2:04AM

“How’s the tour going so far, babe?” The man on the other side of the phone spoke with a deep, gravelly voice that gave off hints of weariness due to a long day.

“It’s going I guess. I don’t know I just feel kinda useless at the moment. I know that I’m not useless but I just feel it at the moment, as if I was just getting in the way of everyone.”

“What do you mean?”

Taylah sighed and ran a hand down her face as she leaned back against the side of the bus before drawing her knees up and resting her right arm over them while flicking the ash off of her cigarette. “It’s like I want to help but I’m just more of a hindrance, y’know? Maybe I just haven’t gotten into the groove of things yet.”

“Clearly not, I mean it’s gotta be what, three am or something over there right? If you’re still up it means your insomnia still hasn’t sorted itself out meaning you haven’t found your place in the flow of everything. Relax, darlin’, it’s only been three weeks, you’ll get there.”

Taylah smiled and raised her hand to her mouth, pulling a drag from her smoke, holding it in for a moment before replying. “It’s two actually,” she flicked the butt away before resting her arm down on her knees once more. “I guess you’re right, I just need to wait it out a bit more.”

“Told ya.”

“When did you get to be the smart one, Cole?”

“I was born first, I got all the brains.”

“I wish I could hug you right now. I need an older brother hug.”

“Go wake up Danny it’s what he’s there for.”

“No way, Dan gives crap hugs compared to you. I want an oldest older brother hug, you commit to the hug. That’s important. When you commit to the hug, it becomes the best hug ever.” Taylah sighed as she pictured her eldest brother sitting in the back room of the tattoo parlour he worked at. Slouching back slightly in his chair staring down at the coffee sitting in front of him; brown liquid moving in lazy circles due to him fiddling with his cup. “I just, I just miss you so much. It hurts sometimes to think how long it’s been.”

“You saw me a month ago, baby girl, but I know what you mean. You think I don’t know how you feel, both of you are so far away from me. I keep forgetting that I can’t just drive down the road and see you at your house, that we can’t go and have a sibling bond sesh at the movies. I miss you; baby and I love you more than you can believe.”

Taylah swallowed thickly trying to dislodge the thick feeling in her throat as she closed her eyes and leaned her head against the bus. A tear escaped her closed lids as she exhaled heavily. “I love you too, Cole and as soon as touring is finished, I’m going to see you. Even if I have to fly on the most terrifyingly small plane and face crazy airport crowds, I will see you.”

She smiled weakly at the sound of her brother’s laughter coming through the speaker as footsteps echoed faintly from the other side of the bus. Turning, Taylah felt herself breathe easier at the sight of Mike appearing. When he saw her, he waved slightly before tugging the legs of his jeans up and sat down beside her, bumping her shoulder gently as he whispered a “Hey.”

“I don’t understand how you can have such severe claustrophobia but be completely comfortable on a bus six months out of the year.”

“I’m comfortable in the bus because it’s safer. I trust the drivers and besides, I’ve seen La Bamba. I refuse to go out like they did.” Taylah said, ignoring Mike’s amused gaze as she reached out and grabbed her drink.

“La Bamba is just a movie.” Cole said and she could picture him rolling his eyes as he slowly spun his cup on the table.

“It’s based on true events. Shut up, Cole, I blame you anyway.”

“What? Why?”

“Why? You locked me in a closet when I six! And it had that really creepy clown and it was dark and that clown was just staring at me and the room was so tiny that even Vernon wouldn’t put Harry in it.”

“How many times do I have to say I’m sorry?”

“At least a hundred more times,” Taylah replied as she shifted to rest her head against Mike’s shoulder, linking her arm through his. Faint sounds of Cole’s boss came through the speaker before she heard her brother sigh.

“I gotta go, my client just showed up. Skype later?”

“Yeah sure, see you then, irmaõ.”

“Love you, Tay.”

“Love you too. Bye,” Taylah pulled her phone from her ear before turning to look up at her pillow. “How come you’re still up, Mikey? I thought you went to bed two hours ago.”

“Felt weird going to sleep so early, I don’t know, kept getting the feeling I should go outside and I finally decided to get up. Walked around for a while, smoked and then I found you.” He was quiet for a moment before nudging her with his shoulder.

“Who was that on the phone? And what's with the irmaõ?”

“Oh, just my older brother Cole, that what irmaõ means in Portuguese which is our background, anyway, he calls in to check on me and listen to me stress about the little things, that’s what he was helping me with just before you came over.”

Mike frowned and shifted, Taylah straightening up just as he hooked his arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him in a loose hug. “What do you have to stress over, Latté?”

Taylah pulled back from Mike in surprise, a confused frown marring her features as she stared up at him. “Latté? Mike, where the hell did that come from?”

“Well you always get them when we go out together…and it kinda sounds like your name…and you’re both small and sweet in a surprising way.” He looked down, a light blush ghosting his cheeks as he smiled softly. “Plus, I really like both of you a lot and well yeah.”

Taylah’s confused expression melted into a soft smile as she leaned into him once more, curling up close to him again. “Okay then, Latté it is.”

“Yeah?” He asked softly as he looked her.

“Yeah, when you explain it like that, I like it. It’s sweet with your explanation. But only you can call me that, it’ll be our thing and no one else’s,” she said as she rested her head against his chest, content with the fact that Mike had just managed to make her stress vanish with one simply name.

They were quiet for a while, a content silence hanging around them as they breathed softly, shifting every so often before Mike looked down at Taylah, amused to see her lightly tracing the tattoos on his hands. “You want to go anywhere seeing as we’re both up?”

Taylah shrugged, well, she tried to anyway but with the way she was tucked against Mike kinda prohibited that so it was more of a slight shift. “Yeah why not? Let’s go see if they have anything open.”

Mike smiled and leaned in to whisper “It’s a date” in her ear, the warm, moist air brushing over her skin causing shivers to run through her as a blush graced her cheeks.

---

Mike shifted in his bunk, on the cusp of full awareness. He’d spent the night up with Taylah, once again exploring the town and venturing pretty far in until they’d found a 24 hour movie theatre that showed nothing but classic monster movies where they’d managed to kill at least 3 hours before coming back to buses at half past five in the morning where they’d both moved to the Booger and crashed in his bunk simply because his bus was closer.

Groaning slightly, he shifted in his place, arm stretching out in the limited space to feel for his bunk mate only coming up empty. Frowning slightly with the distant knowledge that Taylah had definitely been in the bunk with him when he’d woken earlier to use the bathroom, Mike sat up in confusion. Normally it took Mike and the others ages to get her up and yet she was up before him?

Just as he was wondering how she’d managed to get up before him, his curtain pulled back to show a bleary eyed ginger who waved as she yawned before motioning for him to make room. He watched as she climbed in and immediately curled up against him, eyes closing as she sighed.

“What time is it?”

“Early,” she grumbled, tucking her head beneath the covers and against his chest.

“How early is early?”

“Eight,” came her muffled groan which was followed by one of Mike’s as he sunk back down and turned slightly, wrapping his arms around Taylah and tucking his head into her shoulder. They’d just managed to drift off once again when the curtain was yanked back on the bunk.

“Rise and shining! It’s a beautiful day, the birds are singing, the sun is out, time to get up!”

The two groaned at the voice as light suddenly filled the small space before Mike felt Taylah lift her head to stare at the annoyingly cheerful person. “Shay I swear to fuck if you do not close that curtain and let us sleep four more hours I will brutally murder you and hide your remains. It’s fucking Sunday.”

“Okay, okay, sheesh, someone’s grumpy today, and it’s actually Tuesday,” Shay said with a roll of her eyes.

“Curtain. Closed. Now.” Darkness once again reined king in the bunk and both sighed happily as Taylah settled back in the bunk.

“Your friends suck,” Mike groaned into her shoulder while Taylah just nodded.

“Try living full time with her,” she muttered as she looped her arm under his and wrapped it around his ribs.

“No thanks, Latté, I’m good with Vic being happy in the morning.”

Notes

Hey, so I'm super sorry about the wait between chapters and that I took down the Mitch Lucker chapters, but they were throwing me off and I've decided to use them as flashbacks instead of full chapters.

And yes, this is kinda fluffy but I really wanted some fluff and to be honest I was getting a little choked up when I was writing the convo between Cole and Taylah because it's similar between me and my sister except we're not countries apart, just states.

Thanks for the nickname Orbergine.

Chapter title: When Everyday's The Weekend by Asking Alexandria