A Loving Lust
chapters 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Chapter 2
“Race you to the exit!!” Darren took off at full speed with his luggage securely on his cart.“What the fuck-? Darren, you moron!! You’re going to kill someone!” Daniel clasped his belongs on the cart and hurried after his band mate. He finally caught up to him when a group of fans stopped him just ahead of the exit. The guitarist snuck past the group, unseen in the crowd, as Darren signed autographs and such.
He snickered quietly to himself when he heard Darren say, “Daniel should have been right behind me, but he’s such a slow poke. He probably took a different exit out! Sorry about that.” Daniel waited just outside the exit door until Darren came out, a searching expression on his face as he peered behind himself.
Casually, he called, “Hey Darren, took you long enough.” Darren whirled around and nearly tripped on his luggage cart.
“Damn it! Don’t do that! How did you get past me and those girls?” The singer pinned him with fierce blue eyes.
Daniel shrugged nonchalantly, “I’m a chameleon.” Then he grinned cheekily, and gloated. “I win, Divaboy.”
“Bugger off.” Darren huffed and went down the escalator with his things. Daniel followed swiftly, not to be left behind again. They found a bench relatively near the main exits as they waited for their first class ride back to Daniel’s house. The two of them had been off promoting in various countries along with management. However, the record label had agreed to let them go back to Australia early.
The waiting game was upon them. Daniel nudged Darren in the ribs and pointed at a very classy looking woman walking by in designer clothes.
“She’s nice.”
Darren, who had been preoccupied with rummaging through his carry on bag for his sunglasses, looked up and snorted.
“Sure, if you like plastic women.”
Daniel gave him a dirty look, then challenged, “Fine, which would you pick?”
The singer exclaimed in triumph as he recovered his sunglasses and quickly put them on. He looked around carefully, attempting to smooth his rumpled button down shirt that was barely managing to stay buttoned.
“Erm, well okay. Women. That one there.” He pointed at a petite and sweet looking woman. She couldn’t have been more than twenty-five and she dressed well to suit her curvy body.
Daniel contemplated her and internally agreed with Darren’s choice. The woman had an aura that radiated mystery and gentle confidence.
He tossed Darren a quick glance, then with a barely hidden smile replied, “She’s horrid, Darren! No wonder you’ve stuck to men for so long.”
Darren glared at him and crossed his arms. Tucking his fingers just under his pits, he then turned his head to mock ignore the guitarist. Daniel watched with amusement, noting on a side how Darren’s arm muscles bulged when he posed like that. He probably practiced it in front of a mirror. At the image that thought produced, Daniel couldn’t help but grin.
The singer swiveled his head to pin him with another glare, “What are you grinning at, you fool?”
“A bigger fool.” Was Daniel’s succinct reply. He slouched on the bench, his legs spread wide thanks to his height. He was also wearing a button down shirt and slacks, both of which accentuated his lean build. On some level, Daniel acknowledged he was attractive, as he ignored looks that a group of women passing by shot him, but he didn’t often care for it or try for it. He liked looking good, still.
This made him curious of something. “Ok, Darren, what about if you were picking a bloke?”
Darren shot him a questioning look, then looked around again, but a lot more slowly. His mind was racing at yet another reference to his sexuality. Daniel had done that more in the past few months than he had in all the years they’d known each other before that. Finally, he saw the perfect one, or as close as he’d ever get in this particular place.
I really think you should just tell him how you feel.
“That one.” Darren stated with a quiet assurance as he up nodded towards his choice. Part of him hoped Daniel was his usual oblivious self. Part of him wondered if he would finally be free of this decade old burden.
Daniel contemplated the man who sat just half a flight section down from them, also waiting for a ride it appeared. He was alone, and he fidgeted from time to time. Finally he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one up. He then proceeded to scribble or sketch onto a pad of paper as he sucked furiously on the cigarette.
He was dressed in simple jeans, low slung, and a knit shirt and casual jacket. He was tall, probably about Daniel’s height, and had a slender build not unlike the guitarist’s. But while he was blonde, this man was dark, slightly pale with defined facial hair, and he seemed to have a bit of a nervous disposition.
And then there were his eyes. The man had a much less angular face than Daniel, if anything it was more like Darren’s in its appealing softness, but nowhere near the same depth of attractiveness. However, his eyes held ‘the feverish glow of a muse’. That’s how Darren had described the look the guitarist got in his eyes when he was composing. Daniel remembered the first time he’d done that, way back in the band’s second year of existence.
Daniel carefully schooled his expression as he turned back to Darren. A million thoughts flashed through his mind. Had Darren chosen the man for those similarities-? No, of course not. Daniel, you’ve already gone overboard with all this love business and now you’re starting to imagine things. Daniel nearly laughed at the image of how Darren would react if he knew what he had just been thinking.
He smiled instead and with a shrug replied, “You sure like the artistic sort, don’t you?”
Darren, who had been unwittingly holding his breath, let it out in partial disappointment and gave a wan smile as he replied, “Yeah. Yeah I guess I do.” Daniel nodded and a slightly awkward silence filled the air for a few fleeting moments before the limousine driver saved them.
As Daniel helped the driver take their luggage, a flash back quickly formed in his mind. Take a chance with her…it won’t do anything for you ‘til you take that first step. God, he was such a coward and in so many ways!
Darren was always so good with relationships, even when they didn’t work out. Always risking his heart. Maybe Daniel could learn a thing or two from him.
~*~*~*~*~ The two men opted for Daniel’s house in Sydney for their mini break from all the promoting madness, but as Daniel was relating the directions to their limousine driver, Darren suddenly squealed.
“What is it, you freak of nature?” Daniel questioned with exasperation as both he and the driver turned to give Darren strange looks.
“I just…I haven’t gotten used to this whole vibrating cell phone thing.” Darren explained lamely, a sheepish expression crossing his face as he pulled the offensive phone from his pocket.
“Well for heaven’s sake! Don’t carry it buried so deep in your pocket, then!” Daniel turned back to finish talking to the driver, thankfully not noticing Darren’s sudden blush.
His damnable dirty mind. Buried so deep indeed.
To distract himself from such unsavoury thoughts, Darren clicked on the phone, “Hello?” A pause, then he whirled around to face Daniel with an irate expression as he responded to the caller, “You’ve got to be kidding! But we’ve just arrived!”
Daniel paused in the middle of helping the driver pack their things into the car to give Darren a concerned look. He leaned patiently against the sleek black limousine, his casual yet dashing countenance drawing a few stares, including Darren’s. Blissfully, he was earning the nickname Mr. Oblivious.
“Well, thank you so much! If you can’t contact us in the future, it’s probably because we’ve disconnected all our telephones! Right, well!” With that infuriated reply, Darren clicked off the phone. He looked fit to kill.
“Let me guess…” Daniel sighed, his marble coloured eyes raised heavenward, “They’ve cut our break short.”
“I suppose it’s not quite as bad as that. We have to do a radio station interview and a magazine photo shoot…tomorrow!”
“Bugger.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
~*~*~*~*~ After a night of attempting to shake off his jet lag and with little success, Daniel dragged himself from his bed the next morning. Only stopping to drag on a pair of boxers, he headed to the bathroom where he stared at himself in the mirror. The dark circles under his eyes in combination with the dirty blonde stubble made him appear quite like an escaped convict.
“Darren,” he croaked, his deep voice reverberating in the spacious bathroom. Clearing his throat, he tried again. “Darren! Wake up, damnit…” Still no reply.
Splashing water on his face, Daniel leaned on the sink slightly as he fought a wave of sleep. He started muttering obscenities and finally he threatened in a cranky tone, “If you don’t get up, Darren, I’m coming in there and drowning you.”
A head popped up from inside the Jacuzzi. Daniel reached for his razor and ignored the much more colourful epithets that echoed in the bathroom.
“Fuck…how long have I been in here?” Darren quickly stood up and grabbed a towel, inspecting his skin. “I look like a fucking prune!”
“You do not. And you’ve only been in here for 10 minutes.” The lanky blonde man was calm in his assessment, careful not to embarrass the singer by looking at him as he dried off.
“How do you know? Hey, how did you even know I was in there? You couldn’t see me!” Darren accused, distressed by his wrinkled skin and slightly self-conscious of his nakedness. He tried to avoid looking at his guitarist, knowing that it wouldn’t take much for him to start fantasizing what with Daniel wearing only the boxers and himself in just the towel. The towel wasn’t exactly the best cover for…certain conditions.
“You weren’t exactly quiet when you were stumbling about this morning, Daz,” Daniel gave him a look loaded with condescension and proceeded to tap his toothbrush on the sink.
“Don’t call me that,” Darren grumbled and walked carefully out of the room. Lack of sleep was like being drunk for him. He swore again when he nearly dropped his towel.
As the singer wandered into the guest room, he heard Daniel call to him in amusement, “Careful now. You already look cute in that towel. If you lost it, I might not be able to restrain myself.”
Darren rolled his eyes and slammed the door to his room, ignoring the responding laughter. A billion disgruntled thoughts flitted through his mind.
God damned morning people…Daniel being all witty first thing…thinks he’s so damned funny…I’ll get him back, I will…why the fuck did he have to say that…now I’ve got a fucking hard on…who the hell does he think he is anyway…
~*~*~*~*~ A few hours later, both men were sharing similar thoughts of murder as they were treated like puppets, dolls even; primped, slathered in make up, changing clothes and hairstyles every few seconds…yes this was the life.
Daniel hated it. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t understand that it had a significant role in the packaging of the music; he accepted that much. It was more that he didn’t like feeling so scrutinized. He felt exposed.
Darren, on the other hand, didn’t mind it so much. Although, usually it was more bearable if the photographer and the crew treated them like human beings. In this case, however, they should be so lucky.
Rob Tallus was the photographer’s real name, but he preferred Roberto Tallius. It sounded more European, apparently. Whatever. Darren didn’t care for the man at all; he was just a tiny bit too polished and fake. Moreover, he seemed to have taken a shine to fondling the singer at every opportunity.
“Isn’t this fun?” Darren gritted through his fake smile.
At Roberto’s behest, Daniel loomed in closer over the shorter man’s shoulder with an equally strained smile, “Oh yeah. Fun like eggs up the arse.”
“Hey, don’t knock that.” Darren smirked when Daniel’s expression turned comically disgusted. He tilted his head to look up at the guitarist mockingly.
“I don’t even want to know.” Daniel smiled sweetly down at him. The camera flashed.
“That was fabulous, my beauties! Daniel, I think we’re done with your end of it. Darren, how ‘bout a roll of solos?” Roberto didn’t wait for a reply as he adjusted equipment and barked out orders.
Daniel shrugged somewhat smugly at Darren’s helpless expression, “I know, Darren, I know. They ask you like you have a choice. But whatever you do, don’t take them up on it.”
“Why the fuck not?” Darren plucked at his too tight ribbed shirt and made a face as a makeup artist caked another layer of concealer on him.
“Because don’t look now, but here come the record sods.” Daniel casually abandoned Darren to the hot lights and sat in one of the plush couches away from the shoot. The record label reps singled him out like vultures and started spewing all sorts of ‘ideas’ for future promotional events. Daniel just directed them to their managerial company, and continued watching the photo shoot.
Darren winked at him, admiring the younger man’s ability to deal with the brass. That was his arena. He winced as one of the flashbulbs blinded him for a few seconds, and bemoaned the fact that this was his.
The record label morons finally backed off for a bit, and Daniel started enjoying himself again. Of course, it was at the expense of his band mate. His eyes roved over the well made up singer. Sometimes it was shocking how talented Darren really was. He could go from pouting sex kitten to defiant hoodlum in less than a heart beat. It was really rather…attractive.
Daniel grew lost in his thoughts, only half noticing Roberto walk over to Darren to manually adjust his positioning. Or rather to manhandle him.
~*~*~*~*~ Darren grimaced again as he felt Roberto’s hands slide down his rear end under the pretext of smoothing down the wrinkles in his tight pants. His eyes flicked to the oblivious record label people, and he forced his rising anger to remain leashed. When he suddenly felt his balls being cupped through the thin material, he gasped and pushed the photographer’s offensive hand away, his eyes sparking.
Roberto smiled benignly, a glint of warning in his eyes, and he explained smoothly as if daring Darren to make a scene, “These pants seem to have a rip in the crotch …” And he again deliberately reached over to slide his palm against the front of them. Darren clenched his jaw, knowing if he lost his temper he risked being reprimanded by the record label. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Daniel stand up from his place on the couch.
Daniel was no fool. The second Roberto’s hands surreptitiously brushed against Darren he understood the underlying intent to his actions. It took a lot to make Daniel mad enough to do something serious about it. But this jerk had managed it with just a few unwanted advances towards his band mate. And so when he neared the smirking photographer and the pained singer, Daniel expressed his outrage only in the form of a tightly formed fist.
Darren gaped at him, then down at the fallen photographer, who was out cold. Everyone in the studio stopped and followed suit. Daniel thought quickly, and rushed over to Darren dramatically.
“Are you alright, baby? Did he hurt you??” Daniel suddenly acquired a lisp as he did his best gay Austin Powers impression. He fawned over an incredulous Darren, pulling him into an embrace and landing a few blind kisses on the singer’s face.
Darren pulled back to stare at Daniel, shock now added to his expression, “Y-yeah, I guess I’m alright…but Dani-“
“Don’t speak, my love. I couldn’t stand watching him manhandle you like that! Touching you, groping you! It’s wrong! You have every right to be angry with me, but I just couldn’t stand it any longer!” Daniel sobbed quite convincingly, his deep voice rendered ridiculous with his emotional outburst.
“Oh Daniel…” Darren finally understood the guitarist’s intentions and managed with great difficulty to keep a straight face. He exaggerated his comforting of Daniel, even as his mind raced with the implications. Daniel cooed with incoherent affections and seemed intent on kissing off every bit of makeup on the singer’s face. Not that Darren was complaining. Although at every touch of Daniel’s smooth lips, Darren felt like someone was shooting lightning through him.
After a few seconds of further shocked silence, during which Darren noticed a few sympathetic glances from Roberto’s crew (who he would find out later were well acquainted to the photographer’s slimy habits), there was a flurry of motion and calamity as some of them rushed to revive the man.
Daniel lifted his head after a sufficient time span of emotional babbling and was satisfied to see the record label reps looking a bit frightened by the whole ordeal. Good. They were most likely scrambling to come up with ways to make it up to the band and at the same time not get sued by the photographer.
With his arms wrapped tightly around the singer, Daniel stared down at the groggy photographer with a stony expression. “I’m sorry, mate. But no one touches Darren that way except me.”
Roberto inclined his head with a shaky nod as he stood up, his eyes glinting with a slight wry amusement, and an unspoken understanding passed between them. There wouldn’t be a lawsuit from that end.
Darren froze when he heard Daniel’s words, which were inadvertently spoken right into the ginger blonde man’s ear. Like a vow, it was so genuine sounding. He shook off the hope almost immediately, attributing it to his body’s frustrations affecting his mind. He muttered shortly, “Are you going to let me go?”
Daniel leaned back with surprise as if he’d nearly forgotten he still had a protective circle of arms around the older man. “Uh, yeah, sorry, babe.”
Darren rolled his eyes at the lame endearment, taking Daniel’s hand in his and gently leading him towards the dressing room doors. They were of course way laid by the record label people.
“Uh, Daniel, Darren…we’re very sorry you had to endure such unprofessionalism. Please, make sure you speak up before something so unfortunate should occur again,” the one gentleman began, obviously uncomfortable with the topic. He exchanged glances with his colleague, a young woman with intense eyes.
She turned them on Darren as she added, “We think it might be best if we cancelled your interview later on today…in case there are some…residual effects of such a traumatic incident.”
Oh, you mean in case Daniel decides to wig out and act like a pretty flaming gay boy. Darren exchanged a deadpan look with Daniel. Not likely.
She continued, her eyes darting knowingly between them, “We think you should have a proper break to alleviate some of your…frustrations.”
Fuck, I’m not even touching that one. Darren barely contained a smirk as he made some suitably gracious remark and fairly dragged Daniel from the room. The two parted ways to their separate dressing rooms, changed quickly and headed outside where the record company had their limousine waiting.
“In record time,” Daniel grinned as he opened the back door for Darren, “After you, gorgeous.”
“Oh la, sir, how gallant.” Darren snorted and got in. Once the two of them were safely inside the vehicle and on their way back to Daniel’s place, Darren finally burst out laughing. Daniel joined him almost immediately.
“I can not believe you did that! What in the world were you thinking??” Darren finally gasped, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.
Daniel leaned back against the plush upholstery, looking quite the lazy, satisfied and amused lion. “I don’t know … it was all I could think of to explain the fisticuffs without getting into too much trouble with the record label. They’ll be too busy trying to clear up all the rumour mongering on the two of us to care about that now.”
“But Dan…why the physical in the first place?” Darren asked him quietly, still smiling, but intent on the answer.
Daniel didn’t speak right away. His smile lessened in wattage as he looked at Darren with a strange intensity, his expression growing solemn. “I wasn’t lying when I said I couldn’t stand it. He had no right to do that to you. I couldn’t just watch.”
Darren’s breath hitched at the younger man’s words, and after a slight pause, he nodded to acknowledge them. He was too overcome with emotion to speak and as if Daniel knew that, the guitarist grinned becomingly and went on to talk about things they could do now that they had proper down time.
Yeah…he loves me with his own intensity, Becca. If you could only see it like I do. I’m more than happy with what he gives me.
~*~*~*~*~ Darren stared at Daniel with a dark expression. A sound tech cut his view off momentarily, so he transferred his glare to him instead. The poor sod returned his look with a few nervous ones of his own before skittering away. In fact, most of the sound crew was being extremely careful not to get in Darren’s way today.
The singer resumed sending death rays with his eyes to Daniel, who at the moment was talking with a couple of the tryouts for the lead guitar position. Daniel could feel his glares, but ignored them with a slight sense of exasperated amusement. He knew why Darren was so pissed off.
See, when they’d had their conversation a few days earlier about how to spend their down time…Daniel had suspiciously neglected to mention work. As in, recruiting band members and starting rehearsals. But to Daniel, this was fun. All he needed otherwise was his home, his bed, and his dogs. Daniel frowned a bit with a twinge of regret when he remembered Michelle, one of his former girlfriends, mentioning that in an interview.
Meanwhile, lost in his thoughts, Darren didn’t notice someone sneaking up on him until he felt arms wrap around his shoulders in a hug. Starting, he turned to see his solo manager, Leonie.
“Leo! What are you doing here??”
He jumped up from his perch on the instrument casings and enfolded her in a bear hug. He was genuinely surprised and happy to see her here. The last time he’d seen her, they’d had a row about why he was going back to Savage when he had been doing so well on his solo career. She had never really understood the way he and Daniel worked, but she was a good friend to him and always had been.
“I was just in town with one of my clients, so I thought I’d drop by!” Leonie had started her own management firm and with Darren as her first client, had pulled in dozens of musicians since then.
“Oh really?? That’s fantastic! You’re really getting into this business aren’t you! Well listen, how long are you in town for?”
Leonie gave him an apologetic look, “Just for tonight, I’m afraid. We’re off to start promotion in Western Australia in a day.” Darren reached over and took her hand affectionately.
“Well then we’ve got to do something tonight! Come on!”
Leonie laughed helplessly at Darren’s childlike excitement and replied, “Aw, you know I can’t say no to you! How about we go for dinner and visit some of our old haunts then hmm?”
“Yeah alright! Just a night on the town!” Darren spontaneously hugged her, ecstatic at having someone he could go out and be himself with.
Suddenly they were interrupted. “Leonie.”
Darren and Leonie looked up to see that Daniel had approached them unseen. His expression was slightly muted but there was a definite apathy in his eyes. Leonie schooled her expression and nodded to him in response, “Daniel.”
He gave her a cold look before turning to Darren with a contrastingly warm expression, “Listen, Dar, I’m almost done here. I know I never mentioned all this as part of our break, but I thought we’d get a jump-start on it all. Once we figure out who we’re working with, we can leave them to practice and go have a little fun ourselves.”
Darren smiled wryly and being unable to resist Daniel’s cajoling grin, he nodded, “That’s alright. What have you got planned for after, then, hmm?”
It’s not that he wasn’t aware of Daniel and Leonie’s relative dislike for each other…he just chose not to pick sides on it.
“Haven’t really gotten anything planned for tonight, I just thought we’d just chill out and go with it.” Daniel shrugged, his grin widening.
“For tonight?? Uhh…” Darren hesitated, his glance skittering back to Leonie. “I thought you meant just for the afternoon…”
Daniel’s expression dimmed slightly, as he gave Darren a confused look, “You don’t want to do anything tonight?”
“Oh it’s not that,” Leonie cut in smoothly, with completely manufactured apology, “Darren and I just decided on going out on the town tonight. Just for dinner and maybe a bit of dancing.”
Darren cut in quickly when he saw Daniel’s expression darkening a bit, “But you’re welcome to come! Only…”
Daniel gave him a piercing look, the laughter completely gone now, “Only?” Darren gulped and tried to convey his feelings with a pleading look.
Leonie responded a bit protectively, “Only the places we normally go to aren’t your style…if you get our meaning. And don’t glare at Darren like that. It’s not like he knew you wanted to do something tonight-” She met Daniel’s sudden glare with one of her own.
Finally, Daniel dropped his gaze. He knew he was being childish, it was just that he hadn’t had the opportunity to spend all that much time with Darren properly. They had started off as strangers back in the beginning, but as time had progressed had become fairly close. But then the relationship had reversed direction and by the time they had decided to take a break, it had almost completely reverted back to stranger status. And Daniel had realized that the break down in their relationship had affected the second album greatly.
He suddenly noticed Darren holding Leonie’s hand, and stared for a moment before abruptly lifting his head. “Alright, no worries, Darren. Go out and enjoy yourself, ok? You too, Leo.” He flashed them both a smile that was so quick, they couldn’t tell if it was genuine or not, before turning on his heel and heading back towards the ruckus of musicians.
“Daniel--!” Darren called out but he was already out of hearing distance. He frowned. Daniel didn’t usually have mood swings like that, he tended to smolder when he was angry. He felt a light comforting hand on his shoulder and glanced at Leonie.
“I’m sorry if I’ve caused any trouble,” Leonie seemed to be genuinely regretful, “It’s just he gets on my nerves sometimes…”
Darren let her hand go and shrugged with a smile, “Sometimes you can’t help who you like and don’t like. It’s alright. We’ll do what he told us to do, have fun…I’m sure he’ll get over it!” He winked at her, and gestured for her to lead the way out.
As they left, he couldn’t help but glance back at his band mate with a slightly furrowed brow. What was going on with him??
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