SKIN (#SLAXL ONE SHOT).

Skin

Flashback:

1984

Axl is his band mate, and Slash is in awe with both his voice and his whole persona.

He enjoys chatting with him all day long, songwriting together, smoking weed and talking about their very different childhood and upbringings. Axl is kind of an orphan, and since he has no place to live in, Slash decides to take him home, particularly to live in the basement, where they are able to get closer as friends and bandmates, sharing a room with special creatures: cats and snakes.

"Aren't you afraid of my peculiar pets, ginger?" ask Slash tenderly, because he is such a good friend.

"No, I am only afraid of human beings. A human being raped me, a human being beat me up, a human being did not give a fuck about my suffering, even when she is my 'mother', so...", Axl replies, almost shedding a tear

Slash loves his vulnerability, he loves to have him there, with him, having a shelter over his head, food, and someone to listen to him. He adores his new friend, he really does.

As months pass by they get along too well. Indeed, they are sort of fascinated with each other, so much that Izzy and Steven are totally jealous of their bond.

Until one night, they drink too much, they laugh their asses off, they go to the basement, they lie on the bed together and...they finally make love.

Yes, love, brotherly love, true love, unconditional one...no lust, but mutual adoration.

"Promise me, you will never leave me, or I will hate you so, so much I will tell everyone you are just a cancer" Axl exclaims

Slash only smiles, embraces him tight and they fall asleep together as what they are: two very young men struggling to achieve their artistic goals. Together.

Some years later

Nikki Sixx was wandering around the hotel, looking for his friend, Slash.

They had been shooting heroin together for the last two weeks.

The Rock N' Roll's life: girls, sex, money spent in booze and more drugs and even more beautiful whores. He is high but he is not stupid: he knows that almost two hours have gone by, and he still can' t find who he is looking for: Slash.

Nikkii starts to worry up . Even when he is so much influenced by the horse, he is not blind: Slash is nowhere.

Axl is reading in his bedroom. He needs peace of mind, silence, introversion and weed. He spends his days like that, only leaving the hotel room to go to the Guns N' Roses shows.

He knows Slash and Duff are out there, doing drugs, fucking sluts or groupies, spending their time like two drunken teenagers. And because he is aware of all that, he is also sick of their lack of responsibility. However, he also considers them his family, since he has never had one, he has created his weird family: Duff, Steven, Slash and his 'brother' Izzy.

Suddenly he is interrupted, since some crazy bastard is knocking on the door. He opens the fucking door, just to find Nikki there, truly sad and absolutely high. He is sick of all these immature idiots, yes, Nikki included.

"Hey, man, I...I cannot find Slash anywhere" he says

"So?. I do not have him in my pocket. Bye" Axl answers. He lacks patience because he has had enough of these junkies

"Man, listen to me. I am really worried, he is N-O-W-H-E-R-E, do you understand?. I have checked the whole hotel, man. Help me, man" Nikki begs.

Axl wonders why he is never left alone, why they are usually complicating his life. He is a professional, too perfectionist, a responsible man, but now they are again bothering him.

"I will call the receptionist. Slash is not my son, you know. I do not have to take care of him like if he was a 5 years old boy" , Axl exclaims. He knows Slash might be fucking some hot woman, all drunken and ready to piss his own pants.

But something in his chest starts to get dark, like if he could also feel that, this time, it's all about a very different situation

"Let's go and find the motherfucker", he says to Nikki

They have finally found the motherfucker...

No drunken

No fucking a slut

No pissing his pants

No high due to heroin (that fuckin 'horse' he likes to have in his veins)

No ready to say sweet nothings to Axl, as he usually do when drunken

No standing up, but on the floor, by the elevator, and fucking dead

Shouts, desperation, screams, the police coming, the hotel receptionist calling everyone, a dark cloud surrounding their souls, a mortal melody all over the place...

Nikki and Axl try to make him come back to life, both crying out of desperation and, finally, Axl witnesses how a black crow leaves Slash's body....

He is gone, he will never come back, he will never tell him again: "I love you, motherfucker" He will never touch his shoulder while on stage together. No, he will never make him cry again while playing the guitar. He will never decide again, out of love, to let Axl date Erin, even after what they had had together, even after the fact that he still loved him.

Never again

It's late...It's too late to tell him how beloved he is

It's late...It's too late to embrace him tight and beg him to stop doing drugs, as Axl has made many times.

It's all over...No more opportunities to feel Slash's heart close to him in times of desperation, no more chances to listen to his guitar delighting everyone, no more chances to witness his shyness and tenderness that have always showed his true colours each time his friends needed him.

No more chances to tell him how much he adores him, how much he feels angry when he witnesses him doing drugs and drinking like the alcoholic Slash is, or was....

No more present time because Slash has just gone with Death

Only loneliness and desperation

Axl realizes that, sometimes, only tears remain eternal, and, while they stream down his pale face, he starts to hum Nikki' s song....

'Well, they don't even know you....

All they see is scars

They don't see the angel

living in your heart'