A/N: Yes, I am alive. No, I have not been abducted by aliens.

So, this is a pathetic attempt of mine to get over my writer's block.

Seriously, I've finally found out what the ingredients of a writer's block are: Being busy, being distracted, lack of inspiration, lack of ideas, and laziness. Sorry for the unforgivable gap between updates. I really am (my very sincere apologies to Trude and MatTeneyMoNdlerLoVer in particular).

This fic will contain four (relatively) small chapters with no particular connection among them (most probably in chronological order). Well, I'm just trying something different here, so humor me, won't you? :)

My most sincere, and huge thanks to WendyCR72 for beta-ing this chapter :)

When We Fall

Chapter 1

"So, Ross tells me you are a chef now," Chandler smiled at his new neighbor.

He no longer remembered calling her fat. In fact, he had forgotten it the instant he said it.

He distinctly remembered her cutting off his toe, though. It's hard to forget the memory of someone maiming you.

He had sulked for a couple of days back then, and she had apologized profusely. They never spoke about it after that. Nor did they speak with each other frequently (not unless the situation absolutely demanded its necessity).

Now that they were neighbors, he decided that this was one such "situation".

"Yes," she smiled back, "and that would explain the lasagna," she pointed to the Tupperware that she had placed on his kitchen counter. "Consider it a housewarming present from me."

"Thanks you," he smiled, lifting the lid of the container. He sniffed at the content, and drew back. "Housewarming present, huh? So that there'll always be a 'meaty' flavor in my life?"

She chuckled, shaking her head, remembering how much Chandler's dumb jokes still annoyed Ross. "Heat it at 350 until the cheese starts to bubble, okay? You do eat meat, right?"

The 'extra' (cancelled but fully reimbursed order, but he didn't need to know that) lasagna did look delicious. She gazed at it proudly as she spoke.

"I eat all 'ordinary' meats," he shrugged, "and I'm not against experimentation, either," he grinned, opening a drawer. He pulled out two forks and extended one towards her. "Wanna share a lasagna with me?"

She stared from him to the lasagna, and then back at him, surprised. "But I uh..." she trailed off, pointing at the door. "I have to-"

"I haven't set up my TV yet," he motioned to one of the numerous unopened cardboard boxes on the floor. "And I'm bored. So very, very bored, Monica," he sighed. "Please stay."

She considered his request for a second before she shrugged slowly with very obvious reluctance. "Okay," she nodded, looking around. "But um... do you want to go to my place? You don't have an oven to heat the lasagna."

He smiled widely, pushing the fork into her hand, and pushed the Tupperware to the middle of the counter. "Now I'll show you how bachelors eat."

~.~

"I have to admit," she stated several minutes later with her mouth half full, "this isn't half as bad as I thought it'd be."

"And now you understand why men are reluctant to get married," he grinned, digging the fork deeper into the lasagna, his eyes focusing on her features for the umpteenth time.

He liked it when she talked.

Her lips almost always curved to the left when she smiled. She stuttered over her words when she spoke about something that she was very passionate about. She played with her hair when she listened to him keenly. She touched her upper lip with the tip of her tongue whenever she tried hard not to laugh at something that he told her. Her ears turned pink when she blushed.

Her ears...

He moved forward in his seat and touched her earlobe gently. "How many piercings do you have, exactly?"

"Three on each ear," she told him, her own fingers slowly rising to touch his, before he let go.

"Six? Wow," he nodded appreciatively. "I don't think I'll be able to go through with it even once. Not that I'm planning on getting anything pierced," he shook his head. "Just the ears?" he asked with a cheeky grin.

She graced him with her lopsided smile, her cheeks tingeing light pink. "Yes, gutter boy. Just the ears." They ate in silence until she spoke again. "I still have no idea why I did it, though," she shrugged.

"If I had six piercings, I'd hope that I have at least a tiny idea as to why I did it," he laughed.

"It's just, Phoebe had moved in just then-"

"You mean your roommate? The one who wears a lot of rings?"

"Yeah," she chuckled, "that's her. She kept on saying that we should do something wild and crazy together. And then she suddenly came up with the idea of getting something pierced-"

"And of all the 'Somethings' that you could have gotten pierced, you chose ears?"

She ignored the interruption and continued. "So we went to a piercing studio run by a friend of hers - Lindsey something, and Phoebe swore to me that she was going to get her ears pierced, too."

"But I don't remember seeing her wearing-"

"She didn't get anything pierced," she sighed before he could complete his statement. "She freaked out on seeing the piercing gun," she shrugged, and nodded when he laughed. "I know."

"Weren't you scared?"

"Of course I was. But my mom was so against it, so I just had to do it, y'know?" she grinned.

He grinned back, touching her ear again. "Well, I'm glad you decided to be rebellious, because it looks great on you," he smiled, withdrawing his hand.

"Thank you," she nodded, smiling at him, feeling a sudden surge of fondness for him. Her smile turned into frown a moment later. "Are you flirting with me, Bing?"

"Wow, you actually know my lastname?" he raised a surprised eyebrow. "And here I was, thinking you knew me only as the guy whose toe you cut off."

She smiled wryly. Among so many other things, she remembered him as the guy who called her fat, too.

"You haven't answered my question," she pointed her fork at him.

"No, no, I'm not flirting," he shrugged, smiling widely, and for the first time that night, she could clearly make out his dimples. "When the hot girl is your best friend's sister, you can't really flirt even if you wanted to," he shook his head. "I'm just saying these," he touched her earrings with the shaft of his fork, "make you look all the more gorgeous than you already are."

"Well, thank you again, and it still feels like you're flirting with me," she laughed. "I'm not sure whether your girlfriend would like that very much."

She knew perfectly well that he didn't have a girlfriend, but for some reason, she wanted to hear that from him. She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, waiting for his reply, observing as his eyes turned a darker shade of blue.

"No, no, I'm very much single," he replied, seemingly nonchalant. "Happily single."

She raised an eyebrow at that, surprised.

"The whole concept of 'dating' is just ridiculous." He pushed his fork into the lasagna forcefully, his nostrils flaring.

She watched as he glared at the Tupperware, his hand fisted tightly around the fork.

"I'm sorry," she murmured slowly after a few seconds of absolute silence. "Did I touch a nerve?"

"No, no," he sighed. "It's just... Oh, God, this is so stupid," he chuckled, loosening his grasp around his fork. "I told my last girlfriend that I was in love with her, and do you know what she said for that?"

"What?" she asked apprehensively, knowing without a doubt that this particular story was not going to have a happy ending.

"'Oh crap'," he nodded. "She said 'Oh. Crap'."

She giggled in spite of herself for a second, but sobered up immediately. He watched as her tongue flicked out to touch her upper lip. She stared at him, embarrassed, her eyes wide.

"Go ahead," he laughed, motioning with his hand. "Laugh."

She giggled again, but once again stopped by covering her mouth with her palm. She lowered her hand eventually, looking at him with a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry, that's not funny."

"It is, actually," he nodded, smiling back as he began eating again.

"Were you- I mean, did you..." she stopped, reconsidering her question.

"Yes?" he prompted.

There was something innately likable about this girl. She exuded confidence and nervousness all at once. The former was admirable, while he found the latter to be endearing. The way she talked, the way she smiled, the way she was looking at him right now... Well, it was a good thing he knew firsthand that 'love', 'attraction', and 'lust' were nothing but stupid emotions that did you no good.

But God, he loved it when she talked.

"Were you really in love with her?" she asked tentatively, her words and eyes revealing an innocence that he hadn't seen in anyone in a very long time.

He contemplated her question for a moment, and then shrugged slowly. "I don't know. I mean, at that instant, I was so certain that I was. But now..." he trailed off, "I'm not really sure anymore."

"I'm sorry," she said again quietly.

The atmosphere was tense, she could sense that. She regretted asking him that last question, and she wanted to move on from this particular topic as rapidly as she could.

"Don't be. I blame those damned hormones," he smiled. "Besides, the whole thing is just really overrated."

"What is?"

"Love," he said.

"Love is overrated?" The way she asked the question told him that she found his conclusion to be absolutely unacceptable.

He found her naïveté adorable, too.

He dropped his fork on the counter and leaned forward. He trailed a finger lightly along the lobe of her ear, touching the three tiny studs that she wore. "Did these hurt?" he cocked an eyebrow.

She looked at him blankly for a few seconds, confused by the abrupt change in the topic. "No," she replied finally. "Not so much."

"Well, the damn freakin' love actually hurts, and it's just not worth it," he shook his head. "And yes, it's overrated."

~.~.~

A/N: (Courteney Cox does actually have three piercings on each ear (at least as far as I've noticed).)

I've started working full-time now, and I'm pretty sure that from the next week, I won't even have time to breathe. So now I can assure you that updates will be few and far between. I apologize for that in advance. I'm just hoping that I wouldn't stop writing completely, because this is the only 'creative' thing I'm capable of.

Thank you for reading this chapter :) And my enormous thanks to Mr. Perry, and Ms. Cox for providing me the final nudge to finish this chapter ;D

(I was reading the reviews for a couple of really old fics, and man, those reviewers were brutal! I'll always be grateful for how wonderful, polite, and supportive you people are. Thank you :))