Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He had hoped that being gay would mean he wouldn't have to think about children. Titch was "married to his job", he had always said, but now he was also in a relationship with a human person - the best human person, but still. Derek was super patient. He never asked for anything, let Titch pretty much go on as before and worked hard on the farm himself. It was almost like the comment about being polyamorous with the job wasn't a joke. Almost, but Derek had one big wish that Titch didn't even try disagreeing with him on. Derek wanted children. 

To Titch, learning that he was gay had meant learning that he would just stay alone, work on the farm, probably be an uncle to James' children at some point and hoping they would take over the family farm. Then, Derek came into his life and confused all of his plans. Titch had been able to keep him at bay for a while, but after Derek had saved the farm, Titch knew he couldn't let this one slip through his fingers. 

So now there was the question of having children. Titch was adopted, he could adopt someone himself, surely. He was just not ready for the responsibility. He thought he'd have time, until Derek came up to him in his office one day, fingers woven together and his gaze aimed at the floor.
"Love, can we talk?"
Titch held up his hand and saved the document he was working on.
"One second," he said. He felt nervous by Derek's body language. He wasn't gonna break up, was he? While closing down his files, he tried to convince himself that he would be fine on his own, just in case he'd have to be. "Okay, sorry, had to save those. What's on your mind?"
"I, ehm," Derek started, still staring at the floor. "I met someone..."
Titch felt his heart sink. Okay, so, that was it? Or was this the polyam thing Derek had meant. Him and his work, Derek and some other guy?
"Oh," Titch said.
"Not like that!" Derek exclaimed, suddenly realising how his words had sounded. "Not like that at all. I met an, eh, an orphan. Or two, actually."
"Oh..." Titch said again. He was happy not to lose his boyfriend, but what did 'meeting an orphan' mean? 
"Yeah, so, two kids came to our town and I got to talking with them and they don't have parents, so I... Well, I more or less told them they could stay with us for a while."
Titch wasn't sure what to think or say. Two kids, in his house? And it sounded like that would happen very soon. Derek had already promised? How could he promise something like that?
"Please say something?" Derek looked nervous.
"What kind of orphans?" Titch asked, without really knowing what he meant by that.
"Two boys, one is 8 years old and the other 15. The eight-year-old actually did most of the talking. He's a very bright kid. The older brother was quite emotional, but I get that."
Titch sighed. Okay, a fifteen-year-old was fine. He could help on the farm. An eight-year-old? Derek was playing with his fingers and glancing at Titch.
"Well?" He asked.
"You've already promised, right?"
Derek shrugged guiltily. 
"So let me meet them first, we'll see."
"That's not a no," Derek said with a hopeful voice.
Titch smiled at his boyfriend.
"We'll see."

The next day, Derek had a meeting set up with the boys, Johnny and Janae. They were waiting in a cafe in town when the two men arrived. Janae, the younger one, immediately stood up and shook Derek and Titch's hands to introduce himself. Johnny followed suit. 
"So," Titch said, after some pleasantries that were mostly exchanged between Derek and Janae. "You lads are looking for a place to stay?"
Johnny nodded.
"We have been sleeping in motels for a while now, but..."
"Have you dropped out of school?" Titch asked, looking at both of them. Johnny might be old enough to have finished some kind of education, but Janae was only eight.
"I'm working on my PhD," the younger boy answered without a trace of humor. "And I've been tutoring my brother since we lost our home."
Derek laughed, but quickly stopped when nobody joined him.
"A PhD is what you do after your master's, right?" He asked and Janae nodded. "Do you have a master's then?"
"Yes, in seismology."
"Aha," Titch said, not sure what to think. "And you?" He looked at Johnny.
"I'm not in uni yet," the fifteen-year-old answered. "Janae is the smart one." He smiled at his brother in a way so endearing that Titch had to smile as well. In a way, the boys reminded him of himself and Derek: a hard working one and a doting one. Not that Derek didn't work hard, but he wasn't as much of a work-a-holic as Titch. 
"We do have room on the farm, but I will expect you both to pitch in on the work. We farm aubergines, so there's always a lot to do."
"Do you have a dog?" Johnny asked.
"What would a farm be without dogs?" Derek answered. Titch felt his boyfriend's hand grip his and stroke it with his thumb.
It wasn't like they were adopting the boys, Titch told himself. They just needed some guidance and a place to stay and honestly, he could need the help on the farm now that James was busy with football. He had gotten a position as coach for a semi-professional team, which wasn't the same as the pro football carreer he had hoped for, with his newly acquired powers, but certainly better than being stuck on an aubergine-farm. At least, that's what James said. Titch was perfectly happy on his farm.

Later that same day, Derek drove to the motel to get the kids and their stuff. Titch cleared out his old childhood bedroom for the boys and got some old matresses from the attic. They were clean and firm enough, but if the boys stayed, he'd have to look into getting some real beds.
Strange figures, they were, Titch thought, while looking to see if anything practical still had to be done. He was good at practical. Emotional was more Derek's wheelhouse. Strange figures indeed. Surely, an eight-year-old couldn't do a PhD, but he was absolutely wise beyond his age. And the other kid seemed to slack behind a bit, or maybe he just seemed that way, compared to his brother.
Titch heard Derek's car park and and then voices downstairs. He went to greet them and showed them their room. The boys were grateful, despite the bed-situation.

During the following days, they found some chores for the kids to do. Johnny was a bit taller and significantly stronger than his brother, so he was tasked to help Derek on the fields. He had a knack for driving the tractor and enjoyed it thoroughly. Janae, quite frankly, had the build of a nerd - lanky and tall for his age, but no muscles to be found. Luckily, he also had the brain or a nerd. He proved to be an asset in the office, figuring out admin and logistics in no time. They eased into the family life. Johnny became less nervous, Janae started to respect Titch enough as a businessman to take his feedback to heart. The boys came from a football family and clicked quite well with James. Especially Johnny liked to play sports with James. They often ate together or spent the evening as a family. Everything was well, untill the phone call came.

Titch was in his office with Janae. It had been a few weeks now with the two as assistants and semi-sons. Titch tried to keep his distance a little bit, treating them more as valued employees than family members, but even he had to agree with his lover that they made the house come alive. Plus, having these two as children meant he wouldn't have to care for small kids. Sure, Janae was only 8, but either his seismology degree was real, or he was so good a liar that it might as well have been real. Johnny was quite emotional for his age, but Derek seemed to be exactly the kind of parent he needed to open up and gain some confidence.
Titch was contemplating all that, when the phone rang. He picked up and heard an unknown voice on the other side of the line. 
"Is this mister Greenfields, from (town name)?"
Titch confirmed.
"It seems that you are in contact with my sons."
The man on the other side of the line described Johnny and Janae to him, even including Janae's degrees and jobs as guest lecturer at Oxford.
Titch glanced over at Janae. Why had they said they were orphans if they weren't? Titch's first instinct was to just tell this man the truth and be done with it, but looking at his young assistant, he felt like he should at least give the kids a chance to explain themselves. 
To the man on the phone, he told that he might've seen the boys, but would have to check with his partner. He promised to call back later and hung up the phone. He then looked at Janae.
"I think you have something to explain to me. I just got off the phone with someone who says he's your dad?"
Janae seemed to think about it for a moment and then relented.
"He isn't a very good dad. I'm surprised he called at all." His voice was earnest and Titch felt for him, but also felt betrayed.
"Why did you say you both were orphans?"
"It seemed like the best option at the time. We didn't want our parents to be alerted to our position. Now who would go and call dead parents?"
"They are alerted now, it seems," Titch said and Janae looked him square in the eyes.
"You cannot send us back. I understand if you don't want any part in this, but I'd rather me and Johnny are homeless again than having to live with the people who call themselves our parents."
"What happened?" Titch inquired. He had a soft spot for the boy. If the situation at home was abusive, that would change the whole story.
"Our parents don't care about us, about each other, about anything but football. I always had a sliver of hope that at least they loved each other, if not us, but then mother committed adultery with the weird neighbor and father did not even care, so I lost all hope. When the neighbor's house caught on fire, with the wife still inside, father and the neighbor were doing penalty shoot outs without a keeper. It was embarrassing to say the least."
Titch couldn't quite say if this changed the story. If this was all true, it sounded like the kids had a better life at the farm. But was a better life for the kids worth committing a crime for? Because Titch was quite certain that keeping someone's children without their parents' permission was a crime. It had to be, right? He'd have to talk about this with Derek. He also needed to know if the story was true, so he ordered Janae to stay in the office while he made his way to the fields, where Derek and Johnny were working.

Johnny did tell the same story as Janae, which somewhat surprised Titch. For people to be so obsessed with sports that they forget about their family - or the value of a human life - was ungraspable to him. The neighbor's wife had died in the fire, Johnny added to the story. 
"Daddy caught mommy cheating and still only thought about football. He even made a joke about the wife being dead!"
Derek had put his arm around Johnny to console him and asked Titch where Janae was.
"We have to talk about this as a family, I think."
As soon as Derek said the word "family", Johnny wrapped his arms around him with a tearful smile. Titch petted the boy on his shoulder. He had grown fond of the two, and even though they had lied about something this big, he'd rather keep their strange little family together.

"Yes," Janae said, honestly. "If our parents want us to come home and you keep us here, that would be a felony. I've done the research while you were out talking."
The four of them were sat in the living room. Johnny wiped a tear from his eyes.
"But I want to stay, that should mean something too, right?"
"Sadly, we are minors. I want to stay as well, but it's up to our parents, unless we call CPS on them and hope they deem our parents unfit. I doubt that would happen though, as they aren't physically abusive and the house is in a good state." Janae sat next to his brother and had his arm put around Johnny's shoulders.
"So we need to get them to agree?" Derek asked Janae.
"I suppose so," the young boy said. It was easy for Titch to forget the kid was only 8. He wasn't just smart, but also emotionally mature. It made Titch wonder if he had any friends his own age, or any friends at all, for that matter, other than Johnny. Janae furrowed his brow.
"Maybe James can help us, since he's a footballer."
"We can tell daddy that James is training me to be a pro!" Johnny said. "Or both of us. If daddy and mommy saw we were getting more into football, maybe they'd let us stay!"

It wasn't hard to convince James to help. Titch only had to tell him he wouldn't have to do his chores in the house anymore and would get to play football with the guys instead. James jumped at the chance. Titch then called back the number of the parents, which Janae and Johnny had confirmed was the right number. 
"This is Greenfields again," he said. "We have indeed seen your boys. They were at football practice with my brother, who's a coach."
"Football practice, you say?" The voice on the other end of the line sounded pleasantly surprised. Maybe even proud. "So they do take after their old man after all."
"We've talked to them, my partner and I, and offered them a place to stay at our farm, since they were sleeping in a motel. No use burning all of your hard earned Oxford money on that, am I right?" Titch launched hartier than he felt, but he wanted to keep the boys' dad as comfortable as possible. 
"So what team are they playing on?" The father asked. Titch was happy the man couldn't see his expression through the phone. You just heard your two kids are sleeping over at a stranger's place and this is your first concern? He remembered the kids' story and could now very well imagine this guy shooting penalties right after his wife cheated.
"Olympia," Titch said, which earned him an impressed whistle.
"Second division, eh? Not bad. And they sleep over at yours?"
"Yessir," Titch answered. "You can come by if you want, or course. See how the boys are doing-"
"If they've made any progress," the father completed his sentence and Titch found it increasingly hard to stay calm. You don't know me, he wanted to yell. For all this guy knew, he could be hurting the kids, putting them in the basement on water and bread! He could sell them to some creep! He could be doing all kinds of unspeakable things and all this man wanted to know if they had gotten better at kicking a piece of leather. If Titch hadn't understood the boys' escape before, he surely did now. What a complete and utter ass this man was.
"Exactly," he said, as calm as he could manage. "You and your wife are welcome anytime."
"We will absolutely take you up on that offer," the father said, in a tone of voice that made Titch doubt that he'd really take the time to drive down south.
Knowing he wouldn't be able to hold in his suppressed rage for much longer, he ended the conversation and spent a few minutes just yelling out all of the things he hadn't said to the guy's face, before walking downstairs to inform the rest of their weird little family of the conversation.

"So they can stay?" Derek concluded after hearing the whole story.
"So it seems," Titch said. "He didn't even ask for our address."
Johnny rested his head on Janae's shoulder.
"I'm happy," he said, "but also sad."
"Me too," agreed his brother. "It's bittersweet to hear how little they care about us."
"I think you should really start training with Olympia," Titch said. "If your parents ever do come by, although I doubt it, they'll want to see progress."
Johnny nodded excitedly.
"I'd love to train with uncle James! Football is really fun if... Well, it's fun. It's a fun sport."
"And we're gonna have to find you a high school," Derek added. "A boy your age shouldn't be working full time."
"And a boy my age?" Janae asked. "I can't go back to elementary. I won't! I'm-"
"Oxford isn't further from here than from your former home," Titch interjected. "Are you okay travelling by train on your own? We won't have time to drive you there every time you lecture or meet with your professor, I'm afraid."
"Are you saying that you support me doing my PhD at 8?" Janae asked, pretty much beaming now.
"Yes, but we do want you to also go to your football practice," Derek said, exchanging a look with Titch. "Not because playing well is that important, but because you should at least know some kids your own age."
Titch nodded in agreement, happy that he and his boyfriend were on the same wavelength. Janae didn't protest, even though Titch knew he didn't care about kids his age.

It was getting late, so Derek sent the kids up to their room. When he came back downstairs, he and Titch cuddled together on the couch.
"I love you," Derek said, pressing a kiss on the top of Titch's head. "You're a really good dad to those boys."
Titch shrugged.
"I'm just looking out for them. They're good kids."
"And you're a good dad," Derek repeated. "Take the compliment."
Titch smiled.
"I try. You're pretty amazing too."

Chapter Text

Football was, in essence, highly logical. It was all about velocity, angles, cause and effect. Of course, there was the psychological aspect of feinging, but otherwise, there was a perfect way to play football. It was a bit like chess. The trouble was, thought Janae, that chess pieces just did what you ordered them to do. A human body was different to a chess piece. His human body was different at least.
So despite understanding exactly what he should be doing, he was too slow, too weak, and his aim was off.
He was tall though, so it took only two practices to be put on the field as a goaly, but making his own body jump on front of a ball, instead of away from it, went against his survival instinct.
Ergo, he was a terrible footballer. He also had a hard time making friends. He knew Titch and Derek pushed him to be in the football club to meet guys his own age, but his teammates didn't understand what he said and teased him about his football skills. James was nice and all, albeit a little simple. Janae enjoyed his time with Titch the most. Titch was in no way on his level intellectually, but he was very knowledgeable in his area of expertise and could teach Janae a lot about farming. Derek was a sweet man and Janae appreciated how Derek treated Johnny. With the grown ups, he was fine.

But he was in a goal now, the other boys were shooting penalties at him and he was expected to jump from side to side, risking serious brain injury in the hopes of stopping an more or less arbitrary object from getting to an more or less arbitrary place. He saw the health benefits of sport, but football felt counter productive. And so James kept yellingly encouraging him while he calculated how much effort he would have to make to convincingly make it seem like he was trying.

That evening Janae and Titch played chess in the living room, Derek helped Johnny with his maths homework, which meant that every few minutes, either Titch or Janae was called to explain something when Derek got confused himself. The nice thing about Derek was that he could handle being wrong - something Janae knew he would have to learn himself at some point. Derek would ask Janae if his explanation to Johnny had been right and then listened attentively as Janae laid out where the mistakes in his thinking were. His own parents would've never done that. After one correction, they would say that he could take over as tutor, so they could do whatever else.
James came into the living room. He had changed his Olympia tracksuit for an adidas track suit, but still looked to be in coach-mode when he gestured at Janae to come talk to him in private. So Janae excused himself and followed Titch's brother to the office.
"I wanted to talk to you about something," James started.
"I assumed as much," Janae answered.
"I know how important it is for you and your brother to be playing with Olympia, but, to be frank, there's a certain level of... well, of football that I have to uphold as coach of a second-devision-team."
"It's not important to me," Janae said. "I play because it's expected of me, not for personal merit."
James looked confused.
"you don't want to play?" He asked. Janae shook is head. "But, why do you play then? You're eight years old! That's not age to be sporting against your will!"
"If not at eight, then when?" Janae asked. To his mind, eight was the perfect age to be sporting against one's will. As an adult, or even a teen, nobody could force you.
"You should do a sport you enjoy," James said. "Find out what makes you happy."
"Seismology," Janae answered. "Pubquizzes, reading, tinkering, research..."
"I meant what sport," James interjected. "I know you like your nerd-stuff, but you gotta keep your body healthy as well. Forgetting your lunch isn't the same as getting fit, you know?"
"I'm well aware."
"That said," James continued, "I can't in good faith keep you in Olympia. All the other boys were scouted from other clubs and you... Well you don't even like football and it shows."
Janae nodded.
"Can Johnny stay, though?" He asked.
"Of course, Johnny is a fine striker! I'm thinking of putting him in the basis against the Rangers' youth team next month!"
"My dad's team," Janae said, almost in a reflex. "You'll have to win that game. It will solidify our stay here, I'm sure."
James nodded and then looked at Janae earnestly.
"You know what I was here to tell you, right? You're off the team."
"I know, I'm fine with that. I just hope Titch and Derek are as well. They want me to make friends."
James smiled wryly.
"I don't think you were doing that at the club."
Janae had to agree.

"I didn't move any pieces," Titch said, as Janae walked back to their chess table.
"Then why is my queen in a vulnerable position?" Janae asked. "I am certain I didn't leave her there."
He moved the piece back and heard Johnny and Derek laugh behind his back.
"I did not move any pieces," Titch repeated. "Well caught, Janae."
They played for a bit until Janae asked:
"Does this town have a chess club?"
Titch shrugged.
"Probably. Would you want to join one?"
"Seeing that I'm off the football team..."
Titch shot his brother an angry look.
"You fucking kicked him out? Excuse my language, but I thought we had a deal!"
James raised his eyebrows.
"Kid's miserable in the team and honestly sucks at the game. Let him play chess if he wants to. He's better at that anyway."
"I'm scared of the ball..." Janae admitted. "I feel like being a goaly has too high a risk of concussing me... I just don't want to risk my brain like that. It's the one thing I have." He looked at the chessboard as not to make eye contac with anyone. Being vulnerable was scary enough on its own. He didn't need the instant feedback that came from body language.
"What about your parents? Won't they want you back at home of you aren't playing football here?"
Janae shrugged, gaze still fixed on the chess board.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," he said. "Also, check." He pushed his queen forward.
Titch looked at the chessboard again.
"You're risking a lot," he mumbled. "But I trust you. You know your parents better than I do." He stayed silent for a few seconds and then pushed over his own king. "I believe that's mate."
He reached over the board and Janae shook his hand.
"We should find you a chess club," Titch said.

Chapter Text

His boyfriend hadn't officially said yet that the boys could stay, but seeing Titch and Janae interact made Derek's heart melt. Titch had told him before that the family life wasn't for him, but knowing how much his father, the family farm and even his brother, dispite their heated argument over Margeary's magic meant to him, Derek had had a feeling that he might come around on that stance. Now apparently he had and it made Derek smile ear to ear anytime he thought about it. 
Yeah, the boys weren't 'normal'. Johnny was very sensitive and Janae was... It was like the both of them were one gifted child split into two: one intellectually gifted but rather emotionless one and one hypersensitive but kind of slow one. But that mattered not. Derek loves spending time with them. He loved driving around the farm with Johnny, he loved watching the frown on Titch's face when Janae came with a difficult problem or a strong chess move. He was happy as a clam, but also very aware of how temporary this situation might be.
They weren't their children, they were runaways who could only stay by the grace of their real parents not giving a hoot. It was a depressing thought. They were good kids. Janae an absolute genius, he could cure cancer if he wanted to! And Johnny was such a sweetheart. How could someone just abandon them? Over football, no less!

Johnny had opened up to Derek a lot over the past few weeks. He knew about the future dreams and about the car that had driven into their house when he was younger. He knew that Johnny had been his mother's favourite and how he always felt quite dumb compared to Janae.
"I'm like the teddy bear of the family," Johnny had said while walking the dogs in the woods nearby one day. "Or the dog. Mom could boop my nose and call me pet names, but she never took me serious."
"I know what that's like," Derek answered. They had reached a bench where they said down. Derek released the dogs to run around and put his hand on Johnny's shoulder. " I'm the youngest of my family - brothers and sisters, but also cousins. I even have a niece who's older than me. So everyone always treated me like a child, even at your age... They still do. It's frustrating sometimes, but I think they mean well."
"Dad doesn't mean well," Johnny said with a sigh.
Derek gave him a side hug and they say there in silence for a while.
"Derek?" Johnny hesitantly broke the silence. "Can I tell you something bad? Like, really bad. Like, Janae will be so mad when he knows I've told you this kind of bad..."
Derek wasn't a curious person by nature, usually taking life as it came, but he really had to keep the curiosity out of his voice when he answered.
"Of course, if you want to get it off your chest."
Johnny took a deep breath and all but whispered: "we lit the fire."
"What fire?" Derek asked, his arm still around the teen.
"At the neighbor's place..." Johnny cuddled up closer to Derek, as if he was scared to be let go of. Derek stroked his shoulder while trying to grasp what he had just heard. Didn't a woman die in that fire? Johnny was crying now.
"We just wanted to distract the neighbor from... from mommy, without having to see them. We never wanted Abbygail to... We didn't even know she was home."
Derek said nothing for a while, just processing this information. There were a lot of questions he didn't want to ask. Whose plan was it? That wouldn't make any difference. Weren't there any better ways to distract the neighbors? Of course, but the boys hadn't used those. Would they set fire to the farm? Even if so, Johnny would say no, wouldn't he? So Derek just sat there, consoling the crying teen and looking at the playing dogs. 
"I'm sorry that happened," he said, eventually. Johnny looked at him, almost confused.
"You don't hate me?" He asked with a tiny voice. Derek shook his head. He knew for sure that he didn't hate the kids, even though they had done a bad thing.
"I do think I have to tell Titch though," he said. "We're a team, I can't keep something as big as this from him."
"Is he gonna kick us out?" Johnny sobbed.
"I will fight for you to stay," Derek promised. He couldn't say much more than that. Titch wasn't as emotionally attached and it might be hard to convince him to let the kids stay. But Titch's trust in him was more important to Derek than anything. If it were to come to it, he knew he would pick his partner over the boys, even if it pained him.
Derek and Johnny stayed in the woods for a bit longer, so Johnny could compose himself. They watched the dogs, listened to the wind through the leaves and eventually made their way back home.

Derek decided to breech the subject when Johnny was at school the next day and Janae had taken the train to Oxford. He waited for Titch to take a break from his admin and asked him to come sit at the table with him.
"We need to talk about the kids," Derek said.
"What about them?" Titch asked.
"Johnny told me a bit of their backstory. Remember the fire they talked about?"
Titch nodded.
"Well," Derek went on, "seems that that fire was their way of distracting their mother and neighbor from cheating with each other."
"They lit it?"
Derek was surprised at Titch's tone of voice, he seemed surprisingly neutral towards the whole thing.
"Yes, but they didn't know their neighbor's wife was still inside."
"Of course they didn't," Titch said.
It confused Derek how little Titch seemed to be moved by the story.
"Has Janae already told you?" Derek asked but Titch shook his head.
"No, but, well maybe I should be making this into a problem, but it's not like I never set anything on fire before."
"Yeah like trash, not like a house, right?"
Titch shrugged.
"Fire is unpredictable. Dad gave me and James an earful after burning down a nearby shed. We were about the same age as the boy, me a little younger than Johnny, James a bit older than Janae."
"A woman died!" Derek said. He remembered he had promised to fight for the kids, but Titch's reaction was so calm, that Derek felt like he didn't understand what it was about.
"We'll talk to them about it," Titch promised. He smiled at Derek. "Don't worry, I'll be the strict dad, so you don't have to be."

That night, Titch called the kids to the living room and made them sit on the sofa. He had kept his promise and looked very unhappy.
"Janae," he said, without a trace of humour in his voice. "Is there maybe something substantial you haven't told me yet?"
Johnny looked very nervous and Derek felt bad for him, but he knew the boys deserved it, at least for a while.
"Are you inquiring about something specific?" Janae asked Titch.
"Did you light the fire in your neighbours' house?" Titch clarified and suddenly, Janae looked like he was a goaly again, trying to dodge the ball. He looked over at his older brother, who avoided his gaze by staring at his hands in his lap.
"Sorry," Johnny mumbled.
"It was an accident," Janae said. "We went over there to get Abbygail's help with the adultery-situation at home and we accidentally started the fire."
"Johnny told me you didn't know she was home," Derek interjected. He was leaning against the back of one of the dining room chairs, a few feet behind Titch.
"Just tell the truth, Janae," Titch said. "It's simpler, cleaner and you won't get in nearly as much trouble."
"You aren't going to throw us out, are you?" Johnny asked, clearly scared. Derek blinked slowly at him, the way he would at a cat, to let him know it was going to be all right.
"Look, boys," Titch continued. "I've done a bit of arcon as a child as well. It's fun until it goes wrong and in your case, things went very wrong. I get that, I just need to know you tell me the truth - especially you, Janae, since I trust you with a lot of sensitive information in the office. I won't throw you out, I won't turn you in, but I need both of you to tell me what exactly happened. And I need you to promise me to never set anything on our land on fire unless explicitly being instructed to do so."
It was silent for a bit. Johnny had tears on his face, Janae looked like he was kind of dissociating. Derek didn't like the atmosphere, but knew it was Janae's turn to speak, so he kept his own mouth shut.
"It was quite traumatic," Janae eventually said. "The whole night. It was dumb to light a fire. I had hoped at least one of the adults would have been intelligent enough to call the fire brigade, but I overestimated them. Even when father came home, after his sixth sense had somehow told him the neighbours' house was on fire, he decided to beat the neighbour at football instead of saving Abbygail. Three full grown adults - four if you count her in - and none of them did the logical thing. By the time we realised that, it was already too late. And Johnny was right: we didn't know she was home. I honestly assumed she wasn't, since her man was sleeping over at ours. And of course, we won't commit arcon at this farm. This is the first place where I've ever felt taken seriously, outside of Oxford."
Johnny nodded heavily.
"I would never want to do you or the farm any harm!" He agreed with his brother.
Titch turned around and exchanged a look with Derek.
"Do we believe them?" He asked.
"Yes," Derek said immediately. Janae had told pretty much the same story as Johnny and both seemed seriously upset about the whole ordeal in their own way.
Titch pulled up a chair and sat close to the couch, on Janae's side.
"Now that you both feel properly bad about this, what about the legal side? Any evidence leading to the both of you? Court cases we're gonna have to deal with?"
Janae shook his head.
"It was a minor gas explosion that got out of hand - a butane tank in their garage being improperly closed and catching fire."
"Good," Titch answered. "Don't ever do anything like that again."
"We won't!" Johnny exclaimed and Janae agreed.
"It was a dumb plan to begin with," he turned to his older brother. "I should've listened to you. I'm sorry."
The kids hugged it out and Derek looked.over at Titch. Now that the whole ordeal seemed to be over, insofar if ever really could be, Derek noticed how attractive Titch looked in his strict-dad-role. He normally loved spending time with the boys, but tonight, he couldn't wait until he had his boyfriend to himself...

Chapter Text

Johnny had a rebellious side that not many people knew about. Even Janae didn't know about his little act of individuality that he had started a few years ago and still did every night. He had a toy raccoon he adored and cuddled up to every night. It might sound childish, but to Johnny, loving something raccoon-shaped was a promise to himself that he would get to be his own person at some point, outside of the influence of his parents.
He loved them, mommy and daddy, but... Well, they didn't seem to love him back. At least not as much as he needed. Even Janae, who was undoubtedly his best friend, didn't always take him seriously as a person it seemed. Yes he was sensitive, yes he cried a lot, yes a stuffed animal was his greatest act of rebellion, but what if that was just him? What if he wasn't "behind" or "slow" or "immature"? And if he was, why did people keep yelling at him to stop being a baby, when nobody yelled at babies to make them stop doing things.
Derek was a godsend. A mature, honest-to-god sweet and sensitive man, who was still respected by a hardworking, very masculine guy. So they did exist. Johnny could become that, instead of an emotionless macho.
What Johnny also could become, was a thorn in his father's eye, because in two weeks, he'd face the Rangers in a football match and he was sure his father would be there to watch - probably his mother too. Johnny wasn't sure how to annoy his parents the most, though. Beating the Rangers would be a hit to the face, since they were their dad's old team. But losing to the Rangers would mean his kid was a wimp. Winning was better either way, because it hightened the chance of them being allowed to stay with Derek and Titch.
And so Johnny used what what little spare time he had between school, homework, farm work and football practice to practice on his own, or with James, Janae and even Titch or Derek if they had time.
To be fair, he was getting good. For the first time in his life, he was playing because he wanted to, not because his parents wanted him to, and he loved it. Sure, he tried to keep up a bit of a manly persona at the club, not wanting the other boys to think he was childish or gay, but during the game, he didn't need to act like anything. He could just follow his instincts and feel how all those years of semi-forces practice finally paid off.

As the big game drew closer, Johnny noticed Janae getting more and more nervous about it. He kept offering Johnny well-meant advice, which Johnny pretended to take to heart. He had always looked up to Janae and still did in a lot of ways, but when it came to football, his younger brother didn't have much to offer, even if he thought he did. Janae's nerves made him nervous as well though. He had always been very sensitive to other people's emotions. Back home, that was an absolute nightmare of overstimulation, because nobody in that house really seemed to like each other (other than Janae and him who had been allies since Janae could talk). The weird neighbour didn't help either. The farm was a lot better. Derek was an absolute beacon of calmness, Titch was confident enough in his abilities to fix his own problems and now that Janae felt respected in his talents, he wasn't as worked up all the time as he used to be. Well, until now, because to him, their fate in this house was depending on Johnny's football skills and if there was anything Janae hated, it was depending on others.

Johnny had considered lying to Janae - telling him he'd had a future dream about him winning the game, just to put his brother at ease. But he hated lying, so he didn't and just endured Janae's stress when he had to... Which annoyingly was mostly right before they fell asleep, when they were lying in the dark bedroom they shared.
"You're going to win, right?" Janae asked for the umpeenth time and Johnny sighed.
"Yes, we're going to win. Honestly, the Rangers aren't that good and Olympia is."
"You can't be underestimating them like that," Janae pressed on. "You really need to stay focussed! If you lose this, dad might want to take us back home!"
Johnny sighed.
"Bro, please, I spend all of my time practicing. Don't you think I know this is important? I want to stay here just as badly as you do. Maybe even more so. If you want to help me, you should encourage me, not stress me out."
"I am encouraging you!" Janae answered. "I'm rooting for you!"
"By stressing me out. Just... Just trust me, okay? Like I've trusted you so many times with your weird devices that you wanted to test on me, or with the whole running away from home thing. Can you just let me take care of us for once? I may not be as smart as you, but I am the better football player."
The room was silent for a moment. Johnny didn't expect his brother to apologise - Janae almost never did - but the fact that he didn't get a rebuttal right away meant that Johnny had at least been heard.
"I guess," Janae mumbled after a minute or so. That was a long way from 'no' and at least two steps above 'whatever', so Johnny was pleased.

The closer they got to the match, the harder it apparently became for Janae to trust Johnny again. It was fine, Johnny told himself. It was important, it was just Janae caring in his own way... But it was much nicer to hang around with Derek, who was still calm as a blue sky, with Titch, who had other things to worry about, with James, who at least offered useful advice about football, or with his team, who were hopeful they could beat the Rangers.
Johnny wasn't even that nervous about the game, but he was nervous about meeting his parents again. He didn't dare breech the subject with Janae, scared of getting more well-meant advice, but he did share his feelings with Derek as they worked or walked the dogs together. The dogs were pretty amazing too, Max and Rover. They never judged, they were just happy to be there and Johnny could hug them. They were big and fluffy. They had tough names, but they were big sweethearts.

"Are you ready for tomorrow?" Derek asked as they were driving the tractor back from the back of the fields. Derek let Johnny drive, even though he was only 15, which was pretty amazing.
"For the game, yes. For after the game? Absolutely not."
"Want me to be there with you?" Derek asked and Johnny shook his head.
"I don't think daddy will like you, to be honest. He's a bit conservative."
"Like homophobic?"
"I'm not sure, that was never even talked about, though I got the feeling he was scared I might be one."
Derek sighed.
"Yeah, I got that too. Well, at least in my case, they were right, so that's nice, I suppose."
"How did you deal with it?" Johnny asked and Derek shrugged.
"It got less important as I got older."
"I don't know what to say to him," Johnny said. "And to mommy, if she's there too. I'm so mad at them, but I also feel super guilty about everything and I want to see them, but I'm scared. I don't even know if they're still together, since daddy caught mommy cheating."
"Just focus on what you are good at: football. I've heard James tell Titch that you're one of his star players! Go win that game first and use that confidence afterwards to do the scary bit."
Johnny stopped the tractor and swapped places with Derek, so he could park it in the barn. The indoor space was a lot harder to navigate than the open fields.

The next day, Janae was absolutely insufferable, so Johnny took Derek's offer to take the dogs to the woods again, until it was time to go to the match. Titch clearly wasn't happy with that arrangement, but he would just have to deal with it for a bit.
Johnny drove with James to the field and felt considerably more at ease when seeing the rest of his team. He would just have to focus on playing.
Entering the field, he tried not to look at the bleachers, but just at the ball. Even when celebrating his goal, he hugged some teammates and tried not to look at the audience, though he heard his dad's voice among the cheers. He was here. A shock went through Johnny's body and he was afraid he would freeze up, but instead of freezing, apparently he went into fight-modus. If anything, he felt stronger and more determined to show what he was worth. He scored again and again. At the third goal, he dared looking at the bleachers to see Derek, Titch and Janae cheer for him. And yes, in the corner of his eye, he saw his dad and mom. It was his last goal of the game, but it was enough to secure Olympia the win.
Johnny took a deep breath before he walked up to the supporters, after getting changed and celebrating with his team.

Derek spread his arms and hugged Johnny tightly as he walked towards them. He also got a hug from Titch and a 'well done' from Janae.
Then he turned around and saw his parents approaching. Daddy was smiling ear to ear, which somehow felt hurtful, as if the boys hadn't spent more than a month at some random farm they knew nothing about. Mommy was a bit more apprehensive, but also smiled.
"Johnny, my boy!" His father yelled, arms wide to hug him. "What a game, son! What a game!"
"I'm so proud of you, munchkin!" His mom said, petting his head.
"Thanks," Johnny mumbled, not sure how to react.
"And you're the farmer?" Dad asked Titch, who nodded. "Mighty fine job you did there. Never thought he had it in him!"
"Well, I did," Johnny said, but was ignored.
"He did it all himself," Titch said. "With a little help from my brother." To which dad jovially shook Derek's hand.
Johnny rolled his eyes. Well, at least there was no big confrontation... Now he just hoped Derek telling daddy that he wasn't in fact Titch's brother wouldn't make dad act weird. It did, of course.
"Oh, well, whatever makes you happy, right?" Dad said awkwardly. "As long as you don't infect our kids." He laughed as if he had made a good joke and Johnny had to hold himself back from making a 'joke' back, like saying they already had. It was not a good idea. He saw Titch holding back something as well, while Derek laughed the joke away.
"Where's that coach of yours?" Dad asked Johnny and walked up to James as he was pointed towards him. Johnny touched his mom's arm as she was starting to follow him.
"Mom, are you okay?" He asked.
His mother smiled.
"Of course honey," she lied and Johnny pulled her into a hug.
"Is daddy angry at you?" He asked while holding her. She shook her head.
"I kind of wish he were," she admitted.
"I wish he missed us," Johnny said and she hugged him more tightly.
"I miss you. Is life better here?"
"Much better," Johnny said. "There's dogs!"
His mom smiled.
"You've always wanted one, haven't you?"
They let go of each other and exchanged a long look, before his mom went up to his dad and James.
Derek put his arm around Johnny.
"You good?" He asked and Johnny nodded.
"I'm good."

Chapter Text

It was new and shiny. It looked amazing in the kitchen. And being who he was, Titch had thrown away the manual along with the rest of the trash. Now that he wanted coffee, he regretted that.
It was silly that he couldn't work it out. A coffee machine had one function: to make coffee. But this one had so many buttons with symbols on them that all looked the same, but with more or less stripes. There was a thing to put beans in and a tube to attach to a water reservoire, and there was a milk-foamer-thingy... Derek liked all that fancy stuff, with little hearts in his cappuccino and flavoured syrups and cacoa poweder. Titch liked to see Derek smile, so with his birthday coming up, he thought he'd buy the complicated machine as an early present. And now, he wanted to figure it out and he wanted to figure it out quickly, because Johnny was at school, James was at the football club and Derek was picking up Janae from Oxford, since the trains didn't ride today. So Titch had a small window of opportunity to learn how this machine worked and he'd be damned if he needed to look it up.
The worst thing was that he knew the others would understand immediately. Derek had probably used one of these before, Johnny might either instinctivy know how to work it or shamelessly ask for help, which was a talent on its own, James would just press a button and get coffee, and Janae... Well, Janae could build one of these from scratch when asked, Titch was sure of that. So as the self-appointed head of the family, he felt kind of silly.
Sure, he could fish the manual out of the trash, or just Google the brand name and get a digital manual, but how complicated could a coffee machine really be? He worked with computers and tablets and tractors and harvesters and all kinds of machinery! This thing in his kitchen wouldn't outsmart him!
He looked at the clock. Half past two. He expected Derek and Janae back around quarter past three, so he had fourty-five minutes to wrestle this machine into making cute little cups of cappuccino with swans on them, and glitter, or whatever fabulous shit his boyfriend liked to drink.
There was an 'on'-button, that Titch pressed, but nothing happened. He checked if the machine was plugged in. Well, that had to be step one. He pressed the button again and now the machine started making all kinds of unfamiliar noises. Now there was a bean reservoire and a water reservoire, so Titch assumed he'd had to take those out and fill them, but couldn't seem to figure out how to do that without breaking them. The fancy beans he had bought were still sitting in their bag. Maybe he had to take the top off of the reservoirs? Nope! Nope, definitely not!
Titch was just trying to put the top of the bean-reservoir back on, when he heard the front door open. Oh god, please don't be Derek and Janae!

It was Johnny. His last class was cancelled today so he was home early.
"Hello?!" He yelled.
"In the kitchen," Titch yelled back. Johnny wasn't that bad. He could help without making Titch feel dumb.
Johnny walked in and put a hand on Titch's shoulder.
"It's better to wait for Janae," he said, without even asking what Titch was doing. "I had a future dream about this... The more you try, the worse it will end."
"Couldn't you have dreamt of a solution as well?" Titch asked, a bit ruder than he had wanted. How complicated could a coffee machine be?
"That's not how they work," Johnny said. His voice was a bit shaky from Titch's sudden aggression.
Titch rolled his eyes and janked the water container once again. It came off in a way that probably wasn't supposed to happen. There was a hole in the bottom that normally connected to a tube in the machine and made it very clear that this wasn't the way to put water in.
"Maybe we can Google-" Johnny tried, but Titch cut him off.
"No, it's a fucking coffee machine. I can get this thing to work before Derek and Janae are here. It can't be that hard."
Johnny sighed.
"It is," he mumbled. "I've seen it. Janae will have to fix it anyway."
"Johnny, you're a great kid and I don't want to get angry at you, so please just go somewhere else." Titch felt he was reaching the limits of his patience with the machine, Johnny and everything in general. Johnny said something that might've either been "good luck" or "whatever" and left Titch to his own devices. Titch angirly placed the water container back as well as he could and figured out there was a button he could push to make it open the correct way. He filled a jug with water and poured it in the container. It leaked. Fucking fuck.
He looked at the clock. Three pm. The kitchen counter was wet now, the beans still weren't in the machine and Titch wasn't sure if he could fix the leak. Maybe Johnny was right with his stupid future dream. But Titch was in too deep now and giving up was not an option. The bean reservoir had a similar button, which opened it, so there was that. Titch filled the beans and closed the container. He put a cup under the tab-like part of the machine and pressed a button. To the side, freshly ground beans poured out of some dispenser thingy and fell on the counter. He pushed another button and the bit of water that hadn't leaked out of the reservoir yet poured into the cup. Clearly, some kind of filter had to be added. There was also a place for milk, which was essential in the making of cute iced mocha with a pink straw and dinosaur-shaped ice cubes or whatever that wholesome blob of a boyfriend of his drank. He considered duct tape for the water tank, but that would look horrible. Yes, Janae could fix it, sure, but why couldn't he?
There was a cup-like thingy with holes in it, that could be taken out and placed back without breaking anything. That was probably the filter. It also fit beneath the bean-dispenser-thing. He pushed the first button again and the beans were ground into the filter. Succes! Ten more minutes to figure the rest out.
With the filter and beans in place, making coffee was easy. But that was black coffee and an incredibly small amount at that. How this would turn into a frappe macchilatto was a whole different mystery. The counter was wet with leaked water now and it started to drip onto the floor.
A chimney-like structure on the side of the device had a button. Titch pressed it and seemingly nothing happened, other than the button lighting up blue. He opened the top of the thing and found it was hot inside. Some thing on the bottom was turning. Titch poured some milk in, which was sent flying through the kitchen almost immediately. Fucking shit.
He pressed the button again, but it stayed blue and the milk-foamer-thingy stayed hot and twisty.
Titch put new water in the water tank and quickly ground some new beans, to hopefully make a normal cup of coffee, before the water had all leaked out again. He pressed a different button this time, expelling hot water from a different tab. Next try, new water, same cup and beans. This time it worked and the cup filled up with normal coffee. The milk-foamer was done doing its thing, so Titch put some new milk in, closed it and pressed the button again, which seemed to do the trick. For a second, he felt like he was doing something right, but then he looked at the kitchen and sighed.
"Johnny?!" He cried out. The boy came running to the kitchen. Janae and Derek could come home any minute now. "Would you be so kind as to help me clean this shit up?" Titch asked and Johnny agreed. He didn't even make any snide remarks like "I told you so", despite his whole body language saying that exact thing.
Titch poured the cup of coffee into a bigger mug, so there would be room enough for the foamed milk. He handed the milk-foamer to Johnny.
"Can you make a heart or a swan or something with this?"
"Eh..." Johnny answered, which was enough for Titch to pet him on the back and pick up a roll of paper towels himself, to clean up all of the spilled milk.
"It's definitely something," Johnny said, presenting the mug to Titch.
"That's a cock and balls," Titch remarked dryly.
"I tried to make a heart," Johnny answered. "I swear."

A car was parked next to the house. Derek's car, Titch could hear. He pressed two small cans into Johnny's hands.
"Here, cinnamon and cocoa. Do whatever, it can't get much worse anyway."
He himself swept the ground beans from the counter into the bin and put a towel on the floor where all the water had spilled out.
"I think I made it worse," Johnny said, showing how his artwork now looked slightly hairy because of the spices.
"We're home, love!" Derek called from the entrance.
"Here!" Johnny handed Titch a saucer, a small spoon and a bisquit. They entered the living room just as Derek and Janae were done taking off their shoes and coats.
"Afternoon, honey," Titch said. "We made you coffee."
He held out the mug on the saucer to Derek, who first made some "ahw"-sound and then started laughing.
"Whose idea was this?" He asked, pointing at the drawing.
"Nobody's," Johnny answered, laughing as well. "Just luck."
Derek looked at Titch.
"How did you do that though? With foamed milk and everything?"
Titch stepped aside so Derek could look into the kitchen and he squeeled.
"Oh my god, wow! That's amazing!"
"It's also broken," Titch admitted. "I destroyed the water-thing while trying to figure it out, but some kid with future dreams told me Janae would be able to fix it."
Derek put his coffee on the table to wrap his arms around his boyfriend.
"It's amazing, love," he said.
"Happy early birthday," Titch answered.

Chapter Text

"In the end, it was mostly a question of picking the right glue," Janae said. "Your turn."
"Oh, right!" The boy across from Janae was Peter. He was new at the chess club and not terribly good at the game, but the fact that a boy only one year Janae's senior would be interested in chess was enough for him to want to play with the guy. Peter Steven, the boy with two first names instead of a first- and last name. Kind of weird, but there were famous people with names like that, like Ryan George and Alexander Jeremy, so it wasn't unheard of either. 
Peter acted a weird combination of dumb and smart, which he explained by saying "I have adhd." He wasn't actually dumb, just distracted, which to Janae was very hard to imagine, but valid nonetheless. 
"Because most glues melt plastic, don't they?" Peter asked, while toying with one of the pawns he had won off of Janae.
"Either that, or they just don't stick to plastic at all. Your turn."
"Oh, right!" Peter answered. He moved his rook to an extremely advantagious position and smiled at the chessboard. "It looks kind of like a castle now, doesn't it? Hey, you're the earthquake guy! If I shake the table, what Richter scale would that be for them?" He pointed at his knights.
"Depents," Janae answered, while looking wat to do. They didn't use the timers, because Peter constantly forgot to punch them and then ran out of time, which just seemed kind of unfair. "On how hard you shake."
"Like, a tableflip?"
"You mean an earthquake that would destroy their entire world? Has to be like 15 or so. Nothing like that has ever happened on earth, but they happen on the sun." Janae moved his pawn. "Your turn."
Meanwhile, he started calculating what the actual value of the earthquake would be. 15 was a ballpark-guess, but by no means accurate. Maybe it was lower. This was one of the things he liked about Peter: he asked strange questions and expected Janae to know the answers.
"Do black holes have earthquakes? Are they called black-holequakes? Or like, saggitarius A* quakes? I read a book about black holes yesterday. They are awesome!"
"A whole book in one day? Your turn, by the way."
"Hyperfixation," Peter said, shrugging. He moved his bishop. "Check. Did you know it takes forever to fall into a black hole? Literally forever, because time dilates. So the closer you get, the slower time goes, until you go lightspeed and time stands still, but you're already dead by then because of the radiation and heat and stuff. Would you rather fall into a black hole, or be in a 15-Richter earthquake?"
"We're already falling into a black hole, just very slowly," Janae answered. He put his knight in front of his king to block the bishop. Peter was actually winning this game! "So I'd choose that, because a magnitude 15 earthquake would be the end of life on earth. Well, it's impossible anyway. Your turn."
"A black hole doesn't actually suck, did you know that? It just has very strong gravity. I have a game on my ps5 where you have to avoid black holes because they suck you in, but they should act like a gravitational slingshot. You wanna come play ps5 with me sometimes? I'm also allowed back into the garden! Mommy broke up with the milkman and she feels bad about it so I can just do what I want."
It took Janae a second to realise he had just been invited to Peter's home, amongst all that contextless information. He nodded.
"I'd love to."
Peter smiled and moved his rook again.
"Check mate! We have a date! We don't actually but it rhymes, so it's true."

Derek seemed to be positively over the moon when Janae announced he was hanging out with a boy from the chess club, who was about his age. He was so supportive, it was almost scary. Johnny and Titch were supportive a normal amount, which was still a bit much for Janae, but he appreciated the positivity. Apparently, they had all been dying for Janae to make a friend.
"He said it was a date, though," Janae confesses to Johnny as they lay in their beds (which by now had been upgraded from matresses to actual beds).
"Really?" Johnny asked. "What did he say?"
"Check mate, it's a date, not really, but it rhymes so it's true," Janae repeated the words as best as he could.
"Doesn't sound like a date to me," Johnny answered. "He's 9, right? But young for dating."
"I'm 8..."
"Well you don't date, do you?"
"No, I don't. He said it was true, though, because it rhymed."
Johnny sighed.
"Well, maybe you'll get married and adopt two weirdos at some point, like dad and pop."
Janae laughed, but still wasn't convinced. Why had Peter said it was a date, then not a date and then a date still? It was confusing.
"I'll try to have you a future dream," Johnny promised. "So you know how many rooms you'll need on your farm."

"Well?" Janae asked as soon as he and Johnny had woken up.
"Well?"
"Is it a date?"
Johnny rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and yawned.
"Yeah, you're gonna adopt 4 weirdos, actually, so better look for a big farm."
"Really?!"
"No, I dreamt that I was on a boat and like 50 people had already died, but I had to smuggle flamingos to France, but then Andre Beetroot, who looked like James, announced that the trip was over because there was a huge cube coming, so we hid in Sweden and were pushed off of a mountain by some German guy."
"Was that a future dream?" Janae asked, confused. Johnny laughed.
"I hope not!"

His brother was really no help and Janae didn't want to ask Derek and Titch. What did they know about being 8 years old? Janae and Peter had agreed to meet after Peter was home from school, around 4. Janae had the day off, so plenty of time to worry. He didn't even mind the actual answer, he found, he just really hated not being sure about something. It made him self-concious about what to wear (for a date, people dress up, but to just play ps5, they don't), what to bring (something for him? For his mother? Nothing at all?) and how to behave (cute, distant, joking...). The closer time drew to 4 pm, the more inclined he was to just cancel all together. It didn't seem to be worth the effort.
Derek was ready to drive him, though, so he had to go, in his normal clothes, without a gift for anyone and no clue how to behave

He didn't get much of a chance to behave at all, it turned out, since Peter almost immediately dragged Janae to his room.
"He normally wants to play in the garden," he heard Peter's mom tell Derek. "But he's so excited to play this game with a friend!"
Ah, a friend, that was good!
Peter was talking about the game he wanted to show Janae, with the inaccurate black holes while booting up his ps5.
"So you're a scientist, but there's a murderer on board, so you have to fly the thing and try to not dilate time as much - by the way, they call it dilute and that's weird, like, how would time even get diluted? But you have to survive on the ship with the murderer and try to bring the cure back to earth. The finale is really cool! There's this woman - oh wait, that's a spoiler!" Peter smiled and started the game. "Who do you want to play?"
Janae blinked. He was normally very quick on his feet during conversations, even if they didn't make sense, but his confusion about his expected behaviour made him just distracted enough to not register anything Peter had said.
"I'm sorry, what?" He asked, feeling pretty silly.
"Who do you want to play?" Peter pointed at the screen, where a bunch of extremely tough and rugged men looked at them, ready to be picked for their suicide mission.
"Are they supposed to be scientists?" Janae asked.
"They're astronauts, so they can't be nerds."
"Yes they can!" Janae exclaimed. "Astronauts are nerds! Also, nerds can be tough as well."
Peter didn't agree with that, so the boys had a discussion about the definition of the word 'nerd' while picking their scientists and waiting for the game to load.
"There's no female characters to play," Peter remarked. "But the end fight is between the murderer and a woman, so I don't know if the game is feminist or not."
"I rather play a guy anyway," Janae answered and immediately felt self-concious. He didn't mean it like that! Would Peter think anything of it? He didn't look like he was thinking of it. He was pressing buttons and made the space craft on screen move around.
"You're the co-pilot." Peter said, reaching over to Janae's controller and showing him the buttons he needed. Their hands touched, not once, but pretty much constantly. But that was a date-thing, right? 
"Got it?" Peter asked. No.
"Of course," Janae answered.
Should he just ask? Was that a thing people did? He'd never really had friends other than Johnny, and he'd definitely never had a date either. His other contacts were mostly colleagues or project-partners. Then again, if he screwed it up now, he wouldn't lose much. He wasn't that invested yet and this unclearness was doing him in.
"Peter? When you said this was a date..."
Peter looked at him as if he'd never heard that word before.
"Did I say that?"
"Well, you said that it was a date, but it wasn't, but it was... I'm confused."
"Ew, no," Peter answered. Well, that was clear. "I mean, nothing personal, I don't wanna date anyone yet."
Janae nodded, noticing he was relieved.
"Me too," he said.
"Come on, let's kill some bad guys!"

"So, been looking for a farm yet?" Johnny asked that night and dodged Janae as he tried to slap him.
"No, we just played games. Can I hell it he doesn't communicate clearly?"
Johnny sighed.
"Glad you made a friend though. Maybe he can teach you a thing or two about communication. Night, bro."
Janae shook his head to himself, assuming Johnny made some kind of joke again. He should be teaching Peter about communication, if anything.

Chapter Text

"Derek? Can I see you in the office please?" Titch was oddly formal and it scared Derek a little. Had he done something wrong on the farm? Broken some machinery or damaged the fields or something?
He followed Titch to the office and sat down opposite of him at the desk.
"What is it, love?" He asked, trying to keep an open mind about the situation. He then saw a pill bottle on the desk and his heart sank. Oh... Right... That stuff.
"What is it, indeed?" Titch asked, rattling the nine pills that were still left in the bottle. Margeary's handwriting was on it.
"A love potion," Derek answered dumbly.
"I found it when looking for a bottle of shampoo in the pantry. Why is there a love potion in the pantry? What even is a love potion?"
"It's, eh..." Titch's piercing gaze made him nervous. It would be hot if it weren't so scary. "It's MDMA." He admitted. "Bought it off Margeary before we got together. Before that first time, you know? To boost my confidence a bit."
Titch didn't seem impressed.
"MDMA, from Margeary?" He raised an eyebrow. "So that first time, that supposedly meant a lot to you, you were tripping balls?"
"It's not like that!" Derek exclaimed. "It's not much different from having a few drinks, like you had that night. So if I were tripping balls, so were you!"
"You drank too!"
"Actually, I really held back, because I didn't want to mix substances!"
"Oh, so my boyfriend is a responsible junk? Thank the lord!" Titch shouted sarcastically and Derek felt tears stinging in his eyes out of frustration. He grabbed the bottle from Titch's desk and walked towards the door.
"You gonna take more?" Titch asked.
"I'm gonna flush them," Derek answered through his teeth.
Titch stood up and followed him, which made Derek not want to flush the pills anymore. What was his problem anyway? He had literally used the stuff once, just as that little push he needed to kick off this entire amazing relationship. They had been going steady for over a year now. What did it matter if he had been high once?
"What?" He spat. "Want to watch me do it? Do you have so little trust in me all of a sudden?"
"I don't want you using Margeary's trash on yourself or me, so yes."
A defiant little voice in Derek's mind told him to just chug the pills and see what happened. A slightly more sensible one told him that if he wanted to do something rash, he'd maybe rather just take one pill instead of all, to be safe.
He opened the bottle and held it out to Titch.
"Why don't you try it?" He offered. Titch had an expression as if Derek had just offered him the contents of their septic tank.
"I don't want any of that. You know what Margeary did to our farm! I can't believe you're keeping her concoctions around!"
It's so unfair, Derek thought. He got the 'love potion' before they knew about the whole curse-thing. Derek had saved the farm, for fuck's sake! He didn't deserve to get yelled at for forgetting to throw out a pill bottle in all of that chaos.
He took a deep breath, shoved the bottle into Titch's hands and turned around.
"Do with them what you want. I'm taking the dogs to the woods, so I won't say anything to you I will regret."
He called Max and Rover to his car and drove away.

Derek often felt like the dogs were more empathetic than his boyfriend. They were psyched about going to the woods, but held back their excitement when they noticed their owner was in a bad mood.
It took Derek a while to calm down, despite the nice weather, fresh breeze and the lovable fuzzballs he had taken with him. Was it really so bad what he had done? It wasn't like he was constantly high - the drugs weren't even a habit. He had just tried them out once. The fact that he had bought 10 and still had 9 left should mean something to Titch, right? Why was this such a big deal for him? Just because of Margaery?
He took the very worn tennisball from his coat pocket and threw it into a pond. The two fluffy dogs immediately ruined their fur by jumping after it. Rover caught the ball, Max jumped out next to him, tail swishing from left to right as if it was his own achievement.
Maybe Titch had just been shocked. Derek wasn't one to use drugs at all. Even when it came to alcohol, he was very responsible. When going out, it wasn't even a question who would be the designated driver. Titch could drink as he pleased, Derek was the one staying sober. He honestly liked driving more than alcohol. So the idea that he was the one bringing MDMA into their home... Derek sighed. Yeah, it had been pretty out of character for him. He hadn't gone to Margaery looking for drugs either. He had hoped she could give him something that would boost his confidence, that's all. Hitting on his boss had just been kind of scary. Did Titch not understand that? What if it had all turned out wrong? He could've lost his job and one of his best friends in one go! But his feelings were worth the gamble, if only he could convince himself to make a move. So he had done it, with a little help from Margaery.

The dogs were getting tired and Derek was calm enough that he trusted himself to drive back home. He hoped Titch had done some self-care as well, but knowing his boyfriend, he had probably drowned himself in work instead - as if that was any healthier than having one pill, one time. He let the thought go, as it wasn't helpful. Nobody was perfect. The best thing they could do now was just have a civil, adult conversation, make up (maybe in a very adult and not so civil way) and go to sleep loving each other again. Or maybe have dinner first, or the boys would starve...

Titch was indeed in his office when Derek came back home. He sent the boys out to play football with James and knocked on the door of the office.
"Love?" He asked, carefully.
"Yeah..." Titch sounded kind of tired, but not unfriendly, so Derek opened the door.
"One second," Titch said, while finishing something on the computer. The pills were gone from the table. Derek learned against the door until Titch looked up and gave him half a smile.
"Hi," he said.
"Hi," Derek answered.
"I did some googling," Titch said, taking the pill bottle from one of his drawers. "Guess you were right about them not being that bad. Like, I'd still appreciate it if there were no drugs at all in the house, especially with two young boys here, but..."
"It's not like it's a habit of mine," Derek said calmly and Titch nodded.
"I know. The words 'love potion' kind of scared me, especially hearing it came from Margaery. She has some real powers, that woman. The idea that there was a love potion of hers in our house made things feel... Fake, I guess."
Derek walked over to Titch's office chair and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend's shoulders.
"There's nothing fake about this, I promise."
Titch stroked Derek's arm with his fingers.
"I know."
"We can still flush them if you want to. I don't need them."
Titch stayed silent for a bit.
"Not much worse than having a few drinks, right?" He asked. "I might just keep them safe for now. Who knows, we might need them at some point, if the boys are away for a night..."
Derek kissed the top of Titch's head with a smile.
"Who knows..."

Chapter Text

Johnny was pretty good at reading people, often aided by flashes of the future he got from his dreams. He had known Derek and Titch were good people the moment he had met them. He could read Janae's emotions better than his little brother himself could. He knew when to talk and when to stay silent. What he didn't know was how to behave towards the girl in his English class.
She was beautiful.
Her honey-blonde hair flowed over her back like she was a Disney Princess. Her soft, light-colored eyes had a constantly surprised look in them, but she was in no way naive. As they had both entered the high school halfway through the year, they were placed next to each other and that meant Johnny's grades had absolutely tanked. Sure, he knew the answers to most questions - he was quite good in English, he just didn't hear the questions, for being distracted. It had gotten to the point where he had had detention for the first time in his life, because his focus was so terrible.
She didn't talk much, and when she did, her voice was soft and shy. The one time she was asked to read a poem out loud, Johnny had wanted to ask her to marry him on the spot.
She came from Germany and he knew she lived with her mother. He also knew her name: Priscilla. He just didn't know how to even begin talking to her. Anything he wanted to say sounded so stupid in his mind.

Luckily, his teacher, mister Nigel, decided to help him - or rather, decided to assign a group-project, which had the same effect as helping. It meant that now, he and Priscilla were tasked to recreate a scene from a Shakespeare play, along with two other classmates: Hugh and Inga, who were both also quite new at the school.
The girls immediately decided on Romeo and Juliet, but before Johnny could suggest him and Priscilla playing the leads, Hugh and Inga had claimed those. They were dating, after all. Johnny got the role of Mercutio and Priscilla decided to be Tybalt, which at least meant they were getting to touch each other, though not in a very romantic way.

The play wasn't just a way to get closer to Priscilla. Mister Nigel had made clear that this project was very important and would be enough for Johnny to get back up to a passing grade. He had actually told him that in person after class.
"Johnny, you're a smart boy, but you focus on the wrong things. Do yourself a favour and take this play seriously. I don't want to have to fail you." None of the concern was genuine, so much was clear to Johnny. He probably just didn't want to watch a terrible play.
"Why did he become an English teacher then?" Inga asked when Johnny told his project group. Johnny shrugged.
"Self-hatred?"
Priscilla laughed and Johnny melted.
They decided on practicing in the barn at the farm, because there was a lot of space there. This made Johnny kind of nervous, since now he had to play host and make sure there were snacks and drinks and everything. Luckily, he had a Derek who was good at that stuff, so the next day, his little theatre troupe was present in the barn, using the tractor to hide behind when they were off stage. Priscilla had put on some of Hugh's clothes, as he was her foster brother. The boyish clothes made her face look even more girly and cute, which was probably what mister Nigel had meant by focussing on the wrong things. Outside of the classroom, Priscilla was a lot more talkative, which Johnny loved. She also instantly fell in love with Max, but that was fair, Johnny thought. Max was a very good boy and he deserved love. She seemed excited about playing a murderous man as well.
"Maybe I can jump on your back and strangle you!" Priscilla suggested to Johnny. "I'm good at that!" She smiled dangerously. "Our former groundsman has taught me a thing or two."
"Sure!" Johnny readily agreed and turned his back so Priscilla could jump him. Her soft hand touched his neck. He didn't need to actually die to be sent to heaven by her.

They practiced all afternoon before finally calling it a day and having something to drink in the cottage-style garden behind the farmhouse.
Priscilla picked a buttercup and held it out to Johnny.
"Did you know flowers are magical?" She asked. "A buttercup can tell you if someone likes butter. Here!" She held the flower under Johnny's chin and looked. "Yeah, you like butter, right?"
Johnny laughed.
"Who doesn't?"
"I'm lactose intolerant, sooo..." Priscilla answered.
"My dad is a magical flower," Hugh said. Somehow, nobody laughed. They were silent for a moment. Hugh and Inga sat hand in hand as they looked over the fields of aubergines. Johnny picked a daisy from the flower patch next to him and showed it to Priscilla.
"What magical powers does this one have?"
Priscilla giggled.
"If you hold it under your chin, it tells if you're cute."
Johnny held it under his chin and Priscilla titled her head to the side, looking at the flower.
"Ohh, yes, it lights you up all the way..." She blushed. "According to the flower, you're super cute."
Butterflies filled Johnny's stomach and he felt his cheeks color. He held the flower under Priscilla's chin and nodded.
"You light up as well," he said. She smiled.
"Can't argue with magic."
"I had hoped we could play Romeo and Juliet," Johnny confessed.
"I kind of like strangling you," Priscilla said, giggling. "But a kissing scene would be fun too..."
"We can make some MercutioxTybalt fanfiction if you like," Johnny suggested.
"Would mister Nigel approve of that?" Priscilla asked, leaning in.
"I don't care if about mister Nigel," Johnny answered, closing the distance between them. They only stopped kissing when Hugh and Inga turned around and cheered for them.

"You've altered the narrative quite considerably," mister Nigel remarked after the group had gotten their applause. "Having Tybalt attack Mercutio directly instead of giving Romeo the chance to jump inbetween the quarreling parties is a decision that makes me question whether you have in fact read the play."
Priscilla had put her arm around Johnny's shoulders, which meant mister Nigel could say absolutely anything he wanted to the boy - it wouldn't register anyway.
"However, I do see you put a decent amount of effort into acting, so I won't come down all to harsh on you..."
Meaning they got a passing grade. It was all the same to Johnny. Priscilla kissed his cheek after class and he all but soared towards his next classroom.

Chapter Text

Titch learned against Derek's car and looked at the sunset with an annoyed sigh. Why even make plans when nobody cared about them? The suitcases had all been packed and meticulously put into the boot of the car. A coolbox on top held their food for the day. James had agreed to take care of the farm for the week, along with Philip, the other assistant. Everything was taken care of, so what on earth were his boyfriend and the kids still doing inside of the house?
Finally, Derek came outside, with an expression like he was already done with this shit.
"Have you seen Janae's toolbox, Titch?" He didn't even say 'love' this time.
"What's he need a toolbox for?" Titch asked
Derek shrugged dramatically.
"Fuck if I know, but he's throwing a full ass tantrum over it."
Titch rolled his eyes and went back into the house, where Janae was frantically looking for his toolbox and throwing stuff to the side, while Johnny stood in the middle of the room, just looking at his brother with fear in his eyes.
"Janae, knock it off," Titch said loudly.
"No! Johnny moved my toolbox, I need it!" Janae yelled, pointing at his brother, who vehemently shook his head.
"I didn't! I haven't even seen the thing in days!" Johnny almost cried.
"Johnny, go to the car, we want to leave," Titch commanded and Johnny all but ran out of the room. Titch turned to Janae. "Why do you need your toolbox?"
"I just do. I put it here yesterday, so i could easily take it and now it's gone!"
"Black thing?" Titch asked.
"Yes, with a yellow handle."
"Philip probably put it in the barn, thinking it was ours."
"He should keep his hands off my stuff!" Janae exclaimed, stomping towards the barn. Titch went back to the car, where Johnny was already seated. He had a toy raccoon with him that he used as a pillow against the window.
"Remind me why we're doing this?" Titch asked Derek, who sighed.
"Because we though we wanted to see Europe. Because the travel brochures didn't mention screaming kids."
"I hope we make the ferry," Titch sighed. "Janae can pay for the tickets if we have to buy new ones."
Right that moment, Janae came out of the barn, toolbox held up above his head like a kind of trophee, but his face looked like thunder.
"Fire that Philip guy, he shouldn't touch me stuff."
Titch ignored it, not wanting to get into another argument this early in the morning. He took over the toolbox and now had to find a way to fit it in the car. They were already taking Derek's car because it was larger, especially with the netting for the dogs taken out. Still, there was hardly any room left. Titch didn't understand - he had only taken one suitcase himself and could hardly imagine the others needing much more stuff than that. But somehow, the car had filled up to the brim with... things. Now there was one more thing to shove in there and Titch would have been proud of himself for managing it if he hadn't been so irritated.
Finally, over half an hour after they had planned, Titch strapped himself into the passenger seat next to his boyfriend. He pressed a quick kiss on Derek's lips as a way to apologise for his mood and they were finally off.

It had been ages since Titch last travelled for more than a day or two. There was always so much work on the farm. Even with his brother and two assistants, it was hard taking a break from the work - especially with Titch being the workaholic he was. James seemed to have a much easier time by simply not caring. That attitude made Titch a bit nervous to leave the farm in his brother's hands for a full week, but he couldn't deny he was excited about getting to go abroad for the first time in years - maybe even a decade.
They would drive to Dover, take the ferry to Calais and then make a road trip through Western Europe. They had thought about taking the Channel Tunnel instead, but some dispute between geologists had made that impossible for the forseeable future. At least Derek was happy that he could take his own car now.
The boys were quiet now. Johnny had fallen back asleep, with his raccoon squished between his head and the car window, still not used to rising at dawn despite having lived at the farm for a long while now. Janae had bought himself a switch. His friendship with Peter had turned him into a full blown gamer, which was completely fine to Titch if it meant he would be entertained during the road trip.

To avoid any legal trouble, Titch had even bothered to call the disinterested dad of the boys to ask for permission to take them out of the country. He didn't feel like being charged with trafficking minors. As he had already assumed, daddy dearest didn't care. Every time Titch felt like he was done being mad at the guy, he was given another reason to get angry. Don't have kids if you don't want to take care of them! Sometimes Titch fantasized about calling the man to tell him something ridiculous, just to see if he would agree. "Hi, just calling to tell you I'm lobotomizing your kids with a kitchen knife, because they're too emotional!" Their mom had at least wished them a good trip and asked the boys to send her a card.

They made it on to the ferry, even with some time to spare. After parking the car, they went up to the deck to look at the Channel on one side and the impressive white cliffs of Dover on the other side. Janae started a lecture about chalk rocks and how they were made up of ancient shells and skeletons, which visually distressed Johnny, who had been enjoying the view only moments before.
"Like human skeletons?"
Janae rolled his eyes.
"No, like tiny sea creatures."
That put his brother a little at ease. Titch was uneasy for another reason. Last time he had been on a boat, he was 5 years old and puking a lot. He knew motion sickness was something a lot of people grew out of, and cars didn't bother him at all anymore, but he wasn't used to boats. Stupid geologists and their dumb blockade of the tunnel.
The boat started moving and Titch decided he'd better stay reasonably close to the toilets. Especially when a bit further down the sea the waves got stronger, he was happy he didn't have to run too far.

Back in the car, now in Calais, Titch took a moment to just breathe and drink some water. Derek used one hand to steer and the other to rub Titch's back.
"You okay, love?"
Titch shrugged.
"I will be. How long till Paris?"
"Three hours, not accounting for traffic."
"That's less than I though!"
Derek smiled at him and turned on the radio. Some obscure French band filled their car with sound and solidified the feeling that they had left England. Exits were now called 'sortie' and people drove on the wrong side of the road. Signs displayed unpronouncable town names. Despite the landscape looking suspiciously strongly like the English countryside, Titch enjoyed all the new things he saw. He few hours and he would be in Paris for the first time of his life! He would get to kiss Derek under the Eiffel Tower! Although not a very romantic person by nature, Titch felt that kissing someone under the Eiffel Tower was peak romance.
They would stay in a hotel in Paris tonight and drive on to Verona and Venice tomorrow.

Not accounting for traffic was a pretty significant miscalculation, but hours later, they finally drove the stationcar into an underground parking lot. Johnny helped Derek with figuring out the parking meter that refused to display English, by using the two words French he remembered from school, and then they took the stairs to the absolute most European place they had ever seen. On the drive through the city center, Titch had already looked around a bit, but had spent most of his time backseat driving, making sure Derek kept to the right side of the road and didn't miss any turns, although he noticed it kinda ruined his boyfriend's mood. Now, they finally had the time to take in all of the large continental buildings, the quaint little shops, the incomprehensible language and, quite frankly, the beautiful young men that seemed to be half the population of Paris. Derek stood behind Titch and put his arms around Titch's shoulders. He leaned over to Titch's ear and softly said:
"You don't mind me looking, right, love?"
Titch scratched the back of Derek's head and smiled.
"Who are you again? We should've taken that love potion of yours with us. This seems like a grand place to party all night."
Janae cleared his throat.
"Father figures, I'm delighted to see your display of affection after this stressful morning, but please be mindful our presence here."
"My humblest of apologies, professor," Titch answered while being released from Derek's embrace. "Come one, we have some sights to see."

He got his kiss under the Eiffel Tower. It wasn't as romantic as he had hoped - surrounded by street vendors trying to sell them braided bracelets and weird spinny things that lit up and served no purpose whatsoever, but he had kissed his boyfriend in the city of love, under the most well-known landmark and he was happy.
They ate in a restaurant with a waiter so hot, both Titch and Derek forgot how to speak like a normal human person, leaving Johnny and Janae to do the communication while they themselves were giggling like school girls - aided by as much French wine as they felt was responsible to drink when travelling with kids - trying to translate cheeky sentences like "are you on the menu?" to French and then being happy that their French was waaay too poor for the college-aged waiter to understand (only to realise he was fluent in English when they went to pay and he asked if they had enjoyed their meal with the biggest shit-eating grin ever). At least they were already blushing from the wine.

The hotel was kind of crappy and the amount of stairs without a lift made them decide to just leave 90% of their stuff in the car and only take some clean clothes and toiletries upstairs, but Titch had a great night sleep, cuddled up to Derek.

Chapter Text

Janae hoped that Italian men would be less attractive to his guardians, because yesterday had been completely embarrassing.
Back in the car, they were now on route to Verona, where apparently Romeo and Juliet took place. Johnny was excited about that one, because his first kiss with Priscilla was during that play or something. Derek told something about a book he had once read, Death in Venice, which was one of the first gay books or whatever. How much more random romance would Janae have to endure?
What was interesting, though, was driving through the foothills of the Alps and later through the Alps themselves. Sure, he had much preferred to drive further down south, to the Vesuvius, the Etna or Stromboli. He'd loved to visit Pompeii instead of Verona, but apparently, that was too far out of the way. His suggestion to just change the way had been denied. The Alps hadn't been geologically active since the Alpine orogenisis, but big mountains were still significantly cooler than corn, cows and men with curly hair and dark eyes, even though Derek and Titch seemed to disagree with him on that last one.
Lots of granite here, closer to their destination they would find sedimentary rocks like sandstone. On a quick stop to stretch their legs, in the south of Switzerland, Janae climbed over the railing on the shoulder of the parking lot to explore the surroundings a bit. Pines, ferns, granite, grasses... raspberries! He picked a few and took them back to the family to share -after rinsing them off with some water of course, just to be sure there were no traces left of fox-tapeworm or other creepy stuff. Titch had gotten them all a drink from the little shop at the parking lot - coffee for himself and Janae, a cup with 90% milk for Derek which he called 'coffee' as well and some fizzy drink for Johnny, who at least was honest enough to admit he didn't like coffee.
It was a bit awkward to spend a whole week in places where Janae didn't speak the language. His Italian wasn't much better than his French and though he knew German and Dutch were supposed to be quite similar to English, he had never taken the time to learn either language. At least in the latter two countries, supposedly most people spoke English as a second language. He just hoped that his father-figures wouldn't take Amsterdam as an opportunity to go all the way crazy. Apparently, British tourists had quite the reputation.

They entered Verona which had lovely architecture, Janae had to admit. He still thought nature was more interesting than cities though. As soon as he would be old enough to travel alone, he had a long wishlist of places to go and none of them involved large cities or towns. Iceland, Yellowstone, New Zealand, the Canary Islands, Pompeii, Peru, Alaska... Okay, San Francisco would be cool too, because of the potential of "the big one", though Janae was smart enough to not want to be in the city when the big one hit. He could maybe take Peter with him and go to the Atacama Dessert, for the big telescope that was there. Or maybe Hawaii! That was geologically and astronomically a great place to be! Yes, as soon as he and Peter were old enough, they'd have to travel to Hawaii together.

Derek's hand was on his shoulder suddenly, which shook him awake from his daydream.
"Are you having a good time?" Derek asked.
"I want to go to Hawaii," Janae answered. He had just been there in his mind, but Derek had taken him out of it. So annoying.
"Hawaii is a bit expensive and far. Is Verona okay as well?" Derek asked and Janae realised he probably sounded pretty ungrateful.
"Yes, though the drive through the Alps was cooler," he said and Derek smiled.
"I'll leave you to your thoughts. We're visiting a Shakespeare-thing that Johnny wants to see. Are you coming? I can't leave you alone here, being eight years old and all."
Janae nodded and followed Derek, while trying to pay attention to his surroundings. The town really was quite beautiful, as far as towns go. Johnny liking literature was a new development. Having a girlfriend was changing him. He was getting boring. He now only went on double dates with his friends, picked flowers, read poetry and talked about her all the time. She was nice, Janae supposed, but he didn't care much for her. He'd rather talk about natural disasters and dinosaurs and space and games than about girls. Good thing he had Peter, who liked all that stuff as well.

They drove on to Venice. Apparently, Titch wasn't as interested in the Italian men as he had been in the French men, so the tasteless jokes were kept to a minimum. Even though Venice was also a city (and an incredibly touristy one at that) Janae found it much more interesting than Verona or Paris. The way the city was slowly sinking into the sea and how they were counteracting that was fascinating. Since Johnny had picked out the Shakespeare-thing in Verona that Janae had dissociated through, he now got the option to pick out an activity and they found a museum that talked about the history and geography of Venice. Janae devoured the information. In the gift shop, where Derek and Johnny were looking at Venetian masks for Priscilla and cards for mom, Janae picked up a book with even more info about Venice's battle with the sea. That would be a nice read on the way from Vienna to Berlin in two days, because he was pretty sure that after leaving the Black Forest, there would just be more cows and corn - or maybe potatoes, since it was Germany after all.
He wrote his name under the thoughtful card Johnny had written. Clearly, his brother was more sentimental than him. He had been done with both his parents the moment his mom cheated and dad didn't care. Seeing them again at that football match only strengthened that feeling and the way Titch spoke about his father didn't invoke any positive thoughts either. Still, he knew writing his mother a card was both the kind and calculating thing to do. As long as their parents thought they had a better life at the farm (which clearly, they did) they were so much more likely to be allowed to stay. Janae didn't lightly say he loved someone, but he knew he would miss Titch and Derek a lot if he would have to leave.

"Janae, Titch and I have been talking," Derek said, not unfriendly, during dinner at a pizzaria. "We wanted to drive via Graz to Vienna tomorrow, but since you liked the mountains so much, would you rather we drive north to Innsbruck and then east to Vienna? We'll get to see a bit more of the Alps that way."
Janae smiled excitedly.
"Are you serious?" He asked. They would change their route for him?!
"Of course, it's not that much further and we like the mountains too."
"Wait," Janae took out his phone. "Could we go here?" He asked, pointing at a lake on Google Maps. He felt like he was pushing his luck, but he needed to try it. "It's so beautiful and there's a gem-mine super close by. I mean, we don't have to go, of course, but I'd love to go there!"
"Let's see if we can fit it into the day," Derek said. "We have tickets for an opera in Vienna - don't give me that look, I love that stuff - but I'm sure we can spend an hour or so at your lake and maybe visit the mine, if it's not too cramped for time."
He meant it! Sure, Janae had already noticed that Derek and Titch took him infinitely more serious than his parents did, but changing plans just for him? That was a new level of respect he hadn't expected to receive.

Chapter Text

So Italian wine was good as well, but Derek was no 20 anymore and he noticed that, when he woke up the next day in a cute bed&breakfast in northern Italy with a headache. Austrian wine was a little less legendary, but Austrian beer had to be tasted, of course, so he wouldn't be safe tonight either. He pulled the sheets over his face but knew he couldn't stay in bed for too long. He heard the shower already in the en-suite and moaned. Was Titch secretly 20 still? He was shorter and lighter and had drank more. They had to get going though, because he had pretty much promised Janae his stupid gem-mine. Ugh, no, that was unfair. It was undoubtedly really interesting and beautiful, but two more hours of sleep would also be interesting and beautiful.
Titch came out of the bathroom, wearing only a towel. Talk about beautiful. Within very little time, he wasn't wearing that towel anymore.

Despite the morning delight, Derek was still groggy at the breakfast buffet. He had a cappuccino that was a little too bitter, even with two sugar cubes put in, and a croissant that he ate only to have something in his stomach.
"How are you so awake?" He asked Titch.
"Hair of the dog," Titch winked. "You drive right?"
"You absolute bitch."
"Nah, I just drank a shit ton of water yesterday," Titch said. "I can drive if you want me to."
Derek gladly took that offer, maybe he could close his eyes for a little longer then.
"Which one do you think Priscilla will like best?" Johnny asked. He had taken the two masks he had bought to the breakfast bar and showed them both to Derek and Titch. Derek sipped his kind of gross coffee and tried to focus his gaze on the masks: a white one and a light blue one.
"I don't know, darling, they are both beautiful. Maybe just let her pick?"
"It's more romantic when I pick!" Johnny said.
"Ask me again when I've woken up," Derek groaned.
At least Janae was no trouble today. He was fully engrossed in his new book.
Back in their room, packing up, Titch slipped Derek a pill.
"What's this?"
"Trust me?" Titch wiggled his eyebrows and Derek swallowed the pill.
"What was it?"
"Painkiller," Titch said, laughing. Ass.

As soon as they were settled in the car and had agreed on a route, Derek leaned back in the passenger seat and almost instantly fell asleep. When he woke up again, he headache was gone but in its place he now had a sore neck from falling asleep in a weird position.
Exits were now 'Ausfahrt' and most of the number plates said 'A' instead of 'I' under the EU-logo.
"Morning, sweety," Titch said as he noticed Derek waking up. "We're lucky with traffic it seems, so I think we will have time for a mine-tour."
"Fantastic," Derek answered, not sure if he was being sarcastic.
He looked back. Janae had put his book away and was thoroughly enjoying the view of the mountains, lakes and the tunnels that the highway went through. Johnny had his phone in hand and was probably texting his girlfriend. Cute. Their boys were cute. It was a weird family they had, but a family nonetheless.

A little while later, they arrived at the gem-mine and the lake. With a little aid of a translator-app, they found out that the next tour would be in half an hour, so they used the time buying currywurst with fries and eating by the lakeside. Janae had been right about this place, Derek made sure to tell him. The poor boy had been so insecure asking about this place the day before, as if the idea of his feelings being considered was absolutely outlandish.

Protected by hard-hats, they followed their guide inside of the mine. He was a short and strong man with full, unkept beard, who only spoke German. Titch offered to translate, since he sometimes did business with Germany, but gave up within minutes.
"Austrian isn't German," he declared, to which the guide laughed loudly and made some apparently hilarious joke in his strong Bavarian accent.
"Englisch?" He then asked.
"Yes," Titch answered.
"Good, can I a little!" He pinched his fingers together to show how little. "See," he pointed towards the wall, where a bit of purple stone was visible. "Amathist. And there Safier."
It clearly wasn't the in-dept explanation the people who did spoke Bavarian got, but Derek appreciated the effort. He didn't speak a second language at all.
"Und das hier ist ganz was Besonders," the guide said to the group and then, to Derek and the family: "look!"
He threw a pebble into a pit and shone on it with his torch to show there was in fact crystal clear water in it.
"Das ist Grundwasser, vom Regen, der auf die Bergen fällt. Das wird vom Stein voll filtriert und sammelt sich dann in Löcher wie diese." The guide turned to the family: "Rain", he pointed to the ceiling. "Falls through mountain." He pointed at a stalagtite. "Drip, drip." And he laughed again.
It was honestly a quite accurate explanation. Janae seemed pleased as well.
In the gift shop, they spent some time browsing books and gems. Johnny got a heart-shaped rosequartz for Priscilla. Derek smiled, of course he did. Janae was equally predictable with a book about all the gems that were found in this region and how they had formed in the mountain.
Derek himself was looking at the jewelry. Those necklaces and rings were so pretty, but he wasn't someone who wore jewelry, was he? Could he be that? The only jewelry he had ever expected to wear was a wedding ring. His job just didn't really allow for much else, but he wasn't always working.
He bought a leather necklace with a citrine hanger. Life was too short not to be as gay as possible, he decided. Plus, citrine was apparently a sun-stone that spread positivity, which he thought suited him.

On the topic of being as gay as possible, they had to get back in the car if they wanted to see a bit of Vienna before going to the opera.
One day was really too little to spend in a big city, Derek thought. Sure, they didn't get to go on a trip often, so they had wanted to cram in as much as possible, but everything felt a bit rushed. Vienna was amazing. The city center oozed class, especially the Ringstrasse they had to take to get to the opera.
Janae wasn't coming with. He had wanted to stay in the hotel, order roomservice and just read or play games, which was fine by Titch and Derek, as long as he promised to stay in the hotel. Derek was't entirely sure how much a promise from Janae meant, but he was quite certain that they would find him in his hotel room by the time they came back. In all fairness, Derek really appreciated Titch coming along to the opera. Johnny had at least been curious, because of his newfound love for literature and theatre, but Titch had made quite clear that he thought three hours of classical music was a bit much.
"And if you do, why sing through it?" Titch asked while they were in the tram.
"The singing is part of the music. It tells the story. You don't have to come. You can stay with Janae."
Titch shook his head.
"No, it's okay. I'll behave and try to enjoy it."

Enjoying it turned out not to be all too hard, since the opera was amazing. At least, in Derek's opinion it was.
"The first three hours were nice," Titch commented about the three-hour-long opera, "but the final eight hours were a bit much for me."
Johnny laughed.
"Yeah, it was a bit long, but really impressive!" He said.
Janae was in fact at the boys' hotel room, with an empty plate of what had probably been fries, an open toolbox and some kind of device, which he called his 'gemmogram'. He took out a sachet of small gemstones he had bought and put one into the thing, which displayed 'lapis lazuli'.
"Cool, right?" He let Johnny pick a second stone to show it wasn't fake. Derek congratulated him, glad his son hadn't been roaming the streets, but had only exposed himself to live wires and sharp tools.
It was time for bed. The drive to Berlin tomorrow would be a long one.

Chapter Text

"Johnny, give me your phone!" Derek exclaimed from the front seat, while pointing at a road sign. "German border in one kilometer!"
Johnny quickly handed over his phone, so dad could take a picture of the signs that said "Bundesrepublik Deutschland" and "Willkommen in Sachsen" for him. He smiled when he got the phone back and immediately sent the photo to Priscilla.
>> I'm on your turf now, Tybalt :D
Almost instantly, she answered him.
<< Don't pick any buttercups in Sachsen, Mercutio, lol
>> Wish you were here with me :(
<< Yeah, tho without the opera xD
>> It was cool tho :(
<< I hate classical music :|
<< My parents made me play that for years
<< BORING!!!
<< It all sounds the same
>> Hahahaha
>> <3
<< <3
Johnny forced himself to look out the window of the car, instead of his phone. He had to take in the surroundings. This was where Priscilla was from! It was even the right state! They had driven north from Vienna, through Czechia and were now finally in Germany - and in Saxony no less! The road signs made him think of her, as did the trees next to the highway, the weird words like "Ausfahrt" and "Rastplatz"... Honestly, anything made him think of her. He was just thinking of her and the world happened as well.

Janae very much didn't understand this, which was kind of annoying. For the first time in his entire life, Johnny really noticed he was the older brother, 7 years his brother's senior. Janae was so smart and mature, that their age difference often seemed reversed, but when it came to relationships and romantic love, Janae was very clearly a young boy still. He just wanted to collect rocks and talk about scary things, just like every other small boy. He was simply extremely good at talking about rocks and scary things. Priscilla had sent Johnny a picture of a bookmark she had found the other day. It said "What do I like more than collecting rocks? Literally anything, just kill me now". Johnny hadn't shown Janae that one, but laughed every time he thought about it. To his brother's credit though, the gem mine had been cool. Johnny had told Priscilla about it and she had answered:
<< The absolute audacity that your pop thought he could understand an Austrian lmao!
It made Johnny feel slightly less bad about not being able to understand the guy either, despite learning a bit of German from Priscilla, Hugh and Inga.

Last time he had told Janae about his feelings, how he wanted to be with Priscilla all the time and stuff, Janae had answered it was as simple as a dopamine addiction. He was just having symptoms of a hangover when he wasn't with her. That was probably true, but also made Johnny not want to talk about it to Janae anymore. "I'm addicted to you" sounds kind of romantic. "I'm addicted to a drug my brain makes when you're nearby" is way less romantic.
Titch didn't really understand either, he had said when Johnny asked about it. He had been in love - sure, he was in love right now - but he wasn't 15. Apparently, that made a difference to him. "At your age, I didn't have time to fall in love," he had said and Johnny thought that was weird. Being in love isn't about making time for it, it's about meeting a perfect person, like he had.
Even Derek didn't fully relate to Johnny. "I was a gay teen in the zeroes," he said with a sigh. "Love wasn't as easy. The guys I dated were weird, the guys I fell in love with were straight. I still can't believe my luck that Titch likes me back, to be perfectly honest."
What Johnny couldn't belive was that Derek and Titch had found each other, loved each other and for some reason still used their time to look at other men, together, like in Paris. If they had found their person, surely, everyone else is bleak by comparison?
So there Johnny was, driving through his promised land, listening to hardstyle, since that was the only music Priscilla liked, and dreaming about her honey-colored hair, her soft eyes and her sharp sense of humor. Well, and her body, of course. He was 15 after all and she was beautiful.

It was a long drive today. Just from Vienna to the German border had been about 5 hours and now they still had 3 hours to go to Berlin. Titch and Derek had switched off who drove, they had taken breaks inbetween, eaten something, stretched their legs, but everyone still agreed that it was too ambitious to want to see so much of western Europe in one week. Titch was bummed out, Johnny could tell. This was his first holiday in years and spending most of it driving around wasn't what he had imagined, even though it was what he had planned. Derek tried to keep up the mood by pointing out nice things along the way, putting on Titch's favourite songs, chatting happily or just embracing the silence for a bit, but even he was getting tired. Janae was reading his book about gems. He had already finished his book about Venice. Johnny had his own music - or rather Priscilla's music - and was just texting and daydreaming while staring out of the window at Saxony. He wondered where the manor was she had lived in, with her dad, stepmother, staff and her zombie-mother.
Priscilla had a zombie-mother who had possessed her at some point and an assassin groundsman/family friend. Hugh had a plant-dad who had kidnapped his mom and Inga had seen that plant-dad in action. It made Johnny feel a bit less weird about being forced to play football and even about lighting a fire in his neighbor's house. Things could've been much weirder, as his friends proved. He had never even questioned their stories. They just somehow seemed true.

Once they left Saxony and entered Brandenburg, Johnny lost his interest for the outside world completely and just daydreamt all the way up to Berlin - maybe even slept part of the way, like he had done in Czechia as well. It was almost time for dinner when they finally entered the capital of Germany. Derek and Titch had a strange argument in which they both agreed that it was a dumb plan to drive all day and now they had to see all of Berlin in one evening, and they both agreed that wouldn't happen, they even both agreed it was both of their faults, since neither of them had stopped the other from planning this, but they still were fighting about it somehow.
Derek took over driving again and Titch stared out the window on the passenger side, forcing himself to say nice things about the metropole they were driving through, in a desperate attempt to enjoy this evening.
"At least tomorrow, we only drive a little over three hours," Titch remarked. "Unless you want to see Cologne?"
Derek shook his head.
"Nope, I rather have a good night's sleep."
Everyone agreed with that. It also meant they could see a little more of Berlin in the morning, before driving on to Hamburg. That was great, because by the time they had checked into the hotel and were looking for a place to eat, most of the shops were already closed and Johnny had decided to buy himself a book in German. He didn't know what book yet, but he wanted to have something in Priscilla's native language. That would have to wait until tomorrow though. Now it was time to eat and sleep.
Very little was said during dinner, the day had been too long. They didn't bother seeing any sights that night, but just went back to the hotel. Although Johnny was looking forward to driving less, tomorrow, he still dreaded sitting in the back of the car for 3 hours.

Chapter Text

The only plan for today, or at least, the only thing they had to do, was check in at the hotel in Hamburg between 3 and 10 pm. It was a little over a three-hour drive, so they decided to leave Berlin around 2 pm. Derek was Tired with a capital T and Johnny wanted to just have a nice meal and browse some stores, so they made it a lazy morning. Titch, who was determined to use this one trip in a decade to goddamn well see some sights, and Janae, who couldn't think of anything more tiring and boring than having brunch and browsing shops, went on a tour through the city.
5 hours was by no means enough to see everything in Berlin, not even when riding the cringe-inducing hop-on-hop-off bus that would supposedly pass all the major landmarks of the city. The audiotour that came with it, and which had the voice of a soft-spoken woman with the most neutral American accent Janae had ever heard, talked a lot about history. Especially the history of war. Janae made a mental note of the things to tell Peter when he got back home. He loved that stuff.

Around noon, Titch's phone rang. Janae watched him pick it up and saying it was Derek. Maybe they wanted to meet up earlier? Annoying, but it wouldn't make a significant difference in how much of the city they would get to see. 
Titch's face, however, told him there was something a lot more serious going on. He felt his stomach drop. Whatever was going on, they were in a foreign country and didn't speak the language.
"Oh fuck, is he okay?" He heard Titch asked and: "where is he now?" And "poor kid..."
Was something wrong with Johnny?
Titch exchanged greeting with Derek and turned to Janae.
"We have to go to the hospital," he said. "Johnny collapsed."
As Janae and Titch were both feverishly looking up the quickest way to get there, Janae's thoughts were racing. 'Collapse' that could mean any number of things. Did he faint? Did he trip and fell? Was he paralised? Was he in pain so much he couldn't stand anymore? Had he had a heart attack or a stroke? He was young, of course, but it wasn't unheard of.

The ten minute S-Bahn ride was absolute agony. Janae was worried sick and Titch clearly didn't have anything comforting to say, so he decided on just saying nothing instead. That was probably for the best anyway.
"He's in room 203," Titch said and Janae was happy that at least numbers were the same across Europe. The signs with words on them looked like something he'd be able to read when focussing, but that was way too much to ask of himself right now. He needed to get to his brother.
In the hallway, they found Derek, who told them he had been sent out while the doctor did some tests.
"They've already tested for the worst case scenarios," Derek said. "It's no heart attack, no stroke and no dangerous kind of inflammation or something."
"What were his symptoms," Janae asked.
"I don't know, he was breathing heavy, he was sweaty and crying and just kind of sank to the ground. He said he was going to die!"
Janae bit his lower lip. He had seen his brother like that before, two or three times and though that also meant he knew Johnny would be okay, he felt his throat tense up. It had been so long, and now abroad, without their mother who always knew what to say...

The door finally opened and Janae all but squeezed past the doctor to see Johnny. He was pale and looked incredibly tired.
"Hi, Johnny," Janae said and his brother groaned.
"Hi, bro..."
"You, eh, you had a panic attack?" Janae asked and Johnny nodded weakly. 
"Oh, well, at least you're not really dead, then," Janae said, not sure what to do. Their mom was so good at this stuff. Sure, she could be blunt sometimes, but she did know what to say and what to do when Johnny was having anxiety problems.
"I'm exhausted," Johnny moaned. "I feel like I ran a marathon."
"It's because of the adrenaline," Janae explained, glad this was something he knew the answer to. "It sends a signal to your muscles to tense up. It also makes your heart race, to increase blood pressure and awareness."
Johnny nodded.
"Yeah, that's what the doctor said. Thank god he speaks English."
"Better than the Austrian guide?" Janae asked and Johnny, to his surprise, laughed softly, so Janae went on. "You, aaaahhh!?" He asked Johnny, imitating the guide's strong accent and waving his arms to show panic.
"Ja, doctor," Johnny answered.
"You good," Janae said. "No dead. Sleep."
"Danke, doctor," Johnny said.
Janae felt a hand on his shoulder and glanced over to see Derek standing behind him.
"Panic attack," Janae said, though he was sure the men had already heard that from the doctor.
"What were you panicked about?" Titch asked and got a stern look from Derek.
"Let the kid sleep first, maybe?" Derek brushed his hand through Johnny's hair. "It's okay now. You're safe, Priscilla is safe. Take a nap."
"What about the trip?" Johnny asked and Derek made a shushing sound.
"Don't worry about it. Your health comes first."
"Can you tell them?" Johnny asked. "I'm too..." He couldn't quite finish that sentence before he fell asleep.
Janae, Derek and Titch quietly left the room and went to the plaza downstairs.
"Johnny had one of his future dreams tonight," Derek told them while walking. "He had dreamt about Priscilla getting dangerously close to a driving car, so he wanted to call her, but she didn't pick up. The later it got, the more he was panicking. By the time she finally texted him about how she had nearly been in a car accident this morning, Johnny was already on the floor, not in any state to read and I didn't check his phone - why would I? He said his chest hurt and he couldn't breathe, so I didn't want to take any chances. When we found out in the hospital that he wasn't dying and neither was she, he instantly felt a lot better, but understandibly tired."
"That's, eh, wow," Titch commented, perfectly putting into words what Janae was feeling.
"You did great in there, Janae," Derek commented. "The way you made him laugh. He needed that, I'm sure."
Janae looked away, not sure what to do with the compliment.

"I got you a balloon," Janae said, when he saw Johnny wake up a few hours later. "You'll love it, see."
He loosened the knot with which he had tied the balloon to the bedframe and moved it into Johnny's field of vision. His older brother smiled.
"Can't believe you got me a racoon."

Chapter Text

Today would be another long day. When Derek woke up, he was surprised that he had slept at all. So many things had happened this week, especially yesterday. Poor Johnny. Derek hoped he wouldn't have any more future dreams while resting. The boy had been discharged from the hospital relatively quickly, as rest was really all he needed, so now they were all at the hotel they had slept in last night. Luckily, there had still been two rooms available.
Derek rolled over to face Titch, who uncharateristically was still sleeping. It was half past 7. If they ever went on a holiday again, Derek promised himself to convince Titch to take it easy. Go to some all-inclusive resort at the beach and just drink cocktails served by hot waiters, get a tan and sleep in.
Today though, there were no cocktails and tans planned, because their next destination was Amsterdam, which was another 8-hour drive.
"Love?" Derek tried to say softly, but it came out as a tired moan. "We have to get breakfast and leeeaaave..."
Titch closed his eyes even further and rolled himself on top of Derek.
"You can't leave now," he said sleepily. "You're my teddy bear... Or mattress..."
"Oh no..." Derek put his arms around his boyfriend and they laid there for a few more minutes before Titch groaned and pushed himself up.
"Yeah, okay, we do need to have breakfast. The boys will start wondering where we are."
They quickly showered and got dressed, arriving at breakfast almost at the same time as the boys. Derek felt Titch's eyes stinging in his back as he was loading up his plate with tiny cinnamon rolls, so he reluctantly added some fresh fruits. He just wanted sugar and carbs. Titch, who now had somehow picked all of the healthy options, had asked him months ago how it was possible Derek was so fit with all the crap he ate. Derek just pointed at the fields, saying he got a lot of exercise and Titch left it at that.
Titch had apparently woken up completely from his 5-minute shower and offered to drive in the morning, or even all the way up to the Dutch border, if Derek was okay with that. Derek was more than okay with that. It meant that he wouldn't have to wake up for hours to come. Titch had really enjoyed driving up to Berlin, two days ago, as the speed limit on the autobahn was the same as the one on his speedometer.
"How are you two?" Derek asked the boys when they all sat down with their plates.
"Much better," Johnny said. "I dreamt that I gave Priscilla a teddy bear that came to live and tried to steal her from me. I don't think that's a future dream."
"Yeah, no," Derek agreed. "And you, Janae?"
"Could be worse." Janae shrugged and focussed his attention on the tiny bowl of cereal he had made himself. Titch commented that Janae should eat more and they got into an argument that Derek didn't feel like following. Let the boy be, he thought. He's probably just overstimulated. They came to a consensus where Janae would make himself something to eat later in the car - or not. 
Before retreating into their own rooms to pack their bags, Derek took Johnny aside and pulled him into a big hug.
"I'm glad you're doing better," he said. "You really scared me yesterday."
"I'm sorry," Johnny mumbled.
"No, no, don't apologise. It's not your fault. I just- I'm glad you're okay."
"Thanks, dad."
Johnny let go and walked to his room. Derek felt tears sting behind his eyes and wasn't even sure from what emotion. Johnny calling him dad suddenly hit like the first time again. He loved both the boys so much and his connection with Johnny specifically... It was... just... He was so tired, he felt slightly hyperactieve and unfocussed from the sugar and caffeine he just had... He was very happy Titch was driving this morning.

Titch had road rage. But in German and at 200 km/h. Where Derek had hoped he would be able to close his eyes for a bit, he was now listening to Titch calling other drivers scheisse and schweinhund and arschloch and making terrible nazi-jokes. Derek had tried to stop his lover, but it seemed futile. He looked back. Janae was apparently hyperfocussed on his switch and hardly seemed to hear anything. Johnny was wearing his headphones and by the way he bounced up and down, Derek assumed he was listening to hardstyle again. Good. Derek wished he had brought his own headphones. 
Luckily, the further they got away from Berlin, the less cars there were on the road to swear at, so Titch calmed down a bit, to the point where Derek felt comfortable putting on his own music via the car radio.
The drive wasn't all to exciting. Most of the highways had sound walls next to them, so they saw very little of the Northern German landscape. Lunch was had at a Burger King - Titch wasn't happy with that one, but got himself a salad and didn't complain about anything the others ate. 
"I can't wait to see Max and Rover again tomorrow!" Johnny announced inbetween two bites of his burger. "Maybe I'll ask Pris to go to the woods with me and the dogs." He looked at Derek. "Can you drive us then?"
Derek groaned.
"Maybe..." Hadn't they driven enough?
Johnny pulled some puppy eyes and Derek sighed.
"Maybe, sweety, I'm tired. We'll see."
Janae snickered.
"Sweety..." He mumbled.
"Yeah, I call him sweety and you salty."
"Titch is saltier than I am," Janae said.
"We can have two sweeties and two salties!"
"Y'all are sweeties and salties. I'm healthy." Titch gestured at the food on the table.
Derek kissed him on the cheek.
"You want a sip of my milkshake?"

Some time later, they were getting close to the border. Titch parked the car so that Derek could take over and would still get to max out the speedometer before driving into a country with a speed limit.
After crossing the border, the road got significantly better at once, but also way more crowded. 
"The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated non-micro-nations," Janae explained. "And a big part of it is below sea level, so if the dykes break, millions of people die."
"Really?" Johnny asked fearfully. "But not Amsterdam, right?"
"Especially Amsterdam!"
"Janae," Titch called to the back seats. "Don't scare your brother. Dykes don't break. Don't worry about it."
It took them two more hours to reach the capital, a significant part of it spent in traffic. They had dinner at a cheap Italian restaurant and took a short stroll through the inner city before returning to the hotel, where the boys went to their room.
Derek leaned over at Titch while he was opening the door with their key card.
"Love, we're in Amsterdam..."
"I'm aware?"
"Wanna go out?"
"It's late... I'm tired..." Titch complained, looking at his phone. "It's already half past 9..."
"We're in our mid thirties, half past 9 is grandpa-time. C'mon love, we walked past a street with literally only pride flags and I need to know what's going on there!"
Titch sighed.
"I suppose we deserve a drink after everything. But not in these clothes." He gestured at the baggy jeans and T-shirt he had worn all day.

It was saturday evening. The city was alive. The closest town to the village they lived in in Britain had one gay bar, which was mostly a pub that happened to be ran by a gay guy. The inner city of Amsterdam - or at least the street Derek had spotted earlier - seemed to be overrun by queers. Despite their tiredness, they were dancing, singing along to horrible music. At some point. Titch was drawn on stage by a drag queen to sing karaoke with her and the madman just did it! Alcohol flowed - Derek already knew he would regret this dearly tomorrow morning. Good thing they would take a ferry in the afternoon, meaning they could take things easy in the morning. Somebody danced with him, it wasn't Titch. Now someone else danced with him - this time it was Titch, who seemed at least as far gone as he was. Derek kissed him passionately in the middle of the dancefloor. Because he was Titch. Because the space called for it. Because he needed to.

Chapter Text

"Did you know, the city of Amsterdam has taken out adverts to tell young British men not to come to their city anymore? Apparently, they get drunk a lot and are annoying," Janae said.
They were having breakfast - or at least, Titch and Derek were having breakfast. The boys had already eaten over an hour ago. Johnny didn't seem to mind much, but Janae had made it his mission to make Derek and Titch feel bad about their night out, apparently. It worked, Titch was feeling real bad. Not from guilt about what he had done, but from guilt about what he wanted to do to the 8-year-old if he even said one more word.
"Janae, please, we're hungover..." Derek groaned, before laboriously spooning some yoghurt with chocolate sprinkles into his mouth.
"Yes, which is quite irresponsible when you're supposed to take care of two minors," Janae said and Titch tightened his grip on his fork to stop himself from yelling at the kid. Yelling at kids was bad... but so was being a little shit, right? And Janae definitely did it on purpose. He was right, of course, it had been irresponsible. But Johnny and Janae were fine together. They were in a hotel. It's not like they had left them somewhere in the city. In Vienna, Janae had asked to be alone! And now suddenly it was a problem? 
Yeah, sure, Johnny had had a panic attack in the meantime...
Ugh. Titch took another bite from his bacon and eggs. So far, he had been careful with his food, eating mostly fruits and other healthy things, but this morning, the fat, salty bacon had called his name and he couldn't resist.
"Are you okay to drive home like this?" Johnny asked, which was a lot kinder than the stuff Janae had been saying.
Derek nodded.
"Yes, it'll be fine. We have an hour and a half before we have to leave. I'll take a painkiller and drink a lot of water. This isn't my first rodeo." He smiled at Johnny and Titch saw Janae get ready to say something again, but Titch shot him a warning look and just said:
"We know."

"Still got some of those pills?" Derek asked. They were supposed to be packing, but as soon as they had re-entered their room, Derek had fallen down on the bed and Titch decided to just lay next to him - one of his arms draped clumsily over Derek's chest, which Derek had immediately claimed as his teddy bear. Whoops, now Titch couldn't get up.
"Painkillers? Yeah, like 18. How many do you need?"
"I'm sure 2 is more than enough. Don't think 18 will make me drive better..."
"You're an angel for driving today."
"I know, worship me."
Derek rolled onto his side and smirked at Titch, who wrestled his kidnapped arm out of Derek's grip and got up to search for the pill strip. He threw them at Derek, before finally starting to gather his stuff and put it back into his suitcase.
"By the way, you can't drive today," Derek said. He pressed two of the painkillers out of the strip and tossed it back at Titch. "Because I bought you something."
He also got up from the bed, swallowed the pills with some water and rummaged through his backpack. 
"Here." He held out a small box to Titch. "Against your sea sickness. Makes you sleepy though, so no driving for you today. Careful!" he yelled when he saw Titch get ready to put one into his mouth. "They're disgusting. I took them as a kid. Water first, then pill. Trust me!"
Derek was right. Even with the water, as soon as the pill touched Titch's tongue, he wished he had literally anything else in his mouth. Still, no sea sickness sounded pretty great, as today, they would be crossing not just the Channel, but the North Sea. 
"You really are an angel," Titch said.
"Better remember that."
"And Janae is being a little devil..."
Derek goaned.
"Yeah... he's not wrong though."
"He's not wrong, but he's annoying as hell"

The pills really did make him sleepy. Of course, he already was sleepy from simple lack of sleep, so it seemed like he had teleported from the outskirts of Amsterdam to some harbour when Derek kissed him awake.
"We gotta get onto the ferry, love."
So he did. They parked the car below deck and Titch followed the others upstairs like a zombie, before plopping down on a seat and promptly falling back asleep. It was a good thing Derek drove, was his last concious thought at that moment.

The car made a lot of noise though, and it moved way slower than Titch was used to - from side to side. Oh right, he wasn't in the car, he was on a boat. Around him were the grey waves of the North Sea. Why did people like swimming in the sea? It looked so depressing. He closed his eyes again.

Someone leaned against him. He looked. It was Johnny, who had also fallen asleep. He accepted it as the truth of the situation. He fell back asleep.

"Love?"
"Five more minutes..." Titch mumbled, trying to roll over and then realising he was sitting upright.
"In five more minutes, you'll be on your way back to the Netherlands," Derek said. "We have to leave the ferry."
Sleepily, Titch followed the rest of his family back to the car. He hadn't been sea sick, at least, so that was good. He hadn't seen much of the sea, but then again, what was there to see at sea anyway? Waves? He had seen waves. And the coast of Harwich wasn't nearly as impressive as Dover, so missing that wasn't too big a deal either.

Next thing he saw were his own fields, as the car slowed down. Despite having slept half the day, Titch noticed he was still tired. Maybe it was the medicine, maybe it was the week, but he felt like he needed a holiday to rest from this trip. His family seemed to feel the same way, groggily stumbling out of the car as Derek had pulled into the driveway. They were greeted by the dogs, who immediately got hugs from Johnny.
"I'm not driving you to the woods, pet," Derek said. "I'm too tired for that."
Johnny shook his head.
"I don't want to walk anyway, so that's fine..."
Titch took it upon himself to get the suitcases out of the car and into the house. It made him feel like he had done something at least.

Janae locked himself in his room, finally getting some peace and quiet, supposedly. Johnny played with the dogs. Derek and Titch fell down on the sofa, both sleepy.
"Love?" Derek asked.
"Hm?"
"Next time we go on a holiday..."
"Hm?"
"Can we please just pick one place?"

Chapter Text

Hi, this is not a chapter, but an update to people who may want to read more: there's a second season of this sitcom-like fanfic :D Have fun ^^

You can find it here!