Long Way Home

The pair sat in the almost empty coffee shop, with nothing but a table between them. Both of their hands were wrapped around some form of hot drink and both had matching smiles on their faces. They'd been in the small café for only ten minutes but they both knew, already, that they'd be there for a while.

"So," Alex smiles rather shyly at her – which was honestly rather out of character for him since he literally cannot remember the last time he was nervous around a girl. "Tell me something."

Not many words had been exchanged between the pair thus far, but Alex was weirdly desperate to find out more about the woman he couldn't get off his mind.

"Like what?" Niomi questions, bringing her hot tea to her lips and taking a small sip, eyebrow cocked on her forehead slightly.

"Something. Anything," he shrugs, the hand that was wrapped around his mug fiddling with the ceramic. "I want to know about you," comes the singer's reply as he, too, takes a sip of his hot chocolate.

"Ok," Niomi replies, her eyes pointing to the ceiling as she racks her brain for something interesting to tell the man sitting before her. If she's being honest, Niomi didn't think that there was anything interesting about her, and she hated talking about herself, but she pushes that thought aside – for Alex. "My full name is Niomi Elizabeth Davidson, I'm 23, originally from England-"

"No way, me too!" Alex interrupts, seeming way too excited about the similarity than necessary.

"Nice, where abouts?" The blonde questions, and Alex could her the humour in her voice. He's not blushing. Absolutely not.

"Harlow, it's just outside of Essex." He states proudly. He may not have lived there for long, but Alex loved the little village he was born in. One of the reasons he liked to visit every now and then was because it was so different from the bustling city of Baltimore – it was refreshing and a nice contrast to his hectic lifestyle.

"I'm from Sheffield," Niomi replies with a hint of longing in her voice that Alex picks up on straight away.

"Do you miss it?"

"Sometimes," Niomi shrugs. "But living here, in America, has been my dream since I could remember. It's just, there are some days where I wonder what life would be like if I stayed and did all the thing people wanted me to do y'know? I've only been living here since I was twenty one so maybe I'm still getting used to it but yeah, I miss it sometimes." And yeah, Alex could totally relate to that. When his parents moved the family over to Baltimore, he was in high school by the time he stopped feeling homesick. He knew all about that feeling of wonder when thinking about what life would be like if he never moved so he could totally empathise with Niomi right now.

"Yeah, I get you. Sometimes I miss it but I was only seven when I moved out here so I guess it's not as bad since I've lived in the States the majority of my life," Alex says, receiving a nod from the younger.

"Where do you live now?" She asks, eyebrow raised. This question had been bugging her since the concert. She knows he isn't from Florida, his accent isn't right, but she couldn't place it. But then again, now armed with the knowledge that he's actually English, his accent may've been a little tainted due to his natural accent.

"Baltimore," He answers, a smile coming to his face. He loves Baltimore unconditionally. Despite often wandering about what life would be like back in England, Alex wouldn't trade Baltimore for the world. It's his home, where he went through the awkward teenage years and had his first love and first heartbreak. It's the home of his band, even though not all the members live there currently, it's still the place where his dreams were born. "It's an amazing city."

Niomi hums gently, nodding in acknowledgement "I've never been."

"Maybe I can take you some day." Alex smirks, his confident demeanour returning.

Niomi laughs and Alex swears his stomach flips. Call him cliché, but he decides right then that her laugh is the most alluring sound he's ever heard. He smiles at the blonde, his eyes filled with amusement and adoration as he looks at her. Alex never really notices little things about the girls he meets, normally regarding those specific details as unimportant. But with Niomi, it seems to be the complete opposite. He notices how the sleeves of her thick, too big for her, knitted jumper are almost constantly held over her hands by her fingertips that are wrapped tightly around the hot tea she sipped on from time to time. He notices that she seems to be more comfortable than she was when they first arrived at the café since she is no longer shifting awkwardly in her seat, and how, every so often, she lets out a small, airy laugh, almost in disbelief. It's the little things, Alex decides, that have him completely attracted to and intrigues by Niomi Davidson.

"Maybe."

"So, what else?" Alex asks. He's determined to find out as much as possible about the girl sat across from him.

"How about we just play, like, twenty questions, or something?" Niomi suggest, raising her eyebrows and taking a sip of her almost empty drink. She laughs slightly at the way Alex is looking at her - like she had just had the best idea ever - when, in reality, she figured it's the best way to talk about herself as little as possible.

"Okay, I'll go first. Favourite band?" Alex asks.

Niomi looks up, pressing her tongue to the roof of her mouth. It's a habit she picked up years ago and only happens when she's thinking hard. "That's hard," she admits, brows furrowing slightly. "Fall Out Boy. Or maybe My Chemical Romance. But then there's Blink and The Wonder Years and Simple Plan." Really, she could list hundreds of bands that she calls her favourite. But frankly, she doesn't think Alex would appreciate that.

"So you have good music taste." Alex replies, smiling. And okay, this girl totally got even more attractive.

"Of course I do, it's the best thing about me," Niomi laughs and Alex shakes his head, this girl was something else. "Anyway, who's yours?"

"Blink 182," comes Alex's confident reply.

"Nice choice. Urm, if you could have any job in the world, besides your current one, what would it be?" Niomi asks, curious. She's always wandered what band guys aspire to be out of the band.

"I'd probably still want to work in music, it's my life y'know. Maybe a producer or something." Alex nods to himself as he speaks. It wasn't something he thought about often but he's confident with his answer. Music was his passion.

"Same." Niomi replies, shrugging. Alex's eyes widen because really, this girl is too perfect. Seeing Alex's surprise, Niomi adds, "I'd do something in music, it's my dream. I came over here to be a music photographer but could never get to the level I wanted. I could only find a part time job working for venues when I wanted to tour with the bands y'know? I want to be surrounded by music daily, not just for an hour one day a week. That's not my dream." The blonde cuts herself off as she realises she's rambling. Sometimes she just got carried away when talking about music, it was a flaw she wasn't really working on.

Alex smiles, "Maybe one day you can tour with us, we sometimes take a photographer on the road."

Niomi's eyes widen because she totally forgot about Alex being in a band. A touring band. Like, he goes on tour, with his band. Maybe it's the fact that he's not like any of the other arrogant band guys she's met, or the fact that he seems like a total sweetheart, that has her forgetting about his rockstar status but either way, she forgot. Her heart starts beating a little quicker at the idea of being friends with him and inevitably, being one step closer to achieving her dream.

"I'm holding you to that, Gaskarth."

#-#-#-#

"Wait, are you serious?" Alex laughs, shaking his head in disbelief at the blonde.

"Yes, okay," Niomi huffs out, a light blush painting her cheeks.

"You drunkenly hit on Mark Hoppus?" Alex asks between laughter.

"I admit, not my proudest moment." The younger sighs dramatically, trying not to smile.

The pair have been sat in the cosy little cafè, opposite the music shop, for about three hours now, just laughing and getting to know each other. Alex was completely infatuated with this girl, he'd never met anyone quite so fascinating. She uses words like 'pultrichudinous' and 'bibliophile', words that Alex didn't even know existed, nonchalantly. The singer wouldn't admit it out loud, but she kind of intimidated him. She was just, to put it simply, well. Perfect. She was funny, sarcastic, loved music as much as him, and she was smart. Intelligent. She knew, and cared, about things that actually mattered. Alex had never met anyone quite like her and he loved it.

"Hey," Alex started, he knew he should head back soon, but he really didn't want to. Niomi looks at him expectantly, eyebrows raised and eyes sparkling. "I need to go, but can I, maybe, get your number? Y'know, so we can, like, do this again?" He stumbled over his words.

Niomi smiles at him, it's nice to see Alex nervous. He seemed to be the type of guy who was used to getting what he wanted because he knew what it was he wanted and he knew how to get it. He seemed to have his life together.

She still hesitated though. Sure, Niomi knows her and Alex are getting along well, fantastic even, but he was probably leaving soon. He was probably going to go home and never think of her again. This situation was everything Niomi always tried to avoid.

"Sure," and okay, that was not the answer Niomi was supposed to give. Nevertheless, she couldn't quite let herself regret the response when she sees the way Alex's eyes are almost shut because of how big he's smiling.

So she gives him her number and he grins even wider. They stand up at the same time, throwing away their rubbish as they head out the door. And then things get awkward for Niomi. She doesn't know how to say goodbye, how this situation was suppose to go now.

"It was really awesome actually meeting you properly," Alex starts, seeming to have the situation under control. Niomi breathes a sigh of relief.

"You too, you're different than how I expected you to be. Good different," she smiles, almost reassuring, since Alex may have let his face fall a bit at that last bit of her sentence.

And then Alex is reaching forward and wrapping his arms around her and, okay, that's unexpected. She doesn't hate it though. In fact, Niomi wraps her arms tightly around Alex's waist and squeezing slightly. She feels his smile from where his face is pressed into her hair.

"I'll see you around, Alexander." Niomi breathes out, pulling away.

She turns to face the music store across the street, where she knew her best friend would be awaiting her arrival. Niomi crosses the street and turns back to Alex before she walks through the door. The both grin at each other and Alex yells out.

"Not if I see you first!"

#~#~#

Alex is still awake at 1am when his phone goes off, signalling he has a text. He searches his bunk blindly, due to the darkness, trying to find the device. When he finally finds it he holds it up to his face, grinning when he reads the message.

Hey, it's Niomi :)

The singer texts back instantly, probably a little too quick really, and pulls his covers higher up his body. The bus was quiet, everyone was resting due to the hectic months the men had just had. He could hear the faint sound of the TV playing some movie that some of the crew had stayed up to watch and the sound of Jack talking in his sleep. He laughs at his best friend, rolling his eyes fondly.

His phone sounded again and he quickly opened it, eager to see what Niomi had to say. Alex couldn't seem to get enough of the girl.

When he arrived back at the bus he received a lot of questions from his band (and the crew member that had found out about his disappearance act) about what Niomi was like. The only word the brunette could think of was 'different', before he shrugged and headed to his bunk, where he had stayed they rest of the night. Alex knew that tomorrow he'd happily talk to Jack about the girl, they were best friends after all, but all he wanted to do in the moment was think by himself.

Alex liked Niomi, he'd decided that when they were at the cafè, but he didn't know how to deal with it. She was just so different to any other girl Alex had ever been interested in, so he didn't even know where to start with her. Plus, when they brushed slightly on the subject of relationships, Niomi seemed to change the subject almost immediately.

Alex blows out a sigh, rolling onto his back and bringing his hands up to run his face. He wasn't used to not knowing what to do when it came to girls. He either had girls falling at his feet or he had Lisa. But right now, he didn't want either of those because all he really wanted was Niomi and he'd be the first to admit that he was a bit stumped on that because he's never found himself in a situation as such before. Now that he was in one, though... He doesn't really like it much. He still likes Niomi, though. He likes her way too much for someone who'd literally only just gotten to know her. And he is doomed.

#~#~#

The next morning, or afternoon, Alex rolls out of bed completely exhausted. He had stayed up until around 6am talking to Niomi before she finally fell asleep, allowing him to do so too. Honestly, he hadn't planned on staying up that late, there was just something so captivating about the girl that even when he basically forced himself to not reply her texts until the next day (or until he woke up for the next day), he ended up replying them anyway. And he quite enjoyed the conversation he was having with her, so he really couldn't find it in himself to be mad at her or whatever for making him stay up that late (even though she really didn't do anything and Alex stayed up till six on his own accord).

"You look like hell," comes the voice of his best friend as soon as he walks out into the front lounge.

"Thanks, bro, love you too," the elder drawls out sarcastically, though he ends up yawning unattractively.

Jack raises an eyebrow, "I'd say you got lucky last night, but. You were back in the bus before bus call, so you slept here, and having sex with a girl that you're, like, halfway in love with in the afternoon isn't really your style. So what kept you up? Black holes and shit again?"

Alex rolls his eyes, pouring himself a glass of orange juice. "I'm not halfway in love with her. We just met, dude, – "

"Mmhmm," Jack hums, midway Alex's sentence.

The elder ignores him, "And that's like, half true."

"What's half true?"

"The black holes and shit thing," Alex clarifies, settling down next to Jack on the sofa. "Was, um, texting Niomi and, you know."

"No, Alex," Jack grins, brows raised. "I don't know. Does sexting involve black holes and shit now?"

"You know what, fuck you," Alex narrows his eyes over at the younger. He tries to stop himself from smiling but he cannot because Jack is an idiot but Alex is so bloody fond of Jack Barakat that he can't stay mad at him for saying dumb shit like that. "We were just, you know. Texting. Getting to know each other an' stuff. And, like. We get on so well? We were just literally telling each other random stories and stuff and then I told her about how I like to read about these space stuff, and she asked me about it and it just – carried on from there?"

"So, like. You told her everything you know about black holes and the universe and the whole lot?"

"Yeah," Alex nods. "And the best thing was, like. She was actually interested? I mean, I know we were just texting but she asked legit questions and I ended up reading up more stuff just so I could tell her 'em."

Jack's silent then, looking almost thoughtful as he studies Alex's side profile (since the older's turned to watch the TV while sipping on his juice). "You really like her, don't you?" He asks finally, voice quiet, as though he almost doesn't want to know the answer.

Alex doesn't say anything. He shrugs his shoulders the slightest bit, taking a prolonged sip from his cup, nodding in the most minuscule manner that he partly wishes Jack wouldn't notice, but he does.

"I mean," Jack starts and he's got that tone he's using and Alex is already dreading what's going to come. Jack's not exactly the most mature dude around but he has his moments. This is one of those moments. "I'm happy for you, yeah? That you like her, and that she probably likes you back and fuck, I sound twelve."

Alex snorts, practically choking on his juice. "You look twelve," he coughs out, downing more of the juice that made him start coughing anyway.

"Fuck off," Jack replies casually. "But. Back to the point. She's... She's from Florida, dude. I mean, you could move out there, if things get serious, but until then... What're you gonna do? You can't even properly date her and stuff because you're not, like, a two hours' drive away. You're a lot of hours away from each other. So what're you gonna do?"

"I don't know," Alex mumbles, tone dejected as he drags a hand down his face tiredly. He tilts his head back, eyes falling shut as he does so. "I really fuckin' like her, and I think she likes me, too, but. She's so... closed off when it comes to relationships, or anything remotely close to that, which fucking sucks, but. There's nothing I can do, is there?" He asks rhetorically, letting out a self-depreciating sigh. "I don't know, man. I don't."