The Sound Of Silence
Slash's POV
Duff graced us with his presence around five in the evening. Lately he's been so consumed with being Nikki that we haven't been seeing much of him. Fuck, Nikki lived with us and we barely fucking see him. I got a little curious about what Nikki does with his days now, so I trailed him one day. He doesn't do anything special. He takes long walks. He sits on the beach just silently taking it all in. He watches the people with this curious expression about him.
So anyhow Duff shows up and he's looking for Nikki. I don't know where to tell him Nikki is, but I can show Duff some of the places that I know he goes. As luck would have it, we don't have to go very far at all. We find Nikki sitting on a park bench feeding fucking birds right out of his hand. He's smiling like it's the most amazing fucking thing in the world to him.
"Nikki," Duff calls out to him as we walk up to him.
"Oh hey guys, you want to feed the birds with me?" He cordially asks us.
"No man, we need to talk," Duff sighs and plops down on the bench next to Nikki.
"Oh yeah? About what?" He calmly asks as his fingers stroke along a birds back.
"Fucking Tommy," Duff sighs and pushes Nikki's hair out of his face. Nikki didn't even bother complaining to Duff anymore about his hair.
"Oh? And what ever has T-Bone gotten you into?" He asks with that damn in awe of the fucking birds smile.
"Nothing. He came by your place to talk to me yesterday. He fucking yelled at me and shook me and shit. He was pretty pissed," Duff tells him.
Nikki slowly let's the smile fade away from Duff's face. "Tommy seems to think that I'm stalling about getting my body back."
"He says that you won't listen to him," Duff says..
"I listened. I just chose not to respond," He says softly as another bird lands on his knee. "Say, what do you think happens to our souls when we die? Do you think we become birds or cats or get put in some newborn baby?"
"I think it would be best if you worry about your soul right now," I say and sit on the other end of the bench. "Both of you cause I don't think that you guys have been doing that lately. We got Axl and Izzy back but we need Duff. No offense Nikki but you just can't get down Duff's bass lines."
" I haven't really given it much practice. I didn't see the need to practice for hours and hours. I've done that before..." He abruptly stops whatever it was he was gonna say.
"Well you're sober, Duff's dick reflexes are in your hands...What is the hold up Nikki? Are you stalling?" I point blank ask him.
He just stares at a bird resting on his finger. He gives it tiny little pieces of bread. "I don't know if I would call it stalling. I'm just not dwelling on the shit anymore. Neither is Duff. I'm finding it... refreshing."
Duff looks at him strangely. "So Tommy's right? You're stalling?"
"Ah come on Duff, don't you like the fans and the girls any time you want? " Nikki smiles and gives out more bread to some birds on the sidewalk.
"Well, yeah...But...It's not my life man."
"A minor detail," Nikki says softly, "It's better. You didn't have to work for it, it just fell in your lap. Fucking live it up man. Enjoy that shit."
"But what about you?" I ask him, "Your just gonna give Duff your whole life?"
"I didn't say that," he shrugs.
"Well I think we need to focus on getting things straight," Duff tells him.
"I don't know how to change us back. Do you?"
"No...But we haven't even been trying for a while. We need to get back on track Because I can't be you. You have a band to run, managers to drive crazy, a record company to deal with, fucking decisions and paperwork. I can't make those choices for your band. I mean what about Vince, Mick and Tommy?" Duff asks him.
"Well I've made them all millionaires so I think they should probably take vacations." And he casually just keeps on feeding fucking birds.
"So how long are we just gonna let this go on without even trying?" Duff then asks.
Nikki just looks at him, "Well I don't know what to tell you, I have no clue how to get us back in our bodies. I mean I don't love you or anything so telling each other that we love each other ain't gonna Fucking work here. So I plan to sit here and feed birds till I run out of bread. Then I'm gonna go catch a matinee. You have band practice, an interview, photo shoot, and a few bitches to pick up at the Cathouse."
I just shake my head because Nikki could give a fuck anymore about getting his body back. Duff just stares at him. "Tommy was right then?" He mutters, "You think you can get to start a whole new life. You don't want us to change back."
Nikki just completely ignores us. "Hey what movies are playing? You guys know?"
