#greg/james

[lexstellaris]

more lord greg au ed/james shenanigans stuff idek

(previous)

Ed walked. Needed to clear his head. He didn't like his choices, but Lady Victoria was right. He had all the money in the world and zero opportunities to use it. Well, no, that wasn't true. He could spent it anywhere he liked. He just didn't have the same opportunities to get more. Not as easily, anyway. But that came with scamming the ones who held all the power and access. It could be taken away if they decided you weren't welcome. That had been made plainly clear to him that fateful night.

He didn't want to admit she was right. His pride was still sore and he didn't really have enough of a plan to retaliate with anymore. Not yet, anyway. He just had a feeling things weren't over yet, not with James. He'd make things worse if he went away and disappeared again, leaving him all alone again. James wasn't alone, but that wasn't the point. It would still look like he'd just left again, abandoning him with a letter and nothing else. He'd hurt him enough to not do that again.

Did he find himself at Regent's Park again? Of course he did. He didn't go anywhere near the house, just hung out nearby at a distance, able to look at the house and it's dark windows, and imagine what had gone on in there. He knew James the best of the people in that house, but he had no reason to think he was in any danger. He was just glad he'd found a good place. James deserved that.

A drunk couple walked into him from behind, and it was enough to shake Ed out of his reverie. They laughed, and Ed's anger softened as he saw the two looking apologetic. He sighed, and reassured them he was fine. But it was a sign he should probably go home. No good would come from staring at James' window all night.

-

He wasn't proud about searching up Lord Greg on his laptop once he got home, as if he just couldn't stop prying. But he needed to know more about him. He needed to know more than that he was a man with a good reputation. Clearly he was a complicated man if he was a peer as well as a kinkster, and he'd garnered some kind of sense of him from Lady Victoria talking about him. He just had to reassure his heart that James was taken care of. Then he could rest.

-

He'd fallen asleep on his couch at some point during the night, waking in an awkward position with a leg flailed over the back of the couch. His head hurt, but whether it was from the alcohol or the late night or both, he didn't know. He lay there a while, gathering his thoughts. How late was it? He didn't know. Didn't care right now. He had spent a long time reading about all of Lord Greg's productions, and not finding much else on him apart from that. Which did make sense. It's not like he'd want his private life posted all over the internet. How he'd avoided any particular scandals was pretty remarkable, but maybe he was just careful.

Maybe he'd ask Victoria tonight. See if she could enlighten him on the more private aspects of his life that he clearly didn't talk about much to outsiders. He wasn't prying! He didn't need to know the details. He was just curious. That world wasn't one he walked in. He'd had kinky sex, of course, mostly with Lady Victoria, but it wasn't like, full on leather and handcuffs and whips and such. It wasn't his place. They weren't his people.

He lay there until his back yelled at him to get up, and he relucantly sat up and rubbed his temples. He'd need to clean himself up before tonight. He couldn't go to a posh poker tourney stinking like booze and feeling like shit. With great effort, he got to his feet, and went to shower and eat and make himself look and feel decent.

-

He left his flat early. Ruminating on his messy research notes, half of which he couldn't read anymore, was not a good use of his time. He headed out into the city instead. He could ruminate out there instead as he waited for Lady Victoria to meet him. He was staunchly avoiding thinking of himself as a whore, even though that word really just pummelled itself into his heart. That's what he'd always been for her. But it hadn't felt like that when there were scams and long cons and other business going on. But now, it was all he had. And maybe he was being forced to face that now, and how few opportunities were left to him.

It wasn't the money, it really wasn't. But his revenge plot was scuttled now, and his primary motivation in life had vanished. If he was perfectly honest, he wasn't sure what he had planned to do if he'd succeeded. But that wasn't the point. He was listless, and on his own. At least Lady Victoria still wanted him.

-

"You're here early," Chris noted as Ed arrived at the bar.

"Meeting a friend," Ed said. He pressed some cash into his hand. "Get me the usual, yeah?"

"Of course, head right in," Chris said.

Ed nodded to him, and went to find his table. It was just after 5pm. How drunk should he get in the time before Lady Victoria arrived? Part of him wanted to get plastered. She'd come in, see him, and ditch him, and then he'd be free. But he sipped his drink when it arrived, and tried to remind himself how to play poker instead. He'd brought a deck of cards with him just to keep his hands busy. It wasn't the deck of cards he really wanted, but some bitch had stolen them in France, and all he had left was the packet, all scrunched up, torn, and held together with tape. He was still bitter about it all these years later.

James' notes that he'd written on the inside weren't particularly helpful, but he wasn't interested in card tricks anyway. He wasn't being asked to play. But he might sit in a hand or two, depending on how Lady Victoria wanted to play it. He ended up playing solitaire instead, an alternative to buying more drinks. This was how Lady Victoria found him when she arrived a little before 6pm.

"Are you really that bored, Ed?" Lady Victoria said.

"It's this or drink, and I decided you wouldn't want me to drink," Ed said.

Lady Victoria smiled. "Good boy. Come on, the car's outside."

Ed gathered up the cards and put them away, shoving the deck into a pocket. "Of course, lead the way, my Lady."

-

"How do you want me to behave tonight?" Ed asked.

"Oh, just be yourself. You know the routine, right?" Lady Victoria said.

"So we're actually trying to screw someone over? Or are you just horny and missed me? How did you even know I was back anyway?" Ed said.

Lady Victoria laughed. "Oh, I always knew where you were, Ed my dear. I must look after my assets. I did want to see you again, but if we can have a little fun and be a bit distracting, then maybe I can clean up a little more than I would on skill alone. It's all for fun, anyway."

Ed did look concerned at that, but knowing what he did about her, that did make sense. "If anyone would have been able to track me, it'd be you."

"Don't worry, I never told anyone. I just wanted to know you were safe and alive, that's all," Lady Victoria said. "Your mother never recovered, you know, once it all came out. Awful, awful stuff."

"I know, don't remind me. I still get angry messages from her when she remembers. I wasn't trying to hurt her, just take back what was my birthright. But I guess that's all over now. I lost out. I'm nothing. He won," Ed said.

"Families can be like that, yeah, especially our kinds of families. At least you still have me. Not much, but well, we take what we can get," Lady Victoria said.

"You know full well they'd never let me come back on your arm," Ed said.

"No, of course not. But I can still sweet-talk the right people for you if you need me to. I'm not totally useless," Lady Victoria said. "I'm good at collecting favours for later."

"Of course you are, you wouldn't be in your position without that kind of skill," Ed said.

"Just follow my cues tonight, and we'll be fine, alright?" Lady Victoria said.

"Of course, that was my plan. I had no other plans, but that was my plan anyway," Ed said.

She laughed. "Oh, you silly boy. I have missed you very much."

[greghatecrimes]

House drugged that coffee btw

[going2hell4everythingbutbeingbi]

just started watching house and I thought yall were exaggerating but no. every episode is just like three wrong diagnoses that almost kill the patient and then house is like "he has underwater skunk herpes" and they give the guy a new butthole and he's cured. and then house chugs vicodin while talking about wanting to rail wilson.

[astral-scout]

party rockers in the

[titojefie]

like whatever man

[puckspoetry]

POV: you wake up from a mouse bite induced coma

[ifwebefriends]

I feel like if Hanahaki disease was real in the House MD universe there’d be a whole episode about them treating a patient with it and they like lie or some shit about not telling so and so about their love or like the person they love is dead or something and so they try to cure them another way and the whole time House is like being a dick as always and making fun of them for it and like haha you won’t tell them you love them loser and then at the end of the episode the person the patient loves comes in at the last minute when the patient is on the brink of death and they confess and so the patient lives and gets a happy ending but then Wilson talks to House and says something like “the lengths people would go to to avoid rejection” and House would respond like “yeah these idiots would risk their lives just to not get their stupid feelings hurt” and then Wilson leaves and literally right after he’s gone House coughs up a few petals and barely reacts and just throws them into the trash or a fireplace or something and walks out into the hallway and the episode ends and it’s literally never brought up again

[urfavgirlfail]

House trapping Wilson in a comedically large fishing net like a wilie coyote and Roadrunner cartoon is so fucking funny to me

[realscreaminggoat]

house is gay in a “i woke up one day and i realized i like men” way while wilson is gay in a catholic guilt repressed tormented fighting demons denial suffering mentally ill kind of way

[cickyart]

disco elysium portraits for the house guys WHOOPEEEE

[starrywho]

is this his gay way of asking him out

[annie-handholder]

[papertowness]

hilson is so funny because if you stuck house in a time loop wilson would ask him “ wait … are you stuck in a time loop ?? “ after house stretched out on his office couch and spoke in riddles for a minute or two but if you stuck wilson in a time loop house would fuck around and do some insane shit after wilson told him and be annoyed that wilson knew the outcome every time

[sinfulpepsi]

I knew House was a bottom

[shitpostenjoyer98]

biblically accurate hilson

[culverton]

average friendship