Part Three
The business of setting up an entire household from scratch definitely kept Shane and Erik occupied.
"I never imagined there was this much work involved in having a home," Erik said, plugging their new phone into the kitchen wall jack. It was one of the newer touch-tone kind and looked a little odd, all slim with no real body, hanging up on the wall. Nothing like a proper rotary phone. This thing wouldn't look at home sitting on a telephone table. "If I have to go out again today, I think my head is going to explode."
Shane laughed. "If there's anything more needs fetching, I'll get it," he offered. "At least if you'll trust me with your car."
"Of course. There. That's settled. So. About the paint."
"What about it?" Shane looked up from the wishlist he'd been compiling off and on all day.
"I stopped at the library and looked in a home improvement guide. There's a lot of work involved in that shit. I think we ought to just hire somebody to do it."
"Fine with me," Shane nodded. "Tell you what, you can handle all the shit on the inside, and I'll take the outside, okay?"
"What do you mean? The yard?"
"Yeah. I have no clue how to make this big empty place into a proper home. But I damn sure know what to do with all the weeds out there."
"Fine. Sounds good to me. Never figured you for a gardener."
"Used to hate it," Shane chuckled. "Grandma used to make me weed her garden all the damn time. But now, it's our own yard, and suddenly all I want to do is get out there and make it look good again. I can see where it was a beautiful place, especially out back, before whoever lived here before let it all go to crap."
"This is kind of ridiculous," Erik said, shaking his head with a bemused grin. "Look at us. Two of the biggest rock stars of the last few years, dividing domestic chores."
"Ridiculous or not, I'm perfectly content to be here, setting up a home with you."
"So am I." Erik reached out and squeezed Shane's hand. "I'm glad you came and found me."
"Me too."
Then Erik picked up the new phone book and leafed through it until he found a listing for a local painter, and Shane made another note on his list: shower curtain.
By the time Friday rolled around, the interior of the house looked like a completely different place. The walls now gleamed white, with a hint of greeny-blue tint, and made the entire place look huge compared to the crazed colors of before. Even the painters had been taken aback by the shocking paint job left behind by the artist.
The hardwood floors gleamed, too. It'd taken a lot of work, but between them, Shane and Erik got all the dirt cleaned up and polished up the old wood until it shone with a warm, rich glow.
"You know what?" Shane said, catching Erik by the arm as he started towards the phone, to take care of yet another of the innumerable little details related to the new place.
"No, I don't know What, but I've met his brother Who."
Shane snickered. "Smartass. I think we've done enough of this work shit for the day. Want to go check out the lake?"
"It probably looks like every other big puddle of water."
"Seriously, man, if we don't take a break, we're going to wind up getting all pissy with each other again, like back when we first met."
Erik laughed. "At least now you know I don't mean it when I call you an asshole."
"Yeah, but it's still too new having you back around. Don't want to go and ruin it with overwork."
"You've got a point, I suppose. I'm about halfway to fed up with this shit."
"Come on, then. Let's go."
"Oh, all right. If you insist." Erik made a face, but his eyes danced. "Not like it'll hurt anything to hold off on more shopping, or whatever. You know, I hate shopping."
Shane laughed as they went out the door. "Can't blame you. You've spent more time out than in the last couple days."
"Think you might have hit on something," Erik said later, as they walked along the lakefront trail. The steady breeze blew their hair around, smelling like freedom. A few picturesque clouds floated overhead in the otherwise bright blue sky.
"What's that?"
"Life's much easier when you take a break every now and again."
"Yeah. Much happier, too."
"Neither one's a concept I've had much familiarity with," Erik sighed. "Not much easy or happy about a life where you have to leave every time you start to feel a bit settled."
"Well, you don't have to go anywhere anymore," Shane said. "You can stay here as long as you like."
Erik smiled, but didn't say anything.
That evening, they headed over to the neighbor's place. Harvey was just as happy to see them as he'd been the other day, and introduced them to his lover Fritz, a big, taciturn man with distinguished white streaks through his grizzled dark hair.
Shane and Erik, in their traditional rock-star uniform of jeans and T-shirts, both felt a bit out of place at first. They wound up sticking together as they met their new neighbors, an eclectic crowd of people who dressed nice and discussed things like art and theater comfortably.
And music, of course.
"So what happened?" Ellen, from the third floor apartment, asked avidly. "Tell us! What happened to the band? There must've been some reason for the breakup."
"Huh." Shane made a face, glanced at Erik. "You want to take that one?"
"Not really," Erik grimaced. "Let's just say there were a lot of drugs involved, and some, uh, personal conflicts."
"Really? Is that why you guys just disappeared off the face of the Earth?"
"Ever hear the phrase 'rock bottom'?" Shane asked, with a wry smile. "I'd say I gave it a new depth of meaning. Had to go off on my own for a while."
"That about covers it for me, too," Erik nodded. "We've only just gotten back together."
"Does that mean you haven't been writing anything new?" Jennifer, Ellen's girlfriend, asked, making a tragic face.
"Now, we didn't say that," Erik grinned. "Put the two of us together for any length of time and new music happens."
"You should sing something new for us," Ellen said. "Or even something old. We're not picky."
Shane and Erik both laughed. "Knew we should have brought the guitars," Erik said, shaking his head.
"Oh, come on, who would've thought people would want to hear a pair of musicians play music?"
"Did I hear someone mention music? Like, say, our very own Chicagoland rockers?" Adam, a single guy from the house two doors down, joined the conversation, looking hopeful.
Shane laughed some more. "Erik, we seem to be a bit more popular than anticipated."
"I'll go get the guitars," Erik replied, grinning. He worked his way through the crowd of people clustered around the snack table and out the front door.
"Really? You'll play for us?" Jennifer's eyes got very wide.
"Why not?" Shane shrugged. "After all, we're musicians. That's what musicians do. And frankly, there aren't that many parties that aren't livened up a bit by live music, now are there?"
They all laughed at that. Then Shane spotted trouble heading across the room, with a smile aimed right at him. David.
"Well hello," David said, still devastatingly handsome even what, six years on? More? Who knew. "Haven't we met before?"
"Kind of," Shane admitted warily. "A long time ago."
Over ten years ago when he'd first seen David. More like twelve. Shit, was he getting old already? And he hadn't been to a Boystown bar in at least six years, so he hadn't seen the man, and he'd been okay with that. The youthful infatuation must've went away with the youth.
"Can't have been too long, you're certainly not an old man."
The teenager Shane would have dropped dead on the spot if David had ever looked at him like that.
"Long enough," Shane replied, easing back a bit.
"So you're not new to Boystown after all?" Adam asked, one eyebrow raised.
"I used to spend a lot of weekend nights out here, a few years
back."
David edged a bit closer, turning up the wattage on the smile. Shane was very pleased to note it did nothing for him anymore. He was even more pleased to spot Erik returning, guitars in hand.
"Erik, now," he nodded towards his lover, "he's very new here. But not me."
"Got a small crowd already, I see," Erik said, handing over Shane's guitar and stepping in very close to him. Shane smiled as David deflated a bit and backed off.
"Yeah." Shane slung the strap over his shoulder and struck an experimental chord. Heads popped up all over the room.
"The A string's a bit flat," Erik said.
"Thanks." Shane made the adjustment, chorded again, and got Erik's nod of approval. "You're better than a tuning fork."
Erik grinned.
"Are you really going to play for us?" Harvey sounded ecstatic.
"Why not? Every party can use a bit of music." Erik plucked an intricate arpeggio while he spoke. Across the room, a man with an impressive and dramatically out of style 'fro sipped a glass of red wine and stared. "Anyone got any requests?"
"'Seeker'!" several people called out at once. Erik chuckled as he looked at Shane, nodding the beat.
They hadn't played "Seeker" since their last concert. Didn't matter, though, they still had the magic. It sprang to life in the room around them, a nearly visible force, picking up everyone present and carrying them away to a land where magic was real.
When they finished, there were many starry-eyed sighs, and much enthusiastic applause.
"Thank you, thank you!" Shane grinned, taking a half-comic, half-serious bow. "Thank you very much."
Then Erik started playing "Dreamchaser," and Shane sobered in a hurry. The lyrics to this one were tricky, both in pacing and range.
The applause that followed the song made both of them glow.
"How 'bout that new song?" Ellen requested.
"I don't know," Shane said. "That one's kind of a downer."
"So?" Ellen said. "Who cares? We want to hear it anyway!"
"Yeah!" More than a few voices agreed with her.
"Remember it all?" Erik gave Shane an inquiring look.
"Of course. Hey, Harvey! How's your supply of Kleenex?"
Everyone, including Harvey, laughed.
"If we run out, well, there's plenty of toilet paper," Harvey assured him, smiling.
"This is called 'Broken Dreams'," Erik announced, then swung into the melody he'd crafted to fit Shane's lyrics that momentous night they'd reunited.
Shane took the lead on the vocals and backup on guitar. He felt a brief panic when he started playing, wondering if he really did remember the tune Erik had played once, then shrugged off the worry and let the magic take him where it would. He knew the words, that was good enough.
And there was more than one set of tear-filled eyes by the end of the song.
The man with the 'fro approached them after the last notes died away.
"Go Marty!" someone called across the room.
"Hi."
"Hi," Shane and Erik said as one.
"Marty Finborn, of Lakeview Records. Are you two at liberty to sign a new contract?"
Shane glanced at Erik. "All you, man. I suck at this. As witness the previous deal."
"Maybe," Erik said. "Depends on what you have to offer."
"We can discuss details at another time."
"With our lawyer present."
Marty raised an eyebrow, but nodded. "Of course. Will you sign?"
"You sure you want us? Without the rest of the guys around, you're going to get stuff that's a lot more lyrical than what Luna Sea put out."
"We're the musicians," Shane put in, with a grin. "They're the rockers."
"All to the good. Lakeview's an eclectic and alternative label. I want nothing to do with common, run-of-the-mill music. You two have talent, and originality. That's what I want."
"We'll talk," Erik nodded. "How about next Wednesday?"
"Sure you won't come earlier?"
"We already got screwed once. Not saying you'd do any such thing, but we want our lawyer to look over any paperwork and make certain we don't get screwed again."
"Sensible of you," Marty nodded, although he sighed wistfully. "Don't talk to any other producers though, okay?"
"Not likely," Shane assured him.
"You know the other guys have gone back in the studio, right?"
"No," Erik and Shane said together.
"Yes. They're keeping the name Luna Sea, so you'll need another."
"You really want just a duet?"
Marty dismissed the question with a wave of his hand. "We've got session musicians if you need backup. I need talent like yours, even as a duet."
"And we've gotten burned out on big arena tours," Shane said. Erik nodded.
"Not a problem. Never sponsored one of those, probably never will. I meant it when I said Lakeview's alternative."
"Good."
Suddenly Marty grinned, and it transformed him from an intense and serious man, to someone whose expression fit the big 'fro. "Now I know why I'm suddenly cool enough to get an invite to a Fritz and Harvey party. Everyone in Boystown knows I've regretted not signing you guys forever."
"You have?" Shane blinked in surprise. "Lakeview's not a label that rejected Luna Sea or Moonwind."
"No, but I definitely felt like I'd missed a great opportunity. I caught you lot playing at a party years ago, before Erik was with you, and liked you, but something was missing."
"That's because Erik has all the magic," Shane grinned. "The other guys can record and tour all they want, but it won't get them anywhere without him."
"You've got some magic of your own," Erik said, giving Shane a warm smile. "But it's better with me."
"Yeah." Shane smiled back, then returned his attention to the real world. "Well. This has been a productive night."
"Indeed." Erik's hands fiddled with his guitar, producing a stream of quiet notes. He never could leave an instrument alone for long. If one was near, he'd start playing it, even if it was just a maraca leaning up against a wall.
"Give us another song," someone called. "No more business. It's a damn party."
They laughed, then Erik struck the opening notes of "Strangelove," an instrumental interlude he and Shane had rammed past the loud objections of Mikey the drummer. Shane smiled and joined in, adapting the keyboard part to guitar on the fly.
They played a few more songs, including a couple the rest of the band had squashed after birth. Marty watched them with glowing eyes and an air of proprietary pride: Mine! My musicians! All mine!
Then somebody, in an attempt to reach the bathroom, opened the wrong door and released a small, excited fluffball of a dog, and any hope of further music was lost as Erik got all silly, playing with the Pomeranian. Shane, watching his lover turn into a ten year old, sighed internally and resigned himself to the thought of getting a dog. Damn. He liked cats. And snakes. But Erik looked like he'd died and gone to heaven with that fluffy orange thing licking his nose.
Shane found a seat on a nearby couch, sliding easily into a conversation with Jennifer from upstairs about music. But then David popped up again, with Erik safely distracted, and Shane hid a laugh. Funny how some people were. David had ignored him utterly when he was just a scrawny longhair kid. Add a little fame and the man was all over him.
Erik noticed quickly, too, and set the dog back down, returning to Shane's side.
"Maybe we'd better get out of here," he said, one hand resting possessively on Shane's shoulder.
"You might be right," Shane agreed, smiling up at him.
"Don't go so soon!" Jennifer protested.
"We live right next door, not like you're never going to see us again," Erik smiled. "But we've had a hell of a busy day."
"Yeah." Shane stood, tucking his guitar automatically behind his back.
They thanked Harvey and Fritz for the good time, although Harvey looked horribly sad to see them go.
"Thank
you for the gift of your music," he said, looking downright crushed as they left.
Shane leaned down a bit, enough to reach Erik's ear. "We've got us a fanboy," he sang, in very quiet parody of the song "Convoy." Erik snickered.
They went back into their own home and deposited the guitars in the music room. Shane gave his synthesizer a fond pat as he passed it.
"So who was that tall, handsome devil that kept sneaking up on you when I wasn't looking?"
Shane laughed. "Someone who didn't have a second look for me before I got all famous. That's David, the resident slut. I freely confess, when I was a teenager, I had the hots for him pretty bad. But that's all gone now."
"Really?" Erik slipped in close, very close. "You don't say?"
"I do say," Shane smiled. "All he's good for now is making you jump."
"Ha! You know I don't like it when there's guys all over you."
"And you know I love it when you get all jealous and protective." Shane's smile grew. "I'd still be waiting for you to kiss me the first time if not for that jealousy of yours."
Erik laughed. "Okay, so maybe I needed a bit of a shove. And maybe you need to quit talking so much and kiss me now."
"Okay."
So he did, not that he had any problem with obliging his lover. Many people out there underrated a good, romantic kiss, but not Shane. He could spend an awful lot of time just kissing Erik, regardless of if the kiss led to anything more or not.
This one did. It led them right up the stairs and into the bedroom, where the bed awaited them in the darkness, and the magic of their love rose up and swept them away into a realm where nothing mattered beyond each other.