I'm breaking my pattern here to post two different points of view as one chapter, simply because the first POV piece is so short.

"Have you heard from Charlie?" Ian asked Don, grabbing them each a bottle of water from the fridge.

"I spoke to him this afternoon but he hasn't got anything he's ready to share with us yet. Nothing definite, he's just really excited about another way he's thought of approaching it all. Something to do with windmills, I think." Don sounded about as confused as Ian felt.

"I guess we don't have to understand it to use it."

"I know, but I don't understand why he gets so excited over it, almost compulsive, you know? I mean, it's math. How exciting can it be?" Don frowned at his bottle as he twisted the top off.

"You're asking the wrong person. But you know what it's like, putting evidence together and knowing a picture's emerging. Are you telling me you stop and go home when that happens, Eppes? Maybe the two of you are more alike than you know."

"What are you, my shrink?"

"You've got a shrink now?"

"I live in LA. What do you think?"

Ian's lips twitched briefly. Don really wasn't as subtle at redirection as he liked to think. Or maybe he was, because he chose that moment to take a draught from his water bottle, putting the long line of his throat on display.

Ian moved forwards, into Don's space, his hands resting lightly on the counter either side of Don.

"I think there are other forms of therapy," he said, leaning into Don but not quite touching.

"Oh yeah?" Don's lips were millimetres from his. "What did you have in mind?"

And that was all the invitation Ian needed, taking Don's mouth in a kiss that had adrenaline pumping through him in seconds. They stumbled their way to the bedroom, leaving a mess of discarded clothes in their wake. It was hard and it was fast, just how it always was between them, but while Don might have won, Ian hadn't exactly lost, not with Eppes fucking into him the way he did.

.

It was late evening by the time Colby got to Don's. He hadn't intended to be so tardy but there'd been a good swell running and it had been a while since he'd had a chance to get out there on his board. He'd also needed the peace that he found when out on the ocean, where there was space to think.

When Don had asked him about Ian joining them, he hadn't realised that would mean that Edgerton would become a fixture for the entire time he was in LA. He also hadn't expected that, far from Ian joining them, it would end up feeling like Colby was the one joining Don and Ian. Watching them teasing and kissing in the kitchen last night had made Colby only too aware of how effortlessly easy their relationship was, and how very different it was from the way things were between Colby and Don. Worse, it had made Colby realise how little there actually was between him and Don. Then there was the fact that when the two of them were together they seemed to operate on a whole different level of sexual intensity to the rest of the human race. Which was understandable, given they were Don Eppes and Ian Edgerton, but that didn't really help Colby.

Sitting out on the water in the dying sun, Colby had thought that maybe he should just save himself any further humiliation and call it quits now. But he wasn't quite ready to do that yet because he was a tad on the pathetic side and this was Don.

Don, who opened the door to him shirtless, in black jeans with the top button undone. He looked rumpled and satisfied, leaving no doubt at all in Colby's mind what he'd spent at least part of the evening doing. With Edgerton, and without Colby. Colby's heart plummeted but Don's face lit with a smile and he pulled Colby in by the front of his shirt, closing the door behind him before pushing him against the wall. Don kissed him slow and deep, mapping his mouth as his hands were moving over Colby's body, like he was reacquainting himself with it. He was loose-limbed and relaxed, and there was an openness there that Colby wasn't used to. Right now he didn't care even if it was due to Edgerton – Colby could definitely get used to Don being like this.

Don eventually drew back slightly to nip at his lips, before slowly pulling away entirely.

"You hungry?" he asked. "There's leftovers if you want something."

"Yeah, that'd be good."

He kicked his duffel into the corner and followed Don to the kitchen, where he found him getting plates of what looked like real food out from the fridge. Jasmine rice, and chicken in sauce, and –

"What's that green stuff?" Colby asked.

"Huh? You mean the broccoli?" Don looked adorably confused with his dishevelled sex-hair and his brow furrowed and goddamn Colby did not just think of adorable and Don Eppes in the same sentence.

"I dunno," he said. "It looks like broccoli, but what's it doing in your apartment?"

"Hey, I cook," Don said.

"Sure," Colby agreed absentmindedly, helping himself to a plate and starting to ladle out spoonfuls from the various dishes. "Not like this though."

"Yeah, Edgerton got bored of shooting things, I think. I came back and he was doing this whole Masterchef routine."

"Didn't hear you complaining at the time."

Colby looked up to find Ian leaning against the kitchen doorway with his arms crossed, highlighting the muscles in his arms and his bare chest. He too was wearing only a pair of jeans. Colby was beginning to approve of the dress code round here. He came over and kissed Colby hello, so thoroughly that Colby almost forgot to hold onto his plate.

They found a channel showing one of the Bourne movies, but while eating his seriously good impromptu meal, helping it down with wine from the bottle Don had opened, Colby couldn't shake the feeling that he was an antelope that had been cut out from the herd and caught between two big cats. Two big cats who were currently lazing around, but never quite taking their eye off their prey. It wasn't long after he'd finished his meal that he realised he was going to be dessert.

He tried to give as good as he got but he was outnumbered and outmanoeuvred and ended up pinned down between them on the couch, panting against Don's neck as he came all over Ian's hands.

They spent the rest of the evening in as relaxed a tangle as Don's couch would allow. Colby was relieved to find that their closeness seemed to be smothering his earlier doubts.