dawson-ellis​:

Dawson hadn’t been at the event for too long so when he made his way around and talked with some people, he decided to get a drink and sit down at a table to relax and people watch. When he saw another man join him, he chuckled to his words and extended his hand out to shake his. “The kids table was the fun, cool table so with this being the singles table, it’s the most fun,” he replied jokingly with a smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Niko, I’m Dawson and nah, I don’t have a date tonight so you’re all good to join.” Taking his hand back, he took a sip of his drink. “You don’t have a date tonight man?”

x

Thankfully the guy didn’t send him packing so Niko shook his hand and settled into the seat, reaching for his beer. “That’s true, being an adult is really over rated.” Too much responsibility and not enough carefree days in his opinion. “Nice to meet you Dawson. No, the person I would have asked has already got a date so I’m shit outta luck.” He smiled and tried not to let his disappointment be too obvious on his features. “I am sort of asking myself why I cam here without a date though, seems like most of the people here are happy couples and then there’s some of us who thought maybe we’d meet the person of our dreams or some shit.” Stupid, how could he do that when he already knew who that was?

jamesxkingsley​:

   “You know, if I could I would totally give you wings or the ability to teleport if I could because you seem like you really need it,” he spoke as Jamie looked at him and stood next to his friend. Jamie smiled as he watched people danced and he could only guess how the other felt being single during this time of the year and being around non-single people. “Am glad you came though. I know I have not seem you nor spoken to you since that night….which is my fault really.”

x

Niko smiled at the sentiment and went back to his drink. He felt like an idiot for even coming out to this thing. What good was it to pretend he wanted to meet someone when his heart was very busy being entangled in someone else? “It’s alright. I’m not holding anything against you. If you remember, I left the country and forgot about my entire life for two years so I can’t blame anyone for being a little frosty with me.” Jamie was one of the only people in his life that Niko cared all that much about reconnecting with when he’d come home last year anyway. “You come with a date tonight?”

CLOSED STARTER - @dawson-ellis​ LOCATION - Sweet Seaduction Event

Niko wasn’t exactly the warmest person on planet earth, but he was genuinely a pretty nice guy even if that wasn’t always evident. Maybe he should smile more, he did have a pretty fucked up resting bitch face. As he pulled out his chair at the table he’d been instructed to find his name at, he glanced at the guy beside him. “Is this the singles table? I wonder if it’s like the equivalent of the kids table at thanksgiving.” Niko sat down and offered a hand to the gentleman next to him. “I’m Niko. I won’t bother you if you’re here on a date though so no worries.”

CLOSED STARTER - @jamesxkingsley​ LOCATION - Sweet Seaduction Event

He wasn’t sure what he was even doing here tonight because Niko didn’t have a date and didn’t have a shot in hell with the girl he was crazy about. But he’d showed up anyway in a stupid button up and a tie and he was leaning against a wall watching people dance when he spotted Jamie out of the corner of his eye. “I should have picked an event to come to where I wouldn’t have been stuck on a fucking yacht in the sound when I decided I wanted to bail early.” The cruise was nice, honestly, but he was only being reminded of how stupidly single he was right now. Not to mention watching Joey talking and laughing with some dude across the way was making his stomach turn.

CLOSED STARTER - @joeyreynolds​ LOCATION - Sweet Seaduction Event

He hadn’t come with her, but it was impossible for Niko to be in the same room as Joey and not find her. Even if he didn’t mean to he was always drawn to her in one way or another. And tonight, he’d seen her talking to some other people and had caught her eye from across the dance floor. Niko nodded at her and shot her a wink as he finished his glass of wine and set it down on a passing waiter’s tray before starting off towards her and meeting the brunette in the middle of the dance floor. “You look...” Niko gave her a respectful once over and a low whistle. “Beautiful.”

breannesamaya​:

Josiah and his family hadn’t seen Breanne. They were shopping about. Living their day to day life. Breanne on the other hand turned and walked as far away from them as possible. Not out of fear. She wasn’t a afraid. She was angry. The humiliation Josiah put her through and then the family had the nerve to come in and offer her money to leave the internship. She was in the middle of trying to calm down when someone tried to ask if she was okay. “I… Um. Yeah. I’m okay.” She lied. “Sorry am I in your way?” She wasn’t even sure if she was blocking anything. She didn’t even have her dozen donuts for her housemates like she promised from the donut shops. 

x

Niko stopped where he was and looked down at the brunette who still seemed frazzled. “Are you? Because you sort of look like you’re verging on a panic attack and if you’re going to then I would really suggest getting out of this busy street. Somewhere quieter without all these people around.” He was no stranger to feeling panic and he knew that having a crowd of people staring at you would only make it worse. Maybe he was making assumptions, he actually hoped he was for her sake, but Niko had spent a lot of time working with people in high stress situations so he was familiar with the emotion. “I’m Niko, what’s your name?” Sometimes a little distraction was more helpful than anything else.

joeyreynolds​:

.

Joey had made a very specific list of things to do once she arrived back to Seattle. The top of the list was conquering jet lag. The second was seeing old friends. The first had been her cousins, the next was now Niko. 

It had been a year since they parted ways and God, she always underestimated how good it was to see him sometimes. She would know him anywhere. Something fell into place upon seeing her best friend again. 

Her arms slipped around his neck as he lifted her and she let out a giddy laugh. “Hey, you,” she greeted with a grin. The air was freezing cold, yet she couldn’t remember feeling so comfortable. “I missed you, too. And thank you so much.” 

Even after three years, it still took Joey by surprise that this was her life. For the next twenty-seven years, she didn’t have to worry about her next check. Most of the annuity payments went into savings and she lived on her budget, including what she made from her job. 

“So I stayed at one luxury villa in Bali and it was absolutely horrendous. I just…was polite and I told them I couldn’t in good conscience give them a good review, so I just left. The place I stayed at before I came home was actually incredible and I seriously considered just staying there. How about you? How’s your dad?”

x

Josephine Reynolds was the kind of woman you might only meet once in a lifetime. He didn’t know anyone like her, no one who had that kind of infectious laughter or who could make him look into the deepest parts of himself and see someone who wasn’t damaged goods. During their travels together he’d opened himself up to a possibility he didn’t think he’d ever see again. Now it was just the simple matter of telling her that.

Once they sat down at the table he nodded at the drink he’d ordered her before picking up his own and taking a sip as Joey started talking about some of the adventures he missed. “Can’t believe you went to Bali without me, I’m so jealous.” He didn’t care though, her bucket list was much more important than his own. Hers was a dedication and for Niko it had been an escape.

“He’s...uh.” Niko considered saying everything was fine for half a second but he knew he couldn’t lie to her face like that. “Not doing very well. He’s got all these appointments with specialists and stuff, they’re trying to get him into some clinical trial but I think we all know it’s not likely to do much good at this point.” The disease was too advanced and Niko was coming to terms with that. It was likely only a few months now at this point. “But I’m glad I came home when I did. I would have missed a lot of time that he had left where he could do things and be himself still.” As much as he had missed her, he knew he needed to be here.

CLOSED STARTER - @tabithaweiss​ LOCATION - pier 57

“If we do this, there’s no going back.” Niko glanced at the woman next to him as he held up another five dollars in the air. He’d found himself playing carnival games after his sister and her boyfriend left the pier and the woman he’d met there was really giving him a run for his money. “This is the ultimate tie breaker. No more chances. Winner takes all. Are you sure you’re ready?” He shot her one last grin before shaking the money in the air and then handing it over to the worker. “Okay my friend, one more round.”

CLOSED STARTER - @nolagaines​ LOCATION - the book keeper

Flipping through the book in his hand he barely noticed when someone came up next to him looking at titles on the next shelf over. “You can’t help who you fall in love with.” He read the headline out loud and looked over at the woman beside him. “What a cheesy one liner to put on a cover.” Niko rolled his eyes and put it back on the shelf. “I can’t say I disagree but I’m not really a romance novel kind of guy. Especially not this star crossed lovers kinda shit.” He smiled as he glanced at a few different titles. “But if you like that sort of thing then no judgment here.”

CLOSED STARTER - @ezraquinn​ LOCATION - rooftop 27

Niko didn’t get out as much as he knew he should but things were hard right now with his father being ill and he’d found himself out a lot more lately. Trying to distract himself maybe but whatever the reason, he was stepping off the elevator and onto the rooftop when he heard something strange come from the left side of the bar. “Dibs!” The voice shouted and he looked around himself to see who they were talking about and when he realized he was the only one coming in at the time he frowned. “What? What does that mean?” He asked out loud, to the nearest person to him who happened to be standing near the bar as he approached.

nathanxwagner​:

Nathan wasn’t big on farmer’s markets, and anything of the like. It was a great initiative, plenty to choose from, but it was expensive- at least to him- and so the young man opted to only go there once, maybe twice a month. At best, that is. He could stock up on cheaper vegetables, maybe some fruit, and meat if he was particularly lucky that day. Otherwise, Target it was.

He was almost done with the shopping today, having had managed to get himself two full bags of vegetables. It was a fantastic deal, more than he had anticipated, so when someone who he barely caught a glimpse of rammed into him, immediately running away, it pained Nathan to watch one of his bags erupt from the impact, vegetables scattering everywhere, only to be stomped on by the crowd. “Come on!” he snapped out of desperation as the offender disappeared in the very same crowd. Just as he was about to lean do to collect whatever could still be saved, another figure approached, and he was almost ready to protect the one remaining bag of vegetables he still had. “No, it’s okay, it’s fine- thank you.” He quickly shook his head, sighing. “Just people not watching where they go.”

x

He’d seen the whole scene play out and felt pretty bad for the kid. Niko would have probably gone after the guy and smacked him around if it was his produce being sacrificed to inconsiderate assholes. But it wasn’t and he didn’t know this kid so instead he offered to help him. “Anything salvageable?” He asked, looking down at the mess on the ground. Kindness was easy and it was free but still people seemed to be in short supply a lot of the time. In his own experience anyway. The only time people tended to treat strangers with respect was when they thought they could get something out of it.

“What did you lose?” He glanced into his own bag to see if he had any replacements he could offer and if not he’d probably give the kid a twenty to replace whatever he’d lost. “You look uh, no offense but you look like you’re about to cry so I’d be happy to help replace something if I can.”

hollingsworthlennon​:

~

All Lennon wanted was a few vegetables to take home and make something out of. He was trying to get better at cooking for himself, and also trying to get better about meal prepping for the week so he wasn’t constantly ordering lunch at work. He hadn’t expected a quick trip to the market to turn into some sort of debacle, and when he heard someone yelling he figured it would be best to just keep walking. The market was pretty noisy, and with his implants it was often difficult to make out any one thing, it all just sounded like a garbled mess to him.

It wasn’t until he was hit in the back with something that seemed to have been deliberately thrown in his direction that he turned around, in shock. It was a fish. Someone had thrown a fish at him. He looked down at it, and then back up, seeing that there was still some sort of ruckus occurring where the fish had been thrown from. Lennon was a little shaky when Nikolai approached him, but he turned to look at him immediately. He may not have heard him perfectly, but it was easy to assume what had been said. “I’m fine,” he said, nodding. “Just-” he looked down at the fish again and frowned. “Should I just leave that there?”

x

He’d never really understood why the fishmongers liked to launch their goods at customers but there must be someone new there with bad aim because he’d watched it smack Lennon right in the back like it was meant for him when it clearly was not. He looked at the employee who looked horrified and gave him a ‘what the fuck’ look before shaking his head as the young guy spun around and pretended he hadn’t done it. Niko turned his attention back to the younger man and frowned. “It’s a real waste of a good salmon but, yeah probably. These streets are too damn dirty to even consider taking it home.”

His attention on the man’s face now he looked him over quickly. “Bet you weren’t planning on being assaulted by a fish today were you?” He finally asked with a half smile. “How are you? How’s your sister doing? I haven’t seen her in forever.” Serena and Niko had been friends for a long time and he’d always loved her family. Lennon was a bit younger than him but he viewed him as a little brother in a lot of ways. 

hervoiceontheradio​:

Eden didn’t know what had gotten into her, agreeing to go to the Market with her brother. Maybe it was the fact that she had moved across the world and then cross-country to be around him and, with their jobs and all, they barely got to see each other. Carrying a bunch of bags filled with fresh and most likely organic food, Eden paused dead on her step as she awkwardly started looking for her keys with one hand but came up empty. “Bloody hell. ” she sighed loudly . Just as she was about to start cursing further , the handle of one of the bags she was carrying snapped and all those vitamin filled oranges began practically rolling on the ground. “Are you fucking with me!?” she exclaimed. A few people had started giving her odd looks but nobody dared to approach her. “Damn it!“ she cursed again as she knelt to the ground trying to find the best possible maneuver as to salvage the unsalvageable and not wreck further havoc.

“Not really.” She huffed trying to catch her breath. And those bloody oranges rolling around. Damn her mind for being all over the place and damn her luck. “I might have…” Eden paused taking a deep breath grabbing a stray orange “misplaced my car. And my keys.” What a scatterbrain she was… “Again.” She half mumbled nodding her head slowly as if mentally congratulating herself for being an idiot, not looking at the man who apparently hadn’t scare from all the cursing. “And also my brother; but he’s probably admiring zucchinis and cauliflowers while I’m doing the heavy lifting and chasing fruit all over.” She sighed, turning her head to look at the person tolerating her rambling.

x

She was clearly having a day, that much was obvious by the way the woman was cursing at fruit. Niko sucked his bottom lip between his teeth and bit down on it so he wouldn’t laugh because he didn’t know her and sometimes humor wasn’t the right approach to someone else’s anger. “Not sure if it’s the oranges fault.” He smiled and knelt down to help her pick up her fallen produce. “Here, let me help.” Niko took his own groceries and shoved them all into one bag so he could offer the other one to her to put her things in. As he was dropping oranges into it he nodded at her explanation. “We’ve all been there.”

He got up and offered to hold the rest of her bags for her. “Let me take those off your hands so you can do a better look through your purse. Promise not to run away and steal all your organic broccoli.” Niko kept a straight face but it was hard not to crack a joke when someone was so flustered. “Next time make him carry the bags so it’ll be his fault when the oranges make a jail break.”

alainawilliams​:

.

The domestic weren’t Alaina’s strong point. She was always forgetting to restock on groceries. Most of the time, the things she bought rotted in the fridge before she ever got around to cooking them anyway. Her head was often in the clouds, daydreaming about something or another that interested her more than the mundane of every day life; art, music, literature.

Finally, she made her way to the market out of desperation. Her body hadn’t consumed anything green in too long, and all the local restaurants were starting to learn her usual. While she filled her cart her thoughts began to wonder. She was mentally composing the music of a song whose lyrics she’d already written, a million miles away from the store, when a young child came running through and took a shelf with him. The commotion jerked Alaina back into reality and rattled her nerves. Only a few boxes had fell around her feet, but just a few more steps and it could’ve been bad.

“Yeah.” Her shaky confirmation was hardly convincing, but then the petite brunette joked. “Proof I should’ve just gone through a drive thru.” 

x

He smiled as he knelt down and helped her pick up the things that had fallen, not even sure if they belonged to her or not. “People really don’t pay attention to where they’re going sometimes. You’d think they were the only people on the planet.” Niko said with a shake of his head. Seattle was his home and it always would be but sometimes he missed the quiet of the orchards where his parents house was. He’d grown up there but since he was old enough to be on his own, the city was his place.

“In fairness that was a little kid but still, whoever his adult is should have had eyes on him.” He wasn’t sure where the kid had run off to just that the adult in the picture hadn’t been paying enough attention. “Something about the open air market gets people acting like it isn’t still a place people are shopping.” 

jamesxkingsley​:

   Jamie honestly did not care at the moment. He had let his phone go to voice mail and also ignored many of his responsibilities and even pushed back a lot of important meetings. Jamie just wanted to stay in bed but he had decided to go out to the Drunken Dragon to get some drinks and see what happens next. The male was surprised when he heard the other’s voice, he had not seen Niko in so long after they ghosted him. It did hurt him a bit not hearing from his friend but Jamie understood that they might have their reason because he did do something similar a few years back. 

“I guess I lost track of time,” he spoke voice emotionless as he looked at the other, unable to give them a smile as he tried to do so. “I don’t need a water, just need a few shots and a beer. You look good and one can say I am far from okay,” he answered chuckling sadly. 

x

Niko shook his head at the bartender when Jamie asked for more drinks, the man nodded and went to pour him a water instead. Niko took a seat next to his old friend and placed a hand on his back. He was grateful to have been able to get back in touch after the way he’d taken off a few years ago. He’d needed to put some space between him and Seattle at the time and Josephine and the lottery was the perfect way to do so. Now that his family needed him and he was home though, it was time to start reconnecting. “What’s going on Jamie? You look rough.” He didn’t mean it in an unkind way but Niko had always been a very honest person and he thought Jamie was the kind of person who could handle that.

emersonxmonroe​:

.

“I’ve had Rotties growing up and if you raise them correctly, they’re incredible dogs. Even if they sound like they’re going to rip your face off while you pet them,” she agreed. Chaos was far more vocal than other puppies she’d seen at his age, but he was already learning his name and other basic commands. There had only been two accidents in the house and she’d dealt with it swiftly. “Funny enough, his name’s Chaos. I got him because I’ve been hella lonely and I’m gonna make it this little furball’s problem. His parents were show dogs and agility dogs, so I’ll probably try doing that with him, too.”

x

“Oh really?” Niko smiled at his intuition somehow knowing the dog’s name without meaning to. He watched the puppy running around and couldn’t help but think about how much he would love to have one. “I’m a pilot so I’m basically always traveling which isn’t really conducive to owning a dog. Maybe I could get a cat or something more self-sufficient.” He shrugged but the idea would stick around for a while. “When I was a kid we had all kinds of animals. Cats, dogs, rabbits, horses, goats. Grew up on a lot of land so we had the space for anything we wanted really. I’d like to go back to that life someday.”