FicWad

The next morning Axl woke to the sound of someone humming. For a moment he wondered where the fuck he was, but the second he saw blue hair he remembered. Duff.
“Morning sleeping beauty.” Duff smirked as he handed Axl an aspirin for his head and a glass of water to down it with.
“Shut the fuck up. Why am I here?” Axl groaned after taking what was offered to him.
“I tried to take you home, you refused, and there was no way I was staying in that alley.” Duff shrugged as he stood and moved to the kitchen to retrieve his cup of coffee.
“I better get going, thanks for the aspirin.” Axl said as he pulled his boots on and stood.
“Do you want coffee?” Duff questioned as he watched Axl hurrying for the door.
“No.” And with that, Axl closed the door behind him and left Duff standing in his kitchen.
Duff shrugged it off and sipped his own coffee, moving to take a seat at the small island. The previous night had left Duff with more questions than answers about the band he’d blindly agreed to join. The most worrying of these questions; what would happen to the band if they started to make it big and Izzy and Axl broke it off? Would they just have abandoned their projects? Or would some sense of professionalism exist?
Running a hand through his blue hair, Duff sipped his coffee again and leaned back with a silent sigh. What had he gotten himself into?
Before he could dwell on whatever thoughts were about to pop into his head, the phone across the room rang, startling Duff. He stood and took a few long strides across the room before picking up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Hey, this is Duff?” Duff recognized the voice to belong to Slash.
“Yeah, man. What’s up?”
“It’s Slash, I was wondering if you’d seen Axl leave with someone last night or if he’d told you were he was going. He didn’t come home last night and—”
“He didn’t leave with anyone last night. He crashed at my place after getting shitfaced and refusing to go home.” Duff responded, shifting his weight from his right foot to his left.
“Okay, cool. Is he still there?”
“Nah, he left a minute ago. Everything okay?” Duff could hear the change in Slash’s tone as he asked about Axl’s whereabouts.
“Yeah, man. Just wondered where he was, we have band practice in a couple hours. Do you know the big empty warehouse just off the Strip?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s where we’ll be. See ya.” Slash grinned over the phone before hanging up.
Figuring he could probably catch up with Axl, Duff pulled on his converse, turned the coffee pot off, grabbed the bass case, and left the apartment. As he walked down the road, he caught sight of long red hair and jogged to catch up.
“Hey, Ax! Wait up!” Duff said as he neared the singer.
“Don’t tell me you’re some stalker who watches men while they sleep and then follows them around.” Axl groaned in fake annoyance.
“Oh, you caught me.” Duff laughed and playfully nudged his newfound friend. “Slash called to let me know about band practice and I figured I could catch up to you before you got too far.”
“Practice?” Axl groaned genuinely. “I’ve got a fucking awful hangover.”
“Maybe we can get through it fairly quickly.” Duff shrugged as he shoved his hands in his pockets.
There was a long moment of silence before Axl spoke up again.
“Look, man. About Izzy and I…It’s not what you think it is…I’m not a fag.” Axl spoke uncomfortably.
“It is what it looks like though. Why else would you have gotten so bent out of shape over him leaving with that girl? Nothing wrong with being in love, no matter who it is.”
“I don’t think you could call it love…More of a convenience type deal. Just don’t go around telling everyone.”
“Your secret is safe with me.” Duff smiled. “If it isn’t love then why stick around through all of the pain he seems to inflict?”
“It’s a mutual thing. He gets me angry, I get him angry, and repeat. Never thought much about it.” Axl shrugged.
“Well I’m here to talk if you need it, I’ve been told I give some pretty great advice.” Duff grinned at the red head who rolled his eyes.
“Oh yeah, that advice about having another shot of vodka to avoid puking really worked.” Axl let out a soft laugh.
“Look, man. It works for me, not my fault you’re a lightweight.” Duff laughed and earned a playful push from Axl.
“I’m not a fucking lightweight. You’re just a fucking giant with an alcohol dependency.” Axl decided and crossed his arms with a playful glare.
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. But I don’t remember you complaining about the vodka when I tried to stop you from taking a third shot after I gave you the advice to have just one.”
“Fuck off.” Axl laughed along with his newfound friend.
The two engaged in small talk and joked around until they eventually arrived at the warehouse.
“Aye! Glad to see you two survived last night!” Steven grinned as he opened the door to let the pair in. “It was fucking wild last night!”
“Where the fuck did you go?” Izzy asked, ignoring Duff and glaring at Axl.
“I went home with Duff.” Axl shrugged, leaving the meaning of his words up to interpretation. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Let’s not fight today. Duff has a lot to catch up on and we have a lot of work to get done.” Slash said as he worked on hooking up all the amps and sound systems properly. “I managed to get some of the chords of our songs written down for you, Duff.”
Duff pulled his attention away from the quietly arguing couple to Slash. “Thanks man. I’ll work on them.”
“Don’t worry about them, they’re fine.” Slash said as he followed Duff’s eyes to the redhead. “Axl can handle himself, believe me.”
“They can still play while arguing, right? I don’t want to get up to play a gig and one of them storm off.” Duff stated as he looked at Slash.
“Most of the time.” Slash shrugged and looked back down to the cords he was working to untangle. “Just don’t get involved, it’s easier to let them fight it out.” Duff nodded and moved to remove his bass from its case and assist Slash in setting up their practice area.
Practice started off rocky so none of the band (Duff aside) were too surprised when a fight broke out between Izzy and Axl. But as Duff went to step in, Slash caught him by the arm and shook his head. It wasn’t long before Axl was thrown to the ground and Izzy was storming out. Axl moving to his feet shakily, and storming out of the warehouse on the opposite side.
“Believe me, you don’t want to get in the middle of their fights. I almost lost an eye.” Steven said and laughed a bit. “Crazy motherfuckers.”
“Should…Should we go talk to them?” Duff asked, still slightly stunned at what had just taken place.
“Probably, I’ll go talk to Izzy.” Slash said before heading off after the guitarist.
“I’m not talking to Axl. He’ll beat the shit out of me.” Steven held his hands up and moved back to his drums.
Duff sighed and set his bass down to go after the fuming redhead. As he exited the warehouse, he found Axl sitting against the outer wall with his knees pulled to his chest.
“Fuck off, man.” Axl snapped as soon as he heard the door open.
“I was coming to see if you were okay.” Duff said as he took a seat next to the singer and offered a cigarette.
“I told you to fuck off.” Axl sighed in defeat as he took the cigarette and used his own lighter to light it.
“Is every practice like this?” Duff asked as he lit his own cigarette and took a long drag.
“No. Normally, we’re angels.” Axl rolled his eyes.
“Are you okay?” Duff tried again after a long moment of silence.
“Yeah. Just got me in the face pretty good.” Axl said as he dabbed at his bloody lip. “I hope he looks fucking worse, I think I got his nose ring.”
“Why do you even bother sticking around him? You clearly are done with one another.” Duff spoke trying to reason with the man, hoping perhaps he could talk sense into the singer and they could finally have peace.
“Nobody else has come along.” Axl shrugged and stomped the last bit of his cigarette out.
“Dude, there’s a thing called a groupie,” Duff laughed a bit and gently nudged Axl.
“Yeah, yeah. But have you seen them?” He made a face and laughed.
After talking for a while, Duff managed to persuade Axl to come back inside and try to get through the few songs they had on the agenda to practice. Duff wasn’t sure if he could handle the drama of the band, but he was hoping if he stuck it out long enough things would pay off.
Besides, what’s rock n’ roll without a little drama and violence?