#muse2006

WHAT'S THE WORST THAT I CAN SAY?

THINGS ARE BETTER IF I STAY

Matthew sings a cappella, at the end of their show, as he waves his hand and invites the crowd to do the same and also to sing along with him, at the Jobing.com Arena, the new tour date.

SO LONG AND GOODNIGHT, SO LONG AND GOODNIGHT

The crowd sings back as loud as they can, waving their hands even more than him, but for the frontman is not enough yet.

AND IF YOU CARRY ON THIS WAY

THINGS ARE BETTER IF I STAY

SO LONG AND GOODNIGHT, SO LONG AND GOODNIGHT

Matthew incites them with the second verse and this time the crowd sings along with him since the beginning.

Chris observes the whole scene dumbfounded, wondering which evil entity has possessed his friend to make him do such a thing.

Anyway, when he sees that Dominic seems to be very pleased by that and he is even laughing about it, he hopes that the drummer will promptly clarify things to him.

"Enjoy the rest of the show with My Chemical Romance! Thank you, Phonenix, see ya soon. Cheers!" Matthew greets the crowd, going towards the backstage as the other two follow him.

"I can't still believe I did that damn thing for real!" the singer comments, horrified.

"A payback is a payback!" Dominic states.

"Yeah, but it's unfair, I didn't even damage them at the show in Salt Lake City, at the very end; quite the contrary, people thought it was a joke and enjoyed that, laughing with them, not at them, as I wished!" Matt complains.

It's enough for the two lovers to see Chris's still confused face to understand what his question is, even before he asks them.

"Matt got the My Chemical Romance's guitars out of tune at the last show, that's why you heard that terrible noise at the beginning." Dom explains shortly as he glares at Matt.

"Yeah, and Mr. Fair here forced me to tell them the truth." Matt goes on, glaring back at Dom.

"Yeah, and the band looked for their more than deserved revenge. So they forced Matt to get the crowd ready for their arrival, singing a little bit of one of their most famous hits!" Dom concludes, glaring at Matt once again.

"So, that was one of *their* songs! I thought it was a new work in progress of yours and you hadn't told me about that. After all, you have the bloody tendency to hide so much stuff to me!" Chris strikes back as he glares at them both.

"Oh, c'mon, we told you everything at the end, didn't we? And we could never work on something new without letting you know about that!" Matthew assures him.

"Yep, except for the geezers' song." escapes from Dom's lips.

"Dominic! Damn you and your bloody mouth!" Matt snaps.

"Hey! If memory serves me right, yesterday you didn't complain at all about my bloody mouth!" Dom reminds to his boyfriend, making him blush.

Also Chris goes red... but with rage.

"What? Are you still working on that horror?" he roars.

"Can we just forget about the last minute and start it over again?" Dom attempts to ask them.

"No way!" Matt and Chris yell at him in unison.

"If only I had my time-machine!" the drummer mutters.

"Oh, c'mon, Chris, let's make a deal: you can work on a project on your own and Dom and I won't say a word!" the frontman tries to bargain.

"Don't you even try, Bells! Just abandon once for all this suicidal idea, you'll never make it! I'll warn every single recording studio in the world not to let you in, if I'm not with you; and if I see you two try something funny during one of our shows I'm gonna intervene, *violently* if necessary!" Chris threatens them and it works, of course.

"Ok, I got the message. " Matt ruefully surrenders.

"Gee, Chris, why do you have to be always such a pain in the ass? Plus, you're way too bloody serious!" Dominic snorts.

"I'm not serious, I'm just normal... but I can't say the same about you two!" the bassist defends himself. "And don't forget that Ricky from IV A is the coolest guy of the High School because he looks like me a little bit!" he adds before leaving, as he proudly remembers the diaries he read at Salt Lake City.

This time it's Dom and Matt who look dumbfounded, but they just decide to ignore that.

Plus, Dominic has something else to worry about.

"Sorry, Matt, I didn't do it on purpose..." he backs off prudently.

"But you did. When it's a matter to keep a secret you're worst than a gossiper!" Matt scolds him.

"You're right. I've been such a bad boy. I need a punishment." Dominic reckons.

"Yep, you do, so..." Matt agrees, but then he realizes the way the blond is looking at him. "Gee, Dom! You can't always turn everything into bloody sex! This is a serious issue!" he protests.

"But I'm bloody serious. Punish me!" Dom insists.

"Well, it doesn't work this way!" Matt grumbles.

"Why?"

"Because you don't look like someone who is gonna be punished." Matt makes him notice as he approaches him, still showing a serious and stern face.

"How do I look like then?" the drummer asks him, curious.

"Like someone who's gonna have a lot of fun!" the other strikes back

"Oh. And tell me, aint't so?" the blond wonders rhetorically as he resorts to his unfailing weapon.

As a matter of fact, Matt's harsh expression is replaced by a sexy smile.

"Damn you and your irresistible pout! Let's go to our room, can't wait to *punish* you!" the brunette growls as he drags his lover away with him.

---------------------------------------------------

Since he has found at the Salt Lake City airport a handbook of crochet-hook that answered even to his deepest inquisitions, after buying it and hiding it from his friends, two days later, at Los Angeles, Chris can finally take advantage of that. He knows that he can dedicate some time to his beloved hobby without being disturbed.

Mostly because Dominic and Matthew have something else to do.

They're lying on the bed, placidly, taking advantage not only of the free morning, but of the free day at their whole disposal.

Matthew is searching around the web at random, with his laptop on his lap as he takes notes on his Hello Kitty notebook about the potential changes of their playlists.

Dom looks at him absently, since he's all engrossed in listening to his iPod.

He wishes with all his being that Matt had not the brilliant idea of tugging on an earphone and listening to the music with him, because no matter how tender that gesture would be, Matt would end up listening to something he violently dislikes; since it's one of My Chemical Romance's songs and, maybe for a trick of fate, it's just the one he had to sing a cappella at the end of their last show.

Luckily for Dom, Matt doesn't seem interested at all in joining to that listening. Out of the blue, the blond starts caring less about the music and more about his mate who is drawing doodles around the pink, tied ribbon of the kitten with the date of January 20th above.

Suddenly realization hits them both.

"Tomorrow it's a whole week since we've been shagging like rabbits!" Dom exclaims.

"Tomorrow it's a whole month since we've kissed for the very first time!" Matt exclaims at the same time, but that doesn't prevent them from hearing each other.

"Oh, what you said is much more romantic!" Dom recognizes with a sweet smile.

"But what you said is much more exciting!" Matt replies with a horny look.

"So, tomorrow we'll have a double important occasion to celebrate. We have to get ready pwopewly." the brunette goes on.

"A private party?" the blond realizes with an expectant look.

"Yep, a very, very private one, my dear!" the other confirms.

"But tomorrow we have the show!" Dom reminds to him. "So, how..."

"We have all day long to find a way to escape right after the show!" the singer winks at him.

"You're right. By the way, since it's almost midday, can we finally open the window or what?" Dom changes topic.

"Already? Why? Dark rooms with switched on lamps are so nice, even better if the lamps are replaced by candles." Matt protests.

"Well, unlike you, my dear vampire, I happen to like the sun!" Dom strikes back as he pulls the curtains and opens the window. "Now we can start. You know, I plan better in the sunlight!" he grins, as he bathes in the sunlight.

Too bad that his boyfriend is still busy recording in his brain his previous sentence.

"Vampire?" he repeats as a question.

"To begin with, you're so pale..."

"Said the Californian surfer!" Matt strikes back, sarcastically.

"Well, at least I have sunlamps sometimes... whatever! That's not the point! Back to what I was telling you, you always lurk in the shadows and you seem to be much more active at night ... almost as if you spent the day recharging your batteries... just like vampires do!" Dom goes on.

"But I don't recharge my batteries sleeping in a coffin!" the brunet points out.

"Well, this is irrelevant. Plus, sometimes you can be so, so evil. Just think about what you did to those poor, dear guys on stage!" Dominic reminds to him.

"What about what *they* did to *me*? Wasn't it evil as well?" Matt makes him notice.

"Nope, that was just fair!" the blond clarifies, before he starts staring at him with diffidence. "Hey, wait a minute. How can I be sure that you don't eat food just for cover?" Dom insinuates as he starts enjoying that a lot.

"I'm not a vampire, Dom! Quit it, bloody quit it!" a fiery Matt snaps.

"You said 'bloody ' which reminds to blood. So, you do are a vampire! You... you... VladyMatt!" Dom strikes back, enlightened.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Matt roars.

"But it's what you are. And you're even growling now, just like a proper vampire. VladyMatt, VladyMatt, VladyMatt!" Dom insisted, amused as a child who has just discovered the funniest game ever.

"If you don't quit it I'll call you SpiderDom!" the brunette says, thinking that he's threatening him.

"Oh, please, do it. I like that!" the blond reveals.

"What? That's not fair. You weren't supposed to like that..." his boyfriend pouts.

"But I really do and I'll tell you what. We should dress up like these characters when we... you know!" the drummer suggests.

"Really?" the guitarist wonders, very intrigued.

After all, Dominic doesn't know that he has been thinking about that eventuality for awhile.

"Yep. You should get a black and red velvet cape and talk to me with Transylvanian accent... that would turn me on so bad!" the blond whispers at his ear, as the brunette shivers in pleasure.

"Sounds bloody good. So, can I also tell you what to do?" Matt purrs at his ear, but Dom pushes him away.

"No way! You can't tell me anything. After all, SpiderDom has already captured VladyMatt in his web, hasn't he?" he moans languidly as he lies down on the bed and with his look invites his partner to join him.

"Hell yes, he has!" the other smiles, as he crawls slowly on his giggling lover and places a tender chaste kiss on his soft lips. "Now, Dommy, get ready, because I'm gonna show you how much *active* I can be even during the day!" he warns him, before they both vent to their endless desire.

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"Please, repeat. You are going to do... WHAT?!" Chris exclaims, so stunned that the titbit of steak that he took with his fork falls inexorably on the plate, along with the fork.

"Just what we said. Tomorrow, after the show, we're going to escape and go celebrate our first week sexually together!" Dom explains to him again, with a wide grin at the thought.

"And also our first month since our very first kiss!" Matt adds, grinning as well.

"That's why we need our time to celebrate." Dom states, as he cuts his fillet.

"The more time we have, the better. That's why we need to skip the fans' time, although there will be just a few people, since we're not the headliner here!" Matt retorts as he makes the red wine spin around his glass, slowly and widely, before sipping it.

"But you usually adore fans' time... both of you!" Chris makes them notice.

"Yep, but not tomorrow!" Dominic remarks.

"Oh, c'mon, all they ask for is a bunch of minutes to spend with us..." the bassist insists.

"Well, tomorrow all the bunch of minutes I have will be just and only at my Dom's disposal and there's no fan who can make me change my mind!" Matthew states resolutely.

"Gee, you're so mean!" Chris grumbles.

"Well, after all I'm VladyMatt, am not I?" the frontman sneers, glancing at the drummer.

"So, you do like it at the very end!" the blond figures out, enthusiastically.

"Yes, I admit I do... but just a little!" the brunet confesses.

Chris has no idea what they're babbling about, as he keeps turning his head to one and then to the other, as if he was watching a tennis match.

"How did you just call yourself and why?" he asks Matt. "No, wait. On second thought, I don't wanna know!" he corrects himself a few seconds later.

"Oh, c'mon, Chris, think about the positive side of the situation: if Matt and I are out of the game, you'll get all the fans' attention!" Dom makes him notice.

"Uh! Well, I hadn't thought about that..." the bassist answers, delighted by that idea, but then he jumps to another conclusion. "Are you hinting that I'll get all the fans' attention just because I'm the only one left? Have you mistaken me for a stopgap?" he wonders, insulted.

"No, never! How can you think such a terrible thing? You rule, you're awesome, you're great. Does Matt have to dedicate another song to you in order to convince you of that?" Dom replies.

"Nope. One is enough. Ok, I believe you. Just what am I supposed to say if some fans ask me why you're not there?" Chris asks them.

"Uhmm. Maybe you could tell them that our girlfriends made us a nice surprise and joined us during this date of the tour, so we want to spend as much time as we can with them." Dominic suggests.

"We couldn't be more liar than that!" Matthew shakes his head.

"So? Do you have a better idea, maybe?" Dom asks him.

"I'm not saying that I don't agree!" the other points out.

"So, Chris, we can trust you, can't we?" Dom needs confirmation.

"Yep, but don't you dare complain if from tomorrow on all our fans will ditch you to spend their time with me!" Chris smirks.

"One more thing; Tom will never know about it, promise to me!" Matthew asks as he can already picture in his mind a never ending lecture from their manager.

"Oh, Matty, now we have to find the perfect plan to escape tomorrow!" Dom incites him.

"Why? Haven't you thought about it in the morning?" Chris asks them.

"Oh, no, we've spent the whole morning..." the blond informs him, but Chris immediately stops him, raising his hand.

"Please, shut up, this is another thing I absolutely don't wanna know!" he clarifies, before he leaves the room and after awhile also the other two follow his example.

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Saying that he needs his space sometimes, Dom spends the afternoon hanging around the town, going shopping, but mostly staring at himself from every shop-window Los Angeles has to offer him.

Matthew agrees without any problem, also because he has a pretty busy afternoon to deal with.

This was the fifth travel Dom made with Pinkie, so now his rightful owner has finally taken possession of his beloved trolley again.

He goes towards the bedroom, holding some tubes of red glitter and a set of golden wheels, ready to celebrate its return in the way he had promised to it.

He takes it from the closet, very carefully, and places it on an armchair.

"C'mon, Pinkie, let's get the party started!" he announces and the most worrying thing is that he's pretty sure that he's not just talking to himself!

-----------------------------------------------------------

After they had their dinner, Chris stays in the hall, entertaining himself with the barmen and some of the customers of the hotel, as Matthew and Dominic come back to their room.

The blond opens a drawer and takes a scratch pad and a blue felt-tip pen, as he starts writing 'Escape'.

No, they're not restudying that famous song of the Showbiz era.

As they have already decided, they're just plotting their way of escape.

Instead of writing, the brunette prefers drawing.

"So, we are these two.. " Matthew explains as he sketches in a very childish way two guys who are holding their hands, with a little heart in the middle.

"Aawww!" the blond melts down.

"And this is the Arena..." Matt goes on, turning page and drawing a circle with lots of rays that symbolize the several exits, but then he realizes that Dom isn't even looking at him anymore.

Following his gaze, he realizes what has drawn his attention so much.

"Gee, Dom, stop staring the sketch about us!" he reprimands him.

"I can't, you made me gorgeous even in this drawing!" the other states.

"Oh, c'mon, you don't even know which one is you!" the frontman teases him.

"Hell yeah I do, I'm the one on the left. To begin with, he's the taller one." he explains, turning the sketch towards Matt in order to make him see it better. "Then, the one on the right has crazier hair, see?" he goes on, snatching the felt-tip pen from his lover's hand and adding spiky and messy hair on the sketched out guy on the right. "And finally, didn't you notice that? The one on the left is holding drumsticks!" he concludes, drawing said drumstick in the guy on the left's free hand.

And then he admires his artwork very pleased.

"Dom, you're impossible!" Matt rolls his eyes.

"Well, we were plotting, weren't we?" the blond changes topic.

"Yeah..." the other replies, turning pages again. "So, these are the exits... how are we supposed to leave?" he wonders. "And please, don't you even try to name your bloody time-machine!" he summons him immediately after.

"Ok, also because the time-machine wouldn't help this time. C'mon, let's concentrate, we need an idea, a very good one!" Dom comments.

---------------------------------------------------

"For the last time, Matthew, no, no, and fucking NO!" Dom snaps after more than three quarters an hour of the brunette's impracticable suggestions.

"But why? It would be genial!" the other protests.

"It's impossible. We can't have a sort of spaceship and take off directly from the stage. We can't have the damned space skateboards you would also like to use at Wembley. And, mostly, there's no bloody, damn, sodding paralyzing ray that we can use on the crowd!" Dom explains to him, not very patiently.

"It would be so fun!" Matthew sighs unhappily and then he concentrates on the sketch of the Arena again, with the blond.

"Well, I bet that everyone expects us to get out from the exit number One... " Matt starts reckoning seriously.

"Or from the last one. It also would make sense." Dom adds and the other nods, before realization hits him.

"Let's go out from number Fifty-Seven!" the brunet exclaims.

"Why just from number Fifty-Seven?" Dom asks him.

"Because no one expects that. Plus, it's far from both of the main exits. It's a number like the others, nothing special. So, as everyone will wait for us at the main exits..."

"We'll escape from number Fifty-Seven! Yeah, that's brilliant!" Dominic rejoices.

"I'm sure it will work!" the other smiles.

"I think so, too. So, now that we made our plans... can I resume staring at my sketched out version?" the blond asks him eagerly and Matt is just too worn out to complain, so he lets his boyfriend do as he pleases.

TBC

What can I say? All the stuff involving VladyMatt and the infamous Number Fifty-Seven comes from the Muse Show at Verona in 2007, more specifically from all the absurdities my friends and I babbled about on our way back (but VladyMatt popped out from my degenerated mind... and I'm scarily proud of that, lol!)

Of course, I preferred to meet the dear guys instead of receiving this mad inspiration, but... whatever, lol!

Well, in case you didn't notice, I have a thing for Vampire! Matt... but you can't know, not here, at least, I've never posted 'Just a little bit' here ...

A FEW WEEKS LATER

The American tour ended. Chris, Matthew and Dominic are heading towards the airport, inside a limousine.

"I promise that, next time I see you, I'll get accustomed to your tender attitude, but now... could you please stop it?" Chris gently asks them, a little embarrassed by the fact that Dominic is insistently cupping Matt's ass, set off by his white, skinny jeans, and the brunet is showing him how much he likes that, peppering his nape with kisses as one hand slips through his black shirt.

"Oops, sorry. We did it again!" Dom apologizes, also for Matt, as the brunet parts from him, snorting to show his disappointment.

"How can it be that you're unable to keep some distance from one another?" Chris grumbles.

"Try to understand. It's already so hard to resist during the shows. Today is gonna be even harder, because of the queues at the airport, the check in, the flight, the landing, the return... a whole day surrounded by people!" Matthew complains.

"You're right, but, Mattie, just think about all the privacy we'll get once we arrive to your house." Dominic makes him notice.

"That's not correct. *Our* house. From now on it will be our house." Matthew smiles at him, as he holds his hand.

Dominic smiles back at him.

Finally, they recall that Chris is still there with them.

"Sorry, Chris, are we allowed to hold hands, at least?" Dominic wonders, concerned.

"Yep, you're allowed." their friend rolls his eyes, giving in.

His only consolation is that it will be a short ride.

They reach the airport and at the check in they split up, taking two different directions: Chris heads towards UK and can't wait to come back to his beloved wife and kids, as Matt and Dom's destination is Italy.

"So, big guy, see you soon. You can come to pay a visit to us, whenever you want." Matt greets him, hugging him, and then Dom does the same.

"You're welcome to my house, too. Sure, you just have to ...err... avoid too explicit attitudes!" Chris states, a little bit awkwardly.

"We'll try our best to resist!" Dominic solemnly promises.

The trio says the last goodbyes, but before queuing, Chris prefers to go to the Duty Free, heading towards the DVD area.

He grabs the DVD of 'Brokeback Mountain', 'The Birdcage' and the first season of 'Queer as Folk'.

< Just to get accustomed to this kind of things... > he reckons, but before he reaches the cash desk, his ego has something to say.

< Wait a minute. I can't let someone see me as I buy this crap! OK, I'll get accustomed to that just downloading this stuff from the web. > Chris decides, more wisely, putting the DVDs back on their shelf, with discretion.

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In the late afternoon, Matthew and Dominic get off the taxi, giving a very generous tip to the Italian driver, before heading towards the brunet's huge mansion.

Dominic has been reading the names of the roads, trying to find some reference points all time long.

Matthew is showing him the way, but he notices that.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"It's simple. I'm trying to memorize the way. If for some reasons you won't be here with me sometimes and I'll wander through these lanes all alone, I'll have to remember the way that leads me home, don't you think so?" Dom justifies.

Matthew smiles, caressing his face and taking advantage of the fact that they are in a private, isolate alley.

"Repeat it..." the brunet murmurs.

"What? That I'm memorizing the way?"

"No. The other part: home. Our home." Matt clarifies.

This time it's Dom who smiles at him.

"Home. From now on, every time I come back home, it will be here."

"That's not exact. This is just an alley, we must still walk a little more to go home." Matt pinpoints.

"Damn you, Bells, you broke the magic of this moment!" the blond snorts.

"I had to break it, we were becoming way too sickeningly sugary!" Matt states.

"Maybe you're right. So, how far is home? I'm sick of walking!" Dom complains.

"But... we've left the taxi nothing more than three minutes ago. " Matt strikes back, as he resumes showing him the way.

"That's it, we've been walking for ages!" Dom insists.

"C'mon, it's not very far from here. Just stop memorizing the way. You know what? For the first times I'll make you wander here with a GPS!" Matt makes fun of him.

"It could be a cool idea. Do you think that the GPS will understand if I set as destination 'The love of my life'?" Dominic murmurs.

Matt turns to face him.

"Uh! Yeah, sorry, I did it again. Too sugary." the blond rolls his eyes.

"Maybe. But it was so cute!" the brunet smiles, giving him a peck on his lips. "Dom, are you sure you will like living in Como?" he asks for confirmations.

"To live next to one of the most fashionable towns of the whole continent? Do you even have to ask me?! No matter how much I love you, just forget about me during the Fashion Week!" the drummer answers, making him laugh.

After something like fifty steps they finally get home. Matthew draws out the keys, opens the door and lets in to assure himself that everything is fine, as Dominic prefers waiting for him, outside.

A few minutes later, Matt comes back to him, pretty satisfied.

"Gaia kept her word and took away all her stuff, there's not a single trace of her anymore." he asserts, letting Dom in. "Now, you must help me. This house has been closed for a while, we have to get busy and arrange it better. Don't even try to tell me you're tired. After all, we've slept for more than half flight, I'm dying to invest my energies in something!" he explains, as he opens the windows, to let the sunlight in, so he can switch off the artificial lights.

"What?! You're kidding! Firstly, you made me walk for miles and now you even expect me to work hard? It's not the amazing life together I've been dreaming of, you know?!" the blond snaps, as he let himself sink on the comfortable sofa. "Anyway, Mattie, there are other ways to invest your energies..." he adds, immediately after, looking at him seductively and lying down on the sofa.

But his attitude doesn't seem to impress Matt at all.

"C'mon, Dommie! I don't want to call a clean-up crew, it's so annoying, so impersonal! Don't you want to feel exhausted, but because of a nice tiredness that comes from the big satisfaction of being the maker of the benefit you got from it? It's such a priceless feeling!" the singer rambles, speaking scarily fast and very excitedly.

"I haven't the slightest idea of what the hell you blathered about, but my answer is still 'No. Fucking. Way!'" the drummer grumbles, getting up.

"What if I tell you that it's gonna be fun?" his partner winks at him.

"I just can't see how..." the blond replies, doubtfully.

"Wait for me, here." Matt orders, mysteriously, before going upstairs.

Dom hears Matt messing about for a while, and then one of his stereo begins to play 'I want to break free', by Queen.

When Dom sees Matt going downstairs, he's breathless: Matt is holding a motorised, rolling duster and is dancing and singing along the song. He waves his pelvis and butt and pretends to play the duster as if it was a guitar.

What is really shocking Dom is the way he's dressed up... or rather not dressed up, because Matt is wearing just a pair of pink sunglasses, heart-shaped, and a pink, housewife apron, with flowers printed on it... and nothing else.

That's what leaves Dom with no salivation.

"Matthew... you're wonderful!" he approaches him, with a predatory attitude.

"Told you it would be fun!" the frontman states, lowering his sunglasses. "And there's one rule only to help me: take off your pants and shirt. You don't want to spoil your nice, designer clothes, do you?" Matt exhorts him, as he takes his partner's clothes off, good and proper.

"You know, I must admit that, suddenly, out of the blue, I feel like helping you, very, very willingly..." Dom whispers in his ear, nibbling his lobe.

"Do you realize that it's March and we both risk getting pneumonia?" Dominic pinpoints, as he's wearing his boxers only.

"I just know that, whenever I'm with you, I feel fire burning inside me!" the other replies, as he explores the blond's chest with his hands.

"Me too. What can I say? We'll save money of the heating!" the drummer remarks, wittingly, as he grabs a cloth and the window cleaner, ready to clean the windows.

He kisses ardently the brunet, pressing him against the window he's cleaning.

Maybe is not the most efficient cleaning system, but they surely find it intriguing.

And among dusting, cleaning, sweeping and floor washing, every occasion is perfect to jump on each other, in every corner of the house.

A couple of hours later they both lay down on the sofa, drained, worn out, but because of that satisfying tiredness Matthew blathered about.

"Matt, you told me that Gaia took away all her stuff, right?" Dom wonders, with his head on his mate's lap, as he toys with the apron he still wears.

"She did. Why?" the other asks him, passing a hand through his blond, now messy hair.

"Does it mean that this is *yours*?" Dom figures out.

"Yep, this is my official apron for chores or when I cook. As you can easily guess, usually I happen to wear also clothes under it." Matthew clarifies.

His only answer, Dom bursts out laughing.

"What? What did I say wrong?" the frontman gets agitated.

"Nothing. You're just amazing!" the drummer wraps his arms around his neck, stealing the umpteenth kiss.

At evening they have a shower, because it's dinner's time.

Matthew grabs his phone to order two pizzas from his trusted restaurant, hoping to talk with someone who speaks English.

Dominic takes care of the drinks. He knows that Matthew's fridge never lacks beer, but he finds also something unexpected.

"Matthew, is it one of your purchases?" he calls him out.

The singer reaches him, satisfied because he managed to place his order.

They both stare in awe at the huge, red wine flagon that towers the base of the majestic two door-fridge.

"Nope. Quite the contrary, I didn't even imagine that such giant flagons could exist." the brunet grumbles in confusion, as he tries to touch the flagon.

He notices the piece on paper next to it.

"'This is for you, guys, to celebrate your new life together. Enjoy it. From Gaia and Jessica. P.S. We hope it will go down the wrong way!!'" Matthew reads loudly.

"Aww, they were so nice!" Dominic squeals.

"They understood and this is a sort of armistice. " Matthew states.

They exchange a doubtful look, recalling how the girls found out about their relationship, what they said, how they reacted.

"I'm sure it's poisoned. We'd better get rid of it!" Dominic decides.

"I have a better idea. I could make a present for my dear, neighbour Clooney..." Matthew suggests, with an evil smirk.

"No bloody way, I don't wanna spend the rest of my life seeing you behind bars and taking oranges to you. Let's just get rid of this flagon!" Dominic insists and, even if unwillingly, Matthew obeys.

"After all, you're such a connoisseur of intoxication attempts, aren't you, Bells?" Dom questions him, reproach in his voice.

"Enough with that story! Are you still angry? After all, nothing big happened." Matthew shrugs.

"Well, My Chemical Romance doesn't think so. They had to cancel two gigs and it's just your fault!" the first snaps.

"But I didn't do anything bad. I've just brought some pancakes to them, as offer of peace. You know, the rules of a good neighbourly relation." the second justifies, with all the innocence he can show.

"Yeah, sure, and *casually* those pancakes were stuffed with laxative!" Dom crosses his arms on his chest.

"Yep. I swear I thought it was maple syrup. Gee, I'm so absent-minded!" Matt acts dumb.

"Nope. You're just evil!" the blond strikes back.

"Well, I'm the VladyMatt who turns you on so badly..." Matt replies, shrewdly.

After all, he knows that it's always a winning move. As a matter of fact, Dom stops arguing and resumes smiling at him.

-------------------------------------------------------

At late night, after seeing TV together, because they're too tired to go out, they're ready to go to bed.

Dom prepares himself in the bathroom, as Matthew waits for him, skimming through the pages of a book, absently.

When Dom comes back, Matt is almost tempted to throw the book against him.

"Where the hell did you fucking buy that bloody shit?" the brunet growls, narrowing his eyes as he observes his mate.

"Well, you know, on the last two gigs I paid a visit to their official merchandising stand and... I guess it was something cute, a souvenir from the tour with them!" Dominic explains, showing proudly black boxers matched with a black My Chemical Romance t-shirt.

"Dom, gee, no! Dammit, you chose just a t-shirt with their faces printed on, like a teenager in heat!" Matthew protests, lively.

"What can I say? They have such pretty faces that look good on t-shirts, especially the frontman's pretty face!" the blond teases him.

His only answer, Matt leaves the bedroom and comes back a few minutes later.

"You know, Dom, I guess that I'll finally make you happy, since you've been craving this for so long..." he exclaims, showing him something that turns Dom on like hell, as soon as he sees it. "This time we are really gonna make love, using a knife!" he warns him, with a maniac look, smiling in anticipation only at the thought of tearing that t-shirt to shreds.

His only answer, Dom jumps on the mattress with an excited yelp, waiting for Matthew to make the first move.

< I knew it would work! > the blond thinks, satisfied, but, as a proper calculating person, he doesn't dare to tell Matt about his very well plotted, wicked plan.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Matthew wakes up abruptly, hearing a deafening noise that has a regular and measured rhythm.

< It keeps time way too much to be an earthquake! > he reckons, as he glances at the alarm clock that informs him that it's 7:00 a.m. .

The noise goes on, louder and louder and finally Matthew realizes what, or rather whom, its source is.

Unwillingly, he gets up and rushes furiously towards the studio he has inside the house, where he finds Dominic, engrossed playing at the drums.

"Honey, finally you're awake, it's wonderful!" the blond welcomes him, cheerfully.

"What the fuck are you doing, why the fuck are you doing that and why just at this fucking time of the fucking day?"

Dominic has a sudden flashback about how unpleasant Matt can be at early morning.

"I... I couldn't sleep anymore, so I went here and... I was sure it would be something nice, that's why I left the door open, on purpose. I know you love waking up with music. As a matter of fact, it's you the one who usually plays at very questionable time of the day or the night!" Dom justifies, very calmly.

His calm does nothing but making his listener angrier and angrier.

"OK, but I play the piano, it's bloody different! This is not music at all, it's just a hellish racket! You can't compare that to the sweet notes of a piano!" the brunet snaps.

Dominic looks at him guilty, and then he pouts.

Matthew becomes powerless.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it. Drums have a marvellous sound, but maybe I'd appreciate that more in the afternoon." Matt tries to make him reason, with a softer tone, as he sits on the drums, in front of him.

The blond stares at him with expectations.

"Don't have any dirty thought, I've just sat down!" the brunet clarifies.

"It's impossible to look at you without having dirty thoughts!" his partner strikes back.

"I don't give a fuck. Just keep them to yourself. It's already a miracle that I manage to speak right now!" Matt makes him desist, as he yawns.

"As you wish. Anyway, instead of going back to sleep, we should take advantage of the situation. By now no one will be around, so why don't we go out and take a walk?" the blond suggests to him.

"What? Look, walking is even more laborious than shagging! Plus, you are the guy who hates walking, aren't you?" the brunet makes him notice.

"Just after a journey, with the suitcases and everything. Oh, c'mon, Matteh, let's take a walk! It would be so cool. Think about that: you and me, holding hands, across the Bellamy Lake..." Dom insists, already knowing that he pushed the right button.

As a matter of fact, Matthew lights up, grinning at Dominic, madly.

"How did you call it?" he asks for confirmations, staring at him with sparkling eyes.

"With its proper name." the blond winks at the brunet.

"OK, give me five minutes and then we'll go out." the other states, fully reawaken, disappearing in a heartbeat.

Dom goes changing clothes, as well, as he sneers, proudly.

< My dear Matty, it's even too easy to subdue you. >

--------------------------------------------------

It's afternoon. Matthew is allowing himself the rest that has been denied to him during the morning and the blond lets him sleep peacefully, but a few hours later he reaches him in their room.

"C'mon, sleepyhead, open your amazing eyes, I have a little something for you..." Dom whispers to him, as he scrapes his mate's nape, lightly.

The brunet gets the sweet awakening he hoped for.

He immediately notices the little box that the blond is holding.

At the beginning, Matt smiles at Dom, but then, recalling the previous night, he becomes diffident.

"If it's a My Terrible Lost Chance key-ring, I swear I'll make you gulp it down!" he threatens Dom.

"Shut up and open the box!" Dom exhorts him.

Matt obeys and stares in awe at the silver necklace that there's inside.

"Dommy, it's wonderful!" he exclaims, wearing it, immediately. "I'm gonna wear it at Wembley, for sure!" he promises.

"I'm glad you like it. Anyway, you figured out what it is, didn't you?" Dom wonders.

"A necklace?" Matt looks at him, puzzled.

"Of course it's a necklace, you, ninny! But It has a symbolic meaning. What is it a necklace? A jewel. And you know what I think about jewels." Dom makes him notice.

"Does it mean that... you want a serious relationship?" his listener figures out, beaming with joy.

"The most serious ever!" the blond assures, pecking his lips.

"Gee, we're rushing things. If this is only our second month together, what will we do after our first year together? Will we get married?" Matt jokes, giggling.

Dominic amazes him with his answer.

"Why not? And to think we've even been in Las Vegas! But I don't care, I prefer Spain as location for our marriage, it's more suggestive!"

"Alright! I see that you are already planning that day." Matt smiles at him.

The most beautiful thing is that that possibility doesn't scare Matthew, either.

"So, if you already chose the location, I'll choose the song, because you know that I find the wedding march boring, banal and bloody predictable. The soundtrack of our wedding will be 'Sober'." Matt suggests.

"Bells, in that song you do nothing but keep screaming 'You are so solid/It burns inside me'. I don't think it's the most proper soundtrack for a ceremony!" Dom makes him notice, resorting to all the patience he has.

"That's a pity, it has such a cool groove. OK, let's choose 'Super Massive Black Hole' then, and I won't accept any compromise on it!" Matt summons him and Dom doesn't even try to protest.

After all, he likes that choice, a lot.

"Alright. We still have to pick up the best men: I want Chris!" Matt adds.

"No way, *I* want Chris!" Dom complains.

"But I've been faster than you!" the other laughs.

Dominic can do one thing only: pout.

Matt's reaction is instantaneous.

"OK, OK, you can keep Chris." the frontman surrenders. "So I'll pick up Tom and Pinkie!" he adds, enlightened.

"What? No way. I don't want a suitcase to participate at *my* wedding!" the drummer protests, lively.

"Thank your lucky stars that now Pinkie is in front of the computer, as he checks his my-space page and didn't hear you. He hates being called 'suitcase'!" the singer scolds him.

Dom is almost scared of asking him that.

"Pinkie has a my-space page?!"

"Sure. I've subscribed him last week and now he already has more than one-hundred and twenty friends!" Matt explains, with a proud grin.

"But... how?"

Dom doesn't complete his question, He prefers not to investigate.

"Anyway, Pinkie will participate!" Matt insists, resolutely.

"If you want Pinkie, I want Jamie as my best men. We'll just have to put a big mirror in front of the altar!" the blond decides.

"Reflections can't be best men!" Matt grumbles.

"Neither can trolleys!" Dom strikes back, bitterly.

"I don't think so. Pinkie would bring us the rings, impeccably." Matt insists.

"Whatever! Anyway, I made my decision. Jamie or not, I want a big mirror in front of us, so I can see how good I look as I'm marrying you. After all, all the grooms are always beautiful!" Dom states.

"All the *brides* are!" Matt corrects him.

"It's the same!" the blond shrugs.

"By the way, we can't be both grooms, there should be a bride." Matthew points out.

"Well, let's say I'll be a... gride." Dom suggests.

"So, that makes me a ... broom. I like it!" Matt approves.

"Anyway, don't you find it funny? I mean, we don't even know what to do if people find about us, and if we carry on this way it's gonna happen soon, and yet here we go, daydreaming about our wedding day!" Dom chuckles.

"If people find the truth, we'll face the consequences, together. Dominic James Howard, I have you by my side. I couldn't care less about the rest of the world." Matthew murmurs, caressing Dom's face with the back of his hand.

"Aawww, another sugary moment. I begin to like that..." the blond smiles, crawling on Matt and straddling him. "Let me show you how much I do."

--

THE END

Yep, this is the end. :(

I'll miss this story a lot.

OK, some quick notes:

- I don't know abroad, but in Italy visitors bring oranges to the prisoners, it's a sort of tradition! ;)

- About My Chemical Romance, the intoxication news is true (poor, dear guys!) ... but not the fact that it's Matt's fault, of course. Well , it could be, lol!

- About the silver necklace, Matthew wore it for real at Wembley (and also at Florence and Verona) and I don't know why, but as soon as I saw it the fangirl in me screamed in my mind 'That's a gift from Dom!!!!'

- About the 'Sober' song I had hypothesized a BellDom one-shot, but then I changed my mind and compress it all in that sentence. I just have to quit hypothesizing stuff, lol!

As I said before, this is the end of the story, but not of the series (In Italian, I also wrote a Christmas sequel and much more ^^) . Yeah, truth is that I love those crazy, absurd, parodied versions of them way too much to abandon them! ^^

So there's gonna be a sequel, a mini-series/ spin-off about them living together in Como.

It will be a collection of very short (and stupid) one-shots.

Hope you had fun with this story as much as I had fun writing it.

"So don't' think, not even for a moment, that you can take flight again and elope who knows where, you, lovey-dovey couple. I promised that tonight you're gonna stay, so you gotta stay!" Chris summons his friends, as they are taking a more than deserved break from the sound-check of the afternoon.

"I promise, no more flings." Matt assures, with his best angelic attitude.

Chris is about to say something, but, almost as if the topic was too delicate to face it, he desists, but he's always wavering about it. The others two notice that.

"Wassup, Chris?" Matthew asks him.

"Err... could you let me see them?"

"See what?" Dominic narrows his eyes.

"Well, you know... your compromising tattoos." Chris clarifies, a little bit embarrassed. "It's just that I'm curious... " he adds, as if he wanted to justify himself.

Matt stares at him stunned, just like Dom does.

"No bloody way, buddy!" the first states.

"Chris, what's this sudden, worrying, but mostly insane desire to see our asses?" the second asks him.

"Ah! So, now it's me the one with sick desires! Do I have to remind you what you did last night, you, Mr. 1.000-ways-to-use-whipped-cream?" Chris addresses to the blonde.

Dominic turns pale instantly.

"But... but, how do you..."

"You should know better than me, Matt is such a chatterbox!" Chris comments as Matt is ready to clear off.

"Don't you dare to run!" Dom summons him, stepping in the way and closing the door of the rehearsal room. "Damn you and your damn mouth!" he curses, immediately after.

"Well, yesterday you didn't have to complain much about my mouth, especially when it took off the cream from your body and..." Matt justifies, with a silky voice in the last part.

"Please, guys, stop it! You're crossing the bounds of how much I'm disposed to hear about this kind of topics!" Chris warns them, cooling down their ardour and, for good measure, it's just Chris who incites his friends to resume playing.

Twenty minutes after they're done with the last song on their set-list, but although the others have already put their instruments into their cases, Dom is still bent on the drums, but not for playing.

"Dom, what the hell are you doing?" Chris asks him when he sees him all engrossed staring at a cymbal.

"It looks obvious to me. I'm looking at myself!" the blond replies with a shrug, as he keeps examining his face, very accurately.

"Even in a cymbal?" Chris asks him in disbelief.

"I don't think that there's a surface Dom wouldn't manage to look at himself in!" Matt replies for the drummer.

"Dammit! This black-eye doesn't seem to get any better. People will see it in the spotlight!" Dominic complains.

"So, what's the problem? You dress up like Spiderman every now and then, so you can dress up like a panda. It would draw lots of attention, plus that would justify the black-eye." Chris suggests.

"No way, a panda is too goofy, it doesn't suit me!" he grumbles, insulted, as he crosses his arms on his chest.

"So, you could use a bandage.... You could be a pirate, like Captain Hook!" Chris strikes back.

"Uhmm...nope, I don't picture myself as Captain Hook, but I would be just perfect as Peter Pan, I already have my acid green pants, a green t-shirt, a green beret and I would be ready!" the blond already plans everything, daydreaming, as he has totally forgotten that the dressing up is supposed to help him hide his beaten eye.

"Yeeesss! If you play Peter Pan, I could play... Tinker Bell!" Matt exclaims, overexcited.

"Tinker Bell?!" his friends question him, astonished and puzzled.

"Oh, please, don't stare at me like that! A pair of fake wings and a magic wand shaped microphone would suit me so impeccably. Plus, I'm * Bells*, so there could never be someone more perfect than me to play Tinker *Bell*!" he insists.

"Well, don't worry, Bells, it's not that Dom is contending with me for that role, you can keep it!" Chris warns him, as Dom jumps to an important conclusion.

"So, buddy, you'll just have to play Captain Hook!" the blond decides.

"Why just Captain Hook?" Chris narrows his eyes.

"No offence intended, dude, but I just can't picture you as a Lost Boy of NeverLand!" Matt makes fun of him.

"But... how am I supposed to play with a hook?" the bassist made them notice.

"We'll use a symbolic hook, maybe a sticker on one of your basses!" Matt explains.

"Firstly, I don't think that there are stickers like that. Secondly, no... I don't think that Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha would like it if I put stickers on them..." the bassist grumbles.

"What? Did I hear it right? Did you really give your basses women's names?" Matt questions him.

"This is not correct: Chris, did you really name your basses like the four protagonists of 'Sex and the City'?" Dom points out.

As Matt and Dom burst out laughing madly, Chris wishes he had kept silent.

<Lucky for me I didn't tell them that I named my other basses like the main characters of 'Desperate Housewives' and 'The bold and the beautiful'!> he ponders.

Anyway, he knows very well how to make them shut up.

"You shouldn't even talk about that! You, Matt, named your trolley, for God's sake! And you, Dom, you're the worst, since you named even your own reflection!" he strikes back, pungent.

The way Matt is looking at Dominic doesn't need any questions to be asked.

"No, that's not true, I have never named Jamie... oh, shit!" Dom betrayals himself.

"Jamie?!" the frontman repeats, very amused.

"Hey! We were talking about my black-eye, weren't we?" the drummer tries to change topic.

"Right. By the way, forget about the concert in disguise, we'll never do such a silly thing!" Chris disenchants them.

"Dommy, I guess the only solution is to rely on a good concealer, a lot of it!" Matt suggests to his boyfriend, as he leans closer to reach his ear. "Can't wait to have another wild meeting in our bed with you... and Jamie!" he winks at him, before leaving the rehearsal room, as Chris follow him.

-------------------------------------------------------

The concert was great, just like the short meeting with the fans, to take some pictures together, sign stuff and chat a little bit.

It seems that Matthew and Dominic kept their word.

Although they have nothing to do on the day after, except from the flight to take on early evening, Matt and Dom's rest is interrupted by a sudden phone call, at early morning.

Dominic is still trying to convince his body to get up from the bed, as Matthew has already made this effort, so it takes him only five rings, before he realizes which the source of that unbearable noise is and makes it end.

"'llo?" he slurs.

"Guys, come in my room. Tom called, he will be here in a few minutes!" Chris warns them, trying his best not to slur, due to the numbness that still overwhelms him.

This is enough to wake the two lovers up properly and they get ready as fast as they can, in order to face their manager.

Tom makes his entrance, carrying his trolley with him and showing such a tan that he could make a surfer envious.

"Hello guys, how are you?" he cheers, leaving his trolley on the floor and approaching to his friends.

"We are happy to see you and everything, but... what the hell are you doing here?" Dominic asks him, puzzled, as he sits on the bed, next to Matt.

"Well, a proper manager has to verify how his band is going with the shows and stuff like that."

"We tried our best in every single show we performed, the crowd seems to appreciate us a lot, so I guess we are being successful." Chris informs him as he stands in front of the window, taking a glimpse of the view outside, absently.

"What about the collaboration with My Chemical Romance? Did things improve between you and them?" Tom wonders.

"I haven't killed them yet, that's all you need to know about that!" Matt snorts, bored.

Tom is about to say something, but then he changes his mind, hearing a ring from the mobile inside the pocket of his trolley.

"Hey, Tom, look, your mobile is ringing." Chris warns him at the second ring.

"Uh? Are you sure? Uh! That's right, it's ringing." the manager replies with fake nonchalance, in a cold sweat, as he hopes that whoever is calling him will quit it, but at the fifth ring he begins to think he won't be that lucky.

"Wassup? Why don't you answer to the call?" Dom exhorts him, when the rings become seven.

"Well, it's not that important. Whoever it is, he/she will recall. Now I'm talking with you and..." he justifies, more and more agitated, realizing too late that Matthew has already opened the pocket of his trolley, taking possession of his mobile.

"No, Matt, what the hell are you doing?" Tom asks him, turning scarily pale, no matters how tanned he is.

"If you don't wanna answer, I'm gonna do it for you." the frontman decides, as he presses the key to answer, before the tenth ring.

"Hallo? It's... "

"I don't give a fuck to who the hell it is! All I know is that you have a mobile that doesn't belong to you, dammit, you, fucking, ugly, bastard, twat, asshole, stupid, moron, son of a ..." someone who Matthew already recognized roars from the other side, before Matthew moves the mobile away, as the speaker keeps cursing.

Matt looks at Tom in awe.

"Tom, just a little inquiry of mine, could you explain to me why *Brian Molko* is barking at me?" he asks him, as Chris did the wisest thing ever, i.e. he presses the key to end that call and, for good measures, he also turns the mobile off.

"Well, because I happen to have his manager's mobile." Tom explains, very innocently.

"And why the hell do you have her mob..." Dominic wonders, before Chris, Matt and he jump to the right conclusions.

"A girl with your same job..." Chris ponders loudly.

"The two bands who'd better never ever find the truth..." Matt recalls.

"That's who you were with: Placebo's manager!" Dom figures out.

"It's just outrageous! You're such an awful betrayer!" Matthew accuses him, with the most hurt expression he can show to him, but it's nothing compared to the hurt expression on Chris' face.

"I can't believe it... you didn't confess that to me! You always tell me everything." the bassist grumbles, deeply disappointed.

"You're right, Chris, but truth is that Gossip is your second name! You wouldn't be able to keep that secret, not even for one hour!" Tom strikes back.

"That's not true, when I try really hard there are secrets that I can keep very well." the other justifies, as he exchange an understanding look with Matt and Dom who confine themselves just to nod.

"Anyway, am I the only one to find that a very beautiful thing? I mean... this is soooo romantic! It reminds me to that little fairytale of 'Romeo and Juliet'. Who knows? Maybe with their forbidden love they will bring peace between the two factions, making them get along with each other." the blonde sighs with a daydreaming attitude, but it takes his soulmate less than half a second to disenchant him.

"Firstly, gee, Dommie, you're really obsessed over 'Romeo and Juliet' . Secondly, I'm sorry for disappointing you, but no-fucking-one will bring peace any-fucking-where, we'll keep merrily hating each other, cause things are perfect the way they are!" the singer swears. "And, thirdly, Dom, I don't think that Mr. Shakespeare would be happy to hear someone call one of his most famous and majestic tragedies ... fairytale!" he concludes, with a hint of reproach in his tone.

"Oh, c'mon! A boy and a girl flirt, hidden from everyone, in order to make a fool of their parents. A bunch of rhymes, some fights here and there and... ok, there's not a happy ending, but it's a nice fairytale, anyway!" Dom insists.

"Yeah, sure. So, let me see if I got it right: you probably think that Hamlet is only a guy who suffers from a big indecision and holds a skull in his hand, just because he thinks it's cool?" Chris asks him, sarcastically.

"Why, is it not so?" the blonde shrugs, looking kinda bored.

"Oh, God! Dom, you really need a good revision of Shakespearian literature." Matt rolls his eyes.

"Well, if you offer to be my private teacher, *very private*, I'll take the lessons more than willingly." Dominic replies mischievously, winking at Matthew.

Tom looks at them kind of dumbfounded, but lets it fly.

Matt takes a glimpse of Tom's look and that brings him back to the main reason why they start discussing.

"Don't think that I forgot it, you, shameful, abominable traitor!" he accuses him, once again.

"Actually, guys, we didn't even give him the time to explain. " Chris makes them notice and then he points at Tom. "Maybe it's not what we think, maybe it's just one of his shrewd plans to beguile their manager, getting precious information and then stealing her mobile, in order to prevent her from being in contact with her band." Chris presumes, knowing very well that 'conspiracy' is the keyword to be in tune with Matthew.

"Tom, did you really do such a thing?" the frontman asks him, as his eyes sparkle with hope.

"No, no, fucking no! We just decided to buy two identical mobiles, because we thought it would be something nice, but less binding than a ring. Anyway, I don't care, you just have to accept that, because I care about her, she cares about me and we are more than intentioned to turn this story into something serious." Tom warns them.

"So, you're not a simple traitor, you're a persistent traitor!" Matt snaps.

"Just quit it, Bells! It's not about you, it's not even about Placebo, it's just something between Alex and I" Tom states, intransigent. "Plus, you keep calling me a traitor, but you don't know what Chris did once..." he goes on, as the bassist glares at him with a 'Don't you dare!' look, dreading that he already knows what he's about to say.

"What do you mean?" Matt frowns.

"Do you remember your so beloved golden hat? Well, truth is that you didn't lost it, but it was Chris who stole it from you and got rid of it."

"You what?!" Matt exclaims, astonished, looking at Chris like he had stabbed him in the back.

"Damn you, Chris! Why did you do that? Do you have the slightest idea of how many stores I went to, before finding its perfect twin?" Dom intervenes.

"Oh, c'mon, Bells! Firstly, that hat was horrible. Secondly, just like Dom said, you have another one, now, so why should you complain?" Chris justifies.

"I just know that I' m gonna keep it in a strongbox, like a jewel, far away from you and your bloody clutches!" Matt perjures.

Chris looks at Tom with a hurt expression, once again.

"How could you blurt that to him? And to think that I even tried to help you, before..."

"Well, you gave me such a great help, after all!" Tom strikes back, sarcastically. "Anyway, Chris, nothing personal, really, but it's such a hard struggle for survival." he justifies.

"Okay, if it's so... well, Matt, you don't know that... Dom is a very big fan of My Chemical Romance!" Chris reveals.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT?! Oh, God, I'm surrounded by traitors!" the frontman gets alarmed.

"Honey, please, try to understand, those guys are not so bad, after all, they have powerful guitars, a proper drummer and... damn, Matt, as catastrophic as you are, I just don't understand why you haven't fallen in love with the lyrics of their songs, yet!" Dom strikes back, as Tom can't help noticing that 'honey' the blond addressed to Matt with.

"Anyway, even if I don't agree, I'll let you free to sabotage them as much as you please!" the drummer adds, making his partner smile again.

Anyway, Dominic is too engrossed glaring at Chris, to notice that.

"Chris, I didn't mean to come to saying that, but you just deserve it, so ... Tom, Matt, maybe you don't know that... he likes crocheting!" Dom strikes, unmercifully.

His listeners immediately burst out laughing madly.

"But... no... Dom, what the hell are you blathering about?" Chris replies, panic-stricken.

"I saw you once, so don't you dare deny that!"

"But, no... it's just that I was using it as a weapon!" he tries to justify, unsuccessfully.

"Yeah, sure! And what did you exactly plan to do with it? To knit a sweater to your potential attacker?" Matt makes fun of him.

"Okay, guys, you just asked for that. Tom, you don't know that... Matt and Dom are together!" Chris reveals.

Everyone shuts up, but after some seconds it's Tom who breaks the silence.

"Together like the fact that you are one next to the other... right?" Tom asks them, wavering.

"Well, mostly one upon the other, or one behind the other... and vice versa!" the blond removes all doubt.

"Damn you, Dom!" Matt reproaches him.

"What? What did I do so wrong? After all, we'll have to tell him, sooner or later, so let's do it now! And we must thank Chris for that." Dominic explains.

"So, now I guess that you need explanations, right?" Matt wonders, turning to Tom.

"Explanation ... and a very alcoholic drink!" he replies.

-------------------------------------------------

"And that's how we came to this." Matthew concludes, as, taking turns, they all have informed Tom about the vicissitudes of the latest months.

"Oh." is all Tom manages to say, probably still too shocked to speak.

"So, you will keep being our manager, won't you?" Dominic asks him, with a hint of uncertainty.

"Of course, I will, you are and you'll always be my friends, independently of your... errr... sexual preferences!" Tom reassures them, a little bit embarrassed.

"Anyway, we're not going to spread the word about this. Chris and you, Tom, are the only ones who know... well, except from Gaia and Jessica, but I don't think they care about spreading this news." Matthew comments.

"But if somehow the truth came out, on the musical level it wouldn't change anything, we're still the Muse and if some of our fans won't accept that, well, they're not real fans, so we'd better lose them." Dominic goes on.

"Guys, don't cross your bridges before coming to them. If it doesn't happen it's better, but if it should happen, we'll know how to face everything." their manager heartens them. "So, now can we talk about something that it's not my sentimental situation, Chris' hobbies or your mutual love?" he exhorts them.

"Sure! We have such a big, epic event to face. I already have lots of ideas for it. You know, I was thinking about an advertising campaign with reverse psychology system." Matthew suggests, very excited.

"Such as?" Tom looks at him, in disbelief.

"You know, something like 'Hey, people, don't come to see our show at Wembley, it's nothing special, after all, it's not such a nice place, there won't be any cool bands, even our playlist will be kind of insignificant, and...'" he attempts to explain, before Chris and Dom promptly silence him up, wrapping their hand around his mouth.

"Damn you, Bells, didn't you cause enough damage with your fucking, bloody, sodding reverse psychology?" Dom snaps.

"Please, Tom, don't mind what Matt said." Chris advises him, as his listener rolls his eyes, exasperated.

"Don't worry, Chris, I've quit doing that a long time ago!"

TBC

So, are you ready for the (100% BellDom) epilogue?

Just a little note: in 'Try Something New' I started writing about Tom and Alex (the Placebo's manager) getting along, a lot... so I ended up falling in love with this pairing and I keep using it whenever I got the chance... hope you won't mind.

The most funny thing is that I've never seen Alex, but I like picturing her like a petite blonde, very pushy! ^^

Without being seen, Matthew tries to pinch himself hard, as Dominic closes and squeezes his eyes, blinking, more than once, but both of those methods are just utterly useless, since the two girls are still standing in front of them and they don't seem to intend to disappear with the touch of a magic wand.

So the two guys just have to make the best of a bad thing.

"Gaia, dear! What a nice surprise!" Matt smiles, as he hugs her, but she's faster than him and steals a kiss that he's forced to answer to.

"Well, honey, you kept saying 'I wish you were here, I wish you were here', so now your wish came true!" she smiles at him as she plays with his hair-gelled locks.

<' Nightmare' would be the proper word! > Matt ponders, but he disguises everything with a nod, of course.

"Instead, since I haven't heard from you for more than three days... well, I just had to check out that you didn't forget me due to another girl, my dear philanderer!" Jessica exclaims, punching Dom's shoulder playfully and patting him on the cheek, right before she follows her best friend's example and claims what it's hers... or at least she still thinks so.

"Honey, that's impossible." Dominic murmurs, at the end of their kiss.

< It's because of *a boy* that I forgot you! > he adds, but only in his mind, of course.

Chris stares at the two couples so matched and has the strong feeling that if he doesn't intervene with something, anything, to say, soon there will be a tension without precedent.

"Hey, girls, Kelly says hi!" he informs them, as he wonders dreadfully with what courage he will inform his beloved wife that what he had made her believe it was true when it was fake actually became true for real.

"What? Oh, right, I tend to forget she's not here." Gaia replies absently.

"What do you mean? Kelly loves me and it's not just due to the fact that she likes having babies with me! So, end of the bloody speech!" Chris snaps, remembering what the fans told him.

"Gee, Chris, calm down!" Gaia snaps. "Honey, what did I say wrong?" she goes on, calmer, looking at Matthew.

"Don't mind him. Sometimes this guy is a total mystery for us all..." Matt states.

"Hey, speaking of mystery, why the hell Dom's room is empty and all his things are stuffed in Matt's room?" Jessica wonders.

"Hell yeah, this is a very damn good question!" Gaia agrees as both of the girls stares inquisitively at their boyfriends with puzzled expressions.

Dom and Matt look at each other, looking for a believable explanation that doesn't seem to pop out from their minds. As they got panic-stricken and are about to surrender, declaring that the games are over, someone else comes promptly to the rescue.

"Actually, it's my fault. I asked Dom to do that!" Chris admits.

"You did... what?" Gaia wonders in astonishment.

"For what wicked reason did you ask them to share the same room?" Jessica frowns.

"Please, don't get me wrong. There's a damn good reason why I did. Since Dom's room is next to mine and I didn't want him to wake me up when he would be back... I suggested Dom to move to Matt's room that it's far away from mine. Well, this was pretty useless, since I'm still awake and it's almost dawn!" Chris makes them notice, with a yawn.

"Okay, but... why did Dom take all his stuff there?" Gaia asks them in disbelief.

"That's simple, my dear. I can be very doubtful about what to wear the day after, it's never something I plan before; quite the contrary, it's something that comes out after hours and hours of changing clothes." Dom rushes to explain.

"Yeah, I can say for sure that Dom's trials takes much longer than the band's ones!" Matt agrees.

"I can confirm that, too. Whenever we date, although I'm always late, well, he's always later than me!" Jessica assures, pretending to glare at Dominic, as Gaia stares at Matthew with renewed trust.

Matthew is annoyed by hearing about the dates between Jessica and *his* Dominic, but he tries his best not to show that.

"Sorry, but I'd like to point out the fact that it's almost dawn and it's almost a miracle that half hotel hasn't gone downstairs to kick us out! In a word... does it really disappoint you the eventuality of going to bed?" Chris makes them notice.

"You have some points, after all. The flight has been kinda stressful, maybe it's the jet-lag that kept us awake so far!" Jessica admits as Gaia confines herself to nod.

"That's right. Let's do things this way: you stay here as Dom, Chris and I go to fix the rooms!" Matthew announces, walking towards the elevator, followed by Chris and Dominic.

"Thank you so much, Chris, you've been phenomenal, buddy, you really saved our asses!" Dominic exclaims as he hugs his friend, as soon as the closed sliding doors of the elevator give them the proper privacy.

"Yeah, I just wonder... how did such a genial explanation pop out from your mind?" Matt gets curious, before hugging him as well.

"I don't know, guys, probably when I'm falling asleep on my feet I have skills that astonish even myself! Anyway, now you two owe me a favour!" Chris states as the elevator keeps going on, floor after floor, until they reach their floor.

"Sure, mate, even more than one!" Matt and Dom assure, almost in unison.

"Fine. Then, the first one is... try not to be too noisy, goodnight!" Chris greets them, getting in his room like a sleepwalker.

The other two walk towards Matthew's room, the only place that at that time of day (or night) seems to allow them to have a sort of dialogue, but in a low voice.

"'If I keep writing to her 'I wish you were here, I wish you were here' she will be calm'... well, congratulations, Matt, we saw how calm she is!" Dominic snaps as he gathers his stuff at random.

"Well, well, words from Mr. 'If -she- doesn't –hear- from- me -she'll –understand', we saw the brilliant results of that!" Matt strikes back as he helps him.

"Ok, we are even, we're both dick-heads! Anyway, now we'll have to play the perfect boyfriends part with the girls..." the brunette points out.

"So, dick-heads and bloody, shameful liars, too!" Dominic comments, kinda upset.

"Dommy, I already explained that to you, it's not an evil lie, it's just a truth we have to delay but for a good reason, until we have the necessary calm to face everything pwoperly..." Matt clarifies, comforting him.

"Right!" Dominic recognizes with a sigh, as he carries his bags beyond the threshold.

"Except for sharing the same room and kissing, there shouldn't be anything else compromising for us, right?" Matt makes sure of it.

"Nope, whatever else could there be? Maybe a video of what we've done on the beach tonight, but it's not possible, we haven't shot any video... which is a pity. Damn, it could be such a good idea!" the blond regrets.

"Well, let's keep it in mind for our next month anniversary! Anyway, Dom... I don't know... I have the strange feeling that we did something tonight, but I really can't recall what it is." Matt confesses, as he scratches his chin with a finger.

"This is one of main consequences of getting dead drunk as we did! You know what? I have this strange feeling, too, but I'm sure it's nothing, just a joke of our imagination." Dominic shrugs.

"Coming back to the important stuff, what about a little kiss before we start the charade?" he adds, leaning to his listener who backs off and gently places a finger on his already parted lips.

"No, Dom, we'd better not. If I kissed you... I'm afraid I couldn't stop anymore!" Matthew sighs as he leaves the room with him, before each one goes to take the respective girlfriend.

Twenty minutes later, everything is settled up, every couple is in the respective bed of the respective room, ready to throw themselves in the arms of Morpheus.

When all the lights are turned off, Gaia rolls towards Matthew, getting on the top of him and placing her lips on his for a chaste goodnight kiss.

Too bad that Matt is already half sleepy.

"Dom..." he murmurs contently, but he immediately recognizes the taste of Gaia's lips, her long, waved hair almost whipping his chest in a fit of anger and mostly her body becoming tense in annoyance.

He immediately battens down the hatches.

"What's wrong, dear? I said 'home'. You make me feel at home!" he moans languidly as he caresses both her face and hair.

"Aaawwwww, Matthew!!!" the girl squeals softened, hugging him tight and then she goes back to her side of the bed, cursing herself for jumping to the wrong conclusions.

Matthew congratulates himself for his clever and prompt answer.

------------------------------------------------------------

It's not due to the sunshine typical of 11:00 in the morning.

Dominic wakes up due to a daring and impudent hand that is making its own way through his boxers, crossing the fabric and getting in touch with what there's inside.

Although he's awake, his eyes are still closed, but the worst thing is that his mind is still blurry, so he ends up associating that gesture to the wrong person.

"Mm... Matt... " he groans happily, almost purring, and then he pops his eyes open, coming face-to-face with Jessica's shocked, puzzled and pissed-off expression. "..ers. I said that you are all that really matters!" he's in a tight spot, realizing in record time what situation he is into and smiling at her, sweetly.

Dominic realizes he's avoided the crisis and went even further, because Jessica grins at him, before kissing him hard, making him clearly understand that she won't stop just there.

< C'mon, my dear, pretend that it's Matt. Oh, yeah, sure. Long, silky hair, prosperous boobies, that certain thing between her legs, yeah... definitely it's Matt! > Dominic thinks disheartened, already knowing that he can't make any resistance.

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

They aren't the only couple who is getting down. Remembering what he told her before sleeping, once she woke up, Gaia has decided she has to thank Matthew, her way. It's almost comic: there are hundreds time when Matt craved that but Gaia found thousands of excuses not to give herself to him; and just when he doesn't want it anymore, Matthew is forced to satisfy a very horny Gaia.

<C'mon, boy, it's just like a song from 'My Terrible Lost Chance': sooner or later it has to end. Probably it has the same duration...> Matt thinks listlessly, as he tries his best to welcome Gaia's movements and when they end, surprisingly, she seems to be rather pleased.

Matthew gets up from the bed, in order to have a shower. Gaia lets him do as he pleases, but then she's enlightened by the idea of following him there, to get a juicy encore. Too bad that she notices something that makes her stop in front of the shower, something that she immediately sees as soon as she gets a full view of her boyfriend's naked body, something that she hadn't a chance to get before.

"Please, tell me that it's just a joke!" she summons him, icily.

Matthew jolts both due to the surprise and what she has said, but as soon as he looks better at himself, he sees something that suddenly makes him recall everything of the previous night.

<Dom and I, dead drunk, late night, that tattoo shop still open, that insane idea of getting a tattoo on our butts, me choosing his and him choosing mine, oh, my god! So, it wasn't just a sick idea... we've done that for real! Thanking our lucky stars, we weren't so drunk to decide to have a permanent tattoo, it's just a henna tattoo. Well, permanent or not, now I'm in big, big trouble!> Matthew realizes, panic-stricken.

"That's it. It's taking you way too fucking long to answer. So, it's not a joke." the girl figures out, shocked.

"I can explain..." Matthew attempts to justifies, as he manages to get off the shower and wear a bathrobe in record time.

"There's a fucking nothing to explain! You're a pervert. You both are perverts! And to think that sometimes Jess and I joked about the fact that you were always together but... I'd never thought that... Ggrrr! For God's sake, Matt, how did you do this to me?" Gaia screams hysterically, starting to throw against him every tool she finds on the shelf near the mirror, even a very expensive after-shave that crashes on the floor, shattering in a thousand pieces, but the bottle of shampoo, the hairbrush, the jar of hair-gel and the hairdryer don't miss their target.

"Ouch! Gaia, we haven't planned that... it just happened!" Matthew barely explains, as he improves his own quickness record also in putting on his clothes and coming back to the bedroom.

"What fucking kind of justification is this? Anyway, tell me, how long has this story been going on? How long have you been fooling Jessica and me?" Gaia asks, angrier and angrier, following him.

"Oh. Well, not for long. Just for a month." he replies, realizing too late his terrible mistake: in that room there's plenty of tons of objects that can turn into dangerous weapons.

"DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT THIS IS SUPPOSED TO CONFORT ME?" she growls, furiously, grabbing the table lamp to throw it against him, but thanks to his quickness of reflex, Matt dodges the blow.

"Gaia, I know, it wasn't fair towards you, but everything happened so quickly that..." he keeps explaining, as he uses the bed as a sort of blockhouse.

"When the hell did you plan to tell us?" she goes on, grabbing the alarm clock, turning around the bed and throwing it at him before he can escape, hitting his right leg.

"Ouch! We were waiting for the end of the tour, in order to face better the whole situation."

< And mostly to avoid destroying hotel rooms and... ouch... their owners, too ! > he thinks as he approaches to her, limping a little bit.

"Anyway, Gaia, let's be honest. Dom or not, truth is that things weren't already working well anymore between us, we just carried on the aftermath of a story that was almost over." he warns her, snatching the phone from her hands, before she throws at him even that.

"Almost. That's the magic word. And you did nothing to try and save our story!" she accuses him.

"What? I've tried to involve you in everything I did, but you always seem to do me a favour every time I take you to my shows or at award ceremonies!" he accuses her.

"Matt, do you have the slightest idea of how many concerts you perform in a year? I'm already fed-up after ten shows! They are always the same... okay, maybe sometimes you change the playlist a little bit, but it doesn't make any difference!" the girl snaps as Matthew looks at her stunned.

"You had never told me that."

"What about the award ceremonies? It's always you and your damn musicians fellows, you never take me to any other social event. Look at our neighbour, he went to Tom Cruise and Kate Holmes' wedding, we didn't!" Gaia goes on with her rant.

"Damn! Don't name that jerk of George. So, are you really saying that you wanted to be at the wedding of that arrogant, stand-offish midget?" he strikes back, annoyed.

"Words from the basketball player!" she hisses, acidly.

"Hey! That's hitting below the belt!" Matt grumbles, since he has always been very touchy about the height.

"Well, it's not my fault, shorty!" she puts the boot in, enjoying his humiliated expression.

The guy becomes more serious and stares at her, deeply in her eyes.

"See? Lately we've been doing nothing but fighting and telling each other mean things, trying to make up with sentences that once were true and sincere, but now they aren't anymore. Not only now, things haven't been working well for a long while, you understand this, don't you?" he makes her think.

Gaia doesn't say a word, lowering her gaze.

"I guess it's really over. Goodbye, Matthew, you were the most special boyfriend I have ever had." she states after some minutes, approaching to him, to give him a chaste kiss that seals their goodbye.

"I'm sure you'll find a guy who is even more special than me." he comforts her.

"Anyway, forget to have back all the gifts you bought to me, especially the ring! Plus, I want another memory of our story..." she warns him, getting off the fragile and tender phase she had fallen into, as she takes a look around, until her eyes find the perfect object.

"I decided. I'll keep the trolley!" she informs him.

"NOOOOO! NEVER!!! Hands off my Pinkie!" Matthew gets alarmed. "I mean, I need him for my travels!" he justifies as he draws his wallet out from the pocket of his jeans.

"Keep this as a memory." he goes on, giving her one of his credit cards. "It's practically new, so you can buy all the trolleys you want. And much more!"

"Okay, keep your stupid trolley, I prefer the credit card. It has more value... I mean, sentimental value!" the girl states as she puts the card in her pocket, eagerly, as her eyes shine at the thought of using it for filling her 'empty, broken heart' with tons of mad shopping.

"Fine. I'll leave the house before you return from the tour, be sure of that. I'll go back to my parents, or, no, wait, that's even better. I'll stay at Jessica's and..." she announces, but then she stops. " Oh, my God, Jessica! I wonder if she has also found the truth out..." she goes on, rushing outside, at the other side of the corridor, as Matthew follows her.

From Dominic's door, the noises and the screams they can hear give them the confirmation that also Jessica has already made that bitter discovery.

Suddenly, the door slams open and a very terrified Dominic runs away, with a showy black-eye.

"Come here, you, dirty, bloody, fucking, pervert, wicked betrayer! I'm not done with you, yet!" Jessica roars, profoundly mad.

"Matthew, please, save what still remains of myself!" the blondie implores as he uses him as a shield.

"Why does she scare me even more than Chris does?" the brunette grumbles disquietly, ready to protect his beloved anyway.

"So, Jess, you found that out, too!" Gaia distracts her friend from her blind rage.

"Yeah. After all, that tattoo on their butts with their names inside a red heart was too eloquent!" Jessica explains.

"Hey, wait a minute! Their name inside a heart? Well, my dear, you haven't much to complain about, then. Matthew has a tattoo with the written 'Property of Dominic Howard'!" Gaia confesses.

"Oh. Well, you're right. You got the worst of it. Anyway, the main point is that those two worms humiliated us!" Jessica goes on, as she glares frostily both at Dom and Matt.

Drawn by that noisy mess, Chris pops out from his room.

"What the hell is goin.. ?" he slurs, still a little numb with sleep.

Dominic and mostly Matthew see him as their sheet anchor.

"You know, truth is that... it was only his fault!" Matthew explains, pointing at the oblivious bassist.

"Yep. Everything started because of an insane idea of his!" Dominic plays his game.

"Oh, my God! Chris, is that true?" Jessica asks him, puzzled.

"True what?" Chris wonders, even more puzzled.

"Yep. He forced us to kiss, and then he did it again. And he likes watching us!" Matthew says, being heavy on that.

"Bells, what the fuck are you blathering about?" Chris snaps, glaring at him.

"I'm sorry, buddy, but if my ship sinks I'm gonna take you all with me!" Matt states.

"First, what a great friend you are! Second, damn you, you named again your bloody ships... I'm gonna kill you!" Chris loses his usual temper, ready to fling himself on Matt, but Dominic intervenes promptly, holding him by his t-shirt.

"Hey! We had come to different terms. Matty, *you* were supposed to protect *me* !" the blond complains, as he holds Chris still until he cools down.

"You are so pathetic. You aren't worthy not even a minute of our time. Come on, Gaia, let's go find two men who are worthy! Someone with a *real job*!" Jessica exclaims, turning to Dom, as he rolls his eyes in answer.

"Goodbye, Matt, I'll miss your mone... I mean, the moments we spent together!" Gaia comments, victim of a Freudian slip.

< Yeah, right, I bought to you tons of stuff with my... *moments we spent together!* > Matthew ponders, annoyed, confining himself just to nod.

"Anyway, Chris, you're the worst one! You're the sickest, the most pervert, I can't believe that you really forced them to do such a thing!" Gaia accuses him, as Jessica gathers quickly all their stuff.

"But I didn't..." Chris protests. "Hey, you two! Say something!" he exhorts his friends.

"Why should we? After all, you're defending yourself so well on your own..." Matt makes fun of him.

"Plus, we already did our part. And mostly we've been already beaten up enough... ouch!" Dom adds, massaging his still aching black-eye.

"Don't worry, Dom, after I blackened your second eye, the one you have now will seem unharmed!" Chris threatens him.

"See? You're even such a violent person, so brute! Kelly should be informed that she has chosen as husband such a turbid and depraved guy. We're gonna warn her..." Gaia announces as Jessica reaches her with their bags.

"No, wait, wait!! It's just a big, majestic misunderst..." Chris attempts to clarify, but it's too late, since the two girls disappear behind the closed sliding doors of the elevator.

"So, tell me, what should I do to you now?" Chris asks the two lovers, narrowing his eyes at them.

Matthew faces his gaze, bravely.

"Tell us, do you want to stay here wasting time with us... or do you want to save your marriage before it's too late?" he makes him notice.

His only answer, Chris leaves, as he dials the more than usual phone number.

"Kelly, honey? You know how funny Gaia and Jess can be sometimes, don't you? Well, you can't even begin to imagine what they invented this time..." he informs his wife, coming back in his room.

"Oh, my poor, Dommy!" Matt comments, as he gently places his fingertips around the beaten eye.

"I told you that Jessica was aggressive ... and yet I believe I've been even too lucky. It could get much worse, trust me!" the other explains. "So, now we've finally faced them and we are free to stay together." he goes on, as he puts his head on Matt's shoulder, noticing that he's observing the elevator, with a thoughtful expression. "What's wrong?" the blond asks him.

"I don't know... I feel like I'm inside one of those sappy movies and when she leaves him, he realizes the big mistake he has made, realizes that she's the only one he really wants and follows her, running down in the street to reach her, asking her to forgive him and give him a second chance." Matthew admits, very seriously.

"Oh, I understand. So, go, go to her, I won't stop you if you want to run down in the street and win her back, just like the most predictable ending." Dominic states, as seriously as well.

The blond gets upset as he watches Matt run towards the elevator, but just when the sliding doors open, the brunette turns and run back to Dom, his serious expression replaced by a smirk.

"Oh, god! I can't believe, you really fell for it!" he exclaims, chuckling.

"So, it was just a joke! Well, it hurt me much more than the black-eye, you know? You're mean!" Dom confesses, with his classic, tender, irresistible pout.

"My sweet, sweet Dominic, there's something I've never told you..." Matt murmurs, as he captures that pout in a short, but very intense kiss. "I've never liked predictable endings too much!"

TBC

See? No cliff-hanger this time, I'm a good girl, am not I? ;P

Of course, I seriously believe that the real lovely Gaia and Jess are nothing like 'these 'hateful ones! ;)

Uhmm , I don't know, maybe I solved things way too superficially, but, c'mon, I mean... this is the kind of story that can't request too much serious stuff!

I hope you'll have fun reading it and you'll like it, but, pleeeease, let me know whatever you think!

Too bad that his beautiful boyfriend doesn't seem to get around to playing.

"What?" the blond wonders, sitting in front of him.

"You know, there's a price to pay to hear the song." the brunet warns him "Your t-shirt!" he adds, winking at him.

Dominic realizes his intentions and takes it off, throwing it on the sand.

Pleased by what he's seeing, Matthew is about to pluck the first chord, but he immediately stops when he sees the blond get up.

"Bloody hell, Dominic! You're gonna spoil the atmosphere if you carry on this way!" the frontman snorts, as he watch his boyfriend pick his t-shirt from the ground, dust it down with a proper shake and fold it with a great care.

"Mattie, try to understand... it's a Dior t-shirt!" the drummer justifies as he places it on the bench, before coming back to his mate and sitting down.

Matthew shakes his head with a smile and then he finally starts playing, as he plucks the chords one by one and slides his fingers along the frets.

No matter how pleasant it is, Dominic has never heard such a version of that song that he has already recognized, even before Matt starts singing.

BREAK ME IN AND TEACH US TO CHEAT AND TO LIE AND COVER UP WHAT SHOULDN'T BE SHARED AND THE TRUTH IS UNWINDING SCRAPING AWAY AT MY MIND, PLEASE STOP ASKING ME TO DESCRIBE

Dominic lets the music lull him as he listens to the silky voice of the guitarist, closing his eyes to enjoy the moment even better.

FOR ONE MOMENT I WISH YOU'D HOLD YOUR STAGE WITH NO FEAR AT ALL OPEN MINDED, I'M SURE I USED TO BE SO FREE

The chorus is edited, without screams nor falsettos, just to adjust it better to the soft arrangement, but that doesn't mean that it is less beautiful than the original one.

SELF-EXPRESSED, EXHAUSTING FOR ALL TO SEE AND TO BE WHAT YOU WANT AND WHAT YOU NEED AND THE TRUTH IS UNWINDING SCRAPING AWAY AT MY MIND, PLEASE STOP ASKING ME TO DESCRIBE

FOR ONE MOMENT I WISH YOU'D HOLD YOUR STAGE WITH NO FEAR AT ALL OPEN MINDED, I'M SURE I USED TO BE SO FREE

Dominic opens his eyes again, in order to see his partner as he faces the most difficult part.

This time it's Matthew who keeps his eyes closed, with an ecstatic smile that almost makes Dom instantly jealous of the music that is enrapturing his boyfriend.

Just before singing the last sentences, Matthew pops his eyes open and the sweet, charming smile he casts at Dominic annihilates the blond's ridiculous jealousy at all.

WASH ME AWAY, CLEAN YOUR BODY OFF ME ERASE ALL THE MEMORIES, THEY ONLY BRING US PAIN AND I'VE SEEN ALL I EVER NEED

Matthew ends the song, without breaking eye-contact with Dominic, not even for a second, before plucking the very last note.

Dom claps his hands at him.

"Oh, Matty, it was wonderful, you were so incredible..." he congrats, as he stops his clapping. "But it didn't fit!" he adds, pouting.

"It didn't fit?! Gee, Dominic, did you listen at it? The lies, the truth that shouldn't be shared, the desire to be free, even just for one moment, the need, the..." Matthew starts rambling.

"Yeah, but... what about the 'erase all the memories' part? I didn't like it one bit!" the blond explains.

"Oh, Dommy, no, no! You misunderstood; it's not the memories about us. I meant the memories of our girlfriends. If the past didn't exist, there would be no consequences to face." Matthew clarifies, as he places the guitar on the ground to hug the blond, letting one hand sink in the softness of his hair.

"Oh, so it was just that!" Dom figures out, as he plays with Matt's hair-creamed locks.

"Of course, it was just that, it couldn't be any different!" Matthew reassures him, before kissing him.

"Mm... whatever, it didn't fit well anyway!" Dom grumbles at the end of their kiss, parting from Matt.

"Damn you, Dom! If you didn't like it you could stop me at the beginning, at least! And I'm such a dick-head for choosing one of the longest and most difficult songs both to play and sing of our discography!" Matthew snaps and the he notices the smile that the blond can't hide anymore.

"Oh, Mattie, c'mon! Haven't you realize yet that I'm just kidding? Of course, I liked it. I loved every second of it." Dominic reveals. "So much that I would love to hear another one." he goes on as he caresses Matt behind his ears, one of his most sensitive spots.

"Aawww... another one? But, Dommie... we have just performed a whole concert..." Matt attempts to protest, but then, without stopping his way to caress him, Dominic lets one of his hands slide on the crotch of the brunette's jeans , slipping between his tights and making him startle.

"C'mon, Matty, I'm gonna be very grateful if you do that, you know." the blond cuts him off, before kissing him again, fiercely, as he rubs his hand against Matt's length, through the fabric of his pants.

"Okay, Dom, you won, I'll do that, but not more than one song, got it?" Matthew surrenders

After all, after the blond's attentions he has no choice.

Dom nods with a huge grin, allowing him to take his guitar and then he crouches close to him on the ground.

< Let's see ... what I could sing to him? Maybe 'Exo Politics'. Oh, c'mon, is that a love song? You, idiot! Maybe 'Can't take my eyes off of you' or 'Endlessly'. No, wait, no way. He expects that and I'm anything but predictable. Uhmm, maybe 'Shrinking Universe'? Yeah, right, that would be just perfect; I can already picture the whole scene in my mind: I sing 'And I'll reflect your imperfections' and he yells at me 'I HAVE NO IMPERFECTIONS!' 'till dawn! > Matthew ponders as he takes his eyes from his guitar to his boyfriend who strangely doesn't seem to be impatient.

< Alright! I've finally found the proper one. And I'm such a dick-head once again, since I chose another very long and difficult song, mostly because usually it's the piano the main instrument. Well, let's see how it turns out... > the brunette decides as he starts plucking the chords in the attempt of creating the same melody he usually does with the piano.

Matthew manages to do that so well that Dom immediately recognizes that song, beaming blissfully to let his mate know how much he appreciates that choice.

LIPS ARE TURNING BLUE A KISS THAT CAN'T RENEW I ONLY DREAM OF YOU MY BEAUTIFUL

TIP TOE TO YOUR ROOM A STARLIGHT IN THE GLOOM

Dominic is almost tempted to make the backing vocals that repeat the same sentences, but Matthew realizes that and summons him not to do that just with an intimidating look.

I ONLY DREAM OF YOU AND YOU NEVER KNEW

Dominic listens to him, thinking at the beginning of their love story, when they started realizing the nature of the feelings they had towards each other, with the mutual fear that they weren't requited by the other.

SING FOR ABSOLUTION, I WILL BE SINGING AND FALLING FROM YOUR GRACE

Matthew smiles at him, before starting the second verse.

THERE 'S NOWHERE LEFT TO HIDE IN NO ONE TO CONFIDE THE TRUTH BURNS DEEP INSIDE AND WILL NEVER DIE

LIPS ARE TURNING BLUE A KISS THAT CAN'T RENEW I ALWAYS DREAM OF YOU MY BEAUTIFUL

SING FOR ABSOLUTION, I WILL BE SINGING AND FALLING FROM YOUR GRACE

As Matt sings, both of them can't help thinking about how right that song is , especially about the part involving the hidden truth, a hidden truth that sooner or later they'll make the world find out, getting ready for every kind of consequence.

OUR WRONGS REMAIN UNRECTIFIED AND OUR SOULS WON'T BE EXHUMED

Matthew ends the song flawlessly, plucking the very last chord and placing the guitar on the sand.

"So, Dom, I guess it's time for you to show me your thankfuln..." Matthew incites him, but he doesn't even have the time to finish his sentence, because Dominic jumps on him, laying him down on the sand as he crawls upon him, before sealing their lips together.

The blond's hands caresses every inch of the brunette's chest, before remembering that there's a better way to enjoy it.

A little bit unwillingly, he gets up, leaving Matt puzzled and disappointed, but he grins in anticipation when he sees Dom coming back to him, holding the cake.

Dom places the cake on the guitar near them and crawls back onto Matt's lap.

He stretches his arm in order to get a handful of whipped cream that he smears on the frontman's smooth chest, with particular attention to his nipples where he places two little humps of cream.

"So, do you like what you see?" Matt challenges him from below, enjoying the sensation of that warm cream on his body, but knowing that he will enjoy even more the sensation of Dom's rough tongue on his skin.

"Yummy, creamy Mattie!" the drummer hums, before licking all the cream away, following the line he has traced, from his belly to his Adam's apple, leaving the nipples as the icing of the cake.

Matt moans in pleasure, especially when Dom finally gives the proper attention to his left nipple, sucking hard on it, before doing the same with the right nipple, when he ends up giving it a tiny nip.

"Dom!" Matt gasps, in total bliss.

"Oh, baby, you taste fantastic!" Dom smiles at him, as he deals with the zipper of Matt's jeans and when he undoes them, he found a very pleasant surprise.

"Oh my, the hot pink boxers!" he rejoices.

"Yeah, I'd never thought they would be so fast with the delivery." the brunette smiles as he caresses the blond's chest. "What if I told you that there's another pair waiting for you, in our room?'" he reveals to him.

"Oh, god! Really? The only thought gives me an orgasm!" the other confesses, excited.

"Well, my dear, get ready, 'cause you're gonna have a real orgasm, maybe even more than one!" Matt warns him, before switching positions and getting on top of him and then he gets rid of his partner's black pants, finding something unexpected.

"Bloody hell! No boxers!" he cheers.

"Yep, here's my surprise for you. See? I'm ready for use!" Dom smiles at him and the smile turns into a beam when he sees Matt take two handfuls of whipped cream from the cake.

"Oh, you're such a bad boy and I'll take advantage of that!" the singer warns him with a devilish look.

"Uh-uh! What are you gonna do?" Dom wonders, as he pretends to be concerned and then he jolts when Matt grabs his already hard and throbbing cock that is begging for attention, covering it all with cream.

"I'm gonna enjoy my very special Banana Split!" Matt sneers, right before turning theory into practice.

And when he does Dom throws his head back, groaning in astonishing delight.

------------------------------------------------------------

After a lot of sex, and a huge amount of alcohol too, the two lovers gather all their stuff and leave that beach.

They decide to take a walk towards their hotel, since it's not very far from there, plus the late night prevents them from the chance of meeting some fans.

They resort to the very few sense of direction still left in them and walk hugged together, staggering a little.

Once in a while, they stop just to exchange some quick kisses.

"Jessssssshhica!" Matt slurs, after one of said kisses.

"Heeeeeey! After all we ssshared, I eeeexpected ya didn't think aboooooout a gurl when ya're wih meeeee. And if ya really haaave to think about a gurl ... at leaaaaaaaast choose yourrrrs!" Dom slurs.

"Ya, idiot! I meant thaaat ya haven't called Jesssshica, ya haven't beeeeen calling her fow thwee days! Aren't ya going to make her doooubtful?" Matt points out.

"Oooh, it's juuust that. Well, I'm not calling herrr on purrrrpouse , 'cause if sheee hasn't been hearing froooom me for some days, sheee'll probably begin thinking that everything's not sooo ok as it used to be before!" Dominic explains.

"Oooh, well done. Instead, I keeeep telling Gaaaaaaaia that I misssh her terribly and I wiiish she was here, so she woooon't worry about everything!" Matthew reveals.

They stop walking abruptly, since the flashing neon sign of a shop that is still open drags their utter attention.

"Babe, are ya thinking what I'm thinking?" Dom winks at his boyfriend and he nods, very eagerly.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Half an hour later, the two lovers reach their hotel, satisfied by their bright idea.

They find Chris in the hall, sat on one of the sofas and as soon as he sees them he walks towards them, visibly agitated.

"Wassssssup, Chrissy? Are ya going to act like an apprehensive father who waits for his kids to come back home?" Matt makes fun of him.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that 'Chrissy', only because you're scarily drunk! Anyway, there's no time for jokes, guys. What if I told you that your girlfriends are here?" their friend warns them.

"Gee, Chriiss, you were supposed to say that just to our fans. I guuuesss you got into character waaayy too much!" Dom makes fun of him.

"Chris is right, honey." a female voice exclaims, a voice that Dom knows terribly well.

"You should trust in Chris' word a little bit more, love..." another female voice exclaims, a voice that Matt knows painfully well.

The two guys are so shocked that they instantly sober up, as they silently thank their lucky stars for not getting in the hall still hugged or kissing each other, because in front of them there are just Jessica and Gaia, as they go downstairs together, before approaching to their boyfriends, greeting them in unison.

"Hi, guys!"

TBC

This is what I call an evil cliff-hanger! * sneers wickedly *

Disclaimer: the song Matthew played in this chapter are obviously 'Citizen Erased' and 'Sing for Absolution', by Muse. About their different, acoustic arrangement here... well... I'm sure that Matt can do stuff like that and many other amazing things! ^^

Matthew makes the last notes of his guitar echo, letting them ring, as small flames burst out from the edge of the stage, with some glistening lights, too.

It's the sign that that was really the last song of their show.

"Goodnight, Los Angeles, it was nice to have you here tonight!" Matt exclaims, greeting the crowd.

"Maybe are we gonna see some of you even at tomorrow's show?" Dominic wonders as he gets up from the drum-kit, happy when he hears the positive rumbling from some areas of the Forum.

"Awww, that's so nice from you." the blond grins as he waves his hand, before leaving.

< Too bad that we won't be that nice with you, tonight...> Matthew ponders, as he heads to the dressing room.

After a quick shower and changing of clothes, the trio is ready.

There's no need to tell that Dominic and Matthew have dressed properly for their celebration: the first wears black pants and a white jacket with a T-shirt with white and black straps under, which is an impeccable match; the second wears blue pants with a very particular shirt, not only for the very intricate white drawing on the collar, but mostly because, depending on light it oscillates between blue, black and purple, without making clear which the real colour is.

Dominic could spend hours trying to define it, if only he hadn't another priority, like to take that shirt off him as soon as possible.

Chris stands in a corner, all engrossed in thinking about what to say to their fans who inevitably will question him about their disappearance.

After establishing that they have stared at each other long enough, Matt and Dom think about what to do.

"Let's check if the coast is clear. I'm gonna look at the main exits, very carefully. You'll check the number fifty-seven and then we'll meet again here, ok?" Matt suggests and they part.

After something more than ten minutes Dom comes back and finds Matt who has been waiting for him.

"There you go, finally! So, were there fans at number fifty-seven? Because the main exits are so damn crowded, but lucky for me nobody saw me. Bloody Hell, aren't people supposed to stay here and listen to My Chemical No-Sense?" the brunette snorts.

"It's My Chemical *Romance*!" the blond corrects him, kinda annoyed. "Anyway, just like you supposed, number fifty-seven is deserted..." he informs him.

"So, why the hell did it take you so damn long?" Matt gets nervous.

"Well, on the way back, I found a couple of fans in the corridors and signed their CDs." Dom explains.

"But you weren't supposed to stop to talk with the fans, not even for a few minutes!" Matt scolds him.

"I know... but they said 'Please, Dom, come here, you are beautiful!'. I just had to stop!" the other justifies.

"So? I keep telling you that you're beautiful!" the brunette protests.

"So what? Do you want an autograph, too?" the blond teases him.

"Dom!" Matt snaps.

"Ok, ok, let's go." Dom takes him by the hand, crossing with him the very deserted number fifty-seven exit, totally undisturbed and reaching the taxi that is already waiting for them.

"It was even too easy!" Matt comments as he closes the car door.

"You're right. Let's go back and make things harder!" Dom jokes as he pretends to open the car door again.

"Very funny. Let's just go away from here. Please, driver, take us to the beach!" Matt asks politely, but the taxi-driver turns to him, looking at him puzzled, just like Dom does.

"Matthew, honey, do you have the slightest idea about how many beaches there are in this place?" Dom patiently tries to make him reason out.

"Uh! You're right. Well, I mean the one where we have already set everything up!" Matthew specifies, but the driver stares at him even more puzzled than before.

"Matthew, dear, let me guess. You don't remember the name of the beach anymore, do you?" Dom questions him and Matt goggles as he slowly shakes his head negatively, just like a child.

"What if I told you that I do?" Dom smiles at him.

"Oh, Dommie, what would I do without you?" the brunette murmurs.

"Probably you would get lost everywhere!" the blond chuckles, before giving the proper info to the driver, as he caresses his mate's left leg, taking advantage of the seat that hides them.

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

Chris has finally decided to go out and face the crowd. The first groups of fans immediately catch sight of him, calling all the other fans and going towards him.

"Chris, please, Chris, come here!" the fans call him out loud and the bassist can't help pleasing them.

He poses for several pictures, signs CDs, rucksacks, T-shirts, books and every kind of stuff and then gets ready for the unavoidable question the fans are about to ask him.

"Hey, Chris, where are Matt and Dom? Why aren't they here with you?"

The bassist concentrates for some seconds, before answering as planned.

"I'm sorry, people, but Matt and Dom won't be here tonight." he announces, noticing the immediate change of mood in his listeners.

"Why?" some girls wonder. As the news spread, one by one the other fans leave, until only a limited group of girls remains.

"Because, you know, their girlfriends made a surprise to them and came here yesterday, at night. So, as you can imagine, now they want to spend with them as much time as possible. That's why they left earlier than usual." he explains, no matter how he hates telling lies.

"Oh. Well, that's so nice from their girlfriends!" a girl sighs.

"What about tomorrow? Are they gonna stop here after the show?" another girl wonders.

"Sure! Their girlfriends will leave tomorrow in the afternoon. So, Matt and Dom will stop here, after the show, to spend some time with you. This is a promise!" Chris assures.

"So, Chris, aren't you envious, at least a little bit?" a girl asks him.

"Why?" he narrows his eyes.

"I mean, Matt and Dom's girlfriends paid a visit to them. What about your wife? Isn't she here with you?" she questions him.

"Nope, she is at home, with the kids, you know..." he justifies her.

"Well, fresh news, buddy, there are people called baby-sitters!" the girl makes him notice.

"But..."

"Admit it, Chris, it seems that Matt and Dom's partners care about them more than your partner cares about you!" another girl states.

< Oh, c'mon, it's fake. They're not here for real. So, they don't care more than Kelly. So... why am I so unsure now? > the poor Chris wonders, as doubts overwhelm him.

"Excuse me, I'll be right back." he takes leave, coming back to his dressing room.

He dials the number that he uses to dial every single day, even more than once a day, and waits for the answer from the other side.

"Hello?"

"Kelly?" her husband whines.

It's enough to make her figure his mood out.

"C'mon, tell me, what happened this time?" she patiently asks him.

"Do you love me?" he questions her, almost crying.

"Nope, I don't. Truth is that we've been together for all these years just because I find extremely funny having babies from you!" she answers sardonically. "Of course I love you, you, ninny! What bloody kind of question is it?" she snaps immediately after.

"Just like that..." he mumbles.

"Christopher?" his wife questions him.

"What if I told you that Gaia and Jessica are here?"

"Ok, they are there. So?"

"Well, you're not..." he whimpers.

"Chris, do you really think that to be there with you would be the way to show you that I care?" she strikes back.

"N...no?" he answers so uncertainly that it becomes a question.

"Hell nope! It wouldn't prove you anything. I mean, it's nice to follow you on tour, but just once in a while, because I understand that you need some privacy and need to be left on your own, also to spend some time with your fans. So, to keep following you relentlessly as Gaia and Jess do, well... it's way too exaggerate. It's almost as if they didn't trust in their boyfriends, so they keep following them in order to control them constantly. But this can be so frustrating that if the girls keep acting this way... I'm afraid they'll end up losing them." she explains.

< Oh well, that has already happened, a month ago .> Chris thinks, being very careful not to say that out loud.

"Anyway, honey, since they're there, when you see them can you please say hello from me?" his wife adds.

"To whom?" her husband wonders, confused.

"To Jess and Gaia, you, ninny!" Kelly snorts.

"Oh, yeah, sure, of course; but... they're not here." he confesses.

"But you told me they were there!" his wife protests, puzzled.

"No, honey, I said 'What *if I told you* that Gaia and Jessica are here?'" her husband points out.

"So, let me see if I got it straight: you complained to me, even tried to make me feel guilty, for something that actually didn't happen?" she questions him, the volume of her voice increasing as she begins losing her patience.

"Exactly, but... why does it sound so awful described by you?" her husband wavers.

"Christopher Anthony Wolstenholme, you..." his wife roars.

Chris knows very well that whenever she uses his full name is never a good sign, as well as he knows that he can place the mobile on the table and gather all his stuff left in the dressing room, because once he's done he will find Kelly on the phone, still engrossed in insulting him good and proper.

This time not even his famous, providential book will help him make things right.

--------------------------------------------------------

Once they arrive to the beach, not before giving a very generous tip to the taxi driver, mostly to reward him for his patience, Dominic and Matthew wander hand in hand along the isolated beach, lightened only by the moonlight, the stars and some candles on a table.

And just like they have said before, everything is already set up: on the table there are sandwiches, chips, pop-corns and several snacks, a mini-bar with beers, champagne and every kind of alcoholic stuff. And there is a cake, too.

"Is it just my imagination or when we ordered that cake it didn't have all this whipped cream?" Matthew wonders.

"You're right. Let's say that I personally asked to add some more." Dominic confesses as he dips his finger into the whipped cream.

"Why?" the other asks him naively as the blond unbuttons his iridescent shirt, placing the cream along the left side of his neck and licking it off his way, making the frontman moan.

"Here's the answer." Dominic whispers.

"Well, Mattie, are we going to have our toast or what?" he exclaims, walking towards the mini-bar and drawing out the champagne.

As soon as Matthew recovers, he helps him, taking two flute glasses.

Dom opens the bottle and fills the flute glasses with the precision of a maître and then they make them collide lightly.

"To our first month, the first one of a long series." Matthew murmurs as he leans closer to his boyfriend, until his forehead rests against his.

"A very, very, very long series..." the blond moans, crossing the flutes, to make each one drink from the others' flute.

Matthew is about to fill the second glass, but Dom stops him.

"Wait. I can't let the alcohol overwhelm you... at least, not yet!" he explains.

"Why?" the other wonders.

Dominic leaves and then he comes back, holding a deep blue, acoustic guitar.

"As you can see, clothes are not the only stuff I've bought today. This is for you!" he says, giving the guitar to him.

"Oh my, Dommie, it's wonderful, thank you so much. Plus, it matches my shirt, too!" Matt smiles as he analyzes the instrument, minutely.

"Well, that's only a coincidence. Anyway, if you think you're wearing that for long, you're such a poor ingénue, my dear!" Dom 'threatens' him.

"Shut up! You wear more clothes than I do. At least you could take off your jacket!" Matthew incites him and Dom pleases him, taking it off and folding it carefully, placing it on the bench close to the table.

"Now, that's better!" the brunette smiles satisfied, as he checks that all the guitar chords are perfectly tuned. "I like it a lot. How did you know that I would like it?" he asks him.

"It's a guitar. It works. You like it!" the drummer answers telegraphic, making the brunette laughs, but then he become serious again.

"Dominic, why did you buy a guitar for me? It's not that I lack them..." he questions the blond.

"What? Can't I buy a gift for my boyfriend?" the other shrugs, showing indifference.

"Dom?" Matt insists, as he tries not to think about the shiver running down his spine whenever Dom calls him 'his boyfriend '.

"Okay, okay. What if I told you that I want you to sing?" the other confesses.

"Dom, I've already done that not longer than one hour ago..." the guitarist comments, confused.

"Yep, but not for me. You've never sung for me so far. I mean, you even sang for Chris!" the blond protests.

"Don't get jealous now!" the brunette chuckles, placing the guitar on the sand, to get closer to him and caress his face with the back of his hand.

"Do you want me to sing for you, my Dommie?" he whispers as he skims his lips with his own.

"I don't want it. I expect it!" the other strikes back as he annihilates that minimal distance with a kiss that doesn't take long to become more demanding.

"Okay, I'll do it." Matt announces, as he's about to take his guitar, but Dom stops him.

"Not so fast, boy!" he exclaims, dragging him to himself to utterly unbutton his shirt, taking it off.

"Now, that's better!" he quotes Matt's previous sentence on purpose, with a satisfied expression, before folding the shirt with the same care he reserved to his jacket.

Sat on the sand, with is legs crossed, shirtless, holding the guitar on his lap as his sapphire eyes stare at the blond, his face brightened up by the moonlight and the stars.

Matthew has never seemed more beautiful to Dominic.

(End part A)

Since I'm evil, but mostly since the chapter would be really too long, this time I split it in two.

The dedication has been a very good idea, because their crowd ended up feeling more involved, no matter if the major part of them wasn't exactly 'their' crowd.

That's why Matt and Dom are commenting that event joyfully, in the backstage.

Whatever it was a good idea or not, they would be happy anyway: the only presence of one makes the other happy and vice versa.

About Chris, well... he's engrossed watching the video of the dedication that, due to Matthew's request, a guy of the security has shot with the bassist's portable camera.

As a matter of fact, Chris doesn't even seem to notice when they leave their dressing room.

"Come with me, there's something I wanna show you." Matt exclaims, bringing Dom in the room where there are their instruments.

"I tried to do that with the piano, but it doesn't sound very good." the brunette goes on as he wears the shoulder-strap of his guitar with the special pad, the one he used to play 'Invincible'.

"But with the guitar is just perfect! Give me a minute." he goes on, as Dominic stares at him curiously, without understanding what he's about to do.

Matthew deals a bit with the 'e' chord.

"Here we go. Pay attention." he warns him as he lets his finger flow upon the frets and moves the plectrum in a way that it almost seems that the guitar is saying 'Dominic'.

Once he's done with his demonstration, he looks expectantly at him, grinning, already knowing that he has performed that perfectly.

"Oh, Matty, this is soooo cool!" the blond exclaims, hyped-up, and then he sits at the drum and holds his drumsticks.

"Now, let me do something for you." he announces, before beating two parts of the drums.

He also looks expectantly at the brunette, but he stares at him puzzled, but as soon as a sad expression and mostly the start of a pout appear on the blond's face, realization hits him like a flash.

"Oh, my god. You didn't make the drums say 'Matthew'... did you?" he wonders, stunned.

"I knew you would get it. After all, it was so easy to figure out!" the drummer exults.

"Now listen to this..." he adds, before concentrating and hitting the drums seven times.

Matt looks at him dumbfounded.

"Dommy, no matter how much I love you, this is fucking impossible to figure out!" the singer protests.

"How can you say such a thing? It was so simple. It was 'Oh-Matt-I-Love-You-So-Much'!" Dominic explains, a little bit upset.

Matthew seems to melt down like snow in the sunlight.

"Aww, Dommy, you know, we'd better not make our instruments say such sweet things." he states as he approaches like a predator the blond who is impatiently waiting for him.

"No?" Dom wonders rhetorically.

"Nope. On second thought, even the words aren't extremely necessary." the brunette goes on, riding on the drums, in front of his boyfriend.

"You're right. There are so many other ways. The look in your eyes is one." the blond murmurs.

"Very romantic. Kind of poetic, too, but it's not what I meant." Matt reveals and Dom hasn't even the time to ask him what he meant, because the brunette jumps on him, straddling his lap and the bulges in their jeans make contact.

There's no need to say that both of those jeans now are unbearably constricting.

"See? I guess that the body language is the best way ever. What do you think?" Matt whispers in his ear, sucking the lobe in his mouth and tugging lightly on it with his teeth as he lustfully rubs his body against his, before letting his hands slip inside the blond's white t-shirt.

With a low groan, Dominic pushes himself harder against him, kissing him fiercely as his fingers deal with the zipper of the brunette's jeans.

"Guys, I still have to thank you once more for..." Chris exclaims, breaking in the room, but he immediately stops, due to the scene in front of his eyes.

Seeing him, Matt and Dom part and get up from the drums.

"Uh! Sorry, I didn't want to interrupt you. No, wait. I mean that I did want to interrupt you, so I wouldn't have to look at you anymore. No, wait, I mean... it's not that I didn't accept that. I mean, I accepted that, more or less. It's just that I need time to get accustomed to that. No, wait, I mean... I'm not so sure that I'll ever get accustomed to that. I mean, well, I guess I'm gonna take another walk!" Chris babbles, making his very vacillating monologue end, before leaving.

His reaction does nothing but make Dominic and Matthew burst out laughing madly.

"Poor dear, I guess he'll need a lot of time." Dominic states and then he looks suggestively at Matt. "So, I guess we'd better avoid acting so savagely when he's around." he reckons immediately after.

"You're right, but it won't be easy to resist at all, especially if you keep looking so fucking tempting..." Matt snarls as he stares at him ravenously.

Giggling, Dominic locks the door and then he drags the brunette to himself, before pinning him against the wall.

"But now he's *not* around!" the blond sneers evilly and then both of them take advantages of the situation.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Congratulations, Matt, I'm so proud of you." Dominic states as they both arrange their stuff in the hotel room at Salt Lake City, their new tour date.

Since now Chris knows everything, they're more than free to share a room together, as long as they don't let the rest of the Hotel know about that.

"Maybe it's because now you finally seem to get accustomed to that, but this time you didn't make any fuss, you didn't argue with any hostess... good, Matty, very good!" the blond goes on, opening the cupboard where he's just finished arranging all his clothes inside.

"So, I guess it's time to give you these. You deserve it!" Dom announces as he gives him his acid green pants.

Matthew almost starts jumping as a child.

"Are you sure, Dommy?"

"Absolutely sure!"

"Can I already wear them tonight?"

"Absolutely yes!"

"Dammit, Dom, you're not starting again with the absolute-mania, are you?" Matt rolls his eyes.

"Nope. Just kidding!" Dom sticks out his tongue at him.

"Alright. I guess I'll spend half of the afternoon dealing with my whole wardrobe. I want to match those pants wisely." the brunette announces.

"Oh, god! I'm already trembling!" the drummer taunts him.

"Ah-ah. Very funny!" the other acts insulted and then he becomes serious.

"Dom, could you please give me Pinkie for awhile? I want to check if everything is ok." Matt asks him.

"What? Are you hinting that I don't treat him properly?" Dom asks him.

"Just give him to me!" Matt insists.

"Ok." Dom obliges, giving him his trolley.

Matt locks himself in the next door, but when after more than fifteen minutes Dom doesn't see him come back yet, he opens the door and finds Matthew sat on the armchair, with a stethoscope upon the trolley.

"Matt, what the bloody hell are you doing?" he wonders, astounded.

"I told you I wanted to check him out!"

"Yes, but... you're even *auscultating* him!" Dom makes him notice as he stares at him with extreme concern in his green-grey eyes.

"That's what I call a pwoper checkout!" the other justifies, taking off the stethoscope and giving his trolley back to Dom.

"Anyway, everything is ok, I'm glad for that!" he declares, satisfied.

"Please, Matt, tell me that at least you didn't make him say 'thirty-three'!" (*)

"Don't be silly, Dom." the other replies and the blond is glad due to the fact that his mate hasn't gone bonkers yet.

"Pinkie can count only to ten. I still have to teach him how to go on!" Matt points out very calmly, as Dom shakes his head in resignation.

---------------------------------------------------------

Once he's ready, Matthew gets off his dressing room.

"Oh, my dear, you look amazing tonight, and that shirt fits you like a T!" Dom exclaims, behind his back.

"Thank you, Dom, you are..." Matt replies, but when he turns to him he shuts up, realizing that Dom isn't even looking at him, since he's utterly engrossed esteeming himself in front of the mirror.

"Uh! Look, I was talking to myself!" Dom explains quietly and Matt can't help agreeing, since that white and black shirt with black breast pockets suits him very well.

"About you, gee, Matt, I love you and everything, but... you look awful!"

"What? But... I'm wearing your jeans!" Matt protests.

"Yeah, but you managed to match them with the worst shirt ever!" Dom strikes back, pointing at the shirt with red and yellow flowers and green leaves that the singer wears.

"I like it!" Matt digs his heels in.

"I'll like it more when I take it off from you, after the show!" Dom teases him.

"Uh! I'm gonna like that, too!" the other strikes back, with a quick kiss, before leaving the room with him.

-------------------------------------------------------------

At the E-Arena everything is going more than fine, the crowd welcomes their songs kinda enthusiastically, plus the first rows had even posters and placards for them.

When they're done with their last song, then Muse goes to the edge of the stage, in order to greet and thank the crowd.

Chris throws his plectrum without a goal, but Dominic is more than determined to make one of his drumsticks land in a definite spot.

Yeah, because during the show a girl in the first row, a very pretty girl, for the record, has thrown her hot pink bra to him and not only he has collected it but he has also worn it on his shirt for awhile.

That gesture has already made that girl deserve his drumstick, but she has also shown a placard to him, with the striking, glittered written 'Please, Dom, give me your drumsticks...'

As it's easy to figure out, the glitter has drawn also Matthew's attention, like a magnet , so he's almost about to throw also his plectrum to that girl, but finally he decides to give that very craved reward to another girl who is holding a giant sketch of a banana-cartoon that is playing a guitar.

As Dom observes the joyful expression of the girl who has promptly grabbed his drumstick, he glances at the placard one last time and manages to read also the final sentence that says '... although I'd love to have *so much more* from you!'

That message unsettles him a little bit and Matthew seems to notice that.

"Wassup? Is there something wrong?" he asks him and Dominic points with his look at both the incriminating girl and the placard.

"Don't worry, Dommy, I'm going to protect you!" the brunette declares proudly as they leave the stage.

"It's so nice from you, Matty, but how the hell are you supposed to protect me when it takes just a air blow to knock you out?" Dom makes fun of him.

"You're evil. You know that I even started going to the Gym!" Matt pouts at him, insulted.

"That's the point, you've just started. There's still a lot of work to do!" Dom puts salt on his wounds.

"Ok, I got it. I can't be your bodyguard, but, don't fear, someone very worthier is gonna replace me!" Matt announces, without even giving Dom the time to reply.

"Hey, Chris, be his bodyguard for tonight. You know, it's just like in that movie with Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston. Dom plays Rachel and you play Frank, but don't you dare get into character too much, otherwise I could never forgive you!" Matt warns his friend.

"What the bloody hell do you want me to do and why?" a puzzled Chris wonders.

"Don't mind at him, he just watches too much TV!" the blond rolls his eyes as he keeps walking.

"Anyway, guys, really, I don't need any special protection, just stay here and don't..." he adds, turning to them, but he can't look into their eyes, due to the simple fact that they have disappeared, each one for a different reason.

"... leave me alone. Right, just what I meant!" Dom sarcastically concludes his sentence, before realizing he's not alone.

"You?!" he snaps, as he observes a little bewildered the girl in front of him, the same girl whom he has thrown his drumstick to.

"Yeah, me. What can I say? I run very fast and American security guys are so much easier to fool than English ones!" the girl explains.

"English ones, you said? So, this is not your first concert, isn't this?" he figures out.

"Hell nope, baby, London chick here. I've followed you around almost half UK!" she informs him.

"Oh, my. You're crazy!" Dom comments, astonished.

"Yeah, I'm crazy for you!" she points out, very enthusiastically. "Anyway, in the UK I didn't even try to meet you, because she was always around." she snorts.

"Who?" the blond wonders in confusion.

"But your girlfriend, of course!" she clarifies.

<Oh, right, that's true. I tend to forget that I *still* have a girlfriend, at least until the tour is over.> he reminds to himself.

"But I know that she wouldn't follow you here. So, you're all alone and I'm gonna take advantage of that!" she warns him, almost threateningly.

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

Matthew is about to go back to the backstage, satisfied by his bravado.

As soon as he saw the technicians bring on the stage the My Chemical Romance 's instruments, taking advantage of their temporary absence and covered by the curtains, he managed to grab a couple of guitars and get them out of tune. After doing that he put them back and left, and now he can't wait to see the results, as he hopes that they will use them.

On his way back he takes a glance to Chris who is engrossed not only signing the diaries of two fans of him, but mostly skimming through the pages of those diaries and this is something that dazes the girls, but they keep admiring their idol in righteous silence.

The fact that Chris is entertaining himself with those girls means just and only one thing to Matthew.

<My poor Dommy is defenceless!> he gets alarmed, rushing towards the blond's dressing room, but on the corridor he finds out that his fears already turned into reality.

"For the bloody last time, I'm not a sodding eucalypt and you're not a sodding Koala, so quit it, bloody quit it!" Dom insists as he tries his best to get free, from the girl's grip as she seems intentioned not to let him go.

"Hey! Hands off my... D... " Matt snaps, behind their back, kinda pissed off, but he figures out he's about to reveal too much.

"Drummer. Hands off my drummer!" he corrects himself just in time.

Hearing him, the girl parts from Dom, unwillingly, as it takes Matt less than half second to recognize her.

"You?!" he exclaims.

"Well, that's very funny. Even Dom said the same thing when he saw me. Gee, am I that famous? I'll start thinking that it's not me who came here to see you, but it's the exact opposite!" she jokes as Matt keeps glaring at her cold-heartedly.

"It's just that we saw you before, let's say that your placard drew a lot of attention!" Dominic explains to her.

"Yep. You know, I would let him go with you..." Matt says, but he's thinking something very different.

< The fucking hell I would! >

"... but, you know, we have a plane to take tomorrow, so, you know, I don't want him to get worn out!" the frontman finds a brilliant excuse.

"Oh, what a pity! And to think that I know so many ways to wear you out, both of you!" the girl winks at them, astonishing Matthew.

As the two guys don't exclude a priori the idea of that potential, intriguing threesome, the girl goes closer to Matthew and spanks his butt.

"Hey!" both of the guys exclaim in unison, but there's no need to say that Matt is the most stunned one.

"See? This is just a sneak pre-view..." she maliciously warns them.

"Now I gotta go. Bye, guys. Anyway, if you change your mind, inside my bra there's my phone number. Dom, I know you kept it. I saw you." the girl adds, before leaving under their dumbfounded looks.

"So, you kept it, didn't you?" Matt asks his partner after a minute of silence, as he stares at him annoyed.

"Yep, I did, but, you know... it's a fan souvenir... and it's hot pink!" the blond justifies.

"Anyway, in our kinky list we still have to try to do that with the shackles, with some bondage, shooting us with a camera, than we must do it with..."

"Please, don't say it!" Matt cuts him off, but it's too late.

"With the * knife*!" Dom goes on, lingering on the last word on purpose as the other shakes his head in resignation.

"And after all this naughty stuff we can have even a threesome!" the blond ends.

"And it would be a threesome with a perfect stranger, for the record!" Matt makes him notice,

"Well, she's not a total stranger, she introduced herself before, her name is Serene." Dom informs him.

"Oh, so she introduced herself. This changes everything. Let's have a baby with her, then!" Matt strikes back.

"Uhm, now you're being sarcastic. I like that..." Dom purrs as he gets closer to him, slowly, with a languid look.

"Yeah, but mostly I'm bloody jealous!" Matt warns him as he caresses his face with the back of his hand.

"I love it even more, when you're bloody jealous!" Dominic smiles as he's about to kiss him.

Too bad that the idyllic moment is interrupted by a very terrible out of tune note coming from the stage.

"What the fuck was that shit?" the drummer wonders horrified, refusing to acknowledge that it comes just from the band he admires so much.

"Gee, they are getting worse and worse, day by day. This is unacceptable, they play *after* us and they don't even know how to play a guitar. Tsk- tsk!" Matthew comments indignant, but Dominic notices his way too pleased expression.

"Matthew James Bellamy! You don't have a hand in this... do you?" the blond questions him with a tone and a look that don't allow any lie.

So, his boyfriend can't do anything but telling him the truth.

"Well, actually..."

TBC

What can I say? Matt's trickery will backfire, you'll see! ;P

I seriously believe that Matt can make his guitars 'talk' ;)

About the part with Pinkie (*) I made a research about it and I found out that it's not a common thing in the UK, however, in countries like Italy, France, Spain and Portugal when doctors auscultate their patients, they ask them to say 'thirty-three' ;)

Chapter XVI: So, It Was Just That!

It's hard to believe, but in the end Muse manages to take that airplane for real and land in Denver without any other trouble.

The trio doesn't waste any time and they head immediately to their hotel.

That journey has tired them very much, but luckily for them there's no gigs on that day, they just have to pay a little visit to the place where they're gonna play the day after to set the last things about their show.

And this is something they can face perfectly, after a bunch of precious, very precious hours of sleep.

In order to don't make Chris suspicious again, but mostly to not 'distract' each other and rest for real, Dominic and Matthew stay in their respective rooms.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

"For the last time, Bells, NO!" Chris insists.

"But why?" Matthew protests, with an attitude that is very similar to a spoiled kid's one.

"Because we can't do anything too big in this tour." the bassist patiently reminds to him.

"But the My Terrible..." Matthew protests again, but he stops when he realizes that Dominic is glaring at him.

"The My Chemical Romance..." he corrects himself, very laboriously. "They can!" he concludes, with the same spoiled attitude.

"Of course they can. They are the headliner, so they can have all the big overtures they please!"

"So, does it mean that they can start their show with a ridiculous, gothic and gloomy float and I can't?"

"Nope, Matt. Why? Do you want to start the show with a ridiculous, gothic and gloomy float, too?" Chris asks him teasingly.

"That's not the bloody point! It's just that it's not fair!" the brunette grumbles.

"Anyway, the thing you can keep calling a ridiculous, gothic and glooming float actually has a proper meaning, since it's their personal representation of Death, which they see as a Black Parade, indeed. To be honest, the whole story is much more complicated, it involves a kind of evil spirit or something like that." Dominic informs them, but he immediately notices how dumbfounded they're staring at him.

"What?" he asks them.

"Dom, how can it be that you always know so damn much about that band?" Matthew questions him, as he stares at him suspiciously.

"Well... I mean, it's stuff that you end up knowing, whatever you care or not! C'mon, guys, have you searched around the web lately?" Dom justifies, shrugging as if nothing significant happened.

Truth is that Dominic happens to like the My Chemical Romance for real, so much that he searched around the web in order to know more about them.

Yeah, of course, since he's touring with them and he sees them almost every day, he could talk directly with them ... but how is he ever supposed to do such a thing when he perfectly knows that his boyfriend can't stand them at all?

That's why he also hopes that Matt will never ever take a hold of his I-pod and see his playlist, because among the tons of songs he would even find the whole band's discography, with b-sides, rare demo and live performances, too.

It seems that his fears remain unfounded, because Matthew believes his word, as he warmly smiles at him.

"So, Chris, did you hear him? They chose something related to a song of theirs to start the show. I want to do the same! Let's choose 'Starlight', so we can go on stage with a ship!" Matthew suggests overexcited as he already can picture the whole thing in his head.

"First, how the bloody flaming hell are we supposed to go on stage... with a ship? By the way, stop talking about your fucking stupid ships, I'm sick of that!" Chris snaps, so bitterly that Matt gets scared and he's almost tempted to hide behind the sofa they're sitting on.

"Second, the float is related not only to one of their songs, but basically to their whole last album. So, if you really wanted to do the same, we would have to choose something related to Black Holes and the Revelations..." Chris explains to him, calmer.

"It would be ok for the Black Holes; we could use some astronomy documentaries and stuff like that. But how the hell are we supposed to symbolize the Revelations?" he adds.

Matt and Dom exchange a look that make them both realize that they are daydreaming about the same thing, i.e. them kissing without any shames in the middle of a gig, in front of thousands of stunned eyes.

That would be the damn queen of Revelations!

"Yeah, Chris, you're right. It's just impossible. So, never mind!" Matthew pretends to acknowledge, as Dominic has to try his best not to burst out laughing.

"Coming back to the positions, are we gonna use the same ones tomorrow? Chris on the right, you on the left and me behind in the middle, on top?" Dom wonders and Matt nods.

"By the way, why is Dom always on top?" Chris wonders.

<Because he deserves to be put on a pedestal where I can relentlessly adore him!> is the answer that Matt is almost about to give him, but then he recovers enough to make it remain just and only a thought.

"Just because. This way he is more impressing! So, if I can't have a showy overture in this tour, at least I can always have a showy drummer!" he answers as he winks at the showy drummer in question.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The morning after Matthew is awaken up by a persistent knocking, but it's a very particular knocking, because as one hand has a specific rhythm, the other one does something different.

That little detail is enough to make him figure out who it is, so he rushes towards the door.

"Let's get over with that, Matthew! I can't take this anymore!" Dominic exclaims as he gets in and closes the door behind his back.

Hearing those words, Matthew falls into a kind of catatonia.

"Wha... why? I... I thought we were fine together. More than fine, it felt so good. So why now, out of the blue, you wa... you want to... brea..." the brunette stutters, as motionless as a statue

"What? Oh, God, no, Mattie, hell no. I don't wanna break up with you and surely I never will!" Dominic reassures him as he hugs him tight.

"Well, choose another sentence to say, then, because 'let's get over with that' is the worst one ever!" Matthew strikes back, as he recovers and regains the capability to move, which he uses in order to hug the blond back.

"I meant, let's get over with the hiding..." Dom starts clarifying.

"Dammit! Are you going to tell the truth to the girls? Already? But I'm not ready, yet... and neither should you!" Matt gets agitated as he starts talking abnormally fast and he is about to fall into another shocked state.

"Gee, Matt, it seems that I can't tell you anything today! If only you let me finish my sentences sometimes!" the blond rolls his eyes.

"I just know that today every sentence of yours is almost killing me!" Matt strikes back, still a little bit traumatized.

"No way we're gonna tell the girls, it's still too soon and I'd like to extend my life as long as possible." Dominic comments, visibly concerned. "But we're gonna tell Chris, I guess it's time!" he concludes.

"So, it was just that!" Matthew sighs with relief.

"You're right. I also guess it's time. Poor dear, he deserves to be the first one to know!" the brunette agrees.

"Plus, after telling him, we will be free to share a room together!" he adds.

"Yep, this is one of the main reasons why. I missed you so bad last night." Dom murmurs, as he stares at him languidly.

"I missed you, too. Anyway, now we have some free time all alone, there's a bed... do I need to say more?" Matthew invites him as he lies down on the mattress.

And Dom doesn't need any other urging.

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

Although it's only ten 'o clock in the morning, Chris is already up, in order to dedicate himself to a hobby that makes him relax pretty much: the crocket-hook.

For the record, he's working on a project as particular as ambitious, because generally when people start learning something they start from the easiest stuff, but not Chris. He never takes the easy way, simple things just bore the hell out of him.

That's why he decided to start directly creating a new shoulder strap for his bass. He's more and more ambitious, because he chose not to use just one colour, instead he's mixing baby blue, ocean blue and dark green all together very skilfully, creating amazing shades.

He has followed all the instructions of the manual for about one hour and he had no problems, but now he has reached a very crucial point: the buttonholes to insert at the extremity.

Chris takes a break, puts his work in progress on the bed very carefully, takes his mobile and searches through the phonebook, but then he throws it on the armchair, unsatisfied.

<I guess there's no one who can help me. I love Kelly and everything, but she can barely hold a needle between her fingers. If only I had behaved better with that Gabrielle, now I could have asked for her help! Instead, I'm stuck at this bloody point, too afraid to go on and risk to spoil something...> Chris ponders as he observes his work.

"Hey, Chris, are you already up? I bet you are. C'mon, open the door, it's Matt and me, we must talk with you, it's important!" Dominic announces from the corridor, as Matthew just confines himself to knock at the door.

As soon as he heard them, Chris jumps off the bed, panic-stricken.

<Oh, God, it's them! If they see this they'll go on making fun of me until the rest of their lives. They can't see this, no one can!> he decides, taking his work and hiding it under the bed.

"Wait, guys, I'm coming..." Chris warns them, since at least he is not that naïve and he locked his door for real.

He's about to open the door, but then he glances under the bed, concerned.

<Oh, no, bad idea, this way it will get dirty!> he figures out, taking it again.

He puts it out on the window sill, but then he changes his mind again.

<No way, it's even worse. What if the wind makes it fall on the street?> he gets worried, taking it off there before it's too late.

He looks at his mini-bar, but he rejects that idea immediately.

<No way, it will get wet. Plus, if they asked for a drink they would see it.>

"Chriiiiiiiiis!" Dom calls him out, a little bit bothered.

"I'm coming, I'm coming. It's just that... I've just got off the shower, so I'm utterly naked. And you don't want to see me naked, do you?" Chris finds the perfect excuse.

"Eewww, no, never! Just wear something and open up!" Dominic answers and then he looks at Matt. "It's another one the guy whom I don't mind at all to see utterly naked, quite the contrary!" he adds in a whisper, making him smile.

In the meantime Chris has managed to put his masterpiece in his suitcase, as best he can, hoping that it won't crease too much.

Plus, not to make them suspicious, he has also soaked his head, to give the impression of the shower.

"Sorry I made you wait. Come in!" he invites them opening the door.

"So, what's the big deal?" he wonders as they all sit on the bed, Chris on one side, Matt and Dom on the other.

"We don't know where to start." Matthew wavers.

"Just choose a start, anything!" Chris exhorts them, already curious.

"Maybe, after hearing us, you will want to leave the band again!" Matt warns him, though Chris has no idea of what that 'again' means.

"Just bloody talk!" he urges them harder.

"Ok. Matt and I are together!" Dom declares, simply.

"I see that you are together!" Chris rolls his eyes.

"No, I don't mean just now. I mean that we are together... always." Dominic clarifies.

"Surprise, surprise! You are *always* together!" Chris strikes back, more annoyed than before.

"Ok, let me try another way. " Matt exclaims, turning to Dom and then he turns to Chris.

"You know, sometimes best friends are made to be just and only best friends, but sometimes things go in a different way, fate plays some tricks and said best friends end up being something else." Matt explains.

"Oh, no! Are you telling me that you had a fight and now you want the band to split?" Chris gets alarmed and this time it's Matthew who looks at him bothered, just like Dom does.

"You're right, Dom. It's harder than I thought." Matthew states.

"I told you so. I guess it's time to resort to Plan B..." Dom suggests as he holds his hand in his.

"What the hell are you blathering about? What's Plan B? What was supposed to be Plan A, by the way? But mostly... why are you holding hands?" Chris wonders, confused and puzzled.

"Because we happen to like holding hands." Dominic answers, without taking his eyes off Matthew.

"And why do you like holding hands?" Chris asks them, more and more baffled.

"Now you'll see why..." Matt announces as he bends over Dom and it's just a matter of a few seconds before they get involved in a passionate kiss, although they try their best not to exaggerate with the fervour.

Chris stares at them traumatized and dumbfounded.

"Bu... but ... but we're not playing mistletoe... and I'm not holding a card of poker over your heads." Chris stutters incoherently, mixing ideas... and that proves how disturbed he is.

"See, Chris? That's what Dom and I were trying to tell you. We. Are. Together. Is it clear, now?" Matt asks him, parting from Dom.

"Terrifyingly clear." their friend grumbles.

"But... but... but your girlfriends..." Chris gets agitated.

"They still don't know that. No one knows. You're the first one, but you must keep the secret." Matt informs him.

"But... but... but... when did it happen? How did it happen? *Why* did it happen?" Chris keeps wondering.

"Everything started that day at Matt's house." Dom confesses.

"So, is it my fault?" Chris gets alarmed.

"Oh, c'mon, Chris. It's not a matter of fault. Let's just say that you helped us discover faster something that we would end up discovering anyway, sooner or later." Dominic explains.

"About our girlfriends, you think we were happy, we also thought we were happy, but truth is that there was something missing. We weren't totally satisfied with them. So we can say that Dom and I were in the same boat!"

"Damn you, Bells! If you talk about your fucking beloved boats and ships again, I swear I'll put you into one just in order to make it end up like the Titanic!" Chris threatens him.

"Uhmm. Like the Titanic you said, didn't you? Well, I wouldn't mind, especially if I can make the remake of that famous scene on the prow. So, Dom, would you be my Jack who holds his Rose tight?" Matt wonders as he makes moony eyes to the blond.

"As long as you play Rose!" Dom chuckles.

"After all, you already play Juliet!" Matt makes fun of him.

"I've already told you I don't!" the drummer protests vigorously.

"Believe me, you do!" Matt smirks.

"Please, just warn me when you stop acting like sissies!" Chris comments, as he turns his back to them.

<Hello? Words coming from someone who no longer than ten minutes ago was *knitting*, getting despaired due to a *buttonhole*! So, who is the sissy? Yeah, but they don't know that. Yeah, but that doesn't mean that you didn't do that. Hey, conscience, aren't you supposed to be on my side? Oh, God, I can't believe that I'm actually arguing with... myself!> the guy gets really concerned and then he turns to his friends again.

"So, coming back to the Titanic scene, I can trust you, because you would never ever let me fall, wouldn't you?" Matthew wonders as Dominic hugs him from behind, making him open his arms wide as Chris repents of giving Matt that idea.

"And I woooooon't leave you faaaaaaalllllling / If the moment eeeeeever coooomes." Dom sings his answer to him.

"Gee, Dom, it was such a good time, don't spoil everything singing!" Matt snaps as he breaks free from the blond's embrace.

"You two still have to explain to me why you became gay, out of the blue!" Chris makes them notice.

"Hey! I'm not gay! A gay likes men. I don't like men. I like only one: him!" Matt points out as he holds Dom tight.

"And it's the same for me. I mean, not the fact that I like myself, but Matt. Well, of course, I like myself, too!" Dominic points out.

"Yeah, we know that you like yourself!" Chris and Matt exclaim in unison as they both roll their eyes.

"Anyway, it's not that we accepted that immediately. We tried to figure our feelings out, we tried to fight them, smother them, and we tried to persuade ourselves that it was wrong, but it was useless!" Matt explains.

"Believe me, I've thought thousands of times 'Why can't he become a woman? Why can't he become a woman?' but he can't. And to be honest, I don't mind it at all!" Dominic confesses.

"And I wished the same about him. Lucky for us it didn't work, because if both of our wishes had come true it would have been even worse, since we would have ended up being two women in love!" Matthew adds.

"Well, it would have been great. To have two lesbian friends sounds so exciting!" Chris giggles.

"You, pervert!" Dom pretends to insult him as he throws a pillow against him.

"About you, Matt, it wouldn't have been such a big problem, because it wouldn't have changed anything abut the way you sing!" Chris makes fun of him, throwing the pillow against him.

"Hey!" Matt acts insulted, throwing the pillow back to him.

Chris wants to do the same, but misses his goal and hits Dom... and then one hell of pillow fight starts.

After about a quarter an hour, the trio is laughing madly as tons of feathers surround them.

"So, Chris, now that you know the truth... do you accept it?" Matt asks him, becoming serious.

"What kind of question is it? Of course I do. After all, it's still you two, nothing changed. Just promise me that I'll never hear you calling each other 'honey', 'sweetheart', 'luv' and stuff like that... because it would make me sick." Chris warns them, horrified.

"Don't worry. I don't think we'll ever do that." Matt assures him.

"So far, we didn't get any further than 'Mattie' and 'Dommie'." Dominic informs him.

"Eewww! It's enough to make me sick!" Chris comments, making a disgusted face and then he falls into a deep and concentrate silence.

"So, it was just that!" he exclaims after a while.

"What?" the other two wonder in unison.

"That's why you acted so weird, when you kept isolating me, when you act almost rudely with me. And to think I was sure you wanted me to leave the band!" Chris reveals to them, laughing about that.

"What? Excuse me, it's *you* who wanted to leave the band, in order to start a new career as a soloist." Dom corrects him as Matthew gets up from the bed and, without being seen, he starts backing off.

"What? I kept saying that we had to remain united, but you kept irritating me, so I had to play your own game." Chris explains as Matt tries to establish if the window sill on a seventh floor is a too dangerous way of escape and finally he decides it is.

"What?! Noooo, Matt and I were just trying to make you change your mind, resorting to... to the..." Dom goes on, before analyzing the whole situation.

"MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW!" he roars furious, but the frontman seems nowhere to be found.

Anyway, Dom takes a look around better and then he rushes triumphantly towards the cupboard where he can see a little strip of white fabric with two printed grey skulls on it popping out from the shutters.

"Betrayed by your own clothes!" the blond states as he open the cupboard without any hesitation, finding the rest of the T-shirt and his scared owner, too, who is staring at him with a 'Please-don't-kill-me!' look.

"Reverse Psychology, eh? You had a radar for it, didn't you?" the drummer reminds to him, as he abruptly drags him off the cupboard, grabbing him by the shoulders.

"You know, it's not so easy to study Psychology on Gaia's Italian books!" the brunette justifies.

"But no-fucking-body asked you to do that!" the blond scolds him.

"Excuse me, does anyone want to bother to explain to me what the bloody hell is going on?" Chris interrupts them, exasperated.

So, in turn, they patiently explain to him the majestic chain of misunderstandings among them.

"At least, you're not two never grown up kids who have fun annoying the hell out of me! Kelly was wrong... and the worst part is that I can't even tell her!" Chris comments at the end.

"I'm so glad that everything is clear now. Anyway, Chris, I promise I'll make you forgive me." Matthew announces.

"Just how?" Chris wonders.

"I already have an idea." he smirks mysteriously.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

At the Magness Arena everything is going fine and Muse is already at half concert.

At the end of 'Super Massive Black Hole', Matthew goes near to the microphone, in order to make a speech.

"I know that more than half crowd here are wondering who the hell we are and when we'll be done with our show. I know that usually an opening act band should just play without wasting time, but I just don't care at all. I have a dedication to make, so you just have to listen me, whatever you like it or not." he starts, under the astonished gaze of the other two band mates.

"Communication is important and should never be underestimated. I made this mistake and ended up almost hurting a dear friend of mine, a very special one..." he goes on, turning to Chris.

"C'mon, give it up for my friend!" Matt rouses the crowd and two seconds after the whole arena is filled up with claps and inciting yells.

"Lucky for us, we made things right now. Anyway, Chris, tonight this song is for you, to make you understand that, if Dom, you and I already rule on our own... together we're invincible!" Matt concludes as he makes his hand flow on the pad of his special guitar, creating a wonderful intro that is made both of sounds and lights.

The part of the crowd that knows them well enough to figure out what that final sentence and that intro bring rejoices excited.

And as they perform 'Invincible', Matt and Dom stare the more than touched Chris, with eyes plenty of affection and friendship.

About the way they look at each other, well, it's something extremely further than friendship!

TBC

Well, well, another loooong chapter.

Uhmm.. I guess you noticed that I just LOVE 'Invincible', didn't you?