The roar of the crowd is still moving the walls.
Tam stands in the middle of the stage for a few seconds after the final song, chest heaving, dark hair damp with sweat and stuck messily to his forehead. Thousands of people are still shouting his name. Lights sweep across the hall, catching faces, phones held up and the occasional homemade sign.
He grins, breathless.
"Thank you!"
His voice comes out rough from the show, but the crowd somehow gets louder still.
Tam laughs, shaking his head as he looks around the room.
"You’re fucking mental!"
He throws one final wave towards the audience before disappearing backstage.
The second he reaches the wings, the adrenaline starts crashing into exhaustion.
Someone from the crew claps him on the shoulder.
"That was insane, mate."
Tam bends forward, hands braced on his knees, trying to get his breath back.
"Just give me thirty seconds before you ask me to do anything else."
He straightens, dragging a hand through his already chaotic hair.
"I’m dead."
He’s smiling when he says it.
People move around him in every direction. Crew members are talking over each other. Someone is carrying a flight case past him. Someone else is shouting about clean towels. There are congratulations coming from every direction.
Tam barely processes any of it.
This is the end of the tour.
His hometown.
The biggest show of the run.
And somehow, beneath all the adrenaline, there’s one person he’s been thinking about.
The person who couldn’t be here.
He’d told himself he understood.
They had work. Responsibilities. Their own life.
Of course he understood.
Still, some selfish little part of him had wished they could have been here tonight.
Tam pushes the thought away.
"Aye. Shower. Food. Bed. In that order."
He grabs a bottle of water from a nearby table and takes a long drink before heading towards his dressing room.
The corridor gradually becomes quieter as he gets further away from the stage.
His footsteps slow.
He reaches his dressing-room door, pushes it open without knocking and walks inside.
Then he stops.
Completely.
For a moment, Tam does not move.
His fingers remain wrapped around the door handle.
His brain seems to take a second longer than his eyes to understand what he’s seeing.
"…No fucking way."
He blinks.
Once.
Twice.
He looks away for half a second, then looks back.
Still there.
His mouth comes open slightly.
"You’re…"
He lets out a short, disbelieving laugh.
"You’re actually here."
Tam steps further into the room, still staring as though someone has managed to create the world’s most convincing trick.
"But you said you couldn’t come."
Another laugh escapes him, quieter this time.
"You absolute liar."
There’s no anger behind it. Just disbelief.
He shakes his head slowly, a huge grin beginning to spread across his face.
"I genuinely thought you weren’t coming."
His voice drops.
The noise from the arena is still faintly audible through the walls, but suddenly it feels very far away.
Tam looks at you for another moment.
For weeks, he’d been surrounded by people.
Crew.
Bandmates.
Fans.
Interviewers.
Security.
Thousands of strangers.
Yet somehow this is the first moment tonight where he feels completely still.
"I’ve spent the whole bloody tour telling myself I was fine with you not being here."
He gives a tiny shake of his head.
"It turns out I was talking absolute shit."
Tam laughs under his breath, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I missed you."
The admission comes out far more honestly than he seems to have intended.
He takes another step closer, then stops with one hand still half-raised.
"Tell me if this is too much."
"You really did all this without me knowing?"
His eyebrows lift.
"Because, honestly, I’m slightly offended."
His grin returns.
"Impressed. Mostly."
He looks towards the dressing-room door and then back again, as if checking whether somebody is about to jump out and explain the whole thing.
"Who helped you?"
He pauses.
"And don’t say nobody, because my crew are terrible at keeping secrets."
Tam’s smile softens.
He looks exhausted now that the adrenaline is beginning to fade, but there is something lighter in his expression than all evening.
The enormous stage persona has disappeared.
There is no microphone in his hand.
No crowd.
No cameras.
No thousands of people watching.
Just Tam.
And the person he did not expect to see standing in that room tonight.
"I can’t actually believe you’re here."
He laughs quietly, almost shaking his head at himself.
"The best surprise I’ve ever had."
He hesitates for half a second before opening his arms.
"Come here."
His expression is warm, tired and genuinely overwhelmed.
"And then don’t go. Not tonight. Sit on that sofa where I can see you, and give me your word about tomorrow."