WARNING: I do suffer from manic depression and have been on a bit of a downer while writing this. It is possible that I have let some of my depression seep into my writing. Sorry about that.

"Is it true you're touring with Avenged Sevenfold?" I looked up from the book I was signing and into the sparkling green eyes of a teenage girl. There was a dreamy look on her face and a small smile as she awaited my answer.

I smiled, knowing I was about to make her dreams crumble. "No. I'm not touring with them this time around." Italy was one of the countries I didn't need the translator for. She was busy flipping through a book on my left. It had been agreed by everyone that I would finish quicker if those waiting didn't know I was with Avenged. The guys were currently in the building, hiding out in the break room of the book store, probably bored out of their minds.

The girl looked fairly disappointed as she took her book and turned away to be ushered from the store by one of the assistants. After the eighth person asking me if I was touring with Avenged, I stopped answering and became my sullen, anti-social self, completely ignoring them altogether. I suppose it would get me through this quicker if I just did was I was here to do. The door behind me opened several times and whoever was 'dared to', would stand in the doorway until someone spotted them and started screaming. They would be gone within the second, leaving me to put up with the annoying questions about the man in the doorway who looks remarkably like an Avenged member.

Finally, my pen ran out and I got to leave. That was the rule. One brand new pen per store and no more. I was escorted to the break room by two of the store assistants. I had wondered why my bitch of a manager hadn't been annoying me out in the store up until this moment. They had tied her to a chair and stuffed one of Johnny's socks in her mouth. She turned to me when I walked in, pleading with her eyes.

I turned away, leaving her to boil for a while. The guys were playing cards around a small table. I watched them for a while before I sat down beside Brian and rested my head against his shoulder. We were stuck in here until they cleared the store because they wouldn't let us leave via the storage bay. "So why did you guys tie up my manager?" I yawned as the small woman in question let out a high pitched squeal.

Matt glanced at her quickly and she stopped. "She was annoying us," he shrugged and threw his cards down. "Give up," he smiled and leaned back in his chair. "She talks non-stop, huh?" he asked me.

"You don't know the half of it. Though that still doesn't explain why you tied her up."

"She wanted to come out after you. I knew you would end up in a mood, and I can't deal with you in a mood right now. Not while my head is fucking pounding out a beat faster than Jimmy," Brian said while following Matt's example and giving up on the game. He leaned back, pulling me along with him. He twisted his head and kissed the side of mine. "That and Johnny wanted an easy rape victim."

"Hey!" Johnny yelled and threw something toward Brian. Who moved at the last possible second, therefore it hit me. It was his other sock. "Ew, that's disgusting, you ass!" I threw it back at him and wiped my hand on Brian's leg.

"Sorry, sweetie. Thought you would have moved," he murmured in my ear.

"You shouldn't have." I glared at him, unconvincingly.

He stared at me, amusement glittering in his dark eyes. I sighed and stood up before I kissed him like I wanted to. Just letting him know I was still slightly annoyed at him. While the store was empty, I looked around.

I write horror stories, but I can't bring myself to read any kind of horror novel. I went straight to the almost empty sci-fi section. Val had beaten me to it. She turned and smiled when I walked up. "Thought I'd take advantage of an empty store," she grinned over the top of a book.

"Great minds think alike."

"So do stupid ones!" Jimmy laughed, popping up out of nowhere.

I rolled my eyes and started glancing at names, jumping from shelf to shelf. "You guys are boring," Jimmy whined after five minutes of laying, eagle spread, across the floor. He got up and strolled away, leaving Val and I to look for anything interesting.

We tried to, anyway. Jimmy was back with everyone else minutes later, all of them yelling and making as much noise as they could. Brian grabbed me by the legs and threw me over his shoulder as Matt did the same to Val.

They ran with us like this from the store and onto my bus. Theirs was currently parked behind a hotel. "We should celebrate," Brian grinned as he put me on my feet.

"Celebrate what?" I asked cautiously. When he said that, it was wise to exercise some amount of caution.

"The fact that you have no more scheduled appearances anywhere but my bed."

"Since when did I have scheduled appearances there anyway? And it's my freaking bed." I laughed and sat down on the purple couch at the very back of the small space. He fell down beside me, laying his head on my lap.

"You're always scheduled to appear in my bed, Missus Haner."

"I should start taking advantage of that, shouldn't I?" I smiled and bent over to press my lips to his.

"Ahem," the others present on the bus cleared their throats loudly as one.

I pulled away from Brian and pushed him off me. "Did any of you untie Viv yet?"

They all glanced at each other guiltily. They'd left her there, tied up, with Johnny's sock stuffed into her mouth. Someone would untie her eventually. They were all flying home tonight anyway. One of the people she stayed with would take pity on her… maybe.

***

I scanned the crowd along with Leana as we stood beside each other at the side of the stage. The kids were going absolutely insane as Black Tide warmed them up before Avenged would take to the stage. As they finished up Let Me I felt two arms wind around my stomach. I turned my head to see Brian's resting on my shoulder. I kissed his cheek quickly and turned back to the show.

"You haven't kissed me properly since we left Huntington," he pouted in my ear.

I smiled and twisted in his arms before pushing him against the wall. I stretched up and kissed him before he could realize what was going on. He was grinning when we pulled apart. "You're pretty strong for such a small person," he said loud enough to be heard over the music, but not so loud that other people could hear. He grinned as he grabbed my shoulders and spun, switching our places. He was kissing me, from lips to jawline, before I had a coherent thought. Then, of course, when he started that I had no chance of ever thinking coherently again for the rest of the night.

I had no idea that I was wrapped around him in a way that shouldn't be seen by anyone but ourselves until he was wrenched away from me by a grinning Zacky. "We've already given you ten extra minutes. The kids are gonna revolt and storm the stage if we don't get out there," he explained quickly.

"You could have said," I smiled while straightening out my clothing again.

"We did. For the first five minutes. We spent the last five trying to grow the balls to actually pull him off you," Zack rolled his pretty jade eyes. He's always had beautiful eyes.

He and Brian ran off to grab their guitars before taking their places on the darkened stage.

"Your hair's all over the place," Val informed me as I took my place by her and Leana again.

I shrugged. "When is it not?"

"Good point," she laughed quietly over the roar of the crowd as Matt began playing the intro to Critical Acclaim.

We were pulled away from the amplifiers by one of the runners after a half hour of us dancing together. Not normally the kind of music you could dance to, but give us a beat and we could dance to absolutely anything. Including the yowling noises you hear when cats are screwing in an alleyway. One of the most terrifying experiences in my life.

We were told by the arena manager to either enjoy the show from the crowd or wait in their dressing room for them to finish. We made a mutual agreement to brave the crowd. Not even we were bold enough to actually go into their dressing room while they were playing. Those boys can make some amount of mess while they're getting ready.

Too many people were interested in us in the crowd and it was getting annoying when all we wanted to do was enjoy the show and people kept asking you if you were who you looked like, or for you to sign some random part of their bodies. After the tenth ass I'd signed, I was ready to give up on everything and actually brave the dressing room. We ended up in the space between the barrier and the stage, with security guards asking us for ID every few minutes "just to make sure we are who we say we are". We couldn't have been more obvious if there had been a huge luminous sign with arrows hovering above our heads, proclaiming exactly who we were. Maybe that's what it would take to get them to leave us alone.

I gave up and went back to standing at the side of the stage, glaring at anyone who came close. I was eventually pulled away again by Leana. She yelled at me for standing so close to the speakers. I was going to be hearing bells for days.

Leana held onto my wrist as she led me outside. The heavy security door closed with a boom behind us. The night was comfortably cool. Leana watched me closely as I wandered over to a barrier and leaned against it, falling backwards so I was upside down, holding on with my hands.

"You child," she smiled as she leaned beside me.

I looked up at her and stuck my tongue out. "So what's up with you?" she asked after a moment of silence. I shrugged as best I could while upside down. She took hold of my foot and pushed me around the barrier so I spun back onto my feet. "Desdemona, I know when something's annoying you. Spill it." I sighed and leaned on my elbows, facing the security door instead of her. "Don't you ever think about how much simpler things would be if none of us were always in the media? Like, in there, we were swarmed with people more interested in bugging us than watching the guys play."

"Dess, we can't help who we are or who we love. And you just so happen to love the biggest ass on the planet. But you guys make it work. You could always drop off the face of the earth for a while. Just lay low until people start forgetting who you are."

"Lea, that's not going to happen any time soon when I'm always out with Brian."

She looked at me with an incredulous expression plastered on her beautiful face. "Are you regretting…?"

I smiled. "Never once in my life will I regret marrying him. Just the time we spend apart."

"I hate how you can answer questions before we even finish them," she smiled. "As for the time spent apart… aren't you making up for that right now? I mean, we're on tour with them, following them around the world and all that."

"I know, honey," I told her quietly. "Manic depressive remember? My moods change quicker than the weather in most countries."

She smiled brightly as I attempted my own small smile. "Manic depression or not, I'm taking you to get drunk as soon as there is a break. In fact, fuck it. We have two buses. The guys can all go on theirs and we'll have a girls night tonight. Let's go get Val and we can leave."

"We should probably wait until they're finished their set and let them know we'll catch up with them wherever the next stop is."

She nodded in agreement and we went back inside.

***

The first thing I reached for the next morning was coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. Though that was just my usual morning routine. Val and Leana were still passed out on the floor where we had all crashed. They would both have killer hangovers when they rejoined the world of the living. I'm one of the lucky ones that never ever get hangovers no matter how much alcohol I've consumed.

I sat outside the bus, finishing my third cup of coffee when my cell started screaming at me.

"I didn't wake you up did I?" Brian asked quickly before I could say anything.

"First of all, hi. Second, no, you didn't. I was already up." There was a relieved sigh on the other end of the connection.

"Oh good. You'd probably kick my ass if I had." "Sweetie there's no probably about it," I laughed.

"You'd have to find me because, if I had woken you up, I'd be halfway to Mexico already," he laughed.

"Why Mexico?" I would forever be trying to figure out the workings of his mind.

"I heard someone yell it across the street."

"You understood another language? Where are you?"

"No, he was yelling in English. On the Austrian border. We have a two day break so we figured we'd wait here for you guys to catch up. Start driving, Little Gates. I miss you already."

"Oh shut up. We'll be there when we get there. I love you."

"Love you." He answered automatically. "How soon do you think you'll be here?"

"With my driving? There's no telling. At the most it'll be a few hours."

"Please be fucking careful. I love you too much to lose you like this."

I rolled my eyes even though he couldn't see me. "I promise I'll be careful. See you soon."

I ended the call before he could keep me talking as usual. Back on the bus, Val was chugging coffee like no tomorrow and Leana was still on the floor though she was awake. Which was a plus, I guess. At least I could start the engine without her yelling at me.

Leana insisted on having at least three cups of coffee before we set off. We were finally hitting the roads at noon. So long as I kept driving, we would meet up with the guys again by nightfall.