Vincent burst out laughing, "Oh gawd." A large grin spread across his face, he doubled over, fits of laughter shaking his whole body, "Scott, exactly how much do you remember of last night?"

"Ah, n-not much..." Scott said, his eyes flicking from the grinning Vincent to the bewildered Mike, "Um... w-why?"

"Oh dear, is that what you meant when you asked me 'what was it like'?" Vincent's grin widened again, almost ready to split his face in two, "Ohhh, Scotty~"

"What?" Scott asked, feeling like he was missing a large piece of a puzzle.

"You guys definitely did not have sex," Mike said, "I stepped in before then."

"We were close," Vincent replied, narrowing his eyes seductively, "The way you were grinding on me, I was about to snap and do you right then and there~"

Scott's eyes widened at Vincent's comment, he felt a dark blush rise up to his face.

Mike rolled his eyes, shooting a glare at Vincent, "Delusional fantasies aside? According to him, you started trying to kiss him and thrusting into him. I walked in when he was 'apparently' pushing you away. Didn't look like it to me. We got in a fight. Vincent pulled out a fricking knife and tried to slit my throat. You got cut instead, saw the blood and fainted. We got kicked out of the bar for fighting, you came to, saw the blood pouring down your face and hands and threw up. When we got back here, we had to undress you, 'cause you'd been sick all down your clothes."

"And before you ask," Vincent said, "No, it wasn't me who undressed you, it was Mike, although I'd like to add that I'm an extremely responsible person, and I wouldn't have done anything harmful. There's no harm in looking..."

Mike rolled his eyes again, "Well, in any case, I'm still keeping a close eye on this one, and as for you, Scott, get dressed and meet us in the kitchen."

"Uhh, okay..." Scott let a hand reach up to his face, feeling a long scab reaching from the corner of his left eye to his chin. He shivered. Could have lost an eye.

Now that he was alone in the room, he took the blanket off and stood up. He realised Mike had undressed him, and he felt a little embarrassed (though in all honesty, the author would like to add that he had nothing to be self conscious about). Walking over to his closet, he quickly pulled on some underwear, a t-shirt and pants. He didn't really look at what he was throwing on, his thoughts still felt like they were being trickled through a slow tap and it felt like all of Ireland was in the inner workings of his head, drinking and tap dancing and destroying the furniture.

Groaning slightly and brushing his floppy fringe out of his eyes, Scott walked out of the bedroom and down the hallway into the kitchen, his feet making soft thumps on the wooden floorboards.

Vincent and Mike were sitting at the table, Vincent still grinning his head off like a maniac, "Hey there, tiger~" he said, "Nice underwear."

Scott looked down at himself and yelped, quickly pulling up his pants, which had sunk down so low on his hips that they were about to fall off, and doing up the fly.

"How's your hangover?" Mike asked, "I got you a few Panadol, if you like," he gestured down to the table where a few tablets lay.

Scott greedily scooped them up and put them in his mouth, grabbing the nearest drink - Vincent's cup of tea - and gulping it down.

"Ew," Vincent said, "Backwash."

Scott put the drink down and glared at him, "Yeah right, like you care about swapping spit."

Mike laughed at that, "Nice one."

"I thought so," Scott sat down in the nearest chair and rested his head in his arms on the table, "Uuugh, I could sleep for a week."

"Don't do that," Vincent said. "I'll have to do your shifts."

Scott stared ahead on the table, then glanced over to Vincent, "You know, I can't remember any of last night, but I'm pretty sure I enjoyed myself, too."

Vincent smiled, "Apparently so, though you would have enjoyed yourself more if you had your way..."

Scott chuckled slightly, and then sighed, locking eyes with him and smiling back. Vincent held his gaze, and yet again that deep fluttering started from deep inside him.

Mike's eyes darted from Scott to Vincent and back, and he seemed to decide not to interrupt the moment.

Vincent leaned down on the table as well, resting his head in his arms so that he was eye-level with Scott, "Does this mean that things are okay between us, again?"

Scott's smile faltered. For a second, he'd forgotten all the pain that Vincent had caused him, "I... I don't know. I don't feel ready to trust you again."

Vincent looked disappointed, but not surprised, "Okay."

Scott frowned slightly, closing his eyes and mumbling something about his headache. In honesty, it wasn't the pain that was giving him a headache at the moment. Scott needed to stop thinking the way he was. He was over Vincent. He didn't like him that way anymore, and never would again. It was a cute unrequited love while it lasted, but he wasn't still attracted to him!

"You know," Vincent said, as if reading his thoughts, "The way you acted with me... is... do you think it's possible that... there's a chance of..." He took a deep breath, "Us?"

Scott opened his eyes again and sat up, "There's no us, Vincent. There never was, and there never will be an us."

Vincent bit his lip, looking conflicted, "How about friends with benefits, huh? You know, every once in a while."

Scott laughed, "No. Not going to happen."

"Ah, well," Vincent said. "One can dream."

"Yeah," Scott replied, feeling an extreme sense of loss well up inside him and suddenly fighting the urge to cry. There could have been an us.

The tension was there now, but this was not a good tension. Mike seemed to realise it and he cleared his throat, "Well, uh... Vince and I should be off..."

"Oh, yeah," Scott said, and stood up, though his mind was far away. I'm over him I'm over him I'm over him I'm over him. "I'll walk you out."

They all walked out to the front door, Vincent going first, jumping off the porch, "Thanks for letting me stay over, Scott. Sorry for literally everything."

I'm not over him! I'm not over him! "No problem, Vince."

"And thanks from me, too," Mike said from beside him. "Sorry for the whole gay-club-fiasco."

I'm over him and I can prove it! "That's fine," Scott said, "Thank you, Mike. For... For everything."

And then, before he could stop himself, he kissed Mike full on the mouth.

(( Kudos Deonity, you worked out my plan before I even got to write it. Well played. (I didn't tag you in case you saw this chapter before the last one and it was given away). ))