Becoming

To Tame A Land

Ade unlocked the door of the flat that he and Dave still shared and brought in his suitcase and guitar case. Dave followed, setting his own luggage down and locking the door behind them.

"Tinned soup, hit the local, or delivered takeaway?" Dave asked.

"Depends, will the soup be filling enough?" Ade asked. "Takeaway if it won't be, cos I don't wanna go anywhere before tomorrow. And the only reason I'm willing to go anywhere tomorrow is that we will need to hit the launderette as well as the Co-op."

Dave laughed. "Yeah, I don't blame you there!" He pulled the takeaway menus from the drawer they kept them in. "So, the next question is, Chinese, pizza, or curry?"

"Chinese," Ade said promptly. "We could get decent curry in Germany, but the Chinese food options there were a bit more limited."

"Sounds good to me," Dave said as he tossed the curry and pizza menus back into the drawer.

They looked over the Chinese menu before making their choices. Dave phoned their order in, and they unpacked their suitcases while waiting for the delivery. When the food arrived, they ate snuggled together on that dilapidated old sofa that Ade had nicked from the tip years ago, just before Dave had first joined Iron Maiden.

Ade finished his food and wrapped his arm around Dave's shoulders with a soft smile. "It's so good to be home," he murmured. "And better to know we don't have to be up at a certain hour tomorrow."

Dave laughed. "Yeah, especially for you," he agreed. "I suppose your mum will expect us for supper tomorrow?"

"You know she will," Ade said with a rueful chuckle. "And knowing her, she'll have asked Kathy or Susan to invite some single friends over for our benefit."

"I'll play along if I must," Dave said, "But I'd really, really rather not hook up with, let alone date, anyone who knows our families."

"Yeah," Ade agreed. "I feel the same way. I'll be nice to whoever Mum invites over, but there's just no way I'd even think about dating her, not even for Mum's sake. It's too risky."

"My thoughts exactly," Dave said with a sigh. "If... and I do mean if... I was to consider dating a woman, even marrying her in order to have kids, she'd have to know about us, because there's no way I could give you up. Not even for kids."

Ade let out a breath he didn't realise he'd been holding. "Yeah, that's about what I was thinking," he admitted. "Because between the blokes starting to wonder out loud at us still sharing the flat, and the pressure from our families, it really is getting to the point that we've got to seriously think about dating women. And I think we both want kids, yeah?"

Dave's face softened a little. "Yeah, I want kids someday. I just don't want to lose you in the process of having them."

"No more than I want to lose you, baby," Ade said, tugging Dave into his lap and giving him a soft kiss. "But I saw your face when Nicko showed off the pictures of his son. Did you see Lorraine talking to Harry after the last show?"

"No, why?"

"I'm pretty sure she's pregnant. She said something to him and he lit up, then touched her stomach," Ade told his lover. "I think we're all getting to where we want families – yeah, Nick and his son's mum broke up and all, but he's spending more time on the phone with her asking how little Nicholas is doing than he is chasing the groupies anymore. Hell, even Bruce seems to have stopped taking every offer that got thrown his way over the last part of the tour."

Dave grinned slightly. "Probably cos of that bird he met in Paris, the London girl who was there on holiday. I'm pretty sure I spotted her backstage three or four times over the last month, always on Friday or Saturday nights. If he's the least bit serious about her, wanting to see if they might get something real going between them, I can see him making sure she's got passes any time she comes 'round."