/ / R O B B E R S / / (Matty Healy/George Daniel)

Now I'll shoot him if it's what you ask

"I think maybe we should consider doing something else for a living," George suggested one day out of the blue, his words shocking Matty so much that he choked on the smoke he had just inhaled into his lungs.

"What do you mean?" Matty gasped when he could speak again. "How else would we survive? We're all wanted now, Adam and I are missing technically, and if we settled down or get proper jobs, it would only be a matter of time before someone recognized us."

"I know, but there are ways to work around that. We could make new identities for ourselves, or even just fake ID's, something - anything."

"Where the hell is this coming from George?" Matty asked, his brain reeling as he tried to understand what had changed in George that had him wanting to leave behind the only life that Matty had ever truly enjoyed.

"It's just - it's not that I don't like this, but things are different now I guess. I look ahead and I don't want to be robbing shops for the next ten years, I don't think we'll make it that long without getting caught anyway. We've had an amazing streak of luck, but it's going to end eventually. I can't stand the thought of you getting hurt, or Adam, or Ross, and I think we should look at our other options before it's too late."

"Have you spoken to either of them about this?" Matty sighed when George shook his head no, taking another hit from the spiff before passing it to George who waved it away without even looking at it. "I understand that you're worried, but we'll be fine George, we always are."

"We aren't invincible Matty," George argued back, his tone taking on that stubborn cast that meant he was truly serious, and although Matty didn't want this to devolve into a proper spat, he was a bit too high to deal with all of this at the moment.

"Is this because Ross is letting me take the lead tomorrow, because if it is, I thought you were fine with it?" Matty threw back haughtily, his body curling in on itself a bit until he was leaning over the edge of the bed, removing himself as far away from George as he could without actually getting up.

"No - maybe, fuck...I don't know."

"I'm not backing out of this," Matty scoffed, taking another drag of his spiff to punctuate the end of his sentence.

"I didn't think you were, and I'm not trying to make you. This is just me talking, because I want you to know what goes on in my head. I need you to understand that you're the most important thing in the world to me, and I want you safe, and cared for, and happy."

"But I am all of those things, you make me feel that way every day."

George didn't respond with words, but he did scoot down the length of the mattress before draping his limbs over Matty's frame, tugging him closer until Matty was pressed against his chest tightly.

Matty knew George was still mulling things over in his mind, but he didn't ask him about it, instead, he simply accepted the soft kisses George began placing on the back of his neck and congratulated himself on avoiding another confrontation.