The world, coming down

Reunited ~ December 2012

Despite his invitation to Stephen for that evening, Dec hadn't expected to be greeted by the sight of lights on in his house when the car eventually pulled up at the curb. Maybe it was because Stephen knew Ant and Lisa were still in Australia so the idea of turning up spontaneously was less of a risk. Or maybe he'd just missed Dec enough to forget about all that for an evening.

On another day, Dec would have seen the light glowing from behind pulled curtains, obvious in the evening darkness, and felt an urge to come up with an explanation for it. There was Joe, after all, in the driver's seat. He wasn't the sort to ask those difficult questions, more discrete and always determined to do his job professionally, but Dec always wondered if he was filing away the information around him regardless. There was no reason for Dec's sitting room light to be on unless there was someone in there. So, on a normal day he would have panicked and claimed one of his siblings had been house-sitting for him, or that a friend had returned Rocky and was staying there until he got back.

Even though he suspected Joe knew more than he let on, given the conversations he'd had with Ant in the back of the car before, he was still always so nervous about letting something slip. Even though Joe could be trusted to keep that sort of thing quiet, still, on a usual day Dec would have scrambled to come up with an explanation.

He gave himself the evening off from paranoia, too pleasantly surprised at Stephen's apparent presence in his house that he couldn't bear to ruin his own mood with a meticulously thought up excuse. He trusted himself to have various stories stored in the back of his head if he did have to answer a question anyway, always far too prepared to leave himself without a cover story.

Of course, Joe didn't ask. He just said goodnight and pulled away from the curb. No knowing smile. No look in his eye. Just Joe saying goodnight and leaving. That was why Dec liked having him around; other people could be so transparent when they were trying too hard to be subtle.

It was strange not to be greeted by a hyper, excitable dog the second the door opened, the quiet making him feel like he'd not quite got home yet. He always took a couple of days to reacclimatise after being away that long and it never felt right until Rocky was back where he belonged too.

The hallway was dark, lit slightly by the overspilling glow from the open living room door. Dec smiled to himself, careful to be quiet as he sat on the stairs to take his shoes off. He thought Stephen had fallen asleep until the feeling of being watched pulled his attention away from his shoes.

Stephen was leant in the doorway, head tilted as the corners of his mouth twitched. Dec had been waiting for a month to see him so they could talk face to face again but when it came down to it, he found he didn't have much to say. Instead, he kicked his shoes off, closing the distance between them and sinking into Stephen's waiting arms wordlessly.

"Hello," Stephen said eventually, his voice so clear in Dec's ear after weeks of sounding a little tinny down the phone. Dec closed his eyes, exhaling calmly.

"Hi," he mumbled, continuing before he could get too self-conscious, "Let's never do that again."

"Until next year, you mean?" Stephen asked playfully. Dec huffed out a laugh and then nodded his head.

"At least," he replied, "Or maybe I'll kidnap you next time, smuggle you in my suitcase."

"If anyone's small enough to get smuggled around here, it isn't me," Stephen retorted, finally prompting Dec to pull away with a weak glare.

"What was that? Two minutes before the height jokes started?" he asked.

"I thought I'd been quite restrained," Stephen said, tugging Dec back against his chest, a hand running over his head fondly. "I forgot how small you were, it's been so long." Dec smiled reluctantly once more, too content to pull away again and pretend to be annoyed.