Time After Time

"How does it feels to live with Rose, Gus?"

"Heavenly. On one side, she cleans, she washes clothes and she can cook anything, but on the other side she's a really fun person to be with. We went travelling, watching movie, laughing, eating, talking about stupid thing… it's like a hell of a couple of months holiday."

Later when sun finally fell down, Gustav was sitting on Gilbert's large living room with sofas that could contain ten people with Si, Ben, Fraser, John and Rose sitting around him. It was hard to tell who looked laziest the most because all everyone did was sitting in weird half-lying position while they yawned and talked.

“Oh, he's exaggerating,” Rose chuckled. She sat one seat away from Gustav with John sat between them. “I'm not that cool.”

Ben mumbled, “Well, you cook. That alone sounds handy. Imagine we have one Rose to bring on every tour...”

“Yeah,” everyone nodded in agreement.

Rose chuckled, “It must be really great to actually travel to a lot of place all the time.”

“She never went outside Australia,” Gustav told the guys and they replied with “No way!” or “Seriously?” or “Why not? What happened?”

“Lack of opportunity and will, basically,” she opened her eyes completely and stretched her body. “Alright, it's almost eight now and I reckon that you guys might be hungry very soon, so—any request?”

Gustav looked at John, Si, Ben and Fraser face, one by one, before he opened his mouth, “Um... I think we sort of agreed that you did so much for us today, Rose, and we believe that it will be very tiring to cook for us, again, tonight. So let's order pizza or something—you really are a mix between great tour manager and a mother.”

Everyone chuckled, but only when Rose saw Si's face, she chuckled as well.

“So you guys want pizza? Or chicken? Or we can go barbecue some lambs or something. If you guys are not too hungry, we can go to supermarket, grab some marinated meat—and some beer, maybe, if you guys want any—and then we can grill it outside while we enjoy the cool air outside.”

Gustav blinked, “That's just plain brilliant. How could you come up with two brilliant ideas in a day, Rose?”

“Oh, I'm just... I think it's because I'm the only Australian here so... I know stuffs,” she grinned before she stood up. “Alright, so... are we all gonna go together?”

It was a beautiful night with cool, crisp air. As they made their way into supermarket that would still be open until nine at night, they watched the beach and the sea shining at the distance, with big ships waiting to stop at Port Kembla. The streets were generally quiet and most of the time, all they did was sitting in silent, enjoying the night.

Ben was the one who break the silence first.

“I still can't believe we're somewhere in Australia now—but then again, this looks nothing like London.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Now you guys really make me want to go to London,” Rose said as she steered the van into the supermarket's car park. Si replied, “You should, really. You should go to London.” Rose chuckled, “I will, maybe—but let's just go buy some meat now.”

The process of buying the meats wasn't a big deal because Rose knew exactly what to buy, how much and where to take them in that big supermarket. All Young Guns did was following him like a group of lost children—except that Gustav knew a little about different taste that some brand of barbecue sauces have and had a little debate about it with Rose.

“No, Gustav, I personally think this brand taste better.”

“What? Oh yeah, you're using this one at your house... but trust me, this one is better, Rose.”

They wouldn't stop debating unless Fraser said, “Just take both of them and let's buy some beer!” They both blushed because they forgot that there weren't only two of them anymore. After they put all the meat back in the van, they went to liquor store at the other side of supermarket where Si did a serious interview about which brand of beer tastes the best. They were a bit surprised when they found out that Rose didn't drink alcohol at all.

“Well why not? It tastes amazing,” Si argued.

She shook her head, “I just—don't like the taste? I can drink it, for sure, like I can drink wine, but I don't like it. I don't know why. I just don't like it. I think it's about taste—some people like chocolate flavor, some people hate it.”

“The only problem is now that we can't ask you what is the most amazing beer in this store,” he said. Rose laughed, “I am so sorry, guys. You can ask my friend who will come later, Gabriella. She drinks. Her boyfriend drinks too. You guys don't mind if she comes, right? She takes care of Lestat while Gustav and I picked you up today...”

They shook their heads, almost in the same way that made Rose chuckled.

“What's this Lestat?” asked Ben.

“A kangaroo,” Gustav answered straight away without looking at his friends.

Rose could see them gasping and looking at each other in disbelief. “That's brilliant,” said Fraser. “I don't know you have kangaroo as pet. You should tell us earlier, 'Hi, my name is Rose, I'm Gus' friend in Australia, I cook and I also have kangaroo named Lestat as pet.'”

All Rose wanted to do was laughing, but she didn't want to spoil it, so she just stared at Gustav, unable to holding her laughter.

“I'm sorry, I just can't...”

Gustav laughed, “Aren't you guys just adorable? No, Lestat is not a kangaroo—I hope he is, but he's not. He's a dog. A Samoyed, to be precise.”

Rose was laughing for a while everyone went, “Oh, we should see that coming—Gustav Wood is going to lie to you about kangaroo as pet.” But then, her phone was ringing so she picked it up.

“Guys, we better be quick—it's getting late, I'm kind of hungry now and Gabriella is going to come pretty soon.”

In the end, they bought a big range of beer brands before they went home. When Rose started to grill some of the meat as they sat around the veranda and big barbecue that Rose used to grill their meats, they saw Gabriella's car came. Lestat was in the back seat and barking happily when he saw Rose. In Rose's mind, Lestat was calling her, so she called him back.

“Lestat!”

She turned to Ben who stood the closest to her, “Ben, would you mind handling the barbecue just for a second?”

Ben shrugged, “Yeah, sure... I just need to flip it in... 3 minutes or something, right?”

Rose nodded, “Thanks, Ben!” She approached a car and wondering why Gabriella hadn't walked out yet. She did once Rose was close and the first thing she did was asking Rose, “Um—wait. Are those... Young Guns?”

Rose followed where Gabriella's eyes stared. She first stared at Ben at the barbecue, who waved his barbecue-free hand and grinning adorably. Then she stared at Si and John who were sitting at deck chairs, not far from Ben, both were holding a can of beer. The last person she stared was Fraser, who sat on veranda with a can of beer next to him and a guitar on his lap.

She mumbled, “Uh... yeah. They came to visit Gustav, so...”

“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?”

Rose closed her eyes right at the moment after Gabriella screamed. Again. She could hear Gustav chuckled behind her. Again. But this time, he wasn't the only one who were laughing. While Gabriella was making dying whale noise, Rose stared at Gustav who was still chucking and they rolled their eyes together.

“WHY-DIDN'T-YOU-TELL-ME-FIRST-YOU—YOU-WANK-BUNNY!” Gabriella shouted at Rose's face. “I CAN'T DO THIS... I'LL JUST GO HOME NOW...”

Rose held Gabriella's arms before she could hop in inside her car again. “Breathe, Gab. Breathe... slowly... okay? It's okay. There's Young Guns in my neighbour’s yard and it's okay. They're Gustav's friend. They came here to visit him. Okay?”

Gabriella looked like there was nothing she wanted to do in the world except crying in excitement.

“ROSE JULIE SVETLANA HUK LETTE I HATE YOU,” was all that Gabriella finally managed to say. She looked pretty confused for a while—it was so funny and yet so awkward.

She finally able to say something else, “Why didn't you tell me about this earlier? Oh God... I can't... this is too much. I can handle Gustav Wood, but all Young Guns? I just can't.”

While Gabriella was trying to breathe normally, Gustav raised his eyebrows as he jerked his head into Rose direction.

“Your middle name is Julie Svetlana?” he asked casually, like there was no Gabriella who currently was trying to breathe normally next to Rose.

Rose nodded.

“Svetlana?” Ben heard that and he repeated one of Rose's middle name, abandoning the barbecue for a while. He looked slightly confused.

“Oh—it's a... my father was Ukrainian. So... I'm half-Ukrainian and half-English who was born in Australia. Svetlana is apparently, well, quite popular girl name in Ukraine or such.”

“So you're kind of like Gus, then—half-English, half-something... except that he's half-Norwegian.”

“That's right,” Rose nodded but then she saw Gabriella still hadn't find her ability to breathe normally like a normal human being. Rose chuckled and pulled Gabriella to sit. “Let's have a sit first, shall we, Gabriella Hay?”

“Am I dreaming? This is the best dream ever, though… I don't care… oh God… it's Young Guns… of all thing, Rose, I just can't…”

Gabriella sat on the veranda.

She started to breathe normally before she looked at Fraser who sat less than two metres away from him.

“Hey,” Fraser greeted.

Her response was to get up and run back to her car.

“W-w-wait—Gab?” Rose ran after her.

The guys were chuckling, “She's running away... that's so funny...”

“Rose... I'M NOT READY,” she squealed.

Rose chuckled, “Hey. It's alright. It's just Gustav's friend. Right, Gustav?” Rose looked at Gustav who nodded and raise his beer holding hand at Gabriella.

“How's Dan, Gab?” Gustav asked.

Gabriella was obviously distracted from the fact that she was freaking out right now when Gustav asked about his musician boyfriend.

“Uh... he's good. Finished a song this week, so...”

Gustav smiled, “I'm glad to hear that.” He stood up and walked to her, “I want you to meet my friend—I suppose you know all their names?”

Gabriella squealed again, “Yes. Yesyesyesyes. Oh God, sometimes I just forget that... you know... Young Guns... I mean... I still can't...”

It was a very exciting sight; to see Gabriella Hay who usually careless, almost mean in her carelessness, but still a good friend of Rose, mumbling, stuttering and nervous as Gustav introduced her to Ben, John, Si and Fraser. Rose smiled after she was sure that Gab was okay and then let Lestat out from the car.

The first thing that the dog did was put his front paws on Rose's shoulder, as if Lestat hugged her. Rose chuckled and sat on the mowed grass near the car's door.

“I miss you too, Les,” she said.

“That's Lestat?” Fraser had put his guitar down while Gustav was chatting with Gabriella, Si and John. Rose nodded, mumbling through Lestat's cream-coloured fur, “He's 98% fur and 2% brilliant friend.”

She pulled back and stood up again.

“Les, this is Gustav's best friend, Fraser,” she said when Fraser knelt next to them. “Shake,” Rose ordered and Lestat was shaking hand with Fraser.

“Whoaaa. You're quite a gentleman—gentle-dog, aren't you, Lestat?” Fraser laughed.

After that, Ben, John, and Si were also shaking hands with Lestat. After a while, Gabriella finally spoke like normal human being, “... this is just incredible... I've been a very big fan—maybe a bit too big—fan of yours, and now I got a privilege to come to your barbecue party...”

They laughed. Even Lestat made weird noise that sounded like cough before everyone realised that it sounded more like laugh than cough.

“It's alright, Gab,” Gustav chuckled. “It's great that we get to meet someone who knows us since the beginning of our career.”

Gabriella nodded and sighed, “I am now seriously so fucking surprised by the fact that you guys are so easy to talk with. Maybe this is just a dream—but anyway, that barbecue just smell really good.”

That was the moment when everyone realised how hungry they were.

Rose, who has went back being the person in charge for barbecue, asked, “Shall we eat now?”

They started to eat while they sat wherever they want as they chatted and laughed. Rose looked at her phone to notice that it was almost 12 pm but none of them seemed to be tired yet. She started to clean the barbecue when she noticed that John, who was being John by not speaking much all the time, has found his favourite that night; Lestat, because they were sitting together in silence for a long time.

It was one of the best night of her life—and she sincerely hoped that it was one of the best night of Gustav, John, Si, Ben and Gabriella's life as well.