Eternal Blossom

The two weeks passed quickly and Darcy was soon seen off from the airport, bound back home to Scotland and her ailing father. She’d spent much of her time with Aiyana, Rayne, and the guys. More specifically, she’d spent a lot of time with the hunky lead singer that had made her heart flutter with his kind words and gentlemanly actions.

He had invited her to come stay at his house for the remainder of her vacation after the first week, but in preservation of her humble nature, she’d declined. She’d stayed with him a total of 3 nights in the two weeks, and although she wanted to allow herself to get attached, she knew it wouldn’t be fair to either of them if she did.

When it had come time to leave, Matt had allowed Aiyana to say her goodbyes first so that he would have a few private minutes with her before she had to board the large metal craft designed to transport her across the ocean. Their parting had been sweet, with plenty of kisses and well wishes. Luckily, no tears had slid down her porcelain cheeks to embarrass her until she was already on the plane in her seat. She was going to miss them, but she truly needed to get home to her father.

Matt and Aiyana watched as Darcy’s plane taxied for the runway, his arm wrapped around her shoulders and her head resting in the crook of muscle it created. With a deep sigh, he squeezed Aiyana’s shoulder as the plane carrying her cousin took off.

“I think you had a thing for my cousin, Sanders,” Aiyana smirked up at him.

“Maybe,” he shrugged, chuckling.

Matt turned them and steered them towards the front doors, pulling his hat down lower.
They’d put Darcy on a red eye flight so that they could both see her off, but it didn’t mean he wanted to be spotted and mobbed by fans right when he’d sent away one of the most interesting women he’d ever had the pleasure of spending two weeks with.

“Tell me you aren’t going to miss her,” she taunted him playfully.

“Of course I’ll miss her, but there’s an ocean between us. It’s not like we can just teleport to one another any time the urge strikes,” he responded evenly as he led her out to the parking lot.

“Fair enough,” Aiyana conceded, pausing long enough for them to get into her jeep.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Aiyana’s aggravated voice queried him quickly, “what in the hell am I supposed to do for Brian for his birthday? What do you get for the man who has everything?”

Matt laughed, stretching out his long legs in front of him as he put on his seat belt. He looked over at Aiyana, watching her run a hand through her hair in frustration. His own mind had been running at a speed that would have terrified hamsters in their wheels, so he was thankful for the distraction, no matter how abrupt of a change of pace it was.

“Aiyana, just throw him a party. I know that you’re a home body, but Brian is a social creature. He needs mass interaction on his birthday, and to be showered with attention,” he told her with a wink.

Aiyana groaned at the idea of having to clean up after a large party like what Matt was recommending, “I can handle that if you volunteer to help me clean up after it.”

“I’ll help you clean up, and throw in a gnome to help as well,” he responded with a chuckle.

With a nod, she pulled out of the parking lot and began to mull over party ideas on the drive back to Huntington Beach. The whole party planning thing was more of Rayne’s forte, and she knew that she’d have to recruit her best friend if she wanted the party to come off as a success.

The ride went by quickly, each wrapped in their own thoughts, and they were soon saying their goodbyes as she dropped him off at his drive way. With a hug and an agreement to have the guys over for dinner later that week, she was backing out of his driveway in a matter of minutes.


Aiyana woke up a few hours later, having come home to crawl back into bed to get a few more hours of sleep wrapped snuggly in the set of colorful arms that she adored. Looking down, she saw that Brian’s arm was still slung over her waist, and she lifted it carefully so that she could slip out of his grasp.

After a trip to the bathroom, she wandered down the stairs, whistling to herself. Waking up in a good mood without copious amounts of pain was a rare thing for her, and knowing that today was one of those days, she was going to make Brian a giant breakfast of champions.

“But there ain’t no way I’m ever gonna love you, but don’t be sad. Cause two out of three ain’t bad,” Aiyana sang to herself as she walked into the kitchen.

“It’s too early for you to be singing Meatloaf,” a voice informed her loudly in the dark.

Aiyana screamed and swung around in the direction of the voice, ready to inflict bodily injury. When she saw Zack instead of a raging murderer hell bent on her desiccation, she dropped her fists and let out a huff of air before spinning back around to make the heavenly coffee currently residing in her kitchen.

“What did you do, Baker? Did you piss off the only woman who can put up with you,” she asked with a voice laced with irritation, pulling the coffee and filters out.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Zack stated, his eyes settling on the coffee pot she was preparing so he wouldn’t look at her.

“Then what do you want to talk about, Zee? Something is on that mind of yours, and I’m sure it wasn’t my Meatloaf skills,” she mused aloud, his lacking ability to meet her eyes draining
all irritation from her body in a mass exodus.

Brian walked into the kitchen with a big yawn, and leaned against the door frame. Aiyana gave him an apologetic look for waking him with her scream before pulling down cups for them all and getting the things out to make breakfast.

“He came over because he is a dumb ass, Aiya,” Brian told her with a small grin. “You see, he came home from drinking at the gnome’s, and in his drunken state ran into Rayne’s new bike.”

Aiyana gasped in shock and threw the closed package of bacon at the rhythm guitarist. Zacky cringed at the memory of the motorcycle falling over with a loud thud, barely catching the bacon before it hit him in the face.

“Why the fuck were you driving drunk, Zack,” Aiyana all but yelled at him.

“I wasn’t! I got out of the cab, walked in through the garage so I could close the door she left open, and tripped over it. I forgot the damn thing was there, and it was fucking dark,” he grumbled, sulking like a teenager accused of stealing his parent’s liquor.

Aiyana tilted her head to the side as she listened, her eyebrows drawing together in confusion until the dots connected in her hazy brain. As soon as she realized he knocked it over bodily instead of with his car, she covered her mouth with her hand to smother her laughter.

Brian watched the exchange, his arms crossed over his chest. Trying not to laugh himself, he patted Zack on the back, and then boosted himself onto his normal perch when Aiyana cooked.

“I came over here to give her some space. She wouldn’t stop yelling, and I figured it was best to give her some time to cool off,” Zack sighed, running his hands over his face.

“So you’re hiding from the wrath of a pissed off Scotswoman,” Aiyana giggled, knowing that retreat in the face of such anger was fruitless.

“Dude, her face was about twelve shades of red, and when I told her I’d pay to get it fixed, she just yelled louder,” he groaned with an exasperated look up at the ceiling.

“Call her and tell her to come over for breakfast, Brian. Zack, you are going to do better than just pay to get it fixed. You’re going to get it fixed and then take her on a romantic weekend ride to Silverado the minute it’s out of the shop. She’ll be calm enough to hear your apology with minimal yelling this morning, and the trip to Silverado will be enough for her to not throw it at you again any time you’re walking anywhere near the garage,” Aiyana told him as she began to cook breakfast.

“You’re the best, Yanna. Thank you,” Zack told her, placing a quick kiss on her cheek before boosting himself up on the counter beside Brian who had just finished his phone call with Rayne.

“Yeah, yeah,” she told him with a wave of her hand. “If you really want to thank me you’ll get off my counter and turn on some Meatloaf before getting out of my kitchen so I can rock out in peace.”

With a hop off the counter, Zack scrolled through her playlist until he found the section she’d requested. Putting it on speakerphone, he put the phone on the counter and motioned with his head for Brian to go with him. Brian waved him off, letting him know he’d be there in a minute.

As the sound of Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad began to fill the kitchen, Brian got down and pulled her into his arms. Swaying back and forth with her, he smiled before placing a sweet kiss on her lips. Halfway through the song, he murmured a thanks for helping Zack to overcome the anger of the ginger. Smiling at him with her arms draped around his neck, she shrugged as if to say it was the least that she could do.

Brian turned her back to the stove so that nothing would burn and placed a kiss on the back of her neck before making his way into the living room with his fellow guitarist. He’d told Zack when he’d shown up 10 minutes after Aiyana left for the airport that he could stay because he knew that Aiyana was too kind hearted to not help him out of the predicament he’d fallen into; or rather the one he had fallen over.

“She’s a genius, bro,” Zack told the taller man as he made his way to the couch. “If she hadn’t told me what to do, I’d have to face this every time I turn around for the next few months. Rayne is so damn proud of that bike you’d think it’s an infant.”

“Zee, it’s an Indian. A classic Indian at that, and she bought it on her own. Don’t you remember the first bike you bought without help? Of course she’s protective of it,” Brian chuckled after flopping down on the couch beside his best friend.


“Stop Right There,” Rayne sang with Aiyana in the kitchen as they cleaned up after breakfast. “Before we go any further do you love me, will you love me forever.”

The two sang in perfect sync with Meatloaf’s Paradise By The Dashboard Lights, dancing around the kitchen in the process. Both of the guys had abandoned them after Zack and
Rayne had made up in favor of the serenity of the back yard and a pack of Marlboro’s.

Brian and Zack knew better than to get between the girls and their music when they were on a roll with any particular artist. Just last week it had been Prince, and the week before that, Tupac. The girls had an eclectic taste in music, and they knew the words to almost every song.

“Rayne. Love. Kind, sweet, good heartened cousin of mine. Have I told you lately just how very much I love you,” Aiyana asked, her voice thick with syrupy sweetness.

“Alright, what the hell do you want,” Rayne laughed as she turned the music down.

“I need your help. Brian’s birthday is coming up next month. I’m going to throw him a party. Matt’s going to help clean up, but I need help actually pulling it off. “

“Oooo. That sounds like fun. What are you getting him, though?”

“I don’t know. What in the hell do you get for the man who has everything already,” Aiyana groaned, sweeping the floor as their last task.

“Make him something. I know you’ve got your little hippie din of an art room. You know he doesn’t go in there very often, so make him something. Something made is worth a hell of a lot more than something you can purchase in a store in the mall,” Rayne smiled over at her cousin, knowing that it was just her nerves getting to her.

“Ray, I have no idea what I would paint him. He likes so many things that it would be hard to find one thing to paint.”

“I didn’t say it had to be a painting. You do all kinds of crafty and artsy shit. Make him something,” Rayne shrugged before walking out of the room to let her cousin think in peace.

Aiyana paused in sweeping the floor, resting her chin on top of the broom handle as she thought of all of the random things she could possibly do. She could sculpt, but the last time she tried that it took too long because her perfectionist side showed itself. Dreamcatcher creation? Nah, he wasn’t a dreamcatcher kind of guy. She’d have to make one for her dad soon though. And, if she bedazzled Brian’s leather jacket she was sure he’d have a coronary.

Groaning, she decided she’d have to go to her art room later to see what her muse pulled out of her. Right now, she had to grab her magic tin from on top of the fridge and self-medicate. The low pain morning hadn’t lasted very long between the scare and her self-imposed stress over Brian’s birthday, and her joints were now screaming in protest.

“Ray, love me! Come get my tin so we can go light up in my art room and get crafty,” Aiyana yelled as she put away the broom and Lysol wipes.

“You’re speaking my language, woman,” Rayne called out as she entered the kitchen again, climbing onto the counter to grab the tin. “Dreamcatchers?”

“Yeah, gotta make one for the old man. He was telling me yesterday how he needs a new one,” Aiyana mused as she took off for her art room with a bottle of wine for them to share, knowing her cousin wouldn’t be far behind.

Notes

Sorry for the delay again. It's been a hectic week.