BOND

10.

Heaven's so close to the both of us

For the rest of the night, we could fly, we could rise above

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Joey woke up cold and shivering. He moved his hand around searching for his blanket and then sat up straight when he couldn't find it. 

It was dark outside and he had to squint his eyes to make out the figure of someone laying next to him. On the ground for some reason. As the sleepy daze cleared he saw Alex next to him. Hogging up all the blanket that someone must've put on them. As far as he remembered they'd fallen asleep talking about everything that was going on. That was a while ago and judging by Alex's snores he had no plans of waking up any time soon. 

Slowly, wiping off the last dregs of sleep from his eyes, Joey went into the next room. It was another bedroom. It took him a couple of minutes before he could find the main door. The corridor outside was totally deserted and he realized that navigating through this maze was a pretty stupid idea.

He was just heading back inside when the elevator chimed from down the corridor and a voice floated through the dead silence.

Not to scare whoever the voice belonged to, he moved half in through the door, partially hiding himself. 

To his much needed relief, Elena appeared with a phone tucked between her ear and shoulder, a laptop in one hand and a go-to cup in another.

Elena caught sight of Joey looking impossibly good for someone who had bed hair and couldn't really open his eyes. She grinned at him and held up a finger. Gimme a minute . 

Joey stepped forward and took Elena's phone from its precarious position, holding it to her ear himself. He nearly dropped it after the smile she gave him.

"Yeah, I signed like a billion other forms too," Elena said into the phone. 

She looked at Joey and then tilted her head towards the floor. He didn't really understand what she meant so he just started kneeling down slowly.

Elena probably could see that he was confused because she nodded slightly and sat in front of him. 

With the laptop in between them they sat in the middle of the corridor. Completely in the open yet secluded from prying eyes. 

She took the phone from his hand and passed him the cup. Pressing the phone against her shoulder for a second she said, "Black, no sugar." And went back to her conversation.

Joey took a sip and nearly threw up from how strong it really was. He was a coffee person but not this bitter. 

Elena typed something on her laptop and turned it to him. "Of course I read them, Michael. I might look illiterate but I'm actually not."

Joey smiled and shook his head, turning his attention to the laptop. 

It was about the blunder of Elena being in the team and how it was a carefully structured plan made by the two of them so that they could be together. Then it was about two other paragraphs of some other bullshit before he saw probably the best thing he had ever seen on the internet. 

He, Mark, Oliver and a couple other boys had their phones out in the photograph. And Elena was standing behind them, smiling with Ben at her side. 

The next one, he liked even better. He and Elena were looking into each other's eyes. It was from the hotel lobby when they'd just been about to go up to their rooms. He thought back to the conversation he'd had with her.