This Is Love, This Is Life

Just Older (Bongiovi/Sambora)

Author's Notes:

Well, hasn't it been a while since we've been in this book?!

I thought it was about time that we saw a little of Seb and Lia somewhere in between being small children and their adult-ish incarnations.

There's a fun little Fanfic game at the end as well as an insight into most FF writers' brains 😆 Drop your score of how many DON'T apply in the comments. Mine is 1😆😆😆

Hoping you're all happy and well...or doing the best that you can in current circumstances. Sending you all hugs and look forward to reading your comments!

J💕💕💕

2006

Rosie's Bar - Friday Night

"Thank you!" Richie said to the crowd after the applause died down. He and the band were wrapping up their set and only had a couple more songs to play, finishing the night with their signature song, Rosie .

"Ah...a show of hands for a moment, if you will," Richie said. "How many newcomers are here tonight?" He shielded his eyes from the glare of the spotlights to see into the audience. There was a good smattering of new faces, usually out-of-towners that had come hoping to see the Richie Sambora play in his bar. "Welcome! Nice to see you all. Hope you're havin' a blast here tonight?" Richie asked, leaning on his microphone as he waited for the applause and cheers to die back a little.

"To our regular Rosie's family," he said, spreading his arms wide to encompass the whole bar, "let's show 'em how it's done, huh?" They were immediately hit with a wall of sound mixed with a healthy dose of love and appreciation. He turned and grinned at the rest of his band, knowing that they were feeling it just as much as he was.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" he said after taking a sip of his beer.

He looked over to the shadows to his right where his family were sitting.

Lia, with her messy blonde hair reflecting the stage lights in the darkness and still in her soccer uniform, looking tired after a late game, was leaning up against Jon who had recently decided to grow a beard that, Richie had to admit, suited him and was as sexy as hell.

Sebastian was going through a stage; listening to something Seb called music but was just a whole lot of repetitive noise to Jon, wearing all black and having his hair covering his eyes that were heavily ringed in kohl, was surreptitiously checking out some of the girls in the audience.

His children were polar opposites to each other at the moment. Lia was still sunshine and light whereas Seb had become dark and moody, a little on the surly side, and retreated to his room whenever possible.

In the next few minutes, he was going to shake up one of their worlds.

~*~

A Few Weeks Earlier

"Papa's home!" Richie said from the front door. He closed the door and walked further into the house, dropping his carry-all in front of the door that hid the washing machine and dryer. He'd been dropped off at home from the airport after he and the band had done a couple of private shows down in Nashville.

He wasn't surprised that no one heard him as he was greeted with a wail from a guitar from Sebastian's room. He listened for a moment and had to admit that Sebastian's playing was coming along in leaps and bounds. Both children were naturally gifted musically, but it was Sebastian who'd kept the practice up. He smiled when the notes morphed into one of his songs, appreciating his son's ability to put his own unique spin on the solos, bending the notes slightly differently.