JC POV.

I stretched and pushed to my feet, moving out of my lotus position. I breathed in deeply, trying to calm my nerves. Johnny, Matt and Zacky had mysteriously vanished, leaving me and Syn alone in the dressing room. He was playing a game or something on his phone, while I attempted to work up the courage to talk to Syn. He looked up as I moved.

“You alright?” I nodded tensely. He frowned, getting to his feet and coming over to me.

“Can we talk?” He nodded. I ploughed on before he could speak, determined to get this out. “Zacky told me how much my hesitation is hurting you.” Syn swore and ran a hand through his hair.

“I told him not to tell you!” He looked back at me and sighed. “Cait…”I shook my head.

“Why the hell didn’t you talk to me about it Syn?” I couldn’t hide the hurt in my voice.

“I promised you that I would wait for you to be ready. It’s not fair for me to just change my mind.” He reached out and ran a finger down my cheek.

“It’s not fair for me to be hurting you like this either.” He sighed and kissed my forehead, wrapping his arms around my waist, holding me close.

“You want me to be honest with you Cait?” I nodded, leaning into his shoulder. “This is nothing compared to how it felt to be knocked back by you. You broke my heart back then JC.” I froze as I realised exactly what he had just said. “I told you that I wasn’t going to give up, and I’m not, no matter how much it hurts. I love you.” He kissed my forehead again. “Tell me what’s holding you back Cait. Talk to me. I don’t care that I’ve got to wait, but a relationship between us won’t work if we don’t talk about things.” I bit my lip and closed my eyes, leaning into his warmth, enjoying the smell of his cologne and Marlboros as I steeled myself to open up to him. It was a while until I found the courage to speak.

“I’m scared.” I whispered. “About so many things. It scares me how much I care about you. I’ve never felt this strongly for anyone, ever. The more time that I spend with you, the more I feel myself start to fall for you. I keep asking myself if a relationship between us would work, it’s true that we’ve got on better since we lost Jimmy, but we still argue so much. I know that we obviously care about each other, and are attracted to each other, but we argue so much that I wonder if it would be good for us to get into a relationship with each other.” Everything was just pouring out now, I was aware that I was rambling slightly, but if that was the only way that I could get my insecurities across to him then it’d have to do. “And is on tour the right place to start that? When we’re together 24 hours a day? I mean, I know that we live together, but we don’t see each other all day, we’re not together all day.” Syn caught my chin, cutting my rambling off.

“Cut to it Cait, tell me what you’re really scared about. What’s scaring you the most?” I smiled weakly, he always knew if I was hiding something. I loved how he read me so easily.

“I’m scared that I’m going to end up breaking my heart again.” I confessed, looking at the floor between us, the toes of my converse suddenly really interesting. Syn stayed quiet and let me explain. “I always seem to fall for the wrong guys, it’s a trait of mine. Sometimes I wonder what it is about me that means I always end up in shitty relationships with someone that doesn’t really care about me, or someone that’s totally wrong for me, or someone that only wants me for sex, or…” I was cut off by Syn’s lips on mine.

“Jacqueline Caitlyn Seward, I’ve known you for years. Yes, you have had bad relationships, but not all of them have ended badly. You are one of the most beautiful, sensitive, funny, irritating, caring, insane people that I know. Any guy that hasn’t seen that is a fucking fool. All of those things, plus several others, are the reasons that I love you. I won’t lie, I’m scared too. Hell, I’m fucking terrified. But it’s not going to stop me from loving you, or from proving to you that a relationship between us could work.” His stern tone softened slightly. “I promise you Cait, that I will never intentionally break your heart. I care far too much. If we try and it doesn’t work out, then it doesn’t work out, at least we can say that we’ve tried. And no matter what, we’re always going to be friends. Nothing is going to change that. We’ve known each other too long, we have too much in common – no matter how much we both don’t want to admit it – and we have a whole bunch of family that will hold us together if we start to fall apart.” I looked up into his amazing chocolate brown eyes as he spoke, loosing myself in the depths, and realising just how much he meant it. All of it. I bit my lip again as I whispered the two words that had really kick-started this whole thing.

“Oh fuck it.” I leaned up and kissed him, enjoying the way that our lips seemed to fit perfectly together. The kiss deepened, Syn’s grip tightening around my waist as he pulled me in closer. I slid my hands up his chest, resting them on the back of his neck, refusing to let him pull away. Eventually, he pulled back a few millimetres to speak.

“Does this mean that you’re finally mine?” He whispered, his breathing heavy. I didn’t hesitate to reply. I may still be insecure about myself and us, but to hell if I was going to wait and put us both through hell.

“Yes.” His lips were back on mine before I’d even finished the word. He picked me up, spinning us both round in a circle, not once breaking the kiss. He pulled away and kissed me once more before setting me on the floor. As soon as both of my feet were back on the ground, cheering and applause broke out. I looked up, shocked and horrified to see the guys and the Berry brothers crowding the doorway. I felt the sudden rush of heat rise through my cheeks.

“About bloody motherfucking time!” Exclaimed my brother, grinning at us. Syn chuckled and pulled me into his arms again, letting me bury my face in his neck.