My Piece of the Action

Street Band

Guns N' Roses were a hard rocking street band, and always had been, but now they were a funded hard rocking street band. They had amazing talent; beautiful instrumentals and a singer with an unmatchable quality. They had a label behind them, and having a label meant having money. This was a band that lived on what they found in their pockets that morning. A band so self destructive, waiting to tear itself apart from the inside out, doing drugs, alcohol, partying every night, managers and label worrying one of them might die. And now they were all of that with thousands of dollars and nothing to do, with Geffen records wanting them to focus on recording. Guns N' Roses was a disaster waiting to happen, and that was half the fun of it.

"So what does your record company wanna see?" Asked Raven.  They were all sitting around the dining table at her place, Renan asleep in the pram beside Raven's chair.

"They want us to sit tight, build our mystique and get a record done." Slash replied,

"And?.."

"And get a manager and producer, but the bad news is no gigs.

"What?" She exclaimed, "no gigs?!"

"No gigs." Axl confirmed,

"Trust me, I am bummed." Slash told her, frowning behind his hair.

"One thing about Slashy is he's restless. Hell-aren't we all?" Axl began to say, "but Slash is the most restless of us."

"Always have been, always will." Renan began to stir in the pram beside her, blinking his eyes up at them.

"Hello baby!" Raven cooed, gently scooping him up into her arms. "How you doing?!" Renan whined and frowned. "Are you hungry?" Raven asked him. She stood up and began to walk to her bedroom with him cradled in her arms. Once she reached it, she sat down on the bed. There was a little cot beside it. She had decided it would be easier this way for at least the first few months.

"Okay, hold on baby." She smiled down at him. He was about 3 weeks old now. Raven pulled one of her boobs out the top of her shirt and pulled Renan towards it. He began breastfeeding.

Once he was full, he pulled away. She put her boob back in place inside her t- shirt and cradled the now full Renan to her. He was so tiny. Slowly,  she made her way to the nursery. She picked up a hand towel out of the cupboard in there and slung it over her shoulder, then burped him. She threw the now dirty towel into a laundry hamper in the bathroom on her way past. He blinked up at her as she cradled him.

"How you doin' sweetie?" She smiled down at him, Slash came up the stairs just as she was about to reach the top of them.

"Hey Raven." He greeted,

"How you doin' Slash?" She responded.

"Uh- good, good." He was clenching his jaw and fists tight, and leaning against the wall. She noticed the sheen of sweat upon his face,

"You angry at someone?" She asked,

"No?" Slash seemed confused,

"You seem tense..." she frowned.

"Uhh- do I?" He scratched his head, "dunno what ya mean about that... I mean- I shouldn't be..." he said a bit hastily.

"Mmm-m" Raven held Renan a little bit closer and gazed at him in thought, bobbing on the spot a bit in order to calm the baby, "you've been doing smack, huh?" She asked,

"No! I- no... why would you think that?" He said, speaking too quickly.

"Oh, Slash." She shook her head, "you shouldn't,  really." She told him,

"I don't!" He exclaimed,  "I'm just tense cause I- err- need the bathroom." He responded.

"Uh huh. For other reasons then taking a piss, for sure. Just wipe it down when you're done. There's baby wipes under the sink." Said Raven.

"I'm not on drugs!" Slash called as Raven made her way down the stairs, she knew he was.  The many parties her dad had thrown in her youth had subjected her to witness too many junkies to count. She knew a druggie when she saw one.

"What was all of that about?" A fiery redhead stepped out from the kitchen and walked to where Raven stood.

"Um Slash and his drugs" She said, bouncing.

"Oh, right..." Axl trailed off. He glanced up the stairs,

"I've- uh- got my eyes on this one girl..." he started, his cheeks growing rosy.

"Yeah? What's her name?" Raven questioned,

"Erin. Erin Everly..." the corners of his mouth twitched up as her name rolled off his tongue, the fingers of his right hand grabbed at the hem of his 'marlboro' t- shirt and fidgeted with it nervously. Axl Rose- nervous and shy. Raven didn't think it was possible.
"I thought you and her were already dating?" Raven said,
"Uh- no. What'd you get that from?"
"I just... assumed- nevermind." She shook her head,

"Uh- hm" he cleared his throat. "Anyway... I- dunno how to tell her. I mean- you're a girl- you'd know!!" He exclaimed. Internally, Raven laughed. Being a girl meant shit all, but at least the poor guy was trying.

"Okay... it's easier said then done, I know. What you should do is just walk over to her, maybe with a flower or whatever, but don't make it a huge deal- just go over, look her in the eye and say 'I think you're really pretty and I've been wanting to ask you this for a while, but will you be my girlfriend?' or just ask her if she would like to have a date with you." Raven smiled gently,

"Uh- okay... what if she says no?" Axl asked,

"Then gracefully say thanks anyway and walk away. Then come and see me, I'll help you out from there. But there is no way she is gonna say no." Raven said,

"Why wouldn't she?" He seemed a bit confused, my god, man! You're Axl Rose for fuck's sake! Raven thought to herself,

"Because you're a sweetheart and you're a good looking guy. If she says no, she's mad." Raven replied,

"You find me attractive?" It was more a statement then a question, and Raven couldn't tell how he felt about it, because he held a rather blank expression.

"You're an attractive man, Axl, but not my type." She clarified, smiling.

"Oh- right..." he replied, "you aren't so bad yourself." He said off handedly, then turned and stalked back to the kitchen. Did Axl fucking Rose just tell her she was attractive? Axl Rose thinks I'm attractive.... holy shit. The fangirl within reared like an angry hydra. She felt like fainting and squealing and jumping up and down all at the same time, none of which she did, but she grinned like a mad woman instead.

Renan was blowing spit bubbles when she looked back down at him, she smiled very widely and mouthed 'oh my god!' At the baby, who smiled back toothlessly.

What do you all think? Sorry for the delays! Thanks for being so patient and thanks for reading.