Title: Great Beginnings Start in the Dark
Fandom: The History Boys
Rating: PG13
Length: 804
Summary: Donald Scripps comes to a few realisations.
Authors Note: This is movie-canon rather than play canon. The title comes from a quote by Shannon L. Alder

Midnight.

It was one of Scripps' favourite times of the day. Or night he supposed if you were being pedantic. It was the time when the college was entirely silent. Of course, it wouldn't remain that way for long. They were nearly at the end of the exam period and then there was the May Ball to celebrate the end of the year. With this being their final year, they had decided that they would go to the ball, if only to say that they had been. Dakin had gone to his college's May Ball the previous year and had raved about it, not to mention how he had shared the early hours of the morning with a fellow off his course. Scripps had looked at Posner then, wondering how he would take that piece of news; after all, if was a bit different to Dakin sleeping with Fiona and flirting with Irwin. He didn't know why he had bothered. After all, it wasn't as though Posner had a crush on Dakin anymore. His 'little spaniel heart' as Scripps had jokingly referred to it at school had moved on. Had moved on to Scripps, in fact.

He wasn't entirely sure how it had happened. It had always been the two of them at school. Yes, Scripps had been good friends with Dakin as well but both he and Posner had both been outsiders to an extent. Oh, Scripps had always fitted in with the rest of the guys far more so than Posner but he also didn't fit in. Not completely. It was always just so much easier with Posner. That hadn't changed, even once they were at Oxford and in different colleges. The rest of them had gradually drifted apart as they got caught up in courses, new friends, the college rugger team (Rudge) and new lovers (Dakin). Of course, they had still met up from time to time but it had dwindled to once a term now and then occasionally if they were all back in Sheffield at the same time.

He and Posner were the anomaly. They met up once a week in a music room at one or other of their colleges to play and sing their old favourites, neither one of them wanting to completely forget what Hector had taught them. They would meet for coffee during the week and would inevitably end up in each others rooms studying, despite the fact that they were on different courses. It was easy and familiar and, somewhere along the way, Scripps found himself wondering if the reason he had never really chased a relationship with anyone was because, to all intents and purposes, he was in a relationship with Posner.

Not that he'd done anything about it. Hadn't wanted to disturb the balance or ruin anything because, whatever he and Posner had, however you wanted to describe it, it worked. Of course, his resolve had crashed and burned about this time last year. It had been midnight or thereabouts, the two of them sprawled on the tiny single bed in Scripps' room, covered with a blanket of notes for their respective exams. Unsurprisingly, Posner had been in a total flap about one of his exams and nothing Scripps did or said would calm him down. Posner's nervous babbling had just descended into almost nonsensical mutterings that Scripps was sure even Posner himself would struggle to translate when he was struck with a wave a fondness for the man in front of him and had, without really thinking about it, leant over and kissed him. He supposed he had expected Posner to get a bit flustered and leave but he had done nothing of the sort. He had simply blinked slowly, murmured "Finally" and that had been it.

The path from that evening until tonight had run so smoothly that it had not only convinced Scripps that they had been in a relationship but also had him wondering that it took him so long to make a move. They had simply continued on as they always had done simply with a lot of kissing and, while they hadn't had sex yet, there had been an awful lot of awkward fumbling.

It was nights like this that were Scripps' favourite though. When they were hidden away in one of their rooms and he could distract from his revision and worries with a multitude of kisses. When Posner would inevitably fall asleep with his head buried in Scripps' hip or side, his face softening and losing the worry lines even if he was still muttering random facts in his sleep, only stopping when Scripps would give in, setting aside his own notes and resigning himself to being a human pillow.

Oh yes, there were plenty of reasons why midnight was Donald Scripps' favourite time.