#dlyh

June 2021 vs January 2020

how did this turn out so fuckin long, maybe i should post it to ao3…. DLYH verse“Well yeah, Bri, obviously I’m trying, I just don’t fuckingsee it,” Roger snapped, bringing the little pair of photos closer to his eyesand trying his best to relax his vision whateverthat bloody meant. Honestly, he would have given up ages ago if it weren’t forthe fact that everybody in the band but him had mastered how to view the 3Dpictures.

“I can just give you the viewer again, Rog, it takes a bitof practice,” Brian said gently.

“No! We’ve got all day on this bloody bus, not like there’sanything better to do,” Roger grumbled, flicking to the next photo in thestack. The pile Brian had given him to peruse contained a mix of pictures fromtheir last two tours, and some from when they’d been recording News of theWorld. Apparently band matters had been persistently getting in the way ofBrian sorting them.

Speaking of Brian, the older man was still hovering over him,looking frustratingly patient.

“Buzz off, okay? I’ll figure it out on my own,” Rogermuttered, shooing Brian away. Brian didn’t need much encouragement to leave,because at that moment Freddie was calling him over for a Scrabble rematch.

Now alone, Roger looked again down at the picture. It wasone of the ones from the studio, showing Freddie leaning over a mixing console,looking deep in thought. Rather nice. Roger squinted, and crossed his eyes, andthen tried to relax his eyes, and still couldn’t see it in 3D. Still a nicephoto, though. Roger stuck it to the back of the pile.

The next few were all studio shots, a lot of them ratherboring in Roger’s opinion, so he skipped through a chunk of them without reallyattempting the 3D effect. He came to a few of one of their live show rigs,which he appreciated far more.

After a while of staring without focusing too much, he wasactually starting to get it a little, he felt.

Next picture. It was of John, with his hair reaching downpast his shoulders, so it certainly wasn’t a recent picture. Roger could makeout a bit of a background, but he didn’t recognise it. Still, it was an okaypicture, he guessed. He could just about get a bit of the 3D effect if he triedhard.

Next picture. John again. Brian was the photographer, soreally, Roger shouldn’t have been surprised. It was virtually the same as thelast one, Roger thought, so he skipped forward and-

Froze.

There was John – two tiny copies of him – looking bashful asever and wearing nothing but his boxers, gaze obviously fixed on thephotographer rather than the lens of the camera. Well, it wasn’t like Roger hadnever seen John in his pants before, but this seemed more intimate. This wasn’tJohn having a joke backstage as he wriggled into a pair of trousers, this wasJohn in bed with Brian, probably not intending to put on a pair of trousersanytime soon, and with a few rather obvious marks along his collarbone.

Curiosity getting the better of him – and really, it wasBrian’s fault for not checking his collection more carefully before handing itover to Roger – he slid the picture back slowly to see what was underneath it,was just about to see when-

“Roger, have you got a pencil over h-“

Roger looked up to see John at the exact moment John lookeddown to see… Well, to see himself: exposed and immortalised in glossy print, heldin Roger’s hand.

Before Roger could formulate an excuse, John had snatched awaythe offending photos – looking pretty thoroughly embarrassed – and sendingabout a third of the stack of pictures cascading down to the floor of the busin the process.

“Those were – er – not meant to get in there, obviously,”John muttered, and Roger felt for him, he really did. Hell, he probably would’vebeen embarrassed if the roles were reversed, and John was far more private of aperson than Roger.

So Roger shrugged, and feigned ignorance as John continuedto stammer through rather lame excuses.

“Not sure what you’re talking about, Deacy, I was justlooking at some of the pictures from the tour,” he said, and John only took asecond to cotton on. He was still flushed right up to the roots of his hair –much shorter now than in the pictures, Roger couldn’t help but think – but henodded jerkily.

“Yes. Right. I’ll just… I’ll take these. Maybe these too,for good measure,” John said, quickly scooping up the photos and putting themback in the shoebox Brian had brought them along in. Roger could only nod.

His gaze followed John as the younger man stalked back to Brianand Freddie, sat down next to Brian and whispered something in his ear. Rogerjust had a second of meeting Brian’s gaze – the guitarist looking just asmortified as John – before he quickly looked away.

Chapter 4!!!