m00gyu

[prvtocol]

can i just mention that bri is not a pushover in her position of power? she’s a director for a reason.

personality can be circumstantial and since I so often write bri when she’s disenfranchised and way out of her (rich life/office) element that’s easy to forget. ofc she's not the same person.

likewise, someone can have a public and private persona. context matters.

so she's obviously a much nicer person than a boss or even a coworker.

[letterboxd]

Chaotic Bisexual.

Shiva Baby writer-director Emma Seligman tells Ella Kemp about expanding her wildly cringey short film into an even more anxiety-inducing feature, why Virgo and Taurus make the perfect producing pair, and the eternal conflict of being a good Jewish girl.

“If I can skip a bris to see E.T., I like movies!” —Emma Seligman

It sounds like a strange riff on a guy-walks-into-a-bar joke: a girl walks into a shiva and bumps into her secret ex-girlfriend, then her sugar daddy, then his shiksa wife, oh, and their baby—yet the payoff is so much more rewarding.

Filmmaker Emma Seligman’s debut feature is a new kind of teen classic: 78 non-stop minutes teeming with well-drawn traits and tropes that define the best coming-of-agers, the best Jewish comedies and the best day-in-a-life psychological roller-coasters.

Shiva Baby began as a grad project—a short film of the same name—and Seligman’s feature-length embellishment impressed at last year’s virtual editions of SXSW and TIFF, where it was quickly snapped up for international distribution. In a way, Shiva Baby was perfectly tailored to the times we were living in: Danielle, our reluctant heroine, is trapped in a claustrophobic family event she can’t escape, as people from her past and lies about her future make their way deep under her skin.

Fred Melamed, Rachel Sennott and Polly Draper in ‘Shiva Baby’.

Shiva Baby is very much the product of a wry school of emerging filmmakers who understand excruciatingly mundane horror and pin-sharp comedy as intimate bedfellows. Seligman’s writing finds a way to flesh out gloriously caricatural Jewish relatives, probing and overbearing and irrational. She does this both through dialogue and a visceral, haptic aesthetic that lurches in and out of focus visually, and has a nails-on-chalkboard unease sonically.

Coming in hot with a 4.01 average rating, Shiva Baby is striking all sorts of discordant notes with film lovers. “Combines some of my biggest anxieties: being asked if I have a boyfriend as well as what my plans for the future are and people talking with their mouths full,” writes Muriel.

The film’s “bisexual chaos”, which hinges on a haywire performance from Rachel Sennott as Danielle, opposite Molly Gordon’s overachieving ex-girlfriend, Maya, is also one of its great strengths. Glee star Dianna Agron is the shiksa threat, Kim, while Danny Deferrari is Danielle’s hapless benefactor, Max. If that’s not enough? Polly Draper, Fred Melamed and Jackie Hoffman are also just there.

What do you think defines a Jewish sense of humor? Emma Seligman: It’s morbid usually, and darker—generally uncomfortable and cringeworthy. I think about Curb Your Enthusiasm or Seinfeld, and A Serious Man. It borders on, “Is this funny at all?” I think Jewish humor leans into the darkly funny British sense of humor. I’m Canadian, so I feel like I’m halfway between the UK and the US in terms of their sense of humor.

Was it always your intention to make a comedy that feels like a bit of a nightmare? You’ve mentioned Black Swan and Opening Night as touchstones… Because I came from a short film, the question when expanding into a feature was, “How are we going to keep everyone interested in this day?” It’s got to be a significant day, it’s got to be that this young woman’s life has completely changed from this day. So what is it that changes? Why are we watching it? I watched a lot of movies that took place in one day, one of them was Trey Edward Shults’ first film Krisha. And then from there I realized that anxiety and this scary psychological feeling is a great way to have the audience stay there.

I watched Opening Night because there’s a shiva in it, but it was more the lobby scenes that were so claustrophobic and tense. And then each step of the way with each department, we were like, okay, it’s gonna be tense, but then we got to music, I was like, okay, this has become a full nightmare. Initially, I was just like, it’s got to be tense, but by the end, I was like, well, it does feel like a nightmare to a young woman sometimes.

Because you mention that, I have to ask whether you’ve seen Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade? I have, it’s incredible. It’s so funny, they’re both coming-of-age [films], and one of them is about a fourteen year old and then the same sort of feeling exists when you’re 22. When you’re fourteen is when it begins, and when you’re 22 you’re sort of at the end of it and you’re like, “Oh, I thought I figured out what I was supposed to do when I started feeling insecure this way at fourteen about sex and boys.”

Diana Agron and Danny Deferrari in ‘Shiva Baby’.

Let’s talk about Rachel Sennott, who you have describe as your “Virgo rock”. What do you bring one another in your creative partnership? She’s a hustler, and she sets goals like nobody else. I think she moves very fast, and I’m more detail-oriented. I don’t know if the movie would have happened without her because she was like, “What are the goals to achieve this film?” After we made the short film, she just kept checking in with me. She goes well beyond what an actor does, which is why she’s an executive producer, because she was very, very invested in seeing the movie get made.

I think she pushes. We joke that she brings me out of my depression and I help calm her down. I feel like Taurus is a little more chill. Virgos are also earth signs, but they run on a faster frequency. So I think I calm her down, especially when we’re writing and bringing it back to structure. But she’s way funnier, she’s able to give jokes so quickly. We balance each other perfectly, for sure.

Do you think your partnership with Rachel is the kind of partnership you could see yourself maintaining throughout your career? Definitely. I think it’s important to have a good friend and also a young woman. She’s got different career goals from me, but they’re aligned. And we’re not in competition with each other. I feel so grateful because so much of the time I feel like the world does make you feel like you’re in competition with your friends that are trying to do the same thing as you when you’re a young woman—or just maybe in general.

Rachel Sennott and Danny Deferrari in ‘Shiva Baby’.

Her character in Shiva Baby completely subverts the idea of a “nice Jewish boy/girl” which can be a trope in movies, but also very much a real thing in life. Is that something you consciously wanted to subvert, or did it come organically from the story you wanted to tell? I wanted to contrast that idea of a “nice Jewish girl” because every nice Jewish girl or boy has a sex life. I felt the sort of nice Jewish girl stressors on me were completely opposite from the NYU art school sugaring worlds, and hookup culture broadly. My family is such a huge part of my life and I think that those two sets of pressures are completely contradictory; to be a good girl or boy and have a stable career ahead of you, and to be finding, even if it’s at the very beginning, your eventual partner, or to just be in a relationship. And I felt like in school, no one wanted to date, everyone was hooking up. So many of my friends are sugar babies. I tried it super, super briefly.

I felt like the world was telling me to be like “an empowered, independent, sexy woman who doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her, and doesn’t abide by any rules”, and I was like, “This is the opposite of being a nice Jewish girl!” And I just felt like those two things were screaming at me. So I did want to play on that. But I don’t even think it’s playing, just because that felt like what I was trying to battle within myself. And I think a lot of young people do, whether they’re Jewish or not. That’s their family’s expectations. And then the world is like, “But don’t care and don’t commit…”

Writer-director Emma Seligman. / Photo by Emma McIntyre

But then you still have to go home to your parents at the end of the day and they’re going to tell you what to do… Exactly.

What would you want viewers to take away from Shiva Baby about the sugaring community that you feel has been maligned in the past? I’m not a sex worker, so I don’t want to speak on behalf of this community, but I definitely feel like there hasn’t been many positive portrayals of sex workers. So I just wanted to show someone—because I knew so many friends of mine who did it—who enjoyed it, or purposefully did it and didn’t feel bad or shameful about it. I think maybe a lot of people think that it’s always something that comes out of dire circumstances. But whether that is the case or not, I think there’s a lot of people who enjoy it and enjoy what they do like any other job. So I just hope that they’re able to sort of widen their scope of what a sex worker looks like and acts like. Every sex worker has got a family, friends, a full robust life, as we all do.

It’s time for your Life in Film questionnaire. Can you give me a few must-watch Jewish films for people who don’t know where to start? Fiddler on the Roof, Yentl, Keeping the Faith, Kissing Jessica Stein, A Serious Man. Definitely Uncut Gems, and Crossing Delancey.

Shiva Baby has been described on Letterboxd, variously, as “Uncut Gems but make it chaotic bisexual”, “the most stressful Jewish movie since Uncut Gems”, “the chaotic successor of Uncut Gems”, “if Krisha and Uncut Gems had a baby”, and, of course, “Uncut Gems for hot Jewish sluts”… Amazing, I love that. Extremely nice comparison.

Who is your favorite promising young woman? Not Emerald Fennell’s film, but a young creative or performer who you think is making waves. I love Hari Nef—I think she’s amazing and am really excited to see what she does next. I loved her so much in Transparent and Assassination Nation, and I don’t understand why she hasn’t been the lead in a million movies.

Molly Gordon with Rachel Sennott in ‘Shiva Baby’.

What should people watch next after Shiva Baby? Those Jewish movies would be a great start. And then Krisha, although I think a lot of people have seen it especially if they’re on Letterboxd! But then those Jewish romantic comedies, and then Obvious Child, all those movies are very sweet and endearing and helped me make it.

Separate from film, if it’s shiva-related then Transparent. If I didn’t have Transparent I don’t think I would have seen world of grounded, nuanced Jews that I could do comedy with. It would have been more in the Curb vein, which is also amazing, but a little more schtick.

What was the first film that made you want to be a filmmaker? My parents are huge movie buffs so I’m not sure there was one moment, but I will say that when I was six there was a re-release of the 20-year anniversary of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and I was at a horribly packed bris and my uncle was like, “Fuck this, there are so many people here, I can’t even breathe. Let’s go see E.T.” That was the first moment where I was like, if I can skip a bris to see E.T., I like movies.

Related content

From Short to Feature: Rob’s list of 2020 films that made the jump

Jewish Cinema (non-Holocaust): Amelia’s list of films “for when u want to celebrate your heritage but don’t want to have to think all too deeply about the Shoah”

Best Directorial Debuts of 2020: suggested by Letterboxd members, featuring Shiva Baby

Follow Ella on Letterboxd

Shiva Baby is now in select theaters and on VOD in the US. Film stills by Maria Rusche.

[mirkwoodshewolf]

Accidents happen; Queen x teen reader

*Author’s note*

Hey all, okay so here I am with a new request. After people seeing my last Queen x teen reader ‘time for us to look after you’ this anon wanted another teen fic with Queen but with the reader being older. So in this fic imagine you are 18. Now to the anon in the light that as I was writing and trying to finish your fic during Deacy’s birthday I kinda leaned a more close bond with our beloved bass player so I hope that’s okay with you. Hope you all enjoy my lovely darlings :)

Warnings: parent death from drugs, head injuries, fluff, bit of angst. But MOSTLY FLUFF FROM OUR BELOVED 4 BOYS :)

Taglist:

@psychosupernatural

@plethora-of-things

@ixchel-9275

@waddles03

@platawnic

@geek-and-proud

@queendeakyy

@coolcxt

__________________________________________________________

I was up on stage rewiring some of the bar lights so that when my dad would go to do the light cues to light up the bottom of the stage, they would hit the boys exactly on cue.  Wearing special gloves to ensure that no fingerprints got on the covering or the actual bulb smudged with fingerprints dimming the lights when they go up on cue.

“(Y/n), oh (y/n) baby~” I perked up my head and turned around to see my favorite Queen member the one whom I’ve considered a big brother to me, John Richard Deacon.  Known to most as the bassist of Queen, the ‘quiet’ guy, but to me he’s the Disco king, father to three beautiful children, loving and dedicated husband to his lady Veronica and as stated before, my brother from another mother.

“Yes?” I asked wearily.

“You wouldn’t happen to know where my Fender bass is at, would you?” I stopped my work and stood up.

“How dare you would accuse me of stealing it Deacy, I’m hurt.”

“I didn’t say it was you, I just asked if you had seen it.” Oh bugger. “But since I know it was you, where is it?”

“I plead the 5th!”

“You’re in England love, it won’t work here.” I gulped and quickly raced off with Deacy chasing after me.  I hopped off the stage and ran through the rows of seats with Deacy right behind me.

I would jump over the seats just to get into the next row before Deacy could grab hold of me.  We’d just stare each other down as we’d fake each other out trying to either escape or go on the chase.  I then raced towards the end trying to jump back onto the stage.  

As I rolled across the stage and just before I could make another run for it, I felt Deacy’s arms wrap around me and pin me down to the ground.

“Gotcha! You gonna tell me where it’s at?” I shook my head and that’s when I felt him start to tickle me.

“Gahh Nohohohoh! Deheheheacy stohahahp!”

“Then fess up love, or I won’t.” he mocked. “I have no problem doing this all night love.”

“Okay! Okay uncle! I’ll tell you!” He ceased his attack then before I could speak I heard the voices of the rest of the band come up from backstage.

“Ahh I see you’ve caught your culprit Deacy darling.” Freddie said.

“And it would seem you got a confession out of her.” Stated Brian.

“And now here we have the evidence. It was in her dressing room up against a guitar platform.” Roger presented Deacy with his bass.  He stood up and took his instrument back and I said as I got up.

“Ya’ll are snitches. Good to know I’ll be able to trust you guys in prison.” I joked.

“(Y/n)!” we all turned around and there stood my dad, Queen’s stage designer and main light technician.  “You know better than to distract the boys from their rehearsal.”

“Sorry dad.” It was then Roger came up and said.

“Ahh no worries (f/n). She wasn’t distracting us. She never is.” Roger said as he gave me a playful noogie.

A little background information about me.  As you know my name is (y/n) (l/n), my mum died of a cocaine overdose back in America 2 years ago.  Wanting a new life for me, my dad moved us across the ocean here to London where he got a job working at the Odeon Hammersmith theater.  After Queen performed their famed Christmas Eve concert back in ’75, they hired my dad as their permanent stage designer and light director because they loved what he had done to make them look good.

And just to get me out in the work field during my holidays, I helped with lighting all thanks to my dad for teaching me the ropes.  That’s kinda what helped Deacy and I connect was our knowledge of electrical engineering, and why the two of us just clicked with each other even being 8 years younger than him.

And of course bonding with the rest of the guys wasn’t hard either.  Freddie was the first one to just instantly love me cause of my genius work with the lights, he was even impressed when just last year my dad had allowed me to run the lights all by myself.  Brian and I bonded with each other due to our love for animals and Roger and I—we already kinda had that teasing big brother-little sister dynamic.

I’d embarrass him whenever he’d tried to bring in one of his ‘flings’ and he’d be the overbearing big brother when my dad was too busy to pick me up from school and intimidate the boys at my high school.  You know that kinda of stuff, but he’s also always there for a comforting shoulder and a good bear hug.

“Alright. But you better get back to work missy. I’m gonna start the light checks in half an hour and if those stage lights aren’t done by then, we’re gonna have an issue here.”

“Don’t worry dad I’ll get it done.” He just grinned at me suspiciously before heading back up to the control panel in the very back of the arena.

“You work too hard darling, we can back you up if you need a break.”

“Thanks for the offer Fred but I’m good. I’m….still kinda grounded for going to that party you invited me too last week.”

“Still? That was over 3 weeks ago.”

“Yeah and punishment is hard labor. But at least it’s not staying in my room with cabin fever.”

“I suppose.”

“Go on, you guys get ready for soundchecks, I’ll be five minutes anyways.” I then went back to the edge of the stage and continued my work on the bar lights.

Afterwards I was up on a high elevation machine to screw in the lights that hung along a track up on the ceiling.  Once I got done tightening the last screw so that it wouldn’t fall almost 20ft and really kill one of the guys, I saw all four of them starting their soundchecks. Since I was closest to Brian I couldn’t help but say.

“Hey Bri, I can finally see the top of your head.” He looked up at me and I swore he was probably giving me a bitch face.

“Ha-ha very funny (n/n).” he said.

“Oi (y/n), what’s it look like from up there?” Roger cried out.

“No different, just looks like a waterfall of curls sprouting out of his head.” I told him.

“Alright enough of this, you all had your fun.”

“Aww Bri I’m kidding. You know I love you right?”

“Sure you do.” He sneered sarcastically.  I chuckled and pressed the down button on the machine.  As I was being lowered down, I radioed my dad.

“Everything’s all good here dad.”

‘Good job sweetie bell. Head backstage and help Robert and Sam with the backdrops.’

“You got it pops.” Once I was successfully down and out of the elevator crane, Derek and Jason wheeled it away and I went to find Bobby and Sam.

It was getting close to concert time and as I was walking along stage right when I saw Deacy in his normal side of stage right practicing his bass and just when he thought no one would be looking, he’d try and work in one of his little Disco moves.  Which is why I have given him the endearing nickname, Disco Deacy.

It was then I heard something from up above.  I took out my binoculars and noticed that something didn’t look right with the track railing, especially on the left side.  There was this creaking and groaning sound and that’s when I had to act fast.  Quick as I could I cried out to Deacy and shoved him aside when I felt something hit my head and the next thing I knew, my world went black.

*3rd Person POV*

When John overcame the suddenly shock of suddenly being shoved aside, he turned around and saw probably the most horrifying thing he would ever see in his entire life.  There lying underneath the track railing was (y/n).

She wasn’t moving and it didn’t look like she was breathing either.  Without a word he rushed over and tried to lift up the railing but it was just too damn heavy with all the extra lights screwed onto it.

“Deacy! Are you alright we just heard a—oh my god!” Freddie gasped in horror.

“Don’t stand there gawking like idiots help me!” Deacy snapped.  Soon all the band members, plus a couple of stage handlers all piled into helping Deacy raise the railings to get (y/n) free.

“What in the samhell is going—(Y/N)!!!” Her father soon came in on the scene after hearing the crash.  He raced up towards the stage and he ordered. “Okay everyone lift slowly on three; One, two, three!” Soon the seven men began to lift the track with all their might. “Slowly, slowly, okay I can pull her out, keep it off of her.”

He then pulled his daughter out from under the track, finally seeing a small pool of blood on the stage.

“Okay slowly lower it back down. One, two three! Easy! Slowly!” Once the track was on the ground, the four band members surrounded the father and daughter.

“(Y/n)? (N/n), can you hear us?” Roger spoke.

“Here press this to her head.” Brian said as he got his jacket off and handed it to her father.

“Medic!”

“Someone call 999!” Soon the stage medics came in and took (y/n) out of her father’s arms and began checking her over.

Outside the ambulance finally arrived and the medics were loading (y/n) up into the back of the truck.

“Go with her (f/n) darling.” Freddie said.  (F/n) turned to Freddie and said.

“But what about the show?”

“For once there won’t be a show. We’ll tell John to cancel the show and refund all the tickets. We won’t have enough time to fix the stage. Plus none of us will be focused after seeing that blood.” Explained Roger.

“Go be with your daughter, we’ll try to get there as fast as we can.” Brian assured him.  (F/n) nodded and thanked the four band members for their help, most bands would’ve just left it be and not have gotten involved as they did just now.  

He raced up and asked the medic to ride with her, the paramedics allowed him to ride with them and once he entered the back of the van, two medics closed the door and the male tapped the door and almost immediately, the van took off for the hospital.

It took some convincing but Reid managed to work out with the manager of the stadium and they made an announcement to the audience that an accident happened and the show had to be canceled.  

Freddie, Brian, Roger and Deacy managed to find (y/n)’s dad in the waiting room.  He told the band that she was in surgery right now and come out once they had news.  Hours passed and finally by 4am a doctor came by with a clipboard and said.

“(Y/n) (l/n)’s father.” It was then the four band members along with (y/n)’s father all stood up.  The doctor was confused until her father walked up to him and said.

“I’m (y/n)’s dad.”

“Your daughter sustained a massive head injury. We did all we could to help her but the best we could do for her now is have her be in an induced coma.”

“Does that mean she’s—” her dad feared to continued but the doctor assured him.

“It’s up to her. She’s stable and all vitals are normal. It’s…..just gonna be up to her whether she wakes up or not.” He sighed heavily but thanked the Doctor.

“Can we see her?” asked Freddie.

“Of course. She’s in room 302, you can visit her now.” They all nodded and headed towards the room.

When the five of them came to the door, they saw (y/n)’s head wrapped in bandages, IV’s in her arms and all these hooks and wires attached to her as the machine showed her blood pressure, brain activity and heartrate.

“(Y/n), (y/n) it’s me. I’m here sweetie bell.” Her dad choked out as he took his daughter’s hand in his. “I’m here baby girl, I’m right here. Oh please let me see those pretty (e/c) eyes of yours. Let me know you’re gonna be okay.” He sniffed and kissed his daughter’s hand.

Taking this harder than anyone else, Deacy stepped out trying to compose himself as he gripped his head in his hands and tried to keep his sobs in, but they kept coming out in chokes.

“Deacy darling?” Deacy sniffled and wiped away his tears but refused to speak to Freddie because he knew if he tried to speak, all that would come out would be sobs. “This was in no way your fault darling, you couldn’t have known the track would collapse.”

“But……but…..”

“No buts darling, you. Didn’t. Cause. The. Collapse.” Freddie emphasized.  Deacy sighed heavily and cleaned himself up and he choked out.

“If she doesn’t wake up……I’ll never forgive myself.”

“She will. Our little light goddess is a fighter. She’s like a wild mustang. Can try to break her, but she’ll always keep bucking and fighting.” Freddie brought Deacy into a comforting hug, patting his back and rubbing it comfortingly.

Over three weeks passed and still there wasn’t any changes of (y/n) waking up. Even with the News of the World tour, any chance the boys got when they would perform back in England or they managed to get a day off, they’d go see (y/n) and ask her father if she had shown signs of improvement.

Currently Deacy was in there alone with (y/n).  As he listened to the machines that were his sign of her still being ‘alive’.

“I—I uhh….I know I’m not much of a singer, so if—you can somehow hear this I don’t want any teasing. As you know I wrote this for Veronica, but ever since meeting you, some of the lyrics seem to resemble you. You’re….like the sister I’ve always wanted and—I hope this song helps you see it.”

He took out a keyboard piano and placed it in his lap and began playing “You’re my best friend” as well as singing the song to her, hoping that somehow this could help her wake up.

*My POV*

I woke up to hearing the sound of a piano playing and a voice singing.  It wasn’t as powerful as Freddie’s, nor as high and strong as Roger’s and Bri’s, so….no it couldn’t be, could it?

Slowly I tried opening my eyes but for some reason they were so heavy to open, it was like my eyelids were made of lead.  When I did manage to open them, all I saw was a bright light and white walls. I also saw what looked to be balloons in the room as well.  I turned to my right to see dozens upon dozens of flowers, balloons and stuffed animals all in a “GET WELL SOON” package, as written on most of the balloons.

I then turned to my left to see Deacy sitting there with a keyboard on his lap and I finally pieced together that the voice was coming from him.  He briefly stopped and looked like he was about to break down crying.

“Don’t stop now Deacy.” I croaked out.  Wow how long have I been asleep? His head shot up and the second he looked at me, he looked like he was about to explode with a million emotions.  He quickly set aside the keyboard and rolled the chair closer towards my face as he said.

“Hey, oh my god you’re—you’re okay.” I felt him stroke my cheek and he repeatedly yet lovingly kissed over my face repeating ‘you’re okay.’

“A little dizzy and exhausted but yeah I guess.”

“Dizzy? Your vision’s not blurry is it? How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Deacy, relax. No my visions not blurry, and you’re holding up two FYI. What happened?”

“You—you don’t remember?” he asked me concerned.

“That’s a little hazy. I mean last thing I remember was running towards you and my vision went black after that.”

“(Y/n). The track beam that held the lights came down. You pushed me out of the way but got caught under the end of it. It took seven of us to get you out. God you….you were bleeding heavily from your head.”

“But—you guys still did the show last night, right? Did it still happen?”

“Uhh love. That happened over 3 weeks ago.” My eyes widened and that’s when I saw the three remaining members of Queen enter in with more gifts and when they saw me awake, they all proclaimed my name and raced over toward me talking all at once.  “Alright! Okay you guys step back, give her some air.” Deacy snapped.

“Oh love you still remember me don’t you?” Freddie begged.

“Of course I still remember you. How could I ever forget Freddie Mercury?” he sighed with relief and said.

“I was just worried that you had gotten memory loss from the bump on your precious noggin. Thank god you didn’t, and don’t you ever scare us like that again you cheeky darling.”

“In his own dramatic way, he’s glad you’re safe and awake (y/n).” Brian assured as he stroked my shoulder.

“Was I—really out for 3 weeks?”

“It felt like forever.” Roger stated solemnly.

“Where’s my dad? Is he okay?”

“He’s fine. Hardly left your side the poor man. Finally took Deacy being here to watch over you for him to finally head home and bathe.” Said Freddie.

“As well as get some rest. He looked like he was ready for an early grave.” Roger stated which earned him a back of the head slap from Deacy.

“It’s okay Deacy. It—couldn’t be hard for him. I mean first he lost my mom, and now the thought of losing me, it must’ve devastated him.”

“Well he won’t have to worry about that anymore. Because you’re back, and soon you’ll be on your feet in no time!” Freddie proclaimed.

“And he won’t be alone in taking care of you, because he’s got 4 willing volunteers to help nurse you until you’re back to normal.” Roger stated as he gently poked my nose as he emphasized the ‘you’.

“And just who would those four unfortunately souls be?” they all proclaimed at my negative answer but I couldn’t help but playfully stick my tongue at them.

And they did as promised.  But god never did I imagine what mother hens these guys were.  They always hovered over me any chance they got, never leaving my side, making sure I was given my medications, and if any signs of discomfort came they’d even have a fight about who got to be my ‘body pillow’.

Mostly Rog, Bri and Fred were the ones to duke it out, which only allowed Deacy to make his move.  So nine times out of ten he was my body pillow leaving the other three to wallow in self-pity of not being my body pillow/teddy bear.  As Deacy and I were alone, I told him.

“You know I don’t blame you right?” he sighed heavily.

“I know. But seeing you on the ground, blood pooling out from your head. I should’ve heard the thing snapping off. I’d give anything for it to have been me and not you.”

“But what if you had died? Where would that leave Veronica? Your boys, your baby girl, the band, me? Deacy you are valued and the most important person in so many people’s lives. I’d never forgive myself if it had been you in that bed when I knew I could’ve saved you.” He gently stroked the back of my head and kissed my forehead.

“Just promise me never do something that reckless again.”

“I’ll try, being a stagehand is dangerous business.”

“I’ll make you my assistant or fashion designer if it means you’ll be safe. And you know I can make that happen.”

“Yeah but it’d totally backfire cause for one I’ve got 10 left fingers when it comes to drawing, and I’d be the worst assistant ever.” He grinned and gently bopped my nose.

“I don’t think you would. Veronica loves you and she knows you’d give me every message she had regarding her or the kids.” I softly smiled and leaned against his chest listening to his heartbeat.

“Sing me a lullaby.”

“Love you know I can’t sing.”

“I know, but you sang to me at the hospital three days ago.”

“That was when I felt you wouldn’t be able to hear me.”

“C’mon pwease?” I begged with the puppy dog eyes. “Injured girl with a concussion demands her favorite Queen member sing to her.” He sighed but held me close rubbing my shoulder with his thumb and first hummed the opening notes to my favorite Beatles song “Here comes the sun”.

I soon heard him beginning to sing softly.  Now while he may not have a strong voice and sure it cracked at some parts, mainly when the range went a little higher, Deacy still had a descent voice. And when he would sing in a normal, low range tone to fit his range, it actually sounded good.  Soon enough his voice sent me off into dreamland.

“Goodnight poppet. Sleep well.” Was the last thing I heard before feeling a kiss right over the very spot where I had been hit.

[ladymelissaduthe]

challenge #3.5

aka the animal shelter (jackson #4)

a/n: i must say-- writing has been tough for me the past few weeks what with school but I bring yall this fic before stuff goes down at the ball. enjoy this fic yall, IT’S ADORABLE.  @jackson-graham ;) Bri you know ily, thank you for this RP AS ALWAYS. Doc link is in the title. ENJOY, I also have some a/ns in the notes because Missy is too dumb a bitch to notice certain things and I can’t help but mention them . this is also my longest fic so far LMAO (9346 words)

An independent community engagement proposal.

Oh gosh, it was exciting to really have the chance to try and make a difference. Try to do something big and grand to really help people. It was a way for me to show everyone that maybe I didn’t constantly have weddings and parties on the brain. If I was somehow still here in the palace, even if my disastrous first date with Arin, I guess I needed to show everyone that I had more to offer than just being Missy the Wedding Planner. Something a little more princess material, yesiree!

Still, finding a cause close to my heart was more difficult than I actually planned. ­

I mean… it was difficult… to really figure out a struggle to help with.

One day, it just struck me though, while I was talking to my Grammy on the phone. Reminiscing about the long days we spent together at the Oncology center in Orleans. For all my years, maybe the worst struggle I’ve seen up so close to was having to go see my Grammy go through the Big C.

A part of me wanted to think of a way to help local oncology centers, and I had to think for a couple of good days until I realized something while sitting in the greenhouse. Somehow I was reminded of a previous conversation here.

This is going to sound weird but, what’s working in an animal shelter like?

It’s hard. Lots of animals, easy to love, but not easy to see what’s been done to them. Or witness how plenty of them are looked over for other animals.

A program that helped train shelter animals to be therapy animals for public spaces.

It was perfect, and I got to work with it as soon as I got back to my room.

Maybe I was a little way over my head initially, but after a couple of days, I was able to Joogle and contact who I needed to call, which is something not entirely new to me.

It was like calling a bunch of vendors for a party, except it wasn’t vendors and the party was a community project that wasn’t really a party.

The beneficiary partners of the project were going to be the East Angeles Oncology Center and one of the city’s main social centers. Convincing them was initially tough if it weren’t for the fact that I mentioned that I was a Selected. Talking about the project and how they could benefit from it was pretty easy after that.

The possible animal trainers were a quick reference thanks to a previous client of mine apparently being on its board of directors. No wonder their dog was their ring bearer.

 I needed a couple of them to help make a course that would allow the animals,

I just needed an animal shelter partner. Luckily, I was just waiting for another chance to see the right person to help me with that.

----------

“Jackson! Oh my gosh!” I wave over and try to run over to where he is.

It was a couple days of waiting, sometimes seeing an empty hallway and hoping I would see his face when I would turn a corner. I really just spent most of that time preparing my proposal, writing things down while hoping to get a chance to talk to him and ask for his help. Most days to no success. Today, however, was my lucky day.

Jackson seems to turn when he hears me call his name, stopping in his tracks with a wave back at me. I was careful not to trip in my heels as I ran over to him down the hall.

“Hi Missy.” He greets with a signature warm smile.

I catch up to him, though needing a moment to catch my breath. I raise up my hand for a quick moment. Ooo wait give me a sec to breathe. One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three Mississippi. Okay, good.

“I was hoping to see you again around here.” I push some of my hair behind, hoping it would let me catch the air better. “How are you?”

“Not too busy.” His brows raise as he eyes my stance. “You okay?” he gestures to my breathing.

“Oh yeah, I’ve just been… running around doing some errands.” I laugh it off, straightening myself.

Jackson was the person I needed to onboard if I really wanted my independent community engagement proposal to be real. Convince him, and it could all fall into place.

“So I was thinking, um... I’m working on this project. I mean— all the girls are working on individual projects for... community engagement. AND! I— I was thinking of... asking for your help on this one.”

Mayhaps explaining it all in one go was a poor choice. Nonetheless, all Jackson does is blink, his smile not vanishing.

“I’m happy to help, Missy. What’s up?”

I suck in a breath. Mayhaps asking this huge favor was a little too much.

Hmm... nah.

“I was hoping that I could ask you to take me to the animal shelter, the one you’ve told me before.” I look to him, trying to contain my excitement. This was the last piece of the huge puzzle.

Jackson looks pleasantly surprised. “You want to use the animal shelter for your project? Really?”

“I mean, why not use the shelter for my project? It could be the model for what I want to propose.” I feel my smile soften at that thought. I really wanted this to happen. “It could give the critters a second life and purpose beyond just waiting for someone to adopt them.”

That was something I definitely remembered from my last conversation with Jackson. Broke my heart to think about that again. Maybe that’s why I was so determined to get Jackson’s shelter to be the partner for my project rather than any other shelter I could call up in Angeles.

“Yeah. It really could.” His smile softens. After a beat, he shakes his head and looks down. Odd. “Um, are you allowed to leave the palace?” He looks up once more to me.

“Well—” I trail off, my own eyes falling to the ground. “I don’t think it would hurt if I was gone for one afternoon.”

As my Grammy always said, it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask permission.

I tuck my hair behind my ears. Asking for favors was a little more difficult than both of those.

“What do you say Mister Jackson Graham?”

((ALRIGHT A/N: LEAVING HOW BRI PHRASED THE REPLY BECAUSE MISSY CAN’T PICK THIS UP BUT…. *CRIES* I WISH SHE DID

*AH HER SAYING HIS NAME THAT WAY. how could he not agree? finds himself nodding* Yes, of... of course))

Jackson seems to nod, “Yes, of… of course.”

I feel my smile grow at his agreement. It’s all falling into place! It just wasn’t going to be some things I wrote on paper!

“Thank you thank you thank you!” I step a closer to Jackson and—wait.

Okay.

Mayhaps… I shouldn’t give him a hug.  

I quickly tuck my hands behind my back, hoping that I didn’t look as awkward as I already felt. Um, say something Melissa.  

“You have no idea how much this means to me. I promise it’ll be worth your time.”

From the look on his face, he seems to know where I was initially going with my hands, but thankfully, he doesn’t seem to bring it up. All he does is chuckle.

“You don’t have to promise. I know it will be.” He then makes a gesture to a certain direction for us to start walking.

Oh, I didn’t think we were gonna go ASAP… but, the idea of getting to go to the shelter right away was something I wasn’t opposed to.

“Thank you so much again.” I nod a couple of times, smiling as we begin walking. I guess Jackson was wondering why I wanted to go. I should explain myself, or at least try.

“I just... I just want to know, understand, what it’s like.” I start off. Trying to find the right words to put it. Looking back at my life in Orleans, it felt like living in a nice little bubble where everyone seemed to protect me. Mama especially since she never wanted me to even see the hardship she faced when she was still a Six. “It seems easy to just write about a place on paper but, I feel like I should personally know what it’s really like in shelters. You know?”

A part of me knew that I never got to see a part of the world before, but being in the Selection. All those princess lessons. It all really could make a girl wonder about… well the world out there and the not-so pretty fairytale type of situations.

“I think that can apply to most issues like these.” Jackson’s head bobs slightly. “But I do understand. I’m glad you... you want to witness it all.”

I nod again a couple of times, “It’s a place to start, seeing things as they are currently helps you understand what they should be or could be in the future.” I eye him, wanting to tease him. “Lucky for me, I had the right person in mind to help me with that.”

Jackson laughs bashfully, looking down at his feet while we still walked. “Right. I’m just glad I can help.” He smiles in my direction before we take a couple of more steps and opens a nearby door, gesturing for me to go in first. Warms my heart to see that chivalry wasn’t dead, at least not with Jackson.

“Are you sure, it’s not too much trouble on your part? For all I know, you’ve got some important work today at the shelter.” I ask while stepping through the door, waiting for him to step through before we start walking down a narrower and less fancy-looking hallway.

“I have a light load today. And they’re always looking for new people to show around, they think it’s fun.” He sounds amused saying this.

“I hope they wouldn’t mind showing me around,” I say, my eyes scanning the hallway. I don’t think I’ve ever been in this part of the palace. It all looked so ordinary compared to where we were a couple of seconds ago. It still matched some of the accents of the hallway we came from, but it looked more normal, like a nice hotel hallway. I turn my attention back to Jackson. “How long have you been working there again?”

“Four years. Started working after I graduated from high school.” Jackson answers me right before we reach the end of the hallway and Jackson opens another door for us, one that lead directly to what seemed to be the garage.

“Guess you’ve become quite the regular there, huh?” I smile to him as I let him guide me, turning to the garage. Wow.  

It was like seeing the parking lot of some debutante’s 18th  birthday and all her crazy rich relatives were attending. Was that an Audi I saw? Plenty of nice cars lined up, a motorcycle at the end of the line. It was funny how the luxury of living in the palace still amazed me.

“I lucked out in that area. They’re good people too. You’ll like them.” Jackson leads me to where I assume he parked his car. I smile at the sight of him opening the passenger’s door of an ordinary-looking silver sedan. It reminded me of the one we had back home.

“The real question is: will they like me?” I joke before a grateful smile for his gesture, going inside—feeling my head bump against the frame in process. I let out an ow, before letting myself mumble that I was okay.

“Oo.” I see him grimacing, “Sorry, it’s a bit low. Sure you’re alright.”

“Yeah, totally fine.” I give him a quick thumbs up from the inside of his car, laughing to myself at how silly I am. “I’m just prone to accidentally hitting my head in cars.”

“I’ve been prone to much worse.” He flashes a crooked smile as he shuts my door. I laugh as I watch him head to the driver’s side, climb in and buckle up in a steady pace, setting his phone in the cup holder. I remember to buckle up too.

He starts his car, then holds out a cable out to me, “Do you… want to play your music?”

I look at the AUX cord he’s offering, and I offer him a polite smile.

“You don’t want to know the kind of music I like listening to.” I curl my lips in, trying to suppress the awkward smile creeping up my face.

Jackson raises both of his brows, with a chuckle. “You seem awfully sure about that.”

“You’re the first person to offer me the A-U-X cord in the longest time.” I shake my head, though maintaining a smile. “I think that says a lot already.”

Means my friends hate my taste in music, or are just really tired of hearing Show Tunes.

He shakes the cable a bit. With a small smile he says, “The offer is still out there for a few more seconds.”

His friendly smile was enough to convince me. I suppose I can’t quite say no to a friendly gesture like that, especially with someone already doing me a favor.

I let out a light laugh as I take the cord from him and slip my phone out of my dress’ pockets. “Please don’t make fun of me for this.” I give him a word of caution as I hook it up and tap over to my Dotify, picking the first song off of my morning playlist.

I glance up to Jackson, hoping he wasn’t going to groan at my choice.

RENT – RENT Live Cast. 

https://open.spotify.com/track/5ZFx5WIlDGbx2rJ2XZ9dQa?si=ChVHl9ljRUGj-Mi2-In8yw (yes the one Jordan Fisher was in)

The music suddenly fills the car with the loud percussion and electrifying guitar rifts of the show’s opening number, and I look over to Jackson gauging his expression while he starts reversing out of the garage and onto a driveway that probably would lead us out of the palace.

His smile grows the music plays, and I’m slightly relieved that he doesn’t seem to hate what I picked. Relieved enough to let myself take in the view of the coast to our right. I never noticed that the road followed the coastline when I first came here.

There was so much blue, as far as the eye could see. It was a view you could see from the terrace of my room, but seeing it move pass you while you were in a car… it was definitely something else on its own.

“This is Rent, right?” Jackson’s voice steals my attention back, and I find myself nodding enthusiastically.

“Yes! It’s,” my eyes glance down to my phone on my lap, “one of my favorite musicals.”

Probably my third favorite musical, right before Dear Evan Hansen and Waitress.

“I’m a Mamma Mia fan myself.” He half jokes in my direction, though his driving still impeccably smooth.

“Really? You strike me as more of a Hamilton fan.” I return the joke with a teasing look his direction, letting myself lean back and watch us drive more into a small winded hilly area.  

((get it,,, cause Jordan Fisher played Philipp/Laurens in Hamilton BJSNKD))

“Hamilton’s definitely  a close second.” His smile seems to widen at that, and I notice the car finally reaching a highway. That was fast. The car turns right and I find our car starting to merge with a dozen other cars on the highway. “But musicals are more my second choice of music anyhow.”

I turn to him curiously at that, “So what /is/ your first choice in music, Mister Graham?”

Another RENT song is starting to play, and I turn the volume down while we talk, wanting to hear him clearly.  

“More singer/songwriter material. Or the classics. Songs I can learn to play myself.” He glances to me, most of his attention on the road while our car started to merge with more traffic on the freeway.

“Oh,” I reply, not having quite pegged Jackson to be a musician too. A veterinarian/ animal shelter volunteer, and now: a musician. He was full of surprises, huh.“What instruments do you play?”

Jackson’s eyes still stay trained on the road. “Piano and guitar. My mother was a musician and I was the kid that managed to get it to stick.” He says, a half smile on his face.

I keep my head still turned his way, finding myself smiling at his reply. “Did she teach you how to play?”

He nods twice. “In the beginning yes. I progressed by myself throughout the years.” He answers before glancing over to me, “Do you play any instruments?”

I wish.

“Nope, I didn’t have anyone to teach me back in Orleans. No one in my family was interested enough in music for me to pick it up…” I answer, shaking my head with a light laugh. Just one of those things I wished I had picked up when I was younger, instead I had dance classes and competitions, kid pageants, and the occasional tag-along to a wedding.

Still, music was something that I wish I could have picked up if I had someone to teach me since the neighborhood I grew up was filled with little house parties where people would invite each other to listen to a mini concert. I only had a wedding planner, a former seamstress turned wedding planner, and a baker at home with me in the family.  

I laugh at that idea before adding a question for Jackson.

“So is your dad a veterinarian?” It would make sense if Jackson picked up his love of music from his mom and his love for animals from his dad.

“Lawyer, actually. We all went down different routes.” He answers, an amused lilt in his voice. So that makes his mom a musician, his dad a lawyer, his sister was an interior designer if I remember correctly, and Jackson: an aspiring veterinarian. Those were all very different routes indeed.

“Guess catching up with each other during family dinners would never be dull what with everyone doing their own thing.” I remark, imagining what conversations they’d have—definitely different from my own family’s, where Grammy, Mama, and I would be talking about the same things happening at DDW HQ. Not much variety, really.

“Absolutely never.” A short laugh escapes him, “Especially when I used to bring in little animals and hide them in my room as a kid.”

I cover my mouth, trying to stop myself from laughing too much at that mental image.

“Are you serious?” A snicker escapes me, feeling only more laughter bubble up from my stomach to my chest. “You’d try to hide little animals?”

He seems bashful about that admission, “It didn’t work out very well. Animals make noise and I didn’t know how to hide them without being noticed.”

“I’m still trying to imagine it,” A fit of laughter takes over me as I sit up straight in my seat and close my eyes to picture it even more clearly.

The mental image of a younger, much smaller version of Jackson hiding a baby bird in his jacket pops into my head. The bird making way too much noise as he creeps up the stairs, Jackson trying to go unnoticed. 

“You… probably trying to hide a little critter in your jacket.” I say with my eyes still closed, feeling myself smile at that image. I let out another laugh before opening my eyes to catch Jackson looking over to me. “It’s a no brainer you eventually grew up to become a vet.”

Jackson’s attention seems to linger in my direction half a second longer than he should take his eyes off the road before he turns forward again. I should probably stop trying to distract him from driving.

“I ruined plenty of clothes that way, actually.”

“A minor trade off.” I tuck some of my hair behind my ears, having been messed up while I was laughing probably too hard a while ago. “As long as you don’t hide animals in your jacket anymore.” I eye him suspiciously, obviously just joking.

His smile seems to grow, “Can’t show you all my tricks off the bat, now can I?”

“Guess I’ll have to keep an eye out for you in a jacket from now on.” I maintain my suspicious gaze over to him, trying to stay serious for a few seconds… and failing at that when another bubble of snickers escapes me.

“Not afraid of spiders are you?” He pats his pocket, sounding like he was just teasing.

But I could never really be sure if he was…

“You’re not serious…” I look over to his pocket for a second, before my hands instinctively go up and I move away to the edge of my seat close to the window.

Jackson laughs before putting his hand back on the wheel. “No, sorry, bad joke. I’m spider free for now.”

“Okay, great.” I relax before falling back against my seat and let myself laugh it off. “The last time I saw a spider, I shrieked.”

“Fairly standard reaction.” He sounds amused, “Although as a veterinarian, I have to care for and love all creatures.”

“Ehhhh, the shrieking was partially because of the location too.” I chuckle thinking back, shifting to make myself more comfortable in my seat. “Do veterinarians have one of those ‘do no harm’ creeds like doctors do?”

He hums, “You know I think they do. Seems like a necessary standard.”

It does sound like one.

“Where were you that a location made you shriek more than a spider?”

“You’re not gonna believe it but I…” A flashback of me accidentally falling through a bookcase’s earlier during the Selection. Remembering it all, it seemed more funny than scary, so funny that a laugh of disbelief escapes me. “I fell through a secret hallway back in the palace and I didn’t know how to get out.”

Jackson seems bewildered to hear this, “How’d you manage to do that?”

“Alright so,” I toss some of my hair back and get ready to share the experience.  

“I chose this one,” I hold a finger up, wanting to tell this story as animatedly as I can right now, “book on embroidery and I'm reaching for it and leaning against the shelf because it was pretty high up. Then, suddenly the shelf I was leaning against moved and I fell through it into this dark and dusty hallway, obviously home to a couple of spiders and a colony of dust bunnies.”  

A short laugh comes from Jackson. “Those secret passageways will really throw you for a loop if you’re not careful. You survived intact, I’m assuming?”

 “Intact but in a great need of a shower and change of outfit.” I laugh it off, jokingly squirming at the memory of the gross feeling of all that dust sticking onto me. “Arin was the one… who,” I pause, sometimes talking about Arin was more difficult than initially talking to him. “…got me out of there.”

The smile on Jackson’s face seems to falter after I bring up Arin. “Ah. That was… lucky then.” He pauses for a considerable time before asking, “How’ve you been? After everything.”

I try to find the right words to say.

I clear my throat once I think I’ve figured what was the right thing to say.

“Ah, well, definitely less crying.” My left hand seems to fidget with my ring on my right. “We went out on another…date…? I mean if that’s what you can really call it.” I try to laugh.

“Oh? How did that go?” Jackson’s voice sounds hopeful.

It was sort of an apology date in a way, about the last time. But doing things with Arin, well- they didn’t really feel like dates. Maybe I just… need time to get to know him better.

“Oh…” I look to him, hoping that none of my overthinking about it would show up on my face. “He taught me how to swim. I never really knew how to but I guess I can float and tread water like a normal person now.”

It was very kind of Arin to try and help me with that. Safety first.

“Despite anything else, I think you could call that a personal win.”

“I think so too. Anything next to normal is a win compared to last time.” I try to laugh again, this time wishing it would help with my nerves. A thought crosses my mind. The last time Jackson and I saw each other in person, I was crying over my disastrous first date with Arin. Did I ever thank Jackson for being there? Hmmm… I should probably thank him again just in case.

“Listen… thank you again for that night. I know I’ve thanked you before but—” I turn to smile in his direction, truly grateful for having him there. “it meant the world to have someone to talk to.”

Jackson seems to sit up a tad straighter, his attention going from the road to me. He nods once, “I um—well, I offer that as long as you’d like. Friendship I mean.”

He turns his attention forward to the road again, a small smile on his face.

The words Jackson and friendship seems to just make sense. I mean, being friends with the girls was amazing—especially with having girls like Itzel to talk to, but the idea of being friends with someone outside of the Selection was more than easy to agree to.

“Having a friend around is something I’d like very much.”  I smile over to him. “You’re the nicest person I’ve met since I got here.”

It was usually very rare to find the sort of genuine kindness Jackson had these days.

Jackson’s expression seems to become more bashful, “I’ve seen what this royal life can be like when you meet new people. I just… I’m glad I can provide some more normalcy for you.”

“Getting thrown into the royal life can really change a part of you.” A small laugh of agreement escapes me. “It’s good… to have people around to keep your feet on the ground. Maybe that’s why y’all seem to be a close bunch… I mean… your family and Uh… the Schreaves.”

“I don’t know.” Jackson seems to focus more on the road, switching lanes as I see an exit close by. “By now the familiarity has sort of blurred any kind of jarring reality checks.” he chuckles softly.

“I guess the jarring reality check can come along whenever you get out of the palace.” I laugh, looking out to my window. “This still looks so… different compared to what I’ve been seeing for the past two months.”

It was nice to see the city like this instead of just seeing the skyline from the palace rooftop. Angeles was so different compared to Orleans. Even their residential areas looked different compared to what I usually saw back home.

“Compared to the glittering walls and dresses?” Jackson asks in a teasing way.

“Definitely different. I can do away with the glittering walls.” I think, not being too in love with the idea with living in a place as big as the palace. “You can get so scared to walk around in those hallways since every single decoration looks like they’ll cause you an arm and a leg if you break ‘em. But the dresses?” I hum, smoothing the skirt of my yellow mini dress. “I can get use to this.

Not gonna lie, I loved my dresses in the palace the most among the Selected perks.

“They’re quite pretty.” Jackson says so as our car exits off the freeway. I feel myself smile at that comment, not sure why my face feels warm every time I hear something along the lines of that.  

Jackson stops at a red light, waiting if he can make a turn and doing so when the light turns green. I haven’t really noticed it but my playlist was playing another song from a musical, You Will Be Found from Dear Evan Hansen, the song softly playing in the background while we drive. I hum along with it as we drive. In the area that we are going through, it looks like a shopping center was nearby. It was bigger than most malls I’ve usually frequented in Orleans.

Oh gosh, I missed going to malls.

Unfortunately, Jackson drives past it, telling me that it’s not much longer until we reach the shelter.

Maybe another time.

“Anything I should know about the shelter before we get there?” I ask, looking over to him.

A knowing smile tugs at his lips, “I hope you won’t mind getting fur all over that dress.”

I chuckle at his advice, scrunching up my nose with a light nah.

We stop at a nearby intersection, and Jackson makes a right where the shops grow further and further apart the more we went down the road. In fact, there were more trees now. Before I really knew it, Jackson makes a left into a parking lot. Taking in the shelter from my window. It was quite big actually, bigger than I imagined it initially. A light blue sign with a paw print with the name:

Angeles Friends for Life Animal Rescue.

I push my hair out of my face when the car comes to a stop at a spot close to the front of the shelter. My hand finds the release button of my seat belt as I say, “Looks like you guys have a fine operation out here.”

A fine operation seemed like an understatement.

He hums pleasantly at that, “We’re lucky to have wonderful management.”

Jackson looks at me, “Ready to meet everyone?”

I unplug my phone from the AUX cord and hold it in my left hand, before looking back to Jackson with a smile.

“I’m always ready.”

Jackson seems like the sound of that answer, unbuckling himself from his seatbelt. E nods and gets out of the car and waits for me to follow. Once I’m at his side, he leads the way into the building’s main entrance into a lobby area. It was as welcoming as the shelter did look on the outside. There was a blue theme going around the room, matching the sign outside. On the walls of the lobby were pictures of what I assumed to be of owners with pets who I assume were adopted from this shelter. My eyes go back and forth between that wall and the huge fish tank behind to be what seemed to be the front desk.

As Jackson leads me to it, a head pops up from below the desk, one belonging to a young man our age. I almost jump at that.

His dark hair looked like it needed a comb.

He smirks at Jackson, then his eyes shift to me, his expression shifting into a beaming smile.  He stands, looking tall, lean, and well— handsome, but not quite my type.

“Jackson, my wonderful friend, now who would this be?”

My eyes go to look at Jackson, letting him reply first and I’m careful to not talk over them.

Jackson’s brows raise at that question. “Wonderful friend. Milking it, aren’t you?”

The young man clear his throat, “Come on now, I’d hate to be rude to your friend here. She’s—” he blinks and slowly points a finger between Jackson and I. “How.. what?”

Oh he must have…. Right.  

I was kind of famous now, famous by association, I suppose.

The conversation seems to go silent, so I take it as my opportunity to segue and step into the conversation. I’m mindful to make my tone friendly, trying to make sure that this isn’t awkward in the very least.

“Hi there! I’m Missy Duthé.” I extend my right hand out to him over the desk. “I’m interested in workin’ with the shelter for a certain project!”

He shakes my hand, his face still looking dazed. “Missy. It’s… wow. Great to meet you.” His smile seems kinder, but still looking slightly stunned. “I’m Merrick.”

“It’s my pleasure to make your acquaintance Merrick.” I maintain my smile before taking my hand back.

“I’m going to give her a full tour. Is Julianna swamped today?” Jackson asks, and my brows raise at that.

“No no, slow afternoon. There’s a couple looking at the dogs but other than that the place is yours.” Merrick says, his eyes shifting to me, still looking surprised.

I still don’t quite understand the weird fame that being Selected afforded me, but what I do know is that people shouldn’t really be treating me any differently. I try my best to exude a calm energy to put Merrick at ease that I was normal as any Illéan girl could be.

“I was just telling Jackson how you guys have such a fine operation over here.”

“That’s kind of you.” Merrick chuckles. “It’s been years in the making. Family business.”

Jackson gestures to Merrick, “Julianna’s his mom.”

So Miss Julianna, Merrick’s mom, must be the head. I take note of that. I also take note that the shelter is actually a family business, adds to its charm in fact.

“The one and very scary only.” Merrick gives a small glance to the next door, probably scared that Julianna was going to come out.

A chuckle escapes Jackson, “Careful or I might tell her you said that.”

I make sure to nod along their conversation, “So… I suppose Miss Julianna’s the one I’m supposed to talk to about my project?”

“Her or Jackson. He knows how to run the place better than I do and I grew up here.”

Her or Jackson. I smirk over to Jackson at that.

Jackson smiles at the ground before looking to me. “Yes, she is. She can answer anything I can’t.”

I push some of my hair back, still keeping my attention on Jackson. “Well, I didn’t know what my friend was so influential over here.”

“It’s the animals. They outvoted me.” Merrick says, I catch him half-smirking over to us.

Jackson rolls his eyes and mumbles. “Sure, alright.” He clears his throat before turning to me, “We can head back now.”

“I’m sure we can trust the critters’ judgment.” I giggle before nodding to Jackson, feeling my smile grow. “Where to Mister Jackson Graham?”

“We can start with the cat room, then work our way around the building.” Jackson says, and I follow him as he leads the way, clasping my hands in front of me.

“See you later.” He calls back to Merrick.

I hear a beep from the door and see Merrick wave over to us. “Have fun!”

“Nice meetin’ you!” I say turning to Merrick’s direction for a quick second, then turning my full attention to Jackson. “How many rooms are we talkin’ about?”

“We have four.” Jackson’s voice seems to almost be accompanied by the sounds of the barks and scurrying on the ground from the rooms around us. “Two dog rooms and two cat. One’s for the older animals and the other for the younger ones, but there’s a room in between where they can play with another. Outside for the dogs well.” He gestures around the hallway as we walk together.

There’s more pictures of animals on the walls actually, like in the lobby. More stories of adoption. I try to remember the info Jackson is telling me, trying my best to make notes. I find myself getting more distracted by the pictures in the hallway. One of the pictures almost makes me stop for half a second.

A boy my age, with blue eyes hugging a Siberian husky with eyes like his.

He reminded me of Daniel and Jewel.

I wonder if Daniel took Jewel with him to Waverly.

I shouldn’t think about this anymore, letting myself continue walking with Jackson.

“So you guys mostly accept cats and dogs ‘round here?” I ask, trying to push those other thoughts away.

Jackson hums a yes. “We’d like to have more animals, but we’d need a bigger facility. That’s Julianna’s dream.” A small smile appears on his face.

We seem to approach a door with a small window that Jackson peeks inside with.

“Looks like they just finished up their lunch.” Jackson says as I try to peek through the window too, not catching a glimpse as Jackson opens the door for us. I feel myself bouncing on my heels at the sound of all the scampering inside.

The door reveals a small area with a half wall that reached my hips, dividing the room between the small area and a much larger area. We walk over to peek over the wall to see a couple of staff members in the area, more than a dozen of little kittens playing with a few bigger cats, toys scattered around the area.

If there was one thing that could make my heart melt other than weddings, it was a room full of tiny little kittens. I look over the half wall, my eyes shifting from one cat to another cat.

Oh my gosh, there was a kitten rolling a little ball around. Oh my gosh, there were a pair wrestling with each other. I feel my smile only growing as I watch them play with each other.

A thought crosses my mind.

I turn to Jackson, a little shy to ask this.

“Can I pet some of them?”

Jackson smiles back at me. “Absolutely.”

YAY.

He opens a lower door attached to the half wall, telling the other employees that we were coming in. He leads me over to a sink close to the wall, where we wash our hands before we get to hold the cats. I let Jackson go first and follow right after he finishes.

Once we finished washing our hands, Jackson goes over and kneels with two employees and chats with them. I stand close to one of the walls, trying to go unnoticed, letting myself watch Jackson talk from afar.

This was Jackson’s element. It was actually really nice to see him in it. I don’t think there wasn’t a better job for someone as kind as he was.

After a few moments, he picks up a kitten with a grin and brings her over to me. I make sure to receive her and hold her tenderly in my hands, making sure to be gentle as I held her up. My cheeks are already starting to hurt from how much I was already smiling.

“Hewoooo, what’s your name sweetie?” I ask the kitten, before looking up to Jackson and mouthing how can they be this cute?

Jackson seems to laugh at that, “That one’s Ginger.” A couple of kittens purr around Jackson’s feet and he seems to pick one up, pressing a kiss to its head.

“Ginger! Ain’t that a darlin’ name!” My smile can only grow from here, while the kitten seems to purr as I hold her close to my chest and smiling over to Jackson and the kitten he picks up. She was a pretty kitten, with pure white fur. “Jackson, what’s the name of your friend over there?”

“This here is Lucinda. She has quite the spirit.” As if to prove his point, Lucinda opens her mouth to lightly nip at Jackson’s finger.

“Hello Lucinda!” I giggle, smiling down at Ginger trying to move as I held her, making sure to give her feet some needed support. It takes me a moment to remember my purpose for coming here to the shelter. Gotta balance this play with some more work. My hand starts to stroke Ginger’s head.

“So uh… all of these kittens are rescues?”

Jackson nods. “Some have been dropped off by people who can’t find homes for them, others have been found. They usually don’t last very long as people like to adopt younger animals.” My brows raise at that statement, then Jackson gestures to Ginger, “She’s getting picked up tomorrow by a nice family.”

My hand is lightly stroking Ginger as Jackson speaks, and I smile down at Ginger.

“Isn’t that exciting Ginger? You get to have a new family!” I scrunch up my nose when my smile grows, before I look back up at Jackson—still concerned with what Jackson said. “I take it that the next room of cats has a larger population then?”

Jackson bobs his head, “Not much, thankfully. Lately there’s been an uptick in older cat adoptions, to our pleasure.”

His smile at that is different than his usual smile, happier if that was even possible for Jackson.

I like it when he smiles like that, it made his handsome face light up even more. I think I was looking at him without saying anything way longer than I should.. I try to think of something to say. Staring was rude, now just say something. Quick.

“That sounds good!” I smile down onto Ginger, and she looked like she wanted to head over to the other cats. I then place a quick kiss on her head before I set her on the ground watching her scurry to the other kittens.

“Would you like to go see the older cat room? It’s about the same layout, but I don’t mind giving you a peek.”

“Of course!” I stand up and dust some of the fur Ginger had left on my dress. “I wanna see the whole place!” I think I sounded way too excited, laughing to myself to get a hold of myself. “I just... I wanna know what I’m writing about... who I’m writing about better.”

Jackson seems to let my words sink in and his smile changes from that bright smile to something softer, still a nice smile.

“I understand. I’m… I’m glad.” He says and I wait for him to say something else as his gaze seems to linger on me, but he doesn’t. Instead, he guides the two of us out and into the next room.

((One of the things that I can’t add because MISSY IS A DUMB BITCH: The two of them not noticing the employees in the area looking at the two of them like 👀 as they leave))

We spend about an hour going through the other three rooms, mostly me just playing with all the critters and giving them the attention they deserved.

Jackson and I walk down a long corridor, feeling myself smiling as we exit the older dog area.

“I don’t understand how not a lot of people would want to adopt the older dogs!” I laugh, thinking that room probably was my favorite. “Oh Daisy almost tackled me, but gosh! She was so sweet!”

“She really was.” He smiles, “Puppies tend to be popular in this area. Lots of families. We take care of the ones that aren’t adopted anyhow.” He says fondly before his eyes glances to my dress. “You really don’t mind all that?”

I look down and notice the tons of fur sticking to my yellow dress and shake my head as I try to dust myself off.

“Nothing a lint roller couldn’t fix.” I chuckle before running a hand through my hair and noting some pet hair flying away. “Besides, I can’t exactly do the work right without getting a little messy with the critters.”

He nods, “You um..” he gestures to my hair, “have a little clump caught there.”

“Oh?” I turn to Jackson fully, trying to shake it out and comb it out. “Did I get it off?”

Jackson bites his lip and shakes his head with a small smile. He reaches over to me and I stand still, keeping my eyes on him as I feel his hand tug the fur and flick it away. He smiles to me after he does and I can’t help but smile back.

“Thank you very much Mister Jackson Graham.”

From the corner of my eye, I catch some fur sticking to his shirt, on his shoulder to be more specific.

I decide to return the favor, simply brushing it off his shoulder before we start walking again.

“Now where are we headed next?”

Jackson clears his throat, “Well, I was going to take you to Julianna if that’s alright. I figured you might have some more questions.”

“It’s more than alright!” I look over to him as we walk, “There’s the background on the shelter, current problems y’all are facing, current numbers on a lot of things going around here. Of course there’s a lot of things to ask permission about too! I wanna make sure I can let the proposal really help around here... for real.”

“Really?” Jackson asks, looking surprised.

“If there’s one thing I know how to do right, it’s executing a plan.” I smirk to him, though believing with my entire heart that my plan should really be executed. “What’s the point of planning something if you don’t see it through?”

What’s the point of a proposal if you don’t plan on executing it?

What’s the point of a proposal if you don’t plan on marrying the girl? Whoops.

I push that thought away again.

Jackson’s voice helps with that.

“Yeah. You’re right.” He looks, well—it looks more like a stare now, seems hopeful. I hope I could really help with what he’s told me about with this proposal. He seems to really listen to my words, and it’s a comfort to know that he is.

I try to mirror his expression, happy to have Jackson’s attention. “Ya know, there’s more to here,” I tap my temple. “than knowing how to plan weddings and parties.” I chuckle lightheartedly as we reach a door and stop by it.

“Is this Julianna’s office?”

Jackson nods.

“It is.” He pauses, looking like he’s about to knock at the door, but instead he turns to face me.

“I’ve always thought you’re more than planning weddings and parties, Missy. Thought you should know.”

I blink a couple of times, feeling my face warm. Well, not just my face. Everything felt warm as his words echo in my head. I don’t think he knew what those words meant to me. I’m thankful that Jackson had turned his attention away as he knocks on the door. I try to get a hold on myself.  

Julianna calls out at Jackson’s knock and he enters first before I do, the two of them sharing a friendly greeting before Julianna looks over to me. Jackson then introduces me to Julianna.

I snap myself out and hope that the warmth I felt on my face didn’t show in a blush.

I move forward and extend my hand out to Julianna.

“Hi! Um, I’m Missy.” I wince, knowing that Jackson has already said my name but I try to remain calm. “I hope I haven’t come at a bad time.”

Julianna seems quite friendly as she shakes my hand from where she’s standing in front of her desk.

“Not at all. What can I do you for today?”

“Well, Miss Julianna, I’m currently working on a community engagement proposal—it's uh, a project for every Selected girl, you see-- and I was thinking of partnering up with this very shelter to be ground zero for operations.”

I look over to Jackson, silently hoping for him to tell me how I was doing. I don’t know why I’m suddenly tripping over my words.

Jackson nods once in my direction, an encouraging look on his face. I could hear him say you’re doing great with the way his eyes looked at me.

Julianna’s brows raise as she asks, “Really? What would your project entail?”

His reassurance seems to help me try to ground myself and focus on communicating this better, standing up a little straighter as I smile over to Julianna.

“I’m glad you asked.”

I take my phone out of my dress’ pocket and go through my Joogle Drive to open up the presentation deck I prepared, waiting for it to load.

“I call it Operation: Empawthy. It’s a training program for shelter animals to become therapy animals for local hospitals and community centers.” I explain as I hold my phone out for Jackson and Julianna to see. The little logo and everything I made popping up on screen, a little paw with the project title surrounding it in a circle.

“It’s been brought to my attention that... a lot of older animals that call the shelter home, and I was hoping of helping them find a purpose... beyond just waiting for adoption.”

Both Jackson and Julianna lean in to look at the presentation I made. I try to gauge their reactions. Jackson’s face seems to light up as I go through the initial slides.

Julianna seems to instantly smile, asking, “And you’d like to follow through with this? Long term?”

“Of course!” I smile at that question, excited about my plan of execution for this program. “Most of the operations and plan can be executed within the next few months.” I tap the screen and move onto my timeline slide.

I continue, “It could be executed I already have a nearby local oncology center and a social center who are willing to partner too,  and well—” My brows furrow at the next thing I say, “even if I'm no longer a Selected, it's still possible to execute, even without mobilization from the Schreaves.”

Even if I did get eliminated, at least one good thing would come from me being a Selected.

Julianna moves to walk around her desk over to where I am, and I’m surprise to feel her wrap her arms around me in a meaningful hug. I glance over to Jackson while she does, catching an expression I couldn’t quite read.

“You’re the answer to so many of my questions on how to provide for these dogs.” Julianna leans back with her hands on my shoulders, smiling. “We’d be incredibly happy to have you with us.”

I smile back at Julianna, taking both of her hands in mine.

“I'll send you the primers and plans I currently have. I'm more than happy to help in every way I can!”

Julianna’s reaction seems to give me a whole new understanding for generosity and kindness. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I got to plan something meaningful and grounded in something beyond weddings or parties.

I wasn’t going to lie, it felt freaking good.

“You’ll have to thank Jackson too for bringing me all the way here though.” I turn to Jackson as I say that. I definitely wouldn’t have thought of this fully without remembering what he had said to me.

Julianna waves a hand, “Jackson has my eternal thanks. Bringing you here only goes to show his incredible judgement.”

Jackson looks down with a smile at Julianna’s compliment, before looking back up at Julianna with amusement.

“Kiss up.” He says.

She reaches out and gives Jackson a side hug across his shoulders. “And not ashamed of it.”

I don’t get why Merrick would ever call her scary.

I can’t help but laugh at the banter between them, tucking my hair behind both of my ears.

“Incredible judgment indeed!” I nod a couple of times, clasping my hands in front of me. “Thank you for letting me loop the shelter into this. I promise you both this project isn't gonna disappoint. That's a Duthé promise.”

“I have a feeling that’s a promise never broken.” Jackson says softly, his smile very soft.

Julianna seems to pause briefly at that, her smile not faltering.

“Once we receive all your information, I’ll keep close touch with you. Everyone will be so thrilled.”

I turn to Jackson, looking to him with an amused expression.

“You’re right, it’s never broken.” I punctuate that with a wink to him before I nod over to Julianna and quickly slip my calling card out of my phone’s card holder.

I always kept copies of it in case I met a potential wedding client but, it would work for now what with all my contact details on it. Let’s hope Julianna would just ignore all the wedding planner details on it.

“This is my card, I'll be probably contacting you through the email and number here. If there's anything I can do to help, just let me know. We'll definitely keep in touch.”

Julianna takes the card from me and sets it on her desk with a thank you, then mentions to us that she needed to get back to work and Jackson excuses us. He mentions that he’ll be back in the evening as we leave her office before Jackson leads me back into the hallway. I don’t forget to say a quick thank you before we leave.

“That was… wow.” He says once we’re outside of Julianna’s office. I try to eye Jackson’s reaction before I let myself smile and do a little happy dance, unable to control how happy I felt.

“OH MY GOSH!” my voice seems to go up another octave before I reach over and give Jackson a hug. “Thank you so so much for bringing me here and helping me make this happen!”

Jackson seems to laugh as he catches me, and I feel his hand going to my back.

“You were the one with the incredible ideas. It was wonderful, Missy.”

((Another thing I can’t write BUT I SCREECHED: */like you/* he thinks))

I pull away from him, still grinning but feeling a little shy with Jackson’s compliment. My face starts to feel warm again. I try to ignore it this time. I’m probably just too happy with getting the shelter as a partner.

“I’m so happy that you think so. I just thought—” My phone suddenly starts to ring, an alarm going off as I quickly reach into my pocket to snooze it.

5:30. Prepare for Dinner. I see on the screen.

Jackson still watches me as I handle it, “Everything alright?”

I stuff my phone back into my dress’ pocket and nodding, not letting the alarm dampen the mood.

“Yeah! I just... have alarms for whenever I probably should change or get ready for dinner at the palace.” I explain with a little laugh. “As I was saying, uh...” I’m trying to remember what I was going to say a few seconds ago, but I’ve completely lost my train of thought.

“Okay honestly, thank you for the moral support.” I decide to thank Jackson again for being there, then I lower my voice jokingly, “Julianna... kinda did scare me.”

Hmmm, maybe that’s why I was stumbling over my words initially.

Jackson chuckles at that, “She’s a bit intimidating at first, but there’s nothing to be afraid of. She loved you.” I laugh lightly and try to shrug it off.

Then he gestures to the phone in my pocket.

“I guess I should um, be getting you back now?”

I nod slowly, feeling a little sad that I was already leaving the shelter. I think I’ve enjoyed myself here way more than I expected.

“Are you sure it’s too much to ask from you?” I wanted to make sure that he was alright with it, knowing that he was going to come back here anyway. He’s already done so much for me already.

He tilts his head. “Driving you to the palace? No, of course not.” A growing smile appears on his face.

“I’d love to.”

His smile seems to put me at ease, so I loop my arm around his and smile to him.

“Then I guess we better get going, Mister Jackson Graham.”

Jackson doesn’t say anything, only keeping his smile to me and leading the way back. 

[theonewiththefanfics]

A Midnight Reminder (one-shot)

Synopsys: Ben Hardy has been dating the Reader for little more than a year now, and their relationship has been amazing so far. But when some things are revealed and insecurities flare up, she’ll need to remind him of who owns her heart.

Pairing: Ben Hardy x f!Reader

Genre: fluff, toiny bit of angst, SMUT

Warnings: SMUT (unprotected sex and all that good jazz. Wrap it before you tap it, guys.), swearing, jealousy

Word count: 3499

“I have better things to do on my Saturday nights,” Ben said as Roger Taylor and then smugly smiled. “I could give you their names.” On cue, Gwilym as Brian May rolled his eyes and that’s when the director called cut. The two men stood up and stretched their legs, looking at a makeup artist who was doing the finishing touches on Rami’s hair, and Joe who had just decided to tag along, since he wasn’t in the scene. But that was not what took away Ben’s attention. There in the corner talking to Lucy was the most beautiful girl, with Y/E/C eyes that sparkled like diamonds and a smile that always took his breath away. “I hope my name is the only one you’re giving away,” Y/N said, giving him a small smile when Ben finally caught up on the fact, that she was actually there. In a second’s time, he had sprinted across the set and Y/N, anticipating his next move, had already jumped up, their bodies colliding as she wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms had a death grip on his shoulders. “You’re here, you’re here, you’re here,” Ben kept mumbling in the crook of Y/N’s neck and she just vigorously nodded as a response. Without thinking much, he started to make his way back to his assigned trailer when she muttered in his skin, “Are you not gonna let me say hi to Rami? Or introduce me to the rest of the guys?” “Nope,” Ben popped the ‘p’. “I haven’t seen you in two months, so forgive me if I wanna spend all of my time with my girlfriend. Alone.” At the last word Y/N saw his pupils dilate and a shiver went down her spine, but she had to be the grownup, even though her heart screamed to give into the mind of that horny teenager.

“Come on,” she said pecking his lips. “I wanna meet Queen.” Begrudgingly, Ben set the girl down and interlocking their fingers, he led her around the set to meet the guys. “Okay, that’s Gwil, Joe and you know Rami. Great, now you’ve met them, let’s go,” the excitement in Ben’s voice as he thought of spending time alone with Y/N was palpable, but she just laughed, pulling him back.    “Don’t be rude,” Y/N kissed him quickly. “I’m here for two whole weeks, so we’ll have enough time. Besides, I don’t think I heard them call wrap, so you still have work to finish.” Ben groaned and dramatically let his head flop down on Y/N’s shoulder. “But you’re here,” he whined, wrapping both arms around her waist. “Wow, you really have him wrapped around your finger,” Joe said, but it was not meant in a mean-spirited way. Y/N shrugged. “What can I say- he has me the same way.” Sooner rather than later, the guys were called to re-set, and they ran through the scene a few more times, Rami finally joining in before they wrapped for the day. Ben was the first one to dash to hair and makeup, sprinting to wardrobe just so he didn’t have to waste any second, he could be spending with Y/N. When he found her again, she was talking to Allen Leech and the man was completely in awe. Ben grinned, seeing her get along with his fellow cast mates so well and came up from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist. “Hey, my Ben’s back!” Y/N smiled pecking his lips. “Allen and I were talking about going to your trailer and just chilling. Maybe order a pizza or something.” “Sure, you were. Or is that just your way of saying you want pizza?” “I’m off the fucking diet, so if you wanna talk shit about me enjoying life, I can go straight home.” Ben didn’t say anything just smiled and kissed her cheek, as he, Y/N and Allen all made their way to get together the rest of the gang and hang out.

***

The cast, including Lucy all, sat in the ‘Band’ trailer, just talking and discussing things. Loud laughter erupted through the small space as everyone cackled at what Allen’s reaction to his first meeting Y/N had been. “I’m just a huge fan of her music and movies. Can you blame me?” Y/N just waved a hand in a ‘stop it’ motion and snuggled closer to Ben. The man smiled down at her, and honestly, he couldn’t say that Allen tripping over a bunch of wires and stumbling over every single word that tried to make its way out of his mouth, was that off from his own experience. Y/N was an actual Rockstar and an Academy Award-winning actress. They’d met when he first had heard the rumours about a biopic of Queen being made. Instantly, Ben had gone to the closest studio to his London apartment to meet up with the person that would be his drumming teacher when he’d walked into someone, literally making the person fall on their ass. “Holy, shit! I’m so so sor-“ but he stopped mid-sentence seeing the one the only Y/N Y/L/N brush off the dust from her jeans. “ ‘S fine. Should’ve been watching where I was going anyway.” She looked up only to see two big green eyes and a wide goofy grin. “You’re Y/N Y/L/N.” The girl chuckled extending a hand. “And you’re Ben Hardy.” He started nervously laughing. “You know who I am.” On the inside he was feeling like a child on Christmas, the giddiness almost making him bounce on his feet. “I do,” she smirked before walking around the man and towards the exit of the studio. “And if what I’ve heard from Rog and Bri is true, I’ll be seeing you around. Top candidate for the role of mister Taylor and all.” Ben stood there, in the middle of the hallway, a dumb grin stretched across his face until his drum teacher clapped down on his shoulder, bringing the man back to reality. “You look happy.” “I just met Y/N Y/L/N.” “Ah,” his teacher smiled, leading them to the practice studio. “Well, then you might want to keep your fangirling on the inside. You’ll be seeing her a lot around here.” And he had. She was there to record another album while Westworld was on break, her playing one of the main characters and all before she went back to LA to start filming. But it was three months down the line they had formed something akin to a friendship. It was the middle of the night, when he’d seen her again, tears streaming down her face as she stormed inside the studio and suddenly, she had screamed. Ben was by the drums, trying to memorize the beats to ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ when the loud yell had scared him. Instantly, he was out of the recording booth and saw a hunched over form sobbing in her hands.    “Are you alright?” he wanted to smack himself the moment those words left his mouth. Of course, she wasn’t alright. No one cries like that when everything is good.    “I- yeah,” Y/N said, wiping a tear away. “What are you doing here anyway? It’s past one o’clock already.” “Practicing,” Ben said, and she just nodded. Slowly he made his way next to the couch and sat down beside her. “Do you wanna talk about it?” Y/N shook her head and rested her cheek against his shoulder. “Just hold me, please.” So, he did. He wrapped both his arms around the girl and hugged her. Together they laid down on the sofa and fell asleep. After that incident, they became closer and closer until the man finally gathered the courage and asked her out for a coffee. The smile she had given him had made his heart stop. Ben was so far back into the memories of how he’d met the girl and had fallen in love with the talented human being, it was when she said words he never expected to hear, that brought him back. “You know, if things had been different, it wouldn’t be me and Ben here together, but me and your lead singer,” she pointed at Rami with her chin, who chuckled at that. That threw Ben for a loop. Of course, he’d heard the rumours of the two stars of Night at the Museum hitting it off behind the scenes as well, but never did he think it was true. Media always liked to speculate. When the two had started filming the first movie, tabloids absolutely loved writing that the actors who played the love interests in the movie had a romance of their own going on off stage. Instant jealousy rippled through his veins as he looked at Rami, who had his own hand on Lucy’s knee, her eyes wide and looking back and forth between the two. “And what happened?” she asked. Ben felt Y/N shrug. “I don’t know. I think we kinda decided to try it out because everyone else was saying how good we looked together, how great the chemistry was and blah blah blah. But as the ‘relationship’,” Y/N put the word in air quotes with her fingers, “progressed, it just didn’t feel natural. It felt like I was dating my best friend, but not in a good way.” Rami nodded along, looking off into the distance. “We tried to see what everyone else saw, but ultimately it was not what either of us wanted or needed. And honestly, I know you feel the same Y/N, so I’m just gonna say it- kissing you off-set was the weirdest fucking thing ever. I think that is why it took us until the third one to actually do anything. Just the thought of you that way made me feel weird.” Her loud laugh echoed through the trailer, but Ben couldn’t stop thinking about the new revelation. She had been together with Rami. Not for long and neither seemed to have enjoyed that kind of a relationship, but still. It was a pretty big thing Y/N had kept from him and the actor didn’t like it. Of course, he realized how unfair he was being towards the two, all of that having happened years ago, but when you’re surrounded by the glitz and glam so much, it’s hard to sometimes distinguish what is real and it makes you question things. “Don’t take this wrong, Rami, but even if we had ended up having something serious, it wouldn’t have lasted long.” “Yeah,” the man nodded and looked down at Lucy with the same fond smile Y/N looked up at Ben. “Why’s that?” the blond asked, uncertainty in his eyes. Y/N seeing this sighed and slid a palm to cup his cheek. “Because I found love in you. And I could not fathom being with someone who doesn't own my heart.” There was an audible ‘aww’ from Gwil and Allen, but Joe scoffed, playfully rolling his eyes. The bromance between the two was one of Y/N’s favourite things as Ben always sent her funny snaps and Instagram messages of the two goofing around. "Gross," he muttered and the trailer was overtaken by laughter.

***

Y/N’s head was heavy as she leaned against Ben’s shoulder, as they made their way together to his trailer, after four more hours of talking and giggling with the cast. “You alright?” he asked, the deep voice she adored so much laced with concern. “Mhm,” she hummed, closing her eyes for a second. “Just tired.” He pressed a sweet kiss to her temple and wrapped his arm tighter around her waist. “We’re almost there.” She walked the rest of the way with her eyes closed, trusting Ben to guide her and not let her trip over things or hit her head at a low hanging sign. With a soft click. Ben unlocked his trailer and he let Y/N step inside first. She didn’t even wait for the door to be closed when she pulled off her pants and shirt. “Giving me a show, are we?” Ben smirked, eyes raking up and down his girlfriend’s body, but both of them knew, he was just teasing. Y/N was so tired she could fall asleep while standing up. Gently, he scooped her up in his arms and went over to the bed, placing her above the covers, while he quickly got rid of his own clothes. A soft whine of ‘come here’ fluttered through the air, making his heart clench. As he laid down, Y/N pulling the bedding from underneath her and over them, Ben wrapped her in his embrace and sweetly kissed her. “Night, love.” “Love you.” Y/N fell asleep in a second, but Ben seemed to be doomed never to close his eyes. The thought of her being with Rami had overtaken every part of his brain and he hated how bitter it made him feel. She wasn’t in love with his costar, Y/N was in love with Ben, and he knew it without a doubt, so why this new revelation made him so jealous, was beyond the Brit. “Baby, you okay?” her voice was raspy with sleep and Ben sighed, turning to his side to wrap an arm around her midsection. Her worried tone made his chest hurt. “Why didn’t you tell me?” “About what?” “About you and Rami? Why didn’t you tell me you had a thing with him?” Y/N was becoming wider awake with every passing second, so she leaned up on her elbow to better look at Ben’s face. “Because, as I said before, it wasn’t even a thing. And what does it matter? That was more than two years ago, and nothing came of it. He’s like a brother to me.” A devilish smirk appeared on her face. “Is someone jealous?” Y/N whispered leaning up and letting her teeth nip at Ben’s ear. He groaned feeling her hips roll into his as she had hiked her knee over his side. “Can you blame me? You’re this amazing actress/ fucking rock and roll legend at this point. How could I not be when you could have anyone you wished to?” She continued on with the motions, eliciting delightful moans from Ben. “And have you seen yourself in the mirror, darling?” Y/N groaned, feeling him stiffen with every movement their bodies made. “Fuck, if I let myself go off every time, I read a comment on any social media about how much of an Adonis you are and how much everyone wants to be with you, I’d handcuff you to the bed and glue myself on top of you, just to make a statement that you’re mine.” Ben’s mouth quirked up. “You know, that doesn’t sound that bad. Actually, that sounds like fucking heaven.” His hands settled on her soft sides, as they helped her keep a steady rolling rhythm. The fabric that separated the two was beyond offensive in Ben’s opinion, but there was just something about teasing Y/N and in the end himself, that made the climax of everything so much more amazing. “Ben, I need you,” Y/N’s voice was desperate. The man just hummed as his lips lazily moved up and down the column of her throat, and he smiled, feeling her get more and more frustrated. But it was when she pulled his hands away from her waist and pushed them up and over his head, pushing him on his back and grabbing his wrists in a tight grip, an animalistic growl reverberated through the air and his bones. “Now,” her voice was low and dangerous and holy shit did that turn him on. Instantly her nightshirt was off, and her panties followed suit, Ben practically ripping his own boxers away. There was no time for foreplay, as the ache in both of their bodies had become insufferable. As much as Ben wanted to slam up and be hugged by Y/N’s velvety wall, he let her grip his member at the base and slowly ease down. Profanities, that he didn’t even know he knew, passed Ben’s lips and Y/N echoed them by pressing their lips in a tight kiss. It had been so long, too long since they had been together like this, she was almost sure she’d burst just from the feeling of him being sheeted inside. Ben gave Y/N a minute to gather her breath and as she did so, he felt her stretch and adjust, and once again mould to him. Her mouth was by his ear, praising him and whispering confessions of love as her hands moved up and down his biceps. It was in that moment, that Ben wanted to punch the living daylights out of himself for ever doubting Y/N and her feelings, for ever thinking that she was with him simply because it was easy and practical. Because in reality, it was far from it. The distance and work lead to fights and tears, and they had to solve the issues, rather than abandoning them, which is what both had usually done. If they didn’t, the pair knew all of the brilliant moments spent together, the tender lovemaking, and gentle laughs would crumble. And never had Y/N or Ben wished to keep something so much as they did with one another. “Can I move?” Ben’s words were a plea because suddenly not moving was incredibly uncomfortable. The soft moan rippling from Y/N’s throat was all the green light he needed, so clasping both his hands down on the small of her back, he pushed his hips up, until he had bottomed out and then slipped almost all the way out, leaving only the tip in. Her sigh of content was a sound Ben assumed he would only get to hear in heaven. Yet there he was, biting down on the shoulder of the most gorgeous girl he’d ever met as she marked his neck with love bites of her own. “I love you,” he groaned feeling Y/N tighten around him as his shaft finally hit that spot that made her Y/E/C eyes roll to the back of her head. “I love you so fucking much.” “I love you too, Ben,” her reply was breathless, but her gaze was fiery and piercing. “And don’t you ever forget that or doubt it.” Each word was accentuated by a harsher snap of her hips. The sounds of their bodies colliding, and Y/N’s slick having coated both of their thighs, sweat sliding down their frames and onto the sheets was more than obscene. He knew he wouldn’t last long, he could feel the release approaching like a freight train, but at the same time, Ben was not about to cum first. Detaching their lips from the heavy kiss the pair had been engaged in, he licked the pad of his thumb and brought it between them. The second Y/N felt him touch her clit, she saw white. Her vision blurred at the edges and the hold she had had on Ben’s arms became so strong, her nails broke his skin in places. Instantly, she wanted to apologize, guilt settling in her chest, but the movement of his finger became more erratic and without a warning, she was cumming all over him. It was like the orgasm had been pulled from somewhere deep within her soul, for she had never actually felt on the verge of passing out. Y/N screamed Ben’s name into the dark and if he hadn’t had a hold on her body, she would have most likely fallen off the bed, her thighs and stomach spasming so hard. Ben shut his eyes, forehead scrunching up as Y/N squeezed him so painfully hard, she almost pushed his member out of her, but instead, he trust up a few more times and let bliss take over his body. She felt him release, hot thick streams of cum filling her up and painting every inch of her walls. Ben remained like that- still buried to the hilt inside her warm and now leaking center- for what felt like an eternity, but not nearly enough, before Y/N rolled off of him, a whine of discontent making its way into the air that smelled of sex and love.    “Do you think anyone heard us?” Y/N asked, already being pulled back to dreamland by Ben’s steadying heartbeat.    “Well, if they did, then they will definitely know, who made you feel that good.”    And with a snort, Y/N closed her eyes.

***    Lucy’s head was laying on Rami’s sweaty chest, both of their breathing laboured. “Do you think they heard us?” she asked, big eyes drooping closed from the activities they had taken part in. Rami shrugged, pulling Lucy’s body closer and together they fell asleep.

***

Joe’s eyes were wide as he stared at the ceiling. “I hate my life,” he muttered and turned to the side, just in case his neighbours decided to go at it again, placing a pillow over his head. No matter which pair.

Tags (crossed out wouldn't take): @16wiishes @wanderingsami @desir-ae @thiccio-and-thicciet @roseslovedreams @vesoleil @gloomybisexualemo @kostyaownsmyheart @perriwiinkle @screaminggalileochickenwrites @lumelgy @palaiasaurus64 @supernaturalbaesduh @breezy1415 @crazy--me @thatawkwardlittlefangirl @sea040561 @staryeyedgirl @deathbyarabbit @s-c-a-r-e-d-po-t-t-e-r @reblogger-not-a-blogger @m-a-t-91 @dalilx @i-need-a-hero-i-need-a-loki @maladaptive-ninja-returns @averyrogers83 @in-the-end-im-still-trash @gallifreyansass @dewy-biitch @avxgers @unlikelygalaxygiver @sweet-ladyy @magicwithaknife  

A/N: I’m so tired and stressed and holy shit does everything feel like it’s happening all at once.

I have two fics of Roger (both set in the 80s Retro and 70s Vintage world) lined up to write. On is in the early days of how they met and then another one is revolving around the Golden Globes.

P.S. what did you think? 

P.S.S. my tags are always open.

[queensdivas]

My Son

Word count: 1.8K. 

Storyline: Gwils mum has always told him that his dad could bring the masses to their feet. He knew that his father was Brian May since he was born. So when Bohrap was casting, he was given the role obviously. Brian May never heard of Gwil before in his life till the moment they walked into the trailer. Will they form a father and son relationship? 

Authors Note: Okay so this idea was really cute when it was asked to me and I wanted to write it as fast as I could for everyone! I hope you enjoy! @rawyld for this marvelous idea because it was so damn fun to write! Please send in request and if you want to be added in the taglist just let me know! 

Coming onto the set of the Live Aid was making Brians heart sore, but also aching a little bit because of Freddie and John not being here. He wished those two goofballs would be here watching the magic happening again before their eyes. The crew members were rushing around again as they walked over to the trailer where the bohrap boys were staying in. Roger had a plan to intimidate this kid named Ben Hardy who would be playing him. Brian had a completely different plan by just seeing what this kid can do on guitar and portraying this hair of his. Roger climbed up the tiny stairs for him to bang on the trailer door. Rami opened the door while laughing at something Joe said to end up having the door slammed in their face. 

“HOLY SHIT IT’S THEM!” Someone yelled as the door opened again with Roger and Brian chuckling. 

“Please come in!” Rami smiled, moving out of the doorway then the rest of the boys stood up and gave them warm smiles. But you could feel their nervousness radiating like a space heater. 

“My name is Rami Malek, that doofus over there is Joseph Mazzello or Joe for most of us. Ben Hardy over there and Gwilym Lee.” Rami pointed everyone out then Brian made eye contact with Gwil. On the outside he gave everyone a smile, a nod, and how eager he was that they’re making this movie. On the inside. Well..completely different story. Brian was beginning to do some math in his head since this Gwil guy resembled him way too easily. He has to be around 33 or 34 at the moment. Maybe. He sat down on the couch next to the kid as he noticed he was studying the chords for one of the songs. 

“Mr.May. If I might ask you a question?” Gwil asked as Brian scooted a little closer to notice his eyes were the same color as his and that his nose was a direct copy of his. That math was going much faster in his head. 19..1982 or 1983 when he screwed that one lady after the show in Lancaster. He couldn’t remember if he worse protection that night and was now trying to remember. 

“Ask away Mr. Lee.” Brian smiled as Gwil grabbed his guitar and began to position his fingers for each chord. 

“Now when you play. I notice that your hands sort of do this sort of curl to them..is that how you do it?” He noticed the form of his hand to see that he also had the long fingers. Jesus did he not use protection that night? 

“Exactly like that. But a little more with the pinkie there.” Brian held up his pinkie a little more and it was an exact replica. He needed to speak to this kid before the day was out since this was way too much of a coincidence in Brian's eyes at least. 

A crew member came into the trailer a few minutes later to gather up the boys so they could start shooting Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Brian and Roger said there goodbyes as another crew member showed them where they could stand and watch the show. 

“So Bri. What do you think of those kids?” Roger asked as they followed the crew member to stage right. 

“They seem very nice and eager to make the movie. Hopefully with this opening scene it will go nicely.”

“I will say they did an amazing job with the casting. Especially with Gwil.” Roger knew. Oh he knew as soon as he set eyes on Gwil. It was bluntly obvious to him since he had been in this situation before. Turns out the kid wasn’t even his but still to the point. 

“Very impressed.” Brian and him stood on stage left with him pulling out his phone to record the scene. We know how much Brian loves recording almost every moment he can. They began working on the scene and Brian was completely blown away by how Gwil was playing the guitar, and doing that step move we all know and love. Is this his son? A son he had absolutely no idea even existed? 

~~

Gwil and Brian became close during the days of filming Live Aid and well. It really shook Brians core since Gwil had very similar passions in life. Loved astrophysics, was donating most of his money to humanitarian societies in the world, and enjoyed talking about guitars. 

Ridge Farm studio was the next scene that Brian decided to come visit, and was asked by the director so he could personally record the guitar solo for the movie. Bringing Red Special with him so that Gwil could personal pretend to play the solo. 

He opened the door to the recording booth where Rami was rereading his script while Gwil was out in the studio itself working on more of the chords. They greeted Brian with hugs and high fives then Gwil waving from the studio. The director told Brian what the idea was and of course Brian was all for it. 

Brian walked into the studio and the nostalgia hit him right in the gut. It looked almost exactly like the studio back in 75. His heart became a little heavy till Gwil walked up with his Red Special prop with a little hop in his step. 

“Brian! My friend! Tell me that isn’t her.” Gwil was even more eager than Brain in that moment. He nodded while putting the case down on the table to pull the baby out. Putting the strap around his neck then the memories of the day recording the solo was playing before him again. 

Those huge headphones sitting on top of his curls, so many chords tangled around him, and a pair of pink bunny slippers on his feet. It got cold sometimes in that studio. He remembers Freddie wearing that blue shirt, constantly replaying the solo and Rogers falsetto moments. 

“You okay mate?” Gwil asked, putting his hand on Brian's shoulder. 

“I’ll be alright son. Now let’s shoot this bad boy.” Brian plugged in the guitar to the amp and Gwil took a step back. His fingers began shredding as if he was recording it for the first time in his life! His heart was soaring ever higher than he even imagined in this moment, it was happening all over again. 

Mum always did say my true dad was a rockstar that would make the masses fall to their feet. For thirty five years I watched his shows, his interviews, and every single video I could find of my dad. This is the closest I’ve ever stepped foot to him and I’m still not quite sure how I should handle this. Should I tell him? 

The guitar solo finished as Gwil moved back over to Brian as they looked at each other for a moment, both releasing that they’ve been wanting to ask that question yet too nervous to even ask each other. 

“The operatic section.” They both said while nodding to the recording booth. Both faces of anticipation, excitement, and a little bit of sentimental. 

“Good.” Both in sync again as the director yells cut. Everyone clapped, cheered, and Gwil looked upon his dad with such joy. Brian looked upon his son with contentment. 

“Shall we go for a walk?” Brian suggested with Gwil nodding his head.

Walking out of the house, they began walking down the muddy road in silence at first as they tried to figure out how to start this conversation. Just head straight into the field or slowly ask the question. 

“Mum always said that my dad was a true rockstar, yet failed to mention that it was you Brian.” They stopped at the fence line where they watched a few cows grazing in the field. Brian let out a long sigh, rubbing his hands together trying to keep himself from crying. 

“Gwil..I’m..”

“Don’t apologise Brian. You had no idea in the first place since my mom didn’t even try to tell you about it. She said that if she did, she would be forced into a marriage that wouldn’t last a lifetime.” His mum was now appearing in Brian's memory. Her name was Esther and was a groupie for the guys during the tour in 81’. At the time, Brian and Chrissie were in a little bit of a rough patch and Esther was a perfect target to release the stress of touring, marital issues, and the rest of the problems of the world. Even after the tour ended he went one last time to her home and said his final goodbye with a night of drunk yet sweet passionate love making. 

“Your mother definitely had a very special place in my heart during that time in my life Gwil. Just wish she would’ve told me now..so I would’ve been apart of your life.” Brian's eyes began to water a little bit with the image of Gwil as a child, not being in his life broke his spirit since all of his kids had some sort of childhood with him. 

“She told me that...that year she was with Queen was the best part of her life and wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Well after me being born obviously. If she knew that I was playing you in this movie, I think she would be here every day watching me perform you.” Brian turned his head to him to see Gwils eyes also watering slowly. A small sniffle came from Gwil as he rubbed the coat sleeve against his eyes. 

“I’m so sorry Gwil...I should’ve..I shou..” Brian began sobbing as they pulled into each other body for a very tender hug. His hand cupped the back of Girl's head while Gwil held onto him a little tighter. His first embrace with his dad, and he was standing next to cow shit. But it couldn’t be even more perfect. 

“Don’t you dare start Dad! You didn’t know and mom wanted us to have a normal life! It’s not your fault!” Gwil was trying to speak but was trying to breath from the sudden sobbing. 

“I know but I should’ve checked in on her everyone once in a while! She was a close friend of mine who I left in the dust. From now on Gwil, you and I are going to be more unstoppable than..than.. 

“I don’t know..but can I call you dad? Not in front of the boys but..at least one on one?” 

“Of course my son..of course!” 

[starrystarrybabe]

Oh, How the Mighty Fall [In Love] CHAPTER NINE (Ben Hardy x OC)

Lily Anne Mercury is brought in to help with Bohemian Rhapsody at the request of her Uncle Bri and Uncle Rog, and along the way, she might meet someone to share her life with. The only problem with this is that while their friends and the world can see that they’re perfect for each other, they’re going to be fully blind to this for a while.

CHAPTER ONE, CHAPTER TWO, CHAPTER THREE, CHAPTER FOUR, CHAPTER FIVE, CHAPTER SIX, CHAPTER SEVEN, CHAPTER EIGHT

DISCLAIMER: I’m fully aware that it would’ve been physically impossible for Jim and Freddie to have a child even with this method during the time they were alive, but the idea of Freddie as a dad and the idea of how his child would turn out to be was just too sweet for me to not write.

Triggers: discussion of body insecurities, explicit sexual content (18+ only please!)

~

FACECLAIMS:

Kelly Gale as Lily Anne Mercury

Sira P. Kante as Ezichi Adebayo

Erika Linder as Bronwyn Ryan-Hughes

Bree Kish as Madigan Ryan-Hughes

Sonakshi Sinha as Anusha Laghari

~

Ben and Lily spend their date night on the couch of Lily’s living room, watching Tim Burton movies and simply enjoying each others’ company. Full from Lily’s homemade curry and Ben’s stir fry earlier that night, Lily is laying down with her head in Ben’s lap. They’re both wearing sheet face masks Ben loves.

Since the Oscars, they’ve been spending even more time together and taking advantage of their mutual time off work. Ezichi has gone to vacation in Thailand with Gwil, and Bron and Madi are renewing their vows in Rome. Instead of choosing to go on a vacation to a faraway place together, the couple has decided to stay home and enjoy the break from the awards season frenzy.

Ben’s phone buzzes and he picks it up, sighing.

Lily looks up at him and frowns. “What’s wrong?”

Ben looks down at her as he puts his phone down. “The apartment I was going for got taken by someone else. I was outbid.”

Lily takes Ben’s hand in hers, squeezing it. “I’m sorry, love. That’s no fun. Did you have any other places in mind?”

Ben shakes his head. “No. It’s hard to find a dog-friendly place in London that has the right amenities and a good proximity to my gym.”

Since he’s gotten more famous, he’s had to stop going to a public gym, since it brings too much attention to himself.

Lily sits up next to him and removes a stray blonde curl from underneath the mask. “You have a month left in your current place, correct?”

Ben wraps an arm around her and nods.

She purses her lips as an idea comes to her. A crazy idea. A wild idea. A logic-defying idea.

“You could stay with me until you find a new place, or if you don’t want to move…” She shrugs.

Ben takes a moment to consider what she’s offering, looking over at her after a moment. “Are you asking me to move in with you?”

Lily shrugs. “I mean… Frankie and Rey are best friends.” She gestures to the sleeping dogs on the dog bed. “You’d have more than enough storage space, a backyard for Frankie, a room where you could have your own personal gym if you wanted it, and your gym is closer to my house than your flat. Logistically, it would be better for you to move in with me than find another place.”

Ben nods along with her, pressing his lips together. “I mean… you’re right. But moving in together is a huge step, and we’ve only been together for a few weeks. Aren’t you worried that we may be moving too fast?”

Lily smiles at her boyfriend. “We’ve been practically inseparable for ten months, Ben. According to literally everyone we know, we’ve moved too slowly already. But I don’t foresee living together being a problem. I mean… with our work schedules being so hectic, wouldn’t it be good to share a home base? To be able to spend time together?” She nudges his side. “Besides. I don’t even mind when you snore. It’s like white noise to me.”

Ben grins at her, all stress melting away on his face. “Moving in together. Huh. What’s next, bringing you home to meet my parents?”

Lily laughs and kisses him, and they pull away when the face masks slip into their mouths. Ben removes both their masks and they kiss again, and when he pulls away, he grimaces.

“Too much tongue?”

“No. Your mouth still tastes like the mask.”

Lily snorts and curls up against him, closing her eyes. “It’ll be fun living with you, roomie.”

---

“Benjamin Jones!” Lily steps over boxes, holding up a pair of dress shoes. “What were these doing in an Ikea bin?”

Ben looks up from where he’s packing away some pictures and shrugs. “They’re shoes. They were in my shoe bin, which happens to be from Ikea.”

Lily is disgusted. “These are Louboutins, Ben! They deserve their own bloody shelf! Why would you put them with your filthy Adidas?”

Ben still doesn’t get it. “My Adidas are fine. Just a little dirty, that’s all. I haven’t gotten to cleaning them yet.”

She scoffs, climbing over boxes to put the shoes in a spare plastic bag. “Your Adidas were white when you got them. How did you even manage to turn them brown?”

Ben raises a brow. “I wore them?”

Lily shakes her head. “I’m getting you a custom closet built. You have nice things, Ben. Nice things need to be organized in nice shelves.”

Ben tapes up the box. “I can afford to get my own custom closet built, Lily.”

Lily looks at him and shakes her head. “Consider it a housewarming gift. Please, Ben. Let me do this for you.”

Ben runs a hand through his hair and shrugs. “Fine.”

Lily grins and picks up a box of clothes, moving it closer to the door. “It will be so pretty. I already have a vision, darling.”

Ben smiles at Lily’s antics, knowing that he’s going to be enjoying them for a long time.

—-

The boxes are placed in the hallway of Garden Lodge and Lily and Ben sit on the floor, catching their breath. There was a brief run-in with the paparazzi, but they managed to get back home without much time wasted. It was hectic, and they can finally relax.

Ben leans against a box, looking over at Lily. Her hair is a mess, with flyaways escaping her bun and framing her face like a halo, and she looks tiny in his sweatshirt. She’s sweaty and isn’t wearing any makeup, but to him, she’s as gorgeous as ever.

Ben smiles at her. “You’re beautiful, you know that?”

She laughs and shakes her head. “Not like this, I’m not. I look like death, Benjamin.”

Ben shakes his head. “I think you look beautiful right now.”

Lily raises a brow. “You’re delusional, Ben Hardy.”

He shrugs. “I might be. I’m very tired right now. Doesn’t change the fact that you’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen.” He gives her an exhausted smile. “We can unpack later, but right now I’d like to take a nap.”

Lily stands up and walks over to him, helping him up. When they get to her-- their-- bedroom, she sits back against her pillows and he rests his head on her lap, immediately falling asleep as soon as she puts her fingers in his hair. She takes a picture of him and smiles, adjusting herself to lay down and fall asleep, and he rests his head on her chest.

---

As Ben puts his clothes away, Lily answers business calls. This one, in particular, is with a music video director who wants to showcase the different girls’ talents in the music videos for Room 301’s latest album. This particular video is showcasing Lily’s talents in Indian dance. She wants Lily to belly dance.

Once upon a time as a younger woman, Lily was a star belly dancer. However, she’s now on the cusp of thirty and not nearly as physically fit as she used to be. She’s self-conscious about her stomach. She’s not stick thin like Ezichi or toned like Bron. In fact, she considers her body to be incredibly average, especially now that she’s dating a man with a six-pack.

After she ends the call, she sighs and slumps down on her desk, groaning. Ben comes in and frowns at her appearance. He stands over her and lays a hand on her back, rubbing it gently.

“What’s wrong, love?” He asks, his hand traveling to her cheek.

“A videographer wants me to belly dance,” she says, her cheek still smushed up against the cool, dark wooden desk of her office.

Ben pulls over a stool and sits next to her, looking her in the eye. “What’s wrong with that? You have awards in belly dancing.”

She closes her eyes. “I’m too old and flabby for that now, Ben.”

He shakes his head. “You’re almost thirty, not seventy. Your body isn’t in bad shape either.”

She picks up her head, sighing. “I have an incredibly average body and I hate my stomach. I only wear high waisted things for a reason.”

“We all have our insecurities.”

Lily snorts. “You’re one to speak. Your body is objectively perfect and you know it. What could you possibly improve? A more prominent adonis belt? Bigger arms? Abs that can function even more as a washboard?”

Ben runs a hand through his hair, thinking of a way to rectify the situation. She won’t listen to him talking about his own body insecurities, because they both know she’s correct. Perhaps… a demonstration of sorts?

“Get in your old dance costume, put on some music, and perform for me. I’ll be the judge of how it all looks, alright?” Ben says, standing up. “Maybe you’re right, and it wouldn’t be the best choice to belly dance. But I won’t know until I see it.”

Lily looks up at him, confused. “Are you being serious?”

He nods, crossing his arms.

She stands up, walking past him. “Go downstairs. I’ll be there in ten minutes in the costume.” She looks at him with a worried expression on her face. “Whatever you do, just don’t laugh.”

He walks over to her and kisses her forehead. “I’d never laugh at you. Don’t overthink this, okay? Just dance for me.”

She nods, and he goes downstairs.

---

He hears her before he sees her, and when he turns to see her in a red and gold sequined bra, gold armbands, and a flowing red skirt that hangs low on her hips, his heart stops for a moment. She looks amazing.

“Well, first of all, you look gorgeous,” he says, smiling.

She looks down with a sigh, rubbing the back of her neck. “This was the only costume that still fit me.”

He shrugs. “You got older. Your body changed. There’s no way to avoid that, Lily.”

She sighs, closing her eyes before regaining her resolve and putting her phone in a speaker. “Are you ready?”

He smiles and nods. “I’m ready when you are.”

She nods, putting on a song and getting into position. The music starts, and she begins slowly moving her hips to the strong rhythmic beats of the song. She’s still hesitant, but as the song continues, she loses herself in the music, moving her hips and flipping her long hair.

He doesn’t know what the singer of the song is saying, but he doesn’t care. He can’t tear his eyes away from her curves and the movement of her body, complemented by the skirt and when she begins to move her chest, his jaw drops. She’s amazingly talented, her body looks gorgeous, and even though she may not be the most toned woman in the world, it works with the movements she has to perform in the song. By the time she’s done, he wants nothing more than to fuck her lovingly enough to convince her that her body is lovely and perfect just as it is.

She stands in her final position and catches her breath, looking over at her boyfriend, whose pupils are dilated and attraction is clearly showing in his gray sweatpants. “I take it that it looked good?”

Ben looks at her in awe. “Come over here right now.”

She does as she’s told, and he holds her by the waist, pulling her in to straddle his hips.

“That,” he punctuates the word with a kiss to her neck. “Was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.” He kisses down her decolletage, and his hand supports her waist gently, reverently. “You are gorgeous and talented, and I am undeserving of your love.”

“No--” Lily begins to protest before a finger is placed over her mouth.

“Let me love you. I need to show you just how beautiful you are.”

She smiles bashfully, sweeping her skirts aside. “How could I possibly decline that offer?”

He eats her out slowly on the couch, praising her and bringing her to orgasm multiple times before sitting up and taking off his clothes, and bringing her down on top of him. She moans as she sinks down on his length, and rolls her hips slowly. Her skirt drapes on top of their laps and makes jingling noises as she keeps a slow, leisurely pace. She cups his face in her hands and kisses him, and after ten minutes, he comes inside of her, and they collapse together on the couch after shedding her costume. They lay under a large blanket, and Lily is resting on top of him, her head on his chest.

“I think I’ll dance in the video,” she says, smiling.

Ben strokes her hair and kisses her forehead. “I’m glad I could convince you.” He holds her closer and smiles. “You’re gorgeous. I know it, the world knows it, but if it takes more times like these for you to know it and believe it, I’ll happily offer my services for it.”

She closes her eyes and hugs Ben, whispering, “I love you.”

Ben kisses her and smiles. “I love you too.”

~

TAGLIST: @andtheytoldustotellyouhello @plethora-of-things @borhap-socials @everybodyplaythegame @i-the-fangirl @deakydeakydeaky @shisterfackisback @samanthadegaro @lv7867 @fatbottomedcurls @redspecialty @haisimsim @peterparkeroos @teenwolflover28 @ixchel-9275 @alessandra-elle @onexlittlespark @queenficarchive @leah-halliwell92 @rrrogah-tayluhh @maddistudiess @queen-fam @evrsncnewyork @reddiefreddieee @babebenhardy @toms-irish-girl @bensrhapsody @good-old-fashioned-rogerina 

[lolconversegirl2015]

Daughter of Mercury

A/N: Reader is the adoptive daughter of Freddie and Jim (apparently same-sex couples in the UK couldn’t adopt until 2002 so Mary helps them) and didn’t know when she was visiting her uncles on the set of Bohemian Rhapsody,  the person who is acting as one of her dads would fall in love with her. (Daughter of Mercury: 2) 

~1986~

Freddie visits Mary’s to discuss something and ask her for a huge favor that could potential change everyone’s lives.

“Mary, Jim and I want to adopt a child, but this bloody law refuses it,” said Freddie as he obviously shows it bothers him

“Oh, that’s great that you two finally want to have a child together,” responded Mary as Freddie shook his head

“I called up an agency to see if they had anything, they said they have a baby girl who was given up because her parents were bloody idiots to care for her. I asked them if I could adopt her along with Jim and that’s when they said we couldn’t because of the law, but I mentioned you and then they said we could as long as you adopt her as well,” said Freddie

“Well, let’s go,” responded Mary grabbing her coat

“Wait, darling, you’ll do it for us?” asked Freddie looking surprised

“Of course, we’ve been friends for a long time and you deserve to have a child with the one you love, in secrecy from the public. Now, let’s go get her so she could have the best parents in the world,” responded Mary as she and Freddie left the house

Lets just say the adoption was finalized and the baby girl was named Y/N Hutton Austin Mercury.

~2018~

Y/N’s POV

“Yes, I’m on my way, Uncle Bri,” I said as I’m driving to the set of Bohemian Rhapsody

It’s amazing that after so many years, there’s finally going to be a biopic about Queen but at the same time, it’s heartbreaking because both of my dads aren’t alive to see it physically. Witnessing my dad, Freddie, losing his battle with AIDS was devastating because he always made sure that everyday we spent together up till I was 5 years old was memorable. At least I got to spend time with my other dad, Jim, before he passed in 2010. I’ve spent my life in secrecy due to the possibility of people bombarding me with stupid questions and questions I can’t answer. I arrived at the set to see they’ve created a duplicate of the stage my father and uncles were on when they were performing Live Aid. I looked to see my uncle, Brian, talking to someone who I guess plays him in the movie, and walked up onto the set. 

“You two look so much alike, I can’t tell the difference,” I said jokingly as Brian turns around and smiled

“Come here you,” responded Brian as he extended his arms out for to run into his arms and hug, a thing we’ve been doing since I was younger

“Is that my darling, sweet baby niece?” I hear my uncle Roger ask as I left Brian’s embrace and got into Roger’s

“I’ve missed you guys so much,” I said as I left Roger’s embrace

“Have you talked to Uncle Deacy?” asked Brian as I nodded my head

“I have, it’s been awhile but yes,” I responded as I see 4 guys look at us confused

“Oh let me introduce you. Y/N, these guys are Joe, Gwilym, Ben, and Rami,” said Brian saying their names in the order they’re standing

“Nice to meet you guys, whose playing who?” I asked

“Gwilym is uncle Brian, Joe is uncle Deacy, Ben is uncle Roger, and Rami plays your dad,” responded Roger as the boys had a even more confused look on their face

“I was adopted, I know a lot of people doesn’t know about me,” I said

“What’s your name if you don’t mind me asking?” asked Gwilym

“Y/N Hutton Austin Mercury, I was adopted by Mary, Jim, and Freddie,” I responded

“How do you feel about this getting made?” asked Rami

“Honestly, I’m happy it’s getting made so people can know their story but at the same, it feels weird because I’m watching someone else act out my family along with heartbreak that my fathers aren’t here to watch it come to life,” I responded

What I didn’t know is that throughout the whole production, Rami fell more in love with me when I thought he was falling in love with Lucy.

It was time to shoot the scene of Queen’s appearance on the BBC when Gwilym had to mock the person who told them they had to lip synch and honestly it made me laugh since it is something my uncle Brian would do.

“Y/N, did I do it?” asked Gwilym to me instead of Brian

I nodded as I laugh and respond “Definitely, even if my uncle doesn’t admit it, that’s on point.”

“Hello darling,” I hear Rami say as he walks in along with Lucy, dressed head to toe like my father

“I’m guessing he’s in zone,” I responded as Lucy nodded and said “Yep.”

As I watched the scene continue, it makes my heart melt that I’m witnessing how my uncles and father were back in the 70s but it made me think about the fact I only had 5 years with him. I was looking down when the director shouted cut and the boys noticed as they stepped down from the stage.

“Hey, you okay?” asked Ben as I looked back up

“Oh yeah, I’m fine,” I responded as I got up from my seat

“Okay, we were planning on heading to the pool if you want to join,” said Lucy

“I’ll join you guys, see you guys there,” I responded as I left the set

“There’s definitely something going on,” whispered Joe so Brian and Roger doesn’t hear them

“I mean, we shouldn’t force it out of her but it doesn’t hurt to ask,” whispered back Ben

~Pool~

I arrived at the pool wearing a plain t-shirt and shorts over my one piece bathing suit when I see the crew already swimming around.

“Hey guys,” I said as I started taking off my shirt and shorts, showing them the one piece I’m wearing

“That’s cute,” said Lucy as I get into the pool and swim over to where they are

“Thanks Lucy, this is definitely relaxing,” I responded as I see they’re looking at me in worry

“Are you really okay? Because we saw your facial expression,” said Rami, worried about the girl he loves in front of him

I sighed and said “Watching you guys doing the scene, it made me think of something.”

“Your dad?” asked Joe as I nodded my head

“I was only 5 when he lost his battle and it pains me that he wasn’t there physically to watch me grow up. I can only get stories from my uncles, my other dad, Mary, my aunt, and grandparents, but I remember the days we spent together. One day when Jim was working and I was left with my dad, he sung “Love of My Life” to me while having me on his hip and dancing around the house. All my memories consists of singing and dancing with him that I’ll never ever forget,” I said 

“You can sing? Come on, sing for us,” responded Ben getting all excited to hear that I sing

“I haven’t done it in a long time,” I said as the others look like they’re begging me

“Come on, please for us?” asked Rami with a pleading look in his eyes

“Okay fine, I’ll bloody do it. Just let me think of a song for a minute,” I responded as I started to thinking of a song

After I thought of a song, I started singing “Love of My Life” and everyone’s mouths dropped in shock of the sound of my singing voice, especially Rami since he never thought the girl in front of him had a beautiful singing voice

“Wow, that’s amazing, how did you learn to sing like that?” asked Rami 

“From my uncles of course, they wanted to teach me since I was curious about singing,” I responded

“Are you a professional singer?” asked Lucy as I shook my head no

“I went to college for writing and arts, something I think I got from learning more about my father,” I responded

Throughout the day, I learned more about the crew and they learned a little bit about me, not much, but still.

After we got out of the pool, I was heading to my car when I heard Rami call out my name. I turned around and asked “Yea Rami?”

“Are you still going to be there for the production because we would still love to see you there,” responded Rami

“Sure, I’m still going to be there for the whole thing,” I said as Rami smile

“Good, see you there,” responded Rami, trying to hide the fact that his heart did backflips

“See you later,” I said as I got in my car and drove away

One thing that was on Rami’s mind is he can’t get Y/N out of his mind and the others know it

[cynthiadshaw]

#LadyBoss: redefining what a boss looks like

Too many of us grew up only seeing one kind of boss or leader in the media. The lack of representation for other groups reinforced harmful stereotypes and acted as a self-fulfilling prophesy, but would our opinion of what a leader looks like be different if the media did a better job at representing the true diversity of leadership in America?

Women and other under-represented groups are already leading many great companies, organizations, & academic institutions; others are authoring best-sellers, building engaged audiences, leading movements and more.

We had the honor of connecting with many of the best and brightest female leaders from in and around the city and we asked them our question of the month: What is the best advice you have for someone who feels like they are facing insurmountable odds.

We encourage you to check out the female leaders we’ve highlighted below, follow them on social media if you find their work or story interesting and most importantly do your part to #fightstereotypes.

Stacie Dahlbeck | Yoga instructor and Hip Hop Yoga Creator

@rkbgraphics 

When faced with a challenge that seems insurmountable, it is important to remember that your reaction to a challenge determines how the situation unfolds. Remember to be bold, take challenges head on, and know that everything you need to handle your situation is already within you. On another Note, take solace in knowing that every notable achievement thus far was once deemed impossible and insurmountable.

@yogi_stacie stacie.dahlbeck@gmail.com

Claudia | nail artist & lash | pmu artist

Don’t give up! Keep going and never let someone else’s opinion of you define you or keep you from following your dreams. Anything can be mastered with practice and practice will make perfect!  It’s only failure if you quit.

@girlbossbeautybox 

Natasha Chimney, BBA, CPT | Founder of She Who Embraces | Author | Entrepreneur | Mentor | Personal Trainer

The best advice that I would give to a fellow brother/sister facing difficult challenges would be to truly hang on & seek God first! I, too, have faced many challenging and dark seasons but I had to trust that God was with me every step of the way. I was always told “one day you will look back on this moment and smile” and I must say I overcame my Giant and did just that! It took me not only evaluating myself, my environment but my circumstances, as well. If I wanted a different outcome, I need to change my outlook, along with my decision making and/or behaviors. Trouble truly doesn’t last always. Now every troubling experience I have, I’m fully equipped with His armor because my previous lessons prepared me & it can do the same for you! I have provided a bible verse to serve as your reminder as you push through your seasons: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”” ‭‭John‬ ‭16:33‬ ‭NIV‬‬ God promises that your battles will be won! Hang on to His every Word & in due time you will experience victory!! Your roads will get tough, but give yourself credit! You are much more stronger than you think!! Believe in His promises & also believe in yourself!

shewhoembraces.com  @shewhoembraces @shewhoembraces01

Jo Lam Founder | Project Beauty (501c3 nonprofit) Empowerment Coach and Speaker

We have to remember that no matter what happens to us. We have the choice to choose how we perceive and respond to that situation. I have been through many obstacles and challenges in my own personal journey, and what I have learned is to master my own energy, my own emotions. We can’t change what happens to us. But we can change how we look at those experiences, and when we change our perspective, what we look at changes. I look at every experience as a teacher. I know that nothing happens in vain. We grow and learn from EVERYTHING. It might be hard to see it while we are going through the storm. But look at your life, how many times you thought you couldn’t make it through. But somehow things always works out. We can’t deny that there is always a Higher Power at play… and when we look at this from the perspective of “I am so glad I got to go through this, because it taught me what I do want or don’t want” you will begin to build gratitude for EVERY experience.

theprojectbeauty.org  @project_beauty_dfw  @projectbeautydfw

Tanika Brooks | Jewelry Making Mama | Jewelry Designer & Milso (Military Spouse) Business Owner

When facing a challenge that feels insurmountable I turn to my faith and creating a plan. Usually something  seems challenging because we think it’s outside of what we are capable of. I often remind myself to pray because I know  with God all things are possible. I then will sit down write out what I think is difficult about the challenge and create a solution that will allow me to conquer the challenge. Breaking down a larger task into smaller ones and creating a list of priorities allows me to concentrate and complete the task. Also as a stay at home mom and wife,by creating smaller tasks I am able to ensure I have some balance between running my business and family time. Being with family when I’m trying to work through a challenge allows me to stay encouraged because they are my why.

honeybeahive.com  @Honeybeahive  @naturallykhaotic

Alison |  manager |  mom blogger

When the world seems like it’s against you and there’s no options stop and pick what you can control, what you can easily solve and take it from there. The minute I stopped fretting over the things out of my control the less insurmountable they felt. You control your life, and your destiny, no one else.

@amomsjourney.tx amomsjourneytx.com

Kj | Social Media Influencer | Beauty Vlogger

As someone who knows there fair share of regular anxiety attacks when a situation appears to be insurmountable the best thing to do is take a deep breath and use what I call The Method of Three: think of 3 solutions, 3 different ways to attack the situation, and 3 positive things that may result once the challenge has been tackled. I find this very helpful in school, and life. 3 different solutions will help you visualize a positive end result, 3 different ways to attack allow your mind to be put at ease because there’s a plan in motion and finally 3 positive things that may result in completing the challenge provides that little bit of motivation I feel we all need to face our challenges head on. Lastly remember, nothing is impossible unless we make it so, You can accomplish anything,be anything and do anything!

youtube.com/channel/UCLQdx8PTyt3DLtEhpOsxW1Q  @Kjradiant

Kennedy Vaughan | Nutritionist & Spin Instructor

The best advice I have for someone facing a challenge that they feel is insurmountable is that the challenges in life will wax and wane. Even though it might feel like the world is caving in, one day we look back at that situation and notice that it was the exact obstacle that helped us get where we are today, stronger. We are never too old to start over and create ourselves again.

@Kennedy.Vaughan

Sheena Lu | Dallas Influencer

If you fall, get back up. Once you’re down you can only go up from there. Remember what your goals are and channel that energy to motivation.

@ohhwhatsnext

Sweta  Das | Beauty fashion lifestyle blogger &youtuber

Keep working hard and stay focused. Maintain a healthy lifestyle is really important If you put out good energy you will receive that in return that’s what i believe Don’t try to conquer everything at once, give some time and gather knowledge. Treat people the way you would want to be treated. be kind to yourself and one another.

@sweta_lolo www.youtube.com/channel/UCW1QkbC2_HuYXY8HQcwYgcw?view_as=subscriber

Bri Franklin | Integrated Nutritionist and Founder of the Fundamental Health Formula

Ask 2 Questions (or better yet, journal/write it down):

1. How will my life change by overcoming this challenge? (be specific, descriptive and tap into it deeply)

2. What is ONE THING I can do right now (or today) that will get me closer achieving this?

Keep asking #2 until you’re experiencing #1.

bfrankcoaching.com  @coachbfrank @FundamentalHealthFormula

Amber Jackson | Frame Stylist | Optician

My best advice for someone who is facing a challenge they feel is insurmountable is to speak positive affirmations over themselves and to “show up” every day. Through perseverance and dedication we are able to achieve what we don’t have fully worked out or the answers to. If you keep hitting a brick wall long enough, eventually it has to break.

glitzopticalonline.com  @glitzoncanvasoptical @glitzoptical

  Avery Foster | Instagram Fashion Blogger & Influencer

When I think about facing a challenge that is seemingly insurmountable, I have to constantly remind myself that everyone had to start somewhere or had to face something similar. Even the most successful people have dealt with tribulations that have hindered them from reaching their absolute best. When it comes to success, it is often difficult to keep this in mind. I know I have wrestled with simply wanting to reach my goals without traversing through tough times. However, when handling struggles with determination and grit, getting through them can make us stronger in the end! It is imperative to remember that what we battle can make reaching our end goal that much more satisfying.

@averyfosterstyle liketoknow.it/averyfosterstyle 

Tina Naidu | Outpatient Program Director | fitness | health & dance enthusiast

@prashantiphotos

No 2 situations are the same and the timeline of emotions (the peaks and valleys) that people go through is different too. An advice for one person may not resonate with the other, but I think it’s important to know that nothing is truly insurmountable. It’s our mindset and how we perceive things. So when we change the way we perceive a challenge it helps us overcome it or possibly find another path in life. When facing a challenge, I try to write down things that I’ve already done and failed and things that I still need to do. It helps me see it in writing instead of dwelling over it in my head. Things don’t always go as planned, it’s okay, slow down, take a step back, adapt!! There isn’t one set way or right way to get to where you want to be. It took me a while to understand all of this too and I am still learning as life throws some curve balls at me. But I’m much happier being able to change my mindset!! It is also very important to surround yourself with those who will lift you up when you truly need it. You can’t always overcome things on your own and it’s okay to ask for help and those who believe in you will be by your side no matter what.

@fit2frolic

Sarah Blaido | artist | cosplayer | histology lab aide

Challenges that seem too big to tackle often need to be broken into bite sized pieces. My mother always says “just take the first step”. I frequently find myself  falling back on that advice when I am feeling overwhelmed by the big picture. Also remember to use your support group (friends, family, etc) to help you get through challenges. It’s easier when you’re not alone!

@vespidcosplay @vespidqueen

Kristen Cruz | Brand Promotion Strategist & Event Planner

There will be challenges big and small, everyday of your life. The most rewarding part is looking back at that one challenge you thought you’d never overcome and remembering you’re so much stronger than you give yourself credit for.

kristencruz.com  @kristencruz 

Brandy Haas | Lash Artist

Life can be challenging, the best advice I can give is to be present through it. Taking one day at a time, sometimes even one hour at a time. You’ll emerge and when you do it’ll be growth and perspective you’ll gain.

@brandy.peachykeenstudio

  Daisy Barrera | Hair stylist

Take a moment to breathe and think about where you started and where you are at currently. Take everything a step at a time.

@hairbydaisybarrera

Kimberly Kirt | Online Entrepreneur | Fitness Fanatic and Owner of Hustle & Flow Social Co.

Take everything one step at a time. When there are massive obstacles in the way, it is best to break them down by small, quickly accomplishable steps, that you can check off and work through every day and every week. It will take time, but if you stay consistent you will overcome that challenge!

instagram.com/kimberlki instagram.com/hustleandflowsoco

Sonya J. Cameron | TCM Classic Movie Junkie | Wife | Mother | Owner of J Cameron House of Linen Rental

Ryan G.  Cameron (UNT Film Student)

If you are still able to experience the emotions (anger, sadness, crying and even screaming) that go along with trials then you maybe down, but you are definitely not out…you still have some fight in you. Each and every challenge that I have faced in life was temporary and after the storm came growth, resilience, determination. You realize just how strong you are.

jcameronhouseoflinens.org @jcameronhouse

Yaasameen Garrett | Entrepreneur & Multi-Media Creative

The best advice I have is to take a step back, think about yourself be selfish in that moment and decided what’s important to you and what makes you happy first. Then break down your challenge, plan it out and accomplish it with little steps, so it doesn’t seem so overwhelming.

@loveyaasameenxo Nazeerahlove.com 

Kristin Nicole | Professional Makeup Artist

When someone is facing a challenge that feels insurmountable they need to believe within themselves, have strength that things will get better and can get better. There’s no failure unless you stop trying. So, keep going cause great things will come!

instagram.com/makeupby.kris10

Brittany Howard | Teacher (elementary) & Makeup Artist

My advice to anyone who feels/thinks that the challenges they are facing are insurmountable is: to go all the way through it first. I’ve never faced a challenge that God (as I know him) has never brought me through. And I’ve been through some things. Nothing is too great.

@beatbybritmua snapchat.com/BeeHoww squareup.com/appointments/book/BD1W6148NT2D5/brittany-howard-fort-worth-tx

Tasha Jay | vocalist | vocal coach and artist

Know that you can control the challenge and that you can do ANYTHING you put your mind too. That you’re only faced with things that seem challenging to get you to that next level. Face, Embrace and Conquer your fears.

facebook page: Tasha Jay Music @tashajaymusic

Jen Russum | wife | mom | English professor

Drink lots of water, get enough sleep, make a plan and break it into baby steps, and pray like crazy.

jenrussum.com @jenrussum

Mamta Rana | Lead Henna Artist at Matrika Henna

You know we always hear other people advise us to take ourselves out of the equation and detach ourselves to  see the situation for what it is- without all of the emotion and all the drama. I’ve always had an issue with this because, how does one just shut out their emotions. (They’re involuntary to a certain extent, and we can only control them for so long, before we end up exploding like an emotional volcano.) I think it’s essential to find out why the situation is making us feel like its so big and insurmountable in the first place. See, because it’s all in our head. I’d like to share the following method that my mentor once shared with me- its called the five why’s method. So anytime we feel a certain way about something we ask why, and then we question that reason by asking why four more times. Some research shows that by the time we ask why for the fourth or fifth time we are able to get to the core of the issue at hand. So for example if the issue at hand is,” I feel like I’ll never be able be healthy.”  and we might ask: 1. Why? answer: oh because I don’t have time 2. why? answer: because I work two jobs and have a child 3. Why? answer: because I need to make money, because  my parents abused drugs and alcohol and I don’t want my child to not have to feel like they can’t have a child hood. 4. Why? answer:  Because that is what I had to do. I never had a childhood because my parents abused drugs and alcohol so much that I felt like I grew up too fast and didn’t have a child hood and I want my child to go through that. Now this is just an example all of the format that we may have- the answers will vary from person to person, but answering the questions honestly and in depth and asking why  we feel a certain way about  the situation until  a deep answer is received is key to opening the curtain to whatever situation is seemingly  unbearable. and then when we work thorough the core back up to the situation at hand it doesn’t seem so insurmountable because we now are able to understand our feelings enough to be like okay I get why I’m feeling so bad about this, I have now acknowledged my feelings and can detach my feelings in a loving way and then proceed to look at the issue that was once so big and scary from a practical stand point.

@matrikahenna.official creativestudio.us/book-online

Mayra Alas | Certified Lash Artist | M Lash Studio

When the odds are against you is when we learn the most about ourselves. Take a moment and put things into perspective. With focus and a positive attitude you can achieve anything.

@m_lashstudio mlashstudio.com

Ezmirelda Elizondo | Cosmetologist & Beauty Influencer

My best advice for someone who is facing a challenge that they feel is insurmountable is if you work hard enough and you really want to conquer it, it can be done and to just work hard for whatever you want; It can definitely be accomplished!

instagram.com/msezmirelda/?hl=en instagram.com/glammedbyez

Shelby Plummer | Makeup Artist and University Student

It is easy to forget that our bodies and minds are not permanent on this earth, but the effort you put forth is. Be the example for generations to come and never give in no matter the challenges you face.

@shelbyplummermua 

Erin Clark | Life Coach and Wellness Advocate for Mompreneurs

When I am faced with challenges that seem too big to overcome, first – I close my eyes and take 10 deep breaths. By slowing myself down, I am able to clear my mind and see the challenge for what it really it. Nothing is too big for your brain to take on if it’s well trained. In my work, I have realized that every problem – and I mean EVERY PROBLEM – can be solved in our mind first. By understanding our thoughts and emotions are the root of our actions and results, we can take on anything without ever changing the circumstance at hand! Nothing is too big for the mind to handle.

facebook.com/erinclarkcoaching instagram.com/erinclarkcoaching

The post #LadyBoss: redefining what a boss looks like appeared first on Voyage Dallas Magazine | Dallas City Guide.

source http://voyagedallas.com/2019/08/01/girlboss-redefining-boss-looks-like/

[nettvnow-blog]

Brains | Budget? What Budget?

You know what’s fun? Asking 20-30 people ranging from your best friends to total strangers to help you make a web series with no money. Just kidding! It’s terrible.

Other than not knowing what the difference between a director and a producer was, the biggest surprise when I decided to produce 2 seasons of a web series was how expensive filmmaking is, even for the simplest project. Not that my project was simple, but, you know. It wasn’t Thor: The Dark World.

For the two seasons that exist of my show, Brains, we ran two Indiegogo campaigns, making roughly $2500 total. The supporters of those campaigns were largely my friends and family, and I will always be grateful for that. If I could make a show off of their kindness, maybe I would have been able to make Thor: The Dark World, but alas, that is not my lot in life. Yet. What follows is the list of things I did to make the two seasons of my weird zombie rom-com without being forced to live under the Brooklyn Bridge, or worse, move home to Colorado.

Don’t pay people To be fair, during the second season of my show, we managed to pay our principal cast (people who were there more than 2 of the total 13 days of filming) a little bit. Definitely not industry minimums, but it was something. However, paying people adds up much more quickly that you’d anticipate, especially between the cast AND the crew. Our smallest shooting days still required four people at minimum, and at union rates, paying for that single shooting day with four total people would have amounted to about a quarter of our entire Indiegogo earnings. Think of how much this would have cost if not for the wonderful volunteers:

Everyone who has been on set for Brains has an IMDb page now, and everyone who played an extra got to pick their own character name. Plus, I always made sure to have food, and pro tip: fruit snacks are the most popular snack. They don’t make a mess or leave residue on actors faces or clothes.

Ask for props for holidays We knew we were going to try and make a season 2 of Brains around mid-December 2015, and my birthday is at the end of January, which ended up being the best possible timing. Instead of asking for clothes or trinkets for the holidays, my wish lists were full of fake machetes, zombie makeup, test tubes, and new wardrobe pieces. This meant that for season 2 of Brains, I spent almost no money from our Indiegogo on props or wardrobe, because I thought ahead. My greatest regret of 2016 is not lining up a new project before the holidays, so I had to ask for dumb things like clothes and books.

Be creative about where people are in a scene Both seasons of Brains were largely made possible because I was willing to write people with scheduling conflicts out of scenes, or rewrite them so that they never appear on camera. For instance: during season 1, there’s an episode in the science lab where the character Greta is manning the camera. She was supposed to be in the scene, but the actress couldn’t get off of work during the time we were filming, so I rewrote the scene for her to be behind the camera instead of in front of it and recorded her lines at a different time. Speaking of…

Remember that format can be your friend Brains is a found footage show, meaning that the camera itself is a part of the story. This was helpful in making a no-budget web series for a couple of reasons.

1. It didn’t take as long to film. Ordinarily, a one page scene can take as long as an hour because you need to film so many different angles and reset lighting and sound and camera for each. For found footage scene, as soon as the actors say the lines right, we can move on. On Brains, we once filmed 11 pages of script in a single day of hiking around Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

2. It gives you flexibility with actors. Taking that example from earlier, if we’d been filming “traditionally,” we wouldn’t have been able to film that scene at all. It was important that the character Greta be in the scene, and the location we were using wasn’t available at the same time as the actress. But because the show is found footage, it made sense that she was never on camera, just behind it.

3. It forgives lower production quality because that’s kinda the conceit. I’m not saying you don’t have to try as hard for quality film making if you’re doing found footage, but listen. Your characters are holding the camera. If sound isn’t perfect, or if the video quality is lower, or if the lighting isn’t Oscar-worthy, it’s fine, because it’s more “realistic.”

Beg, borrow, and steal We begged our grad school for the use of various classrooms and rooftops and dorm rooms. We borrowed or already had all the equipment we used. And I definitely stole a clipboard, expo markers, and a box of rubber gloves from places I used to work for use in the show. Spoiler alert: I didn’t steal those things from the same place. Does this make me a bad person? I prefer “resourceful.”

Final thoughts: making a web series, even a really simple one, is going to take a lot of passionate, dedicated volunteers, a lot of luck, and a lot of fruit snacks. Making Brains, definitely not a simple show, has taught me a lot, and in the future I probably won’t write a show with so many stunts or characters or apocalypse locations, at least not until I get really rich and famous. But I’m grateful for the opportunity to have learned so much so quickly, and I’m especially grateful to all the people who helped make it possible. You don’t necessarily need tons of money to make a great web series, but it sure doesn’t hurt.

Meet the Author Bri Castellini is a writer and filmmaker based in New York City. She makes friends primarily via Twitter.

[prvtocol]

❝What’s the best lie you’ve ever told?❞ // caesar for bri

𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐏𝐓 𝟏 (accepting)

“Of course, make me admit to something devious.” Nose scrunches, animating a knowing retort at the gang’s all too clever accountant — though her amusement with the whole conversation means it doesn’t last long. Coffee (and tea) and a conversation that turned into a short round of truth or dare with Caesar, Diego, and Emiliano (the latter two part of her Los Piratas security crew) is a benign way to pass the time. Benign in the sense of the upstanding caliber of each of them to not take it too far with her there. If Vaas was here to partake in the questioning and daring, it’d be a different story.

“Yeah Bri, a top-tier corpo like you, gotta have some preem dirty lies in your closet.” Extra coaxing comes from Diego who’s in the middle of grabbing two more cookies from the cooling racks on the counter behind her. For it, he gets thrown a defensive look and a curt, “My closet is rather clean, thank you.” But the retort is just more dawdling on her part. Good grief, she has to think hard about the last time she lied and didn’t feel the sting of self-disappointment and instead could declare victory for some reason or another. Oh but wait, Diego gave her a thought — work. Is fabricating the truth also considered lying she wonders? If so, she did it often enough. “Alright, I think I have one."

"This gonna be good, right?" With a mouth full of cookie, Diego again interjects, nudging her arm with his elbow after sitting back down at her side.

"Just let her speak, hermano." Emiliano, the youngest of the crew and who’s busy peeling a tangerine, shushes him. Meanwhile, Caesar throws him a more patient stare from across the table. It was his question after all.

"Well, I don’t know if it was my best lie, but I can say with certainty it helped me out later on." Oh dear, here comes the long-winded exposition needed to make sense. “When I first arrived in Night City, the department under my oversight was a mess. The prior director completely lost the plot. He started throwing uncalled for audits on his enemies, even got someone unduly fired because of it. It was as if he was asking for retaliation, which of course, he eventually got.” Death being the result of his meddling. “It quickly came to my realization as I was writing my report that his assistants more than aided his actions. And of course they did, they feared what would happen if they said no to their boss. Now, I should have reported them to HR, which would have resulted in demotion or worse, but I decided against it and let them know I understood their need for loyalty considering. So, I fabricated their role in the reports.” Hands lift from cradling her tea mug to aid her in saying, "Horrible, I know but helping those under me was how I played my cards because those same assistants would alert me later when another coworker was making plans for my position. Loyal to a madman and loyal to someone willing to help them.” 

Judging by the discerning frown found on Diego's bearded face, this isn’t the sordid story he was looking for. At least, Caesar looks less displeased. It’s certainly not as interesting as any of their truths just told involving close calls and dangerous adversaries. “Too dull?” Out loud she queries, her brow knitting an unspoken apology. “Well, better than the dog ate my homework, right? Though," she sighs, "I never didn't do my homework to pretend I had a dog to eat it. But it is a lie by corp standards so I pass this round and now it's your turn to choose, Caesar.” And he gets a grin with it. Internally, she's sighing in relief. These little games can be surprisingly stressful.

[fredericksmeg-blog]

2 weeks in London.

Hello I am back!! This is blog part 1 of 2 for the month of March!

Monday, March 6th On the Monday after we got back from Wales, all that I wanted to do was sleep. Instead, I woke up ~early~ to do my laundry before the room got mobbed by everyone who was coming back from break. That was the main event of the day, pretty much. I ate some dinner from the groceries that I had in my freezer and went to my very first Internship Seminar class (because we were starting our internships that week). We talked about our career goals and a whole bunch of hoopla. It was just fine. When I got home, I sorted through my pictures from break and hung out for a bit.

Tuesday, March 7th On Tuesday, I had my BLC class, and we pretty much just talked about where we went on break and then got out early because everything is a joke. I went to Tesco to restock on groceries and almost had to uber home because I couldn’t carry all of them. I ate lunch in my flat before I zipped over to the British Library for my Archives class to look in the gallery that has the Gutenberg Bible, original copies of Beowulf, da Vinci sketches, Shakespeare, etc. We got a very detailed account of them, which I appreciated. I’ve been in there a few times already and it’s not exactly a large room, but I learned a lot about things I didn’t even know where in there.

I genuinely don’t remember what I did for the rest of the night. Probably made some calls, uploaded pictures, and organized my life because I started my internship the next day.

Wednesday, March 8th Wednesday was my first day at Mercato. When I got there, no one that was in when I interviewed was there. Aka, no one knew who I was or what to do with me. I sat around for a bit while my Italian coworkers fed me espresso until I was ultimately sent home early with the promise that there would be more for me to do tomorrow. I was so unbelievably jacked on caffeine that I went home and ran 5 miles. That never happens to me. What a day. Jas and I watched Baby Mama that night. Good times.

Thursday, March 9th On Thursday, I had a more productive day at Mercato. The day flew by and that was ideal because afterwards I met up with Will and none other than Brian Schlaff at the Tate. We went to a delightful pub on the South bank of the Thames called the Founder’s Arms, had a few beers, and ate dinner. After we ate, we headed to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, which is one of the oldest pubs in London and it’s essentially a maze. There was sawdust on the floor, and different rooms with hidden bars. I’d never been in it before, and I’d been meaning to, so I’m glad that we went! It was just really nice to see Brian and hang out with my friends. After that we went home and just hung out and planned some more stuff to do that weekend.

Friday, March 10th In the morning, I made breakfast with Will and Brian just like old times. We scrambled up some eggs with toast and it was lovely. Shortly after that, I headed off to my internship for another day. It was just fine, again. Did some spreadsheet stuff. I genuinely can’t remember. I probably won’t go I into much depth about my day-to-day at my internship on this blog, because I already have to write a lot about it for both my Internship seminar and the hundred of job applications that I’m working on. After my internship I hurried back to the flat, changed, and then went to Camden to grab dinner at Brewdog with Will and Brian.

I had a very delicious Pale Ale and a chicken sandwich that was cleverly named Cluck Norris. Then the three of us did the Camden Pub Crawl, and it was really fun. In the middle of it we decided that we would try to facetime our friends from hope and that went about as well as you think it would. We ended up at a club/venue called KOKO and there was the most atrocious white rapper playing there that night so we left pretty quickly. We got pizza (I had half on one, each of the boys had almost 2 haha) and went home.

Saturday, March 11th On Saturday morning we rose from the dead, went to Borough Market, and ate the whole world. It ended up working out that each of us bought something to share with the group, in addition to our own meals. First we had a veggie pie from the Pieminister, then we had some fried balls of ginger and dough and onions I think, and then we had some spinach and ricotta ravioli. I ended up with a grilled cheese on my own, and I also bought a donut. Am I proud of all this? Maybe.

From there, we walked to Somerset House to see the Courtald Gallery, which has a few really neat impressionist paintings including the self-portrait of Van Gogh after he mutilated his ear. We spent about an hour there and it was cool, I had no idea that it was there. We also grabbed some coffee.

Then, we walked to Trafalgar Square and got on the tube to head up to Regent’s Park. We took a nice walk around – it was a gorgeous day – and ended up at Primrose Hill. Will saw an ice cream truck and just about flew into the sun with excitement, so we did that. The ice cream dude asked us where we were from, and we said the states. Thus began the regular conversation of “Ugh, Trump haha” and then we say “Ugh, yeah.” and then he says, “We have Brexit though so we’re not doing too well either.” = this entire conversation is one that I’ve had probably every time I make small talk with a British person. Anyway, we told him that we didn’t vote for Trump and he gave us a deal on the ice creams. Then we climbed to the top and sat down for about an hour.

From Primrose hill, we bopped down to Brick Lane to get some curry for dinner, which was actually a lot more touristy than I expected. I guess at this point it’s kind of well established as a good place to get for Indian food. Then we walked farther into Shoreditch to grab a beer before we headed back to the flat. We had a chill night, and watched The World’s End, which is an Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg movie about an apocalypse pub-crawl. It was really something.

Sunday, March 12th What a magical day!!! I woke up and went to Brixton for the very first time with Will and Brian. We went to the market and grabbed some delicious brunch, which was lovely. We meandered around there for a bit afterwards and went into a few stores. Naturally we went to go see the David Bowie mural and got some coffee. Then we headed to Westminster, so Brian could take some tourist photos with Big Ben as one does. This is when I had to say bye to my dearest best pal because I was going to the Harry Potter Studio tour that afternoon. It was v sad and I won’t see him until probably August. So that was a bummer.

When I got back to the flat, I had a quick snack because I didn’t know the next time I’d be eating. Me, Bri, and Nat were all super jazzed and got on the bus to the tour. I wore my Hufflepuff scarf.

I love the Studio Tour. It was really nice to be able to go again and kind of pay attention to things I didn’t see the first time and what not. I shed a few tears; I’ll be real, but not as many as the first time. The Hogwarts express wasn’t there the last time I went, and that was really emotional. It was really amazing and I had a great time flopping around the studio and drinking some butterbeer .I had to practice a lot of self-control in the gift shop but I still went a little crazy, mostly on gifts for other people. On the way home we were subjected to Pitch Perfect 2 being played on the coach screens, which was less than ideal.

I got home and had a granola bar before I quick-changed and headed to Embankment with Jas’ friend Maggie, because we were all going to see Francis and the Lights! It was an impulse thing that we bought tickets for earlier in the week. But wow, I’m so glad we went. He was amazing, and put so much energy into it, he was dancing everywhere. He was also really genuine. I felt great after that, and it was just so good. Wow. Overall, this was one of my favorite days.

Monday, March 13th Alternatively, Monday just ended up being a Bad Day™ and there was nothing I could do about it. I woke up and hung around the flat until we had a check-in lunch with our UW program director at Comptoir Lebanais, which is a Lebanese food chain. It was pretty nice and I had a falafel wrap. After that I don’t really know what happened. It was pretty nice outside, but I just got into a little bit of a funk and almost didn’t make it to my Internship seminar. I didn’t feel like doing anything and it made me a smidge guilty because I should always be taking advantage of my time here. I dunno. I went grocery shopping after class to pick up the essentials. Went to bed early.

Tuesday, March 14th On Tuesday morning, I woke up and went to Richmond for my BLC class. It was nice, but we walked around for maybe 45 minutes and my professor didn’t say much, so that felt a little pointless. I went home for lunch, and then went to my Archives class; we gave presentations that day. I led my group this week and talked about maps like the crazy geo-person that I am, but it was actually fun to talk about something that I am really interested in. Then I went home and made dinner.

In an interesting turn of events, my friend Hannah from high school (she was on foreign exchange from Norway) is studying and living in London right now. I met her for a drink at a rooftop bar called the Queen of Hoxton and it was a really, really nice time. It was refreshing to talk to someone that I met such a ~long~ time ago and we probably hung out for almost 4 hours. If I were in Europe for longer, I for sure would’ve visited her in Oslo! I’m bummed that I couldn’t.

 Wednesday, March 15th & Thursday, March 16th Honestly, all I did on these days is go to work and come home, make dinner, do homework, go to bed. Having this internship is really nice and it’s one of the main appeals of this program, but at the end of the day it’s hard to squeeze every bit of time out of every day to adventure and do fun stuff.

Friday, March 17th Another day of internshipping! When I got home I met up with my friend Grace, who is studying in the Netherlands this semester and visited London for a weekend! We know each other form ye olde Geography Club and we’ve had a bunch of classes together. We hung out for a bit in my flat because she’d been out all day with all of her stuff, since I had my internship. Then, we went to a pub because St. Patrick’s Day, and I had a Guinness. We were wiped, though, so we went back and went to bed.

Saturday, March 18th On Saturday, we woke up and walked down High Street Kensington to get a quick bite before we went to the Design Museum. We got tartes and they were great, and then hung around the museum for a bit. I’d been before with my art class, but it was a little mobbed from all of us, so it was cool to be able to see all the interactive parts of the exhibit. From there, we took the tube to Camden and went to eat some viral content at Chin Chin (that’s the marshmallow - covered hot chocolate place that’s all over Facebook). It was pretty good and super rich. We met up with another one of Grace’s friends, and split up there because I was going to a tiny ticketed festival in Shoreditch with Jasmine and Sarah, and she had a ticket to see an exhibit at the Southbank center. I hung around the market for a bit more and ate some real food for the first time that day.

Then, I met up with Jas, Sarah, Kenzie, and Jono in Shoreditch. We went to the festival day party thingy and got some onion rings and beers. It was in the middle of a roundabout, which was interesting. We also slid into the Bounce bar, which is just full of Ping-Pong tables, and Jasmine went rogue and stole a bunch of paddles. Then, we went over to Marylebone for a Badger watch party of the basketball game. I met up with Grace there. It was actually a ton of fun; I had some food and hung out with people from our program and a ton of alumni that are living in London. Of course, it was really nice that we won. I was incredibly wiped after that day though, so we went back and went to bed. 

Sunday, March 19th Grace woke up super early and Sunday morning to fly to Paris, and I laid in bed for quite a bit. Around noon, I went to Trafalgar Square for the St. Patrick’s Day Festival with Jas, Sarah, and Bridget. We had a pint of Guinness and even some Guinness cake, which really didn’t taste that much like Guinness. We watched some live music, parts of the parade, and some Irish dancers. We even saw Sadiq Khan (the mayor) speak, which was really cool. After we hung around there for a bit, we walked to Covent Garden and got pizza at Homeslice in Neal’s Yard. Everybody else went home after that, but I went back to the British Museum, which now that I’m thinking about it, will probably be the last time I go to the British Museum on this trip. I went home and made dinner later that night, and hung out in the flat.

Part 2 of 2 coming soon, ladies and gentlemen.

[mirkwoodshewolf]

One vision recording; Queen x reader

*Author’s note*

Hey all okay so since I’m completing my final semester at college, I thought that since I’ve got some time off until tomorrow I’ll give you guys a special treat. For I have in store and ready to go TWO chapters of the Rock Angel at the ready. I just completed this one today and I’ve had the next one I’ll post up done for awhile. 

Also I want to say that the song I have written for this specific chapter is just how I envisioned the song. I KNOW IT DOESN’T RHYME CAUSE I SUCK AT RHYMING THINGS. So please no hating on the song. And as inspiration for this chapter, for those who do know or may not know the One vision documentary, just have a watch of that and just imagine you reader-chan as being apart of the workings of One Vision. Happy reading my beauties :)

Taglist:

@psychosupernatural

@plethora-of-things

@ixchel-9275

@onebigfangirlworld

@waddles03

@platawnic

@geek-and-proud

@coolcxt

@queendeakyy

@mr-badguymercury

@naturalswifty89

@queens-rose-garden

@starswin

@dj-lowkey

@labessieisallama

@5sos-wdw

@isabella-bby

______________________________________________________

*Sept. 2nd, 1985. Munich, Germany*

Seven months pregnant and here I am in Germany. Now I know most of you are probably thinking ‘Woman why aren’t you at home?’ ‘Didn’t you ask for maternity leave?’ And to answer that, yes I did but I only had a few more songs to record on my newest album ‘Mother Love’.  I wanted to make sure my last album was perfect before my maternity leave in the next 2 months.

Right now my tummy looked like it was going to pop as Jack and I had taken the 9hr train ride from London to Munich since at this point I could no longer fly anymore without causing any harm to the baby.

I was told the Munich studio had better equipment and better sounding for what I was looking for in this album so here I am at the Musicland studios.

Currently I was in the process of recording my next song “Through and through (a Mother’s love is eternal)”.

“Alright Rock Angel, you said you wanted a full run of this song?” asked the sound engineer Mack.

“Yes. I wanna try to get this song done in one go. I’ve gotta meet with the Munich zoo by 6pm to do the filming shots Beck needs for the music video.”

“Alright, this is Rock Angel’s ‘Through and through’ take one. Full run through.” I heard Mike’s voice speak as I placed the headphones over my ears and I heard the vocalization of the soft choir before I heard the piano playing.

I counted the beats and began singing the song.

*First verse*

They say I am the mirror of the

Woman you once were.

But each day that passes, I forget day by day.

The feel of your arms, the smell of your hair,

And the presences of your warmth.

I’ve suffered the loss of you for oh too long.

For growing up,

Without a mother’s love and care.

I fear you’ve gone and left me,

At the moment of your untimely parture.

*Chorus*

A Mother’s love is eternal

Even as time passes by

Torn between life and the light of heaven’s gate

Even through all the grief

I somehow still felt your love.

For a Mother’s love is eternal

Through and through.

*Second verse*

I just wish you were still here by my side.

Cause I don’t know how to be the mother you were to me.

I wish I could hear your voice in my mind,

But all I hear is the sounds of the wind.

How were you when you were in my place?

Was there ever any spark of fear or doubt?

To be the greatest Mother

Your child had ever known.

         The piano took over for the brief break and I counted down in my head the beats till I came in once again.  This time I could feel my hormones acting up once again as this verse was the hardest for me to write.

*2nd Chorus*

Ooo but a Mother’s love is eternal

Even through all the struggles you face.

It’ll drain every ounce within you.

Make you bleed, and scream and cry.

But even through the pain,

The love is worth it in the end

For a Mother’s love is eternal

Through and through.

As the break happened once more with the lute guitar and piano I could feel the tears in my eyes.  Then I just let go as I gave this final verse my all, even allowing some tears to fall down my face by the end.

*Final verse*

Yeah!

A Mother’s love is eternal.

And I vow to do my best

Cause a Mother’s love is eternal

So never forget my child

I may stay, I may go

But no matter what the future brings

A Mother’s love is eternal

Through and through.

Through and through.

This song was very special to me.  Because it not only spoke for my fear and doubt of going into motherhood for the first time, but I also wrote this in honor of my mum who I wish could still be here to help me through raising my first child.

So singing this song was definitely emotional for me and with my pregnancy my hormones were kicked into overdrive as I could even feel tears fall down my face, especially once I got to the final chorus.

Shakily exhaling and wiping away the tearstains from my cheeks.  I looked up to the ceiling almost as if asking for my mum’s strength to just help me get over this.  It was then I heard an applause from the other side of the recording booth.  I looked up and saw my boys all standing there, all of them with tears brimming in their eyes.

“My lovely Rock Angel, you once again have broken my heart with your angelic voice.” Freddie said speaking into the mic. I took the headphones off of my head and walked out of the booth.  I opened the door and the moment they saw me, they were just in awe.

“Oh lovie. I swear every time we see you, it’s like you’re glowing more and more every day.” Roger praised as he came up to me and took my hands in his gently swaying them side to side.

“It’s like you’re brighter than the stars in the sky.” Brian said.

“What I feel like is a balloon about to pop.” I said irritated. They awed at me as Roger leaned his forehead against mine and he said.

“You do not, you’re carrying precious cargo in there. Dominque, Veronica and Chrissie all went through it. Mary’s going through it, and even if you did look like a balloon then you’re the cutest balloon out there.” I grinned mockingly at him and said.

“Thanks for trying dad.” He grinned and pecked my cheek.

“So I heard a little rumor that you all are involved with a movie?”

“Yeah we were asked by the director Russell Mulcahy to do some of the music for film. Originally we were asked to do one song but after viewing what they’ve got so far we had to do more.” Explained Brian.

“What’s the film called again?” I asked and that’s when Deacy answered.

“Highlander.”

“Ahh, well I can’t wait to see what you all have done. And now I leave you guys to record your songs now.”

“Ohh can’t you stay for a while and help us, like the old days (y/n) darling?” Freddie begged.

“I wish I could but I’ve got to get this song over to the Munich zoo so that I can get some footage for the music video for this song.”

“Getting some animal footage?”

“Yeah Bri. And no worries Rog I’m not going near any big cats or bears if that’s what you’re worried about.” I said already looked at the worry in his eyes.

“Care to give us an idea what the music video will be about?” asked Deacy like a kid trying to bride their parent getting a cookie before supper.

“Spoilers Brother mine.” I mocked as I playfully gripped him under the chin.  I then took notice of his new hairstyle, which was much shorter, kinda like how I first met him but slightly different. “You know I kinda miss the fluffy afro look on you.” I teased.

“Haha hilarious sister dear.” He playfully pinched my nose.  I pushed his hand away and continued to tease.

“But I guess there’s only room for one poodle man of Queen.” I looked towards Bri who gave me a playful glare which caused Freddie and Roger to laugh.

“Alright (y/n) it’s ready.” Mack said as he held a tape for me.  I took it from him and thanked him as I gave him a friendly peck on the cheek.

“But if you guys are still here tomorrow I could pop by and see how you all are getting along.”

“We’ll be here at 9am sharp when the studio opens, I could pick you up at your hotel.” Said Roger.

“Perfect, I’ll see you at around 8ish?” he nodded and I saluted the guys goodbye.  As I was just about to walk up the stairs that would lead me back up to the main floor of the studio, I felt someone come up behind me and ask.

“Need a hand?” I smiled softly and said.

“Always to the rescue, ehh papa lion?”

“Just need to make sure our future lioness cub will be okay. Her mum can be reckless sometimes.” I scoffed in playfully offense.

“And you’re not?”

“Well……”

“Uh-uh-uh-uh-uhh yeah that’s what I thought.” I said as the two of us walked up the stairs.  Then I had to address the elephant in the room, “And how do you know it’ll be a girl? Not even Jack and I know what our baby’s gender is.”

“I just have a feeling. Good sense of rhythm. Loves Queen music, especially Radio gaga, to which you said was the first time she had started becoming active. I have a feeling she’ll be just like her mother in every practically perfect way.”

“You’re just not wanting the baby to look like Jack are you?”

“Now that is not true.” I just rolled my eyes at him as we finally reached the top.  “In all seriousness though love, please be careful during the video shooting. Please.” He pressed his hand to my cheek and I nuzzled into his palm as I felt his calloused thumb stroke my cheek.

“Don’t worry Rog. I’ve signed all the agreements and I’ve got the best zookeepers to keep an eye on me while we get some of the interactions. There’s only one animal who will need to be watched over, other than that I’m holding a small ape in my arms most of the time.”

“Okay, just don’t go near any lions alright?”

“Don’t worry Rog, you’re the only lion I go near.” He hummed a chuckle before leaning his forehead against mine.

“You’re an even sassier woman when you’re pregnant did you know that?” I grinned cheekily and kissed his nose and said.

“I’ll see you tomorrow dad.”

“Till then my beautiful mama lioness.” He gave me one final kiss to the forehead before I went to sign myself out of the studio and hailed a cab over to take me to the Munich zoo.

A full afternoon into early evening shooting later, I was back at the hotel room with Jack and he said.

“I think the filming went well.”

“Yeah, that mama elephant really was tender towards me. Guess she knew the both of us were in the same boat together.”

“I can’t wait to see how it all comes together.”

“Me too, now we’ll just need to wait for the National Geographic to get back with some of those other footages I asked for.” I lay down on the bed and Jack lay down beside me.

“Now you said Roger will be here around 8ish?”

“Yeah, do you wanna stay here and see the boys record their new song?”

“As much as I love too I can’t. Someone’s gotta book our flight back to the states from London. When do you think you’ll be done?”

“I don’t know. You know how much of a perfectionist Freddie is. But I’m told they’ve already recorded some of the song and now they’re just trying to get all the clever bits into it.”

“So hopefully it won’t take too long.”

“Here’s hoping.” He flipped the lights off encasing our room into total darkness and I felt him wrap his arm around my lower abdomen almost like he was protecting our baby and I felt him kiss my neck lovingly.

“Goodnight my mama lioness.”

“G’night daddy lion.” And with that the two of us fell asleep together.

The next morning I woke up to see a note from Jack saying that he was already in bound for England. That he had gotten the first train ticket back to get all our stuff back home packed and call the airlines to get a special accommodations for us on our one way trip back to LA.

I got around, ate some breakfast and when I left the main lobby I saw Roger standing beside a cabby.  He waved to me and I waved back and he allowed me in first before he climbed in and told the driver to head for the studio.  

Once we got there it was time to go straight to work, just like the old days when I was still an intern with Miami.

As the minutes ticked by, Mack stepped out leaving Rog, Brian, Fred and I to discuss some lyrics for the middle part of their song “One Vision”.

“Well I mean ‘one goddamn something decision’ is good, I like that.” Suggested Roger.

“No, no well—” Brian began humming the tune trying to put the words to the rhythm of the song and continued, “No it doesn’t work.”

“It won’t fit.” Freddie argued.

“Yes it does.” Roger then sung out the rhythm of how he imagined the words.  Freddie closing his eyes trying to hear what Roger was saying as Brian and Rog continued to mutter the tune.

“What about real decision?” I suggested as I twirled a pencil between my fingers.

“No, no darling it won’t fit. See it goes….” he then began singing the tune and I nodded and said.

“I know. What I’m saying is what if you do, ‘one flesh, one bone one real decision’.” Freddie looked to me and he said.

“I like that.”

“I agree, it fits.”

“Alright fine, can’t argue with her.” I grinned at Roger.  As we continued to debate of lyrics, I talking with Brian and Freddie while Roger was quietly writing.

“And I mean it is awfully nice, but it’s—it’s sorta…..it’s risky.” Freddie warned.

“Well you have been known to take risks haven’t you Fred?” I came back at him.  He ruffled my hair making me chuckle and Brian said.

“So it’s ba-bum, ba-bum, ba-bum, ba-ba-bum.” Brian muttered out as Freddie joined him on the tune.  I looked at Brian’s lyric sheet to see what we’ve got as Roger piped in.

“How about this?”

“I mean it’d be cool if you could somehow mold this entire verse into like—one sentence.”

“Yes darling I completely agree, we need to try and get all these lyrics into one solid formation.” Freddie said as he leaned over between Brian and I.

“Like it’s an actual story.”

“What about that?” Roger suggested.  I took his lyric sheet and read over it as Freddie was going over the tune once again.

“Ohh Freddie, Freddie Freddie-o let’s go with Rog’s verse.” He then came over and spoke out Roger’s lyrics.

“Made one true religion. Yeah that’s good. That’s nice.”

“I think we should also but ‘true vision’ in there somewhere.” Suggested Roger.

“No, no I don’t think that fits. I mean ‘one true religion’ is one thing but ‘one true vision’ is another. And I don’t think it fits.” I said skeptically.

“It fits lovie.”

“Oh yeah sing it then.” I then clapped the rhythm as Roger began muttering the tune before finally softly singing out while looking at me with those baby blue eyes of his.

“One true vision.” At that point all of us laughed.

“Of course it fits like that!” exclaimed Freddie sarcastically.  All of us laughing as Roger continued to brag.  I ran my fingers through his hair as I leaned against his shoulder still laughing.

“I mean you stopped and—he was still looking for the next word.” Brian said through his laughter.

“Darling a complete idiot!” joked Freddie.

“Oh my god Rog you’re unbelievable.” I sighed as I tried to calm myself down.

“Ahh but you love me for it.” He teased as he leaned his head against my shoulder and I pressed my head on top of his.

The day continued to go on and now the boys were starting to record some more of the song.  I sat with Mack behind the sound mixer as all four of my boys proceeded to record the new bits or just improve some lyrics.  Of course I lost it as Freddie actually sang ‘one dump, one turd, two tits, John Deacon.’

As Freddie continued to improve the lyrics and pull words out of his arse I couldn’t help but think this song was going nowhere but yet it somehow did work cause Freddie just made it hilarious. Mack placed his head along the console and groaned.

“Is there no end to this?”

“Mack, you don’t know the half of it.” I dragged on as we watched the boys continue to record.

The next day we were now getting in just the bass parts and some of Freddie’s vocals.  I was outside along the consoles sitting next to Mack as Deacy was actually outside holding his bass wearing the headphones as he played his bass for part of the song where the bass could truly shine in the song.

Deacy was playing and bopping his head like a chicken, something I like to call the Deacy-chicken head-bop when his head gets into the rhythm but not his body. Mack leaned into my and whispered in my ear.

“And Fred said it was to be all that?”

“Yeah that’s what he told me.”  He nodded and made sure to note that down.  Once Deacy was done, he tucked one of the earmuffs of the headset and said.

“And then we just add the guitar bit?”

“No it’s….meant to be all that?” Mack responded as he pointed to Deacy’s bass.

“Oh it’s meant to be all that? No guitar vibrato at all?”

“Fred said that by the end of that the bass was gonna take over that part of verse.” I explained as I leaned against the chair and gently swayed it from side to side.  He nodded and that’s when I felt a kick to my stomach and I moaned softly as I stopped swaying and held my stomach.  “You okay?”

“Yeah she just kicked. Guess she still don’t like gentle swaying. Last week when Jack tried to slow dance with me back at the hotel after a stressful day, she wouldn’t stop kicking me. Guess she’s not gonna be much of a slow dancer.” He grinned and said.

“Michael was the same way, as was Joshua. So the baby’s been actively kicking?”

“Oh yeah, mostly when Queen songs are playing, I think they’re ready to meet you guys.”

“Well we can’t wait to see who the future munchkin’s gonna be. And you said you wanted it to be a surprise right?”

“Yeah, after Kelly’s story I’d rather not go through in having to either return or sell all the wrong gender stuff and waste my money buying new stuff when I already need to get the main supplies like food, diapers and all that baby proof stuff.”

“Well you know Veronica and I can donate some of the babyproof stuff to you guys to use.”

“You’d seriously do that?”

“Yeah, we’re gonna hold off having children for a bit. Now that Joshua is walking a bit more we don’t need most of his old baby proofing stuff, he’s not as curious as his brothers are so we’re good to go.”

“Thanks Deacy.”

“You’re welcome (n/n).”

Now it was Freddie’s turn to get behind the booth and do some vocal recording.  He wanted to do the voice split since he had already done the low vocalizations of the ‘whoa, whoa, whoa’s’, he wanted to now do a high range of those.

“Mack, Mr. Beach is on the phone he wants to discuss with you some business matters of the song.” One of the assistants said peeking in through the door.  He groaned because he knew he couldn’t leave since Fred was about to do the recording and he didn’t really trust anyone else to work his consoles.

“You go on ahead Mack, I’ve got this.” I told him.

“You sure you got this?” he asked me wearily.

“Absolutely, who do you think helped them edit ‘Don’t try suicide’.”

“Let her at it Mack dear. Like us, she knows how to work those keys. Work your magic darling and don’t make me sound like shit.”

“No promises Fred.” I teased as I spoke into the mic.  He playfully flipped me off and I told Mack to go on and talk to Miami.  He nodded and then left the booth and headed towards the lounge room to talk with Miami.  “Okay Fred so where do you want to go first?”

“Take me to the second part of the second track my lovely angel.” I pressed a couple buttons and heard Freddie’s voice play through the system and I watched him count the beats by squeezing his fingers into his palms, like he was operating a pump before finally going into the ‘whoa, whoa’s’.  However they both were in the high range so he immediately stopped and he said.  “No, no darling it’s the wrong part, take me back to the first track.”

“Yeah sorry about that.” I rewound the tape and pressed the play and I heard Fred’s voice sing out, ‘One religion. One man, one soul one god religion.’ He then proceeded to record the right now and as I heard both low and high ranges mold together, it sounded better.  When that was done he asked me.

“How was that?”

“Sounds great Fred.” I told him.

“You’re not just saying that because it’s me right?”

“No Mr. Perfectionist.” I drawled out.

“Don’t take that tone with my little missy.” He teased.  I playfully stuck my tongue out at him and fast forwards the tape. “Okay so the next track are we gonna do the second track or the first track?”

“Well according to Mack’s notes he wants to go to the first track.”

“Okay then darling fire away.” I then played the track and watched the master at work once more.

I bopped my head to the rhythm and couldn’t help but admire such talent.  I’ve always admired Freddie’s voice and I just can’t believe how lucky I was to be mentored by the best singer of my generation, I owe him everything and I hope we can continue this partnership till the end of our days.

The ‘One vision’ recording continued for another day till finally at almost 2 o’clock the song was complete.  All the editing and wiring of placing each sound in the right order was done and now Queen had their next hit single in the works.

I was just about to head back to my hotel to rest up since I had been working so hard and waking up so early to help the guys.

“And where do you think you’re going darling?” Freddie asked me.  I looked up to see all four of them looking at me.

“Uhh back to my hotel, why?”

“You’re not staying for the after party?” Fred continued to say.

“Well Fred, I—haven’t really been a party person since the pregnancy. People kept offering me drinks and I couldn’t cause of munchkin here.”

“I’ll ensure you get some water or juice. Please darling everyone whose involved with this song is invited, plus all of our crew on tour. And you’re still counted as apart of Team Queen.” Begged Freddie as he came up and kneeled before my groveling.  I turned to the other three for help but they just looked at me with that ‘might as well indulge him love’ look.

“I don’t know Freddie……” I sighed before he interrupted me.

“Even if it’s for a couple of hours. You don’t have to stay for the whole thing. You’ve helped us a lot with this song and it’d be wrong not to invite you when we know the truth.” I looked at him and cupped the side of his face.

“If you stop with those puppy dog eyes of yours I’ll go.” He cheered and immediately shot up before kissing my cheek and said as he proudly strutted out of the booth.

“Let’s go my darlings!” I shook my head.

“If it’s so hard to say no to that man, I can’t imagine how hard it’ll be to say no to my own kid.”

“You’ll learn love.” Deacy said as he wrapped an arm around me.

“Fred is just on a whole other degree of spoiled. He’s even worse than a toddler if he doesn’t get his way.” Said Brian.  We all then followed him and headed over to Queen’s hotel which surprisingly was just a couple blocks away from my hotel and proceeded with the after party.

There was food, press, drinks and hundreds upon hundreds of people gathered around to celebrate another hit record song made by Queen.  

I was sitting outside near the pool trying to get away from the crowds when I saw Brian come out from the pool.  And god had I not spent as much time around these boys as I have, I wouldn’t have recognized him because now his full on curly hair was all flat along his face from the chlorine.

“Have a nice dip, drip?” I said as I threw him a towel.

“It was refreshing.” He said as he began to dry his hair. “You doing okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine. Just trying to avoid getting my bump smashed or hit by someone in the crowd in there.”

“I get it. Especially when a few have had one to many drinks, they’d end up falling right over in total disregard to anyone’s safety.”

“Yeah which would cause Rog to turn full papa lion and kill the person who’d bump into me if the fall didn’t.” he chuckled knowing that that statement was true.  I placed a grape into my mouth and chewed on it as I said, “Plus I don’t want press finding me.”

“They’ve been giving you trouble?”

“Well not here here. But—insecurities and all that.” He sighed and said as he came over my pool chair and began to rub my shoulders.

“You remember what I’ve told you about your looks right?”

“Well Bri, some press are kind to me but one magazine sure wasn’t. It was….back in the early stages of my pregnancy. Some sexist arsehole took a photo of me and Jack shopping for groceries and printed out in bold print ‘ROCK ANGEL GAINING WEIGHT!? Young adult artist putting on several pounds as she struts with husband Jack Kline looking like she swallowed a beachball.’ Luckily thanks to Miami and with the release of my pregnancy announced, we sued the bastard and got him fired but—I can’t imagine what the press here would say seeing me now like this.” I felt Brian kiss the top of my head.

“They need to realize that you are creating something that none of those bastards can. You are in the final stage of giving life to a whole new person. That’s something that most press and paparazzi’s can’t do. And if we had heard of this incident months ago, you can be sure the lads and I would’ve found that publicist and gladly gave him a talking to.”

“Oh I know what your ‘talking to’ implies Bri. Especially if Rog is the ringleader.” He leaned his head against mine and said.

“Some men can be bastards, especially to female celebrities and singers. But just know that you’ve got five men who think you are an absolute vision.” I smiled and placed my hand on top of his right hand.

“How come you always know what to say to help me feel better Bri?”

“Could be my cleverness.” I looked up at him with my best Deacy funny look and he just smiled at me softly laughing.

“You are so full of shit you know that spaceman?”

“Sometimes, but at least I got you distracted from your body insecurity, right?”

“That you did.” He stroked down my cheeks much like how you would a dog before he pecked my nose and pressed his forehead against mine.

When party was over by nightfall, I grabbed my bag when Mack came in and he said.

“(Y/n), your husband’s on the phone for you.” I followed behind him and he handed me the phone and I said.

“Hey Jack, how did booking the flight go?”

‘Not good I’m afraid.’

“Why? What’s going on?”

‘Well I explained to the airfare about your pregnancy so they asked me how far you were along. And apparently they can’t fly us back since you’ve entered your third trimester.’

“What!? Why not!?”

‘They said it just poses as a greater risk for the health of the baby.’

“Well what are we gonna do? We can’t go back to the hotel because the press finally got whiff of where we were and almost made me go into premature labor with their constant hounding, Dr. Williams is in LA with all our medical records, and we can’t afford to stay in that small motel room with the baby!”

‘I know baby, we’ll figure it all out. Just calm down okay, you’re stressing again.’ I took a few deep breaths. ‘That’s my girl. Are you and the boys done yet?’

“Yeah. We just finished. We’re gonna head to the train station and get on the next train back to London.”

‘Okay, when you get back we’ll talk about our next plan okay. I promise everything’s gonna be fine.’

“Okay.” I muttered softly.

‘Have safe travels my beauty. I love you.’

“I love you too Jack.” I then hung up the phone and pinched the bridge of my nose as I muttered, “Fucking hell.”

“Everything okay poppet?” I turned to see the boys all looking at me concerned.

“Well if you count being stranded with no other place to go and no doctor knowing of your medical records just 2 months before you go into labor umm….I’d say I’m doing great.” I sighed.

“What are you talking about?” asked Freddie.

“I can’t go back to the states. I’ve gone over to my 3rd trimester and they won’t let me fly back.”

“Now correct me if I’m wrong but did I hear you say that the press almost made you go into premature labor?” questioned Roger. I nodded and said.

“Yeah, I don’t know how they found me but they came out of nowhere and just ambushed me while I was coming home from shopping. I nearly had a panic attack from all the hormones and anxiety of my pregnancy.”

“Those fucking leeches. It’s bad enough they stalk every famous face but to ambush a first time mother, it’s unforgivable.” Freddie sighed angrily.

“I just don’t know what to do guys. We’ve got nowhere to go now.”

“Not true, you can stay with Dominque and I. We can set up one of the spare bedrooms into a nursery, we still got Felix’s old crib that can be refurbished.” Roger said as he came up and took my hands in his. I smiled and said.

“Oh Rog, thank you for the offer but we can’t do that to you and your family.”

“It’s no trouble. No one knows where my house is, and it’ll be nice for Felix to have a little playmate for a while.”

“Actually there is another place you could stay at.” Suggested Brian.  I turned to him and he continued, “I’m still kinda in the works of moving some stuff around but, just recently I bought a house up in Surrey that acts as my home studio. It’s got 2 bedrooms, 2 loos, and plenty of space for a baby. At least until you can fly back to the states with her.”

“Ohh Brian I…..I couldn’t ask that of you.”

“It’s no trouble at all love, really. You need a private place to relax in your final days before your maternity leave, somewhere where the press cant cause you any stress.” I considered it and said.

“You sure it’s no trouble?”

“I wouldn’t have offered it to you if it was.”

“C’mon love what more do you have to lose?” said Roger. I thought about it some more till I finally said.

“Okay. I’ll call Jack and ask him if it’ll be okay with him.”

“Once we get back to London, I’ll take you both up there so you can see the place.” Brian said as he wrapped his arm over my shoulder.

I called Jack shortly after and told him the news and he agreed to come up to see the place with Brian and I.  We then all took a cab up to our hotels to check out before all heading back to the train station.

After arriving back in London early the next morning, we met Jack at the station and he, Brian and I headed on up to Surrey just a few miles outside of London.

Going through Surrey it felt like we had gone out to the country until finally we came upon a grand castle-like house.

“And here we are.” Brian said as he pulled the car up along the gravel driveway and shut the car off.

“Oh wow Bri, this is—amazing.” Praised Jack.

“Thank you Jack.” We all got out of the car and I just stared at this beautiful ‘private kingdom’.  It had a gorgeous front yard. “So will it do?” I heard Brian ask me as he came up to me.

“Oh it’s big enough for an entire classroom. You sure you don’t mind us staying here for a bit?”

“Of course not I don’t mind at all. C’mon let’s get you two inside.” The boys carried in the luggage and the inside looked even bigger than it did outside.

“Oh wow.” I awed.

“Right bedrooms are right down that hall, kitchen’s just down that way and the studios upstairs. And of course garden is just through those backdoors.” I walked towards the back and I was just in awe at the very large and peaceful garden.

There was nothing but greenery as far as the eye could see, trees surrounding the perimeter, and a beautiful fountain at the center.

“Brian this….this is beautiful.”

“Yeah quite romantic when it comes to getting out of the busyness of the city. The perfect place for you and Jack to relax, and a quaint little place for the future little Kline.” He said as he came up and pressed his hand to my stomach as he mentioned my baby.  I nodded and I said.

“You think we’ll do a good job?”

“I believe you will love. You’ve already had practice with the lads and I.” we both laughed and he continued, “I know first time parenting is frightening. Believe me love everyone’s been there. Anyone who says they weren’t afraid is lying. And if you or Jack need any help, never hesitate to call us for advice or to come over and help out.” I nodded and snuggled my head into his chest.

“Thank you Brian, for everything.”

“I’m always here for you love.” He said as he hugged me and kissed the top of my head.  After doing a bit of unpacking, Brian left Jack and I alone and right now the two of us were out in the garden.

“God this place is even more beautiful than our place. Maybe we should move here to London.” Said Jack.

“You sure?”

“I mean with our baby about to come, plus any other future child we have. Sure we may have a big backyard but American homes hardly have the beauty like England does.” I smiled and said to him.

“Kinda have to agree with that, but I didn’t want to say it at the time. Why must you Americans keep expanding your territory?”

“Greedy bastards wanting more malls and homes. They need to see that having a good countryside backyard is just as beautiful, especially if you use it right.”

“Well let’s just see how raising this child goes first, and if we have anymore then we’ll talk about moving back to England. I know the boys would be thrilled to have me back in England again.”

“Especially Roger.” We both chuckled and I said.

“Roger would probably move into the house with us to ensure that I wouldn’t leave England again.” He sat up from his chair and came over to me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders, his hands placed over my baby bump as he kissed my cheek lovingly.

“I can’t wait to meet our baby.”

“Just 2 more months and they’ll be here.”

“But that’s soo long, can’t they come out now?”

“If you want them premature and unhealthy than sure.”

“Noo!” he whined.

“Then you’ll have to wait. But I do have to ask cause I know the guys are gonna press me on this matter.” He looked to me and I looked up at him, “Whose gonna be the Godfather?”