The band was now unwinding after lunch in the makeshift trailer park that Copenhell promoters always set up for the artists. It was a chaotic little village of tour buses and trailers, with long wooden picnic tables scattered between them. The whole area buzzed with restless energy as musicians and their crews behaved like overgrown children. Case in point: the impromptu piggyback race currently unfolding between the vehicles.
“Come on, Marc!” Chris, the guitarist of Buried Alive, hollered as his husband sprinted past, struggling under the weight of Dark Omen’s vocalist. “You really gonna let Theo beat your ass?”
“Fuck you!” Marc snapped back, panting. “Come here and do it yourself.”
“Sorry, can’t.” Chris gestured to his bandaged ankle. He’d sprained it bad enough to not participate in this nonsense, but not so much he couldn’t perform.
“This is fucking unfair and you know it,” Marc protested.
He had a point, though. The race wasn’t particularly long, but the path they’d settled between the buses made it trickier, especially since the rules demanded smaller participants carry bigger ones. Chris and Marc’s teenage son was currently hauling Leah, their vocalist, while Marc himself had been saddled with carrying Søren, Dark Omen’s frontman, who could only be described as a human bull.
Val, Aksel, and Noah, on the other hand, were more evenly paired as their respective jockeys, Frederik, Xander, and Markus, had a similar build. Björn and a few others from their closest circle were also in the running, each team laughing and cursing as they stumbled through the improvised obstacle course.
Just as all the participants rounded the tightest corner between two of the buses, a startled yelp cut through the laughter. Noah’s footing faltered, his boot catching on an uneven patch of gravel. He and Markus swayed in slow motion, and for a moment, it looked like they wouldn’t kiss the ground. But Noah’s momentary recovery was just that—momentary.
Noah and Markus went down in a tangle of limbs, hitting the ground with a solid thud.
“Ouch.” Chris grimaced beside Kaj, who was already on his feet.
Silence fell over the camping area for a second until they both erupted into laughter, loud and unrestrained, as they cackled like a pair of hyenas.
Kaj took a step forward, fingers twitching, caught between wanting to help and knowing that this was just two idiots laughing at their own chaos. Heshouldsit down. This wasn’t anything serious. But two days ago,everythingbetween him and Noah had changed, and no matter how much he tried to brush it off, he couldn’t ignore the quiet worry eating at him.
Two nights ago, after their long and intense sex session and the bath where they’d taken care of each other, they ended up in the kitchen, sitting on the floor, eating leftovers and laughing at stupid jokes like nothing had ever been fractured. And when exhaustion caught up with them, they went to bed together and slept wrapped in each other’s arms. As if thisthingbetween them hadn’t always been complicated and sharp-edged.
Since then, they’d been texting constantly, checking in first thing in the morning and at night, making sure neither of them was drowning in the aftermath of that mentally draining interaction. Making sure they were okay. Making surethiswas okay.
Kaj hadn’t been able to say it out loud yet, not even to himself, but how he felt about Noah was different. Or maybe it’d always been the same, just soiled by resentment and pain, and only now was it clawing its way back to the surface. He had convinced himself he’d never feel this way again—warm, protective,whole—not after everything he’d been through. Not after the things that had been done to him and the things he had done himself. But Noah had a way of breaking down his walls.
And heknew. Kaj was sure of it.
He could see it in the way Noah looked at him now, in the way he chose his words, careful not to push, even though the things they didn’t say echoed in the space between them, stretching across the years they’d been apart. Noah was perceptive like that. That was why the vocalist hadn’t asked again after Kaj’s initial deflection about his family. Why he’d admitted knowing Kaj must have gone through something traumatic and let him decide when he wanted to share. Why, despite every fight and offense, he’d still chosen to wait for Kaj to be ready to come back to him.
So no, hecouldn’tjust sit down.
“You planning to go kiss his boo-boos or—”
Kaj shot Chris a glare but didn’t sit. “Fuck off, Schmidt.”
Chris laughed, leaning back on his palms on the picnic table like he was watching the best show of his life. “You lookedreadyto sprint over there. Just saying.”
Meanwhile, Noah was still on the ground, breathless from laughter as Markus groaned, arms splayed out like he’d been mortally wounded. “We died,” the tech announced to the sky. “Tell my mom I went out like a warrior.”
Noah wheezed. “Does that mean we go to Valhalla together?”
Markus let out a dramatic groan, touching his chest where the invisible sword wound was. “Absolutely. This was a glorious fall.”
“More like an embarrassing defeat, but whatever.” Noah snorted, wiping the dust off his arms and pants as he stood up.
Markus gasped. “How dare you? I sacrificed myself to ensure we fell as brothers.”
“I don’t know what they’re talking about, but it seems your man is still alive,” Chris quipped. “You can sit down, Larsen.”
Kaj shot him a withering look, but Chris’s German ass only grinned wider.
“Not obvious at all.”
Kaj shook his head as he sat on the table. “You’re insufferable.”
