#also because my major involved me going into a career where it might be best i stay anonymous
Note
Customer service ain’t for the weak. And I’m weak as fuck.
THIS. AFTER THE SHIFT I JUST HAD, THIS HAS ME ROLLING. the way i am biting my tongue so hard because i know the siren is always watching 💀
#i keep my anonymity on here mostly due to how many past coworkers have been written up and fired for talking about the job online lol#also because my major involved me going into a career where it might be best i stay anonymous#but i’m also 10 seconds away from quitting#especially after today 😀#this made my day boom thank you 😭😭🖤#boom <3#me and the lady from this morning when i had just gotten on shift are about to go rounds i wish i had said something like that to her#want a refund? go get it. 😐#i wasn’t having it today but i didn’t get in trouble 😭😭 so
9 notes
·
View notes
Note
do you have any advice for someone who might want to get into the writing and publishing business but has technically no connections or experience? i grew up dead set on being a writer but had a crisis over my skills around college age, which led me to dropping my hopes of that career path and pursuing a different major. i’m still in an artistic field (theatre) but now i’m WAY back into writing again and experiencing major career regret. an early career existential crisis of sorts. do you think there are any steps i could take to dip my toes into the professional writing world as a theatre kid/playwright? i eventually think i’d like to publish a few books and short story collections, and i’ve been told by many people online and irl that my writing is very good. i’m really passionate about editing and helping people improve their writing too. i’d like to see if it’s something for me, but have no idea where to even begin. i’ve also only been graduated for a few years so I dont have a lot of career experience as it is. any insights you can offer as someone who’s done it would be immensely appreciated 💖
You don’t need a college education in creative writing to be a writer. Sure, it can help, but it’s not a necessity.
My best advise would be to find writer groups and become active there. If you engage in fandom content online, start building your community and friendships there too. Be around other people who write, and make sure you have the time to write yourself.
Also, a lot of authors have other jobs. Writing as a main job is not sustainable for most people. (It’s only sustainable for me because my readers are feral and my partner has a job that pays the mortgage.) So don’t think of it as choosing one over the other. Writing will always be there for you so long as you engage with it. As for what to do with your work once you’re done, that’s up to you, but self-pub is also always an option if trad-pub isn’t something you want to deal with.
If you’re wanting to get into editing, there are editing courses you can take that don’t require going back to university. But again, join writers groups, join online spaces. Be involved. Building a community of like-minded creatives is important.
238 notes
·
View notes
Text
Halloween 2023 marathon: 22-23
Wait Until Dark (dir. Terence Young, 1967)
Blinded a year ago in an accident, housewife Susy Hendrix (Audrey Hepburn) is still adjusting to her new reality and struggling with trauma from the event. When her photographer husband has to leave for an evening assignment, at worst she expects an annoying few hours getting her bratty kid neighbor Gloria (Julie Herrod) to actually go the damn grocery for her and not play pranks. Instead she's targeted by a trio of criminals who believe a shipment of heroin ended up in her husband's possession. Led by the psychopathic Mr. Roat (Alan Arkin), the criminals are only supposed to trick and terrorize Susy psychologically without resorting to physical violence. When Susy proves sharper than they expected, it does not stay that way for long.
After watching a terrible 1967 home invasion thriller based on a stage play, I needed to watch a good variation of the same and what better choice than Wait Until Dark, a movie I consider one of the greatest thrillers ever made.
If you've been on my blog for years, you'll know I'm obsessed with I love this movie. Only a handful of movies ever actually scared me on first watch and this is one of them. It's perfectly paced and exquisitely crafted, with a strong eerie atmosphere and great acting from everyone involved, especially Hepburn and Arkin. It's one of those movies where I usually notice new little details in the background every time I see it.
This is the first time I've rewatched this movie since Alan Arkin died, so it was a little bittersweet. Aside from Samantha Jones (who plays Roat's ill-fated accomplice Lisa), the entire adult cast of this movie is no longer with us. An era is slowly vanishing.
I've always seen Wait Until Dark as a transitional movie between Classic Hollywood and the New Hollywood of the late 60s and 70s. A lot of the behind the scenes crew were old-timers with careers going back to the 1930s, and of course Audrey Hepburn was one of the greatest Classic Hollywood stars, but you have more contemporary influences creeping in, mainly with the bad guys being "criminal hipsters" (to steal a line from critic Tim Brayton) and the lack of Hollywood glamor in the costuming and setting. This isn't the fairytale New York City of Sabrina and Breakfast at Tiffany's, but a far more dangerous one.
The other thing I want to mention is just how amazing Hepburn is in this movie and how her performance bowls me over every time. It's a generally acclaimed performance, but I feel like people don't always discuss the psychological nuances of it. While The Nun's Story is Hepburn's best hour as an actress, her work in Wait Until Dark will always be my favorite because her character seems so relatable in her vulnerability. Susy isn't just adjusting to a recent impairment-- she also suffers from PTSD (fire and smoke are literal triggers for her) and deep insecurity regarding her self-image and relationships.
There's one line which stuck out to me this time. At the end of their first conversation, Mike tells Susy, "You're very lovely. Sam's lucky." Susy frowns as though she doesn't believe it and says quietly, "So's Susy." This woman's self-confidence is so low that she can't even take a compliment. She fears that on her own without Sam, she can't possibly be competent or strong. It's also why she latches onto Mike (Richard Crenna) so much: he's a surrogate for her absent husband and he's superficially helpful in a way Sam isn't.
All this adds to the stakes: even if the men don't get violent, their charade will have a psychological toll on Susy, who is so terrified that no one could possibly love her as she is, and that she's really helpless. When she realizes Mike isn't going to be her savior-- and in fact, might kill her-- she realizes she can only rely on herself to get out of this bad situation and she's more than up to the task.
That emotional arc is a major part of why this film resonates with me so much, even more than the suspense or horror elements.
The Invisible Man (dir. James Whale, 1933)
When Dr. Jack Griffin (Claude Rains) finds a way to turn himself invisible, he initially has mixed feelings. On one hand, he doesn't know how to turn himself back. On the other, you can run around naked and no one will ever know. Oh and you can commit murders easily and possibly rule the world. Unable to find a reversal, Griffin embraces the power invisibility gives him and starts a reign of terror on the local population. Will he be caught? Can he be brought back to sanity? And will the screechy innkeeper played by Una O'Connor ever shut the hell up?
With each of his subsequent horror films, James Whale injected more and more camp humor into the proceedings. Some people dislike this, but I don't, especially in the case of The Invisible Man. I always forget how much I enjoy this movie-- I check it out from the library every year to watch around spooky season, but I need to buckle down and just buy the bluray already. This is peak 1930s horror.
This movie is such a delight with its great special effects and fast-moving story, but Claude Rains as the title character is definitely the shining star of the whole thing. He's brilliant. He's hilarious. He's menacing. Dracula is sinister and remote, the Monster is tragic and vulnerable, but Dr. Griffin is just so damned gleeful once he embraces being invisible and all the power that comes with it. While the film's logic for his behavior is that the solution he uses to turn invisible also makes one insane, Griffin's backstory as a lower-class, impoverished young man hoping to make a name for himself and a rich life for the woman he loves strongly suggests this power madness was latent inside him. It's his shadow, to use Jungian terminology.
On this rewatch, I was most struck by the film's similarities to Whale's Frankenstein. Tonally, they're unalike of course: Frankenstein has moments of humor but is generally serious, while black comedy is dominant throughout The Invisible Man. Griffin himself comes off like a prankster, getting childlike joy out of bamboozling and freaking out passerby. He makes great pre-kill quips (he asks one of his victims if they have insurance before murdering them in a car wreck). The townspeople are hilarious too. I LOVE the deadpan delivery of this line from the constable after he realizes Griffin's condition: "He's invisible. That's what's the matter with him."
But back to Frankenstein. Structurally, the two films are similar, much like Dracula and The Mummy are. We have a mad scientist who tampers with nature, creates a "monster" (in Griffin's case, he unleashes a monster within himself), that "monster" terrorizes the locals, the locals form a search party, there's a love interest who represents the ordinary and unambitious world that the scientist ignores, and the film ends with the "monster"'s destruction.
(At least Griffin wasn't stuck with the unprofessional, bastardly Fritz as an assistant. Imagine how THAT would have turned out! Actually, now I want a crossover between Griffin and Henry Frankenstein. That would be a mad scientist team up made in hell.)
Overall, this is a fantastic film: well-paced, funny, creepy, beautifully shot in black-and-white, and psychologically richer than it would appear on the surface. It's a good example of why the 1930s are my favorite period for horror.
9 notes
·
View notes
Note
First of all I agree with you about how every time they've given up a little control its gone a bit sideways. The other example I can think of is the rize liveshows during II which were literally awful, but they had to do because rize sponsored the tour.
With the britcrew thing. So im not the biggest expert on this, this is just sort of knowledge ive gained over the years so if anyone knows more, feel free to correct me, but my understanding is that around about 2014 when the british youtube scene started popping off, the big channels including zoella, alfie deyes, louise, joe sugg, casper lee, and all the others that I cant remember the names of rn, were all offered contracts under this one company (whose name I cant find), an MCN (multichannel network) that basically said you give us some control over your content + a percentage of your revenue and we can guarantee you a lot of veiws for a long time.
At this time YouTube was very much still a new concept so the idea of big companies being interested in channels and treating them more like mainstream media was a big thing. The members of the britcrew, as far as Im aware, were all contracted under the same MCN. In terms of content this meant that they were all constantly collabing, going to the same events etc, and basically building up that image of a big group of best friends even more. And obviously it worked for a time, because thats exactly how they were seen.
Dan and phil did not get contracted under the MCN and they have both said that they never wanted to give over that kind of comtrol to anyone, but as they have also both admitted, that it did mean they were much more isolated from the britcrew scene. Now i do think that this worked out well for them anyway, because I dont think they would have enjoyed, or looked like they are enjoying constantly being content for other people.
By 2017ish (i might have the timeline a little off) everything started going sideways because the MCNs were trying to turn youtube in to too much of a mainstream media copy, making bad business decisions, plus they were screwing over creators left right and center, so people were ending their contracts, veiwers stopped watching etc. In the end the MCNs tanked and went bankrupt, which meant that a lot of the channels that had been relying on them went with it. That coupled with all of the controversy that happened with various people meant that the brit crew sort of ended by 2018, where as dnp, who never joined any sort of management company in the first place, were still going strong, even years later.
Basically dnp have a) never let anyone else hold control over their image and b) never gotten themselves involved in big controversies, which has meant that even though their channels are naturally declining (which considering phils been doing yt for nearly 2 decades is really impressive), they still have tons of options for their careers in future and at no point did they become at risk of losing the phouse.
okay, with Rize that i also forgot about there are quite a few things they let go the control of. also the super amazing project like @foreverjustanemokidatheart mentioned.
when you said about contracts for the britcrew i 1st thought you were talking about Gleam Futures (and our infamous gleam team). but they still exist somehow and it's not an MCN, so i also don't know. very interesting things with %. i find it quite naive since collaborations could be done without a third party involved. i would love to know what kind of work that MCN was providing :) for me, it felt like the britcrew started falling out after Hello World. i couldn't find who was organizing it and how much Gleam Futures got involved. but the majority of creators were Gleam's clients so, it's not a surprise that people started leaving (Tanya is still with them, what a plot twist).
Dan and Phil had their controversies followed by Dan deleting some of his videos in 2018. interesting how it never blew up like a lot of this stuff does. also their friendship with f*lix. i remember people leaving the phandom after that Emma Blackberry's bday. rightfully so. and despite Dan distancing himself from that person, looks like we're going backwards.
with us investing in forever home for years, they just can't lose it.
#and that alone raises lots of questions#answered#i'm not here to discuss it right now. i just don't feel strong enough to write essays. but i know where i stand.#and i will never support f*lix and his besties#youtube
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
Bad Idea
Summary: Sasha is having a terrible night and she might be single again, but Charlotte is there to make all her troubles go away...or maybe just add onto them.
Word Count: 4.1k
Warnings: Minors DNI. GP warning, pure smut, liquor is involved, consensual explicit sex scenes. Bayley is also an asshole here (sorry)
Sasha was upset, not she was pissed. Beyond pissed off. This was the first leg of the WWE's European tour and things were already starting off rocky, at least as far as she and Bayley went. This was supposed to be the best time of Sasha's life...she was at the prime of her career and she was the Smackdown women's champion having beaten Alexa within an inch of her life for it...and that was two hundred days ago today. It wasn't as if Sasha hadn't been the champion before but this has been her longest reign to date and she couldn't be happier and more grateful for her fans and WWE management for believing in her long enough to give her a chance to prove them wrong.
So, of course, Sasha celebrating with the WWE universe should've been the best thing ever since she was scheduled to close the show and Sasha brought her best friend, and her lover, out to celebrate with her. To thank the universe for their love and support but she couldn't even do that in peace.
Everyone had to come out and interrupt her and Bayley...Bayley couldn't have been bothered to help her out, instead she just threw Sasha under the bus. In front of the entire world and Sasha couldn't do anything but look confident and accept the open challenge that Bayley issued.
Bayley followed Sasha into the locker room, rolling her eyes when she saw Sasha had already dressed in her street clothes and she was angrily packing away her things. “Sasha, come on...don't tell me you're still mad?”
Sasha scoffed, ignoring Bayley as she continued to zip up her suitcase. Bayley, not wanting to be ignore came up behind Sasha and grabbed her arm, forcing her to turn around and face her, “How could you do that to me, Bayley!”
“Do what? Sasha,” Bayley shook her head, combing her fingers through her short dark hair, “If you didn't want to do it, you should've just said no!”
Sasha huffed loudly and tossed her Smackdown championship belt down on the ground. And Bayley knew that she was in for it and she instantly regretted coming to find Sasha.
~~
Charlotte was on her way to the parking lot, she hated being a straggler when leaving the arena—it meant less traffic but it was still a little eerie for her. Becky had left ahead of her, going to dinner with her boyfriend Seth, or boy toy, Charlotte wasn't sure what he was besides annoying. Charlotte's meeting with creative ran a little late, but ever since she and Becky became the tag team champions they were finding themselves in a good position to keep the championship titles alive and interesting on all three WWE brands, especially on this tour. But creative wasn't having a majority of their ideas and ideally wasted a lot of Charlotte's time.
As Charlotte was passing one of the locker rooms, she could hear voices—loud voices and she frowned, completely unaware that anyone was still here. She was about to continue on and mind her own business but she stopped again, right outside of the door. She recognized those voices, Sasha and Bayley. Charlotte, despite herself, leaned in a little closer to hear what was being said.
“Sasha, I'm talking to you! Where are you going?!”
“I'm going to the hotel, Bayley, and I'm getting my own room because I can't stand to look at you right now!”
“Are you serious right now?” Bayley responded, laughing with disbelief, “Can you just get your head out of your ass for one second?! The world doesn't revolve around you, Sasha! I'm here too!”
“Are you?!” Sasha screamed, and Charlotte jerked slightly when she heard something crash against the lockers and there was yelp, “I've always been there for you Bayley, I've always had your back, I've always put you first, Bayley! Why can't you just do that for me? Just this once?! Instead of throwing me to the wolves and forcing me to put my title on the line. Do you even want me to be the champion!?”
The room was quiet and Charlotte could hear shuffling, “Don't worry about getting another hotel room, Sasha, I'll room with Carmella.”
Sasha scoffed loudly, and Charlotte could tell that was crying—she could always tell when Sasha was crying, “What? Oh, I see, you're fucking her too now?”
“I would rather be! At least she'd be grateful instead of a selfish psycho!” Bayley shot back, but immediately followed up with a soft, “Sasha—”
“Screw you, Bayley. No, you're right...we aren't official anyway. Right? Isn't that what you always tell me when you don't come home at night?”
“Jesus, can you stop being a bitch for one second and—stop throwing shit at me!”
“I will never be enough for you, Bayley, will I?”
“No—Sasha, wait!”
Charlotte backed away from the door and adjusted her duffel bag over her shoulder just as the door swung open and Sasha stormed out, slamming it behind her and practically ran into Charlotte.
“What the fuck...oh it's just you...” Sasha quickly wiped away her tears, not wanting Charlotte to see her crying or distressed.
“Yeah, it's just me...you okay?”
Sasha rolled her eyes, they were friends, but it was only until recently that they were able to see each other a lot more than before since leaving NXT all those years ago. But that was just that. The past...they haven't been friends for years now, and Sasha wasn't looking for a shoulder to cry on tonight. She just wanted to get the hell out of this arena and away from Bayley altogether.
“I'm fine, excuse me.”
Charlotte moved aside to allow Sasha to walk further down the hallway and away from the locker room that Bayley was still in—because truth be told, Charlotte didn't want to see the other woman either. Not after what she just heard...Charlotte wasn't in the mood to get arrested tonight either. “You don't look like you're fine, Sasha, you're crying.”
“Jesus,” Sasha chuckled but she sounded tired and annoyed, “I'm fine, Charlotte. You can go away now. It's not like you really care anyway, so why don't you go back to minding your own business and I'll do the same.”
“No can do, Banks, we're friends remember? I'm not gonna leave you alone, not after what I just heard.”
Sasha stopped cold in her tracks, they were standing out in the parking garage now, “Were...you heard all of that?”
“Yeah,” Charlotte winced, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly, “I didn't mean to eavesdrop...but you two were kinda loud. You deserve better than that, Sasha. A lot better.”
“Yeah, I know but that's my problem, not yours.” Sasha rolled her eyes, shaking her head and continuing towards her rental...before she realized that Bayley drove them to the arena today and that Bayley still had the keys. No wonder she didn't come chasing after her...she knew this the entire time. “Shit.”
Charlotte, seemingly reading her mind, raised an eyebrow, “Need a lift Banks?” when all she got was a glare in return, Charlotte sighed and shrugged, “Listen, you've clearly had a rough night...and so have I, misery loves company and all that. It's just a ride, okay? But if you wanna room with me...you can, I have liquor...and my bed's more comfortable.”
Sasha blinked at this, looking back over her shoulder towards the arena double doors fully expecting Bayley to come out but nothing—it was like Bayley was either waiting for her to come back for those damn keys or content to take her time and make her wait outside. Wouldn't be the first time for either.
Sasha looked back at Charlotte, “What kind of liquor?”
Charlotte's smirk widened, and she unlocked her rental that was a few spaces away.
~~
Two hours later...
Sasha had no idea why she was giggling but she was feeling good and completely free of worry. For the past couple of hours she’s been hanging out with Charlotte Flair, of all the people, in the woman’s hotel room and having the time of her life.
Or at least with the help of alcohol and Sasha did trust the comforting quiet presence of Charlotte who was sitting in a chair a few feet away from Sasha. Right next to the table where there were a few travel shot glasses scattered around the table with some spilled salt here and there along with some roughly cut lime wedges.
Sasha had no idea what sort of music was playing but it was some pop and R&B. It fit her mood perfectly, it wasn’t too upbeat but it wasn’t too slow and sad either. But Sasha was just content to vibe and sway to the beat with her head tilted back towards the ceiling. Riding out the euphoric waves.
Charlotte took another sip of her beer, not caring that it wasn’t as cold as it was twenty minutes ago. She’d been holding onto the bottle rather tightly and she was sure the heat radiating from her hand had something to do with it. But Charlotte couldn’t help it. She’d been too busy sitting there watching Sasha sway to the music for the past thirty minutes and she couldn’t stop thinking about what Bayley told Sasha earlier whether it was in the heat of the moment or not. The truth always came out when one was angry enough.
Charlotte still couldn’t comprehend, drunk or sober, how Bayley could run to Carmella when she had such a gem like Sasha. Obviously Bayley didn’t know what to do with this apparent ‘selfish psycho’.
Granted Charlotte and Sasha weren't as close as they used to be four years ago, but she knew one thing and that was Sasha's snarky mouth that wrote checks faster than she could cash them but Charlotte knew how to fix that real quick.
All she needed was something to 'chew' on...Charlotte smirked slightly, feeling herself stirring in her jeans at the thought.
Buzz...buzz...buzz...Charlotte set her beer aside and pulled the phone out of her pocket, confused for a second before she realized that it was actually Sasha’s phone and that Bayley was calling her. Charlotte contemplated telling Sasha but she thought better of it. So she just sent it straight to voicemail and set it aside. Charlotte had better things to do. It was probably a bad idea...but those urges she felt back on NXT came rushing back to her and there was no time better like the present.
“Sasha.”
“Hmm?” Sasha picked her head up and twirled around with surprisingly good balance, “Yeah?”
Charlotte held up the half empty tequila bottle, “Shots?”
~~
Sasha shivered and bit her bottom lip to stop herself from moaning when she felt Charlotte’s tongue dip into her belly button for the last drops of the tequila. Charlotte dragged her tongue further up Sasha’s tongue stomach before crawling up to take the lime from Sasha’s mouth with her own.
“Mmmm,” Charlotte purred, their mingled breath reeking of tequila. Charlotte took the lime out of her mouth and tossed it aside somewhere, “Damn girl, you taste good.”
Sasha snorted, rolling her eyes but she didn’t bother to pull her shirt back down or to move from beneath the bigger woman, “Charlotte?”
“Yeah?” Charlotte stared down at Sasha with surprising intensity for someone who was mixing beer and tequila.
“Thanks...for being my friend tonight.”
“I never stopped being your friend, baby girl.”
Sasha bit her bottom lip again, her body reacting strongly to Charlotte’s endearing term and her overall closeness. Charlotte was a powerfully built woman, more built than Bayley and Sasha was liking those bulking biceps and she liked the way Charlotte was filling out her red work out shirt. Sasha tentatively reached out to rub her hands down the front of Charlotte’s shirt, over her abs.
“Be careful, Sasha…” Charlotte mumbled, feeling herself getting hard again, biting back a soft groan, “Don’t start something you're ready for.”
“You were right earlier…”
“Hmm...about what?”
“Your bed is better than mine.”
Charlotte slid a calloused hand over Sasha’s toned and slick midsection until the tips of her fingers reached the valley between her breasts where her bra should’ve been,“Sasha…”
“Please?” A lone tear rolled down Sasha’s face and Charlotte continued to stare down at her, eyes unreadable, and it was making Sasha tremble with nerves, “I-I just...I just need--”
Quick as a snake, Charlotte’s mouth was over Sasha’s cutting off whatever it was that she was trying to say. Charlotte’s tongue brushed over Sasha’s briefly before she pulled back, “Don’t ever beg for something you deserve.”
Sasha pushed herself against Charlotte and kissed her again, and she could feel Charlotte’s response as she kissed back just as passionately if not a little sloppily. Charlotte’s erection was not as easy to hide anymore now that she was shamelessly pressing herself against Sasha’s hip.
Charlotte’s hand was now beneath Sasha’s bunched up shirt, massaging one of Sasha’s breasts, rolling a hard nipple between those strong fingers and pulling on it briefly. “Unh.” Sasha groaned in Charlotte’s mouth, turning her head breaking their kiss and she could feel Charlotte’s hot breath on her neck. Sasha got goosebumps when Charlotte bit down on her exposed neck, sucking and licking and Sasha was too far gone to care about the hickey that would be there in the morning.
Suddenly Charlotte was moving away from her and before Sasha could complain, Charlotte was already standing up and tossing her shirt aside. She stood above Sasha in just a sports bra and she was undoing her jeans, and god damn Sasha would have come right then and there with the sight and how hungrily Charlotte was looking at her.
Sasha quickly and clumsily pushed down her own tights, and took off her top that was more or less ruined by tequila and lime juice they'd been playing around with earlier. Now naked except for the panties with the cute little bow on them had Charlotte smirking, those panties were cute. As well as fitting. Because Sasha was a present after all. A present all for her.
Buzz...Buzz...Buzz…
Sasha frowned and sat up a little looking at her phone that had been tossed next to her...then at Charlotte who had just dropped her pants around her ankles, but Sasha’s eyes were drawn to Charlotte’s erection that was trying to tear it’s way through her briefs.
Oh my fucking god...where the fuck is that thing going?!
“Ignore it.” Charlotte climbed back on the bed between Sasha spread thighs, following Sasha as she tried to situate herself further back on the pillows and laughed breathlessly, her eyes dancing wildly with excitement, “Stop running, Banks. C’mere, bring that ass here.”
Charlotte reached between them, pulling herself from her briefs, she normally liked to tease and take her time but goddamn it, she finally had her hands on Sasha. And Charlotte could feel how soaking wet Sasha was already, she didn’t need any preparation. Sasha reached up and pinched Charlotte's pebbled nipples, giggling slightly when the older woman grunted and shivered above her. “It's not nice to tease, baby girl...”
“Do something about it.”
“Be careful what you wish for, Sasha,” Charlotte pushed Sasha's panties aside and entered her smoothly though she nearly came on the spot. Charlotte moaned long and loudly, drowning out Sasha’s moaning beneath her. She was tight, oh she was tight, and deliciously wet. Bayley clearly wasn’t fucking Sasha right.
Charlotte set a pace that immediately had the bed rocking against the wall, and Sasha could do nothing but cry loudly and wrap her arms around those broad shoulders and she couldn’t keep her hands still. They were all over Charlotte’s strong back, those sculpted arms, and that strong neck. Charlotte winced every time, knowing that Sasha’s nails were leaving thing red marks but she didn’t give a shit.
One of her hands reached between their bodies, and began rubbing around her sensitive clit with her thumb. Charlotte felt Sasha tightening around her and getting wetter, gushing around her cock. Sasha was cumming and she was letting the entire hotel know it. Charlotte didn't dare stop as Sasha withered beneath her.
“Yes, yes! Oh god, Charlotte! Oh god,oh shit...ugh!” Sasha gasped sharply, holding onto Charlotte’s shoulders for dear life as she came again, her nails nearly breaking skin and Charlotte couldn’t hold back any longer. Charlotte’s hands clenched at the white sheets on either side of Sasha’s head tightly as she came deep inside of her, her hips stuttering and losing their rhythm.
“Goddamn...”
~~
Sasha was still breathing hard with her eyes closed when Charlotte finally peeled herself off of her and gently eased out of her, but she was still far from done. Charlotte loved how wrecked Sasha looked and no doubt felt as well. She wanted Sasha to remember this for a very long time, and she wanted Sasha to know that there was better out there than fucking Bayley. She wanted Sasha to come back to her.
Charlotte moved down the bed until she was settled between Sasha's legs again. Sasha was wet and swollen—ripe just for her. Charlotte dove in and started to lick Sasha with broad strokes of her tongue.
“Oh my fucking god.” Sasha groaned, biting her index knuckle as she looked down at Charlotte meeting her dark eyes, “Yes, yes...please keep going…”
Charlotte had no intention of stopping. She stimulated Sasha with her tongue, making an absolute mess of her before sucking on her clit softly. Sasha cried, bucking under her and Charlotte held onto her thighs to keep her in place. Sasha came hard only for Charlotte to change tactics. Charlotte pushed her tongue into Sasha making her come again until she was weakly pushing her head away.
Charlotte sat up and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand then licked it, and Sasha twitched slightly—still feeling the aftershocks, “Hands and knees, gimme that ass baby girl.”
“Fuck...Charlotte...”
“Hands and knees, baby, c'mon, one more for me.”
Sasha moved to her front side slowly, her legs refusing to cooperate with her and Charlotte helped her out, pulling Sasha to her hands and knees. Before Charlotte could make her move, she saw Sasha’s phone light up again and she snatched the thing off the bed before Sasha could notice. This time...Charlotte didn’t send it to voicemail. With a smirk, Charlotte set it back down just as quickly as she picked it up.
Charlotte grabbed Sasha’s hips, not giving her time before pushing her herself back into that waiting pussy that was begging for Charlotte to take her again. Sasha cried out loudly, pulling a pillow closer to her and hugging it tightly as Charlotte gave it to her her harder and deeper. Her strokes were long and fast, and Sasha felt like she died and gone to heaven.
“Oh my god...fuck you're so tight, baby girl,” Charlotte said through clenched teeth. She slapped Sasha’s ass, over and over, making it sting and Sasha was loving every minute of it. She felt Charlotte harden even more inside of her as she was being spanked and fucked. Sasha was squeezing Charlotte uncontrollably. Charlotte half groaned, half grunted through clenched teeth as she folded over Sasha and for the second time this night, she claimed Sasha as hers.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Charlotte chanted like a mantra until she could finally relax and leg Sasha go. They finally collapsed back onto the bed together, exhausted and out of breath. Both women were totally spent but Sasha was already fast asleep, if her soft snoring was anything to go by. Charlotte gave herself a mental pat on the back. Before she mustered up the last bit of energy to collect Sasha’s phone. Charlotte was surprised to see the call still going and laughed breathlessly as she held it up to her ear.
“She’s mine.” Click.
The next morning, Sasha was still fast asleep in bed though she did get up earlier to take a shower with Charlotte which led to another round of sex. Though it was slower and a lot more gentle than it was the night before. The room was still a mess and reeked of sex but Charlotte cleaned it up a little bit and moved them to the cleaner bed to get a decent night's sleep.
Charlotte pulled on a hoodie and a pair of sweatpants, planning on going out to get some breakfast and coffee. She figured Sasha would want to talk when she eventually woke up. Charlotte grabbed her room key-card before she quietly exited the room. Though she stopped short when she saw who was waiting out in the hallway with company.
“Where the fuck is she?!” Bayley growled, advancing on Charlotte (who didn’t move an inch) but Dana kept a tight hold on Bayley—not wanting a brawl to start.
“Fast asleep. And no, I won’t wake her up. She had a...long night.” Charlotte smirked, leaning back against the door frame with her arms folded over her chest.
“Charlotte,” Naomi laughed humorlessly, shaking her head, “Stop playin’ games already, just wake Sasha up and—”
“I thought you were out fucking Carmella now, Bayley.”
“What!” Bayley blinked owlishly, while Naomi and Dana shared confused looks. Wondering what fresh hell drama they were dragged into, “Where did you even-”
“I overheard you and Sasha last night. Sasha ran into me in the hallway after and I brought her here, and we had ourselves a two woman party that ended with a bang.”
“Bayley? What the hell is she talking about? I thought you said—”
Bayley snatched away from Dana and pointed a finger at Charlotte, “She'll never be yours.”
Charlotte pushed off the door and was now standing chest to chest with Bayley, looking down her nose at her.
“Oh she’ll always be mine, Bayley. You see last night, as you heard, after you tossed her aside like garbage? I gave her everything she deserved. I put her through her paces, I showed her what real worship was...over, and over, and over. This morning too. I staked my claim, Bayley. You were so eager to get rid of her, not knowing...how fast someone like me could scoop her up. I won’t make that mistake. She got away once, not this time.”
“Uh I think that’s enough-” Dana tried to interrupt, nervously—unsure of what was happening, but she wanted no part of the Four Horsewoman's drama.
Bayley scoffed, “She’s psychotic and selfish and—”
“All princesses are. Instead of putting her down, you should’ve worshiped her and elevated her to a Queen. You should’ve been her king.” Charlotte rolled her neck slightly and stepped back, “I’m gonna be the King to her Queen now. Since you were too weak to do it.”
Just then the door behind them opened and everyone turned to see Sasha standing there with her blue hair wild all over her head and she still looked asleep wearing one of Charlotte’s sweaters that was long on her, thankfully. Charlotte was sure she wasn’t wearing anything underneath it either.
“Sasha!” Bayley sighed with relief, moving forward but stopped short for two reasons. Sasha flinched and stepped back and Charlotte Flair was blocking her way like a big ass linebacker. “Sasha, baby? Sasha look I’m sorry about last night okay, I didn’t mean anything I said baby, I love you. Please come with me Sasha, so we can talk this out but don’t do this. Not with her, please not with her. We can be exclusive or whatever it is that you want, Sasha, I promise!”
“Aye,there a problem here?”
Everyone looked over and saw Becky coming out the room next to Charlotte’s, “Because if there is, we can make this a fair fight.”
Sasha reached out and grabbed the back of Charlotte’s hoodie, pulling her back and Charlotte let her. Sasha moved until she was standing in front of Charlotte completely, her tired eyes solely focused on Bayley. She didn’t want to ignore Naomi and Dana but it was clear whose side they were on. Like always. They were never her friends, but Bayley's. Sasha tried not to let that sting too much.
“Whatever we had, Bayley, it was over a long time ago, Bayley. Have fun with Carmella.” Sasha closed the door soundly in their faces and Becky looked at the three with her arms crossed.
“I think it’s time for ya to go, Bayley.”
Bayley scoffed, pushing away Naomi’s restraining hand, “I’m not going anywhere without Sasha!”
Becky laughed, unsure of what the hell was going on but she had Charlotte, and Sasha's, backs. “Trust me, lass, after what I heard last night comin’ out that room? She ain’t yer anything anymore. She’s Charlie’s...and ya ain’t getting her back. Best ya go do what Sasha said and have fun with Carmella. Karma's a bitch, ain't she?"
FIN
#wwe imagines#wwe superstars#charsha fanfic#charlotte flair x sasha banksc#charsha imagines#sasha banks#charlotte flair x sasha banks
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
A weird reflection on a conversation with a Pro-Capitalist
In the not-so-distant past I had a mutual acquaintance who was very pro-capitalism. I will call him Carl. He had a degree in something finance related, I don’t entirely remember the specifics, but I remember he said things a lot of the time that seemed very apathetic and nonsensical. So, to continue my newfound habit of utilizing this blog as a hybrid between a journal and gateway for conversation; I want to navigate some of the thoughts and realizations I had from this individual.
Here is some further relevant context between the two of us as individuals; I am an educator at a childcare center that is a part of a primary schools out of school hours care program. I earn a pretty decent amount but that is weighed down by the low hours I have. My fiancé who works at a retail store for less, but has higher hours earns roughly the same amount in her paychecks as I do. Carl had studied economics at a college and had a well-paying office job and putting in years of dedication toward his career, however, was well known for struggling with work life balance and maintaining social connections.
We had a lot of arguments about the nature of capitalism and how it either served for the employee or exploited them. The main point of his argument was that capitalism is extremely misunderstood, and required a lot of education to understand but once you acquire that education you would know it is in the best interest of all involved. Now in most circumstances I’d agree that education is one of the most important tools for someone to have. And that it is important to take into account the wisdom of those who are educated. However, the problem here is that if the only way to properly understand how the system that will affect every aspect of your life is through university level education, the system might simply be too complicated.
I’m of course no expert in the matter, but I don’t think it's that unreasonable to believe you want most people who’re a part of a system to understand said system. And I think it’s a little naive (which, don’t get me wrong is not a negative thing to be. Rather tragic) to have not realized how easy it is for a system to be exploited when the majority of the population are not experts educated enough to understand they’re being exploited.
This segues into my next point, I think human nature plays a bigger part in any system, not just Capitalism, then Carl really understood. It goes without saying there is a chunk of the population in our world that is willing to exploit others for their own personal gain. It also goes without saying that no system is ironclad, and all will have loopholes. Unfortunately, those willing to exploit those loopholes are going to find themselves at an advantage over the honest people who don’t do that. The more they are able to exploit the greater that imbalance becomes until it becomes impossible to ever reach their heights through genuine means. This is closer to the reality we see today, where movements are popping up as people realize there is no such thing as a good billionaire, because they have reached heights unattainable through honest means.
It does concern me a little, what people are being taught in financial courses to have such rose-tinted glasses. Maybe it's solely the theory of how the system is supposed to work without any of the reality, and none of the exploitation. I hope one day he realizes the problems people like myself face as workers, rather than continuing to believe that those who financially struggle in their day to day lives are at fault.
1 note
·
View note
Text
Selling Homes Things To Know Before You Buy
8. Shut the bargain Closing on the residence involves plenty of documents, and also this is where your attorney really gains that cost. Make certain they've reviewed all contracts and forms. As soon as you're done, the ink dries, as well as the seller obtains the acquisition funds, the home is your own.
Generally, vendors will certainly "checklist" their house with a representative and accept pay a payment if your house is marketed within a given amount of time. Throughout that time, the property representative will certainly try to sell the property by advertising and also hosting open homes. It is necessary to comprehend that the representative you fulfill at an open house or via a listing stands for or functions for the vendor.
A "purchaser's agent" functions directly for you as the property buyer as well as represents your rate of interests throughout the process of looking for homes and making a deal. Actual estate representatives usually function on compensation.
As a customer, for the most part, you won't pay a realty commission.
Leading 10 Reasons The Majority Of Real Estate Agents Fail The realty career can be among one of the most satisfying for numerous reasons. A few of the very best points I love concerning being an expert realty agent is the versatility of my routine, unlimited revenue potential, as well as naturally, assisting people with among the biggest deals of their entire lives.
One thing that is rarely discussed about the property career is the disconcerting percent of representatives that fail to succeed in the company. Depending upon the resource, the percentage of property agents that stop working in the organization within the very first 5 years varies in between 85-90%. When you assume regarding it, almost 9 of 10 new agents can expect to stop working, which is an eye opener.
Being aware of these reasons realty representatives fail can greatly decrease the chance that you're going to succumb the startling figure of the percentage of representatives stopping working in the organization. Being a successful business owner takes a lot of difficult job. It does not matter what industry, beginning a company is going to mean lengthy hours and also great deals of blood, sweat, and tears.
Discovering the habits of top genuine estate agents can go a long means. It's no assurance that what one representative is doing to develop their company is mosting likely to help the following, however the work ethic of leading agents is frequently really similar. Marketing property is except every person, end of tale.
One of the most usual reasons why people attempt to sell real estate is due to the fact that they think all genuine estate representatives make considerable amounts of money. The typical actual estate representative makes much less than $40,000 per year.
Being an effective genuine estate representative is a lot greater than being a specialist door opener. Becoming a specialist genuine estate agent for among both factors over is not a good concept. It's important to get entailed in realty for the right reasons, or else, you might be an additional real estate representative that fails in business.
If the answer is that you have a need to help individuals with one of the most significant acquisitions of their lives, than actual estate can be an excellent profession for you. Successful real estate representatives invest money to construct their organization because they understand how essential it is.
Not having cash to make auto repayments, trainee financing repayments, buy groceries, or to get other needs is another reason property agents fall short. Prior to marketing realty, it's very important you have actually adequate money saved so that you can pay your costs and have cash to additionally buy lives requirements.
Another popular reason why actual estate representatives fail is since they're trying to offer property component time. Now, before component time property representatives lynch me in the remarks listed below, I acknowledge that it's feasible to be a successful component time agent. The truth, however, is that the bulk of part-time genuine estate agents fail to make it in the company.
Several customers as well as sellers will certainly stay clear of employing a part-time representative in any way prices, just because they're not readily offered like a full time agent would be. Absolutely https://www.thecopengrand.com against part time agents, however this is the mind of numerous consumers. If you're mosting likely to market property part-time, remember, honesty is the most effective policy.
1 note
·
View note
Note
Hii👋.. I hope you are doing great.. Im a new turtle and already in love with this fandom. I was watching a video of k drama celebrities that are fans speculated dating. The reasons they think they are dating cause of intimate off screen moment, couple items & posting a picture of same scenery or places .. Its saddened me how fans actually belive them and support them with out even solid evidence ( there is also haters.. Sadly alot.) But when it comes to ggdd us shippers are delusional. I want this world acknowledged their love but sadly its not that easy.. Can you share your opinion about this topic? I love how you talk about ggdd topic. Also do you belive that one day ggdd announce their relationship publicly?? How do you think the public reaction about it?
Hi, new turtle! 💛🐢💛
Thanks for your kind words, I'm glad you're enjoying my blog!
I know a lot of international fans find the secrecy around GGDD's relationship, the fact that it's scoffed at, etc. upsetting, but it's actually not always a bad thing.
Fake, fan fiction, CPN.
There are many reasons why some romances are taken more seriously than others, and also many reasons why GG and DD are mostly kept pretty low key. I talked about some of those reasons a while back.
I urge fans not to feel burdened by any of that. Remember that it's not in GGDD's best interests for their relationship to be fully public and verified. While they share what they can and I'm sure they really appreciate the support of BXG, the limits to what they share and to what is known about them are there for their own protection.
Similarly, if they aren't seen together publicly, it's because it's not safe for them to be seen together publicly, even as friends. Let's respect their safety and privacy and trust them to make the right judgment calls for their own careers/lives. More on that here.
So there are always going to be people out there who think we’re idiots, who don’t understand what we’re here for, who scoff at the idea of GGDD being a couple, and who don’t understand where we are coming from. There are always going to be haters and antis. The best way to deal with that is to block and ignore, and stay in our own lane (i.e. avoid solo spaces).
As for whether GG and DD will ever come out publicly, I don’t think it will happen anytime soon. Not because they’re queer, but because they’re major stars in Asia, and at that level of celebrity there is a need to maintain an illusion of romantic availability. It’s part of how stars are marketed to the public. Any appearance of being in a relationship can jeopardize a star’s career.
All of the choices they make about their public image aren’t just about them as individuals. Every choice impacts the livelihoods of many people. If something negatively affected their careers, it wouldn’t just hurt GG and DD, it would hurt everyone they employ, it would hurt their endorsement brands, it would hurt their projects and everyone involved in those projects, it would hurt the networks or platforms who pay for the rights to their projects, etc. etc..
Revenue lost for GGDD would mean revenue lost for a lot of other people.
So these decisions aren’t just personal ones, they’re business decisions as well. GG and DD might be willing to stick their necks out themselves in some ways, but they’re both the kind of people who would never want to do something that could harm others.
That’s why I think that while they seem to be fine with their relationship being an open secret in the backstage world of the industry, they are unlikely to ever court scandal by making it public or official. At least, not anytime soon.
Edit: more on that here.
Hope this gives you some food for thought. Of course, these are just my thoughts on things. Others might have different opinions or perspectives.
For dealing with some of the frustrations of fandom, you might find my fandom survival guide helpful.
As a new turtle you might also find my masterlist post helpful.
36 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Wedding Schemers
Read The Wedding Schemers on AO3
Masterlist
Written for Maribat March Day 23 - Enemies to Lovers
Damian Wayne was so annoying, Marinette wanted nothing more than to shoot him. Unfortunately, he was the only person who could help her. If they couldn't work together, everything would be ruined.
But Marinette was getting ahead of herself. To fully explain the situation, she needed to take it back five months. Back to the beginning. Back to the first day they met. It was April, the season of growth and opportunity. And rain. Lots of rain. Marinette normally wouldn't have a problem with rain. However, rain ruined outdoor weddings and as a professional wedding planner, it meant that she always had to have a backup plan.
Marinette had just finished up her biggest wedding yet. The wedding of Adrien Agreste and Chloé Agreste (neé Bourgeoise) went off without a hitch. It was perfect, the most praised wedding of the season. Which meant it brought in new customers. New rich customers.
Timothy Drake and Stephanie Brown hadn't been in attendance at the Agreste wedding, but they had seen pictures and had decided to hire Marinette as their wedding planner. Over the phone, the couple sounded lovely. They had already picked out potential color schemes, potential venues, and a date for the wedding: October 14th. Marinette figured it might be her easiest wedding yet. That is, until she met the bride and groom in person, and they brought along the best man.
Damian Wayne was intolerable. Every idea that Marinette brought up he instantly shot down. He was pickier then either Tim or Stephanie and they were the ones who were getting married in the first place. Marinette was so frustrated she wanted to quit the job. However, she knew that if she wanted to break into the high-profile wedding business, she couldn't have such a major blow to her reputation. So Marinette sucked it up and tried her best not to punch Damian. All Marinette had to do was survive one annoying groomsman, and her career would be set for life.
----------
It was a warm, breezy August morning when Marinette got the phone call. "Hello?" she said as she answered the unknown number, setting her mug of coffee down on her side table.
"Marinette?" Marinette recognized the voice as Stephanie Brown, slightly distorted by the sob that she let out half-way through the word.
"Stephanie, are you okay?"
"The wedding is off," Stephanie cried, barely able to get the words out. "Tim and I aren't getting married."
"What's wrong? I'm sure we can fix this." Marinette tried to reason with Stephanie but was hung up on before she could finish her sentence.
Marinette stared down at her phone, trying to puzzle through what she had just learned. It just didn't make sense. Stephanie, who seemed perfectly in love with Tim just days earlier, was now calling off the wedding. Obviously, there had been some unexpected developments since Marinette last spoke to the couple, but she couldn't imagine a fight that they couldn't work through. Marinette needed to get back in the loop, and she knew who she needed to call. With a long-suffering sigh, Marinette dialed Damian's number.
"Dupain-Cheng," Damian answered the phone with a clipped tone.
"Wayne. Any idea why Stephanie just called me to announce that the wedding is off?"
Damian sighed. "One of Tim's ex-girlfriends met up with him last night. I'm not certain what happened, but I'm certain that Rossi was involved."
"How can you be so certain?"
"Lila Rossi," Damian bit out the name, "Has had her sights on making my brother miserable since the day he broke up with her. She would love nothing more than to ruin his life."
Marinette took in a deep breath, then let it out. "It's clear to me that Tim and Stephanie are both perfect for each other. This is just a minor setback. Someone needs to get them back together. Are you going to help me, or am I on my own?"
"I will help," said Damian succinctly. "I will pick you up in twenty minutes so that we can formulate a plan."
Damian hung up the phone and Marinette was left wondering how in the world she got herself into this position. She now had to spend the day with the most intolerable man she knew, so that she could reunite his recently broken up friends, in order to save their marriage. Marinette sighed. "I might need another coffee."
----------
Damian pulled up to the curb in front of Marinette's house, driving some luxury brand that Marinette would never be able to afford. Marinette climbed into the passenger seat, turning to Damian with an expectant look. "Do we have a plan yet?"
"Not quite a plan, but I do have a handle on the situation as it is now," said Damian, "Tim is refusing to talk to Stephanie. Stephanie is refusing to talk to Tim. Neither will tell my why they've called off the wedding, but it's obvious that there is some degree of miscommunication going on."
Marinette started to do what she did best - formulate an action plan. "We have to get them to meet up and talk things out. I'll take Stephanie, you take Tim. We need to convince them to follow us to a neutral location and we'll have to come up with convincing lies. If either sees through our plan the whole thing is ruined. Then we'll need to find a place to have them meet. I'm thinking a restaurant. We need our location to be somewhere where neither of them would storm out from but it also has to be private enough for them to talk it out."
Damian nodded. "There are plenty of restaurants that would be suited for our needs. The real problem is convincing Tim and Stephanie to follow us."
"I already have an idea for Stephanie. I'm going to ask her if she wants to go to Clement Park and do one of the destroy-the-dress photoshoots. I image that she's upset enough right now to agree to something drastic and dramatic."
Damian looked surprised. "That's a good idea. You're less incompetent than I thought, Dupain-Cheng."
Marinette decided to take his words as a compliment. "Thanks. I am a wedding planner, after all. It's kind of my whole job to be good at plans involving weddings."
"This is more of a scheme than a plan."
"I'll be a wedding schemer for the day, then," joked Marinette. "Now, are there any good restaurants near Clement Park, or should I choose a different location?"
"I know a restaurant a block away from there. I’ll lure Tim there under the premise that we’ll be getting lunch."
Marinette nodded. "I'll try to get Stephanie to the restaurant at noon. I'll also try and make sure the dress stays intact for that long. I have a feeling that Stephanie will still need it after her lunch today."
"Thank you for assisting me. I do not say this often, because it is rarely true, but I do not think I would be able to accomplish this task without your help."
"No problem, Wayne."
----------
Stephanie jumped on the opportunity to destroy her wedding dress.
"I can't believe I ever agreed to marry him," fumed Stephanie as they drove to the park, wedding dress taking up the backseat of Marinette's car.
"What happened between you two?" asked Marinette. "You seemed perfectly happy when I saw you last week."
"He hooked up with one of his ex-girlfriends behind my back. Lila called me last night to confess to the affair, begging me to forgive her because she didn't even know that Tim had a fiancée when she slept with him. I didn't believe her at first, but then she sent me proof. The poor girl kept blaming herself. It wasn't her fault, the only person to blame was Tim."
"That's horrible." Marinette decided not to press the issue any further. She needed Stephanie to trust her.
As the car stopped at the red light, just a block away from the restaurant, Marinette turned to Stephanie. "I just had an idea. We should get some red wine to splash onto the dress."
Stephanie grinned. "Oh that would absolutely ruin it. I'm sure we can pick up a bottle in one of the restaurants down the street."
Marinette pulled the car up in front of the restaurant that Damian had chosen. "Why don't you come in with me, to help pick out the bottle. We can use half of it to destroy the dress and the other half to get drunk afterward."
"You're just full of good ideas today." Stephanie got out of the passenger seat and followed Marinette into the restaurant.
This was the most delicate part of the scheme. If Stephanie caught sight of Tim and Damian too early it would ruin everything. Marinette led Stephanie through the restaurant towards the back, where Tim and Damian sat, under the premise that they were looking for the sommelier.
"Oh no!" Stephanie looked furious as soon as she caught sight of the men, but it was too late. The only way for Stephanie to get away was to make a scene. Marinette grabbed Stephanie's wrist and pulled her over to the table. "Really, Tim?" hissed Stephanie.
"I wasn't involved with this," growled Tim, glaring at Damian.
Damian got out of his seat and pulled it out for Stephanie to sit down in. "I think the two of you need to talk this out. I have no idea what lies Lila Rossi spun to cause this, but her motives have been nefarious since the moment she stepped into Tim's life. Rossi is the untrustworthy one here, not either of you."
Stephanie sighed. "Fine. I'll give Tim twenty minutes to tell his side of the story. But then I'm leaving."
"Thank you," said Damian. He put his hand on Marinette's shoulder and led her away, giving Tim and Stephanie their privacy.
"Do you want to go check out Clement Park?" asked Marinette once they were outside the restaurant.
"Why would we do that?"
Marinette shrugged. "In case Stephanie doesn't forgive Tim, I need to find a good spot to pour wine onto the wedding dress," she teased.
Damian cringed. "That's a twenty-thousand dollar wedding dress. You were just going to let it get ruined?"
Marinette shook her head. "I would have never let Stephanie destroy it. Even if our scheme doesn't work out, I'm going to keep trying to get them back together. Tim and Stephanie love each other. This is just a minor setback."
A thoughtful look passed over Damian. "Thank you, Marinette, for your help today."
"No problem. I was happy to help."
"I suppose you would be. Having your clients cancel after five months of work would no doubt be a career setback."
Before Marinette could protest what he said, she heard a voice call out from behind them. "Marinette! Damian!" It was Stephanie, grinning ear to ear as she ran towards Marinette and Damian, hand in hand with Tim. "We're getting married!" exclaimed Stephanie as soon as she was within earshot of Marinette and Damian.
"That's great!" Marinette replied, feeling the weight of Tim and Stephanie's failing relationship lift off of her chest.
Stephanie looked a bit more nervous. "We're getting married today. This wedding prep - planning the rehearsal dinner menu and picking out flowers for the bouquet - has been driving me crazy. All I want is to get married to Tim."
An elopement was the opposite of what Marinette wanted. It would be a terrible career move, to have her clients get so sick of planning their wedding that they abandoned it entirely. And yet, she carriedfor Tim and Stephanie too much to see them suffer on her account. “You’re wedding dress is in the trunk of my car. You wanted to ceremony to take place in the gardens at Wayne Manor, and that can happen any time. How about six tonight?”
Stephanie let out a sigh of relief. "Marinette, you're the best. Tim, let’s get married.”
Tim nodded. “Let’s get married.”
----------
It was Marinette’s first time planning a wedding in five hours. It might have been stressful, except Stephanie assured Marinette that they didn't want big impressive decorations. And in a very unlikely turn of events, Damian showed up to help Marinette set up.
Marinette wasn't quite sure why Damian was there beside her, tying ribbons and flowers to the walls of the little gazebo on the grounds of Wayne Manor. She got her answer when Damian finally asked the question he had been holding in for hours. "Why didn't you convince them to go through with their original wedding plan? You've put countless hours into their wedding and now all of that work is for nothing."
That was the question of the hour. The response was easy. "If I was in it for the money, I would have chosen a completely different career. I decided to become a wedding planner because I wanted to make people the happiest they could be on their special day. For Tim and Stephanie, this is the happiest they could be on their wedding day - not a big blowout wedding, but a small personal ceremony. It took almost losing everything for them to realize this."
Damian looked guilty. "I'm sorry that I misjudged you, Dupain-Cheng."
"Call me Marinette and I just might forgive you."
"Of course, Marinette. I suppose you may call me Damian, then."
"Thanks, Damian. Now can you pass me the pink ribbons? I want to pair them with the gypsophila and white roses."
As they worked together, slowly but surely turning the gazebo into the perfect wedding centerpiece, Damian kept up the conversation with Marinette. "I'm sure we'll be seeing more of each other after this."
"You think?"
"I'm certain that Tim and Stephanie won't forget the help that you gave them.
Marinette shrugged. "It wasn't that big of a deal. Anyone would do what I did."
"Not just anyone. You're special, Marinette."
Marinette blushed. "I think you're pretty special too, Damian."
Her face got dangerously close to Damian's, and she could see the desire in his eyes. Marinette's eyes closed, and she sucked in a small breath of air, ready for what was about to happen.
In what had quickly become a trend for the day, Stephanie chose that moment to interrupt the intimate moment between Marinette and Damian. From across the lawn, she called out, "Quit flirting and finish up with the decorations! The ceremony is about to start and I need help putting my dress on!"
Marinette glanced over at Damian, face still pink with blush. "I've got to go, but I'll see you after the ceremony."
"Goodbye, Marinette."
Marinette fled the gazebo, wondering how in the world she had gone from dreading spending time with Damian to almost kissing him.
----------
The ceremony was beautiful, even if it was entirely under-planned. Tim's vows to Stephanie were only half-written, so he had to improvise. Stephanie's allergies were acting up from all of the pollen in the air. They ran out of napkins ten minutes into dinner. Still, Marinette knew that this was Tim and Stephanie's dream wedding.
"Marinette." Damian caught up to Marinette when she went into the house to get another bottle of wine for the reception.
"Damian. You wouldn't happen to know where the wine is kept?"
"We have a wine cellar."
Marinette rolled her eyes. "Of course you do," she teased.
In the privacy of the wine cellar, Damian finally looked Marinette in the eyes. "I know that our relationship didn't have the best of beginnings, but I've realized now how wrong I was about you. I thought you took on Tim and Stephanie's wedding for the money. I didn't realize that you had grown to care about them as a couple."
"I misjudged you as well. I thought you were so difficult to work with because you didn't like me. I realize now that it was because you wanted the best for your family."
"How about we start over," suggested Damian.
"You've got yourself a deal." Marinette stuck out her hand. "I'm Marinette Dupain-Cheng, professional wedding planner."
"I'm Damian Wayne, the brother of the groom."
Marinette grinned. "I've heard that there's a dance floor outside. Maybe you'd like to show me it?"
"Would you give me the pleasure of dancing with you, Miss Dupain-Cheng?"
"Call me Marinette, and you've got yourself a deal." Marinette snagged the right bottle of wine and started making her way out of the cellar. "By the way, Damian, I had a fun time scheming with you today. Maybe we could come up with another scheme for tomorrow. One the involves actually eating at the fancy restaurant."
Damian smiled. "I like the way you think."
"I tend to have good ideas. It's in my job description."
@maribatmarch-2k21
#maribat#daminette#romcom au#marinette dupain-cheng#damian wayne#MaribatMarch2021#maridami#marinette x damian#miraculous ladybug fic#my work
352 notes
·
View notes
Text
a/n: A couple of weeks ago I saw a post about ex’s to lovers, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So basically it’s a story about two people who ended things on a semi-good note, like nothing inherently bad happened between them, but they decided to break up. Sometimes people find their way back to each other, though. That’s what we have here. Harry is a tax attorney, a few years older than our MC, Blair Smith, who teaches jazzercise. (not proofread) PLEASE REBLOG IF YOU READ THIS AND LIKE IT, YALL WANTED ME TO KEEP POSTING FICS ON HERE, SO HERE YOU GO! PLEASE, IT TAKES TWO SECONDS! Check out my patreon for other excursive content.
Warnings: angst, fluff, smut (sub!Harry????), mentions of death, a funeral
Words: 17.8K
Pairing: Harry x OC (Blair Smith)
When Blair Smith became a Physical Education major in college, she never thought that would lead her to leasing a dance studio, and teaching jazzercise. It took her until she was twenty-five to really get it all together. She wasn’t mad about it, she actually enjoyed it more than she thought. She double minored in Dance and in Business Administration, she had never been so thankful to have overloaded herself in her life. She thought she would be teaching gym at the high school level, along with some health and nutrition classes, but when she did her practicum semester at a local high school near her college, she realized that working with younger students was not for her. None of them listened, none of them really wanted to be there, aside from the gym-class-heroes, and she couldn’t stand that the majority wouldn’t even change their clothes for class.
Blair wanted to make her own rules. Luckily, after presenting a well-thought-out business plan to her parents, she was able to get them to co-sign for a loan from the bank to lease a dance studio. She named her studio Just Dance because she offered different types and levels of jazzercise. Some involved use of weights, some involved a little more high intensity, and some involved a little yoga. She was grateful for the couple of marketing classes she took because she was able to really build her brand. She had an Instagram, Facebook Page, and a website. She had an online way to sign up for memberships, and she had daily drop-in prices.
It was easier than she thought to build her clientele. She had a great spot in the city, and there was a small parking lot out back behind the building. Most of her friends from school signed up, and helped her advertise. It was open to men and women, as opposed to a lot of jazzercise places that only offered classes to women. Even though Blair couldn’t afford to hire a second instructor, she was managing things just fine. She offered two early morning sessions, one lunch hour session, and three evening sessions. So, she had plenty of time to relax, stretch, and not over work her muscles. She was strategic about class offerings as well. She gave herself Sundays and Fridays off, since those seemed to be the days with the least amount of people signed up. Monday through Thursday, and Saturday, she made sure to stagger her lessons. For example, Mondays and Wednesdays were weights and yoga infused classes, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays were the high intensity days. Going into her fourth year doing this, she had it down to a science to say the least.
Business was always really good in January and February, when people were making their New Year’s resolutions, and during the summer months when people were trying to feel better about being in their bathing suits. Blair always preached positivity and inner health as the most important things. It was an inclusive space, which is exactly what she wanted it to be.
She liked working for herself. If she needed to run errands between classes, she could. If she wanted to take a nap in the middle of the day, she could. She didn’t have to answer to a single person. Her parents would sometimes ask questions, but mostly just to make sure Blair was making her loan payments on time. She had automatic withdrawals set up with the bank, so she didn’t even need to think about it. Yup, Blair had just about everything figured out, and she knew she was very lucky for that.
//
“Don’t worry, Mrs. Sullivan, we’ll get everything figured out for your son. Yes, he’s in very good hands with me. Alright, have a nice evening.” Harry hangs up his phone and sighs, rubbing at his temples to soothe the oncoming headache he could feel. It was another complicated trust fund case, but that was the job.
The Law Office of Styles and Associates was a tax attorney office. Harry specialized in cases that dealt with trusts, gifts, and various tax planning structures to reduce the burdens of income taxes and estate taxes, and he assisted in devising investment strategies. His undergraduate degree was in accounting, and he minored in pre-law. After that, he went to law school for three years and passed the bar. His father had been a tax attorney as well. Harry liked living the comfortable life he was able to live growing up thanks to his father, and he wanted the same for himself. Plus, he just enjoyed crunching numbers for people, so it was a win-win. Making nearly $150K a year wasn’t too shabby either.
“Hey, H, you ready to go?” John comes into Harry’s office.
“Yeah, just finished up for the day.” Harry stands up, puts his suit jacket back on, grabs his brief case, and heads out. “Kate, feel free to head home, I’m done for the day.” He tells his secretary on his way out.
“Thank you, Mr. Styles, have a nice weekend.” She smiles at him.
“Same to you.” He nods and keeps walking with John. “I feel terrible, she’s pregnant, you know? Her feet are the size of melons by the end of the day.”
“When’s her maternity leave start?” John asks as they enter the elevator.
“Not for a while, she’s only seven months along. She’s been trying to train some college intern to take her place while she’s gone, but no one’s as good as Kate.” Harry rolls her eyes. “Oh well, I’m happy for her. Her and husband have been trying to get pregnant for a while.”
Harry and John make their way to a bar downtown, one of their usual Friday evening spots. They usually met up with some of their other law-school buddies. It was also a great way to blow off steam from the week. Sometimes Harry would end up pulling a 60-hour week, so he thought he deserved to cut loose, and have a little fun with his friends. Maybe meet a pretty girl he could take back to her place and have a whole different kind of fun with her. Harry was a phenomenal attorney, but when it came to his personal life, well, if you looked up the definition of a playboy, his picture would be there. He fucked around, a lot, without a second thought. Actually, his only thought was to make sure he always had a condom. Harry never went bare back. The last thing he needed was someone claiming he was the father of their child, and suing him for child support. The only time he didn’t use a condom was when he was in a legitimate relationship a couple of years back.
He thought about her from time to time. He never met another girl like her, and there were times he really did miss her. The breakup wasn’t anything dramatic, the pair had just grown apart. Harry was in the process of taking over the practice for his father, and she…wasn’t quite ready to settle down. She wanted to work on her own career and make a name for herself. It hurt that she didn’t see him in her vision for the future, but he understood where she was coming from. She was a few years younger than him, and he didn’t want her to resent him for taking away her time to be young and have fun. So they ended it. Since her, he decided to have some fun himself with his friends.
//
Blair got the call right before her second morning class on Wednesday morning. She nearly collapsed on the floor in tears. Everyone rushed over to her. She had to cancel everything for the rest of the week, and her clients were more than understanding.
“How did it happen?” She asks her mother, Pam.
“He had a stroke, and…god, he just didn’t bounce back.” Pam uses a hankie to wipe her tears. “Most of everything should be all set, he was very specific, but…we’re going to need an attorney. Your father’s biggest fear is that his first wife would claim that she has a right to his pension, that she was promised money or something.”
“God, I hate her.” Blair grimaces. “All she’s ever cared about is making him miserable. She just wants money for her son. He’s not even Dad’s!”
“That’s why they got divorced! She cheated on him with his best friend and got knocked up. You can see how sticky this is going to get. I hate to ask, but…”
“I’ll go see him.” Blair sighs.
“I just think he might sympathize, maybe work the case pro bono. I’m not sure we could afford him otherwise.”
“Don’t worry about it, Mum, I’ll talk to him and figure it out. I’m not going to let Lora fuck everything up for you.”
//
Kate nearly choked on her water when she saw Blair walking towards her. She knew Harry had a meeting with a B. Smith. She should have known better.
“B-Blair, hi.” Kate says.
“Kate! Oh my goodness, you look incredible! You and Roger finally-“
“Yeah! I’m due in a couple more months.”
“That’s amazing, I’m so happy for you.” Blair smiles. “Um, I think I set up a meeting through an intern?”
“Yes.” Kate sighs. “I’m training her for when I go on maternity leave. Um, may I ask why you’re here to see Harry?”
“It’s strictly business. My…my father recently passed, and-“
“I’m so sorry.” Kate frowns. “He was always so nice.”
“Yeah, he was a good guy. Anyways, there’s a lot going on with his will and a trust he set up for my mom. Harry’s the only person I could think of when my mom said we’d need an attorney.”
“Of course.” Kate nods. “I’ll let him know you’re here.” Kate knocks on Harry’s door and opens it. “Mr. Styles?”
“Yes?”
“Your 2PM is here.”
“Ah, great.” Harry squints at his screen to check his calendar. “B. Smith? Why does that sound familiar?” He puckers his lips in thought.
“Um…it’s Blair.”
“Blair!” Harry stands up and bangs his knee in the process. “Why didn’t you tell me she was coming?!”
“I didn’t know! Maura answered when she called to set up the appointment.”
“Fuck.” Harry runs a hand through his hair. “How do I look? Is there anything in my teeth?”
“No, you’re fine. Just relax, I’m going to send her in.” Kate leaves his office and smiles at Blair. “He’s ready for you.”
“Thank you, Kate. We should catch up before the baby comes.”
“I’d like that. I miss going to your classes.”
Blair nods and goes into Harry’s office, closing the door behind her.
“Hi, Harry.”
“Hi.” He walks over to her, leaving about a foot of space between them. “To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you?” Her bottom lip trembles, and his smile fades. “What’s wrong?” He asks softly.
“M…my Dad died.” She says, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“Oh, sweetheart.” He pulls her in for a hug so he can comfort her. “When’s the funeral? You know you could have just called me, you didn’t have to be so formal.”
“Actually, I did.” She sniffles and steps back from him. “I need an attorney, my mom and I do…only…we can’t really afford a good one.”
“Oh.” Harry nods. “Have a seat.” He gestures, and rounds his desk to sit back down in his own seat. “Is this about his ex-wife?”
“Unfortunately.” Blair rolls her eyes, and grabs a tissue off his desk. “My mom is scared she’s going to pull some fake paternity crap with her son, even though everyone knows he’s not my Dad’s. I think my mom just wants to be prepared for the inevitable shit storm Lora’s going to bring.”
“I don’t blame her.” Harry sighs and leans back in his chair. “I…haven’t taken a pro bono case yet this year. I could help that way.”
“Only if you really want to. I’m not asking for a handout, but I don’t trust anyone else to take care of me.” Blair blinks when she realizes what she’s said. “Us, I don’t trust anyone else to take care of us.”
“Right.” He leans forward. “I’d be happy to do it. Um, does your mom want to meet with me, or-“
“I think she’s sort of hoping I’ll take care of all the legal stuff. She’s grieving, you know?”
“So are you.” He frowns.
“You know me, I like to keep busy during these sorts of things. I can get a copy of the will, and the trust information over to you via email if that works, and then we can go from there?”
“Sure, yeah. My email’s still the same, um, and so is my phone number…”
“I still have your phone number.” She rolls her eyes.
“Then why didn’t you call me about this first? Why call and make an appointment?”
“I…I thought if I called…you’d think I was calling for something else.” She blushes. “I wanted you to know it was strictly business.”
“Blair, all you had to say was that your dad died. I could have been there for you. You live alone, all you do is work…your best friend is my cousin…do you and Riley even still talk?”
“Of course we do! Just because we broke up doesn’t mean that she and I did. I met you because of her, I was her friend first. It would be really shitty to stop talking to her because it didn’t work out with you.”
“Okay, Christ, calm down.” He shakes his head. “You’re as hot headed as ever, you know that?”
“I’m sorry, my father just died and I’m trying to keep it together!” Her eyes rim with tears again. “He’s never going to be able to walk down the aisle when I get married, he’s never going to meet his grandchildren, there are so many things…he was too young.” She sniffles.
“How did it happen?”
“He had a stroke, and didn’t recover.” She looks away.
“I’m so sorry.”
“I appreciate that, but that’s not going to being him back, so don’t be sorry. Just…help me with this.”
“I will, there’s no question about it.”
“Thank you, Harry.” She stands up. “I’ll email you.”
“Blair.” Harry stands up. “Look, if you need anything else, don’t be afraid to ask. If you need a friend…I’m here for you.”
“I have plenty of friends.” She sighs. “And no offense, but my friends don’t fuck a ton of women weekend after weekend and treat them like shit.” She smirks.
“I don’t do that.” His face flushes. “I just haven’t met someone I’ve really wanted to continue seeing, that’s all.”
“Harry.” Blair shakes her head as she chuckles. “Not that I ask, but Riley’s told me a few things. You two are close, and when she gets drunk she loves regaling me of your many escapades.”
“I’ll have to send her a very strongly worded text after you leave.” He rolls his eyes.
“Don’t get mad at her, it’s fine. I don’t really care.”
“You don’t?”
“No, why would I? It’s not me you’re fucking, so it doesn’t concern me.” She shrugs. “That’s the beauty of breaking up, Har, I don’t give a shit where you stick your dick at night.”
“Well, obviously you do if you won’t even let me be a friend to you, Blair.”
“I just…I don’t want us getting close again, alright? It’ll hurt when we end up parting way, and I don’t wanna go through that while also grieving my Dad. Can you understand that?”
“Yeah.” He nods. “Don’t worry, we’ll get this all sorted out.” He smiles at her.
“Thank you. I need to go. I told my mom I’d be over to help her pack some things up. She sort of just wants to rip the band aid and put his clothes away.”
“If you need any help at all with any heavy lifting, call me.”
“Harry.” Blair sighs.
“I’ve got that nice SUV, I can help move stuff, that’s all I’m saying.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. I’ll talk to you soon.” She says, and out the door she goes. Kate waits a moment before coming into Harry’s office.
“Scotch?” Kate asks.
“Scotch.” Harry nods, and Kate goes over to his credenza to take out his good crystal and liquor to pour him a small glass.
“You’ll get through this.” She lifts her water bottle to cheers with him, and he downs the brown liquid.
//
Blair was back at work the following week. She needed the distraction. Lora had been eerily quiet. Maybe she didn’t know that Blair’s father passed, but as soon as the obituary hit the papers, she was sure that witch would be out and about to cause some trouble. At the end of Blair’s last Thursday class, she heard the sound of dress shoes on the hard wood. She turns to see Harry.
“You know there’s not supposed to be outside shoes in here. I just mopped.” She puts her hands on her hips and huffs at him.
“Yeah, I’m well aware of the rules. I used to be your best customer, remember?” He smirks. “Anyways, I looked over all the documents, I thought you might like to go over everything with me before the funeral, in case she shows up to cause trouble, you’ll have all the facts.”
“I need to, like, go home and shower…today was an intensive day, I’m soaked.”
“Perfect, I’ve got dinner in the car. We can go there, eat, and go over the documents.” He smiles.
“You’re such a weasel.” She chuckles. “But I’m too tired to argue with you. What did you pick up to eat?” She raises an eyebrow at him.
“Nothing special.” He shrugs. “Just some dumpling curry from that Thai place we both like.”
“I take it back you’re not a weasel, you’re the devil.”
Harry drives over to Blair’s apartment. He didn’t have a key anymore so he had to wait for her. He follows her up to her apartment, and makes himself at home while she goes to take a shower. She hadn’t changed much, but he definitely noticed some different pictures on her bookshelves. They used to be littered with framed photos of them, and she had a ton of scrapbooks for the two of them, but those seemed to be missing now as well. He sighs while he plates up the food for the both of them, and opens up a bottle of wine while he waits. Blair comes out about ten minutes later with her hair wrapped up in a towel, and her long, plush, pink robe around her body. She sits down next to him at the island.
“Wine?” She questions, but picks up the glass to take a sip.
“It’s been a long day, to be honest with you. I’m gonna work from home to catch up on some sleep tomorrow since I don’t have any meetings.”
“You know I have Fridays off, we could have done this tomorrow.” She frowns.
“It’s okay, I figured you’d want everything now. The funeral’s Saturday, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is.”
“Eat up, and then we can look at everything.”
“We can do both at the same time.”
“Does your nose still run like a leaky faucet when you eat spicy food?” He smirks, and she rolls her eyes. “That’s what I thought.”
“Thank you for picking this up.” She says as she takes a bite. “I haven’t had this in forever.”
“Me neither…I stopped going because I didn’t want to run into you there.”
“That’s why I stopped going. We should have divided up restaurants when we broke up.” She laughs, and takes another sip of wine. “Do you mind if I dry my hair when we’re done eating? I’ll get a-“
“You’ll get a headache if you don’t, I know the drill.” He takes a sip of his own wine, and eats a spoonful of rice.
“Stop remembering things about me.” She swats a hand at him.
“We were together for long enough, Blair, I can’t help it.”
“Yeah, well, quit throwing it in my face, okay? We’re not doing this to go for a stroll down memory lane.”
Harry knew he’d be waiting at least twenty minutes while Blair dried her hair. He walks around her living room, stretching his legs a bit. He was curious to see what she had filled her bookshelves with. There was a picture of her and Riley from their freshman year of college. Harry picks it up and smiles. Harry was in his first year of law-school when Riley and Blair were college freshmen. He didn’t meet Blair formally until their senior year, and he was in his first year working at his father’s firm. He was helping Riley move in after winter break, and Blair had already been there.
“Blair!” Riley exclaimed. “I missed you so much.” She threw her arms around her.
“I missed you too! I’m glad we both agreed to come back a week early.”
“Same here. This is my cousin, Harry. Harry, this is Blair.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Harry shook Blair’s hand.
“It’s nice to meet you too.” Her mouth had run dry. They held eye contact for a beat too long. “You’re in law school, right?”
“I finished last year, I’m actually working now. I’m a tax attorney.” He explains. “It’s my dad’s business.”
“And it’s super boring.” Riley rolled her eyes. “Har, could you bring everything in for me? I have a meeting with my advisor that I need to get to. We’re going over my practicum stuff.”
“Sure thing. We’re still getting dinner later, right?”
“Mhm, I shouldn’t be too long. Blair, you don’t mind if Harry hangs here for a bit, do you? You’re also welcome to come to dinner with us.”
“Sure, I don’t have a problem with it.” She shrugged.
“You’re the best. See you in a little while!”
“Is there a lot of stuff? I can help.” Blair said to Harry.
“Not a lot, no. But…I’ve never been here before, so if you could just show me upstairs, that would be great.”
“Yeah.” She nodded.
Harry brought Riley’s suitcase in, and Blair led him upstairs. She showed him Riley’s room.
“Is yours similar?” He asked.
“My room? Um, no…it’s a little different.” She swallowed. “Do you wanna see?”
“I’d love to.” He grinned, and followed her down the hall to her room. “Riley’s told me a lot about you over the years, but she failed to mention how insanely gorgeous you are.” He leaned against her wall after she closed her door.
“Well, she failed to mention how hot her cousin is, but I suppose that would be a weird thing to say about a family member.” She smirked. “How old are you, exactly?’
“I’m about to turn twenty-six, what about you?”
“I’m almost twenty-two…in May.”
“Not a huge age difference.” He walked towards her.
“Not at all.” She looked up at him with big eyes.
“Want me to kiss you?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, all done.” Blair says, coming out with her all dry and pretty. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing, just saw this old picture of you and Riley.”
“God, we were babies then.” Blair smiles at the photo. “We took that on the day we met at orientation.” She looks at him. “Wanna sit on the couch?”
“Sure.” Harry grabs his briefcase and takes out all of the documents he needed to go over with Blair. “So, as you can see, your father set up a trust for you that you’ll get access to a year after his passing. That’s pretty standard. Your mother has a different sum of money that she’ll be able to access much sooner. There’s absolutely nothing in his will about Lora or her son. Even if she tries to contest it, there’s nothing in here that would indicate he was hiding anything. I looked over their divorce settlement as well, she stopped getting alimony when she remarried. She literally has no case. You and your mum can take a breather.”
“Oh, what a relief! Thank you, Harry. She’ll be able to let herself relax for the first time in a while.”
“Are you going to take any more time off from work?”
“Well, I’m closed Saturday, and I’m off Sunday, and I’m closed Monday as well. Then I’ll be back to it Tuesday.”
“You’re only giving yourself a long weekend?” He frowns.
“Harry, I can’t afford to keep closing. I make enough with the memberships, but I won’t be making the extra I do from the walk-ins.”
“Look, if you need some money-“
“Don’t you dare.” She stands up. “I don’t want your money, Harry, I never have, and I never will. I’m not your goddamn sugar baby!”
“I never said you were!” He says, standing up.
“But you used to make me feel like that all the time! You were always paying for every little thing. You never let me pay for a single thing. It was like you had zero confidence in me, even though I was running a successful business!”
“You were just starting out! All I wanted to do was help you, make it a little easier for you. You’re the one that went to their parents for loan help when I would have done it in a heartbeat! You crushed me.”
“We weren’t even living together, and you were ready to drop that amount of money on me?! That would have been so weird!”
“We were both working odd hours, and we had only been together a few months at that point, moving in would have been weird! A loan is totally different, I would have been investing in something great.”
“Well, I didn’t need your investment! We were together for nearly three years, Harry, what’s your excuse for not living together after all that time, hm?”
“I would have felt guilty. I was never home, I didn’t want you waiting up for me. It was easier when I could just come here and crawl into bed with you after a long day. And you always had to get up so much earlier than me. I thought…I thought it was better that we weren’t living together. You had never lived alone before, I wanted you to enjoy the freedom.”
“Was that it, or did you just want to keep your own?” She huffs, crossing her arms. “You know what, this fight is useless, it doesn’t matter because it’s not going to solve a single fucking thing. Thank you for your help, I really do appreciate it, but now that I know everything’s fine, you can go. If I need anything else from you down the line, I’ll reach out. I’m sure Lora will make a stink, and therefore I’ll need an attorney. But it’s all professional, Harry.”
“You’ve made that plenty clear already, thanks.” Harry packs up his things, and Blair walks him to the door. They look at each other. He just sighs and heads out the door.
Blair would be lying if she said that she didn’t miss Harry. They had a really special bond that was hard to find with just any one. All they did that first day they met was kiss, have a passionate make out, but that was it. Blair didn’t want to go too far with him in case Riley wasn’t comfortable with it. But Riley was overjoyed when Harry asked if she would mind if he asked Blair out on a date. It was a whirlwind from there.
He took her on some of the nicest dates she had ever been on. Most guys would take her out for coffee, maybe a movie if they could scrape the money together, but Harry took Blair out to nice restaurants, and to the movies that had lux levels. Not to mention his condo, god, she loved his condo. He liked that she kept things simple. Crockpot dinners at her place, watching TV curled up in her little full-sized bed, and clipping coupons together on Sunday mornings. That was where they had sex for the first time, in her little bed after their fifth date. He told her he loved her for the first time on the top of a Farris Wheel during the spring carnival her campus held, and she wasted no time saying it back. After that, a deeper trust formed between the two of them. One that not a lot of people would understand. Harry didn’t quite understand it himself since he was usually the one who was a little more dominant in bed, but with Blair…well, needless to say after a long week of working cases, his favorite thing was to come home, find her in his bedroom with some lingerie on, and letting her tie him to the bed posts for a little while. It was a release he didn’t even really know he needed. And with her, having been a college student about ready to graduate and enter the real world, it felt like so many things were out of control. Harry gave her that control back.
Harry wonders if that’s why they breakup seemed so much harder on him than her. It seemed like Blair was able to let go so easily. Yes, he started fucking around afterwards, but he just couldn’t get that same high from anyone else, nor did he trust some random girl at a bar to do the things for him that Blair once did. Blair was just better at hiding her emotions. She missed Harry, she’s missed him for a long time now. She cried for weeks, feeling this undeniable ache in her heart without him around. But, she had her studio to throw herself into, a brand to keep building. It was the perfect distraction, and even though she missed Harry, she didn’t hate being single for the first time in a while. For three years, Harry had been like her security blanket. The way she looked at it, every kid eventually stops sleeping with their security blanket at some point. It was time to be independent.
//
The funeral was a graveside service. It was cloudy, but there wasn’t rain, which was probably the only upside Blair could think of. She was there, sitting next to her mother, other family members in the row behind them. Her mother was holding Blair’s hand, but this is one the few times Blair wished someone was there for her. Just as the service was about to get started, someone sat down next to her. She looks to her right and sees Harry, dressed in black from head to toe. He doesn’t say anything, he just puts his arm around her, and rubs his shoulder. He gives Blair’s mom a soft smile before sitting back in his seat.
“Harry…you weren’t supposed to come until afterwards…” Blair says.
“I know.” He looks at her. “I just wanted to be here for you.”
Harry gave Blair his extra tissues while she cried during the service. He held her the entire time, and stayed back once it was over. Then, he offered to drive Blair and Pam back to Pam’s home. Neither of them were in any condition to drive. There were a lot of people that came back to the house afterwards. Blair was able to calm down a bit, but her mother was really taking it hard.
“We don’t have to do this today.” Harry says to Blair.
“No, we should just rip the band aid. Then she can just…” Blair’s eyes widen when she sees Lora walk through the door. “Oh, you miserable cunt.” She says.
“What?” Harry asks, confused.
“Not you, Lora’s here.” Blair storms over to her. “What are you doing here?”
“Nice to see you too.” Lora smiles. “I’m here to grieve the loss of my first husband.”
“You weren’t at the funeral.”
“I didn’t want to upset anyone.” Lora shrugs. “So…have you read the will yet? I think I should be in on that.”
“Lora.” Pam says when she walks over. “Alright, let’s get this over with.” Pam sighs, and has everyone follow her down the hall to the guest bedroom. Harry takes out the paperwork.
“There’s been-“ He starts, but he’s cut off.
“I’m sorry, but how is it legal if her boyfriend is reading the will?” Lora asks.
“We’re not together anymore. We haven’t been for a while. He’s here as our attorney, that’s it.” Blair says.
“Anyways, been a trust set up for Blair a little down the road. Everything else, including the house, has been left to Pamela Smith. There is no mention of anyone else’s name.”
“That can’t be right.” Lora scoffs. “I was promised-“
“He would have never left you anything.” Pam says. “And I’m sick of dealing with you. He’s gone, he’s left you nothing, you have no ties to us now. It’s clear as day that Derek is not his. He owed you absolutely nothing, you gold digging bitch.” Pam steps closer to Lora. “Now, get out of my house before I have you removed. I buried my husband today, I am in no mood to be fucked with.”
“Fine.” Lora says, turns on her heel and leaves.
“Way to go, Mum.” Blair gives her a high five. “I thought she’d put up more of a fight than that.”
“With your father maybe, but not with me. I’ve ripped her cheap extensions out more than once, and she knows I’ll do it again.” She takes take a deep breath. “I think I’m about ready to be done for the day. I need to lay down.”
“Do you want me to stay tonight?” Blair asks her.
“No, honey, thank you. Auntie Fay is staying, I’ll be alright.” She looks at Harry. “Harry, I can’t thank you enough for helping with all of this.”
“Don’t mention it. If there’s anything else I can do, anything at all, don’t be afraid to ask.”
“Drive Blair home.”
“Mum.”
Pam raises her hands in defense and leaves the room.
“I can drive you back if you want. I took an uber out here as it was.” Harry says, shoving his hands in his pockets.
“You’ve done enough for me today, it’s alright…I can make it back on my own. Riley’s flying back in from Chicago tomorrow and we’re gonna have a girl’s day, so-“
“Blair, I still have your keys in my pocket, I’m driving you.”
“I don’t need you to swoop in here and act like superman, Harry.” Her bottom lip trembles. “I know my dad’s not around to do it anymore, but-“
“Hey.” He takes her in his arms. “I wish I could take it all away, I really do. I wish you weren’t going through all of this, baby.”
“Harry.” She sighs heavily into his chest.
“Sorry.” He rests his chin on the top of her head. “Some habits are hard to break I guess.”
“Have you called anyone else baby in the last year?” She nuzzles in close to him.
“No.” He tilts her chin up to look at him. “I never could.”
“Okay, you can drive me home.” She sighs. “I’m about ready to pass out as it is.”
Blair takes a few minutes to say goodbye to the people still at the house before her and Harry get into her car. He keeps the music volume low, and her eyes start to droop. Harry can’t help but feel soft and warm knowing she was so easily able to fall asleep with him there still. She’d always fall asleep on long car rides.
“Blair.” Harry says, trying to wake her up. “We’re at your place, love.” She groans at him, and he sighs. “Are you really going to make me carry you up?” She groans again and he rolls his eyes. Blair would always pretend to be asleep so Harry would carry her inside. He unbuckles her, gets out, and opens her door to lift her out. “You’re killing me.” He grunts as he carries her to the front door. He keys in, and carries her up the stairs to her door. “I know you’re awake.” He says as he brings her to her bedroom.
“Mm, but you’re so strong and warm.” She mumbles.
“Okay.” He chuckles and lays her on her bed. “Are your pj’s still in the third drawer of your dresser.”
“Harry.” She sits up. “You don’t have to do all that…”
“I was just gonna grab you a shirt and get out of your hair.” He says innocently.
“God, I’m so confused.” She pinches the bridge of her nose.
“About what?” He grabs a bed shirt for her, and sits on the edge of her bed.
“I think I’m just feeling vulnerable, I don’t know.” She looks away from him. “I don’t want you to go.” She mutters, and then looks at him. “But I also don’t want to get your hopes up.”
“If you need me to stay as a friend, I can do that.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’d never leave you like this.” He runs a hand through his hair. “I was just gonna pretend to leave, and then crash on your couch.”
“Well, you don’t have to do that. Got a queen sized bed now, plenty of room.”
“I can see that.” He smiles. “There was nothing wrong with your old bed. It was kinda fun when we were practically sleeping on top of each other.”
“Yeah, but your bed was better for…well…never mind.” She clears her throat. “Um, I still have some of your old pajama pants in my drawer, you can wear those if you want.”
“I’m good with just boxers if that’s alright with you.”
“Oh, um sure.” She gets off the bed to stand up. “I’m just gonna go wash up and change.”
Harry nods and gets undressed. He goes over to her bathroom door to wait his turn. Blair’s eyes widen when she sees him standing there in his underwear.
“You don’t have a spare toothbrush, do you?”
“Um, you can use one of the extra heads I have for my electric brush.”
“Thanks.” He steps into the bathroom as she leaves to go back to her bedroom.
“Oh my god.” She says to herself. He had beefed up a bit. Harry was already sort of beefy, but he used to be leaner. Had he been getting a lot of protein? She shakes her head as she crawls into bed. Harry comes in shortly after and gets in on the other side. She turns her head to look at him. “Thank you, Harry.”
“You don’t have to thank me.” He looks at her. “I’d be a pretty shitty person to leave you in a time like this.”
“Yeah, but you could be catching tail at some bar with your friends.” She smirks at him.
“You make me sound like I’m promiscuous or something.” He chuckles and turns fully on his side towards her. She does the same. “It’s a stress reliever, and I always wrap it up. M’not doing anything wrong.”
“Do you, um, do what we used to do with any of these hookups?”
“No.” He smirks. “No, I don’t think I could ever trust someone in that way again even if I tried.” He chews his bottom lip. “What about you?”
“Harry, to be honest with you…I haven’t slept with anyone since we broke up.”
“Blair, that was a year ago.”
“I’m well aware.” She rolls her eyes.
“That’s a long fucking dry spell.”
“It’s not a dry spell, it’s a personal choice. I threw myself into the studio, I worked on choreographing a ton of new dances. I was building my brand, bringing in more clientele. Plus…anytime I’d use a dating app or go out with Riley to a bar…no one was ever you.”
“I know things seemed mutual and we didn’t end in some big blow up…but I was so hurt that we couldn’t make things work.” He reaches to tuck some hair behind her ear. “I thought we were going to be together forever.”
“So did I…but I don’t know if I was ready for something so long-term yet, which I know sounds stupid because three years is a long time to be with someone.”
“It’s not stupid. I would have felt the same at that age. It was sort of selfish of me to try to lock you down the way I was.”
“You weren’t being selfish for wanting to be with me, Harry.”
“You know, the last thing I expected when I helped Riley move in that semester was falling in love with her roommate. You just looked so cute that day.”
“You remember how I looked when we first met?”
“How could I forget? You were wearing these sweater leggings that had snow flakes on them, and you were wearing this oversized sweater that was hanging off your shoulder, and you kept trying to tug it back on. You seemed so flustered around me.”
“I was.” She laughs. “I thought for sure you just wanted to fuck me and then leave with the way you pushed me up against the wall when you kissed me.”
“Yeah, you nearly shit yourself at dinner afterwards. Poor Riley had no idea I frenched you for a solid thirty minutes.”
“My lips were so swollen, she had to have known. I was more in shock when you came by a week later to ask me out. God, you were so cute, you were waiting outside my apartment with hot apple cider, and I had such a shit day at my practicum. I was in dingy sweats too, and you still told me I looked beautiful.”
“And I meant it.”
“Then you said I looked tired, and right before I went off on you, you pulled me inside and said that you were going to make me dinner so I could go upstairs and take a long hot shower.”
“Mhm, made you spaghetti and meatballs.”
“And that really yummy homemade garlic bread.” She smiles.
“Then we cuddled up and watched Ratatouille.” He chuckles.
“I was so mad that you had never seen it! And then you ended up loving it.”
“It’s a great movie, honestly.” He says, smiling at her. “Best first date ever.”
“Yeah, it was. When I went to sleep that night I couldn’t believe that a real man wanted to be with me. I don’t think any of the guys I dated in college knew how to cook.”
“Pretty sure I did a good job making you forget about any other guy you had ever been with.” He smirks, and she nudges his shoulder.
“Maybe…maybe when I’m in a better mindset…we could talk about…I mean…I’ve been thinking about you a lot ever since we started talking again, sorry, I’m rambling.” She sighs. “I don’t want you to think that I wanna give things another shot because you’ve been helping me and my mom, but it’s been hard not to think about it…especially after today.” She blinks away a few tears. “I wasn’t expecting you to come to the service. Riley felt awful that she couldn’t be there, and I felt so alone, even being with my mom. You’re so selfless.” She pouts at him.
“I would love to talk about potentially getting back together. I…I don’t think I realized how much I missed you until you walked into my office. I thought I was out having the time of my life, but I wasn’t. Nobody could ever compare to you.”
“I think I just need some time to make sure I’m not…I’m not just feeling this way because you’re being so sweet to me when no one else is.”
“Take all the time you need.” He strokes her cheek. “M’gonna turn over now. If you just so happen to feel like spooning me, I promise not to question it.”
“Please, snuggling sounds like the perfect medicine after today. Assume the position, Styles.”
He chuckles and rolls onto his other side. Blair slots a leg between his, and wraps her arm around his stomach. They both sigh, and wiggle closer to one another. Blair hadn’t felt peace like this in quite some time, and neither had Harry.
//
Blair woke up in a fog the next morning. Her eyes still felt puffy and swollen from crying, and even though the clock read 10AM, she felt like she could stay in bed for at least two more hours. She remembers Harry staying and falling asleep with her, but he wasn’t there next to her now. Where he laid was still warm, so he couldn’t have left too long ago. When she smells coffee, she wakes up a bit more. There was a coffee cup from Dunkin’ on her side table, along with a small bag that she knew had to be a coffee cake muffin. She sits up and sees a note next to the casual breakfast.
Had to rush off to the office this morning. Got a call that one of my major clients passed, and his family is already fighting over the money. Had to time to run out and get you brekkie though! I’ll call you later. – H
Blair pouts at the note, and takes a sip of her coffee, which had cooled down just enough for her to sip it without burning her tongue. She texts Harry a quick “thank you” before diving into her muffin. This was his signature “sorry for not being there when you wake up” breakfast treat. There had been many mornings Blair had woken up alone after spending the night with him. It wasn’t because Harry liked scooting out, he just usually got pulled away due to something work related, and he knew that Blair liked being able to sleep in when she could on the weekends, especially when she was still in school. She never minded because she knew he was busy. She used to just lounge around for an hour or so in his large bed before getting up and making it. Then she’d take an indulgent bath in his Jacuzzi-tub. He’d usually get back to her sometime in the afternoon, and they would snuggle up to watch a movie before he brought her back to her apartment. It worked for them.
There were plenty of times Blair had to scoot early as well. When she was doing her practicum, she needed to be at the high school no later than 7AM, which sucked because at the time she was a major night owl. It’s taken her years of discipline to get herself to fall asleep at a reasonable time so she wouldn’t be so groggy and grumpy in the morning. That was something that Harry helped with as well. He told her about this sleepy time playlist on Spotify that he would listen to on the nights he needed to go to bed early. Blair had told him she couldn’t afford the premium membership and she didn’t want to be jolted awake by ads. So what did Harry do? He bought the subscription plan that allowed for two people to be on it, helped her shift her account, and even though she protested, he insisted. The music sounded like something a masseuse would put on, and it always put her right to sleep. Harry was a genius, at least Blair thought so.
“How do you always have an answer for everything?” She had cried to him on a particularly stressful evening. It was after she graduated, and she had just gotten her business up and running. She felt overwhelmed and scared. “You always stay so calm, it’s like you don’t even care!”
“I just know that this’ll pass, baby. You just graduated from college, you’re going through a major life change. You’ve had the same routine all your life, and now it’s completely different. In a few months things won’t feel as scary.” He smiled at her, and wrapped his arms around her mid-section. “Went through the same thing myself not too long ago. I promise, it gets a lot better. Your early twenties fucking suck.”
“Yeah? How are things looking in the world of mid to late twenties?” She pouted up at him.
“Well,” he moved some hair away from her face, “I’ve got an incredible girlfriend who loves me, and I just so happen to love her, and I’m feeling settled in mt job, and I have a great place to live, and oh! Finally stopped having stress dreams about missing a big exam. Can’t complain too much.”
“I…I’m gonna be really busy at the studio. I have to choreograph all these dances, and start advertising, and-“
“Hey, I’ve got an idea.” He tugged her along down the hall to his home office.
“Harry, I’m not in the mood to fuck in your office…” She said, and Harry chuckled.
“As much as I love it when you let me bend you over my desk, that’s not what this is about.” He took her inside and took out a few sheets of blank paper and some pens. He sat down and pulled her into her lap. “Alright, this used to help me all the time when I was super stressed, still does, actually.” She watched as he drew three large circles, and wrote CHOREOGRAPHY in one, SOCIAL MEDIA, in another, and BUDGET
in the last. “Alright, so these are some rather large cookies, wouldn’t you say?” He looked up at her, and she looked down at him and nodded. “Okay, so what are some ways we can take little bites out of these?”
“Like a checklist for each?”
“Sort of, yeah.” He drew a few stems from each circle. “Almost like a backwards flow chart.”
“Is this what you do with your clients when they ask for financial advice?”
“Sometimes.” He nodded. “But more importantly, I want to help my girlfriend who is insanely frazzled. I hate when people try to be problem solvers…so hope you don’t think that’s what I’m trying to do…”
“No.” She shook her head. “This is great. I think if I have it all laid out in front of me…and can check certain things off…take smaller bites, like you said, I can handle things better.” She grabbed a pen and started writing, and making more stems, color coding a few of them. “My parents are gonna help cover the loan payments for the first year so I can save up, and start paying off my student loans.” She chewed her bottom lip. “And I can set aside some time in the mornings to do the social media stuff, and use the afternoons for choreography…evenings I can work on my website.”
“Just think of how sweet it’ll all taste by the time you finish.” He smiled up at her, and she leaned in to peck his lips.
“I love you, Harry, thank you.”
“I love you too, baby.” He kissed her again, ever so tenderly and soft. “Don’t let this stuff build up, you know you can talk to me about anything.”
“I just feel like my problems are so trivial, like, there are people that are starving, and I’m crying about being overwhelmed.”
“Your feelings are valid, don’t compare it to what someone else might be going through.”
“Do you think, um, could you just hold me for a bit?” It was so rare for Blair to be this vulnerable. Usually she was the one to hold Harry, but once in a while she just really needed him.
“Of course.” He shifted in his seat to cradle her to his chest. He was so warm and inviting, he always made Blair feel safe.
Blair sighs, and shakes herself from the memory. She couldn’t bask in the good times and act as if there weren’t also bad times. Although…there really weren’t that many bad times. She finishes up her muffin and gets out of bed. She grimaced when she saw herself in her bathroom mirror, and decided a long, hot shower would do her some good. She didn’t have the energy to wash her hair, so she grabs a scrunchie to put it up in a bun on the top of her head. As the warm water cascades over her body, she can’t help but continue to let her mind wander to other old memories.
“Harry! I told you I’d be five minutes.” Blair whispered to Harry as he entered the bathroom. He locked the door behind him and smirked. “Riley’s home! Just down the hall sleeping.” Harry pulled back the shower door, and walked into it with her. All he did was put a finger up to his lips.
“Then we’ll need to be quiet.” He whispered to her, ghosting his lips over hers.
“I…I’ve never had sex in the shower before. I always heard it wasn’t as cracked up as it looks in the movies.”
“That’s because people try too hard to do it full on.” He stepped into the water, getting his hair wet, and then moves her so she’s pressed up against the wall. He knelt in front of her, and looked up at her wet body. “Can I make you feel good, baby?”
“Y-yes.”
He grinned, and lifted one of her legs over his shoulder.
“Now, you need to stay quiet.” He pressed his lips to one of her hip bones, and kissed across her pelvis. “So, if it gets to be too much, just suck on your fingers or something, pull my hair, whatever you need to do.” She watched as his eyes darkened when he licked over her clit. His tongue moved to her slit and licked up. He moaned, letting his eyes flutter closed before looking back up at her. “You have no idea how fucking good you taste.”
“Blair!” Riley exclaims as she comes into the apartment. Blair’s taken from her thoughts just as she was whimpering out Harry’s name.
“I’m in the shower!” Blair yells back, and finishes cleaning herself up. She meets Riley out in the living room once she’s thrown some sweats on. “Hi.”
“Oh, god, I’m so sorry I couldn’t be there.” Riley wraps her arms around her friend.
“You couldn’t have known.” Blair hugs her back. “A month in Chicago, I can’t wait to hear all about it.” They let go of each other.
“Are you sure you wanna talk about all that?”
“Yeah, I need the distraction.”
“Alright. I brought coffee and doughnuts.” Riley smiles.
“Thank you, but I might save that for later. I had coffee and a muffin earlier…um, Harry spent the night last night.” Blair blushes as they both move to sit on the couch.
“Holy shit! Pleas don’t tell me you called him for a booty call.” Riley frowns.
“No, it was nothing like that. I told you he was helping with all of the legal stuff…he ended up coming to the funeral unannounced. He was there for me…he drove me home and I asked him to stay. We just slept, and he was gone before I woke up because of a work thing.”
“Ah, and he brought you the old comfort breakfast to make up for it.” Riley shakes her head. “Well, I’m glad he was there for you. I always hoped you would become friends at some point after you broke up.”
“I don’t think I realized how much I missed him. I’ve been so independent for the last year, it felt kind of nice to lean on him for a change.”
“Do you think you wanna get back together?”
“I don’t know…I was definitely feeling something yesterday, even this morning, but I don’t know if it’s because I’m just sad and vulnerable, or if it’s because I really wanna give it a second go. I don’t really know what would be different this time. He still works crazy hours, and-“
“He’s dialed back a lot.” Riley cuts him off. “Ever since he’s taken over, and once he really got settled into it, he hasn’t been working himself to the bone like he was. Are there still some sixty-hour weeks? Sometimes, but not like he was, I swear.”
“He didn’t seem to think we still spoke…so that made me think you weren’t as close with him…”
“I don’t hang out with him as much…I speak with his friend John quite a bit, though.” Riley blushes.
“Speak to or fuck?” Blair smirks.
“Don’t. If Harry knew I was messing around with one of his boys, god, I don’t even wanna think about it.”
“Oh, so he can go out with your friend, but you can’t go out with his?”
“John and I aren’t going out. We just…meet up to fuck sometimes, but we both still hookup with other people. I mean, I’m sure he slept with his share of people while I was away.”
“Did you?”
“There were a couple of people I let take me back to my hotel, yeah.” Riley nods. “Don’t say anything to Harry, okay?”
“Christ, I’m not his best friend all of a sudden. I think I was just emotional last night. I doubt we’ll even-“
There’s a jingle of keys, and then Harry’s entering the apartment. He freezes when he sees Riley.
“Hey! You’re back.” He smiles at his cousin. “How was Chicago?”
“Windy.” Riley says. “But fun, I made a ton of sales.”
“That’s great.” Harry sets the keys on the kitchen counter and then comes further into the living area. “How are you this morning?” He asks Blair.
“I’m okay, um, thanks for breakfast.”
“Yeah, of course, sorry I had to skip out. Uh, I just came back to see how you were, but I can see your girl’s day has started, so I’ll head out.”
“You can stay, Har, we were just gonna paint our nails, nothing you haven’t done with us before.” Riley says. “You don’t mind, right, Blair?”
“S-sure, you can stay, Harry…if you want to.”
“I’d love to stay.” He comes over and sits down on Blair’s other side. “Nothing like giving you a Styles sandwich to make you feel better.” He smirks. “Alright, Riles, what colors did you bring?”
The three ended up having a great day together. It felt like old times. They painted their nails, ordered Chinese, and watched Mystic Pizza. Riley was starting to get tired, so she left around six. The jet lag was catching up with her. So it was just Harry and Blair sitting on the couch watching Wall-E.
“Do you remember the first time we watched this?” Harry asks her a few minutes in.
“Mhm.” Blair smiles without looking at him. “It was that weekend we went away Hampton Beach, and it rained in the evening, so instead of being annoyed, we got all cozy and watched this.”
“After…” He looks at her, a smirk growing on his face.
“Harry.” She rolls her eyes.
“Come on, what did we do just before settling in to watch this adorable film?”
Blair sighs, but gives in, “We made hot fudge sundaes, and, um, I let you lay me on the counter and lick chocolate sauce and whipped cream off my body.” She swallows. “Then I did the same to you. We made a mess of the Air BnB.”
“We cleaned it up. Then we got into that big, comfy bed and just vegged out. Think this is one of my favorite Pixar films that you showed me.”
“You really liked Cars too.” Blair chuckles.
“Yeah, I did. That was a good one.” Harry leans back on the couch, crossing his arms behind his head.
“You don’t need to do this, you know?”
“Do what, love?” He says without looking at her, eyes focused on the screen.
“Babysit me.” She mutters.
“S’not what I’m doing.” He scoffs. “I’m enjoying spending time with you, Blair.” He looks at her. “And I’m worried about you, but I’m not babysitting you.” He puts his hand on her knee and gives it a squeeze before taking it away. “Just relax, yeah?”
“Thanks.” She pauses for a moment. “Harry…would you be taking care of me like this if you had a new girlfriend?” Her eyes start to well up with tears. “Because-“
“Why are you asking a what if like that?” He reaches to wipe her tears with his thumbs. “At the risk of sounding totally lame…I was sort of just waiting on you. Sort of hoping you’d wanna get back together at some point. I tried dating, but it’s like I told you…no one was ever you.”
“So you just kept fucking strangers?” She was so confused.
“It was all meaningless. I figured if you were out there living your life, then I should do the same.” He shrugs.
“Harry, I know you think we broke up because you thought I needed time to be young or whatever, but I wasn’t out there fucking a ton of different people. I just…I don’t know, I wanted to be on my own.”
“And I understood that, as much as it upset me. What was I going to do, beg you to stay my girlfriend?” He moves a bit closer to her. “If we were to get back together, what would you want to be different? Obviously things stopped working…”
“It’s not that they stopped working, I just…I think I just grew up a little bit. You gave me plenty of room for it, but I just sort of realized that there were other things I wanted to do and I didn’t wanna be totally tied down. If we were to get back together, I wouldn’t want you paying for things all the time, or thinking you need to fix all of my problems. Sometimes I just want someone to listen without making suggestions, you know?”
“I didn’t even realize I was doing that.” He runs a hand through his hair and sighs. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, I know you always meant well, and you were just trying to help in your own way.” She gives him a reassuring smile. “It didn’t always bother me, but sometimes it did. I wasn’t perfect either, I know how closed off I could get.” She furrows her brows. “I’ve been trying to work on that. I added the yoga into my routines…so that’s been helping. You sort of inspired that.”
“I should start my membership back up.”
“Yeah…it would be nice to see you in class again.”
“Remember when I started coming on Tuesday evenings, and then we’d go to the Thai place for dinner afterwards?”
“Mhm, and then you’d take us back to your place, and set up a bath for us.” She sighs dreamily. “And then you’d massage my calves for me, ugh, I always loved that.”
“Couldn’t have my baby being sore the next morning, could I?” He pouts playfully at her, and she giggles.
“You were always so good to me.” Her face was only a few inches from his now.
“Fucking worshiped you.” His lips ghost over hers, and she whimpers.
“Kiss me, Harry.”
His lips slot over hers immediately, and cups her cheeks to pull her even closer. He sucks on her bottom lip, and she whimpers again. Blair tugs on Harry’s shirt, and then pushes his back to the couch. She moves to straddle him, and he wraps his arms around her body. They’re both grabbing at different parts of one another, and she shifts so she’s only straddling one of his thighs, rolling her hips down onto it. Harry groans, and starts kissing on her neck. She gets a fist full of his hair, and yanks his head back.
“Harry, I don’t think this is a good idea.” She admits. “I mean…we haven’t agreed to anything. I think we should take this slow, don’t you?”
“You just told me to kiss you, and then you climbed into my lap.” He smirks, and she starts laughing.
“Yeah.” She grips his chin with her other hand. “You’re always good at doing exactly what I say.”
“Always.” He agrees. “If you’re not planning on having your way with me then you should get off. You’re only gonna rile me up, and I’ve not done anything to deserve that.”
“No, I suppose you deserve a reward instead of a punishment.” She presses her forehead to his and lets her hands fall to his shoulders. She sighs heavily and then looks at him again. “I need a little more time. I wanna make sure that this really makes sense. The last thing I wanna do is hurt you again.”
“I don’t want you to feel hurt either.” He squeezes her hips. “I wanna give you the time, Blair, but you’ve also had a year to sort your feelings. You either wanna do this or you don’t.”
“I really hate it when you’re right.” She huffs. “But I know what you’re saying.”
“How about this…why don’t we go out Saturday night? We could go on a date, and see how it feels.”
“Why not Friday?”
“Because you work early on Saturday mornings, darling, and you’re just going to be getting back to it again.” He tucks some hair behind her hear. “Can’t have you being sleepy.”
“You’re so sweet.” She smiles. “Okay, yeah, I’d like that. Um, did you want to just go out for dinner?”
“If that’s what you wanna do, baby. I’m down for whatever.”
“I haven’t been to that grill we used to go to all the time in forever. Feel like I could go for a really good burger.”
“Alright, we’ll go to Benson’s. I’ll pick you up around six, how’s that sound?”
“I think it sounds like a date.”
//
On Wednesday evening, much to Blair’s surprise, Harry walked into one of her evening classes with Riley. Riley had a cheeky smile on her face, and Blair just shook her head at the two of them. It had been ages since Harry had been to one of her classes, and he had picked a yoga day.
“Good evening, everyone!” Blair says once everyone gets there. “We’re gonna start off with our warm up, and then get in to it. We’ll work a little with the weights, and then we’ll cool down with the yoga like always. Does everyone have their weights?” She hears a collective yes. “Alright!” She hops up onto the small stage and gets the music playing.
When the class is over, a few people hang back to talk to Blair. Riley would usually grab a quick bite with her after class. A guy was talking to her now.
“Hey, who is that?” Harry asks Riley as they clean up their stations.
“Hm? Oh, that’s Rich, he has a thing for Blair.” Riley rolls her eyes. “He refuses to take a hint. The second he found out she was single he was all over her. She’s nice to him, but she doesn’t like him back.”
Harry narrows his eyes, and reads Blair’s body language like a book. Her arms were crossed, and she was casually trying to step away from Rich.
“I’ll get him to leave her alone.” Harry says.
“Harry, don’t.” Riley grabs his wrist. “She can handle herself.”
“I know she can, but she looks so uncomfortable. What if they were left alone here, and he tried something. He needs to know she has some backup.” Harry walks over to the two, and Blair can’t help but smirk because she knows exactly why Harry’s walking over. “Hey, sorry to interrupt, but we should get going if we want to make trivia night.”
“Right! Yeah, sorry, Rich, I need to get the studio cleaned up so I can head out.” Blair was thankful. Harry was always good at coming up with excuses for them to leave places early. Usually it was because he needed to get her home so she could fuck him, obviously now that wasn’t the case.
“Oh…alright, well, I’ll see you next week. Have a good night.” Rich looks Harry up and down before leaving.
“Thank you.” Blair sighs. “He’s a nice guy, but I’m not interested.”
“Obviously.” Harry scoffs. “Have fun with Riley.”
“You don’t wanna come with?”
“Nah, I need to get home. I have some stuff I need to do before tomorrow. Still on for Saturday?”
“Mhm.” She nods with a smile.
“Good.” He kisses her cheek. “I’ll call you Friday.”
Harry leaves and Riley helps Blair cleanup before they head out to a Panera for dinner.
“So, you two are going out on Saturday?” Riley asks her when they sit down with their food.
“Yeah, it’s sort of like a first date. I wanna make sure things feel really right with us. I have a feeling we’ll get back together officially, though.”
“Yeah? What makes you think that?” Riley smirks.
“Well…we kissed on Sunday night when he was still over. It was a really good kiss too, it was familiar, but there was still that, like, passion, you know?”
“I would love it if you got back together. I never really liked the other people he dated, and I was so excited when you both got together. He’s like the brother I never had, and I want him with someone that really cares about him. I never doubted that with you. You guys got together at a weird time in your life where you were sort of at different places. Now…well, now you might mesh better. You grew up a lot during the time you were together, I know that was tough on you both.”
“Yeah, it was.” Blair sighs, and bites into her piece of bread. “I feel like I could handle things better now. He’s been there for me during so many tough times, he’s seen me…at my absolute worst, and still loved me through all of it. I can’t wrap my head around him turning into such a playboy.”
“I couldn’t believe it myself, but I honestly don’t think he really knew how to deal with not having you around, and then…I don’t know.” Riley shakes her head. “He always wrapped it up, that’s what John told me, anyways.”
“He mentioned that to me too.” Blair rolls her eyes. “I’m not going to hold anything against him, we weren’t together. I don’t have the right to judge him about it.”
“He only wanted you, B.” Riley smiles.
“I really have missed him.” Blair smiles. “I’m really looking forward to going out with him Saturday night.” She bites her bottom lip. “Wanna come with me to Victoria’s Secret during the day? I think I should pick out something new…”
“Yeah! I’ve got a coupon to go there, actually. I need some new undies.”
“Oh, yay! We haven’t been shopping in forever.”
“I know! I hope I’m not on the road for an entire month like that again. It got old real quick.”
//
On Friday, Harry was in his office wrapping some things up, going over some paperwork. Then he looked over his calendar for Monday, just to see what meetings he had, and if he needed to do anything over the weekend.
“Mr. Styles?” Kiley, the intern training with Kate comes into his office.
“Miss Stewart, what can I do you for?” He asks, giving her his full attention. She pouts slightly at him.
“You can just call me Kiley…you call Kate by her first name.”
“I’ve known Kate for quite some time, Miss Stewart.”
“Well, we’ll get to know each other pretty well once she’s on maternity…right?”
“Most likely.” He nods. “Did you need something?”
“Yes, sorry.” She pulls a paper out of her bag. “Um, I just need you to sign off on the hours I worked this week since Kate left early. I forgot to ask her before she stepped out for her doctor’s appointment.”
“Oh, sure.” He gestures for the paper. “They’re really on you guys about the hours, huh?”
“Yeah.” She sighs. “I don’t mind, though, because I have to write a paper explaining what I did, so having an account of that will be helpful.” She shrugs. Harry hums his response as he signs the paper and hands it back to her. “Thank you…any fun plans for the weekend?”
“Just laying low tonight. I’ve got a date tomorrow, though.” He smiles.
“Oh! That’s nice.” She smiles. “Did you just meet someone?”
“No.” He shakes his head with a chuckle. “Might be starting over with my ex, which I’m pretty excited about since I’m still hopelessly in love with her.”
“Well in that case, I hope it goes super well.” She beams at him.
“Thank you, Kiley.” Her smile widens at him even more. “Feel free to head out, enjoy your weekend.”
“Thank you, Mr. Styles. I expect a full report of your date on Monday morning.”
Harry chuckles and nods as she leaves. Just when he thought his door was going to close, John enters.
“Wrap it buddy boy, we gotta meet the guys soon.”
“About that…I’m going to skip out on tonight.”
“Seriously? Why?” John frowns.
“I…I have a date tomorrow night with Blair, and-“
“You can’t be serious.” John rolls his eyes and sits down. “Why would you even entertain the idea of getting back together with her?”
“Because she seems ready for a relationship again. I still love her, and I think she still loves me. There’s still a chemistry between us, physically, so we’re going to Benson’s for a burger tomorrow to see if everything else is still there.”
“So that means you can’t come out for guy’s night?”
“You know as well as I do that guy’s night never stays guy’s night. I don’t want to be tempted by anything that could fuck me over. Besides, it wouldn’t kill me to stay in for a change. There’s a book I’ve been meaning to get back to. I wouldn’t mind just taking it easy, you guys have a good time without me.” Harry smiles at his friend. “It’s nothing personal…”
“I know.” John sighs. “You’re just fun, that’s all…” John looks down at his phone and smirks.
“Maybe you’ll meet up with that girl you see on the regular. Seems like she just texted you.”
“Maybe she did.” John nods.
“How come you don’t just date her? I’ve watched you turn down other girls to go meet up with her a dozen times.”
“It’s a little complicated. She travels a lot for work, we’re both just looking for someone familiar to hookup with right now.”
“Guess that makes sense.” Harry shrugs. “You’re pretty busy yourself”
“Exactly, so when’s around I see her more, and when she’s gone, I see other people. She does the same. We’re pretty open about it.”
“Good.” Harry smiles. “Have a beer for me tonight, yeah?”
“Alright.” John sighs and stands up. “Have fun with Blair, I guess.”
“You could sound a little more enthused.”
“I’ll be enthused if she doesn’t string you along.”
“She never strung me along.” Harry shakes his head. “We were a great team.”
“Seems like you were always doing everything for her.”
“No, she did plenty for me.”
“Babe?! I picked up a pizza!” Blair shouted as she entered Harry’s place, putting her key in the bowl by the door. “Baby?!” He wasn’t in the kitchen like she thought he’d be. She set the pizza down on the counter and walked down the hall to his home office. Her jaw dropped when she saw him knuckling at his eyes. “Harry, are you crying?” She asked softly.
“Blair.” He said, almost surprised. “Hi, I lost track of time, I’m sorry. Let’s eat.” He stood up, but she went over to him and urged him to sit.
“What happened, what’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing, baby.”
“It’s not nothing if you’re crying. Talk to me.”
“I’m just really stressed.” His voice cracked. “I was looking forward to taking over for my dad, but there’s so much other shit that’s been added to my plate that he didn’t really prepare me for. Now he’s down in Florida living it up with my mum, and I can’t even talk to him about it because I don’t want him to be disappointed in me. He’s trusting me with everything.”
“That’s a lot.” She wipes=d his tears away. “I’m so sorry you’re feeling like this.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Is…is there anything I can do to help? Anything I can do to help take your mind off things for a bit? I brought pizza…”
“Um…yeah, I think there is something you could do for me, but it doesn’t involve food.” He stood and took her hand, leading her out to the living room. They both sat down. “Sometimes when we’re having sex…I let you take the lead, have you noticed that?”
“A little.” She shrugged. “I mean, I like that you’re not super dominating, it makes me feel safe.”
“Right, but before you I wasn’t really like that. I was always in control, but with you…I feel really safe too. So safe…that I’m able to just let everything else slip away when we’re doing what we do.”
“What are you saying exactly?”
“I…I sometimes I think I want you to really be in control. I’m not saying all the time, but I have to be in control of so many things, and I think it would be nice to not.”
“Okay, so I could ride you more if you want.”
“Well, that would be nice.” He smirked. “But I’m talking more like…like maybe you could blindfold me once in a while, or you could cuff me to the bed?” His was flushed with embarrassment. Her eyes widened as she finally started to understand what he was trying to say. “I’ve totally freaked you out, haven’t I? I know that stuff isn’t for everyone. I was just thinking we’ve been together a while now-“
“Harry, calm down.” She smiled, squeezing his hand. “I think it’s kind of hot that you wanna explore some different things.”
“You do?”
“Mhm.” She nodded. “I…just don’t ask me to, like, whip you or anything. I don’t think I could hurt you.”
“No, I’m not looking for pain.” He chuckled. “I just…wanna clear my head sometimes, that’s all.”
“Okay, I think I could be into that. You know how much I love all your ties, I’d love to tie you up with them.” She grinned, and he groaned softly.
“What do you say we leave the pizza for later, and we head into the bedroom to explore a little bit?”
“I say we’re in for a fantastic weekend.”
“Whatever you say man.” John says. “See you Monday.” John leaves Harry’s office, and Harry sighs. He never told anyone about what he and Blair did, it was no one’s business. He certainly wasn’t going to let it slip now.
//
At around 10AM Saturday morning, Blair picked up Riley so they could go shopping. Riley had bags under her eyes, and a fresh hickey on her neck. Blair’s mouth fell open the second Riley got in the car.
“Don’t.” Riley mumbles.
“I didn’t say anything.” Blair chuckles.
“But I know what you’re thinking.”
“Did you meet up with John last night?”
“Yeah, I guess Harry didn’t feel like going out last night, so I met up with him at some bar, and then he came back with me to my place.”
“Oh shit, is still there?”
“No, he left at, like, seven.” Riley rolls her eyes. “But not before he fucked me again.” She shakes her head. “We’ve fucked so many times, I don’t know how he’s not sick of me yet, or how I’m not sick of him.”
“Maybe it’s a sign you two should be more.” Blair smirks.
“I mean, we’re basically just in an open relationship, that’s the way I look at it anyways.” She shrugs. “We were up most of the night.” She yawns loudly.
“You could have stayed home.” Blair frowns as she keeps her eyes on the road.
“No, it’s okay, I wanted to go shopping with you.”
The girls make their way to a Victoria’s Secret, and start shopping around. Just as Riley hoped, there was an underwear sale. Blair indulged in it as well. Nothing wrong with getting some new undies to replace some old ones.
“Oh, these are cute!” Blair says, holding up a cheeky pair of panties.
“Yeah! I’ve been way more into the lace cheeky bottoms instead of thongs lately.”
“Me too! It’s way more comfortable. To be honest, I wear boxers a lot around my apartment. They’re more breathable than athletic shorts, and they don’t ride up.”
“Of course men have more comfortable underwear than us.” Riley sighs heavily. “Oh! Look at these white ones! Can never have too many white pairs.”
“Snag me a pair, please.”
Once the girls are done picking out their underwear, and a couple of bras that were two $50 (yes, way overpriced, but necessary), they head to the part of the store where the lingerie was.
“What are you looking for exactly?” Riley asks as she looks over some babydoll nighties.
“I don’t know, nothing crazy, but if things go well tonight, which I think they will, I wanna surprise him with something fun.”
“You’d really jump into bed with him right away?” There was no judgement in Riley’s voice, more so surprise.
“I mean…I know he’s your cousin and all, but he’s pretty hard to resist, Riles. He had me wrapped around his finger from the second we met.”
“Fair enough.” Riley shrugs. “I might try one of these on…surprise John one of these nights.”
The girls giggle as they pick out different things. Blair ends up finding a black lace bralette and matching panties that she thinks will work well under an outfit. The only thing was the bralette didn’t have any support, like, at all, but she was able to adjust the straps on it a bit to give her a slight lift.
“God, I wish I danced as a kid.” Blair huffs as she leaves the dressing room to meet Riley out at the register line.
“Why?”
“Because then maybe I wouldn’t have these fucking honkers on my chest. I’d love to be able to wear a bralette without worrying. My boobs are so saggy, I look like a granny when I don’t have the proper support.”
“You’re being dramatic.” Riley chuckles.
“Easy for you to say, Miss B Cup.”
“Hey, I’d kill to have boobs like yours. I always feel like mine are too small. I have to wear pushups all the time. Besides, your boobs are not saggy, they just sit a little lower on your chest.”
“When I really started dancing I thought they’d get smaller since I was working out all the time, but nope. The worst part is, it’s all right here.” She lifts her arm slightly and rubs just under her armpit. “I’m only a C, but I feel like a double D sometimes when I put a bra on, it takes all the side boob to the front.” Blair puts her things up on the counter, and Riley goes to the next register.
“Find everything okay?” The girl behind the register asks.
“Mhm.” Blair smiles. “I have some coupons too.” She takes her phone out so the girl can scan the barcodes on Blair’s screen.
“Oh, that’s a good one! Took off 25% of your total.” The girl puts everything into a bag for Blair, and she heads out with Riley.
“So, when will John get to see that babydoll?” Blair smirks at Riley.
“When I feel like he deserves it.” Riley grins. “If he invites me over tonight, I might bring it with me.”
“Do you usually see him two nights in a row?”
“Sometimes, but not often. I think he missed me a little since I was gone for so long. Kinda missed him too. He told me he’d call me later today.” She shrugs.
The girls grab a quick lunch before heading home. Blair didn’t want to eat anything too heavy since she was going to be eating out for dinner, so she just had a salad. She spent some time doing some social media work for her business, and then spent some time putting a new dance together. Her customers had been asking for some more throwbacks, so she was crafting some choreography to a couple of Ricky Martin songs. They could be used for the high intensity days. She always recorded herself so she could go back later to review the steps.
When she was done she was drenched in sweat, so she hops into the shower to freshen up. She sort of ends up pampering herself a bit. She shaved her legs, so she massaged some lotion into them, and used some cocoa butter on her thighs because she liked the way it smelled. After that, she grabbed her electric razor to trip her bikini line, having exfoliated first in the shower, so she was plenty smooth where she wanted to be. She spritzes some perfume into the air and walks through it, then she gets to work on her hair. She had been sporting a shoulder length look lately. Her hair used to be really long in college, but in recent years she had been keeping it a tad shorter. It was up in a braid or bun most days, but she decides to wear it down tonight. She puts on some makeup, and then goes through her closet to find something to wear over her new lingerie. She decides on a pair of black jeans that could easily be word with some booties. She pulls on a blush pink tank top and a tan cardigan to complete the look. You could just see the lace top of the bralette, and she sort of liked that look. Her phone goes off just as she’s putting some lipstick on.
“Hello?” She answers brightly.
“Hey, baby, I’m downstairs.”
“Okay, be down in a sec!” She throws some makeup remover wipes into her bag, and a spare toothbrush, then she heads out. Again, she didn’t quite know what would happen tonight, but she wanted to be prepared. Harry was standing outside his car. He smiles when he sees her.
“Hi.” He says, and opens the car door for her.
“Hi, thanks.” She smiles back and gets inside. They head towards Benson’s, being silent in the car at first. “How was your week?” She asks him.
“Good, had a pretty good workout Wednesday.” He grins, looking at her for a moment before looking back at the road. It makes Blair giggle. “Work wasn’t too stressful for a change, although I’m getting anxious about Kate going on maternity leave.”
“Is the intern no good?”
“No, she just doesn’t have a lot of experience. She’ll get the hang of it.” He shrugs. “How was your week, how are you feeling?”
“I’m okay. I spoke with my mom last night, she’s doing alright. My aunt’s been staying with her, so that’s good.”
“Do you think she’ll sell the house?”
“Nah, she likes where she lives, but I think she’s going to paint and change a few things so it doesn’t feel like such a ghost town, you know?”
“Makes sense.” Harry nods. “I know I’ve offered a ton, but if she needs any help with anything, don’t be afraid to ask. I can hold my own with a paintbrush.”
“Thank you, Harry, that’s very sweet.” She gives his shoulder a squeeze. “It was really nice having you in class Wednesday.” She says shyly.
“Yeah? Would you be opposed if I started coming regularly again?”
“Not at all, I’d really like it, actually.” She smiles. “It…it made it easier to wait to see you tonight.” She blushes, and he reaches for one of her hands. He brings it to his lips to kiss her knuckles.
“You’re cute.” He tells her, resting their hands on the console, not letting go at all.
They get to Benson’s, and get seated in a booth. Harry hesitates for a moment, desperately wanting to sit next to her, but he thinks that might be too much too soon, so he sits across from her. She gives him a funny look.
“What?” He asks.
“Nothing…you’re just far away. You usually sit next to me.”
“I didn’t know if you wanted me to.”
“I want you to.” Harry smiles, stands back up, and slides in next to her. She hooks her arms around his and rests her cheek on his shoulder. “Much better.” She sighs. He kisses the top of her head, and a waitress comes over.
“Evening, folks, are you expecting anyone else?” She asks.
“No, love, it’s just us.” Harry says to her, squinting at her nametag. “Becky, is it?”
“Y-yes.” She clears her throat. “Can I get you started with any drinks or appetizers?”
“Definitely two waters.” Blair begins. “And I’ll have a vodka-tonic, please.”
“I’ll have the same.” Harry says. “Do you want an app?” He asks Blair.
“No, I think just the burger will be good.”
“Right, think we’re ready to order dinner.” Harry says to Becky.
“Great! What can I get you?”
“I’ll have the turkey burger with cheddar cheese and sautéed mushrooms.” Blair says.
“And I’ll have veggie burger with avocado.” Harry says.
“Sounds good, I’ll be right back with your drinks.” Becky says, taking their menus before walking away.
“Just a veggie burger?” Blair asks Harry.
“Yeah, I’ve been craving a good one lately, and they make the best here.”
“Very true.” She nods. Becky comes back over with the drinks, and sets them on the table. “So…do anything fun last night?”
“I stayed in.” Harry says, before taking a sip of his drink. “Got caught up on a book I’ve been reading, watched a little TV, nothing special.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t go out with your friends. Isn’t Friday usually your guy’s night?”
“Yeah, I just felt like skipping last night.” He shrugs. “What about you, what did you do?”
“I ran errands all day, and then went to bed early so I could get up for my early classes this morning. Then Riley and I went shopping, and then I did some work at my place. Got ready to go out with you.” She shrugs.
“What does Riley have to say about all this?”
“She’s happy that we’re entertaining the idea of getting back together.” Blair chuckles and sips her drink. “Did you tell anyone we were going out tonight?”
“Mentioned it to my intern…and to John. He wasn’t so enthused.” Harry rolls his eyes.
“He���s never liked me, and I literally have no idea why.”
“Think he was just jealous that I snagged someone as gorgeous and bright as you.” Harry grins. “You know, when we first got together a ton of people gave me shit because you were still in school.”
“I was in my last semester, and I was twenty-one, it wasn’t like I was a child.” Blair scoffs.
“That’s what I said! It wasn’t like I was looking for someone younger than me, it just happened.”
“We just clicked right away, nothing wrong with that.” She inches a little closer to him, her ankle hooking around his under the table.
“Not at all.” His lips graze over hers, but their food is brought over to the table before they can really kiss.
They both giggle and dig into their food, each moaning out at the taste. They continue to talk about things, catching each other on the last year that they weren’t in one another’s lives. It felt easy and natural.
“I don’t wanna be too forward, but would you like to come back to mine when we’re done?” Harry asks.
“I’d like that.” She nods. “Got any sweets at home?”
“Mhm, I’ve got those chewy chocolate chip cookies you like so much.”
“This night just keeps getting better and better.” She smiles. When the check comes, they both reach for it.
“Blair, let go of the check.”
“No, I wanna pay for dinner.”
“I insist, let me pay.”
“Harry, I don’t want you always paying for everything, come on.”
“Fine, can we at least split it?”
“Ugh, fine.” She slaps her card down and so does he.
“So fucking irritating when you do that.” He huffs.
“No, what’s irritating is that you think I can’t pay for stuff.”
“That’s not what this is! I just like paying for our dates, it’s gentlemanly.”
“Yeah, well, it makes me feel like shit.” Becky comes to grabs the cards, and tells them she’ll be right back. “I’m doing well for myself now, I want things to be more equal. I’m not with you for your money.”
“I know you’re not, baby…I just…I can’t help that I wanna spoil you rotten.” He presses his forehead to hers, and she sighs before pecking his lips quickly.
“There are plenty of other ways you can do that, Harry.”
“Am I gonna have the chance?” Becky comes back with their cards, and they both sign their slips before sliding out of the booth. She takes his hand in hers as they walk out.
“Yes.” She says as they both get into the car. “I…I think wanna see where this goes with you, babe. I feel like I’m really ready for you now…”
“That means the world to me, Blair.” Her bottom lip starts to quiver, and he frowns. “Hey, why are you crying?” He reaches to caress her cheek.
“I just can’t believe you basically were waiting for me all this time.” She sniffles. “I feel so shitty. And I feel even shittier because I’m jealous of all the other people you slept with that we weren’t together.”
“Baby.” Harry sighs. “I was so in love with you, still am, none of them meant anything. I’m sorry you feel hurt by it. You don’t need to worry about it now, though, I’m all yours.” Her hand grips the collar of his shirt and she tugs him close to her, only a few centimeters apart.
“Mine.” She says, eyes darkening before her lips crash against his. She nips and sucks at his bottom lip as his hands cup her cheeks, trying to get even closer.
“Fuck.” He breathes, putting his keys in the ignition. “Need to get you home.” He pulls onto the street, and zips them home. His hand grips her thigh the entire time, squeezing it occasionally.
“Thought of you last weekend in the shower.” She says, shifting on her side a little. “Thought of the first time we had sex in the shower.” Her breath is on his ear now, and she nibbles on his lobe.
“Blair.” He warns, but she keeps going, kissing on his neck.
“Made me feel so good, always make me feel good.”
“Blair, I’m going to crash the car, just sit patiently, please.” She sits back normally in her seat. “Thank you.” He sighs. “So, you really thought of me?”
“It was hard not to with you leaving me breakfast.” She pouts at him. “So sweet of you, and I haven’t had a chance to even reward you for being so good to me.”
“You’re still into all that?” He asks cautiously.
“Only for you…do you still like it?”
“Only if it’s you. I told you I didn’t do that with anyone else.”
“You still trust me enough?”
“Course I do, baby.” He reaches for her hand to intertwine their fingers. He drives a little faster to his place, and they finally reach it. “Gonna take care of you first, and then you can do me, alright?”
“Whatever you want, babe.”
They get up to his place, somehow keeping their hands to themselves in the elevator. Before she knows it, Harry’s slamming Blair against the wall of his front hallway, attacking her neck with his lips.
“Gonna mark you up.” He says as he sucks on her skin. “Then everyone will know you’re taken again.”
She whimpers as her response, and pushes his head further into her neck. She wiggles out of her cardigan, and wraps her arms around his neck.
“Jump.” He grunts into her ear, and she does so, wrapping her legs around his waist so he can carry her to his bedroom. He sets her down on the bed, letting her get her shoes off. He does the same before kneeing onto the bed. She takes her tank top off, and his mouth waters at the sight of the bralette. “Christ.” He breathes as he gropes her supple breasts. “Missed these.” He sucks on her nipple through the lace, and her head rolls back. He does the same to the other one, getting it nice and pebbled. One of his hands slides down between her legs and he whimpers. “Need to get these off you, that okay?”
“Mhm, yeah, please.”
He undoes her button and zipper, yanking the jeans off of her. His eyes widen when he sees the matching panties.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Blair. Are these new?”
“Yeah, bought them today, just for you.” She props herself up on her elbows. “Wouldn’t mind you taking them off, though.”
Harry nearly growls as he tugs them down her legs. His hands slide up and down her smooth skin, having missed the feeling of her skin on his. He spreads her legs apart, and starts leaving open mouthed kisses on her inner thighs, sucking some nasty bruises into them. Blair clutches at his blankets and grits her teeth while he has his fun marking her up.
“Can I?” He asks, looking up at her. “Can I taste you?”
“Yes, of course you can.” She reaches forward to push his hair back, and he smiles at her before licking up her slit.
He licks and sucks all around her folds before working his tongue around her clit, sucking on it briefly before bringing his thumb to it. He licks into her center, making her mewl as he essentially just makes out sloppily with the area.
“Yes, fuck.” Her hands rake through his hair. “Feels so good, Harry.” She grinds against his face, and he moans against her. “Harry, fingers, please, use your fingers.” She whines.
He lifts his head from her, and reaches his hand up to her so she can suck on his fingers. She does so happily, and then he slips two fingers inside her. She gasps and lets her body go slack against the bed.
“Baby, shit, you’re so fucking tight, does it hurt?”
“No, feels so god, m’so wet.”
“I know, you’re dripping.” He pulls his fingers out and sucks on them, moaning again before slipping them back inside to the knuckle.
“R-right there.” She whimpers. Her mouth was open, body writhing under his, having not been touched by another man in almost a year, her body was reacting on overdrive. Her back was arching, and she was pushing her head further into the mattress. “Harry, Harry!” She screams as she comes around his fingers, and he fucks her through it, sucking on her clit to prolong it. As she starts to come down he sits up, and starts taking his shirt off. “Fuck, I’m gonna give it to you so good.” She sits up and watches he takes his clothes off. She takes her bralette off, and tosses it on the floor.
“How do you want me?”
“That depends…um…what would you like me to do? Like, how…how hard do you wanna go tonight?”
“I wanna be able to touch you since it’s been so long, and I wanna be able to look at you.”
“Alright, so we can just keep it sweet and easy, save the rest for another time.”
“Yeah…work back up to it.”
“Get on your back, m’gonna ride you.”
Harry gets himself situated, sitting up against the headboard. Blair raises an eyebrow at him.
“Just wanna be as close as possible tonight, baby.”
“Okay.” She smiles, and gets herself on his lap.
“Are you still on the pill?”
“Mhm, are you okay to not use a condom?”
“Definitely don’t want to. Need feel you.”
“Need to feel you too.”
She grips his hard cock, giving it a few pumps before she guides it inside herself. Her mouth falls open as she feels him stretch her out. Harry looks down and watches as she swallows him whole. They both moan out once he’s full inside her. Her fingernails dig into his shoulders as she gets adjusted to him. His hands squeeze at her hips and ass.
“Shit, Harry.” She presses her forehead to his. “Missed you so much.”
“Missed you too.” He cups her cheeks and kisses her as she starts to slowly rock on and off him. His tongue slips into her mouth, and she grips at his back as she kisses him back. “You feel so fucking good.” He says before biting her bottom lip, sucking on it.
She whimpers and moves herself a little faster on him. She grinds herself against him, feeling the friction on her clit start to form. His arms wrap around her back, his fingers digging into her skin.
“Move with me.” She says into his ear before nibbling on it.
He groans as he starts to thrust up into her. She starts to bounce up and down him, moving his hands to her hips. He watches as her breasts bounce in front of his face, and he leans in to kiss and suck on them. Her head rolls back with pleasure. She wanted to feel his tongue all over her. She brings two fingers to his mouth, and he takes them in quickly. He looks up at her as he sucks on them, swirling his tongue around them, and nipping at the pads of them. She takes them away to rub at her clit.
He growls, and moves to pin her on her back, surprising her completely. He was never like this in bed with her. She looks up at him with wide eyes as he throws one of her legs over his shoulder, and replaces her fingers with his own. She groans at his touch. He was driving himself in so much deeper and she could barely handle it.
“Okay?” He asks her, panting slightly.
“Mhm, it’s good, so good.” One of her hands goes to the back of his neck, pulling him down for a sloppy kiss. They breathe each other in and out once they both start panting. “Harry, fuck, I’m so close.” She squeezes around him and he bites down on her shoulder.
“Blair.” He moans into her ear. “Can I come inside you?”
“Yes! Fuck, yes, please!” She screams as she’s coming again, feeling even more turned on when she feels Harry’s hot come start to fill her up. She grinds her hips towards his trying to make her orgasm last as long as possible. “Love it when you fill me up, feels so good.” She says as she continues to squeeze around him.
He slots his mouth over hers as they both start to come down. Their tongues mold together as they kiss lazily. He’s slow to pull out, but he was too sensitive to stay inside her any longer. She squeezes her legs closed to try to not make a mess. Harry scoops Blair up quickly bridal style to carry her to the bathroom, setting her down gently on the toilet, and leaving her to do her business. When she walks out of the bathroom, he’s laying on his bed in a fresh pair of boxers with a dreamy smile on his face. She climbs onto the bed and lays in between his legs, resting her head on his tummy. She buries her face into his soft skin while he starts to card through her mussed up hair.
“So…we’re really back together?” He asks after a few moment of peaceful silence. She looks up at him with a smile on her face.
“Yeah, I really wanna be your girlfriend again.”
“You have no idea how happy I feel right now.” He continues to play with her hair as she sets her head back down.
“You’ve never really taken control like that before…I kinda liked it.” She peers up at him again, grinning. “Maybe I should see what being the sub feels like sometime.”
“Oh, baby, I don’t know if I could switch like that. Don’t think I’d get much pleasure in making you wait for things. Think I’d give in the second you asked for something.” He chuckles.
“You’re so cute, Harry, but I understand what you’re saying. I don’t mind being the one to do that stuff when you really need it, babe.” She moves further up his body so she can be closer to his face. “Do you think in a bit when you’re ready to go again we could…bring out some of your ties?”
“Feel like I’m already bloating back up, fuck.” He groans, and kisses her.
“You know what I’ve really missed doing with you?” She says, moving her lips to the shell of his ear.
“What, baby?”
“Fucking that tight hole of yours.” She says lowly, and he whimpers.
“Yes.” He breathes, and she looks at him. “Still have everything, it just hasn’t been used in a while.”
“Would you really wanna get into all of that tonight? I mean, I’m game if you are…you seemed hesitant before.”
“I just wanted to feel really close with you before, but now that we’ve got that out of our system I’m definitely up for it.” He pecks her lips. “We’ve got the rest of the weekend to do all we want.”
“Mmm, and the weekend after that, and the weekend after that, and maybe sometimes during the middle of the week. Oh! Remember when I used to come to your office at work, and I’d let you bend me over your desk, god, that was always so hot.”
“Or that time we screwed in that bathroom at your studio?” His smile was incredibly mischievous.
“Or the times you sit me up on the counter in your kitchen and fuck me?”
“Or the time you bent me over my own desk her here?”
“I think it’s time we make some new memories.” She says, getting off of him, and extending her hand out to him for him to follow.
“Couldn’t agree with you more.”
Blair leads them inside Harry’s walk in closet where he kept his box of toys. It was still in the same spot as always. She pops the lid off and they both smile at each other.
“How long do you think I could edge you for?” She asks him.
“Um, I should be okay to go for a while since I already came.”
“Excellent.” She picks up a cock ring, the kind that vibrates. “We’ve got a lot of time to make up for.”
#harry styles#When the Time is Right#harry styles imagine#harry styles one shot#harry styles fic#harry styles fanfic#harry styles au#harry styles x oc#harry styles smut#harry styles fluff#harry styles angst#sub!harry#attorney!harry
426 notes
·
View notes
Text
Cutting Hair as Punishment in the Twilight Saga
Okay, I’ve been trying to organize my thoughts around this into a sort-of-essay format for a while, because I find it disturbingly mean-spirited: Meyer has a pattern of using hair-cutting as a form of punishment for characters, especially female characters, who fail to embrace Bella and the Cullens with open arms. I’m talking particularly about Leah and Lauren, both of whom, while not outright antagonists like Victoria or James, are situated along with Rosalie as “against” Bella throughout the series. The Quileute pack, meanwhile, is situated largely “against” the Cullens, meaning Jacob and the rest of the pack get the Haircut of Shame, too.
(Also, I’ve been creeping through @panlight ‘s blog because I thought she had a recent post relating to this -- I was probably thinking of this submission and her addendum, which does discuss Meyer’s “punishment” of certain characters, but that post was about characters suffering for not waiting for True Love, or daring to do the Devil’s Tango before marriage. Still, it’s on-theme and very much worth reading, like all her stuff!)
So here’s the general outline: first I’m gonna talk about the shapeshifters and how their overall lack of choice frames cutting their hair as something forced on them and therefore punitive. Then I’m going to discuss Meyer’s FAQ response where she reveals that Lauren was tricked into cutting off most of her hair over the summer before New Moon, and how this adds an extra fun misogynistic element to the hair-cutting theme with respect to Lauren and Leah. I also use way too many words to do it, sorry.
Punishment | The Shapeshifters Are Given No Other Option
I don’t have the background or knowledge to discuss the significance of long hair to indigenous culture and identity in detail, and my understanding is that different tribes ascribe different meanings to it. What I’ve read it about it suggests that, generally, long hair represents strength of one’s individual spirit and of the community. It’s a source of pride, and is only cut off voluntarily in extraordinary circumstances, often as an expression of grief, or to mark a significant life change.
This sort of works in the context of the shapeshifters all cutting their hair -- phasing into a giant wolf, discovering the existence of the supernatural, and assuming the role of protectors is a major life event for these characters. But the negative associations make it a troubling choice on Meyer’s part, and that’s without even getting into the problem of her imposing her own worldbuilding onto the legends and culture of a real tribe. Because of the lack of choice involved in becoming a shapeshifter, the whole situation feels like a scenario in which the Quileute characters have their hair forcibly cut -- a degrading and traumatic act that (depending on their particular tribal belief) might symbolically sever them from their sense of cultural identity and connection with the rest of their tribe.
It all kind of begs the question: why does Meyer even have shapeshifting work this way? What narrative utility is there in having the length of their hair in human form determine the length of their fur as wolves, thereby compelling the shapeshifters to cut it so it isn’t a physical impediment? It’s another sign of the changes in Jacob, sure, but he’s already being uncharacteristically cold and distant, plus suddenly has the physique of a fit twenty-five-year-old; Bella already knows something’s very wrong. His short hair is just another jarring thing for Bella to notice and mourn, like the loss of Jacob’s “baby face” and general sunniness.
It does work as a symbolic thing, representing another sacrifice Jacob has to make and the change in how he now has to perceive himself -- but he’s already got a literal giant wolf form to represent that change in identity/self-perception. Forcing him to cut his hair too just feels like piling on. My argument here, which I hope will be supported when I discuss Lauren and Leah further in, is that it’s not just piling on, but actively punitive -- because much like Leah and Lauren are “against” Bella, the pack at large is “against” the Cullens pretty much through the end of the series.
The Quileute pack is definitely not a Cullen fanclub. The entire purpose of their existence is to destroy vampires, and the truce they have with the Cullens isn’t friendly. They still don’t particularly like or trust the Cullens even after allying with them in Eclipse, and in Breaking Dawn Sam is fully prepared to go to war against them to enforce the treaty. Bella expresses frustration with Jacob and the pack for not appreciating the Cullens more, yet is curiously less willing to scold Alice, Edward, or Rosalie when they call the Quileutes dogs and complain about their smell. (I think she might reprimand Edward for it at some point, but I don’t remember the exact passage.) Bella even starts throwing around “dog” and “mutt” as an insult herself -- I think we know whose side ol’ “Switzerland” is on, here, and whose side Meyer is on as well. The Quileutes aren’t exactly enemies, and in fact are crucial to the Cullens’ survival in both the newborn and Volutri conflicts, but they’re punished nonetheless because they aren’t wholeheartedly Team Cullen from the get-go.
So to explain why I’m so convinced that there’s a link between hair-cutting and punishment in particular, let’s talk about Lauren. There’s a definite gendered element to it this time, too -- by being tricked into cutting her hair, Lauren isn’t just diminished/shamed, but rendered (*thunderclap*) unfeminine.
Lauren Was Rude To Bella Like Twice, Let’s Humiliate Her
I think Meyer’s answer to the question “What happened to Lauren’s hair?” on her FAQ page speaks for itself:
Ha ha. I had fun imagining this one—I only wished that it had fit into the book somewhere. Lauren fell victim to the “model discovered in the mall” scam. An alleged modeling agent approached Lauren in a mall in Victoria, B.C., and told her she was a natural model. Lauren ate it up. The agent told her that if she did something edgy with her hair, and took some high quality head shots, her future was assured. Lauren followed the instructions—dropping fifteen grand on the pictures taken by the agent’s partner—and waited for her career to begin. She’s still waiting. Snort.
It’s pretty obvious that this was done spitefully. Here’s the list of Lauren’s crimes against humanity Bella at this point in the series: 1) she was jealous of the attention Bella was getting as the new girl; 2) she talked behind Bella’s back once, saying Bella might as well just sit with the Cullens now (and she isn’t wrong); 3) she eyed Bella “scornfully” the day of the La Push beach trip; and perhaps most damningly, 4) she’s blonde.
Post-haircut, she has the gall not to be thrilled that Bella’s deigning to speak to the lowly non-Cullens again, then sides with Jessica after Bella uses Jessica to make a point to her dad, is shitty company, and then risks getting them both raped and murdered in Port Angeles so she could get off on her hallucination of Edward’s voice.
I think it’s pretty common knowledge that long hair is tied to patriarchal notions of femininity and attractiveness. Women with short hair are still derided for being ugly, or assumed to be lesbians in a derogatory sense, or simply considered less feminine and therefore less desirable/worthy (because a woman’s worth depends on her desirability, after all). For many women and girls, losing their long hair -- whether because of illness, or gum getting stuck in it, or whatever -- is very upsetting and a hard blow to their self-esteem. Just look at Alice as an example of Traumatic Short Hair; her hair was shorn like that because she received electroshock “treatments” in an asylum. (Although in Alice’s case, I don’t think her having short hair is punishment, but a facet of the traumatic backstory all female characters in Twilight have to have for some reason. Plus, she started the series with short hair, which distinguishes her from the pack and Lauren, who were tricked or compelled into cutting their long hair during the series.)
But Lauren’s so bitchy, so she deserves it, right? Ha ha, she was mean to Bella and cared about her appearance too much, so now she’s ~ugly!
Leah Has It the Worst and It Makes Me Want To Burn Everything
The misogynistic aspect of hair-cutting as punishment is taken up to like, twelve with Leah. Not only does she suffer for being “against” the Cullens along with the rest of the pack (and Bella, too, so extra sinning), but she suffers uniquely for being the only female shapeshifter. A bunch of teenage boys regularly see her naked body against her will. Her previously devoted boyfriend imprints on her cousin/best friend, Sam dumps her and can’t even explain why, and the whole pack -- including her own brother -- resents her for being upset about it, even though she can’t help the lack of mental privacy. Because of that same lack of mental privacy, she has to hear every gripe the boys have about her, plus every enthralled thought Sam has about Emily while she’s still deeply wounded by their breakup.
She blames herself for her dad’s death, because she phased at the wrong time. We don’t get any indication that her fellow shapeshifters or the elders are trying to reassure her otherwise.
And of course, because she’s a shapeshifter, she has to cut her hair. In addition, because Leah’s a woman, this has the same misogynistic connotations as it did with Lauren. In Leah’s case, though, the de-feminization is compounded by her sudden infertility. It’s clear that Leah attaches her sense of womanhood to her fertility, rightly or wrongly -- she bitterly calls herself a “genetic dead end” in Breaking Dawn and thinks of herself as a freak. She feels like there must be something wrong with her, some un-womanly flaw, that made her one of the shapeshifters at all.
Then, just when Jacob starts to see her as a human being worthy of compassion, he imprints on Renesmee and doesn’t give a shit about anyone or anything else anymore. No more bonding with Leah, no blooming friendship to help her heal and come to terms with the new realities of her life. (This is one of those dropped threads that aggravate me to no end -- what was the point of having Leah opening up to Jacob, or starting Jacob on the path of realizing he was being a dick to her this whole time and that she’s a person with value, if he was just going to spend the rest of the book as Renesmee’s love-zombie and never think about it again? Disgusting.)
Leah was a lot more forgiving of Jacob than he deserved at that point in the story, for all the good it did her -- I think she’s mentioned maybe once in Book 3 of Breaking Dawn. At least she got her god-tier moment of yelling at a deranged, pregnant Bella Swan.
Speaking of Bella...
I’m just going to note, for no particular reason, that in Breaking Dawn we get to hear explicitly that Bella’s got hair that falls “almost to her waist” and that she looks like “a freaking supermodel” because she’s so “beautiful and pale.” It just strikes me as a telling contrast at this point.
#twilight renaissance#i stared too long and the twilight abyss gazed back#leah clearwater#lauren mallory#jacob black#the wolf pack#long post#i felt myself getting petty about bella okay -- i'm aware it's happening but i have no self control#i also know i sidestepped the racial element to this and it's because i don't feel qualified to speak on it#so any additions from more knowledgeable people on that score are much appreciated
82 notes
·
View notes
Text
𝐚𝐨𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐰𝐨
note: part two to the college headcanons! part one can be found here! i had a lot of fun writing these and i hope everyone enjoys them :) teacher/student dynamic warning for zeke and hange's, and i guess bullying for annie's :/
𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐨 𝐠𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐝
the very definition of kind-hearted frat boy who doesn’t fit the stereotype he’s been assigned at all
starts off with accounting before realizing he hates math, moves into business management and marketing
the linkedin profile is absolutely popping, 500+ connections and details about every club and organization he’s ever been a part of
the friend that helps everyone find internships and fixes their resumes while offering helpful advice and not being condescending… anyways so that’s how you meet porco
he works at the career center 100% and does various coaching/prep help, and you, pieck’s friend, are in desperate need of an internship
so you’re complaining to your friend as usual, when she tells you to stop by the building and ask for a “pock”
so you do just that, walking in and asking for “pock” and porco is a little stunned by this pretty stranger calling him by a nickname reserved for his close friends, and even then he just barely tolerates it
but he doesn’t want to correct you, especially since you’re being so sweet and he can tell you need some help
so a meeting at the career center slowly turns into facetime calls to review applications and last-minute edits, stopping by your dorm to help you fill out paperwork and walking together to mail it out
i have a feeling porco doesn’t wanna be too forward, and he thinks he’s being very aloof and casual, when he really just seems oblivious
and you cannot tell for the life of you if he likes you or he’s just being friendly since you’re close with pieck
finally after you land the internship and won't have your normal excuse to spend time with him, you get the guts you've been searching for
you tell him about the position later in the day, stopping by the center for hopefully the last time
"by the way, my number's on my resume if you're ever gonna ask me out."
leaves pocky-boy flustered and red and scrambling to ask you out, and you have been happily dating since
𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫
oh boy
conny is a very typical college kid in the sense that he will sleep through every 8 am class he has, blow off class to go wait in line for the nacho bar, and has adopted the mantra ‘c’s get degrees’
but he is an extremely lovable education major with a focus in history
rarely seen without his shadow sasha, but now that she started dating niccolo, she thinks that conny could use a relationship too, and that it might do him some good to be with a funny, down-to-earth person
thus begins the most grueling two weeks for every girl on campus, as sasha hunts down girls that she thinks would be a good match for her best friend
this includes airdropping a photo of conny to the lecture hall with the caption “would you date this man? serious inquiries only”
creates a fake tinder complete with a google form to narrow down the options
however, none of this is necessary because sasha bumps into you in the smoothie line and causes your triple berry blend to go flying
she helps you clean up and idle conversation leads to you talking about dates and so forth
“well, i’d love to set you up with my best friend? how do you feel about a blind date?”
yes, conny met you, the love of his life, on a blind date set up by sasha with a stranger
it’s one of those funny stories that people don’t believe when you tell them, because how ridiculous is that, but you both think it’s perfect since you get along so well and it made all the waiting worth it
bonus: double dates with sasha and niccolo! fondue night at their apartment, going to the arcade and having to lug up sasha and her food baby while niccolo parks the car, just overall a grand time :)
𝐳𝐞𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫
zeke yeager, ph.d. started his new job at university with one rule in mind: absolutely no illicit affairs
he also coaches the club baseball team, because why not get involved on your campus
he really believes that he’s gonna stick with it too, despite the overwhelming number of students who come to his office hours with questions that his less handsome teaching assistants could answer
but no, he doesn’t want to earn a reputation as that professor, and so he heads into the new semester with absolutely no lingering thoughts of an exciting little dalliance to get him through the monotonous days
he knows his huge lecture classes would always come with a few pretty students, but it’s the smaller, upper-level psych class he’s teaching when he meets you for the first time
zeke has you all figured out, or so he thinks. sitting in the front row, raising your hand for questions he wasn’t expecting anyone to actually have an answer to, neatly handwritten notes in a color-coded notebook. he wouldn’t peg you for the type to jump and take the risk by starting a relationship with a professor.
but he soon realizes that he didn’t have you as figured out as he thought he did.
you avoid the gaggle of freshmen during office hours by scheduling meetings instead, sometimes right before class, coming to him with two cups of coffee and a wide smile that actually had him fooled into thinking you were here for academic reasons
this facade quickly fades though, because after a semester of interactions with you and getting more and more comfortable with each other, to the point where coffee orders are memorized and it’s zeke rather than professor yeager, you’ve had just about enough
he knows he’s fucked when you come visit him at practice for the baseball team, bringing him a drink and engaging in conversation while the players watch their coach flirt with you
he’s especially fucked when he realizes he’s looking forward to practice just because there’s a chance you’ll stop by on your way to your next class
you submit your final paper early, nearly a week before it’s due and of course the first in the class to do so, and waltz into his office the next day with another steaming cup of his favorite drink
“you submitted your paper pretty early, you know.”
“i know. i also know that it means i’m not your student anymore, so if you were going to make a move, now’s the time.”
no, he definitely had underestimated how much he knew about you.
𝐦𝐢𝐤𝐚𝐬𝐚 𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧
mikasa is a forensic sciences major and is still debating on the minor- she’s torn between criminal justice or history like armin.
she loves her major classes, but she just wants something else interesting to look forward to as well, so armin suggests sitting in on a couple classes early in the semester and getting a taste for it.
so you don’t really think twice when she claims the empty seat next to you on the first day of classes, smiling politely and paying attention to the professor. you do notice, however, that she’s not writing anything down or looking at the syllabus, leading you to strike a conversation on why that is.
she explains herself and then before you even know it, the lecture ends and you spent the last forty minutes talking to mikasa about anything and everything.
she’s sitting in on another class tomorrow, and absent mindedly invites you to come along, to which you agree all too quickly, because why wouldn’t you
numbers are exchanged, times are fixed, and mikasa leaves wondering why she’s so excited at the idea of sitting with you in class again.
you two hate the history class she had chosen, with the professor droning on and on and you being focused entirely on the conversation you’re having with mikasa
until the professor kicks the two of you out for not shutting up, that is
you’re both laughing hysterically once you reach the hallway
“i’m gonna have to discourage you from doing that history minor if that’s what all the classes are like.”
“well, i have to do criminal justice so we can have that class together, anyways.”
𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐭
true to form, annie goes into one of the most difficult majors: cheg. definitely flies through intro courses with straight As and minimal effort, but that’s also mostly because all she and bertholdt do is study
reiner tries his hardest to get her to go to a party every once in a while, but usually to no avail because she always has an exam to study for
you’re a tutor, and honestly, you’d say you were pretty good at your job. you can answer questions and explain reasonings fairly well to confused students. but when annie comes to your office hours with some complicated problems and she’s asking for explanations that you just don’t have, you literally feel your face burn with heat for the entirety of the time she’s there
long story short, your first encounter is embarrassing, to say the least. you’re stumbling over words as you try to look through your old notes and piece together an answer for annie, who you cannot even look in the eyes.
anyways, she leaves eventually and you want a hole to open in the ground and swallow you up, but at least she won’t be back next week, right?
wrong.
miss leonhart doesn’t know how to express her feelings any better than you, so her way of flirting is spending time with you in the tutor center as you fail to answer her questions time and time again
you want to scream at her to stop coming because she and you both know you’re not helping either of you with this
but also you really don’t want her to stop coming because you don’t have any other ways to see her outside of class
both of you reach your wit’s end on the same day, her coming to you with the absolute easiest problems she could find in the textbook, and you with every intention of asking her out to dinner
she opens her book, and you reach and close it quickly
“unless this is the only way you know how to flirt, something has to change now.”
𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐳𝐨𝐞
dr. zoë teaches, just, way too many classes
we’re talking multiple chemistry labs and upper-level research courses as well
you’re just a ph.d. student doing rotations as per usual, and you’ve heard the comments from students senior to you about dr. zoë, who makes every student in rotation say hange instead of the formal way you’re used to
you’ve heard everything from crazy to genius and everything in between
what you weren’t expecting was… so good looking, and young? and comforting? and talking about all the things that you didn’t have the guts to bring up with other people, like how you always feel a little left out in the field and that you think no one cares about your research interests that much—a lot of stuff that you find yourself pouring out to hange on your very first day in the lab
you’re wondering why it’s so easy to talk to them, and why none of the other rotations ever felt this comfortable
and then you realize you’re spilling your guts to someone who probably doesn’t even care, and has way more to deal with on their plate than a ph.d. student with imposter syndrome
so you’re apologizing right after you’ve finished, when you’re met with the warmest look and a reassuring hand on your shoulder
it’s so easy to fall after that, with weekly meetings and regular check-ins, and you know it’s wrong to have this strange crush on your superior, but hange really feels like the one person you can count on here
you hide the crush in favor of getting the mentorship you desperately think you need, but it’s not long until you’re onto the next rotation and the next lab’s work is even closer to the stuff you love
you hate the way you feel, that you’re not gonna have any reason to keep in touch and you never even got to explain how you feel about them—and that you didn’t even get to experience hange’s energy because she was always listening and helping you out
it’s not until you get a text the night before your first day in the new lab from hange, filled with reassuring words and asking for a coffee date later in the week to talk about how it goes, that you realize just how well hange understood you
𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫
last but not least, miss pieck is double majoring in french and public health
absolutely obsessed with her majors and loves the subjects, but works herself to death to keep up with it all
you don’t even realize that the pretty, studious girl you’re seeing in the library all the time is the same girl you spot with some of your friends from class
pieck is as oblivious as they come. you invite her on study dates after you two are introduced by reiner, invite her to get coffee after a particularly late night of studying, pretty much start spending most of your days together
you can’t help but be disappointed that pieck doesn’t see you in that way, because you’ve slowly been falling head over heels, but you accept that maybe it just wasn’t meant to be, and you still love the friendship you two have
it takes a while for things to click for pieck, but they do right as the semester eases up
once exams are over, you two decide to go to these famous parties porco and reiner never stop talking about
it’s not the usual scene you’re comfortable with, but what’s wrong with letting loose a little, especially after midterms? no harm in having fun, right?
wrong again! you definitely get plastered way too quickly, and eventually pieck takes you to a room to settle down
drunk confessions of love aren’t usually the way to go, but you can’t help but reveal everything you’ve been feeling for the last few months when pieck is taking care of you in your current state
you definitely wake up hungover and ignorant to last night’s shenanigans, but you’re in your dorm, with a bottle of water and ibuprofen on the nightstand, phone plugged in and shoes off
pieck comes back with breakfast, coffee and your favorite pastries, and checks up on you
“so.. about last night..”
“i’m so sorry, did i throw up on you?”
“no, but you did say you were in love with me. was that just a drunk thing, or is it a sober thing too? because i think i’m in love with you too.”
#aot#aot headcanons#porco galliard#porco x reader#connie springer#conny springer x reader#zeke yeager#zeke jaeger#zeke yeager x reader#mikasa ackerman#mikasa x reader#snk#annie leonhart#pieck finger#pieck finger x reader#snk headcanons#hange zoe#hange x reader#annie leonhart x reader#attack on titan#college au
318 notes
·
View notes
Text
Stray Kids Are Breaking Records, Breaking Eardrums and Breaking Limits (INTERVIEW)
A Stray Kids track a day keeps the stress away. Though one can argue the K-pop group's energetic brand of "noise music" could possibly heighten tension, their bass-bumping, get-the-crowd-jumping songs are encouraging, vital points to Stray Kids' calling: to be the voices of their generation.
As showcased on their fiery 2019 hip-pop hit "MIROH," or 2020's heavy-hitting "God's Menu," Stray Kids — often abbreviated as SKZ — are unrelenting in their journey of self-expression and their determination to push themselves, and their fans, to their full potential. A prime example? Their second studio album, NOEASY, released Aug. 23.
youtube
Source: Pop Crush
The 14-track project, the majority of which was produced by sub-unit 3RACHA (Bang Chan, Changbin and Han), exhibits Stray Kids' ability to bring the noise no matter the tempo. NOEASY starts off strong with five in-your-face tracks that blend EDM and hip-hop elements (lead single "Thunderous," "Cheese," supporting single "Domino," "The View" and "SSICK"), while the later part of the album experiments with different genres and styles, from jazz-pop to rock.
Just three years into their career — they formed in 2018 — members Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, HAN, Felix, Seungmin and I.N. already carry dozens of award nominations and wins under their belt, and boast chart-topping hits in both physical and digital sales. Even before the release of their second album, the group already set a new record by becoming the first artist under JYP Entertainment to reach 1 million pre-orders.
We recently caught up with the members to talk about NOEASY, the adorable SKZOO version of "Thunderous" and why touring is their first and foremost priority.
youtube
Congratulations on your second album! A studio album takes lots of work, so how does it feel to have this out there in the world now?
Changbin: We really put our everything into preparing this album and we're really confident in it, so I’m really happy that STAY can finally listen to it!
Lee Know: We couldn’t wait to put this out because there are so many really, really good songs on it, so it feels great to finally release this album.
Hyunjin: Somehow a year has already passed, and we’re so thankful to our STAY who have waited for us. The entire album is good, so we hope STAY really enjoy it.
NOEASY has already achieved the title of being the best-selling album in JYP Entertainment in history. Any thoughts on that? What other records would you guys like to break?
Bang Chan: That title was achievable all thanks to STAY! If it weren't for STAY, we wouldn’t have been able to have even gotten this far. Stray Kids are known as “the kids that enjoy breaking things." We break objects, break eardrums and break limits, so breaking another record wouldn’t be so bad. Of course, we’ll need the help from STAY!
I.N: I hope we grow even more with the next album, so much so that people will describe us as artists who are constantly improving.
What were your first impressions of the title track?
HAN: When we listened to the final product, it made me really happy that the track sounded really fresh, the lyrics were very witty and full of spirit and it clearly embodied Stray Kids’ distinct color. I wanted to hurry and work on the performance and share the song with someone!
Felix: The song is really unique and I believe that we were the only team to make it impactful.
Seungmin: One day, upon arriving at home, 3RACHA immediately played the song for me. The moment I heard it, it felt electrifying, and I really wanted it to be a title track. That’s why I voiced a lot of my opinion, too.
3RACHA (Bang Chan, Changbin and Han), you guys have made a name for yourself and were heavily involved in this second album just like past releases. What was it like with this project?
Bang Chan: Just like any other project that we’ve worked on, we just had fun. We experimented with a lot of different styles and tried our best to widen our musical spectrum.
Changbin: We knew there would be a lot of expectations as this would be a full album, so we really put a lot of effort into the process.
HAN: The process was a lot of fun. We’d ask ourselves, “What should we attempt? What should we try next?” And we looked forward to what we’d come up with while working on this album.
How was it different this time?
Bang Chan: The “let’s just have fun” part hasn’t changed at all, but the biggest difference would be the genres of music and the ways we recorded the songs.
Changbin: Perhaps because our second full album is the first album we’re releasing after [television competition] Kingdom, there was a bit of pressure to meet people’s expectations. When pondering what everyone would be expecting of us, we thought they’d definitely be looking forward to something new in true Stray Kids’ fashion. I think that’s the part that we contemplated a lot.
HAN: I think, compared to before, we had a little more fun while working on this album. There was no time crunch, and we worked with the thought of making music that best fits who we are today, so I think the end result came out really well.
What would you say were the key highlights for the album?
Bang Chan: One thing that I hope people will notice is the improvement of all the members’ recording skills. We put a lot of effort into all the songs.
Changbin: The album includes unit songs in which all of our members took part during the creative process.
HAN: I hope people look forward to Stray Kids’ distinct musical color, our wit and how much we’ve matured.
When you guys came up with NOEASY as the title, how did you define it in your own terms?
Bang Chan: This might sound cheesy, but life itself is pretty “no easy." Everyone goes through obstacles, everyone has their own downs and lows, but I feel like it depends on how “noisy” you’re going to be to overcome those hardships.
HAN: NOEASY is trying to convey that things may be hard, but we’re going to break through that difficulty with our sound! I think the best way to explain it is that even if things are tough, as long as we have the sound of Stray Kids and the sound of STAY, we can overcome anything.
youtube
You spoiled your fans with so much pre-release content, which would you say were your favorites and why?
Lee Know: The SKZOO teaser was the most memorable. I would say the cuteness amidst the power was the key point.
Hyunjin: The trailer video was a little embarrassing to film, but after seeing it all come together, it looked so cool that I hope we get to do it again next time!
Seungmin: We worked on unit songs that were included on this album, and the Song Camp teaser videos that showed the creative process behind those unit songs were really good! I think our STAY really enjoyed them, so I hope we can do that type of content again.
About the SKZOO version of the “Thunderous” video: Whose idea was it?
Felix: As we prepared for our comeback, we wanted to impress and entertain our fans with something fun and unique, so we all came to one conclusion which was wearing our costumes for “Thunderous."
Your music has become incredibly encouraging and has touched many STAY around the world. What would you say is your ultimate message as Stray Kids?
Bang Chan: At one point in their lives, people will have a moment where they feel astray from the road that they’ve chosen, and I would like those people to know that they’re not the only ones that feel that way. So, whenever you need someone to keep you company, just know that Stray Kids are here to get you back on track.
You guys pretty much owned 2020 with hit after hit, including “God’s Menu” and “Back Door." How has it been working and releasing music in the midst of the pandemic?
Changbin: There was a lot more time being spent at home, but I didn’t want to waste that time, and instead used it to consistently work on new music. I hope people listen to our songs and gain strength during this challenging time.
Seungmin: To be honest, I was really bummed we couldn’t get to meet our STAY in person, but I think we promoted our album hoping that STAY could feel our love through videos, our music and their hearts even from afar. I’m grateful because I think our sincerity was relayed despite not being able to see each other in person. We spent our time working really hard even in the unseen!
When the pandemic is over and everything’s okay, what’s the first thing you want to do?
Bang Chan: World tour, first priority!
Lee Know: The very first thing I want to do is have a fan meeting with STAY.
Changbin: Definitely an in-person concert.
Hyunjin: I want to go on a world tour to hurry and meet our STAY all over the world and experience new cultures in different countries! I also want to perform for our STAY in-person at Korean music shows.
HAN: A concert! I want to hurry and have a concert so we can vibe with STAY and sing together in the same place. I miss this so much and can’t wait until we can do this again.
Felix: World tour!
Seungmin: I would say the first that comes to mind is a concert with STAY where we can finally greet them and have fun together!
I.N: I want to do a world tour.
Congratulations on your third anniversary! Do you guys have any wishes, individually or as a group?
Bang Chan: Individually, I just wish for everyone to be safe and happy. As a team, I wish that we can reach places that haven’t been reached before with the help from STAY.
Lee Know: I really want to be able to let STAY experience our performances visually and physically in real life as soon as possible.
Changbin: I want to make music and perform as Stray Kids for a long time.
Hyunjin: I’m sad that we can’t right now, but I would really like for this time of coronavirus to pass so we’re able to make many more memories with STAY. I really miss the fan meetings, concerts and world tours.
HAN: I want to mature more and continue growing in my music and just as a person. I would like to make even better music so that I can continue to touch STAY’s hearts and give them joy.
Felix: Individually, I hope to make a lot of memories and give a lot of hope and happiness to the STAY all around the world to the best of my ability. As a team, we really want to go on a world tour to meet our STAY as soon as possible.
Seungmin: I want to show our fans an even more improved version of ourselves. My wish is to show STAY that we’ll never go backwards!
I.N: I would like to continue improving and be described as an artist of consistent growth. I want to become an artist that’s a good influence on people.
What’s something you would like people to know about SKZ if they haven’t given them a chance yet?
Lee Know: We’ve got backbone. Once you fall for us, it’s hard to get out.
Hyunjin: I hope that after listening to our diverse music and watching our extravagant performances, people will notice us a little more.
Anything else you’d like to say? Speak now or forever hold your peace!
HAN: STAY, thank you for always giving us positive energy. We feel bad because it seems like we’re always just on the receiving end, but we’ll work hard to reciprocate what you’ve given to us! We’re always so thankful for you, and we miss you so much. We love you, and please continue to watch over us.
64 notes
·
View notes
Text
ipytm episode 3 thoughts (very very long), take it or leave it. i have a lot of asks in my inbox and honestly i'm overwhelmed (there are a lot of feelings about this episode that i'm not prepared to hold because i am processing my own) so i don't think i'll get to them, but here are my reactions after thinking about it for a bit.
i kind of wonder what my reaction to episode 3 would have been had i stayed off of social media all day yesterday. my mindset going into ipytm was, "i don't want a cheating plot, but if there is one, i trust nadao to handle it well" because they're responsible for some of the best writing i've ever seen in thai television. i still believe that. i wish they hadn't chosen the cheating plot because there are other relationship conflicts to explore that don't involve cheating, but for me it's not a dealbreaker.
i disagree with critiques saying they did it for ratings or sensationalism. if anything, they lost viewers from this. people are not okay with cheating plots, and the team most likely knew this when they wrote it. yet they took that gamble anyway, which makes me want to believe they have something they want to say, and i'm waiting until the series ends to give my final judgment on whether they succeeded in that message.
i watched the episode live and saw thai fans' live reactions on twitter, then i spent the morning checking everyone's reactions here on tumblr. as of right now, thai twitter has not stopped insulting the director, the writers, and the company. the backlash is harsher than anything i've seen from international fans (i'm leaving it at that so please don't ask me). pretty much everyone hated what happened this episode, which i understand. but i don't think it means that it was lazy writing or that teh was out of character. i definitely think there's a problem, though, if the majority of viewers are feeling alienated from the show, because it means something went wrong along the way with the storytelling.
it is totally possible and in character for teh to cheat on oh-aew, because you can love someone with your whole heart and still hurt them and betray them (to be clear, it's still not okay). and it is totally possible for teh to have done something as shitty as this and still grow up to be a decent person in the end. this is where the time jumps become an issue for me. we left episode two with teh crying because he was afraid of losing oh-aew, and then we land in his third year where he's seemingly indifferent to oh-aew. but we weren't part of that journey, and the storytelling didn't lead us there emotionally. all we see is oh-aew being a super dedicated partner who is trying to salvage their relationship, while teh is completely distant and seems to have given up altogether.
i get it, he's insecure about his career and the possibility that he might end up like khim, and jai is the last thing he has to latch on to his now-more-elusive dream of becoming an actor. he's barely thinking about oh-aew and he's incapable of being a good partner right now, especially since oh-aew's success and happiness in advertising probably makes teh doubt himself even more. he's so in his head he's not even himself anymore. he has completely lost who he is, which is why he seems so foreign to us here. the objective facts are all there, but the emotional connection to make me empathize with him isn't, which is why all the shitty things he did this episode--juxtaposed against all the wonderful things oh-aew did--make him come across as such an exceptionally terrible person. and the thing is i know he still loves oh-aew. in the sex scene, he still clearly loves oh-aew. sure it was initiated by a desire to improve his acting for jai, but during the sex and the morning after, the love and affection for oh-aew are still there. teh just doesn't recognize it because all he sees is oh-aew having left him for better (a new career track he's happy with and doing well in, a group of friends who understand and support him) while teh remains stuck in the same loop holding on to jai as his last hope, which is why he's giving jai his everything. none of that makes any of it okay, but it makes it make sense.
i wish they had spent more time developing this internal conflict so that we could see it better, because it was only after rewatching it a couple of times, sitting on it, and reading people's reactions that i could begin to understand where teh is at in this episode. and i know we like that itsay gave us a lot to analyze, but i think ipytm has tried to jam too much into too few episodes that it ends up leaving the audience with blanks to fill in, which is a bit more work than i want to do when i'm enjoying a series. i think teh and jai got too much screen time, and teh and oh-aew not enough. i think there's a lot of insider stuff about drama/comm arts that's taking up space, which might resonate with folks who come from that field but not the majority of the audience who don't speak that language. i think if they had given more time to exploring teh and oh-aew's relationship, we wouldn't be seeing as much of this backlash.
a cheating plot doesn't make it cheap drama. i would happily watch a series that tackles infidelity in relationships because it is a super real topic with lots to explore: how does a couple navigate the aftermath of infidelity? can they rebuild trust, and how? what are the consequences to the relationship? all of these are important things to address, but the topic deserves a lot more space than a five-episode series can deliver, especially when it's combined with teh and oh-aew's other conflicts related to career, ambition, and other coming of age struggles. so for me it's not the cheating plot that's the problem but more so the fact that i don't think there's enough time for them to do it justice.
all that said, i think there's a tension here between a creator's creative vision and audience expectations, and i think this is an example of the showmakers maybe going too far in their vision to the point of alienating the audience. itsay is a comfort show and teh is a comfort character for a lot of us, and it's justifiable that folks are upset at the turn he's taken in ipytm. i'm also disappointed that it seems like teh remains the main character in ipytm while oh-aew's role has been reduced, because i can tell pp's acting has really improved and i would have loved to see more of him on the screen. the cheating storyline also makes it a lot harder to root for teh and oh-aew, and that honestly hurts the audience and affects our relationship to the show, and is another consequence of the writers choosing to go in that direction.
for me personally, itsay was full of angst but it gave me joy to watch because i loved watching teh and oh-aew fall in love with each other and i was rooting for them to overcome their obstacles to be together. ipytm has proven a lot more stressful to watch, where it doesn't spark that same joy but a lot more anxiety about "what's next," which was definitely a choice in setting the mood of the sequel. the material just doesn't work with the audience's emotions in the same way, it almost works against us. there's not the same sense of comfort and nostalgia and romance, but a darker realism of coming of age, and i wouldn't blame people for dropping off for that because it's a legitimate shift and doesn't match everyone's tastes in terms of the media they want to consume. i think we can hate the choices that were made here because they don't speak to our demands as an audience, but i wouldn't say they did it for the drama or for the ratings.
#i promised you the moon#ipytm#itsay#i told sunset about you#bkpp the series#ipytm spoilers#textpost
106 notes
·
View notes
Text
Some things to know about the upcoming 02-related movie
As someone who seems to be known for being a 02 metablogger now (and 02 lover in general), and who’s been closely following Kizuna’s development and is generally fond of the movie itself, I figured I’d probably need to address the elephant in the room that is the announcement of the upcoming (unnamed, as of this writing) 02-related movie. This is also especially because I’ve personally been on the record saying that I absolutely did not want a Kizuna sequel. And, well, on top of that, to be a bit blunt about it, a lot of us, especially 02 fans, have a lot of reason to be skeptical of Toei right now given some of the things they’ve done with this series in the past, and 02-related things in particular (trust me, the wound is still extremely fresh), so it says a lot about what it took for me to get even remotely positive about this prospect.
Well, here’s the good news: while I of course still think there’s good reason to be apprehensive, and while I wouldn’t say everyone should be getting their expectations up for it to be guaranteed fantastic (which is something I would say about anything, regardless of whether it even has to do with Digimon or not), I don’t think there’s too much to be panicked about with this movie. Again, it took a lot for the staff to gain my trust in this respect, so it’s not something I say lightly. But if you’re a 02 fan and you’re extremely apprehensive, here are my reasons for feeling this way, and, hopefully, they might make you feel a little better too.
The reason this movie exists to begin with
One of the most striking things about this movie’s reveal was that they’ve literally only just started production on this movie. This was to the point that, at DigiFes, where this was revealed, even the voice actors stated outright that they knew absolutely nothing more than what the audience knew from the trailer. Katayama (Daisuke) only knew anything in the sense that they had him record those few lines for it. So even though it’s been a whole year and a half since Kizuna released to the public, it had only just been decided to make a new movie like this. All of the statements between Kizuna and now stating that there was nothing particularly in the works at the time were completely accurate. Of course, there are obvious hints that they were setting up for this possibility (many, many people noticed the suspiciously favorable position the 02 group was in during Kizuna, and the press releases were carefully worded so that having a movie about “Daisuke and his friends” would allow any statement about Kizuna being “the last adventure of Taichi and his friends” to still be technically truthful), but for all intents and purposes it seems like there had been no actual commitment to making this 02 movie until now, and that they’d at least wanted to gauge the surrounding climate and fanbase reactions for what people were looking for before they decided to go ahead with this.
The obvious reasons as to why this movie exist involve the fact that Daisuke and co. are pretty much the only “out” you can have to continue the Adventure universe without constantly defaulting to Taichi’s group yet again, because at the very least it’d be something that you can’t deny hasn’t exactly had the best representation in recent years. Of course they’re trying to capitalize on this! I’m not going to pretend they aren’t! But producer Kinoshita left a very interesting comment about a particular goal they have with this movie:
This time, the core behind the movie is everyone from 02! Daisuke’s group has their own different kind of charm from Taichi’s, and we want to express that precisely because we’re in the times we’re in right now.
That comment alone has a lot to unpack. (For a frame of reference, Kizuna released in Japan in February 2020; development had already long finished by the time the pandemic first hit, and it was unfortunately one of the first victims of the initial lockdowns because of how bad the timing was.) Acknowledging directly that there’s something different about Daisuke’s group and their dynamic, which makes them especially suited for what we need in “the current times”...hmm, what could that be?
The implied answer is one that many 02 lovers will know very intimately: the 02 group’s particular specialty is in uplifting others and giving each other emotional support. While Adventure had traces of these themes, 02 was the one that went really hard on the themes of dealing with grief and loss, the existential crisis of what to do with oneself in a world placing heavy pressures on you, and how to move on from hardships with the help of others. The fact that the 02 group specializes in this more than anything else is probably one of the most distinguishing factors between them and their seniors, so there’s a very heavy implication here that they understand what distinguishes 02 from Adventure, and what it uniquely would bring to the table in this kind of movie. So this isn’t just “we’re relying on the 02 kids because they’re part of the same universe”; there’s some degree of substantial understanding of what makes 02 as a series unique, and a desire to use this to its fullest extent.
Still don’t believe me? Well, how about this...
This staff really likes 02 a lot
Seki Hiromi, the original producer of Adventure and 02, was involved as a supervisor on Kizuna’s development. Seki was personally involved in the creation of these kids and 02 itself -- she’s the one who noticed the story of the nine-year-old boy skipping grades into Columbia University, the one that formed the basis of 02 itself and eventually came back for Kizuna -- and even personally vetted Kizuna’s script to make sure everyone was in character, gave her thoughts on what the kids would be like in 2010, and was (repeatedly) commented as seeming to love the kids like her own children. As of this writing, it hasn’t been confirmed whether she’s involved on the new movie, but even if she’s not, this means that the staff on Kizuna that is returning all listened closely to those discussions about what the characters are like, straight from the mouth of one of their own creators. The new character song releases had a brief mention in Lounsbery Arthur’s interview that there were apparently extensive discussions with the staff on what the characters should be like at this time, so while Seki’s involvement with that is unknown, at the very least, a lot of conscientious thought seems to be put in at all times into maintaining these characters’ integrity.
Of course, just having an original creator alone on it doesn’t necessarily do it by itself, so here’s another interesting thing: Taguchi Tomohisa, director of both Kizuna and this movie, is also very fond of 02.
I suspect we’ll be hearing more from him as this new movie goes further into development, but Taguchi himself implied that 02 was actually the one he happened to connect with in particular, and when you really think about it, given the circumstances surrounding Kizuna, it’s not actually surprising that a movie trying to be conscientiously aware of 02′s position in the narrative would have someone with a particular fondness for it on its staff. (Reason being: a lot of Adventure fans don’t care much for 02, but you’ll almost never meet a 02 fan who doesn’t also adore Adventure.) The really fun part about this, however, is that Taguchi has repeatedly stated that 02′s first movie, Hurricane Touchdown, is his favorite Digimon movie -- in a climate where everyone else was talking about Adventure. The expected answer for the majority of Adventure fans in terms of “favorite Digimon movie” is almost always Our War Game! by knockout, but no, for Taguchi, it’s Hurricane Touchdown, and not only has he said this, he won’t shut up about it. He’s been saying this since 2019. Even Seki noticed. A whole article got made about this. He brings it up whenever he has a chance to. To top it all off, when a Kizuna event asked everyone present about their favorite characters, and everyone gave Adventure-related answers, Taguchi’s response was instead Terriermon and Daisuke. And I mean, look at Kizuna itself -- its entire plot revolves around having to move on from unhealthy nostalgia, represented by kidnapping people and turning them younger and an antagonist swallowed by their own negative emotions, which, well, is literally the plot of Hurricane Touchdown. (Yeah, that Wallace cameo is very, very likely to be sheer self-indulgence.) And considering that Taguchi said his favorite human character was Daisuke, not Wallace, it means that he understands what Hurricane Touchdown brought out of Daisuke, what his interactions with Wallace meant for both characters, and how Daisuke’s best strengths lie in his ability to support and uplift others.
And, finally, we have Yamatoya, who was responsible for penning both Kizuna’s script (and, thus, being privy to Seki’s corrections) and the bonus drama CD that came with it, on the script, and he personally said that he enjoyed writing for the 02 group because he felt they were important to lightening up the mood of the heavy story Kizuna was becoming. In fact, every comment from this staff about what the 02 group brings to the table in particular has showed a good understanding of what their appeal is -- that they have to be “fun”, that they were “healing in a heavy story”, and Taguchi himself said that he got the impression that the 02 group had more straightforward paths to their epilogue careers (which is interesting, considering that I’ve also personally pointed out that the 02 group seemed to have careers with significantly lower bars than their seniors’ due to their difference in priorities). All of these things are observations you make when you know this group and the importance of the story they came from.
Extend it even further to the rest of the staff members and you’ll find there are a lot of 02 fans on there, including the animation staff, who made some very neat observations about 02 and its finale. Miyahara Takuya is a particularly amusing case, because he seems to love Imperialdramon so much that in the thanks booklet for the deluxe edition for the Blu-ray, he drew a picture of Daisuke and Ken with Imperialdramon Dragon Mode because he didn’t get to be in the movie. (As in, he actually said, point-blank in the caption, that he loves Imperialdramon and wanted to draw him because he wasn’t in the movie.)
Of course, even if you’re trying your best, things may not always work out, so I’m not saying having love for the characters will necessarily guarantee that the product turns out for the best. However, considering that historically a lot of our fears come from the idea of them milking the name value of the characters without really caring about their integrity or understanding what the series was about (especially since a lot of people in the fanbase itself don’t tend to read 02′s nuances very well), I think, at the very least, we don’t need to worry about the staff for this movie not being conscientious, nor the idea that they’re making this movie without understanding or caring about 02.
Furthermore, one thing I appreciate is that they’re actually leading the advertisement with a premise that is distinct from Kizuna’s. Of course, it covers a similar topic of “partnerships”, and it’s very possible it’ll cover the issue of the solution to Kizuna’s problem (especially since the answer was already hinted to have a heavy relationship with 02), but nevertheless, it’s an actual premise that’s not just “Kizuna’s story, but more of it”. It’s an understanding that something 02-related should be allowed to stand on its own rather than just tacking it onto an Adventure-related thing. Beyond that, while I think it’s generally expected that a side story like this should have an original character, I think it’s actually very good this time in particular that there’s a new element/character for the 02 group to interact with; again, as with Hurricane Touchdown and Daisuke, these kids often have the best brought out of them when they’re supporting others, and honestly, because the kids suffered so much in their own narrative, I’m not particularly fond of the idea of seeing them having to go through too much more trauma themselves (it’s a big reason I don’t like the idea of a 02 reboot). So while I’m sure a lot of 02 fans feel a bit antsy that the actual group itself wasn’t advertised first, I actually consider it a positive sign that they have an understanding of what context this group performs best in, and, moreover, well...the last time they unveiled something that was so focused on advertising the return of old characters that it forgot to actually be straightforward about the premise, I don’t think that ended well. So to speak.
In general, the track record is good
It’s easy to just smile and nod at the portrayal of the 02 quartet in Kizuna, because in general everything from them is in-character, but I just want to point out how significant it is that they were portrayed so conscientiously when it is really easy to mess them up. (As I like pointing out very often: even official has not historically been very careful with Daisuke’s character.) There are so many easy pitfalls you could have fallen into and pigeonholed the kids into, but Kizuna absolutely demonstrated the quartet at their best, showing off all the nuances of their character and bringing up all the parts that were most important, especially Daisuke’s best quality being “positivity and cheerfulness” and not all of the other things about him running in circles or having a crush on Hikari-chan. This even goes down to the casting; Katayama Fukujuurou sounds terrifyingly like Kiuchi Reiko in terms of all the little nuances and pitch shifts she had in her performance, and the cast themselves spoke of all the nuances present in their characters as they were studying for their roles. These are things that even fans of the series tend to miss, but the voice actors for the quartet nailed their roles so well that it’s very easy to tell that the direction understood exactly what they were looking for and needed, and casted accordingly. Even those who didn’t care for the movie much had a very hard time disputing the voice casting for the quartet (and this is saying a lot given how much voice actor changes are often a really sore point among Japanese fans).
But while the 02 group had a limited amount of screentime in Kizuna, the staff also had a lot of opportunities to prove themselves with the drama CD and the new character song CDs, and every single aspect of these reflects something that was represented in 02 itself -- again, things that often go over the heads of people who aren’t paying as close attention. The drama CD captures a lot of the essence of the dynamics between the group in only short lines, and all of the statements about the characters in the character song interviews are accurate (and remember: Arthur said directly that there were discussions with the staff about keeping them true to character). On top of that, not only do the lyrics in said songs directly mirror each character’s development from the time of the original Best Partner series, there are also a lot of things in said songs that demonstrate a nuanced understanding of each person’s character and what they got out of the events of 02. Someone with only a surface-level understanding of Ken or Iori’s character might think that Ken should only have a soft song, or that Iori shouldn’t want to do anything ridiculous, but the series goes ahead and gives Ken one of the most passionately emotional rock songs in the batch and Iori outright rap with Armadimon, which are both fitting decisions in light of Ken actually being one of the more emotionally assertive people in this group, and Iori only being stoic because he’s strict with himself and being willing to let loose in certain circumstances (especially after the events of 02).
As of this writing, I don’t know if the new movie is going to be featuring the entire group in a major role, and I’m not sure if I even want it to; as much as I do strongly feel like the group should always work together at all times, one minor personal complaint I had about Kizuna was that it tries to do too much in too little time, and I’m personally fine with this new movie being more Daisuke-centric or something if it means it can just get a nice story on the table (after all, if I wanted something that more evenly represents the entire 02 group, I’d just go back and rewatch a very nice anime series called Digimon Adventure 02). There’s also the very thorny question of what to do about Tokumitsu Yuka, since I don’t personally really like the idea of still dragging her out of retirement like this (but I also wouldn’t want them to awkwardly write around her just for this, and I’m wondering if Sonozaki voicing Tailmon in the reboot would let people accept her as a replacement without much fighting).
Nevertheless, I think Kizuna’s staff has proven more than well enough that they understand the essence of 02 and its characters, so, again, regardless of how it turns out, I at least expect that this can be made with some degree of conscientiousness, and at this point, that’s all I can ask for. I don’t think it’s fair to expect or want this movie to be the second coming of 02, because, again, if we wanted that, I think it’d be better for us to all go back and watch that lovely little 50-episode anime called Digimon Adventure 02. But in terms of being something that can add a little nice thing to the mix, I think, so far, this movie at least has positive signs of turning out that way -- and, remember, think about what I just said about initially being very against this idea; as a diehard 02 fan who has a lot of very picky feelings about how to best represent it, it took a lot for the staff to earn my trust in this sense.
59 notes
·
View notes
Text
The One Where Wilford asks Dark about a Fanfic Trope
Wilford’s been reading too many fan fictions. Then he told me this very silly idea about asking questions about a common trope in said fics and wouldn’t leave me alone until I wrote it.
(Sorry.)
Word count: 1,010
-
As the resident ‘fourth wall breaker’, one of Wilford’s hobbies was to sneakily check the fandom and their works inspired by the egos and their world. On days when technology worked in his favour without causing major disruption for everyone else (who could forget the time that he skipped a Youtube ad and broke the coffee machine?), he would snoop around the various websites. He would coo over fan art, get immersed in fan theories, and lose track of time reading fan fiction. All in all, it was great to see what the fans were doing when there was nothing new in ‘canon’ to work with.
(Oh, the ships! The fluff! The angst! The crack! It all made his little heart flutter. How creative their fans were!!)
One such day had Wilford spending a free day catching up on the fandom works. He was supposed to be in the studio, but all the Jims were called away for a ‘family emergency’; while Bim worked on his podcast. Not that Wilford minded. It was good they all knew work wasn’t the most important thing! Instead, he lounged on the sofa, flipping from drabbles to headcanons to stories. What a great way to spend the day… Until something caught his attention.
-
“Hey, Dark?”
“Yes?” The entity didn’t look up from his laptop, nor did he stop typing.
“Why are ya workin’ in an office?”
“It’s a rented office space. Cheaper and more efficient than renting a giant house like you originally wanted. This is more beneficial given that a large majority of this ‘company’ is dedicated to matters in the entertainment industry and they require a large space to rehearse and perform.”
“Ah. Okay.” Wilford dropped the topic for several seconds until… “Hey, Dark?”
“What?”
“Whaddya mean th’ ‘majority’ is fer th’ entertainment industry?”
“The eclectic group that the ‘egos’ consist of have a variety of careers. Since a lot of them focus on the production of entertainment features - such as news, chat shows and game shows - it was the most reasonable solution to focus efforts there so that there is a sense of productivity amongst the entire group, even if the target audience is small.”
“Huh… But ya hate bein’ involved with shows.”
“I know that, Will.”
“Like, ta th’ point where ya accept people will call ya ‘Dark’ instead of ‘Damien’.”
“Where are you going with this?”
“Well,” Wilford wriggled from his position on the sofa to peer at Dark. True to many of the stories he had been reading, Dark sat in a plush office chair behind a large desk, with a laptop in front of him and various folders and paper surrounding that. “Yer here. All th’ fans know that, an’ everyone punishes ya fer bein’ here by makin’ ya do borin’ paperwork. Why’s that?”
“You do realise that there are timeline variants of all of us, and what I do isn’t a staple for what others do, correct?” Wilford nodded in response. “So why does it matter?”
“Because yer my friend. I don’t want ya sufferin’ with paperwork if ya don’t wanna be here.” Dark rolled his eyes, but it appeared the sentiment was appreciated. His eyes dropped to the laptop screen so he could save his work and shut the lid. Then, at last, Wilford had his full attention.
“I’m normally cast in the role of ‘working in an office’ because fans normally don’t know what to do with me in a work-related setting. They saw our scene in Markiplier TV where I sat at the head of the boardroom table, noticed that my appearances had no direct involvement with any actual productions and were instead me directly interacting with them with no interference; and thus concluded that I must while away my hours behind a desk with generic paperwork. For all they know, these are pages with endless lorem ipsum blurbs pasted on them. But since most fans don’t know much about office work beyond what they’ve seen on TV, it passes with little complaint.”
“That… Really sucks. I’m sorry that’s yer fate. But, uh… What are ya doin’?” Wilford tumbled off the sofa to approach the desk and lift one of the pages. Compared to the glorious fanfics, it was written in a tiny typeface with big words that scrambled his head.
“Again, what I do career-wise as a ‘Darkiplier’ doesn’t match what others may do, but I am a qualified lawyer by trade. I’ve had to shift my focus to working in the world of a business rather than helping individual clients. In brief, I’m the main reason that the studio hasn’t been sued out of existence by making sure every project is legally sensible. I also write up and maintain the contracts of those that work here who aren’t egos, as well as offer legal advice beyond what Google or Bing might suggest from their search systems. I’ve had to also take a side-step into accounting and finance to make sure that people get paid.”
“... That sounds like a lotta work.”
“Which is precisely why I deal with the brunt of it and call you in when I know how best to explain it. We’re both in charge as two of the ‘mascots’ of Mark’s channel. The ‘heart and soul’, if you will.” To Wilford’s surprise, a coy smirk appeared on Dark’s lips. “Our studio isn’t as disastrous as you think. I actually have quite a large amount of free time. I mainly stay here to keep away from the chaos. Did you know I paint?”
“Ya what?” Curiosity piqued, Wiford planted his hands on the table and stretched forward. “Ya paint? What do ya do?”
Dark opened his laptop again and resumed typing.
“Hey. Damien. I wanna know ‘bout yer paintin’!”
No answer.
“C’moooonnnn, pleeaaaase?”
Dark looked up with a sigh.
“I’m afraid my hands are tied. There simply aren’t enough fan fictions and headcanons to allow me to elaborate.” There was a glint of mischief in his eyes as he went back to work, ignoring Wilford’s pleas to hear more.
#writersofmark#Wilford Warfstache#Darkiplier#markiplier fanfiction#breaking the fourth wall#(he literally wouldn't leave me alone until I did this)#Rose Petals (Wilford)#Cracked Mirror (Dark)#(read-more is for tidiness! :D )
38 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
latinacandies
👩🏻🦱👩🏼🦱👩🏽
Beautiful Latina Women
avademonmyth
AvaDemonMyth
avademonmyth
AvaDemonMyth
denyroxy
Love is the most important thing in our lives
the-petitefairy
the ethereal realm