#mostly because my brain does not have the ability to write a blurb today but you know. still. i probably would.

[elvisabutler]

now you have me curious, how would pa! reader and austin have been if they had met earlier?

literally nothing. absolutely nothing. oh? oh. no you wanted an answer. okay fine, but know like the "we'll be together when you're 30 and i'm 40" anon, y'all have gotten me in trouble with my own throwaway lines. ( i kid, truly, this was actually a nice thing to theorize about and if i write something about it- well- we all know i'm a sucker for au's of my own au. )

okay so serious answer? it depends entirely on how we're defining earlier. because i write my pa! reader as about 9ish/10ish years younger than austin. so there is not that much earlier to play with in terms of legal age which i'm sticking to. it'd be different if the age difference was smaller, so if pa! reader was a little older but as the entire verse/world is based mildly on that age difference, yeah it doesn't necessarily work. ( this isn't true for other people's pa! reader, or like some stuff i'll write that's in my inbox but ya know ) but basically it boils down to a too young but good friend situation until the reader's late 20s?

that being said, so he's always going to end up still being with vanessa and there's a difference between meeting her at 18 vs. 20/21. because here's the thing, papi? still happens even though austin tells her it's a bad idea because he's not gonna leave his wife for you, come on now. but pa! reader will make the argument that she's a grown adult and he treats her like austin treats vanessa. to which everyone say it with me- "no honey no." eighteen year olds, not the best judges of character. run off do the dumb thing with papi, don't contact austin during it and then 2 months go by and he gets a text in the middle of the night, "know you're with nessa. i'm fine, call me later?"

and here's a thing that ends up coloring 95% of his interactions with her for almost a decade. because austin ends up seeing her as like a kid versus you know the adult she technically is because he met her at 18 so even when she's 21/22 he's still thinks "kid" not adult. so he's always thinking "oh is how I'm interacting with her hurting her." point blank she doesn’t end up getting to be priscilla because when her name is even brought up austin shoots it down because "no she's a kid I'm not gonna do that". also generally speaking you know he will still be really really aware of how elvis was with priscilla. so he won't want her to be priscilla.

it definitely causes a fight to where they go from good friends to sort of half friends from like 22 to like 28. jokes on austin though because eventually there's like a miniseries or something about priscilla's life and lo and behold yeah she still ends up being a priscilla actress.

and then you know she's older and wiser, austin's a divorced single dad to little lori butler. career trajectory wise she probably mirrors his in that you know she does the odds and ends sort of parts and then toward the tail end of her 20s it's boom she gets all these parts. but she gets cast first then he gets cast second because he's got the star power and she's still kind of iffy re: can she hold up a movie by herself. austin almost backs out when he realizes who's playing his romantic interest but his agent reminds him hey you haven't ever done like a regency thing so do it now. besides since you know her it should be fine.

pa! reader gives no fucks because whatever this could be her big break. sees austin for the first time in years at the table read and is like "hi." and austin endures the most awkward moment of "oh fuck you're hot" of his life because this is the first time he's thought of her in that light ( pa! reader always had kind of liked austin but also isn't dumb and realizes he thinks of her as a kid even pre-fight ). and then they get to know each other again, totally fall for each other, she calls him birdie he definitely subs for her on occasion and it's generally just a different dynamic with the exception of austin still being incredibly protective over her. and also the publicists/pr/agents loving them because they're not idiots like in the actual main world thing.

might this have been an excuse to just use that gif up at the top? maybe. did i also love this question? yes. will i probably write up a headcanon post for this? i've done stranger things. would austin get a wet shirt scene in this hypothetical movie? yes.

also. consider: "did it really take a decade for you to stop thinking of me as a kid who made a decision so bad you called my mother?" "yeah, but trust me, that is- the farthest thing from my mind right now." "are we just gonna be like kurt russell and goldie hawn?" "depends, you trust me enough to marry me?" "i did when i was 18, it's almost a decade after and i still do, birdie."