Until that night, I'd never seen Noah cry.

When the first solitary tear rolled slowly across the sharp angle of his cheekbone, I didn't know what to do. It had always been me that had let my emotions escape through my eyes, not him. But, on my small, red sofa in my little flat in West London, Noah cried.

And so did I. Until the early hours of the morning, we ran the full gamut of emotions together like two wounded soldiers, desperately trying to make it back over the battlefield alive.

By the time the rising sun started to cast a soft pink glaze across the dark of night, it seemed the war might be over. We were bruised and bloodied, but we hadn't been beaten.

"I suppose we should try and get a couple of hours sleep," I whispered.

Noah ran his fingers through his hair as he yawned in agreement. "I'll call an Uber," he said.

"No. Stay."

Fully clothed, we climbed into bed. As we lay side-by-side, silently blinking at each other, there was nothing left to say. The gentle touch of Noah's hand against my face as he ran his thumb across my cheek spoke louder than any of the shouting we'd done. The soft warmth of his lips as he kissed my forehead was worth more than the apologies that had spilled from them. The steady beating of his heart as he pulled me in close was enough to say it all.

Somehow, whatever lay ahead, we were going to be okay.

The furious vibration of my phone on the bedside table woke me up. Attempting to squint my eyes open, the stinging, swollen after-effects of the previous night's tears and a serious lack of sleep meant it took a split second to remember I wasn't alone.

Under the warmth of the crisp, white duvet, Noah's arms were still wrapped tightly around me. One cradling my neck under the pillow, the other draped heavily over my waist.

The vibrating began again, only now I realised it wasn't my phone. Mine was still in my bag out in the living room. It must be Noah's. Silently, I began to roll towards its direction and reached an arm out to grab it. Noah's hand on my wrist caused me to jump.

"Leave it, go back to sleep."

"This is the second time it's rung," I whispered.

"Don't worry about it, they can call back."

Rolling back towards him, I tucked my arm in under the duvet and nuzzled my head under his chin. We'd talked a lot about trust the previous night and I needed to show him that I'd meant what I said about putting my own insecurities to one side if we were going to move forward.

When the vibrating kicked off again after just a couple of seconds though, he let out a big sigh and reached over me to pick his phone up from the nightstand.

"For fuck's sake," he mumbled as he swiped his thumb across the screen and lifted it to his ear. "What?"

Karen's nasal voice was instantly recongnisable blaring down the to other end of the phone. Whatever her problem was, it seemed she wanted half of London to be able to hear it.

"What's this bullshit I've just heard about you quitting the band? This had better be a fucking wind-up."

Noah opened his mouth to speak but she was quick to carry on her tirade.

"You might think your little love story is the most important thing in the world but you signed a contract, sweetheart. Until that's up, you don't get to quit. You don't get to make any decisions about the future of this band. You don't get to even take a piss without me having a say in it."

"I'm not quitting."

"Why the fuck have I just heard otherwise from Tom?"

"I'm not quitting, Karen. I was considering it, but I'd be an idiot to give up on such a good thing."

A tiny hint of a smirk crept across his lips as he said those words, and I couldn't help smiling back.

"Well, where the hell are you? Alex is gone, too."

"You're the one who agreed to give us a week off."

"A week to get some rest and prepare for the next show, not swan off to wherever the fuck you are right now. I need you all on a video conference in thirty minutes, the Billboard nominations went out last night and we need to brief you all in."

"The Billboard Awards?" Noah's eyebrows nearly shot off his forehead. "Are we nominated?"

"Dial in to the conference number I'm texting you and I'll tell you the details. James and Mikey are already good to go. Make sure you're on in thirty minutes, without fail."

Noah eyes had lit up as a grin began to spread across his face. "Yeah, fine. I'll be on."

"And if you're with Alex can you please tell him not to miss it. I've been calling but his phone is off. Throw water on him if needs be, just make sure you're both dialed in and ready to give a statement."

Without any pleasantries, she hung up. Throwing his phone down onto the bed, Noah beamed as he pulled me back in for a hug.

"Thank you for being right," he said. "I'd be an idiot to walk away but I would have done it in a heartbeat if it meant having you back."

"Well I'm not going anywhere," I smiled. "Anyway, I'm your number one fan. I don't know if I could deal with my favourite member of The Ambition leaving the group."

Laughing, he gave me one last big squeeze and placed a kiss on my forehead.

"I better head over to Alex's," he said, "With all the shit him and Charlotte are going to go through this week I'm looking forward to giving him some good news."

"Oh my god, yeah, the trial," I gasped. "Is he going to be able to go with her?"

"It was the main reason we pushed to have this week off," he said, his lips tightening into a flat, sad smile. "He wouldn't dream of letting her go through it alone. Actually, neither would I, so we're both going to be there."

Charlotte and I hadn't talked much about the trial; she'd always changed the subject when I brought it up. But, with only three days before she was due to face her attacker in court, knowing that Alex would be by her side sent a sense of relief flooding over me.

And, with a renewed dedication to our relationship, Noah would be by mine.

As I leant against the wall of the hallway and watched him slip on his boots, a room full of flowers behind him, my heart felt full.

"I'll be back later," he said, straightening up and kissing me lightly on the cheek. "I mean, if that's okay?"

"Of course it's okay," I laughed as he made his way out of my flat and headed downstairs.

Suddenly, I had an idea.

"In fact," I called after him, "If we're going to do this properly, I might as well give you something."

Turning around, I began to fish around in the bottom of my red satchel hanging on the hook. As my fingers closed around what I'd been looking for, I smiled to myself and ran down to the bottom of the stairs where he was waiting outside with the open front door jammed against his foot.

"You're back for a whole week?" I said, taking a step closer.

"Uh huh."

"And you were going to just float around?"

"I hadn't really thought about it."

"Well, Charlotte's going to be a bit too busy to keep letting you in so I think you should take this."

As I pressed the single, silver key into his palm, Noah raised his eyebrows and grinned.

"Are you sure?"

"If we're serious about giving it our all from now on, may as well make it official," I said, stretching up on my tiptoes to lean out of the door and place a lingering kiss on his lips.

The feeling of his mouth on mine sent an instant wave through every fibre of my body. Gently moving my lips against his, I moved my hands up into his hair and massaged his scalp with my fingertips.

Noah had always felt like home since the day I'd met him, and now he was going to be able to share mine. It may not have been all the time like most couples our age, but we would finally have our own bubble. Away from Karen, away from the demands of both our jobs, away from all the people who wanted a piece of him.

As we broke apart from our kiss and he walked down the path and through the gate with a grin still plastered on his face, I could have floated on air with the strength of the butterflies flying around inside my chest.

It was only when I noticed the long lens of a paparazzi camera disappearing back into the window of a parked car before speeding away, that their wings collectively stopped flapping at the same time and my heart plummeted like a lead weight to the floor.