Keep Me In Your Dreams (Steddie)

Giving Yourself To Me Can Never Be Wrong (Let's Get It On-Marvin Gaye)

"Dude, where are you," Dustin asked when he heard Steve's voice on the phone. "You have Robin scared shitless. Just disappearing like that."

"I told you I was going to see Corroded Coffin," Steve said as he stood in front of the full length mirror on the back of the hotel room door examining the tattoo on his hip. It was a corroded coffin, brown wood that looked to be rotting around the edges. And right in the center, dripping blood red was a gothic E.

"That was a week ago," Dustin replied. "Where have you been since?"

"Seeing Corroded Coffin," Steve laughed. "Last Friday in Indianapolis, Sunday in Cincinnati, and Monday in Dayton." He cocked his hip and grinned. The tattoo was sure to be to Eddie's liking. "They didn't play Tuesday and Wednesday, I couldn't get a ticket to Columbus on Thursday, and they were off again Friday. But I'm seeing them tonight in Pittsburgh."

"Are you coming home after that?" Steve sighed. Since Dustin had turned twenty-one, he had become a voice of reason, pretty much taking over Steve's role as mother hen to their group of friends.

"I couldn't score tickets to DC, Baltimore, and Philly next week," Steve said. "But I've got New York, Boston, Charlotte, and Charleston the week after."

"You realize you're going to burn through your inheritance at this rate, right?" Dustin heard him sigh. "You need to come home. Go back to school. Get a job. Something."

"I'm not burning through anything," Steve answered.

The money his parents had left him when they both passed away in a car accident while traveling for his dad's work was more than enough to last him through this lifetime and into the next if that's what he wanted. He wasn't frivolous with the money. Okay, maybe following Corroded Coffin across the country was frivolous. But he stayed in cheap motels, not lavish hotels. He didn't get extravagant when eating out. He was barely spending any money. Hell, he'd even let his apartment in Indianapolis go so he wouldn't be paying unneeded rent and utilities on it while he was traveling.

"Fine," Dustin sighed exasperatedly. "Do me a favor and come home after tonight's show. Spend some time with Robin next week. She worries about you and you know how spastic she gets when she's worried. Then you can go back to following Eddie around."

"Yeah, okay," Steve said. "I'll come home tomorrow." Steve pulled his jeans up to cover the tattoo. "Tell Robin I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry her."

He buttoned and zipped his pants then went to his suitcase to find a shirt to wear. Robin was his best friend, the first person he'd come out to when they were working at Scoops together. They'd been high as shit, Steve was beat all to hell, and they were hiding out in the bathroom at the mall, talking, a real heart to heart, and Robin had come out to Steve. He'd considered keeping up the façade of hitting on her and every other girl he met, but at that point, it didn't really matter anymore. She was a lesbian. So Steve had outed himself to her and she put her arms around him and told him she loved him. They had been inseparable ever since.

"Do you need somewhere to stay?"

"I'll stay at my parent's place," Steve told him. He hadn't been there since they'd passed away, but he still owned the house that had been left to him as their only child. "Maybe we can get the gang together one night and have a movie night. Like old times."

"Yeah," Dustin answered. "That would be great. Call me when you get home."

"I love you, you little shit head."

"Love you, too," Dustin laughed. "Mom."

**********

Steve arrived at the venue closer to show time than he usually did. He wasn't really interested in the opening band. It was a grunge band called Pearl Jam who had just released their debut album, Ten, in August the year before. He'd watched them at the first show on the tour, but he couldn't really get into them. The singer had a great voice, but he mumbled and no one could understand anything he was singing. So, he'd skipped their set at subsequent shows, like he was doing tonight.