Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy (JoeMazzello!JohnDeacon fanfic)

twenty six

Arriving at the studio, everyone piles out of the car (all seven of them which definitely wasn't legal).

"Alright," Roxanne huffs, eyes clocking the petrol gage before she gets out herself though she almost smiles when John wraps his arm around her shoulders, "Who is it, hm? Who is the one who's taking my car when I'm at work? I filled it up not that long ago and look, it's almost half empty." 

"Or half full," Roger shrugs, giving himself away immediately, "Depends on how you look at it, really." 

"So it was you then, Rog?" Brian asks, not at all surprised.

"Yeah," he nods, not even trying to deny it before he's wrapping his arm around Alyssa's shoulders and leading her into the studio.

John grabs his bass, smiling to himself when he hears her muttering under her breath and he takes her hand. 

"He's taking advantage of my good nature, John," she says quietly and he nods. 

"Totally in agreement with you there, love." 

She continues ranting as they all file into the building and she gives Nathan a wave when he says hello.

It's clear from the moment he steps over the threshold that Freddie is in charge and it's not long before he's demanding that Roger tears himself from Alyssa to go into the booth to put down the drums. 

John's sat at the mixing desk with Freddie and Brian and Roxanne stands beside his chair, peering over his shoulder to peer down at the desk, not that she knows what any of the buttons do, "What song are you working on?" 

"Liar," Freddie hums. 

"I love that song," she smiles, balancing herself on the arm of his chair, "I like the little bass solo that you do." 

"Yeah?" 

She nods, "I like watching your hands." 

Her hand flies to her mouth and she turns her head to see them both looking at you; Freddie with a grin on his face while John staring at her, mouth parted slightly as his cheeks turn a light shade of pink and Jesus Christ, Roxanne cannot believe she's just said that. 

"My hands?" John repeats, looking down at them, "You...like my h-" 

"If you're done trying to get into his pants, Nessie, could you possibly let us get on with this?" Roger's voice echoes around the room and it's her turn to go red - not only did Freddie hear it but Roger did too.

Mary -who she also hadn't seen in forever- raises an eyebrow as she abandons the mixing desk, choosing instead to sit beside the blonde who was doing a crossword. 

As she tries desperately to will her skin to return to its natural colour, she notices that Alyssa is practically on the other side of the studio; sat on the small loveseat reading a magazine and remembering John's words from earlier, she decides that ahead of lunch tomorrow, she was going to do something she doesn't do very often - try. 

"I'll be back," she murmurs, standing up again much to the surprise of Mary, who puts her crossword down so she could watch the situation play out. Although she worked with Alyssa, she wasn't too fond of her either, didn't think that she was...right for Roger. 

Alyssa looks up as she nears, resting her magazine on her legs.

"Hi," Roxy begins, toying with her hands. 

"Hey." 

"I just wanted to say that I'm...looking forward to lunch tomorrow." 

Alyssa raises an eyebrow and then sighs, "It was Roger's idea, really." 

Just as I thought Roxy thinks but she manages to keep a straight face. 

"He said that he'd hate it if two of his favourite people couldn't get along so I thought that I'd better try. Y'know, for him. I know how important you are to him, Roxanne." 

Roxy looks over her shoulder, towards Roger and sees that he's already drumming; eyes closed and a cigarette hanging loosely from his lips. Looking back at Alyssa, she nods, "For Roger."

"And to start, I should apologise for what I called you the first time we first met. I am sorry. I saw the two of you and I got mad." 

Roxanne nods, "It means a lot. So..." she holds out her hand, "Start over?" 

Alyssa looks between her outstretched hand and her face before smiling and shaking it, "Start over." 

Roxanne walks back to her spot beside Mary feeling a little bit better about tomorrow and as she sits down, her gaze meets Roger's, who was now just watching her and had obviously seen the two of them and he grins at her, mouthing a thank you. 

It was a start.