Half Wit

“I still can't believe you're packing,” Emelie said, raising an eyebrow as she saw her father cross the room to reach his closet and grab a few more black shirts. The fact that he was shirtless would sweep the fan girls right off their feet but Emelie was more than used to seeing her dad missing a certain piece of clothing. She leaned against the door frame and watched him put the t-shirts on the stack of other, as usual black, shirts. A still empty suitcase was laying open on the bed, waiting to be filled with tons of clothes and unnecessary things that Billie would just take with him for the sheer hell of it. Not that it really mattered anyway, god knows what Tré all took with him on tour that were completely pointless.

“Hey Emelie! Are you there?!” a voice yelled from downstairs before footsteps were heard on the stairs. Emelie smiled a little as she saw her friend at the other side of the hallway, walking towards her in some slow pace, trying to catch her breathing from walking up the stairs. She was wearing a pair of black jeans that reached her knees but were rolled up from the bottom anyway. Her black all stars fitted under the jeans, even though she had written on them with white marker. While her brown eyes were hidden behind several strays of her long dark red hair, dyed probably since the tops of it were still dark brown.

“Before I see anything, tell your dad to put on a shirt will you?” a smile appeared on her lips as she looked at Emelie and hugged her.

“Is that, Lou?” Billie Joe's voice came from behind a door, which meant that he was either in his closet looking for some more tight jeans or in the bathroom, looking for his various pencils of eyeliners laying around (which he didn't know was that Emelie stole most of them cause he kept picking hers and so on...).

“Why yes Mr. Armstrong,” Lou said in a sweet innocent voice, her smile trying to match her tone but was only backfired as she looked rather evil with it. Billie Joe walked out of the bathroom with two eyeliners and looked at Lou with a knowing smile on his face.

“Oh dear god...” he muttered under his breath when he finally fixated his eyes on Lou and Emelie for more than a few seconds. Lou frowned and looked around her, wondering what he was staring at before she realized that he was staring at her black sweater.

“Honey could you get your possessed friend out of here?” he asked sweetly, turning to Emelie who frowned and then looked at Lou and realized what he was talking about.

“Emelie, could you get your rock star dad to be more...male and less female?” Lou asked her friend who was trapped between the two. Her eyes shot from her father to Lou and back again while her mouth was slightly open. Her mind wondered what she would reply to the questions but in the end, she decided to groan and throw her arms in the air before she left the two alone.

“Well that wasn't how I expected her to react,” Billie Joe frowned before he started to look around the room for a shirt since he was still without a shirt. Not that Lou minded, if anything, she enjoyed watching the punk god walk around with some tight jeans and bare chest. A smirk played on both of their lips as they knew what each of them were thinking.

“Shouldn't you like, go to my daughters room and start gossiping about my perfectly tanned body now?” Billie Joe asked, looking quite happy as he found one of his favourite shirts under all the other black ones. Which didn't really surprise Lou, nor anyone else who knew Billie Joe personally to be honest.

“Lou! Stop staring at my father's untanned and scarred body that even scares teenies away and get your ass in my room!” Emelie yelled from down the hall where some unknown band to Lou was playing loudly from the stereo. The young girl smiled and shook her head, rolling her eyes at her friend.

“Shouldn't you be running around in circles like a chicken with no head as I am slowly possessing you with my Slipknot hoodie?” Lou shot back, raising an eyebrow and pointing at the Slipknot hoodie that was way to big for her. Billie Joe looked unimpressed at her and started tapping his foot on the floor, pursing his lips together as he kept his stare on her. The fact that he was wearing another huge amount of eyeliner rather disturbed Lou to the slightest.

“Emelie! You're dad is scaring me with his female vibes! He's starting to look a little like my creepy aunt with all those cats now!” Lou screamed, taking a step backwards, thinking she could escape the creepy stare Billie Joe Armstrong was giving her.

On the other side of the hallway, Emelie was kindly ignoring the shouts of her friend that was probably still with her eyes fixated on Billie Joe's bare chest. Not that she minded, this gave her some time to read on in her book. She smiled and started humming with the CD playing (“Rise Against” was always a good choice if she needed to block out attention-seeking friends and fathers) as she turned the page in her book and read on. She knew pretty well that Lou was probably realizing by now that she wasn't going to help her and would give up trying to get her to.

“Emelie! Get your creepy friend out of my room! I'm trying to pack my stuff here and her shirt keeps trying to take over my mind with world-domination thoughts!” Billie Joe said, entering her room and putting his hands on his hips as he looked at his daughter who just kept reading. “Alright, I admit, world-domination sounds nice and stuff but get her out of my room...she scares me!” Billie Joe whispered the last part, shielding part of his mouth with his hand as if he was telling a secret.

Emelie looked up from her book and faced her father, raising an eyebrow at him as he looked rather panicked when footsteps came closer to her room.

“You're 39 years old...she's 16...” Emelie started, frowning and doing the math in her head, “Don't tell me you're afraid of a 16-year old that wears a Slipknot hoodie just because you don't like the band,”

Billie Joe sighed and let his shoulders hang as he slowly walked out of the room and decided that it would be for the best to continue packing his bags as he had to leave in only a few hours. More like, after dinner but that was just a minor detail. Mike and Tré could wait if he needed some more time, knowing Mike and Tré themselves, Billie might be the first one ready to leave even though he is way over time.

“Lou! Get your ass in my room and stop trying to infect my fathers clothes with the Slipknot germ! It doesn't work I already tried it!” Emelie yelled as the door to her room was still open. Her eyes went back to the printed words in her book as a small smile appeared on her lips.

“I almost succeeded I tell you!” Lou said as she walked in the room and let herself fall backwards on the end of the bed so she could face the ceiling. “Do something about your ceiling by the way, its boring,” she noted, looking sideways to Emelie who looked up at her ceiling and frowned.

“I might try to convince my mom to let me paint some lyrics over my white walls and ceiling...in some really nice and glamorous letters. Don't really know yet,” Emelie shrugged before she closed her book and placed it back on her nightstand. Lou looked at her and raised an eyebrow before she jerked her head slightly and faced the ceiling again.

“Now that would be some cool room you'd have,” Lou nodded, smiling a little as she knew that Emelie was pretty good with lyrics.

“Shouldn't you be in school?” Billie Joe asked when Emelie and Lou walked past his bedroom, happily chatting and smiling to each other as they discussed various lyrics to eventually paint on her wall in some nice font. Emelie stopped and looked at her father before she raised an eyebrow at him.

“Shouldn't you put on a shirt and continue packing so you don't miss your flight and disappoint all those screaming fans waiting for you guys at the record release party?” Emelie asked back before she high-fived Lou behind her back and then continued walking downstairs. Billie Joe pursed his lips together and thought about what she had said for a second before he shrugged and continued to search everything to put in his suitcase. Perhaps he should call Adrienne up to help him with all of this.

*

“So, has your dad already discussed the fact of a possible new tattoo with your mother?” Lyra asked, suddenly appearing before Emelie's desk. The young girl looked up and frowned at her friend, wondering how she could've sneaked up on her as Lyra was usually a pretty loud person if she decided to sneak up on people.

“I haven't talked to him about it yet. I should since he's leaving on tour and all that shit,” Emelie answered, frowning and turning her eyes back on the book in front of her, the teacher had yet to show up and in the mean time, she kept herself busy reading.

“Well you should! Have you thought up of any designs already?” Lyra asked, looking hopeful at Emelie to say no. You see, Lyra was quite the talented drawer, not talented enough to pursue a career in it but at least well enough to draw a design for a tattoo or just to doodle around and then later post it on the Internet to get critics on it.

Emelie sighed and looked up from her book, shaking her head and practically telling Lyra with her eyes to leave her alone while she was reading. Lyra sighed and let her shoulders hang, knowing that her friend didn't exactly wanted to talk about the tattoo right now. Not that it surprised her, everyone knew how much Emelie loved to read.

“Come on, put the book away for five minutes and tell me in short how you want the tattoo to look like. I'll leave you alone then and start drawing designs. If you want me too that is,” Lyra said the last part rather quickly. So quickly even that Emelie almost didn't understand it.

“Hon'..I don't have anything in my mind for the tattoo right about now. But trust me, the moment I do I'll come running to you and ask you to design it for me. Beg if I really have too,” Emelie smirked, punching Lyra playfully in the arm before she looked at the other side of the room and saw that the teacher had arrived in the classroom.

“We'll talk about this later okay?” Emelie smiled at Lyra and winked at her. Lyra smiled brightly and leaned over the table to give her friend a kiss on the cheek before she walked back to her own desk on the other side of the class room. The kiss itself got some disgusting glances from the classier girls and boys in their class, which only made Emelie smile. The fact that these girls clearly couldn't handle the little fact that her and her best friend gave each other kisses was rather amusing to her. But then again, Emelie is rather amused by small things whenever she could be.

*

Billie Joe sighed and turned his back before he let himself fall down on the soft mattress (covered with some blankets at the foot for when it got colder during the night) and looked up at the ceiling. He didn't really want to leave his family, knowing that it might cause a disturbance between him and the children. Emelie could handle it, she had been on tour with him several times and knew how it was and dealt with it as well as she could (that didn't stop the happiness from surfacing whenever he did come home from tour though) but Jakob was a different story.

Jakob was the youngest of the three children and wasn't completely used to the idea of his father leaving for months after each other and being on TV, being screamed at by thousands of fans and going on stage every night to do what he did best. The youngest Armstrong didn't completely handle the idea that sometimes there would be young girls at the door, asking for his father but still look happy as they talked to his mother. In short, the boy still had to understand what his rock star father exactly did as job. He looked at the pile of clothes next to him, all nicely fold and ready to be put in his suitcase but he had the feeling that if he would put them all in the suitcase, he would have way to many clothes with him.

“Adrienne!” Billie Joe shouted, half whining but what did he care. Footsteps on the stairs alerted him that his beloved other half had heard him and was now coming up the stairs. Not a few minutes later, his wife was standing in the doorway with her arms crossed in front of her chest and an amused smile playing on her lips as she saw her husband laying on the bed next to several stacks of black clothing, clearly to lazy to pack.

“Come here,” he looked to the side to face her, his hand motioning her to come closer. Adrienne chuckled and shook her head, walking over to where her husband was and then raised an eyebrow at all the clothes he planned on taking. “Too much clothes?” He asked, crossing his hands over his chest and closing his eyes in a way that he looked like he was sleeping.

“Billie, you have half of your closet laying on the bed,” Adrienne said, looking at the pile of clothes in amazement. “Yeah..I do think you'll pack too much clothes if I leave you alone right now,”

Billie Joe smirked and sat up on the bed, wrapping his arms around Adrienne's waist and then pulling her with him as he decided to fall back down. Adrienne screamed in surprise and realized that she couldn't stop herself from falling on Billie Joe's chest with their faces inches away from each other. Before she knew it, Billie's lips found themselves drawn to her in a soft kiss.

“Emelie asked me something yesterday,” Billie Joe managed to blurt out between kisses. Adrienne pulled back from another one of Billie's kisses and showed him a disturbed frown.

“She wants another tattoo. But this time on her left upper arm. Easy to hide with a t-shirt though,” Billie said before he placed his hand behind Adrienne's neck and pulled her back in the kiss she interrupted. Adrienne however, chose to pull back again and look at him with one of her eyes half-closed.

“Come on, its not that bad. It's just a tattoo. She's a smart kid,” Billie Joe tried to convince his wife that Emelie would make the right decision. Adrienne looked sceptical at him and raised an eyebrow at her husband who rolled his eyes and lifted his head up so he could give her another peck on the lips.

“I should be starting with making lunch around now but I can't do that if you keep your hold on me like this,” Adrienne said, looking at Billie who half pouted and pulled her in for another kiss before she could protest.

“Agree with me and I'll let you go,” he smirked as he pulled back from the kiss to get some air. Adrienne sighed and shook her head, she should've seen something like this coming at her yet she didn't do anything against it.

“And you should shave,” Adrienne pointed out the scruff Billie was slowly growing. Billie looked hurt and stroke it with his hand.

“I like it,” he said, pursing his lips together and trying to look sad at Adrienne even though he knew that it wouldn't work. Adrienne looked at him for a few seconds in silence, blinking a couple of times until Billie Joe sighed and looked defeated.

“Fine, I'll shave, but first you got to agree with me,” he said, smirking a little. Adrienne rolled her eyes and muttered a soft 'fine' before Billie chose to pull her back in another loving kiss between husband and wife.

Oh yes. He was going to miss all of this when he left.

In the mean time, on their front porch, Emelie yawned a little and tried to keep the books steady in her arms as she walked towards the front door. Hoping that her father hadn't left yet. She walked in the kitchen after managing to open the door without letting her books drop and frowned when she saw that her mother was absent. Several pots were standing on the small fire, just enough to keep the food warm while nobody was there. Emelie sighed and walked up the stairs with her books still in her hands.

She poked her head in her fathers room and smiled as she saw him laying on the bed with his eyes closed and arms crossed on his chest while piles of black shirts and tight jeans surrounded him. Emelie sighed and shook her head before she walked further to her own room, she wasn't all to surprised to see that her father was trying to do anything to put off packing. Although she had noticed that there was a smaller amount of clothes on the bed than before. Either that meant that he had already put a part of it in the suitcase or that her mother had interfered and told him to put a part back in his closet. The latter was more likely to her.

Emelie dropped her books on her desk and looked around her room, tired from school and yet restless. She sighed and walked over towards her father's room, she knew he was sleeping but didn't really care, if she had too, she'd wake him up. Her eyes looked at the older man, causing her to smile as she saw her he had shaved. Clearly Adrienne had convinced him to get rid of the scuff on his face and take a shower, at least, that's what Emelie assumed when she noticed that his hair was still damp from the shower.

Thinking of what to do next, Emelie doubted between two choices, either she would jump on the bed and so wake her father up even though he looked like he needed his sleep. Or she's move some of the clothes and just crawl next to him just for the fun. Before she knew it, her hands moved towards the the shirts laying next to her father and placed them out of the way so she could lay next to him instead. She lifted up one of his arms and wrapped it around her shoulders before she rested her head on his chest and dozed off after a few minutes of listening to his steady heartbeat.

*

“I still can't believe you just chose to come and lie next to me. You haven't done that since you were nine years old!” Billie Joe chuckled and shook his head at Emelie who had a small blush on her cheeks as she moved around bits of her food with her fork.

“I was tired. Can I help it you looked so cuddly and comfortable at that moment,” Emelie muttered, still not facing her father's amused eyes. Billie Joe's featured softened and a small smile appeared on his lips as he remembered the moment he woke up and realized that his daughter was sleeping on his chest.

“You couldn't resist my cuddliness,” Billie Joe smirked, teasing Emelie some more. The girl sighed and shook her head, hoping that he would let it drop already but knowing that he wouldn't.

“Just admit it!” her father said, nodding confident.

“Oh come on!” Emelie groaned, before she looked at her father and raised an eyebrow.

“Actually I was going to use that to ask you for some pocket money but clearly your ego took over and he's flat broke,” the girl shot back at her father, smirking herself before she picked up her plate and shoved her chair backwards so she could stand up without dropping anything.

“Have you talked about that tattoo already?” Emelie asked her father when they both entered the kitchen with their empty plates.

“After a lot of convincing, I managed to make your mother agree with me,” Billie Joe nodded, smiling a little at his daughter.

“A lot of convincing? What did you do? Give her flowers and ask her nicely?” Emelie raised an eyebrow at looked at her father, wondering what excuse he would tell her next. Billie Joe smirked and shook his head at Emelie before he thought up of a believable excuse.

“Actually, I already made an appointment at the tattoo parlour where we went for your wrist tattoo's,” Billie Joe responded, placing his plate on the counter and smiling at his daughter with a fond expression before he grabbed her by her waist and pulled her in a hug from behind. Emelie groaned and threw her head back so it rested on his shoulder as she raised an eyebrow at him.

“You just made an appointment and then asked her or what? So she had to say yes in the end since you can't cancel. Smart move!” Emelie said, nodding.

“Nothing too provoking alright? Your mother will be joining you so you don't pick anything stupid. And take a picture of it once the swelling is all cleared up, or after you got it, I want to see what sort of text my daughter has engraved in her arm forever.”

Emelie chuckled and nodded, trying to get free from his grasp on her waist. Billie gave her a kiss on the side of her head before he let go of her and shouted over his shoulder that he was going to continue packing since he had been putting it off for the past few hours. Emelie looked at her fathers retreating form and frowned at him for a moment before she sighed and shook her head and went back to the living room to help her mother to bring the rest of the dishes to the kitchen.

“So, have you thought up of any sort of text already?” Adrienne asked as she looked at her daughter who was drying the clean dishes. Emelie looked up and bit her lip, thinking about it.

“Homophobia is gay,” she said, looking down to the floor and her feet. Adrienne smiled and nodded, thinking about it and the finished tattoo on her daughters arm. “But Lyra is going to draw me a design to put around the text. A little bit like yours with dad's name in it, I still might change the text, I'm not that sure yet,” Emelie nodded towards the tattoo on her mothers arm.

“At least its not something big and strange like your father has on his arms,” Adrienne chuckled.