7:34. Derec and Emily are awake making coffees in the bus dining area. Everyone else is asleep in their bunks while Val and Axl crashed on the couch.
"So how's this gonna work?" she asks her new business man, sipping her morning brew.
"How's what?"
"This thing we have going on. How's it gonna go?"
"We're gonna go back to L.A. and record a double album and travel the world?"
"No not the tour. I mean us."
Derec looked at her for a while before answering.
"I think we'll be just fine."
He pulled her chair closer to his and kissed her on the mouth gently and then all at once. A door opened in the heat of the moment and their touching heads separated and faced the intruder. Steven, with his hair all over the place like a toddler.
"Ohhh, I see you two are busy... I was gonna get a glass of milk but I guess-"
Derec swung open the fridge and tossed the whole carton at him, obviously impatient that they'd been interrupted. Steven caught it.
"Thanks dude!". He ran back to wherever he came from and they continued their business.
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Meanwhile, Duff and Sophia were waking up slowly in each other's arms in his bunk.
"Hey, can you maybe stop by the tour bus tonight after the show?" Duff asks nervously. His usual cocky demeanor is gone around her.
"Yeah, sure why? Won't everyone be at that bar like we talked about?"
"Yeah no, just come right back here. I promise."
Sophia yawned and looked up at him with squinting, smiling eyes. "Okay." She stretched her arms out wide and yawned, and walked to the kitchen looking magnificent in Duff's eyes.
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Sammy and Steven were currently residing in the bathroom sharing a needle. How classy. She pushed down on the top, releasing the drug into the crook of her left elbow. Instant bliss. Steven had gone before her, so by now they were both strung out and ready for the high. They lay on the tile floor in the small space and just sat. And looked around. And started blankly after that at one another, occasionally making strange facial expressions. The feeling was like nothing ever before. They had to hide their drugs from Axl since he'd really been on top of them about messing up the new album because of too many high musicians. No one listened, so the bathroom was their only safe haven.
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The bus was about half way back to LA and it wasn't feeling any shorter. Axl and Val sat on 'their' couch, (rightfully theirs after the rocket queen incident) him whispering dirty nothings into her ear and her giggling at each one.
"Hey, stop fucking giggling."
She looked at him not sure if he was joking or not and said, "I can't really help it, it's just"
"Does me wanting to do that with you make you uncomfortable?"
In the hall behind the couch, Slash came walking down the hall to take his guitar back to his storage closet. The voices of Axl and Valentina were enough to make him stop and eavesdrop though.
"No, Axl, I'd just rather have you do those things to me instead of having Slash do them."
What? He'd heard his name. Leaning in closer he listened harder, intrigued by whatever they were talking about.
"How would you feel about me joining in instead of watching."
Fuck. A threesome with them? His eyebrows twisted downward and his mind raced with erotic images only he could imagine.
Val stared at him for a moment before commenting.
"Well, I guess I wouldn't really mind..."
Oh boy. The big-lipped smirk spread across Slash's face. She wanted it as much as he did. And as far as he was concerned, he and Axl made a pretty good team. They were both into meaner stuff, which was great because she was too. After all, he had written a whole song on that topic.
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The bus eventually got home and dropped them all off at the the girls's apartment, which apparently they had no idea about.
"I thought we were going back to your place?" Val asked the guys in general.
Izzy spoke up for once. "It's not ours. It's Vickie Hamilton's. But she kicked us out since we destroyed it."
"So you're saying you're staying here? This is so untimely... I have nothing clean, we just got up and left..."
"Don't worry," said Duff, "we'll help you clean some of it," he said while rubbing Sophia's back. He noticed her stressed face. She needed everything to be spick and span all the time. He'd learned that about her.
Sammy walked over with the keys and opened the door. Everyone filed in and walked up the stairs to room 112.
The apartment was left a mess, but nothing nine people couldn't fix. Wow. Nine people. In a two bedroom apartment. Kind of a tight squeeze...
They all tossed their bags next to the front door and immediately got to work. Duff had given them a whisper lecture going up the stairs to be as helpful as possible. He did his share by throwing out empty bottles and takeout boxes left from before they went to DC. Slash and Steven got out some windex and covered everything they could in it. Izzy organized their bags of stuff so everyone had a particular place for their belongings. Duff helped Sophia vacuum, and Axl took the more philosophical approach and organized the book shelf movies and records by alphabetical order.
"Valentina, is it M before N, or N before M," Axl yelled so she could hear him from her room. She silently sang the song in her head, L, M, N, O, P, before yelling back "M! Like Mary!"
"M like masturbation!" Slash walked past her open door smiling to himself and Steven's laughter could be heard from the front of the apartment and Samantha slapped him lightly. Those two were so childish. Slash stopped himself and leaned into Val's doorway, his curls covering practically his whole face.
"D'you think that was funny?"
"A little juvenile, but it was okay I guess."
"Masturbation isn't juvenile."
"Jesus Slash, I'm trying to put my things back in order. Go talk about masturbation somewhere else."
That caught Axl's attention. He listened in.
"What if I wanna talk about it with you?"
"What?" The red haired man's eyes widened and he walked into the hallway to where the conversation was going on.
"What's going on?"
"Nothing, I was telling her a joke," said the curly head, walking away gulping down yet another beer. Axl walked in and around Val so her back was facing his front.
"You alright?" he said into her ear as he brought his hands up her sides and his head closer to her neck.
"I'm fine." She turned around and kissed him sweetly, assuring him she was really fine with a smile. But was she?
She'd only been with Axl for a short time, it was nothing serious. She obviously knew he'd been sleeping with groupies the whole trip, but that was just his lifestyle and she respected that. So taking interest in Slash wasn't a bad decision, right?
Right?
