the wild one.

twenty sixx

1983

In the long run, Kiss were truly old men. Harley could slightly see Mick's point now, last week Gene had given them a lecture on responsible partying, using their previous parties as examples.

Of course, Motley blew off his lecture right away and went straight into the hard-partying. Harley remained pissed off at Nikki for the first few weeks, which left Nikki wondering what he did. He guessed he must've been drunk if he didn't remember what he had done.

Motley and Kiss were currently at a party, and Nikki was in search of his bandmates. He had discovered Vince was off fucking a groupie, Mick was drinking alone, Harley was talking to Eric and Paul, and she glared at him anytime he got near her. He sighs in defeat and goes to Tommy, who was engrossed in a game of poker.

"Hey, Tommy," Nikki says, tapping Tommy on the shoulder as he keeps Harley in his eyesight, "Do you know why Harley's mad at me?"

"I dunno, man," Tommy responds, not tearing his attention away from the game. "She barely tells me shit anymore."

"Do you think... you could ask her for me?"

"No, you do it yourself. Since when are you afraid to talk to girls?" Tommy questions, finally glancing at Nikki.

"I'm not. I clearly must've said something to her because she'll be cool one minute then the second I'm close to her at all she's pissed off." He explains.

"That's your own fault, you know not to fuck around with Harley. Why don't you just try and go talk to her?" Tommy suggests and glances back to see a new play in front of him. "Shit."

"I mean, maybe. I'll see if Vince knows, he usually knows."

"I don't know shit." Vince shrugs after Nikki had come up to him asking.

"What do you mean you don't know?" He asks, sighing in annoyance.

Vince takes a long drink. "What do you think I don't know means? She didn't tell me anything this time."

"Fuck." Nikki groans. "Now I gotta go talk to her. Unless Mick knows, but I'm guessing he doesn't."

"I would offer you good luck, but who knows what'll happen," Vince says.

"Thanks," Nikki mutters sarcastically, before grimacing as he makes his way to Harley. Harley pretends not to see Nikki as he walks up, and Eric glances between the two of them. He nudges Paul and the two walk off.

"Harley -"

"No, Nikki. I told you,"

"I clearly don't remember, otherwise I wouldn't be fucking asking you." He interrupts.

She stares at him for a minute. "Then ask Lela. Or better yet, maybe stay sober for once."

He bit his tongue to keep himself from commenting on how she wasn't sober at the moment. "No, I'm not asking Lela, I'm asking you."

"Y'know, it kind of sucked trying to keep Lela's attention away from why you came into my apartment shitfaced going on about it being a 'fucking kinda thing'." Harley air quotes his direct words.

Right. Now he remembers.

"Okay."

"Really? That's all you have to say?" She scoffs.

Nikki shrugs.

Harley rolls her eyes and looks off in the distance before looking back at him. "Y'know what? Fuck you, I'm going." She starts to walk off, but Nikki of course got his final words in.

"Yeah, I'm sure you'd enjoy that like you have every other time."

Harley stops and flips him off with both hands before storming off.

To Nikki's enthusiasm, he lucked out with Harley in his bed at least twice during the tour. She had started to relax around him towards the end of it, although he figured it was because Harley had been high most of the time.

And even though it had been twice that Nikki had gotten to fuck her on the tour, there were countless times where they had been making out. Whether it was in a closet at a party, in their rooms, or a dressing room behind the stage, they usually couldn't keep their hands off each other. It seemed to be a thing that occurs every tour.

Harley was in a good mood for once on this shitty tour; she was squished between Tommy and Eric, feeling tipsy, and was for sure high on coke. She had done quite a few lines with Tommy before the dinner.

She was tired of feeling tense all tour because of Nikki, and so Harley did a bit more coke and drank a bit more every time it was around to get rid of the feeling. Harley acknowledged the fact that Nikki was staring at her at the moment, as she happily munched on her fries.

For a second, Harley locks eye contact with Nikki, and it only takes her hunger to pull the contact free. But after picking up another fry, she glances over at him. Nikki gives a discreet nod off to the bathrooms, and she smirks in response.

Nikki dips out without anyone noticing, although everyone would know with them both gone. Harley excuses herself from the group and squeezes around Eric before following Nikki off to the guys' bathroom. Stepping inside, she kisses him right away, wrapping her arms around his neck.

His left-hand falls to her waist as his right tangles into her hair, and Harley groans out. She pulls away for a second to study him. Harley can tell right away that he's high - she's good at recognizing the signs now. Only his high isn't a coke high, like hers, and she's curious to know what it is.

"Nikki, do you-" She doesn't even have to finish her sentence before he's fishing the coke vial out of his back pocket, and Harley grins upon seeing it. She laughs airly as he files up a line or two on the counter. Harley keeps her hair brushed onto one side of her shoulder as she leans forward to snort the extra lines, Nikki following close behind her. Harley kisses him again, and Nikki kisses her back, his hand sliding under her shirt.

Meanwhile back at the table, everyone had taken notice of the two's absence.

"They've been gone longer than ten minutes," Vince announces, turning towards Tommy.

"So? They could be taking a shit or something, sometimes that takes ten minutes, even more." Tommy shrugs, refusing to accept his loss.

"I think you have issues if you're shitting for more than ten minutes." Mick pipes up.

"Thank you, Mick," Vince says, and Mick flips him off. "Own up to it, Lee, you lost the bet."

"Fuck." Tommy sighs, yanking out his wallet.

"And why are you guys betting on this?" Paul questions out of confusion.

"It's a long story." Vince grins, as his winnings presented them to himself. Everyone stared at Nikki and Harley as they returned to their table, noting the way Nikki's hair looked even more disheveled than usual, and the way Harley was fixing her skirt.

"What?" Nikki asks, glancing at everyone staring.

"Nothing," Vince smirks, turning back to his food.

"What did you shitheads do?" Harley looks over at Vince and Tommy, Vince looking like he was struggling to not laugh.

"We didn't do anything. Tommy just owned up to his bet." Vince grins. Harley glances at Nikki and rolls her eyes before going back to eating her food.

The last few gigs for Motley weren't bad, although they could have been better - Harley supposed it was the fact that everyone was somewhat affected by the substances they had shoved into their bodies right before the show. Harley could surprisingly play her guitar well for being high on cocaine.

Although her return to the Sunset Strip was a harsh boot back to reality, Harley found herself suffering bad withdrawals in the real world. It was a struggle to go to work every day and she was showing up late sometimes, with some deep bags under her eyes.

And maintaining a relationship with Lela was becoming difficult with how often she was seeing Nikki now. Harley knew it was shitty, but she couldn't help it. Maybe it was because he often came with the drugs she was starting to crave. Lela had been starting to get more hours at her job too, which was also affecting them.

Either way, Harley was hoping that returning home to her drug-free apartment would clear her mind for a while, and maybe she could think straight for once.