Current location:	Home
Current mood:	hopeful
Current music:	Seize the day

Title: Stand by me

Author: Kitekat1

Pairing: Matt Sanders/Brian Haner

Rating: R

Disclaimer: This story is fiction and never happened. I don't own any of the characters.

Summary: Set months after the release of 'City of Evil', the lives of the Avenged members drastically change when one of their own has to deal with the consequences of a harsh stroke of faith. Nothing is the way it was before. Will things fall apart, or can something good come out of the new situation when unforeseen feelings evolve?

Chapter 1
Chapter 2



Again, thanks to my beta Becca. Thanks a lot. If there are still mistakes in this chapter, I guarantee it’s not her fault but mine, because I overworked and changed the whole chapter before posting it (she didn’t see it yet)


It was the middle of the night, and Matt wasn’t able to sleep anymore. He had gone to bed a few hours after he had been done in Syn’s room, right after having talked to Jimmy, Zacky, Johnny, Papa Gates and his parents on the phone. He didn’t elaborate any details because he knew what he had seen would never leave his lips. He had seen his friend depend on him and they had shared a very intimate moment, and he simply owed it to him to keep the events between the two of them.

Thoughts were flooding his mind. Matt had known it wouldn’t be easy, but this surpassed all his expectations. He had nearly felt Syn’s pain when he was with him in his room. When he had thought it couldn’t come any worse than listening to the doctor destroying all their hopes with the one word ‘paraplegic’, the desperate look his friend gave him proved Matt wrong and had been on his mind till he had fallen asleep.

Matt sighed, tossing and turning around, not getting any sleep and looked at the clock on his nightstand. Fucking 2.48am, great.

Suddenly, he heard a thud from the next room, followed by a muffled groan. His ears perked up. He was just about to get up and make sure Brian was okay, when…

“Matt!”

He jumped out of the bed and raced into the hallway, clad in only a shirt and shorts. He ripped the door open and rushed into Brian’s room.

There he was, lying on the ground, facing the door, his legs being in a seemingly uncomfortable position, heavily breathing and pain visible on his face as he looked up at Matt apologetically.

“What happened? Where does it hurt?” Matt wanted to know as he crouched in front of Brian, his heart reverberating loudly in his chest.

“I’m okay; I just landed on my bad shoulder, but it’s alright. I only wanted to… uh nah, it’s stupid, forget about it. Can you get me back to bed?” Brian asked and pushed himself up to make it easier for Matt to do so.

The singer put his arms under the guitarist’s armpits and easily pulled him up, heaving him onto the edge of his bed so his legs were still hanging down and unbeknownst to their owner touched the ground. Matt sat down next to him and gave him a hug.

“Dude, you really had me scared there for a second,” Matt said and was surprised when he felt Brian return the hug briefly.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. Don’t worry about my shoulder, it’s fine,” he replied when Matt started to feel around the socket. “How come you were here so quickly?”

Matt drew back his hands, sighed and smiled sadly. “I was already awake. I had a bad dream and couldn’t sleep anymore. But hey, please tell me what happened. I promise I won’t laugh or make fun of you or anything.”

Brian sighed and nodded. “Alright, I’ll tell you, but can you… can you help me into the bathroom first? I thought I could hold on and wait another few hours, but I’m not so sure anymore.”

“Sure. I’ll have to carry you, though; I forgot to get the wheelchair up the stairs, alright?”

Brian shrugged. “I guess there’s no other way then.”

Matt was more than surprised about Brian’s attitude, which was a turn of 180 degrees to the way he acted before. However he didn’t have much time to think about it, because he had to concentrate on lifting up the only slightly smaller man. That accomplished, he walked them out of the room, down the hallway into the renewed bathroom. Standing in front of the toilet, he paused and looked down at Brian in his arms, trying to figure out how to get him on it before the strength in his arms would fade.

“How does me putting you on the ground for a second and holding you from behind so you can undo your pants sound to you?”

He received an alarmed look. “Not good!”

“Well that’s too bad, because I don’t know how else it’ll work out.”

Brian paled and took a sharp intake of breath when Matt shifted Brian in his arms, lowering his feet onto the ground so they stood back to chest, and tightly held him up with his arms wrapped around his belly. Matt had to bring up all of his strength to not let the guitarist from his grasp.

“Oh God!” Brian grabbed the next best thing in reach and grasped the handle, which was installed to help him transfer from the wheelchair to the toilet, so hard that his knuckles were turning white.

“Bri, do it!” Matt panted, the trembling in his arms signalizing Brian he had to hurry.

He complied and leaned forward, trying to ignore the thought that he was one second away from being pressed up naked against his singer and stripped his boxers in a swift motion. Before Brian knew what had happened, Matt grunted and used his leg to shove Brian to the side, finally sitting him down on the seat – and not a second too early. Matt didn’t even have the time to leave the room anymore; once he reached the door handle, the sound of water dribbling on water ceased and Syn was done.

“Wait, I think I’m finished,” Brian exclaimed, a bit embarrassed, before Matt could leave the room.

“You think ?” Matt asked incredulously, but pulled the guitarist up and with him his pants. He helped Brian turn around so he could flush the toilet, and then Matt lowered them both to the tiled floor, needing a few minutes to rest his arms before he could lift him up again.

Brian looked to the ground. “Yeah, I can’t feel it. I just know when my bladder is full, and once it’s full, it just… comes out, you know? I can’t feel anything below my waist and that includes my dick.”

“Sorry for bringing it up man, I mean… I could have figured out it was like that.” The singer apologized. “Are you telling me now what happened? Earlier in your room?”

“Like I said, it’s really stupid. I woke up, knew I had to piss, and for some reason I thought the accident never happened. That it has been a bad dream of something. Maybe I thought that because I woke up in my own bed for the first time in weeks again. I wanted to get up and turned around, and then I fell. Anyway, it won’t happen again.” Brian shrugged and looked around his new bathroom.

“It looks nice… But what did you fuckers do to my sink?”

Matt laughed out loud. “Yeah, I know it isn’t the prettiest sink in the world. But it’s really handy because you can adjust it in its height. How do you like the shower?”

“Matt, to be honest, I’m too tired to have this conversation.” Brian yawned. “Don’t think I don’t like it, because I do; it’s big and this seat-thingy is a pretty good invention – but it’s like what, 2 in the morning?”

“Nah, try 3am.” Matt chuckled and got up from the cold floor. He bent down and picked his hand mate up with ease this time, noticing the lack of warmth when he came in contact with his bare back and the hollow of his knees. “You’re ice-cold, why didn’t you say anything?”

“It was nice to just sit here for a while, and it didn’t bother me too much.”

“It should,” Matt commented and made his way back to the room. “Your body has problems regulating your temperature now; I don’t want you to get sick.”

Meanwhile, they had arrived Brian’s bedroom and Matt laid him down, pulled the blanket over him to keep him warm and sat down next to him.

“Matt?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry for being so complicated and moody. I just… well I don’t know. I’m confused. I don’t wanna talk about it, because talking about it makes it real, and I don’t want it to be real. I’m probably just talking bullshit right now…” Brian stopped abruptly.

“No, on some level it does make sense to me.”

“God, I’ll turn into a psycho softy telling you this, but I’m really trying to control my temper somehow. I’m grateful to have someone taking care of me, don’t forget about that if I start being an ass again. I’m trying, but I can’t promise you anything. This shit going on is just too much for me and I’ll need some time to be able to think straight.” He rubbed his face. “But now stop being a pussy and go back to bed. M. Shadows being unable to sleep because of a nightmare would be embarrassing for the band.”

Matt slapped him across the head, but smiled and got up. “No more trying to walk to the bathroom? Good. I’ll see you in a few hours… Oh, and Syn? Welcome home.”


A/N: If I had stayed to the facts, Brian’s level of injury would have made him either incontinent or put him in a position where he’d have to catheterize himself every few hours. For one, this would have complicated the story to a point where I’m not sure I could handle it, and I just wasn’t going to do that to him – fiction or not… Just in case there were people who wondered.