𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘃𝗲, 𝘀𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄 | 𝗶𝘇𝘇𝘆/𝗮𝘅𝗹

꧁ ꜰᴏᴜʀ ; ᴛᴜʀǫᴜᴏɪsᴇ sᴇᴀs ᴀɴᴅ ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴ ʙʀᴇᴇᴢᴇs, ʟᴏᴠɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀs ɴɪᴄᴇ ꧂

•

SLASH HAD NEVER THOUGHT CRAWLING COULD BE SO TERRIFYING.

No, not until he'd seen a half-man-half-fish army-crawl across the dining room to get to the living room.

He'd stared, wide-eyed and horrified, as the fish-man made his break for the record player.

Once he'd gotten near it, he pushed himself up and smiled in joy as he began flipping through Duff and Izzy's combined record collection, tail flapping absentmindedly.

Axl was pretending like this was normal. Like he was normal. It pissed Slash off.

Slash turned back to Izzy, only to find a dopey half-smile adorning the black-haired man's face as he watched Axl.

"Izzy, what the fuck?!" Slash snapped him out of his daze.

Izzy startled, smile dropping as he looked back at Slash. "Hmm?" He hummed, lips pressing together into a thin line.

"Why the fuck is there a man-sized fish in your living room?!" Slash waved his hand in Axl's general direction.

The redhead looked up at the outburst, smile fading.

He quietly pushed the records back into their respective areas and tried as hard as he could to make himself invisible.

It didn't work. Obviously.

"I— he..." Izzy paused, seemingly taking a moment to collect his thoughts. "He needed a place to stay, alright? I couldn't just leave him."

"Leave him?! Leave him where?" Slash asked in disbelief. "In the ocean? His home?"

"On the beach." Izzy supplied uselessly.

"I got a few other places he can stay, Iz. Matter of fact, there's four others I can think of right now!" Slash argues as he begins counting on his fingers. "The Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern oceans!"

"Oh, give it a rest, Slash." Izzy rolled his eyes. "It's not that big of a deal!"

"It is, Izzy! Are you fucking insane?! What the fuck are we supposed to do with a 10-and-a-half foot long fish-man?!"

Axl's frown deepened. "I can....I can just go back." He says sheepishly, swallowing in embarrassment.

Slash says, "Good!" At the same time Izzy says, "No!"

Axl flinches at the volume of their voices.

"The fuck do you mean no?! Look at him! He's a fish!" Slash fussed. "And in case you haven't noticed, this is a penthouse, not a life sized fish bowl!"

"Can you stop with the fish shit?" Izzy rolled his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I'm sorry," Slash drew back, tone condescending as he asks, "Is that not what the fuck he is?"

Izzy's jaw clenched.

"How could you keep something like this from Duff?" Slash motions vaguely to where Duff is stirring awake, now on the sofa with an ice pack wrapped in a towel on his head. "How could you bring some monster into his home?!"

Izzy and Axl flinch at the word.

Monster.

Izzy's anger hit the ceiling. "He's not a monster! Watch your damn mouth."

Slash scoffed, crossing his arms and looking over to Axl. "So what do you see then?"

Izzy looked over at Axl, who had tears welling up in his solid white eyes and falling down his pale face.