Dedicated to my lovely friend Laura. Don't listen to Mark. You are lovely just the way you are.
Christmas always rolls round too fast. Some people find they are short on presents, some people panic anyway, because there's second cousin thrice removed is coming to stay, and some people, such as Vince Noir loathe Christmas, because they find it completely and utterly pointless. That coupled with the prospect of having to scarf down an entire seasonal dinner and pudding.
Still. At least Naboo was gone, off to a hut in the hills or something. He'd been 'discretely' observing Vince for ages, even though the man in question was fully aware of being watched, which kinda defeated the object, but still…at least he was the first on up, on Christmas day. Even though it was 5am, and Melinda threw a slipper at him when he went into her and Howard's room to check nobody was awake, but actually found himself interrupting something. He shuddered, and wrapped the dressing gown tighter and looked out the kitchen window at the snow pelting against it. One of the cats was sat on the ledge mewling to get in. It could wait. There were plenty of places it could shelter out there anyway.
The scabs on Vince's arms itched, although he didn't scratch them, despite how irritating they were. He didn't particularly want to bleed. Yet. Besides, there was plenty of time if he actually did feel the need to. It was another 3 hours or so before even Bollo's alarm was set, and someone had foolishly left a razor on the side of the bath the other week, because the piece of glass had long since shattered.
In the meantime however, he busied himself with watching a bit of telly. The news was just starting, with its presenters wearing alarming festive hats, and pulling crackers, and generally being annoyingly jolly, although that was probably down to illegal amounts of caffeine.
Melinda and Howard were both now awake, no longer in 'The Mood', and both feeling disgruntled. They leant against each other in silence, not really knowing what to say, other than "Well. That was unfortunate." and "I hope I can find that slipper tomorrow. Or later today, even.". Howard eventually settled for saying something else entirely, which given the current state of things, was probably not his best move.
"I'm still worried about Vince." He knew his voice sounded strained. Melinda sighed angrily, and turned her back.
"Not this. Again." She whined, scrambling out of bed and flinging open the window. Cold air rushed in, bringing a torrent of snow with it, that had displaced from the top of the window frame. "Argh, for fuck's sake!" She slammed her elbows down and the sill and exasperatedly lit up a cigarette, although her struggle to lean out of the window to get a nicotine fix was in vain, as the smoke blew back into the room with the draught anyway. "The doctor discharged him, he seems happy enough. It's only that bastard Naboo who's made you doubt him. Or you. Bloody hell, you've got me confused now!"
"Hey, don't say that about Naboo!" He sighed, and wrapped an arm around her waist. The acrid smell of the smoke drifted in, hanging in the air for a while before disappearing completely.
"Sorry, but he is. There's only him worried about Vince in the whole house!" She paused for another drag. "I don't want him worrying you. You're no good when your fretting about...Well...Anything really." She smirked and pecked him on the cheek before tossing the butt into the garden below and sidling back to bed, dusting the ash from her silky negligee.
"I suppose your right." Howard sighed, closed the window and dithered for a moment, then returned to bed as well. "I'm gonna get some sleep, okay? The turkey needs to go in the oven in two hours." He pecked her on the lips, then tried to get back to sleep.
Downstairs, blood dripped steadily into the kitchen sink…
Don't hurt me!
Oh yeah..and please review ;)