Please enjoy, there aren't enough John Green fanfictions out there. (More A/N at the end.)
An Infinitely Illuminating High-functioning Magical Big Bang Genie Wish of a Story which Appreciates Autobiographical Musicals.
Chapter 2: I know love is just a shout into the void, but I love you Tiny Cooper.
"See, this is what I call a Genie Wish people, none of your cliché or Dutch idiot writer crap. I saved mine for this!"
Augustus rolled his eyes, and Hazel did it back from the other side of Isaac who they were guiding slightly down the large, carpeted hallway of the conference centre.
"I might be blind, but I can hear your eyes rolling around. You are both not going to want to miss any of this, so keep 'em still and opened, and tell me if you see any of them."
'Them', were a list of names they had had to Google image search and look out for for him when they got here. They knew most of them, but as neither of them watched Doctor Who, they had never heard of Chameleon Circuit, the primary reason they were even there. Isaac's wish was to hear them live, and they had come to VidCon to play a rare gig altogether.
He had sat them down and made the two of them listen to all of both albums, and watch the music videos he remembered from before the operation. On repeat. For the whole three weeks between their return from Amsterdam and their impromptu and slightly hastily organised trip to VidCon.
They had only discovered Isaac's love for Doctor Who and subsequently Trock music very recently; Augustus had correctly gathered that his ex-girlfriend-who-shall-not-be-named had not liked them and they had all roundly abused her for it while somehow simultaneously yelling along to the chorus of Exterminate Regenerate until Isaac's neighbours had banged on the wall next door. All three of them had secretly been rather proud of this conventional teenage miscreant milestone.
"Do you want to park up here for a sec?" Hazel said, slowing down as they approached a random corridor alcove with some comfy looking seating and tables, "I'll go get some coffee if you want?"
"Sounds divine Hazel Grace, but I had one earlier. I think I need a moment to not smoke anyway though. Isaac?"
He had already somehow identified the comfiest sofa and was plonking himself down as they spoke, facing toward the corridor.
"Coffee is great, don't hold the sugar."
"I- wait, sugar?"
"I need all the sweetness in the world if one of the sarcaschicks strolls by. Particularly the one with-"
"The short hair and blue streaked fringe, I know," Gus sighed.
"And the hot English band-member boyfriend, if I remember rightly," Hazel called over her shoulder as she walked away, her raised eyebrow clearly visible in her voice alone.
There were a couple of moments of silence between the two boys. Isaac felt Augustus shift uncomfortably a few times.
"So, apart from all the fun with that Van Houten guy and you two, anything else happen over in the land of the spitting vowels?"
"We've been over it loads of times, it has been weeks, there isn't anything else, you know that." Augustus' words came out a little harsher and more blunt that he had intended, but his exasperation was paramount, and that coupled with the meaning he knew Isaac had and the pain in his side was enough to stop him from caring much.
"You need to tell her mate," his friend replied quietly but matter-of-factly, his face still fruitlessly focused toward the ever increasing stream of excited people that continued to pass their little bubble of comfort.
"I know I do, I just... we've only just..." He sighed. "I know."
Isaac clapped him on the shoulder in an attempt at manly comfort and they both laughed a little.
Hazel glanced back to her male companions while the machine filled the second small polystyrene cup, and smiled a little as she realised he was looking right at her, a cigarette dangling between his talented lips which were forming his particular brand of Slightly Crooked Smile. Even further off, she could see her mom reading in the next alcove, almost but not quite out of their sight range, practised as she was in her comforting distance. Even though it was Isaac's wish, it had been easier for it to be her that accompanies them again; Isaac's parents had work, and there was no particular reason to worry that his mortality length was constantly in question.
She knew Augustus' parents had had issues with it though; he had a massive argument with them before they had left for Vidcon, but she was afraid to bring it up.
She was his Hazel Grace, and that would be what she would be until she died. She didn't want to rock any boats, particularly ones which could have something scary beneath or that currently contained making out in the sunset. He didn't know how much she had heard, but a few words had floated out of the window, the one which echoed being 'hospital'. But she had left it, knowing he would tell her when he was ready. If it was the worst, she knew she could never be.
Right then though, they were at Vidcon, it was Isaac's Wish, and they were being your average nerdy American teens getting coffee while ogling the public and star spotting. That was all; that was it, and it made her smile.
Rather unconventionally there was just a basket of sugar bags and mini milk pots next to the vending coffee machine she was using, and remembering her order she grabbed a few of them and shoved them in her pockets so she could carry the cups back.
She managed to drop a couple of sugar bags in the process, and before she could bend to pick them up, Hazel witnessed their unforgiving destruction by the converse adorned foot of a rather rotund teenage boy who was walking round her to the coffee machine, followed by a significantly comparatively skinnier friend who was listening to the first boy talk with amused exasperation.
"I am telling you Tiny, he isn't gay," the smaller one interrupted, putting in the money.
"You'll see Will Grayson, you will see. When we meet again at the Chameleon Circuit concert our eyes will meet across the room as Everything is Ending plays, and then Patrick will-"
"I am pretty sure the girl with him was his girlfriend."
"Do you have to quash all of my fantasies? And she wasn't. She can't have been. He was flirting with me."
"Some people can flirt with anyone."
"You know I think I liked you better pre-girlfriend. You talked less."
Hazel attempted to suppress a giggle as she attempted to hold two cups of hot coffee while using one hand for her oxygen cart. She realised they must had noticed her in their momentary silence and before she could turn the large, gay one had walked in front of her, smiling genially.
"Do you need some help with that coffee? Looks like you have your hands full."
Tiny briefly took in the breathing tubes and promptly disregarded them in favour of admiring her new Duet with Myself t-shirt as she accepted, passing him a coffee to handle along with his own and indicating where she was headed.
Will greeted her too, introducing them both briefly and also taking in the shirt and breathing tubes, fighting the urge to warn the girl about Tiny and his Youtube habits.
He had talked about it enough for the last few months for Will to know absolutely everything about vlogging, vloggers and the like. He had seen and enjoyed videos and music, but he suspected privately that he would be just as clued up regardless of actual personal experience. His relationship with his best friend had been brilliant since the musical and they had both thought this trip, without his girlfriend or their parents would be the icing on the cake to their growing up phase.
Even if it was just about the nerdiest thing they ever could have attended.
"I'm Hazel," she said in reply to their introduction, stopping Tiny's calming flow of talk as they approached the two boys on the couch, "And this is Isaac and my boyfriend Augustus."
Will registered the stir of pleasure in Augustus' face, and the slight flash disappointment in Tiny's at the revelation of the hot one's sexuality status that was soon overcome.
"This is Tiny," Augustus raised an eyebrow in amused understanding, "And Will. They offered to help me with the coffees."
"Sorry Hazel Grace I didn't think-"
"I had to fall on the grace and good will of strangers Mr Waters," she said with mocking disapproval.
"What act of chivalry will make amends for such behaviour?"
She was about to reply with a flirty smile when Isaac piped up.
"Get a room will you? There are some normal people here, and I don't think you have to have the gift of sight to imagine their faces at your weirdo costume theatre talk."
He shook his head, moving his face toward the newcomers.
"Stay if you want guys, we don't mind. I heard you talking about Hazel's work of art of a t-shirt?"
Tiny and Will, who had been standing slightly awkwardly while observing the exchange, (well, as awkwardly as Tiny ever could be), sat opposite them over the small coffee table and put down their own coffee.
"Don't worry, we are nothing like normal," Will deadpanned somehow lightly, "I left my girlfriend in Chicago to come to a conference with my gay best friend."
"Hey, don't give the game away. I was just about to turn the charm on. No one would have ever guessed before."
There was a pause for politeness' sake before they all laughed.
Augustus watched as Isaac came out of himself, and jokingly flirted with Tiny and laughed at Will, astounded slightly by the normalcy of it all. A flash of melancholy past his features as he realised that pressure free or sympathetic interactions like this have always been rare for all three of them.
With a glance at Isaac's unfocused eyes, Hazel's cannula and his leg, he suddenly appreciated Tiny Cooper and Will Grayson in that moment more than he could express.
Thoughts? There is a lot of pressure involved in writing such well developed characters, I hope I did it justice. I wasn't entirely happy with my portrayel of Isaac, I rewrote a lot of it. Was it worth the read? Review or follow to read on!(Next up...Ever wondered how Sheldon Cooper would react to Lydia Bennet? No? Bet you are a little now.)
(Many thanks to Twin Kats for advising me on mass crossovers. I think I bit off more than I could chew. She is very prolific, check her out!)