#both got that deadpan humour no bullshit attitude about them

[killa-trav]

roy keane and mark webber would be besties if they met irl, can they meet pls for me???

[sunsetinmyvein]

I Know That I’ll Lose - Chapter Fourteen - Yeah, It’s You

It had been a few months since they’d agreed to give things between them a proper shot. It was almost debatable that the band were more excited about this development than Matty was. George especially, now that he was finally able to stop sitting through longing stares, angsty conversations and awkward flirting. Now at least it was just the awkward flirting. But so far, it was going very well for the two of them. Y/N/N started the new merch gig after having a couple of weeks at home to get her things together. She met back up with the band in London before being briefed on her new role and then setting out on her first working tour. As expected, it was a steep learning curve that was very fast paced. It was hard for them to train her in advance since almost everything had to be taught while on the job. Given how busy Matty frequently was, Jamie helped her out where he could with keeping the books in order and getting in contact with venues about staffing before they arrived. But she performed well under pressure, and this was no exception. She took to the role like a duck to water. Her friendships with the band only got stronger now that she was playing an active role in their operations. They already enjoyed having her around, and now she was proving herself to be an invaluable member of their tight knit team. Matty frequently found himself feeling rather proud of how quickly she’d adapted to the new lifestyle. Living on the road wasn’t easy, but it was a lot easier when they got to do it together.

 Notes on a Conditional Form dropped all of two hours ago and so far, the reaction had been mostly positive. A few people seemed to find the contrasting sounds throughout the album hard to deal with, and a few didn’t enjoy the amount of ambience, but Matty told himself that if they weren’t on board with that, then they probably shouldn’t be 1975 fans anyway. After immense amounts of hard work and many a few date pushbacks, it was finally out there in the public. They had decided to throw a small release party at George’s flat, inviting close friends, family, the usual 1975 crew and a few select people from the industry to celebrate. Once it was confirmed that the tracks had gone online without a hitch – and they’d listened to the album front to back – the party truly kicked off. Now that they knew the fans enjoyed it, the weight was lifted off the band’s shoulders. They could finally unwind a bit. Matty was already a few drinks in, his usual party attitude coming out in full swing tonight to rejoice at seeing his project come to fruition. He’d convinced the band to take shots whenever they heard their favourite track on the album. It turned out he had many favourites. Y/N/N was finding it nice to finally see him take a break. He’d been overworking himself for the last couple of months between being on tour and the album release coming up, but now, back at home, surrounded by his friends and family, he seemed relaxed at last. She was knocked out of her trance of staring at Matty mingling around the party by Ross calling her name, noticing her empty cup and suggesting that she go to the bar to get both herself and him a refill. Taking his cup with a nod, she headed towards the pop-up bar in the kitchen.

  “Can I get you a drink?” The bartender asked with a smile, leaning against the bar as she approached.

She took a seat, “Yeah, I wouldn’t mind a vodka and-” She started rattling off the order she had prepared in her head.

He let out a short laugh, interrupting her train of thought. “No, I mean like… somewhere else.” He paused as he waited for her to pick up the hint that he was dropping. “The two of us.” He continued.

Oh. Oh. The sudden offer caught her off guard, but she quickly regained composure, “Ah, thanks but no thanks.” She said with a polite smile.

“I’m sure I could show you a good time.” He pressed.

“I’m not.” She shot back. He frowned at that. “And I think that Matty might have a few things to say about that.”

“Who?” He scoffed, still trying to play it cool. She gestured to the promotional poster hanging on the wall behind the bar.

“Uh, second from the left, the one with the curly hair.” She watched as the bartender’s face visibly paled while he studied the poster. A few nonsensical syllables tumbled out of his mouth before he excused himself from the bar and walking back inside looking very flustered. She chuckled under her breath.

  She saw out of the corner of her eye as her boyfriend leaned against the counter next to where she was sitting at the bar. He took a drag on his cigarette before turning to her.

“What was that about?” Matty asked casually.

“I think you’ll have to watch yourself, Matty. I’ve got an admirer.” She warned him, gesturing in the direction that the guy had rushed off to.

“Oh, really?” He mused as he took a sip from his drink, his gaze following hers. “What makes you so sure?” He added as he looked back to her.

“He tried to seduce me.” She confirmed with a nod.

“The nerve.” He gasped. “Did he succeed?” He asked, the humour evident in his eyes.

“Oh, for sure.” She deadpanned. “It’s all set up and ready to go. We’re meeting at midnight.” She answered.

“Well�� Can’t fault his taste.” Matty shrugged before leaning down to kiss her briefly. “C’mon, grab a drink and let’s go find the guys.” He grinned.

  “Where’s my drink?” Ross frowned as the two of them walked back over to the little spot in George’s backyard that the band had claimed as theirs. She handed him one of the two bottles of beer she had grabbed instead.

“The bar wasn’t open.” She lied, hearing Matty laugh quietly beside her. The five of them continued bullshitting for a while, yapping on about the reviews coming in online and the people who passed them by throughout the party. After a little while Matty found his glass to be oddly empty.

“You should go get me another drink.” The lead singer stated seriously, holding his empty glass out to his girlfriend. There was a bit of a drunken slur to his words but she knew from experience that he was still quite a few drinks away from being wasted.

“You’re not the boss of me.” She frowned. He leaned against her, humming in contemplation.

“Last time I checked, I thought I kind of was?” He pointed out with a loud laugh.

She opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to think of a comeback to that, only to come up empty. He was right, he pretty much was her boss. “Shut up.” Was the best she could muster in the end, earning a smug grin from him. “Also, if I go back over to the bar that handsome gentleman might just steal me away from you.” She reminded him. He nodded in agreement at that.

“That’s true.” He resigned with a sigh. “Then I’m gonna go get another drink.” Y/N/N watched as he stood up from the couch and started making his way to the bar. Only to look on helplessly as a beer bottle flew across the living area and collided with the side of Matty’s head instead of the bin it was intended for.

  George and Y/N/N had both seen the incident that seemed to go unnoticed by the rest of the party and jumped up instantly to help him. The bottle shattered as it hit the floor next to him, which caught the attention of a few other people. Matty spewed a loud string of curses as his hand instantly flew to the area of impact, cradling it as he kept walking to the bar.

“Bloody hell. Are you okay?” George asked urgently as he rushed over.

“Matty, sit down.” She urged, pulling on his arm to get him to sit back down on the couch.

“It’s fine, guys.” He said as he shrugged them both off. “I’ll just get my drink and be back in a minute.”

“You just copped a bottle to the head, mate.” The drummer said, feeling the need to restate it as if the matter hadn’t figuratively (and literally) sunk through his skull yet. “You shouldn’t be drinking more right now.”

“Really, it’s not a big deal.” He huffed as he continued on his way to the kitchen.

“Matt-” George tried to reason with him, but he only kept walking. He figured he could leave him in Y/N/N’s trusty hands as she followed after him.

“Will you stop for a second?” She asked, the concern evident in her tone.

He spun around to face her, “I’m fine.” He spat back angrily as he scratched at the side of his head. As he lowered his hand, the two of them both saw the blood on his fingers. He wiped it away quickly on his jeans. “It’s not as bad as it looks-” He argued as he tried to move away again.

“Can you please just listen to me?” She begged as she caught his arm, trying her best to stop him.

“It’s really nothi-”

She grabbed the tie around his neck, yanking it down so that he was eye level with her. His eyebrows shot up in surprise at her force. This was potentially quite serious and she was done being polite about it. “Matty.” She said through gritted teeth. “Bathroom. Now.”

“Yes. Sorry.” He mumbled, still wide-eyed and concerned as he let her lead him towards the nearest bathroom.

  She pulled him down the corridor through to the guest bathroom. As she pushed him inside, she locked the door behind them to give her enough time to properly examine how bad his wound was. “You, here.” She ordered as she jumped up to sit on the vanity to be taller than him, instructing him to stand in front of her under the light. Carefully, she moved his hair aside to try and find where the impact was. As she parted his hair around the injury he hissed loudly in pain.

“Be careful.” He grumbled.

“Didn’t you literally just say ‘it’s not that bad’?” She mocked, seeing how deep the cut was. It didn’t appear to be too serious, but it was hard to tell with how thick his hair was. The wound was still bleeding enough for it to be concerning. “You might need stitches.” She added.

“Don��t want stitches.” He debated.

“It’s not about if you want them-”

“Don’t you always talk about how much you love my hair? They’d have to shave it to give me stitches.” He retaliated. She didn’t reply, making him laugh lightly. He winced as the vibration of it hurt his head a bit. After some slight shuffling around on the counter, she pulled her phone out of her pocket.

“Look here.” She said as she gestured to the torch on her phone. He did as she told him, looking into the bright light. She was no doctor, but she had enough common sense and past experience to know that they shine a light in your eyes to check that your pupils dilate correctly, and if they don’t, you’ve likely got a concussion. His seemed to be responding fine. That was good, at least.

  He looked up at her through his mess of hair pulled into his eyes as she worked away at cleaning his injury. It tugged on his heart strings a bit. This girl truly cared about him, and had done since they’d met. She worried about his personal space the day after they’d met at the café, she worried about him after that shitty interview he’d had, she worried about him when he got sick on tour, when he wasn’t in a good mood, when he was overworked, when he got a bottle thrown at his head. He’d done very little until recently to earn her attention and concern, and yet she’d given it to him anyway. Even when he was a complete dickhead she still pulled through for him. Fucking hell. What had he done to end up with someone like that in his life? His heart swelled as he remembered the last time that she’d been in London with him, when she had agreed to take the job and - for whatever reason that he still wasn’t quite sure of - to date him.  

“Hey,” He called, trying to grab her attention. She mumbled a noise of response. “I love you.” He said bluntly. He stayed quiet, patiently holding out for a reply, but she just kept examining his scalp. “Aren’t you gonna say it back?” He asked eventually.

She let out a deep sigh, pushing his hair back out of his eyes. “For fuck’s sake. Of course, I love you, Matty.” She huffed as she moved back to meet his gaze. Despite the instantly overwhelming feeling of joy, he waited for her to continue. “What I don’t love is you being stubborn about things like having a head wound.” She said with a pointed look. “But I’ve been steadily falling harder for you since you conned me into seeing you again after that first show.” She chuckled, leaning her forehead against his.

  “I wouldn’t say I conned you.” He argued with a grin. “More… allowed you the opportunity you were clearly dying for.” He rephrased. She shook her head but couldn’t help the goofy smile and blush that found its way onto her features.

“Sure, if that’s how you wanna remember it.” She shrugged, moving her hands to his shoulders. She was satisfied for now that he was probably going to be fine.

“Well, I knew I was falling for you when you got up and jumped around on stage with me that first day.” He said with a cocky tone to his voice.

She gave a loud laugh at that. “No, you damn well didn’t.”

“How do you know?” He scoffed.

“I do talk to the rest of the band. You know that, right?” She asked. He nodded, laughing slightly. “And it’s not a competition, anyway.”

“Everything’s a competition, love. You know that.” He said lowly, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer to the edge of the counter.

  He brought a hand up to her cheek as he pulled her lips down to meet his. It seemed that no matter how many times she kissed Matty, it still hit her just as hard as the first time she had. Or perhaps even harder given that her brain was slightly foggy the first time. Every time their lips met it pushed her nervous system into overdrive. She brought a hand up to his hair, forgetting that he had a gash on the side of his head and accidentally pulling the hair near it. He hissed in pain for a second, getting a muffled ‘sorry’ in response as she moved her hand. But he used her distraction as an excuse to deepen the kiss and edge her closer along the counter to him. The thing was that Matty was right, everything was always a competition with him. And she had learned that this particular competition involved who was going to back out first. Theoretically, the competition didn’t really have a loser per se, but she knew all too well where this was going. People would probably come looking for them soon to check in on how he was doing.

  She pulled away from him slightly, feeling like the temperature in this room had increased a few degrees in the last couple of minutes. “Are you just trying to get in my pants?” She accused him with a frown.

“Depends, is it working?” He challenged, moving in to kiss her again.

“I’m not fucking you in a stranger’s bathroom.” She said as she moved away.

“It’s George’s bathroom.” He shot back.

“That’s not what you’re meant to take away from that.” She laughed.

“But it is what I’m taking away from that.” He argued, raising his eyebrows with a suggestive grin. She rolled her eyes.

“Later.” She smiled, hopping down from the counter and stepping around him.

“Is that a promise?” He asked mischievously as he followed her out of the bathroom.

  As the party started winding down, things began getting quieter in the house. The guests made their way home, bottles were tidied up, the music was switched off. Eventually the five usual crew found themselves sitting in George’s lounge room watching a movie to close out the evening. It was nice to round out such a momentous occasion with something so simple. The drinks had stopped now, the chatting between them had become pretty infrequent, the friends happy to sit in the comfort of the TV. It wasn’t until Matty’s eyes started slipping shut that the conversation picked up again. “You’re not allowed to fall asleep.” Y/N/N said as she nudged his shoulder.

“But it’s three in the morning.” Matty groaned.

“You might have a concussion; you need to stay awake for at least a bit longer.” Adam reminded him.

“My head hurts.” He complained loudly, rolling over to press his face into the couch.

“Because you have a concussion” Ross chimed in.

“No, it’s because the music in this movie is awful.” He huffed, jabbing an accusatory finger towards the screen. “Who scored this shit?”

“I’m fairly certain it’s because you copped a bottle to the head, Matt.” George said with a laugh.

  “I could score something way better than this.” Matty continued, opting to ignore everyone’s concern and continue on his own tangent. That piqued everyone’s interest.

“Oh?”

“Yeah!” He shouted as he sat up, suddenly motivated. “I could write for an Oscar winning movie by… 40.” He declared, before quickly changing his mind. “No! 35.” He amended.

“There is no way you can do that.” Ross said with a sigh, shaking his head. “You’re already 31.”

“Not in between all your other shit you take on.” George added.

“I absolutely can.” He argued defiantly.

“Matty, that’s a bit ridiculous.”

“I could score a movie, and it’ll win awards for its soundtrack.” He said with a scoff, sweeping his arms in a grand motion to emphasise his point.

“Bet you can’t.” She said simply with a shrug. Those words shot through him like a bolt of electricity. The challenge felt like his brain had just kicked up a gear. But when he looked across the couch at her, the look in her eyes told him she knew exactly what she was doing.  

“Just fucking watch me.”

  Last Chapter

A/N - Annnnnd that’s it! I hope you guys enjoyed reading it half as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you so, so much for the support each week - it has made my day each and every time. It’s a shame that this story had to end… but… when one door closes, another opens, right? So as much as my Matty fic has reached it’s end, my good friend Red__Moon’s is just beginning! I’ve had the absolute pleasure of a sneak preview of a few of these chapters and phwoa… if you thought mine was any good? You are gonna be in for a wild ride, my friend. It’s another slowburn, so you’ve got another good few weeks of Matty-based-reading ahead! Thanks again for your endless kind words.