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The day had been like any other for Ringo , get up at stupidly early o’clock, have some breakfast -which normally consisted of some toast, eggs and a large cup of tea- in the room of whatever hotel they had been staying at for the past few days, get dressed and ready before being rushed out into an awaiting car with the rest of the lads and sent off to whatever interview, panel or meeting Brian had agreed for them to be at that day.
They’d arrived at midday and had immediately been ushered into a studio room and briefed by Brian on who they’d be meeting before they took their seats. After a few minutes a man , who they had now been told by their manager was Jean sheppard, had walked into the studio and sat behind the desk to start the interview. It started off normally -or as normally as any of their interviews could go- the same questions always being asked meant the boys needed to get creative with their answers to find any entertainment in these meetings.
Ringo had started to drift off of the conversation, mind wandering, he’d already offered a few quips and answered some questions; not like many pertained to him anyways, they always wanted to get questions for the writers of the group. So when the questioning changed to settling down and their love lives he thought he’d leave the others to sort it out while his mind wandered to how he could fill space on one of their coming tracks , ‘you’ve got to hide your love away’ for their new album. However, that plan was cut short as George leapt at the opportunity to answer the question.
“Ringo and I are getting married” George said plainly, grin wide on his face. Ringo was shocked, yet trying not to show his concern on his face, he was wondering where George was planning to take this, his brain instantly tuning back into the conversation at hand.
“Oh? To whom?” Jean had responded, seemingly as shocked as Ringo.
“To eachother! But that’s a thing you’d better keep a secret” George responded, cheerfully, grin morphing into a cheeky smirk at their interviewer's slight disappointment.
“You better not tell anybody.” Ringo continued, playing into the younger man’s joke. Yet, despite this , Ringo’s heart started pounding , it’s not like anyone would believe they actually were dating, they had done too well of a job hiding that from the public, that wasn’t the problem. The issue was that Ringo liked the idea of getting married to George too much, his face heating up at the thought. The rest of the interview had continued as normal, the others bouncing off of eachothers jokes well, however the eldest was distracted with the idea of marrying his partner.
———
After the interview had ended, and they had been taken to their new hotel for the next couple of days, the group (consisting of the boys, Brian and Mal) filtered back to their hotel, opting to order room service for an early dinner instead of fighting through swathes of fans to get to a restaurant. They had spent the rest of the evening picking at the food they had ordered, drinking and joking with each other in Paul and John’s shared room. However, throughout this all, Ringo stayed quiet with his mind occupied, running at a mile a minute with this newfound need. Yet once the clock hit 11 at night and the chatter had died down, Brian had pulled him from his thoughts by concluding that this was far too late for his boys to be awake as they had to be up early again for a panel interview they had in the morning. With everyone begrudgingly agreeing, Mal and Brian left to their rooms, and George and Ringo left to theirs, after saying goodnight to the others.
Once the door clicked shut behind them , and George had double checked to make sure it was locked, they began to undress to get into their pyjamas, ready to go to bed. Ringo shivered slightly when he took his shirt off as the cool February air hit him ,even from within their room . George noticed this in his periphery and snickered, taking off his own clothes and noticing the same draft.
“Y’just can’t wait to get under your covers, eh, lad?” George joked, pulling his pyjama shirt on and buttoning it up. Ringo looked over to George then to the two ,separate, single beds, frowning. He wished he could have moved the two beds together, if it weren’t for the small bedside table between the two that was bolted to the floor, this had been a continuous problem for them at the hotels they had stayed at.
“Yknow.” The smaller man started, looking over to watch his partner pull the bottom half of his sleepwear up. “I wish we could go back to the old times, before we were popular an’ all that.” He muttered, George quirked an eyebrow at him, clearly confused by the sentiment.
“Back when we all used to share a room together, just one or two beds between the lot of us” Ringo clarified, the taller man nodded in understanding. Ringo fiddled with the hem of his own shirt he had slipped on. “I miss cuddling with you, Georgie, was a lot warmer to do so anyways.” He continued. The brown eyed man hummed in response.
“I do too, Yknow.” George replied softly, walking over to and sitting on the edge of his bed, watching Ringo pull his pyjama bottoms on, the older man rolling his eyes fondly once he had noticed. Once they were on, he slowly padded over to sit on the edge of his own bed, slumping over slightly, yet looking up enough to face George who was looking back down at him, a small smile on his lips. “Don’t miss Lennon-McCartney in the same room as us though, that’s for sure” he grinned at the shorter man, trying to lighten the mood.
“Just.” The blue eyed man mumbled “what you said today , during the interview…it really stuck with me…” he carried on , looking up slightly, to gaze into the deep pools of his boyfriend’s eyes, that were now looking back inquisitively.
“ y’gotta be more specific than that, lad, I said quite a bit today, I think” he replied, amusedly.
“I want to get married.” Ringo said, plainly, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. George stared back, scanning his partner’s face , trying to gauge if he was joking or not, only to find Ringo earnestly looking back up at him, blue eyes glinting in the soft, warming light of the bedside table lamp. George bit his lip , contemplating what to say. Luckily he didn’t need to contemplate too long, lest he bite his lip clean off, as Ringo broke the silence.
“I’m serious , George. I want to be like all our friends back home.” He started “married, settling down. Hell, even having kids” he continued on, a wistful tone in his deep voice. “I’d trade all me money an’ fame if it meant we could love each other openly. Like normal people.” Ringo finished off, the last sentence barely audible.
“Oh , Rich…” he sighed, leaning over to take the older man's ringed hands into his own, gently rubbing over the knuckles with his thumbs in a back and forth motion. He couldn’t deny that he himself had thought of it before, all his siblings were starting to settle down, leaving him as the only one -publicly - without a partner which definitely got him flack from the rest of his family. But knowing their love is criminalised , realising they’d never be able to get married and have those kids broke him. His eyes started to water slightly , a rare occurrence, as he stared back at Ringo.
Without a word, the shorter man got to his feet, moving over to his boyfriend’s bed and sitting down beside him, the bed dipping slightly under the new weight , wrapping an arm around his side. At that action, George let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding in, slumping down into Ringo’s hold and letting the tears fall from his eyes. The older’s head rested on his shoulder, a comforting presence; the presence that Ringo always had been to George. They stayed like that, taking in each other's company for a few minutes until Ringo broke the silence.
“ ‘s just so unfair” he grumbled before lifting his head off of his partner’s shoulder and falling back to lay down on the bed, with his legs still dangling off the side. George couldn’t help but smile softly at his boyfriend’s antics that pulled him from his stupor, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. He soon followed suit, letting himself fall back, to lay next to Ringo. The younger turned his head to look into those ocean-like eyes.
“I know” george sighed, shifting onto his side, bringing his hand up to cup the smaller man’s jaw, rubbing his thumb gently against the soft skin. “But” he continued “ one day we’ll be able to love eachother how we want, yeah. And all of us: you, me, Eppy, John n Paul? we can all love who we want, without being put behind bars for it.” Ringo looked lovingly into George’s eyes as he rambled dreamily about their future, a soft smile etching its way onto the shorter man’s lips.
“It’ll be us and our kids , all 20 of them, I think” George continued as Ringo snickered rolling his eyes. “Us in our house, with a big garden, yeah. And we can go out for dinners and to the movies without the press asking who we’re going out with because they’ll know just how damn much we love eachother.” The taller continued, spilling his love for the other. “but best of all. When we book a hotel , to get away from all our kids for the night” George winked “we can book it for a king size under our names. And no one will judge us.” He finished, grinning at his partner, who smiled back in thought.
“I think they might judge us for leaving our 20 kids behind!” Ringo joked back, alleviating the tension in the room as the two dissolved into a fit of giggles on George’s bed.
As the laughter dissipated the two were left gazing at eachother, grinning softly, George’s hand resting on Ringo’s shoulder. George was the first to break the momentary silence.
“I love ye Rich, don’t forget that. No matter what.” George smiled at him
“I love ye too Georgie.” Ringo smiled back.