Quick note, Codie is British so she will call things by the British name and not American. When I'm writing in one of the boy's point of views, I will use American vocabulary, so for now ignore British terminology. Also, she's northern British (Mainly North-West) so it's kinda worse, considering how she should speak and the dialect she should have. Yet, I'm really just going to not include that, as I don't really know about much of it, and quite frankly many wouldn't understand some of it. Also, by North West, I mean the Manchester area.

Glossary/translation:

on my todd/ones- on my own
paddy- tantrum
out on the lash- going getting drunk
pissed- drunk (in this context)
skivvy- personal slave.
***

The prior happiness that had been present during the last few weeks was not enough to wash away the songs of torment that his brain sang. He lay on Remington's bed, stuck in his own prison of persecution, filled with the terror of being isolated in his own bed. Feelings of self-hate were mildly kept at bay as he lay in the foreign covers, wishing for both of his brothers to return.

The other two Kropp brothers were out celebrating Sebastian's birthday. Emerson had been invited, he just hadn't had the energy but claimed he felt sick. It's not that he didn't want to go out, it was the constant fear of running into Maisie again. He hadn't had the fear in the months after their breakup, it had developed after the incident nearly a month ago.

The fear had manifested after seeing the pain and anguish upon both of his brothers' faces. He hadn't seen the pain on Sebastian's face at the time, but the worried glances he had thrown Emerson's way in the days after the whole ordeal was enough to clue him in on how it had affected his brother.

Alas, the night was still young and his brothers would not return for a very long time. He figured he could use this time to rebuild the mask that lay on his face in shattered pieces on his face, yet here he was, struggling to find the pieces that matched the other. None of the edges seemed to fit with the other, not the way they should have. Whenever he tried to piece two similar pieces together, they would end up with way more jagged edges than when he had initially attempted.

Lying there all he managed to do was bring temporary peace to his brain and thoughts, nothing more. What felt like centuries was merely an hour, and he could tell his grasp on reality's time was warped- mangled even. He was losing his sense of real life after all.

He was losing; there was no doubt in that. Falling into the pit was inevitable, but maybe- just maybe- he didn't have to drag his brothers down with him. That happiness from the two weeks ago fuelled this hope, he had managed to be the reason for his brothers' smiles. That was enough.

On the other side of the bus, Codie was laying in her bed, despite the late time, thinking. About Emerson, The other two men, and her Ex Liam. She didn't know why that asshole appeared in her thoughts, but he did. She wished now that she had chosen to join Remington, at least then she wouldn't be left thinking about her asshole of an ex. The lying manipulative bastard that hurt her in more ways than one. Only once had he hurt her physically, she still had the scar, but it had also been the last straw.

That night she left.

He still had most of her possessions at their- his- house, and she had no intentions of going retrieving them. Not anymore, at first when the relationship ended, she did want to go back, he had brainwashed her into believing he would be the only one to love her, yet she had been able to reconnect with her family after a while, and she realised that he didn't love her. He loved his control over her. He loved her body; maybe that's why she ended up doing what she did.

Bile rose to her throat the more she thought about him, she knew she had to stop. If only she knew how to work the TV in the living area, that way she could watch Netflix or something. Now was as good a time as any to learn, right?

Clambering out of her bunk in her short sleep shorts and oversized Metallica t-shirt that she found in a charity shop, she headed towards the two couches, grasping the remote off of the opposite couch that she intended to sit on. She sat on the couch for a solid ten minutes fiddling with the remote, trying to get the Netflix to work. Yet, despite her profession, technology had once again bested her.

Grunting and panting could be heard from the bunk that belonged to Remington but held a sleeping Emerson, and she warily stood up and approached the man who lay on the bed. The curtain was shut and she had no idea what was going on over on the other side of the fabric barricade. Tentatively and slowly she pulled back the curtain to reveal a distressed looking Emerson.

He looked like he had on the very first day that she had met Palaye Royale and he had the nightmare. There was a difference though, then his brothers had been here; now it was just her. She gently placed her hand on his shoulder and began to softly shake it, hoping to wake him non-intrusively. It was a dead hope, he still lay shaking and sweating. "Emerson!" Her shaking became increasingly more violent and urgent as panic rose in herself.

"Emerson, I swear if you don't wake up I'm getting a jug of water and pouring it on you" The empty threat fell on death ears as the man continued to sleep in distress. His skin was paling and she could tell it was only a matter of time until something happened, whether it was good or bad she was unaware, but she knew it would be something. "Emerson, wake up now" She was full on shaking his entire torso in panic, as she tried to wake the drummer.

Just like the last time, he awoke with a start, eyes shooting open as he sat up slightly trying to catch his breath. Codie stood back too, giving him room as he attempted to stop the shaking. He collapsed back onto his brother's mattress and let out a somewhat inhuman groan. The shaking and sweating came to a stop, almost too quick, once again erupting worry in Codie.

Which was why she was now stood at the side of Emerson's bunk, staring as he lay there looking slightly dead. "Are- are you dead?" slight relief washed through her when she saw his chest rise and fall; even so, it was only slightly noticeable. A grunt was heard from the figure lay in the bunk, signalling to her that he was alive just not willingly. "Do you know how to work the Netflix in the living area?"

Emerson sat up and begrudgingly opened his eyes, "No-one knows how to use that, why do you want to? Don't you have your own on your laptop?" he looked at her expectantly as if waiting for her to respond there and then. She did have Netflix, but it was on her old laptop at Liam's, she had bought a new laptop, but she had forgotten the login information. She couldn't even remember the email she used for it so she couldn't cancel it. So now, the money went out of her bank account every month.

"Umm, no" she couldn't really be bothered telling him all this, so she opted for the short version "I never really bothered with it, didn't see the point" she shrugged her shoulders to seem more nonchalant about the whole situation. He believed her and shrugged his shoulder climbing out of Remington's bunk, grabbing his laptop.

"What were you planning on watching?" He shuffled past her and sat on the couch that she had been sat on prior to him waking up, "I could do with a happy distraction, what about Disney?" He had his laptop opened up to Netflix and was already searching Disney films. She sat- well crouched- besides him on the floor and looked over his shoulders at the selection of films.

"That's totally not fair!"

"Huh, what?" Emerson was confused, there was no simpler way to put it. After all, he hadn't done anything to make see injustice, nor had his laptop come up with anything to do so either. However, he was quick to roll his eyes when he found out the true reason for her outburst as she grumbled about his Netflix having more films than the British Netflix. The statement confused him as she had previously claimed that she 'didn't see the point' in the app, however, he was too tired and completely unbothered to bring it up with her.

In the end, they finally settled on Big Hero 6 and got comfy on the two couches. The pair had found an HDMI wire somewhere in the mess of wires and had linked up Emerson's laptop to the TV meaning that they no longer had to squish around the small laptop screen and strain their ears to listen to the film, and could now relax on separate couches and spread out as they wished.

It was just before the climax where all the characters were opening to each other when Emerson paused the film. "What did my brothers tell you about why I'm like this?" He was looking at her intently, almost like he was trying to extract the answer from her brain without her even speaking.

"Nothing really, I just know that seeing your ex still affects you, and I'm not going to lie, I'd probably freak if I saw my ex on the street. All I know about you more than your fans is that you still have issues with your ex and that you have bad nightmares" The mention of the nightmare made Emerson flinch slightly, and close his eyes, trying to ease the images and flashbacks of the dream out of his mind.

"I don't have issues seeing her, well I do just not issues someone might think. Maisie and I were together for a year and a half, I thought we were happy. I'm pretty sure if we had still been together now I would have proposed," he looked down to his hands which were clasped together on his knees fiddling with each other, and pried them away from each other and placed them on each side of himself on the couch. He had caught Codie's small and silent gasp, after all, it wasn't even something he had told his family yet.

"Anyway, there was this Instagram account, it kept posting pictures of her and different guys, sometimes it was the same guy. They weren't pictures from before we were dating, they were pictures from during our relationship." His hands had slowly worked themselves together during the course of him talking, but he paid no further mind to them and left them rested on his upper thighs.

His eyes were closed as he tried to hide the pain, yet even though they were closed, Codie could still see the pain tattooed into the rest of his features and in the way his hands nervously played with each other, "Are you okay? You don't have to tell me you know, You can ring one of your brothers and vent to them if that's what you need." She looked at him, expecting him to stand and call his brother now that the option had been presented, but he didn't move.

"No, I'm okay, just trying to sort through the details that I can say without reality hitting me like a truck, I mean I get that it happened, but sometimes certain details catch me off guard and my brain doesn't know how to function," Maybe, perhaps if Codie wasn't too focused on his face and the torment playing in his voice and eyes- which he had now opened- she would have caught his left hand scratching his right wrist violently, and maybe she would have seen the droplets of blood that slowly began to seep through the stitching and pattern of the shirt.

"I don't know the official number, but I can say it wasn't just once or twice, it was pathological. I don't know when it started, or whether I was, in fact, one of the guys she used to cheat on another guy. We broke up in February this year after being together for 1 year, 5 months and 4 days" Watching sadly, she moved her hands, wanting to comfort him in any small manner she could, yet she pulled her hand away before she could even touch him and tell him that everything was going to be fine.

"I'm just generally not okay, she kind of ripped me apart and left the pieces in a burning fire. The old me doesn't exist anymore and I don't think I'm okay with that." His eyes didn't leave Codie's as he said the sentence, yet his eyes weren't on Codie. He was staring off into the wonders of his own mind as his brain tried to mimic eye contact. Perhaps in an attempt to juxtapose against the words that just left his mouth.

Codie was still not over the youngest Kropp brother's revelation when he continued speaking, "I'm still figuring out how to heal and stitch myself together since she cursed me, I haven't even found the pieces yet. She is still stuck in my thoughts even though I am over her, my brain isn't over her actions," She nodded in understanding, she got it, after all, she still wasn't over what Liam had done to her, and she was still very much dealing with it.

"I wake up in the middle of the night trying not to wake my brothers whilst I calm myself down from the nightmare. The same nightmare, every time I even enter the world of unconsciousness. No matter what, it's the same dream and it never gets better, always gets worse." He looked down at his legs, a silent tear falling down his cheek, wiped away too fast for Codie to realise what it was.

"Lately it's been using my fear of hurting my brothers and breaking my bond with my brothers, Nightmare Maisie lists all the men that she slept within our time together, claiming she slept with Remington even though I know he wouldn't do that to me. In the dreams, she rips out my heart, literally." Her heart yearned to sit next to him and hug him until he was better, but she felt like that would be crossing her own and Emerson's boundaries.

"I know you don't really know me, but you can trust me and talk to me when you feel like you can't talk to your brothers, I don't really know you so I can't judge you or anything you tell me" She shrugged her shoulders and gave a small, uncomfortable thin-lipped smile.

Tears streamed down Codie's cheeks as the credits rolled on the previously forgotten film. After Emerson had opened up, he seemed to shut back up into his shell which led Codie to resume the film for them so the atmosphere would ease up. It had worked and the photographer had immersed herself in the film she had never seen before, which is ultimately what led to her downfall and breakdown at the ending of the film.

Emerson watched uncomfortably as Codie cried and glared at the tv which was now suggesting Lion King, a film she had seen and always cried at. She turned her attention to Emerson, glare at level 100 "That was not the 'happy distraction' you promised me!" he raised his hands in defence and shrugged his shoulders.

"Hey you picked it as well, you knew what watching it entailed," he smiled at her heartbroken face as she still cried, whilst also wiping away the tears that were still on her face. She began shouting unintelligible noises whilst flapping her arms in a wild crazy manner. She stopped making noises and the drummer gave her a face that summed up his confusion: eyebrows scrunched together and mouth in a tight line.

Composing herself and wiping the tears from her face one last time, "I HAVE NEVER SEEN THAT FILM" He couldn't help it, he just started laughing. He didn't even know why; perhaps it was because this was her genuine reaction to an animated movie. "I swear down on all of my photography equipment Emerson Barrett Kropp, if you don't stop laughing I will beat the living shit out of you!" her glare, which had simmered down to a 10 was now at 1000 and aimed directly at him.

He held his hands up in mock surrender "Okay, Okay I wouldn't want you to hurt my ankles shorty, how about we play a game? Monopoly? That can't bring you anymore distress, unless you have some freaky backstory on how Monopoly ruined your life, if so, keep it to yourself cause I honestly think I'll throw you out of the bus if you do" he raised his eyebrows as if challenging her to tell him that she had actually got some creepy fear of the game.

She shrugged her shoulders and gestured for him to grab the game and set it up. Hey, it was his idea which also made it his responsibility. Rolling his eyes, he complied with her unspoken commands and retrieved the game. "I'm being the top hat obviously, don't argue with me, you can choose any of the other pieces"

Rolling her eyes, she picked up the thimble and placed it on go and selected the top hat from the selection and placed it on go as well. For a while the game was calm and they were being peaceful and kind, buying their own places and allowing the other to collect all of the 'places' in a collection.

However, all hell broke loose when Emerson bought one of the places that Codie, the game got competitive and she began buying all of the places she landed on meaning she had the most properties meaning she didn't have to pay as much as Emerson as he was now most likely to land on her properties and pay rent.

"Hand it over!" she held her hand out for the cash he now owed her. He had landed on her most expensive property, she had 4 hotels on the board on this particular place meaning the cost was ridiculous and was just under Emerson's total 'bank' total which is why he was now refusing to give her the money. She owned the entire strip of properties and it was inevitable for him to not land on one of them. He would go bankrupt and cause him to lose. He shook his head as she kept her hand held out still, "Kropp, give it!" he shook his head and continued to refuse.

Begrudgingly he handed the money over to her. He had $37 left, there was no way he would win, he had already collected go and was nowhere near it. He watched as she rolled and landed on one of her own places, saving her from owing him money.

Praying to the heavens he shook the die, his attempts at gaining the favour of the Gods to help him win failed and he landed on another one of her properties, "That will be $250 please" she smiled as she eyed his sparse pile of cash. Emerson grumbled and glared at her high stacks of cash, rather than handing her the money, he grabbed the board and flipped it to the left. The pieces and cash scattered across the floor near to the door of the bus.

Her eyes widened, she hadn't expected him to be such a sore loser. She looked back to the pieces and paper on the floor "You're tidying that up. I'll help but I ain't doing it on my todd" she crossed her arms over her chest and mimicked his challenging look from earlier.

"Okay, two things, I'm not tiding that up and what?!" she raised a confused eyebrow, "What the hell was that last sentence? Who the fuck is Todd?" his face was twisted into confusion, and he looked at her like she was bat shit crazy.

"I am not doing it on my own, and I don't know who todd is, it's a saying, all on my billy todd, but 'my' is pronounced like 'mi or ma' and I'm presuming billy todd is a loner, that's what they say where I'm from, some other areas say stuff like on my ones, which I find weird" she shrugged her shoulders, "On second thought, I ain't helping you with that, you shouldn't have thrown a paddy"

It was like she was speaking some kind of alien language to him and he couldn't understand the better half of it. She was confusing him, and he wished she would use some actually understandable words to form a legible sentence he could make sense of. "I'm done. So done trying to understand your foreign tongue" he held his hands up and walked away.

He walked straight to his bunk and lay down still mumbling about alien languages, he didn't even bother cleaning up the monopoly pieces. "Emerson, I'm not cleaning this up. Just because Rem and Seb are out on the lash doesn't mean I'm going to become your god damn skivvy"

"I swear I need a fucking dictionary for half of the shit that is coming out of your mouth! What the hell does 'out on the lash' and what the hell is a skivvy?" he used his hands so she could see his confusion as he moved them around wildly as he expressed his confusion.

"Out on the lash means going getting pissed, and a skivvy is a slave" he let out an exasperated sigh and turned away from her going on his phone. Each word that was coming out of her mouth was hurting his brain more and more, and he just needed a break.

She took the message and headed towards her bed as well, not that she really used it as she didn't sleep all that often. The time on her phone told her that it was now 3 am and Remington and Sebastian said they would be home soon.

True to their word, at 4 am Emerson and Codie could hear the pair stumbling in drunk, both of them slurring words, Sebastian more than Remington as he was clearly the more intoxicated of the two. What happened next really challenged the drummer and photographer's ability to not laugh and keep up the façade, and pretend that they were asleep.

Silent 'ow's' and grunts of pain could be heard through the bus, as the pair who had obviously taken off their shoes as they entered stepped onto the scattered monopoly pieces. "Fuck off you tiny stabby things" Codie had to hold her hands over her mouth to avoid them haring her laughter which was becoming harder to keep in the longer that they were near the pieces.

After five minutes, the grunts of pain stopped, although the pair had not made it to their own beds, as Sebastian's was near Codie's and she hadn't heard him come near. Clarification was given when she heard Remington say to his older brother "I guess we're sleeping on the couches then"

***

I had to make a change... I had made a mistake when writing and wrote it so that Emerson was sleeping in Remington's bunk but as I write on different days, I ended up making it so that he was sleeping on his bunk. I read through the chapters a while ago but I was too lazy to change it at the time and had no internet to do so, but it was bugging me.