Promise Me The Stars

As Kylie lead Forest into a small homeless shelter promising of medical treatment, Hazel stood in front of her mirror putting make up on over the smaller scratches that she had gotten from running through the bushes.

She had successfully fallen off the fence without breaking any bones, and fall she did quite literally because she had no real way to land without just...well falling. After the fall she had made her way into the house via the window Forest apparently frequented. Trying to be quiet was hard considering the room was pitch black and she had forgotten her night vision goggles in her room (note the sarcasm). So she had frequent run ins with the multiple couches in the room then nearly fell on the stairs as they showed up sooner then she expected.

"Mother.." she hissed, refraining from cursing until her voice gave out. A thump from above made her stop and freeze. Her heart beat quickened rapidly and she pushed back the urge to hide in a corner somewhere. She was in her own god damn house she didn't need to be hiding. She did, though, slink back from the stairs and stand by the couches as footsteps in the hall upstairs headed for the staircase leading onto the main floor.

They stumbled a bit, like the person was half asleep, and then they were hitting the tiled floor that went throughout the halls downstairs. The person, who could only be Zacky, paused at the basement door leading down into the game room and Hazel immediately started up a round of brainstorming good excuses on why she was down there. Her chosen excuse, she couldn't sleep and decided to watch movies, forced her to quickly move over to the couch and sit down painfully. Her knees ached and her fingers were burning at every movement. She could hide the scratches and knees easily but she had no idea how to hide her ripped fingernails that had dried blood caked on them.

They looked like something straight out of the horror movies Zacky and Forest shared a love for. She had never really favored the movie genre and found herself with nightmares nearly every time she watched them. She whimpered as she stared down at her fingers, trying to think of some way to hide the horrible injuries while still treating them so they didn't get infected.

There was a bunch of banging going on in the kitchen as Zacky stumbled around in the dark trying to remember where his glasses were in his foggy state of mind. When he finally located the drinking glasses in the cupboard he had looked in twice before he shuffled over to the sink and filled it with crystal clear water. His throat was scratchy and the water took care of that as he downed the tasteless liquid, getting the urge to go check on Hazel and Forest for no reason at all.

He didn't act on the urge though, seeing as it was only five in the morning and though it was so early Forest could be awake. He was odd like that, always being awake at the oddest times, sometimes sleeping in until five in the afternoon, sometimes waking at one in the morning and roaming the house silently like a ghoul. He had walked into the kitchen many times to get a glass of water in the middle of the night to find Forest in the kitchen making what looked like a full course meal for himself.

So Zacky did the right thing and let the kids be, emptying the water into his mouth and setting the cup in the sink as he swallowed the liquid down. He headed back towards the stairs to go back upstairs but stopped when he noticed the game room door was open a crack. He was so sure that it was closed when he had walked past the first time, but hell, he was the guy that took three tries to find the cups in the same cupboard he checked twice before. Zacky pulled the door open and peeked down the stairs into the room, expecting to see Forest or something. But the room was empty, well he assumed since all he saw was darkness in the room. No TV was on flickering in the darkness, no lamp was turned on, and unless Forest was down there sleeping it was empty.

Zacky sighed and pushed the door closed firmly making sure it was closed for sure that time. Then he made his way back towards the stairs, checking the other rooms in the house for Forest because he had a feeling the boy was roaming around somewhere today. When he came up empty Zacky left the ground level and headed up the stairs and into his room, collapsing on the bed to drift back to sleep for a few more hours before the guys came over later to brainstorm ideas about some new songs. But they would probably just end up messing around all day with Hazel and Forest hanging around now a days.



Forest gritted his teeth and bit his hand as Jake, the doctor Kylie had brought him to, stitched another line into his back. He had gotten the anesthetics but they had worn off and Jake said solemnly that the shelter couldn't afford to give him more. Forest nodded and let him continue with the procedure of stitching him up. It was turning out to be more of a 'getting a tattoo in a van' type of deal. Or maybe Kylie was really just a recruiter for Jake and they were going to knock him out soon. He'd wake up in a bathtub full of ice with a kidney missing.

He probably should have just gone home. But he was too much of a stubborn ass to ask Zacky for help. He always would be he just knew it. There was no warming up to the guy for Forest, all he felt for the man was the worst hate he had ever felt for anyone in his entire life. And he didn't think he would be so mad at Hazel for liking him but he was, and it wasn't fair to her he knew. He just hated life the way it was now. He would sell his soul to the devil if he could just go back and see his mother for a few more months. Say the things he had held back saying, thank her endlessly for what'd she done for Hazel and himself. He still couldn't believe she was really gone and the pain in his heart was hurting worse then the needle in his back.

"And...there. All done kid." Jake said as he began wiping down the wound with alcohol making it burn worse.

"Thanks." Forest muttered standing up and carefully rolled his shoulders to try and relax a bit.

"It'll hurt like a bitch for awhile, along with those other injuries of yours. But it's on it's way to healing."

"Nice tattoo." Kylie said nodding towards Forest's lower stomach with her chin. He looked down, not that he didn't know about the tattoo but just to remind himself on what she was looking at, and nodded.

"For my grandfather. He was always telling me about this idea that when he's dead he'll be free to soar like a bird." Forest shrugged and let a small smile cross his face thinking about his grandfather, "So I got it in memory of him."

Kylie smiled and handed him the jacket he had been wearing.

"That's really sweet." she said.

"Yeah, well I grew up knowing family is the most important thing. I'm not doing too well with that now but, I still honor the ones I love. Which reminds me, I need another tattoo." Forest said heading for the door with Kylie. She gave him a questioning look and he smiled sadly.

"My mother passed away about a month or so ago. I want to honor her somehow that i'll always have so tattoos seem like the answer. "

"What were you thinking?" Kylie asked.

"More birds, they're sort of like my family crest. To me anyway." Forest said following her into the kitchen where he would be washing pans and other dishes in payment for his medical treatment.

"Just birds?" She asked handing him a pair of faded yellow gloves.

"Nah, I gotta think about it more." Forest said.

"Alright," Kylie smiled and motioned over to the sink, "Lets get started then."


​
Zacky's living room was filled with laughter and talking as Hazel slowly made her way down towards the kitchen. Her fingers ached and she was really in the mood for orange juice and pain killers.

"Hey," Matt said looking up after emerging from the fridge with an arm full of beers.

"Oh, hey." Hazel said quickly tucking her hands in her pockets, she didn't realize anyone was in the kitchen, she had thought she heard everyone in the living room.

"You sure slept in late." he commented as the beers began to slip.

"I wasn't sleeping really, just...in my room." she said reluctantly grabbing two of the beers when Matt asked her to. He set the other three down quickly though when he saw her fingers and he took the two she was holding and put them on the counter next to the others.

"What in the hell happened to your fingers?" he asked holding her hands in his lightly.

"I..."

"Don't say anything stupid either. I know there's no way this was some accident. Something bad happened," Matt said and before Hazel could even open her mouth to say something else Jimmy was bounding into the room and grabbing her hands from Matt.

"What the fuck!" He yelled and Hazel shushed him quickly.

"Don't tell my dad please." she begged looking at the two men.

"Only if you tell us the truth on what happened." Matt said while Jimmy nodded rapidly.

"If you don't clean those up properly they'll probably get infected. That plus there's bits of fingernails everywhere and they could get them infected even worse." Brian said appearing out of nowhere.

"Jesus Christ are you all coming in here?" Hazel hissed pulling her hands away and hiding them behind her back.

"No, Zacky went out to pick up more beer and pizza. He lost to rock paper scissors." Johnny said jumping up and sitting on the counter next to Hazel.

"So what happened?" Brian asked grabbing one of the beers that was sitting behind Hazel. He popped the bottle cap off and tossed it at Johnny's face.

"I, I can't tell you."

"Bullshit!" Jimmy yelled, "You can tell us anything Hazel."

"Well..." She trailed off and opened her mouth to say something else when Forest came shoving through the crowd and stood in front of Hazel.

"Oh geez Forest." she said in concern looking at his bruised skin that was a mix of purple, blue, black, and yellow. His forehead had a gash with butterfly stitches holding it together while his left eye was blackening slowly.

"I'm taking it whatever happened to your hands is also what happened to Forest." Brian said.

"Oh hey, when'd you get here?" Forest grinned looking at Brian, "Whoa Jimmy's here too. Weird."

Hazel laughed and held out her hands to Forest.

"Your fault." she stated as Forest took her hands and examined them.

"Sure. That one looks like a fish." he said pointing to her left ring finger where the fingernail was torn and sticking up slightly at an odd angle.

"Gross," she whispered to herself looking at it.

"Enough about that grossness, I figured out what i'm going to get to honor mom." Forest said excitedly bouncing lightly on his feet as he looked at Hazel.

"And what's that? Not fall off a cliff?" She stated sarcastically.

"You fell off a cliff?" Matt nearly hollered. Forest jumped and turned to his left to face Matt.

"Hey Matt, you come with Brian and Jimmy or...?" he asked with a glint in his eye.

He was clearly teasing them all as his spirits soared higher then they have in awhile. Before his mother died and little before that even.

"Are you high Forest?" Hazel asked.

"Nope, just happy. Happier then i've been in awhile. Because guess what I figured out!" Forest yelled shaking Hazel's shoulders even though it hurt the stitches in his back.

"How to honor mom?!" She yelled back in mock excitement.

"Yes! And it's not fall off a cliff AND get a tattoo!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, who says anyone here will agree to letting you get a tattoo?" Matt cut in quickly. Both Hazel and Forest raised their hands into the air.

"I'll agree for Forest." Hazel said smirking.

"And i'll agree for Hazel. We could even call Uncle to tell him to approve." Forest said.

"Uncle?" Jimmy asked.

"Wow, they know nothing about us do they Haze?"

"Nope. Now, what's the tattoo?" she pushed looking at Forest.

"I was thinking a bird cage with birds flying free from it. Kinda like grandpas, she's free now you know?"

"That sounds great." Hazel smiled lightly and pulled her brother into a hug.

"Birds?" Johnny said quietly.

"It's our family crest." Forest said when Hazel pulled away.

"What about a family crest?" Zacky asked walking into the room. His arms were full of pizza boxes and beer.

"Hey guess what! I fell off a cliff, Hazel saved me, but ripped her finger nails off. Then I went and got about thirty stitches in my back at a homeless shelter! All before ten in the morning!" Forest yelled happily earning a look from Zacky that made Forest snicker.

"Wh...are you guys alright?" Zacky quickly dropped his load on the table and then rushed over and examined Hazel. Forest rolled his eyes and made to leave but someone grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"You look like crap Forest." Zacky muttered titling his head to the side a bit to examine his head.

"Thanks for the info," Forest said so sarcastically Zacky flinched.

"There's dried blood all over your neck," Zacky sighed, "Matt get me a wet rag will ya?"

Matt nodded and turned from the group to head over to the sink.

"I guess I forgot to wash that off." Forest muttered, suddenly wondering where Shadow was during all this. He couldn't hear the guy in his head and as his eyes drifted around the room he couldn't see him standing around anywhere.

"Here." A white rag was handed to Zacky and he went to work cleaning off the blood on Forest's neck.

"I think after this we should take Hazel to the hospital to deal with her fingers and they could check on Forest." Zacky said and everyone else agreed.

"You alright with that?" Zacky looked down at Forest and noticed he was staring off into space. "Forest."

"Hmm?" He mumbled focusing back on Zacky's face. Zacky looked down into the eyes that were the same shade as his.

"Going to the hospital, you alright with that?"

"As long as no one tries to kill me i'm good."

Zacky laughed and nodded, finishing up on wiping the blood off Forest's neck.