Chapter 1: All Yours

As she began mashing up the dough for the rice balls, Monica tried to glower witheringly at the box in which Chandler had subjected himself for punishment. She attempted this, even as she knew that she was far from angry at him – certainly not angry at him in the way that Joey was.

If she was angry at anybody, it was at that wench Kathy for playing on the feelings of not only Chandler, but on those of Joey as well. Though, really, the person who risked suffering the most damage was Chandler – Cassanova that he was, Joey would probably bounce right back from this betrayal, even as the struggling actor was taking this rejection harder than he had with any other girl.

But Chandler…. He was so desperate for love, and yet so commitment-averse, that the thought of Kathy cheating on him (even as his union with Kathy had come about from them both cheating on his best friend), could have – and was having - serious repercussions on his emotional psyche.

Monica couldn't help but be enraged at Kathy for that, so much so that she could feel the anger pooling behind her eyes, enough for her to take off her eye-patch just so she could wipe at her orb.

"Mon, don't! You'll irritate it!" She felt Rachel sidle up next to her, hovering in concern.

Bit late for that. She was already irritated, and not about her eye. Monica was irritated about a great many things – at herself, and her stupid affair with Tim Burke, after she had already gone and dated the man's father. If the men she pursed weren't too old, they were too young, and now it seemed that she had made the mistake of pursuing the latter twice, though in truth the first indiscretion with that high schooler a couple years back had been through no fault of her own. Monica was lucky she hadn't been arrested.

But even more than bemoaning her track record with men, Monica was irritated by Kathy playing with the hearts of two men she cared about – one of whom she cared for more than she had ever cared about anyone. Chandler. Her Chandler. It was enough to make a protective rage grow inside of her, only for her to have to slap herself, now irritated at why she cared so much. It almost frightened her, a little, to want to shield Chandler so badly that she was seriously considering murdering another woman on sight.

Monica was irritated, frustrated, and when it came to considering the star-crossed affair of Chandler and Kathy….

….. No. She couldn't possibly be feeling envy, could she? Who would envy being in such a love triangle as this?

Or maybe there was another love triangle involved, one that she dared not let her thoughts drift to. The one that had the same central players, except poor and hapless Joey was cycled out for…..

"I hate her," Monica spat, softly, so only Rachel could here. "I hate what that…. that…." She couldn't think of a strong enough word for Kathy, so she let it hang in the air. "…. Has done to those boys. Especially Chandler!"

Monica was disconcerted to find how Rachel was studying her with a far too knowing purse to her lips, at once bemused and sympathetic. The blonde's eyes widened a little.

"…. You're jealous…..!"

Monica gritted her teeth, gnashing. "I'm – not – jealous!" she ground out, even as her mauling of rice ball dough into little bits made her seem like exactly that.

The beautiful chef kept her head down once Kathy showed her face, looking meek. Monica bit down on her tongue and decided to let the tramp and the boys sort it out, before she herself said something she would surely regret. She might not like her, and for reasons that Monica hardly dared to admit even to herself, but Chandler clearly still cared for Kathy deeply, to say nothing of how he felt for Joey to the point that he would lock himself in a box as if to prove his love to both of them.

Kathy approached the box, having had the situation explained to her by Joey. She was perched on the far end, speaking softly into the breathing hole where Chandler's head rested.

"I know you can't talk, so I want you to listen…. OK?" Then Kathy explained how she didn't want to be the one to come between two best friends and how therefore she thought it best if she and Chandler didn't see each other anymore. She was going to go to her mother's in Chicago.

Even as Monica exulted at Kathy's self-imposed banishment, her heart spasmed at the knowledge that the actress's departure would crush Chandler, and Joey along with him. The beautiful chef bristled at Kathy's admission that she and Chandler could have been great, if things were different.

Having said her piece, Kathy trudged sadly for the door. But before she left, she paused in front of the other friends, her eyes landing on Monica.

"I feel like such a fraud," Kathy confessed, which was more self-introspection than Monica would have expected from the woman.

But if Kathy felt fraudulent, it wasn't for the reasons that Monica assumed, as would soon be made clear. Kathy now smiled at Monica sadly, almost as if in…. defeat.

"He's all yours," she murmured quietly, nodding with such omniscience that Monica sucked in a breath, her eyes going wide. Kathy swept from the apartment, leaving Monica bewildered.

A moved Joey now dashed over to free Chandler from his box prison, the other man leaping to his feet and out of the wooden crypt. Monica felt Chandler's eyes go to hers, and she blanched as she realized:

Oh, God….. he had heard everything.

"You can still catch her!" Joey was urging Chandler, referring to Kathy.

Monica fled from the apartment. It was all she could do to hide her tears. She figured that Chandler would make the choice between which woman to go after, and then she would have her answer.

Monica was halfway down the stairwell, figuring that Kathy could not be that far ahead, and perhaps even still in the building, when she heard running feet pelt after her.

"Mon… MONICA!"

Monica paused on the closest landing, yet kept her face turned away. She couldn't bear to look at him, and even worse, to let him see her cry. She could hear Chandler breathing hard.

"What…. what did Kathy mean? About how she felt like a fraud? And that I was…. all yours?"

Monica felt her heart go through a twinge and she had to lift a hand to her mouth to wrestle down the sob.

"It's true, you know." She whispered it like it was a confessional, because that's what it was. It was her confessing the feelings that had lain in her heart and grown more recently, enough that she could finally place a name for it. Rachel had alluded to it earlier.

"What is?"

Monica turned her head to gaze at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. "That I've….. fallen in love with you."

Chandler stared at her, bewildered. "Really?"

She gaped at him. "Well…. it…. it isn't just about Kathy, for your information!" she spluttered. "I've been leaving a trail of mediocre men and poor decisions in my wake, and who's to say I wouldn't be leaving you on that road, break your heart like she did? I care for you too much to even risk that, so, I'm sorry, Chandler, let's just go home and forget this ever happened…."

Her voice trailed off at the boyish, bashful smile that she had always adored beaming at her, so smoldering she felt like she was going to burn up at any moment. "Come here."

Monica frowned. "Why?" she asked warily.

Chandler didn't answer – simply took her by the hand and led her up the stairs back onto the third floor. They were in the hallway between his apartment and hers and Monica was just opening her mouth to ask him what was going on when Chandler suddenly turned her and pressed her into the door of Apartment 19, and his lips were suddenly on hers.

"Mmmmm!" Monica squeaked with utter shock into Chandler's mouth, her blue eyes popping in astonishment.

….. only for those eyes to, a moment later, flutter shut with relief, triumph and dizzying, delirious joy. Monica melted. She moaned and looping her arms about his neck, she let the sound of her pleasure part her willing lips so she could greet his tongue and kiss him back.

As for Chandler, his arms were around her waist, his one hand buried in her dark hair. His eyes too had swooned shut and he wasn't sure that he cared if he ever learned how to open them again.

The sensuous, passionate, magical kiss eased into light and feverish pecks, and Monica nuzzled her cheek against his, her eyelids fluttering in a kind of daze. She hoped their friends weren't staring, but if they were, let them!

At last, the couple broke apart, gazes still hooded, both of them panting for air.

"Maybe…. maybe we shouldn't be doing this…." Chandler rasped, his gaze uncertain for the first time.

Monica slowly shook her head, even as her eyes were only for him. "No….. we definitely shouldn't be doing this…." she agreed, even as she groped behind her for the doorknob to let them both into Apartment 19. Taking him by the hand, she guided Chandler with purpose inside and towards the bedroom…..