Work Text:
Dedicated
Demons in the spring, puh-pum, puh-pum
I can hear them sing,
I’ll be coming,
Whenever note follows note,
Dedicated all to you. xx
Rodrick Heffley didn’t really want to be at Crossland High’s yearly talent show, but this was Löded Diper’s first chance to play in front of real people who weren’t Greg or Manny, and they were not gonna pass up that rare opportunity. So here he was, leaning against the blue foam-matressed wall with his drumsticks in his curled-up fists and his friends next to him while the gym filled with people of various ages.
It was getting close to the time to play, so he left his little spot to search for his bandmates, who had dissapeared for a cigarette break.
Rodrick was exploring the empty hallways of his school, still looking for his bandmates when he turned a corner and saw a guy with light brown hair, a t-shirt, jeans and a studded belt beefing with the infamously incompetent vending machine near the entryways.
“Shit,” whined the guy, kicking it rather violently. “My money!”
Pitying the guy, Rodrick, (who himself had been scammed by that machine in his early days at Crossland), decided to teach a man to fish. “You gotta hit that corner to make the chips come out, man. Trust me, I know.”
The guy turned around, looking at Rodrick in an analyzing way. “Huh. Really?”
Rodrick walked over, smacked the machine exactly where he said, and the chips dropped. He took them and passed them to the dude with a smug smile.
The guy looked up at him and gave him a mysterious smile. “Thanks, man.”
He didn’t usually give free advice like this to everyone, but this guy was really cute, and Rodrick was a sucker.
He gave him a neutral smile. “No problemo. Happens to the best of us. Uh, I’m Rodrick. From Löded Diper.” He put out his hand for a handshake. The guy took it. Good grip. Always look for that.
“Axl. You’re from what?”
“Löded Diper. It’s, uh, my band.”
Axl laughed incredulously. “Alright… Thought I’d heard wrong, but I guess not.”
So they talked a little, sitting on the steps of an empty staircase, and Rodrick learned a bit about Axl’s being here. Turns out he didn’t even go to Crossland. He had been forced by his parents to accompany his little sister to see her neighbor’s dance number. They had mutually ditched each other, but Axl didn’t really know anyone there like his sister did, so he was hanging out on his own.
“So, is uh, Löded Diper any good?” Axl asked, failing to conceal the ironic tone of his voice.
Rodrick, ignoring the sarcasm in the question, leaned back. “Define good…”
Axl looked down and pondered, keeping the smile on his face. “Are you guys any good at your instruments?” He paused and contemplated the wince on Rodrick’s face. shrugged. “That’s fine. Skills are totally overrated. All you gotta do to be good by my standards is play loud enough that my mom would hate it.”
Rodrick laughed, lowkinuinely falling more in love with Axl with each word he spoke.
“Oh, then unless your mom’s a Brutal Slamming Death Metal enthusiast or something, we’re, like, the greatest band of all time by those standards.”
Rodrick checked the time. Balls. It was showtime in five minutes. Hopefully his bandmates were back from their break. He was sort of bummed about having to end his conversation with this charming young man, but he had committed to this show with a blood pact. Bros before hoes, what could he say.
“Well. I’ve got to go play some music now. Come along, you can sit with my friends if you want. I’ll introduce you.” Said Rodrick, and dragged Axl back to the gym. Sure enough, his entire friend group (including the elusive guitarist and bassist) were huddled near the stage. When they saw him and Axl approach, they waved.
“Rodrick! Oh, thank fuck you’re here! Where where you, man?” Said Drew.
“Dude, I was out there looking for you guys!” He hooked his arm around Axl’s shoulder, who did . “And I made a friend.”
Drew looked at Axl. After taking in his faded jeans and green hoodie and pretty face and slightly awkward half smile, Drew not-so-subtly smirked and wiggled his eyebrows at Rodrick. His friends introduced themselves to Axl and they talked a little while Rodrick and his bandmates did their soundchecks.
When they were about to start, Rodrick’s friend Sam came up to him and gave him a knowing smile. “He’s cute.” She said, looking at Axl, who was immersed in a conversation with Jessica and Steve. “I know." Rodrick answered with an attempted smirk, but it ended up just being a genuine smile.
So they played. Most people were sat in their folding chairs, sort of uncomfortable with the loud noise. Partly for personal fun, partly to make them even more awkward, Rodrick’s friends started a pathetic pseudo-moshpit next to the stage.
“So?” he asked.
Axl crossed his arms like he was judging a professional competition. “Honestly? Not terrible.” Rodrick rolled his eyes. “Wow, glowing review.” Axl laughed, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry, Phil Collins, I liked it.” The touch lingered a second longer than it needed to, but Rodrick decided to concentrate on the outrage of Axl’s comparison. “Phil Collins? Come on, man.”
“Hey, he’s just the first drummer I thought of! Besides, what’s wrong with Phil Collins? Genesis is a great band! And Phil Collins is a great drummer”
“Bah. Not even that good.“ Answered Rodrick jokingly.
Later, they sitting on the curb outside the gym . The parking lot lights buzzed overhead.
“So your band gonna be totally famous?” Axl asked.
“Obviously,” Rodrick said. “I’m basically already a rock legend. Buckle in, Ax, cause I’m only gonna get famouser.”
Axl kept the same sarcastic expression on his face.
“Cool,” he said. “Guess I’ll have to say I knew you first.”
Rodrick smirked. “You planning on sticking around that long?”
Axl shrugged, bumping his shoulder again.
“Maybe.”
Rodrick looked at him for a second longer than he should’ve, gripped his drumsticks a little tighter than usual, and said “Yeah,” he said. “Maybe you should.”
That’s when Axl pulled a bag of chips out of his ass.
“Where’d you even get those?” Rodrick, who was bent over laughing, asked.
“Vending machine.”
“The one that ate your money earlier?”
Axl grinned.
“I’ve got the knowledge now.”
Rodrick shook his head.
“Proud of you, man.”
They finished the bag while trying, and mostly failing to throw the chips in each other’s mouths.
They started texting after that.
Rodrick didn’t even remember when Axl asked for his number, it just appeared in his contacts.
Rodrick had absolutely no idea if their relationship was anything more than friendly, but the texts they were sending each other were kind of gay..? All of his friends said that Axl was totally into him, but Rodrick was too scared that he was being delusional and that Axl was just a good buddy.
After a few days of texting back and forth, Rodrick had become kind of addicted to Axl. He was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling and fiddling with his drumsticks, waiting for a call back. They had a show today and it was gonna be totally awesome.
He jumped when his phone finally rang.
“Yes?”
“Hey. It’s Axl.”
Rodrick was sure he could spend a whole day listening to Axl talk. He had a really nice voice. It was very.. sweet.
“I know.“
“Sorry for taking so long to answer. My little sister was being annoying.“
Rodrick laughed. “That’s fine. I can understand."
“Umm.. So you have a show today?”
“Yup. Pull up. Bring some friends.”
“Okay. Bye.”
”See you later.”
”Yeah”
But neither of them hung up. After a few seconds of listening to each other breathe. Axl said: “Okay. I’m gonna hang up now.”
”Okay. Bye”
Jesus christ. This guy had Rodrick giggling and kicking his feet like a tween girl.
Rodrick expected the usual crowd of like eight people (All him and his bandmates’ friends), but when he stepped outside before the set started, he saw, like five more people than usual. And Axl was there, leaning against Rodrick’s neighbour’s car, chatting with his associates. Rodrick walked over slowly, and more nervously than he would like.
“Well, well well. Lookee here.” Said Axl. He put his arm around Rodrick’s shoulder, like when Rodrick was introducing him to his friends (Except this position was a bit more awkward since Axl was shorter than Rodrick, which forced Rodrick to bend down a bit. ) , and introduced him to his friends. “The star of the show, Rod Heffley.”
Rodrick, against his will, blushed. Axl named each friend, and each of them shook Rodrick’s hand. Axl never removed his arm from Rodrick’s shoulder though.
A few minutes later, Löded Diper played, and it was fun, yaddy yadda, Axl’s friends met Rodrick’s, a few knew each other already (Alt kids, small world), everything was going smoothly.
After the show, pretty much everyone stayed to hang out. Axl flopped onto an old couch in the garage. Incidentally, this sat him right next to Rodrick, who said: “Enjoy the show?”
“Actually, yeah. You guys aren’t bad.“
“Wow. Only ‘not bad?’”
Axl laughed. “Don’t push it.”
Rodrick leaned back.
“What, we’re not up to Genesis’ level? What about when you called me Phil Collins” Said Rodrick with a faux-sad-face.
Axl burst out laughing. “You’re getting there,” He said between fits of giggles. Rodrick looked up and made eye contact with his friend Sam, who winked at him exaggeratedly and gave him a goofy thumbs up. He wiped the dopey grin he had on his face since Axl sat next to him and flipped her off.
Afterwards, most of the people left, Rodrick offered to walk Axl home, just so they could talk without one of Rodrick’s annoying friends being annoying. They talked about whatever for a while, but Rodrick cut the conversation off to ask a completely different question.
”Listen, uh, are we… something?” After Realizing that what he said made no sense at all, he added. “Like, romantically..? ‘Cause I really like you but I don’t know what this is, and I don’t know if you’re like, into me or something, so I’m asking you and jesus christ I am fucking this up-” Axl cut him off: “Yeah.”
Rodrick looked up, mortified. Axl continued. “Like, yes, I’m into you romantically. To be honest, I didn’t know either. If you were into me.”
Rodrick just stared at him. In complete shock and joy.
Eventually he stuttered: “Uh, great. Cool. Cool cool cool. Coolio. Nice.”
That’s when yet again, Rodrick’s rambling was cut off by Axl, but this time, it was by a kiss.
Rodrick was utterly flabbergasted and shocked beyond recognition, so for a few seconds he was just frozen in place, but then he remembered that when someone you were totally into kissed you, you were supposed to kiss them back. So without further ado, he dived in.
The kiss was nice. Axl’s lips were soft. Rodrick put his hand on Axl’s back and pulled him closer. Axl parted his lips, but before the kiss could be deepened, Rodrick heard a front door open and heard an obnoxiously familiar voice.
“Rodrick?!”
Him and Axl bolted apart and turned their heads toward the source of the noise. There was his beloved baby brother Greg, aka the biggest pain in his ass since he was born.
“You’re gay?“ Screeched Greg, totally shocked and confused.
“Shut up. What the fuck are you doing here?”
“This is Rowley’s house! What are you doing here?!“
Ah. Shit. Rodrick had forgotten. Him and Axl had indeed just kissed in front of Greg’s best friend’s house.
“I’m walking Axl home!”
Greg sneered. ”Looked like you were doing a bit more than walking him home.”
Rodrick sighed. “Shut up. Just- go home.” More hushed, he said: ”Don’t tell the parents. Write in in you diary or whatever.”
”IT’S A JOURNAL!” Screamed Greg, who was already walking away.
Axl had been watching the exchange with wonder. “Wow. We have, like the same lives. Your little brother is just like my sister. Heck, we could be brothers.” He said, laughing.
Rodrick wiggled his eyebrows and said:“ I sure hope not.” and pecked Axl on the cheek. They kept on walking.
Fin lol
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