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teethhunter · 4 years ago

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Better than a Dream

Rosegarden Secret Santa Gift for @jealouscartoonist based of their Cinderella AU

The kingdom was absolutely bustling with news of the Grand Ball.

Rumor had it that this event was to find a proper suitor for the Crown Prince, Oscar.

It was to be the largest event of the decade, more open to the public than many events but also with many important and influential people planning to come. There was much talk of the preparations happening at the palace in the weeks leading up to the event as even those with no plans or no means to attend enjoyed participating in the excitement.

Many were sent into a tizzy of daydreams of meeting the love of their life at the ball. With all that talk about the prince those daydreams tended to prominently feature him. For some the daydreams morphed into full on scheming and for others they remained fun fantasies that filled the streets with quiet whispers and giggles of just how romantic it would be to get a moment alone with such a charming and handsome prince.

The rumors, however fun, were patently false.

Yes this was to be an event of massive proportions and King Ozpin certainly hoped that a few people might find a spark of romance for themselves that night but he wasn’t doing this to marry off his adoptive son to the first or most enthusiastic party-goer who made a move.

“Just because that wasn’t what you meant to do, doesn’t mean they won’t try.” Oscar pointed out, voicing his anxieties as the day of the ball grew closer.

“Ah but that’s just part of the fun!” Ozpin replied, a far too pleased look on his face.

“Fun for you maybe…”

“And fun for everyone else too. They are making their own fairytales that prominently feature themselves. The human imagination is a wonderful thing.”

Oscar sighed, he should have known that a chat with Ozpin wouldn’t exactly quell his fears in a normal way but it did sort of help even so, just a little bit. “You’re sure I have to go?”

“You’ve never had a miserable time at a party thus far. You can see your friends, maybe meet someone new… Just try to celebrate with everyone.”

In this kingdom still bustling about a ball lived a beautiful girl named Ruby Rose.

Ruby had never been to a ball. In fact Ruby couldn’t at all recall attending a party where she didn’t have to do all the prep work and clean up, only getting scraps of the food that was served.

She lived in a lovely house with her stepmother Salem, and her two stepsisters, Cinder and Neo. Despite the high status of the family and the fact that they could more than afford to hire servants, Salem treated Ruby as nothing but a scullery maid herself. She made Ruby do all the work around the house while Cinder and Neo did seemingly everything they could to make it more difficult. Cinder was more direct in her ways of showing disdain, she would make huge messes right when Ruby had something important to do,or she would burn Ruby’s possessions for fun. Neo was more subtle, waiting until no one was looking to set up situations that would frame Ruby as having messed up. Putting bleach into the wash with the dark clothing Ruby was cleaning, or slipping an ingredient someone in the family was mildly allergic to into a meal Ruby was preparing.

Ruby had grown rather numb to all their antics after dealing with them for so long.

The step family was of course planning on going to the ball and all the talk of the prince looking to find a suitor had certainly gotten back to them. For the last month Salem had been coaching Cinder in this elaborate scheme to catch the prince’s attention, ensuring that they had planned down to the last little detail.

Ruby thought it all a little silly because no matter how much they planned there was always a change that Cinder wouldn’t run into the prince at all, or he wouldn’t like her if he did meet her, maybe even see through that thin veneer of faked kindness to how cruel Cinder could actually be.

None of that was Ruby’s problem though and she had the sense to not voice any of these opinions. She had other things on her mind.

For the first time in her life she was going to go to a ball. Salem had given permission (however offhandedly, it was still a yes!).

For years, during her limited free time she would work at Pietro’s mechanic shop in town to earn money. She had a certain talent for weapon repairs which were nearly always a necessity for anyone traveling outside the city limits where beasts and bandits lurked.

Most of the money she earned at this job was tucked away to someday move far away from her stepfamily but for the last few months she had saved up the money and bought herself a lovely dress. The style of it might have been a bit unconventional- particularly when in combination with the boots she was planning to wear with it- but the fabric was silky to the touch and a deep red color and trimmed with an intricate lace at the hem. She was incredibly proud to have this tangible proof of the work she had put in to get to this point.

The morning before the ball, Ruby woke up early to go to the market to do the grocery shopping. She knew if she wanted time to get ready she would have to get all of her chores done as quickly as possible because here was always a chance Salem would add new tasks to the list.

The excitement in the air was palpable everywhere she went. It was the only thing anyone around was talking about it seemed. Normally Ruby was happy to talk idly with the owners of the various food stalls but today she just nodded along politely as she filled her basket, not lingering for the chit-chat.

Ruby arrived home, basket heavy with produce heavy on her arm, with plenty of time to complete the rest of her chores. She put away all the food and went immediately to cleaning. She took extra care to avoid her step family as Salem was already getting the girls dressed up and ready meaning they would all probably be looking to take their anxiety out on her.

By early afternoon Ruby has finished up and finally can retire to her room to rest and get ready. Her room was in the cellar, not much larger than a closet. It could get cold and damp in there during the winter and after downpours of rain though right now it was pleasantly cool compared to the hot summer weather.

She had done a lot to make it cozy and comfortable. Every inch of wall was decorated, her bed piled up with blankets, and her shelf lined with books she bought over the years from a thrift store in town.

When Ruby opened the door to her room she saw something that made her blood run cold. Cinder, perfectly dressed up and ready for the ball, perching on the end of her bed, holding Ruby’s dress.

Cinder smirked with an awful twist to her lips when she saw Ruby, like she was laying in wait for this moment, a lit candle held in one hand.

The dress had been hidden at the back of her closet so there was no way Cinder just tumbled on it.

“I thought you were joking about going to the ball. You can’t be serious.” Cinder said with a mock laugh.

“No… I wasn’t joking.” Ruby’s voice already held a hint of defeat, already knowing where this was going to go.

“Do you seriously think anyone there would be interested in /you/?” Disgust radiated from Cinder in those words.

“That’s not why I-” Ruby was cut off before she could finish her sentence.

“And this dress. You’ll be turned away at the door for wearing something so low class.” Cinder held the dress up as if appraising it for it’s every flaw, as if it was too hideous to look at for too long.

“I…” That hurt more than it should for how many insulting things Cinder had said to her over the years. She had grown a rather thick skin about it but this dress was really important to her.

“Really, dear sister, I should save you from the embarrassment. You could tarnish our family name.” Cinder brought the candle up until the flame of it licked the lace trim, making it curl, then crisp, then catch fire.

“Please stop.” Ruby whispers, knowing it was useless, she knew what was about to happen the moment she saw Cinder in here.

It didn’t completely catch fire, put a few flames eat at the edges and creep up the bottom of the skirt, leaving it a mess of holes and ash. Cinder says nothing else to her, simply unceremoniously dropping the dress in a pile on the ground, stepping on it as if to put out a still burning ember on her way out.

~~~~~

Ruby waited until the last of the burning embers died down before picking the dress up and bundling it in her lap as she sat on her bed. She sat frozen like that in silence, her ears ringing as she tried to bite back tears. There was no way she could mend this in time for the ball. She couldn’t afford to get new fabric even if she had the time.

All she had wanted was to share this one special night with everyone who was so excited about it but that was ruined.

“I wish I didn’t live with these awful people.” She muttered to herself. “I wish they would just disappear.” She took a breath and all at once any anger she held just deflated into grief as tears finally spilled. “No… I just wish I could go to this ball.”

In her mind she had held this event as a moment of defiant freedom, that if she could never escape Salem and she lived the rest of her life like this then at least she got this one wonderful moment.

“You called?” A voice broke the silence, startling Ruby so badly she nearly fell off the bed.

In front of her was a familiar man- er Fairy, technically. He stood in proper Fairy Godmother attire, a clearly enchanted black dress with translucent red fairy wings fluttering behind him. In contrast with the traditional look was his much less conventional scythe-style magic wand at his side and the full martini glass held precariously in his hand.

“Oh! …. You.” Ruby sighed in relief as she got her bearings after being so startled.

“Well don’t go sounding too thrilled about seeing your Fairy Godmother kiddo. You summoned me, remember?” He put on the airs of being dramatically offended though his smile told a different story.

Ruby wiped the lingering tears from her eyes before she spoke. “No it’s… sorry, it’s good to see you actually Qrow.”

In all honesty she had almost forgotten that wishing for things summoned him. She didn’t exactly even know why that happened. When she asked before all she got was a shrug from Qrow and some half-excuses about the ‘mysterious ways of magic’.

It had been a long time since she’d wished for anything actually. Her memories of her childhood were blurry at best but she could vaguely recall how she’d make all sorts of silly wishes just to have him come visit. He was odd and always a little tipsy but he was also so much nicer than her step-family that it made her earlier years with them much more tolerable.

“I didn’t actually mean to call you, it was sort of an accident.” She admitted after a moment.

“Hmm, well even if it was an accident, I’m here now so why don’t you tell an ‘ol Qrow your woes. Looks like you’ve had a rough time of it.” He walked with a strut in his step over the small distance to her bed, sitting down next to her. He took a long drink from his seemingly never emptying glass as he waited for her to talk.

Ruby started and stopped her attempts to explain several times before she got all the words out, still stumbling over herself. She gave more detail than could possibly ever be needed but this was the first time in a long time she ever let all these emotions out. She had friends in town but she never ever let any of them know the cruelty of her ‘family’. Her Fairy Godmother already knew of these things so for once it was safe.

She began to cry again as her words flowed. Qrow was content to listen in his somewhat drunkenly glazed over state.

“-and now I can’t go because my dress is ruined and it’s not like I have anything else I could wear and the ball is in just a few hours and I’m never going to get a chance like this again.”

Ruby finally took a pause and Qrow chuckled.

“Well if it’s only an outfit you need then I can fix you up fine.”

“Wait, really?” It hadn’t actually crossed her mind that he could help with that..

“Yeah that’s what I’m here for. Mmm, but there’s limits to it, I think you remember that.” Qrow said, fiddling with is scythe-wand as he got ready to do some magic.

Yes Ruby remembered there were limits, there were always strange caveats to any wish she made but right now she could barely bother to care. “Okay! That’s fine, I don’t mind as long as I get to go. Wait um what are the limits?” “It’ll wear off at the stroke of midnight. Indefinite magic gives the worst sort of headache to do.”

“Are you sure that’s not just a hangover?” Ruby mumbed, being immediately met with a shove and grumble from Qrow.

“Shush you. No sassing your godmother. Magic works in mysterious ways.

Speaking of which, magicking you up might make you a little harder to recognize. Not that you’ll look different, just a side effect of illusionary magic.”

Ruby nodded along, none of those terms sounded awful and now she was just in a rush to make it happen. “Okay goes away at midnight and I’m sorta in disguise, I can handle that.”

“Great, go put that dress on then and I’ll get you all set. Best to work from a base product to build onto y’know.”

“Get out of my room then please?�� Ruby started ushering him out of her room so she could have space to change.

“M’kay, I’ll wait outside.” He swayed as he walked out of the room, leaning against the wall in the hall as she got ready.

Ruby carefully slipped the dress on, as if trying to prevent it from crumbling more than it already had. Dark ash smeared her skin as the burnt bits brushed against her. She put her boots and accessories on to finish the look. One glance at her small, cracked mirror had her frowning. She looked absolutely ridiculous. It took her longer than it should have to build back up the confidence to call Qrow back in but eventually she did.

“Oh good, you’re all ready.” Qrow came to stand beside her. “Time for the magic words, you know the drill.” He lazily waved his scythe-wand over her head while in a dramatic and slurred fashion exclaiming “Bippity boppity boo!”

Ruby could feel the hum of magic before she could see it. The dress seemingly mended itself all at once, fitting even better than before. She was so captivated by how well it worked that she did notice the other alterations until she took a step and immediately lost her balance, sticking her arms out to keep herself from falling. Her nice practical knee high boots were now sparkling ruby red heeled shoes.

“Why did you give me stilts to walk on?” She asked, still trying to keep herself upright.

“Isn’t that just what people wear to these things?” Qrow shrugged, completely unbothered.

“I’m going to trip and die before I get there.” Ruby commented half to herself, but she didn’t want to be ungrateful and he had done something wonderful for her.

“Thank you for this.” She eventually added.

“Yeah yeah, any time. I’d love to stick around but I do have things to do, places to be. So go enjoy that ball, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” He said, seemingly uncomfortable with the appreciation and in a rush to escape it, he disappeared in a blink.

Ruby walks the length of her room several times, trying to get a hang of walking in these shoes.

She didn’t dare leave her room until she was certain her step family had already left for the ball because she dreadd what Cinder might do if she saw Ruby all dressed up- or worse what Salem might do.

~~~~

When finally she is sure it is safe to leave, she heads out immediately to the palace.

The ball was in full motion when she arrived. It’s the most beautiful thing she has ever seen with people laughing, drinking, and dancing the night away to beautiful music performed by a live orchestra. There were tables filled with the most luxurious snacks and servants going around to cater to guests as well. There were of course guards posted around but even they seemed to be enjoying themselves. Ruby was a bit out of sort, unsure what to do with herself but more than content to just take it all in.

She has been seated in a quieter corner, enjoying some snacks when a man sidles up next to her to start a conversation which leads into asking her to dance. She politely declined but this repeated itself once again with an entirety different and more persistent lad who was determined to dance with her. She wouldn’t be able to dance in these silly shoes even if she knew how to or wanted to so she less than politely bid him farewell and walked away, trying to find somewhere she won’t be pestered.

She weaved through the crowds, paying little attention to who was there. It was during this escape that she stumbled terribly, instinctually grabbing at something to keep herself from falling on her face. The tearing sound of fabric was audible as she realized she grabbed the sleeve of some woman’s dress. The horrified screech from that woman was what made her realize the person she had grabbed was none other than Cinder.

Ruby stole a glance at the scene, Cinder having clearly been mid-conversation, now with a torn sleeve and wine covering her whole front from a glass that had been jostled.

Ruby quickly ducked her head, hiding her face, planning how to escape, praying that Cinder hadn’t noticed who she was. As it turned out, an escape plan was unnecessary as Cinder stormed off and away from all the prying eyes watching this scene play out.

Ruby stayed knelt there, stewing in her own mortification, wishing in her head to just disappear.

“Hey, are you okay?” Someone asked, bending down and offering her a hand up.

“I’m… fi- fine?” Her voice cracked mid word as she took his offered hand and finally got a proper look at him. Her gaze sliding from his face to the circlet on his head. Without that, she would have no clue who he was, she had never seen the prince before after all.

She had made no move to stand yet but Prince Oscar had also made no move to help her up either. They were frozen like this, hand held, staring at each other.

For Ruby it was the shock of meeting the prince and him kindly trying to help her (and he was as pleasant looking as everyone said).

For Oscar it was because when his eyes met her he was utterly and inexplicably captivated. His heart skipped a long beat and he couldn’t seem to look away.

In the same instant they both snapped out of it. Oscar helped her up in one swift motion, completely red in the face as he processed just how long he’d been staring at her.

“I’m-” Ruby was instantly interrupted.

“No I’m-” Oscar tried to say.

“Sorry” “Sorry.”

They said in the same moment, looking down and away from each other.

They fumbled over each other’s apologies for another moment and finally got the courage to look at each other again. Another pause, just for a breath and they both laugh.

“It’s not a big deal. If I’m being honest you sort of saved me there? I had been trying to get out of that conversation for a while and that definitely took care of it.” Oscar explained, rubbing the back of his neck as he confessed that.

Ruby held in another laugh, it would be very difficult to explain just how funny this situation was to her personally. “Well I’m happy to be a help?”

She shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot as she was quickly becoming acutely aware of just how many people were still watching them. “I should probably go do- do something else, something ball related, you know.”

She turned away and tried to disappear into the crowd, headed outside to get some fresh air. “Wait!” Oscar called but she didn’t seem to hear him. There wasn’t a thought in his head as he followed right after her out to one of the balconies. It was quiet out there and a major relief for him to have a break from people constantly wanting something from him.

When she noticed him approaching he flustered again, he had no reasonable explanation for why he followed her other than this undercurrent need to get to know her.

“Are you enjoying the ball?” He asked, internally cursing himself for such a bland introduction.

Ruby was more at ease without so many people around. Even if it was a little nerve racking to be speaking to someone so important, she was somehow less on edge than when anyone else at the ball had approached her. “I don’t really have anything to compare it with but it’s sort of amazing?” It was true, it was all so grand and amazing, even if she did have to dodge a couple of people it was still one the most incredible things she’d ever been a part of.

“Oh, so it’s your first time attending a ball then? I’m glad it’s been good.”

“Yeah I mean, all the books I loved when I was little had castles and grand balls in them and I never thought it would actually be like those stories. Turns out yeah it really is.” Ruby took a seat on the bench to finally get off her feet.

“I loved those sorts of stories growing up too. I guess it’s weird now to think about how people dream of becoming royalty, being a prince or princess. I went from living on a farm to being adopted into this and then those stories were less fun to read.” He hadn’t really read any books like that since he moved into the palace, now that he thought about it. They all lost their charm.

“I always wanted to be a knight in those stories actually.” Ruby admitted.

“Oh really?” Somehow that didn’t seem surprising at all, he had known her for no more than a few minutes but there was a certain spark to her that made that so believable.

“Yeah I just loved the idea of protecting people that can’t protect themselves, y’know?”

“Remind me to introduce you to the castle guards sometime, I really think you’d like them.” Oscar noted. “But that’s a really nice dream you have though. I think sometimes imagining things is more fun than the reality of it? I’m very lucky to be in this position but living it made dreams of it more dull...I’m sorry I’m rambling!”

Ruby covered her mouth to conceal a grin. “No, it’s fine. I know what you mean but I want to believe that sometimes reality can be even better than dreams if it’s the right reality for you.”

“That’s- hm I think I’d like to believe that too.” Oscar mumbled, leaving them sitting in comfortable silence side by side for a long moment.

“Would you like to go back inside and dance?” He eventually asked, worried she might grow bored with him otherwise.

Ruby shook her head immediately “Oh please no! I mean I’d love to but… erm you saw me trip back there, I don’t really want to have a repeat performance.”

“Okay then do you want to go on a walk?” Oscar just didn’t want to leave her side, not yet.

“That would be nice actually.” Ruby didn’t particularly want to end their conversation either.

Like a proper gentleman, Oscar offered her his arm to link together which abated any of her lingering anxiety about tripping again.

Oscar led her through a quieter path out of the castle and out along a cobble pathway that snaked around the rear courtyards and into the gardens. Lit only by the moonlight it was gorgeous, overflowing with different flowers and vines covering every surface other than the path itself. Their evening was filled with conversation, once past the initial awkwardness they slipped into comfortably chatting about all sorts of meaningless things.

Time had melted away for the both of them.

That was, until the gonging sound of the clock tower atop the castle interrupted Ruby mid sentence.

She went pale.

“I have to go.” She said, pulling away from him. She could already feel the magic beginning to fade as she hurried away.

“Wait come back!” Oscar held a hand out like he wanted to stop her, like he hoped she would listen and turn around for even a moment.

Just before she was out of Oscar’s view she stumbled once more, the heel of one of the slippers getting caught between two stones in the path.

Oscar flinched, taking one step forward. “Oh, are you okay?”

She didn’t have time to waste and she hated these stupid shoes anyways so she just slid her foot out of it and kept on running.

Ruby was well on her way out when Oscar stooped down to pick up her shoe. The clock had struck midnight and that slipper had reverted back to its old form as a boot. “You left your...boot?” He muttered to himself in complete confusion as he stared at it.

Ruby’s dress was back to it’s charred state by the time she had left the palace property. She hobbled her way home with one boot and one foot with nothing more than a sock on it.

Sneaking back inside her home went better than she was expecting. She was able to get to her room and change out of the ruined dress without anyone seeing her. None of that stopped Cinder from being in a foul mood and barging demanding Ruby draw her a bath. This time Ruby couldn’t even claim that Cinder’s mood wasn’t her fault, even if Cinder wasn’t aware that it was Ruby who had interrupted her plans.

~~~

The morning after the ball Oscar sulked through breakfast. He just couldn’t get his mind off the girl he had spoken with at the ball.

Four of his guards who were more just friends of his than anything else often joined him for meals when there was no formal gathering in place. Today was no different but there was a certain tension in the air.

“Soooo, how was the ball?” One of his guards, Nora asked, breaking the silence with a smile that told him she was already perfectly aware of how it went. “It was fine. It was a ball.” Oscar answered blandly, still staring at his food that he pushed around on his plate.

“Just fine? Hmm well I heard you disappeared with some pretty girl and didn’t show back up all night.” Nora pressed more, leaning in with an intense expression like she was rearing for a full interrogation. Ren put a hand on her shoulder to try and rein her in.

“Oh you met someone?” Jaune asked and Oscar genuinely couldn’t tell if he was teasing or if he was completely out of the loop. “What’s her name?”

Oscar shrunk in on himself with a quiet sigh.“I don’t know, I didn’t ask.”

“Wait wait wait, you spend all night with this girl and you don’t even ask her name? How are you going to find her again?” Pure horror present in Nora’s voice as she asked that.

“I guess I probably won’t.” Oscar said like he was trying to come to terms with that himself.

“If you are meant to meet again, I think your paths will cross.” Pyrrha chimed in right as Oscar was getting ready to leave the table.

The entire day following Oscar felt like he was in a daze. He couldn’t concentrate for any of his lessons, which got him scolded by one of his etiquette teacher, Glynda, and told to leave early since he clearly ‘had his head in the clouds’.

Even King Ozpin commenced on it in passing with that odd smile on his face that always irked Oscar just a little bit.

When he finally had enough of all the ‘knowing’ comments and teasing he dug out his commoner clothes from his closet and slipped them on. He used to sneak out much more often because sometimes he missed being looked at like a normal person. He hadn’t done this in a while and the clothes didn’t quite fit anymore but he really needed some space.

Oscar wandered aimlessly through the maze of streets in the city surrounding the palace. For the first time all day he felt relaxed as he blended into the crowd with on stares or comments. There was always the slightest bit of tension he held from always having to perform in a princely manner, but here no one expected anything of him.

He was window shopping at an antique store when someone passing by catches his eye.

Maybe Pyrrha’s comment about paths crossing if they were meant to wasn’t so silly because he sees this girl and his brain goes completely fuzzy like it was trying to piece things together while his heart skips in a way that’s becoming very familiar to him.

“Hey wait!” He called out, jogging to catch up with her, not paying mind to how odd this might seem to bystanders.

Ruby doesn’t immediately realize it’s her that’s being called out to. Not until he catches up to her. She started, stopping mid-stride to look at him. Despite his change of clothes she recognized him immediately. She was nervous and happy and confused all at the same time. She never thought she’d see him again and didn’t think he would care to talk to her again either.

“Oh, I didn’t mean to scare you. I guess that was pretty weird to do.” Oscar said apologetically, realizing this was the second time in a row they had an awkward greeting.

“No, no it’s okay I just wasn’t expecting to see you again!” Ruby explained, unsure what to say or do now. “Do you come around here often?” She asked, just to fill the silence.

“Sometimes it’s just nice to be able to take a walk without people staring, you know?” Oscar answered, genuinely thrilled to talk to her about literally anything right now.

“Won’t people recognize you?” Ruby thought he was fairly recognizable, but then again she also had a whole night to take in the details about him.

“Well no one has so far, I think when people aren’t expecting to see me I sort of blend into the background.” The only person to recognize him thus far was her, but that was because he came running up to her so obviously.

“You weren’t expecting to see me but I didn’t blend into the background for you.”

“Oh it’s your eyes…” Oscar tapered off quickly, not wanting to admit that he’d been subconsciously scanning the crowd every moment he was out, hoping to run into her again.

“Hey, have you eaten lunch yet?” He changed the subject abruptly.

“I haven’t but-”

“Well, would you care to join me? There’s this little bakery I love around here.”

Ruby was anxious both because the longer the less chores she was getting done but also because she didn’t have the money on her to pay for lunch. But he looked so bright eyed and hopeful and that smile was killing her.

“I can’t be out for too long, but okay.” She answered finally.

“Really? Great!” Oscar was nearly bouncing on his feet as he offered her his arm reflexively, an overly formal gesture but sweet nonetheless.

Ruby laughed quietly but took his arm, ignoring the couple odd glances they earned.

Oscar led the way to this small corner shop filled to the brim with various baked goods. The sweet scent made her mouth water. She looked at all the different offerings as Oscar chatted with the old lady running the place, listing off the pastries he wanted to get.

He turned to Ruby after a moment and asked “What would you like?”

It hadn’t occurred to her that he was offering to pay for her until then, she didn’t have the money on her to actually buy anything so she was planning on just quietly not ordering anything.

She paused, internally scrambling to make a decision. “One of these?” She pointed to a flaky chocolate croissant that had caught her eye earlier. He picked up on her hesitance quickly and ordered both that and a couple of his personal favorites for her to try.

Once they gather up all their pastries they sit at the one small round table next to the window, settling down.

“ Okay, weird question but it’s been killing me ever since I last saw you.” Oscar asked.

Ruby nodded, giving permission for him to go ahead and ask.

“How do I phrase this,,,,When you left, you dropped your boot? But you definitely weren’t wearing a boot before that?”

Ruby blinked at him then laughed. “Yeah I get why you’d be thinking about htat for so long. It’s well, it was magic? And no I’m not joking! I really mean it.”

At first Oscar gave a slightly doubtful look but she seemed so genuine and there was no other good explanation either. “You know someone that can use magic then? Wow that’s pretty rare nowadays.”

There were traces of magic, some people were born with minor magical abilities and there were healers that cultivated that particular skill but it was rare to have someone perform magic for something like this.

“Yeah I’ve known him for my whole life I guess. Kinda an odd guy but also he’s always been there or me so I guess I can’t complain.”

With that they fell into easy conversation once again and once again time slipped away.

Until she was abruptly brought back to reality from a comment by the old lady running the shop.

“Are you two planning to just honeymoon it here or what? We’re losing daylight!” She asked, halfway between amused and annoyed at the two lovebirds.

Ruby froze, glancing out the window to note that indeed the sun was going down.

“Oh no, I have to go.” She should’ve already been working on dinner and none of her other chores were done yet, scrubbing the floors always was so time consuming.

She was out the door before he could even call out to her, almost impossibly quickly.

“I didn’t even ask you your name. Oscar grumbles as he buries his face against the cafe table.

~~~~

Quite predictably Ruby was immediately scolded when she arrived home. She hadn’t washed Neo’s clothes in time and all her other chores were left to do too. She had to work far into the night without dinner to get it all done, though she wasn’t too bothered after having a lovely lunch with Oscar. She figured that would be the last time she saw him, that fate decided to give her that nice little bit of closure with him, one nice happy moment she could think about as her knees ached from crawling on them scrubbing floors.

~~~~

Oscar however wasn’t at all satisfied in that being the last time they met. In fact had been skipping out on his lessons and duties, sneaking out in commoner’s clothes constantly. It was not like him at all, normally he was highly responsible and took his role seriously.

After several days of this, King Ozpin interrupted one of his escape attempts. “If you needed a break, you could always just ask for one.”

Oscar, very much having not expected Ozpin to be lurking by the exit he always snuck through to get to town, startled. “I’m- it’s not that- it’s-”

Ozpin just nodded, a ghost of a smile on his lips. “You met someone.” He answered for Oscar.

Oscar just sighed and nodded.

“Well, a little birdy was telling me about this girl who works at a mechanic’s shop. Pietro’s I believe? Interesting thing about her is she’s got bright silver eyes, a pretty rare trait.” Ozpin explained casually.

“I… didn’t tell you she has silver eyes?” As odd as it was, Oscar had grown somewhat accustomed to Ozpin’s odd ability to know things he really shouldn’t be able to and knew that the half shrug and smirk he was given at that comment was all he would receive.

Ozpin stepped aside, clearing the way to the exit and gesturing for Oscar to go on.

Oscar began lingering around that shop whenever he could. He didn’t see the girl that day, or the day after that. In fact it took almost a whole week and he was beginning to feel rather creepy for doing this.

He just wanted to know her name. If it turned out that she wanted nothing to do with him after that, then so be it.

But finally his determination paid off and she was there that day. He didn’t approach her while she worked, not wanting to interrupt and be incredibly rude.

Instead he waited until she was off shift and out of the store, making himself very visible as he approached her. He had a whole thing to say planned out but it all left his brain the moment she saw him and looked happy to see him.

“Sorry to ah- ambush you here but I- someone told me where to find you and-” He just couldn’t string a sentence together. “What’s your name?” He finally blurted out.

Ruby was surprised to see him but already grinning at his awkward entrance. “Ruby, it’s Ruby.”

“Ruby.” He repeated back to her with a look of wonder on his face that made her stomach flip. He said it like it was the most beautiful word he had ever heard.

“So Ruby, you work at a mechanic shop?” Oscar asked, as if he was looking for an excuse to say her name again.

“Yeah, I work on weapons mostly, it’s fun.”

“Weapons huh? How come?” He wanted to know everything about her, he realized.

“Well… same reason I dreamed of being a knight as a kid I think? It helps protect people, in any way I can manage. That and the way weapons are put together is sort of like a puzzle? I find it calming I think and- oh, I do have to get going soon though.” She interrupted her self, knowing full well that they could talk for hours again.

“Come visit sometime!” Oscar said in a rush, not wanting to lose the chance to see her again.

“I can show you around, show you what it looks like when it’s not crowded with people for a big party.”

“If you’re sure that’s okay…” Ruby wanted to see him again too and seeing the rest of the palace sounded really interesting too.

“Absolutely! It won’t be a problem, no one around will mind.There’s always a guard up at the front gate, just tell them who you are and they’ll let you in.”

Ruby felt warm at the implication he'd mentioned her to enough people that the guards would know who she was. She nodded. “I’ll stop by as soon as I can, I promise.”

She left for home feeling light and with every intention of visiting him.

~~~~~

Bogged down by chores, it’s nearly two weeks later when she first gets a chance to visit. At the entrance to the castle stood a tall red haired woman in armor standing guard.

Ruby opens her mouth to introduce herself but doesn’t even have to as the guard is already opening the door. “It is very good to meet you.” she says. Ruby guessed Oscar really wasn’t exaggerating about the guards knowing who she was.

“Wait here and the Prince will be right down.” The guard assured.

Ruby stood in the main hall, looking at all the tapestries and portraits lining the walls as she waited.

Oscar showed up only minutes later, looking ecstatic and slightly out of breath as if he’d been running to get to her.

He reached out to her then hesitated. Like he wants to hug her or some show of affection but his etiquette training kicked in.

He held his hand out, palm up.

Ruby wasn’t entirely sure what to do but took a guess and put her hand very lightly on top of it.

His fingers curled around hers as he lifted her hand to his lips, kissing her knuckles.

This was by noble standards a very appropriate greeting for a woman he highly respected- if not a little strange because of their status difference. Yet it felt more intimate than just about anything else he could have done. She stood there,red faced and dizzy as he lowered their hands but still held hers in his. “I’m glad you actually came.”

“I promised I would, didn’t I?”

“Well I’m very glad you keep your promises then… I missed you.” He mumbled the last part before clearing his throat.”May I give you a tour?”

“Of course, lead the way your majesty.”

Oscar walked with her hand-in-hand through all the major parts of the castle. Quickly his tour got off track to them discussing other things with him briefly stating what room they were in but otherwise not bothering to give details about it, much more interested in the conversation at hand.

The sun is setting once again when they part ways, Oscar inviting her back any time she wants.

~~~~

Rumor has it that the Prince is seriously courting a girl. She is over many times a week and several servants whisper of the fact they have seen the two snuggled up together when they thought no one was looking. Even without that damning evidence, the bright mood the Prince was constantly in told the story plainly enough.

Ruby had taken to visiting the palace rather than working at the shop. She knew Pietro would welcome her back no matter how long it had been since she last worked. Still, it made her a bit anxious to not be working on her savings currently but for once in her life she was so very happy.

~~~~

Oscar had been serious about properly introducing Ruby to his guard friends. She got along with them easily, so easily in fact that they had begun teaching her the basics of fighting out in the training yard.

Whenever Oscar knew that was going to happen, he tried to get out of his duties early to go watch, it was always worth it to see.

This time around he got there just in time to watch Nora flip Ruby, pinning her to the ground.

“Nora… please try not to kill her, I think Oscar might actually get mad at us then.” Jaune pointed out as Ruby stood up and brushed herself off. “Oh come on, I’m not that breakable.” Ruby laughed. “You next then.” She grabbed one of the wooden training swords and stood at the ready for him.

A few parries from either side before Ruby went on the offensive, half accidentally Jaune over the head with it.

“Ow okay please don’t kill me either.” Jaune whined cradling his head.

Ruby snorted in an attempt to hide a laugh, completely unable to feign concern. “Hm but if I kill you do I get to take your place and be a guard?”

“What! No! Now I’m afraid you’re actually going to kill me.”

“You don’t need to kill Jaune to have a place here. You are more than welcome to stay” Pyrrha said while sympathetically rubbing Jaune’s shoulder, the only one willing to comfort him in his dramatics.

“I think there’s another role you’d prefer over being a guard though.” Ren noted, backed by Nora wagging her eyebrow to punctuate it with implication.

Ruby was less embarrassed now by this than she used to be. This teasing was commonplace now. There was no way it wasn’t glaringly obvious to everyone that the prince was courting her. Honestly she hadn’t put a whole lot of thought into it, it sort of just had been washing over her. Shows of affection are basically constant and they weren’t exactly secret about it even if they weren’t exactly clear about what they were to each other either.

~~~

It became a regular thing for Ruby to join Oscar for lunch or dinner on days when she visited. It was during one of these meals that she first met the King who apparently had the time to join them that particular day. King Ozpin was quite kind and welcoming to her, that dinner actually wasn’t nearly as awkward as she was expecting it to be. The only thing was that he kept saying things that made it sound like he’d met her before. It was odd but also hard to put her finger on exactly. When the meal was over and they parted ways Oscar assured that he was just like that but that the King really did seem to approve of her.

~~~

Some days she and Oscar would go spend their time in the palace library together. Usually they would just quietly enjoy having the other around, leaning gently against each other as they read. Sometimes they would talk about the books they were reading and get completely sidetracked. On this particular day they were going through the shelves of storybooks, quick and simple to read but filled with nostalgia. One particular set of books caught Ruby’s eye, pages faded to yellow with age and a gold trim around the edges. She grabbed for them before she noticed what she was doing, thumbing through the pages looking at the print and little illustrations. She hadn’t noticed how long she had been standing there when Oscar snuck up behind her and wrapped his hands around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder.

“What’d you have there?” He whispered.

“These books, I just, I remember them from when I was little but I think you’re missing one?” There were three books she found on the shelf from this series but there should be a fourth one, the one she remembered best. “My mom- my birth mom used to read these too but my favorite was this one that had these warriors who could turn all the beasts in the forest to stone with their eyes? And well, they had silver eyes which I thought was so cool because both me and her had them too.” Ruby explained, she couldn’t even recall how the stories went, just like she couldn’t really recall her mother. Sometimes she’s sure she just dreamed it all up.

~~~

Oscar wasn’t too keen on giving gifts. It felt odd to do when he had so much wealth, like he was trying to buy affection. Today though was different. It was Ruby’s birthday and he’d been looking for this particular perfect gift all month long. Once she arrived he could hardly wait to give it to her.

“You’ve had that silly grin on since I’ve gotten here, it’s making me nervous..” Ruby said, eyeing him carefully.

“Okay, okay, I was going to wait until later but, well- hold on.” He turned tail, running up to his room and back to go grab the unwrapped present, returning soon after. “Here you go.”

In her hands he placed a book with those yellowed pages and gold trim. She stared at the title ‘The Warriors of the Woods ’, her fingers tracing the letters in awe. Her cheeks ached from the grin stuck on her face as dragged Oscar into a tight hug.

“Thank you so much!”

“Happy birthday.” Oscar said as he hugged her in return.

~~~

Ruby’s step-family was growing ever more suspicious as she kept returning home happy and grinning, humming songs to herself. Nothing seemed to manage to sour her mood whatsoever and every happy moment she showed only earned her more disdain and chores from Salem. Ruby did them all without complaint.

~~~

With Ruby around so often, Oscar began constantly skipping his lessons. All of his tutors eventually came up with a way to circumvent this by simply pulling Ruby into his lessons as well. Oobleck more or less ambushed them in the garden and gave them no room to politely escape as he handed them textbooks, paper, and pencils, diving right into a history lesson of the internal politics of the Kingdom of Vale.

One thing Oscar had learned about Ruby early on was that she hated being forced to sit still if it wasn’t her choice. She began to fidget, then doodle, then as all this information droned on made her head buzz she began to drift off into a nap.

Oscar nudged her awake a couple times before taking his paper and writing her a little note.

‘Think you’ll survive?’ He slid that over to her just before she began to doze again.

‘I don’t know! Is he always like this?’ Her writing was scrawls that took Oscar a moment to decipher but once he did he quietly laughed.

‘Pretty much, why do you think I skip out on this and spend time with you instead?’ He replied.

‘Saying I’m better than this isn’t a compliment :( ‘

This was the first, but definitely not the last time Ruby was brought into his lessons. Any time they could get away with it they passed notes and laughed like little school kids to pass the time.

~~~

When Oscar was having a bad day, he liked to go climb up into the rafters of the stables. The palace had a large stable where they kept the horses and a few chickens roamed freely. It felt familiar and safe to him. It wasn’t often that he had a truly bad day but today he was feeling very off. Ruby had come to visit that day and while it cheered him up in the way it always did, it didn’t exactly fix everything. That day Oscar decided to show Ruby his hiding spot in the rafters. He led her to the stable and showed her how he climbed up there, sitting comfortably on one of the beams.

“You don’t have to tell me but, is something wrong?” She asked, he had been so quiet today and they had never gone to spend time out here like this before.

“It’s nothing… nothing in particular, just a bad day, I guess.” Oscar admitted. “It’s silly, I mean it’s hard not to feel guilty about having a bad day when I have so much going or me.”

Ruby scooted closer to him, wrapping an arm around his waist. “I don’t really think it’s silly, if you want to talk about it, I’m right here.” She rests her head against his.

Oscar took a moment to try to put it into words. “I’m thankful, for everything Ozpin has done for me. I’m a prince now, and he doesn’t even push all these outdated royal rules on me or anything. But… I didn’t exactly grow up this way? I grew up on a farm, and sometimes I just miss how simple everything was there and I miss my aunt and everything else.”

Ruby understood then why he would want to go hide out here and in a way she could imagine how overwhelming this must be for him since what she’s experienced of palace life was awfully overwhelming to her too.

She didn’t think about it for even a moment before she turned her head to press her lips to his in a sweet reassuring kiss.

Now, affection was shown quite freely between them in private, nearly constantly touching. Kisses, on the cheek, forehead, back of the hand, those were all commonplace for them nowadays. Yet this right here was their first proper kiss.

They were both a bit red in the face at the realization but it felt like it hardly needed addressing, like it was inevitable.

“Hey when you said Ozpin doesn’t push outdated rules on you? I mean he’s not going to have a problem with…” Ruby gestured between the two of them.

Oscar laughed, kissing her in return finally before answering. “I think he’s all for this. He approves of you and he wants me to be happy, and well, you make me happy.”

~~~

Ruby shouldn’t have been surprised when one night she came home to find that book Oscar had gifted her a charred pile of illegible paper in the middle of her room. Cinder had always had a knack for knowing just which of Ruby’s possessions would hurt the most to lose. That, and the whole family had been completely furious with Ruby being so upbeat lately that of course Cinder would do something like that.

Somehow it is so much worse than the dress being burnt. She re-read this book every night before she went to bed to remember what she could of the family she once had and to remember that someone cared enough about her to go through all the effort to find it for her.

She cleaned up the pile, feeling cold and empty and like she was entirely trapped here. Maybe it was just because she’d summoned him last time Cinder burnt something of hers, or maybe she just desperately needed someone to talk to in general but once she is calm she whispers “I wish I could see my Fairy Godmother.”

Once again Qrow appears in front of her in a blink. “Y’know, you can call me when you aren’t crying.” He sighs. “What’s it about this time? I thought the last gig went well. Heard you even snagged yourself a prince.”

“Where did you hear that?! I- never mind, it doesn’t matter.”

“Am I wrong?” Qrow raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms.

“That’s not the point. But even if I did you shouldn’t pat yourself on the back about it. You nearly killed me with those heels.” Ruby was trying to sound serious but having something meaningless to argue over was such a relief it was difficult to keep that tone of voice.

“Oh I’m definitely patting myself on the back. When you two get hitched that makes me royalty by extension.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works.” Ruby mumbled, hiding a smile by ducking her head.

“Well, enough of that. You never answered my question, what’d you need?”

“I don’t know. Nothing, I guess. I think I’m just tired of this place.”

It was nothing he could fix anyways, not permanently at least probably. “Could you stay for a while? We could play games like when I was little?” She asked, of all things she thinks that might cheer her up right now.

Qrow seemed a bit confused and maybe even a touch startled at that statement but hid it quickly. “Didn’t think you remembered any of that.”

“You were always around, it’d be a little hard to forget!”

“Hmm…” For a moment he looked to be deep in thought before he shook his head. “I guess I can spare a little time.”

~~~

It was a few days before Ruby visited the palace again, longer than she had gone without visiting in quite a while.

When finally she does come by, Oscar is visibly worried.

He greets her with a kiss but lingers close. “Did something happen?”

“No, no I was just really busy.” Ruby said blandly.

Oscar had an expression that said he knew that wasn’t the whole story but he wouldn’t press her on it either.

“Just some family trouble, talk about it later okay?” Ruby added to try to quell his concerns.

Before they could continue their conversation they were interrupted.

“Ah, you’re here, excellent!” Said Ozpin as he approached the couple who took a respectful step away from each other. “See, I wanted to formally invite you to our next upcoming ball.” He handed Ruby a sturdy envelope embossed with her name in silver print on the front.

“We’re having another ball?” Oscar asked.

“Yes, it’s been a few months since the last one so I thought it’s time for another celebration.” Didn’t I tell you?”

“It must have slipped your mind.” Oscar muttered, half sure that Ozpin came up with this on a whim just today.

“This one is by invitation only. Hence why I wanted to personally ensure that Miss Rose received hers.” Ozpin shot a meaningful look Oscar’s way as he said that before turning to direct his next statement to Ruby “Mm, anyways, don’t worry about attire, we can have you fitted for a dress, one properly suited for a night of dancing.”

He left no time for either of them to respond before heading off elsewhere. They both are left standing there, confused about what just happened.

“Hey Oscar?”

“Mhm?”

“So, I don’t actually know how to dance?” She was embarrassed to admit it, since it seemed like something everyone around knew how to do but her.

“Oh, well there’s some excellent tutors around here, you don’t have to worry about that!” Oscar reassured.

“Okay but what if I’m afraid of embarrassing myself in front of the tutors?”

“Are you afraid of embarrassing yourself in front of me?” He asked and she considered the question.

“Somehow a lot less afraid.” Ruby answered, there was a level of comfort she’d reached in being that vulnerable around him.

“Then how about I teach you?”

~~~

That started what would become the weeks of dance lessons leading up to this next ball.

“It’s easier than it looks. I was nervous the first time around too.” Oscar said, standing in the large empty ballroom with Ruby as he started the record player on some basic waltz music.

He demonstrated the base steps alone, explaining them as he went.

“Okay, want to give it a try?” He asked.

“I guess, sorry if I step on your toes.” Ruby was still pretty apprehensive even after watching him demonstrate.

Oscar chuckled, putting one hand on her waist. “I’ve seen you practicing sparring with the guards, you’re actually really graceful.”

“When I’m sparring I’m supposed to be aiming to hurt people, and here not so much.” She retorted.

That was only met with a fond kiss and Oscar’s other hand finding hers. “Come on, giving it a try?”

She began to follow his steps but it was clear how uneasy she felt no matter how long they tried it for.

“Here, let’s try something different. You lead.” Oscar offered.

“Won’t that make it worse?” Ruby thought that would just give her more opportunity to step on his feet.

“No, I think it’s pretty awkward to learn to do these all backwards, it’s easier to learn if you’re in the lead role.”

“Okay…” Ruby reversed their position, putting her hand on his waist to mirror the way he had been holding her before. They were nearly the same height so it worked perfectly in that sense.

It’s awkward at first still but Ruby was much less nervous, actually it was Oscar that was stumbling more now because he wasn’t used to this role.

By the time they had made their way around the room once, she was grinning.

When the music ended she hugged him.

“Thank you, that was way less awful than I was expecting.” She mumbled against his shoulder.

“Ha, glad it was better than awful?” His arms wrap around her in turn.

“But you aren’t done quite yet. That’s just the very basics, and you still need to practice this more too.”

Ruby feigned a pout with a grin hidden behind it. “What? There’s more?”

Until the day of the ball they continued to practice. Oscar had been made to take dance classes since he’d been adopted so he was more than happy to show off some of the more intricate steps and dances. Ruby’s personal favorite was dips mainly for that cute dazed expression Oscar got on his face when she could easily dip him and pull him back up for a kiss.

Rumor had it that the Prince will be engaged to miss Ruby Rose by the time this exclusive ball is over with.

This rumor may or may not have been started singlehandedly by one royal guard by the name of Nora Valkyrie. Regardless of how it started, word spread far and wide.

Word spread so far and wide in fact that it reached Salem. She was fuming, oh how could that wretched girl catch the prince’s attention so easily?

As much as she wanted to lock Ruby away and have done with her, Salem knew that if the prince truly cared for the girl then he might very well go looking for her. So she bided her time and came up with a plan, forging an invitation for Cinder to go to this new ball.

Ruby didn’t know any of this. Maybe Salem was a bit more cold and cruel than usual, but Ruby had already grown to expect the worst so she couldn’t even tell the difference.

~~~

The night of the ball arrived rapidly and Ruby had snuck out without finishing her impossibly long list of chores knowing full well she would pay for it tomorrow.

She wore a lovely floor length dress in a similar red color as her previous one, this time with her comfy boots underneath rather than those awful stilts.

Ruby was happy with how she looked, and so much more relaxed without the constant fear that her step mother or sisters would somehow ruin this for her.

Her confidence only grew when she met Oscar at the entrance and he offered her his arm. “You look beautiful.” He said, sounding so genuinely awestruck.

She really had to hold herself back from kissing him or even hugging him since there still was etiquette to follow for an event like this.

“Thank you, you don’t look bad yourself.” She replied as she took his arm.

Oscar didn’t leave her side all night. As he was Prince, they did have to make the rounds of talking with anyone particularly important but everyone was quite polite and seemingly excited to meet her too.

Once all the niceties were out of the way, they joined everyone else on the dance floor.

Ruby wasn’t nervous anymore, though she put her hand on Oscar’s waist to immediately take the leading role in this dance. Oscar just laughed and tried to stealthily kiss her on the cheek, an action many caught sight of regardless, because of course people were keeping their eyes on the prince and his girl.

For the whole night they only dance with each other which no one seemed to take issue with.

Well, no one took issue with until one particular unwelcome guest mader appearance. A song had just ended when Ruby felt a harsh tap on her shoulder, a fingernail basically gouging into her arm. When she looked up at who was trying to get her attention, she tensed, staring wide eyed. Cinder stood here, a fake overly polite smile plastered on her face as if she didn’t know exactly who Ruby was. “May I have this next dance with him?” She asked, putting Ruby in a position to look very rude and possessive if she were to say no.

Ruby couldn’t find her words at all, even if there was little Cinder could directly do to her here she still couldn’t help but be afraid.

Oscar picked up on something being wrong immediately, he’d never seen Ruby look so vacant and afraid, and this woman who had approached looked vaguely familiar. He frowned slightly before looking at the guest. “Would you excuse us for a moment?”

Cinder, seeing how this wasn’t going her way and so incredibly angry with Ruby getting her way, did not in fact excuse them for a minute. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think you heard me, I said may I have this dance?” Her grip on Ruby’s shoulder now bruising as she tried to rip her away from the Prince.

Oscar immediately got in between the two of them, and the guards were there almost immediately. Cinder did not go easily or quietly, in fact it made for a rather impressive wrestling match to watch in the middle of the dance floor before she was actually dragged off.

Everyone was quiet, shocked, and confused but slowly the party came back to life with people chancing quiet conversation and then returning to their dance.

“I’m sorry- about that.” Ruby mumbled, voice trembling slightly.

“That wasn’t your fault… at all. But, you seemed to know her?” Oscar spoke carefully, not wanting her to feel obligated to answer.

“She’s my stepsister.” She answered shortly

Suddenly something clicked for Oscar about the ‘family issues’ Ruby had alluded to before and it left a bitter feeling in his stomach. “Hey, you’re safe now.” He said, pulling her close.

“Yeah, for now.” Ruby sighed, she would still have to go home to.. To whatever was going to happen now.

“No, for always. You could stay here, stay with me.” Oscar blurted out, more than anything just wanting to make sure she was safe and happy. It took him longer than it should have to realize just how that sounded. “Okay, uh to be clear that was not a proposal. I promise that will be much better thought out and not asked when you’re dealing with a lot of stress-” His explanation was interrupted with a kiss.

“You do realize you just implied you’re going to propose, right?” Ruby asked once she pulled away.

Oscar laughed, giving her one more peck on the lips. “I thought that was obvious.”

#rosegarden #rosepine #ruby rose #Oscar Pine #secret santa #my fic #rwby

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headtothecoast · 5 years ago

Text

jaskier as a standup comedian. hear me out

i considered having geralt be an audience member who he gets to laugh, front row, yen made him go with her, doesn’t laugh at the whole set until jaskier picks yen for the audience part, says something and geralt just looses it. so of course jaskier seeks him out after the set by going to the bar and just plain hoping and they do go home together and it’s fantastic

but also consider, geralt is some professional something or other, maybe an actor who only does scary/professional roles and sometimes gets a bad rap because he doesn’t always get on well with other actors (he doesn’t agree with business practices of treating crew members poorly, offers to help crew set stuff up, helps out when animals are on set that kind of thing but also like, if his coworker or producer or director is sexist he will e n d y o u so some actors don’t like him because he protects women cast mates and just generally isn’t a prick) and also doesn’t interview well. he’s gruff and doesn’t actually like the limelight but his agent (and exwife) yen talked him into it and it’s a good paycheck for their daughter and sometimes he does like the movies he works on (after all, he did some work with these guys eskel lambert and vesemir and they ended up being like brothers and a father who taught him stuff about the business) anyway i digress. geralt is a stonefaced actor who is always cast as an assassin or something or a hunter or a butcher and he doesn’t always appreciate that

so jaskier is a comedian and geralt doesn’t care if jaskier tells jokes about him (and yes some of his comedy is musical/he writes songs on the side) but similar to john mulaney, none of jaskiers jokes about geralt are mean. like, none of them are even a little bit like toeing the line. geralt makes a point not to watch jaskiers comedy because he really doesn’t want to know what his boyfriend/fiancé says about him onstage even if it’s an act so geralt doesn’t realize that audience think he is the sweetest and kindest person ever while jaskier is just a f e r a l c h a o t i c d u m b a s s and geralt must be a saint for putting up with him. and sometimes jaskier cries on stage while talking about geralt adopting roach after a shoot and how sweet he is but like the point of the story was that he accidentally set the barn on fire so audiences are astounded that the man is even alive by the end of the shows.

but so geralt is doing press for a movie and it’s no secret that he and jaskier are dating, tho it might not be public knowledge they’re engaged and a late night host brings up jaskiers stand-up and geralt says something about how he too would make fun of himself on stage, idk something self deprecating about what he thinks jaskier would complain about (stoic, scary looking, disruptive in bars sticking up for people, easily recognized everywhere because of the hair, temper) and the host shows him a clip of jaskiers recent tour where he’s standing on stage saying stuff like “yes i’m aware they cast him as a murderer” or something “but once you see him braid ciri (also actress but out of the business because of legal battle with producer who tried something when she was a child actress and has a restraining order against not geralt but yen)‘s hair while humming the golden girls intro you just don’t see it anymore. like it’s impossible for him to scare me because i know his secret, he eats cereal out of the box just like the rest of us and sometimes he lets me have the toy except for the one time i-“ and sure geralt has maybe noticed some people like hosts and coworkers being nicer to him and fans approached him a little more now but he hadn’t realized jaskier didn’t make him the butt of the joke. so he says as much, gruffly but endearing to the audience that he only saw stuff from before they were together because he wouldn’t begrudge him needing an audience to vent to, or something. and so the interviewer keeps asking him about jaskier and geralt just goes all soft on tv.

and of course jaskier watches all of his interviews and when he sees that one he tears up because he didn’t realize geralt thought he made fun of him on stage. he heard his voice sometimes on the tv or geralts phone but he hadn’t put together it was only his older comedy and jaskier breaks a little when he talks to geralt about it. jaskier asks why he would agree to a partner who he thought made fun of him in front of thousands of people and geralt says he never did it to his face, or seemed unhappy so what’s the problem?

and to fix that jaskier writes a new set that is scathing about hollywood. he makes jokes about actors and actresses who were mean to geralt or producers and directors who asked him to do things he didn’t want to or take advantage of actresses. netflix approaches him to film the special and he writes an intro song about geralt that leads into it and jaskier rants about men in bars that geralt stand up to even if the women he helps don’t appreciate it because they’re drunk and scared of him. or when they get called f*gs in target grocery shopping and other awful things and jaskier is just feral and angry on stage and it’s absolutely ruthless comedy. he kills it.

so when it comes time to do press for the show, he fires his agent and gets geralt to do press with him. and almost immediately people like geralt. seeing someone so bestotted and amused where he had only ever been cast as cold and angry gave him an overnight following. jaskier made him approachable, or at least showed others he had always been safe to approach. and so with chaotic feral jaskier snapping witty remarks back and forth with talk show hosts geralt would sit with a slight smile, a bark of laughter and occasionally a sardonic or sarcastic line that would earn him a blinding smile from jaskier and audiences went wild for it. and geralt just sits there and appreciates this man who singlehandedly turned his career around and went after hollywood for him.

so maybe geralt gets cast in kinder roles and maybe jaskier posts little things on his instagram of geralt crying while watching the movie spirit or drunkenly telling roach he loves her. and when they get engaged or people accidentally find out they’re engaged jaskier couldn’t be happier because the whole damn world knows geralt is his and it doesn’t matter if he tanks a comedy career because he would burn hollywood to ash for this man.

anyway thank you for coming to my TEDtalk if someone wants to write this tag me!

#geraskier #geralt x jaskier #jaskier #geralt of rivia #the witcher #yennifer #cirilla of cintra #comedian!jaskier #actor!geralt

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fangirlingincamouflage · 4 years ago

Text

Blind Hope: Chapter 7

Title: Blind Hope Author: Rosie Dayze Word Count: 1,232 Pairing: Nick Jakoby x Reader Chapter Rating: PG-13 Themes: Angst, Plot, affectionate frustration Disclaimer I do not own Nick Jakoby, he is the intellectual property of Netflix Originals, I make no money from this fanfiction. Dedication: @14readwritedraw96 and @thezucchini (For being so wonderfully enthusiastic) TW/CW Descriptions of pain, long term hospital stay

Previous chapters:

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7 <~ You are Here

You are standing in the middle of the pasta isle at the grocery store when your cell phone goes off. It's that distinctive ping of an unknown number texting you. You sigh, roll your eyes, and wonder what is the easiest possible thing that you can make for dinner that night. In the past six days your workload has tripled. June and Em are on a much needed vacation and Nick is still unconscious at the hospital.

You know that because you called right before you left to go grocery shopping. You also called first thing this morning, and last night, and the morning before, and the night before that. You have called the hospital at least twice a day for the past thirty-seven days. You got the exact same information.

“Officer Jakoby is still in an induced coma, and he is not ready to be seen by friends or family.”

It was maddening.

Your phone goes off again and you set a jar of premade sauce back on the shelf. Your stomach isn't feeling red sauce. It isn't feeling pasta. Or oranges. Or any one of a thousand other things you were totally down for eating. You hadn't been hungry since the night part of LA went up in magical flames. Since Nick had been hospitalized.

With a sigh you eased into the snack isle. Is a bag of chips an acceptable replacement for dinner? Probably not, but you've had take out for the past two weeks and absolutely none of it has filled the steady, continuing ache in your heart.

Your phone goes off again.

“What?” you snarl loud enough to make the old lady with a basket full of frozen dinners blink with bewilderment. “Sorry. Not you.”

You pull your phone out and waive it at her. She doesn't look convinced, and doubles her speed to get into the next isle.

With a few swipes you bring up your new messages.

“This is Jessica, the Head Nurse at the Intensive Care Unit at the UCLA Medical Center.” The first message reads.

Your heard pounds so hard in your chest that your vision goes a little hazy. You grip your phone tightly enough to make the screen rainbow with protest.

“Nick Jakoby has achieved a state of continuing consciousness. One of my nurses made the mistake of telling him that you had stopped by.”

That hazy feeling turns to ash. You had wanted to see him yourself, to let him know what had gone on, and why you hadn't talked to him in six, not seven, months. He must be angry, furious.

The third message is brief, and comes across as a little mad. “In order to keep him in bed, I promised him you would come see him tonight. Do not make me a liar.”

You desert your cart, and take the shortest possible trip to the hospital that you have ever taken. Which is impressive, considering all the times you driven up there in the past month, just in case something had happened between your morning and evening check-ins.

You don't stop at the front desk, you know where you are going. The elevator doors close as you turn the corner, and the wait for the next ones seems like an eternity. The moment the doors whoosh open, you surge inside hitting the buttons for the ICU floor. You don't even wait. You ht the close-door button and watch your reflection stare back at you as the lift starts to rise.

What are you going to say? Should you have gotten balloons? Flowers? A stuffed animal? Would he even be allowed those things? Did he want them from you? Did he want to see you to make up or to have a final talk? In the twenty-eight seconds that it takes to get to your floor, your mind plays out you greatest hopes and worst fears in a strange, overlapping loop that leaves you feeling a little lightheaded.

Though maybe that has something to do with the fact that you haven't eaten well in a month.

Your clothes don't fit right, you think as you tug at the fabric. You should have gone home to change. You were wearing your comfy clothes to go shopping. The fabric weird. Then you realize its not the fabric, its your own skin. You are so nervous that your skin feels like an electric current is running through it. With a huff you roll your shoulders, trying to settle your nerves. It doesn't help.

The doors slide open and as fast as you got into the elevator, you hesitate to get out. This could go wrong. What if his mother is there? His partner? What about Johnassen, the jerk who broke his phone so long ago?

It doesn't matter you tell yourself as you take that first step off the elevator. All that matters is he's awake. You'll be able to see him with your own eyes.

A stern looking woman with stark gray curls looks up from a desk as you approach. She tilts her head and inspects you.

“For Jakoby?” she asks like she already knows the answer. “Follow me.”

Your heart is in your ears as you follow in the steps of her worn out shoes. She swipes her badge, taking you through a set of secure double doors. The sounds of the hospital change. The ICU is bereft of human noises, but it isn't quiet. You can hear televisions on a half a dozen channels turned down low, doing what they could to preoccupy patients who were in layers of pain. The sound of breathing machines hiss and whirl. A man in green scrubs wheels supplies down the hall. There's no happy, warm chatter. Just a strange sense of desolation and pain.

You do not like it here, and you can't imagine Nick here. Nick, with his warm laugh and kindness. Nick who kisses you like the universe exists in your lips. You want to scoop him up and take him away.

The nurse stops outside of a door at the end of the hall.

“They are quarantined behind a see through partition,” she tells you in the kind of no-nonsense voice that must come from years in her work. “Do not attempt to breech this partition.”

She holds out a long medical gown. Confused, you shoved your arms into the sleeves. She spins you, and starts to tie it up, and then she puts another one on your back, spinning you again so she can tie it in the front. She hands you a cap, and a mask, and you put them both on as she helps your feet into medical grade booties.

“How dangerous is it?” You ask as she holds up a pair of gloves to slip on your hands.

“Unknown,” she tucks the end of the gloves over the wristband of the double set of gowns. “But you saw the news, you know where they were. Better safe than sorry.”

She types a number into the key pad. “You get ten minutes. No more, no less. I'm not being mean, but we need to minimize any chance of exposure.”

You nod your understanding. Ten minutes isn't much time, but you'll make the most of it.

“There are armed men in there,” she finally says. “Don't do anything to make them think you are a threat.”

It's the last bit of advice she gives you before the pad turns green and the door is opened.

The room is long, white, and empty save for what looks like a box made out of hanging plastic. Only a few of the lights are on, casting half the room in evening darkness. There are several beds, but only one of them is occupied. The long, lean body of a black male is visible beneath the harsh lighting. Three other people stand guard, dressed from head to toe, AR-15 clutched in their hands. The door closes behind you.

For a moment you stand there, frozen and unsure. A little, ugly thought makes you wonder if this is some weird trick. Then you hear your name.

Your eyes are drown to the shape of a man sitting in a chair. You hadn't noticed him at first because the dark lines of his body blend a little too easily with the pseudo darkness on that side of the room. But now that you've seen him, you can't pull your gaze away.

Nick. You'd know the shape of him anywhere. The broad, strong line of his shoulders stands guardian against the pitch black behind him. There's a blanket across his legs, and an IV in his arm.

“It's you,” he says softly, disbelieving.

“Nick.” You take one step, and then another, and before you know it your legs are carrying you across the room. You almost forget the plastic. When you foot hits it, you're startled. The guards watch you with cold glares. “Sorry.”

And once you start saying it, you can't stop. Over and over again you apologize. You don't realize you are crying until you taste the hot salt of your own tears. You are sorry you didn't call him. You are sorry you left. You are sorry you didn't answer him back. You are sorry for everything you ever did in the last six months because none of those things was going to him. You sink to your knees at the edge of the partition, the tears making it impossible to speak.

He says your name again, so soft you wonder if you dreamed it. You look up, and he's shaking his head.

“Please, don't cry.”

Slowly, unsteadily, he gets up. He doesn't look at you as he pulls the chair from one side of the plastic sheet box to the other. Right in front of you, he plops the chair down, and then lowers himself into it. His staccato motions belie how hurt he must still be.

The pair of you are silent as you look one another over. You see the bruises beneath his woad blue spots; purple and yellow and, in some places, black. You see the stitches in his arm, the thick swelling of his hands. The skin around his cheeks is slack with the lack of food he's gotten in the past month. But his eyes, those gorgeous eyes that are yellow and red and orange all at once, they are filled with pain that has nothing to do with being thrown half a football field by a magical explosion.

“You're here,” he says, his voice soft. “I thought-” He stop short, shrugging, and then wincing.

“I know,” you tell him. While you aren't sure of the exact words he must have thought, you know that it couldn't have been good.

“Why?” he asks.

You open your mouth to tell him, but the words wont come. You remember Elizabeth, his mother, and the way she had looked at you. You could tell him everything, but what good would that do? He might get angry at his mother, it might cause some kind of rift between them and how many people did Nick really have who cared that much for his safety? Not nearly enough, you think as you take in injuries you hadn't noticed before.

Instead you shrug. You can't bring yourself to lie, but you can't bring yourself to tell him the truth either, no matter how much it's burned inside of you. You turn the words that she said over in your mind, pulling an answer from them without revealing their source.

“You got hurt because you were with me.” Your voice cracks as you say it.

His eyes close and his shoulders sag. His body leans forward. You think he's about to slide out of the chair. The pair of you kneel on the floor, staring at one another. Emotions that you don't think have ever been named whirl through you. You want to touch him, you want to hold him, you want to vanish together into the night.

“No,” he said shaking his head. “No. You were just the excuse. When they saw me-” he cuts off, coughs, and shakes. “They'd already decided what they were going to do.”

He looks away. You can tell that there's more to say, that he's struggling. Rather than push you give him a moment. He deserves that at the very least.

“It wont happen again,” he says.

“Why not?”

He opens his palm, I can't see anything there, but he must because he's staring down at it like it's something special.

“I can't talk about a lot that happened that night,” he says. “I want to, I want to tell you everything but...I can't.”

You shake your head. “I just need to know you are safe.”

“I think I am. I mean-I gotta tell you, it was not a normal night. I was...I was blooded.”

Your eyes go wide. You can't help but stare at his lips. He smirks.

“It'll take a while for the tusks to grow. But I don't need to file them anymore.”

You sit back on your heels. “Are you okay with that?”

He shrugs. “I guess that depends.”

“On what?” you ask.

He takes a deep breath and looks at you. It's a long look, a scared and hopeful one. It's like he's weighing a thousand dreams as he watches you and all you can do is wait.

“I thought I was getting over you,” he finally says. “It'd been months. Long months. Really, really long months. My mom even set me up on a couple dates with some unblooded girls from other states.”

Your stomach twists.

“Yeah?” you say, hoping that he's not about to tell you that he has moved on and this whole thing was about him saying goodbye.

“They were nice, but they...they didn't understand me. They didn't like what I do. They didn't like my jokes and they all thought Alaska is stupid.” The two of you laugh and it feels so good. He shifts his position until the two of you are nearly the same height. “I wasn't falling for someone else but I was pretending really hard like I was getting over you.”

You nod, you know what he means. You'd been going through all the motions, acting like you were moving forward when all you were doing was playing the role and hoping.

“I was going to come see you,” he said. “As soon as my shift was over that night. I was going to go right to your apartment. Everyone said I shouldn't because I'd just get hurt, but I thought that it would be worth it. I just..”

Slowly he reached into the blanket still twisted around his legs. His thick, injured fingers shook with pain as he pushed the fabric around.

“Where-hold on-it's here, I swear.”

Your heart, which has already gone through far too much, pounds all over again. Your mouth goes dry.

“Nick...”

“I almost died you know,” he says as he lifts a corner, continues to look. There's a little wetness on his brow, and you wonder if it's fear, nerves, or pain that's put it there. “And not just once. I almost died like four times.”

One of the guards cleared their throats.

“I know,” Nick said, holding up his free hand. “I know. I can't tell her anything. But you only have to look at me to see that it happened.” He went still, and bowed his head. “I did die.”

It's not even a whisper, there's no sound. It's a breath of words that you are sure the guards couldn't hear. You pounding heart turns to ice in your chest.

“What?”

But he doesn't say it again. Instead he looks up at you and his eyes are bright with a hundred emotions. “And all I could think about, was you.”

He holds out his hand. Nested there is a black velvet box. Carefully, he opens it, revealing a ring. It's made of two metals, platinum and rose gold, twisted around one another to form a very simple braid, and right there at the center is a stone in the exact same shade of blue as his spots.

“All I thought about every day has been you,” he is saying when your ears start to work again. “And I don't want to ever have to worry again.”

You swallow twice before you can speak. “Are you proposing?”

You aren't sure if he's blushing, but his ears twitch. “Only if you're saying yes.”

“You have to ask,” you say. “You have to...ask.”

“Is it a spell? A human thing?” he says.

You shrug, because it kind of is, but mostly you just need to time to stop your thoughts from making such a commotion in your head. There are a hundred ways this could go wrong, a thousand even, but even so-

He says your name and you find that he's shifted yet again, down on one knee in front of you. “Will you marry me?”

#nick jakoby fanfiction #nick jakoby x reader #nick jakoby #proposal #cute #sweet fanfiction

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fuckit-hero-of-trains · 4 years ago

Text

Like Rock, Paper, Scissors but Not Really Ch 1

ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25599367/chapters/62131759

Summary:

Rock beats Scissors. Scissors beats Paper. Paper beats Rock.

The same could be said of Water, Fire, Earth, and Air.

Water puts out Fire. Fire burns Earth. Earth smothers Air. Air dictates Water.

It seems as though their very existence should necessitate a battle. Smashing, slicing, smothering one another into nothing.

And yet, that could not be farther from the truth.

They are far stronger together than they ever are apart.

Blue has a headache.

Which normally wouldn't be a big fucking whoop. He always has a headache. He lives with three headaches. Hell, his entire existence could be characterized as one headache after another.

Not enough sleep? Headache. Too much sleep? Headache. Not enough sugar? Headache. Too much sugar? Headache. One of Green’s Puns™? Headache. Vio being a smartass? Headache. Red being Red? Headache.

Day after day after day after day like clockwork, like the tide, Blue is tormented by headaches, both metaphorical and literal in nature.

Right now, however, Blue has a literal headache. A very, very literal headache which is quickly becoming a very, very literal migraine .

He can practically feel it coming, too. Can practically feel as the low grade pounding turns from manageable– a four out of ten at most– into the actual goddess Hylia descending from on high to telepathically scream Fuck You, Blue!!!! directly into his skull; the pain all too familiar and all too fucking annoying.

Blue can feel it coming in the way the dim light of their shop begins to strain his eyes, each flicker of their too few lanterns sending clouds of fuzz and crackling stars dancing in his peripheries. Can feel it in the way the skin of his face and neck begin to prickle with needles of feverish heat. Can feel it in the way his ears begin to clog, sound dulled as cotton stuffs itself too tightly against his eardrums, tickling uncomfortably at his brain.

Blue can absolutely feel as pressure continues to build up within his skull. Can feel as what was once a light pounding behind his eyes grows. Growing, growing, growing, ramping up in both speed and power until the blue wearing smithy feels wave after wave of pain slamming against his sinuses, rattling his senses.

He can feel how it makes his jaw clench, his teeth grind, his hands itch to reach up and tear at the roots of his hair to just get some fucking relief.

Normally, Blue would be able to deal with this type of pain in a slightly less destructive way.

Normally, he would just go upstairs, slam the door to their shared room shut so the others knew not to bug him, throw the curtains across the window so the room is cast in goddess blessed darkness, and then climb into the cool sheets of his bed, pulling the blankets over his head so he could sit and wait and wallow in his own woe is me bullshit until the world stopped trying to fucking kill him.

But alas, the world is apparently going to get a shot at his head today.

Because unfortunately, Blue can’t do any of those things right now.

Because in addition to a literal headache, Blue also has a metaphorical headache on his hands.

A metaphorical headache in the form of a man who appears to be the biggest idiot this side of Mt. Crenel.

And Blue knows Green, so that's saying something.

The absolute buffoon has been in the shop for about three hours now, just meandering from wall to wall to wall to wall, goggling blankly at the array of weapons like he can’t tell a longsword from a claymore or that the stabby bit goes in the other person.

Normally, if Blue had one of his headaches while he was manning the shop, he would just grab one of the other morons he shares a house with to cover for him. They were accommodating enough, knowing by now that a Blue with a migraine was a Blue who was one step closer to actually following through on all the threats he made.

But apparently, today the stars had aligned to make Blue's day truly terrible, really, Hylia, you've outdone yourself.

Because Green was at the castle, hanging out with Zelda. Because Vio was out in the Minish Woods, doing whatever bullshit research he was currently obsessed with. Because Red was in town, grabbing groceries.

Meaning, Blue had no escape from his headache or the increasing pain and frustration this idiot was inflicting upon him with his very existence.

Every circuit of the room, the guy brings something up to the counter, asks a question about it, and upon receiving his increasingly clipped answer, just– just fucking leaves it!!! At the counter!!! Apparently none the wiser that he’s only supplying more weapons for Blue to skewer him with.

Around and around and around the shop the guy goes, getting his grubby fingerprints all over the polished Zora spears– Hylia, was the guy eating peanut butter with his bare hands before coming in???– messing up the shelving order of the Goron digging tools, and dropping several of the Gerudo style daggers.

Blue had tried to cut this whole escapade short hours ago, had plastered a smile he had hoped looked as bright and cheerful as Red’s–all the while knowing that it had probably looked as emotionally constipated as one of Vio’s attempts at friendly– and had asked the man if there was anything I can help you find today?

But the man had just waved him off, smiling in that ditzy way that Blue swore he was going to see in his nightmares, saying Oh, no need! I’m just window shopping!

Window shopping.

Window shopping! For. Three. Hours. Straight.

“Can I have a word with the smith?” the idiot asks, pulling Blue from his increasingly murderous thoughts, placing yet another weapon on the counter beside the countless others he had already brought forward and subsequently discarded. “I think there might be something wrong with this sword. I mean, it's kinda messed up, isn’t it?”

Blue blinks slowly at the man, trying to stow the pain and frustration for the sake of making a sale, and then glances down at the blade in question.

It’s a beautiful, flame-bladed rapier. One Red had worked on, actually.

Blue remembers the other agonizing over the undulating curves of the blade, his more emotional brother heating and reshaping, heating and reshaping, heating and reshaping, the slightly smaller smithy covered in sweat and ash as he worked, determined to get the wave of metal just right.

Even Blue, one of the harshest critics of his and the others’ works, had to admit that Red had succeeded in that area. The sword is beautifully balanced even in spite of the curves, each metal wave uniform and masterfully shaped, rounded and yet sharpened to deadly perfection.

Blue peels his eyes up from the sword to look into the eyes of the man, hoping this might be some kind of sick joke.

It isn’t. The older looks back at him expectantly, brows raised, eyes wide, waiting for a response.

Right. Blue really shouldn't have underestimated the depths of this guy's stupidity. Not after having had an unwilling front row seat to it for three fucking hours.

He resists the urge to roll his eyes. Not because he’s trying to be polite. But because Blue can feel his headache increasing, the waves of pain becoming stronger as they grate against his skull, making the lantern light in their shop bright and piercing and too much.

He's pretty sure if he rolls his eyes, he might actually collapse due to the strain.

“Sir,” he grits instead, words hissed out from between his teeth, customer service smile too thin lipped, too full of bite to be anything considered remotely nice or polite, “Like it says on the display case, that is a flame-bladed sword. Also known as a wave-blade. It's supposed to look like that.”

“Are you sure?” the guy asks, grabbing the hilt and waving the sword this way and that for an inspection, forcing Blue to whip his head back lest he risk an untimely hair cut or perhaps being fucking decapitated.

“I mean, a sword like this is pretty useless, right?” The mouth-breather says, suddenly shifting his grip on the pommel, turning to skim an evaluative eye down the face of the blade, obliviously stabbing the air where Blue’s head would have been had he not had the presence of mind to duck behind the counter.

“And no embellishments on the pommel either,” the idiot continues with a furrowed brow, a wrinkled nose, a down turned lip as he shakes his head at the lovingly wrapped grip, completely oblivious of the smithy he almost just killed.

The same crouching smithy who can feel the skin of his face getting hotter and hotter with every word as pain and anger dance and twine in his head, his chest, until the two are indistinguishable from one another, now a single scalding geyser building pressure, about to explode.

“A pretty sad excuse for a decorative sword in my opinion,” the deadman says with a dismissive sniff. “Not only worthless but ugly to boot.”

The man’s words slice through Blue’s head, cutting through the pounding pounding pounding of his migrain, through the searing searing searing frustration, and for the briefest of seconds, Blue feels a stillness fall over him.

For the briefest of seconds, the geyser calms, becoming an untouched pond, crystal clear and unmoving.

And behind his eyes, Blue can see Red’s smile, exhausted and soot streaked but bright and proud as he holds out that very same sword to be inspected by Blue and Green and Vio. Blue can see the relief and joy spread over Red’s face, the other practically glowing as bright as the embers of the forge as he receives compliment after compliment from his brothers; a punch on the shoulder from Blue, a fond side-hug from Green, a warm ruffling of hair from Vio.

Blue can see Red, bright and happy and proud.

And Blue can see Red, downcast and sad and ashamed if he were ever to hear the words the man had just spoken.

And then all he sees is red.

The geyser erupts inside, scalding his face, burning his eyes, Blue’s migraine somehow going from bad to brain melting in the span of a millisecond, but he could care less.

No. The blue-wearing smith is more focused on the boiling in his blood, the steaming tide of anger in his veins that buoys him up despite the stabbing pain in his skull, that causes him to slam his fists down on the counter in front of him, forcing the absolute, good for nothing, Hylia damned, FUCKFACE to cringe away from the sudden noise as he finally notices Blue once more.

“Get. Out,” Blue breathes, the searing words slipping past his lips like steam.

The man blinks twice, confused by the sudden outburst.

“W-wh–?”

“I said,” Blue repeats, sweeping Red’s sword into his left hand while hoisting himself up onto the counter with his right, drawing himself up to his full height as he levels the flame-bladed rapier with the man’s forehead, “Get the fuck out of my store before I show you just how decorative this sword can be!”

The man takes a few shaky steps back, hands up in surrender. “I-I don't–”

“Get the fuck OUT!” Blue screams with finality, voice shaking with fury and pain.

And if nothing else, at least the guy has some sense of self preservation, because with a little squeak of fear not unlike a mouse’s, he turns tail and flees, escaping out the door before Blue even finishes yelling.

Not a moment too soon either.

Because the anger, the shouting, the change in position; the heat of it all rushes to Blue’s head. The fuzziness that had been clouding at the edge of his vision increases four-fold, the twinkling monochrome stars widening into black holes that eat at Blue’s eyesight as the tidal wave of pain in his skull collides with the magma of his fury, filling his head with rocks and steam, heavy heavy heavy and yet light light light, throwing off his sense of balance.

Distantly, Blue feels his knees buckle.

And idly, as the black consumes his vision, as the sword tumbles from his grasp so he can bring his hands up to support the growing weight of the stones in his skull, as he feels himself tilt forward, Blue wonders if the dive he’s currently taking off the counter will make him as stupid as the man who caused it.

Blue falls forward.

“Blue!”

But he doesn't land.

He doesn't crash headfirst into the floor, braining himself on their hardwood. He doesnt smash his face into the ground, breaking his nose again. He doesn't experience the added pain a fall like this should have on his already agony-addled skull.

No.

Blue falls but he doesn't exactly land because something soft and warm interrupts his dive, shielding his head and shoulders from the impact with the ground even as the rest of him bangs it’s way to the floor.

And for a second, Blue just lays there, taking stock of himself.

His head still throbs with pain, still pounds out a rhythm that sends agony from his forehead all the way to the tips of his ears. He still feels lightheaded, like the world is tilting even though he can tell for a fact that he is no longer falling. His knees ache from where they took the brunt of his fall.

But his face is pleasantly warm from where it’s pressed against fabric. Fabric that shifts gently against his cheek, up down up down up down with someone else’s slightly ragged breaths, as though they had run just before ending up in this position.

Wait, breaths?

Blue peels his eyes open, pained confusion forcing him into action despite the too bright lights still clawing at his vision, the pain digging nails into his brain.

Blue opens his eyes and all he sees is red.

A red tunic against his cheek, soft and warm. A pair of amber, red eyes gazing down at him with a mix of concern and admiration.

Blue sees Red, breathing a little heavily and sprawled out on the floor underneath him but grinning like he just won the swordsmanship contest at the Picori Festival. Blue sees Red and his battered brain puts two and two together to make Four.

Red was the thing that cushioned his fall.

Red… saved him?

“Whew. You almost took a nasty tumble there,” Red says with a relieved sigh and a smile once he sees Blue looking at him. “That could have been bad!”

“Red?” Blue asks a little dumbly because really, give him a break. He just took a fucking nose dive off a counter because his blood pressure was no doubt spiking as high as the Palace of Winds while his brain was busy melting out of his ears. Excuse him if this wasn’t exactly the outcome he was anticipating.

Red, meanwhile, doesn't even skip a beat.

“Nope! It’s Vio.” He relaxes his face, expression falling from sunny relief to ambivalence, his voice becoming smoother, a bit dryer, as he imitates their more taciturn brother. “Could you not tell?”

Blue shoves him away with a scoff and immediately regrets it when his head rebels against him, sending a wave of pain from his forehead to the back of his scalp, forcing him to squeeze his eyes shut against the sudden onslaught of hurt.

“Careful!” Red chides him with his regular voice, having no doubt seen Blue’s wince of pain.

Hands, gentle but insistent, lock onto Blue’s shoulders and guide him up and back until he sits with his spine against the very counter he had just fallen from, his head hanging limply between his knees.

Once situated, the hands release his shoulders. One goes away entirely while the other reaches over the top of Blue’s hunched shoulders, pulling the fabric of his hood out from behind his neck and over his head, casting some much needed darkness around Blue’s face.

It’s not quite enough to keep him from squinting when he opens his eyes– the dim lantern light still throws sunspots and blackholes in his vision– but it's better than before, giving him a modicum of relief.

They sit in silence for a bit, Blue breathing through the pain in his head, Red sitting near, a hand on Blue’s knee, comforting.

“So your headache is pretty bad, huh?” Red whispers, careful to not send Blue into another throe of pain.

“What tipped you off?” Blue whispers back irritably, pulling the hood down lower with one hand as he massages his temple with the other.

Red doesn't even flinch at the words, which tells Blue that he must look even more like shit than he thought.

They go back to silence, Red rubbing soothing circles into Blue’s knee as the waves of pain slamming forward backward forward backward in his skull slowly begin to dissipate. Not into nothing, oh no, that would be too merciful, but they lessen, like storm aided waves slowly losing steam.

“Didn't think you would be back for a while,” Blue says lowly.

“Shopping went a bit quicker than I thought it would. Not a lot of people out today. Must be the rain.”

Another beat of silence as Blue chooses his words, fishing them from the tide of his mind.

“How much of that did you hear?” Blue asks eventually, finally gaining the strength to peek out from under his hood without his brain punching him in the brain.

Red wilts a little at the question but his soothing circles don't let up for a moment.

“Enough,” the smaller smith says softly. “I was just finishing up putting everything away and thought I would stop in to let you know I was gonna be starting dinner when I, uh, heard.”

And then, with a little laugh. “He really didn’t like my sword, huh?”

“Yeah well, that guy was a moron,” Blue says with as much venom, as much scalding conviction as he can manage, some of that familiar boiling heat from before tingeing his words as he spits them out. “He wouldn't know a well made sword if he was being fucking stabbed with one.”

That startles a little snort of laughter from Red.

Blue won't admit that it makes him feel just a bit better.

“Yeah, I know,” Red says, his words a sigh, wistful yet sort of sad. Like he’s trying to convince himself that they’re true. And then, with a little smile as he leans down a bit in order to peek under Blue’s hood more fully, “Thanks.”

“Whatever,” Blue grumbles flippantly, straightening his spine and slowly, slowly , pushing himself to his feet, his hands braced on the counter for support as his vision swims. “Asshole had it coming.”

A hand sets itself gently on Blue’s elbow, ready to help guide him if need be.

“Think you can make it upstairs?” Red asks.

Blue nods and shrugs off the hand, more from habit than anything else.

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” Blue grumbles, shuffling his way behind the counter, hood still firmly in place over his head. “I can walk up a few stairs without braining myself, thanks.”

“Okay, sure you can, Mr. Tough Guy,” Red agrees easily enough with a bright grin, though Blue notes how he still follows behind as they step through the back room toward the stairs. Still notes how he can feel the other’s eyes locked on his back as he slowly makes his way up to their room.

“Have a good nap!” Red calls from the bottom of the stairs. “I’ll grab you when dinner’s ready!”

Blue gives hima wave of acknowledgement, slips into the bedroom, and promptly buries himself under the covers of their bed, allowing the cool sheets, the darkness, and the faint sound of rain lull him to sleep.

…

When Blue wakes hours later to a night-darkened room, a cool compress on his head, an iced peppermint tea with two lemon slices on the bedside table, and three other bodies in the bed with him, he knows Red lied to him about waking him up for dinner.

But as he takes a sip of the tea, as he feels it cool his throat, his stomach, as the sound of rain outside patters softly at their window, and as Red curls up a bit closer to his side, Blue finds that he doesn't really care.

His headache is gone and he really wasn't all that hungry anyway.

Blue settles back into bed, pulling the blanket back over his shoulder from where it had fallen when he sat up, throwing his arm across Red’s side as he does. He closes his eyes, settling into the warmth of his brothers, the waters of his mind stilling into tranquility.

He’ll just demand some cinnamon rolls for breakfast tomorrow.

Yeah. Then they’ll be even.

#fwof #train writes #blue link #red link #brothers support each other #lu four #I guess #technically #kinda #whatever #hope you guys like #me trying to write a five chapter fic in less than 7 days?#more likely than you would think

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alolanrain · 4 years ago

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Thinking about soft domestic Fangshipping

Like Ash wearing one of Raihans shirt in the early morning and sitting on one of the kitchen counters. Fresh from the airport and still on Kanto time and quietly sipping on coffee as he watches the sunrise from a window. Bleary eyed and very tired still and he looks back to see Raihan shuffling into the kitchen. Only with pajama pants on and coming up to snuggle against Ash’s side. Humming a hello and sighing happily as Ash reaches up and rubs the back of his head. Both enjoying the last of the sunrise before Ash gets shooed off to bed for some more sleep while Raihan goes to work at his gym.

Or Raihan taking Ash to a sunflower festival in Turffeild, that is mainly ran by Milo’s family, because one of Ash’s favorite thing in the world are sunflowers and he just spends the time With a dopey smile like a love struck idiot as Ash gets all excited and dragging him along to all the cute stalls and doing his cute gasp and wiggle when he see’s that they have a sunflower maze. They’ll end the day by coming back home and Raihan making dinner while Ash cooes at all the sunflower themed stuff he bought and the fresh picked sunflower Bouquet with roses and other cute flowers Milo’s mom made just for them on the spot. Ash will spend the time hanging cute new curtains and or maybe pictures of them he printed out in some new cute flower themed frames.

Or Ash bringing take out for lunch to Raihan or a late dinner just to check up on him and make sure he’s doing okay at the least. Because he knows that paperwork can overwhelm anyone and Raihan is like a lot of his friends who forget to eat and sleep. So he always gets Raihans favorite from this one curry restaurant in Motostoke and Ash will heat it up in the back room for the other trainers before taking it to Raihan and quietly listen to him rant about all the paperwork he has to do.

Speaking of overworking, Ash trying his best to clean Raihans house while Raihan has to deal with the gym finals and even though Ash isn’t the best he’ll try and make something actually edible for Raihan to eat when he comes home and Raihan is so happy that he isn’t coming home to a pigsty of a house and he gets to get off his feet and eat with Ash and he doesn’t have to worry about dishes because Ash has got it covered. While he’s eating Ash goes around and checks up on all of Raihans tired team and gets them dinner as well and Raihan silently watches him with hearts in his eyes and he can’t really get over how loving Ash is and how far he’ll go for Raihan.

They go grocery shopping and they lightly bicker about what to get for the incoming two weeks and Raihan and Pikachu has to steer Ash away from the baking aisle after 10 minutes because Ash keeps piling in so much stuff to bake with and they need nutrients and not more sugar. At the end they’ll bicker about who’ll pay but it always ends with Ash paying because he and his team eats the most so it’s only right he pays and Raihan will grumble until Ash sighs dramatically with a smile and ask if they can go out for eat and let Raihan pay for their meals.

Sending each other small care packages every month or two even because their in different times zones and can’t always text and or call. Raihan at least always sends one or two shirts and an old hoodie he barely wears. Just something for Ash to wear or sleep in when he misses him. He’ll add in cute little nicknakes that he’ll see day to day that he thinks Ash might like or non perishable cookies his trainers like to make but always ends up making to many. Ash will send printed pictures of places he gets to see and maybe some polaroid selfie’s just for Raihan to look at without hurting his eyes from staring at his phone for so long. Also sending nicknacks and a plastic baggy filled with folded up notes about how his day went and all the fun facts he’s learned that day.

My absolute favorite soft domestic Fangshipping moment is when there’s a steady storm outside and both Ash and Raihan can have a lazy day. They don’t really get out of bed unless to go to the bathroom and then that person has to go get snacks since their already up. Even their Pokémon come out of their Poké balls only to settle and snooze aroudn the house. Pikachu is always next to Ash though on his own personal pillow and little blanket Ash got for him up near the headboard. Ash and Raihan would mostly spoon but sometimes Ash will be laying on his back propped up with pillows against the headboard and Raihan is the one using Ash as a pillow. Listening to Ash singing Kanto songs, or any songs he picked, softly while rubbing his fingers through Raihans undercut and shoulders.

#wolfy talks #ash ketchum #gym leader raihan #fangshipping #talk to me about domestic fangshipping 🥺🥺 i have so much more too

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crownedbyluke · 5 years ago

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Long Road Ahead (Chapter Thirteen)

Estelle Finley has been friends with Ashton Irwin and Luke Hemmings for three years. When the boys bring her along on a jam-packed road trip to Cape Cod with the rest of the band, their adventures are just beginning. Through long hours driving, exploring cities, and hidden secrets, something more is bound to happen on this journey. How will this road trip change Estelle’s friendship with the friends she’s come to love so dearly?

Word Count: 3,150

{Chapter One} {Chapter Two} {Chapter Three} {Chapter Four}{Chapter Five} {Chapter Six} {Chapter Seven} {Chapter Eight} {Chapter Nine} {Chapter Ten} {Chapter Eleven} {Chapter Twelve}

I adjusted the knotted white cardigan as I looked in the mirror. There was something about the pink crop top and high waisted shorts that just made me feel confident. There was quiet chatter from the kitchen as I walked in. It felt so right to just be in the same house as everyone instead of constantly having to drive to separate apartments and houses. My thoughts went to what an adjustment it would be to no longer have everyone so close. A slight sadness came over me as I imagined the silence that would happen once we were home. There was a part of me that wished I could just have Ashton or Calum move in with me so it wouldn’t have to happen, but I knew that wouldn’t be a possibility. They had their own lives that required their own space instead of moving in with me. As well as the fact that eventually, they would have to leave for tour again. I sighed as I poured a cup of coffee, catching Crystal’s attention.

“What’s the pout for?” she asked.

“Nothing. Sorry. What are we up to today?” I asked.

“Well, I think we are going to need some food in here so do you wanna go do a food shop with me?” she asked.

Crystal always had some way of making me cheer up a bit. The mention of food and shopping was just what I needed to bring the pep back in my step. I nodded happily.

“Great! Hey Mike, did the rental come this morning?”

“Already in the driveway!” he called back.

“Keys?”

It felt like I was intruding on a conversation as they continued talking without being right in front of each other. It made me think about if Luke and I did the same thing. Crystal took me out of my thoughts as she tossed me the keys.

“I’m driving?”

“Thought you’d appreciate the rental,” she said, throwing a wink over her shoulder as she led me outside.

My eyes widened as I stared at the navy blue G-Wagon that was parked in the driveway. If my memory was serving me correctly, this was an extremely expensive car. It almost felt like I was touching something that I wasn’t good enough for as I held the key in hand. I looked over to Crystal and she was laughing at me.

“You seriously want me to drive this?” I asked.

“That’s why I gave you the key,” she giggled.

I glared a little before I unlocked the car. Crystal gestured for me to join her in the car as she slid into the passenger seat. I cautiously walked over and climbed into the driver’s seat. The leather steering wheel felt smooth and the cushioned seat made it feel like I was sitting on a throne of some sort.

“Why the hell did you guys rent this?” I asked as I adjusted the seat and mirrors.

“Luke mentioned how much you loved them,” she said with a shrug.

Of course Luke had said something. We had driven by the Mercedes dealership multiple times and all of those times, I had said something about how beautiful the G-Wagons were. A small bit of the pain ebbed away as I reversed out of the driveway. He had put so much into this vacation to make it the best vacation for me and everyone else. It was the special touches though that had my heart skipping a beat. I was quiet for most of the GPS-guided drive as my thoughts were swirling around Luke.

“The top looks way better on you than it ever has on me,” Crystal commented as we got out of the car.

“Doubt it. My yellow one looks way better on you,” I argued.

Our laughs mixed in the air as she grabbed a cart. What was life going to be like without them around to have these silly arguments with on a daily basis?

“So what do we need?” I asked, noticing the list she had.

“Each of the boys made me a list of what they thought was necessary. There’s some crossover. Here,” she said.

I glanced over the list, surprised by how much healthy food was on it. My eyes looked up, ASH written on the top of it. My surprise faded as I turned the list over and saw all the junk food Calum and Michael had written down.

“No Luke recommendations?” I asked.

“He was confident that the other guys covered everything,” she said, shrugging again.

While she grabbed some apples and mangos, I read the list more carefully. Several of Luke’s favorite foods were missing including the mango juice he liked. Was I supposed to fill in the blanks here and just put his favorite stuff in the cart? We walked past the vegetables, Crystal grabbing some carrots and celery. I forced myself to grab the spinach leaves that I knew Luke liked in salads.

“That on the list?” she asked as I set in the cart.

“No,” I replied, voice trailing off.

“Es, you know you don’t have to prove yourself to him right?” she asked out of nowhere.

My eyes went wide from the question. I hadn’t grabbed the item to impress Luke, had I?

“He hates regular lettuce and refuses to eat it ninety percent of the time. He’s an idiot for not writing his own list, but I’m not going to torture him just because we aren’t currently speaking,” I blurted before I could stop myself.

Crystal laughed and stopped walking so she could face me.

“What else did he forget?” she asked.

“Mango juice, gummy worms, baked chips, and the whole milk he likes in his coffee,” I sighed.

Her laugh filled my ears again making me groan. I felt like a little kid being teased by someone on the playground. There was nothing wrong with my memory of Luke’s tastes. We were friends before any romantic feelings were brought to light. I figured that he’d do the same for me if I hadn’t made a list.

“Shut up,” I groaned and gently pushed her shoulder.

We continued walking throughout the grocery store, grabbing anything we wanted and what the boys wanted. It was nice being like this with Crystal. The whole thing felt like I was contributing to the house and the sadness from this morning came back. Who was I going to do this for when I moved into my house alone?

“So, I talked to Luke about the art gallery opening,” Crystal said.

My eyes widened yet again and I stopped walking. I heard the familiar sound of my heartbeat pounding in my ears as my nerves kicked in.

“And?”

“He wants to go with you just like I said he would,” she said.

The way she spoke about it made it sound like it wasn’t that big of a deal. To me, it was the absolute biggest deal. With Luke and I not speaking, I had completely forgotten about the art gallery opening. I still really wanted to go, but that all came down to Luke actually taking me. Our fighting made me think that he wouldn’t be able to do it, but as Crystal’s words were processed by my brain, I became full of hope. I had gotten so lost in the hurt that Luke had caused that I forgot about why we couldn’t be together. Lost in thought, I still grabbed Luke’s mango juice and put it in the cart. It was time to talk to him.

➢➢➢

“Please tell me you haven’t worked out yet,” I said as I walked into Ashton’s room.

He looked up at me with a smile on his face, not at all surprised by the sudden intrusion.

“Not yet. Why?” he asked.

I noticed the way he was looking at me, like he knew I needed to do something other than sit in my thoughts.

“Because I want to go for a run and I don’t want to go alone,” I said.

It was half of the truth. The other half included Luke and my serious need to talk to someone about it so I could sort my thoughts before actually talking to him. Ashton looked down and finally noticed the workout shorts and tank top along with my running shoes.

“Give me like two minutes to change,” he said.

I quickly left and leaned against the wall by the door. Ashton was the first person I wanted to talk this out with and the increasing stress that was coming with it required a release. The only way I felt like it would happen was going on a run. Ashton opened the door wearing shorts and running shoes. His body was more toned under the shirt he was wearing. He led the way out of the house and waited for me to sync my headphones up.

“Remember, try to keep up,” he said, pressing play and taking off.

My feet fell into the beat of the song, glancing to check my watch. “Body” by Loud Luxury featuring Brando popped up. I focused on the bass, letting the song guide me through the Cape Cod streets as Ashton was only slightly ahead of me. We kept going until we found ourselves downtown. We slowed, needing a moment to catch our breaths. I took my headphones out and gave him a small smile.

“Wanna tell me the real reason you wanted to go for a run?” he asked while we started walking.

“Luke,” I said simply.

Ashton nodded before leading me into a small coffee shop. I waited patiently while he ordered us both a bottle of water. We sat at a table by the window and Ashton set his eyes on me.

“Lay it on me,” he said, crossing his fingers together.

“Crystal gave Luke tickets to an art gallery opening in Boston and he said he’d go with me and she had already talked to me about it before he kissed that other girl and now I completely forgot about why we can’t really be together and now I think I should talk to him about it, but I don’t know what I’d say,” I said, talking faster than I meant to.

It was like the words were exploding out of me. He laughed and let me take a drink of water.

“Well, what do you want the conversation to accomplish?” he asked.

I gave him a look of are you seriously asking me that before he pressed me to answer.

“I want it to end with us finally being on the same page again,” I said.

He took a moment, processing the information before looking at me again.

“You have to be open and honest with him, bugs. The only way you two are going to get past this is if you lay it all out there for him. You also can’t just jump down his throat at the first chance you get. I know what he did hurt you and that it has been stuck in your head, but he wants to move past it too,” he said, reaching out and taking my hand.

I looked up at him, seeing the genuine hope in his eyes. He squeezed my hand while waiting patiently for my response.

“What if my putting it all out there sends him away?” I asked, unable to meet his eye as I spoke.

“It won’t. He loves you so much and there’s not a thing you could do to change that,” he said.

I nodded again, going through possible conversations in my head. Ashton squeezed my hand again causing me to look at him. His hazel eyes had changed to showing his concern.

“Crystal said that you were a little sad this morning,” he said.

I sighed and pulled my hand away. The water cooled me down a little, but there was still a heavy tone to the conversation.

“I was a little sad this morning,” I admitted.

“Why?” he asked right away.

“When we leave here, we’re all going back to our separate homes. I’m moving into a completely new home by myself. That sense of family is going to be gone and it scares me,” I said.

Ashton sighed and took my hand again, this time pulling it from the water bottle I was playing with.

“I am still your family when we aren’t living in the same house,” he said firmly.

“I know that. Believe me I do, but this whole vacation has made me love creating an environment that has everyone always around and with it ending, that whole thing is going away,” I said, trailing off.

“We can come over all the time,” he said.

“That isn’t the same. It’ll be fine,” I said, brushing him off and pulling my hand away.

I finished my water bottle and got up to recycle it. We walked back out into the bustle of downtown, the flags flying around in the breeze. Ashton paused as I started walking towards the way we came in.

“Are you sure that isn’t bothering you more than you’re letting on?” he asked.

My feet stopped as I looked up at him. He was full of concern and there was some tension in his shoulders.

“Yes because it’s something I’m going to have to get over anyways.”

➢➢➢

I tied my hair into a braid and I pulled on the outfit from this morning after my shower. Again, it brought me some extra confidence as I looked at my reflection in the mirror. The cloud of sadness had dissipated from this morning, my determination to just be in the present taking over. I stepped out of the bathroom, carrying the things I had brought with me back to my room. As I opened the door, Luke was sitting on one of the couches.

“Hey,” I said cautiously.

I tossed my workout clothes into the hamper that was in the closet. My nerves were kicking in as we occupied the same space. He stood from the couch and looked at the ocean from the sliding door.

“Hi,” he said, his tone just as unsure as mine.

My palms were sweating as I walked over to stand next to him. The tension between us was thick and I wished that it hadn’t even been there in the first place.

“Crystal gave me tickets to an art gallery opening tomorrow,” he said.

This was an interesting way to start the conversation, but I got the feeling he didn’t want to talk about the other stuff.

“That was nice of her,” I said.

“She said that we should go together,” he said even more carefully.

The way he was talking made it sound like he was purposefully picking his words to have a certain meaning.

“Do you want to go together?” I asked.

“I was going to ask you that,” he said, the smallest of smiles coming over his face.

I laughed a little before finally looking over at him. He was still facing the water, but the sun was casting a glow behind him that made him look like an angel.

“I would like to go with you,” I said.

“Great. I’ll um, I’ll go finalize that then,” he said, quickly turning to walk away.

As I was about to call his name, the door closed behind him. Was he avoiding me now? I thought more about the art gallery opening and then it dawned on me that there would be a lot of press there. Before I was able to stop myself, the dial tone of my phone was in my ear.

“Yes Estelle?” my father asked upon answering.

“I was invited to an art gallery opening with Luke and I would really like to go but you said I wasn’t able to be seen with him again,” I said quickly.

There was a sigh on the other end and I sensed him rolling his eyes.

“Fine, but any press that asks you questions, you are required to talk about my upcoming project and not to mention under any circumstances your teaching career,” he said firmly.

“Understood. Anything else?” I asked, careful to keep my tone from sounding like I was annoyed.

“Don’t make it look like you’re with him and if you do, you know what’ll happen Estelle,” he said before hanging up.

My heart stopped a little as his words echoed through my head. How was I supposed to go to the opening and not tell Luke about my father’s threats. It wouldn’t be possible anymore. I had to fess up to him. As I was about to head to Luke’s room, my phone rang again.

“Hello?” I asked.

“Estelle! It’s Junie from the realtors!” she said cheerfully.

“Oh hi! How’s everything going?” I asked.

This was it. The call about the house I was attempting to purchase. It was like the world stopped spinning as I waited for her to tell me the news.

“Well you have a beautiful new home to move into on August first!” she cheered.

I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. Relief flooded my senses as I felt excitement start thrumming through me.

“That’s amazing! Thank you so much!” I said.

“Of course. We’ll go over more details once you get the keys. Any interior designers can come and give quotes sometime next week, but I understand that you’re on vacation so don’t worry about that right now. We’ll be in touch soon!” she said.

“Absolutely!” I barely got out before she was hanging up.

I tucked my phone into the back pocket of my shorts and ran down the stairs. My eyes searched for Ashton, finding him out on the walkway to the beach. I took off towards him, my footsteps thudding against the wood. He turned and cocked his head as he watched me run to him. Before I was able to slow down, he picked me up and spun me around.

“What’s got you so happy bugs?” he asked.

My feet touched the ground and I felt the excitement buzzing around me.

“I got the house!” I said.

Ashton’s face lit up before he was hugging me again, lifting me off the ground slightly. Once he set me back down, he stared at me.

“I’m proud of you,” he said happily.

“I just can’t believe I got the house,” I said.

“I can. You deserve this,” he said.

I smiled up at him unable to stop the giant grin on my face. He reciprocated it before it changed to one that looked like he was thinking really hard.

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” I asked.

When he met my eyes, there was a glint of mischief in them before a smile came over his face.

“Want a roommate?”

A.N.: I hope you guys liked this chapter! I promise there is some great stuff coming. You’re not ready for it.

tag loves: @thruheavenandhighwater @bbycal @emptysanity @floraldawg @tommossoccer @cakesunflower

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cal-puddies · 5 years ago

Note

you and ash used to date before he was famous, and he breaks up with you bc touring while dating would be too hard and a few weeks later you found out you were pregnant but you couldnt face him so you raise the baby alone, a few years later ashton is home visiting his parents, who know about the baby but swore to secrecy, and he sees you with the small child and put two and two together?

meet fletch || pt 1 || pt 2 || pt 3 || pt 4 || pt 5 || pt 6

You turn off your tv and sigh, you look at your 6 year old, the absolute spitting image of his father, right down to the green eyes and curls. “You look just like him.” You mumble.

“Who mama?” Fletcher asks.

“No one bubba. Mama is just talking to herself.”

“We goin to gamma?” He asks, because he loved ash’s mom, she knew all about Fletcher and you were happy to have her in his life. Lauren knew Fletcher was ashtons as well, but they’d both sworn they wouldn’t say a word.

You scoop up the boy, “yes, we’re gonna have dinner with Gamma and lauren.” You nod, kissing his cheek. “Get your shoes.”

You and Ash had decided to break up when he’d left for London with the boys, you hadn’t seen or spoken to him since, it was too much, first love and all. You’d found out weeks after he left that you were pregnant, and you didn’t want to stand in the way of his dreams. So you let him go… as much as you could. Fletcher James came out looking like Ash did as a baby, and you’d looped Anne Marie in, of course she wanted to be apart of his life, and she understood why you couldn’t tell Ashton.

You unbuckle him from his car seat and he runs into Anne’s waiting arms, she quickly passes him over to Lauren so you can hug. You watch as he smushes her cheeks between his hands and kisses her quick. Lauren laughs and puts him down, grabbing his hand.

“He’s getting so big.” Anne mentions.

“He looks more like his dad every day.” You nod, looking at him, he was coloring.

“Yeah he does.” Lauren agrees. “He’ll be home next week.” She offers.

“Are you ever gonna tell him?” Anne asks.

“I don’t know. It’d do now what it would have done then, stunt his career. And I don’t want to do that to him.” You shake your head.

“But think about what Ashton would want. He’d want to know his son, of that I am very sure.” Lauren points out.

“I know you’re right.” You nod. “I just don’t know how to do it now.” You shrug.

You forget about the boys coming home. And you take fletcher out for a little shopping day. He’s growing like a week and he needs some new clothes. You run into Luke, you’d met him once briefly at the movies with Ashton. He kind of eyes the boy, but doesn’t say anything.

Even running into Luke, you don’t think anything about Ashton being in town.

But he thinks about you. He always does when he’s in town, and especially seeing you across the street right now, with a little boy.

It stays in his mind, but of course you moved on. He was gone and you stopped talking, there’s no way you were still holding on to him.

“Hey mom.” He asks, at home with his family. She looks at him. “Do you ever talk to my ex anymore? The one from here? We broke up when I left.” He reminds her.

“Uh, when I see her out occassionally we’ll chat, why?”

“I saw her. When Luke and I were out today, did you know she has a kid? Or I assumed it’s her kid anyway.”

“Yeah… a little boy, he’s six.” Anne confirms.

“Did she get married?” he asks.

“No, she’s raising him alone.” She shrugs, clearly not wanting to talk about it anymore.

But it keeps Ashton up, because if he’s six and you didn’t get married… could this kid be his? Then he thinks better of it. You knew how important that’d be to him. And he doesn’t think that you’d do something like that to him.

He hears you, “C’mon Fletch.” He’d know your voice anywhere.

You see Anne first, Ashton following her through the grocery store, just trying to spend time with his mom.

“Fletcher James.” Anne Marie says, completely forgetting that Ash is there.

The boy runs to her. “Hi gramma!” He greets, kissing her cheek.

You stop dead in your tracks when you see Ashton. He eyes you, and looks at the kid.

You approach slowly, “hey ash.” You say, fletcher wiggles away from Anne and comes back to you.

“Hey.” He looks slightly upset.

But Anne Marie cuts in. “Why don’t you finish your grocery shopping and come see Ash at ours.” She suggests, and you nod and agree.

“You knew.” He mentions to her.

“Now is not the time Ashton.” She chides, as they walk away.

Fletcher runs to the door when you get to Anne’s, he lets himself in and runs right into Ashton, as you walk through the door.

“Who’s this little guy?” He asks, crouching to Fletch’s level.

“This is Fletcher James, fletch. Fletch, this is Ashton.” You introduce.

“How do you know momma?” He asks.

“I’ve known your mom, probably since we were your age.” Ash explains.

“How do you know gramma?” Fletch asks.

“She’s my mom.” He explains.

“Oh, cool.” Fletch grins, he looks back at you, “can I go see aunt Lauren?”

“Yeah bub, go ahead.” You nod.

Ash waits till he’s out of ear shot, “he looks just like me.” He points out.

“Which is why I couldn’t keep it from your mom.” You nod.

“But you could keep it from me?” He hisses.

“You haven’t even asked if he’s actually yours!” You exclaim.

“Baby, how could he not be. This timeline… you got pregnant the last time we were together, which makes sense on why you wouldn’t have told me before I left, and we didn’t speak after… but why wouldn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t tell you, for you.” You say.

“Why don’t you two go out back? we’ll keep an eye on fletch.” Anne ushers you away.

“You know what this would have meant to me.” Ash accuses, as soon as youre out the door.

“And I know it would have stopped you, you would have come home, you wouldn’t have pursued your career and fuck Ashton, you are phenomenal. People love you. They love your music and they love your vision. I couldn’t let you give that up.” You sigh, “we both know, if I’d said something, if I’d reached out, you wouldn’t have stayed in the band… And we’re ok. Fletch and I… were good. He’s so smart Ash and musically inclined just like his dad.”

“Does he know about me at all?” Ash asks.

“I tell him you love him, but I’ve never told him your name or what you do, or where you are.” You shrug.

“He deserves to know those things.” Ash whispers. “And I deserve to know about him; his favorite color, his first word… I would have wanted to be around for those things.”

“I know Ashton… I know.” You nod.

Ashton is annoyed, and the guys know. By now he’s spilled everything to them; half in an effort to get them against you, and half to see what they’d say.

“I get why you’re mad mate.” Cal clamps him on the shoulder and sits next to him. “But you’re looking at it all wrong. You’re looking at it very one sided.”

“What do you mean? She took away the chance to know my son.”

“Yes, I understand you feel that way. But I’ve been thinking about this. She didn’t completely take away the chance because he still exists. But she gave you a gift, mate. She allowed you to follow your dreams. She truly took the completely selfless way about this. And I know it’s hard for you to see that right now.”

“I just want to be able to know him.” Ash says.

“So ask for that.” Luke shrugs.

“I did… she refused to move to LA so he’d be closer.” He scoffs.

“That kinda makes sense too though, right? She doesn’t have anything in LA Ash. No family, no friends, no job.”

“She’d have me.”

“But the only reason you want her there is for your kid. You have Kay Kay now. You don’t want her, so the only reason she has to move there is for you to know Fletch.” Cal shrugs.

“Huh.” Ash sighs, “I didn’t think of it that way.” He admits.

#5sos #cass #5 seconds of summer #ashton irwin #dad!ash #requests are still open #requests #weekend with cass #meet fletch

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luthorao3 · 5 years ago

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1 through 10 of the otp questions meme and Foxxay? 😊

*cracks knuckles*

1. Who is the most affectionate?

Difficult to say. I think Cordelia would surprise herself with how physically affectionate she is with Misty – always reaching for her, always needing to touch her, always making sure that she’s there. She touches Misty like she’s looking for reassurance, as we see in Apocalypse, she’s constantly reaching for her, and I can definitely see that becoming a habit. Misty’s already a pretty touchy-feely person, but I think that of the two of them, she’s the one who voices her affections a lot more frequently – no shame, no embarrassment, she loves Cordelia so much and she’ll tell her at every given opportunity.

Big spoon/Little spoon?

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Misty is Big Spoon.

Most common argument?

I’m struggling to think of anything they would argue about, really, apart from money. They come from very different backgrounds; Cordelia is used to the finer things in life, while Misty would see the benefit in repairing broken items herself instead of buying new, or skimping on certain luxury items during the grocery shop, growing her own produce, worrying about wasting water, etc. They would make compromises with each other.

Favorite non-sexual activity?

Gardening. Magical gardening, with music playing quietly nearby. Reading aloud to each other in bed before they fall asleep.

Who is most likely to carry the other?

Misty is absolutely more likely to carry Cordelia – in moments of surprise, hauling her over her shoulder, Cordelia shrieking, or else bridal style over the threshold of their first proper home together.

What is their favorite feature of their partner’s?

Branching off from that very first point of physical affection above— Cordelia’s favourite feature of Misty’s is probably anything that is particularly defining. Her nose, her jawline, her dimples, her cupid’s bow, all of that hair, her voice. The parts of Misty that Cordelia can recognise even with her eyes closed. For Misty, it’s Cordelia’s eyes – the first thing she sees after returning from hell.

What’s the first thing that changes when they realize they have feelings for the other?

I think Cordelia realises that she has feelings for Misty the moment that Misty turns to ash in her arms, and everything changes. Everything. Misty likely knows earlier, but she’s guarded, she sees Cordelia’s messy relationship with her husband and wants nothing to do with that, there’s too much already going on. After Misty’s return in Apocalypse, however, I think they’d both be keenly aware of how they feel for one another, but there’s so much going on – even if we go from Misty’s second return, she has so much healing to do before I think she’ll be ready to act on any feelings. Cordelia, though, would be so patient with her.

Nicknames? & if so, how did they originate?

I’m not sure about nicknames, but I like to think Misty is fond of petnames – known ones, obscure ones, sometimes ones that she only uses to make Cordelia laugh or blush. Cordelia’s name shortens so easily, too, Delia, Dee, it rolls so perfectly off the tongue. I can also fully imagine Misty when she’s really wanting to fluster her, calling her Miss Cordelia in that low purring voice of hers, and Cordelia dying.

In reverse, I don’t see Cordelia using many. When Misty is crying, she’s sweetheart, darling. Occasionally, Mist. And when Cordelia is either feeling very amorous, or she really wants her own way, my love.

Who worries the most?

Cordelia. She’s an over-thinker, she has the weight of the coven on her shoulders; it’s incurable. Misty does her best to assuage her anxieties, to distract her.

Who remembers what the other one always orders at a restaurant?

It really depends. I think Cordelia is probably more the creature of habit, of the two of them, who would order the same dish each time – Misty would probably encourage her to branch out, though, and often succeed. Misty would take her to new places, and Cordelia the same – they’d take each other out of their elements, but it would never be uncomfortable. If one of them is running late, however, they’d have no qualms about telling the other to just order for them – they know well enough what each other likes and doesn’t.

[otp question meme]

#foxxay #cordelia goode #cordelia foxx #misty day #ahs #ask meme #anonymous #thank you ! :)

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koltarmi · 5 years ago

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Things I liked/noticed about Amélie the Musical UK

Before the show:

• A friend and I watched Amélie at The Watermill Theatre in Newbury, which is absolutely tiny. (Picture below) It seats about 200 people and is in the middle of no where. It was a hour’s walk from Newbury Station, but he scenery was quite nice. We got two seats in the front and they were cheap (about £26) because there was a pole, but it was so skinny it didnt block anything.

• Because it was in the middle of nowhere, the surrounding area was beautiful and nothing like a traditional theatre. There was a nearby stream and everyone was sitting on on these iron park benches and just enjoying the view.

• The theatre and stage is tiny. So tiny it makes the theatre that I work at which only seats 50 people look like Carnegie Hall.

• The cast : Audrey Brisson as Amélie, Chris Jared as Nino, Johnson Willis as Collignon/Dufayel, Kate Robson Stuart as Suzanne, Sioned Saunders as Gina, Faoileann Cunningham as Georgette/Sylvia, Oliver Grant as Lucien/Mysterious Man, Caolan McCarthy as Hippolito/Elton John, Samuel Morgan-Grahame as Joseph/Fluffy, Josh Sneesby as Blind Beggar/Gnome, Jez Unwim as Raphael/Bretodeau

• Here’s the set:

ACT ONE

• The show starts with the subway light effect and a transit announcement in French.

• I really hope the UK cast records an album and that it includes the “Everybody’s Connected” song because I love it.

• All the actors spoke with a French accent and used French words when saying hello, goodbye, thank you and etc.

• So instead of having a child actor play young Amélie they used a puppet controlled by the guy who plays Lucien while Audrey provides the voice. And holy shit the puppet was terrifying. It had Dora the explorer choppy hair and had this wooden sheen. It also had the ability to blink which added to the creepiness factor.

• Because of the limited space the actors played their own instruments, ocasionally switching off with someone else when they were in the scene.

• The photo booth doubles as a door frame, the background of the sex shop, and a confessional booth in Notre Dame. The large sign that says “Photo Booth” has a light inside that turns on and which makes the inside of the booth visible from the outside and it looked super cool.

• Instead of it being a tourist from Brussels being on top of Notre Dame, they go back to a tourist from Quebec like in the film. The actor stood on top of the photo booth Instead of jumping, the tourist shoots himself and falls on to a crash mat, killing Amadine.

• Amélie describes her mother’s death using the word “squish’

• As they transition scenes, they straight up drag Amadine’s body off stage and it is hilarious.

• The garden gnome is used as an urn for Amadine’s ashes. Like they literally pour her ashes from the urn into the gnome.

• “Times Are Hard For Dreamers” was moved from the first act to the second act and is after “No Place like Gnome”

• I really want “Going Around Circles” to be in the album and I hate that it isn’t cause it’s a bop.

• Hippolito and Joseph smoke while in The Two Windmills, giving it a more Paris vibe

• A bit off topic, but I went to the Two Windmills cafe in France. The food is so good. If you’re a fan of the movie, I definitely reccomend you visit! (Some photos included below.)

• The guy who flirts with Amélie in the cafe leaves his number on a receipt. As she cleans up his table, she stuffs the receipt into her mouth.

• After, Suzanne invites Amélie to go our for drinks with her, Gina, and Georgette, but Amélie refuses.

• The two pianos on stage convert into Georgette’s tobacco counter and the market where Collignon and Lucien work.

• The clock at the top doubles as Amélie’s apartment. The face of the clock slides open into two doors. There aren’t actually any stairs so to get up there, a pulley with a lampshade is dropped down and Audrey just grabs onto it and swings into the apartment. I kept getting nervous every time she went up because the pulley moved so fast, even though it says in her bio that she grew up doing several Cirque du Soleil shows.

• Speaking of Audrey Brisson, SHE IS SO TINY AND I LOVE HER. Like I’m a pretty short person and she was shorter than me.

• Dufayel has the camera to see the outside world like he did in the film.

• One thing they added was at the beginning if each scene they stated the date, time and occasionally the weather, humidity and etc which is a callback to the film. The whole story of Amélie (by which I mean the events that happen within the show) takes course over three months.

• Chris Jared, who played Nino was HOT, in my opinion at least. The headshots were in black and white in the program, so I didn’t know he was older until I saw a few grey hairs, but he was still super hot in a DILF kinda way.

• They make it clear that Collignon hates figs which is why he gets annoyed when Lucien sings “Three Figs”. He’s so disgusted by figs that he vomits in his hat before putting it back on.

• When Amélie starts her quest to do good deeds, she calls Suzanne and asks for a day off. Suzanne agrees and asks slyly, “What’s his name?” Amélie replies with, “Dominique Bredoteau.”

• They included the scene where Amélie goes door to door looking for Bredoteau, another callback to the film.

• Due to the inaccessibility of the second floor besides the lampshade pulley, if a character needed to stand out, they would climb and stand on top of the photo booth. Amélie stood on it in “Tour de France” and Nino stands on it during “When the Booth Goes Bright”

• When Amélie calls Bretodeau, the phone is held by an ensemble member who makes the ringing noise. When he picks it up, the light in the photo booth turns on, revealing Amélie wearing a scarf around her head and a pair of sunglasses as she speaks to him.

• Before “Goodbye Amélie”, as the report of Princess Diana turns into one of her fantasies, Amélie reaches into the TV and puts on a sparkling tiara as Elton John enters.

• She stands on top of the two pianos placed back to back as they serenade her. At the very end of the sing, she lies down across them with her arms crossed and her tiara on her chest as she winks at the audience.

• There’s actually an intermission.

ACT TWO

• It starts with everyone on the subway. Amélie and Nino are on the opposite end of the train car and they sing a lovely duet. I don’t remember the exact lyrics, but there was metaphor of being lost at sea hinting at “Halfway”. I love the song and I need it in a cast album.

• At the end of the song Nino, stands in front of the audience as if exiting a subway car and Amélie sees him, but she immediately sinks into her seat so that he doesn’t see her.

• Nino leaves his photo album on top of the photo booth when he goes to catch his last train. Audrey Brisson is so small that even on her tip toes she couldn’t reach the top of the booth, so she climbed the door frame of the booth to reach the album.

• During intermission, the grocery stall is replaced with a display case full of different sizes and colors of dildos fo the sex shop scene.

• In the scene where Nino laments the loss of his photo album, (“years of his best work” as he calls it) his coworker is polishing a large black dildo with a cloth.

• Audrey plays the piano as she sings “Halfway” and its absolutely beautiful, so much so that I had tears in my eyes and I got a tattoo inspired by the song in Amsterdam.

• What isn’t beautiful is the return of the Young Amélie puppet during “Halfway” who is visible through grown-up Amélie’s clock apartment.

• She calls Nino from her seat on the piano bench while he’s standing behind the piano, which I thought was brilliant staging. It shows how strong their connection was, but despite that, there was still an obstacle preventing them from meeting each other which was Amélie’s reluctance to reach out to him.

• She leaves him with the riddle of solving Xeno’s paradox along with a photo strip of her dressed in a Zorro costume, which is another callback to the film.

• They also narrate Amélie forging a letter from Gina’s late husband. She does so by taking some of the letters he wrote her before Amélie returning the box of letters to Gina.

• Collignon comes into the cafe, complaining about Lucien. Seeing a chance to get back at him, Amélie serves him a fig tart. As Collignon becomes sick, three people wearing nightmare fig costumes bust out of the photo booth and haunt him. The lights around him and the cafe go dark and turn nightmarish meanwhile Amélie is brightly lit in the downstage left corner by the cigarette counter, as she leisurely unwraps a mint and pops it into her mouth. Collignon is shaken out of his fig nightmare when Lucien enters the café to grab his attention. Collignon admits as a young man he wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer, but his mother wanted him to be a grocer and so he became one despite having no love for it. The reason he is so mean to Lucien is because he sees how much care and love Lucien takes when handling the produce that it makes him bitter. He apologizes to Lucien. Lucien replies he has no idea what he’s talking about and offers to close up the shop for Collignon, who agrees and says that Lucien is a good boy. I love this addition as it doesn’t sweep Lucien and Collignon’s plotline under the rug like the Broadway production does. It’s addressed and resolved before the end of the show.

• After the fig-induced nightmare sequence, Raphael rushes in to the cafe in distress. Instead of going into “No Place Like Gnome” they pause the scene in the cafe.

• They narrate that 275 km away Nino posts flyers of Amelié in the Zorro costume around the city and they move into “Thin Air” instead. Nino comes in from the side of the clock and stands on top of the photo booth. Again because of the limited space, the posters are just stuck around the metal framing of the clock.

• They return back to the café after “Thin Air”. After “No Place Like Gnome” as Amélie spray paints Hippolito’s quote below the clock, she notices the posters and panics ripping one off, but leaves the rest hanging. A took a picture of the set at the end of the show.

• Amelié sends another photo strip to Nino writing, “It has come to my attention that you are looking for me. This Friday. 5pm. Montmartre Carousel. Bring five francs.”

• Amelié wears the Zorro costume in “Blue Arrow Suite”. The ensemble acted as the carousel and had blue arrows on the back of their instruments or on them. For those playing smaller instruments, they wore blue gloves and pointed towards the next “arrow”. The top of the hill was the photo booth and Nino pulls a red stand of binoculars out of fucking nowhere.

• Joseph says Georgette looks lovely when she’s flushed. She replies she’s flushed because of her gluten intolerance.

• When Nino and Amelié are set to meet at the cafe, the airline hostess is one of the customers there and joins in signing “A Better Haircut”

• They cut out the line where Nino says he loves Amelié and doesnt even know her name in “A Better Haircut” and I’m honestly so glad they did that. It works so much better Instead it just goes, “But you know I think she understands me/ I don’t know why she would understand/She may not even feel the same/But I don’t even know her name” with the “She may not even feel the same” part being dragged out a bit more.

• Georgette gets Hippolito to write down Amelié’s address on a page in his notebook that he tips out and gives to him.

• As Amelié sits in her clock apartment, the photo booth is turned so the side that is the door faces the audience. Nino waits below in front of it as they sing “Stay”. As they sing, Amélie moves from her apartment to the top of the photo booth. Again I love the staging, the use of different levels shows both the emotional and physical distance separating them.

• At the end of “Stay”, Nino realizes she won’t be opening the door. He looks like he gets an idea and walks away as the booth is turned to show the photo booth side. Amelié collapses in on herself and cries. From his window, Dufayel tells Amelié there is nothing to fear and shows her his new painting: it’s Amelié drinking a glass of water, making her the girl with the glass.

• Instead of opening the door, Nino climbs through a “window” aka on top of the photo booth (at least that was my interpretation of it, it wasn’t very clear how he got in)

• They sing the “Halfway (Reprise)” and do the the famous kiss on the cheek, neck and eye. Honestly, the tension between them was insane and had whole audience dying with anticipation as we collectively held our breaths. Audrey Brisson and Chris Jared have such crazy good chemistry. When they finally kissed it was like a sigh of relief washed over the audience.

• As the ensemble kneel before Amelié and Nino, Raphael stands, stating that he finally goes on a trip with Suzanne by his side, who then stands up beside him and smiles at him.

• In “Where Do We Go From Here?” one of Nino’s line is changed instead of singing, “Will there be sweet things?” It goes “Will you be with me?” and Amélie’s reply sticks to the original lyric as she answers with, “I hope so.”

• After bows, the cast sing a finale song that combines “When the Booth Goes Bright” and “Times Are Hard for Dreamers”. I cannot stress enough how badly I want a cast album of this show.

In Summary

• The show has improved so much and fixes a lot of the issues the Broadway version had.

• Overall, the UK production stays more faithful to the movie, including lots of callbacks and scenes from the film itself as well as the overall atmosphere of the Paris.

• I. Need. A. Cast. Album. Of. The. UK. Production.

#amelie #amélie uk tour #amélie the musical #audrey brisson #musical theatre

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