Just Dust N' Bones, Baby

I'm Back Bitches

           Axl pulled into the motel that night, it wasn't great, actually it was the same motel that had been there since when Axl lived in Indiana, if that tells you anything. But it had clean sheets and there wasn't anything particularly wrong with it, and it was so late neither of them cared. Axl usually stayed up late, but after staring at a road all night and Slash got to rest, he was just ready to sleep.

Once Slash had curled up all cozy under the blankets, Axl was so tired he hit the bed still fully dressed and passed out, on top of the covers, boots on his feet and everything. Of course though Slash had no problems with it being that he finally got to be little spoon and got hugs in his sleep. He was just peachy.

He wasn't sure if it was just being back in Indiana again for the first time in six years, but Axl had his dreams again that night. The same memories he always got in his sleep. Slash could feel him shifting against him, mumbling things he couldn't understand under his breath. Slash picked his head up, glancing over his shoulder to examine him, "Axl you okay..?" he muttered, using one hand to gently trace through his hair. Axl didn't reply, still sleeping, but he shifted again, resting his head against the back of Slash's shoulder, hugging his side. Slash kissed Axl's tattooed arm, feeling him toss less, settling against him and beginning to relax.

Slash lied back down, feeling Axl's warm breath against his shoulder blade, listening to it slowing back down again. He wondered if he was dreaming about Amy or his stepfather again. He hoped he was having good dreams, but he doubted it. He at least hoped it was better now that he had calmed down. 

He could understand how he'd be having his dreams again. The change of setting, being back in Lafayette after so long of being away. He hadn't seen this town, or anybody he shared blood with, or anyone he spent his entire childhood with except Izzy in nearly six years. He had seen none of it, not looking back once ever since the night he ran.

When Izzy finally returned that morning after an hour of looking for Axl, with her brother draped over his shoulders, looking near beaten to death and completely unconscious, it had been one of the most terrifying moments of Amy's life.

Izzy was being of very little use, he seemed pretty frantic and when she asked what happened, he didn't tell her anything helpful. He just said that he found him all messed up like that and unconscious in the woods, but she didn't believe him. He wasn't telling the truth, not all of it anyway. And she felt infuriated that Izzy wouldn't tell her like she was some kid who wouldn't understand if he did.

Izzy laid Axl down on the couch, and his mother, who was passing by with a basket of laundry in her arms, dropped her load on the floor in alarm, "GOOD LORD, JEFFREY ISBELL WHAT HAPPENED THIS TIME!"

Izzy seemed a little panicky, "I-uh-I-I I didn't do anything I swear! I-I just found him like this!"

She rushed over, "Okay well make sure his airways are clear and he's still breathing, I'm gonna get my emergency first aid and one of you call 911-"

Izzy stopped her, "No, we can't call 911!"

His mother looked confused, "Why not??"

He bit his tongue, struggling to find words, "He hates hospitals and his family can't afford to pay for the hospital bills-and-and if he goes there they're gonna ask a million questions..!"

She looked frantic and bewildered, "Why would asking questions matter!?"

Izzy covered his mouth with his hand in frustration, "-Because, I- Whatever happened to him- I don't know what- Obviously wasn't legal and it'd just cause trouble if cops or anything got involved!" She huffed, putting her hands on her hips. "Besides, you used to be a nurse! You can help him!"

She sighed, "Fine," she turned to get her first aid, "But move him onto the floor, he's getting blood on my furniture."

Amy cradled his head in her lap, trying to calm her shaking hands and brush strands of his hair, crusted rust with dried blood out of his face. She brushed her thumb over his red, bleeding ear and noticed a very noticeable slit in his cartilage from where his piercing used to be. He grumbled under his breath as Izzy dabbed the gauze on his ear with a cool washcloth and slowed the bleeding.

Axl was partially awake, but he had been behaving like he was completely exhausted, and actually really strange, he could hardly keep his eyes open he was so tired, and he had been itchy and nauseous. She figured he was acting like it because he was anxious about the needles and the sight of his wounds freaked him out. But his breathing and his heart rate was strangely slow. Izzy never mentioned it, but he thought to himself, yeah, a serious shot of heroin straight into your bloodstream after never having used it before in your life can have that kind of effect on a person.

Axl hissed, trying to smack his hands away, "Stoop it, that hurts.!" Izzy growled in frustration, his mother had already dealt with his other wounds but once she tried cleaning any of the cuts on his face he hit her and swore at her, she was done trying and left her son to give it a shot. Izzy pulled the cloth away and began cleaning up his ear once the bleeding had slowed.

"Mom I cleaned his ear what do I do now!?" he hollered.

"Um, sterilize the needle and I'll apply the stitches in a minute."

Axl blinked his eyes open suddenly and stared viciously at Izzy. "Did she just say stitches."

Amy flinched back in alarm by the way his eyes looked, "William what's wrong with your eyes!?" she gasped.

Axl looked at her with wide eyes, "What?"

"Your pupils are all tiny and constricted like a cat!"

Axl looked confused, and Izzy wondered if Axl even remembered that he had given him heroin. Then he also thought some more, that Axl was having some serious heroin symptoms, but he wasn't frozen in place like he was earlier.

He wondered if Axl even remembered what had happened to him, he probably just thought he was beaten really hard last night. Izzy's heart ached, but he wasn't sure if it was better or worse for Axl to know the truth or not. He didn't want to lie about it to him, but was it lying if he technically never asked him?

Besides, all it would do would make things worse, he'd behave differently again, he wouldn't be himself. And Izzy didn't want that. The guy was a serious fucking bitch but Izzy still knew that personality as Axl. He wouldn't be able to go to L.A. and start a band with anybody else than the charismatic, bratty, psychopath mother fucker frontman. So for this, Izzy ultimately decided that it was best Axl didn't know. He had been so broken and shattered earlier, and he didn't ever want to see him like that again.

So he didn't tell him.

And he never would.

*seven months later*

Axl was seventeen when he left. He remembered it as clearly as Amy did.

That evening, after jamming with Izzy in his garage all day, he was rummaging through some boxes in the attic, looking for a notebook to write out some lyrics for his and Izzy's song idea.

Neither of them knew when, but someday they'd run off to L.A, once they scraped together enough money to get there. They were big fish in a little pond, or goldfish with dreams of being sharks. Either way, Lafayette Indiana was no place for them to ever be big.

Izzy had managed to get his hands on an old guitar and an amp, they weren't great, but it was enough, Axl didn't have anything, but he had his voice, which was all he needed.

Axl found a dusty old cardboard box on a shelf. It wasn't labeled, he had no idea what was inside. Part of him almost wished later on that he hadn't found it, his life would've been simpler. A lie, but simple.

He would've been able to continue living in blissful ignorance, but then again, is living in lies ever really living?

He opened up the box, and in that moment, his life changed forever.

He covered his hand with his mouth in confusion, searching through it, and stormed down the attic stairs in panic. "Mom?"