Ashes to Ashes (Andley) Part 1

  Down in the dim bar, it was hard for his brothers to see the bruises he had scattered on his body. Most of them were love marks from the night before, but a few were from the metal clip on the belt.

  He had managed to drown out the noise until he felt a sharp slap on his back. It was only Christian trying to bring him back to reality, and he couldn’t blame the drummer for causing him momentary pain. After all, none of the brothers knew except the one who caused it.

  Ashley.

  “Come on,” Christian said. “You never space out!”

  “Yeah, Andy. What’s eatin’ ya?” Ashley said with a smirk, knowing full well what was eating him.

  Andy swallowed hard and faked a smile. “Nothing’s got me. I’m just tired.”

  The boys shrugged it off. All except Ashley, who grabbed Andy and dragged him outside.

  “Andy, how are those marks doing?”

  “Not disappearing any time soon, I’ll tell you that.”

  Ashley chuckled. “Just don’t take your shirt off when they can see.”

  Andy and Ashley waited outside for their brothers to join them.

***

  He stared at himself in the fogged-up mirror. Towel-drying his hair, he skimmed his eyes down along his chest. The marks looked darker now that he’d showered, and he sighed at how many there were. He turned his back to the mirror and twisted his head in an attempt to see himself. He could only see a few of the lash marks, but he knew there were much more he couldn’t.

  A knock came on the bathroom door, and Andy went to open it. It’s only Ash, he thought as he wrapped the towel around his waist.

  He opened the door and saw Jinxx standing there.

  “A-Andy?” Jinxx said as his eyes scanned Andy’s marked body. “What are all those from?”

  Andy tried to keep his cool, but he couldn’t hide his blush. He pushed past Jinxx and went to grab a shirt.

  “It’s from Jewels,” he said calmly.

  “Andy, don’t lie to me.”

  “I’m not.”

  “We haven’t even been in the same state as Juliet for two months.”

  Andy stopped with the shirt only over his head and one arm. He sighed and finished putting on the shirt.

  “Fine, you got me,” he said as he grabbed pants and put those on, as well.

  “Then who? Is it anything serious? You’re not cheating on Juliet, are you?”

  “Jinxx…shut up.”

  “But-”

  “Shut!” Andy snapped. He dropped himself on the couch.

  Jinxx sighed sadly and sat on the floor right where he was. He leaned back against the wall and folded his hands in his lap, waiting for an explanation from Andy.

  “You don’t want to know,” Andy said.

  “If you say so.” Jinxx played like he wasn’t interested. He knew that was the easiest way to get Andy to talk, besides threatening to take his cigarettes.

  Andy sighed. “It was Ashley.”

  Jinxx’s eyes went wide. He leaned forward. “Ashley? As in-?”

  “Ashley Motherfuckin’ Purdy, yes.”

  “By God, Andy, I didn’t know you were like that.”

  “Shut up; it was an accident.”

  “Tell me?” Jinxx got up and sat beside Andy on the couch.

  “Some other time, Jinxx.”

  Jinxx pouted playfully. They agreed to pretend the conversation never happened unless they were absolutely alone.

***

  Ashley and Andy shared the hotel room – as usual – between concerts. Their room was sandwiched between Jinxx and Jake’s, and Christian’s. Making noise and interruptions were constant fears of the bassist and singer; however, they always seemed to manage some privacy.

  And Ashley planned on taking full advantage of that.

  “Andy~”

  “Oh no,” he whispered to himself. Then louder, “What is it?”

  “We haven’t christened the room, yet.” Ashley walked over to be right in front of Andy. Though he was a few inches shorter than his partner, the bassist managed to take an almost menacing form when he was in this kind of mood.

  “Fine, but, Ash? Can you not be too rough this time? I’m still waiting for last time’s marks to fade, and that was a week ago.”

  “Four days and thirteen hours, actually.”

  “Do you really keep track of that?”

  “Only with you. Who knows when I’ll be getting my next meal~?” Ashley smirked, showing a bit of his teeth that only Andy knew were capable of so much torture and pleasure.

  A hard blush began to creep along Andy’s face. No matter how annoyed with the marks he was, that smirk had always managed to melt him completely into nothing more than a puddle.

  “Wh-what do you suggest we do, then?” Andy muttered, swallowing the lump in his throat.

  “Let’s start here and see where it goes.” Ashley pushed him back against the wall. Taking his lover’s face in his hands, the bassist leaned up to match Andy’s height and kissed him hard on the lips. Immediately, Andy’s tongue pushed at his lips, begging for more, and Ashley wasn’t afraid to oblige.

  As their tongues fought for control of the other’s, Andy was wavering in and out of conscious and unconscious bliss. One moment, he was clothed and against the hotel room’s wall. The next, he and Ashley were shirtless, and he was being straddled on the bed. This happened every time they were together, and he could never quite recall how it happened, nor did he really care. Not yet, anyway.

  Ashley’s lips pulled away and began their normal routine. They would move down to one side of Andy’s neck (intent on leaving a mark until Andy breathily begged him not to), then slowly made their way to the other side (where no begging was needed, since Ashley gave up). They would move to Andy’s collarbone, tongue flicking across the skin every so often, and Andy would shudder every time he felt it. Then, his lips would slowly work their way down the center of Andy’s chest, more tongue-flicking from Ashley and breathy moans from Andy. As his lips reached his lover’s pants line, Ashley’s hands would begin their work: Undoing Andy’s pants, and removing those and his boxers. He never had to ask Andy to help, since they both had – almost – too much practice.

  This time, Andy misjudged.

  Ashley hadn’t taken off his lover’s pants, nor his boxers. He did have his belt in his hand, leaving Andy to wonder when the Hell that had happened. The belt was folded in on itself, end to end, and Andy knew what that meant.

  “A-Ashes…” he breathed. Ashley’s eyes shot up to look at Andy, yet his mouth never moved. “N-no beating, please…I can’t-”

  Now his lips moved. “Can’t take it, huh?” Ashley barked. “You’re Andy fucking Biersack and you can’t take a bit of pain?”

  “I’ve taken enough, and you know I can.”

  “Then do it!” Ashley smacked the belt hard on Andy’s chest.

  “Ashes, stop it!” Andy forced himself up, and Ashley moved back out of his lap.

  “Come on, Andy, take it like always! What’s so different this time?” Ashley took the loop of the belt in his hand, exposing the hard metal buckle that Andy knew meant no good.

  As the thought crossed his mind, it came to life, and metal hit skin before he could move away. Tears welled in his eyes; Ashley was hitting him in rage, not in the normal kinky-pleasure-way.

  This isn’t Ashley, he told himself. This isn’t my Ashes.

  The belt was coming towards him again, and Andy made a split-second decision: He grabbed it, ripped it from Ashley’s grip, and smacked Ashley with it right across the chest.

  It seemed to have worked.

  “What the Hell, Andrew?!” the bassist yelled as he rubbed where the leather hit skin.

  “That’s what you’ve been doing to me! Get ahold of yourself, Ashes! I refuse to be with you until you do!” He grabbed his shirt and walked out.

  Left sitting half-naked and confused in the hotel bed, Ashley ran a hand through his hair.

  Get ahold of yourself! I refuse to be with you until you do!

  “D-does that mean there’s no more Andley?” Ashley looked solemnly towards the hotel room’s door. He slumped slightly and folded his hands in his lap.

  What have I done…?

***

  Andy pulled his shirt on and went next door into Christian’s room, hushing the drummer before he could greet him loudly. He would have preferred Jinxx’s company, but he shared a room with Jake, and the singer didn’t feel like explaining himself twice.

  Once Andy pushed himself into CC’s room, the drummer noticed his brother’s eyes were red.

  “Andy, have you been…crying?” he asked.

  Andy sniffed. “Not yet, but…” He stopped himself as tears filled his eyes.

  Christian sat Andy on his bed, then sat beside him, wrapping his arm around his brother.

  “You look horrible. What happened?”

  “Ash and I fought…” He couldn’t tell CC everything. He was afraid how his brother would react to the full truth. It’s bad enough Jinxx knows…

  “Is there anything I can do?” Christian asked sincerely.

  A knock came on the door. Ashley’s frantic voice – begging to be let in – seeped through the door.

  Wide-eyed, Andy whispered, “Hide me!”

  Christian scrambled to fit Andy under the short hotel bed. Andy could on barely fit lying flat with his head turned to face the door. CC folded the bed sheet down so Andy couldn’t be seen, but his brother could still see about an inch above the floor.

  Ashley’s voice and knocking got more frantic.

  “Christian, please! I can’t find Andy!” he called.

  “Hold on!” CC ran over and opened the door. Andy could see Ashley and Christian’s shoes, and heard tears in Ashley’s voice as he spoke.

  “I pissed him off. Bad,” Ashley said. “And he up and left! Please tell me you’ve seen him?!”

  “No, man, I haven’t…”

  Christian was a bad liar, and Andy could tell the bassist wasn’t buying it. Come on, CC, do this for me…

  “Maybe he’s with Jinxx?” CC suggested.

  Ashley’s feet shifted. “I already checked. He and Jake heard the door slam, but they didn’t look to see who it was…” Andy heard Ash’s voice trail off. He felt bad. Wanted to just fling himself out from under the bed and hold his lover close and kiss him and-

  No! Dammit, no! He stifled a growl at himself. He deserves to suffer like I did.

  “I think you and I should go check the bar, Ash,” Christian said. Andy watched their feet walk out and heard the door click shut. He breathed deep, finally able to relax.

  Crawling out from under the bed, he stood and rubbed his shoulders. After rubbing out a few knots, he raided Christian’s dresser. He took only one pair of pants and one shirt, then traded his for those.

  Working quickly, he headed into the bathroom. He parted his hair in the middle and frantically teased the back in messy chunks. He found the drummer’s warpaint and painted CC’s teardrops on the outer corners of his eyes and on his cheeks.

  He looked almost exactly like CC, save his bright blue eyes. He sighed heavy, then walked out of the room. He gently shut the door, and then headed to the elevator and pushed the ‘down’ button.

  When it greeted him with a ding, open doors, and a – thankfully – empty room, he stepped in. The doors closed behind him and he headed down to the lobby.

  The doors opened again, and e peeked out to look around. There was no sign of any of his brothers. Quickly, he walked out of the hotel. And, then, he walked away.

  Away from the hotel.

  Away from his friends.

  Away from Ashley.

  Away from himself.