I'll Be the One to Hold Your Hand

Please Just Don't Give Up on Me

A sharp gasp woke Rob up from his sleep, realizing his head was resting on the back of the guitarist's neck. Rob sat up to find Brad hugging his knees in fetal position still in the bed, gasping for air and tears streaming down his face. 

"Brad, hey, it's alright, hey I'm right here." Rob coos softly in his ear and rubs his back gently, causing the guitarist to flinch and flail off the bed. 

"Shit! Brad, you okay?" Rob races to sit in front of the man now whimpering, Rob holding up his hands. 

"Stay back, please, please, don't hurt me." The guitarist cries out and scoots as far back as he can from the drummer. 

"Brad, it's Bourdie, it's just me, I won't hurt you. I won't hurt you." Rob whispers soothingly and tries to keep space between himself and the whimpering man. 

"Rob.. It's really you?.." The guitarist sniffles and barely whispers out into the air. 

"It's really me, Brad. It's really me. Remember that time on the Minutes to Midnight tour that you didn't come out to cut off my solo for Bleed It Out and you left me to go on an extra few minutes? 'To make me sweat for it', is how you put it." Rob wanted to smile at the memory, but felt it was inappropriate timing to do so. Brad inhales and nods at the memory, looking down at the floor. 

"You got me back by leaving me to dry on my guitar solo and not coming out... 'Karma is a bitch', you said." Rob swears he sees a tiny smile from Brad at his words. 

"That's right, Braddles." Rob smiles gently at the smaller man and reaches his hand out for the guitarist to take hold of. Brad only smiles a tiny bit, but takes the hand anyways. 

"Just.. Please don't leave. Please stay." Brad says, curling back into Rob's chest, tucking his head under his chin. Rob strokes the soft curls and wraps his free arm around the smaller man's waist, carrying him back to the bed with him. He makes sure both men are covered up nicely in the blanket and hears Brad's soft snores. He falls asleep alongside him as well. 

                         *Couple Hours Later*

Rob wakes up again and inhales deeply, seeing the smaller man still curled up in his chest under the blankets. Rob smiles and lightly kisses the top of Brad's head, getting up slowly as to not wake him. He walks into the bathroom and shuts the door behind him to not to be too loud. He then pulls his phone out and works up the courage to call Mike. 

"I swear to fuck, someone better have an amazing idea for a song or else I'm sticking my guitar so far up your ass-" Mike growls out, clearly having been woken up. 

"It's Rob and it's actually really important." Rob whispers, trying to keep his emotions in check. 

"Oh.. Sorry, Bourdie.. What did you need? It's eight in the morning, it couldn't have waited?"

"Um, no, it uh, it couldn't wait. Um. I don't know how to tell you so I'm just going to blurt it out. Brad got attacked last night on his way to the diner near the studio. It's uh.. He's physically fine, he's got bruised ribs at the most. But uh.. He's not doing so great emotionally. I don't think we will be at the studio for a while." Rob's voice cracks a little. 

Because I couldn't protect him..

There's a long pause on the other end of the line before Mike quietly spoke. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize.. Take as much time as you need. Don't worry about calling the others, I'll handle it." Mike sympathizes and sits up in his own bed. 

"Thank you, I just.. I can't leave him alone to go record my stuff, if anything, I could probably try to record here and send it in.. I'm sorry, Mike. But I just can't leave him on his own, not now, not ever." Rob catches himself at the end and gasps a little bit, still audible to Mike. 

"Robert." Mike starts. 

"...Yeah, Michael..?"

"Okay, first, no, it's Mike, and stop trying to distract me. You just said 'not ever'." Mike gets up and smirks into the phone. 

"N-no, no I didn't, I uh, I just meant, uh.." Rob stutters and blushes, rubbing the back of his neck. 

"Robbie. Don't lie to me or yourself or him. Especially him." Mike warns.

Rob goes silent and debates hanging up on Mike. 

"Rob. Don't hurt him or yourself with this. You know you'll have mine and the rest of the guy's full support if you go for this. But if you hold it in and continue to stare at him from across the room, yes I see you do it all the time, don't deny it; you'll only hurt yourself and him. Even if he doesn't feel the same way, he deserves to know. You won't know how he feels unless you try. And if you hurt him, I'll be forced to kick your ass. Or attempt to, I don't know if I could reach up there to be honest... So don't make me have to kick your ass." Mike tries to lighten the mood, but only hears sniffles on the other end of the line. 

"Rob? You okay, what's wrong?"

"I just.. I should have been there to protect him, I should have been there, Mike.." Rob slides down the bathroom wall and hides his head in his knees, sobs racking his body. 

"If I had just sucked it up and told him how I felt about him, he would have walked with me and I could have fought the guy off sooner and just..."

"You fought the guy-, okay, we'll discuss this later. But.. All we can do now is be there for him, all you can do is support him and be there for him." Mike reasons.

Rob chokes out a reply and then bites his lip. 

"I really love him, Mike.. I hate that he's hurting this much and that I could have stopped it, but.. I really love him and want to protect him." Rob wipes his face and takes a deep breath. 

When a small knock raps on the door, he hangs up with Mike and comes towards the door. He then sees wide eyes looking at him, in wonder and shock. 

            "You... You love me?" Brad whispers and tilts his head to the side.