Chapter Text
Present Day
Ricky drove down an old dirt road, cigarette in one hand, steering wheel in the other. He looked around taking a drag off his smoke, admiring the scenic view of the trees as he drove, face softening as an old weathered red barn came into view.
“Fuck! Fuck, it’s still there,” He frowned as he spotted a For-Sale sign sitting at the end of the driveway.
He pulled over on the shoulder of the road, throwing the butt end of the cigarette out the window, fully intending to get out and rip the For-Sale sign down (He’d already done it three times this week.) He went to slide across the shitmobile seats to get out when he looked up at the sign again.
“No! Oh for fucks sake, they can’t have, they can’t,” He said miserably, shoulders slumping as he finally noticed the new ‘SOLD’ piece of the sign.
“I gotta find Julian,” he mumbled to himself, getting back behind the steering wheel, pulling back out onto the road, revving the shitmobile and speeding down the road so a cloud of dust was shooting behind him. His hands gripped at the steering wheel trying not to panic as he imagined the barn flattened down to smithereens and all those years of memories gone...
May 1982: Part One
"Look! Up there's on the left, that old barn! Let's try and hides in it to dodge the cops," Ricky pointed, taking one hand off the handlebar of his bike.
"Alright, hopefully it's empty in there," Julian said nodding. He turned his bike down the old beaten-down driveway, one hand on the handlebar, the other holding his drink.
Ricky hopped off his bike, letting it crash to the ground, running over sliding the barn door open, Julian peddling in behind him. It was mostly dark inside, rays of sun beaming through the slats in the wood. A row of stalls was to the left, majority of them filled with old loose straw. There were plenty of straw bales scattered throughout the entire place. To the right were old rusted farm tools. It looked like a hayloft was up above their heads but there was no ladder in sight. A layer of dust an inch thick coated everything.
"Looks's like this place is abandoneds," Ricky said looking around.
"Good place to hide out for a bit while the cops die down," Julian said getting off his bike and leaning it against one of the stalls.
Ricky grabbed his bike from outside, bringing it in, before flopping down onto an old straw bale, pulling out a joint from his pocket.
"Ricky! Put that thing away!” Julian scolded, pulling the barn door shut, leaving them in darkness, coming over and sitting on a straw bale adjacent to Ricky.
"Why?" Ricky pouted, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Because the cops can smell it if they come by!” Julian argued, spreading his arms wide.
“They’ll just thinks it’s a skunk or somethings, Jules, y’know cops are dumb," Ricky shrugged, putting the joint between his lips.
“I don’t care, put it away!” Julian hissed through his teeth.
“Ugh, fine,” Ricky grunted before tucking the joint back behind his ear. He frowned as he looked around. “Do we reallys haves to sit in the dark?”
“We can’t leave the door open, Ricky, what if the cops drive by? If they see it’s open, they’ll look. Besides, it’s still pretty bright in here, the sun's not gonna set for a bit, you’re alright.”
Ricky frowned, wrapping his arms around himself. "How longs are we gonna be in heres? I bet ya theres not even lookings.”
“Ricky, you crashed a stolen car into the front end of the mall, of course they’re fucking looking.” Julian deadpanned, shaking his head.
“It wasn’t evens that much of a crash,” Ricky muttered under his breath looking down at the dirt floor.
Julain raised an eyebrow. “Really? Because a shit ton of alarms went off and we barely made it out of there before the cops showed up. It’s a good thing those bikes weren’t chained up or we’d be sitting in the backseat of a cruiser right now.”
“Yeah, the bikes are pretty sweet," Ricky said looking over at the red one he stole, flames going up the side. "I’m keepings mine.”
“Make sure you scratch the serial numbers off first," Julian said taking a sip from his drink.
“Good ideas, Jules,” Ricky pulled out his pocket knife, moving over towards his bike.
“Scratch mine off too," Julian said readjusting his position on the straw bale.
“Yeah yeah,” Ricky waved behind him. He opened the blade, beginning to scrape the painted numbers away.
Julian stood up, brushing some straw off his jeans, starting to walk around. He looked up at the hayloft “Y’know, this could be a really cool place. A bar over in that corner, a bed up on the loft, big tv right here," he motioned around with his hands.
Ricky looked up from scraping off the numbers. “You’re crazy, Jules, why woulds you wanna lives here when you can lives in the park.”
“Just think, Rick, we wouldn’t have to deal with Lahey, or our parents, it’s the perfect hideaway spot.” Julian ran it over in his head, it was the perfect spot, just far enough from the road, no spying neighbors that could rat them out to the police. They could make it look really fucking nice in here.
"What do you think, Ricky?" Julian asked, turning to look over at him.
"Thinks what?"
"About turning this into our hideaway spot!"
"Oh," Ricky rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously, "I-I don't know, Jules," he mumbled, pained look taking over his face.
Julian's brows furrowed, "What's wrong?"
"It's gonna be dark in here, like really dark. It's getting dark right nows," Ricky looked around nervously, noticing how dim the barn had become. He peaked through a slat in the wood looking up at the sky, heavy dark storm clouds were starting to roll in. Ricky swallowed tightly.
"Oh, that's an easy fix. Bubbles can rig something up here for lights, or we could get lamps or some shit. We'll have to bring him back and show him this place, he can help us with it, maybe he can use those tools," Julian turned his back to Ricky, walking over to get a closer look at the old farm tools hanging off the wall.
"Yeah, okays then," Ricky mumbled, putting the blade back in, shoving the knife back in his pocket. He went over to sit down on a straw bale, looking around wide-eyed as he heard the sound of heavy rain starting to beat down around them.
Julian kept walking around picturing the layout, moving and adding things In his head, "I think it'll really work, Ricky," he turned to look over at him. "Ricky?" he said voice full of concern as he finally noticed him, Ricky had his head buried between his knees.
Ricky looked up, blinking quickly. "Yeah, Jules?"
Julian cocked his head to the side."Are you okay? What's going on?"
"Nothings, I'm fine," Ricky said trying to sound confident, voice coming out squeaky instead.
Julain propped one hand on his hip, "Ricky..."
"I-I'm scareds of the darks," Ricky whispered under his breath looking around the barn again.
"You are?" Julian said incredulously.
"Yeah, alrights? Now fucks off if you're gonna tease me's about it," Ricky scowled, hugging his arms close to his chest defensively.
Julian walked over to the straw bale, sitting down beside Ricky. "Hey, I'm not gonna tease you about it, it's fine," he wrapped an arm around Ricky's shoulder, pulling him close. "You don't have to be afraid, I'm right here."
Ricky leaned into Julian's touch, "Thanks, Jules I-"
- CRACK-
A loud boom of thunder cracked the sky open, Ricky quickly buried his face into Julian's chest, wrapping his arms around Julian's waist, tears springing in his eyes.
"Hey, hey shhh, it's okay, Ricky, it's just the thunder," Julian wrapped his arms around Ricky, rubbing his back.
"I'm nots -I'm nots scareds," Ricky whimpered into Julian's chest feeling relieved but also slightly embarrassed that Julian was holding him.
"It's okay to be scared, Ricky," Julian reassured him, threading his fingers through Ricky's hair.
The barn lit up a bright white for a split second followed by another loud crack of thunder. Ricky curled his fingers into Julian's t-shirt trying to push out the noise around him, letting out a small whimper. Julian rocked him back and forth slowly, absentmindedly running his fingers through Ricky's hair.
"I-I'm s-sorrys," Ricky managed to stutter out.
"Don't be, Rick, it's okay, I'm gonna move us though, alright?" Julian felt Ricky's head nod against his chest. Carefully Julian slid off the straw bale onto the ground, a difficult maneuver with Ricky still attached to him, but he managed. He leaned his back against the straw bale, tightening his arms around Ricky.
"I didn't know you were afraid of storms, Rick, or the dark for that matter,"
Ricky could feel his face burn red. "it's stupid, nobody should be afraid of the darks or the thunders, I'm a pathetics excuse," he said shivering.
"No, you're not, Ricky, who the fuck told you that?" Julian asked looking down at the top of Ricky's head.
"My dad, I askeds him for a nights light, he said it was stupids and I shouldn't be afraid of nothings."
Julian rolled his eyes at that. He didn't know who's dad was worse, his own or fucking Ray. "That's not true, Ricky, everybody's afraid of at least something. Just because yours is thunder and lightning and the dark doesn't mean you're pathetic."
"Really?" Ricky asked in a very small voice, hands curled around the fabric of Julian's t-shirt.
"Really really," Julian reassured him, brushing a hand through his hair.
Ricky relaxed into Julian's arms. "Thanks, Jules, you always makes me feel safe."
-CRACK-
Another round of thunder shook the barn, Ricky tensed up before softening under Julian's touch.
"We'll hide out here until the storm is over and then we'll ride back to the park, okay?" Julian told him.
Ricky nodded his head "Yeah, s-sounds good, Jules."
"Don't worry, Ricky," Julian said stroking Ricky's hair. "I'll always be right here to make you feel safe, I promise, I'm not going anywhere."