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I.
Daisy had never felt so eager to write in her life. Sure, she’d been writing for years, writing constantly. But now, it was all she thought about.
And it was all thanks to Billy Dunne.
Writing to her was an outlet, a lifeline, so of course she’d always loved it; however, now writing meant getting to see Billy more, talk to him more.
They’d share their ideas in all hours, all places, whether at the studio, Teddy's house, on the phone; wherever.
Billy would call her in the middle of the night when he couldn’t quite get a line right. Daisy would bring in stacks of lyrics to Teddys house and have him dissect them. Or they’d be at a diner with the band, eating lunch, Billy would have an idea, scribble it on a napkin and slide it over to Daisy, studying her face as she read through it. They’d never talk about the lyrics then and there.
They were all a part of the music, sure. Karen, Warren, Eddie, Graham. But the words. Those came from Billy and Daisy, polished and wrapped up in ribbon ready to go. Writing together had become just theirs, and they weren’t willing to let anyone else in on it. It was their own little world when they shared those words.
That was why they did most of their writing in Teddy Price’s backyard. Teddy was barely home, and when he was he knew well enough to not even think of looking out the window at them.
They liked the privacy.
At the moment, Billy was sitting in the lawn chair, strumming his guitar as Daisy laid in front of him. She hummed softly and appreciated the warmth radiating off the grass beneath her. It was a sunny, hot day in California. She felt hot laying there in a cut off shirt and shorts, and couldn't imagine how Billy was managing the heat in jeans and a button down.
“Anything come to you yet?” Billy asked, watching her concentrated features soften at his question.
Daisy had her eyes closed, but could feel Billy's eyes on her, having felt them for the past 10 minutes as she lounged. With all the time they spent together, it was like she’d developed a 6th sense for Billy Dunne. They were so in tune, so hyper aware of one another that Daisy was sure Billy had formed a 6th sense for her too.
“Not yet,” Daisy mumbled, her voice relaxed and easy.
“We’ve been at it for hours, Dais, maybe we should call it a day.” Billy sighed, leaning back in the chair and watching the soft shake of her head.
“Not yet.” She insisted, opening her eyes, but bringing her hand up to shield the sun as she looked at him.
“We haven’t gotten very far today.” Billy sighed, taking the guitar off his lap and setting it beside the chair, allowing himself to lean back and rest his eyes.
Daisy Jones was quick, and quiet. He’d known that already with how many times she’d managed to sneak up on him. So when he opened his eyes to see her gone off the ground, he couldn’t say he was surprised.
But the moment he heard the splash in the pool, all he could think was not again.
Billy walked to the pool silently, watching her float in the middle. Although he wouldn’t admit it to anyone, Billy loved moments like this. Daisy was so free, beyond anyone he’d ever known. She’d jump in a pool, fully clothed, just because she wanted to.
“What’re you doing?” He asked, knowing she could hear him. He squatted down as she swam towards him, a smile graced on her face.
“The water is nice today. It’s hot out here, how are you not dying in those clothes?” Daisy replied, reaching the end of the pool he was at, and beginning to toy with the bottom hem of his jeans, watching the denim turn darker with her wet fingers slide across it.
“We gotta write, Daisy. If not, I need to go home.” Billy insisted, sighing as her nose scrunched up.
When she didn’t reply, he instead just reached his hand out to help her, feeling instant relief when she took it. That relief didn’t last long as the moment her hand was in his, she was pulling him into the water with her.
Daisy watched in amusement, laughing as he resurfaced, dragging his hand down his face to wipe the water away. “What the fuck, Daisy?”
“Isn’t the water nice?” She laughed, watching his eyes start to pull into a smile, despite his best efforts to keep his lips straight.
“Fuck you,” he laughed, bringing his hand forward to splash some water into her face.
“Oh, is that how we’re gonna play it?” Daisy grinned, sending a splash his way.
“You started it.” Billy replied, sending an even bigger splash her way again. They went on like that for a minute, sending water into the others face, trying to dodge eachother as much as they could.
Eventually, Daisy went in for the kill, springing forward and putting her hands on Billy’s shoulders to send him down into the water. His hands were instantly on her hips, trying to use her to pull himself back up, but careful not to pull her down.
“Real mature, Daisy Jones.” Billy grinned when he finally came back up, neither of them bothering to move their hands from the other.
They smiled at each other for a moment, both trying to gain their breaths back. It seemed to dawn on them at the same time how close they were. Daisy licked her lips, drawing Billy’s attention to them.
They went in for it at the same time, their lips joining together in a longing kiss. Billy pulled Daisy more into him, their bodies pressed together under the water as Daisy moved her hands from his shoulder to his neck.
She was reveling in the feeling of his chest against hers, his fingers digging into her waist.
But just like that, he was pulling away.
“I can’t.” He whispered, gently removing his hands and heading out of the pool.
Daisy made her way back to the edge of the pool, watching him put his guitar into its case, preparing to leave.
She hummed softly to herself, resting her chin on the ledge now too, just watching him go. She knew he had to leave, even if she hated it.
II.
Daisy loved parties. She got to be surrounded by people, and take drugs, and dance to her favorite music. What more is there to want? This party was no different than any of the others.
They were in some hotel room, Daisy thinks it might've been Karen or Warren’s, she wasn’t sure. She just knew that the whole band was present, all but Billy.
She pretended not to care. It’s not like Billy came to parties anyway, plus there were more than enough people present with everyone the band had invited. She wondered for a moment if any of them noticed she never invited anyone.
A few hours into the night, while Daisy was dancing with Karen, she thought she saw Billy walking across the kitchen. It wasn’t him, of course, but once she was reminded of his existence, it was all she could think about. She wanted to go see him, knock on his hotel door and kiss him. Kiss him like he kissed her at the studio, kiss him like they’d kissed each other at Teddy Price’s house.
But realistically, she knew that wasn’t an option right now. She also knew that he would turn her away, and it would absolutely break her. She’d gotten in the habit of holding him close, but making sure to never cross the line where he would push her away.
Daisy decided that if she couldn’t have Billy, she wanted someone else. That was achievable, she thought. Everywhere she went people stared, men wanted. Tonight was no different, so she began to stumble away from Karen, who quickly grabbed her waist.
“You okay?” She asked, and Daisy held back from repeating her words back to her like a parrot, trying Karen's accent out on her own tongue.
“M’ fine.” Daisy nodded, making her way to the bar and taking a pill, then a shot. Her eyes felt so heavy, but her face was on fire. She couldn’t help but smile as she looked around the room, eyes finally finding the guy who’d been pining after her all night. He was sitting back in a chair, smoking a blunt and laughing with Eddie.
Karen's arm slipped around her, trying to steady her up. They’d all had too much from time to time, but typically that just meant they’d feel worse in the morning. They were still mostly capable of handling themselves, but not Daisy. Lately, she’d seem to constantly be hitting the points of no return. The points where even fiends like Karen had to cut her off.
“Let’s get you home,” Karen smiled softly, hoping it would be one of those days where Daisy just agreed to leave easily. Karen knew it wasn’t when Daisy brought a hand up to her face and giggled.
“I have something to do.” Daisy whispered, pulling herself from Karen and floating to the guy on the couch.
“Hey, Daisy.” He smiled from ear to ear, leaning back in the chair.
“You’ve been staring at me.” Daisy announced, raising an eyebrow.
“I have,” He didn’t back down. So Daisy lowered herself onto his lap and pulled his face in for a kiss. He didn’t feel like Billy, didn’t kiss like him, but for some reason that just made Daisy cling to him more tightly. It only lasted a moment before arms were around her waist, pulling her off of him.
She turned around to see Graham was the one who grabbed her, and was still holding her up. Behind his shoulder, Karen watched sadly.
“I think it’s time you go to bed,” Graham spoke in her ear, voice loud enough to surpass the music booming in their ears. When she didn’t answer, just pouted her lip, Graham looked to Karen for help.
“C’mon Daisy Jones, let’s get you to bed.” Karen insisted sweetly, wrapping an arm around Daisy’s waist and dragging her out of the hotel room. “You okay?” Karen asked, the quiet of the hallway being a relief to even her.
“Peachy,” Daisy sighed, her eyes welling with tears. Honestly, even she couldn’t explain why she was crying. She was just tired, and everything felt so hot, and she hated herself for loving Billy Dunne.
“Aw, love. You need some sleep, you’re tired. We all see it.” Karen sighed as they reached Daisy’s door.
Daisy stopped in her tracks. She didn’t wanna go in there. The last thing she wanted was an empty hotel room. But she wouldn’t ask Karen to stay, so instead she just pulled herself away and laid down. Right in the middle of the hallway.
“Daisy we are literally 10 feet from your bed, what are you doing?” Karen sighed, trying to not let her frustration show through. She knew now was a moment Daisy needed her to be gentle.
“I don’t wanna be alone,” Daisy mumbled, and the moment she said those words her face fell even farther, tears falling quickly.
“Do you want me to stay with you?” Karen asked and Daisy shook her head no. She loved Karen, but didn’t wanna stop her from a good party, especially one in her own hotel room. (Or was it Warrens?)
“I can get Eddie, or Warren, or Graham.” Karen insisted, looking around, grateful no one was walking the halls. Eddie would be too judgemental, Daisy thought. Warren would be a good time, they could throw a movie on and smoke weed and laugh for hours, but she didn’t want that right now. Graham, well, Graham was too close to being Billy, without it actually being Billy.
“No, I’ll stay here, thank you.” Daisy whispered, her breath shaky as she ran her finger across the carpet.
Karen sighed and sat down against the wall, staring at her hands. They sat in silence for a few minutes, Daisy’s face still wet with tears Karen didn’t ask about, tears Daisy couldn’t quite explain.
“Hey, what are you ladies up to?” Graham asked, walking over to a sleepy Daisy and Karen. Daisy watched as Karen answered, but didn’t quite catch what she said. Just noticed the way Graham leaned down and grabbed Karen's hand, kissing it subconsciously as he watched her speak.
That broke her. Seeing them casually close, casually in love. Daisy tried to hold her face together, but it wasn’t long before it all broke loose, her chest rising up and down quickly as she cried.
“Daisy? Daisy, what’s wrong?” Graham asked quickly, gently moving the hair out of her face and looking to Karen for an answer, though it was one Karen couldn’t give.
“She’s freaking out,” Karen observed nervously. They’d seen her cry, sure, but they’d never seen her like this.
“Daisy, you gotta breathe.” Graham insisted, watching her squeeze her eyes shut.
“What the hell are you guys doing?” Billy asked, having heard them outside. His room was right across from Daisy’s. It took him a minute to process the scene in front of him, but when he did he sprung into action.
“You guys go back to the party,” Billy insisted, leaning down to pick Daisy up bridal style.
“You sure about this, man?” Graham asked, his eyes a warning, a reminder.
“I got this.” Billy insisted, and he did. If there was one thing he learned these past few months, it was Daisy Jones.
He brought her into his room without a second thought, laying her on the couch and placing a hand on her face. “Daisy, you gotta breathe.”
Daisy was surprised he had shown up, and had wanted to deal with her. Or at least, been willing to.
When her breathing didn’t slow, he softly moved her from the couch and onto his lap, pulling her tightly against his chest. “Feel how I’m breathing? You need to breathe, Daisy.”
Daisy’s mind did slow down, and in turn, so did her breathing. Billy didn’t ask what was wrong, which Daisy was grateful for. He also didn’t move her away, which she was also grateful for.
After sitting in silence for a moment, Daisy curled up on his lap, he sighed and stood back up, keeping her in his arms. “We got to get you to bed.”
Daisy was about to protest, cry and scream that she didn’t want to be alone. Beg him not to leave her, again, and again, and again, and again. But then she noticed he wasn’t heading back towards the door, rather he was heading towards his own bed.
He placed her under the covers and held her face in his hands, telling her he was going to sleep on the couch. She shook her head then, scooting over to make room for him.
Billy debated it for a moment, and she was sure he could go either way, but then she whispered please and he was deflating in a second, climbing in beside her. He stared at the ceiling, she stared at him.
“Do you wanna talk about it?” Billy finally asked, looking over to her.
Daisy shrugged, “I didn’t want to be alone.”
Billy sighed, nodded, and much to her surprise, opened an arm for her. She snuggled into his side, trying to get as close as possible, if she could, she would’ve crawled into his skin at that moment. She laid her head on his chest and he wrapped an arm around her.
“Billy?” Daisy asked quietly, in which he hummed in response. “Do you think,” She paused, hearing his heartbeat beneath her, “Do you think in another world we would be together?” Her voice was barely a whisper by the end of the question, barely audible, but he heard.
“I don't know,” Billy answered truthfully, “Maybe.”
“Billy.” She spoke again, looking up at him with her big blue, tired eyes.
“Yeah, Daisy?” Billy asked, looking down at her as well.
“I don’t wanna be stoned anymore.” She stated, and he sighed sadly.
“I know you don’t.” He whispered.
They sat there, staring into eachothers eyes before Billy did something she didn't expect. He kissed her. Soft, simple, and sweet. He didn’t taste like the guy at the party, he tasted clearer. That made her want to apologize for the alcohol that was probably on her lips, but when he pulled away and wrapped her in both arms, she stayed quiet.
He was gone the next morning when she woke up.
III.
Sometimes Daisy was sure she hated Billy Dunne. He was egotistical, and arrogant, and could never be wrong. He was also an ass who, more times than not, didn’t care about anyone, but himself.
Daisy and Billy had always had an up and down relationship. Fighting one minute, laughing the next. No one could get them fired up like that, except each other.
“You need to go lower on that note.” Billy grumbled, staring at his hands strumming the guitar. Everyone else had gone home for the night, but Billy made Daisy stay, insisting she wasn't doing a single thing right that day.
“Maybe I don’t want to go lower on that note, it’s my song too you know.” Daisy spat, taking a long sip of her drink. She didn’t know what had gotten into him today, but she was just about ready to slap him across the face.
Billy insisted, “Try again.” Daisy did. He didn’t like it. She tried again. He still didn’t like it. They’d been going back and forth like this for hours.
“Billy I swear to God if I have to sing that line one more time,” Daisy groaned, getting up to pour herself another drink.
“Well, maybe if you could just do one thing right,” Billy argued, still strumming mindlessly on the guitar, watching her nostrils flare.
“Fuck you, Billy. I don’t know what crawled up your ass today, but you need to pull it out and stop being such a dick.” Daisy’s words were strong, her hand gripping tightly to the glass in her hand. “Don’t act like you don’t have off days. Don’t act like you do everything in your life right.”
Billy scoffed, finally allowing his hands to still on the strings, “This isn’t about me Daisy, this is about you not being able to sing the song right.”
“Sing the song right?” Daisy laughed, causing Billy to just grow angrier, “It’s my fucking song! I can sing it however the fuck I want to.”
“Your song?” He all but shouted, his entire body reacting to the anger as he stood. “It’s our song, Daisy.”
“Oh, whatever. If I don’t sing it right why don’t you sing it your damn self.” Daisy couldn’t explain why she was getting so angry at him. They'd argued over the execution of their music many times. More times than she could count.
“What are you even still doing here, huh?” Billy asked, watching as her face flashed in disbelief, “I mean, you hate performing with the band, you hate writing now, you don’t wanna be here. So really, why are you?”
“I don’t hate any of that. Maybe I hate performing with you, writing with you. Maybe I’m just sick of being around you! The band is fine, but you? Oh, fuck you!” Daisy snapped, watching Billy’s eyes flash from hurt, then back to anger.
“Then get the fuck out! I have shit to do.” Billy yelled, pointing towards the door as he stepped towards her.
“Me get out?” Daisy looked him up and down, making her way towards him and swatting his hand out of the air. “Maybe you should get out. Go fuck your wife and stop being such a dick. I have shit to do too, so I’m not leaving.”
They stared at each other a moment, both out of breath and disheveled.
“You drive me fucking crazy.” Billy spat out, his face stern.
Daisy laughed angrily, “Well that makes two of us.”
“I can’t stand you anymore.”
Daisy shook her head, “I fucking hate you, Billy Dunne.”
Billy watched her mouth as she spoke, and just like that, he was grabbing her face and pulling her towards him. His hands held her face tightly while her hands went to his back, digging her nails in. Daisy couldn’t help but to instinctively kiss him back.
While all their kisses before had been more gentle, and shorter, this was hard, desperate even. Like they went from arguing with words, to arguing like this. Both of them trying to take the lead, both of them pushed flesh against the other.
It wasn’t long before Billy was putting his hands on the back of Daisy’s thighs, digging his fingers into her skin, and hoisting her up to take her over to a table. When he sat her down, her hands flew to his hair, pulling softly as he traveled his lips down her neck.
Daisy swore she started seeing stars when he started to untie the back of her shirt.
“Is this why you’re so frustrated today, Billy? You needed this.” She panted out, his lips stilling and looking up at her.
“You sure you aren’t the one who needed this?” He asked, moving his face closer to hers, their noses bumping with each breath he took.
“I don’t need you.” Daisy insisted, searching his eyes.
Billy shook his head, “Of course you don’t.”
He was standing and out of the room before Daisy could say another word.
I.
The crowd was electric, they always were. There was so much energy on and off the stage, connected. When Billy asked the crowd if they wanted to hear Honeycomb, that was when it all split. The crowd went wild, of course they did, the band; however, they were frozen.
Billy started playing on his guitar as Daisy watched him silently, her heart pounding in her chest as he began singing. “I don’t know who I am, baby, baby, baby..” Daisy thought, I know who you are. You know who I am.
She stared at him as he sang to the crowd, and all she wanted in that moment was for him to sing to her. So she walked up to his mic for the chorus.
“Did we unravel a long time ago? Is there too much we don’t wanna know?” Billy looked at her. Really looked at her, and she swore she saw tears in his eyes.
Daisy thought back to the first time they sang the song together. She wishes she could go back to that moment. Live in it a little longer, or maybe run for the hills. Save herself from this hurt.
They got through the first chorus flawlessly, eyes trained on each other as the crowd went wild, but forgotten. They weren’t singing to the crowd anymore, they were singing to each other.
Daisy was so tired of the games, the back and forth. She wanted to stop the performance then and there, begging him to have her, to hold her. She wanted to beg him to let her be his honeycomb.
“Now where do we stand? Baby, baby, baby.” Her voice was rough as she sang, and she knew by the look in his eyes that he was feeling the same things she was.
When they got to the chorus again, Billy started singing the words they’d sung for the past year, but Daisy dodged them.
Billy froze as Daisy sang the words to him that he wrote originally.
“Oh, I know we can get it all back,” Daisy sang to him, but then thought, get what back? What did we ever have?
They sang through the song, and when they reached the bridge, Billy could practically see Daisy break. He wondered if she could tell this was killing him just as well.
“This thing we’ve been doing aint working out.” She all but screamed at him, her voice remaining in all its beauty.
They flew through the rest of the song, and as they reached the end, neither of them wanted it to end. This moment was painful, and raw, and everything Billy Dunne tried to avoid. But Daisy was here, so close to him, singing to him as he sang to her.
He didn’t wanna have to walk away from that.
“Oh, we could make a good thing bad.” They finished. The moment the music stopped, the crowd lost it.
Billy turned back to the crowd and smiled, completely out of breath. When he turned back, Daisy was walking off the stage. He knew he had a choice to make there. But he didn’t even allow himself two seconds to think it through before he was following after her.
He caught up to her quickly, and grabbed her hand, turning her back towards him. Her eyes were still leaking tears, so much so that her mascara had started trailing down her face. She looked like an absolute mess, but in that moment she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
He knew they needed to talk, but felt like all they ever did was talk, even if it wasn’t about the right things. He knew she loved him. He knew he loved her too.
Billy knew the band was right behind them on stage, watching them.
He knew what would happen if he kissed her.
He knew what it would mean.
He did it anyway.