A/N: Follow up to 'The Demon of Love' – I really appreciate all the reviews it got – Thanks! Hope you enjoy this one just as much. There is a reference to those Japanese sporting programmes you get on those obscure cable channels, and so if any Japanese people are reading this, it is not at all intended to offend! I haven't written anything offensive, but you know, just in case...

Disclaimer – NOT MINE! Get it?

xxxx

"Vince!"

"What?!"

"Stop looking in the mirror and come and give me a hand!"

Vince ran a hand through his raven hair and fluffed it up at the top. He'd been fussing with it for forty-five minutes and it still wasn't right – there was no way he was leaving his hair unfinished. He reached for his straighteners and carefully pulled them through his shiny locks. He was about to add a bit more root boost when Howard's slightly annoyed voice came drifting into the room again.

"Vince!"

He scowled into the mirror. "All right!"

Five minutes later, finally satisfied, Vince Noir trudged into the living and eyed the jazz maverick curiously as he leant against the wall.

"There's really no need to go to all this effort you know – the flat's fine. They're not gonna notice if the bit of carpet under the sofa hasn't been hoovered."

Howard came over to him and pushed a pile of papers into his hands, looking flustered. "It matters to me. I don't want them thinking I can't look after you properly! What will they think then, hmm? I mean, I know they were great about it when you told them, but I still have a duty of care towards you and -"

"Duty of care?" Vince said, interrupting him. "What are you, my teacher?"

"You know what I mean," he replied as he fussed with the cushions on the sofa.

Vince sighed and chucked the papers onto the top of the cabinet next to him. "Howard," he said, walking over to him and grabbing his hands, making him drop the cushion he was currently plumping up. Howard paused and straightened himself.

"I'm just -"

"I know. But really, they are not going to notice. The flat is fine, we're fine and they're fine with it. We've lived together for years – they know you look after me."

Howard flopped down onto the sofa, pulling Vince down with him. "I know – you're right. I just can't help it. I want to make a good impression."

Vince leant forward and placed a light kiss on his lips. "Stop worrying - you know my mum and dad have always liked you and they're not going to think any different of you now. I hardly think they're gonna starting inspecting the shelves for dust."

Howard smiled and glanced at his watch. "They'll be here soon." He started to tap his hands nervously on his thighs. Vince rolled his eyes and pushed himself onto his lap and sat on them.

"Stop. It."

Howard smirked up him. "Or what?" he said, removing his hands from underneath Vince's legs and sliding them under his t-shirt and around his waist.

Vince tensed slightly and gazed down at him, his eyes darkening, falling forward onto Howard's lips when he reached up and tugged the front of his top.

Seconds later, Howard did nothing to hide his growl of disappointment when the doorbell rang.

xxxx

"Blimey, I thought they'd never leave!" Vince exclaimed as he trudged back up the stairs after seeing his parents off, smiling when he noticed Howard standing in front of the mirror attacking his cheeks with a tissue, lipstick marks adorning his skin.

"Please, please don't ever let your mother do that to me ever again. Ever."

Vince laughed. "What? She likes you!" he said, coming up behind him and leaning his head against his back, hands sliding round his waist.

Howard quirked an eyebrow as he checked that his face was now clear of red lip prints. "What're you up too, Vince?"

"Nuffon," he mumbled into his shirt.

"What?"

"Nothing," Vince repeated as he pulled his head back.

Howard tried to spin round, but Vince stayed clamped to him, making him chuckle. He walked over to the sofa, dragging him behind him.

'Unless you want me to sit on you, little man, you'll have to budge round a bit."

Vince complied, and they fell onto the soft cushions.

Four months in, and Howard was still amazed at not just the change in himself, but in Vince too. Before he'd been occasionally insensitive towards Howard's feelings and sarcastic to a fault (well, he still was sometimes), whereas he was now affectionate and loving and more kind and considerate alongside his usual slightly ditzy, bright, happy, colourful, fashion loving, hair obsessed electro rocker self - amazing what admitting your true feelings can do for you. Howard himself was more relaxed and a lot happier than he had ever been in his whole life.

"Whatcha thinking?"

Vince's voice interrupted his thoughts, and he looked down to see two large, blue eyes staring up at him, entirely innocent at that moment and full of love and complete trust. Howard breathed in deeply and smiled down at him.

"Nothing much. You hungry?"

"Starving," he said, the innocent look instantly leaving his eyes as he reached up and started kissing and nibbling Howard's neck, grinning when he saw his eyes close blissfully, and stopping a few seconds later when he heard his stomach growl. "Oh, you're actually hungry."

Howard opened his eyes and smirked, though he was a little disappointed that Vince had stopped his ministrations and he let him know this by putting a hand behind his head and bringing his lips to his, kissing him fully and leaving him more than a little flustered.

"So," he said, as he pulled away. "What do you fancy?"

xxxx

Howard and Bollo stood at the kitchen table, dishing out Chinese food onto plates.

"So, how it go with Vince's parents?" Bollo asked, tipping a plastic tub of noodles upside down.

"Great - it was great."

"They did your head in?"

"Little bit."

Bollo laughed, although it could have been mistaken for a drawn-out grunt, nearly knocking the sweet and sour sauce to the floor.

Across from them, both sitting cross-legged on the rug, were Vince and Naboo, who were currently watching some weird Japanese sports programme and shouting rather energetically at the TV.

"You muppet!" Vince laughed, as a man trying to jump across a mud pit with a pole got stuck half way across and slid down messily into the goo below.

"What did he think he was doing? Starting off like that, honestly. No wonder he lost his balance!" Naboo added.

"Grubs up," Howard announced, but it was met with deaf ears.

"Nooo!!" Vince and Naboo yelled out at the same time, in hysterics as the man, now trying to climb up the bank, fell back down and landed head first in the sticky brown sludge, people rushing to help him.

"Oi," Howard said, nudging Vince with his foot.

Vince looked up to see a plate looming towards him, and smiled brightly. "Thanks," he said, taking the plate and automatically switching his attention back to the TV.

Howard rolled his eyes and moved out the way as Bollo bent down to hand Naboo his dinner.

Half an hour later, when the boys were well and truly stuffed, the doorbell rang. Vince pulled himself up as quickly as his full stomach would allow him (which was surprising since he would usually make one of the others run down the stairs if someone came round), and went to answer it.

"Hi, can I help you?" he said, opening the door to a strange looking old man with a crooked nose, thin greasy hair and beady eyes. The man looked at Vince and sighed rather heavily as he leaned in close to his face.

"Ergh! No offence mate, but you really should get some mints for that."

The old man smiled oddly at him. "So sorry Miss, I seem to be in the wrong place. Getting forgetful in my old age. Sorry to bother you."

"That's all right," he said, as the man started to walk away. Vince went to shut the door, but instead looked back out and called, "Hey! Where you trying to get too?" But the elderly gentleman had already gone.

Vince shook his head and went back inside.

xxxx

"Vince?" Howard mumbled, rudely awoken from his peaceful slumber by a nasty sounding, hacking cough.

"Sorry, Howa..." Vince trailed off and he started spluttering again, leaning forward and trying to catch his breath.

Howard looked at him in concern, wondering where on earth this cough had appeared from. He'd been fine when they'd gone to bed.

"I'll get you some water," he said, jumping out of bed, the cold air hitting his bare chest unpleasantly.

Vince's throat was killing him. His chest was tight and the more he coughed, the harder he found it was to breathe and even though the room was cool, he was burning up. Standing carefully, he stumbled over to the window, pushing it open and letting the night air wash over his skin. It didn't help though, and he clutched at his throat as he struggled for air.

When Howard walked back into the room, it was just in time to see Vince collapse to the floor, the sudden silence being louder than the coughing had been. Howard dropped the glass he was holding and rushed over to him, throwing himself down beside his head.

"Vince? Vince!" he cried, panicking as he put an ear to his mouth to make sure he was breathing. He was, but it was slow and laboured and sounded incredibly painful. He tapped him gently on the cheek to try and bring him round, but all he got for his efforts was a wet palm from the cold sweat that had formed on Vince's deathly white skin.

"Naboo!" he shouted out, trying his best to keep calm, but failing miserably.

Naboo, already awake from Vince's fit, came rushing in at the sound of Howard's strained voice.

"What happ -" he started, but Howard yelled "ambulance!" at him and he instantly ran for the phone.

Howard pulled Vince into a more comfortable position, cradling him gently, all the while hoping and praying that he wasn't suddenly about to be snatched away from him.

xxxx

Flames reached out to caress him from every angle, the heat burning through his skin and coursing through his veins. He screamed for help, but no sound came from his mouth. Sweat stung his eyes, but he couldn't lift his hands to clear them – the effort was too much. Panicking, he started to hyperventilate, coughing and spluttering until he could taste the metallic tang of blood in his mouth. With nowhere left to turn, he backed himself up against the hot wall, wincing when it touched his skin but not stopping as he tried to get away from the fire. All too soon he began to slide down the wall, his life-force slipping away from him, and all he could do was give up and hand himself over to the blistering pain, sinking further down, down, down... but wait? What was that noise? A voice? Yes – and one he found vaguely familiar, even though he couldn't yet place it. It called out again, and he thought it sounded scared, desperate. Then he realised that the voice was calling his name, and... Howard? Was that Howard? What was he... Open my eyes? Open my eyes, my eyes...

"Vince!"

Vince's eyes flew open and he bolted upright, something slipping from his face as he did so. He gasped, fighting for breath and reaching out blindly in front of him, grabbing at nothing.

Howard caught hold of his hands and tried to still him.

"Vince, Vince, it's okay, you're all right."

Vince turned to face him, looking about wildly as he tried to focus his vision on the blurry image in front off him. Something was being placed over his mouth, and he tried to push it off, but the hands holding it on his face were too strong.

"Vince, sweetheart, you need to calm down. This is just to help you breathe, that's all. You have to keep it on. Take deep, slow breaths."

He felt a hand stroking his hair and he relaxed a little. "Howard?" he whispered croakily.

"I'm right here, little man," he replied, bringing his face up to look at him.

This time Vince's eyes focused properly. "Where am I?"

"You're in hospital."

Vince looked panicked at this, and Howard pulled him close. "It's okay, you're safe – I won't let anything happen to you."

Once he had calmed down enough, Howard helped him to remove the oxygen mask from his face.

"What happened?" he asked weakly, leaning on Howard like a dead-weight.

"You started coughing really violently, and then you collapsed. The doctors have run lots of tests, but they can't find anything wrong with you – reckon it was just one of those things. You coughed so much that you started to hyperventilate, and that caused you to pass out. Do you remember anything?"

"I – remember – coughing – but – not..."

"Sorry," Howard said. "I shouldn't be making you talk so much. You lie back down – I'll go and let the nurse know you're awake."

Vince grabbed hold of his arm. "Don't leave me."

Howard was surprised at how frightened he sounded, and instead of getting up, he leant over Vince and pressed the call button on the wall.

"Don't worry - I'm not going anywhere."

xxxx

Vince dozed peacefully against Howard on the sofa. The doctors, as they couldn't find anything wrong with him, allowed him to go home, and he'd fallen asleep as soon as they'd sat down, not even really getting a chance to reassure Naboo and Bollo that he was okay, so Howard had had to explain it for him, and Naboo himself had even given him a check over, coming to exactly the same conclusion. So why did Howard still feel so uneasy?

Hours later Vince awoke and, stretching and sitting up slowly, saw that Howard was standing by the window, looking out at the dusky, mild June evening, the setting sun catching his face slightly and making it glow pink and yellow. He got up and wandered over to him, and as he got closer, he realised that Howard was crying quietly, shoulders gently shaking as he fought to control himself. Vince put a tentative hand on his shoulder, and he jumped violently.

"Vince! I didn't know you were awake," he said, hastily rubbing a hand over his face. "How you feeling?"

Vince didn't answer, instead he turned Howard around to face him fully and pulled him into a hug. His resolve instantly crumbled, and he let out a strangled noise into his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," he sobbed, trying to pull away, but Vince held him tight.

"Sorry for what?" he asked, stroking his hair and placing a kiss on his temple.

"I can't... this isn't right. You shouldn't be... I should be looking after you." He sank down into the armchair, pulling Vince on top of him, their arms still wrapped around each other.

"Tell me what's wrong," Vince asked softly, running a comforting hand down his cheek.

Howard sniffed. "It's just – It's – I thought I'd lost you!" he cried, hot tears running down his face.

You didn't," he replied, his voice gentle as he desperately tried to soothe him.

"I know, but it frightened the life out of me, and for a moment I thought that was it – there was nothing I could do and it terrified me." He placed a shaky kiss on his lips before saying; "I can't live without you – If I lost you, I'd die."

Hearing Howard admit to something like that made Vince's stomach flip and his heart break – not in an insensitive way, but just because at that moment he felt so much love for him that it made him sick to think of what he'd put him through.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that, Howard."

Howard wiped his eyes and stared up at him, awe struck. "Vince – you were ill. It was hardly something you could help."

"I know, but -"

Howard placed a finger on his lips. "You're here and you're safe. I couldn't wish for anything else." He paused before asking him something that had been playing on his mind ever since Vince had first woken up. "Just before you woke up in the hospital, you looked like you were having a nightmare – you were moaning and looked terrified, took me a while to bring you out of it. Do you want to talk about it?"

Vince shrugged. "I don't really remember it now, to be honest with you."

Howard didn't believe him, but he dropped it for now all the same, not wanting to upset him.

They sat there for a long while talking, finally falling asleep in the early hours of the morning, panic and worry taken over by peace.

For now.

xxxx

Ooh, what will happen next? Review, and maybe I'll tell you! xx