At long last, the ending to Birthday Kisses. Sorry if it seems a little rushed, but I don't have much time.

"Hey!" Ross called out when he came over the next morning to the guys' apartment. "Hey, are you guys still in bed?" He came and knocked on Chandler's door, but before he could get around the entertainment center to knock on Joey's too, it opened and Joey stood there, wearing his bathrobe and looking nervous.

"I'm up! I'm up!" He slid around the entertainment center. "I, uh, I need to go shower."

"Okay, I'll wait. I wanna talk to you and Chandler some more about this Mark guy."

"Yeah, sure!" He hurried into the bathroom and shut the door.

Ross went to the kitchen and poured some juice for himself.

Chandler soon opened his door too and emerged dressed in his own robe. "Morning."

"Morning!" Ross glanced at his watch. "Did you guys have a late night?"

Chandler jumped a little at that remark. "Wh-what makes you think that?"

Ross shrugged. "You're not ready for work yet, and you look as sleepy as Joey."

"I'm fine! I'm fine! I just didn't get a lot of sleep."

Ross looked at him, and then nodded knowingly. "Oh, I see! Joey had some company over, and they made a lot of noise, huh?" Then he peered toward Joey's door, which had been left slightly ajar. "Is she still in there?" Ross whispered. "Am I waking her up?"

"No, uh, she went home already. So, you-you said something about Mark?"

Ross nodded. "Yeah, I'm positive that he's still after Rachel, and I got to find some way to stop him. I could really use some advice."

"Why? Because my luck with women is that great? Or Joey's so good at holding onto a girlfriend for longer than a day?"

"Well, at least neither of you married a lesbian. Come on, I need some guy perspective."

Chandler shrugged, and felt pretty insecure about himself as a guy right now.

"Sounds like Joey's done with the shower. Your turn soon."

"Uh-huh," Chandler nodded absently.

"You feeling all right, Chandler? You look pale. Except for the black eye, that is."

Chandler didn't laugh. Instead he shrugged and picked up the phone. "As a matter of fact, I'm not going into work today."

"Really?"

Chandler shushed Ross and then called in sick to work.

Meanwhile, Joey came out of the shower in his robe and heard him on the phone. When Chandler hung up, Joey asked worriedly, "You okay?"

Chandler avoided his eyes. "Just waiting for the shower." He quickly passed Joey and slipped into the bathroom.

Joey asked Ross, "Is he okay?"

"I think so. He didn't get any sleep with all the noise you made."

"Noise?"

"Yeah, you and your girl with the bedroom antics."

"Oh," Joey realized what Chandler had told him. "Oh, right!" He cleared his throat. "Yeah, I gotta apologize to Chandler about that. Um, I'm gonna go get dressed now."

Ross smiled. "Yeah, I was wondering how long you were going stand there dripping all over the carpet!" After finishing his glass of juice, Ross glanced at his watch again and noticed the time. "Hey, you know what?" he called to Joey through his bedroom door. "I'm gonna be late for the museum. Tell Chandler I'll catch you guys later about that Mark thing."

"Okay."

"Bye!"

"Bye!"

Joey was relieved that Ross had gone, but was not entirely sure what he should say to Chandler once he emerged from the bathroom. So Joey just finished dressing and then waited on one of the stools in the living room.

Chandler finally exited and immediately averted his eyes from Joey. "Be right with you, Ross."

"Uh, Ross left for work already. He says he'll talk to us later."

"Oh, okay." Chandler continued into his bedroom to dress.

Joey waited for him in silence.

After a while, Chandler spoke from behind his bedroom door. "Uh, Joey?" He sounded nervous.

"Yeah?"

"You don't have any auditions to go to today?"

"No." Joey walked over to the closed door. "You're staying home too?"

"Um, yeah." There was no use in denying it. "Just so I don't have to explain the puffy eye, you know."

"Sure, sure." Joey nodded, feeling somewhat relieved. "I thought maybe you weren't feeling well or something."

Chandler didn't reply.

"How-how's that eye doin', by the way?" Joey asked awkwardly. "I didn't, um, make it any worse last night, did I? 'Cause you know, I'd never want to hurt you, in any way, ever. I-"

"Joey," he interrupted. "Can we, can we not talk about last night? Let's-let's just pretend it never happened."

Joey inhaled sharply and felt the unfamiliar sting of rejection. He was hardly comfortable with the thought of last night, either, but he wanted to at least clear the air and talk about it. Yet all Chandler wanted was denial, apparently.

"Wait, no! Please, just listen to me, will ya? I need to tell you, um, um-Chandler!" Speaking to a door was just too difficult.

Chandler opened the door cautiously, and whispered, "Okay, let's talk." He re-entered the living room and sat down on one end of their couch, but still avoided Joey's eyes.

Joey perched at the opposite end and cleared his throat nervously. "Good. Good, let's talk."

Chandler said nothing and kept staring at the floor.

So Joey struggled on. "Um, um, I wanna-I wanna apologize for, you know, starting everything last night. And not stopping it."

"Apology accepted," Chandler answered stiffly.

"Can't you even look at me?" Joey was hurt. "You're my best friend, Chandler, and I don't want last night to change anything between us. I never want to lose your friendship. Never! Are we-are we gonna be all right here?"

"Yeah," Chandler shrugged, trying to be calm. "Yeah, of course we are. It's just, the memory's so fresh right now, that I gotta not look at you right now."

"Okay." Joey remained sad, but tried to focus on the hope that things would go back to normal eventually. He cleared his throat again. "So... you told Ross I had a girl over, huh?"

Chandler nodded. "Yeah. I said I didn't get any sleep."

"Right, right. That's smart! Plus, you know, that can be our excuse if we act strange or something when everybody else is around. You're just mad at me, and I feel guilty."

"Yeah."

Joey stood up. "Okay, I'm-I'm gonna get some breakfast, and maybe you wanna turn on the TV."

"Yeah." Chandler moved to his leather recliner and switched on the TV.

Joey went to the kitchen and got some eggs and butter from the fridge. "I'm making eggs. You want some?"

"Sure." He didn't turn around.

Joey cooked the eggs and toasted the bagels the way that Chandler liked them. Then he served the breakfast and they ate in silence.

The eggs reminded Joey of the time when he had moved out and that crazy Eddie had moved in; Joey had jealously accused of Chandler liking Eddie's eggs better than his eggs. How crazy was that? *Almost as crazy as kissing him and sleeping with him!* Joey scolded himself.