A/N: The prompt for this one is "drinking game." It could take place now. Special thanks to LissAnna for letting me bounce ideas off of her and giving me some of her own!

"Only you would open a 500 dollar bottle of scotch for a drinking game." Anna said with a roll of her eyes.

"It was 700 dollars, and what, am I just supposed to get a bottle of Fireball like we're in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house at Port Charles University?" Valentin looked horrified at the mere suggestion.

"That's what normal people would do, yes."

Valentin smirked. "We are not normal people."

"That is true. I was going to compromise with a bottle of Johnnie Walker, but we can play it your way. It's your dime... Or 7,000 dimes." Anna said, tucking her legs around her on the couch. Her knees barely brushed against his.

Valentin sighed and looked down at the bottle in his hand. "Well... I don't know what kind of liquor you're supposed to drink when you've found out you've been lied to and that you're actually not going to be a father again and that your 'baby' was made of plastic."

Frowning slightly, Anna laid a hand on Valentin's gently. "I'm sorry. I don't know either... I would just say a lot of it."

"I know I'm not a nice guy. I am very, very far from it." Valentin turned the bottle over in his hands. "But being a father is something I hold in the highest esteem."

"I know." Anna said, patting his hand. "You are a wonderful father.

"Anyway. Time to get started." Valentin announced as he cracked the seal on the scotch.

Valentin filled their glasses with the amber liquid, carelessly losing a few drops on Anna's coffee table as he went from one glass to the other.

"You just spilled fifty dollars of that." Anna said, wiping the small spill up with one of the napkins that came with their split carry out - a huge club sandwich with fries that they had already devoured.

"Who cares? It's only money. What game are we playing?"

"Well, I don't have a deck of cards."

"That makes this more difficult. I guess strip poker is out." Valentin teased.

Anna swatted at his leg playfully. "We could play Never Have I Ever?"

Valentin laughed. "Wow, you are determined to turn this into a college party, aren't you? Okay. I'll start us off. Never ever... Have I ever... Been presumed dead."

Anna rolled her eyes as she took a drink. "Now that's just unkind. All right. My turn. Never have I ever pushed someone off a parapet."

"That's oddly specific." Valentin raised his glass and drank. "Okay. Never have I ever... Thought of someone else while having sex with a partner."

They both raised their glasses.

"Story?" Valentin asked.

Anna drank. "Nope."

"Worth a shot. Literally." Valentin tipped back his own glass. "You go."

Anna thought for a moment. "Never have I ever cheated on a partner."

Valentin shook his head. "I haven't. I'm a lot of things... A lot of really, truly, terrible things... But I have never been disloyal to a woman in that way.

"Neither have I."

"You've never been disloyal to a woman?" Valentin smirked.

Anna shoved him with the ball of one foot. "You know what I mean."

"How is this one? Never have I ever sent nudes." Valentin said.

"Boring!" Anna fake yawned. "That all you have, Mr. Cassadine?"

"All right. How about this one? Never have I ever been married more than once."

Anna scoffed. "You know I have. So, do I get a drink for each husband? Or wedding? What about the almost wedding?"

"Your choice." Valentin said with a slight shrug.

Anna put her drink to her lips, then saw Valentin do the same. "Wait, why are you drinking? I thought Nina was your first wife."

Valentin swallowed the liquor and cleared his throat. "Yeah. Nina thinks that too. So does everyone else... But it's not true."

"Seriously?"

"I was married briefly to a beautiful Russian ballerina after my surgeries while I was working with the jewel ring. Her name was Irina."

Anna looked at him skeptically. "You always said your Russian is horrible."

"It is... But apparently my sex was not." Valentin said with a wink. "Also, she spoke English."

"Did you love her?"

"Thought I did... But I know now it was more about lust."

"Seems like there's a lot more to that story."

"Of course."

Anna laid her chin on her hand and studied him. "What else are you hiding, Valentin Cassadine?"

"We will have to keep drinking if you want to find out." Valentin said, raising his eyebrows at her.

The drinking game was abandoned eventually, but the booze and easy conversation were not. As the liquid in the bottle disappeared, so did their inhibitions.

"You want to know what I've been wondering for a long time?" Valentin asked.

"What's that?"

Valentin leaned in close and trailed a finger down Anna's jawline to her chin. "What would happen if I tried to kiss you right now? 40 years later?"

Anna swallowed hard. "Well. You can always find out."

Valentin pulled back slightly. "I don't deal well with rejection, remember?"

He didn't kiss her.

But she kissed him. The pleasant buzz of alcohol coursing its way through her body gave her "liquid courage," but she was fully aware of what she was doing.

Leaning in close enough to smell the musk of his expensive cologne mixed with the burn of scotch on his lips, she took his face between both of her hands. Her lips found his in a soft kiss, then her tongue parted his lips and found his. Grabbing the back of her head, Valentin deepened the kiss, his tongue caressing hers in a tangled dance. When their lips finally parted, Valentin leaned his forehead against hers.

"Oh God, the things I would do to you if I weren't half in the bottle right now." Valentin groaned, tangling his hand in a lock of her hair.

Anna laughed softly. "I think you passed half in an hour ago, cowboy... So, I'm going to be a good drinking partner and stop you now. That's enough alcohol for tonight. We don't want to end up at GH."

"Okay, I'll take off then."

Anna shook her head. "I'm definitely not letting you drive. I don't see the point in calling you an Uber either. Why don't you just spend the night in the guest room?"

"I wouldn't want to inconvenience you."

Anna rolled her eyes. "Your safety is not an inconvenience."

"I'll sleep here on the couch then." Valentin said, grabbing and fluffing a pillow. "I might fall down that staircase if I try to walk up it right now... I've never had good luck come from that staircase."

"You're sure?" Anna said, getting up to give him room to stretch out.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Valentin laid down on the couch, kicking off his shoes. "Thanks."

"I'll just go put these glasses in the sink."

By the time Anna returned from the kitchen, Valentin's eyes were already closed. Anna pulled a blanket off a nearby chair and used it to cover him him up. She studied him lying there and smiled that he at least looked at peace though she knew the demons would be back to torture him in the morning along with a probable hangover.

Anna kissed her fingertips and lightly pressed them to his forehead.

"Goodnight, Valentin."

"Goodnight, Anna." He murmured drowsily.

His hand caught hers from his forehead and he gave it a gentle kiss. He let it linger there with his eyes closed and a small smile curving his lips as he drifted to sleep.