Author: Toni McIntyre

Title: The One with the Storage Room 1/?

Rating: R

Summary: It’s the episode with Joey’s birthday party, but instead of ending up with Joey’s sister in the storage room Chandler ends up with Ross’s sister…and we all know who that is.

Note: Taking a break from the five different A/U Joey/Rachel stories I have going on, this is a Chandler/Monica. Enjoy everyone and review please!

The One with the Storage Room 1: The Party

Monica looks up from the plate of crackers in front of her and surveys the living room. The guests are all dancing and her friends are in the corner of the kitchen chatting amongst themselves while Joey remains in the thick of his sisters.

"Hey Ross?" Monica asks, walking up to him and Rachel. "Where did Chandler go?"

"Oh I think he went out the front door a second ago," Ross says.

"Okay thanks," Monica sighs and walks out into the hall. Chandler’s so drunk after all that jello that she decided it’s not safe to have him anywhere unsupervised for more then a minute.

He looks towards the stairs in time to see him stumble into the hall. She runs towards him and catches him as he’s about to tumble to the floor.

"Woah," she calls out, slinging his arm over her neck.

"Hey it’s you," Chandler mumbles, looking up at her.

"Yeah it’s me," Monica agrees. "Where did you think you were going?"

"I was looking for the bathroom," Chandler explains and sways, looking back at the stairwell. "I think I pissed on the steps."

Monica looks passed him and makes a face. "Yeah I think you did."

"Oops," Chandler mutters. He swings his head up to look at her and squints up at her face. "You girl pretty," he slurs, flipping his words.

"Aw, you thank," Monica smiles.

"No I mean it," Chandler clears his throat and stands a little taller.

"You are very drunk," Monica states.

"I’ve been taking sips of mom’s scotch and Dad’s pink squirrels since I was nine," he insists. "I can hold my liquor." To prove his point he lets go of her and attempts to stand. He stays for about a second before immediately swaying on his feet again. "Or not," he manages to croak and Monica has to dash over to catch him, forcing her against the wall as she attempts to keep him on his feet. And although Chandler is a skinny lanky man, he’s certainly no feather.

"Almost fell there," he murmurs.

"Almost," Monica chuckles. "You all right?"

"I’m okay," Chandler sighs and he’s leaning into Monica as he places his hand against the wall just behind her. He turns his head and suddenly both of them realize just how close they are. "Except I’m drunk and it doesn’t help make Janis go away…well a little but not enough."

Monica nods and looks carefully at him.

"Are you going to cry?" she asks finally.

"No," Chandler lies, biting his lip.

"You are," Monica states. If it were any other circumstance she would laugh. But she can hear voices coming closer as people seem to be leaving the party. As Chandler’s friend she couldn’t let people see him like this. She looks around and pulls him into the nearest open door—the storage closet. She slams it shut behind them and listens as voices walk past them.

"Thanks," Chandler mutters.

"It’s okay," she whispers and looks at him. The silly, alcohol-induced smile has disappeared from his face and his eyes are downcast and sad. "Oh honey," she murmurs and pulls him into a hug. He rests his head on her shoulder and she lets him, running a hand through his hair. He pulls away after a moment and she smiles up at him.

"You okay?" she asks softly.

"Yeah," he shrugs.

"Okay," she smiles and kisses him on the cheek. She pulls away, but her hands are still in his. Her lets go of one of her hands to rub a thumb along her jaw line.

To Monica’s surprise she shivers at his action and wonders if he knows what he’s doing. Before she can say anything he dips his head in and kisses her. It’s not at all what a first kiss usually is, tentative and slow. Rather, this is everything all at once. Lips tongue and heat passing between them hurriedly. Swept up in the moment, Monica wraps her arms around his neck as the fall to the bottom of the storage closet.

"What are we doing?" Monica asks as Chandler leaves her mouth to kiss her neck. He’s sitting on the cold floor and she’s straddling him, hands roaming in his hair.

"I dunno," Chandler admits between kisses. "But I don’t want to stop."

"You’re drunk," Monica adds, although she’s not really protesting his current actions.

"Not nearly drunk enough," Chandler snorts and Monica shrugs.

"Good enough for me," she says. Under any other circumstances, she wouldn’t be making out in a storage room…but it’s Chandler. Chandler who is of right now doing amazing things with his mouth. Her eyes flutter shut and she concentrates on the here and the now, and what it feels like for Chandler to be kissing her.

Ironically, very normal.

He lifts his head up and kisses her again. Just when it seemed like it couldn’t get any deeper, this kiss blows it out of the water. Monica moans and tugs on Chandler’s shirt so she lies down on the cold floor, him resting on top of her.

She shivers and Chandler breaks their kiss, looking down at her.

"You okay?" he asks, panting slightly.

"Yeah fine, cold floor," she admits, smiling.

"Maybe this isn’t the best place to do this," Chandler agrees.

"But it’s the only place," Monica interrupts. "So shut up and keep doing what you were doing."

"You know under normal circumstance you being bossy would really be annoying," Chandler muses.

"But?"

"But now it’s just really sexy."

To her surprise Monica blushes and Chandler just grins like a fool before he starts kissing her again. They end up entangled on the floor again, kissing…that is until Monica hears her brother’s voice from the hall.

"Mon?" Ross calls. "Monica!"

"Oh damn," Monica mutters as Chandler is forced to move away from her. "I have to go out there."

"No you don’t," Chandler whines.

"I do," Monica says and stands up, buttoning some of the buttons on her blouse Chandler had managed to undo. She runs her hands through her hair trying to make it not look so mussed up and smoothes out her skirt. Chandler sighs before standing himself and running his hand through his own hair.

"You know maybe this is for the best," he says finally, hoping she won’t agree with him.

"Yeah," she shrugs, feeling more and more uncomfortable. "I mean, you’re drunk and I wouldn’t want to do this like that…not to mention the floor is really cold."

Chandler grins at her and then starts full out laughing.

"What?" Monica asks.

"You’re mouth is green," he laughs and Monica gasps. Sure enough anywhere Chandler’s mouth had been there was a small trace of green from the jello shots.

"Oh my god I can’t go out there like this!" Monica gapes.

"Okay don’t worry," Chandler says. "I’ll go out first and distract everybody then you sneak into your apartment."

"Okay," Monica nods and Chandler moves to go out. Before he steps out into the hall however, he kisses her one more time, leaving her lips tingling as he shut the door behind him.

****************

Chandler rolls over in his bed so he’s staring up at the ceiling. He can’t go to sleep all he can think about is how he kissed Monica. Not to mention the alcohol is doing it’s damage and Chandler can almost sense the horrible headache he’ll have in the morning.

But somehow the pain of his recent breakup and the fact that he’s amazingly drunk has completely disappeared from his mind since he started making out with one of his best friends in the storage room. He has no idea why he kissed her, but he’s glad he did. Just five minutes with her felt more amazing then anything.

He moans and rolls over again, as he hears footsteps outside. He dismisses it as Joey getting a midnight snack and shoves a pillow over his head. He hears the door open and the soft light from the loving room floods inside. Chandler groans and looks up.

He’s expecting to see Joey with a sandwich he wants to split…but instead what he finds is Monica. Monica in nothing but a very large T-shirt.

"Monica," Chandler mutters, trying to make sure it’s really her and not just some really cruel dream.

"I figured your bed wouldn’t be as cold," she says simply and smiles at him.

Chandler doesn’t say anything. Rather he just smiles at her, takes her hand and pulls her down into the bed.

TBC…