One Moment

"Is it clear?" I whispered to Austin, trying to hold back a giggle.

Austin slowly opened the door of the back room so he didn't make a noise with it and peaked his head out. It had to be at least 3 in the morning after we had watched the Star Wars movies which Austin begged me to watch and I gave in just to listen to him quote half the movie and make light saber noises the whole time. He even would give me in depth lectures on all the characters and their pasts and why he loves them. I'm not complaing, though, it was completely fun to watch him be all happy and cute.

But now we both were suffering a case of late night hunger. "Yeah, all good," Austin whispered back, signaling his hand to hurry. I stayed behind him as we tip toed through the bus to not make the floors creak and wake up my band. Even though it's pitch black, we were doing fine, up until Austin ran into the wall.

I had to use both my hands to cover my mouth to stop my giggles from coming out, but it wasn't working too well. "Stop laughing!" Austin said in a hush voice, but his own laughs were coming out.
We both froze and went dead silent when some one groaned, waiting for them to wake up. Luckily, someone was just rolling over in their sleep, making a breath of relief come out from both of us.

Grabbing my hand, Austin led me through the rest of the bus more carefully this time, sneaking out the door as quietly as we could. When outside, both of us started laughing again. "Come on," Austin giggled and went in front of me, crouching down so I could get on his back. I hopped up, wrapping my arms lightly around his neck, but not forgetting to plant a quick kiss on his cheek first.

I squealed a little bit when Austin started to run, making me hurry to hold on tighter to him. I was laughing as he started spinning me around, "Aust, I'm gona fall off!"

He chuckled and slowed back down, letting me get my body re situated. "Where we goin to eat?" He asked up to me, looking around now that we had made it out of the park. "Everywhere is closed!"

"McDonalds is open 24/7!" I pointed to the big, yellow and glowing 'M' sign across the street.

"It says the drive threw is the only thing open," Austin reasoned.

"Yeah, so?" I laughed and Austin gave me a look. "You're my ride!"

"You're insane," Austin laughed, but still went up to the drivethrew, both of us laughing. We ordered into the little microphone thing, trying to not laugh while doing so. Both of us got McFlurries and fries, the perfect late night combination .

When getting to the window that we paid and got our food at, the lady looked at us confused, then started breaking out in laughter, making us smile. One of the employees back in the restaurant even took pictures of us. After paying them and thanking them, I held the food by Austin's chest as he walked us back to the park since it was only five minutes away.

We decided not to go back to the bus, knowing we'd just be too loud, so we went to one of the near by stages, sitting on the edge and letting our feet dangle off. It was so peaceful.

We ate in comfortable silence for a little bit, looking out at the dark sky, and me sometimes looking over to Austin who of course looked just as amazing as the moon. "Tell me about your family," Austin broke the silence, turning his head to look at me for a moment.

"My family?" I asked, unsure.

"Yeah!" He gave me a big smile.

"I don't know if there's much you want to hear..." I mumbled.

"I want to hear all about it, Haze," Austin gave me a look and I sighed. "Okay.." I started. "I have a brother and a sister.. I told you that, right?"

He nodded in response and I looked down at my McFlurry, playing with the spoon a little bit. "My brother is like 5.. 6 years older than me.." I counted in my head. "He signed up for the Army as soon as he turned 18 and has been in it ever since."

"You don't see him much, do you?" Austin asked.

I shook my head, "no. I miss him like hell and was so angry when he left us at home at first, but I can't blame him.. He had to get away from home," I still wasn't looking at Austin, my family being a sore subject. I love my older brother to death, he's been my hero, but when he left me at home I was so angry. I was so sad and couldn't believe he just left me... But I knew exactly why and where he was coming from.

"You didn't have a good life at home?" Austin really was curious.

I chuckled dryly. "My family was a mess.. still is," I shook my head. "My mother... My fucking mother loved her drinks more than us most of my life... And when my Dad got bad, for a while she was never there.. left us to care for him..." I talked in disgust.

"Your Dad was sick?"

"Schizophrenic.. Wasn't too bad at first, but after a while..." I frowned down at my McFlurry. "He couldn't take care of us, let alone himself anymore, and as much as I love him, it's so hard to live with him, especially after my brother left.. Every night the voices he'd hear would wake him up. He'd be screaming and shaking and freaking out so badly we had to take him to the hospital sometimes. He'd become like a new person.. And the hallucinations.." I breathed deeply. "Eventually my mom came back. She still is a heavy drinker and what not, but she stepped up, gave us big enough of a break that I could leave to go to college, which I regret to this day.. I mean, I got pissed for my brother leaving and then I go and do the same to my sister?" I scoffed.

I saw out of the corner of my eye Austin shake his head. "I had no idea you've been through all this shit.." He shifted and I finally looked up at him. "But, I do know that you are one of the strongest, most amazing people I've ever met," he put his hand lightly on my cheek, brushing the skin with his thumb.

I gave him a small smile which he returned. "I'm happy now, though.. I've found peace with everything thats happened, mostly because of my music, and I finally feel.. Free."

A big smile grew across Austin's face, so perfect that I couldn't help but mimic it before he leaned down and kissed me. It was a sweet, passionate kiss that made my heart flutter in my chest. "My hands are greasy and I just put them on your face," Austin chuckled when we broke away. I laughed at the situation, too, playfully scrunching my face up.

"This food is going to give me serious heart burn if I keep eating it all the time," Austin chuckled, wiping his hands on his pants..

"Is that bad for your heart?" I turned to face him, worry in my voice.

"No, it's alright. It happens," he smiled, but I just had my face contorted in worry. "Hey, don't worry too much about me."

"How can I not?"

"Because I'm fine," he moved to catch my eyes. "I'm fine," he repeated, trying to convince me.

I sighed, pouting a little, making him laugh. We both were turned to face each other now, so I reached my hand out, my fingers barely tracing over the raised skin down his chest that was his scar. "Was it scary?" I mumbled. "Your surgery.."

"Yeah," he nodded. "..I remember being so terrified that I was shaking when they had me lie down in the hospital bed, trying to put me under," he said, making me feel sad. "They had told me before that they literally had to take my heart out of my chest, fix it, and then put it back in," he shook his head.

"That's insane.." I said sadly.

"I know.. I can't even play baseball again, ride roller coasters, lift weights... Couldn't even preform for a while.."

A frown and sadness were on my face, "Austin... That's.. You don't deserve to have this.. You're too good."

Austin didn't respond for a moment, his face showing that he had just went deep into thought. "My mom..." He pushed breath harder out of his nose as to laugh weakly. Something must have reminded her of him, if she wasn't on his mind all the time in the first place.. "She would have liked you..."

I tucked my legs up, setting my food down, "what was she like?" We both shared a small, warm smile.

"She was so beautiful," he smiled. "She made the best fucking home made mac n' cheese," we both chuckled a little. "She was so kind.. would go out of her way to make sure others were okay. And she was so funny.. liked to joke around and party and do crazy things.. like you," He gave me a nudge, still smiling at the memory of her. "But she always supported me completely and could make me feel better in a second... She was my hero," Austin's head bowed down a little bit, and I reached over, grabbing his hand with mine, lacing our fingers together.

"She already sounds amazing. I'm sure I would have loved her," I looked him in the eyes, causing a smile to come over his face.

Looking down at his arm, I saw one of his tattoos of a real heart with 'mom' across it. I brought my free hand up, barely tracing it with my fingers. "She had the same heart problem as you?"

"Yeah.. Died when I was 17 because of it," he gripped onto my hand a little bit more, laughing dryly and painfully, shaking his head. "She had called me.. I couldn't answer cause I was fucking working," he said quietly, voice shaking with harshness at himself. "Two hours later my Grandma called me, crying, saying 'something happened to your mom.. Go to the hospital'..." Tears were already rimming his eyes, his words making my own heart heavy as I watched him speak. This is the first time he's really told me what happened to his mom... "I was freaking out, one of the ladies drove me because they didn't want me driving because I was so scared... and as soon as I got to the hospital there was an ambulance pulling in and they pulled my fucking mom out and that was the last fucking time I saw her," Austin was now crying and I was sure I felt my own heart break, tears of my own coming. Whenever Austin cries, I can't help myself. Same in reverse.

"Austin.." I said weakly, moving so I could wrap my arms around him. He buried his head in my neck and I could feel the wetness of his tears on my cheeks. His hands had gripped the back of my shirt into balls and my own were rubbing his back. "I'm so sorry," I croaked quietly.

After a moment of the comfort being shared between us, Austin sat back up. "It's okay, Haze," he chuckled lightly, wiping at his eyes. "It was like.. 8 years ago.."

"8 years ago or 8 minutes ago it still sucks losing someone you love.. especially your mom," I reached up, rubbing my thumbs under his eyes to wipe away the lasting tears that broke free. "And I think it's amazing how you got through that on top of your heart condition."

Austin gave me a small smile before not hesitating to kiss me again. It made my body all tingly and my head spin from the love that was hidden deep inside. "I really do love you, Haze," Austin breathed, his lips still only inches away from mine, eyes bright and milky brown.

"I love you, too, Austin," we both smiled big before our kiss was connected again.

&&&&&&&&&&

I rolled into Austin's chest more, trying to make that clicking noise from my dream go away. Austin's arms instinctively wrapped tighter around me, but that noise was still there. Wait... thats real... isn't it?

I blinked open my eyes, a little surprised by how bright it was... that is until I realized we fell asleep on the stage.

I sat up, rubbing my eyes, but then noticing something to my left. Well, more of someone by the name of Adam Elmakias, the photographer for most of the bands here at warped. He was taking pictures of Austin and I, that was the clicking noise.

Being a little disoriented from just waking up, all I did was flip him off and stick my tongue out at him. He laughed and did the same before I laid back down with a sigh next to Austin again, looking up at the sky. There weren't necessarily people here, at least not at this stage, but it was becoming late enough for there to be. It was beautiful and peaceful here with Austin, though.

"Mm, Haze?" Austin groaned from next to me, shifting a bit.

"Morning, sunshine," I turned, propping my head up on my hand as I smiled at him.

He grinned, "Morning, beautiful."

I bit my lip and looked down to hide the blush, but Austin put his hand under my chin, making me look back up at him. "I love it when you blush," he said lightly, only making me blush more.

"Well I'm never going to stop if you keep talkin to me like that," I teased with a smile.

He chuckled and then we both sat up, looking around us. Austin slid off the stage first, landing on the ground with a thud before reaching his hand out to help me down. We grabbed all our trash from last night and threw it away on our walk back to the buses to start our days with only a few hours of sleep.

Notes

eeeh kind of a random chapter, just Austin and Hazel getting back together and learning more about each other!

Let me know what you guys think! I love you all!!<3