Something Broken, Bruised and Beautiful

Track #3 - More Than Friends

Deep down, he knows he should have caught the eye of a few of the people their managers mentioned yesterday. He should have introduced himself, even if it's a little unnecessary at this point when it comes to the ITV crowd, and laughed when someone inevitably joked that they were relieved because they always forget if he's Ant or Dec. No one seems to realise that everyone makes that joke, almost constantly. Fortunately, Stephen's got good reason to be able to tell them apart so that's yet another reason to prefer the other man's company over anyone else this evening.

The main reason comes later, after a meal and some reluctant socialising. He finds himself locating Stephen in the room every time he moves from one circle to the next, occasionally meeting the other man's eyes. Somewhere in between the glances he senses they have made a silent pact: put up with this long enough and then they will get out of there. What might come after hovers in the air between them but Dec knows what is getting him through the rest of the evening.

The advantage of corporate events is that they tend to wind up at around 10pm. No one expects you to stay into the early hours of the morning and you definitely don't have to imply you're going to a girl's house to sleep with her in order to make excuses to leave. In fact, given that the average age of the room is about 20 years older than the pair of them, Dec thinks no one will even bat an eyelid that they leave together. They're just two of the younger generation of presenters, probably going on to a pub to get away from the old people.

What they actually do is walk to Stephen's flat. Dec feels the meal he's just eaten swirl in his stomach as they get closer, starting to recognise a couple of roads as the same ones they walked down a week ago. Stephen talks about some of the people he met, seeming to have at least got a couple of amusing anecdotes out of what Dec found to be a dull evening. He gets the impression that Stephen is a bit of a magnet for strange encounters though.

"I'd offer you a drink but I don't think I have anything at the moment," he says apologetically as they get in through the door. Dec almost finds it funny how casually he skirts around what they are really doing. He's probably in the middle of denying to himself that there's only one thing on the agenda for tonight.

"Don't worry about it," Dec replies, grinning lopsidedly, "I nicked an extra glass of wine when no one was looking."

"Very rebellious," Stephen says sarcastically.

Dec likes him. He likes his sense of humour and his weird stories. He likes his awkward approach to their encounters.

"Is it Dec or Declan, then?" Stephen asks as he throws his jacket over the back of a chair. Dec lets his attention wander around the room a little more this time – no longer afraid of finding out more about the other man than he is allowed to know. They're in new territory here – he isn't used to seeing the same person twice.

"Either," he replies with a shrug before his addled brain thinks it's a good idea to vocalise the shiver that runs down his spine when he hears his full name coming out of Stephen's mouth. It's almost funny, talking about his real name when they were still using fake ones the first time he was here. The layout of the compact room has been seared on his brain since then as well. He dreamt of it on Sunday after he got back from the party and tried to shake off the regret of saying that they should stop after kissing outside the house. It seems Sunday is on Stephen's mind as well.

"At the weekend," he says at first, before breaking off to consider his words carefully. Dec leans against the kitchen work surface, hands splayed on the countertop behind him. His heart is thudding a bit too fast, more at the prospect of what might happen than what he thinks Stephen is going to say. Tonight, he wants to forget that Stephen is Stephen and think about the consequences tomorrow. "You said we shouldn't."