At Odd's Ends (Bruce Kulick x Eric Carr)

Ch 1: You and Me

I let out a long sigh, lying flat on the stool of my drumkit and staring up at the ceiling, letting my hair dangle off the edge. There was the soft clang of cymbals as Gene leaned on my kit, giving me a grin. "Hey, perfect. Shake your head a little bit and you'll be sweeping the floor," he teased. I rolled my eyes, raising a hand to flip him off before letting my arm drop back down with another overdramatic sigh.

He raised an eyebrow. "Great, what's wrong now?" I closed my eyes, tapping my drumsticks against my thigh. "You wouldn't get it." "Come on, spill! What's bugging you? We're friends man, let me help you with your issues. Besides, I can't have you in a bad mood for the tour because if you're off at any of our shows that'll show up in the reviews and then less people will come to the next one and then we'll lose money."

In spite of myself, I grinned. "Ah, there it is. You care about anything other than the money?" I teased. "Hey! I resent that! I care about the music too! But look, you can't deny that we've been able to turn Kiss into a band and a brand. Money matters, but good reviews matter too. We're not gonna be able to do a whole lot if we start bombing our shows and releasing shit albums and losing contracts with record studios and--"

I held up a hand, cutting him off. "Mr. Gene Simmons. If we survived releasing Music From the Elder, we can survive anything," I said, opening one eye to look at him. A blush ran across his cheeks and he rolled his eyes. "Shut up. It could've worked." "Mm no, no I really don't think it could've. Maybe if we were a completely different band and weren't a heavy metal rock band who was already coming off of a pop rock album that had a mixed reaction." "Well look, we did survive, and you nailed it on Creatures and Lick it Up was good since there was the whole no makeup gimmick and Animalize did fine and we're doing well with Asylum!" he snapped.

"Gene relax, I'm just kidding! We're doing fine, the band's great and we're just gonna keep getting better. Although I do wish our costumes for the tour weren't quite so...much," I said with a smile. "Shut up. Anyway! I know it's not costumes that's got you in a bad mood. Seriously, what's bugging you?" "Ah, I've got this little headache that comes and goes," I said with another sigh.

The door swung open as Bruce and Paul walked in and I sat up with a sigh. "Oh look, there it is," I muttered under my breath. Gene raised an eyebrow, giving me a pointed look. "This conversation isn't over, alright? I wanna keep talking to you after practice," he said in a low voice. I shrugged, running a hand through my hair. "Sure, sure, whatever. Let's just get this over with," I said.

Bruce and Paul were chatting happily with each other as they set up their guitars in the most annoying way possible. Bruce would tune a string and then kiss Paul. Paul would tune a string and then kiss Bruce. And so on and so forth until they finally both managed to tune their guitars. "Are we good to go?" I asked, tapping my sticks against my leg and giving them a frown. "Let me tune my amp, then we should be golden," Paul said. "Aw no babe let me do that for you!" Bruce said, kissing Paul on the nose and tuning the amplifier.

I looked over at Gene, gagging, and he grinned, shaking his head. "Aw sweetie you're too cute!" Paul gushed, setting down his guitar in favor of wrapping his arms around Bruce's shoulders, making out with him. "Hey! Can we get going?" I cried. They reluctantly broke apart. "Come on man, relax! You got somewhere to be or something?" Bruce asked, giving me a smile. I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I do actually," I said. "Away from you two," I added under my breath.

Practice dragged on for what felt like an eternity before finally Gene set down his bass. "Alright, that's the setlist for the first show we're gonna be playing, I say that's good for today. How about we say same time on Wednesday?" he asked. "Yeah that works," I said, and we turned to see what Bruce and Paul would say. But they were too busy making out with each other to answer. "Oi! Lovebirds! Does Wednesday work for you?" Gene called, throwing a pick at them. "Huh? Oh, yeah! Yeah, Wednesday works, right honey?" Bruce asked. Paul smiled, giving him a sappy look. "Of course it does, my dear. Now let's go home. We've got a dinner date, remember? I need to get ready."

"Mm, me too," Bruce said, packing up his guitar. "Alright, see you guys on Wednesday!" he said, giving us a wave as he and Paul walked out of the room hand in hand. As soon as the door closed, Gene walked over to me, going back to leaning on my drumkit. "Alright. What's going on with you and them?" he asked.

I let out a long sigh, running my hands through my hair. "Bruce is my best friend, he's been my best friend for years and I love him to pieces. I really, really love him, as more than a friend. I want to date him and having to see him and Paul always together, wrapped around each other and constantly murmuring sweet nothings to each other, it hurts man! Because I want that to be me, you know? Like...I want to be the one whispering sweet nothings to Bruce! I mean we're such good friends, we'd be really good boyfriends!" I cried.

Gene nodded slowly before giving me a small smile. "Can I uh...can I tell you a secret?" he asked. "Oh! Yeah sure, what is it?" He took a deep breath, leaning in close. "I love Paul. Like, romantically, the way you love Bruce. I've loved him for years man, since we first started this band. So trust me, I get it. I know how sucky it is to have to see the man of your dreams in a relationship with another man."

With a thin smile, I patted him on the shoulder. "I feel you man, it sucks. Figures that all four of us could be so happy if one couple would just split up. I mean it'd be perfect if they stopped being a thing! Bruce and I could be together and you and Paul could be together!" There was a pause as we both stared at each other, slow smiles spreading across our faces. "Hey...now there's an idea!" Gene said. "We get them to split up and then we step in and it works out perfect!"

I jumped to my feet, giving him a huge grin. "Yeah! Hell yeah man, it's perfect! All we have to do is try and figure out how to get them to realize that they're not as perfect for each other as they think and that they would be so much happier with us!" I said eagerly. "Look, we can grab lunch tomorrow and figure out how we're gonna make this work," he said, ruffling my hair with a grin.

"Sounds like a plan," I said, grabbing my sticks and walking out of the room with him.