1980's Rock Imagines

Nikki Sixx - Stolen Spotlight Pt. 1

Word Count: 1,130

It had been two months now that Mötley Crüe has been on the road. Nikki was excited to have you tag along for this tour, since you were his girlfriend of over a year, and he hated leaving you at home. He spent as much time as he could with you, even if it was only for a few hours a day.

Sometimes, the two of you would go explore, pull pranks on the band, or laze around before a show. But more recently, you had expressed your interest in learning to play the bass to Nikki, and he had been more than happy to teach you. It turned out, you were quite the natural with the right direction. Nikki had you practicing Shout at the Devil all month, and you were determined to nail the song.

Once you were able to master it, the boys were impressed that you were able to play the entire song almost flawlessly and insisted that you take Nikki's place for that particular song during one of their shows.

Tonight was finally your night to prove to yourself that you worked hard and could put your skill to the test in front of a crowd. Your goal of course was to just get a little practice with a bass, but you were mostly after making Nikki proud. All you wanted was for him to be proud of his girl and think that you were the coolest chick around, because that's what you felt for him every day.

You would be lying if you said that you weren't nervous to play Shout at the Devil with the band. But, you were also excited to try your hand at bass with one of the most popular bands in the world. Mötley Crüe were your friends before idols, but you still thought it was an awesome privilege.

Around an hour before Mötley was supposed to hit the stage, you weaved around the corridors of the venue, one of Nikki's basses hanging from your frame as you searched for your friends. You were hoping to find them and have them give you any last minute input or advice after you had practiced alone in a different room for a while.

It didn't take you long to find them backstage, and they were luckily all together in the same place. All of them had their back to you as they sat and talked about changes to the set list, parts of songs they needed to work on, etc. You didn't want to interrupt them, so you stood quietly in the doorway as you waited for them to finish. You didn't mind that it took a few minutes and grinned as you listened to them get excited for the show. You didn't have any reason not to smile until Nikki changed the topic of conversation.

"So for Shout at the Devil... are you guys sure you want Y/N to play?"

"Of course, why the hell not?" Tommy responded.

"I just don't really think she's ready yet," Nikki said flatly.

Vince was quick to tell him, "Y/N has worked her ass off for this. You know better than anyone how much she practiced that song, Tommy."

"Yeah, she practiced a lot, but she still makes a bunch of mistakes, and she'll just be standing there on stage trying to concentrate on not fucking up. It's not like she can move like we can."

Your heart sunk at Nikki's words. Not even the rebuttal from the rest of the band could help how hurt you felt.

"So fucking what, Nikki? That's your girl you're talking about. If you think she's not good at bass, you might as well blame yourself for being a shitty teacher. But, the rest of us think she's doing great."

Nikki simply scoffed and you looked down at the bass in front of you. You knew that Nikki was letting you use this particular bass because it was older and not as nice, which was something you could understand. What you weren't aware of was his complete lack of faith in you. You never would have been able to guess it based on how supportive he was during the lessons he gave you. Tears began to well up in your eyes, though you tried not to be so weak.

"You wanna know what this is fucking about?" Mick chimed in. "This is about you being jealous. You know that Y/N plays that song almost better than you, especially on your off nights, and you can't bear stepping out of the spotlight for five goddam minutes."

"Jesus Christ, Nikki."

All of them stared at Nikki angrily, while Nikki chose to remain silent. His silence wasn't reassuring in the slightest. You never took Nikki for the jealous type. He was usually so fun and encouraging, this really didn't seem like him at all. You sincerely hoped that he would just say something to prove everyone wrong and have real, reasonable validation as to why you shouldn't play. But, he didn't.

"Like it or not, she's going to play with us. I'll drag your ass off of the stage myself if I have to," Vince said.

"No, I'm not," you finally made your presence known, voice cracking a little as you spoke. You hadn't intended to get so emotional over this, but you couldn't help but feel hurt.

Shocked that you were there, everyone in the band whipped their heads around, some of them even standing up from their seats in surprise.

"Y/N," Nikki began to say with a stunned look on his face. You didn't even let him finish, carefully handing him the bass that you had taken care of over the last month. He was reluctant to take it, his grip only tightening on the guitar when he noticed your hands leaving the body and neck of it. You were already leaving the room in a hurry before he could begin to say anything else to you.

"Y/N!" Tommy called, running after you.

"Nice fuckin going, Nikki," Vince said lowly before following Tommy. Mick didn't say anything before taking his leave as well, but he was sure to smack the back of Nikki's head in passing. After that,  Nikki stood in the now empty room with your bass in one hand, the other rubbing the back of his head.

"Shit."