Starts off fun and cute. That's all I'm gonna say about it.
I own nothing.
"Alright, let's sing another song," Ross said as he turned on a light to check something before turning it off a moment later. Laura shook her head, rolling her eyes at him.
They had been on the plane all of about twenty minutes and already Ross was bored. They managed to tear themselves away from their parents, just before they made their flight. Ellen had checked a million and one times to make sure Laura had what she needed and Stormie had cried a million and one tears it seemed. They had both assured their parents they would behave and even promised it, but Laura knew Ross and she also knew that he was a trouble maker just by nature, so that promise probably wouldn't last them long.
"What other possible song could you want to sing?" She looked around at the passengers. "They're going to throw us off the plane if we disturb them any longer."
"It's a good thing that seat next to you is empty." Ross said and Laura raised an eyebrow. "I mean that the invisible person there won't be too pissed off at us." He gave her his 'wtf' face and she laughed.
Ross began to strum an imaginary guitar, "Everyday-day-day, I fall for you a little more-oh-ore, and every night-night-night, I dream of you so beautiful-uh-ul." He grinned at her and she just rolled her eyes, the smile on her face as he sang. After a while, he grew bored of the song and noticed her hand was on the arm rest. He put his hand on top of hers, and she giggled, taking it away. They then played like that for a while until Ross grabbed it and intertwined their fingers.
"The plane hasn't even taken off yet and already we've done so much." Laura told him sarcastically.
"Yeah, well, you know." He responded, he pretended to pop his collar. "Its how we roll."
She shook her head and then stared straight ahead. He soon felt her hand shaking in his and looked at her.
"You okay?"
She nodded, "I'm just a little… uhm, scared?"
He squeezed her hand comfortingly, remembering that she had a fear of flying.
"Don't worry," He whispered, "I got you. I wont let anything happen to you."
"Thanks." She smiled at him and he smiled back.
"Anytime."
The flight attendant announced that they were ready for take-off and Laura's grip tightened. Ross tried not to let the pain show in his face, as he just leaned in closer and lay his head on her shoulder. She raised an eyebrow.
"I'm not leaving, I told you." He informed her, then he smiled, "Plus you're a pretty comfy pillow, so…" He tightened his hold on her hand. "Don't let go."
"I won't." She promised.
The flight attendants did last minute checks to make sure everything was ready to go, and then the plane started moving. Laura's grip tightened and Ross could feel his circulation going. He wiggled his fingers, but she still held onto him tightly. He just decided to deal with it as the plane started to descend upwards.
"Hey." Ross said and she turned to him, "When the crowd wants more I bring on the thunder, cuz you got my back and and I'm not going under…" He gently knudged her to continue.
"You're my point you're my guard, you're the perfect chord and I see our names together on every billboard," She sang along, smiling at him. He felt her grip start to loosen.
"Headed for the top, got it on lock, we make 'em say 'hey!'" She laughed as he made an over gesture. "Cuz there's no stopping us when we hit the same but different, we're never gonna quit, and we'll keep rockin'!" He shook out his head and she laughed at his headbanging. "There's no way I could make it without ya, do it without ya, be here without ya, it's no fun when you're doing it solo, with you is like whoa, yeah and I know I own this dream cuz I've got you with me," She pointed at him and he smiled. "There's no way I could make it without ya, do it without ya, be here without ya!" They finished and Laura laughed falling against him as she did, she looked up at him a moment later.
"I can't believe we just sang the Austin&Ally theme song in a plane full of people."
"Yeah." He nodded, "But look out the window."
She did and her eyes widened once she realized they were in the air, a moment later the flight attendant came on and said they were high enough in the air and that they could turn on any electronics (other than phones of course) they had. She turned back towards Ross.
"You distracted me." She accused and he nodded.
"That I did."
"You're good, really good."
He grinned, "I know. Like I said, it's how I roll."
They landed in New York a few hours later. Laura was more okay with the landing part and didn't really need Ross to distract her. Since he was asleep anyways, it didn't really make a difference either way.
"So, we have to wait here for Sandra, right?" Laura asked and Ross nodded. "Cool, I'm going to call my mom really fast."
"I'm going to do this same," He replied, pulling up his mother's phone number.
Laura brought her phone up to her ear, waiting for someone to pick up.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Vanessa." Laura said, "Just calling to check in, we're here. Safely landed and everything. Let mom know?"
"I will." Vanessa assured her. "Have fun, be safe." She teased.
Laura rolled her eyes, "Bye Vanessa." She hung up and walked over to Ross who had hung up the phone as well. A moment later, she saw someone waving in her direction and looked up to see it was Sandra. They both walked towards her and immediately she pushed them into the car that was waiting on the curb.
"Damn, pushy." Ross muttered to Laura who just nodded back.
"Hi, you two. How are you?" She asked, motioning for the driver to start moving.
"Fine, a little tired though." Ross admitted.
"I figured." Sandra sighed. "You two actually have today to just relax, but tomorrow you have press meetings and meet and greets for the whole day. At night you can relax if you want, but that wouldn't be until around eight or so."
Ross and Laura nodded.
"Good. I'll send a car to pick you up first thing tomorrow morning okay? I've noticed that you two are alone? Where are your mothers?"
"They trusted us to come by ourselves." Ross answered. "On the condition that we stay out of trouble."
"Yeah, I couldn't agree more." Sandra replied.
It was quiet the rest of the way other than making a little bit of small talk. They got to the hotel, Ross helping Laura out of the car. Sandra checked them into their separate rooms, made sure they were situated and then left them alone telling them not to do anything out of the norm for themselves to which they both just nodded and agreed to.
"Hey, Laura!" She lifted her head and was surprised to see that Ross was standing in her room.
"How did you—" He pointed behind him to a door that was in between both their rooms.
"Our rooms are connected, how cool is that?"
She smiled at his childlike behavior "Pretty damn cool." She agreed. He nodded and then walked over to sit on her bed. He looked around, "So, first night in New York, what do you want to do?"
She thought it over for a minute. "Rest for a bit? Then go get something to eat?" He agreed to that.
He was about to sit back when he remembered something, part of the reason why they were there in the first place. "Find any new information on where your father is?"
Laura nodded, she pulled out a piece of paper and walked over to him. She got in the bed curling her legs underneath her as she handed it over.
"I don't know where he lives exactly, but I called the number he left for my mother in the emails and found that it was at some sort of office. I pretended like I needed information and they gave me an address. All we have to do is find it and then we're good."
He nodded, "When do you want to go?"
She shrugged, "It's only like three here, maybe after dinner?"
He nodded. "Guess we could do that."
She smiled.
"This is it, huh?" Ross asked, as Laura looked at the address in her hand. She nodded.
"Yup," She nodded, "This is it." She walked inside the building and towards the far wall where she saw a bunch of names and suite numbers. She looked for the one she wanted, pointing it out to Ross. "Let's go."
They rode the elevator all the way up to the twentieth floor and then down the hall. They soon found the suite they were looking for and opened it. The lady at the front desk looked up, her mouth dropped open.
"You're—"
"Yeah," Laura nodded, she gave her a smile. "Nice to meet you…"
She held out her hand. "I'm Angela. My daughter is a huge fan of you two."
"Oh that's nice," Ross smiled.
"Do you want us to sign something for you? Special just for her?" Laura asked and Angela nodded.
"That would be amazing."
It wasn't what Laura really wanted to do at that moment, but she wasn't about to turn down a fan just because she was anxious to finally meet her father. Angela handed her a piece of paper and she signed it, giving it to Ross.
Angela thanked them, "So, what are you doing here for?"
"Work." Ross answered.
"I think she means why are we in this building." Laura said and he nodded.
"Totally not for work."
Laura smiled at him, rolling her eyes. She turned to Angela. "We're actually here to see Damiano, is he in?"
Angela nodded, "He is actually. He has a meeting in a little while, but I'm sure he could squeeze you in. May I ask what it's for?"
Laura looked at Ross and he just motioned for her to tell Angela the truth. She chickened out though.
"I'm just here to speak with him regarding… family." She answered, though it was vague it was still somewhat the truth.
"Alright, one second." Angela called for him and Laura just looked around. She noticed there were signs telling people to vote for him.
That was interesting.
The door opened and she turned at that moment to see a middle-aged man. He motioned for her to come in. She grabbed Ross' hand before he could protest and pulled him with her.
They walked down the hall and into a room. Laura noticed that he hadn't even greeted them.
"So." He said once the door was closed, motioning for the two of them to take a seat. "What are you two doing here?"
"I'm uhm…okay." Laura closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, before opening them again, looking at Ross. "I'm Laura and I'm here because… well, I'm—"
"My daughter." He finished and she looked at him, nodding her head.
"I know exactly who you are, I'm just surprised your mother let you come see me."
"Yeah that's the thing, she sort of doesn't know, I'm here right now," Laura told him and flashbacked to the night before, as she was getting ready for bed and her mother had actually talked about her father with her a little bit. She told her he wasn't who she thought he was and wasn't looking for a relationship with her. She wasn't sure if she believed that or not, but chose not to argue with her about it. Since Ellen didn't know she was planning on seeing him, she figured it wouldn't matter one way or the other.
"Oh, I see" Damiano nodded and Laura looked down. "So who's this?" He asked, and she snapped her head up as he motioned towards Ross. "Your boyfriend?"
"Best friend, actually. We're here doing promotion for our show…" She trailed off, "He came with me for support."
"He's a nice guy." Laura nodded.
"Well, listen I'm really glad you're here." Damiano told her and she smiled a bit.
"Really?"
"Yeah, I'm running for congressman as we speak and I could really use your help actually."
She knew she should've gone with her gut instinct which was don't listen to what he had to say, because she knew it wasn't going to be good. But she ignored it, as Ross put his hand on her wrist. He gave her a look, but she just shook her head.
"My help? How?"
"Well, you're pretty popular around New York, I figured you could—" That was it, that was what Ross was waiting for him to say. He tried to focus in on what he said next. "actually the both of you, could help me. If you were to make appearances, that could really help my voting averages."
"What?" Laura looked at him, "I can't do that, I mean, we can't. We're only here for a couple of days and—" That didn't make any sense to her at all. "You just want celebrity endorsement or whatever?"
He nodded, "it could really help, I mean, you're here for a reason aren't you?"
"I'm here because I wanted to meet my father, not to be his little puppet for show. And also, I wouldn't even let Ross do that, so no."
He pulled out his wallet, "I could pay you for it."
Ross' heart broke at the look on her face.
"Also, I'd like to keep it in between us, you know? I don't want the media to know I have a daughter, no one's aware of it and my wife wouldn't like it either."
That was it, Laura couldn't take it anymore.
"So, that's what I am to you?" Her tone was breaking as stared her father down. "I came here, looking for a relationship with a man I'd never met before. Just wanting to meet him because all I've dreamed of my whole life was having a father. But all you want to do is help yourself out? You would even go as low as to pay me off to keep my mouth shut? What kind of person are you?" She paused a moment, "mom was so right about you. You know what? I shouldn't have gone looking for you. I wish I'd never found out about you. No real father would pay off their celebrity daughter to help with their campaign. I hate you." Her tone was so cold by the end of it that it made Ross a little scared of her.
"I'm sorry, Laura but—"
"Fuck off." She glared at him, and then put her hand up. "I don't normally say that to adults, but you really deserve it. Don't contact me, don't try to find me. I want nothing to do with you." With that, she grabbed her coat and bag and stormed out of the room. Ross stayed behind a moment, noticing that he didn't even look sorry at all.
Since Laura had already said everything, he just shook his head and then followed after her. He caught up to her just as they got to where Angela was.
He vaguely heard her say something, but Laura was already out of the door before he could respond back. She stormed all the way to the elevator and when that took too long, just took the stairs. Ross soon caught up to her on the eighteenth floor, he grabbed her wrist and spun her around.
"What? Are you here to say it? Are you here to tell me that this whole thing was a mistake?" She asked him, her voice loud against the echoing staircase. "I should've listened to my mother, at least she was right about one thing. He's selfish. That's probably why she told me he was dead all these years. It makes sense now I guess." She shook her head and then continued on down the stairs
"Laura wait!" He yelled, grabbing her again. "Stop and talk to me."
"I just want to get out of here, I want to get as far away from here as I possibly can." She said, her tone breaking as she moved her head and pointed ahead of her. "This whole thing was a mistake, I should've known it would happen."
"But you didn't and it's not your fault." Ross told her. "It's okay to be mad, I get it, I'd be pissed off too."
"No." Laura shook her head. "You don't get it. You live in this perfect home with this perfect family. I get a shithead for a father and you get the nicest guy in the world."
Ross gave her a pained look, "it's not what you think it is, Laura." He shook his head for emphasis. "Not always."
"Your dad never tried to pay you off! He doesn't use you for his fame, he doesn't do anything!" Laura yelled at him. "Your dad supports you and helps you and is there for you."
"Yes, he does all of that, I agree. But he and I get into heated arguments all the time and they get pretty bad." He admitted. Laura's eyes widened. "It's not as perfect as you think it is."
Laura decided that she really didn't want to hear it, so she just threw her hands up, shaking her head. She opened the door to the floor they were on and then walked to the elevator. She didn't want Ross to see her cry. That was something, in that moment, that she really wanted to avoid him seeing.
"Laura, stop running away from me!" Ross snapped at her as soon as he caught up to her. "You've been doing it long enough." She wasn't sure what he meant by that exactly, if it was for the last few months or the last few minutes.
"You do realize I'm still mad at you right?"
"Get over it." He told her, "I'm over it."
"You just think it's that easy don't you?"
He knew he was just displacing her anger with her father on him. But he needed to get some sort of emotion out of her other than anger.
"It's not fucking easy, okay? I know what I did was wrong, but you can't be mad at me forever. In fact, the last few days it didn't seem like you were mad at me at all, not since we ditched to go see those sick children."
"I put it to the side because it was getting in the way of the show."
"Oh, that's it?"
She just stared him down.
"Give me a better excuse than that, please. The show has nothing to do with this, okay? I'm sorry that your father wasn't what you expected him to be. Most fathers aren't. Just be happy he's not an abusive asshole."
"What he did was inexcusable. His a fucking jerk!" She yelled at him as the elevator finally reached them. She got in it and he followed her, thankful it was empty. They rode down in silence together, until Ross stopped it from moving by pressing a 'stop car' button. She narrowed her eyes.
"We're not leaving until you talk to me. About everything."
"I have nothing to say."
"Bullshit, you always have something to say."
"Fuck you, Ross."
"Stop fighting me Laura, okay? We're best friends, don't shut me out."
"Ever think that maybe I don't want to talk about this?" She snapped at him, turning around to face him. "I don't want to talk about what went on in there because I don't want to think about it!"
"I wasn't talk about that." Ross answered, "I was talking about what happened with us."
"You know what happened with us, why do you want to talk about it?"
"You brought it up."
Laura gave him an angry stare. "Can you just drop it and leave me alone?"
"No, because you're still mad at me. I don't want you to be mad at me anymore, be mad at your father for all I care, I don't give a shit. But me, I don't want you to be upset with because I'm trying to help you."
She didn't say anything for a few minutes.
"Just get me out of here," She told him, her voice low. "I want to leave."
"No." His voice was firm.
"Ross let me out of here!" She yelled at him, but he didn't even flinch. She then started to get even more mad. "Let me out! Just leave me alone! I don't want to talk to you, I just want to leave!"
"No." He said again in the same tone.
"I hate you!" She shouted at him, her face was becoming red and she noticed that her lower lip was quivering, a sign she was going to break down at any moment.
"You cant tell that man that we just saw you hate him, I'm okay with that, because of what he did. But you—" He got closer to her, his face just an inch from hers. "You can never say you hate me, because you don't. I know you don't."
"You don't know me as well as you think you do." Her tone was steady.
"Yeah, I do."
"Shut up."
"Yeah, that's mature."
"What the problem Laura? Mad because your father's a dick and you can't replace him?"
Her eyes filled with tears.
He almost had her.
"Or upset because you can't replace me? You tried and tried to the last few months, but you just failed everytime. Doesn't make you feel good does it?"
"You're so mean." She whimpered. He knew he got the answer he wanted then.
"It's too bad you hate me, Laura." He said his tone was still firm, but it began to waver slightly as he didn't mean to hurt her feelings at all. "Because I love the hell out of you."
She stared at him, her lower lip quivering as he just stepped away from her and pressed the button for the elevator to move again. It was silent in between them until it opened. Laura didn't even look at him as she just stormed out of it. He followed after her.
She didn't even look back. She just kept walking and walking until he could no longer see her anymore.
Laura was pissed off. Pissed off that Ross had sort of figured her out. Sure she was displacing her anger with her father on him, but it didn't mean he had to be such an ass to get an answer out of her.
She had stormed away from him, wiping her tears away as she hailed a cab and then went straight to the hotel. She didn't give a crap on where Ross ended up. Just as long as he was okay in the end, she wasn't completely heartless.
Since her mother hadn't known that she'd gone to see her father, she didn't really have anyone to speak to about what had just gone down. Not even Ross was available, she realized.
So, knowing that she had to wake up pretty early the next morning, she just decided to go to sleep.
And for the first time since Ross had left for tour, she cried herself to sleep.
A loud banging noise and giggling woke her up. She looked at the clock and noticed it was about two in the morning. She heard the giggling again, but it turned to laughing and then it stopped.
She got up and walked to the doors that connected her and Ross' room, carefully opening it, she saw he was by himself, on his bed, laughing really hard. This confused her.
"What are you doing?" She asked him, "Why are you laughing so hard?"
He sat up from his bed and looked at her. "I was just thinking of how funny it is that you and I are best friends, you know, like Austin & Ally and yet we still hate each other."
Did he forget what he'd told her in the elevator?
She walked closer and noticed that he smelled pretty bad. Like a mixture of weed and alcohol.
"Have you been drinking?"
"No." He answered.
"Bullshit."
"Like you care."
That was low. He was the one that had been so pushy and mean to her, not the other way around.
He got up and walked passed her, but she stopped him.
"Did you mean what you said to me in the elevator?"
She knew that since he was drunk (and she could tell because he was barely able to stand and his breath smelled) he'd tell her the truth.
"What that I love you?"
She nodded.
"Yes, Laura, I love the shit out of you." He answered back. "Like that wasn't obvious already."
She suddenly didn't want to be there, so she let go of him and walked back towards the door to her room.
"There you go." He said his tone nonchalant, "Running away again."
"I'm not running away—"
"Bullshit." He snapped. "Anytime I say something nice to you, you just run off or don't even respond to it. Well, how is that gonna work if you want to have a real relationship?"
"Why are you drunk?" She asked him instead, "Didn't you and I make a promise to Kevin that we wouldn't get drunk again? Do you even care? Oh, no wait, you're Ross, you don't care about anybody but yourself!"
"Don't ignore me!" He yelled at her.
"I can't believe I ever even became friends with you again, you're so… so… immature!"
"And you're a bitch!" He yelled at her, "You think you have all the problems don't you? Just because I did something so horrible to you? What about me huh? What about the image that I have to portray to the rest of the world? Just like you I have to be the nice, squeaky clean role model. Well, guess what? I don't want to be that anymore, okay? I don't even…"
"What, Ross, what don't you want?"
He paused, before Laura gave him a look and a gesture to continue.
"I don't want to do the show anymore," He finally said, his tone quieter.
It was silent after that.
"Okay." Laura looked away. Without another word, she left the room, the door to hers slamming behind her as she locked it and went to go sit on her bed.
Ross realized what happened and then banged on the door.
But she didn't answer.
And he knew, she wouldn't. No matter what he said or did, she wasn't going to answer him.
All because he'd said something he shouldn't have in the heat of the moment. Twice.
So, tell me what you honestly think of this. Some feelings were admitted, some ignored. It's not over yet, in fact, it's just starting. Now that Laura's met her father, what's her mother's reaction going to be like? Is she ever going to tell Ross how she feels? Will what they've been hiding be revealed?
Answer is yes. But not for a few more chapters. I hope you liked it, really I do. I was just feeling particularly moody so that's why they fight for so long, so sorry about that, but I realized it was needed. It needed to be said, so there it was. They can't hold their feelings/emotions back forever.