Disclaimer: Not mine, on any level. If I owned Howard, I'd be combing his moustache right now.
Warnings: More implied slash, I'm afraid... Not for the young 'uns.
Notes: This takes place a few hours after the events in the first chapter. Fossil is extremely mad at Howard for hurting his Bainbridge, Howard's ego is pretty bruised, and Vince is still trying to help out like the good friend he is...
This continuation was written as part of a 'Wine Challenge' on Live Journal. There's another installment to come, which will be really slashy... (yeah, so, fear me...)
Like it? Hate it? Criticism always appreciated.
Chapter 2: Healing
Vince was looking out of the window, with an unfamiliar expression of alarm on his face.
"What's going on?" Howard asked from his position, still reclined on the couch.
"Uh. Trouble. Fossil's coming this way. And he looks… Angry."
"Dammit! What am I going to do?"
"I don't know. You could head butt him? That was really cool, by the way…"
"Vince! Fossil's going to kill me!"
"Alright, look, you'll have to hide, get in the wardrobe…"
"He's not going to fall for that again!"
"Howard, we're talking about Fossil. You could stand there with your hands over your eyes and he wouldn't find you."
There was a very insistent bout of knocking on the door.
Howard dived for the wardrobe and hurriedly shut it after him, while Vince opened the door to reveal a furious looking Fossil.
"Where's Moon? That freakish bitch knocked Bainbridge out! He only just came round. By the time I've finished with Moon, he's gonna wish he'd never heard of wolverines!"
"Sorry Mr. Fossil, he's not here. He must've gone home. He was pretty badly hurt. Bainbridge kicked him first, remember…"
"That's besides the point, Vince! I'm gonna sack his pumpkin ass so bad…"
"You can't sack Howard." Vince said quickly.
"Sure I can, Vincey boy. I'm the manager of this zoo! And Bainbridge ain't gonna be too happy with Moon either."
"Yeah, but Howard's probably the best keeper at the Zooniverse. He's been here forever, and he knows all about the animals. What would you do without him to tell you the animals names? He always gets you out of trouble."
"Yeah… But… That's just… Well, I'm gonna hurt him anyway! He went home, you say? I'm gonna go and find him… Where did you say he lived?"
Vince shook his head. "I'm not going to tell you that, Mr. Fossil."
"Well I'll just have to find it myself, then! I'll look in the book, what is it, the green pages…"
"Good luck." Said Vince, and shut the door.
Still shaking his head, he let Howard out of the cupboard.
"He'll never find it…"
"Thanks Vince."
"What?"
"Thanks, for that…"
"What, for getting Fossil off your back? It wasn't hard. I could've said 'look, a pony!' and he would have gone away."
"Well, yeah, but, I mean… You said I was a good keeper."
"I said you were the best keeper."
Howard smiled. "Well, that, and you helped me out earlier on as well. With, you know…" he began to blush.
"That was nothing. I didn't really help much, I was just worried…"
"Yeah, but you didn't laugh at me. Which was good."
"Why would I laugh at you? Trust me Howard, you've got nothing to be embarrassed about." Vince smiled reassuringly, and Howard looked away.
Vince went over to the kettle as Howard sat down again.
The zoo was closed now. They had nothing to do. They could just sit here and have a cup of…
Vince suddenly had a better idea.
He opened the cupboard under the sink and brought out something they had been saving for a while.
Actually, Howard had been saving it for a while.
Vince didn't usually drink wine. Especially not red wine.
But tonight he could make an exception.
Howard had had a bad day, after all.
He pored the wine out into mugs, which had the advantage of not being see-through, and he gave Howard considerably more wine than he gave himself.
Because he likes it, and I don't…
He turned to take the wine over to the couch, and just looked at Howard for a moment. He had on his usual expression of mild dejection, and his hair was messier than usual. There was still a damp patch on his lap where the ice-pack had been resting.
Vince took a deep breath.
"Here you go, get this down you."
He handed Howard his wine, and slumped down onto the couch next to him.
"Thanks Vince…"
Not even a comment about saving this wine for a special occasion? He must be deep in thought.
He watched as Howard took a long swig, as if the mug had luke-warm tea in it, and was glad he'd brought the bottle over with him.
"Vince… When you said I had nothing to be embarrassed about…"
Vince blinked. He hadn't been expecting that to come up again.
"I meant, er, you've got nothing to be ashamed of, nothing out of the ordinary, you know, down there... Er, trust me on that one." He said hurriedly, his face heating up.
He should have known that Howard's paranoia wouldn't let go of that one.
I was only trying to pay you a compliment, you idiot…
"Oh." The older man replied, looking at his knees.
Howard took another swig, and Vince took a sip of his own drink, wincing slightly at the taste.
He noticed that Howard's lips were already stained deep red from the wine. He stared at them for a long moment, then laughed softly.
"Mmmm?"
"You look like you're wearing lipstick. It suits you."
Howard frowned, and got up to peer into the mirror, draining the rest of his mug on the way.
Vince took the opportunity to quietly scoot over, so he was more in the middle of the couch, and when Howard sat down again their thighs pressed pleasingly up against each other.
Vince concentrated furiously on his mug, and took another sip, as Howard refilled his own mug, right to the brim.
Vince smiled to himself.
So far so good.
Ostensibly, he moved to sit back a little further, but he wiggled sideways ever so slightly as well, unable to resist getting even closer to Howard, encouraged by the way that Howard wasn't trying to move away.
What with the contact, and the memory of slowly pulling down Howard's underpants on a continuous loop in his mind, Vince didn't think he'd be able to stand up for some time.
"So, how is your, er, injury?" He asked boldly.
"Better. Mostly." Howard replied in a gruff voice, running a hand absently through his hair.
"Mostly? Can't have that. Anything I can do?"
Howard scowled at him. "What, you mean like a cup of tea? No, I'm fine with the wine, thanks."
Vince gulped down the rest of his drink. If anything interesting was going to happen here, he was going to need a bit more Dutch courage.