Social Norms (Synacky)

Chapter Fifty-Two

“Aw, she’s so adorable!” Val gushed, making baby faces at McKenna, who was sitting on an amp, Matt’s mic in her mouth.

“Don’t let her play with that, Jesus!” Matt gently tugged the mic out of her hands. “It’s got slobber all over it, fucking gross!”

Brian rolled his eyes as he ran through his scales. He was sitting in the corner of the room, cigarette poised between his lips, wishing desperately that Zacky was beside him, and watching the guys fawn over McKenna. Well, mostly Val.

“She’s just a baby.” He called out, a plume of smoke rising with his words, “She can hardly even speak yet. She only knows like thirty words or something.”

“She’s still absolutely precious.” Val picked her up, and Brian saw the distress on McKenna’s face as she reached for Brian.

“Okay, okay, we get it, she’s a doll, now can everyone focus on working?” Brian asked, getting up and taking McKenna from Val, setting her down by his feet.

“What can you even do? Zacky’s not here.” Justin pointed out.

Justin. Brian couldn’t get mad at him, even though he really wanted to. It wasn’t Justin’s fault Brian had done what he did, it was Brian’s. Entirely. He shouldn’t have taken the drugs in the first place.

“I can do plenty.” Brian replied.

Yeah, right. In the end he just tuned his guitar all the different ways, then ran through the scales and played Cannon in as many ways as he could think of. After half an hour, McKenna was pulling on his pants leg, saying “Kenna go home.”

“Guys, I’m gonna take this girl home, I guess.” He said, picking McKenna up and grabbing his guitar. “I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

~*~

A week went by, and Brian didn’t see any of Zacky. At first it frustrated him, and he missed him so much it physically hurt. He would go to the park everyday and sit on the swings and hope that Zacky would show up so he could at least see him.

Then, it got better.

He and the band went to Matt’s family’s lake house for Matt’s birthday, which was fun, although Zacky didn’t show up. They stayed there overnight, and had a bonfire and drank and went water skiing. He went with Jimmy to Central Park one night, driving around drunk, and he had decided his stage name would be “Synyster Gates.” He still missed Zacky, he still missed him a lot, but he figured he couldn’t mope around all day long every single day, and the thoughts settled in the back of his mind.

Until one day, he was in his room going over some Slayer tabs, when there was a knock on the front door. He didn’t think much of it, continuing to run through the riffs as Suzy answered it.

And then, his door was being opened and there stood Zacky. He had dyed his hair, the top of it was purple with black underneath. He looked clean, and was wearing fresh clothes. Brian set aside his guitar, heart thundering in his chest. He thought he had been getting over it but after physically seeing Zacky again, it was like everything was rekindled. He felt a lump well up in his throat and he whispered, “Z-Zacky-“

He couldn’t finish his thought, because Zacky had launched himself at Brian and was kissing him.

Holy shit, he missed this. Brian jumped in surprise, then he was kissing Zacky back, hands gripped in that newly colored hair, then roaming over his face and down his arms, wanting to touch as much of him as possible, trying to make up for lost time, lost touch. Zacky pressed into his hands, wherever they lay, cupping Brian’s face in his hands so he could kiss him better.

Was this a dream? Surely Brian was dreaming. But no, there were tears on his cheeks, and he wondered whose they belonged to, because he wasn’t sad, was he? No, he was happy, ecstatic, overjoyed, that this was his Zacky and their lips were fucking touching and he could taste his tongue and it was so fucking beautiful.

Maybe they were joyful tears.

And Zacky was murmuring in his ear. “Bribri, I’m so sorry, I’m so, so sorry. I missed you so much, Bri, oh god I missed you.”

Brian replied, “No, baby, shhh, this was all my fault. I’m the one who should be sorry, Zee…”

Zacky buried his face in Brian’s neck and Brian held him as tight as he could, pressing his lips to the top of his head. They just lay there, and Brian knew he couldn’t let Zacky go even if he wanted to.

Eventually he did let go though, only to shut the door and move them to his bed. “Damn, Zacky.” he whispered. “I’ve missed you, too.”

Zacky smiled softly, kissing Brian’s jaw. “Let’s not do that ever again.” He whispered.

“Yeah, okay.” Brian ran his hands up Zacky’s arms, feeling his neck, cheeks, forehead. He couldn’t get enough of him, it felt like they hadn’t spoken in months.

He watched Zacky’s expression, watched it deteriorate from bliss to pain. “Brian, I’m still moving. This still doesn’t solve anything.”

Brian frowned, “No, but I don’t want to think about that right now. I want to enjoy this moment, enjoy you, and we can worry about everything else tomorrow, okay? We’ll figure something out. I almost lost you once and there is no way in hell I’m going to lose you again.” He ran his hands through Zacky’s hair, and Zacky closed his eyes. “When did you get this?”

“A couple days ago. I think I’ll keep it for a while, it turned out nicely.”

“Did you do it yourself?”

Zacky chuckled, “No, of course not. Val did it for me.”

Brian kissed the top of Zacky’s head gently, “I love it.” He murmured, “It’s beautiful, it suits you well.”

“Thank you.” Zacky curled his fingers in Brian’s shirt. “I got it to remind me of you.”

“Really?”

“Well, that and I just really liked it.” Zacky added sheepishly. “I’ve also decided to start getting tattoos.”

“Oh? When? Maybe we could go together. We don’t have to get matching tattoos, but I’ve been looking forward to getting something more than this…” he wiggled his thumb at Zacky, showing off the little blue number there.

“I’m going to wait until I don’t need my parents’ permission.” Zacky said, “And when I have money to spare. Besides, if I move, you’d have to come all the way up to Washington to get it with me.”

Brian sighed, taking Zacky’s hand and rubbing his thumb along it. “Maybe I should meet your parents. Maybe if I spoke to them-“

“I don’t think that’d be a good idea.” Zacky said, “What if they hate you, and they never let me see you again?”

“If that happens and you move anyway, they can only keep you for a few more months. Then you can come back here. We’ll wait for you, me and the band. I’ll write to you and call you, and it’ll be like you never left.”

Zacky looked at Brian unsurely. “You’d hold the band for me until I got back?”

“You better believe it. We’ll stop everything until you can come back, and you and I can get an apartment somewhere around here.”

Zacky grinned, burying his face in Brian’s neck again. “Okay.” He whispered, “I’ll talk to them tonight.”