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The Complete Fic Directory
- All I Do Each Night Is Rehearse The Pray Routine
- Appendicitis
- An Act Of Un-Remembrance
- Beginnings
- Better Than Today - Kylie Minogue
- Black
- Breathe Out
- Christmas Shopping
- Choreography
- Dancers
- Dangling
- Days
- Default Settings/Do You Love Me? [Part One]
- Displacement Theory [Blue]
- DJ (I Could Be Dancing) - Alphabeat
- Enchanted
- Ends (Loose And Otherwise) [Ends]
- Enemies
- Family
- Fine Time To Lose Your Mind - Jack McManus
- Fireworks
- Flat Tyres And Palm Prints [Birth]
- Flu
- Friends: A Dictionary [Friends]
- From Angels To The Moon/The Soup
- Green Light [Green]
- Hell Raisers
- Home Invasion
- Hours
- In My Veins
- Insides
- It Was The Death Of Something [Death]
- Just Like Children [Children]
- Kiss And Make Up
- The Last Time
- Lonely At Christmas
- Love Songs
- Lovers
- Middles
- Midnight Sun
- Mistletoe
- Months Go By [Months]
- More Important Than Fear
- Muddied Stars [Brown]
- Not Enough
- Of Peacocks
- On The Subject Of Angels [Orange]
- Playing House [Parents]
- The Price Of Friendship
- The Prize
- Post-Match Analysis
- Puddles
- Red
- Secret Admirer
- Secret Agent Owen
- Shades
- Shine - Skies Of America
- Slow Dancing In A Burning Room
- Snap
- So Good To See You
- Stage Fright
- Stay (Oh Darlin')
- Study In Motion
- Summertime Feeling - S Club 7
- Sunrise
- Sunset
- Teammates
- That Night In Amsterdam/Do You Love Me? [Part Two]
- This
- Three Sets Of Three
- Twenty-Nine (And A Half)
- Under A Colourless Sky [Colourless]
- We Found Something That Belongs To You [Outsides]
- We Were Strangers Once [Strangers]
- Weeks
- What Did You Say This Time?
- What Will The Papers Say? [Purple]
- White Out [White]
- The Wordsmith/Breathe In
- Years
- Yellow
- Yesterday's Promise
- 3-0 Defeats
- Barlow's Music Shop Series
- Fanfiction Challenges
- The Postcard Prompts
- OT3, OT4 & OT5
- Stories By Band Member
- Stories By Ship
- Stories By Genre
- Stories By Era
- Band-Free AUs
- Prompt Requests
- Other Fandom Fics
- Follow Me
Beginnings
Together they’d been through a lot of beginnings. Of course there was the beginning of the band and the beginning of their friendship. But there had also been the beginnings of tours and albums. Then there was the beginning of the end followed, inevitably, by the beginning of trying to adjust. By the time they came to stand at the beginning of beginning it all over again they all could feel when a new beginning was about to begin. And as Jason opened his front door to Mark that night, both men knew that a new beginning was in the air.
“You’re back early mate,” Jason smiled as Mark walked up to his door. It was Elwood who had heard the car, insisting that it was his father. Elwood’s determined face had convinced Jason to scoop up the boy in his arms instantly and come to his front door to inspect. Sure enough, he had been greeted by his friend’s grinning face. Mark’s grin lit up the dim evening sky like a firework and it stretched from ear to ear as he spotted his boy in Jason’s arms.
“Yeah…sorry again about the last minute baby-sitting,” Mark chuckled sheepishly as he half-skipped up to Jason’s door. Jason rolled his eyes.
“You talk like I can’t handle kids!” he replied, hoping he sounded at least mildly affronted; a difficult task in Mark’s beguiling presence.
“I know I know! You come from a big family, yada yada! Heard it all before Jay,” Mark laughed, his eyes twinkling. Jason’s blue eyes glittered mischievously as he handed a delighted Elwood over to his father.
“Actually, I was about to say that I’ve been in a band with you since 1990!” Jason replied and Mark laughed, returning the enthusiastic hug his son was giving him.
“Yeah…everyone’s always saying he’s like me.”
“Actually I was referring to the being run ragged and the chaos…but now you mention it all he really needs is the hat…” Jason teased.
“You love me really,” Mark grinned back with certainty.
“Wouldn’t have you any other way mate. Fancy coming in for a bit or are you off somewhere?”
“All the time in the world mate,” Mark nodded, setting Elwood back down as Jason moved in to the house, leaving the door open as an invite for him to follow.
As Mark closed the door, he wondered how long it would be before Howard or Gary noticed it too – how long until the familiar feeling of beginnings prompted a phone call or an impromptu visit. As he followed Jason in to the kitchen, the two friends exchanged a brief glance. Jason grinned back at him for a brief second and Mark knew he could feel it too. There was almost an inevitability about it all now. The four of them always seemed to keep coming back to one another. The tour had been over for little over a month, yet already here they were – some sort of sixth sense telling them all it was time they were back together again. A month apart should have been a welcome break. And it had been. For a month. But Mark knew that somehow he was destined to end up stopping by for coffee at Jason’s today. Because when a beginning was beginning, none of them were capable of staying away. He would’ve called Jason or Jason would have popped over to see Howard or Gary would have got some sort of melody in his head and needed Mark to help him fix something in it that didn’t feel quite right. It was how all of their beginnings began now; their knowledge that they could lean on each other for anything and everything.
As Jason moved over to the kettle, Mark went over to where Willow was sleeping in her carry-cot giving her cheek a brief stroke with his fingers before settling down at the kitchen table. The sound of Elwood murdering Jason’s guitar drifted in from the lounge and Mark chuckled to himself.
“So, how was the wedding?” Jason asked him as the kettle boiled.
“Oh you know what it’s like…I was very conscious of the fact that more people were staring at me than at the bride and groom. They’re Emma’s friends really, I hardly know them, so I felt even worse! I left Emma to the whole reception thing on her own – they showed some restraint in the church but by the end of the service I was convinced at least one of them would’ve managed to get up the courage to pull me centre-stage for a rendition of Shine!” Mark sighed, his beaming face showing only the smallest sign of weariness. Jason smiled at him sympathetically then tilted his head to one side and frowned thoughtfully.
“Wouldn’t have been Shine for a wedding…Rule The World maybe…”
Jason mused, reaching for the sugar bowl and dropping a lump in to his coffee. He stirred the sugar in before glancing at Mark who beamed back at him knowingly. Jason rolled his eyes but dutifully shoved a fresh teaspoon in to the sugar bowl.
“Four sugars, just for you,” Jason smirked as he set down Mark’s coffee in front of him.
“See, this is why I love you more than the other two – you always let me have all four of my sugars. Gaz never lets me,” Mark said, taking a tentative sip of the coffee. Jason laughed.
“I’ll remember that next time you’re telling Gaz he’s your favourite in a bid for lead vocal,” he said, raising an eyebrow at Mark.
“You watch, I’m gonna get you half the next album on lead now!”
“Don’t you remember how this band works Mark? Gaz for the music, you for the girls and me and Howard for the dance moves. If you start messing with things and giving the dancers working microphones, the whole thing falls apart,” Jason replied, his eyes sparkling brightly, and Mark couldn’t help but laugh.
They both knew how this worked now; they’d bide their time, laughing and joking, exchanging stories and the odd idea and eventually someone would call or drive past and find themselves powerless to resist thinking ‘Oh, that’s Jay’s house! Would be rude not to stop by and chat’. It was always the same. Sometimes they all rolled up at Gary’s door, other times Mark’s or Jason’s, occasionally Howard’s but he lived the furthest away. Whichever two it started with, it would always end with all four standing at the beginning of something. Could be a tour, a single, an album. To Jason it didn’t matter anymore. He just enjoyed the banter too much to care. For Mark the beginning of anything was preferable to a single – singles caused far too much chart-related stress for him to ever really enjoy them. But he didn’t really care what was beginning because everything about the band made him happy. As far as Howard was concerned, what was beginning was completely irrelevant. He simply revelled in anything that kept the four of them together. Gary meanwhile was the most easily pleased. He didn’t even care if nothing more began than one line of a two minute song. He just enjoyed the laughter and the idea sharing and the anecdotes. He even enjoyed it when they all ganged up to tease him – he knew that each one of them got the three against one assault at some time and usually it was him or Jason. Mark and Howard didn’t have enough issues to gang up on them.
Jason and Mark were unsure of how long it was before the phone jolted them away from an account of Mark’s family holiday in Mauritius. But they both knew that they weren’t the only ones who’d felt a new beginning coming on and they exchanged a grin. As Jason got up and grabbed his mobile from the counter, Mark sipped his coffee and waited. Jason smiled warmly.
“Hello mate, you looking for post-tour counselling or do you actually need something?” he asked teasingly and Mark smiled over at him. Howard then.
“Don’t know why I called really, just that I drove past your house earlier and realised we’d not really spoken since the tour ended,” Howard replied.
“You in the area? Only Mark’s over with Mini-Mark and Willow and I think he’s this close to pulling out his holiday snaps,” Jason said, laughing as Mark attempted to scowl. Mark couldn’t do scowling. Howard laughed, glancing at the road sign before trying to work out how far away his friend’s house was from Jason’s. He knew that they knew they were standing on the verge of a beginning, he could hear it in Jason’s voice and he couldn’t wait to join the fun.
“I reckon I could rescue you…” he said, pretending he needed more than a millisecond of thought about catching up with his bandmates. As he climbed in to his car, he could almost hear Jason rolling his eyes.
“Limited offer mate…time’s running out,” Jason shrugged.
“There’s sugary coffee in it for you,” Mark put in from the background and Howard smiled. Mark sounded slightly drunk. But then Mark always sounded slightly drunk. It was just Mark. He was drunk on life.
“See you in a few minutes mate,” Howard chuckled and as Jason hung up on him he wondered if he ought to start timing Gary.
When Howard arrived, he embraced Jason and Mark in turn, giving them the typical ‘Alright mate’ greetings and wondering if they noticed the way their company had stretched his already massive grin within seconds. Mark was still grinning, giddy on sugar but mostly just buzzing quietly in a way that was uniquely Mark and Howard noted that Jason’s brow hadn’t knitted even once in over-thought. Elwood had stopped murdering Jason’s guitar and was now at the kitchen table with them, tucking in to some of Jason’s homemade pasta – making Mark and Howard very jealous.
“Are you sure he’s had the last of it Jay, you’re not hiding it somewhere in case Gaz turns up?” Howard asked. They were all suckers for Jason’s cooking, but Gary was weaker than all of them put together. For a pudding man, he couldn’t half put away the savoury stuff if it was cooked by Jason. Jason grinned at that. In case? More like when.
“I get Uncle Jay’s special pasta because I’m special,” Elwood assured them all and they couldn’t help but laugh affectionately.
“I believe those were your dad’s words too when he first tired the stuff…although thankfully minus the Uncle part,” Jason smiled, sitting himself down just in time for Mark’s mobile to ring.
Mark fumbled about through his pockets, trying to locate the phone whilst Jason and Howard exchanged a knowing glance. The sky was starting to turn a deeper shade of blue and the clouds were no longer framed by the fading sunlight but instead by a soft, sleepy glow. This was their time of night for beginnings. And Mark always seemed to be the first one Gary would call. Gary was one of a precious few who would have the patience to wait for Mark to find his phone. Gary was the only person who’d ever really gathered just how long it could take Mark to find a phone. Even Emma struggled.
“’Ello mate!” Mark chirped at last and all three men knew it wouldn’t be long until Gary joined them at the kitchen table.
As Elwood curled up on the sofa for a night with the TV, Jason heard the doorbell ring and he knew the moment he opened the door that Gary knew tonight was a beginning night too. His eyes were shining knowingly and he smiled at Jason as if they hadn’t seen each other in years. Gary enjoyed the beginnings more than anyone, Jason suspected. Somehow he’d been more disconnected from the beginnings first time around and now he seemed to appreciate them so much more for it.
A forth coffee was being brewed before Gary had even finished saying hello to Howard.
“You took your time,” Howard grinned, giving Gary a firm pat on the back.
“Well one of you could’ve called me!” he laughed in reply.
“Ruins the magic,” Mark put in, his grin big enough to light up the whole city by now.
“Have you given him all four sugars?” Gary asked with deadpan humour, turning to Jason who simply shrugged.
“Come on Gaz, he’s irresistible! I don’t know how anyone can say no to that face!” he replied. Mark laughed.
“He is the cute one I suppose,” Gary responded with a roll of his eyes, giving Mark a warm hug.
“Yeah yeah, I love you too Gaz,” he grinned into Gary’s shoulder.
As Jason handed Gary his coffee, sitting himself down at the kitchen table, they all knew that a new beginning had officially begun. It wasn’t clear what it was the beginning of yet, but they really didn’t care. They’d been through a lot of beginnings together, and they actually got more fun each time. There had been the beginning of the band and the beginning of their friendship, the beginnings of tours and albums. Not so fun had been the beginning of the end and the beginning of trying to adjust. But now they’d gotten through standing at the beginning of beginning it all over again and begun more albums and tours and singles so that now they all could feel when a new beginning was about to begin. And from the moment Jason had opened his front door to Mark that night, all four men, no matter where they were or what they were doing, had somehow known that a beginning was in the air.
“You’re back early mate,” Jason smiled as Mark walked up to his door. It was Elwood who had heard the car, insisting that it was his father. Elwood’s determined face had convinced Jason to scoop up the boy in his arms instantly and come to his front door to inspect. Sure enough, he had been greeted by his friend’s grinning face. Mark’s grin lit up the dim evening sky like a firework and it stretched from ear to ear as he spotted his boy in Jason’s arms.
“Yeah…sorry again about the last minute baby-sitting,” Mark chuckled sheepishly as he half-skipped up to Jason’s door. Jason rolled his eyes.
“You talk like I can’t handle kids!” he replied, hoping he sounded at least mildly affronted; a difficult task in Mark’s beguiling presence.
“I know I know! You come from a big family, yada yada! Heard it all before Jay,” Mark laughed, his eyes twinkling. Jason’s blue eyes glittered mischievously as he handed a delighted Elwood over to his father.
“Actually, I was about to say that I’ve been in a band with you since 1990!” Jason replied and Mark laughed, returning the enthusiastic hug his son was giving him.
“Yeah…everyone’s always saying he’s like me.”
“Actually I was referring to the being run ragged and the chaos…but now you mention it all he really needs is the hat…” Jason teased.
“You love me really,” Mark grinned back with certainty.
“Wouldn’t have you any other way mate. Fancy coming in for a bit or are you off somewhere?”
“All the time in the world mate,” Mark nodded, setting Elwood back down as Jason moved in to the house, leaving the door open as an invite for him to follow.
As Mark closed the door, he wondered how long it would be before Howard or Gary noticed it too – how long until the familiar feeling of beginnings prompted a phone call or an impromptu visit. As he followed Jason in to the kitchen, the two friends exchanged a brief glance. Jason grinned back at him for a brief second and Mark knew he could feel it too. There was almost an inevitability about it all now. The four of them always seemed to keep coming back to one another. The tour had been over for little over a month, yet already here they were – some sort of sixth sense telling them all it was time they were back together again. A month apart should have been a welcome break. And it had been. For a month. But Mark knew that somehow he was destined to end up stopping by for coffee at Jason’s today. Because when a beginning was beginning, none of them were capable of staying away. He would’ve called Jason or Jason would have popped over to see Howard or Gary would have got some sort of melody in his head and needed Mark to help him fix something in it that didn’t feel quite right. It was how all of their beginnings began now; their knowledge that they could lean on each other for anything and everything.
As Jason moved over to the kettle, Mark went over to where Willow was sleeping in her carry-cot giving her cheek a brief stroke with his fingers before settling down at the kitchen table. The sound of Elwood murdering Jason’s guitar drifted in from the lounge and Mark chuckled to himself.
“So, how was the wedding?” Jason asked him as the kettle boiled.
“Oh you know what it’s like…I was very conscious of the fact that more people were staring at me than at the bride and groom. They’re Emma’s friends really, I hardly know them, so I felt even worse! I left Emma to the whole reception thing on her own – they showed some restraint in the church but by the end of the service I was convinced at least one of them would’ve managed to get up the courage to pull me centre-stage for a rendition of Shine!” Mark sighed, his beaming face showing only the smallest sign of weariness. Jason smiled at him sympathetically then tilted his head to one side and frowned thoughtfully.
“Wouldn’t have been Shine for a wedding…Rule The World maybe…”
Jason mused, reaching for the sugar bowl and dropping a lump in to his coffee. He stirred the sugar in before glancing at Mark who beamed back at him knowingly. Jason rolled his eyes but dutifully shoved a fresh teaspoon in to the sugar bowl.
“Four sugars, just for you,” Jason smirked as he set down Mark’s coffee in front of him.
“See, this is why I love you more than the other two – you always let me have all four of my sugars. Gaz never lets me,” Mark said, taking a tentative sip of the coffee. Jason laughed.
“I’ll remember that next time you’re telling Gaz he’s your favourite in a bid for lead vocal,” he said, raising an eyebrow at Mark.
“You watch, I’m gonna get you half the next album on lead now!”
“Don’t you remember how this band works Mark? Gaz for the music, you for the girls and me and Howard for the dance moves. If you start messing with things and giving the dancers working microphones, the whole thing falls apart,” Jason replied, his eyes sparkling brightly, and Mark couldn’t help but laugh.
They both knew how this worked now; they’d bide their time, laughing and joking, exchanging stories and the odd idea and eventually someone would call or drive past and find themselves powerless to resist thinking ‘Oh, that’s Jay’s house! Would be rude not to stop by and chat’. It was always the same. Sometimes they all rolled up at Gary’s door, other times Mark’s or Jason’s, occasionally Howard’s but he lived the furthest away. Whichever two it started with, it would always end with all four standing at the beginning of something. Could be a tour, a single, an album. To Jason it didn’t matter anymore. He just enjoyed the banter too much to care. For Mark the beginning of anything was preferable to a single – singles caused far too much chart-related stress for him to ever really enjoy them. But he didn’t really care what was beginning because everything about the band made him happy. As far as Howard was concerned, what was beginning was completely irrelevant. He simply revelled in anything that kept the four of them together. Gary meanwhile was the most easily pleased. He didn’t even care if nothing more began than one line of a two minute song. He just enjoyed the laughter and the idea sharing and the anecdotes. He even enjoyed it when they all ganged up to tease him – he knew that each one of them got the three against one assault at some time and usually it was him or Jason. Mark and Howard didn’t have enough issues to gang up on them.
Jason and Mark were unsure of how long it was before the phone jolted them away from an account of Mark’s family holiday in Mauritius. But they both knew that they weren’t the only ones who’d felt a new beginning coming on and they exchanged a grin. As Jason got up and grabbed his mobile from the counter, Mark sipped his coffee and waited. Jason smiled warmly.
“Hello mate, you looking for post-tour counselling or do you actually need something?” he asked teasingly and Mark smiled over at him. Howard then.
“Don’t know why I called really, just that I drove past your house earlier and realised we’d not really spoken since the tour ended,” Howard replied.
“You in the area? Only Mark’s over with Mini-Mark and Willow and I think he’s this close to pulling out his holiday snaps,” Jason said, laughing as Mark attempted to scowl. Mark couldn’t do scowling. Howard laughed, glancing at the road sign before trying to work out how far away his friend’s house was from Jason’s. He knew that they knew they were standing on the verge of a beginning, he could hear it in Jason’s voice and he couldn’t wait to join the fun.
“I reckon I could rescue you…” he said, pretending he needed more than a millisecond of thought about catching up with his bandmates. As he climbed in to his car, he could almost hear Jason rolling his eyes.
“Limited offer mate…time’s running out,” Jason shrugged.
“There’s sugary coffee in it for you,” Mark put in from the background and Howard smiled. Mark sounded slightly drunk. But then Mark always sounded slightly drunk. It was just Mark. He was drunk on life.
“See you in a few minutes mate,” Howard chuckled and as Jason hung up on him he wondered if he ought to start timing Gary.
When Howard arrived, he embraced Jason and Mark in turn, giving them the typical ‘Alright mate’ greetings and wondering if they noticed the way their company had stretched his already massive grin within seconds. Mark was still grinning, giddy on sugar but mostly just buzzing quietly in a way that was uniquely Mark and Howard noted that Jason’s brow hadn’t knitted even once in over-thought. Elwood had stopped murdering Jason’s guitar and was now at the kitchen table with them, tucking in to some of Jason’s homemade pasta – making Mark and Howard very jealous.
“Are you sure he’s had the last of it Jay, you’re not hiding it somewhere in case Gaz turns up?” Howard asked. They were all suckers for Jason’s cooking, but Gary was weaker than all of them put together. For a pudding man, he couldn’t half put away the savoury stuff if it was cooked by Jason. Jason grinned at that. In case? More like when.
“I get Uncle Jay’s special pasta because I’m special,” Elwood assured them all and they couldn’t help but laugh affectionately.
“I believe those were your dad’s words too when he first tired the stuff…although thankfully minus the Uncle part,” Jason smiled, sitting himself down just in time for Mark’s mobile to ring.
Mark fumbled about through his pockets, trying to locate the phone whilst Jason and Howard exchanged a knowing glance. The sky was starting to turn a deeper shade of blue and the clouds were no longer framed by the fading sunlight but instead by a soft, sleepy glow. This was their time of night for beginnings. And Mark always seemed to be the first one Gary would call. Gary was one of a precious few who would have the patience to wait for Mark to find his phone. Gary was the only person who’d ever really gathered just how long it could take Mark to find a phone. Even Emma struggled.
“’Ello mate!” Mark chirped at last and all three men knew it wouldn’t be long until Gary joined them at the kitchen table.
As Elwood curled up on the sofa for a night with the TV, Jason heard the doorbell ring and he knew the moment he opened the door that Gary knew tonight was a beginning night too. His eyes were shining knowingly and he smiled at Jason as if they hadn’t seen each other in years. Gary enjoyed the beginnings more than anyone, Jason suspected. Somehow he’d been more disconnected from the beginnings first time around and now he seemed to appreciate them so much more for it.
A forth coffee was being brewed before Gary had even finished saying hello to Howard.
“You took your time,” Howard grinned, giving Gary a firm pat on the back.
“Well one of you could’ve called me!” he laughed in reply.
“Ruins the magic,” Mark put in, his grin big enough to light up the whole city by now.
“Have you given him all four sugars?” Gary asked with deadpan humour, turning to Jason who simply shrugged.
“Come on Gaz, he’s irresistible! I don’t know how anyone can say no to that face!” he replied. Mark laughed.
“He is the cute one I suppose,” Gary responded with a roll of his eyes, giving Mark a warm hug.
“Yeah yeah, I love you too Gaz,” he grinned into Gary’s shoulder.
As Jason handed Gary his coffee, sitting himself down at the kitchen table, they all knew that a new beginning had officially begun. It wasn’t clear what it was the beginning of yet, but they really didn’t care. They’d been through a lot of beginnings together, and they actually got more fun each time. There had been the beginning of the band and the beginning of their friendship, the beginnings of tours and albums. Not so fun had been the beginning of the end and the beginning of trying to adjust. But now they’d gotten through standing at the beginning of beginning it all over again and begun more albums and tours and singles so that now they all could feel when a new beginning was about to begin. And from the moment Jason had opened his front door to Mark that night, all four men, no matter where they were or what they were doing, had somehow known that a beginning was in the air.