A/N: Hey, guys! It's been a while since I've put a story up on here, so long I actually forgot my old account info. But, I've decided to come back and put up a new story of mine. This is a work in progress, of course, about a man and his journey through a very difficult life. I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it and, of course, all reviews are more than welcome! Reviews make my world go around!

One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

It's not enough… Not enough. Lights of all colors danced before his eyes, causing his head to pound even worse than it already was, as he glanced around the club. Three pills left. Dammit. I can't afford to waste more. Stuffing the substance back in his pocket, Aramis rubbed at his temples until the throbbing subsided and then took another glance around the room. Between the writhing bodies on the dance floor and the thick smoking that hung in the air, it was almost impossible to tell which way the exit was, but he just wanted to get it. He had been stupid enough for letting his friend talk him into going to some fucked up club where hookers hung on everything with a dick and white powder got passed from person to person, infecting each of them with its toxins. And they all love it…

Aramis was a pretty wild guy, by some standards, but not in the sense that he recklessly used drugs, had sex, and went out drinking. He was one of the very few wild guys that was smart about how he spent his nights, but even then it hadn't paid off. One of the most common things he asked himself was how the reckless remained untouched but the cautious got hurt. Bad Karma? Irony? He didn't know. What he did know was that for a careful guy his life had been pretty fucked up, and it might just be time to get reckless. Even with that thought stuck in his head, he found letting go difficult, found himself constantly questioning whether something would be too dangerous. Dude, just do it! Kyle's voice rung in his head and Aramis laughed out loud with a soft, "Fuck you," as though the man had been there to hear him.

Finally fed up, he stood and went to go find his friend, dragged him out of a crowd by the arm until he could be heard. "I've got class tomorrow, we need to cut this short." It was a lame excuse. While he did have class the next day, it was only a little past eleven at night, which wasn't exactly intruding on his beauty sleep - or what little of it he got.

"Bullshit!" Kyle all but screamed as loud as he could in his drunken effort to be heard over the music. "You can stay for a bit. Just let loose. Get fucked, or drunk, or both! Both is goo- No, both is FABULOUS!"

The man rolled his eyes at his friend and simply gave a wave farewell before trying to hunt down the exit. He figured, one way or another, he'd find it eventually and make a break for it before Kyle tied him to a chair or something crazy. "I just want to get out of here," he mumbled, glancing around from side to side as he desperately searched for his way out. "Go home, watch tv, sleep this funk off. That's what I'll do. Ooh, I can order Chinese Food too and- Hey!" He finished with a snarl as a drunken stranger bumped into him and almost knocked him over in the process. "Watch where the fuck you're going! Bloody moron." It took him a moment to register that hands were very gently placed on his hips and then suddenly removed when he turned around with a questioning look. The guy behind him, the one that had his hands on him, was admittedly cute, though that didn't make Aramis feel any better about the contact.

"Sorry," he explained quickly, "you were going to fall, I was just trying to catch you. Reflex, y'know? Didn't mean anything by it, I swear." He waved his hands desperately in the air as though trying to confirm his words and defend himself all at once.

"Uh… Okay…" Awkwardness fell between him and the stranger, as it often went when Aramis talked to someone he didn't know. "Thanks, I guess." One of his hands came up to run through his hair and he shifted uncomfortably. "Hey, uh, you wouldn't happen to know how to get out of this place would you?"

A hand touched his elbow and he simply glanced down at it warily before his eyes shifted back to the stranger. "I do! Follow me!" Normally, Aramis was not the type to follow strange men toward the back of clubs, but if it was to get out of this place he would have done just about anything, sexual favors included. Though, he wouldn't outright offer, even if the guy leading him out was hot as all hell. Instead he just crossed his arms over his chest and followed, sneaking a glance down at his ass now and then. After what felt like entirely too long they finally arrived at a door with a huge exit sign on it and he scoffed, mentally slapping himself for not noticing it before. "Thanks, uh…"

"Michael," the stranger said. "Just call me Michael, and it's really no problem at all. I was on my way out, too, so…" They both stood there for a moment and Michael was the first to speak again. "I should go before this gets more awkward…" They both laughed and Aramis simply nodded before ducking out of the exit. He felt like he should have done more or said more by way of thanking him, but really at the end of the day the guy had just been a stranger and all he wanted to do was go home to his loving plant cactus, Bob.

No more than an hour later saw him sitting up in bed with small box of Chow Mein, nibbling on it as he channel surfed for something decent to watch. Just then his phone started buzzing, eliciting a grown from the male, but he picked it up anyway. "The fuck do you want, Kyle?"

The man on the other end cackled and Aramis busied himself with trying to prop the box of noodles up with his legs so he could continue eating in lieu of screaming at the man he called a friend. "Dude, you bolted early. Not cool, man, not cool. I took you to a gay club and everything!"

"Yeah, thanks for that," he replied, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Dude, I am a straight man who took his friend to a gay club and-"

"And still insisted on getting laid despite this?"

"MY ASS HURTS!" His friend shouted over the phone and Aramis burst out laughing. "Fuck that was great sex, but my as hurts, okay? And I did that for you, so I don't wanna hear you bitchin' 'bout no sex, because if a straight man can get laid in that joint, so can you."

"But, I-"

"MY ASS, ARAMIS. MY. FUCKING. ASS."

He couldn't help but laugh, choking on his food as he tried to catch his breath. "Sorry, man. I just wasn't feeling it tonight. Some other time, yeah? Look, I gotta-"

"Nope. No, you're not going yet, because I have a bone to pick with you."

Oh God… Aramis rolled his eyes and wondered if Kyle was going to go into another rant about his ass. "Get it over with, I don't have all night."

"Okay, okay. Just answer this: How in the hell did you meet Mikey and not fuck him senseless? Just…how?! I have fucked him. Aramis, me, your straight friend, has fucked Mikey. Why? Because he's just that fucking hot. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

A loud sigh slipped from Aramis' lips as he continued to listen to Kyle, who did nothing but rant and complain over the phone for another good ten minutes, which all came to the same conclusion as before: Why didn't he sleep with someone? "Because I'm not you!" The answer he blurted out effectively silenced his friend, and while part of him felt guilty he was too fed up with it to care. "I don't do this kind of shit that often, okay? I don't randomly sleep around with strangers just because I'm bored, I don't go out to clubs and get shit faced and then wonder why my ass is sore the next morning, I don't run around snorting coke and giving blow jobs just because I woke up that morning and felt like being a junky. I'm not you! I don't want pointless sex! Okay? Once in a while, hell, I'll admit to that, but I just… I don't want to. Is that enough for you? Is that good enough of an answer? Can I get back to my fucking Chinese now?"

Deafening silence echoed back at him from the other line, and it was only a few moments later that he heard a click as the call ended. Silently cursing himself, Aramis finished his food and crawled into bed for a night of restless sleep.