Author's Intro/ Disclaimer: Same as always. Characters aren't mine. Long live Jonathan Larson!

The good stuff is coming, I promise!

Everything seems better now. Trying to follow Joanne's advice, Collins and I have little sessions designated to talking about totally random stuff, which usually leads us getting bored, and well when we get bored, you just can't keep us off each other, so we end up making out until Joanne tells us to get a room, at which point we stop and just decide to snuggle, because we're not really ready for that "room-requiring" aspect quite yet. So yeah, here's the make-out scene of the day. Collins and I were discussing one of the many theories that got him kicked out of MIT, something about how government is pointless. I wasn't really following what he was saying so I just said "yeah", "uh huh", and "that's cool" whenever I deemed necessary. He caught me.

"So Mark, do you think the student had a good point?"

"That's cool."

"What!?"

"Wait, oops, what was the question?" We both laughed.

"Nice to know you were paying attention."

"I can't help it. Anarchy isn't exactly stimulating for me."

"So what have you been doing for the last ten minutes?"

"Watching your lips."

"My lips, what the fuck?"

"Yeah, your lips are very expressive when you talk."

"Is that a good thing?"

"Yeah, helps get your emotion across."

"Right," he smiled.

"And you have a nice smile too."

"That I knew."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I smile at myself in the mirror every morning. Makes me feel pretty, you know."

"Ahhh, you are pretty."

"Pretty. You had to use the word pretty. You couldn't use handsome or sexy. Pretty?"

"Well you said it first."

"That was your cue for an ego booster."

"Oh, I see, then in that case, you're a sexy beast."

"Guys, please, I'm still in the room." Whoops. We had totally forgotten about Joanne.

"Sorry Joanne!" We both said, laughing.

"Yeah, sure." She walked into her room.

"So, you think I'm a sexy beast, ey?" Collins said so that Joanne couldn't hear. He had one eyebrow raised in a skeptical sort of way.

"I confess. What's a man to do when he's madly in love?" I wasn't very good at playing his game, but at least I tried.

"Awww, you're too cute boy." I smiled. He walked over to where I was sitting and put his hands down in front of me. I put my own hands in his and let him pull me up out of my chair. As our open mouths met as his hands moved to the sides of my shoulders and mine to his hips. It's always funny when we kiss standing up because he's so much taller than me, he has to lean down, even if I stand on my toes. Our kiss was slow and intimate, not fast and needy like they used to be. Now that we were both fully comfortable in the relationship and over the initial of excitement of having someone to love, we decided that slow in everything required more concentration and therefore more intimacy and more passion.

"That doesn't look like talking to me."

"Aww, come on Joanne, we're taking a break." Collins protested her interruption

"Right. And the reason you need a "break" every five minutes is?"

"Look at him, he's so cute, I can't resist." Collins moved so that he was behind me and we were both facing Joanne. He pulled me into one of those tight hugs with one arm, ruffling my hair with his other hand. I couldn't help but to smile innocently and Joanne glared at me.

"Joanne, we need to get you a girl." I tried to make light. It hadn't even occurred to me that she could be jealous. I mean, of course she's not into guys but with Collins and I being affectionate all the time, it's like us and her, instead of just three friends.

"Yes, I'm well aware." The only person she had dated since Maureen was me.

"Well, why don't you try to go and meet someone?" Collins asked.

"I'm not exactly prime real estate. The only reason Maureen dated me was because she could walk all over me."

"Well, I saw more than that in you!" I'm not quite sure if I was helping or not.

"Thanks Mark, but really, I don't need a relationship right now."

"We just feel bad, you must be lonely having to sit around watching us make out all day."

"Well maybe we could take out the "all day" part, and make it "part of the day" so that the three of us can go out and do things.

"Fair enough," said Collins.

"Yeah, sure that's fine with us," I added in agreement.

"Good, well, Benny's dropping the kid by in an hour so, maybe we should clean up a bit."

"You don't think the kid will want to play with beer cans?" Collins asked sarcastically.

"I'm sure he would, but I doubt Benny would approve," answered Joanne.

"Yuppie scum." That's all I had to add.

"Oh come on Mark. It's not that unreasonable to ask that your 2 year old not have access to week old beer cans."

"You know, they say if you start them young then they won't rebel when they are teenagers."

"He's two. And that's Benny's problem, not ours, we just have to make sure he's still alive when Benny comes back. That's it." Joanne is usually the one watching the kid. She doesn't really trust me or Collins with him

"Aww, you're no fun," Collins joked.

"Maybe that's why I can't get a girlfriend."

"Not back to this. Subject change!"

And that was that.

~Mark