For most of the night, Wrench found himself in a remarkable state of peace. Considering what had happened, it was a bloody miracle. Even his Discord was quiet. He held Tomas and just rested, letting the peace wash over him, drowning in the Mercurian's warm skin and the softness of the bed.

It began to fade after a time, but the peace was lingering, at least a little. His Discord started up again, the electric whine starting low and slowly amping. He listened to it, distracted, then tensed up as Tomas stirred. "Hey," he said, shifting back minimally. "Hangover?"

Tomas blinked sleepily, smacking his lips. "Amazingly, no. My mouth tastes ... well, like I drank until I passed out, but my head's fine."

"Huh." I should go, Wrench thought. I should get the hell back to my room. Tomas had a sleepy, private tone in his voice so soon after coming to, and while Wrench had managed to last holding an underwear-clad Tomas for however many hours, the sheer intimacy of the sound set him to fighting arousal. He sucked air. "I'm sorry," he found himself saying, "I, uh, broke your door." Just get up and leave!

The angel blinked, then let out a quiet laugh. "Probably for the best. We weren't bein buddies. Sometimes you gotta do something extreme to keep the peace. Maybe 'peacemaker' should be your name, man."

Wrench rolled away, sat up, ashamed. "Stop it," he muttered. "I wasn't a good friend. I'm still not. I - I should find somewhere else to stay, not rely on you like this."

Tomas sat up and grabbed onto Wrench, pressing his cheek into the demon's shoulder. Wrench froze uncertainly as Tomas muttered, "Please don't leave. These past few weeks... you're most of what kept me going."

Staring across the room at Tomas's Moxy Fruvous poster, Wrench shuddered. "What the hell am I supposed to do about that, huh?"

"Wha?"

"I can't-" he waved a hand, shuddered again, held Tomas closer. "I can't be trusted with that. I'll just say or do the wrong thing again and make things worse. You can't trust me, man. I don't want to hurt you."

Tomas pushed on Wrench's shoulder, encouraged him into lying back down, then looked down at him. "You're my best friend," he said, curling up against him, cuddling close.

Wrench choked on his air, froze, hated his weak vessel. He shoved away but knew Tomas had noticed; had to have noticed.

He couldn't meet Tomas's eyes. Well, there it was. Their friendship brought down to Lust. Creationer as he was, that'd be the end.

Tomas just blinked at him and Wrench saw, to his confusion, a smile spread on his friend's face. "You know," Tomas said, "You shouldn't stay in your clothes in bed. They'll get wrinkled."

Wrench gave him a flat, panicky look. "What the hell? You find out that I want you and you say something shit-headed like that?"

"I want you too."

"You want me?" Wrench echoed dumbly.

"I want you," Tomas said, and gave him a brilliant smile. "I don't know if I need you. But I'd die to find out."

Wrench stared at him, then pointed, finger an inch from the Mercurian's nose. "I hate it when you do that. The earworming me during a serious conversation thing."

Tomas laughed, reached out and tugged Wrench's T-shirt over his head. "I'll keep that in mind, man."

Helpless, Wrench stared at Tomas. "I'd let you do me!" he blurted.

Grinning, Tomas said, "I'll keep that in mind too, but right now you're crazy-freaked-out, so let's just have fun, do whatever."

Swallowing, Wrench allowed himself to reach out and touch. "Sure. Sounds... sounds good. Cool."

Tomas turned his face up. After a moment, Wrench took the hint and kissed him.

Outside and some time later, Shamara-Zadkiel rolled her eyes at the rhythmic thumping of the bed hitting the wall. They probably wouldn't thank her for this, either.

But at least they were happy. Really, that's what mattered.