A/N: I have to apologise for the appalling lack of updates lately, had severe writer's block and been busy. Thank you for all your comments and I hope you enjoy this. I will try my hardest to be a bit more regular with the updates!

Chapter Nine

Since that night, Ste couldn't quench the feeling that things had changed beyond repair. Not only between him and Brendan, but between him and Noah. Little irritants niggled and he found himself increasingly distanced from Noah, lost in his own thoughts. He wasn't even thinking of Brendan – not all the time anyway – but he was starting to find routines creeping in and life becoming, well, lifeless.

The weekend away together with the kids had been nothing short of a nightmare. The kids got ratty and travel sick and it wasn't as if Noah and he had had any time alone during it. Noah seemed to grit his teeth and battle through it – trying his very best with Leah and Lucas – but they kids were testing even Ste's patience, so he dreaded Noah's feelings on the matter. Ste spent the whole bus journey back to Hollyoaks grimacing and apologising to Noah, swearing that the next time he'd make it just the two of them. This was not how Ste had imagined a holiday with his kids and his boyfriend at all. He hadn't expected to feel so embarrassed about his failings as a parent in Noah's presence.

And back home, Ste and Noah fell into their old habits, compromises about their evening plans that Ste didn't really want to make and feeling a void better them which he tried so desperately to ignore and pretend wasn't so important. The fact Noah was so different was a good thing. He needed good influences on his life, it was making his darker history disappear and making him a better man, wasn't it?

But even so he couldn't shake the memory of sitting in the front of Brendan's Mercedes, picking up information from a stranger and that edge of danger but knowing that he'd be protected, whatever. It was the biggest rush of adrenaline he'd had in a long time.

He'd pretend to himself that he couldn't remember the last time he'd felt the blood pumping through him like that: the fear, the excitement. He did. Of course he did. It had been October and the bricks were cold against his spine. Brendan approached him like the devil and set him alight.

Lately with Brendan, there'd been an extra edge of something - whether it was trust or just a shared secrecy – but it didn't make Ste feel like he had in the past, like Brendan was going to use it against him when he could. Ste gave him no reason to of late. It was alien to think it, but they almost felt like friends.

Despite this, Ste had still been witness to Brendan's ever changeable moods – which flipped like the turn of a coin – and had continued to keep a wary distance from the dark side of his temper. He seemed at his worst when Ste had returned from his weekend away and Ste wasn't ignorant as to why – he had risked it by going behind Brendan's back and asking Cheryl if he could swap a shift.

"Say that again idiot and I'll be there to rip out yer throat," Ste overheard Brendan threaten an unknown over the phone. The door of the office had been flung open, as if Brendan's tone of voice was a word of warning to the strays in the top floor of the club, and he made his presence known as he sauntered through the doorway and snarled at Ste for a drink.

He continued the mysterious phone conversation, mocking the stammers of the caller and ending the call abruptly. "Get what I asked. You don't want to know what I do when I'm upset. This, this, is calm."

Ste pushed the glass tumbler in Brendan's direction, chewing the inside of his mouth as he replaced the ice tray under the bar. He made the mistake of the briefest of eye contact with Brendan.

"Problem?"

Ste shook his head.

Brendan forced a teeth-baring grin. "I'm guessing you're wondering who that was on the phone?"

"Not really. None of my business, is it?" Ste shrugged.

Brendan snorted with laughter, giving a little shiver of amusement. "Well that's new."

"What is?"

"You. Stephen – the boy who sticks his nose in where it's not wanted – is a changed man!" he said, sarcastically offering a soft round of applause. "But then sometimes it pays to be nosy. I mean if I hadn't been nosy I never would have known you'd gone behind my back to skive a day off work,"

Ste rolled his eyes. "I asked Cheryl,"

"Cheryl ain't your boss. I am."

"Well she gave me another shift,"

Brendan downed his glass and clunked it onto the bar top. "On Tuesday night, yeah. Inconvenient…shame."

And with that, he span to the right and disappeared back into the office – the door flung shut behind him with a flourish.

Ste felt his nosiness creep back in – why was Tuesday night inconvenient and a "shame" that he was working? Brendan was messing with him, he knew it, but for now he shrugged it off and tried not to let him dominate his thoughts.

\x\

Tuesday night came and things started to become clearer.

When Ste showed up for his nine until closing shift he heard hushed rumours that one of the staff would be required to close up that night (a job usually reserved for Warren or Brendan). Ste knew Warren was on a trip with Mitzeee, so that meant…

"There he is, bottle opener of the century," Brendan jibed, approaching Ste as he wormed his way through a crowd to get behind the bar.

There was something different about Brendan tonight, which become evident as soon as Ste had thought it. To begin with, he had definitely had too much to drink – not like someone might if they were depressed, but if they had stepped over the limit of Dutch courage – Ste could tell by the glaze in his eyes. And then Ste noticed he wasn't alone.

There was a woman attached to him. Or he was attached to her – hips touching and an arm around her middle. It was strange how he could make body contact seem so cold. Of course he didn't give her a second glance, it was all robotic gum chewing and a gaze fixed between Ste's lips and hair. It was another definite sign he'd had too much to drink – he might've been with a woman but his urges were much harder to disguise with whiskey in his veins.

Ste pretended not to be baffled by this show in front of him – it was a throwback to months gone by – and began taking orders, throwing the odd irrepressible glance in that direction. As soon as he clocked the small crowd of serious looking Suits around Brendan, Ste's suspicions - about why a man who was out to most locals was cosied up to a woman – started forming.

Brendan kissed his female company on the cheek and excused himself, striding over to Ste with a set of keys.

"I need you to close up for me tonight," he said. For a moment he waved the keys in Ste's face like you might a baby and then with no regard for personal space, he thrust them deep into Ste's trouser pocket. "I'm trusting you," he said.

"And where are you off to?" Ste asked, stopping Brendan in his tracks and wishing almost immediately he hadn't played so easily into his hands.

The corner of Brendan's mouth twisted smugly. "Poker." He stood shoulder to shoulder with Ste behind the bar, both of them watching Brendan's party, the lone female in particular.

"Beautiful isn't she?" Brendan said.

Ste scoffed. "Whatever floats your boat,"

Brendan glanced him over and smiled.

"Back in the closet for tonight then?"

"My first choice was working,"

Brendan turned his head, a languid, deliberate stalk of his eyes up Ste's body, which for a split second Ste was drawn into.

"You wanted me to play?" Ste asked, a rush of excitement making the tips of his ears hot.

"Yeah. I wanted you to cheat."

"So she's gonna cheat for you?"

"I'm gonna fold early and she's going to rob those bastards blind. Then it's fifty-fifty for her and me. Cha-ching."

Brendan stayed beside him long enough to see the disappointment on Ste's sulky mouth. He patted the pocket of Ste's which bulged with the club keys. "Don't forget to lock up, there's a good boy," and with that he left Ste and rejoined the crowd, linking back with the mystery woman with a last look thrown in Ste's direction.