bTitle:/b Secret Smile

BCharacters/Pairings:/B Nicholas/Danny

BWord Count:/B

BRating:/B PG-13

BSummary/Warnings:/B Nicholas is admired, gawped at and fancied by more or less everyone in Sandford. He's still seen as the village's hero a year on from the NWA ordeal, but Danny doesn't worry about the people who look at Nicholas and wish he was their's... because Nicholas reserves something that is for Danny, and Danny alone. Mild slash!

A/N: Inspired by the song Secret Smile by The Stereophonics

Nicholas isn't a smiley man by nature. Never has been, and this is partly due to him taking his work so deathly serious...but not entirely. He's just got one of those faces that finds it easier to frown or seem indifferent than happy and cheeful. It makes him seem cold and distant, but he doesn't mind that, beacause it means he doesn't have to deal with too much fraternization at work...that is he didn't until he met Danny Butterman when he was transferred to Sandford, one year and three weeks ago to the day.

Since then things have changed for Nicholas. Excess fraternization has become a way of life and although he has tried his very best to pull some modicum* of professionalism back into the Sandford Police Service he sometimes feels he's fighting a losing battle. Everyone is a lot more job focused, even the Andes, but there's still drinking at lunch time, cake eating at desks and visits to Somerfield's dvd section on patrol.

If he's honest he doesn't really mind it, he's loosened up and toned down a lot since his London days and he's quite proud of himself for doing that, but he know's he couldn't have done it without Danny. Not in a million years. Danny got under his skin, but in a good way. When his partner was around, life didn't seem so bad. The station wasn't a mess, the Andes weren't being wankers and (day shift) Turner didn't have the customer services of a walruss with a huge splinter in it's bum... things were fine when he was at Danny's.

Nicholas was aware that over a year had passed since the NWA fiasco, yet still he was idolised by most of this small community. He had noticed the stares he got, the eyes that followed his movements. The disturbing thing was, at least in his eyes, that they weren't people who were likely to break the law and were watching because they wanted to either beat him up simply for being a copper or because they were up to something dodgy. No, these were often teenage girls and young women, and when he turned and followed their line of sight he was sure most of them had been staring at his arse...

However disconserting he found this at first, he eventually got used to it and ignored it. There was only one person in this strange village that he was interested in, and he had a feeling Sgt. Butterman knew that. Why neither of them had made their move yet, he wasn't sure. Was it fear of rejection? Fear of losing the best friend he ever had? Or just fear in general?

Danny had been aware of those admiring looks Nicholas had earned ever since his arrival, they increased triple-fold after the NWA bust. Danny worried at first that Nicholas would realise he could have anyone he wanted and that he would lose his interest in him. But he needn't have worried, because the Londoner never lost interest, and even though he'd become friendlier and more laid back over the last twelve months, there was one thing that he kept reserved for the Sgt. Something he never showed to anyone else, that smile that told Danny he wasn't going anywhere, that Nicholas loved him and was truely happy in his company...

So they weren't having lots of sex yet? Danny could live with that, because that smile promised him that all that was still to come...