A/N: Here’s the big surprise I’ve been hinting bout and promising for a while now. You are either going to hate me or love me for this chapter… By the way, it is something I thought of while listening to Viva Las Vegas (the ZZ Top version) and which I wrote before even coming up with Hunt Me Down. I just put it in my ideas folder and when I started writing HMD, I thought “This will so suit this story!” so here it is. Enjoy!

*****

Nathaniel’s POV

I shouldn’t have lashed out on Hunter the way I had. Then again, he shouldn’t have stuck his nose in my business with Irene. Even though he had a point: I was not in love with her. Still, I never asked for his opinion.

I poked a fry and put it in my mouth. I chewed it slowly. I wasn’t really hungry but Val had insisted on getting a late lunch – or an early dinner – so the three of us were now sitting in the restaurant of our hotel and she was enjoying her portion of steak and fries. I wasn’t. Hunter was…

I sighed.

Who knew whether Hunter was enjoying his meal?

He didn’t seem particularly bothered by our quarrel earlier, if you could call that a quarrel. He was a bit quieter than usual, but that was all; perhaps I was even imagining that.

I looked down at my barely touched portion.

Maybe I should have that conversation with Irene once we got home; the conversation where I would tell her that I loved spending time with her but I didn’t love her. I sighed again.

Not a maybe; we should’ve had that conversation a long time ago. Why was it so hard for me to initiate it?

It wasn’t as if we would necessarily break-up; if she wanted it, we could continue with how things were now and when it was time to move out of town, we’d just say goodbye and go back to being friends, occasionally saying hi on Skype. After all, I had never promised her more than that.

Yes, that would be for the best; it would be the best if we talked on Monday, after school. In the mean time, I might as well try and have fun, right?

Even if Irene and I stayed together, things would be tense between us for a while so I should try and relax over what was left of the weekend.

“And now, it is time for the casino,” Val announced, wiping her mouth with a napkin and getting up.

So much for me relaxing!

“Vallery,” I began but she cut me off.

“I know what you are going to say so here’s what I’ll do: I have a hundred dollars…”

“My hundred dollars,” I reminded.

“I have a hundred dollars which I will one day return to you but right now I plan on spending them in the casino. If I lose them, I won’t do any more gambling today and you can take the rest of the day off; if I win, we do some sightseeing, go to the fountains and then we come back here where I’ll gamble some more. Fair enough, bro?”

“Gamble some more?” I repeated, shaking my head.

“Only the sum which I won,” she said with a smile. “Besides, what are you worried about? We’ve already paid for our tickets home.”

“And you think there won’t be any other expenses?” I asked, getting up as well. “You think…”

“Just let her do it now or she’ll wait for you to fall asleep and go to the casino on her own,” Hunter finally joined the conversation. He sounded calm, perhaps even a bit bored.

“He’s got a point,” Val noted, leaning on the table.

“You realize you just backed him up on you being irresponsible, right?”

My sister nodded.

“At least I’m honest about being a sneaky little bitch,” she said as if that would work in her favor.

My gaze kept shifting between their faces – both unperturbed, both so sure they’ve won.

“Fine,” I agreed. “But if you lose this hundred dollars, you are not only not gambling more today, but you won’t be gambling tomorrow either.”

“So you noticed, I said that if I lose I won’t gamble any more today, huh?” She gave me a sheepish smile.

“Yes, Vallery, I noticed,” I said, crossing my arms. “I’m not an idiot, you know.”

“Of course you are not,” she gave me a sideways hug and pulled me out of the restaurant and towards the hotel casino. “I always say you are the smart one in the family. Hell, you are so smart, you can probably kill a dozen people and get rid of their corpses before the police even begins to suspect you.”

“That has got to be the weirdest compliment I’ve ever heard,” Hunter muttered as he caught up with us. I opened my mouth to agree and tell Val I’d appreciate it if she would just stick to ‘you are so smart’, but it was too late; she had already let go of me and ran to the blackjack table.

*****

“Was it worth it?” I asked as we walked towards the Bellagio fountains. “Hours of sitting there, gambling… Was it worth it?”

“I won in the end, didn’t I?” She retorted with a proud smile.

“Yes, you left with forty-seven dollars more,” I sneered.

“And thirty-eight cents; don’t forget the thirty-eight cents, bro.”

“Which you won from a bet with another guest of the hotel.”

“First,” she stopped and placed a hand on my arm so I would turn towards her. “First, that’s still winning,” she insisted and pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear. “Second, I would’ve won more if I began with more money.”

“You…” I sighed. Who was I kidding? It was pointless to argue with her. “Let’s just go to the fountains.” I turned around and took a step forward – just one – before I collided with someone.

“My apologies,” I told the dark-haired boy before me.

“You can bump into me anytime,” he concluded after his eyes scanned me from head to toe and I gaped at him. “Cute accent,” he added with a wink and went on his way.

“There must be something very wrong with this town if the hot guys flirt with you instead of with me,” Val joked and my face flushed.

“Let’s just get to the fountains and find Hunter,” I insisted and commenced walking once again, making sure I didn’t run into anyone else.

Hunter – like me – had gotten bored at the casino; unlike me, he had no one to babysit so he had been free to leave and do some sightseeing on his own. We’d arranged to meet up at the famous fountains at eight. Gazing at my phone, I realized that hour was nearing so I sped up.

It took us a few minutes before we managed to find our friend. A crowd of people had gathered at the site, a woman – a tourist by the looks of her – reading from a brochure:

“The show takes place every thirty minutes in the afternoons and early evenings, and every fifteen minutes from eight p.m. to midnight,” she was just saying to the man who stood next to her. “The fountain display is choreographed to various pieces of music, including ‘Time To Say Goodbye’, ‘Proud to be an American’, ‘Luck Be a Lady’ – oh, that’s a good one...”

I tuned her out and greeted Hunter.

“Hey,” he replied with a nod, his eyes on the fountain, waiting for the water show to begin. At least I hoped that was why he did not look at me; otherwise, it would mean he had taken offence at me raising my voice at him earlier and that he was now avoiding me.

People around us started ooh-ing and clapping as the first jets of water flew up, lit up by white lights with the sound of Elvis’s Viva Las Vegas playing at the background.

“The ZZ Top version is better,” Val shouted so I could hear her over the commotion but her eyes did not stray away from the show. Who could blame her for that?

The twisting sprays were perfectly in rhythm with the music; how often did you get a chance to see water dancing?

It was so beautiful that I didn’t realize that the song had ended until the last jets blasted higher than before and disappeared under the enthusiastic cheers of the crowd.

“Now what?” Hunter asked, turning his back on the fountains; he still wasn’t looking at me.

“Maybe we could…” I began, but Val’s hand landed on my shoulder and she turned me around to point at something.

“Isn’t that the guy from earlier?” She asked, her gaze on a dark-haired boy just a few feet away from us. He was leaning sideways on a wall with a smirk on his face and gave me a little wave once my eyes met his.

“First the instructor with the dolphins, now a random guy on the street; you’ve been busy today, Nathaniel,” Hunter commented coolly.

“I accidently bumped into him,” I started to justify myself. “It’s not like I’m going to flirt with a stranger just because he’s hot.”

Silence hung into the air and I wonder what could’ve caused it until I repeated my own words and gaped.

I’d just called a guy hot. A guy. Hot.

“I need a drink,” I muttered weakly.

“You are drinking?” Val exclaimed astonished.

“Yes, Val, I am drinking,” I replied in a tone that was unnecessarily rude. “I won’t die from one beer, would I?”

*****

Hunter’s POV

He had had more than one beer.

And he was drunk.

Not the I-am-so-wasted-I-can’t-move drunk, but the everything-around-is-so-amazing drunk. He was pointing excitedly at random things, chatting up with strangers and even suggested we should go back to the hotel to gamble some more.

Natty was fun when he was drunk. He seemed so liberated.

But as much as I liked the three of us sitting on this bench with beers in our hands, enjoying the view of some small park with a chapel next to it, a part of me was worried about him.

The reason for his elevation was alcohol and the reason he’d had that alcohol was because he’d called a guy hot. He had blurted it out without thinking but it was obvious he meant it. I knew that he would have to deal with that tomorrow once he sobered up and I knew he would panic. And a panicked Nathaniel was definitely something to worry about.

On the other hand, he had finally admitted it; involuntarily but he did. He could find guys hot.

*****

Vallery’s POV

I woke up first Sunday morning and realized I’d fallen asleep on the couch. Then I remembered: I didn’t accidently fall asleep here; I meant to do that. They just seemed so cute together in the bed in the other room.

I yawned and got up. One stretch later, I was looking at my phone and realized it was actually noon, not morning. Maybe it was time to wake them up. It might not be easy, considering how much they had to drink last night. It was very surreal for me to have to take care of Nat and tell him not to talk to strangers and that it was time to go to bed instead of the other way around.

I opened the door to the bedroom and peeked inside. Just as I’d thought: they were still asleep. I knew that at least Nat would’ve panicked and come to look for me if he had woken up in a bed with Hunter Harris. Not that he looked against it now, quietly snoring with the other boy’s arm around his shoulder.

“Bro…” I crouched next to the bed and shook him. “Oy, bro, rise and shine!”

“What time is it?” He croaked and Hunter groaned while turning in bed, retrieving his arm in the process thus liberating my brother from the hug.

“Noon,” I answered cheerfully. “Come on, guys, stop wasting daylight and let’s order some breakfast.”

I straightened up and went to the adjoining room. As I dialed the internal line to order room service, I wondered if they were too hung-over to notice on their own. Judging by how quiet it was, they hadn’t discovered the source of my to-be entertainment yet. With that in mind, I decided to initiate their upcoming horror trip to no-fucking-way land and returned to the bedroom as soon as I’d placed my call.

They were both up now, searching for their shirts. My brother was tomato red but other than that he was holding up for now. He probably had a headache that occupied his to-deal-with-first list or maybe he thought that it would be better if he pretended he and Hunter had not just spent the night in the same bed; mostly clothed – they still had their pants on – but still alone in the same bed.

This is taking too long, I though. At this rate they would never notice!

“Oh, my God,” I exclaimed, faking shock; after all I knew they would be there. “It wasn’t just a dream!”

“What wasn’t just a dream?” My brother asked, cringing at the level of my voice.

Yep, he was hung-over alright!

“Your… Your hands…” I purposefully stuttered, keeping true to my role of an innocent observer as I pointed at said hands. “That chapel… You really are married!”

They each looked at first their own hand in confusion and then at the other person’s hand. There was the same wedding band on each of their ring fingers. Their expressions simultaneously turned from bewilderment to horror.

“W-we…” It was my brother’s turn to stammer but unlike me, he wasn’t faking it.

“We…” Hunter repeated. He was either taking this too calmly or he had yet to comprehend what the golden circles around their fingers meant.

“How did… When…” Nathaniel on the other hand was anxiously looking around the room. Did he think he would find an explanation under the bed or on the end table?

“When indeed,” Hunter sat back in the bed with a thoughtful expression. Good luck trying to remember that moment!

“We didn’t… Did we?” Nat asked, his eyes bigger than ever. I could of course fill in the gaps and tell them exactly what each of us had been up to last night, but this might be his only chance for a drunken experience so why ruin it for him? This binge was something memorable. Well, the outcome of it anyways.

“Guys, I think this answers your question.” I handed them the marriage license I’d just picked up from the nightstand. Both their names were on the sheet of paper, complete with shaky signatures and stamps.

“But… But… But…” Nat kept repeating as he took it from my hand and they both stared at it. “We’re both guys!” He shouted.

“And we were drunk,” Hunter added. He was still too calm.

“Who’d allow two drunken boys to marry each other?” Nathaniel resented again. “But… This is Vegas, right? It’s not valid… right?”

“Well, guys…” I placed one hand on my brother’s shoulder, the other on that of my friend. “I’m afraid Vegas weddings are for real. I guess not all that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”

My brother was speechless; Hunter’s face was unreadable.

*****

A/N: Here comes the groom, drunk like a baboon… Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na… Here comes the other groom, drunker than a baboon… Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na… Why a baboon? I needed a rhyme XD

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