"A Sanctuary Safe and Strong"(Marianas Trench)

Chapter 18

"Coke and pop tarts?" Josh questioned, smiling up at the guitar player with a little more feeling than he had a minute ago. 

"Breakfast of champions, athletes and pretentious injured musicians," Matt replied with a smirk. 

Josh was shocked, to say the least. It was the first time the brunet had mentioned the injury at all since the singer had asked him to drop the subject at the hospital. He, personally hadn't wanted to talk seriously about it and Matt hadn't wanted to joke about it, resulting in no compromised discussion at all, so this was new territory for both of them on several levels.  

Instead of making a big deal about it, the singer held the soda bottle between his knees and twisted the top, stupidly proud of himself for coming up with a one-handed way to do something so mundane that he'd previously took for granted. Tossing the cap onto the table, he picked up the bottle and swallowed several times. Josh refused to let the taste of the soda trigger him into another panic attack, though he could feel his heart start to beat a bit quicker just before his lips hit the mouth of the bottle. He now associated the taste with the shooting and he wasn't so sure he'd ever be able to drink the stuff again without flashbacks to that night, but he was going to try now. He didn't want another repeat of the night before. So far, so good, and he gave Matt all the credit. "Dude, thanks. You didn't have to." 

"I know. There's a lot I didn't have to do." Matt smiled genuinely this time, flipping a page of the paper and staring down at whatever story his eyes happened to land on. What did that mean? 

"So, uh, how long have you been up?" Josh asked around a mouthful of glazed strawberry pop tart. "I woke up once at six thirty and you were still asleep." 

Shrugging, Matt folded the newspaper and set it aside. "I got up not long after that. You started talking in your sleep and woke me up," he answered nonchalantly. "Besides, I had stuff to do." 

"Yeah? Like what?" The singer took another bite of the food, not realizing how hungry he really was until then. 

"Well," Matt started, holding up a finger for each item on his "to do" list. "First, I made a call to a biohazard cleaning crew to set up a soon-as-humanly-possible appointment for them to head over to your place to, uh, take care of things. Second, I cleaned up the mess in the spare bedroom from last night. Don'tapologize," he added quickly, running his words together. "Third, around ten fifteen, I met the cleaners at your front door to let them in and stayed to make sure they finished the job."  

The younger man reached down to dig around in his pocket, pulling out Josh's keys and sliding them across the table. "I found these in the drawer in the nightstand of the guest room. You owe me about two thousand bucks, plus tip," he said with a teasing grin. "And fourth, I picked up this healthy breakfast and came home. You've been asleep the whole time." 

Josh narrowed his eyes and thought while he finished what was left of the food Matt had placed in front of him. "How do you know?" 

"I know, because otherwise you'd have seen this." The guitar player stood again and walked back into the kitchen for all of two seconds before returning back to the table and pressing something against Josh's forehead. He leaned with his hip against the table while he waited for the blond to read it. 

Josh reached up and gently pulled the sticky yellow note out of his hair, narrowing his eyes slightly when he saw several bright blue strands stuck to the back. Turning it around, he recited the words aloud, "Get your ass back to bed and rest. I'm bringing home food. - Matt." 

Grinning up at Matt, it seemed almost unreal. The younger man usually laughed at his misfortune, telling him to "suck it up, princess," but here he was going out to buy breakfast, waiting around for a crew to clean a house that he didn't own, sharing his home and his bed...all in the name of friendship. "You...really fuckin' did all of that for me?" Josh asked, crumpling the note in his hand and dropping it down into the empty soda bottle. He folded up the pop tart wrapper and did the same, capping the bottle afterward.