#steve is a photographer

[ladykailitha]

Heartbreak in Overdrive Part 1

Yeah, I know this is supposed to be Spellbound, but like this has five chapters in backlog, and it really needs to be let out before it breaks containment.

The title comes I'll Wait by Van Halen, as I wanted something to do with fashion and @bookworm0690 really came in clutch with these lyrics.

Summary: Eddie is a top model know for his temper tantrums. Steve is war photographer coming out of a traumatic experience by doing fashion photography. When hotheaded Eddie runs up against Steve's cool under pressure attitude, sparks fly.

Also I tend to make up fictional brands so I don't have to keep running for google every time I need a brand name for something.

~

Eddie Munson fought hard to be where he was. He had climbed up from the literal fucking gutter to being a top model. Fuck that bitch for ruining that title in the minds of the masses, making it meaningless, but he earned it.

He had full creative control over every little aspect of his shoots and everyone knew it. They knew what they were getting when they hired him. Every part of him was what they fucking paid for. His whole glam metal look was a package deal. His long hair, his tattoos, his style. That’s what they got when they hired him.

His current gig was St. John Whiskey, they were trying to appeal to the younger party crowd with their new canned cocktails. Eddie had tried them and they weren’t half bad. If someone served them at rave he went to, he would happy down several of the damn things. But he wouldn’t ask for them. Like ever.

Eddie briefly wondered who was going to shoot the ad, because they hadn’t told him before he signed on the dotted line. Not that it mattered, whoever they got would try to fob it off to someone else. That little detail made the little demon in Eddie curl up and purr. That companies would trip over themselves to get Eddie to model for them, while the actual photographers were fighting over who had to photograph him.

He arrived on set which was made up to look like a club, there were about a dozen extras all tarted up in club gear. To the right was his hair and makeup artist, Vickie Cameron, to his left was his manager next to a row of clothes that Eddie would choose from for the shoot.

Tucked behind a little partition were three photographers; Jonathan Byers, Argyle Ramirez, and Tommy Hagan. They were all playing roshambo. They were playing several games before Tommy groaned.

“Fuck!” he cursed and then walked over to get his kit. His assistant Carol immediately started setting up the lights and shit from his stuff while Argyle and Jonathan celebrated their win.

“Hello, boys,” Eddie said sweetly, causing everyone nearby to jump in the air.

Jonathan had the decency to look embarrassed, Argyle just grinned at him. Tommy on the other hand, his expression soured.

“Munson,” he said tersely. “Keep the tantrums to a minimum and maybe both of us will fucking survive this day.”

Eddie’s face transformed into a feral grin. “Do you job properly and there won’t be a tantrum to be had. Be the hack you usually are and I make no promises.”

Tommy surged forward, likely to start swinging, but Jonathan held him back. Eddie batted his eyelashes at him innocently, then he turned on his heel and made straight to Chrissy and wardrobe. Hopefully they had something good in there he could wear.

Eddie walked over to Chrissy as she was separating some shirts for him.

“They want a dance club vibe,” she said as she handed him four shirts, two jackets, and three pairs of pants. “Everything here has your style but with that club flare they’re looking for.”

He smirked. “Someone, somewhere is learning.”

She swatted at his ass. “Go get dressed, dick. Then hurry back so we can get your accessories picked out so we can get Vickie started on your hair and makeup.”

Eddie nodded and took his prizes to the dressing room. The first jacket was a blueish-black racer jacket and the other was a suit jacket with black sequins embroidered in a brocade pattern. The shirts were all button ups. Of the two black options, one was a soft cotton and the other was satin. The white shirt was of the same material of the first black shirt and the remaining shirt was a silky grey. The pants ranged from tight leather to ripped denim with a tuxedo pant thrown in for funsies.

He tried on several combinations before he settled on the leather jacket, the silver shirt, and tight leather pants. He padded back out to Chrissy who had an array of watches, necklaces, bracelets, chains, and shoes.

He immediately pulled out the shiny combat boots and started layering the jewelry just the way he liked it. Once he was satisfied, he sat down at Vickie’s chair and flipped his hair. “Miss DeMille, I’m ready for my close up!”

Vickie laughed. “Let’s get this pretty face even prettier for the camera.” She got to work on his hair first, washing and conditioning it to take the hair products it would take to tame Eddie’s famous curls.

By the time he was finally ready, so was Tommy and Carol.

She eyed him and then nodded approvingly. He matched the vibe they were going for, but stood out in a fashionable way.

“Ready when you are, princess,” Tommy sneered, pulling out a camera from one of his bags.

Eddie grinned at him and then got into position. Tommy called out poses and shots while Carol managed the lenses, cameras and filters. Things were going well until they weren’t.

“Can someone please tell me why this asshole extra keeps standing in my fucking light?!” he growled.

Tommy stood up from where he had been crouched on the floor. “There is no one in your light, I’m literally taking the pictures and there is not single shade over you.”

“Not that light, dumbass,” Eddie snarled, “the light from the disco ball. It’s supposed to be glittering on my face to bring in the club vibe but some asshole is literal blocking it.”

Tommy went through the memory card and went back as far twenty frames. “Shit, he’s right.”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “Of course I’m right, so are you going to get this asshole to stop mugging the shots or am I going to have to lock myself in my dressing room until you do?”

“I don’t even know who it is,” Tommy snapped back. “How am I supposed to find a needle in a fucking haystack?”

Eddie threw his arms in the air. “The disco ball is there!” He pointed behind where he was sitting at a table and to the left. “So it’s obviously NOT the people to my right or in the foreground! Use your fucking head!”

He stood up and stalked toward dressing room, leaving a path of destruction in his wake of knocked over chairs and people glaring at him as he pushed by them.

It took Tommy and Carol about an hour to find out who had been blocking the disco ball’s light and coach Eddie out his dressing room.

All the news articles blew up that Eddie Munson threw a fit on the set of his most recent photo shoot again. Talking about what a diva he was and how unhinged he was.

Chrissy sat him down to talk about the articles. “You probably shouldn’t have thrown the chairs, let’s be fair. But all the pictures that were taken after you came back were the best shots Tommy took.”

Eddie sneered. “They were in the way and I didn’t throw them, I tried pushing them out the way and they got tangled up and they fell. I just needed to be somewhere else in that moment or more than just chairs would have been flying.”

Chrissy sighed. She knew. She knew better than anyone how much space Eddie needed when he got into his head.

“Well,” she said, “we’ll ride it out like we always do. If Tom Cruise can come out of coach jumping with a career intact, you will come of this one just fine, too.”

Eddie threw his head head back and buried his hands into his hair. He counted backward from twenty until he got his thoughts under control.

“I wish Carol was the photographer,” he said mournfully. “She actually seems to understand the artistry behind taking the perfect shot.”

“And we both know she’s never going to a chance,” Chrissy said ruefully, rolling her eyes. “Because she’s a woman. But it wasn’t her who found the extra who was getting in the way of the shots.”

That made Eddie sit up. “Yeah, then who did?”

Chrissy shrugged. “Some friend of Tommy’s who was visiting. He’s some hot shot war photographer that Tommy met in art school and was in town for a couple of days for some award show.”

“Maybe hire him next time,” Eddie said with a snort.

~

When Eddie heard that it was going to be Argyle Ramirez doing the shoot for the Eva Laurent cologne that he was mildly annoyed. He wasn’t the incompetent asshole that Tommy was, but he was far too laid back for his tastes.

Eddie got to the set which was in Argyle’s studio. Everything was white and would be lighted to the appropriate colors. In the middle was a single black leather chair; one of those overstuffed kind.

There were about a half dozen people milling around and that brought him up short.

“Um...” he said glancing over at Chrissy briefly. “I thought it was going to be a closed set?”

Argyle looked up at him with that hazy, dopey smile of his. “The man of the hour has arrived. Awesome!” He looked around at the other people in the room. “Don’t worry my man, once you’re ready to drop robe, most of these people will have cleared out.”

“Most?” Eddie asked, trying not squirm.

“Sure,” Argyle said, blinking at him in confusion. “I’ve got to have my assistants to move things around and shit. But everyone else will have cleared out.”

Eddie bit on his lip. He couldn’t argue with that. Though he had tried. Several times before. Whenever he pushed back on being naked in front of strangers he was told that he was baring his ass to the world, what was a few extra people on the day of the shoot.

He went to go get his hair and makeup done, with Vickie trying to ease her nerves but talking about her long distance girlfriend who also did hair, but always needed help with her smokey eye makeup.

Eddie let her chatter wash over him and he relaxed, getting out of his head and into his body. His body was his job, his sanctuary, and his weapon all rolled into one. He cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders, releasing the last bit of tension in his shoulders.

When he came out of hair and makeup he was pleased to find there were only two other people there besides Argyle. One knelt by a bag, while the other stood by the lights.

That was more than he would have liked, but he had to let it slide. He knew that there were some photographers who had full on teams and all they did was take the pictures. But Eddie had it in his rider that if they wanted him to model for them they couldn’t use those photographers.

He was about down to his underwear when Argyle came bursting into the room. He shrieked and pulled his pants over his crotch.

“Don’t you knock?!” Eddie roared in outrage, clutching his pants close to his body as a shield.

Argyle held his hands up and backed out. “Sorry, dude, I thought hadn’t gotten undressed yet.” He closed the door.

Eddie could tell the man was waiting awkwardly outside so he hurried to get undressed and throw on the black satin robe he was given. He tied the sash tightly around his waist and slid the slippers on his feet. He slowly opened the door and peeked out to make sure it was just Argyle waiting for him.

He stepped out into the hallway and Argyle looked up from his phone.

“You ready now?” he asked.

Eddie rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but if you had been like a minute later or two minutes sooner, I wouldn’t have been in the middle of getting undressed.”

“I’m going to be seeing you naked in five minutes anyway,” Argyle groused. “I really don’t see what the problem is.”

Eddie bit his tongue. He wanted to say the difference was consent, but it seemed like nothing would penetrate the thick fog of weed smoke around the photographer’s head. He just strolled past, his head held high.

Once he had warmed up enough he dropped the robe and the assistant in charge of the lenses rushed forward to grab it.

He sprawled on the leather chair, the material sticking to his ass.

After a few minutes of struggling to get comfortable he finally snapped.

“Is there anyway we can put something down on the chair so my skin isn’t being peeled off with every move I make?”

One of the assistants, Eddie couldn’t be assed to care which one, rushed forward with a long golden drape and laid it over the leather chair. Then when Eddie sat back on it she draped it over his body artistically, making the shot more provocative and less in your face nudity.

“Good thinking, Karla,” Argyle huffed as he knelt to take the next shot. “Pull his hair out a little bit so that it lays flat over the drape.”

Karla hurried to do as she was told. The shoot went more smoothly after that, but he could tell Argyle was annoyed for not having thought of the drape first.

Eddie didn’t spend the whole shoot covered by the drape, but it added something special to the ad that the Eva Laurent people loved.

But Argyle told everyone that Eddie had been reluctant to disrobe in front of people and that’s why the drape was added.

It pissed Eddie off, but with people wanting to believe the worst of him, trying to refute it was like pissing in the wind.

But he made sure to tell the Eva Laurent people that it was Karla’s idea for the drape on his way out, just to fuck with him back.

~

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11

Tag List: NINE SLOTS REMAINING

1- @itsall-taken @estrellami-1 @zerokrox-blog @sadisticaltarts @dolphincliffs

2- @gregre369 ​@a-little-unsteddie @irregular-child @cryptid-system @kultiras

3- @maya-custodios-dionach @goodolefashionedloverboi @val-from-lawrence @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog

4- @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690 @forgottenkanji @dreamercec @blondie1006

5- @yikes-a-bee @awkwardgravity1 @genderless-spoon @fearieshadow @thesecondfate

6- @dragonmama76 @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual @disrespectedgoatman

7- @counting-dollars-counting-stars @tinyplanet95 @ravenfrog @swimmingbirdrunningrock @lingeringmirth

8- @gutterflower77 @a-lovely-craziness @just-a-tiny-void @w1ll0wtr33 @beelze-the-bubkiss

9- @chaotic-waffle

[william-snekspeare]

Cuddling. don’t mind the claws of the beast

[strangersatellites]

posting this feels like I'm crawling out of my grave and gasping for air

anyway- inspired by this post by @inthedarknessofnight

here's 1.3k of concert photographer!Steve and rockstar!Eddie because I couldn't get this out of my head

gimme, gimme more

1.3k words | this is the most g-rated thing I've ever written, it won't happen again

Steve’s feet hurt.

They always do after a show, but this one was particularly hard on him.

He’s been at this venue for two years now and shot countless shows in that time. But never in his career has he been challenged so– athletically. 

The photo pit at this place is light years better than his last venue. There’s more than enough room for all of the photographers and their gear without stepping on each other. Usually Steve is grateful for this because surely there is only so many more beatings his 35mm can take before it kicks the bucket. Today though, he’s grateful for the space because of the full-tilt sprint this band had him in. 

He’s never seen anything like it.

Well, less so did the band have him in a sprint and more so the frontman but, semantics. 

The guy is everywhere. Steve could barely keep up with the way he ran around stage, jumping, climbing on equipment, leaning off-stage toward the barricade.

It was fun but Jesus, what is his deal?

Steve hadn’t even known who Corroded Coffin was 24 hours ago. Now he’s burned through two SD cards in an hour and a half. 

The guy’s hot and a good photo subject, sue him.

Well, he thinks he’s a good photo subject at least. He won’t know until he’s culled through every single shot. Steve’s a good photographer, took to it naturally the first time he picked up a camera. His downfall though, according to his college professors at least, was that he pays absolutely no attention to what he’s shooting while he’s shooting it. Hence the overshooting. 

On more than one occasion he’s gotten started on editing and someone is wearing an outfit he’s never seen before, someone’s got sunglasses on in every photo, a tag hanging off their jacket. All he’s concerned with is the framing, the lighting, and the focus. The content can be a problem for Future Steve. Everything can be fixed in post.

Almost.

Anyway, his feet hurt and he hates culling, so he pours himself a full glass of wine and plops down on the couch in front of an episode of trash tv with his laptop and props his feet up. Settles in for a long night.

2,461 images.

He throws his head back with a groan. Ugh. 

The first hundred or so are garbage.

They always are.

A few shots spent fucking with the exposure, a few the focus, some the flash.

He denotes the purple flag as his ‘good’ tag and orange as his ‘trash’ tag. The orange is stacking up fast. Around 163 he starts finding some good images. Ones that aren’t tainted by motion blur from his running around after this frontman. 

His photos of the drummer are pretty sick; he can't lie. The lights and the smoke and the near-manic smile on his face make for great photos. He’s not even this band’s personal photographer but he can imagine at least one of these will get posted to the band's socials. He’s good, what can he say?

He has a good bit of the bassist, his energy infectious enough you can almost feel it through the screen. Purple is making a comeback.

He finally gets through some crowd pics, some more drummer, some guitarist, some detail shots before he finally makes it to the frontman. 731 photos later. 

What did Wikipedia say his name was? Eddie, he thinks.

Weird, the very first shot Steve has of him he’s making fierce eye contact with the camera.

Ew.

No matter how long Steve does this, photos of people looking directly at the camera never get less jarring. 

Orange tag. Trash.

The next one is exactly the same.

Shit. 

He’s really bad to fall victim to the high speed shutter on this camera and often finds himself with a dozen copies of the same picture. Looks like he’s done it again.

Orange.

More piercing eye contact.

What? He squints and flips back and forth between the last two photos.

They’re not even remotely similar. As a matter of fact, Steve was in a completely different location in the pit for the second one. 

Green tag. Come back to this.

Taking a long swig from his glass he shifts so his laptop is closer to his face. Thinks that surely he’s not seeing this right. 

He takes to forgoing his tagging system and just flipping through every photo as fast as his fingers can press the arrow keys.

He’s clicked through about 200 when he starts getting worried, his heart rate speeding up. Surely he got something usable.

“What the fuck?”

He’s clicked through 50 or 60 more when he decides that, no he did not fall victim to the shutter speed at all. This guy is just making direct eye contact with his camera in every single photo.

Steve’s not mad, the opposite really. He didn’t spend much time looking at the guy during the show and now he gets to have an eyeful while he works. What’s there to be mad about? 

He is, however, mildly concerned that he won’t have a single decent photo to use for the venue socials when he posts about this show.

Whatever. Maybe fans of their music are also fans of uncomfortable eye contact. Who knows?

He finishes sifting through the rest of the photos, Eddie staring directly down the lens in every one, one’s where he’s not the subject included. Throws them all in an editing software and mass edits them all at once. He’ll detail edit later.

While the eye contact was a little unsettling, he did get one photo he’s particularly happy with. One that makes it look like the staring was on purpose.

It’s during the second to last song, a ballad– or as close as you can get with a metal band. Eddie’s standing center-stage and Steve had snagged the spot directly in front of him. He’s looking straight down, backlit with red spotlights, surrounded by smoke pumping from side-stage, and just close enough that Steve can see the sweat dripping down his neck. He looks a little bit scary, but that’s how Steve likes ‘em. 

That’ll be the cover photo for sure.

He shoots an album link to his boss to review before he distributes them anywhere, then spends  the next twenty minutes laughing to himself while he collects the goofiest photos of Eddie staring straight at his lens.

He puts them in a new album and copies the link.

When he opens up Instagram and searches Corroded Coffin he lets out a low whistle at the six million followers. Maybe he really should know who these guys are. With that many followers he doubts they’ll even see a message from his personal account, but whatever. He clicks on the message button on their profile and hits paste.

@ steveharrington.jpeg Great show tonight! Somebody tell this guy that he is allowed to look away from the camera though…

He only waits a few minutes for the reply.

@ corrodedcoffin HOLY SHIT THAT WAS YOU

@ corrodedcoffin Wait hang on

His phone pings with a message from a new account.

@ whoiseddiemunson HOLY SHIT THAT WAS YOU

@ whoiseddiemunson Sweetheart I wasn’t looking at the camera

Steve furrows his brows, confused. Starts typing a response but gets interrupted by another message.

@ whoiseddiemunson I was looking at the smoking hot guy behind it. Kinda hard to get a good look when he’s hiding behind the camera though.

Steve feels his cheeks flush and huffs a laugh to himself.

@ steveharrington.jpeg Well the guy behind the camera did manage to get a few good ones even though he was under surveillance the whole show. Wanna see those?

@ whoiseddiemunson Hell yeah I do. I just scrolled through your profile, your work is amazing. Do you want to show me the rest? Maybe over coffee tomorrow?

Steve smiles. His earlier heart palpitations replaced with butterflies.

@ steveharrington.jpeg Is this a date?

@ whoiseddiemunson It better be

[kumokumoriri]

STONATHAN SKETCH 📸📸📸

[inthedarknessofnight]

did somebody say concert photographer Steve Harrington and rockstar Eddie Munson?!?! where he’s desperately trying to focus on performing but there is literally the most gorgeous man walking right under his stage?!?! and he keeps getting DISTRACTED?!?! and Steve doesn’t notice until he has to go through the photos later and edit them and he realizes Eddie’s looking straight into the lens in every. single. one. coincidence??? i think not!!!

(plz someone write this, all of my brain cells are in my dissertation rn and i cannot 😭 but Steddie brainrot is forever)

[dinkeydina]

worked on the designs of spicy six for my Night School steddie AU! 👀

here’s them separately!

[strawberryyyenthusiast]

Steve is Morticia and Eddie is Gomez, do not fight me on this.

Eddie quite literally falls first and falls harder, immediately becoming obsessed with Steve. He brings him gifts, greets him with an exuberant amount of kisses each time he sees him, looks at him with so much adoration in his eyes that everyone feels like they are interrupting a private moment.

Steve warmed up to Eddie after a few days. It took him a bit but then he became extremely devoted to Eddie. He calls him the strangest pet names and accepts the quirkier side of himself once he lets himself fall into love with Eddie. He begins to wear flowy clothing and when he sees Eddie approach, he presents his neck or arm as an invitation for Eddie to place his lips on his skin.

They sit on each other’s laps interchangeably, share food from one another’s plates, and practically agree on everything. They may fight, but the aftermath only lasts for minutes at best before they are rushing back to one another, missing the presence of their other halves.

They share blood and clothing and help the other get dressed. The little things that other people, different people, wouldn’t think to do. Steve and Eddie need to be close to each other in every way possible.

Steve even wears an intricate golden locket around his neck everyday that has a lock of Eddie’s hair in it, while Eddie has Steve’s name tattooed across his chest.

When they die on the same day, five minutes apart, they are buried together in a joint coffin, holding hands, in a desolate cemetery in the middle of nowhere. Maybe one day, someone might stumble across their grave and be able to witness the greatness of their love, even after death.

[morganbritton132]

Someone posts on their Twitter account, “I walked pass this restaurant on my lunch break and there was this gay couple on the patio, oohing and awing into a phone about seeing their little girl. When I walked past them, they were FaceTiming a cat.”

Jonathan replies to this tweet with a picture of Steve and Eddie at a restaurant and he asks, “Was it these idiots or is someone else in the same layer of hell as me?”

They reply, “Yeah, that was them.”

[moodyjazzyblues]

the photographer has no clue whats gonna happen to them in 6 years

colours under the cut!!

i did a comical amount of research for this piece only to end up using none of it because i realized that no rides were visible off the pier of luna park coney island in 1939 so i didnt have to worry about adding one that didnt even exist by accident😭

also, theyre celebrating steves' birthday on a sunday (yes july 2nd was a sunday in 1939 i checked) because during the week theyd probably be at work and not have time to go to coney island lol

the file is named 'twink rogers gay panic' which is exactly what is happening in the picture. originally when i saw the reference photo i considered making steve the one sitting in bucky's lap, but i feel like steve wouldn't do that because hes got a tiny guy complex and that would make him seem even smaller. bucky is definitely secure in his masculinity enough to be out sitting in his best guy's lap as a "joke" and steve is completely bluescreening at this happening and having a candid photo taken lol

also, the handwritings... i went into marvel rivals' character lore screen to find examples of their handwriting and somehow remembered their handwritings backwards. Steve writes in print and Bucky writes in script in that game which surprised me because tbh i consider bucky to be the all caps handwriting font type of guy and steve to be a script kind of guy but i was proven wrong by marvel rivals character designers

[roadtrippinlilly]

American Bison On The Prairies of Oklahoma

Source Me laf@ilyF ❤️

[diangelosdays]

i have some stranger things acrylic paintings on my shop if anyone is interested

[ladykailitha]

Heartbreak in Overdrive Part 5

I'm hoping that last week as glitch, but it seemed like the numbers were down on most of my fics last week. I hope this week will be better.

There is just this disparity from just six to eight months ago until now. I had 200-300 notes a post and now I'm lucky to get over 100.

In this we have their first meeting and we find out why Steve pushed so hard to for it be Eddie in this shoot.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

~

Eddie tried to look into the photographer but he appeared to be a ghost the last three years. All his stuff prior to that were all Nat Geo stuff and he didn’t mean pretty pictures of animals and nature. It was hard core stuff.

Wars, famines, plagues. The worst humanity had to offer and he made it beautiful. The man had awards. Plural. Why would the guy be interested in a makeup brand? And how on earth would Ravenscroft have even heard of him to hire him in the first place?

It made no sense.

So since he had to use this guy’s ‘team’ he was going to make life as miserable for them as possible. He deliberately didn’t set his alarm, didn’t shower, and even stopped at Starbucks for a latte. He didn’t even like Starbucks.

He arrived about about an hour late wearing sweats and flipflops and a faded band t-shirt. He slurped loudly on his iced latte as strolled through the doors to the studio. His feet petered to a stop as he took in the scene before him.

The equipment had been setup with a large bed with red satin sheets in the middle of the room. The lights were soft and a warm yellow. Sitting on a simple folding chair just a few feet from the bed was a man setting up his camera.

Eddie looked around. “Aw... did I miss it? Where did everyone go?”

Then the man looked up at him with the most blinding smile. Eddie’s mouth went dry and he was out of drink. He gulped heavily.

The man chuckled and shook his head. He stood up and walked over to Eddie. “I was told that you might be trouble so I booked the studio for two days.”

The cloying nature of the latte seemed to have stuck to his throat because Eddie couldn’t breathe. He swallowed harshly. “You seem to have the advantage, as I don’t know jack shit about you.”

“Steve Harrington,” he said brightly, sticking out his hand to shake, but Eddie just stared at him. Steve shrugged and put the hand in his pocket. “This is my first major fashion shoot and I am super thrilled that you ultimately agreed to my terms.”

Eddie glared at him. “Something I am very much not happy about, by the way. My hair and scalp is very sensitive and the smallest thing can throw it out of wack.”

“So Vickie has been telling Robin and Max,” Steve said, nodding in agreement. “When we found out that you liked to have your own hair and makeup artist, we looked into why. So Vickie has been telling my crew everything they need to make sure everything will go well.”

Eddie blinked at him for a moment as he tried to process that information. “Speaking of your team where are they? I expected this place to be teaming with people.”

“They aren’t here right now,” Steve said softly. “I sent them off for breakfast and they should be back in about twenty minutes. Which will give us plenty of time for us to get to know each other so you can be comfortable doing the shoot. You were told we were doing a couple of nudes, right?”

Eddie nodded. He looked around for a place to sit that wasn’t the bed or the folding chair and spotted a large lounge chair in black velvet. He looked over at Steve suddenly reassessing the other man.

Steve followed his line of sight and smirked. “You can sit there, but I’ve got a better idea. If you’ll just follow me. There’ll even be a garbage to toss your cup.” Eddie stared at him in awe. “Unless you’re planning on using it in the shoot. Which I wouldn’t recommend hawking another brand.” He winked at Eddie.

“Yeah, no,” Eddie said breathlessly. He had been completely turned around and now he was the one off balance.

Steve led him into a side room that had all his changes of clothes and was completely decked out to do hair and makeup, including a sink and yes a small garbage can. Which he used immediately to toss the cup. But there were also comfy seating chairs and even a couch with the beautician’s chair in front of large mirror. It was his dressing room.

Steve sat in one of the large comfy chairs and indicated that he should sit too. He flopped on the sofa and wagged his eyebrows at Steve causing him to burst out laughing. It was a nice sound.

“So I wanted to go over how the shoot will go,” Steve said, broad smile on his face. “We will start you off on the folding chair, completely clothed and in white, but the make up will be dark. Kind of like a devil’s face on angel kind of feel. Then with each change of outfit the clothes will get darker and sexier while the makeup gets lighter. About half way through the transformation we’ll move on to the lounge chair, to really highlight the changes you’re going through. Then the lightest makeup with be with the nudes. Partly to show off your body, and party so I can return those sheets and get my deposit back.”

Eddie burst out laughing himself. Not at the plan but the deposit joke. “Well if I ruin them, I’ll pay the rental fees.”

Steve grinned back. “Thanks. Also, usually I use an assistant but not on nude shoots. My models don’t need an extra pair of eyes ogling them. Ellie will lay out the outfit and then leave. You’ll get dressed and then knock twice on the door when you’re ready for hair and makeup. Then Max and Robin will come in. Max will do your hair and Robin will do your makeup. Then you’ll come out and bring that extra something that Ravenscroft hired you for and then rinse and repeat for the outfits until the nude shots.”

Eddie raised an eyebrow. It all sounded too good to be true. So it must be the nude shots that were the catch. “Yeah and what happens with those?” he asked jutting his chin up.

“You’ll come out in a robe,” Steve said not rising to the bait. “And then when you feel comfortable enough to disrobe, you do so. But my team stays in the room next to us until you’re fully covered with the robe.”

Eddie’s jaw dropped. “God, where have you been my life? Like how is it so easy for you but so hard for everyone else?”

Steve’s smile was tender and a little pained. “Because I’ve seen the worst of humanity and I firmly believe everyone deserves their dignity. No matter who it is. But especially you. I’ve been to a couple of your shoots and you aren’t the big brat people paint you as. You just stand up for yourself because you know your worth and it is immense.”

Maybe instead of being a brat...Eddie thought. He could flirt with this man. Make him crack this facade of civility. Because it had to be that, right?

Right?

~

Steve glanced over Tommy’s shoulder and frowned. There was something wrong with the lighting.

“Hey, can I look at your earlier shots?” he asked, glancing over at Eddie who was becoming more and more irritable with each passing second.

But before Carol could hand him the memory card with another camera to view them in, Eddie erupted about someone blocking the light from the disco ball. Steve winced, because he had knew something was wrong but didn’t know enough about club lighting to figure it out before Eddie blew a gasket.

Tommy turned to Steve and waved his arm the direction Eddie had fled. “Do you see what I have to put with with this guy?!”

“Well, let’s go through the other shots and see if we can’t find who he’s talking about.” Steve steadfastly ignored the comment about Eddie’s behavior because he was close to saying the same thing.

It took them about an hour, but Steve found out that one of the male models in the background was out of frame, but just enough in the way to block out the light glinting off the disco ball. And worse, he had done it on purpose. He had been trying to get Eddie into trouble for the shoot and maybe in fired.

His reason?

The dude was one of five finalists that the liquor company had looked at before deciding on Eddie. He had a friend on the production who snuck him in and with so many extras milling around it was easy to just get fitted for costume and make Eddie’s day as miserable as possible.

So not only was the guy tossed out, his friend was fired too.

After that the shoot went so smoothly that Tommy and Carol took Steve out for dinner as a thank you.

“Man,” Carol said with a sigh as they waited for their food. “Like who the fuck notices that there was someone in their light like that?”

Steve shrugged, bringing his beer to his lips. “Someone who is used to having to fight to be seen. Someone who is so dedicated to their craft that they are so in tuned with his surroundings he can sense something is wrong.”

Tommy chuckled and shook his head. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were describing yourself.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I guess that makes sense. Probably why he became a model in the first place. What better way to be seen then through the lens of a camera.”

“Shit, Steve,” Carol whined. “You’ve got me kinda liking Eddie!”

Steve grinned up at them. “People aren’t usually assholes for no reason. There are a few, let’s not lie. But most of the time it’s because they’ve been treated like shit and now they’re trying to be shitty first so they don’t get hurt.”

He wagged his eyebrows and Tommy flushed. Because yeah, that was exactly what his deal in high school was.

“Okay, okay,” Carol said rolling her eyes. “We’ll be a bit nicer to the little shit. But he is still a little shit.”

Steve nodded and then raised his glass. “I’ll take that.”

~

Steve was on his way to crafty to find a water bottle or two, when he saw Argyle outside of a dressing room on his phone.

“Hey, man,” he greeted. “What’s up?”

Argyle looked up at him and then grinned. “Steve! My man! I’m glad you made it, how are you liking the shoot so far?”

Steve laughed and hugged him. “The food is definitely better and the access to clean water, too.”

Argyle patted him on the back and then stepped back. “Always a plus for sure.”

Steve jerked his head toward the dressing room. “You waiting on someone?”

“Huh?” Argyle said and then smacked his forehead. “Yeah. His highn-ass kicked me out when I was just trying to tell him the new direction the brand wanted to go.”

“I’m sorry,” Steve said jerking his head back. “Did he say why?”

“Like I just walked in and apparently he was still getting undressed or whatever,” Argyle replied with a half-shrug. “I don’t see what the deal was, like he’s doing a nude shoot.”

Steve blinked at him in wide mouthed shock. “Holy shit. You just walked in while he was changing? Because he was a dude and doing a nude shoot? Like seriously what? Would you do that to a female model?”

Argyle reared his head back. “No, of course not. I could lose my job, man.”

“But you’re attracted to men, too,” Steve said scratching his cheek. “So don’t you think the same rules should apply to men as they do with women to avoid getting shit for it?”

“Yeah, I guess,” he replied grumpily.

Steve patted him the shoulder. “Just be mindful, okay? I’d hate to see you in trouble because someone accused you of something you didn’t do.” Then he turned on his heel and went back in search of his bottle of water.

~

Jonathan let out a sigh and turned to Will and Steve. “Well that went as well as come be expected. And for once I’m with Eddie on this one. If I can’t bring him into the shot and have it look natural and not like he’s just tacked on somewhere, I really shouldn’t be doing this.”

Will gave his brother’s arm a gentle squeeze. “I’m struggling to figure it out, too. Like there has to be a way to have the girls in the middle without taking the focus off Henry but not forcing Eddie to the back.”

“They need height,” Steve said shaking his head. “If there was a way to get some height on everyone else then Eddie could be in the frame but still kept from tearing Henry’s throat out.”

Will tilted his head to the side. “What do you mean, Steve?”

“Like if their were tiered like an Olympic podium,” he explained. “But with five of them, and you put Henry on top and Eddie on the bottom, then you get this beautiful affect and everyone is happy.”

Jonathan stroked his chin. “That could work. I’ll send a couple of PAs out, see if they can find something like that. I mean wedding rental places might have something similar enough.”

Miraculously a nearby theatre had used something like it for a recent production and was happy to lend them to Jonathan for a small fee.

They made sure it was safe enough to take the weight of the models and set it up. Then they sent Chrissy to bring Eddie back. It worked like a dream and made for a photo spread that could win awards.

~

Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11

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[global-musings]

Ladakh, India (2009) - Steve McCurry

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

[blondebrainpowered]

Young Frankenstein cast lunch. Madeline Kahn, Gene Wilder, Mel Brooks, Teri Garr, Kenneth Mars, Marty Feldman at The Daisy in 1974.

Photo by Steve Schapiro

[weltonbmarsland]

1997. "I instructed them all to just look at the camera. I wanted to record the moment before everything changed for them."