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Elliott shouldn’t be here.
It was a sentiment he had continuously reminded himself of. First, when he was preparing to leave and Leah immediately made fun of his choice of clothing.
Then as they stood in the painstakingly long line to get into the venue, where he tried to pass the time by reading the book he’d brought.
And now as Leah dragged him straight into the mosh pit right in front of the stage, receiving questioning looks from what felt like every person he passed by.
He couldn’t blame them. Elliott was perfectly aware of how out of place he was, and every passing second seemed to weigh that fact on him. And he was wishing more and more that he had just turned down Leah’s invitation to this stupid concert and stayed home to study.
Finals were quickly closing in, and he was so close to getting out of grad school. So he’d been spending the past week or so either in the library or locked in his room of their shared apartment. But eventually Elliott’s studies were interrupted by his roommate (and best friend) insisting that he just had to come with her to see her new girlfriend’s punk band. There had been quite a lot of bickering between the two before he eventually caved and begrudgingly agreed to go.
Leah hadn’t exactly been wrong after all. He probably could use a break. It’s just that standing for hours in a room full of sweaty people that smelled like weed, smoke, and booze, listening to someone essentially scream into a microphone as they were backed up by instruments that were just too loud, all while lights were being flashed in his face, wasn’t exactly Elliott’s idea of ‘a nice break.’ Regardless, he was still here.
“Elliott, do you think you could look at least a little less miserable?” Leah elbowed him playfully.
“My apologies, Leah dear. But as you know, I am not the best liar.” She scoffed at him, to which Elliott rolled his eyes back at her. “Oh come on, it’s not exactly like you’re wasting any money on me right now. You got those tickets for free.”
“Just one of the many advantages of sleeping with one of the band members.” Leah said with a smirk, pulling the tickets from her pocket and waving them in Elliott’s face. Elliott smacked her hand away, making her laugh.
Leah’s face softened as she put the tickets back.
“Look, I know this isn’t really your thing, El. But could you at least try to have fun? I really like Abigail, and I want to support her.”
“I know, I’m sorry.” Elliott sighed. “I guess I can… try. At least to be supportive.” Leah gave him an appreciative smile.
“Thanks.” He smiled back at her, only to then flinch as cheers started to roar from every direction around him. Elliott looked up as the spotlights came on and highlighted each of the band members.
He already knew one. The drummer with deep purple hair, Abigail. After finding out about Leah and Abigail’s relationship, Elliott had insisted on meeting her new girlfriend. Not only because of the excitement for his friend, but also because he wanted to make sure Abigail hadn’t been someone he should be wary of. Ever since the ‘Kel’ incident, he’d become somewhat protective of his best friend.
He couldn’t recognize the other three though. A guitarist with a spiky blond mohawk, who must’ve been the band leader based on how he hyped up the crowd. An emo keyboardist, and a-
Woah.
Elliott’s breath caught in his throat as his eyes landed on the final member of the band; the bassist.
It might have just been Elliott’s perception of the man, but the bassist seemed to stick out against the rest of the band. The others were clearly young adults, likely early twenties, but the bassist seemed closer to Elliott’s age. He was also shorter than the rest, but that did nothing to soften the man’s intimidating presence.
Although that could have been due to the fact that out of the four of them, the bassist seemed the most ‘punk.’ Ripped black jeans and vest, silver piercings, a spiked collar, and fishnets underneath his tank top.
But Elliott was mostly focused on the man’s face.
Even with the heavy, black makeup, Elliott still could see the bags under his eyes. The scruff on his face. He looked the sort of tired of someone who’s seen more than they should have.
‘Like a rogue with a tragic backstory. The handsome, unlikely hero.’ Elliott thought to himself. And he blushed at the mental image of being rescued from some evil dungeon by this stranger. Tossed over his shoulder like Elliott weighed nothing more to him than the bass guitar in his hands.
Said stranger definitely must have had some sort of gut feeling that someone was ogling him. Because then they made eye contact, and Elliott felt his face get even redder.
And then to make things worse, the man briefly looked around, as if to make sure he really was the one Elliott was staring at, and then smirked and winked right at him. And Elliott felt so weak in the knees his legs almost collapsed underneath him.
But this magical moment was interrupted, as Elliott heard snickering from his left. He turned to find Leah grinning madly at him.
“Looks like someone likes you.”
Elliott crossed his arms, hugging his book protectively.
“Oh hush.”
. . .
The moment the show was over, Abigail ran off to find her girlfriend. Leaving the rest of the band to sit and chat backstage.
Well, Sam and Sebastian talked. Shane usually remained quiet in the background. Waiting for the magic words that told him they were done for the night, and running home to pass out. It’s not that Shane didn’t like his bandmates. If he didn’t, he never would’ve let Sam convince him to join. But these concerts seemed to take a lot out of him, and it didn’t help that Shane preferred to keep to himself.
The type of person who fled the moment someone tried to make small talk with him.
This night, however, Shane wasn’t as quiet as he usually was. There was just something, or someone to be exact, that he couldn’t stop thinking about since they first made eye contact during the show. And he just had to make sure the others had seen him too. That he wasn't just some drunken hallucination (Shane didn’t think he was drunk right now, but he’s not sure if he would even notice at this point).
“Hey, d’you guys notice that guy that was dressed all fancy-like? He was pretty close to the stage.”
The others looked a bit taken aback that Shane had spoken up, but after a moment Sebastian responded.
“Oh yeah, the tall freak?”
“Shut up, that guy was not a ‘freak.’”
Sebastian snorted at this.
“Shane, he literally showed up to a punk concert with a book and dressed like some sort of artsy English teacher. That guy’s definitely a freak.”
“Like you’re one to fuckin’ talk, emo.” Shane said with a scoff. Sam looked at him, a grin forming on the blond’s face.
“You’re getting pretty defensive over there.”
Shane narrowed his eyes.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean, you rarely even defend us. Just curious what makes this stranger so special.”
Shane crossed his arms.
“Nothing.”
Sam and Sebastian exchanged a look.
“Nothing, really?” Sam asked.
“Yes! Really, nothing!”
The other two exchanged another look and started snickering at him.
“So, your little staring contest for like, ninety percent of the show, meant nothing?”
Shane felt his face start to heat up a bit. These two, especially Sebastian, were getting dangerously close to earning a punch to the face. That man was lucky Shane was scared of his mother’s wrath.
“Tch, whaddya mean ‘staring contest?’”
Sam crossed his arms and smirked.
“Okay, fine. The whole undressing that guy with your ey-”
“I WAS NOT-”
“YOU TOTALLY WERE!”
“IT’S NOT MY FAULT HE WAS HOT!”
Shane slapped his hand over his mouth before he could say anything else, but the damage was already done. And now Sam and Sebastian were doubled over laughing at him. At this point, Shane wished that he was drunk. At least in that case he could blame his reactions on alcohol.
“Shane’s got a cruuuuush!” Sam teased in a sing-songy tone.
“What are you, twelve?!” His irritation only seemed to encourage the laughter on the other side of the room.
A moment passed with Shane glaring at the two as they cackled at him when they heard the door open.
“Uh, hey guys, did I miss something?”
It was Abigail, holding some girl with red hair’s hand, who must’ve been Leah. And awkwardly stood behind them was-
‘Oh fuck.’
It was the guy from the crowd.
The others definitely recognized him too, as he heard Sam break into full hysterics and Sebastian shout out,
“NO WAY!”
Shane’s head snapped in their direction and gave them a warning glare. The laughter died down, but Shane did not at all trust the mischievous look on Sam’s face.
Sam stood up, walking over to where the three new people were standing.
“Hey! You must be Leah, right? Abi’s already told us a lot about you.”
This made Abigail flush pink and glare at the blond. But the redheaded girl only giggled in response.
“Yup, that’s me! I sure hope she’s been saying good things.”
“Oh don’t worry, she says very good things about you.” Sam said, wiggling his eyebrows. And then the blonde turned his attention to the other new person in the room, his friendly smile turning into a smirk.
“And what’s your name, hot stuff?”
That’s it. Shane was going to murder Sam. Or at least beat the shit out of him.
The stranger seemed taken aback, a soft shade of pink forming across his face as he chuckled. Shane would’ve found that adorable. If it hadn’t been fucking Sam that had caused this reaction.
“Quite the flatterer, aren’t you? I’m Elliott.” He stuck out his hand in greeting. “And you are?”
“Sam.” The blonde said as he reached out to shake the other’s hand. “I’m the band leader. Lead guitarist, lead singer, as well as the best singer. I’m like a huge deal.”
“Like fuck you are.” Shane blurted out.
And now Elliott was looking in Shane’s direction, his smile growing as they made eye contact again. And Shane felt like he was going to keel over and die at any second now.
It had been easy for Shane to flirt with this gorgeous stranger on stage, Elliott had been in the crowd so there was a good distance between them. There wasn’t a risk of Shane saying or doing the wrong thing and scaring him off.
And Shane had a persona when he was on stage. He was someone while he was on stage. Someone cool and confident, someone people admired, someone who knew exactly what they were doing with their life. And this was the complete opposite of Shane’s reality.
“Ah, I remember you!” Elliott stepped closer, and Shane had to fight the urge to step further away. “The bassist, correct?”
Shane awkwardly cleared his throat before responding.
“Uh, yeah. Name’s Shane.”
Elliott stuck his hand out in greeting, which Shane hesitantly took.
The other man’s hands were soft and smooth, and Shane tried not to think about how awful his own must feel. All dry, flaky skin. Calluses and scars. However, Elliott didn’t flinch or pull away like Shane had expected him to. In fact, it seemed that Elliott was taking his sweet time with this handshake.
“You did positively lovely this evening!” Elliott’s smile suddenly grew awkward as he remembered the other band members in the room. “Er, I mean—you all did lovely of course!”
“Wow, thanks.” Came Sebastian’s sarcastic voice from beside Shane.
Elliott chuckled nervously, reaching up and fiddling with one of the strands of his hair. Sam came up to wrap his arm around Sebastian’s shoulders.
“Hah! This is Sebby-”
“Don’t call me that.”
“-and don’t worry, he’s like that with basically everyone!”
Sebastian swatted at Sam’s arm, huffing in annoyance. Which made the blond laugh.
Then Sam snapped his fingers as if he’d just remembered something.
“Ya know, me, Seb, and Abi usually hang out at the bar after shows, you guys should totally come with!”
Elliott was about to respond when Leah beat him to it.
"Absolutely, that sounds like fun!”
This earned her a small glare from the other redhead, which Leah responded with a self-satisfied grin in return.
“I suppose.” Elliott sighed. But then he perked up a little as he looked at Shane. “And, will you be joining us this evening?”
Shane hated going to the other band member’s little ‘after parties.’ The others were always way too loud, while Shane preferred to drink in silence. And the alcohol in their systems always made them bolder with their attempts at conversation with him. Especially Sam.
But before Shane could even think of these downsides, one look at the shining hope in Elliott’s eyes and he blurted out an agreement before he could even think about it.
“Yeah, sure.”
. . .
They ended up going to a bar a bit far from the venue to avoid crowds.
The other members of the band had been ecstatic that Shane agreed to come along. Apparently, he was not one to spend any more time with his bandmates than he had to, which made sense to Elliott. Of course the mysterious, handsome rogue would avoid social interaction.
But apparently, tonight was different.
The mysterious, handsome rogue had decided to go out for once. And Elliott couldn’t help but hope that he was the reason why. After all, it did seem that there was at least something going on between them.
Elliott could always just be romanticizing everything, he usually did. But it felt justified this time. They ended up sitting next to each other in the car, where there were plenty of stolen glances. And every time they made eye contact Shane would flush red and pretend he was staring at something else.
It was completely different from the man that had winked at him on stage. Far more shy, nervous. Whatever confidence Shane had had that led him to single Elliott out during the concert seemed to have completely vanished. But Elliott didn’t mind. In fact, he liked seeing this side of the punk. There was something about it that felt so incredibly human. And it made Elliott’s heart melt.
At this point they’d found a decent enough table at the corner of the bar, and Sam had insisted on buying rounds for the whole group. They had all gone back and forth with the conversations, and had even attempted a drinking game (this didn’t last).
Shane didn’t talk much, but it was clear that he was a good listener.
They were sat next to each other, and after some small talk Elliott ended up going on a tangent about the current book series he was reading. At first he thought Shane was just being polite, but then the man started asking him specific questions.
And it made Elliott feel the most seen he’d been in years. Possibly ever. Even Leah had a limit on his rambles, but this near stranger was sat there listening intently to whatever Elliott had to say. Staring at him like he was the most important thing in the room.
But at this point, the noise in the bar was becoming a bit too much for Elliott, and he was starting to get overstimulated. So he opted to excuse himself and escape to the outside for a moment.
It was such a beautiful night.
The moon was bright. And the stars, while faint due to the city’s light pollution, dotted the dark sky in stunning patterns.
Elliott was beginning to mentally write poems about the sight when he heard a voice next to him.
“Hey, uh, you good?”
Shane was standing next to him, hands awkwardly shoved in his pockets, and Elliott smiled at him.
“Oh yes, don’t worry about me! It was just becoming a little too loud in there, and I needed a break.”
Shane snorted.
“Wow, if just the bar’s becoming too much for you, how the hell did ya survive goin’ to a punk concert?”
Elliott laughed softly.
“To be perfectly honest, I didn’t really want to go at all. It was Leah who dragged me there. I’m not sure if you noticed, but I’m not exactly a very ‘punk’ man.” Elliott gestured towards his outfit with a grin and they both broke out in laughter.
Once the laughter died down, Elliott’s smile turned soft as he looked at Shane.
“I’m actually glad I went, though. Still not sure it’s my kind of music, but I had fun. And I certainly liked having backstage access and getting to meet the band one on one.”
Shane smiled back at him and then looked away. Reaching his hand up to rub the back of his neck and staring at the ground.
“Was there, uh…” Shane cleared his throat. “You got a favorite band member…?”
Elliott’s eyes widened just a bit, but then his face broke out into a playful grin.
“Hmm… perhaps.”
“Oh, who? Uh. If you don’t like, mind me askin’.
“Why don’t you guess?” Elliott said with a smirk as he leaned against the side of the building.
“Abigail?”
“Pretty sure she’s already Leah’s favorite. I wouldn’t want to get in the way of that.”
“Sebastian?”
“Frankly, I actually kept forgetting he was even there.”
“Sam?”
Elliott laughed.
“I’ll admit Sam is rather charming, but he’s not exactly my type. Only one left.”
Shane hesitated for a moment before finally looking back up at Elliott. A glimmer of hope in his dark purple eyes that Elliott found adorable.
“...me?”
“Yes.”
Elliott’s face broke out into a large grin, and Shane started to smile back at him. That awkward tension finally starting to leave him as Shane slowly started moving closer, eyes on Elliott’s lips. And Elliott was just about to meet him halfway when they both heard the door to the bar open and jumped back.
“Hey Elli- oh.”
It was Leah. And Elliott was starting to mentally curse her.
“Sorry, did I interrupt something?” Leah said with a smirk. She must have noticed how red the two had been.
Both Elliott and Shane started awkwardly stammering explanations when she laughed.
“Geez, I’m just kidding! You two are acting like awkward teenagers.” They were both about to start arguing against the statement, but Leah kept going. “Listen, I was planning on spending the night at Abi's, but that means I’ll have to take the car. Are you okay taking the bus back?”
Elliott cleared his throat and straightened up.
“Oh, ah, yes. Yes, that’s perfectly fine.”
“Thanks, El. Let me know when you get home so I know you didn’t get kidnapped or something.”
“Yes, of course! Have fun!”
Leah rolled her eyes and went back into the bar, likely to go grab her girlfriend.
It took Elliott a moment to realize what he’d just agreed to and he groaned, rubbing his face with his hands.
“Pft. You okay?”
Elliott removed his hand from his face and realized that Shane was looking at him, a look of amusement on his face.
“Ah, yes, I just… really don’t like taking the bus.” Elliott explained, now embarrassed by his own melodramatic reaction.
“Then why did you say it was okay?”
“I… might have been a little distracted, and I just wasn’t thinking!”
“Oh.”
Shane was now looking at the ground again, an expression of guilt on his face. But then his expression shifted and he looked back up at Elliott.
“Hey, would you like to spend the night at my place?”
Elliott was a little bit taken aback at this question and blinked a few times. The sudden silence made Shane panic.
“I mean, you don’t have to! Oh fuck I’m so sorry, that was probably really weird and forw-”
“I would love to.”
Shane stopped his apologetic ramble right in its tracks, and now he was the one looking at the other with surprise.
“You… would?”
“Of course!” Elliott smiled. But then backtracked, thinking he sounded a bit too desperate. “I-I mean, as long as you would still like to…”
Shane grinned and held out his hand, and Elliott took it with a smile.
Maybe he should start going to punk concerts more often.
. . .
Meanwhile, on the inside of the bar, the two remaining band members watched from the window as Shane led Elliott to his car. Even opening the door for him, which made the redhead giggle.
Sam looked at Sebastian with a large, shit-eating grin.
“I fucking told you so.”
Sebastian gave him an exaggerated scoff as he grabbed his wallet out of his pocket.
“I hate you so much.” He mumbled as he handed the blonde a ten.