Mind Games>>Ricky Horror AU

Everything is going to be okay

[Guess who has returned from a long almost sick month! Edmond thanks you all for the get well messages and is beginning to quickly revise the chapters I have wrote to make them much more understandable because sometimes the Dakota way doesn't work well.]

Josh's "execution" flashes into my head throughout the day. Ordered by Ash to lay in bed with JoJo till morning makes me restless, my thoughts haunt me since I have no other purpose today. I have now caught myself overthinking multiple times about where I stand with Ricky now and Hayley and how mean I was to her before she left. I bet if she saw me now with JoJo she'd think of me very lowly. My father promises to stay with me while the others rehearse and get themselves ready for tonight. But even he has things he needs to do and usually I am by myself. I can hear an occasional voice from the living area, muffled by the door, but there. Ricky checks on us when he can free himself from the busy day. I don't even get to see them play and Ricky sacrifices his time with his friends to eat with me in the bunks, although, I don't think he minds at all.

"Why are you looking at her like that?"
"Like what?" Ricky's head is tilted and he scrunches his nose slightly a time or two while staring at JoJo, who now is fully clothed and thrashing her arms around with a grin on her face. "You just look so confused, like she's an alien and you don't know what to do with her now." Ricky gently tickles her stomach with his fingertips, she responds by gurgling and smacking his hand away with her foot.
"She looks like an alien, but that might be the Vanessa side effect." The corner of his lips twitch, but fade quickly when I sharply jab his torso. "Don't listen to him, you're beautiful."

I coo to her and she glances at her father, doubled over in pain, them back at me. She has a blank expression before bursting into baby giggles. "My own daughter, laughing at my pain." Ricky groans before sitting back up, rubbing the spot where the jab was introduced to his body. "I'm sorry." I ruffle his hair up and plant a kiss to his cheek. "You can cut your hair if you want, just thought I'd tell you."

I remember my decision suddenly while I smooth his hair back down. "I don't need to, I know you like messing with it." He looks at his empty plate then looks at the bowl of mac and cheese in my hands. "You're still hungry?" He nods, I hand my bowl over, I don't have much of an appetite. "And, I want you to do with it what you want to do." Ricky takes big bites of the pasta while I search the kitchen for scissors, eventually finding a pair that I can move perfectly. "I didn't get caught, don't worry."
"So your serious? I can cut my own hair without you trying to stop me?" I hand him the scissors with the handle facing towards him. He hesitates, but once they're in his grasp he immediately walks to the bathroom. I decide to watch him, to see how one can cut their hair without making it look disastrous. I hold JoJo and she looks fascinated by all the sea of black hair on the floor. Ricky takes his hair up to where his shoulder meets his neck, so much of his hair is already gone that quickly.

"How do you not mess that up?" His hair looks almost perfect, I can tell he added a layer to his hair as well to make it look choppy yet if I did it I'd need to shave my head by the end of it. "Want me to cut yours too?" I shake my head, I myself, love that have my long hair and prefer to keep it that way. "You're no fun." He sets the scissors down and brushes out his hair. He inhales and exhales harshly, then a large smile forms on his lips. "I think it looks better." I finally say, it wasn't as short as I thought he was going to cut it, I trail my fingernails through the new haircut and a small smile forms on my lips.

That night I sleep against Ricky with my head pounding from lack of sleep yet again. Each time JoJo wails throughout the night several loud groans are heard from unhappy, just woken up men. "At least it's good birth control! Wear condoms when you take that fan to the back of the bus or to the hotel, boys!" I hear Chris make a dumb äss comment the third time we are all awakened, sleepy giggles and laugh erupt in the bus. "Pills don't count!" Ashley shouted in supporting Chris's comedic, three in the morning show. "But the thirty-two year old disfunction does." Several oh's echoed through the bus when Vinny chimed in, I guess when you're awake you make the best of it.
•••
I am awoken by the bright light turned on by Chris, Ricky grunts and blinks to adjust his eyes to the stream of light.
"Hey, lovebirds, if you want to make Josh's falling you better hurry and get dressed." Ricky looks around for his phone still keeping his arm for me to lay my head on. "What time is it?" His morning voice raspily questions as his free hand tries to grab his phone from the desk high above our bunk. "Five, the falling is at six." Ricky leans his head out of the bunk in the right minute for his phone to crash on his head and a hallow thunk is made when his skull connects with the electronic.