Chapter 1: This Love is so Damn Beautiful

He was screwed. So. Screwed.

From where he was propping himself up halfway between the headboard and his pillow, shifting his weight in some halfway point between his elbow and his skull, Chandler turned his gaze towards the window of this hotel room in London. Dawn was only an hour or so away. It was still dark, but the blackness had tinged every so slightly to a dull gray. The streetlights still glowed on the sidewalk below. The moon was beginning to sink, yet still full…

…. So that its light now cast an ethereal glow over the mesmerizing creature strewn naked across the other side of the bed.

Chandler watched the slumbering form of his best friend. He was enraptured by her – of course, he always had admired her, but never more so than now. Her beauty….. that body….. She looked like a princess, lying there in almost ageless repose.

Chandler liked watching her sleep. He had never imagined how someone who kept the working hours she did could sleep so soundly, yet here Monica lay, appearing utterly at peace.

That same tranquility was threatening to wash over him now. It was ironically terrifying.

Chandler knew full well what had happened, even as it had come at him with no warning. But when one of the most beautiful women you've ever known throws herself at you, was there any other response besides just going for the ride?

…. He'd feel better about the ride if he knew just where it let off.

Not that he wanted to get off. Not just yet. This night was still so fresh in his mind.

Seven times. They had gone at it seven, glorious times in not even as many hours. And it had been….. Wooooo! Chandler could still hearing Monica crying out with happiness, begging him to finish her until he hit the jackpot and she was screaming the word "Seven! Seven! Seven!" over and over again with elation in his ear.

Oh so carefully, Chandler reached out and tucked a mussy strand of Monica's dark hair behind her ear. A swooping feeling flooded his chest, tight and so visceral it almost brought him to tears. He didn't recognize the sensation from any of his other encounters with women – or at least, the four that had gone this far. He wasn't sure whether he even liked the swooping feeling, except to conclude that he didn't outright hate it.

And that – probably more than the fact that he had fucked his best friend with almost no regard for the consequences – was what scared Chandler the most.

His forearm was starting to cramp. Chandler eased back down into a prone position on the mattress. As gently as he dared, he spooned Monica and snuggled against her lithe, svelte form, into her skin. Burrowed himself in her warmth. She squirmed ever so slightly, murmuring something in her sleep, but didn't awaken. In fact, he could have sworn she pulled him closer.

Chandler fell back to sleep stroking her hair.

By the time he awoke again, sunlight was streaming into the hotel room. For all of a second, Chandler panicked as his eyes darted to the other empty bed that was normally occupied by Joey, but it was mercifully empty. Looks like his roommate hadn't come home from doing that bridesmaid, the Lothario bastard!

A pretty murmuring diverted Chandler's attention back to where Monica was beginning to stir. She shifted to glance back at him over her shoulder, and Chandler's mouth watered as he caught the swell of her breast in profile. He was relieved when Monica's first reaction to seeing him in her arms and in his bed was not abject horror.

"….. Good morning…" she crooned.

Chandler smiled. "Morning, beautiful." It sounded like such a line, and from the way her sapphire eyes sparkled, Monica seemed to know it, even as she clearly didn't mind.

Her voice was still bleary, saturated with sleep, her gaze lethargic. "We…. we made love last night…." She breathed.

"Yes, we did…." Chandler bent to kiss her, hesitating for just a moment, wanting it to be her decision if she wanted to close the gap. She did, and let out a tiny, content moan as they shared a kiss good morning.

Then, all at once, Monica was pulling away, thrashing a little under the covers. "We made love last night!" she yelped. She was definitely awake now, her eyes wild. A beat, and then she burst out laughing. Chandler laughed along really uncomfortably, even as a twinge of something that might have been pain coursed through his heart.

Now that she was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the clear light of morning, did she regret what they had done? True, she still had a hangover, but everything looked so much clearer in a hangover than when you were drunk.

All at once, there was a kind of whooping, shouting noise coming from down the hall. Monica's eyes bulged and she let out a squeak, ducking all the way under the covers. Chandler barely had time to strike a nonchalant pose, glancing once out the window at the fully risen sun before the door to his hotel room was banging open and Ross appeared.

"I'M GETTING MARRIED TODAY!" Ross bellowed, euphoric.

Chandler smirked nervously. "Morning, Ross."

"I'M GETTING MARRIED – TODAY! YA-HOO!" Ross backed out of the room as quickly as he appeared.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Monica popped her head out from under the bedclothes. "Do you think he knew I was here?"

If it hadn't been awkward before, in the second preceding Ross barging in and nearly catching them both, it was definitely awkward now. Chandler and Monica both sat up against the headboard, the covers pulled up tight to their chests.

"Well….. I've…. never done that with you before," Chandler squeaked.

"Nope," Monica popped her lips over a strained smile.

A truly excruciating pause. "So, how…. how are you? You OK?"

"Yeah. Yeah, You?" She glanced to him.

"Oh, yes!" he squeaked. "Yes! Uh-huh. You?" Monica cocked a bemused eyebrow at him, and he adorably flushed. "We did you."

Damn right you did me, Monica thought wickedly, and it was taking everything in her not to lick her lips and pounce on him again. "Well…. I'd better get going….."

The tiny, traitorous part of her that was caught in a tempest of mortification was begging that he would ask her to stay. "OK, yeah, absolutely!" was all Chandler managed instead.

Monica started to rise lithely out of the bed they had shared. Flushing bright red, she glanced back to him.

"Could you not look?"

"I don't wanna look!" Chandler yelped, diverting his eyes gentlemanly, in a way that to Monica was actually cute. She redressed with as much quiet dignity as she could muster before fleeing from the hotel room, barely slowing down enough to sneak furtively, hopefully without being seen.

It was tense and awkward later that day, as she was paired off to walk down the aisle with the man she had slept with, as a member of the wedding party. She was almost impressed by how Chandler was the first one to address the elephant in the room.

"What we did last night was…."

"….. stupid," she clipped, keeping a plastered, too-fake smile on her face.

"Totally, crazy stupid!" Chandler agreed, yet the words seemed to oddly lack any conviction.

"What were we thinking?" Monica concurred.

"….. I'm coming over tonight, though, right?"

Her heart leapt, exulted. Before they had to part at the end of the aisle, before she lost her nerve, Monica nodded.

"Oh, yeah, definitely."