#tragedybubbleslibrary

You settled back in your seat, relaxing shoulders and trying to remain calm. Taking a deep breath and, upon hearing the words of permission, smiling at the camera.

“Hello, hello, I'm y/n y/l/n and this is WIRED's self-complete interview, where I answer the most researched questions about myself.”

After finishing the introduction, the production handed you the first plate of Google searches.

“To be honest, I'm freaking out” you took a deep breath again, leaving the board in your lap “I'm usually accompanied by four guys to answer all the questions for me.”

You started to giggle when you heard the laughter of the people behind the cameras. Muttering an 'I'm ready', lifting the plate, arranged it so that you could read and propped it up on your legs.

“'What does y/n do?'” reading out loud and throwing the sticker on the floor. You gave a big smile, proud “I'm part of a band called 5 Seconds of Summer, I'm the keyboardist and also vocal when we need it.”

“'What does y/n wear?'” pressing your lips together, looking at the papers on the floor “Usually some boots with high heels, I have to at least try to compensate, you know? It's hard to stand next to four Australians who are almost six feet tall.”

You shrugged, grinning at the camera.

“'What does y/n listen to?' Stupid jokes and good music.”

“'Does y/n have a tattoo?'”you stared at the plate for a while “Great question! But my grandma's watching, so I'll just go to the next one.”

You get excited, happy by the smiles in the room, always used to noise and chatter, a warm atmosphere.

You placed the question board on the floor, soon having another one being placed in your hands.

“'y/n how tall?'” moving your head in denial mode, you laugh a little “That's a secret that will be buried, let's just say I'm average, I swear.”

You waved your hand, pulling out the tape of the next question.

“'y/n sang Wonderwall?' Yes, I did, and I think every beginning singer in the world did too” you laughed, shaking your head, remembering your mother recording the performance while you danced with the new sandals she got you for Christmas. You pulled out the last tape.

“'y/n dating?'” you gave a surprised sigh, smiling directly at the camera “am I?”

卌

You were leaning against the window, your body occupying two seats of the bus. The camera in your hands, recording some scenes for the band's tour diary.

“Is it just me or is there smoke coming out of the bus?” Your conversation with the camera was interrupted by Mike.

Randall approached, asking everyone to get off as soon as the bus stopped on the roadside.

“Come on, let's go.” you walked to the last seat, shaking Ashton until he woke up.

Luke got off the vehicle, looking at all the cars passing by and then, noticing the huge amount of smoke coming out of the transport.

“Is it on fire?!” a sleepy Ashton asked, stopping beside him.

Hemmings confirmed, watching Ash throw his blanket and pillows on the grass, he sat down.

“Are you really going to lie there?”

“I don't think this is the sort of thing they'll fix quickly.”

Soon you were at the bus door, but instead of getting off, you threw yourself onto the grass, rolling over until you were near the two men.

“Do you guys always come here?” you asked, smiling. But your pose was shattered when you had to wipe grass from your mouth.

Looking at the bus, you pick up the camera and record again.

“Our bus is on fire! It couldn't handle all our talent.” focused the lens on the smoke “Is this a good time to sing Easier?”

“It's a bad time to be singing anything.” Calum grumbled, sitting down on the grass as well.

You stared at him, shrugging.

“Until they fix it, we can have a party on the road!”

“A terrible idea, I give you five seconds to think of a better one.” Hood grumbled.

“Calum, you can go down by the road and hitchhike.”

“y/n, do you know the little voice in there?” Mike approached, putting his finger on your forehead. “It would be nice to ask her opinion about what you're going to say before you speak.”

You laughed, showing him your tongue. You looked at the vehicle again.

“The bus's kinda hot though…”

卌

Luke was sitting on the couch, throwing Chips at Mike to get his attention.

“For God's sake, man, what do you want?” he turned to him, throwing his arms up.

“I'm bored!”

“Good morning, family!” You opened the door, smiling and speaking loudly.

“What happened?” Clifford grimaced.

“What do you mean, my dear friend?” You opened your arms, good humour exuded from every pore “Why can a bad day be a bad day just because you woke up on a bad day, but a good day can't just be a good day because you woke up on a good day?”

You raised your eyebrows, wiggling them suggestively. The man rolled his eyes.

“Let's do something! It's a day too beautiful to stay inside.”

“It's raining, y/n.” Michael replied, clicking his tongue.

“Let's go in the rain!” Luke stood up from the sofa, getting excited at the idea.

“That's the spirit!” you got even more excited, being infected with Hemmings joy.

“Wasn't a rehearsal the reason we are here?” Mike asked no one in particular “You guys can't be serious, is anyone listening to me? It's a terrible idea.”

Ashton watched Clifford's drama, not really wanting to take a side, but already putting on his shoes.

“It's like watching an episode of SpongeBob.”

Calum laughed upon hearing his friend's observation, getting up from the sofa and walking to the door.

Luke and you were dancing in the street, the sky was closed, almost no light sneaking through the clouds. The raindrops falling on both of them as they swirled on the asphalt.

Hood smiled, running towards the two and joining in the dance, his steps making you laugh and clap your hands.

“If you don't want to come and dance, you'll have to sing for us!” you screamed, as if there were no other options available.

Irwin looked at his friend still sitting on the couch, the two exchanged glances.

“Okay, okay.” Mike stood up, taking off his cap and placing it on the nearest dresser.

Ash stood in the doorway, smiling, he reached for his mobile phone, recording the scene. It seemed a moment too special to not be remembered.

You entered the garage, slamming the door brutally.

“What do you think you're doing?” crossing your arms, you stand in front of the four of them.

“It's over, birdie, get over it.” Mike grumbled, throwing the tennis ball against the wall. The pet name almost made your anger go away. Almost.

“Clifford, have you gone mad?” he frowned, looking at his three friends, seeing them in the same situation. “This is a nightmare, I must have drunk something by mistake, you can't be serious!”

You had no answer, hands dropped to the sides of your body, a feeling of helplessness taking over. You hated to see them sad, but despondent about their dream? Your dream? This was even worse.

“Come on, we're the star band, right?” you stared at your four best friends, saying with obviousness. The boys begrudgingly murmured agreement, even if they didn't know exactly what that phrase meant, it seemed important to you, so they weren't going to disagree, even if it was hard to believe they were close to being something great.

You kicked Ashton in the leg, signaling for him to stand up, and did the same to Calum, but giving his boot a light kick.

“Come on, guys! We're not an opening act anymore! People don't come a long way to see someone and then bump into us. People come a long way to see us! People like us, Mike! They like our music! Awards are nice and nominations are nice, but we're being recognized by people who have us for inspiration! Is there anything more valuable than that?”

You stared into his eyes, couldn't believe in the dream without Mike, there was no 'us' without Mike.

“Stars, Cliff, stars.” you smiled at him “Five points.”

卌

Irwin approached you, one hand holding a camera.

“Are we recording this?” you frowned at the camera, tapping Ashton lightly on the shoulder.

“It's a music video, I think that's the idea.”

You snorted, shooing him away.

“You know what I mean.”

“We'll have a Behind the Scenes too.”

“Oh, that's nice” you said, this time with a lot of excitement in your voice “I didn't know you were going to be the cameraman this time.”

“It's a special occasion, I decided to interview the stars, I started with you because you're everyone's favorite.”

“And the first person you find.”

“That too.” The man agreed, looking around the venue, people were walking everywhere. “How are your emotions recording such a special clip?”

“Honestly, I've cried so much I don't think I have any water left in my body.” you were laughing as soon you finished the sentence, even if it was a little bit true. “Look at this…”

You took out your wallet, showing him and the camera some of the photos in there.

“This is me at Easter, I was very happy for the egg that comes with a hamster. I was also too old to have been disappointed when I discovered that the hamster wasn't real.”

“It's a lovely picture, you and your father look very much alike.” Ash commented, running his hand over it.

“Do you think so?” you looked at him, watching him confirm. “That's my stepdad.”

You started to laugh, making him laugh too, even if he was a little stunned.

“How many years have you known me, Irwin? Honestly…” he denied it with his head, facing the camera while grimacing and laughing.

The two were interrupted by Calum, who walked in between them, hugging them both and changing the subject.

“How long do you guys think it took to find a child that looked like you? I mean It must have been hard to find one as pretty as me.” Hood said.

“They found Calum very quickly.” Luke approached, denying the previous sentence.

“Luke was gone in a few minutes, just some kid walking down the street.” Cal stared at the camera as he remained with a laughing face.

One of the production men walked up to them, calling them to the outside footage.

The four of them followed him, finding Michael already outside. you perked up when you saw the yellow car parked.

“Can I climb on the bonnet? Please let me on the bonnet!”

“Please be careful.” Randall said as you crossed and leaned on Calum to sit down.

After the four of them settled down and the pictures were taken, they tried to record some of the scenes.

“Wasn't there a busier street?” you complained, getting a slap on the back of your head from Ashton. You looked at him, offended.

“Okay, I think you're all clear for today.”

“Humpf, saved by the gong, Irwin.” you pointed, getting down from the bonnet and running to the vlog camera, new ideas already in mind.

“I'm going to get something off my chest and if this doesn't make it into the video, we're in trouble, I'm going to run for my rights. If they put me in another wool sweater, we’ll have a serious issue. I'm sweating so much I could fill a swimming pool. And another thing, I'll never get used to the snacks here. On my next trip, remind me to fill a bag with just coconut snacks, you can fill my DM's, if I forget again it won't be for lack of a reminder…”

you took your eyes off the lens, watching everyone start to get ready to leave, soon having Hemmings take her attention.

“Luke just picked up his backpack, it's like watching an episode of Dora the Adventurer, hold on, I'll show you.” you talked to the camera, soon turning it to show the man with the backpack on his back “5sosfam, you can thank me later!”

卌

“Why can't I connect?” Luke complained,

“Honestly, who let Hemmings mess with the Bluetooth? We want to get there next week?”

“It was between him and Calum.” Ash replied, settling into his seat.

“Why would it be between him and Calum?!” you frowned, buckling your seatbelt. You were in the last seat in the car, behind Ash. “And why am I back here?”

“Because you lost the bet.” Cal replied, finally getting into the car, making you snort.

“Take it easy on her, she's still upset that the carpool karaoke is with us and not James Corden.”

“No I'm not.” you crossed your arms, staring at the window “That man missed his chance, we're the best band nowadays, we're the band of stars!”

Luke took his eyes off his mobile phone to see her. It was a fact that you had always been their biggest fan.

“Not to mention that he always expects some member of the band to leave.” Michael sat in the driver's seat, placing his drink in one of the cup holders.

“'Turn your mouth away, Clifford. We can’t say the d word.”

They all suddenly looked at you, expecting some explanation.

“Disband” you whispered, like you were a toddler saying a bad word in front of your parents.

You held Calum and Ashton's seat, getting between them both and whispering again “'Are we allowed to cuss in this video?”

“Yes, but if Randall asks, we didn't authorize it.” Ash blinked, laughing.

Michael started the car, soon directing them to their destination. Luke finally plugged in his mobile phone, starting to talk to the camera.

“Come on, we've got our song coming out soon, called 'No Shame', the third single from the fourth album, the first single of this year, 2020.”

“And it's so fucking good.” You nodded to the camera, shrugging as Hemmings turned back to face her again.

“And we're in the car together, normally we go separately.” Luke turned his attention back to the camera, gesturing as he spoke “Actually, we're always together.”

“Always together.” Mike repeated, trying to stay present while paying full attention to the track.

“For various reasons we're always together” he said again.

“I'm never not with these guys, I love my siblings” Ashton emphasized, making them laugh.

The five of them sang the first ‘hey's’ of 'She looks so perfect' together, dubbing the lyrics. Calum looked over at you, doing along with you and Ash, a sloppy dance.

After a few minutes of performances and conversation, the playlist alternates between old and new songs.

“I'm going to be sick, for God's sake.” you threw yourself on the seat, placing your hand on your forehead.

“What's wrong?” three worried glances turned your way.

“No, not like that.” you laughed, so many years of friendship and they still hadn't gotten used to your drama. “It's out! The album's out!”

You showed the mobile phone screen, where the band's twitter page posted the cover and links to access it.

“Our album is finally out! You can order it now by clicking on any of the links.” Ash waved your phone, showing the camera the post. “IT'S OUT!”

Michael began shifting in his seat as he heard 'Girls talk boys'.

“I just realized, we're in the same places as when we shot this clip.”

“I'm telling you! I'm always in the backseat!” you complained, throwing your hands up in the air as you nudged a laughing Calum.

“You were the ghost, dove, what did you expect? To drive the car?” Irwin questioned, even though in your head it wasn't such a bad idea.

You loved to play the ghost, you loved the costumes, you loved them even more when you all were dressed to match. You still had the Three Blind Mice costume in your wardrobe, and wouldn't give up on the idea of convincing Ash to dress up as Eugene.

“Favorites are shown when they decide who sits on the arm of the sofa in interviews.” Mike grumbled, hearing affirmations from the back seats.

“Ash still had the audacity to stretch out and knock me over.” you stared at the window, trying to recognise the way they were going.

“To this day Jimmy comments about us being the first celebrities he didn't have to scare to fall on the floor.” Luke punctuated, biting his mouth.

“Next time, me and y/n will have the sofa to ourselves.” Calum declared, tucking the hat on his head.

“We don't have to go on a sofa one, can you imagine all of us in one of those Buzzfeed animal interviews? Puppies or kittens, I'll take both.”

“It would be five dogs to give one to each, it's easier to take the ones from home.”

The conversation was interrupted by a noise.

“Was that a fart?” Luke stared at Calum, watching him make the noise again.

“Are you playing with a fart app? How serious is this vlog?” you asked, laughing.

“I can't believe you can put farts in it.” Hemmings said, surprised.

“Oh my god, that is so stupid.” Ashton began to laugh along.

Luke picked up his mobile phone, switching to one of the songs. Just as the beat started, they heard an excited shout coming from the last pew.

“THIS!” you began to dance and sing excitedly to 'Strip That Down' by Liam Payne, soon gathering all the boys for the performance.

“So put your hands on my body and swing that round for me, baby, swing it” the choreography was made sloppily, while changing your voice tone to sing all the parts “Ah! I love this song.”

“Almost our entire discography played here and I didn't hear y/n say it.” Ash looked at the camera, raising his eyebrows and getting your tongue as an answer.

The next song played, Luke introducing it.

“And this is the first track from our album, Red Desert.”

卌

“What's up? What song is it going to be?”

Calum asked, the band of the instrument already placed around his neck.

“How about When you walk away?” you clapped your hands together. Ash stared at you “Come on, I'm a widow of unreleased and forgotten songs.”

“Meet you there sounds like a good warm-up, then we'll rock it out with some album tracks…” Luke hinted, watching you give in.

“First of all, one rule” Michael held up his finger, soon pointing it at you “No pulling my trousers down during rehearsal.”

You snorted, rolling your eyes.

“I've only done it once!” you tapped your foot, walking over to the keyboard.

“Actually, it was three, if you count the ones with cameras off.” Hood shook his foot, laughing.

“You know, Cal, I had an idea for us…”

“No way. - You're in a band, y/n, we're not going to do a routine on stage.”

“One day he'll give in.” you whispered, watching Ashton smile at you and wink, as if your idea might one day come to reality.

The feelings were varied, euphoria mixed with apprehension, which didn't make for a good match with a teenage mind.

“You know, every time I dare to question if all this is worth it, or if we're even capable, I look to the sky.” you stared at the boy, giving a brief smile.

“You look at the sky?” he squinted his eyes, arching one eyebrow.

You took a deep breath, thinking of the best way to explain the feeling you had. Taking the boy's hand, guided him to the backyard, and sat down on the grass, looking up.

“I imagine myself in a stadium. Each one of these stars is a fan in the audience, excited about the opportunity to hear us play. - Sometimes the sky has fewer of them, sometimes it's all black, but that doesn't mean all the stars are gone. You can still play for them.”

卌

You straightened up in your chair, making a mental note to buy a more comfortable one. Always ended up procrastinating on such a task and, now in quarantine, you were suffering even more for not doing the purchase.

You stared at yourself at the computer screen, looking at your own "scenery" while the four men talked. You had the device in your reading corner, besides the books, some paintings of the five of you adorning the wall.

“We could start by talking about y/n being banned from asking fans for help.” Ash made a suggestion, raising his eyebrows.

“What do you mean? What's wrong?” Luke asked, finally sitting up after trying to straighten out his seat again.

“I made the mistake of allowing people to remind me to buy a Brazilian candy bar, and now there's nothing on my timeline but bookmarks and reminders.” you shrugged.

“The worst part is that now y/n has a lifetime supply of candy because their mother sent a box. Their grandmother sent a box. Their aunt and uncle sent a box.” Michael held up his fingers, enlisting for emphasis, as he laughed at the situation “And not only that, but a company sent a box after their name went on the trend.”

You covered your face with your hands, hiding the desperate laughter.

”We can record something, who puts more candy bars in their mouth? Who can sing with candy in their mouth?”

“y/n wants to use us!” Calum commented, pointing at the you, who laughed, getting excited trying to deny it.

“We're going to live on paçoquinha.” Luke spoke up, the word sounding funny to his ears.

“Can we continue on the subject of y/n's mistakes?” Michael continued.

“What did I do this time?” you asked, playing offended as scratching your foot.

“Did you stop singing out of the blue?”

“Oh, it wasn't even that long!” you answered, putting your arms around your waist, laughing at Hood's face. You could never keep a straight face around them.

“You never explained to us what happened.” Hemmings took another sip of his drink.

“You know that moment when you have an inner epiphany and become self-conscious about where you are?”

You received several 'no's' in response, even if Calum had understood a little of the feeling. Laughing, you mumbled a few words, trying to simplify the situation.

“I don't know how to explain it, I just went 'wow, look at the size of this crowd, what a huge show I'm in' and forgot that I was the singer of the show.” you shrugged, following the others in their laughter.

Your voice lowered gradually, but you kept your smile. Hood arched one eyebrow, as he stared at his best friend's camera. He found the behavior strange, a small worry already growing in his chest. Ever since the wave of internet attacks, Calum had remained apprehensive about y/n's emotions.

“If you could be anyone in the band, who would you be?” Ash questioned them, biting his lip as he thought and pulled everyone's attention.

“What kind of question is that?” Calum fiddled with his teacup.

“I would choose myself, because I would still be best friends with the four of you.” Luke shrugged, looking past the computer.

A few seconds of silence perpetuate itself.

“Now whatever answer we give ourselves, we'll be terrible human beings, thank you, Luke” Mike complained, making Ashton laugh.

You smiled, moving your hand on the camera, trying to pretend to pimp Hemmings' hair through the screen.

“I should put the video of Ashton singing Good as Hell on the internet, we need to flesh out the quarantine. Things have been a little restless.”

“What's your problem with peace?” Irwin narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms.

“What do you love about it?”

“If you don't want peace, I could take it from you, if they've already freaked out on your timeline over a piece of candy, imagine when they find out about your fan twitter account.” Ash teased, laughing at the nonchalant look on your face.

“This is blackmail! And the only thing I do there is say shit about you.”

Luke laughed, watching the story unfold.

“y/n's user is calumhood8love.” The man exposed, watching you almost choke on the drink.

“Eightlove?” Mike frowned.

“Yeah, infinite love, like the infinity symbol but on the side, you know?” you tried to explain yourself while you took a breath of air, your throat hurt from laughing so hard “Come on, I thought I was really smart for that…”

After the call ended, you went to your home studio in order to get some work done. Having no success tyoure, decided to take what was needed to the living room, but failed in this task as well.

Staring at the instruments in front of you, the electric guitar and keyboard were placed on the otyour side of the sofa. You were sure that if they were not inanimate beings, they would be judging you right now.

On your lap, a notebook of scribbles and ideas lay open. You would have liked to make more progress, but only one sentence was written: "open the window, hear sounds of people.”

you didn't know what to do, if you should just concentrate on finding your lyrics or invest in some melody that would fit.

“i can see smoke coming out of your ears.” the voice came out of the cell phone, Dominic grimaced.

“This sucks, I feel like crap, I can't produce anything.” He shoved his notebook in his face, wanting to scream.

“Do you want me to be honest? I think you're making this into more of a problem than it is. You're visualizing your frustrations in this song, y/n.”

you huffed, crossing your arms and looking at him from behind the cell phone screen.

“Normally I would have been able to expose them in the lyrics, but even that didn't work.”

“You don't have to talk to me about it if you don't want to.” Harrison shrugged, "Can't you talk it out with Mike? You guys talk a lot, don't you?

“I don't want to bother them with this kind of silly stuff, not to mention that they would worry about nothing.”

“Haven't they been your best friends for, like, a decade? Do you really think it will bother them?” he raised an eyebrow, clearly disbelieving the speech.

“Do you sell this advice?”

“If you didn't want an enlightening conversation, you know you called the wrong person." he said, laughing.

“I just want this all to be over soon.”

“Me too, you owe me a visit.”

“I can't wait to land in the land of the queen again!” he held his arms up, smiling.

“Are you all free this month?"

“I think we only have one to do, the one for reading the thirsty tweets, you know?” And a few online interviews, but not with all of us...

“So we'll talk more soon, I need to go record some stuff, you know…”

“Yeah yeah, no problem, good night Dom.”

And he hung up the phone. You were about to do the same with your phone when he got a message.

I left a box of cookies on your doorstep, hope you're feeling better, y/n

P.S. They are the animal ones —Cal

卌

It was the first time in a while that the band had reunited, after a week in great isolation, the four of them made their way to the Irwin residence.

Calum, Michael and Luke were in the kitchen, finishing setting the table. Ash excused himself, going into the hall to look for his other bandmate, a good few minutes had passed since you had left to go to the bathroom.

The man found you standing in the living room, with his new album, Superbloom, in your hands.

“It's amazing, Ash.” you said, noticing his presence.

Ashton smiled, even happier with his work after seeing your eyes light up as you complimented him.

“Can you believe we paid three bucks for you to play and now you have, like, 300,000 views on a video?”

The drummer's mouth tightened as he saw the tears come to your eyes, and he had to restrain himself from being carried away by his emotions as well. He came closer, giving you a tight hug.

“You don't know how proud we are of you, Ash. Even though I think it's absurd that I wasn't invited to do a duet” you said, your head resting on his shoulder.

He pulled away, clicking his tongue and putting his arms around your waist, as if he was really affected by the sentence. Your drama made Ash laugh and you smiled, that was the intention.

“have you guys had your moment or should we put everything back in the oven?” Mike appeared in the doorway, raising his eyebrows.

They both looked at each other, you quickly nodded and stared at Ash.

“He always gets sad when he's not called in for a group hug.”

“Maybe he's sad because he wants the four of us to hug him and smother him with love.”

“Or maybe he's sad because he's starving to death and none of his friends care.” Michael put his hand on his forehead, letting out a sad sigh.

You walked over to the man, pushing him by the shoulders and walking with him to the kitchen.

Ashton held up his album, reading again the dedication he had made to you and smiling at his own words.

He put the gift close to his bag and walked back to the kitchen.

“Mike, quick question.” you nudge your friend, sitting down next to him “How much do you want to drink the water from this pickle jar?”