Dancing in the Dark.
Title: Dancing in the Dark.
Author: epicallyfails
Pairing: Vam.
Rating: PG-13 for now.
Summary: some surprises are the good kind.
Disclaimer: if you got here by googling your own name, please read at your own risk.
Author's Notes: my beta lost her internet until tomorrow, so please ignore typos! you can point them out and I'll fix them. thanks to Tegan and Sara for the title!
It wasn’t that Ville didn’t love his fans, because he really did, it was just that sometimes they tended to lean more towards the annoying side of things. Some of them really weren’t bad, but some of them nearly made him want to commit multiple homicide. They’d stop him when he was off to buy his fags or when he had to take a piss and once they’d nearly made him late for a flight. To put it simply: they didn’t realize that he did have a life that didn’t involve them in it or him wanting to talk to them while he was living in it. Right now it was that they were indirectly blocking him from his boyfriend - or at least his voice over the phone back in their bus that was currently behind the venue and across the parking lot. He didn’t let his irritation get the best of him, though, because the fans didn’t know that their mindless chatter was causing him to lose his precious time- okay, Ville, breathe. It’s okay. You can do this.
He took a deep breath, getting a good whiff of perfume that the girl standing in front of him caked onto her for this occasion. The flowery smell was accompanied by overly pink lip-gloss and dark rings of eyeliner, nearly reminding him of how he used to be with make-up. With a mental shiver, he considered telling her that her blonde hair went nicely with her brunette roots but decided against it because the girl would probably take it as a real compliment. She was incredibly smiley and tended to laugh a bit too much to anything that he said, which only aided in his use of sarcasm. Her questions were the mundane ones that he got asked the most and didn’t take any thought to answer because they’d been memorized already. Right now she was rambling on about how much she liked the band between all of her giggling and he’d nod and throw “well thank you, darling” when she took chances to breathe.
Most fans got a few minutes to talk to each of the band members, but somehow the blonde bimbo enthusiastic fan managed to stay longer than the set limit. If Ville had been paying any attention, he would have kindly pointed out that she should move on to get to the rest of the band but he had been zoning out the whole conversation and didn’t keep track of its length. Luckily for him, Migé had gotten out of a particularly cliché chat with a teenage boy to look over and catch that the girl hadn’t moved away from the singer. Noticing the look on his friend’s face, he squeezed his way over to them and pointed out that it was almost time for them to leave and they should start heading to the bus. The girl’s face literally fell for a second before she quickly recovered and tried her best flirtatious smile and reached out to put her hand on his shoulder. She told Ville that she’d see him later before sending a hefty glare at Migé and walking off. He had a feeling that his definition of ‘later’ and hers weren’t exactly the same thing.
They made their way even farther backstage to get away from the fans before Migé stopped to laugh. The sight of the bigger man doubled over made a small smile slip onto Ville’s face in turn. It was definitely a sight to behold as his shoulders shook along with his vocal chords, making him seem like he was having a seizure instead of a laugh attack. “That girl was completely all over you. Not physically, but I bet that wasn’t too far from her mind.” His own voice made his laughter louder and this time Ville couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle to accompany it. Migé was one of the few that could take away anyone’s stress or irritation just by cracking a lame joke, which the band was thankful for most of the time. “I bet that she’s just sitting out there waiting for you to go get her and have a nice shag.” Sadly, that was the exact same thing that Ville was thinking and didn’t want to voice.
“Who?” Burton already had a smile on his face as he made his way over, catching the end of Migé’s teasing. He stopped a few steps short of them and ran his hands through his hair to collect it for a ponytail. While Migé was still recovering from his laughing fit and sucking in his oxygen, Ville watched as the keyboardist opted for a tight bun instead to keep it off of his sweaty neck. Normally he wore it on to stage like that but they’d been in a rush tonight and he hadn’t had time to do it in front of a mirror and decided to let it be. Long hair was something that Ville admired and always wanted, but he constantly got annoyed with his own after a short period of time and cut it all off just to restart the process. Burton smiled at him and nodded as a short hello as Linde quietly slipped in behind them, leaving Gas to deal with the rest of the fans before they left.
“This girl,” Migé began to explain now that he’d calmed down enough to do so, “she was so trying to get in Ville’s pants. Or maybe she wanted him to be in her pants. It doesn’t really matter, does it? She wanted someone’s pants to be occupied tonight.” The bassist’s ramblings had all of them laughing, even the guitarist who was typically very hard to crack more than a smile from. With all of their voices joined together, Migé’s was definitely the one that stood out between all of the Finns (probably because he was the loudest). It took them a few seconds to calm down, their laughter fading until they were left standing by the back door to wait for their drummer and manager. Small talk started between them soon after as they rocked back and forth, a habit that Ville noticed they all did when they had stood for too long.
Finally after counting it as his thirty-fifth time he’d rocked side to side, another habit he’d picked up once he noticed he couldn’t stay still, Seppo came into sight with Gas trailing behind him. Everyone was tired, or at least more tired than a rock star on tour usually is, because they’d lost sleep the night before when the bus broke down. The abrupt stop had sent Linde flying from his bunk because he didn’t have enough body weight to keep him in place; the thump of him hitting the floor and groaning in pain had woken the rest of them. Their bus driver was definitely not happy as he got out, the rest of the half-awake band following behind. It had ended up taking them around four and a half hours to fix the bus, including all the time Seppo spent bitching about how they weren’t on schedule now. They had all piled back onto the bus and drove to the next venue, seriously making it with fifteen minutes to spare. Needless to say, when the older man passed them and opened the door to head out, they all shuffled out behind him quietly.
Tomorrow night was their last show and then they were all set for a long break that was much needed. While everyone else was heading home to their families, Ville had a flight booked to head to America only 24 hours after the start of their vacation. He figured that the bus would drop him off at his tower after the show, where he’d actually shower properly and collect clean clothes. If he was lucky, he’d have enough time to quickly clean up all of the clutter in his house but it’s not like it mattered if he really did or not because a majority of his time off was spent across the ocean. His relationship with an American was definitely a cause of entertainment among his band, often picking on him when he flew there every break that was over three days. Migé had even asked him why he didn’t just move there already, but Ville quickly told him he must have a fever to be thinking of such things. Though even he had to admit that moving there wouldn’t be so bad because it really was more of a home than his tower already…
The bus driver was already waiting for them instead of showing up half an hour after they planned to leave, something the whole band was thankful for. Once they had all filed onto the bus and Seppo made his way to the white van that followed behind them filled to the brim with merch and extra equipment, they were ready to go. Linde, who seemed to lose all of his energy after he got off of the stage, was nearly asleep on his feet and made his way to his bunk without a word. As the rest started to head for bed, Ville quickly claimed the couch and began to dig around for his obnoxiously pink cell phone. The pink thing was a originally a joke due to his sexuality but now that he’d gotten used to it, he had to say he was rather fond of the piece of technology. He mustn’t ever voice that out loud to anyone for fear that once his boyfriend got wind of what he said, it would surely mean a lot more pink would be thrown into his life.
As he turned his phone on, Migé sat down on the other side of the couch to relax for a few minutes before he made his own way to bed. They sat in silence as the little pink machine buzzed in Ville’s lap and did its ring tone to announce that it was waking up. Green eyes watched the screen as it flickered to life and illuminated the obscene background that he’d let someone else put on there for fun - maybe one day he’d actually remember to change it to something a little more decent. Picking it up, he scrolled through the contacts quickly to select the name he wanted before clicking the ‘TALK’ button. Just as he was putting it up to his ear, he turned to see Migé standing up from the other side of the couch and stretching. Not sure if the bassist was really tired or if he was just giving him privacy on the phone, he still felt a rush of relief. “Hyvää yötä, nuku hyvin,” he said as Migé turned to wander off to his own bunk.
“Willa, you know I don’t speak Finnish this early in the morning.” He hadn’t even heard the phone stop ringing, let along his boyfriend answering it but all in the same it still didn’t surprise him too much. Said boyfriend had a very good habit of being random and going about things in different styles than the norm. Though it wasn’t the first thing he had been expecting to hear, the voice on the other end still made him smile gently. It had only been 24 hours since he’d last heard it, but it’d been an incredibly long time since he’d been able to hear the voice in person. So maybe a month doesn’t seem like a long time to most people, but damnit Ville was in love and he didn’t want to wait!
“Bam, it’s three in the afternoon there.”
“Yeah, and?” Ville chuckled as he moved to lie down on the couch with the phone tucked into his shoulder. In the background, he could hear arguing over something that he probably didn’t want to know about. Bam’s friends were very…eccentric? They were very funny guys and great company but they did tend to get a little overboard with things. He could barely hear, probably because the mouthpiece was covered, as his boyfriend yelled he was on the phone and was going to his room. Even through the hand on the phone and over the miles of ocean, he could hear all the hoots and hollers from the bunch as they teased their friend. Knowing the man as well as he did, he had probably flipped them off and took the stairs two at a time to get away from all the noise. “Still there, Vil’?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, just checking.” Now he could hear as the skater quietly shuffled around his room, yet another habit that he noticed for when Bam was excited. They fell into a comfortable silence that led to Ville just listening to Bam’s breathing on the other side of the world through a tiny device. He closed his eyes and just listened, more relaxed after a show than he had been this whole tour. Maybe it was the rhythmic sound of Bam inhaling and exhaling that calmed it or maybe it was that he knew he’d be able to hear that sound in person in only a few days. Whatever it was, it had the Finn comfortably drowsy which was something that he hadn’t experienced since he’d been back in West Chester before the European tour kicked off. Even when Bam came to visit nearly a month ago and they’d fallen asleep on a hotel bed together, it still wasn’t the same as when they were wrapped up in the sheets their bed at home. Er, Bam’s sheets and Bam’s home, he quickly corrected his thoughts. “Did you fall asleep on me?”
“Mm, not yet.” Ville answered with a chuckle as his eyes continued to stay shut, not having the strength or need to open them again. Shifting slightly, he moved so he could lie on his side with his whole body stretched across the couch. He had never noticed how absolutely comfortable the couch on their bus was until now; it felt like it was made just for him to sleep on but that could also be his sleep-ridden mind playing tricks on him, though.
“Listen to you,” now it was Bam’s turn to chuckle, “you sound like you’re about to fuckin’ start purring!” It was true that he was very relaxed and content right now, his voice had even deepened a bit to show it, but to say that he would act like a cat? His boyfriend must be absolutely mad because he was a rock star - the Prince of Goth! - and he did not do things like purr. That’s exactly what he had wanted to say but couldn’t muster up the energy to do so and settled for a small smile that Bam couldn’t see. There was no way he was going to laugh and give him the satisfaction of thinking it was okay to say such things because then the teasing would never stop. When you say ‘never’ with Bam, you better believe it’s referring to as often as he can remember it at the worst possible times. Once he had made the mistake of telling him that he used to be deathly afraid of the dark, which caused it to casually come into conversation while having dinner at his parents’ house. “Ville? I miss you.”
Bam’s sweet side only showed when they were alone, something that sounded horrible but really wasn’t. It wasn’t that the Finn was being kept as a secret behind closed doors, far from true, because everyone knew about their relationship. Fear wasn’t the reason either because neither of them were afraid of what people would say about them having their sappy moments. They did tend to slip up every once in a while and people caught glimpses of soft kisses or the ends of words of romance but no one chose to say anything when they did. In the end, it was just something that was shared between them when they were alone a majority of the time. “I miss you, too, sweetheart. Only two more days and then I’ll be back in your arms, okay?” All that he got in return was a barely audible mumble of “I guess”, meaning Bam was impatient and pouting already. Intending to change the subject from how long he was still away, he continued, “are you picking me up from the airport?”
“You want me to leave all the important stuff I am doing around the house to come and pick your Finnish ass up from the airport?” Teasing was definitely something that was thick in Bam’s blood, at least for his lover. While others were tortured with pranks and random beat downs, Ville only got the teasing, which, don’t get him wrong, was quite okay with him. Sometimes the skater had hissy fits when he didn’t get his way, he pouted when he wanted something and he whined until he got it, but he had never done anything to Ville that would make him want to leave. A lot of people assumed that Bam wasn’t smart with all of the stunts that he pulled- he just needed a hectic kind of lifestyle to keep up with his personality. When there were serious lines to be drawn, he knew not to cross them and steered clear to avoid them. “I suppose I could do that. For a price.” The smirk that followed the words was extremely hard to miss.
“Oh? And what would that be?”
“Well-” he was cut off by yelling, lots and lots of yelling, something that would make Ville panic if it were anyone else but Bam’s house. The only time the castle was ever silent was when the Finn arrived to stay for his breaks and the owner ordered everyone to get out (“I don’t care where you fuckers go, just don’t come back here for at least a week!”). Even though no one wanted to leave the comfort of their second home, they often did in order to avoid the wrath of their friend. Bam’s voice raised but it was impossible to understand what was being said with all of voices mixing together to form quite a chorus. With a particularly nasty snarl from the skater, it quieted down almost instantly and now he could hear the same voices speaking just a bit softer than before. Even though he still couldn’t understand what they were saying, he could now tell the voices apart from each other and listened as they bickered back and forth through the tones they used. Above all the rest he could clearly hear Bam, “get out! I’ll be downstairs in a second, just chill the fuck out.”
It took a few minutes, but he could finally hear all of the males retreating from the room noisily. Those boys would definitely not survive being in a library, the thought alone made him want to crack up at the obscene things they could do to the poor librarian. No matter how much she ‘shh’d’ them, it just wouldn’t work and she’d lose her mind about five minutes after they arrived. “Sorry baby. I gotta go. Call me tomorrow after your show, okay? And I will pick you up from the airport when you fly in to Philly. Love you.” Bam spoke quickly and all in one breath before ending it with a huge wet kiss to the speaker, hanging up before he’d gotten a response. Ville wasn’t offended by it, though, but rather used to this kind of behavior and merely smiled at his antics. Closing the phone, he lay it next to him on the couch and mentally decided that he was definitely too lazy to get up from his spot. Crashing on the couch wasn’t bad and it wasn’t like he hadn’t ever done it before or that anyone would mind if he did. While mentally reassuring himself that it was okay to do so, he managed to fall asleep anyway.
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my first post to the Vam community. feedback would awesome?
and the second chapter will be up tomorrow (in a few hours).