#love how protective harry gets just over video call when james is on the phone to her

[woahkana]

x 

[karimjohnson]

Falling: What If I’m Someone You Won’t Talk About?

Hey guys! Here’s another one for you all! It’s sad just like the last one! I hope you all like it as much as Cherry. This one is a bit long too lol. Thank you all for reading and sharing my stories. It really makes me feel good to know that you all are enjoying my stories! Please feel free to message me any ideas that you may have or something that you want to see me write! I will write any idea you come up with. I love to include you all into my writing. So don’t be shy! Like I said before, this Fine Line Series is on the top of my list to finish. But ideas are always welcome here. As soon as I finish this series, I will upload some other imagines for you all to read. I will add them to the master list once this is done. Much Love- K

Summary: You and Harry have been broken up for a couple of months. You have an interview for an upcoming movie you are starring in. You are going on the Late Late Show with James Corden. He asks you questions related to the movie but then he brings up some questions about you and Harry. You haven’t really talked about Harry to the public before, even when you two were still together. So you get really nervous to talk about his post break-up. But James surprises you with Harry’s new music video and song that an anonymous fan requested to play for you. As you watch the video, you notice someone in the crowd but you can’t quite place who it is. But James has an even bigger surprise for you after the show. 

Pairing: Harry x Reader

Rated: PG

Masterlist

Being in the lime-light is difficult when it comes to relationships. Your schedule becomes extremely busy and even if you aren’t working, you are still working. Paparazzi are everywhere you go. It becomes difficult to hide your personal life. It ruins the intimacy for you and your partner sometimes. You feel responsible for protecting your loved ones when it comes to the public eye. It’s hard to keep up with relationships when everyone in the tabloids tries to tear you down. Fans are amazing. They are the reason you keep following your dreams. But other fandoms can tear down your confidence when it comes to their idol. But hey, that’s the price of fame. Not everyone will love you and not everyone will be rooting for you.

For me though, being a young actress and dating a mega superstar was so hard. I was super close with Harry before we dated. Our friendship started around the end of One Direction and through his making of his first solo album. We were best friends and I supported him through the end of One Direction. He was super nervous about releasing his first solo album. I told him that it will be worth it and everyone will still love him the same no matter the outcome. It became one of the top albums that year. He was so happy and I couldn’t deny how proud of him I was.  

We stayed close together when he went on tour that year for the album. I tried my best to go out to his shows. It was a little difficult with me being in a few shows. Eventually, when he took his time off after touring, we reconnected and started dating in 2018. It became difficult to keep our relationship private. Everyone was watching us to see what would happen between us. Fans were blowing up online about us. Supporting us and others were jealous. It just comes with the business. I was trying to stay confident for Harry and our relationship. But it became difficult when the tabloids started saying they spotted Harry with other girls here and there. I’m not one to read into those things. Especially when I trusted Harry. I never once doubted his loyalty to me.

    But as the tabloids went on, it became difficult for me to hang on to what we had. Then I got offered a job for a big movie that was coming out. Harry began to dabble into his second solo album. Our schedules became harder to see each other with our separate projects. Then one night, I got a call from a mutual friend of ours. They told me that they went out to a bar and saw Harry there. He was hammered and apparently was flirting with some other girl there. I was heartbroken at the news. I was panicking around my home trying to figure out why he would do such a thing. I tried calling him a few times and texting him, but I got no response out of him that night. I got zero sleep. Thankfully, I didn’t have work the next day.

    When I woke up the next day, that’s when the pictures and videos were uploaded online of Harry’s scandal. I read the tabloids for once and watched the videos. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was so broken. My heart was aching as I laid in bed all day. I cried and ignored everyone who tried to check on me… Even Harry. Later that night, I decided to check my phone. I read all of Harry’s messages. He was upset and apologizing left and right for what he had done. I told him that I couldn’t forgive him and that it hurt too much for me to keep this relationship going. I had to protect myself for once. I loved Harry whole-heartedly and I loved everything about him. We had so much fun together and laughed so hard at our horrible jokes. But it was like all of that was gone now.

I didn’t recognize him anymore. I trusted him with the most fragile parts of me. It felt like none of that mattered now. We broke up and the tabloids kept reeling in on why we broke up. Paparazzi followed us both everywhere and asked horrible questions about why we weren’t together anymore. I decided to focus on myself and my career and I suppose Harry did the same. He ended up releasing his second album this October. I listened to a few songs and watched the music videos even though my heart hurt and yearned for him. I was still going to support him. He was someone I always looked up to in my career.

Now, after a few months my movie was about to come out. I was busy with meetings and interviews with my cast mates. That’s what I always did when I went through a break-up. I just throw myself into my work and focused on my career when shit hits the fan. Tonight, I was going to be on James Corden to talk about the movie I was starring in. I was super excited because James was always someone that could make me laugh. He was always so sweet and kind to me. I was in my dressing room watching the show. I was in a shiny, navy blue dress that stopped at my thighs and some black heels. My hair was pinned back to show off the sliver hoops in my ears. My make-up was natural, but it still made my eyes pop. I was playing with my bracelets nervously waiting for my que to head towards the stage.

    They were on a commercial break when I heard a knock on the door. The stage manager peaked their head in and smiled, “Places Ms. Y/L/N.” I smiled up at them and took a deep breath. I stood from the couch and followed them to the stage. There were a few crew members adjusting my mic for me. I smiled and thanked them looking over to the stage manager. They started to count down to signal that they were live again. “My next guest is incredibly talented and a truly wonderful young woman. She is starring in the new thriller movie called ‘The Chase’. Please welcome, Y/N Y/L/N everybody,” James spoke and the curtains pulled back for me to walk out on stage. I smiled bright and big walking out while the crowd cheered for me. I giggled and waved as I made my way over to James who was standing up beside his desk to pull me into a warm hug.

    I open my arms wide and wrapped them around him. “Oh, it’s so good to see you,” I said as I pulled away and took seat on the couch next to his desk. “It’s always a pleasure to have you here,” James spoke with a huge contagious smile. I blushed looking down feeling my nerves calming slightly. “So, you have been busy,” James spoke up breaking my nerves from taking over. “Yeah, I’ve been very busy,” I nodded looking at him gleaming with joy. “You are in this movie and I couldn’t be more excited to see it. I have been waiting for this moment! You have starred on many T.V. shows on and off. How does it feel going into the movie business,” James asked while leaning forward on his desk. I giggled and nodded along with him in excitement. “It’s definitely different for me,” I blushed looking at my bracelets.

    “I haven’t been around such a huge set before and it was so incredible to see how this story unraveled on set. It was interesting to see how everything comes to life with a movie script. Obviously with T.V. show sets, they aren’t as big as you would think. You don’t always get to do cool adventurous things like a movie. So, it was really amazing to be out of my element and learn new things about myself along with filming,” I smiled big to James and the audience who were in awe of my explanation. “Oh, of course. It’s completely different and so amazing with the story telling. So, tell us a little about the movie and who your character is in the film,” James said taking a sip of his water.

    I smiled and looked to the audience, “Well this movie is a huge thriller. There is a lot of action in the film. ‘The Chase’ is about a girl named Claire Bennett which is my character in the film. She finds out that her family is being held captive by these group of investors that meet with her dad early on in the film. She basically fights to save her family and it begins a huge chase/countdown to save her family.” The crowd ‘oo’ed and ‘aw’ed at my description of the movie without giving too much away. “That just sounds incredible,” James smiled big and looked to his cards. “I heard that you did all of your own stunts in this movie. Is that true,” he asked shocked and very interested in this rumor.

    I laughed and nodded slowly, “Yeah, that is actually true. I wanted to try something new for once. I met with the director and told him that this is my first big movie. I want to give it my all and I want to make him proud of my role. He was super cool about that and very happy to hear that I would be willing to learn something so difficult. We ended up finding the perfect stunt trainer for me and I started working with her. I’m so grateful for her and I’m definitely proud of myself for trying something so out of my comfort zone. I personally think it will make the film that much more great to see someone so devoted to their character.” James was stunned and started clapping. He stood up out of his chair and the crowd began to cheer with him.

    I laughed and waved everyone off. “That is just brilliant. I love your devotion in fully taking something on like that. We actually have the never-before seen trailer right here. I’m so happy you chose our show to release this trailer. Here it is,” James says pointing to the camera men to switch it over to the trailer. The lights dimmed for the audience to watch on a big screen. I smiled and looked at the screen with so much passion. It was incredible to see this came to life. I peered around everyone’s faces to see their reactions. Everyone seemed to be on the edge of their seats and that was the best reaction to hope for. I giggled as it came to an end and the lights came back up. James’s mouth hung open in amazement and looked to me. “That was incredible. We are going to take a short break and we will be right back to ask some more questions with Y/N,” James smiled to the camera and we went to break.

    As we took a break, I reached for my water and took a sip. “I just want to tell you how proud I am of how far you have come Y/N,” James spoke as we sat there waiting for us to go live again. I smiled and felt tears stinging my eyes. “Thank you, James. That means the world to me really,” I smiled and reached his hand holding it tight. He smiled and squeezed my hand, “Any time love.” I giggled and the management gave us the signal we were going live again. I smiled and leaned back on the couch holding my water. They counted down from three and pointed to James. “Welcome back to the Late Late Show. I’m here with Y/N Y/L/N and we are going to ask some more questions to get to know her a little better. We just discussed her new movie coming out and showed the trailer for the movie. Let’s get a little more in depth with who she is,” James smiled and the crowd cheered agreeing to his suggestion.

    I felt myself growing nervous again and smiled to everyone. “So, what do you like to do outside of work Y/N,” James asks with a smile. “Well, I love to read a good book or write in a journal. I love to spend time with my friends and family when I get free time as well. I try to keep myself grounded,” I giggle as he nods. “Now, have you been dating since your break-up from the mega popstar and one of my great friends Harry Styles,” he asked raising an eyebrow. I felt my heart slowly sink to my stomach at the sound of Harry’s name. I bit my bottom lip and looked down. I know the crowd is on the edge of their seats waiting for this answer. “Not recently no. I have been quite busy with interviews with my cast mates and promoting the movie,” I smiled a small smile trying to ignore this feeling of being sick.

“Now, I know that it is a touchy subject talking about him. But you and him haven’t spoken publicly since the break-up about each other. Why is that,” he asked leaning back a little. I could see the nerves in his face. I looked off to my management and back to him. My hands started sweating as I set my cup down on the table in front of me. “Well, Harry and I started out as great friends. I think that our friendship and relationship was something so personal to us. I know that I haven’t spoken about it because I believe we are both healing from what we went through. I believe that neither of us have anything bad to say about one another. It’s just a little touchy for us and being in a relationship in the public eye is difficult you know,” I say looking down breathlessly. My heart was all the way to my stomach now.

I swallow hard as I gathered myself and looked to James with a little smile. “I can understand that, yeah. Have you listened to his new album Fine Line at all,” James asked trying to give me a reassuring smile. “I have heard a couple of songs here and there. It has been hard for me to sit down and listen to it with my schedule, but I still support him whole-heartedly. He is super talented and I will always be one of his biggest fans. I plan on listening to it all the way through very soon though,” I nod to him and casually wipe my palms along my dress. “Well, today he released a music video for his song called ‘Falling’. It sounds like something you may want to hear. Do you mind if we play the video,” James asked leaning forward and looking out to the crowd. The crowd roared and pleaded with me to say yes.

I can’t lie I was slightly curious as to what the song is about. I was also curious to see what the video looked like. I bit my lip again and looked to my management. They shrugged with a small smile telling me it was my call. I looked to James again and nodded, “Sure, I am a bit curious.” James smiled humbly and nodded to the camera men to play the video. As the song starts, Harry is sitting on a floor with water pouring in around him. He is leaned against a wall soaking wet breathing deeply. It pans to his hand on the piano and then a full body shoot of him laying along the piano bench.

I felt my heart pick up speed as I listened to the lyrics and felt tears at the brim of my eyes. That’s when he starts singing the chorus and the pain in his eyes isn’t hard to miss as he looks into the camera. “What am I now? What am I now? What if I'm someone I don't want around? I'm falling again, I'm falling again, I'm fallin' What if I'm down? What if I'm out? What if I'm someone you won't talk about? I'm falling again, I'm falling again, I'm fallin'.” My throat felt dry and like it was closing up now. I felt like I couldn’t breathe just watching this video. He was in pain and he was beautiful all in one. The water begins to rise in the video and can’t stop my eyes from letting the tears fall as the memories start to replay in my mind…

-Flashbacks-

         *** It was a rainy night in L.A. Harry had come over and we were watching some random rom-com that he chose while I made the popcorn. We were curled up on the couch wrapped up in each other in a blanket along the couch. He was running his fingers through my hair as I watched the movie happily. He leaned down and started kissing my jawline and then down to my neck causing me to giggle at the feeling of his lips. He started to chuckle softly and ran his hand up my side. I felt myself stiffen at his touch afraid that he will start to tickle me. That’s when he stopped, looking me dead in the eyes. I couldn’t help but get lost in the jade green eyes of his. They always captivated me.

         He then started to tickle me causing my whole body to jolt and squirm. Our laughter filled the air not caring about the movie anymore. I was squealing and trying to tell him to stop but he wouldn’t. He was determined to leave me breathless. Finally, after tickling me enough he slowed his fingers down. He started rubbing my sides gently to let me catch my breath. I looked up at him and smiling while panting. “What was that for,” I asked looking up at him with a playful smile. “I just love to hear you laugh,” he smiled big down at me and leaned down kissing my lips.***

*** I then began to picture him getting ready backstage in his dressing room at one of his concerts. I was drinking some tequila on the rocks watching him change. I was taking in all his features and how his tattoos shaded his toned body perfectly. I was so in love with this man. I could look at him for hours on end. I blushed when he turned to look at me. “What is it babe,” he asked looking at me raising his eyebrows. I looked down shaking my head and giggling, “Oh nothing.” I waved him off and he just smirked strutting towards me. “You know, it’s not polite to stare princess,” he had walked around the couch I was sitting on and leaning behind me. I could feel his hot breath against my ear as he spoke the words.

I squeezed my thighs together at the sound of his voice as he brushed my hair back. He attached his lips to my neck and I felt myself fall back against the back of the couch. I was in a trance at the feeling of his lips and hot breath against my skin. “Mm, I can’t wait get you alone after the show princess,” he smiled across my skin and I moaned softly looking to him. He pulled his lips from my neck and to my lips. I smiled into the kiss and pulled back slightly, “If only I can wait that long.” He chuckled and his stylist waved at us. “Hey lovebirds, I hate to break up the love-fest, but we need to get you dressed Harry,” she smiled at the sight of us and we both blushed this time. “Later, I promise,” he whispered to me and I nodded trying to hold it all in.***

*** I remembered the time we were at Harry’s place cooking dinner together. He had turned on some music and we both sang loudly with one another. We were laughing and dancing around the kitchen. He then pulled me into his arms and spun us around the kitchen. I giggled and held onto him as he dipped me down. I looked up at him with a lopsided grin. He chuckled and pulled me back up leaning our foreheads together. “You know I love you right,” he smiled down at me. I nodded slightly and placed my hands on his cheeks, “And I love you Harry.” He grinned and kissed my whole face causing us to break out in a fit of giggles.

*** The day the tabloids flooded online with the proof of Harry cheating on me was the hardest. I was unable to move in bed. I felt like I was glued down to the mattress. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that he touched someone else the way he touched me. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that he kissed someone the way he would kiss me. The fact that he had the nerve to take her back to his hotel crushed every ounce of me. He decided to be intimate with someone other than me. It hurt me because he had touched me in ways no other guy has. He taught me incredible things about how to make my body feel the way he made it feel. He took me to euphoria in our intimate moments. How could he throw that all out the window for some random girl?

My mind raced with so many questions that I honestly wasn’t sure I wanted the answers to. Was it worth? Was she good? Was she better than me? Did she make him feel the way I did? Was he faking it this whole time with me? Did he really love like he said he did? Why did he have to do it like this? Was he bored of me? Was he tired of me? Was he mad about our schedules? Was he just lonely and decided on someone random? Did he ask her to meet him there? Was this all just planned out to hurt me? Why me? Did he still love me even though he made his bed? How could this be the end? Who was he now? Do I even recognize him anymore?

There was a day we met up after our break-up to try and discuss things that popped into my head. We went to the Beachwood Café and sat there both unsure of what to say. “I-I didn’t mean for this to happen…,” he said softly. I felt my heart crack and I was unable to look at him. Who was this person sitting in front of me? “It was a mistake Y/N. I was drunk and I don’t know what had gotten into me. I was stupid,” he whispered trying to hold back his tears. I sniffled and tried my best not to cry. “Harry… I don’t think I can trust you… not now. You made the choice to leave with her and take her back to your hotel,” I felt a single tear begin to fall down my cheek. “Y/N… don’t say that please… I love you and I don’t want to lose you… not like this,” he was full blown crying now. “I’m sorry Harry… I just can’t right now,” I sniffled as my heart chipped away at the crack in his voice.

“Please don’t go…,” he sobbed quietly and I couldn’t bring myself to look him in his eyes. I took a shaky breath and looked down at my hands that were gripping the bottom of my hoodie. “I’m sorry Harry… I loved you and I cared a great deal about you…but I need to be alone right now… I don’t know what to say to you… I don’t even recognize you right now…,” I whispered as tears just spilled out from my eyes. Harry sobbed as I finally stood from our table. I slid my sunglass down so no one bothered me on my way out. If that was even possible at this time with our break-up still fresh in the public eye.

As I turned to leave, I felt his hand reach from mine. That was the breaking point for me. His touch. I didn’t want to be touched by him after his mistake. It made me feel disgusted with myself. It made the questions grow louder in my head and I clenched my hand into a fist before he had the chance to interlace our fingers. My heart finally shattered as his hand wrapped around my wrist and the words left his mouth. “Who would I be without you? What if I’m someone I don’t want around Y/N,” his voice was shaky and it cracked again. “I have to go…,” I whispered looking down to my feet. I gently pulled my wrist out of his grasp and headed out of the door making a beeline to my car. ***

-End of Flashbacks-

         As I pull myself out of my head, I look back up to the screen as the water rises around Harry as the bridge of the song cuts in. “And I get the feeling that you'll never need me again,” he sang and there was the shatter in my heart once again. I needed Harry. I will always need Harry. This song was about us. It was about his mistake and how he was hurting due to his own actions. He admitted it in his lyrics. I was trying to hold back my sobs as James looked over to me and handed me his handkerchief. I thanked him softly and started to wipe my tears away. Harry was now completely under the water. He was drowning. The music went silent and he was just sitting at the piano in pain. I looked out into the crowd to see how everyone else was doing with the song and video to distract myself from falling more apart than ever.

         I was watching some reactions. Some people were wiping their faces and sniffling. Others were mesmerized by Harry’s lyrics or just him in general. I bit my bottom lip to keep it from quivering still scanning the audience. I noticed a familiar figure sitting with a hand over his mouth and his hood was up. It looked like he was wearing sunglasses because the screen was reflecting off the lenses. I turned back to the screen at the sound of Harry’s voice.

         I felt the pieces of my heart crumbling in my chest as I watched him on the big screen. How could he still be so handsome even though he was broken in this video? He was floating gracefully underneath the water as his shirt floated around him. I wanted to just reach in the water and pull him out. As the video ended, the lights came back up and looked down still wiping my face. “Well, that was… heartbreaking,” James says softly and looks to the audience. I knew everyone’s eyes were on me now. I was just trying to gather my thoughts and make the tears come to a halt so I could speak up. “Are you alright love,” James asks holding out his hand for me. I nodded slightly and giggle to reassure everyone. “Yes, I’m alright. Just wasn’t expecting it to be as deep as it was,” I smiled up at him taking his hand. “I understand. I think we all can understand that. I just felt you needed to hear that song in particular from the album,” he smiled sweetly at me as I nodded at his thoughtfulness.

         “I appreciate that. It was an amazing song,” I say softly as he rubbed the back of my hand. “I just want you to know that this was an idea sent to me anonymously to surprise you in a way,” James looked out to the crowd and I followed his gaze to the crowd. I noticed the man that I saw before the video ended. He in fact, had his hood up and sunglasses on. I still couldn’t tell who it was underneath, but I felt like I knew them. I turned my attention back to James with a small smile. “Well, whoever it was I really appreciate it. It was kind of them,” I nodded. “We will be right back after this short break. Don’t go anywhere,” James said to the cameras. They cut to the commercial and I stood hugging James tightly.

         As we pulled away, James held my shoulders keeping me in place. “Listen, I hope I didn’t cross any lines with tonight. I really am proud of you and everything that you are becoming in this industry,” James spoke softly to me. I nodded and smiled, “No you didn’t cross any lines. I think it was about time I talked about Harry and I for once. It has been a couple months post break-up. I will say I was surprised with his song and video.” James laughed lightly and nodded. “I was too when I got the request to play it for everyone and especially you. Would you mind staying until after the show? I have a special surprise for you,” James smiled a hopeful smile. “Sure, thank you. I will be in my dressing room until then,” I giggled and hugged him once more.

         As I waited in my dressing room, I watched the rest of the show. James played a game with the audience before the show came to an end. I waited patiently with my management that praised me for doing so well with the interview, even if I did cry. They told me how I handled everything well when it came to Harry. I didn’t give too much away and that made me feel a little better. I was a little anxious while waiting on James to come back to the dressing room to give me my surprise. I felt like even my management knew something about it when I asked what they thought it might be. They didn’t really say much when I asked. I just shrugged it off as I played with my bracelets.

         There was a knock on the door and I stood pulling myself out of my thought about Harry’s song. I opened the door and there stood James with a warm smile. “Y/N, would you mind following me out to the stage,” he asked holding out his arm for me to take. I tilted my head at first confused. No one was here now, so why did we need to go back out to the stage area? “Sure,” I smiled and put my arm in his as he led us back towards the stage. We talked about the rest of the show here and there on the way. I was feeling even more nervous as we approached the curtains. “I will let you walk out there for your surprise. I have a few things to finish up in my dressing room with my management. Is that okay,” he asked stopping us and I pulled my arm away.

         “Yeah, I should be fine with that,” I said feeling very confused now. “Okay great,” he smiled and turned to walk away. I stood there for a minute trying to figure out why he wasn’t coming out to the stage with me. I shook my head slightly and slowly opened the curtain. I walked out and there stood the guy in the hoodie. He had his back towards me and was shuffling his feet around. I bit my bottom lip nervously trying to figure out why he was here. “Hey, is this my surprise? Are you the one that requested James to play the video during the show,” I asked nervously as I slowly made my way to the random guy. I saw him straighten his shoulders and stop his movements.

         I stopped a few feet behind him still curious as to why he was dressed this way. He slowly turned with his head down, “Um, yeah that was… that was me.” His voice shocked me slightly because he sounded just like… “Harry?” I asked the guy as his hands reached for his sunglasses pulling them off. He let his hood fall and finally looked up at me. My heart started to pick up speed at the sight of him. His eyes were still a little bloodshot… like he had been crying? “Yeah… I know that this is a bit sad of me to do. But I wanted to show you that I miss you and that I’m truly sorry for hurting you. Writing my second album was really tough when I lost you. So, I wrote about us. I wrote that song about our break-up and I knew that I had to make a video to show the world and you, how I was truly feeling after my mistake…,” Harry spoke looking down while playing with his sunglasses nervously.

         “I know that this is a bit much and it was probably hard on you. I saw how you reacted to the video. You were crying and I didn’t want to upset you more. I’m just really sorry. I’m stupid for ever letting you down. I was stupid for doing something unforgiving. I was stupid to let myself slip into someone you couldn’t trust anymore. It was all my fault and I take full responsibility for everything,” he sniffled and I could see the tears filling his eyes again. I didn’t realize that I was crying now too. He looked like he was going to break into a million pieces. He looked like he could crumble if I touched him. I slowly walked up to him and stopped in front of him. He looked up to me with his bottom lip quivering now unsure what to do with his self.

         “I told you that day… I didn’t know who I would be without you. I had to realized that I didn’t want to be that person who hurt the only good thing in his life. Sure… I love my fans and my music. I love my family and my friends, but most importantly… I love you. I was surprised that you even talked about me. I just miss having you around. And I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get back to where we used to be. To show you that I will never do that to you again. To build your trust back up,” he whispered looking down into my eyes. I placed my hand against his cheek and softly rubbed it with my thumb wiping his tears away. “I love you Harry,” I whispered and his whole face crumbled into a sob as he leaned his forehead to mine.

         He wrapped his arms around my waist pulling me into him and squeezing me tightly. I shushed him as he tried to steady his breathing. I wanted to just hold him together, but he was slowly crumbling into me. “God… I missed you so much… I missed your voice…,” he said as he buried his face into my neck. I ran my fingers through his tousled curls trying my best to keep him together. “I missed you too. And your voice,” I said softly, smiling to myself. He pulled back a little after calming his-self down again. He looked down into my eyes and then to my lips. I leaned up in his embrace and brought my lips to his. Our lips connected and there was that familiar spark again.

         After all this time, the flame and the spark never disappeared. After all this time, he was still the only person who could make me feel this way. He deepened the kiss by picking me up slightly off the ground and I felt him smile against my lips. He placed me gently back down and pulled back leaning his forehead to mine again. “So, can we start over? One step at a time,” he asked rubbing my cheeks with his thumbs. I looked at him and we heard someone from behind us. “Oh, please say yes,” James said and we both turned to see the crew and management watching us with tearful and hopeful eyes. We both started blushing and laughing at the sight of our friends waiting for my answer. I turned back to look at Harry, “Yes, one step at a time.” He smiled and pulled my lips back to his as he spun me around happily.

[365days365movies]

January 16, 2021: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)

I am a massive comic book nerd. Not unusual these days, to be fair. But I’m definitely up there, as far as my obsession with Marvel and DC go. And, yeah, I stick mostly to those two houses, and their various imprints.

Why do I bring this up? Well...remember this movie?

Kick-Ass was a pretty big deal when it came out in 2010, as it was a Marvel Comics movie that was completely unrelated to the relatively new Marvel Cinematic Universe. Based of a 2008 comic book written by Mark Millar and drawn by John Romita Jr., the film was directed by Matthew Vaughn, and featured a more realistic take on how real-world superheroes would actually work.

Vaughn and Millar by this point at least, were friends. Around 2012, they’re getting drunk at a pub together, and talking movies. The topic of spy movies come up, and how there hasn’t really been a good, non-parody, fun spy movie, and that there should be. And that was the bulk of their conversation.

Enter Dave Gibbons, a legendary comic book artist, whom you may know from drawing the comic book that was turned into this:

Oh yeah, he’s a big deal. Gibbons and Millar end up getting together to write a fun spy comic book based on this idea. Vaughn, meanwhile, is getting ready to direct X-Men: Days of Future Past, the sequel to X-Men: First Class, which Vaughn directed. That’s a good movie, by the way, even if I have...issues...with the treatment of the X-Men in film. Maybe one day I’ll get into that, we’ll see what happens. Ask me about it if you’re curious.

Anyway, Millar goes to Vaughn with this script, and Vaughan looks at it and realizes that he needs to direct this movie before somebody else makes it. So he leaves Days of Future Past, and he signs on to...

I feel like it’s an obligation, as a comic book dude, to watch this film. I should also read the book, but I didn’t do that with Kick-Ass, so to hell with it! Let’s get this recap started! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap

Starting off with some Money for Nothing, and somewhere in the Middle East, 1997! We go into a stone temple, where some kind of mission is taking place. A surprise grenade causes the loss of one of the agents. The surviving agents are Merlin (Mark Strong), Lancelot AKA James Spencer (Jack Davenport), and Galahad, AKA Harry Hart (Colin Firth).

Hart, feeling guilty over the death of this agent, tells his wife, Michelle (Samantha Womack) and child Eggsy (yes, Eggsy) of his sacrifice, and gives Eggsy a medal.

From there, we jump forward 17 years, to Argentina where...Mark Hamill?

Holy shit, it’s Mark Hamill! Apparently, he’s playing Professor James Arnold, and being held hostage by a group of mysterious men. Just then, he’s rescued by Lancelot, showing up with some classic James Bond-style swagger and asking for a cup of sugar, sardonically.

He kicks the asses of these guys, but is SLICED IN HALF BY A MAN WITH SWORD LEGS WHAT THE FUCK????

I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I was watching the best thing I’ve ever goddamn seen. And as if that weren’t enough, she’s working for Samuel L. “Motherfucker” Jackson, playing Richmond Valentine. I am...I am so pleased.

We go to the Kingsmen headquarters, where Lancelot is being mourned by the Kingmen and their leader MICHAEL CAINE, REALLY, HOLY SHIT

Ahem. Sorry, uh...the star-studded cast has basically caused me to have a minor aneurysm. Caine plays Arthur, the leader of the Kingsmen. Get it? I can dig it, I’m a sucker for a good Arthurian reference. Anyway, now that Lancelot’s dead, it’s time to find a new candidate. Apparently, the man that died 17 years ago was part of an “experiment” by Hart, which Arthur says has failed. Galahad calls Arthur a snob, and says that they need to evolve with the times. \

Speaking of that former candidate, how’s his son doing?

Not stellar, it seems. His mom is dating a very unsavory gentleman, and not really taking good care of her youngest daughter. Eggsy (Taron Egerton), on the other hand, is a carefree delinquent. After engaging in an entertaining backwards car chase with the police (it’s cool), he gets arrested. He refuses to give up his friends, and he instead asks for a phone call.He looks at the medallion around his neck, and remembers that he can use the number of the back to contact someone for help. He uses a specific code phrase, but it appears not to have worked. But then, Eggsy is turned loose with little more than a phone call. That’s when Eggsy meets Hart.

We find out that Eggsy has a high IQ and Olympic-level athletics, but has dropped out of the Marines, and has been arrested for drugs and other illegal activities. After being read out by Hart, Eggsy goes on an anger-filled diatribe about the differences in privilege between the two of them. Although it’s short, it’s a powerful speech.

But that speech is interrupted by the owner of the car that Eggsy stole the previous night, as well as his gang. They’re yearning for a fight with Eggsy, and they threaten Hart. He doesn’t take that well, as he shuts the doors and windoes to the pub. Time to teach a lesson.

Yup, I’m giving this fight the posted video award. It might be short, but it’s also one of the best and coolest sequences I’ve ever seen in a spy movie. And OH, it’s giving me that gadget shit I was missing from the Bond movies.

After one of the most enjoyable fight sequences I’ve seen in a while, Eggsy’s understandably stunned. So is his stepfather Dean (Geoff Bell), the leader of the gang that Hart beat up in the pub. He’s not happy, and he beats Eggsy in their apartment, and that scene is...WHOOF. Much to their surprise, however, Hart’s left a device on Eggsy’s back. He threatens Dean through the device, and tells Eggsy to meet him at a tailor that he’d mentioned.

Once Eggsy escapes from Dean and the gang via nest parkour tricks, he makes his way to the tailor, where Hart officially brings him into the fold, giving him the opportunity to become a Kingsman. He exposits the history of the agency as a private group of spies, meant to protect the world while not bowing to the bureaucracy that plagues government-affiliated spy institutions.

We get to go to Kingsman Headquarters proper, and yeah...yeah, it’s cool. As compared to the other recruits, Eggsy’s pretty obviously out of place. This, of course, is part of the point, as Hart believes the Kingsmen could use someone with different life experiences and background. That would be the experiment mentioned earlier.

Eggsy’s competitors include Roxy (Sophie Cookson), who appears to actually be polite to him, unlike most of the potentials. They settle in for the night...but not for long. Their quarters fills with water, as the entirety of the Kingsmen head towards the showerheads and toilets for air. While they all succeed, Eggsy is the one who actually gets everyone out, by literally punching the window.

Unfortunately, for one of the candidates...it’s too late. These candidates could die in the hiring process. Rough.

Sadly, Mark Hamill also doesn’t quite make it, as Hart finds him, surprisingly freed from Valentine’s capture. As he’s questioned, Valentine is forced to kill him via Suicide Squad implant, and barely escaped from his men. Valentine and his henchwoman, Gazelle (Sofia Boutella) are trying to figure out who the Kingsmen are, to no avail at the moment.

Back with Merlin, who’s training the Kingsman candidates! They’re all told to get a puppy! Aw. Eggsy chooses J.B. a pug, under the mistaken impression that it’s a bulldog. And I’m not a pug person...but that puppy is cute as shit.

Time marches on, and the Kingsmen continue their training. Eggsy’s colleagues continue to discriminate against him, especially Charlie (Edward Holcroft). Hart, who was knocked out by the explosion, eventually wakes up. Valentine goes around to political leaders and proposes his plan to “save the world,” whatever that’s about to mean. Apparently, that includes giving the King of Sweden a surgical implant of some kind. Huh.

This, of course includes some, uh...conflict with Gazelle.

Awesome.

Eggsy’s in the final 6! As Hart congratulates him over this, we finally get some exposition on Richmond Valentine’s plan. See, that implant is the Suicide Squad bomb that killed Hamill, and Gazelle also has one. Additionally, he’s released a plan to the world that will provide free internet and phone data...forever. Not ominous at all, that.

After a cool skydiving training sequence, only three candidates are left. Hart, meanwhile, poses as a wealthy philanthropist, donating to Valentine’s cause. As a result, he’s treated to an extravagant dinner...of McDonald’s. Yes, it is the best product placement I’ve seen in a while, in case you were wondering. That reveal was hilarious.

Anyway, their conversation turns from talking about climate change studies and concerns, to their opinion of James Bond movies, in a lovely little piece of meta flavor. At this point, they would appear to understand each other’s role in the play, as it were. Forgot to mention, Valentine’s been kidnapping anyone who disagrees with his goals, while also distributing his free internet cards. So, there’s that. But he’s also trying to figure out what exactly the “Kingsmen” are. Speaking of...

Our three remaining Kingsman candidates are assigned a mission to seduce a young dignitary. However, all three of them make a mistake, and allow themselves to get drugged at a party, by someone wanting to know who Hart and Kingsmen are. When Eggsy wakes up, he’s been strapped to train tracks. Uh oh.

Despite an oncoming train, Eggsy doesn’t give the man any formation. Which, of course, was the point. It’s Hart, helping to give the Kingsman candidates a little loyalty test, which both Eggsy and Roxy pass with flying colors. But Charlie...Charlie’s a coward who immediately gives everything up, including Arthur himself.

Eggsy gets to spend 24 hours with Hart, before being thrown headfirst into a mission. Hart explains that being a Kingsman means being a gentleman, which Eggsy isn’t. Hart, of course, plans to fix that.

They head to the tailor, and check out some spy gadgets. And much to their surprise, Valentine is also there, under the guise of getting a suit. Hart takes the opportunity to recommend a hatter, who gives him a top hat with built in listening devices. I love it.

Eggsy, meanwhile, speaks with Arthur at Kingsman HQ. He’s commanded to perform one final test: kill his pug, J.B. Which...yeah, damn, that sucks. He doesn’t do it, understandably. Unfortunately...Roxy does kill her dog. She succeeds...and Eggsy’s kicked out of the Kingsman candidacy. Which feels like a bullshit play, if I’m honest.

Eggsy steals Arthur’s car, then goes back home. As he’s about to confront his stepfather, Hart brings back the car via remote access, then explains to Eggsy that the gun was filled with blanks, and that Eggsy ended up giving up his shot. He also reveals that the first candidate to die...didn’t actually die! It’s been a ruse all along, meant to test the candidates under the strictest of conditions. Which sucks, obviously, because Eggsy’s out of the program.

And at that point, Valentine says something of note, revealing that he plans to go to a hate church in Kentucky to begin his master plan. Hart heads there, and tells Eggsy to stay put.

We get treated to just...just the loveliest of sermons. Disgusting. But then...

...that’s the point, isn’t it?

Because Valentine uses the SIM cards to create a signal that drives the parishioners crazy. Hart’s also in the church, however, and he also starts going crazy. Which leaves the question: what happens when a highly trained spy goes up against untrained civilians, has a bunch of gadgets...and has absolutely no restraint whatsoever?

A MASSACRE, THAT’S WHAT HAPPENS. And most surprisingly, it’s a massacre that we actually SEE. Hart basically kills almost EVERYBODY in the church. I’ll put the video up, but...y’know, be warned here. It ain’t pretty.

Hart comes to, and realizes exactly what he’s done. He leaves, only to be confronted by Valentine and his men. The Bond metaphor finally comes full-circle, explained directly by Valentine. But instead of explaining his whole plan and devising some complicated way to kill Hart that he’ll inevitably escape from...

He just shoots Hart in the head. Holy shit. And this is while Merlin, Arthur, and yes, Eggsy watch on through Hart’s home feed. Looks like a new Kingsman is needed.

Arthur tells Merlin to assemble the Kingsmen. But Eggsy...Eggsy has other plans. Thinking on Hart’s words about wanting to do something good with his life. He goes to Arthur to talk to him about Hart’s death. Arthur invites him in for brandy. And that’s...when my mind exploded.

HE’S FUCKING IN ON IT?!? Michael Caine, NOOOO! Turns out that Valentine’s convinced Arthur of his true plan: a culling. He believes that the Earth’s temperature because there’s simply too much humanity, like a body trying to kill a virus. And so...he’s going to make the virus exterminate itself. And that argument’s enough to win Caine over.

Turns out that the implant is meant to protect those individuals against a neurological signal emitted by the SIM cards, the same one that went off in the church. Arthur, realizing that Eggsy understands exactly what’s going on, poisons him, then asks if he would like to join them. Eggsy refuses...and Arthur sets off the remote poison to kill him.

But NOPE! EGGSY SWITCHED THE FUCKIN’ GLASSES! I love this movie. Arthur dies, and Eggsy uses the opportunity to dig the implant from his neck. He takes that and Arthur’s phone to Merlin and Lancelot, who realize that they can’t trust anyone at this point. And so, the three of them - yes, the three of them - go to stop Valentine.

And, yeah...I can dig it. OH HOW I CAN DIG it.

Roxy goes up in an experimental vehicle to bring down the satellite, Merlin is flying the plane, and Eggsy...Eggsy’s the one going in disguised as Arthur, in order to infiltrate the mountain lair of Valentine. Here, he and the other beneficiaries wait it out, while the world literally tears itself apart. Now wearing a bespoke suit and playing the role of a gentleman, Eggsy enters the lion’s den.

But as expected, it’s time to hit some snags. Roxy waits juuuuuust a little too long, and one of the balloons in her craft pops. As for Eggsy, he meets an old “friend” of his in the form of Charlie, who’s now working for Valentine.

The missile’s fired just in time, as Charlie’s taken out and Eggsy runs for the plane. AWESOME climax here as Eggsy escapes. I mean it; it is VERY cool. They succeed JUST in time, and the satellite is destroyed. However, Valentine’s still managed to partially start the process, and they can’t do anything about that.

Eggsy’s gotta go BACK in, before Valentine gets another satellite to trigger the signal worldwide. Now armed with Hart’s AWESOME umbrella, he makes his way there under heavy gunshot. They’re also teaming up against Merlin in the plane, so he’s not doing great. And that when Eggsy has the idea...to turn the implants on. ALL of them.

It’s amazing. Violence in fireworks. So, it’s too bad that it doesn’t stop the signal. It works, and people start to tear each other apart all across the world. But only for was long as Valentine has his hands on the desk. Eggsy manages to stop that by laying down some suppressive fire.

That provokes a response.

..This movie is, for lack of a better term, fucking rad.

Gazelle and Eggsy have an awesome fight, worthy of any James Bond movie, seriously. I really want to give it the video post honor, but I’ve done that too much already. For god’s sake, I literally JUST did that.

Gazelle dies (it’s kinda goofy how she dies, if I’m honest), and Eggsy kills Valentine with her prosthetic leg. It’s over, as the signal ends, and Eggsy even gets the girl. Not Roxy, the Princess of Sweden. Not going into it, but it’s funny.

And that’s Kingsman: The Secret Service! Honestly, I gotta say, that was a rad-as-shit movie, and...

Ooh, a mid-credits scene! Eggsy goes back home, to the pub, where his stepfather and mom are hanging out with the gang. And let’s just say...Dean’s gonna get a little comeuppance. Manners, after all, maketh man.

OK, THAT’S Kingsman: The Secret Service! And that, again, was pretty rad. See you in the Epilogue in a few!

[thiscitychickk]

SO this isn’t even fully edited by @ellesjourney yet (sorry Elle!) but people keep sending anon messages asking for the chapter and instead of getting annoyed.. enjoy a snippet that will definitely change before I post chapter 17, but.. a snippet nonetheless.

“We’ll keep taking it one step at a time,” Draco soothed, rubbing soothing circles on her stomach under the huge Tar Heels shirt she stole from him. “How many voicemails?”

“Only three.”

Thank God no one liked to hop on the phone anymore. Texts were far easier to handle.

“Let’s listen to them,” the man instructed, and Hermione felt herself sink into his embrace a little.

At a time where she felt so uncertain and frazzled, Draco seemed to be completely in control. She had no idea how he was so composed, but she was grateful.

“Can you answer my texts? Your followers are blowing up and people I haven’t spoken to since Harvard are reaching out like I don’t know exactly what they’re doing! Happy Easter my ass. Love ya. Call me… immediately!”

Hermione turned to smile softly at Draco after Pansy’s voice faded out. She hit play on the next message.

“Hermione… what the hell are you doing, girl? I have like… a million calls and texts and emails and DMs from reporters asking for statements. I was wondering why Remus gave me a lecture about protecting the identities of our staff, but shit.. Now I know. Okay, wow. So call me when you’re done with your boy toy and the legion of evil. Can I make those jokes anymore? Shit, is he listening? If he is… I knew you two were together months ago! And Hermione denied it! Bye! Call me!”

“If Gemma talked like that I’d fire her,” Draco said, making Hermione laugh. His communications director was just as buttoned-up as he was, while Tonks was just as energetic and even more eccentric than James. It worked out well.

“She’s… a character, but I trust her,” Hermione defended her colleague gently. She hit play on the next message.

“Mione? What the hell’s going on? Dad said to leave you alone, but.. Hey!”

“Happy Easter gal, I told Harry to leave you alone, but when has my son ever listened? Go enjoy your day, eat some caviar and foie gras. Just make sure you don’t drink any red wine they try to give you... Baptists don’t drink wine. It’s the blood of innocent children. There’s no coming back once you’ve taken a sip... look where Snape ended up. I'm just kidding dear... enjoy yourself. We’ll face the music when we have to. I’ll get this one to go away.”

“Wait! Da-”

The line went dead and Hermione rolled her eyes.

“If only the American people knew who they were trusting to represent them. I mean… that man is the voice of over 815,000 people in Congress.”

“Oh, stop! James is a good man, he’s just a bit fast and loose with his tongue.”

“That’s one way of putting it. How about we call Pansy and find out what’s come out so far?”

“That makes sense… I figure it’s better to hear it from her then check social media myself,” Hermione agreed as she hit her friend’s contact.

“Finally!” Pansy exclaimed. “What’s going on?”

“Happy Easter to you too, sis,” Hermione smiled. “We’re back at Draco’s and just going through all of my messages. We figured you could give us a rundown of what’s happened.”

“Well, some dumb ass from your high school tweeted out who you were when the first photos and videos popped up and the Draco stans confirmed your identity almost immediately. You have over 75,000 new Twitter followers and over 100,000 on Instagram.”

“Why does anyone even care,” she replied in a slightly dazed tone. They knew that this was a possibility once her face was public, but… why would people follow her? She doesn’t even post photos with Draco, her stories were photos of food and boomerangs of her walking in heels through the Capitol on days she liked her outfit. They’d be sorely disappointed if they were hoping for content with a certain blond man.

“Why wouldn’t they care is the better question. You're making news on a day where most people are stuck in their grandmother’s house that smells like cat litter listening to their relatives fight about the last will and testament of someone awful and rich who isn’t even dead yet. There’s nothing to do but stalk you and speculate. Talking shit online is one of the few joys these poor souls can indulge in.”

Well… that was one very specific way to put it.

[primedirection]

Homecoming

In which things don't go as planned

Warnings: A lil angst & a lil fluff mentions of panic attack

AN: Kinda did this one for me idk.. Hope you like it anyway!

(Uce- Samoan for brother. Sounds like oose)

Harry wasn't coming home.

He'd been away for three months this time and it seemed to be the hardest. Promises of coming home were thrown around left and right so much it lost it's merit. It was supposed to be his last week two weeks ago and yet he was still needed all over the place for reasons she lost track of. Hosting for James Corden, Album teaser promos, Gucci photo shoots, music video location scouting, auditions and so on and so forth. So busy that at best she was lucky she got a text of recognition or a FaceTime session every other week.

Honestly she tried not to fault him for it, not to hold it against him. She understood more than anyone what his career meant to him and how hard he worked to achieve his goals and dreams. Truly a blessing and a curse all at once. But once the disappointment hit it, it hit and took it's tole.

For right now she was done dealing with it.

She'd been so fed up of being alone and having no one to talk to in person that she requested the week off from work and sent for tor nephews to come visit. The same week of vacation time she'd been planning to use to visit Harry on the road. But decided that she'd only be a distraction to him during the short moments she did get to see him. The boys were out for the summer anyway and thanks to the overwhelming Facebook post of their mother, she knew they all could use a break.

From the moment that they stepped inside the departure terminal she realized that she had made the right decision. Bombarded with affection from all directions the second they were close enough. The relief practically consuming her. It was all quite surreal since she practically helped raise them. Like just yesterday she was changing their diapers for extra cash on the weekends so that their parents date nights could ensue. Now here they are teenage heartbreakers bragging about their own personal lives.

As the week went by things only got better. For once the massive house was filled with endless laughter and the type of love that came without judgment and ridicule. Unconditional love. That alone created a joy so pure that the evilest intentions couldn't spoil it. Something she honestly hasn't felt in a while. The atmosphere was almost magical whenever either of their families visited and this time was no different.

This was exactly what the doctor ordered and a complete win-win situation. Because while she gave them something to somewhat brag about to all their friends back home (via pictures with their beloved uncle's Mustang) they gave her enough peace of mind to stop checking her phone every 30 seconds, nonetheless throughout the entire day. To the point she felt comfortable enough to turn it off. Thanks to the hyperactive bunch most nights sleep found her first since the boys turned out to be a handful in the best way.

Or so she thought.

When it was their final day she decided to go all out. An early trip to The Grove to spoil them rotten, as any elected favorite auntie would. Then retired back home to fire up the grill for dinner while the two full-blown teenagers made their last rounds of projecting themselves like missiles inside the pool.

"Heyyy, unless y'all want to find out how edible chlorine is y'all better chill out!" She shouted playfully over her shoulder when a particular splash reached far enough to soak her from the waist down. ”Now out of the water so we can eat!" She retreated back inside the house followed by a chorus of disappointed 'AWWWWWs'.

"Good to see you're 'avin fun," Harry's sudden appearance in the kitchen nearly made her scream. So divulged in burger making she never noticed him. Short hair a mess from his incessant hand's tousling, everything about him was hard and only amplified by the bags resting under his eyes.

Though by the look on his face and his tone she wasn't sure how to feel. The impulsive urge to rush over and enrapt him in over due love was killed when she felt the energy around him. Clearly he was upset. So she gently tested the waters, "When did you get back?"

"You'd know if you read at least one of my fuckin' messages," Harry was pissed and right now her oblivion to it only made it worse as he silently noted that she didn't rush to greet him as he had expected.

They were both stubborn to a fault sometimes, this one being one of them. And while he had his passive aggressive moments she had her combative confronting moments to match them. Thus why disagreements often turned into war zones.

In her eyes he had absolutely no right to be this angry, "You mean the one you send every other week? Sorry, didn't know I was supposed to wait every got damn second by the phone for a chance you might get the urge to call me!"

"S'not like you couldn't call me. Guess I'm not much of priority to you when I'm across the world am I? Much less having a panic attack," That's not at all what he wanted to say. He honestly didn't even mean it. But sometimes, very rarely, he spoke without thinking. Though every single one of those times his words were purposely reckless, usually with the intent of pushing buttons. Which in this case happened to be several of hers.

There was so many things wrong with his rebuttal that it frazzled her, "Panic attack?!"

"Yeah. Tha' thing where you can't breathe and it really feels like you're dying," his attitude was in full force as he elaborated.

Her eyes narrowed in a glare, "How was I supposed to know that would happen when I finally try and distract myself?"

"There's a difference between distracting yourself and flat out ignoring me,"

"So now it's my fault that you don't know when to fucking quit? One more week.. one more week.. Jeff says this Jeff says that blah blah blah!" She mocks his voice angrily. "Do you ever even think of how hard it is for me when you're gone? You've got hundreds of people constantly around you and I'm just here alone in this big ass house-"

"Fuck this!" He groans utterly aggravated, pivoting on his heels to storm out. The past three days had felt like the worst of his life and she was totally none the wiser. Even now as he struggled to keep afloat, to keep his head above water she only seemed interested in knocking him down.

"Fuck what? Fuck me? Is that what you're saying?" She demanded hurt, meanwhile in his mind he knew she was seeing nothing but red.

At that response he knew this was going nowhere fast, definitely nowhere good anyway. He couldn't talk to her when she was like this, angry beyond reason where even the most innocent things rub her the wrong way.

"Uce?!" As soon as he was noticed they both knew the argument was temporarily over. Long ago she had indulged Harry of their dysfunctional childhood due to the immaturity of their parents, and sworn to always provide safe spaces for them. So for everyone's sake she quickly left the room, using her soiled clothes as an excuse.

Harry may not have been in any mood to host but managed to allow his anger to dissipate when he was pulled into welcoming hugs. He loved her family, especially her nephews. The respect and regard they had for her was daunting and unparalleled. Upon first meeting them, at thirteen and fourteen years old they laid into him better than any father ever could or ever had. Especially since hers passed away when she was young. So profoundly protective there was no surprise on his end when they shared their plan of walking her down the aisle to give her away someday. Though now they were in every way his family without marriage. "We thought you were taking over the world again Uce, what happened?"

Uce, a nickname that was lovingly given to him by the entirety of her family because of his thick accent whenever he said the word 'us'. Endearing enough to immediately strip him of any and all ill feelings. "Not happy to see me?" He teased knowing full well just how much they adored him in return. Proven when they both erupted in offense bright eyed and bushy tailed.

"Uhhh... she's cool, or whatever but even when we're having fun she's still intense," the younger of the brothers informed pointing in the direction she disappeared in.

"And she doesn't have the keys, Uce! She doesn't have the keys!" The elder of the two wailed in true melodramatic fashion.

"Keys?" Harry queries with a frown and yet amused, leaning against the counter and folding his arms over his chest patiently waiting to be clued in on their slang. "Keys to wha'?"

"You know, the Audi.. The girls... How do we get into one of those wild model parties where they do org-"

"Boy the next word out of your mouth better be organization! And you need to be talking about the keys to passing your college entry exams!" She yells on her way upstairs. She'd be so happy when the girl craze phase was over for them, and it couldn't come soon enough.

"See what I mean?" The younger of the two mutters through a mouth full of food shaking his head and Harry started to laugh. He'd never be able to convey how much he missed them when they weren't around. Just them being there almost made him forget he was angry to begin with. Almost. "Anyway you never answered my question?"

Harry sighs heavily suddenly exhausted, "Didn't feel well,"

Sparking even more questions from the two young boys, "Don't you have doctors that travel with you for that?" Snowballing to a squabble even, "Is it contagious?" "Dude!" "I'm just saying, I have football practice when we get back I can't afford to be sick,"

Chuckling despite himself Harry shook his head, "No mate, was a panic attack. Jus' need some rest, been going non stop,"

Both their faces dropped with worry, "Whoa. You okay Uce? I mean is it cool we're here?"

Harry nodded reassuringly, "M' getting there," honestly adding, "Thanks to you lot. Actually wish I'd been here the whole time, s' been awhile since I've seen you last,"

The eldest made a nonchalant noise, "We'll be visiting again soon don't worry. Especially when you start touring for real, the ladies need me,"

"Mate, have you ever heard of quality over quantity? That is the biggest key,"

"Yeah just now, and look who you're with. The biggest control freak of them all,"

Although Harry wasn't totally thrilled with her he had to admit, "It's actually quite sexy when she's not being a pain in the arse,"

"Bruh, I'm eating!" The younger brother snarled and Harry laughed at that. God, he loved them. Practically the little brothers he's always wanted. That feeling in particular struck remembrance inside him, remembrance of what brought on the panic attack in the first place.

He wasn't happy. Sure his professional life was thriving since business was booming, but his relationship suffered the most because of it. These days he was hardly ever home, barely even had the time to make phone calls and the realization scared him. Not once did she complain but he wasn't blind to the fact she was slowly but surely slipping from his grasp. Whether or not her cold shoulder had been intentional over the past week it shook him down to the core. So many of his previous relationships ended like that, with them losing the will to fight for him. Not that he was putting in the same effort back then and he had the worst habit of blaming them for it anyway. Hince the incident a little while ago. But that was the absolute last thing he wanted for them. It just wasn't worth it.

Harry wanted romantic vacations, joint family holidays, anniversary parties, babies! Lots and lots of babies...

A distinct warning pang in his chest made him realize he had to take advantage of the boy's presence while he could. Glancing over his shoulder, he listened hard to make sure the shower was running, "Since we're on the topic I need to talk you lads about something,"

"If it's about your sex life please don't,"

"Relax if I wanted to torture you I'd left you with her. I'm talking about tour. I've been thinking and after this week I'm not sure I want to do it. Like anymore.. Or well at least for right now anyway,"

"Please don't do this to me, I'll finally be old enough to get in the club by the end of this year!" The elder boy whined and the younger smacked the side of his head annoyed.

"Dude shut up he's serious! Anyway... Why not?"

Harry was filled with nerves deciding to break it down nice and easy, "Remember what you told me when we first met?"

"Yeah, 'why are your jeans so tight'? To be honest I'm still wondering...that can't be good for you." The eldest teased.

"Not tha'," Harry chuckled rolling his eyes.

A lightbulb seemed to go off in the mind of the youngest, "Oh, that we're a packaged deal and anything you want with her has to be run through us first,"

Harry took a deep breath nodding in confirmation, "Well, man to man...to man. I think you've had long enough to feel me out. Have I earned your blessings to become your official uncle?"

"Let me get this straight, you want to skip a worldwide tour and a chance to make millions more to get married? Weddings aren't all that much fun,"

"To get married, to go on a honeymoon, and to start making your baby cousins," Harry clarified.

"I'm more so concerned at you not knowing you already had it. We wouldn't have let her move in if we didn't,"

"Yeah Uce, we've all been wondering what the hell is taking so long. Especially grandma, she's been super suspicious of your Aquarius nature," the older boy teased and both boys laughed apparently there was an inside joke he wasn't aware of.

"To be fair I was waiting for your aunt to say something. Guess she's not much of a control freak like we thought huh?" Harry muttered stealing fries from both their plates.

"Yeah right, do you have a ring?" The younger asked as he shielded his plate from Harry's invasion.

"Still having it made," he confessed a little embarrassed.

"Well don't pop it out without us!"

Harry snorted, "Mate, I'd never dream of it," and from the bottom of his heart he meant it.

After everyone showered, the final movie night had progressed rather smoothly. Horror was the only genre the boys would focus on, though it probably had something to do with all the topless scenes in them. Nevertheless she picked this one; 'Wrong Turn' easily one of her favorites.

To her surprise before it started Harry came in the room, dressed in a loose gray T-shirt and navy basketball shorts. Earning a round of cheers from his ever adoring audience. He sat in the row of plush recliners directly behind the boys and it kind of hurt her feelings since she was in the one in front of them. "S' your last night here where else would I be?"

For a long beat of a moment they both exchanged wary glances before drifting back to the screen in front of them. Though in reality she was hardly paying attention. Her curiosity peaked through the roof at just what it took to get him to join. Mostly because, she knew better than anyone when Harry was in a bad mood he isolated himself. But just now he didn't seem to be the slightest bit hostile. Then again she shouldn't be too surpised given he was just another giant kid to them.

Against her better judgment she spared another look just to find him already staring at her. A dimple sinking in one cheek as the corner of his lips tug in a reluctant smile. In turn making her belly swell with butterflies of relief. She also became painfully aware of the distance between them and hated it.

Before she even had time to process the idea of swallowing her pride, she was up out of her seat with her blanket wrapped around her. She could've easily sat in either of the seats beside him but that still wasn't close enough. "Truce?" She whispered pouting guiltily, waving the tag of her soft throw blanket like a flag.

But apparently she wasn't as quiet as she thought, "Wait, you guys are fighting?" Both boys were turned around in their seats, eyes ping ponging back and forth between them worried. Ultimately falling on her, "What did you do?"

"If you don't mind your own business I swear to God you're going to the airport tonight!" She warned icily and that quickly got them to turn back around.

At first Harry doesn't say anything, he simply reclines his seat further back and readjusts his legs to make room for her. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief. Springing into action, she climbed in next to him sitting with her legs draped over his lap tenting them both in warmth. From there they practically melted into one another her chest to his front, stealing kisses and touches they'd been deprived of. Silent apologies in a way, but just in case she said it aloud, "I'm sorry H," tucking her face into the crook of his neck. The closer she was the better she felt. "Should've been there for you."

"S' okay love me too, I should've been here," he sighed holding on tighter.

"Well we're all here now so can we watch the movie please?" The eldest brother chimed.

She started to swat him in the head from behind until Harry caught her wrist and laughed, "Sorry lads won't happen again," figuring there was a better way to make it up to her quietly. Confusion was blatantly on her face up until Harry stealthily slipped his hand under her shirt, sliding upwards tortuously slow. To stifle her impatience she kissed him deep then. But before she could receive the pleasure of the taste of his lips properly Harry stiffened, and not in the place she wanted him to.

Eyes peeling back open Harry's smirk was sheepish and directed to the front. Met with a grimace, "Ugh puhleeease don't be that couple!" And a glare, "Yeah, I really don't want to be in the room when my baby cousin is conceived,"

She rolled her eyes, "Tuh, it's only fair. I was right next door when both of you were." Kissing him again and causing an over the top show of dry heaving and gagging.

"Uce, c'mon man make it stop!"

Harry merely smiled finally feeling like all was right in the world again. "Gotta keep it fresh lads, it's key."

[evotter]

jan, march, sept + one of your choice, love. have a great day, u icon

thank u kyra i adore u

january: what was the first fic you posted this year?

the first fic i posted this year TECHNICALLY was the epilogue of a different path. the first standalone was chewbacca (aka my introduction to the jily world once again and i have such a soft spot for it)

march: do you listen to music whilst writing? 

yes! pretty much always; if it’s not music, it’s a TV show.

september: share a comment or review which still warms your heart?

quite literally anything you’ve left on any of my fics BUT there are a few that i hold dear to my heart. i’ll post them under the cut cause they are LONG :’)

ancient: the first fic you ever posted online?

hahahaaaaaaa. it was my own version of rick riordan’s the son of neptune before the actual book was published. it was on ff.net, and the first chapter got 7 reviews, and i felt so good about myself after that lmfao. who knew i’d still be writing 8 years later?

ask me questions!

OKAY so i have 3 top favorites:

from a different path:

okay so i had seen this in someone else’s bookmarks the other day, thought it was an interesting concept—especially since i too love slytherin!percy and strongly subscribe to ofswordsandpens’ headcanons about it—but didn’t give it another thought until i was listening to a video about the cursed child and went: wait, there’s a percabeth hogwarts au that i saw somewhere. and immediately i hunted this down and i’m just in awe? i tore through it. belatedly, i realized that i made a mistake: i didn’t write down my thoughts as i was reading, which is definitely a disservice to you. however, here are a generalized list of things that i loved.

first of all, with hogwarts au’s, there are three main aspects that i look for: plot, characterization, and quality of writing. normally, fics of this size lack one or more of these key factors, but i was astonished to find that the plot is tremendously tight and intriguing (my lip bled from biting it so much because i’ve been stressed to the max), you write these characters with such distinct voices i can easily picture them saying everything—except, of course, now in a little british accent—and your writing flows so well, it feels almost like i’m reading an actual harry potter book, just with percy and co. you also do a masterful job of weaving together aspects of the pjo universe with the established canon of hp.

and there are so many specific things that i love. primarily, the way you write the relationships in this story; not just concerning percabeth (though i will get to that in a minute), but also with each of the interactions between all of the characters. i applaud you for how you handled luke/annabeth and rachel/percy, and the friendship among them all is just incredibly well done. i especially love how well you wrote connor and zoë and just, a lot of characters that i don’t often think about when i think of pjo. grover and percy’s friendship especially is heartbreaking, i just. he’s so protective because he loves his friends and holy fuck i also love how you wrote grover in this. but i just adored how you wrote annabeth/percy—the love between them, both platonic in its early stages and the romantic all throughout, was doubly apparent. i ached when they kissed each other’s cheeks, and i inwardly cheered when she kissed him in the locker room. there was just such a natural progression, to me, of their relationship. and man did i dig it. i’m excited (and maybe a little scared) to see where you take their relationship in the future.

boy, this is getting long. sorry. but some more just little quick things: loved the b99 reference, with both of their competitive natures playing out in a similar way to jake and amy’s. i kind of want to go back and see if i can find any other references that i missed because i was just too engaged in the story to catch them. also, zoë’s death killed me all over again, thanks for that. i like how you’re working the kronos plot in, and i can’t wait to see how the Final Battle plays out. what else? oh! professor hestia? beautiful. eventual maybe professor percy? outstanding. percy kissing the top of annabeth’s head? breathtaking. rachel being a quidditch commentator? earth shattering. (truly i cackled when i saw that.) mrs. o’leary being a cat? incredible. how you incorporated percy’s water powers? stunning.

ooh, this exchange was beautiful and had me cackling it was so in-character:

“None of us are dying.” Connor clarifies. “Not you, not me, not Annie, not the rest of us.”

“I might have to dispute that.” Annabeth says, from Percy’s other side. “Call me ‘Annie’ one more time, Stoll, and I’ll kill you myself.”

Connor only grins at her. “Sorry, love. No more ‘Annie’. Can I call you Beth?”

“No.”

“Anna?”

“No.”

okay, so i just finished chapter nine and i am blown away. sorry for how long this comment was, but a fic of this magnitude truly warrants it. i can’t wait to see what happens next.

i leave you with just two words: “holy shit.”

from a different path: 

god, oh my god, am i the only dumb bitch who didn’t get what the prophecy was??

anyway, i stumbled on this fic last year, patiently waiting for its completion, and now that i’ve rediscovered it, i’m so glad i finished it all in one go! i couldn’t imagine the tension of waiting for the next chapter, especially since the tension is so well-crafted!! i hardly noticed the tonal shift even as the story got darker and darker as it led up to the war, and in that way i was reminded of how extremely similar it felt to reading the hp books for the first time! you nailed percy very well i might say, and the awkward-yet-caring relationship he has with his dad. i daresay you gave connor and zoe more characterization than rick riordan himself, and the percabeth you wrote is perfect to the nth degree. i appreciate that you didnt bother with all the love triangle and unrequited feelings nonsense as well.

but i have to say, even as i cried at sally and paul’s wedding, or at dionysus’ quiet mourning for castor, what really struck with me most was the way you handled silena. for that, i have no words. that was a job extremely well done. thank you so much for blessing us with this fic.

from chewbacca (a comment from u!): 

A girl in a bright yellow hooded raincoat stumbles into the cafe on one of the slowest nights James has ever seen. Her coat is dripping all over the floor he’d just cleaned (but it’s fine) and when he leans over the counter he sees that her boots match the coat.

First of all!!! Thats the best opening line in the world and nobody can convince me otherwise. I want to become a publisher just so that if you ever write a book, I’d be able to publish it. ( like omg, what an honor??? )

She looks like sunshine, standing there with the amount of yellow in her wardrobe. Briefly, James wonders if that’s her favorite color. It’s got to be.

Im going to quote this whole fic but I really love these lines? Like, you have this distinct style of writiting that I aim to acheive and you’re literally such a rolemodel!!! These are my favorite kind of fics to read. Funny story but I was going through a ‘no thanks Jily’ mood (  a horror, i know !! ) but your fics are just,,,,exceptions? You could write about trash and I’d love it and ask for you to sign me up.

 “Say it again, but convincingly this time.”

ooof this dialogue??? let me breathe

This is the longest he’s stood still since he started working. It’s actually a miracle.

and the funniest person award goes to YOU. also, the most talented and cutest but thats neither here nor there.

james taking care of fleamont, switching off the lights gives me just a nice and realistic vibe? its so simple but i love how you added it.

honestly at this point, ive been sucked again by the fanfic. it feels less like a fic and more like a masterpiece that belongs in a museum but anyway.

“James is supposed to be helping.

James is on his phone.”

ugh i love ur mind. im rereading and its so nice and lovely. even if its like 1am and im exhausted, this fic is sustaining me.

“Do it off the clock, would you?”

PEAK HUMOR

have i mentioned how much i love that scene with euphemia? she seems like such a lovely mom. i love ur euphemia the most. and ahh, both of them just rushing to the hospital ? another 100% good scene.

“Euphemia smiles too, but looks at Fleamont rather than at her son. “Yes,” she says. “It really does.””

fic? or shakspeare? HMMM

A girl in a bright yellow hooded raincoat stumbles into the cafe on one of the slowest nights James has ever seen // “Get fucked.”

the fic!! has made a circle!!! i love how it begins and ends along the same lines. I really want to know how??? are you so talented im in love.

i just really love this fic, okay? i love how james is just the kindest, lily is allowed to have feelings, its just so soft and warm. and it makes someone feel loved, want love anyway.

the dynamic between the characters are just so real and great and im astounded, in short.

your sirius is everything. so many fics potray him as a dick??? which is first of all #rude and also, not at all true. you made me love these characters even more so i sincerely hope you never stop writing.

you’re such a beautiful writer and the way you string words together is just poetic and gorgeous and all the other good adjectives you can think of. i read your spiderman x reader too and i was a goner for you. EVERYTHING YOU WRITE IS SO GOOD. i read it so long ago but i can vividly remember peter whipping the mask off and she just going wtf stop on the window ledge. what im trying to say is that you leave this lasting impression on people that make them remember random scenes and words / prose long after they’ve read it which is a remarkable feat, i believe.

and im so sorry im not on tumblr rn bc i cannot keep recing this fic but i have told my friends about your writing and they loved it too. you’ve got like a million fans. when i do get back from my hiatus, im going to keep recing your fics and people will cry because their universe will shift thanks to the newfound joy of your presence in their life.

lastly, im more of a dog person and that, more than anything, should tell you how much i love this fic. i love u. and basee on your writing, i want to hug you, be your best friend and make you cookies bc again

WOW

[inaheartbeat-phff]

Chapter 21

Saturday, February 14 2015, 9:00am

Nottingham Cottage, Kensington Palace

Arabella woke up to a bright bedroom, she didn’t remember sleeping with the blinds open the night before, she also didn’t remember sleeping alone in the big bed. Still with her eyes closed, she felt around the bed, mostly reaching out to Harry's side of the bed, before opening her eyes slowly.

Her eyes blinked as she tried to get used to the brightness before sweeping her eyes across the room. Throughout the room, she can see the place still messy, clothes from last night every where in the room, documents from the parliament piled up on top of the desk at the corner of the room and a little bit of food was still on the table at the foyer of their master bedroom.

Stretching her arms over her head, she rolled over and got out of bed. On her bedside table, she has her phone charged, a lamp as well as a book she was reading before she went to bed. She was reading a book by her dear friend Michelle Obama, that was sent to her early before the release so that Arabella was able to read it. It was called Michelle Obama: A Life. Inside, before the book started, was a written note by Michelle herself to Arabella, it said, "To my dearest friend, Bella. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I do and found it helpful in your journey to leadership. I wish you all the luck in the upcoming days and all the best. Can't wait to see you again, hopefully soon."

She took her phone out of the charging port and sat herself up, leaning on the head of the bed. She opened her iPhone and checked her emails before going on the official twitter and instagram accounts to see what her people have been saying and to find current issue in the pop culture. Things that is somewhat important to her line of work.

After going on YouTube and getting sucked into watching a few beauty videos, Arabella got sucked into watching a few gossip channels and see what the social media world have been talking about her and the people she knows. It funny looking at what normal people think about their day to day lives and when they get things wrong about how her life works. That's why she's making a documentary on her life, so that people can see that she does work like other people, similar but not so similar.

Arabella's work refers to her being the crown princess, she goes to her offices and go to meetings all day, she goes in at 9 am and finishes at 5 pm. Sometimes she has engagements to go to, sometimes she has to stay late. She gets paid for her work, sure some are voluntary works but most of the things she does, do get paid by her government.

Once she finally realize that she's been watching YouTube videos for an hour, she moved on to her messages and go through her family group chats first. She has many group chats. Contrary to popular belief, many if not all of her family members have their own phones and they connect with each other through the group chats.

Arabella has many group chats, she has one with her immediate family, one with her godparents, one with her best friends, one with most of the European royals that’s in the similar age group, one for just her girlfriends and finally one with Harry's cousins and his aunt who is closer to them.

She took her time going through the group chats one by one. She first opened the one with her family in it, her father, grandmother as well as step-mother. The texts that she got were mostly good mornings as well as some happy valentines. Her father asked her grandmother what were her plans today and that reminded Arabella where Harry was. Her fiance is always beside her when she wakes up except the times when he was deployed or if he has an engagement early that morning. Sometimes, even those engagements that are very important, the ones that her Aunt Lilibet usually attends, Arabella goes as well.

Once she was done replying and reading her texts, she stretched once more before getting up from the bed and putting on her fluffly sandals. She then move her way through the room to the coat hanger on the corner of the room, and put on her robes. Her robes were a custom silk robe with her name crystalized at the back and at the front of her robes, on the left side is her monogram engraved. Her robe was a gift to her from Cartier, a few years ago.

She tied her robes and with her phone in her hands, she went to the dining room to have her breakfast. It's a late morning for her, usually she's awake at seven or eight in the morning so that her day can start. Today however, she took her time relaxing and Arabella knows that she has nothing on today, since one, it's a Saturday, and two, Harry made sure she's only back to normal work at the end of the month, starting off with a joint engagement with Harry.

Again, she took her time with her breakfast as well as reading her morning paper. Arabella was sipping her morning tea when her phone lit up on the table next to her plate. She put down her cup and reached over to take the phone. There on the screen is a series of text messages from Harry.

"Get ready by 2, I'm taking you out."

"Dress comfortably."

"Happy Valentine's day baby."

"I love you"

With a smile and a shake of her head, Arabella wiped her mouth and stood up from her seat before making her way out of the dining room and into her walk in closet to find something to wear.

The weather is still quite cold outside so she chose a black turtle neck paired with black skinny jeans some heeled boots. She also took her oversized red coat and brought it out to the her bedroom so she would remember to wear it later on. Arabella then went to the bathroom and did her morning routine (shower, brush her teeth, put on her make up, etc.). She then put on her outfit for the day, some red earrings as well as her boots on before taking her coat and hand bag in her hands and leaving the room.

Arabella went down to the ground floor on Nottingham Cottage.

The cottage has two stories. One ground level and an upper level. It's a small cottage, with only two bedrooms, an office, a big dining area, a kitchen, a pantry, 2 and a half baths, one receiving area, one living room and one tv room. The ground floor has a big dining area, a kitchen, a receiving area, the living room as well as the guest bathroom. The second floor has the two bedrooms and two baths, a small pantry area, a small dining room for just Harry and Arabella for breakfasts and a tv room.

None of her staff actually live in the cottage with them except for Harry and Arabella. Pieter and Mina comes in everyday at 6:30am through the staff door and would leave at 9pm after dinner and once everything is back in its place. Sara and Anna, Arabella's ladies in waiting would usually come in at around 8 in the morning and would leave at five pm. Most of her staff lives in Kensington Palace staff quarters while some is staying at St. James Palace.

When she reached the receiving room at the front of the house, Pieter was waiting for her by the front door with a to go cup of hot chocolate. Arabella handed him her back so that she can wear her coat. Pieter took her bag as well as the hot chocolate and put them down at the side table so that he can help her with her coat.

"Thank you Pieter." Arabella thanked him as she secures her coat around her and was handed her bag as well as the hot chocolate.

"Have a great valentine Ma'am." Pieter bowed to Arabella in which she returned with a smile before going out the front doors and into the awaiting cars with Finn, Max and Lucas.

With Barend and Liam still recovering from the accident, Markus is her primary chauffer. When Arabella saw her three protection officers, she knew that she must be going somewhere and not stay in London. Ever since the accident, if she were to go anywhere outside of London, all her protective officers have to follow her.

Arabella smiled at them and thanked Finn, who opened her door for her before going inside the car. Finn got in to the passenger seat while Lucas and Max went inside the car behind her. Markus started the car and off they go to an adventure that Arabella doesn’t know.

Arabella tried asking Finn or Markus where she was going, but it was to no avail. They wouldn’t budge one bit. Sighing, Arabella looked out the window and stare at the bustling city as they pass by.

Arabella must have dozed off to sleep because the next thing she knew, was that she was being shaken awake by Finn telling her that they have arrived. Stretching a little, she looked outside her window to see that she was at the private airport and that her private jet was waiting for her in the tarmac. Shaking out her hands, she stepped out of the car and looked around her surroundings. Noticing that Harry wasn’t anywhere to be found. She turned back to look at Finn and asked him where her fiance was. To that, he just shrugged and checked the perimeters.

She straightened herself before walking towards the jet and see her staff lining the stairs to greet her. Putting on a polite smile, Arabella greets them and chatted with them a little, trying to get some information out, but it didn’t work as well. They just smiled and kept quite.

Arabella went up the stairs of the plane and to her utmost surprise, she saw Harry inside the plane with his signature blue suit holding a bouquet of white roses. Smiling, she walked towards him and kissed him slowly.

"Hi." She whispered against his lips.

"Hi there." Harry smiled back. "Happy Valentine's day my love."

Smiling up at him, Arabella kissed him softly before saying, "I love you." She then pulled away and took a seat by the window. Harry followed after her and took the seat next to hers. When they finished strapping themselves in, Harry leaned over and kissed her on the cheeks before taking her hands in his and leaned back in his chair.

Arabella smiled sweetly at him before looking out the window.

"Good afternoon Your Royal Highnesses, this is Captain Jones speaking, it's a beautiful weather outside today, the flight will roughly be an hour long for us to reach our destination. Buckle in your seatbelts, we are about to take off soon."

When the captain was done speaking over the intercom, Arabella turned to look at Harry and admire how he looked from the side. His left hand holding Arabella's while the other was on his phone playing candy crush. She admired how his brows furrowed together as he try to figure out what move to make next. How he bit the bottom of his lips and scrunch his nose when he realize that it was a wrong move. The way his jaw clenches and he sighs in exasperation when he runs out of moves. Arabella is utterly and undeniably in love with Harry. There's no doubt about it.

"I can see you staring." Harry said as he continue to play his game.

"I'm not staring, I'm gazing." Arabella said before leaning over and kiss his stubbled jaw. His stubbles stings her lips for a second.

"Hm, well take a picture, it'll last longer."

"If you say so." Arabella then took out her phone and quickly snapped a picture before putting it back in her bag.

Shaking his head, Harry just laughs and continue playing his game. A few minutes later, the flight attendant came by and handed them some hot towels. They then proceed to check their seat belts and asked if any of them wanted any refreshments before take off. Once they collected back the hot towels, the captain announced that they were taking off soon.

The plane increased its speed and started taking off the runway, once they were up in the air and had leveled up, Arabella turned to Harry and start asking him where they were headed.

"So, where are you taking me babe?"

"Why don’t you wait and find out?" Harry said, turning to face her.

"Are we going to Edinburgh?"

"No."

"Amsterdam?"

"No."

"Dublin?"

"No."

"Berlin?"

"No."

"Come on babe, just tell me." Arabella whined.

"Nope." Harry smirked at her.

"Paris?"

With that, Harry turned away from Arabella.

"Ha! It's Paris isn't it? You're taking me to Paris?"

"Well, we'll see about that, won't we?" Harry turned back to look at her.

"Just admit it, I'm right." Arabella said. "You're taking me to Paris for Valentine's Day."

"Yes alright! I'm taking you to Paris." Harry grumbled. Arabella just smiled widely, looking like she just won the lottery. Harry just frowned, feeling a bit put out that Arabella figured out where they were heading.

"Oh, don’t look so glum babe." Arabella poked Harry in the stomach. She then proceeded to unbuckle her seatbelt and lean over to whisper in his ear. "Why don't you come to the room, and I'll make it up for guessing where we were going." She then nibbled lightly on his ear lobe and stood up, went over Harry, making sure to push her behind close to Harry's face as much as she can before walking to the bedroom, swaying her hips.

Harry just followed her with his eyes, checking her out, before unbuckling his seatbelt  and stood up quickly. Following her to the bedroom at the back. He realized that the door was closed and quickly opened it. He then saw her lying across the bed looking very sexy.

"Princess, you've been a very naughty girl." His voice dropped low and husky, closing the door behind him and crossing the room. "A very naughty girl."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

An hour later, they emerged from the bedroom, both satisfied and a little flushed. Other than that, there is no signs of what happened inside the room. They both head back to their seats just in time for the captain to announce that they were starting their decent.

Arabella and Harry buckled their seatbelts and held each others hands. Harry leaned and kissed her forehead before smiling contently. The plane landed smoothly and when the plane was on park, the pilot as well as the co-pilot came out of the cockpit and lined up against the exit of the plane together with the flight attendants to bid farewell to the royal couple.

Arabella and Harry stepped off the plane and was greeted by the royal car bearing the Netherlands flag. One thing it was missing though, is Arabella's coat of arms. This ensures that even though they get the privileged things such as parking everywhere and anywhere, without them knowing that it’s Arabella and Harry. It's very easy to go places with these flags, even better when she has her coat of arms up there too.

When they were both settled in the car and buckled up, Arabella turned to Harry and asked him more questions pertaining about the day. It's currently one in the afternoon and Arabella start feeling a bit hungry.

"So, where are we going for lunch?" Arabella nudged Harry on his side.

"I'm going to tell you now, so that you wont bother me later on." Harry scratched the back of his neck. "We're staying here over night and head back to London tomorrow afternoon. I booked the Belle Etoile Suite in Le Meurice Hotel. I've got lunch prepared for us there and then we are headed to the Palace de Versailles for a private tour. They closed it down for us today. Then we're going back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner. No I am not telling you where we are going to have dinner."

With that, Arabella just sighed and slouched back into her seat. She leaned up and kissed his cheeks and took hold of his hand. She then looked out the window and see Paris flash through outside.

About half an hour later, they arrive at the Le Meurice Hotel. The General Manager, bell hopper and a line of staff was there to greet them. As the car came to a stop, the general manager stepped forward and the bell hopper, went around the car towards the boot to take their luggage. Arabella didn’t even know that they packed some stuff. They greet the general manager and was shuffled inside, out of the cold and into the warm air. There wasn’t much people in the Lobby, so they breezed through it to a lift at the end of the lobby. It was hidden behind a pillar so if you're not looking for it, you wouldn’t find it. In front of the lift was two security guards standing with their arms together. That made sure that no one can go up. This is a private lift, that can access their suite.

The first thing when Arabella walked into the room, was the main living area place.

The suite have four bedrooms. The master will obviously be for Harry and Arabella. One of the extra bedroom will be their surveillance room as well as the equipment room, where they store their guns and everything. The last two rooms will be shared between the four protection officers that came with them.

Once they've all settled down, Harry brought Arabella outside to have lunch at the terrace by the Eiffel Tower. They had some French Cuisines as well as some champagne.

During Lunch, Harry couldn’t help but marvel at how beautiful Arabella looked with the Eiffel Tower behind her. He cant help but sneakily took out his phone and snapped a picture.

After lunch, Arabella went back to the room to change into something more comfortable. She changed into a knitted oversized grey sweater, white skinny jeans and white boots. She also opted to go for hooped earrings and a simple white watch. To top of her outfit, she took her grey long coat.

Once Arabella was ready, they headed off to their destination which was Palace De Versailles. The journey itself took 45 minutes. When they reached the Palace, they were greeted by the guide at the Royal Courtyard.

Harry and Arabella stepped out of the car, and walked towards the tour guide who was waiting at the top of the stairs. When they got close, the guide did a small curtsy and introduced herself.

"Good afternoon, your royal highnesses. My name is Alice Valois and I will be your guide today." She had a soft French accent and shook both Harry's and Arabella's hands.

"Good afternoon." They both answered her.

Once the introductions was done, they started the tour. Arabella has been to Palace de Versailles once a few years ago, for an official visit, but there's something about touring with her soon-to-be husband that makes this tour feel like it was her first time seeing it. As for Harry, this will be the first time he's in France since his mother's accident. He feels as if he was ready for Paris, to see it's beauty that people can see that isn't tinted by his mother's accident. And what better way than to go with his soon-to-be wife.

They started off the tour going to the first floor and into the Royal Chapel.

"Construction of the Royal Chapel was completed in 1710 at the end of the reign of Louis XIV. It was the fifth and final chapel built in the palace since the reign of Louis XIII. The design was presented to the King by Jules Hardouin-Mansart in 1699. The building's overall design were inspired by Gothic architecture. The Chapel was dedicated to Saint Louis, the patron saint of the King and an ancestor of the royal house, and included references to the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris which he had founded. The vaulted ceiling is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Every day the Court attended the King’s mass, which was usually held in the morning at 10. The sovereign sat in the royal tribune surrounded by his family. The ladies of the Court occupied the lateral tribunes, while the Officers and members of the public were seated in the nave. The king never descended into the nave except during religious celebrations when he took communion, ceremonies of the Order of the Holy Spirit, and the baptisms and weddings of the Princes and Princesses of the Realm which were held there from 1710 to 1789." Alice explained to the couple as they looked around the place.

Once they're done with the Chapel, they moved on to the King's Apartments.

"Louis XIV made several adjustments to his Private Apartments. The most major changes were carried out in 1701 when the King’s Chamber was moved to its current location, in the centre of the façade of the Marble Courtyard. As in all royal residences, the King’s Apartments contained the customary succession of rooms: a Guard Room, two antechambers, a chamber and a cabinet. Access to these rooms was subject to strict hierarchy and controlled by etiquette. Beyond them was the king’s private domain, which, as a matter of principle, no one could enter unless invited." Alice remarked before entering the first room which was the Guard Room.

"Like in all royal residences, the Guard Room marks the entrance to the King’s Apartments. Its decoration is deliberately understated. The king’s guards were stationed here to ensure the sovereign’s protection and were changed over every 24 hours. During the day their camp beds were folded up and stowed away behind screens. The little sculpted decoration there is contains references to fighting, in tribute to the room’s role. A painting by Parrocel that hangs over the fireplace, Battle featuring the King's guards (1684), honours the guards." Alice said as they look around the room.

The next room they entered was The Royal Table Antechamber.

"The Royal Table Antechamber was where Louis XIV used to dine in public from 1690, after the death of the queen and the Dauphine. Every evening a table was laid in front of the fireplace, and the king sat with his back to the hearth. The room is decorated with a series of 11 battle paintings by Joseph Parrocel, and a 12th depicting the Battle of Arbella, by Guillaume Courtois." Alice explained before moving on to the next room which was The Bull's Eye Antechamber.

"The second antechamber in the royal apartments, the Bull’s Eye Antechamber, is named after the circular window which brings light into the room on the southern side. This room was originally divided into two by a partition wall and was composed of the antechamber and the King’s chamber, in which the bed was placed in the left-hand corner next to the current fireplace. Frustrated by the small size of these rooms, which could barely contain all the courtiers in attendance when he got up and when he went to bed, Louis XIV decided to knock down the wall in 1701 and combine the two rooms into one. He moved his bedroom into the following room, which at the time was just a salon." Alice started off.

"The Bull’s Eye Antechamber occupies a strategic position in the Royal Apartments. To the north it leads to the King’s Chamber; to the west, the tall glass windows open directly onto the Hall of Mirrors, enabling courtiers to enter and leave the King’s Apartments; a door in the southern wall to the right of the window leads to the Queen's Apartments, while a staircase in the eastern wall leads to the Dauphin's Apartment on the ground floor." Alice walked around the room and pointed out where the others can be located as she explain.

Arabella and Harry walked around the room and examined the paintings on the walls. Once they were finished, they moved on to the next room which was the King's Bedchamber.

"In 1701, Louis XIV moved his bedchamber into the large room covering nearly 90m² and situated in the centre of the eastern façade of the Palace. Three tall doors at the end of the room leading to the Hall of Mirrors were sealed. Above these, Nicholas Coustou created the allegorical stucco of France watching over the King’s sleep, which hangs over the bed. The King’s Bedchamber is the most important and symbolic room in the Royal Apartments and was used at several times of the day: during the king’s “getting up” and “going to bed” ceremonies, when he dined in private, and when he received certain courtiers or ambassadors. Louis XIV died in this room on 1 September 1715 after a reign of 72 years." Alice explained the background of the room before moving across the room to describe some of the paintings.

After she pointed out which painting was which, they moved on to the last room in the King's Apartment which was the Council Chamber.

"The Council Chamber is adjacent to the King’s Bedchamber and opens onto the Hall of Mirrors. It wasn’t until 1755, during the reign of Louis XV, that it took on its current form when two rooms were combined: the King’s Cabinet, where Louis XIV held his council meetings, and the Cabinet des Termes (a more private space, where the king spent time with his family or certain guests after dinner). The chamber is decorated with fine woodwork crafted by Antoine Rousseau and based on drawings by Ange-Jacques Gabriel. The elaborate motifs illustrate subjects addressed by the king during council meetings, such as war and justice. The room was also used for official presentations, which were a necessary rite for admission to the Court. Madame Du Barry, among others, was thus presented to the King on 22 April 1769."

When Alice finished explaining what the rooms is for, they moved on to the next room. Throughout the tour, Arabella and Harry is holding hands. They held hands while examining the room. Arabella in her mind was noting the history of the place as well as the design. She liked a few of designs the palace has and kept some of it in mind. She also made a mental note later to talk to Jane about contacting their contractor and interior designer so she can revamp her wing in Huis ten Bosch Palace.

When they entered the Hall of Mirrors, Arabella was entranced. It was absolutely stunning and majestic.

"The Hall of Mirrors, the most famous room in the Palace, was built to replace a large terrace designed by the architect Louis Le Vau, which opened onto the garden. The terrace originally stood between the King’s Apartments to the north and the Queen’s to the south, but was awkward and above all exposed to bad weather, and it was not long before the decision was made to demolish it. Le Vau’s successor, Jules Hardouin-Mansart, produced a more suitable design that replaced the terrace with a large gallery. Work started in 1678 and ended in 1684." Alice showed them around the room while explaining what the purpose of the room is.

"Courtiers and visitors crossed the Hall of Mirrors daily, and it also served as a place for waiting and meeting. It was used for ceremonies on rare occasions, for example when sovereigns wanted an extra dash of lavishness for entertainment (balls or games) held for royal weddings or diplomatic receptions. During the latter events, the throne was placed on a platform at the end of the hall near the Peace Room, whose arch was closed off. Rarely has the show of power reached such a level of ostentation. In 1685 the Doge of Genoa and the ambassadors of Siam (1686), Persia (1715) and the Ottoman Empire (1742) crossed the full length of the gallery, under the scrutiny of the French Court seated to either side on tiered seating, before they reached the king. It was also here that the Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919, ending the First World War. Since then, presidents of the Republic have continued to receive official guests here."

Throughout the next three hours, the couple toured the entire palace and was awestruck. So much history as well as beauty was in the palace. They toured the War Room, The Peace Room, The Queen's Apartments, The Gallery of Great Battles, as well as the gardens. After the tour was done, they thanked Alice the tour guide and head back towards the hotel to get ready for dinner. Which was still a surprise for Arabella.

When they got back to the hotel, the room was dimly lit, and there was rose petals on the floor leading to the bathroom. Arabella gasped in surprise and turned to Harry.

"Oh Harry." She smiled before tilting her head up and kissing him softly. She then took his hands and followed the roses. It ended up at the bathroom and inside, there was a bath ready for them. It was very beautiful and romantic with the Eiffel Tower at the background. Arabella just fell more and more in love with Harry every second of everyday.

They had a romantic and relaxing bath together and got ready for the surprise dinner Harry had planned for Arabella. Harry had surprised her again with a new dress from Dolce and Gabbana. It was an off shouldered white dress with gold linings and embroideries as well as some flowers at the top half of the dress. The dress itself was tight at the top until her upper waist and then it flows until a little after the knee. She paired the dress with a white Badgley Mischka heels that is embroidered. She also wore a cape like coat from Vilshenko, that’s colored black and has some flowers down the upper middle part. She paired her outfit with some diamond necklace, a simple one, her engagement ring, the cartier LOVE bracelet that has A&H engraved on the inside as well as diamond drop earrings  

The engaged couple left the hotel once both Harry and Arabella was ready. The journey itself wasn’t long. It was less than ten minutes, even with traffic. The whole ride to their destination, Harry kept Arabella distracted by tracing figures on her arms and her having to guess what he drew. Once they have arrived at their designated destination, Harry asked Arabella to look outside the window.

"Oh Harry." Arabella whispered underneath her breath, looking up the Eiffel Tower in awe.

"Come on." Harry said as he opened his door and try to get Arabella out as well. "We're having dinner up there."

"But, how? Won't there be people?" Arabella asked as she followed Harry towards the lift that's going to take them up.

"Well, it does have its advantages when you know the French president." Harry said. "No, really.  Gran asked me the other day what I was planning for valentine's day. And I told her I haven't got much yet, all I know is that I want to take you somewhere and be incognito for a while. I don’t want to share you for valentine's day. She said she can make something happen for me, and told me about this trip a few days ago."

"Aunt Lilibet is really sneaky." Arabella laughed. "She called me the other day and asked where I wanted to go. I told her I wanted to go to Paris, a place I haven't been since I was young. She then just said thanks and hung up the phone."

The pair laughed as they made their journey up the Eiffel Tower. Once they have reached their destination, Arabella gasped again, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth. The room was covered in candles, (the battery kind so it doesn’t burn out) and rose petals everywhere. There was a table set for two with the view of the whole of Paris.

Arabella turned around and pulled Harry close to her.

"I love you so much Har. Thank you for doing this for me today. I honestly have never felt so loved by someone until I met you. You are the best thing that's ever been mine." Arabella smiled up to him before leaning up and giving him a sweet sensual kiss.

"Arabella, there's no one I can think of that can replace you. You've made my heart so full since the day my mother died. You are the reason I'm even here right now. I couldn’t stand thinking about Paris let alone be in Paris since that night but because of you, I am here. On top of the Eiffel Tower, with the love of my life." Harry said as he pulled away from the kiss. "Now come on, before the food gets cold."

Together they took a seat at the table and had their food served to them.

"Honestly Harry, thank you for today. I really love it." Arabella said once they’ve finished their meal and wait for dessert. The whole time during their dinner, they bickered back and off, joking with each other, teasing one another and kept the conversation light and full of love.

"It's okay. I love pampering you and being able to shower you with love. Especially today." Harry said as he sipped his wine. "Just letting you know though, you'll have to think of what to do for Valentine's next year."

"We can make it our little tradition." Arabella said. "Do a surprise trip every year, we'll take turns of course, so you can get surprised too."

"I'll drink to that." Harry chuckled. "Cheers."

"Cheers baby." Arabella smiled at him and leaned over the table to give him a sweet kiss.

With the moon shining on them and the whole of Paris as witness, Arabella and Harry kissed until they run out of air.

Next Chapter

[kindofchaoticgood]

Walk on Water

A celebration story for my surprise four day weekend, wherein Uma and Harry are music stars on tour together who do the relationship tag. Enjoy! (Lyrics from Beyoncé and Eminem’s new song ‘Walk on Water’ and Eminem’s song, ‘Hi, My Name Is’)

There are snatches of music dancing around in Uma’s head, but every time she tries to play them out, they sound wrong. She tries another simple phrase on the keyboard, but a note clanks too sharp.

“Motherfucker!” She growls, slamming her hands down on the keys, which make a dismally discordant noise.

“Leave poor Artemis alone,” Harry chides, stepping into the room. His hair is fluffing all over the place, a result of towel-drying after his shower. “It’s not her fault you can’t do it right.”

Uma shoots a glare at him that makes grown men cower but only makes him laugh. “Shut up.”

“No,” Harry grins and sits down next to her on the bench. “What’s wrong?”

She gives him a suspicious look to assess the seriousness of his question and then says grudgingly, “I can’t get this phrase down. It’s playing out perfectly in my head, but every time I try to play it out on here it sounds wrong.”

“Play it for me,”

Uma places her hands on the keyboard and starts playing, adding her voice to the piano chords. “I walk on water, but I ain’t no Jesus. I walk on water, but only when it freezes.”

She tries to play the next phrase, but she only manages to get through two notes before another damn false note rings out that makes even Harry wince. “Goddamn it!” she shouts, resisting the urge to bang her head on the keyboard. What is it with this fucking phrase?

“Hey,” Harry wraps his arm around her shoulder and draws her closer to him. “You’ll get it, okay?”

Uma just sighs and places her head on his shoulder. He smells like sandalwood, detergent, and something that’s purely Harry, and she curls further into his neck, lured in by his warmth.

“Come on darling,” Harry pulls back slightly from her to look her in the eye, a hint of a grin on his face. “Say it,”

“I’m not saying it.”

“Say it.”

Uma looks at him sternly, trying to maintain her stance. There’s a full-out grin on Harry’s face now, but seriousness in his eyes. It’s one of these things that he does with her, the constant encouragement and praise. She has always been self-deprecating to the point of putting herself down, and it’s a habit that Harry is slowly trying to train her out of. Uma doubts that she will ever be fully rid of the habit, but she loves Harry for trying.

“I’ll get it,” she says, and he smiles at her, not the usual smirk that’s always present around his mouth, not the rakish grin that makes his fans weak at the knees, but a real smile, the kind that makes his blue eyes sparkle like the ocean in the morning and makes his face softer. She loves that smile, and seeing it always makes something warm come to life in her chest.

“See, was that so hard?” Harry leans in and kisses her cheek, and she smiles despite herself and places her head back on his shoulder. She can work on the song another time. For now, she needs to take a nap. 

“Love?” Harry murmurs into her hair.

“Hmm?”

“You aren’t falling asleep, are you?”

“I was planning to,” she mumbles back, burrowing into his neck. God, he’s always so much warmer than me. How is this fair?

“Well, you can’t.”

“And why not?”

“Do you remember when you were really tired after doing a concert and an interview right afterwards and I asked you to do a live video with me next week? And you said ‘I’ll do anything you want as long as you let me sleep’ so that live video is today,”

Uma’s eyes snap open and she pushes her head off of Harry. “WHAT?”

“Love you, bye!” Harry launches himself off of the piano bench as Uma tries to grab him and runs away.

“Harry James! Get back here right now, or I’m never having sex with you again!”

*****

“I don’t even remember agreeing to this,” Uma complains as Gil sets up the tripod in front of the sofa. Harry is already lounging on top of it, looking unfairly good-looking, as usual. “Why can’t you do this on your own?”

“Because we polled the fans on Twitter, and they said they wanted us to do the relationship tag for our next video,” Harry says, glancing up at her from his phone.

Uma frowns. “What the fuck is a relationship tag?”

“No idea,” Harry admits, running a hand through his hair. “But they’re going to be the ones sending us questions, so we’ll figure it out.”

Gil gives her a reassuring grin. “It’ll be okay Uma. Desiree and Harriet are gonna be going through the questions as they come, and you know they won’t let anything too bad slip through.”

That much was true. Harriet loved embarrassing Harry, but she was protective as fuck over her brother and Desiree was more like Uma’s mother than her cousin.

“I still have my performance makeup on,” Uma protests in a last-ditch effort to save herself.

Harry casts a glance over her hot-pink lipstick, turquoise eyeliner, and gold contour and smirks at her. “You look hot,” he says simply, moving over on the sofa so that there’s room for Uma.

She groans and stalks over to the sofa, throwing herself down on it and fiddling with a stray black and turquoise curl sulkily as Gil and Harry begin arguing about the position of the tripod.

Harry is the one who uses social media. He constantly posts on Instagram, updates his Snapchat story religiously, and uses Twitter like a lifeline, whereas Uma usually only posts on her Instagram once in a blue moon and only uses her Twitter to post sarcastic comments.

It was only after she started collaborating with Harry that she even got an Instagram; before that, all she had was the Twitter account and a secret Tumblr. To be fair though, there were a lot of things she hadn’t had before Harry.

She still remembers the first time they met; her verse in Khushal Nanzari’s (or, as his fans knew him, Gonzo) new song and the new single she had just released were taking off, and Harry and his band were invited to a celebration party Gonzo was hosting to celebrate the release of his third album. She had been sipping Cristal in a ridiculously tiny glass in an expensive metallic dress when Harry Hook, lead singer in Skullduggery Road, had walked up to her and said, “Your verse in Gonzo’s song was the most lyrically complicated thing I’ve ever heard, and you made my dragon of a big sister tear up with your voice in ‘Rise Up’. In short, you’re bloody amazing and can we collab on something?”

Uma had agreed before she even fully processed what she was agreeing to, because this was the lead singer of one of her favorite bands, how could she say no? They had exchanged numbers and Uma had completely forgotten that she had his number until he texted her the next day I’m also pretty okay at dancing if you need more reasons to work with me ;) and Uma had laughed out loud and set to work writing a song. Within a week, she had the song written and before she knew it, ‘What’s My Name’ featuring Harry Hook had been on Billboards Top 100 for four weeks straight and Harry was asking her out.

And now, they were going on their second tour together and had been together for two years. (Damn, has she really been stuck with him for that long?)

As if sensing her thoughts, Harry leans over and gently bites her shoulder through her oversized hoodie. She ruffles his hair absently, and gives him a small smirk to show him she’s already gotten over her complaints.

“And we’re going live in three … two … one,” Gil calls out, and then starts recording.

“Hey, I’m Uma Triskelion,” Harry says immediately.

“And I’m Harry Hook,” Uma adds, leaning against the sofa.

“We’re live in our tour bus, and we just finished off a performance in the Rabbit Hole – hence Uma’s unique makeup look.”

“Thanks love,” Uma mutters and Gil snickers. Harry just grins before continuing.

“So you lot have been begging us to do the relationship tag, whatever that is, so if you want to ask us a question, tweet us at #AskHumaLive –”

Uma makes a face. “What the hell is Huma?”

“That’s our ship name,”

“What? Since when?”

“Since forever, since we started dating, remember that?” Harry teases. “Or is your memory fading?”

“Who came up with that?” Uma demands, slightly creeped out. From behind the tripod, Gil is silently laughing, and she discreetly flips him off.

“The fans, baby, always the fans,” Harry replies distractedly, scrolling through his phone. “Ah, we already have our first question! AaliahWitch says ‘Uma, when is Harry’s birthday?’”

“June 14th,” Uma replies easily, and then studies her phone. “ChanceDaring12 says ‘What’s Uma’s middle name?’”

“Astraea,” Harry says immediately. “BurrShotFirst176 says ‘Where does Harry’s family come from?’” “England, but you grew up in Scotland.” Uma smirks at the disappointed look on his face. “HarrysHook – nice name, by the way – wants to know if you can name all of my cousins.” “Jonas,” Harry was starting to count off on his fingers. “Desiree. Harmonia. Piper. Poppy—” His face went blank. “Shit.” Gil snickers and Uma grins at the camera. “Second question, and he’s already choking,” she says smugly. “I’m not choking!” Harry protests. “I know that I’m missing four of them – wait, one of them is Madrigal!”

“She hates that name,”

“Madi, then!” “Three more to go,” Uma mocks him. “My cousins are going to be so sad when they realize you don’t know their names; they love you, you know.” “Jesus Christ,” Harry groans, and throws himself dramatically into her lap. Her phone vibrates with a message from Desiree and she laughs evilly as she reads it. “Desiree says that the girls are watching right now, and that they’re really sad that you don’t know their names,” Uma informs him gleefully, then turns to the camera. “It’s okay babies, I still know all your names,” she says with a sweet smile and a wave. “I’m sorry, okay?” Harry says, his voice muffled from under his hands. “I’m an absolute monster but I really need help.” “Hmm,” Uma grins. “What does the Internet think? Do you think I should give him a hint?” Harry turns over to the camera and gives it his best pout. “Please help me, Interwebs, you have no idea how many cousins she has.”

When she glances down at her phone, most of the tweets are in favor of her giving him a hint, and the conversation thread is full of people wondering why she has so many cousins. “Their names start with L, A, and T,” she says, smoothing out his hair.

Harry considers this. “That actually doesn't help at all. D’you have any idea how many girls names start with those letters?”

“They’re all related to music,” she points out offhandedly, snickering when Desiree sends her a picture of the girls making sad faces at the camera.

“I think that made things more confusing, to be honest,” Harry confesses. “I give up,”

“Lyrica, Allegra, and Talea,” Uma smirks down at him.

“Bloody hell!” Harry complains, then addresses the camera as he sits up. “Lyrica, Allegra, Talea, I’m dreadfully sorry I forgot your names darlings. I’ll take you out for ice cream the next time I see you, alright?”

Just then his phone buzzes and Harry stares down at it for a second before saying out loud, “Screw you, Harriet!”

“What did she say?”

“Something about how you need to spray whipped cream on my face. Utter nonsense.”

“Actually,” Gil pipes up, a shit-eating grin on his face, “it’s common custom in the relationship tag that if the person gets a question wrong, then whipped cream gets sprayed on to a plate and then the plate is smashed on their face at the very end.”

“How the hell do you know this?” Harry demands as Uma laughs. “I like this game,” she says smugly.

“We don't have any whipped cream though,” Harry protests, looking desperate.

Gil reaches behind him and pulls out a can of whipped cream. “Actually . . .”

“You bitch,” Harry growls as Uma bursts out laughing.

“Language, baby, what kind of message will this send to the Internet?”

“That he's a backstabbing traitor,” Harry declares as Gil and Uma laugh at him. “Gil Charbonneau cancelled, Marya Rasputin is my new best friend.”

“You wish,” Uma retorts. “Gil, hand me the whipped cream.”

“Sweet Jesus,” Harry groans as Gil hands her the whipped cream and a paper plate and she gleefully makes three large mountains on the plate. “I can't get any of the other ones wrong now.”

She grins. “It's my turn, isn't it?”

“Yeah . . . LittleSeaWitch wants to know where our first date was?”

“The aquarium. You kept on making up weird backstories for all the animals, and we nearly had to leave because you kept on interrupting the tour guide and telling the little kids that the nurse sharks had clinical depression.”

Harry grins smugly at the memory. “That was a good day.”

“Can't take him anywhere,” Uma tells the camera. “HumaLives wants to know what my eye color is.” She averts her eyes from him and then covers them for extra measure.

“Brown,” Harry says instantly.

“How do you even know that?” Gil demands. “Most people get that wrong,”

Harry shrugs. “She has beautiful eyes.”

Uma is intensely grateful that no one can see her blush as Gil lets out a sappy 'Awww’ and Harry kisses her cheek.

“Next question,” she says quickly, before she can start giggling hysterically, like she always does when she's nervous or embarrassed.

“Atlantic_Melody asks, 'What is Harry's favorite book?’”

“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. QueenAudreyTheFirst wants to know what movie makes me cry every single time,” she glances up from her phone. “None of them. I don't cry during movies.”

“Bullshit,” Harry says smugly, then does a terrible job of cupping his mouth and whispering, “The Book Thief.”

Uma jabs an elbow into his side and Harry laughs. “Come on darling, don't hate me because it's true,”

“Get out,” she tells him, but he and Gil just smirk at each other over the camera.

“Leader_of_Marching_Band_Nerds asks ‘What does Harry eat for breakfast?’”

“The souls of the innocent,” Uma deadpans. “No, this one doesn't eat breakfast.”

“All my life I was very deprived,” Harry starts rapping. “I ain't had a woman in years, my palms are too hairy to hide-”

“His sister dropped him on his head as a baby,” Uma tells the camera. “WarriorPrincessLonnie wants to know who the dominant one in our relationship is.”

“Oh, me, obviously,” Harry flexes and winks at the camera.

“Funny, that's not what you said last night,” Uma says without thinking, and then starts laughing at the look of utter disbelief and incredulity that Harry's giving her.

Meanwhile, Gil has dropped to the floor, laughing so hard that his face is turning red. “Yes, Uma, drag him,” he chokes out, before dissolving into laughter again.

“I cannot believe you just said that,” Harry says slowly, a smile starting to come over his face as well. “Do you realize what you’ve just unleashed?”

“I ain't afraid of no ghosts,” Uma quips. Her phone is blowing up with messages from her friends; Ashe, Sierra, and Marya are making dirty jokes and Claudine is begging them to stop.

“Plain-Jane-the-Queen wants to know what my shoe size is.”

Uma freezes. Shit. “Well, wizards and witches, that's all the time we have for today-”

“Now hold on just one damn second!” Harry protests as Gil cracks up again.

*****

Later on, after all of the whipped cream has been washed off, and they're curled together on the couch, Uma gently pokes Harry in the shoulder. “Hey.”

“What?” Harry mumbles sleepily into her hair, the sound reverberating through her chest. It's completely dark outside, and the moon is streaming through the windows of the trailer, leaving white light trailing on the carpet.

“I think I figured out the song,” she tells him, lacing their fingers together.

“Really?” His other hand is underneath her hoodie, lazily stroking her hip.

“It's going to be a rap song,” Uma says, and feels Harry shift to a more seated position to look her in the eye. “I was thinking we could collab on it?” She glances up at him. “Is that alright with you?”

Harry is giving her the most awestruck look she's ever seen, the same one he gives her every time she sings for him. “Of course, it's alright love,” he reassures, leaning in to kiss her. “I always want to collab with you.”

[trendingnewsb]

The Weird Origin Story of the Viral, Dangerous Hoverboard

A few weeks ago, I bought a new toy. $595 on Amazon, Prime shipping, showed up 36 hours after I clicked buy. It weighs 22 pounds, and, after about an hour of practice, I had it going top speed, about 6 mph. (It feels faster than it sounds.) I’ve fallen off it a million times, often after it does this weird seizure-crash thing that I cant figure out how to stop or predict.

My new toy is called a Two Wheels Smart Self Balancing Scooters Drifting Board Electric (blue), and it’s kind of like a Segway—but with no handlebars. It’s not a skateboard, but it’s kind of like a sideways skateboard? It’s like a scooter, ish? The world has mostly decided to call it a hoverboard. I don’t know what to call it.

Whatever it is, I love it. And it’s all Justin Bieber’s fault. It just looked so fun in his Instagrams.

All it took was one Instagram of Kendall Jenner on the board for the PhunkeeDuck to blow up.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve seen it before. It’s sort of a phenomenon. Here is a (very) partial list of celebrities who have tweeted, Instagrammed, or YouTubed themselves riding one in the last couple of months: The Biebs himself, Chris Brown (who is awesome at it), Nick Jonas, Zedd, Soulja Boy, Kendall Jenner, JR Smith, Nicki Minaj, Wiz Khalifa, Nina Agdal, David Ortiz, Karim Benzema, and Skrillex. It’s been on the Tonight Show, and showed up at the NBA Finals.

Every time anyone uploads a video or picture of this scooter, the commenters all want to know two things: What’s that called, and where can I buy it?

That’s where it gets weird.

What’s in a name?

In late May, in front of a Fleet Week audience of military members, Jamie Foxx rolled onto the Tonight Show stage on a scooter. Once he figured out how to get off it, Foxx explained to Jimmy Fallon, “It’s, uh, a PhunkeeDuck,” as he rolled the board toward himself to make sure he had the name right. Fallon got on it, and did what everyone does their first time: wobbled jelly-legged for a minute, and then slowly inched around before getting comfortable.

That whole scene really annoys IO Hawk’s Curtis Hedges. Because, he says, that scooter was not a PhunkeeDuck. It was an IO Hawk, his companys product. Hedges tells me to look closely at the wheels, where there’s clearly an “IO” logo in the center. He’s laughing, too, as if he can hardly comprehend the idea that PhunkeeDuck isn’t stealing. And he’s right: PhunkeeDucks look just like IO Hawks, right down to the IO logos on their boards and wheels. That, Hedges says, is because they’re exactly the same thing. “Put a sticker on it, call it a totally different name, and start selling.”

That’s exactly true, actually. The PhunkeeDuck guys don’t even deny it. But they’re quick to dispute the idea that theyre rebranding IO Hawk’s board. “The owner of IO Hawk went around telling everyone he was the inventor of this product,” PhunkeeDuck co-founder Matthew Waxman says, referring to IO Hawk CEO John Soibatian.“That’s just completely false.”

PhunkeeDuck and IO Hawk are the two biggest players in this nascent scooter market, but there are many others. There’s Oxboard, Cyboard, Scoot, Future Foot, Monorover, Airboard, Freego, Esway, Airwheel, iEZWay, Overoad, and a hundred names more along the lines of Two Wheels Smart Self Balancing Scooters Drifting Board Electric (blue).

The real story doesn’t begin with IO Hawk or PhunkeeDuck. It begins, as just about any modern technology story does, in China.

Depending on which one you buy, you’ll pay anywhere from $600 to $1,800 for a scooter. But make no mistake: They’re all the same. The designs may vary slightly—sometimes the faux hubcaps are shaped in Mercedes-like triangles, sometimes there are five or six spokes—but like painting tiger stripes on your kitty cat, nobodys getting fooled here.

The real story of the scooter doesn’t begin with IO Hawk or PhunkeeDuck. It begins, as just about any modern technology story does, in China.

Made in China

Before we go any further, I need to admit that I don’t know, positively, where the scooter comes from. The Chinese manufacturing industry moves so quickly and with so little documentation that it’s basically impossible to fact-check any company’s cries of “first!”

But here’s what I think I know: Theres a company called Chic Robotics, which is also known as Hangzhou Chic Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd, and I think it invented the scooter. (There’s a scooter called the Hovertrax that predates it slightly, but it’s not quite the same thing.) Chic’s logo—the horizontal line on top of an oval that just so happens to look like “IO” when rotated 90 degrees—is plastered all over most versions of the board. And Chic’s name keeps coming up when you talk to the people selling the thing.

The company was founded in 2013, born in connection with China’s Zhejiang University. It was created to make stuff, obviously, but also to champion IP protection in China, to improve patents and copyrights and and foster what the company calls “sustainable innovation.” It holds a series of patents related to the scooter, and has diligently (and apparently pointlessly) attempted to protect them.

Chic’s first scooter was called the Smart S1. It debuted in August of 2014, with a goofy commercial that almost certainly isn’t meant to be goofy. It shows a man walking down the hallway, laden with heavy books and a heavy heart, before finally being saved by the smooth ride of the Smart S1. It’s like a bizarro take on a heartwarming Coke commercial.

In the fall of 2014, Chic took the S1 to the Canton Fair, China’s largest trade show. This semi-annual extravaganza attracts more than 180,000 buyers from around the world, there to see tens of thousands of Chinese exporters hawk their wares.

In China, the reward for being first is still just being first to be copied.

Chic’s supply of scooters disappeared quicklyeverybody wanted one. Soon, people were riding them all over the gigantic convention center. The hordes of buyers and suppliers were all over the Smart S1. Distributors across the world noticed, and so did other factories in China. Before long Alibaba was littered with manufacturers offering the same board—often using the same images and promotional videos, their logos hastily Photoshopped over Chic’s.

If you’ve seen one…

This manufacturing virality, where as soon as something is created it is immediately everywhere, isn’t unique to two-wheeled self-balancing scooters. It’s how Chinese factories make and sell everything from iPhone chargers to televisions to headphones. Or e-cigarettes, another recent favorite Justin Bieber accessory: Just about every brand is the same thing with a different label. “All you have to do is make a phone call to one of the six manufacturers or so in China that are producing these e-cigarettes,” says James Monsees, CEO of e-cigaretteer Pax Labs, “and youd say how much? And oh, I want it to be an orange tip on the end and say Orange on the packaging. Its an hour-long conversation…and youre in the e-cig business.”

In many ways, that’s one of China’s greatest assets as an industrial country. From iPhones to Harry Potter to Starbucks to basically the whole country of Austria, China’s ability to take anything and build it faster, cheaper, and maybe even better, is without equal. But China has made clear that it doesn’t just want to copy Apple anymore—it wants the next Apple to be Chinese. That would require better patent protection, and better regulation from the government. “The political economic institutions and system in China make it so entrepreneurs cant make profit by developing novel innovation,” then-Georgia Tech professor Dan Breznitz told the New York Times in 2011. As it is, the reward for being first is still just being first to be copied.

Because the Chinese manufacturing industry is so centralized, anything new spreads like crazy through the supply chain. One manufacturer creates a product; another reverse-engineers it and makes it too. And that next company can make it cheaper and faster, because it has no R&D costs. In most cases, this endless game of product-telephone makes the product worse.

Jeff Wells, who sells a scooter he calls The Scoot, ticks off a number of corners he’s seen factories cut. “Weaker motors, not as reliable batteries, gyro boards, improper motherboard design,” Wells says. “There are a lot of areas where they can shortcut.” He laughs when I tell him about my board’s nasty tendency to randomly start shivering uncontrollably, before spinning completely out of control and shutting down.

The PhunkeeDuck costs $1,499.99, and there’s a waiting list to get one.

“You probably, right now, have five manufacturers in China that are beginning to make these,” Wells says. He’s been importing products from construction materials to medical equipment for years, and says the key is quality control. “Youve got to tour the facilities, youve got to see them manufacturing over the long-term basis.” Because when factories take shortcuts, the problems that crop up can be hard to see in an online listing, and they can be devastating.

That’s why the Scoot costs $695, when you can buy a seemingly identical device on Alibaba for $200 or so. (He thinks the magic price is somewhere in the $500 range, though, and says we’ll be there by Christmas.) The craziest part? Wells is actually leaving a lot of money on the table. IO Hawk, an LA-based company with a virtually identical story (and product), sells its scooter for $1,799.99 and still can’t keep up with demand. The PhunkeeDuck costs $1,499.99, and there’s a waiting list to get one.

Lets talk about the PhunkeeDuck. Its sold by PhunkeeTree, a New York-based company that began as two guys repackaging and re-branding phone cases and chargers for stores like Nordstrom and Forever 21. Last year, the guys went to the Hong Kong Electronics Show, to talk to their existing suppliers and to see what else they could add to their selection of chargers, cases, and cables. “While we were there we actually found this other factory that for the first time debuted this product to a select few,” Waxman says. “And we happened to be in the right place at the right time, so we started working with them to customize our own version of it.”

“Customize,” at least in this first version, consists of putting PhunkeeDuck stickers on the board and its box. Waxman and co-founder Maxx Yellin say they’re working with the factory—which they won’t name—to modify it in more significant ways, and says patents are a-pending. But they won’t share details yet.

Josh Valcarcel/WIRED

IO Hawk is a step ahead, having launched first—at CES in January—and already offering a few improvements in its model. Theres a metal frame, for one thing, which can take a heavier load. It can handle up to 400 pounds, though they don’t advertise it as quite that high. The company is also developing custom firmware for the device to make it run better. And, like PhunkeeDuck, IO Hawk claims it has big ideas it’s not ready to share for fear they’ll be stolen.

While they wait for patents to be granted and modifications to be implemented, though, this scooter just keeps popping up in unexpected places under new names. And with every celebrity appearance, every Instagram of Chris Brown dancing or Nick Jonas rolling into a pool, the pace picks up even more. After PhunkeeTree managed to get Kendall Jenner a board, thanks to a well-placed friend in LA, all it took was one Instagram of her being a little bit too confident on the board for the PhunkeeDuck to blow up. (That gram alone netted 1.1 million likes.) Celebs starting hitting them up left and right for samples, and as they shared their adventures on social media more people wanted to try them too. “We didnt have to ask them to post,” Waxman says. “They just loved it so much that Chris Brown was riding it around, and Wiz Khalifa was using it onstage.”

One of their most consistent askers was the rapper Soulja Boy, who finally got a PhunkeeDuck after months of pestering. A couple of days after his board arrived, a new device hit the market: The Soulja Board. $1,500, available in green and red. Its site, souljaboard.com, was put together so quickly there’s still dummy text on the About page.

“He starts posting, hey guys come buy my Souldja Board,” Waxman says. “And he’s standing on our PhunkeeDuck!”

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The Weird Origin Story of the Viral, Dangerous Hoverboard

A few weeks ago, I bought a new toy. $595 on Amazon, Prime shipping, showed up 36 hours after I clicked buy. It weighs 22 pounds, and, after about an hour of practice, I had it going top speed, about 6 mph. (It feels faster than it sounds.) I’ve fallen off it a million times, often after it does this weird seizure-crash thing that I cant figure out how to stop or predict.

My new toy is called a Two Wheels Smart Self Balancing Scooters Drifting Board Electric (blue), and it’s kind of like a Segway—but with no handlebars. It’s not a skateboard, but it’s kind of like a sideways skateboard? It’s like a scooter, ish? The world has mostly decided to call it a hoverboard. I don’t know what to call it.

Whatever it is, I love it. And it’s all Justin Bieber’s fault. It just looked so fun in his Instagrams.

All it took was one Instagram of Kendall Jenner on the board for the PhunkeeDuck to blow up.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve seen it before. It’s sort of a phenomenon. Here is a (very) partial list of celebrities who have tweeted, Instagrammed, or YouTubed themselves riding one in the last couple of months: The Biebs himself, Chris Brown (who is awesome at it), Nick Jonas, Zedd, Soulja Boy, Kendall Jenner, JR Smith, Nicki Minaj, Wiz Khalifa, Nina Agdal, David Ortiz, Karim Benzema, and Skrillex. It’s been on the Tonight Show, and showed up at the NBA Finals.

Every time anyone uploads a video or picture of this scooter, the commenters all want to know two things: What’s that called, and where can I buy it?

That’s where it gets weird.

What’s in a name?

In late May, in front of a Fleet Week audience of military members, Jamie Foxx rolled onto the Tonight Show stage on a scooter. Once he figured out how to get off it, Foxx explained to Jimmy Fallon, “It’s, uh, a PhunkeeDuck,” as he rolled the board toward himself to make sure he had the name right. Fallon got on it, and did what everyone does their first time: wobbled jelly-legged for a minute, and then slowly inched around before getting comfortable.

That whole scene really annoys IO Hawk’s Curtis Hedges. Because, he says, that scooter was not a PhunkeeDuck. It was an IO Hawk, his companys product. Hedges tells me to look closely at the wheels, where there’s clearly an “IO” logo in the center. He’s laughing, too, as if he can hardly comprehend the idea that PhunkeeDuck isn’t stealing. And he’s right: PhunkeeDucks look just like IO Hawks, right down to the IO logos on their boards and wheels. That, Hedges says, is because they’re exactly the same thing. “Put a sticker on it, call it a totally different name, and start selling.”

That’s exactly true, actually. The PhunkeeDuck guys don’t even deny it. But they’re quick to dispute the idea that theyre rebranding IO Hawk’s board. “The owner of IO Hawk went around telling everyone he was the inventor of this product,” PhunkeeDuck co-founder Matthew Waxman says, referring to IO Hawk CEO John Soibatian.“That’s just completely false.”

PhunkeeDuck and IO Hawk are the two biggest players in this nascent scooter market, but there are many others. There’s Oxboard, Cyboard, Scoot, Future Foot, Monorover, Airboard, Freego, Esway, Airwheel, iEZWay, Overoad, and a hundred names more along the lines of Two Wheels Smart Self Balancing Scooters Drifting Board Electric (blue).

The real story doesn’t begin with IO Hawk or PhunkeeDuck. It begins, as just about any modern technology story does, in China.

Depending on which one you buy, you’ll pay anywhere from $600 to $1,800 for a scooter. But make no mistake: They’re all the same. The designs may vary slightly—sometimes the faux hubcaps are shaped in Mercedes-like triangles, sometimes there are five or six spokes—but like painting tiger stripes on your kitty cat, nobodys getting fooled here.

The real story of the scooter doesn’t begin with IO Hawk or PhunkeeDuck. It begins, as just about any modern technology story does, in China.

Made in China

Before we go any further, I need to admit that I don’t know, positively, where the scooter comes from. The Chinese manufacturing industry moves so quickly and with so little documentation that it’s basically impossible to fact-check any company’s cries of “first!”

But here’s what I think I know: Theres a company called Chic Robotics, which is also known as Hangzhou Chic Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd, and I think it invented the scooter. (There’s a scooter called the Hovertrax that predates it slightly, but it’s not quite the same thing.) Chic’s logo—the horizontal line on top of an oval that just so happens to look like “IO” when rotated 90 degrees—is plastered all over most versions of the board. And Chic’s name keeps coming up when you talk to the people selling the thing.

The company was founded in 2013, born in connection with China’s Zhejiang University. It was created to make stuff, obviously, but also to champion IP protection in China, to improve patents and copyrights and and foster what the company calls “sustainable innovation.” It holds a series of patents related to the scooter, and has diligently (and apparently pointlessly) attempted to protect them.

Chic’s first scooter was called the Smart S1. It debuted in August of 2014, with a goofy commercial that almost certainly isn’t meant to be goofy. It shows a man walking down the hallway, laden with heavy books and a heavy heart, before finally being saved by the smooth ride of the Smart S1. It’s like a bizarro take on a heartwarming Coke commercial.

In the fall of 2014, Chic took the S1 to the Canton Fair, China’s largest trade show. This semi-annual extravaganza attracts more than 180,000 buyers from around the world, there to see tens of thousands of Chinese exporters hawk their wares.

In China, the reward for being first is still just being first to be copied.

Chic’s supply of scooters disappeared quicklyeverybody wanted one. Soon, people were riding them all over the gigantic convention center. The hordes of buyers and suppliers were all over the Smart S1. Distributors across the world noticed, and so did other factories in China. Before long Alibaba was littered with manufacturers offering the same board—often using the same images and promotional videos, their logos hastily Photoshopped over Chic’s.

If you’ve seen one…

This manufacturing virality, where as soon as something is created it is immediately everywhere, isn’t unique to two-wheeled self-balancing scooters. It’s how Chinese factories make and sell everything from iPhone chargers to televisions to headphones. Or e-cigarettes, another recent favorite Justin Bieber accessory: Just about every brand is the same thing with a different label. “All you have to do is make a phone call to one of the six manufacturers or so in China that are producing these e-cigarettes,” says James Monsees, CEO of e-cigaretteer Pax Labs, “and youd say how much? And oh, I want it to be an orange tip on the end and say Orange on the packaging. Its an hour-long conversation…and youre in the e-cig business.”

In many ways, that’s one of China’s greatest assets as an industrial country. From iPhones to Harry Potter to Starbucks to basically the whole country of Austria, China’s ability to take anything and build it faster, cheaper, and maybe even better, is without equal. But China has made clear that it doesn’t just want to copy Apple anymore—it wants the next Apple to be Chinese. That would require better patent protection, and better regulation from the government. “The political economic institutions and system in China make it so entrepreneurs cant make profit by developing novel innovation,” then-Georgia Tech professor Dan Breznitz told the New York Times in 2011. As it is, the reward for being first is still just being first to be copied.

Because the Chinese manufacturing industry is so centralized, anything new spreads like crazy through the supply chain. One manufacturer creates a product; another reverse-engineers it and makes it too. And that next company can make it cheaper and faster, because it has no R&D costs. In most cases, this endless game of product-telephone makes the product worse.

Jeff Wells, who sells a scooter he calls The Scoot, ticks off a number of corners he’s seen factories cut. “Weaker motors, not as reliable batteries, gyro boards, improper motherboard design,” Wells says. “There are a lot of areas where they can shortcut.” He laughs when I tell him about my board’s nasty tendency to randomly start shivering uncontrollably, before spinning completely out of control and shutting down.

The PhunkeeDuck costs $1,499.99, and there’s a waiting list to get one.

“You probably, right now, have five manufacturers in China that are beginning to make these,” Wells says. He’s been importing products from construction materials to medical equipment for years, and says the key is quality control. “Youve got to tour the facilities, youve got to see them manufacturing over the long-term basis.” Because when factories take shortcuts, the problems that crop up can be hard to see in an online listing, and they can be devastating.

That’s why the Scoot costs $695, when you can buy a seemingly identical device on Alibaba for $200 or so. (He thinks the magic price is somewhere in the $500 range, though, and says we’ll be there by Christmas.) The craziest part? Wells is actually leaving a lot of money on the table. IO Hawk, an LA-based company with a virtually identical story (and product), sells its scooter for $1,799.99 and still can’t keep up with demand. The PhunkeeDuck costs $1,499.99, and there’s a waiting list to get one.

Lets talk about the PhunkeeDuck. Its sold by PhunkeeTree, a New York-based company that began as two guys repackaging and re-branding phone cases and chargers for stores like Nordstrom and Forever 21. Last year, the guys went to the Hong Kong Electronics Show, to talk to their existing suppliers and to see what else they could add to their selection of chargers, cases, and cables. “While we were there we actually found this other factory that for the first time debuted this product to a select few,” Waxman says. “And we happened to be in the right place at the right time, so we started working with them to customize our own version of it.”

“Customize,” at least in this first version, consists of putting PhunkeeDuck stickers on the board and its box. Waxman and co-founder Maxx Yellin say they’re working with the factory—which they won’t name—to modify it in more significant ways, and says patents are a-pending. But they won’t share details yet.

Josh Valcarcel/WIRED

IO Hawk is a step ahead, having launched first—at CES in January—and already offering a few improvements in its model. Theres a metal frame, for one thing, which can take a heavier load. It can handle up to 400 pounds, though they don’t advertise it as quite that high. The company is also developing custom firmware for the device to make it run better. And, like PhunkeeDuck, IO Hawk claims it has big ideas it’s not ready to share for fear they’ll be stolen.

While they wait for patents to be granted and modifications to be implemented, though, this scooter just keeps popping up in unexpected places under new names. And with every celebrity appearance, every Instagram of Chris Brown dancing or Nick Jonas rolling into a pool, the pace picks up even more. After PhunkeeTree managed to get Kendall Jenner a board, thanks to a well-placed friend in LA, all it took was one Instagram of her being a little bit too confident on the board for the PhunkeeDuck to blow up. (That gram alone netted 1.1 million likes.) Celebs starting hitting them up left and right for samples, and as they shared their adventures on social media more people wanted to try them too. “We didnt have to ask them to post,” Waxman says. “They just loved it so much that Chris Brown was riding it around, and Wiz Khalifa was using it onstage.”

One of their most consistent askers was the rapper Soulja Boy, who finally got a PhunkeeDuck after months of pestering. A couple of days after his board arrived, a new device hit the market: The Soulja Board. $1,500, available in green and red. Its site, souljaboard.com, was put together so quickly there’s still dummy text on the About page.

“He starts posting, hey guys come buy my Souldja Board,” Waxman says. “And he’s standing on our PhunkeeDuck!”

Read more: http://ift.tt/2esRPIZ

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