FicWad

The next few hours were filled with the cries of “That was fucking bullshit!” and “Can we do that again?”
The guys and I ended up falling asleep on the couch. I was resting my head against Izzy’s shoulder who was resting his head against mine. Duff had his head in my lap and Slash was sitting on the floor, his head resting against my knee.
We all were startled awake by a scream of “That was it!!” Slash stood up quickly, acting as if he hadn’t fallen asleep.
“Great, so does that mean we can move on now?” Tom looked at him beaming and nodded.
Duff and Izzy stood up and allowed me up as well. I looked around the room, noticing that Steven was still missing. “Where is that little jackass?”
Izzy and Duff looked around the room stupidly as if Steven was hiding somewhere in the studio. Duff opened the door leading down the hallway and called. “Steve, where the fuck are you?”
I pushed past him and walked outside the studio. “Steven!” I called, my voice reverberating down the street. A homeless man stirred next to me. I was about to call out again when the man spoke to me. “Will you shut the hell up, Riles? I’m right here.” The man I had taken for homeless was sitting up and I finally recognized him as Steven.
“What the fuck are you doing out here?”
“Sleeping.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well they’re done recording ‘Jungle’.”
Steven shot up, suddenly awake. “Awesome! That means we’re recording ‘Sw…’” Steven trailed off.
There it was again. That feeling that I was being kept in the dark about something. I ignored it and went back in the studio, Steven following me.
“Dude, where the hell have you been?” Izzy asked as soon as we were back.
“Outside, sleeping.”
Slash grabbed my elbow and pulled me over. “Did he seriously just say he was outside sleeping?”
I smiled at him. “Oh, yeah.”
Slash laughed and clutched my shoulders. “Only our Steve, huh?” I could feel Axl’s burning gaze boring into the back of my head.
“Yep, only our Steve.”
Slash looked over my shoulder and the heat from Axl’s gaze immediately disappeared. Slash leaned down to whisper into my ear. “Dude, what’s up with Axl?”
“He thinks there’s something going on between us,” I whispered back.
“Ew!”
“That’s what I said!”
“Slash, we need you in here to record the intro.”
“Kay!”
He left me, grabbed his Les Paul, and went back into the studio with the rest of the guys. He pulled the headphones on and waited for the word from Tom. “Whenever you guys are ready.”
Slash took a deep breath and laid into it, pulling out this really cool circus sounding guitar riff. I liked it but Slash looked pissed off the entire time he was playing it. I went to sit in Axl’s lap and asked him, “Does Slash not like that riff or something?”
Axl shook his head. “No, he hates it.”
“Then why is he playing it?”
Axl smiled at me and rubbed my back. “Because I asked him to.”
“Since when does Slash do something just because you asked?”
Axl smiled again. “You’ll see.”
It took a few tries, but the guys got the instrumental part down, finishing just as the sky grew dark. Finally it was Axl’s turn. He pushed me up, gave me a quick peck, and went into the booth.
The intro started up and the rest filled in again, sorta starting like “Welcome to the Jungle” had, but sounding much softer and sweeter. Axl swayed slowly but didn’t go into his signature dance. Finally he began singing. “She’s got a smile, that it seems to me reminds me of childhood memories, where everything was a fresh as the bright blue sky…”
My mouth fell open and Slash came up next to me, his arms crossed in front of his chest. “It’s about you, you know.”
“Shut up, no it’s not.”
“I swear!”
I looked at him. “Is it really?”
Slash indicated to Axl. “Listen to it.”
“She’s got eyes of the bluest skies, and if they thought of rain, I’d hate to look into those eyes and see an ounce of pain.”
My hand covered my mouth. “Oh my God,” I whispered. I looked back at Slash. “Did he write this on his own?”
Slash nodded. I gazed back at Axl, a smile spreading across my face.
I waited for him to finish the song. Finally the last cry left his mouth “Sweet chi-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ld of mi-ine.” He looked at me, grinning from ear to ear. “So, what’d you think Riley?”
I went back the mix table and pressed the intercom button. “I fucking love you Axl.”
His smile grew wider.