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The Complete Fic Directory
- All I Do Each Night Is Rehearse The Pray Routine
- Appendicitis
- An Act Of Un-Remembrance
- Beginnings
- Better Than Today - Kylie Minogue
- Black
- Breathe Out
- Christmas Shopping
- Choreography
- Dancers
- Dangling
- Days
- Default Settings/Do You Love Me? [Part One]
- Displacement Theory [Blue]
- DJ (I Could Be Dancing) - Alphabeat
- Enchanted
- Ends (Loose And Otherwise) [Ends]
- Enemies
- Family
- Fine Time To Lose Your Mind - Jack McManus
- Fireworks
- Flat Tyres And Palm Prints [Birth]
- Flu
- Friends: A Dictionary [Friends]
- From Angels To The Moon/The Soup
- Green Light [Green]
- Hell Raisers
- Home Invasion
- Hours
- In My Veins
- Insides
- It Was The Death Of Something [Death]
- Just Like Children [Children]
- Kiss And Make Up
- The Last Time
- Lonely At Christmas
- Love Songs
- Lovers
- Middles
- Midnight Sun
- Mistletoe
- Months Go By [Months]
- More Important Than Fear
- Muddied Stars [Brown]
- Not Enough
- Of Peacocks
- On The Subject Of Angels [Orange]
- Playing House [Parents]
- The Price Of Friendship
- The Prize
- Post-Match Analysis
- Puddles
- Red
- Secret Admirer
- Secret Agent Owen
- Shades
- Shine - Skies Of America
- Slow Dancing In A Burning Room
- Snap
- So Good To See You
- Stage Fright
- Stay (Oh Darlin')
- Study In Motion
- Summertime Feeling - S Club 7
- Sunrise
- Sunset
- Teammates
- That Night In Amsterdam/Do You Love Me? [Part Two]
- This
- Three Sets Of Three
- Twenty-Nine (And A Half)
- Under A Colourless Sky [Colourless]
- We Found Something That Belongs To You [Outsides]
- We Were Strangers Once [Strangers]
- Weeks
- What Did You Say This Time?
- What Will The Papers Say? [Purple]
- White Out [White]
- The Wordsmith/Breathe In
- Years
- Yellow
- Yesterday's Promise
- 3-0 Defeats
- Barlow's Music Shop Series
- Fanfiction Challenges
- The Postcard Prompts
- OT3, OT4 & OT5
- Stories By Band Member
- Stories By Ship
- Stories By Genre
- Stories By Era
- Band-Free AUs
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- Follow Me
Yesterday's Promise
He doesn’t take the words in at first, just studies the muscles in Robbie’s face. There’s this one just under his left eye that almost seems to twitch – with anger? Mark’s not sure. It could just as easily be the muscle Robbie uses when he doesn’t want to cry. He knows that face so well, but today it seems unfamiliar. Foreign.
“Leave?” Mark repeats the word, turning it over on his tongue, trying out the feel of it, seeing what it looks like as its resting in the air between the two of them. It’s foreign too; all the wrong shape and size and sound. That strange new muscle twitches again as Robbie avoids Mark’s eyes.
“I think so,” he replies, though to Mark it sounds more like he’s waiting for confirmation than making a declaration. Robbie looks up then, touching a hand to Mark’s cheek.
“But...you said...you said you and me were a team. You said if I asked, you’d always stay...”
“Mark,” he sounds almost in pain and he looks away again.
“You promised.”
“I just...”
“You lied.”
“No, Markie. That promise just...belongs to yesterday. Today I’m promising to never come back to all this ever again.”
***
They’re the last two left on the hotel sofa; Gary’s there, but fast asleep, Howard’s disappeared for a post-show gig and Jason disappeared with him. They’re as good as alone, as close to being that boyish team again as they’re ever going to be. Robbie’s talking, non-stop and Mark’s happy to listen. He’s always been happy to listen to Rob. Gary’s between them, but Mark’s suddenly aware that they’re still touching; Rob’s arm casually slung round the back of the sofa, his fingertips just grazing Mark’s neck. Funny. For a man who promised never to get dragged in again, he’s rarely seemed to be that far away. He’s rarely far from Mark.
“Rob,” Mark interrupts him mid-flow and Robbie pauses, looking over at him instantly.
“Markie?” he smiles and Mark pauses.
“Do remember promising to never come back again?”
“Hey, come on. That promise belongs to yesterday too, Markie.”
“So?”
“So...you’re not yesterday to me. You’re always. And you always will be.”