Chapter Text
Joey realized Chandler didn't have a plan when Chandler told him as much. And however obvious of a statement as that was, the fact that he'd told him this on the verge of tears on his kitchenette counter at whatever ungodly hour Chandler himself realized this was...
Let's say troubling.
After hours of talking, the closest either one of them had come to making any semblance of a plan was this:
1) Move Chandler's relatively small amount of belongings out of apartment #20 and back into the empty bedroom in apartment #19. Was this the world's worst heist? Absolutely. But come on, some of it had sentimental value. And some of it was Joey's.
2) Not show up to the wedding. Hard to have a wedding if the groom and officiant don't show up. Not impossible, but generally you want both parties present when their souls are eternally bound. It also helps to have someone their to do the binding.
3) Leave. To where? Great question, they had no idea. They'd just landed on a nebulous 'out of state'.
4) Not think too hard about the fact they were leaving all their friends and family, crushing Monica's dream, risking all of their closest friendships, and generally inconveniencing hundreds of people. It'd really bring down their midlife crisis vacation.
Joey liked this plan a lot more than Chandler did. That wasn't really saying anything; they both hated it, but Chandler was concerned that he was dragging Joey into his problems. To which Joey responded that waking him up 2 A.M. was dragging him into his problems. Also, he loved him and wanted to be there for him, no matter what or whatever stupidly sentimental thing he'd said. He hugged him and reassured him they would figure it out together.
They would figure it out together.
They'd checked into a hotel room about 30 minutes ago after spending most of the day in the airport and trying to find a hotel. The hotel they ended up finding was actually very nice, especially for being on such short notice. The room included two beds, a larger than average bathroom, and a small balcony. The view was... Joey walked over to the window, nice...? It was hard to see anything. A building obstructed most of what could have been beautiful city sights if it wasn't pitch black outside. He leaned against the window, trying to make anything out, continuing to dry his hair with the (very plush) hotel towel. Thank God for Chandler's seemingly infinite wealth. Speaking of Chandler...
"Hey," Joey opened the sliding glass door to his friend sitting on the small metal table, knees against his chest, looking out at the city. He looked small and powerless. Like he had resigned himself to some terrible fate and could only wait for it to come in anxious silence. But that was probably too dramatic of a statement. "I thought you went out."
"No, I thought I'd just sit here and think about how I ruined my life." He humorlessly bit back.
"You didn't ruin your life." Joey said back definitely. Like this was some basic fact of life.
"I ran out on a wedding to the one woman I could ever convince into tolerating me enough to marry, and now I'm sitting alone on a hotel balcony in Canada. Do you think I could sink any lower?"
That was a loaded question, so Joey had to start with the obvious: "Well, first of all, we're on the 12th floor" Chandler looked up at him with a thoroughly unimpressed look on his face but he wasn't curled up in a sad little ball anymore, so small victories. "And you probably shouldn't settle for someone who only tolerates you."
"Thank you for the relationship advice, Mr. Never Been In a Relationship That Lasted More Than Two Weeks. Where were you 2 years ago?!" Genuine hurt flashed over Joey's face. Chandler immediately regretted saying it. He cursed under his breath. "I'm sorry. I've been a terrible friend. Not just tonight or this week. I just—" He cut himself off like he was trying to find whatever inside himself made him unlovable. In his eyes, of course. He was probably Joey's favourite person.
Joey walked over to Chandler and hugged him. Chandler buried his face in Joey's neck. "I just," Chandler repeated this time slightly muffled against Joey's sweater. "I thought that this would be it." He dryly chuckled. "I thought that we'd get married, and I dont know, everything would just fall into place." He was starting to tear up again. "And I guess while we were planning it, I knew it wouldn't. " Joey hugged him tighter.
Joey had absolutely no idea to even begin comforting Chandler. He started absent mindedly petting his hair, hoping the affection would help even a little bit. Luckily, he immediately relaxed into it. They stayed there and held each other for what felt like hours. But was probably only a couple minutes.
Unfortunately, neither of them could handle silences, no matter how comfortable. Joey, surprisingly, was the one to break it first.
"How did you start smoking?" Trying to get Chandler thinking about anything other than the non-existent marriage, he just blurted out the first the first thing that came to mind.
"Hell of a conversation change, Joe." He responded with a vary obvious smile in his voice. "Besides, you already know, my parents got divorced. "
"What does that have to do with smoking?"
Chandler laughed for probably the first time in weeks. "I'm sorry my 9 year old self wasn't as logical as you'd have liked."
A comfortable silence washed over them.
"Thank you for insisting on coming with me." Chandler whispered into Joey's chest.
"Like I would've let you leave alone."
He pulled from Joey and sat up. He wanted to make sure he knew he was being genuine.
"Seriously, thank you."
Joey smiled and leaned against the railing the table was pushed up against.
"You would've done the same for me."
"I would've." He was being completely honest. He'd probably do anything for Joey.
They both laughed at the absurdity of it all. And after a small pause, Chandler slowly leaned in and—
"What are you doing?!" Joey snapped in a panic laced voice.
"This isn't me trying to get over Monica." He reassured.
Joey raised his eyebrows.
"I promise."
He trusted him. Above all else, he trusted Chandler. So when he looked at him and saw scared vulnerability, he let out a long exhale and took Chandler's arms.
"Then what are you doing?"
"I don't know." There was genuine terror in his eyes.
Joey looked at him. Really looked at him. He wasn't completely opposed to the idea. If it didn't go well, they'd laugh about it and then never talk about it again. If it went well... Then what? They'd be a gay couple? How would that work? They're both straight. And eventually, they'd have to go back to New York, and what would they tell Monica? Or any of their friends? 'Hey sorry we bailed on the wedding we're gay now?'
Joey took a deep breath. He was good at whatever Chandler wanted this to be. And if it'd make him feel better...
"OK." Joey conjured all the acting talent in his body to keep his voice steady and devoid of emotion.
"Okay?" Chandler repeated sounding unsure as to what he was agreeing to.
Joey framed him face with his hands. Stroking his cheek with his thumb. And kissed Chandler.
Who was incredibly tense. It was his idea, why was he the nervous one?
Joey couldn't stop himself from smiling and broke the kiss.
"Dude, relax." Joey said with a grin.
"What do you think I was trying to do?!"
"Not relax! That's for sure." Joey half-heartedly yelled, pretending to be upset.
The unimpressed look returned to Chandler's face. Then he scoffed, looked up at the sky, and said:
"Let's go inside."
It was 10:34 A.M. on May 17th. Monica and Chandler's wedding was in about 2 hours. Joey had just woken up after having sex with the aforementioned groom and his best friend of 8 years. But really, that was yesterday's problem. Today started with sunlight was streaming into their shared hotel room, illuminating it in a soft golden glow. He groaned, rolled over so his back faced the window, and buried his face in the pillow, but neither of these things blocked out the sun problem. So he resolved to just lay there until something inevitably made him get up.
That something presented itself a lot sooner than expected with the simple question of where Chandler was. All he had to do to find the answer was open his eyes. Chandler was... surprisingly awake, but maybe catatonic? He was lying on his back, staring at the ceiling blankly. He was also wearing one of Joey's shirts. Not the one from last night, oddly enough.
"Do you think we could still make the wedding?" Joey asked in lieu of something as simple as 'good morning' or 'hello'.
That seemed to snap Chandler out of his trance as he immediately turned to Joey with horrified confusion on his face.
"I'm kidding." Joey reassured.
They fell into an awkward silence. Apparently, yesterday's sex was also a today problem.
"This is exactly how Monica and I started." Chandler reminded.
"Who were you gonna marry the first time?"
"You know what I mean."
Another awkward silence. They were on a roll today.
"Look, Chan, we don't have to talk about what happened." Joey said, trying for diplomacy.
"What if that just ruined our friendship? What if whenever we're around each other, we can't get over," He did a meaningful yet confusing hand gesture between them. "...this and we just stop hanging out?!"
"We won't stop being friends. Besides we can talk about this later." He reassured.
"We can't even actually talk about it right now. What makes you think we can when we're not locked in a hotel room together?"
Joey didn't have a response to that. He just knew he couldn't lose Chandler. Chandler apparently did not have this deeply ingrained in him and was back to staring at the ceiling, no doubt thinking of their supposedly doomed friendship.
"This is gonna be the rest of my life, hooking up with friends in hotel rooms, getting scared of committing and leaving them." He mumbled to no one in particular.
And that's what made Joey snap.
"How close were you with Monica really?" He half groaned half genuinely inquired to the spot a little left to where Chandler was looking.
A truly pained sigh sounded next to him. "Again, where were you three years ago?!"
"You seemed happy! And come on, it was Monica. Why wouldn't I support two of my friends dating?" Joey rationalized.
His face fell.
"Look, I'm not suggesting we start dating, I don't want to marry you, we just... we have sex now."
"Like, right now?" He must be over the perceived ruined friendship is he could joke.
It was Joey's turn to look at him in annoyance.
"Alright." Chandler sighed like he'd run out of arguments for how his own idea could go terribly after he'd already done it. 'Done it' in this case being very literal.
"Alright?" Joey questioned.
Chandler nodded.
"Now, can we please get something to eat? I'm starving." He whined
At least that made Chandler smile.
They ended up just ordering room service, despite how expensive it was, and were happily eating it together in bed. It was comfortable and familiar. The feeling that they could just exist near each other in silence and still have a good time. Joey was honestly just glad Chandler was doing OK right now. And, obviously, they would need to come up with something to tell their friends when they went back home, but that didn't really matter right now. What mattered was that they were OK right now.
Suddenly, Chandler started chuckling to himself.
"What?"
"I told you we'd move back in together!"
It took Joey a second to remember what he was talking about, but then he remembered that he actually had promised to move back in the second he broke up with Monica.
"Why did you even think about going through with a wedding?"
He was still laughing when he said: "I have no idea."