The World Will Stain Us

The Accident

Content Warning: blood, mentions of drug and alcohol use. Also, feel free to assume at this point that they're all in some state of intoxication pretty much 24/7.

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Andy wished he could say that feeding on CC in his bunk that night had been the last time.

It wasn't frequent, thankfully―they still made sure to keep their fridge well-stocked and feed at somewhat regular intervals so as to avoid this kind of situation―but after Andy had stumbled back out of the bunk area, still reeling from what he'd just done, and explained what had happened to the others, there had been similar moments of desperation that led to their fangs in CC's throat.

To his credit, CC didn't seem to mind this too much, but Andy still despised himself for it, and he was relatively certain the others did too. Every time, he worried endlessly that he'd go too far, that he wouldn't know when to stop, that he'd hurt the comparatively fragile human or worse. He'd sit awake every time, curled in on himself and hating everything about what had just happened as CC slept it off.

2011 finished in an uncharacteristic period of relative relaxation. Andy, as promised, took his boyfriends back to the Midwest after their final show of the Buried Alive Tour in Washington and drove them around looking at Christmas lights. The look on CC's face had almost been enough to erase the memory of sinking his fangs into the human's throat―almost. The flight back to L.A. had seen him finally putting together the pieces of storyline that had been floating around in his head and writing the entire basis of the story he wanted their next album to tell on his phone's Notes app, and figuring out the other three rebel names―Mourner, Destroyer, and Prophet.

They had a quiet Christmas spent only with each other; Andy had let himself relax, let the memory of that night fade when it didn't seem likely to happen again, and allowed himself to just enjoy being with his boyfriends. That at least was a happy memory―light and laughter, untainted by hunger-induced mistakes. For once there was no pressure on them to keep moving with the band; it seemed everyone needed a break to just relax and enjoy the holidays after the chaos of the year.

New Year's became a different story. Ashley, naturally, had wanted to go to a party; considering the man was out partying every other night anyway, this wasn't surprising, but seeing as it was New Year's the rest of them decided to accompany him. He'd found a supernatural-friendly celebration only a few blocks over from Jinxx's place, and the five of them had joined the throng of band members and assorted significant others ready for the night to begin once Ashley managed to secure them invitations. It had only been after the fireworks went off overhead that a very drunk Andy realized CC was nowhere in sight, and neither was Jinxx; concerned through the haze of the alcohol, Andy and Jake had wandered the party until they found them, Jinxx looking somewhat horrified with blood on his chin and CC leaning against a wall for support.

They'd gone home after that, to let CC sleep, and to talk over what had happened. Andy had been mostly silent through the whole conversation, worried about what was happening to them that this had happened twice now.

It didn't stop after that.

Aside from the concerning start, so far 2012 had been going fairly well. They'd gotten back to work after the holidays, with Andy spending a lot of time collaborating with Pat and Richard Villa III on creating a "bible" for the whole concept he'd come up with on the flight home. They spent hours locked in Andy's office (for want of a better word, when really it was just the spare bedroom in the house he'd finally bought for himself) designing visual elements, set designs, and concepts to tie into this whole story, as well as fleshing out the story itself. On the musical side of things, they'd become interested in working with producer Sean Beavan, and Jake and Jinxx led those discussions while Andy focused on the creative side.