Second story and my first multi-chapter one. Just an AU take on the 'Bleed Guitarist' episode. Bleed is such a horribly unpopular character (and unapologetic ass) but I can't help but like him. And I also can't help slashing him with Derek. I like antagonistic relationships I suppose. Even if you hate the pairing and/or the character, try and read it. Maybe you'll enjoy it.

Chapter 1: Hello, Goodbye

One of the many perks of being rich and famous was owning a fabulous penthouse in the nicest area of Hollywood. It was nice to be able to relax in comfort and luxury after a hectic tour or a day of recording. However, the Zen atmosphere of the house was broken by an unwelcome guest. Todd and Murray, also know as Claw and Blaze of Metal Wolf, both agreed that if Brian was going to invite someone into their group, he shouldn't turn their penthouse into a hotel for homeless musicians.

"Nice place." Especially if that musician was Bleed. Also known as that loud, annoying imbecile from the equally, loud annoying band of imbeciles, Iron Weasel. "So, I'm just going to help myself to the fridge."

"Oh, yeah. Please, just walk right in." Todd winced as Bleed tossed an old-looking leather jacket onto the couch carelessly and picked it up gingerly to hang up properly.

"And make yourself at home," added Murray sarcastically, looking put off.

They understood their dilemma, really they did. The band needed a permanent guitarist-someone with skills, stage presence and experience. While their former rival did fit the bill, they had to question Brian's (known to everyone as Savage and known to them as 'leader') decision of asking Bleed to join him. He just….didn't fit in.

The brothers froze as an acrid, burning smell filled the air and the ran to the kitchen. Nothing was on fire-it was much worse. Bleed was making a sandwich (making crumbs on the marble counters in the process), humming and a lit cigarette dangling from his lips.

"Excuse me?" Todd 's jaw was clenched and he wrinkled his nose as Bleed looked up at him. "We don't allow-"

"Any smoking." Murray finished, holding an empty bottle out to Bleed. He coughed when a puff of smoke hit his face but at least Bleed dropped the cigarette into the bottle. "You didn't even put it out! Now it's going to keep smoldering-"

"Uhg, we just repainted too-" Todd grumbled as he began spritzing air freshener around.

"Sorry." Bleed shrugged as he continued making his sandwich.

When they were sure Bleed wasn't going to destroy their kitchen, Todd and Murray went to the front room and turned on the television to wait for Brian to arrive with the contracts. Murray and Todd both flinched and grimaced simultaneously as Bleed suddenly dropped between them, his arms thrown carelessly over their shoulders. "So…where d'you lads keep the good booze?"

"…We don't keep any 'booze'." Murray sniffed, looking at the blond man like he was a particularly disgusting rodent.

"Not any for you anyway." Todd concluded. He glanced back at the kitchen and made a mental note to hide all the good wine vintages as long as their 'guest' staying.

Bleed rolled his eyes and sighed. "I knew you guys were lame, but no alcohol? How're we going to party?" He complained through a mouthful of turkey sandwich.

The twins didn't retort as they were fixated on the sight of Bleed's boots propped on their coffee table. Their one-of-a-kind Donghia original coffee table. And a pair of old, dusty, grimy boots was resting on top of it. And the perpetrator of the crime against their designer furniture was currently watching their television, eating their food and sitting his butt on their vintage Venetian sofa. Which now had a mostly-eaten sandwich on it.

"Oops." Bleed hastily picked up the remains of the turkey sandwich and popped it into his mouth. "Ten second rule."

There are theories about how twin's thoughts are connected. That theory was at work now, as Murray and Todd both shared similar, violent thoughts about the Brit sitting between them. A shared glance confirmed that they no longer cared about waiting for Brian. They would just have to find a new guitarist since this one was probably never going to be seen again.

"Who's that?" Bleed asked abruptly. The sudden change in tone, cheerful and jaunty to low and harsh, made the twins stare. The local entertainment channel was playing and talking about a show tonight at some club in LA.

"Oh. Iron Weasel?" Todd and Murray scoffed out the name like it was a mildly funny joke.

"Your old band?"

"Before you went solo?"

"And bankrupted them?"

"I know!" Bleed snapped, not taking his eyes off the television. He got up and jabbed his finger against the screen. "I mean, who's the little kid playing guitar?"

The brothers cringed at the smudge left on the screen and tried to get Bleed to sit back down before more of their belongings were dirtied or damaged. "Their new guitarist!"

"Don't you follow any sort of celebrity news?"

"It was all over the blogosphere and entertainment news online."

"What?" Bleed gave them a confused look.

"Blogs?"

"On the internet?"

"What the hell is the internet?" Bleed looked baffled.

They led Bleed to their study and sat him in front of a computer. Murray opened a browser and gave his brother a look. "What is the internet?" He couldn't think of the actual definition and judging from Todd's silence, neither did he.

"Just 'wiki' it." Todd shrugged.

"Wiki?" Bleed echoed, feeling rather out of touch. Life really passes you when you're living out of your car, he thought. He was never into computers or electronics like his old friends were, so this was rather new to him. Bleed's attention snapped back to the screen as the 'Iron Weasel' logo appeared.

"This is the official website. Music, videos…"

"Show dates, merchandise." Todd nudged Murray, smirking. "Let's leave rude comments on their videos!"

"Ooh! Let's-" Murray flinched when the mouse was snatched from him. "How rude."

"Really rude." Todd frowned, glaring at Bleed.

Bleed ignored them and experimentally clicked on a video. It was that kid playing a guitar by himself. "Why the hell is there a kid in the band?"

"I know, right? We thought it was a gimmick at first." Todd shrugged.

"Turns out, he's really good." Murray added. "Bri-I mean, Savage thought about having him in our band after hearing him."

"…Alright. One of you teach me how to use this thing." Bleed grumbled, as he jiggled the mouse a bit too roughly.

Brian whistled to himself as he let himself into his band mates home. Things were going smoothly. They got a new lead guitarist that filled all the criteria of being in Metal Wolf. Excellent skills, a ready-made stage name ('Bleed' fit in well with names like Savage, Blaze and Claw), and as a bonus, a former member of Iron Weasel. When the news of their new guitarist would go public, it was just kill Iron Weasel. And bothering those idiots would never get old as far as Brian was concerned.

"Guys." He greeted as he found Murray and Todd. The duo were on the floor, Todd scrubbing the surface of a coffee table and Murray using an upholstery vacuum on the sofa. Or was it the other way around? "What are you two doing? And where's our newest member?"

"Cleaning."

"Study."

"Right." Brian raised an eyebrow and made his way to the study. He found Bleed hunched over a computer, seemingly in his own little world. Brian cleared his throat and tapped the other on the shoulder. "I-"

"Can you believe this crap?" Bleed whirled around, nearly making Brian jump back in shock. He didn't care and continued, feeling beyond annoyed. "They replaced me with a sixteen year old kid! Where do they get off?"

Brian glanced over Bleed's shoulder at the screen and shrugged. "The kid is a good guitarist. Great, even. I hate to say it but it's not a bad move to get a younger band member. Widens audience demographics." He reached around Bleed and shut off the computer. "Regardless, it's not going to help those losers any. They're probably too busy beating each other with bowling balls to actually focus on what's really important."

"…I have to go."

"Oh. Well, the bathroom is down the rest of this hallway and to the right," said Brian as Bleed jumped from the chair and started out of the study. He followed and continued. "Hurry up, though. We have contracts to go over and a concert to get ready for. Plus we're in the middle of a new album-You know the bathroom's that way, right?"

Bleed ignored Savage and continued into the front room. He walked over to one of the twins (Bleed could never keep them straight, in or out of makeup) and lifted him by the collar. "Claw? Or Murray-whatever your name is-"

"I'm Blaze. Todd's Claw." Murray explained while gingerly trying to pry Bleed's fingers from his shirt collar.

"I'm Todd."

"I don't care." Bleed growled, feeling a bit annoyed. "Where's my jacket? And I need to borrow some money. My car's out of gas-"

"What do you think you're doing?" demanded Brian, pulling Bleed and Murray apart.

"I told you I have to go." Bleed snatched his jacket from Todd, who had held the leather between two fingers as though it would poison him if he touched it.

"Go where?" Brian scowled when Bleed didn't answer. "You leave and you can forget any contracts."

"Whatever. Metal Wolf is lame anyways." Bleed retorted as he pulled his jacket on.

Brian did not want to go find another guitarist of Bleed's magnitude. "What about the fame? What about the money?" At that, Todd shoved a few twenty dollar bills into Bleed's hand. Brian glared at Todd, who looked away innocently.

"Thanks. Looks like I'm off." Bleed smirked and made his way to the doors. "Later, losers!"

"Bye!" Todd and Murray chimed together. At their leader's furious look, they stepped back and smiled sheepishly. "Uh…wait, come back…"

"Oh, shut up." Brian grumbled.

The ride was smooth, only forty minutes from Hollywood to the suburbs. Finding the right house wasn't difficult either. Everyone seemed to know where the house with all the rock stars was located. What was difficult was getting out of the car and walking up to the front door. The shock and anger Bleed felt earlier had disappeared and in it's place was uncertainty and anxiety. There was a reason he never went back with Iron Weasel. To be honest, it was surprising that he wasn't replaced sooner.

Bleed parked his car across the street from the modest suburban home and sat there for a long while. The familiar, purple, snakeskin van was in the driveway and a faint, muffled song was playing from the garage. Bleed drummed his fingers nervously on the steering wheel.

/I should just go into the garage. I'll be, 'Hey, guys!' and they'll be 'Hey, Bleed!'. Then the kid will implode and disappear forever and they'll ask me to be their guitarist./ Bleed thought to himself, liking this scenario. /…Then a unicorn will appear and whisk me and Derek to the nearest church where we'll get hitched. That's definetly probable. I've gone mental./

Bleed thumped his head down on the wheel and groaned. The realistic scenario would be getting his ass kicked by his old band mates. He hated to see Derek's reaction to seeing him after all this time. To say Derek did not take his leaving the band well, was an understatment.

Almost an hour ticked by while he sat in the dark, thinking. The kid, Tripp was his name, listed him as 'an influence' on him. There was something. It meant either the guys weren't mad and didn't say anything about his past transgressions. Or there was a 'Don't Talk About Bleed' policy in the band. Either way, if the kid looked up to him, it could work in his favor. Bleed pursed his mouth and dug around for paper and a pencil. He found a beatup notebook and began writing.

"Alright. Go in there and get them to trust me again. They'll see how much better it is with me back and then we'll ditch the kid. Final phase, we go on tour make millions of dollars and live happily ever after." Bleed mumbled to himself as he doodled money signs around his plan outline. Unconsciously, he began scribbling a couple of crude stick figures kissing each other with hearts in the margins of the notebook. "And if things go really well, somehow convince Derek to forgive me and get back with me." Derek was going to be the hardest part of all this, Bleed groaned inwardly.

A sudden loud slam made Bleed jump and duck in his seat. He peeked through the window to see familiar figures leaving the garage and walking into the house. He looked at the clock on the dashboard which read twelve-twenty. It would be weird to show up past midnight. Creepy even. Bleed sighed and pushed the back of his seat out to lay down. Tomorrow he'd go talk to them and put his plan into action. He sighed and gazed back out the window. Lights were turning on inside of the house and he could see Burger sneaking around by the garage, digging through trashcans. Bleed raised a brow and laid back down, listening the faint metallic clanking.

Only a few times in his entire life, had Bleed felt this nervous. He adjusted his jacket and rubbed his face, wishing he had a chance to shave. He smacked the doorbell instead of just pressing it with his finger and took a deep breath as the sound of muffled movement came from the house. The door opened and there was that kid. And the guys were standing behind him, staring in disbelief.

Bleed let a grin spring onto his face. "Bleed's back!"

The door slamming in his face was actually very predictable, Bleed thought after the third time.

This chapter would've been a lot shorter if I didn't like Metal Wolf so much. Actually, it would've been longer if I didn't edit it way down. I love those guys. Don't worry, things will pick up now that the groundwork is laid down. And no more Metal Wolf. That makes me sad. Please review!