In My Place [Ant x Dec]

xi. The Morning After

Declan was the first to wake up. It took him a few minutes to register that he was not holding, or being held by someone, and when he turned on his side, he saw Anthony's sleeping face resting against the pillow.

Remembering last night's very tremendous events, Dec sighed. I pushed him off, I pushed him off even though I knew I wanted this too. Putting his hands over his face, he let himself breathe deeply, trying hard not to start panicking. God, he was married, and now he felt so guilty for responding so naturally to his best friend's caresses, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

He'd moaned and groaned more than he usually did when he was with Ali, and Ant and him had not even taken all their clothes off. Just the fact that Anthony had had such a powerful effect on him made him wonder if he was still only attracted to his best friend, and that was saying something.

Dec heard a noise in the background, and turned around to see Ant, his face contorted in pain, clutching at his head. He padded quietly towards his best friend, and put his hand on his shoulder. Ant looked up and smiled tightly, his other hand still rubbing his temple.

"Rough morning, eh?" asked Dec kindly, rubbing his best friend's back.

"I... I think I'm gonna be sick," Ant put a hand to his mouth and ran towards the bathroom, and within seconds he was vomiting all the alcohol he had consumed the night before. A few minutes later, a pale-looking Anthony emerged from the bathroom, looking exhausted.

He soundlessly made his way back to Dec and rested his forehead on his best friend's shoulder, closing his eyes and sighing deeply. "I'm sorry," he said weakly, finally looking into Dec's eyes.

"For what?" Dec asked, praying that last night's events would not be brought up as the situation would be too awkward to bare.

"For what happened yesterday, I wasn't thinking rationally man," Ant apologized, now looking at his feet, touching Dec's.

"You... you remember?" Dec managed to ask as nervousness already started to eat him up.

"Well, aye... I'm sorry for having drank so much when I shouldn't have. You were amazing for putting up with me, I really don't know what I would've done if it wasn't you I went out with," Ant sincerely said, once again staring into Dec's green eyes. He brought his hand up to his best friend's cheek and stroked it lightly with his thumb, clearing his throat. "Also, I'm sorry for my... er, excessively sexual behavior. I... don't know what had gotten to us.
You know I was black-out drunk and couldn't do anything about it." 

Dec simply nodded, a nagging feeling starting to grow in his stomach. Ant apologized for what he had done the night before instead of denying the whole thing. He smiled weakly at his best friend, who still had his hand on his cheek, now leaning into his touch. Dec looked at the window behind Ant, eyes widening, which caused the taller Geordie to turn around as well.

"It's snowing."

                                       *

"Come on! Let's take a picture," Ant exclaimed over the roaring sound of the wind, holding up his phone and adjusting the brightness so that he could take a good shot of the small group standing in front of him, all of their hands in their pockets. "Great!"

Declan smiled at the tall men that patted him on the back as a few of them got up from the ground. Some of them were old friends of him and Ant's, who used to go out for a game of golf with them.