— t w e n t y - e i g h t —

hard, most likely because he was hiding from them. It didn't matter that he hadn't heard any of Reed's threatening comments about silencing and dealing with him; Brooks had probably had enough interactions with him in the past to know Reed's automatic response would be aggression and anger. It seemed Reed wouldn't be the only one who needed to try giving the benefit of the doubt. From what Oliver had seen, Brooks avoided him as much as Reed avoided him. As much as Oliver loved Reed, he knew how much of an asshole he could be when he really wanted to be and Oliver didn't doubt Brooks had received the brunt of that for the majority of the last five years.

It didn't help that the Montgomery house was huge. They may have memorised the route to Adam's bedroom years ago, but neither of them had ever had any reason to go anywhere near Brooks's bedroom before. He wasn't even in there once they finally located it. It took a lot of peering around doorways into extensively furnished yet largely untouched rooms and wandering up and down stairs before Oliver heard the faint melody of piano keys. Adam was still in the shower (thank god for his obscenely long showers, giving them more than enough time to do this), Inkeri was humming cheerfully as she bustled around the kitchen, and Adam's parents wouldn't be home until this evening. That meant the piano playing had to belong to Brooks.

They followed the music to the conservatory at the other end of the house. Through the glass doors, Brooks sat at the piano with his back facing them, hands gliding across the keys with an enviable ease. Oliver's parents had put him up for piano lessons when he was ten but it soon became apparent he wasn't musically inclined in the slightest and he quit after grade one, finding it cumbersome and boring learning the pieces. Watching Brooks play made him almost wish he'd stuck with it.

"He's good," Reed said grudgingly, and jabbed Oliver in the side with his elbow. "See? I can be nice. That was me being nice. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt."

Oliver snorted. "I'm so proud of you. Try saying it to his face next time. Another time," he clarified. "Let me do the talking today, okay? Just stand there and nod along."

Reed rolled his eyes. "Yes, master."

Oliver slid the door to the conservatory open as quietly as possible and knocked lightly on the glass to get his attention. Brooks started, the piece he was playing breaking off in an abrupt, discordant mess of notes that sounded much more like the kind of music Oliver produced when he sat at a piano. Brooks turned in his seat and his surprise quickly faded to alarm when he saw them, wide eyes darting from Oliver to Reed. Oliver didn't miss the way his gaze also darted to the door behind them as if already planning a speedy getaway.

"You play the piano well," Oliver said, an attempt at assuring him they were here with good intentions. From the way Brooks was staring at them, Reed in particular, as if waiting for someone to produce a knife, it was clear he would need a lot of assuring. "Do you play grades?"

"Yes," Brooks said slowly, as if feeling out the question for any trickery in it. "I have my grade eight exam next week. I'm practicing for that."

"Good luck. I'm sure you'll do great."

"Um, thanks."

An awkward and somewhat tense silence settled over them. It was clearly taking all of Reed's willpower to keep his mouth shut and Brooks looked as uncomfortable as Oliver felt, fidgeting with his sleeves as he shot the door another helpless look. Oliver wanted to grab Reed and escape this unbearably awkward conversation none of them knew how to breach, but they'd come this far already. Better now than leaving Reed to corner Brooks in some shadowy corner of the house when Oliver wasn't looking. Already, Brooks was shooting suspicious looks in Reed's direction, his thoughts undoubtedly taking a similar route.

"Look," Oliver said, "about last night..."

Brooks flushed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to — "

"It's fine," Oliver assured him. "It was our fault for doing anything where someone could walk in on us. We should have been more careful."

"More careful," Brooks repeated, eyes widening. He looked between the two of them with barely suppressed curiosity. "Does that mean you guys are...? I mean, I know it's none of my business, but..."

"You're right," Reed muttered. "It's not."

Oliver frowned at him. "What Reed means to say is we're not sure at the moment ourselves and until we figure it out, would you be able to not mention what you saw to anyone? We're not exactly ready to go public with anything yet."

"Of course," Brooks said, without even a hint of hesitation. He seemed puzzled that Oliver was even asking. "I wouldn't have said anything, anyway. Not when it's clearly not my place." He glanced at Reed then, a brief yet awkward look. He had turned even more red. "I would never out someone before they were ready. It's as unpleasant as it sounds."

The reference to something both of them had clearly never spoken about was enough to knock off the scowl lingering at Reed's lips. He blinked, clearly thrown off-guard, his own cheeks turning a little pink. "Right, okay. Well. Thank you," he said, as if the words physically pained him. He shot Oliver disgruntled look as if he had somehow backed Reed into this conversation and Oliver just returned it with an amused, expectant one of his own. It was progress that there was no threat but Reed could do better than that. "And you're good," Reed added, through gritted teeth, seeming to understand Oliver's unspoken suggestion. "At the piano. I hope...you don't fail your exam."

Reed stalked out of the room before anyone could respond to that questionable attempt at friendliness and Brooks gaped after him in bewilderment. "What on earth," he said, turning his astonishment on Oliver, "was that? Is he okay?" His eyes widened. "Is he having a stroke or something?"

Oliver couldn't help laughing. "No, I'm pretty sure that was him trying to be nice."

"Nice," Brooks repeated, in obvious disbelief. "And you're sure he's not having a stroke?"

"Almost certain. Reed really isn't that bad once you get to know him."

"Elsie said the same thing to me once," Brooks said sceptically. "I've known Reed for close to seven years. That's probably the only time he's said anything that could come close to being construed as a compliment to me."

Oliver smiled ruefully. "Baby steps?"

"Yeah, I'm good, thanks." Brooks absently trailed his fingers over the white keys, tapping out a light melody as if he didn't even realise what he was doing. "Just because he's decided to turn over a new leaf now that he's dating you doesn't mean I'm forgetting all the years of torment he's put me through. No offence," he added, belatedly, with a sheepish smile. "I didn't mean to badmouth your boyfriend. I mean, I'm not taking any of it back, I still think he's an asshole and I'm seriously questioning your taste but, uh...each to their own?"

"No offence taken," Oliver said with a shrug. "I'm not excusing Reed's behaviour and you're free to think whatever you want. And for the record, he's not my boyfriend."

Brooks's eyebrows went up. "He's not?"

"We're not dating, exactly. Not really. It's complicated," Oliver said, settling on the easiest explanation for whatever was going on between them. He wasn't even sure himself what was going on between them half the time. "I guess we're just seeing where it goes for now."

"Sounds reasonable. I guess I shouldn't even be that surprised that something like this happened."

"Really?"

"I was there for that game of never have I ever," Brooks reminded him. "As Cora so eloquently put it after you'd both left, 'someone could have choked on the sexual tension between the two of them'. Those are definitely her words, by the way. Speaking of," he said, with a curious look, "what happened between you and her? Didn't she invite you to her party?"

"Oh, sure, but nothing really came of it." Oliver hadn't spoken to Cora since her party and could assume she had moved on to other pursuits in the weeks that has passed since. "I guess I was still hung up on someone else."

Brooks nodded thoughtfully, still playing a fun little tune on the piano. "So," he said, with a wary glance past Oliver. He only continued when he was sure they were alone. "So, um, does my brother know? About the two of you?"

"Ah, no. Not yet. We're working on it," Oliver said. "Meaning that we're hoping to tell him soon. Which means I have to ask, as another favour, if you could not mention anything to Adam about us it would be greatly appreciated."

"Your secret is safe with me," Brooks assured him. "I barely talk to Adam about my own life, forget anyone else's." He played a quick little trill on the piano and quirked an eyebrow at Oliver. "Feel free to pass the message that I'm keeping my mouth shut on to Reed. I don't feel like being ambushed with more threats next time I see him."

Oliver could hardly deny that that could be an option when Reed was involved, so he just said, "I'll try my best to stop any imminent ambushes. And thanks, Brooks. For not saying anything."

Brooks shrugged with a small smile. "It's the least I can do after you listened to my drunken rambling about relationship problems in the middle of a party."

With their secret safe and locked down, days turned into weeks without the topic being brought up again. It was easy enough to let themselves forget about it, including the briefly touched on but never discussed properly idea of telling Adam about the two of them. Between school becoming a lot more intense with A-Levels looming in the close future, the million and one jobs Reed was juggling outside school (and that he refused to drop any of, in spite of Oliver's insistence), all their swim practices and Adam's own school responsibilities, the three of them were busy enough for Oliver to justify to himself why it was never a priority.

Oliver liked hanging out at Juniper's, struggling over homework with Adam at their usual table in the corner while scamming free hot chocolates from Reed working on duty, who always acted irritated at scamming but never failed to supply the goods. He liked racing Reed in the pool and sneaking him into his bedroom late at night, racing each other in a entirely different way as Oliver pinned him down to his bed with hot kisses. He liked the life he'd found for himself in Manchester and he didn't want to do anything to rock the boat, even if it meant continuing to tiptoe around in private with Reed.

The door to Juniper's jangled as Oliver shoved it open and hurried inside to escape the heavy downpour of rain. The weather was finally warming up enough for him to leave the house without a scarf as they approached the end of February, but in exchange for somewhat higher temperatures, they had been granted relentless rain. Oliver would expect nothing less from England. Despite this, he'd been stupid enough to leave the house today without any form of protection from the rain and had only managed to get parking all the way down the street from Junipers. The short walk without either umbrella or raincoat meant he was drenched by the time he walked into the mercifully warm cafe.

It was late enough in the day that the student rush had passed and on a Friday near closing time, there was only one couple caught up in what looked like a intent conversation in one corner, talking in low, serious tones over cooling cups of coffee. Oliver headed over to the counter where Reed was wiping down the surfaces. He straightened up when he saw him, tossing aside his damp cloth.

"Ever heard of an umbrella?" Reed remarked, by way of greeting.

"Wow, I wish I'd thought of that. I didn't think I needed one driving here," he said. "It's only because I had to park a little further away than usual that I got caught in the rain."

"Shit excuse," Reed said, with a merciless lack of sympathy. "We live in England. Rookie error to think you can go anywhere without at least a raincoat."

"Oh, really?" Oliver ran a hand through his wet hair and made sure to flick as many droplets as possible in Reed's direction. He grinned at the rather colourful stream of curses that earned him. "But if I'd worn a raincoat, I wouldn't have been able to do that. And that was definitely worth it."

"You're definitely not getting any free drinks after that," Reed grumbled.

"Sure I'm not," Oliver said. "That's your favourite threat yet you never seem to go through with it. I'm sure I can convince you by the end of your shift."

Reed shot him a flat look but the gleam in his eyes was unmistakeable. "Better get a move on, then. There's only ten minutes left."

"Challenge accepted."

Reed returned to wiping down the coffee machines and Oliver shrugged out of his sodden jacket, which was too waterlogged to offer much warmth. He'd have to swap it for something else before the party. Possibly an entire new outfit, seeing as all his clothes would be drenched just making the walk back to his car if this rain didn't ease up. Charlie had declared after practice a few days ago that he was throwing a party and being Charlie, who did nothing if not to the full extreme, this declaration seemed to serve as an invite for half of the sixth form. The sheer number of people who Charlie claimed would be in attendance meant it would undoubtedly end in carnage for the state of his house but as Reed had so kindly pointed out, that wasn't their problem.

"We'll just be there to have fun," Reed had said. "And to get drunk, obviously."

"Obviously," Oliver had echoed.

At the end of the day, he had required minimal convincing as he usually did in these circumstances. Oliver didn't feel particularly strong about most big social events; if Adam and Reed had had no interest in going he wouldn't have pushed it, and likewise, because they both wanted to go he was happy to go along too. He only really bothered with parties if his friends were going or he was bored enough to waste a few hours out of the house. Reed's shift at Juniper's only finished at seven so the plan was that Oliver would pick him up, they'd stop off at Reed's so he could change, and then they'd head back to Oliver's where Adam would pick them up for the party. He'd sacrificed himself as the designated driver for the night as Oliver had made the sacrifice for the last party.

That he never had to limit how much he drank was the only gloating point Reed got out of being the only one out of the three of them who couldn't drive and he made sure to milk it for what it was worth. Such gloating had earned him multiple threats from both Adam and Oliver that he'd be kicked out of the car if he didn't shut his mouth. Naturally, Reed never shut his mouth — Oliver doubted he even knew how to.

Minutes later, the couple in the corner left in tense, melancholy silence even as they walked out of the door hand in hand. Oliver wondered what terrible news had been exchanged between the two of them but he was distracted from it quickly enough at the realisation that for the first time all day, he was alone with Reed. Between no shared lessons or free periods, lunch and swim practices surrounded by other people, and Reed working most days after school, Oliver made sure to appreciate any free moments they got. In the privacy of the empty cafe, Oliver snuck up behind Reed as he wiped down the tables and kissed his neck. Reed turned in his arms with raised eyebrows, abandoning his cloth once again in favour of looping his arms around Oliver's neck.

"I'm working, Oliver," he said archly, even as he slid his hands into his hair to curl it between his fingers, one of his favourite things to do.

"No, you're not. As of ten minutes ago," Oliver dragged one of Reed's arms around to get a look at the watch on his wrist, "you're off duty."

"Is that so?" Reed gaze darkened with lust and sent heat sparking down Oliver's spine. "In that case, guess we should make the most of it."

Reed tightened his grip in Oliver's hair and drew him down into a kiss. Oliver's body reacted instantaneously as his lips parted beneath the demanding press of Reed's mouth and everything was lost to the pounding rush of blood through his head, the need to draw Reed closer and closer still even when the entire length of his body was flush with Oliver's. Kissing Reed, no matter how often he got to do it, felt like coming up for air, like living again after so long floundering in the dark. It hadn't been like this with Fin, or anyone else he had been with before. Those had always been purely physical and nothing more. With Reed it was physical, there was no denying the sexual tension between the two of them, but it was more than that.

With Reed it was more than enough just being near him, teasing him and seeing how far he could push him, spending almost every waking hour just thinking about him. Oliver had never been in love before but the moment he'd thought the words, even considered them, it was impossible to think of little else. The intensity of these feelings swelling up inside him were almost enough to scare Oliver and Reed must have felt him tense up, drawing back slightly.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Oliver said, swallowing around the lump in his throat. He wasn't sure what to do with the unsettled realisation that had hit him and he knew the last thing he could do was bring it up with Reed, who was still caught up in keeping this whole thing a secret and had barely come to terms with his sexuality. He took an unsteady step away from Reed, heart pounding for an entirely different reason this time. "We should, uh, go. Adam will be round to pick us up soon."