Dream On

Late Night Talks

That afternoon practice had been weird. Axl and Slash had refused to look at each other, Axl would blush any time he met Slash's eyes and Slash would avert his gaze whenever he caught Axl looking back at him.

Both of them had mumbled and stuttered when they had to speak to each other and it was all just a huge awkward mess.

Izzy and Duff were ready to jump out of the window at every interaction of the what they hoped would soon be couple and Steven was happy playing his drums, unaware of the whole situation and the thick sexual tension around him.

As soon as they had all finished Axl and Slash left, running out of the building and towards opposite directions and all Duff and Izzy could do was sigh loudly. Steven was still playing with his drums if anyone asked.

Later that night when Axl finally made his way to their shared apartment he was greeted with the sight of a shirtless Slash sitting forward on their couch with either arm placed on each side, eyebrows knitted in concentration, obviously deep in thought.

The whole apartment was dark, only a light from a lamp in the back corner of the living room illuminating Slash's face.

"Where are the others?" asked Axl.

"Steven said that he was gonna stay at his girl's place and Izzy and Duff went out somewhere" replied Slash.

Fuck. They were all alone. This could all go very well or very terribly thought Axl.

"Can we talk?" asked Slash.

Fuck. So terribly it was. Okay then.

"Sure" replied Axl, his voice trembling just a little, his heart pounding out of his chest.

"Do you want to sit or are you just going to stand there?"

Axl didn't reply but he made his way towards the couch, carefully sitting beside Slash.

"Look, I'm sorry for this morning. I didn't know you were in the bathroom, otherwise I wouldn't have come. And I'm sorry I knocked you down" Slash said.

Oh so he wasn't going to mention how they had both gotten hard because of the aforementioned collision or how Slash had stared at his dick which had been leaking precum at that time. How lovely.

"It's fine. What happened happened, it doesn't matter anyways."

"Are you sure? Because when I came out of the shower you had left without any notice and you barely spoke to me during practice" said Slash not convinced by Axl's answer.

Dear lord help him.

"Yeah, I just had a lot in my mind that's all. Sorry for not telling you before I left."

"Oh, alright, I get that" he replied unsure. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, not really" he said hoping to end this entire conversation before he ended up doing something stupid like telling Slash how beautiful he looked like that with his messy curls and rosy cheeks or something far more idiotic like admitting his feelings to the younger man.

But as Slash's gaze slowly met his, Axl could see the hurt flash in Slash's eyes and he suddenly felt so horrible, knowing he was the cause of it.

"Okay. I'm here if you want to talk about it though. I always am. You know that" Slash said after a while with a sad smile on his face.

Axl just smiled at him, hoping to convey everything he didn't dare say out loud through his eyes, wishing he could erase the pain from Slash's eyes without simultaneously exposing himself.

"Do you want to go to sleep?" asked Slash understanding that Axl wasn't going to say anything else at that moment and he best of all knew that at situations like this it was better to wait for Axl to come to him at his own time.

"Yeah, just let me go get changed" he said getting up and making his way to his room. He took off his boots carefully placing them next to his dresser this time and discarded his shirt and pants on his bed. He changed into a pair of comfy sweatpants and one of Slash's shirt that was a little too big for him and smelled just like Slash –full of cigarette smoke and whiskey and warm coffee-, a pair of fluffy socks on his feet to complete the outfit.

He swiftly returned to their couch where Slash had already laid down, patiently waiting for him to fall asleep.

He laid down with his back against Slash's chest, quickly settling between Slash's open arms and using one of his biceps as a pillow, Slash's cold exposed feet mixing with his own clothed ones.

Both of them were tense, could both feel it, could sense it in the air.

After a few minutes and a lot of internal fighting with himself Axl decided he had had enough, because this was exactly where he was supposed to be, this was his home, Slash was his home, he was in love with Slash and there was nothing he could about it, there was no point in denying anymore, no point in trying to hide it either and Slash had to know whether he liked it or not, so he muttered a giant fuck it in his head -it only came out as a mutter under his breath in reality- and opened his mouth to speak.

"Slash" he said softly.

"Yeah."

"Are you sleeping?"

"No."

"I think I'm in love with you."