ILUVTHECHOSENONE: Short chapter is short. Officially have all of this fic hammered out, except a few small lines of dialouge. The sequel is still giving me pains though X_X I will tell you how many chapters are left in this one, though, in case you were wondering; 38 chapters :P so we still have a way to go!

chapter 24

Howard was sitting alone on his and Vinces' bench, eating a lunch he'd thrown together in a minute. He'd gone back to the Lodge to check up on the boy, and found that he was still asleep, now curled up on his side, cocooned in the blue duvet. Howard had taken out a bit of the only food that wasn't eaten and made a sandwich for himself. It still struck him how seven kids could completely dismantle a house in one night.

He was brought out of his dismal wonderings by Mrs Gideon, who walked over and smiled down on him, looking tired herself. They had been out into the early hours, after all.

"I had a really nice time, Howard. Maybe we could go out into town again some time? Do you have any shows coming up?"

"...Uh-um, no. I don't have any gigs yet. But yeah, we should definitely...go out...sometime. Um, how's next Saturday sound?"

He felt like such a fool, stuttering and gawking up at her like a schoolboy, but she only smiled in return, and nodded her head.

"That's sounds great. Why don't we drive this time? My feet still hurt," She laughed lightly at this, which assuaged some of Howard's sudden guilt. "I'll come by and pick you up in my car, alright? At, say...eight?"

"Y-yeah, eight. Sounds good."

Gideon smiled brightly once more and turned to go about her day, leaving Howard grinning up at the blue sky, chest warm and thrumming.

Howard came in through the front door, beyond tired from his day at work and lack of sleep, plus the fact that he had to cover Vince's duties as well as his own. Fossil had been less than understanding. Good thing those newts were easy to care for.

Glancing to the couch, Howard only found a rumpled blanket. Looking about the room, he spotted Vince, standing in front of the far wall, looking up at his old paper plates with odd paintings on them.

Howard closed the door and walked over to stand near Vince, not sure what to say. All day long he had rehearsed his line of questions for the boy, but now he was drawing a blank. Vince broke the silence first, voice still gravelly.

"Wish I could paint like I did back in school. 'S where I made these. Paints and easels are expensive, though. Might go back to school one day. Get me BTEC."

"...Yeah."

Vince wasn't talking about last night, which Howard was slowly learning meant that the kid was clamming up about it. Howard would probably only get half-answers if he tried. This knowledge made Howard even more tired, and with a slow intake of breath he turned and gathered some pajamas and went to take an early shower. Afterward he went to the small closet and removed two of the five spare sleeping bags that had been there since before Howard moved in. He was now thankful he'd never gotten rid of them.

Howard had planned on sitting Vince down and having a serious discussion on the new rules he planned to put in place, but the man was so tired his eyes were drifting closed even as he walked across the room. Wordlessly placing both sleeping bags on the floor, Howard crawled into one and shifted around for a few minutes before falling asleep, the back of Vince's legs in his line of sight as the boy continued to silently observe his old paintings.

When Howard awoke next it was to the light scratchings of Vince's pencil at work. The boy was seated on the sofa, television droning quietly, lost in his writings. Looking at his wristwatch, Howard saw that it was 10:15 at night. He still felt unbearably tired.

Sitting up with a quiet groan, Howard settled for watching the boy as he wrote. After a while, Vince caught on to his presence, looking up at him. His face was expressionless as he stood up from the couch, bringing his book with him. He closed it with his blue pencil still inside, sitting down in his own sleeping bag next to Howard. His voice when he spoke was just above a whisper, as though Howard were still asleep and Vince was trying not to wake him.

"I been using you as a character in some of my stories."

"Really...not sure what to think about that, Little Man."

Vince smiled slightly and turned to face Howard fully with his legs crossed.

"Yeah. I'm workin' on one right now about this bloke people call Gregg. Gregg's a manfish, only he ain't actually a man. It's a woman, but he kinda looks and sounds like a man, and people call him a 'he'...anyway, you find him an' he falls in love with you. But you don't love him back, so he kidnaps you and tries to force you into marryin' 'im."

"That sounds disturbing, Vince."

"Well don't worry, cause I come an' rescue you at the last minute."

"Charming. At least it's not another Charlie book."

"Oh, I still write those. I just have other stories that I write now, like this one."

Howard wasn't sure whether to be flattered or frightened at the prospect of Vince holding creative power over a little fictional him, so he went for the third option; curious.

"Can I read one of these stories?"

Vince's posture went different, and he picked the book back up and held it in his lap.

"Um, not quite yet...I'm not finished with any of 'em. And besides, I'd rather you read them as a whole when I've got them all done."

"How many are you planning to write?"

"Don't know. I figure I'll just know it when I'm finished."

Howard had no reply to that kind of backwards logic, and so just let the kid be. He rolled over, away from the boy with a tired groan and was welcoming a dreamless blackness before he could fully register what the kid was saying next.

Jolted to the waking world once again by the kid, Howard very nearly yelled at him from where he lay, face planted in his pillow, spit gathered underneath him. What stopped him was the fact that Vince seemed to be shrieking, speaking rapidly in a high-pitched voice. Howard's sleep-fogged mind went into instinct mode and his body slumped into a kneeling position, swaying a bit as his limbs tried to catch up with his brain.

He squinted in the direction of Vince, distantly noting that it was dawn, probably an hour or two before his alarm clock was timed to go off. Vince was at the phone, pressing it to the side of his face and speaking excitedly, not noticing at all that he'd disturbed Howard's rest.

Howard was too busy rubbing at his eyes and pondering the last tendrils of his half-dream thoughts to register much of what the kid was rabbiting on over, but he seemed incredibly happy about whatever the hell it was.

Howard sat back on his legs, looking over at the kid, about to raise his voice in question, when the boy apparently finished with his call, because he hung the phone up and whirled around. At seeing Howard awake, Vince's massive grin dimmed a few shades, and he walked quietly over to turn off the kitchen light before sitting back down in his own sleeping bag.

"Sorry, Howard. Forgot you was even here."

"What was that all about?"

Vince's grin came back immediately as he pulled his duvet over himself, remaining sitting as Howard flopped back down in his own mass of blankets.

"Oh, Leroy's girlfriend's just had her baby! Just about twenty minutes ago; can you believe it! He's about off his head on happiness. Called me right after he phoned up his mom an' all. It's a little girl, he says. They haven't decided on a name just yet, but he says as soon as he's able, he's gonna bring her by here an' let me meet her. I don't think I'm gonna go back to sleep, actually."

Vince got up out of his sleeping bag and moved quickly to gather his book and pencils. Resuming his spot once more, Vince immersed himself in his scribblings, effectively cutting off his conversation with Howard, who was perfectly fine with being left to himself in the nice quiet of the hut. He drifted in and out of consciousness before being pulled fully awake for the third time by his alarm clock. He smacked it much harder than he needed to, and headed for the shower. Vince was wrapped up in his duvet, still writing madly.

When Howard exited the bathroom soon after, dressed for the day and moving over to the door to pull on his Keeper jacket, he turned to the boy, who was staring at his own scribblings, pencil hovering over the pages.

"So...are you coming in for work today?"

Vince looked up at him, a strange, questioning look on his face.

"'Course, why wouldn't I?"

"...No reason. Just that you'd better get a move on or else you'll be late."

With that, Howard put his shoes on and went out the door, heading for the aviary and feeling the first touches of spring in the winter air.