Disclaimer: I don't own 'Absolute Beginners'. Nor do I own the characters from the musical.

Pairing: Vendice/ Colin.

Author's Note: Set sometime during those hazy, crazy summer days when Colin is working for Vendice in the advertising business. If more background is needed, then reviews asking for it may get me to put in more chapters with more of a story.

--------------------------------------------------

A slow, quick smirk and then Vendice whipped around and flicked up a box of cigarettes from his table. With an unbelievable amount of fluidity, he slipped them into his pocket with one hand and laid the other on Colin's arm.

Unbelievable was right; Colin wondered just how many times Vendice had practised before he attained that ungainly grace. But for the moment he kept his thoughts to himself and just concentrated on putting his feet one in front of the other.

Out the door, ignoring the raised eyebrows and knowing flushed looks from the girls at the typewriters in the outer room. Out the other door and into the waiting car. The engine starting with a petulant whine and protesting shriek and then smoothly out onto the streets with Vendice fidgeting with the wheel as he always did.

"Nice car," Colin blurted, already hating himself for saying something so inane.

"Thank you," Vendice said, making a sharp swerve around the corner and narrowly missing a pedestrian trying to cross the road.

Nothing more was said until they reached their destination. And this was a surprise! Judging from the older man's tastes, Colin would have expected something a little more… modern. Not a neat little place somewhere quiet. It was a family home, the place he lived in. What was someone like Vendice Partners doing in a place like that? He didn't have a family. Or did he?

Colin shot a panicked look at the man's left hand and felt his heart only slow down slightly when he saw no wedding ring. It was easy enough to remove a ring, wasn't it? But he had horrible visions of some woman coming round to his apartment and screaming at him in the street. It could happen! He'd seen it!

"Open the door, would you?" Vendice asked, for some inexplicable reason hauling a cardboard box out of the backseat. "Key's in my pocket."

Colin looked from the box to the pocket to the door. Evidently, his host expected him to dive in after that key. He obliged, ignoring warmth and clothed hip and a dry chuckle so quiet he barely heard it even standing as close as he was. But the key- an ordinary looking one- was out and fitted in the lock and gliding open in no time.

No time at all. A bad thing, Colin thought, because it took him closer. He should never have said yes. He really shouldn't have. He wasn't sexually precocious as everyone said. So he had a few wonderings and a couple of stupid dreams. Didn't mean he had to do anything about them! And what about Suzette? He loved her, didn't he? She was his girl. His everything. He'd got into this business for her.

But somewhere along the way…

"Come in, son, come in. Can't stand there all day," Vendice snapped, slamming the door shut almost before Colin had even entered safely. "Get yourself a drink. They're over there." He pointed at a large bar and Colin barely had time to glance futilely at it before his host was leading the way up a flight of stairs.

Light, quick patter of footfalls on agonizingly soft carpet. The entire place was covered with it! Vendice pampered himself.

The first room to the left and the first thing Colin saw was a bed. An enormous bed. A bed that dominated everything else in the room. A bed that really was everything else in the room.

Once again, Colin found himself taken by surprise. Graceful fingers grabbed his arms and pushed him back against the shut door. Vendice didn't waste any time on civilized conversation either, it seemed. In less than a minute, he was down on his knees, one arm across the boy's hips to restrain him and the other hand assisting his mouth.

Colin's head exploded.

He'd started to say 'Vendice' the split second before, as terror consumed him from head to foot, but then something halfway along his body got consumed by something much warmer and softer and wetter than terror could ever be and since that something was infinitely better, his voice cut out halfway through. 'Ven' it was, and 'Ven' it had remained for the entire- embarrassingly short- interlude.

Vendice stood up, wiped his mouth with a handkerchief he pulled from his pocket, balled the cloth up and threw it away before rising. "Quite good."

Colin flushed and tried to think of something suitable to say.

"I think," Vendice said softly, all hints of American brusqueness gone from his voice, "That you would be far more comfortable out of those clothes. Let me help."

Colin slapped the delicate hands away and scowled. "I can undress myself, thanks," he snapped. Just his luck, the first words out of his mouth that didn't sound stupid just sounded childish. From the amused look on his companion's face, it had been taken in exactly that spirit.

'Let the little boy have his way for now,' said that look, 'It must be expected from children his age.'

Well he wasn't a child! And he wasn't petty! He could be an adult, too. So he stripped, ignoring the little urge inside himself to feel ashamed in some way, and then walked boldly over to the bed and sat down. He clenched his fingers tight into the covers, trying to make them be still.

The older man undressed leisurely, wordlessly picked up both sets of clothing and put them into neat piles on a shelf along one wall and made his casual way over to the bed. Completely unconcerned about a thing.

Colin was certain that by now his ears were flaming red even if his cheeks weren't. Instinctively his eyes dropped away to look at the floor, a little frightened by what he had experienced and what he could experience now. It was too much. But he couldn't back down. Besides, Vendice had gotten him that exhibition in the autumn. He had to do something to repay him.

"Lie down," Vendice instructed.

"What are you going to do?" Colin asked, more quickly that he liked. He could hear the apprehension in his own voice.

"Nothing you won't like," his companion laughed. A predatory look lit his face and if Vendice hadn't looked like an elegant vulture before, he certainly did now. It was strangely attractive. "Lie down."

Colin did it.

Vendice lay beside him, one hand reaching out to take him by the shoulder. Slowly pulling him around, pulling him closer. Slipping his hand up his neck to the back of his head and holding him still as he kissed him.

Colin tried to mumble something that might have been 'no' but he never got the chance to say it. His mouth was being assaulted; his lips pried open and his tongue invited out with open licks. He flushed and tried to pull away but Vendice was obviously stronger than he looked.

It was nothing, in short, like almost kissing Suzette.

She had always hinted, of course. And her lips had shaped soft kisses at him before she pulled away at the last minute. They had laughed about them, secure in the fact that it would happen one day. Colin had never rushed her. He wanted it to be perfect.

This was nothing like he had imagined kissing her. Vendice was rough and his lips were not as soft. He didn't taste like lipstick and sugar. The kisses were aggressive and messy and wet and the only response they sent through the younger man's body was a muscle-aching need for 'more'. He didn't want to protect Vendice from anything; he didn't want to take things slow.

This was fiery, fierce. It wasn't love; it wasn't even affection. It was warped and weird and nothing that Colin could understand except that his hands were already moving down Vendice's back, nails digging down into barely fleshed out bone.

No suggestion of softness here, either. Suzette was soft and pliant and curvy. Vendice was all hard lines and lithe muscle. His hair wasn't soft when Colin threaded a hand through it; it felt rough and scratchy from hair spray. They rolled a little, battling with tongues and hands to dominate the other, eyes closed shut and hoarse groans dropping from each pair of swollen lips.

Colin was so intent on what he was touching that he hardly noticed where Vendice's hands were before they reached roughly between his legs. Here, surprisingly enough, was reprieve from the nightmare reality. Soft, delicate fingers that rubbed briskly against the hot flesh and made him cry out in something approaching either panic or eagerness.

Vendice hissed and bit at his throat. "Never thought you'd be so noisy," he leered.

Colin trembled and continued to tremble until Vendice ripped another- albeit smaller- orgasm from his body. And then he had a handful of rough blond hair, an armful of sweating male and the harsh, aroused breathes on his neck. Still, he took a few moments to get his breath and sanity back.

By which time, Vendice had silently taken his hand and pulled it down to his thighs. "Just stroke," he warned, "Do whatever it is that makes you feel good."

That was all. Thrown in at the deep end with a man that wouldn't hesitate to fire him if he did this wrong. Had Colin really been trying to tell himself that he needed to do this to repay his boss? Hah! Repay nothing! But he was here and he had to push his bewilderment away and at least look at it even if he didn't touch it.

He made to look down, but Vendice caught his chin and shook his head. "Look at me," he said softly, almost sounding gentle, "Just stroke. Pretend you're touching yourself."

It didn't last very long. The man had been very hard and very close to the edge as it was. Vendice hadn't fought it, or tried to prolong it. Colin's strokes had been straightforward and clumsy, but effective. It would only require a little practise, he mused. A tight inward smile and he agreed with himself that, with the boy willing, he might be persuaded to give him all the practise he needed.

Lighting up a cigarette after, he decided that 'teenagers' really were good for something more than money.