Fragile Tension (Alan Wilder x Martin Gore)

2: The Motel

Alan's eyes opened abruptly to be met with a nothingness so thick it made his breathing stagger. Everything around him diffused in the dark, he looked out of the window at the Motel billboard sign; his only source of light.

Rubbing his eyelids with the palms of his hands, he wondered what the time must've been in order for his surroundings to be so dark and how he had wound up awake whilst his bandmates were all in a deep sleep.

With a yawn, he glanced over at the bed of which Dave and Andy shared, and then at Martin of whom was sleeping peacefully on his chest. He bowed his head and allowed his lips to press against his partner's head for a moment.

"I love you."
~~~~~
"Good morning sunshines!" Dave exclaimed excitedly as he opened the drawn curtains.

"Bloody hell, Dave." Andy's eyes flickered and squinted as they adjusted to the morning sun. "Bit early, isn't it?"

Alan was quick to agree with him.

"Yeah; I was having quite the dream before you did that." He sat up and pulled the duvet covers up to cover his torso.

Alike to hours prior, he looked over at Martin to find him still sleeping through the entirety of the current ordeal.

Standing by the window and balcony, Dave placed his hand on his hip and rolled his eyes.

"Oh, quit the winging you pair. Do you not realise today's importance?"

Alan and Andy's faces immediately fell to ones of pure confusion.

"Uhh, no?"

"What are you on about?"

"It's our day off! No shows or rehearsals or anything. We're free to do whatever we want all day long." Dave emphasised.

"Hmm, I forgot about that." Alan replied, his hand gently rubbing Martin's back as an attempt to slowly wake him.

Martin shuffled slightly and adjusted his pillow, stubborn to wake.

"But why are we awake so early on our day off?" Andy yawned, reaching for his glasses.

"Because Juli wants to go shopping and I figured we might as well join her. Come onnn - it'll be fun!"

"What'll be fun?" Martin, at last waking up, asked as he rolled over.

"Morning baby." Alan greeted him with a giggle as he pecked him on the cheek.

"Morning." He gave Alan a smile.

"So are we up for it, boys?" Dave added.

"Yeah, I'm in." Andy nodded, gradually getting out of bed.

"Al, Mart?"

Martin gave his partner the side-eye, feeling too tired to answer for himself.

"I guess we'll tag along too." Alan chuckled as he answered for the both of them.

"Great; we ought to get a move on then." Dave said, walking over to the telephone to place a room service order.
~~~~~
After the passing of 15 minutes, the order arrived and they all sat down to eat.

All except for one.

"Are you going to have anything to eat, my love?" Alan asked, noticing that Martin was without food.

"I'm not mega hungry, but thank you anyway." Martin smiled politely.

"That's alright... Are you sure though? You'll be starved later on."

"No no, I'm okay honestly. In fact, I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'll be back in a minute." He assured his partner, getting up from the bed.

It was whilst he was doing so that he grabbed a bottle from the bin of which he had purposely hidden beneath the bedside table.

"Alright, love." His partner smiled.
~~~~~
Martin proceeded to rush into the bathroom, making sure the door was tightly locked behind him. Without making a sound, he unscrewed the bottle cap and placed it onto the counter before bringing the bottle up to his lips.
He did this most mornings without Alan having any knowledge of it; for that he couldn't help but be pained with a stinging guilt, but the temptation of the drink was slowly overshadowing it.

"Babe?" He suddenly heard Alan's voice behind the locked door.

Almost nauseated from the pace of which he guzzled the alcohol, he quickly snatched the bottle cap again and screwed it back on.

"Y-Yeah?"

"I was just wondering if you were okay because you've been in there a while, that's all."

"Oh, don't worry about me - I'm perfectly fine. I'll be out in a second." He gave his partner reassurance once more.

"Alrighty." Alan accepted, and he was gone again.

Sighing, Martin reopened the bottle and finished off the remainder of the bitter-tasting liquid before glancing up at himself in the mirror.

"Why do you do it to yourself?" He whispered. "Why do you do it to him?"