APRIL WAS FINALLY coming to an end, and Valerie was relieved. It has been three months since the band had been away, and she was missing them terribly.

     She couldn't wait to show them around her house,  and she couldn't wait for the inevitable sleepover Roger would force upon her.

Valerie had settled into her house, now painting the bedrooms since she had finished on the living room, kitchen, and dining room. She was painting her bedroom, and despite the fact that she had plenty of guest bedrooms, she found herself sleeping in the living room too often.

It helped that she had her cat to keep her company. She had decided on naming him 'Bowie' as he had two different coloured eyes like the singer.

  Valerie was currently in the kitchen where she was making dinner. She always made herself food on the night where she wasn't feeling lazy, and this was one of those particular nights.

From the floor, Bowie meowed and clawed at Valerie's  pant leg. Valerie grinned and threw a few vegetables on the floor for her cat, going back to cooking only for a few minutes before her doorbell rang.

Valerie walked from the kitchen, wondering who it might at the door. She walked through the dining room and through the large hallway before she reached the door and opened it. She smiled widely when she saw who it was.

Outside were Brian's parents, who were more than eager to pet the small cat that had greeted them at the door. "Mr. May, Ruth! How lovely to see you two!" Valerie said as Ruth enveloped her in a hug. 

While she was close to the both of them, she was always embarrassed to call Brian's father by his first name. While he always insisted Valerie call him by his first name, she never did. She didn't have so much trouble calling Ruth by her first name, though.

"It's lovely to see you, Valerie. We meant to come over for your birthday, but Harold had a terrible bout of the flu, and we had to wait. We're so sorry it's so far off from your birthday." Ruth apologized as Valerie invited them into the house.

"Aw, it's alright. No worries." Valerie said as she shut the door behind Harold.

"Are you going to stay for dinner? I'm almost done cooking, if you'd like to eat with me." Valerie said as she turned on the lights in the hallway as she lead them down, Bowie abandoning his path with them about halfway through.

"That'd be wonderful, Valerie. Thank you." Harold replied, looking around the house.

"Lovely house, Vallie. D'your parents buy it for you?" Ruth asked as Valerie walked them into the kitchen, and started to cook again.

"They paid for half of it. It was part of my graduation present, you see." Valerie said as she finished up with the pasta she was making.

"Oh, I see. That's amazing. I hate to say it, but I'm a bit surprised you could pay what with your rent on the apartment and all. Did you ever have a job?" Ruth asked as Valerie started to make plates for them.

"Yeah, I was a waitress for a while, but I stopped working. Then, I became a teacher at a local school before I started to work as the librarian. I made equal pay as the teachers and got to read all the books I wanted when I was there."

    "Isn't that how libraries work?" Harold questioned,  and Ruth lightly hit him on the shoulder, though she couldn't help but smile.

     "I suppose. But I worked there. So I could borrow books for as long as I needed, so long as I didn't get caught."

     "Oh, how sneaky." Ruth joked. Valerie winked at her as she started to serve up the food.

"Now, Vallie, were really here to give you your graduation and late birthday present," Harold said as Valerie set plates down for her and Ruth.

"Oh, you don't have to give me anything. I'm perfectly happy with what I already have," Valerie said. Ruth pulled an envelope from her purse and handed it to Valerie, who had just taken a seat next to Harold.

She opened the envelope and was stunned at the amount of money inside. "Enough to pay your first set of bills, we thought. To help you get by," Ruth said. Valerie shook her head, trying to hand the money back.

"No. I refuse. You cannot - no, you will not give me this gift. Everyone is being too nice to me and getting me so much stuff. This is your money, Ruth, you can't do this." Valerie insisted, but Harold stopped her.

Harold lightly grabbed her hand and pushed the envelope back to her. "Don't worry about it, Valerie, you're like a daughter to us. We did the same for Brian when he went off for college." Harold told her.

"He's your son, Mr. May. I'm just his friend. You can't do this. It's too much money. Freddie's already gotten me a damn piano, and Periwinkle insisted on buying that mahogany set for the kitchen. And the drapes! Evan and Mary went all out with the drapes!" Valerie rambled. In all truthfulness, she just wasn't us d do the attention and influx of kindness she was getting. She hasn't grown up too wealthy until her and her family moved to Spain, and even then, her want to save money was ingrained her brain.

She and Harold went back and forth for nearly twenty minutes before Valerie finally relented when Harold told her she was like a daughter to him and she deserved it.

Valerie hugged him and Ruth tightly, thanking them about a million times. "But no more gifts. Ever! This is enough, really, it is." Valerie said, and Harold rolled his eyes.

"Well, we'll have to see about that no gifts rule."

"Ruth," Valerie said with a jokingly exasperated sigh as she looked through the money and thanked them again.

    "See? Like a daughter." Harold pointed out, and Valerie couldn't help but laugh a bit.
*****
    The day had finally arrived when Queen was returning from their tour. Valerie, however, was not going to meet them at the airport. Payton and Mary were, and the band was coming back to Valerie's house to hang out.

     Valerie was lounging around her house in a random summer dress she had that was rather comfortable, and on top of that she was wearing a yellow turtle neck she had stolen from Brian simply because it looked okay with the outfit.

She had started to paint the master bedroom, because after a month she had only succeeded in painting the dining room and living room when she wasn't preparing for her new job. She was still working at the library, but she also had to sort out her new job she would be taking as a professor when the summer ended.

     Valerie had taken a short five minute break to drink some water before she went back to painting, standing on a small step ladder to reach the ceiling.

She couldn't wait to paint whole murals on the walls, much like she had done in her dining room. She hadn't messed with any of the other bedrooms, leaving them just solid colours, and furnishing them. One room was a dedicated green room with many plants in it.

     Her own room was one of the rooms she had been most excited to paint.  She had big ideas for it, but was always too busy procrastinating to actually paint.

    She had finished her water break before she went over and put on a Queen record, turning it up loudly before going back onto the step ladder.

Valerie was humming as she painted, not able to hear anything else that was going on in the house. She didn't think twice about the fact that she probably wouldn't be able to hear her guests at the door.

     She was painting calmly, when someone grabbed her by the waist. She screamed, flailing about, and managing to slap whoever was holding onto her.

      "Bloody hell!" She heard a familiar voice exclaimed, and saw that Freddie was holding his cheek.

     "Freddie! Fucking - how did you even get in here?!" Valerie screamed slightly as she threw herself into Freddie's arms and hugged him.

     "Mary and Payton knew where the spare key was. They're downstairs. They wanted us to scare you." Freddie admitted as he hugged Valerie, laughing. Valerie however, wasn't as amused.

     "You scared the hell out of me!!" Valerie exclaimed, then peering over Freddie's shoulder to see John and Brian we're slightly spattered with paint from the roller she had been using.

     "John, I'm so sorry. You're very unfortunate to have a stupid friend." Valerie said, glancing at Freddie jokingly, going over to hug Brian.

     "The house is so much bigger than I thought it would be. This is a freaking castle, Val." Brian said as he hugged her tightly.

      "Compared to the apartment, yeah it is." Roger commented as he walked around the bedroom and looked out the view of the window.
    
     "Jesus, I missed you. Even though you are an annoying little idiot sometimes, I missed you a lot."  Brian said, and Valerie pulled out of the hug for just a moment to punch Brian in the arm.

     Roger had come over and pushed Brian out of the way, hugging Valerie. "There's my little old lady!" he said as he wrapped her tightly in a hug.

"Shut up, Rog, I'm only a few years older than you." Valerie said as she allowed herself to be enveloped in a hug by both Brian and Roger, who even though they claimed they didn't, had missed her dearly.

"Oh, Deacy. I'm sorry for getting paint all over your shirt." Valerie said as she wriggled away from Brian and Roger, going over to John and trying to run away some of the paint on John's cheeks, failing miserably and smearing it all over.

"Take off your shirt, John." Roger urged teasingly, wolf whistling and making John blush darkly.

     "Shush, idiots." John said, turning to Valerie. "I had to deal with them on tour by myself." John complained, rolling his eyes at Roger's teasing.

"Poor you, Johnny." Valerie giggled. Roger was still laughing, and she looked away from John for a moment to look at the two of them before looking back at Deacy.

For a moment, they seemed to forget anyone else was in the room, mostly because Freddie and Roger had taken to critiquing her colour choice of the hallway. Brian had awkwardly snuck out of the room,  leaving the two of them alone.

"I missed you, a lot, John." Valerie said, smiling slightly, and blushing a lot, looking down at her feet, she lightly thumbed the cuff of Deacy's sleeve, moving her hand down his wrist to intertwine their fingers together.

"I missed you, too. You wouldn't even think it possible how much I missed you. It was insanely grueling not being able to see your beautiful face every day." John said to Valerie, lightly running his thumb across her cheek.

"Please, you humour me. Besides, I probably missed you a lot more than you missed me." Valerie said, moving across the room to turn down the loud music before heading back into John's arms and falling into an embrace.

      She had missed him terribly, and she wasn't even scared to admit it to him.

"Is that a challenge, dear? Because I think I would beat you at that."

"And I think you wouldn't. However, I also think I want you to kiss me."

"Oh, do you now?"

"Without a doubt." Valerie replied, and John had swept her into a kiss before their banter could continue. There was a bit of hesitation and nervousness before the kiss deepened as if they had done it a million times.

       "I really did miss you," John mumbled, barely pulling away from Valerie to speak.

       "I know." Valerie muttered back, pulling him back into a kiss.

      "Really? Really. In front of the guests. You can make out later," Freddie said teasingly as he walked back into the room.

      "Yes, really." John said, pulling away from Valerie,  the both of them slightly breathless.

      "Well, you'll have all of later. If the two of you sneak out during dinner to eat each other's faces,  I won't say a word." Freddie said with a smile, trying to contain his slight awkwardness and wanting to celebrate the fact that John and Valerie were finally together.

     "But I'm going to have to steal her for a bit, John.  We didn't buy her that piano for nothing!"

      "Oh, Freddie, I'm going to make you return it. I barely know how to play." Valerie said as she walked over and allowed Freddie to wrap an arm around her shoulders and start guiding her out of the room.

      "Darling, no! I'm going to teach you to play.  You'll be great in no time." Freddie promised her as he practically skipped down the stairs with her and into the sitting room where the piano was.