Thomas learned what fandoms were that next week. As the tour went on, WICKED started blowing up. They gained several thousands of followers due to the massive amounts of people who went to the Blink's shows. People started recognizing just how good WICKED actually was. Pages on instagram started popping up dedicated to the band. They posted edited pictures, updates and even videos. Minho was loving it, he spent a good amount of time commenting on pictures saying how "fucking hot" he was. It impossibly inflated his ego even more. Newt said he was indifferent but Thomas knew it made him happy. He caught him softly smiling at the pages sometimes. Thomas didn't blame him, it's nice when other people appreciate what you work hard on. These "fans" loved the pictures he posted with Teresa. They started taking some and uploading them to the instagram page per Janson's requests. They were mostly stupid pictures, one of Teresa on his back, another of him shoving an ice cream cone in her face. They weren't even staged, Thomas just genuinely liked Teresa and got along with her well. Minho just happened to take pictures at good times. Janson loved it though, he was overly happy with how things were going and he guessed everyone else was too.

Thomas himself had gained a decent amount of followers, Rose was totally jealous. She said his "instagram sucked" and his photos "weren't even aesthetic". Thomas was kinda sad that he couldn't post pictures of him and Newt, but it didn't matter that much. He kept them on his camera roll and boy did he have a nice arsonal of pictures of him and Newt. He had stupid ones from selfies he'd taken with Newt making a weird face to cute ones where Newt was kissing him and even the rare ones where Newt was actually smiling and not holding up a peace sign. Newt hated those ones, but Thomas didn't. Thomas loved them, just like he loved Newt. He loved him a lot.

"Just one outfit?" Teresa begged as she clasped her hands together and stuck out her bottom lip.

"No!" Thomas said again as he looked at Newt for some backup. The blonde boy had his hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter.

"I'll pay for it!" Teresa tried again, sticking her lip further out as if it would help convince him to change his mind.

They were at some weird shop that Teresa dragged them to. It sold clothes that definitely fit her style so he could see why she loved it, but he wasn't sure why he had to be dragged there, or why she was trying to make him pick something out.

"Thomas, sweetheart," Teresa started again as she took his hands. "I love you, but I'm sick of seeing you walk around in the same four tasteless shirts."

Newt snorted out a laugh and Thomas glared at him.

Minho was passed out asleep on the floor of the bus, he'd been like that since he ate four bowls of mac and cheese, they decided to leave him like that. Thomas was a little glad now, he knew that he'd be on Teresa's side in this situation.

"It doesn't have to be anything too crazy! I'll even let Newt help!"

"What if Newt doesn't want to help?" Newt piped up from the rack he was looking at.

Teresa let out a frustrated sigh. "You don't want to help your man dress like he isn't blind?"

Newt shrugged, looking board at the jean jackets he was filing through. "I don't really care what he wears, I'm taking it off him either way."

Teresa let out another noise. "You gays are impossible."

"You mean guys?"

"No. I said what I said."

"Hey, Minho's only half gay and he's more impossible than us."

"Fair point," Teresa replied as she turned back to Thomas. "Please. I'll do anything."

That caught Newt's attention. "Anything?"

"I was talking to Thomas."

"We're a package deal," Newt said as he walked over to them. "If Thomas lets you pick out an outfit, will you take Minho out somewhere for a few hours tonight?"

Teresa rolled her eyes. "So you can fuck?"

"Obviously."

That didn't seem like a bad deal to Thomas. "Okay, fine Teresa. Whatever you pick out I'll wear."

Teresa literally squealed as she squeezed his hands and jumped a little bit. "Oh my god if I knew it would have been that easy, I would have tried that ages ago."

Newt was smirking at him, trailing his eyes up and down his body and biting his lip ring in that incredibly sexy way that he did. Yeah, definitely not a bad deal at all. Thomas winked back at him which made Newt snort out a laugh.

Teresa fled to find whatever outfit she was going to squeeze him into. Newt paced around the store, his hands in his pockets, gazing at the shelves. Thomas decided to do the same and headed over to the far wall, looking at the shirts there. Thomas didn't dislike the way Newt or Minho or Teresa dressed, they dressed like how he pictured people would in a band. He just didn't think that he could wear it himself, it wasn't that he wasn't cool enough, it was just that he totally wasn't cool enough. Thomas head one jean jacket when he was in high school but it was light blue and totally opposite from what Teresa was probably looking to put him in.

He was looking at a weird shirt that he assumed was of some band when Teresa appeared behind him.

"Show time," she grinned as he turned around.

She had some clothes folded over her arm and Thomas could already tell that he was going to hate this.

She dragged him toward the dressing rooms, calling out for Newt to follow them.

Teresa put the clothes down on the bench before coming out and practically shoving Thomas inside.

"Wait I don't get to watch?" Newt fake pouted as Teresa rolled her eyes.

"I'd appreciate it if you stopped flirting with my boyfriend," Teresa said as she dramatically flipped her hair over her shoulder. "It's a little rude."

Thomas heard Newt laugh as he shut the dressing room door, muttering a "you wish bitch" directed toward the girl.

Thomas tugged off his clothes, frowning at the new ones folded on the seat. The pants looked like the ones Newt normally wore, they were black and tight and Thomas had to jump to get them on. He resisted the urge to laugh at himself in the mirror.

The shirt was next and it seemed normal enough. It looked like a normal light grey t-shirt and Thomas liked the way it fit. Next was a dark red flannel, he thought Newt had a similar one. He left it unbuttoned, smoothening it out before looking at himself in the small mirror. Being completely honest, he didn't look bad and he really didn't hate it. He pushed the door open, feeling his cheeks heat up for no reason.

Teresa immediately clamped her hands over her mouth. "That's amazing!" She exclaimed. "Are you sure you have no musical talent because you could totally join WICKED, I mean now you blend in perfectly!"

Thomas' face was beet red now, maybe he just hated the attention.

Newt was standing against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. He wasn't saying anything, but he was looking at Thomas with a weird intensity that made him squirm.

"At least wear it to the shows!" Teresa practically begged. "You can even wear the WICKED t-shirt under it, come on it'll be sick! You'll blend in with the crowd and everything."

Teresa looked so excited, but he guessed most girls did when they went shopping.

"Okay," Thomas agreed which made Teresa's smile widen.

"Really?!"

Thomas nodded. "Why not."

Teresa made a shooing motion with her hand. "Okay okay take it off I'll go pay for it."

Thomas went back in, changing clothes quickly. He almost fell taking off the pants but managed to catch himself on the wall. How did Newt do this so gracefully.

He folded the clothes into a neat pile before coming back out and handing them to Teresa. He was about to follow her to the counter when Newt put his hand on his chest and backed him back into the dressing room. He shut the door behind them before turning back around to face Thomas.

"Can I help you?" Thomas asked, smiling softly as Newt put his hands on his hips.

Newt hummed before bumping their noses together. "Been dying to kiss you all day."

"Teresa's waiting for us," Thomas said softly as Newt just rolled her eyes.

"We got five minutes."

Newt was kissing him then and Thomas couldn't complain. The guitarist tangled his fingers in his hair, angling his head as he kissed him against the dressing room wall.

"I like you the way you are," Newt whispered against his lips.

"I know," Thomas said back.

"Thank you for entertaining her." Newt kissed him again before trying to assist with fixing the hair he messed up. "You did look good."

"I looked like you."

Newt smirked at that. "Exactly."

Thomas rolled his eyes as he followed Newt out of the dressing room. Teresa was standing by the door with a bag in her hand and her arms crossed.

Newt just held his middle finger in her face as they left the store.

___

"Take a shower," Newt said as Teresa and Minho left the bus. They weren't scheduled to drive again til the morning so they spent the night in a bus lot which Thomas didn't even know was a thing until then.

"A shower?" Thomas asked, cocking his head.

"Yes, you know what that is right?"

"If we're gonna...you know...can't I do it after?"

"Tommy," Newt whined. "Please."

Thomas put his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay fine."

He disappeared into the mini bathroom, bumping his elbows on the wall as he tried to close the door. It was small, very small, but there was enough room for him to strip and get into the shower. The water was surprisingly warm, he really didn't know what to expect from a bus shower. The only bus Thomas had ever been on were the ones that drove him to school back when he was a teenager. He wasn't sure what Newt was up to, but he took his time, fully washing out his hair and scrubbing his body. When he was done he changed back into his clothes from before, drying his hair with the towel to the best of his ability.

"Newt?" Thomas called as he stepped out of the bathroom.

Newt was standing between the couches, there were blankets spread across the section of floor with what looked like every pillow in the damn bus. Newt pulled the curtains down so it was dark in the bus. His laptop was on the floor and Thomas smelled popcorn.

"What-"

"It's date night," Newt said softly. "Since we can't do it out there, I thought we could do it in here."

"But you told Teresa-"

Newt huffed out a laugh. "She doesn't need to know how soft I am for you."

Thomas didn't know what to say, his chest hurt. It was probably the nicest thing anyone had ever done for him.

"I love you," Thomas managed to spit out.

Newt smiled as he held out his hand to him. "I love you too."

Thomas took his hand, carefully stepping over the pillows and sitting down on the floor.

Newt pulled a blanket over them before putting the laptop on his lap and starting the movie.

Newt put his arm around him, like he normally did.

"What are we watching?" Thomas asked as he slid his arm around Newt's waist.

Newt shrugged. "Something on Netflix, it's probably bad."

"That's okay," Thomas said as he pulled himself impossibly closer to Newt.

"If it gets boring we can makeout," Newt suggested as he pulled the popcorn closer.

Thomas dug his hand into the bowl, shoving handfuls of popcorn into his mouth. It was a little burnt from their shitty microwave but honestly not too bad.

The movie actually ended up being okay, not great but they sat through the whole thing. Newt carefully moved his laptop off his lap, placing it up on the couch.

"Hey Tommy?" Newt asked as he put the popcorn off to the side too.

"Yeah?"

"Do you want to know why me and Lizzy are so close?"

Thomas sat up a bit. "Sure."

"Our parents died."

Thomas felt himself frowning. "Newt, I'm sorry-"

Newt shook his head. "Don't worry about it. It was a few years ago. I just didn't want you to think I was hiding you from them."

"I wish I could have met them," Thomas said softly as he put his hand over Newt's.

Newt smiled sadly at him. "They would have liked you, you would have liked them too. They never got to see us play a real show, just a few sessions in the basement when we were brand new." Newt bit his lip. "I love Lizzy in general, but we needed each other. We just never grew apart from that."

"I'm sorry," Thomas said again. He really was at a loss for words. Terrible things happened to good people and life wasn't fair.

Newt rolled up his sleeve slightly, showing the guitar tattoo on his arm. He pointed to a spot along the edge of it. There were some scribbled numbers on the inner border. "That's what those dates are, their birthdays. They always supported me you know, so I decided to get this for them."

Thomas gently ran his fingertips across the ink on his skin. "They would have been so proud of you."

"I know," Newt whispered softly. Even in the dark Thomas could see the frown on his face.

Thomas gently pulled him into a hug, wrapping his arms tightly around the boy. He wasn't good at comforting people, but god did he want to make everything better for Newt. They sat like that for a while, Newt's hands fisting in the back of his shirt. Thomas just held him, he knew Newt wasn't big on being emotional so Thomas just rubbed his back, trying to make him feel better to the best of his ability.

Newt was quiet as he pulled away from him. He laid back down, tugging on Thomas' arm, indicating for him to come down with him.

"I know I talk about sex a lot, but you know it's not all I care about right?" Newt asked as he titled his head to look at him.

"I know."

"I'm serious Tommy, I like talkin' to you. I liked when we used to go on all those stupid random dates. As corny as it is, you're my best friend."

"You're my best friend too," Thomas said as he laid on his side next to Newt so he could face him.

Newt smiled softly, taking his hand and intertwining their fingers.

"Hey Newt?" Thomas asked.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

Newt pressed a soft kiss to his forehead. Thomas looped his arm around his waist, pulling Newt's body closer to his. It was warm under the blanket, warm having Newt's body flush against his. They fell asleep like that, tangled up on the floor.

Minho and Teresa came back eventually. They found them asleep on the floor. Teresa smiled softly at them. No matter how tough and badass Newt acted around everyone else, she knew how he was around Thomas. It was adorable. She made Minho be careful not to step on them as they made their way to the back beds.

"You know he could just ask us to leave," Minho said as he sat down on one of the beds. "If he wants to hangout with Thomas alone, he could just ask."

"You know Newt," Teresa said. "He wants everyone to think he's cool."

Minho nodded but there was a weird dark look on his face. Teresa decided to ignore it and got into her bed, muttering a soft goodnight to Minho.

She heard Minho shifting around before finally settling down.

"Hey T, can I ask you something?" Minho asked softly in the dark. His voice sounded off which was unlike Minho, usually everything he said was some form of joke. It made Teresa feel uneasy.

"Yeah Min?"

"What's fanfiction?"

_____
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