#but luckily i could schedule this ahead of time on tumblr so hopefully this works???? LOL

[sunnymimis]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY @miru-p! ヾ(≧▽≦*)o Had to draw some MinoNana for you since it’s their month! Have some fluff of them as students where Nanamin can’t stop yearning! ❤

[multimetaverse]

Andi Mack 3x14 & 3x15 Reviews

Hammer Time and Unloading Zone were two good eps that were somewhat marred by filler. Let’s dig in!

Positives: 

It’s good to teach kids early that there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism. 

I’ll give them credit for not bearding TJ and for having him explicitly say that that he and Kira are not together. Also really drove home how petty and manipulative Kira is. 

The Tyrus scenes were brief but not as angsty as I thought. It’s very clear they’re pushing the bounds of subtext and showing that Cyrus has a crush on TJ and wants to make that known but of course we can’t start moving into text until after the cut episode. I think this is the ep that probably clues in the casual audience that Cyrus does in fact like TJ as more than a friend though knowledge that they’re being set up to be a couple won’t come until Something to Talk A-Boot (unless they happen to see the promo with the Bench scene).

They’ve clearly set up Buffy as Cyrus’ crush confidante, making sure all talk of TJ is kept away from Andi and Jonah which is sad but unsurprising. It wouldn’t shock me if Andi and Jonah don’t explicitly know about Cyrus’ crush until after the bench scene itself. Great to see Buffy being so encouraging although she can’t explicitly say anything yet. 

I wonder if that whole ‘’brings out his eyes’’ bit will come back during or after the bench scene. TJ is wearing a green shirt at the party that would bring out his eyes. Maybe that will be a Disney approved gay version of the typical straight guy calling his love interest pretty.

Those were some great Muffy scenes. I know there were some worries on tumblr about their chemistry after 3x13 but those should be put to rest now I think.

Extremely easy to see the Muffy arc ending in a kiss in the finale. 

Bringing Garren back was a very wise decision on the writers part. That ‘’ I want to cross the finish line’’ with you line was a great little nod to them being endgame. And that piggyback ride Marty gave Buffy was sweet. 

Really good subtle message sent by the camp out that it should be totally normal for a straight guy to have sleepovers with his gay friend. 

Andi’s line about Jonah maybe not being capable of more emotional connection than his usual 6 emojis is damning but I also wonder if it’s set up for him to subvert that when he sings You Girl.

A sad reminder about Amber’s awful home life. It’s clear she’s seeking the love and attention she’s not getting at home from her parents but Jonah is really not the solution. 

In 3x15 we get some foreshadowing for Buffy’s later foot injury

Nice to see Jonah participating in the protest and I always enjoy when they lean into Jonah being kind of dumb.

We still managed to get an Alpaca cameo after all. Also confirms that the original 3x18 at Snuck Farm was indeed planned as the original wedding. 

The don’t hurt yourself lines Cyrus and Jonah had were very funny. 

Cyrus referenced the Tunguska event most likely

Lauren Tom knocked it out of the park with her emotional scenes in both eps. i wish we had seen more of this Celia in S3 instead of wacky grandma 

Liked Officer Penn’s Clint Eastwood impression. And interesting that they used a white male cop as a bad guy. 

Celia’s snow globe was a lovely gift. According to Disney PR, it was inspired by Terri’s snow globe collection and Lilan and Trent didn’t know what was inside the box until they opened it. 

Liked the Game of Thrones reference (at least the Andi Mack finale can’t be worse than that show’s) 

Loved the music in the cold open, it was the same they used for scene transitions in 3x07. 

I try not to pass judgment on the show because the whole Ham situation is so awful and unprecedented but that convo about him going to India really skated close to dark humour especially when Celia said ‘’don’t worry you’ll see him again’’.

Negatives: 

Notice how they kept Kira making TJ feel bad about his crush out of the previously on and instead focused on her disliking Cyrus because he’s Buffy’s friend. I do think Kira gets called out for that by TJ during the finale but it’s clear for now that they’re trying to pass this off as her hating Buffy and liking TJ and wanting him for herself. 

They had Luke and Raquel for a day but filmed quite a bit less than their typical maximum. TJ himself only got 2:45 minutes of screentime, including being in the background, which is a little less than his usual 3 minutes. 

Which isn’t a surprise, TJ’s screen time operates by a different math than other recurring characters. It’s the same pattern in both S2 and S3, he can be in 9 aired eps max and only 3 eps after the 13th ep of the season. Luckily in S3 Disney only ordered 21 eps so instead of only 3 TJ eps spread out over 12 eps we got 3 spread out over 8 until the FBI knocked that down to 7. 

It’s not a question of budget, they had a much higher per ep budget in S3, nor was it scheduling since Luke had no other projects and they were able to work around Garren’s GH filming schedule right through the finale and re-shoots nor was there a 9 ep limit on recurring characters as Emily was in 11 of the original 21 this season. 

Not to mention they’ve been drastically cutting TJ’s screentime with Cyrus. Luckily they do probably have to give him a bit more than 3 minutes in Something to Talk A-Boot and hopefully gets more than 3 in the finale. 

The Cyrus and Jonah plot was sweet but pure filler. I never expected Cyrus to talk to Jonah about his feelings or anything related to his sexuality but was there nothing else they could even briefly touch on? Jonah’s anxiety? Cyrus’ anxiety? Jonah’s family problems? It’s not like Terri didn’t know the show was going to end just 7 eps later in otl so why waste this time? It’s most likely the last significant solo time those two have and they should have used it more wisely.

Vivian turned out to be completely useless. Seems like they cut some of her lines but I really don’t get her purpose. 

The clothing protest was rushed and the ending was very unsatisfying. It hurt the plot that we never actually saw anyone connected to the company.

Celia and Bex didn’t really patch up either and I’m guessing things weren’t truly fixed until Bex agreed to put the wedding back on in 3x17 in otl. 

Amber is in love with Jonah? This is what they’re dedicating so much screen time to in these final eps? 

They really ruined the swings for nothing. At least we get nice scenes in Something to Talk A-Boot and the finale

Kira really is something. She’s trying to get a a guy she knows is gay to date her which is insane

I was expecting there to be very little in this final TJ ep before the original wedding in part because of Terri’s instagram post back in November right after Josh revealed the endgame had changed and right before they shot the original 3x18 where she screenshotted a tweet that said Andi Mack fans should stop accusing the show of queer baiting or blaming Disney censorship in regards to Cyrus’ story line. Writers let their work speak for them and that Terri posted that was a sign that the criticism hit to close to home. 

The show is not queer baiting and 3x11 was an all time great but to pretend there hasn’t been long running censorship from Disney is a straight up lie and excluding 3x11 there’s really been very little. I’m sure she had planned for the bench scene for a while but she couldn’t have known that she’d get it approved until it was time to write the finale. Disney seemed committed to some sort of Tyrus endgame but it very easily could have been just them standing together smiling at the end in which case this whole mess of a plot would have been for nothing. She was reckless but got very lucky that Disney didn’t screw her over. I hope whoever ends up making the next Disney show with a gay story line will know not to bite off more than they can chew. 

Looking Ahead:

Things are in some ways simpler and in some ways messier for Tyrus. TJ seems to have accepted Kira as a friend but is refusing to use her as a beard and still wants to hang with Cyrus. Cyrus thinks TJ is straight but has seemingly forgiven him for costume day so that conflict is swept under the rug. Either Kira does a complete 180 off screen and apologizes in her 45 seconds of speaking time in the finale or she’s just there so Cyrus can be sad and TJ tells her off and then goes to speak to Cyrus without her getting any real development or redemption. Either way it’s going to be wild going from closeted TJ to TJ having a boyfriend and being out to at least several people all in like 3-4 minutes of screentime.  

She really is only looking at something like 30-45 seconds of speaking time in the finale and not all that much more of background time if she’s lucky as Raquel was only on set for one day and it was the same day all the other main and recurring kids were also filming and she was only 14 at the time which means she can be on set a little less than most of the other kids. And her insta story shows that it was just her and Luke in the school room and after she finished class she was just hanging on set until they wrapped for the day. 

If she’s not getting a redemption arc than most likely they’ll follow up with what Buffy said and she’ll say something mean about Cyrus that will cause TJ to drop his willful blindness and tell her off or she gets tired of waiting and tries to demand that TJ dates her and he tells her off. Either way Cyrus would likely see them and mistake it for them having a moment. 

 This does mean that TJ doesn’t need to redeem himself so much in Something to Talk A-Boot at the theatre or the game. That TJ is even at those events and hanging with Cyrus over at least two days in universe means he’s either not hanging with Kira or he still is but is less vulnerable to her manipulation.

So the prop garbage was for community service after all. Wild

They really went there with the stereotypes about Asian people. I think great things can come of this plot and I’m excited to see Andi’s art plot line take off. 

Now we know why Jonah says ‘’why can’t it just be fun? Why does it have to be love?’’ There’s almost no chance this Amber in love with Jonah story won’t be a trainwreck but hopefully it’s an entertaining one. I really don’t know if there’s anything they can do for Amber’s home life. Her parents divorcing would probably help in the long term but it would be a very depressing ending to her arc. 

Really does seem to be no set up for Jandi but we’ll see how long they can keep their lead girl completely romance free. Lilan and Asher have both talked about Jonah and Andi being settled and Disney has been hyping up Jandi moments and of course Jonah sings You Girl so something is going to happen. With the new promos suggesting Andi might be moving away in the finale, probably for her art, I wonder if they have an ending where they’re not officially together but they know they like each other and that the universe will always guide them back to one another or some hippy crap like that. 

Presumably Bowie still wants to get married. Wonder how they’ll get the wedding back on track without Ham’s help. 

Mack chat kids hate Kira but no mention of Tyrus which is no surprise. On the plus side this means we get Luke guest starring for either Something to Talk A-Boot or the finale and it seems that Josh was a finale guest so they will have to talk about Tyrus even if only briefly. 

I’ll talk more about the new promos tomorrow but I’m so glad that they’re teasing the bench scene.

Only 5 more weeks left!

[ficbynic]

T A K E   C A R E  -  Chapter 15 - Sydney

"I liked the suit you had on in Singapore." "You did?" he asked, before adding "Have you been searching for photos of me?" "Yeah, I was curious," Emilie shamelessly admitted. Harry laughed. "Good to hear you liked it. For your information, I'm wearing the one I tried on in Milan tonight." "The pink one?" "Salmon, yeah," he replied. "Alright, fucking salmon, then," Emilie scoffed, the smile on her face audible. "Blood orange." He laughed. "What?" "Nothing," Emilie frowned, shaking her head. She would've thought he'd get the reference. It was silent for a bit before she heard Harry's voice again. "So what are you wearing right now?"

Story page (Catch up!) | Author | Talk to me | Read on Tumblr only.

After only a few days of Harry being away, it became clear that the time difference was a big pain in the ass. Harry was eight hours ahead of Emilie, which made it hard to talk as it was difficult to find a time that worked for the both of them. Meanwhile, he was also travelling all over the place, so the time difference would pretty much change every other day, which didn't exactly simplify the scenario. Nothing annoyed Emilie more than missing his calls. She'd be busy with the girls in the morning, leaving the house to walk Denise to school and returning with Charlie about an hour later, and she'd missed his call. She'd be at a play group, running around making sure Charlie was alright or making small talk with other nannies, and when she'd check her phone afterwards, she'd missed his call again. Sure, they could text. And they did, quite a lot. But texting was a lot less fun when it would take literal hours to get a reply because there would never really be a time during the day they were both on their phones at the same time. When Emilie was working, Harry would be either working himself, or asleep. When he woke up, it was still the middle of the night in London. Because Catherine had an important work meeting, she'd asked Emilie if she could please take care of the girls and work on Friday, despite the fact she had been having Fridays off the past couple of weeks. It was the last appointment she'd scheduled on a Friday and because it had been made months ago, she felt bad for having to cancel. Catherine promised she'd be home early, and because Emilie didn't really have any other plans and Harry wasn't around, she didn't really mind spending the day with the girls, postponing the start of her weekend. The morning had gone by smoothly with Denise at school and Charlotte at the house playing nicely with her dollies and her Frozen figures. Luckily, Charlie had overcome the flu and was her happy, bubbly self again. When she went up to bed after lunch, Emilie spent her break trying to get in touch with Harry, calling him and sending him multiple messages, but to no avail. Ironically, Emilie's phone started ringing the minute she'd woken up Charlotte and was busy getting her ready to go. Charlie was lying on the chest of drawers and Emilie was trying to change her when she managed to answer the phone. "Hello?" "Hello?" she repeated. "Hi, finally!" Harry's voice sounded. "I know! I only have about five minutes, though," Emilie immediately informed him, grimacing. "Oh. Really?" The happy tone he'd voiced earlier had disappeared. "I'm sorry I don't have time, I'm literally changing a nappy as we speak." Emilie felt like a nineties stay at home Mum, balancing her phone between her ear and shoulder, her hands occupied with something else. "Just got Charlotte out of bed and I have to get her ready to pick up Denise from school." It had been two and a half days since hearing Harry's voice. They talked before he boarded the plane on Wednesday morning, a quick last goodbye as Emilie was watching Charlotte play in the living room and Harry was making his way to the gate to catch his flight. Since then, it had been texts and missed calls only, superficial "how are you's" going back and forth, nothing too elaborate. "Where are you right now?" Emilie continued, filling the silence. "Sydney," he replied, "Australia. Have a show tomorrow." "Oh! You're there already?" The last time she asked, over text, he'd still been in Singapore. It had been last night, very early in the morning for Harry, Emilie now realised, and she had no idea that in the meantime he'd apparently been on a plane for however many hours it would've taken him to fly all the way down to Australia. "We flew here from Singapore today. Had a meeting and dinner with the Australian label. I'm at the hotel now," Harry told her. "That's nice. So how's everything down under? Having fun? We haven't really had the chance to properly talk." "I know." He sighed, ignoring Emilie's questions, instead focusing on her last statement. "I'm doing the best that I can," he let out, sounding somewhat irritated. "Well. So am I," she responded, grabbing a clean nappy from the shelf and watching Charlotte play with her sock she just pulled off her little foot. "We're-" "Are you?" he interrupted her. And it wasn't because of the delay on the line due to the distance and fairly poor connection. "What do you mean, Harry, of course I am." It surprised Emilie to hear him like this when she thought that she was the one overreacting when they had to say goodbye on Tuesday night. He only left two and a half days ago. She had been busy and missed a few calls. That didn't mean she wasn't trying. "I'm sorry, I'm tired and jetlagged and I don't know." "So you're in Australia now," Emilie changed the subject, hoping to end Harry's moodiness, "What's the time over there?" "Like, half one." "What's that, one-thirty?" "Yeah." She heard Harry smile. The way the English would tell the time was still quite foreign to Emilie sometimes. She never thought it would be any different from what she knew, being fluent in English, but arriving in London and learning half something was half past something was quite the revelation. In Danish, half something would be half before something, so it was pretty confusing at first. "At night? Why are you up?" "Jetlag," Harry answered, sounding as if he stated the obvious. The travelling and subsequent messed up sleep schedule that came along with moving through different time zones wasn't something he wasn't used to having to cope with. "Okay, it's nearly two-thirty here, so that's... Eleven hours," Emilie calculated, "What time do you think you'll wake up tomorrow morning?" "I don't know, Em, it depends..." She heard Harry yawn. "I don't know. Hopefully not that early. Like, ten, maybe." "Okay. Eleven o'clock tonight. Ten o'clock for you, tomorrow morning. You call me." "Aren't you asleep by that time? You're mostly asleep by then," Harry remarked. He was right. Emilie tried to get in bed around that time and fall asleep before midnight at the latest. "I'll stay up. Or I'll get in early and get a few hours before that and set an alarm." "Em, you don't... I know you're busy and tired, as well, I-" "Tomorrow morning. Ten o'clock. Between nine and ten if you're up. Call me," she insisted, "I have to hang up now. I have to get Charlie ready and get her in the buggy. We have to be walking by two-thirty." "Alright." "Alright, get some sleep, yeah?" "Good luck working." "Thanks! I'll talk to you in eight and a half hours." Harry chuckled. "Sounds great. Bye." ~~ Like promised, Catherine got home from work even before Emilie took the girls upstairs for bath time. It was around half past five, or half five, when she entered the door and surprised the girls, who were glad to see their Mum arrive home early. Emilie was happy the girls were in good spirits and Catherine immediately seemed to take over, telling the girls she would bathe them and Emilie would be done for the day. "Are you eating with us?" she then informed, right before taking the girls upstairs. "No, thank you, I'm off to my room," Emilie answered, cleaning up the leftovers from the girls' dinner, the phone call she promised Harry kept in mind.   "Are you having dinner with friends?" Denise wanted to know. She always seemed to find Emilie's plans outside the Ainsley house more than interesting. "With Tilda?" "No, I'm not having dinner with Tilda." Emilie was amused by the fact Denise knew who Tilda was just from hearing her Mum and Emilie talk about her. "Or Harry?" Catherine smiled. "You remember Harry?" Emilie raised her brows. Denise nodded. "From the park." Emilie's eyes were wide as she blinked them, impressed by Denise's memory. Although she could definitely understand Harry must've left an unforgettable impression. "Alright, girls, let's get upstairs and have a bath before Daddy comes home," Catherine ended the conversation with a smile, thanking Emilie and wishing her a great weekend. Emilie left the house with a grin on her face. She never finished work this early and it gave her the opportunity to make most of her night in. She cleaned her room before showering and calling home as she had dinner. It had been a while since she heard her Mum's voice, as well as Jo's and Gitte's. By nine o'clock, Emilie was already ready for bed. She watched Netflix for a bit and hoped Harry would wake up a bit earlier and call her before eleven. When he did, at around ten-thirty, she couldn't have answered the phone faster if she tried. "I nearly forgot you sound like this after you wake up in the morning," she smiled to herself after she picked up the phone and they greeted each other. "Like what?" asked Harry. Emilie didn't have it in her to confess she found his morning voice sexy so she kept it to herself. "Did you manage to sleep despite your jetlag?" she therefore changed the subject. "Yeah, I had an alright sleep after we talked," he answered, "Bit lonely, though." "Was it?" Harry hummed in reply. "Woke up a few times. Thought I couldn't sleep anymore at around five, but then I got a few extra hours, thankfully." "That's good." "So how was your day?" Emilie told him it had been alright. The girls were fine. The prospect of Catherine getting home early made the day go by a bit quicker, as well. She had been in a great mood, happy to have Emilie there to watch the girls despite it being a Friday. "Any plans for the weekend?" Harry continued asking. "Not really, not that I know of now. I haven't seen Tilda in a while, so I'll catch up with her tomorrow." "That's always nice." "Mmhmm," Emilie agreed, "So you have a show in Sydney tomorrow night?" "Tonight. It's Saturday morning here." "Oh, shit, right." "Yeah, the show's tonight. I guess we'll then fly to Melbourne first thing in the morning. We're staying there for a bit until the next show." "Are you having fun?" "Yeah, I am. It's always a bit different, being here, so far away. But it's good." "I liked the suit you had on in Singapore." "You did?" he asked, before adding "Have you been searching for photos of me?" "Yeah, I was curious," Emilie shamelessly admitted. Harry laughed. "Good to hear you liked it. For your information, I'm wearing the one I tried on in Milan tonight." "The pink one?" "Salmon, yeah," he replied. "Alright, fucking salmon, then," Emilie scoffed, the smile on her face audible. "Blood orange." He laughed. "What?" "Nothing," Emilie frowned, shaking her head. She would've thought he'd get the reference. It was silent for a bit before she heard Harry's voice again. "So what are you wearing right now?" Emilie laughed out loud, not even being able to take Harry seriously. "You're such an idiot," she giggled, hearing Harry laugh on the other end of the line, as well. "You're probably right, it's better if we don't go there. I have to get up and get ready to go in a bit." "Oh, my God." "What?!" "You're an idiot." "Don't you dare think I don't think about you!" "I think about you, as well," Emilie confessed, "A lot." "You do?" "Yeah. You're so far away, it's so weird," she stumbled over her words a bit. "It's far, innit? I don't really like being so far away that much. The shows are amazing, but there's days in between and I don't really get to spend much time exploring. A hotel room gets quite boring, you know?" "I can imagine." "Can't wait to be back in my own bedroom." "Well, let me tell you," Emilie sighed, "Neither can I." Harry laughed and they continued talking for another while, Emilie telling him about the girls, about how Charlie wasn't feeling poorly anymore, and how Denise had remarked she remembered Harry from the park; Harry telling a weird story about some people he met in Singapore and hanging out with the band on a boat, until he slowly started to wrap up the conversation. "Listen, babe, I've got to go. You should get your sleep, as well." "Okay," Emilie yawned, "I'm glad- I'm glad we got to talk for a bit." "Me, too." "I'll probably won't speak to you before the show, so have fun. Enjoy." "Thanks, will do. You have fun with Tilda and enjoy your weekend." "Alright, we'll... We'll text, I guess." "Alright, baby," he said, "Good night." "Good night, Harry," Emilie replied, closing her eyes as she felt the butterflies again. "Good night, Em. Sweet dreams." With a sigh, Emilie waited for him to end the call. After setting an alarm for the next morning, she put away her phone and got comfortable in bed. Soon enough, she found her hand going down underneath the blanket, down to her hips, down to the band of the pyjamas she was wearing. Her hand dipped in, skimming the soft skin of her lower tummy before finding its way underneath the panties she had on. She closed her eyes, another sigh escaping her lips as she hit the right spot. Her hand was moving in a comfortable rhythm, touching all the right places, as she pretended it was Harry's. ~~ After a somewhat strange weekend, not spending time with Harry but instead hanging out with Tilda a lot and doing different things, Monday was going fine. When Emilie arrived at the house with the girls after picking up Denise from school, they were both whining about watching TV, though, and because Emilie didn't feel like arguing, she let them have the telly. The girls didn't get to watch TV often. Emilie knew Catherine and David were against exposing the girls to too much screen time, and since Denise was practically addicted to the iPad she had, they had asked Emilie to keep the TV turned off whenever she could. But sometimes, it was just easy to put the girls on the sofa and let them watch a film. They would be quiet. Emilie could get some work around the house done. After all, the dishwasher didn't pack and unload itself, unfortunately. Emilie was just finishing up cleaning the kitchen and preparing the girls some pieces of apple, when all of a sudden she heard some ruffling sounds at the front door. The door to the hallway was open, and the noises seemed to be very close. First, Emilie thought of a bird flying against the window next to the front door, until she realised it actually had to be somebody entering the house. She heard the front door opening and closing and she was a bit frightened as she turned around to have a look. "Hi," David poked his head around the corner. "Oh! Hi, how are you?" Emilie awkwardly asked, trying to hide the fact she had been quite scared to suddenly hear someone at the front door unannounced. She hadn't seen David in what could be nearly a week. It must've been Wednesday night. Or no, maybe Thursday morning. She then missed him on Thursday night and Friday and he'd already left the house when she arrived at a quarter to eight today. Whereas the connection between Emilie and Catherine had kind of improved over the weeks, Emilie still felt like she barely even knew David. They'd never really talked. At all. So every interaction with him was noticeably awkward. "I'm off to the airport," he explained his presence, "My flight's actually leaving in about an hour." "Oh. Okay." Emilie didn't have a clue he was going on a trip. He'd been on a few business trips since she'd arrived in London, but at least she'd heard of those. She was wondering if Catherine was aware of the fact her husband was leaving town. "Going to Berlin and Vienna, until Thursday," David clarified, before his focus drifted off to the sofa, the girls, and the TV screen. "Hi, girls!" The both of them barely looked up, their eyes focused on the flat screen hanging on the wall. David let out what could be viewed as a laugh, before he disappeared upstairs to grab his suitcase. Emilie meanwhile considered turning off the TV, but knowing how the girls would react made her opt against it. It would be too obvious, anyway. "Denny, Charlie, Daddy's leaving," David entered the room again a few minutes later. "I'll see you girls on Thursday, alright?" Denise nodded. "I love you girls," he smiled down at them. "Love you," Denise replied, not really making any effort to look her father in the eye, instead finding the television screen far more interesting. Emilie's stomach twisted as she watched David embrace his daughters. That damn TV. She knew David was probably asking himself why she'd turn it on and how often his girls were getting telly time whenever Mum and Dad were at work. "Bye-bye!" Charlotte then giggled, her cute little chubby face distracting David, making him seem a bit less on edge, much to Emilie's relief. "Bye darling," he smiled down at her, "Bye Den. Be nice to Emilie, alright?" Emilie smiled as she watched David walk off. "Bye." "Bye, have a safe flight!" And with that, he was gone and Emilie was left alone with the girls again. She let out a sigh and nearly cracked a sarcastic smile at how unfortunate the timing of David's surprise visit had been. Wonderful. ~~ DECEMBER 2017 "Look, Charlie, look at all the decorations! The pretty lights and the Christmas trees! How lovely!" Emilie peeked down to the buggy and saw Charlotte barely looking up, apparently not as impressed by Hampstead's locals' attempts at making their houses and gardens more attractive for the holiday season as her Mum was. "We're gonna have to put something up, as well, that would be nice," Catherine continued. Emilie agreed but could already picture the Ainsley's house being one of the few that wouldn't end up decorated for the holidays. She couldn't imagine Catherine or David would have the time to do any of that. She'd be surprised if they'd have a tree when Christmas would arrive. "I can't believe it's December already. Time absolutely flies." "I know, it's so weird." Emilie shook her head. "It's Christmas in three weeks." "And you're leaving in three weeks! That's crazy. It only seems like a few weeks since you've been here." A faint smile appeared on Emilie's face. They stopped to cross a busy street on the way to school to drop off Denise in the morning. Catherine had joined the three of them for the occasion, watching Denny and making sure she wouldn't stray too far using her scooter, while Emilie was pushing along Charlotte's buggy. "David and I have already talked about what we'll do in January," Catherine continued as they waited for the light to turn green and the "walking man" to appear on the traffic lights. "We've reactivated our account on the au pair website, and we've already gotten some replies." "Oh!" Emilie was surprised to feel her stomach twist a bit by the mention of the person replacing her after she would return to Denmark. It was just a weird prospect. Someone else doing exactly what she had been doing. Someone else inhabiting the attached apartment. Someone else being around the girls. Someone else the girls would most definitely get attached to. It was just a weird feeling. Apparently, Catherine seemed to pick up on it. "That is, if you don't want to stay. Because, obviously, we've loved having you and you've been amazing with the girls." Noticing Catherine was already talking in past tense brought along a weird feeling, as well. "And if you'd like to return after the holidays, we would love to have you again. You know how flexible we are, I'm sure we could arrange anything." Emilie sure knew how flexible they were, yes. She also knew she had to make the decision whether or not she'd return to London rather sooner than later. Finding a new au pair would definitely take a couple of weeks, so Emilie could imagine that the Ainsley's would be on top of that the coming time. She couldn't let them wait around for her answer. Staying or returning to London after the holidays had never really been on Emilie's mind before she left Denmark. The plan was to be gone for three months and then return to spend the holidays with her family. Then, in the new year, everything would start. She would pick up her normal life again and she would find a job in the field she'd studied for. She would live with her Mum again, live the normal life again, and pick up from where she left. That was the plan. That was going to be her life. And staying in London for another while would only postpone that. It didn't make sense. She knew she didn't want to be an au pair forever. She couldn't spend her life working for and living with a family instead of building up a life of her own. So she didn't want to come back. But she didn't want to leave, either. ~~ As time went by, it was getting more and more difficult to get hold of Harry. The longer he'd been away, the harder it became to get in touch with him. It had now been two weeks since he left, but Emilie hadn't gotten the chance to have a proper conversation with him like they had when Harry arrived in Sydney. In fact, they'd barely talked over the phone and the number of text messages sent back and forth had also decreased. Harry'd left Australia after his show in Melbourne to travel to New Zealand. They managed to quickly talk over the phone before Harry left Auckland about three days ago. But the call only lasted about five minutes, Harry breaking it off because he had to go someplace, leaving Emilie disappointed on a Sunday morning in her room. The past couple of days, she'd only received a few text messages. She knew Harry was off to Japan and he told her that he'd be busy there, also doing some promo besides just having the show and finishing up tour for the year. That having said, Emilie thought she'd at least get to hear his voice before his last two concerts. It turned out she didn't. The last shows were on Thursday and Friday night, Thursday and Friday around midday, London time. On Friday, Emilie was off work and had been hanging around Hampstead doing some shopping when the realisation kicked in that Harry was currently performing his last show of the year. It was the last show of this tour, essentially, and it made her feel a bit shitty to know that he hadn't contacted her beforehand. During the day, she sent him multiple texts wishing him a good time on stage for what would be the last time in about three months, but her messages were left unanswered until Friday night. Harry must've gotten back to the hotel after an end-of-tour party, because Emilie figured it was nearly three o'clock in the morning in Tokyo when Harry finally replied to her. Thank you. Show was great. Leaving for London soon. I will call you when I land. Emilie wished him a safe flight and told him she was excited to see him again once he'd returned and that was that. The following Saturday went by without hearing anything from Harry. Emilie sent him another text, but it didn't deliver. At around seven o'clock in the evening, she had just returned to her room after having an early dinner at Nando's with Tilda. They spent the afternoon together but Tilda had to return to Golders Green early because she agreed on babysitting tonight. Because it would also involve getting the kids bathed and in bed, Emilie wasn't coming with, instead opting for an early night in. She'd just finished cleaning up her room a little, organising her washing she would bring to the Ainsley's on Monday when she would normally sort out her laundry, when her phone rang. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw Harry's name on the lit up screen. She somehow wasn't expecting Harry to call her just yet. She immediately wondered where he was calling her from, knowing he finished tour by now and was planning on returning this weekend. But she didn't know when he would be back. Already mentally preparing herself for a disappointing call that would let her know Harry wouldn't be back in London for another day or so, maybe even more, she picked up her phone. "Hello?" "Hi, it's me," Harry's voice sounded. "Hiii!" Emilie started to become more optimistic again when she heard the connection was practically perfect. "Where are you?" "I'm home, just got home," he told her, "Like a minute ago. Had some business calls on the way here from the airport." "Oh my God, you're here?" Emilie asked, unable to contain her excitement, "In Hampstead?" "Yeah." "Will you be home for the evening?" "Uhm, I guess so, I'm knackered, I-" "Great!" She didn't even notice she was interrupting. "I'll be there in twenty minutes, okay?" "Oh! Okay. Yeah, sure, I'll be here." ~~ Entering the gate that opened when she dialled the code, she made her way down to the front door, somewhat surprised to find it was still locked. She therefore had to ring the doorbell. She'd never rung it before and the sound of it was a bit harder and colder than she'd imagined it to be. After a while, Harry's silhouette appeared and he opened the door, wearing an oversized knitted jumper and light washed jeans, immediately bringing a twinkle to Emilie's eyes. "Hiii," she beamed, wrapping her arms around him in a big hug, taking in the smell of his cologne. Finally. "Hi," he greeted once she let go of him, displaying a faint smile. "Come in." "How are you? How was the trip back?" "I'm fine, it was good," he replied curtly, not elaborating. "I couldn't reach you, so I didn't know when you'd return." She stepped in the hallway, following Harry. "It's a nice surprise you're back!" Harry didn't answer. When they entered the living room, the thought dawned on Emilie that he was acting a bit strange. "What's wrong?" she inquired, shrugging off her coat and placing it on one of the chairs near the dining table. "Nothing," he answered a little bit too quickly. "Yeah there is, you're acting... A bit weird." "No, I'm not." "You are, though," she insisted. "Am I?" Emilie frowned, trying to pinpoint what was wrong. Then it hit her. He seemed nowhere near as excited to see her again as she was to see him again after two and a half long weeks. "Yeah," she replied, watching Harry walk off to the kitchen, leaving her in the living room. "You are. You're acting weird." "Well, I guess you're the one making me act weird. Trying to make sense of it all." "Of what?" Emilie frowned again, following him to the kitchen, ending up at the other side of the bar whereas Harry was stood beside the island. "I don't know," he mumbled, "Your motives." "What do you mean?" "Being here." All of a sudden it started to make sense to Emilie and it felt like a slap in the face. "What?" Her mind started spinning. He was trying to make sense of it all. Of her motives. Being here. "You're questioning my intentions?" Unwillingly, Emilie's tone changed from neutral to sounding harsh. "Are you saying I spend a lot of time with you because you're rich and famous?!" The fact Harry didn't reply or even look at her gave her the confirmation that she was right. Her mouth fell open in bewilderment. "How could you even imply that? Who do you think I am?" Emilie couldn't but raise her voice a bit. "Do you think I only like you because you're... Because you're a celebrity?" Harry finally turned around and looked disgusted by the use of that word. Emilie didn't care she made him feel uncomfortable. Not when he managed to make her feel like shit. She couldn't believe he was making her go through this. How could he even bring up something like this? As if it hadn't been something she was actually struggling with! "If anything, it makes me feel sceptical about it all!" Emilie continued, "It makes me think about what will happen in the future and to be honest, it's something that scares the shit out of me." "Well, that's nice to hear," Harry sarcastically replied. Emilie could hear the anger in his voice and she didn't like it one bit. She never saw Harry like this. She didn't expect him to turn into a sarcastic angry person whenever he felt aggravated. More importantly, he was trying to shift the blame and focus of their argument. He wasn't getting away with it. "No, you accusing me of being some gold digging fame whore is nice to hear," Emilie retaliated, "Do you think that's okay? What have I done? What made you think that it's okay to suddenly accuse me of that?" Harry's eyes were suddenly wide. He opened his mouth a few times before closing it again because no words were coming out. He then started mumbling. "You're not a- I didn't-" "Yes, you did! My motives? Really?" Emilie thought about Harry's change of heart. What could've happened while he was away that changed his opinion of her? She knew they hadn't been in touch that much the past couple of days, but she never expected anything like this. What weird idea had popped up in his mind? "If this is about the bag, you're the one who insisted on buying me it! Going shopping in Milan never even crossed my mind! I didn't even know about the appointment with Harry, I never once thought about a fucking handbag." She realised it was weird to suddenly bring up Milan and start about the Gucci bag, but it was the only thing Emilie could think of that would make the tiniest bit of sense. She knew she should've never accepted such an expensive gift. "It's not the bag," Harry sighed. "Then what is it?" "Just- You never... I don't know. When you're here, it's..." "It's what, Harry?!" Harry started breathing heavier; Emilie could hear it from a few yards away. With her eyebrows frowned, her lips slightly parted, she must've never looked this confused. Maybe because she couldn't think of a time she was left this perplexed. "Just say it!" But Harry kept his silence. In fact, he couldn't even look her in the eye, thousands of thoughts going around in his head.   "Seriously?" Emilie shook her head, wondering where the guy she'd grown fond of had gone. It was like he was still in Tokyo, the person who took his place on the plane and arrived in London, a stranger to her. Harry shook her head for a bit, staring blankly ahead of him. It drove Emilie insane to watch him struggling, unable to find words, leaving her unanswered. "Call me when you've come to your senses," she snapped before grabbing her coat and making her way out of Harry's home just minutes after she arrived. She stormed off outside, the cold wind hitting her like a hurricane. Whatever she expected from the first night Harry would be back from tour, this hadn't been it.

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