So Nick and Lucas are now an item, surely nothing could jeopardise that. As usual don't forget to donate to Nifty https://donate.nifty.org and feel free to send any messages to sithspawn78@yahoo.co.uk

 

Chapter 18

 

\\\ Nick ///

 

I stood in the tiny room, looking around it for the last time. The hideous, flowery curtains still hung over the window and I was tempted to take them down and burn them, but they came with the house so they had to stay or we'd lose our deposit. I'd only lived in the room for a few months since we'd fled from Brandon but it seemed like a lifetime ago. Even though I hated the house, this room and everything that came with it, there were still a lot of mixed emotions there. I was sad because it felt like I was closing a chapter on my life but at the same time I was glad to be starting a new life with a whole new family.

Getting used to having Ben as my cousin was getting easier as well but it was still a little weird. I'd started thinking of him as a best friend before I found out we were related but since then it felt like our bond was stronger than ever. Having an aunt and uncle to call on was also strange but pretty cool at the same time. Uncle Sam was like a slightly nerdier version of my dad so we got on great, and the fact that he spent a lot of time around comics meant we had plenty to talk about. I finally met my grandparents from my dad's side and they were unreal. They didn't know me at all but as soon as they met me they instantly enveloped me in a hug and it was like I had always been part of the family. For so long I'd only had my mum and Brandon to think about, although I was trying to think about him as little as possible now, but every day my support network increased.

"You ready to go kiddo?" Dad asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah, I think I've got everything." I replied, picking up the last box from the floor.

After a final look around I left my old room for the last time and headed to the car. The journey to the new house only took a few minutes but it gave me time to think about everything that had happened recently. It had been nearly three weeks since Lucas and I had started dating and things were going great. We hadn't spent as much time together as I would've liked outside of school as I had been helping to pack up two houses ready for the move. Dad got the keys to the new house at the start of the week but we were waiting to officially move in at the weekend. That gave my parents time to sort out all the bills and mundane stuff like that as well as doing any decorating or repairs. That meant that my room was now freshly painted, ready for my stuff to go in, and I was so excited to be getting all new furniture that was all mine, rather than the second hand junk I'd had before.

When we pulled up to the house I still almost had to pinch myself to make sure it was real. We'd always lived in pretty small houses so by comparison this one was a mansion. It had four big bedrooms upstairs with mine being over the garage, giving me a little extra space away from my parents in case I made a bit too much noise. I even had my own bathroom, which was bigger than my last bedroom, and a walk in wardrobe adjoining it. Downstairs we had a big living room, dining room, a small office and a huge, open plan kitchen, with a smaller dining area and glass doors along one wall which opened out into a large garden.

One of the best things about the new house was it was in a much nicer neighbourhood, and only two streets away from Danny and Ben, so it was no surprise to see them waiting outside for us to arrive. As we pulled up I could see Danny practically bouncing on the balls of his feet like he was excited about something. I hadn't actually been to the house since the day we got the keys, and even then I'd only ad a brief look around. The main thing I'd done though was to pick out the colours for my room so that it could be decorated before I moved in, so I was hoping I'd made the right choices.

"Hey cuz, are you ready to check out your new room?" Ben asked as he opened my car door.

I could hardly keep the smile from my face. "Yeah, I can't wait. What's he looking so happy about?" I asked, nodding towards Danny.

"I've seen your room and you're gonna love it." The smaller boy replied.

Mum was already at the house with Alex and Josh, who had been helping with the bigger items of furniture. It really helped having a guy like Josh there as he didn't seem to have any problems moving the heavy looking furniture around, and Alex didn't seem to struggle helping him with the bulkier items. I figured they were probably just using this as an extra workout. I was a bit disappointed that Lucas wasn't there but he was helping out at the comic shop to cover for my mum who was obviously at the house. Sammie was also covering for me at the music store as, with Christmas fast approaching, they needed more help in there.

We each grabbed a box from the car to take inside and as we climbed the stairs I noticed all the bedroom doors were open, except mine. Alex greeted us from the top of the stairs where he was hanging some pictures and, curiously, he offered to take the box from me so I could open my door easily. When I did my mouth just hung open. I had asked for all the walls to just be painted teal, so I could cover up bits and pieces with posters or anything else, but what I wasn't expecting was to have my name in graffiti letters above my bed, with a little caricature of me leaning against it. I recognised Alex's handiwork anywhere and when I turned around he had the biggest grin on his face.

"Hope you like it, Lucas said you liked the one in the studio back at our place so your dad let me in to paint that one." I pulled him into a hug and couldn't thank him enough. "There's a couple more surprises yet, check out your guitar."

I hadn't noticed at first but in the corner of the room I saw my guitar propped up in a stand, which I never had before, and I could see it had been painted as well. I went to look at it and could immediately see the `FF' from the Fleek Flow logo at the end of the headstock, and on the body I saw the caricature of myself, but with all the other Fleeks done in the same style.

"This is amazing!! Thank you so much." I gushed as I carefully put it back on the stand.

He went back to hanging the pictures and we put the boxes on my bed, ready to unload all my stuff. Before we could though, Danny and Ben said there was one more thing for me to see. They took me back downstairs into the kitchen and then made me close my eyes. They guided me into another room, which I was pretty sure was the garage, led me in a little further and then told me to open my eyes. I was surprised to see the garage had changed a little since the first time I'd seen it. There was still plenty of room for the cars but a new wall had gone up on one side where a new room had been built.

"Ok, it's not finished yet, but this part is being made into a little studio for you." Ben said and I was stunned. Nobody had mentioned anything about this to me so I was absolutely floored by it.

"You like it?" Dad asked from behind me but I was too overwhelmed to answer. "We still need to get the room soundproofed and all the electrics tidied away but that should be done in a couple of days. Why don't you go in and have a look."

I opened the door and stepped in to see the room was nearly done. There was a space for the mixing desk and all the cabling was there ready to hook it up, but like Dad said it just needed tidying up. The flooring and painting also needed to be done but I could definitely see myself in here, working on my music.

"I can't believe you never told me you were doing this." I beamed as we walked back into the kitchen.

"Adrian also said he'll help you kit it out as he can get a good price on all that stuff. Just let me know what you want and I'll give you the money for it." It was so weird hearing Dad say that, for years we'd struggled to afford even the basics but now that we were a part of the Anderson comic empire we didn't have to worry any more.

"I already know what the first thing I want to get." I said.

"I think I know what that'll be." Danny said as he walked around the island counter in the middle of the kitchen. "It's this, isn't it?" He picked up the unmistakable guitar case from where it had been stashed behind the island and placed it on the worktop. I clicked open the clasps, opened the case up and gazed longingly at my favourite Jackson PC1 guitar staring back at me. I hadn't been at the music store much over the last week so I hadn't even noticed it had gone missing.

"Is this...mine?" I asked in disbelief.

"Sure is. All the guys chipped in so just call it a housewarming present from all of us." Ben said and I couldn't hold back the tears.

"You guys are awesome." I blubbered pulling him into a hug.

Ben and Danny left soon after so I carried on sorting through all my belongings and setting my room out how I wanted it. By late afternoon I was nearly finished and as I was putting my clothes away in the wardrobe I suddenly felt two arms wrap around my waist, followed by some lips planting kisses up my neck.

"Oh Sammie that feels so good." I cooed and was quickly spun around to look into Lucas' shocked face.

"What the fuck?" Lucas demanded.

"I'm kidding dummy, I knew it was you. You should see your face." I giggled and then threw my arms around him to give him a proper kiss. "What're you doing here anyway?"

His face softened into that smile I loved so much. "Ben took over at the comic shop so I thought I'd come up here to see how things are going. Have you seen everything downstairs?" I leaned back and looked at his crotch.

"Not yet, I'm still waiting for you to show me." I replied cheekily.

"I meant in the house you perv." He snickered.

"You mean the new studio? Yeah, it's awesome. I can't wait to get all the equipment in there." We went back into the bedroom and I noticed there was a box on my bed that I'd left downstairs as it was too heavy.

"Oh yeah, your mum said that needed to come up here." He said, pointing over to the box.

"I was waiting for DJ to bring it up as I couldn't lift it." Lucas suddenly looked a little worried for some reason. "Did you get your dad to help you with it?"

"Uh...yeah...it was a definite two man job. What's in it anyway?"

A big smile spread over my face. "I got a dumbbell set and some extra weights, as well as some of Dad's old workout books in there. Can't have you being the only one trying to get a bit bigger, and I thought maybe we could work out together some days." I gave him a playful poke in the gut and felt his solid abs on the tip of my finger. "Whatever you're doing seems to be working and I bet your dads could give us some tips." Lucas had definitely put on a little more size since we first met and I was worried that I'd end up lagging behind him pretty soon. I'd worked out a lot when I was younger due to Brandon pushing me into it but that had made me hate it; hopefully with Lucas encouraging me I could get back into it and maybe get a little stronger.

"I suppose we could figure something out." He replied dispassionately.

"Well don't sound too enthusiastic to be spending more time with your boyfriend. I thought you'd want to see me as a hot, sweaty mess."

Lucas broke out into a big grin. "I didn't realise moving house could make someone so horny."

"Not horny, just...I dunno...I just feel really happy today." I went over to the box and started emptying the weights out. I'd bought some cheap, adjustable dumbbells a few weeks ago but didn't really have space in my old room to use them effectively. I had planned on using the space at the back of the garage as a little workout area but since that was going to be my little studio now I'd have to rethink it.

"Are you sure these are going to be enough?" Lucas asked as he curled one of the empty dumbbell bars a few times.

"They'll do for a start. I'd really like to see where you and your dads work out though, I bet you've got a much better set up than this."

"Uh yeah...I guess maybe someday I could show you everything."

I'd been with Lucas for nearly three weeks and we'd talked about all sorts of things. I'd told him about many of the good things from my life growing up, as well as talking about music, dance, movies, books, comics, school and everything else under the sun, but one thing he'd always shy away from was anything to do with his or his family's bodies. I obviously knew about how well built his dads were, I mean, who couldn't know? And I knew Lucas had been trying to bulk up since school started back in September, but he'd never let me see how he looked under his clothes. Sure he'd worn some tight shirts when he was dancing, but the only time I got to see any skin under those shirts was when he'd been dressed as a zombie at Halloween where there were little glimpses of skin as he moved around. I could tell he had a decent body under there, I mean, tight shirts don't hide a lot do they? But it was like he was reluctant to let me see what he was hiding. I was beginning to think he had some scars or a birthmark he didn't like, maybe even a third nipple or something like that. All I knew was that I wanted to see what he was embarrassed about but I'd have to wait until he was ready.

When everything was finally put away I sank back onto the bed with Lucas by my side, just enjoying being next to him. We didn't say much but I could tell something was wrong as Lucas just seemed really distracted.

"You ok? You've gone really quiet all of a sudden."

"Hmm? Oh...yeah...I was just thinking about something." He replied, looking away again.

"Was it something to do with me?" I probed.

"No...just...something I need to talk to my dads about. I'm gonna go see what they're doing." He got up from the bed and went downstairs; leaving me wondering what was going on. I joined everyone in the kitchen where our parents were just talking about ideas for the garden and I noticed Lucas was talking quietly to Alex off to one side. After a few more minutes Josh and Alex announced it was time for them to go and Alex told Lucas he was on horse duty tonight so he'd have to go along as well. I actually didn't mind Lucas not staying as I wanted to get used to the house on my own, but I couldn't help thinking I'd done something to upset him. I didn't have much time to think about it though as Dad had me helping him get rid of the boxes as Mum got dinner ready.

I called Ben later on that evening and told him how Lucas had been. He did his best to reassure me, telling me he'd speak to Lucas and even Sammie to see if he could get to the bottom of it all. He said he had an idea of what it should be but it wasn't something for me to worry about. We were drawing closer to Christmas so maybe he was thinking about what to get me and when I mentioned working out it could've ruined a surprise or something like that. I didn't know to be sure but I had faith that Ben would be able to help him figure it out.