"My God, Colby" A wave of panic washed over Joe, but was quickly replaced by concern.

"Go away" He demanded never meeting Joe's gaze. The taller man threw the empty bottle to the garbage can next to the mini-freezer.

"Why do you do this to yourself?" Joe asked. Colby sipped the drink in his hands, but as his lips touched the bottle, Joe ran and took it away from him, then walking into the bathroom to flush the liquid. "This is a one way ticket to a coma!" Said Joe waving the second empty bottle above his head, but Colby ignored him. Joe left the bottle next to the other one and made his way to Colby who was still sitting facing the ground trying to avoid the elder's gaze.

"I'm sorry I screwed up," Colby mumbled. Joe knelt in front of him in order to look at him eye to eye, but he kept his head low "I always do… that's who I am. What do you want me to do?" He shrugged. The gray eyed man placed his fingers under the younger one's chin forcing him to look up at Joe

"I want you to trust me." He looked deeply into Colby's eyes for a few seconds and then dropped his gaze as well as his hand. "You're crazy" The drunken man kept looking at Joe watching him stand up in front of him "Come on, get up" Joe extended both hand at him. Colby frown confused

"W- Why?" He muttered

"You're going to throw up" Joe said assertively, but Colby didn't like that idea so he looked away shaking his head "Unless you want to go to a hospital, you're going to make yourself throw up… or I will!" Colby knew he wasn't kidding, he gave in and grabbed the other's hands in order to get up on his feet. He stumbled, but Joe caught him in his arms. The smell of Joe's cologne was intoxicating, it smelled like happiness to him. He looked at Joe as he was helping him do such a basic thing like walking (because the floor was moving away from his feet) toward the bathroom.

After several minutes, Colby finally got his stomach alcohol free. Joe put Colby's arm around his neck to help him walk to bed, for he would trip in his own feet. He sat down on the bed with his legs hanging from the edge. "Let's get you into bed shall we? You need to rest…We need to rest" Joe started to pull Colby's scotch-stained shirt up "I think – arms up – I think I owe you an apology as well for what I said the other night… I- uh flipped out, ya know" Colby didn't say a word, but his eyes said everything, Joe chewed on his lower lip. He unzipped the younger man's skin-tight black jeans and pulled them off as well so he could have room to move. Colby's brawny body was so familiar, Joe knew every inch of it.

"Why do stars shine, anyway?" The brown-eyed man asked. The other chuckled.

"Stars shine because of thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium in their core, for a-" Joe started, but Colby cut him off

"How do you know these things?" Colby mumbled crawling into bed and burying his head in the pillows

"I believe it was you who told me that… you were sober back then so..." He giggled. The gray eyed man covered him with the sheets and leaned over to kiss his forehead. "You scared me, dickhead" Joe whispered smiling. It was late but he felt compelled to stick around to keep an eye on Colby, thus he sat down on the old dark red armchair near the bed and inevitably fell asleep.

The next morning, Joe woke up to the sound of his ringtone, he looked at the screen – It was Jon – he picked up really quickly not to wake up Colby, who was still sleeping on the bed, at least most of him was on the bed: his left arm and leg were hanging from the side of it "Jon, hey, hang on a second" He put on Colby's flip-flops, they were slightly smaller than his feet, grabbed the card key and stepped out of the hotel room "Okay, go…"

"Where are you? Colby's missing too, but you probably don-" Jon asked

"I am not going today, and neither is Colby, he's got… a hangover. We'll be lucky if he gets out of the bed…"

"Wait, wait- you're with Colby?" Joe sensed the taller man's smile on the phone

"Well, it's a long story…"

"Is he okay?"

"He is now! Look, if someone asks, just make up an excuse that doesn't involve the word 'hangover' okay?"

"Fine, I'll see you guys later"

Joe opened the door very slowly to avoid making noise. In his hands he had a box with doughnuts in it and two coffees. He headed toward the armchair he had slept on and sat down waiting for Colby to wake up This will take a while he thought, but he was wrong. He heard the two toned mad yawn. He had missed the sleepy look on Colby's face when he wakes up, a small grin played on his lips as the other brushed the sleep away with his hands, but he was still mad at him, after all he nearly slipped into a coma. "Good morning asshole" Joe greeted with a huge frown on his face.

"What a joy!" Colby said in a mocking tone "Good morning, sunshine! You look so happy today…you're glowing" He said sarcastically "Although, next time, try being a little more…uh…poetic!" said Colby, but soon his head started aching.

"Roses are red, violets are blue, I have five fingers and the third one is for you"

"Lovely. Why are you so upset?" Colby lowered his voice and covered his eyes with his hand. "Why did you come anyway? You wouldn't be mad now!"

"I was freaking worried about you, what kind of man would I be if I didn't come to help you or at least to check on you, huh?" The gray eyed man raised his voice

"One of a kind" Colby joked but Joe gave him a shut-the-hell-up-I'm-trying-to-be-serious-here look "I'm fine now, you can go if you want?" Joe glanced at him but quickly looked away ignoring him.

"I brought breakfast" He showed him the coffees and the doughnuts as Colby smiled. He loved doughnuts but the fact that Joe had chosen to stay was the real reason he was smiling "You scared the hell out of me last night, you son of a bitch" He let out a small giggle and shook his head.

"So… did- did I call you last night?" Colby asked sipping his coffee

"Why do you think I came here? What you don't remember?"

"I was just hoping it'd had been a dream…" He chewed on his doughnut "So… I'm assuming that your apology was real as well, but-"

"It was" Joe revealed

"Where does that leave us?" Colby demanded. Joe stopped eating and looked at him stunned with the question.

"Life always offers you a second chance. It's called tomorrow."