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Missus Eat Pavement ⭒ James Hetfield (18+)

Part One

Part Two

Your heartbeat ricochets through your chest and against your ribcage as you take in the unfamiliar setting around you, anxiety caging you in as the barricade surrounding the stage digs into your navel and the shoves against your back almost pull you over it.

Behind you, you can almost hear your friend's call out to you as they're pushed farther back into the crowd and near the pit, but you couldn't be too sure. The bright lights that were once filling the first half of the outside arena, dim to a low and almost translucent yellow as music abruptly begins and quickly ascends into a fast and rhythmic beat. Cheers ring out and reverberate harshly against your eardrums, causing you to wince and almost cover them in shock from the sudden onslaught of sound.

Your hands shake as your eyes are forced to readjust to the low glare coming from the propelling lights that shuffle across the stage, your palms damp from the iron-clad grip you have against the unsteady metal in front of you.

Through your peripheral vision, as you look around in panic as the pressure and weight against your back begins to lift your feet from the ground, you see a head of curly, dirty blonde hair settle into place on stage, not even twenty feet away from you.

Bright blue eyes sweep over the first few rows of screaming fans and an excited smirk begins to adorn his lips, before his eyes widen as you come into view, your face pale with dread as your knee buckles over the barricade and gravity remorselessly plummets you forward.

A yell from the stage bleeds over the loud thrum of music, as your palms fly forward to try to stop the uncomfortable landing on the concrete beneath you, but to no avail. Uneven gravel makes harsh contact with your bare skin, causing red to bubble up and cascade down your fingertips and shins.

Crying out from the sting and the harsh impact, you shut your eyes in pain, and you gasp in a deep breath, oblivious to the sudden halt of music and the silence now weighing down around you.

Your stomach churns as you shakily lift your upper half and lean back to sit on the heels of your shoed feet, wincing as small pieces of gravel dig into your injuries from the movement. Tears spring to your eyes as you look down in shock at the now raw and scuffed skin on your hands and wrists, and you jolt up at the frantic sound of multiple sets of feet hastily making their way over to you, your anxiety accelerating as voices from the crowd behind you begin to pick up once again.

"You're no use now, man. Just like you weren't when she fell. Might as well go back anyway." A mellow voice condescendingly drawls out, causing you to look over and make eye contact with a young man in a no-sleeve, skull printed t-shirt. The annoyed expression on his face ceases as he takes in your tear-stained cheeks. Wincing and letting out a low whistle as he looks down at the matting mess on your legs and lower parts of your arms, he hesitantly offers you a palm and sends you a gentle smile when you slowly accept, his hand wrapping around one of your elbows.

"Do you know who I am?" He asks out over the background noise, letting out a hum of amusement as you shake your head no. "Well, that's alright, babe. My name's Kirk, and I'm gonna take you backstage so someone on our team can help you get all nice and cleaned up. We'll come and check up on you after."

Shaking your head and wincing at the rush that comes along with it, you lean on his shoulder as he guides you into a standing position, uncharacteristically at ease with him beside you. "I don't want to be a bother. I'm sure it just looks worse than it actually is." You murmur, trying to keep your own worry out of your tone. Refusing to look back down at the blood in fear of feeling dizzy once again, you instead glance up at the other members on stage. Your eyes widen, surprise flooding through you as you realize that the show was stopped for your well-being.

A man with a pair of drumsticks squats down in front of his set, his face impassive as he wields his bangs back into a worn-out headband, his eyes hardening as he stares behind you at the security. Another man with wild, curly dark hair that's slightly shaved on both sides, sits on the edge of the stage, his bass resting against his thigh as he tries to quiet down the crowd with his raised hands. He sends you an apologetic grin as the crowd seems to get louder instead. Kirks speaks up before you can assess the rest of the members, catching your attention once again.

"I'd say we've bothered you instead, seeing as to how well you're doing at one of our own concerts." Kirk muses, his sharp teeth shaping into an easy going and charming grin. Wrapping an arm around your waist and mindfully placing one of your own around his shoulders, he lets out a playful huff as he straightens you both up and begins to walk carefully.

Smiling despite the amount of pain you feel, your anxiety begins to slowly ease as you're guided away from the unrelenting crowd, and toward a long hallway with a multitude of doors. Momentarily pausing mid-limp, a chill runs through you as you feel a set of heavy eyes staring at your retreating figure. Looking over your shoulder, you freeze as your eyes make contact with the blonde-haired frontman, his eyes beading into you and watching your every step. The honeyed light that propels itself around the stage, makes its way to him and basks him in the tinged luminescence. His once bright blue eyes, now stare back at you with a darkened look, causing the light reflecting itself in his eyes to look like a star in the night sky. You blink repetitively, as if you were in a daze, before hastily looking away as his face sets into a grimace and he places his attention back on to the crowd.

"Is he mad at me for ruining the show, or something?" You ask wearily, your stomach ridden with nerves as you watch the man tighten his grip on the microphone and open his mouth to begin to yell.

Raising an eyebrow, Kirk looks over to his band member, before smiling cheekily to himself.

"No, that isn't anger, sweetheart. He's worried about you, just doesn't know how to show it," Kirk reassures you. "That's James, by the way. And if you think that reaction is bad, wait until we're done, and I'll tell you all about the time this girl actually ate shit at one of our shows."

⭒

You smile gratefully as the last bandage is wrapped around your upper thigh, the medic on standby lightly tapping your kneecap before standing up.

"Now that's one way of getting some rockstar's attention, huh?" She teases, the crow's feet on the sides of her hazel eyes becoming more apparent as she grins down at you. Blushing in mortification at what happened earlier, you go to place your head down in embarrassment, before pausing as your neck begins to protest.

"Please don't remind me," You groan out, your gauzed palms wrapping around your sides as your stomach begins to flutter. "I don't think I can ever show my face around here again. And I don't even know most of their names. I barely even knew which band I was coming to see before this morning." Eyes glancing at the large sticker on the wall that says METALLICA in a grunge and outstanding font, you try your best to push back the feeling of dread. Of course, you'd embarrass yourself and bust ass in front of one of the biggest bands in the world.

Letting out a placating sound, the elder goes to place a warm hand on your sore shoulder, before turning her head towards the now opening door. Pursing her lips to hide her fondness as the members barge their way in, she silently waves at you before making her way out.

You let out a sigh of relief as Kirk is the first one to make his way through the door's entrance, uncaring as the door slams loudly against the wall and the doorknob wobbles despairingly in its wake.

"She's alive." He croaks out, his terrible impersonation of Frankenstein causing you grin widely and forget about your prior accident. Kirk pushes his sweat-laden hair back from his face and plops down next to you, before grabbing ahold of the nearest half drunken bottle of beer and guzzling it down in one shot. You watch in nonhidden interest as he goes to grab another, your own throat starting to feel heavy as you watch him go at it like a madman.

"Put down the Old E before you need to get your stomach pumped, you crazy bastard." Another member yells out, his accent making him sound slightly drunk himself as he stumbles in, his headband now wrapped around his wrist and his expression more youthful. Your smile turns into a grimace as he faces you and begins to laugh.

"The girl of the hour, Missus Eat Pavement!" He chortles out, his face going playfully serious as Kirk throws an empty beer can in his direction. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm glad you're alright, and James really chewed security a new one. The asshole's were beaming red for the rest of the hour."

Ears perking up from the sound of his name, you peer at the door before slumping back down in your seat. The man and his other band member were still nowhere to be found.

"Lars Ulrich," The heavily accented man announces as he crouches down to haphazardly reach for a beer in the mini fridge. "And the one you seem to have a hard on for and Jason will be back in a little while." Kirk sputters around his bottle as he struggles to swallow his current mouthful, while you shrink into the cushioned sofa and try to make yourself as small as possible without irritating your injuries.

"He just seemed angry is all." You mutter, taking interest in the ceiling as Lars sends you an amused look that blatantly says bullshit. "And you're into that?" He asks you, his tone turning judgmental, before his eyes fill with mirth as footsteps begin to echo in the hallway next to where you're sat.

The pit in your stomach comes back full force as the man who you now knew was James makes his way into the dressing room, his eyes immediately meeting yours as soon as his feet step over the wooden floor's entrance.

"Feelin' better?" He asks you, the cadence in his tone making your gut clench involuntarily. Mentally shaking your head at yourself in disbelief at how you were reacting to just his presence and sound, you physically nod and send him a small smile. "I am, thank you."

Eyes still on you as he makes his way over to one of the chairs across the room, James nods as he catches a beer that's thrown at him. "Why have security if they aren't even going to do their fucking job?" He grits out, his calloused thumb snapping open the can with an audible click. You swallow thickly as you catch the animosity in his tone, while Kirk and Lars send each other a knowing glance.

"Be glad your girls in one piece, at least. Remember the last one that was shoved over? Had to get her first four teeth redone." Lars shivered out, unknowing that his words would make the both of yours cheeks color, though yours were only apparent. James roughly runs a hand down his bearded chin and clears his throat, finally moving his gaze to the condensation running down his alcoholic beverage.

Kirk clicks his tongue and nods reverently, his hand tossed in the air as he closes his eyes in exhaustion. "That's the one," He exclaims, hand blindingly reaching over to lightly smack you on the shoulder. "Better to chafe ass than eat it, am I right?"

"Depends on who's ass it is." Lars cackles, causing the room to erupt in howling laughter. An easy grin makes its way onto your face as Jason tiredly walks his way in.

"Hey! Glad to see you're doing alright." He beams, his heart shaped smile causing your grin to soften. You thank him politely as he passes you a cold beer and sprawls himself out on the carpeted floor. Comfortable silence fills the room, before Jason's head pops up.

"Hey, did you come here with anybody? It's getting late." Eyes widening as your friends come back to mind, you quickly go to stand up, before wincing in place.

James' eyes follow you as you begin to panic, disappointment filling him as he automatically assumes you must have come with a date.

"Can I borrow a phone?" You ask, kicking yourself for forgetting about your friends so easily. Lars nods and walks toward you, his available hand outstretched for you to use as leverage. Carefully grasping onto his with your own gauzed one, you send him a grateful look as he nods toward the hallway.

Kirk slowly opens his eyes and shifts to fully face James as you make your way out of the room. "She didn't say anything about a girlfriend or a boyfriend, and we've all seen the way you've been acting since your eyes landed on her," Kirk rushes out, speaking at a volume he's sure you wouldn't be able to hear coherently. "I suggest you make your move and grow some balls before we leave this pissbucket of a town and you never hear from this girl or see her again."

Jason hums out an agreeance as Lars nods with Kirk's words. "I agree, she's cool. Can't find her balance to save her ass, but at least that'll make her fall for you even quicker."

James shakes his head in disbelief, before laughing wholeheartedly at his longtime best friend's twist of words. "Shut the fuck up," He huffs out amid laughter, before placing his beer down and wiping his hands off on his jeans. Taking a deep breath and brushing his fingertips against his palms in an anxious tick, James hesitantly makes his way over to you.

His heart swells as he watches you laugh without restraint, joyous at the fact that you were still able to find humor after such a traumatizing event.

"I'll be alright, I promise. I've been taken very good care of, everyone has been great," you say into the phone's receiver, your cheeks beginning to redden as James leans against the wall nearest to you and sends you a reassuring smile. "I should go, I'll try to be home soon. Don't worry about me, guys. Buses are going straight through until two, so I've got plenty of time to catch one before it's too late."

James bites back a triumphant grin as he finds his in, and patiently waits as you say your goodbyes. Reaching over to place the phone back into place, you raise an eyebrow at the content look on the handsome man's face. "What?" You ask, your tone inquisitive.

"I can give you a ride home instead. It's no big deal, producer gave it to us to borrow for joyrides in the small towns we tour in. I'm sure you aren't more than twenty minutes away, and it'll be a lot safer." Watching as you bite your lip in worry, James licks his own in response.

"But you were on stage for over an hour, and I'm sure the other guys don't want to be dragged along." You respond unsurely, guilt already weighing you down from keeping the guys up and taking up enough of their time.

"I was actually hoping it would just be the two of us, this time at least. Since we're here for another few more nights." Butterflies create a frenzy in your gut as you watch his expression turn hopeful, his eyes glancing down at yours with an intimate intensity.

"If you're sure." You trail off, before biting your bottom lip in excitement as James' lips spread with a wolfish grin.

"Just follow me."

⭒

"What the hell is this?" You ask in between laughter, causing the singer and guitarist next to you to chuckle as well.

"This, is Bessy. And she's here to give you the ride of your life." He bellows out loudly, causing your cheeks to hurt from the way they spread widely with amusement.

"So, Bessy is also known as The Beast, huh?" You ask, your ribs aching as you're guided towards a black truck with horns attached to the front of the hood. James hums out an answer as he opens up the passenger side door, and hesitantly grazes his large palms against your waist.

"Is it alright if I lift you up a little?" He asks huskily, the scruff of his beard grazing against the sensitive skin underneath your ear. Biting back a gasp and holding off a shiver, you nod in agreement. Your eyes close in temporary bliss as he lifts you up easily and deposits you onto the elevated seat, the callouses etched into his skin dancing across your goosebump-ridden flesh as he lets you go.

James watches, enrapt, as your eyes close momentarily, before opening up a shade darker. He has to take a deep breath and force himself to gently close the door before slowly make his way over to the driver's side.

You carefully run the tips of your fingers over the leather interior of the truck as he situates himself and inserts the key into the ignition. James lets out a sputter of unfiltered laughter as you gasp out in shock from the loud rumble the truck lets out as it turns on.

"Not used to big trucks around here?" He asks you playfully, causing you to look over at him. "Never had a reason to get inside of one until now, I guess." James' breath catches in his chest as his eyes rake over your delicate features, your tone coming out at-ease and tranquil.

"You're doing something to me, doll. Something I'm not entirely used to."

The honesty and bluntness in his voice causes your heart to flutter, and you grip the uninjured skin of your thigh to hold yourself back. "James," You murmur out, your voice coming out strained. "Please, take me home and kiss me goodnight."

Clutching the steering wheel tight with one hand and the other securing itself around the gear shift, he makes you an offer. "Only if I can do it again tomorrow night."

⭒

Strong hands entangle themselves into the tendrils of your hair, holding you in place as you gasp out against flushed skin. Your bitten-red and swollen lips gape open as the gruff of James' beard teasingly makes its way down your neck, and his hot and heavy tongue trails its way down to your collarbones.

Desire thrums through you and your hips raise with the sensation, the material of your skirt stretching as your thighs spread open, your clit beginning to pulsate.

"James." You moan out, before wrapping your hand around his throat delicately, holding him upright as his eyes close in ecstasy and his breath stutters. Carefully sliding off of his lap and being careful not to rub against any of your bandaged cuts and scrapes, you grin enticingly as your eyes take in the love marks you left on his readily available skin.

Pressing your thumb into the red and blotchy hickey that adorns the skin right where his beard ends on his neck, you clench your thighs together tightly at the sound that emanates from the man beside you.

"Thought you only wanted a kiss." You breathe out heavily, your hair a mess and disarrayed on your shoulders.

Opening his eyes blearily and letting out a soft sound of disbelief and desire, James rebuts, his entire expression screaming out disheveled. "Thought you only wanted a ride home." Gentle laughter bubbles up in your throat, and James smiles and reaches over to grasp at your hand. Raising it to his lips and placing a delicate kiss over the gauze wrapped around it, he asks you, "Tomorrow?"

Carefully rearranging your fingertips to graze your pinky against his, you quietly promise and reassure him.

"Tomorrow."

Mister Meet Gravel ⭒ James Hetfield (18+)

Part Two

Part One

"Let me walk you up." James offers once he catches his bearings, his fingers gently disentangling themselves from yours and reaching over to grasp onto his door's latch.

"Don't want the night to end just yet, huh?" You tease, a warmth spreading and curling comfortably in your chest as your eyes follow the movement of the muscles in his forearms- those said muscles repetitively contracting as he shoves the heavy driver's side door wide open.

Stretching out his legs as his booted feet meet with the uneven terrain of rock that is your driveway, James takes in a deep inhalation of the cool night's air before briefly turning around and meeting your eyes.

"If it were up to me, it wouldn't." He admits in a partially despondent tone, his line of vision drifting downward as his palm slides against the venerable metal, his fingers flushing pale as he pushes it shut. Realization of how little time you truly have with James dawns on you abruptly, and the comfortability in your chest quickly begins to feel weighed down. James forces himself to lighten up as he hears you let out a heavy, saddened sigh through the slight gap of the truck's open window.

Footsteps hastily make their way over to your side of the truck before you can get too in your head about it, and your lips involuntarily lift on both sides as your door is haphazardly yanked open with a newfound vigor.

"But let's not think about that, doll," James drawls out, an amused huff of laughter bellowing out of you as he imitates a terrible midwestern accent. "Why, we have all night, and we still have all tomorrow." Carefully shifting your weight over to your least injured side as he offers you a hand, you bite back a sound of shock as his palm instead wraps around your waist and beckons you over to the edge of the seat.

"As if I'd let you try and climb out of Bessy, when you're all hurt and I'm right here." James scoffs out playfully, his free hand gently wrapping around your hip as he lifts you up with ease.

You steadily adjust your legs around his middle and wrap your arms around his shoulders instinctively, a chill running through you as the picking up wind cascades over your bare skin. "Let's get you inside, yeah?" James murmurs against the top of your head, his back bumping against the door to close it, as he turns and clasps his hands together on the top of the backs of your thighs.

Mindfully moving to not roughly brush against the gauze, you shuffle yourself back in his arms and force yourself not to blush as you look at him closely.

"I can still walk, you know. I did it before I got into, 'The Beast." You say, your voice coming out light, the sound fighting to be heard over the natural background sounds of the night and his heavy feet moving you two forward.

"Maybe I just want to hold onto you a little while longer." James responds lowly, his fingertips pressing more firmly into your skin as the top of your driveway begins to ascend into steep steps. Running the tip of your tongue against the bottom of your lip in sudden hunger from his words, you feel him pause in his tracks as his blue eyes follow the moment.

"I can still taste you," You begin, your whole attention rapt on the way his resolve begins to crumble, his careful grasp on your thighs turning into a rough grip instead. "And I know you want to be gentle with me because I'm hurt and because this is new. But I can taste you, and when you aren't touching me, I can still feel your callouses on my skin. I need you to do something."

Eyes slitting in bliss and head lolling at the pinch that comes from his tight, yet careful grip, your lips slowly part as the familiar railing lightly digs into your back. "Look at me." James grunts out, a warm palm coming up to firmly grasp onto your chin and tilt your head upwards.

Fully opening your eyes once again to look into the storm of his, you allow your jaw to go lax and widen as his thumb dances up to brush against your bitten skin. "You think I don't want you?" He asks you, his grip loosening to lower you down to his waist. "Feel me." A gasp rings out into the quiet and secluded air around you two as his jean-clad hips meet with yours, his zipper making rough contact with your slick and almost bare sex. His heavy bulge rubs against your swollen clit in just the right way, causing your stomach to clench with unhidden want and your thighs to tremor. You feel your underwear begin to soak through as you cling to him, your legs beginning to seize.

"I've wanted you since I first saw you. Your bright eyes and those fucking lips. The way you trusted Kirk so easily and accepted him, and the automatic sense to protect you. It took everything in me to not bend you over that seat the second I was given permission to touch you," James tightened his grip around you once more, hoisting you up with his hands greedily grabbing onto each ass cheek with more grip than necessary. "But I'm not going to sleep with you tonight," Letting out a tsk at the whine that buds out into the frenzied air between you, he continues. "You just went through a traumatic event, you can barely walk without limping, and you need to rest. I don't want to fuck this up, so I'm not going to rush with you. That doesn't mean I don't want you. I want you more than you could imagine, so you've just got to trust me with this."

The frustration that you felt quickly wanes off as he brings you into a hunger filled kiss, his tongue curling around yours and his beard biting into your skin. Disbelief at how good a simple action could make you feel fills you as his mouth devours your own, his moans reverberating into you, causing your heart to jump in your chest. Thick spit lines trail down and break apart as he slowly separates himself from you, his eyes open wide with euphoria and his lips a bruising red.

"Okay," You agree shakily, nearly gasping in for air as he licks the remnants of you from the skin his tongue can reach. James forcibly takes in a deep breath and throws his head back, the porch light only a few feet away dancing across his skin and allowing light to beam off of the love marks you left on his skin earlier. Satisfaction runs through you as your dazed eyes run across his skin, the once red blotches now turning into a deep blue and purple. "I'll trust you."

James blinks rapidly as he steadies himself, before making his way up the rest of narrow steps with you in his arms. The cold air comes back full force as he begrudgingly places you down on the front porch of your home, causing you to step closer to him and rest your forehead on and against the bottom of his chest.

"Tomorrow?" You ask out, your lips twisting into a sore smile as James grins to himself, his left hand coming up to temporarily tangle itself in your disheveled hair and hold you in place.

"Tomorrow." He promises.

⭒

James lets out a muted groan as he makes his way back into the dressing room, three pairs of eyes immediately taking notice of the marks on his neck and whistling out.

"I thought I told you to go and get your girl, not go out and get mauled by a bear." Kirk slurs out tiredly, a can of Budweiser now replacing the earlier can of Old E.

"And that's coming from the guy who actually has a biting kink." Jason muses out from the rug, causing a stilt in the commentary, before Lars chokes out a cackle and Kirk turns bright red. James sends his bandmate currently sprawled out on the floor a grateful look, before placing the keys on the nearest table and falling back blindly on the sofa. Letting out an indignant shout as his beer spills onto his hand and down to his elbow, Kirk goes to yell at his friend, before pausing to take in the rare expression of pure relaxation and contentment painted on his face.

Lars glances over to meet Kirk's eyes and grins to himself as he's motioned by a nod to look over at their frontman.

"So, what's got you all blissed out? Mister Meet Gravel finally met his perfect match in Missus Eat Pavement?" Opening up an eye to look over and up at the Dane, James mutters out, "What's with you and all of these weird fucking nicknames?" Lars sends him a bewildered look before standing up in exasperation, as if the curly, dirty blonde-haired man was missing the entire point.

"What do you mean what do I mean? They make complete sense to me. Remember when we got those skateboards, and we smoked too much pot with Cliff and accidentally went down that dead-end road? You had gravel engraved in the bottom of your ripped open shoes and a bruise on your ass the size of Texas for an entire month after." James raises an eyebrow in question, causing his friend to continue his tangent, his voice raising as he tries to get his point across. "My point is, is that it seems like you met your perfect match. Your clumsy partner-to-be, or whatever endearing terms you weird fucks use over here."

"Did someone let him drink Jäger again?" Jason asks blearily, his red-rimmed and dazed eyes becoming apparent as he pushes himself up into a sitting position. Kirk shakes his head adamantly as he reaches over for a bag of discarded and stale chips. "Nope! The staff took away his stash after he drank an entire bottle and refused to stop impersonating Elvis Presley on stage. Remember, at that one strip club on 50th and Lebrea? That didn't even have karaoke."

James bellows out a hysterical laugh as the memory comes to mind vividly, unable to hold it in as Lars quietly sits back down and Jason slowly begins to sing,

"I'll have a blue... Christmas, without you."

"Whatever, fuck you guys." Lars grumbles irritatingly, causing the rest of the inebriated band members to coo.

"It's alright, man. I understand what you meant, and I appreciate it. I feel the same way." James mutters out placatingly in a tired tone, feeling slightly guilty about bringing his closest friend down from his earlier, happier mood.

Perking up at the sound of his agreement, the drummer jumps back up onto his feet. "I knew I was right!" He exclaims, before tossing his headband to the side and grabbing their hotel room key cards. "Let's head out and go crash before they send someone in to look after us." James grunts in protest as he's forced to get back up, but smiles to himself once he remembers the promise he made to you. He'll get to see you again tomorrow.

Grabbing ahold of the bags of luggage they brought with them from the airport to the venue and dragging them behind them in finally caught up exhaustion, they all jump in unison as Lars yells out from behind them in the now deserted hallway.

"And it wasn't Blue Christmas, you assholes. It was I'll Be Home For Christmas!"

"Couldn't tell from how shitty you sounded!" Kirk rebuts, causing Jason's lips to quirk up and rest in an easygoing smile. Slowing down to give Lars time to catch up, James tosses an arm around him and pats him on the head when he finally does.

"You know it's all just jokes, right? We'd never think down about you." James reassures him quietly, making sure Jason and Kirk were out of earshot. Lars nods against his hand and goes to rest his head against his forearm. "Yeah, I know. And bullshit nicknames aside, I hope this works out for you. She seems like a good girl, and she gets along with the rest of the guys. Seems like it's easy for her to make you happy too, haven't seen that in a while."

Taking his hand off of his bandmate's head and letting it rest against his bicep, James follows out the rest of his friends and the held-back staff members and does the same. He hopes.

⭒

You jolt up in excitement as the sound of a familiar rumbling engine makes its way down the road and slows to a stop with a stuttering purr in front of your home. You quietly make your way down the stairs, mindful of your roommates, who were already asleep.

Using the nights sky's residual light to find your jacket and throw it on, your lips split into a wide smile as you see James make his way to your front door through your peripheral vision. Not wanting to make him walk all the way up in the chilling weather for another night in a row, you instead quickly open and lock your door, before closing it behind you and making your way down the steep steps as fast as you can.

"Slow down, baby," James laughs out in a greeting as you almost barrel into him, his arms instinctively wrapping themselves around your shoulders and bringing you into a warm embrace. "What's the rush?"

"Just wanted to get to you sooner. Didn't want you waiting out in the cold." You answer back quietly, peering up at him with a dopey grin as your hands carefully find purchase in the back of his jean's pockets.

James lets out a disbelieving sound as your palms playfully tap a familiar beat on his plush bottom, his eyebrows raising in amused surprise. "Me or my ass?" He asks you, before bending down and placing an indulgent kiss on your awaiting lips. Tilting your head back for better and further access, you teasingly swipe the tip of your tongue against his bottom lip before pulling away.

James furrows his brows and tries to chase your lips with his eyes still closed, but to no avail. "Why can't it be both? I can greet more than one thing at once." James reopens his eyes and his mouth to answer, but halts in place as his eyes gradually adjust and you fully come back into view.

"What's wrong?" You ask, removing your wrapped hands from his pockets and raising them to place them against his chest in worry.

"You're just so damn beautiful," He breathes out, the tone of incredulity in his voice causing you to blush and begin to shy away. "Hey! no one said you could walk away from me, little ass." James calls out, a playful laugh coming from him as you cry out in shock from him picking you up from behind. A wide smile adorns your lips as you grasp onto his clasped hands in front of you, before your eyes close in fright as he begins to make his way down the steep and uneven gravel, in the same position with you in his arms.

"You do realize I'm already injured, right?" You ask, your voice higher than usual, causing his eyes to squint from the force of his smile. "Don't worry, I won't drop you. What did I tell you to do last night?"

Relief hits you as you two reach the end of your driveway and make way onto even concrete, and you turn around once you're released to look up at him before you answer, only to pause in surprise as his face begins to soften as your front comes back into view. "To trust you." You whisper, purposefully keeping your tone soft as you take in the sudden vulnerable look on his face. Boot-laden feet make contact with yours, and large hands envelop the curves adorning your hips, still partially in view through your jacket. You watch as he takes a deep breath and squares up his shoulders.

"I don't really know what the fuck I'm doing here," Before you could question him, he continues, his eyes looking into yours with newfound depth. "I'm not used to taking someone on dates, I can't even remember the last time I spoke to woman while the sun was up if I slept with her the night before," James' shoulders begin to relax as your hands come up to rest against his in comfort. "This is all new to me. And even though I'm not used to it, I want to give it a shot with you. Lars spoke to me last night and really put things in a new perspective. I don't want to make you feel like you're just someone else I want to sleep with, I want you to feel special. You came backstage and were kind to all of the staff, you weren't upset with any of us about the security being negligent, you trusted me enough to take you home. You get along with the rest of my band members and treat us like normal people. As of right now, I've never met anyone like you. And I don't want to, not anymore. What I'm saying is, is that if you'd allow me, I'd like to be yours as much as I would like you to be mine."

Tears spring to your eyes as you take in his words, his thumbs rubbing small, circular motions into your sides as he watches you become emotional.

"For someone who really hasn't done something like this before, you're doing a pretty good damn job," You finally say, your voice trembling as a few budding tears find themselves shelter on your bottom eyelashes. "I wasn't expecting anything from you when I first saw you yesterday. In fact, I didn't think you really cared about me after I fell. Kirk had to reassure me that you weren't good at expressing your feelings, but look at you now," You gently hold onto both of his wrists before lifting them and guiding them toward your oversized pockets, the silver rings standing out more than usual against his red and trembling fingers and palms. "I don't mind that. You've shown me more compassion and empathy within this past day than most people have shown me in the past few years. You make me laugh; you make me feel fucking stupid with all the emotions that overwhelm me whenever I'm around you. And no, I don't know you well. I don't know your triggers or what you've gone through, what you're going through now. But what I can tell you is that I want this, and I want you. And I want these last few days we have together to be as monumental as we can make them, because I don't know when I'll be able to see you again."

Reaching up and placing a palm on each side of his chin, you delicately guide his face down until he's at level with you. "What I do know is that while I have you here with me, I want you, in every single way. And I'm giving you my trust because you earned it last night," Leaning forward to rest your forehead against his, you whisper against his lips and smile to yourself as you feel him shiver at your next words.

"Take care of me tonight."

⭒

Your hair cascades against your sheets as you're gently lied down against them, the once trembling hands you held in comfort, now strong and steady. The unsurmountable amount of want and lust you felt for the man above you still there, but now softer around the edges as you watch him from below. Long strands of curly hair find their way over his shoulders and rest against the sides of his face as he carefully tries to remove your pants.

Lifting your hips to help him remove the forming fabric around your upper thighs, you let out a shiver as he sends you a thankful smile and bends down to place a wet kiss on your navel. Letting out a shaky breath as the slight breeze in the room cools the spit on the small patch of your skin, you watch as he slowly runs his thumb across the now in-view thin fabric of your underwear.

"You can barely even call these things underwear, baby." James muses, before dipping his thumb down to barely graze your clit. Your hips jump up as the sensitivity runs through you and down your legs.

"Please, don't tease me. I couldn't even touch myself last night because of my hands." You plead, your still-clothed thighs squeezing together as he swipes his thumb again.

"Yeah? What did you do then? Wait around all day until I could come back over? Fantasize about me keeping my word and bending you over in the truck, like I said I would?" He asks you, his thumb now pressing down firmly against your clit through the fabric, causing you to bite back a moan in fear of your roommates hearing. "Couldn't even wait for me to take you to my hotel room, wanted me to toss you over my shoulder and take you in your shared house, where anyone can walk in."

A blush makes its way down to your neck as you take in his soft, condescending tone. "That isn't true. Wanted you to take me in a place I know I can come back to once you're gone. Don't want you to leave and not have anything to remember you by."

James' eyes soften and the rough and steady pressure he had against your sex slowly leaves, causing you to quietly whine out. Making his way up to you and placing both of his hands on either side of your head, he leans down and kisses you gently.

"You know that there isn't anywhere else I'd rather be right now, doll. And if you want me to take good care of you here, that's what I'll do. I'll do whatever you need me to do, baby." He reassures you, his knees caging in your sides and making you feel secure.

"I want you to mark me up like I marked you, so I can press into them while you're gone," You start, your lips brushing against his and smiling as his beard tickles your cupid's bow. "I want you to stop treating me so delicately, just because I'm a little scraped up and healing. I want you to taste me in more ways than one, and then I want to taste myself on your own tongue, and then I want you inside of me."

James' eyes darken and he takes in a deep breath, his cock jumping painfully in the confines of his tight jeans. "Whatever you want, baby. I'll give it to you real good," He promises against your skin, before reaching down and grasping onto your wrists and raising them to rest over your head on the sheets. "Just don't touch me until you cum from my tongue."

Before you could even verbalize an answer, he begins trailing rough kisses down your middle. Tongue lapping at the sensitive skin underneath your breasts and leaving a thick stripe of saliva in its wake, he slowly reaches down and begins to remove your pants, hoping to distract you enough so you don't feel any pain. Smiling to himself as he gets past your gauzed skin and down to your ankles, he uses his hands instead of his mouth, the sight of your legs causing his balls to tighten in anticipation.

The calloused palms that you adore so much make their way down your legs as his mouth goes lower and lower, before finding purchase on your hipbone and sucking a mark into the skin right on top of where your thong begins. Gasping out as his teeth snag against your skin in a way you know will leave a mark, you let out a moan as he licks against the now sensitive spot, before making his way down to your now sopping wet sex.

"Don't hold back on me, be a good girl and cum on my tongue." James murmurs out, before swiftly sliding the damp fabric to the side and enveloping the entirety of your cunt with this tongue. Your cries reverberate around the room and bellow out into the hallway, the volume of the sound uncaring of who it might wake as the man between your legs eats you out like he's starving.

Your gauzed palms wrench the sheets off the sides of the bed, your wrists begging to be allowed to raise as James moans at the taste of your slick. Your stomach begins to contract and tighten as his tongue mercilessly prods at your sensitive and swollen clit, his beard roughly nudging against the skin surrounding your convulsing pussy.

"Don't stop, don't stop, don't stop." You beg, your hips raising from the bed to ride his tongue as he slides an index and middle finger into you. Legs clamping around his head to keep him in place, you let out a partially bit back scream and his fingers twist and curl up, hitting your spongey spot and causing you to pulse out a new gush of arousal.

James watches as you lose yourself from his tongue alone, pride running through him as he takes in your taste in bliss. Hips bucking and humping slowly against the bed beneath him for any sense of relief, his own eyes begin to close from stimulation as his tongue prods at your entrance, along with his fingers.

Eyes widening as the heat in your core begins to coil and snap, your hands raise from the bed, before defeatedly falling back down at your sides. "Please, I need to feel you, I can't," You cry out, your sensitivity growing and causing tears to stream down your reddened cheeks. "I need to touch you." James' eyes snap open as he begins to hear your voice break, his fingers and mouth immediately halting all movement as you heave underneath him.

"Give me your hands, baby. It's alright. Feel me." Your eyes close with relief as you're able to interlock your fingers with his, immediately already starting to feel more grounded.

"I can stop if you need me to, angel. We'll only go as far as you can handle." James bites back a grin as you vicariously shake your head no. "I just needed to know that you were here. Please keep going." You plead, and James nods before repositioning himself in between your legs. "Tap me twice on the shoulder if it gets to be too much again, alright? Your pleasure is my pleasure."

James' head slowly descends back down in between your legs and directly to your sex, only breaking eye contact with you once you reiterate his words back to him verbally.

"Good girl." He praises, before taking his time. You allow yourself to relax once again as his nose rubs against your clit and his hand delicately squeezes yours with reassurance. Eyes flickering up to watch as you slowly close yours, James let's out a sigh of relief as you moan out as his tongue laps against your folds and make its way into your entrance, his own cock spurting out precum at the look of euphoria on your facial features.

Tongue dipping in and running along your clenching walls, James' cock pulsates in his jeans in warning as his balls begin to tighten once again, before his hips involuntarily meet with the rough part of your comforter and he shocks himself by cumming in his pants.

"Fuck." James curses out against your pulsating flesh, his tongue making its way out of you and up to roughly latch onto your clit, causing your hips to seize up and your thighs to lock his head into place.

Your mouth gapes open as you feel your release gush onto his tongue and down his chin, the force of your orgasm causing your vision to go white from the intensity.

James gently untangles his fingers from yours and instead brings them down to gently press you back into the bed, before bringing himself up to lie down next to you. "You still here with me, babe?" James asks you, his lips twitching in amusement as you stare up at him with an expression of awe on your face. Biting your bottom lip to stop a disbelieving laugh from bubbling out, you instead hum an affirmation and turn your head to look up at the ceiling.

"I think everyone on this block, and the next one down heard you orgasm." James teases you once you shift over and rest your head against his chest. You quickly go to raise your hand to swat at his chest, before begrudgingly putting them down.

"Wait, did you?" You trail off, the high from your orgasm waning off as guilt soon engulfs it instead. Looking away himself this time and nodding out an affirmation, James mutters out, "Took care of it." You raise an eyebrow before looking down and seeing the dark imprint of semen staining the fabric surrounding the zipper of his jeans.

"That's so fucking hot," You admit as your mood begins to lift, your legs sliding over his clothed lap and your knee teasingly nudging his now half hard cock. James places a palm over your bandaged thighs before looking down at you hesitantly, forcing his hips to not buck up into the pressure. "You up for it?" He asks you, before you silently tilt his chin up and lick into his willing mouth. Moaning at the taste of yourself on his tongue, you slowly disconnect your lips from him and raise an arm to rest your chin against your palm.

"I came from only your tongue, and then I tasted myself on you, so that only leaves one thing." You trail off, your lips lifting into a meaningful grin as realization dawns on the man's face underneath you. Reaching up to grasp onto your waist, you let out a shriek as you're flipped onto your back.

"No use in staying quiet now." James muses out above you, his cock already fully hard again by the sight of the redness of your lips and the marks already starting to make home in your sensitive skin.

"Now, what was the last thing you wanted, baby? Need you to remind me." James teases, his hands reaching down to finally unbuckle his belt and take off his jeans.

"Want you inside of me." You whisper out, your voice quickly losing all sound as he takes his bulge out of his briefs and beckons you to fully lie down.

"Good girl."

Desert Hills Motel ✩ James Hetfield (18+)

for @30-3am ♡

The Tulsan heat beats down on you as you carry your bags toward the small and now overpacked motel's parking lot. Cars pile up and create a combined cacophony of overused horns and shouts, as a tour bus haphazardly pulls in and loudly shudders to an abrupt stop. Sweat trickles down the pulse points on the sides of your neck, causing your expression to set in a grimace as your arms begin to ache from the weight of your toiletries and exertion. Your curiosity gets the best of you as you spot a large crowd of teens and young women around your age, barrel their way into the cramped crowd in front of the already rented rooms.

"Can you believe they're actually here in Oklahoma?" A girl beams, causing the cluster of people around her to relay the same sentiment and start to talk over each other.

"I didn't think they'd be touring so heavily, especially after what happened only a few years ago." You hear someone exclaim as an elbow roughly bumps into yours, causing you to instinctively grip harder onto the ears of the plastic bags in your hands. Uneasiness begins to pulse through you as the chatter surrounding you suddenly turns into a bellowing pit of screams. Your eyes try to erratically search for the number matching the crumpled keycard in your trembling palm over the tall figures in front of you, but to no avail. The numbers were completely out of your line of sight. Hesitantly shouldering your way past one of the men blocking your view, newfound hope begins to bloom in your chest as a small passageway slowly makes itself in the middle of the crowd.

Leaning forward on the tips of your boots, you lift yourself up to take advantage of the few extra inches of height your fmb's give you, before letting out a chattering exhale as you see the sliver of the exit turn into a full-blown path. Raising your arms to allow the bagged items to shuffle themselves from your wrists down to your elbows, you try to make yourself as small as possible as you duck under the unceremonious, shoving hands.

Biting back a wince as a hand nearly makes contact with your sweat laden and rosy cheek, you nearly trip over your feet in haste as you move forward.

"Here they come, here they come!" A voice shouts right next to your left ear, causing you to lose momentum and pause right in the middle of the open area. Letting out a curse as you see a small group of various and differently dressed men steadily make their way through the crowd and near where you stood frozen, you force yourself to trudge forward, before making the choice to unsteadily run forward in between the divided two parts of the hotel, before stopping to finally relax in front of a dilapidated ice box. Momentarily closing your eyes and placing one of your bags onto the ground, you roll your aching wrists to try and relieve some tension as you take in the cold gust of air cascading itself from the machine in front of you. Squeezing your shoulder blades together and shakily inhaling a much-needed breath, you bask in the now muted sounds of the once overstimulating screams and welcome in the hum of the refrigeration unit.

"Feels nice, doesn't it?" An easygoing tone asks you, causing your eyes to snap open and squint up blearily at the man before you, the sun making your eyebrows furrow. Lifting your free hand up to create a makeshift visor to protect you from the unrelenting beams, you feel yourself begin to fluster as a handsome man in a cowboy hat fully comes into view. "Bet you don't get too many cool days around here." He makes sure to maintain eye contact with you as he stands his guitar case on the brick wall next to him. Your eyes widen in realization as you take in his appearance. Dirty blonde hair rests against his broad shoulders and cascades down his strong neck, where a necklaced worn and signed pick lays against a barely covered chest, his light colored and sparse chest hair peeking out from under his stretched-out v neck t-shirt. Tight black jeans encapsulate every divot in his seemingly never-ending long legs, and finally, a black pair of cowboy boots that almost entirely match your own, except for in color and their lack of heel. And although his outfit screamed southern boy, you knew he was anything but. This man's aura screamed he was a star and was meant to be one. Of course, he'd be part of the band everyone was currently losing their minds over.

"You seem like you'd fit right in, attire and all." You drawl out sheepishly, the smile you get back in response pulling you in and withdrawing out the rest of the uneasiness from your body.

"A southern bell, huh? Guess we chose the right hotel after all." James muses, before beckoning his head toward the barely lit neon green cactus sign. Unable to hide your grin, you look to the side to catch your bearings, before meeting his bright blue eyes once again.

"Your type of music not too welcomed around here?" You implore, the tips of your boots nearly caressing his as he places himself closer to the only source of cool air.

"With the way everyone reacted to us settling down in town, you'd think otherwise, doll." Cheeks blazing from the endearing term, you purse your lips, before watching him lick his own in response. "With the way everyone's reacted to y'all settling down, I know your group isn't something we usually see," Bracketing in your plush bottom lip before releasing it slowly, you airily breathe out as the tall man in front of you watches your chest rise and fall, the already charged air around the two of you starting to feel fervid. "You ain't no Fleetwood Mac, especially with the cool looking guy in the Marilyn tee."

"You telling me I couldn't pass as the second cousin of John McVie?" James huffs out, his faux angry expression causing a grin to fully envelop your face.

"Absolutely not. Not even close." You respond through laughter, before bending down to pick up your overfilled bag. James quickly meets you halfway, his hand encircling around your wrist, before delicately gliding his ringed fingers down to yours and removing the bagged items from your grasp.

"Here, let me." He insists. "Which room is yours?"

"We don't even know each other's first names yet and you're already asking me for my room number?" You raise an eyebrow as he struggles for a rebuttal, the slip in his confident disposition making your lips twitch impossibly higher.

"James." He mutters, shaking his head at himself before grinning in disbelief. "What is it?" You ask, confusion painting your features as he laughs instead of answering. "Nothing you need to stress over, bell. Now how about you show me where your room is, before we both pass out from this heat and my bandmates order a search and rescue?"

"Your band! Oh God, do you think they're doing okay?" Head turning to readjust your view toward the crowd only a few handfuls of yards away, your eyes quickly latch onto three other outstanding men in the still growing pit of people. Nearly jumping as a large and calloused hand finds purchase on the low of your back, you're surprisingly quick to begin to relax as James' thumb rubs comforting circles into your now cooling down skin.

"They'll be just fine. We're all attention seeking anyway, comes with the job. Besides, I only ever came over here to see if you were doing alright." Your eyes widen in mortification as you quickly come to terms with the fact that he saw you nearly faceplant and run off only just a few minutes prior.

"Any way we can just pretend like that never happened?" You plead, leaning back into his touch to look up at him and send him a placating and disingenuous smile. James pats his palm against the skin of your natural arch before beaming down at you with a humor-filled, shit eating grin.

"Absolutely not."

✩

Robin's egg blue chipped paint stares back at you as you place the bags on the spinning chair near the entrance of your motel room, the crumpled keycard resting dangerously close on the edge of the clearly pre-used coffee table to your near right.

"She's a beauty, isn't she? I'm pretty sure your room is going to look the exact same, maybe a little bigger." You muse, your lips stuck up in a sore-to-be smile as you glance over at the musician frozen in the doorway.

"I don't know what I was expecting after seeing the vintage sign out front, but this surely wasn't it." James says slowly, his words coming out lazily as his eyes scan the small room in front of him. Flower embroidered bedsheets and blankets stand out on the bed, and a television the size of a toaster lies tilted atop a cracked, screwed in piece of metal plate shoved in the wall.

"You're missing the best part of it all, rockstar," You migrate his attention back to you as you slyly make your way over to the bed, before smacking your hand against the bedpost. "It vibrates. Exactly what you need after the long ride you just had."

"I think those beds vibrate for some other reason entirely, doll." Fingers reaching up to run their way through his facial hair, James hides an amused smile as you lag in place, before your expression turns uncharacteristically cheeky.

"A different type of ride then?" You ask him in a meek tone, watching in amusement as the man in front of you begins to sputter. "I think your roommates must be looking for you." Your eyes fill with mirth as he struggles to catch up with the quick change of subject before you.

Nodding to himself before physically shaking his head to get out of his stupor, James grips the middle of his nape and quickly averts his eyes as you walk your way back over to him. "Yeah, I bet they are."

"Thank you for being so kind to me, James." You whisper out, your short spell of cheekiness wearing off as you stand in front of the epitome of a man in front of you. Chain linked butterflies make their way and rattle through your ribcage as he reaches out to encircle his hand around your wrist once again.

"Thank you for making this town a whole lot more interesting, bell." Lifting your wrist up to his lips, he places a delicate kiss on your blush red fingertips before slowly letting go.

"You forgot one last thing. The best part of it all," Raising an eyebrow as he takes a step back, you watch him with unhidden interest as his eyes brighten with anew light. Digging into his pockets and flashing you three key cards, James sends you a gentle smile before heading on out. "Double sided doors. I'll see you later on, angel." He tosses to you in the humid air, his words nearly sounding muted as your attention quickly shifts to his full backside.

Your stomach tenses with anticipation as you watch him walk away, the awareness of the soreness of your wrists and physical exhaustion long gone while your heart incessantly pounds in your chest. Pushing your weight against the heavy door to fully close it shut and deadbolt it, you knew one thing for sure.

You couldn't wait to see him again, and you had an inkling that he felt the exact same way.

✩

"Why would you want the motel room farthest from the ice box and tour bus?" Lars asks his bandmate as he hesitantly places his weight on the creaking bed underneath him. James pointedly ignores him as he removes his hat to rest it on his knee, causing the unrelenting drummer to continue with his questioning. "Aren't you always the one wanting to hightail it out of towns like this once our location's been leaked? Southern fangirls are a different breed."

"Hell yeah, they are!" Jason agrees, his exclamation ending in a silent cry as the tip of his shoe harshly meets with an oddly bent piece of wood coming from a leg of the bed.

Kirk bites back a chortle as he watches their bassist hop around on one foot, before resting against the wall attached to the cubical sized bathroom. "Dane is right, usually you're always ready to run. What gives? Found a girl worthy enough to not bolt from a shit motel for once?"

"Maybe the eggshell paint and the obnoxiously large welcome signs are growing on me." James rebuts, oddly wanting to keep you to himself and no one else, especially from his occasionally overbearing bandmates and friends.

"It's Robin's egg, man. Everyone knows that." Jason breathes out in indignation once he stops jumping around, the hands he places on his hips being the only telltale sign of him being sarcastic. Rolling his eyes and shuffling back on his elbows to lean against the itchy fabric, James blindly kicks off one of his boots and grins wide as he hears a yelp.

"Fuck off, all of you. Y'all should be glad I'm taking the smallest room; the master is next door anyway. We can all still tear ass once the fans realize which rooms we're actually staying in."

Kirk lets out an audible shutter as he pushes himself off the ribbed wall and over to the double-sided doors. "I lost count of how many grandmas tried to grab my ass within the first five minutes of getting off the bus."

Lars cackles as he recounts the earlier events in his head, his entire upper half vibrating and lifting with the force of his amusement. "Old ladies out here grabbing at your ass like the first item they see on sale on Black Friday."

"Thanks for that mental image." Kirk mutters before unlatching the lock and making his way into the next room. "You brought it up first, man." A slim and long middle finger retreating behind its owner back is his only response to the blatant calling out, causing Lars to grin to himself before grabbing ahold of his duffle bag. Tossing it onto the coffee table and unzipping it open, the Dane reaches in and yanks out an oversized hoodie and jacket.

"See you fuck's later, I think I saw a bar down the road. Gonna go see if one of the roadies can distract the crowd long enough for me to get a Heineken in." Jason perks up at the sound of alcohol, his otherworldly and positive nature making James grin and fully relax back into the uneven springs beneath him. Looking over at the drummer with a pleading look in his eyes, Lars quickly relents and throws the jacket over to their bassist, who excitedly shoves his arms into the worn out sleeves.

"Try not to make headlines again, will you? I still feel guilty just thinking about Indianaoplis to this day. "

His bandmates share a knowing grin before they sling out halfhearted goodbyes over their shoulders and toss the hoodies over their heads, hurriedly make their way outside. James watches as they hastily tighten the drawstrings around their outerwear before slamming the door shut behind them.

The newly alone frontman makes sure their footsteps become inaudible before he sits up and makes eye contact with the door connected to yours. "Don't be such a pussy, it's only been a few hours." He scolds himself, before throwing caution to the wind and making his way over to the door, despite his inner turmoil and worry of coming off as too desperate and strong and reaching out too soon.

Raising an unsteady fist to the wooden door with a slight nervous tremor, James disproportionately knocks with his knuckles before taking a step back and placing his weight on the heels of his socked feet.

Instead of imitating a similar greeting in return, you instead undo the latch on your side and open the door to invite him in, your wide doe eyes staring up at him as he takes in your change of clothing. Heat rushes up to your cheeks as you wait for him to speak, your hands nervously twisting themselves together in front of you. You fight the urge to retreat as his eyes rake down your entire figure, seemingly trying to permanently encase the image of you in his mind. Thick and partially windblown hair pillows itself against your collarbones, the rest of it descending down the beginning of your spine and resting against the end of your sleep dress's straps. Gold silk shifts against your newly showered and softened skin and ends in lace around the middle of your partially naked thighs.

James punches out a deep breath as his eyes trail over and down your exposed and tantalizing skin, his fingers twitching with the urge to press themselves into you.

"I need you to tell me that this is wrong. That we should take our time and talk things out, since I'm sure we're both at least going to be in town for the next few days. Because if you don't, once I get into your room and I get my hands on you, I don't think I'll be able to stop until we're both finished and done for."

You silently prattle in your head about all the things that could possibly go wrong. The fact that he may be gone in the morning if his schedule changes, or the fact that he might just up and leave your room after you fall asleep instead, that this could simply be something temporary for him. That you could just be being used for his own pleasure. But as you watch the yellow tinged light of your bedside table's lamp illuminate the side of his face in the darkening natural light peering its way in through your partially opened blinds, you find yourself to not truly care. You knew deep down that this may be your one and only opportunity to get this close to him, in this very moment. And you were going to take full advantage of that.

"You said the double-sided doors are the best part of this place, right?" You start, the strong and steady tone you begin with quickly turning labored and overwrought as you feel his hungry and starved gaze weigh you down and hold you in place. "How about you take mine into consideration, and then we can make our way on over to yours?"

James stumbles over the jagged doorstep in haste before breaking out in a breathless huff of laughter at your words, his awaiting fingers coming up to lightly tug on the fabric covering your midsection to bring you even closer. Leaning down to rest his forehead against yours, James brings his free hand up to firmly cup it around the back of your neck and murmurs out before enrapturing you in a deep kiss.

"Fuck waiting."

✩

A gasp of laughter bubbles its way through your swollen lips as you're playfully pushed down onto the aged bed beneath you and your legs are yanked forward to rest against the outer edge. "Do you have any idea how I felt when I first saw you?" Rough and calloused hands teasingly raise the almost see through fabric of your dress up your thighs as James kneels in front of you. "A breath of fresh air compared to everyone else trying to run towards us, your fucking legs and those boots."

You shift your weight up to rest against the back of your arms and look down to try to and meet his eyes. A small thrum of a pulsation sensitizes your clit as you watch him slowly spread your thighs apart, a small patch of arousal bleeding through the cotton covering your sex as you watch him bring his face in between your legs.

"Your lips and the way you purse them when you're in a train of thought, makes me want to have you suck on my fingers while I eat you out." He roughs out, before placing a kiss on the inner side of your knee, the juxtaposition of the brash rub of his beard and his lips making you moan out in shock in the nearly quiet room.

The sound reverberates as James licks his lips at the sight of you getting wet, his cock already jumping in the tight confines of his jeans from the sight of you alone. "Your cunt's getting so wet for me already and I haven't even done anything to you yet. You feeling needy yet, doll? Need me to do something for you?"

You nod quickly, your eyes feeling heavy as his thumbs snag themselves against the softness of your inner legs to yank them open wide. A timorous feeling runs through you as the condensed and slowly cooling air blowing out from the AC unit creates goosebumps on your newly exposed skin, and you almost shy away from him as his eyes flick up to yours.

"Look at me, angel," James coos softly, his slightly condescending tone from earlier long gone. You're faced with a comforting smile on his bruising lips once you follow his request. "Good girl. It's just you and me in this room, alright? No one else gets to see you like this, just me. Be here with me and be present, baby. Let's make this last while we can. There's no need to be shy with me when I'm already fully hard in my pants from just kissing you and seeing you laid out for me like this."

You take in a deep breath as James begins to move once again, his mouth replacing his hands, which now climb their way up to your hips to hold them in place. Firm and wet kisses are placed unevenly on your now trembling thighs, your hesitancy now the least of your worries as he sucks a mark into your reddening skin. Back arching up from the mattress as the musician bites into you without any warning, you reach down to fist a handful of his hair in a silent rebuttal, your bitten skin stinging pleasantly.

James moans out against you instead, the vibration being so close to your pussy that it makes you cry out loud, your underwear starting to stick to you as you feel your folds begin to dampen with your arousal.

"Please, James. I need to feel you, want to cum on your tongue." You plead, the throbbing of your cunt becoming borderline painful as he continues to touch and suck and lick anywhere that isn't where you truly needed him. James grins against your skin as you plead and beg, before slowly making his way up to your awaiting sex and placing a teasing kiss to your swollen and clothed clit.

"Is this where you need me, bell? Need me to fuck you with my tongue, have you dripping down my chin as you cum all over me?" You open your mouth to respond, before widening into a gape as his heavy and hot tongue swipes against the cotton, the warmth of his mouth a stark contrast to the coldness of the room. James' eyes nearly close in ecstasy as your essence blankets his tastebuds, his cockhead leaking pathetically through the rough denim.

Using his teeth to move the soaked cotton to the side, James pulses forward to spontaneously caress the tip of his tongue against your opening, while his nose rubs insistently against your bud in tandem. "Oh God!" You scream out, your hips overpowering his hands holding you down and your left leg raising to wrap itself around his shoulder. "I'm sorry." You gasp, before grinding your hips up and fucking his face, bellowing out a chant of his name as his tongue slides into your hole.

Reaching down to grasp onto your right leg and place it onto his other shoulder, James replaces his tongue with an index and middle finger as he raises his head to harshly suck at your clit.

Your thighs begin to seize as you feel his facial hair indent itself into your skin, your thrusts turning wild and uncoordinated as he curls his fingers upward and brushes against your g-spot. "I'm gonna cum, I'm gonna cum." You whimper, tears springing to your eyes as the orgasm building in your groin begins to feel almost overwhelming.

Lifting his head to look up at you, James watches you with intense eyes as his fingers thrust into you relentlessly, his other hand coming down to pinch and rub at your swollen nub. "Cum for me baby, you can do it for me. Such a fucking good girl, making a mess of me." Slick glistens against his beard and runs down his thick neck, his nose soaking wet with your essence and his facial expression completely fucked out and hair disheveled.

James smirks as he feels your walls begin to erratically convulse around his fingers and places a soft kiss to your bruising skin, before fucking them into you at an even faster place. You gasp out an expletive and tremor as he roughly pushes his thumb against your clit and scissors his digits, your sudden release and the force of it causing you to bow and curl around the man pleasuring you. Tears stream down your cheeks while you simultaneously try to catch your breath, slowly beginning to come back to as James carefully lowers your legs and beckons you into his arms.

"You did so well, doll." He tells you as he encircles his arms around your trembling waist, careful not to have you rub against the rough fabric of the sheets covering the bed. "Took care of me so well." You rebut shakily, lifting your head up from his shoulder to begin a slow trail of kisses down his neck.

"You don't have to, baby. I'll be just fine." He tries to reassure you, but to no avail. Leaning back to look him in the eye, you sneakily raise your foot and press your toes into the large bulge almost bursting against the seams of his zipper. James groans out at the dizzying relief the pressure gives him, before his eyes snap open as you abruptly stop.

"Do you have any idea how I felt when I first saw you?" You ask him once you finally stabilize, his lips quirking up at the familiar sounding words despite of the sexual frustration he felt. James raises an eyebrow as you offer him a hand, but takes it, nonetheless. Tugging him on top of you once he's fully stood, James instinctively catches himself on his forearms before he could place all of his weight on you, his large thighs pressing you into the mattress. "I thought you were the most handsome man I've ever seen and met, with a personality to match. So gentlemanlike to walk me back to my room and make sure the room attached to mine would also be yours. With an ass so full, even a girl like me couldn't help but want to grab onto."

You grin victoriously to yourself as you watch a flustered expression grow on his face, before you gently guide him down into a fulfilling kiss. Allowing him to take the lead once you two find a synergistic rhythm, you moan into his wet heat as his tongue runs against the top of your mouth. Spit lines connect the two of you as you break apart, you licking your lips to collect it as your own before you motion for him to pull his shirt over his head. Reaching down to unbuckle his belt and push his jeans and briefs past the swell of his ass, your eyes widen as his hot length smacks against the top of your pubic bone.

"So, you're a big boy in more than one way, huh?" Lips stretching in a wide smile as his cock jumps in response and his face begins to flush even further, you teasingly and blindly run your index finger down his long shaft.

James lets out a resounding moan as you wrap your hand around his girth and stroke upwards, the amount of precum seeping down his length allowing it to be a comfortable slide. Pressing your thumb into his tip and reaching down to cup his balls in a firm grip, you whisper against him as he gasps out your name. "You going to let me make you feel good, help me make you cum inside of me?"

"Yes, baby. Want to push my seed inside of you as deep as it can go, want you to be sore and feel me stretching you out days later." James pants out against you, the veins in his dick pulsating wildly against your palm. Resting your head against the sheets below you and making sure to maintain eye contact, you position his tip to your entrance and raise your hips to slowly thrust his cockhead in. You both sharply inhale in unison, his cock stretching your walls open in a way you thought wasn't even possible.

James clenches his jaw shut, forcing himself not to move as you slowly shift yourself down his overly sensitive shaft. Your lips part in a silent cry as you bottom out, the overwhelmingly full feeling causing tears to swell in your eyes once again. "I swear, I can feel you in my stomach." You whisper out, your shaky exhale turning into a whine as James unintentionally moves forward and brushes against your cervix.

Lifting your legs to wrap them around the sweaty lower part of his back, your walls subconsciously tighten around him as you make yourself more comfortable. James grunts out above you before sliding his hands down to your waist and shifting his weight onto the backs of his thighs. Darkened blue eyes stare down at you with desperation, quietly pleading to move as their owner tenses up his shoulders with physical restraint.

"You can move." You murmur up at him, the tightening coil in your midsection threatening to snap and break apart as you watch his facial expression relax with relief. James' grip strengthens around you as he thrusts forward, his irises blown wide as your walls accommodate to the thick stretch of him and his movement. Gasping out as his thrusts begin to roughen and his ballsack begins to smack against the sensitive skin of your ass, you reach up to encircle your arms around his neck as his hips begin to push you up the bed.

"Just like that, just like that." You plead as the underside of his cock slides against your sponge-like spot, a gush of your slick pulsing out and steadily dripping down onto the ruined sheets beneath you.

"Fucking look at you, taking me so well," James moans out from above, his fingertips pressing bruises into your skin as he lifts your waist up from the bed. "Made for me to fuck into. So soaking wet for me." You flush red and scream out as he propels his dick even further inside of you, the bedpost noisily making contact with the chipping wall from the force of the drive of his hips.

Your thighs tremble around him as he begins to lift you up and down his cock, the sound becoming audible as you fall silent, your orgasm forcing you to quiet down. James curses out as he feels his balls raise and tighten, the orgasm coursing through you causing you to constrict around him. Whining out as you begin to feel overstimulated as he pistons himself into you and against every right spot, you try to shift back in his hold, before crying out as one of his hands slide down and makes contact with your asscheek.

"Don't run from me, baby. Thought you wanted to make me feel good, wanted to help me make you feel nice and sore for days after?" He taunts you, his grip holding you in place once again as he relentlessly fucks you deep into the creaking mattress underneath the two of you. "Take it like a good girl, like I know you know how to be."

You nod vehemently and hold onto him desperately and he has his way with you, despite the fact that you were barely holding on, so fucked out you felt like you couldn't even formulate a single thought or word as he impales you with a rough and irregular pattern. James lifts you up onto his lap as his thrusts begin to become shorter and harsher, his tip seemingly feeling like it was going past your cervix and straight into your uterus. James pants above you and lightly wraps his hand around your throat as your head lolls to the side, forcing you to look up at him with unfocused eyes.

"You're doing so good for me, bell. Just a little while longer, alright? Such a pretty mess, all for me." The praise goes straight to your head as you feel yourself come back down to earth as he sends you a satisfied grin, the sweat beading down his temples from the exertion making its way down his chin and landing on your breasts. You shiver as the cool air makes its way over to the droplets and dries them against your skin, the frigid air causing your nipples to harden and sensitize as they're brushed against James' chest.

"Cum for me," You moan out, swallowing thickly as his hand delicately tightens around your neck, the slight depravation of air making your voice sound breathy. "Making me feel so good, can't you feel it?" You tighten your walls around him with a clench, causing him to let out a whine on top of you, his chin leaning forward to rest against the top of your head as his cock begins to spurt its seed inside of you.

James' hand around your throat shakily slides back to your nape, his fingers twisting themselves in your hair for purchase and holding you in place as he steadily empties himself. You close your eyes in content as you feel his warmth fill you to the brim. Taking in a deep breath to ground himself, James gently untangles himself from you before wrapping his hands around your middle to lift you up.

"Not yet, still want to feel you." You protest weakly, leaning back in his grasp until he gets the hint to allow you to lie back on the soiled sheets and bedding. James nods and bends down to place a placating kiss on your lips before carefully flipping you over, situating you on top of him so your head can rest comfortably on his heaving upper half.

You close your eyes tiredly as you feel his calloused palm slide down your spine in a comforting manner, the rise and fall of his chest and erratic heartbeat almost lulling you to bed, before your eyes snap open at the sound of multiple heavy and drunken pairs of feet stumbling their way into the motel room right next to yours.

James looks over at the wall in horror as he realizes that in his haste to get over to you, he forgot to close and lock the double-sided door. You let out a yelp as he jolts up in a sitting position with you still on top of him, your hands scrambling to hold onto his shoulders as he yanks the sheets from underneath the two of you as a set of dazed eyes peep their way through the opening.

"Oh shit!" Jason yells out as he makes eye contact with you frozen on top of James, your bare breasts hanging out of the yanked down and almost torn sleep dress haphazardly draped around you. "Get the fuck out!" James screams back at him, throwing a pillow and narrowly missing the crown of his head as he quickly tucks the sheet around you.

"What the fuck is going on?" Lars slurs out, before letting out an embarrassingly high sound as his drunken bandmate slides back into the other room and tackles him onto the carpet. "Nothing, do not go in there, man!" James groans and drops his head back on the bed, one of his hands unwrapping from around you to reach up and rub at his eyes.

"I am so fucking sorry." James apologizes, before lifting his head to look at you, perplexed. Uncontrollable giggles pour out of you as you sit up and plop yourself between his legs, your hand clutching onto your stomach as your breath is stolen from you once again. James' lips raise at the joyous sound coming from you, before sitting up himself and wrapping an arm around your shoulder.

"Well, that's one way of meeting the rest of the band." You muse, humor heavy in your tone as you finally re-collect yourself and lean back against his bicep. James grins to himself before wrapping his arm around you and twisting you down back into bed, a laugh of his own filling the room as you let out a shocked squeak.

"Don't worry babe, you still haven't met Kirk yet." He reassures you, before descending down on top of you and kissing away the rest of the laughter that finds its way through your swollen and smiling lips.

Lars gives up underneath Jason as he realizes struggling against him is futile, the bassist easily overpowering him and pinning him down within the first few seconds. The Dane goes to open his mouth to spit out an insult, before freezing in place as a breathy, feminine laugh bleeds through the opening door and into their room.

"Is that a girl?" He asks, his lips spreading and forming into a wide grin as Jason unconvincingly responds with a "No!"

Lars shakes his head and lets out a drunken laugh as Jason rolls off of him and lies down next to him instead. The bassist closes his eyes in tired defeat, a partial amount of his curls landing on his friend's shoulder as Lars stares up at the stained ceiling with hilarity-filled eyes.

"James, you slimy bastard."

Add One More ୨୧ James Hetfield

The screeches of gleeful and partially muted laughter reverberate through your underprepared eardrums as you exit your car, the anxiousness pulsating through you causing your expression to come off as unnecessarily guarded and closed off. Dry California air scuffles its way up to you and caresses your bare calves as you slowly make your way forward, the large estate of the private elementary school in front of you coming off as far more intimidating than you had originally hoped for with each step you take.

You tightly clutch onto the folded files in your slightly trembling grasp, the repetitive sound and rhythm of your heels making loud contact with the uneven terrain of concrete underneath you somehow helps ground you, as you make your way to the top of the walkway. Before you could even test the doorknob or raise your hand to notify the office to the left of you of your presence, the door slams open, and nearly collides with you.

"Sorry, sorry!" A youthful voice shouts out, as a clumsy hand grabs onto your shoulder, immediately halting the process of you beginning to stumble back in shock. A dark and widened pair of brown eyes stare back at you unblinkingly, wild and curly hair hiding half of his face as he waits for your reaction. "In a rush, y'know. Part of the cool uncle duties." You allow a small and hesitant smile to grace your face at his words, and an empathetic feeling rushes through you as the man no more than a few years older than you lets out a sigh of relief and rests his head against the now closed and heavy wooden door.

"Thank you for not spitting on me." He says in a dramatic tone, causing your eyebrows to raise in bewilderment as he lets you go. "And why in the world would I want to do that?" You ask him, feeling incredulous as the man in front of you sarcastically grins in response and lets out a weighted laugh. He wordlessly gestures down to his outfit, causing you to feel even more confused as you obligatorily take in his attire.

"Nice, you like rock music. But that doesn't answer my question." You muse, before nervously glancing through the nearest window to look at the clock. You straighten up as a monotonous warning bell rings out, signifying that you've got less than ten minutes to prepare yourself for your very first day of teaching and your very first class. "My type of clothing doesn't really blend in and mesh well in this part of town, especially with the parents that can afford this type of school. Usually I'd dapper up, but we were in a rush. Her dad and I and the rest of our band just got back from the last leg of our tour, and we all wanted to see her as soon as possible."

You take in his words with all-intent listening ears and full attention, despite the risk of you running late. "Seems to me like you all really care for her, which means a whole lot more to me than what you wear," you state, before reaching over to grab ahold of the other doorknob nearest to you. Your arm and upper back protest as you strain and tense to keep it agape, the stray tendrils of hair falling out of your bun from the wind tickling the nape of your neck as you turn to give him a quick and meaningful glance. "And if anyone gives you slack for how you dress instead of how you are as a person and how involved you are in your friend's child's life, then maybe they shouldn't feel welcome around here instead of you."

You send him a soft smile before taking a deep breath and moving forward, wincing as the door shuts harshly behind you due to a rough gust of wind, the sound culminating the attention of everyone in the office with a resounding whack! Multiple pairs of eyes focus in on you at once, causing the already uncomfortable long sleeve you're wearing to begin to feel even more suffocating. You go to open your mouth and say a greeting, before pausing as an indignant huff filters throughout the room instead.

"You cannot just come in here minutes before the homeroom bell, especially when you already missed the welcoming assembly yesterday." You hear an elderly woman scold, causing you to turn around to find the source of the harsh tone. The awkward smile you had resting on your face quickly turns into a frown as you take in the clearly displeased child in front of you, their expression filled with distaste and their right leg beginning to bounce off the ground with unhidden agitation and impatience. You instinctively move forward before you could give yourself the chance and the time to second guess it, making your way into the large gap between the two and kneeling before the younger. Bright blue eyes stare up at you as you place your weight onto the tips of your heels and make way into her line of vision, the lace on the bottom of your skirt raising itself up to rest against the tops of your now reddened kneecaps.

"Well, if that isn't the prettiest bow I've ever seen," you start, making sure to maintain eye contact with her as you raise a hand to tap it against the top of your head. "I usually wear one of my own, but I didn't think it'd go so well with the lack of pants and this super long blouse." The distasted look on the blonde's face slowly melts into mild interest as she keeps her gaze on you, before finally letting out a drawn-out breath and reaching down to grab ahold of her multicolored and embellished school bag. You tune in with slight relief as you watch the uneasy expression on her face slowly turn into a look of determination, as she searches through the now jumbled contents of her bag.

The older woman behind you lets out an exhausted exhalation, and you slowly begin to relax your body as you hear her start to make her descent away.

"Here," the young girl offers, her hand shyly holding out an identical looking accessory, the new and improved attitude behind her action much softer and more welcoming than before. You widen your eyes in an obvious dramatization, and you grin to yourself as she lets out an animated giggle, before twisting around to face the front desk and placing your hands on your legs to stabilize your balance.

"Would you be so kind to do the honors?" You ask in a faux serious voice, helpfully tilting your head back as you hear a small shuffle behind you. An amused hum follows the sound of movement, and you feel accomplished and proud as the bow is placed crookedly in your mane. You tilt your head side to side to make sure it's secure, and reassuringly nod to the receptionist as she sends you a hesitant and inquisitive look from behind a pile of unfinished paperwork.

"Thank you so much, princess!" You cheerfully gush out, turning back to face her with a genuine smile adorning your lips. Your chest tightens as you watch her eyes fill up with newfound happiness at the nickname, her uneven and endearing smile making you feel warm. "Eden." She announces, the ends of her hair smacking against the middle of her back as she kicks herself off of the chair and onto the carpeted floor with unconcealed vigor.

"Eden." You mimic back softly, reaching down to gently squeeze her hand in a comforting manner before fully standing back up once again. You glance out the window once you hand over your identification and grin as your eyes latch onto another familiar looking pair.

The young man from before sends you a grateful and beaming smile, before pointing down to Eden and giving you a thumbs up as he begins to walk backwards in an attempt of the moon walk. Eden lets out an amused chortle at his antics, before whispering out a still fairly loud farewell. "G'bye, Uncle Kirk!"

You make sure to repeat the name back to yourself quietly as you're handed a directory and the official bell begins to ring.

"Hey!" You look down as Eden comes over to stand beside you, her insistent fist finding purchase on your crumpled skirt as she tugs at it for your attention. The young girl seems to freeze in place as she tries to find the words to show her gratitude. Finally, she lets go and sends you a heartwarming smile, her hands gripping onto her backpack's straps with an excited haste. You continue to look down in her doe eyes as she seems to find her words, and you send her an amused look as she opens her mouth to speak intentionally slow. Instead of a proper full-length sentence, she instead playfully just says, "Thanks for everything."

"Don't even mention it, kiddo. And thanks for the new sick bow. Maybe it'll even give me some actual street cred and my fist graders might show me some real respect." Eden lets out a sound filled with mirth as she follows you out of the main office and into the now packed and frenzied hallway.

"Yeah, maybe. See you later, miss!" She yells out, the now loosening bow scrambling against the neckline of her oversized vest as she runs forward to her friends, her hands thrown up in the air, one waving back at you fervently. You watch her filter into the crowd, before turning around and carefully following the directions messily written on the top of the map in your hands, on a bright and highlighted sticky note. Looking up as the children in front of you giggle and smile and hug each other, the anxiety you felt earlier on your way on in becomes easily forgotten and long gone.

If the children are truly as happy as they seem and are as half as decent and sweet as Eden is, then you think you'll end up being just fine.

˚

Dozens of feet excitedly pitter out of the classroom as the last bell of the day rings with finality. You groan out as you lie back on the hardwood floor beneath you, refusing to acknowledge the learning numbers blocks digging in the base of your spine. You hear a chuckle come from the doorway, causing you to twist your neck to the side and pop open a bleary eye.

"Still bouncing around with all that new teacher energy, I see." The woman you saw earlier from across the hall muses as she makes her way inside of the messy room, her feet expertly avoiding the toys on the ground without even having to look down. You let out an exhausted sound before slowly inching your way back up into a sitting position, your sore back from bending down all day cracking out loud in a painful protest. "I am the pinnacle of health and vitality, and I love my job." You deadpan, a laugh rumbling out of the two of you as you watch her catch onto the obvious, fake monotonous tone with matching energy and amusement.

"I think the only thing that makes the first day of teaching tolerable is the parent-teacher conference at the end of the day," she starts, her heavily ringed fingers reaching down to haphazardly toss the small and surrounding toys into the nearest bucket. You smile at her gratefully before standing up to do the same, and within minutes, the floor begins to look brand new. "The amount of fine, single rich men that send their children to this overpriced castle should be illegal."

You shake your head in humor-filled disbelief as she fans herself, before briefly leaning against you as another round of laughter runs through her trembling upper body.

"Anyone catch your eye yet?" You ask as you make your way around the classroom, your fingertips neatly rearranging the name cards on each of the assigned desks. "James Hetfield, man is all legs and fine and a half. Has a crazy daughter that likes to speak her mind and run about, but that doesn't deter me," you hum halfheartedly as you only half listen, your hands grabbing onto your files and unworn jacket over your already clean desk. "Her name is Eden, chaotic little thing. Runs around the entire school like it's her own home." The fellow teacher scoffs out, her voice still lighthearted but her expression showing a small bout of hostility and irritation. A fierce and unrelenting amount of annoyance runs through you as the younger girl's smiling face paints itself behind your eyelids, the strange protectiveness that pulses through you shocks you at the fact that you feel so strongly for a little girl you barely even know.

"Children are supposed to be excitable and energetic, that's how you know they come from a happy home." You defend, making sure to keep your tone neutral as you turn off the lights and allow her to walk out of the classroom first. She lets out a sound of acknowledgment as she walks past you but doesn't verbally answer you or care to elaborate. You let out a muted sigh as you follow her down the now secluded and empty hallways. Awkwardness begins to surround the two of you as you travel in silence, before a sudden and loud cheer echoes its way down the corridor as the auditorium's doors are pushed wide open.

"This way." She announces, her flat covered feet obnoxiously smacking against the linoleum as she quickens up her already hurried strides. You let out a puff of exalted air as you stop to take a break, your chest nearly heaving as you finally get to and enter the overly lit room. Multiple lines of cushioned chairs greet you and snugly fit around your hips as you make your way through the overcrowded pit of teachers and students and parents, your eyes widening as you lose the teacher from earlier in the crowd.

"Shit." You whisper out, your fingers wrapping around the cuffs of your long sleeves as your eyes frantically search for any familiar looking faces. Relief floods through you in a heavy wave as your eyes pick up a wild mane of curly hair in your peripheral vision, and you make your way over to Kirk on autopilot, your sweaty palms cloying against the irritating silk of your shirt. "Kirk, right?" You ask, your voice coming out as soft and anxious ridden as his head snaps your way at the sound of his name. Kirk's eyes light up as he recognizes you, and you sigh out as he gently yanks you forward and toward a much quieter and less crowded part of the room.

"Good to see you! You look about ten seconds away from shitting yourself." He greets, his tone welcoming but borderline teasing. You send him an exasperated smile as you take in his new outfit. "And you look like a brand new man! Trying to fit into the overbearing stereotypes around here, huh?" Kirk grins, welcoming in the much-deserved snark with open arms, before turning around to lightly push two other men forward. "These two hot messes are Lars and Jason, drummer and bassist of our very new and upcoming band," The man introduced as Lars sarcastically rolls his eyes before greeting you with a sly grin and a raised cup. Jason gives you a heartwarming smile and an excited wave, before bending down and going on to talk animatedly with a just as invested looking little boy. "Our frontman is around here somewhere, probably getting swarmed by a bunch of middle-aged married women, with more artificial estrogen packed up inside of them than an obgyn's office." A rough petal of laughter bursts from in between your lips at the unexpected jab, and you flush as unknown and judgmental eyes dance their way over to you and spectate.

Before you could fret over it, a small bound of energy collides into you, causing you to let out a punched-out breath as Eden grins up at you. "Miss, you're here!" An unfightable smile makes its way onto your face as you feel her jump against you in excitement, the crown of her head barely brushing above your bellybutton and one of flapping hands smacking against your inner elbow. "Hi there," you coo down at her, your hands instinctually coming up to flatten and rearrange her now messy and windblown hair. "Been having fun, haven't you?" You ask, mirth filling your tone as she nods against your palms. You pause in place as a throat clears itself near you, and your breath catches in your chest as you look up and lock eyes with a clearly handsome and attractive man making his way over to the two of you.

"Daddy!" Eden all but screams out as she looks over at her father, who is too busy staring at you. Deep ocean blue eyes catapult themselves into your own as you stare up at the frontman in front of you, your eyes becoming heavy and lidded as he looks into yours with enormous expression. James begrudgingly breaks the eye contact as his daughter calls out for him once again, and a smile creeps on his face as he takes in her content and happy body language and attitude. "Hi, my little bug!" He exclaims, laughter ringing out from the both of them as he lunges forward and brings her into a joyous hug. You place your now hanging hands on the top of your stomach as you gulp in a deep breath of much needed air, your heart pounding in your chest as you watch the two of them lovingly greet each other with butterflies raging in your middle.

"This is the teacher I told you about earlier," Kirk says once James has Eden cuddled up in his arms, said daughter with her head resting on his broad shoulder and a dopey grin encapsulating her entire face. "Calmed the little terror down faster than I've ever even seen you do it." James' eyes flicker over to yours once again, and you exhale shakily as his gaze slowly takes in the entirety of you and your figure.

"We even match with bows now, daddy." Eden says against his brown and fur-lined jacket, her voice now lilted and tinged with slowly creeping up exhaustion. You shyly smile before absentmindedly reaching up to touch the accessory with unsteady fingertips, trying terribly hard to fight back the blush trying to break out on your already heating up cheeks.

"Looks beautiful." James responds, the timbre in his voice causing a shiver to caress itself down your spine, and you have to look away from the duo to catch your bearings. You send Kirk a halfhearted glare as he beams back at you with a knowing and shit eating grin. Lars raises an eyebrow at your look of fluster, before returning his attention back to the woman hovering close next to him.

Before anyone else could speak up, a loud static-filled sound blares out from a nearby speaker, causing you to flinch and for Eden to jolt up and let out a shocked cry. James lets out a curse and glares toward the apologetic looking principal holding a microphone, who then ushers everyone to sit down as the lights begin to lessen and dim. You purse your lips as you look around in worry, you quickly noticing that all of the chairs surrounding you were currently filled. Before you could back away and find a seat elsewhere, James suddenly stands up and beckons for you to come over. He sends you a gentle smile and shakes his head as he takes in your hesitant expression, shifting his now relaxed and once again nearly sleeping daughter on his hip as he lowers himself to sit on the ground near your feet.

"I can't let you sit on the ground, especially with Eden in your arms." You protest quietly, leaning downward as you watch her eyes fully close. "I'm not letting you do anything, doll. I'm simply volunteering." James rebuts, the teasing grin on his lips causing you to bite your own to hide a smile from the spontaneous term of endearment, and his eyes follow the movement before jumping back up to yours. The air seems to dense and thicken as you two continue to look at each other, and you begin to feel overwhelmed as a variety of want and need and interest paints itself of James' face as he stares up at you in the now barely lit room. His body warmth purges against you with how close he is, and you have to stop yourself from jolting as Jason faces him and starts up a brand-new conversation, the bassist unknown of the tension in between the two of you and what he just broke.

James sends you a barely concealed wink before resting back against the front of your legs and turning his head to join in on the quiet conversation with Jason, who's sat next to him with a hand comfortingly rubbing small circles into his niece's relaxed back.

You try to focus in on what the principal is droning on about, but the effort turns futile as your legs begin to vibrate from the father's answering laughter and your eyes keep compulsively checking up on the now sleeping young girl, who's quickly beginning to grow on you, her father and his bandmates included. Smiling tiredly at the thought, you fight back a yawn as you feel James place some of his weight on the tops of your knees, the strangely comforting addition and gesture making the urge to close your eyes too strong to resist as time goes on.

˚

A large and loud collection of relieved sighs echo out around the room and land beside you in a cacophony of noise, causing you to open your eyes and slowly readjust to your surroundings. You wince as the light in the auditorium begins to brighten once again, and you furrow your eyebrows as you realize you're unable to use and move your legs to fully sit back up. Looking down, a smile begins to grow on your lips as you take in the sight before you. James' head lies and rests back on your kneecaps, his lips partially open as he steadily breathes in and out, with his left arm and hand wrapped protectively around Eden, who's still asleep on his shoulder and chest.

You shift over to try and nudge Kirk to share the view with him of the father and daughter duo but have to end up holding in a laugh instead, as soon as you see him sprawled out and deeply asleep in the seat next to you. Lars sends you a gentle smile as he makes eye contact with you, before nodding down at your lower half.

"It's been a long week for all of us, especially James. Damn near tried kicking his own ass when he wasn't able to be the one to drop her off on her first day." He whispers, his accent soothing in the low tone and his eyes softening as he watches his bandmate and close friend sleep. You look down at the man's face resting against you and feel sympathy as you take in the slight bags underneath his eyes, fighting back the urge to run your fingers through his long hair sprawled out against your hips and thighs.

You hold in a gasp as you feel his fingertips twitch against your ankle, his right hand seemingly wrapped around your limb in a subconscious embrace the entire time the both of you had drifted off and slept.

"I probably shouldn't tell you this, and I'll most definitely blame this on the vodka I snuck in here about three hours ago, but," your eyes widen in shock as the drummer grins at you tipsily, before shrugging carelessly and continuing. "They've had a rough last couple of years, with the band blowing up and us having to leave intermittently to go on tour states away and overseas. They both get attached real easily, and Eed is getting to that age where she's starting to question why people stop showing up at their doorstep. I know you're just a teacher at her school, and not even specifically her own, but if you're going to just hang around for a little while and then end up leaving in the end, I recommend you do it now. She's already lost a mother figure, and she doesn't need the other one to be fully gone off after another woman leaves again either."

You try to blink away the sting enveloping in your eyes as Lars' tone of voice becomes more weighted and serious, the drastic change in conversation and topic making you feel uncomfortable and on edge. "Where is this coming from? I don't understand." You trail off, the lighthearted feeling in your chest now gone as your hands reach up to wrap around your forearms in much needed self-comfort.

"I'm not saying this with any ill intention. I think it's great that you've been able to bond with the kid so quickly and easily, and I genuinely like you. But you're new, and you're the youngest teacher who's been accepted to teach here in the past few years we've been visiting. Getting too close to a student so fast and having their father be so attracted to you on the jump isn't the smartest and best thing for you to get yourself involved in. And it won't be easy either, so if this isn't what you're prepared to sign up for, it's your time to leave."

"I don't think that's your place to say, man." Jason adds in from below, his face set in a grimace as he looks up and sees the carefully placed neutral look on your face. You take in a deep inhalation and send them both a fictious smile, before gently tapping the father on his back to wake him up.

James sits up straight as you come into view, and confusion immediately sets in as he sees the downtrodden and uncharacteristic expression on your face. "What's going on?" He asks you, looking down at Eden and letting out a relieved breath as soon as his eyes land on her still sleeping form. "Excuse me." You whisper out, before hastily standing up and trying to make your way through the crowd.

Lars lets out a scoff as he watches your retreating figure disappear in the pit of people, ignoring the feeling of his heart dropping in his chest as his eyes catch sight of your hiccupping and rising and falling shoulders. "Figures." He grits out, hiding his dismay and disappointment behind his raised cup as he finishes the rest of its contents. Kirk groans as he stretches out his tense joints, his eyes immediately darting to your now empty and cold chair. "Where'd she go?" He asks innocently, his question going unanswered as James' sight zeroes in on his abnormally quiet and fidgety bandmate.

"What the hell did you do?" James asks the drummer, now wide awake and glaring at his guilty looking, long time best friend. Jason reaches forward to carefully detach his niece from his friend's shoulders, and places her in his arms instead. Kirk perks up as the bassist cocks his head to the side, insinuating for them to move and make some distance from their other bandmates. "Lars said some shit to the new teacher that he shouldn't have. It was way too soon." Jason explains, saving the man beside him the wasted breath of asking what was going on again.

Kirk sends Lars an exasperated look, the drummer catching it and looking down at his feet as James berates him from only a handful of feet away. Letting out a sigh and leaning against the tiled wall behind him, Kirk sighs out and glances at your empty seat once again.

"What else is new."

˚

James lets his shoulders slump down in automatic reassurance at the sight of you alone, the relief hitting him full swing as he finds you outside and not already running for the hills.

"He didn't have the right to say all of that to you." James says in greeting, making sure to maintain a few feet of distance in between the two of you as he watches you tense up and only partially glance his way. "He's just looking out for you, I get that. The harshness of his tone is what got to me, is all." you breathe out through a forced, shuttering laugh. The frontman's eyes widen as he takes in your tear tracked and stained cheeks.

"He saw me break down after Eden's mom left, and he's been overprotective of me ever since." You shake your head and send him a small smile, before lifting yourself up to sit on the freezing cold brick wall behind you. "You don't have to explain yourself to me, James. You don't owe me anything." James fights back a shudder as he hears you say him name for the first time, the calming and stabilizing tone giving him enough bravery to step forward and closer to you.

"I do owe you, a few things, actually. This morning I was stuck in a meeting, almost close to tearing my own hair out while talking about the next album release and feeling like absolute shit at having to beg my clearly exhausted bandmate to take my daughter to school, because I couldn't. The very same bandmate of mine who feels like he's always being judged when he comes over to this side of town. So, while I'm stressed out and pacing around and hoping to God that my daughter makes it on time to her first day of the new school year, I get a call from one of my best friend's and immediately start to feel better."

You listen to him vehemently, unable to hold his intense eye contact as he stops only a few inches away from you. James has to physically stop himself back from reaching out and holding onto you and pleading for you to look up at him.

"Kirk tells me that he meets an amazing girl, pretty close to us in age range. And not only does she make him feel welcomed and understood within the first few minutes of him meeting and speaking to her, but she's also able to easily calm down my clearly distraught and upset daughter, who just wants to stay at home and spend some time with her irresponsible dad."

You let out an airy gasp as he places his left hand on top of yours and interlaces your fingers together. You look up in his eyes and remain that way until he begins to speak again, and even after that.

"And then I make my way over here once classes are done. And I'm stressed out and running all around the school looking for my little girl, who I just so happen to find in your arms and looking up at you like you just stole the sun and handed it to her on a silver platter. I haven't seen Eden look so relaxed and content with anyone who isn't part of the band or an immediate family member. And then I see the way you look at her, all unassuming and caring and understanding. So, when Lars said I'm attracted to you, he wasn't wrong with that. I think you're beautiful, but not just in the physical sense. I think you're light, and I think you're the positivity that the both of us may just need."

James moves forward until his chest is pressed against yours, and you blink back tears as you stare into his honest eyes. You take in a deep breath before you begin to speak, your heart pounding just from the close proximity.

"I think you're a pretty good dad," You start, letting out a wet laugh as James' eyebrows furrow at your words. "Let me finish. I think you're too hard on yourself, and I think if I went up and asked anyone who knows or knew you, they'd immediately agree. Your eyes lit up as soon as you saw Eden, who then met with you halfway with so much enthusiasm and glee. If you were an absent or poor parent, she wouldn't have reacted that way towards you. I've been around enough bad parents to know that, at the very least. You care so much about her education and her being on time for her first day of school, that you sent Kirk over to take her, even though you knew that you would feel guilty after by just having him drop her off." You place a light fingertip on the bottom of his chin as he looks back at you with wide, encapsulating eyes. You hold back a smile as the stubble of his facial hair tickles the tip of your finger.

"I think you need to give yourself some more credit. Because you barely know me, and yet you're standing out in the middle of the freezing cold with me in the pitch black, making sure that I'm okay." James grins at you softly and shakes his head to ground himself and to remind himself that this moment is real, before reaching up to encircle his large and calloused hand around your wrist. He presses a warm and reassuring kiss on your fingertip and watches intently as a bright flush makes its way up to the apples of your cheeks.

"I'm not sure where pursuing this is going to take me, but I hope it takes me somewhere with you. From the moment I heard about you, I was interested. But from the moment I saw you, I was completely fucked," you laugh loudly at the vulgarity of his words, causing James' smile to increase tenfold and his dimpled cheeks to become sore from the stretch. "So, if you would allow me, I'd like to kiss the ever-living shit out of you, and then get my daughter and go get us some dinner."

"You're going to take your daughter out to dinner and leave me here alone? A table for two?" You tease, letting out a shocked inhalation as he loops his fingers inside of your skirt's belt notches to yank you forward.

"Add one more." James murmurs, before grabbing onto your waist and leaning forward to attach his smile to yours. Warmth fills you as the hands gripping your waist slide around your middle and envelop you into a tight hug, your lips parting as his tongue sneakily peeks out to taste the bare skin of your bottom lip. James slides his tongue against yours and groans at the taste of you, before letting out a guttural moan against your mouth as you intertwine your fingers in the strands of his slightly curled hair and yank. You smirk against him before slowly leaning back, feeling triumphant as you take in the drunken and swept away look on his face.

"So, where are you taking us to dinner?" You breathe out cheekily, watching with humor-filled eyes as the man in front of you has to visibly collect himself. "Wherever you want and whatever you want, just so long as I can experience that again."

You bite your bottom lip and grin widely at him, glancing away from James as the opening of the main doors momentarily steals your attention. Jason makes his way out first, his expression turning hopeful as he takes in the happy looks on your faces, Eden slowly coming back to in his arms and letting out a quiet yawn against his jacket. Kirk comes out next and hot on his tail, his face lifting as he looks in between the two of you, before suddenly turning smug. "I knew leaving the two of them alone would be a good idea." He announces into the cold and frigid air, his adorable and crooked smile a contrasting brightness in the night's dark.

"And none of this would have even happened if it wasn't for me and my inability to keep my fucking mouth shut," Lars nearly shouts, looking over at you with an apologetic and small smile as the door behind him slams shut. "Sorry about that, by the way." You wave a hand at him and gently guide him out of the way as other attendees tiredly make their way out, and you hold back a laugh as the teacher from earlier gapes at the position you two relax in.

"See you on Monday!" You say to her as a farewell, quiet and unmanageable laughter jostling you to the core as you watch her nearly stumble as she shakes her head, before walking forward with a disbelieving grin on her lips.

Eden beams at you once you come into her line of view, after she fully raises her head and looks around. She hurriedly taps on Jason's shoulder to be let down, nearly running over to the two of you before her feet are able to fully hit the ground. You lift her up to sit her on the brick wall beside you and quickly place her hands in the large pocket of your coat nearest to her. "Warm enough?" You ask her, a seemingly permanent contentment filling you to the brim as she smiles up at you and nods enthusiastically.

The other men all quickly say their goodbyes in order of who they're closest to and turn to run towards the SUV they made their way over in, while you encircle your arms around the younger as the three of you hastily make your way over to your car. You quietly thank James by placing a kiss on his cheek as he takes Eden from your arms and guides her into the back seat. You smile widely as the man before you turns bright red, before hopping into the driver's sides seat as the wind begins to pick up.

"So, where are you taking us to dinner?" James mimics you from earlier, causing you to let out a huff of laughter as you turn the temperature dials to the right to blast the heat. You look in the rearview mirror and smile to yourself as you watch Eden strap herself in and make herself comfortable. You lean over to place a meaningful kiss on James' lips as a response once you're sure the younger isn't looking and find complete and utter fulfillment in the look of bliss on your handsome man's face.

Wherever the two of you will and may be, just add one more.

After Afterparty ࿐ James Hetfield (18+)

Laughter bellows out of your boyfriend as you tipsily stumble forward and toward your shared hotel room for the night in haste, your right hand clumsily digging inside of your dress's hidden pocket for the key card, as alcohol laced lips lazily make their way to your neck. The sounds of the other band members and their friends and lovers never ending partying and celebrating only a few feet away, seem to dissolve and disappear as soon as James presses himself flush against your back, the comforting smell of his natural musk and whiskey emanating off of him becoming the only thing you can truly focus on as you now absentmindedly continue to search.

A flush makes its way up to your cheeks and down your chest as you successfully locate the card, and your eyes almost flutter shut as large hands come up to securely wrap themselves around your middle. A calloused and rough hand presses itself into your stomach, and you fully relax against the comforting and welcomed, added weight.

"Any reason why you're rushing us into the room we have all night, when the party's still going on with the rest of our friends?" James asks you, amused, his bottom lip distractingly caressing the sensitive skin right underneath your left earlobe. You let out a teasingly quiet hum instead of verbally answering, and grin to yourself as you feel him exhale a hearty huff of a breath against the nape of your neck in retaliation. Before he could ask any more questions, you quickly find your bearings and slide the key into its receiver and push the door open, your breath hitching in your chest as you take in the shocked silence coming from behind you.

"I was thinking," you begin, licking your lips nervously as you feel James' arms tighten around you to bring you in impossibly closer, as if he was reminding himself that you're still there and with him. "That if you can't come home with me just yet, then I'll bring a little bit of home to you."

Your eyes drift over the room and a content smile lifts your lips as you take in the handful of framed photos and memorabilia you sneakily brought with you; the jacket James lent to you on your first date strewn across the loveseat near the dresser and standing out against the all-white theme of the room. The set of matching gold bands of promise rings resting on the bedside table, mimicking the time when James surprised you the morning of your two-year anniversary. The stapled together concert tickets of your favorite band, in memory of the night he first told you he loved you and promised you forever. The scuffed up and discolored set of keys belonging to your first shared apartment, standing up proudly against the photo of you two in your now current and co-owned dream house.

You tilt your head up to press a comforting kiss against the scruff of facial hair on his chin and gently untangle his hands from you as you take a step further into the room, airy laughter filtering through your lips as you're instantly tugged back into his personal space. James rests his head on top of yours and lowers his hands down to stroke his palms against the soft skin of the insides of your wrists.

"This is amazing." James whispers, his eyes watering as he stares at the photo your friends took of the two of you on your first date together. You turn yourself around to face him and coo as you watch a stray tear slide down his beautiful, acne scarred and dimpled cheek. You lift yourself to the tips of your toes and raise a hand to use your thumb to gently brush it away, before delicately grasping onto his chin and guiding him down to your height and line of view. James looks down at you adoringly as you send him a soft smile, his own lips lifting up from the sight of yours alone.

You take in the look of genuine exhaustion on his face, the alcohol and your presence being calming enough for him to fully wind down after the three-hour concert and afterparty, and you silently tilt your head toward the bathroom. The few drinks coursing themselves through you make you feel abnormally bold and confident, and you loosely pluck at your boyfriend's sweat clad shirt.

"Take a shower with me?" You ask, your dress beginning to feel heavy and too over the top as the room's door firmly shuts and locks itself behind the two of you. James nods against your hold and lowers his head down to give you a whiskey flavored and passionate, thankful kiss, his practiced fingers instinctively reaching behind you to unclasp the seam on your dress and pull the zipper down with finesse.

"Anywhere you want to go, I'm coming with you." He responds, answers, promises. You carefully step out of the dress once James bends down to collect it, and you tug his shirt over his head as he guides you backwards, his hands reaching down to help you unbuckle his belt, as yours are unsteady. Your eyes darken as you stare down at his now bare skin, the happy trail of dirty blonde hair on his lower stomach becoming fully exposed as he pulls his boxers down. Your eyes quickly zero in on his biceps contracting from the movement, and you bring your bottom lip into your mouth, imagining yours as his. Heat begins to coil and tighten in your groin, and you feel a small surge of a pulsation make its way down to your clit.

James sucks in a deep breath once he straightens up and absorbs in the sight of you. Nipples hardening from the cool air and hair askew from the earlier wind and dancing, your doe eyes wide and pupils dilated, with a beautiful flush taking over the upper half of your body. James feels his cock begin to harden and fill, and he lets out a moan filled with pleasure just by looking at you. He quickly kicks his underwear to the side and reaches an arm out to touch you, craving the contact of your skin. Your eyelids flutter once his thick and long fingers entangle themselves into the stray baby hairs lying on the nape of your neck, and your upper half leans forward to arch into his hold right away.

"Are you still too drunk?" He asks you, worry filling his tone, even in his highly aroused state. You hastily shake your head no and rest your lower spine on the tiled wall behind you, the coldness of it making you jolt in shock and helping you sober up. Gasping as your hardened buds brush against your boyfriend's firm and muscled chest, you suddenly decide you were now wide awake and completely clearheaded, and ready to take whatever he was willing to give you.

James closes his eyes with a grunt as he feels your stomach press against his aching and pulsating dick as you purposefully brush up against him, and his fingers tighten in your mane, causing you to gasp out in the quiet bathroom and squeeze your legs shut.

"Please, I want you." You plead, your eyes blearily looking up into his as he holds you in place, his own eyes heady and weighed down with pure, adulterated lust.

"Yeah? Where do you want me, baby?" James asks you huskily, using his grip in your hair to guide you toward the see through and ceiling high, glass walls and doors of the shower. You place your hands on the door in front of you and breathe shakily against it as he removes his grip from your hair and kneels down next to your backside. Your breath fogs the glass as you feel his teeth teasingly tug your cotton underwear down your now trembling thighs, and your hips jump as he places a peck on the backs of each of your knees.

"I want you everywhere, want to feel you even after I leave." You whisper, your heart unevenly pounding in your chest as his hands dance on your skin as he stands back up. James places a gentle kiss on your shoulder and guides you back up straight, before turning you around and lifting you up. You both let out harsh pants as his cockhead brushes against your clit from the movement, and he dazedly nods, his head swimming as your legs wrap around his waist and bring his hips even closer to yours.

You encircle your arms around his broad shoulders and use the hold as leverage as you carefully lift yourself up, a moaning tearing itself through your chest as his shaft slides in between your slick and swollen folds. James lets out a curse and unwraps an arm from around you to slam one of the shower's doors open.

"Don't make me wait," you murmur against his lips shakily, your arousal beginning to bead and drip onto the tiled floor as your boyfriend hastily carries you into the compartment.

You don't even flinch as your back makes contact with the freezing cold wall, or when the water cascades down the two of you, a handful of degrees too low. Ravenous hands run their way down the both of your bodies, and the only sounds that emanate through the entire enclosed space of the hotel room are pants, whispered pleads of names, and thick droplets of water running themselves down heated and sumptuous skin.

James licks into your mouth like a starving man, craving your taste and your touch, just like you with his. You cry out his name and beg for him to touch you as his hand teasingly makes its way down your front, only stopping centimeters away from your throbbing sex each time your hips buck into his touch. Tears sting your eyes and merge into the water pouring over the two of you, and James finally relents once he sees the desperation painting itself all over your features, your begging and tears making his ballsack throb and raise with gut wrenching pleasure.

And who the hell was he to ever tell you no?

࿐

You grip onto James' soaked locks as he surges his tongue inside of your entrance, two fingers already knuckle deep inside of you and curving up to dig into your sponge-like and pleasure filled spot with ease. Your legs spasm around his shoulders and you cry out shakily as he relentlessly fucks you with his fingers and tongue, his cock hot and heavy on the shower's floor and weeping precum.

James moans against you and grins almost sadistically to himself as you scream his name, your third orgasm ripping its way out of you and causing your groin to tighten with overstimulation, your releases being back-to-back and with no breaks in between.

"Please," you sob out, your legs seizing against his scratch covered back and your arms falling limp to your sides. "No more."

James slowly removes himself from you once he laps up the entirety of your arousal and licks you clean, and you torridly blush once he comes into view. Your cum is matted in his facial hair and his expression is smug, yet also fucked out and disheveled. His hair is soaked and fully curled, matted to his forehead and cheeks and causing his usually blue eyes to look almost obsidian. You wince as he removes your legs from his shoulders, and annoyance runs through you as he lets out a huff filled with amusement, his eyes staring down at your twitching and oversensitive cunt.

Your swollen and hickey bruised pussy pulses out another beading of arousal as you take in his still hungry expression, and you shakily make your way onto your knees, ignoring his new surprised and worried looks. You guide your perplexed boyfriend onto his back, before straddling him and reaching down to enclose your hand around his red and leaking dick. James moans and pants out harshly as you roughly squeeze his shaft and trace the fingertip of your thumb alongside the pulsating vein underneath his tip.

You watch in satisfaction as his mouth falls open into a perfect O as you bring his length up to your entrance and insert his tip into your tight heat, and you smoothly make your way down until your reddened asscheeks meet his trembling hips to the hilt. James stares up at you with wide and dazed eyes, seemingly unable to speak, and your smirk to yourself, feeling just as he had earlier.

"Where do you need me, baby?" You mockingly ask him, before steadily squatting down on top of him and riding him for all he's worth. You cry out in tandem as his satisfactory length hits all of your right spots, making sure to fully ride him so that every time your hips meet his, your clit rubs against his toned and heaving stomach. James stutters for breath underneath you, the now freezing cold water doing nothing to help the heat emanating from his body as you ride him until he's incoherent, his hips being held down by your hands and making him only something you can use for your own pleasure. James' eye shut at the thought, the thought making him gush precum and add even more slick to your already soaked, velvet-like walls. Your hips smack down onto his with tenacity, the sound echoing off of the walls and almost louder than the duet of the sounds of your guys' moans. You twist your hips and tremble mid-thrust, as his tip punches right against your cervix.

Mouth gaping open, you repeat the movement and sob out James' name as you orgasm once again, your vision flashing white and your pussy walls constricting against your boyfriend's dick in a death grip. James wraps his shaking arms around your shuddering figure and thrusts his hips up to meet yours, grunting as your walls accommodate and welcome him in, no matter how sensitive.

You can only hold onto his shoulders as he uses you for his own pleasure, your nails digging into his skin as he pounds and fucks into with reckless abandon. You look down into his eyes and nearly gasp as you find him looking back up at you.

"I love you, doll." He murmurs to you, the sentiment almost being drowned out by the sound of the water spurting itself out of the showerhead just a few feet away from you. You couldn't help but laugh at the inconvenient timing of his words, and he soon chuckles after you begin, his ending in a grunt as he finishes inside of you and pumps you full of his seed. Your pussy instinctively clenches around him to keep him close, not wanting to lose a single drop of his warm release.

You sigh out in relief and fully sit back down once you hear his bottom half make contact with the wet floor underneath the two of you.

"I love you too." You grin out, feeling high as you slump down against his chest and try to catch your breath. James places a delicate kiss to the crown of your head, before sliding a hand down to tap at your sore asscheek.

"Time to get up." He announces, causing your eyes to widen and for you to immediately shake your head. "James, I don't think I can walk after that."

Your boyfriend raises an eyebrow, biting back a cheeky grin and using his feet to slide you both up into a sitting position, the cool wall being a welcoming contrast to his now sore and burning back. "Shouldn't have ridden me stupid, then."

"Shouldn't have eaten me out until I nearly cried." You rebut, the building and broad smiles on your faces turning into shared, warm laughter, and you lean up to place a kiss on his bruising lips.

"I missed you," You whisper, the warm atmosphere turning soft as you peer up at him, your heart feeling full and joyous as you pick up on the devotion and love beaming from his eyes. James rubs soothing circles into your back and brings you up until your chest to chest and face to face with him. "I hope you liked my surprise."

"Sweetheart, I love anything that comes from you. And I promise to love anything and everything else that comes from you for the rest of our lives." You blink back tears, opening your mouth to say something sweet back, but pause as you feel him begin to harden inside of you once again. You look at him in disbelief and let out a giggle as he shrugs back at you with an innocent expression on his face.

"Sentimental shit gets your hard, huh?" You tease, letting out a squeal as he flips you over onto your stomach, and you place your hands on the fogged up and condensation covered shower glass wall as he situates himself on top of you in a mounting position.

"No, just you." You rest your head on your stretched out arm and shake your head in amusement, before crying out and curling your toes as he reaches that deep spot inside of you with his very first thrust, this time, with your mouth gaping open in a perfect O.

You two take full advantage of the hotel room, especially every inch of the bathroom, for the entirety of the rest of the night. And maybe for some of the morning, too.

Backseat Paradise ☼ James Hetfield (18+)

The press of your boyfriend's steel studded rings feels cool against your cloying and clothed back and waist as his wide palms beckon you even closer to him, the heels of your bare feet beginning to lift off of the scalding hot pavement beneath you as he leans back against his car. Blue, mischievous filled eyes peer down at you as you try to glare up at him, an affectionate smile taking over your expression as you're insistently molded up against him. Your oversized jean jacket falls down your shoulders during James' playful movements, leaving you in only your bikini top and denim skirt as he pushes it further down your forearms and tugs it off from around your wrists. Before you can protest and go to bend down to retrieve it, a gentle and sweet kiss is pressed to your lifted lips and a calloused hand comes up to grip the nape of your neck in a firm caress and hold.

"Remind me why you can't come over to mine again?" James asks you, his voice coming out muffled as he teasingly runs his cheeky grin up and down your sun kissed jawline. You purse your lips and bite back a groan as his thumb grazes a sensitive patch of skin, your eyelids nearly fluttering shut as one of his canines latches itself onto the side of your neck and delicately presses itself into the welcoming and overheated flesh of it. You raise a hand to grasp onto one of his wrists as his mouth fully descends down and onto your clavicle, the firm grip on your neck coming in handy as he tilts your head to the side for better and easier access.

The background sounds of the melody coming from James' car's radio and your mutual friends partying in the yard only a few meters behind you become white noise, as a hickey is sucked into the skin surrounding your collarbone and the hand around your waist begins to dip lower.

"Owed our friends a little get together, to make up for all the times I kept bailing on them to spend time with you." You try to tease, your tone of voice ending in a whine as he fully leans back and sits on the driver's sides rolled-down window space, his mouth detaching from your now bruising skin with an audible pop as he does so. James bares you a wolfish grin as you try to compose yourself, your chest unsteadily rising and falling as arousal pools in your gut from just the simple teasing of his mouth alone.

"I don't think our friends would mind very much if I took you away by now," James tuts, his hand lightly patting the plump arch of your ass as he momentarily takes his eyes off of you. You follow his line of sight and breathe out a huff of laughter as you find half of your guys' friends fully inebriated, the other half of them following close behind and stumbling instead of dancing. James' lips inadvertently quirk up at the sound that pillows out of you, the grip on your neck loosening to trail down and caress the bottom half of your spine instead. "So, what do you say? Come home with me."

You glance over at him and playfully squint your eyes as he fixes his expression to look innocent, your heart restlessly pacing in your chest as you catch and digest the intended change from his earlier words. "You play dirty, Hetfield." You muse, scoffing and shoving at his shoulders as he continues to play ignorant and meek. You let up once he pinches at the dimpled skin of your back and let out a squeal as he steadies his hand on the base of your spine and fully lifts you off the ground. Dread temporarily fills you as he leans down to grab at your jacket with just one hand keeping you upright and on him, you nearly turning into the position of beginning a cartwheel and James cackling out a laugh as you tightly grip onto the chest of his own denim.

James haphazardly tosses your jacket into the window closest to the back seat, before placing your feet on top of his and walking you over that way to the passenger's side. You loosen your grip on his jacket once you two make it over safely, and you end up watching delightfully as a blush brightly blazes your boyfriend's cheeks after you give him a grateful kiss, once he opens the door for you and lifts you up once again to slide you in. "Such a gentleman." You mirthfully praise, fully taking advantage of the temporary upper hand you know you'll lose as soon as you two make it home, or at least past the doorway.

James sends the few friends of yours coherent enough to say goodbye to the two of you a wave, before hastily opening his own door and making his way into the driver's sides seat. You stretch your arm out over the long one-seater of the front half of the car to tug the damp and sweat laden collar of his jacket off and away from his neck, grazing your thumb against the exposed skin as he sends you a grateful smile and tries to place the key into the ignition. You silently raise an eyebrow as you watch his hand slightly stammer and tremor in place, before successfully finding the insert. You go to ask him if he's alright, before pausing and widening your eyes as they travel down and find purchase on the obvious and painful looking erection, pressing down and against the zipper of his skintight and constricting jeans.

Self-gratification overflows though you as you realize that he's as on edge as you are, your lower limbs tensing up and closing shut as his cologne and natural scent permeates and surrounds you once he closes his own door and begins to shift gears. A warm and calloused palm engulfs your tanned left leg to slide you over and closer to him, your boyfriend grinning to himself as you gasp out loud and your legs subconsciously and automatically open at his touch. You narrow your eyes and then you grin to yourself, before sliding one of your own hands over and onto his thigh and gripping the meat closest to his groin, a perverse and fulfilled grin overtaking your features as he jumps in his seat and begins to fidget, his foot almost narrowly missing the accelerator as your fingertips lightly tap themselves against his oversensitive and pulsating ballsack.

You send him an innocent smile as he glares over your way, before carefully starting to drive forward. His glare saying, wait until we get home, and your smile responding with, two can play that game.

☼

Your raise your free hand to wipe at the sweat collecting itself on the precipice of your right eyebrow, fighting back your own annoyance at the upcoming holiday traffic you two are currently stuck in. "Looks like we aren't getting back to your place as soon as we had hoped for." You lightly say in the now quiet and tense silence impeding itself in the car, nudging your shoulder against your downtrodden boyfriend's as his fingers whiten with his tight hold around the steering wheel.

"The only reason I came out today was so that I could come pick you up and get to spend the night with you, before the rest of the band and I have to pack up and travel across state for another venue tomorrow afternoon." James grits out harshly, his head reeling back to rest against the headrest behind him with a thud, eyes absentmindedly looking forward as the line of cars in front of the two of you continuously refuses to move. Guilt begins to weigh you down and you slightly curl into yourself for comfort, the movement catching the attention of your boyfriend and causing him to wrap an arm around your bare shoulders as soon as he catches sight of you in his peripheral vision.

"This isn't your fault, babe. The concerts got pushed forward a week in advance because of the weather and the quick selling of the tickets, and you didn't even know I had to leave so early until now," James frets over you as you rapidly try to blink back tears of frustration, only feeling slight relief once you lean into his touch rather than backing away or out of it. "I'm not upset with you at all. I'm just feeling like shit because I have to leave again so soon, and I've barely even been at home or with you these past few months, and that's where I want to be."

You entangle your fingers in his and sigh out a watery exhale, resting your head against his bicep and sending him a wilted smile as he looks down at you, filled with worry. You go to reassure him that you're alright, before halting as your eyes catch an empty and isolated parking spot on the outskirts of the side of the road.

"Pull over." You breathe out, using your joined hands to point over to the parking spot that's underneath a handful of yellow-orange leaved trees. James furrows his eyebrows in confusion but decidedly agrees with you, and somehow manages to find enough space to maneuver his way around the overabundant number of cars surrounding his own, and haphazardly makes his way into the spot you had just pointed out.

"Why exactly did we get out of the traffic we were nearly already halfway through?" James asks you, his frustration at himself and the situation now long gone, with amusement now filling the entirety of his tone as he takes in your newfound excitement. "Look around." You simply say, causing him to scrunch his nose and twist the key in the ignition to turn off the engine. James squints his eyes but can't see much through the overgrown out and slumped tree branches collecting themselves around the roof of the car. Their lived in limbs rest themselves just inches above the top of the car and hide the windows from any outside eyes and onlookers, only short and beautiful colored beams of light from the fourth of July set ups on lampposts making their way through the protective leaves of the trees.

"Baby, I know I always say I love your imagination, but this might be a little too much." A laugh titters its way from in between your lips, and James watches you incredulously as you hike your skirt up and climb your way to the backseat. You rest your arms near his still outstretched one and nod your head towards the clock still operating on the top of his car's dashboard, your feet on the seat behind you unintentionally kicking your jacket to the floor.

"It's 10:15 pm right now, which means that if we get back into the shit show we call traffic, we won't be back home until close to 12:30am. Which means that we'll both be too tired to have some fun, and we'll both end up blue balled and pissed off once you get on the bus with the rest of the guy's tomorrow afternoon," your heart swells as you watch James bellow out laughter from your words, that giving you enough confidence to keep on going. "So how about instead of that, we put this old can of a car to use, see how far forward this front seat can go, have some fun of our own, then head on home and take a shower together, get some well needed rest, then have an amazing breakfast together, and pack up the rest of the shit you forgot to before you came all the way out here to pick me up?"

You arch an eyebrow upward and rest your head on the collection of your hands in front of you while James watches you with absolute stars in his eyes, before seemingly unfreezing and damn near lunging himself at you and over the front seat.

You let out a shocked bout of laughter as he almost lands on top of you and simultaneously flips you both over all at once. James brushes away the stray hairs that cascade themselves down in the intimate air you two share as you comfortably straddle his waist and lower your upper half toward him.

"Goddamn, do I love you." He breathes out, his declaration taking all of the breath out of your lungs, just like it did the very first time he ever said it to you. You reach back and untie the loops of your bikini top, letting out a wild gasp as James' mouth immediately latches itself onto one of your nipples.

"Show me." You moan, your hips grinding steady, yet erratic circles against his still hard and leaking cock. James grins against your perked areola and watches as your mouth gapes open as he pinches your other erect nipple with his free thumb and forefinger. Gladly, he thinks. He'll show you. With pleasure.

☼

James watches you hungrily as you ride his heavily ringed fingers, your pleasure almost feeling like his own as he feels the ridges of the inside of your velvet-like cunt suck and dance their way down his curling and soaked three digits. Your hips buck each time you make your way down to his last knuckles, the coolness of the silver of his rings making your clit sting and pearl in the most delicious way.

You let out a resounding cry as your boyfriend beneath you slowly extracts his fingers from inside of you, before fucking them back into you with renewed fervor and brushing along your sponge-like spot, each and every single time. "Am I showing you yet, baby?" James taunts, his cockhead weeping and creating a dark stain against the zipper of his jeans as he twists his wrist and holds you in place as you shake on top of him. You nod instead of verbally answering him, afraid your voice will crack if you speak out loud.

James tsks in disappointment, before removing his fingers altogether and placing your bare sex on the rough fabric of his pants. You let out a wince as your pussy walls tighten from the sensation, a bead of your arousal already bleeding and adding onto his mess as soon as you two make contact.

"I already have you nonverbal, and I'm not even inside of you yet." James playfully teases you, a small grin making its way onto your face despite the fact that you were cheated out of an orgasm. "Please." You whisper, wincing at the sound of the harshness of your own voice, the multitude of screams and moans bellowed out of you already temporarily damaging your voice box.

"Don't worry, baby. I'll take care of you," your boyfriend croons in a placating tone, one hand reaching up to delicately wrap it around your throat and the other reaching down to unbuckle his belt and unbutton his jeans. "I always do."

You lick your lips as you feel his erection jump against your already swollen and sensitive clit, and you quietly shake your head and gently brush his hands away. "Want to take care of you this time, baby. Want to give you something to remember while you're on the road." James raises and eyebrow and grins widely, the laughter he felt bubbling up from the sound of your broken voice dying down in his chest as you reach down to grip him through the fabric.

Satisfaction floods your gut as you watch your boyfriend grit his teeth underneath you, the cockiness and self-assuredness quickly deteriorating into want and need as you grip him with one hand and unbutton his jeans with the other. "Going to make you feel so good, baby. I promise." You whimper, your mouth salivating as his appreciative length finally comes into view, your tongue finding purchase on the back of your teeth as your hand can barely fit around his entire girth. James lets out a painful sounding curse as he watches you reach down to your own sex and use your own slick to coat and lube his erection, his balls tightening and raising from just the sight alone.

The audible sound of your slick moving in your palm as it connects and spreads in between your fingers makes you blush in the near darkness, a light blue hue of a star bleeding its way through the leaves and making your expression barely visible in the small confines of the car.

James mentally grips onto every single expression and crease that makes its way on your face as you bring his cock to your soaked entrance and slowly make your way down his sizable length. James brings his free hand up to rub slow circles in the base of your spine as you have to take a break halfway through, nothing but love and praise falling from in between his gaping lips as he watches your pussy slowly swallow him whole, an in synch and harmonious sigh ringing out and becoming a cacophony with your matching moans as you eventually bring yourself up on your feet and press your upper half against his.

"You're doing so well for me, always such a good fucking girl." He whispers and pants, moans into your hair, his hand sliding around to your other hip to give you leverage as you milk him dry with each riding motion you make. You tremble every time you bottom out, his cockhead breaching past your pleasure spot and feeling like it was trying to make its way into your womb to breed you. His zipper scratches against the soft skin on the underside of your ass, almost mimicking the sensation of his nails raking themselves into the skin of your hips as he hoists you up and down on his lap.

Warmth grows and tethers in your groin as sweat accumulates and then cries its way down your arched spine, your hands gripping onto your boyfriend's shoulders as your legs and thighs begin to weaken and burn. "Need you." Is the only thing you have to whisper, before James has you carefully placed underneath him, with each leg of yours on each of his shoulder blades.

James grunts as your walls suck him in and soak his entire shaft and public bone with slick, the car heady with the scent of sex and want and longing as he deliberately thrusts himself inside of you. "Think you can fuck me some type of special way and I won't forget about you while I'm out on the road?" He asks you, the hand not holding him up and tangled in your hair on the seat below the two of you reaching down to harshly rub at your clit. "I'll think of you anyway, all the fucking time. I couldn't even try to think about another woman, you've ruined me." You let out a pleasured scream as you reach your first orgasm, your walls spasming so tightly around James that he has to stop mid thrust to collect himself, his hand on your clit rushing down to make a fist around his throbbing ballsack to stop himself from cumming. James takes in a deep breath and shakily curses out loud, before finding his momentum once again and fucking himself back into you.

"I think about you and finger myself before I fall asleep to the sound of your voice coming from the other side of the phone, when you're out of town and on tour. You've ruined me too." You confess weakly and nearly incoherently, the entire bottom half of your body seizing as he folds you in half and fucks into you blindly, his balls smacking against your backside and creating long, string-like lines with your arousal. "You're trying to kill me." James moans out like a plea, his chest feeling like it's going to give out with how much he's feeling all at once, the love he feels for you, and the death grip you've currently got around the entirety of the shaft of his dick.

Your laugh ends in a gasp as he bottoms out and jack hammers repeatedly against your g-spot, your mouth gaping wide open and a silent scream bellowing itself out of your gut as James fills you to the brim with his seed, your second orgasm gushing and mixing with his, the bottomless amount of your slick and release helping him fuck his cum up to and inside of your cervix. James holds you close as you slowly come back to, white spots still visible and apparent in your vision and your hands still holding on for dear life on his sweat clad shoulders and scratch marked skin.

You both let out a curse as he slowly removes his spent dick from inside of you, him now overly sensitive and your pussy walls relentlessly fluttering themselves shut to hold the rest of his overflowing release inside of you.

James carefully sits up and brings you with him in his lap, apologizing as you let out a soft hiss as his zipper makes brief contact with your still pulsating and spasming clit. "I love you too, by the way." You muse, uncaring of the harsh rasp in your voice as your boyfriend brings your head down to gently rest it against his sweating and heaving chest. Your lips quirk up into an exhausted smile as the vibration of his laughter runs and reverberates through you.

"I for sure fucking hope so."

Hushed sounds of honking and skidding tires and muffled curse words lazily make their way through the half cracked open windows as you two hold each other close, the red, white and blue starred deco on the lampposts shining through and becoming more apparent as time goes by, as if they were celebrating for you two.

You eventually raise your head from James' chest and smile up at him, placing a warm and affectionate kiss to his salty and sweaty lips, uncaring of the taste as he slides his tongue into the depths of your tiresome mouth. A soft hum of content is what you're left feeling as he leans back and blearily opens his eyes back open for you.

"You ready for that ride back home just yet?" You ask him, laughter building in your sore throat as he grunts out a half assed response. "You ready for that hot shower and breakfast in the morning?" Silence envelops the two of you, before James lets out a hearty chuckle and presses a warm kiss to your spent forehead.

"As long as you're here with me for the ride back and breakfast in the morning, I'm ready for anything." You rebut his sentiment with a hum of content yourself, and grin widely in the colorful night as you feel James playfully smack at the back of your bare thigh in retaliation. Raising a shaky hand to place underneath his chin and caress his stubbly skin, you two share a small and warm smile as the traffic slowly parts ways and condenses down to little to nothing, as the other cars and drivers ignorantly pass on by the two of you in your own, little world, protected by the trees and their colorful leaves.

"Together we go, then, baby." "Together we go."

Counterproductive Tendencies ✩ James Hetfield

Part zero of multiple

Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four

"God only knows what I put you through, and everything you'd allow me to do. You tried to build me into the man you've always dreamed of, what more could you have expected me to do? We'll push and pull and bend and break, until we're both red and blue. And at the end of every drunken and blood-spilled night, I'll somehow find my way on back home to you."

From first hellos to multiple attempted goodbyes, to unordain murmured vows and multitudinous miles on the road. From unshed and held back tears, to widened smiles and promises to start anew. This is where everything begins, and where it coincidingly ends.

This is yours and James' story.

Counterproductive Tendencies ✩ James Hetfield

⭒ introductory, part two, part three, part four ⭒ (wordcount: 7.9k)

Part one of multiple: Bottle Caps and Rugburn (16+)

Mentions/Warnings: drug use, sexual suggestion

Ephemeral clouds temporarily obscure your already altered line of vision as you hesitantly trudge forward and off your shared front porch, the huff of uneasiness you let out nearly inaudible as your roommates continuously complain from behind you. You shakily exhale as the bottom of your right, overworn and half shoved on tennis shoe snags on a rough side of uneven pavement, and you attempt to unsteadily stabilize yourself with a blind hand in front of you. Relief floods through you as you feel your palm slide against and make contact with the large tree you remember to be in front of your newly assigned home and dormitory, your fingers bending inward to grip onto its damp curvature as you testily circle your ankle back and forth.

"Don't tell me you've already injured yourself, before you could go and tell our neighbors off for keeping us up until two in the morning." A voice from the still partially warm entrance of the front door teasingly drawls, causing your already squinting eyes to fall shut with barely concealed annoyance and exhaustion.

"Kept you five up, actually. I happened to have already been sleeping just fine," you respond dryly, kicking your foot back down and skidding it up to where your other one balances your weight, once you're sure it won't tense or strain. The thick material of your sock makes a soft, padded sound once it makes rough contact with the sole of your shoe, and you twist your upper half to peer back at the partially huddled group of women surrounding the highest step. "Why am I the one to go and talk to these guys, anyway? I've never even met them."

"You just answered your own question," another one rasps out, her hands gripping onto a thick blanket covering her broad and caving in shoulders, the tip of her nose bright red from the invasive and domineering wind. "They've never met you, which means that they'll give you even less shit than they usually give us. Fresh meat and all. Even assholes like them won't slam a door in your face the first time."

The eldest of the group sends you a small and almost genuine smile, before leaning forward on the side railing to raise a hand and gesture for you to keep moving forward and across the street. "They aren't as bad as they sound. They offered us beer once."

"Yeah, and then egged our house-" "Well, that was because one of you guys called the police, and they showed up right after we knocked on their door to talk to them about the noise-" "I told you we should've just stayed home that night. Now they know we're snitches. We told on them; we're fucking narcs."

You wince as a small pulse of pain travels to each one of your temples and down to the middle of your forehead, the one bright light on the side of the porch glaring its way into your peripheral vision as you wearily look up at the girls. You slowly blink to gather moisture for your sore and dry eyes and breathe out a quiet sound of disbelief as they continue to mindlessly talk over each other, before turning yourself back around to face the tree and throwing a halfhearted wave behind your goosebump-ridden back.

You ignore the increased volume in their voices as you do so and carefully make your way over and down the uneven pavement and curb, your face and bare lower legs numbing as the frosty air envelopes itself over your underdressed form.

You glance around and quickly begin to make your way over to a much larger and nicer house once you discover it to be the source of the loud music and barreling cheers, beer caps audibly crunching underneath your fast paced feet as soon as you make your first few steps onto the stranger's property. You make yourself walk impossibly faster to the half-shut front door, refusing to allow your anxiety to stop you from helping your roommates hopefully get some sleep and for them to finally shut up.

Before you can even reach forward to push the door open wider and take a step inside, it comes whipping open and loudly collides with the wall behind it, causing you to jump in fright and lean back as a man around your age peers down at you with unhidden interest, his eyes comically wide and concerningly bloodshot.

"If anyone asks you about that, you'll tell them it wasn't me, right? Dickheads already had me pay out of pocket for the last time someone cannonballed through our glass table, and it wasn't even me! It was some blonde chick who chugged too much during a keg stand and couldn't handle her lager."

You send him a confused thumbs up, his accent too thick and slurred for you to be able to discern the words tumbling out of his mouth. You can't help but cheer up as he sends you a wide and overenthusiastic grin at your agreeance, and a cold, already opened beer can is being pressed into your already tingling palms before you can even decline.

"For not being a dick about the damage I'm doing to my own property." He explains, his eyebrows raising as your facial expression morphs into animated relief.

"This is your place? Thank God, I thought I'd be looking around all night until I found you," you speedily breathe out, the man now leaning against the doorway and looking at you in drunken shock, as if he wasn't speaking even faster than you seconds before. "My roommates woke me up and pressured me to come over and ask you to turn the music down."

The man's expression quickly drops and almost turns mean, seemingly freezing midway into a grimace as he takes in your uncomfortable posture and tense shoulders. "You were put up to this?" He asks you skeptically, reaching out to take back the beer once he sees you raise your hands up to your mouth to blow hot air on your already windblown, red streaked knuckles and palms.

"I can sleep like the dead. My roommates, not so much," you admit, some of your anxiousness melting away as you watch his face crumple with understanding. "Said I'm fresh meat and you wouldn't be as rude to me as you usually are to them, at least on my first trip over here."

"So, they had you come over to a stranger's house, during a large party at two thirty in the morning, to confront your neighbors, who you were told were hostile and unwelcoming? On your probably, very first week of living there?" At your nod, the man shakes his head in disbelief, before studying you with an inquisitive look and nodding his head in the direction of the ongoing party behind himself.

"Come on in. I'll get you something warmer to wear, and I'll get my even less than shitty roommates to introduce themselves to you," he sends you a cheeky look and makes sure you're following him before moving forward and even further inside. "We won't give you shit this time, only if you didn't call the cops before coming over here first."

A loud bout of drunken laughter petals itself out of the man guiding you inside, and you take in a deep breath, before walking toward and into the large mass of strangers and their inebriated shouts and movements.

"Fuck it." You murmur to yourself, only looking back to see if your roommates were still waiting for you outside. A frown makes its way to your lips once you see that the side porch's light is now off, and the front door is now fully closed.

"Name's Lars, by the way," he nearly shouts at you as you two make it to a staircase, lightly gripping your elbow after you're nearly toppled over by rough and incessant, dance-powered shoves. "I've got a friend's room you can change in, don't worry." You nod despite your nerves and quickly match your footsteps with his as you two make your way up the stairs. You glance out a large set of windows in the hallway and allow your eyes to drink in the ever-growing amount of people dancing outside in the freezing cold air, their heads thrown back and laughter pouring out of them, careless of the wind and everything to all intents and purposes, trying to knock them off their feet. As you're handed an oversized white dress shirt, and a slightly larger than usual pair of jeans and left alone to change, you crouch down to sit on the carpeted floor and force yourself to suck in a much needed and trembling breath. You momentarily close your eyes, before sliding them back open and shoving your flimsy shirt over your head, your hair coming loose from its confines of an earlier and secure ponytail.

So much for a warm welcome and a new start.

⭒

A quiet curse pillows its way out of your pursed lips as you cup your ear and clumsily make your way onto your knees, your stray hairs tickling the sides of your face as you search for your missing earring and stud. Your socked feet nearly slide out from underneath you as you bring yourself down and use your elbows as leverage, closing one eye to look underneath the bed only a foot away from you.

"Oh, come on. You've got to be here somewhere." You whisper out hopelessly, a sound of defeat reverberating in your chest once you're unable to find it beneath the lifted mattress. You let out a groan and allow your arms to let up, the bottom of the dress shirt nearly covering you from the mid-thigh up, lifting as you flop on the floor and land on top of the discarded pair of ripped jeans. You lift your head to rest it on top of your clasped hands and freeze in place as your eyes make contact with bright blue eyes, already looking down at you.

Wavy, dirty blonde hair cascades and rests against beautifully scarred and dimpled skin, accompanied with red and plush lips, them already curved up in a bewildered yet amused grin. Black jeans accentuate long, muscled legs, and a band tee is stretched out against a toned and taut torso. A jean jacket is splayed across sculpted and fully formed biceps, and you have to force yourself to not let out a sound of humiliation as the stranger takes their time drinking in your form.

You can't stop your body from jolting as the man speaks out in the heady air, and your eyes narrow as he chortles out a gentle and mirthful sounding laugh. You push yourself up into a sitting position, your spread legs instinctively curling up underneath you and ankles tightly linking together as you intentionally avert your wide eyes and stare down at the embroidered carpet instead.

"As much as I truly don't mind the view, why exactly are you wearing my only dress shirt, and why are you sprawled out in my room? On the floor, specifically?" You try not to seem affected by the smooth and comforting cadence of his tone, willing yourself to swallow thickly and clear your voice before answering him.

"I didn't want to invade your privacy by getting into your bed without your permission," You blurt out, immediately regretting your choice of words as you take them in yourself. Before the man standing in the doorway can ask you any more questions, you rush to continue. "Lars brought me up here, told me to dress more warmly. This was the first thing I saw when I walked into your closet. I really didn't mean to intrude."

The blue-eyed man's expression insurmountably softens once he notices how out of place and hesitant and nervous you look, going as far to take a step further back from entering his own room to give you more space. He goes to open his mouth to reassure you, before momentarily freezing in place. "Wait, you're here with Lars?" He asks you, his jaw almost slack with shock.

You shake your head adamantly, for some reason having a strong urge to reassure the stranger that you came here on your own and with no one else. "I hate to be the one to tell you, sweetheart, but you could do a lot better. Gremlin can't even admit to breaking his own shit, imagine how he'd treat you," you can't help but catch onto the softness in his tone as he teasingly speaks about his friend, his adoration apparent even as he playfully speaks ill of him. "How about we get some pants on you, and we can sneak you out of here before he realizes you're gone?"

His smile is contagious, and you can't help but temporarily mirror his expression, the frown only coming back to your face once you fully take in your predicament. The man sees your face fall, and he decidedly enters the room and slowly makes his way over to you, sitting down next to you but leaves enough distance for you to still feel comfortable and in your own space.

"What's going on in there, doll?" He asks you and points to your head, his tone surprisingly gentle and in contrast of his clothing, which is emanating the smell of cheap whiskey and half rubbed off cologne. You watch as his hands rise and come to reach out and comfort you, only to stop midway and land on the carpet in between the two of you instead, the rings on his fingers catching light and creating artificial rays up to the top of his high ceiling.

"I don't think I can go back to my place tonight, not without waking up my dormmates and pissing them off even further. The only reason I came over here was to ask for you guys to keep it down, on their behalf," you pause as recognition and distaste culminates on his face, and you sigh and reiterate what you said to Lars earlier, once again. "I was already sleeping, but they woke me up to come over here. They said I was fresh meat, and that you wouldn't treat me as shitty as you've treated them."

An array of emotions temporarily shuffle themselves on the handsome man's face beside you, the emotion he soon settles on being incredulity. He makes sure to maintain eye contact with you before he goes to speak, his fingertips digging themselves into the fabric of the carpet to stop himself from reaching out for you again.

"The only reason we've ever given them shit; was because of the way they came off towards us first. The first time they came over, it was two years ago, and we were celebrating an album release. There was still natural light outside, and it was in the middle of the summer. And they come barging in through our door and threatening to call the police, said their summer studies were more important than whatever we felt like we needed to celebrate for. Spoke to us like we were shit, and when we decided to play music for the first time again a few weeks later, they came back again, only this time with the police," an amused smile tugs his lips upward, and your chest flutters at the sight. "So maybe we smoked a little too much one night, crossed the street and pegged their shit with frozen eggs and blast music a little too loudly when we aren't supposed to. Doesn't mean we're any less than them or any better, also doesn't mean that gives them the right to come over to ours, threaten us, and then talk to us like we're shit."

"Treats other's how you wish to be treated." You murmur, your eyes zeroing in on his and watching as his pupils dilate as he looks back at you. He nods back as if he's in a trance, his fingertips stretching out to brush against yours. This time, you reach forward and slide your own through the delicate and soft fabric, your first knuckles colliding with his. Yours still red, and his ring laden and a pale pink.

Music and shared laughter creates its own traveling sound up the stairs and into his bedroom, yet you two seem undisturbed and unbothered, as it attempts to blanket itself and tries to add on to the comfortable silence the two of you created. "What's your name?" You can't help but ask, a dazed and content look coinciding on both of your expressions as you do so, his thumbs rising from the carpet to brush against yours in a delicate caress.

"James." He simply answers, and your lips raise with the simplicity of it.

"Fitting." You muse, shifting your legs to stretch them out, a light blush dusting your cheeks as your socked feet make contact with his closest thigh. Footsteps traipse themselves up the stairs and pause near the entrance of James' room, and you both let out a laugh as Lars' head hesitantly pops in through the side of the doorway.

The relief on his face is both palpable, and shit-eating all at once. "Looks like I gave you the right room to change in after all," he begins, pleased. "Enough of the chit chat shit. I've got three hundred people downstairs close to passing out, but they're still begging for shots, and I've got three other band members curious about what kind of girl is special enough to keep James away from the alcohol for so long."

The shorter band member ducks down fast enough to miss the tennis shoe coming his way, letting out a hysterical laugh as it flies past him and parachutes down the flight of stairs instead, a resounding shout of muffled pain coming from the bottom of it.

You all share a mutual look of shock, before bursting into laughter. Tears spring to your eyes, and it's hard for you to decipher if they're actually from amusement or from relief. Relief from being around two now named strangers, who seem to be more welcoming to you than your own roommates, who promised to take you in and treat you well. Relief from having to hold back laughter, so you wouldn't be too loud and interrupt a study session, or an afternoon nap.

A ringed hand holds itself out to you once you stop laughing and lightly wipe at your eyes, your own widening as you realize the two of them must be waiting for you. You quickly take ahold of James' hand and avoid Lars' cheeky gaze, the large and calloused palm holding your hand currently helping to keep your own warm.

A shiver travels its way down your spine and goosebumps reappear on your lower legs as you're helped to stand upright, a light breath of laughter coming to life in between you two as you nearly slide from your socks again. Using James' unyielding and firm grasp on your hand for assistance, you squat down to grab ahold of the oversized denim that was offered to you earlier, and shyly wave the pair of jeans in the air near your decently covered chest. "Can you two turn around real quick?" You ask quietly, guilt overcoming you as you appear to provisionally put them out of getting back to their party once again. Lars turns around to face the doorway as soon as you finish your sentence, and James quickly walks over to the door and kicks it shut once you're fully stood back up and his shirt falls back down into place to bracket and cover your upper thighs.

You walk with caution in your socks over to the bed and lean against the bottom frame, before yanking them off entirely and shoving each of your bare feet through the larger legs of the denim. A sound of amusement tears itself out of your chest as you grip onto the waistband of them with both of your hands, and you call out for them to turn back around and see for themselves. Lars lets out a snort and James looks at you with a small smile, before exhaling a breathy chuckle and nodding his head towards his best friend. "You might be better off borrowing a pair of his, since he's closer to you in height and size."

You raise a hand to hide a laugh behind your palm as Lars lets out a half stilted, indignant sound, his bloodshot eyes staring up at his bandmate with unhidden betrayal and his hands coming up to hold onto his hips. "I'll have you know I still get plenty of chicks, short stature and all." You watch as James vehemently nods and runs a hand down his back, before reaching forward and reopening his bedroom door. Lars squares his shoulders and slides through the partial opening, only momentarily pausing to throw his head back to the side to send you both a playful glare. You can't help the wide smile that spreads your lips, the lighthearted sound escaping James' own making it even harder for you to hold back and hide your joviality.

"Is he always like this?" You ask, tired laughter chortling through you as James halfheartedly raises a hand to slowly shake it back and forth.

"Only since '81, when I met him." Your guys' joint amusement delicately turns back into comfortable silence, and the wide smile on your lips melts into a bashful grin. James watches you as you shift your weight on each foot and duck your head, tendrils of loose locks hiding your soft features from his various glimpses of you.

James twists his hand around the doorknob and almost nervously licks his lips. "I'm kind of glad your asshole roommates sent you over here," he starts, his breath stuttering in his chest as you lift your head back up to look at him. "I don't think we would have met if you wouldn't have been." His sentence ends in a near whisper, and your grip on your pants loosens, your fully covered feet making their way over to him on autopilot. You pause mid step, you two now only a breath of a distance away from each other.

"I don't know about that," you murmur, your eyes darting down to his parted lips, your own still lifted and feeling light. "I still think I would have made my way on over to you. To the both of you- all of you, I guess." A light blush dusts your cheeks as you stammer, and James nearly jumps as Lars suddenly reappears, his eyebrows raised and his reddened eyes knowing and glinting.

"Let's get you looking even more mismatched and fucked up for downstairs." He sarcastically cheers, sending a soft smile your way as he places a comfortable looking pair of sweatpants and non-slip socks in your awaiting hands. You thank him and let out a sigh of relief as they turn around to face the door again. You secure the sweats with the drawstring and tuck the bottom half of the dress shirt into the waistline, before bending down to carefully slide on the socks.

"Just to let you know, James has his own bathroom attached to his bedroom and it's only a few feet away." You look up at the sound of an audible slap and yelp, a laugh bellowing out of you as you watch James fluster and shake his head in disbelief. He quickly glances at you once you notify them you're fully dressed, his eyes wide with panic and his plush lips set in a frown. You lightly tap him on the shoulder and grin up at him, letting him know it was alright.

"I- we only stayed in the room because you asked for us to turn around," he excuses, his eyes meeting yours and his tone of voice lowering. "I didn't think you'd be comfortable with me leaving you alone, with such a big party going on downstairs. Anyone could have walked in, and I. I wanted to make sure you were alright." His best friend tosses his head down and hides a grin at his bandmate's uncharacteristic shy tone and body language. You look up at him in silent awe and slowly reach forward to squeeze his hand in thanks, your eyes widening as he instead twists his hand around to securely hold onto yours. Lars glances down at your joined hands and theatrically sighs, before yanking the rest of the door open, not even flinching as it bounces off the wall behind it and James curses him out loud.

"And that was your fault, because you didn't listen to me when I spoke to you guys about the protectant foam plaster," he accuses, his tone sharp but his words light. Lars sends you both an impatient look, before stepping out of the room and beckoning you guys' forward. "You ready to try out a black tooth grin?"

"What exactly is a black tooth grin?" You hesitantly ask, your expression turning cautious as James and Lars smile in unison and don't answer.

"Let's get fucked up, you fucks." Lars sighs out as you three eventually make your way back downstairs, the curse words in his sentence sounding like terms of endearment. You peer up at James once you step off the last stair and onto the bright and chilled tile, hesitantly squeezing his hand before delicately disentangling yours to let go.

"Are you sure it's alright for me to stay the night?" You nearly whisper, the current crowd around you making you feel completely out of your element and uneasy.

James' fingers firmly tighten around yours, before properly engulfing your digits with his, his bright blue eyes looking down at you intently, but gently at the same time.

"You are more than welcome, sweetheart." Lars' head snaps towards you two, and for a moment, you instinctively expect him to decline the offer or disagree. Instead, he sends you both a mirthful, wide shit-eating grin.

"Sweetheart. Fitting." He muses, over the top. James raises a hand to smack him on the back of the head, but he moves too quickly out of the way. "Cheeky, little eavesdropping shit." James mutters to himself, the wide and elated grin on his face counterproductive to the rough tone in his voice. You squeeze his hand reassuringly, smiling up at him as he beams down at you.

"Let's get fucked up, you fucks." You mimic without imitating your new friend's accent, biting back a laugh as James raises an eyebrow and lifts his arm to guide you toward the table full of alcohol. Your eyes widen as a multitude of unknown and already half empty bottles greet you on a table nearly ten feet long, so many bottles on it that they nearly slide off with each step you two take forward. Three pairs of inquisitive eyes make their way on over to you as you step forward to stand alongside James, the awkward smile on your face endearing enough to make them grin back at you and drunkenly introduce themselves. You turn your head to watch as James pours a copious amount of whisky and coke into a solo cup, grabbing a handful of ice and dropping it inside of the concoction before handing it over to you. You wince at the burn during your first sip, but grin as the sweetness of the soda soothes it soon after. James guides you over to a vacant seat once you finish greeting his friends and nearly has you sitting in his lap, letting out a physical laugh against your back as you playfully ask him if he could make you something stronger once you down your first drink.

"Oh, sweetheart. You're going to regret saying that to me, of all people."

⭒

"I just don't think you'd want me on your team is all," you drawl out tipsily, your movements feeling more at ease as you share a secretive smile with Cliff over the edge of your bottle. "I'm not that good at beer pong. Wouldn't want to slow you down or make you lose the game." James narrows his eyes at you as pitters of laughter follow soon after your words, before tossing back the rest of his drink and hastily standing up.

"Alright then. Jason, Kirk, you're with me." he announces, his own tone dazed but still energized. You bite back a laugh as you watch him partially stumble over to a cluttered table and attempt to shove all of its used contents into the nearest trash bin, him missing nearly ninety percent of it and the rest just narrowly making its way inside. You and Lars stand up at the same time and share a wild grin, you quickly following suit of him filling up solo cups and placing them in their assigned spots. Cliff makes his way over and stands in the middle of your side of the pool table, with Lars to his right and you to his left. Thick wafts of smoke encircle themselves around your head and give you a mild second hand high, as he simultaneously sucks on the handmade filter of a backwoods pre-rolled blunt and places his part of the betting money on the side of the table closest to Kirk.

"I saw you make those three beer bottles in that trash can ten feet away an hour ago. You make those same shots with these ping pong balls, we split the money evenly and you'll have something to tease James about," Cliff whispers to you, voice muffled as he inhales a large puff of marijuana mixed with nicotine and allows it to expel out of his nostrils. He shoots an innocent looking smile to James as he watches you two from across the table, his calloused fingertips teasing the precipice of his cup and his eyes rarely straying away from you. Your lips lift even higher as the two of you make eye contact, a blush making permanent dormancy on the apples of your cheeks as an uncontrollable smile lifts his own. You force yourself to look away as Cliff continues to speak. "Although I don't think that'll be a problem. You could miss every point and we'd still probably win; with the way he can't stop looking at you."

"Just stand there and send him a smile every few minutes, why don't you." Lars adds, ducking forward as you try to reach behind Cliff and hit him on his back.

"Just for that, I'm going to try and beat your highest score," you playfully threaten, your eyes lazily rolling to the side as your newly acquired friend cries out a childish ooh. You shift closer to Cliff and begin to pay attention as the game starts on James' side. "Is it dumb of me to feel bad for lying to him about not being good at beer pong?" You quietly ask him, your voice nearly inaudible over the few drunks staying the night and the rest of party goers slowly making their way out and home, their loud declarations of them having a good time making your ears ring. Cliff sends you an inquisitive look, before raising an eyebrow and lowering down his ashtray, his lip ticking upward on the side as Lars curses out loud and lifts up another solo cup. Kirk smirks and leans against the pool table, his slightly crooked middle finger reaching past the few cups left on their side to greet his best friend with his digit.

"I think it's nice of you to feel guilty for something as small as lying about not being good at beer pong. It shows the good in you," he pauses mid answer as he bounces his ball towards the largest cup on the opposite side of the table, his side smirk turning into a full-blown grin as Kirk huffs and hesitantly lifts up the goblet full of vodka. Cliff lightly nudges you with his elbow until you loosen up and breathe out a soft chuckle. "As long as you don't lie about serious shit and you treat him well, then you have nothing to worry about."

You hum, before stopping in place and shooting your eyes upward to quizzically look at him. "Was that a subtle threat?" You ask him, impressed and amused as he gives you an overexaggerated once over and throws his ball without even looking. As you gape and watch as his ball catches along the side of the rim of the cup and lands in the plastic alcoholic beverage with ease, Cliff sends James a wink and passes you a ball from the half empty bucket beside you.

"Your turn."

You take a deep breath and push his half assed response to the back of your mind, the heels of your heavily socked feet lifting from the ground as you toss your ping pong ball over to their side of the table. You close your eyes and hold back a wince as silence envelops everyone around you, before jumping in shock as Lars reaches over past Cliff and grips your shoulders with a loud cheer. "You double tapped, which means someone has to drink from both cups, and you get another shot," a small, celebratory smile makes its way to your lips, it quickly turning into a small, mirthful smirk as James picks up both cups and pours them into one. "Drink it and weep, bitch."

James sends Lars a dirty look, before tossing the half-filled cup of beer back in a few large gulps, a grimace etched in his facial features as he bitterly swallows the room temperature lager. "Last time I checked, you and Kirk sucked ass the last four times we played and nearly gave yourselves alcohol poisoning."

Kirk lets out a resounding groan, the goblet nearly toppling over as he blindly drops it back down on the table, his forearms immediately wrapping themselves around his middle once both of his hands are free. "Don't talk about that, man. I'll throw up just from thinking about it," you send him a sympathetic look and toss him your spare elastic, nodding back at him as he shouts out a drunken thank you and haphazardly ties up his hair. "I think I might need to forfeit. Some crazy shit is going on down there."

Jason perks up and from his tired stupor on the side of the table, his eyes already half closed, and his arms open wide enough for Kirk to fall into. Kirk lets out a sigh of relief once he's embraced and able to lean against something that isn't an inanimate object, blindly reaching up to pat on his bandmate's curly hair in gratitude. "Sounds good to me, I've got another gig in the afternoon and the smell of Yuengling is getting to me."

Lars lets out an elongated yawn and Cliff nods to himself, before turning to you and tilting his head towards a downtrodden looking James. You speak up before you have the chance to second guess it, wanting and craving to see the youthful smile on his face once again.

"You and me," you propose, feeling shy as the rest of the guys pause their slow movements and look over at you. You keep your eyes trained on James, his blue irises reigniting and lighting up with your next words, his hands halting in the process of collecting the still filled cups. "Whoever double taps or gets the next two shots in a row, wins. Whoever loses owes the winner something."

James unfurls and realigns the cups in their original positions, sending you a cheeky grin as you teasingly toss a ping pong ball back and forth in between your cupped hands. "So, what do you say?"

"You know, sweetheart. A lucky double tap or two during a 3v3 doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be able to win against or beat me." Your jaw ticks as he proudly waits for your response, his ringed fingers curling around the thick edges of wood in anticipation for your response.

You take a deep breath and steady yourself, before simply saying, "Get ready to lose, big boy."

⭒

A wide grin lifts your entire face as you watch James chug down the last gulp in his final solo cup, his eyes displaying his obvious exhaustion and drunkenness as he tosses it down once he's finished. "I can't believe I just lost to a girl." You go to look around for the response from the boys, but grin to yourself once you remember that they all forced themselves to go to sleep about an hour ago.

You let out a laugh of disbelief and set down your half-finished bottle of water, meeting James halfway as he clumsily tries to clean up the mess on the table. "I guess I finally found your flaw." You announce, the second hand high and earlier inebriation slowly easing off and allowing you to feel clearer minded.

James places the garbage bag down and gently grabs ahold of your hands, using them as leverage to tug you forward and into his arms. "And what would that be?" You let out a teasing hum and laugh into his chest as he breathes out an impatient grunt. Taking a step back, you smile as his flushed cheeks and slightly disheveled hair come back into view.

"Not only are you the definition of a sore loser, but you're also misogynistic." You hold back a bout of laughter as he sputters and immediately begins to disagree.

"That's not true," he denies, unclasping one of his hands from yours to tilt your chin up and hold you in place with his thumb and index fingers. You playfully raise an eyebrow and allow yourself to giggle as he continues to vehemently disagree. "I respect you, respected you so much that I didn't even try to look at you while you were changing earlier," James' voice lowers into an unsure whisper, his thumb grazing the soft skin on your jawline. "I wanted to."

Your breath hitches in your chest at his confession, your free hand coming up to encircle itself around his raised wrist. You watch as his eyes deepen in color at your newfound touch, his eyelids starting to look weighed down. "Yeah?" You quietly ask him back, warmth pooling in your groin as he silently nods and ardently looks down at you. "I wanted you to look at me too."

James wets his lips and guides you forward with his grip on your chin, close to the point of your breaths mingling and nearly merging into one. "You said the loser owes the winner something," you dazingly blink and nod up at him, the tips of your toes rubbing against the front of his boots as you step closer, are guided closer. Your eyes hood as he brings himself down to your height, his natural scent and combination of cologne and alcohol enough to make your head feel as if it was swimming. James' thumb lightly tugs at your bottom lip, and you open your mouth obediently, your grip tightening around his wrist as he lets out a shuttered exhale. "Tell me what you want then," he pleads. "I'll give you anything. Just tell me."

You try to tell yourself that it's too soon, that he'll get tired of you once he gets what he wants. But you've never had a man look at you like this before. Not just looking like he wanted you, but wanted to engrave you into him, to make you a permanent by his side. You release his wrist and slide a hand into the thick locks near the nape of his neck and bring him in, impossibly closer, your heart feeling as if it was about to beat and land outside of your chest.

"Kiss me," you gasp into the electrified air, the warm puffs of exhalation of his breaths against you full on stop, before he lets out a sigh of relief and places his lips on top of yours.

Whisky and beer and mixed drinks are what you taste at first, but they all fall behind as his arms lower down to your middle and lift you from the ground, your own arms entangling themselves around his neck and your lips parting as an invitation as he kisses you breathless. Day old stubble brushes against your cupids bow as his tongue testily makes its way into your awaiting mouth, and you moan as he instinctively laps at the roof of your mouth and brings his teeth forward to nip at your bottom lip. You suck on his tongue and caress his with your own, wanting to familiarize yourself with the taste of his appendage and spit.

Your legs rise and wrap around his waist as he grips your flesh so firmly, you know they'll be fingerprints embedded in your skin for days after. You feel him grunt against you as you tug at the hair residing right above his scalp, thick spit trails keeping you both connected as you two part, the coolness in the air from the winter now long gone. Heat curls in your middle, and you have to stop yourself from lowering your sex to rub against his front.

James shudders and licks up the slabs of connective saliva that land on his chin, leaning towards you once more to share the taste, before despairingly disconnecting with you once again.

You both gasp for breath, your chests beating erratically and hands grasping so tightly onto each other that if one of you two were to try and pull away, the other would refuse and tighten their grip. You lean forward to rest your forehead against his and airily breathe in his scent. James' large palms rub their way up and down the spine of your back, and he lets out an adoration filled laugh as you only half successfully hold back a quiet yawn.

"Think I should take you up to the guest room." He murmurs in the silent room around you two, the soft and seemingly all-defining cadence in his tone making your eyelids feel even heavier. You peer up at him through blurry eyes, the exhaustion you felt earlier finally catching up with you now.

"I can't sleep with you?" You tiredly ask, a blood red flush making its way down your chest as James simply raises an eyebrow and rests his hands near the swell of your ass.

"If you come up to my room, the last thing we'll be doing is sleeping," he admits, his lips brushing against yours as he speaks. You absentmindedly lick your lips to chase the taste of him and freeze in place as his mouth impulsively opens for you. James lets out a groan and tosses his head back, his facial expression looking almost pained. His fingertips ground themselves into your backside and you let out a helpless moan, his own cock twitching with interest at the sound you emit. "I want to take my time with you, have to," he whispers in the space between you two. James tilts his head forward and places a gentle kiss to your forehead, before maneuvering you back down on your feet. His hands come down to cradle yours, and he brings them up to his chest. "I've rushed things before and fucked them up, but I don't want to do that with you. There's something special here, and I know you can feel it too."

You nod in agreeance and lightly rub the pads of your fingertips against his almost trembling knuckles. "I do. Of course I do, James." You reassure him gently, wishing to bring yourself back in his arms already.

"Let's take our time with this, figure this shit out and make it work," he says in a more stable tone, your admittance of returning what he felt giving him enough confidence to continue. "And when we figure all this out and everything settles through, the only place you'll be wanting to be at is my bedroom." Your grip tightens around his and you let out a huff of annoyance, a small smile gathering on your kissed red lips as James refuses to let you go as you try to tug your hands away.

"Okay," you agree, your eyelids fluttering shut as he lets go of one of your hands to cradle the side of your face instead. You tiredly reopen them and nearly gasp at the amorous look on his face, his pupils blown wide and the lightest shade of blue you've seen of them yet. "We'll wait and we'll take our time."

James leans back down once more, sliding his lips against yours in a slick and passionate kiss, before forcing himself to let you go and taking a step back. You pulse forward, every fiber in your being craving to be closer to a man you had just barely met, but felt like you already knew. Before you can overthink, a warm hand engulfs yours and gently tugs you forward. You fight back a shiver as a cold waft of air makes its way to your feet underneath the front door as you walk past it, and up the staircase. You let out a shocked bout of laughter as your feet are swept out from underneath you, and you relax against his chest as he carries you the rest of the way to your temporary room.

You hold back a sound of displeasure as you're placed back down and stepped away from again, a door only a few feet away from his a few inches away from you now. You swallow thickly and feel yourself flush as you watch James hungrily track the movement.

"Sweetheart, I need you to walk away from me first." You furrow your brows in confusion, before understanding. Fighting back the urge to step closer to him and grasp onto his solid warmth, you instead take a step back and grip onto his dress shirt instead.

"Goodnight." You murmur out, the electrified air that once surrounded you two downstairs, now feels stagnant and needy, hungry. James places his hands in his jean jacket and whispers the same sentiment, watching you slowly make your way into the guest bedroom, and even further away from the only person you currently wanted to be around.

You let out an exhausted sigh and run your hand against the wall until you find a light switch, automatically flinching as it's situated right in front of you and on top of a side table. You kick off the sweatpants and neatly fold them and place them on top of the dresser closest to the door, the ends of James' shirt falling down your thighs feeling like the ghost of his temporary and earlier touch.

You moan in relief once you situate yourself in bed and are under the covers, your nearly fully closed eyes snapping open and a tired smile encapsulating your entire face, as a gentle knock raps itself a few times against the wall separating the two of you. A gentle reminder that he was still there, and you two still had time. As you quickly find yourself falling asleep, the only words that come to mind are the words that you two had whispered to each other earlier, in your guys' first ever promise.

Make it work.

And to this day, I still wish for it to.

Counterproductive Tendencies ✩ James Hetfield

⭒ introductory, part one, part three, part four ⭒ (wordcount: 8.4k)

Part two of multiple: Underwire and Avidity (18+)

Mentions/Warnings: mentions of being sick due to a hangover, mentions of alcoholism, semi-public sex, dry humping

Your eyelashes tickle the precipice of your undereye, as the sensation of a delicate caress slowly begins to awaken you from your deep sleep, the coolness of silvered rings dragging themselves alongside your jawline causes a chill to configure and travel its way down to the base of your spine. You squint and shove your face toward and into the touch as a large beam of afternoon sunlight welcomes you within your first wide and fully opened blink, a blush reddening your cheeks as you raise your narrowed line of sight and unintentionally make eye contact with James. Bright blue irises ardently peer down at you as you immediately attempt to blink the blurriness away and focus on the man kneeling beside you, the temporary dark spots in your vision from the intrusion of bright light making it harder for you to do so.

The knuckles that were caressing you earlier, carefully turn themselves around while still maintaining the weight of the side of your head and slide down to cup your chin instead. Your lips tiredly upturn as the events of earlier that morning slowly cascade themselves back into your mind and memory, and a matching one slowly enraptures James' face as he takes in your elated and content expression. A thumb lightly taps itself on the ridge of your chin and you obediently bring your head forward, meeting him halfway as he guides you into a lazy, yet heartfelt kiss. Morning stubble grinds itself against the softness of your skin, and you raise a hand and encase it around the nape of his neck to usher him in even closer.

A sigh of relief is breathed out into the shared space between you two, and you let out a mewl as his now familiarized taste finds its way back to the tip of your tongue. James' hand firms itself around your chin and holds you in place as he gently coerces your mouth open with the beginning of his appendage, exhaling out a groan as he makes his way inside of your welcoming heat.

Your fingertips tangle themselves in the short hairs near the back of his skull, and the reverberation of his moan as you teasingly tug makes you giggle as it tickles your cupid's bow. James grins against you and pulls back for an unsteady intake of air, his free hand coming up to encircle itself around your left hipbone. "Good morning." He greets you huskily and rasped, his pupils dilated, and his lips swollen and damp with shared spit. You lick your own and chase after his taste, your hand sliding down his back as he raises himself up from his earlier position to sit on the edge of the side of the bed.

"Morning," you nearly titter, feeling light and refreshed as James' thumb unhurriedly massages figure 8's into your clothed side. The fabric of his shirt raises and lowers on your exposed thigh as he continues his ministrations, and his eyes can't help but to follow the movement with unhidden interest. Before you could tease him for his seemingly one-track mind, a miserable sounding groan makes itself inside the room through the still partially open bedroom door, and you worriedly push yourself up into a sitting position. "What the hell was that?" You ask, your heart tightly clenching with anxiety at the off-putting sound.

James goes to shrug it off, before frowning as the sound continues and becomes even louder. You quickly kick your feet out of the top sheet and comforter and slide down to the foot of the bed, gently waving off his questions as you instinctively follow the sound of discomfort. You mentally thank yourself for keeping on the non-slip socks as you hastily make your way down the hallway and past James' bedroom, before stopping in front of a wide open, bathroom entrance.

You immediately let out a coo as Kirk comes into view, the elastic you had gifted him earlier this morning becoming fully useful as he rests his upper half against the cold looking toilet seat. The curly haired brunette looks over at you with tear filled eyes, and you can't help but make your way inside of the room and sit down next to him. Your hand closest to him reaches up to push the stray hairs away from his sweat clad forehead, before coming back down to lightly at rub his upper back.

"Too much beer pong?" You quietly inquire, being mindful of your tone and volume after he lets out a wince as the toilet seat smacks down audibly after sticking to his forearm. Kirk lets out a weak grunt and slowly nods, before leaning his head back and sucking in a deep breath of stale air. "Never drinking from a fucking goblet again, can't keep anything down." You eye the half empty glass of cold water haphazardly resting on the edge of the sink and bite at your bottom lip, before standing up and making your way over to the mirrored cabinet.

You gently reassure him you aren't going anywhere after he whines once you move away, your hands instantly reaching forward for the isopropyl alcohol and cotton pads as soon as they come into view. Kirk squeezes his eyes shut after he curiously attempts to look up at you, cursing out loud as the artificial bright light causes a sharp pain to twinge behind both of his twitching eyelids. You quickly lower yourself back down beside him and open up the bottle, before ripping open the cotton pad container and saturating one of them with the clear and potent liquid.

"Do me a favor and sniff this," You instruct, holding back a grin as Kirk makes a stinging expression once you bring it an inch away from his face. "I know it burns a bit, but it'll distract you from the smell of sick and help suppress your nausea." You send him an encouraging smile as he looks at you in disbelief, before letting out a sigh of defeat and grasping onto it with a shaky hand to bring it closer to his nose.

James quietly clears his throat near the doorway, yet you two still jump at the sound. You tightly secure the cap on the bottle and make your way over to him once you're sure Kirk won't get sick again, the gentle look you're met with enough to make you pause in place. James holds out a hand to you and you automatically reach forward to grasp onto him and entangle your fingers with his, the calloused skin of his palm a comforting contrast to your own. You smile to yourself as you're tugged forward and nearly make contact with his firm chest.

"You didn't have to do all that, I'm sure he would have been just fine. Not his first or last hangover." You lightly shrug at his words, the tightness in your chest loosening as you glance over at Kirk and see color coming back to his face. James uses his free hand to gently guide you out into the hallway once the toilet flushes and his bandmate is able to stably stand up on his own.

"He made me feel welcome in here earlier this morning after my dormmates basically kicked me out and made me fend for myself, the least I could do is make sure he's alright and feeling a little less sick." You murmur, nodding to Kirk as he wearily makes his way out of the bathroom and back to his bedroom. James grins down at you, before shaking his head to himself, his thumb tabbing out to lightly rub against yours.

"How about you go and put some pants on, and then meet me downstairs? Pretty sure the rest of the guys are in the kitchen, trying to find something edible enough to make a late breakfast with," James humors, his own smile widening as he takes in the anew light in your eyes from his joke. You quickly agree, using his hand as leverage as he lowers himself to place a kiss on your forehead, the heels of your feet lifting off the ground for easier access. "I'll see you downstairs, baby." You repeat the same sentiment and watch as he makes his way down the large staircase, the small smile on your lips beginning to start to feel permanent as you do so.

"Looks like someone's making themselves at home," a voice muses out from the other side of the hall, causing you to twist your head to the side and grin once you realize it's Jason. "Heard you beat James at beer pong, after the rest of us headed to bed. Pretty badass."

"Surprised he even admitted to it," you express, nodding your head down to his full hands once you notice the guitar cases and bag. "Are you heading out for your gig?" A surprised and grateful look etches itself on his face as he walks his way over to you.

"Didn't know you or anyone else heard me say that over the screams and bottles of Bacardi." You catch on to his self-deprecating tone and decide to reassure him. "I don't know any of you guys all that much, but you seem to fit in well with them and they liked you a whole lot earlier, especially during the game," you pause as a multitude of expressions paint themselves on his face, the longest one sticking around being uncertainty. "You're their newest member, right? Just joined a few months ago?"

You feel pride as he reignites and smiles back at you, his nod turning jubilant after your acknowledgment. "Then that means something, means they want you around. If they could invite me in earlier without even knowing me, and treat me as well as they did, you included, then why do you think they wouldn't do the same to you? You're a whole hell of a lot more useful around here than I am."

Jason raises an eyebrow at your own self-deprecation, and you both share a laugh, before quieting down as a loud car horn blares itself outside. "That's me," he announces, his facial expression turning excited at the prospect of playing music and being on stage again. Jason pauses at the top of the stairway, turning around mid-step to send you a grateful look. "Thanks for the reassurance and your kind words. I think you're pretty useful around here, coming from the way you had us all laughing earlier and just by the way our frontman looks at you. I don't think I've ever seen him that happy and present before. And for what it's worth, coming from me, welcome to the family." Before you could fully register his words, he was already gone and halfway down the staircase. Echoed goodbyes and joyful expletives are exchanged downstairs, before the front door is being slammed shut and tires are skidding and screeching away outside.

As you make your way back to the guest room and toss back on the same sweatpants from earlier and re-tuck James' shirt back inside, Jason's words replay in your head, in a non-skipping and pleasant repetition.

Welcome to the family.

⭒

Hushed whispers resonate in the large living room near the staircase you descend upon as you make your way downstairs, the chill from earlier this morning now long gone and the floor much warmer. You skid to a halt as you hear your name in the half-murmured conversation and contemplate on going back upstairs to give them privacy, before your curiosity gets the best of you. You make sure to stay as quiet as you possibly can as you get yourself closer to them and in earshot, the cushioned padding on the bottom of the socks helping to mute your footsteps on the tiles underneath your feet. You lean against a pool table nearest to the kitchen, the wall being the only separation from you and the rest of the guys currently speaking.

"I'm just saying, we're going on tour in less than a month. It isn't the best idea or ideal to get all caught up on a chick, when we're going to end up being halfway across the country and all you guys will have to hold onto instead of each other, are overpriced phone calls and tissues." You purse your lips as Lars bluntly speaks from only a few feet away from you, the only other sounds coming from around him being scuffed footsteps and the sizzling telltale sign of food currently being cooked on the stove.

"He isn't lying, het. And that isn't us just saying shit because we don't like her, we think she's great. We all do. But think about it for your sake, and for hers too," resounding silence emanates throughout the entirety of the large home, and your stomach drops as it continues to persist until Cliff speaks up again. "You've tried this long-distance relationship bullshit multiple times before, and it didn't work out back then. Why do you think it'll work out now? Because this doesn't feel like another re-run with your ex?"

"She isn't like her at all." Is spoken out gutturally, and you hold your breath as James finally talks for the first time in minutes. His only few words are spoken with such finality, and you decidedly walk into the room and speak up before you could continuously stand there and spiral on your own. You figure you have heard more than enough.

"I think I should head over to my place and see if my dormmates ended up getting some sleep after all," you begin, watching as they all temporarily freeze in place, before quickly coming to the realization that you had almost just heard the entirety of their conversation about you. "Thanks for being so kind and welcoming. I'll be sure to bring back the outfit." You try to smile, but it comes off as too pained and forced. Cliff looks back at you in shock, before his face falls in guilt and remorse, Lars being no better off. Shame is painted on his face, but James' expression is completely closed off and guarded, nothing like how he's been with you, since the very first moment he saw you in his bedroom.

So much for welcome to the family.

You walk towards the nearest exit after a few moments of no one speaking up, uncaring of only being in borrowed socks and with your shoes still being upstairs. You take in a deep breath and squeeze your eyes shut, before reopening them and quickly unlatching the lock on the door to the front entrance. The door is only a quarter of an inch open, before a familiar large and ringed hand is pushing it shut and delicately trying to turn you around. You refuse to budge and feel your teeth narrowly miss your bottom lip as you clench your top and bottom sets together, as you feel James' head rest on top of yours from behind.

"Please just hear me out." He pleads, the pained whisper of your name afterwards causing you to sigh and slide out of his grasp and vicinity. You turn to face him, but stare at his chest instead, knowing that if you were to look him in the eye, you would cry.

"Did you already know that you were leaving in less than a month, to go on tour?" You ask, your voice barely above a whisper, you wishful for it to not shake. Multiple sets of footsteps hastily make their way upstairs, but you continue to stare at his shirt in front of you, still wrinkled in the same places you had gripped at it earlier this morning. "Please, just be honest with me."

"Yes." He regretfully grits, and you huff out a dry laugh, your eyes beginning to sting with frustrated and unshed tears.

"So, you led me on then," your eyes shoot up and cut him short as he opens his mouth to argue and disagree. "You saw me, knew that I got the short end of the stick by my roommates, and thought I'd be an easy lay by the time you packed your things and were ready to get on the road. Is that it?" James vehemently shakes his head no, but you continue, tears embedding themselves in your lower lashes and slowly making their way down your flushed and overheated cheeks.

"You made a promise with me to make things work, and then I come down here after an amazing time and beginning of my day with you, just to walk into a conversation and not only find out that you're leaving in less than a month, but that I'm also being compared to your ex, by your friends and by people who were nothing but nice to me and welcoming for the entire time I was with them at the party. What exactly am I supposed to hear out? Because I think I heard everything just fine."

James reaches up and grips at his own hair before letting out a hallow curse, his expression heartbroken and angered at the same time. Your frustration begins to die down as you see his waterline edge with tears and his lower lip begin to tremble.

"Please just listen to me. Please," James begs, disentangling his hands from his hair to reach out and grab onto your own, his shoulders visibly lowering with relief after you don't immediately pull away. "You didn't hear the entire conversation, I swear. As soon as I came downstairs, the guys started teasing me, talking about how differently I acted last night because I was with you. Normally, I'd be damn near incoherent and trashing the house with strangers and women, but I didn't because I had you. I found you. You came over here, unassuming and nonjudgmental and unknowing of who we were, and you completely dropped me, straight on my ass. You were kind and funny, and treated us equally, the complete and utter opposite of your dormmates. You trusted me the entire party and treated my friends as if they were your own, and the way you took care of Kirk this morning," James stops himself as his voice cracks, his eyes welling up and his hands trembling in yours.

You gently squeeze his palms with silent reassurance, and you allow him to step closer to you, to tower over you and bring your joined hands up to his chest.

"The way you took care of Kirk this morning, and the way you reassured Jason earlier. We heard it, we all did. When you came down, you heard my best friend's fucked up ways of asking if I was ready to try again, to possibly fail at another relationship. That had nothing to do with you, and the fact that you were brought up and compared to someone who is nothing like you and will never be, wasn't fair either," James takes in a tremoring breath and runs his eyes down your form, as if trying to placate himself by reminding himself that you were still there, that you hadn't walked away just yet, that he still had a chance to make things right.

"My ex and I weren't the best. She knew of who I was before we got together, and she was attracted to the idea of me, she didn't love me. She loved the idea of me, the idea of how far the band and I could get her, how far she could get by being with me and being friends with the rest of the guys. I was two months into the last tour and on the road when she called me and broke things off. Said she found someone in another band that had already taken off, and that she didn't need me any longer for temporary footing. She was cheating on me all along. So, when you came down and heard Lars and Cliff being cautious about me moving on and possibly getting myself into a relationship that may or may not be the easiest for you or myself, it didn't have anything to do with you. It had to do with my own fucked up history, with how I messed up on my own and messed myself up before I even met you."

James carefully lets go of your hands to cup and hold your chin like he had done earlier, his once bright and clear eyes, now dull and fragmented. You tilt your head upward and blink rapidly as his fingertips splay across your skin and remind you that he's still there, that he's still here with you. That he isn't going anywhere, not unless you tell him to.

"I didn't tell you about the tour, because our official date keeps on changing. Our producer and team either want to always keep things the same or want us to write and record five more songs in a week. We don't even have an official live setlist yet. But that isn't an excuse, I fucked up by not letting you know what was going on, and that was my fault. In my mind, I still had at most, another thirty days with you, to tell you. To show you I could be what you need, what you want, and to solidify things with you, to the point that me being gone and on tour wouldn't even make a difference between us."

You furrow your brows in confusion, looking up at him with wide and bewildered eyes. "Be what I need, what I want?" You ask, your tone incredulous. "When have I ever specified that I wanted anyone or anything other than you since we've met?" You encircle your hands around his wrists, his pulse ricocheting and racing underneath your fingertips. You tug and gaze up at him intently. "Answer me, please, tell me."

"You didn't have to say anything, I already know," you cut him off by gently placing a kiss on his forearm, and then his inner elbow, his bicep. Your fingers dance up to his shoulders and then enrapture themselves in the wavy locks that bestow themselves on his shoulders and upper back once he lifts you up, your socked feet now inches off the ground.

Calloused palms grip the backs of your upper thighs and hold you in place as your legs raise themselves and hug his middle. "What did I just kiss you with?" You ask in a hurried breath of a whisper, your lips now only a few centimeters away from his own.

"Your mouth." James answers you shakily, the tip of his nose rubbing against yours as he speaks. His eyelids flutter and he sucks in a deep breath as you lean forward and brush your plush set against his, his pupils shot and his heart beating incessantly and erratically in his chest.

"And if it isn't coming from me, and it's in your head, then that means it isn't true. Not completely, at least," you murmur, your tone soft and warm. "The only way I wouldn't want you is if you didn't want me, and I want you just as you are. Sweet and gentle, giving and receiving." James shakes his head in disagreement and rests his forehead against yours.

"I'm different on the road. I drink more often, and the partying can get to my head," he stumbles verbally, his thoughts going a mile a minute. But when he takes a deep breath and refocuses on you, it all starts to clear and pan out. "What you see now is me when I'm controlled. When I'm with you and the guys, things are easy. If I get attached to you, and I go on the road and you aren't there, I don't know what'll happen." You loosen your fingers in his mane and bring them up to caress the sides of his face, to cups his jawline and rub your thumb against the swell of his bottom lip.

"Well then, I guess we've got less than thirty days to get our shit together, together." A grin overtakes his downtrodden features, and his eyes widen with newfound hope. "Together?" He asks you, the thin and nearly nonexistent distance between you two turns into zilch as you guide him forward and place your lips on top of his.

"Together."

Every kiss that you have shared with him so far was electrifying, gut churning, scorching, pulsating and one of its own kind, but this one feels like coming home. From the soft pulses of his own plush lips against yours, to his hands gripping onto the loose fabric of your sweatpants to try and bring you in impossibly closer. To the lack of tears on his waterline when you two disconnect, and the way he whispers your name and the way it makes you smile.

"I need you to go back to your dorm house and get changed, get dressed," James beams, his voice now clear and secure, all of his fears and insecurities gone with you in his arms. "There's some place I want to take you."

⭒

You let out a sigh of relief once you cross the street and see the front door is open again, the sound of a familiar theme song projecting itself from the tv in the living room giving you enough feeling of normalcy to make your way inside and past the screen door and deadbolt. Five pairs of similar looking shoes are neatly placed in a row near the coat and jacket closet, and the attendance sheet still looks the same as it did nearly twelve hours ago, indicating that no one came in and no one went out.

Footsteps pitter their way down the stairs and you suck in a deep breath as your eldest dormmate comes into view, her face neutral and her shoulders upward and narrowed in. Her lips purse in a half scowl as she takes in the change of your outfit from your earlier attire, her eyes raking themselves up and down you in a way that feels overly scrutinizing and uncomfortable.

"You didn't make it back home last night." Is stated dryly, nearly feeling like a punishment itself, like a rough slap to the hand. You twist your fingers in the oversized sleeves of James' shirt, a button tickling the inner skin of your left index finger as you fight the urge to shrink back from her uncaring and demeaning tone. You instead straighten up and meet her halfway and equally for once, opening your shoulders and realigning your back, posture the complete opposite of her own.

"You wouldn't have let me back in if I had knocked, since it was past curfew. And by the time everything was calmed down and situated, the front door was already closed, and the side porch light was off. What else could you have expected me to do, but stay the night?" Silence envelops the small room you two stand in before the dining room and staircase, and you refuse to look away as her eyes widen back at you.

The tv shuts itself off, automatically timed for specific hours of the day, and you expel out an exhausted sigh as the silence drones on. "I'll be back before curfew, I'll get my chores done in time, I'll go to my classes and focus on my studies." You recite without flaw, the never-ending poem of bullshit you had just reiterated stapled and laminated on top of the fridge, right above the chronological and numerical, age ordered chore list, with your name directly on the bottom of it.

Your elder dormmate hums and gives you one last once over, before skirting herself towards the kitchen. You freeze mid step as you're halfway up the flight of stairs, her trilling voice sounding like it was right behind you as she voices out from the other side of the compacted and overshared home. A mischievous smile breaks through your lowered mood at her next words, the bottom hem of James' shirt nearly lifted over your head before you make it to your bedroom.

"Music was off before four in the morning this time, good job."

You make sure your door is fully shut and locked before you squat near the end of your bed and reach forward for your secret compartment, relief flooding through you as your fingertips graze the still closed latch. Bright whites and yellows lighten up the beige of your assigned bedroom, and a content grin lifts your lips as your eyes set and stop on a particular white, lacy bra and matching sundress. You make sure to dress as quickly as you can, using a small handle on your wooden, makeshift closet, to tighten and readjust the last lining of lace on the upper part of the back of your white linen.

You put back on and readjust the sweatpants and dress shirt over your main outfit and slide on a pair of brown boots, before hurrying back downstairs and safely making it past your elder dormmates, your signing out signature messily scrawled on the paper and its tethered pen swinging in the wake of you making a break for it back outside.

⭒

You untangle your hair from the top button of James' dress shirt, tossing a playful glare over your shoulder as he lets out a hilarity filled laugh at the sight of you struggling. You hear his laughter die down as soon as you remove his clothing from your upper half and slide the sweatpants down your legs.

"Is something still funny?" You innocently ask, locking your booted ankles together as you lean back against the warming up car, your eyes wide with amusement and his enlarged in wonder and awe. You watch him swallow thickly and quietly shake his head, his eyes flickering down to the swell of your breasts and the accentuated curves of your hips and thighs. "Didn't think so, big boy." A soft smile makes its way on your face and curves your lips upward, as an innocent blush colors his cheeks at the endearing and teasing nickname.

"So, where are you taking me?" You narrow your eyes as James lightly shrugs instead of answering and places a hand on your lower back to guide you over to the passenger's side of the car, his rough fingertips teasing at the lace embodying itself on the natural curvature of your spine and arched back.

"Now if I told you, it wouldn't be much of a surprise, now would it?" He rebuts, a teasing and mirthful grin taking over his features as he opens the door for you and carefully closes it once you're fully sat down inside and situated. You turn your head to the side and stare out the window to hide your enamored grin, your heart fluttering in your chest at his chivalrous actions. James slides an arm over the large one-seater in the front of the car once he's back in and tugs you closer over to his side, your left leg insistently pressing itself against the center console as he brings your upper half flush to his side. You ignore the pressure on your limb and rest your head against his muscled and stable shoulder, placing a feather of a kiss on his clothed arm as he backs the car out of the long driveway and steadily begins to drive you two down the street.

Orange and yellow bellows itself through the windows as the sun relaxedly begins to set, and you watch with partially closed eyes as the familiar streets slowly fade away, nature eventually taking over mail trucks and rush hour traffic. Large, colorful bushes and vine covered fences greet you as James makes his way into a completely empty parking lot and places his car in park. Your eyes widen as you turn your head to look around in curiosity and find a large patch of land, completely covered in daffodils.

"When the hell did you find this? This is the most beautiful place I've ever seen." You gasp out, eagerly waiting for James to make it back over to your side of the car after he insists on opening your door for you again. You gratefully hold onto his extended hand as you exit the car, the loose fabric at the bottom of your dress making it harder for you to see and be mindful of your own footing.

"I got really overwhelmed one day and felt like shit afterwards, so I took a long drive and ended up over here. Now I come whenever I need a bit of time alone and space away from everybody." James explains, his arms encircling themselves around you from behind as you two make your way over to the land covered in spring flowers. You both exhale out a huff of laughter as you two stumble forward, the smile on your lips only widening as he places your feet on top of his. You stand still and straighten up as he begins a steady pace, letting out a shriek as you two go tumbling backwards in the grass as your boots slide off his and cause your feet to unceremoniously intertwine. You hear him let out a soft oof as you two make contact with the partially softened ground, a loud guffaw punching itself out of your chest as you twist around and see the look of shock on James' face.

"Are you alright?" You try to ask through tear filled laughter, wincing and letting out a short cry of pain as your side begins to cramp up due to the force of your amused movements. You can barely see him through your tears, but you could feel him vibrate with mirth underneath you. You take in a deep breath and go to partially lie down on his front, reaching forward to press his wrists on either side of his head, a playful smile lifting your lips. "I asked you a question, if I remember correctly." You muse.

James raises an eyebrow up at you, before letting out an amused laugh, going pliant under your hold. "I'm alright, angel. Don't you worry about me." The sincere tone in his voice makes you melt, and you can't help but rest your chest against his and lean down to give him a kiss. You easily get lost in it, the finesse of his tongue and the caressing arch above his upper lip enough to take your attention off of the beautiful scenery surrounding the two of you. You let out a hum as James lightly laughs against your kiss bruised lips, before gasping as large hands escape your loose grip and flip you two over entirely. Your head gently lands on a small bound of yellow flowers, and an incredulous chortle rings in the heady air surrounding you, it quickly turning into a light and confused sound as your hands are place over and away from your head.

"Is this your way of letting me know you like being on top?" You ask him playfully, the smile on your face turning into a small gape as you watch his eyes darken as he stares down at you. You feel a shiver run through you as James' hold on your wrists gently tightens, the pressure of him nearly lying on top of you adding to the warmth quickly making its way down to your groin. "James?" You whisper out, biting back a gasp as his denim clad leg purposefully and roughly rubs against the sensitive, upper and inner skin of your thighs.

James' eyes dart down to your breasts, the underwire of your bra lifting and holding them in just the right place, even as you're laid down and nearly spread apart underneath him. A flush on your chest begins to develop as he leans back to look down at the way your dress rises with each light blow of the wind, his firm grasp around your wrists now gone, but you continue to hold still and keep them in place.

Your hips jump up in his light hold as he just barely runs his hands down your clothed sides, your center beginning to throb and your sex starting to dampen as his hands make themselves lower, and lower. James bites back a grin as his eyes dart up from your form and see the desperate look on your face, his own length filling out and pulsating at the simple art and view of you laid out for him, beneath him and staying just as he left you. "You're being so good for me, I think you deserve a reward," he praises, running a ringed hand up your middle, only to divert and cup one of your breasts instead. You let out a resounding gasp as he flips his hand over and uses the cool side of a ring to lightly run it over your hardening nub through your dress's fabric. "Anything you want baby, and I'll give it to you." He promises, his tone heartfelt and sincere as he teases your oversensitive nipple and slides his leg up in between yours to lightly tap it against your swelling and soaked clit. You cry out a mewl and buck up to rub your sex against the rough fabric of his jeaned leg, tears of relief stinging your eyes as James presses his thigh against your core to add more dizzying pressure.

"That's right, baby, use my thigh," He encourages, reaching down to shove the rest of your lower dress's fabric up to your middle, letting out a broken curse as your essence is obvious and seeping through the fabric of your lace lined underwear. "You can be as loud as you need to be, sweetheart. I'll take such good care of you. We won't leave until I've made you cum at least twice. Want to make such a pretty fucking mess out of you." You twist your wrists to the side and grasp onto grass for leverage as your first orgasm pummels through you, your hips raising off the ground and your legs encircling themselves around his middle. James grips your waist as you tremor in his hold, his mouth salivating at the sight of the soaked fabric sticking itself to your sensitive pussy, now just a few inches away from his sore and heavy feeling dick.

He closes his eyes and forces himself to not dive headfirst in between your shaking limbs and lick and suck you clean, until tears are streaming down your beautifully flushed cheeks and the only word you're able to verbalize is his name. Until you spread your legs even wider and welcome him inside you, the force of his thrusts making him bottom out and have his hips flush against yours, the only sound above the two of your guys' moans being the slick attaching itself and breaking apart at the center of your connecting flesh.

You reach up and caress the side of his face with a shaky hand, greeting him with a blissful smile once he reopens his cobalt blue eyes and amorously looks back down into your own. You unsteadily use your core muscles to lower your clothed pussy on top of his jean clad bulge, a gasp tearing itself out of your chest at the rough slide of fabric against your clit and a moan reverberating in his throat as your core's heat bleeds through his denim and straight onto his dick. "You can use me too, get off just like this." You grant permission, your wide eyes nearly rolling to the back of your head at the first slide of a weighted thrust against your soaked and sensitive bundle of nerves.

James' mind seems to blank and glaze over once you verbalize your consent, his movements and further words now only encouraged by the thought of making you cum again and getting rid of the dull ache in between his legs, musky and thick globs of pre-ejaculate staining and making their way through his briefs and thick lining of his zipper. You reach forward and bring yourself halfway off your back to grab at the button keeping the jeans attached to his hips fully closed, tugging the fabric down to the ends of his thighs and sending him a grateful look once he accommodates your movements and helps you pull down the skin clad denim. James sighs in relief once the pressure is removed from on top of his dick, his hands immediately venturing down to the backs of your knees to slide you back down on the naturally blanketed ground and spread your legs even wider and further apart. Your cheeks burn as he aligns his clothed cockhead against the center of the wet patch of your release through your underwear, a whine of his name on the edge of your thirsted tongue as he reaches down to entangle his fingers with yours instead of fucking himself against you.

A teasing smile licks at the crown of his lips as his hungry eyes take in every inch of you, the way your clit visibly pulsates beads of arousal through the cotton and the way your stomach sucks in a deep breath every time he slightly pushes his hips forward to rub his swollen and red cockhead against the center of your weeping pussy. James bends down and presses his upper half against you to place a reassuring kiss on your gaping and gasping mouth, the tip of his tongue teasing your bottom lip as he finally begins to rub and thrust his dick against you.

"Do you see what you do to me, can you feel it?" He asks you huskily, his eyelids feeling heavy and half open as he fucks himself against you with reckless abandon, grunting as his cockhead roughly brushes against your clit and your previous release bleeds its way onto and inside his own protective layer. You squeeze your fingers around his as you desperately nod, a wet cry of a moan trapped inside your throat as your hands are held down by his and his cock expertly rubs itself against your oversensitive and numbing pussy. "Bet you'd feel so tight around me, making a mess out of my cock and cumming all down your own legs," He whispers against you, his eyes baring themselves into yours as he watches tears of pleasure swell in your eyes and cascade down your temples. Your thighs seize in around him as you feel the familiar and overwhelming sensation of another orgasm approaching, your spine arching itself off the ground underneath you and your lower stomach brushing against his happy trail, your eyes squeezing shut as his lips part against yours and you two share huffed breaths of moans and gasps. "You think you can cum again for me, baby? Right against me this time? Make my cock nice and wet for me?"

"Yes, yes," you whisper against him in a mantra, your eyes snapping back open as your release bends its way out of you, James letting out a pleasured groan as your nails dig into the backs of his hands and your slick clings to both of your guys' underwear, them matting in the middle and creating the perfect slide in between you two. "Don't stop, want you to cum against me." You weep, whimpering in oversensitivity as he nods against you and slides his hands down to grip at your waist, leaning back to rest the backs of his thighs against the heels of his shoed feet. You watch as his eyes glaze over once again, as the muscles in his forearms tighten and become taught as he uses you for his own personal pleasure, the wet stain on his underwear starting to have a white hue as his balls begin to raise and tighten.

Your breasts begin to bounce with the force of his humps and thrusts against you, your stomach tightening with overstimulation as his jaw drops and his mouth pops open, guttural sounds of desperation and deep-rooted pleasure clawing its way out of his drying throat. "I bet you'd feel so good inside of me," you start, a moaned mewl interrupting you as his cockhead rubs at your entrance, the flimsy and thin material of your underwear bending inward to allow him to almost slide through and be exactly where he truly wants to be, where he craves. "You'd stretch me open and fill me up so nicely, paint me white and keep me warm." You pant, pleasure starting to come back as he nearly tears the cotton and makes his way inside of you with the force behind his hips, his fingertips digging into your skin in the most delicious way.

"Is that it? That's what you want?" He asks you through a hearty and thick moan, his voice graveled and almost baritone, his release tittering and on the edge as he watches your tits bounce and your wide eyes stare back up at him with overwhelming and unadulterated lust. "You want me to breed you, fuck you until you're loose and spasming around me? Until you can't speak or walk, because you're shaking so much?" James groans at his own words, the images flooding through his mind of you fully naked and underneath him, begging for him to fuck you harder and hold you in place as he brings you both over the edge, is what causes him to cum, the thick seed coating and covering the entirety of his length and shooting up past the elastic of his briefs.

You watch in awe as white spurts make their way onto his happy trail and bead through the darkened, wet patches of his underwear, the throbbing and pulsation of his release being able to be felt through both of your fabrics and reverberate back down onto your clit. James fucks himself against you and through his cocks last efforts of emptying itself messily all over himself and both of your front's, the crease in between his brows smoothing out and his grip on your sides softening and turning into a shaky caress.

"Are you alright, angel?" He asks you. His chest heaving, back taut and muscles contracting, his ballsack still raised and swollen, but his main priority being to make sure he wasn't too rough with you and that you are okay. He can't help but smile down at you as you let out a small bout of incredulous laughter, your hair pillowing out beneath you as you fully lay back and relax in the grass surrounded by flowers. James follows soon after you, biting back a grimace as your shared releases stick uncomfortably to his groin, his arms instinctually wrapping themselves around your shoulders and guiding your back against his front. You close your eyes and slide a leg in between his, the rough denim keeping your limb warm as the sun fully sets and the chill in the air from earlier this morning slowly returns.

"I'm more than alright." You finally answer, your voice nearly gone and your head now resting on the side of his bicep, your lidded eyes blearily looking forward and at his car as you feel his mouth descend down to your neck. Morning stubble tickles the sensitive skin, and you close your eyes in contentment as you feel him smile against you.

"Only thirty days to solidify things with me, huh?" You decide to tease, letting out a shrill as blunt teeth playfully nip at your clavicle. James laps at the spot with his tongue and grins widely as you let out a weak sound of protest, before tilting his head back up to rest it on top of yours. "Less than thirty days to prove to you that we can make this work." He gently corrects you, loosening an arm around you to reach down and readjust your dress and tug it back down to cover your upper legs. You gently turn and twist yourself in his hold to face him, and you bring a hand up to run it through his messy mane, brushing it away from his line of view as he gazes down at you.

"Less than thirty days to prove to each other that we can make this work." You whisper, delicately correcting him this time, the feeling in your chest light, but energetic as James gifts you with an insurmountably soft look and bestows his lips upon yours. You reel your head back to look up at him, your other hand grasping at the same wrinkles you had caused earlier, your grin lifting as you watch his lashes tiredly flutter and meet in the middle as he temporarily closes his eyes.

"I think we should head back and clean up, before we both fall asleep." You huff as he lets out a resounding groan and slouches against you, before nodding and guiding you both up into a sitting position. His arm lowers from your shoulders to rub at the lower of your back, letting out a whistle as his eyes catch on to the grass stains and small clumps of dirt littered on the back of your dress.

"And I think you should take your outfit to the dry cleaner's," He rebuts, laughter evident in his tone as you raise a hand to lightly smack him on the chest. Comfortable silence wraps itself around you two as he helps you up off the ground and walks you back over to his car.

You lean back against the passenger side's front door, resting your head on the window as James places a hand near the crown of your head and carefully pulls blades of grass out of your mussed and messy hair. His thumb glides down to tilt your head upward, blue immediately locking you in as you two look back at each other, his eyes filled with devotion and yours with adoration. "We'll make this work, I don't care what it takes." He promises you, swears. You nod against his touch and lean into his warmth as he brings you into his arms, the cold breeze no match against the unbridled joy and avidity making its way to your heart.

You two will work it out, no matter the circumstances.

And even if I was told of how things would pan out, and all it would take for us to even get to where we are now, I'd still go through it all anyway, and again. Twice.

Counterproductive Tendencies ✩ James Hetfield

⭒ introductory, part one, part two, part four ⭒ (wordcount: 7.5k)

Part three of multiple: Lakeside Views and Imminent Goodbyes (Part One) (18+)

Mentions/Warnings: explicit sexual content, finger sucking, oral fixation, lars' morning drinking

Loose noted and crumpled papers wrangle themselves even more astray beneath you as you push your upper half up and twist your head to the side, laid down on tendrils of hair preoccupying your line of vision as a seemingly endless pitter of knocks continue to disturb you from your already uncomfortable position on your too-small bed. You blearily squint your eyes and untangle your partially bare legs from the sifted sheet haphazardly thrown on top of you, your eyebrows raising as you realize that the sound is not coming from your bedroom door- but rather, from behind your curtain covered window.

You hold back a shiver as your thinly covered feet make contact with the cold hardwood of your bedroom floor, the bottom hem of your sleep shirt rising and tickling the bruised skin of your upper thighs as you raise your arms over your head in a stretch while you sleepily make your way over to the sound. Your lips curl upward as a familiar and comforting voice lets out an aborted curse behind the slightly tinged fabric, your grin turning into a wide smile as you push the material back and James fully comes into view.

Tussled blonde locks parade and cascade themselves over his half-covered shoulder blades as he impatiently waits for you on the other side of the glass, his annoyed expression bleeding into a softened look of fondness as he takes in your rumpled and slept in state. A light huff of laughter petals itself from in between his plush lips, as sunlight endeavors its beams over your features and makes the indentation from one of your embroidered pillowcases on your right cheekbone more apparent, one of his hands raising in surrender from the top of your windowsill as you send him a halfhearted glare from inside and pause midway through unlatching the window's lock.

"I could just leave you out there, you know." You quietly tease, making sure to keep your tone down as your dormmate's continue to rest, the house still eerily quiet as the sun unhurriedly makes its way back up to the precipice of the cloudless sky. You wholly unlatch the lock and push the aged wood upward before James can playfully rebut back, stepping aside as he lifts his lower half and kicks his feet into the now opened space. You both wince as his heavily booted feet make loud and rough contact with the hardwood floor underneath them, before letting out muted sounds of matched amusement.

Large and warm palms curl themselves around your upper arms and gently guide you into an embrace, a sound of contentment escaping you as James' scent permeates and thickens the chilled air currently residing in your bedroom. You force your eyes to remain open as your left temple makes contact with the soft and worn cotton of his sleeveless and self-cut t-shirt, calloused fingertips etching and weaving small shapes into your clothed, goosebump ridden flesh while you tiredly blink and encircle your arms around his middle.

"You think you can put the books down for a little while, and go on a trip with me and the guys for a few days?" James asks you quietly, the timbre of his voice reverberating in his chest and lightly thrumming itself against the sensitive shell of your ear. You lift your head to peer over at your disarrayed and messy bed, your mood going from lighthearted and joyful, to pensive. James looks down at you and raises a hand to cup your chin once he catches on to your hesitation, his smile lowering into a worried frown once he sees your downtrodden expression.

"It's not that I don't want to, it's just that," you trail off, disentangling an arm from around him to rest a hand against his raised forearm, delicately thumbing at his exposed skin with a comforting and repetitive motion. "The spring semester hasn't even finished yet, and I've got essays due in less than two weeks and finals the beginning of next month." James nods, disheartened, before silently bending down to place a placating kiss on the crown of your head.

You rest your lids at the gentle sensation and lean into his touch, as his grip loosens on your chin and his palm trails down and back to rest against the nape of your neck. A sigh of relief pillows out of you as his fingers run their way up past your baby hairs to lightly tug the rest of your hair free, the elastic sliding down to wrap and knot itself around one of his thick and long digits.

"The last thing I want to do is get in between you and your studies, I know this opportunity means the world to you." He murmurs, his tone filled with understanding and warmth, regardless of the dissatisfaction weighing heavy in his gut. You reopen your eyes and trail them up to meet his, the blue in his irises light as the sun fully welcomes itself through the new clearing. You tangle your fingers in the material of the back of his shirt and contemplate, not feeling right about bailing on him and the guys, especially with how little time you two have left together.

"How far are you all venturing out for your trip, anyway?" You ask him curiously, lifting your hand from his forearm to reach up and brush the stray hairs from his bangs away from in front of his eyes. James turns his head to place a kiss against the side of your palm before it can fall, and smiles against your touch as one of your fingertips straighten out to lightly caress the indentation of the dimple in his cheek.

"Forty minutes south of here. It's a lake I found during one of my drives. Wanted to take you on my own, but Kirk got excited when I brought it up, and the rest of them just got dragged into it," Your lips quirk up at the absurdity of anyone from the band doing anything they didn't feel like doing on their own accord, and you shake your head to yourself mirthfully. James' expression soon matches your own, your elation and amusement contagious to him. "What is it?" He questions, his tone laced with barely concealed and held back merriment.

"I don't even think you could force Jason to take out the trash, and he seems like the most easy going," you joke, your stomach pleasantly tightening as James lets out a genuine and full laugh. You hum at the feeling of the back of your head being beckoned forward, and you readily mount your lips on his as he bends down to meet you halfway. You lap at his smile and swallow the soft sounds he exhales into your mouth, your body naturally molding against his as your arms encapsulate themselves around his wide and broad shoulders. Your tongues meet and embrace each other in a slick and wet reunion, the tip of his exploring appendage tracing the top of your mouth and lightly ripping a soft mewl from the back of your panting throat. You tug at his mane and begrudgingly pull away as he stutters out an unfulfilled groan, the palm he has splayed on the back of your neck gently trying to keep you in place. You lick your spit clad lips clean and force yourself to not dive right back in for another taste, your swollen pair already partially open so you can easily and hurriedly finish what you have to say. "You should have told me the trip was only forty minutes away in the beginning, babe."

James lets out a disoriented and noncommittal sound, his pupils blown wide and his lips a bright and flushed red. You bite back the pleased feeling of satisfaction emanating directly from your middle due to the blissful look on his face, and instead repeat the remainder of your earlier sentence once again. You tighten your hold around him as his eyes reignite and the content smile returns back to his face. James brings you in impossibly closer, your shuttering inhalation intertwining with his and irreparably becoming one in the small, shared space between the two of you. "And why is that?" He inquires, his voice barely audible enough to be considered a whisper.

"Because forty minutes sounds like it's close enough for me to be able to get back here and have enough time to finish up my assignment, before it's due Tuesday morning." You push the back of your hand against his grinning mouth as he lets out a resounding sound of exhilaration, the both of you freezing in place as you hear a door noisily open, and movement come from the hallway just outside of your bedroom. You hold your breath as footsteps falter and pause by your closed entrance, as if the person they belonged to was going to knock and enter, before they shift and tiredly continue down the corridor and into the nearest bathroom. You puff out a sigh of relief and lean forward to rap your head against James' vibrating chest, removing your hand from the source of his muffled laughter to lightly smack it against his lifting shoulder.

"You're trying to get me grounded before I can even make it to the lake." You playfully accuse, tilting your head back to place a kiss on his jawline, before ducking out of his hold. The hair on the nape of your neck stands as you feel him follow after you, as you make your way over to your makeshift closet to grab a small bag for your clothes and essentials. Exploring and mischievous, silver clad ringed fingers glide their way down the backs of your upper arms, dragging the loose fabric of your sleep shirt down with the intentional touch.

Stretched cotton slides down past your lowered wrists and pillows around your ankles and socked feet, and you let out a gasp as James' fingertips tease the curvature of your now bare waist. "I'm trying to get my girlfriend to come along with me on a trip with the rest of my best friends for the weekend, is what I'm trying to do," Your breath stutters in your chest at the new term, your eyes widening and lips opening in a small gape as you hear him hum from behind you and press his front against your back. You can see the muscles contract in his forearms through the small mirror you have perched on the bedside table in your room, his fingers bending inward to tug you back flush against him. "That's what gets you going, huh? Me insinuating you're mine?"

The tone is his voice is teasing, yet lustful, as if the idea and thought of you being his affects him as much as it's affecting you. You can't do anything but unsteadily nod, your tongue peeking out to lick at your bottom lip as his fingers travel down to tease the hem of your underwear, the rough skin of his wide palms leaving you to suck in a shallow breath as his fingertips dip down underneath the fabric to tease the skin surrounding your quivering groin. Warm and kiss bitten lips trail their way down your neck and rest upon your left collarbone as his hands flatten themselves on either side of your pubic area.

You force your hips to not buck up and stay in place as his index and middle fingers graze the folds of your slick sex, centimeters away from your already pulsating and beading clit. "Answer me, baby."

"Yes, I want to be yours." You nearly whine, eyelids fluttering shut as he teasingly taps his fingertip on the source of your sensitive and overwhelming arousal. You can feel his lips spread in a smile against your heated up skin, your heartbeat faltering in your chest as one of his hands abandons your lower half to slide up and cup your breasts through the flimsy material of your wire-free bra. James coos out a condescending sound of faux sympathy, before maneuvering his fingers to flick at one of your already erect nipples. You feel your whole body shudder and attempt to curl into itself as a thick finger circles your soaked entrance, but you reach up to grasp onto his wrists to keep yourself upright instead, desperate for his touch and for what might come next. Your eyes snap back open as you feel something firm press along the side of your back.

"Oh, sweetheart," he murmurs in the now thick and electrified air surrounding you two, his gentle tone taking a rougher and more guttural side as he presses the hard length of his dick along the top of your backside and lower spine. The hand teasing your entrance comes up to press itself flat on your stomach, to help accentuate the hard pulsations thrumming from his own desperation, his cockhead painfully rubbing against the rough fabric of the inside of his jeans and dribbling a mess down his taut and tense midsection. "You've been mine since the second I saw you."

His weighted words do nothing but overwhelm and stimulate you even more, the confirmation of you already being his makes you instinctually squeeze your legs closer together and silently hope that you aren't already making a mess down your thighs and on the floor beneath you. You give in and allow your head to fall back and pillow on his chest, before arching your back and applying pressure to exactly where he seems to need it the most. Your lips twitch upward as you feel his moan before you hear it, it being stuttered out and heady as your body's natural warmth envelops his painful erection in the closest way it can through the few layers of clothing in between the two of you. James' lips part and spread hot heat down your clavicle as he deserts your breasts and stomach to grip at your waist and lift your feet off the ground. You let out a shocked gasp and tighten your hold around his wrists, a blush traveling its way down to your groped chest once you realize that he now has you two positioned directly in front of the small mirror on your table.

Sun beams nearly take away all visibility, yet you can still see his large hands cultivating themselves in the curved skin of your waist, and you can see the developed arch in his back as he purposefully places his groin against your ass. Your socked feet are returned back on the ground, and you watch, enraptured, as his hands begin to travel all around your middle and down to the hem of your underwear once again. "Tell me what's mine again?" He requests, although it sounds more like a gentle demand. His left hand repositions and massages gentle circles in your side, while his right stays on the edge of your low risen, cotton material. "Whose stomach is this?" He asks, the chill from the rings on his fingers reigniting and bringing back your earlier goosebumps full force as they're pressed into your skin. You open your mouth and obediently answer him, embarrassment flooding through you as you hear the uncharacteristic and needy tone in your voice.

"Yours," you answer, the only word you're able to verbalize sounding like a plea. James takes his time with you, his right hand only moving a few inches up and down your bare skin, each time skimming over your soaked and almost close to dripping pussy. Your hips attempt to rise and grind against his wrist as he bends down to run his calloused palm down the expanse of your right thigh, and you jolt back in place as his fingertips on your waist lightly pinch at your skin in a silent warning.

"Yours," you repeat, your voice sounding hoarse and painfully dry as his hand slides into the mess sticking to your thighs. James' fingers collect some of your slick, and he hungrily raises his hand up to his mouth, one of your hands encircled around his wrists getting disconnected during his hasty movement. You wait with a tethered breath for his reaction, frustrated and pent-up emotions of tears sting your eyes and lie on your waterline while you're unable to see. "Please." You beg, finally letting go of his other wrist to turn yourself around in his grip, only to freeze when you see his reaction. James' eyes are fully shut, and his arm falls limply to his side after you release yourself from his hold. His slicked fingers are almost completely inside of his mouth, his tongue audibly sliding in between his own digits to lap up every single drop of your natural essence, as if he was starving and craving the substance for years.

His pupils are entirely enlarged, and his irises are nearly black, when he eventually reopens his eyes to look down at you. Your own ardently track every movement of his own, from the way his trail down your neck and the swell of your breasts, down to your trembling thighs, and finally, back up to your wanting expression. You reach up to cover his hand with your own, before guiding his recently soaking fingertips into your salivating and awaiting mouth. Your lips stop and enclose themselves around his index and middle finger's second knuckles, only to open up wider and lave the rest of your slick off of his silvered jewelry. You feel the shiver wrack through his body as he watches you chase after the remaining taste of yourself on his spit-covered fingers, flattening your tongue and relaxing your throat as he tentatively presses down on your appendage and places the rest of the length of his fingers in your mouth. You swallow around them and moan at the weight of his digits on your tongue and the lightly faded taste of your own arousal coating your taste buds, the mess on your once clenching together thighs, now slowly traveling its way down to your knees in a multitude of translucent pearls.

You nearly choke as footsteps reappear near your doorway and slowly make their way back to their original location, your suctioned lips raising up in a smile and a laugh reverberating around James' fingers once you catch on to the hilarity of the situation. James can't help but smile himself, and his spent cockhead jumps in the now dampened confines of his jeans at the carnal sound your mouth makes as he slides his digits out of your warm heat.

"I think my place might be a better spot for us to fool around at." James chuckles out, his cleaner hand coming up to lightly wipe at the mess on your chin and the beginning of your neck. You grin up at him and shakily bend down to grab at your sleep shirt, only to pause after you hear a rustle and soft fabric is being pressed into your curved palms. You glance down at the self-cut t-shirt in your hands and stand back up to your full height, before ushering James down to press a thankful kiss to his still damp and kiss chapped lips.

"Always the gentleman and romantic." You muse while lifting the fabric up to open it and place it over your head, a wide smile hoisting your sore lips even higher as he lets out a sarcastic huff. "You count me dry hump fucking you in public and nearly fingering you in your strict dormitory, gentlemanlike and romantic?" James asks you humorously, collecting your hair to free it from the inside of his shirt once you successfully get it over your head, straightening the long fabric after you get your arms through the wide, self-made sleeve holes. He can't help but chortle at the sight of you nearly drowning in the already too-large shirt for him on you, the overworn cotton looking like an uneven, draped sheet.

You carefully scoop and roll the fabric up until it's around the same height of your hips, before reusing the forgotten about elastic to tie it in place on your side. You send him a look, biting back a grin as his expression becomes borderline sheepish. "I count you taking me to one of your favorite quiet places, so we could fully be alone and spend some quality time together romantic, yes. I also count you taking time out of your day to come over and climb through my window to ask me to go on a trip with you, gentlemanlike too. You only came over here to ask me a simple question, not to fuck around. Don't be too hard on yourself, babe. Everything we did, I wanted it to happen. I wanted to do more, to be honest."

The sheepish expression on his face turns smug, and you feign disgust before turning around to walk back over to your closet, letting out a bout of laughter once you feel the added weight of James' arms weigh down your shoulders and purposefully slow you down. You pretend to stumble, only to counteract and duck out of his hold once again, your laughter turning uncontrollable at the look of shock on his face. You toss your head back and lean against the large, wooden compartment for stability as you try to catch your breath.

"How does it feel to get got, huh?" You tease, the large and happy smile on your face nearly splitting it in half. James pauses and takes his time to answer, his eyes darting over your relaxed and delighted posture, his own feeling the lightest its felt in months, if not years. You furrow your eyebrows and go to take a step forward to check on him, only to stop in your tracks at his next words.

"It would be so easy to love you."

An insurmountable amount of different responses flit through your mind as you two continue to stand only a few feet apart and look at each other. You could laugh it off, play it off as a joke. You could reject the notion and his words entirely, cut things off before they get too serious. You could simply just walk away and forget about it all. But as you look at his earnest and open expression, you instead simply let the words that seem the most natural flow out through your still lifted and parted lips.

"As if it'd be so hard to love you."

You watch as his expression filters and stumbles through disbelief and pure vulnerability, pocketing his hands so he doesn't reach out for you, but you make your way back over to him anyway. The heels of your feet lift as you send him a comforting smile, before enfolding your arms around him. You leave an amount of leeway space in case he decides to reject the physical intimacy, and you immediately relax in his stable and secure hold as he tangles his hands in the back of his shirt on you.

"When are we supposed to be leaving for this trip?" You eventually ask, trusting the feeling that he would appreciate the change of topic, and you smile against his bare chest as he relaxes even more in your embrace.

"In like, thirty minutes, tops." You nod absentmindedly, before freezing in place and shoving yourself off of him and breaking the hold, panic rushing through you as you dart towards your closet and yank open one of the two doors. "Why didn't you say anything?" You ask incredulously, tossing a halfhearted glare over your shoulder as James guffaws and rests against the frame of the open window. You blindly grab onto anything that looks like it might match and throw it into the nearly and almost overflowing bag, only momentarily pausing to put on a random pair of jeans.

"I was a little preoccupied, and so were you." You lightly blush at the implication behind his words, a curse slipping out of you as you only remember the mess you made in between your legs as the slick sticks and slowly begins to bleed through the fabric of the dark denim. You hastily pull them down and clumsily yank them off from around your ankles, before tossing them in the direction of your laundry basket.

James clicks his tongue as he watches you fret and stress, before fully standing back up and grabbing ahold of a hand towel from the side of your makeshift closet. "Come here," he softly instructs, gently stopping you in your tracks to squat down beside you and lightly rub at the substance covering your skin. "We're going to a lake, don't have to be completely spotless for a location like that." You grin despite your worry and take in a deep breath, helpfully spreading your legs and finishing up the job on the backs of your knees.

"What about you?" You ask, a short laugh beaming out of you as your eyes travel down and zone in on the obvious wet spot near the zipper of his jeans. James pretends he doesn't see a thing, his smile coming back to at the sound of your unabashed laughter, the sound uncaring if it woke up the other oversleeping dormmates. You fold up the hand towel and walk it over to the container near your bedroom door, picking up the missed throw of denim on the way over. You lift the hair beginning to stick on the back of your neck as the sun begins to heat up the room and fully comes barreling in. "Do you have everything packet yet?"

"What could you need other than cold beer, metal music and your best friends?" He asks you, his expression deadpan and serious, before breaking out in a wide grin. "I'm just fucking with you; I've got my things in the back of one of the cars already, and I've got plenty of time to head back and get changed." You shake your head in gaiety and manage to successfully zip up your overfilled bag, barely remembering to slip on a pair of shorts and a pair of dark brown cowboy boots as you pace around and get all of your things together.

"I'll meet you outside in twenty? We're going to be riding with Cliff, said he wanted to talk to you. Jase might be coming with," You nod and try to keep your facial features relaxed, but James sees right through you. "I know you and him and Lars haven't had time to speak to each other since you walked in on our conversation a few days ago, but Cliff likes you and he wants to make things right. Lars does too, but I think he's too hungover to speak in full sentences right now." Your lips upturn at the imagined imagery of the Dane stumbling around with his hands in front of him, blindly trying to pack his things and failing, and you can't help but let out a giggle.

"It is exactly like how you're picturing it, but so much worse," he adds on through his own wide and amused grin, before holding out a hand for you to latch onto. You wordlessly make your way over and allow yourself to be tugged into a short and temporary embrace. Morning stubble nicks at your left cheekbone and leaves a pleasant sensation in its wake as James kisses each side of your temples. "I'll see you in a little while." He promises, only letting go of you once you agree and lean forward to meet him in the middle for another everlasting kiss, both of your lips stinging and surely beginning to bruise afterward.

You grab ahold of your bag and place it on the edge of your bed as you hurriedly try to reorganize your study sheets and nearly finished assigned papers, your eyes only darting up from your task to make sure James made it back outside and downstairs safely. You let out a sigh of relief once your bed is made and everything is placed back in their original folders, before heading to the bathroom to grab your essentials and quietly attempting to make your way downstairs without waking or interrupting anyone.

The small walkway to the kitchen is still unlit as you descend off of the last stair, and relief floods through you as you peer into the small living room and see that the tv is off and the front door is still closed and bolted. Your booted feet echo on the tiles of the kitchen floor as you hurriedly make your way over and crouch down to level yourself with the cabinet nearest to the bottom of the sink. You carefully place your unbagged items on the floor next to you and lie your overfilled bag down in front of them, in hopes to help stabilize your essentials and stop them from toppling over on the slightly uneven, tiled floor.

You quietly wince as you hear the crumpled plastic bags loudly shift inside of the cabinet, as you curve your fingers around the small handle and hesitantly tug it open. A small smile lifts your lips upward once you successfully manage to open it wide enough for you to be able to stick your hand inside and grab onto a small handful of the reusable shopping bags. A chill ripples throughout your upper half as your bare knees make contact with the cool floor underneath you, as you hastily kneel and quickly place your necessities in the flimsy carriers. Lightly weighed footsteps creak over your head from upstairs, and you pause in place, before using the heels of your booted feet to help stabilize you as you rock yourself back upright to stand, your hands preoccupied with your now fully bagged items.

You left shoulder runs against the discolored stretch of the wall as you try your best to avoid being seen or making noise while you walk your way past the steps, squinting your eyes to try and make sense of the outlay of the mostly dark living room. You nearly miss your footing as the side of one of your boots roughly connects with the front of the vintage ottoman near the end of the small hallway, and you force yourself not to let out a cheer as a sunbeam coming through the window nearest to you graces you with a thin patch of light for the rest of your short travel to the front door.

You wiggle your forearm until one of the plastic bags slide past your wrist bone to give you enough hand space to messily scrawl your initials on the attendance sheet thumbtacked on the wall near the main entrance and exit of the house, before glancing back down the hall to the right of you. Silence stampedes itself across the entirety of the home, and your hand is already reaching out to unlock the door before your mind can even catch up with the movement, your subconscious already acknowledging your wanting to be gone.

Warmth envelops you in a hug as you step out on the front porch and quietly close the door behind you, the deadbolt sliding back into place sounding like an audible finalization of your choice to cross the street and not look back for the next few days. And as you drop your arm back down to grasp onto the plastic handle of one of the many bags again, you do just so, walking past the large tree you had held onto for balance only a week ago.

⭒

The initial anxiety and trepidation you had felt on your first trip over to the band's house was now long gone, fully replaced by excitement for what's to come, and worried amusement as you watch Lars be haltingly dragged out the front door by Kirk, who's waving a cotton pad in front of his bandmate's face. "Just breathe it in, man." He exclaims, sending you a wide eyed look as you continue to make your way up to the top of the long driveway. You situate your bags on the uneven pavement once you do, and pace yourself over to the stressed out looking duo, the curly haired brunette immediately placing the alcohol soaked cotton in your awaiting palm as soon as you get within arms reach.

You let out a quiet hiss of sympathy as the Dane sluggishly raises his head to look up at you, before letting out a groan and stumbling forward to rest his forehead against your shoulder. "I'm sorry for being an asshole, or whatever." He slurs out, his words being half assed and nearly inaudible, but his tone laced with true sincerity and remorse. You raise an arm to lightly rub circles in his sweat clad back, sending a helpless look over to Kirk as he steps away to head back inside.

"It's alright, I know you were only trying to help," you try to console, blowing out a relieved puff of breath as Kirk reappears with multiple bags of snacks and gear, the yellow six pack of Coors being held upright underneath his chin standing out the most, as he stumbles back out and waddles to the car closest to the street. You gently brush Lars back until he's facing you, and you send him an apologetic look as you lift your hands up to hold his bobbing head in place. "Are you sure you're okay enough to come with us?" You ask, starting to feel unsettled and concerned as he lets out a hiccup instead of verbally answering you.

"He'll be fine," a rasped and humored voice speaks up from a few feet away, nearly causing you to jump and let go of Lars's face in shock. Cliff drops a heavy looking cooler near the boot of the other car, sending you a hesitant, yet comfortable smile when you glance over to find the source of the slightly familiar tone. Cliff shrugs on his blue and black checkered plaid shirt, before reaching into the cold box to grab a nearly frozen glass bottle of alcohol. "That's what he gets for day drinking, anyway." You hold back a laugh as he makes his way over to the two of you and places the frosting drink against his best friends flushed forehead, his smile turning into a dopey grin as Lars lets out a blissful sigh and leans into the frigid temperature.

Kirk steps back onto the porch to wrap an arm around his shoulders and raises a hand to hold the cold drink in place, before sending you and Cliff a grateful beam. Silence encases the two of you as he tackles his original task of guiding Lars to the car, the only sounds within ear range being the distant chirps of traveling birds and footsteps coming from within the house in front of you, as Kirk and Lars slowly walk away. You lean back against the black railing and hyper fixate on the patchy grass covering the lawn as an easy means for distraction, languidly watching as small, windblown pieces of sedimented dirt cake themselves on the sharp looking blades of bright green, as the quietness continues on.

"I'm sorry," you look back up as Cliff begins to apologize, following his lead to sit down on the warm step attached to the side of the home, his hands readily reaching down to retrieve a cigarette box from his side pocket as you settle down next to him. "Didn't mean to start anything between the two of you." He murmurs around a beige filter, your eyes tracking the repetitive movement of his palm smacking against the bottom of the opened package to settle the tobacco as he speaks.

"I understand why you said what you did," you admit, bending your knees to flatten the bottom of your boots on the dirt ground past the end of the stair. "James explained to me what happened with his ex. I would be protective of him if I were you too." Cliff shakes his head and removes the filter from in between his lips, reaching his left hand out to flick the ashes off the opposite end of the stick.

"Being protective of someone doesn't give anyone the right to sit back and talk shit, especially when the two people they're talking about and comparing are polar opposites," you let out an understanding hum and twist yourself around to face him and rest your back against the solid foundation of the wall, bringing your knees halfway up to your chest. "I know he seems fine now, but he was really fucked up about it for a while. Got into some trouble and did some things he shouldn't have done. But he's gotten a lot better, and I guess, seeing him open up to you so quickly had me worried on his behalf."

"It's hard to see the people you care for lose it after a bad situation, isn't it?" You ask, your tone turning soft as you watch Cliff's expression turn inquisitive as he looks over to you. "I had a friend from my hometown go through a similar experience, being used and then dropped when they were no longer beneficial to the other person or their lifestyle," you twist your fingers in James' t-shirt's loose material for comfort before you continue. "I've never been through that kind of situation myself, but I've seen the damage it can do to people, felt the hurt it spreads to their loved ones when they feel like they can't do anything to help."

You shake your head as Cliff opens his mouth to speak, his facial features looking apologetic and sorry. "I didn't tell you that to make this about myself or to have you feel sorry for me. I just wanted to let you know that I understand, and I would never put him in any situation or scenario that would make him doubt himself or question that I care for him." You avert your eyes and let out a shaky exhalation as you see Cliff inhale a deep one of his own through your peripheral, the momentary silence between you two feeling lighter, more at ease.

"I think you're good for him," he announces, a small smile quirking up the side of his face as he presses the stump of his earlier smoke into the concrete near his feet. You let a wide smile grace your face at his words and slowly feel your shoulders lower and relax, the earlier apprehension you had for the upcoming conversation dissipating into thin air as you take in his wholehearted blessing. "I think he's good for you too, makes it a lot easier for you to get away from those fucking squares you're forced to call roommates." A loud laugh escapes and echoes from you before you can help it, and Cliff follows it up with a chuckle of his own.

"Dormmates, actually," You playfully correct, another spell of hilarity belting itself out of you as he dramatically raises his eyebrows and fakes shock. You go to mimic his expression, but instead turn around as you hear fast approaching feet. Jason filters out of the door with impressive speed, his hair landing on his back as he lets out a groan and places his hands on his knees. You suck in a breath to hold back a laugh at the look of annoyance on his face once he spots Kirk and Lars in his car. "Are you alright?" You finally ask, using your hands for leverage as you stand up from the shallow step.

Jason lets out a groan and drops his bag on the ground next to his socked feet, before turning to the side to greet you. "Hey, good to see you, and no," his lips involuntarily quirk up as he sees you grin at his offbeat and dead sounding tone. "If Lars gets sick in my car, I'm gonna kill him."

"I don't think he's going to," you pause midsentence, pursing your lips as you follow the sound of a miserable groan, only for Lars to peek his head out of the window and suck in a greedily amount of fresh air. "Maybe you should just drive down with us." You offer instead, looking back at Cliff for confirmation, before turning around to send Jason a nervous smile.

"The more the merrier. Plus, I've got the cold beer." Jason perks up at that and nods his head towards the open door. "You had me at beer, I'll be right back," he pauses and glances over at you. "Your boyfriend's upstairs struggling to pick a swimsuit. Figured you should be the one to go and check on him, since you've probably already seen his bits." He lets out a cackle and makes his way back inside, you turning around to send a sharp look to Cliff, who's hysterically laughing and holding onto his side.

You shake your head in disbelief, the laughter building in your throat being counterproductive to the look on your face. "I thought he was the normal one." You breathe out. Cliff claps you on the shoulder, before beginning to walk his way back over to the last remaining car. "And that was your first mistake," he tosses over his shoulder, his grin still visible as he bends down to pick the cooler back up and unlock the trunk. "Go get your man and his bits, will you?" He asks you cheekily, nearly toppling over in laughter as your jaw drops in playful disbelief.

"You're all the worst." You jokingly state, before walking inside and following after Jason's echoing footsteps leading upstairs. Excitement thrums through you, even though you already saw James only a half an hour ago. You lift your hand to drape it across the polished wood of the railing as you make your way up the long distance of the staircase, and you allow it to drop back down to your side once you make it to the top.

You pause only a few feet away from James' room, your feet skidding to a halt as you're able to see enough within the small gap of his door to have your mind reeling. James paces back and forth, his mane haphazard and tangling behind him as both of his hands grip onto a small, red velvet box. You hear him let out a soft curse, before sliding it into the small compartment on the side of his bag. You take a deep breath and begin to step forward, making your footsteps purposefully loud and audible enough for him to be able to hear them through his mostly closed door.

James straightens up and greets you with a wide smile as you place a hand on his heavy wooden door and slowly push it open, forcing your own to look relaxed as you fully come into view. "You ready to go?" You ask, grateful for your voice to not be shaking. "Jason said I should be the one to come up and check on you. Something about you not knowing which swimsuit to choose, and about your bits." You exponentially calm down as he laughs and tugs you in for a short kiss, the soft feeling of his smile against your lips enough to allow you to push the thought of what might be in the box to the back of your mind.

"My bits and I are just fine, and I'm ready to go." He muses after he pulls away, wrapping an arm around your waist and using his free hand to reach down and grab onto his large bag. You look straight forward and refuse to look in the direction of it, and nearly stumble forward as James gently tugs you forward and towards the stairs.

"Are you alright?" He asks you, unwrapping his arm from around you to cup your chin instead, tilting your head up to have you look at him as he peers down at you, worried. "Your talk with Cliff didn't go bad, did it?" You vehemently shake your head and watch as he lets out a sigh of relief. Guilt churns in your gut at the fact that you saw something you shouldn't have, and before you can admit to what you did see, Jason shuts his bedroom door and makes his way over to you two, shoes now on his feet and his messy curls now controlled in a loose ponytail.

"I don't care what either one of you has to say, I'm calling shotgun." He grins out, his expression renewed and energetic as he passes by and bounds his way down the staircase with ease. You feel James lightly squeeze your delicate skin, before letting go and reaching down to grab ahold of your hand.

"You ready, baby?" He asks you, his smile stupidly wide as his calloused thumb gently caresses itself over your own. You inhale in a slow and steady breath, before side stepping and pressing your arm against his, your fingers easily finding space in between his own, the intimate touch grounding enough for you to surely and adamantly agree.

"I'm ready."

I was ready to say yes to him at any point, and to every opportunity he brought me. Whether it was spontaneous, or well thought out. Whether it was accidental, or on purpose. I would always agree. I would always say yes. And that's how we got to where we are now.

I don't know how to explain it to you, but I've been thinking a lot lately about 80s!James dating the most naive and sensitive girl to ever walk this earth. Like, sensitive in every way. Specifically with loud music (loud sounds in general) and very crowded places. She loves making colorful bead bracelets and giving them as gifts, and James loves teasing her, teasing her in any way. So much so that at the beginning of the relationship, this was a problem 'cuz she always cried when he got the name of a stuffed animal she had wrong... y'know what i'm saying? (I would love to read something like this written by you, something that follows this line i hope it doesn't sound so stupid)

80s!James and hypersensitive!girlfriend headcanon

⭒ James was initially hesitant to introduce himself and talk to you when he first saw you, after seeing how sensitive, shy and naive you appeared to be around your guys' mutual group of friends. He only made his way over once he saw you were being bothered by someone who was an obvious plus one, his earlier doubt and delay dissipating once he acknowledged how uncomfortable you looked.

⭒ What started off as a mindless and minor threat being thrown at an already fully drunk and nearly close to blacking out stranger for you, slowly turned and evolved into a mutual agreement, a friendship, and then eventually, a relationship. You would subliminally intercept any girls James didn't seem like he'd be interested in talking to on his own, and in return, he'd make sure you were left alone and as far away from the party's speakers as physically possible- him purposefully keeping the flinches you made whenever the cacophony of beats would accelerate and blare from them, and when too many people brushed against and bumped into you, in mind.

⭒ One night, the mansion was too overcrowded, and you were almost shaking in fright. Your breathing became labored once you realized James was no longer in sight, and you didn't see it possible for you to be able to escape the situation by using the front or back doors of the house. So, you did what you thought would be the second-best option. You fled upstairs. Your legs nearly collapsed beneath you, and the friends that had dragged you back here once again, slowly disappeared and became smaller in the ever-growing pit with every uncertain step you took further upstairs. Before you could have searched for a bathroom or an abandoned bedroom, James came turning towards the staircase you were ascending on. You quickly loosened your death grip from around the wooden railing and instinctively pushed yourself forward, directing yourself into the taller man's chest.

⭒ James took you in his arms for the first time with careful hands and ease, already knowing from your trembling frame that you were on the verge of having a panic attack. The ringing in your ears dwindled down to a constant back burner of a buzz as he guided you up the last few stairs, and toward his bedroom. Before your impending embarrassment could overwhelm you, or you could attempt to apologize, James guided you to sit down on the edge of his bed and took your unsteady fingers and intertwined them with his. That was the first night and time James proved to you he could be there for you, as long as you would allow him to be. "I'm right here, and you'll be alright," he whispered to you, his tone confident, yet gentle. A warm pad of a thumb traced the ridge of a line on the inside of your sweat clad palm, light blue irises grounding you as you fought to control your erratic and painful heaves of aborted exhalations. "Take a deep breath for me, come back to me. That's it."

⭒ But you were there for him as well. Your hypersensitivity allowed him to feel comfortable enough around you to be vulnerable. On the occasional nights you were invited back to the mansion or coerced back by your friends, you both found solace in each other's company. You'd lie in bed with him as music and drunken cheers continuously barreled on downstairs, listening intently as he confided in you about his own anxieties. About his fears of the band growing too big too fast, his fear of the band falling apart, and him losing his best friends and members because of it. His anxieties that came with him not being able to control what was happening around him, and to himself. You'd steadily hold onto his hand and run your fingers through his disheveled mane, while he'd lie his head on your shoulder and grip the fabric of your shirt, like it was his one and only anchor. And on certain overwhelming and exhausted days for him, it was. Other and often times, conversation would be lighthearted, hysterical laughter lifting the weight from both of your guys' shoulders as you each took turns exposing small parts of your opposite personalities through embarrassing stories from the past. You both would share books and overly folded and torn pages from magazines, you being teased every time you realized you were tricked into looking at a Playboy, your cheeks a blazing bright red, and James' smile wide and boyish and youthful. Handsome, even.

⭒ The first time James invited you over during the day, he surprised you by instead taking you out to the carnival. Your usual fear of large crowds and loud sounds was mostly taken care of, as James made sure to have you both arrive early and be the first in line before they even opened up that morning. Every time someone ran too close by you or screamed a little too loud, he'd wrap an arm around your shoulders and distract you with a new game, or gently guide you away to someplace quieter. Your heart fluttered in your chest for the first time after he won you the first of many stuffed animals that day, the proud and soft look on his face as he handed it over to you was forever imprinted in your mind. A branded memory that you held close to you.

⭒ "Please don't cry, sweetheart, you know I was just fucking around. Of course, I remember the name of your favorite, childhood stuffed tiger. His name was Lucky!" He tried to reassure you, after you began to cry at the idea of him forgetting something so monumental and important to you. Translucent tears cascaded themselves down your flushed facial features, as James absentmindedly bent down to place a consoling kiss on the precipice of your forehead. You both froze in place, before stuttering out twinned, awkward bouts of shy laughter. You gripped the hind legs of your pig stuffed animal and averted your eyes, hoping your erratic heartbeat and the butterflies clashing in your midsection weren't audible enough to make it up to his ears. Insurmountable relief flooded through you, as a calloused and ringed finger delicately tapped itself on one of the many beaded friendship bracelets covering the entirety of your left wrist. "How about you make me one of these, and we'll call it even after I win you a few more of these little guys?" James let out an amused sounding guffaw once he expertly ducked away from one of your usually soft and painless punches, after his next words playfully aggravated you. "I'll even let you name one of them Lucky Jr."

⭒ The sun was lowering itself in the sky, by the time James braked and parked in front of your family's dimly lit home. You wrung your hands together in your lap, undecided and contemplating on whether or not you should be the one to speak up first. You nearly jumped in your seat, after his voice lightly reverberated in the small confines of the car. "I had a good time." James announced, as his stomach muscles tightened, and his fingertips whitened underneath the pressure he exuded around the steering wheel. You squeezed your knees together and nodded, hoping none of your new gifts would slide away and make contact with the floor. "I did too, thank you for taking me." You murmured in response, warmth filling your chest as you watched James grin, despite his body language being a juxtaposition to the action. You sucked in a shuttering breath as he leaned over you to push your door open, the ends of his dirty blonde hair coming down in waves to caress the side of your bare forearm, as he fully made his way back into the driver's seat once again. "Since you don't feel comfortable with men walking you up to your front door." He joked, his smile slowly falling as he watched your eyes rake all over his face, as if they were now only taking him in for the very first time. The words you spoke next, stole all of the oxygen that resided in his being. "You're not just a man, James. To me, you are so much more than that." James sat still in place for a long moment after you whispered a goodnight and took action to make your way outside of the vehicle, dazedly waving back at you after you tossed a halfhearted one behind your back, before clumsily footing your home's front door open- with your hands fully occupied with his prizes, your gifts. He lowered his head down with a resounding groan, not even flinching as his forehead made contact with the cool to the touch, worn-out leather covering and stretched around the steering wheel. God, he was so fucked. He was falling in love with his best friend. Little did he know, so were you.

⭒⭒ "Did you run out of beads, or something?" He asks you, a seemingly permanent upward quirk on his lips as he leans forward and over the center console separating the two of you in his car, helpfully twisting his limb as you triple knot the braided fabric around his much larger wrist. You absentmindedly shake your head no, biting back a smile of your own as you hear him let out a confused, yet content sound. "Everyone else has beads, I wanted this one to be different." You admit, inwardly shying away after you raise your eyes, and they meet his own. James keeps his eyes set on you for a second too long, before looking down at the bracelets you made once again. Yours is a sage green, interconnected and intertwined with small, yellow flowers. His, a light blue, with a deeper shade of flowers making their way around the entirety of the fabric, yellow dots of color embracing the inside of each one, causing them to stand out even more against his healthily tanned, soft skin.

"You wore a sage green and yellow dress on the night we met for the first time." James verbalizes and realizes, as the image of you pops in his head. Your shaky smile and wide eyes, as he watched you try to get away from the man harassing you near the sound system. Your smile turning genuine and soft, as he asked if you were alright, and when he playfully came up with a way for you to help him back for the rest of the night. Your light titter of amusement, and finally, your nod of agreeance. The soft looks you two shared throughout the rest of the duration of the party, and the murmured goodnights you two parted with, you both being reluctant to separate and walk away.

Your bitten back smile turns into a wide grin as he vividly remembers your first meeting from all those months ago, your left hand resting on top of his wrist. Your fingertips absentmindedly shift the backing to the side so that the front would be fully visible, as James tentatively flickers his eyes back up to yours. "I wasn't wearing light blue that night, was I?" He asks you. You slowly inhale and straighten up in the passenger side seat, your free hand anxiously beginning to tug at the bottom hem of your t-shirt. You nervously lick your lips and shake your head no, missing your best friend's eyes as they helplessly follow after the movement.

"The light blue represents your eyes," you begin and confess, a small flicker of hope lighting anew in your gut, as James sucks in a deep breath and shifts closer. "I was making mine over the past few days, and what you wore didn't matter to me, not as much at the color of your eyes did," your hair falls free as you lift your head from against the headrest, lowering your hand from your shirt to use it as leverage to push yourself flat against the console. "Your eyes were the first thing I noticed about you when we first met, and you calmed me down. And now they're the first thing I search for whenever I know you'll be around."

A warm and large hand reaches forward to cup your nape as James whispers out your name, the softness in his tone enough to bring tears to your eyes. You blurrily blink as silver rings etch themselves in the tendrils of your locks, and as he slowly guides your head forward. The wake of goosebumps gather and multiply on your wrist as it makes contact with the divider, as James brings his other open palm up to delicately caress your cheekbone. Light and royal blue and yellow make safe haven in your right eye's peripheral as you're held in the most gentle way, and as your best friend looks down at you with his own set of blown, wide open eyes.

"If I'm reading into this wrong," James trails off, his expression turning into a grimace at the thought alone. You look back at him with longing, before lifting your hand from the console and encircling it around his wrist nearest to your face. He expels a sigh of relief at the familiar warmth in the smile you send his way, ignoring the pressure against his ribs as he leans forward to rest his forehead against yours. A light breath of a laugh is breathed out in the small space between you two, and you squeeze his wrist in reassurance, feeling alive and understood at the feeling of his incessant and abnormal heartrate pulsing beneath your fingertips. "How are you the one confessing first? I thought you were the shy and oversensitive one."

Your smile is overabundantly large as James kisses you before you can answer, the fabric of your guys' bracelets rubbing against each other as you press your lips on his and savor the feeling and taste. You both don't pull back until you're gasping for air, and as soon as you both reopen your eyes and look at each other once again, laughter ensues. You rest the weight of your head in his palm connected to your nape and look up at him gently, a sigh of contentment making its way out of your plush and kissed red set. Those same light blue irises from that first night, peer back down at you, filled with adoration and devoted conviction. "I think you confessed to me a long time ago, I was just too nervous to acknowledge it," you speak into the charged and electrified air surrounding you two. You unlatch your hand from around his wrist to raise it and graze the pads of your fingertips against his smile doted skin, and his lifted, already swollen lips. "You once told me to come back to you when I was having a panic attack, but I don't think I ever left. I think I'm always present when you're around. You bring it out of me."

James damply and disbelievingly chuckles, before placing a trembling kiss to your fingertips. You gently detach and wipe away a stray tear from the corner of his right eye, a few of your own already making their way down your jawline. "I love you; you know." You confess through a mused grin, the tone in your voice easy, because admitting it now was the easiest thing in the world. James beckons you forward once again, kissing you breathless before admitting his love back to you, although you already know what his next words will be.

"And God, do I love you."

⭒⭒⭒ Bright lights, heavy bass and thousands of screaming fans erupt from around you, yet all of your prior anxieties and worries are gone as you watch James and the rest of Metallica perform on stage, the partial noise cancelling headphones you're wearing giving you enough balance and security to be able to fully enjoy yourself. You lean back against the barricade and smile widely, the pride and joy you have for them nearly beaming out of your chest, as you look at the fruition and proof of all of their hard work over the past few years.

James' voice bellows out the next few lines of the song, before he makes his way over to the edge of the center stage, and squats down in front of you, his mouth outstretched in a euphoric and blissful smile. Something he always deserves to wear. He cheekily raises his left hand, and you do the same, the light and royal blue gemstones in his engagement ring shining just as brightly as your sage green and yellow ones. You both share muted I love you's, the sounds of cheers and sung back lyrics too loud for your guys' indescribable joy to be audible. But you both know how true the words you mouth back to each other are.

You twist the gold-plated jewelry around your ring finger as you sing along with the crowd, fully embracing the experience, and all that is yet to come.

As long as you had James by your side, and James had you, you two were prepared for anything.

(note: your request was so much fun to write, and it wasn't stupid at all. don't doubt yourself, babe! i hope i did it justice and you enjoy it ♡)

Counterproductive Tendencies ✩ James Hetfield

⭒ introductory, part one, part two, part three ⭒ (wordcount: 7.8k )

Part four of multiple: Lakeside Views and Imminent Goodbyes (Part Two) (18+)

Mentions/Warnings: cliff jumping, partial skinny dipping, explicit sexual content, oral sex (both receiving)

Yellow-tinged sunlight beams itself upon your mostly bare thighs as you slump backwards and rest your head against solid and warm, large palms. Thick and calloused, ring-clad fingers, run their way through your baby hairs, as Cliff and Jason haphazardly argue and banter back and forth over the soft onslaught of metal music melodizing through the car's aged speakers- the warming up air traveling through the partially rolled down windows barely being enough to keep the confined space of the car from becoming too condensed and unbearable, from the heat radiating off and through the front windshield's window alone. Empty beer bottles rattle and collide together near James and Jason's feet, the sound emanating from them sounding like windchimes, a peaceful juxtaposition to their raising voices and the line of traffic multiplying and growing behind your guys' car.

"How much longer do you think we've got left, if you estimate it?" Jason asks again, his last few words sounding muffled as he slides his bottom lip in between his front teeth to hold back his already poorly hidden bout of laughter. You rush to raise a hand up to your own mouth to conceal your wide and amused grin, the small burst of laughter residing in your throat just barely being kept inside as Cliff tosses an incredulous look over his right shoulder. "Because not only was I not allowed to ride shotgun, but I was also lied to about how long it'd take for us to get down to the lake."

"We've barely even been in the car for more than twenty minutes, you not-so-little shit," Cliff snips back as an answer, even as the side of his mouth involuntarily quirks up to show his true reaction to his newest bandmate's playful complaints and questioning. "Keep on bitching, and I'll strap you to the front and let you sunbathe with the gnats." James leans forward and presses his own mirthful smile against the back of your head, his hands and arms sliding down to wrap and encircle themselves around your front to bring you in even closer. You lower your head to place a kiss on his nearest wrist, your eyes almost closing in bliss as you're squeezed back in a nonverbal answer and reassurance, and fully embraced.

You jolt forward instead and widen your eyes as the car harshly brakes, and disbelieving laughter fills the sudden silence in the shocked space. Kirk tosses a rushed and apologetic arm out the driver's side window of Jason's car as they fully emerge themselves in front of Cliff's and continuously speed forward, Lars' uninhabitable and unhidden screech of adrenaline filled merriment still coherent and audible as they hurriedly pass by. James' embrace turns into a secured and protective grip as Cliff curses out loud and barrels his foot into the accelerator, perspiration accumulating on your chest and lower back as you force yourself to calm down and suck in a deep breath.

"Are you alright, sweetheart?" James asks you in a worried murmur, his tone soft and placating, while his arms continue to hold you in a near, vicelike manner. You nod dazedly and extend your hands to hold onto his forearms, slow grins growing on the guys' faces as your deep inhalations turn into dumbfounded and astounded chortles. The tense air in the car quickly tethers and breaks at the sound, and James coerces himself into slowly relaxing his hold around you. You lean back in the front seat and prop your head up against his left shoulder, as Cliff manages to pass Kirk and Lars and waves a blind middle finger in their direction.

"Five dollars Lars had his foot on the pedal." Jason bets, his attention now on the comic book splayed open on his lap, his words coming out lazily as warm, pillowed puffs of air loosen the hold the elastic has around his hair. James purses his lips and finds Cliff's eyes in the rearview mirror, only airing out his side of the bet once Cliff shakes his head. "Ten they were trying to open cans of Coors, and Kirk forgot he was the one driving." You shake your head in amusement and sigh in relief as the tendrils of hair once sticking to your cloying neck, blow free over the tops and expanse of James' biceps. Cliff meets you halfway with an exasperated look, as Jason ups the amount and James lets out a scoff, before doubling it.

"You already regretting crossing the street and knocking on our door?" He kiddingly asks you, the drawl in his voice amused and low as he leaves Jason's car behind and intercepts his way into another lane on the highway. Hard blasts of stale, spring air whip against the sides of his car as you send him a large grin, and delicately graze your thumb against the beauty mark situated on James' left elbow. Soft, hushed murmurs of folk music cascade through the small gaps of the car's windows from another nearby, as you easily and readily divulge your response, the answer being automatic.

"Never."

⭒

The guy's gradually quiet down as the lake comes into view, and you slowly raise your head from James' shoulder to look around in silent, stunned awe. Sun ladened diamonds shine and dance their way across the acres-long expanse of water, as lilies and pickerelweed plants and flowers brightly and colorfully stand tall at the precipice of the waterline, while simultaneously making their way across the entirety of the water's edge. Cicadas chirp from the surrounding trees, and birds expressively speak to each other as Cliff brings the car to a stop. Your hand is wrapped around the passenger side's door handle before it's even placed in park, your awe turning into excitement with every second that passes by as you take everything in.

James is barely able to disconnect from you, before you're rushing out of the car and glancing around with a wide smile, his soon matching your own as he takes in your giddy expression and enlarged eyes. Jason places his comic book to the side, before sliding off and out the backseat, and unevenly stepping onto the sun-marked and stained pebbles and rocks. He makes his way over to the back of the car and leans against the trunk next to Cliff, them sharing a knowing and content glance as James walks over to you.

"James has had a box in his room for the past few days, and I'm pretty sure he brought it here with him today." Cliff says in a quiet tone, his eyes only gliding away to look at a bee landing on top of a lotus-covered, lily pad. Jason peers forward as Kirk and Lars skid to a halt only a few feet away from them, his eyebrows sarcastically raising as they both shout out a muffled sorry over the car's still running engine.

"I came down earlier, after I saw him holding onto it. That's why I called her upstairs. I was hoping he'd give it to her already. Even though I don't know what the hell's inside." Cliff grins to himself as Jason loudly whispers, the few beers he had earlier becoming apparent in the way he wasn't able to keep his voice down. Luckily, Kirk slammed his door shut at the same time, and Cliff pushes himself off the bumper to make his way over to his sheepish looking best friend.

"I almost totaled my car because of you." He teases, purposefully making his tone hard, and bites back a laugh as the other immediately begins to stutter out an apology. "I swear, it wasn't my fault. At least, not all the way. Lars almost spewed, and he thought drinking was the only way to curb his hangover, so he reached down by the gear shift to grab a can of beer," Kirk rubs at the back of his neck and looks away as Lars stumbles his way out of the passenger's side, drunkenly raising a thumb after he manages to land on his feet and shut the door on his own. Jason lets out a groan, before begrudgingly making his way over to help steady the Dane. "I may have also forgotten I was the one driving, but only for a second." Cliff softens his expression as Kirk looks up at him worriedly, raising a hand to pat him on the back as his friend attempts to begin to apologize again.

"I'll call us even, but only if you help me get this shit out of the trunk, and help me get all of these tents built," Cliff offers, watching with an amused grimace as Jason bends over to turn the key in his car's ignition to off, letting out a string of curses as Lars tries to jump on his back at the same time. "I don't think the rest of the guys are going to be much help. Not until they sober up, at least." Kirk gloomily looks over at the boot of the car, before nodding. He soon lets out a groan once he opens the trunk and the contents nearly pop out all at once and tumble over.

"What about James?" Kirk asks petulantly, the tone in his voice bordering on a whined out exhale. Cliff silently nods his head towards the couple making their way down the stone path, near the entrance of the woods. "They've only got so many days left together, before we hit the road again," Cliff begins, reaching forward to heave a large, still boxed and unassembled, tent kit out of his car. Kirk winces at the echo the box leaves behind, as it makes contact with the rough grounding now underneath it. "We should let them have an easy time, before things become less easy and harder on the road. You know how things can get, have gotten." Dark curls tickle his shoulders as Kirk bends down to lift the cooler and store bags instead of verbally answering, only sending his friend and bandmate a dismissive look over the condensate-covered container once he's fully stood back up.

"Things will be better for him this time, for all of us," Kirk affirms, closing the trunk with finality once everything is piled up outside of the car and its earlier compartment. All except for one bag. "If he's doing this well, while already knowing how much little time they've got left together, he'll be fine once they're separated and doing their own shit." Kirk tilts his head to the side, watching as you two share a smile and walk your way into the wooded area. The usual weight he has on his chest while thinking of James alone on tour, suddenly feels light. Cliff looks away as Jason and Lars clumsily make their way on over, him sending them a grateful smile, as they cautiously bend over and seemingly pick up the lightest and easiest things left to carry.

Cliff nods in the direction of the flattest looking grassy area, and drops down in a squat, allowing a laughter lined smile to temporarily push his worries away, as the guys playfully gasp at the sight of him taking out his switchblade. He digs it into the side of the box, and then turns around to face them once again, his smile turning cheeky as he watches two out of three of his best friends let out a groan at the thought of having to move around anymore than they already have.

"Alright. Let's get even."

⭒

Small and uneven pieces of stone and gravel scatter beneath yours and James' boots as you two make your way even farther down the path and fully into the woods, the hot and incessant sun and its following heat temporarily being blocked by the tall trees' branches and leaves now covering you two. James grins widely as you playfully shove him to the side, before readjusting the already too large, self-cut off sleeves of his shirt back onto your shoulders. You unsuccessfully hide your own as his fingers find purchase on your shoulder blades once again, the pads of his warm fingertips dipping underneath the fabric of his t-shirt to lightly dance across your heated up and already tanning skin.

"I'm just trying to make sure you aren't hurt, baby. That's all." James playfully insists, his grin turning into a smirk as he feels the chill that runs its way down your spine from his simple touch alone. You hum noncommittedly, trying to coax yourself into coming off as relaxed. Your breath gets caught in your chest as the trees eventually disappear, and an even more beautiful sight than before comes into view. You two stand only a few feet away from the edge of a much taller drop into the lake, a rosebush on each side of the precipice a beautiful arrangement of pink and purple. You extend your arm, and only move forward once you feel James' long fingers intertwine with your own. You allow yourself to be gently tugged and tucked into his side, your joined hands being held behind your back as he places a kiss on your dampened temple.

"I can't believe you just randomly found a place like this on your own." You breathe out, your tone incredulous and heavy with wonder. James' next words make your cheeks wildly color, and you cant your head back to look into his eyes. "I only found this part of the path after I met you, actually." Your eyebrows furrow as you watch him get lost in thought, and as his smirk falls down into a slightly downtrodden expression. You lift your free hand and use your open palm to rest it upon his jawline, holding onto him as he peers down at you, suddenly looking tired.

"Hey, what's going on up in there?" You ask quietly, not wanting to interrupt the moment by accidentally raising your voice or talking too loudly. James shakes his head, and then hesitates, the hand holding your own coming loose enough to reach forward and grip onto the fabric of his shirt around you instead. "I thought I was alright with the idea of going back on tour and us doing long-distance, but I don't think I am," he confesses, bringing his other hand up to encapsulate it with the one currently cradling the side of his face. "The last few days without seeing you have been terrible enough on their own as is, I can't imagine a few days turning into a few months."

Realization dawns on you, and you can't help the soft coo that finds its way out of you. You gently turn your hand around in James' own and wrap your smaller palm around his, before beckoning him towards a higher leveled rock. Watery, blue irises meet yours as you sit him down and make your way onto his lap, his free arm instinctively wrapping itself around your middle to bring you flush against his front. "I'm not going anywhere." You start, your tone coming out as matter of fact. You place a delicate kiss on the side of his mouth before he can rebut, wanting more than anything for your physical touch to be more than enough reassurance that you're still here, and that you always will be.

"Where am I now?" You ask him, his lips twitching upward as the question reminds him of the ones he had asked you earlier this morning. "You're right here, with me." He answers throughout a small and gentle, growing smile.

"And where will I be when I'm not able to be there with you physically?" You whisper, your lips brushing against his as you press your palm on his bare chest, resting it against the skin covering his fast-beating heart. "Right here, a phone call away, a letter away, maybe even a ticket if we're lucky," you lift yourself up on your knees to rest your forehead against his, before continuing. "It's not like I won't miss you, won't want you close, but we can still make this work. I'm here with you, whether you're across the street, or across the country. So, please, be here with me. While I still have the opportunity to have you in my arms. While we still have the opportunity to experience new things together." James swallows thickly and murmurs his own agreeance, before tilting your head down with his thumb, and lowering you into a devouring, passionate kiss.

Your lips audibly shift against his with every slick and breathed out moan, your fingers molding themselves into his sweat clad skin, while his own reach down to caress small circles around the fingerprint marks he left behind only a few hours ago. Warmth awakens within your gut as you feel James subconsciously buck his hips forward, and as the soft fabric of his swimming trunks brush against the rough texture of your denim covered zipper. As you hungrily swallow down his gasped out exhale, an aborted exclamation tears itself out of your chest as a cheeky sounding throat clears itself from behind you, only a few feet away.

You squeeze your eyes shut as a drunken laugh reverberates and echoes over to you two, the sound of a bag being placed on the ground following soon after. You groan in mortification as Lars speaks up, the amusement in his voice making his accent thicker and richer with every word he forces out through choked back titters. "Kirk made me walk this out and over to you nasty fuckers, since I'm apparently still too out of it to help them build the tents," you brave a look over your shoulder and immediately blaze red as you two make eye contact, your shoulders dropping and hunching forward as you twist back around to bury your face into James' neck. James sends his best friend a glare, before nodding his head towards the path's walkway. Lars raises his hands in faux surrender, beginning to stumble as he starts to walk backwards. "Don't know if there's any condoms in your girl's bag, but I do know that she at least brought a yellow towel." Lars holds back a grin as he hears you let out a muffled and embarrassed sound, tilting his head down towards your bag once he's sure you aren't looking, and mouths bikini to James, before fully turning around.

"Fuck off." James spits, hiding his own amusement at being caught behind his urge to get Lars away to make you feel more comfortable. The Dane's laughter is still audible after the sound of his footsteps subside, and you only raise your head once James begins to fully sit back up again and gently taps at your backside.

"I'm never going back out there again," you declare, running a hand through your hair as you shift yourself back to sit on the heels of your booted feet. "I'll just swim home, I brought a bikini for a reason." James can't help the loud burst of laughter that fights its way out of him at your defeated tone and Lars' earlier mention, and you can't help but to dissolve into giggles at the hilarity of the situation. Tears spring to your eyes as you struggle to catch your breath, it hitching in your chest once you blink them away and catch onto the look James sends your way. Oceanic colored joy shines around his dilated pupils as he watches you finish up your bout of laughter, and heartfelt warmth fills the entirety of your chest as you finally make sense of the look you're being gifted with. Love.

You glance down at your bag, feeling overwhelmed. Your hands shake at your sides as you try to come to terms with everything coincidingly happening at once. You and James making things official, Cliff approving of you, you seeing James with a small, jewelry box. James, your now boyfriend, looking at you with so much love. You force yourself not to run, to not backtrack, and you send him a small smile, before rising to your feet.

"You agreed to experience new things with me while we have the time, chance and the opportunity to, right?" You ask, relief flooding through you as James looks up at you openly, albeit a bit confused, before nodding. Your smile widens as he immediately takes your hand once you outstretch it towards him, and he quickly chokes out your name as his shirt is tossed over your head and onto the now newly abandoned rock.

You take a step aside as you reach back to unlatch the clasps holding your bra together, your smile turning shy as you watch your boyfriend's jaw slacken and lower at the sight of you. "Go swimming with me?" Your bra straps just barely graze your forearms before he's vehemently nodding his head yes, his cheeks burning a bright red.

⭒

Heated stone burns the backs of your upper thighs as you dangle your feet over and off the edge of the large rock and its cliff, hiding your doubt and hesitation as James tosses your bag down to the side of the lower level of foundation, the eventual landing of the carrier sounding long and far away. Your bikini straps lightly dance around your upper back as you graze your calves against the smooth moss collecting around a part of the overhang, sending James a nervous glance once he straightens up, his own expression now bright and excited.

"When I offered to go swimming, I didn't mean cliff diving." You murmur, sucking in a deep breath as you peer down to see how far your feet are from the actual body of water. James hides his grin behind his hair, before squatting and sitting down next to you, his bare shoulder caressing your own as he does so. "And if you're nervous, you can just say so." He rebuts, his tone teasing. His eyes rake over your form as you begin to tense up, his amused smile turning gentle as he watches you stutter in an uneven exhale. Your breath evens out as his warm palm raises and steadily runs itself down the middle of your spine, the cool temperature of his rings making you feel familiarized, as you slowly peel your eyes away from the main source of your anxiety.

"We don't have to do this if you aren't ready or comfortable, babe," he reassures you, his thumb delicately dipping into the natural curve of your back as you lean and arch into his touch. "We can just walk back down the path and past the boys. There's a lower level down there, and I'm sure one of the guys can join us, if that'll make you feel more safe and secure about it." Your lips shakily lift at his caring proposal, before immediately shaking your head no and dragging your now bare heels across the solid surface beneath you.

"Lars has probably told everyone that he walked in on us having sex on top of the first solid surface we saw already." You respond around a small huff of laughter. James can't hold back his own sound of amusement, and you both fall into a small moment of silence, before he slowly extracts his touch and inches his way forward. You follow after him, reaching down to tightly grasp onto his right hand as your backside makes contact with the slippery ridge. James turns his hand around, palm facing the sky, and intertwines your damp digits with his, before twisting to the side to place a kiss on the middle of your neck placatingly.

"Don't look down, look at me," He instructs you, squeezing your hand in his and sending you a proud smile as you do so. He tilts his head toward the water. "The water's only fifteen feet deep, and the jump is even less than that. I know it seems scary now, but I promise you, I'll be right next to you the entire time. And if it at any point feels like too much, just hold onto me, and I'll keep you from going in too deep." You nod along with his words, your heartbeat regulating in your chest and your fingers relaxing in his hold as you look up into his affirming gaze.

"I won't ever let you fall on your own or stray too far away from me." He promises, his words sounding heavier than intended, like a double meaning commitment. You ease back and then straighten up, your eyes momentarily leaving his to glance back down at the lake, no longer feeling overwhelmed, as a gentle ripple accumulates itself into a small wave just a few yards away from you two. "I trust you." You hearten, looking back at your boyfriend just in time to see the way in which your words affect him. James' smile widens and he takes in an enlarged, heavy breath, his pulse skittering underneath his wrist, which is directly pressed up against your own.

"And I trust you." He echoes back, his tone the most gentle and vulnerable thing. You elongate your thumb to brush it against his index finger's second knuckle, before nodding and bending your ankles back to brace yourself for the quick jump and drop. "Let's do this." You grin, your anxiety now long gone, as adrenaline and security run through you instead.

Your thighs touch as you two prepare yourselves at the precipice, and you two share an excited smile, before using your free hands as leverage to lift and push yourselves off the mount and edge of the rock. James' bright laughter is the last sound you coherently hear, before you stretch out and make contact with the lake's water.

Your feet kick underneath you as you fully submerge, the cold water awakening goosebumps on your skin as you relax your body and allow yourself to naturally float back up. Ripples of crystallized sunlight greet you as you reopen your eyes right before your head reaches the top, and you gasp in a delighted breath of fresh air as you resurface. Joyous titters bubble themselves out of you before you can help it, and you whip your head around to find James, only to have the sounds muting and freezing in your throat as you seemingly find yourself alone. Before you can even call out for him, a hand encircles itself around your left ankle, and yanks you back under.

You panic and thrash, only to huff as your eyes find his underwater, the first few feet of water illuminated enough by the sun to see his grin a few inches away from you. You reach a hand out to shove at his shoulder, before wiggling your leg free and swimming back up to the top. Droplets make their way down your forehead and temples as James cackles next to you, his hair clinging to the sides of his face and making him look even more youthful as he laughs. You forcefully whip your hand underneath a wave in his direction and bellow out a laugh as a sizeable splash of water directly smacks him in the face.

"Oh, you're gonna get it." He playfully gravels, his smile jubilant and euphoric as he reaches his arms and hands out to grab onto you. You shriek and halfheartedly attempt to break free, fully relaxing in his grasp as his hands slide down to rest upon your hips instead of assumingly pulling you back under or tickling you. Your arms encircle themselves around his shoulders, and you hold back a shiver as you're lifted out of the water and placed onto the cornerstone next to your bag. James slides himself between your legs and rests a forearm on each of your knees, a nervous laugh of yours echoing in the air as he places a brush of a kiss against your wet, bare stomach.

"Thank you for trusting me," he whispers against you, his bottom lip caressing the skin beneath your bellybutton as he speaks. Your thighs begin to tremble as his arms slide back down into the water, and his large palms hold your legs wide open instead. A whine tears itself from your chest as his tongue travels down to the beginning of your bikini bottom, the whine turning into a moan as he turns his head to the side to bite the tied knot free on the side of your striped material. Once blue turned onyx irises peer up at you as you push the hair from clinging to the side of his face back past his shoulders, the sun barreling heat down on your reddening face as one of his hands slide up to rest upon your upper thigh. "Still trust me?" He asks, his tone turning husky as he watches the now free material bare another inch of your skin to him, and as your nipples harden and petal from your newly, onset arousal.

You needily nod, your clit beginning to pulsate behind the nylon as his right hand reaches up to push it to the side, your breath halting as he lets out a curse as soon as your sex is finally visible. "Even prettier than I thought it'd be." He nearly moans out, sounding drunk. You can barely blink, before he's descending down upon you, and running the entirety of his thick and hot tongue through your folds. Your fingertips press into his skull as he skillfully takes you apart, your stomach muscles tightening and convulsing as you fight back the urge to scream his name. Thick rings press themselves in your skin to hold you in place as you writhe, and your head falls back to rest upon your partially open bag as the tip of his tongue slides up to lap at your clit.

"James," you sob, your pussy beginning to throb and become hypersensitive as his free hand comes up to rub its fingertips against your sopping wet entrance. Your mouth falls open in a silent scream as he slowly pushes and curves a finger into your tight heat, a strangled and wet sound clawing its way out of your chest as he finds your g-spot on his first attempt. Overstimulated tears lie on the edge of your lash lines as he lifts his head from you, your wetness leaving a thick glaze on his chin as he looks up at you, a second finger entering you as he watches you fall apart right in front of him. "Please."

"What do you need, sweetheart?" He coos, his voice sounding unaffected, while his chest heaves and his tongue peeks out like a man starving to lick at whatever it can reach beneath his bottom lip. James moans as he feels your walls constrict against his middle and ring fingers, his swollen lips lifting as your hips raise from the rock to try and ride them. "Need me to finger fuck you a little bit faster, don't you? So fucking needy for me. I knew you'd taste and look like a dream once I finally got the chance to be alone with you. Look at you now, doing and being so good for me." Your eyes roll back in your head as he crooks his digits upward, your heels you've been using to help you thrust sliding down and weakening as his second knuckles nudge against your sponge-like spot relentlessly.

"I just need you, always just need you." You answer through unadulterated and hiccupped mewls, no longer caring about if the other boys could hear you as you get closer to orgasming. James lowers himself back down onto you before he can mutter the few words dying to make their way out of his mouth, making his appendage useful as he sucks at your clit and flattens it against your weeping pulse point. Your knees lock around his shoulders as your hips raise from the ground once again, before dropping back down with a soaking wet sound, a wail of your boyfriend's name being wedged out of your gaping mouth as you release all over his face and over welcoming tongue.

Yesyesyesyes repeatedly makes its way out of your jaw slack mouth as he continues to lick and lap and suck, his fingers only slowing down and halting once you begin to whine and push his head and wrist away. Ripples of shivers wrack and shake their way through your entire being as you fight to bring in air, eyesight blurred from the force of your orgasm, and your legs only being stopped from spasming by James holding them in place. Morning stubble tickles the tops of the front of your thighs as James kisses the expanse of them while you calm down, his own eyes fluttering as you loosen your hold against his scalp and grip onto his shoulders instead.

"Come up here." You invite once you catch your breath, your hunger becoming insatiable as James shakily lifts himself from inside of the lake and makes his way over to mount himself on top of you. Your taste is being licked into your mouth before your head can even touch the top of your bag again, and you obediently follow his tongues movement with your own while he feeds you your own essence. James' heart leaps in his chest as you flip the two of you over and you slowly sit yourself on his lap, the exhaled sigh of relief he lets out from the pressure of you on his dick enough to have you bending down to place and lick kisses on the flesh of his flushed neck.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to." James tries to reassure you, even as his hips buck up to thrust and press themselves against your bare pussy. You smile against his skin, damn near eating the sounds he lets out as you suck red hued marks into his tanning skin, the drawn out moans and shocked inhales being more than enough confirmation for you to keep going.

"You think you're the only one who's been wanting to see the other naked, to want to have the other one's taste in their mouth?" You ask him, grounding your sex into the thin material of his swimming trunks and smiling triumphantly as you feel his cockhead jump against your swollen clit with every movement you make. James mutely opens his mouth, slamming it closed to grit out a heaved out grunt as you lift yourself up to lick your way down to his hipbone like he had done to you earlier, the combined taste of the natural salted water and the heady taste of his sweat making your head spin. Your mouth salivates as you slide the material of his shorts down and finally see his dick, the swollen and blood red tip weeping beaded and nearly translucent drops of pre-ejaculate as you readily lick your lips and slide down to lie on your stomach in between his legs. "As if I haven't been wanting to taste you since the night we first kissed. It took everything in me to not turn around and beg you to take me to your room."

Your boyfriend squeezes his eyes shut and reaches down to run a hand through your still damp and unruly locks as you attempt to wrap a hand around his pulsating shaft, a slim rope of spit keeping your lips together as your fingertips barely touch the underside of your palm. "Going to make you feel so good for treating me so well." You promise, your other hand sliding up to hold him in place as you peek your tongue out and lightly run it across the tip of his soaked head. James' fingers lightly twist and become a small fist in your mane as you slowly encase your swollen lips around him, a cry of your name pouring out of his mouth as you make your way down to mid shaft, your saliva coming out of the sides of your mouth, only to travel down and messily rest and pool on and around his raising and jolting ballsack.

"So good," James nearly breathes out in a carnal sound, the wet heat of your mouth and the tip of his cock lightly tapping against the back of your throat enough to make him already feel close to the edge. "So perfect for me." The praise makes you moan, the reverberations causing James' balls to spasm and for his legs to jolt up. You close your eyes and take in a deep breath before attempting to deepthroat, the way his knees bracket you in as he shudders beneath you making you feel stable as you push your head forward. You weakly gag as you feel your throat constrict and fight against the unusual stretch, before relaxing as his spurts of tangy precum soothe and coat your soon to be sore throat. You unlatch and relax your hand from around his shaft, bringing it up to encircle it around the hand attached to your head, to signal to him it was okay for him to start moving his hips.

Light, dirty blonde hairs tickle the bottom of your nose as he slowly thrusts his hips upward and pushes your head flush against his abdomen, his muscles feeling painfully taut as he forces himself to breathe through the overwhelming pleasure. You bring yourself up to your knees and hold back a wince as your skin rubs against the hard slab underneath you, before sliding a hand down in between your legs to rub at your incessant and still throbbing clit. Tears stream down your face as you easily bring yourself to your second orgasm, already so close from the lack of oxygen from James' solid thrusts into your mouth and throat, and from the taste of him alone. You raise your hand covered in your own slick to nudge it against and massage his ballsack, hiccupped moans coming from your throat along with barely suppressed gags, as James uses you with rough and reckless abandon.

"I'm close baby, can I?" He asks you, his voice barely audible and scratchy from all of his moaning and pants. You tap twice against his wrist once again and shakily breathe in as often as you can, the force and strength behind his thrusts as he fucks your mouth enough to pulse and move your head backwards. James twists his hand through your hair and yanks as he cums down your throat with a low and punched out moan, the seed so warm and large it makes you push against his stomach and tug your head free. You gasp for breath and swallow as much as you can before beginning to cough, the rest of his release sliding down from your chin and landing on the mounds of your breasts as you roll back onto the heels of your feet. A satisfied and satiated smile lifts your spit and cum clad lips as you look at how fucked out and debauched your boyfriend looks underneath you, his chest heaving for breath and his eyes wildly large. You teasingly tap on his thigh and let out a chortle as you're yanked down and rested on his middle, your hands sliding down to rest upon his as you both take a moment for yourselves while holding onto each other.

"Please don't tell me that was a dream." James breathes out, his still panting lips shaping into a grin as you let out a loud laugh and toss your head back. "Not a dream, baby. But it would be a great one anyway." You reassure him, leaning forward and resting a hand near his head to grab ahold of the aforementioned and infamous yellow towel. James laughs as soon as it comes into view, and you smile to yourself, before using the dry and rough fabric to clean yourself off as best as you can.

Your boyfriend lowers his hands to use them as leverage to sit himself up, his elbows unsteady underneath him even minutes after his orgasm. You scoot back to lightly dab at the mess you left behind on his thighs and where you sat on his stomach, a blush rising to your cheeks as you notice the amount of your slick stuck on his fingers and still clinging to both of your guys' skin. "I don't think the towel's going to be enough to clean us off." You coarsely whisper, your throat beginning to sore and feel rough. James feigns contemplation, before gently tugging the fabric out of your hands, and throwing it over his shoulder. Before you can even laugh at the fact that it landed perfectly on a tree branch, you're being lifted and tossed back into the lake.

Laughter fills your water covered ears, and you hastily swim back with barely enough time before James is jumping into the water alongside you, his swimming trunks being left behind to dangle haphazardly on a sharp edge of the rock's ending. You decidedly unknot the top already loosely hanging from the back of your neck, and then toss it towards his shorts, a hoarse laugh making its way out of you as it lands near the towel instead. James swims toward you and tugs you back flush against him, the smirk on his lips apparent as he tantalizingly rubs your breasts clean and trails a hand down in between your legs.

"You were amazing." He praises you, his voice gentle, despite his sexual touches and his wide amusement being pressed into the side of your neck. "And you were perfect." You respond, your eyes closing in bliss as his thumb flicks over your clit and his other fingers run their way through your oversensitive lips. Your head rests upon his shoulder like it did earlier in the car, and your eyes snap back open once you acknowledge how loud you two had been. "Oh God, the guys." You groan, slumping forward as James lets out a hysterical laugh from behind you.

"If you thought Lars was the only one to worry about, just you wait." He cryptically teases, leaning back and away from your arm's length as you blindly swat for him. An amused expression cascades itself upon James' features as you turn around and point a finger at him, the soaking wet version of you extremely adorable and as nonthreatening as humanly possible.

"Don't tempt me, I will swim home," you threaten, your laughter melodizing with his after you finish up your sentence. "I just have to put my bikini back on first."

⭒

Howling laughter and low whistles greet you two as you two make your way off the path and towards where the guys have everything unpacked and set up, a grimace set on your features as your feet uncomfortably shift in the confines of your now damp on the inside boots. You lower your head as James wraps an arm around your shoulders and playfully waves everyone off. "Fuck off, you've all done worse."

"Our girl's first walk of shame with us, and it isn't even at our home." Lars whispers out brokenly, wiping a fake tear from the side of his eye as he cradles a beer to his chest with his other hand. Kirk looks up from Jason's comic book from the softened ground and sends you two an amused smirk, before going back to reading. Cliff unzips the largest tent and points at the inside, an unimpressed yet highly mirthful look on his face as he does so.

"Fucking is for the inside of tents, not in the lake, while you scare off and interrupt wildlife." Jason chokes on his drink and bends in half while Lars unhelpfully beats on the middle of his back with a half-closed fist, laughter bubbling out of him as he tries to keep their newest best friend and bandmate upright. You turn your head to the side to hide your own grin, and to look at the lakeview instead, only to have your head guided back in the opposite direction. James cups your chin and brings you into a chaste, meaningful and long-lasting kiss, the reverberation of his laugh tickling your cupid's bow as the guys groan out loud in unison and complain from a few feet away.

"Disgusting behavior." Lars snips, the small and genuine smile on his face the opposite of his tone and words. Jason nods toward the car and sends you a secretive smile once he stops coughing and finds his breath, before walking over to you two and attempting to snag James away.

"There's another bag or two still left in the car, would you mind grabbing them for me while I talk with your guy?" Jason asks, the side of his mouth upturning as he shares a small, yet full glance with Cliff. You nod and remove yourself from under James' arm, sending your boyfriend a comforting smile as he begins to look nervous. Hushed murmurs erupt from behind you as you make your way over to Cliff's trunk, and you force yourself to not look back at them as it opens underneath your hand. You peer in look around confusedly, before realizing James' bag is the only one left in the truck. You take in a deep breath, before wrapping your hand around one of the bag's large handles.

As you tug the bag forward, a small and red, velvet box falls out from the confines of its side pocket. Picking it up, you glance over your shoulder and latch onto James' eyes with your own. He freezes at Jason's side, yet doesn't stop you from slowly inching it open. As you look away from his hesitant expression and look back down instead, your stomach drops and tears spring to your eyes as you take in what's been in the box, and in the trunk, all day and for however long James has had it.

"Holy shit." You whisper, unaware of James making his way over to you, his hair as damp as the palms he's wiping against his swimming trunks. James stops just a few feet away from you, his hands anxiously wringing themselves in front of his stomach. You take in a deep breath and force yourself to stay in place as he sends you a nervous smile, before opening his mouth.

"I can explain."

I'll never forget the first day we spent together, and with the guys, at the lake. I still have your gift, and I still wear it every day. It still reminds me of you, still makes everything feel like home while you're out and gone on the road. Still reminds me that I belong to you, and that I always will.