His hands fumble with the tie, slender brown fingers very nearly strangling the black strip of silk until it's in danger of tearing in half. In the mirror his best friend's mouth twists into a vague smirk, watching the struggle.

"You still suck at that. It's nice to know some things never change."

David turns, giving his best man a tired, exasperated glare. He tugs on the tie, wondering if the tuxedo would look just as good without it.

Shane clears his throat gently picking a photograph off the dressing table beside him. It's recent, taken only a week before on the beach, a grinning tanned David carrying an equally tan Calista on his back. He puts it back down, turning it backward so that the couple are grinning at the wall. "So, this is it then. The big step. Are you sure you're ready for this?"

David's frustration toward his tie is obvious, his handsome face in a concentrated frown. "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't."

"Yeah." Shane says and deep down he wonders how David is so sure about being ready when Shane swears he can still taste him somewhere inside his mouth. He wonders how David can be so sure when Shane knows David's back is laced with fresh scars from Shane's fingernails. His teeth.

Outside the room, somewhere else in the vast house, someone shrieks with glee. Shane looks out the window and he can see the makeshift aisle, fancy white silk trails against the vibrant green grass. He's never seen a day so clear and beautiful, so full of sun and brilliant hues and he loathes everything he sees. He wishes the sun would die. He wishes David would stop touching the damn tie.

When he speaks his voice is so low it almost doesn't make it and he certainly doesn't plan it. It's the queston he hasn't stopped wanting to ask ever since David and Calista met at the damn party. "Do you love her?"

David's body tenses and he flicks his eyes over at Shane's reflection, on the other side of the room. "Of course I do. Would I be marrying her if I didn't?"

His tone is light. Casual. As though inside he's not beginning to panic.

Shane looks at his friend, meeting the reflected green eyes. Privately, he thinks they're much more vibrant than the stupid grass. "I don't know." He answers and David is beginning to hate how soft his voice is. "Would you?"

David can sense it coming and he already knows every secret question Shane is asking. Every question Shane wants to ask. He exhales very slowly, twisting the tie in his hands and he's not even trying to tie it anymore. He's only keeping his hands busy, distracted, because his fingers are starting to remember how soft Shane's hair is. How easy it is to bury his face, his entire world, in.

"Shane...don't start this. I don't...can we talk about it later?"

"When?" Shane asks and his voice has turned bitter and defiant. "After your honeymoon? Or should I wait 'til the kid's born? When should I bring it up? When it suits you?"

"Shane." David repeats and he has not planned this. He keeps his eyes locked on the mirror and starts on his tie again, distractions beyond welcome. "Please. Don't. Not here. Not now. It's my wedding day." He adds purely out of desperation.

Shane is quiet, his brown eyes narrowed at the floor. There's a dim racket coming from another room, music maybe. His heart is pounding already, hot anger already spreading through his gut. His hands fist by his sides. It still surprises him how quickly he can get worked up over David. Over Calista. Over them. "Fine. So when do you plan on telling your precious future wife you've been fucking me for the past three years?"

David's hands slip, and the tie slips off from around his neck and puddles on the floor at his feet. "Don't you...there's nothing to tell." He tries so very hard to keep his voice steady and firm, to keep his eyes on his own reflection and to keep his heartbeat under tight control. He tries so hard. "We're friends."

Shane snorts, his nostrils flaring and he glares up at David's back. "Bullshit. Why won't you - "

"We've already discussed this." David says evenly and he crouches down to pick up the tie. The silk is too smooth, too slippery, and he drops it twice. Or maybe it's nerves. He wishes Shane would stop. He isn't prepared for this. He needs to end it, he needs to shut Shane up. He wishes he hadn't chosen Shane as his best man. They're too complicated. "It's over. Whatever...it was just a stupid..."

"Fling?" Shane sneers and his own tuxedo is far too thick and hot.

David winces as though in pain and loops the tie around his neck. His hands are shaking. "I...yeah...Shane..." He swallows and his hands are shaking too much; the tie constantly escaping his fingers. "It's over. I'm getting married."

Shane stomps over to him, grabbing him by the shoulders and twisting him around so that they're facing and far too close for David's liking. David opens his mouth to protest but Shane's faster. He grabs the tie ruthlessly, twisting and swooping it until it's perfect.

David stares up at him, unsure and he can't do this right now. They can't do this. Not now, not ever. Not again. He's getting married. "It's over, Shane." He whispers because his voice just can't hold.

Shane's brown eyes flash with something dark and furious. "Then what the fuck were you doing last night!? If it's so fucking over, if you're so fucking ready to marry some stupid girl you met the whole of two months ago what the fuck were you doing last night!? If it's so fucking over why the hell do you keep coming back to me!?"

David's reflexes are quick, infuriated, hot with rage and denial and confusion. "I'm not!"

Shane snorts and he's almost laughing, a twisted horrible bark and sometimes he just wants to slam his fist into David's perfect bloody face. "Yeah, right. You've said that a thousand times. And by the following night you're practically begging me to fuck you again."

"Shut up!" David yells and he doesn't care if anybody hears, he doesn't care if Calista comes running in because right now he's just about ready to strangle Shane. "Just SHUT UP!"

"Do you love her?" Shane snarls, and his teeth flash dangerously. "Do you love her like you said you loved me?"

"Shut up!"

"Just answer the fucking question!"

"I said SHUT UP!"

Before he even realises it himself David is upon him, his fist finding Shane's smooth open face. They fall to the hard floor, a desperate tangle of limbs and fists, snarling and gnashing their teeth like animals. David's punches are wild, uncoordinated, easy to dodge and Shane is too quick, too experienced, too flexible. He catches David's fists in his own and twists, rolling and grunting until David's underneath him, his lithe form squirming angrily, trying to pull his hands free so he can crush every bone in Shane's body. Shane throws his leg over the other side of him, straddling him, his face frozen in a feral snarl and David rears up, smashing their lips together in an angry ferocious kiss, forcing his tongue into Shane's warm, eager mouth.

Shane growls around David's writhing tongue, his hands immediately releasing the others and finding their way to the stupid cheap tuxedo. He tries the buttons but rapidly loses patience, his fingers simply clawing the material and ripping. The silk tears easily and Shane's hands are inside, his fingers roving desperately over David's tan chest. His mouth claims David's neck, teeth sinking into the sweaty flesh and David cries out in pain, twisting his long fingers into the other boy's dark blonde hair. Shane pulls back, hazily grinning at the bloody bitemark he's left and David whimpers, hot stinging pain burning through him, grabbing Shane's head and snaring his mouth again.

Shane groans throatily, growling, pressing himself hard against the other boy until David can feel every inch of him, every degree of heat radiating between them and David gasps sharply, grinding their hips and swiping his tongue along Shane's delicate pink ear, moaning louder, moving beneath him until Shane's fingers work their way under the silk belt and take him.

David throws his head back with a strangled gasp, arching up until Shane's mouth slams into his and his hand moves faster, his fingers heavier, needy moans tangled together, echoing through the room until their worlds spin and David jolts, Shane's name falling off his tongue in a voice that's not quite his.

Seconds pass and they stay there, fighting a losing battle that never seems to end.

"Tell me again that you love her." Shane pants roughly, glaring down at him with a possessive glint that only makes catching his breath even harder.

"I love her." David says hoarsely, his head rolling back onto the wood, sweat coating his forehead with his eyes tightly shut.

Shane's kiss is fiery and brutal and David accepts it willingly, moaning helplessly into his open mouth. Before it even begins Shane pulls away and David is left alone on the floor, cold air where Shane's warm body had been.

He doesn't open his eyes, his chest rising and falling rapidly, the bitemark on his neck already turning purple and ugly.

"Liar." Shane whispers, and the door clicks behind him.