I knooow it's been forever, but I finally pushed myself to update this. Cutesy stuff and we're getting somewhere in this. If there are any reviews I haven't replied yet, I'll try to get to them this weekend. I'm just trying to rest whenever I can because these last few weeks were stressful. I do hope everything's fine with you all, though!

Enjoy!

x

Shooting for the music video was... Interesting to say the least. If the El Diablo building was not as tall as American skyscrapers, it made up for its lack of height in length and depth. There were more rooms than he could care to count and most of them were large. They currently occupied one of the three shooting studios where a green screen backdrop was placed behind a scenic apartment that Murdoc's crew put up together for the video.

It was a bit awkward singing along to his own song and voice playing in the background whilst staring out the window at the bright green background where they would later add digital effects and footage from Boston and London, and having many people watching him only made him feel more nervous and anxious. Well, it would only get worse once he had to sing to hundreds of people on stage, right?

The director was content with four rounds of him singing while doing random things in the apartment, and after claiming they had enough footage of him alone, dismissed everyone else for lunch break while the crew put down the apartment and built another one for scenes with Noodle. She had been present all the time, watching from behind the cameras and trying hard not to grin at him when he accidentally caught her eyes. Murdoc was there as well, calm and silent for the time being. Russel was present, too, feeling immensely happy for his friend.

After a lunch shared with Russel and Noodle – and Murdoc – they returned to the studio and were immediately ushered towards the makeup artists. Stu's makeup and outfit as a whole were a little simpler than hers, so he was back to pacing around the fake apartment until she was ready to join him. He was so absorbed admiring the round aquarium with a lone goldfish to hear her coming closer and jumped when she struggled to wrap an arm around his neck and yanked him down to her level.

"Smile!" She exclaimed, already posing for the selfie she was about to take with her phone. He flashed the device a wavering smile and looked at her in confusion once the picture was snapped and she began typing a caption. "I'm promoting you, silly. I need to build up the high with my followers."

Stu nodded dumbly and looked down at her outfit, immediately regretting it. Noodle was wearing one of the dress shirts she designed for him, the first two buttons undone and showing a bit of cleavage. Not only that, but he could see a very short black shorts beneath the light pink fabric and that was that. She had no shoes, no pants on; only his dress shirt and a pair of tight shorts.

Upon remembering the rest of the script, he could suddenly feel Murdoc's heavy, irritated gaze burning a hole on the back of his head.

He took a deep breath and shook his long limbs before walking to the center of the living room, waiting for further instructions from the director. Shooting with her was not so hard, at first. All they had to do was sit by the round dining table and nibble at the breakfast food, talk and laugh a little, feel her touch on his skin when she reached his hand, caress his fingers through her hair and give her his best adoring smile. If the makeup artist had not applied foundation to his face, however thin the layer was, he would be a shade between tomato red and beet purple right now.

Hugging her from behind as she sipped from a cup of coffee as the both of the looked out the window at "London" was a bit trickier. Stu swore he could hear her father grumbling lowly behind them, could almost feel him breathing down his neck and threatening to break his arms if he did not let go and step away from her now. Noodle sighed in contentment and snuggled closer to him; he, in response, snuggled right back.

Up until that point, it was fine, or as fine as it could be, but once Stu found himself sitting on the bed, he could not move anymore. She was already laying down, looking up at his face and waiting for him to lay as well, but he would not budge. Frowning, she sat up and turned to the director. "Could we do this part using the remote control feature?" The man snapped his sharp eyes in her direction and raised an eyebrow. "He's not comfortable with so many people here."

Murdoc, who had been glaring at the singer until that moment, turned to look at her at breakneck speed and opened his mouth to protest – and shut his mouth with a roll of his eyes at the glare she shot him instead. With a huff, he was the first to walk out of the studio through another door, the rest of the camera operators, the director himself and Russel following. It was then that Stu looked up from his hands to see everyone exiting and all was quiet for about a minute after the door closed behind them.

"Don't worry." He stilled, breath hitching. He never heard her moving closer to him and now she was whispering so close to his ear and her hands were ghosting over his arms and bare shoulders. "They're in an adjacent room. They can see us through a well-hidden window. This is sort of like a recording pit." Stu nodded slowly, swallowing to try to wet his suddenly drenched throat, and she pulled away from him. "Come. We've been here all day and we're almost over."

Noodle lowered herself to the mattress, back turned to him, waiting for him to follow suit. At a much slower pace, Stu laid down on his side and tentatively wrapped an arm around her middle. Breathing out through his nose, his breath fanned the shell of her ear and she shivered under his touch. He swallowed again; this was going to be so hard and he had to make it seem natural. Nodding to himself, he settled his face on the crook of her neck and inhaled deeply, catching the scent of peach and plum on her skin and hair.

"Can they hear us?" He asked in a murmur. She hummed absentmindedly, barely shaking her head as her fingers laced with his.

Damn, he could easily get used to this. They were lying together for less than a full minute and his eyes were already heavy, his body surrendering to the exhaustion after a long day. Stu moved his head, found a patch of pale skin that was not covered by his shirt and placed his lips there. Soft. So, so soft. He placed another kiss, another and another, light as a feather, yet she was quivering and goosebumps rose on her arms and legs.

With great effort, Noodle turned around to face him, searching his face and trying to read his eyes. Hers were as cloudy as his felt, he could see that. His hand slipped beneath the shirt and rested on her lower back, applying pressure to pull her closer. She felt her lashes fluttering and hid her face in his chest, the scent of butterscotch overtaking her senses, and she tried to feel its taste on her lips. As her mouth met his sternum, Stu felt the need to have no space between them. He was growing aroused, which would only lead to embarrassing moments in the future, but she did not seem to mind the closeness in one bit. In fact, her arm tightened around him.

Noodle inched up, lips travelling to his collarbones then to his neck and finally to his chin and jaw. His hand moved up the gentle curve of her waist, barely brushing against the side of her breast, his fingers curling around her dark locks and pulling her face away from him. He stared deeply into her eyes, hooded and hazy, wanting nothing more than to just dip his head and capture her lips. Something told him that it was not a smart idea, though he could not remember why. His entire mind was focused on her chest against his, the warmth of her body and the sensation of her nails grazing the skin of his back.

"Stu..." Her voice was so small and quiet as if afraid to disrupt the moment. "Do you..."

"No – I – Lemme..." He cut in, never breaking eye contact, licking his lips and trying to gather his thoughts. He had to do it himself. These light kisses and careful touches were not in the script. She was doing this on her own and he was under the impression that it was not part of the act. "Will yeh go out wif me?"

Every time she smiled, the expression was prettier than the last. She seemed so relaxed, yet at the same time so delighted, sharing a bed with him and running her fingers up and down his spine lazily. "I would love to." The words were so familiar to him, but he could only concentrate on her, on her lips and her eyes, on her touch that was so distracting.

Stu could see in her face that she was thinking over something in her head, softly biting down on her lower lip and pinching her eyebrows. He had a pretty good idea of what it was, he was wondering and imagining the same thing. The idea of kissing her right now was so appealing that he almost forgot people were watching them from somewhere and that cameras were recording everything they were doing. He would much rather live another day than have Murdoc strangle him now. He had finally gotten the chance to ask her on a date and he did not want to die before going out with her.

Noodle parted her lips, her mind finally made up, but never got the chance to say anything. The door slammed open and they both were startled out of their skins, sitting up in a haste to see Murdoc marching over to them in quick, long strides and Russel trying to keep up with him. The once bassist and now businessman was standing by her side of the bed in a second, glaring down at him, actually hissing at the singer. At least he was not trying to pull her away from Stu, Noodle thought with a groan and a roll of her eyes, and decided to stand up so the man would stop acting like an overly jealous and protective father.

She allowed herself to be led away, just barely managing to look over her shoulder at a bewildered Stu and mouthed the words call me to him. She hoped he caught her drift; Russel stepped in her line of sight before she could see if he had understood her. Now turning to the man escorting her away, she said lowly. "Dad, I've dated people before. I'm not the six year old girl I used to be before you and mom divorced and you left."

"I know, love." He said gravely, frowning at nothing in particular and sighing in defeat. "Yer still me little girl, though."

Noodle smiled ruefully at him and circled an arm behind his back. "Oh dad..."