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“You have to be joking right now, like this is all some sort of elaborate scheme of yours.”
Daniel shook his head, brow furrowed and a look of utter confusion on his face. “Why would I be joking about this? It would be a pretty stupid thing to joke about if I’m being completely honest.”
Johnny was looking at him with near anger in his eyes, a look he hadn’t shown to Daniel in a good while - not since they had gotten together (sometimes he still looked like that when they spared though and the points were close, Johnny was always going to be a competitive asshole no matter what). “Your cousin is in The Outsiders? Your cousin is Johnny Cade?”
Daniel nodded, not really knowing what Johnny was getting at, “Yeah, so what? My cousin has a band with his friends in Oklahoma, big deal.” He hadn’t spoken to his cousin for a good amount of time, the last time they had a good long phone call was probably after the All Valley which was when Johnny told him that he and Ponyboy had gotten together. A lot had happened since then: he and Johnny had not only become friends, but had started going steady, Daniel was officially a high school graduate and was living with Mr. Miyagi for the summer, and he had practically retired from competition life. He wasn’t all that happy about that last part, but Johnny provided enough competition for him on a daily basis.
His cousin had gone through his own troubles last summer, but thankfully the younger’s life was looking up again. He hadn’t said anything about a band the last time they had spoken.
Johnny - the California one - looked at Daniel like he was mad. “He’s one of the best new guitarists I’ve heard!” It was then that Daniel realized the boy was holding something in his hand, some sort of flier. Johnny must have noticed because he held it up right in front of his face.
“They’re coming to California for some festival. Can’t you pull something to get us free tickets?” This was the most excited he had seen his boyfriend in a while, a wild look in his eye. Daniel didn’t have a single clue as to how Johnny had heard about some small start-up band from Tulsa, but if they were coming to California… At least then he could meet up with his cousin again for the first time in about a year - he and his mom had stopped by for a quick visit when they were driving from Jersey. Her sister and son had been the only ones home, Daniel was fine with that, his cousin’s dad was a major asshole. His mom wasn’t that great either, but she tried more.
Daniel took the flier from Johnny’s hand, giving it a good lookover. The festival was in about a week, which meant he should probably give the Curtis residence a call sooner rather than later - his cousin said he’d rather pick up calls from there than his own house, it was safer and more reliable that way. He smirked as he thought about the situation, “Guess I’m finally gonna get to tease him about his boyfriend again soon.”
Johnny’s eyes grew wide, “Boyfriend?”
*****
Daniel had gotten the tickets, which didn’t take much convincing at all since his cousin was more than happy to hand them over if it meant getting to see him again. They hadn’t just gotten free tickets though, they got to meet with the band before the set backstage. Daniel had never seen Johnny so over-enthusiastic. He looked like a kid in a candy store, like he was just told he had won a million dollars.
He knew how much his boyfriend loved music, especially the music that his cousin’s band made, but apparently he was still conservative in his assumption because Johnny had the widest smile on his face that Daniel had ever seen. He should probably have been jealous that his boyfriend wasn’t looking at him that way, but Johnny was so happy that he didn’t want to ruin it. (Okay, maybe he did tease the other, just once or twice though.)
His cousin had been the one showing them around - and Johnny had been a bit surprised to see the other Johnny with his crutches. Daniel’s cousin shrugged it off though, not seeming all that bothered by it anymore, “They don’t like going posting pictures of me with the crutches in any of those magazines. Don’t understand why though, when people see us performing they see my crutches regardless.”
Johnny kept looking between Daniel and his cousin and they made it to the green room, his expression becoming more and more confused. “You two look like you could be brothers more than cousins.”
Daniel couldn’t really disagree. Daniel and Johnny (his cousin that is) looked rather similar. Johnny was a bit shorter, it didn’t help that he had a perpetual slump, and his hair was shaggier. His mom said that they could have practically been twins if they weren’t a year apart.
“Johnnycake, you’re back,” A younger looking boy, probably around fifteen, came up to the three of them, wrapping his arm around the younger Johnny’s waist. He looked between the two newcomers, holding his hand out for Daniel to shake and then Johnny. “It’s good to see you again.”
Daniel smirked at the younger boy, “Oh how things have changed since then.”
Ponyboy blushed a little, sputtering some sort of introduction to Johnny before returning back to his bass. Daniel’s cousin turned as well, sitting in his designated chair near his guitar.
Lawrence kept stealing glances over at Johnny as he strummed at his guitar; he must have recognized the chord progression because his face lit up again. “That’s one of my favorite songs of yours.”
The boy looked up to meet his gaze, “You like ‘Tuff’?” He glanced over at Ponyboy, “You hear that, Pone, Johnny likes your song.”
Ponyboy’s ears went red, “Oh shut it.”
Dally groaned as he walked into the room, drumsticks in hand, “You’ve got to be kidding me. Don’t tell me I’m about to become the fifth wheel here?”
The boys spent a bit of time together before the set really started. Daniel kept himself close to Johnny’s side as they watched The Outsiders take stage. Daniel watched as the blushing boy his cousin was dating became a confident star. He was still Ponyboy, but he seemed a lot more at ease - he really didn’t understand how the boy did that since he was in front of hundreds of people.
As Daniel listened to the set - his cousin made a joke about the song ‘Tuff’ that was most certainly targeted towards Johnny - he could see why his boyfriend liked their music so much. Dally was relentless on the drums, Johnny really was amazing on guitar, and Ponyboy had a singing voice that Daniel wouldn’t have expected at all.
When the music began to come to an end he realized that he was most certainly going to need to figure out when the next closest show would be.