommy's soft hair. "It's OK...", Tommy sighed, realizing that he might have overreacted, since Nikki was crying and all, "I still love you, you know... And if you're not ready to tell people yet, I guess I'll have to accept that. I'll wait, 'cause you're worth waiting for". Tommy pushed him away a little, but only enough to still have him in his arms. He wiped Nikki's tears away, smiling down at him. Nikki sniffled, managing to smile back at Tommy; he was starting to feel a little better now. They stayed in there for a while so that Nikki could calm himself down, and after a kiss and another hug, they went back out to Vince and Mick.