Hi, guys, long time no see! I've actually been really busy with exams and some new fics I've been starting, and I've been posting them over on AO3 recently. Critics United have been on my back over here for writing RPS when it's against the rules, and I'd rather migrate and leave a memory than be reported. I figured the easiest way to tell you would be to give you a link here, so you can now find this story and its updates (as well as most other stories) here: archiveofourown org /works/854776/chapters/1790193
You'll have to fill in the dots there.
Oh, and this one's inspired by the Frank Turner song of the same name. As they often are.
The two boys sat together in the garage, shivering in their jumpers against the cold. The dark-haired one picked up his guitar and slung the strap over his shoulder, gently plucking the strings to make sure they were all in tune. The blonde watched him, silently spinning drumsticks in his hands. He threw one up in the air and held one hand out to catch it, but it fell past his palm and clattered to the floor. The brunette laughed into his hand and cleared his throat.
"Are we just gonna go through what we did yesterday, yeah?" he asked.
"Yeah, I guess so," Dom replied, tapping his knees with the sticks as he thought. "You're alright with the chords and stuff, right?"
"Yes, Dom," Matt sighed, rolling his eyes. "I was fine with them yesterday, and they day before that, and the day before that."
"I know, I know, but they're difficult, you know?" Another eye roll followed by a strum of the strings and the boys were ready to go.
It wasn't a particularly tuneful song that they played that day. Neither was too sure of how to play their instruments particularly well, and a year of exploration led to a few interesting sounds here and there, but overall they just made a racket. Still, when they looked up at exactly the same time and caught eyes, their matching grins expressed more than words, and the failed attempts at playing music, ever could.
Matt pushed his cereal around in the bowl as he stared at it. Somehow Cheerios didn't seem appealing that morning, although it could have been the nerves that twisted in his stomach when he thought about the exams he had that day.
"C'mon, Matt, eat up your breakfast," his Mum urged him, leaning over his shoulder at the textbook he was reading in a last minute bet to cram in all the information. "What've you got later, love?"
"Science," he mumbled.
"Ah, you'll be fine. You're good at science!" She ruffled his hair and he groaned, smoothing it back down again. "Anyway, hurry up. Dom'll be here soon, and you'll be late if you miss him."
At the thought of seeing Dom that morning, Matt started shovelling his cereal into his mouth. His older brother Paul laughed from across the table.
"That excited, eh?" he chuckled. "You two are inseparable, I swear." Matt shrugged, mouth too full with cereal to reply. "I swear to God, sometimes I think he's more of your brother than I am."
Another shrug, followed by a knowing smile and a twinkle in his eye had Paul sighing to himself and leaving Matt to finish up alone.
Five years later and the clattering noise had changed into something melodic, something that didn't hurt the ears but almost soothed them. Matt was crooning into a microphone and blushing as he hid behind his hands, the lack of long hair to cover his face disconcerting but refreshing, in a way. Dom watched him from behind the drums as he readied himself for his part in the song, seeing the way Matthew leaned forward slightly, hands caressing the microphone as though it was the face of a lover.
These years of endless practice had led them somewhere, at least. They'd been touring a few small places, seen a few hundred people, playing a few gigs; everything was starting to come together. Suddenly it seemed like their dreams weren't quite so far away, as though they could reach out and just touch them if they stretched their hands.
Matt giggled as the woman painted the colour onto his face, peering into the mirror in front of him and then shying away from it.
"You look like you've been rolling around in Wotsits," Dom remarked from the other side of the room, where another woman was padding the same orange onto his own skin.
"Yeah, well at least I don't look like I had a sunbed accident," Matt retaliated.
"We're both the same colour, you dick."
"Doesn't suit your skin type. You look all sickly."
"Better than your white arse."
"Oi, you two, you're both as stupid as each other," Chris yelled. "Now, could you please shut your gobs? I'm trying to read here."
The pair fell silent, but Matt's lips began to twitch as he thought about Chris. He was twenty-three years old and already he was moaning and groaning like Matt's granddad. The more he thought about Chris with a long white beard and a walking stick, the harder it was to keep in his laughter. When he looked up at Dom and saw a matching mischievous smirk on his face, they were both done for.
They burst into fits of laughter, the woman colouring their faces stumbling back as the men doubled over, Dom clutching at his stomach.
"I'm trying to read here!" he mimicked Chris, dramatically emphasising his faux posh accent. Matt started giggling even harder at that, and when the youngest man threw down his book and stormed out of the dressing room, the laughter shifted to silent gasps as they tried to regain their breath, cackling like children.
Matt's phone buzzed, the vibrations travelling through the counter so that the whole tour bus was reverberating with his ringtone. He scowled, picking up the item and pressing a random button in the hopes that it would turn off.
"Is she calling you still?"
"She won't stop," he groaned, throwing the phone onto the sofa where it bounced onto the floor. He sighed to himself, kicking it away from him.
"You need to stop breaking things," Dom laughed. You might be able to get new guitars after every gig, but your phone has important stuff. Like, maybe, your girlfriend's phone number. That might come in handy."
"Don't even talk to me about her, right now, Dom. I can't be handling this."
After the dreadful week following Dom's father's unfortunate passing after Glastonbury festival, Matt had spontaneously taken off to be with him in Teignmouth for a little while before he was ready to go back on tour, forgetting to inform his girlfriend that he wouldn't be on tour, nor would he be coming back to Italy. She only found out he was staying away for a while when she saw the postponed dates on the website, which resulted in an angry phone call and constant text messages after Matt hung up on her.
"You really should talk to her, mate. You know that she's right." Matt shook his head fiercely, looking up at Dom with a flicker of a disbelieving smile.
"She's not right, though. I should probably have told her, but she has to understand. You're my best mate and you're grieving. I had to be there for you, no questions. Sh-she...she knows how important you are to me, and she should have known I was going to do that!" His eyes grew harder, his fists clenching slightly as his volume grew, his passion obvious. "I couldn't abandon you when you needed somone. I'm supposed to be that someone. I'm supposed to always be here for you, no matter what. And I will be. Damn it, Dominic, don't you dare think that girlfriends will ever get in the way of that."
He looked Dom directly in the eyes, startled grey meeting defiant blue. Dom's lips were parted slightly, Matt noticed, and he was watching him carefully.
"I...don't know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything. I just wanted to make sure you knew."
He nodded, biting his lip.
"Thanks." Matt grunted and shrugged, pulling a book into his lap from the side and flipping open the first page. "You know it goes both ways, right?"
"Yeah, whatever," he mumbled, engrossed in his book. Dom sighed, leaving Matt in peace and going to make himself some lunch.
"Matt, will you stop making noises?"
"I'm not making noises."
"You've stopped now. But you were. And it was annoying."
"Sorry."
Silence.
"Hey, Dom, this is kind of like a sleepover, isn't it?"
"Wh-what?"
"Well, it's like we're kids again. Remember we would sit up and talk for hours? We could do that again. Chris isn't listening."
"Matt we're in our twenties, mate. And I can't believe you're just getting this now. Go to sleep, you fuckwit."
Another pause.
"C'mon, Dom, we haven't chatted in ages. I wanna know what you're thinking."
"I'm thinking that you need to shut up before you say something really stupid and I have to tape your mouth shut."
"You're mean. You're worse than Paul."
Dom grinned in the darkness, rolling onto his other side and ignoring the smaller man.
"Fine, I won't tell you about that girl who asked after you. Or about the cool people I met who are trying to arrange some big arena gigs for us. I guess you're not interested."
Or the fact that Gaia and I keep arguing and I don't know what to do.
"Tell me tomorrow."
Matt huffed in annoyance. Was it so difficult to get Dom to pay attention to him once in a while?
"Fine."
"Do I really need to pour your cereal for you? Can't you do it yourself?" Dom asked, tipping the box even as he said it and shaking it, hearing the flakes rattle inside. Matt pouted and shook his head, holding out his bowl. "You big baby! Should I pour your milk as well? How about a glass of orange juice with that for my little baby brother?"
"Yes please," Matt giggled, the cup slowly filling with thick juice. He lifted it to his lips, licking up the little bits that were left on his lips and looking over at Dom making his own cereal. "Thanks, Dommy."
"S'alright, Bells. God knows you could've asked for worse things."
Matt cackled, spooning cornflakes into his mouth around his laughter.
"We could play Truth or Dare. We haven't done that in a while." Dom rolled his eyes, taking another large swig of his beer.
"You know everything about me and I know everything about you. It'll just end up in tears again."
"I didn't cry last time! Or the time before that!"
"No, but Chris did." They laughed at the memory, Matt's cheeks tinged slightly pink.
"Fine. Well, you think of something better to do. We're all alone and almost drunk and there so little on this tour bus we might as well be roaming the desert."
"Put Knights of Cydonia on and then we'll think of something." Matt shook his head and groaned.
"I've had enough of it already. We've only been touring a few weeks and I'm sick of my own songs, oh, God!" He cried, always tending towards melodrama, and flopped onto his bunk, his face pressed into the pillow. Dom poked his bum with a drumstick and chuckled.
"C'mon, Grumpy Pants, what happened to playing games? You haven't turned into a whiny drunk, have you?" Matt mumbled into the pillow, his voice muffled by the fabric. "What's that? I didn't hear." There was another mumble and Dom poked him with the drumstick again. "Speak up, mate!"
"I said..." Matt began, lifting his head from the pillow so he could be heard clearly, "that you'd better watch out."
"For?" Dom stepped back as Matt crawled back out from under the other bunk, hiding his face in his shoulder.
"Me! Ha!" He leapt at the blonde, pushing him onto the bed he was leaning against, Dom's silvery eyes widening in shock as the smaller man crouched over him, wiggling his fingers.
"What are you-no! No, no, no, Matt-ahahah-stop!" He screeched as the fingers drilled into his pits, Dom's eyes watering at the tickling sensations on his sensitive skin.
"Never! I reign the kingdoms under the name of The Tickle Lord and you will bow down to me, o inferior weenie one." He raised his arms from Dom's skin and lifted his head proudly, bashing it into the bed above him. His face contorted with pain as he bent back down again, rubbing his head and glaring at Dom as he rolled across the bed, clutching his stomach with laughter.
"The Tickle Lord just got beaten by a bed. How does it feel, o mighty one?"
"Sore," Matt admitted, feeling an ache beginning to develop due to the awkward angle at which he was squashed. He pouted sadly as Dom calmed down, light giggles still diffusing out on occasional breaths. Dom looked up at his protruding lips, a familiar sight, and bit his own lip, raising a hand up to sling it over the back of Matt's neck. He rubbed his head, Matt's eyes falling shut as the pain eased.
"You'll probably have a bruise there tomorrow," Dom muttered, Matthew's lips twitching slightly but remaining in a thin line, eyelashes resting on his pale skin. Slowly, Dom lifted his head to meet Matt's, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. His eyes flew open and Dom found himself staring into churning, startled azure before he pulled back, leaning on his elbow to give himself some leverage.
"W-what was that for?" Matt asked, the bump on his head forgotten about as he took in the shock. Dom shrugged and looked away, ashamed of himself for giving in. Matt's hands moved to cup his face, slim fingers, tracing along his cheekbones as he stroked the skin there, remarking internally on how Dom was losing all his puppy fat, sharp lines transforming him into a handsome man. He bent forwards, joining their lips together again and smiling when Dom didn't pull away, the arm still resting on his neck tightening to pull him closer.
"This feels like incest," Dom laughed when they broke apart.
Matt gasped, wide eyes penetrating Dominic's own as he panicked.
"No, it can't be! Can it? I mean, we're not related, but then I guess we are like brothers, oh, shit, I-" Dom laid a finger over Matt's lips, still grinning at him.
"I was joking, man. Chill out." Matt still looked quite troubled, but his bowed eyebrows started to relax as he laid down flat on Dominic's chest, their bodies pressed together from head to toe. Dominic's torso was a familiar comfort, the heat radiating from him Matt's security when he lost himself.
"So...if we're not actually brothers, and therefore that kiss wasn't incest...can I do it again?" Dom chuckled bashfully and nodded, Matthew's fingers wrapping around his wrist and tugging his hand to his chest as he pulled him into another kiss.