Work Text:
“I have HAD IT with your little feud with Aaron Dingle.” Nicola, Robert’s agent said, poking him in the chest for emphasis before going back to pacing up and down his hotel room.
Robert rubbed his chest.
“That hurt.”
“Tough.”
“And it’s not a feud. He wishes it was a feud.”
“Your poured a drink over him last night, Robert!”
“That was an accident!”
“Sure. An accident. Just like you accidentally knocking the wing mirrors off his car back in June?”
“The sun was in my eyes. And the insurance paid for the damages didn’t it?”
“Not the point!”
“And he called me Robert Suckden at that awards show a few weeks ago.”
“He didn’t and you know it.”
“He did.”
Nicola groaned.
“So what if he did, Robert? You’ve been called worse. And even though you may not act like it, you are over 5 years old.”
“Robert? Are you coming back to bed?” a sleepy guy wearing nothing but a sheet stumbled out of the bedroom.
“Who is he?” Nicola demanded.
“Uhm… wasn’t your name Mike?” Robert asked the guy who mumbled a “Yeah” in reply.
“We got talking last night.” He turned back to Nicola and gave her a smile. “He’s a drummer but he’s a good cook apparently too. He’s training to be a chef.”
Nicola narrowed her eyes and looked back and forth between the two men, trying to figure out where she’d seen the other guy before.
“Oh my god, you’re the drummer in Aaron Dingle’s band aren’t you?! Christ, Robert, first you pour a beer over him and now you sleep with his drummer?!” She yelled. “The tabloids are going to have a field day when they find out about this.”
“They’re not going to find out.” Robert insisted. “Please stop yelling, I have a headache.”
“I think I should go.” Mike said, realising their time together had come to an end.
“Don’t leave because of her. Nicola was just leaving.” Robert told him. “I’ll be back in a minute and we can continue what we started last night.” He grinned.
“Oh no you’re not. You’re going to get dressed, both of you, while I make sure there aren’t any photographers around, and then you” Nicola pointed at Mike “are leaving,” She turned to Robert. “And you are coming with me, we have a meeting.”
“I don’t have a meeting.”
“Oh yes you do. You are going to play nice with Aaron Dingle from now on.”
“I’m always nice.” Robert grinned. “Just ask him.” He nodded at Mike.
“No, Robert, you’re going to play nice with Aaron Dingle, from now until Christmas. And you’re going to get a Christmas number 1. And make people like you again.”
“What does Aaron Dingle have to do with me getting a Christmas number 1? Do you want me to go up against him? I mean I’ll do it, but I don’t want to crush his little heart when I beat him.”
“You’re not going to beat him.”
Robert snorted.
“I’ve been in the business longer than he has, I’ll outsell him easily.”
“You won’t outsell him. Because you’re going to be working with him.” Nicola looked at him with the look of a lioness ready to maul the impala she had in her sight. “You’re going to record a Christmas duet and pretend you’re best friends.”
“What? No. You can’t do that!” Robert protested when the news had sunk in. “Not with him. Anyone but him.”
“Aaron is a nice guy…” Mike said, making both Robert and Nicola turn to him and realise he was still there. “I’ve been playing with him for a few years now…”
“See? Even your boyfriend likes him.”
“Oh no, it’s not like that…” Mike started and then looked at Robert. “Right?”
“No. I like you… and I had fun last night… but no.” Robert replied and turned back to Nicola. “You can’t make me work with Aaron bloody Dingle.”
“I can. And I am.”
“Why him? Why not… I don’t know… Ross Barton?”
“Because Ross Barton is a homophobe who is too busy snorting coke off the boobs of whatever blonde he’s hooking up with these days.”
“Sounds like the perfect duet partner.” Robert mumbled.
“Robert. I’m going to tell you the same thing I tell my kids when they want sweets right before tea is ready… NO.”
Robert rolled his eyes but wisely decided not to argue with her any more.
A little over an hour later, he was sat in an office at the recording studio where he recorded his last album.
He usually loved spending time in the studio, playing around with new sounds and ideas, but today he’d rather be anywhere else.
Which mainly was because of the man sitting on the other side of the table.
“So, Cain and I have decided to put an end to this once and for all.” Nicola started, pacing back and forth in front of the two men. “You two are going to record a duet. We’ve already sorted it with the record companies, it’s a done deal.”
“Do we get a say in this?” Aaron asked, annoyed.
“Course.” Cain told him. “You get to say yes and do as you’re told.”
“You’re both grown men, it’s time to start acting like it.” Nicola continued. “No more accidents, no more name calling, no more hooking up with band members.” she directed the last part at Robert.
Aaron turned to look at him.
“What?”
“None of your business.”
“He slept with your drummer.” Nicola said, temporarily distracted by her phone.
“Really? Mike?”
“Why not? Are you jealous?”
Aaron snorted.
“Yeah, right.”
“It’s ok. I can show you what’s under these clothes if you like.” Robert teased, unzipping his jacket. “We’re both single… I’m game if you are.”
Aaron rolled his eyes.
“I’m not. And definitely not with you.”
“That’s what you say now.”
“And what I’ll keep saying.” Aaron insisted. “And I’m not single.”
“That’s ok, I don’t mind a threesome.”
“Do you ever just… stop? Is there an off switch somewhere?”
“Why don’t you come over here and find out.”
Aaron groaned.
“Do you have to make everything about sex?”
“No, not everything.” Robert shrugged. “I just like to enjoy life. I didn’t know you were such a prude.”
“I’m not a prude. You don’t know anything about me.”
“And you don’t know anything about me. It’s taken me a long time to be comfortable in my own skin, I’ll be damned if I’m not going to enjoy myself while I can.”
“Right, now we’ve got that settled, let’s talk music.” Nicola clapped in her hands as if she was a teacher trying to get the class’s attention.
“I’m not working with this clown.” Aaron announced.
“Yeah. Right back at you.” Robert added.
“See? You already agree on one thing!” Nicola said, in a fake happy voice. “Too bad you’re both wrong.” She continued, the smile dropping from her face. “You two are going to either pick a Christmas classic to cover, or write a new one yourselves. And then, once you’ve done that, you’re going to record it. And after that? What happens after that Nicola, you ask? Well, then you’re going to promote it. Everywhere.”
“What do you mean everywhere?”
“Every radio station, every talk show, every kids program where they make you do silly games. You two are going to do it all.” Cain told them.
“And you’re going to look like you’re enjoying it.” Nicola added.
“This is stupid. I’m going home.” Aaron said and got up.
“No, you’re not. This is going to be your home for now. There’s a flat upstairs, just for the two of you. You get to be roomies.”
“What? You can’t be serious?! You can’t keep me here against my will!”
“We’re not. If you want to leave, be my guest. But you get to explain to Al Chapman why you left and screwed up the deal of a lifetime.”
Aaron scowled but sat back down.
A few hours, lots of eyerolling, swearing, and throwing insults back and forth later, Robert and Aaron were alone in their new flat.
They’d been given lunch and two acoustic guitars and told to figure it out.
“I’m not singing Silent Night with you.” Robert insisted.
“Nobody is going to believe anything coming out of your mouth involving the word holy anyway.”
“Funny. You got a better idea then, maestro?”
“I don’t know…” Aaron shrugged and started strumming on the guitar. “How do you feel about Mariah Carey?”
“Oh sure.” Robert got up and knelt down in front of Aaron. “Baby all I want for Christmas is youuuu.” He sang into a pretend microphone and dramatically clutched his chest drawing out the last notes.
“Piss off.” Aaron pushed him away with his foot and bit back a laugh. “Come on, the sooner we sort this, the sooner we’re free.”
“Right, yeah… I suppose you want to get back to your boyfriend.”
“Yeah… yeah exactly. That’s it.” Aaron said, a little too quickly.
Robert frowned and got up off the floor.
“Did you make a boyfriend up?”
“What? No!” Aaron sighed. “His name is Alex. He’s… all real. But… I don’t know. I don’t think we’re a very good match.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know… we don’t really have anything in common. And he’s married to his job.”
“And you’re not?”
“Fair point.”
“What about you? Is there anyone special in your life? Other than my drummer.” Aaron said with a grin.
“He wasn’t that special.” Robert deadpanned and they both laughed.
They spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and arguing over the song they were going to do. Aaron wanted to do a cover while Robert wanted to write something new.
“Look if you can’t do it, I’ll write something and we can just use that. Not everyone is a songwriter after all.”
“And just like that you’re back to being the asshole you always are. I should have known the niceness wouldn’t last.” Aaron snapped.
“Oh come on, I was just trying to help!”
Over the next few days, Nicola had arranged for them to do some radio and tv appearances where they announced their new project and pretended to be best friends, but by the time they got back to the flat they were usually too exhausted to even think about writing anything.
“Yes Nic, I know.” Robert sighed, walking up the stairs to the flat. He’d gone to the local farmers market and bought some supplies for the curry he’d been craving for days.
“It’s a little over six weeks until Christmas, everyone and their grandmother already has their shit together and you two don’t even have a song yet!” Nicola yelled through the phone.
“Well maybe you shouldn’t have shoved us together and told the world we were releasing a song.”
“I just need you two to play nice for a change! I’m sick of having to clean up your mess every time one of you does something stupid. You’re giving me an ulcer!”
“You don’t have an ulcer.”
“You don’t know that. Just get me a song, Robert.”
“I’ll do my best. But Aaron isn’t exactly the most open and friendly roommate. It’s hard to get creative when you’re talking to a brick wall.” Robert complained.
“Figure something out.” Nicola said and hung up, only to call back right away.
“Nic?”
“Just don’t sleep with him!”
Robert rolled his eyes and ended the call without saying goodbye.
Aaron was attractive, sure, but he had a boyfriend and was obviously not interested in him like that. Which was fine. Really.
Robert himself wasn’t looking for a boyfriend or girlfriend anyway.
He dug his key out of his pocket but before he could put it in the lock, the door opened and a guy of about his age walked out, clutching his jacket and pushing past him with a mumbled “Excuse me.”.
Robert frowned as he watched the guy leave and went inside.
“Who was that?” he asked as he walked into the flat and found Aaron mindlessly playing some chords on his guitar.
“Nobody.” Aaron replied and disappeared into his room.
Robert decided not to push it and called Vic while he went through the motions of making his curry.
A few hours later, he was all caught up on the latest gossip from back home and full of food, when he heard music and singing coming from Aaron’s room.
He got up and listened at the door. It definitely wasn’t a Christmas song and for a moment he was annoyed Aaron was wasting their time writing other songs, until he listened to the lyrics and realised it was about an unrequited love.
He felt for the guy. He’d had his fair share of unrequited crushes over the years. Those things were never easy.
He figured it was best to leave Aaron to it and go back to his own room to work on an idea he’d gotten while cooking.
A couple of days later, they were on their way back to the flat after an appearance on a late night talk show where they’d played a cover of Wham – Last Christmas, when Aaron suddenly started talking.
“That guy the other day was my boyfriend.” He told Robert. “Emphasis on was.”
“Oh… I’m sorry…”
Aaron shook his head.
“It’s fine. I ended it.”
“Yeah? Why?” Robert asked, putting the pieces together in his head. “Is there someone else?”
“Kind of. But I didn’t cheat if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I wasn’t… but ok.”
The car stopped and they got out and went up to their flat. Aaron looked through the cupboards and held up a bottle of whiskey.
“Let’s get drunk.”
“I have a better idea. Let’s go out and get drunk.” Robert suggested, and within half an hour they were in a club, going absolutely crazy on the dance floor, and accepting shots and other drinks from everyone willing to buy.
Within an hour they were both well on their way to blind drunk.
Some bland looking guy in a bright orange shirt was all over Aaron and even started running his hands over his body.
It wasn’t that Robert was jealous, he just didn’t want some random bloke feeling Aaron up in a club.
“Let’s do more shots!” Robert yelled and dragged Aaron away from mister bland and to the bar, where he flirted with the barman to get free drinks.
They knocked back a few drinks until Aaron had had enough and went back to the dancefloor.
And naturally Robert had to follow him to keep handsy guys like orange shirt guy away from him.
They danced together and somewhere in the back of his drunk mind Robert remembered Aaron saying something about hating dancing. Though he was too far gone to really do anything with that thought.
“You’re alright you!” Aaron yelled in his ear, arms draped around his neck, while Robert’s hands were on his hips.
“So are you. You’re cute when you smile! You’re fit!”
Drunk Robert had no filter.
Aaron gave him a drunken smile.
“Yeah! I’m fit! And you too! We’re both fit!”
“Yeah!” Robert agreed, and before he had the chance to say anything more, Aaron was kissing him.
It turned out that even after way too many shots, Aaron was still a really good kisser.
“You’re good at that!” Robert yelled when they broke the kiss and instead of replying Aaron just kissed him again.
By the time the club closed they were all over each other, and way too drunk to care or even think of photographers.
They stumbled into the flat and crashed onto the sofa together, giggling and kissing, and some clumsy heavy petting that neither of them would remember in the morning.
At one point they must have passed out because suddenly Robert’s ringtone is blaring through the flat and the daylight coming through the open blinds way too bright.
He blindly felt around for his jacket with his phone in it, too comfortable to move, and answered the call without checking the caller ID.
“Hello?” he croaked.
“I told you not to sleep with him, Robert!” Nicola yelled.
“What?”
“Have you seen the tabloids? You two are all over the place!”
“I uh… what?”
“He has a boyfriend, Robert! A doctor!”
Robert groaned and held the phone away from his ear as Nicola geared up to have a big rant at him about not causing a scandal for a change.
Next to him Aaron was waking up too and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
“What’s going on?” he asked, trying to sit up without pushing Robert off the sofa.
“Nicola isn’t happy with me.” Robert replied, sitting up too and holding his head to try make the room stop spinning. “Or you I think.”
Aaron groaned as he checked his own phone and saw the pictures from the night before.
“I guess that’s why.”
Robert took his phone from him to take a better look at the pictures. They’d really given the photographers a show; Snogging in the middle of the street like a pair of teenagers.
“I… don’t really remember what happened…” Aaron started and Robert’s face fell, thinking Aaron was going to say it was all a mistake. “But… I… I’ve been wanting to do that for a while…”
“You have?”
“Yeah… but I know you don’t want a boyfriend or a relationship so… we can just forget anything ever happened. I’ll get over it.”
“What if I don’t want to forget it?”
“You don’t?” Aaron tried to wrap his hungover mind around what Robert was saying. “But… you don’t want relationships.”
“Maybe you’re the exception to my rule.” Robert said and leaned in to kiss Aaron. “What if I want this? With you?”
Somewhere on the floor Nicola was screaming Robert’s name through the phone, but both men had forgotten she existed.
Five and a half weeks later
“And tonight on the show we have Robert Sugden and Aaron Dingle, everyone’s new favourite duo, who make magic together on and off stage.”
They were on a popular radio show to promote their single, hoping to convince enough people to buy it to get them a Christmas number 1.
“They will be performing their single Christmas Magic in just a bit, but first we’ll have a chat about their unusual collaboration and everything else that’s happened the past few weeks.” The host, a woman of around their age, continued as they got settled in in the studio. “So, lads, tell me, how did this happen?”
“Well…” Aaron started, looking at Robert. “Our managers just sort of… shoved us together. And then we realised we actually got on really well. We just clicked.”
“And not just on stage.” Robert added with a wink. “But you know that, everyone’s seen the pictures.”
“That was not part of the plan.” Aaron insisted. “And not our classiest moment. My mum yelled at me over those pictures.” He joked.
“What about your family, Robert? How did they react?”
“My sister just wanted to know why I didn’t tell her I was working with Aaron.” He said and laughed. “She’s a big fan of his music. And so am I.”
Aaron smiled.
“Clearly good taste runs in the family.” he teased.
“Obviously you’re a couple too and your relationship has been quite… public from the start. Is that difficult for you?”
“A little.” Robert admitted. “We haven’t been together long… but things are good between us… and as long as the photographers aren’t camping out outside our flat, and let us figure things out on our own… I think we’ll be alright.” He said and reached out to squeeze Aaron’s hand.
“So, at midnight the race for the Christmas number 1 comes to a head, what do you think your chances are with just a few more hours to go?”
“I don’t know. We’re just hoping for the best.” Aaron replied.
“Well it’s been nice talking to you guys, if you’d like to join the rest of your band over on the stage now - .”
“Can I just say one thing?” Robert interrupted. “Today is Audrey, our drummer’s birthday. So everyone wish her a happy birthday. Her girlfriend’s flight is delayed so she can use the birthday love right now.”
“Aww happy birthday Audrey! From the entire team here at Radio 8!”
The two of them made their way over to the rest of the band and played their single, putting their heart and soul into it, hoping it would be enough for the number 1 spot in the charts.
After their performance and recording some stuff for the station’s social media channels, they left the studios and decided to wait for the charting info in a pub down the road.
They were both well known, especially after their first kiss had been plastered all over the tabloids, but mostly people left them to it.
Around midnight they were both nervous and when first Aaron’s and then Robert’s phone beeped with a message, neither of them dared to look.
“You check mine, I’ll check yours.” Robert suggested and they swapped phones. “On three.” He said and Aaron nodded.
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three.”
Robert opened the message on Aaron’s phone and read it.
“And?” Aaron pushed, not having the nerve to open Robert’s own message. “What does it say?”
“Just three words…” he turned the screen to Aaron. “We did it!!”
And now, this year’s Christmas number 1, Robert and Aaron, with Christmas Magic!