Thankfully Heath hadn't showed up at Angelo's last night so Liam hadn't had to face him. But it did present the problem that he could show up tonight and it will still be the first time Liam's seen him since, well...that, and it's all just way too sickening to handle. Just one more. One more wouldn't hurt. Two pills is hardly an addiction...he'd already been there, he knew what an addiction was. Liam swallowed the pill, now he could do this. His only concern was the lone pill left, what if it was a few days before he ran into Heath?

xxx

Liam's shift was over and Heath hadn't showed up. He only had one pill left, maybe he should look into getting a few more. It was dark as Liam started his walk home. Across the car park he saw two men and Liam had been a party to enough dodgy drug deals to know one when he saw one. For once luck was on his side...or not. Liam recognised the dealer, it was Heath. Damn.

By the time Liam got home he wasn't in a good place. In fact he was freaking-the-fuck-out. He paced his bedroom, a circular argument rolling around and around in his head. He wanted more pills and Heath was the obvious person to ask. But avoiding Heath, or dealing with Heath, or whatever was the reason he needed the pills in the first place. So if he went to Heath, he'd have to face Heath and wouldn't that defeat the purpose, or make it worse or whatever? Liam didn't know what to do...he paced and argued with himself until he had no idea whether he was coming or going. If Heath had just showed up at Angelo's like he always did, Liam could've moved past this and got on with his life, trust Heath to make life difficult. And anyway, why the fuck hadn't Heath been in for two nights? Was he avoiding something, or someone? Maybe he was and that upset Liam even more, and that fact that it upset him, upset him too...

Fuck this, he needed more pills and the quickest way to get them was to ask Heath. He downed the last one and walked out into the night.

xxx

Heath was woken by someone bashing on the door. He grabbed his cricket bat and quietly approached the door. His recent activities had him a little more on edge than usual. He pulled the curtain across just enough to peek out and see who the fuck would be around here at two-thirty in the morning. What the fuck? It was Murphy. Heath opened the door, intending to tell Murphy off for waking him up, and for being an idiot in general, but Murphy spoke before Heath had a chance.

"Heath, can you hook me up?"

"What?" Heath asked blankly, initially misinterpreting Murphy's intention.

"I saw you earlier, I just need something to take the edge off, you know? I've got plenty of cash," Murphy finished, fishing around in his pocket and producing some notes.

"Put that away," Heath said, taking in the fact that Murphy was obviously high right now. "I haven't got anything for you." Heath's attention was drawn from Murphy by Casey.

"What's going on Heath?" his little brother said, rubbing his eyes, still half asleep.

"Nothing," Heath told him, "go back to bed Casey."

"Hi Casey," Murphy called from behind Heath.

"Oh hey Liam," Casey mumbled, and then he turned around and wandered off back to bed. Heath turned on Murphy.

"Go home Murphy, I'm not giving you anything, you're high."

"Only a little bit," Murphy replied, demonstrating with his thumb and index finger how small the amount was.

"No," Heath said firmly. He wasn't going to help Murphy fall back into bad habits. Just because Heath sold drugs, it didn't mean he approved of taking them.

"Well then get fucked jerk," Murphy said, shoving Heath in the chest before he turned and sooked off. Heath had a moment of watching him go in which he felt a pang of unexpected concern and fuck it, he couldn't let Murphy wander off into the night high and angry and desperate, who knew what he'd do? Heath raced into his bedroom and threw some clothes on, then he was out the door after Murphy. He caught up to him in the park near the beach.

"Murphy wait."

"Changed your mind?" Murphy said hopefully and Heath didn't like that at all.

"No."

"Then piss off and leave me alone." Geez, Murphy was hostile tonight; it made Heath wonder what had happened to make Murphy start using again. Murphy attempted to leave again but Heath was overcome by the need to get to the bottom of this.

"Sit," Heath commanded, shoving Murphy down onto the park bench, the idiot had less chance of hurting himself if he was sitting still. Heath took a seat beside him and here was where it got awkward, Heath was no good at this mushy kinda stuff. They sat in silence for a while and then Murphy spoke.

"In vino veritas."

"Huh?"

"It's Latin."

"You speak Latin?" Heath said doubtfully and that made Murphy laugh.

"No, I'm just a Val Kilmer fan." Heath had no idea what Murphy was talking about. "It's from the movie Tombstone."

"Never heard of it."

"Oh my God! It's the best movie ever! It's a western. The true story of Wyatt Earp the greatest frontier lawman ever and his best friend Doc Holliday the gambler and accused murderer. You know? The gunfight at the OK Corral. You have to see it, we can watch it together some time."

"Ok," Heath agreed to keep the peace, he was a little worried, Murphy was all over the place. They sat in silence for a while longer, Heath wasn't sure what to do next, so he asked a question to fill the silence between them.

"Hey Murphy, what does that 'in vino' thing mean?" Murphy turned and looked Heath in the eye, his gaze far too intense for the triviality of the question. Suddenly Heath dreaded the answer.

"It means 'in wine truth'." That didn't make any sense but as Heath met Murphy's expectant gaze and the taste of a wine-flavoured kiss filled his memory, it made terrifyingly perfect sense. And without meaning to Heath had leaned in closer to Murphy, so their mouths were only inches apart.

"Heath," Murphy said softly, resting his hand on Heath's face, "I wish you'd let me kiss you." Heath had plenty of time to think about why this was so wrong, plenty of time to pull away, but he didn't. He let Murphy kiss him, because Murphy seemed to need this. Heath intended to do just as Murphy had asked and let himself be kissed but his traitorous mouth remembered Murphy's and how good it had felt to do this, and uncontrollably he returned the kiss. God, no one had ever made him feel like this, or feel so much, the need to be near Murphy was becoming addictive and it was that thought that wrenched Heath out of the near-inescapable fire building between them. Heath pulled away, not because he wanted to but because he knew he had to. Heath held Murphy's face between his hands, it was an intimate and familiar gesture he felt he'd earned.

"You need to go home now," Heath said and quickly hurried on when he saw the anger start to rise in the other man. "I promise we'll talk about this in the morning."