Work Text:
End-
sum - Juicy being the youngest
One would think to have a good friendship you should be close in age, maybe a year or two apart. You’d probably relate more that way, you’re the same age, going through the same things and what not. Most people often subconsciously drifted towards someone their age, especially in content creation.
The Boys however, were a mix-mash of ages. They had someone for everyone but it was done completely by accident. Josh and Mully were already friends, though four years apart. They acquired the other three along the way.
The group worked so well because everyone was genuine friends. Yeah they talked business and tried to do whatever was best for it but that sometimes came second. If someone had an interest in something and they had a chance to make a video off it, they would, because at the end of the day they were just friends making videos. Business was more so an excuse to let them do all this.
Having a friend group with a bunch of ages worked out, it didn’t change much, Juicy often forgot that Josh was eight years older than him because of how well they all engage with each other. But sometimes it’s clear.
More specifically, it’s sometimes clear how young Juicy is compared to them.
Traveling was part of their job. The Boys got more views when they made irl content together and business aside, they were all friends, they wanted to see each other in person. They missed each other and The Boys channel allowed them to visit frequently. An issue that came with that was that it was mentally and sometimes physically taxing. The others seemed to adapt to the lifestyle as the years went on, Juicy did too considerably but it still took a lot out of him. Going from one timezone to the exact opposite was draining. It was a bit easier when he went from Florida to Texas but he still wouldn’t say he was cut out for so much travel.
They all knew this about him, Josh even mentioned it in their ‘rank themselves’ video. Juicy didn’t do well with constant travel. Out of all of the boys he was the one who travelled the most. Being switched between recording with Americans and Australians. He was usually the third in both duos when they weren’t all together, especially at first. It was fun, don’t get him wrong, it was just a lot.
Everyone was in Australia. Juicy was a bit jet lagged but the adrenaline of them all being in one place was enough for him to stay awake and bubbly through a video they recorded. They had gone out for lunch and planned to do so for dinner when they finished another recording. It was an unboxing video this time, nothing too strenuous for the newly arrived Americans.
An unboxing video was never just that with them though. It quickly transpired into something chaotic not long into the recording. Mully and Eddie were making a scene, the latter chasing him with a taser. Josh hated that he was getting deja vu. Their chaos had knocked down a bunch of the boxes which meant Josh had to fix them so when the two finished they could continue with the video. It took quite a bit for things to calm down, at that point no one really cared about the video, they were just enjoying their time together. Narrator was sure their viewers would enjoy that dynamic though.
When a truce was finally called, everyone went back to the couch. Kevin, who had been following them in case they wanted to include Mully being tased, finally settled down in front of them. He noticed his sleeping friend.
“Gaege?”
“Is he sleeping?” Eddie asked laughing, Juicy didn’t stir at his name, he seemed to actually be asleep. Curled on the part of the couch he had been sitting on and wrapped in a blanket.
“Where did he get the blanket?” Josh asked amusedly, it hadn’t been on the couch earlier.
“I tucked him in. He’s sleepy, it’s so cute” Alana cooed playfully.. She took a photo to send to Liv, and blackmail in case an opportunity came. She knew a gross food video was coming up, she did not need them to feed the camerawomen if they didn’t want to eat something.
“Should we let him sleep? What do we do about the recording?” Eddie asked, Mully was prodding Juicy playfully, poking him to try and get a reaction, playfully cooing “Gooesy” softly enough to not actually wake him up.
“Nah, we’ll finish the recording later. Look at that sleeping face, how could we wake him?” Narrator said. They had plenty of time, it was still pretty early in the day, they could finish it another day if anything. They were definitely going to leave in some sleeping Juicy footage, maybe for members, so they’d be able to resume after acknowledging they had to pause because someone fell asleep. Everyone was fine with the idea.
The ball of blankets remained motionless for an hour. He woke up on his own, satisfied with his rest.
“Are we still recording?” Only Josh and Mully were in the living room still. Juicy sat up to adjust.
“No, we were gonna pick up later ‘cause someone fell asleep” Mully teased,
“Someone was taking forever” he retorted.
“I was getting tased!”
“You should’ve taken it like a man and gotten it over with” Juicy rubbed his eyes, the nap was really what he needed. He still felt a bit tired but once he got his eyes opened for a bit then he was sure the sleepiness would go away until night.
“We’ll gather everyone to record in a bit, take a minute” Josh told him, Mully moved seats to sit next to him, ruffling his hair while Juicy was distracted.
“Feeling okay, mate?”
“Yeah, I’m good”
They all had bad eating habits. Josh probably had the most stable one. Mully had gotten better but for a long time only really ate chicken nuggets, Narrator was picky and also had an unhealthy addiction to uber eats, Eddie ate healthy meals, mostly due to Gabby, but he tended to eat what Juicy would say was seven meals a day. It was unsurprising that Juicy also didn’t eat healthy. Out of everyone, he was the most expected to have a lack of self care. The thing was, when the others had bad eating habits it was just the things they chose to eat, they still ate. Juicy sometimes did not. Opting to have a white claw in the morning instead of breakfast.
Cooking was something he could do and was pretty good at, he cooked with Liv all the time when she was around and if their schedules allowed for it. Unfortunately, when he was alone he didn’t catch himself putting in as much effort. It was a habit he always had, even when he lived with his noncontent-creator friends. So for one of the boys to think he forgot to eat was not outlandish.
“Thank you Gabby for keeping us fed” Eddie kissed his wife. She always fed them when they were over. All the boys appreciated it.
“Yeah, I know, you guys would starve without me” she joked, “like, what did you eat today?” She asked Juicy, who froze guiltily between his bite.
“Oh, god, how many white claws have you had?” Josh joked, playfully disappointed, Juicy laughed.
“Um.. one whiteclaw and I also had toast earlier” it was too late in the day for that to be a sustainable meal. It was a miracle he stayed upright and didn’t pass out from dizziness with how little he ate.
“Gaege…” Edide laughed but shook his head. He hated how he wasn’t surprised to hear that. They had gotten drunk last night and that was a typical morning hangover breakfast for Juicy.
“Thank you Gabby for keeping him alive. He’d probably starve without you. Same with Eddie” Narrator thanked her. Eddie made a defensive noise,
“My eating habits are way better than his”
“Yeah but that’s because Gabby cooks for you. At least I can cook for myself if I wanted” Juicy defended himself
“I can cook!”
“Yap, yap, yap” Juicy mocked, taking another bite. Eddie could cook so he didn’t have a good retort.
“Pendajo, you can starve next time,” Eddie joked, pretending to be upset by Juicy’s little brother antics.
He was very much like having a little brother around.
Juicy was only slightly joking about being an alcoholic. He was never fully dependent on things like that, even during his trap house days. He had videos to record and at the time jobs to do so he couldn’t be drunk. He had more chances to drink since he did youtube full time, he tried not to do it an unhealthy amount but it was hard when they did drunk cooking for three hours and he had to drink every ten minutes.
Josh had said one time that really summed it up, that one way to tell that Juicy was drunk was when he had a shiteating smile that didn’t go away.
It held true.
Liv has also said that when Juicy got drunk he either acted almost completely sober, no matter how drunk he was. Or messy and silly.
The group had seen both of those sides of him many times over the years. The audience has seen both sides in different videos. Typically during drunk cooking he was too energetic and drunk to act sober, so those cooking videos had him being messy and chaotic, some viewers would probably say that it was just Juicy being Juicy but his friends could tell he was just very drunk.
They were filming another drunk cooking video. They were making lasagna this time. Spaghetti and meatballs had taken Eddie, Narrator, and Juicy around five hours, hopefully with a slightly more difficult dish but five people they could get it done in a reasonable time. Kevin and Dose had their doubts,
Narrator was taking gummies, Mully, Josh, and Eddie took a hit, and Juicy drank. He didn’t smoke as much recently and for safety reasons he shouldn’t take a hit so many times. He was smaller than the others so the substance would affect him easier. The hits were too strong for him to take multiple in a night, so the team provided beers along with the lasagna ingredients.
It didn’t take long for them all to not be sober. Juicy was feeling silly. It wasn’t often they could all do a drunk cooking together. It made him giddy to be able to. The alcohol probably had something to do with his giddiness
“Goosey!” Mully teased,
“Mully!” Juicy laughed, leaning against him as he cooked. The area by the stove finally cleared out as they worked on preparing other ingredients and stopped messing with Mully about his chef days.
Juicy however wanted to come back since he wasn’t really doing anything, Josh didn’t trust him with a knife, (which was hurtful considering Narrator was currently trying to cut garlic).
“Want to taste-test, mate?”
It was an obvious yes. He tried some of the ground meat.
“Have you cooked a hundred-thousand lasagnas before?” He joked, using a slight Australian accent. Mully laughed, he was over the run on joke but he was high and Juicy was funny.
“Stop eating the product!” Josh stopped Eddie from stealing some of the meat, he argued he should’ve been able to try some if Juicy did.
Juicy giggled, Josh dragged Eddie away. While they were trying to get the other things done, Juicy stayed leaning against Mully. Giving him a kiss on the cheek.
“I love you,” Juicy was smiling while he said it but he didn’t really mean it as a joke. Mully kissed his cheek in return,
“Love you too, Juice”
Gaege, seemingly satisfied, left for his next target. Narrator was stirring the noodles, he was closest so he was the easiest next. He gave him a kiss on the cheek too,
“I love you too.” Narrator made a happy sound at the admission. Him being high amplified the reaction he already would’ve had.
“Aw, I love you too!” Dose, who was recording all of this, was amused by the drunken affection being shown. It was a bit unusual for Juicy to get all sentimental but based on how he moved from member to member kissing their cheek, it apparently happened. He was set on making sure each of them knew he loved them.
Josh was typically the one to get touchy during intoxication. Though Juicy’s was much more innocent than what Josh normally did.
Josh gave him a peck on the lips when it was his turn, he was pretty drunk himself. Juicy stayed hugging Eddie as he continued to line the pan with some of the already finished noodles. Mully was done with the meat so they were starting to stack.
The lasagna somehow got done with all of them being intoxicated. They shut off the camera while it cooked, they were too far gone to be able to handle doing challenges during the cook time. What started as cleaning turned into Juicy and Mully snacking on the leftovers that didn’t fit into the pan and Josh and Eddie cleaning. Narrator managed to keep the station pretty clean despite them all unintentionally doing their best to make it dirty so there wasn’t much to clean. Narrator took a break.
When the lasagna was ready to be taken out they started recording again. Juicy went to wake Narrator up so he could eat before going to bed.
“It’s finally done,” Eddie could cry. It had taken practically just as long as the spaghetti. He had fun of course but he was tired, hungry, and high.
“Please don’t like this video so we can stop doing these” Juicy said, wobbling a bit in his spot. Despite his words he was still smiling drunkenly. Josh laughed.
“Please, Youtube algorithm, don’t show this to anyone. I can’t keep doing this. We lost Mully”
At the mention of his name Mully seemed to come back to himself, laughing from the late comprehension.
“You lost me hours ago, mate”
“Let’s eat!” Eddie served the slices, giving some to the camera people too. They had to babysit them for hours to make sure they cooked without burning the house down.
Before Juicy could actually eat his meal he felt sick, Josh and Mully were still wrapping up the video, bickering by now. He threw up in the sink. He wasn’t the first person who did, Josh had done the same earlier.
“Oh.. you okay Juice?” Mully asked, a bit concerned, it wasn’t often Juicy threw up from these videos. It took a minute for Juicy to feel okay enough to respond. His loopy smile was back despite the water that pooled in his eyes from having thrown up.
“I was just makin’ room for the- the lasagna!” he said happily.
They wrapped up the video at that. Eddie got him some water, something they all lacked in them this video. Juicy was slumped over a bit while eating, he was really tired but the food was yummy in his mostly alcohol-filled stomach. Narrator had passed out on the couch so now everyone was just decompressing and eating. Dose and Kevin said their goodbyes, trusting that they’d be able to make it somewhere to sleep.
“I love you guys, thank you for being soo.. fun” Juicy said slurred but happily, he wasn’t really eating anymore, he was practically resting his head against the table.
“This again?” Eddie laughed softly, “we love you too dawg. Now lets get you to bed, you definitely need it” he helped him stand.
“Goodnight, Gaege, come to my bed if you get lonely” Josh cooed, stumbling to his own. He was half tempted to sleep on the floor but if he could make it to bed then he should. Juicy giggled at the remark, Josh had refrained from being his touchy-love self while the cameras were on.
The next morning no one left the youngest alone about how affectionate he had been. Juicy was blushing red while trying to deny his sweet drunk actions.
They could only be in Australia for so long. Everyone was in their rightful part of the world.
Getting a call at absurd hours was normal for all the boys. Having people on opposite sides of the world tended to do that. Juicy knew from years of experience. All those times he was woken up at three in the morning because Mully was finally awake and wanted to make tiktoks in VR. The man had little regard to his floridian friends’ sleep schedule.
Because he was so used to it happening to him, it wasn’t often that Juicy was the reason the discord chat was being called. In fact, he had the tendency not to answer calls. Not because he was particularly busy, he just wasn’t up to it.
It was four in the morning for the Australians though when the discord rang. Any normal person wouldn’t have their sound on, but they knew how suddenly ideas could come and go and being a part of this group there may be some important or beneficial things that needed to be said. Given the timezone differences, that meant sleeping with the possibility of getting waken up extraordinary early.
Everyone answered.
“Why the fuck are you calling? It’s so early” Mully complained, they could tell by his voice he had been asleep.
“Is everyone here? I might need everyone for this. Now, hypothetically, how does one get a racoon out of their house?” Juicy asked. The others were silent at the definitely not hypothetical.
“How did you get a racoon in your house, bro?"
“I didn’t! Liv and Margaux did. Their Australian selves have never seen a racoon and they accidentally let it in. How do I get rid of it without it eating me?”
“I don’t know, we don’t have racoons here” Josh said, sleepily laughing at Gaege’s issue. It was just such a Gaege thing to happen.
“Hasn’t a koala or something gone in your house before? That’s like the same thing”
“Those are not the same thing,” Narrator laughed.
There wasn’t much they could do to help him from where they were but they did their best to give him the best solution. Mully asked for an update but went to bed and the others stayed on call. Margaux and Liv were staying a safe distance upstairs, making sure Bug did too, so they talked on the phone updating them.
Eventually the racoon left. Juicy thankfully didn’t have to get close.