Two Degrees of Separation

Chapter 25: Homecoming

Author's Note: Two chapters left of this one! I didn't want to keep it going for so long that it became boring, so I finished Chapter 26 today and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Enjoy the chapter before the finale!

Chapter 25: Homecoming

Scott strained his voice to hit the final notes of 'Hallelujah', and thanked Jesus Christ himself that his voice didn't crack in the final chorus. His vocal cords screamed at him in protest of their 30th show. This was their final concert of their three-month tour. He was filled with a mixture of relief and sadness as they sang their last chord.

He was done. They could go home now. They had six weeks until they began their Christmas tour. Six weeks sounded like forever right about now, and Scott couldn't wait.

Harry would be wrapping up his tour in one week, and he would return home as well. Scott couldn't wait to spend some time with him, considering the fact that last time they had been close enough to touch one another, Scott wasn't exactly in the proper state to be able to take advantage of the situation the way he had wanted to. Sure, Harry's proposed idea of laying very still had worked, but it was actually more torturous than pleasurable for Scott, who had absolutely no control.

It had been two whole months since Scott had seen Harry after that, and he was becoming impatient.

It had been two months of Twitter wars, blocking and reporting users, ignoring others, and dodging questions from the media about their thoughts on everything.

Scott's 29th birthday came and went, and he couldn't spend it with his favorite person.

But most importantly, it had been two months since Scott had looked into those green eyes that took his breath away each and every time.

So here he was, one week later, sitting on the front step of Harry's house.

No, he had no idea what time Harry was expected to be home.

No, he didn't care.

But it was almost 9pm now, and Scott had seen that all possible flights from Chicago had arrived at least two hours ago.

This was a dumb idea, Scott thought, rubbing the back of his head and yawning. He decided to give up, and clamored into his car, sighing. He would have to settle for calling Harry when he got home. He just hoped he was okay.

His heart sank at the idea what Harry was likely back in town, doing God knows what, and hadn't even called him yet.

Maybe they were drifting apart.

He shook the thought from his mind before he could feel the first tear prickling the back of his eyes. He pulled into his driveway 15 minutes later, feeling exhausted despite the fact that he had done nothing more than sit like a stone on his boyfriend's step all day.

He fiddled with his keys as he approached the door, trying to think of anything else other than what Harry might be doing. He gasped when he looked up just in time before tripping over a lump of a body in front of his own front door.

Harry was hunched over, leaned up against the wall, mouth agape as he snored, lightly. A brown paper bag was at his feet: Take-out. Scott felt the side of the bag. It was ice cold.

He laughed at the irony of all of this, and crouched down to place a light kiss on his beautiful boyfriend's forehead, cupping his cheek and stroking his jawline as he stirred.

Harry's eyes focused on his slowly as they blinked open, and he grinned goofily as Scott came into his view.

"You have some explaining to do," Harry teased, tiredly.