The Bass Player » [cashton] √

0.3

[31st of October - London]

They'd had two days break between the Brixton and London shows; there had also been a cold change in the air, making the sightseeing they'd wanted to do a lot more complicated. This was mainly because Calum couldn't handle the cold. Nia, of course, was wearing two layers less than everyone else and three less than Calum.

They hadn't seen much of Tempted Timeless, who had had people outside their hotel for the past two days, making ingress and egress near on impossible. Angel & Trinkets, however, had been out and about, and despite his protests of it being far too cold not to be curled up in a nice heated hotel room, Calum had been taken with them. They hadn't gotten to see as much as they'd wanted because, on three separate occasions, he'd made them go into pubs and have a drink as nothing more than a way to get everyone to sit down somewhere warm.

After those two days though, the girls and Lesedi were starting to annoy him, so he'd found his way up into the stands and sat on the hard floor, hidden between rows of chairs. To start with, he'd written a few verses but had abandoned them in favour of a sketch.

It was Rachael from memory, so it wasn't exactly right, but the focus was more on accurately portraying her tight tendrils of curly hair rather than her facial features. He was so focused on it that he wasn't paying attention to the sound of approaching footsteps. But once the panting came into earshot, he whipped his head up and saw a pink and sweaty Ashton standing above him. He was dressed just like Calum, a hoodie (both their own merch), leggings and gym shorts over them, and a pair of sneakers.

"You do realise there are about; I don't know, a thousand actual chairs you could be sitting on?" Ashton asked, pushing one of the flip chairs down and taking a seat beside Calum.

"I was sitting down here so no one could see me," he told him matter-of-factly.

"Now, who could you be needing to hide from?" Ashton wondered, his tone teasing but his look serious enough that Calum knew he was genuinely asking.

"Not hiding, just staying out of sight in an attempt not to be seen," Calum shrugged, trying to seem interested in his drawing still.

Ashton chuckled, "I think you might have just defined hiding,"

"I just wanted to be alone for a little bit, and I didn't think anyone would come looking through the rows," he admitted, wondering where this conversation might be going. The two of them hadn't had a conversation this long in the week or so, they'd been on tour, and Calum rationalised that maybe talking to Ashton would make his silly crush go away; however, the sudden warmness did catch him off guard.

"Well, I only saw you because I was running the stairs, so you shouldn't have to worry about anyone else finding you,"

"Yeah, but what if someone comes to see why you're sitting all the way up here talking to yourself?" the longer the conversation went on, the bolder Calum felt. Ashton wasn't as aloof as he made out to be; he was just as normal as Michael and Luke.

Ashton thought for a moment before shifting himself off the seat onto the floor, "there, problem solved,"

Calum rolled his eyes, having no other retort.

"So is this Rachael? Are you two dating?"

"Yeah, it is, and no, I'm gay," Calum was caught in yet another instance where as much as he wanted to be nonchalant, he couldn't help but blush at the admission.

"Oh, I know; you practically shouted it at that bar a few nights ago. I just wanted to see if you took the bait as easily as they said you did," Ashton was chuckling to himself, but he gave Calum a warm smile to show it was all in good fun.

"Well, I didn't shout it this time... so they were wrong," Calum said, now back working on his drawing, needlessly thickening lines to avoid calculating the appropriate amount of eye contact.

"I know, but you also said you blush at anything which seems to be true,"

This also made Calum blush, which was incredibly frustrating, "I'm gonna have to work on that, or interviews are going to be really embarrassing,"

"I think it's endearing,"

"I doubt everyone else will see it that way," Calum let his eyes roll again.

"You didn't blush that time,"

"That's 'cos I can't take you seriously; you're giving me a hard time on purpose,"

"Maybe I am," he paused for a moment before continuing on another tangent, "Have you guys had your first proper interview yet?"

"Angel has, right after your tour manager contacted us, but the rest of us haven't-" he interrupted himself "actually, I did one over the phone for Alt Press once. It was mostly just questions about being the newest member and the only guy,"

"Yeah, solo interviews are sort of strange; it'll be better as you go along,"

"Should I get a notebook, 'Advice from Ashton Irwin through the ages', become your memoirist?"

"Yes, I have a lot of advice to give you, young man,"

"Oh? And that is?" he let his eyebrows raise and held his hand out as if he were ready to write with an invisible pencil.

"Never wear green in your dressing room, never wear blue on stage, never accept flowers before a show, no whistling in the venue. You don't look like you're writing this down," Ashton said as Calum forgot his mimed pencil.

"Those are all just theatre kid superstitious," Calum laughed.

"You want great advice? You gotta give me something in return... a snack... a fabulous bouquet?"

"After the show, of course,"

"See, you're learning," he said grinning at Calum.