#i see the sequin sisters are back on tour

[https-harlow]

First Concert

Summary- You and Jack take Paisley to the Eras tour, which happens to be their first concert other then watching Jack preform.

A/N- Feel free to imagine them seeing whoever you want, but this idea was sparked from seeing a TikTok about a little girl going to the Era's tour, so I choose Taylor Swift.

Paisley and Olive had been to countless concerts, but they had never been to a concert that wasn’t their Dads. They had always stayed backstage, watching from the side, so you were both a little nervous about how they would react to being in the crowd, but Paisley and Olive were currently obsessed with Taylor Swift and Jack had worked with Neelam to get tickets in the VIP box. You had thought about surprising the girls, but you knew they would want to pick out their outfits, so you told them in advance.

Countless stores and trying on dresses later and Paisley picked out a gold dress with stars on it, and Olive picked out a baby pink dress with sequins. While they were looking for their dresses, they saw a long purple dress they wanted you to wear, so you did. 

“Hey Daddy?” Paisley asked, her and Olive walking up to Jack who was making lunch.

“Yes?” Jack asked.

“You know how me, Olive, and Mommy are dressing up for the concert?” Paisley asked and Jack nodded. 

“I do.”

“You should dress up with us Daddy!” Olive said.

“Yeah, you should!” Paisley said and Jack thought for a minute.

“Let me guess, you want to pick out the outfit?” He asked and they both nodded excitedly.

“Yeah!!” Olive cheered excitedly.

“Okay, you can pick my outfit.” Jack told them and they both jumped up and down excitedly.

“What about a pink and blue cotton candy shirt?” Paisley asked. 

“Like tie dye?” Jack asked, both girls called tie dye, cotton candy.

“Not tie dye, Mommy will show you what we found.” Paisley said.

“Oh you already have an outfit in mind?” Jack teased and Olive giggled, covering her mouth.

“Maybe.” Olive said and Paisley rolled her eyes at her sister.

“You weren’t supposed to tell him.” Paisley said underneath her breath, making Jack laugh.

Later that day, the girls showed Jack the shirt you three picked out, and even though Hayden wasn’t going to the concert with the four of you since he was still a newborn, he would be spending a few hours with Jack’s parents, but you bought him a shirt that matched Jack’s for pictures.

You were all excited for the concert, in the weeks leading up to it, both girls couldn’t stop talking about it. Her music was playing non-stop in your house, the girls made countless friendship bracelets with your and Jack’s help, even involving Urban in the bracelet making process. 

Jack wanted to surprise you, Paisley, and Olive so a couple days before the concert he made an appointment for you three to get your nails done, which turned into you having a girl’s day with Paisley and Olive while Jack and Hayden had a boy’s day. 

The morning of the concert, the girls were begging you and Jack to let them wear makeup, which to them really just meant they wanted to wear sparkly eyeshadow, so you let them. You chose gold for Paisley and pink for Olive to match their dresses. Paisley wanted her hair in a bun, so Jack did Paisley’s hair while you curled Olive’s because that’s what she wanted. 

You dropped Hayden off at Jack’s parents house, before Jack drove to the stadium. As soon as you were close enough to see the stadium, both Paisley and Olive started practically jumping up and down in their seats. 

“Mommy! Daddy! Look!!” Paisley yelled excitedly, pointing out her window where she saw a picture of Taylor Swift on the LED screen outside the stadium.

“I’m so excited!” Olive said, clapping her hands. 

Once Jack parked around the back of the stadium, the four of you were led to the VIP box, where the girls traded friendship bracelets with everyone who came up to say hi to Jack, fans giving you and Jack friendship bracelets also, Paisley and Olive even trading each other so they could get the bracelets they wanted. 

“Daddy?” Olive asked Jack.

“Yes Liv?” Jack looked down at her.

“How come this many people don’t come to watch you sing?” She asked as the crowd filled the stadium.

“Um, because she’s been singing longer than me and she has more fans.” Jack tried to explain in a way that would make sense to her.

“Oh, okay.” Olive shrugged.

“It’s really your own kids who humble you the most.” Jack joked to you, making you laugh. 

“I agree, don’t want you to get too big of a head over there.” You teased, Jack jokingly pushing your shoulder before pulling you in to kiss you. 

“Mommy, when does the concert start?” Paisley asked you and you checked your phone.

“About 20 minutes.” You told her and she nodded excitedly before running back to her sister. 

20 minutes later and Taylor started performing, both girls cheering loudly and dancing as she sang. Both girls sang along to the lyrics as loud as they could, and even though they always listened to the clean versions of songs, you and Jack told them that tonight was an exception and they could sing along to the curse words.

As soon as Taylor started singing “Look What You Made Me Do” Olive turned to you and Jack.

“She’s playing my favorite song!!” Olive yelled over the music before continuing to sing along.

You and Jack were surprised that both girls had just as much energy towards the end of the concert that they did at the beginning. You expected at least one of the two to have fallen asleep since their bedtime was hours ago.

Taylor started playing “Bejeweled” and Paisley started jumping up and down. Bejeweled was her favorite song.

“Daddy! She’s playing Bejeweled!! Dance with me!” Paisley said and Jack nodded, dancing with Paisley you and Olive joining in.

A couple songs later and the concert was over. Olive’s exhaustion set in as she sat down.

“Daddy, can you carry me?” She asked and Jack nodded, picking Olive up before you took Paisley’s hand and you were led by security back to your car. Olive ended up falling asleep during the walk, her head laying on Jack’s shoulder with her arms wrapped loosely around his shoulders. Paisley on the other hand, was still full of energy.

“I want to sing just like Taylor Swift when I’m older.” Paisley told you and Jack as you walked to the car.

“You don’t want to perform like me anymore?” Jack asked and Paisley thought for a second.

“No. I want to wear sparkly outfits.” Paisley said and Jack laughed.

“Okay, that’s fair, you can wear all the sparkly outfits you want to.” Jack told her.

“I had so much fun, this was the best night ever. Thank you for bringing us.” Paisley told you and Jack.

“You’re welcome, we’re glad you had fun, we had a lot of fun with you too.” You smiled at Paisley.

“I miss Hayden though.” Paisley said.

“We all miss Hayden, but we’re going to pick him up and then we can see him, but we have to go to bed when we get home okay?” Jack reminded her and she nodded.

“Can we sleep in your room tonight?” Paisley asked and Jack looked at you, you nodded.

“Of course.” Jack told her, gently placing Olive in her car seat while you and Paisley got into the car. 

What you had kept a secret from the girls, is that they would be seeing Taylor again the next night, except tomorrow, they would be meeting her before the show.

Tag list @jackharloww @harlowcomehome @nattinatalia @hoodharlow @itsyagirljaz @heavyhitterheaux @harlowsbby @awhore4moree @harlowslefttoe @twerkforambrose @jackmans-poison @ilovenudy @taniapri @killatravtramp @easternparkway @macey234 @toocriticalharlow @lightsoutstyles @rachxc13 @iknowdatsrightbih @idktbh101 @blossomluvv

[taylormereditholivia1989]

I am still so grateful that @taylorswift liked the post of me and my sister Kate during the Lover era! For sure the most surrealist thing that's ever happened!

We are finally seeing Taylor live this year!! We have dreamt of seeing her live since we were young (7 and 4 years old). Money has always been tight for us. Our Mum and Dad knew how much we really wanted to go to the Speak Now tour in Belfast but unfortunately could not make it happen. ❤️

By the time 1989 and reputation came to Dublin, I eagerly watched videos of the tours on YouTube and posted updates on my tumblr. However, by then my little sister Kate was seriously struggling and repeatedly hospitalised with the (then undiagnosed) and vert rare connective tissue disorder that is Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Kate unintentionally lost a significant of weight during these years and stopped getting nutrition from her food. We were terrified and didn't know what would happen.

We were born with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and Dysautonomia, but these were only diagnosed last year. 🦓🦓💛💛

I have dealt with my symptoms from my early teens. My sister Kate has struggled since childhood. This has made socialising and forming solid friendships impossible as we are typically too ill to meet up.

Kate has a knee operation coming up soon. I have kyphosis surgery. We don't yet know if this will be before or after the eras tour in June. We hope everything works out and we can see Taylor live to celebrate all the eras.

To see Taylor right in front of us at Dublin Night One still feels too good to be true. This is what we have been waiting for all these years. I can't wait to sing and dance with Taylor and thousands of other fans for one magical night. I can't wait to have the best evening ever with my parents and my sister. This is what Kate and I have spent hundreds of hours sitting around the fire, carefully analysing verses and discussing hidden meanings. 🔮

Kate and I use a wheelchair part time. We do, however, plan to stand during the eras concert in the front right with our parents for a once in a lifetime experience. We will wear our braces and keep our pain medication topped up. We will get through the night. We know laughs and memories from the tour will last us a lifetime. We have many more tests and examinations left to carry out, but no doubt your jams (especially the tortured poets department as well as future music you are probably already working on). 🤣

We most look forward to hearing the song marjorie live. We both cried when we first listened to it. Taylor describes her grandmother beautifully. We feel especially connected to our grandfather when we listen to this. We discovered a few months back that we inherited our rare genetic condition from our grandfather. He passed young as it went undiscovered. We believe listening to marjorie helps keep his memory alive because we think of him. 💙☀️

We are lucky to have Taylor's music as a form of therapy. We relate to her quirks and her awkward and lovable sense of humour. We genuinely believe Taylor is the funniest person to ever live and we are entranced by how she is so unapologetically herself. Being 5ft 10 and seeing Taylor in the media has really helped me to be more comfortable and accepting of my height and my overall appearance.

@taylorswift if you just so happen to see this post or catch a glimpse of our sequin dresses, curly hair and ever-glittery eye makeup on stage please know: Kate and I are beyond ecstatic to celebrate at your concert. We are going to sing and dance like we have always dreamed of doing. Please ignore our clicking knees and hips if you just so happen to hear them up on the stage. I can say with almost 99% certainty any clicking will be our 22 and 19 year old bodies just doing their thing lol. 🤣

P.S. We can't wait to see your extremely sparkly outfits, shoes and makeup (we really REALLY love glitter in case it wasn't already obvious!!) in person. We love how unhinged you are with sparkles!! 💜

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

- Anna (and the slightly more monotone but equally as funny, Kate). 🩷🩷

[ivpapaemeritusiv]

Chapter 17: Your Beauty Never Ever Scared Me

Summary: In this chapter, Addy and Papa wrap up the tour, navigating the challenges of caring for a newborn in a cramped bus. Fortunately, the multi ghoul is on hand to offer support and assistance during this demanding time.

Word Count: 4,100 words

Kaisarion was a few weeks old, and the tour was back in full swing and it was show time! Addeline had missed the fast-paced life of moving from city to city. She missed hearing Papa on stage and the way the crowd cheered for him. She loved seeing everyone else adore him as much as she did—recognition for his hard work. She knew it made him feel good to be appreciated. It was a validation she was unable to provide.

She was in the green room with him, holding Kaisarion in her arms. The newborn was wide awake but very quiet. Ashley was applying the final touches to Copia’s face—a mask that changed him from just Papa to Papa Emeritus the IV.

He turned around in his seat, “How do I look?”

Addy took a deep breath in, “Very dashing.”

“Ah, good,” he responded, giving his child a pat on the head, “That’s what I was going for.”

He stood up so that he could dress quickly. There wasn’t much time until he had to be on stage.

“That is one quiet baby,” Ashley said as she helped the Cardinal with his wardrobe.

As the man threw on his shiny sequin jacket, he gave his wife a small wink, “That’s because his mother is holding him. As soon as she puts him down, he will be louder than the crowd.”

The people in the room laughed as Papa started walking off. He turned around to notice Addy was not following him, “My dear, are you coming? Or should I carry you while you carry him?”

“Oh…” she was confused, “You want me to… you mean I can…”

“Yes, yes, come darling! Did you think I was going to keep you locked up in this green room? Nonsense! My little ragazzo needs to see what his future looks like.”

Addeline ran to catch up with her husband. There were so many people walking in all directions—so many people that made the show possible. It was a rush of adrenaline.

After quite the stroll, they finally reached backstage. Addeline had to admit, she actually missed Sister Imperator being in front of the monitor. Papa looked at his wife who was deep in thought, “A kiss for good luck, Amore?”

She gave him one of the kindest kisses she possibly could and sent him out on stage. Of course, as always, the crowd yelled out for him upon his entrance.

“Good evening, Lyons,” he addressed the crowd as he always had, “We’re going to have some fun tonight.”

He went through and introduced all the ghouls, allowing them to play a solo for the audience one at a time.

“I want to introduce you all to one more person,” he began to say, “Well… two more people. You see, just recently I became not just a Papa but a daddy,” he held up two fingers in the air, “for the second time.”

Upon hearing this, the crowd went insane. She was sure some of the hardcore fans probably knew Papa Emeritus had a family, but the couple was very good at concealing their private lives. Many people had no idea of their relationship.

“Yes, yes. I am a daddy to two beautiful children, a girl and now… a boy.”

The faces in the audience emitted more noise with each revelation Copia threw at them, “And they are backstage right now.”

Oh boy… Addy thought to herself, knowing what Papa was about to do.

“Can somebody get my wife out here for a second?”

Addeline, already hearing that she’d been summoned, began to walk out on her own. She was met halfway by Swiss who helped her across the stage to where Papa was standing. Papa gave her a kiss, and whispered in her ear away from the microphone, away from the busy crowd, “I want them to know what drives me to continue doing what I do.”

She blushed.

“Everyone, my wife.”

Papa let the crowd’s claps and whoops subside before introducing his next guest of honor, “And this little guy right here is Kaisarion.”

The sounds of screams were so ear piercing it stirred the infant and he began to cry, “Shh, shh,” The Cardinal quieted the crowd, “Do not fret everyone. Kaisarion always calms down when his mother is holding him.”

Addeline took this as her queue to leave. She gave Papa a passionate kiss as the crowd ooohed and ahhhed at the sight. Not being a big fan of public affection, she walked off stage as red as a beet.

“This next song is dedicated to that beautiful woman! You might like this one!”

The music started and Addy could hear, “Call me Little Sunshine,” begin to play. She sang the lyrics to her young son who quickly quieted upon hearing his mother’s melodic voice.

The show ended and as usual the crew began packing up. They had decided to drive through the night to the next city so that they could rest at the hotel the next day. Papa, Addeline, Kaisarion, Swiss and Cirrus rode in one bus while the rest of the crew and musicians rode in the other.

The two ghouls were in the middle of the bus playing cards while Addeline was lying next to Copia in their space in the back. He lay very still although she knew he was not yet asleep. He could sense her staring at him—or maybe it was the little movements of the bed that gave her away every time she glanced in his direction.

“Is there something you need, “Bella mia?” he asked, without opening his eyes.

“No… nothing,” she softly whispered.

He was not convinced, “Can you not sleep?”

“I… I…”

“Ah, you want your Papa? Is that it?” he said, still without moving an inch.

Addy let a very timid, “Yes,” escape her lips.

Papa turned his head toward her, “My dear, your Papa is very tired.”

She scowled, disappointed that he had teased her.

“Don’t look so blue,” he told her, “Perhaps I can find enough energy to put my little pet to rest.”

Her eyes lit up. They were so beautiful, Copia thought, so full of optimism at what he would give to her.

“Are you naked, Papa?”

“I am, Tesoro,” he admitted, although he had been too tired to remove his make-up from earlier.

Addy herself was only wearing a T-shirt she’d bought from an earlier concert—of course with Papa Emeritus’s face on it.

Making decrepit noises, he climbed on top of her, being very careful not to press on her stomach. He started to give her light kisses around her ear. A well-placed shiver swam through her body, down to her toes.

“Shh,” Papa tried to quiet her, as she made soft grumbles from underneath his chest, “The ghouls in the next room might be trying to sleep.”

She attempted to stifle her own noises but accidently let out a shrill gasp when Papa grabbed her thighs and forcefully pulled them apart. He pushed himself in between them and slid the tip of his cock into the wanting girl. For her, it was enough to make the room turn upside down.

Addy’s eyes seemed even blacker to him in the dark of the night. They were enchanting. He slowly began to push himself in—as slowly as he had ever done in the past. He definitely did not want to fill her up all the way as he knew they were not even supposed to be playing in this manner.

“Papa, you have to pull out.”

The tiny command from his wife made him chuckle.

“You are telling me how to fuck you?” he asked, not missing a beat.

She recoiled. He continued sliding in and out, delicately and slowly, but it was enough. After going so long without feeling one another, it was more than adequate.

“Papa, I’m not going to last much longer.”

He knew this was her way of asking for consent to get off—something she’d been taught to do from the very first fuck. Normally, he would not want it to end so suddenly, but he too was on the brink of letting go.

“Be my guest, my dear.”

She entered a trance-like state, screaming into the room. The cardinal cuffed her mouth with the inside of his palm and muffled the cries as he went on making love to her. When he saw the intensity of her orgasm subside, he quickly withdrew, spilling himself onto her stomach.

Addy, breathing very heavily, felt the warmth of it trickle down the sides of her, “You… you pulled out?”

“It was difficult,” he admitted, “But we can’t break two rules in one night, eh?”

Just then, a voice from the other side of the curtain shouted, “Hey, will you two assholes keep it down in there? There’s a fucking baby on the bus for God’s sakes!”

“Oh my, God!” Addeline shrank beneath the covers, “I forgot about them.”

“Yes, you did,” he agreed, his ears still ringing from the sounds of her shrieks, “But, Swiss has caught us in the act before. He will not be traumatized by this.”

“Permission to enter Papa,” Swiss said outside the curtain, obviously teasing Addy.

“Ah yes, entrare, entrare.”

Swiss opened the curtain, Kaisarion in his arms, “Here’s your baby. If you guys aren’t too busy, I think he’s hungry.”

Addy reached out for the infant who was making quite a fuss as the Cardinal took his original spot in the bed.

“Thank you so much for keeping him occupied for a bit,” Addeline expressed her gratitude. It was hard to be on tour with a newborn. The infant was attached to her hip every hour of the day. Any time Addeline put him down he seemed to cry but it was established quickly that for some reason the tiny boy enjoyed the embrace of Swiss.

“He’s a sweet kid and he hates everyone but you and me and that makes him okay in my book.”

“You just want to feel special,” Cirrus called from outside the open curtain.

“Yea,” Swiss continued, “Well, you’re just mad he likes me more than you.”

An object came hurling toward Swiss’s head. It caught him right between the eyes.

“Ouch!”

“Alright, out!” Papa shouted, as Addeline began to feed their son.

Swiss closed the curtain and ran to tackle his ghoul friend. The family dynamics amongst the crew were strong.

“Lay down and feed him, my sweet,” the Cardinal told his wife, “You need to get some sleep.”

Addy laid down, her back pressed up against Papa’s chest, and let one breast rest in Kaisarion’s mouth. Now, with the child being calm and her urge satisfied, she was able to drift off to sleep.

* Papa was awoken by the sound of his son’s crying. Still very tired, he grabbed his watch off the nightstand and glanced at the time. He’d been asleep for just 3 hours and there was still another 3 to drive. All was silent, except for Swiss snoring beyond the curtain.

The Cardinal grumbled, “Amore?”

She was sleeping heavily and not answering. The baby continued to cry.

“Addeline?” This time he nudged her. She repositioned slightly but did not wake up.

“Addy?” He said more loudly, “Kaisarion is awake.”

She groaned and mumbled something unintelligible under her breath.

Papa could see that she was not going to get up. He reached over her body and gently lifted the baby. Trying to console little Kaisarion, he rocked him back and forth, “There, there…”

After several minutes the Cardinal got out of bed with his son and walked into the middle of the bus where his other two companions lay resting. The little screams from the baby woke Swiss.

“Cardinal?”

“Ah, good,” he said, “You’re awake.”

“Yea, how can anyone sleep with you bringing that racket in here?”

“What do I do? I don’t know what to do?”

Swiss sat up and rubbed his eyes, “He’s probably hungry. Give him to Addy.”

“Addy won’t wake up.”

“Oh,” the ghoul said flatly. “Well, you feed him then.”

Copia looked around, somewhat frantic, “Feed him what exactly?”

Swiss burst into laughter, “Breast milk. Babies drink breastmilk.”

The Cardinal answered frustratedly, “The milk is in the breast and the breast is on my wife who will not wake up.”

“Check the fridge. Adds keeps some in there.”

Swiss watched on shaking his head, as Papa walked to the fridge to get his son’s food, “Cardinal isn’t this your second kid? Have you not been alone with your spawn before?” he continued ridiculing the frontman.

“Fa schifo al cazzo! Just get up and help me!”

Swiss threw himself out of the small cot that attached to the wall and walked over to a black mini fridge, “She keeps bottles in here just in case.”

“Just in case what?” Papa wondered out loud.

“Just in case you wake up in the middle of the night, and don’t know what to feed your kid.”

Swiss handed Papa the bottle, teasingly, and watched him shove it into Kaisarion’s mouth.

“What are you doing?” he wondered.

Papa, somewhat flustered, repeated the question, “What I am doing? I’m feeding the baby!”

Swiss covered his forehead in angst, “Papa, you gotta warm the bottle up first.”

The Cardinal went to put the bottle in the microwave.

“No!” Swiss quickly closed the microwave door shut. He reached under a cabinet and grabbed a pot to fill it with hot water, “You can’t put it in there! You have to let it warm up like this.”

“How do you even know all this,” Papa asked puzzled.

Swiss shrugged, “I watch Addy do it.”

The ghoul took the bottle from Copia and placed it in the pot, “Hey, I know it’s not my business, but you might want to start helping her take care of these babies you keep making.”

“Excuse me,” The Cardinal was a bit offended.

Swiss lowered his tone, realizing he may have been making Copia angry, “No offense, but that’s why you can’t wake her up. She’s exhausted. If you haven’t noticed that baby is literally suckling her for life support. She can’t put him down.”

Papa nodded, “Yes I have noticed that.”

“She told me she’d love to sing in the next couple shows.”

Papa quickly looked at Swiss, moving his neck so quickly it made a snapping sound, “She said that to you?”

“I mean… yea. But how can she? Kaisarion won’t let her do anything.”

“Well, she’s just had a tough delivery. She always thinks she can do more than what she’s capable of.”

“I don’t know,” the ghoul said, “I think she’d surprise you.”

“When does she talk to you about this? What else does she say?” Copia was quite dismayed that his wife would confide in somebody else instead of him.

“Don’t take it personally but you two have this weird power exchange going on all the time,” Papa listened as Swiss explained to him the dynamics of his own relationship, “She hangs on to your every command—she waits for you to tell her what to do.”

The Cardinal seemed oblivious to this information, “I don’t tell Addeline what to do.”

“Cardinal, with all due respect, I’ve never banged a woman who needed my permission to get off before.”

“You think she is afraid to talk to me?”

“It’s not that. She likes being subservient to you. It’s some fetish you guys have had from day one. It kind of makes me want to throw up honestly,” he joked.

Swiss gently removed the infant from Copia’s grasp as he reached for the bottle to begin feeding the newborn, “I’m saying you gotta approach her. You gotta pick up on what she wants, what she needs, cause she’s not gonna tell you. You’re HER master. You gotta tell her what’s best and what’s best is what SHE wants. Make sense?”

The Cardinal wore a blank gaze, his mouth gaping wide. He waited a few seconds before snapping, “It’s too early for this shit, Swiss.”

“Ah go back to bed; I’ve got the kid.”

Copia graciously nodded, retreating back behind the privacy of the curtain that separated him from the rest of the bus.

* Addeline woke up when she heard the squeaky brakes of the tour bus. Finally she thought. The bus was quite an uncomfortable and cramped place to sleep. The movements of the vehicle across the bumps and gravel of the road did not help with slumber. She looked at Papa, who had finally passed out, then noticed that Kaisarion was not next to her. She panicked, frantically looking around for him. She called his name while tossing blankets around the bed. This still was not enough to wake the Cardinal.

She busted through the curtain, hyperventilating but quickly calmed down when she saw the baby sleeping soundly next to Swiss. Oh my God she thought as her fight or flight instincts settled. She walked over to where the ghoul lay and knelt by the bed. She rubbed her son’s head and softly whispered good morning in his ear.

This woke up Swiss whose eyes fluttered open at the sound of Addy’s voice. He took a while to come to but met her eyes after blinking and rubbing his own, “Good morning, you.”

“Thank you. You are so good with him.”

“You need to train your old man, Addy. Poor guy can’t even heat up a bottle.”

She giggled and began to reach for her baby, “When did he eat last?”

“A couple hours ago,” the ghoul said, “He took a bottle and a half but there’s one full bottle left in the fridge.”

“I think I’ll just feed him from the water hose,” Addy laughed, speaking about her engorged boobs.

Swiss couldn’t help but noticed Addy was leaking through her T-shirt, “Looks like you need milking.”

Cardinal walked in to see his wife at Swiss’s bedside, “What’s this,” he asked, perplexed.

Addeline quickly looked up at him and then back to Swiss, hurrying to grab her child so that she could stand, “Nothing, Papa. Kaisarion fell asleep with Swiss. I heard someone had trouble feeding him,” she joked.

Copia grumbled as he walked over to steal a kiss from Addy, “Unfortunately, I am not as perceptive as he.”

Swiss furrowed his brow as Addy shrugged in his direction. At about this time Cirrus also woke up.

“How the fuck did you sleep through the night,” Swiss asked her.

“Why? What happened?”

Before Swiss could answer, the Cardinal walked toward the exit of the bus, summoning Addy to follow him, “Tesoro, can I speak to you for a minute?”

She followed Copia outside, a little uneasy at the manner he called her in, “What is it, Papa? Did I do something wrong?”

“No, my darling, of course not. I wanted to know if you would like to do backing vocals for the next show?”

Her eyes lit up, “Really? You mean it?”

“Yes, Amore, I mean it.”

Addeline jumped into his arms. She was ecstatic and the Cardinal quite pleased he had taken Swiss’s advice.

“Do you think my ghoul costume will still fit?”

Copia looked her up and down, noticing that she had lost most of her baby weight already, “You bounce back quickly, my darling. The costume will fit perfectly.”

“What about—”

“—Kaisarion? There are plenty of people on standby to watch him, my dear.”

*

Addy was thrilled at sound check, unlike everyone else who had done the same one an endless number of times now. She walked onto the stage fully equipped in her nameless ghoul attire and walked up to Swiss.

“Wow, you’re the sexiest ghoul here,” he joked.

She took a playful bow, thanking him for the compliment, “So where do I stand.”

Swiss looked behind his shoulder at a small circular platform, “You’re behind me. They’re keeping us altos over here while the banshee stands on the opposite side of the stage,” he referred to Cumulus who was a skilled soprano.

Swiss pulled out a book of sheet music with all the lyrics to the songs they needed to perform, “You’re not going to be on stage the whole time but I’m going to go over the songs Papa put you down for.”

“Okay,” she said bright eyed and ready.

“And you’re not getting paid either so calm down.”

She smirked and crossed her arms, “Just tell me what I’m doing.”

“So, for Mary on a cross we’ll have you matching my vocals, so I’ll show you how to do that. My mic will be louder because I’m better.”

Addeline shoved him playfully, causing him to lose his balance a bit.

He chuckled and continued, “We need you for Darkness. Papa Emeritus likes that thing you do when you’re singing a lower note and you cut to the high note real sharply, it’s almost whiny, so we’re putting you on for Spillways and Pro Memoria—we especially need you to carry the harmonies on the…” Swiss demonstrated, “To ride with me… to ride with me…” raising his hands in the air as though he had a baton, to show Addy a visual representation of the musical note.

Swiss put in a solid hour of hard work, guiding Addy through her parts. As they practiced the ending for Mary on a Cross she struggled to catch her breath before the final note. Frustration escaped in an exasperated “Ugh.”

Swiss quickly reassured her, saying, “Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal. Just a long note.” He gently positioned his hand on her back and under her rib cage, sandwiching her diaphragm, “Take a deep breath and stand tall,” he advised. “Save all your breath at the beginning and release it all for that powerful final note.”

Papa walked up to the two to see if Addy would be ready for the show.

“How’s she doing, Swiss?” he asked.

“Well,” Swiss began, “She thinks she’s the main character,” he laughed, “She needs to be part of the vocal harmonies instead of singing on key with the frontman.”

“Trying to steal my job, Amore?” The cardinal joked, giving her a small pinch on the waist.

“There’s actually a lot going on out here, Cardinal. If you don’t mind, I think it might be easier to go backstage with some earpods.”

“Yes, yes, do what you must,” Copia gave them permission to retreat and practice in a quieter place.

Swiss and Addy went to the green room to continue their session while everyone else practiced outside. The two worked diligently for one more hour, preparing for the upcoming show.

“I can’t believe you guys do this so many times in a row,” Addy said.

“Well, if you enjoy something it’s easy to do it over and over again,” he looked down, smirking, “You should know that, Adds.”

She laughed, assuming Swiss was talking about having sex with Copia.

“In any case,” he continued, “I think you’re ready. We need to get out there and do the real thing now. You should probably go find Cumulus so she can grab your ghoulette get up.”

He started to walk off but then noticed Addy’s shirt was wet, “Adds? Go milk yourself.”

The woman looked down and realized it had been a few hours since she fed her son. She covered herself, somewhat frustrated, “Goddamn it, this always happens.”

“Ha!” Swiss chuckled, “I don’t mind it. It’s kind of hot.”

She glanced up, meeting his gaze, and her words spilled out, “You know? I love the kids, but I think Kaisarion is my last. It’s not that I don’t adore being a mother, but sometimes I feel like I’m meant for so much more.”

“I’ll buy you a box of condoms then if the show goes well tonight!”

“I’m serious,” she said, “And having Kaisarion was so scary. If you hadn’t found me in the hallway—”

“—But I did find you,” He interjected.

She looked at him, a playful glint in her eyes. He always seemed to be coming to her rescue.

Swiss met her gaze too but quickly shook himself out of it and looked down at his guitar, “Anyway, just tell him you’re done having kids. I’m sure he’ll understand.”

“Yeah,” she nodded,” a hint of skepticism in her voice.

Swiss himself was being facetious. He couldn’t help but be amused at the idea of Addy telling the Cardinal how things were going to be. He also knew the man wanted more children and that it would be a heated discussion. Still, he was curious to see what would happen.

“Alright, see ya out there,” he said, disappearing from the room, the thought lingering in his mind.

[planetharrie]

⋆.ೃ࿔*:･Midnight

In which Harry does an interview with BuzzFeed while playing with kittens and gets slightly too attached to one of them…

⭐️

“Okay, I promise I’ll take pictures of the kittens,” Harry spoke to his two children that had been shrunk into his phone on FaceTime, their two faces up-close to the camera. “When I get home I can show them to you, yes?”

“But do you promise, Daddy?” Little Annie emphasised. Wyatt gave up on having any type of conversation with his Dad and left the room, letting his sister continue to nag Harry.

He laughed, “I promise.” His face then straightened out more serious when his 4 year-old looked firm with her question. “Annie, I promise that I will take pictures of the kittens, okay? Now, I have to go and do the interview.”

“Okayyy, but you will be in big trouble if you don’t. I’ll go get Mummy.” The little one ran with her mother’s phone to return it to her and for 30 seconds Harry was met with a screen of blurry images of his home, muffled talking and finally, his wife’s face came on the screen.

“Hey, Babe!” She chirped, tucking her hair behind her ear.

“Hi, Tal. I really have to go, I’m already five minutes late. I’ll see you later, okay?” Harry started standing up and Talia watched him walk around his dressing room.

“That’s okay. I love you.”

“I love you too.” Harry hung up the phone and carefully placed it on his dressing table moments before being ushered out of the room by a few producers, ticked off at him for delaying his interview slot.

“Hi, Harry! Welcome. .” He was greeted by, who he suspected to be, the interviewer and shook hands with the middle-aged blonde.

“Hello! Where am I sitting?” He asked, eyeing a pink screen surrounded by cameras and lighting boxes. He fiddled with his rings and followed the director’s instructions.

“Well, today you’re on the floor, Harry. Let’s hope you don’t have any back issues!” She joked, her hand gesturing over to the middle of the screen.

Harry laughed back and lowered himself down onto the studio floor. “Don’t worry, I’m used to it from playing with my kids. They forbid me from sitting on a pillow. .”

Earning lighthearted laughs from the crew, Harry looked around nervously with a cheeky smile on his face. He sat with his legs spread out in front of him, his wide-leg jeans pushed up slightly revealing his Love On Tour bunny socks and his burgundy Gazelle’s coating his feet.

“Alright, Harry. We’re going to start recording before bringing out the cats, so on cue. . .” The interviewer explained, backing slightly into her seat and the camera man adjusted the main camera. “please introduce yourself. And. . . action!”

She held an approving thumb up and Harry took a deep breath before starting, “Hello, I’m Harry! Today I’m here with BuzzFeed and I believe I’m playing with kittens. Let’s bring ‘em in!”

He rubbed his ring-clad hands together with an eager and delighted cheshire-cat grin. Those musky-green eyes suddenly light up when six tiny fur-balls with uncoordinated legs trot and wobble over to the giant, unfamiliar man cooing over them.

“Oh, my goodness. Hi guys!” Harry’s voice is soft and he resembles the perfect example of a kid in a sweet shop; hands wavering, unsure who to pick up and hold. “You guys are so tiny. . forget the interview, can I just play with these babies for an hour?”

The crew laughed, Harry’s swift jokes adorning the set. “As much as we think watchers would love that, we do have some questions to ask you, Harry.”

“That’s okay, hit me with them,” Harry doesn’t look up, his eyes still playing dot-to-dot, flickering for one fluff-ball to another, admiring the kittens playing around him. “Can I pick them up?”

“Oh! Of course you can!”

He cups his large palms, scooping up a dinky, dark-furred kitten and holding the small thing up to his face. A button-nosed and sequin-eyed fluffy face aligns with his, both of them peering at each other. Harry could hardly contain the excitement and teeth-grinding cuteness he was containing over this senseless kitty.

She has bright blue hues, and Harry thought they resembled Annie’s little sequin stickers he often finds dotted around the house. A tiny mouth with an occasional appearance of a flat, pink tongue popping out and triangular, perked-up ears sat symmetrical atop of her tiny head.

“This one is beautiful. .” He whispered, the crew smiling patiently at him as they couldn’t physically start the interview until the interviewee was dedicating full attention. After a brief pause for admiration over the tiny creature, Harry finally put her down, shyly apologising with an embarrassed smile. “Sorry, guys. I just love kittens. Okay—I’m ready now!”

“Are you sure?” The interviewer asked, her voice pinched with humour and also impatience.

“Yes, yes! But, before we actually start. .” Harry started, scooping the black kitten back up into his palm. “What are the likelihood’s that I’ll be able to take this little one home with me?”

Harry’s wife opened the front door nearing quarter-to-midnight to him standing on the porch, backpack slung on his left shoulder and his duffel bag hooked in his hand.

“Hi, Baby,” She greeted him softly, stepping out of the doorway to cradle his head and kiss him, “how was the interview?”

“It was good; great in-fact,” Harry responded curtly before dropping the duffel bag to the brick floor. “hey are the kids asleep?”

Talia shrugged with her fingers hooked on the belt loops of her jeans, “yeah, I put them to bed hours ago; why?”

Harry eyed her before very carefully taking his backpack from off his shoulder, unzipping the biggest compartment and revealing the tiny, black kitty. Talia’s jaw dropped and her hands went up to her face. She took a step back, eyebrows raised before coming closer and cooing the animal.

“You think I could quickly surprise them?”

“Harry! Oh, my God, it’s so cute!” She entirely disregarded Harry’s question and was using her thumb to pet its small head. “did—did you steal this from the interview.”

Harry scoffed, picking up his duffel bag and shuffling inside, “no, of course I didn’t steal it, Babe. I don’t know—I picked her up and she looked at me with her beady eyes and we shared a moment together.”

Talia pouted before a short, single giggle and a soft elbow-nudge tailing, “you’re such a softie, H.”

Harry grinned while scratching between the little, black kitten’s triangle ears, “so, do you think it’s too late at night for me to surprise them?..”

⭐️

(A/N started writing this at like the end of august but time got in the way; i started sixth form and then celebrated my 17th bday before falling into the longest depressive episode ive ever had (which im still in.) so for that i am sorry for not posting but i thought i better get something out even tho i didn’t end the fic the way i wanted to. i might make a part two, depends on my motivation. lots of love!🎀)

[aadagio]

We had my birthday party on Saturday, the 17th, and I genuinely had so much fun -- I think it was the best birthday I've had since 2014.

I wanted to do something special, since it was my 30th and all, so I invited some friends and family to get a bit dressed up and go out to dinner with me at this fancy Italian place downtown called Taverna. Unfortunately, my sister couldn't get off work, so she couldn't go, but Craig, his sister Rayna, and my friend Heather all came.

I decided to wear the sequined tassel mini dress that I wore to Eras Tour again, since it's just so fun. I feel like it's supposed to be one of those dresses that you only ever wear once and then just let rot in the back of your closet or something, but I didn't want to do that and I felt like my birthday was the perfect occasion to give it another spin. I did my hair normally, but I did my makeup really loud and big, inspired by Dylan Mulvaney's eyeshadow look for the Queerties this year. I wore fishnets and these patent leather platform Creepers that I've had for years, and I pinned a pink button that said "Birthday Girl" to my dress.

Craig had made dinner reservations for us for 6:15, and we had everyone meet at our place and then we all took an Uber downtown. Unfortunately, it was another super hot and humid day, even that late in the evening, and the only table availability they had was outside, so we were stuck under an awning in 100 degree wet heat with only one rickety old wire fan mounted 10 feet away to keep us cool. I'd had the foresight to bring a hand fan with me, which helped a bit, but it was still incredibly hot out and we were all sweating.

At least once drinks started flowing, it got better. Me and Heather ordered a couple of mocktails, and Rayna and Craig got cocktails and sparkling wine with dinner. All the food was absolutely delicious -- we shared zucchini chips with truffle aioli dip, focaccia bread with prosciutto on top, and grilled octopus to start, and then me and Heather couldn't decide between ravioli and gnocchi, so we both got one plate and then split half with each other so we could try both.

We all spent the whole time talking away and catching up on everything under the sun. It was so nice, and I just felt so happy to be going out and spending time with people who are so special to me.

When it was time for dessert, we got a couple of ricotta cheesecakes to share among ourselves, and Craig ordered a mango sorbet to help cool down since it was still sweltering outside. The cheesecake was to die for - probably one of the best I've ever had. Just so creamy and fluffy and light. I had packed a "3" and "0" candle in my purse, as well as a lighter, so I could put them on my cake, and then everyone softly sang me Happy Birthday and I made my wish.

After dinner, we all wanted to keep hanging out, so we started checking our phones to see what was nearby that we could go do, and we settled on walking about 20 minutes across the Congress Bridge and down Lady Bird Lake to this place called Cidercade, which had taken over the old Joe's Crab Shack building. Surprisingly, the walk was actually not too bad at all. The sun was starting to set, and there was a nice breeze going. We all stopped on the bridge and took a bunch of photos, and we just kept talking the whole way about anything and everything.

Cidercade is basically exactly what it sounds like -- a combination cider bar and arcade. You pay $10 for entry and then you get to play all the arcade games you want for as long as you want. It's 21+ after 8 pm, and since it was my birthday, the bouncer at the door gave me 2 free drink tickets, which I thought was very nice even though I immediately handed them over to Craig and Rayna and told them to have fun while I ordered a soda. They decided to get the most expensive ciders on the menu, which they told me were very good.

The arcade was really the part that excited me the most. It was super loud inside, and the place was crawling with everyone from college kids, to people in their 40s and 50s. There were other girls wearing birthday tiaras or sashes, and row after row of games glowing and making noise. But best of all, the A/C was blastingggg inside, so it was nice and cold.

I got really excited because they had tons of pinball machines, including a different version of a Rush machine that I hadn't seen before. Me and Heather pretty much stuck together the whole time, since we were both more interested in playing the old-school games like Skee-ball and air hockey. Rayna and Craig went off and played more shooting-style games, and after awhile we met up again and went outside to sit and talk for awhile. I was so happy to find that they had several tables on their patio that were outfitted with SWINGS instead of chairs for you to sit on, and while you couldn't go crazy with the swinging or anything, it was still just so fun to sit on legitimate adult-sized wooden swings and rock back and forth.

Later, we all went back in and played these Japanese rhythm games that were like DDR but you played with your hands instead of your feet. None of us except Rayna really knew what we were doing, but they were still super fun, probably my favorite games of the night.

Around 10:30 I found myself starting to feel kind of tired, which kind of took me aback and made me feel very much like the 30 year old I was about to become. But I checked in with everyone else and they were feeling it too, so we called it a night and got an Uber back to our place. We got home around 11.

I realized when I was hugging Heather goodbye after our Uber dropped us off, that this night was the longest stretch of time I'd been able to spend with her since she gave birth to her daughter 2 years ago. Five whole hours together! I haven't spent any more than two with her in so long, and this was also the first time (aside from one night in November where we went and saw a movie and she had to go home immediately after) we'd hung out without her baby, too. It was crazy, but it felt like such an amazing gift to be able to have all that time with my oldest friend.

Rayna spent the night with us in our guest room, and despite how tired I had felt at the arcade, I actually wound up finding it very hard to fall asleep once we were home. I took off all my makeup, washed my face and changed into pajamas, but I was restless and unable to truly fall asleep until around 4 am. I think this was the first birthday I've had since I was a young teenager where I didn't set an alarm for 6 am and wake up to watch the time tick by to 6:03 when I was officially born.

I slept in until around 11 am on my actual birthday, but I woke up to breakfast tacos being made by Rayna and Craig, which was so nice. Rayna headed out shortly after we ate, and then me and Craig spent most of the day just cuddling (and doing other things) in bed, and I felt so happy and content. We eventually went out and had hamburgers at Phil's and ice cream at Amy's, where I got Butterfinger ice cream with Butterfinger crush-ins, which I must say resulted in the perfect ice cream-to-Butterfinger ratio. I drove us home after and blasted Bo Burnham's "30" in the car all the way back.

Basically, it was just the perfect birthday, the perfect birthday week, the perfect everything. I felt like I was on Cloud Nine from Thursday to Sunday. It was amazing. I really really wanted to have a fun and memorable 30th birthday, and I'm so happy and grateful that it actually wound up happening.

[shesaducktim]

Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin attend the 31st Annual Producers Guild Awards, January 18th 2020.

[bizarrelovesquare]

More of my pictures from seeing the SpongeBob Musical!!! gonna talk all about it but I’m putting it under the cut because I have so much to say~

So!! I’d been waiting several years for this and still can hardly believe it finally happened! I had tickets to see the national tour in 2020, but it shut down before they got to our tour date. There aren’t a lot of community theaters in the area I live in, so I didn’t really have a lot of hope that the few within a day’s driving distance would put this on anytime soon, but! It happened! It was a pure stroke of luck that we even found out about it—my dad happened to see it being covered on the news. I got tickets last minute for my sister and me, and I’m so glad we were able to go!

I always like to talk about all the unique things about performances I see live, so here’s my favorite things about this one:

before the show, they had background music from the cartoon playing over the speakers, and my sister and I were quoting things from episodes on the exact beats that the lines were said

Bikini Bottom Day was surreal, because I had this feeling of “holy shit this is finally happening right in front of my eyes??” the whole time. I tried (and failed) to hold back tears throughout the whole number, I was subtly doing the motions to the pledge along with them, all that good stuff

every time there was about to be a Plankton scene, I would like, sharply inhale, and my sister made fun of me about it at intermission and asked if I realized I was doing it lol

PLANKTON AND KAREN LOOKED SO COOL (I posted pics that I took of them after the show, I’ll reblog them again bc I posted them super late that night) Plankton’s wig was actually green and had this one little ponytail on top like an antenna, and his jacket was knee length and the more I think about it, it might actually be my favorite?? Y’all know broadway!Plankton is my man, but if I personally was designing a humanized Plankton, I would have definitely gone with a long jacket like this one. Karen’s glasses lit up around the edges, and it looked so cool during the scheming scenes when everything’s all dark with the green evil lighting

some of the choreography was a bit different, and in “No Control” some of the characters are climbing on rolling ladders and being pushed around, and Plankton was at the top of one and moving in such a way that can only be described as slutty, lol. Also, the red lighting in this number looks so cool irl!

Patrick had the BEST energy, I wanna be best friends with him

during “BFF,” SpongeBob jumped onto Patrick’s back and just stayed piggyback like that for the first half of the second verse

when they’re all at the town meeting and Squidward goes to suggest putting on his musical, Plankton did this exasperated “oh god” and it caught me so off guard that I did this awful bark-laugh

Larry said “cowabummer”

“Just A Simple Sponge” sounds so good live. I can’t explain it. The emotion just hits even harder.

in “Hero is My Middle Name” PATRICK actually did the cartwheel instead of SpongeBob and Sandy! I love that for him

in “I’m Not A Loser” the anemones had silver sequin jackets instead of pink, and it was absolutely a look

THE BIG GUY SCENE <3333 instead of being center stage, Plankton and Karen were at the top of the stairs (the stairs on the left in the third pic) so their proximity to each other made it feel more intimate to begin with,  and their kiss was longer than the ones in all of the recordings I’d seen before, and Karen was smiling as they kissed 🥺 I love my chaotic villain couple, also god I wish I was Karen I will play her someday

when Plankton realizes everyone’s alive, he actually lifts up his eyepatch to get a better look

after Plankton tries to blame Karen for the avalanche plan and they argue, Karen grabs onto Larry’s arm and kinda starts flirting with him, and Plankton LOSES HIS MIND! he’s in shock and starts gesturing to Perch next to him like “you see this shit???” and Perch just rolls his eyes and walks away. Mind you, this is happening after other characters have started talking again, so most of the attention was on them instead, and I honestly think my sister and I were the only ones paying attention to these guys instead, and we were LOSING IT XDDD I mentioned to Karen’s actress after the show that I thought it was hilarious, and she said it’s something she and the other actors involved kinda came up with because they were next to each other so why not go for it XD

AT THE END WHEN THEY’RE PLAYING THE INSTRUMENTS, Patrick actually came onstage with a huge mayonnaise jar, beating it with a wooden spoon, and then he opens it and starts eating it, and then he shares it with Plankton

I’ll probably remember more things and add them, but these were definitely my favorite parts! Seeing this musical in person is such a huge thing to have crossed off my bucket list. Starring in it is the next goal, but I’ve got to work on helping get a community theatre group started in my town, which is something that we’re actually hoping to achieve within the next couple of years after the lady in charge finds someone who can be a director! This musical means so much to me, and my love for it over the past few years has led me to some pretty awesome things in my life--finally being brave enough to learn to sing, being inspired to pick back up on pursuing all the arts hobbies I’d abandoned, then getting a job that sometimes involves singing and playing music, and the story itself inspiring me to find joy in my life again a few years ago. Seeing it in person was so worth the wait, and I hope to see many more productions of it in the future!

[between-two-fandoms]

Cause This Is Our Someday

Ao3 Link

Fandom: Big Time Rush

Rated: T

Word Count: 1,622

Pairing: Kendall KnightxLogan Mitchell

Tag list (ask to be added or removed):

@toomanyfandomstoolittletime @innocentbi-stander @mirrcrballbaby

Kendall enlists Katie and James's help getting him ready for a date with Logan. Self discoveries, pining and meddling little sisters prove to complicate things for Kendall, though this is what should have been a simple first date with his boyfriend.

~~~~~~~~~

Kendall loved his family, they were easily the most important thing in his life outside of hockey…. Hockey and maybe now the band. Especially Katie, his adorable albeit sometimes scary little sister. She gave up so much just so he and his boys could become a band. Sometimes… sometimes he’d forget, though she was only twelve she still had friends back in Minnesota. She had her people, however little they were.

Katie was one of the strongest twelve year olds he knew, she was his rock. She was his sounding board on a lot of things like, for example, getting ready for a date with Logan. “Too much?” Kendall asked, a hint of flush on his face as he walked out of the bathroom in a loud Hawaian polo shirt. Katie stared at him blankly from her spot perched on the top of the kitchen table.

“Way too much big brother,” Katie said between stifled laughs. A flash went off and before Kendall could make a grab for it she already had her phone tucked back into her bag. “You need to be… not so ugly,” she admitted. Kendall let out a noise of protest.

“I am not ugly,” he squeaked. Katie rolled her eyes and hopped off the table. She walked over to him and made him spin around so she could see all angles. “I’m the front man for a boy band that hit the top charts on our first tour.” Kendall said, only to get a snort in response. Katie grab his arm to get him to stop spinning.

She stared up at him and he couldn’t exactly place the expression. Katie learned how to master expressions as a young child - she was still young - but the control she had and how grown up she already was sometimes made Kendall’s heart hurt. “Your fans didn’t know you when you decided wearing a purple sequined dress shirt to homecoming was a good idea. If it wasn’t for Kelly and your stylist I’d bet Big Time Rush’s signature outfit would’ve been those stinky old jersey’s,” Katie scrunched up her nose and Kendall put his hands on his hips.

“Are you going to help me or just sit there and insult me Miss. Fashion Police?” Kendall asked, staring at her. Kate giggled and then put two fingers into her mouth and whistled. Confusion crossed his face then realization sparked in Kendall’s eyes when James rounded the corner holding jeans and a muscle t-shirt with some band logo. “Oh no, nuh uh definitely not,” Kendall vetoed, backing up from the offensive outfit.

James just stared at Kendall pointedly. “Dude, you’re easily the guy with the most muscle. Logan likes staring at them,” he added, a smirk on his face. Kendall glared at James and Katie in betrayal.

“How do you know he likes staring at my arms?” Kendall asked, crossing them against his chest defensively. Katie cackled, the laughter loud and whole. He was glad the two of them were having fun laughing at his expense. All he wanted was fashion advice, next time maybe he’d go to the Jennifers instead.

Katie shook her head, rolling her eyes. “You’re in the front so you can’t tell, but why do you think Logan’s been tripping over his feet during practice recently?” She asked, a mischievous glint in her eyes Kendall couldn’t quite bring himself to trust. Katie liked getting her sticky fingers involved into his love life, she had a history of sabotaging his dates if she didn’t like the girl. Granted, in the long run she’d always be right but that's besides the point.

“Kendoll, come on!” James insisted, his eyes sparkling as he took a step closer. Kendall dropped one of his arms, keeping the other securely wrapped around his chest. “You’d look so smoking in this fit, these are from that awesome jean store in the mall - Denim On Denim?” He asked. James smirked a little bit, the corner of his lips curling up into a smile. “Plus like… if Logan doesn’t like the shirt on you I’m sure he’d like the shirt even more when it’s off you.” Kendall’s face flushed bright red and he snapped his hand out and snatched the shirt from James.

“Okay okay enough. You guys are the absolute worse,” Kendall complained, though there was no earnesty to it. James and Katie snickered behind him as he ducked back into the bathroom to change the date outfit. “Logan and I are going to keep things PG13 tonight,” he said through the bathroom door emphasizing the term. He was acesexual, not that the other two knew that yet but… god Logan was so understanding when he came out. Kendall tried to explain how he felt about the whole Sex thing, that he could take it or leave it, that it wasn’t the most important thing in the world to him and Logan just held him through it, hugging him.

Once he won the short lived battle with the muscle shirt and pulled it over his head Kendall took a few seconds to appreciate the look in the mirror himself - he hated to admit it but they were right. He did look ridiculously good in a muscle shirt. Kendall brushed his fingers through his air in a halfhearted attempt to get it to stay down. He wasn’t worried too much about his hair, it would give Logan an excuse to play with it.

James cat called him when Kendall finally left the bathroom in the chosen outfit for date night. “You’re looking fly as hell Knight,” James said, a hint of jealousy in his voice. “Logan’s gonna love it,” for some reason Kendall detected some sort of… wistfulness… in James’ voice when he spoke. Almost something with a bittersweet taste to it. Before Kendall could ask what was wrong James whisked him into the family room for pre-date pictures. Carlos was waiting for them with a camera on a tripod all set up and Kendall’s ears flushed pink.

“Awe, he’s embarrassed,” Katie teased lightheartedly. Kendall stuck his tongue out at her, she stuck her tongue out back. “Kendork, you’re going to kill it,” she promised. Anxiety bubbled up underneath Kendall’s skin as his brain worked through all the way things could go wrong during his date with Logan. “James he’s doing the Thing again,” Katie complained, walking over to dig into the pantry for a bag of popcorn.

“Yeah I can see that,” James said unhelpfully. Kendall had begun pacing, nervously walking back and forth as he ran a hole into the carpet in the living room. “Hey Kendall, buddy you need to look at me,” James reached out hesitantly, but Kendall didn’t flinch away from his hand. James put his hand on Kendall’s shoulder and squeezed it. Kendall stopped pacing, his eyes were still a little unfocused but his breathing got slower. “Logan is so gone for you there’s literally zero competition,” James continued, keeping his hand on Kendall’s shoulder, a grounding force. “It’s painfully obvious you guys feel for each other,” he said… there was that hint of bittersweet again. Kendall let out a quiet whine and reached out for James, pulling him in for a hug.

“Simp,” Katie coughed into her popcorn. James glared at her to get her to shut up then turned his attention back to Kendall. Kendall was already feeling a lot better than he did before. He always felt safe around James. They always knew what they felt to each other, they always… they could always go to each other for help… for anything.

“Kendall?” Some asked quietly from behind them. It took Kendall a few seconds to place the voice then the name slid into place and he took a deep breath. Logan, his mind supplied. He hugged James for a few more seconds, holding him close to his heart, then Kendall pulled away. For a brief millisecond an expression of hurt flickered across James’s face but then his smile was back. It was so quick Kendall swore he imagined it happening. “Wow, you look… you look really good,” Logan said, his voice soft and warm. Kendall smiled bashfully at Logan, stepping into his outstretched arms. Kendall accepted the hug, letting Logan pull him in as he pressed his face into Logan’s shoulder.

“See?” Katie asked teasingly, chucking a handful of popcorn at Kendall. “I told you he’d like it! But oh no you didn’t believe me,” she singsonged, skipping around the room. Logan chuckled at the interaction and pressed a soft kiss to the top of Kendall’s head. Kendall pulled out of Logan’s chest looking a bit more flushed than normal, a boyish smile on his face. He reached down to interlock their fingers together. They let Carlos snap a few pictures of them before Logan insisted they’d miss it, whatever it was Logan was taking Kendall too. James had disappeared somewhere in the madness - Kendall made a mental note to check on him later. Surely it was nothing one of his infamous pep talks couldn’t fix.

“Ready?” Kendall asked, a nervous tremor to his voice. Logan smiled at Kendall and squeezed his hand.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Logan promised. He tugged Kendall a bit closer to steal a chaste kiss on the lips. “You really do look amazing Kendall,” he whispered, nuzzling into the nape of Kendall’s neck. Katie let out a noise of disgust then left the room, complaining about PDA in common areas or something. “Come on, I promise you’re going to love this,” Logan said, his eyes lighting up as he spoke. Kendall nodded and kissed Logan’s shoulder as he let Logan tug him out of the apartment and to wherever life was taking them next.

[asknarashikari]

reprising my last ask,

for their first date, Kaito gives Zox a tour around his town and taking him to his favorite places to hang out.

What in the name of Kouta did I just write. How can I write cheesy shit like this when I’ve never been on a date in my whole twenty-six years of existence

Zox had the strangest feeling he was missing something, but he couldn’t figure out what. 

Kaito somehow showed up on his ship (though he suspected his sister had let him on, the cheek) and asked if he wanted to hang out together that day. Zox, having nothing better to do, decided why the hell not, especially when Kaito enticed him with the promise of a good meal he would pay for. 

The leader of the Zenkaigers proceeded to drag him all around a nice, but not-too-ritzy part of the city, not different from his usual haunts around the area his grandmother’s cafe was.

He steered them away from the hustle and bustle of the main street and into smaller side streets with ma-and-pa shops offering little trinkets at such dirt-cheap prices that even Zox could afford with his limited yen. He bought a toy or two for his little brothers, and a pretty hairpin for Flint. And Kaito had bought him an outrageously shiny sequined shirt that he hadn’t the heart to refuse. 

Then, Kaito took him to a shopping street, selling everything from fresh sushi and huge bowls of ramen, crepes and shaved ice with syrup, and just about every food on a stick imaginable. He, as promised, paid for everything Zox had wanted to try.

Then, he took him up a tall tower Zox had only seen from a distance on his ship. The Skytree, Kaito had called it. He had tried to bungee jump off it once, he said. The observation deck had a spectacular view especially as the sun started to set, and Kaito even pointed out the faint outline of a mountain he’d called Fuji in the distance.

It was only when Kaito was accompanying him back to his ship that the thought occured to him, and he stopped in his tracks, staring at Kaito. “...Was this a date?” he asked. “This whole time, were we on a date?”

Kaito stopped walking for a moment, then turned to smile mischievously at him. “I didn’t think you’d ever catch on.” 

Zox stared at him, flabbergasted. “Y-You...” he stammered. “You took me out on our first date and you didn’t even tell me?”

Kaito laughed. “Well, to be fair, I wasn’t sure just straight up asking you was gonna work. I knew the free food would, but everything else...” He shrugged. “You seemed to have fun though, so...”

Zox sputtered. “You little...” He said, but cut himself off abruptly. “But yeah... I did have fun.”

Kaito grinned brightly at him. “Well, that’s a relief! I-”

Zox closed the gap between their lips, kissing Kaito for only the briefest moment before he drew away once more. He was pleased to see Kaito cheeks starting to glow pink. 

“What was that for?” Kaito asked, touching his lips, as if in disbelief.

Zox winked at his boyfriend and gave him a cheeky smirk. “Well, all good dates end with a good night kiss, don’t they?”

[swanlake1998]

Article: Julie Felix: the brilliant Black ballerina who was forced to leave Britain

Date: March 3, 2021

By: Steve Rose

(CW: racism, anti black racism, police brutality, violence, murder mention)

She was told there was no room for a ‘brown swan’ in the London Festival Ballet, so she went to the US. There she found enormous success, dancing for everyone from Michael Jackson to Prince

The turning point in Julie Felix’s career came in 1975. A student at Rambert ballet school in London, she was selected to dance in Rudolf Nureyev’s production of Sleeping Beauty with the London Festival Ballet (now the English National Ballet). Nureyev was the god of British ballet – and he lived up to his reputation on the first day of rehearsal, Felix recalls. “He was late, but everybody said he was always late. All of a sudden, the doors flew open and in he came. He was well renowned for these big boots he used to wear, and a big fur coat. He took the coat off like a matador and threw it so it slid across the dance studio floor. Everybody jumped up and stood to attention. He was there for probably about half an hour.” At the time, 17-year-old Felix was awestruck. In hindsight, half a century later, she is less impressed: “Talk about unprofessional.”

In the fairytale version of Felix’s life, having acquitted herself on stage with Nureyev, she would have joined the London Festival Ballet and become the first Black British dancer to begin her ascent through the ranks of a British ballet company. Instead, she was told she was a “lovely dancer”, but was not going to be given a contract, “because of the colour of my skin. I would mess up the line of the corps de ballet, because you can’t have a whole row of white swans and then there’s a brown one at the end.”

Felix was stunned: “It hit me like a thunderbolt.” Her mother was white British and her father African-Caribbean, from Saint Lucia. She had never thought of the refined world of ballet as being what we might now describe as institutionally racist. “It sounds ridiculous, but because I didn’t experience any racial issues or difficulties before that, I didn’t think there was anything wrong with the colour of my skin. I thought that I was talented and that would be enough.”

Having grown up in Ealing, west London, in the 60s, Felix certainly knew about racial difference. She rarely saw any faces that were not white in the neighbourhood or at school, she says. After her parents had met on a bench in Hyde Park, her mother’s family disapproved. “They said: ‘If you marry that man, we’re going to disown you.’ And my mum just said: ‘Well, fair enough, I still want to marry him.’”

Her father, who worked as a foreman at the Hoover factory, was quite the charmer, says Felix. “He was the proudest man. He would paint the front door a different colour every year. He was always up the ladder washing his windows. He would grow fruits and vegetables in the back garden. But I would say my dad had a big chip on his shoulder.”

She describes how he would dress like a dandy, in 40s suits and spats, even if he was just going to do the shopping. “He would always berate the grocers and say: ‘You’re picking the bruised fruit and vegetables because I’m Black. You think I can’t see this?’” She laughs. “Why would you move somewhere if you’re going to spend your life being concerned about the way other people look at you and your colour?”

There was an incident when she was eight or nine, when her father returned from work very late, his shirt ripped and covered in blood. A colleague had attacked him outside the factory gates with a meat cleaver on a chain. “He didn’t like, one, the way my dad spoke to him and, two, because my dad was Black,” she says.

Culturally, the Felix household was “100% British”, she says. She had no connection to her Saint Lucian family, although she would see her British grandparents in Essex regularly (relations had thawed when Felix’s elder sister and she were born). Musically, her father liked American crooners such as Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole; her mother preferred classical music and had once aspired to be an opera singer. “So, when it came to my wanting to dance, there was a local ballet school around the corner in Ealing that I would go to, and Mum said: ‘Well, as long as you keep working hard and you’re enjoying it, I will fund it for you.’ She wasn’t a pushy, stereotypical ballet mother, but she knew that I loved it. And because she’d been stopped doing what she wanted to do, she was there 100% for me.” When she passed the audition for the Rambert, her parents could not afford the fees; Felix won a grant from the Inner London Education Authority, which paid 75%.

Felix says no one is “born to dance”, but, as a student, her passion for ballet was boundless. “I can remember the feeling of waking up in the morning, earlier than I needed to, getting on the underground and going into Notting Hill Gate, where the school was. I was the first one in the door. The cleaner was still there.

“I could not get enough of it. My friend and me would stretch and practise our fouettés in the lunch break. We’d be the last ones out of the building. Get back on the train, go home. My feet would be bleeding. I’d have blisters all over my toes. And I didn’t care. I just knew this was what was required. I soaked my feet in salt water, dabbed surgical spirit on them to get the skin to heal and get them dried out so that I could get up the next morning and get on that train again.”

After all her dedication, being rejected for her colour was devastating. “It didn’t last long, mind you,” she says. “Part of my personality is: sink or swim. And I thought: ‘I am not going to sink here.’ So I just flipped it around and just said: ‘Watch me. I’m going to show you I can do it.’”

She didn’t have to wait too long. The previous summer, the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) had come to perform in London. This was a pioneering Black ballet company founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell, the first top-flight Black dancer in US ballet. While they were in town, Felix went along, auditioned for Mitchell and was immediately offered a contract. She declined. When her teacher at Rambert found out, “she absolutely hit the roof”, Felix recalls. “She said: ‘You can’t pick and choose. You’ve been offered a job!’” Fortunately, the DTH returned to London a few months after her Nureyev experience. Felix auditioned and was offered a job a second time. She did not turn it down.

This time, Felix’s skin colour was to her advantage, although working with an all-Black company in the US was a curious reversal: “I’d gone from all of my ballet training, and growing up not really being aware of anything to do with Black people, to going to New York and there’s no white people.” Before relocating to New York, Felix had never had a passport, left the UK or flown in an aeroplane.

“Within two weeks of being there, Arthur Mitchell said to me: ‘We’ve got to knock the British out of you.’ And I took umbrage, because I’m really proud of being British,” Felix says. In retrospect, she knows what he meant: “It was the wishy-washy way I approached my technique and my ballet training. But it wasn’t just about that; it was everything that Arthur Mitchell taught and portrayed and wanted us to portray within our work. He wanted to show that Black people really can do this.”

DTH’s sense of purpose aligned with Felix’s own. She stayed with the company for 10 years, earning her place as a soloist and touring the US and beyond (including a satisfying return to the Royal Opera House). Life in the US put British racism into perspective, says Felix. In her first week in New York, she witnessed a young Black man being shot dead in the street by two white police officers for shoplifting. A touring performance in Mississippi in 1978 had to be cancelled because the Ku Klux Klan staged a protest outside the theatre, in white hoods, burning cross and all. “No words can describe that feeling,” she says.

There were more good times than bad, though. Felix shared the stage with, and danced for, luminaries from Ronald Reagan to her hero, Luciano Pavarotti. She danced with Lionel Richie to All Night Long at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics closing ceremony; visitors to her shows included Michael Jackson and Prince. Jackson wanted to cast the dancers in his ill-fated Peter Pan movie, she says. He came to a matinee in Pasadena, California, supposedly incognito, but in full Jackson regalia: black sunglasses, Jheri curl and military-style outfit, with a complement of bodyguards. “I was annoyed, because I was there to deliver the performance, but you had all these girls screaming in the audience,” says Felix. “Anyway, after it finished, he came backstage and said to us, very, very quietly: ‘I really enjoyed your performance. I just think you’re fantastic.’ What a humble man.”

A year later, Prince came to a show, by coincidence at the same theatre. He was similarly “incognito”, in a sequined, hooded purple cape. He never took the hood down. “At the end of the performance, he got back in his limo and left and didn’t say thank you, hello, anything. Really quite rude.”

By 1986, aged 30, Felix was beginning to feel the physical toll of ballet life. She also missed home. She returned to the UK and became a teacher and remedial coach for Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, first in London, then in Birmingham, where the company relocated when it became Birmingham Royal Ballet, in 1990. She married and had three daughters (none of whom followed in their mother’s footsteps).

She then became head of dance at a local school. Now it was her turn to “knock the British out” of her students. “They don’t seem to know how to really push themselves,” she says. “Ballet is really painful. If you don’t feel that, then you’re not doing it properly.” Ballet has also always required a highly specific form of physicality, Felix points out. “It needs very arched feet, it requires good natural rotation of your hip sockets, a slender body, long, lithe muscles, long neck, small head.” Regardless of talent or musicality, she says, dancers who do not conform to this body type will struggle. Perhaps it is this inherent discrimination that has made other forms of prejudice easier to disguise.

British ballet has made some progress since the 70s, but it could do more. Birmingham Royal Ballet, for example, had a successful workshop programme with local schools, whose pupils were often from Black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds, but such programmes seem to have “fizzled out” as a result of local authority budget cuts, Felix says. On the other hand, there are institutions such as Ballet Black, which advocates for diversity in professional ballet. At the time of its founding in 2001, there were still no women of colour performing in any British company. The Royal Ballet recruited its first Black, British-born male dancer, Solomon Golding, only in 2013.

Felix is not convinced British ballet has turned the corner: “I still believe that we’ve got ballet companies who will take a few people of colour just to be politically correct.” However, she was heartened by the appointment of the Cuban-British dancer Carlos Acosta as director of Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2020, although the pandemic has so far curtailed its activities. While all British arts are vulnerable at the moment, ballet – with its high demands for time, labour, space and personnel – is especially so. Now based in Cornwall, Felix has made do teaching over Zoom for the past year. She is not complaining: “It really is a lovely place to be locked down.”

Felix’s skin colour began as a factor that counted against her, but it became an animating force in her career and led to a wealth of experiences and successes she might otherwise not have had. With that satisfaction, the anger she feels for her 17-year-old self being told her brownness would “mess up the line” has mellowed a little. “Their choice of not accepting me enabled me to find something within myself that I probably would never have known was there,” she says. “And then to open up this whole world for me. So I can say that hatred was turned to gratitude.”

[meliakim]

Intro: Serendipity Live

Jimin debuts his new song for the first time on stage.

After… who knows how many months at this point… the Wings World Tour was soon coming to an end. The past several months have been busy to say the least. Min sighed deeply as she finished the final look for Namjoon at the final concert of the tour, now back in Seoul. “I can’t believe the tour is coming to an end… We’ve been on it nearly the entire, but it’s honestly flown by,” she said as she spritzed some finishing spray to his face. “We’ve accomplished a lot over the past year… even more than just the tour,” he replied.

Min knew it all too well. The boys had been hard at work in between concerts with songwriting, press conferences, video shooting, and everything in between. “Did Jimin not need any touch-ups with his makeup? I was expecting him to come back before the final set,” Min said, looking around as Joon hopped out of his seat. “I think I heard him say he didn’t need it… I know he left the stage, but I’m not quite sure when I may have ended up,” Joon said as he made his way out of the dressing room, with Min following close behind.

As the pair approached the side stage, they encountered some of the other members, preparing for the final set of songs, except Jimin was still not to be seen. Min talked to the boys, but in between sentences, her eyes wandered around, looking for Jimin. “Min, since your work is done for the night, makeup-wise… maybe you should go and sit in the VIP section of the crowd to watch the final set,” Yoongi suggested. “That would be a fun way to say goodbye to the tour, actually… I’ll do that!” she said with a smile at her friend, glancing around one final time but not seeing Jimin.

She made her way through the backstage halls and found the entrance to the main arena. After being let in by the security guard, she found the VIP section where some familiar faces were found, including her sister Mun, who she sat beside. “Hey sis!! I thought the concert wasn’t over?” Mun said to her sister who stood next to her and faced the stage. “It’s not… they still have the encore set to go through… Yoongi suggested I come out here for the final set,” she replied.

“Oh, here it comes!!” Mun said, excitedly. Min drew her attention to the stage to see the encore she had watched endless times over the past year, but this time from the audience’s perspective. As per usual, she saw 7 figures lifted up from the stage below on a platform, and immediately recognized Jimin in the middle, though he was wearing an outfit she had never seen before… black skinny leather pants and a loose, sequined shirt. The lights lifted, and she recognized that the six people surrounding Jimin were not the other members but were backup dancers.

“What the…” she whispered to herself, slightly concerned that something went wrong backstage. Her concern disappeared with the surprise of a soft familiar tune playing instead of the normal “Outro: Wings” that played at this time. Immediately, the voice of Jimin came forward, overpowering the music and silencing the audience for a moment at the sheer smoothness of his voice. He sang a song that Min didn’t know, but it somehow sounded so familiar. She was so lost in the magic of his dancing and his performance that it didn’t click until halfway through the verse where she knew the song.

“It’s… our song,” she said to herself, recognizing the tune. Unknowingly, she and Jimin had been dancing to that song during their free time. They ended up choreographing the whole song together, and it became so familiar and dear to her that she couldn’t help but watch in awe as Jimin danced his own interpretation to it, with a few familiar moves that she recognized throughout. The song meant even more to her now as she listened to the love confession that was being sung through the poetic words of “Intro: Serendipity.”

His performance was flawless from start to finish, and as he sang, he looked straight into the camera. As he sang the final, “just let me love you… let me love, let me love you,” he looked towards the VIP section and straight towards Min, and their eyes met. She finally noticed that her mouth had been opened throughout the whole performance, and suddenly began blushing, unsure of how much of an idiot she looked like as she could also feel tears running down her face. “Did… did he just?” Min said, not believing that Jimin just confessed his love to her through song and dance in front of thousands of ARMYs.

“Go get him…” Mun said. Min turned to her to see her phone up, as she had been recording Min’s reaction the entire time. The audience cheered as Jimin bowed and disappeared on the side stage, and Min ran straight for the side entrance that she had come through earlier. She ran down the hall as the staff cheered for her, apparently all aware of the performance that was just completed, and as she approached the side stage, she ran straight into Jimin, whose arms were out and ready to catch her.

“Min…” was all he was able to say, slightly out of breath, as he had just exerted his whole being in the performance that had just ended under a minute ago. “Jimin… do you really love me??” Min asked as her arms remained tight around his neck, afraid to look him in the eye. He gently pried her off of him so he could look into her eyes. “I meant every word, Min… I love you so much, and I hope you’ll let me love you from this day going forward,” he said. Min grinned from ear to ear, feeling her face get hot at his confession.

“Well, that’s a relief, because I love you too,” she said, causing the staff and the other members that had gathered around to cheer. Though there were many people around, Jimin was still feeling the adrenaline from his performance and without thinking, he leaned in and kissed Min. She wrapped her arms around his neck as the boys in particular let out an “ow owww!!!!” as they watched their Jimin finally in the arms of the woman he loved.

[soliloquality]

For Now - T.C.

It’s been a few months and you guys miss each other, mostly fluff, one allusion to the deed (but not really)

word count: 1240

It’s hard sometimes, waking up in different cities, different countries, different continents.

I’m shooting in Massachusetts all through October. Fine, I’ll be in L.A. then, Eastern Romania in November, Brisbane for Christmas. 

No one ever said that love was easy, especially not with schedules and distance in the way, so it was needless to say that you were quite proud of yourself. It had been four months since you’d last seen your boyfriend and now it was just one more week until January 3rd, the day of your big reunion. It’d be all laughs and smiles, your L.A. apartment, then his parent’s house in New York. Ten days of just the two of you, no meetings, no appointments, no work. But for now, you still had six days to get through, one hundred and forty-four hours without hearing his voice in person or smelling his cologne, one hundred and forty-four hours without his touch. 

Brisbane’s your home, Christmas your favorite holiday, and yet you feel lonely because he isn’t here with you. It’s pathetic, you know that, but you can’t stop pitying youself. To be so far from the person closest to you, so excluded from his day to day life, yearning to share even the smallest parts of yours with him.

You met three years ago, introduced by Saoirse on a night out while the two were shooting Lady Bird and you were in the middle of rehearsals for Ready Player One. Just a few weeks and three dates later, you’d fallen for him, head over heels and whole-heartedly, smitten by his charm, his humor, his everything. He was your everything, but you were never in the same place for long, shooting movies all over, going on press tours, practically living on opposite sides of the world. But all of that would be temporarily forgotten in a few days, you’d be together and happy, and then it was just three more months until you finally moved to New York.

“It won’t make that much of a difference, but at least the time zones won’t be completely messed up. And we’ll be closer in distance, which is also a nice change,” Timmy had said once you announced your decision. “Exactly. And when I miss you too much I’ll just go see your parents. They’re much cooler than you anyways.” You’re not wrong about that, darling.

Lissy stepped inside the sun room, phone in hand. You perked up. “Someone called three times. Bet it’s the same someone that broke the internet last week?”

“I’d be disappointed if it wasn’t,” you laughed, taking the phone from your sister. That, the part about Timmy breaking the internet, already had your breath turning heavy. He’d posted a picture, taken the year that you had spent Christmas together at his parent’s house, your back facing the camera but head turned over your shoulder, biting down on a truffle with a mischievous glance in your eyes, Timmy on the couch behind you, holding his arms out in preparation for an embrace. Moments after, you’d dropped into his grasp, shared the treat with him, cracked a joke or two. For now, till you come home to me, that had been the caption and you had cried about it on facetime, neither joyful nor miserable, just overwhelmed with gratitude.

You spoke on the phone for a bit, talking about the Christmas celebrations and family outings. All the good food and generous gifts.

“Granny Stokes got Lissy a popcorn maker, honestly the best idea ever, but she made us watch Titanic last night, much to the dismay of my dad. Did you like the present Pauline got for you?”

“I knew you were behind that! She insisted that she came up with the idea, but you were the only one I told about that brand.”

You grinned to yourself, tracing the sequined cushion on you parent’s couch. “My bad. Judging by the amount of pictures you sent me on Instagram I thought that you couldn’t shut up about it in real life too. But it’s time for them to get recognized, their tees are the best.”

Something rustled on the line. “Are you outside?”

“No, just closing the window. It’s so cold in New York, you’d probably freeze to death,” Timmy said, his voice far from the speaker. You bit your lip. “Well, I’d have you to warm me up, wouldn’t I?”

There was more noise, then he was back on the phone. “Hey, quick question. Have you found an outfit for your mom’s theme party?”

“I could basically wear everything, but I think I’ll go for shorts and a checkered button-down. Apparently Glamping’s much more about the decoration anyways and my mom went super overboard, I’m not kidding. It’s even more serious than last year’s flamingo luau. She’s got tipis and shit.”

Timmy laughed slightly and you straightened up on the couch, delighting in the softness of him. “Can’t wait to see the pictures.”

“And what about you? Everything settled for New Year’s Eve?”

“Yeah, basically,” he said, then paused. “My mom’s making potato salad for dinner and I’m going out with Phil and the lot.”

You grimaced at his tone. He sounded less than excited, tired even. A glance at your watch and you knew it was two am in New York.

“I just really miss you, love. Wish I could spend some time with you, have you in my arms.”

“‘S not that long till the 3rd, baby.”

He whined, kind of, and even though it was endearing, you had to laugh a bit. “But I miss you too, if that helps.”

“Hmm. Makes it worse, actually.”

“Okay, one last try then,” you said quietly, murmuring almost, and hoped that Lissy was well out of earshot. “I have something just for you. It’s hidden in the back of my closet and I think it might get me in trouble. Like real trouble, if you know what I mean.”

“Babe,” he said, amused, “Did you go on another La Perla splurge?”

You frowned. “Wow, Timothée. You’re ruining all my fun.”

“Just trying to keep it all together here.”

A small smile formed on your lips, a tingle in your stomach. “What, miss me so much that we can’t even have phone sex?”

“It’s called anticipation, love. Some things are worth waiting for.”

You scoffed playfully, but your smile became wide, almost hurtful. “Well, my mom warned me. You’re way too fucking sweet.”

“Some might even say romantic.”

“Or cheesy.” Sarcasm dripped from your voice, but it was just teasing. You were always on board with romance, corny or not, and your hands were already becoming sweaty at the thought of reuniting with Tim.

“Whatever it is, I don’t remember you complaining,” he remarked, sounding half-asleep. You imagined him tucked in bed in his apartment, wearing thick pyjamas and wrapped in blanket upon blanket while you were in shorts and tank, tan lines on your torso from countless hours on the beach.

“Timmy?”

“Yeah?”

You laid on your back, closed your eyes.

“I love you.”

He paused and you listened to him breathe, yearning to be beside him, in his arms, feeling him on your skin, his breath, his warmth, his hands. Six days to go, one hundred and forty-four hours. Less than a full week and you’d finally be able to kiss him.

“I love you too.” His voice was barely above a whisper and your heart ached. “Can you stay on the phone until I fall asleep?”

It’s hard sometimes, waking up in different cities, being so far from the person you’re closest to. 

“Of course, baby.”

But some things are worth the wait.

[wowweeharrystyles]

Part 8 | The Kilt, Sunshine & Aurora Borealis | 5.6k words

Sequins & Zippers’ Summary: An internship with Harry Lambert transformed into a job of a lifetime - Aurora Del Gatto finds herself touring the world with the one & only Harry Styles as his ‘Head of Wardrobe.’ Aurora is nothing but nerves & excitement as she packs her bags & almost 100 custom designer suits that belong to an unbelievably kind rockstar. She never thought she’d fall in love on top of it all.

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

Masterlist

a/n: I don’t think I thank @niallhoranapologist​ enough - sooo here’s a little shout out to Gwen for always being willing to talk through Aurora & Harry with me cause she somehow always gets me out of wherever I’m stuck. loveyoumeanit. 

The sun is barely up when Harry taps Aurora’s shoulder lightly, pressing his lips to the cheek that

isn’t pressed against one of his pillows still. Aurora barely opens her eyes when he speaks softly. 

“Mornin’, Rory.” 

She hums and closes her eyes before they’re even open all the way. Harry kisses her cheek again, slowly, then presses quick kisses all over the skin that is immediately available to him. She sinks further into the pillow, trying to pull the blankets over her face more but Harry’s hands have already grabbed the sheets to keep her from moving them. 

“Come on, Ror, I’ve got coffee ready for you downstairs.” Her eyes open at that. “Jesus, you and your coffee. I don’t think I need to even mention that I also made scrambled eggs to get you downstairs.” 

“You made eggs?” She mumbles out as she rustles in the sheets, stretching a bit. 

“Sure did. I’ll meet you downstairs, okay?” She hums. “Do not fall back asleep. Coffee and eggs will only stay hot for so long. 

“Don’t you have a microwave?” Aurora challenges. Harry rolls his eyes. 

“Not the point,” he counters. “There’s a spare robe hanging off the back of the bathroom door if you want.”

Aurora reaches for her phone as Harry makes his way out of the bedroom and back downstairs. She replies to her family group chat and replies separately to her sister, Leila. She can’t not tell Leila that she is about to get out of Harry’s bed and go downstairs to eat the eggs and coffee he made for her. She knows Leila is asleep and Aurora won’t get the all caps response and a phone call until later this afternoon. 

She’s met with the reflection of a cozy creme robe in the big mirror when she closes the bathroom door. She smiles at it trying to recall if it was there last night or if Harry purposely got it out for her this morning.

The robe is big on her shoulders, she is drowning in it really but it smells like Harry. She pads down the staircase and then follows the sound of Fleetwood Mac softly playing in the kitchen. Harry is sat at the island on a stool, the hood of his robe pulled up over his head. He’s scrolling through his phone but locks it and puts it down when he hears Aurora’s feet on the tile. 

“She’s awake!” he exclaims as he stands up from his seat. Aurora walks to him and snuggles into his chest, not being able to resist how cozy he looks. She wraps her hands around his torso underneath the robe as he kisses her lips for the first time today. 

Harry pours Aurora a hot cup of coffee adding in some almond milk and sugar, one of her go-to ways to drink it. She thanks him before taking the first sip. Closing her eyes, she hums as she swallows, one of the shoulders of the robe slides off as she slouches on the stool. Aurora hasn’t felt this comfortable or content in too long. Being in a home, eating eggs made by the person sitting next to her is so far from eating room service in an allover beige hotel room. 

“Harry, these eggs are incredible,” she compliments as she takes another bite. He smiles at her. 

“Want or need anything else?” 

“No everything is perfect.” 

“I can make some toast or something too?” 

“No, Harry, seriously, everything is perfect.” She reaches over, tilting her head up and presses a kiss to his cheek.

Both of their plates are clean and Harry is shuffling through his music playing Aurora a few of his favourites. Aurora takes a final sip of her coffee and she can’t help but notice the permanent smile that Harry has had on his face all morning a small shine to his eyes that isn’t normally there. 

“What’re you thinking about?” 

“What? Oh, nothing, really.” Aurora raises her eyebrows slightly. Their stools are close enough together that their legs brush against each other every so often. She sets her hand on his leg and looks back up to him. “Happy, is all.” 

“Me too,” she agrees.

| | | | |

Later on, Aurora and Harry drive back to the O2, Harry takes her to his favourite cafe on the way to get her a coffee and himself a hot tea. Aurora’s first thing on her list is to track down her suitcase. With a quick kiss to her lips, Harry is whisked away by Jeff to get to work. 

“Wait a second,” Aurora hears from behind her, “is that THE black rolling stones tour shirt?” Aurora’s heart stops for a second. She turns around to find Gemma with her jaw dropped. “That’s Harry’s shirt isn’t it?” Aurora’s jaw mimics Gemma’s before nodding at her. “Did you guys go back to his last night? He’s never traveled with that tshirt.” 

“Uh yeah, we were at his house,” Aurora stutters out. She feels incredibly self conscious talking to Harry’s sister about this and she isn’t entirely sure why. Aurora knows what wearing Harry’s shirt could say and it’s not like she’s ashamed, but this is his sister. She’s not sure what to do. She wishes Jeff hadn’t taken Harry away just yet. 

“Oh, I’m so glad you said yes. He was so nervous about asking you.” Aurora lets out a sigh of relief. “But the real question at hand is that he let you wear THE black rolling stones shirt?”

“Oh, uh, I, he gave me it to wear, I didn’t pick it or anything. Is it yours?” 

“God I wish it was. I asked to borrow it like last year but he LOVES that thing so much. He’s never packed it ever! Barely wears it outside the house.” Aurora is surprised by all of this. When he handed her the shirt last night it seemed like it was just a random shirt from his closet. “It’s an original tour shirt. Harry found it at this random vintage shop a few years ago. It ended up being really rare and he’s been protective over it ever since.” 

“Oh, I had no idea,” Aurora says with a small smile.

“Man, he must really like you if he willingly gave you that shirt to wear.” Aurora doesn’t know how to respond to that. “Looks like he took you to his favourite spot too,” Gemma comments acknowledging the coffee cup in her hand. 

“Uh yeah, he knows I need it to survive the day. One cup is never enough.” Gemma laughs at that. “Last time I tried to work without coffee I burned myself pretty bad on the steamer.” 

“What? Are you okay?”

“Hah yeah I’m alright, it was a back in Munich and I was jet lagged and my flight got delayed. Whole thing.” 

“Dangers of the job, I guess?” Gemma says brightly and Aurora nods with a smile. “Where is my brother, anyways?” 

“Oh, Jeff got to him the second we walked into the arena,” Aurora answers. “Something about some stuff he needed to approve? Who knows honestly.” Gemma laughs. 

“Seriously, who ever knows? I just show up and make sure I’m out of the way. Harry tries to explain things to me sometimes but I never get it or care to, if I’m honest.” Aurora joins Gemma’s in laughter. 

“Glad we’re on the same page then. I just worry about his suits.” Aurora’s phone rings from her pocket. “Sorry, it’s my sister, mind if I?” 

“Not at all, I’ll see you later, Aurora!” The girls wave at each other as they walk opposite ways down the hallway. 

“Hi Leila!” Aurora answers. 

“Tell! Me! Everything! Now!” Aurora pulls her phone from her ear cause her sister is actually yelling into the phone. 

“First of all you need to calm down. I’m not going to tell you anything if you’re screaming at me.” 

“Okay, okay, okay.” 

Aurora walks into the empty arena where there are little to no people and sits at an empty chair behind the GA section. She likes to sit out here, it's the least busy place during the day, nobody ever interupts her. She tells Leila everything, as promised. Each bit she shares is met with a squeal or an ‘oh my god.’ When Aurora hangs up about an hour later she’s happy but her heart sinks thinking about the length of time till the NYC shows when she’ll get to see her sister. She picks herself up in a quick second and gets ready to work for the night. 

| | | | |

Harry Lambert and Harris Reed find her later when she’s finishing preparing Adam and Mitch’s clothes for the show. Aurora is beyond excited to see the familiar faces.

“Which suit is Harry wearing tonight?” Lambert asks as they walk to Harry’s dressing room. 

“The full cheetah print, Shania inspired one.” 

“Cheetah print?” Harris questions excitedly. 

“Uggg yes! It’s so incredible. I cannot wait to see it on,” Aurora confirms. “By the way, my mother LOVED the black and creme look you did. I had to send her photos of it cause describing it didn't do it justice.” 

“Aw that so sweet” Harris thanks Aurora. 

“Rory, I see Harry and Harris have found you,” Harry says when they walk into Harry’s room. He’s sitting on the couch finishing the food in front of him. He stands up and kisses Aurora before throwing away the empty food containers. “How’s Leila?” 

“Good, can’t wait for MSG so she can meet you. Says you need the official sister approval.” 

“Oh great,” he sighs. 

“Hey, if I had to do it so do you.” He sighs and kisses her again. 

“I had a feeling this would happen,” Lambert comments. “I’m really happy for both of you.” 

Aurora has a look on her face that translates shock and confusion. 

“I told him earlier when he first got here,” Harry confirms. “I could tell when he asked how it had been going with you,’ both Harry’s chuckle, “that he knew something was going on.” 

“Great…” Aurora muses. 

“Aurora, honey, I think it’s lovely. And anyways, I’m pretty sure that Harry’s fancied you since he met you the first time at the Today Show,” Lambert admits. 

Harry groans and walks back to the couch to sit down. “Thanks for that.” Aurora raises her eyebrows at both of them. 

“Wait what?” She asks in disbelief. 

“Ugg,” Harry groans again, “can we please not talk about it. We’re here now, yeah?” 

“I can’t believe you,” Aurora giggles, shaking her head. 

“I tried to give you as many hints right away but you just refused to pick up on them.” 

“I thought I was reading too much into it! I thought you were just sweet and flirty with everyone.” 

“Am not!” 

“Aurora, he’s kind to everyone but he isn’t that sweet to everyone,” Lambert adds. “And those sneakers? Come on!” 

“Listen, I had just started this job, I was trying to be professional!” 

“Sneakers?” Harris questions as they follow along with the story. 

“Aurora had to go to Gucci during prep week to pick up some shoes that we ordered for the tour and Harry, over here, put in a special order to make sure Aurora got Ace Sneakers for herself when she got there,” Lambert explains. 

“Harry, you flirt!” Harris comments with a wink. “Aurora, how did you not pick up on it?” 

Aurora’s sat on the couch now, next to Harry. He’s wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer to his side. 

“Like I said, I was trying to be professional and honestly, I barely had known Harry then, only met him a few times. Also, it was a lot happening in a small time frame, I thought my brain was messing with me. I thought maybe he was trying to tell me something but I brushed it off so I could focus on my job,” Aurora explains quickly. Harry presses a kiss to the side of her head. 

“What matters is that we’re together now,” Harry says cheesily. Aurora rolls her eyes and groans. 

“You’re annoying, regardless.” 

“Hey!”

“I’ve gotta get your suit ready,” she says as she stands up. 

“What?” Harry asks Lambert and Harris as they both smile and shake their heads. 

“Nothing!” they say in unison before they’re both laughing. “Happy for the both of you,” Lambert admits. 

When Lambert and Harris leave to go find some friends, Aurora looks over to Harry. 

“So since the Today Show? Last May?” 

“Mhm,” he confirms, shying away now.

“You’re cute, you know that right?” 

Harry groans before he kisses her softly and Aurora smiles into the kiss. 

| | | | |

Harry invited Aurora out for coffee before they had to get to Glasgow arena this morning. They had both decided to stay in their own hotel rooms last night. Aurora and Harry both needed time on their own, just like anyone in any other relationship. They both know themselves well enough to know that even though all they want to do is spend time together, that time on their own is what will keep them sane. Aurora needed to call her mom anyways and knew it would be a long phone call and didn't need Harry there to listen to it all. 

Aurora is taking a sip of her coffee when Harry speaks up. 

“You know, traditionally, kilts are worn without anything underneath.” 

“No.” It’s all that comes out of Aurora’s mouth. 

“If I’m gonna wear a traditional kilt on stage in Glasgow I should honor the tradition fully.”

“Absolutely not.” 

“Is this my girlfriend or my head of wardrobe talking?” 

“This is any sane person talking.” 

“Rory,” he whines. 

“Harry, you are not going on stage in JUST a kilt. Absolutely not. Not only will Jeff actually murder me on stage in front of the entire audience tonight, but so would your mother.” Harry laughs. 

“More the reason to do it then.”

“No. There is no way I’m letting that happen, absolutely not. End of.” 

Harry goes back to picking at the croissant on his plate. He looks up to Aurora through his lashes and she just shakes her head at him. 

“But-” 

“Harry, no, we are not discussing this anymore. You’re not going fucking comando under your kilt on stage in front of thousands of teen girls.” 

“Ugg if you say so. You’re in charge in this department.” 

“Yes, I am,” Aurora says triumphantly. 

“What if Jeff gives me the okay?” 

“Harry, please,” Aurora says with a straight face. She knows he’s dragging on the convo just to annoy her. 

Not to Aurora’s surprise Harry brings it up throughout the day. She’s sitting with Sarah in Craft Services when Mitch, Adam and Harry join them. Clearly all in on the joke, Harry mentions it again, smiles trying to hide on his bandmates faces. 

“So have you given the kilts another thought?” Harry tempts Aurora. 

“Not this again,” she groans. 

“Come on, Rory, imagine all 3 of us guys onstage in our kilts! No one will know! A little inside joke for us all.” 

“Harry, you really think no one will know? What? Are you just going to stand center stage at the mic stand the whole night?” 

“Well, no,” he says matter of factly. 

“Great, so you’re gonna dance around stage, like you always do, but in a kilt, with nothing underneath, while it just moves on its own and shows all your bits and pieces? Yeah, makes sense,” Aurora finishes. Sarah laughs with Aurora and they both stand up, take care of their plates and leave the room. 

Aurora knows he’ll bring it up again. She really can’t deny she enjoys the banter and is having fun with it all.

“Mind if I steal her for a second, Sar?” Harry asks as he catches up with the 2 girls. 

“Be my guest,” Sarah smiles at them, going back where she came from to find Mitch and Adam. 

“What now?” Aurora draws out, dropping her head on her shoulders in faked annoyance. 

“Come on now, you’ve gotta wanna see me onstage in nothing but a kilt, Ror,” he guesses. “You can’t deny that,” he states, tossing his arm around her shoulders as they walk through the hallway. 

“I’ll admit, the audience reaction would be incredible, but it’s gonna be incredible the second they see the bottom of the kilt. As for going commando underneath… I think I’d rather save that for just me, not the entirety of Glasgow.” Harry’s walk slows down, “Oh,” is all that he says, finally realising one of the reasons behind Aurora sticking with her answer. “Just for you,” he repeats back. It’s a silent agreement between the 2 of them. 

Aurora grabs the hand that is resting at her shoulder. Turning her head, she presses a kiss to the palm of Harry’s hand. When they get to Harry’s dressing room, he checks the time on his phone quickly. 

“I’ve got a few minutes till someone is bound to come looking for me. Aurora raises her eyebrows at him. She opens her mouth to say something but Harry catches her lips with his. Closing the dressing room door behind him he turns them around, pressing Aurora’s back to the open space on the wall next to the door frame. His thumbs dig into the waistband of her jeans as he grabs at her hips tighter. When he pulls his lips from her for a quick moment he presses their foreheads together. Aurora catches her breath, her pupil dilated now as she looks back at him. “Just for you, Ror,” he repeats again. 

“Don’t start something you can’t finish, Harry,” Aurora says breathlessly. She knows it's not the time or place, but making jokes and hinting towards anything more than kissing makes Aurora’s heart race and she gets closer to being ready to fully be with Harry. Harry’s lashes flutter before he connects their lips again. 

Aurora’s sure that there are bruises forming where Harry’s fingers continue to press into her hips, but she couldn’t care about it one bit. With the way she feels right now, happy, light, free, warm, how could she care about a simple bruise that will remind her of this moment with Harry for the next few days. She wraps her arms around his neck, scratching her nails lightly against his sculpt. She keeps pulling him down towards her because he keeps pulling away for short moments and she whines every time. 

Harry fully pulls away now, his hands holding on to her face. He smiles at her, eyes disappearing as the crinkles of his eyes get deeper. The pair smile into the last kiss. Aurora wraps her hands around his waist and lets her cheek rest against his chest for a long moment. Not before long, they both hear the echo of Harry’s name in the hallway, interrupting their sanctuary they’ve created in each other, in this dressing room that seems to travel from city to city. The dressing room that holds memory after memory, moment after moment. A different city each night, but the same world is created in the dressing room no matter where they are. A world they’ve created on their own to share memories together. A somewhat of a constant in their lives right now. The random couches that are always adorned with Harry's pillows, his duffle somewhere nearby. Aurora’s tour lookbook sitting on the couch. They both have created a space for each other to be comfortable without even knowing it. 

| | | | |

Harry pulls on the kilt and fastens it at the waist band. When Aurora looks back at him, he has the full outfit on and her brain somewhat short circuits. She really can’t figure out what it is until Harry looks at himself in the mirror with a bright smile on his face. He looks incredibly comfortable in himself. He’s confident, completely carefree. It’s not that he doesn’t come off this way everyday or in every suit, it’s that there’s something different here. There’s a sparkle in his eye like he’s really proud of himself in this moment and it makes Aurora’s heart melt. When he turns around to her like he always does, instead of checking to make sure everything is in order and looks good, she reaches up to her tip toes and presses a kiss to his lips. 

“What was that for, Ror?” Instead of responding she kisses him again. He raises his eyebrows in question but shakes his head and kisses her back. 

Harry can’t help but repeatedly make sharp turns and spin around in circles to show everyone how the kilt moves. Aurora giggles off to the side and makes a short comment to him under her breath about how she’s glad he decided to listen to her and not go commando under the kilt. 

“I could still decide to do it before I go on stage! Surprise you when you go watch from the audience.” 

“Then I’m staying back here until you are literally singing on stage.’

“You can’t do that, you’ll miss the reaction from the audience. I know you’re dying for the reveal tonight!” 

“You’re not wrong…” 

One last kiss and a solid promise to keep his pants on is all Aurora needs before she makes her way to the audience. 

She parks herself in the sound mixing section that’s barricaded off near B stage. She just HAS to witness the audience reactions to his kilt. 

The white lights shine over the rounded screen, illuminating the fog and the yells and screams go from loud to deafening as they do every night. The screen starts to lift and it isn’t until the top of his socks show and the skin of his knees are visible to the audience that the fans really know what is happening. The screams get even louder. Aurora can hear herself think at this point. She hears yells of “oh my god” repeatedly coming from the audience members around her and she has to cover her smile with her hand. Aurora’s just as entranced by his movement as every single person in the audience. When he takes his first steps from the mic the pleats of the kilt expand and follow his movement and she can’t help but chuckle to herself recalling the ongoing conversation until the last second when Harry was pushed on stage. 

“Couldn’t take you home to mother in a skirt THIS short,” Harry sings, changing the lyrics as he lifts his skirt a few inches. 

There’s too many times to count when Aurora’s heart flutters while watching Harry on stage tonight. Between the kilt, the energy in the SSE Hydro, the past few days together, she can’t tell what’s been her breaking point. Yet, here she is, ready to fully give herself to the man running around stage in a kilt, with black chipped nails and a goofy smile on his face as he... takes out a banana.

Aurora can’t help but laugh out loud. Here she was admiring the man she’s falling in love with and he takes snacks out of his sporn. Aurora is dumbfounded. She looks to one of Harry’s sound engineers that are standing nearby. 

“Did you know about that?” He asks Aurora. 

“Not a clue,” Aurora shakes her head. 

The entire audience laughs as Harry talks about his sporn and the snacks he’s brought on stage. Along with the bit about the sporn, Harry makes jokes that continue from earlier in the day after a fan asks from the front row if he’s got on anything underneath. Aurora can’t help but laugh along. 

| | | | |

“You brought snacks on stage?” Aurora asks when Harry walks into his dressing room. “Sure did. This thing is great,” he adds, grabbing the bag tied around his waist. She shakes her head at him and then her demeanor changes. There’s a look in her eyes that Harry can’t figure out. “What?” Aurora crosses her arms against her chest and shakes her head again. He raises his eyebrows at her. 

“Nothing!” She lets out with a short giggle. She walks towards him, reaches up to her toes and presses a long, deep kiss to his lips. “Good job, tonight.” It’s all she says before walking to the wardrobe cases. “Come on, start changing.” Harry’s jaw drops slightly before he starts taking off the kilt and changing into a pair of joggers and white t shirt. When Aurora turns around to see him clothed she’s caught off guard. “Aren’t you gonna shower?” 

“Nah, I’ll just shower at the hotel tonight. Kinda just wanna get out of here.” Aurora tilts her head at him, eyes narrowing. “What were your plans for the night?” 

“Nothing…” Aurora answers slowly, eyes still narrow at him. 

“Do you need anything from your hotel room?” He skips right over asking her to spend the night in his room.

“No, not really” Aurora answers as she finishes hanging his clothes from tonight. 

“Okay, I’ll meet you at the garage entrance in like 15 minutes? A car should be ready for us there.” 

“Okay,” Aurora says, meeting Harry halfway for a kiss before he leaves the room to do his final rounds of the arena.

| | | | |

Harry jumps in the shower when they get to the hotel room but not without asking Aurora to join in jokingly. Only he doesn’t notice that she thinks about it for a quick moment before laughing off his joke. Aurora’s conflicted, but not for long. She makes a decision by the time Harry comes out of the shower, a clean pair of joggers on his hips. 

It happens the same as it did a few nights ago, when they were back in London in Harry’s master bedroom. She traces his tattoos again and they end up a mess of tangled limbs for a bit. When Aurora pushes Harry to his back, she sits herself on his lap. He sits up, following her lips, running his hands up and down her back underneath her t-shirt. 

This time though, she lifts her arms above her head, her stomach peaking out between the waistband of her underwear and the hem of the shirt. Harry looks at her, making sure to read the look in her eyes carefully before he takes the hem in his hands and pulls it over her head. 

| | | | |

Aurora is signing her name on the bottom of the last page of a large packet with the Gucci logo stamped on every page. She hasn’t stopped smiling since they started going through the contract. Jeff walked her through it and has been pointing out all the places to sign and initial. 

The contract includes what Aurora can and can’t say, what her job entitles and where she has to be and when. It’s only the 3rd official contract she’s ever signed, her first ever with Gucci. She’s officially going to Italy to work on Harry’s photoshoot for the next tailoring campaign. 

“So from Japan, you’ll fly with Harry to Italy and meet Lambert there with the rest of the Gucci team. You’ll be there for about a week. You can decide what you want to do in between then and the South American leg of the tour, but we’ll get you back with the crew from wherever you are,” Jeff finishes. 

“Okay, great. Thank you, Jeff!” Aurora exclaims with a big grin. 

Harry kisses Aurora’s cheek when Jeff leaves the room. “I’m really happy you get to work on this project with me.” 

“Me too,” Aurora says, leaning into Harry’s side as they relax into the couch. 

“We’ll have so much time there between working. I have so many places I want to show you,” Harry adds with a sparkle in his eye. “We can stay at my favourite villa and everything.” Aurora's ears quirk up at that. 

“Stay together?” She asks timidly. 

“I mean, only if you want to,” Harry adds, equally as timid. 

“No, that’d be wonderful, really. Like a mini vacation before the rest of tour.” 

“Imagine all the time we’ll have and shooting is much less tiring than performing every night.” Harry smiles down at Aurora. “Maybe we’ll both be able to stay awake long enough to actually-” he wiggles his eyebrows obnoxiously at Aurora. Her cheeks turn a light shade of pink and she hides her face in his chest for a moment. 

Aurora doesn’t look up at Harry just yet, instead she focuses on the feeling of Harry’s shirt under her fingertips. She opens her mouth to say something and it barely comes out a whisper, “Maybe I’ll finally sleep with you by then.” Harry hears it and she knows he does. 

“Hey, it’s fine, Ror. We were both tired anyways. And above all, you don’t owe me anything. We can go at whatever pace you want. I’m not going anywhere, okay?” 

“I just thought I was ready, but I just couldn’t-” 

“Rory, please don’t think about it too much. I’m okay with whatever you want to do.” 

“I feel bad,” she says softly, still not looking up at him. 

“Do not feel bad. Hey, look at me for a second,” he says. When she doesn’t look up he raises her face with his finger at her chin. “I had an incredible time last night, okay?” Aurora nods minutely. “Sex isn’t what this is all about, yeah? It’s nice and yeah, I’m excited to share that with you, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy last night or any other time we’ve spent together. I just enjoy being with you, however you want to spend that time. Whatever you’re comfortable with. Whatever you’re ready for.” 

Aurora nods her head and offers him a soft smile. 

“Yeah? You alright?” He asks to confirm what her nods are supposed to relay. 

“Yeah, I’m good.” Aurora kisses his jaw line before wrapping her hands around his neck and pulling him towards her. She falls back onto the empty space of the couch next to her, Harry following her actions. He scatters kisses across her face and she erupts with giggles. 

“Come on, I’ve got a surprise for you,” Harry says as he gets off the couch, pulling her with him. 

“A surprise?” Aurora questions in disbelief. Harry hums at her, grabbing her hand as he leads her out of the dressing room and down the hallway. Harry grabs a small paper bag that was sitting on a large black case near the stage entrance. He doesn’t say where they’re going or even a hint to the surprise as they travel through one more set of doors and into the empty arena. Harry leads Aurora to the B stage and motions for her to sit on it. Harry joins her and she’s instantly brought back to the first time they really spent time together in Amsterdam. 

“Here,” he says, handing her the paper bag. She looks at him, nothing but question after question filling her head. She narrows her eyes at him before peaking into the bag. “Go on, it’s nothing big, but I thought you should have it.” She smiles at him before pulling out the white tissue paper that fills the bag. 

What she pulls out next, she doesn’t believe it. In her hands is black and white floral fabric. She recognizes it instantly. 

“Harry, I can’t- why would you-” she’s unable to finish her own thoughts nonetheless her questions. 

“I saw how much you loved it and I loved seeing you in my t shirt. So, it’s yours,” he says with a lopsided smile. 

“Harry,” she whispers. He presses a kiss to her hair. 

In her hands is the jacket to Harry’s 2015 American Music Awards suit. The black and white floral gucci print is ingrained in her memory forever and now it’s hers. She can’t believe him. 

“Harry, I really can’t take this. I appreciate the thought, but you have to keep this.” 

“I know it’s not going anywhere if you have it. And I know without a doubt when I look into the audience one of these nights and see you in that jacket at the back of the pit that my heart won’t know what to do. It’s yours.” 

Aurora is speechless. She feels the same as she did when she walked into the empty arena in Amsterdam when he was wearing that yellow tshirt, looking like sunshine in the darkness. Actually, she doesn’t know how but she feels even better than she did in that moment. She’s indescribably happy and warm and she’s got her own personal sunshine in front of her. 

Even though it seems that Harry and Aurora exist in a million different worlds - back at his home in London, running in the halls of an arena, meandering through a museum in Spain, the late night car ride, nearly empty hotel rooms- he’s still the sun in every single one. It’s a constant feeling. He’ll walk into the room or his voice echoes through the speakers clear as day over the crowds of screams and it’s like the sun is at its highest peak in the day. 

Harry may be Aurora’s sunshine but to him she’s the bright light that has him seeing new things, experiencing love in a different way. It’s ironic her name is Aurora, he thinks. Like the Aurora Borealis, she lets out these streaks of colours that extend to depths he hasn’t even been able to get to yet. Just like the Borealis, Aurora changes, she shimmers and grows and retracts sometimes, but her lights, an array of colours, show up for Harry everyday. Sometimes they’re pink, sometimes they’re orange, sometimes they’re green, but they’re always there. Harry wants to follow every single ribbon of light she lets out. And just like the Northern Lights, Aurora can only be seen by some and not everyone will get to see all the colours. Harry’s here to stick around for it all though, to see the entire rainbow.

Thank you soooo much for reading !!! I hope you enjoyed ! please like & reblog & share with yooooo friends ! <3 

[shinobirain24]

Water and Ice- Chapter 4: Poseidon Island, Where we First Met

Poseidon Island, the land of the seas. During the Great War of Remnant, it was once a peaceful land with resources of water dust crystals. The people on land where once called the "sea people," for those who once lived here. Warriors basically have water-based semblances. No ruler, no laws, only harmony have been stored until the war started. Since the land were affiliated with either of the kingdoms. Neither land are trusted for protection, instead, they trained to protect themselves. Rumors has it that the Sea People are skilled swimmers, and with it, that's when their semblances are awakened. Some can turn water into ice, others can turn it into vapor. or rather create a mist. Manipulate the water around them, or to create a storm. But to the cost of their land to become into ruins, each of the rulers of Vale, Vacuo, Mistral and Atlas tried to gain alliances to battle in the Great War. But they all refused, not wanting to endanger the island. Despite the offers given with weapons and dust. Still, a general of the island refuses to refrain himself from fighting for his people and took a stand against all four kingdoms, starting with Vale and Atlas. It was a biggest mistake that the rebellion went wrong, as the island was attacked by the Sea Feilong.

The moon stones are sacred gems created by the the four seasonal maidens, women warriors who can control their semblances and elements without the need of dusts. Some are impossible to find, but with it, it lacks the use of dust to double the semblances and muster their speed, based on the seasons the huntsmen were born from. When it glows brightly, it dissipates the Grimm around them. Like the silver-eyed warriors, they are also feared by the Grimm. It was trusted to the civilians in Poseidon Island to guard them with their lives in the Ocean Temple. It can upgrade any huntsmen only in the night. The moon stones are said to be the pieces of the shattered moon since the beginning of humanity. As a result they turned into meteorites and landed in Remnant.

A white-haired boy with sapphire blue eyes, wears a white jacket and black bodysuit and laced boots and grey knee pads. On his back is a trident he is armed with. Then a girl with long aqua blue hair with a silver heart-shaped hairpin and icy blue eyes, wearing a white dress with teal sequins on her top part and a silver leather jacket overall, and matching heel boots with a rapier on her right waist. Both are walking around the island with the boy reading the map while the girl is on a lookout for any Grimm. "Are you sure you wanted to go through with this? We're not huntsmen yet. We'll get into trouble if out uncle finds out

"Everything's going to be fine, Sis. We can just get back before dinner." The boy said to his younger sister.

"Remind me again why are we here for?" She asked.

"Because according to legend, there should be moon stones around the area. The Ocean Temple should not be far from here."

"From where I got from the rest. Our semblances are very strong because we descended from the Sea People. But the moon stones are just a myth, right?" She asked again.

"Nobody can prove it was just a myth unless we see for ourselves." He scoffed.

"I hate it when you're right." She sighed. "After all, it's not like the moons stones are staying in one place for long."

"Sis, come on, with the moon stones, we'll be able to fight harder to fight in another war to protect Remnant. We're still at war here."

"I'm not sure if there will be another war, Tristan. Besides, you're the first in our family to have two semblances, which no huntsmen or huntresses can have." Said the young girl.

"Hey, there might be for some time, and that's why they're letting us go outside to train."

"Not like this." She sighed again. Continuing the trail to find one of the moon stones. "Although, when I heard that this is where our parents first met before their academy days, it was very romantic. They didn't remember it at first." She closed her hands while resting them on her right cheek while remembering the romantic story. "If only I met someone who is genuine and very kind, also brave. Just imagine." She said lovingly.

"Well, be sure that guy isn't anything like my ex-girlfriend." Said Tristan. "She's a crazy nut-job."

37 years ago

In the same island, a young man at the age of 15 with blue hair with amber-colored goggles and a red jacket with a dress shirt under is having a class trip with fellow classmates in Sanctum Academy, a combat school in Argus before he went to Haven. Since the island was in ruins after the Great War, it is now a tourist trap for future huntsmen and huntresses. "Alright class, if you take a good look in front of you, you can see the Ocean Temple that was once known as the Guardian Palace for the balance of the seas. But sometime in the Great War, when one of the moon stones were stolen, it angered the temple and floods the place as a punishment." Explained the tour guide. Gesturing the students to follow him. The boy followed along without looking up with his goggles over his eyes. Looking down writing down notes for his history test about the Great War, until he bumped into someone and dropped his notebook.

"Ow! Watch where you're going you dolt!" The boy looked up to see a white-haired girl around his age tied to the upper right side with a silver tiara-like hairpin. A white dress with a coat overall. Opening her eyes revealed her ice-blue eyes. What's also seeable is a small scar on her left eye. The boy snapped out of it and lends the girl a hand to help her up, and picked up a bag she was carrying. "Oh man, I am very sorry." He apologized, but the girl turned her back in anger. But then walked over to him.

"It's not often that men could even apologize." She scoffed.

"Look, I'm just trying to be nice around here, okay?" She then placed her fingers onto his goggles to push them up.

"Honestly, you should be more careful. You could've hurt somebody or yourself." She advised in a cold manner, but also in a civil tone of her voice. She then proceed to push his goggles above his forehead. But then gasped softly when she gazed into his deep-blue eyes, captivating the girl. Eyes that shine like the stars in midnight. "Um, are you okay?" He asked, this woke the girl and blinked three times before backing off. "I'm so sorry! It's just that, I was just lifting your goggles cause I was afraid you might bumped into anybody else and your eyes look so...so...argh! She grasped her head with both hands in nervousness. Her face feels warm just facing him. Her heart raced nonstop. He then saw something over her eye, as he almost forgot what he saw.

"Hey, is that a scar over your eye?" He asked.

"Ahh! Don't look at it!" She yelled, covering her eye. Feeling humiliated by the scar she received during training.

"No, I didn't mean it. I meant to say that it's actually cute." He said it, smiling at her. She then looked at him again with a look of curiosity. "Huh?"

"I mean, it's nothing to be ashamed of. It's a symbol of a warrior's pride. From what I can tell, you're pushing yourself so hard in huntsmen training. When wearing scars, it's a medals for something to be proud of. It also represents bravery. Take it from me, I have a brother who has a scar after fighting a Nevermore." He assured her with a brave expression on his face. "By the way, I never seen you around before. Are you from a different class of Sanctum?"

"No. I'm from Atlas. This is my first time outside of the kingdom and my sister has permission to take me there for a vacation." The girl sat next to the boy on a rock, they forgot that they're in groups, but this moment seem to last forever as the day sets into night.

"Your sister graduated from Atlas Academy, huh?"

"Yes. She was at the top of her ranks in the school. Ironwood did say she is a promising prodigy after my grandfather taught her to unlock her semblance. She graduated and become a soldier for the military. I haven't seen her much. But to be honest, she is the reason I was inspired to become a huntress. But I wanted to enroll to Beacon. So I have to pass many trials to get here." She explained, hearing her story about her sister reminded him of how much he looked up to his older brother. "The thing is, I wanted to go to Beacon to get out of my father's shadow. It's safe to say that he can be very controlling for as long as I can remember. My sister was cut from her inheritance after she decided to join the military. But, that move have lit up the fire in her pride that day. My father couldn't care less about her when she has to fight for the good of Remnant." Hearing that story got the boy concerned if the girl is having some troubles at home.

"You know, the way I see my brother. He's tough, and way smarter. He graduated from Haven. He may not be the leader, but he's also the most reliable member of his team. Just thinking about him makes me want to enroll to Haven. He's always been keeping his cool in his days as a student. But, he's also my inspiration to become a huntsmen. That's why I wanted to be like him. However, during a mission, he was killed in an accident a year ago." This got the girl in shock when she hears the story. "And somewhat, it was my fault. I could've saved him that day because of my semblance." This got the girl to place her hand over his, feeling sorry for his loss. "I am sorry." She said softly. Then the boy looked at her and gazed into her eyes.

"Don't be. All I want to do now is to honor him by becoming a hunter. The first thing I wanted to do first is to conquer my fear. For you, keep your hopes up until you become a full-fledged huntress. Cause by the end of the day, month and year, you'll be a beautiful star who fought for a warrior's honor."

"Well, I hope you can. Keep your brother at heart, okay?" They then look up at the meteorites showering at the sky. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" She asked.

"Yeah. It is." He replied. They still held hands for hours, until a woman's voice is heard. "Weiss, time to go!" Called her elder sister.

"Coming, Winter! I have to go, I can't worry my sister one bit." She said, and he nodded. She then turned back and asked him. "Hey, will there be chance to meet again? I haven't caught your name yet."

"You'll have to find out yourself. But, if there's a chance, let's meet again sometime, Snow Angel." He winked. She quickly turn away and blushed at the nickname he gave her. While heading back to her sister who was waiting for her in the pier to head back to Atlas.

Snow Angel. I really like it. He's so dreamy. She thought.

7 years later

Neptune, Weiss, Drey, Rick and the 12 other huntsmen have decided to camp out for the night since it took them 17 hours for the ferry to stir to Poseidon Island. The current conditions of the island are still in ruins. It was closed for some of the reasons, but it's only available for any huntsmen and huntresses to investigate the disappearances of fellow hunters who vanished in thin air. But Weiss wonders if this is all a trap, from what she heard the day before the mission is that her sister ran from Atlas the week after she was promoted as General of the Atlas Military. They all sleep soundly by the bonfire.

Weiss is startled by the sounds of Neptune whimpering, and hyperventilating. "No...can't breath. Stop. No...stay back. Stay back." He was tossing and turning on the ground. Wondering if that's what's bothering him in his sleep. But then he cracked his eyes opened. "Ah! Jupiter!" He then took a deep breathe, and walked to the nearby pond behind the pillars of a colosseum. Weiss secretly follows, for unknown reasons, she couldn't forgive him for something. But she is also worried for his wellbeing, she hid behind a pillar and watches him reaching out to the pond. But once again his hand shakes when he got closer and closer. But he pulls back again. "Why can't I do this?!" Enraged, he threw a rock at a nearby pillar where Weiss was standing, but it missed her. It only created a dent in front. He then spotted her. "Weiss?" He said softly as he calmed down staring at the eyes of a huntress. She then ran back to the camp as she began to question herself in silence before he can apologize.

Neptune, what has gotten into you? I never saw you act this way before. Why did you take this mission? I'm sorry I haven't forgiven you, and for shutting you out. But I can't risk losing you. She thought with tears in her eyes.

[ohblackdiamond]

little t&a (paul/gene, nc-17) (part 2 of 29)

part 1   part 2   part 3   part 4   part 5   part 6   part 7   part 8   part 9   part 10   part 11   part 12   part 13   part 14   part 15   part 16   part 17   part 18   part 19   part 20   part 21  part 22   part 23   part 24    part 25   part 26   part 27   part 28   part 29 

Four weeks before KISS gets back on tour, Gene discovers that Paul's been cursed by a groupie. For the sake of KISS' finances, Paul's comfort levels, and Gene's libido, this crisis must be resolved. Sexswap fic. In this chapter:  "What do you mean, what else was I doing? I woke up with tits! Don't you think that's a little fucking traumatizing?" Gene and Paul try to pinpoint the root cause of Paul’s predicament.

          Gene carried the groceries in for Paul. It felt like the lousiest apology, but he didn’t know what else to do. Paul looked as if he were seconds from tears—pretty horrifying, for Gene to try to realign his whole thought process, to try and reconcile the Paul he’d known for the last eight years with the pretty brunette currently slumped over the kitchen island—and Gene didn’t know how to mitigate that, either. Paul wasn’t much of a crier. Under the circumstances, though, Gene couldn’t exactly blame him.

           “I shouldn’t have done that.”

           “Forget it.”

           “Look—I thought it might be you from the tattoo, but I had to make sure—”

           “You made sure, okay? You definitely did that much.” Paul’s elbows were resting on the counter. His mouth was pressed against his clasped hands, muffling his words. “Fuck it, Gene. You were supposed to just write me back.”

           Gene rolled his eyes.

           “Yeah, you cut off contact with everybody a month before we go back on tour, and then you send me a two-sentence postcard and expect me to act like a fucking pen-pal. C’mon, Paul.”

           “Well, obviously, I didn’t want you coming over! You think I wanted anyone to see me like this? I already had to run Peter off!”

           So that had been him earlier. Shit.

           “How did this even happen?” Medically, it was impossible. Paul probably hadn’t had this little hair on him since he was ten years old. To say nothing of the drop in height, or the total reconfiguration of his body shape. He still looked pretty similar in the face, same big brown eyes, same slightly crooked chin and full lips, but the features were a little softer. Really, he looked like a good bit like his older sister, although Gene knew better than to mention it. Paul hadn’t seen Julia in at least three years.

           The guys had always made fun of Gene for his lack of discernment, and he knew there were plenty of women that looked like dogs dotting his photo albums, but Paul was—actually kind of pretty. Or would be, if his eyes, always a little sad-looking, weren’t all watery and his mouth wasn’t glued in that firm line behind his hand. Even Peter, who, oddly enough, probably had better taste in women, looks-wise, than any of the four of them, had said Paul was cute. And the tits—shit, Gene was distracting himself. Paul had taken his time answering anyway.

           “How should I know how this happened? I woke up like this!”

           “When?”

           “Wednesday morning.”

           “That’s five days. You’ve been like this for five days?” Before Paul could answer, Gene added, bewildered, “Have you gone anywhere?”

           It wouldn’t have surprised him much if Paul had holed up in the house the entire time. He did that enough normally. Gene could understand that, to a point. Gene never knew what to do with himself off-tour, either, except get laid, but Paul usually added a healthy dose of self-pity on top of the lays. Given what had happened to him, he’d probably been feeling sorrier for himself than usual.

           Paul surprised him by bringing his hands down from in front of his mouth and nodding.

           “I drove to Peaches yesterday.”

           “You drove?”

          “You think I could’ve convinced my chauffeur I was Paul Stanley?”

           “Might have an easier time with him than you would a cop.”

           “A cop? I’m a great driver—”

           “You don’t have a license right now.”

           Paul’s lips pursed and he went quiet for a while. Like the full magnitude of his situation had only just dawned on him. Not that Gene wasn’t sympathetic. This was going to screw him over, too. The new tour a month away, and their frontman not only entirely unable to prove his identity, but—really, assuming he got the other guys and their management to believe him, what was he supposed to do? Strut onstage in that sequin-studded jumpsuit, singing about the dick he didn’t even have? Even Bill Aucoin couldn’t spin a story about Paul getting a sex change into anything close to palatable for the magazines and papers. If they didn’t get this shit fixed and turn Paul back into a guy, KISS was sunk.

           Gene let the silence hang in the air rather than try to fill it up with small talk or reassurances. He got up and started taking Paul’s groceries out of the paper bags, just to give his hands something to do. A wrapped package of deli meat, several cans of Tab, a bunch of celery, and a loaf of sandwich bread were all that was in the first bag. The groceries of a depressed catalog model, not a rockstar. He put it all up in the pantry and fridge unceremoniously. Paul didn’t have a breadbox, so Gene left the loaf on the counter next to the sink. The second bag of groceries was just as dismal, maybe worse—peanut butter, saltines, apples, and, horrifyingly, a box of Kotex. Shit. Had Paul already given up on going back to normal, or—

           “You’re not on the rag, are you?”

           “Fuck, no. Put that back.” Paul was going crimson. Gene felt sorry enough for him to drop the Kotex back into the bag and return to his seat across from him at the kitchen island.

           “Are you planning to just wait around for it? Haven’t you done anything yet?”

           “Gene, I don’t know what to do. I did get some books sent over.” Paul got up and went to the living room, returning with some paperbacks under his arm, which he dumped on the kitchen table. Usually, Paul’s reading material consisted of teenybopper magazines with his face on the cover, contracts, and his own unflattering comics of his bandmates. Now Gene found himself next to copies of The Lesser Key of Solomon, The Secret Lore of Magic, and LaVey’s The Satanic Rituals. He could’ve sworn the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up just from cracking the spines. Gene tried to swallow his nerves as best he could, tried to look at the whole deal clinically, never mind what years of yeshiva and the start of rabbinical school had taught him, but every sigil-covered page made him feel a bit ill.

           “You haven’t tried any of this, have you?”

           Paul snorted.

           “Fuck, no. I’m already going to hell, there’s no point in expediting the trip.” He blew his bangs out of his face with a breath. They settled back in front of his eyes almost immediately, and he shook his head. “I just wanted to read up. I thought if I could figure out how it happened, I could get someone else to reverse it for me.”

           “Like a witch.”

           Paul flinched slightly.

           “Well, yeah, since that’s probably who did it in the first place.” He was standing behind Gene, reaching over him and pointing at the book he’d opened. “Oh, it’s in this one. Hang on.”

           Gene shifted obediently, trying to ignore the feeling of Paul’s bare chest pressed against his back. He knew Paul wasn’t coming onto him, not consciously, at least, but—fuck, the last several years on the road had spoiled him. Every chick he got near wanted to get laid, if not by him, then by one of his bandmates. But Paul wasn’t actually a chick, a fact made all the more apparent by how utterly oblivious he was to the fact that his bathrobe was halfway open, again.

           He handed Paul the book. Paul was thumbing through it before long, in his usual way, licking his finger with every pageturn. Gene could see the remnants of black nail polish on his fingernails—still aggressively manicured—and a couple of marks beneath his knuckles.

           “What happened to your hands there?”

           “Huh? I bit them.”

           “Why?”

           Paul shrugged and cleared his throat.

           “Anyway, found it.” He pointed to a passage alongside a lithograph of a lion head. “‘Marbas, alias Barbas is a great president, and appeareth in the forme of a mightie lion—'”

           “Paul, the e on the end of ‘forme’ is silent.”

           “Shut up—‘he bringeth diseases and cureth them, promoteth wisdom’…. It’s in here, I swear—there! ‘He changes men into other shapes.’ So that’s probably the demon that whoever it was conjured up.”

           Paul looked more than vaguely pleased with himself. Gene almost felt bad for not being impressed. Almost.

           “That’s all you’ve come up with this whole time.”

           “It’s only been five days, Gene, I—”

           “What else were you doing?”

           “What do you mean, what else was I doing? I woke up with tits! Don’t you think that’s a little fucking traumatizing?”

           “You had—” Gene just shook his head.

           “I don’t have anything, Gene. You said so yourself. I don’t even have access to my own bank account. I’m done once the cash runs out.”

           Gene started to ask how much cash Paul had on hand, then thought better of it. Probably not a whole lot. Paul had the annoying habit of charging everything he could to either the label or the KISS Corporation proper while they were on tour, and not letting anyone know until the following board meeting. Off-tour probably wasn’t much different.

           “Did you make a list?” he asked finally.

           “A list?”

           “A list of anyone you think could’ve done this to you.”

           Paul shook his head.

           “That’s the thing. Nobody I know would’ve wanted to do this to me.”

           “Then maybe it’s someone you don’t know.”

           “Like who? Gene, what good does it do anybody if I’m stuck as a girl?”

           “Revenge. You have any exes into the occult?”

           “Not that I know of.” Paul cocked his head, considering. “Mostly they break up with me, not the other way around.”

           “Groupies, then?”

           “Gene, I don’t—take notes on every girl I fuck, it’s not that important to me.”

           “Did you get with anyone strange lately? Maybe, I don’t know, a cult member or something?”

           “I don’t think so—”

           “Anyone ask you anything weird? Or try and get a lock of your hair?” Gene’s knowledge of the occult was limited, but he did vaguely remember needing—what was it, the person’s clothes or hair before any magic could be done on them. At least, that was how it worked on Dark Shadows.

           “That happens every tour at least three times.”

           “I’m trying to figure this out for you.” God. Paul had had almost a week that he could’ve spent seriously researching his predicament, and all he’d done was buy a couple of books, send Gene a postcard, and sit around moping. “Did—”

           “There was this one girl who yanked out some of my chest hair a couple weeks ago,” Paul said slowly. “I didn’t really think much of it at the time. I thought it was, y’know, a kink thing. It was cool, right, kind of a you’re the boss deal—”

           Gene winced.

           “Did she say anything?”

           “She said she was going to make me feel like she did.”

           “And you didn’t think that was strange.”

           “No! It was while we were doing some S&M shit!” Paul’s face was going slightly pink. “It was fun! You go on tour and you end up with a lot of real desperate virgins and groupies with V.D. and none of them really—they just wanna do what you want, they don’t wanna ever take the lead, and this girl, she had me up against the—”

           “I get the idea,” Gene snapped, although he didn’t at all. He wasn’t picturing the encounter as it’d happened, just Paul as he was right now, up against the wall, breasts heaving, one long leg hooked around his waist. Fuck, was it hard to look at him. Gene had never been ashamed of his own lasciviousness until faced with the one person who noticed it and needed it least. “Okay. We’re going to get this taken care of.”

           “How?”

           “I’m calling Ace.”

           “Ace?” Paul was almost squeaking. “Don’t call Ace!”

           “Relax, I’m not gonna tell him what happened.”

           “Then what are you—”

           “Just trust me, Paul.”

           Gene got up and walked over to the kitchen phone. Paul looked as though he were about to argue, but then he just shook his head, watching carefully as Gene punched in Ace’s number.

           “Hey. Hey, Jeanette, this is Gene. Is Ace around? Let me talk to him for a second.” Gene rubbed the back of his head with his free hand while he waited. He could hear Jeanette calling Ace over, and a little shuffling, just before Ace picked up the phone.

           “Hey.”

           “Hey, Ace.”

           “You find Paulie?”

           “Yeah. Yeah, he’s fine. I’m at his house.”

           “What was he pulling that prima donna crap over, anyway?”

           “He’s…” It was hard to talk to Ace casually with Paul staring at him. “He’s fine. Just paranoid.”

           “Paranoid? Why?” Ace sounded a little disbelieving. Gene couldn’t blame him. “He didn’t start on some shit, did he? Thought all he took was white cross.”

           “He’s not on anything. He’s worried about the tour.” Gene paused. “You still go to that psychic, don’t you?”

           “Sometimes. Why?”

           “Do you have her number?”

           “Gene, you don’t believe in psychics or any of that—”

           “Yeah, but Paul does. I thought I’d make him an appointment, ease his mind some.” Gene watched Paul’s brow furrow, one corner of his mouth lifting up in a wary expression.

           “You’d make it for him?” Ace’s tone was dubious. “I’ve got her number somewhere. Let me find it.”

           Gene heard rustling in the background, and Ace asking Jeanette where the address book was. Jeanette said something in return, and then Gene was almost worried they’d both forgotten about the call until he heard Ace’s high voice back on the line.

           “Okay. Her name’s Suzie, she’s got a little office over in the Bronx if you wanna pop over in person. I dunno the address, though, you’ll have to call.” Ace rattled off the phone number as Gene scrambled for a pen and paper. He had to settle for a napkin. “Hey, could you tell Paul to call up Peter sometime? He’s getting kind of worried.”

           “Yeah, I will. It’s nothing personal.”

           Ace laughed.

           “Pete ain’t gonna believe that secondhand, you know that. See you, Geno.”

           “Bye.” Gene hung up the phone. Paul got up from his chair.

           “You’re getting me an appointment with Ace’s psychic.”

           “Yeah. Do you have to check your dance card first?”

           “Psychics can’t reverse curses,” Paul said flatly.

           “Do you have a better idea?”

           “No.”

           “Then you’re going.” Before Paul could protest, Gene snatched the phone off the hook again and started dialing. “Get dressed. I’m pretty sure she’ll be willing to pencil you in quick.”

[loove-persevering]

First Appearances Part 5! (Shawn Mendes Imagine)

Description: It’s time for Shawn’s album launch!!! How will it feel seeing him after month apart? I also took some inspiration from the song All These Years- Camila Cabello.

Word Count: 2.7k Yipeeeee!!!

CATCH UP! Part 1 Part 2  Pt. 3 Pt. 4

Your dress to the party here

  Today was Shawn’s launch party for his new album, you of course had to attend with your song being on the album. You were excited and nervous to say the least, it would be the first time you had seen him since before he left, your relationship was so different now. You had taken time to reflect on your relationship, maybe you fell too quick? You shake your head at the thought, you couldn’t help how you felt about him not when you had gained such a sense of the Shawn nobody else got to know. 

  You wanted to look your best tonight, You had dyed your blue hair to blonde having it styled by your team your makeup done as well. You wore a pant suit the tight was fitted was nude with black lace and the pants were baggy and sequined. You wanted to make a statement at this party, that the heartbreak you had endured had made you come out on the other side. Which is did Shawn and you were never a couple and you had to accept that, you had to move on and be happy for him but most importantly for yourself.

 ‘’You look hot not gonna lie,’’ Mel says leaning against the door behind you. 

 You laugh at her, ‘’Thanks,’’ you say. ‘’What time are we leaving?’’ You ask her she takes a glance at her watch. 

‘’Now if you’re ready!’’ She says and you nod taking one last glance at yourself in the mirror before heading downstairs. You took a few pictures with fans who were waiting outside before Mel ushered you to leave. You make your way into the car and head to the party. 

SHAWNS POV 

    It was album release day. All of the months of hard work finally paying off, the long nights at the studio. The songs I had worked so hard on were finally going to be put out in the universe for everyone to hear, everyone and her. 

   I knew she would be coming tonight our song was on the album, I was looking forward to seeing her after so long. We had grown so close over the months, so close that I trusted her more than anyone I felt as if I could share my most private thoughts and they would be safe which was hard to find. 

  I make my way down the carpet trying to subtly look for her, I felt like I had been waiting to see her for months to explain myself. The night those pictures got out they were not what they looked like, I had known the woman I was pictured with from friends, we were out celebrating when I saw her and she was in no state to be out in the condition she was in. We decided to take her back to my hotel that night and let her stay there. That was it, she took my bedroom I took the couch and nothing had happened. When I opened Twitter the next morning I was blowing up with pictures of us leaving the club, I immediately felt the anxiety in my chest rise up knowing exactly how this looked. 

   I scrolled through twitter seeing people talking about Y/N and how heartbroken she had to be, how I had done her the exact same as the man who had broken her heart the year prior. I knew it had been on the Twitter too long for Y/N to not have seen the pictures. I debated on calling her straight away and it has become one of the biggest regrets not deciding to explain to her that night. I figured the damage had been done and she would already not want to speak to me, and from that night she hadn’t. I didn’t blame her, I was too much of a coward to call her and Brian and Geoff reminded me every night of how dumb it was and they didn’t understand why I couldn’t just pick up the phone and explain myself.

  ‘’Y/N! Over here!’’ I hear one of the reporters scream from the other end of the carpet. I look down the carpet and there she was, beautiful as ever. She had dyed her hair, and was wearing an outfit that definitely made a statement, I’m over you, is what it screamed at me. I make my way down the carpet completely ignoring the paparazzi screaming for my attention. When I reach her she looks shocked as if I had just done the one thing that she didn’t want. I see it in her eyes while her face said another expression, she forced a smile I could tell it wasn’t genuine because I had made her smile that way before and this wasn’t it. 

   ‘’You look amazing,’’ I say to her, she smiles but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. When Y/N smiled it was like her entire face did too, her eyes crinkled and it would almost look like her eyes were closed if you made her laugh hard enough. The last time I had seen that smile was on the phone call we had just before the club, and I couldn’t believe how much had changed since then. How being apart from her for so long could only make me miss her that much more. ‘’You dyed your hair,’’ I say pointing out the obvious. 

   ‘’Yeah, I did.’’ She huffs, seemingly annoyed that it was the first thing I said. ‘’We should probably take some photos instead of you just standing here,’’ she says gesturing with her eyes the chaos behind us. 

    I turn around completely dazed by her, I realize now I had been away far too long. I put my hand on her back and I can feel her body go rigid, I hated that she felt the need to tense up at my touch. I remember how comfortable we were before I left for tour how she would lean against me as I would strum different melodies on the guitar. How she would be laughing so hard that would fall back into me, leaning on me for support. 

   ‘’Can you act like you like me,’’ I ask her whispering into her hair which smelt like strawberries. 

   She takes a deep breath before turning to me poking me in my side something that had always made me laugh and she used to her advantage. For a second I saw a flash of the Y/N that I missed and loved. I wished more than anything that this was our relationship again, but I knew right now it was to show everyone that after everything we were still friends. It seemed funny because that was the last thing I wanted to be. 

Y/N POV

   You hated to admit how good Shawn looked, his hair was longer than the last time you saw him. He looked much more toned than before, tour did him well you thought. His face showed a sorrowed expression on it, you tried to keep up your facade but it was so hard because the second he came up to you you were in shock. That no matter how long it had been since you had seen him, and no matter how bad it hurt to see him with someone else that in that split second every feeling you had for him came back. 

  You didn’t know that feeling before not that you had seen your ex since before you left for tour the previous year but you didn’t think the connection you had with him was the same you had with Shawn. 

  You felt as if you had enough pictures with Shawn so you glanced up at him putting your hand on his abdomen letting him know you were leaving, he looked at you right in your eyes and you saw just from that he wanted to say so much, but so did you. You head down the carpet trying to stay confident as you walked down the carpet but it was hard when the person that made you feel most vulnerable was only a few feet away. 

 ‘’Y/N! Are you and Shawn still a thing?’’

‘’Y/N! Over here!’’

‘’Y/N are you and Shawn on speaking terms now?’’

  You didn’t let your smile fade even through the questions because that’s exactly what they wanted from you. You pose for a little bit longer before heading inside, you quickly take your seat which thankfully wasn’t at the same table as Shawn, you wonder if he was the one who had made the seating arrangements. 

   Mel comes in sitting next to you, ‘’You did good on the carpet,’’ She says to you, ‘’They loved you and Shawn,’’ She says and you look at her when she says his name. ‘’I’m excited to hear the song you wrote together,’’ She said. 

  ‘‘I hope they don’t play it,’‘ You say wishfully. 

 She looks at you an annoyed expression on her face, ‘’Sometimes your seriously a pain in the ass,’’ She says to you. You look at her your eyes widening. ‘’Well you are, your really stubborn,’’ She says taking a sip of her margarita giving you a side glare. 

 You get up from the table too annoyed with Mel to sit with her, you walk around greeting some of the other people who were in attendance. You talk with Niall Horan for a few moments which was pretty cool considering it was the first time you had met him. You walk around the party for a while socializing with everyone but you hadn’t seen Shawn since you took photos together outside, you also hated to admit it but you couldn’t help but search for him in the crowd of people. 

  ‘’Y/N?’’ You turn around at the unfamiliar voice. 

 You turn around recognizing the person who just said your name as Shawn’s little sister Aaliyah. You had talked to her once on face time when Shawn had made a visit home before he left, ‘’Hi?’’ You say surprised she had come to talk to you. ‘’Sorry I just didn’t expect you to come talk to me!’’ You say realizing how rude you had sounded. 

  ‘’It’s cool,’’ She says taking a seat next to you. ‘’Shawn played me your song, it’s really good!’’ You were surprised Shawn had shown her but knowing how close Shawn was to his family it wasn’t really that much of a shock. 

‘‘Thanks! Means a lot coming from you,’‘ you say smiling at her. 

‘‘My brother really likes you,’‘ She blurts out, you glance at her shocked. ‘’You’re all he talks about, seriously it’s annoying sometimes.’’ She explains. 

‘‘I-’‘ You start to say but she cuts you off. 

‘‘It’s pretty obvious your both into each other so why are you all acting like your in middle school?’‘ She says and you look at her in admiration. 

‘‘Shawn’s lucky to have you as a sister,’‘ You say to her and she looks at you giving you a smirk. 

‘‘I know, I tell him that all the time but I don’t think he listens,’‘ She laughs and you join in with her. ‘‘Shawn’s talking to Brian over there,’‘ She says pointing in his direction. You spot him across the room and you look at her thankfully and she smiles at you encouragingly. 

  You get up from your seat feeling your whole body tingling with nerves and excitement,  you had waited far too long to share your feelings with Shawn and now it built up to this. You walk up behind him reaching your hand out to touch him but your interrupted by the sound of his voice, ‘’I just love her so much man,’’ He confesses. You take your hand back quickly and you quickly turn around making your way back to your seat. 

  ‘‘Y/N’‘ You hear Brian’s voice call out your name as you make your way through the crowd. You glance back quickly seeing he had stepped out in front of Shawn obviously he had seen you before you could disappear quick enough, Shawn had a unreadable look on his face as he searched the crowd. Maybe this was the sign; the one thing you didn’t want to be true, that it just wasn’t meant to be. 

  You had sat back down in your seat still not speaking to Mel who kept giving you a side glare and muttering thing to other people that shared your table. Everyone quickly got quiet which made you look up on the stage and there stood Shawn holding a microphone probably about to make his speech for the night. ‘’I just wanted to get up here and say thank you from the bottom of my heart,’’ He says taking his hand clutching his chest. 

‘‘To everyone who has been apart of this album, to everyone who has made this album so special.’‘ He says his eyes wandering over the crowd. His eyes finally find yours after a few seconds, you look away trying to find anything in the room to distract yourself with. ‘‘This album is so special to me. Every song is a story that’s been apart of my life and I’m so happy to be able to share it tonight and with the world.’‘ He says. ‘‘I am living my dream everyday and I couldn’t thank anyone enough for allowing me to do that especially my family,’’ he says glancing to them.

 ‘’Now before the party continues I want to play this song, It’s one very personal to me and it might be my favorite one I’ve ever written.’’ He says and he moves over taking his place at the piano on the stage. The lyrics begin rolling of his lips and you listen carefully every word hitting you like a brick. 

What if I told you a story? 

All about someone who loved you

What if I told you he’s sorry 

He made you wait

What if I told you he’s dying? 

Cause he change history

What if I told you that someone..

Was me,

  Every word he said he seemed more engrossed in the song, you hadn’t realized how long it had been since you heard him sing in person. You recall it easily, like it was one of the things you’d carry with you forever. 

Flashback

  You were sitting on the couch your head leaning against Shawn’s arm as he had his legs laid out on the coffee table and you had your legs taking up the rest of the couch. Brian and Geoff were both sitting in the room with you playing on their phones, you had grown close with all of them in the past few weeks. You had your eyes closed listening to Shawn hum to a new tune the words almost slipping off his lips. ‘’Sing,’’ You mutter your voice groggy from being so tired. 

 ‘‘Huh?’‘ He stops strumming. 

 ‘‘Sing,’‘ You mutter again to him softly. 

  You hear him pick back up the melody he was just strumming. ‘‘Yeah you, its just the truth, the truth. And I’d be lying if I said it, it’s a lighter state of mind stuck on you,’‘ He sings perfectly. 

 A tired smile breaks out on your lips hearing his voice which seemed like the perfect way to fall asleep. ‘’That’s all I have so far,’’ He says chuckling. You hum in satisfaction as you lean further into him making yourself comfortable happy to be falling asleep to the soothing sound of Shawn’s voice. 

END OF FLASHBACK

  You blink back tears at the memory and you can see Mel giving you a worried look, you look back up at Shawn accidentally making eye contact with him. You look at him your mouth agape, you quickly look away getting up excusing yourself from the table. You make your way through the crowd quickly trying not to bump into anyone, Shawn’s voice filled your ears still singing for the crowd. 

  You were doing what you did best, letting your emotions getting the best of you and walking away. You had been completely aware that in the past few months you had become the girl you never wanted to be the one that cared too much. You made your way out the back wanting to avoid paparazzi, you walk to the end of the street hailing a cab down successfully after a few minutes. 

 You take your seat in the cab,  giving the man your address ready to go home and be cuddled up in the safety of your own home. You buckle your seatbelt and before the cab takes off you hear a harsh knock at the window, when you look up you see a panicked Shawn standing at the window looking down at you. 

 ‘’Can we talk?’’

TAGLIST: @softboycal , @fan-of-many-bands , @starksflyy,@emmiejames , @yourwonderbelle , @xoxohannahlee , @ilsolee,@melli-studies , @sweetheartmendes , @peruvian-bae , @fallinallinyou-xox , (Let me know if you wanna be added or removed which I hope you dont;))

Pt. 6

Link to the songs I used in the chapter Here (What If I Told You A Story) and Here  (Stuck On You)