Couple
The trip to Fort Worth came all too soon and coincided rather neatly with the deadline on Zac’s last assignments of the semester. While Taylor worked and networked, Zac stayed holed up in their hotel room, slaving away on his laptop.
That wasn’t entirely true. He spent equally as much time doodling idly in his sketchbook. Unsurprisingly, everything he drew was Taylor.
It managed to occupy him well enough for the first day until Taylor made it back to the room with a box of pizza and a six pack. By the second afternoon, though, Zac was feeling like a hermit, and not in a pleasant way. He needed company. Zac had never thought he was much of an extrovert, but after spending a day and a half in a hotel room, he was starting to reevaluate that.
He closed his laptop decisively and decided it was time to leave the room. With a sketchbook and a bag of colored pencils in hand, he headed out of their room and down to the first floor where most of the convention was taking place.
Big crowds like that could be overwhelming, but Zac found it was also easy to blend in. He could be surrounded by people, yet not have to interact with a single one of them. He liked that.
He settled himself into a chair where he could watch people milling about. It gave him plenty to sketch without much effort. Still, so many of his sketches ended up looking like Taylor. It seemed his brother was the only thing on his brain, and Zac wasn’t sure he wanted to change that. After so long without him, so long spent wondering, Zac was pleasantly surprised to find that he couldn’t get enough of Taylor at all.
He didn’t know how long he had sat there drawing when he finally glanced up and saw Taylor walking toward him. It must have been quite some time, as Zac realized with a start that his hand was cramping. He wiggled his fingers as he smiled up at his brother.
“What’s a cutie like you doing all alone here?” Taylor teased, sitting on the arm of the chair.
Zac gave him a little nudge, not enough to push him into the floor, just enough to tease. “Trying to keep from being bored out of my mind. How about you?”
“Finishing up for the day, actually,” Taylor replied. “But I can think of one thing that might keep you from being bored…”
“What’s that?” Zac asked, glancing at his cell phone to see that hours had indeed passed since he had walked downstairs.
“Well, there’s a big afterparty at the club next door…” Taylor said, drawing the words out.
“You may find this hard to believe, but I’m really not much of a clubber,” Zac replied.
“No, I didn’t really think you were,” Taylor said, sliding into the chair so that he was half on top of Zac. “But you know I am, and I’d prefer not to go alone. I just thought it might be fun for us to go together. But we can stay in and be boring old fuddy duddies if you want.”
“I think we already are fuddy duddies, simply because you just used that word. Seriously, Tay?”
Taylor giggled, then stood up and did a ridiculous little shimmying dance. “Oh, come on. Let’s get something to eat, then hit the club.”
“Are you going to make me dance?” Zac asked. “Specifically, are you going to make me dance like that?”
“What’s wrong with my dance moves?” Taylor replied, his motions becoming even more exaggerated. While he looked absurd, there was still something Zac found absurdly hot about the way he moved his hips.
Zac was definitely going to hell. And he found that he didn’t care at all.
He allowed Taylor to take his hand and pull him from the chair. He had even less rhythm than Taylor but he didn’t care. They danced their way to the elevator, and Zac hardly even noticed the strange looks they earned along the way. This convention was full of plenty of strange people; they might as well try to fit in, he decided. Adapt to their crazy surroundings.
When they made it to the room, finally, after a brief makeout session in the elevator, Taylor announced that he desperately needed a shower even before he could go clubbing. Zac offered to order room service while he did so, and settled in to work on his classwork more while he waited for the food to arrive and Taylor to emerge.
The food arrived first, and Zac dug into his hamburger without even waiting for Taylor. He didn’t think Taylor would mind. It took a little effort to balance the burger in one hand and type with the other, but Zac managed.
He was halfway through his burger when Taylor walked back into the room, wearing nothing but a towel slung low on his hips. Zac practically choked on his own tongue at the sight.
“Well, hello to you too,” Taylor said, giggling. “Looks like you’ve had a ton of fun while I was gone.”
“Not really. To be honest, I don’t even know what the point is anymore.”
Taylor sat down next to him, concern painted all over his face. “What do you mean?”
“No, not that. Not… us. I just mean—this whole grad school thing. What am I even going to do with this degree? Teach? That’s the only thing I could do with it that I couldn’t do without.”
“So why are you still working on it?” Taylor asked.
“That’s the question I keep asking myself, and I just don’t have an answer,” Zac said.
“Well, I don’t have an answer for you either. I think it’s something you’ll have to figure out for yourself.” Taylor paused for a second, then smiled. “But you came on this trip to have fun, didn’t you? To get outside of your own head. Out of your comfort to zone.”
“I guess I did,” Zac admitted. An idea came over him, and although it scared him, he decided to go for it anyway. “You know what would really get me out of my comfort zone?”
Taylor stared at Zac for a moment, and Zac just stared back. Even though he thought he was brave enough to try it, he didn’t quite know how to say it. He stared at Taylor imploringly, hoping his brother would get the hint.
Finally, Taylor’s expression of confusion turned to a wide grin.
“Oh. Okay,” Taylor said. “I’m going to eat dinner, because I have a feeling I’ll need a lot of strength for this. You go take a shower. And shave—everything.”
A dozen or so cuts and nicks later, Zac emerged from the bathroom, little pieces of toilet paper adhered to his chin and legs. He hoped Taylor hadn’t intended for him to shave down there as well. That was a bridge too far, as far as Zac was concerned.
Trying to ignore Taylor’s eyes on him, he dug his tightest pair of boxer briefs out of his suitcase and pulled them on. Taylor stood in front of him, staring up and down his body in a way that made Zac feel more like a piece of meat than he ever had, even more than when he’d dressed and undressed in front of half a dozen other “models”. He very nearly reconsidered the whole thing, but then Taylor smiled. Zac would do anything to see that smile.
“Alright,” Taylor said, pulling out the desk chair and motioning toward it. “Have a seat. And brace yourself, because this is going to be more involved than last time. At least your hair will be easy; it’s long enough and girls would kill for the volume you have.”
“Thanks?” Zac replied, sitting down carefully.
Taylor leaned down and lifted Zac’s chin. “Honestly, if you don’t know by now just how gorgeous you are. How just—naturally gifted you are. I don’t know what more I can do to make you see it.”
“I don’t know, either,” Zac replied honestly. “But I just… I look at you. And I never measured up to you, Tay. I mean, in spite of all the other bullshit, everyone always made it pretty damn clear that I was the lesser of the two of us.”
“Then everyone is full of shit,” Taylor said simply, opening his makeup case and surveying it without another glance at Zac. He turned back to Zac a moment later, holding out something that looked like a tiny medieval torture device. “Now, you’re going to need to be very still. This… may hurt a little.”
It hurt more than a little, but Zac didn’t dare admit that.
At Taylor’s instructions, he did not look at himself in the mirror, even as Taylor poked and prodded endlessly at his face, then carefully dried his hair and sprayed it with something that made him cough and gag.
There was something amusing about watching Taylor at work. It was fascinating to watch at any time, but to see that effort applied to himself was something else entirely. Zac probably should have felt offended at the effort it took for Taylor to transform him, but he didn’t. He still didn’t truly know what had possessed him; there was no possible way he would look even half as good as Taylor did.
Once Zac’s hair and makeup was finished, Taylor practically dove headfirst into his suitcase, murmuring to himself about which items might fit Zac best. Finally, he pulled out a very, very short dress and a lacy item that Zac belatedly realized was a bra.
“Don’t worry,” Taylor replied, giggling a bit. “I can help you put the bra on if you want. It already has plenty of padding, at least. You’re built like a linebacker—I mean that in a good way, I promise–so I just hope it fits. If I’d known you were planning this, I could have brought an extender or something. The dress is stretchy, though, and definitely your color.”
Zac eyed the dark green, glittery thing in his hand with some doubt.
“Zac,” Taylor said, grasping his hands and pressing a pair of black suede wedges into them. “You don’t have to do this, you know. This is all your idea; I won’t be offended if you back out.”
“No,” Zac replied, shaking his head. “I want to try. I want—I need to understand you. I need this. To be closer to you.”
Taylor nodded. “Okay… if you say so. And—thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Zac said. “But if you don’t mind, I think I’ll do this in the bathroom; I don’t think even you need to see me try to get into this thing.”
Taylor smirked. “Okay. Yell if you need help.”
Zac nodded, then turned and walked toward the bathroom. Just as he was about to close the door, a pair of fishnet pantyhose sailed through the air and landed on his shoulder.
Several embarrassing, frustrating minutes later, Zac opened the door and took a few cautious steps back into the room. The wedges were surprisingly easy to walk in, although he found himself tugging at the hose to get them into just the right position. Somehow, everything had fit, although Zac was sure he was far heavier than Taylor.
Taylor glanced up at him slowly, his hands frozen in motion with his own lacy hose halfway up his legs. In the time it had taken Zac to dress, Taylor had put on a full face of makeup and nearly completed his own transformation.
“You look beautiful,” Taylor breathed out, sounding almost as though he were in awe. “I mean, you’re beautiful anyway, but I have to hand it to myself for this one. Come look.”
He motioned Zac toward the mirror, and Zac only stumbled once on his walk toward it. What he saw was almost unrecognizable. His lips were brick red, looking even more comically large than usual, but somehow in a good way. The rest of his face was painted with shades of copper and green, not quite glittery, but certainly shimmering. He didn’t have Taylor’s curves, but the padded bra and dress disguised that fact somewhat.
“Wow,” Zac said finally.
“We make a pretty cute couple, if I do say so myself,” Taylor replied, appearing behind Zac in the mirror, a brush and can of hairspray in his hand.
“Couple?” Zac said, staring at Taylor’s reflection.
Taylor paused. “Is that… I mean, I don’t know what we are. I don’t know what to say.”
“I don’t know either,” Zac replied. “But I think… I think I like that.”
“Yeah?” Taylor asked.
Zac nodded.
Taylor smiled, wrapping an arm around Zac’s waist. “I like it, too.”