Disclaimer: the title is taken from 'Escape' lyrics, by Muse.

Warning: I'd never thought I would say one day but… angst!

Summary: Dominic finds out the truth. How will he react?

Chapter X: Your brain needs some assistance

"I don't know why, but I don't believe much that you're simply going to take a walk, Matthew," Dom considers, as he, very carefully, stalks his boyfriend.

The blond pulls the high collar of his black coat up to his nose in order to protect himself from the cold London night, but mostly from anyone's chance of recognising him; that's why he also lowers his woollen cap a little more, covering his forehead.

It's quite funny; usually it's Dom who likes the attention and tries to be as showy as he can, whilst Matt is more reserved and defences his privacy as if it was the most precious thing ever, but now the roles are totally reversed.

"Okay, I have my reasons to do that; I must remain hidden, like every proper stalker, but what's your point, Matt? You're hanging around so openly, trying to draw attention to yourself so much that all you're missing is a bloody poster with 'Hey, everyone, I'm Matthew Bellamy from Muse, come here!'; a glittery poster, knowing your taste," the drummer thinks, just as serious as he is pissed off, especially when he sees Matthew looking around every corner, desperately trying to meet someone.

"Well, at least you're not on the phone with someone. Wait… maybe are you going to directly meet that guy here?" Dom starts to nervously figure out as he keeps following Matt, as silently as he can.

After all, Matthew is too focussed on his own hunger to feel Dominic's presence.

"Geez! What happened to the bloody people tonight? There's no one around. I'm almost tempted to bloody ring at the first house, randomly, and act like a hooker, a delivery boy, a Jehovah's Witness… any bloody thing to make them invite me inside their house or pop out to perform in my bloody show. Wait. I'd better quit saying 'bloody', it reminds me of blood way too much, I'm not helping myself!" Matt reckons, uncomfortably, before seeing three girls leaving their house.

"Bingo! Let's see if I am even luckier." The vampire smiles to himself, as he walks towards them.

"Hello, ladies, are you do…"

"Oh, my God, my GOD, MYYY GOOOOOOOOOD! I can't believe it! Matt Bellamy!" the first girl says as the other two confine themselves to screaming madly.

"Yes, I am," Matt answers mentally as he smiles at them.

"Hey, sweeties, would you mind joining me for a walk?" he casually asks them, already knowing what their answer will be.

From afar, Dom sees Matt acting nicely to three good-looking strangers, before they follow the singer.

It's useless to say that jealousy is devouring the gorgeous blond's heart.

"You bastard, nasty, horrible, disgusting, shameful betrayer. Is this your fucking way of loving me and caring about me? Now I'm going to make the queen of the scenes to you, ugly bastard! Okay, not ugly... just a bastard!" he ponders, more pissed off than he has ever been.

When he sees Matt isolating the girls, taking them inside an alley, his anger increases.

"You're heartless. That's one of our alleys. You used to do stuff there with me and only me! This is the final straw."

Dom increases his pace, heading towards that alley, as rage makes his blood boil.

When Dom arrives he sees that there are two girls, resting against the wall, almost as if they were waiting for their turn, but they seem to be numb; their faces are expressionless and they seem to be unaware of what's going on around them.

In the meantime, Matthew is taking care of the third girl; he's already bent over her, kissing her neck… or, at least, Dominic mistakes it for a kiss.

The drummer can't hold off for a second longer. He doesn't care if someone finds out about them, he doesn't care if this is going to fuck up their career, he doesn't care if they will end up on the cover of every gossip magazine. All he wants to do is to make Matt feel like shit, right there, right now.

"Matthew, you fucking bastard!" he screams at the top of his lungs, rushing towards him.

Caught off guard, Matthew jolts, immediately parting from his victim and staring at Dom, who notes that there's something scarily wrong in Matt's eyes.

They are unnaturally blue, almost white, and they're shining in an unnatural way, and this time Dom is sure that it's not because a street lamp is playing some tricks.

Dom is so captured by Matt's eyes that he hasn't yet noticed the drops of blood trickling down the left side of the brunet's mouth.

It's only a few seconds, but they seem to last for hours and Matthew is just too shocked to do anything, to make a single move.

Finally, Dominic notices the blood on Matt's lips and chin and, even more terrified, he notices two tiny red punctures on the girl's neck.

"Oh, God! What the fucking hell are you doing? Are you crazy? You're hurting that poor girl! You are such a..."

Dominic can't talk anymore because, resorting to his supernatural quickness, Matt has reached him, gagging the drummer's mouth with his hand.

"Be quiet, it's not what you think. I can explain," he justifies, but Dom breaks free from his grip, kind of rudely. That's only because Matt wasn't using his supernatural strength on his beloved mate.

"Explain what? You're a violent person, you're a psychotic, you're a…"

"I'm a vampire." Matthew plainly states.

"What? Don't talk shit, vampires don't exist. You just believe you are a vampire. Yes, your eyes are strange, but it must be due to some special contact lenses," the blond acts rationally.

"What about my teeth?" Matt asks him, opening his mouth wide to make Dom see his sharp, elongated canines, before shifting back to his human visage.

Dom gulps.

"Hollywood tricks," he insists, before Matthew grabs his hand.

"What about the super quickness I used before? And what about this?" Matt questions him, bringing Dom's hand to his heart. "Can you feel it, Dom? My heart doesn't beat anymore."

Dom withdraws his hand, traumatized.

"You're delirious. I'm delirious. This is not happening for real."

"It bloody is! You have been so close to me for all these days and you never noticed it," Matt asserts.

"You can't blame me. You know, people's hearts usually beat, it's something you take for granted!" Dom justifies, still disturbed.

"That's true for living people, but I'm not anymore. I un-live. I'm an un-dead, Dominic," he explains.

It's just too much for the drummer. His fear overpowers his curiosity, so he backs off before running away as fast as he can.

"Nooooo! Dom, wait!" Matt screams, desperate.

He's about to follow him, but then he decides that maybe it's not the wisest idea to chase his terrified best friend when he's starving, so he comes back to his victims, who are still under his spell.

"If I know Dom as well as I'm sure I know him, I have time for everything," he ponders, allowing his canines to elongate and bending down over the girl he was feeding from.

Once Matt is done, after erasing every trace, on his way back home he takes his mobile out.

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

Michael and Rachel are enjoying their evening together, but they're doing nothing supernatural.

They're just sitting on the sofa in their new temporary house, snuggling in front of the TV as they're watching a sentimental movie, just like any normal couple.

That's because they challenged each other to establish what kind of movie to pick up and Rachel won. So Michael had to say goodbye to the very truculent thriller he had chosen.

As it's easy to figure out, that movie is boring the hell out of him, but the only positive thing is that Rachel is holding him tight.

Suddenly, his mobile starts to ring.

"Saved by the bell," Michael giggles, pulling out his mobile.

"What? I thought you were enjoying this movie," Rachel protests.

"That's what I made you think," Michael sneers as the phone keeps ringing.

"Well, honey, don't fear. It's a DVD so I can press 'pause' and you won't miss a single second!" Rachel challenges him, pressing the 'pause' button on purpose.

"You're so cruel," Michael snorts.

"I know," Rachel sneers. "So, who's calling you?" she questions her Sire.

Michael looks at the display and smiles.

"I guess you've just won something else. It happened before two weeks," he informs her, before answering the call, activating the speaker.

"Hello, Childe!" Michael chirps.

"It's happened," a very agitated Matt informs him.

"What happened exactly?" Rachel asks him.

"Dominic. He has just found out the twuth on his own."

"What? Does it mean that you hadn't told him yet? Matt! Wrong. This is very wrong of you," Michael reproaches his Childe.

"I wanted to. I tried, but… it's not so easy," Matt justifies.

"I know, dear. How did he find out?" Rachel wonders.

"He followed me, I didn't notice him. So he saw me feeding, I tried to explain everything to him, but he ran away, terrified," the Englishman sighs.

"You can't blame him, poor puppy!" the vampiress comments.

"I know, it's just my bloody fault. Now I'm going to find him and calm him down. I don't want him to fear me, it breaks my heart," Matt almost cries down the phone.

"Calm down, dear, you're surely not the first vampire who didn't immediately tell the truth to their beloved ones," Rachel comforts him.

"Michael did the same with you, didn't he?" the musician hazards.

"No way, I told her the second time I met her. I don't make such mistakes!" Michael points out, proudly.

"Thank you, Sire, there's no need to twist the knife in the wound!" Matthew snorts.

"Oh, don't mind at him, he's Mr. I-Told-You-So!" Rachel rolls her eyes.

"So, how did you react when Michael revealed to you what he really is? You ran away from him, scared… didn't you?" the guitarist questions her.

"Nope. I've never feared Michael, not even for a second, because I knew I could trust him completely," Rachel says, smiling at her Sire.

"So, it means that…" Matt figures out, his voice broken.

"No, sugar, that's totally different! I mean, I didn't fear because Michael found the perfect way to tell me. If I had found that out on my own, I would react exactly like Dom did," she rushes to clarify.

"Now go to Dom, you're doing the right thing. Be patient, careful, and kind and I'm sure that everything will be fine," she advises the singer sweetly.

"Let's say that now your love is put to a test," Michael states.

"What?" Matthew frowns.

"It's time to see if Dom really loves you, no matter what… or if it's a superficial, fragile, probably fake love, unable to face such a tiny obstacle!" Michael explains.

"Do you really think that this is a tiny obstacle?" Matt wonders in disbelief.

"If you really love someone, believe me, it is," Michael confirms.

"Okay, I guess I'm about to find that out. Just one more thing…" Matt wavers.

"Spit it out," Rachel exhorts him.

"In the worst case, if I need a shoulder to cry on… where can I find you?" the younger vampire asks in a ghostly voice.

"Madrid," Rachel informs him, after Michael nods.

"Gee, you travel a lot!" Matt chuckles, needing to change the topic.

"Yeah. You know, Michael felt a little nostalgic. I guess we'll stay here for a month, at least," She says.

"A month?" Matt repeats, surprised.

"Okay, let's say I felt very nostalgic. I need to see my land, every now and then," Michael admits.

"Good luck, Matthew. Please, don't get me wrong, but I really hope not to see you here in a day or two," Rachel comments.

"Uh! Wait. I got it. Thank you, Rachel," Matthew softens. "Thank you, too, Michael. Bye." He hangs up.

"We were wrong. It wasn't that kind of phone call yet. I guess that Matt is going to take things very slowly," Rachel states.

"He's nothing like me. I mean, I told you the truth the second day and I made you mine forever at the end of the seventh one," Michael recalls.

"Probably he's not as eager as we were," his Queen chuckles. "Now let's watch the rest of the movie," she changes topic, pressing 'play'.

"Why can't I find a stake when I need one?" her Sire grumbles.

"Michael!"

"Just kidding, sweetie."

Matt has reached Dom's house and he's glad when he sees that the lights are turned on.

"Luckily for me, fear makes you predictable," he smiles to himself, taking an unneeded breath before ringing the bell.

"Matthew, go away!" Dom yells, leaning from the window of the bedroom.

"Baby, we need to talk. Open up," Matt says.

"Don't 'baby' me! We have nothing to talk about. Now you can go away!" the blond snaps.

"You know better than me that I won't go any-bloody-where. Now open the door or I'll have to crash it down. One way or another, I'm going to come in!" Matthew warns him.

"Ah-ah, gotcha. You think that you can, but you can't. I, Dominic James Howard, right here, right now hereby disinvite you from my house. You can't get in anymore!" Dom declares resolutely.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, baby, but it's all crap; vampires don't need invitations. So now open the door," the brunet informs him calmly.

Dom stares deeply at his creepy best friend.

"It's all a bluff, you're lying, but you won't make me a fool," Dom insists, going back inside the room.

Matthew notices an important detail: he left the window open.

He also sees the tree near the house.

"Well, well, it's time to see if super-agility is included in the package of my powers," he ponders and when, with only a cat-like leap he reaches the branch, he realises that it is.

From the branch, Matt jumps on the windowsill and climbs through the window as Dom is turning his back to him to notice that.

"I knew you would do that!" Matt exclaims, seeing Dom as he packs his stuff quickly.

Dom jolts and gulps.

"Matt! How the hell did you…"

"See? Told you I don't need an invitation," Matthew smirks, but Dom backs off and rushes towards the living room.

"Please, Dom, don't make things harder than they are!" the vampire rolls his eyes, chasing after him.

"You almost gave me a heart attack!" the blond complains, using the sofa like a barrier.

"No way, I guess that one dead person in our relationship is enough. At least, for now," Matt reckons.

"You didn't give me much choice. Now calm down and listen to me, we need to talk," Matt says, standing still in the middle of the living room, afraid that if he dares to move Dom will run away again.

"Okay, let's bloody talk, then. When did it happen? When did you become a vampire?"

"It happened after our last show in L.A..."

"It was that girl! The one who took you away," Dom figures out.

"Do you mean Rachel? Nope. Not exactly, she just took me to her boyfriend, Michael, who did the job," Matt informs him.

Hearing that name, Dom's eyes go wide.

"Oh, c'mon, Dommie, don't look at me that way. It's not such a big change, after all. Okay… just a little bit, if you'll forgive my pun," he chuckles.

"Dammit, Matthew, how the hell can you joke about something so fucking serious?" Dom snaps, throwing one of his drumming magazines at Matt in rage.

Matt turns serious.

"Please, baby, look at me, listen to me, it's still me, the Matthew you fell in love with," he murmurs, taking a step towards him.

Wrong move.

Dom rushes to the kitchen.

"No way! You're a liar, in first place. Why didn't you tell me?" Dom questions him.

"It wasn't so easy. I tried, but every time I did… it didn't seem to be the right moment. Believe me, I wanted to tell you, I decided that I would have told you everything once I was back from my… walk."

"Crap! You're lying again, I can't believe you. How could I ever believe a monster's word?" Dom hisses with his iciest look.

Matt's eyes become teary as he stares at the floor, looking very wounded, without uttering a word.

"You're a vampire now, for God's sake! You kill people, probably you want to kill me, too," Dom goes on, as he catches a glimpse of something on the table.

The blond's cold words hurt the brunet even more, but this time he can't keep silent.

"You're wrong. I may be a vampire, but I'm not a killer. I don't kill people, I just feed on them, because I need to… and I still have my soul, but I can't say the same about you, right now," Matthew hisses.

Dom's rage increases.

"Shut the fuck up! How could I take humanity lessons from someone who isn't even human anymore?" he yells, grabbing the drumsticks on the table and placing them like a cross, before walking over Matt, holding them against him.

"Now tell me, vampire, you fear that, don't you?" the blond sneers, meanly.

Matt just pretends to be scared and backs off, until he reaches the front door.

"From now on I'll just see you as the singer/pianist/guitarist/leader of the band I play in, but nothing more," escapes from Dom's lips, but he jolts, staring at Matt, terrified, scarily aware that he has just said something too exaggerated.

"Forgive me, Matt, I shouldn't have said…" he stutters, with teary eyes.

Matthew stares at him coldly, touching the makeshift cross under Dom's shocked eyes, parting the drumsticks and placing them back on the table.

"See, Dom? Crosses don't hurt me, but you did. A lot," he states.

"I didn't..." Dom tries to justify, but Matt gestures to him to shut up.

"You know what? I thought you were different. I thought you were someone who could see beyond appearance, someone who could go further than prejudices, but I was probably wrong," the vampire shrugs.

Dom remains silent for a while.

"I.. I think that you should go now.." he asserts, laboriously, with a broken voice.

"I just want to let you know that I'm not going to give up on you. Now, you need time and I'm going to give you time. I'll wait until you are ready to face a civil conversation, ready to face the truth, ready to make your decision about us. I'll wait for you outside and I won't move from there, no matter what, until you're ready. If you want to stay locked in here forever, I'll wait forever." Matt informs the other resolutely as he's about to leave, but then he turns to Dom again.

"One last thing. If I really wanted to kill you, don't you think that I would have already done that?" he adds, crossing the threshold, closing the door and disappearing from Dom's view.

Wiping his tears, Dom goes back to his room, spying from the closed window, where he can see Matt sat on the concrete.

"I'm sure he's going to leave in ten minutes," Dom thinks, as he undoes his bags, deciding that it's useless to escape.

He goes to the window twenty minutes later, but Matt is still there, just like he is after forty minutes or one hour later.

"What a stubborn guy! No, not guy. Vampire. He's a vampire now. Everything's changed," he repeats to himself, as he keeps staring at the brunet from the window.

After a while, he moves away, lying down on his bed, caressing the side where Matt used to sleep and allowing tons of pleasant memories to overwhelm his mind.

"Is everything so different, after all? He's still my Matthew with his so good-looking aspects, his behaviour, his memories, his feelings… c'mon, it's surely not easy to tell someone, of course he needed time… but I was too blinded by my childish, stupid, pointless jealousy to realise that he was trying to tell me something…" he ponders, and then he changes his mind again.

"No, wait, it can't be my fault, it's his. He didn't tell me the truth. He didn't trust me enough to share his dark secret with me. He's the one who changed into something that I'm not sure if I can handle. Probably, this new Matt doesn't even care about me for real, it was all a charade," he reflects, but it's enough to close his eyes and recall all of Matt's kisses, his lovely attitude, his sweet words, to figure out that it can't be something fake.

"But it's a charade now, he's just pretending that he can wait, but he will get tired soon and leave, in order to find someone else easier to persuade, easier to fool," he reckons.

As he twists and turns on the bed, torturing his mind with all of the frustration, Dom falls asleep.

It's the rumble of thunder that wakes him up.

It's the beginning of a storm.

The first thing he does is to rush towards the window, sure that Matt will be gone, but he can't believe his eyes when he sees the brunet still there, soaked to the bone under the cold, pouring rain, waiting resolutely.

Dom glances at the alarm clock. It's 5:18 a.m., which means that Matthew has been sitting outside for more than four hours.

This is all it takes Dom to give himself the ultimate answer to all his questions and doubts.

Matt is so lost in his thoughts, drowning in his own misery, so busy blaming and cursing himself and what he has become that he doesn't even notice that someone is holding a large, black umbrella over his head.

"I'm beginning to think that you vampires have a soft spot for getting soaked!" Dom says, sitting next to him on the concrete and shielding them both under the umbrella.

Matt jolts, recovering a little bit, and slowly turns his head towards Dom, very slowly, almost fearing that he's hallucinating and no-one is there.

Dom seems to realise this and gently skims his best friend's hand, smiling at him.

"See? It seems that it took a much shorter time than forever!" he goes on, waiting for Matt's reaction, because right now he seems utterly numb.

"Dominic," he says, or rather sighs, before smiling and crying at the same time.

"Don't worry, they're happy tears!" he adds, bringing an arm towards the blond, but without knowing exactly what to do.

Dom lets the umbrella fall down in order to hug Matt tight, not caring about the pouring rain that is soaking him as well.

"You're getting wet," Matt murmurs against the drummer's shoulder, a little concerned.

"I don't give a damn!" Dominic laughs, cupping his boyfriend's face and kissing him deeply.

Their kiss goes on for several minutes; it's a kiss that tastes like awareness, forgiveness… acceptance.

Matthew breaks the kiss first, just to take the umbrella and hold it over Dom.

"Baby, don't forget that, now, I'm immune to illness, but you are not. You'll end up catching a cold or something worse, and I don't want anything bad to happen to you," he explains with a sweet smile.

Dom beams and wraps his arms around Matt's neck, squeezing him.

"Honey, I've never felt better than I do now," he whispers, pressed against Matt's chest.

After what seems an endless amount of time, Dominic raises his gaze again and Matt notices that his stormy eyes are teary.

"What's wrong, Dommie?" he caresses the blond's cheek, worried.

Dom bursts out crying like a child.

"Oh, Matthew, I've been horrible to you, I said terrible things that I didn't mean for real, I…"

Matt stops him up with the sweetest kiss ever.

"Hush, baby, it doesn't matter anymore, now everything is fine," he murmurs soothing words, caressing his crying best friend's back with slow circular movements, kissing his temple as he holds him tight.

"Thank you," Dom murmurs when they part, so barely audible that Matt must resorts to his powers to hear it.

"Let's go back inside," the drummer suggests as he's about to get up, but Matt gestures to him to remain sat.

"There's something that I must do before we do," the brunet informs him.

"What?" Dom asks curiously.

"Look at me," Matt pleads his partner.

Dom obliges, nervous and kind of turned on when he sees Matt's eyes turning into an unnatural, electrical, icy light blue, as dark blue spirals swirl inside his irises.

"This is not the way you should have found out the twuth, so now you'll forget everything and then I'll reveal everything to you again, but in a less shocking way," Matt commands.

"No way, I'm not going to forget anything! What the hell do you think you're doing? Whatever it is… it's so cool!" Dom comments excitedly.

Matt stares at him, confused, as his eyes return to normal.

"It doesn't work with you…" he says, or rather thinks out loud, before recalling Rachel's words.

"'You can hypnotize every human but the one who truly loves you and you truly love, because true love is stronger than any kind of magic,'" he mutters.

A wonderful, beautiful, amazing realisation hits the singer.

"It means that you really love me!" he cheers.

His only answer, Dom slaps Matt's left cheek, kind of angrily.

"Of course, I love you; did you have to become a vampire to figure that out? You bloody idiot! Do you really think that I was pretending?" he snaps.

"I mean, you still love me, even afterfinding out the twuth," Matt explains, massaging his temporarily reddened cheek.

"You're really delirious if you think that I don't love you, anymore. There's not a single chance that I wouldn't love you, even if you were covered with scales, prickles, mud… which, luckily for me, is not your case. The point is that I love you, no matter what," the blond states.

"I thought that you were just beginning to accept it but you weren't ready to love me again, not yet. After all, you said…" Matthew weakly protests.

"You can't really believe at the things I said in the heat of the moment!" Dom justifies.

"You can be extremely cruel when you're in the heat of the moment," Matt whines.

"I know, I'm so sorry," Dom apologises once again, holding Matt's hands in his.

"Anyway, you wanted to hypnotise me, didn't you?" the blond figures out.

Matt nods.

"Yeah, it's another of my powers."

"You can't, I don't want anyone to fuck with my mind, especially you. You don't have the right to steal my memories!" Dom protests, lively.

"I can't, it doesn't work with you."

"But you wanted to and I could never have forgiven you for such a thing," Dom insists.

"Well, I just wanted to take this bad memory away," Matthew justifies.

"But I don't want to forget, not even a single, awful, shocking, terrible, painful detail of it, and do you know why? Because this night has brought us even closer," Dom smiles at his mate.

"Matthew, if it's possible, now I love you even more than before," he admits, sealing his lips over the smiling brunet's.

"You're right. In a certain sense this night is very special," Matt sighs against his lover's mouth. "Now we can go inside."

"Yeah, but before I have something to ask you," Dom informs him.

"Anything," Matt tilts his head to one side.

Dom's face lights up with excitement as he makes his request.

"That thingy you did with your eyes before... can you do that again?"

TBC

Well, this chapter was pretty angsty and it wasn't so easy to write.

Hope you liked it. Feel free to tell me anything, I really need to know your opinion (good or bad) more than usual :)

All I can say is that next chapter will be much fluffier… and a little kinky, too ;P