Lauri stood in the theatre, closing his eyes, remembering; going back to the beginning.

This was where he had met Jonne. The night he had joined the band. Back when it wasn't a theatre, back when bands played here. The members of Negative at the time - Jay and Antti and Jonne and some guy who was not even their regular guitar player - played a gig here, and he had come to it. It was his habit really; going around, going to shows - it was his scene.

At the time, he was playing guitar for another band that were not playing that evening. Lauri had gone to and played enough shows and met enough people to be invited to the afterparty. And after the show, they had partied allllll weekend, gotten totally wasted out of their minds on shitty Russian vodka; that was how he had come to know Jonne. It was a fond memory for him, what he did remember; that thin blonde boy who thought the same way he did and laughed at the same things he did. It had been instant friendship.

Jonne had mentioned, while they were drinking sometime that weekend, that his band was looking for a guitarplayer, since theirs never quite could seem to show up to practise, and now, apparently, gigs. His memory of it made him smile:

"I can play fucking better than Slash. I'll play guitar for you, don't worry about it," he had said with a confident grin, almost finishing off the bottle.

Jonne snatched it from him then, having the rest of it for himself. "Good, then, it's settled."

And after that, he had played guitar for them.

Suddenly his cell phone rang, shocking him out of his reverie. He had to smile when he saw on the caller-id that it was Jonne; how ironic.

"Hello, you beautiful shithead. Why are you calling me this afternoon?"

He heard Jonne laugh on the other end of the line, ever-used to being insulted. "I thought I'd see what you were doing, because I was bored."

"Oh," he smiled, sitting down in one of the theatre seats. "Well, let's just say I'm reliving old times."

"Riisu? Again?" asked Jonne.

Lauri blushed, just a little bit. "Not that kind of reliving. Remember the night I met you, at that gig? What was the name of the place? That’s where I am; it’s a theatre now."

"I don't remember the name, but I remember that night. Well... parts of it. I certainly remember the hangover I had after that weekend. And I remember calling the police and getting you out from jail."

He heard the amused tone to Jonne's voice, and had to laugh. "It didn't seem so funny then, but it is now. Well, you were laughing at me the whole time then, but I didn't think being there was so funny."

"It was, you were such an idiot!" Jonne laughed at him, and Lauri had to admit, he was right.

"I am still an idiot," he pointed out.

"Only when you are passing out on the sidewalk because you are too fucking drunk again," Jonne said, smiling; Lauri could hear it in his voice. "Does this mean you're free now? Will you stay there so I can come meet you? Maybe we can go to some of the other old places, I think it would be nice to remember."

Lauri found that it did sound fun, a trip down memory lane with Jonne – maybe they would go to their old practice place too, and some of the other tiny clubs they had played when they were just starting out.

When he thought about how long it had been, it almost floored him; how could all this have happened more than half a decade ago?

“Lauri?” Jonne asked, and Lauri realized he had forgotten to answer.

“Sorry, I’m here. I was just thinking about all we’ve been through together.”

Jonne had to smile again; it was nice to see Lauri remembering old times, because that wasn’t usually his nature, thinking about the past. They had had some good times – and still did.

“I’ll be there in ten minutes, wait for me?”

“I’ll wait.”

And Lauri would’ve; till the end of the world, if he needed to.