Legal disclaimer: not true, absolutely not true, made up by me. Be old enough to read. Will contain m/m romance, if you can't deal with that, how the heck did you get so far as this?
Author's note: yet another un-eventful chapter... But I'm getting there! :) There will be more action...in one way or another ;) ...soon. Feedback is always appreciated. Previous chapters and more at http://www.angelfire.com/boybands/KathFiction/Main.html Love and looneytunes from Kat.
- Chapter eighteen -
Janine was enjoying an early morning when her mother came into the kitchen. "Good morning," mrs. Fatone said as she saw her daughter. "You are up early?"
"Good morning," Janine smiled. "Yeah, I couldn't sleep anymore." Pouring herself a cup of coffee, her mother sat down at the kitchen table with Janine.
"I couldn't sleep either," she put the coffeecup down. "I'm worried about Joey."
"Why?" Janine said, looking surprised. "Because of JC, that they are going to live together?"
"No, not that," mrs. Fatone answered. "You know that I'm more than happy that they are together, but last night... Joey fell asleep talking on the phone, and I went in to turn the lights out in his room. He was still holding on to the phone, I assume he was talking to JC, because the person on the other end was sleeping too."
"That's so cute!" Janine smiled.
Mrs. Fatone smiled too. "It was. But then I saw Joey's wrist, he has scars going over the inside of his wrist, almost as if...
"You mean," Janine picked up, "as if he had tried to...?"
"I don't know," mrs. Fatone said slowly. "And I don't know if I should ask him. By the looks of them, the scars weren't new. But we haven't seen him in so long, he has been so busy and so far away most of the time..."
"I'm sure everything is ok, mom," Janine tried to assure her mother. "You saw his face when he told us about JC and him. He is happy."
"It could have been an accident or something," her mother admmitted, "but I just having a bad feeling abouth this..."
"You want me to talk to him?" Janine asked. "You know I can make Joey tell me anything, he hasn't been able to keep a secret from me all his life!"
"Noone can a keep a secret from you, honey," mrs. Fatone said rather dryly. "But ok, I just want to make sure that your little brother is allright, and that he stays out of trouble." Turning to smile at her mother, as she was on her way up the stairs, Janine replied: "Joey, stay out of trouble? That's pushing it a bit far, isn't it?"
Laughing Janine rushed up the stairs and knocked on Joey's door. Hearing a sleepy response, she pushed the door open and threw herself at his bed. "Good morning, Joey!" she chimed.
"Good morning," Joey answered, "I had forgotten about how chipper you are in the mornings." He yawned, "what time is it anyway?"
"Can't tell you," Janine answered. "If I tell you, you'll say that it's way too early and throw me out of your room. And I need to talk to you."
"Be quick," Joey said, sitting up. "Josh is coming over this morning and I need to be out of bed and ready till he gets here. Don't even say it," he warned as he saw his sister's smirk.
"Wasn't going to say anything," Janine said innocently. "But since you brought the subject up...I kinda assumed that you guys had already gotten to that part, since you're moving in together and all."
Blushing a little, Joey answered: "Not that it is any of your business, but yeah, you're right. JC and I may not have the most normal relationship, but we love each other."
"I had no doubt about that," Janine answered, sticking her feet under the bedcovers to warm them. "And you guys are good together, at least this time I don't have be to worried because you're seeing a guy that I don't know. Like Jim..."
"No, you don't have to worry this time," Joey said quietly, "this time it's going to be allright." Then he smiled, if so a little forcefully. "So, did mom send you up to talk to me?"
"Sorta," Janine admitted. "I kinda offered. How did you know?"
"She always does that when she doesn't want to impose, and she is worried. All of us knows that you have no shame, Jannie, and that you'll never quit till you know what's going on."
"You know me a little too well, little brother," his sister mumbled. "But anyway...how is everything? We hardly heard from you this tour."
There was a little while before Joey answered. He wasn't sure what to say, to keep his sister from asking more questions. "Some stuff happened on the last part of the tour," he said slowly, "and things was a little wild for a while. But everything is ok now."
"Why?" Janine asked. "Because of you and JC??"
"Not really," Joey replied. He sighed. "Look, it's over and done with, and everything is going to be fine now. Can't we leave it at that?"
"Not really," Janine decided.
"Can I at least take a shower and get dressed before the interrogation?" Joey requested.
Janine sent him on his way and went to get ready herself. As soon as she was done, she parked herself in Joey's bed again, waiting for her brother to finish up in the bathroom.
A while later she could hear the shower being turned off in the bathroom next door. "Hey, Joey!" she yelled through the wall. "I haven't seen this T-shirt before...?"
"It's JC's!" the answer came back a bit muffled.
"I knew it!" Janine smiled to herself. "He has one of yours then?" she asked.
"My red Superman T-shirt," Joey answered, coming out of the bathroom. "Why are you here when I need to get dressed?"
"You are dressed, Joey," Janine told him. Joey was wearing a pair of dark blue jeans and was drying his hair with a towel. Throwing the damp towel at her, Joey pulled on a T-shirt and began searching for socks. Ending his quest he finally find a pair and sat down on the bed to put them on.
"So what's up?" he asked.
"I should be asking you that," Janine said. "I just wanted to talk to you about stuff...suddenly there is all this stuff going on in your life, and we don't know anything about it."
Leaning back on the bed, Joey watched her. "What do you want to know? I know that this is happening very quickly, but you can't plan everything. Sometimes you just have to go with things as they happen."
"Are you sure of this?" Janine asked. "About moving in together and all, it just seems so sudden."
"If there is one thing I'm sure of," Joey told her, his voice serious. "Is that I want to spend every single day of the rest of my life with JC. I don't know why I never discovered him in that way before. But when it happened it was like I saw him for the first time, all over again. And this time I noticed something I should have realised a long time ago. Sometimes you don't have to go looking for your soulmate, sometimes your soulmate comes looking for you. JC was there for me at a very bad time in my life, I don't think I would have made it without him."
Gently taking hold of his arm and turning it up so the scars were visible, Janine asked: "And the bad time...would that have anything to do with this?"
Studying the faint scars in silence for a while, Joey nodded. "It has a lot to do with this... But it is an over and done with chapter of my life now."
"Joey, what happened?" Janine asked, the look in Joey's eyes scared her a little, as he was far away in his own thoughts.
"Don't worry, sis," Joey said, taking her hand. "Yeah, some pretty bad stuff happened, but it's all over. I moved on, and now I am happy with JC, happier than I ever can remember being. So please don't be worried for me."
"But why can't you tell me what happened?" Janine tried again. "Do the other guys know about this?"
"JC knows most of it," Joey replied, "and Chris, Lance and Justin know the basics. Look, I'll tell you one day, Janine, and I'll tell mom, dad and Steve too... But I need to put some distance between it and myself, before I feel up to talking about it, ok?"
"Ok," Janine said, "if you're sure everything's fine with you now."
Giving her a wide smile, Joey answered: "Everything is perfect now, trust me!"
"Joey!" Steve called from downstairs. "Your boyfriend is here!"
"He's here," Joey repeated.
"Well, aren't you going to go meet him?" Janine wondered.
"I haven't seen him since yesterday," Joey informed her. "I just have to be sure that I won't rush down there, grab him and drag him back up here and lock the door.
"How romantic!" Janine sighed, batting her eyelashes. Then she realised that she was speaking to an empty room as Joey had long since rushed downstairs. She got down in time to see Joey and JC practically jump into each other's arms, lips meeting in a kiss that Janine was fairly sure that her parents didn't have to see. Making sure that they were occupied in the kitchen, cooking in their home was not a task one took easily, she waved Steve over to her.
"They do grow up so fast!" she sighed, hooking her arm in Steve's.
Nodding, Steve added: "That they do."
"Just imagine, soon they will be married and on their way out of the nest..." Patting an imaginairy handkerchief at just as imaginairy tears, she sniffled. "I just hope that we have raised them to be decent, proper young men..."
"You have done a wonderful job with them," Steve assured her, "you have been a positive saint, considering what they can be like... So all we can do now is let them try their wings..."
"You know," Joey said, not turning around. "You are so ruining the mood here!" Hearing his sister and brother crack up behind him, he sighed dramatically.
"Don't worry," JC whispered, smiling. "Later today I intend to have you all to myself...no interruptions..."
"You know that you're giving me ideas that I shouldn't be thinking about at breakfast with my parents, right?" Joey told him. "So let's go eat and get it over with, so I can ravish you."
"That's a romantic way to but it," JC answered, letting Joey take his hand and lead him to the kitchen.
"You know, you're the second person that said that today!" Joey said, not going further on the issue.
Before JC could ask what he was talking about, Joey's parents greeted them. The kitchen was a large rectangular room, dominated by a large table with chairs in the center. Otherwise the room was filled with spices and herbs, vegetables and fruits, all piled in bowls or growing in ceramic pots. "I could probably grow weed in here, and my mom would never notice," Joey remarked. "Dad calls it Phyl's Jungle."
The room was kept in a soft yellow tone, green doors on the cupboards and green curtains. Scents of several breakfast dishes mixed into the distinct scents of the spices...ranks of garlic hung from the ceiling over by the window and the room was filled with laughter and conversation. And JC was thinking that the only creature that wouldn't feel comfortable there was maybe a vampire.
"Good morning, Josh!" mr. Fatone said, wiping his hands on a table cloth and coming over to JC. "I understand that you are my son's boyfriend now?"
"Yes, I am," JC answered, wondering where this was going.
"Hmmm," Joey's father answered. "That means that you and I need to have a little talk."
Looking to Joey for help, JC found him smiling and vowed to get back at him later.
"What I want to know is if you are going to be treating my son right?" mr. Fatone asked, crossing his arms over a massive chest.
"I am," JC nearly squeaked. Clearing his voice a little, trying to not show just how nervous he really was, he repeated: "I am, mr. Fatone."
Mr. Fatone was joined by his wife. "All I need to know," she said, "is this, do you love him?"
Now JC couldn't help but smile. "Oh yes," he replied, "more than anything in this world."
"Welcome to the family, son!" mr. Fatone said, smiling widely. Mrs. Fatone then hugged JC almost beathless, kissing him on both cheeks, saying some lenghty and apparingly heartfelt in Italian.
"And enough with the mr. Fatone," Joey's dad said, "call me Joe, and the missus Phyllis."
"Thanks," JC answrered, a lttle overwhelmed. "I will."
Now Joey decided to come to his rescue. "Come help me set the table."
"You could have warned me," JC told Joey as they were setting out lates on the table. "Geez, I thought he was going to make me go through some freaky test to prove myself worthy for you!"
"He's always like that," Joey said, pointing a fork at JC. "But since he knows you, you got the daddy light-version. He does that to everyone we're seeing...except Janine's dates, 'cos if someone actually wants her, they can..."
Janine smacked him with a kitchen towel. "Hey! Watch it, kiddo, or I'll share some of your less memorable moments with your boyfriend..."
"I take it back!" Joey said, raising his hand in defeat, "I take it back!"
"That always work!" Janine grinned. "I have to admit, some guys I used to bring home just to have fun watching daddy go all Don Corleone on them... Relax, Joe, I am not going to tell."
"But I want to know!" JC argued.
"No, you don't." Joey told him.
"I do!" JC said.
"No. You don't!"
Joey was still pointing a fork at JC, waving it around as he was talking. JC was following his giggling sister around, trying to make her tell him. Completing one round around the table, JC was back to Joey. Looking at the fork, he asked: "What are you doing? Getting ready to eat me?"
Joey put the fork down where it belonged. "Not right now."
"Breakfast is ready!" mama Fatone declared, shooing them all to their seats. JC was seated next to his boyfriend, which he didn't mind at all, especially not when Joey took his hand under the table.
As the clock was getting close to eleven, Joey pushed his chair back. "We have to get going now," he told his family. "We're meeting a lady who is going to show us some houses." JC followed his example. Joey never let go of his hand.
"I still can't belive that you are leaving home," his mother said, misty-eyed. "My baby is all grown up."
"Mom!" Joey said, blushing.
JC was looking out the window, trying to contain the laughter. "Come," Joey said, dragging JC along, "before she starts telling stories about me when I was a baby and humiliate me completely."
"Honey, I am your mother!" mrs. Fatone answered Joey. "It's part of my job to embarrass you!"
"I bet you were the most adorable baby," JC whispered, making Joey smile.
They said goodbye to the Fatone's and got into JC's car.
The real estate agent was a middleaged lady named Louisa Courtham. Telling them that she had several houses on her list that met their requests , she told them to follow her to the first one. Smiling broadely she didn't wait for an answer before she hopped in her car and started the engine.
"My, she is an efficient one!" Joey stated. "Get in the car, Josh, before she drives off without us."
The morning and early afternoon was spent looking at a number of houses, which none seemed to be just the right. As there were only one house left, they were both feeling a little discouraged. "If we don't find one today, we'll have other possibilities," JC said as they were driving to the last house. "if we don't one or we can't move in right away, you're coming to stay with me at my place right, babe? Last night was awful, I don't think I can stand being apart from you like that again."
Reaching out for JC's hand, Joey felt exactly the same way.
The last house was the newest one on her list, the real estator told them, as they had arrived. It was old, but well-kept, complete with a large garden. "Does it have a swimming pool?" JC asked innocently and Joey had to look away to hide his smile.
"Yes," the lady said. "In the backyard, well shielded from the rest of the neighbourhood."
"Really," JC said, giving Joey's hand a light squeeze.
"Here we are," mrs. Courtham said. "It was built in the beginning of the 19th century, by an English lord. It is out of most people's prize range, but I thought that you'd might like to see it."
At the sight of their faces, she smiled. Her instinct never failed, this was a sure sale. The house was built after the English mansion style, but mostly made out of wood, except for the stone foundation. The front of the house held a wide entry, the front porch divided by pillars. At least four floors high the house was an impressive sight. A tall hedge made the house and garden as private as they could wish for.
"You guys want to take a look inside?" mrs. Courtham asked.
"Yes!" Joey answered for both of them. It was still almost dreamlike, this house, JC's hand in his...they were really doing this, they were moving in together.
The hallway led them into a large hall, a centerpiece stairway leading up to the next floors As their guide led them through the house, JC knew that he hadn't been more sure about anything in his whole life. This house was as if it was built for them. Some furniture was left that always had followed the house, and the previous owner had also felt that it belonged to the house. On the top balcony the vue over the most of the city and the bay area was breathtaking.
"I want to live here," Joey sighed, having already made his decision.
"Me too." JC said, pulling him close for a quick hug. "I want to live here with you." Risking a kiss, they knew that this was home, for both of them.
"Come," JC said, dragging Joey along, "let's find the lady and make this house ours.
"What did you think?" mrs. Courtham asked from where she waited for them.
"We like it," JC told her. "How soon can we move in?"
She smiled. "Uhm, I guess, as soon as you want..."
"Tonight?" JC asked. She looked puzzled, then the smile was back.
"Sure, why not? Come by my office in two hours and I'll have the paperwork and keys ready for you."
"Thank you," JC said.
"Thank you," Joey said.
"No, thank you," mrs. Courtham said. She drove away, leaving them standing by JC's car.
"We have a house," JC stated, "our house."
"Our house," Joey repeated. "Sounds nice, doesn't it?"
"More than nice," JC answered. "Come on, teddybear, we have a lot of things to do before tonight! Because when tonight comes, it's just going to be you and me, in our new home."
They both looked up to find the house bathed in the aftersoon sun. Their house, their home.