Another Year
CohenTheKitty
Chapter One
A Santa Fe State Of Mind
AN- Thank you SO MUCH to all those who reviewed 'It's Beginning To Snow'! This story is a companion fic to talk about the year and some odd months from October (when Angel would have been nursed back to health) to the December that 'It's Beginning To Snow' takes place in.
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Eyes, eyes. Why couldn't he stop thinking of eyes? Oh, dammit, this was so useless. Or wait. No. He wanted to open his eyes. That was it. Open them up. Just open up your eyes and see why the hell this room is so warm. Maybe Collins had accidentally rolled onto him. That was it, probably. With a good effort he opened his eyes to whiteness and then felt a little sadness enter his heart. The hospital, he remembered now, how sick he was. How his lover had never left his side.
Angel managed to steer his eyes to his love and lifted a shaky, weak hand to touch that prickly, pudgy face. A little twitch, and then Tom Collins jumped up and looked at him, his shocked expression quickly turning to one of surprise and then glee as a large very Collins smile covered his entire face. He moved to be able to hold Angel close and kissed him softly, his glee turning to an emotion which Angel could give no name to. But whatever it was called, it was making Collins cry.
He frowned and nudged Collins so he would move back a bit. Angel studied that face that he loved so much and managed to ask him in a barely audible, almost masculine voice. "Tommy? What's wrong?"
Collins looked at him and shook his head, he pointed to the clock and Angel's gaze moved from Collins, to the clock and then back to Collins again. "That clock still says it's October 31st. If you hadn't woken up. . ."
Angel shook his head and smiled up at Collins, reached and covered both of Collins cheeks with his pale, soft hands. "No, sugar. I'm not ready to go yet." He tugged for Collins to join him in the bed, and he did. Then he curled up into his arms as best as he could with all those damn machines attatched to him. "No, no, not yet. Not me. It was the flu, and now I feel much better. I could really use a drink tho. . ."
Collins laughed. It was warm and gentle, soft and steady. It made Angel smile and he tried to snuggle closer but the sharp pain from his IV told him to do otherwise. Collins bent his head and kissed the top of Angel's, slid his arms tighter around him and snuggled closer since his lover couldn't. "I've been up so many nights, so worried. And you're gonna be fine! You really are, baby. You don't know how happy I am. . . ."
A silence followed hi exclamation for a long while until Angel piped up softly. "I'm gonna get sick again, Tommy."
"No. . .!"
"Yes, you know it's true. I'm not as strong now and this is New York for crying out loud!"
"Well then we'll move!" Collins insisted desperately, his arms clinging around Angel, tears starting to leak down his face again but for different reasons than the last few had.
Angel was very surprised by this outburst but she looked upo at him curiously now. "Move? Where could we ever move? We have no place to go. . ." He said, his voice growing softer and the softer the more he spoke out loud. He was growing drowsy suddenly and he realized a nurse was injecting something into his drip, he faintly heard Collins singing, and as his eyes slid shut, he realized it was only a memory dancing through his mind, Collins voice in song.
"We'll open up a reastaurant in Santa Fe. . ."
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Again, Angel willed himself to open his eyes and instead of seeing Collins next to him, he felt the larger man holding onto him tightly. He stirred quite a bit so he could turn and look at Collins, reached to gently caress his cheek. "Tommy wake up, Tommy I'm awake. Tommy. . . .Tommy!. . .Tommy????" Urgency turned to despair and he soon realized he had shaken his lover too hard when Collins hit the floor with a cry of pain.
"Ow! I didn't steal the blanket, what the- . . ?" He blinked and rubbed his eyes, looked at the tiny, feminine/masculine face looking down at him with curiosity and worry. He began to tap his foot where he sat. "Well I say!"
"I didn't mean to!" Angel, said, biting his lip as Collins stood. "Really, honest! You wouldn't wake up and I got so scared! And then before I knew it you were going down and talking and rubbing your butt. . ."
Collins laughed and nodded, got into bed with him again and made sure he was covered plenty. "Well I was about to moan about having to wake up when I fell off, but I'm fine honey. I'm sorry I scared you. Why did you want me up?" He asked softly, nuzzling Angel's neck like a cat in need of some serious attention. Angel giggled at the feeling, realizing how much he'd missed it, he laid across Collins.
"Well you never finished what you were saying. They put me out. . ."
"Oh right." A lift shift under the covers. "Well I said I didn't know where we'd go."
Angel shifted from right to left a few times and looked as far back to Collins as he could make his head go. "Is that your chalk, or are you just happy to see me?"
A devilish grin from the computer-geek professor. "Really wanna know?"
"After we talk about moving."
Slight disappointment, but a nod of agreement. Angel turned as far onto his side as he could. "Well I had a thought. What about that restaurant we talked about? We could open up a little diner, you know? I could cook, you could wait. It'd be money i nthe bank and Santa Fe is warm. . ."
Collins tilted his head in curiosity. "Wow, you have thought about this. Well I mean sure, we can work on finding property and getting a loan right now. Are you sure you really wanna leave New York City behind though?" His gentle, sweet eyes were uneasy at that prospect.
Angel took a long moment to think to herself and then nodded softly. "Yes, I'm sure. Staying here would be nice, my friends are all here, but I want to spend as much time with you as I can, and not getting sick will help me with that. Let's move, let's find that property and nail that loan and be on our way to the rest of our lives together!"
Collins laughed very softly at her antics and nodded, kissed her temple and listened as a nurse came in and gave the news- Angel could go home by the weekend! Maybe this was it, maybe this was supposed to happen. Maybe this is what would truly draw them together forever. He nodded in agreeement much later in the night as Angel slept and he held him, and he decided that in the morning, he would start to make some phone calls.
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(One Month Later)
Collins loaded the last of his and Angel's bags into the side compartment of the Greyhound set to drive him and his drag queen lover to New York. He watched as she hugged Mimi tightly and then hugged Roger and Mark, then Benny and Allison (whom Angel had grown semi-close to in the weeks before Angel had grown ill). She sighed out deeply and clicked away to get on the bus, waited on the steps as Collins hugged his friends as well and promised to call and write as often as he could.
Once on the bus he sat next to Angel with a smile, slid his arms around her and inhaled the skin on her neck where the wispy wig hairs didn't cover it. She giggled and leant into his touch as he whispered lightly into her ear. "When did I tell you that you could have the window seat?"
"Twice," Angel said with a laugh. "When you promised to be mine forever and in the cab on the way here."
"Oh." He smiled and kissed her neck softly. "Well then I guess I'll just have to be as happy as I am forever."
"Oh Tommy, you're so weird!" She said, giggling when his beard hairs tickled her neck. She scrunched it up between her neck and shoulders, giggling, oblivious to the fact that everyone else on the bus was staring at the pretty blonde hispanic and her awkward black lover. She wouldn't have cared anyway, Angel Schunard had a dirty mind and she put it to use as often as she pleased.
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