D/C: It's not mine - does anyone actually read these things??
A/N: The Snowday brought me out in a boredom rash, so to quash it - I wrote this; you lucky otters!
"Happy birthday dear Vincey, happy birthday too you"
"Blow the candles out honey. What are you gonna wish for?"
The little boy shrugged, thought for a second and then, after seemingly coming up with the perfect wish, blew out the candles. He looked up at Vince and smiled secretively. As the crowds dispersed Vince leant over to Howard's son and whispered; "What did you wish for?"
"I can't tell you or it wont come true."
"Oh. Sorry." laughed the long-haired, electro poof and after a second he said; "Can't you give me a hint?"
The little boy shook his head furiously and then said; "It'd spoil Daddy's surprise.".
"Daddy's surprise? What's that?" Vince called after him but the child had gone, bounding off to find his friends and play with his new toys
--
The house was packed. There were kids everywhere, getting under feet and breaking objects left, right and centre and Howard was ready to explode as another snotty-brat pushed past him, nearly sending him flying, head first, into a cabinet. He could feel the rage boiling up inside him ready to explode like the time Vince cooked a potato in the microwave.
Just then, a pair of slender calming arms wrapped themselves around his waist and he felt a head rest gently on his back. "Hey." whispered the accompanying voice. "You having fun?"
"Not really. You?"
"Yeah! This is genius. Vince got the best toys, I've ever seen. That mini drum-kit's amazing!"
"It's a nightmare." frowned Howard, turning in his lover's arms.
"Nah. It makes the real drum noises."
"Exactly, it's giving me a headache."
"No." giggled Vince, "That'll be the half a bottle of wine you've drunk."
"Mmm, well I'm trying to block out Maria's family. It's not working thought. I'm still bloody sober." he sighed. "And if I hear one more snide little comment, I'm going to go mental."
"Oh, it's not that bad."
"Her mum just as good as told me I wasn't fit to be a father and she hates y-" Howard halted.
"Hates y- what?"
"Yoghurt." Howard lied. Vince didn't need to hear that Maria's family hated him.
"Mm, well, it's not great is it? All gone off milk in a pot, urgh."
Howard just looked at his partner in disbelief.
"What? Didn't you know that yogurt was old milk?"
"Yeah, I knew that but how the hell did you know that? You only found out milk was from cows a couple of weeks ago."
Vince blushed and said; "I helped Vince with his homework the other day and it was about milk and stuff."
Howard looked mildly impressed that Vince had not only helped with homework but had also taken notice of what it was and kissed Vince briefly on the cheek to say thank-you. Maria's sister coughed loudly across the room to badly disguise some kind of insult. Howard shot her a furious look but Vince didn't seem to notice and just got bundled away by a few six-year-olds, who wanted him to play with them. Howard felt a little jealous. He wasn't jealous of Vince's affinity with kids, he was just jealous that the kids had taken away the only person who was getting him through this evening.
Behind him, Howard could hear the sound of Maria having a heated decision with her mother floating through the closed kitchen door.
"Look, I appreciate Howard has to be here; he's Vince's father but why did he have to bring that androgynous freak? I don't think my grandson should be exposed to such activities at such an impresionable age."
"Your grandson loves Vince and Howard loves him, he's part of the family, whether you like it or not."
Howard was pleased and surprised to hear Maria sticking up for Vince. She didn't have too, he wouldn't have blamed her if she hadn't but he felt weirdly thankful to her for doing it.
"He shouldn't be part of the family." Maria's mother retorted. "Marriage is supposed to be forever."
"Mum." Maria sounded tired and fed-up. "We've been through this a million and one times. It just didn't work out between me and Howard. That's all."
"Because he's a faggot!"
"Mum!" Maria cried. "You can't say that!"
By now it was quite obvious the whole living room was listening intently to the row. Howard squirmed with embarrassment and left the room quickly, only to walk straight into John. Damn. This must be what people mean when they say they're stuck between a rock and a hard place. Oh well, he didn't wanna return to the sitting room. He'd have to have this stilted conversation.
"Howard."
"John."
"Umm, how are you?"
"Fine. You?"
"Fine. You? Sorry, you already said. Ummm. How's things with, erm…"
"Vince?"
"Yeah, Vince."
"Fine, what about you and Maria?"
"Yeah, Good."
"Great."
"Yeah."
Howard let out a long breath. He couldn't look John in the eye it felt weird and uncomfortable and John always seemed more than a bit uneasy around Howard anyway.
"Move it Howard!" Vince cried, zooming between the two men with little Vince on his back both making loud fire engine noises. John noticeably cringed at the sight of the electro poof. John had always made it quite clear he couldn't stand the man and although that made Howard's blood boil, he let it go for the purpose of keeping the peace in this increasingly dysfunctional family.
"John?" Little Vince asked from the back of Vince.
"Yes?"
"Why don't you ever play firemen with me like Daddy Vince?"
Howard chuckled gently. John's face was a picture of pure fury.
"I play with you all the time Vince." he said pointedly.
"No you don't. Not properly. Fireman Vince?"
"Yes sergeant"
"Can we play cowboys now?"
"Yeehah!" chortled Vince, galloping into the living room round in a circle and then back to find the rest of the children, who were leaping around on Vince's brand new trampoline. Howard grinned foolishly, he loved his life despite the constant dirty look's from his ex-family-in-law.
--
Luckily, it was only an hour or so before all the children had been picked up by their parents. Although this, to Howard, was the long awaited signal that the hellish party was nearly over it also meant that it was just him, Vince and Maria's family.
They were sat in the living room. Vince was cuddling up to Howard, (because he had no concept of how inappropriate that was at this time). Little Vince was sat on the floor racing a remote control mini around the floor now and again shouting "FEET!" when one of the adult's shoes blocked his route. The awkward atmosphere was as starkly obvious as Vince's over the top outfit and pretty soon Howard gabbled something along the lines of;
"Right this was lovely but I really think we should be going." and stood up abruptly, pushing his partner away sharply.
"You ready to go Vince?" he asked his son.
"You're not letting them take your son tonight, on his birthday are you?" frowned Maria's mother.
"It's a Tuesday." Howard snapped irritably, he'd fully had enough now. "It's my day to take him. Keep your bloody nose out."
"Alright Howard." smiled Vince soothingly, touching his partners arm, "Calm down."
Howard span angrily to look at the younger man and was greeted by a slightly confused smile, which made him visibly relax and say;
"Sorry. I'm just a bit stressed out, that's all."
"Is it because of the secret, Daddy?" little Vince asked from the corner, where Maria was zipping up his coat ready for him to leave.
"Shhh." Howard hushed intently, watching his partner's face crinkle with confusion and ask;
"What's this secret about?"
"Nothing." lied Howard, lifting up his son and asking, "You ready to go now?" The child nodded enthusiastically as Maria walked him and Howard to the door.
The electro poof frowned. What was Howard hiding from him?
"He's good at keeping secrets." barked Maria's mother. "He kept his sexuality secret for over thirty years."
Vince scowled at her and then followed the others to the door.
Maria was apologizing for her family but Howard was just telling her not to worry about it.
"Well," she said finally turning her attention to her son, who was sitting patiently on his dad's shoulders, "you have a fun evening, you hear?"
Little Vince nodded; "Me and Vince are going to watch Toy Story 2."
"Sound's like fun." she smiled, "I'll see you then." she kissed Howard gently on the cheek. Vince knew it was platonic but he was still furious and made a big show of pushing past them and flouncing off huffily down the street. Howard rolled his eyes and started to say; I better check what that's about but Maria just smiled and said; "Go."
--
Howard had to jog to catch up with Vince, which was difficult given that he had a six year-old on his shoulder giggling, gurgling and wooping loudly every time Howard took a step. Eventually, he caught Vince's arm and span his round. His eyes were red and watery and his cheeks were stained with black smudgy streams of eyeliner but he wrench his arm away from the older man and glared at him.
"Are you crying?" the older man asked dumbly, taking his son off his shoulders and lowering him to the pavement.
"No." blubbed Vince, wiping his face quickly with his sleeve and turning his face away embarrassedly.
"Hey." soothed Howard, wrapping an arm around the crying man, the other still holding his sons hand. "Hey, don't cry, what's wrong?"
"Nothing." was the tearful lie.
"Don't be ridiculous. If you're crying then something's wrong."
"It's not, I'm just being stupid."
"You'll always stupid, what makes this any different?" chuckled Howard gently,
"Git." smiled Vince against his shoulder.
"Come on, tell me what's up."
"It's just… I just…" he burst into tears all over again.
"Hey, Vince. Come on." Howard was beside himself, he'd never seen Vince act like this before. "What's wrong? Did someone say something to you at the party?"
"Sort of." the younger man mumbled.
"What?"
"No, it's… Howard? Do you still love me?"
Howard was gob smacked. "W-what?" he stammered. "Of course I do. I love you more than anything. Why would you even question that?"
"Because, I hated it there today. Everyone kept saying all that horrible stuff about you and about me. I wanted you to show them that you loved me when we sat on the sofa, I cuddled you and you kept sorta pushing me away."
"Because I felt uncomfortable in front of them…"
"Because of me?"
"No." Howard reassured him, "because they're jerks. It had nothing to do with you, I love you."
"So why, when John asked how we were you just said 'fine'?"
"I didn't mean fine. I just didn't want to talk to him."
"So what did you mean?"
"Good."
"Good?!" Vince looked on the brink of tears again.
"Great. Excellent. The best. Perfect. It's perfect. You're perfect."
"You mean that?" sniffed Vince.
"Of course I do. Howard Moon doesn't lie, sir." he pontificated, tucking Vince's hair behind his ears.
"What about this secret then?"
"Ah." Howard became suddenly embarrassed.
"Can't we tell him yet?" asked little Vince, tugging on his dad's free hand.
"D'you think now is the right time?"
The child nodded.
"Okay, have you got it in your bag?"
"Yeah." grinned little Vince, unzipping the suitcase and producing an envelope and handing it to Vince.
"What's this?"
"Open it." smiled the older man. Vince obliged and pulled out some kind of tickets,
"Two tickets for a cruise." Vince gawped. "But why?"
"Well, I thought that after we got married we'd need somewhere good to go for our honeymoon."
"Married?" Vince asked, eyes shining with an entirely new set of tears.
"If you want to." Howard nodded, swallowing hard. He was suddenly very nervous.
"Please marry Daddy, Vince. Then you can be my proper Daddy, sort of." grinned little Vince, hopping around excitedly.
"Oh, using the child to guilt me into it?" laughed Vince.
"I was hoping it wouldn't come to that but if that's what it takes I'm willing to stoop to that.."
"Oh Howard." Vince laughed, leaping his partner and wrapping his legs around his waist. "Of course I'll marry you."
"Good, I was beginning to worry for a second then."
Vince grinned and then turned to his smaller namesake. "Might wanna look away Vincey, me and Daddy are gonna do that disgusting kissy-thing." And, after waiting for the child to cover his face with his hands, he captured Howard's lips with his own and drew the older man into a sweet kiss and in the distant background; somehow far away and very close was a child cheering;
"My wish came true. My wish came true."
--
Later that evening, after the Vince's had spent hours discussing whether it was really possible that Blue Rabbit and the other toys came alive when they weren't being watched, little Vince was tucked up in bed and Vince and Howard were downstairs tangled lazily together on the sofa.
"Tomorrow," Howard said, as Vince's fingers drew patterns idly on his chest. "we'll go into town and get you something to seal the deal."
"seal the deal?" giggled Vince, "Oh, you're so romantic." he scorned.
"Well…"
"You're making it sound like a business deal."
"You wanna shut up, I'm offering to buy you a big expensive present."
"Really?"
"Yeah, but you have to wear it everyday so people know you're mine, maybe a watch or something."
"That sounds nice." he mumbled against Howard's chest as his mouth came into contact with the skin he'd been drawing on. "Howard?"
"Mmm?"
"I fancy an early night. You know, to seal the deal." he grinned impishly.
"Sounds like a good idea to me."
Thanks for reading!!
Sisi...xx