Archive of Our Own ^beta

It was barely eleven o’clock at night when Cam started dozing off and Jaren was close to following. They had spent all day recording and, despite it being fun, it was also exhausting. Then tomorrow they had to edit, which they were all dreading. Well, John was. Jaren and Cam didn't have the same schedule as he did. After, they had dinner then started a movie, but Cam and Jaren were barely half an hour into the action packed movie John was immersed in.

So, being the caring boyfriend that he was, John helped the two to bed and cuddled with them until he knew they were out cold. They were always arranged with Jaren in the middle and Cam and John on the sides. Sometimes Cam and Jaren switched, but John was always a side cuddler.

Why? Because he had the tendency to get up during the night.

It wasn’t because he didn’t want to fall asleep. He really did want to shut his eyes and fall off into dreamland, but the insomnia that cursed him since high school haunted him most nights. Not all, but most.

And tonight was one of those nights.

After Cam’s eyes finally closed after talking sleepily for ten minutes straight and his breathing evened out, John released his baited breath and carefully detangled the dark haired boy from his body. Jaren was a cuddler when he was asleep and John hated making him let go because his face twisted with upset like a child before Cam’s arms were around his waist.

John crept out of the bedroom, quietly shutting the door behind him, and turning to walk down the hall.

Cam shot up from the bed when he heard a crash. Jaren’s reaction wasn’t so violent, but he slowly sat up in confusion.

“What the fuck was that noise?” he slurred, running a hand through his hair.

“I… I don’t know,” Cam whispered, glancing down at the bed. “Where’s John?”

“I don’t know,” Jaren whined, shoving his face back into his pillow. “Probably taking a piss or whatever that boy does.”

Cam was about to tell him off, when a loud thud rattled the building. Jaren finally sat up, confusion and worry in his looks. The two shared a look, before taking off out of the room.

“John!” they called, rushing around the rooms to look for the bleach blond haired man.

“K… Kitchen,” came the reply that sounded difficult to deliver.

The two shared a concerned look, before going to the location in the house. The lights were on, but dimmed. Nothing was out of the ordinary and they couldn’t see John anywhere from the entrance. Anxiety filled their chests.

“John?” Cam cried warily.

“F… Floor,” was the whispered answer.

Cam and Jaren were quick to round the kitchen island and find their boyfriend slumped against the cabinets with a broken vape, smashed bowl, and a box of cereal on the ground around him. John looked utterly exhausted, but had no care for the things around him.

The last remnants of sleep left Cam and Jaren as they knelt down before John.

“John? Everything okay, borther?” Jaren asked cautiously, but calmed a little when the man gave a tiny giggle.

“Yea, man. ‘S all good,” he answered, then looked down at the things around him. “Just… slipped, I guess.”

“Slipped?” Cam parroted back. “John, what are you doing at-” he glanced at the clock above the oven. “Almost four in the morning with a bowl of cereal?”

“Um…” John hadn’t told Cam and Jaren that he had insomnia. When john seemed tired or he slept until noon, he excused it by just being tired from working on videos. They thought it was normal for him to sleep so long. They didn’t think anything else of it. He went to bed with them and woke up long after them. Sometimes, he woke up with them or earlier, but those were rare.

“I got this thing,” the bleach blond haired man started, “It’s difficult to sleep sometimes. So I come out, edit sometimes, vape, eat, whatever.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Jaren started. “You have insomnia?” At his nod, Jaren and Cam shared a look, before glaring at John. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

John furrowed his eyebrows. “What difference would it make? You guys have normal sleep schedules. I don’t want you to feel obligated to stay awake with me when I can’t sleep or worry about it when I sleep in the middle of the day or whatever,” he explained.

“Who said we’d-” John sent Cam a glare and he immediately stopped. “Okay, so maybe…”

Jaren turned to send daggers at John. “Relationships are supposed to be based off of trust, John. We’re supposed to tell each other important things like this,” he scolded.

It was logical at the beginning of the relationship, but now, looking at Jaren and Cam’s worried faces and the betrayal at not being told something that affected their lover’s health, John knew he should’ve told them eventually, probably sooner than right then at four in the morning when he had barely gotten sleep in the last forty-eight hours and they had just woken up.

He sighed, putting his head in his hands. “You’re right. I’m sorry, guys. I should’ve told you before. I just… I didn’t want you guys to worry about me,” John muttered.

“Well we’re always gonna worry,” Cam said, taking a hand from his face and squeezing it. He gave that smile that made anyone melt- eyes soft, lips pressed together. “You’re our boyfriend. It’s in the job description.”

Jaren perked. “Boyfriends have job descriptions?” he inquired, causing Cam to smack his arm playfully.

“Now, let’s get this mess cleaned up and try to get some sleep. I’d prefer if we finished talking about this tomorrow- or, rather in a few hours, when we’re not practically dead on our feet,” Cam suggested, carefully standing up. There was still a broken bowl on the floor.

“Oh, fuck me,” John whined, picking up his broken vape. “It was my favorite.”

“How in the hell did you manage to break it in half?” Jaren questioned, snatching it up and examining it.

John shrugged. “Must’ve just… fallen?” he guessed, but was really unsure what happened. It was a bit of a blur with his exhausted mind.

“We’ll get you a new one later,” Cam promised, helping John off the floor as Jaren picked up the cereal. “Go back to the bedroom. We’ll be there in a minute.”

“But I made this mess,” John argued.

Jaren looked up at the bleach blond haired man with a goofy grin. “We got it, John. Go back to bed,” he said softly.

He was a little hesitant to leave the two, but he retreated, walking with hunched shoulders and rubbing his forearm with guilt. Cam and Jaren sighed, sharing a look.

“What are we going to do with him?” the former muttered as he carefully picked up the large pieces of the ceramic bowl.

“We can’t exactly stay up whenever he stays up. I guess we just… continue like before? Or find ways to help him sleep normally,” Jaren suggested, tossing the stray pieces of cereal in the trash and closing up the box. He stacked it in the cupboard.

Cam huffed, throwing the broken bowl in the trash. “Like he’d let us help him in any way. He’s as stubborn as an ass.”

Jaren shrugged. “Yea, but he’s our ass,” he commented, laughing lightly as they left the kitchen, turning off the lights, and walking to the bedroom.

The lights were off in the bedroom, but from the light from the window, they saw John curled up in bed, eyes closed. They chuckled lowly to themselves, before climbing in on either side of him. He frowned and opened his eyes, about to protest, but Cam already had his arms around his waist from behind and Jaren curled into his chest. He pouted and didn’t say a word.

He supposed he could allow it this one time. He had woken them up accidentally and worried them and they cleaned up his mess. He sighed and closed his eyes, arms wrapping around Jaren and planting his face in his dark hair. He felt so sleepy suddenly when just a few moments ago he was anything but.

John was recording Golf It with Jaren, Tyler, Craig, and Anthony, not really playing for score, but fucking around and messing up their shots. Tyler was a frustrated rage, Craig yelled only to make it funny, and Anthony shot back with insults. Jaren was kind of off. He kept muting his microphone and would go after everyone else had made their shots. Sometimes, he’d assist John in fucking everyone else up or he’d fuck John’s shot, but, as usual, he was number one on the scoreboard.

The entire hour of recording, John kept reaching over for something that was no longer on his desk. He huffed in frustration, still angry at himself for managing to break his vape. The others had asked where it was, since he hadn’t taken a hit and spoke with the smoke in his mouth all session long. Jaren answered that he somehow managed to break the damn thing and was vapeless.

It had only been two or three days since he broke it, but John had started getting twitchy fingers a few hours after. Cam and Jaren noticed and tried to distract him from the need, but it was difficult.

“Hey, guys, give me a minute. Gotta take a piss,” Jaren said between rounds while Craig looked for a new map no one had played yet.

John took off one side of his headphones and listened for the door to Jaren’s room to open. It did, but he started whispering to someone else. Most likely Cam, who was doing some chores around the house.

John shrugged it off and started casually talking to the others, making fun of Tyler or playing along with Anthony’s jokes.

“What’s taking Smiity so long?” Tyler whined. “It’s been like five minutes.”

“I don’t know,” John answered casually, scrolling through the discord idly.

“What do you mean you don’t know? You live with the guy!” Craig exclaimed.

John scoffed. “Yea, but that doesn’t mean I know why it takes him five minutes to piss. He’s probably talking to Cam or eating.”

It was known that the three had moved into a house together, but only their friends knew of their relationship. Everyone else, the fans, thought the tweets and instagram photos were just gay jokes because they decided to live together and were making the best of it.

There was a knock at his room door. John took one side of his headphones off again and called, “Yea?”

His two dork boyfriends poked their head through the doorway after opening it. “Are you still on the call?”

“Well, yea. We still got an hour or so to record,” John answered the New Zealander. “We’ve been waiting for Sir Pisses-A-Lot to return.”

He heard laughter from the one side of his headphones, but kept his attention on the two. It was a little suspicious that they were both entering his room and wondering if they were still recording when one of them was part of the recording.

“What are you two doing?” he demanded, crossing his arms.

Jaren and Cam entered the room, Cam with his hands behind his back. “We brought you something.”

John raised an eyebrow at the vague response, but didn’t say anything as Cam walked over and held out his hands, revealing a small box wrapped in blue wrapping paper.

“What the fuck is it, John? Jeez, talk about suspense,” Tyler said over his headphones.

John didn’t reply, running a hand through his fluffy hair before talking the box and watching the two warily. They had large grins on their faces as they waited for him to open the box. He shrugged and ripped at the wrapping paper. His eyes instantly brightened at the box.

“Holy shit. No, you didn’t,” he whispered excitedly.

“John! What the fuck did you get?” Craig cried like a needy child.

“We know it was your favorite one, but we thought you’d like an upgrade,” Jaren said.

It was a new vape. One that lit up when the user would take a hit and there were already five different juices in the pack - peach, strawberry, blueberry, banana, and lemon. It made him extremely excited and he instantly took it out to try the peach.

Cam and Jaren watched happily as he stuck the juice in, started it up, and took a hit. His tensed shoulders instantly slumped and his eyes shut in pure euphoria.

“Jesus Christ, John. Are you getting a blow job or somethin’?” Tyler demanded, making John realize that he was indeed still in the call and not muted.

“Nah, borther,” he said in the microphone, mouth full of smoke and voice deepened. He heard laughter and cheers from them, finally getting their answer on what he got.

He turned back to his boyfriends with the largest grin they had ever seen on his face. He took his headphones off and instantly tackled them in a hug. They laughed, amused by his actions, as he tightened his grip on them.

“Thank you, guys, so much,” he muttered into their shoulders.

“You’re welcome, Johnny-boy,” Jaren said, planting a kiss to his temple as Cam placed his cheek on his hair. “We knew how much it was stressing you out not having one and decided to surprise you.”

John suddenly giggled, pulling away from them. “Well, there goes your ad rev money for the month,” he joked, making them laugh too, before he kissed both of them passionately with gratitude. “Again, thanks.”

“That’s what boyfriends are supposed to do,” Cam said. “Now, get back to recording. I’ve still got shit to do around this pig sty.”

The other two laughed mockingly at his misery as Cam slunked out of the room, muttering curses under his breath. Jaren gave one last kiss to John’s cheek, before dashing out of the room to his own room.

“Love you!” John cried.

“Love you too!” they called back in unison.

“Aw,” he heard from the three on the other side of the call. “You guys are so cute. Makes me sick,” Tyler said.

“Shut up, Tyler, you’re just jealous,” John retorted back, putting his headphones back on both ears and readjusting his microphone.

“Of what?”

“That we take care of our Johnny-boy, and none of us spoil you like that,” Jaren said, giving a ‘Ah-Ha!’ after.

“Dude, I want someone to take care of me like that,” Anthony muttered, and they could hear the childish pout on his lips.

“Don’t worry, Anthony, I got you,” Craig playfully flirted.

Anthony laughed. “Thanks, Craig.”

“But you should be jealous. I have the best goddamn boyfriends in the world,” John bragged, taking a hit of his new vape, savoring the juice. “Don’t put that in.”

“We’re already sworn to not put anything gay you say in videos, dude. Don’t worry,” Craig reminded. “Now! I finally found a map. Ready to continue?”

“Wait, I didn’t actually take that piss I needed,” Jaren said.

“Too bad!” Craig cried and everyone was already readied up, the loading screen to the map starting. John could hear the loud ‘NO!’ whine from both the discord call and through the walls. He chuckled.

“That’s what you get, loser!”

“I do something so sweet to you and this is what I get in return?” Jaren cried incredulously. “I’m so kicking your ass later.”

“Is that before or after you piss your pants?”

The other three laughed, then their golf balls finally made it to the first hole and chaos ensued as John continued doing what he did earlier.

He took another hit, before feeling something on the side of it. He moved his hand and found an engraving on the side. He didn’t even know they could be engraved.

‘Loser - C + J’.

He chuckled. Yea, he was their loser and he loved them.