Ashton gets a flu the day of a meet and greet and isn't the nicest because of it

The lads Of 5 Seconds Of Summer were in LA for like the 20 millionth time. They're in LA more often than Australia, I swear. They had recently released their third album (which we shall call 5SOS3 for reference because no-one knows what the hell they are going to call it) and were now doing their promo before they were going to tour the album. Today they had an interview with their favourite person in the whole world, Smallzy, and a meet and greet later that day, followed by a couple more interviews.

Ashton woke up that day not feeling as well as he would have hoped for such a busy day. His head was killing him, his throat didn't feel like it would let him talk very easily and his chest obviously wanted him to suffocate. Ashton groan as he woke up, praying that he didn't have to do anything with too much talking or social interaction that day. He pulled his phone off it's charger and opened it, opening the calendar app. Looking at his schedule he silently cursed at his management for making one of the busiest days that week be today.

Hoping that he might be able to ease the pain in his chest by sitting up, he did so. That did the complete opposite to what he hoped for and he ended up in a coughing fit. He sat there coughing until he was gasping for air. When he finally calmed down, he heard Calum yelling up the stairs, asking who was dying up there. He wanted to hide his illness but couldn't be bothered to do so, so just called croakily that he didn't feel great.

"Get over it Ashton! You're not a baby anymore. We have a busy day today, get your ass out of bed." Michael called up unsympathetically. Although he couldn't be seen, Ashton nodded sadly anyway, and climbed slowly out of bed. He grabbed some jeans and an All Time Low shirt before going through to have a shower. Maybe it will help.

About halfway through the shower, Ashton felt like he was going to sneeze. He did not want to sneeze. Not now, not ever. Sneezing was not fun. Sneezing was something Ashton did not want to do in the shower, he had shampoo in his hair as well, which he did not want to get into his eyes. But his body had other ideas. Ashton started sneezing and he couldn't seem to stop.

Ashton sneezed and sneezed and sneezed and sneezed. When he finally stopped sneezing, he had shampoo in his eyes and he had hit his head against the wall a total of six times, making his headache even worse than it already was. He heard someone shout a 'bless you' from outside, which he replied to with a strained 'thank you'. He finished washing off and got dressed, heading outside, where he is quickly pushed out of the bus by the other lads as they make their way to the first interview of the day with the lovely Smallzy.

On the journey, the boys- minus Ashton- were joking and laughing. Loudly. Which didn't help Ashton's headache. He wanted to ask them to be quiet but he had already been told to suck it up once. So he stayed quiet and just put up with the pain.

They all got into the room to find they were doing 'the yes no game'. Fantastic.

"The paddles have returned!" Michael shouted, laughing with the other boys.

"Yes, they have. Now let's get started." Smallzy chuckled.

It was about halfway through the interview, and Ashton was just not really talking or anything. Smallzy went to read out the next question when Ashton sneezed 4 times, drowning out the question. Deciding that this could be the time to make the others believe him, he over exaggerated slightly. He put his head in his hands and groaned quietly. This wasn't all fake though, because he was in a lot of pain.

"Ashton, suck it up." Luke muttered sharply. Ashton nodded sadly, feeling slightly hurt by the comment.

"Hey Luke. That's not too nice." Smallzy called him out on it.

"Hold on. Pause the cameras for a minute." Luke sighed. When they stopped rolling, Luke quickly explained that Ashton had been off all day but he couldn't get out of the schedule.

"How about we get Ashton to go sit down outside and we'll do the interview whilst he gets looked after by my team." Smallzy suggested, all of the lads agreeing with that plan, despite the other three being hesitant, still having an edge on it.

"I'll see you guys later." Ashton croaked out as he was ushered outside and sat down in a chair, instantly being given a water bottle as he watched the interview on a monitor in front of him. He watched the interview, sipping water and then tea that a nice woman gave him. He thanked her of course, as best as he could and he could tell that she thought it was more flirtatious than he did.

Once the interview was finished, Ashton and the rest of the lads were guided out of the studio after saying their goodbyes and thanks to Smallzy for another great interview. They got into their tinted window car and were driven to the location of their meet and greet. Ashton was feeling worse than he was before but he knew he wouldn't get out of this. He didn't want to anyways, he didn't want to disappoint their fans more than he already had.

When they arrived at the place where their meet and greet was to be held, they had 15 minutes to spare. 15 minutes before the place was going to be filled with screaming fans desperate to meet them. 15 minutes before the chance of a lifetime for some, pure hell for Ashton. He loves his fans to bits, he really does. But they were so loud and his head hurt so much.

Wanting to be in the best possible shape for his fans, Ashton decided to use the short amount of time to take a small rest. Very small rest. He was woken up 5 minutes after he fell asleep, making him annoyed at the person who woke him. Which just so happened to of been Michael.

When they sat at the small table, Ashton was on the end closest to the door, so he had a quick escape if it got too much for his head to handle. He was sitting slouched over with a pained expression and it was obvious that he wasn't in the best of moods. The fans would have been annoyed by this, but most had seen the interview earlier and knew he wasn't well. If they hadn't seen the interview they were soon informed by those who had. Meaning a lot of their very considerate fans left Ashton alone and kept the volume down for him. He appreciated that.

He covered his face with his hands, blocking out some of the light that was hurting his head, and groaned quietly. A fan glanced up at him and looked worried when she saw the position he was in.

"Hey Ashton?" She asked, keeping her voice down a bit, as if she knew how much his head hurt right then. She didn't, but she could guess. He hummed in a response and uncovered his eyes to look at her. Most would have called him rude but she just smiled at him. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Just not feeling too good." He told her as nicely as possible. He was trying to mask how bad his headache actually was, but couldn't keep the pain out of his eyes. She saw it.

"Oh. What hurts?" She asked him. She knew she had some painkillers in her bag and hoped she could help him.

"I have a headache and sore throat. It's not that bad though." He lied, but the pain was showing in his voice by now. The girl nodded and slipped her bag off of her shoulders, fishing out some meds. She popped out two tablets and handed them to him. "Are you sure?" He asked, surprised by this action. She nodded with a smile and he took the pills with a sip of water, thanking her afterwards.

"It's no problem really, I can't stand to see you like this and I don't believe anyone else here can." The girl smiled.

"Thank you." Ashton smiled back, his head feeling a little better. "Would you like a picture?"

"Really?" The girl almost squealed.

"Of course, anything you would like. It's the least I can do in return for you saving me from my painful existence." Ashton replied as the girl got her phone out, opening the camera app. "Ooh, I almost forgot to ask. What would your name be, fair lady?"

"It's Madeline, call me Maddy though." She giggled, posing for a selfie with Ashton. He kissed her cheek in the next one, making her go into a fit of giggles. "Thank you. Do you reckon you could.." She trailed off, pulling out her copy of 5SOS3.

"Sign it?" Ashton asked. Maddy nodded, looking at him hopefully. "Of course I can, especially for such a nice girl as you."

Once Ashton signed her copy and she thanked him as she was told to move along. The other three lads thanked her greatly for everything she had done, Ashton was looking better already. They took pictures with her, signing her album and laughing with her. Before she left, she went into her bag again, looking as if she had just remembered something.

"Ashton! Catch!" She chucked him a box, which was full of little banana shaped cough drops.

"Why?" Ashton asked, absolutely confused.

"I was gonna give them to you anyways because they were cute but you have a use for them right now, so it works." Maddy answered.

"Well then, thank you. I hope to see you again somewhere." Ashton smiled and the lads pulled Maddy into a group hug before she left.

"That was not as bad as I thought it would be."