My Home Sweet Home

My Home Sweet Home - Purdixx:
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Nikki Sixx sat across a candle-lit table from the person who had captured his heart just a few short months beforehand. The way the flicker of the flame made the dark eyes looking back at him sparkle had him falling in love all over again.

"What?" Ashley Purdy asked, feeling a little uneasy with the way that his boyfriend was looking at him.

"Nothin'," Nikki smiled.

Ashley looked at Nikki as if a second head had suddenly begun to sprout from his shoulders. "Right," he sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Can't I just look at my beautiful boyfriend without there being some ulterior motive on my part?"

Ashley leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest, glaring. "How many times do I have to tell you? Don't call me beautiful. I'm a guy. Not a chick."

"Oh, I know that," Nikki replied with a wink.

Ashley rolled his brown eyes with a disgusted sigh. He picked up his fork and went back to devouring his plateful of Chinese food. He had been so excited when Nikki had asked if he wanted to go out for dinner at his favorite restaurant - China Star. The couple had frequented the city's best Chinese restaurant numerous times, too many to really come up with an accurate number. However, this time felt so much different to Ashley and he didn't quite know why.

Nikki and Ashley had been seated in a private dining room, away from all of the restaurant's other patrons. That, in itself, wasn't unusual. What was unusual was that the room was darkened, except for the dim light the candles set up around the room gave off.

"What's all this?" Ashley had asked.

"What? We're having dinner," Nikki had answered with a smirk. "We always eat in here so we can have our privacy. Of course, we can go out into the main dining room and spend our night signing autographs between gradually cooling bites of food, if ya want."

"Do that and you won't get laid for a month...at very least," Ashley had grumbled back before taking a seat in the chair his boyfriend had pulled out for him.

"You couldn't go without sex for that long," Nikki had stated nonchalantly, grinning.

"Wanna bet?" Ashley had challenged with an arched eyebrow.

"Nah, I save my betting for Vegas."

"Dumbass."

Atfer finishing his second plate of food, Nikki excused himself from the table, saying that he had to use the bathroom. Before heading to the men's room to relieve himself, he made his way to the front of the restaurant and up to the waitress that had been serving them all evening.

"Excuse me?"

"Yes, sir?" the petite Asian woman responded with a bright smile.

"Uhm, I have a special fortune cookie I'd like for my boyfriend to have. Could you possibly help me out with that?" Nikki asked with a smile.

The woman nodded her head, her smile becoming even brighter. "I can definitely do that. Have you marked it in some way so I can tell them apart?"

Nikki pulled out the plastic-wrapped fortune cookie he'd had waiting in the inside pocket of his black leather jacket. He handed the small package to the waitress with a smile and a nod of his head.

"There's a small heart on the package. There," he said, pointing his finger to the tiny red symbol.

"No problem, sir. I'll just set it down normally, with your bill."

"Thank you so much," Nikki said with a huge smile and then hurried off to the bathroom.

As Nikki looked at himself in the large, brightly lit mirror, he suddenly felt extremely nervous, something that rarely happened to him anymore. He splashed his face with some cool water and and then blotted the dampness away with a stiff, white paper towel. He thought of his life up to that point as he tried to calm himself.

Nearly 30 years of hitting the road, touring with the band that had afforded him more than he'd ever dreamed of. Motley Crue had brought the heavily tattooed bassist fame, fortune, plenty of women, a nasty drug habit that had clinically killed him and spawned one of the band's biggest hits (Kickstart My Heart), four beautiful children and numerous oppportunities, both on the business and personal levels.

While Nikki would never be ashamed of his relationship with Ashley, he knew not everybody approved. He'd been called a cradle robber, a sugar daddy, a creepy, old man, etc. and his sweet boyfriend had been labeled a gold-digger, a coat tail-rider, a fame whore, etc. But Nikki really didn't care what anybody else thought, and truth be told, neither did Ashley. They knew what the had and they knew it was real and everlasting.

Nikki took one last look at himself in the mirror, dropped the balled-up paper towel into the small trashcan and then pulled the door open with a deep sigh. He prayed that everything would go off as he'd planned. He knew that his beautifully dark-eyed boyfriend could never be replaced by any amount of money. Ashley was the love of his life. His heart. His soul. His everything.

Nikki nervously re-entered the small, private dining room and once again took his place across the table from Ashley, who was spooning chocolate-vanilla swirl ice cream into his mouth.

"I wasn't sure if you wanted any ice cream," he said once he'd swallowed the frozen treat.

Nikki shook his head with a smile. "Nah, that's okay. I think I'll pass this time."

"Suit yourself," Ashley replied, shrugging his shoulders as he put another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth.

Nikki was extremely thankful that the waitress appeared a brief moment after he'd returned. She gave him a reassurring smile as she walked up to the table.

"Can I get you gentlemen anything else this evening?"

"Nothing for me, thanks," Nikki answered. "You, babe?"

Ashley shook his head. "No, thanks," he smiled up at the woman.

"Okay, well, here's your bill and complimentary fortune cookies," the waitress smiled, laying the bill facedown on the end of the table. She then dropped the cookies down in front of them, making sure that the marked one went to Ashley. "Have a nice evening." She walked away from the table with the same bright smile across her face and exited the room.

After a moment, Nikki grabbed his fortune cookie from the table and then pushed himself up from his chair. "I'm gonna go pay the bill. I'll be right back," he said, leaning down and placing a tender kiss to Ashley's cheek. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Ashley smiled brightly up at his boyfriend just before Nikki grabbed the bill and left the room.

Ashley picked up his fortune cookie but held off on pulling the wrapper from it. He and Nikki had a tradition of sorts when they dined at China Star and that was to open their fortune cookies at the same time and share the words on the small sliver of white paper that came inside the confections.

"You didn't open your cookie?" Nikki asked, stepping back into the room and stopping at the end of the table, close to where Ashley still sat.

Ashley shook his head. "No, of course not. It's your turn to read your fortune first."

"Is it?" Nikki asked, feigning ignorance.

"You know that it is," Ashley replied dryly, arching an eyebrow. "So, get on with it, Frank!"

"You're a real bitch when you don't get your way," Nikki cracked, winking. He pulled the plastic from the folded cookie, pried the two golden halves apart and then pulled the little piece of paper from it. His eyes widened and his heart raced a little as he read the small black words. He hoped with everything that he had inside him that the words turned out to be prophetic.

"Well?" Ashley asked.

"Well, what?" Nikki replied sarcastically.

Ashley groaned and rolled his eyes in frustration. "What does your fortune say?"

"All right, all right, Mr. Impatient. It says 'Your life is about to change for the better.'"

"Mmhhmm. Interesting."

"What about yours? I read mine. Now you have to read yours. It's only fair. Come on, hurry up."

"All right, all right, hold onto your Depends, Grandpa."

Ashley broke his cookie in half, pulled the plastic off and then dropped the cookie pieces onto the table. He gasped and his eyes started to brim with tears as he read the four tiny black words.

"Are you...are you serious?" he sniffed out, looking up at Nikki as the older man dropped to his knee right beside him.

"More serious than I've ever been," Nikki smiled. "So...what do ya say, Ash? Be with me forever?"

"Forever and always," Ashley answered before throwing his arms around Nikki and kissing him.