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imagine-that-100 · 1 year

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Chicken Shop Date

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: 18.3k

A/N: Okay so, Matty’s chicken shop date really had me and @alovesreading spiralling so we decided to make an even better version of the date. This will more than likely be 2 parts and the second part will be posted on A’s account so make sure you’re all following. We wrote this in like 53 hours and we’re super proud of it. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do, and we can’t wait to see what you think. Enjoy and thanks for reading x

| N’s Masterlist | A’s Masterlist |

Going on chicken shop dates with your favourite celebrities at one point in your life seemed like something entirely plucked from yours and your best friend’s imaginations. You guess that is all it was at one point, but you never for a second imagined it would become your job.

It’s a stupid, fun idea that you and your best friend Amelia ran with and now you’ve gone on ‘dates’ with some of the biggest stars on the planet. It was beyond your wildest dreams and it’s opened up so many opportunities for the both of you that somehow, you’re now both invited to big events that these stars also attend.

You and Amelia were both at the NME awards earlier this year, surrounded by musical legends that the both of you knew you needed to try and ask on your ‘dates’. The amount of award shows the both of you were asked to host their red-carpet shows were also insane to the both of you.

The imposter syndrome really kicks in for the both of you when you’re at these events but you both remind yourselves to use your fake confidence that you use on your ‘dates’ and it somehow gets you through. But you wouldn’t ever take for granted the opportunities the both of you were getting now.

Both of your calendars were full with work that you never imagined possible for either of you. And you’d been on dates with people like Finneas, Yungblud, KSI, and a bunch of other cool celebrities. Amelia had some good ones along the way too, and it’s been quite funny sometimes when you would argue amongst yourself of who would get the date.

Quite early on in your and Amelia’s chicken shop dates, both of you decided that you would go on separate dates with the celebrities that agreed to them. A way to keep each episode fresh with similar but ultimately different personalities as the both of you awkwardly flirt your way into getting celebrities to lower their guard and play off you.

Both of you were so happy when it worked, and you thought it would just be a fun side project for the both of you. But the guests kept getting bigger and bigger and you were able to quit your shit job because now you were earning a very comfortable living and you have so many opportunities that years ago you could only have dreamt of.

It was at the NME awards back in February that your date today was arranged. Both you and Amelia saw that event as a way you could ask people to come on your show. And whilst you were tasked with trying to make a drunk Sam Fender agree to come on the show, Amelia went straight for Matty Healy because she knew you wouldn’t have the balls to do it.

Amelia was the one person who knew just how much you enjoyed the 1975’s music and how much you have done for years. Subsequently, she liked their music too because you used to never stop playing it, but she was definitely a lot more chill about them than you.

That night at the NME awards was something Amelia truly believed she’d never forget though. When you’d gone off to talk to Sam, she went and introduced herself to Matty before sitting at his table.

It really took her no time at all to get Matty to agree to a chicken shop date as he already knew about the show and how it usually goes down. Matty agreed on the spot and he told her that they were going to release their new album sometime in October so it would have to be close to then for promo reasons.

Of course, Amelia was used to this as album promo was the reason why she’d got dates with other music artists in the past, so it made sense. And Amelia would do anything to make it work because she wanted you to have this experience of going on one of your dates with someone you actually fancy.

But what made your best friend really have to hold her grin back was when Matty asked, “Is it going to be you or Y/N doing it?”

Amelia is about to say that he can choose if he wants to but that it’ll more than likely be you doing it. But Matty answers his own question and asks again, “No offence to you, but can Y/N do it?”

“Course, I’ll be in touch.” Ameila tells him before wishing him a good night and going back to her table to get herself another drink.

By the end of that night, you both made the rounds and came back with a nice long list of people that had agreed to go on dates with you both. But considering Amelia went home with Aitch that night, she didn’t tell you about securing the date with Matty straight away.

And even when she did and you had a small, tiny meltdown over it, she kept to herself that Matty asked for the date to be with you. You just assumed that she was letting you have this date because you’ve loved the band for the longest time and she’ll let you carry on thinking that, for now. She doesn’t plan on telling you that Matty asked for you personally until after you date.

When the enquiry officially came through for the chicken shop date, Matty was quite excited about it going in his calendar. In his free time, Matty had seen a few of both of your dates.

Of course, he’d seen the ones that truly gave the both of you, your now viral audience. The Louis Theroux one got the rap going viral, so that lifted your platform up even more. Not to mention the ones where Amelia went on dates with Jack Harlow and Aitch, because she lost her composure and didn’t fully maintain her cool, unbothered character.

But in the UK the two of you definitely became well known when Amelia and Aitch started their little romance that had all stemmed from their date. Matty planned on asking what actually happened when he had his own chicken shop encounter though. But he had to admit, he was glad that it was confirmed that he would be going on his own chicken shop date with you.

It may be superficial of him to admit, but he finds you more attractive than Amelia. You really are a gorgeous girl in Matty’s eyes, and he thinks going on a date with someone he actually somewhat finds attractive will be a win for both of you. From the episodes of the show he’d seen, he thinks that you are also funnier, and he has no doubt that he’ll be able to play off you well when he’s in the hot seat on the other side of the table from you.

He met you earlier on that night at the NME Awards, before Amelia had collared him for a date, and you were even prettier in person than you were on camera. Funnier too when you weren’t in character. You told him that night that you really appreciated his music and he told you that he liked the show, but your encounter was cut short because his girlfriend came on stage to perform so he had to go and watch her.

You didn’t see each other for the rest of that night, but he was glad when Amelia came over and asked if he’d be up for a date. Initially, he thought it was a bit of a weird thing for him to agree to when he’s literally attending an event that his girlfriend is also here for, but he was really proud of his new album and wasn’t going to pass on some promo for it.

Matty would say he certainly relaxed about the date a little more when he realised it was coming up and he was freshly single. Whilst he was still a little down in the dumps about yet another failed relationship, he was excited to actually play off you on this date properly. He could freely flirt without any guilt to come with it and he was excited for it.

And today’s date seemed to creep up on the both of you all at once.

Standing outside the chosen Chicken Inn this time has you unable to stay still. After doing this for so long, the nerves were something you were used to, and you had been able to learn to keep under control but knowing that Matty was the one who would walk in at any moment was making you feel like it was your first ever date.

Usually for your dates, both you and Amelia researched your guests to get the best out of the jokes you’d make. However, you’ve known everything there is to know about The 1975 since you were 19 years old, you did absolutely no research at all for this. All you did was prep funny little gags you could make, in hopes to make the episode funny. But that hasn’t stopped your nerves at all.

You glance at Amelia, a slight hint of panic in your eyes that she didn’t miss. She blows you a kiss and gives you a tight lip smile that has you thanking everything for being able to do this with your best mate.

But that relief only lasts a few seconds as you all hear the heavy door being pushed open and you see the musician walk in as he closes his umbrella with Jamie, his manager, walking closely behind him.

Amelia and the crew are quick to greet them with “Hello!” and smiles, but the words die in your mouth.

You watch the two guests waving at everyone, to then hug Amelia and when it’s your turn to greet them, you slowly rise up from your seat.

Jamie goes first so you smile as you accept his handshake. Handshakes you could do, is what you think but when it’s Matty’s turn you feel yourself getting nervous again as he looks you up and down with a smirk before hugging you.

You were wearing heels which made you a few inches taller than him, so he decides to wrap his arms around your waist and rub your back whilst you hug him over the shoulders.

It was a surreal moment for you, to say the least, and it all gets even harder to believe when Matty says, “You look amazing Y/N.” in your ear.

You find yourself looking at Amelia for he had said that loud enough for everyone to hear and when your eyes fall on her, you see her smirking at you. You had a cheetah print top on, red leather pants and a red bandana tied around your wrist. It had been an idea you and Amelia had to dress up like the girl in the Robbers music video just for the laughs, and you had expected a joke about it not a compliment. However, you’re not even sure if it’s just a compliment or if he’s clicked that you’re dressed like this on purpose.

When you let go of each other, you look down at him and smile, “Thank you, so do you.” And it’s maybe the whole situation that has you clouding your better judgement because your hand goes to pet Matty on top of his head and he rolls his eyes.

That only makes you laugh though, his smile creeping through as he tries to act annoyed at you only making your cheeks feel warm.

You signal him to sit in the chair across from you and he obliges, handing his umbrella to Jamie and sighs when he looks up at you.

“So, the chicken shop date…” Matty trails off, adjusting his tie and then brushing his hair back with his right hand. A small strand of it falling on his forehead making you bite the inside of his cheek to not smile as big as you want to.

You nod, “The chicken shop date, exactly. Are you ready?”

Someone from the crew places your chicken boxes in front of you two, and he watches as you give them a sweet smile and thank them. It was interesting seeing you not being blunt and awkward like in the videos.

Usually, you tend to encourage your guests to start eating before the camera’s start officially rolling just to get them comfortable. And you do the same now with Matty, he’d already told you that chicken nuggets and chips, like what you eat on your various dates was fine, so you both start slowly scranning on that as you prepare him for how the interview usually plays out.

Briefly you go over what he already knows, that you’re not meaning to be rude about anything when you put your character on. It’s not that you’re not interested or not impressed by what he’s saying, it's just the unbothered, chill character you put on. And once Matty seems settled enough with you, you give the nod to your crew and get things going.

But what shocks Matty is when the director tells you they’re rolling, it's like a flip is switched. You stare down at him with a challenging expression, like you’re trying to get him to break and say something.

Only he stares back at you, trying to have you break first, but you won’t give him that. So, you lean to your side and pull out a bottle of Volvic strawberry flavoured water.

Placing it on the table, you see a massive grin break on his face as he reaches for it. You have to try and not beam at him yourself.

“Do you- Do you know about that bit? Is this an in-joke?” Matty asks, managing to keep his chill composure back.

You frown, “Is it- The what?” instead of smiling like you desperately want to.

“That I like this?” He plays with the bottle, glancing from it to you and back.

You shrug, acting all proud of yourself for the reaction you got from him. “I know.”

Matty giggles, “How’d you know that?”

Your smile manages to break through a little and you look from him to the camera to make it seem more awkward. “I just know you like that. I know your likes, your dislikes…”

“It’s like Nardwuar.” He states, clearly amazed, really thinking about how you and Amelia managed to find this out. Maybe you had reached out to one of the lads, that had to be it.

After opening your can of Tango, you bring up your can so he can clink it with his bottle, “Cheers.”

Matty does, saying, “Cheers,” as well and when you take a sip of your beverage keeping your eyes on him, you’re baffled at how this was all happening.

“You know you were late, right?” You point out after you feel like you’ve had enough of your drink.

He frowns, “No I wasn’t.”

You raise your eyebrows, unimpressed and call him out further. “That’s rude. You don’t do that on the first date.”

“I was like five minutes over time.” Matty looks at everyone behind the cameras and then back at you, as if he was trying to make sure people would back him.

You pick at your chips, fighting back. “More like quarter past.”

“It was Jamie’s fault.” Matty settles for saying, like that would make it look better.

“Why are you trying to blame someone else, I know it was your own fault.” You make a show of staring at his hair, trying to silently tell him you knew his hair took him a long while to perfect like he wanted to.

“There was traffic.” He uses it as a second excuse but you’re not having it.

“You live like ten minutes away.” You out him, “You must have set off at the time you were meant to arrive if that was the case.”

Matty asks a little worriedly, “How do you know that?”

Instead of answering, you out him like you want to, “So, how long did it take you to get ready for this date?”

Matty fully ignores your intentions to make him admit he took long to get ready and calmly switches the direction of the inquiry. “I'd like to say that I kinda dressed for the occasion but this is kinda how I dress.”

“How you dress, or how your stylist dresses you?” You use a chip to point at him.

“Isn't that the same?” At this point, Patricia and him were always talking about fashion and clothes so she didn’t even need to dress him for these types of press events, he could do it himself and know it was good and she would approve.

“It looks like you're going to a funeral.” you state with a blank face to tease him but he gives you nothing.

“Maybe I am.” Matty swiftly plays along.

So you try a different approach to have him show some emotion. “Speaking of funerals… You’re old.”

That gets him instantly, his frown so deep it almost makes you burst out laughing. “No, I’m not.”

“You are, like very old.” You insist, slowly nodding your head.

Matty sighs, “No, I am not. I was born in 198–”

But you talk over him to continue with your gag, “So you were born in 1975.”

“No.” He plainly responds, with an exasperated look on his face.

You proceed to add more to it, “You know Liz Truss was born in 1975, and DJ Khalid so you're in good company.” The slight shrug of your shoulders has him slowly turning to everyone around you two.

“I was born in the 80s.” Matty feels the need to remind everyone in the room, looking at them all and not you.

So you keep pushing it, “Yeah you were born in the 80s, keep telling yourself.” You pout at him when he turns back around to face you.

His voice raises in volume just a notch, “I was born in the 80s. I was born in 1989 and I'm still young and relevant.”

There’s a few beats of silence when you’re just staring at him with a straight face. Then you just let out a tiny sigh and say, “Sure.”

Matty has to bite his tongue. You played it so well, and the way you could so easily get on his nerves like that was making him look at you more intently. It's much more different seeing you act like this in a video than having you doing it in front of him.

He's loving every second and the date has only just started.

“You have new music coming soon.” You decide to open the conversation back up with a topic that actually really interests you but you have to take it into a different direction.

“I do.” Matty nods, flicking the salt from the chips off his fingers.

You wait to swallow the bite of chicken you had in your mouth to continue with your teasing, this time hiding it behind showing interest on his upcoming album. “So ‘Being funny in a foreign language’, is that right?”

Matty only nods, eating some of his nuggets so you continue with your bit. “Can you be funny in a foreign language?”

He rolls his eyes, swallowing his food to clear things up for you. “It’s not meant literally. It came from–”

You don’t even allow him to explain, you just plainly interrupt him. “I can be funny in a foreign language.”

He unscrews his bottle and raises an eyebrow at you. “What? Like tell a joke?”

You don’t even tell him yes, you just start speaking Spanish. And you know it’s not a joke what you’re gonna tell him but he wouldn’t know. “¿Sabes que me gustaría hacer?” (Do you wanna know what I would like to do?)

“What?” Matty asks blissfully unaware that he was answering your question.

“Me encantaría quitarte ese traje en este momento.” (I would love to take that suit off right now.) You smirk at him, biting on a chip and trying not to laugh at his naive excited expression because he had no idea what you had just said.

Amelia cackles, making Matty giggle in front of you. You feel his soft kick on your feet to encourage you to tell him, “What was that then?”

You sit up straighter, staying smug at how you just very honestly flirted with him and he doesn’t have a clue. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“I would.” Matty nods eagerly, and his face softens in an attempt to push you to come clean. As if his puppy eyes would break you, and they could but you had to commit to your job.

You pout in fake pity then, “It’s a shame we don’t always get what we want.”

He turns it on you, “You got me on a date with you, haven’t you?”

And you play along as sarcastically as you can, “Oh yeah, ‘cause I’m so in love with you.”

Matty laughs at that, you’re really good at staying in character. “Am I even your type?” He teases, trying to get more hints from you.

“You’re here so you have to be.” You state quite simply, and he sees the honesty in your eyes. “I’m quite picky actually.”

Something inside of him sparked but he tries to continue to play it cool. “See, I didn’t think I’d be your type.” Because Matty truly didn’t think he would be, if he only knew you were having cold sweats from being sat in front of him.

“Well, you are when you have the curls out. Not that much right now.” You eye him up and down, keeping a straight face. He looks so incredibly good though, it’d be a lie that you weren’t finding him fit as fuck at the moment. But it wasn’t a lie that his curls had always made you feel some type of way.

Matty scoffs, “You don’t like the gel?”

You contort your face to exaggerate your fake disagreement. “No, you’re not 2013 Alex Turner. I prefer the curls.”

He frowns deeply, “2013 Alex Turner?”

“Yeah, you know with the whole greaser slick back hair,” You mimic combing back your hair like Danny Zuko would in Grease and when Matty shakes his head you sigh defeatedly. “Not important. The real question is do you have a type?”

He takes a small pause, “Erm, well, I’m straight.”

“Yawn.” You reply quickly and roll your eyes.

Matty hunches a little bit and narrows his eyes at you, “You’re not?”

“No, I'm not boring like you... Anyway, so, you're straight?” You turn it back around to him, in any other setting he would try and get more out of you but glancing up and seeing the camera had him get back in character and continue talking about himself.

Matty remembers the never-ending conversation that is all over social media so he frowns annoyed, “Yeah, that's been up for debate.”

“Has it?” You frown, knowing full well it has because you’ve definitely questioned his sexuality privately before now, but you play dumb and uninterested.

“Yeah, well for a little bit, on Twitter and stuff. Just wanna say that.” He waves his hand around dismissing the relevance of said debate.

You smile then at the very lame play of words that come up to your mind, “You’re setting the record straight.”

“I’m setting the record straight.” Matty repeats, stealing a glance at the camera before looking back at you, “So, girls.”

“So just any kind of girl?” You ask for clarification, knowing you’d get something funny out of him.

He stutters for a bit until he finds his words, “But I do like hot women, hot girls.”

“Yeah,” You shake your head like you're unimpressed but equally you agree, “I know you like hot girls, yeah.”

“That's alright.” Matty adds calmly, not seeing anything inherently wrong with admitting that.

You give him an up and down, and then tilt your head slightly to the side as in disapproval, “Quite predictable, I think.”

“You know, you’ve gotta enjoy your life.” Matty goes for a chip as he stands his ground, and you look very closely at his every move.

“Yeah I know, I like hot girls too.” You agree entirely, but you grimace when you ask, “But what about funny, what about interesting?”

The chip he puts in his mouth is sticking out the side of it while he agrees with the point you’re trying to make, “Oh yeah, funny and interesting is cool.”

“Yeah, yeah but hot is better?” You watch him nod as he fully eats the chip.

His nods don’t stop, “Hot is definitely the most important thing.”

You avert your eyes then, feeling yourself about to break character. It’s getting to you how bizarre this whole situation is and how your job is to flirt with the man you’ve fancied for almost a decade. What is your life?

You half heartedly smile, sounding offended and uninterested as you say, “Okay, that's great.”

“Listen, you're gorgeous.” He states quickly, staring at you while he brings the bottle up to his lips.

You very quickly interject, “But am I hot?”

“Yeah, you’re hot,” Matty’s quick answer almost makes you lose your cool but you somehow maintain it. Matty’s about to take a drink when he continues, “But I'm going on tour for a very long time.”

“What, so you're not available?” You ask, like it’s an inconvenience to you.

“Like I said before,” Your date reminds you, “I didn't think I would be your type.”

You sigh like you’re already tired of reminding him he is definitely your type, “You’re literally on the other side of the table on a date with me, Matty.”

His eyebrows raise and the corners of his lips fall as he nods, “I did agree to it.”

You smile at him then, a soft one that has all of his attention drawn on you. “And if you stop gelling your hair I'll agree to see you when you get back from tour or, you know, I could come along and be your… Groupie.”

He holds back his laughter, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he does so and you can’t ignore the way your tummy flutters at the sight so your lips slightly raise in a smile. “For a second, I genuinely felt a flirt before you did that bit.”

“What no.” You half smile and your composure breaks seconds after he does.

Matty nods, a smile on his lips, “That was actually a thing.”

“No I was,” You try to come back from it but you’re slightly too flustered, “Was good.”

You desperately want to smile at his smile. But thankfully you muster up enough to make your face blank again even though the man across the table for you is making it hard.

“I get it now,” Matty leans back in his seat and smiles, “So you actually do flirt with people.”

“Yeah, I'm like a really good flirter. That's one of my special… Skills that I can do…” And you don’t know why you say it because you know you’ll embarrass yourself, but you can’t stop yourself from adding, “Amongst other things.”

“Other things?” Matty grins at that, and raises his eyebrows, clearly interested as he asks, “Like what?”

You take a deep breath to stop the smile that's pulling on the corner of your lips, but to give an answer but also not give an answer, you push your tongue to your cheek and tilt your head to the side a bit.

Matty smirks at that and gives you knowing eyes. But thankfully he doesn’t tease you more because he just crosses his arms and leans forward to rest them on the table before asking you, “Did Amelia actually go out with Aitch?”

And you lose all composure and burst out laughing after a few silent seconds of staring at his cute grin.

Making you lose yourself has Matty’s grin getting even bigger. Regardless of him knowing that this would be a part you cut from the final edit of the date, he had broken your character for the briefest of moments and it was joyous for him to see.

He endeavours to do it again before your date is over.

“We can talk about that later.” You promise him, as you get your cool again.

Matty watches as you slip back into your character and your shoulders relax as you pick up another one of your chips to continue the date. He’s impressed by the ease in which you switch back and how you could just pick up where you left off like nothing had happened.

Getting back to your food, you ask him before having another chip, “What do you think is like your least attractive trait that you have?”

It surprises you just how quickly Matty replies, “Probably my personality?”

But you have to hide it, agreeing with him like it was the most factual statement he’d ever said, “Mmm yeah.”

“Yeah.” He agrees along with you.

“Speaking of your big personality…” You lead on to the next gag you want to make, because there’s no way you’re doing a purposefully awkward interview and not bringing up the fact he’s still not done something.

You continue to tell him, “We saw you at Reading. Amelia and I.”

He hums and takes a gulp of his drink, “Did you like the set?”

You force yourself to act like you hadn’t screamed every lyric of his from the very start until they left the stage. “It was alright.” You shrug, looking down to grab another chip, “You didn’t play my favourite.”

“Which is?” Matty was intrigued now, he would’ve guessed he had definitely played everyone’s favourites that night.

“Antichrist.” Your eyes don’t leave him so you see the way his face falls.

His eye roll and groan was automatic, “Oh for fucks sake.” he swears under his breath.

You also add another controversial moment that you remember the press had gone wild over, “And Amelia didn’t like the spit on the camera.”

Matty catches onto the mention of only your best mate to tease you, “Only Amelia didn’t like it?” And when you nod, he smirks, “So you enjoyed it?”

You shrug with a blank expression on, giving absolutely nothing away, “Maybe.”

And before Matty can say anything during this now hilariously funny awkward silence that you’re trying not to smile at, you move the subject quickly on.

You take a breath before you say, “You’ve tweeted about doing a podcast.”

“Yeah.” Matty confirms.

But without missing a beat, you plead, “And I was gonna say, like, please don't.”

“Yeah, no, it’s probably good advice.” Matty says after a little giggle.

“You’d just make it all about yourself and we just don’t need that. Society would be good without… more.” Your hand awkwardly moves in the air as you try to point at him.

Matty fully ignores the insult so he can flirt again, liking the way you were forcing your smile back just a minute ago. “I reckon you’d make a great podcast.”

A smile breaks out on your face, and your hand comes up to your chest as you reply, “Oh, why, thank you.”

Nodding, he continues to reassure. “You have a nice voice. You could actually have me paying attention to any topic you’d talk about.”

“Even if it’s just Kardashian gossip?” You try to keep it funny, ignoring the way his comments are making you feel.

His eyes don’t leave yours when he says, “If it’s you talking then I’d have it on constantly.”

You really hope you aren’t visibly flustered because that comment has certainly made you feel some type of way that you have to push every thought relating to it to the back of your mind. “Are you saying you want to hear my voice on a daily basis?”

“I wouldn’t hate it.” Matty shrugs with a smirk.

You have to subtly bite your bottom lip to keep your expression collected. “I’ll talk to my agent, we can arrange that.”

But Matty glances down at your lips when you do it and you catch him as he didn't meet your gaze until after you finished that sentence. Your heart skips a beat, he’s making you want to ask for a break.

So you raise an eyebrow at him, a silent questioning for his actions but Matty only keeps his smirk on his face which has you sighing and reaching out for a sip of your drink.

To get the conversation flowing again, you take from what he’d just said about paying attention and ask him, “What were you like in school? I can imagine you were a loud one.”

Matty chuckles and nods to confirm that one. But then he sighs as he starts giving you the details of a young Matty Healy, “I didn't really concentrate at high school cause I saw it in the way of, kind of, getting in the way of my… Visionary genius.”

“You've always been a genius, would you say?” You ask, eyebrows raised, fully playing along like you believe him.

“I wouldn't call myself a genius, I-”

Interrupting, you point out, “You just did.”

“Well, I described my… So yeah, I've always been a genius.” Matty concedes and lets the joke roll which has you unapologetically smiling at him.

“But, so school was annoying.” Matty raises his eyebrows when he asks you, “Imagine being a genius and having to go to school?”

Shake your head slightly, blankly stating but with the ghost of a smile tugging at your lips, you tell him, “I wouldn't have to imagine.”

There’s another few seconds that pass where you can tell just by the way your date is looking at you that he’s finding what you do impressive. And you can almost see the cogs working together in his brain so he can piece by piece get where he wants to lead this next.

But you’d never have imagined that he would come out and say, “I do genuinely find you quite attractive, to break the fourth wall.”

At this you really try to hold your smile, because hearing that is your teenage fantasy come true almost ten years later. You swear your heart starts beating faster and your stomach feels like it’s doing somersaults.

You can quite literally feel yourself screaming on the inside, not to mention Amelia’s eyes burning into the side of your head. Best friend telepathy is real as you’re sure you can feel her screaming at you inside her mind.

“It's a weird concept…” Matty looks from you to the crew and Amelia before back to you, “This is quite meta, this is kinda like high art.”

You smile and nod like he’s cracked an enigma, telling him plainly before taking a bite of a nugget, “Dating me is an art.”

Matty chuckles, “I’m sure it is.”

“So if you find me attractive,” You lean forwards a bit before you quote his song at him in an awful attempt to flirt like your character would, “How about we go, where nobody knows?”

“Oh wow,” Matty rolls his eyes, clearly understanding the reference but he’s far from impressed by it. Regardless though, he leans forwards as he plays along and sarcastically asks, “Shall I hide a gun under my petticoat?”

“Will it be a gun or will you just be pleased to see me?” You ask with a suggestive eyebrow raise before you eat the last bit of your chicken nugget.

Matty once again stares you down and as you chew your food you do exactly the same back to him. You’re not giving up after that great line and you can tell he’s dying to laugh. As are you really, but that’s just because he played right into your hands. You have this man right where you want him and he knows it.

However, you change up the game very quickly when you break eye contact to look down to grab another chip. When you meet those brown eyes of his again, you take a bite of your chip and state, “You're an Aries.”

All amusement falls from his face then and he visibly deflates, closes his eyes and sighs, “Oh god.”

“What? So are you not into astrology?” You ask like you can’t believe such a thing, but you knew this man so well, it was painfully obvious he hated it.

Matty looks at you with a face that’s begging you to be taking the piss. “Are you?”

“How do you know your big three then?” You remember that time he tweeted about his sun and moon sign.

So he rests his elbows on the table and leans on his hands to take a closer look at you. He’s smugly smirking as he asks, “You’ve been keeping up with my tweets?”

You don’t know how but you manage to stay still, hiding the fact that the new distance between you wasn’t making your heart rate rise. “They show up on my timeline from time to time.”

“I bet you have my notifications on.” Matty plainly states, a grin on his face.

You frown lightly, bringing back your teasing around. “You write some mad things there though.”

“Well that’s me, isn’t it? The same thing happens in my songs.” He shrugs as he pushes himself back to sit straight.

You hum, feeling calmer at the increase of distance. You ask like you don’t know each of his songs word for word, “Right… What’s that one about bursting into someone’s hand?”

“Part of the band.”

You snap your fingers and point at him, “That’s the one.” You bring in a joke then, to alleviate the tension you were feeling. ”You know, I prefer oat milk.”

It took everything in you to hold back the joke you actually wanted to make, about how he could burst into your hand anytime he wanted. That would have been one step too far considering you’ve only met him twice.

It takes him a minute to realise why you’ve said that but when he catches up on it, a snort leaves him and the sound makes you smile.

“That reminds me… Good for you.” You start back up, remembering something else from the song.

Matty’s face falls in confusion again, “What?”

“1400 days, 9 hours and 16 minutes? I wouldn’t be able to do it.” And whilst you’re actually really proud of him for that, you feel the need to make him laugh with a twist on the line.

He offers a tight lip smile, taking it very literally “Oh, thank-” But you interrupt him and finish your joke.

“You’re basically a virgin again.” You add, gasping slightly like it’s impressive.

Matty stays still for a few seconds before shaking his head, his expression showing how unimpressed he was about your joke. It’s not that it was too far though, or else he would’ve stopped you right there. “No that’s not-”

But you interrupt once more, “I’ll get you a purity ring next time I see you.” You promise with a smile, which has him shaking his head as he tries not to laugh.

You give yourself a few seconds to enjoy the moment and then you’re back resuming the conversation. “What’s your favourite lyric? That you’ve written?”

He sighs, trying to come up with an answer from the top of his head but he just can’t. “There's too many to remember. Do you have any favourites?”

He really is trying to get some more out of you even if it was through analysing your preferences on his music. And you do have favourites, but you’re not playing right into his hands.

You press your lips together before telling him like it pains you to reveal, “There's almost too many words.”

“Yeah,” Matty nods, “I tried to cut down on the too many words on this album.”

“Really?” You ask, and when he nods almost a little upset about it, you drive the point home by asking again, “Do people say, just please stop with the words.”

Matty fights the urge to chuckle, “To be honest, yeah.”

“Yeah.” You nod like you agree although inside you want to tell him to never stop.

“Because it does get a lot but I've been quite… okay, my favourite lyric at the moment is ‘I’m in love with you’.”

“Awh,” You smile sweetly at him, “Thanks.”

Matty put you in your place, “No, I wasn't talking to you. I was just saying-”

And because you knew that was coming, you ultimately have to shoot him down and scorn him, “That’s your favourite lyric you’ve ever written? ‘I'm in love with you’?”

Matty rolls his eyes at your tone, “I’m just trying to be earnest and open, and you've just said my lyrics are pretentious.”

You act annoyed at his victimisation, “I’m just saying out of all the lyrics to pick, you've chosen ‘I’m in love with you’ which anyone could say and people do say all the time.”

Matty smiles at that and simply says, “Exactly.”

Entirely unimpressed with that answer, you give him a disinterested look before asking, “So where’s George?”

He takes a sip of his flavoured water, looking up trying to genuinely think about an answer but he has nothing for you, “Not sure actually.”

“Why don’t you know where your best friend is?” Your face contorts, acting like his lack of knowledge on the matter was the most ridiculous thing.

But Matty frowns back at you, curious about the random inquiry. “Why do you want to know where my best friend is when you’re on a date with me?”

“Because I want to go on a date with his girlfriend.” You state calmly like the answer was as clear as day.

Matty continues to play offended, “And you're telling me this as you're on a date with me, why?”

“Because it could be a really nice pairing for us”

He tries to join the dots then, “For us? Like a double date.”

But you take him completely aback when you answer, “If a double date is in the bedroom then sureee...”

It was a miracle his jaw didn’t drop but he was frozen staring at you with a chip midair on the way to his mouth. “I didn’t take you for one to fuck on the first date.”

“Well you don’t know me, do you Matty?” You bite back, daring him with your eyes.

Matty was quick to talk back at you though, “You know me then Y/N?”

And you could say yes, because there’s a lot you can learn by following them for almost a decade but he didn’t need to know that.

“Touche.” Is what you say back, and you know he’s smirking at you but you’ve just let your eyes fall to your chicken box so you could take a little breather.

It seems that your date does the same because the both of you dig around your take out boxes for a brief moment. You absolutely love that you get paid to eat chicken nuggets and chips.

You decide to divert away from your prompts for a moment and ask him something you’re actually genuinely curious about, “Are you needy?”

“Yeah, we're all a bit needy.” Matty tells you honestly.

“Yeah.” You nod as you dig for another good chip, but as you do that you see Matty’s hand scoot towards your takeout box and you look up at him confused.

Pausing, you see as he awkwardly retracts his hand but then places it down again as if he’s not just been caught.

You whisper, trying not to let your amusement seep into your voice, “Did you just try and touch me?”

“Well I- I thought- There has to be a moment,” As Matty stumbles on his words you offer your hand out to him and bite the insides of your cheeks to stop from smiling as he continues, “So it's like, ‘I'm a bit needy’.” and you have to stop yourself from screaming when his warm had takes your cold one.

“See and now we-” Matty starts but you interrupt him.

“Your hand is warm, my hand is cold.” You almost gasp at how warm his hands are and you hold onto his hand a little tighter.

“See,” Matty takes your chilliness as proof that, “You're nervous.”

“I’m not nervous,” You lie through your teeth, although you’re sure nerves don't make you cold. “I’m deoxygenated.”

Matty looks a little repulsed when he checks, “You're deoxygenated?”

“Yeah.” You nod, “That’s what being cold is.”

Matty says nonchalantly, “That’s a turn off.” And he lets go of your hand.

“Oh sorry,” You scoff, offended like you had even a chance with him anyway. And you sarcastically add, “I’ll breathe better for you.”

Sarcasm drips from his voice, “Gee, thanks.”

“Why don't you just buy me some…” You trail off, not really knowing where to go with this now.

“What?” Matty asks, completely baffled, “Oxygen?”

“No, a heated blanket or something,” You add in a little flirt, “To keep us both warm.”

“Or some gloves.” He shoots you down again.

You pause for a second then before you release a disappointed sigh, “Alright then, I guess we won't cuddle later.”

“I’m just thinking about your other dates… They could get jealous and not come on.” Matty uses that as his out and you decide to play along for now.

You hum in agreement, “I suppose.”

As you pick up another chip, Matty asks you, “Is there anyone else, like Drake you've got like- Has like anyone else cool said they wanna go on a date with you.”

“Err.” You think about what's coming up on your calendar.

But Matty says, “This is kinda like your slut era.”

“Well,” You grin and nod excitedly, “I actually think in 2023 I'm going to be even more slutty.”

Matty slowly nods and is quiet for a second before he says, “Wow.”

There was a strict no referring to Matty’s recent ex girlfriend, FKA Twigs, in the brief for this interview but absolutely nothing about referring to the ones before that. So you go in hard with it.

“Really hoping to get Halsey on here.” You smile brightly, and you pick up your can of Tango and offer it to him as a ‘cheers’ as you say, “Congrats for making it to twenty-eight, by the way. Rude of her to think you wouldn’t.”

Matty knocks his bottle of Volvic against your can and you take a sip just after you admit, “You know, with you coming on this date, I was really hoping to experience that religion she chats about.”

You flirt proudly and you love the way he smirks back at you. But you deflate his massive ego when you tilt your head to the side and continue, “Little embarrassing you need those blue pills to help you though.”

Matty immediately shakes his head, defending himself quick, “That was not-”

“Don’t worry, I will be taking the piss for how she says lilac.” You interrupt in a very dry and disinterested voice. You look into his eyes and sadly nod, “I can see why that relationship didn’t work just from that.”

Matty maintains a straight face but you slowly see a smile creeping on those lips of his. You do him a favour and say something else before he breaks.

You sit up a little bit straighter, with an excited grin on your face as you tell him, “I also can’t wait for my date with Alex Turner now.”

“Oh, you got Alex Turner to agree to this?” Matty asks, genuinely surprised at hearing that name fall from your lips.

“Well, not yet,” You smile sweetly, “But seeing as the two of you both date the same women, I have faith.”

Matty pauses at that and you think you might have pushed it too far. And you really have to clench your teeth together to stop yourself from apologising too quickly or ruining the gag. Because you found that fucking hilarious and you’re really hoping he would have done too.

But this long pause he’s doing where he’s just staring you down has you worried. And you don’t think you’ve ever felt relief like it when he breaks and smiles.

“That was a low blow.” Matty grins and he scorns you as he points a chip at you before he eats it and both of you laugh, needing to break the tension.

“I know you'll cut this bit,” Your date informs you, and he smiles as he says, “But I could get you the date with Alex, Wheels would kill to see it.”

You smile at that and at the mention of his nickname for his ex-girlfriend who is married to Alex Turner now. You’ve always found it quite cute that he is still really close friends with her, and she’s such a good artist, you would love to have her on the show. Which you don’t even hesitate to tell him.

“I would like to go on a date with her too, to be honest.” You smile.

And Matty knows just how much fun the two of you would be in a room together, so he promises with a grin, “I’ll hook you up later.”

You hum, accepting the help. “Maybe I should have Ross here. He’s fit.”

Matty, who was about to pop a chip in his mouth, pauses his actions for a second before continuing with a nod. “Yeah he is. He’d hate this though.”

You pout at the news, “Awh well. Oooo, what about George? George and Charli…”

He’s fully offended then at the second mention of his best mate, and the now erasure of his name when you talk about going on a date with George and Charli. “What? So I’m out of the double date now?”

You wince, “Well…”

But then Matty remembers watching a Chicken Shop Date with Charli so he frowns in confusion, “Didn't Charli come on a chicken shop date already?”

“With Amelia, that isn’t with me, is it?” your voice comes out sharp, like you were angry at the reminder you didn’t get to go on a date with her.

Matty raises his hands, “Oh, sorry.”

And then you just further play into the exasperation act, “Get your facts straight before you question me in future, god.”

It’s the way you sigh, absolutely done with the situation that has Matty containing his breath so he doesn’t laugh but you look at him, cheeks blown but the chuckles trying to come through and you just can’t not burst out laughing with him.

Hearing Amelia laughing with you and the crew not being able to hold their giggles back has you unable to calm down for the next minute. You let your head hang, silently laughing, so your hair covers your face.

You’re sure you’re blushing, so you try to gather yourself before showing your face again.

When you do though, your cheeks are still hot and when you fan yourself as you sigh, Matty smiles seeing you flustered.

“Right, okay.” The singer hears you mutter under your breath and when you brush your hair behind your ears, you’re back in character.

“Do you like taking risks?” You ask after taking a small bite of a chicken nugget.

Matty had picked one up as well and he takes a bite of his, nodding. “I like taking risks in my art more than in my life.” He quite likes this question, but he knows that he’s in for a change in direction, that’s what you do best.

“Like black and white music videos.” You add with dull enthusiasm.

Matty narrows his eyes at you, dropping the half eaten chicken nugget back inside his box, “Lots of people have done that.”

“Have they?” You quickly ask, frowning.

He looks at you like he's worried, as if he's not sure if you're joking when he confirms, “Yeah.”

“I thought you invented that.” You say with honesty laced in your words.

And there it goes, he thought. “Yeah and then neon.”

Your face lights up, “Yes, I heard you invented neon.”

“Tumblr was my idea.” Matty continues to list, and you nod like it was common knowledge. “Doctor martens.”

You smile and tilt your head then, uncrossing your feet and swinging them enough to know you’ve hit his. “Got mine on. Very comfy, you designed them well.”

Matty looks down, leaning back to see under the table and he shakes his head seeing you're wearing the heeled version. He tells you, “Gotta get them off, you're taller than me in them.”

“Well you can take more than my shoes off if you fancy.” You dare him with a raise of your eyebrows.

He groans in response and you sigh, “Don’t act like you aren’t gonna write a song about this later.” You pop a chip in your mouth and stare at him.

Another concerned look shows up on Matty’s face and he sarcastically replies, “Oh, yeah, definitely.”

“What is it gonna be? ‘She took a video of us eating chicken and put it on the internet’?“ You almost blush, that was the cringiest thing you could’ve ever said.

Matty slowly looks up from his food, and fakes appreciation for the line you half stole from him. “That’s a very good line actually. I’ll pinch that one, but sorry, I don’t give credit.”

You feel the need to interrogate him for that, “Is that how it usually goes then? You have someone tell you lyrics and you just take them and say it was all you?”

He nods, unapologetic of his fake admission. “Pretty much.”

“No, but really how does it usually go?” You ask as genuinely as you can whilst staying in character. You want to start your next planned bit but he had to be unaware of it so you could get his best reaction. “Could you just tell me a bit about your songwriting process?”

“I suppose that I sit there, and I…” Matty starts then and you pull out a pack of Richmond Super Kings from your coat pocket.

As you’re pulling a fag and the lighter out, you notice Matty’s stopped talking. You look up at him and see he’s watching you, confusion written all over his face for you to see.

You tell him, “Sorry, carry on.” as you put the fag between your lips and light it with ease.

If Amelia was doing this interview, you know that this bit would have been hilarious because she doesn’t know how to smoke. But you used to smoke in your teens and you still partake from time to time so lighting up really isn’t an issue for you.

“I kind of look at the news… And I think about what's happening…” Matty continues to tell you, but you're paying him no mind now.

When you edit the video, you’ll be putting this bit in black and white so you’re fully pretending to be in a music video. But what both you and Amelia both thought would be funny, was that you should try and do smoking tricks.

So as your date continues with his songwriting spiel, you somehow manage to conjure up the muscle memory of doing a smoke ring. And when you do it, you sit up a little taller feeling proud of yourself.

Impressed, Matty stops to tell you, “That was cool.” as the both of you watch as the ring slowly gets bigger and eventually disappears.

“I am cool,” You smile at him, but instruct him to, “Carry on.” as you take the next drag of the cigarette.

But you should have just quit while you were ahead because when you try and do the thing Matty does all the time in the videos that you’ve seen of him, where he dangles it from one corner of his mouth and breathes the smoke out from the other side but it doesn’t work.

“And think about what's funny… And I think about how I'm feeling.” And Matty abruptly stops and he watches your struggle.

You look up at him and ask, “Is that right?”

“You don't need to do this.” Matty looks and sounds like he feels sorry for you.

You try and look down at the cigarette but ask point with your hands at the direction you want the smoke to come out of your mouth from, “How do you do it when it comes out of that side? I could never do it.”

“Give it,” Matty demands leaning forward to take the fag from you, “I’ll show you.”

You watch as he puts it between his lips and he looks like he’s just put it further into his mouth so the filter is almost against his teeth. Matty begins to explain, “So, like that-”

“Yeah, I knew that,” You lean across and take it from between his lips and when you do it, to make it worse, you purposefully don’t do it right and you know your mouth is practically fully closed. You just prompt Matty, “Yeah, carry on.”

He looks like he’s hurting himself by watching your struggle, “No, because your lips are closed in the-”

You interrupt and just about mumble with your mouth closed, “Just carry on.”

And when Matty deflates and closes his eyes, letting his head hang as he says, “I sit there and I think about the world and about myself and I write.” it takes everything in you not to burst out laughing at his defeated disposition.

“Right I- I-” You stumble on your words as you take the fag out of your mouth and waft away the smoke, “This is really not me anymore.”

“This is never gonna work.” Matty sighs as he watches you stub the cigarette out in your food.

“I just.” You begin to defend yourself as you continue to put the fag out on one of your chicken nuggets, but then Matty offends you.

He simply states, “So unattractive.”

“That was attractive,” You defend yourself, as you look back up at him, “And this was a lesson for you.”

Matty makes a slicing his neck hand gesture a few times, but you just talk over him, “Don't smoke.”

He giggles at that which has you breaking character for a second too because that was a tragic section and you know you’ll cringe watching that back later. But then your date grabs your attention again.

As he picks up the pack of fags from the table, you quietly tell Matty, “Those are fake cigarettes, by the way.”

“They are fake cigarettes?” Matty asks significantly louder, which has the both of you laughing a bit.

“Amelia thought I could get arrested or something if I smoked inside.” You laugh and you have no control over it anymore, you just let yourself continue laughing at the situation.

Matty looks down to the ground and starts laughing with you, which has your giggles dying down as you press your lips together to not smile as big as you wanted to.

When he looks back up at you, Matty finds you just looking at him and he takes the opportunity to take his time and do the same. He twirls the strand of hair falling over his forehead as he keeps his gaze on you and you bite your tongue to keep yourself from blushing under it.

He looks at your clothes again, catching the look of the red bandana tied around your wrist. His eyes go up and down and then it suddenly clicks for him. “Oh, I've just now got it.”

“Got what?” Matty really takes his time to stare at you, which makes you feel slightly uneasy but now you’re just confused.

“You’re dressed like the girl from the robbers video.” He points out, rolling his eyes amused at the effort to make a reference with your clothes.

You hold back a laugh, and your eyes widen to play being so stunned at the speed of his thinking. “Wow, you are truly the einstein of your generation. We’re like twenty minutes into our date and you’re just noticing now.”

“I like the twist to it. I love the leather.” And Matty truly means it, the red leather pants look amazing on you.

You finally are able to play on the joke that you’d dressed up like this for, “I feel like maybe we should recreate the music video. You know, do an updated version of it.”

Matty keeps his expression blank as he meekly asks, “Is this just you trying to get me to kiss you through a bandana?”

“Yeah you caught me.” You shrug, without a hint of excitement on your face.

“So is Robbers your favourite then?” He shifts in his seat, actually wanting to know about your favourite song of theirs.

“The video?” You ask and he nods, not really meaning only the video but it was a start. You continue to lie through your teeth as if it didn’t somehow shape you as a person, “Oh yeah, it’s great if you love a shitty plagiarised version of a classic.”

It wasn’t what Matty was expecting, but just as he was about to open his mouth to get back at you, you went for him again, “It’s kind of like you! Aren’t you just a watered down version of Adam Levine?”

Matty glares at you then, completely unimpressed by your teasing. And just because he was still curious about your favourite, he ignores you and brings the topic back around.

“In all seriousness, do you have a favourite song of mine?” Matty asks, genuinely wanting to know.

“Why?” You ask hopefully, “Are you going to sing it to me?”

“If you want me to?” Matty shrugs slightly amused, “What’s your favourite song?”

You think about it for a moment, before you settle on, “Undo.” not entirely because it’s your favourite but you know where you can go with it.

Matty’s face falls, expecting something fun like It’s Not Living, so he has to ask, “You want me to sing Undo to you?”

“Yeah.” You nod, “Just the chorus.”

“How does that even go…” Matty’s eyes go wide as he thinks to himself for a second, before he starts singing quietly, “I wanna see you undo it, I wanna-”

You interrupt to tell him, “I wanna see you undo my leather pants too.”

Matty bites his cheek then, as he really should have seen that one coming. Both of you end up staring at each other again until you tell him another one of his tunes.

“I like that song you start most of your albums with.” You say as you pick up another nugget and take a bite.

“Oh,” Matty nods understanding which you mean, before he starts singing, “Go down, soft sou-”

“Yeah, you can.” You interrupt again, this time really having to stop yourself from grinning.

Matty frowns as he’s clearly confused, “What?”

“Go down on me…” You say a little quieter, and you pause for a few seconds before you say, “You can.”

He’s taken aback by this, and you watch him as he leans back blinking slowly. A little, “Oh.” is the only thing that falls from his lips in response.

“Please.” You say quickly before leaning back into your seat and taking a long drink so you don’t break character.

And when you get no response, as the man across from you is keeping his cards very close to his chest, and you feel like you could crack up at any second, you decide it’s best to wrap up.

“Matty,” You smile, “This has been really fun.”

But your date shocks you when he says, “I’ll go on another date with you.”

“Oh.” You say and Matty can hear the surprise in your voice. You even sit up a little straighter, liking the sound of that, “Okay.”

You’re fucking buzzing that you didn’t have to ask yourself.

And when Matty even asks, “If you want?”

You hum in agreement and smile a little, but then you see him offer his fist bump you and you frown at him like he’s just ruined this whole date.

“I don't wanna fist bump you.” You frown at him, almost like you’re cringing.

And he makes it worse when he mimes spitting into his hand for you to shake, and you shake your head and look at him like he’s an alien, “No, don't spit in your hand.”

And then your stomach drops when he puckers his lips and points up to them.

Embarrassment gets you quickly as you awkwardly say, “No, I can’t. I don't wanna kiss you.”

He surprises you when he asks an almost offended, “Why?”

“Because I just smoked a cigarette.” You say without missing a beat hoping that would be the end of it.

“Come on.” Matty grins, now leaning forwards on the table.

“I'm not, no.” You say a little louder, getting embarrassed now as he’s grinning at you.

He encourages with a big grin, “Come on.”

“No.” You shake your head as you begin to panic.

“Come on.” He’s enthusiastic now and you really can’t function anymore.

You just hold your breath, not knowing what to do as Matty stares at you. You half think he’s joking but then he very seriously says as he looks into your eyes, “You’ve gotta commit to the bit, let's do an earnest kiss.”

You look down, having to breathe for a short second before looking back up into those brown eyes of his. He’s grinning like a fool as he says, “Let's kiss, for real, right now.”

You take a second to think if you can do it, and ultimately you decide that you can’t. “No.”

Matty pauses and just stares you down for a few seconds until you crumble into your next excuse, “I can’t reach.” You shrug.

“I can reach.” Matty challenges.

You shake your head a little, “I can’t reach you.”

“I can reach you.” Matty repeats and as he starts to stand up to get closer.

“I can’t reach.” You say again and he gets closer, almost too close for your unprepared self. So you quickly hold your finger up and put it against his lips, “Okay wait, let me prepare myself.”

“Come on,” Matty encourages, “Don’t be pathetic.” but he’s saying it with the biggest smile as he sits again.

You take a breath and look down before you look back up and see the mischievous grin still on his face. ‘You can do this Y/N, come on’ You tell yourself and after a deep breath you put on a brave face.

“Okay,” You lean forwards and rest your elbows on the table like he is and you’re desperately trying not to get more embarrassed.

You can’t pussy out of this one because you’ll never forgive yourself and you know you’ll never hear the end of it from Amelia. And you truly don't want Matty to think you’re pathetic.

“I'm not doing the work,” You tell him, letting your flustered self be free now, “You do the work.”

“It’s 2022,” Matty frowns, but a smile is tugging at the corners of his lips when he asks, “Shouldn't you be doing the work?”

You say the first thing that comes to mind, “I did the work, I asked you on the date.”

Matty corrects you, fully smirking now, “Amelia actually asked me on this date.”

“Okay, I paid for your food, you kiss me, I think that's fair.” You point out, and you can feel your cheeks getting hotter by the second at the mere thought of him about to kiss you.

And when he doesn’t move for a solid five seconds, and you're getting more flustered and embarrassed at the thought, you snap and ask him, “Are you going to kiss me or not?”

“God, shut up.” Matty sighs before he picks himself up and leans across the table to kiss you.

The moment his lips touch yours, you’re sure your heart goes into cardiac arrest. Never in a million years did you think this date would lead to Matty Healy’s lips being pressed against your own.

Without being dramatic about it, the kiss is a long peck, but for you it lasts a lifetime. Because when you think it’s about to be done, you feel Matty’s hand cup the side of your face and pull you in for another one, one that is much less awkward than a peck on the lips.

It’s an actual kiss, where both of your lips move together for it to be remotely good, but obviously not going as far for any tongues to be involved. It was just a very nice sweet kiss and the cherry on top is the gentle stroke of your cheek just as he pulls away.

You’re fully not in character anymore when he moves away, you’re just so embarrassed. You can’t believe you’ve just kissed Matty Healy.

He sits back and says, “That wasn’t the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”

You can feel your cheeks heat up now, and because you have no other words you say, “Thank you.”

Matty half grins and shakes his head and you can tell he’s about to get up from the table, and he says, “I’m going.”

So you say an equally awkward, “Thank you… Bye.”

“See ya.” Matty says as he stands and he walks over to Jamie.

All that’s left for you to do is to look embarrassed, which you can’t really help at the moment. You’re malfunctioning and you don’t know where to look. The ghost of Matty’s touch so very present on the side of your face, leaving you feeling things you won’t be able to shake up in at least a few hours.

You’ve never been so thankful to hear Tyler shout, “And cut.”

Your small crew does a little round of applause and to keep yourself busy and to try and regain some composure, you just take your phone out. As you calm down, you take a picture of the fag and ash in amongst your chickken nuggests and chips.

“Can’t believe one finally broke you, Y/N.” Your director laughs.

And without looking up, you tell him, “Shut up Ty.”

At that you hear your crew laughing and you're sure Matty is too. But you don’t look up, not until your best friend comes over and giggles, “That was quite possibly our best episode yet.”

“Amelia fuck off a minute, yeah.” You smile awkwardly, pushing her away.

But she doesn’t let you, instead she smushes her cheek against yours in a side hug and she gets you laughing again. But she embarasses you too when she whispers in your ear, “He fancies you.”

At this you shove her away, “Fuck off.”

“Can’t, need you to do the promo pictures now.” Amelia grins and kisses your cheek before standing back up and turning towards where Matty is currently standing by the window with Jamie, “Matty, are we okay to get some promo shots now?”

“Yeah course. Jamie needs to go over something with you as we do, if that's okay?” You hear him ask Amelia and she nods before heading over to talk to his manager as Matty comes back over to join you.

You smile at each other and you feel the embarrassment take over once again. But you try to maintain a somewhat normal and professional person by saying, “Thank you for that.”

“The kiss or the date?” Matty grins as he retakes his seat.

“Get fucked.” You shake your head, feeling your cheeks start to heat up now and you start to unapologetically laugh.

Matty chuckles freely now too, and he confirms, “The date… It’s fun. I see why you like doing them.”

“Yeah, they keep me busy.” You smile, encouraging a now normal conversation between you in hopes that it’ll make you feel more at ease around him.

“You guys ready?” Your photographer Poppy asks the both of you, and after you put your phone back into your coat pocket, you give her the green light once Matty is comfortable too.

There’s certainly an atmosphere between you and him now, one that you certainly are trying to ignore as you start smiling for your pictures. You can’t help but think he’s quite cute in the way that he poses for them, always tucking his hair back behind his ears, but he keeps that one little strand out for you to silently simp over.

You’re taking the pictures for no longer than five minutes, and once they are done, you ask Matty if you can get a few bits on your phone so you can make a TikTok and an Instagram Reel. Of course, he says yes as he’s up for playing along and watching you be even more creative.

You get your phone out and ask him to give your camera the eye in a few different ways. He looks so fucking sexy in his suit in front of you and you find that your cheeks heat up from just watching him through the camera. Thankfully, he’s easy to direct and he eats the food like you tell him too in a somehow sexy way, it should be illegal to look that good whilst eating a chip.

Matty even helps you with your side of the short video. He holds your phone for you and he encourages you to smile awkwardly at him and he loves seeing that even now you’re still a little flustered. And you take the phone from him to record the last bit yourself where you still awkwardly smile at him as you move the camera to and from you fast.

Even at that Matty is impressed because once he presses the button to stop recording, you change immediately and you’re back to your bubbly self again as you thank him.

Next you get your polaroid camera out that you always bring with you and once Matty tells you it’s okay, you take a picture of him. And because he won’t take no for an answer, he takes the camera from you and takes a picture of you posing as you eat a chip. The both of you chat at the table for a few more minutes about questions Matty has for you about your chicken shop dates and you do until you’re interrupted.

After Amelia and Jamie are done going over whatever it was, she asks Poppy to get another few promo pictures of you and Matty standing up beside each other. You send her a knowing glare but you stay professional and get up when Matty does and you succeed in not losing your shit when his hand finds your hip so he can hold you next to him.

You get a normal picture of the both of you smiling before another crew member of yours hands Matty his takeout box to hold for another picture. And in the next you steal a chip from it and take a bite.

And when Poppy thanks the both of you, you step away from each other as the crew start packing up the cameras. Pleasantries are exchanged between you and Jamie as Amelia chats to Matty a little more, no doubt coming up with more ways to embarrass you, which certainly turns out to be the case.

Just after you all start talking between yourselves, Matty checks his phone and he notices the time. He encourages Jamie to get ahead of the traffic and whilst they quickly say goodbye to each other, Amelia tells you what she and Jamie spoke about.

Thankfully it was nothing major, just that the bit about you knowing that Matty only lived 10 minutes away from this Chicken Inn needed to be cut from the final video. Nothing else was mentioned, and apparently Matty had given the green light for you to use whatever you liked from the whole video. You truly love it when your guests give you free rein to have your creative freedom.

Once Jamie had taken off, your crew starts packing down and you and Amelia stick around to help out if needed. You always do, although, you’re never wanted or needed because Tyler, your director, is OCD about his equipment and he doesn’t trust either of you enough with it, which you don’t exactly blame him for.

So both of you stand in the corner of the room with Matty and stay chatting to him whilst he wants to stick around. The conversation moves from the ‘date’ the both of you went on to Matty asking you how the both of you had found being in the public eye and different experiences you’ve had since doing so.

And as you’re halfway through telling him how mental it’s gotten, and that both you and Amelia are hosting the GQ awards red carpet next month, and how baffling it is to you, your best friend realises the time and has to go herself. Her ‘oh shit’ pauses your story and you’re reminded that she’s going out herself tonight and she needs to get home to get ready to head out into central.

That commute is an hour in itself so she’s probably going to be late to her commitment later if she doesn’t leave right now. She gives you a guilty look as you can tell she doesn’t want to leave you with the ‘overseeing’ of the crew putting the stuff away, but you tell her to go and that you’ll be fine.

She thanks you before saying goodbye to Matty and she gives him a hug, and then she gives you a big one which is a lot tighter than her usual hugs, so you know it has a hidden meaning. Since filming stopped, you could see in her eyes just how excited and happy for you that this episode had gone well, and she knows that you’re thrilled on the inside and you’re bottling it up.

“I’m coming round to yours tomorrow, don’t forget.” Amelia tells you and you nod, playing along as if that was actually the plan all along.

You know she’s just planned that so you can scream with each other about today's date and about how teenage you has just lived one of her dreams and she can die happy knowing she got to experience a kiss from the lead singer of her favourite band. You truly wouldn’t be surprised if she showed up at your flat with a cake.

“Go or you’ll be late.” You hurry her out, not wanting her to inevitably embarrass you more by saying anything else in front of Matty.

The both of you watch your best friend as she thanks and says goodbye to the members of your small crew and she quickly disappears out of the front door.

Now that it’s only the two of you, and the crew that’s packing everything up, there’s this sort of anticipation building up. You both know it, you can see it in Matty’s eyes and it’s making you giddy.

So he pushes the boat first, telling you, “I need to go for a fag.”

Biting your lip to hide your knowing smile, you grab his wrist, not really thinking about it, “Let’s go through the back door.”

You give smiles to the workers that see you walk past, but it’s only when you step outside and the cold air hits your face that you take a deep breath.

The small outdoor area the building has isn’t exactly the nicest, it’s just simple tiles on the ground and it’s bricked up like the rest of the houses around here. But it has to be better than the alleyway behind it where all the bins are kept and at least if you keep close to the building there’s a small canopy that keeps today's drizzly weather from getting to you.

Matty can see how tense you are, being accentuated by the speed in which you release your hold around his wrist so he jokes to make you relax, “So you did actually want to go where nobody knows?”

He smiles satisfied when he hears you chuckle, “You’re such an idiot.” Your smile breaks on your face freely now and when Matty sees it’s there to stay, he can’t help but stare.

His eyes stay on you as he pulls out a cigarette and places it between his lips, that’s why he catches you watching his every move and so he offers, “Do you want one?”

You debate within yourself, struggling to see if the craving is really worth it but seeing as you're about to start shaking from the situation in which you’re in and not necessarily from the cold, you nod.

When the cigarette is given to you, you quickly place it between your lips and Matty lights it up for you. He watches you take your first drag as he lights his own and it’s such a stark contrast to how it was inside. Scratch him saying it was unattractive, you look so incredibly stunning right now that he can’t take his eyes off you.

“So, you going to tell me what happened between Amelia and Aitch?” Matty starts the conversation off with something he knew could take the edge off, and when you playfully narrow your eyes at him while blowing some smoke out of your mouth, it makes him chuckle.

Back when Amelia’s Chicken Shop Date with Aitch came out, it sparked a lot of comments from everyone who saw it. Their chemistry had been very obvious, and it had been talked about everywhere on your and Amelia’s content. And afterwards, when they started talking behind the scenes, people had made loads of theories as to what they were doing and what their relationship status was.

Of course, you didn’t grace the public with any official statement to the rumours, because in reality they started fucking each other. And it wasn’t like your best mate owed anyone any explanations, so you just let the wave of gossip pass until it eventually died down and the masses moved onto the next pile of hot gossip.

“What do you think happened and I’ll tell you if you’re right.” Is the best you can give him, not wanting to talk about Amelia’s business when she wasn’t there to approve.

Without a second thought, Matty just spills his suspicions, “I think they started fucking each other, maybe did a friends with benefits thing for a while but then he said that he couldn’t commit to anything long term because he’s going on tour and he’s young and immature and he doesn’t want to be tied down.”

Your eyebrows raise hearing that, the detailed explanation making you want to tease him, “It's like you’re speaking from experience.”

“Well, now you know what happened with Halsey.” He replies nonchalantly, taking another drag of his cigarette.

You give him a small chuckle, “Wasn’t difficult to guess at the time to be honest.” Because it really hadn’t been.

“You’ve known about my music for that long?” Matty genuinely inquires. The Halsey situation had happened so long ago, it felt weird thinking back to it and being about eight years since then.

His surprise makes you frown, “Why do you sound so surprised? You say it yourself that you make good music, why wouldn’t I have heard it back then?”

“Ah, but you knew about Halsey.” Matty says, like it meant you had been obsessed with him since then.

You raise an eyebrow, “She wrote a song about you.”

He had everyone talking about them both when he turned 28 and tweeted about it, and Matty knew that but he wanted to see how much he could push you. “But you said you knew at the time… You're a big fan of mine, aren't you?”

You stare ahead, watching the tiny drops of rain fall down lightly. You two were taking cover under the bit of roof that was sticking out and covering about a foot and a half from the wall of the back of the place.

To tease him, you give him a smirk and a side eye as you say, “I can go off people very quickly you know.”

But Matty had all that Amelia had told him inside under his sleeve, “You’re really gonna stand there and lie to my face.”

The disbelief in his voice has you actually confused, “I’m not lying about anything.”

“Amelia’s just showed me a picture of teenage you with my name on your top.” He retaliates all smug and you freeze on your spot.

You will throttle your bitch of a best friend tomorrow. He doesn’t even have to go into more detail because you know exactly the picture he’s on about. Your white ‘lol you’re not Matt Healy’ top that you proudly wore everywhere back in 2013 and 2014.

You roll your eyes and admit, “Okay, yeah, fine. I do like your music.” You sigh, closing your eyes, “So much for best friends never betraying each other.”

A cackle leaves Matty’s lips then, making you open your eyes and turn to him with a hint of a smile. “She’s also told me about your riot tattoo…” He takes a step towards you, positioning himself in front of you so you can't stay looking ahead and evade his gaze. “Right there.” He takes your wrist in his hand and rubs underneath the bandana with his thumb.

You lick your lips, looking down at his touch and you shake your head before looking back up at him. “What else has she bloody told you?” You bring the cigarette back up to your lips, “Fucks sake.” You mutter under your breath after taking a long drag, only to drop what’s left of it on the ground, an action that Matty follows.

He lifts the piece of red fabric enough to see the word inked on your skin. “Why’d you cover it up?”

You have to control your breathing but with the way his thumb keeps brushing over your first tattoo, there’s goosebumps breaking out on your skin and you’re sure he notices, but you hope he alludes it to the weather.

“Because that's a turn off.” You argue but Matty’s quickly shaking his head.

He looks back up at you, letting your wrist down slowly. “No it’s not.” He reassures, and you feel like you can maybe breathe again by the loss of contact, but his eyes find yours and they stay there for a while, making it harder to keep your cool.

You open your mouth, not even sure about what you were going to say as the short distance between you has you malfunctioning but Matty beats you to it when he says, “You’re a tough one to crack, aren’t you?”

That smirk you have seen so much throughout the years comes back and you match it when you reply with another question which he might’ve said was not nice if it wasn’t for the way it made him feel. “Is it bad I like to keep people wondering?”

Matty tilts his head, taking in a short breath through his teeth, “A little bit cruel maybe, but nothing I wouldn’t mind enduring.”

You hum, “Like enduring the rain wetting your back right now?”

Matty thought you wouldn’t notice but with the rain intensifying, of course he had wanted to cover you from it. But to look more casual he just shrugs, “It’s only a drizzle, innit?”

It was like he had just jinxed it because you watch the drizzle turn into a shower and you can’t stop yourself from laughing. “You were saying?”

Matty shakes his head, grinning at you so big that it reaches his eyes. And you do the same but when he takes a step backwards and then another one so he’s fully under the heavy rain, you gasp.

And he doesn’t even give you the time to joke about what he’s just done because he walks back towards you.

Shaking your head, you only manage to say, “No, no.” as you think he was going to hug you and get you all wet, but he grabs your wrist and quickly pulls you with him into the rain.

“Matty!” It’s all you can say between gasps. It’s so cold and you can barely keep your eyes open, you’re just squinting from the water on your face. “You dickhead!”

He just continues to laugh and it’s such a contagious noise that you can’t try and fake being annoyed at him, you join his laughter. “Live a little Y/N! Just enjoy the rain.”

You scoff, but it’s only to hide the fact that you really are enjoying how mundane the moment is despite it being hard to believe who you’re experiencing it with. “Very easy for you to say, you have like three layers on.”

He realises then, he should probably get the umbrella out just so you don’t get drenched for longer or else you’d get ill, so he walks up to you and opens it up over your heads.

“You’re no fun.” Matty jokes, and when you roll your eyes at him as you try and fix your now wet hair, he just has to get you back to how you were before the rain interrupted.

So Matty purposely takes another step to shorten the distance between you. But then he leans forward, wrapping his right arm around your waist and bringing you impossibly closer to him.

“C’mere,” His voice falls to a whisper that sounds only a little louder than the spatter around you. “I don’t want you getting wet.”

The smirk on his face and his sarcasm has you rolling your eyes again, but he cannot ignore how you’re biting your lip as you fail to hide your smile.

“As if I’m not already drenched, thanks to you.” You bite back, and when you feel his thumb rubbing on your lower back, you can’t help but shiver.

Matty’s smirk gets bigger at that, and it continues to grow on his face when you react to him saying, “Only for the wrong reasons, love.”

You feel yourself blushing, so you decide to ignore what he’s just said for your own well-being. You’re truly on the brink of a freak out at this whole situation, 19-year-old you is screaming at the top of her lungs somewhere deep inside you.

“You’re really gonna have to make it up to me if I get sick and miss the next week of work.” You threaten, and it’s honestly an empty one because you don’t have much going on but you can’t think about anything else at the moment. Only Matty pressed against your front with his arm around your waist. Your mind is completely blank, and you have no idea what to say.

But you should’ve expected him to expertly make that the perfect start of another flirty comment.

“Do tell how you would like me to make it up to you.” He squeezes your waist lightly, and it all but makes you jump as he intently stares into your eyes.

You keep his stare, “Matty…” His name sounds like a beg when it leaves your lips and he fucking loves it.

So Matty continues to push your buttons, “Perhaps a cuddle… Isn’t that what you wished for earlier?” And he’s glad he can recall all that you said perfectly because he continues saying, “Believe you also pleaded for me to go down on you…” and your breath hitches in your throat.

Your voice sounds almost too weak when you reply, “Pleaded is a strong word.”

He hums, “But you did say please.”

You curse yourself for saying that, because you’re now just suffocating in this tension and you have no idea how to get out of it. Not that you really want to though.

You’ve already had a taste of his lips and being so close to another kiss really has your knees weak.

It’s like Matty reads your mind, or it might’ve just been that he had seen your thoughts shine through your eyes when he adds, “Maybe a get well kiss? Would that make you feel better?”

You’re unsure what happens next, as you barely hear the whimper you let out but Matty doesn’t miss it and you can’t control yourself when you say, “It might help.”

That’s all Matty needs to hear before he finally closes the distance and presses your lips together. At the same time, you both take a deep breath through your noses and like something had lit you both alive, you grow unable to keep it soft like you did inside.

Your arms wrap around his shoulder, and you don’t even care about the accidental knock you give the umbrella and how it wets your arms, you’re too focused on getting to feel this kiss for as long as you can.

Matty hates that he has to hold up the umbrella because all he wants is to hold your face like he had done before, and maybe it was the way he held you tighter against him that has you knowing so you bring one of your hands to cup his jaw while the other tangles in the hair at the nape of his neck.

When Matty deepens your kiss, he pulls you into him more and you find that you really don’t have that much control left over your impulses. Because when his tongue is suddenly teasing yours, you moan at the same time you pull your hand back from his hair to grab his tie.

You pull the fabric towards you, so he has no option but to keep this kiss going. And Matty is almost taken aback by your brazen attack. He knew you were nervous before this but just by this alone he would think you were the most confident woman on the planet.

The feeling in your stomach right now is something that you hope you'll never forget, because you can’t imagine this happening ever again. If you could stop time, you’d do so in a heartbeat because you don't want it to end.

So much so, that when you hear a nearby back door fly open Matty pulls away for the briefest second thinking you’d been caught. Clearly though, you don’t care because you grab his jaw and guide him back to your lips so he can kiss you again.

And Matty isn’t one to argue a kiss from a stunning woman like you. He kisses you back until you pull away from him when you lose your breath.

It seems that you’ve both lost yourselves in the gesture, as you keep your eyes closed and rest your foreheads against each other’s as you catch your breath.

Matty hasn’t kissed anyone since him and his ex split up and he certainly remembers the way he was with her initially. It was the same excited but nervous feeling he has in his stomach now.

He’s so fucking glad he’d gone on this date with you now.

After another minute of a breathless silence, your date is the one that breaks it.

“This isn’t what you do after all your dates, right?” Matty smiles with a joke, but there’s a small part of him that wants the reassurance that what’s happening here is special.

“No.” You breathlessly giggle at that and gently shake your head, “This is a first, don’t worry.”

He hums to acknowledge that, and it’s only then that he notices you let go of his tie. You part your forehead from Matty’s then so you can look as you flatten down his tie, but you don’t attempt to fix it.

Both of you are still breathing heavily and you’re savouring the feeling of being held so tightly to him. Another minute passes the both of you by then, the silence between you not deafening like it was inside as you have the sound of the rain hitting the umbrella above you and the ground around you to keep you sane.

And as you watch each other now, you’re not holding anything back, your guards are down and it’s freeing getting to stare into those brown eyes of his. Matty could watch you all day, he almost hesitates to start a conversation again just in case he shortens this between you.

“I get back from tour around the twentieth of December, but then I go back home for Christmas.” Matty tells you, his hot breath fanning your face as under the umbrella it seems to keep the hot air which is now making both of your damp skin get that muggy feeling. You wouldn’t change it for the world though because he smiles as he continues, “But I'm back for New Years. Might drop you a message then.”

You want to tell him that you’d absolutely love that, and that truthfully nothing would make you happier than meeting up with him without all the cameras and under the pretence of promo. But your sarcastic nature gets the better of you.

“Yeah, well, if nothing else,” You smirk as you remind him, “Please get me that date with your ex-girlfriend and her husband… Please.”

Thankfully it just makes the man, who’s still holding you to him like you might disappear, laugh out loud. You giggle yourself, finding the whole of today fucking mental, but nothing prepares you for hearing him half scorn you by saying, “You really should stop trying to get other dates when I’m trying to arrange our second one.”

Second date. Yeah, you’ve definitely gone insane and this is some sort of delusion.

“Well, stop with the gel in your hair and I'll think about it.” You smile, knowing that if he does message you, there isn’t a bone in you that could ever say no to him.

But you tell him sincerely with a soft smile as you glance up at his wet curls, “You look a lot better with it natural.”

Matty sighs, “You should have told me before the date.”

You giggle with a light frown, “I'm no one to mess with your image, Matthew.” And with the confidence that you now had in front of him, you tease him, “In other ways but not your image.”

Tutting, he warns you, “I’d stop if you’re not going to let me take you home now.”

“Okay, I’ll stop.” You bite your lip, trying not to recoil under his gaze.

But his face softens up when he tells you, “I had fun today.”

You give him the sweetest smile, one that has him melting inside, “So did I.”

And Matty can’t stay longer without asking then, “If I hypothetically asked you on a real date you would say?”

It doesn’t even take you a second to reply, “I would hypothetically say yes… Providing you have no gel in your hair.” You add at the end to try and keep the joke running.

“That’s hypothetically good to hear.” His smile gets bigger when you giggle.

“Enough with your hypotheticals.” You playfully scold him, but then you find yourself looking all around his face, appreciating every little detail and trying your best to memorise them. You brush back the wet curls that are falling on his forehead, swiping the drops of water with the pads of your thumbs.

Matty hums and lets his eyes fall close at your soft touch, and it’s when you smile at the peaceful silence that you realise just how long you’ve been outside and how he and you both were meant to leave very soon.

“How are you getting home anyway? Do you need me to call you a taxi?” You ask, already noting your phone was inside so if that was the case, then the two of you would have to go in again and wait there.

Matty opens his eyes and blinks slowly, “I’ll order an uber, don’t go worrying yourself.” Your worry was so adorable, but now it was time for him to do so, “How are you getting home? Where do you live anyway?”

You are quick to have him relax about your ride, “Crew will drop me back at the office and I get the tube home to Brixton.”

His face contorts as he realises that you’re going to have to go on the tube in your wet clothes. “That’s gonna be one uncomfortable ride back to Brixton. You’re all wet.”

You offer him a sarcastic smile, “And who do I have to thank for that?”

“Erm, well, you have a couple more things to thank me for too.” Matty’s eyes fall down to your lips, and you lick your lips just to subtly tease him some more.

You find yourself looking down at his lips again though, and then back up at him only to find him already staring at your eyes. “You’re an idiot.”

Matty leans forward with a smirk but doesn’t kiss you, instead his lips hover over yours by less than an inch and the way they brush over yours when he says, “You said so before.” has your eyes rolling back and it’s you again that seals the kiss.

This one feels different though. You are both just as desperate to lose yourselves in each other but it’s soft enough to know that you’re savouring the moment in attempts to remember the feeling of each other's lips until you meet again.

And the patience stays when your tongues move against each other’s, when he clutches you to him a little tighter, when you tangle your fingers in his curls and pull on them. Hearing and feeling him groan has your mind and heart racing.

It doesn’t last long, as you both are now aware of the time you’re taking but Matty thinks being selfish is necessary sometimes, so he presses his lips against yours again, this time only in a long peck.

But it’s enough to leave you both grinning like idiots, but neither of you can be bothered to care. You just stay there holding the other, until a loud honk pops the blissful bubble you were in.

“You should probably order that Uber now, the crew should be almost ready to leave.” You suggest, biting the corner of your swollen bottom lip.

Matty has to hold himself back from kissing you again, nodding as he pulls out his phone from an inside pocket in his trench coat.

It doesn’t take him long to call for one, and the app sadly tells you both that it’s arriving in 3 minutes, so you’re left to make small talk whilst it makes its way back. But neither of you mind, you feel like you’ve said what you needed to in between those kisses and none of you would forget the arrangement you had made.

So, the next 3 minutes are spent talking about how long it would be until the video would be done and posted, how they’d send it to them first and how it’d probably be the same with the pictures.

When the Uber is about a minute away, you two walk down the alley with the umbrella still over you and up to the front of the chicken shop. Your steps slow as you both try to put off having to say goodbye, but the moment arrives nonetheless and before you know it, Matty is crushing you in a hug with his Uber waiting behind him.

You are both reluctant to let go but when you glance over your shoulder to look at the grumpy expression of his driver, you know it's time to let go.

Matty is quick to remind you when he can look into your eyes again, “See you on New Years?”

You nod, with a massive grin on your face, “New Years.”

And because he wants more assurance - not that he needs it - and also because he doesn’t want you to get soaked again, he makes you take the umbrella from him.

At first you don’t want to accept it, you could easily just run a few feet back until you were inside the shop but he doesn’t let you give it back. “Take it.”

You stubbornly accept, but then Matty adds, “I want it back. On New Years.”

He has you giggling as easy as that, “And I’ll give it back. On New Years.”

“Good, ‘cause it was 200 quid.” That's the thing he leaves you with before he turns and quickly walks into the rain to get in the Uber.

You shake your head amused, and Matty manages to read your lips when you say, “Of course you spend 200 quid on an umbrella.” before he waves at you when the car starts to move.

And you wave back, letting out a sigh.

You don’t catch yourself standing outside the shop for another minute, just trying to grasp what has happened today, it’s Tyler calling out your name from the front door telling you to get back inside and away from the rain.

He and the rest of the crew had seen the hug and how Matty left you his umbrella but the director was now curious as to know where had you been from when you left with him for a smoke up until two minutes ago.

“You were out there a fair while…” Tyler trails off as you shake the rain off the umbrella to close it.

You know this is him trying to get some information out of you, so you just playfully glare at him and sarcastically say, “Oh really? I hadn’t noticed.”

They all know you’re not saying something, but you will be leaving them to their guesses until you actually muster up the courage to spill a secret or two. You trust this group of people with your life, but you wouldn’t tell any of these before you told Amelia.

You helped your friends get everything into the van you all came in, and before you know it you’re on route home. The trip to the office was quick, and you waited with Tyler to make sure that you got all the content downloaded onto his laptop and then put it on a backup external harddrive before a memory stick that you were taking home. You definitely didn’t need another disaster where you lost the footage to a date again. Especially not this one.

Truthfully, you couldn’t wait to start editing this one together, but you’d have to give yourself a few business days to recover. Their album is out in 3 weeks time and you can easily get it all together in the next week or so to have Jamie approve everything in time. You just need this weekend to process what’s happened today.

Something that’s still not fully hit you on the tube, nor when you go to your closest takeout on your way back to your flat. It hits you when your front door closes and silence washes over you.

As you put your food down, you release the squeal you’ve wanted to make since your idol sat down in front of you. And now you freely let your cheeks heat up at the memory of everything that’s happened today. You don’t even put music or the TV on as you eat because you’re so wrapped up in the memories of it.

You’re unable to process the things you said to him and the way you shamelessly flirted. The more you think about it, the more embarrassed you get and you let out small yelps as you recall some of the ways you chatted him up as you feel your cheeks flame. But that fact the flirting worked is the thing that you really can’t fathom.

You can’t believe he kissed you too, both on camera and again outside multiple times. The tingles on your lips and the way you can still feel where he held you close to him is one reason you don’t think you dreamt up the entire day. The only thing that stops you from believing that you had is Matty’s umbrella that’s propped up by your door.

And you can’t quite accept that he said he was going to get in touch when he got back off tour. A second fucking date. You might cry if you think about it long enough. But you really need to not get your hopes up.

Even if it does happen, little does Matty know that you’re certainly going to see him again before New Years. But after today, you think that you’ll stick to the back corner of those Pryzm gigs so you don’t have to deal with any embarrassment, especially when you know that the chicken shop date will come out the day after, the day their album releases.

You think adding to the mystery of ‘will he, won’t he’ will keep you sane. You can happily remain hopelessly deluded that this New Years meeting would happen. And if the end of December comes and nothing comes of it, you will just be pleased that you have this date to look back on forever. It certainly keeps the grin on your face for the rest of tonight.

But what gives you that glimmer of hope is an Instagram notification you got just before you crawl into bed. Needless to say, you fall asleep with a smile on your face.

@trumanblack started following you

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

| Part 2 | Part 3 |

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A/N: Ahhhh we really hope you enjoyed it! Please let us know what you thought, we want any and all reactions please! What do you think is going to happen next? Remember to follow @alovesreading as Part 2 will be posted on her account! (We haven't written part 2 yet but we will work on it as soon as I’ve finished @nriacc, also hope you Alex stans liked your multiverse moment)

Please let either of us know if you want to be added to the Taglist x

Taglist: @drinkurkombucha @vinylandcoffeecollection @red---moon @better--oblivions @kennedy-brooke

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imagine-that-100 · 1 year

Text

Chicken Shop Date | Part 3 |

By @imagine-that-100 and @alovesreading

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

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