5 Seconds of Summer Imagines

#6 "You're my Freedom." With Ashton Irwin-Emma

The screams of the few dozen girls in the airport grow louder as the doors open and reveal a mop of bright red hair. Which was followed by a beanie covered head, a shaved head and a head covered in golden brown hair. Each of the 4 boys made their way through the large group of people, stopping, taking photos and talking to as many fans as possible. I stood in my spot towards the end of the group near the exit doors of the airport. As time began to pass, the boys began passing by me; either directly in front of me or on the other side of the aisle. They probably didn't even really notice me anyway, I wasn't jumping up and down and screaming like the rest of the people. Both Calum and Luke had passed by me and gone out to greet their families. I let out a sigh.

"This is hopeless." I whisper to myself, letting a small frown creep upon my lips. I brush it off and put on a smile as I look up. When I do look up I see Ashton Irwin looking over at me, his eyes connected with mine and a bright smile formed on his lips. "You next." He mouthed motioning to me. I looked around me to make sure that he is actually meaning me and not somebody else. Around me there was hardly anyone and the ones that were there weren't paying any attention. I look back up to where Ashton was; just to see him walking across the aisle towards me. My smile grows bigger and more genuine .

"Hey!" He smiles brightly

'Hi Ashton! How are you?" I ask, as he reaches me. His smile brightens even more. He pulls me into a hug, his arms tightly wrapping around my waist, holding me close to him. We part and the blush in my cheeks grows deeper in redness. He chuckles, obviously noticing.

"I'm really good thank you love. I'm actually really glad to be home, I've missed it here. Especially my family." He smiles "How about you? How are you-?" he asks prompting for me to give him my name.

"Emma." I laugh, "Yeah, I'm good thank you Ashton. Well besides the fact that I have to get on a nother plane soon."

"Wait what? You mean you're not from Sydney?" He enquires. I shake my head in response.

"No, I flew up here today from Melbourne just to see you guys finally come home."

"Oh my god, are you serious?"

"Yeah, deadly." I chuckled.

"Well then I think that I need to make this even more special for you." He smiled noticing that I had my phone open on the camera app. "A few photos as a reminder?" he asks motioning towards my phone.

"Oh yeah, please, if you don't mind that is."

"Of course not." He laughed, putting an arm around me. I held both of my arms out in front of me to take the photos. We both smile in the first and then as I went to take the next one and Ashton moved to kiss me on the cheek. We finished taking the few photos and I locked my phone and put it back in my pocket.

"I love that tattoo on your wrist by the way." He complemented motioning to my left wrist. I looked down at the cursive writing on my wrist which read 'Freedom'.

"Oh that?"

"Yeah, the detail and quality is amazing." He tells me as he takes my wrist in his hand and gently moves his thumb over the inked writing and small sparrow. I bite down on the inside of my cheeks as he moves his thumb, knowing more than well enough that he would be able to feel the raised scars which are hidden under the ink. He looks up to me with a sympathetic look on his face. He already knows what I am hiding. "is there a meaning behind it?" he asks, trying hard not to pry it open. I hesitate to answer him, not because I didn't want him to know, but because I didn't know how to say it. " It's okay, you don't have to tell me of you don't want to." He smiles kindly.

"No, I want to, it's just that I don't know how to phrase it." I take in a deep breath. "It's actually a tribute and a reminder of these 4 people who have brought freedom into my life. After years of being bullied, hurt and traumatised, they taught me that it's okay to be yourself, it's okay to be different and more importantly that it's okay not to be okay. They have given me a place where I am loved and where I belong." His sympathetic look slowly turns into a smile that has a hint of an overwhelmed feeling. "Yes. The ink may be hiding some things that I have done in the past, but it is there to remind me that there is freedom in my life and that It is okay to be me." The over whelmed smile fades from his face and is replaced with a bright one.

"These people sound like some amazing friends." I let out a laugh at his comment.

"They're not my friends." He gives me a puzzled look. "It's you and your 3 best friends." His puzzled look fades and changes to a warm smile. "You're my freedom." I complement him, "You guys have given me so much light and freedom that I don't know how to repay you." A shy smile creeps upon my face as I look away. Suddenly a pair of strong arms wrap themselves around me.

"Emma, That is beautiful. And over whelming all at the same time. It is so touching that you felt comfortable enough to share that with me, and to also share with me how much we have changed your life." He pulls away and opens his phone to twitter. "Can you please find your twitter? So I can follow you and also so that if you ever need to talk or get your mind off anything you can DM me?' he explains as he passes me his phone, I tap on the screen looking for my twitter. I find it and pass Ashton back his phone, he then taps upon the screen and smiles. "One more photo? Please?" I nod and return his bright smile. He puts an arm around me and pulls me in close. I smile happily as he takes the photo.

"Thank you Ashton. You better go, I think security is looking for you." I say motioning to the man wearing a black t-shirt which reads security who is walking towards us.

"Thank you though Emma. Thank you for sharing your story with me. It's something that I am never going to forget." He says as the security guard motions for him to leave. Then he does, Ashton finally greets his awaiting family. They all then walk off, filing into different cars and are gone. I sigh happily and begin to walk to the bus stop to the domestic terminal. From within my pocket my phone buzzes and chimes. It is a twitter notification, I open it to reveal Ashton's twitter. "Thank you to all the fans at the airport, it was lovely to see you all xxx" then my phone buzzes again, another twitter notification had just some through; again it was from Ashton. The tweet was the photo that he had take with me before he left, captioned with the word "Freedom."