Life On The Road

The days following Brian and Zacky's encounter were fairly normal, modtly problem-free and essentially business as usual. Shows, occasional interviews, photo shoots - the lot. On this particular day, the band had to endure a 45 minute interview, plus a photo shoot for a magazine, which the guys all happily agreed to do, and so on the morning of the events, they spent most of their time working on their appearances. After all, none of them wished to look as if they'd just been living in a dirty, old dumpster for a week, especially in a magazine for the world to feast their eyes upon.

"Baaaaaaaaaabe?!" Brian called out from the bathroom of their hotel room (A different hotel from the previous, being that they were in another state entirely), his eyes glued to the mirror, a tub of styling gel on the sink and a comb in his hand. The vocalist, having already gotten dressed up in his signature hat-and-bandanna combo and his glasses, along with a chain necklace draped around his neck and his favourite jacket, wandered into the room to see what was the matter.

"What's up, hot stuff?" He asked in a husky voice, his hand colliding with his boyfriend's ass in a playful manner, earning a surprised squeak. Syn felt Matt's strong hands then grip at his hips, gently pulling him back against the brick wall that was Matt's body.

"Does this all look alright?" He inquired after a moment, looking at his lover's reflection in the mirror, watching as he placed loving kisses all over his cheek and a few on his neck. He then glanced up, admired his boyfriend's looks and nodded.

"You look fuckin' amazin'. You even managed to cover up most of those marks-"

Syn couldn't help but snicker, and he pulled at the collar of his shirt to expose just some of the deep purple markings that had been left the previous night.

"Yeah, it was annoying as fuck, because I wanted to wear my V-neck shirt... And I can't find a way to cover the ones on my neck..." The guitarist groaned.

"Sorry baby, I'll see if I can get you a scarf or something to wear for the photos. Last night was worth it though, right?" The vocalist asked, lovingly nuzzling his boyfriend.

"You bet your ass it was."

And then, as if on cue, the door opened behind them. Their slender drummer, who was wrapped up in his favourite parka jacket, stepped in, having heard their conversation. His raven black hair was all over the place and his glasses were sat at an odd angle on the bridge of his nose, but he couldn't give a single fuck about it.

"You guys are dicks, y'know that?" He spoke, groaning at the chuckle he received from the two men in front of him.

"I know we use our dicks often, but that doesn't mean we are dicks." Matt smartly commented in reply, grinning from ear to ear.

"This is why I regretted not getting the room across the hall..." Jimmy mumbled, "All me, Johnny and Zee could hear was Brian gettin' his brains fucked out by you... You guys sound like whores."

"Whoopsies..." Brian whistled without a single hint of guilt, batting his dark eyelashes at the drummer just to add a touch of innocence, "You love us really though!"

"Admittedly, yes. Of course. You're my best fuckin' friends in the world. I really just wish you weren't so loud and you picked a better time for intimacy." Jimmy replied with somewhat of a smile, "Me and Johnny baby had just gotten all cuddled up and-"

"Okay, okay, that's enough lovey dovey shit from the cutsey couple." Matt chuckled, shaking his head as he adjusted his aviators. Then, he made his way to the doorway, calling out into the room where Johnny and Zacky remained, "Right, we've only got a few minutes. You guys all better be ready out there!"

"Can we get a hotel room that doesn't have a shared bathroom next time..?" Brian asked, distracting Matt from ensuring everyone was on task.

"Yeah, sure. I'll work on it baby. Now come on, we need to get ready."




When the guys arrived into the room in which they were to be interviewed, it came as a shock when they discovered they had pre-arranged seats - with the couples separated. Matt's seat was in the middle, with Johnny to his left and Zacky to his right. Jimmy sat next to Zacky on the right end and Syn had no choice but to take the last remaining seat beside Johnny. The vocalist was clearly unimpressed.

"Hey, how come we've got like, a seatin' plan?" He asked in a rough tone, raising his eyebrows and eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

"It's just after what happened last ti-"

"What, when me and Syn started making inappropriate sexual jokes? Because trust me, I can make those jokes with anyone you sit me with, even if you sat me with a brick!" Everyone laughed at Matt's comment and they all nodded in agreement. The interviewer just sighed. Thank fuck this was just an interview for a magazine.

"Yeah, you can't really stop Matt from bein' inappropriate. You should see him on the bus." Johnny chuckled, looking up at the older man beside him, "It never ends".

"Okay, that's not strictly true..." Matt spoke with a shake of his head, "It's only really when me and Brian are fuckin' around."

"Whatever, can we just get on with this please? We've got a lot to get through today." The interviewer groaned in irritation, shuffling his papers around to get them into order,and adjusting his seat as to make it more comfortable for him. The guys were all exchanging glances in the brief moment they waited, with Zacky breaking into a fit of snickering and giggling, and Brian yelling "I WIN!"

Most of the interview consisted of stuff about the album, the tour, the events and so on. They had spoken about releasing limited edition merch, maybe doing signings, and that last topic brought them to the meet and greet.

"So... Let's talk about the meet and greet last week, because I know that, well, shit went down." The interviewer began, looking up from his notes and to the band. He could spot the faint marks on the side of Matt's face where the glass had shattered and slashed at his skin, noting just how quickly it had healed.

"Yeah... Fuckin' prick..." Matt grumbled lowly, crossing his colourful arms over his chest, "You remember that one show about a year or two ago, the one off show we did? Where our set was crashed? Well, the band that crashed it, their vocalist was the guy who attacked me. He really must've hated us too, because, admittedly, those meet and greet tickets weren't cheap..."

"Mhm, and for some reason, our security screwed us over and allowed it to happen. Somehow the guy got passed the men on the door with no problem, and then he fuckin' went for Matt. I doubt the guy even bought a ticket to get in, so...." Syn added, a disgusted look becoming apparent on his face. The thought of the evening would never fail to piss him off, and he would never forgive himself for allowing it to happen. Of course, it wasn't his fault though.

"Luckily, it healed quickly. I swear, if that fucker had scarred my face-"

"Relax, Matty..." Brian cooed softly as he rested his arm on the back of the cramped, black couch they were sat on, reaching over behind Johnny to rub Matt's back.

After that, the interview was essentially nothing more than questions with the sole purpose of being there just for the shits and giggles. When it all came to an end, the guys thanked the interviewer and, contrasting from how they came in, they all left with wide grins, snickering over what had been said in that room. They made their way to the photo studio, where a plain white backdrop had been installed, the material much longer than it needed to be so the wooden flooring wouldn't be visible in the photos. Two stage lights, each just about bigger than a basketball, resided in line with the corners of the backdrop, pinning down the excess material so it wouldn't move out of place.

The guys waited by the side for instructions on what to do for each photo. The first photos were individual shoots, starting with Matt and finishing with Jimmy. The group shots came next. Brian insisted he stand next to his boyfriend, and on the second group photo, he ruined it by slapping Matt's ass unexpectedly. The vocalist had gasped in surprise right as the photo had been snapped, and the photographer burst out into uncontrollable laughter.

"What?! What's so funny?" Johnny asked curiously, getting no response with the exception of laughter, wheezing and occasional coughing.

"Hold on, lemme see this." Matt said, wandering over to the camera to inspect the image. Upon seeing the shot, he cracked up too, clapping like a seal, "DUDE!"

With that, everyone wanted to see the image. The photo showed Matt's shocked gasping face, Syn smirking deviously with his hand noticeably on Matt's ass, Johnny appearing high as a kite, Zacky with his eyes seemingly rolling and Jimmy looking like someone just stole his parking space. As each man saw it, they all suffered the same reaction, with Jimmy going so far as to fall onto the floor, clutching his stomach as he roared with laughter. It took a good 10 minutes for everyone to settle down and re-organise themselves, with the promise that they would all get a copy of the photo to keep.

Finally, Matt, Brian, Jimmy and Johnny wanted to get some pictures with their loves, that would be just for them to keep. They paired up with their respective boyfriends, and Matt allowed the drummer and bassist to go first. They took their photos, which were mostly just them holding each other and other "Cutesey shit" as Matt would jokingly describe it as. Then, it was his and Brian's turn. They posed together with cheerful grins and loving smiles, and on their last photo, which was of Matt with his arms snugly around Brian from behind, Zacky decided to photobomb. He dived onto the floor by their feet and posed, one hand on his hip, the other on the side of his head, his elbow holding him in place. There was no time to react, and so the entire thing was captured.

"Damnit Vengeance!" Matt chuckled, peering down over Brian's shoulder at the younger male, who laid there with a grin.

"Yeeeeesssss?" He replied, pulling an innocent face. Before Matt could respond though, the drummer had called for them all in an orotund voice, informing them that, as the shoot was over and they were slightly over their time limit, they had to go. Syn helped the younger guitarist to his feet before grabbing Matt's hand, their fingers interlocking quickly, as they were so used to doing. The pair exchanged loving glances, before sharing a soft, gentle kiss.

And with that, everyone headed out of the building and into their ride back to their hotel, laughing, joking and enjoying each other's company. It seemed like everything that had gone wrong had faded away for good, right?




It was just such a shame that the happiness between band members wouldn't last much longer.

Notes

Hey guys! Hope you liked this chapter!
This one was more of a filler chapter or sort of 'Calm before the storm' kinda thing (Hence the title) with everything kicking off in the next 2 chapters!
What do you think will cause the disruption in the band? Let me know in the comments!
And as always, thank you for reading! I really appreciate it!