I know lot's of new characters in AU's get confusing (at least it confuses me). So, just in case you've forgotten (I know I would have) Frank is Vince's agent!

"Where are we going?" whined Vince, as Howard got out of the limo pulling the younger man after him.

"You'll see now, stop whinging."

"I'm cold." The young rock star shivered.

"You can have my jacket."

"I don't think so," smiled Vince, "sweet as that is, you're boring brown would destroy this look." he posed dramatically and Howard smiled at him. Vince did look amazing tonight and irritatingly, he knew it. When Howard had told him to make himself gorgeous, he hadn't realised Vince would pull out quite so many stops. He'd spent hours on his hair and make up. He'd pulled out his tightest jeans and his clingiest t-shirt and for some reason he'd topped it off with a long feathery coat. A thin, long feathery coat, which the icy wind was cutting straight through.

"Come here." grinned Howard, pulling Vince towards him and wrapping his arms around him before kissing him sweetly.

"Mmm," mumbled Vince, "That was nice."

"Yeah. Come on." Howard said, taking his hand and pulling him up a small path.

"Why do I get the feeling there's not going to be lovely restaurant at the end of this path."

"Stop whinging."

"When you said dress up, I didn't expect to go trekking over mountains."

"It's not far now."

"These boots were white when we started out this evening, now look at them they're… oh wow." he breathed, as they reached the top of the hill. The view was spectacular. The stars lit up the sky, the moon was round and full and had a slightly orange glow. For miles and miles there were lights. Some moving (cars), some stationary (houses and street lamps) and in distance bright blue and yellow flames danced rhythmically.

"It's beautiful." Vince sighed, turning around to find Howard laying down a picnic blanket. "What are you doing?" he laughed fondly.

"Sitting down," answered Howard, tapping the blanket next down to him, indicating Vince should do the same. Vince did, snuggling up to the older man, who instinctively wrapped his arm around his partners skinny waist. "You know," Howard sighed, "This place is horrible in the day light."

"I don't believe you."

"It is. It's all buildings and roads and that floating blue flame…"

"It's beautiful."

"It's a steelworks. In daylight it's a great big grey industrial monster."

"Shhh, don't spoil it."

"Sorry." smiled Howard, pressing a kiss into Vince's hair.

It was beautiful there. It's was peaceful watching the lights dancing below them, the flame flickering hypnotically in the distance.

"You gonna ask me then?" Vince asked suddenly.

"Ask you what?" Howard squeaked.

"Oh come on." laughed Vince, sitting up and turning to look at the rumbled older man. "You tell me to dress up, you're wearing you're best suit and you've got that expensive cologne on."

"So?"

"You bring me to this place, which is just breathtaking… and you've got something in you're pocket, which is shaped suspiciously like a ring box."

Howard blushed furiously. "You weren't supposed to see that." he frowned.

"Yeah, but come on, in those trousers… it's not my fault if my eyes keep being drawn downwards, is it?"

"How can you say that? I'm refraining from looking down and your trousers are so tight it looks like you painted them on."

"Liar." smirked Vince, "I saw you checking out my perfect arse."

"Well…" Howard was going to come up with a brilliant retaliation, but Vince's blue eyes were burning his soul. "What?" he asked.

"Hurry up and ask me so we can get on with the kissing."

"But I wanted it to be perfect and now it's not."

"Are you kidding?" scorned Vince. "You're here. I'm here. We're sat on a picnic blanket on a hill and the backdrop is unbelievable. Jesus, Howard. It's like a scene from a cheesy romance film. How is this not perfect?"

"It was supposed to be a surprise."

"I can act surprised if it'll make you feel better."

"Now you're just being stupid."

"Howard, don't ruin it. Just ask me, then I can say 'yes' and we can down to the real business."

Howard cocked an eyebrow. "What, here?"

"It's quiet and there's no camera's."

"It's not camera's I'm worried about. It's him." Howard whispered, looking over to where Vince's bodyguard stood a few meters away watching them like a hawk.

"Ignore him." Vince said, scattering hundreds of tiny kisses all over Howard's jaw.

"I can't just ignore him."

"Yeah, well… he'll ignore us."

"What?"

"Come on, Frank hired him. He's a big butch man. To him two blokes kissing is like acid for his eyes. If he watches us for long enough, he'll soon run off looking for some tart to screw to demonstrate his masculinity." Vince struck a pose that was comically masculine for a man wearing a coat with pink and blue feathers on it. "That, or…" Vince trailed off.

"Or what?"

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time I'd turned a seemingly straight man gay."

"You know," Howard said thoughtfully, "maybe this wedding isn't such a good idea."

"What?! Why!?"

"Well, I'm never going to love you as much as you love yourself." Howard chuckled.

"Oh come off it." Vince gave him a light slap on the shoulder, "you know I'm only joking." And then, after a moment of silence. "Ask me now."

"Do I need to be on one knee?"

Vince laughed "No. Oh, your nervous." he added, noticing Howard's hands shaking as he retrieved the box from his pocket.

"Yeah, well, I'm allowed to be nervous, look at you. You're gorgeous."

"True, but you ain't so bad yourself." he smiled, "And." he added, touching the older man's cheek lightly, "don't be nervous. I'm going to say 'yes'."

"Okay." Howard drew a deep breath and had hardly uttered 'Will you…' when Vince cried, "Yes." and launched himself at the older man like an excitable puppy, kissing him like his life depended on it. "Hey Roger." he called to the bodyguard who was beginning to look incredibly uncomfortable. "You enjoying the show?"

"Do you mind?" Howard asked a little irritably from his position under Vince.

"What?"

"It's bad enough he's there killing the mood like a mum on a first date, without you talking to him."

"Did your mum go on your first date?" giggled Vince.

"No." Howard answered too quickly and too loudly.

"Oh dear. What did your poor girlfriend think?"

"She didn't think much at all, she was thick as double cream."

Vince laughed again and resumed his kissing with full force. Somehow the ring must have ended up on Vince's finger because Howard felt the cold metal running down his back as Vince whispered huskily in his ear,

"Come on, let's go home."

---

The piercing ring-ring of the phone sliced through Vince's dreams, dragging him sharply into consciousness with a loud groan.

"Who rings this early? Don't they know we got engaged last night?" Vince mumbled rolling over, his eyes still tightly shut. As though he thought that by keeping them closed the phone would stop ringing and he'd go back to sleep.

"Apparently not. Answer it." Howard muttered groggily.

"You answer it."

"It's on your side of the bloody bed!"

"Argh!" Vince cried. Howard opened his eyes and watched Vince stretch out a slender arm behind him, tapping blindly at his bedside table, knocking stuff everywhere until he found the receiver and brought it to his ear.

"Hello," he croaked. "Hello… there's no one there."

"Vince open your eyes, the phone's upside down."

"Oh" said the younger man, opening one eye and, squinting in the low sun that streamed through the window, turned the phone the right way up. "Hello." he repeated. "Mmm, what magazine?… 'Okay' Magazine… for our wedding photo's?… how do you even know we're getting… oh I see…"

Howard looked puzzled.

'Frank told them' he mouthed before continuing, "Yeah, yeah I'm still here… you're gonna give us how much!?" he looked eagerly at Howard but was met by a solemn shake of the head. "Fine." the rock star muttered. "Sorry." he said to the phone, "We're not interested… double it?!… no, no. No money's enough. Thanks anyway. Bye." He placed the phone back on the stand and turned to look at Howard, who leant forward and kissed him softly, saying "Thank you."

"Mmm, well, you better be worth it Howard Moon. That was a lot of money."

"How much?"

"You don't want to know."

"I do."

"No, trust me you don't."

Howard gave up and shifted on to his elbow to better look at his new fiancé, who was carefully inspecting his ring.

("No gold," he'd warned Howard ages ago, when they 'weren't' discussing what kind of engagement ring Vince would want. "Gold makes me look like a chav. White gold's okay. In fact I want white gold."
"Isn't that expensive?"
"Like you're going to be paying for it."
"Huh?"
"You're going to use our joint account to buy it, which is all my money and I've got plenty of it. You better spend a lot on it mind, no cheap Argos rubbish."
"Give me some credit. I'm going to a nice jewellers."
"It's a bit sad that I'm going to be buying my own engagement ring."
"Who says it's an engagement ring? It isn't. I'm just buying you a plain boring old ring, with no marriage significance at all."
"Yeah, sure Howard. Whatever you say."
"Anyway, money's just money. Choosing the right one, that's the hard bit and I'm choosing it."
"That's what I'm worried about, get Alice to help you, yeah? She's got impeccable taste."
Then he'd swanned off into the kitchen humming 'I'm getting married in the morning'.)

Vince had been pleasantly surprised by the outcome. The ring wasn't too feminine but it wasn't a man's ring (because Vince swore they were too big for his slender fingers and weighed him down). Vince had only spoken to a few people since he'd received the ring, but his left hand had spent the entire time practically glued to his face, until the person in question inquired about his new ring. It was a beautiful cut and there were loads of tiny little diamonds scattered around it so that the low morning sun was catching it and making thousands of tiny rainbows on the wall.

"You know if we broke up…" Howard said suddenly, breaking the peace of the morning.

"Don't say that." whined Vince.

"No, but if we broke up, I'd have nothing."

"What you talking about?"

"Well, I mean, you own the house, the cars, the land, you own all the priceless collections of random rubbish you've got and the…"

"It's not random rubbish. And anyway, that's all going to be half yours soon though." he smiled, pointing at his ring.

"I thought we'd have to get a prenuptial agreement."

"Prenuptial agreement? No way! That's for people who think they're going to get divorced in the future. Why would we want that?"

"Well, in case I'm just marrying you for your money and I divorce you and take everything you own."

"I'll take my chances, anyway, I doubt someone who was planning to take my money would suggest a prenup."

"It's part of my elaborate and rather cunning plan. Make you feel secure and then, bam. It's Paul McCartney and Heather Mills all over again."

"Except you have two legs, aren't from Liverpool and don't speak in octaves only dogs can hear."

"What makes you think your McCartney in that scenario?"

"Come on, he's almost as talented as me."

Howard shook his head lovingly at Vince's unrelenting arrogance.

"Hey, Frank's not going to be happy with you not protecting your money, is he?"

"Nope, which is another reason why I'm definitely not getting you to sign any premarital agreements like he said I should. Actually, there is one thing I do kinda need to ask."

"What?" Howard asked suspiciously.

"Well, it's about surnames. I need to stay as Vince Noir, otherwise my fans might get confused."

"What, are all your fans idiots?"

Vince giggled and said "Some of them. No it's not that, is it? It's just if I release an album as Vince Noir-Moon, or Moon-Noir of just Moon. It wont be an album by Vince Noir."

"Well observed." smirked Howard.

"You know what I mean. People get confused when artists change their names. I got completely confused when Prince turned himself into a symbol."

"Yeah, but to be fair that was confusing."

"Mmm." Suddenly, Vince beamed at Howard and jumped out of bed saying, "Well lot's of things to be getting on with."

"Like what?"

"Weddings don't plan themselves you know. If you want any kind of say at all you'll have to get up now." He grinned, "I've already planned most of it in my head."

"You're kidding."

"I'm not."

The view from the beginning it based on Port Talbot Steelworks, which is a big ugly factory that isn't massively far from where I live. It's probably the most hideous thing in the world in the daylight but at night, I swear to god, it's unbelievable. At least, I love it. All my friend's and family think I'm mad, but then again they think that anyway. I don't think I really did it justice with the description, but then again, description has never been my forte.

And I know it was a cheap stab at Heather Mills and I actually don't dislike her really, she's never done anything to upset me personally - I just thought as reference's go, it worked.

Anyway, one chapter to go (I think)!! It's all getting a bit complicated in my head so it may stretch over to two but I doubt it, I shall rein it it like a wild stallion. =[.

Thanks to everyone who's stuck with it so far! Love and pink and blue cola bottle sweets (you know the ones, they're the best sweets in the world) to you all.

Sisi…xx