Bulls in the Bronx

Two more lovely weeks passed with Chandler staying over Tony's place. They didn't change much; they did the things they normally did but just with more...uhem...physical contact.

Chandler awoke one morning remembering that today was the beach party, feeling both excited and sad that the man sleeping beside her would be gone in a couple of days. She closed her eyes and tried to pull Tony closer to her, but--because he was bigger-- pulled herself closer to him, spooning him. She really did want to go with Tony, Mike, Vic, and Jaime, but she just couldn't.

"Fucking responsibilities.." she mumbled bitterly. She began to drift off to sleep to when Tony stirred. He rolled over and opened his tired eyes.

"You awake?" he croaked.

"Am now..," as she answered with a hint of bitterness.

His eyebrows furrowed, "Ouch.."

She sighed, "I'm sorry, I was just thinking..."

"About?" he pressed.

"Going with you guys...we've talked about this before, I don't want to bring it up again. But I'm making you a promise," she intertwined her fingers with his, "I'll be sober by the time you come back. Then, all you have to worry about is me hurting myself by accident."
She laughed but he looked like he didn't quite get it,"Ya know, because I'm clumsy." He mouthed ohhhh and he nodded.

BUZZZZ BUZZZZ

Both Tony and Chandler's phones had gone off at the same time.

"Mhm...okay...sure I'll tell her...okay cool...bye dude," and Tony hung up.

"Vic...calm down...yes (she snorted)..oh wow...bye, lunatic," Chandler hung up.

"That was Vic, huh?" he asked as he sat up, "What'd he call about?'
Chandler sat up rubbing her eyes and searching for her glasses, which Tony handed to her, "Long story, rather tell it after breakfast." She stood up and went to the bathroom, with Tony right behind her.

"Who was on your phone?" she began brushing her teeth.

"Jaime, he just said to be ready by two so we can get to the beach by three," before he began brushing his teeth, "and also Of Mice and Men are coming.”

“Cool,” she replied before she spat.

They cooked breakfast together, with Chandler making pancakes from scratch and Tony’s tremendously tall figure standing beside her cooking the vegan sausage from the freezer. She wore a slightly fitted shirt with oversized short sleeves while Tony wore only boxers, missing the shirt that Chandler stole.

“Nothing like the smell of fake meat to start your day huh?” he joked as he hip-bumped her.

“Tony, if this pancake is lop-sided I’m going to pee on everything you love,” she joked.

“So you’ll pee on yourself,”

“Aww,” she patted her heart, “I’m gonna cry.”

“You ruin every romantic moment..”

“You love me,” she said flipping the lop-sided pancake.

After about a half hour of ranting about Luke Skywalker, Chandler had made twelve pancakes, and Tony had long finished making the two sausages. While Tony got the plates, Chandler made the coffee and glanced at a small note on the fridge as she got the creamer out.

“Hey, Tone (Yep), you’re supposed to get you’re tattoo today, remember?’

“Well…” he stared into space, “fuck…I’ll have to reschedule, dammit,” he sighed, “I really wanted that tattoo too.”

The coffee began brewing and they sat on the couch to eat until it was done.

“What’d you want to get?”

He laughed, “Glad you asked, it’s kinda stupid…on my arm, I want a robot…a giant robot…with laser beams coming out of its eyes.”

She shook her head with large smile on her face, “Where’ve you been all my life Tony Perry?”
He scoffed, “Right next to you, stupid head.”

After stuffing their faces with breakfast and cracking up at Metalocylpse, Chandler leaned on Tony.

“I remember when I first saw you,” she reminisced, “You just came strolling in the library, with the same expression on your face like you have now. I was sitting at one of the tables, reading one of my favorite books. At first, I just thought ‘oh, he’s probably just gonna be one of those people I just see around the school…no, no, not you,” he laughed, “You turned up in my art class, then my chemistry class, and history class. Every day, for three months, three months now, I was trying not to have an anxiety attack.”

“Dude, why were you scared to talk to me?” he asked.

“Tony, are you fucking kidding me? I can’t talk to people that I find attractive, at all. The only reason we became friends is—”

“That art project, right,” he interrupted, “Well, I’m glad you were as much of a loser as I was.”

“Seriously Tony, after the first time we talked I had like a pretty big crush on you, and I was just like ‘Ah, fuck’.”

He laughed so hard, “Really? Why?”

“Because, I fucking hate liking people, but then we became friends and I was like ‘Score’.”
He laughed again and she just smiled at him.

“Well,” he started, “when I first saw you, I thought you were mean. Like, I thought if I said hi, you’d tell me to go fuck myself.”

“Well, I have told you, on numerous occasions, that I hate most people.”

“You have, as do I, but I was still kinda scared of you.”

“Well, you never know when I might want to eat you,” she put her face to the nape of his neck, and gently sucked on it.

“Chandler, stop it,” he groaned. She sucked on that for a while longer before replying.

“Nope,” in a nonchalant tone as if he suggested to go to the grocery store.

“C’mon, we gotta get ready, you fucking tease,” Tony pulled her up off the couch.

After a while of stalling, Chandler went into the bathroom to change. It wasn’t the swim suit she was afraid of, it was revealing her scars. She had quite a bit of them, the oldest scars were the deeper and longer ones and they went up her arms, and formed on her shoulders. The smaller less deep cuts were newer and were still healing, they were scattered from her waist to her thighs. She hated the sight but all she could think was “I did this to myself”.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

“Chandler, do you have it on?” she had gotten so caught up in her self-harm, that she’d almost forgotten.

“In a minute, Tone,” she said as calmly as she could whilst changing. Once she had on the suit she giggled and mumbled, “Tony, you’re so fucking silly.”

KNOCK KNO—in the midst of his knocking, chandler opened the door and stepped out fidgeting with her nose ring.

“Babe, you look…amazing, stunning. Amazingly stunning,” he said whilst gently holding her waist, remembering her cuts.

“Thanks Tone, but I’m not “amazingly stunning”, I mean you see these scars? Of course, you do, they’re all over me,”

“You’re point is…?”

“Oh come on, Tony,” she backed away from him, “look at me.” He did.

“I’m looking.”

“Come on, don’t pretend that people won’t stare at this, don’t pretend that people will be disgusted, don’t you dare pretend that anyone won’t want me to cover these,” she was starting to cry.

“Well then, I won’t. I won’t pretend; they’ll stare, they’ll be disgusted, and they will want you to cover up. But you know what, Chandler, I don’t care. The only person I care about, the only person’s thoughts I care about is yours. I only care about you. I can’t stress that enough for you to understand that for some reason,” he held her shaking body, “This needs to happen, you’re so afraid but you’re the strongest person I know…and I know a lot of people. Other people’s stares and glares shouldn’t faze you one bit, because these scars tell them that you had so many chances to give up, but you didn’t.”
She held him tightly and let herself calm down, “Tony why do you always know what to say?”

“I don’t know, I guess I’m just good like that,” he shrugged.

“Oh really,” she said sarcastically yet lovingly. She rested her head on his bare chest when she noticed his shirtlessness.

“Sexy mama!” she commented, while letting go and circling him, “The lioness corners its prey…” He smiled, and she was about to “pounce” when there was a knock at the door.