undercover and under covers

25

"so where you been shacked up?" brinn asked brandon curiously as they sat on the roof watching the sunset while the other guys had their own conversation behind them.

"i'm in maine" brandon laughed "like the middle of no where" he chuckled.

"wow" brinn shook her head.

"it's nice tho, i got my own space. beautiful cabin kinda feel, and i still get to produce" brandon likes his new lifestyle it was calm and peaceful but secretly he missed the craziness that his life was before "even though i'm not aloud to sing on the tracks, i upload the beats to soundcloud still"

"that's really cool i'm happy for you b" brinn smiled genuinely. she had no idea where each of the boys were gonna be staying. she knew their new names and that's all, the rest well that changed the moment they arrived at their new locations. brandon was supposed to be working at a landscaping company, spreading mulch and pulling weeds all day, but he arrived in maine and a new folder was waiting for him on the table same name while different life.

"what bout you, your still looking tan" brandon commented on her sun kissed skin and her new freckles.

"i'm still in mexico" brinn smiled.

"no shit how'd you pull that one" brandons dropped his jaw and shoved brinn a little.

"i've got no idea" brinn put her hands up in defense "they put me in a car drove me to the other side of the coast and put me up in a little shack on the beach"

"dream life right there" brandon smiled "you workin?"

"yeah got a job packing groceries" brinn nodded.

"we all got it different man" brandon looked off into the sunset "you know you look different, like more grounded or sumthin i don't know" brandon shrugged.

"well, maybe it's due to zuri" brinn smiled.

"zuri?" brandon furrowed his brows at her. brinn reached into her back pocket pulling out a picture of her baby from her wallet.

"zuri" brinn handed brandon the picture of the toddler. brandons eyes went wide and a smile appeared across his face.

"she looks exactly like zion" brandon looked up at brinn. brinn looked down at the picture not wanting to meet brandons eyes.

"he doesn't know does he" brandon looked at brinn. brinn took the picture back putting it in her pocket and looked off into the sunset.

"it's better that way" brinn nodded. brandon nodded as well and put a hand over her shoulder.

"she's beautiful" brandon said.

"thank you" brinn rested her head on brandons shoulder.

—

brinn sat up in the middle of the night in her cool dark room. she looked at her phone trying to refrain from calling julie to see how zuri was doing. brinn stood up from her bed sliding her slippers on and left her room walking towards the roof. she opened the roof door to see the nicely lit skyline but regretted not being a sweatshirt up with her.

"can sleep either?" zions voice spoke from her left.

"nope" brinn said walking to next to him over looking the view. zion had a blanket draped over his shoulders and handed brinn a corner which she rolled into "thanks" she smiled up at him.

"how you been?" zion asked resting his arms around her shoulder.

"good, you?" brinn asked looking up at him.

"it's tough being alone not gonna lie" zion admitted.

"i can imagine" brinn nodded.

"what you got a new boyfriend or sum?" zion looked down at her after her weird reply.

"no i meant- no. i have a friend julie, she lives a house down from me so we're together a lot" brinn cleared up her answer.

"i was joking, but that's nice to hear" zion chuckled.

"what bout you, you must have someone" brinn said.

"i've got this one friend, names joe, also happens to be the bartender at the local pub" zion said with a straight face worrying brinn but she knew she shouldn't dig too deep because of how zion would react.

"i'm happy you said yes" brinn told him truthfully.

"me too" zion admitted and pulled brinn a tiny bit closer to her.

"i miss the farm believe it or not" brinn chuckled.

"why?" zion looked down at her interested.

"we had a routine, it was quite there. something about it was just..." brinn was at a loss for words

"peaceful" zion finished her sentence.

"yeah peaceful" brinn smiled "besides the fact that we were scared to death every second of every day" brinn chuckled.

"still are" zion added making brinn nod in agreement.

"do you still think about before?" brinn asked his curiously.

"yeah" zion nodded "i miss it everyday. not only do i miss being able to preform and see all of our fans but i miss being with them. i just feel empty without it."

"i never asked you guys, but why did you do it. you guys had a great life, you had money, fame, everything someone would wish for. we could never figure it out, why a boy band would steal something so precious and do it practically flawlessly"

"it wasn't our first hit that's for sure. it started with nick he realized how good he was a pick pocketing. and then edwin realized his talent for hacking. then brandon with his ability to play any person and distract anyone perfectly. then austin with his ability to think on his toes and talent of navigating any building. so we hit up a few stops, collected our pay days never got caught, cases got dropped within a month, so we hit up the big guns"

"do you have any regrets?" brinn asked

"everyday" zion nodded "what about you, undercover and caught feelings and your life flipped"

"i don't have any regrets, but i miss being a cop. i miss helping people, so living crimes was my favorite thing to do. i live the life of the people i despised for so long, and it disgusts me, but then i realize how much i love this part as i do solving the crimes" brinn admitted to zion, the only person she had opened to about this.

"i regret falling in love with a cop big time" zion joked.

"hey" brinn pushed his shoulder "at least you got a-"

"a what?" zion looked at brinn confused as she stopped mid sentence. a daughter, a daughter is what he got out of falling in love with a cop.

"a guardian angel out of it" brinn saves herself.

"hey last time i check i was the one who saved you from wayne" zion corrected brinn.

"ok ok maybe your right" brinn laughed.