I forgot to mention this on the last chapter but the song Vince sang was 'Come to Bed' by Gretchen Wilson, it's not mine and I shall make no claims that it is! (Yes, that was a very poorly constructed disclaimer).

Hope you enjoy!

"I'm sure you look fine Howard!"

"Easy for you to say, you always look good in the magazines. I, on the other hand, look ridiculous…"

"No you don't"

"… but not this time, this time I'm going to look normal."

"Howard!" laughed Vince, finally getting fed-up and entering the bathroom to find Howard combing the younger mans vanity case for appropriate hair products, or cosmetics, or… something. "You look fine. Please stop fussing. We can't both be vain." he laughed, wrapping his skinny arms around the older mans waist. "And there's no paparazzi between here and the limo anyway and Shelia, the make up artist's in there so she can sort you out."

"But…"

"Howard, if we don't leave now I'm going to be late for the gig and it's run by Roger Dahltry. I don't really want to annoy him. He doesn't like me much."

"Is that because you got voted above him on 'Greatest Front Man Ever' last week?" Howard asked, allowing himself to be dragged away from the precious mirror.

"Yeah." sighed the younger man. "I did try to point out that I beat everyone, not just him but if anything that made it worse."

"Really?" smirked Howard as he and Vince climbed into the car, the driver shutting the door behind them.

"Yeah, I don't know why." In some ways Vince was incredibly streetwise but in others he was so wonderfully naïve and just for that, Howard felt a sudden overwhelming urge to lean across the black leather seats and capture Vince's lips in a sweet kiss.

"What was that for?" smiled Vince, when Howard pulled away.

"Just… because."

Vince eyed him strangely, but let it go when Shelia said huffily "When you two've quite finished. I've got a job to do."

"Sorry." laughed Vince, then he put on an overly camp voice and added "I just can't seem to take my hands of him."

"Hmph." frowned Shelia, shoving Vince's head back roughly and straddling him so that she could apply the foundation more easily. Howard raised an eyebrow with an expression that suggested he was half amused, half angered by the compromising position the other two in the limo were now in.

"Don't blame me." snapped Shelia, seeing the look of Howard's face. "He insisted I do his makeup in the limo, though what you doing an hour ago that meant I couldn't do this in your house, I'll never know." Howard turned away from Shelia, blushing furiously as the memories of what they'd been doing an hour ago came flooding back to him.

"Howard, just give her some champagne." sighed Vince, flapping his hand in the direction of the limo's bar, only to be warned,

"Don't move you're face, unless you want to be patchy." Vince screwed his face up at the thought.

"Vince!" exclaimed Shelia, before shooting a laughing Howard a filthy look.

"W-where is the champagne?" he stammered, watching as Shelia began to put mascara on the rock star.

"You answer that" she warned "and I'll probably poke you in the eye. Anyway, I can't be bought with alcohol."

"You can." smirked Vince, followed by "Awwww, what the hell are you doing?" as Shelia slipped, sending a long black line of mascara down his cheek.

"Don't worry." she fussed, "I'll make it work. Don't touch!" she slapped his hand away. "For God sake… on second thoughts, Howard, I will take that champagne."

Howard nodded and searched the bar feverishly.

"On the end, it's in a silver vase thing." uttered Vince, hardly moving his mouth.

"Stop talking."

"I tell him that all the time," smiled Howard handing a frustrated Shelia a glass of champagne. "he never listens."

"Oi."

"Vince!"

"Sorry."

"Anyway," continued Howard "Isn't this a charity gig? Limo's, champagne that costs a lot of money, shouldn't they be trying to save money?"

"Can I answer?" Vince grinned cheekily at the make up artist. "Or will you mascara my cheek again?" Shelia looked as though she were about to retaliate but settled, instead, for taking a long sip of champagne. Vince took this as an opportunity to talk and was halfway through explaining that the limo's were donated when he felt a tap on his head with a make-up brush; Shelia's way of telling him to shut up.

The journey continued like this until they pulled up outside the stadium. Despite the endless bickering and exasperated sighs, Shelia had managed to make Vince look stunning and she'd even fixed Howard up a bit after some persuasion from Vince, which involved big eyes, fluttering eyelashes and lots and lots of pouting. She'd done his hair and put on the smallest amount of make up, ("to stop you looking shiny in the pictures." she'd explained) Howard knew he looked good. Vince had told him so and he'd seen it for himself in the small hand mirror but that didn't stop him feeling incredibly nervous when the door was opened and the noise of clicking camera's flooded his ears.

"Hold my hand." muttered Vince.

"Why?"

"I wanna show the world we're just as strong as ever." Howard wasn't sure if this was strictly true. After all, yesterday had been their lowest day. Today, on the other hand, had been a lot better, it had felt like it used to and, if Howard had been considering leaving yesterday, today had made him realise he never could. So Howard took Vince's hand and allowed the younger man to pull him from the car. A million and one flashes went off at once. Sparkly spots danced in front of his eyes. And people were shouting loudly. Vince's name. Howard's name. Random words. Anything to make the couple look at them.

Vince was in his element. He posed and 'pulled shapes', winking at the camera's. Hands above his head. Hands on his hips. After a while, he slid to Howard's side, slipping his arm around the older mans back. Howard put his own arm around the rock stars shoulders. The lights seemed to flash even brighter. Then, feeling suddenly impulsive and spurred on by comments like 'Howard! How did you react when you found Vince screwing your sister?' and 'Howard. Can you forgive him after the affair with Chad?', Howard's grip on Vince shoulders tightened. He twisted the smaller man around and kissed him deeply, earning himself a startled gasp followed by a small moan, which Howard would have found embarrassing in front of this many people but Vince didn't seem to care. He simply threw the paparazzi the V's and pulled Howard down the red carpet, up the couple of stairs to the stage door.

---

"Vince Noir. 9 minute warning call."

"Cheers." he grinned at the girl with the clipboard, who blushed furiously before disappearing, giggling stupidly. Howard rolled his eyes, Vince still had it, that extraordinary ability to make girls melt.

"Shelia's gonna kill you." said Howard from his arm chair in the corner of the large dressing room.

"Why?" asked Vince, who was pruning himself in the mirror.

"You're makeup's smudged and you're hair's a mess at the back."

"My hairs a mess!" shrieked Vince, "Sort it out for me then!Anyway," he grinned wickedly as Howard rose lethargically from his seat and walked over to fix his boyfriends coiffure. "if you didn't feel the need to grab my face and hair when we kiss, we wouldn't have an issue."

"If you didn't feel the need to kiss me there wouldn't be an issue."

"Touché!" smiled Vince, feeling a gentle tugging on his head as Howard worked out the tangles with his fingers. "mmm" he murmured, causing the older man to chuckle to himself. Vince didn't care, he loved it when people played with his hair. He'd once told a magazine he loved getting his hair styled because it was the best feeling in the world. People had laughed, but he stuck by his answer, right up until he met Howard, now, Howard playing with his hair was the best feeling in the world.

"You playing any new songs today?" Howard broke Vince's peaceful daydreams.

"I haven't got any to play."

"What about the one from last night?"

"That was private, just for you."

"I don't mind, it was a beautiful song."

"Thanks." grinned Vince, "It was good, wasn't it? Best one I've written in a while."

"Vince Noir." the clip-board lady returned at the door. "You're in three minutes… follow me."

"Wish me luck." winked Vince, kissing Howard on the cheek.

"You'll be amazing."

"True, true."

"Oh, and play the song but Vince?"

"Mmm?"

"Don't mention me, yeah?"

Vince's face contorted with confusion.

"I don't want the attention." he explained. "Play the song, but don't mention me."

Vince nodded and followed the girl down a series of corridors to the stage, whilst Howard raced quickly to his complimentary seat. He sat down just in time to hear Graham Norton introduce Vince as,

"the rock sensation, the greatest musician and the second greatest gay guy in the room." the big screens showed John Barrowman and everyone laughed "that's right everybody… it's Vince Noir!"

The room erupted with cheers, clapping and a few wolf whistles but all Howard could think about was how annoying it was when people pronounced Vince's surname 'No-are' with two completely separate syllables like Norton just had. Though his internal grumbling soon subsided when Vince appeared from the side of the stage to one of his hits called 'You Know You Really Want Me'. Vince had taken his jacket off since leaving the dressing room exposing his tight blue shirt which seemed to serve only as a second skin. And his trousers were leaving nothing to the imagination. Howard's mouth dropped open, he hadn't seen Vince dressed up like that for a long time, he'd forgotten just how sexy Vince looked when he really went for it. With the clothes, make up and arrogant strut, Vince looked totally at home on stage.

Vince played a fantastic four song medley of his biggest hits. The crowd went lapped up every second of it. And they went wild when he stepped to the microphone and said,

"Can we bring the lights down?".

The room was plunged into near darkness except for a soft bluish light concentrated on Vince. He looked like an fallen angel, beautiful but wicked. He grinned,

"Thank you. Okay, this next song.," he continued, as a roadie legged it on stage and handed him an acoustic guitar. "is off my new album and, erm, it's dedicated to someone very special to me. He's sat up in the box right now."

And just like that, a blinding spotlight hit Howard full in the face and everyone was looking at him. A polite applause came from the crowd and someone shouted 'Sexy'.

"Hey," laughed Vince from the stage, "Back off he's mine.". Then he cleared his throat and began to play. And, just as suddenly as it had arrived, the light was gone, leaving Howard with multi-coloured spots tattooed on his eyelids.

Howard was furious. How could Vince do that to him? After he'd specifically asked him not to mention him! Howard was about to storm off, when he became aware of the amount of camera's pointed at him. If he walked off now the media would have a field day, so he stayed put and tried not to frown too much. But it all got too much for him when Vince got to the line:

Turn out the lights
And turn each other on

The rock star stopped, waiting until people finished wolf whistling and cheering and shouting things like;

"Yeah Vince!", "Sexy!" or "I'll turn you on baby!" and one person even yelled "Vince, I'm pregnant!"

Suddenly, Howard couldn't take it any more, he stood up slowly and looked at his watch, as if that would stop the paparazzi jumping to the wrong (or in this case right) solution and left as calmly as he could manage.

The angst is back! - Sorry!

Sisi…xx