James pulled up in front of Ned’s apartment in record time. Traffic had been kind to him today, and he thanked the universe for being on his side for once. He didn’t see Jack’s car anywhere, but that didn’t mean that Jack wasn’t home.

He’d just have to take the chance.

James took the stairs three at a time, stopping only when his phone buzzed. It was Sophie.

“Can’t talk right now.”

“Did you get the role?” Sophie asked. “How’d the audition go?”

“I can’t talk right now, Soph, I—”

“Where are you? You sound like you’re in a stairwell.”

“I am in a stairwell.”

“When are you coming home?”

James sighed. “I don’t know when. I’m…I’m at Ned’s apartment. I’m about to knock on his door, actually.”

He yanked the phone away from his ear as Sophie started squealing, and then he could hear Brandon saying “What, what are you yelling about,” and then Brandon was on the phone, saying, “Go get ‘em, tiger,” and then the call was disconnected.

James rolled his eyes fondly. He was going to get interrogated by the both of them when he got back.

Heart hammering in his throat, James knocked on Ned’s front door.

There was a moment of silence, then the door was opening, and there he was. Dark hair, slightly mussed like he’d been running his hands through it. Dark eyes, wide with shock as they took in who was standing there. Lean, muscular frame and a loose gray t-shirt with jeans that were just a little too big so that they hung low on his hips.

Ned looked perfect.

James intended to lead with something coy and flirty, or perhaps something polite, but what actually came out of his mouth was, “I know you got me that audition.”

Ned’s eyes went wide, and James saw his jaw go slack, like it was going to fall open, and he reached forward without thinking and gently took Ned’s chin in his hand to keep it closed. It was only after he’d done it, and he could feel the curve of Ned’s chin between his fingers, that he realized what had happened and he quickly let go, feeling sheepish. “I know that you spoke to the assistant and convinced her to let me audition.”

“It didn’t take a lot of convincing,” Ned mumbled, his eyes now darting to the ground with embarrassment.

“I wanted to say thank you,” James said quietly. “And—and I know, you were right, or if not right, you were making the best decision possible when you told Jack not to pick me. I was more upset that you didn’t tell me the truth about it when you had the chance.”

“You didn’t stick around to try and fix things,” Ned mumbled, the words sliding out of him like they were hurrying to get out before Ned could stop them.

“What?”

Ned looked up, and James could see such naked hurt in his eyes that he almost took a step back. “You didn’t even stay around to try and let me explain or fix things. You just walked away.”

James hadn’t thought about it like that. Some of that must have shown on his face, because Ned made an exasperated huffing sound before continuing. “Look, I’m going to screw up, okay? I’m too logical and pragmatic, I hate compromising, I’m not good with people, I make lists about everything, and I have literally just one friend, I’m going to mess up a lot. But I want to work it out and fix it and apologize, and do what I can to make it right, because I care about you, all right? You and your stupid talent and stupid pretty face and stupid…stupid everything,” Ned finished, gesticulating helplessly.

James reached out purposefully this time, taking both of Ned’s hands in his. “You’re right,” he said. “I should have stayed, I should have let you try and explain. But you shouldn’t have kept that back.”

“I was scared,” Ned admitted in a rush. “I was scared that you would get angry and leave.”

He seemed so broken up, so hurt, that James couldn’t help but hug him. He held on tight, and breathed a huge sigh of relief when Ned looped his arms around his neck and shuddered against him, like he was finally releasing all of the breaths that he’d been holding. James could relate.

“I’ve never done this before,” James said, remembering their first date. “I’m going to mess up too.”

Ned’s hands tightened, pressing them even closer together. “My bed feels too big and empty,” he said, “which I know sounds stupid.”

James chuckled. He knew what it was like to feel stupid about your feelings. He was feeling pretty stupid himself. But if they were feeling stupid together, then maybe it wasn’t so bad.

“Think we could try again?” He asked, pulling back. “That was—I mean, that was a huge thing that you did for me. I don’t know if I’ll get the role or not, but—”

“You will,” Ned said, in that same firm voice that he used on set. “I meant every word that I said, you’ve got what it takes to make it here. I just…should have apologized for my role in preventing you from getting Tyler.”

James realized that they were still half-hugging and standing in Ned’s doorway. “Uh, maybe we should…”

“Oh, right.” Ned stepped back and opened the door further to let James inside. “Jack’s gone to Mandy’s for the evening. Her roommate travels a lot for her job so she’s usually got the apartment to herself.”

“Those two really are serious, huh?” James asked. “I mean, I figured they were when they agreed to announce their relationship during interviews, but I still can’t quite wrap my head around it.”

“I know, they’re annoyingly domestic already,” Ned snorted. “I was just about to make myself dinner, if you want to join?”

“Are you sure?” James hesitated in the foyer, hands shoved into his pockets. “I know we’ve just apologized and all, but I don’t want to rush things.”

Ned took a deep breath and braced his hands on the kitchen counter. “I should have said this before,” he admitted, “but I’m in love with you. Jack’s been needling me about it, I mean, even Dex can tell. So…yeah. I know that it’s fast, but I just wanted to let you know.”

James felt like someone had punched him in the sternum, forcing all of his breath out. It wasn’t that odd to think about—they’d been together, cramming in spare moments where they could, for three months of filming. But it still felt so new, maybe simply because it had been that cramming, that sneaking off like teenagers instead of the steady time spent together the way Jack and Mandy were doing now.

“Would it be moving too fast for me to kiss you?” James asked, daring to take a step forward and to take his hands out of his pockets.

“I’m pretty sure that’s the standard when you declare your love and make up after a fight,” Ned replied. “Since I know you’re fond of clichés and all. Might as well do it properly.”

“Maybe I want to go against the cliché and surprise you,” James pointed out, maintaining his distance and biting down hard on the inside of his cheek to hide his grin as Ned’s eyes flashed with frustration.

“Get over here,” Ned ordered, and well, James just couldn’t argue with that.

He strode over to Ned and wrapped an arm around his waist, yanking them together and kissing him the way he’d imagined, and told himself he didn’t imagine, didn’t even want to imagine, the past few weeks of loneliness. He felt a little frantic, his skin feeling too tight and thin, like it was stretched across a drum, and he forced himself to slow down, to take his time. They had time after all, didn’t they? This wasn’t a hurried fumble together in the parking lot or rushing to touch as much as possible before the ten-minute break ended and they had to go back to filming. This was the start of something, or rather the restart of it, and they had time stretched out ahead of them on and on for infinity, if they so choose.

James got his hands underneath Ned’s thighs and lifted him up, putting him on the counter and spreading his legs so that he could get in between. Ned wrapped his legs around him and clawed at James’s shirt, trying to make their kisses frantic again, but James kissed him slowly, determinedly, sliding his tongue in and out slowly until Ned was making little almost-whimpering noises in the back of his throat and was all but boneless against James, his fingers drawing lazy circles into James’s skin.

“We have time,” James murmured against Ned’s mouth. “I promise, we have time.”

“Actually,” Ned muttered, sounding a little sheepish again, “we should probably stop altogether if we want to actually eat dinner first.”

James chuckled, tightening his hold momentarily on Ned’s thighs and then releasing him to step back. “You’re right. Sorry. I’m just a little skin-hungry, I guess.”

“I feel that,” Ned replied. “I like that you’re like that. That you want to touch me.” He blushed as he said it, and oh, James had missed watching that flush creep up Ned’s neck and ears, more than he’d realized.

“I’ll help, if you need anything,” James said, gesturing at the kitchen around them.

“Actually, I was going to be lazy and just warm up some leftover stew, if that’s okay,” Ned admitted. “Not a lot of preparation required for that.”

James laughed and gestured for Ned to do his thing. As the stew got warmed up and they sat down to eat, James finally got to catch up on Ned’s side of things for the film promotion. Ned told him about how much he hated this part, since it was a nightmare with scheduling, and James admitted how intimidated he was by the interviews and the flashing lights and the idea of attending the festival.

“You’ll do great,” Ned assured him, cleaning up the bowls when they’d finished. “You’re charming the pants off of everyone.”

“You’re the only person I want to charm the pants off of,” James replied, winking.

“Okay, no,” Ned said, groaning. “That was awful, truly awful. Even by your standards, just…no.”

“You say that, and yet you’re laughing,” James pointed out, raking his gaze over Ned’s body just so that he could see Ned’s blush deepen. “So, you said Jack’s going to be gone all night?”

“What was that you were saying about how we can take our time?” Ned replied.

James had just reached out to pull Ned in again, Ned’s soap-covered arms be damned, when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He grabbed it and answered automatically, realizing that it was probably Sophie wondering where he was and why he hadn’t come home yet.

“James Novak,” he said, answering professionally out of habit.

“Mr. Novak?”

James nearly dropped his phone and stared at Ned, wide-eyed. It was Donna, the assistant to the director he’d just auditioned for. “Yes?”

“I’m sorry to bother you, I know this is a little late in the evening, and you only auditioned for us this afternoon,” Donna went on, “but my boss said that he knew the moment you walked out of the room that you were the one to play Fox. We would love to officially offer you the part in his upcoming film.”

“What is it?” Ned whispered. “Is it about the audition?” He looked as nervous as James felt.

“I would love to accept it,” James said, his acting instincts kicking in and preventing his voice from squeaking the way it wanted to.

“Great, I’ll email you all of the details. Have a lovely evening Mr. Novak!”

“You too,” James said, feeling dazed. This, he thought, was probably what it felt like to get hit in the head with a brick.

He put his phone back into his pocket and realized that Ned was still staring at him. “I thought I recognized the voice on the phone,” Ned said. “Was that Donna? The assistant?”

“It was.” James broke out into a huge grin. “I got the part—I got the lead!”

“You got it!” Ned grabbed him, accidentally splashing him with water in the process but hugging him tightly, laughing wildly as James grabbed him back and lifted him up off the ground. “I knew you’d get it, I knew it!”

James hugged Ned as tightly as he dared, until he started to fear that he’d squeeze the life right out of him. He had landed the role of a lifetime with an award-winning director, he had made up with Ned and was going to spend as much time as possible with him—it felt like finally things were falling into place.

Judging by how tightly Ned was holding onto him, he had a suspicion that Ned was feeling the same way.

“Let’s have a toast,” Ned said, pulling back and grabbing their half-empty glasses. “To your future role.”

“And yours,” James pointed out. “Jack is going places, and you’re going to be right there with him.”

“To both of us, then,” Ned amended.

“How about just to us,” James replied.

Ned leaned in and kissed him, soft and sweet. “To us.”