Bottled
Clay Aiken/Josh Groban, PG


"Excuse me, Josh?"

Josh looked up from signing an autograph, his cheeks still flushed. "Yes?" He straightened suddenly. "Oh! Are you...?"

"Yeah, I am."

Josh smiled. "Clay." He extended a hand and firmly shook Clay's. "You totally should've won, I voted for you all the way."

Clay laughed and shook his head. "Thanks, man. Don't worry about it."

"Yeah, you seem to be surviving pretty well anyway." Josh finishing signing the autograph and watched for a moment to make sure the gil made it down the hallway, quickly returning his gaze to Clay.

"Thought it was supposed to be me up there, huh?" Clay asked with a wry smile.

Josh frowned. "What...oh." He laughed. "The Broadway thing. Well, I actually started out studying musical theatre, so..."

"Oh. I didn't know that."

"Yeah." Josh nodded, pursing his lips. A few seconds passed, then Josh jumped a bit. "Hey, I'm headed back--" he pointed behind him. "You're welcome to come."

"Oh, sure!" Clay responded. He followed Josh down the hallway and through a door with a piece of paper labeled "JOSH GROBAN" taped to it.

Josh walked in, grabbing a shirt off the floor and throwing it onto a chair. "It's not very much, but you know, it's just for one night."

"Just one night," Clay echoed softly. He raised his eyebrows and smiled. "This is great compared to some of the rooms we got on the tour. Sometimes it was literally just a bathroom."

"You're kidding!" Josh said, laughing.

"I'm dead serious." Clay laughed with him. "It was pretty horrible."

"I can imagine," Josh said, sitting down on one end of a small sofa. "Hey, are you thirsty? I don't really drink, so there's nothing exciting, but I have a ton of water and I think there's some Coke."

"Oh, I don't drink either, I don't mind at all. And just water's fine."

Josh pulled two bottled waters out of the small fridge next to the sofa and tossed one to Clay. "Please, sit down! You don't have to just stand there and stare at me."

Clay smiled and sat down next to him. "But what if I want to?"

Josh chuckled, opening his water and taking a small sip. "Whatever floats your boat, man."

Clay unscrewed the cap from his water and took a long swig swishing it around in his mouth. He was quiet for a few moments. "So...how's your girlfriend?" he asked casually.

Josh shot Clay a defensive look. "I don't have a girlfriend." He stared at his bottle. "How's yours?"

Clay shook his head slowly. "Don't have one either."

A full minute passed, a tense silence and several inches of sofa between them. Josh rolled his bottle cap between his thumb and forefinger, and Clay chewed on his lower lip. Finally, Clay took a deep breath, turned to face Josh and slowly kissed him. Josh froze for a moment, then relaxed.

Clay pulled away and smirked. "Just one night?"

Josh leaned down to put his water down on the floor, then sat up. "Maybe more."

Clay threaded the fingers of one hand through Josh's hair and put the other on his chest, and let out a little laugh as he pushed Josh down.




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