This is something that popped into my mind after I visited the Something Damaged tumblr page. I read a Q&A that asked whether SD had ever met Derek and Logan, or had heard of them, and CP responded that no, they have not. So I made them meet each other! =D This is basically AU, where Julian doesn't have a stalker, but Julian and Logan end up together! Hope you like it!
U home? We might pop in at some point if thats ok –Izzy =D
Ud come ovr even if I said no, wuldnt u? –Julian
Guilty! ;P –Izzy =D
Izzy grinned before shooting out a group text.
J said hes home, who wants 2 head ovr? Meet mine 1st? –Izzy =D
Im in! –Clark
Sounds gud! –Tasha
K –Pat
Sure thing! –Cam
=D K! –Alicia
Be there in a few –Nathan
She slipped her phone in her purse and grabbed her sunglasses and flip-flops and waited for her cast-mates to arrive. It was late June, and filming had wrapped a few weeks earlier, letting Julian go back to school in time to take his finals, and none of them had seen him since. Izzy was determined to remedy that. He was finally on summer vacation, and had arrived in California earlier that week, and today was the first day since then that they were all free. Anyway, Julian always seemed to be in a worse mood each time he came back from school, and Izzy wanted to cheer him up.
She heard the first car pulling up and looked out the window to see Patrick getting out of his red car, wearing board shorts and a white T-shirt and a pair of dark sunglasses, fitting for a California summer day. They had long since acquainted themselves with each other's homes, so Patrick let himself in and headed toward the living room just in time for Alicia to pull into the driveway. They grinned at each other and waited for the rest to arrive.
As soon as Clark pulled up, all seven of them piled into the cars, their collective security following behind them in vans. They kept the cars connected to each other using a conference call on speaker so that they could all talk to each other.
"Alright, we're taking the next exit." Clark interrupted the girls' conversation as the boys just listened, amused.
"Ok, so we'll be there in ten?" Natasha asked.
"Yeah."
"Who's ready to go get Mr. Grumpy out of his post-boarding school mood?" Izzy's voice came over the speaker, and there was a chorus of agreement.
"Does anyone know why Julian's always so grumpy when he gets back and when he has to head back?" Patrick asked, and everyone shrugged and made "I don't know" noises. "I mean, he doesn't have to go. He was just sent there during his awkward stage, which is pretty obviously over."
"I don't know. Clark? Your step-brother goes there, do you know?"
"Not sure, Reed and Julian are in different houses. They don't seem to mix much."
"Does he have any friends there?"
"None that I've heard of. I guess he doesn't really connect with them."
"We're here!"
"Ready?" Alicia grinned, concerned tone gone from her voice, and they headed up to the front door, letting themselves in.
"Julian! You here?" Cameron called up the stairs before turning back and shrugging. They ventured further into the house, calling Julian and had almost reached the back when Marcie stopped, raising a hand in the universal "Shut up" gesture.
"Marcie-?" Clark started to ask, but was cut off by Marcie waving a hand in his face. They listened carefully, and vaguely heard the sounds of splashing. Natasha smirked, "Pool?"
"Pool." Nathan confirmed, and they headed in the direction of the pool and the splashing grew louder, along with the sound of laughter. They exchanged curious looks, who was with Julian? He didn't tend to invite people over much, even when he was home. As they approached, Izzy was able to discern three different voices, all male, one of which she recognized as Julian's, the other two were unfamiliar to the brunette. They reached the glass door and slid it open, stepping out of the air-conditioning and into the heat. Walking around the hedge that blocked the pool from view and locating the gate, Izzy put a hand on the handle, but looked into the pool area and tried to stifle a laugh. She gestured for the others to look through and watched as they laughed quietly into their hands.
Julian and two other boys about his age- one tall and blonde, the other athletic and brunette- were messing around in and around the pool. When Izzy looked in, she had seen Julian cannonballing into the water, splashing the other two. The blonde dunked him in payback, but the athletic brunette tackled the blonde. Carefree laughter floated towards the group of seven at the gate who smiled at the sight of Julian acting like a normal teenager.
The actor managed to escape from the two other boys and climbed the ladder and started pelting them with pool toys. With a growl, the blonde climbed out of the water and started running after Julian, who ran as though his life depended on it. The brunette left in the pool settled himself on a floating raft and watched the other two boys' antics, grinning and slipping on a pair of sunglasses. The blonde quickly caught up with Julian and picked him up and carried him over one shoulder, Julian hanging uselessly and pounding the blonde's back with his fists.
"LOGAN WRIGHT! You let me go RIGHT NOW!" The blonde- Logan- just laughed and replied, "Sorry, Princess! No can do!" Julian mock-scowled even though Logan couldn't see his face, appealing to the brunette in the water.
"Derek! Can you please make this squid let me go?" The athletic brunette- Derek- snorted, "Sorry, J, you're on your own!" Julian huffed and crossed his arms; quite the feat while upside down.
"Lo! Let me down!" Logan rolled his eyes, then smirked, "If you say so…" Julian's eyes widened, "Logan, don't you dare-" his words were cut off by a huge splash. The actor surfaced, spluttering and glaring.
"You are dead." He hoisted himself out of the pool and took of after the blonde, who grinned and ran, throwing laughing jibes back at the actor. Julian glared, and with a great burst of speed, tackled Logan to the grass.
Derek's laughter sounded from the pool, and the actors outside the gate tried to stifle theirs. Izzy giggled into her hand and looked back in to watch some more, ignoring Cameron's whispered comment, "I feel like the paps, just standing here and watching."
Izzy smiled and looked back inside the pool area, where instead of getting up, the two boys were flopped on the grass next to each other, eyes closed. Julian said something quietly and started to get up, but Logan's hand shot out, eyes still closed, and grabbed his wrist, preventing Julian from getting up. "Lo, not… Whoa!" The last exclamation was a result of Logan tugging on his wrist, causing Julian to fall again, head resting on the blonde's chest, and Logan's arm wrapped around his shoulder.
"Lo, not now…" Julian complained, half-heartedly pushing against the taller boy's chest in an attempt to get up, but Logan held tight, resulting in Julian settling down more comfortably, his head on Logan's shoulder and a hand resting on his chest. Logan smiled softly and whispered something to Julian, causing them both to laugh quietly. Julian tilted his face up slightly to speak, only to find Logan's face mere inches from his face.
The SD cast exchanged confused looks. Not only had they never heard of the two boys in Julian's backyard, Julian seemed extremely close to them, literally with Logan. And what was happening? Julian seemed extremely comfortable, and the boy in the pool- Derek- was acting as if what his two friends were doing was completely normal, as though they both almost-cuddled with each other often. And another thing, Julian seemed, "…happy…" Clark finished her thought and they all looked at him. "He seems so much happier than he usually does." Natasha opened her mouth to speak, but then a voice called out, pulling their attention back to the pool.
"Come on, guys!" Derek took of his sunglasses and threw a pointed look at his two friends, who stared back at him. "I have to see this all the time at school, are you gonna spend the whole vacation making out?" Logan and Julian glared at him, and the actors on the other side of the fence expected them to counter his accusation, but to their shock, the two of them sat up. "What?" Julian asked with a smirk, "You mean like this?" He put a hand behind Logan's head and pulled it towards his with no resistance, their lips meeting.
Jaws dropped on the other side of the fence as they watched what was happening, eyes bugging out of their heads.
"Oh, come on!" the brunette called at them, they made no indication that they had heard him. "Julian! Kiss your boyfriend on your own time!"
"Boyfriend?" the SD cast mouthed.
As a final attempt, Derek grabbed a large water gun from where it had been floating and aimed it at them, spraying them. Julian and Logan yelped and jumped, glaring at him and getting up. Derek's eyes widened, "Oh crap." He had drifted close enough to the side of the pool that the raft could be jumped onto, which is just what the two of them did. Derek surfaced, spluttering, and the two other boys just laughed at him. The three of them swam over to the edge of the pool and hoisted themselves up sitting on the edge, feet dipping into the water. Julian leaned to the side and laid his head on Logan's shoulder, and Logan in turn rested his head on Julian's, their hands intertwined.
Derek shook his head, "You know, I can't wait until you two are out of the honeymoon phase, you're sickeningly sweet." The two boys laughed at him.
"D, we've been dating for less than two months, what do you expect?" Julian asked, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, and I'm happy for you two. Do you think it was fun for me to watch you crushing on Logan and Logan chasing other guys for three freaking years before you two finally got your act together?" He sounded exasperated, but a grin was playing around his lips.
Three years? Izzy thought. So that's why…
Logan rolled his eyes and reached over Julian to shove Derek lightly, but the brunette dodged his hand. Julian, whose head had been moved from its original position sat up and pecked Logan lightly on the lips before standing up and stretching. "Come on, let's go in. Izzy said that they might be popping by sometime today, which means that they'll just come in my house with no other warning whatsoever." He reached for a towel that was sitting on a nearby lounge chair and toweled his hair. The other two reluctantly stood up and grabbed towels too.
"So, we finally get to meet your Hollywood friends." Derek stated, and Julian nodded, "Yeah."
"And what are you going to tell them about us?" Logan asked, gesturing between him and Julian.
"The truth, I s'pose. This should be fun to explain."
"At least they won't go running through campus yelling 'Cheshire and the Knave are in love! Repeat! Cheshire and the Knave are in love!' like the Brightmans did when they heard." Logan reasoned, and Derek smirked. Julian rolled his eyes, "I can't imagine these guys doing that… well, maybe. But it's unlikely." Logan and Derek snorted, and they headed toward the gate, laughing with each other. The actors behind the gate were slowly staring to come out of their shock, but not fast enough. When Julian looked up from looking at where his and Logan's hands were linked and swinging in between them he saw them and stopped abruptly, causing Logan to be pulled to a stop by their hands. Derek looked at them curiously. Julian stared; the shocked expressions on his castmates' faces told him with no uncertainty that they knew.
"What is it?" Derek asked. Julian's startled expression caused the two of them to look at where he was looking, causing them to see the seven shocked people behind the gate. "Oh…"
Julian smiled awkwardly, "Um, why don't we go sit down…?"
Five minutes later, all ten of them were seated on the patio in awkward silence. The actors were finally getting over their shock, and were staring at Julian. They had known him for a while, and it was strange, suddenly seeing someone that you've always thought was straight with a… boyfriend.
"You've dated girls." Marcie stated with her normal bluntness. Everyone stared at her.
"I've also dated guys. I just never advertised it." Julian responded.
"So, you're gay?" Patrick asked for confirmation. His castmates looked at him like no sh**, but Julian raised an eyebrow.
"You're half right. I'm actually bi." His decisive answer startled the actors, but they didn't really expect him to beat around the bush.
"Julian, why didn't you tell us?" Izzy asked, brow furrowed. Julian smirked slightly, "You never asked, did you?" Julian's older friends considered this; it was true, none of them had asked, or even considered the possibility that Julian might not be completely straight; the kiss with Cameron being dismissed as a moment of pure curiosity.
Then Clark scrunched his eyebrows together, "So you weren't drunk…" The others looked at him with expressions like,WTF? He clarified. "Last year, I saw you at this bar, and you were kissing a guy, but I thought you were probably drunk, and that wasn't really something I felt like interrupting." All eyes turned to Julian, and he blushed slightly.
"I actually probably was drunk." At the incredulous looks he was getting, he defended himself, "What? I wouldn't have been kissing a dude in plain sight if I weresober! I'm not stupid. I don't exactly want to come out that way." His friends shook their heads.
"True." Natasha shrugged, then smirked, "Now, who exactly are these two?" She pointed at Logan and Derek, who were just sitting and watching the proceedings, Derek in a lounge chair and Logan sitting on a loveseat with Julian, fingers intertwined with Julian's. The youngest actor smiled and leaned into Logan.
"These two are my best friends, Derek Steigerson and Logan Wright. Logan's also my boyfriend." The two grinned at the word, and Derek sighed long-sufferingly.
When the cast turned to look at him quizzically, he raised an eyebrow. "They're insufferable. Three years of the two of them being idiots, and now they're stuck in the honeymoon phase. It's getting ridiculous." The two other Stuarts glared at him, and he shrugged. "It's true. No place in Stuart is sacred anymore." The two boys spluttered incredulously, and the SD cast laughed at the expression on Julian's face.
"Well, it hasn't been sacred since you arrived. I don't think there's a single place that you haven't made out or worse with some random girl you brought in." Logan retorted, but Derek wasn't fazed, "Andproud of it!" The couple rolled their eyes. "Just don't forget," Julian added with a smirk, "We know where you keep your black books." The SD cast looked between the three of them, amused and lost.
They watched Julian and Logan most closely though. At some point during the conversation, Logan had moved his arm to go around his boyfriend's shoulders, and Julian had leaned into the embrace, happy looks on both of their faces. The actors exchanged looks; Julian was happier than any of them had ever seen, even in his happiest moments with them, he always had a slight tinge of sadness that none of them had noticed until it was gone. They had realized in the past few minutes that Logan was the reason that the sadness was there in the past, but now he was the reason that it was gone. He would be the reason that it would stay away for good.
A/N- I also just discovered ch 28 part 1! OMG! It was amazing!
Please review?
-Little-miss