"No Passengers, Indeed"

Title: “No Passengers, Indeed.”

Author: xof

Fandom: UKQaf

Pairing: Vince/Stuart

Rating: PG (*gasp*)

Genre: Uhmm, drabble? Post-series

Summary: A Vince POV on the night following the end of UKQaf; he’s decided.

Author Note: Dedicated to Alexis, because I felt she deserved a moment of freedom from being everyone’s beta – so surprise! And happy reading (for all the two seconds it’ll take you…lol.) Also, to Margo whose affectionate begging/nagging/pleas are a big reason the fic count on ATP for S/V fics is getting nearer and nearer to being 700.

Warning: Not betaed, but that’s about it.

“No Passengers, Indeed.”

By xof

September 17, 2005

The first night of a new life….

Blimey, who would have thought? A day in the past, just over 24 hours back, and he had been looking at staff schedules, editing his speech and trying to ignore the knot in his gut that said something dark was looming in the world of Stuart and Vince.

The distance growing between them; the breach eminent as he saw each little sign of Stuart’s restlessness taking over, as he felt the weight of his own self-imposed responsibilities pressing him down. And then it had come; the ending that wasn’t even a goodbye that resided in their parting words of, “See yah then,” and “Not if I see you first.” Left open, yeah – but still an ending. Because London had been calling, and Vince’s little world hadn’t been large enough – brave enough to contain the width and girth of Stuart’s huge existence.

Or so Vince had thought – until he’d done it. Amazing.

Chucked it all - his job, his life. Hell, even his fish. And all on the possibility, the gasping panting hope that he’d make it in time. Make it to Stuart, and then off – the two of them together.

Always together….

As they were tonight, hours down the road – Manchester at their backs and London looming until they could fly out come the dawn.

One room, one bed – two men. Familiar and yet not, because Vince wasn’t the same man as he’d been the last time they’d stood like this – on the threshold of being more, of doing it all. He wouldn’t let himself be that man again. He’d dared enough, risked enough to know that he had the strength to hold the one he wanted – even in the face of his doubts and Stuart’s kinetic nature.

Lights half out, only a glow passing over them from the cracked bathroom door and the half-drawn drapes that let in the atmosphere that was London after dark – they framed the bed; again each man on the left and right of the safe haven or void that could be, would be their resting place.

A blank canvas done in burgundy edged in black, the duvet pulled back to show white crisp sheets calling to them to decide. To act….

Stuart still, looking at him – eyes seeing so much, wanting so well. But still he was, and still he remained as he let Vince have the moment. Words beyond them, unnecessary because it was there on their faces. Writ large for either to see, the need – the desire. Even the love, unspoken but known. And also there in Stuart’s eyes, the permission to give it a pass if it was just too much to gamble, despite his earlier ground rule.

Vince saw it all, and felt a greater drive and rush for the allowance. Because he knew it was not needed; he’d come with and now he was determined to have it all.

He shook his head, a small smile turning up as he rounded to Stuart’s side of the bed. “As if,” he said. The words nonsensical, but making perfect sense. Vince-sense, as he took Stuart by the back of the neck and drew him in. In for a kiss that bridged the gap and ended the speculation of half a life. And a life, they would realize, half-lived.

No passengers, indeed.

Finis