"I'm mad because you're being a bitch about this!"

"I'm being a bitch about it because I know what I want! I don't want to do that song tonight, that's the end of it."

"What's it about now?" Nikki asked, sitting beside in the hall me with an eye roll.

"Well, Axl and Izzy are fighting about the 'set list,'" I mumbled with air quotes. "I don't know why they're fighting about it anyway; they never even use the lists that they make- they just give them to fans or let the roadies keep them."

"They've got a disjointed chaos going, but it works for them, I guess. So... you, uh, talk to your brother yet?" he asked, playing with his necklace.

"Nope; I was waiting until we're about to go home. Like, when I'm getting off the bus."

"That doesn't leave much time to talk about it."

"True, but we have each other's numbers and stuff. I want him to have time to think out what he'll say so that he doesn't implode under pressure, y'know? He shuts down."

"Yeah, I gotcha. He'll probably ex-plode on me when he finds out I told you."

"What are you talking about? I figured it out myself," I said, shooting him a wink, reassuring him that I wouldn't rat him out.

"Thanks. Are you sure you want to wait to ta-"

Izzy rushed out of the green room in a whirlwind of anger, slamming the heavy door behind himself.

"Don't talk to Axl; he's a stubborn asshole," he barked at me, rushing away.

"Add that to the list of things we already know," I mumbled to Nikki.

"Well, I was going suggest talking to him now, but I now see that that would be a terrible idea. Good luck, kid," he said, patting my thigh before getting up and heading to Tommy's dressing room to join the pre-show party.

I sank down in my chair, rubbing my face as I tried to think of how I would bring it up. It wasn't as hard as I was making it out to be, but I wanted a deeper conversation than just 'hey, I know you're on heroin.' I didn't want it to turn into a fight, but it would be what it would be. I just wanted him to be the best person that he could be- without the drugs. It was highly hypocritical of him to freak out on me over drugs when he was doing the same thing, and it was my turn to put it to an end.

°°°°°°

As per usual, Guns N' Roses killed their set, and afterward, we sat together as a group and watched Mötley Crüe's set for the final time. The tour had been an adventure for sure, full of experimenting and trouble-making, and although we were sad to be going home without promise of another tour in the next few weeks, we were ready to be in our own beds.

Fortunately for us, we had become good friends with the Crüe, and they helped us out; we were flown back to Nevada, where a bus picked us up and took us home to Los Angeles, shortening our trip in a big way. Instead of taking an annoying number of days, we only took two, which was still long considering the fact that we were burned out on each other's company- except for me and Slash of course.

"Ten minutes," the driver shouted as we got closer to my apartment building.

"Ready to go home?" I asked Slash, who busied himself by playing with the ribbon that I had stuck in my hair.

"You know it, baby."

"Wait, what?" Izzy asked, suddenly realizing what was going to happen. He looked up at me, his hazel eyes wide- although his pupils were tiny.

"Slash is moving in with me," I replied with a shrug.

"Were we going to talk about this?"

"We, as in Slash and I, did talk about it. We, as in you and I, did not. You and I don't live together, and you don't own either of us."

"You still could have said something," he snapped.

"Oh, fuck off," I said, trying to sound playful. I was only going to get more angry as he tried harder to play the parent roll, but luckily the bus was starting to slow and we could make our escape.

"I will not leave it alone! This is a big deal, Carolina!"

"You're right, it is, so stop trying to ruin it!" I yelled, standing up when we finally stopped moving.

"I'm not trying to ruin anything. I just don't know if it's a good idea for you two to live together."

"It's what we want," Slash added.

"That doesn't mean it's right."

"Oh, fuck you, Izzy! Worry about your damn self. We came to the mutual agreement that it's right for us, and that is the end of it."

"I'm glad you think so, but it's not; this is something that needs to be-"

"Why don't you ever bitch at Slash? It's always me that you seem to have an issue with!"

"Because you're my fucking sister! I'm pretty sure you're aware by now that he's not. Stop trying to avoid it!"

"You know what? I'm not going to do this right now," I said, throwing my hands up as Slash grabbed our suitcases. "Worry about your fucking heroin problem, not me," I snarled, taking my bag and climbing off of the bus, leaving Izzy angry and flabbergasted as the doors closed behind us.

"Holy shit," Slash murmured, staring at me with wide eyes. "I didn't think you'd call him out like that!"

"Well, I- it just sort of slipped out like that," replied as my chest began to feel heavy. "Fuck..."

"Well..., let's go home?"

"Yeah," I breathed, looking around for a moment before leading him into the building and up to my- our apartment.

Once we got up to the right floor, I unlocked and kicked the door open, desperately hoping that Tracii and the guys wouldn't be inside, and for once, they weren't. With a sigh of relief, I walked in and dropped my stuff on the floor.

"Wow, this place is nice!" Slash said as he looked around.

I laughed at him as he admired how clean everything was. "It's because no guys live here," I joked. "I think Kelly was coming over and cleaning every now and then when we were gone; he's the only one that would do that for me."

"That's pretty nice of him."

"Yeah... hopefully they don't all show up at two A.M. again- although I think most of them got it when I kicked them out last time."

"I would hope so. I don't want to accidentally kick someone's ass in the middle of the night because they break in."

"They don't really break in," I explained as we dragged our things into the bedroom, "they know where the spare key is. Actually, I should give it to you since you live here now."

"That could be good."

"You know what's better?"

"Hm?"

"Being completely alone with you," I breathed, peacefully wrapping my arms around him.

"Mm, that is better, but you wanna know what tops that?"

"What?"

"Being able to have crazy-awesome, wild sex without anyone tattling to your big brother."

"Hmm... good point," I purred with a giggle as we headed for the bedroom.

°°°°°°

"Where are you going?" I whispered, feeling Slash move beside me at around three in the morning.

"I gotta piss."

I nodded in response, dropping my head on the pillow.

I wasn't sure if I had fallen asleep again, but the apartment was dead silent; Slash wasn't beside me still, making me wonder if it had all been a dream, but when I saw his jacket over the chair in my room, I relaxed... until I heard a loud banging noise.

I shot up instantly, worried that Slash had tripped over something in the dark.

"You okay?" I hissed, squinting in a vain attempt to see through the dark.

"Yeah; just tripped on the rug."

I straightened up a little at the response, and the shuffling that followed.

"S-Slash?"

"What? No!"

"Tracii?"

"Yup, the one and only," he replied, turning on the lamp in my room.

I felt a chill run down my spine. This was going to be trouble if he and Slash got into it.

"What are you doing here, Guns? Remember last time you showed up at this time? I kicked your ass out."

"Yeah... I wanted to talk to you, though."

"Tracii, are you fucking kidding me?" I asked, my eyes bugging out at his stupid little antics. "It's quarter after three, who the hell is dying?!"

"Hey, don't get all snippy, Carolina. I missed you."

I sighed, rubbing my face. "I missed you, too, but this is not the time."

"Right, judging by the guitars and stuff lying around- not to mention the shirt that you're wearing- it looks like you have company," he quipped, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms.

Blankly, I looked at my shirt, realizing that it was one of Slash's.

"And? Like I said, this is not the time, Tracii. If you want to catch up, we can go out for coffee in the morning, but I'm fucking exhausted. Please, just go home."

"It's Slash, isn't it?"

"What?"

"In your apartment."

"Yes," I replied with a heavy sigh. "Say it."

"Say what?"

"Whatever you have to say- unless it can wait until morning," I added through gritted teeth.

"Okay, fine; I don't like you together," he said plainly.

"As we've established. Anything else?"

"A few things, but none I'd really like to share."

"Okay, then go home, and we'll talk tomorrow."

"You know I've always had a thing for you," he continued, ignoring me. "I mean, I've really thought about it; at first, yeah, it was the mutual no-strings-attached sex, but after a couple times, it felt like more. It wasn't just because I missed you. I've felt it for so long, Carolina."

"That's enough, Tracii. Go home."

"Why? Does it make you rethink anything? Throw you off?"

"Yeah, it throws me off to the fact that you're in my bedroom while my boyfriend is in the other room. Let's talk about it tomorrow," I insisted, trying to keep my composure as annoyance picked at my spine.

"Why not now?"

"You're kidding right? We just talked about this- it's three in the fucking morning, Guns, go home!"

"What if I don't want to?"

"I don't give a shit about what you want right now; leave."

"Carolina, just give me-"

"No, I'm done talking to you. Get out," I repeated for what felt like the millionth time. I stood up, making sure that Slash's shirt covered everything before I grabbed Tracii's arm and tried to drag him out.

"I wonder what he would think if he saw this," he mused with a chuckle, barely moving.

"Knock it off, you ass! Are you on something? God."

"Nah, just thinking. What if-"

"Just get out!" I yelled, finally losing my patience.

"Why? do I upset you? You want me to leave so you can-"

"Seriously, Tracii, get the fuck out!" I screamed, my voice hoarse from being so tired. "I want you to leave my apartment!"

"What the hell happened to you?"

"I got sick of you all coming and going as you please in my fucking apartment! I'm done taking people's shit and being guilt tripped for it! Leave before I call the fucking cops."

"Wow... after all the shit we've been through." The corners of his eyes twitched slightly as he saw Slash walk over and stand beside me.

"Tracii, you heard her. It's time for you to go, man," he said softly.

"Right... well, so much for old friends, right? More like so much for not being forgotten," he muttered, turning on his heel. "Maybe I'll see you around someday, Carolina. Who knows."

°°°°°°

Five days went by, and only one other time did anyone from L.A. Guns come visit; I didn't expect to see Kelly, but I was glad he had come. After explaining everything to him and clearing up some of the things that Tracii had told him, he told us that he would talk to the rest of the guys and explain. He was just as annoyed that Tracii was acting up like this.

A while after he left, the phone rang. At first, I assumed that it was Kelly calling to tell me that he forgot something, but soon, I realized that it was my brother.

"Hey... Uh, I'm sorry for freaking out on you the other day," he said, his voice quiet- almost weak sounding. "I don't know what was going on with me."

"Sorry for throwing you under the bus," I replied awkwardly, not sure if I wanted to tell him that it was okay.

"Yeah... how long have you known?" Just by the way that he asked, I had no doubt he was side eyeing everyone in the apartment.

"Around a week, I guess."

"Who told you? I mean, how'd you find out?"

"Tracii mentioned something about it-"

"Of fucking course he did- because drama with everyone else wasn't enough for him."

"Izzy, I had thought you were kind of off for a while, I just didn't realize what it was until he brought it up."

"Oh."

"Yeah... Look, I don't want shit to be weird between us because we're pissed at each other," I explained. "You're my brother, and I love you, even if I think you're a control freak," I half joked.

"Control freak slash junkie," he muttered. "Anyway, I just wanted to call and apologize. I hope you and Slash are happy together, I really do. Love you, Rae."

"Love you, too, Izz."

With a click, the call was over, and I felt less tense now that we had more or less resolved our little fight. Yes, it was nothing major, nor was it a huge development in the way of getting along, but it was better than nothing.

"Was that your brother?" Slash asked, sneaking up behind me and kissing my cheek.

"Yeah."

"What'd he say?"

"He apologized... and said that he wants us to be happy together," I said, smiling widely as he wrapped his arms around me.

"Good, because it's not going to be any other way, baby."

Hey, guys! Sorry this update took so long (or at least I felt like I was slow)! I hope you're all enjoying it, because it's coming to a close!

I was thinking about starting a series of One Shots (Idk why, but typing that out is so weird). Drop me a comment on if you think I should do it, and if I have enough feedback by the next update, I'll do it (and if that's the case, send me a message or leave a comment for what/who you want!).

-H