#THE CAPTION MADE ME CACKLE | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

wonwoosthetic · 2 months

Note

Hey author! Will you be continuing the NANA Tour series??

Yes, of course!! I know, I’m taking quite some time with it, but I sadly don’t have much time to watch the episodes one after the other, so it usually takes me a while to write them, especially bc I never know when enough is enough, so I also always write way too much😅, but I still love continuing it even now!😊🥰

series masterlist

word count – 12.5k

warnings – almost cursing haha

Go Together NANA Tour EP3-3. - EP3-4. 🌷 Minnie

[added captions are in brackets] ˙ᵕ˙

EP3.3 Nice to meet you, Salute!

After an exciting day, going well over the recommended 10k steps a day average, Jeognhan, Joshua, Minnie, and Vernon finally arrived back at the rented AirBnB. They had divided the bags filled with trinkets and clothing, as well as a few snacks, equally so that each one of them was carrying one back to the house. The sun had already started to set, draping the Italian countryside in a soft golden glow. While the day was slowly coming to an end, the temperature was still peaking high, explaining the exhaustion radiating off the group.

"Great job everyone," Jeonghan breathed out heavily. As enjoyable as the day was, they were happy to be back, re-joining the rest of the members as they walked onto the property.

Before they even reached the door, Seventeen's main producer was just coming from the other direction, presumably the garden, welcoming the four with a naked torso and sweatshorts.

"Oh, Woozi," the '95 Liner called out. "Did you have fun?" The younger three members huddled in with Vernon right behind him, followed by Minnie, then Joshua. The girl's eyes found the '96 Liner in a clearly very comfortable state of mind, chuckling at his choice of non-existing clothing.

"Ey," the younger rapper's voice rang through her ears as he stopped in his tracks, quickly turning around and raising a hand to cover the female member's eyes.

[Protecting innocent eyes]

His antic only made her laugh even louder, getting Jeonghan to stop and glance at the maknae duo.

Minnie slapped Vernon's hand away from her face with a whine and gave him a nudge, making him slightly stumble backwards, cackling to himself.

"What are you doing?" The oldest laughed out loud, joining Joshua, who was already amused at the two. The girl just shook her head and passed them to head towards the entry of the house.

[A loving bond between the youngsters]

Before they reached it, Jeonghan mentioned the Korean grocery store they had come across, explaining where they had gotten the groceries they were holding. The supermarket carried everything they could've asked for on the other side of the world - Ramen noodle packages, instant rice, they had even bought a good amount of Soju bottles, knowing these would go down like water with the rest of the members.

As soon as they got into the house, Minnie noticed how unusually quiet the place was.

"Where's everyone?"

Dokyeom, who was chilling in the living room on the other end of the room, perked his head up at the sound of the girl's voice.

"In their rooms. We're having a break."

Minnie chuckled, "A break from what?" Knowing they were on a vacation in general and finding humour in the term 'break' while not having to do or worry about anything at all. Her fellow '97 Liner shrugged as he walked up to her, reaching his hand out to take over the paper bag she was holding in her grip.

[A gentleman at heart]

"No, it's okay, I'm gonna take it downstairs," she brushed him off, wanting to rush into the kitchen while he continued to be hot on her tracks.

"I can help," he announced, but Minnie stopped him right before she headed down the steps.

"It's okay," smiling brightly up at him before noticing the oldest member, who had come to a halt closer towards the entrance. "Jeonghannie!" She called out to him, making him turn around. "Give me your bag!"

In a somewhat jog, he crossed the ground over to her and was about to hand over the other bag-

"Can you carry both of them?"

Getting a nod from her in return, but he shook his head and joined her on the steps. "It's okay, I'll go with you."

"But I can-"

"Go," he nudged her carefully to continue walking as they both disappeared onto the lower floor of the house.

[Minnie has a lot of helping hands]

In the kitchen, Joshua and Dokyeom joined the two, helping with unloading everything that was supposed to stay there before bringing the rest back upstairs. While some decided to go back into their individual rooms, Minnie was being kept in the living room, mostly due to the maknae who had found out his favourite noona arrived again.

"Noona!" Dino smiled brightly as soon as he found her silhouette coming up the stairs again.

[A little brother that has been desperately waiting for his favourite sister]

Planted in his seat, he opened his arms, waiting for her to come towards him. A grin had made its way onto her face, only widening with each step she took.

"How was the wine tasting?" She asked him. Partially theoretically with a hint of sarcasm, but also somewhat truly wondering about it. His cheery persona wasn't anything rare, yet she could tell by the still soft blush on his cheeks that the alcohol had not yet completely worn off the younger member.

She bent down, to wrap her arms around his muscular frame, chuckling as he tightened his grip before releasing her.

"Ah...," he sighed out loud. "It was... an experience." Minnie chuckled, watching the maknae smile to himself. She let her hand brush over the top of his blonde head of hair.

"Did you drink a lot?"

[Caring words of an older sister <3]

As soon as he glanced up, the girl snickered, the look in his eyes told her everything she needed to know.

"Too much," he admitted, only getting her to laugh louder, Dokyeom and Joshua joining in as they walked into the living room, throwing themselves onto individual seats.

"We all took a nap afterwards. We had to," the maknae continued. "We also brought some of the wine. One is from 2015, our debut year."

"Aw, that's cute. Let's drink it later on," she stated, getting a soft groan from the youngest in return, making her giggle once again.

The group got a short, yet much needed, break from exploring Italy before they were asked to get into the bus that was waiting outside for them. Their packed timetable was still not coming to an end any time soon - the producers made sure they'd be using and enjoying every possible moment to the fullest.

Minnie had found her seat in the very back again with the window to her left and Vernon to her right. While they were putting on their seatbelts and sinking into the cushions, one of the female producers in the very front of the bust started to explain part of their schedule for the evening.

"Today is the last and peak day of the wine festival," she told the members. "You can compare it to Myeongdong Christmas day." Her explanation received a round of gasps from the group as they realised just how many people they were going to be met with once they arrived.

"Woah...," Minnie spoke quietly. "But how cool to have a wine festival in your city."

Vernon nodded next to her, meeting her eye as he spoke. "Imagine having a soju festival."

[Dreams of a true SEVENTEEN member]

His remark made the girl's eyes immediately widen in fear, changing to speak English,

"I wouldn't survive that... But I'd enjoy it." Her reaction got a chuckle out of the younger member as he nudged her side, shaking his head at her comment. "I'm serious!" She exclaimed, joining him with laughter as Joshua in the middle also started chuckling.

The bus set off, letting a rush of excitement rush through the members as they headed to the festival. Dokyeom celebrated by lifting up the phone in his hands, ready to take a picture of himself and everyone around him when he noticed the younger members behind him engulfed in a conversation.

"Can you please look up if you're gonna be in the picture?" His question caught the maknaes' attention as they perked their heads up, immediately smiling into the camera as if it was a reflex. Afterwards, everyone turned back to focus on themselves, most getting entertainment from their phones. Minnie used the time to send a quick text to the leader, forgetting about the time difference separating them.

"Vernonnie, Josh," she called out to get her fellow English-speaking members to glance at her. Minnie was already holding up her front camera, snapping a few pictures once they had looked her way.

"Who are they for?" Joshua wondered as he posed a few different ways before the girl took the phone back into both of her hands.

"My mum and the Chois," the female member automatically switched to their native tongue as he had done so as well.

Shua chuckled, "'The Chois-'"

"I don't know how else to say it," Minnie answered with a smile. "Eomma, Appa, Seungmin-, and Seungcheol-oppa. Better?"

"You really have a group chat with everyone, huh?" Vernon suddenly jumped in, his arms crossed while his head relaxed against the backrest.

With an excited nod, the girl answered. "With everyone that's important to me."

[A loving family person <3]

The drive was only a short 10 minutes long. The bus stopped right at the unofficial entrance of the festival, leaving the members to get off and explore the open space on their own. It was only then that they were able to come to face with the crowd that had already gathered.

Strutting by herself, Minnie was right behind Jun, who had gotten one of the many go-pros they should be carrying from the producers.

Their eyes fell over the area, looking around the different corners and everything the festival had to offer. A soft gasp from the female member made Jun turn around as he continued to walk.

"What?"

Not thinking, he would've heard her, Minnie looked up before glancing down again, taking the seam of her top between her fingers.

"I just realised, I probably shouldn't have worn white to a wine festival."

"Why?" He wondered, slowing down in his steps to let her catch up with him.

"It's really hard to get red wine out of clothing."

The '96 Liner raised his eyebrows in surprise, "Oh, really?" Getting a nod from her in return. "Interesting... but you're not a messy eater, I don't think you'll get your clothes dirty."

She shrugged. "We'll see. I'm just gonna have to be careful." Sending him a quick grin before they fell into a comfortable silence again.

Before they entered the festival, the group decided to explore some of the more narrow side lanes. Lined with tables, they were able to look through typical touristy souvenirs they might be interested in buying - anything from magnets, to bags or hats, or even paintings.

At the very end of that lane, they finally reached the hot spot of the festival. The crowd they had seen earlier was nothing compared to what they were met with at that moment. A round of gasps flooded through the group, and Minnie could feel herself taking a step closer to the members next to her, who just so happened to be Woozi and Hoshi. She managed to get right in between the two, catching the attention of both unit leaders.

The producer spoke up first. "You okay?"

"Hm?" Her head snapped towards him. "Oh- yeah, yeah."

Minnie wasn't terrible with crowds. She used to be. The thought of being in one could make her panic within only a few seconds. But that was in the past. She had gotten used to bigger masses of people - she had to over time. These days, people don't make her nervous anymore, she had promised herself to keep her head up high and keep a positive mindset, remembering how bad her anxiety used to be when she was younger - constantly looking for a security guard or other member had become exhausting over time and also almost impossible. Only airports are what she sometimes still fears. But this wasn't an airport and she was surrounded by her members, so everything was good.

Hoshi's arm suddenly thrown over her, made her glance over at him. "Let's get drunk."

[A clear goal ahead]

[Very ambitious]

His smile was so bright, making her chuckle at the chubby cheeks forming as the excitement was beaming off of him.

She let her arm wrap around his waist as she could feel him pulling her in closer. His hand brushed over the naked skin of her biceps.

"Won't you get cold later?" Commenting on the cold that would wash over the old city once the sun would set completely, leaving only the moon in the sky.

Minnie shrugged before looking up at him with a grin. "Once the alcohol is flowing, I'll forget about the cold." Her words made the '96 Liner cackle and give her a proud squeeze while Woozi just shook his head with a sigh, already knowing once these two were drinking together, there'd be no stopping them.

[A duo you have to look out for]

They continued their walk into the very centre of the open space, already admiring all the wine and food stands around them. The members could already tell, they would enjoy this evening very much. The producers informed them that they were allowed to roam around freely and on their own, only to remember to meet up later on at the restaurant they were standing in front of.

First on the list to enjoy the festival to its fullest was to purchase empty wine glasses, which Hoshi had already spotted. The 15 Euros entrance fee came along with a pouch, a glass, a pen, and a piece of paper to document each wine they'd be drinking to remember it later on - a survival participation kit if you so will. The group divided itself into a few members, who lined up to get a couple of those, while the rest stayed back and waited.

With their kits on them, the idols started their journey around the festival. Some decided to start on the left, others went to the right side first, and a few even just went straight into the mass.

Minnie, Dokyeom, and Hoshi had found themselves together, arriving at their first spot. After the woman generously filled up their glasses, they left the stall to find a free spot to stand together. Jeonghan and Joshua joined them within a few seconds as well.

Just as the girl was about to take her first sip of the evening, the '97 Liner stopped her.

"You have to smell it first."

With scrunched eyebrows, she looked at him closely.

"Smell it," he demonstrated, "And then swirl it in your glass and let oxygen get to it."

[A wine connoisseur at work.]

Minnie chuckled, "You became a real... how do you say-," she turned towards her fellow English-speaking member, "a wine connoisseur?" But Joshua just shrugged in return, grinning to himself,

"I have no idea."

"A wine expert," she settled on a simpler term, getting a bright smile from the main vocalist in response. Minnie did as she was told, moving her glass to let the wine move around before she took another sniff, getting notified by the experts that the smell was supposed to be different. Well,... if they say so.

"Can I drink it now?" She carefully asked, meeting Hoshi's eye as he had already thrown his head back to get the alcohol down his throat.

Dokyeom nodded, "Yeah, after smelling it, take a sip." The two '97 Liners clinked their glasses together before making the next move. As soon as the liquid touched their tongue, DK let out a satisfied hum.

"OH!" He put the glass down again. "Buongiorno!" Making the members around him laugh at his reaction.

"It's really good," Minnie nodded in agreement, handing hers over to Shua to let him make his own review. He took a quick sip and just by the raise of his eyebrows, the female member knew, he was thinking the same thing.

"Really good, wow."

Knowing that this was only the first one of many they tried, they were even more motivated to explore the other stalls as well, heading straight towards the next one. Stuck in line, Shua pulled out his go-pro to film the '97 Liner closely.

"Dokyeom seems like such a professional," he commented, getting a chuckle out of the girl next to them.

"When going to the winery today," DK started. "It was fun thinking that each bottle of wine had its own story." Minnie couldn't help but cackle at his statement.

"You're getting so sentimental over bottles of wine?"

"Think about it!" He scolded her, "Wine bottles sometimes have a long way in front of them and then they get stored for a very long time before you get to drink them."

"Okay, okay," she nodded, yet still finding amusement in the sentiment. "I understand."

They got their glasses filled up once again, this time, Minnie clinked hers with Hoshi after he had tapped her on the shoulder, nudging his in her direction.

"This one is heavy," he commented on it, handing it over to Shua - all while Minnie stood there with a frown. "What's wrong?" Hoshi asked her, noticing her quiet stance.

"I don't know if I can really taste a difference. It's wine," she shrugged.

[Alcohol is alcohol]

"You have to take a class like us," he told her. "Then you'll become an expert as well." Making her and the '95 Liner laugh.

Suddenly, Jeonghan jumped in, taking the glass into his hold, "What is it like?"

"It's heavy!" Hoshi blurted out. "I can feel that it's heavy," he proudly announced.

"You did well at the winery tour today," Joshua complimented him, getting a smile out of the younger member.

The ringing sound coming from Minnie's back pocket of her jeans brought the attention of all the members to her. She took her phone out, but before she could answer, Hoshi got nosy.

"Who is it?"

"Wonwoo," she let him know, a slight frown to her brows as she picked up, catching the 'aw' from Joshua and having to hold back a roll of her eyes, but not her grin.

"Hello?"

"Where are you?" He asked her.

"At one of the stalls with the members. I can tell you the name, wait-", thinking he might want to join them, when he stopped her,

"Do you want to look at some of the souvenirs?"

[Roomates that have similar taste in sightseeing]

"Oh! Yes!" Her exclaim made the others glance at her in surprise. "But- where are you?"

Wonwoo tried to explain the location of his whereabouts as best as he could, knowing that most of the corners in the area looked too similar to each other.

"I think, I know what you mean," Minnie assured him. "I'll be right there." She let him know before hanging up with a soft 'bye'.

"Where are you going?" Jeonghan asked her as soon as he had put her phone away again.

"Wonwoo wants to look at the souvenirs." She turned around to glance at the side of the festival space, focusing on the different windows of the shops. "He said, he's over there. I'm gonna go," she let the others know. But not before leaving with an empty glass. She got a refill on what she and the members had just shared, finishing it quickly again, before handing the glass over and excusing herself from the rest of the group, getting a couple of 'be careful' and 'call him if you can't find him' in return before she disappeared into the mass.

[Caring friends <3]

The grip on the go-pro in her hand tightened as she managed to brush past the people coming from the opposite direction. Thankfully, Wonwoo's directions were clear and his location was close enough to let her find him quickly and not look like a lost puppy in the middle of the crowd.

Her smile widened as soon as her eyes fell on the familiar back looking into one of the windows, only to get even wider once she found Na PD turning around and revealing his face.

"Hyung!" She called out with a wave. The producer chuckled at her action, waving back and grinning as she waddled over to the duo. Wonwoo turned around at the sound of her voice, welcoming her with a smile as well.

The cameraman, who was filming the two men focused his view on her as she got closer.

"How was the wine?" Na PD wondered, getting a big smile in return.

"Really good," she sheepishly admitted, knowing that there most probably was already a slight blush in her cheeks since she hadn't eaten much before they started drinking. "But!" Minnie quickly added, "I haven't drunk a lot yet."

"Yet?" Wonwoo chuckled at her.

[Remembering Hoshi's words]

The girl nodded with a slight shrug, "Who knows... maybe we're gonna drink more later on."

"YOU are definitely going to drink some more," Youngseok chuckled as they started their journey into one of the side streets that separated them from the busy main space of the wine festival.

Minnie stopped in her tracks, making Wonwoo do the same immediately as well. "You can't say that!" She pointed at the producer with a smile. "That makes me sound like a drunk."

The '96 Liner patted her back to keep her walking while the laughs of the oldest of the three could be heard outside of the camera's view. "I didn't say that."

"You just enjoy having fun," Wonwoo defended her. "With wine."

"Exactly," she nodded at him while Na PD just shook his head.

[The excuse of drinking a lot]

As the two idols wanted to leave the plaza and head towards the side streets, Na PD decided to leave them with the other producer and stayed back at the main area of the wine festival to keep an eye on the rest of the group. They said their goodbyes and promised to meet up again at the restaurant they had picked out for later activities.

Now alone as three, writer and producer Choi Jaeyoung wondered, "What are you guys looking for?"

"I want to do something the others haven't done," the rapper explained.

Minnie nodded along to his words. "And we also talked about bringing something back to Seoul."

"Like what?" The producer wanted to know.

"Maybe magnets?" Wonwoo glanced at the girl.

"Yeah," she agreed. "We could see if we can get something for all of the members. Like small things." The duo determined that would be a good idea.

[Always thinking about the others as well]

Just as they were strolling through the narrow street, the '96 Liner stopped. "Let's go there!" He pointed at a walkthrough, painted in a bright yellow, easily catching the eyes of bystanders. "It's so pretty there."

Minnie and Writer Choi were slightly ahead, therefore not able to see what he was talking about but as soon as they caught up with him, the girl gasped.

"Woah..." Her gaze fell on the stone bridge they were getting close to that stretched over trees that were planted much lower and would lead to the other side, where another narrow street was waiting for them, but with brightly painted houses instead of souvenir shops.

"This really is a picture spot," Wonwoo commented, getting nods of agreement as answers.

Jaeyoung looked around the area. "I guess this is a village where people live," he explained.

"Oh wow... to live here...," Minnie dreamed out loud.

"Would you like that?" The producer asked her, getting a nod with a big smile from her.

"We talked about it earlier," she told him, swiftly pointing at Wonwoo, "it must be really nice to have a house here and be able to come whenever you want."

[Deep chats]

"If my house looked like that," Wonwoo jumped into the conversation. "I'm confident, I'd live happily."

"Mm," he hummed. "That's true. But you'd need someone to take care of it while you're gone."

Minnie gave him a quick look, "Mm... I didn't think that far. I just like the idea of it."

[Dreaming a lot while you're young...]

The writer chuckled. "I see."

"Wait," the female member turned around to glance at the rapper who was still admiring the view. "Did you just say you'd live happily if you had a house here?"

With raised eyebrows, he focused on her. "Yeah, wh-"

"Don't you live happily now?!" She threw at him.

Suddenly, the producer and cameraman laughed out loud at her words and Wonwoo's surprised expression. The rapper joined in, chuckling while Minnie continued to look at him unamused.

"Minnie-ya," PD Choi took a deep breath, trying to control his laughter.

The rapper did the same but went ahead to pat her shoulder but she softly pushed him away with a smile.

"I thought you were happy."

"Does she take everything word for word usually?" Jaeyoung asked into the round.

[Never take everything too seriously]

Wonwoo nodded with a smile only to turn towards the girl in the next second, meeting her already sheepish grin to match.

"Ah...," the older man breathed out, "You guys..."

"We're fun, huh?" Minnie jumped next to him, hugging his arm in an overly excited tone.

The producer nodded, patting her hand, "Very, yeah." Getting chuckles from the idols.

[Quick change of emotion seems normal]

Wonwoo had taken his phone out to capture the beautiful scenery surrounding them, making sure to not miss any spots. Minnie decided to take everything in with her own eyes, forgetting about the device in the back pocket of her jeans and not noticing the camera being focused on her for a few shots.

The writer's voice made her turn towards him. "Go stand there on the side together. Let me take a picture of you." He pointed at the edge of the bridge, pushing the girl closer to her fellow member. Handing the phone over to him, Wonwoo joined Minnie.

Together, they leaned onto the stones with the rapper putting his hand on top of them to let him lean.

"Get closer," Jaeyoung motioned with his hands to make them hurdle in together. Minnie chuckled but took a step closer. Wonwoo whispered something, getting a chuckle out of her as she settled down again, letting her shoulder brush against his chest while his right arm was resting behind her.

"A little closer," he asked them, getting an almost shy smile and shake of Minnie's head as an answer. Wonwoo opened his arm to let her slide in closer, scootching in a little bit more as well.

With her head slightly tilted towards the '96 Liner, the producer seemed finally happy enough and started to take some pictures, smiling brightly at the two in front of him.

"Woah... very pretty," Writer Choi grinned. "Next to Minnie, Wonwoo looks even broader."

The girl scoffed jokingly as the rapper took his phone back so they could continue their adventures, with a slight blush to his cheeks now. "Are you making fun of my statue?"

"No," he promised her, putting his hands on her shoulders, and leading them forward. "I'm just saying you look sweet like a doll and Wonwoo looks like he's part of the bridge."

[Compliments all around]

Even though the rapper was further ahead of them, the laughter coming from him made the two chuckle as well. He stopped to let them catch up, only continuing once he was next to Minnie again, leaving her to be in between the two men.

They decided to go back to where they came from, remembering that they had wanted to look through souvenirs and hopefully also buy some. Lazily strolling through the street, the girl had looped her arm through Wonwoo's, slightly leaning onto him as they glanced around.

"I think they sold some pretty pictures here before," he thought out loud as they headed towards the small stalls that were set up on the left side of the street. And just as they arrived, his eyes immediately found what he was looking for. "There it is!"

Nosily, the girl lifted her head, trying to get a glimpse of what was in front of them, but Wonwoo dragged her over.

"Oh my god," she smiled. "They look so good!"

[Admiring artwork carefully]

Together they looked through the small paintings lined up on the very left side of the seller's table. Compared to the other artwork he was presenting, the ones the idols were focused on, were tiny.

"Did he draw all of these?" Wonwoo wondered.

Minnie shrugged. "I guess so. They look handpainted." With a closer look, you were able to see each clear brush stroke that made the paintings only look even more alive than they already did.

"Oh, look!" The female member pointed at the back of the table. "Magnets." Originally, the two had planned to buy small souvenirs like that, thinking of putting them up on their fridge to make their new place look more lived in, but at that moment, as they were surrounded by beautiful artwork left and right, the choice became harder than they had originally thought it would be.

Still, they agreed magnets would make the most sense, so they settled on buying some of them along with one tiny landscape painting they couldn't take their eyes off of - where they would put it was a conversation for another time.

After enough time roaming the streets for a good while more, they found themselves back at the plaza again. The NANA Tour producers had gone ahead and secured a big table at one of the restaurants. They were slowly gathering the members one by one once they passed them, leading them towards the seating area where Wonwoo and Minnie were already chatting with the other producers, passing the time while waiting.

"Oooh," Jeonghan called out as his eyes found the two younger members. "You really did go shopping," he commented on the plastic bag the rapper was holding.

With her arms crossed, the girl glanced at the '95 Liner. "I told you he called me so we could look at souvenirs."

But he just shrugged. "I don't know, maybe you lied to me."

[Trust issues]

"Why would I lie to you about that?" She chuckled, only getting a cheeky grin and a wiggle of his eyebrows in return, which made her shake her head and turn her attention back to Hyojung, who was already laughing at their antics.

Settling down at the massive table they had booked for every Seventeen and NANA Tour member, Wonwoo started to proudly show off the trinkets he and Minnie had chosen to guy. She had just come back and was about to take a seat on the chair nearest her, right next to Dokyeom, who was sitting opposite Wonwoo, when the '97 Liner suddenly jumped up.

"Do you want to sit here?" He asked the girl, who just glanced at him in surprise.

She shook her head, motioning for him to sit back down again. "No, no, it's okay." Assuring him with a quick smile. He pulled the chair out for her, his eyes trained on her, only leaving her frame once she had properly sat down.

[The gentleman is back]

"Did you order yet?" She wondered, getting a 'yes' in return and before she was able to open her mouth again, DK continued,

"Just sodas. They're over there." Pointing at the variety of cans. Minnie didn't have to ask as he was already handing her a Coke Zero. Appreciatively with a grin, she took it and emptied it into the glass at her seat.

"Has Myungho not come yet?" Na PD asked into the round, making every member look around the table only to find no sight of the '97 Liner.

To Minnie's right, Jun was quick with the answer. "Myungho, Mingyu, and Woozi are over there still drinking!" Stretching his arm behind him to point at where the trio was enjoying another round of wine.

"Oh God," the female member chuckled as she glanced at them.

Suddenly, DK sighed.

Minnie's ears immediately perked up. "What?"

"I'm kinda disappointed," he admitted. "I only drank like five glasses."

From a little further down the table, Dino caught the disappointment.

"Guys," he called out, making both '97 Liners' heads turn. "Do you want to go one more round?"

The girl chuckled at the excitement coming from the youngest, ready to shake her head, but Dokyeom was already out of his seat.

"Are you not coming?" The vocalist looked down at the girl, who caught his gaze with expecting eyes.

"Are you really going?" Quickly changing her focus to the maknae who was already on his feet, wine glass tight in his grip.

"Of course," DK's smile beamed at her. "Come on." Nudging for her to follow them.

Once she didn't immediately react, he took a step closer to her, getting a hold of her elbow and pulling her up.

"Dokyeom-ah!" Minnie laughed out loud, not pushing him away, but standing up along with him to leave the table.

[Children, don't let peer pressure influence you]

[This is not a good example]

Now, all the attention was on the leaving trio. Na PD was the first to comment on it. "They're going again!"

"Noona didn't get to taste much, we're gonna show her around some more," the youngest explained, leaving the female idol to look at the rest of the group with wide eyes and a chuckle.

"It wasn't even my idea!"

"We'll be back before the food arrives," Dino promised before pushing the older members along with him, using this as a 'see you later'.

Just as they were getting their glasses refilled, familiar voices spoke up from behind them.

"Buongiorno."

Turning around, Minnie found Jun and Joshua, who seemed to have followed them, along with their wine glasses, ready for another round as well.

"OOH," the girl shouted out in excitement, "You too?"

Shua pushed past them to get to the front of the stall as Dokyeom, Minnie, and Dino were already sipping on the next round of wine.

"This here is the best one," the female member admitted, glancing at Jun, who decided to stay a bit behind.

"This is good?" He suddenly asked in English.

She nodded with a big smile decorating her face, "Very good, yes."

"Good, good."

[The alcohol is so good, they had to change languages]

"Here," she handed him her half-filled glass, exchanging it with his empty one.

"Oh- thank you," Jun accepted it, taking a sip right away while the girl continued to look at him, just waiting for his reaction. As soon as his eyebrows shot up, she knew, she was right - it was in fact the best one so far.

"Wow," the '96 Liner breathed out. "It's really good."

"I told you!" Jokingly, she smacked his upper arm.

After she got a refill into his glass as well, the group took a step to the side, each of them enjoying their wine slowly together. In silence, they took sip after sip, letting the background noise fill the silence.

"I'm so happy," Joshua admitted dreamily, his head tilted to the side. With a soft smile, Minnie gazed at him. She had joined him by his side, nudging his arm with her shoulder. "What do I do?"

"Enjoy the moment." She tried to let the scene not pass, closing her eyes to add to the feeling they were trying to create. Just a comforting atmosphere where each member was quietly sipping on their wine, inhaling the fresh, yet slightly damp and cooler Summer night air.

"I think I can drink 30 more glasses here," he admitted, getting a chuckle out of her. "Drunk on this atmosphere..."

With a grin, she interlocked their arms before pulling him ahead and calling out, "Let's go!" Lifting her now empty glass of wine as she was ready for the next one.

[Enthusiastic for more alcohol]

The laughter of the other members drowned out the background noise.

"Should we meet up with the others?"

The two had been walking around on their own for a bit when Joshua spotted Woozi, Mingyu, and Minghao, whom they had yet to see in quite a while. As it was slowly getting darker and they could only guess their food was soon to be served, they were on their way back to the restaurant. But wine was such an easy distraction.

"Where are they?" Minnie was looking in a different direction, not seeing Shua lift his glass when he met eyes with Mingyu, who, in return, found the girl before she could catch him. Sneaking up to her, while she was occupied with her re-fill, she didn't notice the massive statue that was suddenly behind her. Only when she started to turn to the side.

"AH-" she jumped in surprised when Mingyu lowered his head to meet her gaze. Minnie welcomed him with a hard punch to his shoulder. "Idiot..."

[SEVENTEEN loves each other]

Ignoring the show of annoyance - even if it wasn't serious - the '97 Liner threw his arm around the girl, pulling her into his side before snatching the glass from her grip.

"Didn't you drink enough already today?" She asked him, a slight teasing undertone to her voice.

The rapper gulped down everything that was inside before glancing down at her again. "Didn't you drink enough already today?"

[Bickering is an act of kindness]

"I didn't even drink that much!" She scoffed, letting herself get pulled towards the restaurant as the rest of the group, now with Minghao and Woozi in tow as well, decided to join the team again.

"But your face is really red," Gyu commented, making Minnie stop for a second, her hands flying up to her cheeks.

"Really?" Only getting a chuckle and a shake of his head in return, making her do the same before they continued their walk towards the reserved table.

Stomach filled, in a happy, slightly tipsy, and contained state, Minnie leaned back into her chair, gazing into thin air. A good hour has passed, in which the only thing the idols did was eat. And eat even more. And then drink some more too.

The voices of the members around her were getting quieter as she zoned out, getting pulled back into the presence at the sound of her name being called out by Youngseok.

"Huh?" She glanced up at him.

Na PD chuckled, "Everyone but you is eating so well."

With an almost pained look on her face, she clutched her stomach. "I already ate so much. I promise." And for once, she wasn't lying about it. "I'm really full from the wine."

[Alcohol... is... a meal...?]

"Minnie gets full from drinking quickly," Jeonghan added to her statement.

The producer nodded in understanding. "Did you drink too quickly?"

"I think so. But I feel good, that's all that matters." She grinned brightly. "And I'm happy."

"And you did eat well," Dokyeom commented with a proud smile.

To her right, Minnie found Vernon's head tipped down. Jun had left for the bathroom, giving her a perfect view of the younger rapper.

She turned to Wonwoo, pointing at the '98 Liner. "Is he really sleeping?" Wondering if maybe he had watched him fall into a slumber. Leaning slightly forward, the rapper tried to get a glimpse of the younger's eyes, but he sat back with a shrug.

"I don't know. I don't think so."

Carefully, she reached out, petting his shoulder. "Vernonnie-" He raked himself up and met her eyes immediately. "Oh- I thought you were sleeping."

"No," he chuckled, "But I'm really tired." He let a hand brush over his face, stopping to rub his eyes.

Minnie nodded, "Mm, same..." Knowing as soon as her head would hit a pillow, her eyes would shut and getting up in the morning would be a big challenge. But the quality of sleep would be absolutely worth it.

EP3-4. What are you doing?

Back at the AirBnB, some of the members gathered in the living room of the accommodation while waiting for further instructions. They knew the next point on their timetable was a game, yet what game they'd be playing was still a mystery to them.

Minnie found her place on the single stool in the corner between Jeonghan, who was occupying a single yellow chair and Joshua who was sharing the loveseat with Mingyu. Before she had sat down, she took the fan with S.Coups' face on it into her hands, now holding onto it tightly.

[Even when he's so far away, the leader is always close to the members]

Mindlessly, she looked around the room while catching some words from the '95 Liners' conversation.

At 9:30pm the members had separated into different rooms in the house, with Jun, Woozi, and Dokyeom still in the living room. The '97 Liner was singing along to the random tune the producer was playing, making up lyrics on the go. Minnie was listening to them from a few feet away. She had found an empty spot on the floor she could lie on while putting her legs up against the wall. All the alcohol and food had made her feel bloated and from what she remembered her friends once telling her, this was a quick way to get rid of that.

[Just another day in the life of a SEVENTEEN member?]

Wonwoo was coming back out of their room, eyes fixed on the phone in his hand as he walked towards the living room. Getting a glimpse of the girl in his peripheral view made him take a step back and glance down.

"Are you okay?"

Minnie opened her eyes and smiled. "Yep."

"Do you need help getting up?"

"No, I'm good. I'm just gonna lay here for a bit," she just answered, closing her eyes again.

Clearly unfazed by her antics, the rapper nodded. "Okay." Continuing his way into the living room to join Woozi on the left side, only that he sat down on the yellow couch. From the entryway, Na PD watched them with a fond smile, shaking his head when a chuckle fell from his lips.

For a few more seconds, the house was in complete silence other than Woozi and his guitar and Dokyeom's voice filling the ears of the people around them.

"Pumping and my butthole-" he suddenly sang, making the girl sit up and look to her right, watching the others stop in their movements. Even the producer had stopped playing.

The girl chuckled out loud, "What?"

"Why does your butthole come out?" Woozi asked, getting a round of laughter from the members in the room.

"The result of eating six dishes needs to have a result," Dokyeom explained honestly, only afterwards finding the female member who had now stood up but just stopped in the hallway, gazing at him almost disturbed.

"Oh-," he laughed out loud, "I'm sorry, Minnie!"

With a shake of her head, she joined the members, moving towards the side with the couch where Woozi and Wonwoo were sitting.

"It was good up to then," Wonwoo admitted, "and then you ruined it." Letting the girl settle down beside him.

Minnie pulled her legs up, letting them slightly lean onto the rapper's thighs as she sighed and let her head tilt back in exhaustion. Suddenly noticing the empty feeling in her back pocket, she wondered out loud.

"Where's my phone?" Speaking almost too quietly.

[Important for the young generation]

Not looking up from his own, Wonwoo told her, "On the bed. You put it there not too long ago."

"Oh yeah, right...," Her breathy voice was a clear indication of her tired she had become. Or maybe it was just the food and alcohol.

"Minnie's in a food coma right now. She doesn't know what she's doing or saying," Jun joked, making her straighten her head again.

"That's true. I feel so... like I just ate a ten-course meal."

"Did you really eat that much?" He asked her, getting a nod in return. But Wonwoo had a different answer,

"You didn't."

Minnie turned her head towards him. "Yes, I did. I ate enough."

"Enough, but not a lot," he argued.

She scoffed softly, almost rolling her eyes. "That's the same."

[Oh so nice]

"You drank a lot," Dokyeom added to the conversation, making her nod.

"That too," she admitted. "Just a lot all together." And threw her head back again with another grunt.

Only a few moments later, the group was asked to come together in the kitchen downstairs. With heavy steps, Minnie followed the guys, getting surprised by the volume of Wonwoo's loud voice as he called out for the rest.

She joined Vernon and Dino on the right side of the long table in the middle of the room, settling down right between them. The maknae was still carrying the crossbody bag with the 'pocket money' they were given, making her chuckle and point it out to him. The bag had become almost useless as S.Coups had stopped their overseas payment option since they were apparently spending too much money. The revelation made the girl roll her eyes back when they were told this news on the bus earlier. But that didn't mean that they wouldn't get another way of earning some money to spend.

Mingyu was the last to arrive, but once he joined the group, the 'rules' of the game were laid out for them. There were two separate rooms on the second floor where the NANA Tour staff was staying. By playing rock-paper-scissors, the order in which they would enter these rooms was decided. What was waiting for them there, wasn't revealed to them just yet.

Somewhere along the line, it was finally Minnie's turn to go upstairs, coming to sight with the DIY signs displaying 'Room 1' and 'Room 2'. Not leaving herself a long time to think, she went with the first room to her right.

"Ah, hyung!" She immediately found Na PD already waiting for her with a bright but somewhat cheeky smile on his lips.

[Happy to see her favourite producer]

"How are you, Minnie?" He motioned for her to sit down in front of him. "I heard you're playing a game downstairs."

The girl shook her head, her lips curled up in amusement. "I don't understand what they're doing, so I'm glad I called up right now." Her confession got a laugh out of the producer. With Jeonghan's support, DK created a game he called 'Electric Man' as he tried to entertain the other members while they were waiting for everyone to get the final instructions of what they were doing next. What was the premise of his self-made game? No one knew. How was it played? Also, no one really knew.

"Did they tell you what we're doing?"

"Dokyeom said something about missions," she recalled, "but I think it's probably Mafia, right?"

Na PD pointed at the cards that were spread out on the table in front of them. "You can pick a card and find out."

"Why are you making this so mysterious?" She squealed out, glancing over at the cameraman in the corner who just shrugged. Biting down on her lip, Minnie pretended to think for a split second before her hand landed on top of one card.

"Is this a good one?"

"Turn around and find out," Youngseok simply told her, making her huff out while holding back a grin.

"No," she changed her mind, reaching for a different card, "I'll take this one."

"Okay," he simply nodded and gave her the 'okay' to take a look at it.

Flipping it over, so only she could see it first, Minnie read the words on it. With a slight frown on her eyebrows, almost in pain, she looked up again.

"Can I change it?"

"What did you get?"

She showed the card to the producers and then moved it slightly so the camera could get a good shot of it.

'Make a package of Ramen and eat it with a member.'

"I'm really full. I can't eat anything anymore," she whined with a chuckle.

"You have to share it with a member, so they could technically eat more than you," Youngseok tried to compromise, not wanting to torture her by having to eat.

Minnie nodded with a soft sigh. "So I just have to do this?" She wondered, slightly confused by the challenge here.

[Are you sure it's that simple?]

"You have to do this mission and not get caught," he reminded her. The premise of it being able to earn some money for the next day was explained to her. Now suddenly everything made a lot more sense than before. Finishing her mission while also trying to stop others from achieving theirs. Easier said than done in a group of currently 13 people, all of whom are usually very attentive to the ones around them.

Minnie nodded, mostly to herself. "Okay." Grinning up at the producer, who had the same facial expression.

"Good luck," he told her as she was on her way back downstairs.

The playing field reached from the basement - including the sauna - up to the first floor where the living room and their individual rooms were, only that those and the outside area were banned from using while trying to finish their missions.

As soon as the producers gave them the 'go', the members jumped up from their seats. Minnie and Jeonghan were the only ones who decided to stay seated, knowing if they went ahead right away, there was a good chance, they'd fail.

Dokyeom filled the room with his singing, making Joshua suddenly join in while Vernon just stood on the side, glancing at him with an unreadable facial expression. Minnie's eyes fell on him. Feeling her gaze on him, he turned towards her, giving her the same look.

"What?" She asked him. "What's going on?" Still not knowing why he had stopped in his tracks.

"I'm out," he chuckled.

Her eyes widened immediately. "Already?! What happened?" But he just shook his head and went to find one of the producers to ask for further instructions. He didn't even last a second.

The female member decided to glance around, trying to find some suspicious behaviour. With all the turmoil, it was hard to tell. Most of the members were just walking around, trying to entertain themselves, or at least it seemed like that.

The loud voices coming from the kitchen caught her attention, but what made her stop and stare was Dokyeom who had fished out a Ramen package and looked like he was about to make it. Quick on her feet, she rushed over to the producers, trying to find Na PD.

"Hyung!" He turned around when she called out for him. "What if I also make the Ramen with a member and then eat it together?"

But he shook his head. "You have to make it on your own and then share it."

[Rules are strict]

Minnie pressed her lips together and muttered a quiet, "Okay," before strolling over to the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" She asked her fellow '97 Liner as if she couldn't see it.

"Ramen," he showed her the package. "Do you want some too?"

"No, thank you, I'll make my own." She simply said, about to brush past him, when his voice stopped her.

"Didn't you say you were full from earlier?" True to his attentive self Minnie could curse at that very moment.

[Very attentive members]

"Yeah...," she trailed off. "But there's always room for Ramen."

"True," he shrugged and moved on.

Out of the same cupboard as him, Minnie got a package out and joined him by the kitchen island. Some of the members had found Dokyeom's act of cooking suspicious but now that the girl was technically just joining him, no one was questioning her. Almost no one.

While she was looking around for some vegetables and other things she could add, her eyes found Mingyu, who was currently filling a metal bowl with sugar.

"What are you doing?" She eyes him suspiciously, sending him a grin. His reaction told her everything she needed to know. The rapper snatched the bowl off the counter and tried to hide it behind him.

"Leave it!"

"Wh- I was just asking!" She argued back, not able to hold back her laughter. He most definitely wasn't one of the good liars of the group. Mindlessly, he put the bowl back, focusing on what she was holding, which was a carton of eggs. Eggs that he would need.

"What are you doing with them?"

Her lips curled up into a wicked grin. "Why?" She raised her eyebrows provokingly. "Do you need them?"

Mingyu tried to reach for them, but for once her reflexes were quick enough to dodge out of the way.

"Ha ha!" She threw at him before taking a few steps back. Thanks to his height and much longer limbs, it didn't take long for him to catch up to her, framing Minnie in the kitchen corner. She held the carton far away from him, almost leaning backwards against the counter.

"Tell me what you need them for."

"No," he argued. "Just give me a few and you can have the rest."

Before she could snap back at him, Dokyeom's voice rang through the room. "Has anyone seen the eggs?" Distracted by the question, Minnie's grip slightly lightened, giving Mingyu the perfect opportunity to snatch them out of her hands easily.

"HEY!" She jogged after him, ready to fight, but he suddenly put them back on the counter, now focused on Joshua, who was walking away from the kitchen, taking the bowl of sugar with him.

"Hyung!" Mingyu called out as he went after him.

Without wasting another moment, Minnie took the eggs and brought them back to where she would need them.

In the background, the '97 Liner was still fighting for his bowl with one of the older members, who was very keen on not giving it back. That's when Mingyu's patience snapped, making a shout out to him, using words most definitely not appropriate for TV.

Minnie gasped out loud. "Mingyu just cursed!" She pointed at him, eyeing the producer, who just started laughing on the other end of the room.

[Calling out bad behaviour]

"Hey! Why are you cursing?" Dokyeom, who was still next to her, jumped into the conversation, ending the question by dragging it out and creating another melody. His antics got a chuckle out of the girl and Joshua, who was still running from Mingyu, who would not stop chasing him.

"Dokyeom and Minnie are making Ramen, stop them first!" The '97 Liner tried to convert the attention of his fellow members, who glanced up at him with big eyes.

"Don't drag us into your *shit*!" The girl argued, immediately getting a soft punch to her upper arm.

[Minnie said some pretty words we had to bleep out]

"You can't curse either," DK chuckled when he noticed that the girl had only just realised what she had said. A hand immediately flew up to cover her mouth.

"Now look at you, you punk!" Mingyu pointed a strict finger at her. "You're cursing too!"

[Nice words from a nice member]

"And look who I got it from!" Coyping his stance periodically.

In the meantime, Joshua strutted over to the kitchen island, motivated by the words of the younger rapper to investigate what the two '97 Liners were doing. Snatching it right out of Minnie's hands, Shua grabbed the uncooked noodles and walked away.

"YA!" The girl shouted after him, taking off in a jog to catch up with him.

"Ey, hyung!" Dokyeom continued. "Why are you taking out ramyeon? We want to eat it."

"Why are you cooking it all of a sudden?" The '95 Liner looked at the younger members expectedly while the girl was desperately trying to get a hold of her food from his hands. But damn his quick reflexes. "Do you have a mission together?" With a hand on her shoulder, Joshua made Minnie stop.

With a pained facial expression, she whined at him, "What are you talking about?! How could we have the same mission when we went to the rooms separately! I don't even know what his mission is, I just wanted to eat this because I saw it and felt like it!" Her cries seemed to make him buckle as he put his arms down and placed the noodles back on the countertop.

Swiftly, they were able to move around the kitchen, Minnie grabbing her own pot to fill with water finally and heat it up by the stove.

Suddenly, Mingyu's groans filled the room.

"What did you do?" She glanced to her left, watching him pick the bowl back out of the sink where it had fallen into.

"Nothing, nothing," he quickly brushed it off and went to continue, but the girl blocked his way. "Minnie-ya," he hissed at her. "Move."

She shook her head. "What are you doing? Is it your mission?"

"Shut up," he rolled his eyes with a chuckle and gently pushed her to the side, making her giggle. Dokyeom sneaked a quick look at the two, laughing at the duo.

"Mingyu is really suspicious about the bowl," he commented.

Minnie nodded in agreement, "We have to stop him," her eyes not leaving his form as he moved around the room. As soon as DK tried to get the stove to work, her attention was back to what was in front of her. Since it worked with gas rather than with electricity, the members faced their next challenge.

"Wait," Minnie told him. "Raise the flame," she motioned for him to move to the side slightly so she could change the strength with one of the regulators. Just as a small flame let itself be seen, Mingyu passed them. With a quick blow to the stove, the fire got extinguished and the other two '97 Liners were back to the start.

"You f-" The girl lifted her hand, ready to curse at the rapper, but already knowing her well enough, he caught her arm mid-air.

"Don't curse," he grinned at her, making her only even more annoyed.

[He's doing our job, thank you <3]

She pushed him away. "Leave us alone," whining out loud seemed to entertain the other members as Dino's laughter rang through their ears.

"What are you guys doing?" He stopped by her side, his arms wrapping around her waist as he pulled her in closer to let his chin rest on her shoulder.

"Mingyu's being mean." Her pout got an eye-roll from the man in question and another chuckle from the maknae while DK was still focused on getting the stove to work.

"I can't do it!" He called out in disappointment, making the two younger members turn around while holding onto each other - Dino was clearly not thinking of letting go that soon. Minnie patted his back and brought him with her as she got to work on her portion of Ramen noodles. Easier said than done when suddenly the two packages they had opened had disappeared into thin air.

"Huh?!" The female member looked stunned at where they were last seen. "Didn't we...," she thought out loud, glancing around in confusion. "Dokyeom, where did you put the Ramen?"

"Right there," he pointed at the now completely empty space on the counter. "Where's it gone?"

"Mingyu!" The girl spat at her fellow '97 Liner, who stood a few feet away from them. His head shot up, meeting her furious eyes.

"What? I didn't do anything!" He immediately stated.

"Don't lie! Where did you put it?"

"W- I didn't do it! What even are you talking about?" Completely stunned, he held her gaze.

Dokyeom's hand reached out to touch his arm. "Hyung, you're a really bad liar."

Mingyu scoffed with an eye roll. "But I'm not lying."

"You're annoying!"

"I didn't do anything!"

"Liar!" Minnie and Mingyu went back and forth, completely ignoring what the other members around them were doing.

[A normal day for SEVENTEEN]

Woozi and Jeonghan were still walking around the space, having a fight of their own, Dokyeom was nowhere to be seen and Joshua seemed to have been minding his own business.

"Guys!" Suddenly Minghao's voice rang through the room. "I'm done!"

In surprise, everyone's eyes fell on him. He had just come out of the left corner of the room, clearly dripping wet with his hair slicked back and a towel thrown over his shoulder.

"What did you have to do?" Minnie asked.

Mingyu took a different guess. "Did you have to wash your hair?"

"No, I'm done if I go into the sauna," Hao enlightened them. A round of 'aah' came from the members in return.

"Seungkwan is supposed to do Calligraphy!" Hoshi came sprinting down the stairs, bursting into the kitchen, interrupting another argument that had broken out between Mingyu and Minnie as she tried to get the bowl out of his tight grip. The interruption made her loosen her grip, and he was able to pull away, making her stumble back slightly, only for him to reach out and catch her arm, steadying her.

"Calligraphy?" She asked again, getting a nod from the '96 Liner who was still chuckling.

"Wonwoo's trying to take his stuff away and hide it." And just the mere imagination of that picture got all of the members in the room to laugh. Some wanted to see it with their own eyes and rushed up the stairs, leaving the kitchen fairly empty. Out of the corner of her eye, Minnie saw something colourful peek out from the shelf. Taking a step closer, she found the Ramen packages she had been looking for underneath a cake bell. Not even caring about who had put it there, she took the quiet time to get them back and head over into the kitchen, even forgetting about Mingyu who was moving around the room to find a moment of peace to finish his own mission.

[The mission might have been too easy]

Standing by the stove, water boiling and noodles cooking, Jeonghan and Woozi suddenly joined her. Secretively, they moved into the corner of the kitchen. As they spoke in hushed tones, the girl had a hard time catching what they were saying, but she was able to make out an important part.

"This is kind of vague, so I will protect you," he promised the group's producer.

"You're protecting him of what? Huh?" Minnie glanced over, her eyebrows raised with a smirk playing on her lips. "What are you guys doing?"

"Should I help you too?" Jeonghan's sudden question made her frown.

She shook her head. "I don't trust you."

[Hurtful words]

Right at that moment, Joshua came back, passing the girl and heading towards the two other members.

"They're being weird!" Minnie pointed out, only making him even more suspicious than he already was. With Shua's attention now on the older members, she was able to concentrate back on the noodles in front of her. She added the soup package and cracked an egg into the middle. Focusing on her own task at hand, she blended out most of what was happening around her. Dokyeom had been chasing Mingyu around the room. Only when the rapper's moans of pain and clanking of metal erupted did she turn around to take a look.

"What happened?" Her eyes were trained on him now limping towards the kitchen. "What did you do?" Taking a step closer she reached out to where Mingyu was clutching his knee, hunched over, clearly hurting from what had just happened.

"Be careful," she somewhat hissed at him while Dokyeom continued to worry, with a soft laugh lacing his voice.

"Are you okay?" But the answer to his question came quick when Mingyu suddenly took off in a sprint to the other side of the room with DK hot in his tracks, leaving the girl, once again, alone. Shrugging and with a deep breath, she went back to the stove, deciding to ignore the rest of their antics.

"Minnie," Woozi's voice made ears perk up.

"Huh?" She turned towards him, finding him with the screen of his phone facing her. With a few steps closer, he stopped right next to her.

"Do you want to say 'hi' to Carats?"

"To Carats?" Her focus was still on the pot in front of her, she didn't realise that she would be seeing herself on his screen as he was currently doing a livestream on Weverse.

"I'm live right now," he explained.

"Huh?" Confused she glanced over, surprising herself by watching her face stare right back at her. "Oh- hello everyone!" She leaned in closer, waving to the camera with a big smile. "Was that your mission?" She asked before another realisation hit her. Quickly, she covered the camera. "Are they even allowed to see this?"

With a chuckle, Woozi pushed her hand away, so the fans could see them again.

"If I'm supposed to do it, of course, they can see us."

Minnie sent another smile at them, "Hiii."

As soon as Hoshi came in closer, the group's producer asked him if he would want to be in the frame as well, now moving the phone to film him and away from the female member.

To see if it was finally done, Minnie grabbed a pair of wooden chopsticks they had gotten from the producers, dipping them into the pot and gathering some of the noodles. After a quick few blows, she got to taste them, nodding to herself happily. Just when she thought, she'd finally be done and could get to eating them and finishing her mission, Dokyeom came back again.

"Minnie, how did you turn on the stove?" With a lighter in his hand, he was clearly struggling, not knowing the next thing about a gas stove. Quickly, she helped him, not even thinking about this being a possible mission of his since it was hers already, she left him in the kitchen and moved over to the dining table. Minghao had followed her, claiming the seat next to her.

"Is this your mission?" He quietly asked her, keeping his voice low enough so no other member could hear them. With her lips pressed together, she looked at him, shaking her head. But Minghao chuckled, seeing right through her.

"Please," she whined. "Here, you can have some. Just please let me do this in peace." She held up the chopsticks with enough noodles for him to slurp and pushed the pot closer to him.

He leaned in, but before opening his mouth, he stopped for a second but decided to just take it, not in the mood to ruin this for her.

Hoshi had come down the stairs into the kitchen, seeing Minnie by the table, still painfully trying to finish the pot of Ramen while the two '95 Liners and Dokyeom were occupied by the stove.

"Is everyone already out?"

"Huh?" Jeonghan looked at him confused, "No, Minnie's still doing hers and Dokyeom too."

"Minnie?" The '96 Liner turned towards the girl, sitting down opposite of her with a big grin on his lips. "Is this your mission?"

She decided not to say anything but just nodded.

Slowly but surely, Hoshi reached out, obviously trying to pull the pot towards him. It didn't take long for the female member to catch onto his action.

"Just take it." She brushed it off. "I can't anymore, I'm so full." Minnie let herself fall into the chair with a heavy breath.

"Really? Just like that?" He wondered, taking the chopstick between his fingers.

The girl nodded. "I wanted to finish it, but I can't. I don't care."

[Smart]

Not caring much about the truth behind her words, Hoshi dug into the rest of the meal, while Minnie was biting down on her lip. Holding back her grin about the fact that she had just managed to achieve her secret mission without anyone knowing and with Hoshi believing she had given up that easily.

Looking around the room, her hands on top of her stomach, she noticed something.

"Has anyone seen Mingyu?" Only getting a shrug in return from the member sitting across from her while the other three were talking too loud amongst themselves to hear her. Remembering the last place she had seen him run off to, she decided to take a chance and go look for him.

In the left corner of the room was another door leading to what she had yet to discover, only knowing that Minghao came back from exactly there, soaking wet.

Pushing it open, she came to sight of the small pool right in front of her.

"Woah-" Movement out of the corner of her eye made her stop and turn her head. "What are you doing?" Watching Mingyu crouched down on the floor, the bowl tight in his grip and a whisk in the other hand. She chuckled at the sight while he just begged her to keep quiet.

"Finishing my mission," he explained to her.

"But what is it?" She took a step closer to look into the bowl, frowning at whatever was inside of it.

"I have to make a meringue."

"Meringue?" She repeated, unsure if she understood him correctly. "The stuff that goes into macarons?" He nodded his head quickly.

In the meantime, the door had opened again, letting Jeonghan in, who found them immediately. He didn't even have to ask what they were doing.

"He has to make meringue," Minnie let him know, taking a step to the side to let him fully in. As they both just stood there watching Mingyu whisk hastily, the girl felt a finger poke her side. She glanced down, but right up again, seeing the oldest member nudge his head towards the pool. A wide smirk spread on her lips, but she didn't need to be told twice. Watching the rapper intensively, she could tell how focused he was, not even noticing as she got closer again, now with some water in the cup she created with her hands. With a quick motion, she managed to dunk some of the water into the bowl before Mingyu could even realise it and pull it away.

"YA!" He shouted out, pushing her back. Not able to react quick enough, Minnie didn't get away far enough as he leaned forward, putting his arm into the water and splashing it right at her, only with much more force and amount.

"STOP, YOU-"

[At this point, we'd like the remind Carats and viewers that SEVENTEEN truly loves each other]

She shouted, giggling as she tried to get away, but bumped into Jeonghan. He switched positions with her, now copying Mingyu to throw some of the water on him. He repeated it while the rapper just stood in the corner, hoping to somewhat shield his bowl. Deciding he was drenched enough, the older member moved to the side while the '97 Liner got back to the water, ready to splash it back at the mischievous duo.

With a loud chuckle, Minnie took a few steps forward and just started to do the same, sudden laughter from her and the '95 Liner filling the room while Mingyu was still grunting in annoyance. From the other side of the pool, Jeonghan tried to help Minnie, splatter even more water onto the younger member.

"Mingyu, do you think you'll be able to make Meringue?" Giggling along with his words while the girl tried to contain her laughter.

Once they noticed he had officially given up by the way his shoulder sunk down, the splashing stopped.

"Ah, guys..." Mingyu sighed out loud. With a sweet chuckle, Minnie got closer to him, throwing her hands around his waist to hug him from behind. He turned around, making her loosen her grip and take a step back when he sat down the bowl, thinking he would just take a short second of peace. But before they could even blink, Mingyu put the bowl into the water, throwing the much bigger amount of water right at her before dipping it in again and making Jeonghan his second victim. Her screech could probably even be heard from next door.

"MINGYU!"

Minnie rubbed her eyes, not even thinking about her hair at the moment that was probably sticking to her forehead and all over the place, making her look like a wet puppy. The rapper managed to push past them while Jeonghan snatched the bowl into his own hands, filling it up and waiting behind the door that Mingyu was holding onto tightly from the other side of it. Getting it to open just slightly the oldest member threw the water out, not even looking if it would hit him directly - that just happened out of pure luck, making the duo laugh out loud.

[Fun day at the indoor waterpark]

Minnie opened the door fully, now revealing a fully drenched Mingyu in front of her, but she wasn't looking much drier either. He sighed heavily while the girl continued to giggle, following him back into the kitchen, where wide eyes were waiting for them.

"What?" Woozi couldn't stop looking at the three fully submerged in water as if they had just gone swimming with their clothes on.

Mingyu glanced behind him at the girl who was cheekily looking at him.

"Careful." He pointed at her shirt before heading further into the kitchen. Glancing down at her shirt, Minnie realised her white top had turned quite sheer. With her fingers, she managed to get it from sticking too tightly onto her body as she continued to go upstairs to change.

On their way up, Hoshi came from the other direction, stopping to look at her and Jeonghan, who trailed behind.

"What did you do?"

"Making Mingyu fail," the older member giggled, making the girl chuckle.

Wonwoo stood up at the sound of their laughter, putting the guitar he had been clinging onto back on the couch.

"Mingyu's out?" He wondered, getting a nod from the girl and a verbal confirmation from Jeonghan in return.

"Good job, guys." His smile made theirs only widen. Then, he suddenly came to sight with the state of their clothes.

"Wh- Guys!" He chuckled, pointing at Jeonghan and stopping the girl by putting his hand on her elbow. "You did this to make Mingyu fail?"

"Yeah," Minnie told him excitedly.

"Wait-," the maknae looked at them with big eyes. "What did you do?"

"We put water into his meringue," Jeonghan explained.

"He told me to do it!" The female member excused herself by pointing at the older member, getting the infamous 'hehe' out of him. She headed over to her own room, ready to change as she wanted to stop clutching onto her shirt to not let every camera catch just how see-through it had gotten.

Taglist: @waosobii @chaebb @lunarxsun @hoe4wonwoo @kimhyejin3108 @soobzao @billboard-singer @cosmicwintr @zwiehe @alixnsuperstxr @angie-x3 @smooore @allthings-fandoms @lllucere @iamawkwardandshy

#minnie 🌷#seventeen #seventeen oc #seventeen 14th member #kpop oc #Nana tour

179 notes · View notes

imagine-that-100 · 2 years

Text

Chicken Shop Date | Part 3 |

By @imagine-that-100 and @alovesreading

Description: Matty Healy x Reader (Female) | You and your best friend Amelia came up with a very simple idea of taking celebrities on awkward chicken shop dates, and somehow, it’s managed to become both of your jobs. In the past, you’ve found sitting across from some of the biggest stars on the planet and eating chicken nuggets easy. But then Amelia manages to score you a date with the man who you’ve been obsessed with since you were nineteen; Matty Healy.

Word Count: 24.6k

A/N: Bestiessss, we’re backkkk!!! And this new part is a good one, it might be my favourite. Me and A have become obsessed with Matty and Baby’s story (Yes, she got a cute nickname like Wheels and it stuck lol) and we can’t wait to share more. There’s going to be at least 6 parts to this story as we can’t stop writing. We really hope you enjoy this new part as much as we do and thank you so much for reading x

| Part 1 | Part 2 |

| N’s Masterlist | A’s Masterlist |

The day Being Funny dropped, you’re sure you listened to it through at least 30 times. Both listening to it completely transfixed like you were the first time, and having it on in the background when your best friend came around.

When Amelia came to yours, you got so deep into recounting the events of the night before that you didn’t realise what the time was when your phones started blowing up. Your storytelling had distracted you from realising the date and that your scheduled video of yours and Matty’s chicken shop date had been posted, it was finally out for everyone to see.

The both of you had to pause your story to post on all your social media platforms and when that was done, you sighed looking back up to your best friend who is already looking at you in desperate need for you to continue talking. When you finished telling her, she was gobsmacked at every little detail, from Matty phoning you to come back into the venue, to him kissing you outside your building and following you inside, to holding his hand during the album, to him climbing into your bed and the both of you sleeping beside each other.

She asked if you were going to message him, and you shook your head as you remembered he mentioned New Years before he left. It gave you that little bit of hope that he would want that second date. The last thing you want to do is message him and annoy him and blow your chance.

It was needless to say that yours and Matty’s chicken shop date blew up. The response from it ended up being fucking insane and obviously the fact that you kissed on camera had the fans going feral.

You were getting messages from everyone about it, endless people saying it was your best date yet. Even Amelia’s Mum texted her about the date, saying, She really hit the jackpot with this date but he’s definitely a heartbreaker 🥰🍾

It made you cackle when Amelia posted that on her instagram story and tagged you with a caption that read, Linda, so is she!!!!!!!

Despite the date blowing up, your hard work had been done after you posted everything on your socials and you posted the picture that you took of the cigarette that you stubbed out amongst your food and you tagged Matty, but other than that you hadn’t messaged him.

You didn’t think anything of tagging him, and you certainly didn’t expect a response as he should be partying again because it’s his album release day. But when you got into bed that night at about 1am you see that he’s replied to you.

Tasty x

In a little panic, you chose to not reply to him because honestly you really didn’t know what to say. It was definitely too late and you were too tired to be attempting to come up with a flirty response that probably wasn’t going to earn you a response.

The following day, you had a few things to do in the morning, but you had decided that early afternoon you’d wanted to go to The 1975 pop up shop on Brick Lane in Truman Brewery. A full shop filled with 1975 merch was actually a dream of yours and there is no way you wouldn’t be going.

You wanted to set off from your flat at midday, but Amelia phoned you to go over some details for an upcoming date she had and you ended up running ideas back and forth with each other for an hour. It was just after 1pm when you bid each other goodbye and you got your phone out to check train times on City Mapper to see when was best to head out as if you weren’t on the phone you would have most definitely been there by now.

However, when you were checking for when was best to leave your flat, you got an Instagram notification from a fan account - because yes, you follow those - and you see that all of the band have just rocked up at the pop up shop. You’re eternally grateful that Amelia phoned you now and delayed you because you can’t even begin to imagine the embarrassment you would have felt if Matty caught you at their pop up shop too.

When you eventually got to the pop up, it was thankfully a lot quieter than it was earlier. You decided to just give it a few more hours, knowing that the shop was open a little later than the others so you could just browse the merch to your heart's content when you got there.

There were only a few people in there beside you, and because you were taking your time pretty much picking up one of everything of the smaller items. You ended up getting yourself the distressed crewneck that Matty had been wearing quite a bit on his story too, as you quite like their new logo.

Your haul ended up with you getting that crewneck, ‘the band’ long sleeve top, a few logo stickers, badges, a few rolling papers, the zine, and a tote bag to put everything in. It was yet another day of being swindled of your money by your favourite band. But alas, you’d do it all again because the store was stunning.

There were big prints of the band on the wall, all of them glorious and like they deserve to be in a gallery. The merch was set out neatly with the car that is on the album in the centre of the room, looking absolutely glorious.

Because the store was closing up, the woman who was serving recognised you and the two of you started chatting for a little bit. She complimented you on how funny your date with Matty was and although the mere thought of the date still has your cheeks heating up, you thank her.

As she was so lovely, and because it was only you and one other person in the shop at that point, you asked her if she could possibly take a few pictures of you next to the car and thankfully she agreed.

The lovely woman even moved the barrier out of the way too so you could get a proper picture even though you told her it wasn’t necessary. She told you it was fine and if you took a few pics for her too she really didn’t mind which you agreed to.

Feeling a little childish about it actually being the car from the album cover, you posed like Matty does but you were standing beside the car instead of on top of it. You took a few of you smiling normally beside the car and smiling too and another of you crouching down pointing at La Poesie Est Dans La Rue that was written on the side in chalk.

When you got home around 8pm, you ended up posting the picture of you doing the same pose as Matty and you promised yourself that this will be the last time you tag him in anything. You really liked the picture because despite your hair being flicked over half of your face you could see your smile peaking out between your hair, so that had to be the one to post.

And you posted it with the caption:

Now the ruckus has gone… There’s something I've been meaning to say to you baby, but I just can’t do it… I’m too busy listening to the best album of 2022!

(until a different Car comes along next week anyway)

Stream Being Funny In A Foreign Language and @trumanblack, I think I did it better x

It was a little on the nose with the I’m In Love With You lyric, but the picture was cheesy too so your caption had to match. And that night, after you make and eat your dinner, you’re a little startled when you next pick up your phone and see that Mr Truman Black himself has messaged you again.

You little shit, you purposefully didn’t go when I was there today, didn't you? But yes I guess you did do it better x

Thanks for the free promo btw, now post the longer date x

The way you feel yourself blush at the messages is unlike the way you’ve ever reacted to

Electing to ignore the first half of his message, you just end up replying:

You gotta get number 1 first, now get to bed you have a signing tomorrow x

And the snarky but beautiful bastard ends up messaging you back and asking:

You coming to that too? xx

Snorting, you just giggle as you can hear the way he’s asking it. You give it a few minutes before opening the message and typing: You wish xx and you send it off to him without a second thought.

And Matty’s reply comes through just a minute later, and you leave it to sit in your DMs, unread, as you see he responds: I do xxx

Needless to say, you don’t end up going to their signing the day after, not that you were planning to anyway. Your schedule got quite busy after at the same time that the band was going on tour so there were no other interactions from then on.

Something which you don’t mind about, because the delusional hope you have for the New Years date happening really keeps you going. And your life somehow keeps getting more mind-bogglingly more star studded.

Of course, The 1975’s new album ended up reaching number 1 in the UK official charts, so as promised, you ended up posting the full version, which you titled, Matty Healy (The 1975) | Chicken Shop Date | Spicy Edition |

In this spicy edition of the date, you included everything. All the inappropriate jokes that were made with the additional awkward cuts added of the chicken shop you were in. And the reaction was feral.

Obviously, you confirmed with the band’s manager Jamie that this was okay to post, but you never expected it to blow up again. You were thankful that everyone seemed to enjoy it even more than the original and you were thankful for the silence on Matty’s end because watching the full thing back made you lose your mind all over again.

Thankfully, you had work to do to keep yourself from dying from second hand embarrassment eating you alive. Both you and Amelia were asked to be the hosts on the red carpet of the British GQ Awards which was so much fun for you.

You had been shaking and silently freaking out to each other as you got your makeup and hair done, thinking about who’d be there, but once at the red carpet you’d had to keep it cool and it was hard when you saw all the people approaching you.

Throughout the night you were doing tiny toasts on the carpet with willing participants who were the famous faces you were interviewing. Your favourite and most shocking of the night was talking to Andrew Garfield.

Neither you or Amelia could believe he knew who you were, let alone the fact that he commented on how much he appreciates your chicken shop date series. There was no doubt that when he said he would do one that you both jumped on it, agreeing immediately with dumbfounded looks on your faces.

He was your favourite though because he joined you in bullying Amelia for the rubber dress she was wearing and the fact that she liked Andrew’s armpits which came about from her saying he looked hot in that one specific photoshoot. He was so genuinely lovely that you really hope that date with him does come around because you’re sure your heart stopped the moment he came over and called the both of you beautiful. You will be fighting your best friend for that date.

On the carpet you greet other legends like Stormzy, Louis Theroux, and Sydney Sweeney. During Sydney’s interview you were trying not to combust because you fancy the woman so much and she looked incredible. It was hard not to fall to your knees for her when she commented on how much she loved your dress.

Paul Mescal came over to the both of you as well and you really had to bite your tongues with him because both he and the both of you know that his girlfriend Phoebe Bridgers was due to have her date with you soon. In the biggest whiplash, you go from having Paul beside you to Aitch, and whilst it wasn’t awkward, it wasn’t exactly the most fun of your interviews.

Well, it sort of was for you because you got to chuckle at the pair's half awkward interactions with each other. When him being on tour is mentioned, you have to stop yourself from rolling your eyes because of how lads holiday it sounds, but he is a lovely person so you’re not too fussed. You just had to be grateful he didn’t string your best friend along.

The award for your most awkward interaction that night was with none other than Joseph Quinn. You adore him and lowkey fancy him too so you really tried to keep it as normal as the rest of your interviews.

Like with your chicken shop dates, you and your best friend have a little awkward undertone to your interviews this evening to maintain your ‘personas’. But it became quickly apparent by the end of your interview that Joe had no fucking clue who the two of you were or what you do for a living.

So when you asked if he preferred being the big spoon or a little spoon, and he replied with big spoon, you told him that you were a little spoon. Your ‘that works’ comment will definitely live to haunt you for the rest of your days, because he clearly didnt know that uncomfortable flirting is your literal job, and when he walked away after you wished him a great night there was a clear ‘what the fuck’ in his eyes.

And it haunted you so much that when you were inside at the awards and you saw him again after the ceremony, you had to go over and explain yourself and apologise. Bless the man, he was so lovely with you and he told you that he wasn’t freaked out by you at all and that he knew you were joking. He even apologised for making you feel like you’d offended him and you shook your head telling him that it really wasn’t his fault and that you were just worried.

It struck up a conversation about your chicken shop dates where he admitted he hadn’t actually watched any yet but he knew of them. It was a really nice conversation before he got pulled away to someone else wanting his attention, but you were just pleased that you got to tell him that you really appreciated his acting in both Stranger Things and the characters you’d seen him play in films beforehand and you each wished each other well before saying goodbye.

After the GQ Awards, both you and Amelia felt like you could take a breather. That was by far your most high profile job yet and you were so excited that 2023 was going to have even more on the cards for the both of you.

The rest of this year you’re ready to face in high spirits as there’s so much to look forward to. A Miu Miu party, various other amazing celebrity dates that you’re so beyond excited for, the fashion awards.

You’re so excited.

Happiness bubbles inside you when you’re in bed and ready to go to sleep, mindlessly scrolling through twitter when you find clips from the latest The 1975 show. You laugh at his antics when he plays with the crowd, saying funny shit in the TooTime autotune or plainly just messing about with the fans and their signs.

Your heart swells in your chest and with a sigh of content, you lock your phone and put it to charge to finally go to sleep.

Everything was looking up and you were truly convinced nothing could bring you down from the state of immense bliss you were currently in. But how little you thought about the fact that anything could happen on tour comes to bite you back later.

~*~*~*~ 26th November ~*~*~*~

Waking up on a Saturday morning after having a nice lie in was meant to be the best part of your week as it usually always was. With things only planned for around 2pm you knew you could laze about in bed all morning and not have to rush at all, you could stay on your phone and endlessly scroll to your heart's content.

However, that isn’t how this morning turned out for you.

After waking up properly when your eyes weren’t getting heavy again, you reached for your phone which you left on charge last night. And when you opened instagram, the first thing you saw was The 1975 tour content from their show in Vegas last night. When you started watching, it was wholesome, the band seemingly having a great time on stage, but then when the next video came on you felt something in your chest die a cold death.

You watched a 20 second video that changed your whole day for the worst.

Matty had pulled a fan on stage, a pretty girl, and he kissed her before the ‘now everybody’s dead’ line in Robbers and you genuinely think your heart breaks the tiniest bit.

You try to fool yourself that it isn’t that big of a deal, because it truly isn’t but when you masochistically watch it again, you feel your chest tightening even more and you just cannot bear to catch another glimpse of the moment.

It’s not even the fact that he’s kissed someone that makes you the most upset, it’s the fact Robbers is the song he was performing when he did it that does your heart in.

You’re so overwhelmed by the mix of feelings inside you at the moment: heartache because of course you fancy the man, you have since you were 19, jealousy because there isn’t an atom in you that doesn’t want to be that girl, and just plain pity for yourself because why are you feeling this much despair over it?

Trying to laugh it off, you just shake your head. “Pathetic.” You say to yourself under your breath, to slightly bully yourself into getting over it but as the day went on, you realise that was easier said than done.

Not when the internet had seemed to explode and you were mentioned in every social media platform under the video left, right and centre. You know Amelia has already seen it because she’s retweeted a Pop Craze tweet about it and added a comment that you don’t care to look at right this second.

But at least you don’t feel alone in your melancholy because along with you lots of other fans were reacting like you, which made you feel the tiniest bit better.

It hadn’t been enough, though, since your mood hadn’t picked up after that because you needed to go into central to get some Christmas shopping done but you were in no mood for it at all.

On top of your wonderful outlook on life today, the underground was fucking packed, leaving you in an even worst mood than when you left your flat. The journey was no better and the things that on any other day you wouldn’t bat an eyelid at, they really pissed you off.

People were being annoying, typical south London crackheads on the tube, but you thought that once you were off the trains you’d be alright, but no. Your chest has been feeling tight and incredibly heavy since you saw the videos but everything just seems to be out to get you today.

When you’re out shopping, you realise you’ve started your period which explains a lot of your feelings today but it didn’t help with anything, in fact the pain of the first day made everything worse. The main present you went out to get today for Amelia was out of stock and when they told you that they could order it to the store for you or you could order it to be delivered you really wanted to be a karen about it and tell them that you’d had a wasted trip out and that it was stupid that it still says it’s in stock online when it in fact isn’t.

To make the trip slightly more fulfilling, you shopped about for other people’s Christmas gifts but by the time you got anything decent, you needed to head to a different borough of London to go your Chicken Shop Offices as you and the team call them.

You had all of the promo content and the last of the editing to do for Amelia’s latest date with Meekz which was actually quite funny. But what wasn’t funny was everyone's faces as you walked into the office.

When you saw the text from Amelia earlier asking, Have you seen…????, you wanted to turn your phone off and not turn it back on. You blatantly ignored her like you did her earlier tweet, entirely not in the mood.

When you got to the office after your shopping trip, Amelia was already there and you could tell she was going to start joking around but you told her up front, “I’m really not in the mood so please just don’t.”

And before she can further try and joke like you know she’s about to, you explain yourself, “I know it's irrational and it’s stupid of me but please just don’t.”

She just puts her hands up, her lips pressed together as she tries to feign innocence and you sigh softly in relief when she keeps quiet as you put your stuff down.

Still, Amelia can only keep her mouth shut for a few minutes because when you have pulled out your laptop and opened the editing software to start importing the clips from the latest date, she just needs to take the piss out of you a little bit.

“What do you think about your man kissing a fan on stage?” Her playful smirk is radiating on her face, impossible to miss even when you’re just seeing her out of the corner of your eye.

You roll your eyes, entirely done with the topic and wanting to drop it already, “I think he can do whatever he wants, it’s none of my business.”

You see Amelia opening her mouth to say something else but before you find yourself in a situation where you’re snapping at her, you cut her advances, “Did we come here to chat about the 1975’s tour or did we come to edit a video?”

She freezes in her place for a quick second before answering with a slightly confused tone, “Editing, obviously.”

“Why don’t we get back to it then?” You give her a tight lip smile that is definitely forced and Amelia notes that, instantly knowing not to bring the conversation up again, at least not at the moment.

The team around both you and Amelia start giving you shit too, some of them even distracting you from the tasks at hand by calling you over for something to check on, making you believe it was about work when it was just the video again. You played the part and laughed at it, waving it off like you should be doing despite it feeling like a dagger going into your heart.

Another of your friends shouts over to you and tells you that you should call him for an explanation, to which you end up jokingly reminding them that your date with him wasn’t real and he can do whatever he likes. It gets worse when another member of your team finds the girl that he kissed’s twitter account and he reads her anecdote aloud.

You had it in you to chuckle a little when you hear that she held up her phone which read, ‘So we making out?’ and you can’t help but think how funny it is that he’s that easy to get when it means that it’ll get him a reaction.

And even though your colleague tells you that the girl is apparently married herself, it does nothing to ease the ache in your chest. It feels beyond foolish of you at this point but you guess you’re allowed to have a bad day every once in a while with no questions asked. It just so happens everyone around you knows what’s triggered this one.

Someone ends up joking, “They’re both cheaters, they deserve each other.” which does make you silently chuckle, but Amelia fully cackles at it. Her heart is bleeding for you as she can see how much you clearly don’t want to be here right now.

As soon as it hits 6pm, her arms fly around your neck as she tightly hugs you from behind and leans around you to kiss your cheek before whispering and asking if you’re alright. You lean into your best friend, truthfully needing the affection she’s giving you, but you’re pleased it’s not a proper hug because you genuinely believe you would just burst out into tears, and that’s the last thing you want to do.

Your best friend asks you if you want her to come to your flat and you thank her but decline her offer. You just explain that you want to get into bed and sleep because your period pain still hasn’t left despite the painkillers you’ve taken.

And that she understands entirely so after she hugs once again, you make sure all your work is saved and you wrap everything up in the office.

The fact that you’re now going back home has your mood lifting up a little bit, so you gather your shopping bags and wave everyone goodbye with a smile on your face.

As you’re walking to the tube station you go back on Twitter, your mentions are still blowing up as they have been all day and you’re faced once again with a tweet that you’d ignored since you got the notification.

Amelia had retweeted a celebrities update page, which had tweeted about the kiss, with a simple, Interesting that had lots of people asking about how you were doing in the comments.

It felt weird to think about that many people getting the tiniest bit of worry about you, even as a joke, over something so trivial but it was the attention you indirectly got from the moment that kept you feeling worse.

You know Amelia didn’t tweet that out to make your mood worse, you know her far too well to know that through jokes is the way that she copes and this could be a silent attempt of her for you to take it playfully so it wouldn’t bring you down so much.

That’s why to try and make yourself feel better, you bite the bullet and decide to join in on the jokes. You manage to quickly type, Ending the year with a bang! Getting (parasocially) cheated on 😍 before getting on the tube and it immediately blows up.

All the replies you were getting were making you silently laugh, some remarks even making you have to cover your mouth not to snort out loud for everyone around you to hear.

Once you’re out of the tube, with multiple shopping bags in hand you think it’s best if you order yourself an uber for the rest of the way home. In a matter of 2 minutes the driver has picked you up and you’re thankfully only less than 10 minutes home.

Your phone pings again with more notification flooding in. You read more funny replies when you get to someone’s tweet saying, Don’t bother me, listening to Phoebe Bridgers and crying myself to sleep, thanks.

That has an idea coming to your head, so to commit even more to the bit now, you rest your forehead against the taxi’s window and stare out to take a picture. It looks like a scene from a heartbreaking pop song music video from the early 2000s and that’s exactly what you’re aiming for.

With a small grin, you prepare your Instagram story which consists of the picture you just took and ‘Moon Song’ by Phoebe Bridgers playing in the background, purposely on the first verse so people can hear the verse ‘Stuck your tongue down the throat of somebody / Who loves you more / So I will wait for the next time you want me / Like a dog with a bird at your door’ to make it even more dramatic.

After uploading it, you lock your phone and watch the streets pass by as you get to your flat. It’s when you’ve finally gotten to unlock your door and you’re toeing your shoes off when Amelia texts you, I take it you’re feeling better then? and even though you do feel better, there’s still that nagging feeling deep in your chest that has you asking for more comfort to fully relax after such a day.

You quickly reply to Amelia before undressing and getting under the shower, knowing that every time you feel down, it only takes standing under the waterfall to have your spirits lifting up.

The rest of the day, you decide will be to just pamper yourself and so you put on a show as you make yourself tea, relishing in the calm you now feel within yourself.

In a different timezone, Matty wakes up when his alarm goes off at 2pm which was an hour and a half before he had to be leaving his hotel room.

As soon as every single one of the 16 people who are sleeping on the band’s bus got on board last night, they were back on the road and headed to San Diego where their gig the following day was. The aim being to get there in the early hours of the morning so they could all check into the hotel and have a decent night’s sleep as they had a late check out.

And when Matty crawled into the bed, he passed out rather quickly which was rather unlike him. But the strain the tour puts him under makes a real bed that bit more comfortable and had him passing out just after 3am.

Rubbing his eyes, the singer groans at the light seeping into his room as due to the late hour he crawled into the bed, he never shut his curtains. But at least the daylight woke him up a little more, so when he went to twitter to check for more memes to send to the bands group chat, he saw that he’d caused quite the stir with last nights show.

Yes he had kissed a girl during Robbers, and he’d done it to primarily be nostalgic towards when he used to do it years prior. But he also did it because this was the first time he’d been single whilst touring since 2014, so he gave the fans something nostalgic whilst he’s not tied to anyone.

The various cheating things he’d been tagged in made him laugh, but he continues aimlessly scrolling until one tweet crops up. He sees that Amelia has retweeted an article about the kiss with the simple but effective word Interesting, and Matty’s mind immediately then goes to you.

He quickly goes onto search and types in your name, and gets your account up. He smiles when he sees that the picture of the two of you sitting across from each other is still your pinned tweet but when he sees your latest one he finds himself laughing as he thinks your tweet is even better than Amelia’s.

Ending the year with a bang! Getting (parasocially) cheated on 😍

The singer chuckles a little, your humour shining through even in your tweets.

After gathering a few memes for the boys, Matty heads to Instagram to do the same thing. But obviously, he gets a little sidetracked looking through peoples stories after he can’t be bothered scrolling to find any funny content.

He bypasses the few that were about him from fan accounts that he follows, not even blinking an eye at what they had to say. But then when he swipes to see what other Instagram stories he fancies being nosy at and he sees the ring around your profile picture.

When he taps on you, he sees a picture of you that looks like it’s taken from a badly directed music video from the 2000s where you look heartbroken looking out of a car window. But what makes it worse is that you have maybe the most depressing Phoebe Bridgers lyrics from Moon Song playing over it.

And Matty knows just from, ‘Stuck your tongue down the throat of somebody / Who loves you more’ that you’ve posted this in reaction to last night's stage antics.

Without a second thought he’s going to his contacts to pull up your number and when he finds it, he instantly calls you.

You get startled by the loud ring of your phone and when you see his name on the screen, you silently panic. There’s no way you’re picking up because only the prospect of having a conversation with him today after everything that’s been going on online has you nervous.

But despite you having let the call go to voicemail, he calls you again and this time you just can’t keep ignoring him so you wait a few seconds before you pick up.

Matty doesn’t even say hi first because he needs to know if you’re actually serious about the whole thing and he wants to know, “Phoebe. Really? Are you kidding me?”

You have to swallow a chuckle so you can keep your act up, “I’m having a bad day, I needed the depressive state to hit hard. Can you blame me?”

He sighs loudly to dramatise it all even more, “But Phoebe? Especially that song… fucking hell.”

“Okay, let me be.” You joke with a stern tone but that flies over his head because now he doesn’t know if you’re properly upset by what he’s said.

So then you hear the characteristic sound of Facetime coming through, and it’s him trying to see your face.

You shuffle in your seat, quickly trying to brush the ends of your hair to look presentable without making too much noise because he can still hear you so when you accept the switch to Facetime, you give him a shy smile and a soft, “Hello.”

“Hey,” Matty says back, brushing his curls back with his hand and you can see he’s laying in bed as the sunlight comes into the room he’s in. “What you doing?”

You shrug, looking ahead to where your TV’s playing a rerun of Sherlock, “Not much, just watching telly.”

He hums, analysing intently every bit of your face and your tone, “You alright?”

“Yes.” You snort softly at his concern but you know Matty wants you to bring it up, but you won’t give it him that straight away.

Sincerely, you ask, “How’s tour going?”

“Yeah,” Matty nods, a ghost of a smile on his lips as he answers, “Good, thank you.”

Still not yet giving into him, you question, “How is it being called Maddy instead of Matty everywhere you go?”

The singer snorts at you taking a dig at the American accents he’s been hearing non-stop.

“Oh it’s a delight,” The singer lets sarcasm ring in his voice, but then he asks you, “How’s back home?” because he’s not bringing the kiss up first.

“Wet and rainy, as per usual.” You sigh, “It’s meant to be getting colder though soon.”

“Lovely,” Matty smiles the tiniest bit, finding it silently funny how you’re both purposefully not addressing what he’s called about. “I’m glad I’m in a warm country then.”

“Yeah, how is America?” You keep the vaguely awkward conversation going.

“It’s alright, nothing much to rave about but the gigs are good.” Matty says before pressing his lips together as he’s got the conversation back to where he wanted it, not really leaving you with much choice but to bring it up now.

You say a small, “Good.” instead of going in straight away with what he’s baited you into bringing up.

You knew it would come around sooner or later and you know that’s why he has a smile playing on those lips of his. You just decide to draw it out like you would on one of your chicken shop dates to make it a little more awkward before the inevitable laughter.

“So…” You start.

Matty raises an eyebrow, “So?”

You just bite the bullet and ask, “Was it a good kiss?

Matty laughs loudly at the direct question and you really are silently battling between an awkward laugh yourself or keeping your unbothered facade up.

“Yeah, it was okay.” Matty chuckles as he watches your reaction intently.

Keeping a straight face, you hum like another wave of jealousy doesn’t hit you when his words hit your ears. But instead of wallowing like you know you shouldn’t, you say, “She was pretty.”

Matty smirks finally getting you where he wanted but he takes the opportunity to flirt with you instead, “To be honest, I’m thinking about how much I can’t wait for New Years.”

You roll your eyes playfully, a tinge of a smile breaking on your face for a second before falling back to a blank expression, “Yeah, seems so… Kissing other girls.”

Matty’s smirk grows bigger, reaching his eyes as he’s able to witness your humour again. “This is why I needed to see your face.” He starts and you’re about to ask why but he goes faster than you, being quick to explain his point. “‘Cause I can’t quite tell when you’re joking or not over the phone yet.”

You don’t really know what to say to that so you just laugh at his struggle and when a slightly awkward silence settles between you, he brings the incident back up but of course in a teasing manner. “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, baby.”

“Right.” You say meekly, letting your facial expression stay stoic.

And that has Matty doubting your mood again, “Oh come on, you’re not really upset are you?” His eyebrows raise trying to tell if you’re putting up an act or not, so he continues to assure you, “I didn’t bring her with me, I promise.”

What you don’t expect is for him to raise his phone to show you the empty bed beside him and that would’ve been something you could’ve joked about if he wasn’t shirtless and you had a clear view of his Calvin Klein boxers barely covering his We Are Kings tattoo.

Your throat goes dry and all of your thoughts tangle, making you unable to form a sentence back. Your whole act has fallen now and it’s so clear to see how that has affected you so Matty smiles all smug to see he has that power over you.

“I’m excited for New Years.” He says again now that he’s got you back on his side.

But what Matty doesn’t expect is for you to only say, “That’s nice.” and not agree with him.

He pouts a little, “Why are you being like that?”

You simply shrug, “Because I’ve not been asked to do anything on New Years yet.” and you try to stop the small smile tugging at the corners of your lips.

And that’s when he realises the lack of a proper proposition from him to you for the holiday. “You’ll have to wait until I’m back off tour, love.” Matty says smugly, trying to get you to laugh.

When you reply, “So you can kiss more fit girls?” immediately, it’s him who’s laughing. It’s certainly very interesting seeing you looking green from jealousy.

“How do I make it up to you?”

Seeing him continuously try to explain himself and now this has you knowing you need to give him a break, so you chuckle your way out of your act. “I’m only joking, sorry. I’m just being pouty because I’m lonely and on my period.”

Maybe it wasn’t the best thing to admit, but it’s the truth and you feel no need to lie to him.

Matty coos at you, “Awh, do you want a cuddle?”

You’re well aware he’s only teasing but at the memory of it, you’d love a cuddle from him right now so you barely have time to process it before you find yourself saying, “I wouldn’t turn one down.”

He laughs loudly, letting his head go back further into the pillows and the sound is so contagious you start giggling with him. You find yourself scooting down your bed so you can lie down a little bit so you can be comfy and do the same.

By now, Matty just wants to hear you talking about everything that has been going on for you. He’s seen things going around on social media about places you’ve been and very interesting people you’ve met and he just wants to hear all about it.

“How did Amelia's last date go?” He asks first, the latest teaser of the next date to be uploaded had showed up on his main page not long ago and that was the first thing to come to mind.

He watches as you smile at the memory of it, and you tell him, “It was quite funny actually considering he doesn’t show his face.”

“When's your next date?” Matty asks curiously.

He’s definitely going to be taking a mental note so he can message you and double check that his was still your favourite.

“I have Phoebe’s coming up and the next one is in two weeks I think.” Matty can see you thinking about it, but then your screen wobbles a little and he can see you’re searching for something on your phone so he knows you’re checking. You confirm, “Yeah, I’ve got Elijah from Inhaler in a fortnight so that should be an interesting one.”

Matty frowns a little, not really knowing any of the lads in Inhaler very well, “Which one’s Elijah?”

“Elijah-” You start but then you just say the name he will know for certain, “Bono’s son.”

“Bono?” Matty cackles, “Like from U2?”

“Yeah, I’m collecting nepo babies now.” You smirk, “Thought you’d realise since I started with you.”

Matty narrows his eyes and shakes his head at you then. All before he tells you, “Hope it goes terrible.”

You pout at that, calling him, “Nasty.”

But you realise he was just playfully saying it because he surprises you by admitting, “I want mine to be the best.”

Something about that makes your chest a lot less heavy than it has been all day. Whether he’s joking or not, which it really doesn’t seem like he is, it does wonders for your heart.

You feel like you’re melting as you admit, “It always will be to me. You don’t have competition there.”

The earnest admission makes the singer get a fuzzy feeling in his chest. But instead of addressing it, he just smiles as he watches you snuggle yourself in bed a little more, pulling the blanket you lent him up over a month ago now and you wrap it around your shoulders.

Matty hums, only half joking when he says, “Yeah, you’re only gonna be able to break the internet with me.”

“Seems like now I can’t escape you honestly,” You tell him, “Been tagged in shit all day.”

“Oh yeah, twitter has been fun hasn’t it?” Matty smiles back at you, thinking back to all the cheater comments.

You giggle a little, “So many Phoebe lyrics.”

Matty chuckles at that, but then he thinks back to the story you put on and jokes, “You know, Car Radio by Twenty One Pilots would have fitted that picture of you just as well.”

You snort before laughing, “You’re a dickhead.”

“But you love me still.” Matty smirks.

You hum to acknowledge what he said but you don’t give him a definitive answer. Instead, you end up yawning and you cover your mouth so he can’t see before rolling onto your side and snuggling properly into your pillow. You still hold your phone up so you can continue your conversation with the curly haired man.

The singer states, “It’s too early for you to be that tired.”

“I’ve had a long and hard day.” You lightheartedly chuckle, feeling so much better now than you did when you were last wrapped up in bed this morning.

“I promise you she’s not here, don’t go being upset.” Matty assures you and even offers you more proof, “I’ll show you the bathroom if you want.”

“No stop, I wasn't saying anything to make you feel bad,” You quickly tell him, not wanting to come across as needy or weird. It’s really the last thing you wanted to do as you were only joking. “It’s been a long day for a lot of reasons… I'm not being weirdly possessive when we’ve only kissed a few times. I-”

“No, but I’ve seen someone who I fancy kiss other people in front of me and it’s not the best feeling.” Matty interrupts you, feeling the need to stop you from spiralling like he knows you were definitely about it. He continues, “Especially when it’s being shoved down your throat like it probably has been for you today… Listen I’m not promising I’m not going to kiss anyone else, because I get carried away when performing and I definitely will. But I can promise you if it’s on stage or whilst I’m performing it doesn’t mean anything.”

Feeling the panic still in your chest though, you have to tell him, “You don’t have to explain yourself Matty.”

This was the exact reason why you didn’t want to message him in the first place. The last thing you wanted to do was give him the ick like you’re sure you are doing right now.

Matty is far from feeling that though. He just smiles as he tells you in a hopeful tone, “No, but there’s sort of a second date on the cards and I wanna make sure I'm still in your good books so I don’t get stood up.”

It's a little unbelievable to you that he’s talking about a second date still, especially after this last conversation. It definitely takes you back a little, but you sort of revert back to your default settings when you end up smiling and telling him, “I wouldn’t stand anyone up… I’m too much of a professional for that.”

Matty grins, seeing that you’ve calmed down now. But it doesn’t stop him from trying to make you blush, so he adds, “And you fancy me.”

He sees the embarrassment flood your face then, and you try to hide yourself into your pillow as you admit, “I don’t like that you know that I fancy you… You have a lot of cards in your hand.”

He chuckles at that, but he doesn’t hesitate to say, “Well I’ll return some cards, because I fancy you right back.”

You can feel your cheeks absolutely burning at this, and you instruct him, “Okay, stop trying to make me blush.”

Matty’s grin is huge, and you can’t help but think that his messy curls make him look all the more cute. It's a sight you would certainly love to wake up to every morning. You find yourself envying his past girlfriends even more than you already did.

“I’m being serious though.” Matty tells you, and you find your heart is beating erratically as you he’s basically just told you again that he fancies you.

Never in your wildest dreams did you think you’d ever hear that.

“Stop it.” You whine as you fully hide into your pillow now.

The sight makes Matty laugh, but he keeps going. He rolls over on his side too, and it’s almost like you’re both in bed together again as you’re so invested in the sight of each other and this conversation.

Matty shamelessly flirts, “Your dress at the GQ Awards, I wanted to take it off you.”

Your heart stops hearing that, but you know why he’s said it when he continues, “Just like you wanted to take my suit off me on our date… Glad I finally know what you said in Spanish to me now.”

And he’s not even joking when he said he wanted to take the dress off you. You looked fucking stunning in the black sequin dress. The thigh slit that had your skin on show for all of your interviews had his dick twitching in his jeans when he saw the pictures you posted.

Your boobs looked fucking brilliant as well, and the fact you only had a thin gold necklace on left your neck looking bare and Matty wanted to mark it up. The memory of it has him aching, and if he was at the awards as well, there was no doubt he would have asked to take you home.

And seeing you blushing, looking all awkward and embarrassed at his admission through the phone has him smiling like a fool. Despite wanting to flirt more with you, he gives you a small break and asks you about that particular evening.

“Looks like both you and Amelia will be doing the Andrew Garfield date when you get it.” Matty smiles.

You eyes go wide, “You saw that?”

“Course I did.” Matty nods, but he needs you to know he really wasn’t joking about the dress, “In all seriousness though, you looked gorgeous by the way.”

A shy and embarrassed smile finds its way onto your face as you tell him, “Thank you.”

Matty thinks back to your interview with the actor and he starts laughing, “Your faces when he knew who you were had me in stitches.”

His giggles have your heart warming, but you get all embarrassed again for different reasons.

“I couldn’t believe it, it was the weirdest moment of my life.” It still doesn’t feel real when it leaves your tongue, “Spider-Man knows who I am. It’s mental.”

The both of you end up laughing a little at that, and you talk a little more about it until the singer thinks back to another of your guests that you interviewed.

“Did you see the way Eddie from Stranger Things looked at you after you flirted with him?” Matty chuckles, remembering that one was funny too, “I was like he’s definitely not seen a Chicken Shop Date before.”

“Matty, I was so embarrassed.” You cover your eyes with your free hand then and Matty chuckles at your despair. “I went inside and found him and apologised and explained myself.”

He isn't surprised at all by this, as you seem like the people pleasing type, so he tries to make you feel better, “That’s on him, he should be watching your dates.”

You laugh at that, knowing he’s not entirely wrong, but Joe was so adorable, you have to defend him, “Leave him alone, he's so lovely.”

Matty hums before moving on to another part of the interviews that made him laugh, “Also never needed another sign that you’re bi. Your reaction to the girl from Euphoria was so funny... She nearly had you as flustered as I make you.”

“Stop it.” You gasp, once again mortified but this time a little giggle, “I was trying not to be obvious but did you see what she was wearing.”

“No,” Matty shakes his head and smiles, “I was too busy looking at you in that sparkly dress.”

Taking a deep breath, you elect to ignore the comment because your cheeks are already flaming and you don’t need another reason for him to direct you towards an early heart attack.

“See, I like it when you go all embarrassed on me.” Matty grins as you hide again, “I’m doing something right.”

You say more into your pillow than to him, just wanting to disappear, “I’m just British and can’t take a compliment.”

“And you fancy me,” Matty reminds you as if you didn’t already know, “So you’re blushing even more.”

At that you fully just move your phone so he can only see the ceiling of your room. His cackle echoes out of your speakers and you fully try and suffocate yourself in your pillow.

You really thought you were smooth with your flirting and being subtle about everything but you’re a full simp at this point. You just want to die from the embarrassment you feel.

“Stop hiding.” You hear Matty tell you, and he reiterates, “I fancy you too and I’m not hiding.”

Hearing that again makes you want to scream into your pillow.

He pleads, “Come back.” in a whiney voice and after you compose yourself for a second, you pick up your phone and see his adorable grin again.

He takes a moment to appreciate your flushed face and your embarrassed smile before he smiles, “Hi.”

“Hi.” You say softly back trying to get your emotions in order.

Matty points out as he grins at you, “You look tired.”

“I am.” You nod.

“Isn’t it like quarter to eleven over there?” Matty asks, checking if his maths is right.

You nod, confirming it is and you smile, “Like I said, long day… And I’m always sleepy, just so you know.”

“‘Course you are.” Matty chuckles, and he can see your eyes getting a little droopy, so he tells you, “I’ll let you go then, goodnight baby.”

Your heart melts hearing the pet name again, and you grin back, “Night Matty.”

“Miss you already.” He grins, his heart warm seeing you all cosy in bed. He can’t help but wish he was there with you.

You want to silently scream, but instead you just let him see your genuine big grin and you say back, “You too.”

Your heart skips a beat when he blows you kiss, before waving, “Night.”

“Night.” You hum and blow one back to him before pressing the red button to end the call.

~*~*~*~

Waking up the next morning is a rollercoaster of emotions because whilst you first get slapped awake by the memory of FaceTiming Matty, the second you unlock your phone you are met with yet another reminder of Matty antics during his gigs.

You smile this time, seeing that last night he brought a guy on stage and the way he’s beaming at Matty with his eyes almost sparkling at the sight of the singer in front of him. Matty sat him down on the settee that was on stage and sat on his lap as he performed and then, when the moment in Robbers happened, he pulled him in for a rather hot kiss.

Your cheeks find themselves heating up as you giggle watching it all on the screen of your phone, and you let out a little screech seeing how Matty went in for a second kiss before the lad was pulled off stage.

This time you have to admit it didn’t hurt as much as the Vegas kiss, and whilst your heart still felt like it had been poked with a needle, it was more bearable.

Scrolling through Twitter, you end up laughing at the different range of reactions from everyone and your laughter gets louder when you see the guy who had gotten the kiss explain what he had to do for it to happen with a simple screenshot of what he had typed on his phone as a sign for Matty to see.

The fact that the guy had only had to show his phone as it said ‘Give a guy a try’ and that was enough for Matty to pull him on stage had you creasing.

And it certainly made you take it all in a lighter way, letting the slight jealousy you felt inside die down.

To add some fuel to the fire, when you’re making yourself some breakfast a little bit later, you take a selfie and post it on your Instagram stories with Jealousy by Pale Waves playing in the background and simply writing, Tune of the day x

You know that everyone will know what you’re referring to as you can hear the first verse of the song ‘Jealousy is haunting me / So bad I'm biting my tongue / It gets so hard to breathe / Wish you were mine from day one / Don't mention any other name / That doesn't sound like mine, yeah’

You’re very glad to be in a different timezone to Matty because that assures you that he won’t get to see what you post about it all right away when you’re most vulnerable to overthink it and just delete your reactions.

And maybe it’s that thought that has you brave enough to post to your stories the picture you’ve just seen of them singing into the same microphone saying, @rass1975 I slept on you king, please go on a date with me? x

Adding another story a few minutes later, this time of a picture of Alex Turner and Miles Kane singing into the same microphone as well, Just had to post this one too because this scenario is speaking to me right now… (you guys think Amelia would mind if I asked to go on a date with 4 guys?)

You seriously forget about having posted that until you get a notification as you’re getting ready for bed. And it has you giggling when you see it’s Matty saying, Am I not enough for you? x but your breath hitches when he follows it up with, Greedy girl xx

You pretend to not see it until the next morning just to gather some courage to reply overnight but you can’t find it in yourself when you open it the next morning and all you can do is internally scream at the thought of hearing him saying that to you.

It’s certainly unfair the effect he has on you.

And you continue to be reminded of that when, as the days go by and the North American tour keeps rolling, you suffer heart palpitations over the things he does on stage. Especially all the variations of the Consumption interlude which gets you flustered and amazed at the same time.

The anticipation grows in the pit of your stomach as time goes by, being reminded constantly of the New Years promise every time you saw a video of the band performing Robbers or any time you caught a picture or a clip of Matty smirking at the camera, a facial expression of his that you had gotten to see many times before and that you missed a lot more than you wanted to admit.

Thankfully you have such a busy schedule during the end of the year that the wait for him to come back is easier to bear as you are booked and busy almost every other day.

Loads of events were coming up, with both you and Amelia invited, and it was beyond your understanding how you were attending all those fancy events and people coming up to you genuinely interested in your plans for the future of what you did and any other projects that you were planning.

Not only were you in the list at these events, you actually got to work with the brands and the one that had probably left you most speechless was the Miu Miu Party that you and Amelia got to attend.

You both had been dressed head to toe in the designer brand and you were feeling hot as fuck to say the least, in your mini skirt suit, with a cropped white shirt and a black tie around your neck.

Because of the recent robbers kisses, you decided to kiss your best friend as someone took your picture. It was great, iconic even, and it went on your Instagram as a post which you added the song in the background, the specific bit where Matty has started kissing people, and you wrote the caption, Two can play at that game baby x

The day after that particular event you had woken up to a tweet that you had been tagged in blowing up and you cackled seeing it, trying to ignore the butterflies in your tummy as you read, boyfriend and girlfriend over a picture of Matty in a black suit and you in your outfit from last night, looking like the opposite version of the other.

You know they were joking about it but seeing those words be used to refer to you and Matty made you so delusionally giddy, you had to pinch yourself after 5 minutes to remind yourself that was far from reality.

The kiss with Amelia was a bit of drunk fun and thankfully it all worked out well. You were a little surprised when you saw Matty had messaged you whilst you were asleep. But you expected him to message you something like, Game on, but instead he messaged you saying, Hot xxx and that had you flustered for at least an hour.

In a blink of an eye the whole tour had seemed to pass and it felt like a fever dream that only less than a week ago you were sobbing waking up to videos of Carly performing About You with the guys.

You hadn’t even been able to process that when you saw twitter flooding with pictures of the band at the airport on their way back to the UK and to be honest, you had no idea what to expect or if you should expect anything at all so you were nervous at every moment of the day when your mind wasn’t taken over by work.

Overly aware of every notification on your phone, the messages and any call that you got. And whilst many of them had gotten his name written atop of them, you just felt so ridiculous when you got disappointed at not seeing his name in every single one of them. So you forced yourself to fool yourself and downplay your expectations, basically gaslighting yourself for raising your hopes up this much up until the thought of the New Years promise was at the back of your mind.

A silent whisper that you could ignore during the day but came to steal your sleep like a mosquito buzzing in your ear at night.

~*~*~*~ 23rd December ~*~*~*~

Because of the date, of course that meant you’d had Being Funny on repeat. You had to listen to Wintering as many times as possible, it feels like a law you have to follow. And it’s really no hardship.

As it’s December 23rd, you’ve had so much shit to do today. You’d been so bad and only done the wrapping you had to, which was only your presents that you got your Chicken Shop Date team who you gifted all of those presents to a few days ago as they were all going home for Christmas.

Today you’d been wrapping your family's Christmas presents, along with those you’d got for your friends. You put the most care and effort into wrapping Amelia’s gifts because she really means the world to you, even though she did bully you earlier when you told her you had a full day of wrapping presents before you were both going home together tomorrow.

Thankfully, Amelia is driving the both of you home tomorrow so you can stay with your families, and you have no doubt you’ll spend time with her over the break you’re all having between Christmas and New Year.

You take a break from cutting wrapping paper to grab a drink so with one hand holding your can of Tango and the other scrolling through your phone, you walk back to your previous spot to continue with your chore but before you put your phone aside to forget about it for the next thirty minutes, you quickly go to Spotify to share Wintering on your stories.

@trumanblack Hope you made it home safe x

After you’ve thrown your phone somewhere behind you, you go back to wrapping more presents and time passes as you lose count of how many times you’ve sung loudly ‘I said ‘woman you are 64 years old!’’

You took another break from wrapping when you made your dinner, and all in all you took about an hour to cook and eat. Scorning yourself when you realise it’s already 9pm, you really wish you’d started wrapping earlier. You didn’t know you had this many presents.

This time, you just elect to listen to the song of the day on repeat while you concentrate on neatly folding the paper. However, about 15 minutes into your last bag of presents you had to wrap, there was a sudden loud ring of your doorbell which startled you.

You are fairly confused as you rest the sellotape beside the little box you’re wrapping, standing up quickly when a second ring echoes inside your flat, pausing the music first and when you finally go to open your front door, your face falls at the surprise.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Is the first thing you manage to say, very fucking confused and with a frown that has Matty thinking he’s just interrupted something very important for you to look at him that way.

He lets out a chuckle, “Hello to you too.”

His sarcasm gets you to snap out of your shock, “Sorry, hi. Come in.”

“Thank you.” Matty grins and steps around you and into your flat, dropping his tote on the ground.

“How did you get up here?” You swore you hadn’t heard your buzzer go so you got worried that you’d had the music too loud and made him wait far too long outside to get in.

“Someone was leaving as I was about to press your buzzer and they let me in.” You breathe in relief as he explains and his smile gets bigger when he recounts, “Made the surprise better.”

It certainly is a surprise because he really was the last person you were expecting to see today. You glance back at the time and see it’s 9:21pm and you’re so confused as to why he’s still in London.

“What are you doing here? You’re meant to be in Manchester.” You scorn because you have been singing the same line about him driving up on the 23rd over and over, and you felt the need to reprimand him as if he’s not kept a promise that was said in the song.

“Did you really think I plan when I'm driving home for Christmas that early in the year, baby?” Matty smirks as he watches you like he’s teasing you for being naive about it. “No, that was about last year's Christmas.”

“But you said your Mum was sixty four and that's how old she is this year.” You explain yourself, not wanting to lose this one argument.

But he has you choking on your spit when he nonchalantly says, “But I also mentioned my Grandad, and considering he died last year I don't think he would have been coming to this year's meal.”

You're speechless for a long few seconds and when you finally gather your thoughts again after such a turn of conversation, you clear your throat to say, “Okay, you didn’t have to make that depressing. Vin seemed like a hoot.”

Matty nods, “He would have loved our date, that’s for sure.” And then he quickly shrugs to turn the whole thing around again, “Anyway, hiya baby, how are you?”

He’s thrown that question into the air, though, because before you can answer he traps you in a kiss that screams just how much he’d missed the feeling of your lips from the way he’s holding you.

One of his hands has a tight grip on your waist as he pulls you into him and the other one cups your jaw delicately while his tongue is hungrily crashing against yours. Feeling and tasting him again makes you hum in delight, his lips feeling so soft against your own and being able to tangle your fingers in his curls ties it all up for you.

You make up for the time apart in that kiss, going for as long as your lungs allow you to deprive them of oxygen. When you part, Matty rubs the apple of your cheek with his thumb and the touch is so soft that it has you leaning into the palm of his hand with a sweet smile which he returns.

Remembering what he had asked you, you quietly reply as you play with the hair at the nape of his neck, twirling his little curls in your fingers. “I'm good,” And he just can’t deal with the small distance between you anymore so he brings you in closer once more to crush you in a tight hug.

“I would have got the welcome home cheater sign out for you but I didn't know you were coming.” You joke breathlessly into his ear and you feel him let out a breathy laugh, the hot air hitting your neck making goosebumps raise on your skin.

Matty pulls back, shaking his head. “God, shut up.”

And once again he grabs a hold of your jaw, this time using both hands to cup your face, to bring you in for a hungry kiss. Your tongues meet almost instantly as if knowing that you can kiss each other again has you both unable to hold back anymore, but it gets increasingly hotter when you pull on his hair and he moans in your mouth.

Unable to find a way to catch his breath to continue the kiss, he has to pull back. Matty rests his forehead on yours with a sigh and closed eyes. “I missed you.”

“Yeah, I missed you too.” You reciprocate, leaving one last peck on his parted swollen lips which makes a smile tug at the corner of them. “Should I go get tested now? You’ve kissed a lot of mouths since you last kissed mine.”

Matty opens his eyes, standing back up straight to look at your face and when he sees your smirk, he warns, “Careful, your jealousy is showing.”

You laugh but it’s interrupted when he can’t hold back another kiss. You just looked so stunning in front of him, in such a mundane setting, joking around and after being deprived of your presence for far too long. It's a little overwhelming how you make him feel when he’s with you, it’s like he’s known of you and has been this close to you for a lot longer than he actually has. It’s so easy with you.

The way he finds himself to be able to say all of this is through kisses and he truly doesn’t mind using that as his medium for communication. He just hopes that you feel the same way about him and that’s why you’re kissing him back with just as much enthusiasm.

He wishes human bodies had been designed better because he finds himself mentally cursing when you both need to break the kiss from lack of breath.

Once your hazy mind comes down from the multiple kisses you’ve just shared, there's a moment of realisation when you process all of this is really playing out in your flat. You’re confused to say the least so you repeat your earlier question.

“What are you doing here?” You have to ask, “You should be at home, I've been playing Wintering all day for nothing.”

Matty chuckles a little at that but he holds you close to him as he starts explaining himself.

“Well, a few things actually.” Matty starts revealing with ease, “Had to come and see you before I went home for a start.”

You nod slowly, not really able to really process how or why he’s made you one of his priorities at bloody Christmas time.

But all your efforts to truly grasp what’s going on fly out the window when he continues, “Second, I have to do this…” and suddenly he drops on one knee in front of you like he’s about to fucking propose. His grin is huge as he asks, “Y/N, will you please go on a date with me this New Years Eve?”

Your eyes go wide for a second, your blood running cold as your brain slowly catches up with what he’s said. When you realise it’s just Matty being Matty, you shake your head at him and raise an eyebrow to challenge his behaviour, “Has anyone ever told you you're dramatic?”

“Yes, someone does almost every day.” Matty nods almost proudly.

You scoff playfully at his self awareness, “Not surprised.”

Rolling his eyes as he fakes annoyance, Matty talks back, “Are you going to give me an answer or are you keeping me down here on purpose?”

“You look great on your knees.” You say suggestively, not really lying because he indeed looks very pretty from this angle.

But you’re the one who ends up receiving the teasing when he turns it around, “Somehow I imagine not as good as you do.”

You bite your tongue, trying hard not to blush to satisfy him. “Yes I’ll go out with you,” You act as if you’re defeated saying that and then wave your hands up, “Now stand up.”

Not even acknowledging your antics, Matty only rises to his feet with a beaming smile on his face and grabs a hold of your waist with both his hands to pull you into him. He’s grinning like a fool when he admits, “I already can’t wait.”

Your arms come to wrap around his shoulders and you allow yourself to show some affection by bringing one of your hands to scratch his scalp softly at the nape of his neck. “That's very cute of you.” You let your head tilt to the side and Matty melts inside seeing your eyes gleaming at him.

The singer then sees your eyes flick up to his hair though and he loves it when you smile and hum, “See, your hair looks so much better natural.”

You reach up and give his curls a little ruffle and you grin when he chuckles. You half style his unruly hair a little so it falls over his forehead slightly and when you lean back a little to admire your work, you hum in approval.

Matty just watches you, hands still on your hips holding you against him, but you reach up again to twist one specific ringlet round your finger a few times before you check him again, and nod, “There we go, perfect.” and you let your fingers root themselves back into the curls at the nape of his neck.

“Thanks baby.” Matty grins and leans down to quickly catch your lips again, but you’re both too smiley for it to continue for too long.

Feeling the way your fingers are still playing with the ends of his hair though, Matty pulls away and softly says, “Don’t start playing with it because I won’t want you to stop.”

“Could just not be a pussy and ask me to play with it? I wouldn’t say no.” You grin, but let your hands fall back to his shoulders and Matty bites his tongue and shakes his head at your teasing.

You chuckle at his reaction before you ask another question.

“How was your tour? Were the Americans good to you?” It was a genuine question, having seen so many moments of him enjoying life on the road over there, especially during that livestream he’d done of him and George playing about in the lounge of the tour bus.

“They always are.” Is the short answer Matty gives you so you feel the need to tease some more things out of him.

“Believe you’re dating an influencer now.” You laugh a little, clearly knowing everything online was bullshit as he was messaging you a lot of the time.

“The fact anyone thinks I’d date a Republican is hilarious in itself.” Matty laughs humorlessly, being done with all the shit he’d heard and how it had gotten out of control when the girl had openly referred to him as her boyfriend. As if.

“Not to mention I just got to my knees to ask you out.” He brings back around only to see you blush again and he’s pleased to see you averting your eyes from him as you flush again.

He gives you a small break and distracts you and asks, “What have you been up to today?”

“I’ve just been getting ready to go home.” You tell him honestly, “This morning I was packing my case and then spent most of the day cleaning. And I’ve almost finished my wrapping now.”

Glancing at that last bag of presents, you realise that is now the last thing you want to continue doing whilst you have company.

Matty asks, “When do you go?”

“Amelia’s coming to get me tomorrow morning.”

You watch as his face lights up then, and he smiles, “Amazing.”

“Why?” You raise an eyebrow, wondering what’s so amazing about you leaving tomorrow.

“Well, I can stay here tonight now.” Matty fully grins at you now and you scoff a little whilst you laugh.

You point a finger at his chest and tell him, “You’re cheeky.”

But he pulls you a little closer to him and he smirks, “Are you going to turn me away?” knowing the answer straight away before he even asked.

“No.” You playfully glare at him, trying not to get embarrassed. And after tapping his chest again, you educate him, like you would a small child, “But you shouldn't assume.”

“I didn’t,” Matty tells you honestly, “If you were going home, I would have just driven back tonight, was on my way when I stopped to come see you.”

“Don’t stay for me,” You say, feeling increasingly bad if you’re stopping him from going home. “You need to see your family.”

Matty just looks at you so sincerely, it melts your heart when he says, “But I want to see you.”

With an embarrassingly gooey feeling in your stomach, you press your lips together and pull out of his hold as you walk towards your kitchen and ask, “Can I make you a brew?”

Matty follows you saying, “I’d love one, please.” and you quickly fill up the kettle and flick the switch for it to boil.

As you get two mugs out and the teabags and sugar, you ask, “How’d you take it?”

Instantly, Matty smirks seeing his opportunity clear as day, “Shouldn’t it be me asking y-”

“Stop being crude,” You interrupt him as you put your fingers over his lips giving him knowing eyes. You repeat your question, asking seriously, “How do you want me to make your tea?”

Matty laughs beneath your fingers and you only remove them when he licks them to get you off him. You playfully glare at him before the singer tells you how he likes his drink and the both of you happily chat away as you make the brews.

The both of you stay in there talking about his tour for a little while and you make him give you the interesting details. You find it all mesmerising and you find yourself asking him even more questions about it, which leads to the both of you going back into your lounge and sitting down beside each other to chat.

That is until the both of you finish your brews and the singer catches sight of his tote bag that he put down earlier. “Oh!” Matty says as he gets up from his seat quickly to go and grab it.

You watch as he brings it back over and takes his seat again, closer to you this time though. His smile is so big as he looks back at you, “I got you these.” and out of his tote Matty hands you two messily wrapped gifts, the red and green striped paper makes you smile brightly at him. He puts them into your lap whilst saying a soft, “Merry Christmas baby.”

You bite your bottom lip looking down at the gifts and back up to him, letting your lip go to pout at him. “Matty, you really didn't have to do that... I didn’t think I was going to see you, I’ve not got you anything, fuck.”

God, you feel so fucking bad, but you never thought you would see Matty before Christmas and you’d convinced yourself you weren’t going to see him afterwards either so you didn’t get anything. Your brain is working a thousand miles per hour trying to figure out if there is anything that you could give him right here and now.

“I don't want anything. I just saw the smaller one whilst I was away and I thought of you so I bought it for you.” Matty stops your panic and over thinking at the same time he melts your heart. “The larger one is like our inside joke, but I don't want anything in return.”

His reassurance is cute but the fact that he was away and still thinking of you enough to buy you Christmas presents has your heart aching for him. You keep on looking at them in complete awe. Matty Healy got you Christmas presents.

Whilst you’re excited to see what he’s got you, you keep that underwraps like these presents won’t be the first ones you open Christmas morning. But the man beside you has other ideas.

“Are you going to sit there and stare at them or are you going to open them?” Matty looks at you expectantly.

You’re the tiniest bit hesitant and you stumble upon saying, “It’s not Christmas yet though.”

“Don’t be one of those.” Matty shakes his head and looks at you like a giddy child and says, “I’m telling you to open them now. I wanna see your reaction.”

“Which one should I open first?” You ask shyly, letting the excitement bubbling up inside you finally show.

Matty’s just beaming at your child-like giddiness, taking a mental picture of it. “Whichever you’d like, baby.”

You hum as you debate which one to do first and you decide to save the bigger one for last. So you grab the tiny little bag he’s made out of wrapping paper and internally coo at his attempts of keeping it neat with a lot of tape.

At first, you’re delicately trying to open it but he rolls his eyes and tells you to “Just rip it.” and you do just that.

On your lap falls a little chicken nugget keyring that makes you gasp loudly and when you pick it up you let out a loud, “Awh!”

That has Matty laughing softly, it was a small little thing that had reminded him of you and her you were clutching it to your chest like it was a diamond.

“I love it! Thank you Matty.” You quickly lean to the side and hug him as tight as you can from the position you’re in.

Matty’s arm, the one that’s not trapped against the back of the settee, wraps around your waist and he squeezes you gently, “Glad you like it baby.”

“Love it.” You correct and you decide to be a little selfish and stay in his hold a little longer.

With one last squeeze, you lean back into your spot and pick up the big box item to put it on your lap. You look down at it, staring at it really as if you could see through the paper.

Matty can’t help but encourage you like an impatient child, “Come on, open it.”

In your head, you’re trying to guess which inside joke it is that he was referring to earlier with this gift but your mind blanks. This time you’re faster at tearing the wrapping paper to find out what it is.

You let out a loud cackle when you see it’s a heated blanket, the memory from your joke about being cold on the date coming back to the forefront of your mind.

“Oh this is fucking brilliant, thank you so much.” You quickly say in between giggles.

But it’s the perfect opportunity for Matty to test the waters so he adds with a smirk, “That one’s a joint gift.”

You frown a little when he says that because you have no idea what he means and he can read it on your face so he continues, “With me.”

It’s truly a miracle you don’t burst out laughing at his suave way of flirting, putting up a questioning act by raising an eyebrow at him.

“Was thinking we could cuddle under it later.” Matty adds suggestively and that’s when you let out a snort of amusement.

You’re grinning like an idiot when you tease him, “You really are a cheeky bastard, aren’t you?”

It’s his turn to raise his eyebrows at you then, “Think you’re meant to say “thank you’.”

“I already did, dickhead.” You fail at not laughing, your amusement shining through and breaking your facade. Putting the box down, you pivot in your seat so you can lean over and hug him properly and it’s a tight hug where you tell him, “In all seriousness though, thank you so much.”

“Anytime baby.” Matty says as he hugs you back.

In his hold, you’re once again baffled by how surreal the situation is. You have Matty Healy in your flat, hugging you after he’s just given you Christmas presents. How the fuck did this happen?

You’d be even more thrown aback if you could read Matty’s thoughts which were all over the place, thinking about how he couldn’t wait to move to the big settee and use the blanket as an excuse to cuddle you again. He’s been thinking about it since he left you that morning.

His attempt to be casual about it prematurely dies when he just can’t hide the eagerness in his voice as he unwraps his arms from around you and asks, “Shall we get the blanket out now then?”

You’re blushing fast and easy under his stare but you act nonchalantly to appear like the suggestion hasn’t made butterflies erupt in your stomach. “I need to finish wrapping before we cuddle, Mister Healy.” You did need to do it but it was more so you had more time to get your bearings together.

His face falls slightly, remembering he came unannounced. “Sorry for interrupting.”

“Don’t apologise at all.” It’s a quick response because truly it was nothing. He had just made your day by dropping by and the fact that he wanted to stay had you giddy to see what could happen throughout the evening.

You and Matty laugh and talk about what your Christmases are usually like when you go back home as you sit on the floor just in front of him and finish wrapping. And you love that you both get on like a house on fire, you could honestly sit and chat to him for days on end and not get bored or annoyed by him.

Matty is keen to know a lot about you though, and you tell him anything he wants to know. Where you grew up, how you met Amelia, what your school was like for you, when did you move to London. And Matty loved listening to your anecdotes. He really wasn’t joking when he said that he would listen if you started a podcast. He loves the sound of your voice.

When you finish wrapping, you put all of the presents back into the bag so you can easily take them back into your room. You tell your guest that you’ll be just a minute and you walk back to your room and put the bag of presents beside the rest of them.

As you’re about to head back out to Matty though, you spot the big cardboard box in the corner of your room that hasn’t moved for months and it’s like a lightbulb goes off in your head. You rush over to it and open it and you praise the lord when you see everything’s still in there.

When you and Amelia first started doing chicken shop dates, you never thought that there would be a demand for merch to go alongside it. But now your current collections are entirely sold out on your website as you wait for new stock to come in. However, here in your room are the samples that were made and after stealing your own, you left the other ones in the box.

Quickly, you pull out a black one that has the chicken shop date logo in an arrow heart where the breast pocket would be on a shirt. It's a simple design but you absolutely love the hoodies as they’re so soft, you always have yours on.

You get a larger size out, recalling Matty’s instagram stories and how he’s always in baggy jumpers and you hope to god he likes it enough to accept as a very last minute present.

You’re about to step out of your room when you realise it’d be better if he closed his eyes so he could still be surprised as you can’t wrap it now. So you call out to him from your bedroom door, “Hold out your hands and close your eyes.”

He turns and frowns at your instructions, which makes you thankful you’d already hid the hoodie behind your back. Matty asks you, “Why?”

You plead, your voice soft and hopeful, “Please just do it...”

And just because of how you say it, he agrees to it with a simple, “Okay.”

You see him close his eyes and turn back around so he’s facing the right way again, and you quickly walk back around and stop in front of him. His hands are out waiting like you instructed him to and you hope to God he likes it.

“Okay open.” You instruct with excitement in your voice.

Matty opens his eyes right away and his jaw falls slightly, wanting to coo at the gift. “Oh my word, chicken shop date merch!”

The singer holds up the hoodie in front of him to check out the full thing and he genuinely loves it as he didn’t actually know you did merch. It’s a lovely surprise and he definitely will be wearing it. He feels like an excited child despite him playfully joking, “It's just what I wanted.” as he knows it’s a last minute present. But he doesn’t care, he’s over the moon.

Matty drops the hoodie to the side of his lap and he opens his arms to signal to you that he wants a hug. You giggle at him as you lean down and clutch him as tight as you can in the weird position of you standing and him sitting.

But Matty pulls you onto his lap, making you straddle him for a moment so he can trap you in a crushing hug, “Thank you.”

His reaction to the hoodie is so cute to you and you can’t wipe the smile off your face. You say softly into his ear, “I will get you something better I promise, it's all I have here on short notice.”

But Matty shakes his head lightly before pulling back. He makes sure to put the hoodie on, over his shirt before he says, “Don't get me anything, this is all I need. This will be staying on for Christmas dinner.”

You giggle seeing him completely drown in the piece of clothing, the sleeves hiding half his hands so only his fingers are opting out of them. “I can get you a smaller one if you want it less baggy.”

“No, baggier the better.” Matty assures, “More cosy… Come here.”

He snakes his arm around your waist and brings you flush into his chest, leaving kisses all over your face in gratitude, finishing off by trapping your lips in a soft long kiss.

You both take advantage of the daze the kiss leaves you in so it’s no overthinking and no questions when you continue kissing for a little bit. You really wanted to keep them coming but you find yourself shying away as you overthink a little what’s happening.

So you lean back to look at him, all rosy cheeks, dishevelled hair and reddened lips, those brown eyes looking all around your face and his gaze is so intense that it has you needing to stand up from his lap and take a deep breath as you cover it by getting the heated blanket that was forgotten on the floor.

You slowly open the box, taking out the blanket and resting it on the arm of your bigger settee. And then you suddenly act all interested in wanting to read the instructions for it as if it took more than putting some batteries in and pushing a few buttons but it was just so you could ignore the way you felt he was staring at you.

With the way your hair had fallen to cover the sides of your face, you couldn’t see him but you just knew he was smirking watching you act like he wasn’t there just because you’d gotten flustered a minute ago on his lap.

“We’re finally gonna cuddle then?” Matty teases, making you roll your eyes from the way his voice made you feel.

You hum with your eyes swimming around the letters on the small piece of paper, not acknowledging nor putting together any of the sentences in your head because you were just fully distracted.

What had just happened had all gone to your head in thoughts that you can’t be having in front of him. Not yet anyway.

“Was thinking maybe we could watch a film and check if this works.” You finally turn around to see him then, he watches the way you take in a deep breath when you see him with legs spread wide as he’s lazily sitting on the other settee.

“I’ll just go get some batteries. Be right back.”

You escape to your room like a ghost was chasing you, and he laughs to himself taking in the ease he had to make you react. It made him feel gooey inside knowing that it was all genuine, having the first hand experience of the character you used for the videos and comparing it to how you were with him now.

It doesn’t take you long to come back and he watches you as you carefully put the batteries in and the huge smile on your face when you turn the heater on and the blanket starts warming under you hand.

Matty matches your grin, incapable of keeping it from reaching his eyes as they wrinkle at the edges from just watching you. “D’you like it?”

You look almost amazed at it and so you don’t hesitate to look at him and nod enthusiastically, “Love it.” The heat going up just makes you impatient to get under the blanket so you plop down on your big settee and quickly throw it over yourself.

Snuggling yourself into your settee and clutching the blanket tightly to yourself, you realise he’s still sitting where he had been the whole time.

You frown at him and sound almost annoyed when you think about having to lift the blanket back up after having gotten comfortable. “What are you still doing over there? Come here.” And the way you wave him to come over to you has him smirking.

His steps are slow to tease you and when he finally gets to the edge of the settee, he just stands there looking down at you with the smirk still on his face. “Where do you want me?”

Matty bites his tongue not to laugh when you sigh and roll your eyes with fake exasperation, “Just sit down here, you idiot.”

He makes a show out of getting under the blanket and snuggling up to you. His arm comes around your waist to bring you closer to his side and groans exaggeratedly in pleasure as he gets comfortable.

His lips brush against your temple when he says, “This is well nice.” It makes you shiver despite the growing warmth and he chuckles in your ear at that. “You okay?” His question is playful, trying to tease you but careful enough not to make you uncomfortable.

Shyly you mutter a, “Yes” that sounds more like a question and you pray that the films you’ve started to scroll past catches his eyes and he forgets every single of your telltale signs of just how much he affects you.

But he has this way of also settling your nerves down when he jokes, “How are you so nervous when you’ve literally had your tongue in my mouth?”

“Fuck off Matthew.” You push him away playfully, and the way he laughs at you so wholeheartedly makes you melt. That’s why when he pulls you back into him, you fully cuddle him and let yourself have that moment.

You’re scrolling for a very long minute and still can’t decide what to choose so you quietly ask, “Shall we go for a Christmassy one?”

“If you want to.” Matty hums.

In your heart, you really feel like it’s wrong for you not to choose a Christmas movie so you’re quick to look for the one that’s your go-to.

A chuckle leaves him when you click on ‘Nativity’ and it starts playing. So you turn slightly to look at him and frown as if he had just offended your choice. “What?”

He raises one hand and looks serious to play innocent, “Nothing.”

Your eyes narrow at him in an attempt to appear threatening but the expression falls off your face as soon as you hear the intro to the film.

For the next hour and a half Matty sees a different side of you that he just can’t help but smile permanently at. The way you laugh at the things Mr. Poppy pulls, how you seem so moved by Paul’s failed romance and your quiet singing along with the songs that the kids perform.

Matty had never seen something special about the film before but he reconsidered just because of how much you seemed to enjoy it.

The next film you watch is chosen by Matty, and it’s certainly a big contrast to what you’ve just watched because of course he’s picked ‘American Pie’. But you don’t complain though because you’ve not seen this movie in a while and you’ve forgotten how much it makes you laugh.

You only realise it’s late when the film has ended and you find yourself yawning, “I’m so tired.” Your words muffle as you cover your mouth to yawn.

Looking down at you over your shoulder, Matty’s a little surprised at how relatively early you get tired. 1:23am is not a time he finds himself wanting to go to bed anymore, especially after a spell of touring, so he has to ask, “How do you manage when you're on a night out?”

You freeze for a second knowing how much worse your answer is gonna make you look but you quietly admit, “I take a nap in advance.”

Matty chuckles at your answer, “You are…” he trails off not even managing to get exactly what to say because he just finds you so fucking adorable that he feels the urge to kiss you again.

His hand comes to wrap around your neck softly and turns your head to the side so that you can meet him in the middle. You feel his smile on your lips at first but since the angle is tricky for you to keep your direction, Matty ends up having to tighten his hold slightly and when you moan softly in response, he’s gone.

You feel something shift in the air when you twist towards him a little more so you can keep the kiss going. Matty deepens the kiss and it has your heart racing and chest aching with want. You want him so very badly.

When you need air, you pull back and with a spark of confidence, you turn back around to switch the blanket off before you lift it up and stand.

“Let’s go.” You stretch your hand out for him to take and seeing the shadow of mischief on your face, he smirks and reaches out for it.

Walking to your room, there’s that unspoken knowledge that something is about to happen and there’s a buzz in both of you that it’s so clear to see when you catch a glimpse of each other's eyes.

You walk through your bedroom door and the fact that you close it behind you has Matty smirking that you’ve already decided he’s staying in bed with you tonight. Again.

He takes off his shoes under your intent stare that tries to memorise every little thing he does as he moves.

You let your eyes wander around his back, the marked muscles showing through his white shirt, and when he comes to stand back up, you’re caught looking him up and down again.

“Like what you see?”

You shrug, “Meh, it’s alright.” It’s more than alright, way more, but he doesn’t need to know that.

His payback is to get you to show how your body reacts in a very different way to what you’ve just stated. Matty has you moaning just from the intensity he comes back to kiss you, a hand tightly gripping onto your hip and the other wrapped around your neck like he’s learning to know you like.

Matty’s tongue teases your lips open and you accept it eagerly, your hands coming up over his shoulders to sink into his hair. You pull on it as you taste him, swallowing the moan that he lets out. You hum in satisfaction as you note how much louder he’s been in comparison to you.

And Matty seems to know just what you want by the way you pull his hair. So he lets his hand drop slowly from your hip to cup your arse and pull you in firmly by it, pushing his hips forwards at the same time so the friction could get you both.

Your mouth hangs open at the action, exhaling shakily, so you stop the kiss and he smiles right over your lips.

“I thought we were going to bed?” Matty’s breathless words hit your face and the teasing doesn’t make you hide now, it only pushes you further.

“Oh we can go to bed.”

He’s not even sure if he’s heard you correctly when you grab his hand and guide him to your bed. Matty sits down at the edge of it, still taken aback by the switch in your behaviour but he quickly gets into your flow, grabbing a handful of your arse to pull you forward until your thighs hit his knees.

Your bottom lip is trapped in your teeth as you look down at him but your mouth hangs open when his hand drops to the back of your thigh and guides you to bring your knee up and rest it beside his hip.

Instantly, you catch the instruction and you bring your other leg up on bed to fully straddle him. And you don’t even get yourself settled before you meet again in a kiss that grows hungry with the way your hands wander.

One of your hands is tangled in the curls at the nape of his neck while the other is clutching at his shirt, right at where it’s open and showing his Annie tattoo.

Matty has one of his hands cupping your jaw, his thumb rubs softly on your cheek and it's so different to the tight hold he has on your left thigh which you’ll find later to have left the faint mark of his fingers.

It gets carried away, between kisses and shy touches under clothes until he has you flush against his lap and encourages you to move your hips.

You gasp, breaking the kiss and watch as he throws his head back slowly at the friction of your hips rolling slowly on his. Matty’s neck is on full show then and it’s so bare that you feel the urge to start kissing it.

That only has Matty, whose hands are tightly on your hips, helping you move faster in search of relief. He’s waited so long to feel you like this and it’s already driving him insane how much better it is than what he’d been picturing as his hands wandered into his boxers many evenings when he was away on tour.

He knew he’d wanted you ever since the date, but he’d promised himself it wouldn’t happen until New Years or after that. If he was lucky enough for you to want the same thing, that particular day could turn out to be the best new year's eve ever.

But here he is, unable to keep his hips still and his hands to himself. It’s a battle between his mind and his body, so loud in his head but his erratic heartbeat is louder and deafening - all Matty knows is that right now, he needs relief.

So he continues encouraging you, but now he’s also rolling his hips up into you and it’s quickly that he feels himself getting harder beneath you.

You moan into his mouth, loving his hands on you but the friction of the both of your jeans has you really want to get things moving. Suddenly, you break the kiss and push hard on Matty’s chest so his back hits the bed.

It has the singer dizzy but excited and he almost groans seeing you hover over him with a filthy grin on your face before you trap him in another searing kiss. Matty pulls on your waist so you’re flush against him with one hand as the other he continues to encourage your hips to grind against his.

When Matty lets out a long groan, you quickly kiss down his jaw and you move down his neck, leaving open mouthed kisses until you reach the tattoo on his chest. The way his hand roots in your hair has you understanding his silent instructions, he encourages you back up and you only let him feel the brush of your lips and your hot breath as you do.

You can see the way his Adam's apple bobs up and down before he takes a shaky breath. When you reach just under his ear, you leave one last hot kiss to his skin and continue to bite on his ear lobe, pulling on it slowly.

His loud moan makes you let go and pull back with a big smirk, and just because you love seeing him so desperate under you, you look down at him only to roll your hips more intently.

The singer pulls you into another kiss, this one has more urgency than the others though and the tug on your hair makes you whine. Pleased he has some payback, his hand pulls on your waist again, needing you as close as possible. When his hips start bucking up into yours again, like he does in his consumption interlude, all sane thinking on your part dies with the loud moan you let out.

It has Matty smirking and he breaks the kiss so he can kiss your neck like you just did to him. He wants to hear all of the noises he can pull from those pretty lips of yours.

You’re growing too hot in your clothes as his kisses trail down your skin. You need them off urgently so you can feel his lips move lower than your collarbone. And after another long kiss, you are about to take your top off when he suddenly makes your hips stop at the same time he does.

“I'm gonna need you to stop doing that because I don’t want to shag you tonight.” Matty says breathlessly after he snaps back into himself. Something about the way you looked so sure about this whole thing happening right now was what had him realising he needed to stop if he was to keep his promise.

“Not tonight?” You laugh a little, trying to calm yourself down.

It doesn’t feel necessarily like rejection because you can see the lust in his eyes and how his grip on you is still tight, but it does sting a little that after all that he ‘doesn’t want to shag you tonight’.

Only tonight? You ask in your head, thinking back to see if there was anything you might’ve missed or done that had him decided on not tonight.

But soon you’re brought back out of your thoughts when you sit still on his lap and he shifts under you for a second, a pained frown on his face. You can’t believe you’ve got Matty Healy under you, and you can feel you’ve made him hard. What the fuck. It’s a little difficult to process that it is your reality but thankfully he distracts you again.

“No,” Matty starts still trying to catch his breath but he doesn’t waste more time to explain, he pushes himself up so he’s upright again as he says, “Don’t get me wrong. I want to, but the thought of New Years has been keeping me going Y/N/N, can’t mess with everything I’m hoping for it to be.”

That blows the slight sting away and you’re back to your teasing self again, “Presumptuous of you.” Both your hands come up to fix the collar of his shirt, “Who told you I shag on the first date?”

“Not our first,” Matty corrects you with a raised brow, “And I’ve been here twice before so it's going to basically be our fourth.” Then he brings back your own words to go against you, “And you practically told me on our date that you would shag on the first date too.”

He takes the silence you give him as you’ve been caught between your own words to continue, though this time there’s a smirk on his face. “Besides presumptuous? You were just fucking grinding on me, baby.”

“Well who was encouraging me to?” You just end up laughing at him and he giggles too.

Both of you silently smile at each other for a few seconds then. Just happy in each other's company and being so close, or that is until Matty speaks back up.

“I’m sorry.” Matty says, genuinely feeling bad because of how far he let the both of you get into it and you do look a tad disappointed.

“Why are you apologising? Don't apologise.” You shake your head and assure him, “It’s fine,” To show your sincerity you peck his lips once more, “More than fine.”

Seeing you smile at him like that has his heart melting. He really likes you, and he can’t wait to take you out on this date next week.

Matty leans in to quickly kiss you again before he brings his jokey nature back. He looks all cute but smug when he says, “We can start the new year off with a bang.”

Whilst that excites you to no end, you have to shake your head, hating how cringe that was. You warn him, “Not if you keep them Dad jokes coming.”

“Yeah, don’t call me daddy.” Matty quite seriously begs.

“Don’t worry.” You promise him. “I definitely won’t.”

“Come on,” Matty presses another kiss to your lips and encourages, “Let's get ready for bed.”

“M’kay.” You hum, getting off his lap and turning around to grab some clothes to sleep in.

You’re not even a step away from him when he slaps your arse making you let out a little gasp and to that he only giggles. You can feel how hard he’s smirking so pleased with himself.

Opening your wardrobe, you pick your pyjamas and smile seeing your ‘lol ur not Matt Healy’ top be revealed folded under the top you’re about to put on.

Not wanting to appear like a prude, you take off your top in front of him, letting him see you in your bra and you don’t mind the way his eyes linger on you as excess confidence from earlier is still running through you.

You were about to ask him if he likes what he sees as payback for his earlier question but instead you watch as he groans, “Oh fuck me.”

“I was about to, but you wanted to stop.” You raise your eyebrows at him, loving that you can tease him with that and you grab your pyjama top and let it cover you up.

Matty looks like he’s calling himself an idiot in his head which makes you giggle a little as you undo your jeans and take them off. Despite the eyes on you, the adrenaline from before stops you getting flustered under his gaze and Matty groans at you as you take your bra off under your top and you throw it at him before you head to your ensuite.

Giggling to yourself at his reaction, you let yourself take a breather as you get yourself ready for bed. You’re not surprised that you seem a little flushed as you see yourself in the mirror, but you like the way you look, you look happy.

That’s why when you head back to your bedroom after barely 5 minutes since you unconsciously rushed through your bedtime routine, you have a bright smile on your face that grows bigger when you see Matty already under your covers, shirtless and mindlessly scrolling through his phone.

Pulling back the covers, you try not to visibly choke when you see he’s just in his black Calvins. You once again have to push back the pure and utter filth that enters your mind as you settle into bed beside him.

Trying your best not to appear awkward as fuck, you shuffle down and get comfy, and even turn towards him after you put your phone on charge. Matty locks his phone after a few seconds, putting it on your other bedside table before he turns back and smiles at you.

“Come here.” Matty says, raising his arm up so you can shuffle closer to him, and you do but you’re not the most confident about it.

You tuck your shoulder under his, so your head can rest on him and you feel his arm go around your back and pull you into him that bit closer. You’ve reverted back to being a little shy and you’re awkwardly wondering where you should put your arm. You don’t know whether to place it on his chest or keep it tucked into yourself and Matty is watching your brain tick over, so he helps you out a little.

“Cuddle me, woman.” Matty instructs, and he teases you, “You weren’t shy ten minutes ago.”

You feel your face flame at the reminder, but you do as you’re told. Your hand ends up resting just at the bottom of the tattoo on his chest and to avoid further embarrassment you take a deep breath to try and make yourself relax a bit more as you snuggle into him, tangling your legs with his.

This has the singer grinning like a fucking idiot. He’s been wanting this since the last time he fell asleep beside you. For months he’s been wanting to hold you through the night again and he silently applauds himself again for restraining from going further with you before because at one point he’d thrown everything he wanted for New Years out the window.

He’s beyond happy he didn’t though. The anticipation of New Years had been eating away at him, made him extremely excited at the mere thought of seeing you again, even more so because of the small amount you’d actually been messaging each other in between. It definitely made things more exciting for him, and he can’t wait for next week already.

Matty pulls you into him a little more, and he kisses the top of your head, smiling as he says, “No tears tonight, yeah?”

“Yeah, don’t worry,” You laugh knowing he’s teasing you for last time, when you were listening to About You instead of going to sleep. You tell him, “I’ll just cry when I finally hear it live.”

“When are you coming?” Matty asks you, genuinely curious, “O2 shows?”

“Yeah I got tickets for London, Manchester, Newcastle,” You tell him, trying your best not to sound like a massive fucking stalker, and you almost hate it when you add, “And persuaded Amelia to come with me to Belfast even though it’s on her birthday.”

Matty asks, “You’re not coming to the first one in Brighton?”

“I want to be, but I unfortunately can’t.” You sigh, “I won't be in the country.”

Matty leans down to look at you curiously then, “What?”

“It's top secret.” You say seriously, as you’ll get in trouble if the news gets out early, “You can’t tell anyone if I tell you.”

“I swear, I won't.” Matty offers you his little finger and you smile, happily hooking yours around it to seal the deal.

“Me and Amelia have been asked to be the official red carpet hosts at the Golden Globes.”

Mattys jaw drops then and you chuckle as it still really doesn’t even feel real coming out of your own mouth.

“Y/N/N!” Matty suddenly shifts then so your head falls off his arm and he’s hovering next to you so he can see your face properly. He looks so excited for you as he says, “That’s fucking insane!”

“I know.” You grin up at him.

“Tell me everything!” Matty isn’t even joking. He wants to hear how it all happened, and you have no issue with telling him.

You explain how you and Amelia were contacted, the meetings you’ve already had, the research you’ve had to do, the endless films and shows you’ve had to watch and take notes on. And you find yourself being unable to stop smiling, half because what you’re saying still feels so unreal to you, and half because of the way Matty can’t stop grinning down at you.

After him telling you that he’s happy for you and proud of you, you had to sweetly kiss him one last time before you snuggled into him again before going to sleep. Both clutching each other, with huge smiles on your faces.

~*~*~*~

Waking up beside Matty is honestly one of the best mornings of your life. It’s still a little surreal to you that you’d gone from one of your silly interview dates to him now lying in bed next to you, cuddling you as he sleeps.

Despite it being an ungodly hour in the morning - that no one on Christmas Eve should wake up at - you are thankful that you’ve woken up before your alarm went off. Purely because you get to see Matty like this.

There’s no stress or worries that plague him like you’re sure he must go through. He’s not trying to make you blush, tease, or show himself off to you. He’s just simply himself and he’s beautiful.

With that soft pout and his cheek pressed on the pillow, his curls unruly like a halo around his head and you find it so fitting because he truly looks angelic like this.

You’re staring at him and you lose track of time, all your focus on memorising every little detail on his face and really holding yourself back from touching his features delicately like he could break under your fingers.

And as you have an internal debate within yourself about how good of an idea it would be to softly brush Matty’s curls back and out of his forehead and let you fingers trace the outline of his face, you are startled by his voice.

“S’rude to stare.”

You freeze in your spot, drawing your eyes from him to the walls of your bedroom and his chest vibrates next to you when he laughs seeing you blush as he finally opens his eyes.

But then he says, “Good morning baby,” in that low raspy morning voice of his, that almost makes your eyes roll back because you just can’t cope, but then he’s nuzzling into your neck to leave a few kisses on it and you’re blushing even harder.

“Oh she’s shy again now?” Matty teases, watching you get flustered from up close, “Need I remind you what was going on last night?”

“I don’t think that’s gonna help your situation.” You clearly nod to his case of blue balls that he gave himself last night.

“Right,” He accepts the counter argument but when his lips twist in that mischievous smirk of his you know what he’s gonna say next will have you either breathless or laughing at his antics. Turns out is the first, when he continues with, “But who doesn’t enjoy a bit of edging, huh?”

You lick your lips, with a wicked smile of your own from receiving such a valuable piece of information. “Oh, that’s good to know.”

“You’re already making plans in that head of yours?” Matty’s finger comes to poke your temple to which you glare at him.

“I believe you’ve beat me to them actually.” Your eyebrows raise, remembering the mention of how he’s got some expectations set for next week’s events.

“That’s right.” Matty nods, his finger drawing softly down your face until it reaches your jaw and he’s cupping it with his hand, pulling you in to kiss you sweetly.

You’re sure you have ascended because this whole scene sounds so incredibly insane to you that you subtly come to pinch your thigh to make sure you aren’t dreaming.

His hand lowers from your jaw to meet the one over your thigh and it’s then when it all starts getting heated again. Your tongues meet and his touch on your leg leaves a trail of fire under your skin that has you squirming in your place.

But then you remember what happened last night and why you’d stopped so, getting excited over the same prospect of waiting until New Years, you break the kiss.

Your chests meet as they heave in search for oxygen, and you’re so distraught you have no idea what to say so you bring what first comes to mind.

“How’s a Full English sound right now?” You suggest, getting a hold of his hand that was still on your thigh to intertwine your fingers and bring it up to rest on his bare chest.

Matty seems to have loved the idea because he whistles lowly at the thought of food, “Fucking phenomenal.”

You giggle and nod, propping up on your elbows and dropping his hand to get out of bed. “Okay, let’s go sous chef.” Your feet touch the ground and are already taking you to your bedroom door when you turn around to look at him because he lets out a dramatic groan.

You smirk, watching his sluggish movements as he gets out from under the covers and it’s then that you remember he’s only wearing his black Calvins. He stretches and seeing all his back muscles flexing in all of their glory for you makes your mouth water and your thighs clench.

He crouches down to pick up his trousers and right when he’s about to turn to accuse you of staring again, you turn around the quickest you could and leave the room in what you thought was a subtle haste but it really wasn’t. Matty has to bite his tongue not to laugh loudly at your reactions, loving the effect he has on you.

It’s hard focusing on cooking when you have him this close around you in only pants that are purposely hanging low to drive you even more insane, but you manage when you basically challenge him to prove his skills in the kitchen, which end up being none as he only helps you passing you stuff but it was enough for you.

It was either that or having him tease you the whole time while you were trying to make breakfast and that would’ve been incredibly distracting and messy.

Once you’re all done serving your food on two different plates, you both take a seat at your little dining table and it’s a comfortable silence that surrounds you.

“When are you leaving for Los Angeles?” Matty inquires after taking a quick bite of fried egg and toast.

You pause with your fork hovering in the air, almost mid bite, thinking about the endless calls and emails you’d sent and received for this all to happen. "Flying so we arrive the day before," You take your bite of food and quickly eat it as you run through your schedule in your mind. "Flight is the evening of the eighth."

He hums with a cheeky smile on his face, “Okay.”

“What?” You can’t help but ask because why is he asking that and then acting like he’s meaning to cause trouble.

“You know what that means.” He lets himself trail off to bait you into his vagueness, really hoping you’d catch what he means but when your frown grows deeper on your face, he clears it up for you. “We’ve gotta make the most out of the first week of the year.”

You’re not sure what you were expecting but that was certainly not it. You can feel your heart hammering in your chest at the suggestiveness of it and you try to play it cool but you fail at finding any words to get him back so you sigh defeatedly, “I can’t stand you.”

Matty knows you well enough already to know you’re just holding back, so he teases you further knowing he’s right in this. “Sure you can’t, baby.”

After that the rest of breakfast is spent between chatter and soon enough you’re done and helping each other put everything in the dishwasher to go back to bed.

Both of you silently wanted to spend as much time as you could with each other today, knowing that after this it was a week long wait for something you’ve been looking forward to for a while.

So you settle back in bed, hearing the thumping of his heart where your head lays over his chest and one of his arms around your shoulders keeping you flush against his side. You have your remote in hand, scrolling through films to watch and you’re about to intertwine your legs with his when your phone starts ringing.

You both take a little to react to the device, waiting for it to suddenly stop so that you’d feel okay with ignoring it but after it dies down and rings again, you’re groaning about having to peel yourself away from Matty.

The singer hears you swear under your breath when you see your screen and he’s about to ask if everything’s okay when you answer the phone with a very not enthusiastic, “Hi Ames.”

You put the phone on speaker and place your finger over your lip instructing him to stay silent. Matty has the half mind to actually say hello to your best friend as well but he figured he’d give you peace just this one time.

“Are you really still in bed knowing that I’m going over to pick you up in twenty minutes?” Amelia scorns through the phone, and you can hear the sound of a door closing and the jingle of her keys from her side.

“Sorry, I got distracted.” You apologise half heartedly which makes Amelia chuckle in response.

“Got distracted with what?” She challenges you, “With a dream about Matty?”

Your whole face heats up and you wanna die from the way Matty has just raised his eyebrows at you with the biggest grin on his face.

You let your eyes close and take a deep breath before you’re saying, “Jesus Christ Amelia! Shut up!” through your teeth.

“What?” She chuckles loudly at hearing you so worked up about it, “He’s back here I think, you don’t have to dream about it anymore, you can just go shag him if you stop being a pussy and just text him.”

Matty is holding his loud laugh next to you, cheeks blown up from the air he’s holding in not to give away his presence but his face is getting redder by the second from how hard he’s trying not to laugh so you quickly end the call with a “See you later, Ames.”

Right after you’ve pressed the red button to hang up, Matty explodes in laughter and you hide your face in your hands.

“She’s such a bitch.” You whine in your hands and his laughter continues as you hide away mortified.

When his laughter dies down, Matty loops his arms around your waist to pull you back into him with a massive smirk on his face, “Oh baby, now I really want to know what dreams she’s referring to.”

You refuse to let yourself show your face because your cheeks feel like they’re on fire and you just can’t find it in yourself to look him in the eyes after that.

So he starts tickling you and nuzzling into your neck to have you drop your hands from your face. “Come on, tell me.”

You start giggling at the tickling and eventually drop your hands to hold his hands and stop him from continuing, “There’s nothing to tell, she’s just being a dickhead.” Your eyes only manage a few seconds looking at him before you’re averting your gaze to look somewhere else.

But Matty doesn’t buy it, “Are you sure?” he asks just to see if you’d maybe break but you keep your mouth shut and that makes him leave kisses on your neck to try and get the information out of you that way.

That only gets you flustered so, rather quickly you say, “Yes, very.” and you’re patting his arms for him to let go of you, needing to get ready to leave with your best friend. “I need to shower and get ready.”

You can feel Matty’s pout on your neck but he doesn’t move so you pinch his waist and laugh when he jumps, “Come on, time’s ticking and she hates it when I’m unpunctual.”

Matty groans when you manage to free yourself from his touch and watches as you grab yourself some clothes to lock yourself away in the bathroom.

He doesn’t move from his spot for the whole time, hearing the waterfall for a few minutes before it goes rather silent until you come back out fully dressed with just your hair damp on your shoulders.

When you walk out, you see him smiling at you with his head resting on a pillow, drifting in and out of sleep. You walk up to the bed and brush his hair back, adoring how mundane the setting is. You think how unreal it is that this is your Christmas Eve morning.

Just because you can, you lean down and peck those pillowy lips of his and the smile you receive in return will definitely stay with you forever. Once you quickly ask if it’s okay if you disturb him and dry your hair and he says it’s okay, the buzzing of the hair dryer fills the room.

In your mirror, you can see that Matty is still all cosy in your bed watching you dry your hair. And he stays like that until you’re finished, a smile on his lips, his hair a mess, looking stunning in the simplest of ways.

After you finish drying your hair, you move back over to him and sit down beside him this time. Your hand root back into the untamed curls of his as you grin at each other and he motions for you to kiss him again, which you do so quickly because you know you’re running out of time.

“Get yourself ready, she’s gonna get here any second and I need to lock up.” Your fingers sink deeper into his locks and scratch his scalp slowly, making Matty moan lowly in response.

A smirk breaks on his face immediately after, because he knows that he’s gotten you with that noise and you pull on his hair because the way your stomach flipped at that was not funny. It just reminded you of how down bad you are for him and you swear in your head at it not being New Years already.

Only a week, only 7 days.

With another tug of his hair, he laughs and gets up. Putting his clothes on as you make the bed, he watches the way you fluff your pillows as he buttons his shirt up - his new Chicken Shop Date hoodie going over it. Soon enough, your phone vibrates on your bedside table and it’s a text from Amelia saying she’s outside.

After grabbing his belongings, putting them in the pockets of his coat, Matty turns to see you getting your keys and struggling to hold the bags of gifts you’re taking with you.

The singer finishes getting his shoes on and walks up to take most of the bags from your hands, “Let me help take stuff down and then I’ll leave you to it and drive home.”

“Thank you.” Your smile is sweet as you look at him, but you selfishly don’t want the moment to end like this, so thinking ahead, you instruct him to, “Put them down for a minute.”

Matty frowns at the sudden order, “What?”

“Just do it, don’t ask questions.” You say again and smile harder when he obeys, slowly putting them down on the floor.

You take a step forwards to him, dropping the bags you were carrying without really caring about the damage to them, and cup his jaw with both your hands to pull him into a long kiss.

It’s gentle but determined, taking in every second of it because you know this is the last one until you see him again next week. He goes to deepen it, one of his arms wrapping around your waist and holding you tight against him. You hum in satisfaction when your tongues meet, tangling one of your hands in his hair to pull on it but only a little later you’re breaking it just so you don’t get carried away.

Still, you feel like it wasn’t enough so you steal a peck before leaning back and brush his hair back as you stare at him.

You’re both catching your breath when he curiously asks, “What was that for?”

You bite your bottom lip, recoiling into yourself a little bit with a faint tint to your cheeks, “A goodbye kiss because I’m not kissing you in front of Amelia.”

Matty holds his breath for a few seconds and then sighs, “Fucking hell, debating not letting you go home and we pretend it’s New Years now.” You note how he looks down to your lips and then up to meet your gaze again with a hungry look.

Shaking your head, you giggle, “Amelia would batter you, we have a party tonight.”

“Where’s my invite?” Matty jokingly frowns making it sound like it’s the rudest thing you’re not taking him to said party with you.

But you scorn him rather fast, reminding him he’s meant to be somewhere else, “You’re going back to Manchester. You��re already a day late.”

Matty’s smiling hard at you then, just really enjoying the way you make him feel inside. It’s hard to ignore, especially when he’s only felt this way a few times before in his life.

So with giddiness bubbling up inside him just from thinking about what the future could hold, he reminds you, “I'm excited for New Years.”

“Me too.” You admit with the same sparkle in your eyes as he has, and it’s a silent understanding then between you that you’re both on the same page about what you expect to come in the future.

It’s impossible for Matty not to peck your lips one last time as you reach for the door, which makes you stay still for a few seconds after his lips have left yours. You give yourself that brief amount of time to try and process it all but when you realise you might as well go insane trying to, you just grab your bags back up and open the front door to start your walk downstairs.

As you’re locking up, he notes that most of the bags hanging in his hands are full of gifts. The singer debates taking them outside for you first but he quickly realised he wants to spend as much time with you as he can, so he waits with you instead.

Matty walks behind you but since his hands are full, you open the main door of your building for him before you just check your post box one last time.

The singer sees Amelia standing there with her back to him, tapping her foot impatiently on the pavement as she scrolls through her phone. And he can’t wait to see her reaction to his presence.

“Took you long enough.” Amelia scorns before she turns around and she’s met with someone who is definitely not you.

“Hello Amelia.” Matty’s smirks seeing your best friend's face fall in shock. “Where would you like me to put her presents?”

The singer knows his hair is unruly and he doesn’t care in the slightest, but he can already imagine the things Amelia must be thinking.

“In the boot please.” Her words are slow and her eyes scream just how surprised she is but Matty doesn’t do anything but smile and do as he’s asked.

Amelia however, looks to the door of your building which has just now opened again and has you walking out with the last of your bags. As soon as you look at your best friend your cheeks flush, her shocked yet amused yet knowingexpression has you wanting to go back up to your flat and hide inside there for the rest of the holiday season.

“Hey Ames.” You try to be as normal as possible despite wanting the ground to swallow you whole.

“Hi Y/N. Hi Matthew Healy.” Amelia says loud enough for the singer to hear but she looks to you and you alone with wide, shocked eyes.

You can almost hear her silently screaming, What the fuck did you two get up to last night? Already, you’re nervous for the journey home with her because you’re going to get hounded.

“Thank you for coming getting me.” You smile before looking to the ground so you don’t combust and you put your bags in the boot of the car beside the ones Matty just placed for you.

The singer is trying not to cackle at your reaction to being caught with him. He can guess you’re feeling like a teenager who’s just been caught with a boy in her bedroom by the way you’re shying away from Amelia. Never in a million years did he ever expect you’d get this embarrassed, but he can’t help but find it cute.

“That’s alright.” You hear your best friend tell you, but you just make sure everything is in place before you shut the boot of the car.

Thankfully, Matty saves you from any awkwardness just yet as he comes back to Amelia and embraces her in a big hug, “Dimz, I’ve missed you. You excited for Christmas?”

Amelia smiles and hugs him back, raising her eyebrows at you over his shoulder though and you just press your lips together and shake your head. You know exactly what she’s thinking, but you quickly answer that question for her.

“I am, first time I’ve felt Christmassy for a long time.” Your best friend barely has the brain to answer that because her head is filled with so many questions.

“Good, I’m glad.” Matty smiles, “Please make sure you have a good one. Hope your party goes well tonight.”

Amelia can’t really grasp his well wishes because she just really needs to start asking some things. “I’m sorry, shouldn't you be in Manchester right now? Didn't you write a whole song about that which I’ve been forced to listen tomultiple times?”

Matty rolls his eyes at her playfully, “I'm about to drive back. Had things to do first.”

“Things,” Amelia raises her eyebrows, “Or someone?”

Matty smirks then, deciding he’s giving absolutely nothing away. He just grins like he knows something she doesn’t and winks, “I’ll let your best friend tell you about that.”

Whilst your face fucking flames once again, Amelia and Matty share a look before the singer tells her, “I’m going to say goodbye to her now if I can steal her for a few more minutes.”

Amelia grins and nods, “Please do.”

“Bring it in Dimz.” Matty opens his arms to her for another hug and she happily gives him a hug as they wish each other a Merry Christmas.

But then Matty turns towards you, and he’s still smiling when he gently grabs your hand and pulls you over to his car. It’s a very short silent walk that you both purposely elongate and Amelia would tell you to hurry up but she just wants to witness whatever is about to happen because this was something she was not expecting to see today.

When you get to stand beside Matty’s car, you let your gaze take in your surroundings instead of meeting his eyes because you just don’t want to say goodbye just yet.

It’s all written on your face, really, so he assures you of his plans for the upcoming week. “I’m gonna see you on New Year's Eve. I’m going to Facetime you before then, though, so we can sort out where we’re going.”

“Can’t believe it’s finally a week away.” You breathlessly confess, throwing out of the window any need to act cool about it.

It makes his stomach flip to see how much you mean that, so Matty smiles brightly at you and reciprocates the feeling of impatience, “Better be the fastest week of my life.” And he only makes your heart go even faster when grabs your hands and rubs his thumbs over them to say, “I hope you have the best Christmas.”

You pout at him because of how cute he is, you really can't help it. “You too, please send my love to your family.”

Matty’s soft giggles evaporate in the air before he quickly shakes his head, “No, because my Mum will FaceTime you and she won't leave you alone.”

You frown playfully at him talking about it like it’s a bad thing and scoff, “I’ll be besties with Denise.”

He narrows his eyes at you like saying you’re not sure what you’re really talking about, “I’ll protect you from that for a bit longer.”

You chuckle at him, “Thank you, I think.” Your grin is huge when you say, “Thank you again for my presents.”

“Thank you for mine.” It surprises you that he’s actually enjoyed your last minute gift so you let your eyes drop down to catch the little Chicken Shop Date logo on the left side of his chest and grin brightly at him.

It makes you so happy that Matty likes it but you want to get him something better so you promise, “I’ll get you something better.”

Matty has a massive smirk on his face then, letting his hands drop yours to hold onto your hips, “Got everything I wanted last night.”

That makes your breath hitch in your throat, your brain short circuiting for a few seconds too long before you’re able to get your act together again, “Is your aim to make me die of embarrassment before we get to our date?”

“Sorry, I'll fix it.” He says with apparent honesty but you should know better than to trust the menace of a man because all you feel then is your back getting pressed against the side of his car and his head dipping down to catch your lips in his.

You’re fairly surprised and whilst you’re very aware of Amelia standing there watching this all unfold in front of her eyes, when Matty’s lips are on yours and your tongues meet, you’re completely drunk on him.

His hips press into yours making you let out a small gasp that makes him smirk but you’re both so desperate to keep the moment going for as long as it can last and enjoy every second of it that you don’t break it.

Your fingers are tangled in his curls, tugging on them with an increasing force from how mischievous this all feels.

It’s only when you’re both sure you’re gonna start hurting from the lack of oxygen that you separate and that’s when it also hits you what he’s just done so you narrow your eyes at him with intentions of scorning him.

“You-”

“Cheeky, I know.” Matty grins with trouble written all over his face, but his expression then falls soft to tell you sincerely, “I’ll miss you.”

You swear that if you weren’t trapped between him and his car, your legs would have failed you from hearing that. “I’ll miss you too.” It’s entirely sincere because it is insane the way he’s made you feel in such little time, it all hitting you even harder in the 12 hours you’ve just spent together.

“New years?” You ask and hold your pinky up in front of him.

Matty nods, linking his finger and kissing the end of the promise for you. “New year's, baby. See you then.”

You blush at his actions, completely overcome by how adorable he could be. Unfortunately, you know this is the end of your time with him for now, so you take a step back onto the curb, walking the small distance to Amelia and, once beside her, you watch as he unlocks his car.

As soon as Matty gets into his car, Amelia tells you, “I just took a picture of that and I’m going to show your whole family.”

“Bitch.” You shake your head at her before walking round her car to the passenger side, not letting her taunt you as you want the butterflies in your stomach to last as long as possible.

Just before you get into the passenger seat of Amelia’s car, you look back at Matty’s and you see he’s already looking at you with a huge grin on his face. The singer makes your heart melt once again though when he blows a big kiss at you.

This time you don’t hide how big your smile gets. Instead, you blow him a kiss right back which makes him give you a toothy grin. He gives you a wave as he starts up his car and you don't hesitate to wave back before you tear your eyes away from him.

Getting into Amelia’s car, you can wholeheartedly say you drive home for Christmas feeling the happiest you have in a long long time.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

| Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4 |

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A/N: We’re just edging everyone at this point hahaha, hope you enjoyed the new Part! The next will be posted on @alovesreading account again x

Taglist: @red---moon @drinkurkombucha @vinylandcoffeecollection @better--oblivions @kennedy-brooke @faveficz @indierockgirrl @slutformattyhealy @kmsmedine @cecefaith @benkidgenius @avasjunkpile @spicyraccoonlordking @lizzylynch1 @ofbluesandyellows @kipperthedog2004 @slutforcoffein @madamedesmond @iamhallucinationnn @imagines4peeps @siwiecola @eaglestar31 @neverlieliliac @olliewhinchester @internetmultifandomfangirl @wellwellhereiam @dania7361 @kurdtbean @mawanji @jazzymariexoxoc @picklesandsprinkles @home-of-disaster @maelialuv @londonalozzy @ker0senebunny @golden-hoax @thouarntsage @belledawnidk @confusedcrayon @how2understand @harringt8ns @sheisaaantisocial @brumantrack @real-actual-human-person @eddiemunsonsgroupie @hemmings8376 @darlingbravebelle @defnotgracee @fabulouslyflamboyant5 @deamus-liv @itsjustsocialimplications

Please let either of us know if you want to be added to the Taglist x

(Not sure why some tags aren’t working, send an ask or message one of us if we accidentally got it wrong.)

707 notes · View notes