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Tours were always exhausting, and the closer to the end of a tour they were, the more frayed the nerves.
It was Pete who had originally came up with the idea of it all, back when they could barely afford one hotel room, and were sleeping in the back of the van as often as they could.
It was the only obvious solution, he said. It was cold in the winter, and cuddling for warmth was a great idea, and besides, it would get everyone to calm down and get along again.
Patrick was the only one who argued, at first; he thought they all would stink, because they hadn’t showered. Pete just pointed out that, well, it’s not like they could smell any worse, which Patrick conceded to.
Thankfully, the more famous they got, the more often they got to sleep in hotel rooms, and the more often they showered, leaving Patrick’s only excuse in the dust.
And so, near the end of every tour (or, truthfully, whenever one of them thought the others needed it) they piled into one room, just like old times, after they had all gone and taken showers, and gathered up their pajamas.
There was no rhyme or reason behind whose room they went to. It was just an unspoken thing, that whoever needed it the most would be the room they went to. In this case, it was Pete’s room.
Joe knocked on the door first, smiling at Pete and swiftly changing out of his jeans, and into his sweat pants and t-shirt, and Andy came swiftly after, shirtless and in gym shorts. Patrick, as was typical, came last. He called dibs on the bathroom, and came out a few minutes later, in his t-shirt, socks, and cartoon pajama pants.
By the time he came out Joe had already set up the movie, and saluted at him with the remote.
“Finally,” he said. “We’re watching Harry Potter again. Pete’s choice.”
“It was either that or Nightmare Before Christmas,” Pete protested with a slightly strained laugh, and Patrick padded over, awkwardly climbing over Andy to get next to Pete, who immediately clung to him.
“That’s fine with me,” he finally replied. “As long as we don’t get in arguments over who goes in what house again.”
Pete pouted up at him ridiculously, and nuzzled his chest as Patrick settled his hand in Pete’s hair to pet him. “I would never,” he proclaimed. “Everyone knows we’re all Gryffindors anyways.”
Andy snorted, which Pete promptly ignored, and Joe pressed play, before dropping the remote on the bedside table and flopped over all of them, grinning up at Andy.
Andy smiled back, and ruffled his hair. “Well, it’s better then when Pete was going through his Twilight phase.”
Patrick shuddered, his hand stilling in Pete’s hair. “Don’t remind me. Elisa still teases me about all the glitter.”
Pete squirmed up and pressed a sloppy kiss to his cheek. “You looked good though. Prettiest sparkling vampire ever.”
Joe giggled, and squirmed on top of them, “very true. I especially adored how the glitter seemed to gravitate towards your sideburns.”
Patrick scowled, and leaned forward to flick Joe’s ear. “Yeah, well. There’s a reason I shaved those damn things.”
Pete reached up to pat Patrick’s cheek. “We know, and none of us blame you.” He paused. “Although, those definitely very soft and pettable.”
Patrick yanked his hair, making him yelp. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding.”
Andy sighed, and leaned back against the pillows, “man, I’m really glad that I’m not Meagan right about now.”
Pete stopped cuddling Patrick for a moment, to leer at Andy. “You and I both know that’s not true. You love my sweet ass Andy, admit it.”
“Oh no, you caught me. I too lust over you. I have posters of you on my walls, and I clip out pictures of you and Meagan and put my face on them.” Andy deadpanned.
They all paused, and looked at Andy awkwardly, until Joe broke the ice again.
“You know,” he said thoughtfully, “you definitely have the legs for those heels. Although I like your legs better than hers. You have pretty tattoos.”
Andy grinned down at Joe, and Joe grinned back, leaning up to smack a kiss on his cheek.
“You charmer. I can see why Marie married me.”
Joe looked smug. “Fuck yeah. I’m more than just my dashing good looks.”
“Well, I don’t know about that. I mean, your looks are what got me interested,” Patrick said innocently.
That, of course, led to them staring at Patrick, who flushed.
“What? It’s true. You were attractive and talking about a band I liked. Of course I was going to butt in.”
“Patrick, you slut,” Pete said fondly. “I never knew you had it in you.”
“I’m pretty sure the fact that he hasn’t had it in him is the point of this conversation.”
Patrick choked, and smacked Andy. “Oh my god, I hate you all so much.”
“No you don’t,” Pete countered a sing-song voice. “I think the fact that you just admitted your deepest, darkest secret shows how much you’re lying.”
Patrick promptly buried his face in his hands and groaned, as Joe patted him on the shoulder sympathetically. “It’s okay, I don’t mind that you think I’m hot as fuck.”
“It’s true, you really are,” Patrick groaned, faux despairingly.
Pete pouted for a moment. “Wait, if you had a crush on Joe, did you have one on anyone else? Say, someone else in our band?”
Patrick looked down at him, and then nodded seriously. “Yeah, I kind of really did. I mean, Andy, you know. He has nice tattoos and hands, what can I say.”
Andy grabbed Patrick by the back of the neck and kissed his cheek, making his blush deepen as Pete spluttered.
Joe nodded thoughtfully. “I know what you mean. I had the biggest crush on Andy too. It was half hero worship, half ‘damn, this guy is really hot.’”
Pete pouted at both of them. “That’s not what I was talking about,” he complained. “C’mon, the most obvious person to have a crush on in this band was me. I mean, you wanted to start a band with me Joe. And Patrick kept mumbling when he talked to me. It was cute!”
“I notice that you didn’t mention anything about me,” Andy said, cocking an eyebrow at him.
Pete flapped his hand at Andy. “Whatever, we already went over how you wanted my sweet bod, Hurley. Now we’re talking about how Patrick and Joe are totally lying to themselves if they didn’t have a crush on me.”
Joe and Patrick looked at each other, and, without speaking, both of them leaned in close to Pete and kissed him, Joe and then Patrick, so Pete would shut up.
It worked.
There were a few minutes of blessed silence, as they all settled back into their places to concentrate on the movie.
Unfortunately, during that time Pete had gotten out his phone, and was not so stealthily scrolling through Tumblr on it.
When he laughed loudly, Patrick sighed, and looked down at him. “Do you want to share with the class, Pete?”
Pete shoved his phone in Patrick’s face, and he had to hurry to adjust his glasses to see it. He paused.
“Pete, what exactly am I looking at,” he said slowly.
“It’s a meme,” Pete said, sounding proud.
Joe snorted, and buried his face in Andy’s knee to giggle.
“I can see that.” Patrick paused. “Why don’t you explain to me what exactly that means. I haven’t been on twitter or anything like that in quite some time.”
“Sorry, grandpa, I forgot you weren’t in with the cool kids.”
Joe only laughed harder, his whole body shaking. Andy put his hand on Joe’s back worriedly. Patrick continued squinting at the phone, before Pete took it out of his face.
“If you must know,” he said, trying to sound dignified, “it’s a thing the kids are doing nowadays. It started with some kid talking about what their parents did in a grocery store, and it expanded to people saying who would actually do that.”
“Pete, please tell me you aren’t actually going to yell, ‘I’m always a slut for Doritos,’ in a store. I don’t care if you’re lying, just please promise me that right now.”
“But it’d be funny!”
“No, no it wouldn’t. It’d get you on TMZ, and your mother would kill you.” Patrick paused. “I would kill you.”
Pete looked sulky. “You never want me to have any fun, you killjoy. Our kids are going to have no fun.”
“Pete,” Patrick said slowly, “we have kids already. Bronx is a very fun loving child, as is Saint. And Declan is also a very happy baby. You can’t call me a killjoy.”
Joe had finally stopped giggling, only to look up at them and wheeze, “Soul Punk.”
Patrick looked confused. “I’m. Sorry? What about Soul Punk?”
Andy patted Joe on the back, and looked up at them as well. “I think he’s trying to say that would be your Killjoy name.”
“I--okay. Thank you, Joe. I actually like that.”
“Okay but what would my name be?” Pete asked, no longer pouting.
Joe narrowed his eyes and looked at him. “Peter Panda, maybe.”
Patrick started snickering, as Pete looked offended. “No way. I’d totally have a cool name, like--Decay Dance. That’s my Killjoy name. Yours would be--JewFro then.”
Joe shook his head. “Nah, dude, mine would be something way cooler than that. Like, SuperTroh, or something.”
“And mine would be SuperCross. Why are we arguing about this. And can we change the movie since none of us are watching it?”
“No way, Harry’s about to look in the Mirror of Erised, I don’t wanna miss that.”
Andy sighed, and laid his head back against the pillows. “Why do I hang out with you people?”
Joe finally squirmed up, and laid on Andy fully, kissing his cheek happily. “Because you love us, and we called dibs as soon as you agreed to work with us fully.”
Andy rolled his eyes, and swiped at his cheek, but he was grinning as he did it. “Of course you did,” he said, sounding fond. “Now get off of me, go bother Pete and Patrick.”
Joe glanced over at them, and grinned wickedly, which Pete mirrored. And then, before Patrick or Andy could do anything, Pete joined Joe on top of Andy and Patrick, as Joe dropped his legs on top of Patrick’s.
“Ah, much more comfortable.” Pete said smugly.
Patrick and Andy traded exasperated looks, but they didn’t protest, settling down and trying to get comfortable under Joe and Pete.
Patrick, unsurprisingly, was the first to yawn, and close his eyes. While the others saw, they didn’t mention it; Joe just moved his legs to let Patrick get more comfortable, while Pete started rubbing his stomach soothingly, as Andy petted his hair.
Joe dropped off a little while after Patrick’s breath had evened out, laying more fully on Andy as he sprawled out even more.
Finally, just Pete was left--Andy mouthed a ‘night’ to Pete before shutting his eyes and laying back more, his hand tangled in Joe’s hair, and Pete could only move off of Andy and Patrick to curl up next to Patrick, his arms reaching out to touch both Joe and Andy as he tried to sleep.
The next morning, Joe woke up with a yelp, as Andy accidentally tightened his hair and yanked. That startled Patrick, who woke up and elbowed Pete, who wheezed and fell off the bed. Andy just groaned, and tried to move away from Joe, as Pete sat up and stared at them all accusingly.
“You did that on purpose didn’t you? You all suck.”
Patrick hid behind his hand to muffle his giggles, and Joe shook his hair, making a face at them. “You only wish we did. Now get back up here, so we can sleep more.”
Pete pouted for a moment longer, before he grinned, and climbed up on the bed, accidentally on purpose slamming his knee into Patrick’s side and making him groan.
“Please relax, I want to sleep. This is a rare day off.”
Andy shoved his hand over his mouth, his eyes closed. “Shh. Vocal rest day. Sleep more, all of you, or I’ll kill you.”
Because Andy was intimidating, even though he had just finished yawning like a kitten, they all quieted down, and curled up even further, until it was hard to distinguish who was who, and fell asleep again.