tokyo felt like another planet. the air was thick, lights blinking in colors he didn’t have names for, everything louder and faster than back home. he sat behind the kit, the pulse of the drums keeping time under the noise, watching pete take the stage like he was born for it. the crowd moved like a single creature, screaming every word, and steve just kept time — steady, invisible, necessary. he didn’t mind. that was always the role. pete drew the eyes and had the charm, mike was just there, tim made everyone laugh. steve was the one who held it together when no one noticed, and joined in interviews because fans thought he was nice to look at.

the band had been running nonstop — press in the morning, shows at night, half the time not even knowing what city they were in. he’d grown used to it, the blur of airports and makeup rooms, the way everything smelled like sweat, perfume, and tape adhesive. the drums were the only thing that made sense anymore — that small, repeating heartbeat that drowned everything else out.

he wasn’t really looking when he saw her. maybe just scanning the crowd out of habit, the way you do when your body’s still playing but your mind’s somewhere else. she stood out — not because she was loud, but because she wasn’t. the way she watched, quiet but sharp, like she’d figured something out before anyone else. she didn’t look like she belonged to the chaos.

later, backstage, someone mentioned she was from liverpool. it made him pause — that faraway, strange kind of coincidence that only happens when you’ve been gone too long. he couldn’t remember the last time he’d met someone from home who didn’t already know who they were. she didn’t seem to care about fame, or the show, or even the fact that pete was five feet away. she just looked around, curious.

steve didn’t say anything. he never really did. but as the city buzzed outside the glass and the neon caught the edge of her hair, he found himself wondering how two people could live so close their whole lives and only cross paths halfway across the world.