Chapter Text
Manchester Piccadilly train station is one of the most hectic places on the planet and nothing could persuade you otherwise. The amount of times you had been shoved to the side or pushed in front of whilst waiting was a joke to you, but you never said anything. That’s how your life went living in Manchester, you just had to accept your fate and play with the cards you’d been dealt. Arguing back with strangers wasn’t one of those things, so you never did it. However, today was slightly different.
You were rushing to Platform 6 trying and catch your train to London Euston. Your train left at 10:15am and it was currently 10:11am. You’d just ran through the glass doors into the station and the smell of Burger King filled your senses as you made your way through the crowd of people. Your stomach started begging you for food, but you really didn’t have the time.
Today, you were one of those twats that ran into people in the station and murmured a halfhearted ‘Sorry’ on the way past. But you felt like you had a valid excuse. If you didn’t catch this train you wouldn’t be on time to meet your employer in London, not to mention probably having to pay for the ticket again. You didn’t have a lot of money being a newly qualified photographer and you certainly couldn’t afford another £60 to get yourself down to London.
Your morning had been shit. You woke up late for a start after your flatmate kept you up to the early hours of the morning. You had put on your ripped, black skinny jeans and routed in your wardrobe for a top to wear. At the back you saw your old original The 1975 top and threw it on. You quickly brushed your hair and put on some black eyeliner after shoving the rest of your shit in your bag. You silently praised yourself for packing the majority of your stuff in your rucksack the previous day.
Once ready, you grabbed your camera bag quickly and ran out of your flat and headed for the bus stop. Luckily you just lived a short bus journey from the train station, and you were now starting to get excited to be going to London. The excitement turned into annoyance when your bus turned up 10 minutes late and you probably could have walked to the station faster than the bus had taken you.
After feeling inspired by finding your old top you decided to drown out the annoying teens on the bus by playing your old 1975 playlist. You turned your earphones up to a deafening level, which was only possible because you had tampered with them to make them louder than was probably safe for your ears. To make the morning worse, the bus driver wouldn’t let you off the bus fast enough for your liking and you hated running, but you had been forced to do so to catch the train on time.
Whilst running your rucksack was slamming down into your lower back and your arms were wrapped around your camera bag to protect it the best you could. You accidentally ran into a few people as you rushed to the platform and you were almost certain they didn’t hear your apology in your rush.
You quickly got to the barriers and forced the ticket into the machine and grabbed it from the top as soon as the gates opened. As you ran to the closest train door and pressed the open button about 10 times before it eventually opened, and you saw out of the corner of your eye that the time that had just changed to 10:14.
You let out a sigh of relief when you stepped onto the train and stayed still until the train set off getting oxygen back into your lungs. Once you eventually got your breath back, you started making your way down the train to find your seat. You were currently in carriage A and your seat had been booked for carriage E seat 25.
You’d purposefully booked that seat because it was a table one, which had a plug socket. You knew full well that you wouldn’t get through a full 2-hour train journey without needing to charge your phone. So at least you’d planned ahead for that.
You walked slowly down the carriages trying not to fall over with the train guttering side to side every second. As you walked down the train, people sat on either side of the aisle looked up at you and you averted your gaze as fast as possible.
You weren’t the most sociable of people even on your best days. Especially ones like today when you were certain you probably looked like a tramp now.
The walk to the other end of the train was a long one, or it felt like it anyway. You had your camera bag hanging around your neck in front of you, still trying to protect it as best you could, even after more damage probably came to it when you ran to catch the train.
Your lower back was hurting from your rucksack slamming down on it too but you tried to put it out of your mind. When you made it to carriage E you were thankful to see that there wasn’t loads of people in this particular section of the train. You passed an old couple near the door and gave them a smile on the way past making your way to the two central tables that were opposite each other.
In the far end of the red and blue seats you could see a few lads near the opposing door chatting loudly, so you turned up your music again and kept yourself to yourself. On the opposing table to yours, you could see a head of black hair that had been gelled back out of the man’s face and in the reflection from the windows you could see that he was wearing dark sunglasses.
You rolled your eyes and made your way to your seat. Were sunglasses really needed on a train when it was grey and dreary outside?
You stopped in between the tables and faced the one where your seat was located, which thankfully was the one without anyone sat on it. You shrugged your rucksack off and proceeded to shove it up onto the storage shelf above the seats.
You just kept your camera bag on the table where you were going to be sitting, not really wanting it to be out of your sight or get lost. After that, you finally took your seat and then quickly took your phone out of the pocket of your leather jacket.
You quickly skipped a quieter song that came on because you just wanted to drown out life for a little bit. You ruffle up your hair slightly making it cover the side of your face so no one could see you.
You’d only take your seat a few moments go but your eyes were already beginning to close as you escape into the music. With your tired eyes you decided it was in your best interest to move your camera bag closer to you and wrap the strap around your wrist.
Not that it would stop someone from taking it from you if they really wanted to. But it made you feel better at least.
For the next 15 minutes, you watched the scenery go past and murmured along to one of your favourite songs getting lost in the music. Most of the time you ended up closing your eyes and very quietly humming along. After another 5 minutes, your phone stopped playing the music though which pissed you off even further. Of course, your phone had died.
You let out a long sigh and took your earphones out and shook your leather jacket off. You now realised that the rowdy boys had gotten off at the first stop, which you were thankful for.
At least you didn’t need to deafen yourself to drown out surrounding noise now.
After a minute of boredom went by, you decided to get yourself up from your seat and grab your phone charger from your bag. You were thankful that you’d put it in an accessible part of your rucksack so it was easy to retrieve.
Once the charging lead was in your hand, you sat yourself back down in your seat by the window and plugged your phone in. Unfortunately because it had died completely you’d have to wait a few minutes for it to turn itself back on meaning you had to suffer without your music for a little longer.
You decided to take in your surroundings. Outside was just depressing so you couldn’t look out there for much longer without being bored, so your eyes ventured to the only other passenger in your section of the train.
You looked over to the guy sat diagonally from you for a brief second, the one with the hair styled back and the sunglasses still on. He seemed like a good-looking guy, cool even. But something about him screamed familiar.
To avoid being creepy, you looked away and back out of the window and went deep into thought about who he reminded you of. You decided on taking a few discrete glances at him, you noticed that he had a good jawline and was somewhat skinny.
You noted that he was swearing a black, long-sleeved top and you assumed black jeans, although you couldn’t see to be sure. And you weren’t going to be looking under the tables to find out.
After one more glance, it seemed to click in your head. He looked like Matty Healy, even more so with his hair scraped back like it was with the band poster where they were all in suits.
You noticed from your peripheral vision that he looked your way when you turned back towards the window. You forced yourself to look at the boring scenery outside and you started to mind your own business.
If it really was him, first, you’d be mortified that he’d seen you in your old merch. That was that sad, it actually made you want to cringe. Second, you didn’t want him to think you were a stalker or some sort of crazy fan, because you weren’t.
Sure, you knew their music and you knew who the members of the band were, but you’d never actively searched to find out where they lived or what hotel they were staying at, like you knew some fans did.
Either way you just tried to push the thought away from your mind. You didn’t want to believe it was because that would be the icing on the cake to your perfect morning.
When you look up again, he’s still looking at you and you half smile at him, just trying to be polite to the stranger, but his face remains still. A moment later, your phone came back on and you actively scrolled through your music library for something else to listen to.
You certainly weren’t be going to be listening to any of The 1975′s stuff if the lead singer was sat that close to you. You could see in your peripheral vision that he was still looking at you, this time his chin was now resting on his fist, as if he were bored in a school classroom.
You were just about to click onto your Indie playlist when almost jumped out of your skin. This being because the onlooker with the gelled hair spoke up.
“That band is shit, you know?” He says causing you to look up at the brunette with slightly wide eyes.
Your furrowed your eyebrows. “Band?” You questioned quietly, not fully comprehending what he meant because of the amount of bands you’d just scrolled though.
You saw the man nod down towards your black top that showed the neon box and you finally understood.
“Yeah I know” You said, holding back the smile on your face.
That man was definitely Matty Healy and by that sentence alone, you fucking knew it.
“Lead singers a bit of a twat, isn’t he?” You ask, not breaking eye contact with him.
Or what you assumed not to be doing because he still had his dark glasses on. You did, however, let a smile grace your lips as you wanted to be sure he knew you were joking.
A moment later, you saw a smirk appear on his face and you let yours get a little bigger. He then put his lips together and turned away as if he was trying to contain his smile.
You went back to your phone and you hit shuffle on your playlist. You slid an earphone in again and started listening to a completely different band.
After about 5 minutes, you were half humming along again, and you saw that Matty had turned back to you and was tapping on his table as if to get your attention.
When he finally caught it, he asks you, “Are you really listening to someone else’s music?…When I’m sat right here and I’m in the greatest band in the world”
For a second your shocked he’s even talking to you, but you don’t hesitate to reply. “I’ve listened to your music for a good section of my life, I think I can switch it up a bit once in a while.” You say smiling back at him.
He let his jaw drop slightly so you could see the inside of his mouth and he then rolled his tongue out. Yep. If he hadn’t already said he was in the band this would have been all the confirmation that you needed to know it was indeed Matty Healy.
You were used to seeing him stick his tongue out at gigs though. It was quiet surreal seeing him stick his tongue out solely at you whilst on a train.
That didn’t stop you from shaking your head at his whimsical gesture and playfully scorning him for it.
“Put that tongue away, I’ve seen enough of it to last a life time” You laugh as you move your hair out of your face.
“And what would you mean by that?” He asks in a dull tone as if waiting to be impressed. You mentally slapped yourself for even commenting on it but you had to carry on speaking to him now.
“Well, you have it out most of the time when you’re not singing at your concerts and when your dancing around. It was all I saw all at the Manchester show” You told him honestly.
“It makes for some quality pictures of you though… Can’t lie about that” You say remembering the funny one that you had taken.
You had been standing close to the front, so you had got some really good pictures of him and you hadn’t even needed to zoom in with your phone. Perks of getting to a concert early, you could get closer and you didn’t need the expressive gadget to capture good pictures.
You watched as Matty took his glasses off and then scratches his cheek as if in debate about something. You don’t mind him being quiet, you don’t even expect him to talk to you.
You would happily sit here listening to music and leave him alone. You knew he was a nice guy from watching a couple of his interviews and from how he thanks everyone at his concerts.
You’d never been to a gig where they had made the audience thank the crew for setting up the set for them and it sounded like they genuinely meant it. You had also never listened to a band who acted as humble as they did. It sounded that they genuinely felt like they don’t deserve what they have achieved, but they really do.
However, just because he was nice on stage, doesn’t mean he wanted a long conversation with a fan.
He stays silent and you just go back to your phone. You type a quick text to your best friend who’s also obsessed with The 1975 and tell her that you’re on a train with her hero. It manages to send just before your phone goes back out of signal.
“Alright then, come and show me these pictures” You hear him say and you look at him questioningly.
For some reason you doubt that he actually means it and you only move when he gestures to the seats opposite him and he says, “Are you gunna show me or not?”
You get up whilst scrolling through your photos on your phone taking the seat opposite him. You saw that he had his phone placed on the table faced down and he was waiting patiently for you to find what you wanted to show him.
It takes you longer than you would have liked because you have that many photos on your phone because of your photography and they all get in the way. You look up at Matty when he starts fake snoring and look right back down at your phone with a smirk on your face.
“There you go” You say, and he takes the phone out of your grasp inspecting your photo. It was one of him in his blue overalls with his tongue out and he was in the middle of dancing. It was funny because his eyes contradicted the whole photo as they looked dead but the rest of him was very much alive.
You saw the corner of his mouth quirk up slightly then he started scrolling through the rest of your photos. You didn’t really mind, there was nothing on there to hide from anyone as far as you were aware. You saw that he kept on scrolling through your concert photos until he stopped on a video.
“Ooo what do we have here?” He said looking up at you. You noticed his tongue dart out wetting his lips that now formed a grin.
“Okay, phone back now” You told him and held your hand out waiting for it back, but somehow knew that it wasn’t going to happen right away.
He held the phone closer to him and tapped play on the video. You just sighed and watched as his shit eating grin got bigger.
Matty watched the screen and he heard himself, the crowd, but mostly you, singing along to TooTime. It was one of your favourites and you’d videoed the whole song. Matty was actually impressed with your singing as it only cracked a few times during the song, but he wasn’t going to tell you that.
You noticed that he kept glancing at you as he watched, no doubt to see if you were feeling uncomfortable but you had accepted your fate as soon as your voice started screaming though your speakers.
At an instrumental part of the song, the video showed that Matty was being joined on stage by the dancers, you remember you had turned to your best friend and shouted to her, “I can’t cope, he’s so fucking fit!”
When that blared through your speakers you closed your eyes in embarrassment. You shook your head slightly and knew that he’d take the piss out of you for it. Matty let out a loud laugh and paused the video looking up at you laughing.
“Gee thanks, Love” Matty says when you opened your eyes and he hands you your phone back. You took it off him saying a quiet thank you and shuffled to the end of the seats and got back in your own.
Matty was still laughing to himself about the girl with the Y/H/C hair and black box top as he went back to his phone. He was trying his best not to mess his hair up but with nothing to do that was becoming increasingly difficult and he had a habit of playing with his freshly trimmed hair.
He rubbed his eyes and then put his glasses back on and looked out of the window of the train, but the countryside wasn’t really giving off the vibes he wanted right now. He was bored and found himself looking back round at you. You were on your phone tapping away at something he assumed to be a game.
Your friend had messaged you back and she didn’t believe you. You replied saying:
Believe what you want but he’s just took my phone and started playing the TooTime video from the concert and heard me call him fit! He laughed…
She proceeded to ask you many more questions and your favourite was ‘Has he got his hair cute and curly or sexy and straight?’
You silently laughed at the message and replied
His hair’s sexy all the time you idiot, but it’s straight 😜🤤
After a few more messages she kept on telling you to get a picture with him, but you didn’t want to. Partly because of nerves but mostly for the fact that you didn’t want to bother him. You replied to her saying:
I’m not asking him for a picture. It seems like he’s having a moment of peace which I bet celebrities rarely get. He’s just a normal person and I’ll treat him like one x
You didn’t need pictures to prove anything. You took pictures because they gave you memories and whilst it would be an awesome memory to keep, you weren’t going to be one of those fans who just got the picture and showed it off to the world.
Your friend called you a pussy and you just replied to her saying that she’s jealous. You didn’t get a reply because your signal had gone again so you started playing a game on your phone when Matty spoke up again.
“So, what’s your favourite song?” He asks you leaning over towards you again, even though he was nowhere near you.
You looked up at him and say, “Sex” whilst locking your phone and putting it on the table. You saw him smirk at you, but you quickly correct yourself, “Hey, before you start, I can’t really decide between that one and Somebody Else”.
He raised an eyebrow at you and the smile stayed on his lips for a moment longer. ‘God he’s fit’ you thought. The sunglasses somehow make it better.
“Would you care to join me and tell me why those two?” Matty said and you raised your eyebrows at him shocked.
“Come on, I’m fucking bored and you are too. Please? I’m just trying to make conversation” Matty says a with hope clear in his voice.
You smile and shake your head at his bluntness. You unplug your phone charger and you’re your camera bag and jacket before throwing your jacket on the seat opposite him. Matty smiles to himself in relief that you were actually joining him. He usually had George, Adam, and Ross to annoy but he was stuck alone without anything interesting to do. You stand up and place your charger and phone lightly on the table.
You proceed to put your camera bag up with your other bag and then sit down opposite him again. You plugged your phone in and checked the battery that was nearly on 50%. You feel your leg brush against his accidentally and you move out of his way feeling uncomfortable. You decide to lean against the side of the train and put your feet up on the free seat next to you.
“So, go on tell me… Why Sex and Somebody Else?” Matty asks you. “Am I sensing a certain theme here?” He follows up, with a smirk on his face and he leaned forward clasping his hands together.
“Honestly… no. No theme, I swear… But with Sex the line ‘But if we’re gunna do anything we might as well just fuck’ just made the song for me… It’s just funny and the honesty of it makes it brilliant” You told him and he nodded at you keeping a neutral facial expression.
You carried on saying “And as for Somebody Else, I… I think I like it because literally anybody can relate to it. And I love the progression of the song… Like it starts off as if you’re just alone in disbelief that its actually happened and then the realisation hits you when you get to the chorus… It’s just powerful… I don’t really know” You tell him honestly feeling slightly ridiculous explaining his own song to him.
He smiles at you and takes his sunglasses off letting them clatter onto the table as he rubs his eyes and for a brief second you wish you had never said anything. But when his dark eyes find yours, you see in his that he understood and the light smile that was on his face brightens your mood.
“Yeah, you get it” He says, and the conversation flows smoothly for a while. You had asked a few questions about their recent UK tour and he was giving you some answers.
“What’s your name by the way? Sorry I forgot to ask” Matty wonders whilst scratching his temple.
“Oh yeah, I’m Y/N.” You said with a smile and he nodded at you as if to say hello. “I’d introduce myself, but you already know who I am so…” He said trailing off and you both just chuckled, and you nodded.
You ask him which his favourite songs are, and he gave you his honest answers. He told you his personal favourite and his favourite ones to perform. You asked about different things about being in the public eye and about his favourite books and stuff like that. It was interesting to actually see a relaxed side of him, he was obviously not like he was on stage but different from how you had imagined he’d normally be.
After about 20 minutes of chatting, Matty announced that he needed to go to the toilet, so you just went on your phone whilst he got up. You saw that he also had on ripped black skinny jeans and some red converse, obviously trying to keep himself neutral, not wanting any unwanted attention.
Whilst you waited for him, you attempted to get some signal back on your phone, but it didn’t seem to be working so you just went through your photos.
When Matty came back, he had 2 coffees in his hands. “Thirsty?” You questioned him jokingly. You were pleasantly surprised when he placed one in front of you, then dropping a few sachets of sugar down for you as well.
“Awh thank you, you didn’t have to” You smile, reaching into your pocket and pulling out a couple of quid to give him.
“How much do I owe you?” You ask, counting the money you had in your hand but he shook his head in response and took a sip of his drink. Something told you not to argue with him, so you just thank him again and carry on with your previous conversation.
From talking to Matty, you found that he was a genuinely nice person and didn’t seem as big headed about being in a successful band as you had previously imagined. He seemed like a relatively normal guy which sort of surprised you.
From your proximity to him, you mentally note that he looked tired as he had small bags under his eyes and you could see the slight stubble on his jaw. You notice the few tiny freckles that litter his face and that he seems to rub his face a lot and bite down on his fingertips. You got distracted from your conversation and his appearance when your text alert went off.
You looked at your phone that lay on the table that read: Fuck you! I wish I was you right now.
You shook your head chuckling slightly and returned your gaze to Matty who’s eyes were now fixed on your phone. When he looked back to you, something in his expression had changed though. You take a sip of your drink and it burns as the liquid goes down your throat. You look at Matty and start saying something about your what he’d just brought up, but he interrupts you.
“Who the fuck have you told that you’re with me?” He says with an annoyed expression and anger in his voice as he points at your phone.
He was pissed off and he really didn’t want to be dealing with any cameras or anything like the paparazzi. He was going to London and he didn’t want to be harassed whilst he had a job to do.
You furrow your eyebrows at him, not appreciating his tone.
“Well?” He presses on, the seriousness in his voice makes your blood boil.
A stranger no matter who they were, rock star or not, doesn’t get to speak to you like that. You weren’t going to be told off for messaging your friend.
“I told my best friend” You tell him truthfully.
“For fucks sake” Matty says and he slams his coffee on the table and looks out of the window for a second. When he looks back at you, he says, “Why the fuck would you fucking do that?”
You give him a shocked look, but you hold your ground. You would not be spoken to like that and not defend yourself, celebrity or not.
“Not being funny, but I told her over half an hour ago and I’m fairly certain if she’d posted it anywhere, you would have definitely seen some people get on at the last stop to come and stalk you. Don’t you think?” You say back to him and he keeps his annoyed expression perfectly still.
You unlock your phone and go onto your texts sliding the phone over to him showing him the messages which he does take a look at. You don’t even care that he’ll see that you said his hair was sexy, you are just so annoyed and need to prove a point, so you press on.
Matty reads all the past messages on your screen whilst listening to you continue, he has to keep a smile from his face when he sees what you said about his hair and how you said that you wouldn’t take pictures of him. Not many people would do that, so he was slightly impressed.
He hears you say, “I’m sorry for telling her, but honestly, who the fuck actually cares that your sat on a train…? I mean you’re just a normal person and all she said was that she was fucking jealous. How the fuck is she gunna bother you on a speeding train?”
Once you’re finished, he looks up at you with a neutral expression, no longer angry. You wait for him to inevitably come up with something else to be annoyed at or to tell you to move back to your own seat, but what comes out of his mouth next actually surprises you.
“Let’s make her jealous then” He says nonchalantly with a smirk returning to his face.
You stare at him in disbelief and he picks your phone up pressing the home button getting the messages off the screen. He unplugs the charger from your phone and starts charging his own instead and you’re not even surprised. If anyone was going to do that it would be him.
He taps on the camera and starts taking lots of selfies on your phone. You roll your eyes at his antics and just let him get on with it. After a couple more hundred photos are taken of him pulling every face he can, he starts a video.
“Well hello there” He says to your phone and looks at you over the phone briefly as he does so. You can see his eyes flickering between looking at himself on the screen, looking into the camera and looking at you.
Matty sees that you’re trying to contain a smile, so he continues on. “Your friend who’s over there…” He says in a flat tone his eyebrows raising as he does so, and he flicks your phone around quickly at you and you wave sarcastically at the camera. As soon as you did that he flicks it back at himself though.
“Is telling me… How much she like loves me and wants to suck my dick and shag the whole band” He says very seriously into the phone looking at his face on the screen as if it was the most interesting thing going.
Immediately when he says about you sucking his dick you stick your middle finger up at him and just stay quiet watching him finish the video.
“Apparently you do as well though…” He continues. “But I’ve actually heard her say it to me and I’ll have to wait for your reply to see what you’re after and I’ll see what I can do for you” Matty says as if actually talking to your best friend.
He looks up from your phone and sarcastically gasps when he sees you swearing at him.You contain your smile as he covers his mouth in shock and looks between you and your phone.
“Oooo she’s changed her attitude now… Look at her aggression” He shows the phone towards you.
You don’t look at the phone though you just look into his eyes as he lets out a half laugh at you. You just continue showing him the finger and looking into his dark eyes and you see the humour lighting them up.
He sticks his tongue out at you and your hard demeanour falters and you smile slightly. “Ayyy” He says with a big smile on his face and turns the camera back around to him “She’s back” he says, and you put your finger down giggling to yourself.
“I’ll be eagerly awaiting your reply, see ya” He says and winks to the phone.
You watch as he ends the video and goes back onto your messages it and sending it to her quickly. He really had no care for your data, but you don’t mind that much. He slid your phone back across the table once he’d locked it. He looked at you as if he hadn’t just caused you major embarrassment.
“You’re a dick” You tell him with a grin on your face.
“A dick that you wanna suck” He pointed back to you and you let out a laugh.
“In your dreams” You say rolling your eyes.
You should have known a witty reply would be thrown back at you, “Don’t worry… It will be”
The smirk on his face was driving you insane. He was so good looking it was a joke. A few strands of hair had fell down onto his face and somehow made him look even better.
You grin towards the ground and shook your head in disbelief and when you looked back up at him, he let out a laugh. It was such an adorable sound.
How could a 29-year-old man be so adorable yet so fuckable at the same time?
He placed his hand on your arm, which rested on the table, and says, “Sorry… I just wanted to make that really awkward for you”
He let go a moment later and you joined in with his laugh. He was so charming, it was bizarre that you were actually sat chatting so casually with someone you’d admired for a long time.
“Anyway” Matty starts. “Tell me about you” Matty says as if he’s genuinely interested.
“I’m really not that interesting” You tell him honestly, taking another sip of your coffee that’s now slightly cooler.
“Neither am I, but you wanted to hear about me” Matty tells you and you look at him as if he’s stupid.
“I’m just a normal guy that sings in a band, that’s all there is to it. Now come on…” He says.
You look in his eyes and something about them seems like their pleading for you to go on. He must be really bored if he wants to hear your story, you thought to yourself.
“Well, I’m trying to be a professional photographer.” You tell him and his eyes widen slightly, and he nods in interest.
He’d seen your camera bag on your table when you initially sat down. Matty just assumed that it was for some sightseeing, but apparently not. He’d been more focused on the fact he could hear you humming along to one of his songs that he could also hear blaring out of your earphones.
“That’s awesome” Matty tells you. “What sort of pictures do you take?”
“Well I take pictures of anything that I like really, whether it’s a sunset or a building… But recently it’s been easier to get jobs if I take pictures for people… Like, I’m off to London today to get pictures of some ballet dancers.” You explain to him as you stared out of the window.
You looked back at him, half expecting him to fake being asleep again, but his gaze was fixed on you waiting for you to continue.
“So yeah… Erm, apparently one of the teachers at this academy had seen my work online and asked if I’d come down to photograph their dress rehearsal tonight… And I’ll get to sightsee tomorrow so I’m excited for that.” You say with a smile on your face.
From just this short conversation alone Matty could tell how invested in your work you were and the genuine happiness that was radiating off of you picked his mood up.
Matty asks you, “Have you got any?”
“Any what?” You ask slightly confused.
“Photos, obviously” He chuckles.
You nod,“Oh, yeah” with a slight laugh.
You needed to get a grip. He was just a human being, you didn’t need to lose your mind.
You pick your phone up and silently go to your Instagram and Matty waits patiently for you to show him something. You hand him your phone and he taps on the picture that captures his eye most.
Matty is astounded by your skill and how amazing each photo looks as he glances through them. You wrap your hands around the hot coffee in hopes that it will warm you up a bit.
As you watched him look through them, you occasionally attempt to explain how you took a few of the shots and Matty listens. He’s genuinely interested in what you’re saying so he asks you a few questions about a couple of different shots as he scrolls through. You answer his questions as best as you can, and he notices that you have hundreds of beautiful photographs on your account.
“So, go on… What’s your favourite thing that you have ever photographed professionally?” He asks and you hum thinking to yourself for a minute.
“Ermmm… I think… Yeah, I think it has to be a band that paid me fifty quid to take photos of them for the night about 3 years ago.” You told him smiling at the memory.
“They were all so great on stage, actually reminded me of your band at the time…” You tell him honestly and then carry on, “But the pictures come out great for bands because when the people your taking pictures of are having fun, the pictures just turn out brilliantly. Like, even if they aren’t the greatest of quality, they are still good because the other people in the band can just laugh at them later and they will be brilliant to those individuals”
Matty just looks at you for a few seconds and he’s about to say something when you continue, “Also, editing the band ones are great because of all the different colours of the set up around them… It’s really fun to play about with editing those”
Matty nods approvingly at you and hands you your phone back but not before memorising your Instagram username. “Fair enough… Sounds like you really enjoy what you do” He says.
You smile at him, saying a quiet “I really do” to confirm what he said.
“Anyway…” You trail off, trying to think of a different topic of conversation. “Why are you here by the way?” You ask gesturing around the both of you and Matty just looks at you confused.
“Why aren’t you in first class?” You question with an eyebrow raised. “Aren’t you meant to be a ‘celebrity’” You smile.
You start laughing when Matty fakes shock and rests a hand over his heart as if in pain. “Ouch, okay then Y/N, I’ll go” He says as he gets up for a second but then plonks himself back down.
“Nah” He says taking a swig of his coffee. “I’ll only go in first class when it’s busy which is why I’m in there on the way home… Apparently the trains fucking packed on Sunday morning” Matty told you whilst he took a big drink of this coffee.
“I’m so glad I pre-booked the same seat then” You say looking at over at the seat where you were sat before and Matty follows your gaze.
You look back towards him when he questions, “The ten twenty train?”
You smile at him and nod, “Very glad I pre-booked my seat then if it’s busy. You’ll enjoy your first class though, no one will know who you are in there.”
Just then your phone started ringing and it was your best friend. You let out a soft laugh and pick your phone up off the table and you were about to answer until Matty said, with a grin on his face, “Is that her?”
You nod at him and his grin got bigger. He reaches his hand out for your phone, motioning for you to give it him and you do. He tapped the answer button and after a second, he says, “Good morning Y/N’s booty call Matty Healy here, how can I help?”
You don’t know how Matty kept a straight face because you just burst out laughing straight away. You could also hear that she was screaming down the phone.
Matty moved it away from his ear and scorns you, “You didn’t tell me she was a screamer Y/N, I’m fucking deaf now”
He handed you back your phone and held onto his ear as if in pain. You couldn’t stop laughing though, even when you put your phone to your ear and heard Y/B/F gasp, “Oh my god Y/N”
You grin, saying, “I know”
You looked out of the window and speak to her for a few minutes, answering her questions the best you could whilst Matty was sat there. You only gave her yes or no answers because you weren’t giving her details about the man sat opposite you.
However, it was funny when you looked back at Matty’s face because he was smirking at you. That clearly being because he knew you were talking about him.
She asked you, “Have you given him that blowjob you’ve wanted to give him since you were Fifteen yet?”
You gasp loudly at that, glancing back to Matty. You can feel your cheeks heating up though, which is probably a reason why he starts laughing. Primarily it is because of how shocked you seem to be by whatever your friend had said.
“Jesus Christ no!” You say back to her and she starts laughing and you can feel your cheeks heating up even more, you close your eyes not looking in his direction.
“What did she say?” He laughs and you shake your head at him, eyes still closed. Matty saw that you looked mortified and he noticed you shifting around in your seat. He needed to know why, and you were funny when you got annoyed.
Matty stood up and lent over the table to try and get the phone from you. You, being stubborn, and really not wanting him to hear what she had said, moved further back in your seat so he couldn’t reach you.
Matty then gave you a look with raised eyebrows, as if to say, ‘Really?’
He got out of his seat and moved round the table onto your side, your legs were still resting on the seat beside you, so you started shaking your head at him meaning you’re not moving. He smirks and starts to lean over the seats but you’re having none of it. You put your black boot against his chest and push him away from you gently trying to keep him back.
Matty had other ideas though because he quickly leans back and pulls your leg to his side and puts his knee on the seat so he can get closer to you.
“Matty fuck off!” You say to him half laughing as he leans closer to you and starts to pry the phone off your ear.
You can hear your friend asking what’s going on and you’re just breathing heavily down the phone trying to fight him away with your free hand. However, your losing the grip on your phone so you say loudly to her, “If you fucking tell him what you just said then I’ll tell him what you said about him and Ross”
When you say that, you note that Matty’s eyes light up mischievously. You think she heard you before your phone was ripped from your hand but you couldn’t be sure.
Matty looks down over you triumphantly and you stuck your tongue out at him. He put the phone to his ear and said, “Booty calls back, what was it that you said?” He asked her rather politely, but you could feel the cockiness radiating from him.
It was only now that you realised how close he’d gotten to you whilst stealing your phone. He was practically in between your legs with his knee was holding him up above your body. You shuffled back up into your previous position, shoving him playfully away as your friend spilled your secret to him.
He stumbles backwards smiling down at you and moves back around to his seat. He kept letting out soft laughs at whatever story she was telling him. You remember the day you said that perfectly because it was one of the funniest days of your life.
You were at a house party and someone had just put on Chocolate and you went off practically screaming the lyrics around the house. It made it better because you were drunk, and your best friend was joining in.
Your drunken young stupid self was giggling and when the song went quiet, you said, “Oh my god, I’d suck Matty Healy’s dick any day!” The whole room laughed at your outburst and you just shrugged your shoulders and continued to dancing to the music.
What made it funnier was that your best friend said to you, a minute later, “Matty and Ross can have me at the same time, and I’d be blissfully happy for the rest of my life”
To this day, you didn’t know how you didn’t both wet yourselves because you were both on the floor laughing amongst your other friends.
Matty started laughing loudly and it turned into a breathless cackle. Jesus, this isn’t how you imagined your day would end up going. You looked at him embarrassed and you found it hard to not start laughing yourself.
“I fucking love it… I never thought when I said that earlier that it would have been so true” He said as he laughed at you further, his eyes were almost watering, so he closed them to try and control it.
“Right okay before you start Healy, she said, on the same night, that she’d let both you and Ross go at her at the same time!” You tell him seriously, over his laugh, but it just makes him laugh louder.
You were really thankful you weren’t in the quiet coach because you would have been told to shut up multiple times by now.
‘Oh my god’ You thought covering your eyes with your hands. You couldn’t believe what was happening and your best friend probably couldn’t either.
Matty started to control himself again after about 30 seconds and said to you best friend, “Thank you for this priceless story and I’ll see what I can do about Ross for you… But right now, me and Y/N have some business to attend to.”
The brunette winks at you just before ending the call. Your cheeks felt like they were on fire and you felt utterly humiliated.
You let out your nervous laughter. He chuckles to himself as he wiped his eyes with his sleeve as he calmed himself down.
The grin on Matty’s face stayed there for a few minutes after it had gone silent between you. In an attempt to break it you picked up his glasses that lay on the table and put them on. At least it felt like you were hiding from him slightly.
You looked out of the window hoping he would let it go but he only leans forward causing you to look back at him. His smile was now a smirk and he flicks his head to the side raising his eyebrows at you suggestively. You raised your eyebrows questioningly, but he did it again but more expressively.
You shook your head in disbelief and smiled at him. Matty Healy was gesturing to you to follow him into the bathroom. You couldn’t believe it and you couldnt believe that you were saying no.
He mouths ‘Bathroom now’ to you and you just started laughing.
“Definitely not” You laugh and unlock your phone, distracting yourself again, but not before you saw his smile drop off his face.
He also went on his phone after a second, that was still had your charger attached to it. There was a brief moment of silence between the two of you, so you went on snapchat and took a discrete selfie in his glasses and sent a message to your friend. Once that was sent, you got an Instagram notification that almost made your heart stop.
trumanblack started following you
You furrow your eyebrows and look up at Matty. He smiles at you and then he started double tapping on a few photos. Within the next minute you had about 30 new followers and a lot of likes coming on your page. You put your phone down as new follower notifications started popping up every few seconds and quite a few likes as well.
Even more started flooding in when he shared one of your pictures to his story.
“Thank you so much” You said in shock and took his glasses off.
“No problem at all… Talent deserves to be seen” Matty told you with a smile on his face.
Looking back, Matty spent 10 years hoping his dreams would come true and now that they had, he wanted to do as much for others he could. If he could get what he wanted out of life, what more could he do than help others do the same.
You passed him his glasses back and you both started joking around like before. You sat up straight and faced him properly and every so often your legs would brush together but to avoid making a fool out of yourself or him commenting on it you just stayed still. You felt like you had actually made a friend on this journey and the banter between you just didn’t end, it was like you had known him for years.
“Don’t be such a pussy… Get a tattoo” Matty said in response to you saying you didn’t have any. Your eyes widened and he just looked at you as if to say, ‘You heard me’.
“I dare you” Matty said and you just shook your head.
“I don’t even know what I’d get” You told him, and he just rolled his eyes.
“Literally just get whatever comes to mind” He said as he rolled his sleeves up and you saw his iconic tattoos. “Get a box, get a quote, literally get anything… Just do it. Tomorrow. In London. I. Dare. You.”
“I’ll think about it” You told him, and he just rolled his eyes.
Then crackly voice then came over the speaker saying, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we will shortly be arriving at London Euston. Thank you for travelling with Virgin Trains”
You looked out of the window and realise you weren’t travelling nearly 100mph anymore and the train was going relatively slow as London’s scenery passed you by. You don’t move because there’s no point rushing off the train, you didn’t need to be meeting anyone until 3pm when the ballet practising started.
You look out of the window to your left and smile brightly seeing a familiar set of buildings. You gesture towards the very recognisable concrete buildings, “Thats the place out of all the films, isn’t it?”
“It’s also where th-” You start but Matty interrupts, finishing off your sentence.
“Where the Somebody Else music video was filmed, yeah” He smiles at you, seeing how just a simple block of flats put that big of a grin on your face.
“May have to go and take some pictures” You joke.
Matty chuckles and offers, “Wanna loan my skateboard too?”
“Thanks for the offer but I’d definitely smash my camera then. Can barely manage on flat ground” You play back and Matty just chuckles.
After another minute of scenery passes by, you look back to Matty and watch as he was rubs his tired eyes, whilst his elbows were rested on the table. When he notices you looking at him, he had one of his cheeks pulled down making half of his face look zombie like.
You lean forward and rest your chin on your hand and smile at him and in return he stuck his tongue out at you.
You grinned as you reach over and unplugged his phone and charged yours for an extra few minutes before the train stopped. You lent back into your seat savouring the comfort for a few moments longer.
You playfully laugh at him and say, “Put that away” pointing at his tongue.
“Not now I know you want it so much” Matty murmured to himself and you sent him a questioning look.
All he did then though, was run a hand through his hair and put his sunglasses back on. His tongue then proceeded to do a very inappropriate action and you started laughing.
“What are you going to London for anyway?” You asked curiously finishing off your now cooler coffee.
“Just some promotional shit that I have to do because everyone only knows me apparently” Matty sighs and runs his hand through his hair again.
God it looked so good straight and styled but at the same time slightly messy. However, you were missing his curls.
“Other lads are back home loving life and having a break before the next round of gigs and I’m sent packing.” He tells you in a sarcastic manner.
“Well, there ain’t no rest for the wicked” You say and look back out of the window and realise the train is about to stop.
You sigh and unplug your charger shoving it in your jacket pocket for the time being. You then put your jacket on preparing for the train to grind to a halt.
You look towards Matty with a neutral face and he looks at you too. You stay like that for a moment until the train comes to a standstill. The voice comes through the speaker, once again announcing that the train has stopped as if it wasn’t already obvious.
You drum your fingers on the table and force yourself to break eye contact, getting out of your seat to grab your bags off the storage shelf. You get your camera bag down and put the strap around your neck. Then with bit more effort, you get your rucksack and heave that down plonking it on the table you were originally sat on.
Once you make sure all the zips are closed, you put it on your back and turn back around to Matty. He’s just sat there watching you and making no effort to move himself, so you raise your eyebrows at him.
“You coming or what?” You ask to him and slowly gets out of his seat and stands in front of you.
He shrugs on his leather jacket, which seemed to have fell on the floor and then put his glasses back on. When stood up, he looks towards you and you could see yourself in the reflection of his glasses. He smiles and then he just turns and starts walking towards the end of the carriage to get off the train.
“Where’s all your shit?” You ask, whilst following him to the exit.
You watch as he presses the button to open up the train door.
“Stylists give me all the clothes to wear in interviews and stuff, so I didn’t bring anything” He tells you waiting for the door to open onto the platform. “And I’ve got a flat down here, so I’m good”
You mumble a, “Fair enough” back to him and step off the train after he does.
You start walking towards the main part of the station craving some food and find that Matty is walking next to you. This surprises you but you don’t say anything, you thought he would probably just leave without a word, but you were mistaken.
You both show your tickets to the people stood at the gate and immediately you start making your way over to Burger King. “Do you want anything from Burger King? I’m fucking starving” You ask him, and he just shrugs his shoulder as if he isn’t bothered.
You were walking fast to avoid people getting in the queue before you and Matty was easily maintaining your walking pace. You both stop when you’re at the end of the queue and you ask him what he wants.
“No idea” He tells you and honestly you didn’t know either.
There is always too much choice. When you get to the counter, you end up ordering a regular meal and you just order the same for Matty because he hasn’t made any decision. He’s just stood next to you looking vacant.
You see him look towards you when you do that, and you meet his gaze and he just smiled at you. You pay on Apple Pay for the food and wait patiently for your order. When it’s ready, Matty grabs the bag of food from the woman and you grab the drinks saying a quick, ’Thanks’ and you both walk off.
You both sit on the ground, crossing your legs facing each other, just around the corner. Luckily, it was quiet because it was near a closed platform gate. Matty grabs his stuff out of the bag as you place his drink down in front of him and you take a sip of your own waiting for your food. He hands you the bag and to say you didn’t waste any time eating, would be an understatement.
You had eaten all of your chips within the first few minutes, just making light conversation with Matty so it wasn’t awkward. You found yourself ‘people watching’ and half tuning into passing conversations. Thankfully no one had come over and bothered Matty which he was relieved by. Meeting fans was great, but wasn’t the best when you’re trying to have your lunch.
You were just both about to finish the last of your food when Matty’s phone started ringing. He let out a sigh putting another chip into his mouth as he reached into his pocket and took it out.
He answered it quickly and said “Hello” in a friendly tone.
You ate the last of your food whilst Matty was on the phone and just watched passers-by whilst listening to Matty say things like, “yeah”, “okay”, and “awesome”. You collected both of your rubbish Matty mouthed a, ‘thank you’ to you before you got up and walked over to the bin.
When you came back, you heard Matty say, “Sweet, I’ll meet you outside in ten, Thanks a lot, bye”
Then he put his phone away and stood up next to you with both of your drinks. He hands you yours and you thank him and start walking to the exit.
You got barged into the shoulder twice and when you said, “Fucking idiot” under your breath Matty let out a cheeky laugh and then nudged you with his shoulder.
“Carry on and you’ll regret it” You warned him sending him a dirty look but that didn’t stop him.
He did it again, immediately. You shook your head in annoyance and quickly reached up and ruffled his hair up making it not look perfectly styled anymore.
He grabbed your arms and pulled them down with a mischievous look in his eye. You were too busy laughing to even care and you just nudged him to his side and he quickly let go of you.
“It had been perfect all fucking day and you just had to go and ruin it last minute” Matty says running his hands through his hair trying to get it back to where it was.
“Oh well” You giggle, and he looks round at you with his eyebrows raised.
“I’m sure you have people to sort that” You say jokingly but knowing full well he actually does.
When you get outside you have to squint, your eyes because of how bright the light was compared to the inside of the station.
“Jesus” You say as your eyes adjust. “Might need them glasses back Healy” You tell him and start to reach for them, and you just snigger when he moves out of your way.
Matty lights up a cigarette beside you and you smile at him. You felt like you had seen him in his natural habitat now.
You start walking towards some taxis that were parked up in a line outside and say, “Well, thanks for the conversation and the coffee.”
“S’alright, thanks for lunch” He tells you, before taking another drag of the cigarette and you smile back at him.
He offers you the cigarette and you take it from him with a smile. You take a long drag of it welcoming the familiar taste into your mouth and savour it as best you can. You gave it him back and blew the smoke into his face as you did so.
If he could be annoying, you most certainly could too.
He took it back off you, rolling his eyes at your antics, and started walking you towards the taxis. You followed him to the front taxi and say your hotel address to the driver who then unlocks the doors and tells you to get in. You pull the door open and then turn back to Matty.
“Are you gunna be okay in the big city all alone?” You sarcastically question him.
He lets out a laugh and leans forward and ruffles his hand through your hair, messing it up more than it already was. You just closed your eyes and let it happen.
You raise your middle finger at him for the last time of the day and he lets out a laugh. You turn around and get into the taxi and Matty steps forward holding the door open. He leans down into the taxi holding onto the roof to support himself.
“I think I’m gunna miss you Y/N… You sure you don’t want me to join you at your hotel?” He says leaning closer to you.
You stay silent with just a smile on your face. “Or my flat? I’m not a fussy man” Matty suggests with a sly smirk.
You rest your hand on his shoulder and lean closer to him. He starts to move his face closer to yours, and he gets close enough that you can feel his hot breath ghost your face.
His aftershave filled your senses which triggered you to almost get a little flustered. Much like your perfume made Matty want his lips on yours more than he already did.
It wasn’t his intention to flirt with anyone today. But you seemed to have been sent by the universe for him to rile up a little today.
You almost don’t want to ruin what could have been an igniting moment between you, but you do. You push him backwards by his shoulder and you let out a small laugh as you do so.
He stumbles backwards slightly which is enough for you to get a grip of the door handle with your other hand. You smile at him victoriously before you start to close the door.
“Meters running Healy… I’ll miss you too” You say sarcastically and close the door. Once the doors closed Matty lets out a loud laugh in disbelief, he couldn’t believe you just pied him off.
The driver starts the engine and you look back out of the window and see he’s still stood there waiting for you to leave. Man, he must be really bored. You don’t even wait for your close friends to get into taxis.
You look towards him smirking, and when you set off you blow a kiss in his direction whilst you’re still in his line of sight. He pretended to grab it with his free hand whilst he took another drag of his cigarette with the other.
You saw him smile as he blew the smoke out of his mouth, before he then disappeared into the crowd. As you drove off in that taxi, you never imagined to look back on this day and think it was anything more than a fun 2 hours with a musician.
However, you’d never been more wrong. It was a 2 hour journey that would completely change your life.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~