This is a bit short, but there was nothing more I could think of adding, so I decided to leave it like this. The next chapter should be longer again.

Hope you enjoy it anyway, and as always: leave comments, they make my day!

title - on the other side
genre - drama/romance
pairing - Zac/OMC
point of view - Zac Hanson
rating - PG-13 (due to some bad language)
betas - I am my own beta. Any and all mistakes are my own. If you happen to tumble across any feel free to inform me so I may correct them, thank you.
info - the fear of the world kept us in, safe from the dirt and the sin and yes I'm terrified, 'cause when you’re out you know there's no return, but I love you and they're going to learn

Previous chapters:
prologue - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10
11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20
21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30
31 - 32 - 33 - 34

[ chapter 35 ]

It was around nine AM when I woke up and I knew right away that I was too awake to go back to sleep, which was fine because nine AM was a good time to wake up anyway. It was better than waking up at two PM and suffering from a jetlag for the rest of the week. I guess that was the advantage of staying up late before flying to Europe, you were so exhausted you could sleep during the day and then you wouldn’t miss out on those five hours of sleep when the clock jumped ahead.

I turned on my side and watched Cayden sleep for a while. It made me want to reach out and trace my fingers along his cheek, because he looked so beautiful and peaceful, but I held back in fear of waking him. Instead I slipped out of bed after half an hour and made my way to the bathroom, because I could use a shower after last night’s events.

The shower was nice and warm and I closed my eyes as I let the water fall down on me. Since Cayden was still asleep I didn’t feel the need to rush and I stood there for a good fifteen minutes before reluctantly turning off the tap. I quickly dried myself off and wrapped the towel around my waist. I hadn’t grabbed any clean clothes yet, because I was sure that opening my suitcase would make a lot of noise and I had wanted to give Cayden the opportunity to sleep a little longer, but I was intend on waking him up now, even if he wouldn’t particularly like me for it. He knew as well as I did that the longer you slept the worse your jetlag would be. It was better to get up a little earlier and feel tired for a day or two, than continue to live in a mixed up rhythm for the next two weeks.

But when I walked into the bedroom I found that it wasn’t necessary to wake him up, because he was already awake, although he was convinced otherwise.

“I’m still dreaming aren’t I?” He asked running his eyes along my body and I was well aware that a few months ago this had made me insecure, but now I just felt a warmth spread through my body that had a lot more to do with feeling flattered and slightly aroused than embarrassed.

“You might be.” I affirmed as I ran my hand through my hair to tousle it up some more, which I knew he liked and I received a groan in response. I smiled, pleased with his reaction and turned around to open my suitcase. I quickly found a pair of boxers and I stood up again to remove the towel from my waist, throwing it in his direction. It landed right in his face as I had planned to and he brought his hands to it to press it close against him.

“Yup, definitely still dreaming.” He said, the sound of his voice muffled by the towel.

I laughed and slipped on my boxers before crawling onto the bed with my hands and knees on either side of him. I pulled the towel away from his face and leaned down to kiss him. His arms quickly circled my waist as his lips moved against mine and I moaned against his mouth by the cool feeling of his arms against my warm skin. He pulled me down on top of him completely so our bare chests were touching and this time it was he who moaned as my skin touched his. I smiled as I pulled my lips away from his and moved my mouth along his jaw and then down to his neck where his skin tasted salty from last night’s sweat.

“You need a shower.” I mumbled with my lips still connected to his skin.

“Nah, we just need to dirty you up again.” He said with a smirk and snuck his hands a little down the back of my boxers, to make his intentions clear.

“I don’t think so.” I said with a laugh and swatted his hands away, before sitting up beside him. “I just had a shower and I’m hungry. We haven’t eaten anything since that meal we got at the beginning of the flight, and that was pretty shitty.”

“Yeah, I guess I could use something to eat too.” He said as he sat up and rubbed his hands across his face, which was as layered with old sweat as the rest of his body was. “After I shower.” He added with a grimace.

I chuckled and he shut me up by quickly kissing my lips and then slipping out of bed, so I could do nothing else but stare after him as he walked his naked body to the bathroom. I was sure a guy couldn’t look more perfect than that no matter how hard he tried.


By the time Cayden got out off the shower I was properly dressed and after he had gotten dressed too we made our way down for breakfast. We both ordered a nice English breakfast and we were both stuffed by the time we were finished. It was only eleven thirty then and we still had the entire day ahead of us and there was nothing we had to do, so we could do as we pleased. After discussing it shortly we decided to head into town and see some of London, even though we’d both seen it before. Some things were simply worth seeing again and of course it was different this time, because this time I wasn’t going to see London with my brothers or the rest of my family, but with my boyfriend and that made it special.

So after retrieving our coats we were on our way out of the hotel and to, well, London. We weren’t exactly sure where we were going, but we were sure we’d end up somewhere familiar at some point. We were already enjoying ourselves just walking along the streets and soaking in our surroundings, because we both agreed that London was one of our favorite cities. The streets were buzzing with people and every once in a while a couple of people would walk past us and we could overhear them talking in that typically British accent and each time we’d look at each other and grin, for we both loved the accent and I couldn’t help cracking up completely as Cayden made a horrible attempt at talking British to me.

We continued our way through the different streets and by then I was sure we wouldn’t be able to find our hotel again on our own, but I really couldn’t care anymore as we rounded the corner of yet another street, because right in front of us stood the Big Ben and that image just never ceased to amaze or silence me, which was why I never got to finish the sentence that I had just started. I was sure Cayden didn’t notice my sudden silence, because he had stopped walking too and looked just as enchanted by the view as I was.

“It’s beautiful.” He said, his voice no louder than a whisper.

“Yeah, it is.” I agreed and we continued in the direction of the Big Ben in silence.

Once we got there we spotted one of those busses that took you to all the hotspots and we easily agreed to do that. Cayden paid for our tickets -there was no use arguing- and we found two seats at the back of the bus. There was no one sitting next to us and I finally did what I had been wanting to do ever since we’d stepped out of the hotel; I took his hand in mine and laced our fingers together. He smiled and gave my hand a gentle squeeze before we both returned out attention back to the views of the city.

By six o’clock we’d seen everything we had wanted to see and we got off the bus when it returned to the Big Ben, where we wandered the streets for a while in search of a place to eat. After a while we found an English Pub which served dinner too and we settled at a table and ordered the plate of the day which consisted of half a rooster, or cock as the English called it, which -pathetically enough- amused us for a good five minutes, and some baked potatoes. We both ordered a beer too, because we simply couldn’t not order beer in a pub! Especially when it was okay for me to do here. And after we finished our dinner we both ordered another beer and played a couple of rounds of darts, which I turned out not to be very good at and I gladly blamed the beer, which was possibly equally as pathetic.

At nine we decided it was time to start finding our way back to the hotel, because we both had a busy day tomorrow, so we could use all the sleep we could get. The bartender gave us some instructions, but about half way back we had forgotten them and we ended up taking a cab instead.

We found the rest of the guys still wide awake in the restaurant where they were playing cards and we joined them for an hour or so, to tell them a bit about our trip and to find out none of them had gotten up before three in the afternoon and that they hadn’t done much since, which was why they were still full of energy while I caught Cayden yawning at least twice.

It was past eleven when we hit the bed, which was a bit later than I’d hoped, and after setting my alarm at nine I curled myself comfortably into Cayden, whose body shaped easily into mine and I was asleep within minutes wishing all days were as good as this one.