Faking It • Queen FanFiction

Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 3

𝐴𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟'𝑠 𝑁𝑜𝑡𝑒:
𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑠, 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟, 𝐼'𝑑 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑓𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐽𝑜ℎ𝑛'𝑠 𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 '𝐶' - 𝐷𝑒acy. 𝐴𝑛𝑦 𝑜𝑏𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠, 𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑑𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑚𝑒 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤. 𝐸𝑛𝑗𝑜𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑦 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠!

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"Hello Bernadette," Roger called from the other side of the room, sounding particularly blunt amongst the other harmonious greetings coming from Freddie and John. Bernie broke away from Freddie's embrace and stood to face him, staring him square in the eyes. Staring back, it was like a Mexican standoff with Freddie, Deacy and Brian standing rather awkwardly in the middle.

"Fancy seeing you without an extra weight tugging at your arm, or shall I say your dick," Bernie greeted Roger sharply. In the few times that she had met Roger, she simply couldn't take a liking to him. Perhaps it was his amorous nature, his carelessness for life or incessant chainsmoking, but she just couldn't find it within herself to make a good acquaintance of the blonde drummer, whom many girls would die to be stared at in the way in which he looked at Bernie. 

"Okay, harsh," he pretended to stagger backwards and almost fell onto Brian's amp, earning him a reproving look from the curly haired owner of said amp. "I'd make a dig at you, but you're so perfect that I can't find anything to criticise you for." He smirked and winked subtly at Bernie. She could've sworn she felt a little bit of vomit rise in her throat at his words.

Unfortunately for her, Roger either had a helpless crush on Bernie, or was determined to lay as many women as he possibly could before the end of the decade. So far, he was doing okay, but Bernie knew that she wasn't going to surrender herself to Roger's charm, just for the sake of him having another shag to add to the never-ending list. Sometimes she struggled to suppress an eye roll whenever she was around him, his very presence and mannerisms repulsed her. She strongly reproved of the way he treated women and refused to be one of his conquests.

"Shut up, Taylor," Bernie snapped back, sick of his presence already. Luckily, Freddie jumped in the middle before anybody got truly hostile and broke off the bickering with the clap of his hands and a cheer of excitement for the upcoming months. It had been decided that in August, Queen would visit Ridge farm to begin writing for their new album, before moving onto Rockfield Farm in order to actually record said songs. It would be no walk in the park, but Queen were more than excited for the events that followed in three months' time.

Bernie was thankful for Freddie's interception for more than one reason: they had some bits and pieces to be getting on with here and she really wasn't in the mood to argue with anybody today. The phone call she'd received from Flo that morning hadn't been exactly pleasant; the thought of moving in to her new flat and meeting her landlord in only seven days really daunted her. There'd be lots of packing, lots of anxiety and plenty of intense training.

"You okay, Bernie?" Brian came and sat next to her later in the afternoon and waved a hand in front of her face comically, trying to free her from her own worry-fuelled trance.

"What? Yeah, I'd love a cup of tea, thanks Bri," she replied in a daze, clearly not catching a single word of what Brian had just said to her.

"That's not what I said, you bellend. I asked if you were okay? You've been staring into space for the past hour or so." Locking eyes with him, Bernie noticed how worried Brian looked. She couldn't keep her woes inside anymore when she studied his look of concern for her. When she felt pain, he felt pain and vice versa.

"Yes. No. Not really. What if the landlord really is him? I mean, they share the same bloody name, for God's sake!" Working her way upto hysterics, Brian wrapped a consoling arm around her shoulders and pulled her into him, trying to silence her increasingly loud tone, which was gaining the attention from the band. 'The band', mostly consisted of Brian being aware that Roger was the last person Bernie wanted to show weakness in front of.

After a few moments of reassurance, Brian left Bernie to do her own thing again - looking decidedly more chirpy this time - and continued to experiment with the band. They hadn't really figured out many songs for the new album yet, but Freddie had already insisted that it be called A Night At The Opera, which the band didn't show much enthusiasm to originally. However, it sort of stuck since Deacy sided with Freddie after deciding that it had a nice, dignified ring to it.

Despite Brian's support, there was still the niggling, disastrous feeling of dread deep inside Bernie that perhaps it wouldn't be alright. But it had to be. Flo had confirmed and Brian had confirmed. It would all be alright.

"Bye beautiful, hope to see you again soon," Roger leaned in to give Bernie a friendly kiss on the cheek at the end of the day, as a way of goodbye, but she dodged out of the way just in time and he accidentally made a kissy-face towards Freddie instead. He winked at him and pulled the face back, almost doubling over in an eruption of chuckles at Roger's mortified reaction.

"Yeah, me neither," she rolled her eyes and gave Deacy and Freddie small hugs goodbye, before heading off with Brian. Most of the day had been spent experimenting with sounds ready for Rockfield farm, as there wasn't really a lot to do now. They were absolutely knackered after the booming success of their previous tour. No matter how much the crowd loved them, the band collectively decided that this album had to be their major breakthrough as a group, otherwise their continuation to stardom could be in serious jeopardy.

In a weeks' time, Bernie would officially be living with her sister, under the landlord of whom she was scared shitless to become acquainted with. And in that time, she needed as little flirtatious gestures from Roger and exerting days in training as possible. She could deal with stress well, but what she could not deal with, was the potential of living under the control of her ex-lover. Every confidence was in Flo, who was more certain than anybody that Mr Henson was not the same Mr Henson that Bernie knew like nobody else did.

13/9/22