Many thanks to bookreader525 for her awesome beta-work! ^^

Ash loves to sing. She loves it so much, she forgets everything else around her. She gets carried away, and then nothing else matters except for her and the music. And that's bad because it's not just about her. It's about Lance, too.

Lance, her bandmate. Lance, the lead singer. Lance, her boyfriend.

She shouldn't do this. She's doing the backup vocals, and she's always been fine with it. She doesn't know what happened, but the more she sang, the more it took her over until she just couldn't stop herself anymore. And next thing she knew, she was trying to push Lance away from his microphone. And she has absolutely no idea how that happened.

Lance is tense as he puts his guitar into its case. Ash tries to think of what to say, but no words come to her. And so it's Lance who speaks up.

"Ash, babe," he says, as he lets the case snap shut and gets to his feet. "I'm the lead singer, okay? Just stick to the backing vocals."

He doesn't even look at her as he sets into motion, and it makes Ash's heart ache. When Lance doesn't look at her, it means he must be really, really angry. She just has enough time to grab her own guitar case and run after him.

"Sorry!" she says, deciding to stick to the truth. "I… I get carried away."

"Yeah, I know, right?" he says. "It just kind of ruins my song, you know?"

Ash lowers her eyes. Yes, she knows. And even more importantly, she understands. Lance is the lead singer, this is his band, his song, and who wouldn't get annoyed when they get pushed out of the way by someone who's supposed to support them?

Ash bites down on her lower lip as she does her best to keep up with Lance. It's always been her role to support Lance, starting the day they met. Because she wanted to do this.

She remembers as if it happened yesterday, the moment Lance took the makeshift stage in the diner of their small hometown. And the moment he started singing, it was all about him. Ash can't remember that a song has ever touched her as much as Lance's song did back then. The lyrics, the melody... it appeared like it was written for her and her alone. And nothing else mattered at that moment besides her and this song and the porcupine who singing it.

When Lance was done with his song, time and space set back into place and Ash found herself staring at him with wide eyes and her mouth agape.

She waited for the audience to burst into applause, and she almost jumped when they didn't. Instead, there were boos and calls for Lance to leave the stage right now. Ash looked around her, her eyes widening even more. Didn't they get it? The song, the music, Lance? Her eyes shot back to the porcupine on the stage, and she was expecting to find him sad and disappointed. But what happened next made Ash speechless with adoration. Lance just shrugged, looking totally unimpressed, and left the stage.

He didn't care what others thought of him. He was doing his thing. He was an artist.

A few seconds more and Ash slid down from her seat and ran after him. She has never been one to do the first step, but this time she couldn't help herself. She called out to him, and the other porcupine stopped, turning around and looking her over with something that Ash hoped at that time - and knows now for sure - was interest. And then she started talking, the words simply bubbling out of her mouth. She told him how much she loved his song and how much she loved music and that she played the guitar herself as a hobby and that she'd love to learn it properly, and that sometimes, she even sang and she liked it, and when she was done with her little speech that turned out waaaaaaaay longer than she had planned, Lance looked at her with a little frown.

"I can tell you have a passion for music," he said then. "And it turns out I am looking for a background singer. Interested?"

And how she was interested! Okay, it was a bit of a challenge because Lance was asking a lot of her and she spent hours every day to improve her guitar skills, but she got better, and her singing improved, too.

And something else happened. Ash can't tell how it happened and if it was because they spent so much time together, but at some point they started dating. And it felt so right, so perfect!

And now everything feels so wrong. She made a terrible mistake today by stealing Lance's spotlight, and what's even worse is that this happened the second time in a row. She reminded herself that it was about Lance, she even watched him at first, concentrated on him, letting her admiration for him show. And then it happened again and she got carried away, and now Lance is mad at her. And she has absolutely no idea how to fix this.

Ash lets out a long sigh and when she raises her gaze again, planning on checking how much ahead of her Lance is now, she finds Lance standing a few steps away from her, his hand outstretched into her direction. He doesn't look at her, but Ash knows him well enough to see that this is his peace offering and that's he's forgiving her. She smiles before she runs up to him and takes his hand. Then they set into motion again, their steps in perfect sync.

It makes the last of the tension melt away from Ash and she gives Lance's hand a little squeeze. Her smile widens when he squeezes her hand in reply.

Waiting for their train, they are still holding hands, and Ash is still smiling. Lance is still not looking at her, but that's fine. By the time they are home, he'll have forgiven her and Ash can live with that.

Their train comes in, but it brings something else with it. Something rustling and orange, and Ash only realizes that it's a bunch of flyers when she finds one sticking on Lance's quills. She's so excited when she reads what's written on that flyer that it doesn't even bother her that Lance has let go of her hand when he moved to enter the train.

One-hundred thousand dollars as the grand prize of a singing competition!?

"Hey, Lance, look at this!" she calls out. She is still checking the flyer when she hears Lance call her name, his voice somehow muffled, and when she looks up she realizes that's because he's already inside the train and the train is already taking off, but she can't care less.

She's smiling like an idiot as she runs after the train on the platform, waving the flyer like a flag.

This is going to be so great! Lance is for sure to win the money because he's an amazing artist. And she's going to do her best to support him!