A Photograph of You & I

Aina's P.O.V

Slowly, I pulled away from Ville with a sigh of complete and utter contentment. He enveloped me in his arms and pressed his lips to the top of my head and muttered three perfect words into my hair. A chorus of 'aw' errupted from the audience and had I not been in a state of perfect bliss, I was sure I would have turned bright red from embarrassment.

Thankfully, in that moment, I barely registered the fact that Jonna had retreated from the wings of the stage into the shadows that lie beyond my line of sight.

"Can I see you later?" Ville asked in my ear and I nodded once with a smile playing on my lips. He leaned in to kiss me swiftly one more time before putting the microphone to his lips again.

"I did it all just for her..." He sang, gesturing toward me once and rushing toward the front of the stage with renewed vigor as the band picked up the beat of the music and the show carried on as though our aside had never taken place.

I could hardly believe it had until I was tackled by Dunn and Raab the second I left the stage.

"Can you fucking believe it?" Raab was screaming at Dunn while he jumped up and down like an excited toddler. Dunn was grinning like a fool and punching numbers into his cell phone, no doubt trying to get ahold of Bam to tell him what he'd missed.

It was then that my heart sunk. I'd completely forgotten to go talk to Bam after the fight between him and Ville had taken place. I pushed past my friends and retreated toward the back door, knowing that outside would be the only place he could hide. He'd never leave me stranded here with no one but Dunn and Raab to bring me home.

I glanced toward my right, looking deeper into the shadows of the alleyway. I was disappointed to see that the assumption I'd made had been wrong...

"Over here."

I jumped and held in a squeak and clutched at my racing heart. I saw a small smirk creeping across his face at my reaction and I swatted his arm playfully.

"Don't scare me like that you jerk," I muttered as I leaned against the building beside him. He raised a bottle, offering me a sip of his beer which I took eagerly, finding that a drink was exactly what I needed at the moment.

"So I heard what happened in there," he began sounding like he wasn't sure whether he wanted to be happy or upset.

I gave a half hearted chuckle. "Crazy isn't it?"

"Considering what I'm sure you overheard before, yeah." So it was bitterness I'd detected.

My lips pursed for a half a second while I contemplated what I should say to my friend, but he spoke first.

"I'm happy for the two of you. I really am," he started as he kicked a pebble into a puddle. "It's just that I'm...worried, I guess."

My eyebrows crinkled together. "Why is that?"

He released a long sigh that he seemed to have been holding in for an eternity. "I guess I'm just worried that he's going to hurt you again, Aina."

He was holding back, that much I could tell. His voice trailed off on my name and he turned to look at me with an indiscernable look in his eyes. They were burning with something so much fiercer than worry but I just couldn't identify it.

"I am too, Bammie," I whispered as I leaned my head on his shoulder. "But maybe love is about trusting someone to not hurt you."

He snorted and I turned a venomous glare on him. "Don't laugh at me."

"I'm not," he replied shortly with no other explanation. His blue eyes were peering into my own and he seemed to be looking for something there.

It bothered me to no end that I couldn't figure out what demon seemed to be lurking in my friend's heart. I took his uncharacteristic silence and cynicism as being upset over a fight with his best friend, but something in me told me it went deeper than that. Friends made up when they fought, Bam knew that, so it seemed odd to me that he would be devastated over a spat.

"Bam are you alright?" I asked finally, growing tired of the silence that seemed to teem with things unsaid.

"Perfect," he answered in a voice that told me that he was going to go no further with this conversation tonight. I made a promise to myself that I would get to the bottom of this soon however.

"You should get back inside, it's chilly out here," Bam murmured after a moment. I paused for a moment before nodding once, deciding that he obviously needed to be alone. I bit down on my lip and turned away from my best friend, knowing that it was probably a mistake.

When I went back inside, Dunn and Raab were bent together in conversation. Both perked immediately upon seeing me approach and I tried to put on a happy face.

"How is he?" They asked almost simultaneously. I raised an eyebrow and they merely shrugged.

"He's..." I looked for the right words to describe Bam's current condition. "He's not himself, I'm not sure what's wrong but he's not being...Bam."

I mentally laughed at how his name had become an adjective in itself. Both Ryan and Raab exchanged worried glances but didn't press it further.

"He'll come around. He and Vil have never fought like that before, he's probably just bugged." Ryan said quickly, as if he was trying to alleviate his own worry as well as ours. Raab and I just nodded, wanting to accept those words as truth.

"Yeah," I murmured as I silently dismissed myself from their company.

An hour and a half later, I stood by as Ville said his thank you's to the crowd and sauntered offstage. His leather pants barely clung to his hip bones and I unconsciously licked my lip at the sight. He'd removed his shirt at some point during the show and now glistened with sweat. His eyes darkened when he saw me lick my lip and he grabbed ahold of my waist the moment he reached me.

"Tease," he murmured deliciously in my ear and I shivered when he dared to go so far as nibble on the shell of my ear. I could barely believe that only hours before I'd been against a relationship with him because of Jonna.

He leaned in for a kiss but I halted him when I pressed my finger to his lips. "Ville, I think that maybe we should talk to Jonna..."

Worry tinged his eyes for a moment but it soon melted away when I laced my fingers with his. He sighed and gave me a wry smile.

"Can't we just be together tonight?" He pleaded with me like we were in high school again and he was trying to get me to ditch studying to hang out with him.

This time however, I wouldn't break. I simply shook my head. "Ville, this needs to come first. Jonna's carrying your child still. That hasn't changed because we sort of decided otherwise..."

I started to slowly feel a little more horrible as I explained things to him. He seemed to realize the ramifications of our decisions as well and he nodded.

"Yeah, I guess I should talk to her..." He trailed off and looked around to find her face among those in the crowd. His eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"I think she left," I told him.

"Yeah, I guess so..." He took one more look around before returning his gaze to my face.

"So...do you have any idea as to where she is?" I asked.

"Probably at our apartment throwing my things out the window." As soon as he said this, something else struck him. "You know, maybe it's not a good idea for you to go. She might try and strangle you and I don't think it would be a wise idea to put you in that position."

I let a chuckle loose and smiled. "Yeah, I guess it would kind of fuel the fire if I was there..."

He smiled back at me and lifted my chin so that his lips could brush softly against mine. "I'll go there and talk to her, and then I'll come to your apartment as soon as I can?"

The question in his voice made me laugh. "Obviously. I doubt you want to sleep in a place that Jonna has a key to."

"I don't care about that part," he said huskily as he bent to my ear again. "You won't be there waiting for me, that's all I care about."

Carefully, I took his face between my hands and peered into his emerald eyes. "I've always been waiting for you Ville."

Without another word, he picked me up and pressed his lips firmly against mine in a kiss that told me that he'd been waiting for me all along too.