Title: You Left Some Stars In My Belly
Author: MCMGM
Characters: Jeff Buckley, Kristen, various other.
Rating: M
Content: Language, mild violence, strong sexual content, drug use.
Disclaimer: Only own Kristen and any other fictional character. Everyone else owns themselves.
(A/N) Based in an AU.
Kristen strolled up to her apartment door, whistling a formless ditty. She was in a great mood and didn't really understand why. Only thing she did was watch corny t.v shows and talk. But she felt like butterflies were going to come bursting out of her stomach at any moment.
Just as she was turning the key in the lock, a hand shot up and grabbed her wrist. In her fast New York City reflexes, Kristen jammed her keys between her knuckles, making a makeshift set of knives and pushed them toward the offender.
"Kristen!" yelled a familiar voice.
"Sandra? Oh what the FUCK, man? I almost took your eye out!" she relaxed her hand back to her side.
"Where the hell have you been? I've been calling you all afternoon."
"What? Why?" Kristen asked as she let them in.
"What do you mean 'why'?" Sandra continued as she followed Kristen in. "You were suppose to meet me after work."
Kristen put her things down, "I was?"
"Uh, YEAH. I called you last night and we agreed on it. I was worried because I never heard from you after that."
"Oh, it totally slipped my mind. I'm sorry."
"Yeah, you owe me."
"Alright." Kristen said as she walked around the bedroom, picking out clothes and laying them on the bed.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going out."
"Where?"
"Sin-e."
Sandra raised an eyebrow, "Sin-e? You told me you were never going there again after what happened last week. Why the sudden change of heart?"
Kristen looked at Sandra and exhaled. She sat down on the bed and motioned for Sandra to join her.
"You remember the guy who was playing that night?"
Sandra nodded.
"Well, I ran into him today, while I was in the Village. And we hung out and stuff at his place, and he invited me to a show he's doing there tonight."
A shit eating grin crept onto Sandra's narrow face, "How big was it?"
"What?"
"You heard me, how big was it?"
Kristen rolled her eyes and got up, "I JUST met him, I did NOT sleep with him. And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you, as you have the biggest mouth this side of David Johansen."
"You like him, don't you?"
"I don't KNOW him. I can't like someone I don't know."
"That isn't true or else you wouldn't have gone to his apartment. You must have liked SOMETHING."
"He lives in my old apartment, that's the ONLY reason I went. I wanted to see what he did with it."
"Did you get a chance to check out the bedroom?" Sandra smiled.
"I have to get ready." with that Kristen went into the bathroom.
~*~ 20 Minutes Later~*~
Kristen stepped out of the shower, grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her voluptuous frame. She headed into the bedroom to get something, but realized it was in the living room.
"Hey, do you see my lotion in there?"
"Yeah, it's over here."
Kristen's gaze shot up and her eyes met Jeff's, lotion bottle in hand.
"I hope it's okay that I came a little early." he said meekly.
Kristen looked at Sandra, who was still wearing a shit eating grin. It had become obvious Sandra set that little 'chance' encounter up. Fire raged in Kristen's eyes as she clutched the towel as close to her skin as she could.
"It's cool. I'll just be a few minutes."
Kristen snatched the bottle out of Jeff's hand and ran - as calmly as she could - back into her bedroom and slammed the door.
After a few minutes, Kristen came out dressed, and still mad.
"So, you ready to go?" Jeff asked.
"I just need to put on some make up."
"You look better without it." he mused.
"Awww." Sandra cooed. Kristen shot her a dirty look.
"Let's just go." Kristen grabbed her bag and they were off.
~*~At Sin-e~*~
As the trio walked in, Kristen noticed Jeff grimace. Much like when she had mentioned his father earlier. Her eyes drifted toward where he was looking, and noticed a bunch of microphones set up where he was going to perform.
After helping Kristen and Sandra find a seat, Jeff went off toward the back of the café. They were lucky to find a seat, the place was getting fuller by the minute. Kristen could see a few men in suits sitting near the back. She found them out of place. After a while, Jeff came back out to a big applause. Kristen and Sandra joined in.
"Thanks." he said shyly.
Jeff launched into his usual opener, 'Be Your Husband'.
"Thank you so much." he said breathlessly afterward, picking up his guitar.
"Uh, I only played this like once here, some of you don't know it. Still working out the kinks and stuff. But uh, it's called 'Lover, You Should've Come Over.".
Kristen looked back toward the suits in the back of the café, they were taking notes. Intently watching Jeff. She knew that look, her bosses gave her that look when they expected her to fail at an assignment. She didn't like these men, whoever they were.
She looked back toward Jeff, he looked at her while he played, a heavy sigh leaving his throat. He looked at the floor and began to sing.
"Looking out the door I see the rain, fall upon the funeral mourners. Parading in a wake of sad relations as their shoes fill up with water. And maybe I'm too young to keep good love from going wrong. But tonight you're on my mind so, you never know."
Kristen felt an overwhelming sadness fill her body. This song was obviously about love. Possibly an abandoned one.
"When I'm broken down and hungry, for your love with no way to feed it. Where are you tonight, child? You know how much I need it."
Kristen's head swayed along, she understood. She related to what was being said. Those people in the back, taking notes instead of LISTENING could never know what real love and heartbreak was about.
Jeff's voice flew above the room as the song reached it's climax. Kristen could feel tears pour down her face, she couldn't stop it. As Jeff ended the song, he saw her crying and was about to come to her aid. But Kristen threw up a finger, letting him know she was alright.
His eyes asked if she was sure, and she nodded. Jeff winked back as an 'okay.'.
As the night wore on, Jeff exhibited a broad sense of humor. Cracking jokes in between songs, making funny voices and faces.
He randomly would start playing popular songs of the day. He would beat boxing while playing Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' while singing in a mock Qawwali voice. Much to the audience's delight.
"I'm a ridiculous person but seriously, I want to thank you for coming out and helping me get through my 'Café Days' selection." Kristen noticed he said it as if he were headed to bigger and better things.
A slight look of sadness came upon his face, like it was the end of an era or something. It confused Kristen, but she tried to look past it and enjoy the remainder of the show. Jeff continued playing his favorite songs and after Van Morrison's 'The Way Young Lovers Do.' he turned around to adjust something and bumped into the wall. The crowd clapped and laughed.
"This is Sin-e! Where am I going to go? Backstage?"
Sandra let out a huge laugh, Kristen just smiled.
"Of course if I DID like walk through the wall, I'd be like the best gig you've been to, right? 'Jeff Buckley walks through walls'!"
Sandra slapped Kristen on the back and laughed as loud as possible, like it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard.
After a few hours, and very little breaks, Jeff finished his set. Everyone stood up and clapped, Jeff gave a quick bow and headed to Sandra and Kristen's table.
"So, was I alright?" he asked breathlessly.
"Alright? That was AMAZING!" they said in unison.
"Thanks." Jeff said in his usual shy tone. After a while Sandra excused herself and headed to the ladies room, leaving Jeff and Kristen to chat.
"I'm sorry." Jeff said to Kristen, much like he had done hours before in his apartment.
"For what?"
"For making you cry earlier. I didn't mean to do that."
"Oh, it's Okay. It's just that song hit close to home for me is all."
Before Jeff could say anything else, he felt someone hovering over them. Kristen looked up and came face to face with Todd. All of the color ran from her face.
"Hey Kristen. What are you doing here? I thought you had plans with your mother." he asked suspiciously.
"Uh, I did but she had to cancel last minute. She isn't feeling well."
"Well why didn't you call me?"
"Because she figured it was too late, and came to see me play instead." Jeff interjected.
"And you are…?" Todd asked in his snotty, yuppie tone.
Jeff scooted closer to Kristen and put his arm around her. He looked Todd dead in the eye and said;
"Her brother."
Kristen slowly turned her head toward Jeff, and looked at him like he was crazy. There was no way in hell Todd was going to believe this lanky, pale as a ghost, white kid was this black woman's relative. Let alone her brother.
"Brother?"
"Yeah. She's my Step-sister, but still my sister."
"You never said you had a brother." he eyed her.
"We recently found each other."
Todd looked at Kristen, waiting for confirmation.
"…Yeah. Recently." was all she could say.
"Yeah, well that's nice." he said, buying it for now. "I'm going to go, only came in here to see what the fuss was all about. Not much I see." Todd spat, looking in Jeff's direction.
"See you at the office tomorrow, sweetness."
"See you tomorrow, Todd."
With that, he left. Kristen exhaled and turned to Jeff.
"Why did you do that?"
"You didn't seem like you were too happy to see him. Figured I'd scare him off. But I'm not that intimidating, I guess. Who was that, anyway?"
"My boss." Kristen put her head in her hands.
"Oh, well, he's a jerk. I can tell."
"You don't know the half of it."