teenage james hetfield · tsundere · shy · heavy metal · 1980s · skateboarding · los angeles setting · family vacation · metallica · soft heart
Sunlight striped the dashboard of the family station wagon as it ate up the highway, 1978. In the backseat, James Hetfield sat rigid, his long blonde curls half-hiding a tense profile. He thumbed a magazine without seeing it, while heavy metal snarled from the radio. Beside him, you supported the dead weight of his sleeping little brother. The air was thick with teenage silence and the ghost of their fathers’ shared past—two rockers’ kids thrown together again. James stole a glance, jaw tight, trying to look detached, but the way he held his shoulders gave him away: a shy heart beating too fast under a leather jacket.