Arcane Guardian ↣ Avenged Sevenfold

24 ☼ seratonin

very slight nsfw warning<3

JULY 2008

"Man am I happy to see you," Brian grabbed Noelle by the waist, spinning her in a hug. A three month tour later where he could get away from the living embodiment of a sleep paralysis demon was supposed to fix things. But somehow it made them worse. 

For one, 

-The nightmares that were seemingly every night, and dealing with debilitating insomnia. He had never experienced almost falling asleep on stage before, and it was fucking weird. 

-Matt's nonstop talk about his 'girlfriend', aka the woman who tortured him for over a hundred years straight, and coping with just how damn weird that was,

-Brian confiding in Mandy almost every night because she was the only one who really understood and heard him, because he just couldn't worry Noelle

-Mandy also being the only person to know about a mild not-so-mild pill addiction Brian was developing, 

Okay, so he knows how cliche rockstar drug addictions are, but Percocet and Xanax were seemingly the only answers to his problems. A good mix let him sleep without dreams, made the physical pain from his mortal link to Thellessany hurt less, and made him forget he felt like he was running. And also, the afterparties putting drinking into the mix weren't bad either. 

And Noelle knew none of it and he felt like the biggest piece of shit on earth. 

But today was the first day back from tour and he had immediately dropped his bags to spin around his beautiful girlfriend and just let himself forget about everything else. She still smelled like her lavender-strawberry lotion and her hair was back to platinum blonde. 

"Your hair," He said as he twirled a lock in his fingers. "You look young." 

"Bad?" 

He shook his head. "You look like you." 

"Brian, pull your head out of her ass so I can say hi!" Jim ran up to them. and Noelle nearly tackled him. "I missed you lil' goose!" 

"I missed you too Jim!" She laughed, squeezing him. 

Brian came back to her side, and she grabbed his rolling suitcase to take into her place while the guys talked outside. As she dragged the bag into the quiet living room, she heard a jangling coming from it, and willed herself not to snoop.  

She walked back outside, grabbing Brian's arm as the group all talked about tour and partying and coming back down to real life and album sales and the new album and it was like no time had passed at all.  She was just happy to have her family back. The months of just her and Mandy at their own devices were boring. Especially because LoveHateHero were tracking their album at lightning speed. 

When the others left and it was just her and Brian, she was fast to drag him inside and kiss him gently. "I missed you so so much." She smiled, looking up at him. He couldn't shake the huge, goofy grin off his face, only wondering how he ever could've gotten so lucky. She kissed him again before he could talk. "You should stay here for a while. I don't wanna let you out of my sight again." 

He pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, this time him initiating another kiss. "I think that'd be amazing, Ells." 

"How are the nightmares?" She said with a face of concern. "They were pretty bad before you left." 

"Oh, they're fine." I feel my guts being rearranged and torn from my body for what seems like another eternity. "I've been getting through the night."