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

eighty nine

John is an early riser. He can't help it - his body clock is just set differently to hers - Roxanne knows that but it's his first day off in almost two weeks and last night, he himself had said that he was looking forward to a lie-in but when she's disturbed by the rays of the early morning sun, she knows that he's awake.

"John," she whines, glancing toward the window to see him peering out, "What time is it?"

"Ten to seven."

"What?" she groans. He had to be joking, "John, you said you were having a lie-in. This-"

"Every time," he mutters quietly, interrupting her.

"What?"

"Every time I'm off," he continues to grumble, "Every time, Roxanne. It's like they know."

"Who?" she asks, closing her eyes against the bright morning sun.

"Casper," he tuts, "And that arsehole cat from next door."

"Louie?" Roxanne yawns, "What about them?"

"They fight, make those horrible noises that cats make," John shakes his head, "They only do it on my days off."

"They're fighting?"

He nods and opens the window a little bit and she hears the noises that he's talking about, making her get up and go peer out the window with him, looking out in time to see Louie (a skinny grey tabby), rip a chunk of fur from Casper.

Roxanne gasps, immediately leaving John's side and he stays put, taking a sip from his glass of water and watching as Roxy marches across the grass (barefoot and in a pair of shorts and an old t-shirt that he's pretty sure belongs to Roger), to where the two cats are still hissing at one another, crouching down to scoop their cat up into her arms and thanks to the window being open, he can hear her giving Casper a telling off as she walks back to the house.

"Honestly," he hears her tut, "How many times do I need to tell you, be nice to the neighbours. Amos doesn't do that, does he?"

"That's because Amos is a lazy little shit," John says as they return to the bedroom, Roxanne dropping the cat gently onto the bed, "All he does is sleep on the rocking chair in Arthur's room."

She laughs, the pair watching as Casper jumps down from the bed to go search for the cat in question before she climbs back into the bed, patting the space that belongs to him while wiggling her eyebrows, "Come on. Arthur won't be up for at least another hour."

"A whole hour?" he asks, grin matching that of his wife's, "What can we do for an hour, hm?"

"Lot's of things," she giggles, feeling him wrap his arm around her waist, kissing her cheek softly, "But really, I want to sleep. Last night was a rough one"

"I know," he whispers, laying down so they're sharing the one pillow, "Hopefully he'll settle back into full nights soon."

The two of them dose for maybe ten minutes and when Roxanne is just about to fall asleep properly, the phone ringing jolts her awake again.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," John growls, "Who the hell could that be?"

"I'll go," she pats his arm, "You go back to sleep."

John reluctantly lets her go so she can climb from the bed once more, peeking into Arthur's room to see that he's still fast asleep, Casper and Amos on the rocking chair before she makes her way down the stairs to the phone, which is by the little table that's by the front door.

"Hello?"

"Nessie," Roger greets, "Nessie, hey!"

"Roger?" she sighs, "Do you have any idea what time it is?"