The walls of Jones' room were shaking. The music was vibrating through the house and nobody could hear themselves think.
"JONES!" Vince was hammering on the door. "JONES! TURN THAT BLOODY MUSIC DOWN! WE BOUGHT YOU HEADPHONES FOR A REASON!"
"JUST GO IN." bellowed Howard into Vince's ear.
"NO. HE WAS SIXTEEN LAST WEEK. HE NEEDS PRIVACY!"
"AND I'D LIKE TO BE ABLE TO HEAR SOMETHING… ANYTHING."
"We could go out." suggested Vince with a shrug.
"PARDON?"
"I said; WE COULD GO OUT… FOR A BIT."
"NO!" screamed Howard. He put his hand to the doorknob and tried to open the door. It didn't budge. Howard glared at Vince. He thought they'd agreed 'no locks' on any doors including the bathroom. Howard had claimed that were just another barrier to thwart a successful escape in the possibility of a fire. Howard had failed to anticipate that their boys might just go and buy locks for their rooms and Vince had failed to stop them.
Only five minutes later, Howard and Vince had had enough and Howard was dragging them from the house with the promise of a free lunch. They'd offered lunch to Vinward and Richmond but they said they were happy. They'd forced earplugs in and were now getting on with things. As soon as the front door shut behind Howard and Vince, Vinward ran upstairs and hammered on the door screaming,
"JONES! THEY'VE GONE!" And the music died away. Jones opened the door a crack and beamed at them. "You're gonna go deaf if you keep playing your music that loud." Vinward warned.
"Pardon?"
"I said 'you're gonna go deaf if you keep playing your music that loud'"
"huh?"
"You're going to go de-" Then Vinward noticed Jones cheeky smile. "You tit." he yelled punching Jones hard in the shoulder and causing him to yelp in pain.
"Oh! You're so funny, aren't you?"
"Yep." Jones grinned, rubbing his sore arm. "Where's Richie?"
"He's still got his earplugs in. Don't say anything to him yet."
Jones giggled a bit and suddenly from in the bedroom, there was crash of a mug hitting the carpeted floor. Jones' eyes went wide with horror and he coughed loudly.
"What was that?" Vinward asked trying to peer over Jones' shoulder.
"Nothing." Jones lied quickly, shaking his head and twiddling his hair frantically around his finger.
"Who are you hiding? You got a girl in there?" laughed Vinward, trying to push past Jones, who for a small boy was managing to hold his ground well. "Oh this is too brilliant." he grinned. "RICHMOND! JONES IS HARBOURING GIRLS IN HIS ROOM."
"There's no girls here." Jones said honestly. Vinward frowned again. It was then that Richmond wandered past on the way to the bathroom.
"Oh hello." he said, as though it was a moderately pleasant surprise to discover his brothers chatting in the corridor. "What's going on?"
"Jones is hiding someone in his room."
"That's nice."
"Hey, Richmond's what's the name of that girl that lets Jones do her hair in school?"
"Mm. Interesting." Richmond nodded. Jones and Vinward's faces screwed up in confusion but as Richmond walked off, they saw the earplugs still firmly in his ears.
"He's a bit odd sometimes." Jones sniggered.
"Mm. Don't try and change the subject. Who's in there?"
"No one. Now go away. Go and ring Lauren or something."
Vinward's eyes narrowed, almost disappearing entirely. "Okay." he said slowly.
Jones smiled, shut the door and the music started up quietly. Vinward walked on the spot, stamping his feet a bit to make it sound like he was walking down the stairs. Then he spotted Richmond looking at him in confusion.
"What are you doing?" Richmond whispered, pulling an earplug out. This was something he clearly wanted to hear.
"Jones is hiding something." Vinward whispered back. "I'm gonna find out what. One, two, three." he counted and threw the door open. Much to his surprise the door flung open. He'd expected it to be firmly locked. Vinward immediately searched the room, his eyes darting to every corner.
"Looking for something?" Jones asked sounding bored as he flicked the page of his magazine, music still blaring in the background.
"Is that my Heat?" Richmond asked suddenly.
"Yeah. I borrowed it. S'ok isn't it?"
"No. Give it back!" frowned Richmond walking over, taking the magazine from his brother's grasp, and sitting on the bed, flicking through a couple of pages. "Oh. Amy Winehouse is back in rehab."
"Mmm." Jones agreed, but he wasn't really listening. He was watching Vinward as the moustached boy opened his wardrobe shouting,
"AHA!" and then closed the door with an expression of real disappointment, when no disgraced female fell out.
"Vin." Jones said, "This is an invasion of privacy. There's no one here."
"So what was that crash earlier?"
"A mug fell off my decks." Jones explained.
"Oh." Vinward said, throwing himself to sit on the bed too. The mattress and springs were already sagging under the strain of two sixteen year old boys. So, when Vinward landed on the bed the mattress nearly hit the floor.
"Ooof!" cried a muffled voice from under the bed. Jones watched Vinward's face light up in delight; smile spreading slowly over his stupid generic features. Richmond looked up too. He saw Jones' eyes wider than ever and his eyebrows rose.
"You actually are hiding someone." he said. "I though this was Vin making things up again. Like the time he told us there was an enchanted forest under the stairs."
"I was three when I said that." Vinward groaned. "When are you going to drop it?""Mmm. I remember when we were three." Richmond said raising his and staring off into the distance but neither of his brothers were paying attention. Jones was biting his lip anxiously as he watched Vinward lean over the edge of the bed and came face to face with a tall boy, with longish shaggy hair and a dishevelled appearance. Vinward felt his jaw drop open.
He lifted himself back up and whispered to both Jones and Richmond,
"It's a boy."
Jones just shrugged a bit.
"You gay, mate?" Vinward asked.
Jones shrugged again and then nodded. "Not a problem, is it?"
"No." Vinward answered immediately. Of course it wasn't a problem. This was a family based on a gay relationship - it was virtually the norm. "Just… well, why didn't you say anything?"
"Just thought it was obvious." Jones shrugged. Vinward thought his shoulders must be hurting from all that shrugging by now. Jones seemed almost smaller and Richmond looked uneasily at his brother before reaching out and hugged him tentatively. It was a bit weird and forced but Jones accepted it whole-heartedly and rested his head on Richmond's shoulder as Vinward ruffled his hair.
"Hey." Vinward said after a second. "Do we get to meet… him?" he asked, pointing through the bed to the boy underneath.
"Yeah. If you get off the bed so he can move." All three boys leapt up but the boy didn't move.
"Dan. Meet my brothers." Jones demanded.
"Ummm, I'm fine here." the voice came back.
"Jones." Richmond whispered in his brother's ear, "He's a bit weird."
"You can meet him later. At the party." Jones grinned. "I mean that was why I turned the music up so loud, wasn't it? Get our Dads out of the house."
"Oh yeah." laughed Vinward. "Everyone's going to arrive in an hour. Quick. Everyone needs to do their jobs. You can help too Dan, you're not hiding under there all day."
Vince and Howard got back to the house at about ten o'clock. Jones' music was still pounding through the house, annoying neighbours and people who lived miles away in equal measure. A drunken girl suddenly fell out of a low window, sloshing a bottle of wine over her sparkly outfit.
"Oh no!" cried Vince. "She's ruining that top."
"Priorities Vince." snapped Howard. "It's a house party. In our house."
"I know. I never thought the boys would be capable of such a thing." Vince beamed proudly. "Come on. Let's gate crash."
"No! Lets not."
"Oh yeah. Might not be cool to have your party gate crashed by your parents."
"I meant we should kick them all out."
"You can't do that!" gasped the younger man. "They'd never get over it. Maybe we could sneak up to our room without them noticing. Could be the perfect opportunity for us to finish this evening of properly."
He licked his lips and played gently with Howard's lapel. Howard raised his eyebrow and smiled.
"Well, when you put it like that."
They crept through the front door and were half were up the stairs when someone from the crowd of dancing, horny teenagers yelled,
"Oh my god! Vince Noir. Look. Vince Noir: King of Camden."
The crowd of kids cheered like this was the best thing that could ever have happened. Vince gave a little wave of acknowledgement but didn't stop. He just pushed Howard up the stairs.
"Wahey!" shouted that same boy, "he's getting lucky tonight."
Everyone cheered again. Well, except Richmond, Vinward and Jones, who all went a bit green for a bit. That was until Jones flipped the next song and beckoned Dan over. Vinward continued to dance platonically with Lauren and Richmond searched for the most beautiful skull in the room.
I wanna do a few more one-shots from when they're little and that have more of a story to them - lol.
Any requests? I was thinking maybe a brawl at school/ first day/ or Howard and Vince trying to have a romantic evening which is ruined...
What d'you think??
Just in case anyone cares - I haven't forgotten about 'Sick For The Cure' - I'm just waiting for it to be Beta'd. It takes a while coz my grammar and spelling is utter garbage =]
Thanks for reading!
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