"It's make-up. I'm in a band - zombies are our gimmick."
in which they actually are.

The van has broken down.

It's late enough that dawn's not far away, and it's cold and they're at some nondescript point on the interstate, alone for miles: they're pretty much screwed. Conrad's on his phone, a few steps away from the van and desperately trying to find someone to come and fix it - he growls, snapping his phone shut and glaring at it for a moment. "They'll be here in an hour or two," he says, to no one in particular through the open side door, and stalks back around the van to throw insults at the still-smoking engine.

Inside, Toni's got the back seat to herself, her legs folded up underneath her and she's oblivious, staring out at the darkness beyond the window with her headphones in; playing something loud enough that everyone can hear the beat she's tapping along with. Veser sprawls out in the seat in front of her, head against the window and his feet up in Conrad's seat nearest the door. He's playing something on his phone, grinning in a slightly twisted way.

Hanna is in the front passenger seat - having called shotgun as soon as they had finished packing up after last night's show - with his feet up on the dashboard and his chin almost touching his chest as he sleeps. He had stirred, groggy, when the engine started croaking and sending thin trails of smoke up through the gaps around the hood, but there was no one else on the road and nothing to immediately do, so he had drifted off again as soon as they pulled over, wrapping his arms around his chest and muttering sleepily.

The driver, all long limbs and pale skin and dark, messy hair, is curled over the steering wheel, his chin resting on his arms as he stares out through the windshield. He can see the top of their tour manger's head the other side of the open bonnet - Conrad ducks, leaning in, and then there's a pained yelp and he appears again, scowling and sucking the tip of his finger. Veser laughs without looking up, and Hanna shifts in his seat before his eyelids flutter open, blinking owlishly against the glare of the overhead light.

"Hey, Hermes," Hanna mumbles, still half asleep but he's smiling, soft and happy, over at the driver - who automatically reaches up to touch the headband that he had forgotten about; a black band with a pair of white wings on each side, a present from a fan at last night's gig that Hanna had exclaimed with glee over and immediately thrust onto his keyboardist's head. He huffs a laugh as his fingers touch the tight mass of feathers, and he carefully pulls the whole thing off so he can put it on Hanna instead.

Hanna grins in reply and the dawn light begins to break over the horizon, the sky turning the colour of deep sea as the few distant streaks of cloud glow in silhouette. There's a curse and then Conrad is back at the side door, swatting Veser's feet off his seat before clambering in and sliding the door shut behind him.

"Way the ruin the mood, Conman," Hanna laughs, looking wide awake as he reaches up to turn off the overhead light; Conrad scowls but doesn't reply, pulling out his phone and ignoring everyone. Toni has fallen asleep in the back seat, slumped against the window, and Veser's starting to drift off, snapping back awake with a jolt whenever his game beeps at him until his phone slips from his fingers and he's crashed out and curled up against the back of the seat, the stillness of the silent world around them lulling them to sleep.

In the front, the driver attempts to stretch out, pushing his feet against the pedals and his hands against the roof of the van, arching away from the seat. Hanna pulls his legs up to his chest and wraps his arms around them, resting the side of his head on his knees and simply watches Hermes for a moment - then Hanna reaches up and pulls Hermes' right arm towards him, and he lets him, surprised but relaxed, trusting. There's still a smudge of green on the inside of his wrist, make-up from last night's gig that had been hidden under his long sleeves and Hanna tries to rub it off with his thumb, his fingers cool against the driver's skin.

The horizon is starting to burn with gold, light creeping across the sky and illuminating the empty, rolling countryside of desert and distant hills. Hanna's hand is still curled around his wrist, thumb stroking over his pulse lightly, and they sit silently together, drinking in the sunrise as it floods the van and paints them with warmth. They drift off slowly, Hanna uncurling his legs and wiggling the blood that rushes back to his toes, the driver letting his hand pool in Hanna's lap with Hanna's fingers still cradling his bones.

An hour or so later and they wake up to the sound of the van hood being opened and propped up, a scrape of metal and an unfamiliar voice talking to Conrad, something about an oil leak. Hermes rolls his shoulders, taking a moment of consciousness to realise his hand is still resting lightly on Hanna's leg, their fingers just touching and apparently Veser has just woken up as there's a exclamation of, "That's so gay," before Toni whacks the back of his head and he whips around to start arguing with her.

It's just another average day on tour, really.

One night, a fan plucks up the courage to ask about the name thing, during a meet and greet at the merch table after the show - it's common knowledge that the keyboardist's name changes seemingly every day, Hanna calling him something different each time they are on stage and fans have started playing along, bringing props and presents to inspire the next alias. It has become such an ingrained thing, part of the band that no one really challenges, that a girl standing next to the intrepid fan gives a gasp of horror when she's finished the question.

Hanna just bursts out laughing, eyes bright with a secret. The keyboardist - currently called Zander - looks over at him, lips quirked up in a gentle smile while he waits for an answer.

"Well, okay, I'll let you in on a secret," Hanna starts, leaning in conspiratorially and pausing for a moment as everyone else leans in too, a hushed silence falling as much as one can in a busy, post-show venue. "He's not actually human." There's a ripple of laughter and Hanna continues, "No, really. We just found him wandering by the side of road one day, with no memory or anything. We started this band to disguise the fact that green is his natural skin colour - if you ever see him looking normal, it's just really good makeup," Hanna grins, looking up at Zander through his eyelashes.

"You're such a dork, Hanna," Toni laughs while she scribbles her signature on a shirt, the green facepaint on her fingers leaving smudges. "You know we never use his real name in case he remembers who he is and tries to leave us."

"The green skin thing is totally true though," Veser adds. "I've seen him naked." He winks at one girl who giggles, and yeah, they've pretty much got this down to a routine now. Zander bites his lip and looks away to hide the smile he knows is threatening, and the first fan is too ecstatic to realise that she still doesn't have a proper answer.

A week later and they are just pulling up to that night's venue when Conrad gets a phone call. It had been a good journey, short enough that Toni drove the whole way and let the rest of the band sleep. He jumps out of the front passenger seat and answers as soon as they have stopped, and the rush of cold air from the open door wakes everyone else up. Veser is sprawled out across the back seat and he stretches his arms up with a loud, obnoxious yawn.

Hanna had grabbed the middle bench to share with his keyboardist and he fell asleep with his head on the keyboardist's shoulder. As he wakes, for a moment he curls in closer, burying his face against his arm and making little annoyed sounds at the back of his throat until eventually he raises his head, blinking a few times before pushing his glasses up his nose and sitting up properly, looking around at the parking lot they've stopped in. He turns back to glance at the man he used for a pillow, and grins. "Mornin', Galahad," he sings, a plastic sword that they were presented with last night knocking around by their feet. Galahad just watches him, his lips quirked and happy.

"We have a problem," Conrad starts, pulling open the side door so everyone can hear him. "There was a fire at the Loft. We don't have a venue for tomorrow night."

There's a chorus of disappointment, Veser cursing and then, Galahad notes, glancing towards Hanna, "Isn't it our hometown show tomorrow?"

Hanna's face lights up immediately. "There is someone we could call," Hanna starts, and there's a devilish twist to his lips. Conrad baulks.

"Oh, no. Don't make me do that. Please, Hanna, you can cancel one show-" The whole band turn to face him at once, expressions hard. "Christ, you're all creepy... Fine. Okay, for you guys. Stop looking at me like that. I deserve a pay rise for this shit..." he trails off, grabbing his phone from his pocket and scrolling through his contacts. Hanna throws his arms up in the air in triumph, then sheepishly brings them back down as Conrad glowers at him, putting his phone up to his ear.

The sound of a ringing phone echoes for a moment, then, Yeh?

Conrad takes a deep breath, grits his teeth and says, "Worth."

The sound of tinny, raucous laughter bursts from the speaker. Connie! everyone hears before Conrad tenses up his shoulders and stalks off out of hearing range. There's a pause while everyone strains to hear something more, but then Toni claps her hands and, "Move it, guys. We need to load in."

Veser collapses sideways with a thump. "Make Connie do it."

Toni growls, and the rest of the band scramble out of the van.

Eventually Conrad walks back over, looking thunderous; everyone stops chatting and stares him, waiting. "We've got a venue for tomorrow night," Conrad eventually grits out, and then shrieks as Hanna and Toni jump on him, shouting their thanks. He's blushing when they finally put him down and step away, glancing over at Galahad who sends him a grateful smile.

"Sometimes, you're actually okay," Veser says, punching Conrad's arm before walking away laughing as Conrad shrinks away, wincing.

Worth's place called The Doctor's and Conrad mutters something about because everyone dreads going there, and yeah, no one's ever quite figured out why or how Luce Worth ended up with a venue down a backstreet and with a weird name, but as a place to perform it's actually pretty awesome. It has a larger capacity than the previous venue so there are no concerns about fitting in everyone who had already bought tickets, and they do absolutely everything they can to let people know that the venue has changed: through emails and postings on every social network site they're on, even phoning a few friends in the town so they can get the message out. It's rushed and unorganised and Conrad gets more shrill and anxious than ever, but somehow it seems to work.

It's raining when they get there and they still have to unload - Hanna leaps through the downpour laughing, stircrazy because he has been driving for the last four hours. The rest of the band are in varying states of wakefulness, Odin following a few slow steps behind Hanna, Toni trying to disappear into her hoodie and Veser pretending to be asleep because unloading in the rain is always unpleasant.

"Lamont!" Hanna suddenly shouts because there is one really good thing about Worth's place: the co-owner who is walking out to meet them, who smiles wide and slow when he gets an armful of soaked-through redhead.

"Heh. Hey, Hanna, need a hand?" and everyone answers with a very empathatic yes.

He half-smiles and pats Hanna on the back, easily untangling himself and heading over to the trailer to help unloading.

"How on earth do you do that?" Toni heckles, as she steps inside after him to help move a case. "Hanna is a limpet."

Lamont shrugs, the quirk of his lips full of secrets and Toni laughs in response. "Fine, don't share, mystery man. It's not like you have to spend most of your life in close quarters with him."

"Hey!" Hanna says as he passes them on his way to the trailer. "Who are you talking about?"

"Worth," Lamont replies smoothly, and Toni struggles to stop giggles bursting out of her, hiding her mouth behind a hand and her shoulders fluttering.

Hanna raises an eyebrow at the pair of them. "You guys are so weird," he says, and then Odin taps him on the shoulder and Lamont and Toni get away, unquestioned and grinning at each other.

Eventually they manage to get everything inside, dried off and sound checked; and Conrad is still panicking about people showing up at the wrong venue.

"So go and send them over here yourself," Lamont shrugs, hauling a bass drum off the stage, and Conrad opens his mouth to protest, but, actually, that's not a bad idea. "Take Veser with you, before he destroys anything," he adds, as Veser walks in and trips over the microphone lead.

"Hey! Not my fault!" Veser whines, but Conrad just huffs and folds his arms across his chest.

"Come on, then. At least if you're there people might actually listen."

Veser flashes his teeth, laughing. "Hell yeah, the fans love me."

"I'm leaving now," Conrad sighs, turning on his heel and heading backstage, and Veser's still smirking as he skips after him.

"So, we're herding fans now?" Veser asks when he catches up with Conrad, a few steps outside the stage door. The rain has eased up slightly but it's still enough that Conrad heads straight for the van, feeling around under the middle seat for a moment and emerging with a triumphant laugh, clutching a huge, yellow umbrella. Veser raises an eyebrow, but ducks under anyway when Conrad puts it up, bumping shoulders as they start walking.

"Yes, we are," Conrad says. "Because otherwise there will be fans left standing in the rain outside an empty venue and they will blame you. And me. Mostly me."

Veser sniggers. "No way, man. I think most people here actually know The Loft burnt down-"

"It was a small fire!"

"- they're going to figure out that we're not there," Veser finishes with a shrug, skipping for a few steps to keep up with Conrad's long strides. Conrad twists his lips into a pout in reply, and Veser glances at him and then swears as he steps into a puddle. Conrad barks out a laugh and Veser scowls, saying, "Man, fuck you," but Conrad's actually smiling and it's hard to be annoyed about that.

They go to a diner at two in the morning because Hanna wants pancakes and they don't have to start driving until daylight. It's still drizzling, puddles of light sparkling across the pavements and Hanna walks in front with Iwazaru (a plastic monkey mask sits somewhere in the trailer), close enough that they keep colliding as Hanna talks animatedly, his hands constantly moving and brushing against Iwazaru's arm and clasping together for a moment as he thinks, humming lightly under his breath. He's a bright blur in the dark night and yet he keeps glancing over at his friend, silent but smiling as he walks beside him, to make sure he is still listening.

Everyone else trails a few steps behind - the rest of the band, their tour manager, Lamont who comes along to catch up with everyone and Worth who seems to have tagged along solely to annoy Conrad. There are two umbrellas between the five of them and Toni commanders one for just herself and Lamont, leaving Conrad bristling as Worth and Veser crowd him, smirking.

The diner is a short ten minutes walk from the venue, with a neon sign buzzing over the door and large, fogged up windows showing ghostly shapes of the empty booths. There is one bored waitress leaning over a book on the counter, her chin resting on her palm, and she glances up as they walk in, the bell above the door jangling. Hanna rushes straight into a corner booth, Iwazaru following, and then the others enter with another burst of cold air. The waitress blinks at them as they start pulling off coats and brushing the rain out of their hair.

"We'll just settle ourselves, then," Conrad says, folding up the umbrella and shaking it off in Worth's direction. The waitress shrugs. "Just yell when you want to order," she says, looking them over with a sweeping glance and then turning back to her book.

"He's jus' a little pissy from gettin' his hair wet," Worth grins, reaching over to ruffle Conrad's hair. Conrad ducks out of the way and slides into the booth next to Hanna, jaw set and eyes narrowed as he snatches the menu card off the table. Worth drops into the seat next to him as Veser shuffles onto the bench on Iwazaru's side, leaving Toni and Lamont to settle on the stools around the other side of the square table. The chatter is constant, flowing over their little group and filling the otherwise empty diner with life - Hanna is quick to grab the waitress' attention again and orders a stack of pancakes while the others are deciding.

"So hungry," Hanna whines, slumping sideways so he ends up pressing into Iwazaru's side, both tucked into the corner where the two benches meet.

"So hyper," Toni counters, resting her elbows on the table and raising an eyebrow at him. "No syrup for you, I think."

"Hey!" Hanna protests as she plucks the bottle off the table. "I need that!"

"You need sleep," Veser says. "Seriously, dude, when did you last crash out? I swear you've been on a sugar high for like, three days."

"The hell? I'm fine. Gimme the syrup." He makes grabby hands towards the bottle, and Toni begrudgingly slides it over.

"He's your responsibility," she says, nodding at Iwazaru, who exhales a slight laugh and wraps a protective arm around Hanna's shoulders.

"Always," he replies, and Hanna twists around to beam up at him.

"Oh-kay," Veser says, glancing from the pair in the corner to where Worth is invading Conrad's personal space and smirking at his discomfort, to Toni and Lamont. "Well, this is awesome," he adds, slumping back against the seat and tugging his phone out of his pocket. Lamont kicks Worth under the table, and barely flinches when he gets a sharp jab to the shin in return.

"Aww, feeling jealous?" Toni smirks.

"Hell no. Of what? I'm doing great over here, all by myself. You should try it."

"I'll get right on that," Toni shoots back, but then the waitress comes over with their food and the only sounds for a few blissful minutes are grateful, happy noises, until Veser says,

"That didn't make sense."

"Shut up and eat."

Halloween is the best time to be a band with a horror gimmick, and they're booked almost solid throughout October. When they're not playing they're making plans for their legendary Halloween gig - a hometown show that they have done every year since they formed, a sort of horror pantomime with rock music and literal buckets of fake blood. They aim to make it bigger and better and more over the top than ever each year, and in mid-October, sitting in a tiny dressing room before a gig, they are still trying to figure out a way to make it look like Hanna stakes Toni through the chest with her own guitar.

"One day," Hanna says, sketching ideas in his notepad, "We are going to have the greatest stage show ever. We'll have a whole creepy circus set up and I could have a top hat and there would be zombie dancers and acrobats and sword swallowers and-"

"Fire breathers," Imhotep adds, sitting next to him and glancing over Hanna's shoulder at the design he's working on. It looks kind of like him, standing behind his keyboard with long, uneven tendrils coming out of it, connecting to his arms and chest like some kind of man/music cyborg hybrid.

"Fire breathers," Hanna echoes, awe in his voice. "They could, like, teach Veser how to do it and we could have it every night!"

"That is a terrible idea," Conrad interjects, the same moment Veser shrieks, "Awesome!" Everyone turns to Toni for the final verdict, because somehow nothing happens unless she's okay with it.

"Not a chance in hell," she says, not bothering to look up as she turns a page in her book. Veser starts protesting and Conrad breathes a heavy sigh of relief, and while they start arguing ("Seriously, sometimes I can't believe we even let you have drumsticks") Hanna turns to show Imhotep what he's drawn and how awesome it will look on stage, his eyes lit up with excitement and the argument fades out in the background.

It seems the human-keyboard-hybrid thing is just one idea of many as Hanna flips through his notebook. "Okay, so, that one wouldn't allow to you move about much. But... how about this?" It's a variation of his usual zombie design, with the green skin and a black row of stitches around his neck, but he's dressed up like some kind of zombie detective, complete with fedora and a trench coat. "We could do a musical murder mystery!"

Imhotep hums appreciatively. "We'd have to write some new songs for it."

"No problem! I've got half a song about a drowned witch who comes back to solve crimes, but we could totally rework that for you..."

"We are a band and not a theatre group, Hanna," Toni calls, teasing, as her and Veser's argument winds down. Veser makes a face at the idea.

"I didn't get into this shit to act," Veser says, and Imhotep replies with, "Fire breathing," and Veser lights up like he's already practising.

Hanna's sketching in his notepad again, quick, sharp doodles of designs for outfits and costume make up and snatches of lyrics to accompany them. Conrad and Veser start arguing again.

"Do we have a vague idea of a setlist yet? Or cover songs?" Toni asks, effectively cutting off Veser's protests.

"We're doing Thriller," Hanna states, and looks scandalised when Veser groans. "We always do Thriller! Everyone does the dance! It's fantastic!"

"There are other horror songs. Seriously."

"It is kind of expected of us now," Toni adds calmly. "And it's fun."

Veser looks to Imhotep for support, but he just shrugs in response and Veser snorts, folding his arms and slumping back into the couch. "Figures."

"We can do other cover songs as well," Hanna says, having turned back to his drawing.

"Zombie Prostitute?" Veser asks hopefully, and then adds with a leer, "Toni could dress up."

"Um," Hanna says when he glances up, because he's slightly terrified of Toni's very cold and still expression. "Yes to the first part and no to the second? Er. Unless you want to."

"Only if you three do as well," she replies, smiling wickedly, and Hanna recoils.

"We'll choose our own outfits, like always," Imhotep placates, and Toni's smile softens as she looks at him and then back to her book, ignoring everyone else.

Hanna leans closer to his keyboardist and angles the notepad page so he can see it clearly; a short storyboard progression showing the zombie detective going feral and attacking Hanna, pulling him offstage at the end of the main set so he can come back as a zombie for the encore.

"We could get a blood capsule, and as you bite into me you could break it open and it'd look blood was bursting out of my neck. That would be epic."

Toni shoots him a look of arched eyebrows and you are way too into this, but she's smiling because she wouldn't be here if she didn't love it as much as they did.

"Are you nervous?" Hanna says, perching on the edge of the counter as Elias smears body paint over his cheeks. It's finally Halloween, and Toni and Veser are at the side of the stage watching the support act.

"A little. Everyone is before they go on stage," and then he stops, green creeping halfway down his neck, and turns to give Hanna his full attention. "Are you?"

"Well, yeah, it's just... there's a lot that could go wrong, you know? We've got more stuff set up than we've had before and if it all works it'll be the most awesome show we've ever done but if I mess up-"

"Everyone will still love it," Elias interrupts. "You'll be great, even if all the set ups fail and it ends up just us and the stage lights."

Hanna ducks his head, grinning at his swinging feet. "Yeah. I- I guess you're right. You'll be awesome whatever - and Toni and Veser, obviously, they're unfazable."

He looks up, holding Elias's gaze through his eyelashes and for a long moment they just grin at each other, an impromptu staring contest that continues even as Hanna reaches for the tub of paint and dabs his hand in it, sweeping his thumb over the curve of Elias's cheekbone.

"You need way more fake blood on you right now," Hanna says, looking away hurriedly as he flushes with colour.

Worth had insisted that they use The Doctor's for the Halloween show, saying something about drunk college girls in sexy nurse outfits and everyone stopped listening after that. Pumpkins line the edge of stage, dotted between the speakers - Conrad had roped the whole band into carving them the day before, and even Worth and Lamont has shown up to lend a hand. They had carved headstones out of polystyrene and Lamont managed to dig out a smoke machine from somewhere deep in the backstage area, the fog spreading across the stage and out into the crowd, lending sharp edges to the stage lights.

"You guys look amazing," Hanna says into the microphone, backlit and grinning at the cheering crowd before he has the lights brought up so he can see all the costumes. There's a Riddler and a Two-Face pressed up against the barrier, a couple dressed as Team Rocket clinging to each other and waving to get his attention, and even a cardboard robot hanging near the back of the pit. He gets everyone to clap themselves for their awesome effort, and then: "But not quite as cool as us," he adds, and they launch into the next song.

The Zombie Detective is working the crowd during a moment where it's just Toni's bass line and Hanna's voice, getting the audience to start clapping the beat before Veser kicks back in with the drums, and Hanna is so distracted by him - the curve of his wrist as he starts the clapping, the shifting lines of his back under his shirt as he punches the air - that he almost messes up a riff he's done a hundred times before. Elias has already shucked off the heavy trench coat, throwing off into the wings with a flourish sometime during the second song, but he still has the fedora on and as he spins back around to his keyboard, more animated on stage than at any other time, he flashes Hanna a smile and the the frontman glows hot under the spot light.

Toni is a half-turned werewolf with pointy ears and sharpened canines and a ripped, complicated outfit made out of belts and fake fur. Veser insists that he is an undead sea king, his grin looking unsettlingly pointy and his skin the colour of a corpse, wrapped up in a toga with a plastic crown on his head, and halfway through the show Hanna gets the audience to vote on who has the best outfit by way of cheers - Hanna's Dick Tracy outfit wins because he cheats, and his grin is wide and unapologetic as Toni encourages the fans to throw things at him: several glow sticks fly towards the stage and he ducks, laughing and beaming.

The musical murder mystery is the very loose concept - the Zombie Detective is the victim, and Hanna is meant to be solving his murder and Toni, Veser and the entire audience are possible suspects. It's charmingly ridiculous, and they've written in a few moments for pyrotechnics just because they can and Worth said he would sort it (they hadn't been too sure about that, but Lamont said it would fine and honestly, no one would get hurt). During the last song Veser disappears with an evil laugh and a shower of sparks, and Toni drops her guitar and goes feral, gleefully snarling as Hanna whips a silver stake out of his back pocket and plunges it into Toni's chest - she shrieks, grabbing hold of it and staggering backwards dramatically, until she's off the stage and lets go of the trick stake with a laugh.

Hanna watches her go, hands on his hips and his chin raised in triumph: and then the Zombie Detective grabs him from behind and sinks his teeth into Hanna's neck, blood suddenly gushing from the wound and Hanna yells, flailing his arms. The lights suddenly extinguish, the dramatic end of the show - and Hanna possibly ruins it by laughing loud enough for the audience to hear as Elias lets go and they rush off the stage.

They can already hear the crowd chanting for more as they get into the light of a backstage corridor, and Conrad pushes the tub of green body paint into Hanna's hand and a bottle of water into Elias', saying, "One minute!" before hurrying back to Veser to continue helping with applying the fake blood, a tasty but sticky mixture of corn syrup and food colouring. Hanna twists off the lid and stares at the paint for a second, before glancing up at Elias and saying, "Swap?" hopefully.

Elias huffs a shallow laugh and hands Hanna the water bottle, picking up the sponge covered in green paint and gently taking hold of Hanna's jaw as he sweeps it over Hanna's cheek. He works quickly, the cold tickle of the sponge making Hanna giggle, his eyes shut and lips quirked and Elias pauses, Hanna's skin warm against his finger tips, until Hanna opens one eye and peers at him.

"Finished?" Elias feels his cheeks flushing under his makeup as he nods, and Hanna beams and turns to drop everything into Conrad's hands. They head over to Veser to be splattered with fake blood, smearing more over Elias's mouth and Hanna's neck, and then they rush back on stage in flashing lights and cheering fans and pick up their instruments for another song; their cover of Thriller where Elias leads the crowd in putting their claws up and dancing in sync, and that's about as complicated as they can make it but it's still fantastic enough of a spectacle that Hanna bursts out laughing half way through the song.

Hanna bounces across the stage and shares Elias' mic for the last few lines, and as the song finishes Hanna pulls him down to lick the corn syrup off his chin, tongue catching the corner of his mouth, and the fans are screaming and they're both grinning, Hanna's hand still curled around the back of Elias' neck, too happy and riding on the high of fantastic gig to feel anything but incandescently brilliant. Veser finishes with a crash of cymbals and the lights finally blink out, plunging the stage into darkness and that's their cue to stumble off stage right, forgetting to let go of each other with Hanna's hand dropping down to hold onto Elias' and he propels them both into the wings, a few steps behind Veser and Toni and then he stops and Elias crashes into his back and instinctively wraps his arms around Hanna's waist to stop them both from falling.

They forget about being careful, half in the shadows and where everyone else is just distant noise, and Hanna turns so he can put his arms around Elias' neck and they stop, breathing in the other and just existing for the moment, bright eyes and the curve of a mouth sharp in the half-light and forever passes, an endless instant until finally, finally Elias leans in to nudge his lips against Hanna's mouth and Hanna grabs him, holding onto his jaw with both hands and kissing him back with years of longing and like he never wants to let go.

They're interrupted by an awkward looking tech who clears his throat and tries to shuffle past as quickly as possible. Toni walks past a moment later and says, "Aftershow party, guys! Move it, I want to get load out done as quickly as possible." They stare at her, still wrapped up in each other and, "What, you expect me to be surprised?" she laughs, and pushes past them to get to the stage.

"Huh," Hanna says, and reluctantly draws his arms back down to his sides. "We should probably-" he starts, but Elias leans close to nuzzle into the curve of Hanna's neck, still stained red from the blood capsule. He nips at the skin and Hanna inhales sharply, hands flying up to grab onto Elias' hips and roughly pulling him closer. "Could we, um, skip all that and just go home?" Hanna says, a high edge to his voice.

"Toni would kill us," Elias points out, half-muffled with his mouth still warming Hanna's skin and then he leans back with a sigh. "We could probably leave the party quite soon, though."

"Yes," Hanna says earnestly. "Awesome plan."

(Conrad forces them to stay at the party for two hours, alternating between hiding from Worth and lecturing them about how completely idiotic they are. They're not sure if he's means about potentially dating within the band - because, wow, do they have some things to talk about - or how long it took them to get to this point. Either way, Veser eventually drags Conrad off to dance and Toni hugs them both tightly and then threatens death if they do anything to hurt each other or break up the band.

It's just another average day, really.)