A/N: It's been long in coming, but I've finally gotten round to writing this chapter. Thank you so much for telling me your favourite bands. In the end I picked The Fray (Captain Fedo's favourite band) because it was the first review I got, but tried to work at least one of everyone's suggestions into the chapter. Luckily for me T in the Park is a cross-genre music festival.
Moshing
Emily and Matt packed their bags and headed off early for the T in the Park festival. Jess and Becker had given them tickets for Matt's birthday as his favourite band, The Fray, were headlining on the Saturday. But the festival started on Friday evening and they had tickets that covered the entire three days.
They had a long way to go to get to Balado near Glasgow, but it would be worth it. Not only would Matt get to see his favourite band live, but Emily would be going to her first festival and it would be an experience she would be unlikely to ever forget.
When they arrived at the festival grounds, they pitched their tent and rolled out their double sleeping bag inside, before sitting out in two camping chairs with a glass of wine and a small picnic.
"Happy birthday, Matt," Emily murmured to him, toasting her glass.
He smiled and drank, secretly toasting to her. What did it matter to him if his birthday was good? All he wanted was good things for Emily. They'd been trying for a baby for a while – not that they'd told anyone – and though she hadn't said anything, Matt knew their lack of success was beginning to worry Emily. As he blew out the candles on his miniature birthday cake, Matt wished for a child, anything to please his wife.
That evening they were in the crowd, cheering as Adele took to the Main Stage and kicked off with Set Fire to the Rain and Someone Like You.
They stuck around to watch James Morrison, the Kings of Leon and Muse before heading over to another stage for Young the Giant, the Hoosiers and the Kooks.
After seven hours' worth of performances, they walked back to the campsite, elated and slightly inebriated by champagne and wine, to tumble into bed, wrapped sweetly in each other's arms. They were woken the next morning by the loud noises of the stampede of people rushing to the arena in preparation for the day's concerts and began getting dressed hurriedly, eager to see the Fray.
But as the headlining act of the day, they weren't on first, and Emily and Matt found themselves caught up in the mosh pit associated with Slipknot.
"Help! Matt!" Emily called desperately, as the jumping crowd separated her from Matt, almost knocking her to the floor.
"Emily!" Matt shouted, shoving people aside and apparently only making the situation worse. He had to move with the crowd, he discovered, trying to jump forwards and side to side as the people around him did. In his rush to save her, he didn't consider the fact that if Emily was capable of hunting down a raptor with kitchen knives, then she could probably free herself from a rowdy crowd. Though, it was highly unlikely Emily had such tools with her to use anyway.
Eventually, he made his way to Emily, where she jumped lightly up and down, smiling nervously at the hard-core fans around her.
Matt leaned out and caught her arm, giving her a scare in the deafening music. Somehow, she'd been carried almost to the stage, literally standing only two rows back. With their interlinked hands, Emily brought Matt forwards.
For the remainder of the set, they jumped together. In their proximity and shared experience they didn't even feel out of place whilst surrounded by the hundreds of die-hard fans, many of which appeared to be in their late teens and early twenties.
As the set drew to a close, the band announced the Fray and Emily shot Matt an excited smile which he quickly returned. When the crowd began to move and jump again, they were experts at using the bouncing to navigate to the front row, and Emily touched the lead singer's hand as he knelt down on the stage and leaned towards the singing fans.
As they sang ballad How to Save a Life Matt wrapped his arms about Emily's midriff, kissed the crown of her head and swayed them from side to side, gently singing the lyrics into her ear.
They were both sad to see the band leave the stage when their set was over. But they stayed in the crowd to watch P!nk, Lana Del Ray and were even surprised to see Lady Gage burst on stage in a luridly bright orange dress that looked like it was made of gloves. In their time at the other stages, they also saw The Saturdays singing Notorious at the Radio 1/NME stage and Queen performing new renditions of Don't Stop Me Now and Bohemian Rhapsody.
When they returned to the tent that night, they were laughing and running about like teenagers, high on adrenaline and energy drinks.
"Matt," Emily complained, giggling, as he caught up to her and pulled her back against him.
"Adele got it wrong," he murmured.
"What?" she asked, laughing at the gibberish he was sprouting.
"I found someone like you, so I'm going to hold onto you…"
"I think someone needs to go to bed," she laughed.
"I'm being serious, Em," he told her.
Smiling, she kissed him, smirking as she unbuckled the belt around his jeans and removed it.
"Emily," he whispered, looking around in worried horror. "If we're going to do this we should at least be in the tent surely-aaah!" Any qualms he tried to voice were over in a second when Emily whipped down his trousers and boxers and legged it to the tent, shutting the zip behind her and refusing to let him in. "Let me in," he begged, still holding his trousers in his hand. Without his belt they wouldn't stay up.
Damn Becker! He thought. It was the Head of Security's fault he'd lost his Christmas weight and had yet to buy jeans that fitted properly. Without his belt, his trousers would not stay up. And he was highly embarrassed by the boxers Emily had bought him as a joke birthday present. Across the back they read 'My Ass is Happy' and he was aware of the fellow campers stares.
Finally, Emily unzipped the tent and let him in, smiling mischievously.
"You're going to pay for that," he predicted, before kissing her and opening the sleeping bag.
Gently, he pushed her into it and began removing her clothes, kissing her deeply.
A/N: I hope you liked this chapter. Please let me know what you thought. Don't forget that I'm always eager to hear your ideas for possible things to introduce Emily to!
