It was summer once again. The golden sun warmed the streets of Kembleford, illuminated St Mary's stained glass windows in all their wonderful technicolour and shone brightly into the bedroom, across the two figures lounging on the bed, lying top to toe.
Sullivan was sitting upright against the wooden bedframe, leisurely turning the pages in his novel. Sid was sprawled across the bed as well, but with his feet on the pillow beside Sullivan, lying on his stomach doing the crossword.
He chewed the end of his pencil scanning the page for some clues, when the date caught his eye.
"Oh- Ed, Ed look at this!" He said excitedly, stabbing at the paper.
Sullivan leaned down and looked at the date.
"Its a year today since..."
"Since we started our arrangement." He finished, a smile growing on his face.
"You remembered!" Sid beamed.
"Of course I did! I can't believe it. A whole year of us." Sullivan giggled happily.
"Who'd have thought it."
Sid rolled around to see Sullivan properly. "What a year it's been, eh?" He laughed.
"Too right." Sullivan agreed.
Sid took Sullivan's hand, and kissed it.
"So glad I met you."
"Not as glad as I am," Sullivan replied, kissing Sid properly. Sid crawled forward, sprawling across his lover as the kiss started to get much more passionate. Until...
"Sid-Stop, Sid st- oh, for God's sake!" Sullivan pushed Sid off his chest in disgust, and held up his battered book. "Oh- You've mashed up all the pages-" He whined.
"You are such a buzzkill." Sid said sulkily, as Sullivan continued to correct the pages.
"I was nearly finished too, and now you've made me lose my place-"
"What do you value more, that book or me?" Sid asked in annoyance.
Sullivan didn't answer.
"Oh charming, very nice indeed."
"It's a first edition." Sullivan mumbled sadly, before setting it carefully on the bedside locker, having fixed its poor crushed pages as best as he could.
Sid shook his head in mock annoyance. ''If that's all you think of me, Edgar-''
''Oh don't go there!'' SUllivan said frantically, ''I love you way more than the book, alright?''
Sid laughed and shook his head. "That's not even the first time your books have got in the way of our lovelife. Remember that night at Montague when I stubbed my toe off that bookcase? Really killed the mood."
"That's more furniture than books," Sullivan argued, "And God knows, we've had enough trouble with that."
Sid burst out laughing. "I don't know about you, but I actually prefer this one." He said, knocking on the carved bedframe. "It doesn't creak like the last one."
"Yes," Sullivan said, somewhat awkwardly, "Well, the metal bed was old as the hills and it was inevitable that it was going to fall apart at some stage-"
"Nothing to do with the fact that we were hammering on it at the time?" Sid asked sultrily. Sullivan rolled his eyes.
"Still," He countered, "This is a very nice bed."
"Oh absolutely," Sid agreed, "Particularly these bits." He said, poking at the notches on which dangled a shiny pair of handcuffs.
"Yes," Sullivan agreed, "Very convenient. Though I wish we'd remembered to take them down that night you were showing Bunty and Lady Felicia the new bed..."
Sid cringed in memory.
"Bunty somehow manages to worm that into every conversation we have," Sullivan said in a pained voice, "Especially after she saw the marks on my wrist-"
Sid sniggered. He chambered back on top of Sullivan, pulling him into a long, lingering kiss.
"Oh, but it is such fun to lock you up for a change," He murmured, his voice deep, soft and a slightly dangerous, as he trailed his finger along the side of the other man's face. "You make the most incredible noises..."
Sullivan chuckled, winding his arms around Sid's neck. "So," He asked, gazing up at him, "How do we celebrate our special day?"
''Well,'' Said Sid, ''I happen to have a plan.''
''Do you now?''
''Yes I do.''
''Does it involve food that is prepared in a way that causes extensive fire damage?'' Sullivan smirked.
''Shut up. Right, what we're going to do is... We're going to go to the pub.''
''Alright, which one?''
''Red Lion.''
''Okay-''
''And I chose the Red Lion because...'' Sid asked.
''Because that's where I kissed you for the first time?'' Sullivan asked hopefully.
''Bingo!'' Sid said, ''You are clever.''
''Well I am a high ranking police officer,'' Sullivan said, in what Sid called his 'Inspector Voice'.
''Yeah I know. Anyway, we go the pub for a few drinks, we come home, I make dinner-''
''You do what now?'' Sullivan butted in.
''We eat the dinner that I scrounge off Mrs McCarthy,'' Sid corrected, ''And then...''
He looked at Sullivan suggestively. ''Have you any plans?''
''That all sounds lovely. Pub, dinner, then...'' He ran his hand down from Sid's shoulder, trailing along his skin until it rested on his hip, ''See where the evening takes us?''
''Perfect,'' Sid grinned leaning in for another kiss, which Sullivan happily supplied.
''Shame though,'' He sighed, leaning in to press his lips to Sid's neck, ''Having to wait so long...''
Sid sensed a golden oppurtunity. He knew exactly what to say. Never in his life had he been so certain of his speech. Perched on top of the man he loved, he said the words he'd waited to say for so long.
''Well if you're really impatient... I hear Lieutenant Anthony is on leave.''
Suddenly he was lying on his back on the bedroom carpet, Sullivan having shoved him away in disgust. He continued to roar with laughter as Sullivan gave off from the bed.
''You are such an arsehole.'' He growled, ''That was literally years ago now-''
''Two, two years ago-''
Sid pounced on top of Sullivan again, who had buried himself under the covers. He shook the mass of blankets. ''Eddie, Eddie, Edga-''
''DON'T YOU DARE-'' roared Sullivan, appearing out from under the blankets. Sid grinned. The 'Edgar Card' always worked.
''I love you.'' He said cheerily. Sullivan's scowl disappeared.
''I love you too.'' He said, before pulling Sid back under the covers beside him. "Now do you reckon you could last five minutes without doing something that makes me want to kill you?"
"I reckon I could last much longer than that." Sid smiled, pulling Sullivan into another fiery kiss.
