What You're Doing To Me

Chapter 1

The jarring sound of his alarm woke Ricky up immediately, he stretched his arm out to grab his phone but underestimated the distance of his nightstand. His phone clattered to the floor.

"Crap. What a great start to the day." Ricky muttered under his breath. If the sound of his phone connecting with the floor hadn't been enough to wake Ricky, the shock of the cold hardwood floor beneath his feet certainly was.

"Right, time for a run." Running had become part of Ricky's life. He was on edge and nervous to start filming for The Voice, he needed to run and calm down. He dressed quickly, strapped his phone to his arm, whacked his headphones in and set off.

Letting himself into his hotel room two hours later Ricky was drenched in sweat, he probably smelt awful but he didn't care. He had the post run rush, the exhilarating high that would leave behind a peaceful calm. Ricky jumped into the shower, he only had thirty minutes until he needed to be in his dressing room. Knowing that he'd have a stylist with outfits for the show he threw on a pair of jeans and a tee. Coat, wallet, phone and he was out his hotel door and on his way to the waiting car.

"Ricky, there you are." One of the members of the crew were ready for Rick'y arrival, pouncing as soon as his door opened and his feet touched the tarmac. "We need to get you to wardrobe and hair and makeup, then you've got your microphone fitting for the tech rehearsal. The logistics of the performance need to be sorted out. Let's get going." The woman was all business, she started speed walking ahead and Ricky had to semi-jog to keep up. "I've got Ricky, we're on the move. Rita's due in ten."

Rita. They'd met once or twice and she seemed lovely, it'd be nice to not be the new guy on set.

"Okay Ricky, this is your dressing room, you're team are all set to get you ready for tech, a runner will go with you to the stage." With that she was gone, and he never got her name or the chance to say thanks.

Ricky pushed open his dressing room, name slapped in the middle. The chatter stopped immediately, he smiled at the three of them.

"Hello, I take it you're all here to make me beautiful?" Ricky cracked a smile and the tension in the room evaporated, his wardrobe, hair and makeup people ushered him into the room.

"I'm Shauna, I've got a few different outfits for you to pick from, this is Lukas, he does hair, and finally Sarah, your makeup lady. Shauna stepped forward and offered her hand.

"Alright, very nice to meet you all." He shook all three offered hands and started the wardrobe picking process.

Last year he'd hated the idea of makeup, but then he'd started to just sit motionless in the chair and engage in small talk. He'd come to find that sitting in the chair was actually relaxing, it was the perfect time to zone out, but he'd never tell the lads that. Now he was actually talking about makeup, his team wanted to be prepared for when they would have to get him ready.

"Your runner's here Ricky." Ricky put down the different pocket squares and hankies he had been choosing between, smiled at his team, grabbed his phone off the counter and followed the runner. The silence between them was starting to become awkward, Ricky wasn't one for silence, and the boy, who could only be seventeen, hadn't even looked at him once.

"Is it your first day here?" Ricky couldn't stand the silence any longer.

"Yes. Sir." Ricky stopped, the boy stopped next to Ricky. He'd barely been able to get his words out, he sounded terrified.

"You don't need to call me sir, mate. Ricky will do. What's your name?" The boy's face turned crimson as he stared down at the floor.

"Sorry, I was told I had to call you sir. Not just you, all of, the, term, talent." The boy was nervously wringing his hands while Ricky suppressed a guffaw. He'd never been called 'the talent' before.

"Who told you that? It's a load of bollocks, call us by our names, we're friendly. Just ordinary people that get to sing for a living." he clapped the lad on the back and smiled, showing him he was being serious. "So, what's you're name?"

"Ben. My name's Ben. I'm sorry, the other runners told me there's lots of rules we're expected to follow. It's my first job, I didn't want to screw up." Ben's cheeks turned pink, causing Ricky to smile. When he was Ben's age he probably would have believed them too.

"Don't worry about it, they were just being arseholes. Are you assigned to me then, Ben?"

"Yeah, I am." They started walking again, and Ricky knew that he was going to look out for this kid. He liked him, and he wanted to make sure he did alright.

"We're going to have a great time." Ricky smiled a mega-watt smile, then turned to the tech room to get his mic fitted. "I'll see you in a bit then Ben."

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We know it's a Ricta fanfic, but we really want to build the characters and relationships for later on in the story. We hope you're enjoying it, comment and tell us what you think, it will really help!