Metallica
clutch it like a cornerstone
Summary
AU. 1992. Now working as a private investigator alongside Lars, Kirk is hired to spy on basketball star Danny Carey.
What seems like a cut-and-dry case of infidelity becomes something more sinister that puts Kirk at a crossroads between his integrity and a dark desire for revenge.
side story to (private) eye of the beholder
L'appel du Ktulu
Summary
Port Orion lies just south of the California-Oregon border. It’s a sleepy seaside town with nothing particularly remarkable going for it until an unidentified creature washes up on the shore.
that old man here is me
Summary
“Why should it bother me?”
Lars makes a face as if Kirk is being purposely obtuse. “You’re a ten, and I’m a five on a good day.”
Kirk wants to argue that Lars has been and always will be a ten in his eyes, but it won’t help. Lars knows how Kirk sees him. His own internal perception doesn’t match Kirk’s, and it’s that disconnect that makes Lars pull away from physical intimacy.
taste me, you will see (more is all you need)
Summary
If Lars has a list of people he can trust with this, Kirk’s definitely at the top.
Read on AO3
The Unnamed Feeling
Summary
AU. 1999. After his contentious divorce from James, Lars is facing down a life without Metallica, without his marriage, without direction.
When Lars meets Kirk, a budding documentarian with a killer smile. Kirk’s bizarre passion for the paranormal enraptures Lars, who craves a distraction from the shitshow of his life.
So when Kirk’s public access ghost hunting show needs a personable cohost, Lars volunteers. It’s not like he’s doing anything else, and maybe he can find a second chance at happiness in the new millennium.
Read on AO3 Art Playlist
Hygge
Summary
AU. 2002. After Lars' tennis comeback crashes and burns, he wants to crawl into a hole and lick his wounds. Luckily, his online chat buddy Kirk has a spare bedroom at his Honolulu home. Hawaii seems like a good enough place for Lars to decompress.
Except when Lars finally lays eyes on Kirk, attraction and friendship collide, and there’s no way he’s staying over twenty-four hours in this house without Kirk suspecting Lars isn’t entirely heterosexual.
(private) eye of the beholder
Summary
AU. 1991.
I know what you did.
A mysterious letter addressed to Kirk Hammett threatens to shatter the reclusive novelist's life. When he brings the letter to private eye Lars Ulrich, they're both drawn into a web of mystery far more sinister than they ever imagined.
All Nightmare Long
Summary
AU. 1986.
Maybe if you think about a thing enough and believe in it, it becomes real. That’s what haunts me. That maybe I created this monster and brought it into the world, and it took James instead of me.
After a suicide attempt, Kirk meets Lars in a psychiatric hospital. Lars' sleep is plagued with nightmares of a terrible, unfathomable monster that stole his friend James.
Always intrigued by the macabre, Kirk becomes fascinated with Lars and his story of terror. The two of them devise a plan to find the creature and rescue James, even if it means confronting their deepest fears.
The Art of Mending
Summary
Six years ago, college chums Kirk, Lars, James, Dave, and Cliff graduated from San Francisco State, their whole lives ahead of them. Then Cliff died in a tragic accident, and the group fractured; James crawled into a bottle; Dave formed Megadeth; and Kirk and Lars found solace in each other.
Now, when an invitation to James’ wedding arrives in Kirk and Lars’ mailbox, they see a chance to reestablish ties with their old friend and meet his new beau, Jason. So Kirk and Lars make the road trip to Arizona, hoping to spend a wild weekend with their college pal, but they’re not prepared for the massive personal changes James has made: he’s ditched the all-night drinking parties, disavowing alcohol entirely, and he lives in a massive desert mansion thanks to his corporate sponsorships as a NASCAR driver.
It’s a lot to take in, and when Dave joins the party, caustic and bitter in the wake of divorce, tempers flare and old tensions rise to the surface.
pale shelter
Summary
Four members of Metallica Lars slept with and the one he wanted most of all.
the shortest straw
Summary
It’s not just the sight of himself, disembodied and standing at the foot of the bed, that makes all rational thought drop out of Kirk’s mind. It’s the blood. The face of his doppelganger is smeared with dark blood pouring in sheets from his hairline.
chiaroscuro
Summary
AU. 1996. Selling forged artwork isn’t the life Kirk thought he’d have at thirty-three years old, and he’s looking for the exit.
So when he meets famed postmodern artist Lars Ulrich, Kirk has a problem on his hands. Because Lars is sweet and funny and charming, and he has no idea that Kirk’s been selling forgeries of his work.
But Lars knows someone’s ripping him off, and as the two grow closer, it’s a matter of time before Kirk’s dangerous secret comes out…
sine qua non
Summary
There’s no goddamn way Lars will let fate determine his life. He’s always chosen his own course, diving headfirst into music instead of his family’s tennis legacy. He’s never let anyone tell him how Metallica is supposed to sound, act, or think.
So being born with a predetermined soulmate naturally annoys the fuck out of Lars. But he’s done his best not to let it bother him. After all, what were the odds he’ll ever meet the one person on earth with the same stupid mark?
And then Kirk showed up.
something warm about you
Summary
It’s the way Kirk looks at Lars that has him shaken. The shy little glances, like a shoplifter tucking a stolen item into his pocket. Lars lets him look. Dave will never know.
nothing else matters
Summary
In a world where it’s dangerous to be what they are, where the spotlight could pry them open and apart and ruin this sweet thing, Kirk and Lars forge on, gazing at each other as if the outside world doesn’t matter.
Kirk and Lars' relationship, as seen by the rest of the band.
Read on AO3suffer unto my apocalypse
Summary
Kirk feels undone. As much as his life sucked in that dream, he had something special with Lars there, something that could never happen here. No matter how much Kirk wants it to.
It’s like he’s been plucked from one world and dropped into another.
Read on AO3
fortune, fame, mirror vain (gone insane)
Summary
“I could make the greatest horror movie of all time, and it would still be seen as genre garbage. I’m so proud of you, and I’m so happy for you, but I’ll never get that.” Kirk pointed to the award over the fireplace. “No matter how hard I work, or how much money my films make, or how good I am.”
AU. Kirk is a director. Lars is an actor.
Read on AO3