Work Text:
“When it is much too much
We’ll run to the Wastelands”
~ Wastelands, Suede
Catherine Summers paced up and down her garden, script in her hand. She muttered her lines, a hand occasionally running through her hair in stress. She had her first audition in a few years and she was panicking about it. Big time. She really had no idea what she was doing anymore. She was in a daze, a daze that she was pulled from by her neighbour, Brett.
Brett had been her neighbour ever since she’d moved in, just as Suede had started touring again in 2013. When Brett was there, he was one of the loveliest neighbours you could hope to have. He’d always give her a pint of milk if she needed it, or let her use his shower if hers was broken, and she’d of course do the same in return. There’d always been gentle and friendly flirtation, the odd drunken kiss on a winter evening, but neither had made a move.
Catherine could hear Brett humming in his garden next door. She stopped in her tracks and listened, unable to process the stress of her audition and the noise from her friend next door. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. She burst out crying as Brett started humming a sad song, and ran inside. Before she knew it, Brett was at her front door. She fell into his arms as he crossed the threshold and closed the door behind him. He held her for a few minutes, until she stopped crying, sat on the bottom step of the stairs. Brett hummed a familiar tune and swayed her gently, steadily getting slightly more violent to make her laugh. When he succeeded, he pulled back and wiped her eyes.
“Fancy a walk?” He asked, smiling softly at her. She nodded, and took the hand he offered. She sniffed, pulling on some shoes and grabbing her phone, and she locked the door behind them. Catherine never let go of Brett’s hand. There’d been rumours of them dating for years, so they didn’t fear photographers getting snaps if they happened to be around.
Whenever Catherine was particularly anxious and Brett was around, he’d take her for a walk. Sometimes they’d walk around Hampstead Heath, Catherine’s favourite spot and their nearest park. Sometimes they’d take the tube out to Holland Park and walk there. Sometimes, including this one, they’d walk around the streets and find somewhere not particularly nice looking and walk around, reading shop signs and listening to conversations and picking up personality traits for songs and parts. Brett knew Catherine needed to forget about what she was anxious about. They’d go to Holland Park or Hampstead Heath another day, when she needed to talk her problems through, but this time she needed to forget it completely. He was going away on tour soon and he wanted to make sure she was alright whilst he was gone.
Brett had been in love with Catherine since she’d first moved in. He’d been devastated when his lovely new neighbour moved in just before he was going and touring Bloodsports. She’d come around and introduced herself and said she’d always be there if he needed anything. He assured her that when he wasn’t on tour, he’d be there, and that when he was on tour, he’d give her a spare key so she could water his plants or whatever. He’d been completely smitten, and had spent the whole tour thinking about her and being excited to go home to potentially see her.
They walked hand in hand down an unassuming street, watching car after car whizz by, people walking past, staring slightly at the odd looking couple, the tall thin man in jeans slightly too tight considering his age, and a nervous looking woman who gripped his hand tightly.
Catherine would let Brett take her anywhere. Where he led, she would follow. She’d follow Brett off a cliff if he asked her to. She had been completely smitten since she knocked on his door on that first day in the neighbourhood.
He dragged her around the streets, until they found a small patch of wasteland, littered with fridges and mattresses and whatever other rubbish had been left there by fly tippers. They stood and stared at it, taking it in. Brett got ideas, and Catherine got emotions.
After a couple of minutes Brett turned to her and gestured towards a nicer street, home to their favourite cafe. They sat at their usual table in the corner and ordered the same tea and cake they always did. This is where they’d always come after one of their walks. Brett stared at Catherine in wonder. She seemed better than she had earlier, and she seemed determined.
“What?” She asked, as she noticed him staring. Brett stared for another few moments.
“I love you” he said, surprising both her and himself. Catherine stared at him.
“You l-love me?” she stuttered.
“I love you Catherine. I am completely, amazingly, devastatingly in love with you” Brett said, taking hold of one of her hands over the table.
“Since when?” Catherine asked. She couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing.
“Since we met” Brett replied. He looked at her for a moment, worried about what she’d say. He’d never planned to tell her how he felt, especially since he was convinced it was unrequited (despite the one or two drunken kisses that neither of them quite remembered but knew happened).
Catherine didn’t say a word, she simply leant over the table and pressed her lips to his passionately. Brett reciprocated before pulling away quickly.
“Do you mean that? Or are you doing it out of pity?” He asked as their tea and cake was placed down on the table in front of them.
“I mean it, Brett. I love you too...always have” Catherine replied, pouring their tea and handing Brett his slice of cake. He took the tea and cake and placed them to one side, taking Catherine’s hands again.
“Really?”
“Really. You should see me when you’re on tour”
“Then come with us this time” Brett said quickly.
“I can’t, I have to work. You know that” Catherine replied sadly. She wanted to, of course, but her anxiety had already gotten the better of her.
“Do you? Surely between us we have enough money to keep us going and we’ll keep making records and touring as long as we can” Brett argued. He was completely right, of course, but it didn’t quite put Catherine’s mind at ease.
“This is all very romantic Brett, and I’d love to say yes-” She replied.
“Then say yes, darling” Brett interrupted.
“But what if we split up, what will I do then?” She asked, wanting to make sure Brett had thought this through.
“We won’t”
“You don’t know that”
“I do. I promise, on my honour, never to break your heart. If you want to end it one day then so be it, but I will always, always love you” Brett said, leaning over to kiss her again.
“I’ll come...at least then I can stop being stressed about auditions” Catherine finally agreed. As she did, she’d never seen Brett smile as widely.
“Exactly - it’ll be good for your health and happiness, and it’ll certainly be good for my happiness” Brett said, sipping his tea, still smiling uncontrollably.
“I love you, Brett”
“I love you too, Catherine”
Catherine accompanied Suede for the entire ‘The Blue Hour’ tour, and before the end of it, Brett and Catherine found their slow-burn then suddenly whirlwind romance becoming more serious when Brett dragged her on stage at the final show to surprise her.
Reader, she married him.