A/N: I'm glad you all enjoyed the first chapter! Thanks for your lovely reviews, and enjoy chapter two! I don't know if there actually is a band called 'Mirth', but I figured mixing known bands with made-up ones wouldn't matter, being a parallel world and all!

xxxx

Noel and Julian gasped at the same time, hands simultaneously flying to their chests as they tried to breathe back in the wind that had been knocked out of them.

"What the hell...?" Julian spoke first, understandably shaken and more than slightly horrified. Next to him, the already pale skin of Noel seemed to have gone almost translucent. He couldn't talk, just stared at the scene in front of him with wide, confused eyes. Julian stepped forward slightly, and as he did the opening of the portal behind them vanished, leaving a sizzling in the air that temporarily made his hair stand on end. He winced as a thousand noises and smells assaulted his senses all at once, and he shook his head, eventually clearing the haze enough to see that he and Noel were actually stood amongst some trees on the edge of a field, a massive campsite spread out in front of them, and beyond that...

A music festival. They were at a music festival.

"Julian?"

He looked down to see Noel tugging on the bottom of his shirt.

"Yeah?" he breathed, not quite trusting his voice. Noel was staring straight ahead.

"Where are we?" He sounded like a small, frightened child, and Julian had the urge to put an arm round him to comfort him, which he would have done, if he wasn't still frozen in shock.

"Festival...?"

Noel managed to break his hold on the scene in front of him to look up at his friend. "Yeah, but where?"

Julian swallowed heavily. "No idea."

It was true – nothing looked familiar. There were no identifying landmarks, no signs, nothing – apart from the music that wafted on the warm breeze, and Julian realised, with some sense of relief, that he at least recognised the song, if nothing else.

"Ruby."

"What?"

"Kaiser Chiefs."

"Oh – yeah."

Julian scratched his head. "Should we... I mean, do you think we should take a look? Seems safe enough."

Noel nodded, then said. " This is still earth, right?" He knew it sounded stupid, but then again, it wasn't everyday you got zapped through a strange portal, so he figured he may as well ask. If gateways to other worlds existed, then he supposed it could be possible that the Kaiser Chiefs were from another planet.

Julian shrugged and moved his head around, not even noticing that what he'd previously said could contradict that. "Doesn't seem to be anything to suggest that it isn't."

Noel took a deep breath, feeling a little braver. "Right then." He started forwards, Julian following warily, eyes darting about all over the place, untrusting.

A few minutes later they were traipsing through the campsite, picking up snippets of other peoples conversations in a bid to discover where they were. Voices were speaking English, and for a moment it looked as if they were simply in another part of the country, until Noel, brain-box of everything music, said;

"Hang on. There aren't any festivals on at the moment – not till later on in the month."

And then:

"Wait – did that guy just say he was running out of euros?"

Julian stopped walking, his eyes widening, and Noel bumped into the back of him. "What did you just say?"

Noel pushed his hair back out of his face. "I said -"

"Euros? Are we in France or Germany or..."

"Well," Noel said, licking his lips in thought. "I've only heard people speaking English."

Julian frowned. "Yeah, that's true."

They stood looking out across the site for a moment, until Julian spotted what looked like a bar in the distance. He had an idea.

"Let's get a drink, shall we?"

xxxx

Vince collapsed on the ground, upper body in the tent, lower body and legs stretched out across the cool grass. He breathed in the musty smell that had built up where the tent hadn't been used for a while, and reached a hand up to run a finger along the thin material. He wasn't a huge fan of camping, but he loved festivals, and all the hotels in the surrounding area had already been booked up. Besides, Howard and Rose both insisted that it added to the festival experience, so he grudgingly agreed. He supposed it wasn't so bad now he had the use of Rose's straighteners, which had eventually been found underneath the cat. Did cats use straighteners?...

"Ouch!"

Vince looked up to find Howard looming over him, chuckling at the look of indignation on his face. "It's not funny – you kicked me!"

Howard shook his head, still smiling. "Don't be so melodramatic – it was just a tap." He got down on his knees and stretched out on his front next to his pouting boyfriend, running a hand over the part of his thigh where his foot had caught him. "Better?"

Vince continued to pout, but a smile tugged at his lips.

Howard moved over him and placed his mouth to Vince's, pulling him in for a lingering kiss, one hand roaming over the smaller man's chest.

Vince had never been good at resisting Howard, especially when he kissed him like he was now, hot and wanting and...

"Ugh, get a room."

Roseanna slipped through the door of the tent, swigging from a bottle of water and rolling her eyes at the amorous couple.

Vince giggled as Howard rolled off him, the bigger man sighing heavily and glaring at his sister.

"What? Don't look at me like that. I don't want to see my brother doing that any more than you want to walk in on me having -"

"Gah! Stop!" Howard cried, screwing up his face and putting a hand out towards Rose, who pulled a face.

"Exactly. And until Naboo gets here, or some delectable indie boy catches my eye, you're stuck with me. Besides," she said, dropping the now empty bottle on the floor, "I hear the fun fair's pretty good." She grinned at Vince, whose eyes lit up brighter than the sun. Howard groaned.

"Fine. But don't go shovelling loads of sweets down your throat before going on the waltzers – you nearly threw up on me last time," he said, directing his gaze at Vince, who just stared back at him innocently.

xxxx

"Howard!"

Howard spun round at the call of his name, smiling as he saw Naboo traipsing towards him, bottle of something luminous in one hand, burger in the other.

"Found the tent all right then?" he said, noticing the shaman's lack of luggage.

"Wasn't hard to miss," he lisped, implying the glitter that, much to Howard's chagrin, Vince had glued in blobs all over the outer shell, the sun bouncing off it and making it look like some sort of tent temple, a Mecca that was, to Howard's annoyance and Vince's delight, drawing people to it like moths to a flame.

"Naboolio!" Vince and Rose cried at the same time, stumbling towards him and Howard, high on candy-floss and toffee apples and adrenaline from where they'd been dropped straight down from the top of the Detonator.

"All right," he said, in that indifferent tone of his – but his eyes were sparkling.

Vince turned to Howard, managing to look mischievous and cute at the same time, and put his arms around the bigger man's neck, kissing him lightly. "So, Naboo's here now..."

Rose and Naboo mock gagged.

"Seriously, I know you two are still in your 'honeymoon' phase, but all the time?"

"Come on, Rose," Naboo said, taking her arm, "Mirth are playing soon and I missed them last time." He led her away, a few seconds later twisting his head to look back at Howard and Vince and shout, "don't go getting into trouble!"

Howard grinned and took Vince by the hand, pulling him through the crowds of excited people and back through the maze of tents, towards their own, shiny beacon. Vince tripped along with a stupid grin on his face, eyes slightly glazed.

Reaching their destination, Howard slowed, both of them acting as normal as they could so it didn't look too obvious to the other campers what they were about to get up to, although, luckily, most of them had migrated to one of the many stage areas. He unzipped the door and they scooted in, closing it again hastily. When he turned to face Vince, the Electro Poof was sat back on his haunches, looking at Howard lustfully, and he pounced on him, pushing him to the floor and kissing him for all he was worth. They rolled around, pulling at each others clothes, discreetness and decency long forgotten, by Vince anyway, and Howard had to quickly put a hand over his mouth to stop him crying out in a way that even the most innocent passer-by would have known wouldn't have been in pain. When he was sure it was safe, Howard removed his hand and replaced it with his lips. Vince moaned and bucked against him, Howard's tongue doing all sorts of wondrous things that left him breathless, and he grabbed at his lovers hips, bringing them down against his and grinning naughtily at the sounds the friction pulled from Howard's mouth, who moved his head to bite down on the patch on skin between Vince's shoulder and neck to dissipate the noise, but the action made Vince gasp loudly, so it didn't really work.

They melted together, whispering words of love and adoration to each other, the outside world, for the time being, ceasing to exist.

xxxx

"Wow," Vince breathed, panting harshly as he floated slowly back down to earth. He rolled onto his side to look at Howard, who was smiling at him in pure, unadulterated bliss, his face glowing.

Howard lifted a hand and trailed it lazily down Vince's side, the skin there flushed and sweaty, and Vince shivered at the touch, snuggling up to his lover and sighing in contentment.

They stayed like that for a while, simply enjoying the feeling of being held, hands gently stroking hair and lips pressed sweetly to cheeks and foreheads.

Finally, Howard sat them up and reached for the items of clothing that had been strewn haphazardly around the tent.

"Come on – I know you want to see The Human League."

Vince squealed and threw his t-shirt over his head, yelping two seconds later when he realised that he'd actually put on Howard's much less trendy one, pulling it off and throwing it at the Jazz Maverick as if he'd been burnt.

Howard shook his head and laughed.