Tears.

Vince had done it. He had followed his best friend to a restaurant and watched as he proposed. He'd hidden behind a fucking fern as Eric got down on one knee and asked a tearful Sloan to be his wife by the romantic glow of candlelight. He'd watched as Eric slipped the ring on her finger and as they kissed and as the small, intimate dining room burst into applause. Vince had watched it and then he had come home – alone.

Vince was still alone hours later, the lights off and the curtains drawn. The entire house was dark, pitch black and completely devoid of any real connection to the outside world. Eric knew something was off immediately. Rather than the brightly lit house that usually welcomed him home after a long day of putting out fires all over Los Angeles, he was coming to a place that felt far from a warm and inviting home. It sent chills up his spine as soon as he walked in the door.

Vince was sitting with his back to the door, his head in his hands and his body hunched over in a position Eric knew couldn't be comfortable. "Hello?" Eric greeted him, his voice small, feeble and almost scared.

His best friend was quiet for a moment before replying, "I know, Eric."

Eric felt his breath hitch. It wasn't that he had been hiding his engagement. It just wasn't the kind of thing he wanted to talk to Vince about – not after that night, not after everything they'd been through these past few months. They'd both tried to play the part of best friends, but something had been off and they both knew what it was. "I'm sorry."

Vince turned and looked at Eric, the moonlight cascading through the window and reflecting on his face. "You're sorry? Don't be sorry, Eric." His voice was numb, completely empty of any real emotion. "Don't apologize to me, not for this."

Eric could see the probing glare of Vince's blue eyes, even in the dark. He had always been able to find those eyes anywhere in any room. He sat down in the chair opposite of Vince. It'd be so easy to sit down next to Vince, to rest his hand on his knee, to pretend that it was that night two months ago when they'd found themselves in a very similar situation. Eric's voice was inaudible in the dark as he whispered his confession, "She makes me almost as happy as you made me."

Vince shook his head in disbelief. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. How could Eric come to him like this after everything? "I get it, Eric, I get it," he said harshly. "You want a normal life, a wife and kids, a house in the suburbs. A gay boyfriend doesn't really fit into the picture, does it? Listen, don't worry about it. You can still have the big movie career, and I'll be your best friend. I'll smile and play the Hollywood playboy role just like I always have. You can just forget what happened."

Vince had gone from numb to angry in a matter of seconds, and Eric didn't really know how to react. He couldn't feel the pain that Vince was feeling because he was dealing with his own stuff. It wasn't just that Vince didn't fit into the plan; he loved Sloan. Sure, he loved Vince, but he loved Sloan. He wanted to be with her; he had wanted to be with her from the first moment he met her. When he had proposed the first time on the way back from the trip, Eric had thought that was the beginning of everything. And then weeks had turned into months, and before he knew it, they'd been engaged two years.

A stupid party, a stupid fight and he was drunk. That was the night that changed everything. He turned to Vince just like he always had. He wasn't sure if it was the storm or the darkness or the sadness they both felt, but that night, Eric and Vince found a comfort they'd never sought in each other before. They tried to keep it up for awhile, but like everything in Eric's life, it eventually fell apart. Vince started to pull away, and Eric had gone back to what he had always known. Sloan was anxious to get married and Eric thought that maybe it was the perfect time to renew their engagement and find something permanent. It felt like it was finally time to grow up.

But Vince, poor foolish Vince, he had thought for some stupid reason that maybe Eric was going to the restaurant to break up with Sloan. He knew how he felt about Eric, and with the way things had been between them, he was certain that his best friend felt the same. That's why he had followed him that night, to comfort Eric after he broke Sloan's heart. He had to have been an idiot to believe that. He should have known that E was going to reconnect with Sloan.

For some damn reason, Eric believed that girl was his fate. As far as Vince was concerned, he'd found their mutual destiny when he was six years old. It was the only dream that he had ever wanted, and it mattered even more to him than being a big star in Los Angeles, having the big house in Malibu or having thousands of screaming fans adore him all over the country. Why have all that from afar when he could have Eric, this amazing and incredible guy who knew him better than anyone, right next to him?

"I'm going to marry her, Vin."

Vince looked up at him. "I know, E."

"She's going to be my wife, the mother of my children," Eric insisted. "She's going to be around for the rest of our lives, and I hope to God you're going to be around to share it with us."

"I'll be the perfect Uncle Vince to your kids, Eric. You don't need to worry."

"I tried."

Vince laughed humorlessly. "No, you didn't."

Eric shook his head. "Yes, I did, Vince, I tried. I wanted...I don't know what I wanted. Maybe I wanted it to work, maybe I just needed to go through this so I could really love Sloan. She loves me, Vince. She loves me the way I need to be loved. I don't know if you can understand that."

"You don't know if I can understand that?!?" Vince scoffed. "Eric, you know me. You know me better than anybody." Vince sighed. "How can you say that to me? I'd expect it from anybody else, but not from you, E." He chuckled again with false amusement. "Not from you."

"What do you want me to say?"

"Like I said earlier, E, I don't want you to say anything," came Vince's answer. "I don't want you to do anything. I don't expect anything from you anymore. Like you said, we tried. I guess I failed. It wouldn't be the first time, right?"

"Vin..."

"No, E, really it's fine." Vince was silent as he looked down at his hands. "I loved you the best way I knew how, and you said that she loves you almost the same way or as much or whatever you said. I guess almost is enough for you. I just never thought you'd be the guy to settle. Settle down, maybe, but not settle. I thought you'd want the whole package – the love of a lifetime to go along with the family and the partner. I kinda thought that's what I would be, what I could offer, but Sloan, she could almost give you that. I guess that's what you want...the nice wife you can take to church on Sunday, bring home to mom, show off at the country club, whatever. You don't need me anymore...not for that, not that you ever did, I guess."

"That's not fair."

"You're right, Eric, it's not fair. None of this is fair. It's not fair that the guy I love, the first person I've ever really loved, is going to marry somebody else. I thought it sucked when Mandy got engaged. I had no idea how bad this would feel. She was like a needle prick; this feels like someone cut out my fucking heart. I guess, without knowing it, Sloan kind of did."

"Don't blame her."

"Oh, I don't," Vince assured him instantly. "I don't even blame you really, E. Maybe I'm a little jealous and probably a lot jaded, but I'm happy for you because this is what you want. And I love you, more than I have ever loved anyone and probably more than is healthy. If this is what you want, if this is what it's going to take to make you the man you've always wanted to be, I will support it. I will support you until the day we die, and I can promise you that I will love you just as long."

Eric looked down at his tightly clasped hands and up at Vince and then back down again. "It's not that I don't love you, Vince."

"I know, E."

"It's just that..."

"It's just that this is too much," Vince finished for him. "And you're not sure that either of us can handle it. Honestly, neither am I."

"No, that's not it. I know that we could handle it. It's just that I'm not sure it's what you really want."

"E, you're the only thing I can remember ever wanting besides my career," Vince retorted. "All the rest of it came easily. The roles, the girls, the money, the fame – it was all just a result of me wanting to be an actor. With you, it's never come easy. I had to fight to be your best friend. I would have fought to be more than that, but I won't fight your happiness." Vince stood up and started to leave, but before he walked out completely, he turned to look back at E. "Are you sure that almost is enough?"

"I don't know, Vince," he answered honestly, "but it's what I've got."

Vince shook his head sadly and walked out of the living room. He could hear Eric's sobs as he retreated upstairs and shut his bedroom door behind him. Eric wasn't his to comfort anymore. What had proven to be the beginning of Eric and Sloan's life together was the ending to Vince's life with him. It wasn't easy by any measure of the word, but it was all he was left with. Maybe almost was enough for Eric, but it wasn't enough for Vince. So he would wait until the day his best friend woke up and realized that almost wasn't enough for him either. He knew that it would come eventually because he believed. He believed in destiny. He believed in never settling. He believed in Eric. He believed in love.