darker_london | Solace in the Stars (Quinn/Flynn)

It was very near midnight. Only about an hour left of Valentine's day. Quinn was lying beside Flynn in Flynn's bed, his eyes closed, though he was awake. There was a blissfully contented look on his face, and Flynn smiled to see it there, half-illuminated by the bedside table lamp. He inched his naked body closer to Quinn's and he ran his fingers across Quinn's cheek. "You look so beautiful there. Just smiling in bed with your eyes closed..." Flynn said softly.

"Mmm." Quinn muttered, since he didn't exactly have control of his speech yet. He was still in the throes of post-coital bliss. "Mal pretty too."

Flynn chuckled and he leaned down to kiss Quinn's sweat-slicked chest. "You want to sleep?"

"No." Quinn finally opened his eyes, and he smiled gently up at his lover. "Not yet." He sat up then, catching Flynn's lips in a kiss. "Sleep means being without you for a while and I'm not ready yet." He wasn't ready to be without Flynn ever, really. Sleep was so inconvenient.

"Are you hungry?" Flynn rolled over and he reached for the gigantic bag of sweets he'd purchased earlier that day which was resting on the floor beside the bed. Then he glanced beside them on the mattress, raising his eyebrows at the crushed flowers littering the sheets there. "Oops. We killed your flowers with our love-making..."

Quinn laughed. "Well...what a way to go." He reached for a sweet and popped it into his mouth. "We can get to the roof from the studio, yeah?"

Flynn lit up at that suggestion. "Yes! Bring the blankets!" And then he wrapped a sheet around himself, making sure Quinn did the same. He grabbed the cigarettes and the sweets and they made their way silently through the house, up to Spectre's studio, out onto the balcony and onto the roof.

The night was cold, but Flynn and Quinn were no strangers to cold nights spent huddled together for warmth. And the difference here, was that they chose this, instead of having it forced upon them by their living situation. The blankets were around both of them, each making sure the other was appropriately covered. And then Flynn reached for the cigarettes as Quinn reached for the chocolate. They were in sync as they lit up, popped some chocolate into their mouths and leaned backwards to look up at the cloudy sky.

"London doesn't seem so scary from here..." Flynn said thoughtfully, blowing the smoke from his lips and watching it curl upwards towards the clouds.

"Everything seems smaller. Like...the world's so big, and our problems are so small..."

"We sound stoned, I think." Flynn commented and Quinn chuckled.

"Yeah. We probably do. I blame sex-addled brains."

"I like addling your brains." Flynn smiled, but the expression slowly faded to a frown. "You think she can see the sky?" He asked, so softly it was barely audible.

All around them, Quinn could hear the city. He could hear London. People. Living. And he was reminded that life was going on. For millions of people around them, life continued. He turned to Flynn and he bit his lip. He knew exactly who Flynn meant. Deirdre. "I don't know, Mal..." He admitted. He worried too. Deirdre wouldn't be able to hear life. She wouldn't see it. She might forget...

"She loves the stars, you know. She told me about them. The constellations. Her cousin is studying astronomy and Deirdre loves the stories...I never heard them before. But Deirdre told me. While we were on tour. We could see the sky, no matter where we were. It was something familiar. The stories and the stars...they never changed, no matter how much our surroundings did, and we felt better. Safe. It made us feel safe. Quinn...if she can't see the sky, how will she feel safe?"

Oh, his beautiful Malachy... Quinn hissed Flynn's forehead. "We'll make her feel safe when she's home with us. You can take her outside and remind her of the stories. She'll know that even though some things might have changed...there are some things that never will?"

Flynn nodded "I want her to know that."

"She will, Mal. She absolutely will." They would never let her forget it. Under the blankets, Quinn's fingers wrapped around Flynn's tightly.

They both turned to look back at the sky, each seeing solace in it as well. But the stars were obscured. They had to seek their solace in each other instead. Thankfully, that was something they were always able to do.