AN: Hello, thank you for the review and for all the new readers. To answer some questions, Katie is a minor character in this fic and Mrs. Knight may make an appearance soon. This chapter explores Kendall and Elle's working relationship and their duet. The tour starts soon so the story will be picking up after this chapter and chapter five. I hope you enjoy and please review! Thank you!

"So let me get this straight. You thought the way to Lucy Stone's heart was with light bulbs and extension cords?" I laughed, holding my sides. "And you really thought you were going to hook up after bringing those to her apartment?"

"Listen at the time she was the only hot, single girl at the Palmwoods," James explained, holding his hands up in defense. "I would have done just about anything to hook up, I was 18.

"And you did," Carlos grumbled next to him. "I was in the friend zone."

Logan shook his head. "So was James at first. Remember her date with Kendall?"

My head turned so fast to look at Kendall I almost broke my neck. "Woah, wait, really? He dated Lucy 'smokes pot, has sex and doesn't care what anyone thinks' Stone. But I'm a problem?"

"She was out of his league and went back to Jo the second she got back from New Zealand." Katie shrugged and nodded to her brother. "Ask him when he comes out of the booth."

Katie was visiting the studio to convince Griffin to let her work for the record label. She was much better company than her brother was. The first words out of her mouth to me was how much she was looking forward to my new music. If she knew that her brother was a misogynistic jerk she didn't say anything.

It was two weeks before the tour and I had been bonding with the guys. The four of us had become close in such a short amount of time, we got on great. Kendall was still less than thrilled but thankfully we started to tolerate each other a little more. We had all been busy doing photo shoots and recording a few demos for the tour. The guys were working on their single that would be put out before we started traveling. The duet Kendall and I were supposed to be writing was coming along slowly. But we were finally sitting down to work on it tonight. When he came out of the booth and into the room the guys snickered and elbowed me.

"Hey Kendall, I have a question." I tried to keep my voice even.

"What's up?"

"What happened with you and Lucy Stone?"

He raised his eyebrows and looked at his friends. "What's it to you?"

"Nothing." I tried to sound uninterested. "It just seems weird."

Kendall looked offended. "Why's that?"

"She's just so badass and you're so-" I trailed off and James laughed.

"So what?" He demanded.

"I think she means boring." Carlos finished.

"Did you know she wrote You Dumped Me For Her about Kendall?" Katie asked me.

"No way, really?"

"Katie, mind your own business." He just shook his head and then glared at me. "It was half a date and it barely counts."

"I don't know Kendall maybe you're not as boring as I thought," I smirked. "After all, she's hot and it's a good song."

This seemed to be enough for Kendall because he grabbed his phone and left the room. Katie quickly climbed to her feet.

"I have to bribe him into getting me a meeting with Griffin, or at least Gustavo. See you guys later." She called over her shoulder and gave me a wave. "Nice meeting you finally!"

Once they left Carlos put his arm around my shoulder and laughed.

"That was awkward. But definitely worth it to see the look on his face."

"I don't know I just don't see how he would date someone like her," I questioned. "If he thinks dating Jett makes me an awful person what does he think of her?"

James just stared at me, in disbelief. "Have you seen her? She's hot and talented."

"Well, you're not wrong." I agreed. "If Jett wasn't constantly talking about Jo or Heather Fox he talked about her."

The door opened and I turned, expecting to see Kendall but it was Kelly.

"Gustavo says you guys are free for the night but you have to come back at 9 tomorrow." She smiled sweetly. "Elle, he and Liz wanted me to remind you that the duet with Kendall needs to be written.

I groaned and stared at the ceiling. "I know, I know. We're working on it tonight."

"Good luck, don't let him be an asshole to you." Logan reminded me. "It's going on your album, not ours."

We walked out into the lobby. "I know. His sister is so much nicer, too bad she's not the one in the band."

"She has her moments, his mom would probably ground him if she heard him speak to you." Carlos agreed. "Don't kill each other."

"No promises," I muttered. "See you guys later."

James gave me a small wave and then they disappeared down the long hallway. Once they were gone I let out a long breath and ran my hand through my hair. All I wanted to do was slip out for a smoke. It was a disgusting unhealthy habit and I had been trying to quit but this duet was stressing me out. Not only because I was working on it with Kendall, but also because it was the first song I'd be putting out since taking a break from music after the Jett incident. A cigarette sounded great and I knew it would help me relax but Kendall would probably be a dick about it. I rolled my eyes and weighed the pros and cons of just writing it all myself. I was figuring out how to explain why I didn't work with Kendall to Gustavo and Liz when a tap on my shoulder made me jump. When I turned, Kendall waved awkwardly.

"So are we working on this tonight or not?"

"Yeah," I answered begrudgingly. "We probably should."

"Don't sound so excited." He grumbled sarcastically.

Instantly I was irritated. "Well excuse me for not wanting to spend all night with you."

"And what's wrong with spending time with me?"

"Well you're an asshole for one, two we have to finish this song in time to release it and finally you're still an asshole."

"I wouldn't be an asshole if you weren't such a bitch."

My head already throbbed, so I pushed past him. "You know what we don't have time for this. It's late, let's just get this over with."

I followed Kendall into one of the recording rooms and set myself up on the in the corner. My guitar leaned against the couch and I had a notepad on the table. Kendall sat in a chair and rested his chin in his hand, I was quiet as I tuned my guitar. This was the most time I had spent alone with Kendall and it was uncomfortable. There wasn't much of a conversation to be had with someone who thought you were a whore. But I knew I couldn't avoid doing this forever, we had a deadline.

"So." I began uneasily. "Gustavo and Liz want something upbeat and fun."

He nodded "And something that can be sung in the car."

I looked through the ideas I had. I had only managed to come up with bits and pieces of lyrics and chords. Normally I could get a rough draft of something down quickly. But this was proving to be difficult, I pointed to something I had jotted down.

"I had an idea about that. I think it should be something the audience can sing along with. You know how in Windows Down you guys go 'Woohoo'?" I asked, mimicking the song. "I was thinking of something like that."

He shrugged and a small smirk hung from his lips. "You know our songs?"

I rolled my eyes. Of course, he wouldn't take this seriously. "I do my homework, I like to know who I'm opening for."

"I like the idea. Maybe it could go 'Oh, whoa, oh,' or something like that."

"It's catchy. Now they said something flirty, I was thinking of when you first meet someone and you click and there's this back and forth." I explained, uncapping my pen. "But it can't be dirty."

Kendall stretched and rested his arms behind his head. "Um, maybe it could be about the unexpected like you have no idea who this person is or what could happen."

I tried not to notice how ironic it was that Kendall mentioned not really knowing who someone was. I just played around with some chords.

"Anything can happen on a night like this oh, whoa, oh." I sang this a few times, trying to figure out the speed.

Kendall tapped his foot and sang it back to me. "It could be a song about a one night stand or a brief connection."

I nodded but tried to figure out the flow of the song. It felt like it should tell a story and not just have a generic message.

"Let's make it about what each person wants to happen," I suggested. "What the guy wants and what the girl wants and how they spend their night."

Kendall didn't seem to hate this idea. "Maybe they meet somewhere randomly like they just happen to be in the same place."

"Maybe we should share the night. You know like whatever happens they're in it together?"

He was quiet for a minute. "Or 'maybe we should share a ride' like a cab or something. It takes place in the car, this way the singing in the car part writes itself."

A lightbulb went off and the word came out quickly. "Yeah! They're going the same place so maybe they should share a ride. It's good it makes things feel urgent because the ride won't last all night."

"Well, this ride is almost over." He wrote down quickly. "And if I had it my way we would just stay up all night."

"That should be near the end. It should be a story arc, it starts with them meeting, then they share the ride and don't want it to end."

Kendall was quiet for a few minutes, fully absorbed in whatever he was writing. I slowly plucked out a few chords, trying to figure out how fast the song should be. I decided the anything can happen part should be in the chorus. I strummed for a bit and sang under my breath.

"If you're going my way maybe we should share a ride, oh whoa, oh. Anything can happen on a night like this."

It sounded good so far but it was only a few lines. I tried out a few combinations of chords and looked up hoping an idea would come to me; when I looked over at Kendall he was watching me. He gave me the faintest of smiles before looking away. My fingers slipped on the strings and a harsh sound came from the guitar. Kendall laughed and my face warmed.

"Perfect that's it. Song of the year, call Gustavo." He joked a smile was still on his face. "Our work is done here."

I laughed back and tightened the string. "Oh, he has jokes?"

"Elle, I'm full of jokes you just don't hear them."

We both laughed and I was surprised that he wasn't acting like a dick. It was refreshing to not be on edge all of the time even if it was just for a moment. I fiddled with my guitar pick and nodded to his paper.

"Did you come up with anything?"

"Met you when my heart was somewhere else, I saw you smiling, the stories you could." He cleared his throat. "And 'I wouldn't mind if we caught every red light' to go with the whole car ride angle."

I raised my eyebrows and shrugged. They weren't bad lyrics I was surprised, for such a shitty person he wasn't awful at songwriting. He shifted in his seat and waited for me to say something.

"Uh, they're good. Maybe we could start with the first line it sounds like an intro." I wrote it down. "And the second line could be in the middle."

Kendall agreed and stood up from his chair. "I need a break. It doesn't have to be too long."

I dropped my pen, even though I wasn't as stressed a cigarette still sounded good. "15 minutes?"

"Sure."

He left the room and I went into the other lounge to where my bag was. It wasn't going as badly as I had predicted. Especially now that we had started, we still had no chorus and less and one full verse but I like where it was going. He wasn't a bad songwriting partner but it still awkward to be working with him. I tried not to think about deadlines or Kendall as I grabbed my bag. I pulled a cigarette and my lighter out of the carton and went downstairs. I took a long drag and sighed contently as I slipped out the back door. I groaned when I saw that it was raining.

"Fuck my life," I muttered taking another puff. "Great."

"It's dry right here."

I jumped at the sound of Kendall's voice and turned to see him leaning against the edge of the building. I was surprised to see him, he had his phone in one hand and a cigarette in the other. I stood next to him, avoiding the rain. We were hidden away at the back of the building, near the steps. Above us, there were large posters of boy bands pasts and present.

"Since when do you smoke?" I snorted. "Isn't it bad for your boyband image?"

Kendall gave a half shrug, smoke drifting from his mouth. "I never said I was a saint. And I could ask you the same question, you smoke?"

I looked down at my shoes, scuffing one across the pavement. "After dating someone like Jett, who constantly got high and partied most of the time instead of going on dates some habits linger."

Instead of saying something shitty, he chuckled, blowing smoke. "I started last year on tour, it was getting stressful and I just picked it up."

"I literally had no idea," I replied genuinely.

"Yeah because Gustavo and Kelly make me hide it." He explained, sounding a little bitter. "I'm almost 23 but apparently smoking is too mature for a boy band."

I just hummed and smirked. "Good thing I'm here to help the band mature their image. Your sister seems nice by the way."

"Don't tell her, she and mom would kill me." For once, his smile was genuine. "But yeah, she's awesome. She's actually a big fan of yours, she was trying to play it cool."

"I'm glad one of the Knight siblings likes me." I joked, letting out a mouthful of smoke. "Maybe she'll rub off on you."

"Don't hold your breath." His words were harsh but I saw him trying to hold back a smirk.

He rested his head against the wall and we smoked in silence. I watched as the rain fell, appreciating the white noise. It was almost peaceful back here and I felt relaxed.

"This is a good spot," I told Kendall, smoke curling from my lips. "Calming."

"Yeah it is, but sometimes I wonder if it's worth it though." He exhaled. "Having to hide out back somewhere and eventually dying from the chemicals."

I took a long drag. "Everything that's enjoyable hurts us eventually. Smoking, drinking, people we love. So I'd rather just enjoy it for now."

"The song sounds good." He said after a minute. "What am I going to sing?"

"I was thinking about that, maybe it could be back and forth. Like when you are into someone and you flirt and it comes easily."

He gave me a once over, the corner of his mouth quirked up. "You're good at that aren't you? You hang all over my friends and I see how they look at you."

Just like that any respect Kendall may have earned back vanished, I made a disgusted sound and stepped away.

"Why are you like that?" I asked.

"Like what?"

"Like this." I gestured to his smirking face. "You always assume I'm this slut who sleeps with everyone I meet."

"You don't exactly deny it and we've all seen the video."

I flicked ashes from my cigarette, anger rose in my chest. "That video was filmed without my permission it's not like sex only happens when it's filmed. I'm not going to deny something that was shared online. You're sickening, are you also the same kind of guy who says a girl shouldn't have worn something if she didn't want to get assaulted?"

He wrinkled his nose. "Of course not. You just act like you're better than everyone else."

"No I don't and if you feel like that, it's your issue, not mine." I avoided his eye, my voice shaking. "It's hard to feel superior to anyone when you get called a whore every day or parents don't let their kids listen to your album. But it's especially hard when some childish, sexist, guy you're supposed to be working with reminds you every second of what happened to you."

My body buzzed with anger, I had really thought we had reached an understanding. I knew damn well we'd never be friends. But I thought touring together and writing this song together would cause mutual respect. But I was clearly wrong because we were still exactly where we had started. I rolled my eyes and took a long drag. He ran a hand across his forehead and then through his hair, he sighed.

"Look you seem like a nice person. My friends like you and are having fun. It's just-" He looked around as if searching for words. "You rub me the wrong way."

Despite myself, I sniffed and joked. "Well if I was the slut you think I am I'd offer to rub you the right way."

When Kendall saw my small smile he laughed nervously. "I don't think Jo would appreciate that. But thanks for the offer."

We both put out our cigarettes, and in some weird attempt at redeeming himself, he opened the door for me. We walked towards the elevators in silence and Kendall shuffled next to me, keeping his distance. The ride was quiet but he turned to me as we walked back into our writing room.

"You know, you're not as awful as I thought you were." He admitted quietly. "I was an asshole and misjudged you."

I sat on the couch. "Yeah, you did."

"I'm sorry. We might not get along but I shouldn't act like I know who you are when I've haven't made any effort to."

His apology didn't erase how he had treated me but it certainly helped. His words resonated and I flipped through my pages of lyric ideas.

"I wrote something about that the other day." I held up the page. "About how you were acting."

Kendall was red and sat down on the other end of the couch. "You did?"

"You're a stranger but there's something in your eyes." I read. "Like you know me."

"Could I?" He asked honestly. "Could I know you?"

He stared at me and for the first time, it was like he was looking at me and not who I was onstage or in that video. I looked back at him for just a moment before looking away, my focus shifted to the song.

"It should be a conversation." My words came out rushed. "Just like that, how you asked me a question."

Kendall blinked slowly, whatever he had been thinking had vanished "Yeah that's a good idea."

We worked together passing lyric ideas back and forth for a while and it was coming along. Kendall was good at coming up with things on the spot.

He looked up from his notes. "I was thinking about this when we were outside. What if they figure out they're going to the same place after they meet. Just like we said but we could add that to the song so it would be a conversation."

I tapped out a steady beat on the body of my guitar. "It's so hard to find a ride at midnight on Friday."

"Where are you headed?" He asked.

"Downtown." I pointed to him and nodded.

"So am I."

I wrote it down and grinned. "It's good I like the back and forth."

He read over the lyrics and I could see the gears turning. "Oh! Maybe the guy could say 'stand right here where it's dry and if you're going my way'-"

"Maybe we should share a ride." I finished for him. "And then it could go into the chorus."

Kendall had moved onto the couch so he could look over everything that was written. He cracked a small smile. "Well, now we just need the chorus."

I rested my head on the back of the couch. "It should be kind of sexy."

"That feeling when you want to make a move could be good. Liz said not too sexy, right?"

Sitting up, I saw that he had scooted a bit closer. "Yeah, I like the idea though."

"I could feel my heartbeat, electric to my fingertips." He sang softly. "Oh, whoa, oh."

I scribbled it down and gave him a cautious smile, just because he could write a song didn't mean he hadn't acted like a jerk towards me. I read the lyrics a few times and then timidly tested out some of my own.

"I could feel anticipation through my veins, oh, whoa, oh." My voice came out quietly.

He jotted them down and then he glanced back up at me his words came out quickly. "I could almost feel the weight of your kiss on my lips."

My eyes flashed around the room uncomfortably. "Anything can happen on a night like this, on a night like this."

"This should be the height of the song, the most tension, you know?" He suggested, taking note of what we came up with. "Put it towards the end, so people wonder if they get together or not."

"We're almost finished." I sighed in relief. "I was getting nervous it wouldn't be done in time. We just have to work out the bridge."

"Any ideas?"

"A few," I answered, I had written a few ideas last week that seemed to fit. "These were just some lines that came to me the other day, I like them I think they might fight here."

Kendall just waved his hand, encouraging me to test them out.

"Our hands fit just the right way, our legs tangled up in the small space." I read them off the page.

"The world outside feels far away as I get to know you." Kendall improvised, his eyes staring into mine.

I turned my head, away from his gaze. "Let's try the chorus altogether."

Kendall smiled at me as we looked over the pages spread out on the table. He gently tapped out a rhythm on the couch, his fingers brushed against my thigh as I played.

"I could feel my heartbeat, electric to my fingertips. Oh, whoa, oh." I tested, playing the chords I worked out earlier.

He was close to me as he sang, his voice came out shaky. "I could feel the anticipation through my veins. Oh, whoa, oh."

"I could almost feel the weight of your kiss on my lips." He slowed, his eyes moving down to my mouth.

We stared at each other for a long moment, he let out a slow breath and I stilled. His hand was still near my thigh and I felt my face flush at his touch. Kendall was tense as he swallowed hard. Quickly, I cleared my throat.

"'Cause anything can happen on a night like this." I finished the line.

Kendall blinked and let out a nervous laugh. "I-It's good."

"I think so too." My hands shook slightly.

He gestured to the paper on the table. "Not bad for a washed-up, naked, pop star."

His tone wasn't playful like it had been earlier and the smile he had was replaced with a sneer. The tension we had just felt was gone, in its place was frustration and hurt.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I demanded with my hands on my hips. "Washed up?"

"It just means I didn't expect someone like you, someone so easy to get into bed, to have enough of a brain to write a good song."

Anger crossed over my features. "Way to be a sexist pig, great job. Just when I thought you weren't entirely disgusting."

Kendall seemed to realize how close he was sitting because he stood up. "Whatever, just let me know when I have to record."

And with that, he grabbed his jacket and stormed out of the room. As I watched him leave I let out a breath I didn't realize I had been holding. I had truly believed we had been making progress, starting to understand one another. But apparently I was wrong, he would never be able to look past the Jett incident or the persona I had. There was no point in even trying.

AN: Well that was chapter four and we saw Kendall and Elle spend some real time together and they got to know each other better. Next time we'll see them try out their new song for Gustavo and the drama kicks up a bit. The tour starts soon, there's good stuff to come, so stick around! I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you soon with chapter five. Please leave a review with any questions you have! The song they sang is Anything Can Happen by Hilary Duff featuring Kendall Schimdt from Big Time Rush, in real life! Now you see where the title came from!