Warnings: Minor amounts of angst

Word Count: 1560

Author's Note: It feels like forever since the last chapter of this series! Might be switching up the posting schedule, but we'll have to see. That's a topic for another post. Anyway, enjoy this chapter! Thank you again for all the continued support 💛

"Oh, good," you sighed as you pulled back the curtain on your bunk. "All the pictures are still here."

"Of course they are," Tyler smiled.

You shook your head and walked over to the couch, flopping down onto it. Your entire morning had been spent cleaning Tyler's house and packing stuff up for tour. Now all you had to do was wait for Josh and the rest of the crew to show up before you could leave.

"Did Josh say when he was going to get here?" you asked as Tyler walked over and took a seat next to you.

"He said he was leaving a while ago, so he should be here any minute." Tyler reached over and put a hand on your shoulder, giving it a light squeeze, "It's going to be ok. I'm going to be here the whole time. Plus, there's not really anywhere you can have a private conversation on a tour bus."

"Right."

You were about to pull out your phone when you heard people talking outside the bus. A few moments later, Josh walked inside carrying a small backpack. He smiled at the two of you and set his stuff down by the table. Your heartbeat sped up. You hadn't seen or talked to one another since you left to stay with Tyler after the party.

"Hey, man," Tyler smiled, standing up to give Josh a hug. You elected to stay sitting on the couch.

"Hey! I haven't seen you guys in a few days and it feels like a lifetime," he laughed. "How have you been?"

"Good," you muttered.

"Yeah, we had to rush to get everything packed this morning," Tyler laughed.

"That reminds me," Josh said, turning to you. "I don't know if Tyler told you, but I packed up the rest of your clothes that were still at my house. They're with the rest of the stuff outside."

"Thanks," you said, trying your best to give him a reassuring smile.

Tyler had offered for you to wear some of his clothes since the majority of your stuff had still been with Josh, but truth be told you were glad to have your actual stuff back. As much as you loved Tyler, you would rather not wear his baggy t-shirts and jeans for the entire second leg of the tour.

Josh smiled and turned back to his bag of stuff. You decided to spend some time organizing all the photos from the first part of the tour so that they didn't accidentally get mixed in with all the new ones. It would also be a good opportunity to sit at the table and ignore everyone else on the bus for a little while.

"Y/N/N!" Tyler said, grabbing your attention.

You looked up from your laptop. Tyler and Josh were sitting on the floor with a couple other crew members, playing card games.

"Huh?" you asked, taking one earbud out so that you could hear him.

"Do you want to come play?"

You looked back to your laptop. After about an hour of work, almost all of your photos were dated and put into their proper folders. Playing card games to kill some time would probably be fun and you couldn't really ignore everyone on the bus forever.

"Sure," you said, shutting your laptop and joining everyone else.

You took a seat between Tyler and another one of the crew members, despite the fact that there had been a bit more space next to Josh. He looked over at you and pursed his lips for a moment before glancing back at his cards.

"You've played Cards Against Humanity before, right?" Tyler asked, handing you a small pile of white cards.

"Yep," you answered, stifling a giggle as you read over some of the cards.

"Great," Tyler smiled.

Josh read out the black card and you immediately placed down your answer. Tyler leaned over and bumped your arm.

"What card should I play?" he whispered, showing you two options.

You giggled at his answers and silently pointed to the better of the two. He smiled and nodded before setting it down with the rest of the white cards. Josh glanced over at the two of you.

This pattern continued for the rest of the game. You and Tyler would giggle and help each other pick out answers, earning you a couple looks from Josh. It sent a pang of guilt through you every time, but you were having too much fun with Tyler to stop. He had brought this on himself, after all.

"I think that's the game," Josh said, noticing that one of the crew members had seven cards.

"Damn," you sighed, having only collected a couple black cards.

Everyone cleaned up the game and returned back to whatever they had been doing. The boys took a seat on the couch and you returned to your laptop to finish up a little bit more work. You were less than an hour away from the venue now, and you had to make sure that all of your equipment was set up properly for the show.

Music was blasting in your ears as you went about cleaning all of your camera lenses. You glanced up at Tyler and Josh, who hadn't moved from the couch in quite some time. They seemed to be in the middle of an intense discussion.

You reached forward and paused your music so that you could hear their conversation a bit better. It was wrong to eavesdrop, but if they didn't want anyone to hear then they shouldn't be having a serious discussion in the middle of the tour bus.

"I don't know what I did," Josh said, just loud enough for you to hear. "Things just haven't been the same since the party. Y/N will barely even look at me anymore, let alone talk to me."

"Have you two tried talking?"

"I mean, no. I'm too afraid of getting shut down."

"You'll never know if you don't ask."

"Yeah, you have a point."

"Why don't you just try casually talking again? That would at least give you a start."

"Yeah."

They stopped talking as one of the crew members walked into the main part of the bus. You started your music and acted as if you hadn't heard anything. Josh got up and walked towards the back of the bus, but Tyler came and joined you at the table.

"How's stuff going over here?" he asked.

You paused your music and pulled out your headphones, setting them on top of your keyboard. Tyler leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table.

"It's going," you sighed. "It feels kinda weird to be back on the road, even if the break was only a week."

"You get used to it. Did you remember all your equipment?"

"So far," you answered, looking over it all. "But I still feel like I'm forgetting something."

"If you did, I'm sure it's replaceable."

"And expensive," you laughed. "I've been meaning to ask, does the show have the same setup this time around?"

"Yep, right down to the setlist."

"Ok, perfect. Now I just have to remember what I did last time," you laughed.

"You'll pick it back up in no time."

Josh returned back to the main part of the tour bus. Upon seeing you and Tyler at the table, he walked over and sat down next to Tyler.

"What's going on over here?" he asked.

"Just cleaning my camera and talking about the show," you answered with a smile.

Josh seemed a bit surprised that you had actually answered him. You set down the lens that you had just finished cleaning and grabbed another one.

"Nice," he nodded. "Are you excited to be taking pictures again?"

"Yeah. It was weird not doing much photography over the break, but it was nice to not worry about it for a while too."

"That makes sense."

"We'll be there in ten minutes!" someone called.

"I should probably get all this packed up," you said, looking over the mess that you had made.

The boys nodded and walked off as you began to pack things back into your bag. It was a complicated process, and if everything didn't go exactly where it was supposed to then your bag wouldn't close.

"Do you have it handled, Y/N/N?" Tyler asked upon noticing you struggling with your bag.

"Yeah," you sighed.

"You sure?"

You shot him a look, "Yes, Ty."

"Ok," he laughed.

You reached over and playfully shoved him in the arm. He tried to do the same in return, but you ducked out of the way at the last second.

"Not fair," he grumbled before walking off.

You finally managed to get your bag closed and set it on the bench. Your stomach was starting to twist a bit as you grew increasingly nervous for the concert, but you pushed the worries aside. This was the same thing that you had been doing for the last three months. You were good at it.

"We're here," Josh announced right as the tour bus slowed to a stop. You grabbed your camera bag and followed everyone else off the bus.

Tyler walked up next to you and threw an arm around your shoulder, "Are you ready for this?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."