Dawn was definitely hiding something. I could see it in her eyes, and the was she kept biting her lip. It was what she always did when she was hiding something.

“Oh my god. I love you so much.” The pretty blond girl that was walking up to us gushed, her hands trembling a bit.

“Thanks babe. We love you.” Liam replied, smiling at her as she took her spot in between me and Niall for the picture that came with the meet and greet package.

This had to be nearing the end of the line. Not that I didn’t enjoy meeting fans, it was just that I was starting to get very tired and I was determined to find out what Dawn was hiding.

We all hugged the girl before she was lead away by Paul.

Dawn snuck through the door just as the girl was walking out. Again the girl squealed gleefully at recognizing her.

“Oh my gosh, you’re Dawn, you make the boys look amazing, and your hair is so cool. Can I get a hug?”

Dawn giggled and nodded. “Sure honey.” She opened her arms and the girl quickly jumped into them. Her eyes widening slightly at the girls enthusiasm making the rest of us chuckle.

“Alright lets go.” Paul said, trying to suppress his own laugh.

Dawn waved at the girl as she left, then made her way over to us. “Tired?”

“Exhausted!” Louis breathed out dramatically leaning his body onto Dawn.

She shoved him off and laughed.

“Did you see how many more fans there are out there?” Zayn asked pointing towards the door Paul was just walking back through.

“Um... I’m not sure. Paul?” Dawn asked looking at the large man.

“Two more.” He said holding up his two fingers.

“Bring them on down.” Louis said sweeping his arms in a grand gesture.

Dawn smiled at us and pointed towards the back of the room. “I’ll just wait back here until you’re done.”

A few moments later two girls, one with long blonde hair falling out of her hoodie and another with a baseball cap and hoodie on came walking up to us.

As soon as they walked in I knew there was something off about them, we couldn’t see their faces. I looked over at Paul who just shrugged.

“Um hello.” Liam said sounding a bit unsure as neither girl said a word.

I was starting to get a bit nervous and as I looked to the side I saw that Dawn was eyeing the two oddly as well. What the hell was going on?

And then all hell broke loose.

The two girls pulled out bottles from their hoodie pockets. Dawn materialized a few bottles of her own and threw one to Paul before grabbing her own.

A hail storm of silly string rained down on us from all directions.

I made a dash for Dawn trying to snatch the bottle out of her hand only to get a face full of the stuff. “Dee hand it over and no one gets hurt.”

“Ha, yea right kid. I’ll never surrender.” And again the bottle was aimed at my face.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Niall go for one of the mystery girls as Louis and Zayn went for Paul. Liam had stopped right in front of the other mystery girl and was just staring at her in a stupid way.

He only ever did that with... “Danielle.” I hissed at Dawn in a joking way just as Liam pulled her cap off and her curls sprang out of their confinement.

She just nodded giddily and continued to spray me, while I held my hands over my face to shield it.

I looked at her just as she ran out of spray. “So who’s the blonde?”

I looked back over my shoulder just as Niall managed to pull the girls arms behind her back and accidentally knock off the blonde wig to reveal her natural dark hair.

“Eleanor!” Louis halted his assault on Paul to stare at his laughing girlfriend who was currently being held captive by Niall. “Oi let her go.”

Niall instantly released her, looking completely appalled by what had just happened.

“You are evil.” I whispered towards Dawn as she laughed. I finally understood what she was so jumpy about today.

“We. We are evil.” Dawn pointed to the two other girls before pointing at herself. “I didn’t come up with this on my own, Curly.”

“Get a room yea?” Zayn shouted as now both couples were locked in a very heated greeting with their lips.

“But she was blonde.” Niall said, still sounding dazed as he picked up the wig and held it out to Zayn as if to prove his innocence.

“Yea, that’s my wig. Please be gentle with it. It’s pretty pricey.” Dawn informed stepping around me and pointing a finger at Niall.

“Why do you have a wig?” I asked. It’s not like any of us wore one.

She looked back over at me and raised her eyebrows. “For... reasons.”

“Ew Dawn, we don’t need to know all about your kinky side.” Zayn said snatching the wig from Niall and thrusting it at her with a slightly disgusted look on his face.

My own eyebrows shot up. “You don’t really... you know... use... that for...you know...” I gulped. I really didn’t want to think about what her and Cameron did behind closed doors.

Just the thought of something even slightly sexual going on made my stomach flip and my lunch threaten to make an encore appearance all over my shoes.

“Oh my god you guys are such pervs. I don’t use it in any kinky fetishes. And even if I did, Why would I let El use it. Gross.” She pulled a face and stuffed the blond wig in her bag. “Is anyone else slightly worried that none of them have come up for air since we’ve been talking?” She held her hand out in their direction.

We all looked at them. They didn’t even look to have remembered there was other people in the room.

“No not really.” I said shaking my head and looking back at her worried face as she continued to stare at them. “Ready to go?”

She shrugged, spun around and lead the way out of the room. The other four would eventually notice us leaving.

I caught up to Dawn as she navigated her way through the halls and slung my arm over her shoulder, keeping step with her.

I was working really hard on bringing everything back to the way it used to be, even if I still had the longing for more. I was still thoroughly convinced this was for the better.

“So you’re hanging out with us tonight. No Cameron?”

She hesitated in answering. “Um... no. He left a while ago. I’ll see him tomorrow night.”

“We’ll be in Orlando.” I confirmed. It was her hometown. We had plans, since before tour started, to see her mum. I loved that woman.

“Yea. She’ll be waiting for us bright and early. I know Niall has plans with Jena and Zayn said he was tagging along and I’m sure Eleanor and Danielle will keep Louis and Liam occupied so it’ll just be me and you.”

I smiled an rubbed my stomach. “More of your mums delicious food for me then.” I suddenly realized something. “Cameron’s not going to meet her?”

“Um... No I think he’s busy tomorrow.” She sounded a bit nervous about her answer.

“He’s too busy to meet his girlfriends mum?” I struggled to smoothly say girlfriend, but the whole thing struck me as slightly odd. Cameron didn’t seem the type to blow off meeting someone as important as Dawn’s mum.

“They have some meeting or something. It’s no big deal.”

She seemed too nonchalant about it. It was odd, but I let it slide. It wasn’t my place to say anything about their relationship.

By the time we got in the buses we were all thankful for the few minutes we had allotted after the show and before the meet and greet for showers, although the silly string battle of Tampa Bay had left us smelling kind of off. Luckily the drive was a relatively short one and when we pulled up to the hotel in the heart of downtown Orlando everyone was either ready for bed or a quick shower then bed.

It felt like just a few minutes after I had thrown myself onto the mattress that I heard a knock at my door. Opening my eyes to a much brighter room then I remembers let me know it was, in fact, morning and the person at the door was probably antsy to see her family.

As I opened the door with tired eyes, I let my body rest against the door frame, not even bothering with a shirt, only grabbing boxers as an after thought.

Dawn stood on the other side, at first her face was blank, her mouth hung open a bit, then she shook her head and blinked a few times.

“Um... you need to get ready.” She pushed past me into my room. “Geez Harry, we’ve barely been here a whole night and your room looks like a tornado hit it.” She reached down into the mess on the floor grabbing a random shirt and throwing it at me with out looking at me. “Put that on will you.”

I scoffed but did it anyway. “Since when has my nakedness bothered you?”

My eyes took her in as she stood awkwardly in the center of my room looking anywhere but at me. “You’re nakedness has always bothered me.”

“Not true.”

“Harry just put some damn clothes on.”

Her tone was harsh and for that reason I quickly grabbed a pair of jeans from my suitcase and stepped into them. After buttoning the last button on the fly I looked over at her again, she was still looking away.

“What’s wrong with you?”

She finally looked over at me, checking to see if I was dressed. “Nothing. Now swoosh your hair and lets go.”

She seemed like she was rushing. Normally Dawn would jump at the opportunity to fix my hair, she hated when I ‘swooshed’ it like she was asking me to do now.

“Are we on a time crunch here?”

She sighed and looked at me pleadingly. “I just really want to see my mom, okay?” Then with a gesture towards the door and an impatient look my way. “Let’s go.”

It took about 20 minutes to get from our hotel to Dawn's mothers house.

She lived in town just outside of the city of Orlando that was quite pretty and peaceful. Dawn’s eyes looked out the window of the van longingly as we drove.

“You miss it?”

“Like crazy.” She then turned to me with a small smile. “But the trade off is worth it.”

Pulling up to the house a woman, who looked like an older brunette version of Dawn, stood waving on the porch.

“My baby.” She gushed rushing up to us. Dawn held her arms out only to have her mom bypass her and pull me into a hug.

Did I mention Dawn got most of her personality.

“Hello Lydia.” I greeted as she kissed my cheek.

“Gee thanks mom. Missed you too.” Dawn chastised with a smile.

Lydia turned to her daughter and just looked at her. “You look tired.”

“Is that another way of you saying I look like crap?” Dawn asked with raised eyebrows.

“I’ve taught you well.” Her mother finally wrapped her up in her arms and squeezed her.

“Mom... need... air...”

“Oh I’m so glad you two are here, although I wish you would have brought the others.” Lydia shrugged. “Oh well you’ll have to take them some food when you leave.”

“I’m sure all the boys will appreciate it.” I informed causing her to smile brightly.

Dawn looked us over before turning and walking up the steps into her childhood home. “I’m going inside. It’s hot as balls out here. I need AC.”

I watched her leave. Something about her being here, in this place, made her seem so free and happy. It was home to her, her true home, and the way she was here made her even more beautiful then she already was.

“Oh what are you doing Harry?” Lydia tutted from beside me.

I turned my head to look at her as she shook her head at me. “What do you mean?”

“Why haven’t you told my daughter how you feel about her?”

“I’m sorry wha-”

“Don’t play dumb with me boy.” I could really hear the southern twang in her voice in that last word. “I’m not stupid Harry, I can see how you look at her. Now I want to know how you could look at her like that and then just let her be with someone else.”

“It’s complicated.” I sighed looking down at my feet and stuffing my hands in my pocket.

“It’s not nearly as complicated as you make it seem. I know she told you she had feelings for you, I also know you lied to her. Now you are lucky I like you Harry because I don’t really like the idea of boys lying to my daughter.”

I had nothing to say. She was right I was lying to Dawn, but it was for a good reason. Even if no one else saw it that way.

“I know you have it all rationalized, in that little head of yours, that this is all for the best, but I can assure you that people are going to get hurt by this, and the top three candidates look to be you, my daughter, and the nice boy she keeps telling me about but we both know she is just using at this point to try and get over you.”

There was silence as I looked at my shoes and she looked at me.

“Look at it this way, If things play out the way you think you want them to and she does somehow get over you... say in a few years she decides to marry Cameron, are you going to be able to sit there and watch that happen.”

I hadn’t really thought of them being together past this tour. The idea of watching Dawn marry someone else made my heart physically hurt in ways I didn’t know it could.

All I could see was her pretty face beaming up at a man that wasn’t me as she vowed her life to him.

Could I really let that happen?

Notes

enjoy!!