Disclaimer: Usual thing. I don't own them blah blah blah.

John Paul eventually lifted his head to look at Spike, still not managing to meet his eyes, unsure of where things were going to go from here. Meanwhile, Spike was looking back, wondering exactly the same thing.

"So did…" (Spike) "I just…" (John Paul) They both began to speak together. Then, each gave a nervous laugh, finally breaking the tense atmosphere.

"Should we both sit down?" Asked Spike, wanting to make the other boy feel more comfortable.

John Paul nodded and stood, keeping his eyes trained on the floor. Then, they both made their way over to the kitchen chairs.

"I'm sorry. I just… I can't begin to tell you how --" John Paul began.

"It's ok," Spike started. John Paul gave him a look that said 'yeah, right'. "Ok, well it's not… it's not alright, obviously, but I just… I heard what you said about me. You said that I've 'been the best damn thing that's happened to you in a long time.' Did you mean it?"

"Of course I meant it," John Paul exclaimed, looking into Spike's eyes for the first time. In that moment, Spike knew that he would forgive John Paul anything, just to get lost in those bright, shining blue eyes, but there was one thing which he had to know before putting his heart on the line.

"Is there any chance that you and him might…"

"No." John Paul answered, almost a little too quickly. Seeing the almost desperate 'don't lie to me' look in the other boy's usually laughing eyes however made him expand on that answer. "I don't know. He hurt me a lot and it would take a lot for me to get over that. Not even mentioning what me being with him has put you through. Besides, I'm not just looking for a quickie, and while he's still trying to tell himself he's straight, that's all we can ever have. No – nothing short of breaking up with Sarah, buying me a couple of tickets to an amazing unknown band and declaring his undying love for me in front of the whole street would make me even think of doing anything with him again. Oh, and he'd have to give me time to make sure I wasn't seeing anyone – I couldn't ever do what I did to you again."

They both smiled and Spike decided to go for it. "In that case, I'm not going to let this ruin what we have. You're too special to me."

John Paul felt gob-smacked, amazed and eternally grateful all at the same time. He had absolutely no idea what to say; he was so shocked and happy that Spike had forgiven him for what he had done. When his mouth finally started talking, his mind had unfortunately not had time to decide what would be said, so "I thought you said you didn't do serious?" was what finally came out.

Luckily, Spike didn't seem angry that he had brought that up at that point, he simply glanced at the floor and then back to JP. "Yeah, well I had a reason for that. I guess I should tell you – it's strange how we've been together for so long but know so little about each other. My first serious relationship… only one other than this one… it ended less than well. Coming out wasn't too much of a problem for me, considering how my dad had a boyfriend and therefore there wasn't any prejudice in the house. Luckily, I never had any trouble at school either – in fact, most of the guys were glad I was gay, as I got on so well with their girlfriends! So anyway, it was near the end of my year 9 when this boy called Daniel, who was about to go to 6th form came up to me and said he thought I was hot. From then, we got together and stayed together for a long time. In fact, I ended up moving in with him when he was 18 and I was 16. Everything seemed like it was perfect… I guess it was too perfect."

At this point, Spike sighed and moistened his lips, clearly getting ready for what was the difficult part of the story. "Five weeks after I moved in, I came home early from school – I'd been feeling a bit ill. When I opened the front door, I didn't see him, which was odd, as I knew he had the day off work. I went into the bedroom to lie down and he was in there… with another guy."

At this point John Paul's eyes were wide open and he covered his mouth with his hands. "Oh… oh my god. I'm so sorry. I thought that what I'd done couldn't get any worse but--"

"It could get so much worse," replied Spike. "I took you back because despite everything you are a decent guy. You wouldn't intentionally hurt me – you're reaction here proves it. No – what made what Daniel did so much worse is that he saw me. He looked over at me while he was on our bed with that… and he waved to me. And then, he came, screaming my name while he was fucking some other guy, staring right at me; and he did it just to see the look of horror on my face as he did so. That kind of screwed me up for a while, to be honest."

As Spike finished his story, three people were shocked into silence by what he had endured. One was John Paul, who immediately stood up and embraced him, the second was Michaela who had just woken up and was looking for some breakfast. The third heard the story a while later, having left a small microphone in the McQueens' kitchen, linked to a recorder on his computer, from which he could listen to everything.

Craig pressed the rewind button, searching for the one line he was looking for. 'Nothing short of breaking up with Sarah, buying me a couple of tickets to an amazing unknown band and declaring his undying love for me in front of the whole street would make me even think of doing anything with him again.'

"Bingo."