Becoming

The Nomad

Up early as usual, Dave made a quick raid on the hotel's breakfast buffet before any of the others were up and about, grabbing himself a cinnamon roll and some tea before heading back up to grab his bag. As he exited his room, he saw Steve leaving his.

"Want me to grab anything for you, Dave?" Steve asked. "I'm guessing you're getting Ade up?"

Dave chuckled softly. "Getting him on his feet and out to the bus, anyway," he said. "I had a bite already, but thanks for offering. Who's getting Nicko moving?"

"It's Jan's turn," Steve said with a laugh of his own. "We already knocked on his door and got no answer, so he went down to get a spare key from the desk.

Just then, the lift opened to reveal Jan with a blueberry muffin in one hand and a key card in the other. "My stuff's on the bus, so I can get Nick's bag along with him," he said to Steve. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck," Steve said as Jan let himself into Nicko's room.

Dave requested, "Harry, will you take my bag down? I didn't think of it before, but yeah, it won't be easy getting Ade and both our bags downstairs."

"Yeah, sure, give it over," Steve said. Dave passed his bag over and opened Ade's door as Steve headed for the lift.

Letting himself in, Dave smiled to see that Ade had grabbed his pillow, hugging it tightly. He leaned down and nuzzled Ade's ear. "We gotta get out to the bus soon," he murmured. "Do you wanna wake up or just let me get you to your bunk?"

"Comfy. Sleepin'. Do'wanna wake up," Ade mumbled, rolling over to press his face against Dave's leg.

"Okay, love," Dave murmured. "You can stay sleeping, but we still gotta get out to the bus. Let's get your clothes on, yeah?"

"Yeah, mmkay," Ade said. "Clothes."

Chuckling softly, Dave dropped a soft kiss on Ade's lips and got up, grabbing pants, socks, and sweats out of his lover's suitcase before packing everything else and standing it with the handle extended so he could grab it as they exited the room. Then he got Ade dressed, coaxing his lover to move this way or that so he could get everything properly into place. Then came the hard part, getting Ade onto his feet. Dave admitted to himself as he got Ade's arms around his neck and his own arms around Ade's waist, that the older they got, the more difficult this maneuver became. But he managed to stand up, pulling Ade up with him, and got Ade leaning on him so they could shuffle out of the room and downstairs.

Jan, with Nicko literally snoring on his shoulder, grinned as Dave and the sleepwalking Ade joined them in waiting for the lift. "I see both of the usual suspects are still sleeping," he commented.

Dave grinned back. "What, did you expect anything different?"

"I guess not," Jan admitted. "Thought maybe they'd try to wake up since we've company this trip."

"Nah, well, I can't speak for Nicko, but I think I know Ade well enough to say that if someone's travelling with us, they'll be considered part of the 'extended family' and so don't need any extra consideration. Hell, way back on the World Slavery Tour, when Nicko and Becky were first dating, she and a couple of her friends followed us 'round to several shows down in Florida – and she had to let Harry or Bruce into their room in the mornings, to get him moving," Dave said. "And her friend that slept in with Ade had to do the same. Point being, if Nicko couldn't manage to wake up for the lady he eventually married, no bloody way is he gonna wake up for Bruce's boyfriend."

"Yeah, makes sense," Jan agreed.

They got downstairs and handed their key cards over to Rod Smallwood so he could complete the checkout process, then walked Nicko and Ade out to the bus and coaxed them to crawl into their bunks.