A 'Collection' of Random Matt/Aiden Ficlets
So I've got a lot of little bits and pieces of Matt/Aiden scenes floating around on my laptop that have never managed to turn into anything larger, so I thought I'd post them here.
1. The real reason why Wagner moved out or The One Where Matt Punches Wagner
Word Count: 1,523
Pairing: Matt/Aiden
Disclaimer: Not Mine.
It was three days after Aiden had left and people were still handling Matt with kid gloves.
“I’ll get your lunch man,” Paige grinned, shoving Matt into a seat, “save me a seat yeah?”
“Sure,” Matt smiled reassuringly at him. He and Aiden had taken it in turns getting each others lunch, always striving to come back with the most random combination of flavours possible and forcing themselves to eat it. Aiden had ended up on more than one sugar high that way, and by the end Dannii had been threatening to speak to the canteen staff to control what they ate.
“Here we go,” Paige was unfailing cheerful, “got there before the boys descended so there was actually some food left.” He studied the two drinks he’d picked up, “coke or tango?”
“Coke ta,” Matt grinned, resolving to actually be civil and cheerful for once and he was making a good show of chatting normally to Paige when the One Direction boys arrived, followed by the rest of the finalists.
The boys all headed over to Matt first, checking on him as had become their wont, falling all over him and clowning around until he just had to laugh, at which point their mission would be complete and they could go and eat.
And so it would have been today had Wagner not looked over and muttered, “still fawning all over him then. Pathetic.”
“It’s called being friendly,” Matt glowered. They’d never been close, and Matt’s initial reaction to Aiden’s departure had been rather vocal, and less than complimentary to more than just Wagner.
“Fawning all over you because your little slut has gone,” Wagner muttered, pushing past Matt.
“Say that again,” Matt stood up, fists clenched.
“Your slut is gone and you’re acting like it’s the end of the world. The rest of us, we’re just pleased we can sleep without hearing the two of you at it all night. Well, until you find someone else to fall all over you,” Wagner sneered casting an eye over the other finalists, who were watching nervously.
“Should we do something?” Louis muttered but Harry just shook his head.
“Matt needs to shout at someone, and this has been brewing for a few days.”
Anything else they could have said on the topic was lot when Wagner leaned forward and whispered something to Matt. Whatever it was had Matt pulling back his arm and punching Wagner full in the face.
For a moment they were frozen in shock then Matt hit him again. Zayn and Liam stepped forward, ready to interfere but found their way blocked by a glowering Niall, Harry and Louis, all smarting at the insults to Matt and Aiden and perfectly happy to see Wagner hurting.
Wagner stepped back before moving forward and the two squared up. It was blatantly obvious that Matt would be flattened if the fight continued, but Matt clearly didn’t care.
“He wants this,” Harry muttered worriedly. “Wagner’s going to kill him.”
“No he’s not,” Paige muttered, pushing through the watching boy band and grabbing Matt.
“Get off Paige,” Matt shook him off and One Direction came forward to help, coming to their senses at last.
Between the six of them they managed to pull Matt away and into another room, Liam trailing slightly behind the others, stopping to say something to Wagner before he followed the others out.
Harry was the only one who saw Liam stop, and for once his puppy dog eyes failed him, because Liam never told Harry exactly what he muttered to Wagner before he left.
***
Liam was the only one to hear what it was that Wagner had said that finally pushed Matt over the edge.
“It should take you what, five minutes to find a replacement whore. Just look at them all, fawning over you. Seeing as how you like the little boys, why not try Harry for size, that pretty little mouth…”
Liam might not approve of violence but if Matt hadn’t thumped Wagner for that, he certainly would have done.
When they finally succeeded in dragging Matt away, he let himself fall behind, coming up behind Wagner as he sat in one of the hard canteen chairs.
“If you ever speak about my friend, either of my friends, like that again, I’ll destroy you. Understood?”
It should have been laughable, both where the threat came from and who it was going to, but there was something in Liam’s eyes as he spoke that had Wagner believing him.
***
Brian had been late to lunch that afternoon. He’d been tidying up the dance studio - the One Direction boys were good fun but they had yet to learn to clean up after themselves - and was therefore one of the last to arrive in the canteen.
Arriving just in time to see Wagner having yet another go at Matt for moping over Aiden’s departure (yes it was pathetic, but he also found it adorable) and he thought this would be another shouting match until Wagner leaned forward and muttered something that lead to Matt thumping him.
It looked like an almost involuntary action, and Matt looked half surprised, half pleased, and not at all willing to leave it there.
The others would break up the fight, the fall out was another matter, and Brian knew that they couldn’t have stories about Matt defending his boyfriend’s honour running in the press - it would derail the show and Simon would hit the roof.
Half running through the corridors, he placed himself within earshot of one of the ‘tame’ journalists and took out his phone and proceeded to have a rather loud conversation with his voicemail about how Matt and Wagner were fighting again, and how Matt was having a go about Wagner still being in the competition when better singers had left.
It wasn’t a perfect story, but better than the truth - and that was exactly what he would tell Simon when the story broke.
***
One Direction arrived at Simon’s office shortly before the online blogs starting posting stories of the newest X-factor rift, and they were wound up enough that his secretary sent them straight in.
“Everything alright boys?”
“Not really,” Liam began, clearly not getting to the point quickly enough for Louis.
“Matt thumped Wagner,” he exclaimed excitedly.
“What.”
“Wagner was…less than complimentary about Aiden,” Liam frowned at the others, “and he crossed a line. Brian has killed the real story,” the other boys looked in surprise at him, but he’d seen the choreographer on the way out. “Wagner was completely out of order Simon. You need to get him out of the house.”
Simon would have laughed had he not seen the same serious determination on Liam’s face echoed in all the others.
“Either he goes or we do Simon,” Liam said. “And by we, I mean the larger part of the finalists - give me a few days and I can make Wagner your winner by default.”
It had to be a bluff, Simon was almost convinced it was a bluff, but there was something in Liam’s face that told him it wasn’t. “Wait outside boys, give me a minute.” They turned to leave but he caught Liam, “not you.”
When the others had left he turned to Liam, “what else did he say?”
“He implied Matt was a paedophile and Harry would…the way he looked at Harry was not nice.” And there it was, there was the weapon that could have the rest of the house walking. “Fix this Simon.”
Liam left and Simon made three phone calls. First to Brian, to check the story was killed, then to Dannii, to check Matt was no longer a public menace, then to Louis.
“Matt thumped Wagner,” he opened with when Louis answered the phone. “And we will have a full scale walk out on our hands if we can’t get this sorted.”
“In support of Wagner?” the astonishment in Louis’ voice would have made Simon laugh under other circumstances.
“No, in support of Matt. Wagner attacked Aiden and Matt’s relationship, yeah, the one we’re not supposed to know about,” he agreed, “and then said some rather unpleasant things about Matt and Harry.”
“He wants out of the house anyway,” Louis said, “let him think we’re giving him his own way, put him in a decent hotel, with a good gym, and hopefully he’ll keep quiet.”
“He better. Matt’s going to win this thing if I’m not very much mistaken and I want this to play out on my terms.”
“What are you going to do with Matt? He can’t go round thumping people.”
“I’m not going to do anything - according to Dannii he’s still glaring daggers every time my name is mentioned. Dannii’s calming him down and one of us will have Aiden call him and explain exactly why he needs to climb down off the ceiling and stop fucking up his chances. If he plays ball, I’ll get the bodyguards to let him slip away and meet Aiden somewhere, or to look the other way while Aiden sneaks into the house.”
“Bribery Simon?” Louis laughed.
“Needs must.”
2. The List
Word Count: 563
Pairing: Matt/Aiden
Disclaimer: Not Mine.
Matt Cardle has a list.
He started making it when the live shows started, and at first he kept it in his head. After a couple of weeks, and a few too many hangovers, he begins to worry that he will start forgetting names and so he writes the list down. He keeps the piece of paper with him, tucked up in his pocket, always close by.
When Aiden leaves, the list starts getting longer, which wasn’t really what he was expecting, but in a way it is good, because it means Aiden isn’t forgotten.
When Matt wins, he types the list up, enjoying the thud of the keys as he enters each name into the email, pressing send with unnecessary force.
He smiles, because the list is the thing that has kept him going, and now he gets to prove his point.
***
Simon Cowell has a list. He didn’t make the list, you understand, but he’s staring at it none the less.
It’s a list of journalists, most of whom he has never even heard of, and when he opened the email he didn’t have the first clue what it was about. The subject heading had read:
A list of journalists I will not speak to
and he’d expected to understand once he’d seen the list. He hadn’t though, and so at first he’d tried ignoring it. He’d sent Matt along to the newspaper interviews without thinking about who might be sent to talk to him, and thus wasn’t expecting the phone calls from half a dozen irate editors whose staff couldn’t get more than one word answers from his star. What makes it worse is that Matt seems to have gone out of his way to be pleasant and friendly to the other interviewers, giving them lots of material to work with and great quotes to put up on the front of the websites.
Simon has the list on the wall of his office these days; extra names scrawled on the bottom as Matt emails or texts them through to him. He lives by the list now, and several low level journalists have been elevated higher than they should have been because Matt Cardle won’t deal with their more illustrious colleagues.
No one else seems to have made the connection between the names on Matt’s list (or lists, because Simon is prepared to believe Matt has a list of journalists he especially likes too) and the comments these journalists have all made about Aiden, and for that Simon is glad. He doesn’t relish the idea of explaining to angry editors that the reason their journalist can’t get an interview with Matt Cardle is because said journalist once wrote something mildly derogatory about Aiden Grimshaw, and Matt is an insanely protective boyfriend.
***
Aiden has a list too. His is a list of all the people who have ever doubted Matt. Every sneering comment about him being talentless and just another failed X-factor winner in the making is logged by Aiden and the names are added to the list.
He keeps the list safe because one day he will invite them all to a party to celebrate Matt winning a record number of Brit Awards, or to celebrate yet another album having record breaking success, and the banner above the door will read ‘suck it bitches’. The thought makes Aiden smile.
3. The One Where Aiden is Protective of Matt
Word Count: 592
Pairing: Matt/Aiden - implied
Disclaimer: Not Mine.
Dannii doesn’t know why people always think of Aiden as the quiet kid and Matt the confident adult, because she’s always been totally aware that the opposite is true.
Sure, amongst friends, where Matt feels safe, he takes care of Aiden, allowing the younger man to wrap him around his little finger, sitting back and letting Matt wait on him hand and foot, but out in the real world Aiden has placed himself as Matt’s guardian. Aiden is confident in himself in a way that Matt with all his public school background and privileged upbringing has never mastered. Aiden wears his image confidently, weird glasses, scarves and cardigans all amalgamated together into something that shouldn’t work, but does, because he wants it to. Matt hides himself beneath casual, baggy clothes in a desperate attempt to blend in; he slouches, shrinking himself down in his clothes until he’s hardly there at all, while next to him Aiden walks tall. That Simon felt it was all affectation she could understand, but Aiden never felt the need to apologise for who he was, and he certainly wasn’t about to start now.
Aiden stays glued to Matt’s side while they are styled, and for about 30 seconds she thinks he is the one looking for security, until she sees the way he bristles when Matt flinches back as Grace picks apart his outfit, and his hair and eyebrows are scrutinised by eager stylists. Aiden is instantly there, talking and joking with Matt, gushing about his manly beard and the rugged image that the audience will fall in love with, and there’s a gratitude in Matt’s face that makes her smile.
Matt rarely leaves the house without Aiden at his side, and somehow he always manages to place himself between Matt and the loudest of his fans, or the most eager of the paparazzi, drawing Matt’s attention onto himself and smiling a small, reassuring smile as Matt visibly relaxes.
When Brian starts saying something verging on negative about Matt’s rehearsal for the first live show, Dannii finds herself wrapping a hand around Aiden’s arm, holding him in his seat as he bristles. She can’t do anything about Aiden’s refusal to exchange more than the bare minimum with Brian when it is his turn, and the sullen attitude of the usually open and cheerful man draws raised eyebrows from many, but no one seems to connect it with Brian’s harsh treatment of Matt.
The One Direction boys, who seem to have taken Aiden as their God, soon start emulating his treatment of Matt, and soon he has six bodyguards ranged around him. This is good, because once Aiden goes Matt is in danger of falling apart. Aiden is still vocal about his support of Matt, and she can always tell when he has texted Matt, because the other man walks taller, and sings more confidently, as if he can feel Aiden’s confidence in him coming down the phone line and wrapping itself around him.
When Matt wins he spends the entire first half of the final song flicking little glances at Aiden, like he won’t quite believe it until Aiden confirms it. On stage, they sing the song to each other and off stage Aiden spends the night running around happily informing everyone that Matt won (which they already knew, but which Matt especially likes hearing coming from Aiden) and by updating Matt on all the ways in which he is wonderful (which makes Matt flush, but also makes him smile the sheepish smile that Dannii adores seeing).
4. Bonus One Direction - protective!Louis
Word Count: 488
Pairing: vague implied Louis/Liam and implied Niall/Harry
Disclaimer: Not Mine.
It takes Simon nearly a day to realise that Louis isn’t talking to him. When the silent treatment continues for a second day, Simon, after a quick survey of the band’s faces, grabs Zayn’s arm, and holds him back when the others leave.
“What’s up with Louis,” he gets straight to the point, partly because that’s who he is and partly because he doesn’t have time to mess around with niceties, not this close to the live shows.
“You insulted Liam.”
Simon thought for a moment, but couldn’t come up with anything in the last few days that could be considered even slightly harsh.
“You said he bored you,” Zayn prompts, and there’s a harshness in his voice that suggests that he is as annoyed as the others, but hiding it better.
“When?”
“On the Xtra factor. It aired Saturday night and we caught the end of it when our film finished.”
Simon vaguely remembers saying something about that now that Zayn mentions it.
“I said one mean thing months ago so Louis isn’t talking to me,” Simon smiles wryly, “I suppose I should be grateful he’s forgiven me for not putting Liam through two years ago.
Actually, Louis had found the clips of fourteen year old Liam on youtube, and he was now fairly indignant about that too, but Zayn didn’t think it was helpful to point that out.
“It was rude, uncalled for and frankly, makes us wonder what we are doing here as a band if you find one of us so boring,” a cool voice chips in, and Simon notices Harry at the door, clearly having hung back to hear the whole thing.
“It was how I felt about him as a solo artist,” Simon begins before remembering who he is, and who they are. “You know what, no. As I group, I love you all and I have great faith in you. That’s all that matters, and I’m not dwelling on the past any more. Either you get over it or you don’t.”
“Liam wants us over it so we are,” Harry shrugs, “well except Louis, but he’ll get there.” Harry leaves and Zayn goes to follow him.
“You know,” he stops to add, “you’re lucky Liam’s level headed and Louis is incapable of holding a grudge,” it was true, it had taken all of Louis’s power to ignore Simon for a day, and they all knew he’d crack soon, because Louis couldn’t not be friendly and cheerful to all he met. “There are others who’d be less forgiving,” he adds.
Zayn wonders if Simon knows what he is hinting at, but Simon just nods, because he’s spent enough time with his acts over the last few weeks to know that if he ever hurt Niall, Harry would never, ever forgive him. He was also aware that an unhappy Harry would mean an unhappy band. And by unhappy, he meant hating his guts.
1. The real reason why Wagner moved out or The One Where Matt Punches Wagner
Word Count: 1,523
Pairing: Matt/Aiden
Disclaimer: Not Mine.
It was three days after Aiden had left and people were still handling Matt with kid gloves.
“I’ll get your lunch man,” Paige grinned, shoving Matt into a seat, “save me a seat yeah?”
“Sure,” Matt smiled reassuringly at him. He and Aiden had taken it in turns getting each others lunch, always striving to come back with the most random combination of flavours possible and forcing themselves to eat it. Aiden had ended up on more than one sugar high that way, and by the end Dannii had been threatening to speak to the canteen staff to control what they ate.
“Here we go,” Paige was unfailing cheerful, “got there before the boys descended so there was actually some food left.” He studied the two drinks he’d picked up, “coke or tango?”
“Coke ta,” Matt grinned, resolving to actually be civil and cheerful for once and he was making a good show of chatting normally to Paige when the One Direction boys arrived, followed by the rest of the finalists.
The boys all headed over to Matt first, checking on him as had become their wont, falling all over him and clowning around until he just had to laugh, at which point their mission would be complete and they could go and eat.
And so it would have been today had Wagner not looked over and muttered, “still fawning all over him then. Pathetic.”
“It’s called being friendly,” Matt glowered. They’d never been close, and Matt’s initial reaction to Aiden’s departure had been rather vocal, and less than complimentary to more than just Wagner.
“Fawning all over you because your little slut has gone,” Wagner muttered, pushing past Matt.
“Say that again,” Matt stood up, fists clenched.
“Your slut is gone and you’re acting like it’s the end of the world. The rest of us, we’re just pleased we can sleep without hearing the two of you at it all night. Well, until you find someone else to fall all over you,” Wagner sneered casting an eye over the other finalists, who were watching nervously.
“Should we do something?” Louis muttered but Harry just shook his head.
“Matt needs to shout at someone, and this has been brewing for a few days.”
Anything else they could have said on the topic was lot when Wagner leaned forward and whispered something to Matt. Whatever it was had Matt pulling back his arm and punching Wagner full in the face.
For a moment they were frozen in shock then Matt hit him again. Zayn and Liam stepped forward, ready to interfere but found their way blocked by a glowering Niall, Harry and Louis, all smarting at the insults to Matt and Aiden and perfectly happy to see Wagner hurting.
Wagner stepped back before moving forward and the two squared up. It was blatantly obvious that Matt would be flattened if the fight continued, but Matt clearly didn’t care.
“He wants this,” Harry muttered worriedly. “Wagner’s going to kill him.”
“No he’s not,” Paige muttered, pushing through the watching boy band and grabbing Matt.
“Get off Paige,” Matt shook him off and One Direction came forward to help, coming to their senses at last.
Between the six of them they managed to pull Matt away and into another room, Liam trailing slightly behind the others, stopping to say something to Wagner before he followed the others out.
Harry was the only one who saw Liam stop, and for once his puppy dog eyes failed him, because Liam never told Harry exactly what he muttered to Wagner before he left.
***
Liam was the only one to hear what it was that Wagner had said that finally pushed Matt over the edge.
“It should take you what, five minutes to find a replacement whore. Just look at them all, fawning over you. Seeing as how you like the little boys, why not try Harry for size, that pretty little mouth…”
Liam might not approve of violence but if Matt hadn’t thumped Wagner for that, he certainly would have done.
When they finally succeeded in dragging Matt away, he let himself fall behind, coming up behind Wagner as he sat in one of the hard canteen chairs.
“If you ever speak about my friend, either of my friends, like that again, I’ll destroy you. Understood?”
It should have been laughable, both where the threat came from and who it was going to, but there was something in Liam’s eyes as he spoke that had Wagner believing him.
***
Brian had been late to lunch that afternoon. He’d been tidying up the dance studio - the One Direction boys were good fun but they had yet to learn to clean up after themselves - and was therefore one of the last to arrive in the canteen.
Arriving just in time to see Wagner having yet another go at Matt for moping over Aiden’s departure (yes it was pathetic, but he also found it adorable) and he thought this would be another shouting match until Wagner leaned forward and muttered something that lead to Matt thumping him.
It looked like an almost involuntary action, and Matt looked half surprised, half pleased, and not at all willing to leave it there.
The others would break up the fight, the fall out was another matter, and Brian knew that they couldn’t have stories about Matt defending his boyfriend’s honour running in the press - it would derail the show and Simon would hit the roof.
Half running through the corridors, he placed himself within earshot of one of the ‘tame’ journalists and took out his phone and proceeded to have a rather loud conversation with his voicemail about how Matt and Wagner were fighting again, and how Matt was having a go about Wagner still being in the competition when better singers had left.
It wasn’t a perfect story, but better than the truth - and that was exactly what he would tell Simon when the story broke.
***
One Direction arrived at Simon’s office shortly before the online blogs starting posting stories of the newest X-factor rift, and they were wound up enough that his secretary sent them straight in.
“Everything alright boys?”
“Not really,” Liam began, clearly not getting to the point quickly enough for Louis.
“Matt thumped Wagner,” he exclaimed excitedly.
“What.”
“Wagner was…less than complimentary about Aiden,” Liam frowned at the others, “and he crossed a line. Brian has killed the real story,” the other boys looked in surprise at him, but he’d seen the choreographer on the way out. “Wagner was completely out of order Simon. You need to get him out of the house.”
Simon would have laughed had he not seen the same serious determination on Liam’s face echoed in all the others.
“Either he goes or we do Simon,” Liam said. “And by we, I mean the larger part of the finalists - give me a few days and I can make Wagner your winner by default.”
It had to be a bluff, Simon was almost convinced it was a bluff, but there was something in Liam’s face that told him it wasn’t. “Wait outside boys, give me a minute.” They turned to leave but he caught Liam, “not you.”
When the others had left he turned to Liam, “what else did he say?”
“He implied Matt was a paedophile and Harry would…the way he looked at Harry was not nice.” And there it was, there was the weapon that could have the rest of the house walking. “Fix this Simon.”
Liam left and Simon made three phone calls. First to Brian, to check the story was killed, then to Dannii, to check Matt was no longer a public menace, then to Louis.
“Matt thumped Wagner,” he opened with when Louis answered the phone. “And we will have a full scale walk out on our hands if we can’t get this sorted.”
“In support of Wagner?” the astonishment in Louis’ voice would have made Simon laugh under other circumstances.
“No, in support of Matt. Wagner attacked Aiden and Matt’s relationship, yeah, the one we’re not supposed to know about,” he agreed, “and then said some rather unpleasant things about Matt and Harry.”
“He wants out of the house anyway,” Louis said, “let him think we’re giving him his own way, put him in a decent hotel, with a good gym, and hopefully he’ll keep quiet.”
“He better. Matt’s going to win this thing if I’m not very much mistaken and I want this to play out on my terms.”
“What are you going to do with Matt? He can’t go round thumping people.”
“I’m not going to do anything - according to Dannii he’s still glaring daggers every time my name is mentioned. Dannii’s calming him down and one of us will have Aiden call him and explain exactly why he needs to climb down off the ceiling and stop fucking up his chances. If he plays ball, I’ll get the bodyguards to let him slip away and meet Aiden somewhere, or to look the other way while Aiden sneaks into the house.”
“Bribery Simon?” Louis laughed.
“Needs must.”
2. The List
Word Count: 563
Pairing: Matt/Aiden
Disclaimer: Not Mine.
Matt Cardle has a list.
He started making it when the live shows started, and at first he kept it in his head. After a couple of weeks, and a few too many hangovers, he begins to worry that he will start forgetting names and so he writes the list down. He keeps the piece of paper with him, tucked up in his pocket, always close by.
When Aiden leaves, the list starts getting longer, which wasn’t really what he was expecting, but in a way it is good, because it means Aiden isn’t forgotten.
When Matt wins, he types the list up, enjoying the thud of the keys as he enters each name into the email, pressing send with unnecessary force.
He smiles, because the list is the thing that has kept him going, and now he gets to prove his point.
***
Simon Cowell has a list. He didn’t make the list, you understand, but he’s staring at it none the less.
It’s a list of journalists, most of whom he has never even heard of, and when he opened the email he didn’t have the first clue what it was about. The subject heading had read:
A list of journalists I will not speak to
and he’d expected to understand once he’d seen the list. He hadn’t though, and so at first he’d tried ignoring it. He’d sent Matt along to the newspaper interviews without thinking about who might be sent to talk to him, and thus wasn’t expecting the phone calls from half a dozen irate editors whose staff couldn’t get more than one word answers from his star. What makes it worse is that Matt seems to have gone out of his way to be pleasant and friendly to the other interviewers, giving them lots of material to work with and great quotes to put up on the front of the websites.
Simon has the list on the wall of his office these days; extra names scrawled on the bottom as Matt emails or texts them through to him. He lives by the list now, and several low level journalists have been elevated higher than they should have been because Matt Cardle won’t deal with their more illustrious colleagues.
No one else seems to have made the connection between the names on Matt’s list (or lists, because Simon is prepared to believe Matt has a list of journalists he especially likes too) and the comments these journalists have all made about Aiden, and for that Simon is glad. He doesn’t relish the idea of explaining to angry editors that the reason their journalist can’t get an interview with Matt Cardle is because said journalist once wrote something mildly derogatory about Aiden Grimshaw, and Matt is an insanely protective boyfriend.
***
Aiden has a list too. His is a list of all the people who have ever doubted Matt. Every sneering comment about him being talentless and just another failed X-factor winner in the making is logged by Aiden and the names are added to the list.
He keeps the list safe because one day he will invite them all to a party to celebrate Matt winning a record number of Brit Awards, or to celebrate yet another album having record breaking success, and the banner above the door will read ‘suck it bitches’. The thought makes Aiden smile.
3. The One Where Aiden is Protective of Matt
Word Count: 592
Pairing: Matt/Aiden - implied
Disclaimer: Not Mine.
Dannii doesn’t know why people always think of Aiden as the quiet kid and Matt the confident adult, because she’s always been totally aware that the opposite is true.
Sure, amongst friends, where Matt feels safe, he takes care of Aiden, allowing the younger man to wrap him around his little finger, sitting back and letting Matt wait on him hand and foot, but out in the real world Aiden has placed himself as Matt’s guardian. Aiden is confident in himself in a way that Matt with all his public school background and privileged upbringing has never mastered. Aiden wears his image confidently, weird glasses, scarves and cardigans all amalgamated together into something that shouldn’t work, but does, because he wants it to. Matt hides himself beneath casual, baggy clothes in a desperate attempt to blend in; he slouches, shrinking himself down in his clothes until he’s hardly there at all, while next to him Aiden walks tall. That Simon felt it was all affectation she could understand, but Aiden never felt the need to apologise for who he was, and he certainly wasn’t about to start now.
Aiden stays glued to Matt’s side while they are styled, and for about 30 seconds she thinks he is the one looking for security, until she sees the way he bristles when Matt flinches back as Grace picks apart his outfit, and his hair and eyebrows are scrutinised by eager stylists. Aiden is instantly there, talking and joking with Matt, gushing about his manly beard and the rugged image that the audience will fall in love with, and there’s a gratitude in Matt’s face that makes her smile.
Matt rarely leaves the house without Aiden at his side, and somehow he always manages to place himself between Matt and the loudest of his fans, or the most eager of the paparazzi, drawing Matt’s attention onto himself and smiling a small, reassuring smile as Matt visibly relaxes.
When Brian starts saying something verging on negative about Matt’s rehearsal for the first live show, Dannii finds herself wrapping a hand around Aiden’s arm, holding him in his seat as he bristles. She can’t do anything about Aiden’s refusal to exchange more than the bare minimum with Brian when it is his turn, and the sullen attitude of the usually open and cheerful man draws raised eyebrows from many, but no one seems to connect it with Brian’s harsh treatment of Matt.
The One Direction boys, who seem to have taken Aiden as their God, soon start emulating his treatment of Matt, and soon he has six bodyguards ranged around him. This is good, because once Aiden goes Matt is in danger of falling apart. Aiden is still vocal about his support of Matt, and she can always tell when he has texted Matt, because the other man walks taller, and sings more confidently, as if he can feel Aiden’s confidence in him coming down the phone line and wrapping itself around him.
When Matt wins he spends the entire first half of the final song flicking little glances at Aiden, like he won’t quite believe it until Aiden confirms it. On stage, they sing the song to each other and off stage Aiden spends the night running around happily informing everyone that Matt won (which they already knew, but which Matt especially likes hearing coming from Aiden) and by updating Matt on all the ways in which he is wonderful (which makes Matt flush, but also makes him smile the sheepish smile that Dannii adores seeing).
4. Bonus One Direction - protective!Louis
Word Count: 488
Pairing: vague implied Louis/Liam and implied Niall/Harry
Disclaimer: Not Mine.
It takes Simon nearly a day to realise that Louis isn’t talking to him. When the silent treatment continues for a second day, Simon, after a quick survey of the band’s faces, grabs Zayn’s arm, and holds him back when the others leave.
“What’s up with Louis,” he gets straight to the point, partly because that’s who he is and partly because he doesn’t have time to mess around with niceties, not this close to the live shows.
“You insulted Liam.”
Simon thought for a moment, but couldn’t come up with anything in the last few days that could be considered even slightly harsh.
“You said he bored you,” Zayn prompts, and there’s a harshness in his voice that suggests that he is as annoyed as the others, but hiding it better.
“When?”
“On the Xtra factor. It aired Saturday night and we caught the end of it when our film finished.”
Simon vaguely remembers saying something about that now that Zayn mentions it.
“I said one mean thing months ago so Louis isn’t talking to me,” Simon smiles wryly, “I suppose I should be grateful he’s forgiven me for not putting Liam through two years ago.
Actually, Louis had found the clips of fourteen year old Liam on youtube, and he was now fairly indignant about that too, but Zayn didn’t think it was helpful to point that out.
“It was rude, uncalled for and frankly, makes us wonder what we are doing here as a band if you find one of us so boring,” a cool voice chips in, and Simon notices Harry at the door, clearly having hung back to hear the whole thing.
“It was how I felt about him as a solo artist,” Simon begins before remembering who he is, and who they are. “You know what, no. As I group, I love you all and I have great faith in you. That’s all that matters, and I’m not dwelling on the past any more. Either you get over it or you don’t.”
“Liam wants us over it so we are,” Harry shrugs, “well except Louis, but he’ll get there.” Harry leaves and Zayn goes to follow him.
“You know,” he stops to add, “you’re lucky Liam’s level headed and Louis is incapable of holding a grudge,” it was true, it had taken all of Louis’s power to ignore Simon for a day, and they all knew he’d crack soon, because Louis couldn’t not be friendly and cheerful to all he met. “There are others who’d be less forgiving,” he adds.
Zayn wonders if Simon knows what he is hinting at, but Simon just nods, because he’s spent enough time with his acts over the last few weeks to know that if he ever hurt Niall, Harry would never, ever forgive him. He was also aware that an unhappy Harry would mean an unhappy band. And by unhappy, he meant hating his guts.