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paul_mac (![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} paul_mac) wrote,@ 2011-05-01 09:19:00 |
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Vanessa and Daniel plus Paul: 4/20
[Players, not pups.v_hazardous comes over to daniel_johns's to find Daniel and paul_mac relaxing. Backdated: April 20, 2011.]
"Hiya," Vanessa presses a swift kiss to Daniel's lips as she comes through the door, then moves to the side to let him lock up after her whilst she waves at Paul. "Hey, you!" Her nose wrinkles as the scent of the room hits her and she laughs. "Oh my God, I totally forgot it was the twentieth."
Daniel's very happy to see the cheerful whirlwind breezing in through the door, but when she stops and laughs, he has to laugh too. "Um. Yeah..." he looks over his shoulder at Paul, then at Vanessa. "Hi? How are you?"
"Good." He looks adorably sheepish and Vanessa rises onto her toes to give him another kiss. "I don't care, you know that. I'll just have a beer, though, please," she adds, spotting bottles on the coffee table. Vanessa smiles and turns to put jacket and shoes in the closet.
He didn't think she cared – it really would have come up by now if she did, he hasn't smoked around her but it's not exactly unknown that he likes to light up – but it's still all kind of strange. Not bad-strange though, so Daniel just smiles and nods.
"Paul!" Paul is much closer to the fridge than he is. "Beer the lady too, please." He leans over and arranges the empties on the table into a triangle, pleased. Paul's here, Vanessa's here, it's a good evening.
Paul grabs another beer from the fridge, opening all three and making his way back over to the sofa. He passes two to Daniel, then reclaims the armchair for himself, moving the ashtray over to his end of the table.
"Good to see you again, how are you?"
"Fabulous," Vanessa grins, plopping down on the sofa and holding a hand out to Daniel for her bottle. "Some good stuff today, and then not back in until next week – added a day onto the Easter weekend, just for a decent break."
Daniel hands over the bottle and cuddles up against Vanessa with a smile. She knows Paul, it doesn't seem like cuddling on her with him here is going to be a problem, and Daniel really wants to touch right now. "That's good, proper holiday."
There are easily half a dozen cat-in-sunbeam jokes that Paul is having to bite back right now, but he just smiles and reaches for the joint slowly burning away. "You don't mind, yeah?" Polite to ask, even if this is Dan's place.
Vanessa waves a hand. "Not in the slightest. Half my band smokes up! It just doesn't really do anything except make me ridiculously thirsty, so I don't bother." She ruffles Daniel's hair, not particularly surprised that he's plastered to her side.
"Hi," Daniel says again, tipping his head to nuzzle against her wrist. That's as far as he goes, they're not alone right now, but it's nice, and he's happy to lounge there and be petted for as long as Vanessa is willing. "How much longer in the studio, do you think?" That's always up in the air, but maybe she has an idea.
Paul nods his understanding – each to their own – and leans back in his chair to enjoy. "Things going well there?" Good weed, good company, good beer, pretty much his kind of evening in a nutshell.
"Yeah, really well. Slightly ahead of schedule, which is why the extra day off. But we've got to wrap up in the next two weeks, regardless; I'm playing a festival in Perth on the fourteenth, so I need to get back to Australia before then!" The restrained way Daniel nuzzles her makes Vanessa smile – clearly even around Paul, where he's totally relaxed, isn't quite 'private'. She places her hand more discreetly at Daniel's nape, fingertips playing with the short wisps of hair there.
Vanessa has really good hands, and Daniel's happy to just settle there, sprawled out comfortably with her petting him. Her other hand has a beer in it so he just wraps his arm around her and smiles back.
"Yeah, I'm back soon, got a couple more gigs with Johnny, some production work booked." Paul tries not to grin too obviously at the way Daniel has sprawled out, then reaches over to poke the bottom of his foot where it dangles over the edge of the sofa. "If you go to sleep, I'm telling your girlfriend tour stories about you."
"Seems fair to me," Vanessa grins, scritching lightly over Daniel's nape. He's cute, and it's good to see him so relaxed and happy.
"Hmm..." Daniel suspects he's supposed to protest that one, and he prods Paul's hand back with his toe. But Vanessa is petting him, and he leans against her. Paul can keep the joint, he'll keep Vanessa, it's all good.
"Now where shall I start?" Paul taps his chin thoughtfully, hiding another grin. "I mean, they're such a well-behaved band, you know? Never get into any trouble..."
"Ha, as rock bands go, the 'Chair actually is pretty well-behaved," Vanessa snorts. She presses a bit harder, palm cupped over the edge of his hairline, massaging; she's curious how liquid Daniel will go. "Unless there's stuff that was kept totally hush-hush, anyway," and if there is, she'd definitely like to hear about it!
"We're very good. We don't have any hard drugs or secret babies, and the strippers weren't our fault," Daniel points out. He keeps his eyes closed, Paul is going to be Paul whether he's watching or not, and what Vanessa's doing is too good to ignore.
"And they're nice, I had birthday on tour and they got me a cake," Paul allows. If Daniel is busy and Vanessa doesn't want to join in he can just finish off smoking himself, and he sits back to enjoy, leaving Daniel's foot alone for now.
"Aw, the cake was sweet," Vanessa smiles. Daniel's melting all over her and it's adorable. "The strippers were a long time ago, if you mean the ones I think you do. But I think most rock bands have toned down the antics these days, honestly," she waves her beer bottle in emphasis before taking a drink. "Even KISS was pretty low-key when I toured with them. Granted, they're a long way from when they used to skirt-chase like madmen and drink and drug themselves into oblivion, but that's kind of the point – the smart bands move past that. Or end up in the news for overdosing."
"They were a really long time ago, but we still get asked about back then. And you can't play if you're high all the time..." and really, playing music is the most important thing, always has been.
"I think the over-indulging works OK for a very short time, then as you said, you either grow up or you blow up, there's only so much you can get away with and still function." Paul's no stranger to indulging, but there are days off and then there's work, and you don't cross over the two to that extent.
"Yeah," Vanessa agrees. She laughs. "I think I did Daniel's share of teenage fuckery as well as my own, but I didn't get into anything really dangerous and I'd gotten most of it out of my system by the time I was twenty-two or so." Rolling her eyes, she adds, "Just in time to walk away from the whole environment, excellent timing on my part."
"I thought Ben did my share? Maybe you split it." Daniel opens his eyes enough to look at Vanessa, but she's a little bit upside down from this angle and that's just strange. "I like you better in this environment now. Happier."
"I was a bit older than you, but I got it out of my system being an idiot on national television. I got home and Mum just gave me this look." Paul shakes his head.
Vanessa winces. "Oooh, I never did anything real public. Mum was... not blissfully oblivious, because she knows me too well, but since I wasn't getting into any trouble of the arrested/hospitalised/pregnant variety, she let me work it out on my own. What did you do?" she asks Paul, smiling as Daniel closes his eyes again. Vanessa sneaks her hand over for a brief stroke of his cheekbone before she goes back to the mostly-hidden light massage.
Daniel's heard this story before, and he grins, petting Vanessa's thigh as she strokes him, eyes still closed. "Go on Paul, tell us what you did..." he waves his foot in Paul's general direction again. It misses, but the sentiment is there.
Paul reaches over and swats Daniel's foot, then takes a drink of beer and arranges his face into a suitably serious expression. "OK, back in the dark ages when you two kiddies should have been in school, I was in a little band called Itch-E and Scratch-E. We were nominated for best dance single, so of course, celebrations all round," he waves his hand. "And we won. And," he keeps the straight face, watching Vanessa. "The three of us got up on stage – me, Andy, Sherrif the producer – and I thanked the Ecstasy dealers of Australia for making this possible."
"Oh, you didn't," Vanessa lowers her face to the back of her wrist, laughing, careful not to tip her bottle over Daniel. "Oh my God. Paul!"
Even hearing it a million times, it's still funny – especially now – and Daniel laughs, propping up Vanessa's bottle as she leans over him.
"They bleeped me out on TV, and next day I got accused of corrupting the youth of Australia, told I'd never work in that town again, and invited to DJ at about a dozen parties. I think it worked out OK in the end." Paul is still here, after all, older and wiser.
"I think it did! But oh my God. You are crazy!" Vanessa laughs, straightening. She shakes her head. "God, I can just imagine the look from your Mum. Ecstasy is one of the few 'lighter' drugs that I didn't try. Just didn't seem like a good idea."
Daniel hands Vanessa back her beer and sets down his own empty bottle, snuggling up closer. The 'one of the few' makes him curious – what she calls lighter, what she's tried – but he can find all that out later, for now he's comfortable.
"She was actually pretty OK about it – and Dad – but yeah, there was a bit of a moment over it." Not his smartest moment, but these things always seem like a great idea at the time.
"Thanks," she directs at Daniel, waiting for him to stop moving before she puts an arm around him, fingertips idly stroking his shoulder. To Paul, Vanessa comments, "Parents usually end up being all right when you've done something stupid, as long as you know how stupid it was, independently of being told so. At least that's been my experience."
On the scale of stupid teenage things, Daniel hasn't really done that much. Not the kind of mistakes parents raise hell and issue groundings over, and he thinks about that for a minute, before just nodding and snuggling against Vanessa. "I was very well-behaved," he insists.
"Yeah, and I was the youngest, by the time I came along there wasn't much I could do that John or Susan hadn't already done, you know?" There were definitely some advantages to being the youngest, even if Paul hadn't felt that way at the time.
"Ah, whereas I'm the oldest – I was three when the first sister arrived, and nine for the second, so I definitely blazed the teenage trail there," Vanessa chuckles. Daniel is starting to slip down her side as he tries to get closer, which is getting slightly awkward, so she removes the arm around her then takes him by the shoulders and slides him all the way down, putting his head on her thigh. "There, honey. Get comfortable."
Daniel feels like he should maybe protest, or... something... but Vanessa seems happy and he's enjoying things, so he just makes an agreeable sound and arranges himself on Vanessa's lap.
"That would do it, yeah. John would have been sixteen when I was born, just. Jen's closest, she was six. So they caught for everything, by the time I came along it was 'as long as he's clean and fed...'" Paul laughs.
"God, yeah, your family's huge. There's just the three of us – all girls, my poor Dad," Vanessa chuckles. Daniel seems to have settled now and her fingers wander through his hair, absently combing the soft strands.
"...so is that three of you then?" Paul asked, eyebrows raised. He's safe, he's outside of smacking distance, and Daniel makes a convenient barrier.
Vanessa just laughs. "Oh, I would feel much sorrier for my parents if we were all alike! But no," she shakes her head, continuing to pet Daniel; he looks to have drifted off but Paul's threat is a pretty empty one by this point, and she's happy enough to let Daniel sleep right where he is for now. He's portable. "Mel's close enough in age that I dragged her into trouble with me sometimes, but both of my sisters were much less of a headache than me." Shrugging, Vanessa takes a swig of her beer then holds it aloft for emphasis, "What can I say? I'm an original!"
[Comments screened; feedback welcome.]
[Players, not pups.
v_hazardous comes over to daniel_johns's to find Daniel and paul_mac relaxing. Backdated: April 20, 2011.]"Hiya," Vanessa presses a swift kiss to Daniel's lips as she comes through the door, then moves to the side to let him lock up after her whilst she waves at Paul. "Hey, you!" Her nose wrinkles as the scent of the room hits her and she laughs. "Oh my God, I totally forgot it was the twentieth."
Daniel's very happy to see the cheerful whirlwind breezing in through the door, but when she stops and laughs, he has to laugh too. "Um. Yeah..." he looks over his shoulder at Paul, then at Vanessa. "Hi? How are you?"
"Good." He looks adorably sheepish and Vanessa rises onto her toes to give him another kiss. "I don't care, you know that. I'll just have a beer, though, please," she adds, spotting bottles on the coffee table. Vanessa smiles and turns to put jacket and shoes in the closet.
He didn't think she cared – it really would have come up by now if she did, he hasn't smoked around her but it's not exactly unknown that he likes to light up – but it's still all kind of strange. Not bad-strange though, so Daniel just smiles and nods.
"Paul!" Paul is much closer to the fridge than he is. "Beer the lady too, please." He leans over and arranges the empties on the table into a triangle, pleased. Paul's here, Vanessa's here, it's a good evening.
Paul grabs another beer from the fridge, opening all three and making his way back over to the sofa. He passes two to Daniel, then reclaims the armchair for himself, moving the ashtray over to his end of the table.
"Good to see you again, how are you?"
"Fabulous," Vanessa grins, plopping down on the sofa and holding a hand out to Daniel for her bottle. "Some good stuff today, and then not back in until next week – added a day onto the Easter weekend, just for a decent break."
Daniel hands over the bottle and cuddles up against Vanessa with a smile. She knows Paul, it doesn't seem like cuddling on her with him here is going to be a problem, and Daniel really wants to touch right now. "That's good, proper holiday."
There are easily half a dozen cat-in-sunbeam jokes that Paul is having to bite back right now, but he just smiles and reaches for the joint slowly burning away. "You don't mind, yeah?" Polite to ask, even if this is Dan's place.
Vanessa waves a hand. "Not in the slightest. Half my band smokes up! It just doesn't really do anything except make me ridiculously thirsty, so I don't bother." She ruffles Daniel's hair, not particularly surprised that he's plastered to her side.
"Hi," Daniel says again, tipping his head to nuzzle against her wrist. That's as far as he goes, they're not alone right now, but it's nice, and he's happy to lounge there and be petted for as long as Vanessa is willing. "How much longer in the studio, do you think?" That's always up in the air, but maybe she has an idea.
Paul nods his understanding – each to their own – and leans back in his chair to enjoy. "Things going well there?" Good weed, good company, good beer, pretty much his kind of evening in a nutshell.
"Yeah, really well. Slightly ahead of schedule, which is why the extra day off. But we've got to wrap up in the next two weeks, regardless; I'm playing a festival in Perth on the fourteenth, so I need to get back to Australia before then!" The restrained way Daniel nuzzles her makes Vanessa smile – clearly even around Paul, where he's totally relaxed, isn't quite 'private'. She places her hand more discreetly at Daniel's nape, fingertips playing with the short wisps of hair there.
Vanessa has really good hands, and Daniel's happy to just settle there, sprawled out comfortably with her petting him. Her other hand has a beer in it so he just wraps his arm around her and smiles back.
"Yeah, I'm back soon, got a couple more gigs with Johnny, some production work booked." Paul tries not to grin too obviously at the way Daniel has sprawled out, then reaches over to poke the bottom of his foot where it dangles over the edge of the sofa. "If you go to sleep, I'm telling your girlfriend tour stories about you."
"Seems fair to me," Vanessa grins, scritching lightly over Daniel's nape. He's cute, and it's good to see him so relaxed and happy.
"Hmm..." Daniel suspects he's supposed to protest that one, and he prods Paul's hand back with his toe. But Vanessa is petting him, and he leans against her. Paul can keep the joint, he'll keep Vanessa, it's all good.
"Now where shall I start?" Paul taps his chin thoughtfully, hiding another grin. "I mean, they're such a well-behaved band, you know? Never get into any trouble..."
"Ha, as rock bands go, the 'Chair actually is pretty well-behaved," Vanessa snorts. She presses a bit harder, palm cupped over the edge of his hairline, massaging; she's curious how liquid Daniel will go. "Unless there's stuff that was kept totally hush-hush, anyway," and if there is, she'd definitely like to hear about it!
"We're very good. We don't have any hard drugs or secret babies, and the strippers weren't our fault," Daniel points out. He keeps his eyes closed, Paul is going to be Paul whether he's watching or not, and what Vanessa's doing is too good to ignore.
"And they're nice, I had birthday on tour and they got me a cake," Paul allows. If Daniel is busy and Vanessa doesn't want to join in he can just finish off smoking himself, and he sits back to enjoy, leaving Daniel's foot alone for now.
"Aw, the cake was sweet," Vanessa smiles. Daniel's melting all over her and it's adorable. "The strippers were a long time ago, if you mean the ones I think you do. But I think most rock bands have toned down the antics these days, honestly," she waves her beer bottle in emphasis before taking a drink. "Even KISS was pretty low-key when I toured with them. Granted, they're a long way from when they used to skirt-chase like madmen and drink and drug themselves into oblivion, but that's kind of the point – the smart bands move past that. Or end up in the news for overdosing."
"They were a really long time ago, but we still get asked about back then. And you can't play if you're high all the time..." and really, playing music is the most important thing, always has been.
"I think the over-indulging works OK for a very short time, then as you said, you either grow up or you blow up, there's only so much you can get away with and still function." Paul's no stranger to indulging, but there are days off and then there's work, and you don't cross over the two to that extent.
"Yeah," Vanessa agrees. She laughs. "I think I did Daniel's share of teenage fuckery as well as my own, but I didn't get into anything really dangerous and I'd gotten most of it out of my system by the time I was twenty-two or so." Rolling her eyes, she adds, "Just in time to walk away from the whole environment, excellent timing on my part."
"I thought Ben did my share? Maybe you split it." Daniel opens his eyes enough to look at Vanessa, but she's a little bit upside down from this angle and that's just strange. "I like you better in this environment now. Happier."
"I was a bit older than you, but I got it out of my system being an idiot on national television. I got home and Mum just gave me this look." Paul shakes his head.
Vanessa winces. "Oooh, I never did anything real public. Mum was... not blissfully oblivious, because she knows me too well, but since I wasn't getting into any trouble of the arrested/hospitalised/pregnant variety, she let me work it out on my own. What did you do?" she asks Paul, smiling as Daniel closes his eyes again. Vanessa sneaks her hand over for a brief stroke of his cheekbone before she goes back to the mostly-hidden light massage.
Daniel's heard this story before, and he grins, petting Vanessa's thigh as she strokes him, eyes still closed. "Go on Paul, tell us what you did..." he waves his foot in Paul's general direction again. It misses, but the sentiment is there.
Paul reaches over and swats Daniel's foot, then takes a drink of beer and arranges his face into a suitably serious expression. "OK, back in the dark ages when you two kiddies should have been in school, I was in a little band called Itch-E and Scratch-E. We were nominated for best dance single, so of course, celebrations all round," he waves his hand. "And we won. And," he keeps the straight face, watching Vanessa. "The three of us got up on stage – me, Andy, Sherrif the producer – and I thanked the Ecstasy dealers of Australia for making this possible."
"Oh, you didn't," Vanessa lowers her face to the back of her wrist, laughing, careful not to tip her bottle over Daniel. "Oh my God. Paul!"
Even hearing it a million times, it's still funny – especially now – and Daniel laughs, propping up Vanessa's bottle as she leans over him.
"They bleeped me out on TV, and next day I got accused of corrupting the youth of Australia, told I'd never work in that town again, and invited to DJ at about a dozen parties. I think it worked out OK in the end." Paul is still here, after all, older and wiser.
"I think it did! But oh my God. You are crazy!" Vanessa laughs, straightening. She shakes her head. "God, I can just imagine the look from your Mum. Ecstasy is one of the few 'lighter' drugs that I didn't try. Just didn't seem like a good idea."
Daniel hands Vanessa back her beer and sets down his own empty bottle, snuggling up closer. The 'one of the few' makes him curious – what she calls lighter, what she's tried – but he can find all that out later, for now he's comfortable.
"She was actually pretty OK about it – and Dad – but yeah, there was a bit of a moment over it." Not his smartest moment, but these things always seem like a great idea at the time.
"Thanks," she directs at Daniel, waiting for him to stop moving before she puts an arm around him, fingertips idly stroking his shoulder. To Paul, Vanessa comments, "Parents usually end up being all right when you've done something stupid, as long as you know how stupid it was, independently of being told so. At least that's been my experience."
On the scale of stupid teenage things, Daniel hasn't really done that much. Not the kind of mistakes parents raise hell and issue groundings over, and he thinks about that for a minute, before just nodding and snuggling against Vanessa. "I was very well-behaved," he insists.
"Yeah, and I was the youngest, by the time I came along there wasn't much I could do that John or Susan hadn't already done, you know?" There were definitely some advantages to being the youngest, even if Paul hadn't felt that way at the time.
"Ah, whereas I'm the oldest – I was three when the first sister arrived, and nine for the second, so I definitely blazed the teenage trail there," Vanessa chuckles. Daniel is starting to slip down her side as he tries to get closer, which is getting slightly awkward, so she removes the arm around her then takes him by the shoulders and slides him all the way down, putting his head on her thigh. "There, honey. Get comfortable."
Daniel feels like he should maybe protest, or... something... but Vanessa seems happy and he's enjoying things, so he just makes an agreeable sound and arranges himself on Vanessa's lap.
"That would do it, yeah. John would have been sixteen when I was born, just. Jen's closest, she was six. So they caught for everything, by the time I came along it was 'as long as he's clean and fed...'" Paul laughs.
"God, yeah, your family's huge. There's just the three of us – all girls, my poor Dad," Vanessa chuckles. Daniel seems to have settled now and her fingers wander through his hair, absently combing the soft strands.
"...so is that three of you then?" Paul asked, eyebrows raised. He's safe, he's outside of smacking distance, and Daniel makes a convenient barrier.
Vanessa just laughs. "Oh, I would feel much sorrier for my parents if we were all alike! But no," she shakes her head, continuing to pet Daniel; he looks to have drifted off but Paul's threat is a pretty empty one by this point, and she's happy enough to let Daniel sleep right where he is for now. He's portable. "Mel's close enough in age that I dragged her into trouble with me sometimes, but both of my sisters were much less of a headache than me." Shrugging, Vanessa takes a swig of her beer then holds it aloft for emphasis, "What can I say? I'm an original!"
[Comments screened; feedback welcome.]
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