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

eighty four

She knows that she's said it before and she'll probably say it again - Roxanne loves their house. She loved it before the three of them -five including Casper and Amos- moved in but now, seeing all of their furniture, Arthur's completed nursery...it made it all seem that little bit more homely.

Since John wasn't at the studio, it had only taken them a week to unpack everything and the night that they'd finished with the last box and with Arthur fast asleep upstairs, John and Roxanne had fallen down onto the couch with happy sighs.

"That's it," she grinned as he raised his arm, which allowed her to curl up into his side, "Everything has been unpacked."

"We are officially moved in," John declared, leaning down to give her a kiss, "Welcome home."

"We're proper adults now," she muses and he can't help but laugh.

"I think we turned into proper adults a while back, love. Say maybe August of last year?"

"Oh shush," she giggles, kissing him again, "You know what I mean."

He nods, resting his head back against the couch, "We might have done it all in the wrong order but we got there."

"Yes, we did."

They'd decided that they wouldn't have Roxy's parents down until they'd moved in and gotten the house in order - they didn't want to give Greg any reason to start on them but even so, it took Roxy almost two weeks to actually phone her mum back and arrange days for them to come.

Since there were only two bedrooms, they were obviously having to stay at a hotel (John would never admit it out loud but he was glad) and on the day of their arrival, Roxane buzzed around the flat; straightening pictures on the walls, fluffing pillows and tidying every little thing.

John's bouncing Arthur on his knee when the doorbell rings and he swears that Roxanne is close to a breakdown as she goes to answer, popping her head back around the door to look at him, "Please behave, John."

He scoffs as she disappears, "I will if he will."

He hears Roxy open the door, hears the -probably fake- pleasantries that she shares with her folks and it isn't long until Cathy steps over the threshold into the living room.

A hand covers her mouth when she spots John sitting with the baby, her eyes watering as he stands up to greet her.

He's got to at least try. For Roxanne.

"Oh my," Cathy gushes, "Isn't he handsome? Greg, come and meet your grandson."

John's eyes meet those of Roxy's dad as he saunters into the room, standing behind his wife but he doesn't say anything, turning his attention to Arthur as he starts fussing.

"He's definitely your son, isn't he John? He's got-"

"My nose," he finishes Cathy's observation, "He does, yeah."

"Coffee?" Roxanne asks as she returns into the room, sensing the tension and awkwardness immediately, "Or tea? We have tea too."

"I'll get it," John gently hands Arthur over to her and disappears into the kitchen to fill the kettle.

This is for Roxanne, he tells himself, leaning against the counter, It's all for Roxanne.

"Can I hold him?" he hears Cathy asking and he scoffs, turning around to set out the mugs.

He doesn't mind the woman, he doesn't and out of the pair, it's Cathy he would like to have a relationship with his son but come on, what they did to Roxanne was really, really shitty.