Fight Fire With Fire // James Hetfield Fanfiction

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: bubble pop electric

(this was originally supposed to be out the day before christmas eve, but that didn't work out. i'm sorry it's so short, i hope i'll have a longer one in a day or two. it's been a difficult past few days. happy late christmas if you celebrate!)

It'd been two entire fucking months of this. This. the same thing. Over and over, every day. Things were- better, in a way, i suppose. We could at least joke around a little bit, but then we went right back to fighting. It was driving me insane.

I hadn't heard anything from dallas, which concerned me. I thought it was a idiotically funny that i didn't even care about the money anymore. I promised them that i'd be out of the house once i could support myself- to which kirk protested very firmly, telling me i could stay as long as i wanted -but the truth was, i didn't want to leave without straightening out this whole stupid situation.

"Is forgiveness too much to ask?" i asked kirk, who was sitting at the table with me. We were making our own christmas tree ornaments. He shrugged and shook his head

"I think he's just too prideful to admit he's in love with you"

"That's dumb" i muttered, getting frustrated at the project. He laughed a little at me

"You realize that's ironic, right?" he asked me and i rolled my eyes at him, sticking my tongue out playfully. He smiled and the rest of the guys walked through the front door. Cliff and lars were dragging in a christmas tree, although it wasn't exactly what i had in mind. First off, it wasn't even the right kind of tree. Second, it was maybe a third of the size of a regular tree.

I groaned and stood up from my chair "you idiots" i said, grinning despite my annoyance "does that look like a christmas tree?" James looked at me and i blushed, which made him blush too. It was one of those moments that caught us both off guard.

"Sorry" lars shrugged and they put it in the center of the living room. Even though it wasn't conventional, it wasn't so bad. I kind of liked it

"Are you behind the shrub?" i asked, turning to james. He looked down at me with an expressionless face, then looked to the tree

"Maybe i had something to do with it" he shrugged and i could have swore there was a grin on his face before he turned away from me, going into the kitchen. Cliff casually walked closer to me and leaned to my ear

"He's in a good mood today, you should say something" cliff and i hadn't really made much progress on a friendship, but he was good at giving me blunt advice that i desperately needed. I grumbled a little and followed james into the kitchen.

I'd been trying my best to leave him alone for the most part. It was hard; there was always something i needed to talk to him about. Always the urge to hug him. Always wanted to know what he was doing.

I was mostly good at the self control, but sometimes i couldn't hold in my excitement for something and he'd listen to me and smile, but by the time i was done he'd just give a short comment and go away. It was incredibly disheartening

"So, you like the shrub then?" he asked me and i nodded, hopping up on the counter next to where he was standing. He was drinking a beer. He looked at my eyes like he was examining me. I felt like i was being judged in a good way. His expression was soft

"I do" i said in a rather delayed response and he smiled slightly

"Your necklace.." he stepped forward to get a better look at it "is that.." it was the sea turtle from my father. I nodded. He touched it- picking it up gently and looking at it, his face painfully close to mine. I could feel his warm breath on my skin and it took everything in me not to move