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"What are the two of you doing here?" asked a tired-looking Chas as she entered the back room, finding Robert and Victoria sprawled over the couch with an open bottle of Merlot and some papers.
Robert looked up from where he was writing in his notepad and gave her a confused expression. "You're closing up already?"
Chas looked pointedly at the kitchen clock. "It's ten past eleven, of course I'm closing up."
"Oh," Robert looked a bit dazed, "didn't realize it was so late already."
Cha shook her head at them. "That bottle still have something in it?" she asked, pointing at the wine clutched in Vic's hand.
The blonde grinned at her. "Sure, have some."
Chas walked over, sitting on the edge of the coffee table and taking a sip of the offered beverage. "So what are the two of you doing here? Sibling bonding?" she asked cheekily before gulping down a bit more of the Merlot.
Robert rolled his eyes but Vic enthusiastically nodded. "Yeah, were playing this game called 'Know thy boyfriend'. It's really fun."
Chas shook her head. "Never heard of it."
Robert sighed. "That's because she just made it up. It's just her way of being nosey without having to admit to it."
Vic threw him a reproachful look before turning to Chas again. "You can sit and watch, we're almost done with the questions."
"You don't have to though," Robert said quickly, trying to get rid of the bartender, "you look knackered."
Chas smirked at him. "Oh I'm staying, this sounds like fun."
Robert groaned aloud as he leaned back in his seat. "Great, nice one."
Vic nudged him with her elbow. "We have two more questions to answer, Rob. Come on."
The blond man looked at his sister tiredly but when she nudged him again, he nodded. "All right, gimme."
Victoria looked down at her notes. "Your boyfriend's most erogenous zone."
Chas choked on her drink as Robert immediately went to write down his answer. Victoria threw her an apologetic look. "Sorry, we can scratch that. Some of them are a bit, ehm, personal. I don't know what came over me."
Robert grinned. "Must be the G and T you had before we opened the wine."
Vic kicked him lightly in the shin. "Oh shut up," she admonished him but the question stayed on as she also went to write down her answer.
"And the last one?" asked Robert once she was done, his pen poised over the paper.
"What's the least likely sentence to hear from your boyfriend?"
Robert thought about it for a moment, not sure what he should write down. He could go for the funny answer of 'I washed the dishes." which would most likely leave all three of them in fits of laughter but which wasn't a completely honest answer, or he could write down the thing that first came to his mind.
He went with his gut in the end, though it might have had something to do with the alcohol coursing through his system too.
"That it?" asked Chas, finishing off the bottle.
Vic nodded. "Yes. Now we just read the questions again and then try to guess the other person's answers. You can join in."
Chas grinned. "Sure, go on."
Vic read the first question on her list: "How would you define your boyfriend in one word?"
Robert didn't even pretend to think about it. "I know! Clown."
Vic kicked him again. "No! I'd never write that!"
"Why not? Aren't you supposed to write the truth?" he asked her with a grin.
Vic rolled her eyes. "Don't be a prat. What do you think Chas?"
The bartender shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, fun?"
"No!" Vic seemed almost offended, "I wrote kind. Adam is kind."
"Boring," muttered Robert.
"What did you write?" asked Chas, "morose?"
"Chippy?"
Robert almost blushed as he looked at his answer. "I wrote complex."
"Oh, I like that," informed him Victoria as Chas nodded her head. "Next one is, what is your boyfriend's phobia?"
Chas snorted.
Robert shot her a look before raising his eyebrows at Vic. "Combs?"
All three of them chuckled.
"No, it's butterflies," corrected Vic, "Adam can't bear them, say they're evil."
Both women then turned to Robert, apprehensive about his answer.
The blond sighed. "Sleeping in a T-shirt without trousers," he said quietly, causing Vic and Chas to wince. He went on to explain: "He doesn't mind when he's completely naked but something about having a T-shirt on and no trousers bother him."
"No prizes for guessing why," muttered Chas with vitriol in her voice.
"Next one," said Vic quickly, "what is the worst film to watch with your boyfriend?"
"Titanic," blurted out Robert.
Both women glared at him.
"What? That has to be the worst movie to watch in general, let alone with Adam!"
Victoria glared at him. "I wrote down Game of Thrones, because he always starts drooling."
"That's not a film though!" objected Chas.
Vic shrugged. "Whatever. What about you?"
Robert smiled. "Guess."
"Uh, did you write Titanic?"
"No, I never watched Titanic with Aaron, neither one of us is really into weepies. We watched Transformers the other day though," he said, "that was hell."
"Why?" inquired Chas.
"He spent the whole movie complaining about how the car transformations are impossible and how the power transfer is complete bull and how ridiculous the whole idea was. I had to watch it again with Liv just so that I could actually enjoy it."
Chas smiled softly. "That's Aaron for you."
"Yeah."
"Next up, what's your boyfriend's celebrity crush?"
Robert thought about who could possibly be Adam's celebrity crush but found he had no way of guessing. "Haven't the foggiest," he said, "could be anyone."
"Emily Blunt," spat out his sister, "we watched Wild Target the other day and he couldn't stop talking about her. I almost told him to go and marry her instead."
"Oh keep your hair on, Vic," the blond told her, "celebrity crushes are no threat. Take Aaron for example, he has several celebrity crushes from Rupert Graves to Tom Daley and am I insecure?"
Vic narrowed her eyes. "Who's Tom Daley?"
"Have you even watched the Olympics?" he asked her.
She shook her head. "Not really, I never managed to stay up so late."
Robert snorted. "It was just a four-hour difference."
Vic shrugged, sticking out her tongue. "Well, that answers that then. Next up is 'Chocolate or crisps?'"
"Chocolate for Adam," said Rob immediately.
Vic stared at him. "How did you know?"
Before Robert could answer, Chas interjected: "It's a fifty-fifty chance, not that hard to guess."
"Except," Robert said slowly, "I didn't guess. Aaron always complains about how when it's Adam's turn to buy snacks for the scrap yard, he brings back a truckload of sweets and just one lousy bag of crisps."
"Oh, so I guess Aaron's more of a crisps bloke then?"
"Yep."
Vic consulted her list again. "Ok the next question is 'What's the thing that annoys you the most about your boyfriend?' I wrote that he doesn't take off his shoes when he comes home and just walks straight to the kitchen in his dirty trainers."
"Oh, you didn't let us guess," complained Chas.
Robert just laughed. "What did you expect, Vic? You married a farmer."
"Well what did you write down?"
"I know!" cried out Chas, "his slurping."
Robert conceded with a nod. "His table manners in general, I guess. They're atrocious. Have you ever heard him eat his morning cereal?" he asked Vic.
"No?"
"I'm surprised, you must be able to hear it all the way from your house."
Chas laughed. "Oh, bless him."
"Yes," deadpanned Robert, "you would say that."
"What do you mean?" asked Chas, looking almost offended.
Robert shrugged. "Well you're not the one who's gonna have to live with it for the rest of your life, are you?"
For whatever reason, Chas suddenly looked choked up.
"What?" Robert asked, "What did I say."
"Nothing," the bartender said softly, smiling at him, "just continue with your game."
"Ok, next one is a yes or no question. Would your boyfriend ever forgive cheating?"
"No," Robert answered immediately, "never."
Chas nodded, a pleased expression on her face. "As long as you're aware of that, we'll get on just fine."
Robert rolled his eyes. "What about you, Vic?"
His sister looked sheepish. "I wrote yes."
"Really?" asked Robert and Chas in unison.
"After Vanessa? Yes," she said determinedly before looking at her notepad. "There's just three questions left."
"Tell us," demanded Chas.
"Does your boyfriend want children?"
"Yes for Adam," said Chas, "after the thing with Vanessa and getting attached to Johnny, I'd reckon he was keen."
Vic nodded. "Yeah, we already talked about it but didn't come up with a definite plan. What about you, Rob? Does Aaron want children?"
Robert shrugged. "I honestly don't know, we haven't talked about it. We do have Liv though, so it's like we already have a kid."
Chas chuckled. "And she's a right handful, good for you for taking her on."
"Didn't exactly have a choice, did I?"
"Yes you did," Chas told him, not unkindly.
"Next up, your boyfriend's most erogenous zone," declared Victoria.
Robert scowled. "I'm not guessing, I don't want to know about Adam's hot spots."
Vic leaned forward and whispered loudly: "The small of his back."
Robert cringed. He really didn't have to know that, especially since the small of his back was one of his erogenous zones. That's one thing you didn't really want to have in common with anyone.
"What about Aaron?" asked Chas with an interested gleam in her eye, that she had no business having while asking about her son's sex life.
"His neck," said Robert, his voice coming out a bit raspy, "he likes it when I kiss his neck or I squeeze the back of it with my hand."
Vic cleared her throat. "Ok, moving on. What's the least likely sentence to hear from your boyfriend?"
"I'm serious," said Chas in between chortles of laughter, "I can't imagine Adam saying that."
Robert laughed along, though Victoria didn't seem amused. "You're horrible, Adam knows how to be serious. He's not a clown."
"What did you write then?"
Vic's cheeks reddened. "I wrote, I read the instructions."
Robert and Chas both burst out laughing loudly. "That fits, it does," chuckled the bartender when she managed to catch her breath.
Vic shrugged. "What about Aaron, Rob?"
Robert sobered up, immediately regretting his previous decision to write down the truth. "I, uh, I wrote, I love you."
A heavy silence followed his announcement and Robert went on to defend his answer: "I mean, I know he does, but he never says it. I can't really blame him after the last time he said it but-" he interrupted himself, "I'm rambling."
Chas touched him lightly on the hand, "Go on, Robert," she urged him.
Robert sighed. "He told me he loved me the day I was getting married, but I wasn't ready for it, was I? Then after I realized how I felt about him, I told him. He didn't really believe me - at first it was because he thought I was trying to manipulate him and then after the shooting, when Gordon-" he gulped, "he didn't think I could love him."
"Oh, Rob," sighed Vic sadly.
"He believes me now," Robert assured the women, "but he still never says it back."
"He doesn't answer at all?" asked Chas.
Robert shrugged. "He smiles at me or he says he knows, once he even said 'Me too.' but other than that? No."
The quiet that followed was sombre, interrupted only by the shuffling sound of someone coming down the stairs. The door opened and in came Aaron.
"What are you lot doing here? It's almost midnight."
Chas got up quickly. "Nothing, we were actually just about to go to bed."
Aaron raised his eyebrows but didn't comment, letting himself be led back upstairs by Robert's hand on his back. They both crawled into their bed without saying a word, Aaron breaking the silence only after they settled in: "You were wrong."
"What?" whispered a confused Robert.
"I love you," Aaron whispered back.