Hey, Just wanted to say thank you for all of the wonderful reviews, was so worried that I wasn't getting Brendan's character right at all. Anyway, saying that I do think I got his character completely wrong in this Chapter, But hey I tried LOL. Hope you like it and please review. X

Also I'm Irish myself, and live in Dublin so tried to use as many proper place names and things as possible, I don't know why some weird sense of national pride I guess

And to just clear something up in this story Brendan is with Mitzeee, and somehow managed to steal the 200 grand from Warren at some stage lol, but Noah doesn't exist ( If only that were true of the real Hollyoaks )

Brendan's POV – Dublin Part 2

As I lay in the king size bed with Stephen sleeping silently on my chest I couldn't help but imagine a world in which this could be an everyday occurrence. The lad had talked about it enough, how we could be together "proper" but the more I thought of it I realised that it would never work, I could never be that person, no, this side of me was reserved for Stephen only and I decided that as long as I had him I should make the most of it. With that I flicked him on the top of the head "Stephen, wakey wakey we can't spend the whole day in bed"

"What, awww Bren" He whispered, cuddling closer to my chest "Why can't we?"

"Because, Stephen, I didn't bring you to Ireland just so we could have sex all day" He looked up and me and smirked at that " Well, yeah I did but I mean we still have to do stuff"

"Ok ok, I'll get up in five minutes" He mumbled closing his eyes and lying back down on my chest.

About an hour later we finally hit the streets of Dublin. The hotel was pretty much in the centre of the city so I decided we could leave the car in the hotel and walk around the city. Stephen said that he wanted to see all of the sights and I couldn't help but laugh at the lad looking wide eyed at almost everything we walked by.

"Stephen" I asked "Have you ever been to a different country before"

He looked rather sheepish and replied "No, only family holidays we went on was to like, Blackpool or summat"

"Right, I guess I'll just have to make sure you have a good time on your first trip abroad"

We spent hours going to all of the major tourist stuff in Dublin. I brought him through Trinity college and around by the government buildings, this didn't seem to really impress him so I thought I would try something a bit more modern and we walked over to O Connell street and looked at the spire, which was basically a massive silver pole sticking out of the ground in the middle of Dublin. Not to my taste but he seemed to love it. "Get my picture Bren" he exclaimed like an excited child. I laughed and obliged standing as far back as I could to try and get most of the monument in the picture. I couldn't help myself so i had to crack a very bad joke. I leaned in close to him and whispered into his ear " I should have known that your favourite part of Dublin would be the massive pole"

"Well, at least I get to see one massive pole while I'm here Bren" He rather wittily replied.

I scowled at that, I should have seen such a reply coming.

"Stephen, would you like to see where I grew up?" I asked. I had a feeling I knew what his answer would be, he was forever bugging me about where I grew up and what my childhood was like. I figured if I showed him this it might stop with the constant questions about my background.

"Of course I do, is it far?" came his excited response.

"No, I lived in the city centre till my ma moved us up North"

So we walked up the quays for about ten minutes. The further you walked the more you left the new shiny Dublin behind. Down this end it was mostly run down old buildings and council estates. Of course, there had been some regeneration in the boom years, but mostly now where that had taken place there was just half finished construction sites. I could feel Stephen tensing up slightly beside me as we walked past a small gang of youths drinking cans of beer at the side of the road. Of course it didn't affect me, I had grown up in this type of area, I knew that I could handle any situation that might arise. However, I was completely taken of guard by what happened next.

One of the boys from the gang shouted " What the fuck do you think you're looking at ya little queer"

I instantly turned around in a rage, then I realised that the hostility was directed towards Stephen. I looked quickly at him, he looked afraid. I instantly became incredibly angry.

I walked straight up to the boy, no older than 18 or 19 and squared up to him. I easily towered over him. I looked down and grabbed him around the neck forcing him up against the wall. His mates had all ran off I noticed, not the hard lads they thought they were after all. "Now, would you like to repeat that" I asked in my most menacing voice.

"Whaaat, eh no, look I didn't mean it" he managed to squeak out, he looked petrified.

"Did ya not, now" I said menacingly. My face was pressed right up against his now. "Then you won't mind apologising to my friend here will ya"

"Look I'm sorry man, just get this psycho of me will ya?"

I let him go "Right, Good lad, run along now back to your mates" I said before turning and continuing to lead the way.

"What the hell was that Brendan" I heard Stephen say, he sounded furious.

"What?" I asked, hardly able to believe he was angry at me.

"What did you do that for, I could have handled it myself. And you promised me you wouldn't fly off the handle again" he shouted.

"You can't be serious" This only seemed to make him more angry so I decided it best to try a different approach. "Look, Stephen, I'm sorry I was only trying to protect ya. I didn't want you to get hurt like last week when ya got mugged"

This seemed to cool him down slightly. "Ok but just don't do it again Bren, Yeah?"

"Yeah, I promise. Now come on were almost there"

We walked on for another 3 minutes before we turned a corner and onto the street where I grew up. I walked him down to the 4th house on the left and stopped. "This is it" I said.

I looked at him, he looked amazed, which amazed me. It was only an old run down council house. It wasn't very large just a door and window on the ground level and two tiny windows upstairs.

"That one was my bedroom" I told him pointing to the window on the right.

"It's lovely Bren" I laughed at that.

"No, It's a dump. But it was a happy house, ya know when me Da still lived with us" I decided that giving him than honest little snippet might also help to get him to stop asking questions about my childhood. But I was wrong. This led to about a million questions. I answered some honestly and simply dismissed others. I then led him up to the green, a small patch of grass where I used to play football with a few of the local lads and generally spend most of my early childhood.

After about a million more questions on the way back to the city centre we found ourselves in a small cafe in the Temple Bar area of Dublin. Stephen ordered and omelette while I went for my traditional burger.

" I really enjoyed that Brendan. Thanks" He said quickly reaching across the table to touch my hand gently, for a brief second before pulling it back.

"Yeah, well I thought it might stop ya asking me so many questions, turns out I was wrong" I joked smirking at him from across the table. I dunno what it was, but here in this city I felt so much more at ease. Far more playful and relaxed. I guess the fact that I no longer knew anybody who lived in the city played a role in my easy going mood. I hadn't lived in the city since I was 14 and had long since lost contact with any friends and extended family I may have had living in the city.

Our food came shortly afterwards, and we sat munching away in silence for a few moments, both of us devouring our food. When we had cleared our plates and I had settled the bill we walked outside into the afternoon sun.

"So, where are we going next? He asked, once again looking like an excited little schoolboy.

"Shopping" was my only response as I led him towards Grafton Street, the main shopping street in Dublin.

Ste's POV

I almost had to run to keep up with him as he led me through the packed main shopping area of Dublin. It had been an amazing day so far and I didn't wanna mess it up by ending up getting lost. Luckily for me he soon turned down onto a narrow side street that was less densely populated with shoppers.

"Where are we going Bren" I asked getting tired now.

"Were almost there, yeah were here" He said stopping so suddenly I almost walked straight into him. I turned to look at the shop he had taken me to and immediately burst of laughing.

"What's so funny" He asked looking confused.

"So, this is where you get your dodgy suits from" I asked tilting my head in the direction of the suit shop we were now stood outside.

He looked genuinely insulted at my comment. "Excuse me, your calling my dress sense dodgy, look at yourself ya little chav" He replied

I could only laugh, it was true I didn't have the best sense of style, which was weird because I was gay and I thought all gay blokes had a good fashion sense.

"They're having a sale, Stephen, so I thought I might as well buy some new "dodgy" suits" he said in a voice that sounded genuinely annoyed.

"Aww Bren, Im sorry I was only joking" I said softly moving closer to him and quickly rubbing my hand down his arm " Ya know that I think you look super sexy in your suits"

"I know I do, now inside" he replied and in we went.

The shop was massive and had a huge range of different styles of suits. I walked round looking at a few but quickly lost interest. I'd never worn a suit so had no real interest in one. Instead I watched Brendan as he walked around slowly examining each one that caught his eye and listening to him go on about different types of fabric and which were the best. He eventually went into the changing room with about 4 different suits to try on. I knew he would take forever looking at himself in each on in the mirror so I began to browse the selection of suits available once again. After a few minutes one of them caught my eye and I decided that I would try it on, just to feel what it would be like to wear one of them. I took down one in my size and went into the changing cubicle next to Brens. It was a tan coloured suit and was slightly to large for me. When I looked at myself in the mirror I thought that I looked silly. And I felt uncomfortable. I couldn't for the life of me work out why Brendan didn't just wear jeans and jumpers like most other men.

I stepped out of the cubicle to show Brendan and called his name before opening the curtain to his cubicle a little bit. When I looked in he looked stunning. He was wearing a slim fitting jet black suit with a red shirt. I loved it when he wore red shirts. He turned to look at me and he looked disgusted.

"Eww, Stephen, What are you doing in that thing?"

"I dunno, just thought I'd try it on for fun" I replied.

"Uhh no that won't do. I'll pick ya out something nice wait here."

"No, Bren ya don't have..." but he was already gone busy looking at the various types of suit. I went back into the cubicle to take this horrible suit off. When I was stripped down to just my boxers he flung open the curtain.

"Oh sorry" He smirked "Try this on, It'll suit ya better than the other one" with that he slid the curtain closed again.

I looked at the suit, it was certainly nicer than the other one, was made of a softer silver material and the dark purple shirt he also handed me really complimented the silvery colour.

I put it on and I finally got why Brendan wore suits. It was fantastic. So comfortable and the fit was just perfect, slim but not too slim. And as I looked in the mirror I thought to myself wow I look good.

I stepped out of the changing room and the look on Brendan's face was priceless. He looked both shocked and turned on.

"Wow, You eh certainly look better than before"

"Yeah, I love it. I think I'll get it, How much is it?" I looked around for the price tag and almost died when I saw how much it cost, €600, " Whoa, thats expensive, wonder if it went down much in the sale" I asked Brendan.

He just looked at me and smiled " That is the sale price, its down from €900"

"Oh" I said feeling rather deflated "shame" I said walking back into the changing room to get back into my old cheap clothes.

When I stepped back outside Brendan was already stood there with two suits in his hand ready to head up to buy them.

"Hand me that" He said gesturing to the suit in my hands.

I handed over the suit and assumed he was going to go hang it back up but he instead turned to walk towards the cash register.

"Brendan, what are ya doing"

"Im buying you the suit" He said simply

"What, no you can't, its way to expensive" I tried to reason with him.

" Look, you looked great in it I want to buy it for ya. Think of it as a Birthday present" I couldn't believe it. No one had ever done something this nice for me before. I couldn't help myself I leaped up and wrapped my arms around him in a hug "Thank you" I whispered before quickly letting go, in case he was angry at me. He just laughed and went up to the tills to buy the suits. The total for the 3 suits came to €1600. I couldn't believe it as I watched Brendan hand over the money in cash.

As soon as we stepped outside I had to ask him where the money came from but he refused to tell me just saying that he won it on some bet he placed. He then quickly changed the subject.

"So I was thinking, Stephen, your gunna need some nice shoes to go with this new suit, and you just need a new wardrobe in general. So im going to buy you one come on" I stared at him as he walked back towards Grafton street, sometimes I seriously couldn't believe him. So that's how I ended up spending the rest of that day being dragged from shop to shop with Bren picking me out loads of new clothes to wear and buying them for me, no matter how much I protested. I admit I did get quite into it and it really was the perfect way to end the day, except for the massive guilt I felt when we got back to the hotel and I realised I had 14 bags all full of new and expensive stuff. I had to somehow find out how he could afford all this, and find a way to thank him properly...somehow ;)