When We're Together (Damon Albarn)

Chapter Thirty-Two

I inhaled deeply as Damon opened the door, the breath getting caught at the back of my throat and my heart rate increasing rapidly as I saw who was stood there.

We all stood in an almost shocked silence as Damon and I stared at our guest, I knew that everything that Damon had just promised me was about to go out of the window.

Another wave of shouts from the photographers, who had all sprung to life, made me realise what was actually happening.

"Come in" I murmured, before shutting the door behind him as soon as he was in.

The three of us stood in silence again, I could feel the anger radiating off of Damon but I felt too unsure of what on earth I was meant to do.

"Do you want a drink?" I asked, laughing nervously as Damon shot me a glare and he raised his eyebrows at me.

"No thanks, I'm not staying" He replied, glancing down to his shifting feet before looking up at Damon, opening his mouth to speak but Damon got there before him.

"What the fuck are you doing here Noel?" He spat, folding his arms across his chest. I sighed loudly as I rolled my eyes at his words, shooting him a look that said grow up.

"I just wanted to make sure you guys were okay" He shrugged nonchalantly "The paps outside of mine are being right cunts"

"Why would you care?" Damon quizzed, his eyebrows raised as he looked Noel up and down. Noel just laughed loudly, a stupid grin on his face as he looked at Damon.

"God I've forgotten what a twat you can be" He sniggered, completely unbothered by Damon's hostile attitude.

"You don't know me and neither does your fucking brother" He grumbled, before looking between us, rolling his eyes and disappearing back into the kitchen.

"Sorry about him, he's not been in the best of moods all day" I laughed nervously, a feeling of uneasiness growing in my stomach at the situation I was in.

"S'alright, Sara's been in a pretty similar mood with me all day" He laughed lightly, we both fell into a slightly awkward silence and as I looked across at him, I just couldn't work out why he had come here.

"Noel, why are you here?" I asked quietly, sighing slightly as I spoke, he looked up at me and shrugged his shoulders.

"Just felt bad really, wanted to come and check that you were okay" He smiled softly before laughing gently, i couldn't help but frown at his words.

"Why? I mean I've known you for ages now and you've never been bothered about how I am before" I questioned, instantly regretting how sharp my tone was, he was only trying to be nice.

"Cause the press are being horrible to you because you were with me, I just feel bad" He told me again, shrugging his shoulders once again as he spoke "The paps have always been so horrible to you and I just felt a bit guilty this time"

"Well I do appreciate it" I told him quietly, giving him a forced smile before laughing at how ridiculous the situation is "Even if that grumpy bastard in there doesn't"

After a bit more awkwardly forced conversation, Noel apologised once more before re-applying his sunglasses and making his way home. I appreciated him looking out for me, but it just didn't sit right with me and I couldn't get my head around it. Why was he suddenly being so nice to me?

As I turned around to walk back into the kitchen I couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation I was about to be in with Damon. I could almost guarantee that we were about to have the exact same argument again.

"Alright grumpy?" I greeted Damon as my eyes landed upon him, sat up at the breakfast bar and scrawling in a notebook.

"Piss off" He grumbled, though he quickly looked up to check that I wasn't actually going to go.

I moved across the kitchen until I was sat down next to him, sliding the notebook from underneath him and removing the pen from his hand so that he had no choice but to look at me.

"What was that about?" I asked him gently, he raised his eyebrows at me as he laughed.

"Really darling?" He questioned, I couldn't help but roll my eyes at his snarky tone, I hated it when he spoke like that.

"Damon you promised me two minutes before that you were gonna grow up and stop acting like this" I reminded him, I tried to breathe out any of the anger that was starting to bubble up in me again. I wasn't going to let us have the same argument again.

"Right well I wasn't expecting him to fucking show up at our house as soon as I'd said it" He stressed, dropping his gaze from mine before looking up again with a small smile playing on his lips "I'll start from now, promise"

A smile spread involuntary over my face and before I knew it I was laughing loudly, Damon's own laughter joining in with mine. It was a truly ridiculous situation, neither of us had expected Noel to show up at our door, so I did have to give him that.

He took his notebook and pen back from me, sliding it across the worktop before opening it back onto the same page and scribbling away in it again.

I sat quietly as I watched him, his song writing process was hardly anything new to me, I'd probably seen him write hundreds, if not thousands of songs over the years, but it was something I never got tired of watching. It didn't matter if we'd been arguing earlier, his furrowed eyebrows, tongue sticking out in concentration and gentle humming every now and again made my heart feel fuller than ever.

He closed the book over-dramatically before turning to me with a smug smile on his face, a smile that only appeared when he knew he'd written something good.

"Gonna let me read it?" I asked, knowing I had no chance of him saying yes.

"Nope" He replied, popping the 'p' before jumping up and tucking the notebook under his arm, the smile on his face spreading.

I watched as he walked around the kitchen, placing his notebook on the very top of the bookshelf before getting our abandoned wine glasses from earlier.

"We need to work out what we're doing for Primrose's birthday" I told him as he sat down, he nodded his head in agreement as he filled the two glasses.

"What are you thinking?" He asked, I sighed as I shrugged my shoulders. Her sixth birthday was in two weeks and Damon and I had been as unorganised as ever and not arranged anything yet.

"In an ideal world I'd like to go on holiday, but I don't think we're gonna be able to" I took a sip from my glass as he hummed in agreement.

"She's going to want a party" He mused, I groaned as I nodded my head. Throwing birthday parties had turned into the bane of my life, they were always so noisy, so messy and just how I imagine hell to be.

"I was hoping we could bribe her out of that with a holiday instead" I said quietly, not being able to stop myself from giggling at the look Damon threw me.

"We can't do that" He told me, rolling his eyes but not being able to stop himself from laughing "She can have a party, you only turn six once"

"Oh Damon, but I hate throwing parties" I groaned, shaking my head at the thought of being surrounded by a load of over excited children "Besides, we've left it too late, it's in two weeks"

"It's only for a couple of hours darling" He reminded me, his laughter flowing when he caught a glimpse of my unconvinced face "I'll sort it all out, promise"

"I don't trust you to do that Dames" I laughed loudly at the images of Damon organising a birthday birthday filling my head "You'll end up inviting everyone to the studio"

"No no no" He laughed as he shook his head "I'll phone up the zoo or something"