#Also Parker's christmas outfits are always a DELIGHT | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

eyrieofsynapses · 3 years

Text

Redemption Panel Highlights and Reactions

GATORS

i.e., Beth Riesgraf and Christian Kane (mostly Beth) talking about filming the scenes in (what I presume is) The Rollin’ on the River Job, where they’re pulling some stuff out of the water, and finding out the next day that there was an absolutely massive alligator pulled out of the same place just a little while after they filmed it

Beth’s impression of the wildlife folks warning them about the alligators

Beth scaring the hell out of Noah Wyle by yelling “GATOR” at him just after he finished his scene

seriously that was an absolutely WILD part of the panel

Everyone showering Aleyse Shannon with literally all the love!

Aldis Hodge in particular big-brothering her, and also the older actors calling her out for not giving herself enough credit, and Dean Devlin talking about how she blew him away at the auditions with her ability to turn on a dime

Seeing Kane with his glasses off wiping at his eyes, momentarily thinking “you okay dude?” and then realizing that he was laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes

(same)

The The Bucket Job clip! I’ve been a bit meh on a lot of Redemption, just in how it didn’t feel quite right, but that is possibly the absolute closest I’ve seen it get to the original in the best way. Brilliant

Which comes as no surprise since BETH RIESGRAF directed the episode!!! And apparently put an insane amount of effort in!

Beth’s utter delight and joy at both directing the episode and having the crew behind her

THE CHAIR

So apparently she and Christian went to town on the fight scene and he winds up tied up in a chair somewhere along the line and there’s a whole wild scene, which I am really looking forward to

Beth knowing how insanely particular he’d be about things like zip ties vs rope and what kind of rope e.t.c. e.t.c.

Apparently this is also tied into a VERY DEEP scene with Eliot? It sounds like they’re going to go super hard on his backstory, which is terrifyingly exciting

Just. Beth and Christian going very hard on that episode together

Speaking of: the panel’s going amazingly, I’m laughing so hard my stomach hurts, things are relatively light, and then, of fucking course—

Kane hitting us over the head about Eliot being a mass murderer who can’t be redeemed, is trying to stay static so that he can maintain the place he’s in, and is thus LIVING VICARIOUSLY THROUGH HARRY

What the FUCK. This is of course incredibly insightful and perfectly on point (because it’s Kane) but also, EXCUSE ME, OUCH, why would you DO THAT to us?

Everyone talking about having their families on set and their kids!

Beth’s son growing up on the original Leverage set and now going into being a director himself!

Gina’s daughter also growing up on set!

Noah Wyle’s daughter is playing Harry’s daughter I REPEAT NOAH WYLE’S ACTUAL DAUGHTER IS PLAYING AS HARRY’S DAUGHTER

Gina Bellman remaining relatively stoic throughout much of the panel (seriously, this woman, how the heck does she do it) and then losing it when they’re asked about running/inside jokes

A lot of them are, of course, apparently not appropriate to be spoken on-panel

(A lot of the others are the little inside ones that are special enough not to be ones they want to share, which is sweet!)

Everyone collectively losing it over having LeVar Burton on for The Bucket Job

Devlin and everyone laughing about collecting the various Star Trek people on Leverage

Beth talking about Burton coming over while she’s getting ready and asking her if she’s living on coffee and water, her laughing because he was absolutely right, and then him gently reminding her to remember to eat, which is the sweetest thing in the world oh my gods

Kane apparently choreographing an intense scene with Burton and being scared out of his mind, because Burton really wanted to go for it, but to Kane it was like he’s a figurine that’s not to be messed with because he was so worried about hurting him

Kane choreographing a massive amount of the show, which I knew already, but seriously, this guy blows me away

Gina and the crew talking about how he’d be away for a day of shooting a fight and all of them would be missing him and thinking about him

Family Vibes

Everyone talking about how they’re very noisy and loud together on set and it’s a bit like walking into a group of people having Christmas dinner (or something to that effect) because they’re just Like That together

Aleyse being the most surprised by Beth when she met her because she was like a little angel of light during the auditions but turned out to be an absolute ball of wild energy on set

Gina going “wait you were a MODEL” at Beth

Aldis talking about how much he loved how Parker and Hardison’s relationship had developed and grown!

Also, Aldis apologizing when the New York (iirc) background noise got loud and everyone going “no no we get you”

His outfit is ON POINT today

Gina saying that Christian is the goofiest and wildest out of them in terms of humor

(she goes “some of you may not know this,” which, fair, but also, if you’ve seen more than ten minutes of this guy outside of character you know he’s an absolute ball of sunshine)

Gina, Beth, and Christian talking about how they’d challenge each other to stay off sweets back on the original set, because they knew they needed to stay in shape and also just because they’re competitive (apparently all of them are major sweet tooths) and hide brownies and things from each other, while Aldis is just. doing pushups. eating all the healthy stuff. and then wanders into the room with a literal cupful of chocolates

(and Aldis going “well yeah I have to work off the sweets SOMEHOW”)

Beth explaining that sometimes they’d order a “Kane burrito” from Christian and he’d alter it slightly

Like, you know, chopping up hot jalapenos super fine and mixing them in, and Beth practically not being able to talk after the first bite

Apparently Aldis still went back a lot even after that

(Christian just seems very pleased with himself over it)

(THESE PEOPLE)

Gina goes “hey we should have an episode where we all swap roles,” Devlin going “WAIT FOR SEASON ONE TO BE DONE,” and then somebody (maybe the moderator?? I don’t remember exactly) going “uh actually. We did that”

Cue immediate scramble of “WAIT WHICH JOB WAS THAT”

(paraphrasing) “Yeah you remember the bit where you put on Parker’s harness and went off a building?”

Turns out half the cast had actually forgotten that that existed and only remember when reminded

The original cast all think of the episodes as “jobs”!!!!

Everyone talking over each other, Devlin going “it was with Sterling when we blew up the offices,” deciding that it was the season one finale, and then trying to figure out what episode title it was (eventually they figure out it’s the David jobs)

Moderator and Devlin accurately commenting that the fans know the show much better than they do

Noah Wyle very correctly explaining how Electric Entertainment is like a family and Devlin just. Keeps people

Aleyse and Aldis talking about typing when they’re hacking and going “WHAT THE HECK DO WE TYPE”

Aldis goes “yeah I just type all the bad words that we’re not allowed to say”

Aleyse saying that she’s always a little worried they’re hiding a Word document behind the blue screen and they’re going to pull up what she’s typing at the end of the day and print it out and put it in her trailer going “what the HECK is this”

Noah talking about filming The Golf Job and just getting to direct Jason Marsters and Christian together

Apparently their dynamic in that episode accurately mirrors the one with their characters in Angel!

Which promptly goes straight to the comment that it was very hard to make Marsters look like a golfer (pfft)

(Also apparently Christian plays golf for fun with his friends? Not necessarily something I would’ve thought of!)

Aleyse happily talking about how she loved the dynamic on set and it was very different from what she was used to

Also Aleyse talking about doing stunts and everyone else praising her for going whole hog

Beth especially praising her for the bit where she’s hit with the paralysis injection (I don’t remember which ep it’s from) and her acting for it, because it was incredibly hard to drop off screen in the particular way she did

Aleyse promptly answers that she was terrified with some of those, especially one where she had to keep a clock from falling and breaking

Everyone discussing how they see a new aspect of Breanna’s character in The Train Job

Also, to get serious for a moment, Kate Rorick in particular talks about how Breanna’s part of Gen Z and how we didn’t get the “days of yore” where everything was chill. We’ve basically been living in a world of hostility the whole time. It’s something I deeply appreciate, as someone who’s part of that group, and I love how they emphasize that for us.

This panel was pure chaos and I loved every moment of it! My stomach was actually hurting from laughing so hard, I swear. They had me cackling well over half the time. I would happily take panels double or triple the length of this, this was amazing. I also adore how the second you drop these six people in a room together, they immediately take off and literally just run and give you everything you wanted and more. (It is also evidently very hard to get them to STOP talking.)

I’m also just going to stop and take a second to fawn over the effects for the 3D room. It’s gorgeous—I love how they replicated the headquarters, especially with the stained glass ceilings! Super impressive, especially with all the photos, and I just love the whole thing. Kudos to whoever put that together.

Anyway, I’m definitely missing some stuff too; seriously, there wasn’t a second wasted in this thing, they were cracking some kind of joke or dropping some really interesting piece of information practically every thirty seconds. (And I haven’t even gotten into the clips OR the bloopers. I miiiight do a separate reaction purely for those.) It’s still up right now if you missed it and you want to watch it! I’ll probably watch it again, honestly.

#leverage #leverage redemption #leverage redemption panel #synapse reacts

363 notes · View notes

angrylizardjacket · 3 years

Text

dirtbags // 3: Charlotte

Summary: High school AU, 1985, Winter. The year’s off to a strange start as Charlotte and her friends find out that not only does Lola work at the new diner that opened up in town, but her dad owns it! Charlotte humbles Nikki in a very un-Charlotte manor, and Vince’s parents decide to host an English exchange student in an attempt to give him a good role model; instead, they get Razzle.

A/N: 8466 words. Do I care too much about this AU? Yes. as always, for my dears @misscharlottelee and @newyeareva ft. a softer world quotes

the city sometimes feels like a movie set. maybe this is the big scene. maybe i can be an extra at least.

Charlotte’s only a few practice hours away from being able to get her provisional license, and she berates her past self for not getting it sooner, especially not when her Winter Break has been kind of a shit-show and she’d rather tear off her own arms than ride in Tommy’s shitbox of a car with Vince Neil.

Since his blowout house party, Vince had essentially been grounded for the rest of the school year, had his car privileges revoked, and the only people his parents apparently trusted him to hang around with outside of school, were Tommy, Charlotte, Eileen, and Peach. Tommy was delighted. The girls, unsurprisingly, were not. Vince himself was downright somber, and had sulked for the remainder of the semester, and well into the break.

He had been in a particularly sour mood since last night, New Year’s Eve, when his parents had announced they were going to be hosting an exchange student from England for six months. Vince is convinced it’s an attempt to give him some sort of role model his own age, and spent most of his parents’ New Year’s Eve party ranting to Tommy and the girls while they played cards in his basement.

Her saving grace is Eileen, of course, who’s father had bought her mother a shiny, new car for Christmas, and had given Eileen the keys to her mother’s old station wagon.

“It’s kinda dumb that we’re taking two cars,” Peach, Eileen’s little sister, pipes up from the back seat, hands fiddling in her lap. It’s New Year’s Day, and while their various parents were sleeping off their hangovers, they’d suggested the kids check out the new diner that was opening today. Vince jumped at the suggestion of freedom, and everyone was in agreement, but Eileen and Charlotte took Peach in Eileen’s car the moment Vince slid into Tommy’s front seat, holding the flyer he’d gotten at the mall that told them all about the diner’s opening day, “just saying, we could all fit in one.” But she’s met with silence, “are you going to be mad at him forever?” She finally sighs.

“Yes.” Both Charlotte and Eileen answer automatically. Peach sighs as dramatically as she’s able, and sinks as low into the seat as she can. Charlotte turns on the radio, and hums along to something familiar, but that she doesn’t quite recognize, staring out the front window at the back of Tommy’s car. Vince turns around in the front seat and flips them off.

“I’m gonna ram them,” Eileen says, with absolute sincerity and serenity, leveling an intense glare at where Vince was now waving.

“Don’t,” Charlotte advises, equally level.

“I don’t get why you’re still mad, I’m not even mad,” Peach huffed, pouting. Charlotte and Eileen share a look; at sixteen years old, Peach was top of almost all of her math and science classes, but she was still a teenage girl, and an absolute fool for a blonde boy who made her cry. Charlotte knew that feeling all too well, but thankfully she’d moved on from the ‘wondering why she wasn’t enough’ stage to the ‘realizing her ex is a cheating douchebag and it was never her fault’ stage. She really hopes Peach can move on to ‘realizing Vince made her cry and hasn’t even tried to change since then and deserved to get his car keyed’ stage quickly.

The diner was bustling when they arrived, a large decal on the inside of window, black, thick and flowing lettering, outlined in gold, reading Leo’s. Through the window, several booths were already filled, as were a host of the stools along the counter. It looked warm inside, inviting in golds, yellows, peaches and oranges, neon signs and rusted street signs, band and comic book memorabilia, and photos. Behind the counter -

Lola. Smiling.

“I’m freezing my butt off, can we go in?” Peach asks, hands shoved deep in the pockets of her parker, the only person who did not recognize the girl currently pouring coffee for an elderly gentleman at the counter.

Inside, the diner is warm, filled with the sounds pleasant chatter, and of the Beatles coming from a cherry wood jukebox in the corner.

“Lola!” Tommy can’t help himself, lighting up at the sight of her, and once Lola finishes pouring her customer coffee, she looks to their confused little group, and waves.

“Find yourselves a seat, I’ll be with you in a moment,” she calls back, smiling bright and wide, hair tied back with a bright, red bandana.

The teens do as they’re told, pulling off jackets and gloves and scarves, sliding into a booth by the window, looking around, wrapped up in the smell of warm food, and the confusion of Lola’s presence, and completely unfamiliar demeanor. There’s an uncertain kind of quiet among them, having just expected to spend lunch at a cool new diner, but this has shift everything, only Peach, blissfully unaware of who Lola even was, seemed at ease, rearranging the sugar packets in their little holder.

Lola comes by with menus, and cups, and a pitcher of water for the table, looking pristine and put together in a tight, black blouse, skirt, and scuffed black combat boots, little peach-coloured apron tied around her waist. She pulls a notebook and pen from the pocket of the apron, looking around at them all, as if finally taking a moment to assess the situation.

Charlotte picked up a menu.

“You work here?” Tommy asked, and Lola confirms brightly, but doesn’t give any further details. She does, however, thank them all for coming, and recommend a few of her favourites.

“I’m also partial to The Lola, for obvious reasons,” she gives an actual laugh at that, as if implying one of the burgers was named after her was giving away too much information, and Charlotte was quickly scouring the menu.

Beef patty, double bacon, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and a home-made smokey maple-barbeque sauce, on a toasted bun.

“The menu’s kind of misleading,” Lola admits, moving to look down over Charlotte’s shoulder as she was reading, “all the patties are home made too, with Leo’s signature blend of herbs and spices.” That asked more questions than it answered. No-one’s quite sure what to say.

“Can I get a milkshake?” Peach pipes up, and Lola’s smile grew wide as she asked what flavour, “chocolate, please, and do you have curly fries or regular?”

“Hand cut,” Lola tells her proudly, but that means very little to Peach, who’s just glad to be having food, “still need time to think?” Lola asks the rest, and they all give her awkward, quiet smiles and nods.

Lola leaves, heading back to the counter, and the moment she’s gone, the whole table explodes with whispered confusion, leaning in, asking questions and not getting any answers.

“You guys are being super fucking weird,” Peach hisses loudly at them all, while Charlotte and Tommy argue about how the other should have known. Eileen, quietly delighted by the chaos, demands to know if anyone else thinks Lola might secretly have a twin, and Vince, who’s had the least contact with her aside from Peach, is babbling about how it’s weird to see Lola so chipper; their mutual confusion is enough to set aside Eileen and Charlotte’s hatred of him, at least for the moment.

When Peach demands they explain what they’re all whisper-shouting about, disturbing the booth behind her, they all quiet down, and Tommy and Eileen take it in turns explaining their full understanding of Lola. Charlotte takes the time to actually look around the diner now that she was inside.

There’s two other waitress, one behind the counter, the other always moving on about the various tables and booths on one side, making sure the customers are happy and food and drinks are delivered, both in the same outfit as Lola, though with varying footwear.

The view to the kitchen is unobstructed behind the counter, a half wall where meals ready to be delivered were sat, but a clear view to where three people in the kitchen, two by the grills and fryers, turned away; a broad-shouldered man towering over the grill with the longest hair Charlotte’s ever seen braided neatly down his back, and a comparatively shorter man, also with far shorter hair, though enough to be pulled up into a messy pony tail. The shorter man’s working the fryer, and putting together burgers as the taller man cooked up their various ingredients. There was also a strangely familiar kid with a mop of dark, curly hair washing dishes on the other side of the kitchen, barely visible.

Lola worked diligently, smiling and chatting away; she collected dishes, and ferried meals, and handed out slices of desert from the cute, multi-tiered desserts display on the counter. When she came back, milkshake in one hand, basket of fries in the other, Peach is fully caught up on each of her friend’s short but confusing histories with her, and blurts out -

“You’re Lola?” Injecting new meaning into the words, into the name, as if anyone else at their entire school had the same name. Lola’s smile goes a little tight as she places the fries and the milkshake before the redhead. Standing back up, she taps her nametag, which reads Lola, with little flowers drawn around it, and confirms, though it’s clear she’s more on edge than she was before.

“You guys ready to order?” She asks, still trying to keep up her chipper attitude, pulling out her notebook again. Everyone’s quieter this time, looking over the menu and finally deciding on food.

“My mom heard the owner was a chef, is that true?” Tommy asks, looking up from the menu to Lola again, and the tense set of her shoulders loosens considerably at the question.

“Leo is a chef,” Lola nodded, grinning broadly, “trained at the Culinary Institute of America back in the sixties, and worked his way up to being the head chef of Parker House in Boston, which I know probably doesn’t mean much to you guys, but it’s,” Lola laughs a little struggling to describe it, “it’s fine dining at it’s finest, but for the past twelve years, he’s been running Leo’s in Salem, and now he’s here, still using all that fine dining training for the anyone who wants a good meal at a good price.”

“Is that something they have you memorize in training?” Vince says, a little awed, and Lola gives a strange little smile.

“Leo’s my dad.”

Everything kind of fell into place after that, finally making sense, and the gang’s confusion quickly shifted to understanding, and the air around the table seemed to clear. It was easier after that, the teens in the booth ordering quickly, and the chatter picked up to a normal level as she moved away, shouting their order back to the kitchen once she was back at the counter.

She doesn’t spend much time at their table, still in charge of waitressing half of the tables and booths, but she always gives them a nod as she passes, and their meals are being delivered efficiently, so there’s no reason to complain.

The food itself, for diner food, is nothing short of spectacular, which kind of just raises more questions - why if Leo can cook food that tastes this good, and with all the experience he evidentially has, would he open a diner in suburban LA, and not a high-end restaurant? But it feels kind of intrusive to ask, so Charlotte simply enjoys her food, and her friends’ company.

Up until Vince starts complaining about the exchange student again.

“His name’s Nicholas, he shows up in a week, and mom’s making me clear out the basement so he can sleep there,” he’s despondently poking his milkshake with one of his fries, head propped up on one hand, “I’ve been asking for years if I could move into the basement, and this fucking Nicholas just gets it?” His whole expression scrunches up at the thought, and he angrily eats his fry.

“Wait, so the issue isn’t that you have to clean up the basement, it’s that he gets to use it as a bedroom and you don’t?” Charlotte frowned, lowering her own burger, “why would you even want to sleep in the basement?”

“Privacy!” Vince throws his hands in the air, eyes wide, “Tammi keeps complaining about getting cramps in the back of my car, but my bedroom walls are paper thin,” he huffs, “I need my own space.”

“Tammi?” Peach asks, her voice high and almost painfully chipper, “Tammi Frisk? She scored the winning goal in the softball final, right?” She’s not looking at Vince, when Charlotte looks over to her, she’s looking at her plate of fries, pushing the few left around without eating any, smiling in a way that’s clearly forced.

“You were at the softball final?” Tommy asked, frowning slightly. Peach did not look up.

“For the school paper,” she explained, voice still strange.

“You’re still with Tammi Frisk?” Eileen asks, making sure the disgust is clear in her voice as she draws the table’s attention away from the clearly uncomfortable Peach. Charlotte’s lip curled; she wanted to make sure her expression was as judgmental as possible when Vince turned back to her.

It’s not that she cared about who he was dating, she was mostly apathetic to Tammi, and knew little more about her than the fact that she was on the softball team, but Charlotte knew Vince had been dating Tammi when he’d decided to crush Peach’s heart publicly at the start of the last semester.

Neither Peach nor Eileen had told any of them exactly how, but apparently Eileen’s hatred was well warranted, both against Vince, and according to Eileen, Tammi too.

Vince, immediately sensing Eileen’s shift in tone, and seeing the look on her face, frowns.

“Kind of,” he responds flatly, and his gaze flicks to Peach, “not really,” he backtracks, and his indignation at the whole situation seems to fizzle out with a sigh, and he slouches, going back to paying attention to his burger, “she’s sort of hanging out with one of the second-string football guys, but they’re not... and we’re not really...” he trails off, despondent once more.

At least Vince seemed to be self-aware of the fact that he was an asshole to Peach, at least he had the decency to feel bad about it. Why he kept inviting Peach to hang out, despite the fact that he knew Eileen, who hated his guts, would come along too - invited or not - baffled Charlotte.

Tommy was his friend, and a guy, Charlotte was a cheerleader and technically popular, and so was usually begrudgingly invited too, but Peach, sweet Peach, recent Science Fair Winner, junior reporter for the school paper, treasurer for the AV Club, by all accounts ‘a nerd’ when judged by her interests, was still on the guest list of Vince Neil’s life, even if he wouldn’t admit that out loud.

It kind of made Charlotte want to punch him in the face.

But that’s not news.

“I hope the English exchange student is a decent influence on you,” Charlotte tells him. Vince scowls.

“You sound like my parents.”

you make me want to pretend to be a better man.

Now that school has started back up, Vince has thankfully had his car privileges returned, and Charlotte can return to not glowering in the back seat of Tommy’s car when he picks her up on the way to school, and drops her home on the days they both have practice.

But it’s Wednesday, first week back, and he’s uncharacteristically quiet. Usually he’s babbling about practice, or cheerleaders he thinks are pretty, or Lola, but today, he meets Charlotte in the carpark, leaning against the trunk of his car, hands in his pockets, quiet. It’s decidedly unnerving.

“What’s wrong, Tom?” Charlotte asks, yanking the passenger door open once he unlocks it, sliding into the seat and putting her bag by her feet.

“Nothing,” Tommy voice betrays the lie, the thoughts so clearly on his mind that he was trying to avoid talking about. Charlotte won’t push him, if he wanted to tell her, he would, and he usually does, “put on some music, will you?” And Charlotte obligingly opens the glove compartment in front of her to look through the collection of 8track tapes he keeps in there, several of which had been Christmas gifts from Charlotte herself.

Feet on the dashboard, Charlotte’s more than content listening to Bon Jovi, bopping her head to the beat, when Tommy finally finds the words for his thoughts.

“Lola and Nikki Sixx are friends.”

Up until now, Charlotte was under the impression that Tommy, like her, thought Nikki and Lola would be great as friends, Tommy’s current tone implies otherwise.

“Is that not good?” Charlotte’s careful about her words, still not sure where Tommy’s hesitation was coming from.

“No, they make sense,” he’s quick to try and backtrack, words spilling from him almost too fast, “they make sense as friends.” He deliberates, before asking, “Charlie, you’re not friends with Nikki Sixx are you?” And it sounds like he already knows the answer. Charlotte hesitates.

“He keeps bothering me during my free periods, I wouldn’t exactly call us friends -”

“He called you Charlie,” its deadpan and accusatory in equal measure, and Charlotte shrinks back into her seat as Tommy keeps talking, “he called me ‘Charlie’s cousin’. It was weird.”

“I thought you wanted to be his friend -” she tries, right as they pull up to a red light, and Tommy fixes her with an unamused look, the only expression that makes him seem older than his years.

“Did you tell him I was obsessed with him?”

“No!” Charlotte snaps, automatically defensive.

“Because I’m not -”

“I never said - I told him you were a fan! That’s all! Like Duff was!” Charlotte tries to clear up, and Tommy looks back at the road, though this time he thankfully looks more pensive than angry. Only Bon Jovi cuts through the tense air between them for the rest of the drive back to Charlotte’s house, and when Tommy pulls up outside, he doesn’t say anything to her when she gets out.

The next day, like clockwork, fifteen minutes into her free period, Nikki Sixx comes climbing over the school’s fence, into the garden Charlotte had been trying to force herself to study in. In all honesty, she’d been waiting for him, picking at her nail polish beneath the table and reading the same sentence in Moby Dick over and over again.

“Miss Lee,” Nikki nods to her, a little gruffer than usual, “you seem more tense than usual; I can help you with that if you want,” but he still manages to smirk his way through an unsubtle come-on, and Charlotte rolls her eyes, not in the mood for their usual banter.

“I’d rather sit on a cactus,” she tells him icily, without even a teasing edge. Nikki’s eyebrows shoot up at the hostility, and he puts the packet of cigarettes that he’d about to offer her on the table, knowing she’d turn them down anyway, “I thought people weren’t meant to know that we know each other.”

“What people do?” Nikki frowned, raising his lighter to the cigarette between his lips, “is this about yesterday? I talked to your cousin, big deal. Everyone knows you two are related, and everyone knows you,” he looks pointedly to the embroidered logo on her cheer uniform, “I wasn’t even looking for him -”

“Dude,” Charlotte felt as though she was about to tear her hair out, “you called me Charlie to him, people don’t just call me that!”

“Plenty of people call you that! That leggy redhead you’re always hanging around calls you Charlie -”

“My friends call me that -” Charlotte snaps, “and I know you know that’s Eileen Austen.” And Nikki’s wearing a dreamy look, like he’s thinking unholy thoughts about Eileen as Charlotte speaks, before snapping out of it as the first of her words register like a bucket of ice water to the face.

“I’ve called you Charlie before. To your face.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed,” Charlotte tells him dryly, crossing her arms, “it’s less effort if I don’t correct you. We’re so not friends that I don’t even care about correcting you.” Back when this school year started, Charlotte wouldn’t have dreamed saying half the nasty shit she’s thrown at Nikki Sixx, and at some point she may have to confront the idea that being around him has made her meaner, “but did you tell my cousin that I told you he was obsessed with you? Because I never -”

“I said I was glad he was a fan!” Nikki scowled, sitting back and glowering at her across the table, “all I wanted was to ask Lola if she wanted to sit on the roof with the rest of the smokers, and your fuckin’ yappy, dumbass of a cousin -”

Punching someone in the face hurts a lot more than Charlotte had been anticipating, but it’s worth it to see Nikki toppling backwards off of the picnic bench and onto the cold grass. His cigarette lies some few feet away while he lays groaning, clutching his cheek, and Charlotte’s standing, leaning, thighs pressed against the picnic table for support as she’s staring down at him, breathing heavy through her nose while the adrenaline rushes through her system.

“What the fuck, Charlie?”

“Don’t talk shit about Tommy,” her heart’s thundering in her chest, she can feel the blood rushing in her ears, and when she looks at her hand, she sees the skin of one of her knuckles has split enough to draw blood, “he has done fucking nothing to you apart from support you, and think you’re really fucking cool, for whatever dumbass reason, so don’t you dare talk shit about him.”

“Jesus Christ,” Nikki groaned, eyes closed, trying to catch his breath after being winded so thoroughly, hand still cradling his cheek. That’s how Charlotte leaves him, slinging her bag onto her shoulder, and stalking towards the library to finish the rest of her free period in peace.

When Tommy drives Charlotte, Eileen, and Peach home after school that day, he’s quiet once again, but it somehow feels completely different to the oppressively accusatory air of the day before. The three girls were chattering away, trying to plan a trip to the mall for the upcoming weekend, and only when Peach and Eileen were waving goodbye in the rearview mirror did Tommy speak up.

“Did you punch Nikki Sixx in the face?” There’s a smile in her cousin’s voice, and Charlotte’s not quite sure how to react.

“I had good reason to,” she says, carefully guarded.

“He said you guys were friends, and then he thanked me for being coming to the gig a while back; told me he’d asked you to bring me specifically,” Tommy’s tone was oozing pride, and if Charlotte had been looking at him, and not frowning out the window, she would have seen how he was all but preening.

“He told you all that?” Charlotte’s anger at her memory’s of the morning’s altercation was fading fast.

“He hung out with me and Lola by the carpark for lunch,” Tommy paused, snorting a laugh, “didn’t want his buddies to find out a cheerleader gave him a black eye.”

“I - what? No I didn’t...” Charlotte’s eyes went wide, and finally she looked at her cousin’s beaming face.

“You definitely did; Lola laughed at him for a full ten minutes because of it.”

“Serves him right,” Charlotte said, with a begrudging little smile.

Nikki sits with Tommy and Lola on Friday too, which Tommy is delighted to inform Charlotte on Saturday while he’s driving them both to Vince’s, where his parents have invited them over to meet the exchange student. Nicholas.

He arrived on Wednesday, but Vince’s parents have given him the rest of the week to settle in, and had invited around the few friends Vince has that they deem to be a positive influence, if only so he knew a few faces around school.

Charlotte had been picturing some over-gelled boarding-school boy, used to itchy uniforms and strict rules, and about to get a good deal of culture shock hanging around Vince and the rest of their motley little pack, but when Charlotte brings this speculation up in the car, Tommy’s quick to dismiss it. Vince, from the little Tommy had spoken to him in the past two days, was over the moon, claimed that Nicholas - Vince had called him Razzle - was amazing. If Charlotte felt an quiet sense of foreboding at that sentiment, she felt it was justified.

The first thing either of them hear after being directed down to the basement by Vince’s mother, is Alice Cooper playing almost obnoxiously loud; Charlotte’s not sure why, but it eases something in her chest.

Nicholas’s - Razzle’s? - room, first and foremost, is possibly the coolest bedroom Charlotte’s ever been in. He’s decked it out with movie and band posters, though most of the band’s she’s never heard of. There’s string-lights above a desk, a bed crammed into one corner with a bright duvet, and even a sofa, and a few beanbags all crowded around a low, wooden table that had mostly been taken up with a record player, which is where they found their friends.

The name Razzle suited him, Charlotte considered, as she took in the newcomer’s appearance, all spiked up dark hair and ostentatious clothing, animatedly telling a story while Peach and Vince hung onto his every word. He looked almost wild, like collection of half-thought ideas all vying to become a reality through the texture of his clothes, the height of his hair, the hint of amusement that tailed his words, the passion shining in the blue of his eyes when they flicked to look at her and her cousin, standing on the stairs and watching him.

His words grow quiet as he takes them in, as if waiting for something to happen, for someone to introduce them.

“You must be Charlie and Tommy!” His accent, thick and bright, made her nickname sound so familiar on his lips.

“Charlotte,” Vince corrects, giving a surprisingly respectful nod to Charlotte, who tries to shrug nonchalantly.

“Charlie’s fine. You’re,” and Charlotte hesitates for a moment, ignoring Vince’s eyeroll, “Razzle, right?” Razzle’s smile is blinding at her immediate use of the nickname, and he waves them in.

Peach throws Tommy a cushion from the sofa when he asks, and he settles himself on the floor next to Vince, while Peach and Eileen squeeze over to make room for Charlotte on the sofa clearly only made for two people.

“I was just telling these guys ‘bout my band’s very first gig, ‘nd how I had to sneak out just to get there,” Razzle settled back into his own beanbag, hands out and ready to return to his story, eyes still shining with anticipation at the memory, or possibly just glad to have an audience.

Oh, Charlotte thought, looking at this boy she barely knew, already fighting off a smile in the face of his infectious enthusiasm, maybe Vince was becoming a better judge of character.

“You’re in a band?” Tommy’s eyes light up, and Charlotte gives her cousin a fond smile; Razzle has already won his seal of approval.

we need more good crazy. it'd be nice to watch the news, and think, 'that's fucking insane', but feel a little jealous instead of just alone.

Heather hasn’t been glowering as much at lunch, and the rumour is that it’s because she’s getting laid. Well, it’s less of a rumour to Charlotte, since Heather confirmed as much to the rest of the cheer squad when one of the girls asked her, but she’s being coy and secretive about who she’s with, which is the really weird part; Heather won’t say, and no-one’s coming forward, and lord knows that most guys at their school would jump at the opportunity to claim they’re banging the Vice Captain of the Cheerleading Squad.

But Charlotte knows not to look a gift horse in the mouth, and instead just smiles back when Heather gives her a sunny smile in the cafeteria.

Tommy is less than thrilled with the news when Charlotte brings it up in the car after school. Nikki’s still sitting with him and Lola during lunch, despite his bruising going down considerably over the weekend, and Tommy is equal parts delighted and uncomfortable, for reasons he can’t seem to put into words.

“At least Pam’s single,” he says it with as much of a dreamy sigh as he can manage, though it comes out more forlorn than anything else. Charlotte pets his shoulder, and reminds him that so is over half the squad; he perks up a little at that.

They pull into Mick’s gas station, and Charlotte waves to Mick and Lola, who are sitting on the step by the door sharing a cigarette. Lola waves back.

“Meant to give this to you,” Lola says to Charlotte, still sitting while Mick begrudgingly heads inside. Tommy follows him in, not needing to fill up the tank, but rather just looking to drown his sorrows regarding Heather in a jumbo slurpee. Outside, Charlotte waits with her hands in her pockets, giving Lola an amused smile, watching as the dark haired girl pulls a pin off of the jacket she practically lives in, and hands it over.

It’s a piece of black card stock cut into the shape of a star, barely an inch in diameter, taped to a safety pin. It say Punched Nikki Sixx in silver pen, one of the points of the star already a little bit crumpled.

“You’re a little bit punk, so you get a pin,” Lola tells her, smiling around her cigarette, looking quietly pleased, and perhaps even a little bit proud; whether of herself or of Charlotte, Charlotte can’t tell, but it still makes her flush.

“I thought Nikki didn’t want anyone knowing that a cheerleader gave him a black eye,” Charlotte mused, looking at the little pin, and Lola’s face scrunched up, expression falling.

“So? Who gives a shit?” She shrugs, looking away tone having shifted to almost forcibly neutral in an instant, “wear the pin or don’t, I don’t care.” Lola stands with a groan, without giving Charlotte a chance to respond, and calls to Mick that she’s heading to the diner. Mick waves, Tommy calls out a farewell, and Charlotte frowns, wondering what just happened.

“I hate that,” Nikki says flatly, the moment he spots the pin where Charlotte’s fixed it to the strap of her backpack. There’s no hard feelings between them after last week’s altercation, thankfully, though they don’t talk about it. If Charlotte’s glad that he still showed up, if she’s realised she may, in fact, enjoy his company, she keeps that information to herself.

“Lola made it for me,” Charlotte tells him. Nikki leans in, squinting at the handmade pin.

“Of course she did,” he sighs, leaning back. Surprisingly, there’s quiet between them for a few, long moments; maybe, Charlotte considers, this will be one of those mornings where Nikki uses their time together to catch up on sleep, and Charlotte can actually use her free period for it’s intended, study-related purpose, but then Nikki sighs like he wants her to ask what’s wrong.

So she does.

“I need a new band.”

“I can’t help you.”

“I know,” Nikki nods with resignation, “I was gonna ask this guy I work with, Slash, he plays guitar, but he’s already in one -”

“Wait, you don’t mean Duff’s friend Saul Hudson, do you?” Charlotte frowned, intrigued despite the stab of anger she felt at the mere mention of her ex. Nikki seemed taken aback by her question.

“You know Duff McKagan?”

“I dated him for a year and a half,” Charlotte finds herself suddenly very interested in drawing connecting triangles in the back of her notebook, not looking at Nikki, who’s quietly processing this information.

“He’s in a band now,” and neither of them seem to be quite sure why he offered that information, but they both let is hang between them for a moment.

“Makes sense,” Charlotte nods, tone flat, “with Saul - Slash?”

“Yeah,” is all Nikki has to say.

“Slash is a good kid, I always liked him,” Charlotte offered, and finally she looks up, “Tommy plays drums.”

“Marching band isn’t exactly -” Nikki begins, but Charlotte’s shaking her head.

“No, like, legit drums,” she enthuses, “his parents fixed up their whole garage to make it sound proof for him,” but she doesn’t want Nikki to think she’s pushing her cousin on him too hard, not after last week, so she sits back, and crosses her arms, trying to play it cool, “I mean, you can ask him yourself, see if he’s any good.” She shrugs, but Nikki looks like he’s already considering it.

“How many musicians do you know, Charlie?” He finally asks, giving her a faint, amused smile.

“Probably too many,” Charlotte responds with a longsuffering smile, before her mind turns to the things Tommy himself had told her, “I heard you and Lola are getting along; what’d I tell you?” She teased, and much to her surprise, what she could see of Nikki’s face, for his hair, was turning pink.

“She’s a bitch; you know she’s a bitch, right?” He asks, but he’s grinning, all sharp and dangerously amused.

“I knew you guys would get along,” Charlotte gives a pleased little sigh, as if she’d manufactured their whole friendship herself. Nikki rolls his eyes at her, and the bell goes.

Tommy, as it turns out, thinks they’re sleeping together, at least that’s what he tells Charlotte when they’re on their way to Leo’s after school to meet up with Vince, Razzle, Peach, and Eileen. The news of Nikki and Lola’s potential affair surprises Charlotte at first, but after a moment of consideration, she thinks she should have seen it coming.

Tommy’s reasoning is that they’ve become friends far quicker than he’d realised, and Nikki’s always giving Lola lifts after work, like they’re going in the same direction, even though he’d pretty sure Nikki doesn’t live near Leo’s. It also turns out that that was what had been bothering him about Nikki and Lola being friends; he still tries to insist he doesn’t have a crush on Lola, but he and Charlotte both know that’s mostly a lie.

So Charlotte can see how conflicted he is when he tells her that Nikki’s looking to start a new band, and that he asked about Tommy possibly playing drums. A beat of silence follows, and then, without looking away from the road, Tommy mutters a quiet thanks, knowing without asking that Charlotte had been the one to recommend him. Charlotte leans over and bumps her forehead against his shoulder in unspoken acknowledgment.

“Duff’s in a band,” Charlotte’s voice is soft and a little unreadable.

“Sorry,” Tommy mutters, tone somber like it’s the worst news in the world, “we could throw rotten tomatoes at him?” He suggested, at the mental picture alone was enough to make Charlotte laugh, “or is that just in the movies?”

“I think that’s just in the movies,” Charlotte says, amid giggles, “besides, the rest of his band doesn’t deserve that.”

In the week that Razzle’s been in LA, Vince and his family have taken him to several, sophisticated restaurants in the vicinity, and Razzle had apparently loved them all; Leo’s was no different. He was sitting across from Charlotte in the booth, at the end of the table, reading the menu intently as the others chattered away about their day, making noises of intrigue every time he spotted something new he wanted to try. His knee knocked hers under the table, but it barely seemed to register, so engrossed in the menu that he muttered the faintest apology.

“Afternoon, guys, welcome,” Lola at work never failed to startle Charlotte, despite the fact that she’d been here once already since the first time. At least her chipper introduction seemed to bring Razzle back to reality.

“Hi, yes - oh! I know you!” Razzle lit up at the sight of Lola, and the rest of the gathered teens watched with interest, trying not to give away how intrigued they were to see Lola’s reaction, “Miss Honky Cat, you work here?”

What?

“Alright, Razzle, you found me, did you wanna order something?” Lola says, with a good-natured eyeroll, and an easy grin, hip cocked to one side. Razzle asks her what she recommends, and orders that, and then the rest of them, who had been sitting in stunned silence, are quick to order for themselves.

When she leaves, it’s mere moments before Tommy asks what that was all about, and Razzle’s eyes go wide.

“That’s Lola, innit? From school? She’s in my music class, was playing Honky Cat on the piano in the second music room, the Elton song, you know, when we had some free this morning,” he explained, confused, “she called me Rocketman when I picked what she’d been playing, but I told her my name’s Razzle.”

“You’re an enigma,” ironically, it’s Eileen who says this, wearing a fond little smile, while Razzle just looked bemused.

“I think it’s the accent, chicks fuckin’ love it,” Vince pipes up, smirking, and Razzle tries to hide his own pleased little grin since he can’t very well deny it, “Pam was all over him in Phys Ed yesterday -”

“We were just having a conversation -” Razzle was quickly turning red, while Vince clutched at his arm, putting on a high voice, twirling his blonde hair around one finger as he pretended to be Pam.

“Oh Nicholas, tell me more about The Clash, please, I want to know more!” He ended with a fake moan, which had Eileen and Peach laughing, while Razzle grabbed Charlotte’s hand and exaggeratedly mouthed ‘help me’.

“Pam’s into Razzle?” Tommy groaned, breaking the moment, falling dejectedly against Vince, who was already leaning pretty heavily on Razzle, who was then ejected from his seat and onto the floor, while Vince was draped over where he was just sitting, and Tommy was draped over Vince, “I’m gonna die alone.”

Despite Tommy’s despair, the rest of the table was greatly amused.

Thankfully for Razzle, it wasn’t a far fall, and he’d held tight to Charlotte’s hand, so at least he hadn’t ended up flat on his back, and Charlotte gave him an apologetic grin as she helped him to his feet. He lets go to dust himself off, and it’s here Charlotte notices his maroon, velvet pants, and black and white leather shoes with their little heel.

“Fancy threads,” Charlotte points out, notes of approval in her voice. Razzle makes a move to straightening a jacket he’s not wearing, and clicks his heels together, drawing the attention of the rest of the table to his shoes, of which they all make various noises of approval, or at least interest.

“I dress to impress,” and judging by his tone, if he were as crass as Vince or Nikki, he would have winked, but Charlotte’s kind of glad he refrained. He then shoves Vince, and by extension Tommy, back up to a sitting position, retaking his seat across from Charlotte, this time purposefully knocking his knee against hers.

Charlotte’s glad that Lola’s back with their drinks, so she can look at something that’s not Razzle’s sunny smile, because she doesn’t want to think about how pretty it makes him look. Stupid, British, band boy and his stupid, blue eyes.

But then she’s looking at Lola, and all she can remember is Tommy’s dejected expression when he told her that Lola and Nikki were possibly sleeping together, and Nikki’s half-hidden, bashful grin when he calls a bitch with a kind of fondness that Charlotte had never heard from him before. The urge to protect her cousin, from harm, from heartbreak, is carved into her bones, but part of her knows it would him hurt more to let him keep falling for Lola when she’d never really end up catching him. Suddenly staring into the depths of her soda became the safest option.

i have loved since you. but when the new paint gets scratched, there you are underneath.

Heather, of all people, is holding a party, and she tries to limit the amount of people she tells - the squad and her friends were the first to be invited - but of course, the guest list spirals out of control, and it’s exactly one and a half days before Tommy’s mooning over the fact that he’s been invited to a party at an actual cheerleader’s house.

“Dude, you’re killing me here,” Charlotte tells him at lunch; she’s finally sitting with him, Lola, and Nikki, though Nikki’s late. Heather had coyly asked her to ask Vince to bring Razzle - the cute English guy, specifically - and Charlotte had picked up her bag and left. Something about Heather in a good mood was worse than when she was being catty.

“You don’t count, you’re my cousin,” Tommy waived her off, and Lola snorted a laugh from where she was laying in the grass, using her backpack as a pillow. “You going?” Tommy pokes Lola in the ribs and she smacks his hand away, but makes an affirmative noise, and throws her arm over her eyes to shield them from the sun.

Something about how that makes Tommy smile, almost pleased, has worry sinking heavy in Charlotte’s gut.

“Heather asked me to ask Vince to invite Razzle,” Charlotte’s not quite sure why she says it, or why it makes Lola bark a laugh of her own, but at least it get’s Tommy’s mind off of last time he and Lola were at a party.

“Of course -” Tommy sighs, but then, in the very same breath, he lights up like a lightbulb, “wait! If Heather’s preoccupied with Razzle, and Pam’s going, then I -” he turned sharply to Charlotte, eyes wide, “is Pam seeing anyone?” Charlotte gives him an amused, but longsuffering look, shaking her head.

“You gonna put the moves on her?” Lola’s smirking, and Tommy’s steadily turning red, but refusing to be embarrassed.

“It’s now or never, you know? She’s graduating in a few months, will go to college and date some meathead, college footballer, this is my chance,” he enthused, and Charlotte pet his shoulder in solidarity.

Nikki joins them halfway through lunch, right as Lola and Charlotte find themselves playing angel and devil on Tommy’s shoulders regarding how he should dress for the party. Charlotte’s firmly of the opinion that he should be be wearing bright, eye-catching things - “Come on, you know Pam likes those new-wave guys!” - while Lola was adamantly recommending to go all-out punk.

“Don’t ask Nikki’s opinion, you know who he’s going to side with,” Charlotte implored, and as if to prove a point, Nikki throws his bag to the side, and lays down with his head pillowed on Lola’s stomach.

“Because Nikki has taste,” Lola throws her arm above her head, into the grass, neck at an awkward angle as she looks, wide-eyed to Tommy.

“Thank you,” Nikki grumbles, and immediately closes his eyes, “what are we arguing about?” A pause, then, “and why is Charlie here?”

“Heather asked Charlie to bring Razz to the party next weekend,” Tommy says, the words sounding rote off his tongue, before he gets into the meat of the argument, laying himself back in the grass. Somehow it makes Charlotte feel left out, being the only one left marginally upright, and she slouches a little lower against the fence.

Tommy explains his conundrum, and much to everyone’s surprise, Nikki refrains from giving his opinion, sighting that he has no clue what Pam would like, and that he’s not taking the fall if Tommy looks like a dickhead and crashes and burns while talking to, arguably, the most popular girl in school.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, asshole,” Tommy groans, without really thinking, and as the realization and subsequent horror took over his expression, Lola barked a laugh, and even Nikki was grinning.

The moment was surprisingly light, Tommy’s face buried in his hands, though he’s now hiding a smile, and Charlotte is surprised at how easy it is to smile and laugh here, these people accepting her presence without another thought. The politics of the cafeteria make it all feel so foreign, but Tommy said ‘Charlie’s sitting here now’ and Nikki and Lola took it in stride.

And later, Eileen will ask her where she was at lunch, will go on to sigh and roll her eyes as she recounts barely sitting through five minutes of the cheerleaders buzzing like cheerful, little hornets, discussing who would be at the party, and how they would coordinate their outfits. She’d spent another five minutes with the swim team, who spent the entire time picking apart her backstroke technique since she ‘finally decided to join them’.

“This is why I don’t sit with them,” Eileen had frowned, sitting in the McDonalds carpark, absentmindedly violating her soda with it’s straw out of frustration, Charlotte, wide-eyed, quietly eats her terrible, oily fries, and lets Eileen vent, “if I have to listen to one more five-am-gym-going-wannabe-sports-scholarship tell me my form is off, I’m going to go full Carrie-At-The-Prom at our next meet,” Eileen warned, and reached over to snatch a fry. Very few people were ever privy to Eileen’s frustration, as the redhead seemed to do a rather good job of bottling it up, but Charlotte personally felt honored that her friend could be so honest around her.

“I was thinking of joining yearbook, maybe? Or the school paper with...” a strange moment of hesitation, “with Peach,” Eileen paused, taking a long moment to think, and take a sip of her drink, eyes glass as she stared out at the highway as cars passed before them, “auditions for the school play are on Friday,” she adds, like she’s seriously considering it, “it’s Singin’ In The Rain, Keanu actually suggested I should audition.” The idea that Keanu and Eileen have talked enough for him to suggest that she audition for a musical and for her to serious consider it is kind of baffling; Charlotte doesn’t process the meaning behind any of this now, however, just files it away in the back of her mind for later.

“Macy moved to Portland over the Summer,” Charlotte feigns seriousness with her suggestion instead, trying not to give away how amused she is, already anticipating Eileen’s response, “we’re holding cheer tryouts to replace her on Tuesday,” Eileen’s expression is already souring, almost comedically disgusted at Charlotte’s implied suggestion, though she lets the blonde finish, “you were the best bottom-right to the pyramid we’ve ever had,” she said, barely stifling giggles as Eileen turns to her.

“I’d rather die,” her lip curled, and Charlotte leaned over the center console of the minivan to press her forehead against Eileen’s shoulder, and Eileen reaches up with her free hand to scratch gently at Charlotte’s scalp, before bursting out with, “and my form’s not even bad! The coach loves me, Charlie, she loves me, they just think they’re better than me, bunch of clique-y, insular, webbed-toe bitches.”

The words hang in the air, a surprising outburst from the usually reserved and thoughtful girl.

“Do they really have webbed toes?” Charlotte asks, turning so her temple still pressed against the soft cashmere of Eileen’s sweater, but she was following the ginger’s gaze out to the highway ahead. Eileen gives a tired, little laugh, as if her outburst had left her exhausted.

“No.”

Charlotte wants more than anything to ask her what’s wrong, but knows better than anyone that Eileen only says exactly what she wants someone else to know. Instead, she offers her fries silently. Eileen takes one.

“Peach and I got into a fight today,” voice barely above a whisper, Eileen follows her words with a sigh, and suddenly her out of character frustration made complete, and utter sense. For all that she’s known both Peach and Eileen, Charlotte has never known their altercations to be quick or painless affairs, “Vince invited her to Heather’s party.”

“He invited her himself?” Charlotte’s not sure what the issue is beyond their general dislike of Vince, but if Vince himself is starting to possibly change, then it’s hard to see the issue.

“Yeah,” Eileen seems to know what Charlotte’s thinking, and pauses to find the right words, “I don’t trust him, and I don’t know how she can trust him either.” There’s a quality to her voice that Charlotte’s only heard rarely; uncertainty, “and I don’t want her going to Heather’s party, I barely want to go myself, and what if she drinks, and what if she does terrible things she regrets -?” Eileen cuts herself off, squeezing her eyes shut and leaning her head back against the headrest.

“I get it,” Charlotte says, so gentle, so understanding, but Eileen’s still quiet.

“She’s my little sister, Charlie,” Eileen sighed, “and it’s like our parents couldn’t care less, so I have to protect her, and I have to keep her from the guy she thinks is the love of her life, and I have to be the one to always remind her of all the shitty things he’s done and remind her that life isn’t a goddamn fairytale.” She sounds close to tears, soda cup between her knees and hands clutching, white knuckled, at the steering wheel, or else she may have been tearing her hair out.

There was a shake in her voice, tight and exhausted in equal measure, like the words had sat, unspoken, pressed against her teeth, for far longer than Charlotte had realized she’d been thinking them. Charlotte rests her hand on Eileen’s.

“She loves you more than anyone else in the world, you know that right? She’s just sixteen, you know all the drama and shit we went through last year -”

“I can’t watch her go through what you went through with Duff,” the words escaped Eileen in a rush, and she clamps her mouth shut, sitting forward in the driver’s seat, lips pressed into a thin line, as Charlotte’s heart sank in her chest, “I’m sorry.”

“No, I know what you mean,” Charlotte sat back in her own seat, nodding dejectedly, fiddling with her bracelet.

“You... Charlie, you know you’re my best friend, and I love you, and seeing you in pain with no way to help,” Eileen’s hands slid down the sides of the steering wheel as she forced herself to relax, though her words have Charlotte’s heart swelling with fondness, “it fucking killed me,” she admitted, leaning back, letting her shoulders sags with the weight of her words, like the weight of the world, and as she leaned back, she looked to Charlotte, so unguarded, so sincere, “I can’t let Vince break Peach’s heart like that.”

Eileen has always looked and seemed older than her seventeen years, but it’s strange to see her like this, to be reminded that she holds within her this unassuming duality. To protect is her first instinct, herself, her feelings, her friends, her family, but she’s still so young, just a kid; she still deserves to be protected too.

“I’m so tired,” Eileen murmurs, gaze dropping to her hands, now folded in her lap, and she huffs a humorless laugh, “I’m seventeen, Charlie, I’m fucking tired of feeling thirty.”

#nikki sixx #tommy lee #vince neil #nikki sixx imagine #tommy lee imagine #vince neil imagine #motley crue #the dirt #the dirt imagine #motley crue imagine #the angry lizard writes #charlotte & lola #lola&charlotte

17 notes · View notes

angeltears-writing · 4 years

Text

The Brother’s and movies

Lucifer

v Lucifer tells anyone who asks that he enjoys serious, dramatic movies set during the wartimes the type that get Oscar nominations but are quite intense and a little dull.

v Lucifer however holds a dirty little secret that his prideful nature will not allow him to outwardly share.

v He LOVES Christmas movies.

v The end of year holiday movie’s just alleviate all the stress in him. He is so happy while watching that he can barely keep the grin off his face.

v DO NOT watch Home Alone with him and Mammon. Lucifer every 2 minutes is mouthing off against Mammon stating that HE is the Kevin of the family.

v His favourite holiday movie is the Santa Clause.

v The holidays are so special to him and the movies just capture the atmosphere and joy he feels.

v He loves Christmas because he finally gets a break from his duties, he can have a fun little party with his beloved brothers and friends, he receives and gives meaningful gifts and even Satan is nice to him on Christmas.

v When you come to the Devildom you bet Lucifer is watching Love Actually with you and every single romantic Christmas movie so he can feel enjoy the warm fuzzy feelings assiociated with his favourite holiday with his beloved Y/n.

Mammon

v Before you came the Devildom Mammon solely watched hardcore triple X action movies. Unless on movie night with his brothers, then he’s forced to watch some boring artsy flick or some anime junk movie .*cough cough Levi*

v He was a total dudebro and loved PointBreak.He owns the full collection of the Fast and the Furious. What’s not to love with the live fast, die hard law breaker lifestyle?

v The man also lives for heist movies, Oceans 11? He has it memorised! He thinks about how HE would be a huge asset to the team and dreams about pulling off some high action super cool heist with you.

v When Y/n comes to the Devildom it is like a flip of a switch for Mammon.

v He says he can handle horror movies but you both know that’s a big fat lie so only insist on watching them if you wish to torture him.

v He will complain and insult your choices of chick flicks and romantic comedies but he is enraptured.

v HE LOVES it, he watches a couple of them in secret and daydreams about you and him as the main couple.

v This man wants to pull a Heath Ledger and serenade you to “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” in front of his brothers, Diavolo, RAD, heck even the whole Devildom.

v He is living for these romantic comedies and constantly tries to recreate his favourite cutesy moments with you. (Did he get you “special wishing sparkles” and told you to close your eyes and make a wish? Did he then give you a shy blushy kiss when you opened your eyes and say wish granted? Who knows that’s between you and him.)

v Oh and you bet he’s crying when the couple’s fight and cheering so hard when they finally get together. He can’t help it he’s a secret romantic. Don’t be so loud about it Y/n! He has a tough guy attitude to maintain.

Leviathan

v Anime movies. Need I go on?

v He has the Blu-ray special editions of Studio Ghibli movies and he loves watching them on rainy cold days snuggled under a blanket with you.

v He loves Ponyo for obvious water and fish related reasons. You guys have defiantly done cosplay photo shoots, he was Ponyo, you were Sosuke and Henry was the fishy sisters.

v Other than anime movie’s Levi is a 80’s movie aficionado. He has seen every 80’s movie. He particularly relates to the high school movies for the theme of the awkward nerdy guy getting the super cool, popular girl of their dreams.

v He does enjoy the nerdier comic book, big budget action movies, like Kick-Ass. He and Satan have faced off against each other regarding whether DC or Marvel movies are better. (He prefers the funny antics associated with Marvel plus he’s a Peter Parker fanboy)

v He also is a huge fan of any Edgar Wright movie since seeing Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. (He let out a Woaahhhh when he saw the comics)

v May Lord Diavolo have mercy upon you if the movie is a book or tv show adaption because Levi will not shut up during the movie. (He will pause the movie he’s not THAT inconsiderate.) You will not have a moment of peace after the movie has ended. He simply must share every single thought he had on what the movie did right and what the movie did wrong. Then he has to show you his fan casting list of who would better fit the roles and then just when you think it’s over he pushes you to re-watch the movie with him to listen to the director commentary.

v Levi will generally save his commentary for after the movie if you got to the movie theatre with him. Something about the change of atmosphere and the excitement that comes from the movie watching experience just puts him in a calmer less frantic mood and you can enjoy a simple quiet movie date for an hour or 2 before your ear will be talked off.

Satan

v DO NOT WATCH BOOK TO MOVIE ADAPTATIONS WITH HIM! HE IS WORSE THAN LEVI AND TWICE AS BRUTAL IN HIS CRITICS.

v Now that that fact is out of the way Satan is a mystery fan. He enjoys the cheesy who dunnit type movie’s especially if the detective solving the mystery is very cool and charismatic with a fun catch phrase.

v One that caught him of guard and quickly became his favourite was Knives Out. A clear mystery with a wacky bunch of characters all with misleading facts and motivations. Additionally he was thrown for a loop on the ending so he really enjoyed it for its unpredictability.

v Of course Satan enjoys DC movies I mean he and Levithan read the comics and he is a clear believer that the serious tone and consequence from DC makes them the far superior super hero franchise.

v Contrary to popular belief Satan does not like documentaries, he gets restless and bored watching them, but you keep putting on those boring long documentaries because it leads to a very steamy make out session with a slightly huffy Satan who had been complaining that his movie choice would have been much more enjoyable. Hush hush Satan we are not watching the Blue Planet to sate our curiosity of the inner workings of the environment but rather to quiet your adorable little tuts and huffs with soft sweet kisses and gentle touches.

v The double edged sword that comes from picking a documentary is that Satan will indeed make you suffer by making his pick a terrifying horror movie since he thinks you are oh so adorable when you’re frightened. He thinks it’s really cute when you ask him to walk you to the bathroom because you’re afraid of the big scary monsters and it’s even cuter to him when you throw your face into his chest and refuse to look until the scary scene is over. Haaa he cannot resist and must pat your head and give you a small peck.

Asmo

v When one watches a movie with Asmo, one does not simply see it, one lives it.

v Asmo loves 90s and early 2000s movies about the pretty popular girls because he lives to see their fabulous closets, outfits and their dewy supple skin. He’s a huge fan of Clueless, Legally Blonde and Bring It on.

v He also simply dies for those cult classic like, Mommie Dearest, Troop Beverly Hills, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Marie Antoinette, Death Becomes Her and many more. You guys put on face masks grab a couple of tasty cupcakes and start reciting the movies line for line bursting into giggles every time, that’s how many times you’ve seen them.

v Asmo gets the appeal of campy movie’s that have not been appreciated for their odd charm so when you come along you bet he’s going to be shouting out his favourite one liners and you fire the responses right back. He’s in love.

v What he loves most about the campy movies is the fabulosity and authenticity that comes from the movie’s just wanting to tell a great story and celebrate the oddities and dramatics of the characters. His favourites are the ones with drag queens particularly Priscilla Queen of the Desert, To Wong Foo and The Birdcage. How is he not meant to simply adore the beautiful wigs, costumes, the attitudes of the queens and the sharp, dry, witty humour.

v Big blockbuster wise Asmo is inclined to see any musical, and yes for 3 weeks straight he will sing the songs of the musical, much to the displeasure of his brothers but to the delight of you and Solomon who cheer him on and request encores. (Yes you all went to see Cats together, yes you dragged Satan along. Yes everyone but especially Satan was traumatised and yes Asmo did drape himself across every available surface in the House of Lamentation and belted out Memory for practically the whole Devildom to enjoy. Enough with the questions!)

v Asmo’s favourite musical is Rocky Horror Picture show, you have monthly viewings where Asmo dresses up as Frank en Furter and performs…well not for you more on top of you.

v Movies with Asmo are always fun treats, you both have a great time with each other and walk away from the movie’s feeling more emotional and closer with one another.

Beel

v Beel’s taste in movies is similar to his taste in food he is not picky and enjoys a wide variety.

v He enjoys mafia movies of any variety He likes the familial bond and the trust between members but does not enjoy the double crossing, it makes him feel sad.

v Other than that he lives for the lively mood, the Italian food, the dramatic situations and the action sequences.

v He has seen a few animated movies and his favourite is Brother Bear, it reminds him of him and Belphie and makes him soft.

v He does actually does like twin movies because the plots are always outlandish and funny to him at least.

v When it comes to movies where food is central to the plot, do not get him started. The amount of times you had to pause Ratatouille so he could get his 20th snack in the last 10 minutes was astonishing. He get’s extra hungry watching the movie but generally enjoys chatting to you about the food making process of each dish rather than paying attention to the plot. (You: Would you prepare food made by a rat? Him: Well I ate Solomon’s cooking once so even a rat’s cooking would be better than that)

v He loves to ask which dish would you eat when restaurant scenes come up because he’s curious of your taste while watching the movie and sometimes he’ll stop paying attention the movie and instead just watch your reactions.

v Generally speaking any movie suggestion he’s fine with as long as he gets to spend time with you and can binge on delicious movie snacks.

Belphie

v The total opposite of Beel, Belphie is a total film snob and will harshly berate your movie choice and say ‘You really made me stay awake for this crap fest.’

v He doesn’t mean to be mean (yes he does but he doesn’t like making you sad) he just has a very particular taste for movies and if he’s going to extend the effort to stay awake and pay attention he wants it to be worth his time.

v He is actually the one in the house who does enjoy documentaries. What can he say some habits die hard and he’s still a total Earth nut even though he human-phobic.

v Not to mention the gentle voice of David Attenbourough soothes him until he is just barely awake so when he finally drifts off he dreams of the wonderful parts of Earth and the miracles or nature.

v He is a fan of Shakespeare movies particularly the rich dark one’s that are a bit more violent. The atmosphere surrounding them just fits and the plot is a classic so why watch a cheap knock-off of what he has dubbed perfect writing.

v This man is an emo so of course he’s going to watch the slightly pretentious movies with poetry, his favourites are Dead Poets Society, The Crow and V for Vendetta.

v On movie nights he is selfish! He insists that you watch his movie first then he immediately falls asleep after it ends. He feels no shame over this.

v He hates twin themed movies, he thinks they’re cheap and over use the same gag of ‘Whoa they’re twins.’ (Sorry Mary-Kate and Ashley Belphie does not like you guys at all)

v He watches brother themed movies with Beel and gets really soft because he loves his twin so much.

v If you truly force him he will relent and watch your movie with you but he will make fun of it and bully you every second he is awake and the only way to silence him is to cuddle up close, let him lay his head on your chest or shoulder, massage his head or give him tons of kisses.

v Generally speaking a bad movie buddy but a great cuddle buddy for movie nights.

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me luficer #obey me mammon #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me belphie #obey me beel #obey me brothers #obey me leviathan #mammon x reader #lucifer x reader #satan x reader #asmo x reader #leviathan x reader #belphie x reader #beel x reader #obey me x reader

140 notes · View notes

growingstronglikeahighgardenrose · 4 years

Text

Hang a shining light upon the highest place

Pairings: Esther/Babington, mentions of Sidney/Charlotte (they’ll soon be reunited) Characters: Sidney, Esther, Babington, Crowe, Georgiana, James Stringer, Lady Susan and even the Prince Regent Prompt: Hang a shining light upon the highest place/ games for the @sanditoncreative 12 Days of Sanditon

Available on AO3

Synopsis: The friendgroup of Sidney and Charlotte come together for the Christmas Holiday at Babington's house in Scotland. Includes many of Hallmark's most beloved tropes like mistletoes, christmas tree decorating, drinking games, pining underneath a starry sky and friendship shenanigans.

‘What on earth have you all been up to?’ Esther asked. Babington halted on the stairs leading towards the living room, a second smaller pine tree in his arms.

‘What does it look like?’ Georgiana asked.

On December twenty-second a very crammed car containing George – Princey – Regis, William Babington, Matthew Crowe, James Stringer and Sidney Parker took off ten minutes before the car containing Susan Worcester, Esther Denham and Georgiana Lambe left. The sun shone brightly, after days of snowflake producing clouds. The roads were cleared with salt, so the drive would be a safe one.

Charlotte had decided to celebrate Christmas with her family first, before coming to Scotland to celebrate the New Year with them.

Their bags and food supplies were divided equally between the two cars, but a horrible mistake was made when the beer crate was placed in the men’s car. By the time they arrived to the house, the crate was empty and they all reeked of the cigarettes smoked by Princey, Crowe and Sidney. But in their defence, the ride had taken a long time, the home was located above Inverness on Black Isle.

The place was stunning. James Stringer was the only one who hadn’t seen it yet, so he remained outside, gawking at the lakeside house with its fine woodwork and snow covered roof. The snow around the house shimmered untouched, and the edges of the loch were frozen. There wasn’t even another house to be seen near the lakefront. The men merrily climbed the stairs to the deck, laughing about frozen pipes and praying for the heating to work as they pushed open the door. Taking a deep breath, prepared to feel incredibly poor and insignificant, he followed the others.

The house was indeed cold, and as Babington went downstairs to turn on the heating and the boiler and electricity, Sidney made a real fire in the fireplace of the living room, before going upstairs to put some logs in the other fireplaces. Crowe and Princey were packing the fridge with the supplies they’d brought. James had just started helping them, when the gravel crunched again. The three men could make out Susan’s red Toyota through the kitchen windows.

The girls were simply baffled. Georgiana, who’d spent most of her life in Antigua, was amazed by the snow-covered hills and high trees, while Esther was completely blown out of the field by the oak-framed nineteenth century building.

‘Yo, Babs, you said you had a house in Scotland, not a mansion’, Georgiana laughed as she plopped down in the leather couch.

‘It is a house. It’s called the Boat House, there used to be a great house on the estate as well, but that was destroyed before we bought the property’, Babington laughed as he walked through the living room, heading in no particular direction at all.

‘How old is this place?’ Esther asked, trailing a finger over the stone mantle of the roaring fireplace. She’d looked stunning in the aerobics outfit, amazing in the professional outfit during the elections, magnificent in the green and gold dress, but the black suede boots and pastel pink glittering sweater were the first outfit which made her look anywhere near approachable.

She didn’t flinch or look up when he halted next to her. ‘It’s only from the nineteenth century, but it tries to mimic the Tudor style. I don’t need to explain the Victorians their fascination with the Middle Ages to you, do I?’

She looked away from the mantel, her eyes taking him prisoner once again. Her eyelids were dusted with different shades of pink, topped by black eyeliner and pink glitter. He was amazed by how at ease she looked, and he immediately decided to store the memory of her tranquil face as it was something he didn’t want to forget.

‘No. I had enough classes on architecture.’

‘Did you?’

‘I liked them, but the topic didn’t agree with me.’

‘Meaning Esther flunked them and had to take most architecture exams three times’, James laughed.

The moment was broken, her chest puffing up as a sour smile appeared on her face. She threw James an annoyed look.

‘History can’t be reduced to stupid shit like exact dates and exact locations. I don’t give a crap about in which exact city a building was drawn, nor do I consider it important to study fifteen architects creating identical looking buildings in classicism style when none of them was inventive in any way. And so what I can’t remember floorplans of buildings, I made it, didn’t I?’

‘Barely.’

‘If memory serves me right,’ she said while smiling sweetly at her friend, ‘you were there right with me most of the exams, Mr. Engineer. So. Shut. Up.’

She strode away from the fireplace.

‘I’ll be unpacking, come Georgie.’

The kitchen was stocked, beds were made, and everything was unpacked.

Esther, James and Susan chased everyone away from the kitchen to start on dinner. Esther was glad to get to know Susan in a more intimate way. After the Friendmas dinner, Sidney’s friends had started hanging out more with Charlotte’s friends, and to Charlotte and Esther’s delight that had meant rekindling their relationship with Susan who was well acquainted with Sidney and Babington. Susan had finished her History studies and now the young woman was working for a certain diplomat. Esther had relied on her council the previous year when she’d suddenly become president of the student council. Susan had held the position a year prior to it and had always encouraged and helped her and Charlotte during their careers as student representatives.

As James recounted the adventures of the Man Car, the trio was oblivious to Georgiana spurring the other men on in the living room.

‘This is truly a gorgeous place, Babbers. And I really love the woodwork and the roaring fireplace and all. It feels really Christmas-y’, Georgiana said appreciatively. She’d quickly taken to using everyone’s nickname. ‘Yet… I believe it misses a tree. And perhaps a mistletoe and some other decorations.’

‘What are you suggesting?’ Babington laughed.

‘You know exactly what she’s saying, and I think she’s right’, Crowe laughed, jumping upright and walking over to Georgiana, leaning conspiratorially towards her as he stage whispered his next words: ‘I don’t think they get that you want us to go into the woods and chop a tree.’

‘They don’t?’ Georgiana asked with mock disappointment.

‘Ah yes, I feel called upon’, Princey said. ‘Have an axe, Babbers? It’s up to us men – and you of course, Georgie – to get ourselves a tree, the old fashioned way.’

‘There must be one, we sometimes chop a tree when we’re low on logs for the fireplace.’

‘I’m flattered by your inclusivity. Let’s get our coats, then we can surprise the others by the time the food’s done.’

And so, four men lead by one woman walked into the woods, their path illuminated by the faint last light of day.

Tree after tree was disapproved of by Georgiana. Too tall, too broad, too tiny, too ugly, one by one they were found lacking, until, when it was so dark they could barely see each other anymore, Georgiana cried out. Birds went flying, and Crowe did not jump a foot into the air by surprise, as the girl ran towards a tree, throwing her arms around it.

‘Is that the superior one, or has it become so dark you can’t distinguish any flaws on it anymore?’ Crowe asked, leaning on top of the axe in an attempt to appear unfazed after his scare.

‘Screw you. This one will do. Someone chop that tree. Matthew Crowe, you break off a couple of branches of holly, Princey you break some branches off from this tree. Pick some full ones.’

‘Hey, why do I get to snap some branches and someone else gets to fell the tree?’

‘I have to break off branches too, what’s wrong with breaking off branches?’ Princey asked in defence as he walked towards a pine tree with thicker needles.

‘Not trying to be rude, but Sid and William look like the ones most likely to be able to chop it.’

Crowe wished to protest, but looking at Sidney who stood comfortably in the snow dressed in only his plaid shirt, and Babington, who also looked a great deal tougher, he could only huff and set about his task.

In the end, Babington allowed Sidney to do it, and though hours spent in the gym and in boxing class had obviously paid off, even he tired so that Babington had to take over and finish the job.

Georgiana did not yelp when the tree finally lost its battle with gravity and fell down, forcing Georgiana to jump out of its path towards the forest ground.

‘Alright well, now we need only one more thing. Boys, you need to help me look.’

And so, by the time Susan, Esther and James exited the kitchen, they found the living room in a flurry. Georgiana was wrapping a rope around branches of holly she’d entwined in a circle shape. Crowe was laying tied together boughs of pine on top of the limestone fireplace mantel. Sidney held up a large pine tree as Princey was putting dug up dirt in a large plant pot which had stood empty in Babington’s cellar ever since the previous occupant of the knee high pot had wilted years ago.

‘What on earth have you all been up to?’ Esther asked.

Babington halted on the stairs leading towards the living room, a second smaller pine tree in his arms.

‘Decorating’, Georgiana explained with a smile as she put the wreath on the table top.

‘What does it look like?’

‘Stunning’, Susan quickly agreed.

‘William, what are you doing with that tree?’ James asked as the two women excitedly examined the decorations in the living room.

‘I already nailed it to some planks, thought to put one in the kitchen as well, since we’re having all our meals there.’

‘I’ll hold open the door for you’, James offered, quickly pushing the door open further, allowing Babington to pass, though the tree lost some needles when it was forced through the door opening. The magnificent green was lovely in the corner of the kitchen against the night sky outside and the white woodwork which divided the windows into tiny squares.

The two men decked the table after the tree was installed.

‘How long were you gone?’

‘A little under an hour or so,’ Babington admitted, ‘you hadn’t noticed at all?’

‘No, I’m amazed honestly. Wait, I’m fetching the others.’

James walked over to the door, calling the others so the food wouldn’t get cold.

And so, on the fourth Sunday of advent, the now combined friend groups ate lasagne, drinking wine and listening to a Christmas Classics playlist.

The dishes were done by the men, save for James, as the women went to the living room.

The music in the kitchen was changed to rock, while the ladies kept on playing Christmas tunes via the stereo in the living room. Susan and Esther unpacked all the Christmas decorations they’d brought, as Georgiana took polaroid’s. Susan wrapped red tinsel around the bundled pine branches laying on top of the oak cabinet filled with boardgames while Esther put red tinsel in the tree. Meanwhile, James occupied himself with making another wreath to hang on an empty hook in the room.

‘Shouldn’t we wait with decorating the tree until the other boys are back?’ Esther wondered as she jumped to hide the end of the tinsel between some branches near the top.

‘Naah’, James decided.

‘Perhaps’, Georgiana admitted. ‘She’s got a point, nothing’s as much fun as decorating. It’s a big tree, we can all decorate it together.’ She walked over to the shiny wooden living room table, picking up her glass of wine.

‘William has some boardgames around here. Or perhaps a game of cards?’ Susan offered while pulling open the cupboard.

‘Hm, I know some card games’, laughed Georgiana before running to the kitchen to fetch another bottle of wine. The men threw her a curious look, but thought little of it and continued with their task.

When the other men returned, they found the women and James sitting around the living room table, on the table lay a circle of cards.

‘Nice!’ Crowe shouted before hurrying to sit down at the short side of the table.

‘Still the first game?’ Sidney asked before sitting down beside Susan to join the Circle of Death.

‘Yes, but we already had to push the cards closer together since Georgiana made an awfully challenging circle’, Susan confessed with a smile. Georgiana’s grin showed her lack of remorse.

Babington looked at the players sitting around the table. Crowe sat next to Georgiana, Georgiana sat next to James, and Susan sat next to James. Esther was still alone on her side of the table. Princey was already walking towards the table. But if Babington went between the couches, he could still make it to the table first and sit beside Esther, which was exactly what he did.

The living room had become quite hot with the fire merrily crackling and the central heating doing its job. Georgiana was only wearing her long sleeved shirt, Susan and Crowe had already put the sleeves of their shirts up, and Esther, who sat closest to the fire, had put her hair in a bun with a scrunchie and dressed down to her black top. He was glad he sat next to her, that way he couldn’t easily look at her slender neck, or the lacework on the front of her top. However, he did notice the lacework of her bra clinging to her skin from the nape of her skin to an undetermined point beneath her top. He wished he was a better man, who didn’t instantly tried to imagine her bra, but he did.

He tried to focus on the game instead, but was constantly confronted with his lack of attention when he kept falling for Georgiana’s questions, who was the Question Bitch.

The bottle of wine disappeared quickly, and another two were uncorked, before the game ended and everyone got up to decorate the two trees.

Glühwein was heated, orange slices were thrown in, and everyone who was still wearing a sweater threw it to the sides as they prepared for their task.

Sidney, Susan, Princey, Georgiana and Crowe went to the kitchen armed with tinsel and boxes of baubles.

The string of lights was already laid out by Esther before they’d started the drinking game, so she picked it up and immediately set about twisting it around the tree, starting from the bottom.

James unpacked the statues of the nativity scene.

William Babington, a fool who couldn’t decide on where to go so instead stood in the middle of the room aimlessly until someone gave him a task, was snapped out of his uselessness by Esther who sat on her knees in front of the tree.

‘William? William? B- Babbers? You take the string when I pass it along? She asked, trying out his nickname hesistantly.

‘Oh, yes of course.’ He sat down on the other side of the tree, sheepishly smiling at her as he took the string around the other side of the tree, before giving it back to her.

‘So, is uhm… Your chamber to your liking?’

‘Yes, it’s lovely. It’s all quite lovely. It was still quite cold when I unpacked though. I brought flannel blankets and warm pyjama’s though, I hope that’ll be sufficient.’

‘The heating hadn’t been on for long. It’ll probably be warm now. Maybe now it’ll be too hot for those flannels.’

‘Or the pyjama’, Esther muttered. James hands froze as he took hold of the string of lights.

Esther, realizing her mistake instinctively turning her gaze towards the floor as an uncomfortable high pitched giggle left her mouth.

He didn’t know whether it were the five glasses of wine or butterflies causing his body to tingle and his stomach to heat up as he looked at her.

He bit his cheek in an attempt not to laugh as the woman who’d seemed so confident throughout the years, who had literally attacked Edward Denham’s balls and slapped a girl in the middle of a bar, could be so shy and awkward as well.

He couldn’t guess, since the large fireplace already coated her in a warm light, but he was fairly certain she was blushing.

The awkward moment was broken by Georgiana and James loudly skipping through the room, her hands on his shoulders as they sang.

I'm the happiest Christmas tree Ho ho ho, hee hee hee Someone came and they found me And took me home with them

Oh, I'm the happiest Christmas tree Ho ho ho, hee hee hee Look how pretty they dressed me Oh, lucky, lucky me

I got shiny bells that jingle And tiny little lights that tingle Whenever anyone passes by I blink my lights and I wink my eye.

They skipped through the door into the kitchen as they continued their song.

Esther slowly shook her head as her eyes connected with Babington’s again.

He winked at her, mimicking the Christmas tree and passing the string of lights back to her.

They got to a standing position now, as they started nearing the top. Another minute passed and as Esther accepted the string, she realized that she couldn’t get the string any higher even if she stood on her tippy toes.

‘Esther?’ Babington asked as he waited on the other side of the tree for her to pass the string to him again.

‘You’ll have to hang the lights on the highest part. I can’t reach it anymore.’

He came over to her side, hanging the string on a couple of branches and walking to his side again, finishing the lights in thirty seconds.

‘Well’, he said as he took a step back from the tree. ‘Now it’s time for le moment suprême.’

‘You did the last part, you can plug it in.’

‘Oh no, you can have the honours, milady.’

Esther rolled her eyes, and quickly turned towards the plug before he could see her smile. The lights were plugged in, and warm lights radiated through the tree branches.

‘Now we can really call it a Christmas tree’, Babington decided.

‘I agree’, Esther said as she came to stand next to him to appreciate the tree.

‘Hey mom and dad, turn around.’

Esther and Babington turned around, one over the left shoulder, one over the right shoulder, their bodies turning towards each other. They both just managed to put a smile on their face before they were blinded by an incredible flash.

Georgiana held still as she waited for the picture to come out.

As she waited, her gaze slid towards the kitchen door where Crowe and Princey just came through.

‘Mistletoe!’ Georgiana shouted. Princey looked up, rolling his eyes.

‘When and where did you get that? And when did you put it up?’ asked Esther, ice coursing through her veins.

‘Outside, where we got all the other greenery, and I put it up when no one was looking. Part of the fun is catching people by surprise’, Georgiana smiled.

‘Since I was the one who found it, I claim it cannot be used against me’, declared Crowe.

‘Come now, you mind kissing me so much?’ asked Princey.

‘No.’

Princey grabbed his friend and pressed a very quick kiss to Crowe’s lips, which was immediately captured by Georgiana’s camera and Sidney’s phone.

Esther looked away from the scene, realizing how close she stood to Babington. She looked at the man, becoming very aware of the width of his biceps, the posture of his shoulders and his height. She rarely stood this close to someone unless it was for dancing or a one night stand. Her eyes travelled upwards, towards his cheek on which the shadow of a beard was forming.

Something in her belly made a flip.

Esther downed her cup of glühwein.

‘Wicked child’, she chided before picking up a box of baubles and starting to hang them in the tree.

‘I’m not the child, Crowe is!’ cried Georgiana with a smile.

‘Alright, so what is all this family stuff’, exclaimed Susan when she came from the kitchen with a fresh cup of glühwein.

‘We decided that we all clicked together with a certain family dynamic’, Georgiana explained.

‘Crowe is the child, I and James are the crazy aunt and uncle, Charlotte and Sidney are that sickeningly cute couple… Hm, perhaps we should give each of you a title too.’

‘And what does that make them?’

Babington and Esther took a step apart as they felt everyone’s eyes drifting over to them as they had just been standing close together to each pick a bauble.

‘Mom and dad. Mom’s a snarky but caring figure’, James explained.

Esther hung her bauble and walked over to the table, pouring herself some more wine.

It was getting embarrassing, and the jokes about her and William being together made it hard for her to act normal around him. Especially since her belly decided to make loopings every time she looked at him. She liked him, as much as it was possible to like someone after having only met them a handful of times. She hoped the jokes wouldn’t put a strain on their friendship, their conversations already felt awkward enough from time to time..

‘And Babington is obviously used to taking care of us, but he’s a bit more rough on us, though he would definitely be the bottom in their relationship.’

Esther choked on her wine.

‘Excuse me?’ Babington asked of Crowe.

‘It’s true. We’ve all known you long enough to know you to be the gentle one, and she’s got a bite to it.’

‘I’ll never forget how you manage to get rid of pushy guys’, James admitted while looking at Esther.

‘Or how you hit Clara in the face that one time. My biggest regret the past four years has been not being able to see how you put Edward in his place’, Georgiana admitted.

Esther’s gaze fluttered towards Babington. He knew it would’ve been the better thing to just ignore it, but he couldn’t help but feel the need to put on end to it.

‘Come now, you’re making mother uncomfortable. Stop it before her knee goes up your groins.’

James flinched and everyone laughed.

‘I think I would make a lovely granny’, Susan decided.

‘Can there be another drunk uncle?’ asked Princey.

‘Sure’, Georgiana decided. ‘I don’t think any other role would fit you.’

Princey high-fived Crowe and the group dispersed. It was nearing two after midnight, and they wanted to explore the surroundings the next day.

First to go was Georgiana, whose energy had gone from very high to very low quite suddenly. She was quickly followed by Crowe. Next were Sidney and James. Princey and Babington played cards for a bit, as Esther and Susan finished up the big tree while talking about a very complicated sounding book they’d both read about a female dragon rider, orange trees and stupid men.

Princey decided to go to bed, and Babington went to the kitchen for a glass of water. As he was there, he appreciated the surprisingly well decorated Christmas tree – no doubt it had been decorated under Susan’s directions – before deciding to quickly wash the cups and glasses.

Less work tomorrow.

When he finished he noticed the slightest of movements on the deck against, he could only distinguish it thanks to the kitchen light and the moonlight.

He gently opened the kitchen door leading to the deck. There was no one on this side of the deck. He was only wearing his t-shirt, so the freezing temperatures shocked his body. His curiosity won out from his discomfort though as he rounded the corner. Esther was sitting on the bench on the deck overlooking the loch. She’d wrapped her arms around her legs, and had wrapped a blanket around her form.

Her gaze was aimed skyward until she heard the creaking planks.

‘Hi.’

‘Aren’t you cold?’

‘Yes. Uhm, I just thought I saw something on the deck and didn’t really think to put on my sweater.’

‘It was me. Sorry. I just wanted to check out the stars. Been a long time since I left the city, and the sky is nowhere near as pretty there.’

‘Yeah, it isn’t. I could stare at it all night. I try to spend at least one night a year in a sleeping bag looking at the stars. I like being away from the city, even the air feels different’, he said, growing increasingly awkward and cold.

She threw him an awkward smile, extending her arm and a part of the blanket to him.

Since he was a fool, not an idiot, he took the invitation and went to sit beside her with the blanket wrapped around both of them.

‘Then you must know a lot of constellations.’

‘You don’t?’

‘I like looking at them, but I just know Cassiopeia, Big Bear, Small Bear and the Archer’, she admitted with a smile. ‘I always tell myself I’m going to learn more, but I never do.’

And so he gladly pointed out other constellations to her, helping her find them in the night sky. She was softly shivering from the cold, but they both ignored it, not wanting to mention it since it would probably lead to one of them suggesting to go back inside.

She sighed after she found the fifth constellation he’d found.

‘Not tired yet, Miss Denham?’

‘I’m used to staying up late. I try to go to bed at a reasonable hour, but I always blink and it’s three after midnight. But no, I just really wanted to look at the stars right now. I like being outside.’

She took a deep breath, inhaling the forest air. She could never dare to describe the taste of winter air, but the night air in winter just had a distinctive delightful taste to it.

Babington could only gaze at her in wonder.

‘Me too. I’m not made for mornings or entire days being cooped up inside. And if I have to be inside, I want to be located near a window offering a view of at least a tree or something.’

Esther nodded, her gaze once again lifting up towards the sky.

Babington took a deep breath, gathering courage for what he desperately wished to ask next.

‘Are you fine, with all the teasing? I can ask them to stop if it’s annoying you.’

‘I’m just worried it’ll make things weird, you know. All the mom-and-dad-tee-hi-hi stuff, when we’re not… it’ll be like back in high school, when you were teased when you had a friend of the other sex and then the friendship stopped because you’re afraid that anything you do will be interpreted as flirting or being in love.’

She wasn’t looking at him, she rarely ever did. He wondered if he was bad that bad to look at, or whether she was just not the eye-contact type. Then he realized she definitely had no trouble holding people’s gaze. It was just him.

‘I felt the same way. But I know what I feel. I assume you to know what you feel. We’re not high schoolers anymore. They’re our friends and they mean nothing with their comments. I promise I won’t interpret your behaviour as anything specific just because they call us mom and dad. Let’s show them we’re real parents and adults who won’t let others influence their behaviour or thinking. We form our own opinions and decide for ourselves when the other is flirting… or not… Instead of letting them call it flirting like those high school kids would.’

The air between them was definitely charged with something as she nodded.

‘Yes. It’s only flirting when we intentionally do it. And we’re not. And we’re just being thrown together because you’re the dad friend and I’m the mom friend. It doesn’t even have to do with how we treat each other.’

William nodded. Not knowing what to take from this conversation. They’d agreed on not being awkward and not changing their behaviour just because of the mom and dad jokes, but the talk about flirting had made him a bit disappointed and unsure.

Despite how they had met, since meeting at the Friendmas dinner, she had apparently never – according to herself – tried to flirt with him. He had carefully omitted any statement about whether he’d been flirting or whether he was in love.

Did this mean she was uninterested? She probably was. But then he couldn’t shake the feeling that there had been more than a handful of times when the air between them had seemed charged with something. But maybe that was just him being in love and feeling said love.

‘Shall we retire to bed, dad?’ she asked with newfound confidence that she could accept the role without it having to mean anything.

But the comment did sound so flirtatious and Babington couldn’t stop his heart from skipping a beat.

‘Let’s, mom.’

They walked towards the door, still sharing the blanket, and as they opened it, Esther halted abruptly, her eyes focussed on something above them.

A second mistletoe had been hidden above the door.

Her eyes drifted downward again connecting with his.

To not kiss her would be to curse her with a year of being single.

‘Are you particularly superstitious?’

‘No, but I have been single for four years.’

She bit her lip. She shouldn’t be telling him that. Now she appeared desperate and lonely while it had been her choice to remain single. Okay, well, not completely. Men had thrown themselves at her, but she’d never allowed anyone to get further than a one night stand. All men who tried were men she met while out clubbing, they didn’t know anything about her and were only after her for her looks and for a quick shag. And the first two years after Edward, she couldn’t even imagine trusting a man so much he had the possibility to break her heart ever again. After four years though, loneliness won out from the fear of being hurt, but she just didn’t know how or when to find someone, or how to have a normal relationship. Hers and Edwards had always been weird, and in hindsight, toxic.

‘Don’t curse me for another year’, she decided.

There wasn’t a cell in his body which wasn’t panicking and rejoicing simultaneously at the thought of kissing her.

She said she hadn’t been flirting though, so he wouldn’t push her by stealing a kiss.

She lifted her face as he bent down, pressing his lips against her cheek.

‘Good night, Esther.’

And if her knees shook when he walked past her, that was entirely due to the cold.

Babington, once his head hit the pillow, realized that Esther had entered the porch through that exact same door the mistletoe had hung above, and tried not to overthink that fact. Perhaps she hadn’t noticed before.

Notes:

- Written for the 12 days of Sanditon challenge but I'm awfully late - Building mentioned is this one https://www.countrycottageholiday.com/our-cottages/the-boathouse# - Song sung by Georgiana and James is this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64xKIGA7_P4

#12 days of sanditon #esther x babington #esther/babington

3 notes · View notes