A/N - Thanks again for reading this story and all the amazing reviews/support. I love this fandom!
And without further ado let's get to Chandler and that towel...
The next morning Chandler came out of his bathroom with a towel around his waist whistling happily. He couldn't remember ever being this chirpy on a Monday morning. Sure, he still had to face work and all the statistic reports that 'Friday' Chandler had left for 'Monday' Chandler. Plus, Doug was back from his vacation, so would want a catch-up meeting where he'd probably share some very inappropriate vacation stories and dirty jokes that Chandler would have to pretend he found funny...he had a feeling he'd be using his fake work laugh a lot today.
Yet none of that really mattered. All he had to do was get out of this towel, get into some clothes and then he could be in the girls' apartment saying good morning to Monica within minutes. Monica. He'd missed not having her in his bed last night but he'd take this as slow as she wanted. Yesterday's date had been amazing and the goodnight kisses had been outta this world. If he went around to the girls' apartment early enough, he could give her a proper good morning kiss as well, without an audience.
He practically skipped into his bedroom with thoughts of Monica running around his head. He entered his room and froze, blinking in shock as he found the woman at the center of his thoughts stood by his bed. His eyes widened in surprise and as she spotted him hers widened in a similar fashion.
"Hi," he swallowed, "not, uh, not that it's not great to see you but what are you doing here?"
"I," she was staring at his bare chest and Chandler was a little smug that he could have that effect on her. God only knew the effect she had on him. "I, uh," she was still staring, "I thought if I came here early we could say good morning...without the others being there, but, uh, I didn't realize you'd be naked..."
"Sounds like a plan," he chuckled, loving that she'd had the same idea as him, "and I'm not naked."
"You are under that towel," she swallowed, her gaze switching to the said towel.
It was his turn to swallow. It was getting hotter in here.
"Well, if we're playing that game, you're naked under those clothes," he pointed out, pointedly running his eyes over the full length of her clothed body. "Besides, we've hugged before, when you've been wearing a towel, it's no big deal."
With that he stepped closer to her, breaking her out of her trance. She held out a hand to try and stop him coming too close, worried that if they touched with him in his presence state it would be too much of a temptation. Unfortunately, the hand collided with his damp, bare chest, defeating the whole point of her protest. She swallowed hard.
"That was before," she said somewhat weakly. "It's different now."
Flushed, she glanced down, her eyes automatically landing on his naked chest and on her hand that was still there. She watched as her fingers gently caressed the smooth skin underneath them, almost of their own accord. He remained still but she could see his chest rising and falling quickly as his breathing sped up. It felt so intimate. She heard him take a sharp breath as a lone fingernail lightly traced the small scar left from his nubbin-ectomy.
"Monica," he groaned, finally capturing her hand and squeezing his eyes tightly shut, "if you wanna take this slow you've gotta stop doing that."
He opened his eyes and met hers, offering a little smile to take any edge off his words.
"Sorry," she smiled too, a little self-consciously, "I couldn't resist."
"And that's a good thing, a very good thing," he said conversationally, "but we're taking this slow, plus we don't have time for that. I've gotta get to work and you're soon gonna have an apartment full of hungry people. I certainly don't want our first time to be rushed with Joey banging on the door demanding to know where his pancakes are."
She laughed, nodding. She didn't know how slow they'd be able to take this and putting out before the end of the week was definitely a possibility. But he was right, they didn't have time just now anyhow, no matter how tempting it was.
"Ok, fine," she agreed, "but I still want my morning kiss."
"That I can do," he grinned cockily, pulling her flush against him before she could protest.
One arm went around her petite waist as the other threaded through her soft hair, cradling the back of her head as their lips crashed together. He could feel her hands roaming his naked back as their lips desperately caressed each other's. It felt so good, so hot. It was as intense as their good night kiss yesterday in the hallway. Possibly even more intense given Chandler's state of undress. The feel of her hands on his naked skin was simply amazing. He couldn't get enough of this woman.
It took a lot of will-power but eventually they broke away from the kiss. Still breathing heavily they stayed in their embrace and just smiled at each other in awe. Wow. Kissing Monica would never get old. He stared into her eyes just loving everything about this moment.
"Good morning," she finally greeted, her eyes sparkling.
"Good morning to you too, beautiful," he smiled leaning down for shorter, more gentle kiss.
The term of endearment hadn't gone unnoticed by Monica and as the kiss ended she hugged him tightly before stepping away. She was still wondering how she'd gotten so lucky to have had a guy like Chandler fall in love with her.
"Unless you're planning on phoning in sick I should probably…" she gestured reluctantly to the door.
"Yeah," he swallowed, his tongue darting out to wet his lips as he looked at her. Part of him was very tempted to phone work but that wouldn't solve the Joey and the pancake problem. "Thanks for the, uh, good morning."
"Same time tomorrow?" she asked innocently.
"Oh yeah," he grinned, watching as she flashed him another smile before turning and leaving.
He could get used to these early morning greetings, he mused as he debated if he had time for a cold shower.
A short while later Chandler emerged from his bedroom, dressed and ready for breakfast; he was hopeful for a second, more subtle 'good morning,' with Monica. He was surprised to see Joey sitting at the counter waiting for him. Occasionally they'd wait for each other but not often.
"You alright, man?" Chandler asked as he fixed his tie in place.
"Yeah," he shrugged, "just thought I'd wait for you."
Chandler frowned slightly taking him in, "what's going on?" he finally asked.
"Nothing," Joey shrugged, "I just figured you might want some back-up, ya know."
"Back up?" He didn't know.
"Yeah, in case the others start throwing questions at you or Ross goes all big brother on ya or something. I've got your back."
Chandler grinned, actually quite touched by his roommate's gesture.
"Thanks, Joe," he clapped him on the shoulder.
"No problem," he stood up, "though you're cutting it fine. As soon as I started smelling the pancakes I almost left without you."
"It's much appreciated," Chandler chuckled knowing never to question Joey's loyalty to food.
They walked across the hall and as they entered the apartment all the others were already there and they received various greetings. He could feel everyone's eyes on him but he didn't care. His eyes went straight to Monica where she stood by the hob. She turned and smiled brightly at him, her eyes sparkling as he approached her. She looked gorgeous to him.
"Hey," he grinned, pausing a moment to take her in before placing a brief kiss on her lips.
"Hey," she smiled back happily, turning back to the pancakes.
With a wide smile on his face, he took a seat at the table.
"That's it?" Rachel asked.
"What?" he asked still smiling, "you think we're gonna have some sorta make-out session in front of you all?"
"Well, no," she grumbled, "but I was expecting more than that."
"You shouldn't make assumptions," Monica pointed out as she came over to the table with some more pancakes. She stood a little closer to Chandler than necessary and placed her hand on his shoulder; he offered her a beaming smile in response and she had to resist the urge to kiss him again. God he was cute.
"So, uh," Ross cleared his throat looking mighty uncomfortable. "I take it you guys are a 'thing' now?"
"Uh huh," Monica confirmed, her hand squeezing Chandler's shoulder slightly.
"I think it's great," Joey barged in, giving Chandler a wink, "You guys are going to make an awesome couple. I can't imagine two people working better. Congrats guys."
"T-thanks man," Chandler hadn't expected Joey to actually 'have his back'.
"I didn't say it wasn't great," Ross defended, "it'll just take a while to get used to it."
Chandler nodded in understanding. He didn't really need Ross' approval, nothing would stop him from seeing Monica but at the same time he desperately wanted him to be ok with it.
The conversation gradually moved away from the group's newest couple and onto other things. Joey, as predicted, had already moved on from Kathy and had a date with some girl called Casey lined up. Chandler was pleased that his roommate hadn't stayed too bummed about the whole Kathy thing. He still felt bad about it though and decided he should do something for Joey...he just had to think of that something.
He glanced over to Monica and they shared a smile when he found she was looking at him too. He wished it was the weekend still and that he could stay here with her longer. He knew if he pulled one sick-day at work to spend the day with her, he'd never be able to convince himself to go back. Offering her one last secret smile he went back to finishing his breakfast before glancing at his watch. He had to go.
"Right," he commented starting to stand, "I need to head to work."
"Me too," Ross agreed, "I'll walk down with you."
"Sure," Chandler nodded although he wasn't entirely sure this was a casual coincidence. Was this the big brother moment about to take place? He glanced at Joey wondering if he could borrow him as a bodyguard, but his roommate seemed totally engrossed with Phoebe writing some song about Tarzan and a nose hair…he wasn't going to ask.
He stood there awkwardly a moment, wanting to kiss Monica good bye but not wanting to make a big spectacle out of it. If they didn't want to be public entertainment then they had to keep it out of the 'public' eye. Yet, now that Ross was gonna be escorting him from the building, he couldn't exactly pull her into the hallway like he'd planned. Well, not kissing her good bye wasn't an option so he just had to man up and ignore all the eyes that were starting to look at him funny.
He walked over to Monica and she gave him a shy smile, apparently also glad that he didn't intend to leave without a kiss. It shouldn't have surprised him that she'd noticed his internal debate. He leant down, closing his eyes and pressed his lips to hers. It was a little longer than their second good morning kiss but it didn't linger for too long.
When he pulled away he left his face close for a moment, "I'll see you later," he said quietly.
"Ok," she answered just as softly, "have a good day."
"You too," he sighed, then unable to resist, leaned forward and shared another chaste kiss with her before looking into her eyes once more and finally moving away.
There were various amused farewells as they left and Chandler managed to share one last look and a smile with her before the door closed. The goofy smile was still on his face as he turned to face her brother. Opps.
To his relief Ross just offered him a smile back.
"So," Chandler started when it was clear Ross wasn't. "Are you sure you're ok with this?"
"Yeah," Ross shrugged, "it helped that we talked about it at the strip club. I could see how much you loved this 'mystery' woman and how much you wanted to be with her before I knew who you were talking about. So I guess I was already kinda routing for you. Besides, I told you I'd be there no matter what this woman's decision was and I'm not gonna go back on that. Just cause it turned out to be Monica doesn't change that and...you're a good guy."
"Thanks."
"But I just need to make sure of one thing," Ross admitted halting on the landing, "and then after that, I promise I'll be your best friend again and not your girlfriend's brother."
"O-k," Chandler swallowed, really wishing he'd hired Joey now; he was pretty sure he'd get a lot more than bruises if Ross threw him down the stairs.
"She's definitely not a rebound from Kathy?" Ross asked quickly.
"No," he answered back just as quickly, not pointing out that he'd never been in a relationship with Kathy, so being a 'rebound' was impossible. "The whole Kathy thing was a mistake. I know you don't quite understand it but you don't need to. The bottom line is I've been in love with Monica for a long time and I chose her…and more importantly she chose me too."
Ross studied him a moment, obviously finding what he was looking for and finally nodded, "ok. Just never hurt her."
"I won't," he promised, clapping his shoulder as they continued down the stairs. "You know I wouldn't, couldn't in fact. Your sister is freakishly strong."
Ross chuckled, letting Chandler joke his way out of the conversation.
"So, are you going to see that superhot but supermessy doctor again?" Chandler asked, desperate for a change in topic. He still remembered Ross giving him that 'don't go near my little sister' speech back in college. Luckily, a lot had changed since then, including his hairstyle.
"I don't know," Ross admitted. "She is super hot and she likes dinosaurs….how often does that happen."
"I'm gonna go with never."
"Exactly but her apartment is just so bad. She like has the exact opposite of Monica's cleaning standards."
"Wow," Chandler raised his eyebrows. That was bad.
"I know," Ross sighed. "Maybe I'll go round there one more time and see what happens."
"Good plan," Chandler agreed, "though it's somewhat ironic that the one girl you date that probably has dinosaurs in her bedroom, has a bedroom too messy for you to see them."
"Tell me about it," Ross complained as they stepped out onto the busy sidewalk. "Catch you later, man."
"See ya," Chandler nodded as headed towards work.
It was weird to think that hopefully he'd never have those sorta dating troubles again. He'd never have to experience that dread of going on a first date. Nor ever have the random dating problems that Ross was currently facing. He would no longer be the awkward one at the bar, sweating profusely while Joey got phone number after phone number.
He'd hated the dating jungle with a passion and it hadn't liked him any better. He hadn't enjoyed it…well, quite frankly he'd sucked at it. Big time. Yet somehow, despite all that he'd won the ultimate prize. He'd ended up with a woman as fricking amazing as Monica.
A slow smile spread across his face at the thought.
How the hell had he managed that?
A/N- a lot slower paced but hopefully you still enjoyed it. Sorry for the wait with this one...it's been one of those weeks!