California Dreamin'

GODSPEED YOUR LOVE

Roger had never been on holiday during his childhood.

His parents, when together, fought far too much to be able to be civilized while at home, so taking the family car and going to a lake house or somewhere in the country was out of the question.

When they separated and it was just his mum, sister, and himself, they didn't have the money. His mother would save up for Christmas or their birthdays and have a nice celebration, but going anywhere other than their comfortable Cornwall home just wasn't in the cards for him.

And Roger was fine with that. He didn't need to go anywhere. Never had the itch to travel the world. Of course, once he and the band got to be rather big, he had seen more of the world than he ever imagined seeing. When they say 'world tour' they mean it.

He had seen the board side of America and been all over Asia. Europe was his home but being able to pop into London in between going to Italy and France was more of a regular weekend event for himself.

And sure, they had a bit of downtime in between shows and to the chance to go to all the great cities Roger always dreamed of seeing, but that wasn't a holiday. That wasn't a vacation. That was being on tour and being large enough to sell out the biggest venues.

No no. Roger didn't start going on vacation until he met John.

The male was similar to himself where he grew up with a mother that worked too hard to take care of her son and daughter. John had a better upbringing until his father passed away, having gone on family vacations every other summer. He told Roger all about them at the beginning of their relationship and Roger always pictured John as the same type of man as his father.

Someone who worked hard to provide for his family, but also want to have a bit of downtime with them. Roger didn't know if two men could have a family together, but he liked the idea of piling all their possible children into a car and just hitting the road, whether it be to an amusement park or beach town.

He and John had gotten quite familiar with Disney after they started getting big in America. They would go any time they happened to be in California and that became something of a tradition for them even after they had kids.

But that wasn't a holiday for them. That was California. A place that would forever hold a special place in Roger's heart.

No, no. The first time they had decided to throw caution to the window and get the hell out of dodge had been while working on an album. Roger didn't exactly remember which one as the making of all their albums had a severe amount of ups and downs. Brian had been dealing with something of a mean streak (problems at home), while Freddie was his usual high and mighty self (nothing new) while Roger just wanted his album song on the bloody album.

And John was . . . suffering, to say the least.

John wasn't the type to fight. He could and would if he had to. Roger had seen the man say some very harsh quips that caught many off guards as you normally wouldn't expect someone as quiet and sweet as himself to say such a thing. But he could hold his own if he had to, but Roger knew he didn't like being the bad guy. He didn't like having to be blunt and cruel and put up with all the anxiety that came from arguing with his best mates.

Sometimes it was just best to remove yourself from the equation.

So after a longwinded speech for John, who poured his heart out to Roger; expressing that he loved their mates and loved the band and loved Roger especially, he just couldn't deal with it anymore. He needed a break. He needed time away so he could forget that they were apart of one of the biggest bands in the world.

Roger could never imagine wanting to forget such a thing as it had been what he strived for since he was just a lad.

But John didn't want that. He was an accidental rockstar who just wanted to play the bass as a hobby to keep himself busy after classes. He wasn't equipped for any of this garbage and Roger would be damned if he allowed John to lose his head over it.