[Alterna] Out of town; Sunday night; Stone and Lara Follethorne Local band groupies were pathetic, yes. And annoying, for sure. But they weren't anywhere near as annoying as big, famous, national touring band groupies. Those girls seemed to make annoyance an art form. So add that in with feeling shitty with the pregnancy, sleeping in a different hotel room like every night, traveling to random places that didn't all include beaches, dealing with the press, and spending too many hours of the day with Henry...and you got Lara not being such a happy camper. For part of the time, anyway. Luckily there was a lot of good stuff to make up for the bad, and just about all of the goodness involved Stone, and over half of that involved a little something called 'the pro.'
But all that good and badness was about to end because after tonight, Lara was heading on a plane back to the City. She had mixed feelings about this. Being at home would be great, and she really missed her store and Upstairs. Oh, and people, too. Of course. But Stone was still stuck on this tour thing that Lara insisted he do. And even though she was beginning to think that the whole thing was a bad idea, she wasn't going to cave and tell him he should come home with her. Being on tour, that was exciting, right? People dreamed about this shit. Lara used to dream about this shit. And then she got pregnant and that kind of put a damper on the whole thing. And so did the part where she wasn't exactly in the touring band. So she was kind of like a groupie, in a way. A knocked up groupie. Or something.
Lara was currently avoiding any and all groupies, though. She made her way to the relatively safe sound booth as Stone's band was coming up on the end of their set. She was feeling antsy, wishing the guys were done right the hell now so she and Stone could spend all the chill time together they could before she left. Hopefully Stone was down for moving things right along as well.
'The Pro' qualified for a way better term than 'good stuff'. Stone wasn't sure what the term was. There probably wasn't an adequate term for it, but he was certainly feeling pretty spoiled with all the pro stuff. It was so friggin' awesome that Stone was almost worried he was gonna be disappointed once it was time to returned to pre-pro time. Heh, yeah right. This was Stone. Crisis averted. Also, the press and new groupies were so friggin' annoying. He didn't have mixed feelings about this. He was pretty adamant the whole time about not wanting her to go home even though duh she had to and keeping her so tired and moving around all the time probably wasn't good for the baby. He also didn't want to keep touring without her but it wasn't his choice, she was more or less forcing him since she really thought this was some do or die once in a lifetime thing that he was going to regret not doing. Bah, he was whipped. He'd much rather be at home with her.
Stone was definitely down for moving things right along. This is exactly why they were winding down through the last two songs. After that they had to do the fake-out 'no we're leaving we're not doing an encore' to cause a loud ear shattering groupie squealfest so that surprise! they'd come back and do an encore. Two actually, the cucumber song and a specifically picked song for just such a special last night occasion.
Okay yeah, the pro was more than mere goodness. And sometimes it made Lara think she'd sure like this pregnancy stuff to go on forever, and then things would happen like...Stone using a different shampoo which smelled so horrendously awful that Lara got within two feet of him and then had to run to the bathroom and puke...and she realized that no, this pregnancy shit had to end right the hell now. Of course that meant that there would be a living baby outside the womb, and that was just terrifying, so she would go right back to hoping the next chunk of months never ended. Lara's mind was thinking lots of crazy thoughts lately, and she was kind of getting used to them. This was annoying.
As was the set that never ended. Lara probably should have been enjoying it or something, but all she could think about was just getting back to the hotel. Well, in between thoughts of general distaste for whatever groupie crossed her line of vision, that is. She was sitting in a chair with her chin in her hand, trying not to look at her watch too much. Almost fifteen-and-a-half hours until she had to leave. Depressing.
Stone was still pretty freaked out about the living baby outside the womb part but seeing as there wasn't anything that he could do about it so he was just going to make it up as he went along. It was really disturbing when Lara would just start telling him he smelled gross after having run off to puke when he'd gone to kiss her after a shower. A number of times he'd stolen a bunch of people's (band and crew alike) shampoo and soap so that he could re-shower until Lara was no longer puking thanks to his scent. It was entirely bizarre and he didn't like it at all.
Now that they were done singing the cucumber song, normally they launched into something amusing, more often than not it was 'Gold Digger' since that meant a) funny song to serenade Lara with, b) announcing that since Lara had one of his kids she had him for eighteen years and the mixed reaction from the crowd was pretty priceless and c) it meant ending on a fast, ridiculous high note and that was always fun. Tonight, however, was a different story. And while Stone was eager to get off the stage and get to the hotel, since they weren't going to head back on the road in the busses until the morning considering they had a day between now and their next show, he had an equally ridiculous and fun dedication to make. He went through a quick speech about how he normally sung a faster more ridiculous song but tonight was different. Tonight was Lara's last night there, and when the groupies cheered at that Stone hushed them and told them that no, this sucked monumentally and clearly they didn't realize that all shows after this were going to be severely lacking. And then Stone started speaking to Lara even though from his spot, squinting at her in the sound booth.
"Now, you're gonna have to forgive me, because I'm going to get sappy on you," he told her as he used the bottom of his shirt to wipe some sweat off. "But considering we're under about," He stopped to look at his watch, "Sixteen hours before you leave a little high profile sap is in order," He declared. About then he turned to accept what he presumed was his newly tuned guitar and put it over his shoulder as he nodded to let everyone know he was ready. It started with that tell tale keyboard part and launched into the beginning, "Highway run...into the mid-night sun. Wheels go round and roouuund...you're on my mind," Lyrics with Stone adding in the appropriate guitar notes. "Restless hearts, sleep alone tonight, sendin' all my loooove along the wiiiire," Yeah, it had hit Stone before just how long he and Lara were going to be apart, except now that he was thinking about during a song that he'd picked because a) Journey b) crowd sing along parts that could be extended, c) kinda relevant lyrics and d)...duh Journey, and now it was really hitting him more how much this really was going to fucking suck. Stone kept on singing and even swayed a bit on his feet as he tapped on foot along. He kind of wished the song was over already so he could get on making good use of that last, like, fifteen hours.
Lara sat up a little straighter when the cucumber song ended, since that meant it was almost time to go. She was expecting him to go into his regular 'Gold Digger' spiel in the break between songs, but the warning of sap meant something else entirely. Lara arched her eyebrows, a little unsure of what to expect. For them, announced sap could have meant 'Candy' or something. She hadn't been banking on hearing actual disgustingly sentimental sap. But that was definitely what she got once the keyboard started and she mentally fast-forwarded through the song to realize that hey, it was kind of ridiculously appropriate. And the sap went up to eleven, truly. The sad part was that it was actually making Lara feel a whole lot of emotional, which was about seventy-five percent hormones and twenty-five percent 'shit, I gotta leave tomorrow.' She was definitely wishing that the song would be over soon too...because if it wasn't she might actually cry and that was just pathetic.
Normally when Stone sung a song that included parts that the crowd could sing, he'd attempt to prolong it, but tonight was not one of those nights. He did have a little bit of fun playing his guitar while singing along to the 'oh, oh ohhhhh oh' parts and getting all intense for the end near-shouts of half lyrics. And finally after what Stone was pretty sure for him at least was an agonizingly long show, the song was over (he may have put a 143 in there while people were cheering). People were cheering. Stone handed the guitar to a roadie (ha! he had roadies). He did the 'hey the whole band is going to bow' thing and then stopped as he was following everyone off the stage since Lara was still in the sound booth. He turned to look out that way, lights still off, people leaving, some hanging around waiting for the lights to go on, and then started for the front edge of the stage. He hopped down and then hopped over the barricades and started for the sound booth. He had to make a couple of hand shakes, and pull from some groupies and grabby hands - he did stop to sign something for a girl who looked like she was maybe eight or nine - and then kept on moving toward the sound booth.
'Faithfully' was a really cheesy song. An awesome song, but a cheesy one. And Lara was pregnant and she was going to be totally lonely tomorrow night (and afternoon and the next morning and so on) so she totally kind of cried a little. And she definitely caught that 143 after the song was over, which caused a pathetic sniffle on her part. It was all very embarrassing, but she didn't really care that much after a few moments because the song was over and the set was over, and that meant a whole bunch of good (and also kind of sad) things. She wiped her eyes quickly and then stood up again, surprised (but not all that surprised, really) to see Stone coming toward the booth.
Stone grinned when he realized Lara had spotted him again. He headed to the side of the sound booth, up the steps and inside. "Hi," He said before the finished crossing the platform to her so that he could pull her to him and kiss her properly. She was leaving and he was feeling sappy and there was going to be separation stuff now, and Stone didn't really dig that idea at all so this was all necessary, regardless of fan people hanging about, or jeering.
"Hey," Lara said with a little smile when Stone arrived. After putting her arms up around his neck (not caring about any of the sweatiness) and engaging in some highly necessary kissing, Lara pulled her head back a little. "Can we go back to the hotel now?" she asked quietly before leaning in again to bump her nose against his. They could discuss the sappy serenade later.
Stone nodded. "Sure can psychic," He said after scrunching his nose a little and grinning at the nose bumping. This was some highly public sappiness going on. "There's a car waiting for us." He told her before he kissed her again. "Since everyone else takes so long," In fact, he'd done most of his preparation from the main bus instead of the dressing rooms so he wouldn't have to dawdle afterward.
"Awesome," Lara said before kissing him a few more times after that last one. But the kissing would be much better in places where creepy people weren't watching them. She gave him another quick kiss and then settled back down on her feet before taking his hand because yeah, this called for sappy public hand-holding. "You lead the way," she told him and then kissed his arm.
Stone grinned after all that kissing. He nodded. "I'll take the case!" He lifted her hand to kiss the back of it after she kissed his arm. He started down the steps as some security guards started clearing them a path. Well that was convenient. Even though his focus was on looking at and talking to Lara, he did lazily lift his free hand to shake a few hands on the way toward the entrance for the hallway that led toward the dressing rooms and such. He leaned over and kissed the side of Lara's head once they reached the last hallway before the door they needed to take to get to the waiting town car. He opened the back door and climbed in after Lara before leaning over to kiss her shoulder.
Conveniently enough, the hotel they were staying at was about a ten minute drive. It was weird and kind of dumb to have to fight their way through people crowding the front of the hotel, but the hotel staff wasn't going to let them in the backway because they were being anal. So Stone climbed out first and waited for Lara. "This is bizarre." This coming from the guy who had people with cameras following him around for a good amount of his life. It was a relief to get inside and even more of a relief to get to their room. Stone used the key card and opened the door right away before motioning for Lara to head in. Once inside, he kicked the door shut behind him, amused that their relevant bags were already in the room. But there was no time to think about that. Instead he walked back over, pulled Lara over to him by her waist and leaned over to kiss her. "...Are you sure I can't come back with you?" He asked before he kissed her a few more times.
The people outside were more than bizarre and Lara wondered why she had wanted Stone to do something that would make him more famous than the marginally famous he already was. They so didn't need attention from people they didn't know. This tour thing was a stupid idea. And when Stone asked her if she was sure, she almost answered 'no,' because she wasn't, but then he kissed her again and she didn't answer. Right away, anyway.
They made their way over to the bed and once Lara was sitting in his lap, she kissed him and then pulled back to kiss his cheek and right above his eyebrow and then the middle of his forehead. Ignoring the dried sweat, of course. She settled back on his lap and looked down at his collar as she ran her finger along the edge of it. "It won't be so long until you come home," she said, bringing her eyes back up. That, by the way, was such bullshit. It was going to be forever until he came home. And she knew she just had to tell him to come home and he'd be on a plane right away, but she wasn't going to do that. There were other guys in the band, after all. And she knew Stone didn't care because the baby was so much more important than his bandmembers' hopes and dreams, but Lara didn't want to That Wife. Well, she did. But she wasn't going to be. She was feeling very conflicted at the moment.
Stone was really going to miss the default position. Really, how was he supposed to be able to sit on a bed and not think sadly about Lara not being there? This tour thing was a stupid idea, and he hadn’t even wanted to really do it. He’d even tried to bribe the bandmates, promising to pay them the amount they would make on the tour but that hadn’t worked so well when Lara insisted that he was going on this tour. So now he had a number of weeks (did we write how long this was?) that he wasn’t going to be near Lara. And what if something went wrong? Sure he would get on a plane immediately but by the time he got home to her it could be too late for whatever it was. Stone was way too fucking paranoid for this. He closed his eyes and pressed his lips into a ling as she started going random kiss happy on him. He was even pretty sad to miss the baby stuff that he was going to miss even though the baby stuff freaked him out…a lot.
He smirked and arched his eyebrows. “Stop trying to coddle me, we both know this is going to suck,” He said before he leaned over to kiss along her shoulder in toward her neck. One of the hands that had been resting near her hip moved further around her, fingertips fighting their way under some layers until they were under the hem of her shirt and against her skin. “We’re going to have some crazy phone bills…” He said as he made his way up her neck and then placed a kiss at the back of her jaw. “And you aren’t allowed to tell me everything’s fine if it’s not. I’ve got spies you know.” He sat up straighter and kissed the side of her head before he sat back a little to kiss her properly. And then he leaned his forehead against hers. “And also, I love you.” He nodded, which was always weird when forehead to forehead.
Lara was going to respond to his first comment, but then he started touching her hip and she closed her eyes instead. She was actually giving weeks of this up by choice? She shifted closer to him and tilted her head to the side as he started making his way up her neck. He really shouldn't give instructions to her while doing this sort of thing. After he hit the back of her jaw, she moved her arms around him and said a distracted, "...okay..." before it was kissing time. "I'm gonna miss you so much," she said as she lifted her hands to the side of his face before kissing him some more. She was quite possibly an idiot. But she was pregnant, so she was allowed to make bad decisions, right?
Yes, she was not only giving up weeks of this by choice, she was emphatically making him give it up too. Okay maybe it was partially his choice, but she seemed pretty damn adamant despite his protests that he had to do this. She really thought he was going to regret it, or hate her for not being able if he stayed home or something. He was pretty sure it was the other stuff he was going to regret missing…even if it meant taking multiple showers in one day just so the mere scent of him didn’t send her off puking.
All of this was depressing, more so when Lara said she was going to miss him. “I’m telling you,” He said between the kissing. “I can just come back with you…”
Lara shut him up with more kisses and leaned forward enough so he would start moving to lie back on the bed. Once they were down, she moved the kissing to the corner of his mouth and then across his cheek to under his chin. "You're not...going to stop...just 'cause of me," she said as she made her kissing way down his neck and to his collarbone and then started toward her goal of his stomach.
She was totally trying to distract him. Stone knew this. He didn’t mind all that much, cause duh. He did lay back and scoot them farther onto the bed as he returned the relevant kisses. He tilted his head up a little and sighed at the ceiling as she started down his chin and toward his stomach. So evil. He was supposed to reply while this was going on? Ha. He tried to though. “Maybe it’s not ‘cause of you’…” He stammered out through another sigh. “Maybe I want to.” He added as his brain started clouding up more. He managed to get his hands in there and undo her pants so he could at least attempt a double hip attack while she was on a stomach attack. Of course the cloudy brain meant he wasn’t totally focused on it so they were actually inadvertently light grazes and half grazes that stopped halfway through cause what was he doing?
Lara paused when he said it could have been because he wanted to, and then in an attempt to curb anymore persuasion, she pushed his shirt up and started kissing across his stomach. When he grazed her hip she had to lean her forehead against him and stop momentarily in order to let out a sigh. To make up for that break, she dragged her fingertips down his stomach. Once she reached his waistband, she returned to the kissing as she started undo-ing his own pants. In between the kisses and the hip grazes she managed to breathe out a 143 (she couldn't help it) and clearly she was insane if she was voluntarily giving up a large amount of pro-time to force Stone stay on tour. She really needed to stop thinking about all this. Then she wouldn't be able to change her mind.
Of course Stone wanted to go home. Of course it was because she was going there that he wanted to, that and his paranoia about her and the MiniFollethorne as well. But, c’mon, he was Stone he was allowed to be paranoid. His stomach pulled in just a bit when she started the kiss attack and then leaned her forehead down. The muscles under her fingers jumped a little when she dragged them down it and he inhaled sharply and shifted his weight under her because of it. She was definitely insane for giving up all of that fantastic pro-time to force him to stay on tour. He couldn’t fathom why she didn’t believe him about how it was going to suck to have to be all happy-like when she all far away and…yeah, the sap was penetrating the clouded parts of his brain. He moved his fingers and palms along her hips a few more times before he grabbed onto the hem of her layers and started tugging them up, even though he didn’t want to break up her stomach attack, cause duh.
Lara didn't want to break the kiss attack either, but she wasn't about to object to more clothing removal. So once her shirt got up under her arms she sat up a little and helped him pull the rest of it off. And then it was straight back to the kissing, which she mixed in with some grazing down his sides. She made her way across to his middle and then started heading downward. Her hands followed suit because it was time to get rid of those pants. She was seriously considering giving in and dragging him back home with her. Luckily she had that stupidly stubborn thing going on, so she still wasn't going to give in. It was really too bad Stone had married such an idiot.
Stone couldn't really protest anymore. He'd attempted to after tossing her shirt aside and ditching his own, but it just came out as a strangled groan. He was pretty powerless under the stomach attack. There was a good amount of squirming though and some accompanying noises. He could convince her later that he should be allowed to go home with her. Soon as he could coherently...what? He inhaled sharply and was going to try and speak again, but, what?
Exactly. And Lara was going to do her best to keep his brain cloudy, so hopefully he would remain confused and unpersuasive. They'd be back together soon. They just needed to remember that.