Giggle Juice

Part 8

please forgive me for this gif

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Los Angeles, California, 1994

"Can you hold him for a sec?" 

"Yeah." Duff reached out to hold the crying baby. He wiped the long dribble of drool from Noah's chin and arranged him in his arms. Steven walked over to the payphone across the street. "Shhh. It's okay. S'okay. Your mama'll be out soon."

Steven hung up and returned to them. 

"How'd the interview go?" 

"She said it was fine. Stern was annoying as fuck, but when isn't he?"

Duff felt that Maya was the type of person who adjusted very well to being famous because nothing about her changed. She was happy because she got to play music and share it with people, but her personality remained stable. She was the real deal.

"Kay, buddy, let's go home." Steven took Noah.

"Ivy, Duffman. Let's go!" Duff smirked, knowing that Maya would flip if she heard him call her son a diminutive of his own nickname. No matter how much she insisted that his name was Michael, he still got away with calling him Duff when she wasn't around.

"Noooo. Why?"

"Michael."

The twins reluctantly untangled themselves from the monkey bars and skipped over. Ivy held onto Duff's hand but Michael insisted that he could walk alone.

"I'm grown now. I don't need my hand held." 

"Okay then," his father replied. The two adults tried to stifle their amusement. Michael was only four and small for his age, but it didn't seem to stop him from acting big.

"I wonder if we look like a couple."

"Dude."

"But listen, we kind of do. Super dads."

"I didn't think it was possible for you to get dorkier, but here we are."

"You are like my dads though. Mama's my mom and you two are my dads. Kind of, at least."

Duff looked down at Ivy and then up at Steven. They grinned at each other. He felt touched.

I'm kind of a parent. That's really cool.

Slash brought a cigarette to his lips and lit it. His jeans were unbuttoned and he wore no shirt. He looked worn out.

"Haven't seen you in a while. How are you?"

"Okay? I guess. I don't know, man, when are we ever really okay?"

Slash let out an exhausted laugh and took another drag from his cigarette.

"I don't...I don't really know what to do anymore. I feel like I don't work anymore, y'know?"

I do know. You have no idea how much I know.

"I know we don't see each other as much but you can still call me. Whenever." Slash rolled his eyes. "I'm being serious." He focused on Duff and gave the smallest of nods.

Guns N' Roses was no more. The drummer had left two years ago and Steven rejoined. It was like old times for a little while, all of them together. But then something would come up and remind them that it wasn't the eighties, and that they were older. They had grown and their pieces didn't fit together as neatly. It was a horribly quiet feeling. No one mentioned it but they all felt it. Eventually, they decided to go their separate ways. Steven was now a full time dad, Duff was doing solo work and also a dad of sorts, Izzy had formed a new band, Slash had plenty to do and was living large, and Axl...was Axl.