Anniversary Fic
Howard and Vince have been going out for a year. First anniversary's are meant to be fun and sweet and all that jazz, yeah? Well Howard's got alot on his mind and forgets completely. Ooops. How're you gonna get out of this one, Howard? This was a prompt from LDNatalie. 3 Spammed everywhere, haha.
Disclaimer: Nothing in this belongs to me, I'm just a girl playing with her dolls. Which really belong to Barratt and Fielding.
Vince looked up at the clock for the thirteenth time and his lip wobbled precariously. It was ten to nine; Howard should have been back hours ago. To be honest, Howard shouldn't have gone out at all. Weren't anniversaries meant to be fun? Hugging his knees Vince rested his forehead on his arms, trying not to let the tears rolling down his cheeks turn into anything stroppy and hysterical.
Howard had forgotten, that was all.
That's what hurt.
He'd spent hours fixing everything up, Naboo and Bollo had been successfully evacuated and he'd set up the little table in the lounge perfectly. He'd chilled the wine and the take out place was on red alert and speed dial. He'd stopped himself from putting any make up on, (which had taken more effort than you'd think) because Howard said he liked him better that way, and even set up the cd player with something cute and romantic Howard would like.
But it was now nine o'clock, and Howard still wasn't home.
Looking at the clock again, Vince sniffed.
Howard had forgotten their anniversary.
Some ten minutes later Vince stiffened when the bell rung downstairs in the shop, signalling that someone had come home, and those shoes on the stairs could only be one person.
Suddenly angry Vince got to his feet, and as Howard came up the last couple of stairs into the lounge his mouth dropped open and his gut clenched as he took in their furniture pushed aside, making room for a tiny little table surrounded by bright coloured cushions and lit by candles. The room was completely empty, accentuated by the sound of their bedroom door slamming closed.
"Oh no," Howard whispered, nervously taking a step further into the flat. Vince's colour coordinated plates and bowls became obvious, the careful contrast of red placemats on brown wood and the distinct order in the carefully scattered cushions, but Howard's heart dropped at the sight of the still burning candle, flickering dangerously as wax dripped onto the table. It was almost completely burned down.
How long had Vince been waiting for him?
Nervously, Howard approached their bedroom door, it was quiet inside and Howard sighed. Vince hated him.
"Vince," nothing, so he tried again.
"Vince, Vince please." He waited, opening his mouth to try again before a muffled answer echoed through the door.
"Piss off."
"Vince, I'm sorry,"
"I said 'piss off'," came the reply.
Howard sighed, glancing across the room at the clock. He knew he'd forgotten something, except he'd thought it had something to do with Lester. When he'd asked Naboo what was happening that night the reply had been that Vince had something on, leaving Howard free to go around to Lester's or wherever he damn well pleased.
Feeling suitably annoyed with himself and rather stupid in equal measure, he crossed the room and blew out the candle, watching as the smoke wafted into nothing.
He had to make it up to Vince that was sure, and he'd have all night to think of it, because there was no way Vince was going to let him in the bedroom tonight.
Couch it was.
Vince scowled as he listened to Howard's muffled footsteps echo away from their bedroom door.
It wasn't fair.
Howard wasn't usually the one to have a schedule busy enough to rival some celebrity; in fact, Howard usually didn't have much to do at all. Howard usually sat around the shop, complaining about scene kids, organising stationary village, stocktaking, polishing his various brass instruments and rearranging his horrible collection of vinyls. Vince was the one who never had a moment to himself, and when he did, he usually gave it to Howard anyway. Curling himself into a ball in the middle of their bed, Vince instinctively drew Howard's pillow close, breathing in his smell.
"Bloody anniversaries," he muttered, still upset, still annoyed – half at Howard, half at himself for being so bloody upset about it all. It was rather stupid.
"Bloody Howard."
He'd put so much effort into it; it was their first anniversary, that's what couples did, right? They celebrated these things, and if there was one thing Vince always enjoyed, it was making a big fuss over something small. Even still, all-important first anniversary or not, he didn't really want to end up in tears over it.
"Bloody hell," he added for good measure, listening in the quiet to Howard setting up camp on the couch.
-=-
When Vince woke up the next morning, still clutching Howard's pillow tightly, panic gripped him for a perilous few seconds. He lay frozen in place as his mind tried to explain to him why on earth he was right in the middle of the bed with Howard's pillow and the covers made – or more specifically why Howard hadn't slept in their bed with him.
Then he remembered, and sulkily climbed under the blankets. It took a good twenty-five minutes before he finally managed to make himself stop sulking.
When he nervously opened the door a small gasp escaped his lips. He'd half expected Howard to have righted the living room, pushed the couch back, brought order back to the chaos, but his set up was still in place, but the room was as quiet as he'd thought it would be. Howard would be in the shop, something stupid as a forgotten anniversary wasn't going to keep him from maintaining order in the empty shop below. All the same, Vince had wanted something special to take him by surprise, like Howard was making it up to him with breakfast. But alas, it seemed Howard still didn't know what made yesterday so special.
Despondent, Vince left the bedroom, headlining for the bathroom. Nothing got in his way and as he locked himself in, Vince told himself firmly that he wasn't going to cry.
Hour and a half later, the clock ticking past quarter to twelve, Vince finally exited the bathroom, cleaned, coiffed and clothed to try and boost his mood. He was stopped in his tracks however, by Howard, who was standing on the landing with a large basket at his feet and looking suitably sheepish.
"I forgot," he said, arms hanging limply at his sides, though his hands twitched as though he wanted to do something with them.
"I know," Vince said, folding his arms tightly across his chest.
"I'm sorry," Vince remained quiet, staring directly into Howard's small brown eyes. He felt guilty, that was sure. Howard's gaze dropped to the ground.
"I'd like to make it up to you," he said, nervously rising his gaze back up. Howard liked to think he was a Man of Action, a brave brazen maverick of every genre he ever heard of, but in most respects he was downright cowardly. Vince hadn't really paid that much thought to that piece of information about Howard until now, it never really mattered, but it was just so obvious now as he so easily stared Howard down.
"How?" he asked, cocking a hip out, showing his displeasure. Howard wilted a little more.
"Picnic?"
"What about the shop, what did Naboo say?"
"I cleared it with him," Howard answered dutifully, sounding a little proud of himself, and Vince, in turn, felt pride swell in his chest.
"Oh," he said, forcing the pride down. He was angry with Howard, angry. He'd forgotten their anniversary.
"What makes you think I don't have something on?" the way Howard dropped his gaze and his eyes moving frantically in his skull told Vince that Howard hadn't thought of that. He smirked a little.
"I mean, I went to a lot of trouble last night, but you had something on." Now he was just being petty, torturing Howard because he could. But he couldn't help it; he'd been waiting for Howard for almost three hours, feeling more and more stupid the lower the candle melted.
"Please?" Howard asked, finally looking up and meeting Vince's gaze.
Stupid Howard crumbled Vince's determination in an instant.
"I'll buy you an icecream?" he pleaded with a shrug; Vince nodded, trying to keep his façade.
"Alright," he said, stopping himself from just wrapping his arms around Howard and smiling. If possible, he felt more stupid now than he did before.
Howard smiled and held out his hand, Vince stared at it for a moment, but instead of taking it like he wanted to, he flounced past down the stairs.
"This doesn't mean you're forgiven," he said, even though it kinda did.
_+_
The sun sat high in the sky as Vince flounced out the front door of the Nabootique, Howard trailing a few steps behind carrying their picnic basket, a small smile on his lips as he watched Vince. He was wearing his lightning top, it had been a while since Howard had seen that particular top, and it looked better on him than he remembered. Maybe it was simply because Vince had forgiven him for last night - there was no way he would be stopping to wait for him if Vince hadn't forgiven him already. Howard tried not to look as smug as he felt. He really should have been feeling ashamed of himself, but the air was nice, it was sunny and Vince was looking at him with an excited loving gleam in his eyes. How could anyone feel anything but glad to be alive in a moment like this?
"Hurry up, Howard." Vince said, hands on hips as he waited a few paces up the path. The moment Howard started walking again, so did Vince. Howard smiled; Vince was trying to maintain his huff as much as Howard was trying to keep looking guilty. Suitably neither of them were succeeding, and soon enough Vince fell back into step with Howard. He couldn't help it anymore, and when Vince slid his arm through Howard's as they crossed the road, he was grinning like a loon.
Vince noticed and smacked him.
"Oi," he growled, pulling away and quickening up a bit. Howard chuckled, watching as Vince's impish stalk wilted and he stopped, glancing back at Howard, all eyes and black fringe. He looked incredibly gorgeous and Howard stopped midpath.
"What?" Vince asked, turning around, all folded arms and mock anger again. "Nothing," he smiled, pointing over to a shady beech.
"Here good enough?" however he didn't wait for an answer, leaving the path and Vince for the shade of the tree. The basket was getting rather heavy and Howard silently noted that he needed to work his arm strength next time he was in jazzercise as he placed the basket down amongst the tree roots.
"I ain't forgiven you yet," Vince said, flopping down on the grass before Howard managed to pull out the blanket.
"But this is nice,"
"You'll have to move if I'm going to put this down,"
"leave it, ya batty crease. Park means grass, Howard. Just lie down, yeah? It ain't gonna hurt ya."
Howard stood, watching Vince sprawled on the grass for a moment and sighed before doing as he was told; Vince fell on his back on the grass and was staring up at the twisting branches of the tree above, arms hanging loosely on his chest. He was strangely quiet watching the sky, and for a moment Howard guiltily thought back to the absolute silence of the flat as he lay on the couch, trying to sleep.
Vince sighed, rolling over and staring at Howard's face for a moment, as though he was reading Howard's thoughts, which on more than one occasion he was sure the younger man had. Whatever passed through Vince's mind settled and he flopped back down, head firmly in Howard's lap; Howard smiled, letting the guilt fade a little.
He instinctively began running his fingers through Vince's hair, it was soft and gleaming in the shade of the tree, still smelling faintly of fake strawberries and leave in conditioner. Vince sighed contentedly and relaxed wholly into Howard.
"You used the new stuff today," Howard murmured aloud, trailing through the silken locks. Vince froze and peered around.
"How do you know that?"
"Smells different," he murmured back.
"How?" Vince pressed, Howard panicked, he should have known better than to bring up hair.
"Just different,"
"Good different, or bad different? Tell me!"
"Just different,"
"You don't like it,"
"I like the old one better," Vince seemed to accept this answer and settled back.
"I bought it cause I thought you'd like it,"
"I like you, just the way you are."
"Just like?"
"Love? Adore?"
"Forget?"
"I deserved that," Howard sighed, pulling away from Vince's coiffure.
"Yeah, where were you, eh? S'not like you got anything on!"
"Thanks Vince, thankyou," Howard scowled. Vince rolled off him, skirting off into the grass.
"I was there for ages, Howard. Ages, an you didn't even remember."
"I forgot, Vince, I'm sorry."
"It ain't like you to forget, Howard. I mean, you got a calendar pocketwatch! You organise each step of the day like some jazzy stock manager. Well creepy! Then the one day that's special to us, you forget and go to Lester's!"
Howard stopped; he searched Vince's face, his slack mouth and wide questioning eyes. He didn't know what to say, if he said everything, it would ruin weeks of hard work, weeks of secrecy, of planning of careful consideration. There were sixteen days left until Vince's birthday, he was going to ask him then. Lester had a point in suggesting then, rather than their anniversary, yesterday, making it that much more special for Vince. It would ruin everything if he got cold feet and asked him now, the day after their anniversary out of guilt than anything else.
"I know," he croaked out.
"I'm sorry, Vince, truly."
This didn't appear to be the answer Vince was after by the way he rolled over and peered back up at the clouds.
"Hungry?" Howard asked, trying to break Vince blocking him out. It was stupid and petty and childish - ignoring him - and it was Vince's best technique. Vince looked over, quiet for a moment before he replied.
"Yeah,"
Howard immediately began pulling out the assortment of cakes and sandwiches he had bought (cakes) and made himself (sandwiches).
Vince's eyes sparked at the foray.
"Naw, Howard, you went well out," he said with a smile, the affectionate upturn of his cheeks breaking through the uncomfortable air between them, Howard watched him peeling the clingwrap off a cream tart and blushed a little as Vince, smiling happily, began picking at the cream, licking the white from his finger.
It became obvious Vince knew he was watching by how slow his movements became, dragging his finger down and letting the cream hang on his tongue.
Vince giggled.
"You're so easy to tease, Howard,"
"You're such a tease it's impossible not to be,"
"Not to be what?" Vince asked cheekily. Wagging his eyebrows.
Howard's smiled faded from his lips.
"Enchanted,"
Vince rolled over and onto Howard, leaning his forehead against Howard's. Howard looked at him, quietly and made his decision.
"I got you something," Howard whispered.
"Its not much, but – " Howard knew he was blushing beet red as he fiddled in the basket, pulling out a little drawstring bag.
Vince smiled, taking the bag out of Howard's fingers before he could say anymore.
"This is well nice Howard!" and the little black bag was, it could do with a little silver stitching or something, but then, everything could.
"There's something inside it, silly," Howard chuckled, watching as Vince grinned, pulling at the strings. Tipping the contents out onto his hand he laughed, immediately reaching down to pick up the fruitloops necklace that dropped out onto the grass. Howard was bright red by this point, sure that Vince was laughing in jest, sure that it was the most stupid thing on the planet. What had he been thinking? A cereal necklace?
"This is genius Howard! Put it on! Put it on!" Vince giggled, tumbling once more across Howard's lap in a rush to pass the chain back to him.
"You like it then?"
"I love it!" he giggled, playing with it, fiddling the cereal between his fingers.
"Howard! There ain't lifesavers sweets in this?" he laughed, rolling over to face Howard, fumbling as he dragged himself to his knees.
"I'm sorry I forgot," Howard murmured into Vince's ear as the younger man threw his arms around him, laughing against him.
"I know," Vince grinned, leaning hard against him so that Howard fell back against the grass.
"But it don't matter," he whispered, leaning close and all Howard could see was dazzling, dazzling blue curtained in black. It was the most amazing sight.
"Cause I love you, and I forgive you," he smiled, leaning down and pressing his lips softly, teasingly against Howard's. He tasted all sweet and soft and the breath of space between them was so close it was painful, and so far away it was agony.
"You taste like whipped cream," Howard smirked, breaking the silence. Vince grinned, flopping over Howard, almost driving the air out of him.
It only took a second, and then he was back, kissing Howard harder, stronger and definitely sweeter than before. He giggled against Howard's lips as he pulled away, his hand sneaking up and smudging something soft and whipped on Howard's nose. A soft chuckle rumbled from deep in his chest.
"So do you," Vince grinned, kissing Howard's nose and his mouth in quick succession.
Howard laughed, pushing the niggling stupid ring to the back of his mind. It could wait, for another time, another imperiously happy time, in just sixteen days. Right now, he was caught up in Vince and cream tarts, the air smelling sweet: grass and sunshine and the ever-present tang of strawberries.
He'd forgotten last night, but today was more than making up for it.
AN: This is the first one posted, but not necessarily the first one in the series. i WILL write how they get together and such later. So eventually you'll have to check the names of chapters later on! Hope you enjoyed it! Sequel, 'Engaging' (bet you can't guess what happens there), will be up shortly! Just so you know, they'll all be ridiculous fluffy things with virtually no point except boykissing and fluff. Pure indulgence people! haha. Come for the ride?
3 the Captain