Buttered Popcorn

Chapter 17: May 25, 1987

Guns N' Roses woke up the next morning, despite the muffled arguing heard from the bathroom, to find Steven and Jimmie cuddled up in Duff's bunk. Izzy managed a groggy smile as he passed by, soon replaced by a grimace as Steven snored loudly. Slash wiggled his eyebrows at Duff while they both kneeled down and caught sight of the pair in bed together, then beginning to make obnoxious smooching noises that evidently woke them up.

"You guys finally make up?" Axl asked just before beginning to brush his teeth. "More like make out." Slash corrected, giggling once both Jimmie and Steven's faces went red. "That's none of your business." Jimmie said as-a-matter-of-factly. "It is when we can hear you screaming at each other at three in the morning." Duff countered cheekily.

"And hear Jimmie screaming even louder at four." Slash commented again, laughing as she scowled. "Oh shut up, Curly. What are you, twelve?" He continued to snicker while the band dispersed throughout the bus. Steven's arm tightened around her hips as he secured her closer to him. "Stevie, we gotta get up." Jimmie shifted to face him in his hold, now nearly touching noses with the sleepy blond. "Says who?" he mumbled.

Jimmie began gently dragging her fingers down his hairy chest, getting a very soft- almost inaudible- groan from him. Steven brought his soft lips to her neck with a small smile and began leaving a trail of kisses up and down her skin. The flutter in her stomach sent goosebumps across her arms and legs at the feeling of him flush against her. Jimmie breathed out, "You're a tease."

"I'm only a tease if it gets you hot." he murmured, slipping his rough hand under her shirt and resting his hand on her side. Smirking again as her breath hitched, Steven relished in the way he could fluster the infamously 'stone-cold' Jimmie.

She decided to play along, and ran her hand up his inner thigh. He gruffly cleared his throat and now, Jimmie smirked, "Don't start something you can't finish, drummer." She managed a cheeky smile as he stared incredulously back at her, "Tough game you're playing, babe." he muttered.

They continued to kiss in each others' arms, even occasionally going below the others' hips to briefly meet their cores, before Duff poked Jimmie's bare back after pulling back the curtain.

She yelped, tensing her grip on Steven at his cold finger while the bassist gave a lazy smile. "Sorry lovers, gotta get my stuff." He nodded his head for them to get out of the bed, Jimmie following the others in beginning to get ready while Steve almost-playfully scowled at the taller blond.

Looking down to his drummer, Duff smirked, "Get a room next time, Big Shot." Steven mocked him and muttered under his breath just out of range for his friend to hear.

"I had a room, Big Bird."

~

Jimmie sat on a large amp, infatuated as the bands began setting up their equipment for the show in Arizona tonight. With the hot sun beating down upon the open stadium and onto her bare back, she hastily adjusted her cropped tank top. The girl had tried to look at sexy as possible in the blazing heat, though Steven couldn't see her as anything but, no matter what she wore.

"Jimmie! Jimmie!"

Her eyes lazily scooped up from the floor to the approaching Vince, who she hadn't gotten the chance to hang out with very much the past few weeks. "Mhm?" she hummed, trying to take her mind off of the threatening sweat rolling down her skin.

"Nikki needs you."

The girl crumpled her eyebrows and cocked her head, "Nikki needs me?"

"Yes, Nikki needs you. Now... Alone." the blond repeated, soon motioning to go to the back room where the bands would take shelter from the sun. Her eyes spotted Steven, who was contently talking to Duff before laughing loudly. His face of disappointment flashed across the back of her eyelids as she blinked- the moment when he had seen her with Nikki and Tommy leaving the hotel room.

She didn't want to put Steven through that again. After all, they had both showed each other that they cared for one another. That's what she believed, at least.

"Uhm, no thanks. Tell him I'm busy, I need to go talk to Steve." she mumbled sheepishly, ignoring his obnoxiously curious quirked brow while he stared back. ".. Alright. Whatever you say." he eventually shrugged, trudging off to the room without another word.

Jimmie could only hope Nikki wouldn't take it the wrong way. Ruining her friendships with The Crüe would most certainly prove to be quite a drag- especially while joining them on a tour- but she desperately wanted to preserve her relationship with Steven.

Speaking of..

"Hey, Hot Stuff!"

The energetic drummer bounced over to the zoned-out girl and placed his calloused hand on her smooth thigh. "Something bothering you?" he asked sweetly. She smiled and gently shook her head, "Not anymore." A glimmer of excitement sparkled in his beautiful blue eyes before he smiled back, "Cool."

Jimmie found herself sinking deeper and deeper into the ocean of his irises while they conversed. Jimmie could occasionally- rarely- see the faded remnants of a smile on his lips, sometimes none at all, but she liked to think there was always one in his eyes. His beautiful eyes.

A gentle smile caressed her lips, she couldn't help it. He was perfect in her eyes, no doubt about it.

Steven's very quiet whisper broke her daze, "Jimmie."

"Mhm?" she hummed absentmindedly, a dreamy expression across her face.

"Why're you staring at me?" he whispered cheekily again.

The question caught her off guard, as it quickly snapped her out of her trance. A flattered smirk spread on his lips while she blushed deeply. "You're -It's.. you, uh, have something on your nose." The lie sputtered out like a lawn sprinkler- jagged and very ill-prepared. He knew she was lying, but decided to play along.

"Hm? Where?"

His eyes crossed as he tried to focus on the tip of his nose, leaning his head all sorts of ways to try and see the 'something' that she claimed was there. She giggled and held his face in her hands, steadying him against her soft grip, "Right.. there."

Her thumb lightly graze the tip of his nose as they both fell into a tense silence, staring deeply into each others' eyes just as she was doing before. Before she could come to her senses and probably jerk away, Steven crashed his lips against her own. Jimmie sucked on his lips like no other as he did the same, vicious yet incredibly delicately.

Without another care in the world, they didn't notice Slash and Duff playfully gagging themselves with a laugh as soon as they caught sight of the pair, or Izzy shaking his head in satisfied exhaustion with the confusing couple. The hot-headed Axl nodded contently as his briefly glanced over, relieved that someone else was finished throwing their tantrum over seemingly nothing.

Jimmie would laugh at the irony of that.

Tommy nudged Vince in shocked amusement, both of them wide-eyed as they gawked.

Jimmie began to feel heavy stares burning into the both of them, gently pulling away with his face in her hands, "Stevie, they're staring." He took a moment to regain his ragged breaths and smiled, "Let them." And so she did. In fact, she began to relish in how infatuated the rest were with her and Steven. She wanted them to know they were together. She noticed the surprised smiles and noticed the laughing at them finally ending up in each others' arms.

But she definitely didn't notice Nikki's white knuckles, clenching his fists off to the side stage while he glared at the blissfully ignorant pair.