There is hope for everyone

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Out to the bar with the band. Kaiden’s favorite place. Alcohol was his best friend, other than Adam. He could drink the night away. It was one of his favorite pastimes, other than playing bass and eyeing Adam’s ass. And fighting. He liked, well, maybe didn’t like to fight, but he was somehow ALWAYS in them. And he was pretty used to it.
Today had been particularly rough; all day had been nothing but a shouting match, with Kaid and Adam on one side, and everyone else on another, over the arrangement of a new song Adam had written. And Kaid, no matter how much of a fighter he was, was going to defend Adam no matter what. Screw the haters. Eventually, he and Adam had won, and the guys had made up, so they all decided to go out and get a drink.

The James Bond buff he was, Kaiden ordered a classic Vesper Martini. He had grown partial to the recipe after just having used it to order a drink once, as a joke. He offered to get Adam a drink, but Adam had refused, and was now walking around and talking. All was going fairly well. Of course, Kaid had finished his drink pretty damn fast, and then ordered another, and another. Soon he was on his fourth.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw man go up to Adam and start acting like a little dick to him. And it was enough to piss Kaiden off. Kaiden walked up to the man as Adam backed away a bit, still trying to stop Kaiden, but Kaiden gently pushed him out of the way. The other bandmates had just moved away and started to talk. They were now used to Kaiden’s pattern of fight-and-get-arrested. Only Adam continued to watch, knowing his protests would do no good
.
“Hey, you little pussy,” Kaiden slurred, pushing this man slightly, enough to evoke a reaction. The man and he were about the same size, with Kaiden only being about a half inch shorter at 5’11”. “You wanna fuck with him? Well you’ll have to deal with me first.” He punched the man in the gut, then saw a fist swing toward his face. He ducked, but the larger fist clipped his face slightly, enough to leave a bruise.

Kaiden swung again, this time aiming for the man’s face, but missing. He had had more than his usual share of alcohol, not even counting the MGDs he downed during rehearsal. And his vision was getting blurry. He felt another hit to his face, this time enough to make his nose bleed, but not break it. He clipped the other man in the chin, but was now hit in the eye. He fell, losing, but he wasn’t one to just walk away from a fight.

Kaiden was drunk enough that with his eye now swelling up, everything was a blur. As the man he had attacked punched another guy (One that was hot, at least, as well as he could see through the fog, but Kaiden reckoned he’d still be just at hot anyway,) Kaiden backed away and moved closer to Adam. At least, he thought it was Adam. His suspicions were confirmed when he heard his best friend speak to him and felt his gentle hand steady him. He was next to Adam, it was all right.

What remained was the other man, the one who was now fighting in his spot and seemed to be winning. Kaiden’s sensitive ears, though ringing slightly from being his so hard, heard a crunch that sounded like glasses being crushed. He had worn glasses in grade school and had gotten them crushed several times before he switched to contacts. He also heard, among the shouting of the bar patrons, the sound of a chain breaking. Another sound he was familiar with. Though, what was on the chain had been a mystery to him. Kaiden still couldn’t see, although he picked up the glass he had and downed it, not seeing Adam’s look of exasperation.

He placed his hand on Adam’s shoulder, glad he was so close to the man. Adam was like an older brother to him, and was someone he needed. He stumbled a bit as he watched the other man fumble for something on the ground. So whatever had been on the chain had been really important. He had to prop himself up on Adam. More word came from Adam’s mouth, about taking Kaid home. “Thankssss, Adz,” he slurred. With a roll of his eyes, Adam had pulled out and sat Kaiden in a chair. And Kaiden was too drunk to care. Except to slur out his thanks. Adam knew he meant well, of course. He always did.

Beside him, Kaiden felt Adam nod. As the man in front of him held the coffee out, Kaiden grasped the cup and drank some, immediately feeling a bit more stable on his feet, with his vision clearing up a bit. The man in front of him was much taller than he and Adz. But he was hot, no doubt about it. “Thanksss,” Kaiden slurred again, but it was a bit better. He drank a bit more of the coffee. “I could have handled him, you know. He was messing with Adam,” he slurred slightly, satisfied in his drunken state that this was a valid, logical explanation, despite the fact that no one but he and Adam would understand.

He listened as Adam spoke next to him, introducing himself and Kaiden and explaining that the two were from Behind Beautiful Lies and that yes, Kaiden did this quite often. At the sound of his name and the request for help for himself, Kaiden was too drunk to even protest. He was just sitting there, admiring how hot the two men in front of him were and thinking about how he could have taken the guy (Which he couldn’t have, he was so much drunker than usual) had the blonde guy in front of him not stepped in. With another drink of his Coffee, Kaiden could at least see again.

“Ssooo, I could totally have taken that guy. You insult Adam, you insult me,” he slurred. He would defend Adam to the death. He loved having him there that much.

With a slight hiccup, Kaiden slurred, “Hi, Vladi, I’m Kaiden.” He had forgotten Adam had introduced them moments before. “And naw, he wouldn’t have, I’m too good.” He could see Adam’s head turn to look at Vladi and raise an eyebrow in a ‘See? He needs some serious help,’ kind of look. As Kaiden looked at Adam, he saw Adam shake his head. But again, Kaiden was too drunk to care. He had now finished the coffee Vladi had handed him, and Adam had wisely passed someone else his mudslide. He heard Adam order another 2 coffees.

As Adz handed him his coffee and took a sip himself after sweetening it a bit, Kaiden took a huge chug, drunk enough to forget it was hot. “Owwwwww,” he slurred, almost like a little kid when he was drunk. He certainly could be childish. Kaiden looked at Adam in time to see him face palm. At this point, it had been almost twenty minutes, and the coffee was helping him sober up a bit. He still was slurring his words, but at least now he understood what he was seeing and saying.

“I like your accent,” he slurred loudly, still slightly out of his mind, but he became extremely honest when he was drunk. He usually forgot how to lie and/or stay silent. But he liked Vladi’s accent. “And your face,” he hiccupped in addition, with Adam again going red at his bluntness. Kaiden really needed help. He heard the word ‘Please’ come from Adam’s mouth, guessing he was referring to something brought up earlier. Adam uttered three more words. ‘He needs help.’

Kaiden chuckled a bit at the thought of Vladi’s face. He really did like it. Soon his chuckling was full-blown laughter and he saw Adam face palm again. Eventually, he felt a slap on his arm, this time coming from Adz. He heard the words, “Damn it, Kaiden, shut up! It’s not funny!” And while Kaiden still felt it incredibly funny, he stopped laughing because Adz had told him too, and instead, said, “Owww, Adz…”

He looked around the bar and listened as Adam spoke to Vladi, but didn’t really hear the meaning of what he was saying. He heard the words, “I can get you a new chain… And the band is going to force me to kick him out if he doesn’t quit it. I just can’t do that to him, he’s like a little brother. I have no clue where to go… I guess I could try to drag him to an AA meeting and see how that goes… I just don’t know,” he heard Adam confess.

Kaiden heard Adam drag another chair over for Vladi to sit in. “Here you go, man,” he heard. “You need it more than I do.” He felt Adam’s cool, familiar hand resting upon his shoulder. “Yeah, Adz, awesome,” Kaiden said as he saw Adam blush again. Kaiden burst out laughing. “Oh, you know you want me, you totally do,” Kaiden said.

“No, Kaiden, I don’t,” he heard back in Adam’s exhausted, exasperated voice. “We have been over this before. Here, take this, it might help,” he said, handing Kaiden his coffee. “I’ll live,” he grunted. Right now, Kaiden needed to sober up. At least enough to where he understood what he was saying to Vladi.

Kaiden heard Adam speak again as he leaned back and closed his eyes. Another sip of the coffee, and he realized that Adam as speaking about him, and then realized from a quick opening of his eyes and a glance at Adam and Vladi and then his bloody knuckles and a sudden realization of the pain in his jaw and eye that he had fucked up again. His thoughts were now at least coherent, and he realized that even though Adam was talking about him, he needed to stay shut up now. He now realized that he had a serious headache and that he really had screwed up again. And he was able to recall earlier that day that not only had they been arguing about the arrangement of a song, but about the other members wanting Adam to force Kaid to leave the band.

Adam had stood up for him, and suddenly, Kaid realized that the only reason he usually got into fights and arguments, be it with people he didn’t know, or even with his band mates, he was always just trying to help Adam. And so, as he closed his eyes again and leaned back to listen, the words that came out of his best friend’s mouth sounded true and very serious.

“He’ll go if I ask him to. He’d do anything for me, and that’s what’s going to destroy him. But it could also help him. I would like to get him a sponsor. I just want to get him help. I want him to be better,” Adam said, with a dejected tone that Kaiden could hear. Kaiden always heard everything in Adam’s voice. He had been in love with Adam when he first joined the band, but Adam hadn’t felt the same. But Adam did feel close to him, and so Kaiden was just grateful that he had Adam as a friend. Adz was what he cherished. And so Kaiden knew Adam inside and out, and vice versa. Both had bared their souls to each other and were so close. But there was always the first unreciprocated feeling that, no matter how often Kaiden thought he was over it, that when mixed with alcohol, could be dug back up and make Kaiden even more protective than usual.

Kaiden felt Adam’s grip on his shoulder get tighter, and so he moved his hand to grab Adz’s. He realy did care.

Kaiden heard Adam chuckle. “I can tell you right now everywhere he goes. Usually he’s wherever I am. And when he’s not, he’s out drinking.” That much was true. Some would call it stalkerish, but anyone who was close to the two men knew that they were best friends. The members of their band always knew that the two would side together, and most of the feelings between the two were mutual. And they would never not be friends. Both had known they had each other for so long, and sometimes their band mates would joke that they were fraternal Siamese twins.

Kaiden opened his eyes and got as good a look at Vladi as he could, with his eye still swelling up. His blond hair was the perfect length for Kaid to look at, and his beautiful blue eyes had to be piercing his very soul this second. He was almost freakishly tall, but he was so very handsome. And Kaiden liked the way he looked. He and Adam were both so hot in such different ways that he could not simply compare. He just liked them both. And Vladi’s thick Russian accent was a big turn on.

If Kaiden hadn’t been an atheist, he’d have thought they were both angels sent from heaven. He loved Adam so much, with all his heart, but knew it would be futile to approach anything more than just friendship. But Vladi… He was new to Kaiden. And he wanted to help, that much was obvious to the still fairly drunk man. And as Kaiden leaned back and closed his eyes again to attempt to take the edge off of his headache, he smiled as he heard Adam say, “Thank you. I, and I know he will eventually, appreciate it.”