Once Bitten, Twice Shy [Mashton]

Part Three

Sooooo, this part might be slightly triggering. So just like, you know. Watch yourself. PM me if you don't want to read and I'll send you a summary of what happens, you won't be missing a lot tbh.

-Mel

Woman you're a mess going to die in your sleep

There's blood on my amp and my Les Paul's beat

Can't keep you home, you're messing around

My best friend told me you're the best lick in town

You didn't know that rock and roll burned

So you bought a candle and you lived and you learned

You got the rhythm you got the speed

Mama's little baby likes it short and sweet

The next time he sees Ashton is back in Sydney, nearly a year later. They've been around the world and back, already a month into their three month long break.

Michael's in the middle of a show when his phone starts buzzing in his pocket. He pulls it out because they're between songs and Luke's talking up a storm.

"You weren't kidding when you said you'd answer my calls on stage," Ashton muses. Michael's breath catches in his throat as he glances through the crowd, looking for any flashes of pink or delicate white petals in the thousands of people that have come out to see them.

"Are you here?" He asks. Luke's yelling at him from the back of the stage, but he ignores it. Calum seems to be just fucking around with various tones of his bass, plucking the chords and gauging the crowd's reaction.

"No," Ashton admits. "Lilly's front row. She's filling me in. Meet me backstage after the show."

"Backstage?" Michael echoes. "Have you got a pass?"

Ashton snorts. "Nope!" He hangs up before Michael can argue. Calum's done fucking around with his bass and Luke's still yelling from behind his drum set and there's thousands of people screaming in front of them. Michael shoves his phone back into his pocket and grabs his guitar again, glancing back to give Luke the thumbs up.

He steps forward, towards the microphone, to address the crowd. "Sorry. Booty call." He peers through the light smoke catching in the bright lights until he finds bright blue hair and raised eyebrows. "Tell your brother I said no offence, Lilly."

Lilly flips him off and starts texting rapidly on her bright phone.

"Are you done?" Luke asks.

"Yeah, thanks," Michael says dryly. Luke scoffs and looks like he's going to go off on a rant, so Calum introduces the next song.

°°°°

True to his word, Ashton shows up backstage twenty minutes after the show. Just not the way anyone expected.