Tales From the Dragon Cave

• The Fall •

This is it, Ben thought to himself as he pushed the door to the control room open. He was the first one in there, because, much to some people's surprise, he was a very punctual person. Christmas lights were strung around the glass window that looked into the recording booth, and Ben smiled as he remembered Dan's almost childish insistence on hanging lights. He then smiled wider as he remembered Platz yelling out fuck Christmas! when the lights ended up tangled and he volunteered to untangle them.

Today, the album could be determined completed, if they listened to this last song one more time and decided the changes they made still sounded good a day later. The rest, they had finally stepped away from. Ben was oddly nervous and excited but also sort of sad. It had been fun, making the album. Recording in their own studio was a new adventure that they all completely loved. It would be kind of hard to say goodbye to it and go home until it was time to get back on the road.

He only waited a few minutes before Platz arrived. They came seperately on this particular morning because Platz had overslept and Ben didn't want to wait around for him. Platz was, honestly, relieved that they were more or less done. The constant nitpicking and criticism of his own work had been making him stressed out, hence the oversleeping this morning. He was proud of the album. It felt done. At least, the drums did. And he thought the bass sounded great too, and the guitar was pretty awesome and the vocals sort of blew his mind, as they tended to do. It was one of those things that no matter how good of a musician you were, you could never truly write great lyrics unless you were born a lyricist. And he thought Dan was born a pretty damn good one. This last song was one of his personal favorites, and he was anxious to finally get the whole album done.

Wayne and Dan arrived together soon after Platz did, having had breakfast at a cheap diner at about 4am followed by driving around the city since neither of them could sleep last night. Dan wasn't really sure how he felt about being almost done with the album. He could decide his feelings about specific things. He was happy that they could soon release new material to their fans, and he was happy that he would have a little time to rest, and he was mad that they could really only put thirteen songs on the record, and he was sad that Wayne was going back to LA, and he felt sort of pre-nostalgic that these fun, studio-bonding-times were ending. But as far as moving from one chapter of his life to the next, Dan never really liked to think about that. Each change brought new anxieties and new stresses and worrying about that didn't help. So he tried to keep himself not thinking much at all on this day. You just have to listen to the song.

Wayne felt a little bit of how all of them felt. He was a tad hesitant for whatever would come next, because they had settled into a nice routine while recording, and now things would get hectic again. Wayne liked order. Rhythm. Organization. Those things were hard to come by as a musician, especially during in-between times and tours. He wasn't too excited about moving back to LA, either, because that meant being away from all the fun the four of them always had together.

There had certainly been a lot of fun times during this process in particular. They had band sleepovers where they acted a little too much like children and times where they tried to make the weirdest noises they could and lots of late nights spent learning about themselves and each other. Now, at the end of it all, they truly felt closer.

One more song.

The Fall wasn't too different from the other songs on the album lyrically, but there was something about it that sounded final. It sounded like moving on and change and being ready for the fall and they all felt that was the perfect way to end the album. All four of them bobbed their heads along to the verses and smiled a little and maybe Dan cried a little and the others would never admit it but maybe they did too. Because it was good. It was finished and they were proud and they were ready to let go of it. Ready to take three years of work and growth and struggle and strength and throw it out to the world. No more hiding it from everyone.

"So...are we done?" Platz said as the last notes faded away, almost afraid to say it so casually.

"I guess we are," Ben said, swallowing.

"Yep."

Dan nodded.

"Well...good job."

It was all there was to say, really, because it would take too many words to say "enough". So instead Dan pulled the other three in for a hug and they all sort of stood there for a while, thinking about each of the others and about the record and about the future.

There was a lot more that happened that day, and the album nearly played on repeat while lots of label and management people checked it out. The four of them were starting to get sick of the crowd, so they slowly trickled out of the room and found themselves sitting in a circle outside, silently staring at each other.

"Do you think they'll like it?" Dan said finally. "Our fans." He was afraid, of course, of putting the album out with all its blunt lyrics and sad lyrics and revealing lyrics because he couldn't hide behind metaphors all the time anymore. But it would be good, he kept telling himself. It would be okay. The more revealing he made his songs, the more people liked them.

"Hope so," Platz said. He gave Dan a reassuring smile, because he was finally beginning to understand him better after a few years of always connecting through Ben and Wayne instead of directly. It was nice.

"They will," Wayne agreed. Secretly, he was still apprehensive about the solos. They were different than anything they'd done before and he was nervous about putting them in the album. But at the same time, he was proud that he had actually done them and gotten over his fear of imperfection.

"They better," was Ben's response. He felt good. The album was almost perfect, in his mind, and he had had a great time making it. Although he rarely ever let anyone see his insecurities, he had gotten over a few just as the others had. He was confident now that they cared, even though his problems felt a little less important than theirs sometimes.

They had always been proud of the dynamics in their band. That was one thing they knew they had down better than anyone. Friendship. They wouldn't lose their career to a nasty breakup, not in a million years.

And with each passing year, they were more and more sure of that. As for everything else...well, they'd figure it all out. As long as they could do it together.

You're all I know...

A/N: So that's that. I apologize for the cheesiest ending in the world and for any other moments of utter fluffy cottage cheese. :3 I'm just a sucker for sweet stuff. But I hope you liked it, I've been working on it nearly all summer. Make sure to tell me which chapter was your favorite!!

<3