Work Text:
He couldn’t believe this.
Lately, John has been writing fanfics under a secret account online under a rather absurd but secretive name that won’t scream “I am John Lennon”. He finishes writing, it’s 12 o clock and he’s finishing up fanfic while sipping his tea. The part he was working on was the final scene in his fic “My writing is brilliant!” He thought when he had finished “People are going to love this”, yet an hour after he posted his latest fanfic it only had a few hits, no comments at all.
He proceeds to keep refreshing, maybe it will take a bit longer? But he waited and refreshed, nothing changed.
“What the fuck.” He was frustrated since barely any of his works were acknowledged, it had been like this for months.
He had already posted 5 fanfics with at least around 20k+ words and 30+ chapters, all completed but with barely any hits at all despite all his hard work on them.
He was pissed, then he got a call from Paul.
"John, we’ve got an interview, later Eppy said, don’t do anything foolish y’know?”
“I won’t” John reassured
“Alright, I’ll see you later then,”
“Ta”
After Paul had called him John only had one thing in his mind, he wanted his works to be more popular didn’t he? But he couldn’t just possibly say it so casually during the interview, the press would go crazy. He had to find another way, but how? Despite his thoughts about saying it during their interview he just simply couldn’t ruin his bands reputation like that.
So in the car to the interview with the other Beatles he had his goal set, “Don’t mention the fanfics in the interview” or else, The Beatles were over.
…
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Later on, during their latest interview The Beatles were asked questions by interviewers as per usual, then an interviewer asked them, “What do you four lads do when you aren’t making music?”
John was already frustrated by the fact that he saw a fanfic posted more recently that got more attention than what he wrote.
“Well, people nowadays don’t appreciate good writing.” The interviewer gives a confused look assuming he’s referring to songwriting, the other Beatles are also quite confused on what John is referring to.
John sighs
“I spent six bloody hours writing and half of which was for a scene where Paul and I get trapped in a hotel room together for the night and no one commented. Do you know how insulting it is to get zero comments on a 14,000 word masterpiece? I’m just saying, I spent weeks on those stories, and apparently nobody cares at all.”
Paul slowly turned to face John, Jaw dropping.
George’s smile faded.
Ringo just stared at John in disbelief.
The interviewer who had originally asked the question was stunned.
The silence that followed was so dead silent that it could’ve been described avant-garde.
The interview finishes off earlier than it should’ve due to what John had said, the Beatles especially Paul, George, and Ringo were quite uncomfortable by then, and then Paul goes up to John to confront him about his rant earlier.
“John! what the hell was that” Paul yells “ You wrote pornography of us?! I told you not to do anything foolish!”
“It wasn’t pornography.”
“You said we, US, TOGETHER, stuck together in the same hotel room for the night.”
“That could imply anything”
“John.”
“It was character development.”
…
“Still, and you also told the whole fucking world about your stories” Paul said disappointingly
“They aren’t just stories, Paulie, they are masterpieces, and I was upset, And I put so much work into them”
“I know, that’s the problem. You expected people to read them, John.”
“ I thought you would be more supportive.”
“ I would if it wasn’t basically pornography about me”
“ For the last time, IT’S NOT PORNOGRAPHY.”
John then exits the room pissed.
…
—————————————————————————————————————
Paul later on eventually gets an idea, Go on John’s computer and see what he wrote. They get on and look at his latest fanfic,
“Ey, George, Ringo c’mon!” He had told them earlier about his plan after John walked out on him
They open up John’s computer, Paul is the main character, of course. George is the mysterious bartender, and Ringo isn’t in it (thankfully) Ringo sighs gladly at the fact he’s not in it, “lucky” Paul replies.
John apparently added tags such as “ one inexplicable detective story” and “enemies-to-lovers”. Surprisingly there were 47 whole chapters, all completed.
“Good lord..” George whispered
Later on, John came back to see the other three lads in his flat staring at his computer, just to see them laughing, at his work, that he spent 6 whole hours on. They were only supposed to come to write songs, is what Paul said on the phone earlier but clearly that wasn’t true.
“Oi!” John yelled, he then shoved past the other three to close the tab before they could see but then he looked at the screen to see 2k hits on his work. He was initially thrilled to see his work getting the recognition he thought it deserved and snatched it out of Ringo's hand to see the comments but then he becomes a little disappointed when he sees it’s mostly just from Beatles fans.
John starts to reach for the tea George offers to him, then Paul practically snatches the computer from John and aims it to show George and Ringo a comment and they start laughing.
“What’s so funny?” John asks considering he can’t see the screen because Paul isn’t showing him
“I think the author has some unresolved feelings for Paul” George laughs
“Shuddup!”
“Go to the next chapter already!” Paul exclaims
“Alright, fine.” George replies “I quite liked being the bartender.” He adds
“It’s great John, really” Ringo states
“You lads are havin’ a laugh” John says
“It really is good! We swear! Right lads?”
“Yeah” George and Ringo say in harmony
They keep reading while laughing, they even start reading it out loud in deep or high pitched voices. John is a bit mad at this but at least they are supportive. And so were the fans surprisingly, the press? Well, who really cares anyway, let them say what they think.