#bianca x phi phi

[vividiste]

Oggi è il primo febbraio. In Spagna chiude la caccia e per migliaia di levrieri la vita finisce, miseramente così come era inziata. Le atrocità a cui sono sottoposti per la loro breve vita e infine per la loro morte, sono inaccettabili e tuttavia la cultura spagnola ancora le sostiene. È la tradizione.

In loro onore riportiamo un magnifico e toccante testo di Rafael Narbona, perché sappiate, perché rifiutate, perché combattiate.

Los Galgos Ahorcados - I levrieri impiccati

La Spagna è il paese dei levrieri impiccati.

La Spagna è il paese che non apprezza la tenerezza inconcepibile

di un animale che si intreccia con l'aria, disegnando acrobazie impossibili.

La Spagna è il paese degli alberi con i rami assassini,

dove una corda infame spezza una vita leggera come schiuma.

La Spagna è una terra sterile che seppellisce la poesia nel suo grembo morto.

I levrieri sono poeti in agguato nel vento, levigano gli spigoli in silenzio,

scivolando via come un filo d'acqua dal fondo di un fosso.

I levrieri sono poeti che si stagliano alla luna, componendo sagome senza eguali.

I levrieri accavallano le parole, ci saltano sopra, evitano gli accenti, così arroganti e inflessibili.

L'accento è un signore ridicolo che si infila nelle parole come una spina.

I levrieri turbano la sua routine, gettandola al vento, giocandoci finché si stufano.

Così riceve lezioni di umiltà e accetta la sua dolorosa insignificanza.

Le impronte dei levrieri non lasciano traccia. Sono veloci, alati, quasi eterei.

Non influenzati dalla gravità nè dalla durezza della pietra.

I levrieri accelerano la rotazione della terra, quando la follia si impadronisce di loro.

Lo sguardo riesce a malapena a seguire il loro galoppo vertiginoso,

ma grazie alle loro corse percepiamo la musica celeste.

I levrieri prendono in giro l'ortografia tendendo o piegando le orecchie.

Le orecchie di un levriero possono trasformarsi in una X, Y o LL.

Sforzandosi un poco sono in grado di delineare la Ñ o il numero Phi,

il numero aureo in cui è nascosto Dio,

giocando con una serie infinita che lascia con un palmo di naso gli insegnanti.

Gli insegnanti della scuola non capiscono Dio, nè i levrieri.

Dio è un bambino che utilizza i puntini di sospensione per attraversare i fiumi.

Li genera uno ad uno e salta in avanti. Quelli che avanzano, se li tiene in tasca.

I levrieri non sono mai separati da Dio,

perché sanno bene che hanno bisogno di non perdersi sulla strada,

dove si nasconde l'uomo con il forcone in mano.

Ci è stato detto che Dio è un vecchio con la barba bianca e la pelle rugosa,

ma Dio è un bambino malato

che calma il suo dolore accarezzando la testa ossuta di un levriero.

I levrieri vigilano sul mondo, mentre Dio riposa.

Ogni volta che viene commessa una malvagità, lanciano un grido e Dio si sveglia,

ma Dio non può fare nulla,

perché nessuno presta attenzione ad un bambino

che in punta di piedi non raggiunge lo spioncino della porta.

Gli uomini che impiccano i galgos hanno perso la loro anima molto tempo fa.

In realtà, la loro anima è fuggita inorridita quando ha scoperto le loro mani insanguinate.

Gli uomini che impiccano i levrieri nascondono gli occhi dietro gli occhiali scuri,

perché gli occhi li tradiscono.

Basta guardarli per capire che dietro non c'è nulla.

Gli uomini che impiccano i levrieri sono gli stessi che fucilarono García Lorca.

Non gli è importato sradicare dal nostro suolo un poeta

che dormiva tra camelie bianche e piangeva lacrime d'acqua.

Non gli è importato seppellirlo in una tomba senza nome,

con gli occhi aperti e uno sguardo di orrore sul viso.

Gli uomini che impiccano i levrieri parlano a malapena. Non amano le parole.

A loro non piace giustificare le proprie azioni ed esprimere le proprie emozioni.

Lasciano una scia di dolore e paura.

Ridono dei poeti che passano notti insonni

cercando di trovare un verso alla fine di un sonetto.

Ridono degli sciocchi che vogliono un futuro senza bombe o rovine nere.

Ridono delle promesse fatte ai bambini,

delle rassicurazioni sull'eternità che placa la morte e ci impedisce di cadere nell'oblio.

Ogni volta che muore un levriero, un bambino rimane orfano.

I levrieri prestano la luce dei propri occhi ai bambini malati.

Li accompagnano nelle notti di febbre piene di incubi.

Li svegliano dolcemente, parlandogli all'orecchio del giorno che arriva,

con la sua freschezza e la luce rosata dell'alba.

Gli parlano della primavera e dello sbocciare dei fiori.

Parlano delle mattinate torride d'estate, quando il mare è calmo

e il sole sembra una pietra gialla che non smetterà mai di brillare.

Gli dicono che l'inverno si è nascosto dietro un cespuglio e si è addormentato.

I bambini malati sono i bambini che il giovane Rabì scelse

per mostrare al mondo la bellezza nella sua forma più pura.

Il giovane Rabì si presentò di fronte al potere delle tenebre

con un ragazzo paralizzato ed un levriero affamato,

senza ignorare che la compassione è uno strano fiore.

Un fiore che cresce solo su pendii ripidi e in profonde solitudini,

dove le preghiere fremono di paura al pensiero di risuonare in una cantina vuota.

Certe mattine mi alzo presto ed i cani sono già sulla spianata che chiamano piazza,

con la sua triste chiesa dalla facciata imbiancata a calce, e un albero dal tronco nodoso.

Raggruppati per lunghe catene, tutti sono giovani e non sanno cosa li aspetta.

Non sanno che quel giorno diversi di loro resteranno sul campo,

sopraffatti dalla crudeltà umana.

Potrei avvertirli,

ma gli uomini che preparano la loro morte vanno in giro con fucili da caccia e lunghe corde,

ed i loro occhi sembrano braci ardenti di un odio antico.

Gli occhi dei galgos svolazzano come colorate farfalle.

Blu, marrone, viola, forse un debole bagliore d'oro.

Alcuni sono seduti, altri sdraiati, assopiti. Alcuni sono in piedi, altri scomposti.

Alcuni sono così sottili che sembrano quasi levitare.

Alcuni sembrano d'argilla, altri d'argento, altri sono bianchi come l'alba.

Come l'alba che avanza nella piazza e li fa sembrare in movimento.

Si sentono le catene, le grida, le risa.

Via tutti insieme, aggiogati a un destino ingiusto.

Mi sento come Don Chisciotte alla vista dei galeotti,

condannati a spingere un enorme corazzata con un remo:

"Perché fare schiavi coloro che Dio e la natura hanno creato liberi?"

Mi sono seduto su una panchina di pietra e li ho guardati andarsene.

Un levriero bianco, dall'andatura rassegnata, si voltò e mi guardò con umanità,

con gli occhi stanchi e vagamente speranzosi.

Sapevamo entrambi che le nostre vite sono una scintilla,

un momento di chiarezza in un buio infinito,

ma ci siamo sforzati di pensare che ci saremmo rincontrati sotto un altro cielo,

vagando per una sconfinata pianura,

distanti da quel mattino omicida che si sarebbe preso le vite dei più goffi

e di quelli rimasti indietro.

Ci rincontreremo in una mattina di pienezza e splendore, senza tristezza o negligenza,

una mattinata perfetta, libera da paure e lavoro.

Guarderemo indietro, come due vecchi amici che hanno scoperto la gioia di essere altrove.

I suoi occhi nei miei occhi, i suoi sogni nei miei sogni e i nostri battiti all'unisono nel vento.

RAFAEL NARBONA😪

Quanta inutile cattiveria 😡

[artificialqueens]

(Love)Sick Overseas (Phianca) - Albatross

AN: Phi Phi is feeling a bit under the weather but determined not to let it ruin her vacation. And who should she happen to run into on her way back from picking up cold medicine but Bianca Del Rio?

Just a short, fluffy little Phianca sickfic. And yes, I do think they’d be cute together and no, @VeronicaSanders, there will be no Bitney sequel. No Bitney, ever.

Getting sick in the middle of his trip to the UK had certainly not been part of Jaremi’s plan. No, he had been looking forward to this excursion for months and he’d be damned if something like the sniffles was going to stop him. At first it wasn’t even anything too serious; just a sneeze every now and then or a runny nose in the morning. But by the fourth day it was clear the symptoms were not going away…if anything they were getting worse.

But Jaremi was stubborn, if nothing else.

A bit of cold medicine until it all passed and he’d be fine…at least, that’s what he told himself.

Now here he was, returning from his second trip to pick up some OTC cold remedy and his nose was already protesting mightily. Even his throat was starting to feel scratchy but Jaremi was determined to continue his vacation plans uninterrupted. So what if his head was a little foggy or he was slightly unsteady on his feet every now and then?

Drinking had the same effect so all was good to his mind.

With enough effort he could remember his way around the city and all the places he wanted to visit and that was fine with him. Once he returned to the hotel with this last batch of cold medicine, he’d be off for a bit of shopping around town. Who knows? He might just find some new inspiration for his drag looks while he’s out there. That’d certainly be a plus.

As he was pondering over which stores he wanted to stop at first, a vibration from his pocket captured his attention. Curiously, he pulled the phone from his cargo shorts and felt his heart jolt a little as he recognized the name flashing across the screen. No other than ‘Roy/Bianca’ along with a small icon showing a fully beat and smiling face of the queen in question.

Somewhat amused and certainly wondering as to what his long-time friend could possibly need, Jaremi answered the phone on the fourth ring with a pleasant, “Hello?”

“Turn around, bitch,” came the joking voice on the other end.

Almost painfully, Jaremi instantly twisted himself around at Roy’s insistence and found the older queen speedwalking to meet him. The sharp turn caused his head to spin a little more than it ought have but Jaremi pushed the feeling aside as he greeted his close friend with a bright grin. Before he could even ask what Roy was doing here, he felt a light and friendly rap to his arm as the older queen bitched him out, “I was calling your name for the last two minutes. Looked like a fucking idiot with you ignoring me! You got earbuds in or something, bitch?”

Scratching the back of his head in embarrassment, Jaremi admittedly vaguely that he had just been lost inside his own thoughts for the last block or so. Rolling his eyes, Roy accepted the answer and asked what Jaremi was doing all the way out here.

“Vacation. Sightseeing,” the younger queen replied. “Just relaxing for once. What about you? Got another show out here or something?”

He knew that answer was unlikely. Not that he stalked Bianca’s tour schedule by any means, but he often made sure he was at least up to date on known shows and as of two days ago he was sure Roy was still tucked away somewhere in the US doing god-knows-what for his next tour. So it came as little surprise when Roy replied with a shrug of his shoulders, “No, just on vacation, too, I guess. If you could call it that. Courtney has some event next week and asked for my help. Figured I’d make a real trip out of it in the meantime. Relax too, you know?”

Nodding in perfect understanding, Jaremi knew all too well what Roy meant. After all, he was one of the hardest working queens in the business. He hardly ever took time off for himself. Even when he wasn’t touring, he always had his hand in something whether it was for a future project or just to help another performer. It was admirable but often Jaremi wondered if Roy would eventually burn out going on like this. It wasn’t his business but he did worry from time to time. More than he’d ever admit verbally to anyone. 

Even now Roy seemed a bit anxious just to be doing something and seeing Jaremi must have felt like a godsend as he immediately proposed that the two head out for lunch and catch up. Jaremi could see that he was itching to talk about something of substance and didn’t have the heart to say ‘no’ or even to delay until later in the day. So he simply followed Roy in a state of reluctant obedience as he eagerly led them off down the street to a cafe he’d spotted the day he arrived. Roy had already been on his way there when he found Jaremi so it almost felt like a sign from the universe to invite the younger queen…if Roy believed in that sort of thing.

Though their styles of drag were quite a bit different, especially with Phi Phi lending herself more to cosplay as of late, there were still a number of similarities the two had bonded over. Whether it was creating new and unique looks, comparing tips on how to overcome certain costume design challenges, or just an easygoing kiki with one another as they gossiped over whatever drama had recently been stirred up in their drag centered universe. There was never a lack of topics to discuss, though today Jaremi seemed a bit out of it.

Normally he had a sharp wit, far more than what he’d normally dare say around most other queens, yet this afternoon he wasn’t nearly as quick with the shady remarks. Instead he let Roy dominate the conversation almost entirely rather their typical back and forth. Despite how much Jaremi had tried to hide it, he could feel his mind growing increasingly cloudy as their meal went on. He wished at the very least he had taken some of the medication he had brought but it almost felt a little rude to do so. If only he could subtly sneak off to take some of the pills but even going to the bathroom whilst carrying the bag would have been suspicious.

So all he could do was suffer in silence as his nose began to clog up and his throat felt increasingly dry in spite of however much he drank. And though Roy didn’t comment on it, he had certainly noticed the change from their typical kiki sessions. At first he thought Jaremi was simply tired, and once or twice he worried he was actually boring him, but still Jaremi was trying his hardest to pay attention, not even sparing a glance to his phone, so Roy figured it had to be something else.

One of Jaremi’s usual habits was to go all out on desserts, sampling at least one or two with every meal in a foreign country, but today he declined to even look at that particular menu. It was then that Roy knew for certain something was definitely off with the younger man. As they awaited their checks, he questioned his companion quite bluntly, “What’s up with you, queen? You’ve been out of it since we got here.”

Jaremi faltered for a moment before immediately trying to defend himself but Roy’s withering gaze stopped him mid-sentence. Ashamed, he reluctantly admitted that he was getting sick and hadn’t had a chance to take his next round of medicine before Roy had caught him on the street. He expected Roy to withdraw in concern for his own health because after all, his voice was his money maker, but instead Roy did something quite unexpected. He actually scooted his chair closer and around the table as he touched Jaremi’s wrist in concern. His brows knit together in sympathy that sharply contrasted his exasperated voice asking, “Why didn’t you say something? We could have done this another day! Or even just waited until we got back to the states!”

Shrugging Jaremi tried to play off the situation as though it weren’t as big a deal as Roy was making it. His voice was quiet and starting to show evidence of his illness as he replied, “It’s fine, really. The symptoms aren’t too bad. And it’s been awhile since we talked…It was nice just to catch up by ourselves.”

Shaking his head, Roy muttered, “Idiot.”

The statement would have been more scathing had it come from anyone else but Jaremi’s heart felt like fluttering again as he heard Roy state quite definitively, “Let’s get you back to your hotel.”

Their checks arrived at that moment and despite how usually he’d do anything to keep himself from acting like a child in front of strangers, Jaremi couldn’t stop himself from whining, “I have plans!”

“I don’t really care,” Roy declared apathetically with his trademark glare. “You’re going back to your hotel even if I have to walk you to your room myself.”

The pair stared each other down and if Jaremi had any intention of disobeying Roy’s demand, he ought to have pretended to give in right then but the silent argument went on long enough for Roy to figure out that he’d better follow through on his initially empty threat. Otherwise Jaremi would be back on the streets as soon as his back was turned, probably hacking up phlegm in just a few hours to boot. 

No, if he wanted Jaremi to rest, he’d have to escort him back to his hotel and wait until the younger man fell asleep. Which shouldn’t be too long considering how heavy-lidded his eyes already looked.

Much like a rent-a-cop on duty, Roy ushered the protesting queen back to his hotel room. To his surprise it took little more than a sharp glare and a few cutting words to convince Jaremi to take his medication and at least sit on the bed. Beyond that, Jaremi utterly refused to do anything else to indulge Roy’s unwanted mothering. He was all but pouting and nearly on the verge of a temper tantrum that would have rivaled one of Alaska’s yet Roy stood firm with remarkable patience.

“Sleep will be good for you,” he reasoned in as best of a persuasive tone as could be managed, “You already look like you’re about to drop from exhaustion anyway.”

Jaremi couldn’t stop his eyes from rolling at the statement, however true it might be. His muscles were starting to give out and probably the only thing that kept him going right now was his desire to defy the older queen at every turn. But Roy was determined to outlast him. Despite how eager he was for something meaningful to do earlier; getting a sick Jaremi to relax and go to sleep seemed far more important. Deciding to take an approach he had followed a number of times before, he made a shooing motion with his hand and told him to lie on his stomach.

Skeptical, Jaremi only gave him a brief glance, essentially saying, ‘The fuck?’

Rolling his eyes once more, Roy urged him, “Just do it. I’m not gonna do anything sketchy or weird.”

Still, Jaremi was unconvinced…at least until he heard a quiet, almost suspiciously gentle attempt at persuasion, “I promise….Please lay down?”

It was highly unusual to hear such a tone from Roy. Typically he’d just give up after awhile or make some sort of scathing remark but today he was actually being…soft. It was a little off-putting but Jaremi found that he genuinely liked seeing this more caring side of his friend. Thinking at the very least he trusted Roy not to do anything unwholesome, Jaremi relented and laid on his stomach in the middle of the bed while his head rested on a pillow.

He turned to look at Roy as he carefully set himself down on the edge of the mattress so as not to cause it to dip any more than necessary. Just as the younger man was wondering what he planning, he felt the light trace, almost scratching of fingertips running across the expanse of his back. An involuntary shiver rose through his spine at the sensation but much to his surprise he found himself almost leaning into the touch for more.

His voice bordered on a happy purr as he admitted, partially muffled by the pillow, “That feels really good, actually.”

Practically hearing the smirk Roy was undoubtedly wearing, the older man mentioned, “Yeah, Adore loves it when I do this whenever she gets sick or hungover.”

Then almost immediately thinking better of it, he quickly added, “That doesn’t leave this room.”

There was an edge to his voice that caused Jaremi’s stomach to turn but all he gave Roy in response was a content nod. As was the Roy’s intention, the body beside him was slowly relaxing and drifting off to a lazy lull of a sleeplike state. Almost as an afterthought, and perhaps mostly influenced by his sick addled mind, Jaremi found the courage to ask, “What is going on between you two any way?”

This was a common topic of debate amongst the queens and fans alike but no one really had a satisfying answer. Figuring now was as good a time as any, Jaremi took his chance to ask Roy directly. Sounding quite used to the question, the older queen replied with a chuckle in his voice, “What do you think?”

He genuinely wanted an answer, Jaremi realized, and would wait very patiently until the younger man gave him one. Almost guiltily, he forced himself to examine both his own feelings and what he’d observed first and secondhand of the two queens’ atypical relationship. Sounding unsure yet still a bit hopeful, Jaremi answered softly, “I think…you’re just really good friends.”

He turned his head up to face Roy and study his reaction yet much to his surprise, he found a calm, pleased smile waiting for him. The elder queen nodded his head in confirmation and it was there they let that particular conversation drop. Burying his face into the pillow for a minute, Jaremi couldn’t deny just how light and happy he felt. His heart was racing and he was sure his illness had nothing to do with it but either way, he was satisfied with what he had learned.

He was almost at the point of falling asleep when Roy drew back his fingers. Jaremi’s drowsy eyes reopened and he turned to look at the older queen once more. He was mildly surprised to find Roy sliding fully onto the bed to lay beside him.

Trying not to let on just how happy was, Jaremi slowly drawled out, “Gonna stay here till I fall asleep?”

There was a hint of a smirk resting on Roy’s lips as he replied casually, “Maybe a little after that too…Is that alright?”

Feeling like a child who’d just gotten everything and more that they could ever want for Christmas, Jaremi nodded his head and bit back a quiet yawn. 

Roy’s eyes had gone noticeably soft as he gazed down at the half sleeping form beside him, still struggling futilely to stay awake. He almost chuckled at the fruitless effort but hid it behind a fond smile instead. He raised a hand to ruffle Jaremi’s hair and urged him once more to finally go to sleep. This time there was no protest, no argument as the younger queen nodded and nestled himself snugly amongst the pillows. 

In another very un-Roy-like behavior, he leant down and pressed a brief kiss to Jaremi’s cheek. In truth it was just a little too close the lips to have been accidental but Jaremi was all too willing to let that slide for the time being. All he said in response through his bright grin was a sing-songy declaration of, “You’re gonna get sick tomorrow.”

Shaking his head, Roy laughed softly and affirmed quite adamantly, “I’m not gonna get sick.”

“You’re definitely gonna get sick,” Jaremi mumbled half into the pillow as his eyes slid shut.

Whatever Roy said in response was muffled and unheard as Jaremi dozed off into a content, dream-filled state. True to Roy’s assertions, the next day he felt perfectly fine. Not a trace of Jaremi’s cold to be found in his system. The day after however…that was another story.

[womeninmotorsport]

- Miami 2022 - 6-8 May - Race 2 Grid -

Second-fastest qualifying times and starting grid for race two

1. Jamie Chadwick (Jenner Racing, 23, UK): 1.57.080

2. Nerea Martí (Quantfury Racing W Series Team, 20, ESP): 1.57.579

3. Emma Kimiläinen (Puma W Series Team, 32, FIN): 1.57.768

4. Alice Powell (Click2Drive Bristol Street Motors Racing W Series Team, 29, UK): 1.57.824

5. Fabienne Wohlwend (CortDAO Racing W Series Team, 24, LIE): 1.57.939

6. Belen Garcia (Quantfury Racing W Series Team, 22, ESP): 1.58.186

7. Jessica Hawkins (Click2Drive Bristol Street Motors Racing W Series Team, 27, UK): 1.58.466

8. Beitske Visser (Sirin Racing W Series Team, 27, NED): 1.58.473

9. Abbi Pulling (Racing X, 19, UK): 1.58.477

10. Sarah Moore (Scuderia W, 28, UK): 1.58.480

11. Marta Garcia (CortDAO Racing W Series Team, 21, ESP): 1.58.504

12. Abbie Eaton (Scuderia W, 30, UK): 1.58.642

13. Bruna Tomaselli (Racing X, 24, BRA): 1.58.918

14. Chloe Chambers (Jenner Racing, 17, USA): 1.59.045

15. Emely De Heus (Sirin Racing W Series Team, 27, NED): 1.59.424

16. Tereza Babickova (Puma W Series Team, 19, CZE): 2.00.566

17. Bianca Bustamante (W Series Academy, 17, PHI): 2.01.110

18. Juju Noda (W Series Academy, 16, JPN): 2.05.957

[bread-or-bust]

Bringing this back since the fandom is getting trashy again

Sending death threats and hate to RPDR girls makes you a literal bag of garbage.

And it’s trash day. See yourself out.

[aquariasasshole]

drag queens in pride colors

Hot Pink (Sex)// Monet X Change, Trixie Mattel, Farrah Moan, Gia Gunn, Courtney Act, Pearl Liaison, Detox, Kennedy Davenport

Red (Life)// Trinity The Tuck, Nina West, Katya, Bianca Del Rio, Violet Chachki, Aja, Jujubee, Shangela

Orange (Healing)// Tatianna, Ariel Versace, Bebe Zahara Benet, Miz Cracker, Nina Flowers, Vanessa Vanjie Mateo, Nina Bo’nina Brown, Mimi Imfurst

Yellow (Sunlight)// Sharon Needles, Aquaria, Monique Heart, Yvie Oddly, Scarlet Envy, Shea Couleé, Alaksa, Manila Luzon

Green (Nature)// Laganja Estranja, Naomi Smalls, Sasha Velour, Valentina, Ivy Winters, April Carrión, Kameron Michaels, Ra’jah O’Hara

Turquoise (Magic/Art)// Ongina, Peppermint, Robbie Turner, BenDelaCreme, Akashia, Mercedes Iman Diamond, Kim Chi, Phi Phi O’Hara

Indigo (Serenity)// Blair St. Clair, Silky Nutmeg Ganache, Latrice Royale, India Ferrah, Pandora Boxx, Mayhem Miller, Brooke Lynn Hytes, Morgan McMichaels

Violet (Spirit)// A’keria Chanel Davenport, Roxxxy Andrews, The Vixen, Plastique Tiara, Alyssa Edwards, Jinkx Monsoon, Cynthia Lee Fontaine, Honey Davenport

[trappergirl]

1, 5, 6, 10, 20

1. Best and worst season of all time? 

best are s3 & s5, worst will have to be as1 and s8… i loved the cast but for some reason s8 was just weird idk i enjoy all of them though

5. Most unjustified sashay?

LAILA MCQUEEN !!! i didn’t think she should’ve been in the bottom in the first week (naysha and robbie should’ve lipsynced), and her performance in bitch perfect wasn’t the worst (then again, i also liked dax’s performance, though it wasn’t the best). if there is an as4, and let’s be honest, there will be, laila better be a part of the cast

6. Your ideal top three for each season?

s1; bebe, nina & ongina

s2; tyra, raven & juju

s3; raja, manila & shangela

s4; phi phi, sharon & willam?

s5; alaska, jinkx & roxxxy

s6; adore, bianca & courtney

s7; pearl, violet & ginger

s8; bob, kim & naomi

s9; sasha, shea & valentina

as1; chad, raven & juju

as2; detox, katya & alaska

as3; shangela, trixie & aja

10. Queens you would like to see on season 10? 

well i think we all know who the queens are, let’s just say i am excited to see miz cracker, aquaria and monét x change

20. A queen you think redeemed herself?

trixie, honestly. she was kind of a flop on s7, a lovable flop, but she really didn’t do that well.  i honestly think she’s at the best she’s ever been right now (drag wise). also, phi phi, though she didn’t exactly do it on the show. we definitely see the sweet, kind (and insanely talented) side of phi phi that we never really got to experience on drag race

thank you for asking!

[fortheloveofpearlet]

Is there a list of the Drabbles anywhere?

Hey love! Here you go! This is all the drabbles I have waiting to do, just a reminder I am not taking anymore at this time 😘


ABC - victory sex after s6 finale
Thorcid - sequel to just woken up drabble with smut
Pearlet - rainy day
Biadore - loud sex getting caught
Sashea - Shea comforting Sasha after the argument with Eureka
Sashea - lip syncing against each other
Pearlet - sequel to their first time drabble
Pearlet - sex on stage
Pearlet - song fic of She Keeps me Warm by Mary Lambert
Pearlet - wanting kids
Pearlet - Fame and Max make them realise their feelings for each other
Pearlet - smut in office
Witney - Courtney comes out as trans and Willam supports her
Pearlet - Matt and Fames husband jealous of the Run the Runway video
Multi ship - Bitney and Trixya exposed through Willam’s YouTube video
Sashea - Shea jealous of Alexis’ dream about Sasha
Pearlet - cis girl Pearl meeting Jason’s parents
Sashea - after Shea and Nina’s argument in untucked
Bitney - angst and smut
Pearlet - Matt jealous of Vatya at Dragcon
Pearlet - injury fic
Pearlet - cis girls, Pearl as Violet’s mistress
Naochi - fluff or smut
Pearlet - high school boys, Jason introduces Matt to the drag world
Pearlet - high school, Jason smoking weed for the first time
Biadore - Adore giving Bianca the blow job of her life (at least I think that was a prompt)
Farasha (made that ship name up) - daddy kink/BDSM
Pearlet - date night
April x Adam Lambert - after s6 premiere
Pearlet - smutty texting
Sashea - crazy club kid smut
Pearlet - Vi taking care of Pearl when she’s sick
Pearlet - Matt getting jealous/mad of Jason and Santino’s interaction in s7
Pearlet - barebacking
Famelet - Vi has a crush on Fame during drag race
Biadore - casino fluff
Pearlet - hate sex turning into feelings
Biadore - Mile high club
Sashea - high school cheerleaders
Sashea - smut backstage at BOTS show
Pearlet - friends to lovers
Sashea - when they disappeared in untucked (fluff)
Pearlet - Matt is Jason’s mom’s bf
Pearlet - smut after the leather and lace runway
Saja - Aja jealous of Sasha’s friendship with Shea
Multi ship - s9 truth or dare jealous (Sashea and Farraja)
Pearlet - skinny dipping smut
Sashea - they get together 4 years after drag race
Sashea - dominant Shea
Sashea - smut based around Cool for the Summer
Rajila - in drag smut
Pearlet - expressing their love in a hotel room (I assume this means smut)
Sashea - leaving untucked and confessing their feelings before smut
Sashea - rough sex after Shea’s lip sync win
Multi ship - Sasha and Shea dominating Aja
Sashea - Shea sneaking into Sasha’s hotel room to spend more time with her
Pearlet - explaining how much they love each other
Varrah - smut, Farrah top
Fardore - sequel to Dragcon fic where Adore takes Farrah out Rajila - Raja comforting a depressed ManilaVarrah - smut in front of a mirrorFarlexis/Faralska - smut (haven’t decided on the pairing yet)Farixe - Trixie topping FarrahFarlexis - Farrah making up for the comments said in the reading challengeSashea - involving Sasha’s ‘cum gutter’Pearlet - high school boys, bathroom smutPearlet - Matt proposingBiadore - Adore thinks Bianca is cheatingPearlet - one in drag to meet parentsTrixya - drunk Vegas weddingRajila - Raja comforting Manila after s3 finalePharon - William spills that Sharon and Phi Phi were hooking up during the showPearlet - Matt caught watching Jason’s Frankie Malone vidTrixya - Trixie discovers Katya’s ticklishPearlet - smut in closet during BettieTrixya - long distanceTrixya - Katya showing Trixie how to cartwheelPearlet - Matt discovers Jason ticklish during Bettie filmingPearlet - based on the song 'What Would I do Without You’ by Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors

[thunderfvck]

21, 24, 30 and 42? 💞

21. Favorite drag queen song?: killer by alaska is like my #1 fave forever !! but all of her songs tbh and i honestly really love sublime by raja lskjdas and supersonic by detox. ALSO the same parts by tatianna obviously 

24. Favorite friendship?: trixie x katya, katya x alaska, willam x courtney, violet x pearl, raja x manila, adore x bianca, rolaskatox,

30. Meanest Queen?: darienne lake came to mine first alskdjs

42. Sharon/PhiPhi or Jinkx/Roxxy feud?: sharon/phi phi bc jinkx/roxxxy made me sad when i watched it alskjsd

[fucknfurter]

ALL OF THEM.

1. Favorite Drag Race Moment

When Katya ignored her idea being shot down, ignored the suggestion that she start all over from scratch, and believed in her idea to see it through to the end�� and was one of the top two that week because of it.

2. Favorite Drag Race contestant

Katya Zamolodchikova.

3. Favorite Drag Race Winner

Bianca Del Rio.

4. Comedy Queens or Beauty Pageant Queens

Comedy/weird queens.

5. Favorite Lip Sync For Your Life

This one.

6. Drag Rupaul or Out Of Drag Rupaul?

Both.

7. Favorite Season 6 Queen

Bianca Del Rio.

8. Most attractive queen out of drag

Answered.

9. Best Snatch Game Impersonation

10. Favorite Season

Season six in the regular show, AS2 in the All Stars series.

11. Favorite runway look

No one can beat Mama. (This one technically doesn’t count since it’s a reunion, but Ru’s looks are always my favorite.)

12. Jujubee or Manila?

Jujubee. 

13. Raven or Raja?

Raja. 

14. Sharon or Jinkx?

Sharon.

15. Favorite catchphrase by RuPaul

The original, forever and always. (It still counts, as the workroom’s full name is the, “You Better Werk Room”.)

16. Best Feud

See number forty-two.

17. Favorite Season 3 Queen

Shangela Wadley.

18. DWV or AAA Girls?

I can’t fairly answer this one.

19. Favorite challenge

The Sissy That Walk music video acting challenge.

20. Favorite ‘villain’

Technically Tatianna.

21. Favorite drag queen song

Read U, Wrote U.

(Of Ru’s, my favorite is either I Bring The Beat or Sissy That Walk.)

22. Favorite Season 1 Queen

I can’t fairly answer this one. It’s the only season I haven’t seen. :x

23. Alyssa Edwards or Coco Montrese?

Alyssa Edwards.

24. Favorite friendship

Off the show, Katya and Trixie. On the show, Raven and Jujubee.

25. Favorite Top Three

Season 6′s ABCs.

26. Favorite Latrice Royale catchphrase

27. Willam or Alaska?

Willam.

28. Least Favorite Queen

Phi Phi O'Hara.

29. Funniest Queen

Katya.

30. Meanest Queen

See twenty-eight.

31. Favorite Season 5 Queen

Detox iCunt.

32. Favorite mini challenge

Any puppets challenge.

33. Best Miss Congeniality

Katya.

34. _____ should’ve won instead of _____

Katya should’ve won AS2 instead of Alaska.

35. Favorite shocking moment

See number five. (They should have won, and even Ru agreed. It’s why she walked out of filming.)

36. Favorite Season 2 Queen

Tatianna, but closely followed by Jujubee.

37. Favorite Catchphrase by a contestant

“Oh, y'all wanted a twist?”, Laganja Estranja.

38. Michelle Visage or Santino Rice?

Michelle.

39. Favorite All-Stars team

Rujubee.

40. Least Favorite Season

Season seven.

41. Rolaskatox or The Heathers?

Neither, thanks.

42. Sharon/PhiPhi or Jinkx/Roxxy feud?

Sharon/Phi Phi.

43. Favorite guest judge

Elvira.

44. Best drag queen name

Karen From Finance.

45. Favorite Season 7 queen

Katya.

46. Favorite entrance by a queen

47. Adore Delano or Courtney Act?

Adore.

48. Favorite Puerto Rican contestant

Yara Sofia.

49. Favorite Season 4 Queen

Sharon or Chad.

50. Top three contenders for the season 7 crown

………………

[coronerra]

ranking drag race queens imo season 1-10

1 Manila Luzon 1 Aquaria 3 Yara Sofia 4 Adore Delano 5 Monét X. Change 6 Chi Chi DeVayne 7 Aja 8 Sharon Needles 9 Jinkx Monsoon 10 Alaska 11 Willam 12 Shangela 13 Tyra Sanchez 14 Jujubee 15 BenDeLaCreme 16 Shea Couleé 17 Asia O'Hara 18 Trinity Taylor 19 The Vixen 20 Monique Heart 21 Stacy Layne Matthews 22 Mariah 23 Latrice Royale 24 Lineysha Sparx 25 Roxxxy Andrews 26 Sahara Davenport 27 Tammie Brown 28 Shannel 29 Nina Flowers 30 Coco Montrese 31 Ivy Winters 32 Jessica Wild 33 Blair St. Clair 34 Bob The Drag Queen 35 Peppermint 36 Nina Bo'Nina Brown 37 Tatianna 38 Alexis Matteo 39 Alexis Michelle 40 Chad Michaels 41 Raja 42 Violet Chachki 43 Kennedy Davenport 44 Katya 45 Ginger Minj 46 Miss Fame 47 Max 48 Trinity K. Bonet 49 Bianca Del Rio 50 Jade Jolie 51 Vivacious 52 Alyssa Edwards 53 Detox 54 Mayhem Miller 55 Jaidynn Diore Fierce 56 Thorgy Thor 57 Morgan McMichaels 58 BeBe Zahara Benet 59 Acid Betty 60 Dida Ritz 61 Phi Phi O'Hara 62 Joslyn Fox 63 Jasmine Masters 64 Courtney Act 65 Darienne Lake 66 Gia Gunn 67 Mrs. Kasha Davis 68 April Carrion 69 Milk 70 Laganja Estranja 71 Nicole Paige Brooks 72 Sonique 73 Pandora Boxx 74 Dusty Ray Bottoms 75 Vanessa Vanjie Mateo 76 Mimi Imfurst 77 Carmen Carrera 78 Delta Work 79 Jaymes Mansfield 80 Farrah Moan 81 Kimora Blac 82 Valentina 83 India Ferrah 84 Rebecca Glasscock 85 LaShawn Beyond 86 Milan 87 Jiggly Caliente 88 Laila McQueen 89 Dax ExclamationPoint 90 Kalorie Karbdashian Williams 91 Eureka 92 Kim Chi 93 Yuhua Hamasaki 94 Honey Mahogany 95 Charlie Hides 96 Mystique Summers Madison 97 Akashia 98 Naysha Lopez 99 Naomi Smalls 100 Cynthia Lee Fontaine 101 Victoria (Porkchop) Parker 102 Jade 103 Derrick Barry 104 Kenya Michaels 105 The Princess 106 Monica Beverly Hillz 107 Robbie Turner 108 Tempest DuJour 109 Kandy Ho 110 Sasha Belle 111 Madame LaQueer 112 Vivienne Pinay 113 Magnolia Crawford 114 Kelly Mantle 115 Pearl 116 Venus D-Lite 117 Alisa Summers 118 Penny Tration 119 Serena Cha Cha 120 Miz Cracker 121 Kameron Michaels 122 Ongina 123 Phoenix 124 Raven 124 Trixie Mattel 124 Sasha Velour

[artificialqueens]

learning to be silent (multi) — chapter two - Roza

[ summary ] : the grand prix qualifications are building splendidly even if it means a self discovery for some and nothing but piling towers of stress despite that, new bonds seem to happen every day when you're a professional figure skater.

[ author's note ] : this au has been a real fun one to write, as always, I enjoy introducing new characters when I can, next chapter will probably (definitely lmao) be huge since it'll be the short program and all that jazz, hope y'all enjoy xx — lily.

AO3 / My Tumblr / (◍•ᴗ•◍)✧*。

— ✧*。

Alaska hadn't intended to spend her last day in the states for a week helping Trinity and Detox pack for France, though it was an excuse to ignore everything that was building up on her plate for Moscow, they all had reserved their own row on the plane to Paris, now it was just a matter of time and driving before they would be supporting their teammates in their journeys to the Grand Prix, stacking their points. Every step was one more day closer to Olympic qualifications in January.

"Jesus, how many suitcases do we need? We're only there for a week and not even skating at the event!" Trinity called out as she scrambled through Detox's closet, wearing her oversized jacket from Skate America, Alaska sitting on her best friend's bed, spread out and staring at her phone, unable to breathe at the moment, everything was beginning to crumble and she promised Sharon to not tell anyone but it was reaching a breaking point.

"Just get one big one and we'll have two bags, Alaska is coming to don't forget we have three people in the equation!" Detox yelled back before stepping into the room with an unopened bottle of sparkling wine, Trinity clapping at the sight of alcohol as she skipped over to her girlfriend who brushed their lips together, her hands brushing through her blonde hair though she pulled away cackling hearing Alaska's blantant sickness noises, wanting to throw up at the sight of her best friend since she started skating and Trinity trying to get it down in front of her.

Detox fixed her hair and huffed, blowing the small strands out of her face before she handed the bottle to Alaska who was an aficionado at opening caps with her long acrylics, "To Aquaria, Shea and Adore! Let's hope the best for all of them." She toasted simply, Trinity nodding, "I'll drink to that, Grand Prix here our girls come! Olympics ain't ready honey." The Floridian raised the bottle once Alaska got it to pop open with a small flick of her nails.

Rotating the bottle around one by one, Alaska took a long and hard swig, causing Detox to widen her eyes and take away the bottle, the older skater groaned. "Oh c'mon you're not my fucking mom." She snagged it once more before finally putting it down in front of Trinity who adjusted the sleeves of Detox's jacket.

"What's wrong? I know you too damn well, fess up." Detox's tone one of concern as well as aggression, she could tell when Alaska was in her tantrum stages. Trinity sat uncomfortably, not knowing if she should be involved in the conversation invade it took an extremely personal turn.

"Nothing, I'm fine, just had a bit of a fight today with Sharon is all."

Trinity moved towards the door, knowing that Detox and Alaska had their own code of when they wanted to be alone. "I'm gonna go and get some food, I'll leave y'all be." The skater shut the door gently even at the dismay of Detox who's eyes focused on Alaska whose eyelids drooped after putting the half empty bottle on Detox's cabinet shelf right near her bed.

"What the hell happened?"

"Girl, we're packing, let's not do this now, please." The affirmative tone in her voice telling Detox to back off and focus on what she was currently doing, though Alaska's head was definitely elsewhere, a minute later as they folded up another dress the blonde finally broke down in tears, at first letting the sniffling come and playing it off as allergies or some bullshit like that.

"I'm retiring, I'm fucking retiring at the end of this season, I can't take all the stress and pain any longer and seeing Aquaria and all the new seniors do so good out a real fucking gap in my confidence, I give up!"

"Alaska..."

"No! Don't fucking tell me I'm overreacting and don't tell me that's how the skating world is now, I know that and I can't take it anymore."

Detox dropped her skates on her bed before sighing aloud, knowing there was no use in even attempting to knock sense into or out of Alaska during her breakdowns, she just needed support: not as if the decision was something people liked to hear, to make.

Opening her arms Alaska looked up and immediately jumped into them, Detox tightening the grip around her shoulders, patting her back as she sobbed all over her jacket with no remorse, she could always wash it later. Fighting back tears she spoke up, not ever wanting to hear the fact Alaska, her best friend since they started skating, was retiring: "Are you really sure, I'm not gonna push it but are you atleast gonna try for your last Olympics?"

Alaska took home bronze in her first Olympics, a truly incredible feat, she proved to everyone even back then that as long as you had passion, drive, charisma and raw talent you could win a medal no matter if you were skating to Vivaldi or Bon Jovi, which she did.

"Of course I am you shady bitch, gotta knock you off somehow."

Detox couldn't help but completely lose it on her lap, slapping her on the stomach before letting her head rest, "What am I gonna possibly even do without you? Truthfully, who else will drink three entire bottles of Gatorade and almost piss on the ice—" Alaska yelled, her cheeks becoming hot remembering the indescribable amount of embarrassment she felt during her warm up skate of World's back in 2017.

"What does Sharon think?"

It shouldn't have made Alaska's lips twist when her name was mentioned, she knew it was coming since Sharon was her coach and her worst kept secret after all. A muscle in her jaw seemed to twitch as she spoke, "She wasn't very happy to say the least but my career, promised her I'd of course try for the Olympics."

* * *

"I'm retiring."

Alaska whispered the words she honestly hoped would never have to come out of her own mouth, when she was still young, not as young as the rest but she still had a good amount of years left for herself.

Her tears falling down her cheeks one after another, trying to speak but not letting any words come out before Sharon's fingertips brushed her eyes, wiping them in utter confusion, "What do you— what do you mean you're retiring?" Lifting her face with her hands, being sure to make direct eye contact with the blonde who was in the middle of either a mental breakthrough or breakdown.

"I can't do this anymore, I can't compete with all the new seniors, I'm reaching my breaking point and you being my coach has been both the greatest and worst experience I've had in this sport."

She didn't respond, a bit offended by the poor choice of words however. "Worst? Fucking jesus, I know I retired earlier than expected but I wanted to coach, especially since Aquaria was getting older, I wanted to care for her and look out for you!" She snarled out of anger, a flush creeping out on her face once she noticed Alaska so generously hanging onto her every word by a thread.

"Sharon, I'm just losing touch and I know you're supposed to be my coach. I know you're hard on me because it's your job and because we've been together since we were teenagers but anytime you and I sit in that kiss and cry and you stare at me blankly, your eyes look so disappointed and want to scream!"

"I'm never, ever disappointed in you."

Alaska winced at the unexpected rough diction in Sharon's voice, she never looked so terrifying and serious in her entire life. Granted she had known the blonde for only god knows how long and had seen every little piece of the puzzle to her, expecting all the unexpected.

"I love you Sharon, I love you dammit and I thought about it for weeks, this isn't a personal vendetta, you know how this sport pays my bills and keeps me alive but I want to retire and just help you with the girls and finally settle down with you like I always wanted."

Sharon's face contorted, unable to express whether she was honored that Alaska was for once, being so serious about their relationship, whatever that was— or, completely saddened by her will to just throw away her entire life and success to just be another coach, she had so much untapped potential even if she was a bit older than the average girl's nowadays.

"You're so talented and have so much to give, you're not even the oldest American competiting, remember how Chad retired when he was 39? I mean, he wasn't even pushing it either." It was true that she skated a while, still even did tours time to time, she had completely pioneered the skating world as did her students which of course, had Sharon in the line up.

"I just don't want you to do this purely for me or because you're feeling stressed, because that's the reality of the sport." She took Alaska's hand in her own, squeezing firmly as her words left with baited breath, "I will never force you to keep skating but as your coach, I'd be so fucking upset if you did."

Her lips pressed a kiss to Alaska's ring finger, "I'll always be here and be ready, skating won't." A hand crept to Sharon's cheek as the younger blonde smiled gently, feeling a genuine stir in her emotions, her heart beating twice as fast whenever Sharon kissed her.

"I know but, I think it's my time to be able to relax after all these years, I can always be an annoying commentator." She grinned, lightening the mood as her ears heard Sharon whisper a faint, "I love you." under her breath before laughing at her out of time response, pressing their lips together and caressing her face.

"If you promise to be at the Olympics, I can maybe say aloud that I'll handle this better."

"Of course I'm gonna try to qualify dumb bitch! You really think I'd just give up after finally getting allowed to do an Arrowsmith song for my routine? In an all black and grey costume? I promise you I'm gonna kill that shit."

* * *

"So, if I may add an interlude..." Her words spiraling back to her usual extended holds, "What's the deal with you and Miss Taylor, I know clearly you guys are comfortable outside of the rink but, is it actually official?"

Detox pondered her words a bit, not exactly knowing how to respond.

Her and Trinity in the rink had always been buddy-buddy with eachother starting three years ago, Trinity had trained with Agnes (who they all called Peppermint since their junior skating years) a while before making the move into Sharon and Chad's training camps, she fit in almost instantaneously and caught the attention of Detox as fast as she did Chad who saw endless supply of potential when it came to her style of skating.

Alaska coughed obnxiously, signaling she overthinking far too much. But what was she really supposed to say especially with Alaska, who she adored with her entire soul and heart and always would, who everyone knew was just about the biggest tease and the quickest to break secrets when simply asked, you didn't even have to coddle her for them.

"She's very beautiful and talented, has a great personality and we're just both seeing where we're going, we kiss here and there but mostly it's just in an awkwardly endearing phase, we don't know exactly what we want either."

"So basically you're finally into a girl and just checking out from fear and delusion that she doesn't like you back even though all she does is steal your jackets and excitedly smile whenever you come into the room. Match made in heaven if you ask me."

They toyed with eachother's hair and hands before Detox threw a pillow at her face, "C'mon, we have to be at the airport tomorrow and if you don't wake up I'm just gonna leave without your sorry ass."

*.✧

"We're here!" Yelled Adore in the back of the large car, her legs sparwled onto Bianca's lap, the coach dazing in and out of sleep having been wide awake during the plane ride there, she had never been so sober in her entire damn life even when she was still a competitive skater.

"We are and thank god for that, I was about to fall asleep in this fucking rental." Bianca spoke up with genuine honesty, a yawn leaving her lips before she stepped out the car, reaching out her hands so that Adore could easily jump from the car.

"Hallelujah for that." Bob grumbled under her breath before taking her carry on from the back of the van as Shea wondered off into the hotel, that was conveniently placed beside the convention center and arena where they would skate and then have their Gala afterwards, the best part besides winning gold and racking up points for the Grand Prix.

Shea hadn't had a clue of what time it exactly was, far too lazy to even pick her phone from her pocket as she stumbled through the doorway and took in the sight: being in Europe wasn't new, she had traveled many times for competitions but she had yet to truly be in France for a Grand Prix assignment, the years she had been a senior she either was in China, Japan or Canada— it would be her first time truly getting some time, even if her focus was to win a medal, to beat her fellow competitors, she never turned down a good few hours of walking through a new city, buying overly expensive touristy souvenirs and she always promised herself to buy some kind of local chocolate, she could restrain herself pretty well for diets and competition days but otherwise she definitely wasn't one to turn down a bar of chocolate.

Hearing the usual cooperation banter didn't phase her much, she knew people had a job to do but a familiar face caught her eye almost immediately, that distinct face shape and sweet smile. Thick blonde curls hiding her steel blue-grey eyes, sported of course in the Russian national team jacket, this had to be Sasha.

The Sasha Velour.

Her heart was racing at a million miles an hour, all the affirmative respect and distinguishing of titles made it seem like she was old when she was indeed a year younger than Shea in the first place, it was more meant as a title with sentimental value. She was beautiful as always and had a great reputation to uphold and did so with honesty and a tolerant mindset, two things the Russian figure skating association was exactly known for, despite how dirty of a sterotype that sounded.

The American waited patiently as she seemed to be sorting some issues with her keycard, requesting she be given another one. The conversation tuned out in Shea's mind until she felt a brushing and gentle hand against her shoulders and a wide smile from Sasha, the touch making the girl jump, completely frazzled. "Oh I'm so sorry!" She whimpered, unknowingly holding her hands to make sure they weren't shaking, "I'm so sorry."

"Oh c'mon it's okay girl." She immediately bit her tongue, this wasn't Adore or Trinity whom she was causal with, she had nothing but respect for Sasha and felt nothing but maddening anxiety in their one minute interaction, of course they had seen eachother before when competiting but not as if they had time to converse during or after the matter. "I mean Sasha, shit, I'm so sorry."

"Why are you apologizing? I'm perfectly fine with what you said, I know I'm supposed to be a bit more rough and tough since I'm Russian and all but, I promise you I'm not as bad as everyone else." A subtle wink leaving the corner of her eyelids as she placed a hand on her hip, "It's really wonderful to finally meet you."

Shea didn't want to say she had completely felt her face get hot, red and her entire body froze when she spoke to her but that was exactly what was happening and it was driving her insane, she practically kicked herself for being such a fool. "It's so great to meet you to! You're so talented and so gorgeous and I've never felt more pressure to skate beside someone."

"Please, you are far too sweet for your own good."

A smile lit up her face as Sasha chuckled in response to her growing confidence, "What are you smiling for? It's completely true, I saw your routine at the American national's and almost had a nervous breakdown knowing I have to compete against you and your friend, Aquaria, it is an honor to meet Sharon's daughter? I believe she is..." The sentence trailing before Shea shook her head before also nodding the more she thought about it, "Well she is but not by birth."

"And that's okay, family isn't always blood, it's about the people you choose in your life to be a part of you."

That was either extraordinary deep or Shea was far too smitten with finally speaking with her skating crush of years, this was the moment she had been craving.

"You are absolutely correct, have you met any of the other girls yet? I can always introduce you to my squad of course." Sasha clapped her hands together, slinging a backpack over her back that was a light baby blue, most likely where she housed her skates. "I would love to but I'm going to go and get some private time, come with me!" She mumbled under her breath as they held eachother's wrists.

Shea instantly nodded, not even thinking of the girls, "If you're okay with it." Sasha rolled her eyes, texting someone quickly on her phone before sliding it into the back pocket of her leggings, "Of course I am, my coach doesn't define my life, I already told her I'm gonna be going out to find a rink anyway so, Shea Couleé..." The name rolled right off her tongue in a way that made the older girl completely melt into her hands as she interlocked elbows, "Let's go!"

It would seem odd for two girls of rival countries to just wonder off in the time of sunset, going to the definitely empty ice rink nearby the arena, together as if they were teammates and didn't just formally introduce themselves.

They had barely wandered out of the building when Adore recieved a text telling her to not snitch if Bob asked where she was, explaining best she could in the time she had allotted trying to walk and talk with Sasha that she was going to go and skate, she had taken her bag with her anyway. Shea telling Sasha she needed a quick minute to tell her friend where she would be at.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Adore Delano 🍕

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀—

Don't snitch on me bitch, I'm going off somewhere near the hotel, I really wanna practice.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Do you actually or is someone catching your attention? 👀

If I said it was Sasha Velour would it make you back off lol

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Sasha?! The fucking russian girl who's won literally every damn 🏅???

Yup and she's way prettier in person...

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Oh Jesus, I won't snitch tho! I'm a good friend like that bitch <3

—

"You coming?" Sasha's irresistible smile spearing her straight into the heart. Not as if she would say no to her newfound friend and fellow skater, how could she ever even refuse the chance to spend some alone time with the Sasha Velour, her curls bouncing off her face.

"Absolutely."

*.✧

Sharon wasn't sure what to expect when warm-up training had begun taking shape the day before their first day, the short program for ladies beginning tomorrow though they did have a chance to cheer for the American ice dancers who were performing their short program's yesterday, happy to see that they still had it: scoring a silver medal and having two more teams in the top five.

After the medal ceremony, Aquaria decided to stay with Shea in their hotel room, taking the night off in the comfort of their bed's and the giant flat screen, ordering whatever food they wanted and could find off the hotel service menu.

"Aquaria, you're under rotating that quad again, you know how harsh they're going to be on you now, look at these mistakes and fix them." The words leaving her lips gently, fixing her hair as Aquaria took it all in with a nod, adjusting her jacket's zipper before she hummed, skating off. It was difficult to process all the cameras, she had been photographed and interviewed of course but most people focused on the senior level, it wasn't as if junior competitions were sold out and had photographers everywhere, this was going to be an entire different environment even if she grew up with media in her face already.

"Well, well!" A voice spoke from her behind her, Sharon's entire body running completely cold. It didn't matter what her profession was or how old she was, she could recognize certain voices anywhere she went, she turned on her sneakers, not feeling a need to wear heel's in a damn ice rink.

"Of course it's you..." She grumbled knowing that the utter disappointment in her voice was completely visible though she played on with a fake smile, giving a quaint and polite handshake and kiss of the cheek to Phi Phi, who looked fantastic, the fake tanning did her horrible and Sharon was beyond happy she had stopped a few years ago, and seemed to be comfortably warm in her large knitted white sweater.

"How are you?" She asked, her hands in her pockets, acting sweet for the camera's, it wasn't right to fight like cats and dogs when there was media and their skaters were just attempting to focus. Besides, what had happened when they were competitors was simply past them at this point atleast to Sharon who almost never lost a single medal to Phi Phi, there was definitely some resentment from the latter.

They hadn't always fought, in fact they had gotten along splendidly when they first met at World Championship's almost twelve years ago, neither of them medaled though Sharon had come close with her fourth place accomplishment but it was difficult to compete when Bianca, Morgan and Jinkx were still knocking everyone out of place, seasoned skaters already.

Phi Phi had been her training partner when she decided to stay a year with their old coach, she represented Philippines, which she explained was a huge deal to her, being the first women and the second to ever skate for the southeast asian country. Her temperament was always an issue with her, coach having to repeat stuff and talk over her yelling, that would also be projected into Sharon when she lashed out, claiming she only scored higher on her components because she had the ideal skater body and aesthetic attributed to the sport.

"Oh I'm wonderful, just here to see how my skater does, the usual." It wasn't much until the words faded and she had to ask about Aquaria, Sharon's eyes glimmering with absolute love towards her adopted daughter, "She's fantastic, has a quad and everything, they're definitely way more expecting of them compared to us even Alaska complains with all the new elements they keep adding, I think we retired at a good space." She joked though Phi Phi didn't laugh, she only nodded.

"And Alaska? She still with her boyfriend? I know she's skating with you now, wonder if you still liked her after all these years."

Sharon wanted to shoot herself for even bringing her up, she knew it would immediately cause tension in her body and make her confess more than she wanted: honesty was the best policy even if it was a bitch and it had to be said in front of one of the people she disliked most.

"She's not, she lives with me now."

The pursed expression across Phi Phi's lips was enough to signal she already knew the answer, she just wanted to hear it said aloud. "I had a feeling you two would always end up together, I mean for god's sakes, as if that wasn't fucking obvious." Her fingertips brushed her sweater under her pants, adjusting the laces of her shoes, "She's getting older to, she's only a few years younger, this her last season you think?"

"Phi Phi, Stop."

"Sharon please, I'm asking simple questions, you getting defensive about your girlfriend isn't going to help either of us at this qualification."

Her body swayed, their eye contact setting flames ablaze again in old rivarly, it had been years since they last physically saw eachother, every other time they stayed away or kept it formal and only found out news from Social Media, as most did.

"Just cause you're training your daughter—" her fingers putting air quotes around the word which only made Sharon want to absolutely break her knee with a piece of metal, Harding style. "Doesn't mean she's any good at a senior level or as good as her coach, she's now with competition unlike before, she has a lot to learn like they all do."

"I know that, she's been training hard and I believe in her, of course she has competition, it wouldn't be a Grand Prix if she didn't."

"Well, we will see how she does, I hope she has a good experience though!" The doubt of Aquaria winning shining in her reply, the snicker hidden deep in her throat waiting to come out lodging before she gently coughed and adjusted her posture, "Good luck, genuinely."

"Good luck to you to."

Can't wait to see the look on your face when Aquaria fucking pummels your skaters score into the ground.

[artificialqueens]

I'm Not Lazy (Raven x Adore) - Albatross

AN: Just a bit of vaguely holiday themed fluff featuring Raven x Adore for some reason. Small appearances from Bianca and a few other queens. I am a total sucker for cliche kisses beneath the mistletoe so a lot of this is just a self-indulgent mess.

And if you want to know what I was drinking when I first thought of this pairing, the answer is in the text…I don’t know why I put these two together either.

Side note: Aiming to finish up the AAA Girls fic in the next few weeks, I had pushed it aside for awhile to work on something new cause why finish a story when you can just write a new one, right?

There are a number of unspoken but well-known rules in the world of drag; a few of them include keeping a steady supply of booze handy, never touching the wig, never getting on their stage during the show, and of course; never piss off a queen. If you want to be a little more specific on that last one, you could include a few examples, such as Trixie Mattel, Raven, Willam Belli, Detox, and of course; Bianca Del Rio. And as a little subsection with that last one, you might as well include an asterisk stating ‘Also extends to Adore Delano.’

For whatever reason, the older queen had taken the little misfit wild-child under her protection and any affront to Adore, beyond a casual read of course, was also an affront to Bianca. If she felt someone had overstepped their bounds, she’d come rushing to the young queen’s defense or as more often would happen; she’d step in at Adore’s request.

Now Raven was all for defending fellow queens…when they needed it. And typically, Adore didn’t need it. She was more than capable of holding her own against another person’s criticism and to her credit, she did handle quite a few of those personal attacks herself…when it didn’t involve someone she directly worked with. If the critic happened to be another queen, she’d often go running to or calling on Bianca faster than you could say 'Party.’

This sort of behavior always earned a mildly disgusted eye roll from Raven. Whether it was geared more towards Adore’s childishness or Bianca’s enabling, she wasn’t sure, nor did she really care enough to find out. All she knew was that it borderlined on pathetic in her opinion. She had always been one to believe that anyone, queen or not, should be able to stand on their own two feet and fight their own battles. But aside from an occasional expressive side-eye to whoever happened to be near her, she never made an actual comment about the other two queens’ codependency.

However, as of the last two weeks, Raven found herself becoming disturbingly used to the behavior. Somehow the three all ended up on the same holiday tour extending across most of the US and UK from mid November into early January. There was of course a short reprieve scheduled around Christmas; a very much appreciated six days, but apart from that, the queens were all trapped on one overcrowded bus getting carted from city to city with a rare break or two scattered in every few weeks. And very quickly Raven discovered that so long as Adore was around, with every perceived insult, Bianca would swoop in to the younger queen’s aid, so much that no one truly dared to say a negative word around either queen.

It was only two weeks in and Raven felt like she was on the brink of losing her sanity. Almost every morning as she clutched her hands around a mug of the world’s cheapest coffee, Raven found herself wondering how in the hell she agreed to sign on for this tour. Her preference was to perform alone, schedule gigs a few days apart, and of course, not have to share living space with another queen! She wasn’t the easiest to get along with and she knew it. She embraced it, celebrated it even. That way if something fucked up happened she knew exactly who to blame, and really? How likely was it that she was going to fuck up her own shows?

Yet here she was, surrounded by eight other difficult personalities, struggling to keep herself in check and make allowances for the other queens to be themselves. It wasn’t easy, she had to admit. Out of all these queens, she was undeniably the odd one out. Everyone seemed to have a friend they could run off with; Trixie had Katya, Jinkx had Dela, Phi Phi had Ginger, and of course, Adore had Bianca. Whoever came up with this clusterfuck of a line up deserved some credit; every area was accounted for; comedy, music, and fashion, but these nine queens? How could you find a cast any more different from one another?

Whatever.

Raven was fine on her own. Sure, sometimes she did hang around the other queens, usually as they painted themselves for the show, but the rest of the time, she stayed by herself and that was perfectly alright. A few times she did find herself missing the company of a few of her closer friends, Morgan and Raja in particular, but she simply told herself it was just the holiday blues creating a false sense of loneliness. There was no need to go overboard and start calling them every day; a text here and there would suffice.

Despite this, she found herself feeling a bit more peevish than she would if she were just at home. She snapped a little in the morning if the queens were getting too loud, glared whenever they would carry on in public and occasionally yelled at them to shut the fuck up at night while they drank in the common area and proceeded to keep her up until all hours of the morning. Every day she found herself counting down the minutes until she could return home. Hell, even the Christmas break seemed like a fucking paradise at this point.

The only queen she could really tolerate to be around for more than a solid hour was in fact Bianca. The two could easily turn their mutual wine drinking into a classic bitch session of a Kiki and that was enough social obligation for Raven. Unfortunately, with Bianca also came Adore. The younger queen clung to Bianca almost as much as she did with all of the other queens put together, Raven’s company excluded of course. She couldn’t help but wonder exactly what the extent of their relationship was but either way, it was undeniable that they were incredibly close.

Every so often as they traveled together on the bus or dressed themselves for a show, Raven would find Adore with a pouting glare on her face, increasingly so as her chats with Bianca became more common. If Raven were to move too close into Bianca’s personal space, the pout would almost entirely disappear as she seemed to bite the interior of her cheek to keep herself from saying something she’d otherwise regret. Raven had no problem bitching out the other girls and they all knew it. She was more than confident in her ability to read other queens for filth, and like Bianca; she would not hold back for civility’s sake. This was probably the main reason Adore never actually said anything to her; the threat of Bianca was hollow. She would gladly go toe-to-toe with the older queen and Adore realized that…so she kept her mouth shut.

Still Raven found herself commenting on it one day during one of the rare instances when the younger queen was not around. Probably off annoying Jinkx and Dela as they got ready for tonight. To the remark, Bianca arched her eyebrow for a moment before muttering that she never really noticed it. Raven simply shrugged her shoulders and that was the end of that conversation. On to the next topic; where was the fucking pair of drinks they ordered ten minutes ago?

To Raven’s confusion, it seemed as though Bianca might have mentioned something to the younger queen. She found herself almost bombarded by Adore’s attempts at acting friendlier. Often her brows would furrow at the exaggerated and often misguided behavior. The gestures were clumsy and hardly seemed thought out, ranging from almost backhanded compliments, offers to share her half-eaten food, and even unwelcomed physical contact such as pulling her along excitedly as they made their way to the stage or sitting far too close together on the couch as they rode to the next city. All of it left her feeling very suspicious of the other queen’s intentions.

After days of this nonsense, Raven cornered Bianca in the dressing room between sets. Adore was on at the moment with Jinkx waiting in tow so she knew there was no way that the little pest would be walking in on them.

“What’s up with Adore?” she demanded to know.

Staring at the younger queen through the mirror, Bianca continued to fill in her lips as she arched her brow in a manner that suggested, 'What do you mean?’

“She’s being…nice,” Raven explained in disgust.

“She’s always nice,” Bianca stated in a mild tone, “…at least she tries to be.”

“Not like this!” Raven interjected emphatically. “This is just weird!”

Turning away from her reflection to stare at the harassed looking queen, Bianca asked plainly, “You want it to stop?”

Pausing for a moment to think, Raven admitted, “Not stop, just…”

Rotating back around to finish applying her makeup, the older queen waved her off and replied with a simple, “I get it. I’ll talk to her.”

Raven nodded her head, an unspoken 'Thanks,’ and left the room to take her place at Jinkx’s side. Her set wasn’t due to start for at least another 15 minutes but she was already dressed and ready to go. Why not enjoy a little of the entertainment as well before she took the stage? Besides, Adore’s live singing really wasn’t all that bad…once you separated it from the nuisance it originated from.

*********

In the coming days, Adore’s behavior became more subdued. Raven appreciated that but it was still a bit disconcerting that she had taken such an interest in being all buddy-buddy with her. She never had before, but then again they also never really worked on more than a gig or two at a time. Slowly though, Raven could feel herself becoming reluctantly accepting of the behavior. Adore really was trying, Raven told herself. What could it hurt to return some of that sentiment?

Her general attitude towards the young queen seemed to have brighten as she treated her less like a constant source of annoyance and more towards one of mutual respect. The moment when this change really seemed to hit Adore was when Raven pushed her plate of fries between them at dinner, a silent offer to share, after seeing her eyeing them up a few times while they waited for the main course to arrive.

Almost like a switch, the one gesture inspired a slew of similar ones from Adore who seemed to be going out of her way to include Raven whenever she hung off of Bianca. This time around, Raven found the actions a bit more endearing and allowed herself to indulge Adore’s behavior every so often. There were still quite a few things that the young brunette did that absolutely annoyed the fuck out of Raven, loudness of course being a front-runner, but there were also little things that mitigated the irritation, such as the bright smile that usually accompanied her shouts of excitement. Before long the eye rolls had even stopped, at least when they normally would have been directed towards Adore.

By this time about ¾ of the US dates were finished and the full length of the UK tour was due to start in three days. The whole leg of this tour was to extend about two weeks, performing right up until their Christmas break, and then they’d pick up again in the US for the few remaining shows. A very welcomed reprieve had been worked into the schedule as soon as they arrived in Liverpool. The queen’ first show would be there the following night but for the next day and a half, they were free to roam the city and wreak their havoc across the pond. Raven had intended to do some site-seeing on her own but no sooner had the bus stopped before Adore was pulling her and Bianca onto the street and towards the shopping district. Phi Phi had joined them as well, wanting an excuse for both a spending spree and to play Pokemon Go in a new country but a raid battle caught her attention about 20 minutes in and off she went to join her fellow players.

Raven couldn’t help but to feel a little abandoned by that; Adore certainly wasn’t allowing her to leave anytime soon. Though she had to admit, she was a bit glad for the company, even if she wasn’t doing what she had planned. And Adore’s enthusiasm was infectious to a degree. Both Bianca and Raven found themselves with amused grins as she rushed from one store to the next window shopping until finally something caught her eye. It was a rather simple choker but undeniably one that meshed well with her style. Dark leather, row of short rounded spikes, thin chains draped into four loops, and finally a silver pendant with a simple Celtic knot as the focal point. Absolutely Adore’s current aesthetic, Raven thought as the young queen gawked at the accessory.

Without even a moment’s hesitation, Adore began reaching for her wallet when a horrified realization passed over her face as she felt the emptiness in her pocket. Letting out a loud groan, she recalled that her wallet, money included, had been left on the bus and tossed into one of drawers!

“Bullshit,” she declared unhappily as she pouted on her way out of the boutique.

Rolling her eyes, Bianca muttered, “Come on, I’ll buy your broke ass a beer awhile. We can stop back here tomorrow or something before the show.”

Still annoyed by her own carelessness, Adore grumbled a quick, “Thanks,” and followed after the older queen as she wandered off in the direction of some restaurants she spotted a little further off. Lagging behind for a moment, Raven took a final glance at the choker and vaguely wondered what was so special about it before brushing the whole thing off and speed walking to catch up with her fellow cast mates.

Phi Phi managed to rejoin the group as made their way to 'Tortilla’, apparently having been quite successful on both her raid and her own shopping venture. This produced a second wave of moodiness from Adore that only food seemed able to quell. In addition to the promised beer, Adore had also been provided a burrito bowl (vegetarian of course), as well as her own order of chips and salsa courtesy of all three of the older queens pitching in. Despite the abundance of food, somehow nearly half of Raven’s own nachos managed to find their way onto Adore’s plate and surprisingly, she was okay with that.

*************** The following day Raven expected Adore to rush off back to the boutique to pick up the necklace before they had to return to tour life but neither her nor Bianca mentioned any plans of it that morning. While she finally managed to work in some sight seeing on her own that day, she toyed with the idea of texting Bianca to remind the younger queen but eventually decided against it. There was no way Adore wouldn’t find her way back there, she was probably just waiting until closer to lunch since there was no lack of decent restaurants in the area to try. Firmly shoving the thought aside, Raven focused on enjoying some well-deserved peace and quiet. Even as the queens convened in the dressing room to begin painting for the show, she remained quite relaxed until a self-loathing moan resonated from across the room.

“We forgot the choker!” Adore lamented with a childish groan.

Bianca just rolled her eyes and continued to work on her makeup as she retorted, “We didn’t forget anything, you did.”

Adore snapped back some sort of whiny response but Raven found she was unable to fully concentrate. A small trace of her felt something akin to guilt. She knew what Adore was like; she should have just texted Bianca earlier and have been done with it. Now she was stuck listening to this bitching for the next hour and a half until the show starts and already it was beginning to work on her nerves.

Most of the girls ran through their routines undisturbed, occasionally offering a few words of comfort but ultimately they paid very little attention to the youngest among them. The more she thought about it, the more exasperated Raven became. If Adore wanted that necklace so badly, why she didn’t just duck out between sets? With a little rearranging of the line up and an effort to hurry there and back, it could certainly be done. For as much as she seemed to like that stupid choker, why didn’t she fight to go get it? To make time rather than sit back and have a pity-party?

It frustrated her more than words could describe. This was just another example of part of Adore’s personality that always seemed to bother her right down to the core. Having enough, Raven sped through the remainder of her make up and marched out of the dressing room. Like a girl on a mission, she tracked down the promoter and informed her in no uncertain terms that she would be going first and last tonight. She also stated that she would be leaving the venue for a short time with such a case of active bitch face she was practically daring the woman to try and tell her otherwise.

Thoroughly intimated by the queen in front of her, she simply nodded her head and ran off to inform all of the necessary parties of the change. Up until the moment her number began, Raven remained in a constant state of annoyance. She managed to hide her irritation behind a bright smile as she took to the stage but the second her number had finished, she was storming from the venue leaving a trail of confused queens and employees in her wake.

Hailing a cab, Raven returned to the shopping district in what felt like record time. She had a feeling that the driver might have been a bit afraid of her intense glare and simply wanted to get away from the aggravated queen as quickly as possible.

'Stupid’ was the word she repeated in her thoughts as she traversed through the crowds. Stupid fucking necklace. Stupid fucking Adore forgetting her wallet. Stupid fucking pouting. And stupid fucking her for dragging her fully painted self away from the show to buy this stupid fucking shit!

She could hardly call herself 'pleasant’ as she found the shop once more and immediately made her way to the display case. Scanning through the gaudy accessories, Raven spotted the one Adore had been fawning over and called on one of the shop assistants to retrieve it. While she tried her best to at least remain polite, she was quite aware that her tone came out just a bit sharp as she made the objectionable purchase. Timidly, the young assistant asked if she’d like it gift wrapped as well and the simple question completely blindsided the queen. Knowing she very well might regret it later, she replied with a heavy sigh, “Please.”

Still peeved, Raven made her way back to the theater in time for a quick costume change and touch up before her second number. No one dared to ask where she had disappeared to though Adore did comment that she was the only queen absent from the dressing room during the intermission. Raven just gave her a blank stare and replied vaguely that she had something to take care of. The young queen tried her best to interrogate her further but Raven remained tight-lipped throughout the remainder of the night.

She toyed with the idea of giving Adore the necklace then and there but no part of her wanted the other queens to know about the gift. She had a reputation after all and she didn’t want any questions being asked either. Instead she simply tossed the little box into her wardrobe bag and left it alone as the queens vacated the building. Her thoughts remained occupied as she debated on when would be the most appropriate time to slip the necklace in with Adore’s belongings without anyone else noticing but a sudden sea of giggling and swaying bodies pulled her out of her head-space.

She gazed around confused, trying to figure what was so amusing that everyone had clustered outside of the bus in the freezing cold until her eye finally caught sight of what everyone was staring at; a piece of faux mistletoe crudely taped above the entrance to the bus. A twitch in her eye and a sneer on her lips perfectly summed up her feelings as she watched a few of her fellow cast mates exchange showy kisses in front of flashing cameras and a semi-buzzed audience.

Releasing a long suffering sigh, she shook her head and circled back towards the building in the hopes of persuading the bar to let her buy one more drink before she had to leave with the children she was forced to call her peers.

Why in the hell did she sign on for this tour again?

************* Raven meant to find time the next day to transfer the necklace from her possession to Adore’s one way or another but somehow it seemed like the universe was plotting to make her wait. There never seemed to be a good opportunity; either Adore was hanging around too close or Raven just didn’t have the box with her when she finally had a moment of peace. The single time she did manage to get away from Adore and have the gift with her, Trixie and Dela were loitering around and would not leave for anything.

Pretty much the same thing happened for the next few days; there simply seemed to be no good time to sneak it in quietly. To say she was frustrated would be an understatement…

And by the end of the fourth day of this nonsense, Raven feared what she was planning had come to the other queens’ attention…Nearly every time she walked into a room there was a hushed whisper that stopped almost immediately once the other queens noticed her presence. The only two that seemed unaffected by this were Bianca and Adore…until one night Raven had walked into their shared dressing room only to be met by a pair of icy stares. Adore quickly turned away from her, clearly irritated by some unknown reason, while Bianca kept her glare focused on the younger queen. Wordlessly Raven slipped away to find another room to get ready in.

Deciding to try with Jinkx and Dela, Raven wandered towards the opposite end of the hall and wondered what the hell she had stumbled upon back there. As she passed by the semi closed door to Phi Phi and Ginger’s room, their muffled conversation caught her attention.

“Listen, I’m not trying to play Devil’s advocate here,” Ginger began calmly, “I’m just saying that World of Wonder knows how to edit shit and make it sound a whole lot worse than how it actually came out during the filming…look at what they did to you after all…”

“Okay, fine,” Phi Phi consented in a huff, “But they can’t just create a sound bite out of thin air!…The queen has to actually say something for them to pull it from and that? Even on its own; that was harsh…even for Raven.”

“She’s allowed to have her own opinion…that’s the whole point of the show, isn’t it?” Ginger gently reminded her.

“I’m not saying she can’t have her own opinion, just…how she said it…that was over the line…just cause you don’t like another queen’s style doesn’t mean you should just rip her to shreds, especially for the whole world to see!… Sisters shouldn’t be doing that to each other…”

“I agree but-”

That was all Raven could stand to hear before rushing down the hall to find an empty room, any room! She didn’t care if it was a utilities closet, she just wanted to be alone. From the small fragment of conversation she overheard, she could pretty much piece together the sequence of events. Prior to leaving for the tour she had filmed a few general, nondescript Photo Ruviews for WOW to release while she was gone…she remembered very well that Adore had appeared in at least one of those episodes. That one must have been released and the queens decided to watch it…and share it with one another of course. It finally must have made its way to Adore and Bianca and needless to say; they weren’t happy.

And from the brief snippet she heard, there seemed to be some dissension over who was in the right and who was in the wrong. Some of the other queens might be on her side but not the one that matters…not Adore.

Finding a vacant dressing room across from Jinkx and Dela, Raven sequestered herself there for the rest of the night apart from when she had to be on stage. No one seemed inclined to come find her and that was fine…at least that’s what she assured herself of. It gave her time watch the video just to get an idea of how the final edit came out. The outfit in question was one that was posted several weeks ago but was trying to lend itself as an early Christmas-themed look. Red and green were the primary colors but it had been clear the outfit was just thrown together from separate pieces.

The cut of the ruby red top was somewhere between a cami and tank top stopping just above the midriff and perhaps a little too loose for someone with Adore’s body type. The pleather skirt at least was a bit truer to her actual size but the green that had been used leant itself more towards pastel territory rather than the traditional forest green associated with Christmas. Lights that had surrounded her were reflecting brightly off of the skirt and the almost but not quite matching green elbow length gloves. The bottom hem of skirt was lined with white faux-fur and contrasted sharply with the black combat boots that appeared just above the border of the picture. A bright red bow stuck to her hair had been the final 'accessory’ yet the outfit taken as a whole, despite the fun, cutesy appearance, just looked cheap to Raven’s mind…and she certainly let everyone know.

Trying her best to remain objective as she watched the review, Raven couldn’t help but feel that she wasn’t going in on Adore any harsher than she had for the other queens, at least for this episode. Maybe overall the commentary was a bit more snarky than usual but that’s her brand; fans expect that from her at this point.

Coming upon the end of Adore’s segment, Raven was giving her final thoughts; a clear boot to Raja’s toot. Raja was much more lenient when it came to Adore, she recognized the differences in their aesthetics and tried to accommodate that, even doing her best to convince Raven to see the finer points of the vaguely holiday-themed outfit, “I mean, she’s got the green in her hair, too…that beautiful ombré emerald green…It’s classic Adore, right there-

"Maybe that’s the problem,” Raven cut in.

And cut in it certainly was. She might not remember everything that had come out of her mouth during the review but she certainly knew that that sound bite had been cut and pieced together right at the end to create a far different tone of commentary that what she actually said. The true flow of their conversation had gone more like, “I mean, she’s got the green in her hair…that beautiful ombré emerald green…”

“Maybe that’s the problem…the green is different…the mantis green looks more like Easter than Christmas.”

Of course with the wonderful job of editing that WOW had performed it sounded like Raven was implying that it was simply Adore that was the problem. Her case wasn’t helped by the next clip they immediately followed up with; “I don’t know…it just seems…lazy to me.”

That was probably the final straw for Adore…Raven knew how much she disliked being called lazy…They exchanged more than a few words via text and social media regarding that and similar sentiments. But that was what Raven liked; polished, planned, put-together drag…anything less just seemed to scream lack of effort on the other queen’s part.

Raven wasn’t going to apologize for that. There was nothing wrong with liking a certain style of drag over another and she wasn’t going to take back her comments…Adore was just being too sensitive. Raven had done nothing wrong; she simply did her job and critiqued the outfit the same way she had done for the other queens that episode. Adore was acting like a child and needed to get over herself because no matter what, Raven was not going to recant her opinion. No matter how much the other queens might be against her.

************** The coming days were challenging to say the least. No matter where she went, Raven felt at best unwanted and at worst just downright targeted. The atmosphere was tense and stormy whenever she happened to enter a room, particularly if Adore was also in there. Most of the queens did try their best to remain neutral yet their favor still seemed to fall to Adore rather than her.

Whatever.

It’s not like this was anything new. This was how the tour started anyway; on her own, just biding her time till she could call it a wrap and return home with another paycheck and new stories to tell. She didn’t need the other queens to like her but still…if they could stop treating her like she had fucking murdered someone, that’d be fucking awesome.

In her isolation, Raven turned into the bitter, somewhat petty queen most everyone knew her as. She remained polite but frigid and soon even basic manners were becoming a struggle. This was due in large part to the sarcastic comments spilling from Adore’s mouth nearly every time they were near one another. Raven simply rolled her eyes but gradually they were beginning to truly test her patience. Adore was still acting like such a fucking child! If she has a problem, she needs to grow a pair and confront Raven, not mutter behind her back like they were in fucking high school again.

This was just fucking ridiculous. Weren’t they all adults?

The Christmas break couldn’t get here soon enough…just four more days. Maybe by the time they all return, Adore will have matured a little and they might be able to talk about it. It wasn’t that Raven hadn’t tried once already. Admittedly it was a shitty attempt but between the glares from both Adore and Bianca as she tried to speak; she wasn’t really inclined to put much effort into it after that.

Well, she wasn’t the one with the problem. If Adore wants to act like a brat, fine. Raven has thick skin, she can handle a bit of bitchiness…even if some others couldn’t.

Though most venues they had used up until now had enough rooms to allow for single or even double occupants; a few of the buildings weren’t so fortunate in their design and one large communal dressing room was provided to the queens. It was at one of these shows that Adore and Raven’s Cold War came to a head.

The performance itself had been completed without any major catastrophes; the worst moment being when a small portion of Phi Phi’s dress became entangled with one of Katya’s garish accessories as they passed each other while getting on and off the stage respectively. Aside from that it was a pretty typical night; each queen performed their heart out, took photos with the fans at the meet and greet, sold some merch, and finally they were excused to de-drag in the back.

An after-show cocktail wasn’t an uncommon sight in the dressing room. Neither was a pre-show or during-the-show drink for that matter. Raven had indulged a bit herself but she was far from tipsy…just had a nice little buzz going to get her through the rest of the night. Adore on the other hand had been a bit over served…and that liquid confidence, courtesy of a few too many shots of Fireball, led her to be far more vocal of her discontent with the older queen.

It began with a few curt remarks, easily ignored by Raven, but as the minutes ticked by and Adore’s BAC rose; they had become downright disrespectful and finally Raven snapped back. She had tried to remain level-headed for too long and the alcohol in her system blocked any sort of rational thought from forming. All she knew was that she was pissed and she was not going to put up with Adore’s juvenile behavior any longer. She was more than ready to let the younger queen finally have it!

In front of everyone the pair descended into such a state of bickering that even the venue’s staff came to investigate the source of the yelling. One of the other queens, probably Ginger or Jinkx dismissed them, but the rest of the cast simply sat shell-shocked at the abuse Raven and Adore were throwing at one another…at least everyone aside from Bianca, who simply sat back with her eyes calmly flicking from one screaming queen to the next.

“You’ve got no problem saying 'I don’t give a fuck’ but then when someone finally does say something; you just turn into a pissy little brat and throw a fucking tantrum!”

“Fuck you!” Adore shouted back with absolute malice filling her words, “Where do you get off tearing apart my drag just cause you don’t like it? I don’t like that fucking chisel you take to your nose but do you see me going off on it?”

“At least I know how to contour a fucking face! You just slap on an overdrawn lip and a pair of lashes and call it drag! Half the time it doesn’t even look like you shave! Might as well just start calling you fucking 'Willam’!”

The last comment seemed to really strike a nerve and for a moment Adore visibly faltered. Her eyes darted to Bianca and for some strange reason it simply enraged Raven further. With the most disgusted sneer she could ever recall wearing, she spat out, “What? You need Bianca to fight your battle now? God, that is so fucking-”

'Don’t say it, bitch,’ Bianca’s glower seemed to say as she swiftly rose to her feet .

“-lazy!” she finished in a tone of pure contempt.

“Enough!” Bianca interjected as she moved between the two queens. Turning to her fellow cast mates, she ordered, “Everyone else, out!”

Almost immediately, the other occupants of the room began scrambling to collect their belongings and vacate the scene as fast as humanly possible. With a trace of a whine in her voice, Katya complained, “I want to see what happens!”

“No, you don’t!” no less than three queens assured her as they ushered her into the hallway.

Rounding on the remaining pair, Bianca asserted harshly, “You two are going to figure out your shit right now! I am not spending the rest of this goddamn tour listening to your whiny-assed, petty squabbling. I don’t deserve it and neither do those other bitches out there! Now you two are going to fucking talk to each other and you will not leave this room until you can at least act like there’s civil fucking adults beneath all this fucking bullshit!”

With that final command, the older queen marched out of the room and shouted to some unseen spectators, “Find somewhere else to be!”

A quick scrambling of feet down the hall was heard for a mere second before the door was slammed shut and the two heated queens were left to face one another in relative silence. Raven’s gaze shot briefly to the space Bianca had disappeared through and gave serious thought to simply leaving Adore to wallow in her own alcohol-induced rage.

After a few moments of intense glaring, Adore stated in a slow, resolute voice, “I’m not lazy.”

Raven’s mouth opened for another smartass retort but she stopped herself the instant she took a real, honest to God look at Adore’s face. The younger queen was angry…absolutely furious as she glared at Raven with a wavering, whiskey-fueled scowl…but beneath that, she was also hurt…just really fucking hurt, even betrayed, by what Raven had said and it was those steadily flooding eyes that finally made Raven realize just how badly she had fucked this whole situation up. She felt like an absolute beast and it took Adore almost in tears for her to see how much of cunt she could really be at times…

Any residual anger she might have still felt slowly died away until all that was left was shame and utter remorse. She knew what she needed to do. Allowing her walls to crack, just for a moment, she sighed, “Sit down…”

Adore solidly refused to move, her expression shifting to one of deep distrust until Raven added in a soft, almost begging, “Please…”

The younger queen gave a tense swallow, side-eyeing Raven suspiciously before eventually dropping down onto the couch with an air of heavy reluctance. Taking a seat on the opposite end, Raven began speaking in a heavy, guilt-laden voice, “Danny, listen…I’m sorry…That video…It was pretty edited, but what I said, the entire thing…it…it really wasn’t much better than what made the final cut. I crossed a line…a few actually…People, the fans; they expect me to be the bitch and read other queens for filth and I…I play into it…too much sometimes…but what I said that day, that was still uncalled for…”

Leaning just a little bit closer, Raven gazed steadily into Adore’s eyes as she admitted, “I don’t always like or get your style of drag but that shouldn’t matter. I need to respect it all the same. I’m going to do better with that from now on, I swear…You’ve…really become an amazing performer with your own unique brand and you should be proud of that…You don’t deserve to have anyone try and tear you down, especially a sister…I’m really sorry.”

Adore was shocked by the admission. She sat wide-eyed and slacked-jaw for a few seconds as she processed everything Raven had just said. Fiddling with a stray lock of hair as her eyes dropped to the couch, she muttered, “Wasn’t expecting that…for you to apologize…I really wanted to bitch you out or have Bianca do it…”

Reconnecting their gaze, she added in softly, “I’m sorry, too…I know I can be a little oversensitive…I just…I hate that word. I know it doesn’t always look like it but I try…I try really fucking hard-”

“I know you do,” Raven interjected with a cordial smile.

Returning the gesture, Adore mumbled, “Thanks…for saying all that.”

“I mean it…I’m gonna do better by you…I was out of line and I needed something to reel me back in.” Standing up and walking towards the door, Raven stated, “I’ll go tell Bianca we’re fine now…we are, right?”

Nodding her head, Adore gave a quiet noise of affirmation and returned back to her own work station to remove the remainder of that night’s makeup. The last few days of the UK dates ran their course and all of the queens returned to some semblance of normality with one another. Things still felt a little awkward at times but Raven was sure that once they reconvened in the US, they’d be just fine with one another, at least for the duration of the tour.

While she was packing her wardrobe after the final show, Raven found the jewelry box still mixed in with her belongings. She never did find a good time to slip it into Adore’s bags. Clutching the small gift in her hand, she resolved to make sure this found its way into Adore’s possession before they left for the states.

Walking from the venue with her luggage all packed, she found Adore loitering outside of the bus getting in one final smoke break before they all left for the airport. Disregarding the heavy scent of weed wafting from the younger queen, Raven called out for Adore’s attention as she took her place by her side.

“Danny! Um…here,” Raven said quickly as she all but shoved the gift into Adore’s confused grasp. “…I know you’ve probably forgotten about this by now but I’ve had it for while, waiting to give it to you…”

Flicking the remainder of the blunt aside, Adore turned over the box with a hint of suspicion as she examined the wrappings. Refusing to look directly at her, Raven mentioned, “You can wait until Christmas to open it if you want…or now,” she muttered with a sarcastic eye roll as Adore eagerly began tearing off the paper.

The young brunette pulled in a sharp intake of air she flipped open the top of the box and peered inside. Anxiously, Raven asked quietly, “…Is that the right one?”

It wasn’t. The leather was the wrong color; dark espresso instead of the black Adore favored but it didn’t matter. The thought and effort that went into it; that’swhat mattered.

“It’s perfect,” Adore replied honestly as she bit back a smile.

Raven returned the sentiment with a nervous grin of her own, mumbling, “Glad you like it,” before turning away to focus on her baggage again.

She was almost ready to begin packaging everything in the storage hold when Adore caught her arm in a steadfast grip. Clumsily, the young queen dragged them both beneath the entrance to the bus and pressed a fleeting kiss to Raven’s burning cheek. Truly shocked, Raven wondered what that was all was about until she felt her eyes travel upward…That stupid fucking mistletoe was still taped above the door…

Forcing down a thick swallow, Raven stood in a stunned silence. She had no idea how to interpret Adore’s actions but the next kiss made things a little bit clearer. A pair of lips were placed over hers in a cautious yet confident motion. Her eyes slowly slid shut as she pulled the smaller body close to hers and deepened the kiss.

She felt like she was on cloud nine until a loud chorus of “Aww” swiftly drew her back into reality.

Scowl firmly in place, she looked up to find a row of heads either sticking out from the windows or firmly pressed to the glass as sickeningly sweet smiles remained plastered on their faces…well, all except for one.

“Get a fucking room! You’re not doing any of that shit on the bus!” Bianca called out with a resolute warning in her voice.

Raven raised a hand to flip all of them off with equal hatred but fell short as Adore buried her face into her neck to hide her growing embarrassment. The younger queen shook against her with nervous laughter before turning her head up with a helpless 'we’re totally caught’ smile just for Raven to see.

Unwillingly, Raven’s body relaxed into Adore’s as the arm she left wrapped around the younger queen’s waist pulled her in tight. Her initial annoyance had faded immensely as Adore leant in for another quick peck before resting their foreheads together. If this was what she could look forward to for the foreseeable future, she would gladly let the other queens watch for as long as they wanted. She already had her own early Christmas gift, why not share it for everyone else to see?

[artificialqueens]

Imperium (Shalaska Centric) - Ch.3 - India

Hi guy’s. Sorry for the long wait for this next chapter but I’ve been really busy with work and therapy and stuff. I really hop you guys like this chapter and I’m going to update more often. I’m so sorry again.

A huge thanks to Eevee who helped with betaing this. I could’ve never finished this without her and I probably wouldn’t have started this without her either. So thank you so much Eevee!

—

Click here to know more about Imperium

—

Bold + Italics = Telepathy

Willow = Willam

Philomena = Phi Phi

All telepathic communication will hold the initial of their first names, to avoid confusion, except for raja and pearl. Raja is rg and pearl is pl.

“You ran away?” Sharon asked, pointing at Alaska for emphasis.

“Uh… yes?” Alaska replied, suddenly unsure of herself.

“You’re telling me, you, ran away.” Sharon asked once more, putting a slight emphasis on the word you.

“Yeah…” Alaska replied, looking down at her lap.

Sharon just stared at her for a few more seconds before bursting into laughter, a confused Alaska watching her flop around like a fish out of water.

“You. You… ran away!” Sharon exclaimed after managing to calm down, only to burst into laughter once more.

“I don’t see why that’s funny…” Alaska mumbled, crossing her arms and facing away from Sharon.

“You’re so tiny! How could you possibly run away?” Sharon snickered, vaguely motioning at Alaska for emphasis. Alaska winced, insulted.

“Oh, you were serious…” Sharon choked out, covering her mouth with her hand to stop herself from laughing again.

“Of course I was serious; why would I be joking about this?” Alaska snapped, still facing the other way.

“I don’t know. Maybe the fact that your stupid leader doesn’t let you do shit for yourselves? I mean, you’re practically held captive there.” Sharon replies, using almost the same tone as Alaska, but a little softer.

“That’s exactly why I tried to leave…” Alaska said softly.

“Oh…”

“I never meant to crash here. I was going to try to make it to earth but your planet pulled me towards it like metal to a magnet…”

“What’s… a magnet?”

“It’s like a stone that pulls stuff towards it… I’ll explain later…” Alaska began to explain but trailed off when she saw Sharon’s lost expression.

“I don’t think you’ll have a ‘later,’ sweetheart. After Raja wakes up, you can expect all hell to break loose for you…” Sharon muttered and looked away.

“So you mean, that wasn’t hell?” Alaska asked, her eyes widening as she remembered what just happened.

“Barely scraped it, sweetheart…”

—

“I’m going to kill her; I am going to kill her!” Raja yelled, hurling a bottle across the room, which shattered and sent shards flying everywhere.

“Raj-”

“Where is she?!”

“Babe-”

“She’s with Sharon isn’t she?”

“Yes…” Bianca mumbled

“WHAT!? WHY?” Raja yelled, snapping her neck towards Bianca so fast that you could hear it.

“Bianca told Sharon to take her…” Violet piped up but immediately simmered down when Raja’s gaze fell on her

“Thanks a lot, Vi.” Bianca muttered under her breath so that only Violet could hear

“Raja-” Raven tried to speak, getting cut off by Raja once again

“Where the fuck is Sharon?”

“With Alaska, duh.” Bianca said, slapping a hand over her mouth as she realized what she just said.

“What was that?”

“Nothing, Bianca said nothing, right Bianca?” Violet said, smiling and gritting her teeth.

“Uh… haha, yeah…”

“I swear, one more snarky remark out of you-”

“RAJA, CALM DOWN!” Raven yelled, finally being able to get a word in, while Violet and Bianca stood in the corner, terrified and thinking about what could’ve happened if Raven didn’t intervene.

“Calm down? You want me to calm down?  Do you even know what happened to me? Fuck, I don’t even know what happened to me!”

“Oh boy…” Bianca mumbled from the corner of the room, watching Raja go off on a tangent again, while Violet snickered.

Raja turned, about to say something to Bianca and Violet again before Raven grabbed her face and pulled it down to meet her lips, both of them eventually leaning into one another, enjoying the feel of each others lips, pausing and leaning their foreheads against each other when Bianca cleared her throat.

“I hate you…” Raja said, letting out a laugh all while smiling down at Raven

“I hate you too…”

“I’m still going to kill her though.”

“I never said I had a problem with that…”

“Aww, ew, gross…” Violet piped up.

“Oh shush, Violet, you know how you get with Pearl…” Raja murmured before reclaiming Raven’s lips, Violet blushing in the corner.

—

‘Shar, Raja wants to see you…’ –v

‘She’s awake?’ –s

‘Nooo, she’s dead! Yes, she’s awake!’ –v

‘Oh okay…’ –s

‘Sharon… she wants to see you now…’ –v

‘Oh shit, okay, sorry, I’m coming…’ – s

“Pheef!” Sharon shouted, Philomena running into the room moments later.

“Yes, your highness?”

“Make sure Alaska doesn’t go anywhere, I have to go see Raja…” Sharon sighed before pushing herself off her throne, watching Alaska stare at her from the chair she was sitting in.

“Nothing will happen to you…” Sharon said, rolling her eyes at Alaska, before walking out.

“…you’re so dead.” Philomena said to Alaska the minute Sharon left the room before letting out a small chuckle.

“N-no I’m not…” Alaska muttered, trying not to think of what was to come.

“Honey, you witnessed what Raven could do, now multiply that by 10. That’s Raja.” Philomena said, crouching down with her hands on her knees in order to directly face Alaska.

“Shut up…”

“You’re still dead…” Philomena snickered.

‘Pheef, I can hear you, stop scaring her’ -s

‘Stop scaring HER?’ -p

‘Yeah.’ -s

‘Why?’ -p

‘Because… I don’t know, just stop.’ -s

‘You’re weird…’ -p

‘Thanks.’ -s

‘Whatever…’ -p

Sharon stayed silent on her way to Raja’s palace contemplating what exactly Raja had called her for. One one hand, it could go really well and nothing disastrous could come of it but on the other hand, what Philomena said could be true and Raja could be really mad. She began picking at her fingers, something she did when she got nervous, and it was something that happened a lot.

After a while of Sharon nervously arguing with herself, they finally reached. Sharon got out and straightened her clothes before walking up the stairs and heading straight to Raja’s office, almost tripping over the carpet with every few steps that she took. Once she finally made it to where she had to be, she let out a few breaths before noticing the door was slightly ajar. She could make out the silhouette of Bianca pacing around the room, Violet leaning against the wall and Raja playing around with Raven’s hands, who had propped herself on the table in front of Raja. Sharon contemplated going in at all until she heard Raja call out her name.

Fuck.

“You… uh… you called?” Sharon asked, playing with her fingers once again

“Yes, yes I did.” Raja said, pushing herself off her throne and beginning to move towards Sharon, only to be pulled back onto the table by Raven so that Raja wouldn’t do something she would regret.

“May I ask-”

“Why? No, because I’m going to tell you why.”

“O-okay…”

“You have Alaska…,” Raja paused and looked over to Raven to make sure she got the Glamazon’s name right before continuing, “in your palace don’t you?”

“I…”

“There’s no point denying it Sharon. I get to know about everything.”

“She’s just lost…”

“I don’t care Sharon. Did you see what she did? The fact is, you have someone who nearly killed me under your roof.”

“But… you’re immortal…”

“NOT the point, Sharon!” Raja said through gritted teeth, clearly becoming frustrated now.

“Philomena’s there with her, she won’t do anything…”

“Sharon, they’re playing fucking pattycakes!”

Violet snickered after hearing the last sentence which caused Bianca to burst into laughter, earning a confused glare from Sharon and an angry one from Raja.

“You know what, forget it, just take me to her…”

“But-”

“I wasn’t asking, Sharon!”

[artificialqueens]

Imperium (Shalaska Centric) - Ch.2 - India

*ADMIN NOTE: CHAPTER 1 OF THIS FIC HAS MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED. IF YOU ARE THE AUTHOR, FEEL FREE TO RESUBMIT.*

Hey guys, so here’s chapter 2 of my little… creation😂

As usual, I hope you guys enjoy this, any feedback is appreciated❤️

A huge thanks to eevee for helping me out with this, I don’t know if this would’ve even gone up without her❤️❤️❤️

Love,

India

—

Fact : Reproduction is a ceremony that involves the exchanging of blood in the presence of the sacred relics

In order to know more about the world on characters, click on what you wanna see –

Raja+Raven, Mind, Matter, Nature, Imperium

—

Bold + Italics = Telepathy

Willow = Willam

Philomena = Phi Phi

All telepathic communication will hold the initial of their first names, to avoid confusion, except for raja and pearl. Raja is rg and pearl is pl.

‘Raj…?’ ~s

After not getting an immediate reply from the empress, Sharon turned her head back to the scene so fast, you could hear her bones crack.

“What the fuck?”

As soon as Sharon turned around, the first thing she saw was Raja laying on the ground, unconscious, and Alaska, who had scooted to the back of the cell, holding her hands over her mouth. Willow was crouched over Raja, trying to get a reaction out of her while the other three guards had rushed out of the cell, presumably to fetch Violet and Bianca.

‘Raven. RAVEN!’ ~s

‘God, no need to shout… what is it?’ ~r

‘You need to come to the cells’ ~s

‘What? But we’re in the middle of checking the queendoms.’ ~r

‘Leave that to Pearl and Katya, you need to get here right now.’ ~s

‘What-’ ~r

‘NOW!’ ~s

Sharon frantically looked around the cell, her eyes moving from Raja to Willow and then to Alaska. Alaska.

Sharon made her way to the back of the cell, her mind clouded with anger and confusion, where a frightened Alaska sat, a hand still clamped over her mouth. Sharon grabbed Alaska’s shirt, pulling her off the chair.

“What did you do!?” Sharon yelled, vaguely motioning to the scene with her free hand.

“I don’t know, I’m sorry!”

“What do you mean you don’t know? You caused this!”

“I don’t have control over my powers!”

“But, but they’re your powers, what do you mean- you can’t just- How do you not have control over your own powers!?”

Letting out a whine of frustration, Sharon let go of Alaska, shoving her backwards slightly, and running a hand over her face. She closed her eyes for a few seconds before she heard footsteps coming down the hall and then Raven’s voice, which got louder as she got closer.

“Sharon, you better have a good reason for making me leave our- WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK?!”

Raven ran over to Raja’s side and breathed a sigh of relief when she noticed Raja was still breathing. After a few seconds of making sure Raja was okay, Raven’s head snapped up, and if looks could kill, Sharon swore she would’ve been six feet under.

“Who did this?” Raven asked, her voice loud and demanding.

“W-what?” Sharon replied, immediately feeling stupid after. It was a straightforward question but Raven’s fury had her glued to her spot in fear.

“Who. Did. This?” Raven asked once more, putting an emphasis on each word this time.

Once again, Sharon didn’t answer the question and simply stared at her feet while Raven’s fury continued to grow. Raven gave the room a quick once over before trailing her eyes back to Alaska, who was now visibly shaking.

“You. What the fuck did you do?” Raven asked Alaska, moving one step closer to her and making a clear indention on the ground beneath her, her eyes never leaving the Glamazon.

“I didn’t do anything…” Alaska whimpered, trying to scoot back into the wall even more. At this point, Raven had flung the table and chair to the side with a considerable amount of force so that not only the table and chair broke, but the wall managed to crack as well.

“YOU’RE LYING!” Raven yelled, her voice growing louder as each moment passed. Sharon watched on with wide eyes, frozen to her spot, and before she knew it, Raven had Alaska in a chokehold.

“I’m s-sorry… I-I don’t know w-what I did…” Alaska managed to choke out, her face turning bluer by the second.

“BULLSHIT!” Raven roared and tightened her grip on Alaska’s throat, fury dancing in her eyes and in one swift move, Raven’s hand was engulfed in flames.

Sharon looked on with frightful eyes, however, her fright slowly turned into confusion when she realised that Alaska wasn’t getting harmed, and what puzzled her even more was when Raven yelped and let go of her grip on Alaska, frantically blowing on her hand as the fire completely died out.

Did she just… burn herself?

Okay, I’ve had just about enough of you…” Raven growled, making a move towards Alaska once more.

“No.” Sharon said without thinking. Fuck.

“What?” Raven replied, turning her head slowly to face Sharon

“No.” Sharon repeated, mentally slapping herself after.

“What do you mean no” Raven said, her voice low and dangerous.

“I mean no. N-O, no.” Sharon replied, once again, making a mental note to kick herself later.

“How you could you possibly want to save her?” Raven said, disgust lacing her voice.

“I’m not trying to save her…”

“Well, it sure as hell looks like you are!”

“I-I…”

“You what Sharon? Do you not see my wife laying half dead on the floor?!” Raven yelled, looking more upset than angry at this point.

“Raj? Rave? Oh god, Raven…” Bianca rushed into the cell, and after noticing Raven’s crestfallen appearance, she immediately wrapped her arms around Raven, rubbing circles on her back. Violet soon followed with Courtney and Fame behind her.

Sharon took in the scene around her. Violet was creating a bed of air under Raja, carefully lifting her up. The table and chair were now almost non-existent since they had been completely smashed to pieces. Alaska sat in a corner of the cell, silent as ever and her legs pulled up to her chest. Sharon desperately wanted to give her shoulder a reassuring squeeze, but mentally scolded herself for thinking of that.

Eventually, her eyes landed on Bianca and Raven once again, Bianca still holding Raven, who was now silently trembling. Sharon moved closer towards them only to realize Raven’s eyes were bleeding with pain, leaving lines of tears travelling down her face.

Fuck. Raven never cried, or showed any emotion for that matter, and when she did, it was only to Raja. She tried reaching out to rest her hand on Raven’s shoulder, but immediately retracted it once Bianca shot her a look.

‘B, is… is Rave okay?’ ~s

‘What do you think?’ ~b

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-’ ~s

‘Look Shar, just take that thing out of here…’ ~b

‘Are you sure-’ ~s

‘Shar, unless you want blood on your hands, please just take her and leave.’ ~b

—

“Katya. Do you have any idea what we’re supposed to be doing?” Pearl whispered, leaning closer to Katya as Philomena desperately tried to get the ceremony under control.

“No, they do all the talking remember, we just sit here…” Katya replied in the same tone as Pearl.

“Do you not pay attention, then?”

“No Pearl, do you?”

“Pearl! Katya! The relic is reacting, what happens next?” Phi Phi turned to them with a frantic look on her face.

“Uhh… fuck, Pearl, what does that mean?”

“I don’t know, I come for the food!”

“We… we don’t get food…”

“Guys, what do I do?!” Philomena asked once again, interrupting Katya and Pearl’s conversation.

“Fuck, I don’t know, tell them to stand with their queendom I guess?” Katya replied, the answer sounding more like a question but Philomena obeyed nonetheless.

‘Katya!’ ~p

‘Yeah, Pheef?’ ~k

‘Can we reschedule this?’ ~p

‘No! Raja would kill us! Speaking of, where is everyone, where did Raven go?’ ~k

‘Oh, the Glamazon caused some trouble, but we’re fine cause I don’t think anyone died…’ ~p

“You doN’T THINK?!” Katya yelled, not realising she’d said it out loud.

“I think I want foo- Violet, I mean Violet…”

“PEARL!”

“I’M SORRY FOR LOVING MY WIFE, JEEZ.”

—

“I-I ran away.” Alaska muttered as she and Sharon headed back to the Queendom of Mind in her ‘car’.

“What?” Sharon replied, her head snapping up. Alaska hadn’t spoken for a while since her run-in with Raven so for those to be her first words, Sharon was a bit confused.

“I ran away.” Alaska repeated with more confidence, turning her head to look at Sharon.

[artificialqueens]

A Head, A Heart, & A Crown {Biadore} Chapter 15 -C*NT

A/N: I apologize, because this seems like a much shorter chapter then usual. I feel like it is anyway. But we are definitley near the end of the story now, sadly. Probably only 2, maybe 3 more chapters at the most. Sorry if it is shorter then what you were all expecting, buuut I think this chapter will make some of you happy…at least for a little bit. TW: Smoking weed, um…I don’t think it’s really classified as smut but some intimacy somewhat happens? Anyway enjoy! ❤️✨

Bianca stared blankly at Courtney as she rolled the up the window in the Mercedes Benz.

Fuck, she was right.

Courtney’s voice had somehow managed to make its way through the recesses of Bianca’s drunken mind.

Watch yourself queen, Bianca thought, hearing the words echoing in her mind.

She’s set to marry someone else. It’s over. Fucking leave it to Courtney to bring down the mood. She looked at Adore, who was taking selfies slouched over in the car without a care in the world. She cracked a small smile.

The driver was putting Bianca’s address into his phone when she spotted Courtney still standing there in front of the club.

She rolled down the window again as the Lyft began to drive away. She was feeling mischievous.

“Courtney you’re such a fucking buzzkill!” Bianca yelled. Courtney jumped and cursed, throwing her middle finger up as the Benz turned the corner.

Adore’s bubbly laugh broke the silence in the Lyft as they began to drive away. Bianca smirked.

“Yeah, you like that?” Bianca laughed.

“I thought I was the only one that thought Court was a buzzkill. She’s so lameee.” Adore drawled out the word lame.

They giggled together and soon silence filled the cab again.

“Am I still coming over tomorrow?” Bianca asked.

“Yeah bitch! Pizza remember?” Adore exclaimed.

Of course, that’s what she remembers the fucking pizza Bianca thought.

They pulled up in front of the apartment and slid out of the vehicle. They thanked the driver and left a $20 bill on the seat.

The queens walked up the steps to the apartment complex. They approached the elevator, waiting for the doors to open to allow them to be lifted to her floor. Bianca grabbed Adore’s arm as she started to sway to the side, losing her balance. The elevator dinged and they entered it trying not to be too obnoxious and loud, but failing miserably. When they reached her floor, Bianca continued to drag Adore slowly through the hallway until they finally reached her apartment. She then started fumbling through her purse to find her keys.

“God, I know they’re in here somewhere, shit.” Bianca cursed as she clawed around the bottom of her purse.

“Hurry up B I have to pee!” Adore whined as she leaned against the wall in the hallway.

She finally felt the cold metal on her hands after what felt like forever.

“Will you shut up? I got them.” Bianca hissed as she tried putting the key into the door. It took a few times to actually get it in the hole, after a few more failed attempts she was finally successful. She twisted the lock and pushed the door open.

Bianca walked in, turning on all of the lights and seeing her dogs jump up excitedly as they greeted her. Strange that they weren’t barking as they hadn’t seen Adore in over a year.

“Adore?” Bianca called.

Adore hadn’t come in yet, she realized. She grabbed the dogs, put them in their travel carrier and set them in the guest room for the moment.

She walked back outside to see a pale looking Adore, leaning her head against the wall sitting cross legged.

“Come on, let’s go inside.” Bianca had went to grab Adore’s arm and instead, lost her balance. She tried to break her fall and slide against the wall next to Adore, but ended up landing right onto her lap.

Adore jumped, startled by the older queen who was now only inches away from her face. Everything was spinning from the alcohol still, but she could see Bianca’s dark brown eyes clearly.

What was she thinking? Dancing with Bianca like that? I mean, she’s incredibly drunk so she has an excuse but she’s engaged now. Phi Phi would not be happy if she found out.

At this particular moment in time however, Adore didn’t give a fuck about what Phi Phi thought. She had ditched her on what could be the most amazing day of her life if she wins, all because she thought she got a bad edit. It was fucked up. This was the first time all night she wasn’t unhappy.

“Sorry…” Bianca hesitated staring into Adore’s eyes, cupping her face. Her eyes were green, which usually meant she was happy but her pupils were so large that she probably wasn’t seeing her at all. The color probably meant nothing.

All she wanted to do was kiss her.

She was drunk enough; she might not even remember Bianca thought.

Right?

“Are you okay?” Adore asked softly, breaking Bianca out of her trance.

No she could not kiss her. Adore was marrying Phi Phi, not her.

“Yeah, sorry. I didn’t mean to fall. Here let’s go inside.” Bianca apologized, getting up.

“B, I can’t walk.” Adore cracked a smile. She couldn’t even really see very well, unless she was incredibly close to whatever it was she was trying to look at. Since she was unfamiliar with her surroundings right now, All she could really do was hear Bianca. It had been a long time since she had been here.

“Well, looks like you’re coming for a ride then queen.” Bianca chirped as she pulled Adore up by the torso. She put her arms under her knees and lifted her up into her chest as she stepped inside the apartment. She closed the front door with her leg and walked her to the bathroom, staggering a few times. Bianca was still drunk, but she knew how to handle her alcohol better. She set her down on the toilet, and watched her start to tilt sideways.

“No, no. You have to untuck queen. And wash off your makeup. You don’t want to look like me at just 28 years old, that shit cannot sit on your face all night.” Bianca fussed. She was still having a hard time focusing, she was still drunk as well, although starting to sober up. The light in the bathroom was too bright for her liking but she didn’t have any other option at the moment.

“Can you do it?” Adore whined.

Bianca hesitated.

“Adore, I don’t think Jaremi would appreciate that.”

“Fuck him.” Adore rolled her eyes.

Bianca had boundaries. She would never home wreck, as much as she wanted to in this moment she wouldn’t do that to someone.

“I’ll take your makeup and hair off, how about that?”

“Whatever.” Adore mumbled. She leaned her head against the mirror closing her eyes.

Bianca gently lifted the lace front off Adore’s head, turning her back into Danny just like that. She opened one of her drawers in the bathroom and got one of her makeup wipes. She started gently wiping the younger queen’s makeup off, first starting with the face and neck and then moving to the lips.

She studied her eyes and realized Danny was wearing lashes. Bianca groaned internally. Taking off the lashes would require more coordination then what she had at the moment.

“Adore, can you open your eyes for a second?”

Adore sleepily opened one eye and yawned. Bianca still couldn’t see exactly where her fake lashes began so she moved closer to examine.

Adore opened her other eye and saw Bianca only inches away from her face again.

“If you’re going to make a move, just do it.” Adore dared.

Bianca ignored the queen and gently plucked her fake lashes off of her eyelids. She stepped back, and sighed heavily disposing of the fake eyelashes in the trash behind her.

“You don’t know what you’re saying Danny.”

“Kiss me.”

Bianca whipped her head back to face him.

“No.”

Danny got up, staggering as he moved towards Bianca. Bianca moved until her back was pressed up against the wall of her bathroom. Danny pressed his body to hers.

“Come on, Roy. Please.” Danny begged removing Bianca’s wig gently. He dropped the hair onto the floor as he put one hand around the older queens slim waist. He tilted his chin up, looking into the dark brown eyes that were filled with lust.

Roy’s heart was racing. Having the younger queen pressed up against him was igniting the feelings all over again.

“Danny, you’re engaged I-”

“You wouldn’t ruin anything. He doesn’t have to know-”

“This is wrong, I can’t.” Roy tried to push Danny away but it wasn’t working. Danny pulled him even closer.

“Roy, remember Amsterdam?” Danny asked.

“Yes, how could I forget?” Roy asked confused.

“You technically cheated on Jason with me that night. When we kissed sharing smoke back and forth.” Danny explained.

“That wasn’t kissing.” Roy argued.

“If you won’t kiss me right now fine, smoke with me and if you get completely cross faded you owe me a kiss.” Danny grinned as he slurred.

Roy scoffed.

“Cross faded? Please. You do realize I’m a functioning alcoholic right?”

“I’m always up for a challenge, Roy. I thought you would be too.” Danny challenged darkly.

“Fine. I’ll give in to your little game. But if I win, you have to give me all of your weed.” Roy smirked.

Danny’s jaw dropped.

“Fine. Deal. Let’s fuckin’ do this!”

—-

The two of them made their way out onto the patio with a bottle of fireball, and 5 rolled joints resting on Roy’s patio table. Roy had a small glass table, with plush patio chairs, an expensive looking crystal ashtray, and a vivid purple patio light casting the whole patio in shades of blue and purple.

“Danny this is crazy-”

“Shhh.” Danny pressed his finger to his lips as he grabbed his first joint. He flicked his lighter, pressing the flame to the butt and sucked on the end of it. He inhaled deeply and let the smoke release slowly. There was a full moon tonight, and watching the smoke turn silver and light blue in the moonlight was mesmerizing to Roy.

They passed the joint back and forth in silence for a few minutes, consumed with their own thoughts.

“Shots.” Danny commanded.

Roy smirked, unscrewed the cap on the fireball and poured the contents into the two shot glasses. He then pressed the bottle to his mouth, letting the sweet cinnamon whiskey sting the back of his throat. He set the bottle down onto the table, screwed the cap back on and took another hit off of his joint, finishing it, his eyes never leaving Danny’s.

Danny’s jaw dropped.

“You-you just-”

“Shots are for pussies.” Roy said as he

lit another joint. 1 down, he thought. He grabbed his glass and downed it, smirking at the young man.

Danny watched Roy in awe as he lit his second joint, completely uneffected by 5 shots worth of Fireball and what could be 2 joints. He watched as Roy blew the smoke out from in-between his lips. God he was so fucking sexy, Danny thought.

“You tapping out already?” Roy raised an eyebrow.

“Fuck no!” Danny exclaimed, as he finished the rest of his blunt.

They were both quiet again, puffing away on their weed as they sat in the moonlight. It was still warm outside despite it being 3 am and the middle of autumn. There were some clouds in the distance, nothing too threatening to the evening however. It was nice to enjoy the night and not freeze.

“Danny can I ask you something?” Roy murmured looking at the younger man.

“Sure man.” Danny smiled as he smashed his second joint in the ash tray.

“Does he make you happy?”

Danny’s smile faltered. He gulped, looking at Roy and then looking away out towards the quiet city. The clouds were creeping in from the distance.

It was a simple question really. Did Jaremi make him happy? Yes or no.

But Jaremi didn’t make him happy. And he didn’t know if he wanted Roy knowing that.

“You don’t have to answer.” Roy whispered gazing at the younger mans panicked expression. He really did wear his heart on his sleeve.

Danny sighed in relief. Perfect, he really didn’t want to answer him anyway.

Roy could feel his head pounding as he felt his body relax. The whiskey still sat in his stomach, settling with all of the other alcohol he had that night.

They continued to smoke quietly, until it they just sat back and watched the city life outside. Roy’s body felt utterly numb at this point. He didn’t want to get up because he would probably fall straight on his face.

Fuck, it was hitting him. He was crossfaded. All of the alcohol and weed throughout the night had finally caught up with him.

“You win.” Roy mumbled. He couldn’t feel his tongue as he spoke. He wondered if he could feel himself if he were to hit himself. He slapped his face with a good amount of force, and gazed at his hand shocked. Danny looked at him bewildered. What the fuck was wrong with him, Danny thought?

“What the fuck! I can’t feel my face!” Roy exclaimed.

Danny’s laugh broke the silence of the warm night as he was doubled over in laughter. He knew he was going to win this bet as soon as Roy chugged part of that bottle of fireball, but that whole slapping bit was the nail in the coffin.

Now, Danny was feeling particularly fucked up as well. But nowhere near the level of fucked up that Roy was.

“I win, I win!” Danny danced as he laughed at Roy. He tried to roll his eyes at the younger queen, but failed miserably.

“You motherfucker, you knew I was toast. You knew I’d lose.” Roy laughed.

“Of course I did. You haven’t been smoking weed for as long as I have. I’ve mixed both multiple times.” Danny grinned proudly.

“So you aren’t as fucked up then?” Roy asked.

Danny stood there and thought about it for a moment. His vision was definitely still blurry, maybe a little more blurry then normal. His body was just barely numb, which he had hoped would be the extent of the effect from the weed.

“I mean; I’m fucked up but nothing like you.” Danny smirked.

“Fuck you.” Roy muttered.

Danny laughed and then remembered the whole reason he did this in the first place. His lips curled up in a triumphant smile.

“So I won.” Danny realized.

“Yes, I’m well aware Danny.” Roy snapped annoyed.

“That means I get my kiss.”

Roy laughed at Danny as he said the obvious. He didn’t know why he was so against kissing Danny earlier, he would probably feel warm and soft against his body. Suddenly, as if it was out of nowhere thunder clapped and a downpour of rain started.

Danny gazed at Roy who was cackling as the rain poured down on the patio in sheets. Thankfully, there was an overhang above them, so they were covered from it as long as the wind didn’t start up. The purple light made the rain sparkle in lavender shades and cast a very flattering light on Roy’s face. This rain out of no where was very unusual for California. Maybe it was a sign, Danny thought.

A flash of blue lit up the sky, and the thunder boomed loudly, startling the two of them.

“Shit! We gotta go inside baby, I hate the rain.” Roy slurred. He decided to push himself out of his chair and stood up. He couldn’t feel anything, how the hell was he supposed to walk? Panicked, he grabbed the side of the wall and held onto it for dear life.

“Let me help you.” Danny rushed over and grabbed Roy by his waist. He then helped walk him inside slowly.

He helped sit him up on his bed, and Danny laid on the other side once he had made him comfortable. He rested his back against his headboard, sighing deeply.

“I miss Prince.” Danny muttered.

Roy looked over at him, raising an eyebrow.

“It always surprises me that you like him. You’re an old man in disguise.”

Danny laughed loudly and nodded his head.

“I really am. He was fucking iconic though.”

“He was, I’ll agree. An odd one, but he paved the way for a lot of music today. There will never be anyone like him again.”

“I love that we can vibe and have these high conversations.” Danny laughed. Roy smiled as he adjusted his pillow on the bed.

After a few moments of silence, Roy spoke.

“Aren’t you going to claim your prize queen?”

Danny looked down into Roy’s darkened eyes. His lips were parted slightly as he stared at Danny, waiting for him to kiss him. God he really wanted him so fucking bad.

Danny smiled shyly and leaned in, closing the distance between them. He felt Roy’s soft plump lips on his for the first time in over a year.

Roy groaned with pleasure as he tasted the smoke on Danny’s breath. He instinctively grabbed his medium length dark hair and pulled him down to his chest. Danny gasped and positioned himself on top of Roy. He thrust his pelvis around firmly, grinding against him. He gripped the back of Roy’s neck, eliciting a moan out of him and felt him start to lift up his tank top. He struggled, so Danny grabbed the bottom of his tank top, hastily throwing it off and pulled Roy back into his chest. Danny rolled him over so that he was on top of him instead. He lifted up his black v neck, exposing his bronzed chest underneath and threw it off to the side of the bed. Danny rain his nails against his chest, never breaking the kiss.

“Harder.” Roy moaned in-between kisses.

“What?” Danny asked confused.

“Scratch me harder.” Roy breathed as he attempted to pull Danny even closer to him.

Danny grinned, digging his nails deeper into his chest. He moved his lips down to his jaw, and from there to his neck.

Roy tilted his head back and let another deep moan escape him as Danny scratched and kissed him. It felt so good to be touched again by the man he had been lusting after for so long.

Danny bit down on his neck as he dug his nails into Danny’s back. Once he was satisfied with scratching his back, he clawed into his chest instead. Danny let out a throaty moan and thus moving away from his neck. Roy kissed up the younger man’s chest where he had left small scratch marks. Danny moaned from the contact, and peppered kisses back up from his neck to his cheeks and finally to his lips. Their tongues swirled together but Roy broke the kiss, moving his lips down to Danny’s neck. He started biting and sucking as hard as he could. Danny’s eyes widened as he realized what Roy was doing and gently shoved him off.

They were both gasping for air, staring at each other as Danny slowly realized what he’d done.

“Why’d you push me off?” Roy asked, smirking.

“Roy, you can’t-you can’t give me a hickey.” Danny frowned as he looked down at the floor at their shirts. Shit, what had he done?

Roy stared at him for a moment, at first not understanding what was wrong, but then realizing what he had done. Suddenly he felt very vulnerable with his shirt off, scanning the room for any sign of his favorite black v neck.

“Right.” Roy mumbled, covering himself with the blanket.

“Roy, I’m sorry-”

“It’s fine. I see what I am to you Danny. I’m just an easy hookup, a distraction from your fiancé isn’t that right?” Roy snapped.

“That’s not what you are to me Roy!”

“Really? Well you could’ve fooled me. I treated you way better then that asshole ever did. I would never leave you to be by yourself on a night like this!” Roy’s exclaimed.

“You know what Roy, at least he didn’t cheat on me with my best friend!” Danny snapped, feeling the tears stream down his face. He stood up, grabbing his Budweiser tank top and threw it on carelessly.

“Don’t act like you’re so high and mighty Danny. You just did to him what I did to you.” Roy pointed out annoyed.

Danny was stunned into silence. His hands were shaking as he realized he hadn’t even texted Jaremi about where he was. He didn’t even remember where his phone was.

“Which one of us do you want?” Roy asked annoyed.

He was right, Danny was no better then Roy in this situation. He had cheated on his fiancé: which was way worse.

“I don’t know anymore.” Danny admitted, wiping tears from his eyes.

Roy hated seeing the younger man cry. He reached out to touch him softly, but saw him retract his hand.

“Look, I’m sorry Danny-”

“I have to go Roy.” Danny snapped icily. He walked out of the room not looking back at the older man. He went into the bathroom really quick and grabbed his wig, before he went back into the hallway. He scanned the living room for his phone and finally found it resting on the couch before he left. Thankfully, his assistant had grabbed his things from the finale so he didn’t have to lug anything other then his wig around.

Roy heard the door slam, and winced at the echo throughout the apartment. It was safe to say they were no longer hanging out tomorrow, he thought grimly. The dogs starting barking out of control, and he sighed curling up in a ball and holding his knees to his chest. He wanted to cry, but he was too numb right now so he let himself fall asleep. Danny had obviously made his decision.

—-

Danny unlocked the door of his apartment, slowly opening the front door to not wake Jaremi.

However, Danny was in for a surprise as he saw him sitting in his old hand-me-down recliner.

“Oh my god where have you been?” Jaremi rushed to Danny worried, studying his soaking wet appearance. When he had ran from the Lyft to the apartment, his white tank top had gotten saturated. He pressed his hands to Danny’s chest and his eyes widened as he saw Roy’s claw marks through the now transparent tank top.

“Were you in a fight? There’s scratches all over your body.” Jaremi asked bewildered.

Danny’s bottom lip trembled, and he looked down at the floor riddled with guilt. He was exhausted, and really just did not want to deal with Jaremi.

“I’m fine. I’m going to bed.” Danny muttered. He dropped his wig on the floor and simply walked past the concerned man, making his way to their bedroom.

He took off his soaked jeans and tank top, changing into something more comfortable. He collapsed onto his bed, numb from all of the emotions he had been through today.

He looked at the time as Jaremi joined him silently, and a small smile crept up on his face.

4 AM.

He knew what he needed to do.

[artificialqueens]

Run My Mouth (Monet x Monique)- Ortega

a/n: i actively refuse to type the word Momo into existence bc i refuse to associate that fucking horrendous face with these cute af idiots. this is my entry to the fic challenge bc someone wanted Monet x Monique and i wanted out of the Branjie emotion pit! this is filling the cliches 3 (enemies to lovers) and 7 (A has a sexy dream about B) and also is of course a lesbian au bc that seems to be the only currency i deal in. it’s also set within the Just The Game We’re In universe if anyone’s interested, and is also probably horrendously ooc. christ i’m good at selling my fics!! credit where credit’s due, the “holy trinity of why” was stolen from The Thick Of It, the song on Monique’s insta story is Own It by Ella Mai, and “panini head” is stolen from Gordon Ramsay. hope u all enjoy!

Summary: Guardian journalist Monet X Change arrives at the Ministry of Defence to run a piece on Shea Coulee. She didn’t expect to be distracted by a bad-tempered band 1 comms girl who seems intent on driving Monet to distraction entirely through sarcastic remarks, tattoos and acrylic nails.  

***

Journalism. What did it all actually mean? When it came down to it, all it was was writing about stuff that happened in the world. All it was was retelling a story. But then nobody ever really seemed to view it that way, Monet thought to herself, as she scuffed one high heel against the rough, sandpaper-like carpet of the lobby and continued to wait.

It was never as simple as just writing, though. Fuck, if that was all journalism was then how many horrific atrocities could have been avoided just through the lack of coverage and platforming alone? There was always an agenda to push despite Monet’s personal feelings on the situation, and she always just had to put up and shut up. For example, today. What Monet really should have been writing about was the Ministry of Defence’s catastrophic overspend, but someone high up in the party (probably Bianca Del Rio, Monet reasoned) had made some sort of deal with Bob to avoid excessive coverage of it. This surprised Monet as, before she’d started working at The Guardian, Bob had been part of Phi Phi O’Hara’s party as their press secretary. Still, even if Monet didn’t know the finer details of how politics worked she knew what a threat or a bribe looked like, so instead of writing about anything juicy or remotely interesting she was here, in the offices of the MOD, waiting on Shea Coulee. Bob had sent Monet out to do some private life piece, some sort of day-in-the-life of a department minister thing that was set to last for a fortnight. Shea would hate it as it meant Monet would be exposed to all sorts of potential party fuck-ups. Monet would hate it because it was a bunch of writing which was of absolutely no consequence. The Guardian’s readers would hate it because it was an article attempting to humanise a politician, and Monet knew people hated those, so there it was. The hat trick of fuck.

She waited dispassionately in the lobby, her heels swinging and scuffing the carpet with every passing second. She didn’t know how long she’d been doing it, or how many times, but there suddenly came a voice from one end of the corridor.

“‘Scuse me, ma'am.”

She didn’t turn around at first. In all honesty, Monet’s ego meant that she thought that anyone in the building would be addressing her by her last name, with a Ms. in front of it. So she kept swinging and scuffing.

The sound of heels came down the corridor. “Ma'am!”

Monet whipped her head around, slightly startled at the louder sound. She was met with a girl- early twenties, she would guess, in a smart black pencil skirt and suit jacket combination with a bright white shirt underneath. Her black hair was pinned up in a neat bun with a few strands helping her fringe frame her face, which was currently set into a scowl. Monet initially thought the girl was there to take her to Shea, however seeing the tray of coffees she was carrying made her second-guess. She frowned up at her from her position on the small sofa-lounger-thing she had been perched on. Monet’s back was already up and she hadn’t even said two words to her.

“Yes?”

The girl’s scowl deepened. “Are you aware that this is a ministerial department?”

Monet bit back a laugh. “Yes.”

“So you know that if you’re waiting here, you can’t sit and wear the carpet out like a pacing bear in a zoo, correct?” a smile finally came over the girl’s face, albeit a fake one. Monet briefly noted her eye makeup- bright and extravagant, a bit much for a day at work but still pretty and expertly applied. She decided to return the fake smile.

“Well thank you so much for that advice! I’m always really keen for pointers on office decorum by girls that look like their makeup was done by a blind toddler playing with dried up poster paints. Now,” Monet sighed lazily, pleased at the way the girl’s jaw had visibly dropped. “can you please make yourself useful and find me somebody that works for Shea Coulee? Because I’ve been waiting here a while.”

The other girl’s face was stony as she addressed her. “I work for Shea Coulee.”

Monet’s heart bunjee-jumped into the pit of her stomach. Shit. Okay, fuck, she didn’t need to panic. She was still holding the coffee tray, so that clearly didn’t indicate a senior position. The other girl’s face was set into a shit-eating smile, clearly happy to have scared her. This only served to rile Monet further. “Well, could you please check that she’s ready to see me? I’m Monet Change, I’m from The Guardian. I’m doing a piece with Ms. Coulee.”

The other girl narrowed her eyes in distaste. Monet noticed that they were deep brown, making them seem huge. “You got an ID?”

Monet rolled her eyes. Briefly, she cast an eye to the girl’s hand. “Are the office coffees not getting cold, tea girl?”

The girl looked briefly as if she’d been slapped in the face. Monet snorted. This was fun. She watched as the girl looked nervously down the corridor, then at the drinks in her hand. Monet almost felt sorry for her, until the girl frowned at her again.

“We’re living under a severe and constant terror threat, Ms. Change, and precautions are precautions,” she pouted, her face like vinegar. She held her hand out and Monet cast an eye over a set of neon green acrylic nails. With a small jump to her heart, she noticed that the nails on her index and middle finger were cut shorter than the others. She looked up at the girl and caught her eye. Another fake smile came her way. “ID.”

“Well how should I know you even work for Shea Coulee? Where’s your ID?” Monet answered back, taking far too much delight in the way the other girl pouted before taking her free hand and sticking her middle finger up in Monet’s face.

“There’s my ID, bitch! Do you want me to go get Ms. Coulee or not?”

“Monique, what the hell are you doing?” came a sudden voice from up the corridor, making the girl jump. A little splash of coffee jumped out from under the lid and landed on her wrist, and Monet didn’t miss the way she hissed a little through her teeth. She felt bad. Turning her eyes up the corridor, Monet saw who the voice was coming from- real and in-person Shea Coulee, with her neat dreads cascading down her shoulders and back and over her red shift dress. She radiated power, and Monet felt suddenly intimidated. The girl opened her mouth to speak, but Shea simply raised a hand and gave a light shake of her head. “I think you’d better get back to the office, don’t you? I don’t think any of us ordered an iced latte.”

The girl nodded sharply and walked briskly down the corridor, but not before she gave one final look to Monet that was mixed with anger, annoyance, and something else she couldn’t quite decipher.  

“Ms. Change, isn’t it?” Shea turned back to Monet and held out her hand, smiling as she took it to shake. “Pleased to meet you, I’m excited to be working with you. I have to apologise for Monique’s behaviour, she’s a complete hothead and she shouldn’t even have been interacting with you.”

Monique. It was a nice name.

Monet picked up her bag as Shea began walking down the corridor, quickening her pace to follow her which was tricky in her heels. “So uh, she’s not one of your advisors?”

Shea snorted a laugh. “Please. She’s a junior civil servant. You’ll meet my advisors, they’re just in the office.”

Monet thought for a moment. “So I don’t really need to interact with Monique at all during my time here then?”

“Oh, no. Don’t worry about that. You’re not going to be in with the little people,” Shea dismissed her with a wave of her hand as she walked into the bright and airy office space.

Good. It was good that she wasn’t going to be seeing Monique. Following Shea through to her office, Monet’s eyes scanned the room and somehow came to rest on Monique’s brown ones. Monique blinked once in surprise, then gave Monet a nasty look.

She was a total bitch, anyway.

***

Day five, and the end of week one. Monet would be lying if she said the whole thing was as boring as she’d thought it would be. Sure, the actual writing itself was boring. It turned out that a private life piece on Shea Coulee at work unsurprisingly consisted of Shea Coulee doing lots of work. Monet had met her advisors, Asia and Vixen, and they were nice enough girls but they were there to work too. So in lieu of anything interesting to do, Monet had had to invent her own fun.

Which consisted of annoying Monique.

It hadn’t started out like that, Monet always defended herself internally. She’d tried to make amends with her on the first day- stopped by her desk on the way out and asked her how her wrist was, but all she was met with was a wordless sneer. The next day, Monet had made a point of saying good morning to her, again met with no reply. She’d then complimented her hair when she came to Shea’s office to ask about a press release, but the only reply Monet got was a flip of it. So after that, the gloves were off. Monique had had three strikes, and now the bitch was out.

Monet could have just ignored Monique. That would have been the mature thing to do. But something about the girl had got under her skin and niggled away at her, like an annoying splinter. Plus Monet was competitive, and there was a need to get even.

On Tuesday, Monet got teas and coffees for the whole comms team apart from Monique. She didn’t miss the widening of Monique’s eyes then the disappointed pout that followed when she realised there was nothing for her. It made Monet’s skin prickle in satisfaction.

On Wednesday, Monet came into the department and walked up to Monique’s desk. She made sure Monique had locked eyes with her, made to smile at her, then fixed her eyes very pointedly on her cheek and frowned deeply, feigning concern as she walked away. She cast a glance at Monique over her shoulder as she walked away, who was furiously checking her reflection in her phone screen.

Yesterday, they had both been in the kitchen together. Monet had been grabbing a fork for her lunch when Monique had walked in, her eyes darkening upon seeing Monet. Monet felt a slight curl in her stomach when the other girl brushed past her and reached for a teabag, a rich, woody scent clinging to her like the black dress she was wearing.

“Morning, Monique,” Monet smiled, leaning against the countertop and smiling. “Hey, how are Cerberus and Hades this morning?”

Monique cast her a glare. She spoke after a beat of silence. “I don’t follow.”

“Guardians of the underworld?” Monet elaborated, receiving a tight smile in return.

“Oh, cute. Contemporary reference,” Monique bit back, reaching up to take a mug from a cupboard. “Should you not be, you know. Writing? Like an actual journalist? Are you an actual journalist or just a child pretending to be a journalist?”

“As opposed to you, who’s a child pretending to be…an adult?” Monet blinked, delighting in the way Monique visibly tensed up.

“Jesus, I can’t wait til you leave,” she muttered, Monet able to hear the eye roll in her voice. She gave a chuckle.

“Well get used to me, princess, because I’m here til next Friday,” Monet beamed at Monique as she turned around, her gaze frosty and making Monet shiver a little.

“I’m not your princess,” she said, her voice low and dark and giving Monet a small heart palpitation. With a sudden flashback to their Monday meeting, Monet remembered the nails on Monique’s right hand. A shiver ran down her spine.

“No, you’re right,” Monet said, dropping the pitch of her voice to match Monique’s. She took a step forward, closing the space between them. “You’re a little brat.”

Monique’s eyes bored into hers. There seemed to be something hanging in the air. After what could have been seconds or minutes, Monique scrunched up her face and spun around on her heel, leaving Monet on her own in the kitchen.

Monet had gone home and replayed their little confrontation in her head on repeat. It especially taunted her just before she was about to fall asleep, when she was lying in bed in the darkness with a dull throb between her legs that she tried her best to ignore. Monique was attractive, that was just a fact. She had a beautiful face and a little tiny waist and the most amazing legs, and when she wore short sleeved tops Monet could see the tattoos that went all the way up her arms, and she’d always been into tattoos. But Monique was also a total dick. So why was that so hot to her?

Monet found herself turning over in bed, switching the light on, grabbing her phone and typing xvideos into her search bar.

The next day everything seemed to be even more charged between the two girls, although that could have been Monet’s imagination. From the moment she walked into the department she had felt Monique’s eyes on her like a trained sniper, a blush hitting her cheeks that stayed there for most of the morning to the extent that Shea had asked her if she was feeling alright. Monet could hardly concentrate on the departmental she was sat in and was glad of the recorder she’d utilised to catch the meeting, because the only thought that seemed to run through her head was how do I get her alone again?

It turned out she didn’t have to wait very long. Monet was taking a phone call from Bob and she’d ducked into one of the small stationary cupboards to talk to her when Monique came in halfway through, her face curling up when she saw her. Monet’s heart gave a leap and, finding an excuse to finish the phone call earlier than needed, she pocketed her phone and turned to the other girl.

“Looking for some relevance?” Monet asked as she watched Monique bend down and open a cardboard box. The other girl narrowed her eyes at her as she stood up.

“Leave me alone, Monet. I’m serious,” she snapped, Monet crossing her legs together where she stood. Fuck, she could be bossed about like this all day.

“Oh, we on first name terms now? I’m a guest in your department, you should be addressing me properly,” Monet folded her arms and leaned back against the shelves behind her. Monique snorted and quirked a smile.

“Of course, Ma'am. I’m so sorry! Would you prefer Bitch, or Ms. Bitch?” she smiled sweetly. Monet couldn’t help but run her tongue over her bottom lip and then bite it softly, and she didn’t miss the way Monique’s eyes darted to it or the way her stare faltered.

“You know, you really shouldn’t be throwing around that word so casually, Monique, especially since I’m working with your boss.”

“Why are you doing this?!”

Monet exhaled. “Because I’m bored, it’s funny, and I hate you. There you go. The holy trinity of why.”

Then Monet got a shock as Monique suddenly took a step towards her, closing the gap between them in the already tiny cupboard, and if Monet leaned forward she would be able to feel Monique’s body against hers. Her eyes were dark as she scowled at her. “You think you can just walk into this department with your perfect hair and your perfect outfits and your perfect body and just talk shit to everyone after a week?”

Monet held back a gasp as Monique’s expression faltered, almost as if she’d given something away that she shouldn’t have. Her heart gave a jump. She’d really just said all that? Monet touched her caramel curls self-consciously. She looked at Monique from under her lashes. “I don’t talk shit to everyone, just you.”

Monique’s harsh stare was back. “Well you better stop.”

“Or what?”

“I’ll do something I regret,” Monique hissed. Monet blinked. It was so hard to read the situation. She couldn’t tell if Monique was genuinely threatening her, but she seemed to have got closer because Monet could feel the heat of her body just millimetres away from her own. She swallowed thickly. Just then she noticed Monique’s eyes dart quickly from her eyes to her lips and back up again. It made her decision for her.

“Dare you, princess.”

Quicker than Monet could blink, Monique had suddenly closed the minute gap between them, pressed her body up against Monet’s own, and was kissing her with more passion than she’d ever been kissed with before in her life. It was as if Monique’s lips were made of fire, and Monet moaned as she felt her hands tear roughly through her hair. Monet was so stunned that she was almost unable to kiss back, until she felt Monique suck gently on her tongue and lust flood through her whole body. Monet brought her hands, which had been resting on Monique’s waist, up to cup her jaw. Monique noticed the movement and Monet’s heart thudded quickly as she felt Monique take one of her hands in hers, lace their fingers together, and move it from her face down to-

“Monique! You still in there? I found a bunch of staples in the top drawer of- oh,” came a voice- one of the other comms girls, Monet recognised. With a speed that she didn’t think it was possible to move at, she leapt back from the other girl and thanked God that the comms girl on the other side of the door’s entry to the cupboard had been stopped by a huge box full of spiral-bound notebooks that Monique had moved to get better access to what she was looking for.

Monique ran her tongue over her lips and cast her eyes to the floor as she spoke. “Oh, thanks Vanessa! I’ll be out in two seconds, just need a couple more things.”

Monet hadn’t realised she was holding her breath until she released it when she heard the girl walking away down the corridor. Keeping her face neutral, she looked at Monique whose cheeks were dark pink and her eyes embarrassed.

“I should, uh,” Monet began, moving to the door in an effort to ease the awkward tension that had been created.

“Yeah, sure,” Monique nodded furiously, rubbing her forehead with one hand and averting her gaze. Without a second glance, Monet was out the cupboard and walking briskly up the corridor and back onto the meeting room she’d left when she originally took the phone call. Sitting back down in her seat, she was pleased that Shea was already talking so that nobody needed to acknowledge her arrival.

Just when she thought she was off the hook, Asia turned to her and murmured. “Girl, where the fuck did you take that phone call? A hedge?”

She declined to reply.

***

Monet walked into the department on Monday with a cocktail mixer of excitement, nerves, trepidation and readiness being shaken up in her stomach. Her mind had been a complete mess all throughout the rest of Friday, and Monique seemed to have been good at avoiding her because she hadn’t seen her at all for the rest of the day. So Monet had gone home at the end of the day with her head in a spin, her hair still a complete mess, and a burning need to be absolutely railed. She wasn’t able to stop herself from scrolling instagram when she was alone in her flat with a glass of wine, and her fingers were typing in Monique’s full name (which hung on the nametag around her neck each day) before she could stop herself. She found her instantly, and a guilty feeling built in Monet’s stomach as she found herself looking through the girl’s page, gorgeous selfie after gorgeous selfie making her stomach flip over and her palms grow hot. Suddenly, she saw the circle around Monique’s profile picture turn pink. Her thumb hovered over it, unsure if she wanted to graduate to full-blown instagram stalker creep status. Well, she’d come this far.

A mirror selfie of Monique filled the screen, her dark hair spilling over her shoulders and out of the ponytail it had been in earlier. She was smiling, and Monet found herself wishing she had that smile directed at her more often. With a pang she noticed that the wine in Monique’s glass was red, matching the crimson liquid in her own glass. As if she was afraid of being caught, Monet tapped off the story and buried her phone underneath one of her couch cushions.  

On Saturday, Monet met with her friend Bri for coffee, which was probably a good thing as it would serve to distract Monet from the dream she’d had last night of Monique, perched up on her desk in a black lace bodysuit and high heels talking in extremely explicit detail about what she wanted Monet to do to her. Meeting with Bri would stop her from lying in bed in her own filth masturbating herself into oblivion and obsessively checking Monique’s instagram like a complete loser. On the other hand, all Bri seemed to want to talk about was some French politician she’d slept with whilst she was over there as a correspondent for the BBC during the European Parliamentary elections, and it wasn’t really helping.

“…and like, I’d never really been one for strapons before- because, hello, big dicks usually aren’t really the selling point of lesbianism- but Jesus Christ, Monet, I swear I saw God. In fact, I fucked God. God was her. Hey, panini head, are you even listening to me?”

Monet blinked twice as she tuned back into the conversation. Her friend was staring at her intently, her blonde hair slightly all over the place with how animatedly she’d been telling the story. Not too far away from their table a family of four looked on, horrified.

“Oh my God, Cracker, it’s ten in the morning,” Monet rolled her eyes, utilising the nickname she sometimes hit out with for her friend (“Because I’m thin, white and salty?” “No, because it doesn’t take much for you to snap.“).

“So?! You can’t put a time limit on fucking a hot girl.”

“No, but you can put a volume limit,” Monet raised her eyebrows, as a Dad with a pram walked into the cafe. Bri rolled her eyes.

“Jesus, would you stop being such a prude? You need to get laid,” she sighed, then narrowed her eyes as she saw Monet shift in her seat and cross her legs, the memory of her stationary cupboard encounter flooding back into her head like a tsunami. “Unless you already have…? Monet?”

Monet took a sip of her coffee. She put it back on the saucer and tried to ignore Bri’s piercing eyes. “What?”

Bri jumped back in her seat and almost knocked a tray of tea out of the hands of a woman passing behind her. “Oh my God. You’re not telling me something. Tell me. Tell me now, or I go into more detail about my night with Aquaria Palandrani at double the volume I was using before.”

“How can it get more detailed?!” Monet cried in dismay, then frowned. “Whatever, I don’t want to know. Ugh, there’s nothing to tell, honestly.”

Bri leaned forward in her seat expectantly. Monet rolled her eyes and couldn’t help but laugh.

“Look, it’s honestly nothing! It’s just this girl-”

“A-HA! That’s not nothing! That’s a girl!” Bri gasped, excited. “More details, please.”

“You know I’m doing that piece on Shea Coulee for Bob? She works for her department, she’s a comms girl. We didn’t really see eye to eye at first…I mean, I guess we still don’t. But she’s fucking beautiful, and her attitude’s just really hot, you know? Even though it’s meant to make me not like her.”

“Ooh, hate fucking,” Bri gave her eyebrows a little wiggle, causing Monet to slap her on the arm.

“Shut up! I’m trying to get her to like me first.”

“Don’t. Hate fucking’s the best. Did I ever tell you about-”

Monet tuned out again, her mind now occupied by Monique now that she’d been talking about her. She wondered how she would play things on Monday, and how Monique would approach things with her. Even though she would be happy if Monique had had a personality transplant towards her, there was a small part of her that couldn’t help but long for one of her sarcastic clapbacks that drove her absolutely insane.

That night as she tried to write up things for her article, Monet couldn’t help but feel her phone in her jean pocket like an itch she had to scratch. Giving in, she opened up instagram and made her way to Monique’s page again, top in her search history. She saw a new post on her story and her heart gave a thud. Tapping, she was admittedly disappointed to see a song’s cover art pop up on the screen. She was about to tap off again when two emojis caught her eye, with a completely undeniable double entendre- tongue and squirt. The small clip of the song rang out in Monet’s living room before she could even adjust her volume.

“I put the na-na in naughty

Begging for it, got you on your knees

Didn’t make it to the bedroom, but we can do it there too

Whatever’s your fa-”  

“Oh my God, fuck off,” Monet yelped involuntarily, throwing her phone out of her hands so that it landed on the sofa cushion beside her. She didn’t know how the hell to interpret that, or if it was even about her, but all she knew was that she was more confused than ever.

***

Monet took a deep breath before she stepped into the offices on Monday morning, straightening her spine and walking in confidently, despite the fact she felt as if her legs were made of jelly. On her way into Shea’s office she passed by the desk that hadn’t been far from her mind all weekend (footage from her dream flashing through her head as she walked past) and out came the simple phrase that she’d rehearsed saying for hours.

“Good morning, Monique,” she said quickly, catching the other girl’s surprised eyes before sweeping past her desk and going straight into the Minister’s room, not giving the other girl a single chance to respond. Her heart beat rapidly all morning as she sat through meeting after meeting, a small triumphant smile on her face.

At quarter past twelve, Monet made her way to the elevators, ready to head out to grab some lunch. She cast her glance to Monique’s desk hopefully, only to find it empty. Her disappointment was short-lived, however, when she walked into the lift and heard the click-clack of high heels running to catch the it before it left. Monet pressed the button to hold it and her stomach flipped over when Monique, wearing a black, calf-length bodycon dress, ran into the lift beside her. She shot Monet a quick glance, then looked up to the ceiling and avoided her gaze. The lift doors closed and it began its journey down the many, many floors towards the lobby.

“Thanks,” Monique said, after a few beats of silence. Monet cleared her throat.

“No worries.”

There was another pause. Monet couldn’t tell where it was going, if anywhere, and the awkward atmosphere built. She tossed some of her honey curls out of the collar of her shirt and rubbed the back of her neck, embarrassed.

“So, uh,” Monique spoke up, inspecting her nails. “You have a nice weekend checking up on me?”

Monet felt as if someone had poured a freezing cold bucket of water over her head. She wished she could control the horror that was almost definitely slapped across her face. “What?!”

Monique gave a small smile. “It’s okay, Monet, I know I look good. The least you could’ve done is shoot me a follow, you know?”

Monet wanted the bottom of the elevator to drop off so she could fall directly down the lift shaft.

“I wasn’t…oh my God,” she trailed off, realising there was no way she could explain her way out of this one. She placed both her hands on her face, covering her eyes. “How did you-”

“You know it tells you who views your stories, right?” Monique’s voice came, a slight laugh to it that served to make Monet feel both more and less embarrassed. “Hey. Don’t worry about it. Happens to the best of us.”

Monet couldn’t muster a reply. She didn’t even think she could take her hands off her eyes.

“I mean, I gotta admit. I had a lil’ sneak on yours too,” the other girl said quietly, causing Monet to finally take her hands off her eyes and look at Monique who was leaning lazily against the bar on the lift. “You look like a snack when you’re not in those work clothes, girl.”

Ohhh, shit.

Monet tossed her hair over her shoulder and smirked at Monique. The conversation was finally going down the route she wanted, and she found herself squeezing her thighs together in anticipation. “I don’t know, baby, you seemed pretty keen on me when I was in them too.”

She watched as Monique laughed, looked up at the ceiling again, and shook her head. “That was a necessary step I had to take to stop you running your fuckin’ mouth, and it worked.”

Monet tilted her head as Monique finally made eye contact with her. She bit her lip and shrugged. “Can’t have worked that well, ‘cause I’m still talking.”

Monique smiled smugly, taking a single step towards her. “And what?”

Monet blinked, taken aback. “Well. Maybe you need to shut me up again.”

Monique twirled a strand of her hair around her finger. “Is this a big, powerful, high-up Guardian journalist begging a Band 1 Civil Servant to make out with her in an elevator?”

“Oh, Jesus,” Monet laughed, feeling the heat between her legs build up as Monique came to a stop beside her, deliberately standing a little too close. “You’re a bitch. Fuck, no, I’m not begging.”

“Mm, you wanna beg me so bad,” Monique smiled teasingly, and Monet had never wanted a lift to break down more in her life. Turning quickly so that she had one arm on either side of Monique and effectively trapping her, Monet saw a quick, wicked flash in the other girl’s eye as she leant in and dropped her voice.

“I bet I could make you beg me to do a lot of things.”

Monique flashed her a look from under her lashes. “Like what?”

The lift suddenly stopped and the doors slid open, making Monet flinch and Monique jump beside her. To her relief, nobody was waiting to walk in and she couldn’t help but laugh, the other girl rapidly joining in. After a few seconds, Monet realised they had to get out of the elevator and so she reluctantly walked out, Monique following behind her. Now that the moment had been shattered, it was back to being slightly awkward, but Monet really didn’t want to lose what they’d just created. She found herself stopping abruptly, turning around to face Monique who had stopped beside her and was gazing at her hopefully.

“Hey. Do you want to grab lunch just now?” she asked, her heart soaring as she saw Monique’s smile grow wider and more beautiful.

“Sure,” she beamed, Monet smiling back and feeling like a total lovesick idiot.

They started walking again. “Where do you wanna go?”  

Monique ran her tongue over her teeth and shrugged. “Well…my flat’s five minutes away and my flatmate isn’t home.”

Without missing a beat, Monet took Monique’s hand and led her out of the building, part of her hoping she would be able to shut Monique up and part of her really not wanting to.