"Alright, Guns, get on deck; you're on in fifteen," yelled the stage manager, scrambling around to make sure everything was ready for the boys.

"You ready?" I asked as I stood beside Slash, who busied himself with mindlessly playing with my fingers.

"Well, we would be if Axl was here," Matt said.

"What do you mean, 'if'  he was here?"

"Do you see him anywhere?"

I looked around, not seeing the obnoxious red head anywhere. "No," I admitted. "You know who else I don't see... where's my brother?"

"Shit," Duff muttered, taking another swig of vodka.

No one moved, as they looked around blankly.

"Okay, sure; I'll go look for them," I said, rolling my eyes before heading for the green room.

"Izzy, Axl! Come on," I shouted, walking into the room. "Axl, let's go," I stressed, seeing him sit on his ass on the big leather couch.

"Why are you trying to boss me around?" he asked coolly.

"Because you only have a few minutes left, and during that time I also need to find my brother. Any idea of where he is?"

"Uh... no?"

"Don't lie to me."

"No, I really don't know. Maybe he's taking a piss, how would I know?" he snapped, walking over to me.

"Thanks, you're useless," I grumbled, slamming the door behind myself just as he was about to follow me out.

"Bitch!" he shouted.

"That makes two of us!"

I rolled my eyes, wondering where my brother was as I quickly peeked into each room, hoping to find him. I had started heading back to the stage area when I realized that I didn't check the men's bathroom- not that I wanted to.

"Izzy?" I called, timidly sticking my head in the room. "Izz, are you in here?"

"Uh, yeah. One second."

"Izzy, you only have like five minutes until stage. What are you doing?"

"Nothing, I got a nose bleed," he mumbled, coming around the corner. "They really sent you to get me?"

"I sent myself. Is that a bad thing?"

"No; I wasn't paying attention to time. I had to get the blood off of my face," he explained. "Look at all of this," he said, tossing a was of bloody paper towels in the trash. "Gnarly, right?"

"Yeah... let's go, dude."

We headed back to the group, who anxiously awaited side stage.

"Carolina, you saved the day!" Duff cheered.

"You didn't get that excited when you saw me."

"Shut up, Axl. Not everything is about you," I said, walking over to Slash, who looked nervous. "You gonna be alright?"

"Yeah, just have to get the jitters out," he said softly, bouncing slightly.

"Just relax; you're going to do fine," I assured, kissing his cheek.

"You missed."

"Did I?"

"Mm-hm. Do it right," he teased, holding his guitar away from himself as he kissed me.

It was nice being free to kiss in front of people without worrying, but it still didn't change Izzy too much- I heard him clear his throat, but ignored it as Slash pulled me closer to his chest.

"Alright..." Izzy signaled. Once again, he was ignored; I was too busy tangling my fingers in Slash's hair to pay him any mind. "Okay, guys... Guys... Jesus, Slash, let go of my sister!" he barked, finally getting a reaction.

"What a party pooper," Slash mumbled when we broke apart. "Later," he whispered.

"Unless we're on the bus."

He groaned softly. "I forgot about that."

"I know you did. It's okay; we'll figure something out," I said, kissing his cheek once again before standing beside him.

"Izz, why do you look like you smelled something bad?" Matt asked with a laugh.

"Did you not just see that?" he replied, pointing to me and Slash.

"Oh, shut it, Drama Queen."

"It's just going to take some getting used to- and the two of you playing tongue hockey in front of me isn't exactly going to help."

"Hey! There was no- oh.. wait, never mind," I mumbled, fixing my lipstick.

"Oh my god."

"Alright, head on," someone shouted, handing Axl a mic.

"Let's do it!" he yelled excitedly.

"Good luck!" I called, playfully smacking Slash's ass as he walked on the stage, blowing me a kiss over his shoulder.

Oh man, I was lucky. He was the perfect guy for me; we were similar enough to get along well (these days, now that we had everything out in the open), but different enough that we balanced out. We both liked a lot of the same things, and we were both into getting into trouble and pissing people off.. we were a power couple.

°°°°°°

During the show, 'The Beast' was in full effect as he shredded through everything from 'Anything Goes,' to 'Rocket Queen,' and breezed through 'Paradise City.' The songs didn't even look like they had taken any effort for him- the music just poured from his guitar with the slightest touch. Everything he did seemed so effortless; even his short solo break sounded complex, but looked so easy.

Throughout their set, I rarely looked away from Slash- only when one of the others blocked my view. I don't know if it was just because I could look at him like this without getting in trouble, but now I realized how amazing he really was- he was majestic, even.

Once they were all off stage, it was time to party... until we got a certain phone call.

"Carolina Isbell? Phone," someone said, sticking their head into the green room, where we all spent a few minutes with the guys in the Crüe before they hit the stage.

"I have a guess of who it is," Slash mumbled sarcastically, letting me off of his lap. "I wanna hear."

"I can tell you after. Just relax for a while."

"Nah, I want to hear what he's going to say to you."

I groaned, grabbing his hand as he stood. "Fine.... I'll probably never hear the end of it otherwise."

"No, you won't."

I got to the phone and answered, hearing exactly who I had expected.

"Carolina! Hey, it's Tracii."

"I thought it would be you calling," I replied as Slash wedged himself closer to me so that he could listen.

"Yeah, I missed you. What's been going on since we last talked?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, uh... well, how's tour?"

"It's actually really good right now. Things are smoothing out."

"Oh yeah? That's nice."

"Yeah... so what's going on with you?"

"Oh, not too much. We're going to keep writing for the next album and stuff."

"Well, that's great." I looked at Slash, who shrugged in confusion. "Tracii, what's going on?" I asked, cutting the bullshit.

"With?"

"You. Is something on your mind?"

"It's more of what's going around the rumor mill that concerns me."

"Oh? Like what?"

"Well, for starters, Axl is being a dick."

"He's always kind of a dick," I joked.

"Yeah, short fuse on that one. Uh, Izzy was telling me some stuff when I called yesterday."

I looked at Slash, not sure of how to respond.

"Anything you wanna talk about?" he asked.

"Such as?"

"I don't know, his drug problem, Nikki getting you into trouble... Slash?"

"Wait, who's drug problem?"

"Don't change the subject. What's going on with you?" he demanded.

"I didn't change the subject; I only asked about what you brought up."

"And I'm asking about Slash."

Slash grew stiff beside me, leaning closer to the phone, only for me to push him away slightly, signalling to be quiet.

"You couldn't just say that?"

"Well, no. I figure he's not too far from you right now."

"They just got off stage and they're all in the green room," I lied. "Will you just tell me what's on your mind?"

"Look, I don't know if it's Izzy hallucinating from whatever whit that he's on, but he's telling me that you and Slash are together."

"And you're upset because... why? Enlighten me."

"Carolina, did you forget that he totally fucked you over?"

"Tracii, this isn't your situation to worry about; it's my life, and if I'm over it, that's all there is to it."

"Yeah, but-"

"I'm not arguing. Why is this bothering you?"

"Because you should... My selfish reasoning is that you should be with me," he said softly.  I opened my mouth to speak, only to close it as I had no clue of what I should have said as a response. "You were never really just no-strings-attached to me; I always had that hope. I felt better when you were with Kelly than when you were with Slash, but you still weren't mine."

"You're just feeling like this because we haven't seen each other in so long. As soon as I get back, you'll be over it. You're over thinking everything."

"I'm not, though," he stressed. "I know it."

"Tracii, you were never more to me," I mumbled, knowing that he was going to be hurt. "You were there to fill a spot for someone that I didn't have."

Slash's eyebrows furrowed as he leaned against the wall beside me, waiting for some form of explanation.

"And I was that person," he insisted.

"No, Tracii. Slash was that person, and he always will be. I... I'm all his. I'm sorry if that's upsetting to you, but that's how it is."

"Carolina, please-"

"No. I don't want to talk about it anymore. It's my choice, and I'm happy with it. I love Slash," I admitted, causing him to look up, "and that's always kind of been the way that it is."

"You don't mean that," Tracii muttered. "You only think that because you're with him all of the time."

"Yeah, because he makes me happy. Don't tell me what I do or don't mean. I know exactly what I'm telling you; you're the only one that seems to be having trouble getting the point."

"I don't want to pick a fight, Carolina, I just think that you're making the biggest mistake of your life by being with him," he said, growing angry.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. You're being stupid, and you're wasting your time!"

"You don't want a fight, but you're bold enough to try to make my choices for me? That's a good way to get one with me; you don't see through my eyes, so don't try to speak for me. Respect the fact that I'm happy, or don't bother talking to me," I snapped, slamming the phone down into the cradle.

I stared at the phone for a moment before letting out a sigh and looking at Slash.

"So... how'd it go?"

"He's pissed that I'm with you, but who cares?"

"Fair enough... Did you mean that?"

"What?"

"When you said that you, uh... you love me?" he asked softly.

My cheeks burned slightly. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure I do."

"Well, good. I love you, too."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I do," he mocked, pulling me in for a kiss.

I knew that I was going to have to deal with Tracii when I got home, but that wasn't such a big deal to me right now. I had a few weeks to move on from whatever anger I had for him acting like a horse's ass, and I had Slash to keep me company.

The next step would be talking to Izzy about this supposed 'drug problem,' but that would wait until tomorrow; tonight was going to be great, even if Tracii nearly ruined it. I wasn't going to let him.

"Hey... can I make a suggestion?" I asked as we headed back to the guys.

"Of course."

"Well, now that we're together, we're not going to want to be stuck under the watchful eyes of my brother when we get back, right?"

"Yeah."

"You're living in that apartment with them, and that can get annoying, right?"

"Right."

"Well, I have my apartment, and there's plenty of room," I hinted.

"You think we should move in together?" he asked.

"Yeah... well, I mean, it's just an idea. I don't want to move things along too fast or anything, but it might be-"

He held a hand over my mouth and smiled.

"We should definitely move in together. I like that idea," he said, pressing a kiss to my lips.

"Glad we're on the same page."

That night after we all 'celebrated' long enough, we returned to the buses to head to the next city.

"Another bus ride, another show, another night in the bag," Duff mumbled victoriously as he climbed into his bunk.

"Another good night," I added, watching the hall go dark as as everyone closed their bunk curtains.

It didn't take long for the chattering to die down, but Slash and I laid silently, listening and smiling at each other from across the way. Once it was completely silent, I carefully hopped down and climbed into his bunk with him.

"Don't put your cold feet on me," he mumbled, scooting farther back.

"You're fine," I whispered with a quiet laugh.

"I swear to god, if you two do anything other than sleep, I will kill you both," my brother threatened, making the rest of the guys laugh.

"You got it, Izzy," I answered, rolling my eyes and kissing Slash on the cheek.

"Good night, baby," Slash whispered.

"Good night, Slash."