Hi. I don't think you're going to like this fic...it's my first attempt at writing, so it may not be at all good. The plotline is slightly different than alot of the usual C&M fics. Actually, I'm not sure that this will be a C&M fic, as I may or may not put them together. I'm not really a fan of any couple, I just like the show in general. But anywayz, the characters arn't mine, as you know. It's kind of a what-if fic, so I'll fill in a few details...

Ross and Chandler lost contact after college, and he's not part of the gang. Ross lives in his old apartment, Rachel and Monica are living together in Apartment 20, Joey lives across the hall on his own and Phoebe lives at her grandmother's with her boyfriend, who is like one of the gang, but doesn't hang out with them as much. Joey is single, but gets alot of dates. Basically he's just Joey. Ross and Rachel have just broken up and are bitter at each other. Monica was dating someone...let's say...Richard, and he left her about a year ago for a guy. Yeah, nobody likes Richard, so you won't mind if I make him gay. So, here we go, and bare with me, like I said, it's my first fic...

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"I still can't believe you invited them," Ross groaned to Monica as she stirred a bowl of cake mix.

"Oh, for God's sake, quit your whining," she warned, tired of her brother's complaints, "Carol and Susan are coming to the party, and that's that."

Ross sighed and left the kitchen, flopping down onto the couch beside Rachel, who promptly picked up the magazine she was reading and moved onto a chair. Ross and Rachel were still snapping at each other, if they talked at all. Ignoring it, he turned around and leaned on the back of the couch, "Well, I thought it was just going to be a small party?"

"It is. Just you, me, Rachel, Phoebe and David, who by the way won't get here till half past, um, Joey, Carol and Susan with Ben, and a few of your geek friends, right?" answered Monica.

"Hey, they're not geeks," Ross said in defense, "Dr. Blackman just so happens to have written four books which have been successful amongst young people all around the world! And for your information, Toby who works in the gift shop used to be in a famous band!"

Looking up, Rachel raised an eyebrow skeptically, "What, like an ochestra or something?"

"Well, kinda, it was actually a group of saxaphone players..." admitted Ross, giving Rachel a quick glare. "Anyway, yeah, a few people from work are coming. Plus Gunther. Oh, and do you remember Chandler Bing?"

Monica paused for a moment, thinking. "Nope."

"He was my roomate in college. I ran into him the other day, so I suggested he come."

"Oh, cool, is he cute?" Rachel grinned, eager to express she was a free woman as much as possible.

Knowing she'd said that to spite him, Ross returned Rachel's grin. Politely, he agreed, "Yeah. Hey, you should totally ask him out!"

"I'll do that." Rachel's eyes returned to the magazine.

"He's gay!" mouthed Ross to Monica who rolled her eyes, already sick of the fight between Ross and Rachel that was quickly turning into World War III. Ross settled down, happy with himself.

-

The party got off to an okay start. Joey and Monica managed to keep Ross and Rachel on either sides of the room, and Ben proved to be quite entertaining. Phoebe arrived with her boyfriend, who settled in well with Ross's co-workers, most of whom were scientists.

"So, how you holding up, Mr. Birthday Muuun?" she asked Ross half-way through the party.

"...What do you mean?"

"Well, you've been staring at Rachel while she's been pretending to ignore you, and I was just wondering if you were gonna, you know, jump off the balcony or something."

Ross shook his head, "I have no idea what you're talking about, I wasn't staring at her."

"Puh-huh, yeah you were!"

"I was not," Ross denied with a frown.

"Oh yeah? OK, then how come you were just staring into space just before?"

"I...I'm stoned..."

"Hey! Me too!" Phoebe smiled in a what-a-coincidence way. There was a knock on the door. "Ooh, I'll get it." Phoebe opened the door. A stranger about her age stood in the hallway, his hands in his pockets. "Hi?"

"Um, hi, is this Ross Geller's birthday party?" he asked. There seemed to be an insecure air about him that Phoebe found cute.

"Um, no, this is the anual meeting of the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Irish Ducks," she answered, "Sorry."

The stranger looked genuinely puzzled. "Huh...okay, sorry..."

Phoebe giggled. "Naw, it's Ross's party, come in." She opened the door and gestured for him to come in.

"Chandler! Hey!" Ross greeted, shaking Chandler's hand, "Glad you could come!"

"Yeah, h-hi..." Chandler returned the handshake. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks. Oh, this is my friend Phoebe," said Ross as Chandler and Phoebe exchanged handshakes.

Phoebe smiled. "Nice to meet you, Chandler."

"Likewise."

"And over there skulling the egg nog is Joey," Ross continued, pointing, "And that's my sister Monica. Mon, come here!"

Monica looked up from her conversation with Gunther and made her way to Ross, Phoebe, and this man she didn't recognise. "Hi..."

"Monica, this is my friend Chandler, we were roomates in college. He came to a couple of Thanksgivings at our house, remember?"

"Not, really," Monica replied honestly, "But nice to meet you anyway."

She and Chandler shook hands.

'He's definitly cute,' Monica thought, observing Chandler's features, 'Ross said he's gay...what a shame.'

"Who do we have here?"

Rachel's flirty voice interuppted Monica's thoughts.

Ross smiled, "Rachel this is my friend Chandler. Chandler, Rachel."

Rachel flashed a grin and took Chandler's hand, shaking it extra long. "Hi, Chandler, it's really nice to meet you. I hear you and Ross were college roomates?"

"That's right."

"Well, it's great to have you here," Rachel went on, placing a hand on Chandler's shoulder, not noticing his uncomfortable look. "Wow, you work out don't you?"

Ross stifled a laugh and walked away. And so it was that Rachel flirted with Chandler all night, giggling and touching him. He tried to be polite, but couldn't hide how uncomfortable he was, though Rachel was still oblivious to it, and the fact that he was gay.

"Who's Rachel coming on to?" Joey asked, approaching Monica.

"Ross's old college roomate," she replied.

"Aww! She can't go out with anyone yet! I mean, I know she's flirting with guys to piss Ross off, but she can't date this soon, that's just mean!"

"Don't be too worried, Joe, he's gay."

"That's okay, then," Joey sighed in relief, "If he's gay, he won't mind Rachel hitting on other guys."

Monica gave a half-laugh at Joey's mistake, "No, not Ross. I meant Chandler, the guy she's hitting on."

"Ohh! Well someone should tell her."

"I think someone just did," Monica gestured over to Rachel who was standing up, a suprised look on her face. She made her way over to Joey and Monica, and Ross who was just appearing behind them.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she snapped, shooting an angry look at him.

"Tell you what?" Ross replied innocently. Off Rachel's glare, he nodded as if remembering something, "Ohh, that's right! He's gay! Silly me!"

He slapped his head and walked away, pleased.

"Oh my God, that was so embaressing!" Rachel said to Monica. "To think I spent the whole party hitting on a gay guy!"

"It's not your fault," Monica said supportivly, "You didn't know."

"Well I should have!"

"Don't worry, it can be hard to tell sometimes."

"No, I mean Ross should've TOLD me!"

Monica rolled her eyes.

"I'm gonna go apologise," declared Rachel, "Come with me."

Before Monica could object Rachel pulled her over to Chandler, who was sitting on the bench by the window with Susan and talking to Ben. When he saw Rachel he looked away, a little embaressed. "Hi..." he muttered.

"Hey..." Rachel glanced at Monica, then back at Chandler, "Listen I just wanted to say sorry about the way I acted before, If I had known you were..."

"Hey, don't worry about it." Chandler looked back at Ben.

"Well, still, I'm really sorry."

"It's fine."

There was an akward silence for a few moments.

Ben yawned. "I'm tried, Mommy."

Susan smiled and stood up. "OK. Lets go, then." She motioned to Carol that Ben was tired. Carol came over and took Ben's hand.

"You ready to go, Mr?" she said to her son.

"Yeah."

"OK." Carol picked up the few toys Ben had brought with him and started to go.

"Nice meeting you, Chandler." said Susan.

"Nice meeting you, too. See ya, Ben."

"Bye."

Carol, Susan and Ben said brief goodbyes and left, with Chandler sitting by himself now, Rachel and Monica still standing near him, akwardly.

"So..." Rachel began. "I'm gonna go talk to Joey now..." She turned and walked away quickly. Monica watched her go, and then looked at Chandler. She chuckled slightly and sat down beside him.

"You'll have to excuse Rachel," she said, "She's pretty embaressed about what happened before."

"Yeah, but like I said, it's fine."

"She just broke up with Ross, and she wants to spite him, so that's probably why she hit on you."

"Really? You think that's the only reason?" Chandler joked.

"No, I didn't mean that--"

Chandler nodded, laughing. "I know. I was kidding."

"Oh. Phew," Monica said, relieved not to have offended him. "So, you were Ross's college roomate, huh?"

"Yeah. It's great seeing him again."

"You live in New York?"

"As of next week I do, yes. I just got a transfer."

"What do you do?"

"I work for a huge company where I'm just one little person and I don't matter," Chandler answered with a sigh.

Monica laughed. "Bummer."

"Yeah. So how about you, what do you do?"

"I'm a chef."

"Oh yeah? Cool."

"Not cool when you know your co-workers don't like you."

"Why not?"

Half-shrugging, Monica answered, "When I got the job as head chef, they fired the old one, and apparently everyone liked him, so they chose to pick on me."

"Bummer. Oh well, they're probably jealous. You're a great chef."

"How would you know?"

"Well, Ross told me," admitted Chandler, "But that and I'm guessing you made all the food at this party? Am I right?"

"Right."

"Well there ya go, it's good food. Plus, you know, the mac 'n cheese."

"Huh?" Monica frowned.

"In college, I came to your parents' house for Thanksgiving. You made me the best mac 'n cheese, remember?"

"No."

"Well, you did."

"You remember something like that?"

"Oh, I remember everything. Plus, that Thanksgiving was one of the very rare good Thanksgivings I've had."

Monica smiled. "So where abouts are you moving?"

"Not sure yet, I'm apartment-hunting. My company didn't provide one."

"Well there's tonnes of great apartments, you'll find one in no time."

Phoebe came over to the window and over-heard this. "Chandler, are you looking for a place?"

"Yeah."

"OOH! Ooh! Ooh, yay!" Phoebe suddenly became very excited.

"What is it?"

"Come on, Monica, you know this!"

Monica glanced at Chandler, not knowing what Phoebe meant. "No...what?"

"Uh, HELLO!" Phoebe said, as if it were obvious. "Ugly Naked Guy!"

"Where?" Monica turned around.

"No! Mon, don't you get it? Ugly Naked Guy is moving! Chandler might be able to get his apartment!"

"Oh yeah!"

"Who's Ugly Naked Guy?" Chandler inquired.

"He lives in the next building, we can see into his apartment." said Monica.

"He's ugly and naked," Phoebe added.

"Maybe we can see him now..." Monica wondered, looking out the window. "Yep, there he is."

Chandler looked out the window too. "Is it my imagination or is he dancing to Oops, I Did It Again?"

Phoebe and Monica laughed, Chandler was right.

"So, what do you think? Are you gonna apply for the apartment?"

"Actually, it is pretty close to my new work."

"Go for it!"

"OK, I will. It would be kinda cool to live across from you."

Monica nodded. "Yeah. Joey lives across the hall from us, we could hang out."

"I'd like that," Chandler smiled.

"Rachel wouldn't be too pleased, she's still avoiding you like the plauge." laughed Phoebe.

Chandler shook his head, smiling, "She's got nothing to worry about, it could happen to anyone."

Phoebe, Monica and Chandler continued to talk. The more they talked, the more Phoebe and Monica found they liked Chandler. He was funny, friendly and smart. He'd seemed nervous and insecure when he first arrived, but was fine now. He got on well with Joey, and he and Ross enjoyed catching up. Rachel liked him, even if she couldn't fully look him in the eye just yet. Monica hoped he did get Ugly Naked Guy's apartment. He would be a blast to hang out with. He was even cute...

'Stop it!' she scolded herself. 'He's gay. Don't go getting a crush on a gay guy. Not after what happened with Richard.' She shuddered at the memory. She still blamed herself for not noticing Richard was gay, even though all her friends told her that no one noticed, that Richard didn't even know. Ross could identify with Monica after what had happened with Carol, and offered his support. Still, it didn't make Monica feel any less stupid.

When everyone except the gang had left, Ross asked them what they thought of Chandler.

"Oh, he was great!" Phoebe said happily. David nodded in agreement.

"Yeah! He's a Knicks fan!" Joey added.

"Well, he was nice, but I'd be more enthused if I hadn't spent half the night flirting with him when he's gay!" With the last part, Rachel shot Ross an angry glare, to which he answered with a giggle.

"I thought he was really nice," Phoebe concluded. "Mon, did you like him?"

"Definitly. Isn't he cool? He's so funny and smart! He's a total sweetie, too. You should've heard what he said about..." Monica stopped grinning when she noticed all her friends staring at her. "What?"

Rachel laughed. "Mon's got a crush on the gay guy."

"You can talk," Ross shot back, "You hit on him!"

Rachel folded her arms and looked at Ross. "Yeah, you can talk too, married a lesbian, married a lesbian!"

This shut Ross up, and Monica spoke. "I don't have a crush on him. Why would you think that?"

"Well, Mon, you didn't stop smiling while you were talking to him, and you laughed at his jokes even when they wern't that funny," mused Phoebe.

"So?"

"So, you also played with your hair and acted like a school girl."

"I did not!" The others recognised Monica's tone as the one she used when it was time to shut up, and so they backed down. Mon was pleased with this, but she still couldn't help but wonder if they were right. She hadn't noticed herself acting the way they said she had, but maybe it was a sub-concious thing. Eventually she convinced herself that the others were joking, and she was just being silly. He was gay. And he was probably seeing some guy. Not that she was interested in him as more than a friend, anyway...

As she packed away the left overs from the party, Monica smiled to herself as she admitted that Chandler WAS cute, even if he was gay.


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So that's part 1. PLEASE take the time to review, even if it's bad, because it's my first fic, and I wanna know what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong. To be continued soon...