Disclaimer: unfortunately, I don't own these characters, they're from Velvet Goldmine
Angel
Chapter two: Brian
Brian stared at the new face in the mirror of his dressing room. Or rather, the old face. Brian Slade's face. As soon as the concert ended he had ran into his dressing room and like something possessed began furiously scraping off the makeup that his fans had come to know and love as Tommy Stone. Layers and layers of makeup, darkened here and there to give his face an older look. The makeup that took hours to put on he now wiped away and destroyed mercilessly and ignored the raping on the door as all sorts of people tried to get in and fight the lock. Maybe they were reporters, fan girls, or band members; he didn't know.
He didn't care. He had finally got it all off and looked at himself as one might a stranger. Sure, his face had changed over the years; it had lost most of its young, boyish, innocent charm. But it was still Brian Slade. It was still him.
Shannon must have somehow pushed all the people away because the racket became muffled. He heard the knob twisting furiously and she was trying to talk through the door. He wasn't really listening, but he did catch, "Tommy, what happened out there!" Indeed, he looked at that face in the mirror with a questioning gaze as though he expected his reflection to respond, what had happened out there? Out there, on stage, with millions of fans watching his every move. Everything had started out normally enough; the concert had gone almost all the way through without a single interruption. The fans were swooning, the band was playing fine, Tommy Stone was giving the people what they wanted. But then, there was a small glitz in the last song, a shimmer, like from a dream. Through the throng of the crowd his sharp eyes had found something very peculiar, out of place. Someone or something pushing through the crowd, like a trout swimming upstream, a raindrop rising to the heavens, moving towards the exits. Stone's lips moved and his body danced gracefully as though they were not his own but his eyes remained fixed on that one object. As it was exiting, the figure turned and gave Tommy one last glance before disappearing, leaving a single word in its wake.
Curt.
It hit Brian before he knew it was coming and suddenly his throat constricted as old defenses he didn't know he had came tumbling down on him. He felt dizzy as memories pounded him, especially one in particular that still found its way into his dreams, even after all this time. Sunlight, the word came to him, sunlight had woken him up. He remembered now, remembered as clearly as he had never remembered anything else in his life. He had turned over in his bed so he could see Curt better. Curt was still sleeping peacefully, even snoring slightly with the heavy rise and fall of his chest. How innocent he looked in the grip of sleep. Brian wondered if he had ever looked innocent like that, and seriously doubted it. Curt was blinking groggily against the sun and when he saw Brian he smiled and snuggled closer. Brian felt the heat of the day at the back of his head and it must have produced some sort of halo effect because Curt whispered in his ear, "you look like an angel". Brian couldn't have been more surprised at anything else Curt might have said. Angel. He had never been called an angel before. Demon, yes, but angel? It had never occurred to him. Curt didn't seem to notice Brian's surprise and brought him into a warm kiss. Whether he was an angel, demon, or immortal that would never have to make the distinction, he couldn't tell. Nor could he care. All he knew was at that moment, he was in heaven.
Supposedly his quick-thinking band who were used to not understanding the things Brian did had come up with some good impromptu. Supposedly he had finished so well the only people who knew there had been a mistake were the band members and Shannon. Supposedly everyone had loved it. Somehow, he couldn't remember any of it. Everything had been a blur from spotting Curt and when it finally came into focus he was looking in the mirror at his own face thinking: impossible, impossible, impossible…
It couldn't have been. Could it? But what did it mean? What could he have possibly wanted from Brian? Nothing.
Unless…
Brian tried to shake the thought away, but it came down anyway. Unless Curt missed him, too. Unless Curt still…loved him.
He shuddered and turned away from the mirror. Even if it was true, so what? There was nothing they could do about it, anyway. Millions of fans still thought of him as Tommy Stone. He was Tommy Stone. He could loose everything he had. He would loose his music, his fans…he couldn't go through that again, and not when he had made them his life. But then he looked back into the mirror and he felt his confidence crumble. So why had he removed his disguise in such a frenzy? Well, there was only one way to find out. Tommy took one last look at the mirror and knew the only way to get rid of Brian Slade forever was to get rid of everything that was connected with him. Bri—Tommy slipped on gloves, a thick long jacket, and a wide hat, hoping no one would recognize him even though he knew it was a shabby disguise. On second thought, he grabbed a spare makeup bag in case he spotted someone who might see through the wide hat and he had time to slip away and become Tommy Stone again. Then, making sure no one would see him exit; he set out to find Curt Wild.