Becoming

Brave New World

AN: Readers who've been around for a while and know my story Awakening will find portions of this chapter very familiar - as we've now hit the convergence point of the two stories, I'll be pulling quite a bit of dialogue and instances where Emppu interacts with Dave or Ade or both, directly from Awakening. It's the same conversations and interactions, after all!

This chapter corresponds with chapters 16 (This Moment Is Eternity) and 17 (Passion And The Opera) of Awakening.

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Ade reached for his mobile phone first, calling Bruce. When it went to voicemail, he left a simple, "I don't know if you're aware, but there's a picture of you and some bloke I don't recognise in today's Times. Is it real or did someone fake it somehow?" Dave called as well, leaving a similar message when he also got Bruce's voicemail.

"What d'you think, are we gonna get outraged calls from Harry soon?" Dave asked after grabbing a towel and mopping up the results of his spit-take.

"S'pose it depends on how thoroughly he reads the paper," Ade said. "Or how quickly someone calls his attention to the picture. For that matter, he's not likely to call any of us until after he's got hold of Bruce and confirmed if it's real or not."

"Do you think it's real?" Dave asked quietly.

Ade picked up the paper again, this time taking a moment to read the small print under the photo. "It seems likely. 'Bruce Dickinson, singer of Iron Maiden and Emppu Vuorinen, guitarist of Nightwish.' Why does Nightwish sound familiar?"

Dave thought for a moment. "Graspop, 2003," he said. "Harry caught their show and introduced himself to them after, remember? None of the rest of us saw their set, but when Harry described them, you and Bruce said you'd met their bassist before, when he was with a band called Tarot."

"Yeah, I remember that now," Ade said. "So – we know Bruce is in Finland, and Nightwish is a Finnish band. He did meet Marko before – that's the bassist bloke – so it's quite likely that he'd have visited Marko and met his bandmates whilst there. And I can't think of a reason anyone might fake up a picture like that."

"I know Bruce never acted uncomfortable at being naked in front of other men, like in the showers and such, or when Ross Halfin was taking those pictures back in the 80s," Dave said thoughtfully. "And whilst it embarrasses me to think about it, he willingly gave me a bit of a cuddle once, back when both Tamar and Nathalie were having trouble with their pregnancies. I'd got myself right pissed, and he got me back to the hotel and into bed, but I was upset and asked him to hug me. He did, too, once he satisfied himself that I knew who he was when I asked him to hug me," he added with a chuckle.

Ade laughed. "Well, given that I've crawled in with Nathalie a few times just because I was feeling lonely and wanted someone to hold me and you weren't there, I'm hardly going to blame you for asking a friend for a hug when I wasn't there and neither was Tamar. And you know, I can't say I'm entirely surprised, at Bruce with a bloke, I mean. Not just what you said, although that's certainly a factor, but also, I saw him, erm, looking in the same direction as me a few times." He blushed a little at that admission. "Funny thing is, I don't think he realised he was looking, y'know?"

Dave smiled and gave him a soft kiss. "I know what you mean, blokes that maybe don't admit they like men don't seem to realise when they're looking. And you're allowed to look, love. I can't say I've never appreciated a nice view at times – what's the saying I've heard? Think it's something along the lines of, I don't care where you get your appetite, as long as you come home for dinner."

"And I always do," Ade said softly. "I'm yours, and I always will be."

"As I'm yours, and always will be," Dave replied with another soft kiss. "We support Bruce, then?"