Let the Good Times Roll

Posted on by
Old Gregg enlists the help of his old man, the Hitcher, to reunite with his beloved Howard. When Howard goes missing on their trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, Vince once again has to save Howard in every way possible.

Category:

Characters: , ,

Pairing: ,

Genre:

Rating:

Warning: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Status:

Length: words

Chapter 20

Contents

Chapter 20

Howard was surprisingly amiable.  Vince expected his traumatized friend to want to stay in the hotel or maybe try and find and earlier flight home; but instead, Howard said he was looking forward to the Court of Two Sisters and even went on (and on) about what he had read in the guide book.  All Vince needed to know was they served mimosas and had a dessert table.  There would be jazz, but with enough champagne and sugar, Vince could just pretend he was in an elevator.

He would have done whatever Howard wanted to do, of course.  Every time he looked at the Northerner, he felt almost dizzy with relief.  Their night had been interrupted with dreams, nightmares and flatmates, but for the first time in days, Vince had been happy to face a new day.  He fought the urge to hug Howard at every turn and focused on picking out a proper Mardi Gras outfit.  He settled on a sequined gold top with black leggings and gold boots.  Howard had applauded his restraint, but in reality, Vince was planning on acquiring accessories throughout the day.  Sally said there would be plenty of parades and, of course, there would be Bourbon Street.

Howard was wearing a few too many clothes for Mardi Gras, but Vince wasn’t about to say a word.  He was glad that Howard was interested in the Mardi Gras celebration.  He’d been so excited before things went wrong.  Naturally, Howard was excited about all the wrong things like history and second lines, but that would all be woven in with the bright colors and alcopops.  As long as Howard was still interested in jazz and other things that people liked before television was invented, he had to be doing all right.

Vince would never claim to be intelligent but he could earn an advanced degree in Howard.  He didn’t hear what Naboo said to Howard, but he’d seen the guilty look on his friend’s face.  If Howard was going anywhere, he was going to have to go through Vince or take him along.  He wasn’t going to be alone ever again.  It was a double act or nothing.  Vince had been to monkey hell, he wasn’t afraid.

“That’s a good color on you, Howard,” Vince acknowledged, eyeing Howard’s mustard rollneck, “It brings out your eyes.”

Howard looked uncomfortable but made a joke about accessorizing with a couple of magnifying glasses to get Vince’s bush baby look.

“You laugh but the bush baby is known for its style and panache.  Imagine wearing fur all the time?  They don’t care about gettin’ a little paint thrown on them by activists.”

“There’s no such thing as politically correct in the animal kingdom,” Howard agreed.  Vince could hear the creaks and grinds in their banter that hadn’t been there since… well, they had been there after Howard returned from Denmark.  Maybe they had been there before Denmark, after Howard’s party.

Vince didn’t want to think about that.

“Tonight is going to be genius!  You and me and Sally and some girl Sally works with paintin’ the town red…”

“Or gold,” Howard suggested, waving at Vince’s outfit.

“We could paint it an aggressive muffin,” Vince suggested, “This might one of the few places in the world that could do with being a bit more boring.”

Howard smiled wanly, “True, Little Man.”

Vince gave in and wrapped his arms around Howard, who was stiff,  but didn’t pull away.

“I’m so glad you’re back, Howard,” Vince said directly into Howard’s sweater, “I missed you so much.”

”It was only a few days,” protested Howard, “and you made lots of new friends…”

“No one else in the whole wide world is you, Howard.”

Howard detangled himself and gave Vince’s shoulder a pat, “Um, thank you, Vince.  No one else is you, as well.  Either? You know what I mean.”

Howard cast a nervous look at Vince as though he wasn’t quite sure Vince did understand.

Vince smiled and lightly kissed Howard on the cheek, “No one else is us.”

xxx

Despite the past few days, Sally still expected the laws of space and time to hold – even when it came to Vince and Howard.  She did a double take and struggled to compose herself when she saw Howard.  He was still banged up but he looked as though weeks had gone by, rather than hours.  There were only a few visible cuts and bruises, like Howard had taken a bad fall.  Sally tried to make her face neutral, but she could see Howard tense and retreat into himself.

Vince reached out like he was going to grab Howard’s arm but turned it into simply flicking some imaginary lint off of Howard’s shirt.  Vince’s touchy feely nature had made Sally uncomfortable that first night, until she realized he was not coming on to her – he was just a tactile person.  From what she understood, Howard was not a tactile person at the best of times and yet, he was hovering over Vince and not actually moving away from Vince’s animated hands.  He wore the expression of someone preparing to get a vaccination but he stood his ground.  Sally thought it was sweet.  And heartbreakingly sad.

When Kylie and Sally had booked the brunch, they both had girlfriends.  Sally had been vague in describing Howard and Vince, letting Kylie know roughly what Howard had been through minus all the Voodoo, monsters and celebrity cameos.  Kylie was a sweet person who had spent a lot of time working with Katrina survivors, so Sally knew she would be able to handle the situation better than most people.  She also knew Kylie and Vince would probably end up exchanging at least one piece of clothing before the evening was out.

“I’m so glad you guys could join us!” Kylie bubbled, after being introduced, “I’m posting pictures of us on-line and saying I’ve gone back to men!  My ex will be so pissed.”

“We can trade shirts!” Vince exclaimed, stroking the fabric of Kylie’s gold lame halter.  Howard stood back and watched Kylie and Vince fawn over one another.  Sally wanted to say something to put him at ease but nothing came to mind.  She was grateful when Kylie turned to Howard and squealed, “You’ve got a gold top, too!  Now if we can get Ms. Business Casual here to loosen up, we can have a real Mardi Gras up in here.”

Sally had worn a purple tank top with a subtle bead embroidery specifically so Kylie wouldn’t yell at her for her boring dress sense.  She frowned at her outfit as Kylie and Vince chattered on.

“I think it’s a nice top,” Howard said softly.

“I like your turtleneck,” Sally responded, “A light fabric to keep you cool but also protect against melanoma.”

xxx

Howard brightened noticeably when the band started playing.  The Court of Two Sisters was packed, as usual, and Howard had gone a bit pale at the suggestion he should go to the buffet.  Kylie announced she would get their food since Howard and Vince weren’t just white, they were English and needed to tread carefully lest they lose their accents.  Howard happily agreed and promptly downed a mimosa.

“So Naboo and Bollo are in town?” Sally asked, trying to make small talk.

Howard went red in the face but Vince grinned.

“Yeah!  It was perfect timing.  They got thrown out of Brazil by the Voodoo council for bein’ well obscene or somethin’ like that.  Naboo is a genius!”

Vince turned to Howard and placed his hand on Howard’s cheek for a moment before yanking it back like he’d been burned.  Howard drained his second glass and gave Vince an awkward pat on the shoulder.

“We’re going to meet up later for the St. Anne’s parade.  You and Kylie should come!  She is well cool,” Vince said, his face lighting up at Howard’s touch.

Sally almost asked how a gorilla would get away with walking the streets, but then realized it was an asinine question.  Maybe Kylie was right, maybe she was getting boring.

Kylie arrived with two heaping plates.

“So I got you guys a bunch of roast beef, you people like roast beef, right?” Kylie asked with exaggerated concern as she gave them their plates.  Sally was glad Kylie had heeded her advice on skipping the turtle soup. “There’s duck a l’orange, shrimp etouffee, jambalaya… I forget what the rest is but it’s all good.  Save room for dessert though.  As we say, ‘Laissez les bon temps rouler!’”

Howard pushed the food around on his plate but only ate what Vince shoved in his mouth.  Sally wondered if Vince was doing it on purpose.  He was so full of kinetic energy, it was hard to tell.  Vince was even more effervescent and charming with his Howard at his side, something Sally hadn’t considered possible.  Kylie was covering everything in hot sauce and keeping the mimosas coming.

“My mouth is on fire!” Kylie cried.

“Quit using so much hot sauce! Eat some bread,” Sally suggested, trying to be practical.  Kylie and Vince shared a look of long-suffering.  They shared a similar look when Vince was complaining of feeling ill as he ate his King cake.

“You don’t have to eat every dessert,” Howard chided.

Vince looked Howard in the eye and said, “Lazy good times rule!”

Kylie and Vince attempted a fist bump and missed.  Sally wondered if there hadn’t been a few too many mimosas for brunch.

xxx

Bollo propped Howard against a wall and ran back into the crowd to catch more beads.  Howard was grateful for the cold, hard brick at his back.  He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so pissed.

Probably the night he’d brought Vince home in a wheelbarrow.

As though reading his mind, Vince was suddenly in his face whispering, “You know you want it, you dirty girls.  Cheeky vixens…”

Howard laughed, his heart was racing and he felt dizzy.  Some of that was the tremendous amount of alcohol he’d consumed in the past few hours.

Some of it was just Vince.

“Check out Sally and her ‘friend’ Kylie,” Vince yelled, going on tip-toe to reach Howard’s ear.  He placed one hand on Howard’s chest for balance.  “Should I remind her she doesn’t get involved with coworkers?”

Sally and Kylie were snogging in an alcove like teenagers.  Kylie’s hand was moving under Sally’s – well, Vince’s – top.  Howard turned away, embarrassed to see something so personal.  Even if it was happening on a public street in a massive crowd in the daylight.

Vince was wearing Kylie’s gold lame top and Kylie had fashioned Howard’s Hawaiian shirt into a head dress for Vince.  Sally’s head scarf was now Howard’s jaunty neckerchief.

“I think we’ve all had a bit too much,” Howard said as he closed his eyes, feeling over stimulated.

“That’s what Mardi Gras is all about!” Vince cried, his breath on Howard’s face, “Goin’ large so you can be good for the next forty days.  Or just keep goin’ large if you ain’t Catholic.  I don’t know.  Even C of E was too structured for my folks.”

Howard laughed and thought of his own parents.  They had tried on religions like hats but never found one that suited their lifestyle.

“Were you really going to say something…” Howard fished for words but none came.  His vocabulary was drenched in rum.

“What?”

“You said you wanted to say that you fancied me…”

“Oh, yeah!” Vince yelled, “I was gonna tell you durin’ a parade like this while we were kind of pissed.  Then you’d have the rest of the night to sober up and decide…”

Vince trailed off and linked his fingers with Howard’s.

Howard didn’t open his eyes and, at first, he just got a mouthful of hair but soon enough, his lips found Vince’s.

xxx

Sally was feeling indestructible.  She and Vince had decided to either have a show about fighting crime called Blanc & Noir, or they were actually just going to fight crime.  They had really been focused more on the hair and costumes than the details.

Kylie and Vince were tongue kissing for beads.  If the men realized Vince was a man, they didn’t seem to care.  They still yelled when he flashed his tits.

Howard’s face was unreadable and his eyes were glazed over.

Sally was trying to think of something reassuring to say when they both jumped at the sound of Kylie yelling.

“You need to leave that girl alone before I come over there with my girl and teach you some manners.  I’m an angry black lesbian but she’s fucking militant!”

Sally tried to stand up straight and look intimidating.

Howard whispered, “Don’t count on help from Bollo, he’s asthmatic.”

“You don’t wanna fuck with me!” Sally yelled, still not sure who she was protecting from whom.  Lots of men were looking scared.

“Yeah!” Vince added, moving into the sidekick stance they had practiced earlier – pressing his hip to her’s, “And she’s a certified muff diver!”

Sally looked down on her tee-shirt, proclaiming her certification, “Oh, hell.  How long have I been wearing this?”

xxx

Howard was drinking a glass of water and feeling paranoid.  Alcohol had ceased to have its mind-numbing effect and his thoughts were racing.  He was jammed between Vince and Bollo in the booth of a pizza shop.  There was no reason for him not to feel safe.  Even in their shambolic state, Sally and Kylie seemed pretty hard.  Bollo was off his tits and Naboo had vomited in his turban, but there was still safety in numbers.

“Howard was my tutor when I was little so I’ve fancied him since I was old enough to fancy people…”

“I love that word!  Fancy,” Kylie sighed, “It sounds so… fancy.”

Vince giggled and leaned into Howard, who didn’t have room to move away, even if he’d wanted to.

“When did you start to fancy Vince?” Kylie asked, her eyes warm and dark like coffee.  Howard needed coffee.

“I’d rather not talk about that…”

“C’mon, Howard!  When did you start to think of me ‘that way’?” Vince asked, his face beaming.  He was wearing Howard’s Hawaiian shirt over his borrowed Certified Muff Diver tee-shirt. The shirt was unreadable under all his beads but it still made Howard smile.  Vince was a sweaty mess from dancing and drinking, his make-up streaked and his hair limp and tangled.  Howard thought he looked beautiful.

Howard shook his head, “I don’t like to think about it.  You were so much younger than I.”

“I was having sex with men older than you when I was fifteen!  What’s five years?” Vince turned to Kylie and stage whispered, “I was probably the only guy in London askin’ to be called ‘Little Man’ in bed.”

Kylie laughed appreciatively while Sally wore a cartoonish look of surprise.   Howard could tell by the back of Vince’s head that his flat mate was wearing a similar expression.  Vince always froze when he was embarrassed.

Howard wasn’t sure how he felt about the piece of information.  On one hand, it was a terrible defilement of an innocent pet name.  On the other hand, Vince had been thinking about Howard.  He desperately wanted coffee to help focus his thoughts, but settled for a swig of Bollo’s energy drink.  It tasted like monkey breath and Bollo hadn’t even taken a drink yet.

When he turned back to Vince, they bumped heads.  Vince’s eyes were wide and worried looking.  Howard stroked Vince’s sweaty, tangled hair, “What’s wrong, Little Man?”

Howard blushed when Kylie giggled.  Vince nuzzled his face into Howard’s shoulder. “Don’t change your mind about me.”

Howard held the younger man tight. “That will never happen.”

“Let’s go back to the hotel,” Vince whispered.