It was a dark winter's Saturday morning, a sheet of rain plummeted from the cloudy New York sky, flooding the streets and spattering on to the brightly coloured umbrellas below.
Odafin Tutuola awoke with a hammering headache; he groaned and snuggled deeper into his duvet, listening to the pattering of the persistent rain on the window pane. There was a slight uneasiness at the back of his mind, the nagging feeling that something was wrong-different. But it was like clutching at water and Fin couldn't quite put his finger on it. He licked his dry lips and creased up his forehead trying to dull the thudding ache in his head.
And then there was a pained groan from behind him.
He jumped and twisted round in his bed tangling himself in the duvet and falling with a resounding thump onto his floor. He scrabbled around for his gun and stumbled to his knees, still tangled in the sheet and pointing his gun into the face of...John Munch.
The two men stared at each other in horror, Munch was also tangled in the sheets, his hair ruffled, his face atypically free of spectacles and from what Fin could see, he was naked. Fin lowered his gun, a feeling of horror fell around the room and clawed at the atmosphere.
"W-what are you doing in my bed?" asked Fin, stupidly.
"Well, I would have to assume that due to our excessive consumption of alcohol last night we did something very, very stupid." Answered Munch in what was supposed to be a sarcastic tone of voice, however the waver in his partner's voice and the pale colour of his face told Fin that not even Munch could hold his own in a situation this insanely painful.
"I..ne-need..." Fin clambered to his feet, clutching the sheet closely around him, he teetered violently and suddenly Munch became blurry. In a mad dash for the bathroom he made it just in time.
After a couple of minutes he turned round to see Munch, dressed in his black t-shirt and jeans, crumpled and smelling a little of smoke and alcohol from last night, but at least he wasn't naked anymore, he was holding clean clothes out to the man crouched, shivering on the floor.
"You okay, man?"
"Do I look okay?"
Munch pushed his glasses, now resting once more on his face, up his nose and placed the clothes on the top of Fin's wash basket. Fin stood weakly and looked sheepishly into Munch's eyes for a few split seconds before the taller man gave him a weak smile and left the room, closing the door behind him.
It wasn't often that they all went out together, but it was Olivia's birthday and Cragan had offered to by the first round of drinks. However as the night had escalated more rounds had been bought and so Munch, Fin, Olivia, Elliot, Alex and Cragan had become drunker and drunker.
It was a good feeling; a way to forget the horrors of the week behind them and the inevitable ones ahead. They flirted and joked and laughed, they drank.
Midnight came and went, one in the morning, two in the morning, three in the morning...at four the group finally decided to depart, Alex and Olivia caught a cab together giggling and blushing, then Cragan and Elliot left, laughing raucously and finally Munch and Fin had clambered into the last cab talking disjointedly about penguins. When they reached Fin's apartment Munch found himself being dragged in through the mahogany door for a cup of coffee.
Neither of them knew how it happened, one minute Fin was pouring coffee the next he was pushing Munch up against the cabinet and the two were kissing wildly, hands, teeth, tongue, lips...
"Fin?"
Fin heard the soft rapping of John's knuckles on the bathroom door. There was a pause as he wondered what on earth he was going to do.
"Fin?"
He clambered up and opened the door.
They stared at each other, luckily both now fully clothed, with unreadable expressions on their faces.
"I made breakfast." Munch said suddenly, looking away from Fin and gesturing towards the kitchen.
Fin was suddenly aware of the strong smell of bacon and eggs and toast, which was odd as he didn't remember buying any bacon or eggs, Fin mainly lived off sandwiches and muesli. However he felt the warm sensation of gratefulness grasp his heart and he gave in to a half-grin.
"Thanks, man."
They both made their way to the open kitchen, carefully keeping their distance from each other and sat down silently in their chairs. A clawing uncomfortable atmosphere clung in the air like smoke and the two men ate their breakfast quietly. On finishing their meal the two risked a glance at each other and almost at the same time their eyes caught on the two mugs of instant coffee that had initiated last night's events. After a horrible silence, Munch darted foreword and poured the offending liquid down the drain. He stood over the sink watching it swirl into the abyss and as he did so he felt the presence of Fin behind him, he turned round and came face to face with his partner.
Fin's breathing was heavy, his eyes dark but his expression was nervous, Munch stepped forward, lips hovering just above Fin's, eyes heavily lidded hidden behind tinted glasses.
And then Fin tangles his hands in Munch's hair and pulls him down smashing his mouth into his, it's totally unsurprising and incredibly shocking all at once, it's crackling with energy and refreshingly tender and incredibly terrifying, it's Fin and Munch and nobody else.