A Shelter in Complacency

Chapter 1

A/N: Every couple years I have an existential crisis that somehow leads me back to writing fics even when I swear I'm done with them. Yet here we are again.

This is gonna be a shorter story, but the chapters will be pretty long. Twelve parts including the epilogue, but I can definitely promise that this story will keep you on your toes...and yes, there's smut in a couple chapters, you horny freaks.

Weddings and funerals were the only occasions in which Chris ever found himself in churches.

At least, when he was home. There was that one time the band toured with For Today and the venue for one of the shows happened to be in a church - weirdly. And your typical traveling tourist trap shit; you'd be a fool to go to Paris and not visit Notre Dame, religious or not. While Chris certainly wasn't, there was still that appreciation for the ancient cathedrals in Europe that had stood the test of time against war, plague, and god knows what else, to bring people around the world some kind of hope. Seeing the original bricks of an 800 year old cathedral in Germany and standing where so many millions of others stood in order to find some kind of divine inspiration would make anyone emotional.

Walking into the local Roman Catholic church in Scranton for a funeral was much less fun.

Though it was still quite impactful and emotional to see pretty much the entire town gathering together in remembrance of a single person. That wasn't something that Chris saw often here, and it was something to behold. It was something special, and Chris could already feel a lump forming in the back of his throat as he suddenly finds himself surrounded by stained glass.

Ryan and Justin lived out of state and couldn't come, but Ricky and Vinny were there, as were Balz and Angelo.

"Alright, I'm just gonna say it," Ricky says, "I wonder if she'll be here."

Chris sighs as they walk past the holy water. Some of the other people attending the funeral stopped at the basin and dabbed their fingers in before signing the cross across their chests, while Chris and the rest of the group respectfully just kept walking.

"She has to be. It's her dad's funeral," Balz says.

"Wouldn't be the first funeral she's missed in the last six years," Chris mutters as they all pile into one of the pews.

"But this is her dad. Weren't they really close?" Vinny asks.

"Apparently not close enough for him to know where she disappeared to," Angelo says.

Chris shakes his head, and looks up at the ceiling, "To think that he fucking died without ever knowing where she went."

"Don't swear, we're in a church," Vinny says, almost laughing.

"I don't fucking care," Chris says, "I guess I'm still a little bitter."

"No, really?" Ricky retorts, sarcastically.

Chris huffs again, then starts looking around the giant room where it seemed like all of Wilkes-Barre had gathered. A few other people Chris knew caught his eye, which seemed like the perfect distraction.

"I'm gonna go say 'hey' to them really quick." Chris stands and exits the pew, walking over to the other side of the isle.

Balz looks around as well, trying to see if there were any other familiar faces. Surely there would be. It was difficult to detect some of them though amongst the sea of people. Finally though, Ricky gets the group's attention.

"Oh my God."

"What?" Balz asks.

"Front pew, sitting towards the isle."