Warnings: Profanity, angst

Word Count: 2551

Author's Note: Sorry I forgot the date on the last chapter! It takes place about a month before this one, just fyi! Anyway, that aside, we hope you enjoy this chapter! :)

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November 2014 - Towards the End of the Quiet is Violent Tour

Laughter filled the bus as you and Tyler were playing a bit of Mario Kart with one another. There wasn't really anyone else around at that moment to play with him as Josh was in the back busy with something and Jenna had left to go back home. Sitting on the couch with controllers in your hands, the both of you were doing whatever you could to cheat and make the other mess up. Yelling to scare them, nudging, talking crap... it was just a good time between friends and you had needed it after plenty of stressful shows. The whole ordeal with Josh had lightened up a bit, but things were still a little awkward so talking still wasn't the first thing on your list to do with him.

Once Tyler won the round, you groaned as a sore loser would and leaned back fully into the couch to stretch your back. He laughed at you and grinned, pumping his fists in the air yelling, "I am the victor!"

Narrowing your eyes over to him, you shook your head and tried your hardest to not give him the satisfaction of laughing or smiling at his words. But, you couldn't help it, so you let out a soft chuckle. Hearing your phone ding, you looked down to see that you had received a text from Jenna which made you feel happier than you already had been. But, it was the usual text that you should've been expecting.

Jenna: Please go and talk to Josh. Please. Tyler is constantly talking to me about how pissed he is that he has to be the middle man. And Josh is always asking about you.

You made a face and then put your phone in your pocket before looking back to Tyler who had quieted down after turning off the game console. He looked down to his watch and cursed under his breath, hopping up from his spot on the couch.

"I need to go for a while! The guys need me to help out with some things," he explained as you nodded over toward him in acknowledgement. He clicked his tongue and threw up a peace sign with his fingers before exiting the bus and leaving you and Josh alone. He seemed to have a knack for doing that sort of thing. After a bit of time spent resting your eyes, you heard a shout come from the back of the bus which caused you to perk up a bit.

"Hey, Ty, I need help wi- oh." Josh stopped dead in his tracks after entering the room to only see you there, staring at him.

"Tyler just left to go and help with something," you let him know and he nodded his head quickly and looked down.

"Ok, no problem," he said simply and turned to head back to where he came from.

"Wait, Josh! Did you say that you needed help with something?"

He stopped what he was doing and then slowly turned back to face you, swallowing hard for a moment.

"Well, yeah, actually. I'm... kind of dying my hair. I need some help with getting it all over my head." He shrugged a bit and shoved his hands in his pockets.

You smiled a little to him and then stood up from you spot and nodded, walking over to close the space between you before stopping to give a decent amount of space.

"I can help. I'm your girl."

A grin slowly appeared on his lips and he nodded, motioning for you to follow.

If only you were, Y/N. If only.

"I have all the dye ready and everything, I just wanted to get Tyler's opinion on the color. What do you think?"

You looked in the little plastic tub that Josh had set in front of the mirror. It was full of a peach colored dye. It would look amazing contrasted against the dark parts of his hair.

"I love it, Josh. I think you - I mean, it... will look great."

"You think so?" he asked, looking to you with a grin.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Alright, you can go back to the table if you want. I'll need help with the back of my head eventually, but I wanted to double check the color with someone before I went slathering it all over my hair."

"I'll stay in here with you," you said, deciding to take a seat in a chair before you backed out.

Josh was quiet as he began to cover the faded purple strands in the new dye. You decided to use this time to answer Jenna's text from earlier, which had quickly been forgotten between Tyler's sudden exit and helping Josh with his hair.

Y/N: Helping him dye his hair. Not entirely sure how I got here. Progress?

Jenna's answer was almost instantaneous.

Jenna: Progress.

As Josh slowly became more comfortable with the process of dying his hair, he began to get a bit more talkative with you. Before long, you two were making easy conversation and your phone was entirely forgotten. Concerts were the main thing that came up between the two of you, since it was an easy topic that both of you had plenty of experience with.

"Ok, I think we're ready to do the back," he said, leaning forward a bit to more closely examine the front of his hair.

"This is where I come in?"

"Yep."

You stood up, adjusted your jeans a bit, and crossed the room to where Josh was standing. He finished up the strand that he was working on and turned to you.

"Tell me where you want me."

A little closer to me would be fine.

"Oh, um, let me figure out what I'm doing. Do you have extra gloves?"

"Yeah, take those ones," he said, gesturing to ones on the table that you had somehow missed. "Sorry if they're a bit big, they were meant for Tyler."

"No worries."

You wracked your brain for the techniques that you and your best friends used to use when you dyed your hair. Most of them would just dump the dye on their head and massage it in, but you didn't think that would fly in this type of situation.

"How should I do this?" you asked as you began to work some dye into Josh's hair.

"It seems like you're doing a decent job," Josh said, briefly meeting your eyes in the mirror. "Just don't get it in the dark parts."

"Oh, oops."

"Y/N!" Josh gasped.

"I'm kidding, I know not to dye the dark parts of your hair."

Josh's shoulders relaxed a bit. You had surprised yourself with how easily you had thrown a joke his way, especially after the last two months of non-stop tension on tour. It was nice.

The small talk continued as you dyed his hair, trying your best not to let your fingers touch his actual scalp. Even though it was part of the dying process, you were holding out hope that Tyler would be back before it was done so that you wouldn't have to really get your fingers up in Josh's hair. That seemed like a level of intimacy that you weren't ready to handle yet.

"Are you making sure to get the roots of my hair?" he asked, turning his head slightly to look.

"Well, um, I'm getting there."

"You can touch my head, Y/N. It's not a big deal."

You swallowed. Hard. "Right."

"I promise."

With a fresh scoop of dye on your hands, you reached up and really began to get your fingers into Josh's hair, massaging the dye into his roots. He moved his head around a little, making it easier for you to reach some of the parts that were higher up on his head. It felt weird to be running your hands through your boss' hair, but the more you framed it as just another work task in your mind, the less awkward it started to feel.

That is, until you caught Josh's eye in the mirror and held eye contact for a little longer than would be deemed normal.

"Sorry," you muttered, averting your eyes back to his hair.

"For what?"

"I don't know... staring, I guess. Um, I think I got it all."

Josh turned and investigated his hair, meanwhile you were practically ripping the gloves off your hands and tossing them down onto the table. Your face felt like it was on fire.

You scooped up your phone and started to walk out of the room, but Josh caught your arm. It was the first bit of contact you two had shared since he stopped you on the bridge a few weeks ago, and the slight brush of his fingers was enough to send tingles up to your shoulder.

"Y/N, hold on."

"What?" you said, turning to face him. The word came out more aggressive than you had intended.

"Can we talk about what's going on between us? You and I both know that things haven't been the same since I freaked out before that first show and I need to know if I did something wrong because this silence between us is killing me."

"You didn't do anything wrong, Josh. It was just me getting in my own head."

"Getting in your own head? What do you mean?"

Shit.

"It's just... that day, when I calmed you down and we... you know," you paused to take a deep breath, "I'm just afraid that I was sending you the wrong signals. I feel like I crossed a line that I shouldn't have, considering that you're my boss and everything. Then you factor in Beau not being here and Tyler's weird looks... it got really overwhelming really fast."

"I understand. Tyler definitely didn't make things any easier between us. That's why I wasn't mad, just... irritated that we couldn't talk."

"I know. I should have just brought it up with the both of you separately before it became this huge thing that everyone had to deal with. I guess I thought that putting more distance between us would help, but really it just did the opposite."

"Don't worry about it, Y/N, I understand why you did it. And listen, I'm really sorry if I ever did anything to make you uncomfortable, that was never my intention."

You shook your head, "You never have. I like being around you Josh, even if these last two months weren't really a good indicator of that."

You could have sworn there had been more space between the two of you just a second ago. He was close enough now that you could smell the chemical scent that was coming from all the dye that was slathered in his hair.

"I like being around you too, Y/N."

"Are we ok now?" you asked, trying to ignore just how close he was.

"I'm ok if you're ok."

"I'm ok."

He smiled, "Then we're ok."

Your eyes glanced down at his lips, only for a second. Your heart was pounding against your ribcage so hard that you thought it was rattling your entire body. This was a bad idea. You were taken. Josh was a friend. A boss, even.

And yet, something in the back of your mind was screaming at you to just lean in and kiss him.

"Josh, I think we need to-"

"Yo! Josh! That hair color looks sick."

Your shoulders dropped in an instant, both from relief and disappointment. Hadn't you two just had a conversation about mixed signals and boundaries? Yet here you were ready to forget about the rest of your life and kiss him right in the middle of the tour bus.

You could tell that there was disappointment etched over Josh's face for a mere second before he switched back to his normal happy expression for Tyler. He turned to look at him and smiled widely, nodding his head happily.

"Right?! Y/N helped me! It's going to turn out a nice color, I think."

"Oh she did, did she?" Tyler asked, looking over to you with a brief smirk, before you narrowed your eyes at him.

"Just... go and help him wash his hair. Jesus," you playfully snapped at him and smacked his arm as you passed him to go out to the living area, hearing Tyler giggle a bit behind you. Rolling your eyes at how childish he was, you plopped down on the couch and pulled out your cellphone.

Luckily, Jenna hadn't written anything else that you had missed while in the bathroom with Josh, so you decided that you should fill her in.

Y/N: You won't believe what almost happened.

It took only a few moments for Jenna to reply, as if she had been waiting by her phone for an update.

Jenna: Tell me right now.

With a small smirk forming because of her impatience, you start typing.

Y/N: There was definitely a moment where Josh and I almost kissed and then your dumb boyfriend came in and interrupted. Again.

You set your phone in your lap as you reached over and grabbed the remote for the television, turning it on to watch something. Taking a deep breath as you flipped through the channels, you looked down for a moment and saw that she had replied again.

Jenna: Not into Josh. My ass. I told you to talk to him. Not kiss him.

Y/N: Shut up, Jenna. There was a moment.

You giggled and then flipped through your phone to reach her actual phone number to call. You knew that the boys would be in the bathroom for a bit longer, so calling Jenna and explaining things quietly to her wouldn't be a big deal. She was your best friend. She needed to always be in the know.

Almost instantly, she picked up and started fake yelling at you for what you talked about in the text. You ran your hand down your face and pulled your legs up underneath you, shaking your head and laughing a bit.

"I can't believe you guys almost kissed!"

"Jenna... listen. There were fumes in the air and we were in a small space. I have a valid explanation for why I was even considering doing that," you yell-whispered to her and heard her laugh on the other end.

"Y/N, you just need to realize that you have it bad for him. You can try and deny it as much as you want, but Tyler and I see the way that you both look at each other when the other isn't looking. He's just as lovesick as you are," Jenna spoke honestly, but there was just no way that Josh could have the same feelings.

Sure, there was flirting there. There always had been, now that you thought about it. That thought alone made you feel horrible about Beau. Was what you were doing justified with how your boyfriend treated you? You always felt more like a possession than a girlfriend around him. Josh, on the other hand, made you feel like you were invaluable and the greatest treasure on earth.

How could he do that with such few words and touches? Simple glances? It was intoxicating.