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• • •1.Natasha was the first to notice, naturally. Years before the mission, she returned from a deployment and felt like something was different about her best friend. His smile was a little warmer, a little more sincere. The tension in his shoulders eased slightly. His eyes sparkled more often. He was more secretive of his phone, always having to dart out of the room for a random phone call or concealing a smile while texting somebody.It was… odd. But when she met Bradley, she’d forced past his walls because of just how miserable he seemed. Seeing him happier was far and away something she would not begrudge him, even if his secretiveness concerned her. Because that was the other thing. They had no secrets from each other. Coming out to one another in a college bar over vodka shots through slurred words in 2009 when they were both fresh to the Navy had sort of broken that barrier. There were times where they’d both wished that their dynamic held more propriety but it didn’t. So Bradley Bradshaw hiding something from her? She found it alarming, at first. But she knew their easy honesty was only because it was freely offered and if he wanted to be private about something, it wasn't her place to demand answers.So she didn’t ask, even as she began to form her own assumptions the more time went on and he never breathed a word of it to her. It sure sent a thrill of surprise down her spine when she noticed the band on his ring finger that day in The Hard Deck, though. The knock with the pool cue was certainly for far more than the fact he hadn’t told her he was stateside just yet.She wanted to drag him by his ear out to the beach and interrogate him but between meeting her new WSO and Hangman being his naturally grating self, they both got caught up and before she knew it, the night had fallen to a rousing close with Bradley’s spirited rendition of ‘Wanted Dead Or Alive’ joined by a chorus of drunken aviators and then they were walking together back to base in a troop of giggles, trying to walk straight and collectively praying for the hops to be late in the day come sunrise.She forgot about the ring until she got back to her assigned housing and by then, she was too tired to do much more than gulp down as much water as she could stomach, take a quick shower, brush her teeth, and fall into bed. By morning, she’d forgotten it altogether and when she finally saw Bradley in class, the ring was absent from his finger.And then she was far more concerned about her friend’s behavior earning him a discharge for blatant insubordination to even remember any glimpse of jewelry that she hadn’t seen since.• • •2.Fanboy had really, truly, honestly been trying to mind his own business when he returned to the ready room because he’d forgotten a written packet that he’d been working on in between everyone else’s hops. It was supposed to be empty, in his defense. And the door was wide open.But when he saw Rooster pacing around the far side of the room, eyes turned to the windows and back to him, his phone raised to his ear and his shoulders creased tight with tension, he stopped dead in his tracks. And he really was going to just turn around and walk away, honest. But as he pivoted, he heard Rooster sigh and say, “I know, honey, I know.”Curiosity killed the cat, or so they say. His attention was officially drawn and he turned back to watch as the pilot scrubbed a hand over his temple, listening to whoever was on the other end of the phone. “You don’t get it, Stace!” Rooster said, his tone displaying frustration but his volume never rising, “Twenty years and this is the first time we’ve spoken, he wants to tell me to let it go? On the first day?!”He paused for a prolonged moment before shaking his head with a tired sigh, “I know, baby.” He tilted his gaze skywards, and then said, “I didn’t say I handled it well,” and he chuckled, though it lacked mirth, “I’m sure I’ll get the dressing down of a lifetime in the morning, Cyclone is something of a hard-ass if I remember him correctly from Jacksonville.”He sighed again, scrubbing his hand roughly over his face, “No, I’m aware that I fucked up, I just—“ he cut himself off, sighing as he listened to the person on the other end, “Stacee, I know I’m being irrational, okay?”“I know,” he repeated himself softly, shaking his head, “You’ve listened to me bitch and gripe and moan and complain and vent about this for nine years, you know why it’s driving me nuts.”“You don’t remember the fucking mess I was when we met?” He posed, shifting his posture and crossing his arms again. He then laughed, this time sounding fond as he said, “Well, that’s very sweet of you, honey, but I also happen to remember the fact that the only thing really driving me before I met Nat was spite and one friend was not enough to draw me off the edge of that cliff, babe.”He smirked, “Don’t flatter yourself.” Whatever the response was, it made him cackle and croon down the phone, “No, you certainly don’t need me to tell you that, do you?”His smirk faded to something closer to a genuine smile and he tipped his head down, “I wouldn’t either, baby,” he toed at the ground and his smile grew wider, “I love you too.”Fanboy’s eyes blew wide. This conversation was private for a reason. He felt like an intruder witnessing even just one side of it but he couldn’t force himself to move, having never seen this side of the other pilot in the twelve years they’ve known one another on and off, ever since Rooster was Bradley and he was Mickey and they (alongside Phoenix when she was still just Natasha) were placed into the same squadron as their first assignment fresh from flight school.“I miss you,” Rooster’s voice turned a little forlorn as he gazed out at the horizon, the California sunset casting the ready room in a warm shade of soft orange light. He smiled again, exhaling through his nose in the suggestion of a laugh, “I know, three more months.”He chuffed again, toeing at the ground with his boot. He still hadn’t changed out of his gear, his flight suit unzipped halfway and tied around his waist, leaving the standard issue black t-shirt underneath visible. “It feels like a lifetime,” he spoke softly into the receiver, “I know that sounds like cheesy bullshit but it’s true.”He then pulled at the chain of his tags to get them out from under his shirt, cradling the bundle in his hand. Fanboy thought there might be a flash of gold against the silver tags if he squinted but Rooster’s hand concealed him from seeing the entirety of the contents of the chain. He was startled when Rooster laughed loudly, “Duty calls, babe,” he teased.“Tell Sherrie and Drew I said hi,” he said, “It’s not just you I miss seeing.” He laughed again at whatever reaction he received and then said, “Well, I certainly don’t miss them in the same way,” in a tone that could only be described as sultry. He laughed again at the person on the other side’s reaction, still thumbing over the metal in his hand.“Can you get someone to video Sugar for me tonight?” He smirked, “You know it’s my favorite.” He laughed again, “I certainly won’t complain but I need something to quench my appetite for the next three months, babe.”“Love youuuuu,” he spoke down the speaker teasingly, “Call me tonight when you get back.” He smiled brightly and tucked his tags back into his shirt, “Knock ‘em dead.”He laughed softly, “I’m doing rock horns in spirit, babe,” he held his free hand up despite the fact that the caller could not see him, his thumb, index, and pinkie extended in rock horns, “You’ll get the full treat in February but until then, you’ll have to use your imagination.”He threw his head back in a sharp bark of laughter again, “No, you certainly don’t.” He smiled again and then said, “I love you, I’ll talk to you later,” and after another beat passed, “Bye.”When he hung up, Fanboy backed away before he could turn around and catch him eavesdropping on his very private conversation and he backtracked halfway down the hall. This time, he put his feet into a jog and his sneakers squeaked a little against the smooth enamel flooring. When he reached the doorway, Rooster was already facing him expectantly.Fanboy gave a passing smile of greeting with a wave and a ‘hey’ as he darted in to grab his packet. Rooster returned the wave and the ‘hey’, but his smile was a little lackluster. Fanboy didn’t mind him, just grabbing the forgotten packet and leaving the other pilot to his own devices once more.When he got back to his car, he laughed at the sheer exhilaration of finding out a secret he should not know. And then he tried to stop thinking about it because the mission training was far more important than his buddy’s personal life and he really didn’t want to be any more nosy than he already had been.• • •3.Let it never be said that Jake “Hangman” Seresin is not an observant person. He saw the ring on Rooster’s left hand the minute the other pilot tucked his thumbs into his jeans to fall back into a cocked hip with a smirk and a low-blow comment to rebut Jake’s teasing smile. Having not spoken to the other pilot in five years and having not been on good terms since 2012, he didn’t even stop to question it. Sent a passing thought of some tangled mix of pity and jealousy for whoever got him to come off his perch and called it a day.He also noticed the way the other pilot pulled his tags off carefully in the showers, stashed them in the locker without ever showing anything other than the chain to the rest of the room. Jake vividly remembered the technique from the days of DADT when men didn’t want questions about the spouse he never talked about. When he showed up to the beach for dogfight football shirtless and no tags, it only confirmed Jake’s suspicion. For whatever reason, Bradley wasn’t letting anybody in on the fact that he was married.It wasn’t until he heard the other man’s phone ringing from inside the locker next to his while Bradley was in medical being treated for a severe case of whiplash and a set of bruised rips that he considered what to do. There wasn’t a doubt in Jake’s mind that the rapid-fire phone calls were from Rooster’s husband. But he didn’t know whether he would be allowed to cross the line of invading the other pilot’s locker, reading the caller ID, and bringing the phone to him. If only Phoenix wasn’t in a separate locker room.But after hearing the other pilot’s ringtone play through for the fourth time in a row just since he’d entered the locker room, he couldn’t take it anymore. If he were at home waiting on a call and unable to get through, he’d be losing his mind. Whoever this guy was had cared enough to lock down Mr. Allergic-To-Commitment, he was no doubt making himself sick with worry. Jake couldn’t just stand by and not do anything.So he opened the other pilot’s locker and found the phone just as it began ringing again. Rather than a name on the caller ID, there were two emojis. An electric guitar and a red heart. Well, if Rooster was being secretive, it made sense. Answered absolutely zero of Jake’s curious wonderings but that wasn’t really the point, was it?Grabbing his bag full of clothes, feeling glad to be freshly changed, he watched the call ring out until it cleared to show Jake nine missed calls from the same number. He grimaced as the phone began to ring with the tenth and he picked up the pace.Two more calls rung out before he could get to the infirmary and when he finally did, he spent five full minutes arguing with the medic on duty to get into the exam room while a thirteenth call caused the phone in his hand to vibrate rapidly. Finally, though, he got through to find Mav in the bed closest to the door and sedated, which made sense considering the last Jake had heard, his adrenaline crash had turned into a rather nasty panic attack. But Rooster was fully awake and grimacing as he held an ice-pack to the left side of his ribcage, shifting as he tried to get comfortable atop the cheap mattress.When he heard the door open, Bradley looked up from the cold pack in his hand and stared questioningly at Jake until another call came through, playing Rooster’s distinctive ring tone into the empty room. The pilot’s eyes widened.“I’m gonna keep my mouth shut about this,” Jake held the phone up, “Cause you’re jumping hoops to hide it, for whatever reason,” he rolled his eyes, “But he seems real worried, figured I’d do you a solid.” Jake tossed the phone onto the bed, where it landed just to the side of Rooster’s thigh. Bradley scrambled for it immediately, pausing just long enough to give a breathy, “Thank you,” to Jake before he swiped to answer the call.The volume of the man on the other end’s panic was palpable even to Jake from where he stood, where frantic sobs of “Oh my God” came through the phone. Bradley’s whole face shifted, like the sound itself pained him, “Shh, shh, baby, it’s okay, it’s okay, I’m okay.”Jake watched as tears welled in Rooster’s eyes and he swiped at his face, “I know, I know,” his voice was hoarse as he responded, “I have a good explanation, I promise, but you’ve gotta calm down first, Stace.”Jake took that as his cue to exit, as much as he wanted to know more. He respected his fellow pilot’s right to a private conversation with his very frantic husband and he knew his presence was likely making Bradley more uncomfortable than necessary. There’s a reason they both swore off of dating fellow aviators when they’re relationship crashed and burned way back when.He just hoped Rooster was happy. And as panicked as his husband sounded, as hurt as Bradley had looked to just hear him in such a state, Jake could feel the love bleeding off of them. He couldn’t see a reality where two people who cared quite so much about one another weren’t happy. And that thought brought a smile to his face as he returned to the room he and Javy shared. Maybe one day he’d find something like that. Until then, he was glad to see a love like that alive and thriving.• • •4.It really was in the little things, Bob thought, the small details that gave away the particularities of someone’s life. He picked up on it the first time Rooster has the squad over to his apartment in Los Angeles.After the mission, they were all commended for their success, their bravery, their survival, and given six months of leave. After the first few weeks, some of the Daggers began trickling out and traveling home to see their families, everything landing just in time for the Holidays. But the bond forged in the air by those who flew the mission hadn’t quite settled back yet and they weren’t ready to part so far from one another quite yet.Rather than go back to his home in the Mojave, Mav had opted to take Rooster’s offer of his spare room in his apartment. With all of them still waking from nightmares on the daily, reliving watching Mav’s plane go down or hearing Rooster’s comm line go silent or in Hangman’s case, shooting down a plane to save Mav and Rooster’s lives just in time, nobody who’d flown that day was ready to leave just yet.And because Coyote went everywhere Hangman went, six aviators roomed together in pairs of two in a hotel in LA, two city blocks away from Rooster’s apartment complex. Their first night in the city, Rooster offered to host everyone over for dinner.All in all, it was a pretty normal night by most standards. Rooster made a killer lasagna that Mav had nearly cried at the sight of, which they’d both explained was because it was Rooster’s mother’s recipe. He served it alongside a pitcher of Italian soda that was flavored with mango syrup and a long slab of fresh bread spread over with garlic butter and toasted to perfection. They ate around a round dinner table that was just a little too small for eight pilots to eat around but they made it work. It wasn’t dissimilar to a night out at The Hard Deck, if not for the lack of alcohol.And that was the first thing Bob noticed. When Rooster served the flavored seltzer, Phoenix had made a crack about no wine with Italian food and Bob had seen the way Rooster tensed slightly and then just said he didn’t keep alcohol in the house. And if Bob hadn’t seen the man sip on a beer here and there all throughout the mission training and getting downright drunk the first night they all arrived, he may have assumed by the reaction that he’d had a history with alcoholism.But as it stood, Bob wasn’t sure what to make of it. Until he went to the bathroom and saw eyeliner, mascara, and a pack of makeup wipes stashed on the far corner of the vanity. Bob didn’t know much about makeup but he’d grown up with two sisters and he recognized the brand of mascara as not exactly cheap. The thought then occurred to him but it was further cemented by the bottle of tattoo care lotion on the other side of the sink when Bob knew damn well that Rooster didn’t have any ink, thanks to the shared shower space. This meant that Rooster had someone around often enough to leave little imprints on his home.And out of a blatant curiosity, Bob ran down the gambit of people in his head and came up empty. Rooster had more than once shared his only-child status (something he did not need to advertise to the aviators with siblings, who’d spotted that from a mile away) and had been rather explicit about his parents’ unfortunate fates. Phoenix had told him on the drive over that she’d only been to Rooster’s apartment twice since he moved into it, so it couldn’t be her. And Bob just couldn’t picture the captain donning eyeliner and mascara.This left him with a question. And the thing about Bob is that when he has a question, he digs for an answer. Never by being invasive, but by observing. By notating and adding it all up together. By poking and prodding when he found the opportunity.When he returned to the table, he watched Rooster fiddle with a gold ring on his left hand and realized exactly what they were all missing. He examined the ring as best as he could from across the table, thought it suited the man as he’d come to know him in the past two months. It was wide but not very thick, a shiny yellow gold that appeared to be in pristine condition. It fit his finger very well, sized very particularly and perhaps even beveled on the underside for the comfort of the wearer.Across the top, where it caught the light, a very thin line of stones were inlaid along about a quarter of the band. Centered on the line was a triangular cut solid stone, also inlaid so the stones didn’t stick up away from the band. At first glance, the stones appeared colorless but the more Bob stared, the more they appeared to be a very pale shade of blue. Bob wasn’t exactly an expert in gemstones but he didn’t think diamonds came in such a color so perhaps the stones were topaz or aquamarine. Either way, he knew the ring must’ve been costly. Especially if the band were solid gold and not just plated.Bob knew that whoever had given it to him had not done so lightly. Or perhaps, when combined with the high-end brand of mascara, they were well-to-do. Either option intrigued the WSO but he didn’t comment, knowing full well that the pilot had a right to his privacy if that’s what he so chose.He was just waiting for the right opportunity to pose a question without crossing the line of intrusion. And he was a very patient man.• • •5.It was at the very end of January that the truth finally came out. The whole team had finally departed, all but Bradley and Mav, to spend the holidays with their families and friends back home back in December. But after nearly a month, the whole group had poured back to California. Upon the final Dagger’s arrival, they arranged to meet up at The Hard Deck for the night just to share some chatter over a couple games of pool and some drinks.Stories of family chaos, drama, and wholesomeness had been traded back and forth between jabs and smack talk as four different aviators circled the pool table for over two hours. But as the night went on, more patrons came in and the bar grew rather warm. Not unpleasantly so but warmer than it had been. And Bradley was rather warm-blooded, always pouring warmth from his skin and quicker to overheat than most.And when Bradley’s turn came up for a game of eight-ball, he shed his light jacket to find some relief and for ease of mobility, entirely forgetting the way that his entire upper arm was still bandaged. As he draped his hoodie over a chair, all of the Dagger’s eyes fell on him and their conversations fell silent.“What?” He asked, grabbing a piece of chalk and rubbing it to the tip of his pool cue. “What the fuck happened to your arm?” Phoenix questioned, her eyebrows furrowed as she all but glared at his shoulder. Ever blunt, his best friend. He glanced down at the wrapping having forgotten about it entirely because the numbing cream Lonny leant him was the good shit.“Oh, right,” he stared at it awkwardly and then looked back up sheepishly, “I got a tattoo.”“When?” Phoenix exclaimed. “Uh… three days ago or so?” He scratched the back of his neck, “It took two sessions, technically, but I’m supposed to take the wrapping off tonight when I get home and shower.”“I thought you hated tattoos,” Hangman tilted his head, “I asked you one time and you swore up and down that you’d never get one.”“Okay,” Bradley rolled his eyes, “That was eleven years ago when I had a chronic fear of needles, and this is not my first tattoo.”“What did you get?” Coyote asked, leaning on his cue and staring curiously at the opaque wrapping. His artist had given him something opaque so the sun wouldn’t affect how the colors settled in. “Well this,” Bradley tapped the bottom edge of the plastic, “Is a wyvern.”“A wyvern?” Payback’s eyebrows furrowed. “Dragon,” Bradley, Fanboy, Bob, and Coyote chorused together. “I can’t take the plastic off yet but the artist took a picture before he wrapped it,” Bradley pulled his phone from his pocket and found the picture in question, passing his phone around.In the photo, at the very top of Bradley’s shoulder, where the bone slips into the socket, there is a small circle shaded with red and black. A blood moon. Underneath it, a black dragon furls it’s wings around the muscles of his arm and flies directly up toward the moon. It’s tail ends just before his elbow.“Damn,” Coyote nodded, “Whoever did it did a damn good job.” Bradley grinned, “Mark fucking rocks, man.” The remaining Daggers nodded their approval as well.“So wait,” Hangman cut in as Phoenix handed Bradley his phone back, “If that’s not your first tattoo, what is?”Bradley lifted his right leg and rolled the top of his sock down slightly so his ankle was more visible, “This.” There on his ankle was a very small silhouette of a hand, the pinkie, index, and thumb fingers held aloft.“Rock horns?” Hangman rose an eyebrow, “I don’t remember you being much of a metal guy.” Bradley grinned, still staring at the tattoo he’d had done years ago, “Things change.”“That one’s got a meaning,” Coyote grinned, “Written all over your damn face.”“They both have a meaning,” Bradley corrected, “But that one is an inside joke.”“With who?” Phoenix asked, crossing her arms. Bradley took a deep breath and the moment hung in the air for nearly a minute as he contemplated and then he finally exhaled.“My husband,” he answered decisively. All of their eyes widened. Hangman smirked. Fanboy covered his mouth in shock. Phoenix stared at him with a nearly blank expression. And Bob hid a smile into his glass.“I’m sorry,” Phoenix cut through, “When, exactly, did you get married?”“Last summer,” he rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously. “You were in Japan last summer,” she squinted at him. He nodded, biting his lip, “I had a few weeks of leave, I flew back, we got married, he flew back with me.”“And you didn’t tell me,” she glared. “I had a valid reason for that,” he defended, “But we’ve been talking about being a little less secretive about our relationship since the mission and… he wants to meet you guys in a couple of weeks.”“Where is he?” Hangman questioned. “That,” Bradley pointed, “Would spoil the surprise.” Hangman pouted and Bradley just laughed.“So what’s the symbolism behind this then?” Coyote motioned his hand over his upper shoulder. Bradley smiled, something fond again, “He calls me his dragon,” he caressed his hand over the wrapping, “He knew I’d been wanting it for a while and hadn’t found the time so he surprised me by paying for an appointment with his artist in Anaheim since I had the leave but he couldn’t be home for Christmas.”None of the fellow aviators could find the gall to mock him for his love-struck smile, far too endeared by the couple already. All of them were startled from watching Bradley’s eyes sparkle by Mav’s hand clapping down onto the back of a nearby chair as he dragged it over to turn it backwards and straddle it, “What’re we talking about?”Seeking revenge for her best friend’s lack of forthcoming honesty, Phoenix smirked and said, “Roo Roo’s husband.” Mav chuckled at the nickname but the team of aviators were surprised to find no shock in his eyes.“They finally got it out of you?” Mav continued to chuckle through his words. Bradley laughed with him and nodded.“You finally gonna tell us his name or do we all have to wait until we meet him?” Mav ribbed. Bradley shook his head and sighed, but then said, “His first name is Stephen and that’s as much as I’m telling you.” Fanboy and Hangman both cocked an eyebrow in confusion, but they didn’t voice it.“Remind me again when this dinner is supposed to take place?” Mav asked, leaning his cheek into his hand. “Tenth of February,” Bradley chewed at his lip, “It’ll be late, though, part of his Christmas present to me was also some concert tickets, said he’d meet us there.”“Us?” Payback’s eyes went wide, “I’m sorry, this man bought how many tickets? And for what concert?”Bradley bit at his lip again and then said, “He gave me eight tickets.” All of their eyes went wide. “To see who?” Payback repeated himself. Bradley fidgeted a little, “Arsenal.”A chorus of “You’re fucking kidding!” “Seriously?” “Holy shit!” “No fucking way!” Sounded through the group of aviators.Hangman laughed, rubbing his jaw in shock and then said in a teasing tone, “Got yourself a sugar daddy, did you?” Bradley cackled, “Oh, he’d be so fucking smug about that, Jesus,” he wiped at the damp edges of his eyes, “If you must know, yes, he’s got money.”That was followed with a few teasing howls and cheers. Bradley just laughed, “I will let this treatment slide if you shut up about it because I’m inviting you to a free rock concert.” Immediate agreement resounded around the alcove they were tucked into around the pool table.“Alright, now that that’s settled,” he shook his head, still chalking his cue, “Mav, get your ass over here, let’s show ‘em how it’s done,” he hoisted a discarded pool cue towards his godfather.Mav chuckled in that way that sent chills down their spines, so used to hearing it on the other end of the comm line just before the tone alarm sounded on their plane, “Let’s, baby bird, let’s.”The topic was otherwise dropped for the rest of the night, even when Bradley stalked out to pace the beachfront to take a phone call.• • •

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The story of why Bradley stumbled his way into The Bourbon Room on that particular night is a complicated story. He’d finally been able to return home after a nine month deployment to the Caribbean only to find a handwritten letter on his doorstep. When he’d opened it, he found a letter addressed directly to him from Slider detailing Ice’s recent diagnosis with cancer.He’d immediately gotten in touch with his uncle and found out that Mav was still overseas on a black ops mission where no one could reach him. It had taken him very little to then immediately be drawn to Ice’s side. After two very emotional weeks, Mav returned home and Bradley left before his godfather could ever know he’d even been told.Then it was his mom’s birthday and he was facing the idea of losing another person to the same wretched disease, someone he hadn’t spoken to or been in contact with for nearly a decade out of spite towards someone else. The guilt and the fear was eating him alive on top of the grief for his mother and the nightmares he’d been having thanks to a near-miss incident where he and another aviator had been forced to spook off a group of four enemy jets over open water.All in all, he wasn’t doing so hot. His relationship with Jake had come to a close in a fiery blaze the year prior, cutting off over half of his friend group like family taking sides in the divorce. His only real contact was Nat and she was serving backup on a covert ops surveillance unit that Bradley was not even supposed to know abut and therefore unreachable. This left him wanting to quiet the noise in his brain in some way that wouldn’t have long-lasting effects so he decided to drive in to LA and see what he could find for live music on the strip.He’d had two drinks already when, just as the sun was fading and turning day to night, leaving behind an autumnal, coastal chill in it’s wake, he’d seen the line out the door to The Bourbon Room. When he got closer, he read the sign and realized the reason for the crowded attendance. Arsenal was performing after two opening acts.Bradley had never been one much for hair metal, even as much as the 80s music his parents and the flyboys had all clung on to still appealed to him. He’d always been more for the Fleetwood Mac or James Taylor, the tamer side of classic rock and Americana. But already hurting, a little tipsy, he reminisced on days where Chipper’s civilian clothes comprised of a denim vest covered in patches and pins, the days where Mav popped on a record and bobbed his head to Paradise City while cooking dinner.So he’d walked in. The cover charge had been shockingly low to get in but Bradley certainly was not complaining, especially once he realized they up-charged the alcohol to make up the deficit. Considering how cheap it had been to get though the door, he hadn’t complained and just paid the $12 for his beer.He’d come in on the tail end of the first opening act, a soloist who played covers more often than she did original music though her voice wasn’t half bad. Bradley had actually quite enjoyed the second opening act, a dual-lead band called Von Colt who rang a vague bell for having had a hit or two somewhere along the way so he’d heard the name but it hadn’t stuck with him. Halfway through their set, Bradley found himself in desperate need of a leak thanks to his third beer of the night and excused himself.But in the dark decor and dim lighting of the venue and in his own rush to find a toilet before he soiled his jeans, he didn’t realize that the first door he found was actually labelled as a staff bathroom. Instead, he rushed inside to the nearest urinal to relieve himself.While he washed his hands in the sink, something caught his periphery so he glanced into the mirror. Imagine his surprise when he saw Stacee Jaxx himself stood behind him.Now, Bradley may not have been a super-fan for Arsenal but he would have to be downright pop-culture illiterate to not recognize one of rock music’s biggest legends smirking at him in the mirror, draped in cream-colored fur with dark sunglasses and a black cowboy hat on his head.“Oh-“ he startled, turning to face the man as Stacee stepped forward. “Well isn’t this a treat,” the man smirked, “I think Dennis would’ve told me about a new hire so that must mean I’ve found a tall drink of water where he’s not supposed to be.”His tone shocked the young aviator, sounding downright flirtatious as he eyed Bradley up and down. He sheepishly smiled, “Sorry, I guess I found the wrong bathroom.”“Well, you’re half-right,” the rockstar said, encroaching on him. His stature was smaller than Bradley would’ve assumed but his presence more than made up for it. “This is the staff bathroom,” his smirk returned as he tilted his head, still taking slow and languid steps forward to where Bradley leaned back against the porcelain sinks, “But don’t be sorry.”He shook his head, “No,” he slid his sunglasses off, his bright green eyes lined with dark eyeliner and crinkling at the edges from his quirked smile, his voice tempered low so Bradley had to lean in towards him to hear his words, “No, I’d prefer to call this a happy accident.”Bradley swallowed as the rock legend effectively pinned him against the sink, standing toe to toe and smiling like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. Stacee lifted a hand, cradling Bradley’s cheek and drawing his thumb over Bradley’s bottom lip. “You got anywhere to be later tonight?” He cocked an eyebrow.“N-no,” Bradley stammered. The corner of the man’s mouth quirked up even further, “Good,” he then took his hand from Bradley’s face, patting his cheek a few times before lowering it, “Stick around after the show, talk to the bartender, I’ll tell Lonny I’m expecting you.”Well, Bradley supposed a minor part of his plan had included getting laid but this was certainly not the method he’d been accounting for. But as he roved his eyes over the other man’s body where he was shirtless beneath his fur coat, he couldn’t find a valid reason to turn him down. It felt pathetic, in retrospect, how easily he’d been charmed by Stacee’s mere presence alone, but it worked. The other man was downright intoxicating and Bradley had barely even had a taste yet.So who was he to say no? “O-okay,” he stuttered once more. Stacee’s eyes flashed and his grin widened again. He nodded at Bradley, “Good.” Bradley was suddenly very aware of his personal affinity for praise as he tried to control the flush rising in his cheeks, but Stacee was not fooled, his grin turning downright sinful.A knock sounded at the door, “Five minutes!” Stacee turned back at the sound and then shifted to face Bradley once again, “Suppose that’s my cue.” Bradley just awkwardly nodded. Stacee backed away, allowing Bradley to stand once more at his full height rather than lean the counter and then as Bradley passed him to exit, he smacked Bradley’s ass through his jeans.Bradley yelped at the unexpected slap and Stacee chuckled under his breath, his smile still spelling ‘tease’ as he turned towards a urinal, removing his coat and draping it over one of the stall doors. “Run along,” he urged, nodding toward the door as he unbuckled his ornate belt, his myriad of rings clinking against the western-style buckle, “Wouldn’t want you to miss the show.”Bradley swallowed, his hand on the door as Stacee winked and said, “I’ll see you later,” in the most seductive tone Bradley had ever heard a man use. What could he do but obey?He left the bathroom nursing a semi and thankful that while his jeans hugged his ass, the inseam allowed a slight amount of breathing room in the crotch. He assimilated with the crowd just as the duo on stage began the third chorus of their final song of the night.It was good and he moved along with the energy of the crowd around him but he couldn’t really focus, his brain recalling the glint in a pair of sly green eyes and the low drape of a pair of dark jeans, showing off the tattoos of two pistols with the tips dipping beneath the waistline. Before he’d fully registered that the opening act had ended, the girl on stage was calling into the mic, “And now, a warm welcome to the main event of the night!”“It’s been a few years since they’ve been back to visit their home-gig but tonight, we have a special treat for you as Arsenal makes their return to The Bourbon Room!” She called out, the sound echoing through the reverb of the speakers and then she smiled, something flirty and charming that might have had Bradley shifting in his stance if he were a straighter man and then she drew her arm up in a welcoming gesture, bowing over so her blond crimped curls fell over her face in a waterfall. The beginning of an intricate guitar riff played through the amplifiers, the bass of the sound creating a deep vibration in Bradley’s chest. The crowd screamed in excitement, hoisting rock horns and baring tongues as they all jumped in place and cried out their enthusiasm for the band in question.“On guitar, the talents of Keith Ferrey!” The stage lights cued back up from where they’d faded when the second act closed, showing a man with dark shaggy hair picking at an electric guitar with one leg hoisted onto an amp.“On keys!” A riff played out in a synth-y sound as the light above the keyboard cued up, revealing a woman with split-dyed hair, half platinum blonde and half neon green, she bared her tongue with a smirk much like those in the crowd, showing off a dark purple tongue piercing, “Jamie Mercy!”“Bass performed by one Atlas Harks!” Another riff strummed out, this one deeper and growlier, as the lights came up over the other side of the stage, showing a man with black hair and purple streaks pulled into a chaotic halo of curls around his head, which he slung around as he head-banged, stooping low on his chunky combat boots.“Your drummer tonight!” The main light came up in the very back of the stage as the drummer, mostly hidden by his kit but for the mess of long, wavy blond hair, played a short solo, ending with a twirl of his sticks and then a hoisted hand to showcase rock horns, “Lindsey Bartalow!”“And finally!” She said as the band began a soft opening, the drummer and the keys playing a few chords, causing most of the crowd to downright roar, “The one, the only!” The spotlight on her went out and then returned only a second later, only she no longer stood in it. In her place was a microphone stand.“Stacee Jaxx!” Her voice echoed around the room, nearly overpowered by the screeches of the crowd as a figure stepped forward into the light, the opening riff of Paradise City playing through the loud speakers. His hat obscured his face as he played the black electric guitar in his hands, slowly approaching the microphone stand. Bradley scanned him from top to bottom, finding the same pair of dark jeans with the western belt buckle as he’d been wearing in the bathroom, paired with a pair of dark leather boots. He still wore no shirt, baring his range of tattoos to the audience, but he wore a black leather vest with a strip of rhinestoned fringe all the way around. His hat was also the same as he’d worn in the bathroom, a black suede cowboy hat with a clustered feather adornment on the side.When he tipped his head up, singing the first lyrics of the song into the mic in that distinctive sharp croon, “Just an urchin living under the street, I’m a hard case, that’s tough to beat,” he smirked into the mic as he scanned the audience through the silver-rimmed sunglasses perched on his nose, “I’m your charity case so buy me something to eat.”When his eyes met Bradley’s, a jolt passed down the aviator’s spine, only further enhanced as Stacee hit a high note on the end of the line, “I’ll pay you at another time.” Bradley watched the rockstar moving fluidly with the music and found his eyes unable to leave his hips as he rolled them in time with the guitar he played or the dexterous movement of his fingers racing over the fretboard of his guitar.His smirk grew as he dropped his guitar, the guitarist of the band taking over the riff as his hand found the microphone, swinging the stand with his body’s natural momentum as he rocked into the beat suggestively, “Take me down to the paradise city where the grass is green and the girls are pretty.”Bradley’s jaw dropped as Stacee rocked into the mic-stand in a way that was absolutely not up for interpretation in time with the lyrics, “Take! Me! Down!” his tight jeans only not showing absolutely everything due to their dark color and the way the lighting had shifted, no longer the direct and bright yellow overheads, instead shifting to the side-stage lights which shifted between a cyan blue and a hot pink, casting the stage in a wash of color and low lighting.When the song’s pace picked up, Stacee swung his guitar back into his hands and picked up right where he’d left off. Bradley suddenly understood why rock was such a pervasive genre for some because he’d never seen anyone ooze raw sex appeal quite like this rockstar in his element. It was downright addictive and he couldn’t believe that all he’d done was stand there a little shell-shocked and this god of a man was demanding his presence after the show with a smirk that promised more.When he ripped the mic from the stand and leant backwards, bending and arching his back as he called a long note into the mic, Bradley was concerned he might just start drooling. Stacee then stepped forward and began running his hand along the row of outstretched arms from the pit at the very front of the stage, slapping hands in greeting as he walked along the front of the stage, drawing the song to it’s close while the band showed off their talents. “Oh won’t you please take me home?” He smirked into the mic as he rounded back on the stand, placing it back where it goes and drawing out the note on ‘home’ before finally calling it closed as the guitarist tapered off, “Baby!” And the drums slammed out the finale of the song. The crowd immediately burst into a chorus of cheers, Bradley’s voice among them.Stacee’s eyes met Bradley’s in the crowd once more as he chuckled into the mic, the sound low and almost dark in a way that sent chills down Bradley’s spine. “LA,” he all but purred, his voice low and bordering on seductive, “How we doing tonight?”The crowd answered back with fervent glee. Stacee chuckled into the speaker again, “Good, good,” he rose his eyebrows, leaning back onto his heels and grasping his guitar again, “I’m glad to hear that.” And then he gave that smile, like he was the hottest person on planet Earth and he knew it, being answered once more with screeches from the crowd.The remainder of the show felt like Bradley was being edged as Stacee paraded around the stage, his sweat glistening under the stage lights, his smirk cutting and sexy as all hell. After the first two songs, he lost the sunglasses and discarded his hat to side-stage, leaving his long dark hair to swish around freely with his movements. The first time he ran his hand back through it after a head-bang, Bradley thought he might faint.In the middle of Walk This Way, he dropped his vest and Bradley genuinely wavered on his feet as his mouth dropped open. Sure, he’d already been virtually shirtless but the vest had mostly concealed his tits. The dusky pink, perky nipples on his chest were nearly enough to take Bradley out there and then. Especially when the next song was Pour Some Sugar On Me.And then he’d made direct eye-contact with Bradley as he lifted a leg onto an amp at the front of the stage, leaning over onto his knee during the bridge, rocking forward for emphasis as he sang, “You got the peaches, I got the cream,” and then he’d smirked again and Bradley had felt light-headed as he drew on some hidden strength to return the grin with something sly of his own.“Sweet to taste, saccharine,” Stacee nodded as he sang, eyes still locked on Bradley, “Cause I’m hot, hot, say what? Sticky sweet,” and then he stepped back down, holding eye contact as he did a languid body roll through the line, “From my head, to my feet.”Bradley knew his eyes must’ve visibly darkened with his arousal as Stacee smirked and stalked off to another side of the stage to finish the song. It’d been a little uncomfortable to stand for a few minutes after that.Bradley was quite fascinated to find that the arousing sight of Stacee’s performance was not the only appeal throughout the length of the concert, though. He’d found himself jumping alongside the rest of the crowd during We Built This City, cheering along when the moment called for it, singing along to the songs he remembered from his childhood.By the time the show came to a rousing close with Stacee inviting the duo from Von Colt back on stage for a rendition of Don’t Stop Believin’ that reminded Bradley where he’d heard the band’s name before, he was riding the high of a genuinely good rock concert. He was surprised to find that it was not dissimilar to the high he felt climbing back onto the tarmac after a good flight in a fighter jet, only less frenetic. Lower stakes, less adrenaline. He still felt absolutely invigorated by the environment as he jumped up and down, cheering along and swaying with the crowd until the final guitar riff rang out.“LA, you’ve been wonderful,” Stacee leaned into the mic with a bright smile, his voice breathy from exertion, “Thank you so much for spending your night with us but I’m afraid that’s all we’ve got for you tonight!” He was answered with a chorus of teasing boos and he smiled even wider, crooning into the mic, his tone teasing as he said, “Oh, I know… but we’ve got to head out unfortunately so please! Give it up for our amazing opening acts,” he lifted one arm to direct to side-stage where the soloist and Von Colt stood side by side, “And the incredible musical talents of our band,” and he gestured behind himself. The crowd clapped and cheered along.He picked his guitar back up from where he’d allowed it to hang loose behind his back as he spoke into the mic, playing one final riff as the drummer played it out and concluding with, “My special thanks to Dennis and Lonny for having us back here at The Bourbon Room because you guys are always an amazing crowd! And with that said, I wish you a good night and a goodbye!” He picked an intricate riff and then slammed down on one final down-strum as the drummer slammed out the finish. The lights cut out and cast the stage in total darkness, the only sound left the echo around the walls coming from the screaming crowd of fans.Bradley gave a loud whoop of his own to express the energy he felt his body absolutely teeming with in the wake of the performance and he laughed through the exhilaration as he brushed his curls back out of his face. If there were any doubt about his plans for the night, they were washed away as the crowd slowly began to file out, loud-speakers playing some variety of music similar to the genre of that which had just concluded, much lower than the band’s volume and allowing the chatter of people speaking to overpower it.He bounded over to the bar, in need of something cold to drink. The man behind the bar scanned him up and down while scrubbing a hand over a pint glass, his shaggy black hair falling over his shoulders as he asked in a south London accent, “You must be the guy from the bathroom?” Bradley gulped and nodded sheepishly. The man smiled, “I’m Lonny.” Bradley nodded, recalling what Stacee had said in the bathroom, and he smiled awkwardly, “Bradley.”Lonny nodded and then asked, “You need a drink before I escort you to the lion’s den?” Bradley nodded and crossed his arms awkwardly, leaning against the bar. He watched as the bartender quickly mixed together a sum of ingredients in a shaker. His attention was drawn away when the lights raised on the stage again, finding a middle aged man with long, grey hair stood in the center, a microphone in hand.“If you’d like to meet the members of Von Colt, they’ll be doing an autograph signing up front,” he said, “Merchandise for both opening acts tonight are being sold at a table just beside them as well as Bourbon Room exclusive Arsenal posters, there’ll be no more live performances for the remainder of the night but you are welcome to stick around for a few drinks!” He was answered with a few distant cheers, “We close at 3 so feel free to hang out! Thank you for joining us, good night!” The lights went back down.When he turned back to Lonny, the man presented him with a a coupe glass filled with a purple cocktail, accented with a salted rim and a lime wedge. “It’s on the house,” he shook his head as Bradley tried to pull his wallet out, “And it’s not very strong, I’m sure you’ll want your wits about you,” he winked at the aviator cheekily, which made Bradley flush a little as he grabbed the glass and took a sip.The first hit tasted mildly alcoholic, not strong as Lonny had promised, but as it settled over his tongue, it bloomed in a tropical fruity flavor, tempered by the salted rim and the kick of citrus at the very back of it. Bradley hummed as he took another sip, “What is this?”“It’s called a purple rain,” the bartender answered, “Very simple drink, really.” Bradley hummed once more in appreciation and settled to nurse the glass for a few minutes. The man from the stage came up behind the bar, wrapping an arm over the bartender’s shoulder and pecking his temple. Lonny leaned back, giving the man a proper kiss and when they pulled back they smiled at one another. “Hi,” Lonny breathed out and the man’s smile widened as he drawled out a reply, “Hi.” Bradley was endeared at the sight, smiling into his glass.When the man’s eyes landed on Bradley, he turned back to Lonny with a question in his eyes. Lonny nodded, slinging the towel over his shoulder as he finally finished drying the pint glasses. The man then turned to Bradley and stuck his hand out, “Dennis Dupree.” Bradley clasped his hand firmly and shook it, offering his own name back in response.Bradley took the last sip of his drink and pushed the glass back for Lonny to retrieve, which he promptly did. Dennis rose an eyebrow at him, “I can bring you to where you’re supposed to be.” Bradley swallowed thickly and then nodded. Dennis gestured to follow him and lead him back through a staff passage to find a row of doors.He stopped in front of a specific one and gave a patterned knock. A soft call to ‘come in’ came from within and Dennis opened the door, sweeping his hand as if to tell Bradley to enter. Bradley obeyed, passing through the doorway. Dennis closed the door behind him and Bradley turned only for his mouth to go dry.On a chaise lounger in the center of the room laid Stacee Jaxx, draped over the quilted red velvet in a way that truly should be classified as obscene, his legs spread wide to show the bulge between his legs in the soft lighting. He still had his jeans from the stage but his shoes were discarded and he remained shirtless. The rockstar cast a ‘come hither’ look at Bradley through his dark eyelashes and what could Bradley do but listen?He stepped closer, until Stacee’s eyes shifted causing him to falter. “Are you drunk?” The man asked bluntly. “No,” Bradley shook his head. “You’ve had a drink though, I assume?” He tipped his head.“Yes,” Bradley answered honestly. Stacee gestured at a bottle of water on the coffee table and said, “Drink.” Bradley remained confounded by the way he could not resist the command and did as he was asked, only questioning it after he’d polished off the bottle, “Why?”“I’m going to kiss you in a minute,” Stacee tipped his head back onto a pillow, closing his eyes, his hand up in his hair in a way that made him look like one of those swooning Victorian women in a painting, only much sexier, “I’d rather not taste any alcohol, if that’s alright with you,” he gestured to himself, “Recovering alcoholic and all.”Bradley grimaced and then nodded, “Gotcha.” Stacee opened his eyes, training his green irises on Bradley and said, “Not that I think you did but better safe than sorry,” and he tilted his head again, baring his throat, “You didn’t take anything, right?”Bradley shook his head again with vehemence, “No.” Stacee smirked, “Good.”The rockstar finally stood from the chaise, and his smirk widened as he approached Bradley, “I never did catch your name, did I?”The aviator cleared his throat and then said, “Bradley, it’s…” he trailed awkwardly, “Bradley.” The rockstar reached up and grasped his jaw firmly, his smirk still in place as he roved his eyes over the younger man’s face, “God, you’re cute, y’know that?”Bradley felt his face flush and Stacee chuckled low in his chest. And then before Bradley could register what was happening, the older man used his leverage on Bradley’s chin and the collar of his shirt to yank him down into a bruising kiss. Bradley pressed into his hold and reached a hand up and tangled it into Stacee’s hair, eliciting a pleased hum from the man as Bradley reciprocated.Stacee’s hands slid down, finding the small of his back. Chills began to raise on Bradley’s body in pure anticipation as he leaned into Stacee’s mouth, gasping when one of Stacee’s hands slid even lower to grip at his ass through his jeans. Stacee chuckled into the kiss and then slid his tongue into Bradley’s more, his touch claiming and sensual.Stacee turned them around, their tongues still locked together, and then urged Bradley back until Bradley found himself on his back on the chaise lounge with Stacee’s smaller stature in his lap, his hands either side of Bradley’s head as they continued to make out.Finally, Stacee released his tongue with a wet pop and began kissing from th ecorner of his mouth down onto his neck. Once he reached the muscle in Bradley’s throat, he bit down. Bradley yelped and Stacee licked over the spot soothingly before sucking at the skin to encourage the blood to the surface. He chuckled lowly, the breath cooling his saliva and sending another shiver down Bradley’s spine as his skin broke out in chills, “Oh, you’re just perfect, aren’t you?” Bradley had to bite back a moan at the words and Stacee chuffed against his skin again, like he could tell.He continued the same motion, leaving marks all the way down the side of Bradley’s neck, until he reached the collar of Bradley’s tank top. He’d been wearing one of his dad’s shirts over a black tank when he drove to LA but when he’d decided to go into a rock club, he’d shed the brighter colors and left himself in the tank top and jeans. Stacee’s proprietary grip on Bradley’s bicep spoke to the idea that his bared arms may have fueled the fire of flirtatious whirlwind that had swooped through the bathroom when Stacee entered.Stacee used one of his hands to ruck the stretchy fabric down, leaving a mark at the very top of one of Bradley’s tits before he huffed, pulled back, and looped a finger under the hem of the shirt. Bradley got the message and leaned up for the other man to yank his shirt off and continue the biting assault on his body.When Stacee had kissed down Bradley’s stomach, he paused and looked up, both of them panting with the arousal clouding the air, and he asked, “You been with a guy before?” Bradley nodded. “Good to bottom?” Bradley nodded again. Stacee smirked again, something sly and sultry and then said, “Good,” right as he kissed as Bradley’s waistline where a trail of hair began.His dextrous fingers clasped at Bradley’s belt, unbuckling it and stripping it free with ease before getting to work at the button of his jeans. Once he’d successfully undone them, he pulled at them until Bradley arched his ass off of the chair and then he yanked them down, pulling Bradley’s sneakers off as he went until Bradley was left in only his boxers.He then leaned back up, blanketing Bradley’s bare skin with his body and leaned in to whisper into Bradley’s ear, “You’re a fucking specimen, you know that?” He bit at Bradley’s earlobe as Bradley gave a gentle and pleased sigh.He looped two fingers under Bradley’s waistband and then hiked his underwear down until Bradley’s hard cock bounced out, slapping against Bradley’s stomach as it was released from it’s confinement. Bradley gasped as Stacee wrapped a hand around it, his grip tight in just the right way, and the rockstar gave a low whistle, “For that shy demeanor, you sure do have a nice cock.”Bradley chuckled a little at the compliment and then cheekily smiled, “I’m not usually this shy.” Stacee cooed, the sound a little mocking, “Aw, all for me then?” And then he smirked as he gave a firm stroke, ending in a twist of his wrist at the head. Bradley moaned, his eyes rolling back a little before he recovered with heaved breaths, his head going a little light like the first time he did a barrel roll in the air.Stacee gave a few more firm strokes, Bradley’s already hard cock becoming downright rigid at the stimulation. It throbbed when Stacee let it go to trail his hand back, massaging over Bradley’s balls. “Shame it’ll be little more than a hood ornament tonight,” he whispered into Bradley’s ear, dipping his fingers back, pressing a little at Bradley’s perineum and finally ghosting over his hole as he said, “Since I’m more inclined to give this a ride.”Bradley felt his hole flutter a little at Stacee stroked two fingers over it, the touch featherlight and teasing. Stacee hummed in the back of his throat until it turned into a chuckle and then he sat back onto his knees, pulling Bradley’s boxers all the way down.Before Bradley could truly register what the other man was doing, he tossed Bradley’s underwear somewhere across the room and then hiked Bradley’s legs up onto his shoulders and dipped down, giving a firm lick from Bradley’s taint all the way past the cleft of his ass. Bradley gasped, throwing his head back. He’d bottomed before, enough to have experience, but no one had ever rimmed him before and Stacee was not shy about it as he lapped at his ass like a dog, his hot tongue probing and forceful in his long, lapped licks.Stacee began his assault, tonguing at Bradley’s hole until the rim loosened enough for him to slip it inside. He traded off from fucking his tongue in and out of Bradley’s hole and passing firm licks at the rim to soften the clench of his skin until he could slip a finger in dry. Bradley moaned at the sensation, something low in the back of his throat, and he was thankful he’d had the foresight to shower before he’d left the house earlier in the evening.After a few minutes of alternating his index finger and his tongue, he pulled away and Bradley bit back a whine. Instead, he watched as the older man reached for a brand new bottle of lube from the coffee table and used his teeth to rip the plastic seal off of the lid. He opened the bottle, dribbling the slick into his hand and rubbing it between his fingers both to warm it and to effectively coat his fingers with the lubricant.Bradley inhaled slowly as Stacee pressed one finger in and it slipped in easy thanks to the work he’d done with his mouth. Stacee fucked the finger in and out a few times, firmly stroking at his walls and then pressed in with a second. Bradley gave a low moan at the stretch that turned into a sharp moan when Stacee scissored his fingers, stretching Bradley’s hole wider.“God, you sound so pretty when you moan like that,” Stacee groaned, doing it again to elicit the same response, “C’mon, lemme hear you.” He then crooked his fingers and Bradley gave a loud moan as Stacee stroked over his prostate. Stacee repeated the come hitcher motion until Bradley’s moans turned high, edging towards an orgasm. He pulled his fingers out and this time, Bradley did whine.Stacee chuckled, “So needy.” Bradley just gave another whine. When Stacee fucked in a third finger, the whine turned into another pleased moan. He yelped a little when Stacee spread his fingers, the stretch bordering on painful, but Stacee continued until he’d melted back into the cushions, the tension bleeding back out of his muscles, and returned to his soft moans of pleasure.Stacee grazed his prostate from time to time, turning his moan into something closer to a keen, but he didn’t press or rub at it with purpose, just passing over it to send a shock up Bradley’s spine, not enough to begin the build towards an orgasm. He slowly fingered him until his rim was loose and pliant and his hole felt throughly stretched. Only then did he pull them back out. Bradley tipped his head up to watch as he undid his belt and then shed his jeans, revealing he’d been wearing no underwear. Bradley gaped at the sight of his cock, thick and heavy between Stacee’s muscular thighs, curving up and glistening at the tip. It was bigger than his own and Bradley’s dick was certainly nothing to sneeze at. It certainly explained Stacee’s cock-sure attitude.Stacee chuckled, giving himself a few firm strokes over until his pre-cum coated the skin in a vague sheen, “Like what you see?” Bradley nodded, reaching out to get his hand on it. He gave a tight stroke down, slow, and then a fast up-stroke, twisting his hand slightly as he reached the head and Stacee moaned, loud.The rockstar batted his hand away with an amused huff, “Fuck,” he brushed his hair back, “You want me to make it far enough to be able to fuck you?” Bradley smiled sly, “I’m sure you could get it back up for me.”Stacee laughed, “Oh and here I thought I was the only cocky son of a bitch around here.” Bradley laughed in response as Stacee moved into position, a condom in hand as he settled Bradley’s legs into place. He ripped the foil open with his teeth and slid the latex on with one hand, his other holding Bradley’s knee.He sat forward and then made direct eye contact with Bradley, “You ready?” Bradley nodded, “Yes.”Stacee nodded and then pressed forward. Bradley gasped as the head of Stacee’s cock pressed at his rim and then popped past it. He gave a strangled moan as Stacee continued to press forward, slow but steady pressure until he was buried to the hilt. Stacee’s chest was heaving as he leaned down, blanketing Bradley again with his hands either side of his head. He stared very directly into Bradley’s eyes, his gaze intense as Bradley breathed through the stretch.It had hurt for a split second, just a little bit of sting from the fact that he’d never taken a cock quite so big, but then settled into a feeling of fullness. It remained overwhelming but it was closer to pleasure than pain by a mile. They both just waited there, lingering in the moment and staring into one another’s eyes with a clouded intensity.Finally, though, Bradley felt the need for more creeping up and he tapped Stacee’s hip. Stacee’s eyes took on the question before he ever opened his mouth and Bradley just nodded. So Stacee pulled out and then rocked back in. Bradley moaned low in his throat at the sensation and Stacee repeated himself, moving slow on the first few strokes.But then he panted out, “Good?” And Bradley enthusiastically nodded, gripping Stacee’s hip tight enough to bruise with a moan as Stacee pressed forward and lightly grazed his prostate. Stacee nodded and then shifted pace, picking up speed with no warning. Bradley’s low moans turned sharp and high and he used both hands to clutch at the man’s hips.His speed caused his thrusts to get a little shallower so Bradley moaned out a high yelp of, “Harder!” that made him sound like a fucking porn star but it worked, as Stacee punched another harsh moan from his throat with a deep and quick thrust. He nodded his appreciation, mouth still open around the moans leaving his throat and Stacee kept up the pace he’d set, now moaning in chorus with Bradley.It didn’t take much longer for Bradley to feel the build swelling low in his gut and he grunted out, “Getting close, keep going,” and Stacee rocked forward, adjusting ever so slightly until Bradley gave a loud and high keen, “There! Right there.” He continued hammering into Bradley’s prostate and then leaned his head down, capturing Bradley’s moans with his mouth as he licked in over Bradley’s tongue and teeth with vehemence. He lowered his hand, delivering a few sharp strokes to Bradley’s cock.The dam burst and Bradley moaned out something deep into Stacee’s mouth as his cock spurt sticky, white cum all over both of their stomachs and his hole clenched down involuntarily around Stacee. Stacee moaned into his mouth in response and it only took three more sharp, rough thrusts for Stacee to spill into the condom with a loud keen of his own.They pulled out of the kiss and Stacee tucked his nose into Bradley’s neck as they panted together, coming down in unison. Bradley reached a hand up, stroking through Stacee’s long and soft hair as Stacee gave a gentle, almost chaste kiss to his throat in response.Stacee chuckled and then panted into his neck, “You’re coming home with me.” Bradley certainly didn’t argue, just breathed out an easy, “Okay.”• • •Safe to say, Bradley hadn’t expected walking into a random rock show on a whim of nostalgia would result in a week of marathon sex with one of rock’s greatest sex symbols and yet. There he was, coming down from the high of another Stacee Jaxx induced orgasm.What he also hadn’t expected the night he agreed to go back to Stacee’s villa in Santa Monica was for anything but sex and breaks for human function to occur. Y’know, sleep, sex, eat, sex, more sex, eat again, sex, sleep. No, he was shocked by Stacee’s penchant for pillow-talk the first time he climbed off of him and fell to his side in the bed. But he supposed he’d been seeking some kind of connection the night he’d hit the strip, so he opened up. Answered Stacee’s questions, asked his own. Offered the type of honest vulnerability that only Nat ever really got from him because why would it matter if he told Stacee when he was sure that after the end of the week, he’d never see the man again?He talked about the reasons he’d been at the show despite not being a huge Arsenal fan, his mom’s death, Ice’s diagnosis, his complicated family history. A conversation about his job spiraled into the full story with Mav, which not even Nat knew. The dim lighting, soft sheets, and sated feeling post-orgasm made it easy to be honest. And Stacee surprised him too. He offered genuine condolences, let him vent about his frustrations with his godfather and didn’t try to offer up anything more than consolation. He just listened and nodded along.And even more shockingly, the rockstar opened up in return. Talked about his identity crisis as an artist, his shitty manager, his alcoholism, tidbits of his complicated childhood, his friendship with Von Colt, or Sherrie and Drew as he called them, his friendship with Dennis and Lonny, his near-miss departure from the band, the recent passing of his beloved pet monkey. And Bradley found himself even more intrigued once he got to see behind the curtain of Stacee Jaxx as a person.And they talked about lighter topics too, whether it be Stacee’s tattoos or Bradley’s taste in music. At one point, Stacee coerced Bradley to play something on the grand piano in his living room and then sucked his soul out through his dick when he finished.On the fourth day of six, they were both still heaving their breathing back towards steady when Stacee’s eyebrows furrowed and he started humming and then mumbling under his breath. Quick as lightning, the rockstar jumped from the bed and grabbed a notebook off of his desk with a pencil and started manically scratching words down on the page, singing under his breath as he went.Bradley watched, entranced and listened as the words slowly became more tangible through the mumbles, “It’s such a shitty thing he did,” and he hummed to fill the empty space in the melody, “You can take it out on me anytime… show me where it hurts,” he hummed again, “You don’t have to be ashamed… if you wanna scream my name while… hmm, while I fuck away the pain.” Bradley laughed a little, “Is this your typical creative process?”“No,” Stacee shook his head, still humming a vague melody as he scribbled and erased words over and over again, “I can usually only write in the studio with an acoustic in my lap and the band bouncing ideas around, this is beyond unusual.” Bradley hummed, watching him get graphite all over his hands, his hair falling into his face as he leaned over the notepad.Bradley reached up, brushing his hair behind his ear and Stacee smiled at him, something softer and sweeter than usual, and continued humming. Bradley couldn’t tear his eyes away, the other man cast in moonlight and looking softer than Bradley had ever seen him. He felt privileged, having only known the other man for five or so days and being allowed this private glimpse. But he wasn’t about to question it, so he settled back with his hands behind his head, just watching Stacee Jaxx, the creative, rather than the Stacee Jaxx, the rockstar, that the whole world saw every day.Three and a half days later, Bradley’s phone pinged with a text from Natasha for the first time in several months, warning him she’d be touching down in Lemoore within the day and she needed a ride back to her apartment. He explained that he needed to go and why to Stacee, who agreed to see him off after dinner. He expected that to be the end of his torrid affair with the lead singer of Arsenal but as he would come to learn, Stacee lived to shock him.On his way out the door, Stacee handed him his cellphone and said, “I kept forgetting cause we got too caught up,” and he smirked something dirty, “Put your number in here.”Bradley gaped at him for a second and Stacee tilted his head, “What, you thought I wouldn’t want a repeat of that?” and he chuckled. So Bradley typed his phone number into Stacee’s phone and went on his merry way. When he got back to his unit on base, his phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number in an LA area code.When he opened the text, he chuckled at the picture of an empty music studio room, the angle peering over Stacee’s bent knees, his lyric notebook filled with chaotic scribbles and spread open on his lap. The neck of his acoustic could be seen in his hand on the left edge of the image. Underneath the picture, Stacee had typed out, “Are you a practice room? Because I want to spend the entire day inside you.”His cheeks flushed red but nobody needed to know that. He saved Stacee’s number under an electric guitar emoji and responded to the text with a punny pick-up of his own, “You’re like a perfect landing— smooth and just right.”Somehow, this spiraled into trading sexy pick-up puns back and forth for two weeks straight. Bradley caught Natasha side-eyeing him as he giggled at his phone intermittently but she never asked so he never had to lie. And then one night, the texting evolved to sexting which turned into phone sex and then a prompt invite back to Stacee’s house in Santa Monica. Bradley barely stopped to ask himself what he was doing, just packed the essentials in a duffle bag and took off.Their tryst lasted nine days this time and it got a little edgier as Stacee introduced him to the box underneath his bed. One amazing orgasm later (with the help of some silk ties where he’d been bound to the bed and blindfolded and a vibrating plug), Bradley discovered that he was much more open to BDSM and the such than he’d previously thought. When he told Stacee this, the man just smirked in a way that almost made Bradley nervous and definitely made him excited.He was also unsurprised the next morning to find Stacee at the counter, nursing a cup of coffee and writing more things in his little notebook. “Getting ready for the next go round, round and round we go,” he sang under his breath and then continuing to hum, “For all intents and purposes, there ain’t nobody home.”Bradley paid him no mind, just pouring himself a cup of coffee and downing it so he could shower.Natasha didn’t question the barrage of hickeys up and down his neck the next time she saw him but she did raise an eyebrow at the bruises on his thighs when his shorts rode up one night while they lounged in her apartment and watched a movie. He blushed but held up the ‘a-okay’ symbol with his fingers and a smile that made her cringe and return her gaze to the TV. He chuckled when he watched her shudder a few minutes later. Yeah, he was glad she wasn’t asking any questions.This scenario became something of a routine. At most, they’d go two months just texting or calling randomly. Sometimes just to talk, sometimes for more sexual purposes. And then somebody would give in and ask when, where, and for how long they could meet up. When Bradley’s leave ended, things got a little more complicated but they managed.And always, without fail, Stacee would either start or finish a song while Bradley was around. He’d catch a lyric while still catching his breath and pen out half a song right there in the aftermath of an orgasm.One time, Bradley had been in the middle of blowing the man and he caught a melody. Bradley had pulled off, unimpressed as the musician scrounged for a piece of paper. “I feel like this has to be insulting in some way,” he drawled crossing his arms.Stacee had reached down, pet at his curls and crooned, “No, you’re just very inspiring, baby.” Bradley had flushed but he was still rather displeased as Stacee hummed to himself, “You know, I never… I never seen you look so good…” while he waited for the man’s full attention to finish his ministrations. But Stacee repaid him for it later by rimming him until he came. So all’s well that end’s well, he supposed.The first time Bradley got to hear Stacee record a demo, they’re arrangement had been occurring for somewhere nearing six months and Stacee had gotten very curious about aviation and the such, as he usually did if the topic was brought up, spiraling into a long talk about why Bradley loves the sky and what it feels like in a fighter jet.The next day, spent the entire day mumbling a repeat of one line over and over again, “I wanna ride on the silver dove far into the night.” Finally, after dinner and two orgasms, he started humming again and groaned, caving into the song he’d been resisting all day.Only, this time, he was using flying a fighter jet as a metaphor for the high of an orgasm and unlike the typical material of his songs, he was inexperienced in the field and had the barest bones of how to write the song out. So he asked Bradley for input. Bradley was reluctant but he helped him workshop lyrics until the song sounded pretty solid even just as he sang it in a soft falsetto on an acoustic guitar.Bradley had been entranced when he set his phone out and then played through the whole thing in one go, “There’s a raging fire in my heart tonight!” He finger-picked at the strings of the guitar, manipulating it in a way to insinuate what an electric would be better suited for, his voice holding a nice growl to it even in his head-voice from the raspiness of having deep-throated Bradley’s cock earlier in the evening, “Growing higher and higher in my soul!”He made direct contact with Bradley as he belted out, “Make you… take me… on your mighty wings across the sky!” And held the note on the last word. Bradley thought he might come in his boxers just from the fire in the other man’s eyes as he sang. Backlit by a blood moon, pouring in red moonlight from the open window over his shirtless back and backlighting his dark hair in a red halo of light.Safe to say, they had another round that night when Stacee saved the recording to bring to the studio the next time he and the band met to workshop for their next album.A new complication popped up, however, when Bradley was called out for a deployment in the middle east, lasting nine full months. They continued texting as much as they could but with Bradley bunking with a barrage of other men, they rarely had the privacy for a phone call. It was a long nine months and by the time the thirty day countdown was closing in, Bradley felt like an overexcited puppy ready to see his owner.When he finally got back to California, Stacee barely let him leave his bed for nearly two weeks. In the middle of the night, he could hear the scratch of pen on paper continuously furiously through long after he’d fallen asleep for the night. A month later, Stacee told him the band’s newest album was finished.Because Stacee had to leave for a short press tour to promote the album right when it dropped, Bradley was alone the night it hit the shelves. The album’s name was ‘Open Arms’ and the album cover was a true work of art. A paper-plane in free fall was photographed against a blank background in grey-scale. The album’s title was written out in Stacee’s slightly messy cursive handwriting, the band’s name scrawled beneath it in blocky font.Bradley hit play and listened as a hum of guitar was broken through with heavy drums and Stacee’s husky vocals. When the chorus hit, he recognized the song as that first one that Stacee had written when they first hooked up. He glanced at the title and chuckled a little at ‘Fuck Away The Pain’, enjoying the overall song by the time it ended.The next song was ‘Next Go Round’ and it oozed the same amount of raw sex appeal as ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’ did. And then ‘Through The Fire’ crashed in and blew his mind with the synth keys and moderate guitar, an oddity for Arsenal’s discography but certainly not unpalatable.Then ‘The Sex Is Good’ played and Bradley was shocked at the far softer sound. Stacee’s voice was front and center, the lead guitar an acoustic and only tempered by the electric in the back. And then he paid attention to the lyrics and… well, “You know all my deepest secrets, I think you know… you know to keep them, but I wonder if you know I hate sleeping alone.” And that’s when his eyebrows furrowed together.“So come and tell me what my kiss tastes like, don’t miss it so turn off the lights,” Stacee’s voice crooned in, still just as sexy and seductive as the growlier or more hardcore songs, but there was a quality mixed in that gave his voice an edge, one that Bradley couldn’t quite place, “But I wonder if you know I hate sleeping alone, I have to fake it!”And Bradley knew that Stacee wasn’t the only songwriter in the band, that they all contributed where they could even if Stacee excelled with lyrics and guitar, that trying to run the band had lead to the tension that had almost caused the band to split way back when before Stacee had had a wake-up call and pulled his act together, but…“I leave if I could, I’m not in love but the sex is good! You can’t mistake it! Because it’s understood, I’m not in love but the sex is good,” the song continued and Bradley found himself interpreting it as the narrator lying to himself, as the lyrics continued to speak of a shared vulnerability in the verses and then protest that the relationship was solely physical in the chorus.But he shook his head and moved on to the next song, recognizing lyrics from ‘Talk Dirty To Me’ from one of their many sex-filled weeks spent in bed. He brushed it off as a one-off. And then the next song was the song he’d helped Stacee write and it downright took his breath away.Gone were the soft falsetto vocals, instead replaced by a low and growly delivery. Instead of Stacee’s acoustic, a synth key track overlayed with heavy drums and a very strong guitar line. “There’s a raging fire in my heart tonight! Growing higher and higher in my soul… there’s a raging fire in the sky tonight! I wanna ride on the silver dove, far into the night ’til I make you. Take me. On your mighty wings! Make you. Take me. On your mighty wings across the sky!”Bradley’s mouth felt dry as he tried to digest the song, knowing he wouldn’t survive it played live. Not the way Stacee’s stage presence manifested. He would faint right there in the middle of the pit like a blushing schoolgirl and that would be the end of it. Because this song was laced with metaphors about Bradley, a play on his job and his prowess with it which so clearly fascinated Stacee beyond belief. All wrapped up in one big orgasmic metaphor. He was simultaneously glad by the time it ended and mourning the sound of it as the songs transitioned.Then came ‘No One Like You’ and ‘Hounds Of Love’ and Bradley… felt like he was somehow gaslighting himself as he tried to piece together the message conveyed by the songs at hand. Because if Stacee penned these… there was a lot to be said for what it meant. But his uncertainly meant he continued waffling back and forth until the titular track of the song played.When ‘Open Arms’ played, Bradley was not prepared for piano. Just piano and Stacee’s voice. The piano sounded a lot like the one in Stacee’s living room, concurring with the slight echo in the recording.“Lying beside you, here in the dark,” his voice started off soft, “Feeling your heart beat with mine.”“Softly, you whisper, ‘you’re so sincere’, how could our love be so blind?” His voice sounded fuller than normal, rounded off with a thickness that Bradley slowly realized was emotion. He sounded damn-near tear-choked as he continued into the pre-chorus, the guitar coming in as very distant support.“We sailed on together, we drifted apart, and here you are by my side,” he crooned, his voice growing in strength and then the drums came in, breaking into a beautiful chorus befitting an 80s power ballad, “So now I come to you! With open arms! Nothing to hide, believe what I say! So here I am! With open arms! Hoping you’ll see… what your love means to me,” and he came back down softly, “Open arms.”And Bradley finally understood the contemplation he’d been battling since he started playing the songs. Because this song felt like a love confession of the highest degree. “Living without you, living alone, this empty house seems so cold,” Stacee’s voice cracked, artfully so it didn’t ruin the take but enough to reveal the genuine tearfulness in his vocal performance, “Wanitng to hold you, wanting you near, how much I wanted you,” and he played the next notes more forcefully, reinforced by the drums, moving into the pre-chorus.“And now that you’ve come back, turned night into day, I need you to stay,” his note sounded almost pleading and he took an audible deep breath before the chorus crushed back in, “So now I come to you! With open arms! Nothing to hide, believe what I say! So here I am! With open arms! Hoping you’ll see… what your love means to me, open arms.”Stacee could be heard on the recording taking a shuddering breath as he played the final chord and then the song ended. And Bradley couldn’t help but wonder if they’d taken the demo recording and just added the guitar and drums in separately because the imperfection, the open rawness, was not something typical of the band’s music or Stacee in general. Making the decision to release the song at all had taken a lot of vulnerability on his behalf to begin with, let alone the openly emotional version he’d chosen not to rerecord.Bradley couldn’t even hear the next song as it played, his brain entirely focused on the ‘what if?’ of the song being an intended love confession. He spent the rest of the night arguing with himself and debating over it and then finally rounded on contemplating his own emotions.He played the song again and listening to Stacee’s voice, Bradley gave a soft, “Oh,” out into the air of his barren bedroom on base as he realized that somewhere along the way, he’d fallen for the man and never thought twice about it. He chuckled to himself and shed a tear as the song concluded once more.He wanted to call Stacee but he knew the conversation to be had would be best suited for in-person. Rather, he settled for a steady dialogue of texting where he could hide his excitement. And he waited. The day Stacee was supposed to arrive back home, Bradley waited for the man to confirm he’d landed and then drove up to LA to turn up on the musician’s doorstep right at sunset.Stacee stared at him in confusion when he opened the door, “Not that I’m complaining, but why the surprise?”Bradley took a deep breath and then asked, “Does it mean what I think it means?” And Stacee’s eyebrows furrowed even further as he crossed his arms over his chest, “What?”“The song, Stacee!” He raised his voice a little, “Does the song mean what I think it means, goddammit?”Stacee’s eyes flashed with something like fear before he masked it and responded with confusion once more, “What song?” Bradley laughed, “The fucking love confession you wrote and recorded and released on your album.” Stacee’s eyes widened.“Or am I losing my mind?” Bradley stepped forward, softening his voice and encroaching on Stacee’s space. His green eyes stared up at him, a little guarded and a little hopeful and he didn’t back away. They stared into one another’s eyes for a long moment before Stacee softly exhaled, breaking eye-contact, and then breathed out, “You’re not losing your mind.”Bradley’s only response was to stoop down and capture Stacee’s lips in a passionate kiss. Stacee’s hands reached up to grasp at his shoulders while Bradley cupped either side of the musician’s face, the kiss softer and somehow more heated than it had ever been before.Stacee stepped backwards into the house and Bradley shut the door behind them, their lips never parting as they shuffled together through the small coastal villa that Stacee called home, Stacee leading the way to the bedroom as they went.When they had sex that night, they didn’t just fuck. Not like they had been for so long. No, they took it slow and soft and languid and sensual until their vision whited out in unison, their voices harmonizing as they called out with their release and they fell together in a sweaty lump on the dirtied sheets, their bodies trembling and their legs numb. They made love for the first time that night.Bradley cradled Stacee’s smaller frame closer into his body and whispered into his hair, “Just so we’re being clear, I’m a little bit in love with you.” A shudder passed through Stacee and Bradley kissed his head as the older man gave a soft and reverent sigh. “I’m a lot a bit in love with you,” he chuckled, “If the song didn’t convey that correctly,” he sniffed and then chuckled again, “Or the other eight.”Bradley chuffed into his hair, smiling wide, “I think I could get used to hearing that.” And then he looked up and chuckled when his eyes caught on the rising full moon in the distance. Blood red as it settled into the sky.“There’s a raging fire in the sky tonight,” he softly sang, laughing with giddiness as he clumsily ended the note and then whispered, “My blood moon, you are.”“Why’s that?” Stacee asked tiredly. “Because you’re rare enough to require appreciation and people think you’re dangerous when really, you’re just a sight to be cherished.” Stacee chuckled and then huffed with a hum.“If I’m your blood moon, you’re my dragon,” Stacee’s hand stroked over Bradley’s back. “Why’s that?” Bradley questioned. “Because you’re big and you can look intimidating but you’re really just a big teddy bear,” he stroked across Bradley’s shoulder blades, “And you’ve got wings.”Bradley laughed softly, “I’ll take it.” Stacee smiled, soft and sated, and nuzzled closer into Bradley’s neck, “It’d be fitting for me to have a tattoo of you eating my heart anyway so…” And Bradley laughed hard enough to shake the bed.• • •The progression from fuck buddies to relationship felt so natural in the end that it almost felt like nothing had changed. They just told each other ‘I love you’ every day and moved on as they had been, only less casually, with Bradley staying over whenever he had the time to spare and texts and phone calls making up for the time apart wherever they could.Two months after they took the turn for romantic, Stacee dragged him back to The Bourbon Room to officially meet the band, Sherrie, Drew, Dennis, and Lonny. They welcomed him into the fray openly and he quickly became friends with them as well. Lonny would text him music suggestions every once in a while since Bradley was trying to explore the rock genre a little more. Sherrie called to check in on him once in a while. Bradley made a mental note never to let Jamie and Natasha anywhere near each other for fear they would burn the world down together. Lindsey was an Army brat and they bonded over the shared experience of having parental figures in the military.Stacee would later tell him that Dennis caught him by the arm later that night and said Bradley had to be the one because he’d never seen Stacee look at someone the way he did Bradley. And that seemed to be the consensus amongst all of the musicians, who were glad to welcome him in to see Stacee happy after they’d watched him spiral for so long. Sure, he’d recovered from that a long time ago but it wasn’t easy and it wasn’t linear and they all waited with bated breath for the wrong thing to send him spiraling all over again. He remained restless, pursuing somewhere to settle, someone to come home to. Before Bradley, that hadn’t seemed plausible.When Stacee and the band had to go on tour for the new album, Bradley was sad to see him go but he was supportive, especially knowing his boyfriend would be traveling the country and singing songs he wrote about him on stage. They talked and collectively made the decision to keep their relationship private because Stacee wanted to protect Bradley from the media shit-storm it would cause. Their dynamic was still settling in and neither were prepared to rock that boat just yet.Instead, they settled for Bradley being given a free ticket to any show he could make it to and escorted backstage before and afterward. Their roadies didn’t have enough investment to care why. And it worked out. They got to see each other in private and if the band was spending the night before moving out for the next venue, they’d get some time alone in a hotel room. Sure, they missed home but Stacee flourished on stage and Bradley loved seeing him in his element.The first time the band saw him throw rock horns, Keith teased him relentlessly, “That’s not rock horns,” he folded Bradley’s thumb down, “That’s rock horns,” he pulled his thumb back out, “That’s ASL for ‘I love you’.”If the guitarist had been trying to dissuade Bradley from using the incorrect hand gesture, he’d failed by a mile because now Bradley could scream his support for the man he loved without exposing their relationship to the world.The first time he got to see the band play ‘Mighty Wings’ with Stacee smirking directly at him the whole damn show, as soon as he got backstage into the green room with just Stacee and the band, he grabbed him and kissed him so hard the whole band started wolf-whistling. He shed very real tears that same night when Stacee played ‘Open Arms’ on stage with a soft smile, one he usually only ever got to see in the privacy of their bedroom, one that turned that same searing kiss soft and sweet as Bradley held Stacee in his arms for the first time in weeks and savored it.The third show he managed to get there for, Stacee surprised him with an addition to the setlist by playing a cover of one of Von Colt’s songs, ‘More Than Words’ and ‘Open Arms’ back to back. He didn’t just shed a few tears that time, he sobbed through a smile that split his face open. Especially when the whole crowd broke out a mixture of lighters and their phone flashlights to wave along to words dedicated specifically to him. Bradley quickly came to understood the romanticism so many people see dating a famed musician with because it truly felt like an out-of-body experience to be honored in front of a crowd every night even if nobody knew the songs were about him.And then about halfway through the tour, Bradley’s boss called him. He’d transferred to Oceana so follow the tour as it moved from the west coast to the east and he’d barely settled into his base housing before the Air Boss was calling him to his office on a day he was meant to have off.And then Admiral Jefferson told him he was being sent to TOPGUN. And Bradley found his heart torn between the two things that mattered most to him, Stacee and flying. Stacee’s exact words when he called him were, “Have you lost your mind? Get on a plane to California and go follow your dream, baby, I’ll be here when you’re done.” So Bradley listened.TOPGUN was an overall overwhelming experience for the two months he spent in North Island. For one, he missed Stacee but he supposed that wasn’t all that new. He missed Stacee when he’d gone six hours without the man, that wasn’t going anywhere. He was surprised but not shocked to find that Jake had been called up for the same round of classes and then Natasha was slated for the next set after his, that she was already in Lemoore and would be at his graduation.He also found that the air of melancholy being in Fightertown brought out in him was… startling to say the least. Because everywhere were reminders of the legendary class of ’86, his father and his godfather and all of his uncles. In pictures, in legacies, referenced in the curriculum. He’d nearly had a heart attack when he met the Air Boss for the first time and found out Ice was presiding over NAS Miramar during his recovery. This made for multiple near-misses with Mav but beyond seeing one another from a distance, they didn’t interact. Bradley was grateful, in the end, for the opportunity to see Ice standing and doing better than he had been the last he’d seen him.He and Jake clashed, of course, as they were wont to do after three amazing years together that had gone down in a ball of fire but they tempered it, managed to keep it out of class and out of the air. They were professionals, after all, and what kind of aviators would they be if they couldn’t let go of the petty drama for the time they needed to cooperate for their job?Ice didn’t give many lectures, seeing as he wasn’t an instructor, but he did give a speech about teamwork and leaving the ground on the ground on their first day with hops, citing his own experience and briefly referencing the Hop 31 disaster as proof of how it can go wrong in a second and suddenly become so much more than petty rivalry. Bradley had had to hold back tears and then genuinely cried when he got back to his unit and Stacee let him vent.All in all, by the end of the thirteen weeks, Bradley was exhausted. Mentally, emotionally, physically. And he missed Stacee more than he could put into words. He graduated second, behind Jake by a few points, and he didn’t have it in him to really and truly care. Not when he went home that night and Stacee praised him so freely over the phone while he booked his plane ticket, “Second out of fifteen other aviators, when you’re all already in the top 1% of your field? Baby, that’s amazing!” So he shook Jake’s hand in civil congratulations just like his mother had taught him, he wished Natasha as much luck as he could muster, and the next morning, he was on a plane to New York City.He’d finished in California with just enough time to make the final show of the tour, at Barclay’s Center in NYC. His flight ended up getting delayed on the second leg of the flight, so he was stuck in Nashville for two hours and landing in New York with just enough time to get an Uber ride to the stadium to see the second half of the opening act. Stacee had reserved a seat front row for him when he called and informed him of the delay midday and had a security guard posted out front who led him to said seat as soon as he told him his name.Half an hour later, Stacee and the band arrived on stage in a flurry of sparks and smoke from a lift in the center of the stage. Stacee found him almost as soon as he’d found his footing with the mic and he smiled through the opening lines of Paradise City. Bradley smiled back and admired his outfit for the night. He was wearing a shirt for once, a black Harley Davidson tank top that was cropped at the waist, cut messily with a jagged hem so it only covered his tits but displayed the ‘V’ of his hips and his toned stomach. Over the top, he donned his well-worn leather jacket, the one with rhinestoned lapels and paired it with low-rise leather pants and a rhinestoned belt that sparkled in the stage lights as he moved with the music.His black cowboy boots completed the ensemble, though he forewent the hat or his sunglasses for the night, instead pulling his hair back with a black bandanna that he normally tied around his belt loops or his wrist alongside the red one that Bradley could see as the only pop of color, tucked into the left-side of his waistband and dangling down to his knee. He also wore a pair of silver drop earrings, a single stone dangling on a thin, silver chain and sparkling amidst his dark hair, paired with a set small silver hoop cuffs fitted to the curve of his ear in the set of conch piercings on his right side.Then Bradley noticed the leather fingerless gloves over the hands he clasped around the microphone and paired with the fox-eyed look Stacee sent him through black-rimmed eyes and dark eyelashes and the smirk on his face, Bradley almost couldn’t wait to get him alone.The show was just as invigorating and sexy as every other one Bradley had been to. The stadium venue meant the stage effects were more elaborate, pyrotechnics and fog machines and intense lighting. He felt the music in his chest and Stacee’s eyes on him the whole night. Normally, Stacee would glance and smile from time to time but then return to the performance but on that night? His gaze rarely left Bradley, only diverting to look at the fret-board and play something intricate or to toss his head as he sang, his eyes finding the stage cameras or falling to the left side of the audience even less often.Bradley was reminded of the way it had felt to be the central focus of his attention the night they first met, back when he couldn’t fathom the softer side of the rockstar before him, and he proudly hoisted his modified rock horns every time the moment called for it, silently screaming out his love and affection right in front of everybody, who remained clueless.When the set began to slow down a little, the crowd settling back into their excitement and the band tempering their energy for a finale as the setlist relaxed, the opening always strong and the closing always eventful, leaving time for the ballads as a sort of intermission in the middle. They had not quite reached the acoustic interlude yet where Stacee mounted his acoustic guitar or turned the keys from the synth-y sound to something closer resembling a traditional piano. But the pace of the songs and the energy had begun to temper.The band had just finished a rendition of ‘The Sex Is Good’ with Keith borrowing Stacee’s acoustic while Stacee accompanied him on electric. When they both played their final notes, Stacee swung back into the mic with a whoop, sweating from the stage lights and having discarded his jacket two songs prior, a bright and elated smile on his face as he grasped the microphone, “Keith Ferrey on guitar, everybody, he’s a legend,” he said, answered by a chorus of applause and cheers and a grateful smile and nod from the musician as he switched back to his own electric.“Alright, well we’re gonna slow it down here in a minute, give these guys a bit of a break from doing all the heavy lifting,” he laughed, “But first, I would like to pose a question, New York.” The crowd cheered in response and he laughed again.“You guys have given so much love on Open Arms as an album and that means the world to me, you have no idea,” he placed a hand over his heart to emphasize his point, “We’ve had our first Billboard Number One in over a decade with this album, all thanks to you, so I cannot possible put my gratitude for that into words.”“And this tour had been amazing, easily the best tour of my life,” he laughed, this one edging towards a breathier, more bashful sound, “And I have you guys to thank for that but there’s one person in particular who I owe a lot to and I…” he trailed, staring at the mass of people in the crowd as Bradley gaped up at him from his seat, the whole crowd either screaming at the top of their lungs or stunned into silence alongside him.“I couldn’t figure out what to say to them, how to tell them everything they’ve come to mean to me, but then,” and he laughed again, one Bradley had only ever heard in a villa in Santa Monica, “Then I wrote a song, like I always do,” and he held up his hand in the same formation Bradley did, making eye-contact with him from afar as he held his hand aloft, saying ‘I love you’ with his hands, with his eyes, and then, “So… I wanted to play something you guys haven’t heard yet, because I haven’t even recorded this song yet, so that they know,” and he shook his hand a little in the air, “Everything they mean to me.”Jamie began a soft melody as Stacee strummed out a riff on his guitar, something slow and soft, almost sensual in nature. Even as he stepped back from the microphone stand, his green gaze never left Bradley’s. And then he stepped back into the mic and sang, “Sitting here wasted and wounded at this old piano,” his voice low and husky in tone, dusked over by emotion, a slight tremble in his throat as he sang.“Trying hard to capture the moment this morning, I don’t know, cause a bottle of vodka’s still lodged in my head and some blonde gave me nightmares, I think that she’s still in my bed,” Bradley watched as Stacee closed his eyes against the emotion, something he’d only ever seen once before when Stacee told him about the infatuation with a reporter that had been the wake-up call he’d needed to reevaluate his life, find the value in it when he was letting it fall apart, and mend the mistakes he’d made. She’d been the reason he put down the bottle and got sober, the reason he fired his shitty manager who was enabling and placating him so he could keep Stacee from having a voice when he needed it most, the reason he’d gone back to Arsenal and remained with them ever since.And he’d closed his eyes as he told him that about six months after he’d gotten his shit together, she’d left with nothing more than a note claiming he’d changed her into someone she didn’t like and she couldn’t keep living with him. So she left. Without another word. When Stacee had opened his eyes, they’d had tears in them. And then he told him that he’d very nearly broken his sobriety, that they’d been on tour at the time with Von Colt debuting as their opener and Sherrie had found him at the hotel bar moments before he ordered a drink and talked some sense back into him until he’d ended up back in his room, furiously writing away the pain well into the night. The album they’d released when that tour ended had gone platinum, only beat out by their second album’s triple platinum status, and had been part of the reason the band’s career had outlasted most of the other popular ‘80s rock bands, the reason Arsenal had kept their staying power through three decades.Three lines into this song, Stacee was baring his soul to the world in the name of declaring his love for Bradley and Bradley knew that behind his closed eyelids, tears were undoubtedly welling as his vocals trembled ever so slightly around words he’d written while Bradley was on the other side of the country. That thought had tears welling in the pilot’s eyes.“As I dream about movies they won’t make of me when I’m dead,” he stepped back from the microphone, blinking the tears away and swallowing before coming back in, “With an ironclad fist, I wake up and French kiss the morning, while some marching band keeps it’s own beat in my head while we’re talking about all of the things that I long to believe about love and the truth,” he smiled softly, locking gaze with Bradley once more, “And what you mean to me, and the truth is… baby, you’re all I need.”The tears in Bradley’s eyes began to fall as the crowd found their footing with the beat and began swaying along, lighters and flashlights hoisted high in the air all around as Stacee fell into the chorus with a strong belt, “I want to lay you down in a bed of roses… for tonight, I sleep on a bed of nails!” he held unwavering eye-contact even as his face scrunched with the effort of a powerful belting vocal, “Oh! I wanna be just as close as… the Holy Ghost is! And lay you down… on a bed of roses…”Stacee rocked in time with the soft drums as Lindsey came in, Jamie’s soft keys carrying the melody beautifully, and he leaned back in for the second verse, “Well I’m so far away, each step that I take’s on my way home,” he strummed, the sound intricate and like the soft wail in his voice, carrying just as much emotion in his playing as he did his voice, “A king’s ransom in dimes, I’d give each night to see through this payphone… still, I run out of time or it’s hard to get through, ’til the bird on the wire flies me back to you, I’ll just close my eyes and whisper,” and he closed his eyes again, this time for dramatic effect, his smile wide on his face now as he whispered seductively into the microphone, “Baby, blind love is true.”He sang through the chorus again and then played a masterful guitar solo, all without breaking eye-contact from Bradley and he knew the media would have a field day with this come morning, but that Stacee had volunteered for that to be able to play this for him. Had thought about the consequences and decided that Bradley hearing this song was more important than the lack of questions regarding his personal life.And when Stacee’s vocals peaked in the final chorus, more tears fell from his eyes because here was this wonderful, sexy, talented, strange, loving man and he’d somehow managed to capture that and keep it. Had half an album dedicated to him, this awe-worthy performance all in his name and he couldn’t stop smiling even as the tears came again and again at just the wonder of where he’d ended up. He cried all the way through the acoustic set and only managed to find his footing in time for the closing song, to be able to scream along and feel like a real rock fan through the closing mashup of ‘Mighty Wings’ and ‘Through The Fire’.The show ended with a burst of fireworks over the open stadium and Bradley stuck out like a sore thumb in his brightly colored clothes but he did not care in the slightest, the same security guard who had escorted him in finding him and bringing him backstage. Just like the first night of the tour, the first time he heard ‘Open Arms’ played live, the very moment he saw Stacee, he pulled him into a bruising kiss that the older man immediately reciprocated, clutching back at Bradley with his hands fisted in his hair and his shirt with every ounce of strength he had in him. Unlike the first night, the band watched on with smiles, more fond than teasing, and didn’t say a word.When he pulled away, only enough to take a breath, Stacee had chased him and he kept a hand on his chest so he could say, “I love you,” into the air before surging back into the kiss. Stacee pulled away to pant out his assertion of the same three words and they returned to kissing. The moment it developed past cradling their lips together and into the slide of their tongues against one another, Atlas cleared his throat until they broke apart.“Get a room,” he rolled his eyes jokingly and they both laughed. It did not take long for them to do just that and because neither of them had anywhere pressing to be, they stayed the week in Stacee’s hotel room and became comfortably reacquainted with one another. When they landed back in LA, Stacee asked Bradley to move in with him in Santa Monica. Considering he barely left as it was, he agreed and surrendered his base housing, moving his things into Stacee’s space that he had already come to think of as theirs.• • •In the blink of an eye, five years passed. Six beautiful, long, blissful years together were briefly interrupted when Bradley was on a four month deployment and the pandemic shut the world down, turning it into a fourteen month deployment. And sure, they were both used to time apart between Stacee’s time on tour or promoting his music or Bradley’s choice to stay on active duty calling him away at any given time, but they were used to it short bursts. Bradley could fly out for shows at any given time when Stacee was on tour, his deployments were usually small detachments or high-profile missions that kept him away from home for only a short time. When he was stationed elsewhere without a choice in the matter, Stacee had the means to follow until they could both get back home to California.But fourteen months of uninterrupted separation was a lot. And when Bradley was finally able to get home, he was sent home for good, for an indefinite and indeterminate amount of time until the world could get it’s shit together. He certainly wasn’t complaining, as scared as he was for the status of the world at large and his career in the long-run.And sure, they’d had their rough patches. Six years was a long time and they both had their issues. Bradley had a hell of a temper, Stacee could be a real ass when he wanted to be, Bradley had trust issues and a serious fear of abandonment, Stacee still wrestled with his alcoholism on his worst days, they still worked their ass off to keep their presence in one another’s lives a secret and that came with hardships that they both struggled to digest. Their life together wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, it couldn’t be, and it wasn’t perfect but it didn’t need to be.When Bradley came home from the longest deployment of his life and fell into Stacee’s arms, he inhaled Stacee’s scent, a natural musk that he couldn’t find the words to describe undercut with a jasmine cologne and accented with the twinge of leather from his choice in clothing, and he felt the bliss of having a home to come back to. For so long, he’d floundered because he’d given up his only safe-space in the world when he cut Mav and his uncles out of his life. He’d struggled to find a place of his own and it brought him to Stacee that night at The Bourbon Room and Stacee carved out a place for him to have and that meant more than he could ever attest to.On the exhale he asked, “Will you marry me?” And Stacee, without missing a beat, said, “Yes.”They talked about it the next morning, decided to wait until the world could steady out and they could plan it out the way they wanted. Stacee said he’d never take the ring off once he had it and that lead into the very long discussion of going public, which ended in the consensus of ‘once we’re married’.But then the restrictions lifted and Bradley was sent to Japan and their plans were disrupted. Stacee had their rings specialty made, just the way they both wanted and they continued to wait until finally, finally Bradley was granted leave in May of ’22, and they couldn’t wait anymore. Nine years they’d known each other, eight they’d been in love. It was time.So they gathered the band and the very few friends in the know and they had a short and simple ceremony in the green room of The Bourbon Room and it was everything Bradley could’ve ever wanted. That night, Stacee sat him down and said he’d been working on their next album, that it was slated to release in August and he wanted him to hear it.Now, of course, Open Arms was not the only album Arsenal had released since he and Stacee had gotten together. They’d released two since then, but Stacee hadn’t been as heavily involved with the writing as he had with Open Arms because Keith and Atlas had both been in relationships and written songs since then, until this new album which he told Bradley would be called Nothing Else Matters and feature twelve songs in total, only six of which Stacee had written.After a song by Jamie and a song by Atlas, Stacee played the first song on the album written by him and explained that he’d written it during the pandemic while Bradley was stuck overseas, called ‘I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing’ and Bradley loved it. It touched on all the things he’d suffered with during those fourteen months and it covered their devotion to one another in a way he was touched by.Then he showed him ‘Faithfully’, which he said he’d written on their last tour and saved for the next album. And it was a beautiful love song, it reminded Bradley of ‘Open Arms’ but with more surety in the relationship itself. He leaned over and kissed Stacee, rocking them both with the beat as he went until Stacee giggled into his mouth in the way that only Bradley had ever been able to coax out of him. Everyone else got the Stacee with a low, sultry chuckle or the manic cackle of laughter, but Bradley got the giggly, happy Stacee and he thanked his lucky stars every day for the chance he took that day by agreeing to a hook up with a rockstar.Next, he played ‘Home’, which was slower and a little heavier on the drums. Stacee explained he’d started it on the last tour he’d been on and finished it amidst the pandemic. “And I’m going home to the place where I belong, where your love has always been enough for me,” made Bradley’s eyes well up a little and Stacee just smiled and caressed his cheek.And then he played ‘Heaven’ and it took Bradley a few minutes to place why it sounded familiar to him until he realized the main chord line on the piano was one he’d played the morning after he’d first gotten home from overseas, whilst he thought Stacee was sleeping. Something he’d played with, just a couple chords he slowly transitioned between to see how they sounded, just pawing at the keys to familiarize himself with the instrument. When asked, Stacee admitted he’d woken up and then recorded him playing, only to sample the recording for the song because he couldn’t stop humming it afterward.Bradley hugged him close and listened as the recording of Stacee’s voice called to him, “Baby, you’re all that I want when you’re lying here in my arms, I’m finding it hard to believe we’re in heaven… and love is all that I need and I found it there in your heart, isn’t too hard to see… we’re in heaven.” He stroked his hand over the gold band Stacee had had specially made for him, then over Stacee’s ring, the solid silver Damascus band engraved along the sides with a dragon scale pattern. “My blood moon,” he whispered into Stacee’s hair. Stacee squeezed his hand, “My dragon.”Finally, Stacee played him the titular track for the album. ‘Nothing Else Matters’ opened softly, the intricate guitar that Stacee loved to use in his songs riding the intro over a soft looping of Jamie’s keys, the sound almost Latin American in nature if not for the electric guitar. And then Stacee’s voice came in, low but clear, “So close no matter how far… couldn’t be much more from the heart, forever trusting who we are and nothing else matters.”“Never opened myself this way, life is ours, we live it our way… all these words I don’t just say… and nothing else matters,” the song continued, “Trust I seek and I find in you, everyday for us, something new… open mind for a different view, and nothing else matters!”The drums came in more prominently and then Stacee’s voice picked up into a belt, “Never cared for what they do!… Never cared for what they know! But I know…” and it gentled again, “So close, no matter how far, couldn’t be much more from the heart, forever trusting who we are… and nothing else matters.”The same lyrics repeated again through an artful display of guitar playing, a mix of Stacee and Keith’s talents no doubt over the top of Lindsey’s masterful drumming, and Bradley found himself oddly charmed by the song. Especially as Stacee’s vocal grew more growly and intense the further the song progressed. Before he knew what he was doing, he was making out with his husband to the pace of an electric guitar riff and Stacee was unbuttoning his shirt.Bradley was extremely excited for the tour, especially when Stacee flew back to Japan with him to spend some more time as a married couple before he had to go back to the states are start preparing for the tour, while Bradley counted down the months until they were mere weeks on the horizon.And then he was called back to TOPGUN for a special mission detachment, with specific orders that he report to Miramar at the earliest possible convenience. And then everything kinda went to shit for a while there.It wasn’t until he was listening to Stacee’s labored breaths through the speaker of his cellphone, banged up and yet somehow alive, that he even realized the stakes of what he’d just done. What he’d almost lost. For the first time in his life, he didn’t want to go back up in the air. He just wanted to go home to his husband.After the mission, his one singular priority became the love of his life. Because Stacee was shaken by the shock of nearly losing him, truly. Stacee, even in his softer moments, was not prone to heavy emotion. It was rare. But he called Bradley at least once a week, voice timid and shaky, sniffles sounding out from the other end that told Bradley he was crying, citing a nightmare for his restlessness. And the thing was, he never woke Bradley up because Bradley was already awake and struggling with the after effects of his own nightmares, reckoning the fact that he’d stared death in the eyes and all but dared it to chase him down. More often than not, he called Mav after those now that they were rebuilding their relationship piece by piece.And Bradley was faced with a choice, one he spoke to no one else about because at the end of the day, he’d chased the sky for twenty years and now, here he was, and it had nearly killed him. He didn’t know if it was worth it anymore, really. And no one else could advise him on that, it was only for Bradley to consider.And then Stacee brought up their original plan to go public with their relationship and Bradley turned his focus to that. They discussed it and if nothing else, Bradley wanted his friends, his godfather, the squadron who had become something like a family to him after the shared experience of surviving a Suicide Mission, to know him. Not as Stacee Jaxx, the rockstar, but as Stacee, Bradley’s husband. Stacee agreed and with the tour dates for LA approaching, it all lined up just right.Bradley couldn’t wait to see his husband again.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“You told them my legal name?” Stacee cackled, “Oh, this is gonna be good, I’m gonna need to ask Jamie to video.” Bradley laughed, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms, holding his phone to his ear, “Well, I can’t spoil the surprise.”“Natasha is going to kill me,” Bradley hummed, “I’d like to be cremated, please play The Sex Is Good at my funeral.” Stacee cackled in that way that Bradley could picture, a laugh that brought tears to his eyes with his head thrown back, a hand running back through his hair.“I wish you could come before the show, baby,” Stacee continued to chuckle as he spoke, “I really miss you.” Bradley hummed in agreement, “One day feels like too long, honey, I know.”A chorus of laughter sounded from the living room and Bradley leaned around the corner of his kitchen to see the entire Dagger squad spread around his home, in pajamas and laughing. He smiled at the sight, knowing they’d all struggled quite a bit in the reckoning of the mission. Has talked to Nat who told him it was almost just as bad being in the air that day and powerless to stop his going back, being unable to do anything, and being ordered to land. Jake admitted to shedding actual tears the third time he was denied the right to launch as additional air coverage. Mickey told him that listening to his comm line go silent scared the shit out of him, punched him on the arm, and scolded him for doing that to them.None of them have been having it easy lately so seeing everybody smiling and laughing never failed to bring a smile to his face. “Is that them?” Stacee asked. “Yeah,” Bradley said, still smiling as he watched Natasha smack Javy with a throw pillow, “Acting like a bunch of teenagers at a sleepover.”“They came to spend the night with you?” He asked. “Yeah, we all decided it would be best to hang out together at the apartment the night before, get ready here and carpool together, cut back on gas,” Bradley explained, “I’ve been very vague about you, told them your work keeps you late and you don’t get free tomorrow until just after the concert, that we have late night dinner reservations in town where you’ll meet us.”“Not technically a lie,” Stacee laughed. “Nat’s still going to murder me,” Bradley chuckled, “Especially when they find out the house in Santa Monica is closer to the strip than this shitty little apartment in San Pedro, or that it’s bigger.”“Making everybody cross town in LA traffic?” Stacee teased, “The cruelty.” Bradley laughed, “Well, I can’t exactly explain the beach-front villa that is way out of my pay grade until they know about you, now can I?”“I thought you admitted I had money!” Stacee exclaimed. “I did,” Bradley conceded, “I just haven’t told them how much more yet.”“Don’t like being teased for having a sugar daddy?” Stacee teased and Bradley guffawed. “Shut up!” He laughed, “I knew better than to tell you about that little comment.” Stacee hummed, “And now I’ll never let it go.” Bradley laughed even harder, “No! You won’t!”“Well, why would I when-“ Stacee went to say but a voice came in in the background and interrupted him. “What?” Bradley could hear his voice but it was muffled, like he covered the speaker of the phone, “No, why? What’s wrong?”The voice returned and it was either Sherrie, Jamie, or Donna, their tour manager. Bradley couldn’t make out what she was saying but Stacee’s tone alarmed him slightly. “Oh shit,” Stacee cursed, “Okay, I’m coming,” he uncovered the speaker and leaned back into the phone so Bradley could hear him more clearly, “Got some issues here, babe, minor shit but I’ve gotta go, I’ll talk to you in the morning, I love you.”“Love you too,” Bradley responded. Stacee’s side beeped, indicating he’d hung up. Bradley did the same and then stepped out of his hidey-hole into the chaos of a bunch of aviators who’d all had, at minimum, a nibble from a batch of weed brownies that Jake and Javy brought since Bradley asked them not to bring any alcohol in.They were also halfway through listening to Arsenal’s entire discography from their fifth album forward since Mav had not heard much of their music since then beyond the three or four that had gotten really popular on main-stream radio and online in the past few years. They’d all insisted he be caught up and decided to give the crash course in Bradley’s living room the night before the concert.They’d paused some time when he left to field the phone call from Stacee, somewhere close to the end of ‘Can’t Fight This Feeling’, the album they’d released in 2010 and pledged all royalties to The Trevor Project, shortly after Stacee, Jamie, and Atlas had all come out as openly part of the LGBTQ+ community.The cover was one of Bradley’s favorite pictures of the band ever because it was everybody in their typical stage set, dressed in all dark colors, studs, spikes, and rhinestones, and photographed while an array of colored chalk powder was thrown, leading to a beautiful contrast between explosive rainbow clouds and the black and silver outfits and instruments against a black background. Jamie’s hair had also been half black, half rainbow streaks and she styled it like Cyndi Lauper back then. And Bradley had come to find out that Dennis and Lonny had actually written the titular song forever ago but hadn’t wanted to release it under the guise of it being a straight love anthem. So Stacee had asked their permission to release it on their album alongside at least two Queen covers of their choosing and they agreed.When they’d paused and Bradley had stepped out, a debate on the best Arsenal album had begun and grown rather heated, apparently, as it continued even half an hour later as he approached the group of laughing but arguing aviators.“It’s Open Arms, hands down!” Mickey clapped for emphasis. “See, but how can you say that when Bed Of Roses is on Hysteria?!” Natasha exclaimed. “Because Open Arms is a better song!” He rebutted and she gasped, sounding downright scandalized. “How dare you?”“Are we all forgetting that March On exists?” Jake butted in, “Like, I know it’s mostly covers but you’re telling me that rock ballad Jolene didn’t just kill you? And the live version of Wanted Dead Or Alive? Are you kidding?”“Sit down, country boy,” Javy chuckled, “You just like that one because you got to go to that tour and see Stacee Jaxx draped in nothing but a pride flag and a cowboy hat while singing Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond Of Each Other and you haven’t recovered since.” Bradley cackled as Jake’s face turned red and he shoved at his best friend.“Can’t Fight This Feeling was almost as iconic as Born This Way, though,” Bob piped in from his spot peacefully lounging on the floor amidst the pile of pillows they’d all carted from their base units and Bradley had added to because they all wanted to puppy pile during the movie, “Or if you want a more apt reference, Purple Rain.”“Prince was straight,” Jake corrected. “True,” Bob pointed, “But so are two of the five in Arsenal and so is Lady Gaga, it hasn’t stopped them becoming queer icons for their music and their brand.” Mumbles of agreement resounded through the room.“I like Can’t Fight This Feeling,” Rueben started, “But I have to side with Mick on this one, Open Arms was insane! Do you guys remember that big scandal from the last show of the tour where Stacee Jaxx made a declaration of love on stage and then performed Bed Of Roses before it had even been released? And you’re gonna tell me that the songs on Open Arms are not his best work?”“You’re all wrong,” Bradley cut in, “Because Nothing Else Matters is the best one, end of story.” They all protested loudly, claiming recency bias. But Bradley held a hand up, “No, you won’t change my mind, Nothing Else Matters is the best.”“Cite your argument!” Natasha exclaimed. “Nothing Else Matters, Heaven, and Home,” he counted off, “That should be all I have to say.” They booed him regardless and he spoke over the chorus of voices, “Disagree with me all you want, you’ll see my point when you see it live tomorrow.”The debate continued on for the next half hour, bringing their third and fifth albums into it as the reasons for their stardom until they’d all dropped it on an agree to disagree basis when Mav finally just asked them to shut up and at least let him hear the other half of the music they were arguing about.Bradley had to conceal his shit-eating grin through the entirety of Open Arms because he couldn’t wait to ruin the racier songs for them once they figured out the timeline of his and Stacee’s relationship. Then he got a little misty during Open Arms, as he usually did. Mav side-eyed him and when the song ended and they paused the listening to refill their massive bowl of shared popcorn before moving on to Hysteria, he bumped him gently from where he was seated beside him on the couch and rose an eyebrow of concerned question. Bradley just smiled and shook his head so Mav nodded and went back to watching Javy, Jake, and Rueben debating the likelihood that Mighty Wings went beyond being written for the soundtrack of a fighter pilot movie that it was used on a year and a half after Open Arms was released. Their argument swiftly came to an end when they looked up the concurrent release dates and saw that Mighty Wings was out long before the movie in question.Come morning, everyone was exhausted because they’d spent the better part of the night debating random things and pausing the music every other song to rant about something related to some lyrics or another. Bed Of Roses had sparked an hour-long debate about the NYC show of the Open Arms tour and who Stacee had been talking to. They’d all succumbed to sleep sometime around 4 AM and woke together not long before noon, still equally exhausted and excited.Everyone had outfits to begin preparing, not as extravagant as some concert-goers that Bradley had seen through the years but definitely to match the vibe. Natasha had decided the occasion called for a dress, maroon velvet down to the middle of her thighs and paired with distressed sheer tights, a leather jacket, and chunky Docs. Jake, Javy, and Rueban all had Arsenal t-shirts from previous tours they’d been to and they paired them accordingly, jeans in varying colors and either leather or corduroy jackets. Jake was also adding a black cowboy hat with a rhinestone ribbon to his ensemble. Bob had pulled a denim jacket and a blue Zeppelin shirt to wear under it with black jeans, a studded belt, and Converse. Mickey went a little edgier than the others with a long-sleeve mesh top and a black vest, pleather pants, and plain black roper boots. And all of them had compiled more than enough jewelry to set off a metal detector from ten feet away. Studded bands, spiky chokers, thick chains, sparklier pieces, most of it in silver.Natasha even had a false belly-button ring that she convinced Mickey to wear for the night when they found out that Bradley had two very real nipple piercings that he took the studs out of while on duty because g-forces and jewelry don’t pair well and they were the only two in sheer shirts. Speaking of Bradley, he’d pulled a black and red palm-leaf patterned button-up that Atlas had given him a few years ago as a semi-joke gift for Christmas, paired over the top of a black mesh tank top and Stacee’s favorite pair of jeans, a pair of light wash skinny jeans with distressing up to the top of his thighs but lined with fishnet so the mesh peek-a-booed through the rips. He wore one thick, gold chain necklace, his wedding ring, and a black and gold studded wristband that Rueben leaned him on his right arm, his watch on his left, his aviators perched on his head despite the fact that the sun was setting by the time they arrived at The Bourbon Room.Bradley stepped out of the Bronco, meeting the other half of the group only a few parking spots away with Jake, and then he led them all together to The Bourbon. It wasn’t extremely crowded yet, since they liked to book up-and-coming artists in LA for the first opener and then follow with the tour regular, usually Von Colt or a similarly niche band in the same scene. Most people would show up later into the night during Von Colt’s set, but Bradley had timed everything with purpose even if he knew Stacee and the band were out for a late lunch after sound-check and wouldn’t be back until they were an hour from going on stage, their typical pre-show ritual.He led the parade of aviators through the front door, Mav just behind him. His godfather hadn’t really dressed up for the occasion, only switching to a dark shirt and black jeans with his aviator jacket but after some convincing of the group for him to at least wear his tags on the outside of his shirt and add a chain bracelet on the wrist without his watch, he fit in just fine.When Bradley led them all through the archways leading into the wider space of the club, Dennis rounded the corner from the corridor leading to all the staff rooms, and his eyes lit up as soon as he saw him. “Bradley!” He called out, jogging over to meet them and the whole group turned with wide eyes as Bradley smiled, greeting the man with a side-hug, “Hey, Dennis.”“Good to see you back in one piece,” Dennis patted his back, “Word came around, sounded like a close call.” Bradley sighed, “It was.” Dennis just hummed and then said, “Well, we’re glad to have you back! I assume this is the team that was mentioned…” he trailed, eyes flicking between all of the Daggers.Bradley chuckled, “Yeah, this is my squadron and,” he grasped Mav by his shoulder and hauled him forward a couple of steps, “My godfather.” Dennis introduced himself in kind, shaking hands with each of them before stepping back, only to be interrupted mid-sentence by Lonny bouncing his way from the door that leads to behind the bar.“Well, well, well,” the Englishmen smirked, “If it isn’t our favorite fighter pilot.” Bradley cackled, “I’m the only fighter pilot you know, Lonny.” He shrugged, “Default still counts.”He came up to Dennis’ shoulder, draping himself over the man’s back with his head rested on his shoulder as he noticed the rest of the squad. “More pilots?” He asked. “Aviators,” Bradley corrected and Lonny rolled his eyes, “And yes, this is the team from the special detachment I told you guys about…”“Right,” Lonny snapped and pointed at him, “Yes, I remember now, lovely to meet you all.” A chorus of the same sentiment was returned and then Bradley heard Sherrie and Drew’s voices over the loud-speaker, announcing the arrival of Von Colt. “Who’s on bar tonight?” Bradley asked, trying to keep an eye on the stage for when the pair chorused onto it in a flurry of rhinestones, denim, leather, spandex, and glitter.“Me and Del,” the Brit answered, “Just finished a rush when I came to find Dennis.” Bradley nodded in understanding and then said, “Well, we better go get our drinks and find our spot before the crowd comes in.” The two men nodded and stepped aside, allowing the group of eight to make way for the bar. For Von Colt’s first two songs, they ordered a round of shots and then settled back into either seltzers or beer, Bob being the only sober one of the bunch. Delia was more than happy to serve him a mocktail or two so he didn’t feel left out in the slightest.There was a nice group of people crowding the floor of the pit and quite a few stragglers spread around at the dining tables or in booths but Bradley knew from experience that by the time Stacee and the others took the stage, you’d be hard-pressed to find standing room on the main floor, let alone in the pit. There was a reason Dennis hosted them back so often, it made the club an extraordinary amount of money. In Bradley’s experience, they usually began or ended a tour in The Bourbon Room unless it was international, in which case they concluded the American leg with their LA shows. Considering most of the band lived in LA and Stacee and Keith were both natives to the city of Angels, it just worked out best for the same reasons they ended in New York, where Jamie and Lindsey had both been born and raised, whenever they started in LA.When they’d all finished their drinks, Bradley checked his watch and then gestured for them all to follow him down to the pit before it got too crowded. As he made his way down the stairs, Sherrie caught his eye and waved. He returned it. “Why do you know everyone here?” Natasha squinted at him suspiciously as she yelled over the music. His lips curved up into an amused smile and she glowered at him.Jake bumped him, “No, seriously! How the hell do you know Sherrie Christian?” Bradley’s smile widened as he continued leading them to about the center of the pit, and he called over his shoulder, “In due time, my friends!” Stacee’s penchant for the dramatic had rubbed off on him a bit in nine years, it would seem.Once they all got settled in a line amidst the crowd, the music took over and before he knew it, Von Colt had flown through their set and his voice was hoarse from singing along. He popped a throat lozenge from his pocket and kept singing, having picked up quite a few tricks from spending so much time around vocalists that he carried spare cough drops even when he wasn’t sick and he could make Stacee’s honey chamomile tea blindfolded with one arm tied behind his back.Finally, though, Von Colt’s set ended with a sparkly bang and the lights fell out as the entire crowd cheered and clapped in appreciation for their show. Bradley glanced behind him and saw exactly as he’d predicted, the bar was beyond crowded by now. Drew’s voice came in over the microphone, “Thank you ladies and gentlemen, now for the final act of the night!”Electric guitar came in, Atlas’ bass line drawing a steady base for Keith’s finger-picking and Stacee’s rhythmic strums to ride on. Jamie laid a barely noticeable layer beneath it all, a quiet synth to ground the roar of the guitars. Bradley recognized it immediately, screaming until his voice cracked. The others stared at him in confusion that turned to excitement when Stacee’s voice came in, quiet and echoing through the reverb, “Love is like a bomb.” Drew’s voice came back, “We present to you, live and in stereo, Arsenal!”The lights cued back in, the band lit in different shades of red and orange as the flame jets on either side of the stage went up, the band’s logo showcased in a neon orange sign on the back wall. Lindsey crashed in right on cue, his drums setting the beat as Keith’s picked notes turned into the distinct thematic riff for ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’ and Stacee stepped forward toward the mic. A ruckus of grunts and ‘hey!’s were called into the microphones by each member of the band in time with the beat.Bradley’s mouth went dry, feeling a little dizzy at the sight of his husband on stage, the bright center-stage light glistening off of the sweat and body glitter on Stacee’s bare chest, his dragon tattoo, as well as the small, almost unnoticeable, hand silhouette made to match the one of Bradley’s ankle, inked into his throat visible and sparkling with the sheen of mica powder he’d dusted over his body before donning his rhinestoned leather jacket, Bradley’s favorite ripped jeans, and his black motorcycle boots.He had his glasses on with his bandanna fashioned into a head-scarf, no hat. He also had a layered menagerie of chains hanging from his neck, from a short and thick chain to a long, thin one with spike charms to one Bradley had given him years ago with a red rhinestoned guitar pick charm and another of his favorite necklaces, a Swarovski crystal icicle pendant in a deep purple. His wrists held a few leather bands and his red bandanna, but his hands remained bare of all but his silver wedding ring.He stepped forward into the mic and Bradley had a brief flashback to the day they met, the first time Stacee stared down at him and held eye contact from the same stage before him while singing into the mic and he felt so thankful that they’d come this far. Didn’t know what he might’ve done if he hadn’t had Stacee in his life. And Stacee’s eyes finally met his through his smoky lenses as he crooned into the mic, “Love is like a bomb, baby c’mon get it on, living like a lover with a radar phone, lookin’ like a tramp, like a video vamp, demolition baby, can I be your man?”Bradley clocked the difference immediately and he chuckled low in his throat as his friends sang along with the crowd around them. “Razzle n’ a dazzle n’ a flash a little light,” Stacee brought his hand up to the mic, dropping his guitar as the song no longer called for his participation sonically, “Television lover, baby, go all night! Sometime, anytime, sugar me sweet! Little mister innocent, sugar me!” He ripped the mic from its stand with a smirk, calling out a loud, “Yeah!” As he stepped back, the crowd rippled with reaction at the lyric change.As per usual, the performance left Bradley on the same type of high that he could only imagine Ecstasy would, warm all over and mildly aroused, especially thanks to the wink Stacee had shot his way amidst the bridge. His situation was helped none when they immediately transitioned to Fuck Away The Pain and Stacee ditched his jacket. Stacee melted into the music the way he always did on stage, less focused on keeping his eyes on his husband as he strutted across the stage but Bradley was certainly not complaining.The next few songs were from the new album, ones Stacee had not written, but Bradley was still enthused by the performance regardless. Mighty Wings, as usual, had him shifting on his feet uncomfortably even as he and the other aviators at his side sang along with every inch of passion they had in them. He was amused to find that even Mav had become enraptured with the music, dancing with the same amount of abandon as the other Daggers.And then, as usual, the set began to slow down. The Sex Is Good and then Home, followed immediately by Bed Of Roses and then Faithfully. Heaven was when the lighters and flashlights came out and Bradley had to press back tears as Jamie played his part, dancing beautifully alongside Stacee’s guitar. The two instruments melding felt so symbolic of their love story to him and the song itself had come to mean a lot to Bradley during his time away. When Stacee had finally calmed down after the mission, after Jake brought his ringing phone to him all the way from the locker room, he’d laid back with his phone on his chest and begun humming the opening until eventually he and Stacee were softly singing to one another through another round of silent tears, wishing they could hold one another and fall asleep side by side.He watched Stacee turn around, away from the microphone, slinging his jacket back onto his shoulders and swiping at his face after perching his sunglasses on his head and he knew his husband had come to treasure the song the same as he had. Luckily, Stacee wore very foolhardy makeup so his eyeliner was completely intact when he turned back to the crowd with a smile as Keith played the opening chords to Nothing Else Matters.“This tour has been…” Stacee cleared his throat, “Amazing, as they always are, and I’m sad to see it go but…”“Is he about to…” Bradley heard Nat trail off at his side. “I also can’t wait to get home,” Stacee chuckled, “Because the man I’ve been writing about for nearly a decade now is waiting for me and I…” he blinked, his voice cracking. He paused a moment, allowing Bradley to hear Jake’s soft “Oh my God,” from three people away, and then he chuckled into the mic, the sound a little watery, “I’m sorry, I’m not usually this emotional,” and he took a deep breath.“I almost lost him,” he finally choked out, “I really, genuinely thought I had lost the love of my life for a few hours and that was terrifying,” he blinked back a well of tears again, doing his damndest not to cry on stage because Stacee was so careful about showcasing his vulnerability and crying on stage in front of a crowd of people was too much for him, let alone the millions of people across the world who would undoubtedly see someone’s recording of the performance before midnight when they posted it to social media. Bradley’s eyes welled with tears.The musician bit his lip and then said, “And I’m, of course, not the only person in this band who writes music but this album was my pet project for the most part, all because of him, and I couldn’t fathom the idea that this song I’m about to play for you would ever be the last one I’d play for him,” and then he smiled, “But I was wrong, thankfully, and he’s still here.” A chorus of cheers came from the crowd and Stacee chuckled.“So I’m gonna play you a song that I wrote to tell him how much he inspires me every day, how much he means to me, how much I love him,” Stacee smiled again, his eyes finding Bradley’s in the crowd, “And how nothing else matters to me but my husband and the life we lead together.”A round of cheers and exclamations of shock sounded out around the crowd. Bradley chuckled as his fellow aviators all gaped in shock while Stacee sang, “So close, no matter how far, couldn’t be much more from the heart, forever trusting who we are, and nothing else matters, never opened myself this way, life is ours, we live it our way, all these words I don’t just say… and nothing else matters.”As he sang the second verse, Mav tapped Bradley’s left hand and Bradley finally tore his eyes from the locked gaze of Stacee’s, turning to look at his godfather. Mav tapped his ring finger, question in his eyes as he glanced between Bradley and the stage. Bradley’s tears then began to fall and he nodded once, firm and sure. Mav smiled and turned back to watch the show. Bradley turned back, finding Stacee’s eyes had never left him and he smiled, swiping at the tears running down his face.Eventually, the energy in the setlist returned until they all found themselves screaming along to Arsenal and Von Colt’s partnered version of Don’t Stop Believin’ and the lights faded over the stage, the last dredges of music overwhelmed by the crowd’s enthusiastic screams.Bradley checked his watch and decided they could go for one more drink before they headed out so he called out to the Daggers, “Come on!” As the entire crowd in the pit emptied out into the remainder of the bar, many of them headed straight for the door.He led them back over to the bar and said, “Alright, one more for the road, then we’ve gotta hit it so we can make it to dinner, who’s driving the second truck?”“I can,” Bob volunteered, “I’m not drinking anyway, that way three of us don’t have to all be sober.” Bradley nodded and Jake passed his keys over to the WSO. “Okay, I’m buying, get your last order in so I can square up with Lonny, and then we’ll head out.” The other aviators nodded, following his instructions. Bradley paid off the tab, downing his water while the others finished off a bottle of beer or chased a shot with soda.When everyone had finished, he brought their empties back to the bar and asked his friend, “Hey, you and Dennis meeting us for dinner later?” Lonny shook his head, a forlorn sigh sounding as he took the empty glasses from Bradley, “No, we’ve gotta close up here, I think Dennis mentioned something about hosting something up at our house in a few weeks once everybody gets settled back in from the tour.” Bradley nodded.“Well, I wish you guys could make it but I get it,” he clicked his tongue, “Send Dennis my thanks, I’m heading out.” The Brit nodded and waved in farewell as Bradley stepped away. Braley returned it and then recollected the tipsy Daggers, rounding everybody back outside to the vehicles.“Follow me,” he instructed Bob, “Close as you can, traffic gets a little hectic around here at this hour, and it might be a minute! I’ve gotta wait a minute for him to send me the address.” Bob nodded and they parted ways.Once Stacee sent him the text for the restaurant the band had decided on and rented out the entire building for the night, he led Bob through the streets of the city until they reached a small Japanese restaurant in Mid-City, somewhere they’d been before for the very same occasion. The parking lot was empty when he pulled in to park, followed by Bob in Jake’s truck, and they all spilled out of the two vehicles.“Why’s it so quiet?” Javy questioned, “And there’s no one here besides us.” Bradley smiled amusedly again, “Oh, yes there is.”All of them shared confused and frankly annoyed glances, growing tired of Bradley’s vague little game. The pilot laughed and strode forward, “Come on, everything’s about to start making sense.” So they all shrugged and followed him.The door was locked, as he’d expected because he knew they would’ve bought the place out for the rest of the night, so he knocked. A small woman came to the door and she opened it, “I’m sorry, we’ve closed early.”He smiled, “We’re with the party of nine, my name’s Bradley.” She stared at him for a moment, likely tallying the number of people seated inside, and then nodded, “Yes, come in.”“This feels like a Bond movie,” Rueban murmured behind him while Javy questioned, bewildered, “Nine?” and Bradley laughed. The narrow entrance of the restaurant opened into two wide dining rooms, the corridor of the entrance leading directly to the kitchens, and Bradley followed the sound of chatter, leading his fellow aviators left. As soon as they rounded the corner, the whole room went silent.He turned to face the Daggers and watched as their eyes blew wide and their mouths dropped open. He openly laughed, hearing the sound of someone’s camera shutter flickering from the table, no doubt multiple cameras trained on the door for the moment they’d all begun anticipating as soon as Bradley laid out his plan. Pictures and video footage were being taken as the Navy’s finest stood in awe-struck silence in the doorway, a mad mix of confusion and shock locking them in place and making their faces contort into hilarious displays of their internal thought processes.Bradley still didn’t turn around but he heard Stacee laugh, the squeak of his leather jacket as if he uncrossed his arms, and the soft thud of his boots against the floor that told Bradley he’d had his feet propped up either on the table’s edge or on another chair. “Not who you were expecting?” His husband’s teasing voice echoed through the mostly empty room.“Somebody pinch me,” Jake said, his eyes all but sparkling as he stared at the man. Javy followed the command, pinching his best friend on the arm until Jake yelped, rubbing at the sore spot of skin, “Okay, so not a dream…cool.” His voice sounded slightly hysterical as he spoke, just enough so that Bradley laughed again.“Holy shit,” Mickey tilted his head, a realization in his eyes that no one but Mav, who leaned against the archway with an amused smirk off to the side, had figured out yet. Considering he had since confessed the overheard phone call to Bradley, the pilot knew he’d put the pieces together thanks to the name dissonance. Jake surely wouldn’t be far behind him, he was just a little starstruck-stupid and trying to process the concept that his bisexual awakening was standing right in front of him, on eye-level rather than from the elevation of a stage.Natasha put her hands on her hips like a scolding mother as she leveled her eyes at Bradley, who was still struggling to contain his bursts of laughter behind a smile, and she glared, “Bradley Bradshaw, if you don’t start explaining right this second, so help me—““I like her,” Jamie laughed from the table and Bradley joined in, turning halfway to face her, “That’s what I was afraid of.”“What’s going on, Rooster?” Javy questioned, always more rational than the rest of them so long as he wasn’t playing along with one of Jake’s shenanigans. Bradley’s mischievous smile cracked a little, edging towards a smirk, but he forewent the words prepared to leave his mouth when he heard the soft sound of footsteps on the carpet behind him.Sure enough, a pair of arms encircled his waist and he leaned back into Stacee’s chest as Stacee rose slightly onto tip-toe to rest his chin on Bradley’s shoulder and peer at the group of stunned aviators with the same smile he’d worn in the bathroom the night he and Bradley met, like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. The display of affection made it click for most of them, their eyes going even wider in realization as Bradley placed a gentle hand over the top of where Stacee’s joined in front of him and his husband spoke up, “I’ve been rather eager to meet you lot.”“Lonny is rubbing off on you,” Bradley murmured to him, referring to the British vernacular that Stacee used from time to time. Stacee smirked and said, “God, I hope not,” with a dramatic scrunch of his face that made Bradley tip his head back in laughter before he leveraged one of Stacee’s hands to pull him around, where he could see him better. “You’re disgusting,” Bradley murmured, tipping their heads together. Stacee smiled, “You love it.”Bradley sighed, something love-sick and forlorn, “Dammit, I do.” A distant round of ‘oh my God’ sounded through the Dagger squadron as he leaned in and kissed his husband for the first time in six months. He and Stacee both laughed into the kiss as they listened to the commotion of shock rippling through his friends and when they pulled back, they tipped their foreheads together and swayed a little, reveling in being able to hold one another after all the last six months had held for them both.“You said his name was Stephen!” Rueben accused, sounding downright scandalized. Bradley laughed again as Stacee chuckled, turning to face the group with an arm still locked over Bradley’s shoulder and holding him close to his side, “Technically, it is,” at their confused stares, he chuckled again and clarified, “My legal name is Stephen Jackson, but I’ve been Stacee for so long that I’m more Stacee than I am Stephen anymore, no one but my lawyer calls me Stephen.”Natasha approached, her strides measured and her facial expression blank in a way that set off alarm bells in Bradley’s mind but he resigned himself to his fate as she approached, stared him in the eye for a moment, and then began delivering slap after slap to his arm and chest. He flinched from some of the harsher blows but took the assault as she ground out through gritted teeth, “So not only did you have a secret husband but you married a rockstar right under my nose?! How dare you?”He laughed, squealing out, “I’m sorry, Nat! What was I supposed to say? ‘I met Stacee Jaxx in a bathroom of a rock club in LA and he fucked me six months ago and now we’re dating’?”“Yes!” She affirmed, delivering one last smack to his arm before stepping back, “Your dirty little secret for damn near a decade and I never pushed, I never asked, I noticed! Because you are not THAT subtle, but I was a good friend and I let you keep it, which I never would’ve done if I had even the slightest inkling that you were dating Stacee fucking Jaxx!”“How long, exactly, has this been a thing?” Javy cut in from the side. “Frankly, I’m also curious about that,” Mav chuckled from where he was leaning. “How are you not more surprised, by the way?” Bob rounded on him and Mav laughed.“Because I figured it out three hours ago when this one,” he jousted a finger towards Bradley, “Was making starry eyes at the stage while he,” he gestured toward Stacee, “Couldn’t tear his eyes away from where we were all standing.”He shrugged, “Also, ‘Mighty Wings’? Come on, guys, you’re all smarter than that.” Most of the Daggers quirked their heads in acknowledgment of their own obliviousness in hindsight.“To answer your question, Javy,” Bradley cut in, still smiling amusedly, “We met in October of 2013, started dating in March of 2015, got engaged during the pandemic, and got married last May.”“Jesus,” Jake laughed a little in shock while the others digested the new information, “That’s longer than our whole thing was even if you count the off part of on and off.” Bradley laughed while Mickey gasped, looking between Jake and Bradley.“You guys…?” He asked, gesturing between them and both men laughed while Nat rolled her eyes with an exasperated huff and Javy groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Yes,” she hissed, “And it was a nightmare, all around.”Javy nodded, whistling a long note while drawing a finger through the air and then mimicking an explosion with both his hands and his mouth. “That explains…so much,” Bob laughed.“Well,” Stacee clapped his hands, “Like I said, I’ve been rather eager to meet the squad who saved my husband’s life so…” he stepped forward, reaching a hand out for Nat since she was the closest, “It’s lovely to meet you, I’m Stacee.”She shook his hand, chuckling, “I know,” and then she smiled, “Natasha, most people call me Phoenix.” He proceeded to follow down the line until he reached Jake, who he eyed with something complicated in his eyes.“He was pretty broken up when I met him,” he said lowly, only audible due to the quiet of the open dining room, “And I know some of that’s 'cause of you but I also know how he is and I know you were probably going through it just the same so to clear the air, I don’t hold that against you.”He cleared his throat, “But I do wanna thank you for getting him back to me,” and from the sound of his voice, Bradley stepped over and laid a hand on his shoulder on instinct alone, predicting the tear that Stacee swiped away as it fell before shaking Jake’s hand firmly, “Thank you.” The other pilot nodded, a solemn smile on his face.Last in the formed row of aviators stood Mav, who bit at the inside of his cheek with jittery nerves, his hands locked behind his back in parade rest as he faced down Stacee’s intense and scrutinizing gaze. Stacee looked him up and down before clearing his throat, “I’ve heard a lot about you over the years.”Mav laughed under his breath, the huff lacking amusement as he toed at the ground with his boot, “I’m sure you have.” Stacee took a deep breath and then said, “And yeah, a lot of it wasn’t great and that doesn’t disappear overnight, I’m sure you know that just as well as I do but…”He cleared his throat again, “Most of it…most of it was good.” Mav stared at him in disbelief so state continued, “You raised him and you saved his life and I can’t…” Stacee’s voice cracked, “I can’t thank you enough for that.” And then Stacee, in a rare show of vulnerability and open affection, pulled Mav into a hug, pressing back tears as he whispered out repeated thanks into Mav’s shoulder. Mav was shocked but he reciprocated the hug.When they pulled away, Bradley heard over his shoulder as Javy whispered, “Is it just me or do they kinda—““No!” Bradley whipped around, cutting him off, “No, I had that thought seven years ago and I swore I wouldn’t ever think about it again, so you shut up!” The other pilot held his hands up and nodded in swift agreement. Everyone else stifled their laughter at his dramatic reaction, to which Bradley huffed.Stacee cleared his throat to call their attention, taking Bradley’s hand in his own and leading him to the table as he said, “So, dinner everyone?”After that, the entire band as well as Sherrie, Drew, and Keith, Lindsey, and Jamie’s spouses all introduced themselves to the Daggers. Then they all sat down to dinner and the conversation carried through a myriad of topics.Eventually, it carried on to how Bradley and Stacee met when Rueben asked. “Well…” Bradley laughed a little, clearing his throat, “I was posted up at Lemoore at the time, Nat was overseas and this was about…six months after Jake and I broke up or thereabouts and I was just feeling really shitty one night so I drove up to LA and decide to find somewhere on the strip to get some drinks, listen to some music, maybe get laid.”He smirked a little and continued, “I ended up at The Bourbon and I stumbled into the wrong bathroom,” Stacee smirked while Bradley’s cheeks began to flush, “He scared the shit out of me and then he flirted with me until I was struck stupid and unable to reply and then he just left.”Everyone chuckled a little and he continued, “After the show, I ended up in his dressing room, and well…” He tipped his head in insinuation and then said, “The rest was history.”“Wait,” Jake held a hand up, contemplation in his eyes while Bradley and Stacee smiled at each other in the way that normally made the band tease them to no end, “When did you say this was?”“October of 2013,” Bradley answered, taking a bite of his food, “Why?”“So that means…” the aviator stared at the table for a moment and then put his head in his hands, “Oh my God.”“What?” Javy questioned, bumping his shoulder. “Open Arms is the Arsenal album with the most songs written entirely by Stacee Jaxx with only two of the eleven being written by another band member and it came out in the winter of 2014,” came Jake’s muffled response.“Okay…?” Natasha rose an eyebrow. Bradley smirked into his glass while Stacee concealed a smile behind his hands where he rested his chin on them, his elbows on the table. “So that means Fuck Away The Pain and Next Go Round and The Sex Is Good and Talk Dirty To Me and Mighty Wings and every other song about sex on that damn album is about Rooster,” came his disgruntled voice from behind his hands.Bradley cackled as they all reacted with various emotions, ranging from disgust to intrigue. “I…will never be able to listen to those songs again, will I?” Natasha cringed, sipping at her drink. “Nope!” He exclaimed, laughing.“Oh shit,” Javy realized, “That also means the Bed Of Roses speech at the last show of the Open Arms tour…” he trailed as Bradley nodded with a smile.“I got called for TOPGUN in the middle of that tour, only a few months after we started dating,” he revealed to which Jake gasped and picked his head back up, “I knew that because I had to sell my tickets, I was supposed to go to the show in Austin and then I got called to North Island!”“Yep,” Bradley nodded, “So the show in New York was the only show I had the time to make after we graduated and this sappy ass motherfucker,” he smiled teasingly at his husband who only smiled back cheekily at him, leaning into his shoulder, “Pulled that surprise on me in the middle of the show, I hadn’t even seen him yet! My flight landed with just enough time to catch the last few songs of the opening act! And he went up there and made a declaration like that, I almost suffocated him when I finally got backstage afterward.”“Not for the first time,” Stacee teased. The whole band laughed while Bradley blushed, quirking his head in acknowledgment, “Fair.”“Y’know…” Mickey trailed, “If you’d told me yesterday that you were married to Stacee Jaxx, I wouldn’t have been able to see it but now…” he laughed a little, “It makes a lot of sense, actually.”Bradley grabbed his husband’s hand, holding on tightly and he smiled, “Nothing has ever made more sense in my entire life.”Stacee leaned over and kissed him and surrounded by the teasing jeers of their friends, he smiled into the kiss, feeling fully and entirely at home. Stacee was more than he ever could’ve dreamed of and all he ever wanted, his everything. And he’d have never guessed it but he was happy. Finally, seated across from his godfather, surrounded by his friends and kissing his husband, he was happy.He was reminded of when he told his mother he was gay, shortly before she got sick for the first time, around the time he was fourteen or so. She’d smiled and hugged him softly then pulled back and said, “One day, you’re gonna find the one person that makes you feel like you’re flying.”And she’d smiled as her eyes watered and he didn’t have to ask why as her hand came up to the chain around her throat, the gold wedding band hanging from it. And she’d held his hand and said, “And that’s all I could ever wish for you, baby, to be able to feel that, and when you find it, don’t you let go of it because nothing in the world can compare to that feeling.”And he felt the phantom sensation of one of her forehead kisses against his mess of curls as he realized that she was right and he’d found it. And he held Stacee’s hand in his, tipping their foreheads together as they pulled away from the kiss and he smiled again, something watery as he thought to himself, ‘This is better than flying could ever be.’And as he watched Stacee’s lips quirk up at the edges into a smile, the soft and tender one he reserved for Bradley, the concept of the life set out before him flashed through his mind. A million different possibilities, all with Stacee in them. And he thought of his mom and his dad, he thought of Mav and Ice, and he knew he’d found what she was talking about. And he wasn’t ever letting go.