Bandom One-shots book 3

Little Victories (Steven Adler x Nikki Sixx)

Rehab wasn't glamorous—not that I expected it to be. Days bled into each other, one session after another, punctuated by half-decent meals and awkward silences in the common areas. But this time, something was different.

Steven Adler was here.

We knew each other, sure—our bands had run the same circuits, lived through the same chaos—but we weren't close. Still, there was something about seeing a familiar face in a place like this that made the whole ordeal a little less lonely.

At first, we just exchanged nods across the room. Then casual conversations started in the garden or over meals. And before I knew it, Steven became a constant presence—a little light in the heavy haze of recovery.

It was a quiet evening when it happened. We'd both had breakthroughs that day in group therapy—little victories that felt monumental to us. We were sitting on the floor of my room, laughing about something stupid, when Steven pulled out a bottle of wine he'd stashed away.

"Just one glass," he said with a mischievous grin, his dimples flashing. "To celebrate."

I should've said no. We both should've. But the temptation was too strong, and before I knew it, the bottle was open, and we were toasting to our progress.

One glass turned into two, and somewhere between the laughter and the stories, things shifted.

I wasn't sure who leaned in first, but our lips met, soft and tentative at first, then deeper, more urgent. It wasn't planned, wasn't logical, but it felt right in the moment—like we were sharing something no one else could understand.

Afterward, the room was quiet except for the hum of the radiator and our steady breaths. Steven was lying on his stomach, his golden curls spilling over the pillow. The sheet was tangled around his waist, leaving his bare back exposed.

I traced slow, lazy circles on his shoulder blades with my fingers, marveling at how small he looked like this, how peaceful.

He turned his head slightly to look at me, his eyes half-lidded but soft. "That was... unexpected," he murmured with a sleepy smile.

I chuckled, leaning down to press a kiss to his shoulder. "Yeah, but not bad, right?"

"Not bad at all," he said, his voice warm and a little teasing.

We fell into a comfortable silence again, the kind where words weren't necessary. My hand drifted lower, tracing the dip of his spine, and he let out a contented sigh.

"You're good at this," he said after a while.

"At what?"

"Making me feel like... like I'm not a total screw-up."

I frowned, my hand stilling on his back. "Steven, you're not a screw-up. You're just... figuring things out. We both are."

He rolled onto his side, propping his head up with one hand. "You really believe that?"

"Yeah," I said firmly. "I do. Look at us—we're here, we're trying. That's more than a lot of people can say."

He studied me for a moment, then leaned forward to press a soft kiss to my cheek. "Thanks, Nikki."

"For what?"

"For making this place suck a little less."

I laughed, pulling him into my arms. "Right back at you, Adler."

As we lay there, tangled up in each other, I realized something: for the first time in a long time, I wasn't thinking about the next high or the next escape. I was here, in this moment, and for once, that was enough.

~Little Victories~