Sanctuary (A Dan Smith/ Bastille fanfic)

72. Dan

"Again." I yell, unsatisfied with the sound of my own voice.

"Seriously?" Mark moans with his eyebrows raised. "Dan, do you not think you should just leave it until tomorrow?"

"Erghh." I groan, stomping my feet like a two year old child who's just been told he can't have sweets for dinner. "I just want it done now."

"I know you do mate, but it's been hours since we've eaten and I know that the others are waiting. You're just straining your voice even more and you're going to go into overdrive soon." Mark cautiously reasons with me and I nod reluctantly.

"Alright." I sigh as I lift the headphones off of my ears and throw them onto the desk next to the keyboard. I follow Mark through to the main entrance room of our enormous hotel suite. A few of the guys are in conversation and my eyes search the room to find Chloe, but neither her nor Amelie are around.

"She's through there." Woody smiles and points towards my bedroom.

"Cheers." I thank him and head through to the room.

Chloe and Amelie are sat up under the covers and the TV is playing quietly. Amelie looks my way as I enter the room and gives me a soft smile but Chloe has her eyes closed and is leaning against Amelie's arm, sleeping peacefully. "She's flat out." Amelie says. "I'll leave you to it." She gently manoeuvres herself so that Chloe doesn't wake but is now leaning against the pillow.

"You guys go on without us." I say just before Amelie leaves the room. "Sorry to make you wait for me."

"No worries. See you tomorrow Dan." She softly shuts the door behind her.

I head towards the bed where Chloe lay and I push the covers back. I climb in next to Chloe, wincing slightly when she stirs in her sleep. I freeze still, trying not to wake her, and slowly lie down next to her. She moves in her sleep and leans out towards me. "Dan." Her eyes flutter open slightly and she smiles in her sleep.

"Shh." I open my arms and allow her to lie on my chest.

"Mm." She mumbles, still half asleep. "Love you."

"Love you too." I kiss her forehead and hear her breathing steady as she falls back to sleep. "More than you could ever imagine." I sigh, holding my face close to hers.

........

"And then there was the time that you got so drunk that you puked all over the taxi and the driver got so angry and.. and.." I hear Chloe gasping for breath through her laughter. I wipe my eyes from my slumber and smile just hearing her laugh.

"And you made up some fake name because you thought he was going to fine us or something! What was it?" Woody joins her in laughter.

"Mary Star!" She squeals. "It was my go-to name! Oh my god that driver threatened to press charges on us. He literally chased us down Clapham High Street."

"Mary Star, oh yeah! And by go-to name you mean your secret slut name that you used so that your dirty one night stands couldn't find out who you really were."

I sit up in bed suddenly and listen more intently to the conversation that is going on just outside my bedroom door.

"Ergh shut up Chris!" I hear Chloe groan loudly. "It was a bad stage in life."

"No it wasn't, it was a hilarious stage of life." Woody pauses and the laughter has died down now. "We had such a laugh back in London. It was the best time living with you."

"It really was great." She agrees. "I miss our little house."

"Christ that was so long ago now. That house was the best.. And bloody cheap rent too!"

"Oh I know I could never afford it anymore even though I do miss London."

"Have you ever thought about moving back?"

I feel bad listening in on their conversation, but they are talking right outside my door. I try to put my head back down on the pillow and stop listening but it's literally impossible for me. I guess it's their fault for having a private conversation within earshot of nosy me.

"Oh yeah, a lot recently actually. I'm stuck in this shitty job that I don't care about and I feel like there would be more opportunities for me there." The conversation suddenly gets a lot deeper and my guilt begins to blossom. Maybe I shouldn't be listening?

"So what's stopping you?" Woody questions.

"Well.. Don't tell him this or anything but.. Dan is." It feels like she's punched me in the chest. I have never, and will never, stop her from doing anything and it physically pains me to hear her say that.

"Dan is? What do you mean?" Woody seems just as shocked as me as he continues to question her. "He would absolutely love it if you were in London. I mean, we're not really there much but when we are in England that's where we're based. I know he would love to have you there."

"That's the thing." She sighs and pauses for a moment before continuing. "I know that if I move back then he'll get upset if I don't move in with him. And I just want to take this thing with him slowly. I know that he and I don't exactly do things by the half measures but it hasn't really done us any favours in the past. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want to be with him, heck that's obvious seeing as I've travelled this far just to see him for a week, but I don't want him to be the only thing in my life. I don't want to be as dependant on him as I was in the past. Does that make sense?"

"It makes perfect sense Chloe. You've never been the sort of person to throw yourself into things and being with him is a huge step for you, I can see that. But don't base your decisions on whether it will hurt Dan or not. Just know that he loves you and anything that you say he will understand."

"Fuck, when did that get so deep?!" Chloe and Woody both chuckle. "Thanks Chris, I'm seriously thinking about it and you've helped me. But I'm going to go and check on sleepy head and see if he's up yet." I hear her footsteps and I immediately throw myself back down so I'm lying down and I close my eyes. I hear the door open quietly behind me and feel Chloe lay down on the bed beside me and her arms wrap around me. I pretend to wake up and turn around to face her.

"Morning." I put on my best 'just woken up' voice and rub my eyes.

"Afternoon." She giggles and kisses my cheek. "It's 1pm Dan, you've slept for 16 hours."

"Are you joking?" I sit up, totally bewildered. "But that means I've missed half the day and there's so much to do and we were meant to have a meeting and the interview and-"

"Dan, chill." Chloe pulls me back down to the bed. "I pulled some strings, you've got the day off." Chloe grasps my neck and begins to play with the hair from the back of my head. "So who cares if it's past midday, let's stay in bed." She crashes her lips to mine and I know that right here is where I want to be and not to let her private conversation with Woody affect me.