Home Sweet Home (REVISED)

Chapter 37

When Nikki came back to L.A., he went straight into his apartment, dumping down on his bed. Even though he had been travelling for hours, he hadn't managed to come up with a single word of what to say to Tommy. Not Vince or Mick either. He had no idea what they were all thinking. If they were worried sick, pissed or just didn't care at all. Lying on his bed, looking at the ceiling, he tried coming up with a good way to explain everything to Tommy. Somehow he had to tell him what he felt, but that wasn't all that easy considering Tommy didn't like him that way anymore. Besides, Nikki had already left that note that said "Yours forever", and he had no idea how Tommy had reacted to that. What if he thought it was stupid? Nikki hadn't thought this plan through before leaving. A day ago, he wasn't even planning on coming back at all. The only thing to do was to jump right into it. Besides, there were only two things that could happen: Tommy would be thrilled to see him again, because he was getting worried, or he would be pissed because Nikki never said anything about leaving. Nikki was willing to take that chance, because he did love Tommy... He just hadn't told him yet. And if anything went wrong and they all hated him, he could just go back to Vegas anyway; Duff would probably be waiting for him there.

Knocking on Tommy's door, Nikki waited patiently outside, preparing what to say when he opened. He sighed as he realized that Tommy wasn't coming. He knocked one more time, but nobody opened this time either. Nikki scratched his head, wondering where he could have gone. Maybe he was still at Mick's place? No, he couldn't be, Nikki remembered sleeping next to him after they left Mick's... But he had no idea, so he decided to just go to Mick's place after all.

After three knocks, Mick opened the double doors to his huge castle, seeing Nikki standing outside. "I knew it", he said as he spotted the rocker, "I knew you'd come back. I told the other guys you would. You know, they're worried sick about you, Vince is panicking because we're supposed to record our new album soon, and only God knows how Tommy must be feeling". Nikki only looked at Mick, who just said all that with a straight face. "Do you know where Tommy is?", Nikki asked, slightly panicking. "No", Mick replied, "But Vince is on my couch". Where the hell could Tommy be!? "Oh...", Nikki said, kind of disappointed, looking at the ground, "Would you call me if you find him?" He was about to leave when Mick answered. "No", he said, "But I do know that he's in my house somewhere". He moved aside so that Nikki could run into the house, frantically searching all over. He met Vince on his way to the kitchen, thinking that Tommy might be by the fridge, since Mick had more food than any human could imagine. "Hey, Nikki!", Vince exclaimed, surprised to see the bassist home that early, "We have to record our new album, now!" There was no "I'm sorry" or any sort of apology, just "We have to record our new album". How polite. But Nikki didn't have time for that anyway; he was only listening to half of the stuff Vince said. "Have you seen Tommy?", he asked quickly, being in a hurry, wanting to get to his beloved drummer as fast as possible. "Yeah, I think he's upstairs", Vince replied, "Would you bring him down here so that we can record that album?" Vince was also in a hurry. Nikki didn't answer; he was already halfway up the stairs before Vince could finish his sentence.

When Nikki had arrived at the second floor of Mick's gigantic house, he noticed at least twenty doors lined up in a long corridor. "Fuck...", Nikki said to himself, "How does he even find his bedroom?" He opened the first door, only finding a luxury bathroom with a golden fucking toilet. The next door was to a room in which Nikki didn't find the purpose of. The only things in there were a huge carnivorous plant and a safe. Gee, Mick... After thirteen doors more, he finally reached the room Tommy was sitting in. He sat quietly on the bed with the note in his hands, looking up as he heard the door open. Tommy's eyes were filled with sorrow, but they lightened up as he saw Nikki standing there in the doorway. "Hi...", Nikki said carefully. "Oh my god...", Tommy said, "Nikki!" He jumped up from the bed and threw himself at Nikki for a hug. "God, how I've missed you", he said, not caring about the tears of joy that were running down his cheeks. "I missed you too", Nikki replied, hugging Tommy as tight as he could. None of them wanted to let go, ever. No way in hell they were going to be apart again. Nikki looked up at Tommy, beautiful Tommy, into his deep brown eyes, the ones he had been longing for. Tommy was smiling so widely, but Nikki was being serious; he had finally decided on what to say. "Tommy...", he started, his voice a little shaky. "Yeah?", Tommy replied, holding Nikki tight in his warm arms. "I love you", Nikki said, in all seriousness, worried of what Tommy would answer. "I love you too, Nikki", Tommy said, being serious too, leaning a little bit closer, "Are you ready?" Nikki had no idea what he was rambling on about this time. "Ready for what?", he asked confusedly. Tommy leaned even closer, closer until their noses were touching, and closed his eyes. It was for real this time, not just a high school fling. "For our first real...", Tommy continued, and kissed him. Their first real kiss. Nikki closed his eyes too.