"A Sanctuary Safe and Strong"(Marianas Trench)

Chapter 60

Hunching his shoulders slightly, Josh set the half-eaten toast down onto the paper towel and turned toward the brunet, brushing crumbs from the front of his shirt. He'd changed his clothes and showered, Matt noticed with a bit of surprise. "Hey," Josh greeted with a smile that looked a little brighter than it had in quite a while. "Sleep well?" 

Matt reached up to rub at the kink in the back of his neck. This wasn't how he'd expected the morning to go, but he was glad that Josh was in a decent mood just the same. Smiling, he dropped his hand back down to his side and nodded. "Well enough, I guess." 

"Yeah, that couch could be a little more comfortable, right?" 

"It could be worse, too," the brunet contemplated.  

"Dude, listen. This is the world's most awful subject change, but there's, uh, there's no real way to put this," Josh said a little shyly. "Thanks for last night. I, fuck, I get that I kinda scared you a little, ya know? All that shitty rambling that didn't make sense... And I know I still owe you some answers. I've been thinking about it a lot since I got up...-," 

"When was that?" Matt asked, cutting Josh off. The last thing he remembered was the blond virtually drooling all over his lap somewhere around what he assumed was about six in the morning. Even if Josh had slept as late as Matt did, that still only would have given him six hours of rest - not nearly enough to make up for what he'd been losing. Then again, the brunet was sure that he would have known if there had been any more nightmares like he'd been witness to recently, so maybe the singer had actually slept for more than just an hour or two this time around. 

Josh shrugged, idly resting a hand against ribs that must be aching a bit more today after the tackle hold Matt had to put on him the night before. "Couple hours ago, I guess?" 

"Did you actually sleep? I mean..."  

"Are you asking if the nightmares came back last night?" the singer asked, correctly assuming what Matt was trying to ask without being too direct. 

"I... Yeah...I guess, something along those lines." 

"I slept. Honest. No nightmares, either. I practically had you pinned to the couch, dude," Josh laughed. "Or didn't you notice?" 

Matt allowed himself to laugh in return, though it felt a little more forced than he would have liked. "Yeah, I have a vague memory of that, I suppose." 

Reaching over to the counter, the blond grabbed the paper towel and crumpled it, along with the remaining bit of toast into a ball, dumping the entire thing into the trash and wiping his hands on his pants. He picked up the water bottle and capped it, using it to gesture back toward the living room. "Can we go sit for a minute, or do you want something to eat first? I have dry cereal and bread. I'm outta eggs," he said with a grin. 

Laughing loudly and genuinely at the dig, Matt shook his head. "Nah, man, I'm good. I'll take a water, though." He opened the refrigerator and pulled out one of the few remaining bottles, making a mental note to replace whatever he used up while he was staying with the singer. 

Josh was already seated on the leather chair in the living room by the time Matt followed in his footsteps a second or two later. His legs were crossed and the bottle of water was tucked between his knees with his hands wrapped around the top. He looked more comfortable than Matt had expected, but the tapping of his foot in mid-air gave away the apprehension.  

The guitarist moved the blanket that Josh had silently slipped out from under and covered Matt with earlier that morning off to the side before dropping back down onto the couch that he was getting to be so familiar with. His posture copied the singer's, and he opened his drink, gulping nearly half of it before wiping his mouth with the side of his hand and recapping the bottle. "What's up?"