I woke up first, with his head tucked under my chin, his hair tickling me, the smell of him all around me. I thought about him, the mouth on him, how he seemed able to talk about anything, anytime, yet had been unable to voice such a basic, common wish to me for so long. What else was lurking in his adorable, tangled head, unable to find a way out?

In his sleep, he tightened his arms around me, pulling my leg with his, saying something unintelligible. I patted his pack, shushing him, and he settled back down, diving back into sleep.

I was the happiest person on earth. I had to be. What a feeling. I had my scholarship. I had Teddy. There was nothing else I wanted. I smiled. I was going to cry. I squeezed him.

"Hello?" came a gravelly voice from within my arms. "Someone's trying to sleep down here? Could you try to strangle me later, perhaps?"

"I'm sorry," I said, letting go and looking at his face. "I just got carried away--" I smiled at him, wiping away my tears.

"Just decided you couldn't live with me anymore?" he asked, pulling himself up so he could breathe. He ended up sitting against the headboard, pulling me against his chest.

I shook him. "I'm just so happy," I said. "I don't know what to do with myself. I mean, all I've thought about for so long is this scholarship, and now I have it, and I feel weird." I looked at him.

"What?" he asked me. "There's something more."

"Yeah," I confessed. I moved to sit in his lap, facing him, tracing random patterns on his chest. "It's not very forward thinking of me, and I'm kind of shocking myself by thinking it, by feeling it."

"A cavewoman thought, hmm?" He smiled at me. "Shall I put a bone through your nose?"

"Seriously, I can't believe I feel this way." I rolled my eyes. "Now that I know you. Now that I have you in my life. Now that I love you." I looked at him. "Other things aren't as important, you know?"

He nodded. "I know. I feel the same way. I don't think that's odd, or particularly caveman, either. So what's the thought?" He reached out and twirled my hair.

"The scholarship doesn't actually matter to me as much as I thought it would, can you believe that?" I stared at him. "I mean, the thing that has driven my entire life for the past, what, eight years? Doesn't matter nearly as much to me as the fact that you're here with me, and that you love me and make me so happy." I looked around the room, waving my arms, and wound up plucking at the bedspread, just for something to do with my hands. "It's like the laws of gravity no longer apply or something; this huge thing in my life no longer has the value I thought it had." I looked at him again. "Am I making any sense? Or do I just sound high, like I usually sound?"

He sat up, so we were eye to eye. "You sound like my darling, like my forever girl, like you always sound," he said, tucking my hair behind my ear. "You're lovely, lively, articulate, and completely clear to anyone who knows you, and I understand you absolutely." He put his hand on the back of my head and kissed me, smiling, so sexy.

"It's going to take a bit for the scholarship business to sink in, first of all," he continued. "Plus, things have changed a bit for you since you applied for it. I mean, not officially or anything, but you know us lot now. You know that, no matter what, scholarship or no, we would find a way for you to finish school." He saw me taking a breath to argue, and he kissed me to stop me from talking. "Shh," he admonished with a smile. "Regardless of whatever you were going to say, you know that it's true." He pointed at my chest. "Deep down, in your huge, loving heart, you know, you must just know, that the boys and I would see you through school if your scholarship got bollocksed up." He looked in my eyes, unblinking. "And that must take a lot of pressure off at some level as well, yeah?"

I just looked at him, and he just looked back. I would never win against those eyes. I never would. I leaned forward and kissed each one, as he closed his eyelids, beautiful eyelashes lying against his face.

He pulled me to him in a powerful hug, our heads resting on each other's shoulders. We remained that way for a while, just breathing.

Eventually he released me a little, just enough so we could kiss, the loveliest, softest kiss. Our "I love you"s were uttered at the same time, barely audible, into each other's mouths.

His phone buzzed with a text. It was Matty, wondering if we wanted to have breakfast together before they went to finish preparations for his party.

He looked at me. "You feel like having them roaring around here while we eat? It's up to you."

"Sure, I love roaring around with them, you know that," I smiled. "What exactly are our plans for today, anyway? Until your party, I mean," I added.

"Well," he put his phone down. "I just checked, and it's supposed to get up close to fifty degrees today, which almost balmy for New York City in January, so I was thinking that we could just walk around, hit some of our favorite spots again? Bad weather's coming within a couple days, so we should get our last looks today, and start, um, apartment hunting, don't you think?" He grinned at me.

"Oh my god, you're right," I breathed, sitting back down on the bed. "I completely forgot. We get to fucking live here." I lunged at him, pulling him down on the bed with me. "Apartment hunting. Jesus." I rolled over so he was under me. I kissed him, rubbing against him, which caused an immediate reaction in both of us. "Did you already text the boys?"

He sighed. "Unfortunately, yes. They'll be here in about five minutes." He slid his hands under my undies, grabbing my bottom, squeezing. "Have I told you recently how much I love your ass?"

I collapsed on top of him, laughing. "Actually, no, you haven't; 'bum' is your word of choice for that particular body part, anyway, and I'd remember because I love how your accent makes the word 'ass' sound so classy." I reached under him, giving a squeeze.

"Hey, what are you doing down there?" he asked, rolling over and pinning me under him.

"Just a little ass-grabbing reciprocity," I explained. "I like yours, too, you know," I whispered, pushing on him with both hands.

"Mm, god, I love when you do that, it's so sexy; why is that so sexy?" he murmured, rubbing against me.

"Fuck, now what? We're both totally turned on, and they're, like, probably on their way," I said.

"Delayed gratification, isn't that what you always say?" he asked, looking at me.

I nodded.

"Right, delayed gratification," he repeated himself, closing his eyes for a moment. "So first, I have to get off your gorgeous body," he explained. "I won't stop thinking about fucking you as long as you are supine under me.

"'God, such a sexy word," he mused, rolling off of me.

"Shelley, in this state, you'd probably think 'stapler' was a sexy word," I said with a laugh, getting off of the bed.

I just had time to get dressed before the boys showed up. I put on a pair of the super cute jeggings that Ronan had gotten me for Christmas. They were purple, going from palest lavender to darkest violet, with all kinds of flowers all over them. I had a long sleeved shirt in one of the shades of purple that I put on for inside, and a sweater that I'd made in another shade of violet that I'd put on when we went out.

Teddy made me do a twirl when I came out of the closet wearing them. "You have to have, like, a perfect ass to pull those off," he explained when I asked what the big deal was.

"You're just looking for an excuse to say 'ass' again," I accused him, laughing. "You know I like it, and you just wanted to say it."

"I don't need an excuse to say it if I want," he protested. "Look. Ass. Ass. Ass. See? I can say it as often as I like, for no reason at all."

I was falling all over the bed, laughing, when the boys knocked on the door. I quickly put my hair up in a messy bun and let them in.

"What's so funny?" Gethin asked, picking me up and kissing me.

I just shook my head. "Nothing important, honest."

"Tink! I told you you'd look totally hot in those!" This from Ronan. "I was right! Your, um, bum looks amazing! Merry Christmas, angel!" He picked me up and smacked me noisily on the cheek as I laughed.

"Ronan, please do not discuss the amazingness of my girl's bum in my presence," Teddy called from the closet.

"Yes, Ronan, sweetheart, thank you so much, I love them, and they're cotton, which you couldn't have known, but I love that also." I smiled at him. "They're very warm, and so comfortable, too."

"Good morning, Matty," I said, kissing him. He hugged me, smiling.

"And where's the birthday boy?" he asked, looking around.

"He's right here," Teddy said, emerging from the closet, zipping up his pants. "He was getting dressed, sorry."

"Happy birthday, mate!" And general shouting and merriment ensued as they all hugged and kissed and picked each other up. I just stood out of the way and watched. It was all so beautiful, and made me want to cry. I wondered if I was just going to be in a constant state of tears, all day long. Teddy's phone had been buzzing non-stop as birthday wishes poured in from all over the world, and social media was practically combusting, his Twitter in constant motion as literally millions of fans tried to wish him happy birthday at the same time. He would send out one tweet tomorrow to thank them all at once for the lovely birthday wishes.

His parents had been invited to my audition and his birthday party, but had canceled, very last minute, because his father had developed bronchitis, which was no joke in someone his age. In fact, we had asked if we should cancel the party and head back to England as soon as my audition was over, but his mother and father had both insisted that we have the party as planned, that his father was in no danger of dying, and that it would be far more upsetting to know that everything had been canceled because of him.

Breakfast arrived, and we spent a few minutes moving everything around, finding room for the tons of food we always ordered. I took a minute to look out of my favorite window, leaning into the embrasure to look down the street. On a whim, I lifted the sash, and Teddy was right, it wasn't freezing. I leaned out and saw puffy white clouds, a harbinger of the bad weather that was to come, but which, for today, only added joy to my already beautiful day.

Some screams came from the plaza as a few girls saw me. Obviously the screams weren't for me, but they knew that wherever I was, UK Crush had to be close by. They had signs and everything, with what looked like a birthday cake on them. Sweet. I pulled my head in to talk to the boys, who were still maneuvering tables and pouring juice.

"Guys?" They looked over at me. "Please, come stick your heads out the window, just for a sec, these girls have probably been out here all night in the freezing cold, and they'd be so happy if they could see you and wish Teddy a happy birthday?"

"Of course, scoot over a bit," Matty responded with a smile. I lifted all of the windows as far as they'd go, and the boys popped their heads and shoulders out, waving. I went to the other window and opened it so I could watch.

The screaming on the street reached a fever pitch and the signs started moving all over the place. "Happy birthday, Theo!" and "We love you!" could be heard, and incredibly, to me anyway, cries of "Congratulations, Tinker Bell!" and "Great performance, Tink!" were heard also. Teddy turned to me from his window, laughing, and gave me a thumbs up. I shrugged back at him in a "wow" gesture.

Finally, admonishing the fans to get in out of the cold, the boys came in, closing the window. I closed mine as well, and we attacked our breakfast. We talked about the party, about how many people would be coming, when we should get there, general things, and Matthew took a few minutes to call the closest Starbucks and have hot chocolate sent to the fans out front. It sounded like the management of the Rainbow Room would be handling just about everything, that all we had to do was show up.

"Eight o'clock?" I asked. They nodded.

"Well, that's what the guests have been told," Ronan clarified. "Birthday boy here should probably arrive a little later, like nine or ten, you know? Give everyone else a chance to get there, get a little pissed?" He smiled. "Seems like everyone we asked is coming, so it's going to be huge, mate." He looked at Teddy. "You're a popular fellow, if you didn't know already."

"So, what are your plans for today?" Gethin asked, looking at us. "Anything special? Or just hanging out here?"

"Well," said Teddy, taking my hand and kissing it, "it seems like today, and possibly tomorrow, are the last days of nice weather we're going to have around here for a while, so we're going to walk around the city, re-visit some of our favorite places, starting with the Brooklyn Bridge, I think?" He looked at me for confirmation. I nodded. "We need to get some ideas for where we'd like to live for the next two years, for when we go apartment hunting, because someone's so damned talented that we have to move to New York City so she can go to school." He kissed my hand again, and followed it up with a kiss on my mouth.

The boys, predictably, all "aww"ed, and clapped, much to my embarrassment, making me tear up, of course. I finally got up and went to the bathroom to end the moment, and I washed my face to wipe away evidence of my tears.

By the time I came back, the boys had cleared away breakfast, putting everything back on the cart and pushing it out into the hall, and they were all on the bed in our room, staring at something on Teddy's iPad. They looked up at me as I entered.

"Birdie? I'm not sure how you're going to feel about this," Teddy began, turning the screen so I couldn't see it, and I immediately started to get a stomach ache.

"Oh god, what?" I asked.

"First, just sit down, poppet, nothing to lose your head over," Gethin soothed, patting the bed. I sat down.

"Okay, just tell me, what is it?" I begged.

"Well, something one of the girls said when we were waving at them sounded funny to me, so I thought I'd check," Matthew said, as if this explained everything. I just stared at him.

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph, just show her," said Ronan.

"Come here, love." Teddy motioned me over, and I went and sat in front of him, so he could work the keyboard around me.

He pushed something, and I appeared, sitting at a piano, wearing my thrift store dress. My ankle bracelet twinkled, flashes of magenta, blue and white fire. It was my performance from last night, recorded from somewhere in the middle of the house. I could see the tops of the boys' heads in the frame, in fact.

"Ronan," I whispered, touching the screen where his spiky blond hair was silhouetted against the stage lights.

The boys all looked at me, trying to gauge my reaction as I watched myself. "Volume?" I asked Teddy softly, over my shoulder. He clicked the volume up. It was the third movement, near the middle, and I was flying. We all watched in silence until the end, until the thunderous applause, when everyone, including the person recording, stood up for me.

"Someone posted it last night, and it's been going crazy ever since," Teddy said, rubbing my shoulder. "Over 300,000 views in twelve hours."

I looked at Matthew. "And how did you know to look for this? Something one of the fans said?"

He nodded. "She said, 'Nice performance, Tinker Bell', or something like that, remember? And I thought, what were the chances that she was there, at your audition last night? It just seemed an odd thing for her to say unless she'd actually seen you, but how could she? And that made me think that maybe someone had recorded you and put it up. And someone had."

Teddy closed the iPad and put an arm around my waist, pulling me into his lap. "Are you okay with this? We know how private you are about everything. I mean, you were photographed to death at New Year's and everything, but it was still in the context of the band, of being with us. This is all you, just you. Do you feel uncomfortable? Should we go after the person who did it, make them take it down? Hmm? We can do that, if you want."

I considered, then slowly shook my head. "No. No, I don't think so. If anything, it can really only help me, I think. I mean, I heard everyone else's performance, and I just heard a piece of mine, and if the rest of mine is as good as what I just heard, and I have to assume it is, then I deserved to win. And this video is proof of that. No one can watch this and doubt that I didn't deserve to win, right?" I looked at him. He shook his head. I looked at the rest of the boys, who all shook their heads in agreement.

"I will admit that I'm a little curious about the motivation of the person who did this," I said. "Hopefully he or she is just a classical music lover, and not someone who has a fetish for ankle bracelets or something, you know?" Teddy tightened his grip around my waist.

"And," I said, trying to lighten the mood, "maybe this will make a lot of people interested in classical music, or at least in Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique?"

"Okay, people, on that note, we need to get this day rolling," said Geth, leaning in to kiss the top of my head. "We three have last minute things we're in charge of, you two have a romantic walk around the city to get to," he smiled at us, "so let's all get to it, shall we?"

"See you at the Rainbow Room between nine and ten, then?" said Matty from the door.

I nodded. "Love you, Matty," I said with a smile.

"Love you back, Tink," he responded, shutting the door.

As soon as the door was closed I went to Teddy, who was looking at something on his phone, and grabbed him from behind, hugging him tightly. He put his phone down, turning around with his arms up.

"Hey, what's this?" he asked. "Something wrong?" He hugged me back, resting his cheek on my head.

"No, absolutely nothing's wrong," I shook my head, tightening my grip on him. "This is my 'nothing's wrong, life is perfect, and I'm so happy I'm about to explode' hug," I explained.

"Okay then," he said, reaching down to pat my bottom. "Ass," he said placidly, making me laugh.

"Kiss me," I whispered, turning my head up.

He did, holding my face in his hand, making a happy noise as he did. "I swear, there would be world peace if everyone could just feel what I feel when we kiss," he said, looking at me, smiling. He kissed me again, loosening all of the joints in my body.

"Didn't you say the weather would be nice tomorrow, too?" I asked, putting my hands on his backside and running my hands all around.

"No," he said, closing his eyes at the feel of my hands. "I said there was the possibility of nice weather tomorrow. We can't count on it, that's why we have to go out now, that's why we can't just stay indoors and have a shagfest today, if that's what you're thinking," He looked down at me, frustration and affection in his eyes.

"Oh." I turned away. "I'm not going to say that I'm not disappointed. I'm not going to say that 'shagfest' hadn't crossed my mind. But I'm an adult. I understand about delayed gratification, it's not a problem."

I smiled at him from the doorway to the bathroom. "Besides, rainy days are great for shagfests, anyway, right?

"Just let me brush my teeth and put on my sweater, okay?"

He joined me a minute later, wearing the gray sweater I'd made him for Christmas. I smiled, and he smiled back.

"That sweater looks great on you," I said. "Really brings out your eyes." I bent over to spit, and when I came back up, he was behind me, waiting to grasp me around my waist.

"All the sweaters you made look great on me," he said. "They fit beautifully, and the colors are gorgeous. And they were made by your beautiful hands, and it shows." He kissed my neck. "You ready to go?"

I grabbed my sweater and pulled it over my head. "Yes," I said with a smile.

"Oh, hold on," he said. "I wanted to get my hair out of my face today, looks a bit windy." And he disappeared back into the bathroom, returning a couple minutes later with his hair tied into a bun. I loved his hair this way, because it showed the clean, absolutely perfect line of his jaw. I had to be extra careful not to stare at him when he wore his hair like this, because I could just look at him forever, him and his perfect jaw.

He looked at me, holding out his hand. "Shall we?" I nodded, grasping his hand.