A/N: I seem to have been writing stuff and not posting it, which is weird. Not that I expect anyone to be reading in this section anyway but hey, may as well post it anyway since it's already written, right? ;)

Disclaimer: My Boys and all its characters belong to Betsy Thomas, TBSs, and probably some other people, none of which are me.

Chapter 1

P.J. didn't want to feel this way. She was fine before, when she had consulted her soul in a cool quiet hour and decided that going to Italy alone was the best plan. Stephanie had made her reconsider, and so P.J. had started over with her decision making.

Evan was so sweet, but his swamped comment still stung and seemed wrong to her. Thorne had made her second best to his fiancée and was only back now because that relationship hadn't worked out. Matt was nice enough but she wasn't entirely comfortable enough to be taking him to the most romantic country in the world. That just left her friends.

After her disturbing dream, P.J. already knew she could take neither Mike nor Kenny on her trip, and that left only two. She made her choice, with logic and gut feeling both, and she thought it was the right one, she really did. The bummer was waiting at the gate for what felt like forever, only for the guy to be a no show.

Now P.J. was standing in the aisle, failing miserably to get her bag into the overhead compartment, and ranting at Steph for making her think twice about her original decision to go to Italy alone. She didn't want to feel this way. It hurt, way more than she ever thought it could. It was a nasty surprise to realise it, and she was close to tears of frustration and anger when the air hostess approached her.

"Penelope Franklin? Please come this way," she said with a smile that P.J. couldn't understand. "The gentleman has upgraded your ticket to first class."

Bemused would be a good word for the look on P.J.'s face in that moment, though if she had spared a glance at her friend she would've seen how much more baffled Steph was right now. Nevertheless, P.J. followed on through the curtain and beyond, stunned but happily so as she suddenly looked down upon the man she had been waiting for too long.

"You made it," she smiled widely, hardly aware of one helpful hostess taking her bag or another handing her champagne.

"Peej, of course," Brendan rolled his eyes as he gestured for her to sit down beside him. "Check this out, Bobby totally gave us a bunch of his frequent flyer miles so we could get upgraded seats. I mean, how cool is that?"

"It's very cool," P.J. agreed, still grinning. "I mean, he's a good guy, but... you came, that's the part I'm psyched about," she told her best friend in the world.

"C'mon, P.J. It's you that was asking, of course I was gonna come," he told her with a smile of his own that grew wider a second later. "Besides, free trip to Italy. Who says no to that?" he winked, faking injury when she subsequently socked him in the shoulder for being that way, even in partial jest.

P.J. couldn't believe this was happening. She had to be crazy for ever considering it but right now she couldn't think of a person she would rather be going to Italy with than Brendan Dorff. He was her best friend, the very best, though she would never say such a thing in front of Stephanie. It was wrong to think of one more highly than the other, she'd known Steph longer after all, but Brendan was different. He got her, in a way nobody else ever had. P.J. loved that about him, and opened her mouth to say so. She changed her mind fast as Stephanie quite literally crashed the conversation.

"Oh my God!" she gasped, just a soon as she got the hostess off her back. "Brendan?"

"Hey, Steph," he gave a little wave. "You okay?"

"Well, this makes so much sense," she said with a knowing look that drifted from Brendan to P.J. "Soooo much sense," she repeated, even as her friend glanced away.

The air hostess had Stephanie out of there before anything else could be said and P.J. sunk back into her luxury seating. This was crazy, absolutely crazy. Steph thought she had brought Brendan on this trip in a way she never even thought about. Well, not that she never thought about because Brando was hot, no doubt, and there had been a time... more than one time, when something almost kind of happened. Looking sideways at him now, P.J. couldn't help the burst of nervous laughter that escaped her lips.

"I'm sorry," she apologised immediately. "Steph just expected me to pick one of the other guys, y'know, that I was kind of dating? But I mean this makes way more sense, right?"

"Sure. I mean, yeah. We proved before what great travel buddies we are," Brando shrugged easily, downing his complimentary champagne in one go and then making a face because they both knew he would prefer a beer. "Besides, if you got to Italy with a guy you're into and then it doesn't work out, trip wrecked. You go with me, we already know where we stand with each other, so nothing awkward is gonna happen, right?"

P.J. opened her mouth and closed it again. She gave his words some consideration and then forced a smile when she finally answered him.

"Sure, right," she agreed with a single nod. "Nothing awkward with us."

She watched Brendan settle back into his seat, pushing it back to the reclined position and closing his eyes. There was no reason on Earth why they should be awkward around each other. They were best friends, they lived together a not small part of the time, and they knew each other inside out. Maybe that was the problem, but P.J. doubted it. No, her real problem was the realisation that Steph's pointed look was just that, pointed. She was right to think this made sense, that there was much more to P.J.'s decision to bring Brando on this trip than just wanting a travel buddy she could trust.

Her possible dates had been easily dismissed until the final choice came down to Brendan or Bobby. She had gotten close to both of them in a romantic way at one time or other. She and Bobby made out the first night they hung out together, and then spent one night in a hotel having sex a few months later, but that was all. A heated embrace and one quick tumble, it wasn't much, and their friendship had been that much better since she stopped trying to get his attention. Bringing him to Italy felt like it was just going to confuse things more, sending mixed messages that P.J. didn't want to be guilty of. Brando was her easy option, someone to fall back on that she could trust to understand that this was just a buddy deal, and not a move she was making on him. At least, she thought so, and he was proving her right so far.

It didn't matter that she and Brendan had made out in college, or again as recently as six short months ago. They had vowed never to speak of it again and they'd both moved on. They dated other people, they fell back into the usual pattern, the normal routine, and yet... it didn't feel the same.

There were times when Brendan looked at her a certain way, when he paid her a compliment on how she looked before a date, there was a feeling inside of P.J. that she just couldn't control. That weird flippy feeling that was probably what most people would describe as their heart skipping a beat or similar. P.J. wasn't sure that was quite accurate, but it was there, and it was way more often than she was comfortable with. She told herself she was crazy, that this was Brendan, her BFF, the guy she depended upon almost as much as she depended upon her brother, maybe more so sometimes. If she dated him, if they went further than a mistimed ill-advised kiss, the very idea sent a shudder through her as she stared at him.

"Peej?" he said, opening one eye to peer at her. "Y'know it's a little weird that you're watching me sleep, right?" he smirked.

"I wasn't," she scoffed. "Watching you sleep, that would be... weird," she muttered, discarding her glass and copying his example of reclining in her seat.

Sleep would be good, P.J. decided, as she settled down and closed her eyes. Still, just before she let herself completely relax she spared one last glance for her best friend. The smile that came over her face was uncontrollable.

"Brando is missing."

Kenny looked so panicked as he came barrelling into Crowley's it was almost funny, which would explain why Mike laughed at him. Of course, his friend did not understand what was at all amusing about a missing buddy.

"Kenny, relax," Bobby urged him, taking a swig of his beer. "Brando isn't missing, he's on a plane, with P.J."

"Really?" Kenny checked, looking even more bemused as he sat down at the end of the table. "Wow. Of all the choices, I did not see that coming."

"I did," said Andy with a knowing look, swirling his expensive whiskey in its glass. "C'mon, guys. My sister and the D.J.? It's like kismet or something," he said off the confused looks he was getting from his friends.

"Wait a sec, did you just say they were kissing or did you ask us to kiss you?" asked Mike, as baffled as he ever was by almost everything ever.

"Kismet," Bobby explained, going so far as to then spell it out to the guy across the table. "It means they're destined to be together. You really think so, Andy?" he asked then, switching his attention back to P.J.'s brother.

"Meh, I don't know for sure, but those two have always been close. Very close," he considered. "I mean, guys have come and gone from my kid sister's life, a lot of guys, but Brendan has always been there. I almost don't remember a time when he wasn't at every family occasion," he frowned as he thought on it some more, contemplating his whiskey with a genuinely concerned expression. "Y'know there are times I think my Dad actually prefers Brendan to me?"

"That's crazy!" Kenny all but exploded. "P.J. and Brando are best friends, but that's all."

"You're forgetting the college make out they told us about last year!" said Mike, pointing a finger at Kenny so suddenly he nearly stuck him in the eye. "I know they said they didn't boink, but hey, who's really to say?"

"So? P.J. also made out with Bobby. That stuff just happens with friends sometimes," Kenny shrugged, until everyone around the table was suddenly staring at him with wide eyes. "Male/female friends," he clarified.

"I need another drink," said Andy, shaking his head as he went to get a refill.

"I never made out with P.J." considered Mike thoughtfully. "I mean, I know she probably totally wishes I would, but I couldn't break the kid's heart."

"Me either," Kenny agreed, even as Bobby hid his smile in his glass.

There was no way he was about to kiss and tell, revealing that he and P.J. had in fact 'boinked' that one time, as Mike would put it. What may or may not have happened between P.J. and Brendan in the past was none of their business. What happened in their present or future really wasn't either. Sure, there was a time when Bobby thought P.J. and himself could make a couple, but that had long since passed. It never worked out any time they tried, and honestly, he had decided a while ago that maybe it wasn't worth the effort. He noticed how close P.J. and Brendan were from Day One, but she always passed it off as them being best friends and Bobby believed that was what she thought. Of course, the more time he spent hanging out with this group, the more he realised even P.J. was wrong in her assessment of the situation. She favoured Brando, always and in everything, even over her brother sometimes. She trusted his opinion and advice more than anyone else's, and she was the most freaked out and worried when he went through his douchebag phase.

In the same way, P.J. was the only one to get through to Brando at the intervention, the first one he hugged, the only one he would really talk to in a crisis. Plus, whilst they all appreciated how good P.J. could look in date wear, Brando's eyes always lit up the brightest in those moments, and then dropped to the table a second later. He didn't want to watch his girl go out on a date with another man, that much was clear to an outsider like Bobby, even if the guy himself and his closest friends didn't see it.

"Here's to P.J. and Brendan, and a good vacation in Italy," he said, cutting through Mike and Kenny's usual squabbling just as Andy returned to the table.

The clink of four glasses sealed the toast, and conversation moved on to other things for now. Seemed they were a group of just four for the next few days - better get used to it.

To Be Continued...