AN: You can all thank angellwings for this chapter. She had a JONAS marathon today and hearing about it made me want to write something.
AN2: I couldn't pick one prompt for this theme so I used them all. I hope that you enjoy and that suburbs doesn't cast me into a pit of fandom shame for cheating slightly. Also, I have three alternate scenes that I'm posting on my LJ (and maybe here later) if anyone's interested.
AN3: In "Keeping It Real" Stella mentions having a brother. I've decided his name is David. You can say he's any age you want, it really doesn't matter.
Sun
The Lucases and the Malones are heading to the beach. The tour starts in a week and everyone's eager for some quality time before their lives change. The dads have fun racing on the freeway while the moms freak out. Nick hunches next to the window, reading, while Frankie and Kevin make faces at David. Joe and Stella text on the phones they're not supposed to be bringing.
They're not supposed to be talking about the tour either but Stella wants to know if he thinks his navy blue outfit needs cuff links. He says yes, knowing it looks better without and smiles when she overrules him, calling him silly. He tells her they shouldn't be worrying about that now. The tour is a world away and this weekend is supposed to be a break. She asks if he brought everything for the weekend. Before he can send back a snarky reply Stella's dad grabs her phone and waves it at Joe's dad, who takes his.
The rest of the trip is boring and Joe falls asleep. The parents drop the kids off at the beach for fun while they head to the beach house. Joe runs out onto the sand with a whoop of joy, then veers right and stops under a little old lady's beach umbrella.
"Hot! Hot! Hot!" he says, lifting his bare feet up and down to relieve the pain of the scorching sand.
Stella walks slowly over to him. "This," she says, "is why I'm still obsessing over the tour." She drops a pair of flip-flops at his feet and follows David and Frankie down to the surf.
Wind
Their first day in California they see a news report on a tree being blown over and crushing a car. The Santa Anas are annoying and dry and aggravate everyone's allergies. Stella has to get their dad to increase her budget because Kevin keeps leaving his designer sunglasses all over LA and if he doesn't wear them dust and pollen blow in his eyes and they get all red and puffy and that's no way to meet the head of the record label. Stella's so busy with them she doesn't think about herself until she catches her reflection in a window. Her hair's been blown every which way and has become a mess even the bride of Frankenstein couldn't handle. Joe drapes a floral scarf over her head and ties it around her hair before she can freak out.
"You look beautiful," he whispers and they're whisked to the next meeting before she can think to thank him.
Rain
Sometime between running back upstairs to get his forgotten guitar and reaching the front doors of the hotel it started pouring. The doorman is busy helping a spoiled heiress and her three identical dogs into a cab. Joe looks between the waterfall coming off the edge of the hotel and the limo and can't for the life of him figure out a way across the expanse that won't ruin his outfit.
The limo door opens and he sees Stella pulling something out of her purse. The next second a pink and yellow umbrella pops open and Stella steps out beneath it.
"Never," she says, approaching him, "go anywhere without an umbrella."
Cloudy
Stella moving around their hotel room wakes them up their first morning in Spain. Kevin mutters something about butterflies and Nick comes awake saying what's probably the start of a new song. Joe blinks, rubbing his eyes.
"What are you doing?" he asks.
Stella doesn't stop shifting through the clothes. "There's a storm in Portugal."
Nick pushes himself up. "And that has what to do with you waking us up before we're acclimated to this time zone?"
Joe rolls over and says the answer into his pillow. "It's gonna be cloudy tomorrow -- today -- whatever. Our outfits don't work as well if it's not sunny."
Nick moans in protest and Kevin yells out "Waffles!" before it goes quiet and they're left with only the sound of cloth fluttering in the near darkness.
Snow
It's snowing in Switzerland and the boys sneak out while their dad takes a nap -- he's still not used to the time change -- and have a chaotic snowball fight where everyone are friends and everyone are enemies.
Stella finds them when they've collapsed and gets them to make snow angels before dragging Joe off to make a snow man. When he starts to take off his scarf she stops him and pulls one out of her deep jacket pocket, along with a knit cap and mittens. All match perfectly and, as far as Stella knows, they leave them behind in Switzerland. Joe goes back for them that night and takes them out for every snowman they make after that.
Hail
Joe never does remember an umbrella, whether it's because he's too lazy to or because he just likes the excuse to stand close to Stella, he won't admit. But when they're walking the streets in Paris and a piece of hail shreds through the bright fabric of her umbrella he's quick to pull her into a doorway. They wait for it to pass, hail bouncing off the cobblestones and hitting their booted ankles.
"Good thing your outfit choices for today included boots," he quips, hugging her and pretending he's doing it to keep her warm.
She smiles up and him and shakes her head before resting against his chest and he could almost swear she planned the boots knowing it was going to hail.
Foggy
Joe can only sit, unmoving for several seconds afterward. He'd thought a drive would be a good way to break the day after day of touring, but the fog was thicker than he'd thought when he first begged the rental car keys from his dad, who will be killing him when he finds out he crashed into a tree in Italy.
He turns to Stella, touching her arm, her face, her stomach, making sure she's alive. She pushes his hands away and sighs.
"What? Are you hurt?" he asks quickly.
She rolls her head to the side, looking him over head to toe. "That outfit is so not going to look good plastered on the tabloids tomorrow."
He sighs, glad not even a harrowing car crash can stop Stella from being Stella.
Cold
Their interview goes longer than anyone had thought and it's freezing when they head outside. Kevin complains and Nick berates him, saying it was his fault they were so late. Which, truthfully, it was. The interviewer asked what sites they planned on taking in and Kevin waxed poetic on the zoo for a full hour.
Joe picks up his steps to reach Stella and pulls his jacket off while he does. He puts it around her shoulders.
"It's a good thing we match today," he says with a smile, "otherwise you'd clash."
She rolls her eyes. "As if I'd wear it if it did." But she steps closer to him all the same.
Thunder and Lightning
A roar of thunder wakes Joe at two in the morning and he's frightened. He's in a hotel, half a world away from home, and as childish as it is he wants to be comforted. Nick's asleep on the couch across the suite and Kevin's clutching Mr. Bumble in the next bed. Neither would welcome being woken for this.
The next roar makes his decision for him and he climbs out of bed. The hotel is eerily quiet this late and he shuffles down the hall, trying to remember the number of his parents' room. He has three electronic keys, one for each room their party is renting, and gets in on the first try. He slides the door open just as the thunder claps and when the lightning flashes he sees Stella silhouetted against the windows. She's wearing a robe, her own, not the hotel's, over her PJs and some of the tension leaves her shoulders when she sees him.
"I was scared," she says quietly.
"Me too," he admits.
Hot
After their morning interviews Stella meets them in the limo, three new outfits in hand. There's a heat wave and they're dangerously close to having pit stains. She moves up front to sit with the driver at the first stoplight, coming back three lights later to give her approval.
The lunch with the director they're desperate to get for their next album is on the patio and Joe can practically hear Stella grinding her teeth. She makes them all drink three ice waters just with the power of her annoyed glare and the minute the meeting's done they have to rush back to the hotel, both for new outfits and for a much needed bathroom break.
Stella creates new outfits lightning quick before returning to her own room to change. Kevin whines and Joe shoots him an angry glance. Stella's job is hard enough in this weather without them complaining. Though, he really doesn't want to change again either.
"I'll meet you when the signing's over," she says before they leave and they all know what she means. She needs time to think up new outfits.
About five bazillion signatures later they pile into the limo and sigh when they see the garment bags. Stella's already in the front seat and Joe opens his first, wanting to get it over with. Bright, Hawaiian print is the first thing he sees and it takes him a minute to recognize his swim trunks and towel. Stella's voice crackles over the intercom. "Your dinner got cancelled and your mom thought you could use a break." Flip-flops tumbled out of the bottom of the bag. "Don't forget to wear the shoes."
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