"This was a huge mistake."

A short, and simple accusation was flown into the air of five young men, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had settled upon them.

The man who had delivered the obvious statement was the tallest of them all and had one foot flat against the side of the doorframe behind him, arms folded purposely across his lean chest, and a pair of murky blue eyes fixed on the peeling wallpaper directly ahead of him.

The other four men, who had very much heard the equal blame, were scattered around the small, damp room but remained in an agitated silence.

One slumped in a rickety chair by the only source of electrical light whilst slowly pressing the pads of his fingers across his extremely pronounced jaw line.

Two others stood by the only window in the room, heads down, and one of them nervously began tapping his foot.

The final guy stood in the dead centre beneath the naked bulb that hung precariously from the ceiling and he too was staring intensely, but at a different corner of the room, and under a dark mass of thick hair that fell over his eyes.

A scoff from the chair soon directed the blame.

"Yeah, you really fucked this one up, Tyler."

The snarky comment, which came from the centre man's left, had immediately turned his head. In fact, Tyler had broken his intense stare a split second before the man with the thick Bostonian accent had even started speaking, like he knew the shit he was about to receive.

"Fuck you, Joe."

Joe retaliated by standing up, and the sharp turn of his shoulder knocked the lamp into a teetering state. He wore a crooked smile that bared a couple of gleaming teeth, but it was far from pleasant.

"Yeah?" Joe only needed to take two paces forward before he was right up in Tyler's headspace. "Last time I checked, we didn't hurt people, let alone knock one out and then take them. Pretty sure those were your fuckin' rules."

Tyler straightened his posture, squaring his chest to give him an extra half inch of height, but he wasn't intimidated by the strong words.

In the poor light, he watched the irritating jut of Joe's chin lift and dark brown eyes wander past the side of his head, a reference to the final corner of the room which none of the five men occupied.

Tyler swallowed harshly which only accentuated his stiffened jaw. He knew exactly what Joe was motioning towards, but he did not flinch at the challenging nature of his partner in crime.

Sensing the rising tension between the two men, one of the remaining three decided to attempt a civil amends.

"Guys, come on. Not here, not now."

It was one of the two by the window, and he also looked over towards the tallest man for some sort of a reassurance sign, but it never came his way.

Then, rather reluctantly, the one who had been tapping his foot spoke up, hoping that something would ease the agitation.

"Joe, you can't just blame Steven for this."

Tyler, or Steven, felt smothered in appreciation and his confidence was boosted when it really didn't need to be. So much so, that a lazy smirk stretched from the left side of his mouth, imagining dark purple bruises and a black eye.

Joe, on the other hand, had to pinch his tongue between his teeth to refrain from calling Joey out because he didn't deserve it. Brad either. Or Tom. And the flicker of mischief he saw in Steven's eyes along with the shadow of his smirk that existed to mock him, just infuriated his patience that had already worn thin.

His fists were clenching beneath the sleeves of his leather jacket but they would never rise and collide. Joe knew that Steven was aware of his lack of physical harm after spitting argumentative flames, and that safety as it were, would only inflate his stupid ego.

"Fuck that, I can and I will." Joe jabbed a strong finger in the gap between Steven's unzipped jacket and pressed into hard bone. He leaned even closer, snarling his words, "The fucking prick has screwed us all over!"

Before Steven had a chance to retaliate, Tom, the watchful man by the door, finally intervened by shoving both his arms between them and nudging them apart.

For some reason, it was always him that ended up in the middle of their squabbling which he also reminded himself was a very dangerous position to be in. They might not hit, but their stares could pierce through solid ice.

"Enough." Tom's voice was strong and firm. "Steven, go."

For a while, no one moved. No one even spoke. It was just Joe and Steven's heavy breathing and angry frowns tormenting one another in a battle for dominance.

Tom kept his arms against both of their chests to retain some distance between them, but he could not prevent Steven from ducking away and shoving Joe's shoulders so hard that he staggered backwards into a wall.

Steven then stormed out, as instructed, until what could only be the sound of the front door opening and slamming shut echoed painfully back through the house.

The unresolved tension in the air quickly became unbearable, and Joey, who had stopped the tapping of his foot, cleared his throat.

"Maybe we should go and-"

"I'll go with you," Tom interrupted, instantly siding with the intentions that could free him from the claustrophobic drama.

Two more pairs of heavy boots hurried and faded out of ear shot, leaving just two out of the five men remaining.

Joe hadn't moved since his stumble and he was still leaning with stinging palms flat against the wall behind him with his knees bent to sustain his weight. He grunted softly, but allowed the grip of a hand under his left elbow to help him stand up straight once again.

"You good?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, Brad," Joe dismissed, brushing off the invisible anger that littered the sleeves of his jacket. "Thanks."

Brad gave an understanding nod and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his friend in the darkness. The knocking of the lamp had eventually cut the dodgy power supply, not that it gave much light in the first place.

"I think we should wake her up," Brad suggested after a while, keeping his voice glumly subdued. "She's been out for ages."

Joe should have acknowledged the consideration, but he was too stuck in his own twisted thoughts that listed all the ways he wanted to kill Steven, but knew he never could, and consequently it made him scowl and resort to pacing.

"Fuckin' Tyler, man..." Joe groused, scuffing his shoes and squeezing his hands that were too fired up to keep still.

Brad did sympathise to an extent, but concluded that the continued string of snappy curses and a complete disregard of his suggestion was the only help he was going to get. So, taking a quiet breath, he walked over to the corner and crouched down.

Letting his vision adjust, he reached out carefully for the young woman's tied wrists and placed two fingers on her pulse point. Despite his own heart pounding a little faster than usual in his ears, he relaxed just a little when he felt a steady beat in the pads of his fingertips.

A calm thump that was a confident sign of life.

"Brad! What the fuck are you-"

He sprung to his feet before Joe could yank him up by the collar of his jacket.

"She's alive," Brad said stiffly, slowly pushing back the aggressive lunge that had almost thrown him off balance.

The tense figure eventually complied by himself.

"Well, I guess that's somethin'," Joe mumbled, stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets. He turned his head away to hide the guilt for making the wrong assumption.

Brad tried to catch the distracted gaze again, and gladly stepped into a more central position in the room.

"But she's prob'ly going to need some painkillers. Strong ones too."

There was a pause of displeasure, but some sort of nod all the same. A subtle agreement that fought against the million other thoughts that raced in Joe's head.

It was the last thing spoken, and the final pairs of boots left the room one after the other because neither of them could take much more of what had been a seriously messed up night.

The door was locked. A silence took its rightful place. And for the first time, the young woman was alone.

<>

A/N

Sooo before I throw you further into the deep end, here's a little explanation of what this fic will entail...

1) This is an alternate universe so I've essentially just taken Steven, Joe, Tom, Brad and Joey (+ others) and written them into a made-up world. That said, there might still be mentions of music.

2) It's set in modern times, 2010s decade I guess (story purposes) but I picture the guys like they did in the late 80s as that's my favourite era of them. Descriptions will correspond to how they looked then.

3) In terms of ages: Steven is the eldest at 31 so the others are all a little younger.

4) Although it is a Steven fic, Joe, Tom, Brad and Joey have significant roles because I frickin' love them all.

5) This is definitely a MATURE story...like seriously. Not sure how many people read the story description but I'll mention it here as well because there is a LOT of swearing, drug usage, and there will be explicit scenes at some point (I'll warn you before the chapter starts too) because apparently when I write I have no filter.

6) It is a SERIOUS slow burn romance so don't get your hopes up of a story where they fall in love within the first five chapters- I've currently pre written around twenty chapters, possibly more as there is an obscene number of words in a couple, and there's just about the beginnings of some sort of attraction. Like I said, serious slow burn but I swear it will be worth it :)

7) Think that wraps it up for now but I'll probably add some more pointers if I think of them.

If you've made it this far, then congratulations for reading my extremely boring authors note- I am sorry, future ones will not all be this long.

But yeah, I really hope you enjoy reading because I am LOVING writing this fic and couldn't wait any longer to publish it. Also, I promise it does get more interesting- I know the intro is a bit meh but it's necessary to set the scene.

Let me know what you think!