After being testy with each other for the rest of the day, the argument had sent them to bed feeling the same way. It was awkward. For a while now they'd gone through the routine of Syed helping Christian when going to bed in order to stave off the nightmares. But with them still 'off' with each other, neither felt comfortable approaching the subject.

So Christian took it upon himself to prove to Syed that he was getting better and didn't need the constant help anymore, and had curled up on his side of the bed, purposefully positioning himself away from Syed. Maybe Yusef was right, and if Syed was too wrapped up in taking care of him, then Christian had to be the one to man up and fend for himself more. If he stopped to think about it then yes, maybe Syed had been smothering him. What he didn't do was let himself think the next part of that train of thought, which was that he liked being smothered by Syed because there was some part of him that did seem to need it and crave it right now. He ignored that voice, and lay in bed, facing the clock, and watched it tick the seconds by.

Syed was lying behind him; he could sense his presence, and hear him breathing but he had no clue what Syed was actually doing. Was he lying facing him? Was he so close they could almost touch? Or was he turned away too, facing the wall and maintaining the gulf between them? Christian didn't want to know, so he didn't turn.

He finally slept. He got a full night's sleep. It wasn't entirely peaceful, but it was normal enough and affected by current worries rather than the nightmares of the past and the spectre of Alec. When he woke it was still early, but he decided to get up then, and he didn't even look back at Syed as he plodded to the bathroom, as he still didn't want to know how close or far away from each other they had been in the bed all night.

When he returned, Syed had moved and was now half sprawled over Christian's pillow with his nose stuck in the folds of the cotton. Christian allowed himself to smile at the sight. No matter how annoyed he might be at Syed at any one time, it was always only going to be a passing argument and he loved the man. Sometimes, they just needed to be mad at each other for a while, let the pressure out and they'd make up later and say how both had been idiots. That was likely to be sometime in the afternoon today. This morning though, he just needed to be moody a bit longer and stay in his pyjamas until lunchtime.

He turned the TV on. Too loud. Syed sat up suddenly at the sound. "Oops. Sorry," Christian said before taking a sip of the tea he'd made himself.

"You did that on purpose," Syed said grumpily.

"Never."

"What time is it?"

"Just before seven." Christian faced away from the TV and towards Syed. "The alarm's about to go off anyway. You're the one it's set for, so you can go to Mosque."

Syed groaned and threw back the covers before clanging around the flat as he got ready. Eventually he was washed and dressed, all the while with Christian keeping one eye on the rubbish morning television and the other on Syed.

"I need to go straight from Mosque to the Estate Agents and finalise everything for the Argee Bhajee sale. I don't know when I'll be home."

"Okay."

"I'll text you."

"Okay."

Syed was about to walk out the door when he stopped. "Is that all you have to say?"

"There's nothing else to say! You'll text me."

"Right," Syed hovered for another moment, watching Christian's back, and then he gave up. "See you."

"Yeah."

He still hadn't seen any sign of Christian Clarke. What was going on? It was as if the man never came out of the house. Now it had come to a point where he had to draw him out. He had a couple of ideas up his sleeve. The sooner he got the restaurant, then the sooner he might get things moving.

Kyle signed the different papers, all under the watchful eye of the Estate Agents and Syed. "It's been a pleasure doing business with you," he said with a smile, looking up briefly as more papers were put in front of him.

"Likewise."

"I plan on celebrating with a drink in the local pub later, maybe you'd care to join me? You could bring your partner along."

"That's lovely but we can't."

"Come now! You should celebrate the sale as well. Getting the place off your hands and lining the pockets a little more."

"Thank you, but Christian's been ill recently."

"I hope it's not serious," Kyle stood straight now he was done signing and looked at Syed with as much concern as he could muster. He wasn't sure how to feel about illness. He wanted the man to suffer but he wanted to cause it himself, not some microbes in his body.

"No, certainly not. He'll be fine."

"That'll be why I haven't met him then?" Kyle hedged, and Syed nodded. "That's a shame. Pass on my regards, though."

"I will," Syed said and the men shook hands.

Once Syed and the Estate Agents left, Kyle stood outside the Argee Bhajee with his hands deep in his pockets and his head lost in thought. Now he owned a hunk of burned building, the same one Alec died in. Now he knew a bit more about why he'd still never laid eyes on Christian Clarke. It was frustrating to know he was staying inside his flat and not coming out.

He had wanted to be able to look the man in the eyes before putting any of his real plan into motion. He wanted to see him as he was, see how happy he was to still be living his life, while Alec was dead and Kyle felt like his world had been ripped apart. In the end, if he couldn't then so be it. In fact, it could work in his favour as it was Syed that he had plans for. With Christian's whereabouts constantly known, it would take away some of his worry - no chance of Christian showing up halfway through.

No, this could work.

Kyle looked back at the Argee Bhajee. The charred sign and the plywood covering the windows would also be a great help to him. The location was perfect enough for phase one.

Kyle walked away, a swagger to his steps that he was well aware of. By the time he made it across London to his flat he'd spent his entire journey playing and replaying the options in his head for what would happen. He tried to imagine some best and worst case scenarios so that he was happy with all possible outcomes and knew how to combat anything Syed might come up with to stop him.

He went straight to his desk drawer, and opened it slowly. His hand reached in and he pulled out the gun that had been hidden in there for a while. It was unloaded at the moment, but it wouldn't be for long.