Crazy As Normal(Izzal)

Chapter 5

The first rung on the ladder of finding his way back was quite simple in Izzy's head. He shouldn't have shared the room with Axl for even a second.

His bandmates were still chilling out on the porch when Izzy made it to Hell House. Del had already left. Slash smiled at him as Izzy approached them.

"Hey Slash, you mind if I sleep in your bed? You can use mine." Izzy made a great effort to say that casually. Del had mocked Izzy in front of them. He definitely didn't want to give his friends any hints of his trouble.

"I do." Slash said outright.

Duff gave Izzy a theoretical answer in a level tone. "You can't have two bedrooms."

While Izzy felt odd that they didn't ask the reason and immediately turned down him, he just let their artificiality ride. "Alright, I'll just use the couch."

"No, Izzy. You can't."

The loud voice belonged to Slash and got on Izzy's nerves. "What? You guys always occupy there. It's my turn."

"'Cause your room's the widest and the nicest." Duff's response was more peaceful but a perfect refusal in short.

Izzy faced Steven sitting cross-legged in a laughing mood. Speaking of the nicest room, actually Izzy considered Steven's room as the nicer one. Izzy and Axl shared a room, Slash and Duff did too, whereas Steven slept alone in his own. The drummer could give a boon to his rhythm guitarist by exchanging the nicest room to the second nicest room. Quite fair, huh? "How about you? Do you wanna sleep in my bed?"

Steven giggled in content, opening his mouth, but Slash interrupted him before he pronounced an affirmative word.

Izzy insisted, "Why the hell do you ruin me, Hudson? This is between me and him,"

Then Steven encouraged, "You can have a pillow fight with Axl. It'll be fun."

Okay, he knew Axl would never grant a pillow fight but it successfully raised Steven's mind. His blue eyes were so bright now, slightly swaying from side to side, appearing to look at a mental image of Axl's giggle behind the feathers which were dancing all over the room. Sorry, Steven. That wasn't gonna happen.

Ignoring Izzy nonchalantly, Slash warned Steven. "Stevie, you use your own bed."

"Um," Steven disarranged his hair. "I'm sorry, Izzy." His voice was very low, clearly he was still attached to the fascinating pillow fight.

Izzy eagerly opened his mouth then closed it without nagging Steven for following Slash. Steven looked apologetic but he might not flip his position as long as Slash kept a close eye on him.

So, an awful fate seemed to be destined. Izzy failed to win the bed outside of his room. He was going to suffer the terrible nightmares until Axl's imbecility had utterly disgusted himself.

Duff stood up when Izzy almost opened the front door. "Axl went to Erin's a little while ago, if that's your problem."

"We're good." Izzy looked up the tallest man with some kind of relief. He might sleep well tonight. Just tonight, but one night was still better than zero nights.

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Another deadly slow week had passed. Something provisionally named a kiss (never did he call it a kiss directly even though he now fully awoke to the fruitlessness of a word game) hadn't happened due to both Izzy's watertight castle wall and Axl's promise. However, it seemed a matter of a time.

Axl's eyes had been lingering on his lips whether or not Axl was around him. The emerald green orbs gave him a snakelike watch, waiting for Izzy to bring down his wall. His wish didn't come true so far, hence they turned to the impudent puppy's expression as Izzy knitted his eyebrows.