Thanks to fruitySpirit for the beta. :)

Chapter Three

On second thought, leaping out of bed may not have been the best plan. Too late now though, Wesley was already standing on shaky legs, painfully thudding head gripped in his hands. He stood there for a moment fighting the nausea that threatened to overwhelm him. When it had dimmed to an overall feeling of lightheadedness - which, he was grateful to note, had the side effect of making the thudding in his head seem much more distant and bearable - he dropped his hands limply to his sides and stared about the room that he found himself in.

A hotel room. Plain, with peeling wallpaper but it was clean. Kind of nice actually and he had certainly stayed in far worse places. He didn't really remember getting or coming up to the room beyond a vague recollection of nearly tripping down stairs and being stopped by strong hands. And then a rather fierce argument about how the key card was meant to go into the lock.

Riley. He blushed profusely at the thought of how he had acted the other day. The poor boy probably thought him a raving lunatic. Or just a plain idiot.

His head throbbed as his thoughts threatened to turn back to the self-depreciating. Lord, how he hated the morning after.

He was still fully dressed, hadn't even bothered to kick his shoes off before collapsing onto the bed. His ribs were sore where the stake in his jacket pocket had been jabbing him all night. Not to mention the leather trousers that he could barely sit in comfortably were even more of a pain to sleep in. He winced slightly.

Patting down his jacket pocket, he discovered that he did indeed still have his wallet which was a small mercy indeed. Besides that he carried a stake, cross, small bottle of holy water, and a retractable knife. Always be prepared. He could now only hope that his bike had been left undisturbed over night. He glanced at his watch. And apparently through most of the day as well. He had slept right through to evening.

Stepping across the sparsely furnished room to the large window, he pulled the blinds back, eyes blinking to adjust to the sudden light in the previously dim room. The sun would be down within a few hours. It was time he got moving.

As much as he craved a coffee or three as a pick-me-up, he didn't dare waste another moment. His entire livelihood had been on that bike. He strode out the door, managing the stairs this time with a little more grace - though admittedly not much - and ignoring the front desk clerk's call of 'have a good day', he strode right through and out the door. At which point, standing outside the building and blinking about, he realized he had absolutely no clue where he was or where to go. Riley had said that it wasn't far from bar to hotel, Wesley could probably find it by simply walking. But, the way trouble seemed to trail him, he'd probably manage to get lost. He went back inside, much to the seemingly bored clerk's delight, and asked for directions.

He was only a few blocks away from the bar. It didn't take him long to find it and he half ran towards the parking lot, head pounding along with his feet as they hit the ground, fully expecting to see the worst.

What he actually saw was a young dark blond - and quite good looking - guy leaning up against his bike. Riley.

Relief washing over him, Wesley half stumbled up to the bike and resisted the urge to give it a hug. He resisted the urge to give Riley - who was grinning at him broadly and looking quite pleased with himself - a hug as well. Riley straightened as Wesley approached, breathing a little heavily due to the hung over jogging.

"Figured you'd end up back here sooner or later," Riley remarked as Wesley worked on gaining some composure. He didn't so much succeed as look absolutely baffled.

"My bike. I had to make sure it was still here."

Riley's grin didn't lesson as he patted the bike's seat. "Still here. Made sure to keep an eye on it. Figured you probably had some pretty important stuff on here."

Wesley could only look grateful. "Everything. This was very thoughtful of you. Thank you."

In fact, everything that Riley had done so far had been incredibly thoughtful. Maybe not the getting him drunk so he'd spill his knowledge part. But everything else. Rescuing him in the first place, buying him drinks - never mind the nefarious purpose, finding him a hotel and now watching over his bike. Wesley had given Riley any number of opportunities to take full advantage of him and Riley hadn't taken one of them.

Wesley felt a sudden flash of shame over his cheeks. He had been anything but thoughtful towards Riley. Had acted like a complete prat, which, lets face it, he often was. He looked away from Riley, feeling an embarrassed grimace pull at his face.

Riley instantly seemed to be concerned. "Are you okay? Hangover bothering you?"

Wesley nodded slightly. It was easy to blame his sudden discomfort on the hangover, which was still pounding at his head and the mere mention of it seemed to bring it into sharp focus. It made him flinch slightly and he brought a hand up to rub at his temple.

"Come on. I'll get you a coffee, perk you right up," Riley offered, smile in his voice.

"Actually," Wesley started, looking back to Riley. "I was rather hoping you'd accept an invitation to dinner." His eyes widened - as did Riley's - when he caught how that sounded and he quickly backtracked. "That is...as a thank you. I'd be in a lot of trouble now if it hadn't been for you." This did absolutely nothing to ease the awkwardness from the situation.

To Wesley's surprise though - and slight envy for Riley's ability to do so - Riley had gathered his composure and was nodding in agreement. "Yeah. That'd be great."

Wesley gave him a nervous smile; suddenly incredibly self-conscious about how he looked, which he could only assume was hideous after last night. He hadn't even thought to straighten himself out before rushing from the hotel. And here it sounded far too much like Riley was agreeing to go out on a date. Which brought up all sorts of doubts in Wesley's mind, but he pushed them aside. He would thank Riley with dinner and then make his way to the next town.

"Wonderful. Is there someplace you know of that would be suitable?"

"Yeah. There's a place a couple blocks from here. You can't miss it since it's the only actual restaurant, unless you want to head back into Huxley."

"It sounds fine. I'll meet you there in an hour?" No way was Wesley about to go out on a date - simple thank you dinner - looking how he could only imagine that he looked. Which could only be even more of a wreck when he was standing next to someone who, he easily admitted, looked as good as Riley did.

Riley looked as though he understood, giving a word of confirmation. Plans set for the evening, Wesley moved to walk around Riley so he could get to his bike. After an awkward moment of neither knowing which way to go, which left Riley looking amused and Wesley blushing slightly, Wes was on his bike, firing it up and heading off to go get himself looking decent.

He considered heading back to the hotel. Maybe get the room for one more night once it seemed like he wasn't about to be getting out of this town tonight anyway. Dinner wouldn't allow for it though. Not if he wanted to show Riley a proper time. He sighed slightly, giving a rueful smile and a shake of his head.

After dinner he would have to move on, hopefully save enough money for gas so that he could at least get to the next large city and scrape together a bit of money again. He had walked himself straight into this dinner after all and he wasn't particularly sure that he wanted to back out.