cw; drinking
Harley found herself waking up with a mouthful of black hair, and she gags for a moment before rolling away and swatting it out of her mouth. She turns to Nikki, knowing he was the reason for it. She sighs upon realizing he was still asleep, and deciding to be nice and not wake him up, Harley climbs out of bed.
Opening the door to the living room, Harley is met with a nice after-party scene. She grimaces at it with the thought that the rest of the day would be spent cleaning. Tommy and Vince sat on the couch, somehow perfectly cool with the mess around them. Typical teenage boys.
"Hey! You're finally awake." Tommy says, twisting to see Harley walk in.
"I'd think you two would be sleeping till 3." She replies, moving into the kitchen and looking for breakfast.
"Is Nikki still sleeping?" Vince questions, a smirk on his face as he spoke. Harley scowls at him.
"Fuck off, we didn't do shit."
"You never know." He defends, raising a hand in a surrendering way.
"Never know what?" Tommy asks, glancing between the two.
"'Vince thought Nikki and I fucked because of how late we slept." She explains, leaning against the counter and crossing her arms, still with a scowl on her face.
"Did you?"
"No! You know how that looks with bandmates. And Nikki's gross, so I'd never." She shakes her head.
"Would never what?" Nikki questions, yawning as he walks into the living room. Harley's face turns red as Vince smirks at her.
"She said she'd never fuck you, said you're gross."
Harley flips him off. "They brought it up, I had nothing to do with the conversation."
"Like I said, defending yourself quickly only proves you're more guilty." He grins mischievously.
"Fuck you," Harley says, turning around and grabbing a bowl and a box of cereal.
"Me? What about Sixx?"
Turning around, Harley grimaces as she spots a porn magazine on the table, but it being the closest object, she grabs it and rolls it up before decking Vince in the back of the head with it. He yelps in response and Harley snickers before returning to her cereal.
Sitting at the counter, Nikki watches Harley in the kitchen. He wondered why she'd be embarrassed if it were true that they fucked, even though they didn't. He wouldn't complain if they were asking him if he fucked Harley. He definitely wouldn't mind. Nikki would fuck himself if he were a girl.
Sitting at the counter now, Tommy and Vince migrate into the kitchen to collect their breakfast. Once he had his own bowl, Vince moved back to the couch, while Tommy sat next to Nikki, telling him a very unnecessarily detailed story about his girlfriend during sex.
By noon, she was alone in the apartment. Vince had gone off to his job, Tommy was with his girlfriend, and Harley didn't know where Nikki went. She enjoyed her rare moments of peace in the Crüe apartment.
Most of the time when she had complete alone time she played her guitar, although nowadays she didn't do much with it also becoming her job. For now, though, she practiced some of their show music, mostly the newest song, "Too Fast for Love."
After a few runs, a knock sounded at the door, and Harley hops over the couch to drag her guitar to the door to see what it was. Outside, a middle-aged woman had her arms crossed with a disapproving look as she peered into the apartment behind Harley's shoulders.
"Do you live here?"
"Yeah," Harley says, watching the woman cautiously.
"You better quiet down, our baby can't get the sleep he needs with the riot you people are causing. Can't you practice in a studio?" She questions.
"They cost money. But I'll pass along the complaint when everyone else gets back." Harley tells her, stepping away and closing the door on the woman. She returns to the couch, only now playing whatever riff she knew.
Checking the clock on the oven, it reads 2 pm. Harley didn't know what time the others would come home, and even then, she didn't know if they would come back. Sometimes they'd leave and it'd be a full 24 hours before she'd see them again. At least living with them made her realize she couldn't worry so much about things.
Eventually, everyone but Nikki did come back. Vince came back first, and by the way, he said nothing and seemed to be staring off into space, Harley figured he was high. Tommy came back a few minutes after Vince did, and he crashed onto the couch next to Harley, kicking his feet up on the coffee table.
"Okay, here's a question for you guys," Tommy says, turning to Harley. "What if you guys met my girlfriend?"
Moving to put her guitar away, Harley shrugs. "Yeah, sure. What's her name?"
"Jessica, I can see if she can come around sometime this week," Tommy tells her, then pauses for a moment. "But you guys can't make fun of her."
Harley frowns. "Why would we?"
"It probably means that she's fuckin' ugly." Vince comments, reappearing into the living room.
"Shut up, dude." Tommy scowls, and Vince only snickers in response.
"I don't think she would be." Harley shrugs, returning to the couch.
As if sent to prevent an argument from arising, Nikki bursts into the apartment then, startling everyone. He stands there for a moment, attempting to catch his breath as Tommy glances at Harley before looking back at Nikki.
"You good?" Vince asks, looking questioningly at Nikki.
"No, I have a great idea for shows. Y'know, to add spice to them." Nikki says, glancing about the group. Once he realizes they were paying attention, he continues. "What if I set myself on fire?"
Harley snorts, and Nikki makes a face at her. "That's stupid."
At the same time, Tommy seemed enthusiastic about the idea. "Fuck yeah!"
"Okay, hypothetically, it could be cool. But we also don't want to lose our bassist." Harley points out.
"We won't, we can put it out before it gets too dangerous." Nikki counters, shugging.
"I don't care." Vince inputs.
"It'd be fucking sick!"
"Thank you, Tommy. See, someone here appreciates my good ideas."
"Yeah, and call Mick to even it out. I'm sure he'd agree with me." Harley rolls her eyes.
At that, it was almost a race to the phone, Nikki grabbing it first as the other three crowds around him listened in on their guitarist's thoughts.
"He wants to do what?" Mick asks, sounding tired with their ideas.
"Nikki wants to set himself on fire during shows. I told him it's dangerous but I said you'd agree with me." Harley exclaims.
"It's not fuckin stupid, they have fire extinguishers for a reason," Nikki argues.
"We should let you set yourself on fire then," Harley says sarcastically.
"Natural selection." Vince agrees, and Harley nods.
"I'm not gonna die."
"All of you shut the fuck up, you're giving me a headache." Mick groans. "I don't give a shit what he does, as long as the bastard doesn't die."
Nikki smirks, turning to Harley. "See, fuck you, Harley."
"You fucking wish."
"After this morning, I'd say he would." Vince comments.
"Fuck off, Vince!" Both of them say, and the line from the phone beeps, signaling that sometime during their little argument, Mick had hung up on them. They return back to the living room, everyone resuming their earlier positions.
"So, the old man agreed with me." Nikki grins triumphantly.
Harley scowls at him. "I'll be right in the end, you assholes just don't care. Oh, speaking of yelling - we got our first noise complaint today." She figured she'd change the subject, now being annoyed with it.
Tommy cheers in response. "And we'll probably get many more, boring motherfuckers."
"If we have a party after every show they'll have to get used to it," Vince says.
"Or the police will just show up."
"They don't send the police to evict someone," Nikki said.
"I don't know, I've never been evicted before." Harley shrugs.
"I haven't either, although I guess I did live with my parents before," Tommy says. "Hey, does anyone even know where Mick lives? We know he's alive at least, but does he live around here?"
"Do we even know his address?" Harley questions.
"I would've figured you of all people would know," Nikki responds. "You seem to be his favorite out of us."
"There's always the phone book." Vince points out.
"Has he changed his name legally yet?" Harley questions. They do find him through an in-depth search of the phone book, and soon enough, they're all shoved into Tommy's van. With Nikki's original statement of riding shotgun, that left Harley next to Vince in the back, much to her dismay.
"If Mick thought that was the most he'd hear from us today, just wait until we show up on his day off," Nikki says, and Tommy laughs.
"Hey, he can't always be hiding away from us. We need band bonding." Tommy tells them. After spending so much time in Tommy's van, Harley knew he drove about 10 miles over the speed limit, and it was obvious he did.
Eventually, they do show up at Mick's, the four of them crowded on his doorstep. Nikki and Tommy of course were overly obnoxious with the doorbell, ringing it over and over. At least by that, Mick should've known it was them.
"What do you want?" Mick sighs, opening the door. "It's my day off."
"Your day off has been all week, Mick. Come bond with your band." Tommy coos.
Mick makes a face. "I'd be around if I wanted to."
"Don't be boring, come with us." Nikki encourages.
"Where are you even going?"
Nikki pauses, not sure, and shrugs in response.
"You fuckers show up on my doorstep being obnoxious and demanding me to come with you but don't even know where we're going?" Mick asks, and they nod.
"We'll figure it out on the way, there are plenty of places down the Strip." Vince shrugs.
"Exactly." Nikki nods in agreement. Tommy loops his arm through Mick's, bringing him along to the van as they disband off the porch to their seats in the van. A few feet away from the van, Mick pulls his arm from Tommy and climbs into the back, closing his eyes as soon as he sat down.
Now with Mick in the van, it was ten times louder than before, and Mick wasn't even contributing to the loudness. It was all Nikki and Tommy. It was strange to Harley, seeing them by themselves and then when they were together.
Separately, Nikki was pretty introverted, mostly keeping to himself in their bedroom or focusing mostly on music. Tommy was still pretty wild when it was just himself, although it was dialed down a few notches without Nikki. But together, they were like a set of terror twins.
Eventually, they go to a bar, and everyone goes off to their own sections. Nikki and Tommy went who knows where, Vince was chatting up a group of girls, and Mick and Harley sat at a booth in the back of the bar.
Keeping his sunglasses on, Mick crosses his arms and leans back in the chair with his drink in front of him. Harley sits across from him and takes a drink from her cup, then grimacing after the alcohol reminded her of the guy from yesterday's party.
Pushing her cup away, Harley turns to Mick. "So, do you live by yourself?"
"No, I have a girlfriend. She just wasn't home when you guys showed up."
"Oh, what's her name?"
"None of your business."
She figured their relationship wasn't too great if he wasn't too excited to talk about her.
"You're lucky you have your own place. I'm pretty much the only one who cleans. I guess Tommy does his part with the roaches." Harley tells him.
"I forgot about the roach issue," Mick says.
"Yeah. I'd eat take out every night to avoid it if we weren't poor." Harley sighs, picking up her drink, deciding not to waste it.
"Yeah. We better go somewhere with this band. I don't think I could live if we don't."
She frowns but says nothing, glancing around to find the rest of the band. Harley spotted Tommy and Nikki before they disappeared again.
"How sober do you think they are?" Harley asks, glancing back at Mick.
"Tommy and Nikki? Oh, far from sober. Not sure about Vince. Have fun with Nikki, though." Mick says, and Harley groans, remembering that they shared a room.
"Fuck, Mick, you should let me stay with you." Harley pleads.
Mick snorts. "My girlfriend would kill me if another woman spent the night at our house, regardless of who she is."
"Shit," Harley mutters, glancing around then back at her cup. "At least I didn't drink too much if I have to drive. We could also just leave them and go home."
"Tommy has the keys."
"Let's hope he didn't lose them being drunk," Harley says, shaking her head. She gets up, going to collect the rest of her bandmates to go home. Once she had collected everyone, it was 1 am, leaving both Harley and Mick annoyed.
"Party poopers! Killjoys, y'all ruin the fun." Tommy exclaims as Mick pushes him out the door.
"Shut up and give me your keys so we can go home," Harley responds, and he fumbles with his pockets to hand them over. With Tommy not driving, the rules of the seating were changed, Mick riding shotgun until Harley dropped him off, and Vince taking his place to keep Tommy and Nikki in their seats.
On the drive back, she and Vince agreed to take their separate roommates back to their rooms to make sure they were okay before chilling for the night. Once at the apartments, it became more difficult trying to get them to be quiet to avoid another noise complaint since most of the buildings associated any kind of noise with them.
Harley closes the bedroom door once Nikki is inside, and moves to sit him on the bed.
"I'm fine, you don't have to help me," Nikki tells her.
"I'm just keeping you in line. It's better for me to drive than have you idiots drive." Harley responds, moving to her dresser to grab pjs for the night.
"You sound like a mom." He says, leaning back against the bed frame and watching Harley.
"Hopefully a decent one then, and not one of ours."
She disappears into the bathroom for a moment to change, leaving Nikki alone in the room. He watches the door, waiting to see when she would open it and come back out. While she may have sounded like a mom then, Nikki didn't see her as one, or even remotely close to a mother or sister figure. Returning to the main part of the room, Harley crashes onto the bed next to him, staring up at the ceiling for a moment.
Glancing sideways at Nikki, Harley shifts in her spot, moving to sit up more. He grins at her, and Harley can't help but grin back. Then, when she barely even blinked, Harley found him leaning in and kissing her. Her eyes widened, not sure what to do.
Harley didn't even know where these feelings came from, but now that he kissed her, she should have seen the signs before. She hadn't even thought about the possibility of her liking Nikki back, until now. Harley hadn't thought of it originally because she knew that it never worked out well in bands when a romance was going on between two members, but now, she realized she did like Nikki back.
But at the thought of the band, Harley pulls away, not wanting to potentially ruin the band. Harley looks at him anxiously as Nikki watches her for a moment, and she wishes she could read his expression. He turns though, turning off the light on the nightstand and pulling the covers over his shoulder.
Harley sighs, not looking forward to the outcome of whatever happened here. She too shuts off the lights, welcoming the darkness to bring her into the abyss of her mind to lure her thoughts away.