#indigenous futurisms

[xlelife]

Next on XLE.LIFE's New Terms 2024 list is the very broad arena of Futurisms. I've posted this in two sections so far:

XLE.LIFE: New Terms 2024: Futurisms--Part I: Intro >>

A very brief and loose introduction to futurisms with a similarly loose timeline, in case you've never heard this term in your life!

XLE.LIFE: New Terms 2024: Futurisms--Part II: A List of Emergent Futurisms >>

The more exciting part of the futurisms research--a sprawling, wild list of 235 (and counting) genres of futurisms, including several I've named or predicted. Looking at this list, especially in an array, really makes me feel some type of way. I hope it makes you feel a way also. What a time to be alive.

[enbycrip]

All of this.

Solarpunk *actively* seeks accessibility; not only physical accessibility, although that is an *essential* part of it, but a world which doesn’t penalise disabled people for contributing what we can, whether that is paid or not, where disabled contributions are recognised and valued despite “inconsistency and unreliability”, where communities actively care for and include elderly and disabled members. Solarpunk makes room for learning disabled people to learn and develop skills *they* value and supports autonomy and self-determination while not fetishising an “independence” very few humans ever achieve nor thrive in. Solarpunk actively values the differing perspectives and strengths neurodivergent people bring to community and culture and allows room for different ways of learning, working and living so different people can thrive.

Solarpunk *actively* and inherently values indigenous people, cultures, values and ways of life. Indigenous peoples actively build sustainable communities and cultures for the landscapes and environments they live in. All of humanity is in desperate need of their knowledge and expertise, and desperately owes them respect, sovereignty and self-determination. Solarpunk recognises and celebrates that indigenous cultures exist in the *present* as well as the past and have valuable, essential futures.

Solarpunk is actively multicultural and inclusive, celebrating different cultural traditions and peoples living in communities together. It celebrates closed cultural practices without appropriating and gives as much weight to the human rights of marginalised groups as to majority groups. It celebrates people actively for their skin colours and shades, weight, health or lack thereoff, genders, sexualities and identities.

Solarpunk *actively* seeks to end wealth inequalities and seeks sustainability over growth. It provides basic needs for everyone before more for some, and sees wealth in people, human happiness, and a stable, biodiverse world, not bank balances.

A better world for *everyone*, including the people, and the world, that comes after us.

Remember, a solarpunk future without support for the disabled population is just green-washed ableism.

A solarpunk future that doesn't include (or purposely excludes) Indigenous/PoC populations is just green-washed white supremacy/colonialism.

A solarpunk future that doesn't feed the hungry or house the poor is just green-washed capitalism.

Solarpunk is more than just an aesthetic. It's a hope for a better future for everyone.

[mayasaura]

did you see te pati maori declared independence??

I DID NOT! Holy shit! Thanks for the news!

Okay, now reporting back from one research deep-dive, the recent context as I understand it is this:

Last November, a conservative right-wing Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, assumed office. He's got a lot of less than stellar right-wing policies, and that includes making cuts to the Ministry of Social Development and opposing co-governance with the Waitangi Tribunal and other Māori leadership organisations over the administering of public services such as education, health, and infrastructure. He's been openly critical of Māori seats in Parliament, though he hasn't (yet) opposed them. Over the course of his administration, there's been an initiative to omit or cut mentions of the Treaty of Waitangi, the foundational document of New Zealand that forms the basis of arguments for Māori protections, from official language.

Which brings us to yesterday, May 30th. Budget Day. The day the new administration would announce their first budget and a day of mass action for supporters of te Pāti Māori protesting the treatment of Māori under the new government. I don't have any concrete numbers, but RNZ reports thousands of protestors, while the NZ Herald estimates "tens of thousands" turning out nation-wide, and a walking protest that delayed rush-hour traffic in Auckland for hours.

You may have already guessed that the budget was Bad. As I understand it, the budget effectively cut any kind of targeted funding for Māori health or education, and decreased funding for Māori cultural festivals and celebrations. And again, I cannot stress enough how much I am not an expert on this topic, so there's probably a lot more in there I don't know about.

In response to the new budget, Māori Party MP Rawiri Waititi issued a Declaration of Independence to the New Zealand Parliament, (video of his speech in link) with the support of his fellow te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.

There doesn't seem to be any concrete plan in place yet for the organisation of the new Māori parliament, but MPs Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer met with protestors to collect signatures for the Declaration, which they plan to bring to a hui taumata (meeting of congress) today, Friday, May 31st. The text of the Declaration can be found on te Pāti Māori website, in the form of a petition. You do not have to be Māori to sign, but I believe you do have to be kiwi.

[fatehbaz]

Didn't wanna clog up your post, and these sources are more about relationships of time with space/place, but here's some stuff that I've encountered:

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“Temporal sovereignty”. Contemporary US/Australian claims over time-keeping. Aboriginal/Indigenous time-keeping. The importance of the “time revolution” in the Victorian era to Euro-American understandings of geology and deep past, precipitating nineteenth-century conquest of time (British longitude; Victorian fascination with death, antiquity, paleontology). Mid-twentieth century understanding of “deep time” and its co-option by the Australian state. "Deep time dreaming".

Laura Rademaker. ��60,000 Years is not forever: ‘time revolutions’ and Indigenous pasts.” Postcolonial Studies. September 2021.

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How "time is a form of enclosure". Checkpoints, "baroque processes to apply for permits to travel", fences, incapacity to change residences, and other "debilitating infrastructures" work to "turn able bodies into a range of disabled bodies" by "stretching time". This is a "slow death" and a simultaneous "slowing down of life" because "it takes so long to get anywhere" and "movement is suffocated". Thus "time itself is held hostage". This "suspended state" of anxiety and endless wait-times "wreaks multigenerational psychological and physical havoc". "Checkpoints ensure one is never sure of reaching work on time. Fear of not getting to work then adds to the labor of getting to work [...]. Bodies in line at checkpoints [...] [experience] the fractalizing of the emotive, cognitive, physiological capacities" through a "constant state of uncertainty". "The cordoning of time through space contributes to an overall 'lack of jurisdiction over the functions of one's own senses' [...] endemic to the operation of colonial rule". This "extraction of time" produces a "depleted" and tired person "beholden to the logistics" of administrative apparatuses, community suffers and "communing is thrawted".

Jabir K. Puar. "Spatial debilities: Slow Life and Carceral Capitalism [...]." South Atlantic Quarterly 120. April 2021.

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The "apocalyptic temporality" that presumes extinction. Indigenous Polynesian/Pacific perceptions and ways of being "destabilize the colonial present" and also "transfigure the past" by "contesting linear and teleological Western time". How United States and Europe colonized Oceania for weapons testing and conquest of tropical Edens while rendering local Indigenous people "ungrievable" and "without future". "Pacific time is a layering of oral and somatic memory". Instead of accepting an apocalyptic future or doomsday or nightmare, assert the possibility of a livable future, in spite of "Western temporal closures".

Rebecca Oh. “Making Time: Pacific Futures in Kiribati’s Migration with Dignity, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner’s Iep Jaltok, and Keri Hume’s Stonefish.” MFS Modern Fiction Studies. Winter 2020.

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Colonial "space-time homogenization". The experience of "homogenous, empty time". Orientalist "time lag" and the naturalization of a supposed East-West hemispheric divide. Late Victorian imperial conceptions of temporality. The British establishment of the Greenwich meridian and International Date Line. The influence of British imperial seafaring and cartography on the establishment of time and on European/US feelings towards the Pacific Ocean. How the origin of English science fiction literature, space travel aspirations, and time travel narratives coincided with the Yellow Peril and xenophobia targeting East Asia.

Timothy J. Yamamura. "Fictions of Science, American Orientalism, and the Alien/Asian of Percival Lowell". Dis-Orienting Planets: Racial Representation of Asia in Science Fiction. 2017.

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Imprisonment as time-control. Here “the question of the past the present and the future indeed time itself looms” especially around the prisoner. “The law renders punishment in units of time”, taking away a the right to a future. There are alternative worlds, many of them, which have been practiced and brought into being, which colonization tried to obscure. There is “a whole anthropology of people without future embedded in the assumptions that justify mass imprisonment as poverty management”. "The prison’s logic exterminates time as we know it”. In prison, bodies have been alienated from time and history ... the punishment seems endless ... to “achieve a measure of agency and possibility it is necessary to redeem time”, to refuse the doom, fated to a life of abandonment.

Avery Gordon. “Some Thoughts on Haunting and Futurity.” borderlands. 2011.

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Bursting the Limits of Time: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Revolution (Martin J.S. Rudwick, 2010) explores how the advent of European sciences like geology, preceding the "time revolution" when Europeans experienced revelations about the scale of "deep time", happened alongside and after the Haitian Revolution and other abolitionist movements. French, German, and British naturalists translated the explosion of "new" scientific knowledge from the colonies, so that the metropolitan European audience became a market for historical and scientific "narratives" about how "nature" and time functioned.

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Prartik Chakrabarti's writing on time, temporality, and "the deep past" as British imperial concepts built in conversation with colonial encounters with South Asia. (British Empire reaching such heights in the middle of the nineteenth century at the same time that the newly professionalized sciences of geology were providing revelations about the previously unknown vast scale of "deep time". New colonial anthropology/ethnology also presumed to connect this "primitive" past with "primitive" people.)

See Chakrabarti's "Gondwana and the Politics of Deep Past". Past & Present. 2019.

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We must witness and consider "multiple space-times" to understand how "unfree labour" of plantations was "foundational" to contemporary work, movement, subjugation, health, etc. We must "trace the geneaology of contemporary sovereign institutions of terror, discipline and segregation" [workplaces, imperial/colonial nations, factories, mines, etc.] back in time to plantations. How "the [plantation] estate hierarchy survives in post-plantation" times and places, with the plantation "being a major blueprint of socialization into [contemporary] work". The plantation was "a laboratory for [...] migration regulation in subsequent epochs" that practiced methods of racializing and criminalizing.

Irene Peano, Marta Macedo, and Colette Le Petitcorps. "Introduction: Viewing Plantations at the Intersection of Political Ecologies and Multiple Space-Times". Global Plantations in the Modern World: Sovereignties, Ecologies, Afterlives. 2023.

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“Slow life” and the relationship between “settler colonialism, carceral capitalism, and the modulation of ... registers of time,” including “historical time, the stealing of time through the expansion of labor time, ... and the cordoning off of space through time”. For example, as in occupied zones or at border checkpoints, “the cordoning off of space through time” includes physical architecture like fences and customs, obstacles that impede movement and rhythm, so that “nothing ever happens on time” and there is “a stretching of time”. All the wasted time spent in line, showing papers, waiting for confirmation, etc. “is not a by-product of surveillance, it is the point of surveillance”. Such that “uncertainty becomes a primary affective orientation ... flesh as felt” with a racializing effect“. "This is a biopolitics conditioned through pure capacitation and its metrics”:

Jasbir Puar. In: “Mass Debilitation and Algorithmic Governance” by Ezekiel Dixon-Roman and Jasbir Puar. e-flux Journal Issue #123. December 2021.

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"Starfish time". Indigenous Australian/Aboriginal perceptions of time and "attending to more-than-human agencies of time". Acknowledging the timescales of entire ecosystems, as part of multispecies relationships, a "transcorporeal collaboration". Cyclical time vs linear time. Contrasting timescales experienced by insects that only live a few days and creatures that live for decades. "Starfish may seem to be still" but they slowly move; "larval time" and "the time it takes for eggs to develop and hatch"'. The "immensity of the alterity is literally incomprehensible"; "we can't know what these beings know" but we "should seek respect and be aware of how our lives are entangled".

Bawaka Country including, S. Wright, S.  Suchet-Pearson, K. Lloyd, L. Burarrwanga, R. Ganambarr, M. Ganambarr-Stubbs, B. Ganambarr, D. Maymuru. “Gathering of the Clouds: Attending to Indigenous understandings of time and climate through songspirals.” Geoforum. January 2020.

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The use of calendars, dates, clocks, and industrial/corporate temporality as fundamental to the rise of plantations and financialization in United States/Europe, with a case study of the modern Colombian/Latin American state. Observance of certain dates and strict adherence to specific calendars support "mythologized deeds and heroic retellings" of colonization and industrialization. “The evolution and internalization of disciplined concepts of time” were intimately tied to the rise of wage labor in industrializing England and later during the global ascendancy of work and industrialized plantation monoculture, but the persistence of alternative time should “serve as a reminder that futures and the demarcation of epochs are never as simple as a neatly organized calendar”.

Timothy Lorek. “Keeping Time with Colombian Plantation Calendars.” Edge Effects. April 2020.

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Indigenous people of Alaska and the US control over time management. For the past 50 years, Yupiak people have been subject to US government’s “investment in a certain way of being in time” which “standardized the clock” and disrupted human relationships with salmon. This US management model “anonymized care” and made “a way of attending to the life and death of others that strips life of the social and ecological bonds that imbue it” with resilience and meaning, which “ignores not only the temporality of Yupiaq peoples relations with fish, but also the human relations that human-fish relations make possible”. This disregards “the continuity of salmon lives but also the duration of Yupiat lifeworlds ... life is doubly negated” ... “futures depend on an orientation to salmon in the present”.

William Voinot-Baron. “Inescapable Temporalities: Chinook Salmon and the Non-Sovereignty of Co-Management in Southwest Alaska.” July 2019.

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"Idling" and "being idle" as a form of reclaiming agency and life. Case studies of fugitive Blackness in Caribbean plantation societies. “Disruptive waiting”. “The maroon’s relationship to time challenges [both] the totalizing time of the modern state, but also the [...] narratives to negotiate struggle in the [...] present" in "antagonistic relationship with colonial power". Defying the “European narrative of modernity”. Refusing to be productive.

Amanda Lagji. “Marooned time: disruptive waiting and idleness in Carpentier and Coetzee.” Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies. March 2018.

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Indigenous futures. "It is important to remember that some futures never went anywhere" and "yet they survive. These are futures suppressed and cancelled by colonial power." These are "parallel futures". "Colonial power must control the past so as to deny the emergence of" an alternative future; "colonial power creates a future in advance so that no others will take its place". Poor, racialized, Black, Indigenous people manifest alternative futures.

Pedro Neves Marques. "Parallel Futures: One or Many Dystopias?" e-flux. April 2019.

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The "legacy of slavery and the labor of the unfree shape and are part of the environment we inhabit". The "idea of the plantation is migratory" and it lives on "as the persistent blueprint of our contemporary spatial troubles", so we must seek out "secretive histories" that no longer "rehearse lifelessness".

Katherine McKittrick. “Plantation Futures.” Small Axe. 2013.

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“The temporal dispossession” of Congolese people. There is an “impossibility” of “predictable time” because temporal dispossession “disrupts the possibility of building a future”. Livelihoods/income is driven by market and price fluctuations in United States and Europe tech industries, so “there is an inescapable day-to-day sense of uncertainty”. As Mbembe says, “in Africa, the spread of terror ... blows apart temporal frames”.

James H. Smith. ‘Tantalus in the Digital Age: Coltan ore, temporal dispossession, and “movement” in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.’ American Ethnologist Volume 38 Issue 1. February 2011.

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“Slow death”. Chronic illness not just as a byproduct of colonialism/dispossession, but also as part of its aim, a weapon that debilitates people, who become exhausted. Dooming poor and racialized people to lives “without future” through debility, “a condition of being worn out”. Relationship of illness, lack of healthcare, and debt as functionally incapacitating, a form of death sentence. A “zone of temporality” unfolding unlike abrupt/sudden traumatic events and becoming an inescapable condition.

Jasbir K. Puar. The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability. 2017.

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The extension of poverty, landlessness, homeless, and imprisonment. "To be unable to transcend the horror of such a world order is what hell means", and "without a glimpse of an elsewhere or otherwise, we are living in hell". The utopian is not only or merely a “fantasy of” and for “the future collectivity” but can be claimed and built and lived here, now. There is "no guarantee" of “coming millenniums or historically inevitable socialisms”, no guarantee that “the time is right” one day if we wait just long enough. Instead: "can a past that the present has not yet caught up with be summoned to haunt the present as an alternative?" The "utopian margins", an alternate world crossing time and place, an "imaginative space and temporality to trace the remains of what "was almost or not quite, of the future yet to come", living as if it were the present. Colonialism tried to crush the many headed hydra of the revolutionary Atlantic, those who challenged the making of the modern world system.

Avery F. Gordon. As interviewed by Brenna Bhandar and  Rafeef Ziadah. “Revolutionary Feminisms: Avery F. Gordon.” As transcribed and published online in the Blog section of Verso Books. 2 September 2020. And: Avery Gordon. “Some thoughts on the Utopian.” 2016.

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The US/European "city is the site of regulatory regimes" that try to impose a definitive narrative about history, progress, and possible futures. But it cannot achieve "a wholly Apollonian, seamlessly regulated realm" because the land "continues to be haunted by the neglected, the disposed of, the repressed". The "commodification" of landscapes "circulates an imaginary geography" mediated through advertisements, labels, soap operas, television, etc. which celebrate "sanctioned narratives and institutionalized rhetoric". A "wild zone" of informal spaces, debris. "Ruins are places where the things, people, and "other memories can be articulated". There is "a spectral residue" that "haunts dominant ways of seeing and being". "Alternative stories might be assembled", so that we can respect the people banished to abandonment, the periphery, and reclaim agency.

Tim Edensor. “The ghosts of industrial ruins: ordering and disordering memory in excessive space.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space volume 23. 2005.

Also, how "master narratives of history as progress decompose" when faced with "a continuously remembered past" when "the ghosts of this past rear up in the ruin" to expose "the debris of unprecedented material destruction" of colonialism/empire-building. These "hauntings rupture linear temporality" and recall those people beaten down as "the trash of history". It is "essential to see the things and the people [...] banished to the periphery [...]."

Tim Edensor. "Haunting in the ruins: matter and immateriality". Space and Culture Issue 11. 2002.

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"Many kinds of time" of bacteria, fungi, algae, humans, and "Western colonialism meet on the gravestones". Some creatures, like lichen, are very long-lived and "these temporal feats alert us that modernity is not the only kind of time, and that our metronomic synchrony is not the only time that matters". The "long duree evolutionary rapprochements to the quick boom and bust of investment capital" where "minor forms of space and time merge with great ones". Extinction is "a breakdown of coordinations with reverberating effects". Ghosts remind us that we live in an impossible present, a time of rupture. "Deep histories tumble in unruly graves that are bulldozed into gardens of Progress". "Endings come with the death of a leaf, the death of a city, the death of a friendship".

Elaine  Gan, Anna Tsing, Heather Swanson, and Nils Burbandt. “Introduction: Haunted Landscapes of the Anthropocene.” Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene. 2017.

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Everywhen: Australia and the Language of Deep History. (Edited by Ann McGrath, Laura Rademaker, and Jakelin Troy. 2023.)

Chapters include: "Bugarrigarra Nyurdany, Because of the Dreaming: A Discussion of Time and Place in Yawuru Cosmology" (Sarah Yu et al.); "Songs and the Deep Present" (Linda Barwick); "Yirriyengburnama-langwa mamawura-langwa: Talking about Time in Anindilyakwa (James Bednall); "Across 'Koori Time' and Space (John Maynard)

[cognitivejustice]

Two men who were instrumental in creating a global seed vault designed to safeguard the world's agricultural diversity will be honoured as the 2024 World Food Prize laureates.

Cary Fowler, the US special envoy for Global Food Security, and Geoffrey Hawtin, an agricultural scientist from the UK and executive board member at the Global Crop Diversity Trust, will be awarded the annual prize and split a $500,000 (€464,000) award. In 2004, Fowler and Hawtin led the effort to build a backup vault of the world's crop seeds in a place where it could be safe from political upheaval and environmental changes. 

The facility was built into the side of a mountain on a Norwegian island in the Arctic Circle where temperatures could ensure seeds would be preserved.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault - also known as the 'Doomsday vault' - opened in 2008 and now holds 1.25 million seed samples from nearly every country in the world.

[remixingreality]

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Getting emotional about the salmon run again…

[cimmeria-writes]

for @kataang-week -- day 4: cultural exchange

(ID: a digital drawing of katara and aang from atla. they're wearing clothing from each other's cultures. katara is wearing a yellow chuba with red trim, an orange shirt, a chumpi belt, and boots. she has one necklace with small turquoise beads and one with large yellow beads. aang is wearing a parka with a thick fur hood and black-and-white geometric patterns, and dark blue pants. he also has mittens and large boots on. they're smiling at each other, with pink hearts floating between them.

[alpaca-clouds]

The Stories We Are Missing

I hate Disney. I really do. I hate them, because they are shitty to a lot of workers. I hate them, because they consolidate so many IPs only to then make the most generic stuff with them. I hate them, because they don't invest in new ideas anymore. And I hate them for being such cowards.

However... I will give them credit for producing Iwájú and Kizazi Moto. Two afrofuturist series. Iwájú being one series that actually just tells one story - while Kizazi Moto is an anthology series like Love Death + Robots on Netflix. Well, that is all that it has in common with LD+R is that it is a scifi anthology series. It has less issues with the sexism and racism of LD+R.

And thinking about this has brought me to the one aspect of our lack on Solarpunk media, that I think gets ignored too much. Again, because white people. And this is... Well, the lack of well published afrofuturist and amazofuturist stories - or movies. And I would assume also the equivalent for other indigenous cultures. (I think the name right now is "Pacificafuturism" for the polynesians, I have no idea whether the indigenous people still living in Asia have something along the lines.)

The irony is that I actually think, well... Let's face it: There is a reason why Disney of all people is investing in some Afrofuturist projects. And that reason is that there is a big audience for this stuff. Disney probably just saw how Black Panther was printing money and was like: "I guess we'll make more of that!"

Now what does this have to do with Solarpunk?

Well, I will remind you: Solarpunk originated with Amazofuturism. And futuristic indigenous stories tend to have a lot of Solarpunk vibes at the very least. Not all of those stories will be Solarpunk, no, but even those that are not will offer us things to learn. Because I will say it once again: We really, really do have a big issue in a lot of SciFi/Fantasy that way too white and way too stuck in the storytelling conventions of western society.

And here is the thing: I doubt most people will be able to name a lot of afrofuturist media other than Black Panther, and maybe the series above. Or maybe you actually can think of some novels like the ones from N. K. Jemisin, Octavia E. Butler, or Nnedi Okorafor. But not much more.

Now, in terms of Afrofuturism there is a bit more - but the other things? Most Amazofuturism is only ever published in Portugese or maybe Spanish in some cases. And I am honestly not certain if there is even anything that is not self-published out there in terms of Pacificafuturism. (I mean, I know a few Maori movies that I guess you could consider, but...)

What I am trying to get at: I think we need more indigenous futurism/indigenous scifi. Not only so that we read more that breaks out of western storytelling conventions, I think we also just need other perspectives on the future. Because our western, white perspective is limited - and we got to imagine the future for way too long.

[klmarchandart]

Protect The Future (2025)

[xlelife]

XLE.LIFE: New Terms 2024 continues with #IndigenousFuturism or #IndigenousFuturisms

[crazysnakey]

Don't forget the reason the U.S. is supporting Israel's genocide of Palestine - hell, 90% of the reason they ever get involved into something in the Middle East is for ulterior purposes regarding oil.

That and the Ben Gurion Canal project, which you can learn more about:

Also this short video explaining the canal's significance and full history in summary:

Simply put,

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Charlie Tangaroa and the God of War

book 2 in a middle grade series about a boy whose father is a Ponaturi (sea-goblin)

charlie and his brother are back living their normal lives - until a visiting scientist is stabbed in a local campground, right before a meeting between iwi and the government over local resources

they try to investigate and quickly learn that Whiro, atua of chaos is involved, sowing discord between various groups, and they have to figure out a way to solve things before anyone else gets hurt

cover & illustrations by yours truly!

[pickledpascal]

Hold Me Like Water

Chapter Two: Try On A New Dress

Warnings: sexual innuendo, alcohol consumption, super meta

Word Count: 5.5k

Hold Me Like Water Masterlist

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

May 2014, 

It was the first time Maya would ever be on a talk show. To be fair, she had done quite a few press junkets at this point and even a few mock-interviews as media training but nothing was quite like getting prepared to walk onto the Graham Norton Show. 

She was nervous. Her heart was racing and she was pacing around in her backstage dressing room while Sakari watched. She was getting nervous too from all that pacing around. 

“Take a few deep breaths, hm?” Sakari suggested. She did a breathing motion so that Maya could follow. “There ya go.”

Maya couldn't believe her life. She was getting new offers left and right to be in new films and Days of Future Past wasn't even officially out yet. No longer was she the locally known actress from Nunavut. She had been practically thrust into the spotlight all over the world. It was scary. And exciting. 

Her. A Native American Inuit transgender woman was suddenly a superstar. It was unheard of. Maya just hoped more people like her were going to be brought into the limelight. She wasn't the only talented actor who was a Native or transgender or a woman or all three. She was sure there were more even if she hadn't met them yet. 

Maya stepped out of the dressing room when an assistant told her it was almost time for her to walk out with the rest of the cast. Sakari gave her two thumbs up as she left. 

God, Maya felt like she needed to pee. But there wasn't enough time for that. 

She met up with her co-stars who were lined up. She was pushed between Hugh and Michael. She briefly wondered if the stagehands knew they were lined up in size order. 

“Y’alright?” Hugh asked, lifting a hand to rest on her lower back. 

Over the entirety of shooting and even after, Hugh made it his mission to become friends with her. That was a year ago. He always talked with her, gave her all the time she needed, especially now that the film was coming out and she hadn't had any training for interviews before. 

Maya breathed in deeply to try and calm her ever-beating heart. “I will be.” She could faintly hear Graham's opening monologue just a wall away.

“You'll do great,” James chimed in, “Just be your charming self and everyone will love you.” He encouraged.

She wasn't sure if she would classify herself as charming, per se. But she could act charming. Being an actress certainly helped in that aspect.

Michael smiled and shook his head. “You can also let us do the talking. Just sit there in that beautiful dress and look pretty.” He nudged her with his arm. 

Maya chuckled softly. Her heart swelled at the way they were treating her as if they've all known each other forever. Hugh pulled her closer to give her a side hug in order to soothe her as well as he could in the moment.

All the boys wore black suits and so she chose to try and match them with a black dress. It was a simple, small dress that went down to her knees and a straight neckline. 

Soon, Graham introduced all of them so they came out one by one. James was first, then Michael, then Maya, and finally Hugh. 

Maya waved as she walked up the stairs, plastering a smile on her face as she stood next to Michael. The whole audience was cheering very loudly. They got even louder when Hugh came out next. She had a feeling something like that would happen seeing as he was the biggest star there. 

“Sit! Sit!” Graham urged as he sat on his own chair, grabbing his cards from a nearby table. 

They did all sit on the red couch, drinks in front of them. James was the first to take a sip. There were some lingering cheers and screams. Maya couldn't help but laugh slightly. This honestly felt like a dream, sandwiched between three amazing actors with huge careers… she was feeling it more than she ever did on set. Probably because of all the fans in the audience. On set, she felt like they were children at school to a certain degree. 

“Thank you for the fruit!” Hugh motioned to the bowl on the table filled with fake fruits. He grabbed the pineapple. “Pineapple anyone?” He offered it to the others on the couch.

“I'm good, thanks.” Maya chuckled, lifting a hand to push it away from her.

James grabbed his glass and shook his head as Hugh put the pineapple back. “This is deja vu.” 

“The fruit?” Graham asked, eyebrows furrowed.

“No, talking about pineapple for twenty minutes last time I was on your show.” James answered.

“Oh, yes, yes!” Graham nodded in recognition.

James continued with a breath. “Apparently it improves the flavor of your sperm.”

“Oh.” Maya's eyebrows furrowed as she let out an almost concerned laugh. She was not expecting to talk about that not even a minute into being there. 

Michael and Hugh giggled beside her while Graham had an exasperated look on his face. “We've been on the air for a second!” James took a sip from his beer, trying not to look guilty.

“Apparently celery increases it,” Micheal added. Hugh looked over at him, intrigued with a sly smile on his face. “Increases the count.”

Graham adjusted his cards for a moment. “I feel like I should be writing some of this down.” 

“I think you'll be fine, Graham.” Maya joked, crossing her legs over one another as she leaned back against the couch. That earned her a laugh from the audience.

Graham chuckled, trying to steer the conversation back to where it was supposed to be. “Alright, so, all the X-Men together. And, this is an odd thing, but you know, usually, music goes in after a movie. But, on set, is it true you would play music when you got on set?” 

There was silence for a moment. Hugh began, “Yeah, well,” He looked over at Michael as did Maya and James. “I don't know if you know this about Michael—” Hugh cut himself off with his own fit of giggles. 

Maya continued instead. “Michael is one of those actors you really have to coax out of his trailer. He'll stay in there for hours.” She motioned with her hands, even nudging Michael a bit.

“This is true.” He nodded, rubbing his hand against his chin. 

“Very, very difficult on set.” Hugh commented. 

Maya laughed softly. She clasped her hands together, fiddling with her thumbs absentmindedly. “So to get him out of his trailer we'd play really only one song that could get him out.”

“I actually got the sound guy to play it really loudly over the studio just so he could get in the right mood,” Hugh explained as he looked at Graham. He looked around the studio and rubbed his thighs. “Actually, it was Blurred Lines, I wonder—I don't know what it was about that song that got Michael going.”

Michael and James whispered to each other beside Maya while she lifted a hand to her head. She remembered all those days on set. It wasn't every day Michael was needed on set but there were plenty. 

“Do you wanna come back out to Blurred Lines?” Graham offered. 

“Let's do it, let's do it.” Michael shrugged, getting up from the couch. The crowd cheered as he went back down the stairs. 

Hugh, Maya, and James stood as well to go back down. 

Hugh explained how a ‘normal’ day on set would work. “So we'd come out like ‘C’mon Michael, Michael, Michael, c'mon,’” The music began playing. Maya tried not to focus on how fast her heart was beating. “We've gotta shoot!” He turned back to the stairs, looking at Michael. “Michael, listen!”

James was already getting into the song, bobbing his head to the music while the audience started clapping along. After a few seconds, Michael did come back out but he was dancing along. 

Which then coaxed all of them to start dancing along as well. Maya started laughing, grabbing onto Hugh's arm as she did. 

Then they made their way back to their seats, giggling during that as well.

“It did the trick every time,” Hugh commented with a large smile. “How much better do you feel now?” He asked Michael.

“Pretty good, yeah!” He grabbed his drink and smiled before he took a sip. 

Graham laughed softly then looked over at the audience. “So here's the thing, the three gentlemen on my couch,” He motioned over to them. “A few weeks ago, they were at the Empire Film Awards. You all got a prize, didn't you?” 

“We all got a prize.” Hugh repeated, a laugh escaping him.

“We did.” Michael nodded. 

Graham hummed. “But here's the exciting thing. All three of the men also appeared on,” He looked back down at his cards, “Empire's Sexiest Man of the Year poll.” 

There was a scream from the crowd while Maya took a sip from her drink. It was fruity. Not exactly her taste but she could choke it down. Well, it wasn't repulsive, that's for sure. 

“We're literally sitting on the poll.” James added dryly. 

Maya looked at him with a sly smile. “You'd like that, wouldn't you?” Michael snorted. 

“But where on the poll?” Graham continued. “Who was at the top of the poll?”

Hugh put his hands up. “Hang on. I'm forty-five, which year are we talking here?” 

“Well, it's the most recent one.” Graham answered with a shrug.

Maya looked at Hugh with furrowed eyebrows. He may have been older now but she wouldn't think that would stop people from finding him attractive. Especially the masses. 

“Oh, yeah, then I'm down. I'm way down.” Hugh sighed, leaning back against the couch next to Maya. 

“Maya,” She perked up a little. “I want you to rank them and then I'll reveal where they are on the poll.” Graham offered with a mischievous glint in his eyes. 

The three men looked at her expectantly. “Oh, god.” Maya pushed her hands against her face. “How many people were even on the poll?” She asked. 

“It's out of one hundred.” He responded. 

Maya let out a breath, rubbing a hand against the side of her face. The men were all smirking at her and it was making her deeply embarrassed. James and Hugh were married men! And Michael was a dear friend now. To be fair, Hugh and James were also good friends. 

“Well,” She breathed, “None of them can be number one seeing as they'd probably know.” 

“No, no, no, I'm not asking where you think they are ranked, I'm asking where you’d rank them.” Graham clarified with a smirk.

Maya pursed her lips. Her eyes roamed from Hugh to Michael and then Michael to James. “For the record, this is mean!” She complained half-heartedly, causing the crowd to laugh. She thought about it for a few moments. “James is going to be uber friend-zoned at twenty-five because he's married and my sister has a crush on him.” 

“Thank you very much.” James said, almost defensive but clearly still joking. 

“I don't know, I guess I'll put Hugh at twenty and Michael at ten.” She shrugged, trying to be nonchalant about it. 

She would rank Hugh higher but no one needed to know that. Least of all him. She quite liked their friendship as it was and didn't feel like possibly ruining it. 

“Amazing vote of confidence, dear.” Hugh teased, poking at her side. “I thought you liked me.”

“Only not at all.” Maya said dramatically. 

Graham chuckled. “Alright, alright! I'll tell you now.” He read off the cards while some people yelled out their own guesses. “Hugh is ninth, Michael is eighth, and James—so sorry—is sixteenth.” 

“That's basically what I said.” Maya shrugged, getting a laugh out of the crowd. 

“I must say, the whole poll is a bit of a mockery because Benedict Cumberbatch is first.” On cue, a picture of him appeared on the monitor behind Graham. 

There was a swell of noises of disapproval at what Graham said from beside Maya while she stayed quiet. She lifted a hand to her mouth to try and suppress her giggle. 

“I'm sorry but look at this couch!” Graham pointed to them. “Benedict Cumberbatch, he's a very nice man, he's a very good actor but… no.” 

Maya nodded while Hugh brushed his shoulder against hers, a laugh escaping him. The picture left the monitor.

“Now, you all are here for X-Men: Days of Future Past. This is the second prequel, it opens on the 22nd of May. Before we talk a bit about the film, here's a taste of the action!” Graham introduced a small clip from the movie. 

Maya watched as the clip played. It was fun actually seeing herself on screen like this. Seeing a part of the finished product. It was so surreal. 

Hugh leaned closer to Maya, whispering in her ear as he rubbed up and down her back. “You're doing great. They're loving you. Just breathe.” 

He must've been able to tell she was still very nervous. She hoped she wasn't shaking and, if she was, that it was being passed as laughing jitters or something instead. 

Maya smiled at Hugh when he pulled away. She wasn't sure what she'd do without him. He was so kind and took it upon himself to mentor her, in a way. She didn't need help with acting, she was already great at it. He even said so. Multiple times. But everything else? Yeah, she needed some help with that. 

As the clip ended, the crowd erupted into applause. 

“Okay, so, obviously you had a lot of fun making the film,” Graham smiled at the people on the couch. “But getting ready for this thing sounds quite grueling. Particularly for you, Hugh.”

“Please call me Wolverine.” Hugh joked with a large smile on his face. 

“It is easier.” Graham chuckled. Hugh nodded in agreement. “So,” He pointed to the monitor, mentioning the clip. “How hard is it to become like that?” 

Hugh scratched at his beard. “It's minimum six months and I luckily had The Wolverine, the movie, which I had about six months before so I've been on for about a year and a half.” He chuckled when he remembered something. “Stupidly, on X-Men one, I thought it was about 3 weeks. So when you go back and watch it, you'll understand now why I looked pretty crap.” 

Maya furrowed her eyebrows. She remembered X-Men one—after rewatching it for the role—and she thought he looked pretty good. Obviously, it's not as carved or whatever but it wasn’t like his body looked horrible if that’s what he thought. 

“But we would train together too.” Hugh motioned to the rest of the couch. 

“Yeah, but the discipline is just—” Michael looked at Graham then at Maya. “Maya was the only one who could keep up.”

Graham looked at her, intrigued. “Right, because you look like this all the time?” He motioned to her body. 

Maya flushed a little under the attention to her physicality. Not only was she as tall as Hugh but she had quite a bit of muscle year-round. 

“Yes, well—”

She was cut off by James reaching over to squeeze her arm. “I mean, look at that.”

Maya shooed his hand away. “To be fair, where I'm from, there's not too much to do there. I'm from Nunavut which is a province in Canada and most of it is just snow and ice.” The crowd laughed. “No, literally! Like I get that it's a stereotype or whatever but it's true.” 

“And so you work out to pass the time?” Graham asked, an impressed look on his face. “I can't imagine what that's like.” 

“Also with it being so cold, it makes me feel like I'm doing a lot more than I actually am so when I came down to Quebec, which was a more normal temperature, I was like ‘this is so easy, why are you complaining?’” Maya chuckled, glancing at Michael and James. 

Hugh chimed in, glancing from Maya to Graham with a bright look on his face. “I think she genuinely had to slow down for me so I didn't feel like an absolute failure.”

“Yes, but you have the signature claws, of course. And the boys, they've come up with their signature poses.” Graham looked from Hugh to James. “James, yours is the finger.” He did the pose. He put his finger on his temple to replicate it. 

James nodded, “Fingering my brain.” That elicited a giggle from the rest of the couch. 

“Was there much discussion about that?” Graham chuckled. “Or were you just kinda like ‘I’ll just do this.’”

James looked off in the distance as he thought. “No, I just thought Patrick never did it.” He looked back at Graham. “He's missed a beat,” Another laugh from the crowd. “And, y'know, when he uses his power there's a lot of close-ups of him going—” He did a straight face, staring right into the camera. 

“Woah, warn us next time.” Maya covered her mouth, a concerned expression on her face. 

James laughed, shaking his head. “Anyway, I thought that's not dynamic.” 

Graham then talked about Michael's pose for a little while. The ‘jazz hands’ that he did when using his power. Maya laughed when Michael described it as a suitable level of constipation. She agreed that was what it looked like, especially when they brought up a picture of it. 

“Now, Sedna, the way you did her powers, Maya, was based on something that's very real.” Graham said, looking at his cards for a moment.

Maya breathed, a light laugh escaping her. “Yeah.” Hugh looked at her, very interested in listening to her talk. “Well, I kind of stole it from another project I worked on. I did voice work for it but there's water bending in that show as well, which is my character's power, but the movements are based on Tai Chi because they're very flowy.” She did a small movement with her hand. 

“You did amazing work on that.” Hugh complimented. “I mean, I told her constantly, I was like ‘are you sure you can't actually move water with your hands?’” He nudged her shoulder. 

“We do actually have a clip from that show! Um, The Legend of Korra where you play a cosmic entity, Raava.” Graham added. 

Maya pressed a hand against her face which made the men on the couch laugh as the clip played. It was sort of embarrassing for her to hear her voice again. She knew she'd have to get used to it, she did choose to be on the show. 

The clip was spliced so that there were only her voice lines. 

“We will be together throughout all of your lifetimes.”

“He cannot destroy light any more than I can destroy darkness.” 

“Do not give in to ten thousand years of darkness. You are the Avatar.”

“You have such a mature, deep voice for someone so young.” Graham commented.

Maya smiled bashfully as she raised an eyebrow. “I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not but I'll take it.” She leaned back against the couch. “You can also blame it on the fact that I'm trans.” 

James chuckled. He then pursed his lips. “I wonder if you do audiobooks. I’d love to fall asleep to your voice.”

“Me too. But then my wife might get jealous.” Hugh added teasingly. 

Maya laughed along with him, trying to ignore the way her heart fluttered. Or the thoughts that appeared in her head. 

Graham interjected. “I've read that you felt like you needed to keep up with the kids.” 

Maya watched as Hugh talked, head tilted as she listened. She always thought he was wonderful at telling stories since she'd known him. A part of her was incredibly jealous of the way he seemed to be very good at articulating things in such an engaging way. 

“Yeah, I did feel like the old man. These guys were running around the trailer park—we call it a trailer park because there were literally like a hundred little caravans,” Hugh explained. Maya noticed he was very expressive with his hands. They even got in her space a few times but she didn't mind. “Shooting each other with BB guns.” 

Maya scratched a little at her chin and smiled. She remembered those days. Sakari would shoot a few off too. Not at Maya, she would never do that, but Michael and James? Oh, they were fair game. 

“Awesome!” James exclaimed. “Amazin’!” 

“Until you shot one of the actors in the face and he started to bleed.” Hugh added as if he was a disappointed father. 

James grabbed his glass again, taking a long sip. “If you watch the film really carefully… There's an actor called Josh Helman who played Stryker—the young Stryker—and he was coming after me, he had it coming, man.” He tried to defend himself. The audience laughed. He then stood up and recreated the scene. “As I was runnin’ away, I flicked one off behind me—so to speak—and it struck him right there.” He pointed at his chin. “And it broke his skin and I got told off by his finacée.” He sucked his teeth. 

Graham's eyes widened at the story. Maya remembered this day very well. Her trailer was right across from James's. 

“I actually never told anybody this.” James bit his lip.

“Maybe not but I remember. I heard a bit of it, actually.” Maya admitted.

James shook his head. “She came ‘round to my trailer and was like ‘hey, how you doin’, I'm Josh’s fiancée and stuff and I heard that, like, you shot him in the face and things and, like, that's not cool’ and I was like ‘ah, yeah, it's just a bit of fun.’” He waved it off as he recounted the memory. “Then she was like ‘nah, really, man—’” 

The crowd gave another laugh. As that story came to an end, Hugh brought up the other game they played on set. He called it the “punching game.” Maya wasn't sure how Hugh came to know that game in the first place. He did have a fourteen year old son but she couldn't imagine him teaching it to his father. It was likely that he learned it from James before she ever set foot on set. 

“What is the punching game?” Graham asked, confused. 

“Should we illustrate?” James asked, purposefully only looking up at Michael's face as he leaned in closer. 

Michael had his hand out, fingers contorted into an ‘OK’ symbol. 

“I'm not looking!” Maya exclaimed. 

“Me neither.” James added. 

Hugh smirked, looking at Graham. “Would you like some of my drink?”

“No, cause it's one of those stupid games! You'll punch me!” Graham argued, also looking only above the waist. Or not at any of them at all. 

Hugh nudged Maya before they all relented. James and Hugh did a little demonstration for Graham and the crowd which ended with James getting a good punch on Hugh’s arm. 

“But it's just ow!” Graham looked exasperated, confused as to how any of the things they described could be fun.

It was likely the age gap. Even then, James and Michael were still older than Maya. Nick was her only friend on set who was her age.  

Graham then focused on James as if he just remembered something. “Do we have the picture of your bruise?”

“Yeah, I emailed it because I was so proud of this.” James nodded. 

Maya lifted a hand to her mouth when the picture appeared on screen. There was a large flowery, purple bruise on his arm. She felt a flare of guilt in her chest. It lasted for about a second.

“But I put too much with a punch on Maya. Because, y'know, we hit you hard but not too hard. Usually.” James explained, glancing at Maya. “And I thought, ‘oh, I'm gonna nail Maya and cause I'm much smaller than her that she wouldn't nail me back.’ But, um, she did nail me back.” 

Maya let out a nervous laugh, rubbing her hand against her mouth. “Look, me and my sister would punch each other all the time. Not so much anymore—”

“Another thing to do to pass the time up there?” Hugh joked.

“Yeah,” Maya laughed. “But, genuinely, it was a problem. So my mom had to put a stop to it. But,” She tried to stifle another laugh, “Being on set, it was like fair game to me.”

James put his hands in front of his body. “You think those muscles are just for show, no. She has a mean punch too.” 

“Okay, so, we've got another clip from X-Men,” Graham looked down at his cards to read them. “Days of Future Past. This is the professor and Magneto having a bit of an altercation on a plane.”

The clip played and Maya let out another breath. Hugh leaned closer to her again and gave her a reassuring smile. Michael and James did the same.

Maya had to admit that she was doing a lot more talking than she originally thought she was going to. She had a feeling Sakari was looking at the monitor in the dressing room with a large smile. That itself made Maya's chest warm. She wondered if her parents were able to get BBC on their TV set at home somehow. She hoped they did. 

When the clip ended, there was a cheer from the crowd. Graham then started talking with Michael about MacBeth and how he was finished with filming for the film. Which then segued into them talking about Hugh in The Boy From Oz. Particularly the part when he would interact with the audience. 

Maya was somewhat concerned that he let someone bite his ass. Even if he didn't think she would actually do it, Maya wondered what made him say yes beside the fact that he was supposed to be acting like Peter Allen. She could never. 

“Now, Maya, you were very unknown before this,” Graham started. Maya nodded in response. “But, locally, in Nunavut you were very well known.” 

Maya breathed, scratching at the side of her head. “Yes, I, uh, did a lot of horror movies. Small budget stuff.”

“I know but, look at that!” Graham exclaimed as a picture of her appeared on the monitor.

Apparently they were able to find a screenshot of her. It was a night scene and Maya was covered from head to toe in blood, some of it was even smeared against her skin. Her hair was mussed up and, at the time, she only had one of the lines of Kakiniit on her chin. 

“That looks very real,” Graham added. 

Maya chuckled. “You can blame my sister for that. She does my makeup for every film. She knows how to do everything.” She glanced at Hugh who seemed to be speechless for the first time that night. She wondered what that was about. 

“What was that for, if I may ask?” James looked at Maya, an intrigued expression on his face.

“Well, my character just watched their friend get mauled by a polar bear,” That got a laugh from the crowd. “And I’m about to be mauled by a polar bear.” 

James hummed, nodding. “As one does.” 

Graham then began to talk about Michael and James's relationship and how the fans have been responding to it. Moreso, the creative liberties they were taking with some of the things they've said in the press junkets for First Class. Maya saw those. She could see why the fans saw what they did. 

He began to list off the ship names. One of them was “Fassavoy.” 

“Oh, that sounds like the nickname this one,” James pointed to Maya, “Gave me.” 

Maya nodded, “Jacavoy. I honestly thought a lot of people called you that. Apparently not.” 

“I'm stealing that from now on.” Michael added, nudging James with his elbow. 

Graham then began to show some different pieces of fan art on the monitor. Maya was hit with a wave of second-hand embarrassment on behalf of the artists. They likely never expected their art to be plastered on national television and she knew they created it for themselves and other fans, not necessarily for the actors they stole their likeness from. 

However, Maya did laugh when James’ only gripe with the artwork was who was on top and who was on bottom. 

“But then what's even sweeter is they've got these various scenarios they dream up for you,” Graham smirked. “What you do is you go to these fanfiction websites…”

Maya's heart dropped in her chest. She knew where this was going. To be fair, she had never written fanfiction before but she's read plenty in her free time. 

Graham flipped through his cards. “What they do is summarize them,” Sure enough an AO3 screenshot appeared on the screen. “Here's one, ‘Michael Fassbender is a powerful man with powerful enemies. He asked the agency for the best they had. They sent him James McAvoy.’” There was a bit of cheering. 

“Maya,” he continued. “You're the youngest, you must know about this stuff.” 

Maya licked her lips, scratching at her head. The three men looked at her again, all with smirks on their faces. “I do,” There was a roar of hollers from the crowd. “But I have never read about any of my costars and… that's all I'm gonna say about that.” She flushed, embarrassed.

She was being honest. She wasn't interested in reading about her costars, even before tagging along to the project. Maya quite liked Supernatural fanfiction rather than anything else. Now she desperately hoped she'd never meet any of those stars in person. 

“Would you mind reading some of them out? Hugh? Maya?” Graham offered them each a card. 

They both grabbed one. “I'm trying to stay far away from this stuff but I'm happy to be involved,” Hugh said when he began to read over one. 

Maya felt another shiver of embarrassment go down her spine. Would Hugh think she was a creep now? James? Michael? Well, James and Michael didn't seem to mind much. 

Hugh breathed, eyebrows furrowed as a snort escaped him. “After finding out James is pregnant with twins,” The crowd erupted into laughter while James looked slightly offended. “James and Michael start to learn how to balance upcoming parenthood and their careers with help from friends and family.” 

“See, it's lovely,” Graham said sarcastically. “They're sweet. They're creepy but sweet.” He looked at Maya. “Your turn.” 

James nodded at the monitor. “You should read it in that voice.” She knew he meant her ‘Raava’ voice.

Maya glared at him for a second then looked down at her card, reading off what was on it. “James and Michael decide to knit scarves for each other. James is very good at it. But Michael ends up with something that is definitely not a scarf.” 

Michael stared at Maya, eyes narrowed as if he was trying to figure out what that could mean.

The rest of the interview went by in a blur. To be fair, all that was left was the musical guest and a bit of small talk with her on the couch as well but Maya must've blocked it out because she came back to consciousness when she was back in her dressing room. 

“You did so good out there!” Sakari yelled, shaking Maya by her shoulders. “I would have never guessed you never did a sit-down-and-talk-on-national-television-interview before.”

Maya sat down on the couch, letting out a breath. She needed to breathe properly again. She felt like she hadn't had fresh air for hours, which might've been true because she wasn't used to the London smog. 

“And Hugh! God, he was staring at you the whole time you talked. Did you notice that?” Sakari pointed at her, eyes narrowed. “Stared at you like you hung the stars.”

Maya scoffed at that, though her heart fluttered at the observation. “He's just the type to pay attention. He does that with everyone.” 

Sakari hummed, obviously not believing her. Maya believed it. But Sakari was sure something was up with Hugh. Yes, he did pay rapt attention to anyone who was speaking just like how he almost forced people to accept his compliments. But there was something about the way he did it with Maya that made her believe it was something else entirely.

If only she had taken photographic proof. Then maybe she'd convince Maya to agree with her. 

She pursed her lips. She wondered if their parents took pictures. They had to. They were very proud of Maya and took many, many, many pictures whenever she appeared on something. 

They had to have accidentally captured the look on Hugh's face. Sakari could remember it clearly—soft and gentle as if he was listening to her speak in the comfort of his home after a long day of work.