The Punk and the Princess (A Dave Grohl Fanfiction)

Ch. 21 - Burning Off and On

Before you know it the plane is landing, you and Dave have both slept on and off for the entire flight but you still feel groggy and tired since it had mostly been dozing instead of full on sleep.

"God, I'm still so exhausted" Dave says, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his palms.

"Same I feel like I barely got any rest at all" You mumble as you begin the de-boarding process for your layover in Iceland.

"So which hotel are you at tonight, with our luck we're probably at the same one" Dave jokes once you're finally out of the plane.

"Its only like 6 hours, I was just going to crash at the airport" You say with a shrug.

"Actually its 8 hours and that's ridiculous! My hotel is right by the airport, I can get a cot or something" Dave suggests.

"I don't know Dave..." You say and he rolls his eyes.

"Stop acting like this! Jules please, I just want to give you a place to sleep" He says and you can tell he's getting frustrated with you still trying to keep him at a distance. If you were being honest you were kind of over that too, the universe was obviously trying to force you two to at least be friends you couldn't really deny that anymore.

"Fine" You reply in an annoyed tone but secretly you're sort of happy to be spending even more time with Dave. You hope you still feel like this by the end of your journey home.

You share a taxi to his hotel and by the time you are checked in you're so tired you literally feel as though you could collapse onto the bed.

"I'm gonna change" Dave mumbles, before pulling off his t-shirt. You sneak a peak just as he's pulling off his shorts and he's in just his boxers.

You blush as he notices you looking at him, "Like what you see?" He asks in a teasing tone.

"Nothing I haven't seen before" You reply nonchalantly.

You couldn't admit to him yet that you really liked what you saw. You hadn't really had time to look over his body the previous night so today was your first time seeing how different he was.

Even though he was still as skinny as ever he's still grown up a lot more and you love seeing the body of a man instead of a teenage boy.

You can't deny it anymore: you're attracted to Dave, physically and emotionally. Everything about him draws you in and gives you butterflies in your stomach and makes you want to hug him or kiss him or keep him up all night talking to you.

Just as you're pulling off your sweater and throwing an oversized t-shirt over your head to sleep in Dave speaks again, interrupting your epiphany for the time being.

"Do you mind if I sleep in just boxers?" He asks and you almost blush again.

"No, I mean I'll be on the cot anyway so it doesn't matter" You say before realization hits both of you at once.

"I forgot to ask for the cot!" Dave groans before reaching over to the phone and dialing the front desk, "And for the record I will sleep on the cot"

He calls down and they tell him that because of the time of night one of you will have to go down and get it from the lobby

You both groan because you're both in various states of undress, him in just his underwear and you in a loose fitting t-shirt and pajama shorts.

"You know what this is ridiculous, let's just share a bed" You say in defeat and Dave looks shocked. You hope he isn't reading anything into this.

"Are you sure?" He asks and you nod.

"We're both adults, I think we can handle sharing a bed for one night." You say and he still looks taken aback by your complete shift in attitude.

"Whatever makes you happy" He responds before crawling onto the bed and pulling back the quilt. You settle in next to him, still a good distance away, and make small talk for a few minutes before you both try to get some more sleep.

You try to sleep but you're tossing and turning and suddenly all the exhaustion you had felt had been replaced by apprehension about being so close to him again with so many unexplained feelings.

You couldn't put your finger on how you felt about Dave, you knew you were completely attracted to him and you knew that though you told yourself otherwise for the past six years you had never truly gotten over him.

However, you also still understood that nothing good could come of this, as you'd been telling yourself repeatedly over the past two days whenever you would even entertain the thought that you would let yourself go back to Dave.

But the thought was getting harder and harder to suppress the more time you spent in close proximity to Dave. There was nothing that could've prepared you for what seeing him again would do to you.

"Dave?" You ask into the darkness and you don't get a response. "Dave!" You repeat, louder this time and you poke him to make sure he hears you.

"What Julia? I just was falling asleep" He laments in a voice thick with sleep.

"Can we switch sides of the bed? I can't sleep and I think it must be because I'm used to the right side not the left" You say and even though its possible that's the reason you're having trouble it sounds like a lie, even to you.

He waits a couple seconds before sighing and murmuring an affirmative. You guys quickly switch to opposite sides in silence and say your goodnights again before you both attempt to sleep. However, seconds after you're settled into the right side of the bed, you know that's not the problem.

It was too distracting to have all these feelings about Dave and be so close to him and not acknowledge any of it, especially when you're pretty sure he feels at lease close to the same way you do.

"Dave?" You whisper again and he groans.

"What princess?" He asks in an exasperated tone.

"I can't sleep" You say quietly and you hear him chuckle in spite of himself.

"And what do you think I could do about that?"

"Could you...could you hold me?" You whisper, scared of his reaction. You can't believe you said that, sure it was the truth but it was also a lot to admit after the fits you'd thrown about him wanting to be too close to you.

There's a few seconds of silence before he speaks again.

"Sure" He says in a tone that's much softer.

You hear him rustle in the bed and seconds later you feel his arm, muscular from years of non-stop drumming, wrap around your stomach and pull you close to him, so that your head is resting on his bare chest.

You sigh contentedly and you feel him gently kiss the top of your head. This felt so right and you didn't know how you could deny it anymore.

"Thank you" You whisper into the darkness and he replies by pulling you even closer so its almost like a one armed bear hug and kissing your forehead again.

"Anything for you darling" He says and you hear the smile in his voice, which makes you smile too.

"I'm glad I found you" You say and you hope he knows you don't just mean at the airport or at some random bar in France, you mean that first meeting, when he ran into you in the hall and winked at you for the first time and the princess nickname was born.

"I'm glad we found each other too Jules" He whispers into your hair before loosening his grip so you were merely leaning again him.

You aren't happy about being less close to him even for the seconds until sleep kicked in so you hook one of your arms across his waist so you're holding him too.

You fall asleep quickly once you're done speaking, you're both so content and comfortable there's nothing else for you to stress about.