AN: I know, I know. I coped out on the second scene last chapter. I'm sorry, but I suck at lemons. They take me forever to write and, well, sometimes, less is more. Hopefully...Review, kindly. Or unkindly, if you're so inclined.

AN2: Chapter Eight is going up tomorrow right after the episode, just so you know.

Warnings: Language

Disclaimer: I don't own "Skins".

Chapter Seven
It Isn't Supposed to Be This Way

When Tea wakes up, there is a gentle arm wrapped around her, hand on her hip. Holding her in an almost possessive embrace even as they slumber. The chest she's currently using as a pillow is well muscled, but it's still the most comfortable surface she's ever had the opportunity to sleep on. The stomach lying bare beneath her fingers is ribbed and cut, smooth muscle under even smoother skin. Suddenly the events of the previous night unfold in her mind, supplying a name for the firm but soft body that she's sleeping with...well, on.

Tony. She had sex with Tony. Again. She's got to be the worst lesbian in the history of ever. She wasn't even drunk this time, wasn't high. She has no excuse, no reason other than the one she simply refuses to admit. She had wanted him.

She still wants him.

And she shouldn't.

But she can't stop.

She tries to extract herself from his grasp, from this post-coital closeness that shouldn't exist because she shouldn't have slept with him. But his arms tighten around her, refuse to release her.

"Stay." Tony mumbles, his eyes still closed.

"I can't, Tone." She just can't. This can't be happening. But it is.

"Yes, you can." He says so calmly. Like this doesn't change everything forever. "Just close your eyes and go back to sleep. Just stop hiding for one day, Tea. For one hour."

"I'm not hiding." She denies angrily, even though she really, really is. Tony matches her; he sees through her. And she doesn't want him to. She suddenly misses the meaningless, boring, safe one night stands she used to have.

"Bullshit." And he still won't let her go. "I let you run last time. This time, you're gonna stay."

"Tony, you can't keep me here. I have to go home." She has to go just about anywhere but here.

"Why?" He won't open his damn eyes, and it's annoying her that he thinks that he can keep acting like this is normal when it's just not.

"Because my parents don't know where I am, and my father works for the mob." She almost hopes to scare him away, even though he already knows exactly who her father is.

"Lie." Like it's the simplest thing in the world.

"Tony." She's on the verge of pissed off at his point and if he doesn't let go she's going to knee him in places not meant to be kneed.

Finally, he opens his eyes. Looks at her with those sharp, dark eyes that see too much. "Tea. It's not the end of the world. It doesn't have to be. Just relax, dammit."

"Tony, let me go-"

"Damn it, Tay!" And his arms retreat. Unexpectedly, she immediately misses them.

"Get my phone." She finishes snidely, quietly pleased that she's managed to annoy him the way he's been irritating her since she woke up. She gets out of his bed, naked as the day she was born, her eyes wandering over the neatness of his room for the disarray of their scattered clothes. Ah, over there. Her jeans in a crumpled heap near the corner.

She ignores the feeling of his eyes on her skin as she bends down and fishes her phone from the pocket. Urg, seventeen missed calls from her father. She feels a headache coming on as she plays through the messages. They all pretty much run along the same lines of "where the hell are you?"

She quickly calls her father back. "Daddy?"

"Tea? Where the hell have you been?"

"Daddy, I'm so sorry. I was studying with a friend and I fell asleep."

"And you couldn't call?"

"I forgot. I'm sorry."

"We're having a serious talk when I get home tonight. You will be there when I get home, you understand."

"Yes."

"Good. I love you."

"Love you too, Dad."

Her dad hangs up, and Tea sighs heavily.

"Problems?" Tony asks like it's not blatantly obvious.

"Just pissed my dad off." Tea shrugs. The man is a big softy at heart. Mostly.

"Then get your sexy ass back in my bed." Tony grins and pats the matress beside him. And, what does it say about her that she's tempted? That she actually wants to? She's not supposed to. Gay, remember?

"I have to go." She forces the words out. And it should be easy. It's always been easy to leave the morning after. She turns away from him to scoop up her jeans, and without a sound he's behind her. He's turning her around and cupping her face with his hands, and she can't move. He kisses her, and she doesn't want to kiss him back because, dammit, she's trying to leave him. But she does, she kisses him.

And she can't remember why she's supposed to want to stop.