A/N: Fair Warning. The following chapter has depictions of a sexual and/or violent nature. Don't feel pressured into reading something you're uncomfortable with, I'll be posting a "summary" or a TL: DR at the bottom with the authors note that'll give you the jist of what happened in the chapter.

 For the second time in two weeks, Niall had found himself dumbfounded by a kiss. For the second time in two weeks, that kiss had come from Will. It infuriated him to no end because he had no idea how to handle it or what it meant that it affected him so much. The first time he could explain away as a powerful concoction of anxiety and alcohol. This time, however, was different.

The kiss was unprovoked. Will had sought it out. Not to mention they were both naked at the time and Niall felt that was somehow important.

The group had arrived back at the house in a gaggle of giggles. Feebly protecting their hides from the onslaught of icy rain with towels and whatever clothing they didn't manage to yank on as they left the lake.

They were all elbows and thumbs stumbling through the front door. Cold, swollen, and layered in flecks of mud.

The house was comfortably warm as a few of them shook the cold from their bodies.

Emma was the first to break from the group who had subconsciously all huddled together in the doorway in an attempt to keep warm. She strode forward, her steps long yet graceful, and tracking puddled footprints on the dark wood behind her. Reaching the stairs, she let her clothes and her towel, slip from her form. A soaked T-shirt revealing the rain speckled curvature of her back. She stooped slightly to remove her shorts, underwear included, leaving everything on display as one by one, she dropped them with an outstretched arm, over the side of the banister. Where they landed with heavy slopping sounds.

Emma paused only once. Like a queen gracing her onlookers and fully aware of her own power: she gifted them with a single, knowing smirk over her shoulder before continuing on her way and disappearing at the top of the stairs.

The remainders were left paralysed. Frozen, and absent-mindedly clinging on to one another like frightened animals cornered by the storm, waiting for something to break the awe filled silenced that a series of small gestures had managed to conjure.

Jason managed to wriggle himself free of the group, stumbling forward with heavy footsteps. He removed his shirt, once again flexing his athletic physique as he turned with arms outstretched to look upon everyone who was giving him a confused and somewhat shocked look.

"What're we here for, eh?" He said with a grin before scrambling up the stairs. His footsteps echoing throughout the house.

The door to Emma's room was intentionally left ajar. A curling of warm steam, pouring through the gap in the door as the gentle music of shower spray filtered outwards like a beckoning of enticement.

Jason's heart was pounding, and not solely from the run up the stairs. It was with a confidence, lightly prickled with nerves, that he placed gentle fingers on the brass door knob, pushing it further as he stepped inside.

He had discarded the lower half of his clothing on the journey up here, and a certain spike of self-doubt did enter his thoughts ever so slightly causing a moment of hesitation as he stepped in to the en suite bathroom.

The air was thick with humidity. The showers steam seemed to create a heavy fog that hovered ever present around the room. It smelled of sweet things. Of perfumes and flowers. Of soaps with ingredients that Jason couldn't pronounce.

Emma was leaning against the cool tiles of the wall, while simultaneously allowing the shower to pour generously over her shoulders and down the slope of her back. She turned when she noticed the presence of another entering the cubicle with her.

His thumb tasted of dirty lake water as he pushed it just passed her lips while cupping the left side of her jaw. The lust, the need, was aflame in both of their eyes, and even as she could feel him begin to stiffen just at this mere contact, she couldn't help but wonder what his lips would taste like.

It didn't take long for her to find out, as their mouths crashed together. His tongue finding cautious entrance to her mouth, he tasted of the sun. Like sun-baked, ceramic, roof tiles. Like blood from a land who's gods were drunk on wine and high on debauchery.

One hand was placed gripping on her breast, where the palm made tight circles around the nipple, while the other dug calloused, artisans fingers into her hips. Emma's own hands were threaded through a sopping mess of raven-feathered hair. Nails scratching at the skull as she clenched at fistfuls, a slight growl slipping through the teeth that had pulled Jasons bottom lip to be sucked on.

Jason was stiff, and rigid, and in the palm of Emma's hand she couldn't remember the last time a man so helplessly whimpered at her grip. He was louder than her it would seem. Something that Emma enjoyed quite a bit. She would make him sing. For with each wandering finger, each motion of her hand, every kiss she placed, and every bruise she left: she would earn a moan so deep it vibrated within the pit of her stomach, and she planned to collect these moans like one would stamps.

Emma's own excitement was beginning to build at the sight of this man at her mercy, not so gently guiding him to lay on the hard shower floor. With a fist, a claw, scratching at his chest for balance, she slowly impaled herself upon his length. Savouring every inch, with spine tingling shivers, until the very hilt pressed up against her. She rocked back and forth until all things got twisted and hot inside.

Jason tried to sit up, but Emma would not allow it, so instead he pawed and stroked at whatever his arm length could reach. The softness of her thighs, the curvature of her ass.

Their hearts burst in a synchronised eruption of triumphant cries, as Jason pressed himself against Emma's chest, and they fucked through the orgasm.

"Have you always had an interest in fighting? Ya know, martial arts?" Jennifer inquired to Jess, as the girls snuggled next to one another in front of the electric fire. The television was on, but it served as nothing more than background noise, because despite Jess' enthusiasm earlier: the frigid experience that the lake had been demanded that she return to a comfortable body temperature before any partying was to be had.

"Well I grew up with two older brothers." Jess responded cheerfully, taking a sip of the warm coffee that she encircled with her somehow still frozen fingers.

"Ah, so they made sure you knew how to throw a punch?" Jen nodded thoughtfully, earning a snort from Jess in response.

"What? No way. Theo was never shy about preferring to wear dresses and heels, and Mark was a scrawny nerd. I had to learn how to beat up people bigger than me to keep people from messing with them." Jess cracked her knuckles earning a slight wince from Jen who gave a laugh in return before shovelling another cookie into her mouth.

Niall was busy leaning against the kitchen counter, mug of tea in hand, and pleasantly watching the girls as he stared off into his own day dream. A gentle smile on his face, that Will couldn't help but go slightly weak at the knees about.

That boy is going to kill me.

His sudden motion of gripping onto the counter top seemed to have pulled Niall from his day dream, causing him to jump ever so slightly at the freshly showered Will and quickly offering him a different smile in welcome. Will couldn't help but wonder why Niall was so skittish. Anything and everything seemed to make him jump.

It was sometime of silence, before Will realised he had been staring again, and Niall had begun to notice. He thought this was a good thing. Just maybe, if he tries hard enough; he could beam his thoughts telepathically to Niall and then Niall would know without him ever having to say a word. Speaking seemed to always be at its most difficult for Will when Niall was around. Or rather, speaking coherent words that didn't make him sound like a lunatic.

"Did I tell you I met a stranger in the woods earlier today?" Niall's voice rung out over the static noise of girly chatter, garbage tv, and Emma getting railed.

"Is that where you went?" Will questioned incredulously. Bringing back the memory of them in bed together was a welcome one, even if it caused him to shift slightly to hide his lower half behind the kitchen counter. He could tell Niall remembered the night too, as his words seemed caught in his throat and the tops of his ears turned red with embarrassment, which seemed all the more telling on his thoughts about the subject. It wasn't a steamy night in bed, that's for sure, yet in it's innocence, it seemed all the more intimate.

"I just went for a walk. It's weird, but you don't see trees that often in the city, so I kinda felt like I should go for a walk and ya know... see them."

"You went to see trees?"

"Yes, and I happened to bump into a couple who were playing hide and seek with their kid." Niall deflected, quickly getting back to the topic so he wouldn't have to explain that he felt so ashamed being around successful and attractive people from his past, that he had decided to start exercising in a vain attempt to keep up.

"I thought you said you met a stranger. Now there's a whole family, and they were playing hide and seek in the woods? That's crazy. You didn't even have all that much to drink last night" Will joked, letting out a laugh which was immediately halted at Nialls fist punching his arm. It didn't hurt, but the sudden contact was enough to have Will acting like a deer in the head lights.

What added further to his sudden incapability of cognitive thought was Niall laughing. Laughing like he did on the drive up here. Wills favourite sound.

For fuck sake, man.

Will was more than aware of how dangerous this hold Niall had over him was. Not to mention how stupid he was being. Ninety-percent of his interaction with Niall seemed to be just him staring, and the stagnation was slowly beginning to make him mad.

Emma entered the kitchen, hair wet and thrown over her shoulder, a simple grey hoodie and sweat pants, and the blush of her deeds still very much present in her cheeks. She seemed completely unbothered by the knowing, and snickering, glances that the group were giving her as she plucked an apple from the bowl and helped herself to a glass of water.

"Where's Jason?" Niall, surprisingly, was the first to break the pregnant silence. Immediately regretting it as it now felt like all eyes were on him. As if watching a small animal being tossed to the sharks and now had some morbid curiosity about observing the feeding frenzy.

However Emma just gave a smug grin.

"Fucker fell asleep like five minutes after busting a nut. I practically had to drag him from the shower to the bedroom so he could get some sleep."

That was enough to set the group off in a fit of laughter. Emma didn't go into distinct detail about the act, just that he was "most agreeable", and that she's disappointed in the rest of the group for not already making good on the talk that was on display in the group chat. Although she wasn't surprised.

Soon things settled. In the hours that passed a gentle buzz had begun to set in among the group. Jason had yet to awaken, so it was left to those who remained to start drinking while Niall and Will were, yet again, in charge of cooking.

A task that the pair found a surprising amount of enjoyment in as they worked in a slightly drunk mockery of a well oiled machine. Niall lightly tossed the salt shaker into the air which Will managed to catch without looking and a slight bob of his knees.

The pan sizzled and hissed in the background while Niall continued chopping vegetables. He was by no means a chef. The chopping wasn't fluid or rhythmic or efficient for that matter. The pieces weren't anywhere near equal in size, and looked more like they were vaguely ripped apart as opposed to sliced. But Will didn't mind, or if he did; he didn't say anything.

There was a moment, caught in the pale yellow of the kitchen light, like a halo born of the sun, that Will found himself staring at the smiling Niall once again. He couldn't decide whether it was the buzz he had going or if it was how the light framed his head and seemed to make Niall's ears glow a pinkish red, that dictated his actions in that moment. He couldn't decide whether it was the sight of him in the kitchen, his shirt twisted around his torso in a sleepy manner, a goofy smile on his face, and an ass that just won't quit in that pair of jeans, that meant he wanted to see him like this forever.

Will thought Niall was cute. A word he never used to describe someone he was interested in.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Niall questioned, his eyebrows creasing on his forehead as he let out a small, nervous chuckle.

"Doing what?" Will replied shaking his head, or rather, shaking himself from his obvious entrancement.

"Staring at me. I've noticed a couple of times, but I think I've had just enough beer to give me the courage to ask" He chuckled incredulously, and then taking another, bolstering, swig from the bottle.

"I'm not staring."

"Yes you are."

"Are not."

"Are too!"

"Are not!"

"Are too--"

"I love you." Will cut in, cutting the psuedo-argument dead. He could feel his heart punch violently in his chest as everything else seemed static by comparison. It pounded sickeningly at the bottom of his throat, and his grip tightened around his drink.

"I love you too, man." Niall said in an obviously platonic manner, clapping an uncharacteristic hand on Will's shoulder. This caused Will to scrunch up his nose as if recoiling from a bad smell. Niall wasn't understanding. He wasn't getting it, and the only way it could be more infuriating right now is if he had said "no homo" at the end.

Jess was right. Will was going to have to spell it out for him.

Will let out a frustrated sigh, placing his drink on the side while drawing in a bracing breath. He stepped closer. Niall unknowingly holding his beer protectively against his chest.

To Niall, Will looked strangely intimidating yet somehow soft. He had always been an inch or too taller than Niall, but when he stepped forward like this: the difference seemed so vast. Will looked so vulnerable, his eyes brimming with a strange amalgamation of hope and fear. But Will was done. He had drunk enough. Skirted around the subject enough. Waited long enough. Gotten over it, only to then be pulled straight back in.

It was crunch time. He would finally know the end of this path.

"No, Niall." He said, a gentle smile on his face that quivered ever so slightly as he placed a warm hand on Niall's arm. "I'm --"

Suddenly there came a gut-wrenching, ear piercing scream from up stairs. The entire group froze in horror at the sound. Everyone doing a mental head count to find the only ones missing being Jennifer, who had gone to the bathroom, and Jason.

Within an instant they were all scrambling up the stairs to find the source of this scream.

They found Jennifer leaning on the doorway of Emma's room. Arms wrapped around her mid-rift with a hand held to trembling lips. Jess was on her in an instant before hers, and the rest of the groups, eyes looked upwards to the bed.

There was Jason, lying in crimson soaked sheets, glistening with a sticky sheen, and an open throat.

A/N: Another chapter, and boy a lot happened in this one eh? Let me know what ya think. and thank you for reading ^-^

TL:DR/Summary of the chapter:

After returning from the lake, Emma and Jason enjoy a steamy shower together while the rest of the group get warm from the raging rain storm outside.

As the day progresses, and the alcohol starts to settle in, Will finally finds the courage to try and tell Niall about how he feels and how he's always felt.

But upon the discovery of Jasons murdered body things have taken a turn for the worse.