Ficlet | He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
Title : He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
Rating : PG (13 for drug references.)
Pairing : Nick/Joe or Nick&Joe (however you choose to see it.)
Summary : Everyone thinks Nick's the perfect one. Joe knows otherwise.
Notes : Do not own. Name from a song by The Hollies, it just kinda fit. This was completely random. I don't know where it came from. Thank you to Alicia for reading it over for me!
Strong enough to carry him'>
Everyone thinks Nick's the perfect one. The boy who conquered diabetes, who writes music like he's got music in his bones, who just is perfection if it ever existed. But they're wrong, Joe knows. The one truly awful problem with Nick is that he's always been too gullible. If it wasn't for the bodyguards and the lifestyle they'd been granted Nick would've become that kid. The one that takes a stranger's candy, that helps some balding pedophile look for his oh so cute and nonexistent dog.
When the fame first came, like a bag of bricks robbing the air from their lungs, so sudden and absolute, Joe used to joke about things. Little things, like how Nick was always going to sign that one last autograph, take one more picture, believe silly lies like the fans who claim they've bought 30 CDs just because. The jokes were always a part of something more, a bigger fear in the pit of his stomach. Nick could be talked into anything given a persistent person, and that thought alone haunted a spot in the back of Joe's mind.
It's years later, experience under their belts, when Nick finally falls for the wrong thing. Joe's not sure how it happens, how he lost track of Nick long enough for him to find some back room in the middle of a nameless city. It might have had to do with directions, or Joe's lack of ability to tell them, and Nick - always thinking, saying "Lets just ask someone" and taking a step too far when Joe's looking hopelessly at an upside down map.
"Nick?" Joe calls into the night, and the stars blink in response. He goes in circles, calling out and begging some shadow in the dark to answer, to be Nicky, to know where he is.
Finally he finds him, in some room that reeks of piss and booze. The room is bright, and Nick has always been a firefly, too attracted to the warm glow of light to know what's best. Joe first notices him when there's a giggle from a tattered couch, loud and clear and so entirely Nick's.
"Nick, what are you doing, man?" Joe wants to sound angry, scolding as he looks into eyes twice their normal size. "Oh, Nicky," Joe gives, his voice too soft to present any anger.
"Sorry, bro. This," Nick pauses, his words running into each other as he looks around the room, searching. He must not find what he's looking for because he just shrugs, slouching back into the couch so that his curls spread around his head like a delicate halo.
"I was hungry. My levels," Nick's barely forming sentences, lost in the daze of some sort of high.
"It's alright, Nicky. I'll take care of you now," Joe whispers, his heart breaking as Nick's lips crack into a lazy smile. Like the weight of the world, he lifts Nick, holds him up and carries him from the nameless room, on some broken road, in some city Joe never wants to see again.
"I've got you, Nick. Just hold on."
Joe's been sure of one thing his entire life. Nick's not perfect. Nick still fights his battles daily, still bends his God given fingers in frustration when the words won't work with the notes, is still human. It's wrong and sometimes it hurts but Joe wouldn't want to carry anyone else through, would never trade Nick in a million years. Maybe Joe's gullible too, easily used, but he loves Nick and this weight, physical and emotional, is a reminder of everything he loves.
Rating : PG (13 for drug references.)
Pairing : Nick/Joe or Nick&Joe (however you choose to see it.)
Summary : Everyone thinks Nick's the perfect one. Joe knows otherwise.
Notes : Do not own. Name from a song by The Hollies, it just kinda fit. This was completely random. I don't know where it came from. Thank you to Alicia for reading it over for me!
Strong enough to carry him'>
Everyone thinks Nick's the perfect one. The boy who conquered diabetes, who writes music like he's got music in his bones, who just is perfection if it ever existed. But they're wrong, Joe knows. The one truly awful problem with Nick is that he's always been too gullible. If it wasn't for the bodyguards and the lifestyle they'd been granted Nick would've become that kid. The one that takes a stranger's candy, that helps some balding pedophile look for his oh so cute and nonexistent dog.
When the fame first came, like a bag of bricks robbing the air from their lungs, so sudden and absolute, Joe used to joke about things. Little things, like how Nick was always going to sign that one last autograph, take one more picture, believe silly lies like the fans who claim they've bought 30 CDs just because. The jokes were always a part of something more, a bigger fear in the pit of his stomach. Nick could be talked into anything given a persistent person, and that thought alone haunted a spot in the back of Joe's mind.
It's years later, experience under their belts, when Nick finally falls for the wrong thing. Joe's not sure how it happens, how he lost track of Nick long enough for him to find some back room in the middle of a nameless city. It might have had to do with directions, or Joe's lack of ability to tell them, and Nick - always thinking, saying "Lets just ask someone" and taking a step too far when Joe's looking hopelessly at an upside down map.
"Nick?" Joe calls into the night, and the stars blink in response. He goes in circles, calling out and begging some shadow in the dark to answer, to be Nicky, to know where he is.
Finally he finds him, in some room that reeks of piss and booze. The room is bright, and Nick has always been a firefly, too attracted to the warm glow of light to know what's best. Joe first notices him when there's a giggle from a tattered couch, loud and clear and so entirely Nick's.
"Nick, what are you doing, man?" Joe wants to sound angry, scolding as he looks into eyes twice their normal size. "Oh, Nicky," Joe gives, his voice too soft to present any anger.
"Sorry, bro. This," Nick pauses, his words running into each other as he looks around the room, searching. He must not find what he's looking for because he just shrugs, slouching back into the couch so that his curls spread around his head like a delicate halo.
"I was hungry. My levels," Nick's barely forming sentences, lost in the daze of some sort of high.
"It's alright, Nicky. I'll take care of you now," Joe whispers, his heart breaking as Nick's lips crack into a lazy smile. Like the weight of the world, he lifts Nick, holds him up and carries him from the nameless room, on some broken road, in some city Joe never wants to see again.
"I've got you, Nick. Just hold on."
Joe's been sure of one thing his entire life. Nick's not perfect. Nick still fights his battles daily, still bends his God given fingers in frustration when the words won't work with the notes, is still human. It's wrong and sometimes it hurts but Joe wouldn't want to carry anyone else through, would never trade Nick in a million years. Maybe Joe's gullible too, easily used, but he loves Nick and this weight, physical and emotional, is a reminder of everything he loves.