#obviously this is an interview with the Mexican press and he’s not going to come out and say he’s angling for the rb seat

[rickybaby]

Daniel Ricciardo dreams of returning to Red Bull but doesn't wish evil to Sergio Checo Pérez

[f1]

Verstappen and Horner explain Sky boycott over disrespect from one person particularly | 2022 Mexican Grand Prix

Max Verstappen has explained why he and his Red Bull team have stopped giving interviews to Formula 1 broadcaster Sky. The Red Bull driver did not speak to Sky after yesterday’s qualifying session or today’s United States Grand Prix, which he won. Team principal Christian Horner has also not given them an interview during that time. Sky is one of F1’s biggest broadcasters and holds exclusive rights to the sport in several territories, including the UK. One segment broadcast by Sky this weekend in which pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz said Lewis Hamilton was “robbed” in last year’s controversial championship-decider was suggested as being the cause of Verstappen’s decision. However Verstappen said his decision to stop speaking to them was not triggered by a single incident. “It’s nothing to do with this weekend,” he said in today’s FIA press conference. “But this year, it’s been a constant kind of like digging, being disrespectful. Especially one particular person. At one point it’s enough, I don’t accept it.” “You can’t live in the past,” he added. “You just have to move on.” He said Sky’s coverage has provoked hostility towards his team on social media. “At the moment, social media is a very toxic place and if you are constantly being like that live on TV, you make it only worse instead of trying to make it better in the world,” said Verstappen. “You keep disrespecting me. And at one point, I’m not tolerating it anymore. So that’s why I decided to stop answering.” Verstappen added the amount of abuse on social media has become worse due to the growing popularity of F1. “I think it’s just the sport is more popular so there are more people watching so more people are writing. I think it’s just that. It’s not great that they are allowed to write these kinds of things. “So I hope we can come up with a kind of algorithm that stops people from being keyboard warriors. Because these kind of people they will never come up to you and say these things in front of your face, it’s just that they’re sitting in front of their desk or whatever at home, being upset, being frustrated and they can write whatever they like because the platform allows you to. That can be really damaging and hurtful to some people and it’s not how it should be.” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said the team’s boycott will not continue beyond this weekend. Horner said it was prompted by comments made in Sky’s United States Grand Prix broadcast and was not solely aimed at the broadcast’s British channel. “We were obviously disappointed with a series of derogatory comments that have been made on on Sky,” said Horner. “So we felt that this weekend we’d just take a break and that it wouldn’t do Sky any harm us taking a break this weekend. “There needs to be balance in commentary. Some of the commentary’s excellent but some of the pieces there’s too much sensationalism being done. And we stand together as a team.” Red Bull explained their concerns to Sky, he said. “We’ve been very clear it’s not just been Sky UK, it’s been across all of the Sky channels, Germany, Italy. “So it was just for this weekend, but it was just to register our discontent in sometimes some of the the less impartial comments that are made or accusations that are sometimes made as TV seems to becoming ever more sensationalised.” This article will be updated. Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free 2022 Mexican Grand Prix Browse all 2022 Mexican Grand Prix articles via RaceFans - Independent Motorsport Coverage https://www.racefans.net/

[captainsjack]

I am SO MAD there isn't more Shus content. I really liked Phsyc as a kid, just started rewatching it. Within the first episode I was like hell yes childhood best friends to lovers I ship this so hard! And then I found out it's a rare pair bc fandom is racist. Also JRR is half Mexican, and i guess bc he passes it's never addressed in the show and both his parents are played by white actors? How cool would it have been to have had half Mexican Shawn? Idk I'm only on S2, I would love your thoughts

yUp :) you’re 100% correct my dude.

(1) i get the concept of wanting to make a show about platonic love and childhood best friends, like it’s a great idea and i’m here for it and more shows should focus on these kinds of aspects instead of your basic forced romantic love story. but the thing is, if this is what they were aiming for, they... just didn’t do it well.

there’s a difference between friendship love and ... what shawn and gus have. (like obviously they have that too but it goes beyond that as well). if psych wanted to make a show about best friends, they really should’ve toned down the codependency, obsessive jealousy, gay jokes, etc. because, from my experience, that’s just not what a friendship is like.

storytime that no one asked for: i met my best friend when we were 3 and she’s been my best friend for 16 years. we went to the same elementary, middle, and high school together, just like shawn and gus. we’ve always been super close. but we don’t act like shawn and gus.

shawn and gus are each other’s only friend. they spend 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year together. they walk next to each other with their bodies pressed together. they touch each other longingly for no reason. they’re constantly just like... gazing lovingly at each other. they joke about dating each other. people constantly mistake them for a couple.

there’s a difference between regular long time best friends, and what shawn and gus are. look at any other tv show with best friends - jess & cece (new girl), alex & mer (greys), ross & chandler (friends).  THOSE are best friend relationships. that’s how me and my best friend are.

but shawn and gus are so much more than that. gus knows everything there is to know about what makes shawn spencer, Shawn Spencer. he’s literally the only person shawn lets himself be real around. he’s the only one who can see past shawn’s facade. the only person who has been there since the beginning and has first-hand knowledge & experience of all of shawns trauma. he’s the only person shawn really lets himself open up to. not to mention the fact that gus is the only one who is never, and has never, been deceived by shawn, whether in regards to shawns emotions or his “psychic-ness.” all of shawns love interests are kept in the dark. but gus knows the ins and outs of shawns personality - his biggest secrets and deepest fears. he’s the only person that’s been a constant presence in shawns life. he’s the only person shawn keeps coming back to. gus is the one who claimed shawn on his taxes. gus is the one who shawn can’t ever fathom not being in his life.

i know what best friends are and what they feel for each other. and this is SO much more than that.

here's a second story you didn’t want to hear: i met my other best friend senior year of high school. let me tell you - that relationship was so much different than what i have with my childhood best friend. we would go everywhere together and do everything together. people constantly mistook us for a couple. i talked about her constantly and she was the first person i would ever want to talk to if something happened. it didn’t mean i loved my other friends any less, but it was just such a different relationship. we were exactly like shawn and gus. down to the details almost.

and yes, you guessed it. i eventually fell in love with her. and when i told my other friends, they had already known before i did.

maybe you have to have first-hand experience of situations like these, but its really obvious to me that shawn and gus’s friendship is completely the same as me and my friend from high school, and not at all like me and my childhood best friend.

because, to me, you shouldn’t have extreme, unhealthy jealousy of the person your friend is dating. you shouldn’t be upset when they start dating someone. you shouldn’t sabotage their relationships because you don’t want to share them. and, obviously, i’m not saying this is healthy in any respect, even if you’re in love with someone, you gotta have boundaries, but. like. this definitely isn't something you do with a normal best friend. i don’t know about you, but i wouldn't propose to someone else and include my best friend in the proposal.

i don’t really know how to explain it, other than, you can’t really understand the difference between a regular best friend, and something that’s just so much more than that, that you end up falling in love with them, unless you experience it yourself. those little touches, glances, half-assed “date me” jokes, mean something. if you know, you know.

i guess what i’m trying to say is that, if psych wanted a show about best friends, then they didn’t achieve that.

because what they gave us was a story about childhood best friends falling in love, and never doing anything about it because they’re too afraid to risk their friendship.

and, maybe, if the show had been made now, they wouldn’t have been as scared to have a main queer couple in a show. maybe they wouldn’t have forced the only woman character with the main guy, just so they didn't have to deal with admitting the fact that shawn and gus belong together.

if they wanted the main love story to be between jules and shawn, then they shouldn’t have written shawn and gus with so much chemistry.

and even if i’m wrong about all this, if my idea of friendship isn’t correct, and shawn and gus are “normal,” then at the very least, it was a missed opportunity. a chance to have a queer interracial couple as the main part of a show. it was something we deserved.

(2) again, you’re correct. people go ape shit for “best friends to lovers” and “partners to lovers” and mutual pining, and all the other tropes shawn and gus embody. but, make a black guy a part of a ship, and all of the sudden, people say “hm.. i just can’t see them as anything more than friends :)”. because people can’t comprehend black people as rounded, fully developed people who deserve love. i can’t find it atm, but there’s this really good post that talks a lot about this (in regards to mcu, but still stands).

(3) again, you took the words right out of my mouth. there’s an interview with james where he explains why he’s only played white characters in the past.

also, here’s some more discourse about it x x x x.

in summation, shawn and gus are in love, psych fandom hates black people, hollywood is racist, and we deserved more from psych :)

[xxisxxisxxis]

Gateway Drug | Part Fifty-Eight

A/N: Just saying the story is picking up pace after this part so get ready.

Words: 3.4K

Warning(s): Explicit language, mentions of drug abuse

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I watch as Tommy and Nikki finish up their MTV interview to promote the new album, Nikki glancing at me every now and then.

"And, before we go, can you repeat those dates again for the release of the video of first single and the debut of the album?"

"Uh, the 'Girls, Girls, Girls' video--we're filming for that around the end of the month, the album's coming out between May fifth and May tenth, probably." Nikki states.

"Alright, you heard it here. May is gonna be the month of Mötley Crüe, obviously when those release details become more specific we will let you all at home know but for now just keep your eyes on May. Nikki, Tommy, it's always a great talk anytime you're in the studio with us, we appreciate you dropping by."

"No problem." Nikki says.

"Anytime, Dude." Tommy adds.

"Good luck with the album, it's gonna be at the top of the charts when it's out, I guarantee."

"Thanks, we really appreciate that." Tommy nods.

"And good luck also with shooting the video, I'm sure plenty of our audience will be looking forward to all the women, and of course we'll be looking forward to all the censoring we're gonna have to edit in." The interviewer's last line is sarcastic as he shakes their hands, and they laugh. "Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe, folks. Don't go anywhere." He finishes as they cut, and Nikki waves me over, sitting his coffee cup down to reach for my water bottle in my hand.

I give it to him and he nearly drinks the entire thing before handing it back to me.

"Thank you, babe." He says to me, letting out a breath as the interviewer bids them one last "goodbye" as they stand up and stretch.

We have to meet Mick, Vince and Doc at their rehearsal space so they can continue their auditions for background singers.

So far, the girls that have tried out are either gorgeous but can't sing, and the ones who can sing like Whitney Houston aren't "hot enough to be on the same stage as Mötley Crüe", even though I've seen them hook up with far worse.

I haven't said a word about 'You're All I Need' because the giant, heavy scratch my key left on the entire passenger side of Nikki's brand new car will say plenty when he finally notices it.

So far he hasn't even driven the thing since he's been back. It's just been in the garage.

"...Okay, thank you for your time." Nikki pipes to the pretty dark-haired girl with almost honey colored eyes.

I think she's on the "hot but talentless" list.

"Dude, we're never gonna find fucking singers." Tommy groans, rubbing his face.

"Viv, can you sing?" Vince whines.

"Like chalk against a chalk board." I reply blankly and he sighs.

"All this has been is just hours and hours of disappointment with a few good blowjobs in between." Vince states.

"Just shut up and be patient." Mick tells them.

Doc sends the next girl in, and I see everyone's faces light up because she's pretty.

Blonde hair, a nice figure, and she dresses the part.

"Hi." She greets us with a smile.

"Hi." Vince grins back.

"I-I'm Donna McDaniel." She says next.

"Okay, here's some lyrics." Nikki hands her a sheet of paper with the main lines of a few of their songs she'd have to sing backup for and she takes it. "Start when you're ready."

The relief on their faces when she starts, makes me want to laugh.

She's attractive and she can sing.

"When you leave, tell Doc that we're interested, and he'll lead you to where you can stay until we finish up." Nikki informs her and she nods, handing the music back to him.

"Thank you." She tells them as she steps out.

"No, thank you." Vince says out of earshot, looking a little more hopeful that they'll find their second singer.

And sure enough, they do.

Within forty more minutes, they're sending everyone else home after another blonde, named "Emi" but she pronounces it "Amy", comes in.

I can see Vince's mind churning up how to get her and Donna to fuck around with him, and Nikki can see it, too.

Once Emi is sent to wait with Donna, Nikki's going into military sergeant mode.

"If we hire them," he starts, pointing at Tommy and Vince, "nobody fucks them. Got it?"

"What? Why?" Vince looks heartbroken.

"You don't shit in your own backyard, man, that's why. They're employees, we're the bosses."

"Yeah, Vinnie, we can't have employees having us wrapped around their finger." Tommy adds with a nod.

"It's the easiest pussy there possibly will ever be, are you serious?" Vince complains.

"If it's so easy, why did they both turn you down already?" I point out and he glares at me.

"Just. Don't. Fuck. Them. Got it?" Nikki sternly asks.

I guess now is a good time to mention that Nikki fucked Donna on the "Girls" tour.

The closer we got to tour, the more adamant Nikki was about cutting his addiction.

But, despite him constantly saying "I'm done with it" and throwing away everything to get high on, I'd always find him crawling around in our yard, naked, with his shot gun...carrying on about midgets and Mexicans.

It wouldn't take the neighbors five minutes to call and let me know he was out there.

Trying to tell them a believable excuse was the hard part.

I let out a soft breath, pulling the covers tighter over me, drifting further and further into sleep as the sound of our ceiling fan and Nikki flickering his lighter from the closed closet every now and again moves through the room, and lulls me to sleep.

I don't know what time it is when I wake up to the sound of Nikki screaming, running out of our room, but I force myself to sit up as quickly as I can and go after him.

I turn on the light in the hallway just in time to see him pressing the "panic" button on our security system contact box, which alerts West Tech, our security company, and they send out one of their people to come check on the situation.

"Nikki, what the hell?!" I ask him and he turns to look at me, pissed off and paranoid.

"I'm tired of these bastards not giving us any peace."

"W-What? Who?"

"You know who!"

"Nikki, what are you talking about?!"

He had smoked his crack and convinced himself our security had bugged the house and were watching him, constantly.

Then, he had decided "no, it's the FBI that's watching me" and gained the courage to set off the alarm to our security that something wasn't right.

And then, by the time West Tech arrived, Nikki was turning on them, again.

"Nikki, let me get to the door." I tell him calmly as the knocking continues.

"Fuck off!" Nikki shouts.

"Mr. Sixx, it's Chris with West Tech--"

"--Get off of my fucking property or I'll fucking shoot you!" He screams as we stand on the other side of the door, his shotgun ready. "You motherfuckers have bugged my house and I'm not fucking taking it anymore!"

"Mr. Sixx--"

They stop trying the second Nikki cracks the door open, and points his gun at all of them.

I hear them scatter to their van, the tires screeching as they quickly make a break for it.

He slams the door shut and locks it, the both of us waiting in silence until we decide they're gone.

"You called our security...then shot at them because they answered the call..." I point out to him, exhausted, and he looks down at me. "I'm sleeping in the guest bedroom." I state.

I lock the door behind me and climb into the bed, hearing Nikki go back to our bedroom, and I envy Karen for staying over at a friend's house because Nikki is starting to really wear me down with his shit.

The next few nights consists of Nikki, Tommy, me and the director working on the music video, Wayne Isham, trying to decide what strip club would be best to film the video for "Girls, Girls, Girls" at.

And me and Nikki arguing over another matter that is too be determined:

"I said I'm not gonna be in the video." I repeat to Nikki, crossing my arms and he raises a brow.

"Babe, it's not that serious." Nikki states.

"I already told you I'm not comfortable with it."

"You wear bikinis all the time, you wear thongs and bras all the time...It's not like I'm gonna have you up there topless or anything." He motions to the stage of the Seventh Veil.

"Nikki, I'm not comfortable with it. Why can't you just let that go?"

"Why can't you be more fun?"

"Nikki, it's fine if she doesn't want to." Tommy lightly tells him with a chuckle.

Nikki doesn't even hear him, too busy focusing on me to see if he cracked me or not.

"Are you fellas good on drinks?" A scantily clad cocktail waitress asks us.

"We're fine, thanks." Wayne tells her with a decent amount of class...but that doesn't sit well with Tommy and Nikki.

"Okay, my name's Tabby if you guys need anything, let me know."

Before she can smile and walk away, Tommy's stopping her.

"Actually, there is something else, Tabby." He states, smiling, and she grins politely.

"What can I get for you?"

He motions for her to come closer and he gets in her ear, with Nikki smirking, knowing exactly what he was proposing to the pretty brunette.

Her face pales, and she glances at me before awkwardly giving Tommy nudge with her elbow as if he were joking.

His face shifts to one of seriousness.

"What, you think I'm joking?" He asks her and she tries to keep from looking too uncomfortable, giving all of us a small smile before saying:

"I've gotta get back to work. Let me know when you guys need a refill, you know it's on the house."

She walks away and Nikki and Tommy chuckle.

That was the first time I had seen a woman get uncomfortable around the guys.

Usually they were all for whatever it is Tommy or Vince suggest doing with them...I later found out Tommy had suggested to Tabby that he and Nikki meet her in the bathroom to tag team her.

That's why she had looked almost sick looking at me, when he was whispering in her ear.

She was probably thinking:

"Bless her naive heart."

Me nor Wayne bother to ask any questions about the incident before we're getting ready to go.

The guys and Wayne talk to the owner about possibly shooting the video and he's all for it, giving them the day after tomorrow to get it done.

I'm too busy thinking about what Nikki said earlier to really listen all that much.

"Why can't you be more fun?" who the hell does he think he is? Oh, right, he's "NiKkI fUcKiNg SiXx."

Once we're stepping outside and telling Wayne "bye", Nikki and Tommy are putting in to going to the Cathouse.

I just want to go home.

"I don't feel like going all the way back home, then coming all the way back." Nikki complains and I furrow my brows a little.

"Nikki, it's..." I grab his wrist to pull his jacket sleeve up and look at his watch. It's nearly 3:00am. "...2:53."

"Then just call a cab." He suggests.

"Are you on smack right now?" I don't sugarcoat the question. "You're being a bigger asshole than you are when you're sober." I add.

"Fuck off!" He snaps at me.

I can tell Tommy wants to say something, but keeps quiet.

"Fine." I say, turning on my heel to the payphone down the way.

I realize I don't have any money to pay for it, but before I can go back and ask Nikki for some change, he and Tommy are off.

So I find my next option.

I walk nearly an hour to the Franklin and get to where Duff's staying, only to find him, and none of the guys are home.

I feel like crying, but decide this isn't the end of the world before I calm down and sit by his door like a lost puppy.

I wake up to the feeling of someone nudging me awake with their shoe, and I'm met with Izzy looking down at me.

"Izzy." I greet him.

"Viv." He replies blankly. "Did you leave or were you thrown out?" He asks me and I roll my eyes before he gives me the slightest hint of a smile before it fades and he's nodding across the hall. "C'mon."

I stand up as he unlocks his apartment and motions me inside.

"You can stay here until Duff gets in." He says.

"Thank you." I reply, sitting on the couch as he hands me a shitty blanket.

"I'm gonna go scrub the lipstick and regret from my balls." He informs me, heading to the bathroom.

"At least you regret it." I say back.

"Nah, I don't regret getting a blowjob from a random girl, I regret not nailing her." He corrects me and I don't even hide my laughter.

Once he's done, he's stepping across the hall to see if Duff's back. Apparently he is because Izzy's coming to get me.

"Fuck off, Sixxette." He takes the blanket from me and I gladly head towards Duff's place.

When I get inside, Duff's passed out on the couch, snoring, and smelling like a bar.

I walk over to him, gently shaking him awake, and he let's out another groan.

"Go away." He waves his hand, his eyes closed, and I raise a brow.

"Duff, it's Viv. C'mon, at least go get in your bed so you won't feel worse tomorrow."

He perks up at the sound of my voice, lifting his head, rubbing his eyes.

"I've...is this a dream? 'Cause usually you're naked and 'Purple Rain' is playing." He slurs and I feel my face heat up in embarrassment.

"No, it isn't a dream...and I didn't need to know that but thank you, I guess." I reply, pulling his boots off.

I help him stand, his tall, lanky figure towering over me.

"You look pretty, were you on a date?" He asks when I get him to sit on his bed, helping him not fall over as he tries to take off his shirt and gets caught in it.

"Er...kinda?" I shrug and he nods. "Were you on a date?" I ask when a condom wrapper falls from his jacket and he scrunches his face up.

"Er...kinda." He replies in the same tone, rubbing his face and I laugh. "Hey, I'm a bachelor now, Viv. I'm gullible. I mean elgib--no, estrang...or amb...what the fuck is that word?"

"Eligible?"

"Yeah, that one." He coughs, taking his belt off as I pick up his scattered dirty clothes and put them against his wall in a pile.

When I turn back around, I get a split-second's worth of an eyeful of him completely naked and snap back around, covering my eyes.

"Ohh...I should've told you I'm freeballing." He says.

"Just..." I turn around, keeping my eyes closed, holding my hand out for his pants so I can put them in the pile with his other clothes.

"Are you reaching for it or something?" He laughs and, again, my face is bright red.

"No, Duff, I'm not reaching for it. I need your pants." I inform him.

He laughs some more, throwing the pants my way and I take them and put them in the pile as he crawls into bed and under the covers.

"By the way, it's bigger than that." He informs me and I furrow my brows and look at him.

"What?"

"It's cold in here so..."

I realize he's referring to his dick and I scream internally.

"...Okay, Duff, too much informa--"

"--I'm packing. That's all I'm saying. I'm like a can of Spam. Lotta meat in--"

"--Shh!" I blush even more, squeezing my eyes shut.

"Oh, oops."

"Jeez. Goodnight, Duff." I'm about to go sleep on the couch.

"Where ya going?" He asks me when I turn the light off.

"Sleeping on the couch."

"You can sleep in here, I can take the couch." He sits up.

"No, no. You're not gonna feel good tomorrow just sleep in here, really, it's fine."

"Well, are you gonna be okay? You don't sleeping by yourself."

I sigh, wishing it were that simple.

"Duff, we can't do that. Nikki wrote an entire song about wanting to kill me, and it was because he thinks something's happening between you and I." I explain.

"Nikki accusing you of cheating?" There's an uncomfortable wait before he says, "that's fucking rich."

"Yeah, well, he doesn't like it so out of respect for him--"

"--I don't fucking respect him." He mumbles.

"Duff, you're drunk. Just sleep it off."

"You're right. I should shut the fuck up let the universe deal him his fucking cards."

I ignore him saying so, turning to leave, but I stop myself.

I'm only here to begin with because Nikki couldn't just take me back home.

I step back to the bed, taking my heels and jacket off.

I take the extra pillow under mine and put it between us as I get into bed.

"Goodnight, Duff." I say quietly, turning my back to him.

"G'night, Viv."

Nikki would have had an absolute fit had he known, then again, I wasn't fucking Duff, I had no intention of doing so, and I told Nikki exactly where I ended up staying the next day.

The sun glitters through the window of Duff's room, hitting my face, and I blink my eyes open, feeling Duff breathing in and out.

Sometime during the night I must've broken past the pillow partition because, although I'm facing away from him, my back is pulled to his side, the side of my face is resting against his bicep, my shoulder tucked under the pit of his arm, and the arm that my face is against, is wrapped around me, his hand resting against my stomach.

I turn to look at him, seeing his peaceful expression as he sleeps contently.

My mind drifts back to that dream I once had about him.

I hate that Nikki thinks anything is going on between Duff and I, but it's my fault.

I lied about seeing him, I lied by omittion at the beginning by not even telling Nikki about him...a part of me wants to think if I were to tell Nikki about me dreaming I had sex with Duff, it'd be a wake up call that our issues are more serious than he believed.

I mean, when you're in a committed relationship and you can picture yourself having sex with someone you're close to, to the point your subconscious creates this entire fantasized scenario, there's something wrong that needs to be talked about.

But another part of me knows he'll flip his shit, call me a "whore" and probably file for divorce.

So, keeping it to myself it is.

My eyes go to my crucifix lying on the bedside table, and I reach out for it.

I taken it off last night when I felt too guilty for sweeping in the same bed as Duff, knowing Nikki wouldn't like it.

I thought if I took it off, I wouldn't feel bad anymore.

And I didn't.

When I was a teenager I would take that necklace off anytime I did something I thought my mother would disapprove of. Whether it was cheating on homework assignments, or, eventually, fucking Nikki Sixx.

I ended up picking that habit back up once Duff and I started getting closer, except instead of avoiding the disapproval of my mother, I was fleeing the disapproval of Nikki.

One thing I didn't take in to consideration, however, taking it off left me at risk for leaving a track.

Just like Mick had put together I had slept with Nikki because my crucifix was on his bedroom floor back in '81, halfway through the "Girls" tour with Guns N' Roses, I accidentally left my track on the bathroom counter in Duff's room, where Nikki went to throw up while he was hanging out with him, Slash, and Steven.

What they should teach in children's church: if you're going to sin, keep any religious jewelry or articles of clothing on.

Whomever the hell you worship already knows you're up to no good.

[findmyrupertfriend]

Strange Angel - “The Fool” 

(This is a recap/review of the first episode of Strange Angel Season 2. There are spoilers, so proceed with caution!)

Season 2 begins with a celebration. Jack and the team are having a grand time, popping champagne. Nothing has changed here. Jack still has a big ego, and Richard is still a wet blanket. During the celebration, General Braxton takes Jack and the team aside, pressing them to develop an operational missile for the war. But here’s the catch - the military requires an increased security clearance. Army intelligence will conduct interviews and “dig into every aspect” of their personal lives. 

Oh hell, and here’s that damn priest using his pulpit to rail against Satan and the evil doers who live across the street and work with you on the assembly line. I guess he’s talking about Susan and Jack, as they prepare themselves for their next ascension in Thelema - basically fucking each other in front of the congregation. However, their loud and enthusiastic sex is interrupted by some other loud banging, coming from the front door of the Agape.

I was all excited, thinking it was Ernest knocking on the door, but NOOOOOOO! It’s the police and a bunch of “upstanding Christians” led by a most UNChristian man - Virgil! The Agape is being evicted by the archdiocese, who recently acquired the property. 

Jack is livid, screaming that Virgil is the one who should be arrested. And Virgil just throws it back in Susan’s face with, “See if anyone believes you.” Virgil needs to meet a most untimely and unpleasant demise so Susan can dance on that sadistic pervert’s grave. 

Next, we see Jack’s mother and another woman by the name of Mrs. Van Buren pull up to Jack and Susan’s huge mansion. Mrs.Van Buren is with the Preservation Society, who are very interested in keeping the homes in the area owned and occupied by people of a certain stature. (I see a problem in the Parsons’ future, and her name is Mrs.Van Buren.) In a private conversation, we learn that Jack’s mother is very interested in grandchildren, but Susan makes it clear she is not interested in having children. She speaks confidently and firmly about what she wants. GO SUSAN! 

Later, Jack has a bad dream - his doors are being pounded with a bright light coming through. Suddenly, the doors burst open, enveloped by a large head with red eyes. Jack awakens and writes in his journal:

“The Beast demands entry.”

The next morning, Jack and Alfred engage in a little fencing match on the luxurious grounds of Jack’s estate, while they discuss the displacement of the congregation. It’s all very decadent, this mansion, the grounds, their activities - so very different from where they were in their modest little house, asking the obscene Virgil for money to pay their mortgage. Oh, how times have changed.

As they continue debating where the Agape should move, (wait for it…) Jack offers up his new home. Susan doesn’t think it’s wise what with Patty living with them, so the conversation is tabled for the moment. However, not before Alfred tells Susan something privately. 

Alfred: “Truthfully, I’m not sure if this house is big enough for the both of us.”

AND NEXT, WE GET ERNEST!!! I must say I was very concerned we wouldn’t see Ernest in the first episode of the second season, so this is a nice surprise for me!

 Ernest disembarks from a large ship. He looks a bit gaunt and wary as hails a ride back to the Agape. He picks up the phone to request entry, but no one is there. He appears to walk away, but turns around and kicks the door open. He takes a bewildered look around. 

Now Richard entertains his mother at his home, and we learn that she disapproves of Marisol, so much so that she refuses to give Richard his grandmother’s heirloom ring for a proposal. 

Richard’s (Racist) Mother: “Your grandmother would roll over in her grave if her heirloom ring were to end up on the finger of some Mexican tart.”

OH BOY! 

Jack dreams of The Beast again and wakes up. He and Susan discuss the Agape moving in, and Susan confesses she is not just concerned about Patty. She’s concerned their marriage vows could be broken with the Agape so close by…but Jack soothes her troubles by going down on her. Their sex now is much more playful. Susan is uninhibited! 

And here’s Ernest again, breaking glass and breaking into a store. Our boy is pilfering the goods, eating and drinking what he wants when the store owner confronts him with a shotgun. This doesn’t phase Ernest. He advances slowly on the store owner, then becomes enraged, grabbing the shotgun and beating the man, before using it to destroy his surroundings. He stops suddenly, sliding his body down to the floor. Ernest’s eyes are stretched wide, looking at the flames leaping from his very own hands. He shakes some reddish-orange powder from a pouch onto his hands and inhales it. The fire is gone, and he passes out while the police siren approaches.

Ernest is later in jail, chanting in his deep, lovely voice and engraving a design of some sort onto the cell wall. Ernest: “Hadit…..Ma’bud…”

The police are a bit flummoxed by Ernest and don’t know what to make of “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” They are even more intrigued when they take a look at Ernest’s police file. It contains a note that says, “If found call V. Byrne.” 

While Ernest is tearing shit up and getting arrested, Susan welcomes Alfred and the Agape into her home. Patty looks amused by the new guests. Alfred, Joan, and Susan lay some ground rules for who gets to move into the house. Normally, Alfred alone makes that call, but Susan wants a say as well…actually, she will be Jack’s proxy. Jack’s so busy with work these days anyway. Well, right now Jack and his team are busy being interrogated by the military for their increased security clearances.

It’s clear the military intends to grill Jack and each member of his team about the activities and beliefs of the others. It’s divide and conquer time. The tenor of the interviews escalates with Jack finally telling his interrogators to “Get fucked!” 

Meanwhile, Alfred, Joan, and Susan interview and vote on a slew of eclectic and interesting congregants to move into their home. The house is full of activity as people move in. Susan finally has a discussion with Patty and sets things straight with her.

Susan: “Until you’re ready, you won’t be able to participate.” 

Of course, Patty chafes at this, but Susan continues with the ground rules: respect everyone’s privacy and stay in your bedroom during any kind of gathering. Patty definitely doesn’t like these rules, and I’m sure you know what that means…

Richard practices his proposal to Marisol on a group of women. They admire the engagement ring, which, of course, is not his grandmother’s ring. He is interrupted by a call from General Braxton. Richard warns Jack they questioned him about Thelema, and he was forced to tell them what he knows. They’re both anxious, but it turns out to be good news. Their security clearances are approved! 

Richard is elated and returns home to propose to Marisol. However, Marisol is obviously not happy. She’s speaking in Spanish to someone on the phone.

Marisol: “You are so stupid, Matias. Why would you do that? You are not a fighter, like Dad. I don’t care. I’m not going to see it. How can you keep asking me?” 

When Marisol sees Richard, she immediately hangs up the phone and won’t say who was on the other end. AWKWARD! 

Next, we see the Agape make themselves at home, holding their first gathering at the Parsons’ residence. The congregants walk in a circle holding hands while Joan chants and moves about in the middle of the group. Patty leaves her bedroom and makes a phone call to…her parents (who sleep old school in separate twin beds). Virgil picks up the phone, frantic when he hears Patty’s voice. She decides to torture him when he asks if she has decided to come home.

Patty: “No, things just got a lot more interesting around here.” 

Patty extends the receiver so Virgil can hear all the chanting. He looks positively horrified.

Patty: “I want you to close your eyes and imagine me with all of them. Does that excite you? The very thought of it?” 

Patty’s Mom is crushed, but Virgil is determined. He makes a phone call. Meanwhile, the gathering continues, and Patty glides back to her room, pleased as punch!

Ernest is still in jail, but receives a visitor - VIRGIL! Virgil explains how he hated Ernest for introducing Susan and Jack to Thelema. In the process, we learn that Ernest nearly flew the plane into Jack, but instead stole it and disappeared. So what does Virgil want? He wants to see if Ernest still hates Jack, in order to leverage that hate against Jack. What would Ernest gain in return? Well, his current troubles could be fixed. 

Ernest listens intently from his cell, inching closer and closer until he grabs Virgil through the bars and spits out:

Ernest: “Jack Parsons means nothing to me!” 

A police officer rushes over to shove a baton into Ernest’s side. He groans and loosens his hold on Virgil. Virgil is most satisfied, now that he has his answer. Ernest has that wild look in his eyes again. Next, he looks almost like he is soothing himself by touching his drawing on the wall. 

With their new security clearances, Jack and the team are privy to test footage of a missile launch stolen from the Nazis. This film could help them develop their own missile for the US. One of Jack’s interrogators later confronts him about Aleister Crowley. Crowley may be a Germany sympathizer or a double agent of some kind. Basically, Jack is expected to inform against Crowley to the military, and he agrees.

The show ends with Jack throwing a large party at his home. He eyes Patty standing upstairs, and she retreats. Jack finds Susan in another room, and he begins to recite something from their “scripture” in a dramatic fashion. He steps onto the table and points at others to continue the passage. He’s interrupted by a loud banging on the front door. 

Jack: “Isn’t everybody here already?” 

He wades through the crowd to the front door, and the banging continues…just like in his dreams. He slowly approaches the door and yanks it open.

Ernest: “Long time no see, Jack.” 

[wrestlingisfake]

All Out preview

Chris Jericho vs. Hangman Page - This match is to determine the first AEW men’s world champion.  Page qualified for this match by winning a 21-man battle royale at Double or Nothing on May 25; Jericho qualified by defeating Kenny Omega later in the same show.  Jericho has held six world heavyweight titles; this would be his first outside of WWE.  Page has never held a singles championship of any kind in a major-league promotion, although he’s been talking about being the first to hold this title since the original AEW press conference in January.

AEW is trying to position this as a true main event, mainly on the strength of the title and Jericho, even though the ladder match and (at one point) Omega-Moxley were clearly bigger draws.  I expect that this match will go on last just to establish the primacy of the world championship.  That���s a lot of pressure on Page, who was barely even a midcarder 18 months ago.  Of all the talent getting pushes to elevate them to the Kenny Omega’s star power, he’s the one with a rocket strapped to his back.  There’s a sense that this match is his Rocky moment, and he’s carried that idea well in interviews.

Jericho has handled the story convincingly, pushing the notion that Page is ready for this level of competition, while still asserting that he’s the favorite going into the match.  Page is great...but he won’t be good enough on this particular night.  Jericho has also stressed that he needs to beat Page, because a loss would set up talk about him passing the torch in the twilight of his career, and he’s not willing to be treated like a used-to-be.  It’s an interesting approach for the 48-year-old Jericho, because the tipping point between “veteran superstar” and “old timer doing jobs on the way to retirement” is precarious.  It makes sense that he would fight tooth-and-nail to keep from going over that tipping point, and direct that fury towards his 28-year-old opponent.

Assuming this really will close the show, it needs to be a great match.  I don’t think it will be, or needs to be, the best match of the night.  But it needs to be great enough that we leave thinking they were right to put it on last, and that Page has what it takes to close the show.  More critically, we need to come away thinking AEW title matches are epic conflicts, so the promotion can credibly use the championships as box office attractions in their own right.

I would be fine with Page as champion, but I think the best move is to have him deliver a star-making performance and then suffer a heartbreaking loss to Jericho.  That’s not to say Page shouldn’t eventually win the title.  But Jericho has both the clout and the heel heat to sustain a very long chase from multiple contenders, which will make the first men’s world title change as important as the first men’s world title match.

Rey Fenix & Pentagon, Jr. vs. Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson - The Lucha Bros, Penta and Fenix, are defending the AAA tag team championship.  The Young Bucks, Matt and Nick, are defending an AEW undefeated streak.  This is a ladder match, so the title belts will be suspended above the ring; to reach them ladders will be provided at ringside for the wrestlers to climb.  The first person to retrieve the belts will win the match, and the championship, for his team.  Since that’s the only way the match can end, there are effectively no count-outs, disqualifications, pinfalls, or submissions.

The feud between the Lucha Bros and the Young Bucks in February, when Penta and Fenix took exception to the Bucks claiming to be the best tag team and attacked them at their own press conference.  On March 16 the Lucha Bros headlined AAA’s Rey de Reyes and won the tag team title, but the Bucks showed up for an impromptu title match and took the belts back to AEW.   The Bucks successfully defended the title in a rematch at AEW’s Double or Nothing on May 25, but the Lucha Bros finally won it back at AAA’s Verano de Escandalo on June 16.  The Bucks teamed with Kenny Omega against the Lucha Bros and Laredo Kid at AEW Fyter Fest on June 29 and AAA Triplemania on August 3.  Penta and Fenix issued the challenge for this match at Fight for the Fallen on July 13.

Fenix suffered some sort of leg injury in the past week.  From what I’ve read, it might not be anything, but he was worried he tore something and had to get it checked out.  The fact I haven’t heard an actual diagnosis suggests that they couldn’t find anything wrong with him.  That doesn’t mean there isn’t anything wrong, but I’m hoping it turned out to be nothing and Fenix just needed to rest it up.  Either way, I expect the possible injury to be worked into the story of the match, and for the Bucks to do a bunch of moves and stuff onto the leg.

I kinda think the Mexican team should walk out with the Mexican championship, but it is the Bucks’ show and they’ve talked up how legendary their ladder matches are.  They can easily win here and then drop the belts at a AAA show, without any apparent impact on the AEW win-loss stats.  I gotta pick the Bucks to win (at least all the way up to the finals of the AEW tag title tournament).

Kenny Omega vs. PAC - Pac, formerly Adrian Neville in WWE, is a substitution for Jon Moxley, who had to pull out of this match last week due to a staph infection.  Ironically, the substitution pays off on plans that were canceled a while back.

Pac’s involvement in AEW was announced at the company’s original press conference, while he held Dragon Gate’s top title (the Open the Dream Gate championship).  He was set to feud with Hangman Page, and the storyline played up the idea that Page wanted to be a champion, implying the match would figure into the AEW world title picture.  Then on May 18 Page beat Pac by disqualification at a British indy show, setting up an angle where Pac refused to face Page at their scheduled AEW match on May 25. 

It turned out Pac would not agree to lose any matches during his title run, and AEW had decided never to do DQ finishes to get out of booking clean finishes.  There was talk that Pac wasn’t even supposed to lose to Page, but he would be feuding with Omega later.  I seem to remember speculating that Omega and Pac were meant to win their matches on May 25 and meet for the AEW title here.  Obviously that didn’t happen.  But Pac has since lost the Dream Gate belt on July 21, which puts him back in play at AEW.  And just in the nick of time, it seems.

I was expecting Moxley to be the slight favorite in the originally scheduled match, but now that Pac is in the mix anything is possible.  The outcome is totally up in the air, and it’s just as well since I expect the focus is on delivering a killer match to make up for failing to deliver the advertised match.  Even though Omega was playing a dick by mocking Mox’s “boo-boo,” Pac is an even bigger dick, so I’m lowkey pulling for Kenny.

Cody Rhodes vs. Shawn Spears - Spears will be seconded by Tully Blanchard, playing on the legendary rivalry between Blanchard and Cody’s father Dusty.  Cody brought an entire entourage to the ring a year ago at All In, but for this match he is contractually limited to a single person in his corner.  We haven’t been outright told this person will be a big surprise who will make a big difference in the match, but it’s been set up to let us think that, so I hope Cody doesn’t just bring out Dustin Rhodes or Dallas Page.

Rhodes and Spears were friends in OVW when they were coming up through WWE developmental.  Cody hit it big in WWE, while Spears (as Tye Dillinger) languished for most of his thirties.  When Spears jumped to AEW, fans generally considered it a positive move for both parties, although Cody made an offhand remark about Spears being a “player-coach” and a “good hand,” curiously implying that he was dismissing his friend as a journeyman.  Spears took offense and blasted Cody with a chair on June 29, leaving Cody a bloody mess.

This is easily the biggest match of Spears’s career, and it’s probably one of his last chances to escape the stigma of being a never-was.  A win would give him momentum as a key figure in the early weeks of AEW’s TV show, as Cody would need to chase him for a few more months to seek vengeance.  A loss would simply validate WWE’s lack of interest in Tye Dillinger--and worse, affirm Cody’s kayfabe dismissiveness on AEW’s own programming.  Cody hasn’t actually been pinned yet in AEW, so I assume they’re saving that for something; I hope this is it.

Evil Uno & Stu Grayson vs. Chuck Taylor & Trent Beretta - The team that wins this match earns a bye in the AEW tag team championship tournament.  So basically you have to win this one match in order to skip one tournament match.  That’s kinda screwy.  Both of these teams won three-ways to qualify for this match.  The Best Friends (Taylor/Beretta) qualified on June 28, while the Dark Order (Uno/Grayson) qualified on July 13.

I think the plan was for the Dark Order to be super-over as a hot team with a spooky gimmick and a cult following on the indies.  It hasn’t been working out.  Honestly, Chuck Taylor manages to come off as creepier than the Dark Order’s gimmick just by being a really weird dude who is oddly devoted to hugs.  Hopefully the popularity of the Best Friends will override disinterest in the Dark Order to heat the match up.  Logically, the bad guys should get the bye, so I think the Dark Order better cheat a lot.

Riho vs. Hikaru Shida - I’ve heard talk that the winner of this match will qualify for the first women’s world championship match on October 2, but I haven’t been able to confirm that.  It wouldn’t make a ton of sense anyway, considering Riho is 2-1 in AEW and coming off of a loss, while Shida is 1-0 but hasn’t appeared in the company since May.  I don’t have stats in front of me, but I would think at least one other woman in the company would have more credibility in this spot.  Then again, Britt Baker was sidelined with a concussion for much of August, so maybe she was originally slated for this spot and they decided they couldn’t wait to see if she’d be cleared.  I guess I’ll go with Riho to win, even though I’m still not sure what’s at stake.

Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky vs. Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus & Marko Stunt - The Daniels team is SCU.  Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus are “A Boy and His Dinosaur,” so I guess with Marko they’re “A Boy and A Boy and His Dinosaur” or something like that.  This could be a good chance to put over the Luchasaurus team, but their gimmick is going to be over either way, so maybe they should keep up momentum on SCU.

Darby Allin vs. Joey Janella vs. Jimmy Havoc - This is a three-way match, so the first man to score a fall on either of his opponents wins.  These guys were on the losing end of a six-man tag match on July 13.  At the time I believe I observed that nobody in that six-man had yet won a match, so now the losers of the Weenie Hut Jr.’s Bowl are having a Super Weenie Hut Jr.’s Bowl.  I guess the guy who scores the winning fall gets to escape into the midcard, while the other two open the next show, and the loser of that match gets to hang out with Brandon Cutler backstage or something.  Of the three, Allin is the biggest project with perhaps the least indy scene cred, so he’ll probably be the Super Weenie Hut Jr.’s champion.

21-Woman Casino Battle Royale - This is set for the free pre-show.  It’s a gauntlet battle royale with timed entrances and over-the-top-rope eliminations, but with the same special rules as the one AEW did on May 25.  Five women start the match, and every three  minutes another group of women enter; the 21st woman enters alone.  Eliminations can occur at any time by exiting the ring over the top rope and placing both feet on the floor before re-entering.  The last woman left after everyone else is eliminated wins the match, and qualifies to wrestle...uh, someone (maybe the winner of Riho vs. Shida?) for the women’s championship on October 2.

As soon as AEW announced the match, they admitted they didn’t have 21 women on the roster, so we can expect a lot of new faces.  Confirmed so far:

Allie

Awesome Kong

Big Swole

Brandi Rhodes

Britt Baker

Ivelisse

Jazz

Nyla Rose

Sadie Gibbs

Shazza McKenzie

Teal Piper

I heard AEW and Impact Wrestling were in talks to put Tenille Dashwood in this match, but even if that’s true they might not get the i’s dotted in time.  Taya Valkyrie was on Being the Elite the other day, but I don’t know if that means anything.  Obviously Chicago is wondering if CM Punk will be at this show, but I never see anyone wondering if his wife, AJ Mendez, might show up.  Apparently something is up with Kylie Rae but nobody’s talking about it, which is troubling.  I don’t even know what continent Bea Priestly will be on during this show, so she may not be available.

It feels like AEW’s biggest plans in this division are for Baker, although that could be just to have her put over someone else when the moment comes.  The safest bet is Britt, though, until someone else emerges from the pack.

Jack Evans & Angelico vs. Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen - Another match for the pre-show.  Kassidy and Quen are Private Party, and everyone likes them but the big issue I’m always hearing is that they’re green and need to be protected by veterans until they’re ready.  Evans and Angelico are veterans, so there you go.  My guess is that AEW won’t book Private Party to actually win a match until they’ve decided the team is truly ready, but since we don’t know when that’ll happen we have something to look forward to every time they wrestle.  For now, I gotta pick Evangelico (is anybody calling them that?) to win.

[sevenpabosandabunchoffans]

A Look Into the Future

Characters: Kim Seokjin, Kim Namjoon, Min Yoongi, Jung Hoseok, Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung, Jeon Jungkook, Original Characters, Park Chanyeol

Words: 3339

Genre: Parents!Namjin, Preschool Director!Jin, Daddy!Yoongi, Orchestra Conductor!Yoongi, Computer Repairman!Hoseok, College Student!Jimin, College Student!Taehyung, College Student!Jungkook

Warnings: lots of fluff

Summary: “What do they end up doing with their life? Like what does Jungkook decide to do for a job?”; “I need to know how Jimin has been in college. What is he studying?”; “Like I LOVE and ADORE your fic so fucking much it would always be a delight to read new things about and especially about Hoseok’s future? Or at least an update of course! And even more what they all look like in the future BUT DAMN I WOULD READ EVERYTHING ANYTIME”; A look into what the boys choose to study in college and what they choose as a career; Time Period - Jungkook’s first day of college; Ages: Jin - 40, Namjoon - 39, Chanyeol - 23, Yoongi - 23, Sophia - 23, Hoseok - 22, Jimin - 20, Taehyung - 20, Jungkook - 18, Gabriella - 18, Sammie - 4, Chloe - 2 months

A/N: A lot of people were really interested in what each of the boys ended up doing with their lives, so here you go! I’ve also updated the masterlist with the name of another upcoming drabble. Hope you enjoy! <3

“And you’re doing okay down there with your brothers? I don’t need to come pack you up and bring you back home?” Namjoon playfully rolled his eyes as he shifted in the bed next to Jin, his phone resting in between the two as they spoke to Jungkook the night before his first day of college.

“Dad, it’s literally only been five days, I am fine.” Jungkook’s voice rang through the speaker, attempting to calm and assure Jin. “I gotta go, Jimin’s boyfriend made dinner for us. It’s Mexican night!”

Both Jin and Namjoon couldn’t help but to smile at how excited their youngest child sounded for food. “Alright, Kookie, I’ll call you tomorrow to see how your first day went.” In response, the couple heard the voices of their three youngest exclaiming into the phone that they missed them. “We miss you too!” Jin and Namjoon said one final goodbye before finally hanging up the phone. Jin sighed deeply, making Namjoon look at him. “What do we do now?” Jin looked at him sadly. “All of our babies are grown up and moved off.”

Namjoon scooted closer to Jin and wrapped his arm over his waist, pressing a kiss to the side of his neck. “You say that like we’ll never see them again.” Jin pouted, making Namjoon continue. “Yoongi lives just a few minutes away, and you see him almost every day when he goes to pick Sammie and Chloe up from the preschool. Hoseok lives just across town, and we both know that the twins and Jungkook plan on coming back as soon as they graduate.” Jin grumbled, obviously not wanting to admit that Namjoon was right. “Come on, we’re supposed to be happy that they all grew up to be good, responsible adults.”

Jin sighed dramatically. “I guess you’re right.” He turned to look at his husband of 15 years. “I hate when you do that.”

“Do what?” Namjoon asked, trailing a few soft kisses along Jin’s jaw.

“Get all logical with me.” Jin pouted more as Namjoon sat up.

“Looks like you need a distraction~” Before Jin could ask Namjoon what he meant, Namjoon was already maneuvering himself to fit between Jin’s legs, making Jin start to giggle as he spread his legs to accommodate him. “We still haven’t celebrated your promotion.” At the end of July, the director of the preschool notified the staff of her retirement, spending the first couple of weeks deciding who would be her successor. She eventually picked Jin, who everyone knew was the obvious choice as he had been working there the longest, and the next day would be his first official day as the director.

“That’s right, we haven’t. Someone’s slacking~” Jin teased, playfully smacking Namjoon’s shoulder before gladly welcoming his lips on his own.

“Morning, Daddy!” Sammie greeted as Yoongi entered the kitchen, still tucking his shirt in as he was running slightly behind that morning.

“Good morning, princess~” Yoongi stopped to kiss the top of his four-year old’s head before walking over to the counter to fix his own breakfast plate. Sophia was also at the counter, making a bottle for the newest addition to their family, two-month-old Chloe. “Thank you for making breakfast.” Yoongi lightly kissed his wife before tickling the bottom of Chloe’s foot. “And there’s the little noisemaker~” Chloe quirked her lips up in a toothless grin as Yoongi spoke to her. “Someone just didn’t want to sleep last night, did they?”

“I think she knows what’s coming for her today.” Sophia said as Yoongi took his plate and joined Sammie at the table to eat. Sophia was referring to how she would be taking Chloe to get her two-month shots that morning, something even she wasn’t looking forward to.

“Chloe’s a strong girl, I think she’ll be fine.” Yoongi assured Sophia as she sat down at the table with them to feed Chloe. As Yoongi finished his eggs, he noticed that Sammie was also done. “Come on, Sammie, it’s time to go brush our teeth~”

The preschool started to pout. “But it’s Bubble Guppies time!” Since they ate breakfast at home, Sophia went to the center a little later in the day with the two girls, allowing Sammie to watch an episode of her favorite show before she finished getting ready each morning.

“I know, baby, but Daddy’s gonna take you to school today, remember?” Sophia was quick to explain before Sammie could get too upset. “I gotta take baby sister to the doctor.”

“Oh yeah~” Sammie said as if she had just remembered then climbed out of her chair and followed Yoongi to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

After getting both their brushes prepared, Yoongi looked down at his daughter. “You ready?” Sammie nodded definitively and put her pink Little Mermaid toothbrush in her mouth, observing her dad closely to mimic his movements as he brushed his teeth. Each time he spit into the sink, he would then step back and pick Sammie up, so she could spit too, setting her back on the floor to continue brushing. When they were finally done, he crouched down in front of her. “Let me see those teeth~” Sammie smiled widely for her dad, who immediately began to praise. “Wow, those are the cleanest teeth I’ve seen! Any cleaner and you would blind me!” Sammie giggled as Yoongi stood back up. “Okay, go get your backpack now~” The preschooler ran off to her room while Yoongi walked into Chloe’s nursery where Sophia was changing the infant. “Please wish me luck~” Yoongi whined, wrapping his arms around Sophia from behind and burying his face in her shoulder.

“Why?” Sophia asked, turning around to face him after fastening the clean diaper and making sure Chloe wasn’t in danger of rolling over and off of the changing table.

“The beginners are playing their instruments for the first time today.” Unlike his younger brothers, who were still in college, the school year for Yoongi began the previous week (earlier if one counted his teacher work days), and after spending one week teaching the sixth graders the proper way to hold their bows and the basics of their instruments, it was time to actually begin teaching them to play.

“Oh, you poor baby~” Sophia indulged him by wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him into a hug.

“I’m serious! If I had to pick something I hated about my job, besides the lack of budget the school district gives to the orchestra program, it would be this day.”

“I know, I’m being serious, too~” Sophia failed at holding in her laughter, so she chose to lean up and press their lips together to muffle it.

“I’m ready to go!” The couple pulled away as their oldest daughter ran into the room with her backpack and shoes already on, and on the right feet.

“Look at you, putting your shoes on all by yourself!” Sophia praised as she picked Chloe up from the changing table. “Come give me and Chloe bye hugs~” The four-year-old listened and ran to her mother, accepting a kiss from her then leaning in and giving Chloe a kiss herself.

“When will you be at school?” Sammie had gotten extremely used to both her mother and grandfather teaching her class, and her four-year-old mind was worried about what would happen without her mom there.

“Don’t worry, Sammie, I’ll be there just in time to read our story.” Sophia assured her before giving her one more kiss. “Love you~” She told the girl before standing up and giving her husband a bye kiss. “And I love you~”

Yoongi responded with another kiss before taking Sammie’s hand and leading her out of the house, both of them yelling goodbyes over their shoulder.

Hoseok exited his apartment with his bag and, after checking the email on his phone one more time just to confirm he had the right address in mind, walked over to the staircase to go one floor up, still shocked that the client lived in his complex.

After graduating with his Associate Degree in Computer Information Systems Technology, Hoseok started freelancing his repair services to have some form of income as he applied for IT jobs at various places. Now two years later, he’d decided to stick with the self-employment route as he realized people were willing to pay him more than what he had been offered from the few companies that had called him in for an interview.

He finally arrived at the correct apartment and knocked on the door. The door opened and Hoseok immediately found himself feeling flustered as he forced himself to keep his gaze from falling on the young woman’s bare legs. “A-are you, uh, Gabriella?”

“Yes, you must be Hoseok, hi, come on in!” Gabriella rushed out, stepping to the side to let Hoseok into her apartment. “My laptop is right in here on the coffee table.” She directed him to sit on her couch and showed him her laptop. “It’s just been glitching and crashing on me every few minutes, which is extremely inconvenient for me because I just started classes at UACCM last week, and the second week of school is not a good time for my computer to stop working, and I was just gonna take it to best buy, but then one of my friend’s brothers, apparently he was a classmate of yours or something, recommended you to me, so I thought why not, and now I’m rambling.” Hoseok held back a chuckle at the young woman as she looked down at her legs. “And I just realized I’m not wearing any pants, excuse me for just a second.” She ran off to what Hoseok assumed to be her bedroom, and he finally did let out a small laugh, simultaneously releasing the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

While Gabriella was gone, Hoseok began playing around with the laptop in front of him, trying to find the source of the issue. When Gabriella returned, now sporting a pair of jeans, Hoseok immediately stood up and looked at her. “Just from initial observations it seems like it might take me a few days to find the issue and resolve it.” Gabriella’s face fell, and Hoseok rushed to apologize to her. “I’ll try to get it done as fast as I can, but I do have other clients, so it might take a while. If you’re okay with me taking it with me…”

“Oh, yeah, go ahead~” Gabriella nodded and gathered the power cord for him as he gently placed her laptop in his bag. “I’ll just use the computer lab on campus and try to stay ahead of my work until it’s done.”

“There is good news to this.” Hoseok offered. “I live just one floor down, so I can bring it right up as soon as it’s fixed.”

“Oh, I might not be home, though~” Gabriella said. “I also work in Morrilton when I’m not in class, so I don’t get home until late. But I can give you my number and you can call me when it’s fixed, then I can pick it up from your place when I get home.”

Hoseok nodded in agreement. “That sounds good.” He pulled a notepad and pen out of his bag and handed it to Gabriella, so she could write her number down. “I will, hopefully, talk to you in a few days.”

“Yeah, thanks, Hoseok.” Gabriella walked him to the front door and waved before closing it behind him.

Jungkook sat at the bar counter of his new apartment that he shared with his older brothers, sleepily shoveling spoonfuls of oatmeal into his mouth. He looked up when he heard someone enter the room, seeing Taehyung shuffling his way into the kitchen. “Why does my first class have to be at 8:30?” Jungkook complained, dropping his spoon back into his bowl so he could slump over the counter.

Taehyung shrugged. “You’re the one who scheduled it~” He responded as he pulled a box of mini blueberry muffins out of the cabinet.

Jungkook shook his head. “I didn’t even have the choice! It was the only time available and it’s a required class.” He picked his spoon back up but froze when he realized something. “Wait, I thought your first class wasn’t until later.”

“It’s not.” Taehyung answered, sticking one of the muffins in his mouth whole. “But I’m expecting a call and I wanted to make sure I was awake for it.” He spoke around his mouthful of food.

A few minutes later, Jimin came out with his backpack and dance bag. “See you later, guys~”

“Woah, woah, woah~” Jungkook called out, making Jimin stop. “I know you’re not planning on walking out of here without breakfast.”

Jimin turned back around to face his brothers. “Guys, don’t worry, I’m meeting Chanyeol at Louie’s for a breakfast date before my ballet class. I’m not skipping breakfast, trust me.”

“We do,” Taehyung assured him. “We were just making sure.” He picked up another muffin but dropped it as his phone started to ring. “Hey, how’d your appointment go?” He asked the second he answered it, running back to his bedroom for privacy.

“Hey, when are you having lunch?” Jimin asked Jungkook.

“I have, like, an hour break between my first two classes at around 11:30~” Jungkook answered before taking another bite of his oatmeal.

“You’ll probably get out early since it’s the first day. I’m done for the day at 10:30, and I know Taehyung gets out around 11:30 too, so just text us when you get done, then we can meet up for lunch. I’m thinking Cane’s. That sound good to you?”

“Oh, definitely~” Jungkook responded enthusiastically, already getting excited for what he had decided was his new favorite restaurant after his brothers took him to eat there for dinner the night he moved in.

“Great, see you later. Have a good first day~” Jimin walked over and ruffled the 18-year old’s hair before finally leaving the apartment.

Not much later, Jimin was sitting across from his boyfriend of nearly two years at Louie’s café as they had their orders taken. “I would like a Spanish omelet, please.”

As Jimin handed his menu to the waiter, Chanyeol stated his own order. “And I would like the number three combo with pancakes, fried eggs, and bacon.” The couple thanked the waiter as he walked off. “So, you excited for this semester?” Chanyeol took Jimin’s small hand in his own, rubbing his thumb over the smooth skin.

“Well, I finally get to start my core social work classes, so that’ll be a nice breather from all the boring gen ed classes.” Jimin answered honestly, letting himself be lulled to total relaxation from the way Chanyeol had now moved on to massaging his fingers.

“I remember a certain someone constantly gushing over their sociology classes last semester.” Chanyeol teased his younger boyfriend.

“Yeah, those were the non-boring gen ed classes.” Jimin retorted. “What about you, Mr. Almost-Done-With-My-Masters?”

Chanyeol chuckled at Jimin’s attempt at teasing him before answering, now abandoning playing with Jimin’s fingers in favor of intertwining their fingers together. “Well, I have a meeting with my professor today to review my thesis project so far, and then I was hoping to treat my adorable boyfriend to lunch and maybe a cuddle session.”

Jimin sighed. “I told Jungkook that we’d have lunch together today.” Chanyeol pouted, looking absolutely adorable in Jimin’s eyes. “Buuuuut…” Chanyeol looked hopeful at this, “…after lunch, Jungkook will be in class until 6:30, and then Taehyung has class from 2:30-4:00, so if you possibly wanted to come over for some cuddling, or even a little more…” Jimin trailed off, just looking at his boyfriend.

A smile spread across Chanyeol’s face as he leaned in to lightly press his lips to Jimin’s nose, making the 20-year-old scrunch it up. “That sounds great.”

After the couple finished their breakfast, they exited the restaurant and began the trek back to campus. Thankfully the Music & Dramatic Arts Building wasn’t too far, so Jimin didn’t worry too much about being late for his ballet class. They stopped outside the building and Jimin didn’t hesitate to wrap his arms around his boyfriend’s waist. “Thank you for buying me breakfast~” He went up on his tiptoes, but Chanyeol still had to bend down for their lips to meet.

“You are most certainly welcome~” Chanyeol said as soon as they parted. “I’ll come by your apartment a little before 2:00, okay?”

Jimin nodded and leaned up for another kiss. “Bye~” He whispered against Chanyeol’s lips before molding them together again, teasing his boyfriend by allowing him to swipe his tongue against his bottom lip before pulling away fully. “Gotta go!” He said cheerfully before bounding away, knowing that Chanyeol was probably already planning on how to get back at him later.

“Hey, Taehyung~” Taehyung looked up from where he was scrolling through Twitter on his laptop and saw Alyssa, someone he remembered from freshman year. “We’re having a party this weekend, you should totally come.”

Taehyung politely smiled at her as memories from the last time the two of them were at a party together raced through his mind. “Sorry, but I can’t~”

“You haven’t been to a party since freshman year!” Alyssa exclaimed.

“Yeah, I’m kind of trying to focus on my grades right now.” Taehyung responded. “Wanna make sure I get into OT school.”

“I can respect that.” Alyssa said. “But if you ever wanna get together in some other way-“

“I’m taken now.” Taehyung cut her off.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize.” She looked guilty over hitting on him.

Taehyung gave her a friendly smile. “It’s okay.”

Alyssa smiled back as she stood up to go back to where she was originally sitting before seeing Taehyung in the same class as her. “Well, I’ll see you around.”

An hour later, Taehyung was sitting at a booth at Raising Cane’s with his brothers, each of them with a chicken strip basket in front of them. “So, Jungkook, how’s your day been so far?”

“Well, I’ve only had one class, but it’s been great so far!” Jungkook picked up a French fry and dipped it in the special Cane’s sauce. “My professor right off the bat asked us to draw something simple just so he could get a feel for everyone’s style, and he complimented me on mine and even asked if he could use it as an example for the entire class. I’m hoping my other art classes today will be just as great.”

“I’m sure they will, Kookie. You’re an amazing artist!” Jimin praised his younger brother as he grabbed the ketchup bottle.

“I’m also really excited for my art history class tomorrow.” Jungkook continued on.

When there was a lull in the conversation, Jimin turned to Taehyung. “By the way, Tae, you might wanna call when you get out of class later, just to make sure it’s safe to come home.”

Taehyung groaned. “Dude, remember our rule about no sexiling!”

“I’m not sexiling you!” Jimin defended himself. “Chanyeol’s not coming over until around the time you leave for class, so you won’t even be home!”

“Just use protection,” was Jungkook’s only comment on the matter as the two 20-year olds began to bicker about the issue at hand. As they continued on, Jungkook glanced at his watch. “I gotta go to class now, see you guys later~”

The twins paused in their quarrel long enough to tell their younger brother goodbye before returning to the matter at hand. “The whole point of you calling is so that we’ll know to wrap it up before you get home!”

Taehyung huffed. “I guess I should be thankful that you warned me instead of letting me walk into it like last time.”

“You said you would be at the library until after midnight!” And thus, started a whole new argument between the two.

Request Drabbles!

[leaveharmony]

Hogwarts Foeyay: A History

Because the box marked coping mechanisms / self care is empty save for a napkin with “hyperfixate on nonsense” scribbled on it, ‘cos @breadclubrising​ suggested once I redo it in post form, and because I've been meaning to anyway. 

Why do I ship Shinsuke & Tana*, by T’Sora, age 5.

*(OBVIOUSLY I mean in kayfabe**)

**(although tbh the statements “No of course they’ve never had that kind of relationship in actuality” and “Yeah they were at it like rabbits” would cause in me the exact same lack of surprise.  It’s my only wresting ship tbh but this canoe paddles itself)

The first time I saw Tana, I thought he was a heel.  A perfect storm of complete ignorance of New Japan and blind love for Shinsuke resulted in my assumption that he was a beloved babyface, and therefore anyone fighting him was by default a heel; this ignoring the fact that I'd watched him use blatant heel tactics against Ibushi mere minutes before, and swat Red Shoes aside like an irritating mosquito, besides.  I forget what specific match it was but it was definitely a multi-man tag.  I know for certain Yujiro was in it, because the Tanahashi / Takahashi problem had me distracted for most of the match, with a further YOSHI-HASHI complication thrown in for good measure.  YOSHI's was the first name I learned, which may go some way towards explaining my unwavering love for Tacos.  If I recall rightly, I solved it with TaNahashi, Not in CHAOS, TaKahashi, CHAOS but spelled wrong. (or right, depending on how much fearless leader'd had to drink that day)

But I digress. Tana had the Intercontinental title, which was clearly Shinsuke's belt, and my first read on the situation was that he must be a jerk, and they probably hated each other.  We all of us sometimes make mistakes.  -_-

I think it was the pre-WK8 VTR that caused me to reassess this conclusion...I used to watch anything I could find in a frantic attempt to play catch-up and learn everything there was to learn. 

(it ends with this, because blowing kisses at your rival is definitely a thing people do)

It of course included some scenes from what I affectionately call the ‘Wrestleprom invitation,’ which reads less like a mocking challenge to a mortal enemy and more like a flirtatious dare which would have started with “What are you wearing?” if it was a late-night phonecall.

Key moments: When Shinsuke, all fired up after his title defense & having laid out an invitation to the ring sees that Tana is on his way down the aisle, lets loose a radiant smile that could have powered a continent for about half a year:

When Tana comes out with his lips puckered in what he probably meant to be a skeptical or cautious way but just hilariously makes it look like he thinks a dip-kiss is a forgone conclusion to this encounter

This fucking exchange of expressions.  This is like...a time-stop, right here.  Everybody comes in footloose and fancy free until they stop avoiding eye contact; when they stop looking at beruto and start looking at each-other, this happens.  Shinsuke's tone goes from cocky to soft, his face goes from arrogant to almost tender.   Tana's apparently so thrown by the sudden shift in mood  that he, the Ace of New Japan, can't handle the intensity of the look on Shinsuke's face and actually drops his gaze for a few seconds.  Not, looking off to the side or looking at the crowd, the camera, the title...not an act of defiance or gesture of indifference, but something like a flicker of momentary vulnerability or uncertainty.  Like it's painful or overwhelming for some reason and he involuntarily shows this, which is just...for someone as poised as Tana who probably started perfecting his facial expressions in the mirror at age 13, is almost startling.

When Tana recovers himself after being momentarily wrong-footed, and makes Shinsuke PAY for that half-second loss of control with a torturous wait for him to actually speak.  Shinsuke, ham that he is, runs through about 18 different facial variations of "Oh please oh please oh please please please" even while he looks like he's trying not to laugh at the way Tana's toying with him.

Tana's opening gambit and Shinsuke's immediate reaction to it: “It's been a while.”

After that everything reverts back to normal, with Tana being a dork and Shinsuke being a dork right back, and it's a date.

In the same VTR, iirc the first thing Tana says is to call them “Rivals,” but something about the way he smiles when he says it made me laugh and think “Ohhhhhh - it's rivals with quotation marks.”

Of course it didn't take me long to run into what has become my favourite match: the G1 Climax 25 final.

Which had

Its share

Of moments

That may

Have contributed

To shipping them.

I know I talk about this every single time but the bit where Shinsuke raises Tana's hand only after Tana's taken two steps forward because he thinks they're going to hug and the subsequent grumpy look on his face when Shinsuke swerves him is forever hilarious to me.

Of course as I became more familiar with everything I learned they were once a tag team, and lost my entire shit about it.  I've only found a few matches from that time (the most fun of which was the match from Mexico where they won one fall by pinning the guy together).

But there are a fair number of absolutely fucking quality pictures of their Mexican excursion which in the right viewing order absolutely makes them look like newlyweds on honeymoon.

Probably some of the dynamic stems from them + Shibata having been slated as the new “Three Musketeers,” only for Shibata to fuck off & leave them as two people shouldering a burden rather than three, in the middle of a difficult time and with the future anything but assured.  

There's literally a whole book about them - which I can't yet actually read without some considerable effort over like, at least a year (it's in the to-read pile but so are four of Shinsuke's books and one of Tana's).  Probably for reasons of Vince Owns His Soul Now Shinsuke didn't do a lot of hyping for it so it fell to Tana, who, roughly translated, offered this gem about their relationship: “If I'm the sun, Shinsuke is like the moon.  Even if one of us is gone, there's no New Japan without Tanahashi and Nakamura.”

Verbally, most things come from Tana.  Calling Shinsuke ‘a good-looking guy,’ talking about being ‘lonely’ without Shinsuke & hoping they'll ‘meet again someday,’ because ‘surely, this can’t be it,’ referring to the Intercontinental title as his ‘lifeline’ (and chasing it so hard, and shouting-out with Shinsuke's signature gesture when he won it, and refusing to tap out & lose it even up to the point of injury & referee stoppage).  When talking about them, Tana almost always uses ‘ 二人’ which means two people but also means ‘couple’ - one of the few words I had actually retained from a first aborted attempt to learn the language, because of a line in a Gackt song which was....not platonic in tone or meaning.  Or I’d think I was tinhatting.  Tana definitely sees them as a matched & indivisible pair, though, regardless of context.

Shinsuke's cues are both more and less subtle, as he rarely says anything on the subject but often does things like this

And this

And this

And this

And this

And this

And this

And this

And this

And this

When interacting with or talking about his....rival.

“Rival”

This is how he chose to finally look at him during the press conference for G1 24, little sigh and all.

I suppose the really painful smoking gun is the part I hate most.  If Tana's grumpy face after G1 25 suggested “What's a guy gotta do to get a Moment around here?!” than the answer was, “Lose his other half forever, maybe.” Because the last match is like being stabbed 47 times in the heart with a dull spork and then rolling around in hot sauce & vinegar.  For lots of reasons!  But extra-specially because of all their interactions. The crowd, first off, literally boos Goto for inserting himself into the Moment & delaying their face-off.   Which is....charged, when it comes.

The best and worst thing Kenny has ever done was walk out into this sea of emotion and try to make it about him.  I remember actually yelling curses at the screen as soon as I heard his voice (while still sobbing uncontrollably), because how fucking dare he, who the fuck does he think he is to imagine himself important or even significant in this moment if all moments? But it wasn't...about...Kenny.  It was a quiet little stroke of genius, Kenny could have been anything or anyone, he was a non-entity and a means to an end; he was there for no other reason than to be an irritating twit yammering nonsense at the most important person in the building.   Because as soon as he started, this happened.

A man being Once Again ditched by someone who ought to be holding up a share of the burden reacted not with hostility towards his departing rival, but in his defense. Shinsuke, as soon as Tana literally placed himself between them gets this brilliant “Well, holy shit.” look on his face. 

And Tana, reading Kenny the riot act, finally gets his Moment.

Which I think I may have found pictures of from every angle in Korakuen by now

(I'd just like to shout-out in appreciation of the frozen rictus on Kenny's face, which is very articulately saying “This is the gayest shit I've ever seen, and I literally told a member of the press I was gonna marry my tag partner”)

When the dust settles, we're again left with futari, two people, a couple.  Asked about the scene later, Tana would say that it was the last moments for CHAOS together, too, and he didn't want to distract from that so he pulled away quickly.   “But....I couldn't help but look back one more time at Nakamura.” “"He didn't seem to notice,” the interviewer pointed out. “"No, he didn't notice,” laughed Tana.  “I guess it's unrequited love forever.”

[tlatollotl]

Supporters of President Donald Trump singled out dark-skinned lawmakers, legislative staffers and children at the Capitol on Jan. 25 as they protested congressional efforts to pass immigration reform, according to staffers of the Arizona Legislature and two Democratic legislators.

Waving large flags in support of Trump while standing between the House and Senate buildings, the protesters, who were also armed, asked just about anyone who crossed their path if they “support illegal immigration.”

They called some “illegal” and told them to “go home,” barbs they reserved for those with brown skin, according to the staffers.

Two women who said they were part of the protest against illegal immigration at the Capitol vehemently denied accusations that they singled out dark-skinned people and accused them of being illegal immigrants.

But Lisette Flores and Selianna Robles, policy advisors for Senate Democrats, said they were yelled at when they walked from the Senate to the House lawn, directly passing the Trump supporters, to get lunch at a farmers market. Three white coworkers offered to escort Flores, Robles, and Democratic staffer Dora Ramirez back to their offices, Robles said.

“We’re walking back, and they start yelling again, ‘Get out of the country.’ At that point, they pointed to Lisette, called her an illegal, and said, ‘Get out, go back home!’” Robles said. “But they pointed at Jane (Ahern), who works for the House, and they said, ‘No, you can stay.’”

Ahern, a policy advisor for House Democrats, is white.

“I was born in California,” said Flores. “I’m obviously of Mexican descent, so I think in that group I’m the darkest one. Selianna and Dora, they’re light-skinned Latinos. So, I think probably that’s why they pointed at me out of a group of six.”

“They assume things about you. There’s not much we can do,” said Robles, an Arizona native raised in the town of San Luis. “We work for the state, we’re public servants, and we’re just here to do our job.”

Lawmakers said they were also questioned based on their appearance. Rep. Eric Descheenie, D-Chinle, said he was confronted by Trump supporters while helping defend a young student that he said was being harassed.

They asked Descheenie, a Navajo lawmaker, if he was in the United States illegally.

“I’m indigenous to these lands,” Descheenie said. “My ancestors fought and died on these lands. I just told them, ‘Don’t ask me that question.’”

Rep. Eric Descheenie (D-Chinle)

Rep. César Chávez, D-Phoenix, said he was approached by a female Trump supporter asking who he was and who he represents. For “the fun of it,” Chávez said, he replied, “I’m an undocumented legislator.” Chávez was brought from Mexico to the United States as a child.

He said he wanted the protesters “to understand that in this country, through a process, you, too, can be a part of a nation that provides opportunity to everybody. I wanted them to understand that an individual who came to this country undocumented at the age of three is now a member of the Arizona State Legislature.”

Chávez said the woman reacted by calling him “illegal.”

“She said something like, “You’re illegal. Once illegal, always illegal,” he said. “I took no offense, no attention. It was just simply one of those things where you’re going to have a stance and I’m going to have a stance and we’re never going to agree on things.”

Jennifer Caminiti-Harrison and Lesa Antone said they were at the Capitol to protest activists with Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA). The women told the Arizona Capitol Times in a phone interview tonight they’re against illegal immigration and don’t believe the LUCHA activists, who they alleged are undocumented, have the right to lobby state legislators.

In denying the allegations, Caminiti-Harrison and Antone countered that their group was harassed by the LUCHA activists. In a live stream of the protest uploaded to Facebook by Antone, a LUCHA member could be heard telling a black Trump supporter, “You’re gonna be the first to get lynched.”

“First, we were a group of several white, black and Latina Americans. To make assumptions that we were only calling out Hispanic representatives or ‘non-white’ legislatures (sic) is a disgusting, blatant lie,” Caminiti-Harrison also wrote in an email. “We also had legal immigrants visiting the Capitol who stood in solidarity with us along with Republican lawmakers who thanked us for being there and stopped for a photo.”

In a video uploaded to YouTube, Republican Reps. Jay Lawrenece, of Scottsdale, and Bob Thorpe, of Flagstaff, are seen speaking and taking photos with protesters.

“We asked every rep, white or otherwise, if they supported illegal immigration and why they put the needs of illegal immigrants over the needs of American citizens,” Caminiti-Harrison wrote. “Never at any time did we ask the representatives if they were illegals. Never.”

A 14-minute video of yesterday’s protest uploaded on YouTube shows several interactions initiated by the anti-illegal immigration protesters. Near the beginning of the video, one protester could be heard assuming that members of a group are staying illegally in the U.S.

“No, they’re not legal. They’re illegal,” a woman can be heard saying.

“Yeah, we know they’re illegal. Get legal or get out of America … They’re illegal, see that?” another woman shouted at the group.

In another part of the video, a woman can be heard confronting a group of men.

“Why do you want to stay in our country if you hate it so much?” she said.

One member of the group, a man, came back to tell the protester that she and others “need to get educated.”

They exchanged a few more words, and she yelled at him, “You are an illegal alien.”

When the man denied the accusation, the woman responded: “Those guys are illegal … They do not have any rights here. It is not their time. This is our time. Our nation. Our laws. Our streets.”

The video also shows what appeared to be a LUCHA activist shielding a young man who was being questioned by the protester about his stance on immigration.

“So, you also believe in ‘No border, No wall, No USA at all? Do you also believe in that? … Because if you do, why are you here? Because if you don’t support America, why are you here?” the protester said.

“He’s not talking to you,” the LUCHA activist tells the protester and unleashes a profane word. Another protester then replies, “Get legal or get out. Go in there and fill your [expletive] paper out and get legal.”

Trump supporters also disrupted a press conference hosted Thursday morning by LUCHA activists who came to the Capitol to raise awareness about legislation they’re backing.

As LUCHA Executive Director Tomas Robles spoke to a crowd of supporters in Spanish, Trump supporters could be heard shouting over him, “Go home.”

“I served five years in the Marine Corps. I fought for people’s freedoms to be able to come into this space and to be able to voice their concerns to the representatives that represent their cities and towns,” he said. “The fact that I got called an illegal, the fact that all our constituents were called so many names … every single person has a right to be here.”

Mary Lou Sandoval, a Maryvale resident who attended the LUCHA event, later saw the protesters screaming at children who were touring the Capitol on field trips.

“[It] was a little ridiculous. You can protest peacefully as well, and you can make your own presence [felt] peacefully,” she said.

Senate Minority Leader Katie Hobbs (D-Phoenix)

Senate Minority Leader Katie Hobbs, D-Phoenix, wrote a letter to Senate President Steve Yarbrough, R-Chandler, and Senate security officials outlining what she called the harassment of staffers who the protesters “perceived not to be white,” and complained about a lack of response from law enforcement at the scene observing the protest.

“I can tell you that the Democratic staff who were yelled at by the protesters and called illegals definitely felt harassed and were not satisfied with the response,” Hobbs wrote. “They did not feel safe.”

Hobbs said she was told by an officer on Thursday that law enforcement was instructed to stand down while the Trump supporters exercised their First Amendment rights.

Their protest went “far beyond” the First Amendment, Hobbs wrote.

“This is a public place. When armed protesters aggressively go after members, staff and visitors, there needs to be a response that ensures the safety of everyone involved,” Hobbs wrote. “I have seen instances here at the capital (sic) when peaceful protesters with a different agenda were surrounded by many more law enforcement officers with a much more aggressive response.”

“This is unacceptable,” she added.

Officials with the Department of Public Safety did not return a request for comment.

[were-cheetah-stiles]

The Summer Fling (Chapter 9) - Dylan O’Brien

Author: @were-cheetah-stiles

Title: “Salsa and Beer”

Relationship: Dylan O’Brien x Reader/OFC

Warnings: Smut........... I know. I don’t know where it came from.

Author’s Note: A few things, I really never thought I would write smut for this series. I am just as surprised as all of you. I tried to keep it less explicit than usual. That was my compromise with myself. What else... oh um, if you ever go to Burbank, go to Salsa And Beer. it is legitimately the best Mexican food i have ever fucking had. those flautahs... i have dreams about them. also, yea, uh, enjoy. there’s only about ten chapters left so relish it while you can.

Summary: Dylan talks with Posey about what happened the night after his first appearance at ComicCon, before returning to New York and having a night that he never expected and will never forget.

Chapter Eight - Chapter Nine - Chapter Ten

Dylan handed his menu back to the waitress and smiled as she walked away. He then turned his attention back to his best friend sitting across from him, examining the lunch hour crowd around them in the busy Burbank restaurant. "Thanks for coming down here for lunch, man."

Tyler turned his head as he heard Dylan's voice and he smiled. "No problem, bro. I was just chilling today since all the Comic Con craziness from last week is finally over. How long do you have until you have to be back at the hotel for the rest of the American Assassin press?" He asked, leaning back as the waitress brought over their beers.

"They gave us like two hours, or something. We've got time." Dylan clarified while smushing his slice of lime down the neck of his Corona.

"So what happened on Thursday night?" Tyler asked, getting straight to the point of why Dylan frantically texted him the other night asking if he could have lunch with him that Monday.

"Britt came to my hotel room."

"No fucking way, bro... What the fuck did she want?" Tyler's patience for his best friend's ex ceased to exist months before, specifically in the moment that Dylan told him she cheated.

Dylan pushed his elbows against the tabletop and ran his fingers hard against his scalp. "She came in and it was just weird, man. Like, I know what she did and I know she's with KJ but, like, I'm not completely over her and being back around her, I don't know..." Dylan trailed off when he heard Tyler groan.

"Dude, seriously? She fucking cheated on you, and last week, you were going on and on about Y/n and you were hella stoked and you seemed happy and like you liked her... Why are you even giving Britt the time of day still?" Tyler asked, leaning across the table to scold his best friend.

Dylan sighed and rubbed at the stubble on his chin. "I know all of this. I know, Ty, and I do really, really like Y/n, but like a part of me missed Britt and I was about to start this press tour and I knew I would have to talk about what happened last year with the accident and it was weirdly comforting being able to talk to her about how nervous I was for today because she was there for all of it last year." Dylan explained, rubbing his fingers against the condensation on the bottle in front of him, and not making eye contact with Posey.

"Is that all that happened?" Tyler asked, raising his eyebrow suspiciously.

Dylan contorted his mouth to the side and took a sip of his drink. "Nah, she stayed for about an hour, and we talked about how I was doing since the accident and since I last saw her and what I've been doing out in New York and how her and KJ were doing and she just kept... like, touching my arm and my leg and hinting that she missed me and they weren't doing well, and I don't fucking know, man. I'm so fucking confused right now." Dylan rubbed his fingers into his right eye and leaned back in the booth, staring up at the light in the center of their table on the ceiling.

"Chipotle chicken flautahs and the carne asada tacos." The waitress put the dishes down in front of Dylan and Tyler, handed them their utensils and walked away.

Dylan began to cut at his flautahs as Tyler jumped back into their conversation. "When she asked what you were doing in New York, did you tell her about Y/n?"

Dylan shook his head as he finished chewing and swallowed. "I don't know why I didn't either. She has a boyfriend. She's dating KJ, and I like Y/n.. so much... and, oh god, she also fucking told me that Mary told her that that picture that the girl took of all of us on the convention floor, with Britt, was the first good bit of press that Britt's gotten since we broke up, and apparently Mary wants us to get back together, which I think I knew anyway, but..." Dylan explained, referring to the talent manager that he still shared with Britt.

"Dude, you need a new fucking manager, bro." Tyler mumbled through the food in his mouth. "Or at least one that you don't share with your ex."

Dylan laughed quietly and nodded. "I know..."

“Did you tell Y/n about seeing Britt?” Tyler asked.

“No.”

“You should.” Tyler prompted Dylan, in between sips of his cerveza.

“I know.”

Tyler licked his fingers, after polishing off the first of his three tacos, and then took a swig of his Dos Equis. "Listen, Dyl, I get it. You and Britt dated for like six years?"

"Yea." Dylan confirmed.

"And she was there for you last year when you really needed it and you were really in love with her, I get that. I get all of it, but dude, it will always come back to the fact that she cheated on you, big time. Twice. I think you're just, like, going through a lot this weekend, with like the end of Teen Wolf stuff and having to talk about the accident for the first time publicly, and running into her and Apa, and you're just like grasping for something familiar and comfortable."

Dylan snickered. "You're so deep, bro."

"Am I wrong though? For real, like, I think you just need to go back to New York - as much as I've been missing having you in L.A. - and you need to see Y/n and see if you still like her or if she still makes you as happy as you were Thursday morning when you were telling me and the dudes about her, cause you seemed stoked and happy and like you were actually having fun, dude."

Dylan's lips turned up into a smile. "She is the most fun, dude. I have been thinking about her a ton... She's sweet and smart and funny and nerdy, and she can talk baseball and I don't feel awkward around her. I feel a lot like my old self when I'm with her, like, really positive and upbeat, like I was before last summer." Dylan then let his mouth turn down into a frown. "What if she's a rebound though, Ty? I don't want to hurt her."

"Do you think she is? I mean, I've never fucking talked about a rebound like that before." Tyler took a large bite of his second taco and watched as Dylan contemplated his question.

Dylan slowly began to shake his head. "I don't think she's a rebound. I really actually like her."

"Then lean into it, dude. Lean on her, and bring her out here so I can meet her." Tyler snickered.

Dylan was exhausted when he finally finished his long day of American Assassin press interviews, and laid down on his couch the moment he got home. His West Hollywood apartment was quiet and sparse since he hadn't been in it for months. He looked around and was grateful that he had decided to put the place on the market to sell. It had too many old memories from a life that he didn't really want any part of anymore. Dylan pulled his phone from his pocket and unlocked it. He pressed his phone against his ear and listened as the line rang a few times. 

"Hello?" A groggy sounding voice mumbled from the other end.

Dylan glanced over to the clock on his TV cable box and smacked his palm against his forehead. "Shit. How do I keep doing this to you? I forgot about the time difference. Again. Go back to sleep. I'm sorry."

"No, no, it's okay, I'm glad you called. I wasn't, like, deeply asleep yet." You told him while clearing your throat, trying to wake up more.

"You're glad I called?" Dylan asked, a smile spreading across his face.

"Mhmm. How was your day? How was all of the press? What'd people think about the movie? Tell me all of it." You peppered him with questions. You hadn't really talked to him while he had been back in Los Angeles and you missed being a part of his day, or at least hearing about it.

"It was hard. It's been a rough trip. I got lunch with Posey this afternoon though at that place you told us to go to. Did you know that it's like less than five miles away from the house I'm buying in Burbank? Did I tell you that?" Dylan asked, settling in on the couch cushions, closing his eyes, and feeling calm because you were the one on the other end of the line.

"YOU WENT TO SALSA AND BEER?!" You yelled. "Shit, that was probably too loud. Oops. Ah, who fucking cares? Was it amazing? Did you get the flautahs? Are you converted? Oh my god, tell me everything."

Dylan laughed loudly and felt his cheekbones pushing up against the bottoms of his eyes. "We went to Salsa and Beer, and you were right. It was literally the best Mexican food I have ever had. Posey and I are one-hundred percent going back, and he said that you obviously have to come with us next time since you introduced us."

"Fuck yes, I will go with you. You literally will never have to ask me twice when it comes to Salsa and Beer. Fuck. I miss that place." You sighed into the phone and then laughed when you heard Dylan laugh. "So how was the rest of your day? You said it was hard? Do.. do you want to talk about it?" You asked.

Dylan rubbed his hand against his torso and felt the spaces between his ribs in between his fingers. He shook his head. "I promise I will tell you all about it when I get back tomorrow, but I literally just wanted to hear your voice. I needed that cheering up."

"Oh my god, O'Brien. You are making me blush. My voice cheers you up?" You asked, picking at the paint on the wall above your headboard, a massive grin plastered across your face.

Dylan pressed his fingers against his turned up lips and laughed quietly. "It really fucking does... So, um, if you don't have to be going back to sleep immediately, would you mind telling me about your day, yesterday and today? Like from start to finish." Dylan requested. "Please." He added, rolling his lips back towards his tongue and smirking.

"Okay, well, yesterday, I woke up and hopped on a train into the city. Oh my god, Dyl, the weather was perfect yesterday. I grabbed my laptop and those briefs I've been working on and just went to Bryant Park and laid in the grass and read and..."

Dylan quietly hummed every so often to let you know that he was engaged in your story, but he was also thinking about his conversation with Tyler earlier that afternoon. Tyler was right. You were anything but a rebound to Dylan. He had butterflies from hearing your voice and he found himself feeling more complete when he knew how your day was and what you did. He wanted to be involved in your life. He was more attached than he had realized and he was happy that you were the one that he found. He spoke to you for about an hour until he heard you yawn, then he forced you to hang up and go back to bed. He milled around his apartment until he finally passed out himself, but the smile that returned to his face after he heard your voice, never left.

Dylan sat in Los Angeles International Airport, waiting to board his flight back to New York, reading through articles about whether or not Yoenis Cespedes would return for the rest of the Mets' regular season due to his hamstring injury, when a text message banner dropped down from the top of his iPhone.

Britt Robertson: You still in town?

Dylan felt his stomach turn as he stared at her name at the top of his screen. He hovered his fingers over the keyboard and felt like he was going to be sick.

Dylan O'Brien: At LAX now.

He stared as the typing bubble popped up and then a new text message followed very shortly after.

Britt Robertson: I was hoping to see you again while you were still here but it was good to see you when I did. I missed talking to you, Dyl.

Dylan's stomach leapt into his throat and he dropped his phone into his lap. He slunk low in his chair, the back of his head pressing against the top of the seatback, and pushing his backwards Mets cap forward onto his forehead. He pulled his hat off and placed it on top of his phone on his leg. He rubbed his hands over his face and into his hair, massaging his fingers into his scalp.

"This is so fucked up." He whispered to himself. He sat back up in the black cushioned chair and placed his hat back on his head, bill facing forward this time, hoping no one recognized him in the scene that he felt like he had just made. He began composing a text back, letting his tinge of anger over Britt texting him and ruining the good mood he had been in over getting to go back to New York to see you, take over. He palmed at the front left pocket of his pants, the place where he used to keep his pack of cigarettes, and he wished more than anything that he could smoke in that moment. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to get the smell off of him before he saw you later that night though, so he was grateful that it would probably be difficult for him to find a pack in the airport. He grew increasingly agitated without them though.

Dylan O'Brien: You still with KJ?

Britt Robertson: Dyl...

Dylan O'Brien: Yes or no?

Britt Robertson: You know I am...

Britt Robertson: But that doesn't still mean that it wasn't good to see you, or I don't miss you.

Dylan O'Brien: Text me when you aren't with the guy you cheated on me with, Britt.

Dylan O'Brien:  Or don't text me at all. That works for me too.

Dylan hit the back arrow on their conversation and searched for your name. He clicked on your iMessage conversation and began composing a message to you, swiping up against the banner that said that Britt had texted him two more times. He didn't care to see what her reply was.

Dylan O'Brien: Hey, I know you wanted to see Dunkirk tonight, and I know I already bought tickets, but do you mind if we do that tomorrow night instead and just chill tonight?

He waited a couple of minutes, scrolling back through his conversations with you and smiling over the picture of you in the subway next to an American Assassin poster with a silly caption below. The conversation scrolled back to the bottom when you finally replied.

Y/n Y/l/n: sure, whatever you want to do is fine with me. are you okay though?

Dylan smiled. He liked how in tune with his feelings you already were, but he didn't want to worry you with the truth of Britt messing with his head.

Dylan O'Brien: I'm good. Just want to be awake for the movie and your inevitable freak out.

Y/n Y/l/n: mmm i do love Chris Nolan.

Dylan O'Brien: Nerd ;)

Y/n Y/l/n: get that winking shit out of here, O'Brien. you know what it does to me!

Dylan laughed and shook his head, and just like that, you had put him back in a good mood. He was smitten.

Dylan rang the buzzer to your apartment in the lobby, and waited. He checked the time on his phone and wondered if you had heard him, so he rang it a little bit longer the second time. Suddenly, you came bounding down the stairs and opened the glass door in front of you. Dylan grinned, dropped his bags to the ground and scooped you up in his arms, your feet no longer even close to touching the floor below. You wrapped your arms around his neck, pulled his hat from his head, and leaned in for a blissed out kiss. You squealed as Dylan tugged you tightly against him and he laughed at the noise.

"I'm so glad you're back." You couldn't help but admit, as he gently lowered you back to the floor.

Dylan picked his duffel bag off the ground and smiled up at you as you lowered his hat back onto his head then fumbled with your keys to open the door back up. "I'm so happy to be back, but if all your welcome home’s are going to be like that, I might have to leave much more often."

You playfully glared at him behind you and began walking up the stairs to your apartment. "Um, so because your flight was so late, they weren't supposed to be here earlier, but now my sister and her fiancé are home and yea..."

Dylan smiled and shrugged. "Let's meet them. It's um, Maddie and Ryan, right?" You nodded and then opened the front door, walking in first, and leaving it open as Dylan walked in behind you.

He grabbed your free hand, as your other held his pillow, and followed you towards the sound of the TV playing in the living room. "Uh, guys..." You got your sister and her fiancé's attention, and they looked surprised when there was more than just you standing in he hallway. "This is Dylan, um, he is.. my friend." You couldn't help but smirk back at him as you realized that now that the two of you were making your relationship more public, you really needed to have that discussion. "Dyl, this is Maddie and Ryan."

Maddie and Ryan stood and greeted Dylan. Neither of them recognized him, or at least, not enough that they let on, and Dylan stood around and talked to them for a few minutes. Maddie could not stop smirking at you, as you dreamily stared up at Dylan while he talked and he kept his fingers wrapped around yours. You hadn't brought a guy back home since your ex, and she was surprised that she didn't realize that you had been seeing someone. 

Finally, you cut the conversation off and pulled Dylan into your bedroom. He closed the door behind him and gently placed his duffel and backpack on the floor next to him. He walked over and embraced you into another hug. The two of you stood in silence, swaying back and forth as he cradled you against his body. He exhaled a sigh and sat down on the foot of your bed.

"What do you want to do tonight? We can stay in or-" You asked before he cut you off.

He scrunched his face and shook his head. "Nah, no.. no.. I uh, let's go do something. I know I said I didn't want to earlier but, ever since you told me about going to Bryant Park and just finding a patch of grass, all I've been thinking about is lying around outside with you somewhere."

You smiled and stepped forward, your hands connecting with his, as he began to pull you closer. Dylan brought his knees together and pulled you over to straddle his lap. You sat on his thighs and wrapped your legs around his waist, and your arms around his neck. He buried his head against the crook of your neck, and rubbed his cold hands up underneath the back of your tank top. You ran your fingers through his hair and furrowed your brow, something felt off.

"Are you okay?" You whispered.

You felt Dylan nod his head, his soft hair tickling your neck as he did, and his warm breath leaving goosebumps on your skin as he spoke. "I think I just missed you more than I realized, and I'm just so glad to be back and to be here with you right now."

You felt your heart skip several beats over his sweet words. You didn't enjoy how out of step you had been feeling with him while he was gone, but you were happy that the two of you were settling back into each other so easily now that he was back. "I missed you... like a lot... a whole lot." You whispered into the shorter strands of hair on the back of his head, stroking them down towards his neck as you whispered your truth.

Dylan finally tilted his head up, stared at your lips in front of him, licked his, and then leaned forward until his lips met yours in a tender embrace. He tilted his head slightly to the side and pulled you tight against him. You exhaled into the kiss, and a small moan rolled out of your throat. You felt Dylan's lips curl up against yours and it made you smile.

He pulled back and looked up into your y/e/c eyes, and felt complete and utter joy. "You make me very happy, Y/n."

The two of you, both generally fidgety people, were incredibly still in that moment. You gripped his shoulders and he held your back and sides, and you just stared longingly into each other's eyes. "You make me very happy."

"We'll have to discuss the logistics a little more, and to be honest, I don't really want to do that tonight..." He said, pausing with a lopsided frown, as he glanced up to gauge your reaction. You simply nodded, so he continued. "...but I don't want this to just be a summer thing. I'm working on getting a role in this show that shoots here in New York in the fall, so I'll be sticking around a while longer, but for now, until we talk more about this, can I at least be upgraded from your 'friend' to the 'guy you're dating' or 'going on dates with' or whatever you want to call it?"

You could feel the hot red blush covering your face as you grinned and nodded. "The guy I'm dating." You told him what you would call him until the two of you were ready for a deeper conversation about the definition of your relationship. "Man I am dating, are you hungry?" You grinned down at him.

"Starving."

"Do you want to change?" Dylan shook his head. "Then let's go."

"So how'd you hear about this place?" Dylan looked around the Mexican restaurant they were sitting in, in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.

You looked up from behind your menu and smiled at Dylan, his skin glowing a warm red from the chili pepper string lights strewn about the ceiling of the restaurant. "I actually don't remember who told me about it, but it's so good... I mean, it's not Salsa and Beer good, but it's good enough." You rolled your eyes and shrugged, a subtle smile resting on your mouth.

You both ordered your food and waited for your drinks to come, as you continued your conversation. "I thought that maybe because it's so hot out, after dinner, we could walk The Highline and then go up to the rooftop on The Standard and get a nightcap. It shouldn't be too crowded." You tried to reassure him, knowing that he wasn't one for busy hotspots.

Dylan smiled and shook his head. He may not have been fond of places with a ton of people who might recognize him, but he knew your love for Manhattan on a warm summer night and he was willing to do whatever made you happy. "Can we hang out on the rolling chairs by the water thing on The Highline for a little first?" Dylan asked, reaching across the table and taking your hand in his, and rubbing the center of your palm with his thumb.

You nodded slowly, a grin resting permanently on your lips as long as he remained holding your hand. You sipped on your mojito and Dylan chuckled as he watched you tear off a piece of the crushed mint leaves floating towards the top of your drink and began chewing on it. He loved all of your quirky habits. "So what happened with the house near Posey's, in Burbank?" You asked, wanting to hear more about Dylan's trip.

"My mom has been really amazing with the realtor and she thinks that it's going to be a go, so I think I'm going to own my first home within the next few weeks. I'm gonna sign for it when I head back out that way for the Alamo Drafthouse screening thing in the middle of August." Dylan explained.

"That's amazing. I don't even have proper health insurance and you are buying your first home. Clearly, you are doing something right." You laughed.

"Yea, but I haven't traveled all over the world, so clearly...." Dylan trailed off, and started to stare behind your head.

"What is it?" You started darting your glances around the room, trying to figure out what quieted him down.

"I think I know who told you about this restaurant..." Dylan said, still staring behind you.

You turned around, the waiter was blocking your view of who was standing by the front door, waiting to be seated. "Who is it?"

"So, Julia and Collette just walked in, and I completely fucking forgot that my own sister lives in Chelsea and since that that is where we are...." Dylan pursed his lips and stared at you. "What do you want to do right now?"

Your eyes grew wide. You weren't sure that you were ready for your relationship with Dylan to become so public yet. You stuttered. "We-well.. She's your sister... s-so, what do you want to do?"

Dylan thought for only a split second, and then he laid his hand back down on the edge of the table, his palm facing up, beckoning yours to return. "I want to tell her. You're the girl I'm dating, and I'm proud of that." Dylan waited for you to place your hand in his, committing to going public with your relationship, and he smiled warmly at you when you finally did. "She's walking over here." Dylan updated you, the grin on his face widening as the anticipation rose.

"Why do I feel like I missed something?" Julia said facetiously, as she walked over to the table and finally clocked that she knew the girl sitting at the table with her little brother.

You flagged down the waiter to get him to bring two more chairs over so that Julia and Collette could join you, as Dylan stood and hugged his sister, who he hadn't seen in over a week. The waiter brought the chairs and extra menus over and everyone settled back in and ordered, then Julia began her line of questioning.

"I'm so confused as to what we just walked in on.." Julia finally asked. "How long has this been going on? What even is going on? You know... I knew you were dating someone..."

"Unless they aren't dating..." Collette quirked her eyebrows up and smirked.

"That's my brother and our friend, Col, why the fuck.. what is wrong with you?" Julia shook her head at Collette in disappointment.

Dylan finally stepped in. "Okay, well, we are dating, for one." He smiled across the table at you, and you tried to keep straight faced.

You were suddenly terrified of pissing Julia off. In that moment, you realized that when all of this had started in the second week of June, when you first met and hung out with Dylan, you did not think that it would have developed into something even remotely serious. You also realized that you hadn't told any of your friends yet, so you were going to have to call Sarah as soon as you left there so that she didn't hear it from any one else. You listened as, for the first time, Dylan retold your story from his point of view.

"So you introduced us at Boardy Barn and I thought she was stunning, straight off the bat." You had never known that he thought that, and suddenly, you were fighting with everything you had not to break out into the most massive grin. Dylan smiled warmly at you. All he wanted was to hold your hand and to not be telling you all of these things for the first time in front of his sister and his sister's most obnoxious friend. "Then we went to the party at her house after Boardy, and I don't know if you realized, but the two of us hung out and talked most of that night."

"I was so drunk, I barely remember that night. I do remember hooking up with your friend, Felisha, though. She was super hot." Julia looked at you with a smile, and you snickered, and began to relax. She wasn't glaring at you or, even worse, not making eye contact with you at all. You decided to pipe up and help Dylan out with the story.

"The next morning, Dylan and I were the only ones awake.."

"I remember this, I think, you guys were out with your dog or something, right? I remember you coming through the front door together." Julia interjected, and you nodded.

"Yea, he walked Trixie with me, we sat on the beach and played with her for a little, and just talked and got to know each other more. He expressed at some point that morning, how bored he was and how he didn't know what to do during the week while you were here working, and so I gave him my number and told him to text me and I would show him what there was to do... Honestly, at that point, it was pretty innocent, I mean, I thought he was cute and sweet, but I wasn't trying to hit on your brother."

"You weren't?" Dylan faked a pout, and you widened your eyes at him, a slight smirk on your face regardless of your look telling him to shut up. Dylan laughed, and took the story back. "So fast forward a few days, I never texted her, cause I'm a nervous idiot, and I'm walking down Main Street in East Hampton, and it was this whole thing where Trixie got loose and Y/n hit her head on the sidewalk, and I was sort of the cause of all of it-"

"Kind of sounds like the plot to a romantic comedy." Collette interjected, sipping her way through her margarita.

Dylan chuckled. "It kind of was... But, I took Y/n home and she had this massive welt on the back of her head, and I sort of used that as an excuse to hang out with her longer." Dylan paused and let the waiter deliver their entrees to the table, then continued. "We ended up spending the entire day together, watched all of the first season of Game Of Thrones, had dinner, talked... and uh, yea, I definitely had a crush on her at that point." He smirked in between bites of his chicken burrito.

"Basically, I definitely liked him at that point too, and I invited him to go paddle boarding with me the next day, and he actually showed up, and we had fun and we had lunch an-"

Dylan leaned his elbows against the edge of the table and swirled the liquid around in his beer bottle, as he tilted his head and smiled at you. "And I invited her to your party.." Dylan interjected, before being cut off by his sister.

"Before I did?" Dylan laughed and nodded. "Wow, way to make me look like an ass, Dylhole." Julia playfully shoved her brother, who laughed.

"I'm not sorry, I wanted her to come and I wanted her to hang out with me." Dylan smirked.

"That's where you were when Sarah got roofied then?" Julia asked, suddenly very wrapped up in the pieces of these stories that she didn't even know were missing until just then.

You nodded, with a slight frown creeping onto your face; you still felt guilty about what had happened that night and how you hadn't been there to keep an eye out for your best friend. You cleared your throat, and rubbed your hand against your jaw, not realizing the habits that you had begun to pick up from Dylan. "Yea, we were upstairs, in his room, like, talking."

"Oh yea, 'talking'." Collette smirked and made air quotes with her fingers when she repeated the word.

Dylan rolled his eyes and stepped in for you. "Then Y/n went to Kansas for the Fourth of July to see her mom, and we talked the entire time she was gone.."

"You hate texting though." Julia furrowed her brow at her brother, unable to hide her surprise.

Dylan snickered and brought his beer bottle up to his lips. "I know." He sipped quickly. "We didn't text much. I called her and we talked on the phone every night she was gone for like a few hours each time. That was when I really started to like her. Talking to Y/n was just effortless.." He smiled a lopsided grin at you, and you melted, covering your mouth with your glass and hand to hide your blush. "Then when she came back, I picked her up at JFK, and we saw Spider-Man, and had dinner, and just ended up hanging out the rest of the night. We watched Game of Thrones a...." Dylan trailed off. He realized that he was about to admit that that was the first night that they had slept together, and regardless of how innocent it was, he wanted to keep that night and the following morning private, because it was that next morning and afternoon, that he realized that he could be happy if what was going on between you and him turned into something more serious. You watched as he sat in contemplative silence for a few long moments and you finally intervened.

"Then we just went on a ton of dates and hung out a lot. We went kayaking, surfing, hiking, to a winery... Dylan took me out to dinner a bunch of times. Um, oh, we went to a Mets game and then I took him to The Met... What else?" You asked Dylan, glancing up at him taking a bite of his burrito.

"Tthoones and dinnr." Dylan said with his mouth full and you laughed, completely understanding what he was trying to remind you of.

"Right.. He cooked me dinner once, it was pretty good actually, and we've watched about five seasons of Game of Thrones.. Oh and we saw a play on Broadway. I don't know, we've basically spent almost every day together since the week we met."

"Except for the weekends because I haven't seen the two of you together since the party." Julia glanced back and forth between you and Dylan.

Dylan shrugged and finished chewing his last bite. "We weren't ready to tell people until now. I only told Ty about it like two weeks ago."

"Well, besides the fact that I am deeply offended that you told Tyler TWO WEEKS before you told me, and this is all pretty weird considering you are my friend and you are my brother, I kind of get it. You two are pretty similar. I don't know why I didn't guess that it was Y/n that you were dating. I knew you were dating someone, I just assumed you had gotten back together with Britt." Julia paused after she said Britt's name.

"Definitely not that... Are you okay with this though, Jules?" Dylan asked, furrowing his brow and staring at his sister.

"Would it matter even if I wasn't?"

"Julia, we woul-" You started to speak out of panic before Julia cut you off.

"That wasn't me saying I wasn't okay with it, I just, you guys sound like you're in pretty deep at this point, and I don't want to get in the way of that. Plus, you two have been sitting here grinning like idiots at each other. It's adorable and vomit inducing and reminding me that I need to re-download Grindr." Julia chuckled at her own joke. "I'm cool with it, just like, don't let me walk in on anything weird, okay?"

"I promise, that will definitely not happen." You stuck your hand up in the air like you were taking an oath.

Dinner turned out to be a success. Julia was fine with you dating her brother and you all chatted and laughed your way through the meal. Julia and Collette said their goodbyes as they had to wake up for work the next morning, and you and Dylan stuck with your plan to walk The Highline and get a nightcap. As you sat on a couch at Le Bain, the rooftop bar on the top of the Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District of lower Manhattan, Dylan suggested that instead of returning to Queens, to your apartment, that night, that he could just get a hotel room for the night and you could simply stay at The Standard. You agreed and went down to acquire your bed.

Dylan unzipped the side of your flouncy, white, purple and yellow, floral printed summer dress. He paused to pull his shirt off over his head, and tossed it on the floor by the window. He smiled warmly and reassuringly at you, and watched as you brought your hands flat up against his torso, and traced the natural lines of his body with your fingers. The crease in his forehead became prominent as he reached over and pushed a large section of your hair over your right shoulder and onto your back with the back of his fingers. He then hooked his long digits under the thick strap holding up your dress and pulled it off the top of your shoulder. He paused when he felt your hands drop from his chest to the button and fly of his dark gray trousers. You left them open, no longer snug against his hips and waist, and you ran your fingers gently along the cuts on his hips, under the waistband of his boxer briefs, and towards the muscles of his lower back and ass.

His breathing became heavier and he brought his hand up to the other strap and pulled it off your shoulder to rest against the side of your arm. He looked perplexed when the dress did not drop to the floor like he assumed that it would. You smiled and suddenly brought your hands up to unclasp the small metal hook that was keeping the dress up still. As soon as you did, the dress slid right off of your arms and body and pooled at your feet on the floor. You were left standing in front of Dylan in nothing but a pair of white, lacy underwear. He visibly gulped and you heard his breath stagger. Your heart beat fast, and you became incredibly nervous. This was it. You were finally going there, and you had wanted him, but it didn't make you any less terrified to be vulnerable to him in this new way.

Dylan shook his head and furrowed his brow, then dropped his hand down to interlace his fingers with yours. "You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen." He whispered, and you suddenly felt more at ease.

You tugged at his hand, and began walking backwards to the side of the bed, leading him to the edge. You let go and crawled backwards, towards the middle, watching him watch you. He glanced down and pulled his pants down his legs and left them in a ball on the floor with his socks. Now, he stood in front of you, vulnerable and almost naked, in nothing more than his boxer briefs. He was, undoubtedly, the most gorgeous man you had ever actually seen in person, and you were finding it very hard to breathe normally.

Dylan crawled onto the bed, only pausing once he was finally hovering over you. He smiled softly and spoke again. "Maybe it's the actor in me, but part of me really just wishes this could be filmed." You tilted your head back and quirked your eyebrows up in utter disbelief, and Dylan began laughing, burying his face in the neat, tucked in sheets next to your head. "Not like that.." He calmed down his laughter, and was only left with a genuine smile on his face. He brought his right hand up to your cheek, and gently caressed your soft skin. "I just meant that I wish I could capture this moment in a more tangible way because I have a feeling that this is going to be one of those times that I am never going to want to forget."

You tilted your head to the left and kissed the palm of his hand, which caused him to let out a soft sigh. "I think if we go slow and just savor it, we won't forget." You told him.

"Are you nervous?" He asked, still hovering over you, still stroking your cheek lightly.

You nodded slowly, never breaking eye contact with him. "Are you?"

Dylan's mouth twitched up at the corner and he nodded in response. "We'll go slow. It'll be okay."

He waited until you nodded and smiled before he connected his lips with yours. This kiss was different. A lot had changed that day for the both of you. It was the longest you had been apart since all this had started between the two of you, so the reunion was automatically that much sweeter. You had accidentally, on both fronts, finally introduced yourself as a couple to your respective sisters. On Dylan’s part, simply seeing you hopping down the stairs into your lobby to greet him earlier that evening, reaffirmed all of the feelings that he had begun doubting while he was away. Most of all, however, you had finally made a commitment to each other. Albeit, a loose one that required a lot of further discussion, but it was a commitment nonetheless. You were developing serious and deep feelings for each other and that shone through every time your lips connected.

Dylan made the plunge. He pulled gently at the sides of your underwear, and you felt the lace slide down your silky legs and finally over your pointed feet. You watched as he stood at the side of the bed once more, hooked his fingers around the elastic on his boxer briefs and tugged them down his hairy legs to the floor. He rolled his lips back into his mouth and wet them with his tongue as he stared at you, watching him in his most bare and exposed state.

"Condom?" You asked with a small smile, biting your bottom lip as you took in his impressive length and his even more impressive girth.

"Shit, right."

Dylan's eyes widened and he spun around in place, looking for his pants. He squatted next to the bed and grabbed his wallet, then pulled a condom out and placed it on the night stand next to the bed. After your close call the other night, that was only staved off because of a drunken case of the hiccups, you and Dylan had a serious conversation the next morning. It was one that he had never had with a girl before, and it made him happy to be in an adult relationship. You had discussed that, regardless of the fact that you were on birth control, you were still going to have sex with condoms until there was a little more time spent together under your belts. The real reason that you were both dancing around was the fact that you had not had a conversation about being exclusive, and regardless of your "guy I'm dating" conversation earlier that evening, you still had not actually had a conversation about your exclusivity, so you were sticking with the condoms. Dylan agreed quickly and you both discussed when you had last been tested, and when you found out you were both clean, you moved on to a new conversation. You were relieved that you had gotten all of that out of the way before the moment you were currently in, both naked and ready to finally take the next step in your relationship.

Dylan pulled the corner of the sheets down over your legs, and glanced up at you. "Come on." He beckoned you to get under the covers with him. You did as he suggested, and very quickly, you were both on your sides, face-to-face, with your bodies pressed up against each other. Your neck fit perfectly over Dylan's right bicep, and he gently stroked your hair with the tips of his right fingers as he kissed your lips. The arm that was pressed in between the two of you was holding his chin in place, lightly massaging the stubble on his face. Your other hand was pressed up against his sternum, feeling the taut skin of his body against the pads of your fingers. Dylan positioned his left hand against the small of your back, and the two of you had your legs intertwined with each other.

He did as he promised and went slow, but soon the tension and heat between the two of you became even too much for you to bare. Your hand moved down to his shaft and you began gently stroking him, he exhaled into your mouth at your touch and it gave you the confidence to become a bit firmer with your grip. His hand grazed over your ass and grabbed a fistful, pulling you closer to him. Under the tangled sheets were tangled body parts and intensely passionate kisses and Dylan had reached his limit. He leaned his body backwards and reached for the wrapper on the table. You pressed your lips against his throat, unable to stop yourself, and Dylan paused in his stretch, enjoying the sensation of your soft and wet lips against his neck. He closed his eyes and sighed as you worked your way down to his chest.

Dylan, snapping out of his momentary trance, gently nudged you on to your back. He placed the unopened wrapped on the pillow next to you, and positioned himself over you. He relished in the feeling of your hands on his ribs and shoulder, and how thoughtfully your fingers ran across his skin, setting it ablaze with your touch. He cupped his hand behind your neck, leaning down to connect your lips once again. He tilted his head to the side to gain greater access and prolong the embrace. The warmth and wetness of his lips sent shivers down your body, that you never wanted to stop. You felt his hand wandering down from your neck, over your collarbone and suddenly stopping just about your breast. Dylan broke from the kiss and hovered over you again, trading his glances from his hand to your eyes.

"Your heart is racing." He whispered, his eyebrows stitching together in concern.

You ran your thumb gently over the soft pink skin on his lips, and you nodded with a subtle smile. "I know."

Dylan's hand remained pressed firmly against your chest, and he shut his eyes as he enjoyed your gentle touch. "Do you... are you nervous still? Should we stop?" You felt him whisper against your finger.

You brought your hand up to run your fingers into his thick chocolate mane, and then you rested your palm against his prominent cheekbone. "No." You whispered back and he opened his eyes. "I'm not nervous. I'm excited... and I want you."

Dylan smiled, grabbed your hand off of his face and pressed over his heart, against his chest. "Well that made my heart race too." His smile gave off the warmth of a thousand suns and you basked in it. Dylan leaned down and pressed his perfect pink lips against your cheek firmly. You felt the whiskers on his upper lip tickle your skin as he spoke in a hushed tone. "I want you."

You ran your fingers up through the hair on the back of his head, feeling the soft strands push against your fingers as you went. You held him in place against your body and whispered something in reply that had never been truer than it was until that moment. "Then I'm yours."

You heard Dylan exhale loudly through his nostrils and felt the warm air against your shoulder. He nuzzled his head into the crook of your neck and stayed there for a few moments, replaying those coveted words in his head over and over and over. Finally, Dylan raised his head and looked at you with a steady and serious look on his face. "I want this." You barely saw his hand gesture between the two of you out of the corner of your eye before you replied. You didn't need to see his gesture. You were on the same wavelength and you understood exactly what he meant.

"I do too."

Dylan swept his head in and connected his lips to yours. Your tongues danced around each other with blissful purpose, as your hands pawed at each other in their search for more skin. You patted your right hand around on the pillow next to you, searching for the condom, unable to take the tension any longer. Your fingers found the foil wrapping and only when Dylan heard the crinkle did he breathlessly break from your intense embrace. He watched as you carefully ripped at the packaging and pulled the rubber protection out. You shimmied down slightly, pinched the tip, and began rolling it down his shaft. He softly moaned at the sight and the feeling of you touching his cock. Your hand remained, and you gently lowered him in line with your opening. You slid him back and forth, wetting the tip thoroughly with your arousal. He was big and you were going to need all the help you could get.

He slid in and you tilted your head back in lustful ecstasy. Dylan leaned down and sucked lightly on your exposed neck, his hands pushing indents into the mattress around your head to steady himself as he thrust in and out of you. Your bodies moved in a way that only people who share a truly deep connection experience, ebbing and flowing with each other's movements. Dylan drank in your sighs and moans and whimpers. He relished in the way that your warm skin felt against his, the way you had wrapped your ankle around his, the way your nails gently dug into his taut flesh, and the way that your breath felt against his neck as he leaned down and buried his forehead in the pillow under your head. Quiet curses and subtle moans left his lips as he thrust in and out of you.

You watched as Dylan's nose and cheeks twitched and his forehead wrinkled. He pressed his tongue in between his lips and squeezed and furrowed his brows down, his eyelids closed tightly. You pulled one of his hands off of the mattress and brought it down your body. You placed his fingers against your clit and watched as the expression on his face completely changed. He grew smug.

"Come here." He whispered, as he dropped to his side, next to you, and turned you onto your side.

Dylan pulled your naked body against his, your back pressed against the sticky skin of his chest. He ran the backs of his fingers, underneath the blankets covering your bodies, up your thigh, across your hip bone, up your ribs, over your shoulder and pulled the hair covering your neck, against your back. He peppered your sensitive skin with a flurry of soft and lingering kisses, and you found his free hand with yours under the pillows. You intertwined your fingers, as you felt his other hand pull your thigh on top of his. From behind you, Dylan connected with your pussy again and slid back inside of you. You moaned loudly at the reunion, tilting your head back involuntarily and feeling your skull press at Dylan's upturned nose.

He wrapped his long and sinewy hand around your body and pressed his fingers against your engorged nub. He rubbed and thrust simultaneously, feeling your body clench at his touch. You gripped at his hand under the pillow and squeezed your bony fingers against his, feeling the circulation cutting off and not minding. You were close and you needed to brace yourself for what was inevitably coming. Dylan squeezed back. He was struggling to keep from finishing before you. He had never wanted to finish with someone as badly as he wanted to finish with you. He did the only thing he knew might get you to where he was and he sped up the movements of his fingers, pressing firmer against your clit. As his brain thought 'faster' for his hand, it thought 'faster' for his thrusts too, and he picked up his pace without realizing.

"Oh god..." You exhaled quickly, and Dylan heard you stop breathing.

He felt the first twitch and the first clench, and he couldn’t help but let go. As each new wave of your orgasm rolled over your body and you spasmed against him, Dylan felt his release coming quickly. You settled, small twitches still involuntarily taking hold of you, and you reached back to grip at his hair, as his thrusts became deeper, sloppier and harder. Dylan reached up and pulled your hand out of his hair and pushed it against the mattress in front of you, interlacing his fingers with yours and squeezing as he buried his face into your cheek. A loud moan escaped his lips and you leaned into his embrace.

Sudden stillness fell upon the room. You heard a helicopter moving through the nightsky above the Hudson River and the soft pants of Dylan above your ear. He pulled your hands under your chin and squeezed you tightly against him.  

Come yell at me about things.

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[suzannebyrne]

How Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan found love on the set of 'Step Up'

It was a case of reel love turned real love for Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan, who fell in love making the 2006 movie Step Up. (Image: YouTube)

In a peculiar but definitive statement, Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan announced that they’re “lovingly” ending their marriage of nearly nine years. While they reportedly split months ago, if you followed them on social media, you probably wouldn’t have suspected it because they were both still present in each other’s lives — well, feeds.

Although Channing, 37, had likely moved out of their home by then, on Jan. 31, Jenna, also 37, was happy to reminisce about the first time the met, which was at the audition for 2006’s Step Up, the dance franchise that helped launch their careers and relationship. “It’s really cute — and also embarrassing and crazy,” she said of the audition video from their very early days of fame. “Please watch how many times I giggle and laugh.” She added, “It’s very sentimental and amazing for me to watch.”

Their Step Up audition:

Yes, their first ever interaction — in 2005 — is documented forever. They were awkward, but cute, and dancing around the room to show off their chemistry — and footwork — to producers. At one point, Jenna, who has said she sounded like Minnie Mouse in that tape, joked that their pose made them look like they were going to the prom. But that was the right vibe to play bad boy Tyler who wins the heart of ballerina Nora in Baltimore-based dance flick.

While Step Up producer Adam Shankman later said, “I knew that they were going to be together forever. There was never a question,” Jenna, who grew up a dance kid in real life, has said that she wasn’t at her best the day of the audition.

“I went in to read for the part with Channing, but showed up late with the wrong scenes,” she recalled told Cosmopolitan. “Then I opened the door on the poor girl who was auditioning before me right as they were leaning in for a kiss. I was horrified. But he was so sweet. He came out and worked the scenes with me.” She said that right away she thought he was “super hot.”

Here’s the Step Up trailer:

They had their first kiss in the film. “It’s interesting now, because we can watch it and see; we can go, ‘Oh, wow, that was actually our first real kiss,’” she told Redbook in 2014.

But, as relationships are, it was complicated at first. He told Elle in 2013 that he had just “gotten out of a pretty long relationship, so I was in no way ready for another.” That didn’t stop him from flirting with his co-star while they made the movie. “We went out one night and danced at a club, and there was that feeling,” she told Cosmo. “Then we started hanging out.”

Their hangouts were initially PG — no kissing — watching movies and stuff. She described it as “two nights of being weird,” and she had enough of it. So she gave him an ultimatum, which was basically to, um, step up.

Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan flew into each other’s arms in 2006’s Step Up. “Catch me,” her character memorably told his as she ran to him. (Image: YouTube)

“I said, ‘You know what? You are probably not ready to jump into another [relationship],” she recalled to Cosmo. “‘Why don’t you take time and figure out what you want?’ I told him, ‘I always know what I want. I’m more of a monogamous relationship person. So that’s where I would go with this, but I totally understand.’ I was smart enough not to get my feelings wrapped up in it. I figured we might just be into each other because we’re shooting a movie. I said, ‘While you’re figuring that out, I’m not just going to hang out and watch movies and flirt. I’ll see you on set.”

Three days later, after a boozy night out with some of the the film’s dancers, Channing came knocking on the door of Jenna’s hotel room. “He said he had the chance to be free and he couldn’t stop thinking about me,” she said on the Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2017. “He’s in a sombrero, underwear and Ugg boots and said, ‘Let’s do this.’”

A sombrero? Yep, he explained its origins to Elle, saying that the night he showed up at her hotel room, he was drinking at a Mexican restaurant. “One one of my buddies was like, ‘What are you doing, man? She’s dope.’ So “stole” the hat “off the wall” and he went to go see about a girl.

Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival in January 2006. This was the “sugar mama” phase. He said that he was broke after they filmed and Jenna, whom he moved in with immediately after filming paid the bills. (Photo: Jesse Grant/WireImage)

As with many set romances, it wasn’t a secret to the crew. “The next morning he was in my room and I go to set because I had an earlier call time,” she said on Ellen. “I’m getting hair and makeup done and an hour goes by and the production assistants go, ‘We can’t find Channing. We don’t know where he is. He’s not in his room. We’ve banged on his door and called his room.’ And I called a PA over and said, ‘He’s in my room.’” When Channing arrived to set, he was greeted by applause.

Channing has said that he opened up to Jenna about his stripper past during one of their “very first dinners we ever had together. “I don’t know. I’m not shy about it. She was just like, ‘What?’ She needed to know just like everybody,” he told Entertainment Tonight last year. How did she react? “Weirdly enough, girls ask less questions then guys do. Guys want to know everything about it like, what how much? When? Were you naked?”

After Step Up wrapped, “We went back to L.A. and were together, and together ever since — never broken up,” Jenna told Redbook. And while Channing went on to make bank in Magic Mike and 21 Jump Street, he told Elle, “I was broke and I couldn’t pay my half of the rent when we were first together. She was basically my sugar mama for six months.

By the time the press tour began in 2006, Channing and his sugar mama Jenna were a full-on couple. In this interview, she gushes about their “instant bond.”

Jenna doing press for Step Up and talking Chan in 2016:

He was all in, too. Listen to him talk about her dancing skills — and his amazing new life. “I’ve just been so lucky that the right things have come along and the right people have come into my life at the right time,” says young Chan. “I feel like I won the lottery, man.”

Channing doing Step Up press and gushing about Jenna:

At the premiere, which took place in August 2016, they were inseparable. Director Anne Fletcher said they were “very professional” about it though. “They were there to get a job done. I never said anything to them, they just chose on their own to get the movie done first. They took it very seriously.” However, “Once the movie was over,” it was, “Go for it!”  

Plus-ones! Jenna Dewan and Channing Tatum attend the after party for the premiere of Step Up on August 7, 2006 in Los Angeles. (Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images)

By December 2006, they were full-blown in love and didn’t care who knew it. Channing long ago posted this video of them at a press conference in Italy to promote the flick. In it, she describes him as “a very sweet, loving, funny, giving, caring, compassionate … hard worker. He’s very goal-oriented.” As if she’s a walking, talking version of his résumé.

Yes, she was in love, but  was he. “Jenna’s very, she’s obviously beautiful, but she really, really is as beautiful inside as she is out,” he said. “She’s really real, too. She loves to teach people how to not come from a place of insecurity, just, you know, come from a place of love, I guess. She’s a big fairy, flower child. [She’s] a beautiful soul, a beautiful soul.”

Jenna and Channing got engaged in 2008 and married in 2009. Their only daughter, Everly, was born in May 2013. Jenna had said she looked forward to showing Everly the audition tape from Step Up so that she could see her parents falling in love. However, Channing talked about showing Evie some of the actual movie and she wasn’t a huge fan.

Needless to stay, Step Up was a hit. Their film kicked off what was to become a mega-million-dollar franchise, which also included more films and games. Earlier this year, the new YouTube Red show Step Up: High Water debuted — and the now seasoned pros in Hollywood are executive producers on the series.

What happens with their company, 33andOut Productions, is probably being sorted out right now amid their split news. (It has four films in development, including a film about Peter Pan and Captain Hook called Neverland.) There is a lot at stake, mostly from Channing’s side, but she’s doing well herself with her TV work. Needless to say, a lot has changed since this bright-eyed and beautiful pair first met a decade ago.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

Fans call BS on Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan’s breakup statement

Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan’s romance: Where did it go wrong?

All the times Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan tried to conceal their daughter’s identity

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Fear the Walking Dead Interview: Lisandra Tena breaks down Lola’s past, her decision-making process, her role as the Water Queen, and the potential future.

With only a few episodes left in Season 3 of Fear the Walking Dead, we had a lot to discuss as we sat down with star Lisandra Tena, who was kind enough to join us at Hidden Remote to discuss her role as Lola Guerrero, AKA the Water Queen, on Fear the Walking Dead.

Quite a bit is happening with her character at the moment. She’s managing the Gonzalez Dam, distribution of water to the surrounding city, a conflicting relationship with Efrain (Jesse Borrego) and Daniel (Ruben Blades), and has also recently entered into a trade partnership with the Broke Jaw Ranch via Madison (Kim Dickens).

Hidden Remote: Not much is known about Lola’s back story. How do you think her upbringing led her towards being a water utility officer and philanthropist?

Lisandra Tena: Well, I definitely know she’s hardworking. Her family is from Tijuana and [she] comes from a hardworking family. And it’s probably something she was raised with, being near the dam and all. My perspective on the character was that’s the reason why she does what she does. It’s because she was raised in that part of town. She’s very familiar with the people there, and with the way things work. It just came naturally to her. She just stuck around and kept working.

Hidden Remote: Lola is indirectly responsible for Pablito getting executed on the catwalk. In which way is her remorse guiding her decisions? Do you think it is?

Tena: I think it is to a certain degree. It’s probably not the first time this has happened. It’s probably the first time it happened in front of her, but she has been around Dante. She’s had to deal with him, which is why she is going through so much. It’s because of the things that he does. She’s been told of the things that he does, but this is the first time she’s seen it happen.

[Pablito’s death] has stuck with her and that’s why she’s firm and she’s hard-headed when it comes to not wanting to open up to the idea or accept the idea of having weapons as a tool to get people to do something for her.

Hidden Remote: Lola’s secret 5 p.m. water supply arrangement with Efrain may have been flawed from the start since Dante would obviously track usage and consumption. In what ways do you think Lola could have continued her efforts without getting caught?

Tena: I think it would have worked. It would have continued to work, but we brought in a new person to the group, which was Daniel, and I think that’s where we made the mistake. We don’t know him. He’s a stranger. We don’t know what his intentions were from the beginning. I think that’s where it went wrong. It would have stayed the same, to be honest, but I think that’s mainly where it went wrong. I don’t think the water distribution plan was flawed.

Dante is running the dam at that point, but that doesn’t mean he knows exactly how the dam works. Lola is the one who knows how it works, how much water they have, what needs to happen in order for it to be filtrated and available to drink. So, in that sense she has the upper hand because she can say anything. She can tell Dante everything is fine and there’s plenty of water.

Hidden Remote: Lola was clearly appalled by Daniel’s decision to reveal Efrain’s whereabouts. Why do you think Daniel made such a poor choice when countless others were available (i.e. he sees/hears something elsewhere, or has a hunch)? Does it reveal anything else about Daniel?

Tena: That’s a good question. Well, in the moment, you have to make a decision quickly. Especially then. Either he would have given up where the water was coming from or he would have given up the location of the person. So he had to make a quick decision. It may not have been the best decision, but that’s typically what you do [laughs] when there are high stakes and your adrenaline is rushing. You have to make a quick decision.

Maybe Daniel was thinking ahead of possibly taking Dante down? In the moment, the more natural and realistic situation is a quick decision.

Hidden Remote: Why do you believe Lola became the leader of the Gonzalez Dam, even though Daniel killed Dante?

Tena: Because she’s the one that has been there since the beginning. She was there before Dante. She knows how this water dam works. That’s her home. She’s been working there. She lives there. After the apocalypse, she stayed and she knows it really, really well. I think naturally that’s why she became the leader after Dante. The people trusted her. Not only because she’s a very caring and compassionate person, but because she knows what she’s doing and she knows how the dam works. And because she cares about the community.

Naturally she’s a leader. I believe she’s a leader. And she’s a person of servitude. So it all just came naturally. Because Daniel is such a new character in that place, it wouldn’t make sense for him to just take over. For them to team up makes more sense.

Hidden Remote: In “Minotaur,” problematic trading with other communities was mentioned. How will Lola react when other groups ask for an arrangement similar to the one she has made with the Broke Jaw Ranch?

Tena: I remember Lola reacting to Madison and saying it’s none of her business. The people will probably react, I imagine, with more aggression, more frustration. They’re thirsty. They’re hungry. Things are not well, but she’s trying her best. Although, maybe her best is not good enough.

That’s probably not even her thinking at that point. We’re semi under attack from the community, because they have this thinking that perhaps it’s not being run the same way as Dante was running it. She wants to make that known and clear, but it’s not working.

She’s finally giving in to Daniel’s suggestions on the deal. It also has to deal with they have Daniel’s daughter, so Lola is more inclined to accept something that gets Daniel’s daughter back, because she knows how it affects him. She knows he may leave her to go find his daughter.

Hidden Remote: Why did Lola demand that Ofelia show up at the Mexicali trading post exchange?

Tena: I think it’s for Daniel. Most certainly is for Daniel and for him to stay at the dam. And also to establish some trust between Madison and Lola. If Madison comes through with what she said, she knows she can trust this person. Since Dante has been running the dam, she has been on guard. She’s trying to hang on tight and not lose control, and make good decisions. She needs Daniel there.

Hidden Remote: I noticed you recently retweeted several things related to humanitarian efforts in Puerto Rico and Mexico. How do your personal convictions make it easier to portray Lola?

Tena: It’s hard. It’s personal. My family is Mexican, but they all basically live in the States now. I was recently in Mexico City doing a press junket for the show and the people that I met were really wonderful. I had a really great experience. I got to walk around and really see the city. That was the first time that I’d gone to Mexico City. I’ve been to Northern Mexico many times as a child. It’s deeply personal because I know the people there. I know Mexican culture. I’m Mexican-American. It’s really, really sad, but it’s nice to know that they are strong. The people are really strong. People care for one another and you see them doing all that they can. All of their efforts will eventually be rewarding.

And my portrayal of Lola is one of strength that Mexican people carry. Like Lola, they also care for one another and think about serving other people. Others are thought of before the self.

Hidden Remote: When Daniel inevitably leaves, will Lola be able to hold the Gonzalez Dam without her enforcer?

Tena: Wait, wait, wait (laughing). So you’re assuming? Do I think Lola can take control or handle this water dam without Daniel?

Hidden Remote: I’m also asking if you think Daniel is going to leave.

Tena: I don’t think he’ll leave. I gotta be careful. I think Lola needs Daniel to run the dam. I think she desperately needs him. Efrain is not helping run this. I say this because Efrain is a person who just wants to free the water. He wants everyone to have the water, but that’s not realistic. It won’t last long. Then we’re screwed.

She definitely understands the value of the dam and what it means. So, when it comes to bargaining and supplying the water to the community, because she’s not a violent person and Daniel is. zHe’s trained and understands the world outside of the dam, he can help her run this dam.

Hidden Remote: If this were real, and you were in Lola’s shoes, what would you personally choose to do knowing the pitfalls of each scenario?

Tena: Oooh, that’s a good one. I would definitely side with Daniel when it comes to having weapons for protection.

Hidden Remote: Because of your tweets and previous answers, I thought you were going to side with Lola.

Tena: No, I’m definitely a much more experienced person, living out in the world. I’ve experienced a lot. Not to be boastful or arrogant, but I’ve experienced quite a bit so that’s why I have that perspective. [It supports] the choice that I would make [to] actually have the weapons. I would definitely protect the dam in that way.

Obviously I’m not a violent person, but if need be, especially in that circumstance, in the apocalypse, I’d be more realistic than a dreamer (laughs).

That’s Lola’s life. She’s been at the dam. So she doesn’t really understand full how the world works in this time, the apocalypse, and violent people that you can meet. She has not experienced that. She doesn’t really understand how it works and how people turn especially under this circumstance. I think that’s the only things she’s missing right now is a lack of understanding of what it really is like, and that’s why Daniel is there to help her with that.

~

A huge thanks goes out to Lisandra Tena for the interview. Her portrayal of Lola may end up being what keeps Fear the Walking Dead going in the near future. Will her kind heart continue to rule? Or, will she turn to the dark side as a water baroness?

Long live the Water Queen!

Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.

[islareeveswriting]

At least three dates

Masterlist Here

Word Count 10.6k 

‘I like it.’ Harry returned, pulling food from the brown bags and handing things to her. Zara noticed the note of extra jalapenos on the burger that Harry handed to her and she smiled, pleased Harry had gone with it and not thought she’d regret it like others had tended to.

‘Ketchup?’ She asked hopefully. 

‘And mayo.’ Harry told her proudly handing the sauce sachets to Zara.

‘Wow Grim really didn’t forget anything huh?’ 

‘Heyyy.’ Zara snapped her head to Harry at his response. His face was a picture of offence and she had to try not to laugh. ‘I remembered from the restaurant actually.’

‘Nicholas, are you serious?’ The sound of Zara’s voice drifted through the house and followed the sound of the front door closing, and her footsteps up the stairs to the first floor. Nick looked to her, from the company he was sharing around the dining table, as she entered the room.

As per usual, she was dressed in the seriously faded, black, skinny jeans that she wore pretty much daily. Apart from when she admitted defeat, put them in the wash and slung them over the bathroom radiator in hope they’d dry for the next day. They never did, and she’d be forced to opt for a skirt, or blue jeans. Heaven forbid. Really she needed a new pair, but she refused to take them out of her work uniform allowance when there were far more exciting things to choose instead. And as far as Zara was concerned they were still wearable, despite what Nick said. 

‘What?’ Nick asked calmly, his mouth full of the chicken and quinoa salad he’d made, really overdoing the healthy eating thing he’d been promising to have a stab at for weeks. 

‘It was the worst date I’ve ever been on, and you’ve given him my number.’ Zara explained. She had her hands resting on her hips, the cropped grey jumper she was wearing spilling out of her palms and making the gesture have slightly less effect than she clearly desired. Nick chuckled a little as the stony face and ignorance to Nick’s guests, that Zara definitely knew well enough to at least greet, suddenly made sense. 

‘Oh come on Z, it was hardly the worst date you’ve been on.’ Nick could think of at least two that had been worse since he’d known her. There was the guy who had taken her to a fancy (and expensive restaurant) and then told he’d forgotten his wallet - convenient. And then there was the guy who told her he’d asked her on a date because she looked a bit like his sister - weird. Nick knew, the date she was referring to definitely wasn’t the worst date she’d ever been on. Apart from anything else the words Harry Styles, and bad date didn’t go together very often. In fact, Nick felt fairly sure this would be the first time. 

‘Well I wouldn’t exactly call it good either.’ Zara sneered to which Nick could only giggle again, sticking his tongue through his teeth as his eyes crinkled at the side. ‘Eugh you’re so annoying.’ Zara saw that face far too often, she could hear it, whenever she put his radio show on in the morning, when he made a sarcy or slightly cheeky comment, and she didn’t like the joy he was getting from her displeasure. 

‘Just give him another chance.’ Nick virtually begged as Zara turned away from him with a groan, like the stroppy teenager she hadn’t quite grown out of being. Nick often had to remind himself she wasn’t much more than that. Only just twenty, and working a run of the mill retail job in the Topshop on Oxford Street. That was enough to make anyone stroppy. ‘He wasn’t himself, he’s so busy at the moment, he was tired and nervous.’ Zara rolled her eyes. 

‘He should have cancelled then.’

‘He wouldn’t do that.’ Nick told her with a more serious tone that that told Zara that he was being, well, serious. ‘Just one more chance, please, he wants to make it up to you.’ Zara sighed heavily, dropping her shoulders to emphasise it. Nick chuckled at her dramatics, they rivalled some actors he’d interviewed. 

‘Fine.’ Zara sighed admitting defeat, but she quickly lifted her finger and pointed it straight at Nick. ‘But only for you, cause I can tell you’re worried he’ll hate you if I don’t go.’ Nick grinned brightly. It was only half a lie on Zara’s part. She couldn’t deny there was part of her that was still intrigued by Harry, there was something about him that she couldn’t shrug off and she knew Nick had noticed the way her cheeks blushed a pale pink when Harry paid her attention, even if it was just a quiet ‘hello’. 

‘You won’t regret it.’ Nick beamed with his trademark Cheshire cat grin. 

‘Whatever’ Zara breathed, pulling out the chair she had one hand leaned on, and sitting down. ‘Is there any food left?’ Zara asked changing the subject. It didn’t matter if she knew there was something inside her that wanted a second date with Harry because she was attracted to him and wanted to know more, but she didn’t want to let Nick get a whiff of it. And she certainly didn’t want Harry to know. She didn’t want him to think that she was just going to roll over and forget their first date. Even so butterflies were starting up in her stomach the same way they had done ahead of the first date, even though she hadn’t known it was Harry she’d be going on a date with. 

Nick had set it up as a blind date. He’d been promising Zara she’d love the guy she’d be meeting since the suggestion came up. Unbeknown to her Nick had been promising Harry the same thing. 

Zara and Harry had met a few times before, a brief introduction in the kitchen of Nick’s house before she went off to work, followed by fleeting, polite conversations whenever Harry happened to be in the house at the same time as Zara. Zara couldn’t remember much of them looking back but she could understand how people were so taken with him. His charm and charisma would be hard to miss, not to mention the pale, yet bright, green eyes that always caught Zara out. There was something about him and it was hard for Zara to put her finger on, but it was the thing that made her wish she could get to know him better. 

She knew Nick had seen the way she had to stop herself from acting like a teenage girl, with a crush, around Harry. She didn’t know Nick had seen the same in Harry. Or the way his eyes so often fell on her when she was in the room and followed her until she left. Neither of them knew Nick had been planning a blind date between the pair for a while. 

That was why Zara was so surprised when it was Harry that sat down opposite her at the Mexican restaurant, half an hour late. That on it’s own she could have forgiven. He was a busy man, Zara knew that. Nick had told her just how busy Harry was after having him on the radio show twice in as many months, not that Zara had caught either of them. She could see how busy he was for herself, she only had to open Twitter and something about him would have been retweeted by someone - a secret show, a TV appearance, an interview. 

However, she couldn’t forgive the phone on the table, or Harry’s inability to leave it be. It buzzed and flashed constantly and when it wasn’t doing so, Harry was pressing the button to light up the screen and check it. Maybe she could have gotten over it if he’d done it occasionally when their conversation lulled into silence, but not when he was doing it halfway through conversations as well as in the quiet. Zara found herself starting up and maintaining most lines of talk, and as much as she wanted the quiet to linger until it made Harry feel awkward, she always seemed to cave first. 

The whole thing made her feel like she was intruding on something, like she shouldn’t be there, like there was a hundred and one other things Harry would rather be doing and about a million people he’d rather be with. She felt like an inconvenience and, she hated herself for it, but that feeling nearly made her cry as she walked home. 

Harry had offered to drive her at the end of their night, about two hours earlier than Zara had anticipated it being, but by that point she couldn’t think of anything much worse that sitting in the car, with Harry, back to her house. When she got in, Nick was, unsurprisingly, still up watching TV on the sofa. As was the norm, he had a blanket pulled over his legs, both dogs curled up either side of him, Pig a little too close to the bowl of popcorn on Nick’s lap to make Zara want to take some. Normally she’d be tucked up the other side of Pig, her legs laid over Nick’s where the popcorn was. They really needed to get another couch. 

Obviously Nick asked how the date had gone, a smug smile on his face assuming it had gone as well in real life as it had in his head. Zara didn’t hold back. She didn’t forget who it was she was talking about it just didn’t matter to her that he was Harry Styles, or one of Nick’s good friends. The date had still been disappointing and had left her feeling a little hurt. Although she didn’t admit to that part. 

Normally Nick might sympathise, sit and listen, nodding and making noises of approval as she ranted, but on this occasion he just commented something about how out of character Harry’s behaviour sounded. Zara just groaned in response and took herself off to bed, not appreciating Nick’s lazy excuses for Harry. She should have known when Harry sat down opposite her that it would be a bad idea, but she’d been drawn in by his eyes and the apologetic, kind smile he’d thrown at her as he sat down and excused his lateness. 

There were enough butterflies darting around Zara’s stomach to make her feel nauseous as she stood in front of the tall mirror in her bedroom, and checked her quickly put together outfit. Harry had told her to go casual when she’d asked what the dress code was, but she didn’t quite believe him. She couldn’t remember ever seeing Harry in anything that she’d call casual. Last time he’d been at the house he’d had a vividly patterned shirt on (that Zara had admired and wanted to ask where it had come from, but knew it would be somewhere she wouldn’t be able to afford in a million years), a pair of black jeans, dark black jeans, not faded like her’s, and a pair of loafers that she knew were from the Gucci collection. She knew because she’d been eyeing them up. That was what you called wishful thinking.

Zara had hedged her bets on the ‘go casual’ instruction from Harry, and decided to finally get a new pair of the classic black Jamie jeans out of her uniform allowance. And now she was stood in front of the mirror, in said jeans and also a black silk shirt that was patterned with small, bright pink, flamingos. She had the shirt undone to her breast bone, exposing the milky white skin underneath that didn’t match her dark brown hair, that she’d chopped to shoulder length (somewhat regrettably) but did match her bright, pale blue eyes. The silver chain she always wore, hung down in the v of the shirt and tickled her skin, the way it always did, as she moved. Despite the fact she was trying to verge away from wearing all black, all the time, she opted to pull her black chelsea boots over her feet, deciding the suede baby pink jacket that was on the coat hook downstairs would work as a pop of colour, along with the flamingos. 

As she left her bedroom she could smell the stir fry Nick was cooking downstairs, as well as the hiss of the pan as he added ingredients, and the clatter of utensils. Zara trotted down the stairs to the kitchen where she leaned against the breakfast bar opposite Nick and his frying pan. Nick looked over his shoulder to Zara, a friendly smile on his face. 

‘You look pretty.’ Nick complimented, but Zara just looked up at him through her eyelashes with flared nostrils. ‘You do, I like the shirt.’ Zara knew the words had an underlying ‘I’ve got my eyes on that’ tone, but didn’t warn him away like she often did.

‘Got new jeans too.’ She mumbled lifting her leg so he could see the stark, black material of her new jeans over the breakfast bar. 

‘Well I hope Mr Styles knows what a privilege that is.’ Nick jested turning back to his dinner as Zara rolled her eyes, the sound of the doorbell following. ‘Have fun.’ Nick called after her, laughing as Zara looked to him with an unimpressed glare. Zara grabbed her jacket from the hooks at the top of the stairs as she passed them, throwing it over her shoulders as she scampered down the stairs. Harry was visible through the obscured glass panels in the door, Zara knew it was him even though his form was distorted by the glass.

‘You look lovely.’ Harry announced, pretty much the second Zara opened the door to him. It gave her the feeling that he’d been planning on saying it no matter what she looked like when he saw her.

‘You look … casual.’ Zara commented in response, looking him up and down and taking in his outfit. She wished she’d not bothered with new jeans, because Harry’s were far more faded than her old ones, and ripped at the knees, ripped more than they were originally designed to be. A white t-shirt poked out from the gold, satin, bomber jacket he was wearing and he had a black breton cap on his head. The brown boots on his feet were scuffed and clearly old. Zara felt positively over dressed and that was nearly as bad as being under dressed. 

‘I did say casual.’ Harry reminded her, an undertone of hurt in his voice. 

‘Yes to be fair you did.’ Zara turned to the sound of footsteps behind her, she knew Nick wouldn’t be able to resist. He had a mischievous grin on his face as he joined Zara at the door, taking it from her hand and pulling it open a bit more as he leaned against it, crossing one leg over the other.

‘Come to pick her up this time ey Harold?’ Nick jested with a wink, and Harry simply shook his head. Zara let one corner of her mouth turn up in a half smile, realising she wasn’t the only one who did that to Nick when he toyed with them. ‘Not wearing tea towels today I see.’ 

‘Tea towels?’ Zara interrupted, a look of disgust on her face, and she flicked her head to look up at Nick. 

‘Do you not listen to my radio show?’ 

‘No, not really.’ Zara lied, pouting her lips a little as she did so.

‘Well that’s great.’ Zara heard a bubble of a chuckle come from Harry and she felt her mouth turning to a smile once again, this time less consciously. ‘Go on get out of here before you offend me again.’ 

‘Yeah, right, see you later then.’ Zara sighed, completely missing the hurt that ran onto Harry’s face for a second, leaving just as quickly as it appeared, at the disappointed tone of her voice. 

Silence fell over them as they walked away from the house. Harry had shoved his hands into his pockets pretty quickly after Nick had closed the door behind Zara, and as the quiet lingered on Zara couldn’t help but feel the evening was going in the same direction as the last. She tried to push it to the back of her mind. She tried to remember, and focus on, Nick’s advice of not judging Harry by the first date instead. However, it didn’t stop her from remaining deadly quiet to try and force Harry into saying something to break the sound blackout. 

‘So I thought I’d take you to one of my favourite spots.’ Harry announced suddenly, and it took Zara a little by surprise. Harry smiled, a lopsided but big smile that made his cheek dimple in a way she’d never noticed before, as she looked up to him with wide, bright blue eyes. ‘I’ve got GBK in the car so-’ 

‘So that’s why Grim was asking about burgers earlier.’ Zara realised, nodding her head slowly, once, as the pieces puzzled together in her mind. 

‘I asked him to be subtle about that.’ Harry admitted, his face a little creased and his bottom lip pouted and petulant, but in a way that was endearing. 

‘He was it just, well, it’s kinda obvious when earlier he was asking what my GBK order was and now you’re saying you’ve got GBK in the car for our date.’ Zara felt her tummy fizz as she said the word and she thought she saw something in Harry’s face that told her his did the same. Though there was also a little disappointment in his features as he realised his romantic plan had been foiled, and wasn’t quite so romantic anymore, or at least Harry thought not. Zara didn’t mind though, she thought it was cute. ‘It’s fine don’t worry about it, at least you didn’t guess and get me something I’d have hated.’ 

‘Well, I thought we could go and eat it at this spot I like, I think, well I hope you’ll like it.’ Harry rambled looking at his feet as they walked, getting closer to the Range Rover Zara had only just noticed. ‘Quieter than a restaurant.’ She could see he was nervous, it was filtering off of him, it was easy for her to spot because it was the personification of how she was feeling inside. There was something about it that charmed her. Harry Styles nervous for a date with little old Zara. That was something to tell the grandkids about. 

‘It sounds lovely.’ Zara said with a smile of genuine excitement and happiness, one she hoped would reassure him a little. Harry opened the car door for her and she whispered a coy ‘thanks’ as she slid into the passenger seat. 

As Harry rounded the front of the car for the driver’s side, Zara took a discreet, deep breath. Suddenly there was a kaleidoscope of butterflies inside her, and she was full to the brim with nervous energy. She was sure it couldn’t be a coincidence that Harry was taking her on her ideal, idea of a date. She was fairly certain Nick might have planted the seed in Harry’s head. But that didn’t matter. It felt exciting with just the right amount of scary added in. It felt the way a first date should feel. 

The drive from Zara’s house wasn’t long, but it seemed Harry was determined not to let silence fall the way he had in the restaurant two weeks ago. Every time a topic came to a natural end, he’d start another one. Zara didn’t mind, it had her feeling the opposite of what she had done at the restaurant. Instead of feeling like she shouldn’t be there with Harry, or like Harry wanted to be anywhere else with anyone else, she felt like she was the only person on his mind, the centre of his attention, like every question he asked her was all he cared about knowing in that moment. Harry’s eyes were focused solely on the road ahead of them, but she felt like his mind might just be filled with her. 

It was. But, he was trying to play it cool. His stomach was a wash with the tumbling waves of a nervous buzz that was charging through him. But, he was trying not to let that show as he concentrated on the road ahead, even though, really, the only thing he was concentrating on was making Zara smile and feel comfortable in his company, trying to make sure she forgot about the way he’d acted two weeks ago at dinner with her. 

He made sure he was driving as carefully as he could. Normally he might run amber lights or rev the car up a little more than necessary, trying to get it up to speed quicker. Not tonight though. He was aware driving like that made him look just as much of a dick as he had done when he couldn’t leave his phone alone, whilst dining on Mexican food with a beautiful girl. Harry was more than aware what a bad impression he’d given on their blind date, and he was determined to reverse that now that he had the chance. 

The week of their blind date had been Harry’s busiest week in a long time. It had been a never ending cycle of interviews - phone calls followed by emails followed by meetings followed by phone calls and so on. By the Sunday evening Harry was exhausted and the impending flight to LA, for his weeklong stint on the Late Late Show with James, was playing on his mind more than it should have been. He knew he should have rearranged the date, but it slipped his mind and when he remembered on Sunday afternoon, with only three hours until the date, it was too late. He didn’t want to let Nick down, and he didn’t want to let the mystery girl down. 

When Harry saw Zara sat at the table, wearing a body hugging, long sleeved, black dress, he regretted not rearranging. He knew he wouldn’t be able to give the date his all, he wasn’t in the headspace for it, but he really wanted to be able to. He was already late when he arrived and that was never the impression he wanted to give to anyone, but particularly Zara. If he had known Zara was the one he was meeting for dinner he’d have rearranged for a time when he didn’t feel like he was going to fall asleep any second or like one more notification on his phone would have him pulling his hair out.

Harry had wanted a shot with Zara from their first introduction. It was no secret. Harry had never been good at hiding his feelings and if anyone was going to catch him out. it would be Nick. Harry knew Nick had noticed the way Harry’s eyes always fell on Zara when she was in the room, followed her around and watched after her even when she’d left. He couldn’t help himself, he just wanted to look at her, admire her. 

She’d looked beautiful sat opposite him that night. It was only when he drove himself home from dinner that he realised he’d never told her that.

‘What happened?’ Nick asked, answering Harry’s call with the question rather than a ‘hello.’ ‘Z said it was awful.’ Harry could have cried. He felt awful. He hadn’t even wanted to be around himself that night, so he couldn’t imagine how it had felt for Zara.

‘It was awful,’ but that wasn’t quite true, ‘I was awful, I need her number Grimmy.’ Harry begged and he heard Nick scoff down the line. ‘Please Grim, I need to make it up to her.’ Harry continued, still a tone of desperation in his voice.

‘She’s pretty pissed of mate, I’m not sure she’d appreciate it.’ Nick informed Harry, and he felt his heart drop into his stomach. Regret, laced with guilt, washed through him. He’d blown his chance because he couldn’t switch off from his work brain for a few hours to just be with someone. It was out of character to say the least. Harry had always worked hard on separating his work and private life, and at a time it could have really counted for something, he’d failed to achieve it.

‘Please Nick, I really need to make it up to her, I need her to know that I’m not a twat, she thinks I’m a twat.’

‘She used a stronger word than that.’ Nick lied but Harry didn’t need to know that. Zara hadn’t had to say it, it was written all over her face when she walked through the door, how hurt she was by the way Harry had acted at dinner. Nick knew Harry would really have to pull it out of the bag to make it up to Zara, and, Nick knew, for Harry to do that he had to at least think Zara really did think he was a massive bell. She probably did think he was a massive bell.

‘Fine, but it better be good Harry.’ Nick warned fully aware if it was anyone else, even another of his friends, there would be no hope in hell he’d be passing Zara’s number onto them following the date Zara had described to Nick. As far as he was concerned, someone who didn’t appreciate Zara completely didn’t deserve her time. But it was Harry and Nick knew he could do better, Nick knew he did appreciate Zara really, or at least could, given the chance.

Nick’s words rung in Harry’s mind as he parked the car, ‘make it good Harry’ he repeated over and over to himself in his mind as he concentrated on the parallel park. He had no idea how often Zara went on dates or when her last date was, aside from their date, and he didn’t really care to find out. All he cared about was making sure her date with him that night was the best date she’d had so far. He planned on it going well enough that by the end of the night he’d feel comfortable asking her on a third date, where he’d go on to better himself.

There was something about Zara, and it was even more obvious now she was sat in the passenger seat of his car. Harry wanted to go all out for her. He wanted there to be no doubt in her mind that she was all he cared about, that she was the only thing on his mind. There was something fizzing around inside him that was a little bit more than he was used to, and was definitely a result of more than just physical attraction. 

Zara followed Harry from the car, even though by that point she had an idea where they’d end up. As they walked side by side, they both allowed a comfortable silence to fall. Neither felt the need to punctuate it with conversation or fleeting comments anymore. They walked closely, the cuff of Zara’s jacket brushing against Harry’s every so often. If his hands had been free she’d have considered reaching out to hold one of them, but they were full, and apart from that it was too soon. He still had some proving to do. 

Purples and oranges bled into one another in the sky as the sun began to fall behind the horizon. It cast a glow over the city below as they reached the top of the hill that made the concrete jungle look like the city of gold. Zara noticed the way it danced on Harry’s flawlessly smooth skin like glitter, making his eyes sparkle with more than what was already dancing in them. There wasn’t a single other person around, which Zara thought odd. Whenever she’d been up there, which admittedly was normally the middle of the day, there was no where to sit apart from the grass. That night they took the empty bench. 

‘Good spot.’ Zara commented as she sat down, crossing her legs up underneath her, Harry taking the space beside her. She looked to him as he did so and saw the smile, oozing with pride (but not cockily so), that spread over his face from her words. She liked that. Making him feel good about himself, making him feel like he’d done good. It looked better than the disappointed look he’d given her at the end of their last date when she’d rejected his ride home. It suited him more and made her feel warmer. 

‘I like it.’ Harry returned, pulling food from the brown bags and handing things to her. Zara noticed the note of extra jalapenos on the burger that Harry handed to her and she smiled, pleased Harry had gone with it and not thought she’d regret it like others had tended to. 

‘Ketchup?’ She asked hopefully. 

‘And mayo.’ Harry told her proudly handing the sauce sachets to Zara. 

‘Wow Grim really didn’t forget anything huh?’ 

‘Heyyy.’ Zara snapped her head to Harry at his response. His face was a picture of offence and she had to try not to laugh. ‘I remembered from the restaurant actually.’ Zara knew she looked taken aback because she felt it. She didn’t think he’d taken any notice of anything she’d said that night, but in particular when she’d asked for ketchup and mayo to go with her spicy fries before mixing them together on the side and dipping the chips in. ‘I was taking notice of you, I know I didn’t show it but I was.’ Zara nodded and looked down at the food clutched in her hands, feeling a little awkward with the change of conversation. ‘You looked beautiful.’ Zara felt her cheeks redden with Harry’s compliment. 

At the end of the night she’d wished she hadn’t, but she had made an effort for their dinner. She’d pulled her hair back from her face and even cracked open the highlighter she’d bought three months previous, but never touched. It had stung when Harry hadn’t told her she looked nice, even though she’d told herself she hadn’t done it for him. Nick had managed to tell her she looked pretty, why hadn’t her date been able to? 

‘Thanks.’ She mumbled bashfully.

‘I should have told you then, I’m sorry.’ Zara shook her head and caught Harry’s gaze, staring down at her, as she lifted her eyes to him. She had a feeling that his eyes had never left her even when she was looking down at her hands. They swam with regret, wide and puppy like as he watched her. ‘For the whole night, I’m sorry, I really don’t want you to think I’m that person, I’d quite like it if you liked me.’

‘I do like you.’ Zara admitted, neither pair of eyes dropping. Harry saw that she meant it in the smile that started to creep in and the way her bright blue orbs softened. He knew he was doing the same. He didn’t care if she saw, he wanted her to see, he wanted her to know the effect she was having on him. ‘Let’s just forget about the restaurant date thing,’ She stumbled over her words, feeling a little hot under the collar due to Harry’s unrelenting gaze. ‘Let’s call this the first date.’

‘Sounds good to me.’ Harry beamed and Zara giggled before finally dropping his stare and turning to her food, unwrapping it carefully. ‘You look really good by the way.’ Zara giggled again, feeling just like the teenage school girl Harry had made her feel like the first time he’d spoken to her in her kitchen. She welcomed the feeling back with open arms, it felt good to have him make her feel like she was made of jelly.

‘Thanks.’ 

‘So you like spicy food?’ Zara hummed happily as she bit into her burger, nodding as she chewed on the food. The spice from the Sriracha sauce, that was a frequent accompaniment to her meals, and the extra jalapenos lighting up her tastebuds. Harry chuckled with the sparkle in her eyes, clearly thrilled with her burger choice.

‘Wanna try?’ Zara asked after swallowing. Harry looked at her a little timidly and Zara giggled. ‘It’s not that hot I promise.’ She lied mischievously, but Harry could tell. Even so he took a bite of the burger Zara was pushing towards him. The heat instantly set fire to his mouth and he winced at it, Zara giggling as his face contorted. 

‘That was mean.’ Harry announced, food still in his mouth, but not caring as his tongue continued to be scalded. He breathed heavily through his mouth to try and cool his tongue, waving his hand over his tongue that he had stuck out in the air, all to the soundtrack of Zara’s giggles. ‘I’ll get you back for that.’

‘It’s not that hot.’ Zara insisted taking another mouthful and chewing on it like it was candy floss, completely unaffected by the spice. 

‘You must be a mutant or something.’ Zara laughed loudly at Harry’s comment, his grin beaming as she did so. His teeth were on show, his cheek dimpled and his eyes creased. It suited him and he glowed with it. Zara could have stared at him all night looking like that, it was warming her and it was beautiful. It felt even better knowing he was smiling like that thanks to her. 

The evening passed to night and soon they were sat in pitch black, the only lights those of the city below. It gave their skin a ghostly glow but somehow Zara still managed to take Harry’s breath away when she looked out over the city and spoke about fashion as passionately as he spoke about music. It radiated off her, her love for clothes and fabrics and patterns. It had Harry smiling at her like a loon as she spoke and when she turned to look at him, as she finished, he didn’t mind that he’d caught her. He just smiled bigger, and she returned it, though a little bashfully. 

Conversation passed easily between them and the giddy feeling Zara had been feeling in Harry’s car had subdued so she just felt high on being in his company, but relaxed and comfortable. She had noticed how he moved closer every so often even, though it was clear he didn’t really want her to call him out on it, so she didn’t, just enjoyed the feeling of his body getting closer to hers. She felt warmer as he got closer and when their thighs and arms finally touched it felt like she’d been licked by flames, in an intense, exciting, thrilling way. Like walking on coals.

‘So do you kiss on the first date?’ Zara looked up to Harry with his question. He had a smirk on his face, one side of his mouth lifted, his lips just slightly poutier than normal. Zara chuckled breathily at him and shook her head. Maybe she would have done but despite how enjoyable their evening had been, the memory of their dinner was at the back of her mind and she didn’t want to get involved with that Harry. She wanted to know the Harry she’d shared burgers with was the real Harry.

‘More like the third.’ She told him and Harry sighed a little disappointed. It felt good to her though, having him react like that to being declined a kiss from her. 

‘Guess I’ll be rolling two dates into one next time then.’ Zara giggled and nodded looking back away from him as her cheeks started to warm, even though he wouldn’t have been able to tell in the dark.

‘Are you asking me on a second date?’ 

‘Of course I am, are you mad?’ Zara laughed again and looked back at him as he lifted his arm to wrap around her shoulder. The smirk had gone and was instead replaced by the big bright smile that made the butterflies come back far too quickly. She wanted to kiss him, she really did. His lips looked so soft and pink and wanting to be kissed, but she stuck to her guns and instead moved in a bit closer to rest her head on his shoulder. She felt him lean his head down onto hers as she looked out over their city. 

++

‘Is that a lady’s shirt?’ Zara asked Nick as she wandered from the staircase to the kitchen. Nick turned to her question, as did Harry who was stood next to him. He had that dopey smile on his face as soon as his eyes landed on Zara, she didn’t miss it and didn’t hesitate to return a similarly friendly smile. He’d turned up to take her on their second date, twenty five minutes earlier than planned. It was clear he was still going all out to prove he wasn’t the tardy, uninterested person he’d appeared at the Mexican restaurant, despite their agreement to forget about it. 

‘No, why do you want to borrow it?’ Nick asked looking down at the green and navy leopard print shirt he’d opted for. It wasn’t rare that Zara would ask to borrow one of Nick’s shirts, or a t-shirt, or jumper, she liked his fashion sense and he liked that, so he let her take what she wanted. 

The pair had met through a mutual friend. Introduced at a party after Nick had announced he was looking for a housemate. He hated being on his own, particularly living on his own, he loved to be around people and he’d gladly rent out his spare room at a vastly reduced rate if it meant he got someone to live with. Zara had just moved to London and was currently living on the sofa of a university friends living room, but it was temporary and she was desperate to find somewhere. It seemed an obvious match, particularly considering they hit it off straight away. Nick was hard not to get on with, but so was Zara and the pairing just worked. Living together meant they shared a lot, Zara wouldn’t outwardly describe Nick has her best friend, and the same applied to him, but they probably weren’t far off. At least, Zara hadn’t told anyone else about her disastrous date with Harry.

‘Yeah, I’ll nab that later.’ Zara giggled as she wandered around the breakfast bar to stand opposite the two men. Harry’s eyes, as always, didn’t leave her. 

‘No black jeans, someone’s trying to impress.’ Nick jested, sticking his tongue between his teeth and holding back a giggle. Zara shook her head at him and tried not to become self conscious of her bare legs. Harry had noticed the blue denim skirt she’d opted for but he liked it, she looked fantastic in it.

‘She looks great.’ Harry announced eyes still on Zara. She looked to him and smiled thankfully. 

‘Never said she didn’t look good.’ Nick pointed out. Nick threw compliments out to Zara on a near daily basis, Zara didn’t know why, but she couldn’t deny it was a confidence boost she’d learned to love. ‘So you kissed her yet?’ Harry shook his head and Zara could feel her cheeks blushing. Nick was always forward, and she should have expected no less, but even so she wished he hadn’t asked.

‘Nah, she has a three date rule.’ Nick scoffed, eyes creased at Harry’s words and Zara shook her head again.

‘Three date rule!?’ Nick laughed. ‘She’s pulling your leg there.’

‘Hey, after the first date I think three’s reasonable.’ Zara explained but Nick just continued to giggle. She rolled her eyes to Harry whose smile had fallen, eyes also and she felt a little guilty for her words. It definitely wasn’t a case of not wanting to kiss Harry, simply that she felt she shouldn’t. ‘Well shall we get going?’ Zara asked quickly. Harry nodded and pushed himself away from the countertop he was leaning against. They both said goodbye to Nick and Zara led the way from the house, pulling the front door closed behind them. ‘So where we going?’

‘Surprise.’ Harry winked with a cheeky smile that forced a giggle from Zara. It seemed that it didn’t matter how much time she spent with Harry, he’d always have butterflies erupting inside her, but she liked it and it was getting addictive. Just being in his presence had her feeling the right kind of on edge that made her want to be around him all the time. 

Harry’s car wasn’t even in sight as they walked down the road away from the house, Zara began to wonder if he’d even driven. However, when she felt his hand take hers, encasing her fingers in his, she thought maybe there was a reason for parking so far away that the car was out of sight. Zara looked down at their hands as Harry made his comfortable. His large palm and long fingers were warm around hers, the metal of his rings a contrast to that. When she looked up to find Harry’s face his eyes were already on her. 

‘Is this ok?’ He asked a little timidly. Zara simply nodded at him before switching her gaze to the road ahead pretending to focus on where they were going rather than the thrill she was feeling from having Harry holding onto her hand. 

Harry smiled to himself as he walked with Zara’s hand in his. It was small and cold but it felt like it fit just right in his. He’d been talking himself up to it from the moment he saw Zara in the kitchen and she’d pretty much taken his breath away, yet again. The fear that she’d pull her hand from his or tell him it was too soon, or some other rejection that would set them two steps back, held him back. But something, he couldn't put his finger on what, made him go for it as they began the walk towards his car. 

‘Oh.’ Zara couldn't help but be a little surprised as Harry stopped walking, their joined hands meaning he pulled her back a little. Harry chuckled as he unlocked the classic, red, Jaguar E Type. Zara’s eyes were wide and Harry chuckled again. ‘Sorry, I wasn’t erm, sorry don’t worry.’ 

Why she was so surprised they weren’t getting into a Range Rover she didn’t know. Of course he had more than one car. Of course he had a classic E Type. No matter how easily he made her forget, he was still Harry Styles. Harry opened the passenger side door for her and she thanked him as she ducked to slide into the car. Even Zara, who didn’t have a mind for cars, could appreciate the beauty of this one.

‘Sorry I hadn’t got it out in a while and since it’s a beautiful day, I thought we could put the roof down.’ Harry explained as he went about pulling back the soft top roof, letting the scorching sun rays into the car to dance to Zara’s bare legs and arms. Zara smiled appreciating the sun and relaxing in the seat as she basked in it. She dropped her head to the side when Harry sat in the car beside her, ‘Alright sun baby.’ Harry chuckled taking her in, the content smile on her face, unbeknown to him, not just from the warmth the sun was offering.

‘Well I am a fire sign.’ She explained cooly. 

‘Should have guessed.’ Harry mumbled with a laugh, as he pulled away. Zara ignored the comment. She had no idea what that all meant anyway, although she couldn’t deny she was intrigued by it. She wondered if Harry’s comment was genuine, if he really know something she didn’t, and she was acting just the way her star sign would predict. Did it make her as predictable as she tried not to be now he knew that? 

The drive to wherever they were going was filled with the sound of the radio that neither of them moved to turn down or off. It didn’t feel necessary to load their time together with chat when they were both comfortable enough to enjoy the music and the sound of the wind, that whipped at Zara’s hair, as they drove. Harry was more focused on the road this time around, and Zara got the feeling he wasn’t one hundred percent sure of how to get where they were going. It had her feeling a little nervous at what was ahead. She snuck glances at Harry every so often and he looked glorious. She could feel herself getting weak for him and, even if she’d wanted to, she couldn’t stop herself, or hate herself for that.

Harry parked in the first spot he saw in the small carpark of the village they drove into. It was a typical quaint English village, and Zara couldn’t even guess what Harry had in store for their date. Harry led the way from the car, his hand surrounding Zara’s again, his long ringed fingers a little like a safety blanket as nerves rose in her tummy at the unknown. Zara always loved being out of the city on a sunny day, the city was great and she loved calling London home, but you couldn’t beat the charm of a small English village, or the seaside when the weather was at its best.The traditional buildings and cobbled streets would always make her feel at home.

Zara looked up at Harry questioningly, as he pushed the door of a cutesy, cupcake shop open. He smiled down at her reassuringly, but said nothing to give her a clue as to what was going on. A young woman, the kind that Zara imagined seeing walking down the street with two toddlers in tow, appeared from behind a counter with a beaming smile. 

‘Hi, can I help?’ Zara could tell she recognised Harry from the blush on her cheeks and her fumbling words, but she didn’t say anything. Zara wondered what was going through the woman’s head as she took her and Harry in, Harry’s hand still holding onto hers and not loosening. 

‘Yeah I’ve got a cupcake masterclass booked.’ Zara tried not to laugh, instead biting her lips together as Harry spoke politely to the woman. 

‘Ah, yes, come on through.’ The woman beamed turning and leading Harry and Zara to the back of the shop where single island benches were set up. It was a little reminiscent of the Bake Off and Zara couldn’t help but get excited at it. ‘There’s aprons on the benches, help yourself and I’ll be back in a second.’ Zara smiled a thanks, shy in the company of a stranger. Once the woman had left the room, Zara looked up to Harry and giggled. 

‘Good idea, thought it would be fun?’ He explained with a hopeful smile. 

‘I’m sure it will be.’ Zara said taking one of the aprons from the side, the green one, leaving Harry with the pink and white polka dot one.  ‘I’m excited.’ She admitted tying her apron tight behind her back. Harry couldn’t help but notice what it did to her figure, her waist cinched where the apron tied emphasising her wide hips, that had him feeling something he knew he shouldn’t spend too long thinking about.

‘Right then guys, I’m Louise, I’m the head baker here at Swallow Bakery.’ Louise rambled, on a spiel that Zara could tell was pre-rehearsed and spoken regularly. She went through the options Harry and Zara had to bake that morning as well as some of the equipment they were using, though Zara was proud to admit that she was already familiar with most of what Louise was showing her, apart from the piping bag that Zara could never be bothered to use if she was making cakes at home. Too much faff for Zara’s liking, and a ball ache to clean. ‘So what cupcakes would you like to go for?’ Harry looked at Zara, indicating she should go first. 

‘Can I do the Red Velvet?’ Louise nodded with a sweet smile and looked to Harry.

‘I think I’ll go Carrot.’ 

‘Perfect, ok, I’ll just grab a few bits but you make yourselves comfortable, there’s tea in the pot there and coffee, just help yourselves.’ Harry smiled a thanks as Louise left the room again. 

‘Ok?’ Harry asked, Zara nodded with a happy smile that reassured Harry. He’d worried it would be too out there, a little unconventional and Zara would be put off by it, but she seemed to be into the idea. ‘Did you want tea?’ 

‘Yes please.’ Harry wandered over to the pot of tea on the counter that Louise had pointed out. ‘White, no sugar.’ Zara told Harry before he could ask and he chuckled to himself. He liked that she was forward, but also clearly shy. It made him think he made her feel relaxed and Harry got a kick out of that.  He liked making her laugh and making her smile, he liked listening to her talk. It all made it seem like she was comfortable around him, and that he loved. He passed the tea cup to Zara and she took a delicate sip, humming as it hit her taste buds before she swallowed.

Louise soon appeared with a tea caddy filled with ingredients. Harry helped as she began to unload them onto the bench, and Zara fizzed with how much of a gentleman he was. He was one of the most famous people on the planet, but Zara always felt like she was sharing company with a young lad who worked at the local pub or something. He was so grounded and content with himself and she never felt intimidated by him. She didn’t know how he did it, but she enjoyed that he did.

The pair followed the instructions Louise had given to them, listening to her tips as they went. Harry took the opportunity, when Louise’s back was turned, and Zara was preoccupied reading her instructions, to stick his finger in her batter, Zara quickly swatting his hand away with a giggle when she caught him. Harry’s eyes went wide and childlike as he sucked the light, creamy batter from the end of his finger, Zara giggling again as she blushed at the gesture shaking her head and turning back to her instructions. Zara felt like she was giggling unrelentlessly as the pair acted like a couple of lovestruck teenagers. They fooled around and kept trying to find ways to get closer to each other at the bench until they may as well have been stood in front of one another. Harry’s hands found Zara as often as possible and Zara reached out for Harry’s wrist when he continued to try and dab cake batter on the end of her nose.

Zara hadn’t had so much fun on a date in as long as she could remember, and Harry didn’t think he ever had. He always tried to be himself when getting to know someone so he knew they were with him for the right reasons, but he didn’t think he’d ever been so like himself so soon with a girl before. He was being the joker he really was, and the gentleman, and the thinker, and all of it had Zara swooning inwardly. 

‘So both your cakes have cream cheese frosting on top so you can make it together if you want?’ Louise announced once their cupcakes were out of the oven and cooling on the side. 

‘What do you reckon Z? Bit of teamwork.’ Zara would normally have bristled, or flinched, when someone she hardly knew clipped her name like that, but she kept forgetting she hardly knew Harry. She felt so at ease with him that it felt like she’d known him, really known him, a lot longer than a few weeks. 

‘As long as when it turns out to the be the best cream cheese frosting you’ve ever tasted you don’t take all the credit.’ She jested and Harry chuckled with Louise, as Zara pulled a clean mixing bowl closer. 

It was as Zara cubed butter into the bowl that Harry moved to stand behind her. He made out like he was trying to see past her to look at the instructions for how much icing sugar they needed, but Zara knew he was stood behind her for a lot longer than it would have taken him to do that. His hand rested lightly on her waist, as she stood, eyes flicking over the laminated instructions. Electricity buzzed through Zara from his touch, and she had to wiggle her toes to keep from giggling with the feeling. She couldn’t stop the smile though, and she was sure Harry saw it because he squeezed her waist just a little before moving back to the icing sugar and the scales.

She wanted him to do it again, stand behind her and hold her waist, she wanted his arms around her. She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t thought about it, but she settled with bumping him with her hip as he poured icing sugar into the bowl. It knocked his balance and icing sugar fell to the counter releasing a puff of dust around Harry. Zara laughed loudly as Harry batted it away coughing and scalding her slightly. He reached out and grabbed her waist, tickling her through her t-shirt, a slight scream leaving her mouth as she jumped away from him, Louise completely forgotten by both of them. 

‘That’ll teach you to bump me.’ Harry growled jokingly, reaching around her back and pulling her close again by the hip. She smiled hoping Harry had the same feeling inside him that she had. He did and he was high on it. It was addictive, flirting with her, acting like a foolish schoolboy.

They finished their cupcakes, icing them perfectly with the piping bag that Louise gave them a quick demonstration on how to use. Harry finished his with pre-made candy carrots and Zara finished hers with a sprinkling of tiny, candy love hearts. Zara had never made anything so pretty, and she was quite impressed with herself. Normally baking was a quick fix for her, normally half from memory, and a bit of mix and match of whatever she had in the cupboard that she could make work. The cakes she’d made with Harry looked like they could actually go on sale, to be fair, so did Harry’s. 

‘Time for the taste test then.’ Louise said with a smile taking one of each cake and cutting them into quarters. She took a piece of Harry’s first chewing on it slowly and nodding. ‘Very nice Harry, good work.’ She complimented and Zara saw the proud smile on his face. Louise took a piece of Zara’s, and Zara bit down on her lip as she put it in her mouth. She wasn’t sure why she felt so nervous, it’s wasn’t like there was actually something riding on the outcome. ‘Wow Zara, that’s really good, well done, beautiful sponge.’ Louise announced with wide eyes. Zara beamed happy with her work. 

‘So who’s is best?’ Harry asked hopefully. 

‘Well, I think it has to be Zara I’m afraid.’ Zara clapped her hands together smugly, looking up to Harry with a grin on her face. She tilted her head to the side as Harry looked down at her disappointed with pouty lips. 

‘What’s up loser?’ She taunted, jabbing him in the side gently.

‘I used to be a baker you know.’ Harry informed her, eyes wide with his serious tone.

‘Obviously not a very good one.’ Zara joked, sticking her tongue through her teeth as she laughed, Harry’s brow dipping and his mouth falling open. She’d said three dates, but she could have kissed him then, mocking disappointment and offence. His cranberry pink lips were pouted and begging to be kissed. Instead she reached for a piece of her cupcake and lifted it to his mouth, the gesture putting the smile on his face that had her falling.

++

‘So you’re into astrology?’ Zara asked, taking another segment of the scotch egg, thinking back to his comment in the car earlier that day. They were sat, on a picnic blanket, in Harry’s back garden enjoying the sun, with a typical picnic spread, including the cupcakes they’d baked earlier that day.

Zara had been able to tell he was nervous about asking her back to his after they’d finished at the cupcake shop. He went quiet and was chewing on his mouth. His fingers fidgeted around hers as they wandered back to the car, and he seemed distracted. Finally he asked her though, stumbling over his words a little, and apologising if it was too soon, but, eventually asking her back to his for a picnic in the garden for what would be their third date. Zara had chuckled and told him not to be so ridiculous, it sounded perfect. As all his dates had done.

‘I’ve done some reading around it.’ Harry told her, he was leaned back on his elbows, stretched out on the blanket, looking at Zara through his sunglasses. She could see herself in the reflection of them, her own sunglasses on her face and her hair half tied up after the breeze continued to blow it in her face. She had her legs folded underneath her, trying as hard as she could to be ladylike and save her modesty, though the short denim skirt she was wearing didn’t make it easy. 

‘So what do you think my sign is then?’ Zara challenged with a mischievous smile. Harry moved his pouted lips to one side and stroked his chin, Zara giggling as he did so.

‘I’m gonna guess Leo.’ Harry finally settled on. 

‘Shut up did you just guess right first time?’ Zara’s voice sounded genuinely shocked as Harry chortled at her reaction. ‘Did Grimmy tell you when my birthday was?’ 

‘No, I swear he didn’t.’ Harry chuckled, but Zara gave him a look that told Harry she didn’t believe him. Her eyes narrowed and her cheeks sucked in a little. ‘I promise, you can ask him if you want.’ 

‘Well, how did you know?’

‘You’ve just got Leo traits.’ Harry told her. ‘You’re very ambitious and hardworking, a little self conscious, which a lot people don’t think of as Leo trait but it is sometimes, you’re not mushy when you’re talking about things and people you love, yeah just several things.’ Zara could feel herself smiling as Harry spoke. It was interesting to her and he was clearly very knowledgable about it, but also quite passionate about it. She got the same zingy feeling inside as she did when he talked about music.

‘So what’s your sign?’ Zara asked intrigued and  moving to lay down on her front, next to Harry. She leaned up on her elbows and looked up through her sunglasses to him. His head moved to look down at her, resting on his shoulder a little. 

‘Aquarius.’

‘Tell me some things about Aquarians then.’ Zara instructed.

‘Well we often seem far away and dreamy,’ Zara chuckled thinking back to their first date, ‘I’m just saying, it’s my birthday’s fault I was so detached on our first date.’ Zara shook her head and looked down at the blanket. 

‘Seriously, come on, I’m interested.’ She told him, pleading a little.

‘Ok, ok.’ Harry chuckled. ‘We tend to like to be independant, we’re normally quite artistic and have a silly sense of humour, we’re hopeless romantics but don’t often show it.’ 

‘I’d say you’ve done a pretty good job these past few weeks.’ Zara admitted cooly but her cheeks were flushing a little with it. It was worth it though for the smile that spread onto Harry’s face. 

‘That’s good to know.’ He admitted, feeling relieved that she’d enjoyed their time together as much as he had. Harry looked down at her for a few moments, just getting lost in taking her in. ‘Come up here.’ He suggested, reaching out for her arm and pulling just a little to coax her further up the blanket to him. She did, rolling over so she was sat up and moving closer to him, leaning back on her elbows so they were on the same level. Harry wrapped his arm around her shoulder and encouraged her to lie back with him, his hand resting on the top of her arm and rubbing small circles on her skin, through her top. 

‘I’m really glad I gave you another chance.’ Zara whispered, staring straight up at the perfectly clear, bright blue sky.

‘So am I.’ Harry told her. Zara twisted her neck to look to him, Harry’s eyes, as always seemed to be the case, already on her. He knew he wanted to kiss her. She was beautiful. But, before that she was funny, and before that kind and willing to try, and before that she was sweet and shy. She was beautiful and funny and sweet and smart, and it all balanced out so perfectly. He wanted to kiss her because he didn’t think he’d ever get bored in her company. Because, he saw things, new things, that were interesting or ridiculous, or both, or neither, but either way he always wanted to know what she’d have to say about it. 

‘So we’ve been on three dates now.’ Harry pointed out and blood rushed straight to Zara’s cheeks. It was endearing to Harry, how easily he could make her blush, how shy she got around him at times, yet be so confident at others. She was looking down towards their feet, smiling bashfully. Harry reached for her chin, taking it gently in his fingers and moving her face so she was looking up at him again. She licked her lips, rubbing them together to moisten them, both fully aware of what was coming. She swallowed and Harry felt reassured that she was just as nervous as he was. ‘I’m going to kiss you now if that’s ok?’

‘Ok.’ Zara barely whispered as Harry moved closer. His breath fanned across her face as he got closer, sweet from the strawberries and lemonade he’d tucked into. His lips were on hers before she could even process anything. They were just as soft as she’d imagined and felt just as good on hers as she’d hoped they would. She felt his hand move down from her face to her waist where he pulled her body in closer to his so they were pressed tightly against one another. Zara let her hands move up his chest, finding rest, one on his broad shoulders the other behind his neck, holding him in place because she never wanted it to end. She felt Harry’s hand move further down, resting on the back of her bare thigh and pulling her leg over his so she was wrapped around him. She didn’t mind. It promised something more than a kiss, but at the same time she got the feeling he just wanted to be as close as possible. 

Finally she pulled back, breathless and craving air. Harry was delirious with having kissed her, his hand still at home on her leg, tracing delicate patterns, like lace, onto her skin. Zara blushed again when their eyes met.

‘Worth it?’ She asked, and Harry’s face melted into a look of confusion. His brow creased a little, his eyes blinking quickly a couple of times. ‘The kiss, was it worth all the effort?’ She clarified and Harry smiled brighter.

‘Love, I’d have gone a million dates if it meant I got to kiss you at the end of it.’  

Hope you like this one guys, let me know. 

Big ol thanks to @harrysmeadow and @cuddlemusclestyles for being queens as usual with this one and proof reading all 10k of it. It’s a beast I don’t know how it happened but I appreciate their proofing a lot cause would pretty much be unreadable without them. Also thanks to @trulymadlysydney for helping me out with some of the astrology stuff on this one. Much love.

[rikka-zine]

An Interview with Justin Isis

We are pleased to introduce you to Justin Isis who has lived in Tokyo for ten years. He is a localization specialist by day,  writer and editor by night. He had occasionally worked as a model, consultant, rapper, visual artist and occultist as well. He has helped Chômu Press and Snuggly Books. Both are UK-based publishers. We (hopefully) reveal what these mysterious independent publishers do every night…

RZ Zine (RZ): Can I ask where you are from originally?

Justin Isis (JI): It’s complicated. Actually my father is Italian and mother is Australian. But I was born in New York. I mostly grew up in the US and I moved to Australia when I was about nineteen. I lived there for a few years before coming out here.

RZ: So you grew up mostly in English-speaking countries.

JI: Yeah, I also lived in Italy for three years though.

RZ: So, what brought you Japan?

JI: I originally was interested in Japanese fashion. It was like ten years ago. You probably remember the magazine called FRUiTS (*1 A Japanese fashion magazine running from 1997 to 2016.).  It should be a passionate with street fashion stuff. I was interested in that time period, when I was in high school basically. So I was interested but I didn’t really plan to come to Japan.

But when I was in university, I was living next door some Japanese people. They encouraged me to start studying. I thought I could do like translations or get some kind of job if I could speak Japanese. I started doing it and I was studying here for a year, and then I moved here. I was interested just in the fashion side, then I got really into Japanese writers mostly of Showa period, like Yukio Mishima, Kawabata, Tanizaki, and Akutagawa. Some other writers I feel like close to those writers are Kurahashi Yumiko and Kouno Taeko. I was really interested in them, too.

RZ:  Kurahashi is an amazing author.

JI:  Yes, she is, but it’s not really…I don’t think anyone’s really translating over them. Probably there is just one or two Kurahashi’s books. They’re not really known in English. I could not feel so many translations from that period. I mean, I think maybe some younger or newer writers are getting translated into English. But the older ones, not as much.

RZ:  I see. And I am also interested in fashion.

JI:  Oh really? Do you have any favorite styles, like Gothic & Lolita?

RZ:  I’ve never tried myself but I had sometimes read Gothic & Lolitta Bible. (*2 A Japanese fashion magazine of the genre. It featured some of Visual-Kei artists but they sometimes featured the author Shibusawa Tatsuhiko (1928-1987) either.) 

JI:  Hey, I forgot a band which member manages a Gothic Lolita brand.

RZ: You mean Mana-sama of MALICE MIZER?

JI: That’s it. It was such a dramatic band I used to listen to. But I can hardly listen now. 

I feel like fashion is boring though. Because everything is really fast fashion. I feel like it’s getting really…even Japan is getting…I don’t say globalized. But it’s not as outstanding as before.It is changed. Uniqlo is currently blowing out too, even in the US cities. It is gonna be boring. I was actually gonna write a book that was making fun of Uniqlo. So I just called it Uniqlo. But when I posted about it on Facebook, someone actually like the marketing director of Uniqlo was messaging about it. (Showed “Liked” by her and the message like “Oh I’m looking forward to read it!”) So I was like…I’m not gonna write. (laughs)

Well, I think there’s still interesting fashion things happening. But it’s hard to find something really interested in. I worked in Hiroshima as a host for a while but I got sick of it. Because it’s pretty unhealthy like staying up all night and drinking. I was interesting those kind of fashion and I was in some of those magazines like Men’s Egg and Men’s Spider. I think they’re coming back now. Egg magazine has just restarted because of nostalgia or something.

It is interesting that side of the culture I guess. And I noticed that a lot of books get translated into English but seems that they don’t really talk about it, much address it. Especially if I read Murakami Haruki, I feel like everything is very like generic. If I read his books, I always think when he is looking at Japan, what I feel like is I don’t really know what country it is. And I feel like he never says anything to be specific. It never seems like he goes to Daily Yamazaki. I mean what he is doing like is he is just sitting in Azabu-Juban or something. I don’t know where he is really but I never feel like he talks about clear specific things that much. I guess he is obviously the most popular Japanese writer. But his writing is even in Japanese, I don’t feel like he really writes anything interesting. His Japanese is boring. His Japanese probably is pretty easy to translate because he doesn’t really use difficult words. It is pretty clear and direct. I don’t feel like he really does anything really interesting with his writing. I don’t feel like he really goes in the Japanese everyday life very much. I guess he’s just living in his head, he’s not going to Daily Yamazaki (*a Japanese convenience store chain.)

Well, I would say I know in more detail but I just I figure things that it just smears maybe things that with Japanese food. We’ll just think it is like boring one more something it seems interesting I don’t know.

RZ: Do you read in Japanese?

JI: Yes, I try to. But it’s I usually have to read with original and translation and trying to figure it out especially like Mishima and these kind of older writers. Because they’re usually using strange Kanji. So I try to. But my reading is pretty weak recently. When I was still studying, I read a lot. But now I’m just pretty lazy.

You might have heard of my friend, Quentin S. Crisp (*1), he’s actually translating one of Nagai Kafuu’s novel, Okame Zasa. I think he’s done a half of it and I tried to read the original but I can’t.

(*1  According to his profile in Drowning in Beauty, Quentin S. Crisp was born in 1972, in North Devon, U.K. He studied Japanese at Durham University and he did research in Japanese literature on a Monbusho Scholarship at Kyoto University from 2001 to 2003. His fiction and poetry has been published by Tartarus Press, PS Publishing, Haikasoru and Eibonvale Press. He is studying for an MA in philosophy at Birkbeck College. )

RZ:  How did you two know each other?

JI: We actually met on the internet.  I think I wrote to him. I was reading some comments may be posted on… Do you know Momus? He’s a kind of like musician, sort of a producer. He  produced some J-pop kind of stuff. Quentin who was posting something about him on his blog and he actually mentioned Mishima’s quadrilogy Houjou no Umi (The Sea of Fertility) that I was reading it at that time. So I thought, wow, someone else knows about it. I wrote to him and just kind of became friends through that. That’s what led to Chômu Press. Because he’d gotten some books published, but he had a lot of these other stories that wasn’t really doing anything with. So we thought, we could start our own kind of magazine or blog or whatever to release these stories. And I had some stories too. So he started doing that and then his brother said “I have some capital.” or “I have some funding.” so we can start a company and releasing these books.

RZ: I have been interested in something experimental literature. So I know Eibonvale press, Ex-occidente press, Zagava books and you, Chômu Press…

JI: Yeah, they’re all pretty good like friends. The ex-Occidente guy is called Dan Getsu. He is Romanian. And Eibonvale guy is David Rix and he’s actually got a novel coming out with Snuggly Books. Next one.  So everyone is like working together. It’s quite closely related.

At the moment, I’m actually working with this artist called Gea Philes, she’s from Chile. We’re doing like a kind of a graphic novel. She’s drawing comics and I’m writing. It probably gonna be released on Zagava. But it’s just a kind of grue, weird kind of stuff. We’re doing this like a collaboration and some of it is set in Japan.

RZ: Speaking of Snuggly books, what is it actually? I saw a lot of translation by Brian Stableford were put out from the press.

JI: His health is pretty bad right now so I don’t know if he’s gonna continue much longer. He’s having trouble but still translating. The main idea (of Snuggly) is that, we, I mean Brendan Connell and I, wanted to release a lot of our books but we wanted more money to do it. So we thought if we publish more translations, translations are usually sell well, we make money with the translations and can release other books and we don’t have to worry about trying to make it easier to read. Because our books are pretty weird.

So we’re not so expected but it’s doing pretty well. I think last year we put out 30 or 35 books and then the year before was only maybe 15 or something. So It’s mostly, probably 70 percent are translations. And we want to do some Japanese translations as well. I was thinking about doing like Shinichi Hoshi. Because this is also not really much in English. There’s a few stories but I don’t think there’s any like really big books from him. I’d like to do it because his style is also pretty easy. His Japanese is not super difficult. I could maybe do it but too busy right now. So I don’t know. I’d like to eventually do or we’ll see some other people.

He is really interesting writer but I feel like, in English, not many people know about him. He’s not as famous as like some other writers from the same period. He is an underrated writer because maybe his writing is simple.

So Snuggly, I mean we, want to eventually get Japanese translations published probably and I am too lazy right now doing my own stuff. I think most of them in from in fresh and then recently putting up more Spanish translations both Spanish writers and South American writers coming

out down. This is like weird interesting ones, a kind of decadent Spanish language writers. Some Mexican ones, I think it’s great.

RZ: You told you don’t like SF on an interview through…

JI: Oh, I like science fiction. But I think it’s easy to get a kind of lazy with it. I think a lot of writers maybe coming to it more from watching science fiction movies or the science fiction TV shows which are good. but I think there’s more I think a lot of them are at least starting off from that with that base rather than starting with the books or something I don’t know.

I think that the books are more interesting or like more ahead of the shows like so the the TV shows and movies usually seem like maybe 40 years behind the books or not as interesting.

So I think I probably do read mostly in special interest is Alfred Bester.

RZ: And you like Samuel R. Delany as well?

JI: Yeah, I read a lot of Delaney. Actually he’s one of my influences. There’s another writer called Barrington Bailey. He’s really good, too.

RZ: He is popular in Japan pretty much. His new collection was published just a few years ago.

JI: Oh really?  I’m surprised to hear that he’s not just a few years ago something that’s really strange. Why is he popular in Japan?

RZ: Hmmm, probably some famous translators do on his books? I don’t know.

JI: It’s really unusual. I think he’s still fairly like unknown in Western countries. Anglosphere is still considered him a minor kind of writer. But yeah, he’s got some really amazing stories.

I usually I feel like I just keep coming back to that time period like the 60s and 70s. Cordwainer Smith is my another favorite.

RZ: He is als popular in Japan. His complete collections were published two years ago.

JI: He’s mostly written short stories, I mean they’re all kind of been in the same universe, the same future history forever. His stories influenced me a lot. Who else is good… Joanna Russ is good, too.

RZ: (agreed.) Oh, didn’t you mention Greg Egan? He’s also very popular in Japan.

JI:  Yeah, I can imagine he’d be popular. One of my good friends is doing some kind of math PhD.  He’s American but he’s reading Greg Egan in a Japanese translation and try to improve his Japanese. Greg Egan is really good too. I prefer his short fiction.

I actually lived in in Perth in Australia which is where he gonna swim. I was thinking on the train, it’s like … “you might be Greg Egan.” Because no one knows what he looks like, so maybe he’s just riding the train I might have seen him but we don’t know.

RZ: I brought his latest collection in Japan with me. It was published last week.

JI:  I gotta take a picture for my friend and let him know what I find! (Took photos by phone.) He was reading Diaspora. My friend was also reading Yasutaka Tsutsui, but I haven’t read anything by him. My friend’s Japanese is much better than mine and he does also math and programming like genius. Recently he was trying to find more Japanese I might get some recommendations from you for other Japanese science fiction writers. He’s asking me is what other good Japanese science fiction is. I say I don’t know. Do you have any ideas?

RZ:  Project Itoh is highly acclaimed. (I also mentioned Dempow Torishima and Gengen Kusano before the interview.)

JI: I just saw a news on Facebook like someone was starting a Asian Science Fiction Association or Group Meeting or something. I think someone in Korea posted about it. They had some meetings. I think Cixin Liu was there too.

RZ: Oh, didn’t you mention Can Xue in an interview, too? One of her out of print books was reprinted in Japan last year. It was sold out so quickly, so reprinted again.

JI: That’s nice. I still feel like at the Anglosphere I think there’s some more receptivity recently but I feel translated fiction is still very unfairly unknown and not that many not that many people are picking up translated fiction. It’s getting a little bit better but it’s still pretty bad I think.

I think someone posted, I think it was in New York Review of Books, they said they were looking at the publishers that had released the most translations in 2018 and Snuggly was actually on the list. I thought it’s really bad that we’re actually putting out just as many translations as a University Press or like a major press. I think this article was trying to be positive when they’re saying actually a lot of translations are coming out. I thought it’s still pretty bad. It’s only that level. I feel like it’s still really monoculture or it’s still limited. Can Xue or Kurahashi Yumiko or someone, it’s still fairly unknown which is a shame. I think it’s slowly changing but still pretty slow.

About the publications from Snuggly Books

JI: This one (Neo-Decadent Manifesto of Women’s Fashion) just came out I think a year ago is it so this is the same guy that wrote this Daniel Corrick is doing the men’s fashion one. I think I told him to do it. I don’t know these I don’t think it’s written it yet and the other guy, Damian Murphy is writing an occultism manifesto, a kind of magical manifesto. We’re trying to release some more of these like little documents, talking about stuff. I’m actually interviewing Damian right now. It would be a long interview. He talks about a lot of interesting books, luxurious looking, complicated looking books. Actually he’s like a cultist and kind of magician I guess.

RZ: I’m very interested in Colby Smith’s story in this. (Drowning in Beauty)

JI: He’s actually quite young. He’s learning Japanese now. I was trying to teach him Japanese.

RZ: I couldn’t find any other works by him. Is it the first and only fiction by him?

JI: He’s a student in Ohio and I guess this is his first publishing.

RZ: How could you find him?

JI: We met on a forum. So we’re just talking about there and he mentioned that he was like trying to write stories. So  I said that send it over to me and and he sent over a bunch of stories.

We felt like this was the best one. So we decided to use this one. Actually he’s got a book coming out, I think, by the end of this year.

RZ: Oh, I’m looking forward to it.

JI: He’ll be really happy to hear that. He’s always excited to hear the feedback.

RZ: By the way, the forum that Colby and you met was Thomas Ligotti’s one?

JI: Yeah, I think I started posting on that forum because Quentin Crisp used to post. I enjoyed Ligotti’s books but I’m not super interested in. I try to I guess some were just like more pleasant kind of things that are not kind of the opposite of horror. But yeah, Ligotti’s is a pretty amazing writer. We posted for a while and there’s some other writers Colby. I think Colby got banned from his post and I don’t think he’s on there anymore. But there’s some of us used to posting and advertise things out there.

RZ: Ligotti fans made me remember some guys from Warwick University, you know, like Nick Land.

JI: Okay, Nick Land is interesting writer with CCRU. There’s some maybe influence once

there. I think he’s in China.

RZ:  I found an article in Dennis Cooper’s blog. About some of the stories of Drowning in Beauty are influenced by J. G. Ballard.

JI: Yeah, I think I especially like Atrocity Exhibition. He took kind of I don’t wanna say sampling but almost like it. I think he was influenced by William S. Burroughs where he had these really compressed, condensed approach to writing which I think influence on at least me. That’s a kind of what I’m still interested in some sort of sampling things or plagiarizing things or stealing things. I did a lot of that with my mother books on my collection Pleasant Tales II which is just came out. I would start with a story from the public domain which you can use without getting a lawsuit.  Other than Atrocity Exhibition, Crash and a lot of the short stories influences me as well.

RZ:  Is your day job still related to localization?

JI:  Yes, I also do kind of translations.

At the moment, I’m actually writing children’s books for EFL, English as a foreign language for a company. So I’m working with the comic artists to write really simple books for kids and introduce some really basic English grammar. That’s been kind of strange because it’s also sort of like reading a manga or a comic but they’re very simple way. I usually am I feel like I’m not trying to be super professional with writing because I feel like if I’m worried too much about making money with writing I probably wouldn’t write anything I would not do it. Okay, I just make money translating things and doing other stuff then use that money to even sometimes help with Snuggly trying to publish some of these things that probably wouldn’t be released otherwise because that’s too strange.

I’ve always been interested in languages. I grew up with my parents speaking Italian. So I was in that situation those different languages. I released a poetry book and still doing that too but I don’t have enough for another book. I like to eventually do another poetry book.

RZ: You told that you wrote your stories at Manga cafes in Tokyo.

JI: I used to  love I still do a lot of work in Manga cafes because I used to have an internet connection in my apartment but my one computer crashed. I couldn’t figure out. So I just started going to you know what is it bad news was that internet cafe usually like do some writing in there doing some trying to get writing done in there if I’m usually in my apartment and who’s too many distractions I can’t like focus on writing. I feel like it’s easier to focus.

RZ:  Have you ever met any Japanese authors?

JI:  No, I haven’t really. I’ve never been so like a convention in any country and I don’t think I’ve met other than my friends I haven’t really met any writers. I haven’t met any Japanese authors here so I’d be interested to meet to see what they’re doing. 

Some of my friends told me about a writer called David Peace. I think he’s teaching at a university. I was gonna meet him at one point but then it didn’t happen. I have a friend who was teaching at a university and I think he was in the same faculty with Peace, so he had a chance to meet him.

And just earlier today, I was with one of my friends here. He’s a writer for Warhammer. Do you know Warhammer novels?

RZ:  Well, yes, the novels based on TRPG and once Ian Watson and Barrington J. Bayley wrote it in my understanding.

JI:  Yeah. His name is Steve Parker.  He writes those Warhammer novels but he also lives in Tokyo. I hang out with him today. He is a good guy. He’s a really huge guy, like a bodybuilder. We’re usually hanging out and talking about books and Daily Yamazaki. He’s just putting out a new Warhammer book called the shadow or something. He was just put out this trilogy for the Warhammer. I think he’s had some original stuff out, too.

There’s another writer in Tokyo. His name is Ralph Doege. He is a German writer, German science fiction writer.  He’s on holiday until for now and I asked him if you wanted to come out tonight but he was too shy or just too scared. He is a historian. He is really into Japanese idol music. Last week, I was like “Just come out drinking or something.” but he was like “No, I’m going to see indies Idols”, underground idols or whatever. I might meet him this week. I think these guys were doing some international science fiction magazine in Germany. This is his book. The cover is a Japanese artist called Shinohara Ai.

About next publication

JI: Chomu Press was inactive at the moment but it’s probably gonna restart later this year. I think David Rix’s putting out a book and I want to put another one, too. I made a list of things that I wanted to include that I felt was missing from other books that taking place in Japan, the things that I hadn’t seen. So I put down Daily Yamazaki and a bunch of other like cultural elements. One of the stories in this one (Drowning in Beauty) I was trying to research nail salons and get it kind of accurate. I don’t know if you gonna be interested in this kind of stuff… but I feel interested in for some reason. I guess I feel like not many people are probably going to notice it but I started a really long time ago, I started writing it 10 years ago. I thought then I had to like take notes because I thought what was happening you know in 2010 when this what I had the idea for this so I wanted to make sure everything would be consistent. I guess the original idea with naturalism was to be quite close to life, because you know, normally when you I guess when you’re reading a book or you’re reading a novel there’s lots of like dramatic things happening and there’s a plot of the story but I almost feel like it’s more interesting with it and that doesn’t happen someone who’s just going to get like a choco-croissant (*2 ) or something that we read little things are happening in in real life the strange things are happening so basically the book is just based on that those kind of things and it’s almost it’s almost like a novel but it’s like a novel made of the different short stories but it’s a lot of the same characters.

(*2 Choco-cro is the specialty of a Japanese chain, Saint marc cafe. It is mentioned in “The Quest for Nail Art” by Justin.)

The other thing I wanted to write about was, you know like Goto Yuki? (*3)  Gomaki’s younger brother. I actually met Goto Yuki like a couple years ago and he was arrested for stealing building materials from the construction site. I felt like I have to write a book about Goto Yuki’s stealing construction materials. I thought that’s kind of like I have to include that somehow so I it also comes out in the same book when you Goto Yuki. I hope he’s not gonna be nervous but still it’s something I wanted to put in a book.

(* He was once a member of idol group, AAA.)

On Writing

JI: I think a lot of people are writing books like basically trying to write a movie in their mind. They’re just sitting there, they’re visualizing the things happening and then just describing a movie. You know, like the restaurant was dark and he looks around and there’s a table… they’re having this very kind of a simple approach of narrating things and visualizing things. You might have an opening scene and you know the characters come out and just driving. It’s like you’re trying to create a little movie in your mind but I think that’s boring. I feel like if you want to have that, you can just watch a movie or turn on I don’t know Captain Marvel, Lord of the Rings or whatever.

I think words and language can do more interesting stuff especially with how it is structured and laid out, and what are some things we could do with with books or writing that you couldn’t do in a movie or would be impossible to view.. I was trying to think well how could I write something that I can’t really visualize and trying to use language in ways that aren’t really visual because we have enough TVs or movies. I don’t think it’s really the most interesting use of language just try to have a visual sense with it.

I’m influenced a lot more by just Facebook, Wikipedia or something. I think that’s another way to look at writing rather than having this kind of 19th century, you know, a way to play setting the scene or you know having characters and having this kind of stuff. I still do that as well but it’s not really what interests me about writing. I’m more interested in how can I like arrange things, or set things up, or like format things more. I don’t know what everyone else is doing. I mean these other people like Brendan and Quentin. They’re quite more interested in the past or like the actual original decadent writers but I don’t know I guess I’m more interested in what’s happening with at the moment unless I’m probably less interested in the past or I feel like writing generally gets better and more interesting as that goes on.

Some people are like pessimistic about writing. They think no one is reading any more like you know the standards are going down. Everything’s getting worse. But I don’t really think that’s true and I think books now are probably more interesting than they used to be in a lot of ways.

RZ: Thank you very much.

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Their state and local leaders gloated over low coronavirus cases numbers, and heralded aggressive reopening plans. Supporters demanded the media apologize to them for saying reopening orders would put residents at risk for COVID-19.But now, a handful of lockdown-averse states that have seen explosive growth in coronavirus cases have begun ordering businesses to shut down again, closing beaches and bars, mandating masks, and implementing stay-at-home policies.Over the past several days, a number of states in the Sunbelt, including Florida, Texas, Arizona, and South Carolina, have seen an exponential rise in coronavirus cases.At least two governors who celebrated reopening orders just a few months ago have begun to reinstitute some mandatory business closures.The Texas Grim Reaper’s Fight Against Masks and Health CareStill, some states that have seen an uptick in coronavirus cases have hesitated to mandate business closures again. Despite a raise in cases, neither California nor Arizona have implemented statewide closures but, in recent days, their governors have backed measures encouraging residents to wear masks. Ten states that have seen case numbers spike—Washington, Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina and Oregon—have hit pause on their reopening plans.“We all want to get back to doing all the things we love in Washington during the summer, and fully open our economy, but we aren’t there yet,” Gov. Jay Inslee said Saturday when announcing that eight counties eligible to reopen would no longer do so due to “significant rebounds in COVID-19 activity.”Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak joined dozens of mayors around the country implementing mandatory mask orders in recent days while San Francisco Mayor London Breed said plans for hair salons, museums, tattoo parlors, nail salons and outdoor bars to reopen on Monday would be scrapped amid a rise in cases.But in Utah, Gov. Gary Herbert said he has no intention of another lockdown despite the state’s epidemiologist warning that a “complete shutdown” would be imminent if the spike of coronavirus cases continued.Here are the states and counties forced to start locking down—again. FLORIDAAs the state prepares to host a number of high-profile sporting and political events, Florida has reported a spike in cases. While on Monday, the state reported under 3,000 new cases, by Saturday, there were an alarming 9,585 new coronavirus cases the previous day—a new one-day record.In April, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had gloated: “When you look at some of the most draconian orders that have been issued in some of these states and compare Florida... Florida has done better.”Just two weeks ago, he brushed off concerns about rising cases, saying it was mostly relegated to “low risk groups,” and was partially the result of increased testing.But the state finally took some actions to limit the spread, announcing on Friday that it was “suspending on premises consumption of alcohol at bars statewide.” Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez signed an order on Saturday closing the county’s recently reopened beaches for the July 4 weekend, and banning large Independence Day celebrations and parades.Will Florida’s COVID Gamble Drag Down DeSantis and the GOP?“I have been seeing too many businesses and people ignoring these lifesaving rules [on face coverings and social distancing],” Gimenez said in a statement. “If people are not going to be responsible and protect themselves and others from this pandemic, then the government is forced to step in and restore common sense to save lives.” DeSantis still defended the state’s reopening, pointing to the lower number of cases last month. “Remember: We did the opening at the beginning of May, had very steady, manageable cases. We’ve obviously seen that turn lately,” he said in a press conference this week. “But we have a very quiet May, I think everyone has to acknowledge that.” TEXASTexas had one of the shorter stay-at-home orders in the country, and balked at implementing statewide mask rules. But on Thursday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott paused the state’s reopening plans. A day later, he ordered the state’s bars to close, limited restaurant capacity to 50 percent and banned river rafting.“Every day, we make a plan. And every day, it changes,” Kim Finch, the owner of Dallas bar Double Wide told the Dallas Morning News. “It’s just unbelievable.”Abbott said in a statement it was clear that the rise was driven by certain activities “including Texans congregating in bars” and the new executive order was essential to “our mission to swiftly contain this virus and protect public health.”‘If People Die, People Die’: Texas COVID Hot Spots Keep Getting WorseIn an interview, the governor conceded that the reopening plan had been too aggressive, and may have accounted for a rise in cases. “If I could go back and redo anything, it probably would have been to slow down the opening of bars, now seeing in the aftermath of how quickly the coronavirus spread in the bar setting,” he said in an interview this week.  IMPERIAL COUNTY, CALIFORNIAOn Friday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom urged the southern border county to reinstate its stay-at-home order as the rate of positive test results hit a staggering 23 percent. If the county didn’t come up with its own plan to shut down, Newsom said he would “intervene.”Imperial County had only nine coronavirus cases in late March but by mid-June, it had skyrocketed to 4,389 cases among 180,000 residents—the highest per capita rate of any Californian county—and was overwhelming the local morgue and hospital system. Local health officials attributed the spike to large gatherings held over Mother’s Day and Memorial Day, as well as the county’s proximity to Mexicali, a city of 1 million people, many of whom cross the Mexican border to Imperial County daily for work, healthcare and family reasons. Imperial County is one of 15 counties on a watch list, compiled by California’s health department, with more than 10 percent of people testing positive. “We are in the midst of the first wave of this pandemic,” Newsom said. “We are not out of the first wave. This disease does not take a summer vacation.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Their state and local leaders gloated over low coronavirus cases numbers, and heralded aggressive reopening plans. Supporters demanded the media apologize to them for saying reopening orders would put residents at risk for COVID-19.But now, a handful of lockdown-averse states that have seen explosive growth in coronavirus cases have begun ordering businesses to shut down again, closing beaches and bars, mandating masks, and implementing stay-at-home policies.Over the past several days, a number of states in the Sunbelt, including Florida, Texas, Arizona, and South Carolina, have seen an exponential rise in coronavirus cases.At least two governors who celebrated reopening orders just a few months ago have begun to reinstitute some mandatory business closures.The Texas Grim Reaper’s Fight Against Masks and Health CareStill, some states that have seen an uptick in coronavirus cases have hesitated to mandate business closures again. Despite a raise in cases, neither California nor Arizona have implemented statewide closures but, in recent days, their governors have backed measures encouraging residents to wear masks. Ten states that have seen case numbers spike—Washington, Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina and Oregon—have hit pause on their reopening plans.“We all want to get back to doing all the things we love in Washington during the summer, and fully open our economy, but we aren’t there yet,” Gov. Jay Inslee said Saturday when announcing that eight counties eligible to reopen would no longer do so due to “significant rebounds in COVID-19 activity.”Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak joined dozens of mayors around the country implementing mandatory mask orders in recent days while San Francisco Mayor London Breed said plans for hair salons, museums, tattoo parlors, nail salons and outdoor bars to reopen on Monday would be scrapped amid a rise in cases.But in Utah, Gov. Gary Herbert said he has no intention of another lockdown despite the state’s epidemiologist warning that a “complete shutdown” would be imminent if the spike of coronavirus cases continued.Here are the states and counties forced to start locking down—again. FLORIDAAs the state prepares to host a number of high-profile sporting and political events, Florida has reported a spike in cases. While on Monday, the state reported under 3,000 new cases, by Saturday, there were an alarming 9,585 new coronavirus cases the previous day—a new one-day record.In April, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had gloated: “When you look at some of the most draconian orders that have been issued in some of these states and compare Florida... Florida has done better.”Just two weeks ago, he brushed off concerns about rising cases, saying it was mostly relegated to “low risk groups,” and was partially the result of increased testing.But the state finally took some actions to limit the spread, announcing on Friday that it was “suspending on premises consumption of alcohol at bars statewide.” Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez signed an order on Saturday closing the county’s recently reopened beaches for the July 4 weekend, and banning large Independence Day celebrations and parades.Will Florida’s COVID Gamble Drag Down DeSantis and the GOP?“I have been seeing too many businesses and people ignoring these lifesaving rules [on face coverings and social distancing],” Gimenez said in a statement. “If people are not going to be responsible and protect themselves and others from this pandemic, then the government is forced to step in and restore common sense to save lives.” DeSantis still defended the state’s reopening, pointing to the lower number of cases last month. “Remember: We did the opening at the beginning of May, had very steady, manageable cases. We’ve obviously seen that turn lately,” he said in a press conference this week. “But we have a very quiet May, I think everyone has to acknowledge that.” TEXASTexas had one of the shorter stay-at-home orders in the country, and balked at implementing statewide mask rules. But on Thursday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott paused the state’s reopening plans. A day later, he ordered the state’s bars to close, limited restaurant capacity to 50 percent and banned river rafting.“Every day, we make a plan. And every day, it changes,” Kim Finch, the owner of Dallas bar Double Wide told the Dallas Morning News. “It’s just unbelievable.”Abbott said in a statement it was clear that the rise was driven by certain activities “including Texans congregating in bars” and the new executive order was essential to “our mission to swiftly contain this virus and protect public health.”‘If People Die, People Die’: Texas COVID Hot Spots Keep Getting WorseIn an interview, the governor conceded that the reopening plan had been too aggressive, and may have accounted for a rise in cases. “If I could go back and redo anything, it probably would have been to slow down the opening of bars, now seeing in the aftermath of how quickly the coronavirus spread in the bar setting,” he said in an interview this week.  IMPERIAL COUNTY, CALIFORNIAOn Friday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom urged the southern border county to reinstate its stay-at-home order as the rate of positive test results hit a staggering 23 percent. If the county didn’t come up with its own plan to shut down, Newsom said he would “intervene.”Imperial County had only nine coronavirus cases in late March but by mid-June, it had skyrocketed to 4,389 cases among 180,000 residents—the highest per capita rate of any Californian county—and was overwhelming the local morgue and hospital system. Local health officials attributed the spike to large gatherings held over Mother’s Day and Memorial Day, as well as the county’s proximity to Mexicali, a city of 1 million people, many of whom cross the Mexican border to Imperial County daily for work, healthcare and family reasons. Imperial County is one of 15 counties on a watch list, compiled by California’s health department, with more than 10 percent of people testing positive. “We are in the midst of the first wave of this pandemic,” Newsom said. “We are not out of the first wave. This disease does not take a summer vacation.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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