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Nick took a minute to respond. “Then what is it?”

Matt laid his forehead against the back of Nick’s neck. “It’s you and me, just like it’s always been. No one else here, no one else to deal with, just the two of us. And we’ll deal with this, and tomorrow, after we’ve both got some sleep and you’ve sobered up, we can face this.”

“And right now?” Nick asked softly.

That was easy.

“Right now, we’ll just be ourselves. No matter what happens, it’s gonna be you and me, okay?”

Nick didn’t respond, but Matt could feel the tension slowly leaking out of the man’s body inch by inch. Matt waited patiently, knowing Nick was running every word through his filter, parsing it in every way he could think of. There would be a dozen questions later. Some Nick would answer himself, others he would never ask, and some he eventually would.

Matt let it happen, closing his eyes and laying comfortably against his friend. Even with this new fog hanging over them, he could appreciate the warmth and solidness of Nick’s body. For him, it always made sense that someone as big and strong as Nick was so warm and comforting to be around. Matt knew there were worries and fears in Nick’s head, there always had been, but that was Nick, and he was still as solid and true as ever.

And if he was evaluating things in a different light that he still hadn’t entirely worked through, that was to be expected. Because he’d said exactly what he meant, they would come through on the other side no matter what. He honestly didn’tknow what awaited them, didn’t even know what he thought might happen. What mattered most was that Nick knew he wouldalwayshave Matt with him.

His eyes snapped open when he heard a soft hitch of breath followed by a deep exhalation. Unbelievably, Nick had fallen asleep.

“There you go,” Matt whispered, nuzzling closer. “There you go.”

NICK

Surprisingly, he didn’t wake up with a sharp lance of pain through his head. His tongue felt like sandpaper, and his stomach was turning more than usual. But considering the night he’d had, Nick had expected much worse. Either he’d somehow got through an entire bottle of rum without a trace of a hangover, or that bottle had been weaker than he’d thought.

His relief was cut short, eyes snapping open. That only made him wince from the brilliant sunlight streaming into the room. Grunting, he tried to roll away, only to be stopped by a solid mass behind him that he gracelessly slammed into.

From behind, Matt groaned pitifully. “Jesus, just tell me to move, man.”

His mind was desperate to make sense of what was happening, even as his memory banks opened and flooded his head. He managed to roll to his side, facing Matt as the other man rolled away with another series of grumpy mutterings.

“I…” Nick began, heart thundering as he remembered what he’d done.

To make matters worse, Matt wasn’t wearing a shirt as he finally settled on sprawling on his back. Either he’d undone the button of his jeans last night, or they’d come undone ontheir own. The result was the same, with Matt’s pants having been shoved down, along with his underwear, revealing his bare waist and the faintest peek of short hairs creeping up from the waistline.

“Fuck,” Nick muttered, headbutting his pillow to clear the image from his mind.

“Bit early for that,” Matt muttered, scratching his stomach.

Nick could only groan plaintively. He knew if he looked up, he would see Matt sprawled out, looking sleepy and inviting. Lord above, why had Matt chosen to sleep with him after last night? Then again, even Nick couldn’t have predicted how he would feel the next day other than guilt-ridden and sorry for himself. He certainly wouldn’t have predicted feeling a little more aroused than usual.

“Floodgates and walls,” he muttered, answering his question to himself.

Matt groaned. “You telling me about your dream or having a conversation with yourself?”

Nick sighed, refusing to pick his head up. “Why are you like this?”

The soft sound of scratching stopped. “What’d I do?”

“You’re acting like nothing is wrong,” Nick muttered, wishing he could think straight before he had this conversation.

Matt grunted. “Only thing wrong right now is you’re thinking way too hard for having just woken up.”

“Matt,” Nick groaned.

There was a pause, followed by a surprised grunt. “That’s new.”

Nick dared to peek out from his pillow to understand. Matt was sitting up, hunched over with his legs crossed. His hair stood up in the back as it usually did when he woke up. He was staring thoughtfully at Nick, which thankfully distracted Nick from anything else he might see.

“What?” Nick asked.