Future [Andley]

Nine

Andy sat in his backyard, laying on his back on the hammock strung between two strong, old trees. He had been released from the hospital for about a week now, and things were going phenomenally well... Better than Andy could ever hope.

Ashley was lounging with him, with his arm draped around Andy and both hands outstretched with fingers intertwined in the netting of the hammock. Andy had his head rested on Ashley's shoulder, comfortable as his feet pushed the hammock in a swinging motion. The balls of his feet lifted upwards to push them back, and lowered again to allow the hammock to swing forward. It was a nice, relaxing motion.

His gaze was directed up at the sky. There was a birds nest that was perfectly placed where the base of a thick branch merged with the trunk of the tree closest to Andy. He watched as the mother bird perched on the edge of the nest, nurturing her hatchlings with love and care.

Andy smiled fondly. It was sweet to watch other creatures exhibit such tender emotion. 

"Thinking about being a tree again?" Ashley's voice floated its way into Andy's stream of thoughts. Andy looked to his side, gazing at Ashley with a bit of a smile. 

"No. Thinking about birds." He hummed.

Ashley chuckled quietly and looked up above at the birds nest. "You're a special kid, Biersack."

Andy looked back up as well. "Am I?"
"You are. In a good way." Ashley murmured, turning his head and burying a gentle kiss in his hair. "You're the most thoughtful person I've ever met."

Andy couldn't hold back his quiet laughter, folding his arms over his chest.

"What's so funny?" Ashley lifted his head a bit to look at him

"A few weeks ago you would have called me a freak for thinking a lot." He shrugged. Ashley grimaced.
"Andy, let's not-"
"No, it's okay." Andy looked at him, his smile faded. He gazed into his eyes, as if telling him it was okay- and he was. The comforting gaze calmed Ashley's hesitance about the topic. 

Ashley smiled softly at him. "I can't believe I'd ever do that, now that I think about it."
"I don't blame you." Andy laughed softly, snuggling up closer. "I see things before they happen, I have the reproductive system of a female, I think about life as a tree! I would have done the same if I were you!"

Ashley gave him a look. "You wouldn't have, and you know it. Stop trying to make my actions valid."
Andy sighed. "Okay, you're right. But honestly... Ash. I'm over it. I forgive you." He craned his neck over and kissed his cheek gently.

The bird above them flew off of the nest, disappearing with gentle flaps of the wings to propel and balance it through the air.

"Where do you think it's going?" Ashley murmured, eyes following it until it became nothing more than a spec to his vision.

Andy did the same, a smile tugging up at the corners of his mouth. "To do whatever it has to do to care for it's babies." He said in an equally soft tone. "It's a mother bird. It's job is to care and do all it can to fulfill that."

Ashley nodded, his response nothing more than a gentle hum.

Andy closed his eyes and listened as his humming became in-tune to a song they had listened to on the radio earlier that day. Andy couldn't remember the name of it, but he knew he liked it. Ashley continued to hum, moving a hand up to gently play with Andy's hair gently. 

Andy wouldn't rather be anywhere else than where he was right now. In the arms of a boy he had only dreamed of being held by for years, and now there were no more dreams. Only memories in the making, and memories to be made. Happy memories, sad memories, terrible memories, but all of them would be beautiful because they'd be with Ashley... 

"Have you ever been to one of the school dances before?" Ashley asked quietly, ceasing the light hums.

Andy opened his eyes. "No. Josh has tried to get me to go to one, but I always refuse."
"Why?" Ashley frowned.

"I just... get a bad feeling about them. Almost everyone is there, and I feel like if I went, I'd do something stupid and then draw negative attention to myself. I get enough of it during a normal school day." He muttered, sitting up and fixing his hair. Ashley sat up as well.

"There's one coming up soon. I want you to go with me." Ashley said softly, rubbing his back soothingly. "It'll be okay."
Andy chewed on his lip. "Alright. I suppose it couldn't hurt..." He forced a bit of a smile and leaned his head on Ashley's shoulder.

A/N: ive neglected the fuck out of this story sorry i dunno where to go with it