It felt good to be home. Not just in The Netherlands, but in Joost's house.

Fenne shifted everything back into their rightful place as if they had never left. The bedroom she shared with Joost dawned the belongings that made it rightfully their's. Her perfumes sat next to his colognes and the bathroom was covered in hair once again. But Joost didn't mind, because it meant that things were going back to normal.

'What do you think?'

Stood in his blue, felt suit, Joost grinned with his hands holding the collars of his jacket. The finishing touches had been made and the white collared shirt underneath was buttoned up to his neck. White, fingerless gloves covered his hands, hiding the tattoos that the judges wouldn't particularly care for. The bell-bottom trousers sat over his black boots and the shoulderpads, which Hanna had not exaggerated in the slightest, were almost skimming the hallway's walls with their pointy ends.

'I like it, but...' Fenne walked up to him and he watched her every move. With delicate fingers, Fenne parted his lips. His jaw loosened in obedience and the familiar feeling of his grill fitting over his teeth paired with her intoxicating touch.

'There. Much better.'

Joost never thought that Fenne would be so fascinated with the accessory. It was something he had gotten for his collaboration with MCR-T and wore for the following promotional videos and shows.

Paired with some yellow sunglasses and purple, latex gloves, Joost mixed the look of an Eastern European with his own quirkiness. But now, he needed a more international appearance. Hence, the blue suit with shoulderpads was born.

But for Fenne, Joost had kept the grill around. He wondered if its chill against her lips was what she liked; their kisses being more intimiate lately.

Or was it the look? The silver bling shown through his lips when he wasn't intending and Joost would catch Fenne's eyes flickering to it. Whenever he smiled, she always did the same.

Whatever it was, Joost would wear it to bed if he could. The attention she gave him was riveting.

'I can't wear this in front of every European country, liefje,' Joost exasperated.

'Just not in front of the camera, right? I'll carry around a case so you can take it out.'

Joost laughed, brandishing the grill in question and making Fenne's heart race. She couldn't place exactly what it was that she liked about the accessory. Against Joost's bright blonde hair, slim face, and against his thick-rimmed glasses, the grill set Fenne's inside into a frenzy every time. It was unlike her, but she also didn't care for mullets before being with Joost, so Fenne wasn't sure what she truly liked anymore.

While watching him shrug off the blue jacket, Fenne settled herself into one of the kitchen counter chairs. It was a matter of days before they would be heading to Malmö. She could tell that Joost was nervous but it was overshadowed by the giddiness of finally seeing his dream come true. When he gets up on that stage, Fenne was sure that Joost would know what to do and would stun the world.

The Europapa music video was ready to be released. Besides the usual strange themes and Joost's oscure behaviour, the music video contained a deeper meaning that touched anyone who watched it. Joost wanted to honour his parents in the song, so the end contained a snippet that Fenne had watched tearfully. He read a final speech that he was planning to use at Eurovision and Fenne knew that the Malmö's stage was going to do it justice.

'What did you do on the 8th?' she found herself saying. Joost paused undoing the buttons on the collar of his white shirt.

'The 8th?'

'The 8th of April. Did you go to the cemetery?'

Joost sighed. Putting the bulky jacket on the counter, he made his way to stand in front of his girlfriend. He stepped into the space between her knees. The highchair made it so that Fenne had to crane her neck upwards, her face ridden with concern from Joost's hesitation to answer. It changed to confusion when he took her hands from her lap and held them between his, bring them up to his lips.

'I did and I also played FIFA with Appie and Stunts. I was fine,' Joost said, the forming of his words brushing against Fenne's knuckles. 'You need to stop worrying about me. I've gone through enough of these to cope when you're not here. I appreciate it, but it's not worth the stress lines on your pretty forehead, liefje.'

'I just want to be sure you're okay. Espeically since you've been...'

'Going to therapy?' he raised his eyebrows with a growing smile. 'You can say it, you know? It won't hurt you.'

Fenne managed an embarrassed smile in reflection of Joost's. Talking so freely about mental health and therapy was something Fenne was slowly working on. In her childhood, Fenne's parents never made it known that she could talk to them about her feelings. It wasn't that they didn't care, they were just old-fashioned.

Fenne still smiled, hung out with her friends, had good grades and sat with them at dinner. So to them, there was nothing for Anna and Fabian Meer to worry about.

But now that she was older and with Joost's encouragement, Fenne was beginning to see that acknowledging these things was important. When Joost told her about his sessions, he would relax and recite everything in confidence. His weekly sessions weren't something he was ashamed of. In fact, Fenne got used to hearing him shout 'I'm going to therapy!' when leaving the house at 12pm on Wednesdays.

Despite the open talk of his sessions, Fenne couldn't ignore her suspicions of why he was really seeing a therapist. She didn't like that her mind threw her back to when Joost looked through her emails. But from seeing the goofy, giggling Klein become a victim of his own anger, Fenne dared to think that Joost was going to therapy for his recent loss of temper.

'He would come home from school and if he'd had a bad day, any attempt to talk to him would end in a heated argument. He went to therapy for a while and it helped a lot.'

Fenne never told Joost what Hugo had said to her in confidence. But knowing that Joost had a history with therapy and his emotions, Fenne was thankful that Hugo had told her the secret. It told her that Joost was familiar with his triggers and was making changes to better himself.

If it was Joost's recent flares of anger that made him want to change, then Fenne would support his choice to go to the therapy. In the mean time, she was doing her best to let the sessions do their work and focus on her own mental state.

'Speaking of therapy, can you help me take the dogs for their walk?' Joost asked, making Fenne follow his gaze to the sofas. Sprawled out across the cushions, the five canines stared at the couple with wagging tails. The mention of a walk drew their attention like moths to a flame and Fenne sighed loudly.

'Fine, but I'm only being responsible for two leashes this time.'

---

'Never let Oojet on any of the beds and feed Betje seperately. She gets scared when Popsi's in the same room so she'll let him take her bowl.'

The list of instructions accompanied Joost's rushed explanation. Aggu looked disinterested, which spoke volumes when half of his face was covered.

Joost stood with his hood over his head and his glasses over his eyes. His suitcase was idle against the wall behind him and his tote bag for the plane ride hung off his shoulder.

'Thank you for doing this, dude. You're really helping us out,' Joost finished and turned to wheel his case out to the car. Aggu said nothing, seeing Nathan meet Joost outside to help him somehow fit his luggage in with everyone else's.

Fenne huffed after getting her suitcase down the stairs with no help from a man. She noticed Aggu standing absently in the hallway with the list of written instructions in his hand. With the amount of scribbles, Fenne assumed that it had been Joost and Nathan's combined attempts of writing in German. There was, no doubt, some incomprehensible gibberish on the page, but from the way Aggu flashed a lop-sided grin at her, Fenne assumed that it wouldn't even matter.

'You're not going to read any of that, are you?' she asked.

'Depends if Betje really is likely to-' Aggu glanced down at the instructions and read '-eat Lensil's vomit.'

'Oh, that's not a mistranslation. She's disgusting.'

While everyone was heading to Sweden, Aggu was going to be taking care of Joost's five dogs. The German had flown into Amsterdam with the offer to house-sit but was bombarded at the door by three excitedable ladradors, one borzoi, one miniature schnauzer and one dachshund. It was a bad day for the man who classified himself as more of a cat person.

'Look, if it gets too much, this is my parents' phone number,' Fenne got out her phone and sent the digits to Aggu. 'They'll come over and help. They don't speak German, but you can use Google translate.'

'Thanks, liebe.'

It wasn't unlike Aggu to call Fenne the seemingly intimate nickname. Since he also called Joost the same thing, Fenne never questioned the flirty German. He liked to insert himself in between the two as the happiest third-wheel in existence.

Flashing Aggu a grin, Fenne's attention went to Stuntje, who took her suitcase with him as he headed out to the car. The bright purple alternate told her that he was also putting Hanna's in. She called out to him gratitude, which the man threw a hand up to acknowledge that he had heard.

After buying her plane ticket, Fenne announced to the team that she would be heading to Sweden with the rest of them. Hanna had leapt up and embraced her friend, saying how much fun it was going to be. This made Fenne raise an eyebrow and say,

'I thought you said you were working this week?'

Hanna blinked at her with a sheepish grin.

'I lied.'

'You lied?'

'I thought it would make you see how stupid you were being about your little "break",' Hanna used her fingers to emphasise the taboo word.

'That's counterproductive. Did you want to walk me through that thought process?'

'No.'

Once the cars were loaded up, Aggu stood outside to bid the team farewell. He eyed the large bird costume that was going to be checked into the plane's hold. He wondered which poor Dutchman was going to be wearing the suit on international television. Maybe he'll watch the cringy contest afterall.

'Thanks, again, Aggu. I know it'll be hard for you to not vote for Germany and we're eternally grateful for your sacrifice,' Stuntje clapped a hand onto the man's bulky shoulder.

'Who said I'm voting for anyone?'

'Trust me. Once you see Joost's performance, you'll be batting for The Netherlands,' Hanna butted in from beside Apson.

Joost adjusted his tote on his shoulder as he pulled Aggu in for a manly embrace. Their palms slapped against each other's backs and when they pulled away, Joost grabbed Aggu's masked face for a kiss. Groans sounded from the team as they exaggerated their smooch and they spared themselves the sight by getting in the cars.

Joost pulled away and Fenne went to hand over the house key. Aggu took it and from where Joost stood, he noticed the way Aggu leaned towards his oblivious girlfriend. By the time Fenne realised what he was doing, all she could see was her wide-eyed reflection in the silver mask and the closing gap between herself and Aggu's lips.

With both hands, Joost shoved Aggu to the right, yelling,

'Not a fucking chance!'

Stabilising himself, Aggu looked back to the couple with a laugh playing on his words.

'I wasn't going to actually do it-'

'Of course, you weren't. You're pushing your luck, August!'

Fenne was dumbfounded. She blinked in an attempt to gather her thoughts as Aggu attempted to reaffirm his innocence. She didn't have the time to laugh or scold him, because Joost started tugging her towards the car. The last thing she saw of the German was his innocent wave and wide grin.

'Fucking German bastard. I swear to god...' Joost grumbled as he shoved the key into the ignition and turned on the engine. Fenne kept her mouth shut, knowing that a giggle would slip out if she tried to calm him down.

'Do you know how many times he's sent me that Friesenjung gif? Fourteen times, Fenne. Fourteen!'

Reversing out of the driveway, Fenne had to stare out the window to stop herself from irritating Joost even more. If he was actually annoyed, Fenne wouldn't have the urge to laugh. But knowing his and Aggu's friendship, she couldn't take Joost's grumbles seriously.