He opened his eyes in the grayish morning half-light and instantly wished he hadn't. His eyes closed again, as he tried to get his bearings, hiding behind his eyelids.

His head was spinning, a sharp throb hammering at temples and forehead, making him feel as if his brain had been squeezed into a skull several sizes too small.

His stomach was churning from the excess booze it was still trying to cope with, and he felt nauseous.

As he rolled onto his back with a groan, he also realized that his ass felt quite sore.

Even dulled as they were by the alcohol aftermath, his senses told him he was alone in the room.

He kept his eyes tightly shut.

Lulled by the darkness behind his eyelids, he was able to hang onto a thread of vague consciousness still linking him to the past night, a bond which the morning light would have shattered into a kaleidoscope of fragments he could have no hope of joining back into the right picture.

The fragments swirled sluggishly through his mind, taunting him.

An image of Sean's face, his handsome features twisted by pleasure into a grimace, stubble glistening with sweat, tongue moistening his lips, his mouth half-open trying to gulp in air.
The angle at which he remembered the face told Viggo that in that moment he'd been lying flat on his back, with Sean looming above him and, in a flash, brought with it a memory of Sean's body pounding him into the mattress and making breathing possible only in ragged, short gasps.

The fragment danced past, another one taking its place.

The feeling of Sean's knee pushing open Viggo's thighs, as thumbs teased the twin creases of sensitive skin where thighs joined groin. Hands grabbing his legs and arranging him in a way that left him open, defenceless, a willing human sacrifice to a god.

Another fragment floated through Viggo's sketchy consciousness.

His nose buried in Sean's pubic hair, their texture crinkly against his lips. The scent of sweat and musk and heated flesh filling his nostrils. The feeling of Sean's balls against his chin. The hands cradling his head and twisting in his hair, guiding the rhythm of his mouth. And without apparent interruption the fragment spun and morphed into the memory of Sean's hands spreading the cheeks of his ass as his tongue worked Viggo open. Slowly, leisurely, as if it had all the time in the world.

Viggo swallowed, almost recoiling at the stale, rough feeling of his own mouth. He was reluctant to get up and brush his teeth, though. That sewer of a mouth still hid inside it some trace of Sean's taste, of the semen that had flooded it, and he didn't want to lose that.

The noise of steps coming up the stairs suddenly intruded into the spinning kaleidoscope and jolted Viggo into full consciousness.

His eyes flew open by reflex and his dazed brain tried to regroup and make contact again with reality as, too confused to feel suprised, he watched Sean walk into the room.

Viggo swallowed again, taking in the bare chest and low-riding unbuttoned jeans. He fought the urge to reach out and touch him, to see if he was real. He didn't want to know, did he? If this was just another fragment from the kaleidoscope he'd rather not wake up, not find out.

But the way the mattress tilted under Sean's weight as he sat by Viggo's side materialized Sean from a fragment of dream into reality, impossible to ignore as he gently gripped Viggo's shoulder and put a glass filled with foaming liquid under his nose.

"Drink this, it will make you feel better.. or at least a bit less hungover," said Sean, smiling at Viggo's look, a mixture of disgust and disbelief, and making sure he drank it all. "Good. Now go and shower, that will also make you feel better."

"Not right now, Sean, now I want to know what happened."

"Do you remember it?"

"Some of it. Enough.."

Sean sighed and ran his hand through his hair, his eyes shying away from Viggo.

"Sean, look at me," pleaded Viggo, his hand gripping Sean's arm, "I want to know, I need to know. These... fragments of memory that are moving in and out of my mind and never stop long enough to let me see the whole picture are driving me crazy. If it was all a drunken dream... then I'd better know now, before I make even more of a fool of myself than what I probably have already, and now without even the excuse of being drunk.."

"Drunken, yes... a dream, no... " Sean looked squarely into Viggo's eyes as his hand went to gently brush Viggo's hair away from his cheek.

"I was not sure I was doing the right thing yesterday night, Viggo. You'd been drinking heavily, like you wanted to forget even your own name, and then you were all over me. You're very difficult to resist when you're like that, you know? Not that I really had any wish to.." Sean winked and grinned at Viggo, who grinned back sheepishly. "But, much as I ached to take you home with me and fuck you into the mattress, I felt guilty, ashamed at taking unfair advantage of your state."

Viggo's hand went to still the hand that had been obsessively worrying a thread in the blanket, holding it in his own.

Sean looked at their joined hands and fell silent for a few seconds, until Viggo squeezed his hand encouragingly and Sean resumed talking, his eyes still lowered to their hands.

"Then you whispered something in my ear, and suddenly I knew that I could take you without shame or guilt, and that everything would be all right."

"Whatever it was I'm glad I said it then, even if I can't remember it now. What was it that I said that made up your mind?"

"You said 'I would never have the courage to tackle you if I were sober, but tonight I made sure I'm not. Please, take me and make sure I won't forget.'"

"And that's what you did, Sean," Viggo whispered, hugging Sean close, "I remember, I was only afraid I'd dreamed it all, like so many times before."

They rested quietly for a while, until Viggo drew back to look Sean in the eye.

"Now, about that shower.." Viggo began.

"Yes, I promise it will make you feel better, as good as new.. well, almost."

"And I'm willing to believe you and give it a try, on one condition," Viggo continued.

"What?"

"Will you scrub my back?"