Thanks to whoever is reading this fic.
p.s. I also wrote a quick shot about the old Matt/Gaia pairing, tell me if you'd like to read it… cos I have the feeling I'm flooding this section, lol
Summary:Everybody snaps
warning: angst!
Capitolo XXVII II: We can't hide the truth inside.
The sound check couldn't be better.
Tom seems totally oblivious of the confrontation they had before, so much so that the photographer jokingly asked them if they hadn't hypnotized him to make him more serene.
What matters is that he treats them with the right lightness and naturalness.
Chris, needless to say, knows nothing of what happened that afternoon, he only knows that Tom has mentioned to him an important sort of meeting they must have after the concert.
What matters is that the bassist does not notice the slightest disagreement between his friends and least of all Morgan can notice something, who, for obvious reasons, will not be summoned to that 'meeting'.
With such a light heart that it doesn't matter whether he beats or not, Matthew and Dominic tackle rehearsals, interviews and last-minute setups without the slightest problem, while the support group who are performing on stage at the Bassendean Oval is warming up their audience well.
Even the beginning of the concert begins with an enviable energy, but it is during the various songs that Matthew makes an unforgivable mistake: he thinks and does it too much.
- And if then when we tell them the truth they treat us like plague victims and cut us off any kind of relationship with us? What if they abandon us? What will happen to Muse? - he begins to torture his mind, while they conclude a masterful 'Map of the Problematique' which flows into a riff that the frontman cannot be said to execute perfectly, missing some chords in the middle, but neither Chris, nor Dom, nor Tom give weight to the thing, some small mistakes are allowed even to the best.
- Dammit! What if this was our last concert? What popped into my bloody mind? Can I continue to wrap everything in that fabric made of lies, so reassuring? - ponders the handsome singer, but to do so he finds himself inventing the entire second verse of 'SuperMassive Black Hole' from scratch, based on a game of assonance, given that he seems to have totally forgotten the original one.
- I gave Dom all those guarantees, it's true... but who gives them to me? - continues his internal monologue.
Chris, Dom and Tom begin to get alarmed, while the audience mistakes it for his brilliant improvisation, which they welcome with great enthusiasm.
Dominic is further worried when he has to repeat the intro of 'Guiding Light' three times before Matthew decides to sing.
This leads to a general nervousness among the performers which turns into a series of mistakes and imperfections on the part of Dom, who confuses the rhythms of 'Time is running out ' with 'Starlight' , Chris breaking a string of his bass during ' Plug in baby ' and even Morgan at one point makes a little mess with the keyboards.
At the end of the concert, Muse justify themselves for all those inaccuracies they mask with the excuse of excessive emotion due to the very last concert and the public seems to believe it without difficulty, feeling almost flattered by this.
However, while it hasn't had a serious effect on the image, Muse are absolutely not happy with how it turned out and no wonder, they are absolute professionals.
Morgan invites everyone to treasure this experience to improve themselves in future ones, before leaving quickly, while Chris, Tom, Dom and Matt go to the latter's dressing room.
"Good thing we didn't have to compromise the night and let the tour take priority, huh? Guys, some performances were so…. I categorically refused to film them, since they disgusted me, I just brutally canceled some others!" snaps Tom.
"Priority over what? Can anyone explain to me what's going on and why we had such a horrible concert?" snaps Chris.
"Ah, don't look at me, if it depended on myself, now we'd all go for a drink to forget or we'd go sleep on this shitty evening, but no, it's the Mr Let's-tell-the-truth here who insists on staying here..." Dom snaps, glaring at Matt.
"Shut up everyone!" the singer explodes in exasperation. "Maybe… maybe it's not a good idea, maybe you're not ready yet… maybe you never will be." he babbles incoherently.
"No, Bells, don't even try. I remind you that you swore and I will not leave here until you tell us everything!" Tom brusquely spurs him on.
"But everthing what?" Chris gets impatient.
"Chris, they are not who they say they are!" the photographer explains, indicating the two vampires.
"What does it mean?" the bassist scratches his head, waiting for much more detailed explanations.
"Okay, let's talk, let's say the damn thing!" Matthew gives up. "But first, you, Tom, tell us what you know!" He exhorts him.
"I only know that I saw a young mother, now probably a widow, thanks to you, who desperately sought comfort among her neighbors, wondering hopefully when her husband would return. But what have you become? You go and destroy a happy family? Because I know it was you, indeed, I'll tell you more, you were the first one, Dom. You lured that poor man and made him follow you, to lock him up God knows where, deny it if you have the courage!" Tom hisses furiously in the direction of the blond.
"I don't deny it at all!" shrugs Dominic. "It's true, I lured him into my trap, it was my gift to Matt and he appreciated it so much." he continues, naturally, as if he was giving the recipe for a Sacher Torte.
Chris has yet to fully comprehend what's going on and remains astonished in silence, hearing everything else.
"It's true, it was me who killed that man and I don't regret it at all, if I could go back in time I would do everything exactly the same in every detail." Matthew explains calmly, shocking the two humans.
"OMG! Then I was not wrong. You are heartless killers!" rages Tom.
"What the fuck does it mean you killed a man, Matt? I mean, did you lose your brain?" Chris decides to surrender to his rage too, once he has metabolized the shocking news.
"That we are murderers we can no longer deny it, but... heartless?" retorts Matt. "Tom, let me give you an extra piece of information or two about that adorable 'little happy family' you pictured. He was an alcoholic, violent, out of work and who squandered his few remaining possessions in gambling and who in addition, not least, I think, occasionally beat both his wife and his little daughter and she didn't have the heart to report him!" He reveals to him, pleased when he sees his color change, pale after that news.
"That's right, Tom, if you had looked a little closer when you saw that scene, you would have noticed some bruising on that poor girl's body and probably some beatings on that innocent child as well. And, for the record, hers was not the hope of seeing him return but a lively and understandable desire never to see the filthy face of that bastard again!" adds Dom, pissed off.
Tom is dumbfounded.
"Okay, you may not have destroyed an idyllic family scene, I give you credit, but it is still the killing of a person, for Christ's sake! It was your first murder, but who assures us that…"
"That wasn't the first." Dom interrupts him calmly.
"Wh-what?" the documentary filmmaker nervously mutters.
"I don't know if I want to hear any further!" Chris gets upset, starting to get up from the sofa, but a single gesture from Matt is enough to stop him.
The blond vampire exchanges a knowing look with his Sire, who invites him to continue.
After all, if they have chosen to tell the truth, they must do it to the end.
For this reason, the two take turns talking about the psychopathic girl who made an attempt on Dom's life, about the two men who had brutally attacked them and so on.
Chris accumulates that information with growing dread and dismay, while Tom finds every doubt he has disproved, at every stage they describe.
"But, that English newscast, with the girl talking about her rescue… she wasn't describing you." points them out.
"Oh yes, she described us, only with suitable modifications that we expressly requested! You know that little thing we can do with our eyes right?" Dom slyly replies. "The point is, yes, we may kill people, but it's never innocent ones and never will be. You know, the twinkling light in here is still doing its thing." he adds, pointing to the center of his chest.
The two humans look at him confused, without understanding.
"He means the soul," Matt clarifies, "So if you don't fall under the list of thugs, murderers, psychopaths, rapists, pedophiles, racists, or any sort of violent, brawling social discriminator…you have nothing to worry about!" He minimizes, but does not find the same calm in his small audience.
"You can't make it that fucking simple! You two kill, you are killers, for God's sake!. It wasn't expected to happen, who assures me that it won't happen that you make an exception to your rule that forbids you the innocent ones?" Chris puts them in a corner, looking at them as if it were the first time he's seen them and it's a look that hurts the two vampires, never like the words that follow afterwards. "And to think that I even left you alone with my children!" he adds in a venomous tone.
Dominic is too devastated to say a single word and just looks at him with the most wounded expression that has ever painted on his face, and there are tears in his eyes, the same ones that line Matthew's cheeks.
"Chris, no! How can you say such a thing? You know that we dote on your children, we could never do anything to them, to you, to Kell..." the singer replies desperately.
"I don't know anything anymore. I don't know who you are anymore. I only know that at the moment I want you as far away from me and especially from my family as possible." Chris intimates to them, leaving before they can have time to say anything.
"I wanted the truth and I got it." Tom asserts, also getting up from the sofa. "Now, however, I want some time to reflect on the many things that have happened. Frankly, I've never been so pleased and relieved to see a tour finish." he adds, leaving his two interlocutors in utter despair.
"Well, as devastating and heinous as it was, it had to be done." comments Matt, after a few very heavy minutes of silence.
"Bullshit!" Dom rages, getting up abruptly. "We didn't have to do anything. Everything was great, but no, Mr. Let's-say-the-bloody-truth had to cross all the fucking T's and dot and all the fucking I's and now look what happened!" he growls at him, shoving him to the ground violently as soon as he approaches.
"Dom, but ..." Matthew gets up slowly, struck much more by his words than by that gesture.
"Dom, don't you remember all the talks we had? Now they reacted like this but then..."
"But then what, Matt? If nothing else, before there was no total truth but there was a situation that I was getting used to, but now? I don't know what awaits me and I don't know if we can deal with it. Not together, at least. Not now, I can't even stand the sight of you right now." the blond overwhelms him in his river of vitriolic words.
"No, Dom, please, don't..." Matt shakes him by the shoulders, trying to pull him towards him, but getting an even more violent push.
"Leave me. Don't you understand? You screwed verthing up and even convinced me it was the right thing to do. Just as our friends no longer trust us, I no longer trust you!" rages Dom implacable, disappearing a few moments later.
Using his own supernatural speed, Matthew could reach him in moments, but the dark haired vampire does not feel like reaching him, not now, not if he has yet to put up with all that anger, not if he has yet to face his look full of resentment .
He leaves his dressing room and walks towards the crew, who are still busy dismantling the stage.
Then he notices something that has already been moved backstage, but hasn't been loaded onto the truck yet.
"Leave that there!" intimate to the two employees who are dealing with it.
"But Matthew, are you kidding? We can't..." one of them replies.
"I told you to leave it there!"
The two guys in charge look at each other, if there's one of the few certainties they can have in life it's that when Matthew James Bellamy uses that tone and has that look it shouldn't be contradicted at all. Never.
****************************** (at the same time)
Arrived in his room, being able to enjoy the right privacy, Chris hastens to dial a certain number, not caring about the time zone, what time it may be in England, even if fortunately for him it turns out to be only afternoon.
"Hi Chris, nice to hear from you!" Kelly trills happily.
"Listen to me carefully, if Matt or Dom should contact you and say they want to come and see you or whatever, find an excuse to push them away, actually hang up without giving them any explanations, understand? I love you Kelly, no matter what, I will always love you." Chris talks it all in one breath, and then ends the conversation.
The phone rings after a few seconds and Chris has no choice but to accept the call.
"You can't tell me 'I love you, no matter what. ' and then hang up. Are you crazy?! Do you want me to have a heart attack? Now you tell me exactly what the hell happened or is happening!" rages his wife.
"No, love, it would be better if I return home first and…"
"Now!" Kelly balks and Chris knows he can't object.
"You must know that..."
It took Dom a slightly longer journey because his destination was certainly not the hotel, but the airport, without taking anything with him.
Thanks to his practical sense, he always goes around with his passport in his pocket, but otherwise he would have had no problem hypnotizing the entire airline staff, just to get on any plane.
He doesn't even know what the destination is, as long as he gets away from there.
Despite the unlikely hour, about ten people find themselves in front of him at the counter.
And to deceive the wait there is nothing more effective than letting thoughts run through your mind.
He remembers that afternoon, the promises he and Matt made to each other to stick together to face the consequences, whatever they might be.
Remember the comforting words and gestures they exchanged, remember the security they instilled in each other.
- Is it possible that security is so weak? - he wonders. - We made a promise of eternity and I break it already after a few months? - continues, while the row in front slowly begins to flow.
- Matthew gave me the time I needed to decide, when I had to decide, he was close to me in the darkest moment, when I was no longer me, he gave me the strength to find myself again, he indulged my whims, he shattered my fears, he saw the worst in me and gave him a confident smile. We have faced all this, we have been through terrible times, why shouldn't we know how to face this situation too? Is it not that I only make it even more untenable if I run away from my only fixed point? - wonders the blond, while now only one person is missing in front of him and he's almost done.
- But what am I doing? - he asks himself, calling himself a fool, not realizing that the counter is now empty and it's his turn.
"Sir?" a female voice repeatedly calls him and turning away from his thoughts, Dominic looks up, meeting that of a hostess in her sixties, probably close to retirement and almost certainly without the slightest idea of who Muse are.
"Sir, is anything you want that I can help you with?" She welcomes him cordially, happy to have finally managed to capture his attention.
"I just don't want to do what I set out to do anymore!" smiles Dom, putting away his passport and walking away under the confused gaze of the poor lady.
In less than no time, the drummer is already on board a taxi, to which he communicated the destination, and while he's halfway there, the radio that kept him company during the journey broadcasts 'Invincible' with the refrain that comes loud and clear to blond.
- Damn you, Bells, how right you are! - He shakes his head with a smile, enjoying the view of Perth , immersed in the dark of the night and letting the fresh air that enters from the lowered window whip his face, before he smells that air and understands an important thing.
"Excuse me, change of plans, please, don't take me to the hotel I told you anymore, now I have to go to another place..."
TBC
Notes:come on, you know that I'm the first to hate these saddest moments, but, I really couldn't expect that after the confession Chris and Tom would jump on the other two's necks, embracing them happily shouting 'Who cares!' .. . :/ and then if you don't want to trust me, trust some of them... maybe give them some time... ;)
as for the two puppies, come on, it must have been more than a hundred or two hundred pages ago that they didn't go through a moment of crisis XD
Lol, it seems that the concert in Perth in 2010 was one of their best (I've never seen it, don't shoot me) ... and look how I made it for them :/ I begin to think I'm the one here without a soul XD
Delirious or not, I'll wait for you to tell me something, anything, if there's still someone here, which I doubt ^^