36 Questions: A Joanne Fanfiction

Question Ten:

 If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?

Although the two were now back to their usual tricks and banter, the cha-cha-cha still was not something Joe was finding especially easy. As a result of this, the two had spent all of their evenings in the studio, trying desperately to get Joe's hips to move more fluidly, which had certainly improved since the beginning of the week, but still had a little way to go. Tonight was one of those evenings, and they were both exhausted. The events at the weekend had meant neither had fully caught up on their lack of sleep from last week, and the cha-cha-cha was full on to say the least, which was not helping.

It was currently half past ten, and the two were halfway through what Dianne referred to as a 'power hour'- in Joe's mind this didn't quite sum up the torture he put himself through during this hour adequately, but he didn't dare mention this to his partner. Noticing he was flagging, Dianne called from the other side of the studio as she restarted the song "Come on Joe you've got this! Half an hour more and I'll let you go to bed!"

He sighed at this, exhaustion clear on his face but what Dianne noticed instead was his content, lazy smile, oh good, she thought to herself, he's still enjoying himself. And he was, despite his exhaustion Joe found himself smiling his way through the dance. In short, he hadn't expected to enjoy dancing as much as he did, but with Dianne he couldn't think of anything he'd rather be doing.

The two continued their rehearsal for a little longer than half an hour, their continuous runs causing the dance to gradually improve, much to their relief. Eventually, the two began to make more mistakes, the exhaustion getting to the better of them. At this point, Dianne knew it wasn't a good idea to go on. "Joe?" she called as she walked over to the stereo, to unplug her phone for the day.

"Yeah?" He looked over at her from the sofa, where he was untying his shoes, his sore feet eager to be in trainers rather than his rather uncomfortable Latin shoes.

"Do you mind ordering me an Uber?" she asked as she walked up to the sofa, plopping herself down on the sofa next to him.

"Yeah sure, I haven't ordered mine yet though?"

"That's cool."

A few minutes later, Joe sighed in slight frustration. "They're not coming for another half an hour," he explained "this is what you get when you make us train so late!" he said as he looked at his partner's disappointed face.

"As much as I love your company Joe, I just want to go home and sleep now." She said, rubbing her eyes in an attempt to wake herself up slightly.

"I know, me too." He agreed.

The two settled on the sofa, both wishing it was more comfortable. However, at the same time they were both grateful it wasn't any more comfy, if it was any softer they'd both be asleep within minutes.

"Do you want to do a question to pass the time?" he asked his partner, before she dropped off to sleep, her head now resting on his shoulder in tiredness. Although the two were used to being physically close when dancing, it was still unusual for them to be in this close proximity to each other and Joe was unsure how to act around her.

"Yeah but it's your go first and I'm too lazy to get my phone out to read the question." She replied, yawning.

In response, he gently nudged her off of his shoulder, before taking his phone out of his bag. A couple of clicks later, he began "right, if you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?"

He took a couple moments to think of his answer, and Dianne used this opportunity to lean on the man sitting next to her, slumping her head back onto his shoulder with a content lazy smile. "First of all, I think my parents on the whole did a pretty good job of raising me. I respect the choices they made for me."

She turned to him with a cheeky grin, her tone playful but her words sincere "yeah go on Tracey and Graham. They did a pretty amazing job if you ask me."

"Thank you." He laughed a little nervously, a blush rising steadily on his cheeks.

"Go on then, what would you change?" she asked, slightly impatiently.

"Um I think it would have been useful to be taught more about business. Don't get me wrong, at the time I had no idea that this would be the job I'd go into, so they would have had even less of an idea than me. But I think, when YouTube started to become really popular, companies started to reach out, and I signed a couple contracts that I would never have signed now, and missed out on opportunities that I'm still kicking myself about and I just think it would have been good to have some more guidance." He sighed, before smiling slightly as his companion, who was listening intently despite her tired state. "So yeah, my mum has her own jewellery company so I think if they'd given me some more advice on that sort of thing it would have helped me now. I can't tell them off for it though, it forced me to learn for myself, and at the time it was all so new that I can't blame them."

She nodded onto his shoulder in reply. "That makes sense. You were so young when you started, you probably had no idea what was going on." She thought to herself for a bit about this, trying to imagine Joe as some innocent country boy rather than the more confident man sat next to her, and smiled gently.

"Exactly!" he laughed. "That's one of the reasons that Caspar and I started our management company, we want to make sure that tomorrow's influencers aren't selling themselves short."

She nodded again. "That's fair. I understand that."

"Thanks." He said, before beginning to feel himself close up slightly. He shifted slightly, moving Dianne off of his shoulder. She sat back from him slightly, as the realisation of her position dawned on her. As great as Joe was, she should still at least be maintaining some sort of personal space between them, she thought, internally scolding herself.

He cleared his throat, before asking the red-head beside him the same question. "I think your parents did a good job raising you, but is there anything you'd change? Go on Dianne, if you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?"

She smiled, thoughtfully. "I'm proud of the way my parents raised me, first of all. But if I had to change one thing I'd change... ooo I don't know what I'd change actually. Umm maybe they could have pushed me in the school direction a bit more?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I'm rubbish at maths." She said, not missing a beat.

"I know." He laughed slightly, but upon noticing that Dianne wasn't laughing stopped immediately. "Sorry, that was unnecessary."

"It's alright. If I wasn't so tired I'd probably be laughing at myself too." She reassured him.

She continued her explanation quickly, so he didn't apologise again- this was also something she'd noticed about Joe, he apologised often and unnecessarily. "I mean, I left school at an age which is illegal now. I was never going to be some mathematician or whatever, but still. They were so supportive of me leaving early to do my hairdressing apprenticeship, and were still supportive throughout my dance career. It was a massive risk, and yes it did pay off, but if it hadn't, well my back up plan wasn't very secure. I wasn't like you with your plan B, C and D." she paused as they shared a laugh, as she had learnt that this wasn't an exaggeration for Joe. "I'm so grateful that they let me take that risk, but you know, they probably shouldn't have?" she finished.

"I'm glad that they did."

"Thank you. Me too."

At that very moment, Joe's phone beeped startling them both slightly. "The Ubers are here, let's go." Slowly, the two gathered their stuff, wandering out of the studio into the dark London night.

"Night Joe." She said into his neck as they hugged goodbye.

"Goodnight Dianne, sleep well."

The two parted way, stepping into separate cars both speeding off into the darkness in different directions. They fought to keep themselves awake during their rides home, messaging each other in order to keep sleep at bay, despite having been apart for barely more than ten minutes.