FicWad

For some reason, the ice pack flopped on James' eye made him look even cuter than normal and I was having a hard time resisting stealing a kiss from him. His soft, full lips were only a few inches from mine. It would be so easy just to lean in and take his lower lip into my mouth. I was about to kiss him when James shifted slightly on the bed and suddenly grimaced. Wondering what was wrong, I have him a concerned look, "Hey, are you okay? Does your eye still hurt a lot?"

"Nah," James shook his head, blonde hair flying around his face, "It's more where Dave punched me in the stomach. I'll be okay though." Up until that point, I had forgotten about how Dave had punched James in the stomach. To be honest, Dave's and James' physical fight honestly scared me. Dave was stronger and more muscly than James despite James being a good five inches taller than him. However, if I was betting on who would win in a fight, I would probably bet on Dave.

Despite not wanting to have to stay home during the band practices, I had to admit that Lars was right about his decision to force me to stay home. We couldn't afford to risk physical fights like this. Lars was worried that the fights would break the band apart, but I was much more worried about James getting seriously hurt. If Lars hadn't broken up the fights, I wondered if James would be in a much worse condition than he was in right now. Dave could've done some major damage to him.

"What are you thinking?" James asked curiously, shifting again on the bed so he could get into the most comfortable position that he could. "You have a strange expression on your face." Even though I didn't know what my expression looked like, I would've guessed it was a mix of resignation, anticipation, and thankfulness.

"I'm just thinking that maybe Lars was right," I commented thoughtfully, still mulling the situation over in my head. James raised a blonde brow at me, obviously not knowing what I meant. To fill him in, I continued on, "You know how Lars was saying I should stay home from the band practices? Well, I think he's right. I had seeing you and Dave get into fights over me. It's just not right. Besides, you could get really hurt and it would be all my fault. We can't let that happen."

"I'm gonna miss you at practice though," James complained loudly, "Now all I get to do is listen to Lars drone on and on and I don't have your pretty face to look at. Besides, watching you always keeps my brain alert." Wondering what James meant by that, I contradicted, "Doesn't watching Lars keep you alert? I mean, you should be paying attention to his directions and stuff."

James blushed slightly and nodded, "Yeah, I suppose I'm watching Lars. Still, he's pretty boring to watch. You're a hell of a lot more interesting to watch." Now it was my turn to blush. We probably both looked like pink-cheeked idiots. Responding to James' statement, I asked, "Why am I more interesting to watch? All I do is sit on the couch and do absolutely nothing."

"True," James agreed as he pushed the sliding ice pack back on top of his eye, "Still though, you keep my brain going." Rolling my eyes, I slapped James lightly on the arm and replied, "Let me guess, I keep your brain going with images of me stripping down in front of you or something like that, right?" James could be pretty immature sometimes.

"Yeah, something kind of like that," James agreed with a smirk. His smirk quickly turned into a grimace though as he shifted again on the bed. That punch to his stomach must have hurt a lot more than I had thought it had. It was strange for me to see James grimacing. James was usually always the one who was strong and never showed signs of hurt. However, the punch to James' stomach was obviously causing him a lot of pain.

"Hey James," I said in a worried voice, "Can I see that spot where Dave hit you?" James shrugged and gave me a funny look, "Um, sure I guess. I'm not sure what you're expecting to see exactly, but you can look if you want." Now that I had permission, I wasted no time in pushing James' shirt up to expose his stomach. I inhaled quickly as I caught sight of an ugly purple mark just below James' abdomen. It was a sickly purplish-black bruise that had appeared within only a few hours.

"This is bad," I said, pointing at the black and blue mark, "Why don't I get you another ice pack to put on your stomach?" I started to get up from the bed, but James grabbed my hand and pulled me back down again. I looked at him curiously and stopped halfway on the bed and halfway off the bed. James tugged me back down onto my back and said, "I don't need another ice pack. They're too cold and I'm fucking freezing right now. Just come lay next to me, will you?"

James didn't have to ask me to do that twice. I flopped onto my side next to him. We lay on our sides, facing each other with lusty expressions on our face. Being so close to James on a brand new bed was a little too tempting. James must have thought the same thing because he was eying the hem of my shirt with a little too much intrigue.

Finally, everything became overwhelming and I found myself pushing James' shirt all the way off and tossing it to the ground. His hair was tousled and fluffy in a cute way. That was when I ran into my dilemma. Having sex probably would be pretty painful for James with that big, fat bruise around his stomach area. The last thing I wanted to do was cause James more pain. Somehow, I was gonna have to suck up my desire and be content with just laying next to him.

James, seeming to read my thoughts as always, voiced my thoughts aloud, "I'd make love to you, but I didn't think that I should be moving around much right now. You're still probably recovering from the Dave incident anyways." James narrowed his eyes at the mention of Dave's name. I wondered if James was always gonna hate Dave after his attempt to have sex with me.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," I sighed loudly. The thing I wanted to do most right now was to leap on top of James and roll around on the bed with him. That, however, was definitely not an option. I couldn't quite resist running a finger down James' chest though. I stopped right above the bruise, not wanting to touch it in case it hurt him. Sighing, I leaned my head against James' neck and said, "God, you're so fucking beautiful. How can you always look that good? You drive me crazy."

James laughed, "I'll never know how you can find me beautiful. You're the gorgeous one. By the way, you aren't gonna hurt me if you touch that bruise." I bit my lip as I looked at the black and blue spot on James' stomach. I really thought that touching it would cause him a lot of pain. Biting my lip, I trailed my finger tips very lightly over James' belly.

"Mm, that actually feels good," James said, "You can keep doing that if you want." Of course I wanted to keep touching him! I let my instincts run away with me, and before I knew it, I was lying on my stomach next to him, trailing my fingers lightly over the soft skin of his belly. James gave a little, contented sigh and closed his eyes. I swirled my finger tips lightly over his tender belly, enjoying the sensation of his smooth skin making contact with my hand.

Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. Twisting my body around on the bed, I leaned forward and gently moved my tongue over James' abdomen and down to his stomach. James moaned softly and shifted closer to me. Hoping that that was a sign that he liked what I was doing, I licked his belly all over and let my tongue dip down into his navel. A second later, a soft noise came from James' lips. I peered up at him to find he was snoring ever so softly. He had fallen asleep. I curled up into his chest and fell asleep as well.

~ ~ ~ ~

The next several months passed by pretty much like before. Nothing new really happened. James went off to band practice everyday and I was forced to stay home. I didn't like being left alone much, but I didn't really have a choice about it. Lars' commands were like the law. If they were broken, you'd better watch out! So instead of going to band practice, I found a job nearby at a shop downtown. The little shop sold odds and ends and I did my best at my job as a cashier. It actually worked out quite well. The hours weren't too bad, and the money definitely helped out towards paying for our little house.

However, one morning, I woke up to find out that things were different. James had already gotten out of bed and I found myself sprawled out on the bed alone. Wondering where he had gone so early, I grabbed a blanket to wrap around my naked body and slipped out of the bedroom door and into the kitchen. James was already in there, making French toast.

You might not find that as much of a surprise, but for me, it was literally a miracle. James never cooked. Every time that he did try to cook, his food turned out as a disaster or he would quit in the middle of cooking because he had gotten bored and had decided that going to McDonalds would just be a whole lot easier and quicker. So to find that James had gotten up early to make French toast for me definitely told me that something odd was going on. Something I certainly wasn't going to like.

"Morning Olive," James greeted me as he flopped two pieces of French toast onto my plate and handed it to me with a dazzling smile that was almost too bright for my bleary eyes. Giving him a funny look, I said, "Something's up. You never cook. I mean seriously, when was the last time you cooked something? Wasn't it that time that you tried cooking spaghetti when we first moved to Los Angeles?" I could still remember the time that the boiling water had exploded all over our kitchen counter.

Apparently James could remember it too because he was blushing. Grabbing my hand, he pulled me into the bedroom with him. We sat together on the couch and I took a bite of my French toast. It wasn't the best French toast I had ever had, but I had to admit that James had done a pretty good job on it considering his cooking skills.

"Um, Olivia?" James asked, suddenly looking nervous. His hazel eyes showed worry deep inside them and his smile from earlier was faltering. "I need to tell you something." Uh oh. I had been expecting this, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to hear James' news. There could be several different bad things that he needed to tell me. From James' expression, the news was obviously bad.

"Spit it out then," I said, pausing with the French toast piece in my hand. Suddenly, a worried thought crossed through my head and I immediately burst out, "Please don't tell me you don't love me anymore or want to break up with me. I honestly don't think I can handle that right now. You...you didn't sleep with another girl somewhere, did you?"

"No, of course not," James quickly reassured me, kissing my forehead gently, "You know I would never do that again. The last time I messed around with Brianna was horrible. I never want to get that feeling again. Anyways, back on topic. I know you really love it here. I do too. The only thing is that we've got an offer from Megaforce to produce our first album. The thing is, in order to do that, we're gonna have to go to New York and after that, Lars has plans for us to tour around the states for a while. I hate to break it to you, but we're gonna have to sell the house. Actually, I already sold the house. Um...are you okay with this?"

The news came as a shock at first, but after a moment's thought, I realized I was going to be okay with it. We had moved before and it had been okay. Nodding slowly, I said, "Yeah, I'm fine. As long as you're here, I'll always be fine."