Fic; 'But Our Love is Louder than Words', X Factor 2010 RPS; Aiden/Matt, L/L, H/N [1/1]
Title: But Our Love is Louder than Words
Fandom: X Factor 2010 RPS
Pairing: Matt Cardle/Aiden Grimshaw, Liam Payne/Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles/Niall Horan, assorted others
Rating: PG-13ish (swearing)
Summary: AU. Aiden is arse over teakettle for Matt, and through a series of not-dates that turn into actual-dates (plus some generous meddling from his friends), he ends up marrying him. Also most of his friends end up getting married. Just an awful lot of marriages occur. And a lot of champagne is consumed.
Word Count: ~4,000
Disclaimer: Didn’t happen in the real world.
Notes: Written for the Matt and Aiden are Actually Married Comment!Ficathon, using paperpipes' prompt: Five times Matt and Aiden go as guests (already as a couple OR as a progression from friends to a couple) to other people's weddings, and then one time they go to their own wedding.
Credit: Title taken from Sunday by Bloc Party.
First Time
Aiden asks Matt to be his date to Gemma Styles’ wedding. He makes it sound like a man-date kind of thing, and when Matt just laughs and accepts, Aiden has a hard time trying to convince himself that that’s exactly what Matt took it as.
Aiden’s liked Matt ever since Liam introduced them. He likes him an awful lot. A little too much, according to Louis, and Harry, and Zayn and Niall and everyone really.
Even now, when Matt is sipping at a champagne flute and looking slightly out of place, Aiden gets that sensation in his chest of missing a step, and just wants to touch him. Aiden can see the flecks of paint on the back of Matt’s hand that he missed earlier, robin-egg blue, from his last job. It’s already the reception and Gemma and her husband are chatting to guests up at their table, grinning at everything, mostly each other. Aiden likes them both and is happy for them. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t hate them a little bit, too.
Just off to the side of the room Liam is messing with the sound equipment, preparing for the dancing that’s due to start soon. Louis is with him, chatting animatedly and holding Liam’s drink for him. Unbeknownst to Liam, Louis is doing his best to seduce him, but Aiden is being held in the strictest confidence with that one so he’s not allowed to get involved. Occasionally Liam glances up from his work to grin or laugh at something Louis says, and Aiden can’t help but think that maybe whatever Louis is doing is working.
Aiden sort of hates everyone a little bit at times like this. Not that he’s jealous or anything.
“Can I borrow Aiden?” Harry asks Matt, appearing next to their table and breaking Aiden’s bitter little reverie. He’s already pulling him up by the elbow, ignoring his protests.
Matt blinks up at Harry. “I guess.” He grins. “Don’t keep him too long. I shall pine.”
Harry drags Aiden into the corridor by the loos and arranges the leaves of nearby potted shrub thing to obscure them from vision.
“What the fuck,” Aiden asks.
“We’ve all had a meeting,” Harry tells him, still fussing with the foliage. “And we’ve decided you and Matt have to move in together.”
Aiden chokes on his own spit. Harry patiently waits for him to stop coughing violently.
“Me and Matt,” Aiden manages, “what?”
“It’s true. Popular opinion states that you two should already be engaged and cohabitating. So you’ll be cohabitating before you get engaged, but it’s not really the order that’s important.”
“Popular opinion?” Aiden splutters, unable to do anything but repeat various ridiculous things Harry has said from sheer incredulity.
“Everyone,” Harry says, waving his arms around. “Nicolo. Treyc. Gemma. Ali, the band. Louis and Liam. My parents. Louis’ parents. Sean. Your mum, Matt’s mum, Matt’s brother. Zayn. Niall and me.” Harry pauses for breath. “Well, okay, mostly me and the boys, but everyone else is totally invested. We’re just the only ones being proactive.”
Aiden is spared the task of answering when Gemma herself appears. Her hair is falling out of its pins and she is holding her shoes in one hand, a glass in the other. She stops when she sees her brother and Aiden whispering furiously behind an ornamental shrubbery.
“I’m not going to ask,” she says. “But you two could try being a little less antisocial.” Then she adds, “Oh, by the way Aiden, I think Matt’s missing you. Don’t stay away too long.”
Aiden waits for her to leave - if he didn’t know better he’d say she was smirking - before glaring at Harry.
“Everyone,” Harry repeats, patting him on the arm. “Don’t worry, we’ve got it all figured out. Matt wants to get a flat closer to the rest of the band, and he’s looking for a flatmate to share the rent. Liam even found a place, it’s close to Uni and it’s practically next door to Ali, too.”
Aiden just looks at Harry with his mouth slightly ajar.
“Here.” Harry pulls a folded print-out from his pocket, crumpling it into Aiden’s hand. “Look it over. Two-bedroom one bath, on the second floor, pretty decent price. It’ll be perfect with a paint job and that can be Matt’s housewarming gift to you or something.”
“You know,” Aiden says slowly, so as not to shock Harry’s delusional mind too much, “we’re not actually dating, and I’m about ninety-eight percent sure Matt’s straight.”
Harry grins at him, a picture of easy confidence. “Whatever you say. Just have a think about it.” He pats Aiden’s shoulder.
“What about you and Niall?” Aiden asks churlishly. “When are you moving in together?”
Harry blushes at that, and shuffles awkwardly, not meeting Aiden’s gaze.
“We’re not really, you know,” he mumbles. “We’re just mates. We’re still at Uni. I don’t know.”
“Whatever you say,” Aiden mimics. But he folds the print-out anyway and puts it in his pocket.
Second Time
Aiden and Matt have been flatmates for four months when Treyc announces she’s finally tying the knot with her boyfriend. This time, Matt asks Aiden to accompany him, and Aiden says yes without giving it much thought because they do pretty much everything together already anyway. In a blokey, matey kind of way that is, and Aiden still sort of resents that.
“Look on the bright side,” Louis tells him after the service, standing outside the church and unashamedly checking out Liam’s arse as he bends to tie his shoe. “At least you get to see him wandering around half-naked. It’s like you’re in your own personal porn film.”
“That doesn’t help me,” Aiden grits out.
“At least you’re better off than poor Harry. He’s still labouring under the delusion that he doesn’t want to shag Niall.”
“Why are our lives so complicated,” Aiden wails, drawing a few concerned glances.
Louis pats him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, it’s not all of us. My life’s perfectly simple.”
“That’s because all you think about is Liam.” Aiden turns the end of his sentence into a cough as Liam himself approaches them.
“You okay, Aiden?” Liam asks concernedly, because Liam is actually really nice, and if Aiden wasn’t already sworn to secrecy he would warn him of Louis’ less than chivalrous intentions.
“Picture of health,” he says instead. “Spiffing.”
Louis shoots Aiden a look - what even are you, Aidey, seriously - and turns to Liam with a winning smile. “Like he said. He’s not dying or anything. Do you need a ride to the reception?”
Liam glances around, scratching his head. “Well I came here with Nicolo, but he seems to have disappeared.”
“Nicolo does that,” Aiden puts in helpfully. “He’s like a mirage in ridiculous sunglasses.”
“Perfect,” Louis announces. “You can ride with us.”
Liam looks a little perplexed but is amicable enough, letting himself be hauled towards the car by the sleeve of his suit jacket.
“Hey,” Matt says, appearing at Aiden’s side. “Are you going with Louis?”
Aiden tries to sound mournful. “I was. But apparently Liam has taken my place.”
“Poor thing,” Matt grins. “C’mon, you can come with me and the guys. We’ve got some extra space. You can breathe in if you have to.”
“Are you calling me fat?” Aiden demands, following Matt over to his beat up old van. Ali is in the drivers’ seat. He’s got the window rolled down and an amused expression on his face. Ali frightens Aiden sometimes. He’s surprisingly perceptive, but without the tact that most perceptive people seem to have.
“You know,” Ali says as they climb in, “you two have a better relationship than my parents. And that’s just unsettling.”
“Your parents are divorced,” Matt says lightly. Like that answers the unspoken question.
“Of course,” Ali says cheerfully. “Let’s go get pissed eh? We didn’t drink nearly enough at the last wedding we went to.”
“That’s because Gemma threatened us with painful things if we ruined her reception,” one of Matt’s mates says. Everyone lapses into murmured assent. Gemma doesn’t take any bullshit.
Aiden hunkers down between one of the guys and the window and endeavours not to look at Matt too often for the entire drive to the reception. He’s pretty sure he fails, but whenever he catches Matt’s eye Matt grins at him, so it doesn’t seem to matter.
Third Time
Rebecca doesn’t tell her friends that she’s seeing anyone until they’re already engaged. Only then does she make an announcement, after a Seven Summers gig, that she is getting married in two months’ time. While everyone rushes to congratulate her, Aiden sidles up to Matt, who is still hanging on to his guitar, and says, “So, do you have a date for this wedding shindig?”
Matt turns to face him, still looking slightly surprised at the news. “Well, no. I was sort of thinking we had an agreement.”
Aiden turns pink and toes at the ground. They do have an agreement of sorts. They’ve been on three official dates so far, and all of their friends are encouraging to the point of suffocation. But the lines are so blurred it’s difficult to judge where they are. They live together and spend every minute with each other. It’s weird.
“If you don’t want to,” Matt adds hastily, sensing Aiden’s hesitation. “I mean, I just thought -”
“Oh no,” Aiden rushes, “I want to. It’s just. So, are we like, boyfriends now?”
Matt’s mouth works for a moment before he bursts out laughing.
“What?” Aiden asks sulkily. “I want to know.”
“Of course! I mean - yeah, if you want us to be - boyfriends - yes.” Matt coughs. “Do you want to go to Becca’s wedding with me?”
Aiden grins. “Why yes I do. Rather.”
“Okay.” Matt nods. “Cool.”
And it is. They don’t really talk about it until a few days before, and on the morning Matt ‘picks up’ Aiden from their flat. Aiden maintains this is ridiculous - “we live in the same flat, what’s the point?” - but Matt ignores him. They get the van to themselves and end up parked two blocks away from the church, making out on the back seat to the sound of the radio.
“You planned this,” Aiden accuses. “You knew we’d be stupidly early.”
Matt noses along Aiden’s jaw and Aiden momentarily forgets why this is a problem.
“Guilty,” Matt acknowledges, and he makes it sound dirty. “I’ve wanted to do this for fucking ages.”
“What? Get me alone in the back of your van?”
“Have an excuse to - we’re dating, right? We don’t really do anything. I’ve wanted to kiss you properly for so long.”
“Could’ve just said something,” Aiden mumbles against Matt’s throat. “This would be more comfortable in bed, or on the couch, or anywhere other than here really.”
“Remind me when we get home.” Matt presses a kiss to Aiden’s nose. He checks his watch, then pulls a face. “Because we really should go soon, or Becs will kill us.”
“She’s not got a violent bone in her body,” Aiden says, and he tries not to sound sullen, but fuck this is the furthest they’ve gotten yet for some reason he can’t fathom and now they have to stop and it sucks.
“Don’t worry.” Matt starts fixing his shirt, but he’s looking at Aiden, and his expression is making Aiden’s chest feel funny. “I won’t forget.”
And he doesn’t.
Fourth Time
Paije tells everyone he’s getting married in the winter, and it’s going to be Christmas-themed. Paije is the only completely straight male in their immediate group of friends. Technically there is also Zayn, but as Harry puts it, “Zayn doesn’t count, he’s gay for himself”. Matt usually mentions his band and his mates to try and even the playing field, but Louis insists they don’t count either. Until recently, Aiden would have tried to point out gently that Liam is probably straight, too, but at some point between Rebecca’s wedding and now Liam and Louis have started shagging - loudly, according to a very belligerent Niall, and every single night.
“Liam’s practically moved in with us,” Niall tells Aiden glumly. “I don’t know how Harry and Zayn stand it. I have to sleep with my iPod on.”
“There, there,” Aiden tries to soothe him. “I’m sure the novelty will wear off eventually.”
“I’ll die of sleep deprivation first,” Niall says.
“Don’t do that,” Harry butts in with a frown as he passes. “I don’t want you to die.”
Niall glows a bit. Aiden watches their utter relationship failure until it’s too much and then goes over to where Matt is sitting with Treyc and Nicolo and plonks himself down on Matt’s lap.
“Hello,” Matt greets him. “You’re my date to this wedding I take it?”
“Whether you like it or not,” Aiden agrees. He’s beaming for no reason at all. He does that a lot lately, especially around Matt. “Even if Paije is trying to get us all to wear fur-trimmed things - this Christmas theme is going to be a pain.”
“If you turn up with matching tartan capes and earmuffs I’m disowning you,” Nicolo tells them, waving his hand. “I can’t be friends with people who are so disgustingly adorable and unfashionable. It may kill me.”
“Duly noted,” Matt says with a grin. “We’ll try and at least be fashionable for you.”
“Just get Rebecca to dress you. Your attempts at fashionable end with colour-coordinating your hat and boots, and that’s just not good enough.”
As it transpires they both settle on normal suits for the wedding, but Aiden allows himself to wear a scarf and Matt brings his hat along - “hats are winter-wear, right?” - and Nicolo doesn’t publicly renounce them so they must look okay.
“All of our friends are getting married,” Aiden observes as they watch Paije and his wife-to-be step out of their elaborate sleigh outside the church. “There’ll be nobody single left soon.”
“Considering the rate Liam and Louis seem to be going, you might be right,” Matt says.
Aiden glances over to where Louis is leaning back against Liam’s chest, looking supremely content. Liam seems to have been gay all along, at the very least for Louis, and while Louis refuses to tell anybody exactly how they got together, they’re very open about the fact that they are. Liam just smiles secretively whenever anyone asks him about it. Aiden thinks that Louis must have lost all sense of control and just jumped him. Luckily for everyone involved Liam obviously reciprocated, because they are now the world’s most obnoxiously in love couple ever, rather than Louis being slapped with a restraining order.
“There’ll always be Harry and Niall,” Aiden sighs. “An intervention wouldn’t be out of order. It’s getting painful to watch them both love each other but deny it and not realize the other one feels the same.”
“They’ll get there,” Matt murmurs, as they all begin filing inside for the service. “These things take time. We got there.”
Aiden finds Matt’s hand against the seat of the pew when they sit down, unable to stop smiling.
Fifth Time
Liam and Louis getting married is something of a shock. They arrange for everyone to go to dinner and use the excuse of Liam’s birthday, but halfway through the main course Louis gets bored of waiting and blurts it out. Aiden is taking a bite of spaghetti bolognaise at the time and he ends up inhaling it, resulting in Matt pounding him on the back for five minutes and a further five minutes sipping water gingerly and waving away concern from all their friends.
“Couldn’t you pick another time to nearly choke to death?” Louis asks him. “This is kind of important.”
“You should have waited until after dessert to tell them,” Liam murmurs beside him.
Aiden watches them talking with their heads bent together, Louis’ arm hung around Liam’s shoulders, and feels an entirely unwarranted pinch of jealousy.
Warm fingers curl around his wrist, tugging his hands apart - they’d been clenched in his lap. “Hey,” Matt says, quietly, “what’s wrong?”
“I almost died,” Aiden responds automatically.
Matt quirks an eyebrow, not buying it. “They could’ve picked a better time. Still, it’s good that they’re getting married.” He leans in with a grin. “If they go away on honeymoon we’ll all have a break from their stupidly in-love faces. And maybe Niall can finally get some sleep.”
Aiden forces a smile and squeezes Matt’s hand. “Yeah,” he says, “I’m happy for them.”
The thing is, he really is happy for them. Over the course of the next few weeks Louis demands that Aiden is his best man, waving aside Aiden’s feeble protests about speech-writing and matching suits. And even though it’s a pain in the arse - Louis ends up choosing fuchsia bowties, something that Aiden will possibly never forgive him for - it’s sort of an honour as well, and Aiden is happy to do it.
Liam asks Matt. Louis complains for the following week that they can’t both have a best man, and finally settles on changing Aiden’s official title to groomsmaid.
Their first dance is to Michael Buble. When questioned, Liam blames Niall, but Aiden knows Liam has his entire discography on his iPod. Louis doesn’t seem to care and spends three quarters of the song shamelessly making out with Liam in the middle of the dancefloor, occasionally having the presence of mind to sway in some tenuous rhythm to the music.
“If I didn’t love them both to bits, I might be a bit sick,” Treyc comments mildly as the song ends.
“I’ve thrown up in my mouth already,” Nicolo tells her impassively.
“It’s sort of sweet,” Aiden points out. The three of them have been put on a table along with Matt, Treyc’s husband and Ali, all of whom are making various disgusted faces.
“I’m going to get more booze,” Ali says after a moment. “If anyone’s interested.”
“I love you,” Nicolo tells him. They head off to the bar, and after a few minutes Treyc and her husband follow them.
Aiden shrugs and glances around. He spots Zayn talking to a pretty girl with a pixie cut on the other side of the room. Liam and Louis have gravitated back to their table, still swaying ridiculously, Louis’ hand dangerously low on Liam’s back. Niall and Harry are a table over but seem quieter than normal. Sean is seated between them and is talking animatedly with Gemma. Aiden is about to comment on this when he finally looks at Matt, who is leaning with one elbow on the table and just watching him silently. There’s a smile playing around his mouth, and something akin to adoration in his eyes, and Aiden’s stomach heats up.
“Hiya,” Matt says. He takes Aiden’s hand and holds it on top of the table cloth.
“Hey.” Aiden squeezes Matt’s fingers. “Um. You okay?”
“Brilliant,” Matt grins. Then he nods over to where Niall is pleating his handkerchief, not looking at Harry, despite Harry blatantly trying to catch his eye. “Unlike those two. Have you been watching them?”
“You are creepy,” Aiden says, shaking his head. “Yeah I have. They look like they’ve had a row.”
Matt snorts. “Finally come to their sense, more like. I think one of them has realized they fancy the other one. If something doesn’t happen today I’ll eat my hat.”
“You may regret saying that later. They’re nothing if not totally hopeless.”
“Nah. Harry’s wearing his serious thinking face. That doesn’t happen unless he’s planning something.”
As if on cue, Harry quite suddenly gets to his feet and half-lunges across Sean to kiss Niall square on the mouth. Niall flails for a little bit and then grabs Harry’s face to stop him from moving, and kisses him back.
“You’re psychic,” Aiden says, awed, as Sean pushes his chair away to give them more room.
“About time,” Matt murmurs, smiling.
Aiden watches his friends make out for a few moments before turning back to the table with a frown.
“What’s up?” Matt asks, taking a sip of champagne.
“Let’s get married,” Aiden says, apropos of nothing.
Matt somehow manages to fizz his entire mouthful of champagne out of his nose. Aiden hands him a paper napkin and waits for him to answer.
“Us? Get married?” Matt splutters, wiping his face. “Really?”
“Why not?” Aiden shrugs. “We’re going to eventually - if you weren’t thinking that, you may want to tell me now, by the way - and if we don’t get a move on all of our friends are going to beat us. I don’t accept failure.”
Matt blinks, still holding the napkin to his cheek. “Well, when you put it like that.”
Aiden grins. “Can I take that as a ‘yes’?”
“You definitely fucking can,” Matt says hoarsely and pulls Aiden into a kiss.
First Time
Harry asks Niall to be his date to Matt and Aiden’s wedding. Nobody is surprised, but Niall still tells anyone who will listen about the entire episode in grave detail. He’s so excited that Aiden lets him recount the story twice. When Aiden tells Matt all of this later, Matt just laughs and says he has gotten the same thing from Harry already.
They get married in late spring. They intended a quiet service but despite only having invited close friends and family, there turns out to be an awful lot of crying, so it isn’t that quiet after all. It’s the reception before Aiden knows it and he’s sitting at the head table with Matt and their parents. His face aches a bit from all the grinning and laughing he’s been doing, and he keeps fiddling with the ring, still an unfamiliar weight on his finger.
“I feel one-upped,” he tells Matt, pointing to where Niall and Harry are waltzing around the room, out of time and laughing like a pair of idiots. People are beginning to stir from their tables and edge onto the dancefloor now and Harry had wasted no time in coercing Niall into joining them. “Look at them, obnoxiously being in love all over the place.”
“It’s not their fault they’re embroiled in puppy love.” Matt smiles so brightly that Aiden’s heart does a ridiculous skip-hop. “And anyway, you don’t need to worry. Nobody is one-upping you tonight.”
Aiden feels himself flush and break out into a grin all at once. He’d gotten a few comments from his friends about his appearance - “well fuck, Aidey, if I didn’t have a perfect husband already I so would” from Louis is one that springs to mind - but every time Matt compliments him he feels like a shy fifteen year old.
Matt takes his hand for no reason at all. Matt’s got flecks of paint on his knuckles again, this time sunshine yellow, from where he was painting the hallway of their new flat a couple of days ago. Aiden kind of loves everything about that, and he squeezes Matt’s fingers.
“I didn’t think it was possible to be this happy,” Matt comments. He’s not looking at Aiden but then again he doesn’t need to.
“I have amazing ideas,” Aiden says. “What can I say. It’s a gift.”
Matt turns to face him then, and Aiden sees a depth in his expression that’s never been there before, a beautiful kind of longevity. And maybe it’s the lights and the music and the champagne but Aiden doesn’t think he’s ever wanted Matt more in his entire life. There’s no urgency though, and he’s got the promise of that night lying half dormant in his mind, and then the two weeks abroad that they still haven’t really planned yet. He kisses Matt on the nose.
“You can thank me later,” Aiden tells him. Leaves it open-ended, knowing Matt will catch his inflection, because they already know each other inside and out and marriage is just some sort of formality when you have that. “Don’t forget.”
“I won’t,” Matt says; then repeats it, infusing it with a promise, “I won’t.”
And he doesn’t.
Fin