The Anthem for a Dying Breed

Seeing as we were impermanently banished from hanging out at our bus or within fifty yards of Adam (his rules), Rayne had been bunking with All Time Low, and even Of Mice for one night. As much as I wanted to hear all the juicy deets (it was a literal impossibility that Ray had managed to keep her hands off Austin), we hadn’t seen much of each other because I was bunking with Asking Alexandria for the last few nights.
We still texted a ridiculous amount though.

This particular morning, I rolled out of my bunk and opened the curtain to Ben’s, then crawled in next to him. He grumbled in his sleep, but shuffled so we could lay close together. I rested my head against his chest and he buried his face in my hair, winding an arm around my waist.

“Alright, mate?” he mumbled, squinting at me. I nodded silently. “Feeling awfully friendly today, aren’t you?” I shrugged, fiddling with one of his hands. He slid the other under his pillow and took out his phone, checking the time. “Why’re you up, it’s like ten…shit!”
His sudden exclamation made me jump.

“What?” I said slowly, looking at him.

“We’re on in ten minutes!” he yelled, trying to scramble up and whacking his head in the process. I giggled at his stupidity as he collapsed in a heap next to me, before rolling on top of me, desperate to get out of the bunk.

“Ow! My fucking ribs, you shit head!” I whined, trying to push him off - he rolled over a little more to get off me and fell out of the bunk. He groaned as he collided with the floor with a bump, and I poked my head out after him, smirking. “That’s what you get, you fat cow!” I snapped.

“Leen, you OK?”

I looked up to see Tony standing in the doorway, face worried and body tense: the guys must have left it unlocked when the left the bus. I blinked and grinned at the sight of him. “It-it’s just, I thought I h-heard…”

“Morning, Tone!” I chirped. “What are you doing up so early?”

“Tony.” Ben muttered in greeting from the floor.

“Ben.” Tony replied, equally cold and awkward; he narrowed his eyes at the Brit for a second, then looked at me, seeming nervous again. “I actually just came to see if you were up for getting breakfast together. We can catch We Came As Romans, if you want.”
He looked a little more relaxed as I smiled and clambered ungracefully out of Ben’s bunk. Sitting down on Ben’s stomach, I beckoned him closer. He raised his eyebrows as I arranged my weight to make Ben groan in pain, but crouched down to my level.

“I’m gonna make him late for shows,” I whispered conspiratorially - Tony chuckled, “d’you wanna help me?” He made to nod, but Ben sat up suddenly, causing me to tumble onto the floor.

Should’ve seen that karma coming really.

“No, you’re fucking not!” he shouted, standing up and tossing a pillow at me. He shot away to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

“First one to the bathroom’s a wanker!” I called after him.

“Gotta keep my hands busy somehow!” he replied, poking his head around the door to wink smugly, before disappearing again. I sighed and took the pillow he’d thrown at me and placed it on the floor, laying down before noticing Tony watch me, biting his lower lip.
He hesitated for a second before flopping down next to me, pulling the cushion so there was room to lay besides me. He smiled and I smiled back before averting my gaze to the ceiling; I was well aware of the fact that if I stared at him too long, I was going to start blushing or rambling. Or both. Probably both.

“That was kind of mean.” he murmured after a moment. I glanced at him, confused.

“What, me?”

“No…” he wriggled uncomfortably, trying to find the right words to spit out. “Y’know.” He nodded his head in the direction of the bathroom; I snickered at his expression and shook my head.

“No, Ben’s just being Ben. We mess with each other like that.” I chuckled. He nodded slowly and looked at the ceiling too. I took the opportunity to sneak a glance at his profile and let my thoughts drift back to him and Ben; they really didn’t seem to like each other for some reason, and it baffled me completely - since mine and Tony’s little notadate, we had been spending quite a lot of time together.

As friends. Of course.
But that was irrelevant because we were really, really good friends - really, really great friends actually, and I had grown rather attached to having the overgrown sweet-hearted klutz hanging around and cracking bad jokes. I like bad jokes.
Ben, on the other hand, had been given by and given the cold shoulder to my new buddy.

When I asked Ben abou it, he brushed it off, so I was assuming (hoping) it was just some weird macho-man testosterone bullshit. Either way, it wasn’t any of my business, so I didn’t want to make whatever problems they had worse.

“So, you’ve been sleeping here for three days?” Tony asked. “You should come bunk with us if Adam’s still being pissy. Where are the rest of the guys?” He tagged that last part on quickly, not giving me much time to respond, so I didn’t take him too seriously

“Uhh…probably already at the stage. Me and Ben tried to stay up late to wax James’ eyebrows after he fell asleep.” I admitted. e laughed and turned to face me, deep honey-coloured eyes sparkling.

“Did it work?” I grinned devilishly, shrugging.

“I videoed it. D’you wanna see?” I offered; he nodded eagerly, trying to curb his laughter. I got up quickly and fetched my camera from my bunk, then flopped back down next to him - as I found the video, he shuffled closer to get a better look, putting his hand over mine to angle the camera as we could both see.
I bit my lip to attempt to control my jitters - I was finding he could be rather touchy-feely with the people he was comfortable with when he wanted - and that was a surprisingly small amount of people.

He creased over with laughter as he watched James wake up and tackle Ben, while Danny, Cam, Sam and I cheered them on in a smackdown round: his breath brushed against my ear and I felt his chest rumble as he voiced his amusement.

“What’re you lot fucking laughing at?” Ben grumbled, re-emerging from the bathroom in his boxers and looking perfectly sour. Tony’s eyes went wide and he looked away and at me quickly. I smirked and held up my camera.

“Pose for me, sexy!” I giggled - he did so, placing his hands on his hips and puffing out his boney chet so I could take a quick picture before going back to changing his clothes.

“You gonna pose in your underwear for me too?” he asked, slinging an Iron Maiden t-shirt on.

“Maybe later.” I said, winking at him. He winked back and buckled up his jeans as he headed to the door. “Remember to get yourself breakfast!” I called after him as he left.

“Alright, mum!” he yelled. I giggled and went back to flicking through my pictures.

“Does he always walk around in his underwear in front of you like that?” Tony wondered out loud as soon as he was gone, sounding shocked. I glanced at him slightly; he had a funny look on his face.

“As much as he humanly can.” I grinned. “James said he used to walk around naked, but the guys have made a ‘no nudity# rule to protect my, uh, innocence.”
He chewed his lip thoughtfully and I chuckled. “You look so creeped out! It’s not that bad, I mean, what do you wear to bed?”

“Nothing, I normally sleep naked.” he answered automatically. We both looked at each other silently for a moment before bursting into laughter - Tony Perry in the nude?
My cheeks flushed and I felt my stomach do a few somersaults at the thought alone: damn, bit I would climb him like a tree.
“So…” he murmured through his impishly handsome smile. “You wanna get breakfast or what?”

I nodded madly and started to get up - he placed a hand on the small of my back to support me and sat up too, taking the camera I handed him.

“Let me just clean up and get changed quickly.” I said, getting to my feet. He pulled his hand off me and I headed to the bathroom after grabbing a change of clothes. When I was done and looking somewhat more presentable (if only just), I went back out to him, but couldn’t find him anywhere immediately in sight.

“Tone?” I called softly, glancing around with a little frown.

“Boo!” he yelled, poking his head out of one of the bunks; I gasped and jumped, giving him a faux-scowl. “Hahah! Totally got you!” he chortled.
I rolled my eyes and poked his forehead. He caught my hand before I could let it fall and jumped out, lacing his fingers through mine like it was normal, and pulling me to the door.
“Lets go, Leena.”