"Och, no one's going to see you."

One Two's head flicked to the right at a group of men passing by and he eyed them nervously. Only a few more metres to the car and then maybe a lap dance at the party – the party he had planned for Handsome Bob which Handsome Bob was not attending the little git – would erase his memory of the previous two hours. Christ.

"And what about the blokes inside, eh? Jesus," he spat, shaking his head and glaring at the ground.

Handsome Bob sighed. "No one was looking. No one cares," he said quietly. "It was dark anyway."

Clicking his tongue, One Two looked over at his friend disdainfully. "If this comes back to the club..."

"What?"

"They're gonna think I'm a-" he trailed off and gestured at Handsome Bob with his hands.

"A poof? A fag?"

"Well yeah!" One Two pointed back at the club, neon pink sign of 'Paradise' twinkling at him, and threw his arms up. "Look man, it's alright if 'yer...well, what you are, but me!" He shook his head vigorously. "I'm not like that, I am 100% man."

Bob slowed to a stop and stared at him incredulously. The warmth that the dance had left him with seeped out of his body now and One Two's words left him cold. "Yeah, don't we all know," he muttered and dug his keys out of his pocket. At least the memory of it might keep going through the first year. "Thanks for the dance and the party, I'm sure it'll be fun." He chucked One Two the keys and turned on his heel, shoving his hands in his pockets to keep One Two from seeing his balled fists.

"Oi!" One Two stared down at they keys in his hand. "Bobby, come one!" He watched him walk away until he was barely visible down the street. He told himself that it wasn't his fault Bob didn't want to go to the party, he'd done plenty for him. In the car he sat pensively. Five years. Well, he thought, fuck him, everyone did time – he had done time too. But after he'd started the car and put his hand on the wheel, he drove up the street and not the other way, making his choice between one path that would have surely let him mercifully black out and forget this night and the other that promised much worse. Goddamn.

Handsome Bob didn't get too far. He was walking aimlessly, not home and not to a club, didn't understand it himself but it seemed like the best thing to do. So when a black sedan pulled up next to him on the street he ignored it and kept walking.

One Two growled in exasperation. "Look, I'm sorry," he called out the window, keeping pace with Bob on the narrow street and steering with one hand, the other hung out the window, supplicating Handsome Bob with quick jerks. "Get in," he said. "Please, get in."

Slowing to a stop, Bob considered One Two and relented, walking around the sedan and hopping inside.

"Christ are you hard," One Two sighed and shook his head. He flinched as he understood the double meaning and smiled nervously. "I meant-"

"I know what you meant," Bob cut in sharply. "Oh god, this is not how I thought my last day out would be like," he groaned and threw his head back. "I'm sorry I told you."

One Two nodded and made to speak, not knowing what he was saying. "What, uh -" he cleared the catch in his throat and continued "what do you want?"

Handsome Bob side-glanced him and arched a brow. "What do you mean 'what do you want'?"

One Two rolled his eyes. "From me," he spit out quickly, avoiding Handsome Bob's eyes. "What do you want from me? Because I know it's not those two girls waiting at the party." The last part he said with a bit of regret, those girls were gorgeous – expensive as hell too. After a lengthy silence, One Two turned cautiously to Bob and studied him. His head was leaned back, eyes on the ceiling, full lips quivering.

"Tell me," he whispered roughly, reaching his hand out but retracting it just as quickly. "Please."

Handsome Bob turned his head slightly, a small smile on his lips and moisture clouding his eyes. "I just want a friend to be there in five years. You're the only one I've got."

One Two stared blankly, unable to respond for the tightness in his chest. He watched a tear roll down Handsome Bob's cheek and reached out and wiped it away with his finger. He gently cupped the side of Bob's face and his hand trembled, the stubble of Handsome Bob's cheek rough against his skin. Pausing and swallowing his fear he leaned over and pressed their lips together. It wasn't so much that it felt different to kiss a man than a woman, Bob's lips were surprisingly soft and fit well against his own, but it was that his mind knew that it was a man. And even as those lips, that softness, began to respond and move and open, he still could not ignore that, as if alarms were blaring in his skull and someone inside was smashing the abort button furiously. But his instincts worked regardless and he was kissing Handsome Bob, stunned at how well coordinated it all was, how there wasn't any clashing or head butting, just a fiery flow of breath mingling in the pauses and the tentative touch of a tongue. He opened his mouth and relented to Handsome Bob, feeling one hand on his neck and another ones fingers knotting themselves in his hair.

Bob whined needily into One Two's mouth and greedily bit on his bottom lip. He relished the gasp that his action elicited and soothed the bite with his tongue. One Two was pliant and even willing, though his tongue remained inanimate for several minutes, the repeated poking and prodding Bob was doing finally seemed to find its mark and he caught One Two's tongue in a swirl with his own. He tasted him and committed the ashy, stale cigarette and vodka taste to memory, maybe to keep him sane for the second year. When he broke for air he only gave them both seconds before reclaiming One Two's mouth, wanting to throw him off balance for as long as possible, keep him for as long as possible. He experimentally dropped his hand down to his shoulder and rubbed his stiff muscles as he bruised his lips. When a strangled moan escaped One Two's throat he swallowed it and moved his lips to his neck, licking a stripe up to the lobe of his ear and dragging his teeth back down to his collar bone. One Two's erratic breathing only encouraged him and he kissed his neck sensually before sucking hard, planning to leave his mark. Perhaps that would keep him going during year three. The mark would fade, it would even be replaced by finer lips, ones that One Two was accustomed to, but they'd both know who's mark had once been there and that was enough.

One Two felt Handsome Bob shift and climb over the armrest but he could also feel the heat of his mouth burning into his throat and somehow that seemed to take precedent. Then all at once his best friend was straddling his lap and gently bucking his hips and he knew he was reacting, he could feel the front of his jeans grown taut and that, well, that did it. His eyes snapped open and he shoved Handsome Bob back, though not off of him. He stared at him open mouthed and for a second there were no alarms in his head, only silence, and the worrisome realization that he was understanding why they called him Handsome Bob. "Get off me," he said and even to his own ears his voice sounded more like a plea than a command so he backed it up with a furious shove. Jesus Christ.

Handsome Bob crawled back over into his seat and sat down with a thump, trying to control his breathing. He glanced subtly at One Two's neck and held back a satisfied smile at the blossoming mark. Trailing his eyes down, he couldn't help but smirk as One Two unceremoniously shifted his legs and pulled at his jeans. Now that image aided by his imagination would hold him over for year four. He looked away and thought with regret that no doubt One Two would be off now to bleach his memory and mouth with as many escort girls as he could find. Handsome Bob concluded this from years and years of experience. It is not a surprise, though the startling events in the car are.

"Right, okay," One Two mumbled, trying to steady himself but not being quite able to stop replaying the past ten minutes in his head. His mouth was still tingling and his pants still tight around his crotch. He looked at Handsome Bob and then sharply looked away, aware that the quickest way to deal with his arousal was sitting inches away from him, eager. So he thought about breasts. God, he loved them. He was thinking about big round ones with small nipples and plenty of meat as he started the car and then he thought about smaller ones with pink sensitive nipples as he winded his way through London streets. He thought about the curve of a womans hip as he parked the car in front of an apartment building and imagined feeling the creamy softness of a womans thigh as he closed the door behind him.

"Ehm, One Two," Bob ventured curiously. "This is, uh, well..."

One Two threw the keys to Handsome Bob. "Yeah, I know."

Clumsily, Bob scurried up the steps and fumbled with the lock, having to go through three keys before finding the right one. He took One Two through the lobby and up the main stairs. "Elevator's broken," he mentioned, hesitating to laugh but managing to smile. He had an idea of what was to come, at any rate an idea of what he wanted to come - who he wanted to come - but every step closer to his little apartment made the whole thing seem more surreal. "You know, I've lived here for over seven years and complained about the carpet at least ten times and they finally decide to put in a new one a week before I..." he trailed off into a bitter chuckle. "Nice carpet though, eh?"

One Two ignored the idle chatter and waited until he heard the click of the lock before pushing Handsome Bob through the door. "This never gets mentioned," he said as he cornered the man against the wall. "Ever."

"Now the 'this' that you're reffering to, what exactly is -"

"Shut up," One Two growled. "I'm two seconds away from changing my mind."

Handsome Bob looked down between them and chuckled. "I think not."

That night, Handsome Bob experienced and explored enough of One Two to hold him over for ten years of prison if need be. That is if he'd gone to prison, which he did not and which would prove to be more problematic between the two of them even over that night's rather intimate events. But as they wrestled between the sheets, sweaty and hard against each other and Handsome Bob was allowed to freely explore the body he had so craved for years, he was thinking then that this night alone would make five years worth it. His five year stretch didn't seem too bad just then, not when One Two was moaning in his ear and pleading with him for release. Not as his wildest fantasies were fulfilled and his fist curled around One Two's cock, pulling on him rhythmically to the beat of his heart. And when he rode him, One Two's fingers digging into his thighs, his cock buried deep inside of him, he would have laughed in the face of the judge who'd sentenced him. No, five years wasn't much at all.

...

Wot have I done?