A/N: Another fluffy oneshot for you all - I thought I'd try out Vince's POV this time. Let me know what you think. Set in the Zooniverse. This fic is a present for violence4, for following through with her promise of updating "Bliss of Another Kind." And a stunning update at that. Anyway, here is fluff.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except my desire for fluff.
"Top us up, then." Vince tilted his glass towards Howard, who complied by doling out Vince's fifth helping of red wine that evening. The electro boy brought the cup up to his lips and savored the sweet taste, feeling the warmth in his stomach immediately.
What a day, thought Vince. Come to think of it, most days at the Zooniverse turned out to be 'what a day' kind of days. Today he and Howard had been up since dawn. They'd been herding the penguins back into their enclosures in the morning (the buggers had banded together and pole-vaulted out again), calming down the aquarium creatures at lunch (Tony the Prawn was up to his old tricks), dressing up as zebras in the afternoon (admittedly, that had been genius), and spending the rest of the day trying to convince Fossil to stop running around the zoo with no shirt on. But it was Saturday, and tomorrow was the boys' one precious day off. Howard had picked up a few bottles of red from the off-license on the corner and they had settled into their tiny keeper's hut for a night in.
Howard took another gulp of wine, leaving behind a reddish tinge on his moustache. Vince smirked – Howard, what a tit. He looks so huggable... The maverick noticed his cheeky stare and frowned.
"What're you smirking at, little man?"
"Nothing. I just didn't realize you'd upgraded from a mocha to a strawberry frappe" Vince giggled. Howard wiped his mouth hastily, looking a little embarrassed, and Vince felt a little rush of warmth that he wasn't entirely sure was coming from the wine. Embarrassment kind of suits Howard, when he looks all vulnerable an' that…
The wind whistled through the darkness outside, and Vince could hear the sounds of the animals calling to each other. He liked those sounds; they made him feel peaceful. Like Howard did. Howard was great. He took care of the wine and everything. He always took care of stuff. He takes care of me…
"Hey Howard, this was a genius idea. Better than going to Leroy's any day."
"Mm. More wine?" Howard reached for a fresh bottle.
"Genius."
Throwing his head back for his sixth…no wait…was it seventh?...glass, Vince's head spun a little from the alcohol, and he suddenly felt a pang of fear. He had told himself he wouldn't do this; get drunk with Howard when there was no one else around. All those thoughts and daydreams he'd been having about his friend were rising a little too close to the surface, and he had to concentrate more than ever to keep himself focused. Concentration wasn't Vince's strongest point.
"Vince…Vince? Vince!"
"Er, sorry, what?"
"You're going to knock the wine over – stop wavering around! You're like a shadow or something."
"A'right, a'right." Vince tried to keep still, but his usual bouncy self plus his nervousness at being so close to Howard with so little inhibitions made it very difficult to sit still. The wine was working wonders on him…his arms were beginning to feel like jello, and if he closed his eyes for too long, everything started to spin. Fortunately, Howard seemed to be heading in the same direction; the maverick was rocking back and forwards a little, and had a messy goofy smile on his face. God he's adorable when he smiles…
Howard slowly got to his feet. Vince frowned and banged his fist on the floor. "Oi! Wherrrrrre you going? Huh?"
"Bathroooooooom." Howard giggled at the stretch, and stumbled off around the corner. Vince breathed a sigh of relief – he had managed so far, right? Wait, what was it he was managing again? Managing…wine? No…oh, right, Howard. But it wasn't fair, it wasn't fair! There Howard was, all intoxicated, and intoxicating, right in front of him, and nothing? Vince threw his head back to the ceiling in frustration and then, the momentum mixing with the wine, fell onto his back. There he lay, trying in vain to take a sip of his glass from an upside down position, and succeeding only in pouring most of it down his shirt. Bollocks.
He could see Howard's legs approaching from the bathroom, stamping unevenly towards him. Watching them upside down made Vince's head hurt. Howard's head appeared in Vince's field of vision with a dopey grin on his face.
"Kiss me?"
In an instant, Vince spat a mouthful of wine into Howard's face. "What?!"
Howard staggered back, wiping his face with his sleeve. "Jesus Vince, I jusht said "Miss me?" Why'd you spit wine allover me?"
Vince's heart stopped hammering and instead felt a little empty. "Sh-sorry Howarrrd. I'm a bit pissed."
"Jusht a bit?"
"Speak for your shelf. I mean, yourself." Vince giggled.
--
Somehow Vince lasted the rest of the night without slipping up again. His solitary brain cell was struggling to keep things together, and the wine certainly wasn't helping, but Howard was getting so drunk that he probably wouldn't notice much from Vince anyway. It was nearing 3am when the boys decided in giggles and murmurs that it was time to go to sleep, and being in the zookeeper's hut, all that meant was clearing the floor and getting into their sleeping bags.
Curled up inside the bag, Vince was feeling top heavy and bottom heavy at once. The colours of the room were dancing and swirling before his eyes, and vague images of Howard were floating in and out of his consciousness, dripping and warping into dreams. Howard leaning over and kissing him. Howard crawling in to share his sleeping bag. Howard smiling. Howard doing something stupid. Howard Howard Howard…Howard turning his back, Howard spying on Gideon, Howard disappearing behind locked doors…
--
Vince awoke with a start. His dreams had begun to morph into nightmares, something that had been happening a little too often lately. It was still dark outside, and Howard lay next to him in a deep slumber. Vince groaned, his head hurting from the beginnings of tomorrow's hangover and from the extra effort he'd put into behaving himself. The warmth of the wine had left him, and it was cold inside the hut, even in his sleeping bag. He peered over at Howard, deep in sleep, and suddenly the maverick seemed a thousand miles away from him, drifting in a world of dreams that Vince was sure he wasn't included in. Suddenly, Howard shifted in his sleep.
"It's alright, little man…I'll sort it out…"
What? Vince froze, anxious not to disturb Howard in the slightest, craning his head so as to hear his friend's sleeptalking with perfect clarity.
"Don't worry…I'll protect you…"
Howard had a slight smile on his lips as he murmured. Vince's mouth felt dry, and not just from dehydration. He remained still, waiting for Howard to continue, but a silence descended over the room. Vince paused for what must have been ten minutes, until he was sure that Howard had ceased unwittingly whispering his dreams. He desperately wanted to wake Howard up and…what, snuggle up to him? Kiss him? Well, yeah, obviously, but just hearing a few murmured words wasn't going to make that happen. But still Vince's heart burned – he hated this, being by himself in the hut, shivering a little from the cold. Hangovers always made him feel a little lonely.
Propelled by the feeling in his gut, he reached out gingerly to Howard's outstretched hand, and wrapped his fingers around it. Howard was warm, so much warmer than he was, and immediately he felt a little safer. Then, without warning, Howard's hand squeezed back.
"Hey, Vince" came the maverick's muffled voice.
Vince buried his head into his pillow, his pale features flushing red, mortified. In a vain attempt to sound casual (how on earth could he sound casual when he had been reaching for Howard's hand in the night-time?), he replied "Yeah?" Unfortunately his voice broke and gave his utterance a comically high-pitched tone. Howard chuckled softly, but kept hold of his hand.
"Can't sleep, little man?"
"Er, yeah. I was just, um, tryin to wake you, cuz…I thought I heard a noise."
"What noise?"
"Sounded like…it was a, er, an animal."
"Vince, we're in the middle of a zoo."
"Oh yeah, I…forgot."
Vince buried his head further into the pillow. He couldn't dig himself any more into a hole if he tried. But still Howard kept hold of his hand…
"Vince, you're cold." Howard increased the pressure on Vince's hand.
"Just a bit. I'm alright."
"C'mere then" came Howard's muffled reply, and Vince felt a tug on his arm. Unsure what was happening, but meekly following Howard's lead, he shuffled himself closer to his friend, until they were snuggled close together. Vince could feel his pulse everywhere, and a little wave of dizziness overcame him as he took in Howard's scent. And still Howard kept hold of his hand…
"You know, I was dreaming about you."
Vince's breath caught in his throat. He let Howard's words hang in the air for a silent moment, before replying, "Yeah? What about?"
"Just another madcap adventure. Pandas and evil jugglers."
"Oh."
"I saved the day, of course."
"Howard Moon, man of action."
"Not really…I…" Howard paused. Vince, despite his casual tone, was tuned into his friend even more intently than to a Colobus the Crab marathon. "…I don't usually save the day. You always end up saving me."
"Nah, that's not true. Whaddabout…" Vince strained his brain cell to come up with a scenario that Howard had single-handedly thought their way out of. Mod Wolves? No. Spirit of Jazz? No. Kangaroo? No. Bainbridge? No. Black Frost? No. Er…
"See? You do the saving, most the time." Very very slowly, Howard began running his thumb over the back of Vince's hand. The electro boy felt chills rushing up and down his spine.
"That's why I like dreaming" Howard continued, still half-whispering, his face blacked out by the darkness. "Because then, I can save you, once in a while."
Vince could feel the low timbre of Howard's voice vibrating softly through the blankets. The rise and fall of his chest was pressing against Vince's body, and the closeness of it all spurred Vince on to copy Howard's movement and run his own fingers over his friend's hand, lightly skimming the skin, tracing little circles and patterns. Time, it seemed, had come to a standstill.
Not trusting himself to speak, Vince remained snuggled into Howard, and the boys' fingertips continued their dance for some time, every tiny new direction Howard took setting off fireworks inside Vince, so that he had to bite down on his lip to stop himself from saying something, anything, everything. Just when Vince was beginning to find the tension too much to bear, Howard's muffled voice spoke again.
"You know when you were lying on your back before, and I spoke to you, and you spat wine all over me?"
"Er, yeah? Sorry about that."
"No, I just mean…you remember…you remember what I said?"
"You said, "Miss me?""
"…no."
And in one fluid moment, Howard withdrew his hand and brought it up to Vince's face, tilting it towards his own in the darkness and then closing the gap between them. Their lips touched softly, tentatively at first, just as they had first joined hands. Vince pressed his forehead into Howard gently, and kissed him back, nuzzling into his face. Howard ran his hand down Vince's face and then down his neck and shoulders, pulling him in more tightly, and the electro boy complied by sucking on Howard's lower lip greedily. Oh, it was everything Vince had dreamed of. Warm liquid happiness was rushing through his veins, dizzying him, lifting him out of the cold. All he could do was keep kissing Howard, feeling for him, reaching out for him hungrily in the blackness of the night.
Howard pulled back from the kiss just a fraction, and whispered into Vince's mouth so that Vince could feel the vibrations of every syllable. "I want this. I want you."
Vince opened his eyes for a second. He could only just barely make out Howard's face in the darkness. His desires urged him to return to Howard's lips, but his brain cell pushed itself to the forefront for once, and instead he spoke.
"Howard…"
"Yeah?" Howard's voice was tinged with longing.
"Will you…still want this when the sun comes up? When you can see me?"
Howard drew him closer, his next words uttered so quietly that Vince could only just catch them. "I always see you. Always, always."
As Vince gladly returned to Howard's embrace, feeling more alive than he had ever thought possible, he reminded himself to say something later to Howard, when he could trust himself to speak. That for all the maverick's fears, Howard had rescued him after all.
What a day, thought Vince.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.