A het fic about Muse? Yep, I can do that * nods with conviction *

ETERNALLY MISSED

Setting; From September 2003 on, between Italy and UK (but mostly Italy)

Pairing: Matt/Gaia, Dom/Jess

Something about that:

First, due to the bad way I treated the girls in 'How did it come to this ? ' I had to make them forgive me somehow… just like I had to make Dom forgive me after 'Try something new '… lol!

Second. Because I loved those pairings, esp. Matt and Gaia. She is the only woman I'm happy to see Matt with, otherwise he's Dom's property, of course!

Anyway, this fic is nothing about the real story Matt and Gaia (and Dom and Jess, as well) had, it's not an analysis of that, nothing like that, I would never be able to do such a thing!

This is just another version of that, there will be very, VERY alternative stuff, you'll see! For certain issues it's a sort of AU.

DISCLAIMER : I don't know and own Muse, Gaia, Jessica and any of the other characters in this story. There's nothing true, it's all invented by my crazy mind. And the two Muse's songs I quote at the beginning are the main reason why this story popped out from my mind, it's their fault, so get angry with those two (marvellous ) songs!

To understand better this story: ***************** means ' in the meantime ' ,

-- means 'after awhile '

Summary: What if Matt and Gaia met in a different span of time? What if they met in a different way? What if somehow they already knew each other… even before they met? And what if… ok, enough with the 'What if ', just read it!

Prologue

I've never seen your face
I've never heard your voice

But I think I like it
When you instant message me
With a promise
I can feel it
I can tell you're gonna be
Just like me

[Pink Ego Box]

And you can't resist
Making me feel
Eternally missed

[Eternally Missed]

September 2003. Somewhere in Como.

Gaia knew that she had no more time to waste. Summer was about to end, holiday time was gone and the new exam session lay in wait for her, first of all the Behaviour Psychology exam.

Anyway, that big book lay open in the middle of the table and its owner wasn't giving it much attention.

She had been reading and underlining the same paragraph for more than one hour, but that didn't mean that she had memorized it.

The girl kept staring intently the door, waiting edgily.

She had searched all the web around for confirmation and she had placed that order some days earlier and just the day before she had received an e-mail that assured her that the delivery would be on that day.

During the whole morning she had bad luck, but the day was still long and she was pretty hopeful.

Also, because the official realise date was just on that day, there could not be any delay; she would have never forgiven that.

As she was absorbed in her thoughts, the bell rang and that seemed the most beautiful sound ever to the girl. She opened the door, offering the delivery guy a remarkable smile, putting a signature on the paper he handed to her and holding that packet with great satisfaction. She closed the door behind her shoulders, unwrapped the package unceremoniously, admiring the layout of the cover.

She had already seen the preview on their site, but to look directly at the case from every corner was something different. If she stared at that image it could blur her view, due to the several figures that flew overhead a man observed them from below, on the back there was the same concept, with a little girl the observing instead.

Gaia removed the cellophane and opened the case, drawing out the CD-booklet very carefully. The lyrics blurred her view much more than the layout, as they were a kind of collage with cut-outs arranged around the lyrics.

The girl went on skimming though the pages, searching for some pictures of the band, but the only one there wasn't exactly what couldn't exactly be called a clean picture since it had been distorted, making it seem shredded. But Gaia liked him a lot even in that way.

The view had been satisfied, now it was time to listen. She glanced one last time at the book on the table, promising to herself that she would find time for the work, before surrendering to the pleasure of hearing the album for the first time.

She already knew 'Stockholm Syndrome' because a couple of months before Muse had allowed their fans to listen to it exclusively on their site, and that song had been enough for her to know with absolute certainty that she would love the whole album, as she had the previous ones.

And after about one hour, her suspicions were confirmed.

The most beautiful thing was that she could easily focalize on him in every song of theirs, isolating him from the rest and only concentrating on what he was doing. She could feel the vigour, the adrenaline that seemed to permeate him. After all the live shows she had seen on TV or searching around the web, she could easily picture all of his expressions and moves as he performed.

Gaia didn't forget her promise and managed to dedicate some hours to studying and revision.

Allowing herself a more than deserved break, she switched her PC on and went to the history page where the Muse message-board topped the list. It was the official, virtual meeting place of all Muse's fans, from all over the world.

Gaia always visited that page, but so far she had confined herself to be just a lurker.

She decided it was time to take a more active role, so she clicked the link to register.

"I can't believe I'm doing this for real. I'm a basket case! I just wonder… who knows if Muse also visits this page sometimes, just to nose around a little bit. I wonder if he does!" she wondered, as she completed the application form.

She still had to choose a username. She examined the ones of the other users, but she didn't find anything special, until she read the newest member's username: end_of_the_world.

"People can be so full of imagination! Anyway, I was thinking of something a little bit more positive!" she thought amused, before coming back to what she was doing.

"I wanna do things properly, so no stupid stuff such as 'little-gaia ', 'baby-gaia ' or 'cutie81 ', no way, I need to find something decent!" she thought to herself as she brainstormed, before an idea came to her.

"Yep, this is just perfect!" she rejoiced, as she typed the letters, one by one, pressing the 'enter' key and smiling when she saw that her username had been approved.

********************************* (In the meantime)

Somewhere in London

"So, are you having a good time with your family?" Matthew wondered as he updated the webpage for the umpteenth time.

"Yep! Today we went to the swimming pool, you can't even begin to imagine all the fun we had!" his friend chuckled at the other side of the phone. "It feels so good to come back home!" he commented, pleased.

"Enjoy whilst it lasts, we'll be touring again in a month!" the front man reminded him.

"So, what did you do today?" Chris asked him.

"Nothing special…" said Matt, remaining vague.

"Bells, I know you, I know how you act whenever one of our albums is out!" the other struck back.

"It's something more than normal, I just want to know what people think about it!" he justified, gesticulating in the air.

"Yep, that's right, but at least give people some time!" the bassist replied.

"It's been more than twelve hours since Absolution came out, by now. They've had time enough and yet there's still no one who bothered to leave a comment!" the pianist complained.

"Trust me, they will. Gee, you're worse than writers when they present their books!" Chris mocked him.

"I like knowing people's opinions, sue me!" the other snorted.

"Anyway, get the hell up from your desk and stop staring at your damn PC. Dom will be there in a heartbeat and you know how much he hates waiting!" Chris reminded him.

"OK, I'm about to quit it. Anyway, you're exaggerating; I'm not making myself ill over it!" Matt clarified, before greeting his friend and hanging up.

Matthew resumed staring the Muse message board home page.

"Uhmm , lucky for me, I didn't tell him that I've also created a username to open a new topic about it," he mumbled.

The thread brought him tons of answers, it's true, but for the wrong reason, they were just warnings about the fact that he had selected the wrong forum and he also had to introduce himself before opening any topics, just like the rules said.

"Phew, it seems that they found the time just to scold me!" he reckoned annoyed, as he read the umpteenth warning.

He decided to give in and give up, also because he heard someone ringing his bell.

"It must be Dom!"

He was about to turn the PC off and go to open the door when his gaze fell on the newest member, drawing his complete attention.

"What a strange username, I wonder why this person picked it up!" he wondered curiously and then he realised that the member was on the on-line members list.

The bell rang again, this time very insistently, so much that it almost annoyed him.

"God, the pub is not gonna disappear if we're a few minutes late!" he thought, irritated, without opening the door, just to teach his friend a good lesson.

He went back to his PC and clicked on that nickname in order to see the profile. There wasn't much info, saving the fact that it was a girl. He was glad for that, at least.

"Damn you, Matt! You're still stuck to that bloody thing! Still craving your damn feedback?" Dom exclaimed, startling him.

And yet he didn't remember he had opened the door.

"God, your computer is not going to disappear if you leave it for a few hours!" the blond went on.

"Okay. He and I spend way too much time together!" the brunet reckoned, a little bit worried.

"Yep, it is, if robbers come in my house and steal it!" he protested.

"Well, if they are as shrewd as me, making a copy of your key before you noticed it, believe me, it could happen!" the other chuckled.

"So, that's how you managed to get in!" Matt figured out.

"Yep, and if it's any comfort to you, I also have a copy of Chris' key, but don't you dare tell him!" the drummer winked at Matt with a smirk. "Now, let's go, we're already late. I'll miss all the girls!" he added immediately after as he dragged Matt towards the door, giving him just the time to grab his jacket.

"Yeah, like that would ever happen: Dominic James Howard without a bunch of beautiful women hovering around him!" Matt made fun of him as he punched Dom's shoulder playfully.

"Look, I'm rich, I'm famous, I'm fucking gorgeous … so let me take all the possible advantages! You should follow my example!" Dom struck back, making Matt laugh, as they left.

The brunet glanced at his still switched on PC for the last time, but he decided that to go out and have some distractions would be just the most proper thing.

They came back around 1:00 a.m.

Correction. Matthew came back.

Dominic remained at the pub, acting dumb with a sexy, blonde pin-up, but Matthew had grown tired of all her bimbo friends after a while, no matter how pretty they were.

Sure, he also liked hunting girls and there were countless after-parties where he and Dom had had their fun with some groupies, but that night Matthew wasn't looking for a fling.

He sat at his desk and controlled his still switched on PC, updating the webpage. He lead the cursor at the bottom of the page and turned somehow upset when he found out that there was already another newest member; but when he glanced at the on line users, he was glad when he saw also eternally-missed.

He logged in, eager to contact her.

"I'm such an idiot! I should go to sleep, so tomorrow I can get up early and study… and yet what am I doing? It's almost 2:20 a.m. and I'm still searching around this forum!" Gaia scolded herself, but she didn't turn off her PC anyway.

Before going out with her friends she had managed to write a topic to introduce herself to the forum. She had returned about half an hour ago, but instead of going to sleep, she had turned her PC on, trying her best not to wake her parents. She sat on her bed and was checking the message-board to see if there were some answers to her topic.

After all when you become a member of something new it always gives you the thrills.

She was happy when she saw that there were a dozen of answers. She was about to answer to everyone, when another window popped up, alerting her that there was a new private message.

Gaia smiled when she read who the sender was : end_of_the_world. As it was more than usual in that forum, the message was in English, but after the cultural exchanges the girl had learned English very well.

'Hi. I just wanted to say that I like your username a lot. Can I ask you why you chose it? I almost forgot: welcome to this community!'

A little puzzled by such a request that at least didn't seem a grotty attempt to pick her up, the girl first checked the sender's profile, but she ended up only discovering that it was a male.

She decided there was nothing wrong if she answered his message.

Matthew was happy when he saw her answer.

'Hi. You know… I chose that nickname because it's a sensation I'd like to feel, or, that's even better, I'd like to make someone else feel. Welcome, by the way, I saw you're a new member, too.'

He was impressed by that answer and his reply was immediate.

Gaia saw another window popping up, with a new private message by the same sender.

'You strike me as a very profound person. It would be so nice to get to know you better…'

"Here we go with the attempt to pick me up!" she thought amused, but then she changed her mind.

Something told her it wasn't a stupid wanker who wanted to make sexual advances. No. That guy with such a creative username deserved a chance.

After all, he had paid her a very big compliment.

Matthew rushed to read her answer.

'Thank you. You strike me as a kinda interesting person, too. Plus, of course, you surely don't lack imagination in choosing usernames!'

He smiled as he typed the message.

'Well, I wanted something impressive!' Gaia read, amused.

'Congratulations, it seems you hit the mark!' she typed.

She was about to send it, but then she noticed her alarm clock that warned her that it was already 2:45 a.m.

'Listen, I'd like to keep talking with you, I really would, but it's getting pretty late here and I have to go,' she added, a little bit unwillingly and sending it.

After a couple of minutes she saw his answer.

'Yep, you're right, it's getting late, so I'll stop bothering you, right here, right now. I just hope I'll get more chances to talk with you. It was fun. Goodnight, eternally-missed.'

Gaia smiled, typed him a couple of sentences quickly, pressed the 'enter' key and then turned her PC off.

'You know, I always pay visits to this forum, so, yeah, I guess there will be plenty of chances to talk with you again, maybe even for a longer time. Goodnight, end_of_the_world.' Matthew read, before turning his PC off with a satisfied expression.

He didn't get any reviews, but maybe he had found something much better.

TBC

Notes:

About 'missed ' I mean it as 'strongly desired, craved ' .. and I guess also Matt means it like that in his (amazing) song.

This is to make you understand the sensation Gaia talked about.

Plus, 'Eternally Missed ' is a b-side from Hysteria's single, so it came after the album.. at least I think so.. anyway, in this story it will come after, because 'this ' Matthew still has to write it.

That's why that nickname intrigued him so much.

What else? Sorry but the idea of a Gaia who is a big fan of Muse thrilled me too much , just like the idea of a Matthew obsessed by feedback… maybe because I'm a little bit obsessed , too, lol!