I was able to control my sudden burst of fear and anxiety with a peaceful sleep that night. Just knowing Mel was by my side helped me feel better by 110%. The next day we were all escorted with armed guards downtown to some small rehearsal space. Axl never showed. It was fun playing with most of the guys, and Matt's drumming was great to experience, but deep down I was still pretty distraught that it wasn't Steven sitting behind those drums. Are we going to be prepared to play in front of 140,000? Is Axl prepared? How the fuck is this going to work? We spent most of the day rehearsing and fucking around, but as soon as I saw the first little baggy of white powder enter the environment I hightailed it outta there.

"Honey, I'm home!" I called out as I dumped my bags on the hotel room floor. Mel emerged like an angel from the balcony.

"What did you get up to today?" I asked as I embraced her in a tight hug.

"I just did some reading and sunned myself out on the balcony. Didn't really do much, I still feel pretty shit after that flight. How was band practice?" Mel smirked as she jabbed a finger into my stomach.

"Ha-ha. Yeah, it was okay. Axl didn't show up though."

"Maybe he feels shit too?"

"Maybe."

Little did I know that Axl being nowhere to be found would become a common occurrence in the upcoming months. That night Mel and I stripped down to just tee shirts and undies and ordered room service as we watched Brazilian TV. We ended up watching some soap and we were pretending to translate what we thought they could have been saying. In an ad break, I stacked up out plates and placed them on the bedside table when I caught Mel's eyes burning into the side of my head.

"What?"

"Nothing."

I paused. She was still staring but a slow grin grew across her face.

"What?" I laughed.

"Nothing!" She bit her lip, "You just look so sexy right now."

I didn't care how jet-lagged and tired I was at that point; as soon as I get sexy signals from Mel I cannot control myself. It's like she's able to put a spell over me. I quickly rolled on top of her and looked down at her eager face.

"To this day I'm still surprised at how you seem to be horny all the time."

"How can I not be with you around me now?" She smirked and I felt her hands start to pull my shirt up.

Knock, knock, knock!

I pulled my face away from Mel's as we both looked at each other with confusion.

"Is someone at our door?"

"Yo, Izzy, it's me. You awake?"

Axl.

"For fuck's sake," I mumbled and Mel still looked confused.

"Who the hell is that?"

"Probably my favourite redhead." I groaned as I reluctantly rolled out of bed and walked towards the door. As expected, Axl was waiting on the other side. He was in the middle of writing something down on a small notepad.

"What do you want?"

"Did I wake you?" Axl asked kindly.

"No, but I was pretty snug in my bed."

Axl craned his head around my body to look at Mel cocooned in the sheets.

"Hey, Melanie! How ya going?"

Axl tried to push passed me but I managed to shove him back in the hallway and I closed the door behind me.

"Dude, it's nearly 1 am, what are you doing here?"

Axl looked offended.

"I was just dropping by 'cause I wanted you to help me with some new songs I've thought of-" he interrupted himself, "wait what do you mean 'it's nearly 1 am'? Since when has this ever been a late time for you?"

"Ever since I don't pump my body with toxins anymore."

"Yeah, but, like, this time last year you wouldn't even worry about going to sleep some nights."

"Yeah, 'cause I was fucked up. Obviously."

"I don't think I like what Melanie's done to you." Axl tried to joke as he gave me a nudge on my stomach, but I wasn't in the mood.

"Can we do this tomorrow? I'm tired."

"You sure? This will be quick-"

"Where were you at rehearsal today?" I butted in.

"I was walking the streets. Sightseeing."

Of course, you were.

"Look, man, I want to get to sleep. Can we hang in the morning?"

"Yeah, sure. But hey before you go, were you okay when we landed yesterday? You seemed a little freaked."

"Uh, yeah just a little overwhelmed at the fans, you know? That's all." I mumbled as I rubbed the back of my neck

Sure, that was kind of truthful. Axl didn't reply, he just studied my face and he was looking at me for so long it was starting to get awkward.

"Okay, well goodnight?" I prompted.

"Yeah, night, Iz." He patted my shoulder headed off down the long hotel hallway.

"What was that all about?" Mel asked as I ran and jumped onto the bed next to her.

"Just Axl being Axl. I shouldn't really be surprised at what he does anymore."

~ The next day ~

Melanie's P.O.V

"Just pretend I'm not here." I giggled.

"You're going to throw off my groove!"

"No, I won't. We barely have any photos of each other, let alone the two of us together. We have one, our wedding, and that is just pathetic." I said as I adjusted the focus on my clunky, black, Nikon camera.

"If my face gets scraped off it's your fault." Izzy jokingly jabbed his finger at me.

"Yeah, yeah, just shush and start rolling around in dat bowl."

Izzy smirked at me, and without hesitation, he jumped on his skateboard and flew down the concrete dip. Our security guard had told us about the park while we were doing some sightseeing and almost instantly Izzy made us rush back to the hotel so he could grab his skateboarding kit. I had no idea he'd even packed it, but it added up as to why his suitcase was so damn heavy. Izzy had told me he skated in his teenage years, and while he was detoxing in Indiana he'd gotten his groove back and skated around town a lot. He was being a whiney noob that I wanted to take photos of him and, god forbid, have memories and photo albums of our lives together and our exciting trip to Rio. The weather was warm and just had a touch of humidity in the air. The city was beautiful, surrounded by luscious green hills of forest and the streets were so alive and colourful. The only element that tainted the city was the fact you'd have to sometimes dodge open sewers in the streets; seeing that was definitely a shock. Although, at night-time the Christ the Redeemer statue glowed and looked down upon the city, and it seemed so ethereal.

Izzy knocked my socks off with these skating skills I had no idea he even had. The dips and walls of the concrete park were so steep and at times I really thought he was going to face-plant and die. For the first few solid minutes, I just stood there with my jaw open in shock as I watched Izzy speed around the concrete bowls. He eventually rode up to where I was standing with a big grin on his face and placed his skateboard up so he could rest his elbow in it. 

"Impressed?"

"Just a tad."

"You want me to give you a lesson?"

"Uh, do you want me to still have a face? Because I can guarantee I won't have one anymore if I hop on that thing."

Izzy laughed, and he looked so damn sexy. He was wearing shorts, and his skinny, pale legs were finally getting a good dose of Vitamin D, as well as his arms as he showed them off in his red muscle singlet. While we spent our time in the sun, Izzy started to gather small crowds of attention. They were mainly young kids and teenagers; all incredibly excited that they're favourite band was in town. Izzy was very kind to them, trying to converse in small talk, and even signing a few tee-shirts. Our security guard started to feel concerned and he eventually convinced a disappointed Izzy to leave the skate park. 

"Those kids were harmless, man," Izzy muttered as lit up a smoke.

"Sorry sir but it's my job to protect you. If more crowds came and realised who you were it could have turned into a serious situation." Our security guard, Kevin, tried his best to explain politely as we drove through the city back to our hotel.

"Yeah, sure," Izzy said quietly in disbelief.

"Anyway, I'm pretty sure I got some sick shots of you today," I said happily to try and lighten the mood and take away any heat poor Kevin might have been feeling from salty Izzy.

It seemed to work. I could see Kevin's body language relax as he focused on the road, and Izzy let out a small smile across his lips.

"You reckon."

I nodded, biting my lip.

"I hope you made sure to only get my good angles!" Izzy held up the back of his hand to his chin.

"You're an idiot," I smiled, "I don't think it's even possible for you to have any bad angles. I curse you and your sexy looks."

"Now you're the idiot." Izzy let out a pretend cry as I slapped his shoulder.  

It was late in the afternoon when we eventually arrived back to our hotel room. Izzy flopped down onto the bed face first and let out a loud and long groan.

"I'm going to be on stage in a little over 24 hours... in front of who knows how many people." I managed to hear Izzy's voice as the bed muffled it.

"I think someone said over 120,000 tickets have been sold..." I trailed off when Izzy lifted his head from the doona cover and gave me an unenthusiastic look. "Sorry... that probably didn't help."

"I think I'm getting kind of nervous."

I sat down on the bed and started to rub Izzy's back.

"You'll be great. You've done this plenty of times now; let your nerves feed your performance tomorrow night. Give it everything you've got. Your band is back together on stage-"

"No Steven though-"

"I know, but you've got someone who's just as good. Matt's a great guy, give him a chance. But as I was saying, if this helps anyway, let your fear drive you. I just know you're going to be amazing and I know you know you don't need anything to help your perform or enhance anything."

He eventually propped himself up and his hazel eyes burned into mine. 

"This is just one the reasons I love you, you always hit me with some facts and it's pretty much impossible to argue with you."

I smiled.

"Ah yes I'm just too wise-"

I was interrupted as Izzy suddenly leapt and pounced on me, pushing me down on the bed so that he was sitting on my hips with his legs either side of my body. He had that certain look in his eyes, and I immediately knew what we were going to do next...

~

2020 just needs to stop. Can we hit restart?! I hope everyone is going okay during these current events x

I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! As always, your feedback always brings a big smile on my face. Pls let me know if I'm blue balling anyone lololo I know I've skimmed over a few sexy time scenes lately! Don't forget to comment and vote!