"You're the most beautiful person I have ever seen. I love you, Davey," he told me. I smiled widely at him, feeling my heart rise with elation.
"Thank you so much, Jade... for everything. I love you with everything in me," I whispered, feeling my throat tighten."
In terms of online presence, AFI fans must be the most dedicated bunch in the world. Although battle lines are drawn between the 'official' Despair Faction audience and fringe elements such as those who post fanfiction stories to afislash.com, there does appear to be a genuine sense of community around the band.
"For the people who can relate to the themes and sentiment that are running through the record," Havok explains, "I would hope that it does provide some feeling of comfort and some sense that there are other people out there. They can find some kind of community in their detachment from the majority of people and the majority of perspectives."
As a member of AFI, do you think of yourself as being different?
"Yes." The frontman states emphatically. He laughs as if the notion that he isn't is absurd. "Yes. Yes, I do."
Is this a straight-edge thing?
"Simply being straight-edge alone separates you hugely from a culture whose recreation is focused on drug use. And because I don't find that appealing, that alone separates me from a lot of what's going on."
"Davey gets a lot of letters saying 'Your music saved me...'" Jade says. "Even though these songs are sad, you identify with that and it's a catharsis. It helps you deal with things in your own life."
"God... you're so beautiful," I whispered. Davey looked up at me and opened his mouth, ready to speak.
"Jade... is this the last..."
"No. Don't talk of that. Just... let me hold you," I whispered, burying my face in his neck.
How do you feel reading the Javey stuff, given that you two have been best friends for 15 years?
"It made me feel kinda dirty," Davey grins, squirming slightly. "It was very explicit. It was kind of eerie and unsettling because they base these stories on real events, and they name friends of ours who are not in the public eye and take things that actually happened in my private life and expand upon them."
The majority of the (literally) hundreds of AFI fanfiction stories on the net are set during the band's adolescence. Typically, they feature variations on the 15-year-old Davey and Jade's school life, exorcising self-hate and repressed homosexuality through self-harm and/or eating disorders - the two of them then finding each other and ultimately bonding over that self-abuse in a homo-erotic manner. Some of the more deviant stories include rape, murder, necrophilia and even one where Davey incites Jade to sexually abuse Smith - his younger brother, and AFI's tour manager.
"Why is it all gay?" Jade laughs. "Maybe it's some creepy old paedophile who's doing this."
What do you think it is that people are getting from your music - and you as people - to be coming up with this stuff? No other band's fans are doing this.
"I don't know. For years there's always been rumours about us. Maybe people just heard too many rumours and took to writing disturbing fanfiction."
Rumours regarding Davey and Jade's sexuality have raged, unconfirmed but undenied, for years.
Davey, does it bother you that when you're playing live, people will be watching you and expecting that after the gig your guitar player will be giving you a stress-relieving blowjob backstage?
"No!" he exclaims, seeming to splutter. As if he had something in his mouth. "I mean, who cares?!"
Jade, when was the last time you saw Davey naked?
"What direction is this interview taking?!"
Davey himself seems unperturbed, though.
"We change together!" he says. "We're in a band. It's like being in a sports team! We're constantly naked."
What is interesting though, is that none of these internet posts are in any way homophobic. Actually, it seems that this is the place where AFI fans explore issues of sexual health and mental well-being.
"That's a good point," agrees Davey. "It is that kind of community. That's very positive because a lot of people struggle with those kind of things. I don't like the killing and dismemberment but they could have us doing something truly horrible..."
"They could have us eating meat!" pipes up Jade.
"Yeah! Eating meat and drinking beer!" laughs the charismatic frontman. "Then I'd be pissed off!"
