#PR Lunch Event

[writing-imagines]

Oh Baby // Leah Williamson

Summary: Your relationship with Leah has always been a secret to the public. So, when you’re photographed looking very pregnant and hanging out with your best friend, Austin Butler, the internet assumes he is the father. Leah, already hating Austin, gets jealous and wants to announce to the world that you’re married and expecting your first child together.

Pairing: Leah Williamson x Pregnant Actress!Reader, Reader x Platonic Bestie Austin Butler

Possible warnings: pregnancy, jealousy, Hollywood politics

When you were younger, you always swore you’d never get married. Your insistence on never getting married only grew stronger once you made it to Hollywood. Everyone warned you that getting married and having kids would instantly kill your acting career. With that kind of warning, you followed the narrative your PR team created for you to a tee. For years you pretended to be the cool relatable actress who only starred in critically acclaimed films and never did serious relationships. Really, the only relationships you had were PR for whatever movie you were promoting.

That all changed once you met Leah at an event. You fell for her hard and fast, even though it went against every rule that Hollywood taught you. The one rule you did follow was keeping your relationship extremely private. It took a full year before either of you even let friends and family know you were dating. You didn’t want to hide your relationship, but you knew it would be easier to function in your professional life if everyone believed you were single. Since no one knew you were dating there were no paparazzi stalking you to get a couples picture, no fans bashing you for dating, and no interviewers asking you about one another.

Your marriage was even a secret with only handfuls of trusted friends and family attending. While you managed to keep everything about your relationship under wraps to the general public for years, you knew it would become much more difficult to protect your relationship status when you and Leah decided to go through the process of having a baby.

After consulting your team, you decided to make an announcement on Instagram that you would be taking a break from acting to focus on your mental health and family. It wasn’t a total lie and the public seemed to support your decision. So, for eight months, you laid low. You hardly ever went into the city, if you did you were heavily disguised, and you really only left the house to go to Leah’s family events. But, as you approached the ninth month mark, you were tired of being cooped up all day and not being able to fly home to see any of your friends. That’s why when your best friend invited you out to lunch, you happily accepted.

“What are you doing?” Your wife questioned as you rummaged through your shared closet.

“I’m trying to find that really oversized flannel I bought from the thrift shop a few months ago.”

“Why? You look fine.” Leah cocked her eyebrow as she watched you sort through all the hung up shirts.

“Because, I want to try to hide the bump while I’m at lunch with Austin.”

“What? You didn’t tell me you were going out to lunch and you certainly didn’t mention you were going with him.” You rolled your eyes at Leah’s words. Your wife had always been weary of Austin since you told her about your short lived PR relationship for a drama film you both starred in years ago. You reassured Leah that nothing actually happened between the two of you, besides a few strategically planned kisses in front of paparazzi, but she could never shake the jealousy she felt towards him.

“I told you last night after I picked you up from the airport.”

“Babe, I was barely awake when you picked me up. I don’t even remember coming home.”

“Well, I defiantly told you. Here it is!” You pulled the shirt off the hanger and held it up as if it were a trophy.

“Can’t you cancel? I’ve missed my girls.” Leah took a step forward and placed her hands on your very round belly. Ever since you found out the baby was a girl, Leah couldn’t stop herself from always saying you were ‘her girls.’

“No, I can’t cancel. We’ve had this lunch planned for weeks.” Leah huffed before letting go of your stomach and sitting on the bed. As you attempted to button the flannel, you noticed the blonde crossed her arms over her chest and scowled.

“Oh don’t pout. I’ll only be gone for a little bit. When I get back we can cuddle.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.” Leah’s eyes softened and she allowed her arms to fall at her sides. You walked over to the bed and placed a sweet kiss on your wife’s lips.

“I’ll see you later. I love you.”

“I love you too. Have fun.”

You made your way out of the apartment and into London. Thankfully, the restaurant you were meeting at wasn’t too far away and was in a less busy area. You knew Austin also wasn’t a fan of being recognized in public so it made sense he would suggest a lesser known spot to meet. When you approached the restaurant, Austin was already seated outside at a table.

“Hey, Y/n! How have you been?” He jumped up and greeted you with a hug.

“Pretty good! Just waiting for Little Miss here to come out.” You gently patted the top of your belly after pulling away from the hug. Austin smiled and shook his head as you both sat down.

“I still can’t believe you’re having a baby. I remember when you were firmly against domestic life.”

“That was years ago. Thankfully, I stopped being so stubborn and met the person who made me want to live the domestic life.”

“How is Leah anyway? She still hate me?” Austin questioned as he flipped through the menu.

“She’s good and she doesn’t hate you. She just hasn’t gotten to know you yet.”

“She’s known me for five years. I was involved in your wedding!” He chuckled and leaned back in his chair. You playfully rolled your eyes, knowing that if Leah and Austin would just sit down and talk they would get along well.

“I promise Leah is really sweet. It just takes her a while to warm up to people.”

“At this rate, maybe she’ll like me by the time I’m fifty.”

“Mhm, I think fifty-five might be a better guess.”

You both laughed and continued talking, catching up on life and future plans. While you were both caught up in conversation, neither of you noticed the group of teenage girls across the street snapping endless pictures of the two of you.

Hours went by, but you were so engrossed in conversation that you didn’t notice the time. You only realized how late it was when the restaurant started to get busy. You both agreed it was best to leave before someone noticed either one of you. Austin paid for the both of you and you promised to get together again after the baby was born. After a quick hug goodbye, you started the journey home.

As you approached the apartment, you mentally prepared for Leah’s snarky yet playful comments about how long you’d been gone. “Honey, I’m home!” You called out as you entered. When you kicked your shoes off, you expected some kind of response from Leah. Instead, you were greeted by silence. “Leah, babe, are you home?” You called out again, making your way to the living room. It was there that you found your wife, curled up on the couch with the tv on mute. Your brows knitted together in worry, something was off.

“Hey, everything okay?”

“Not really.” Leah held up her phone for you to take. Once you were close enough, you took the phone from her hands. You let out a sigh when you realized your wife was looking at an article on a gossip website.

Y/n Y/l/n is pregnant! The two time Academy Award winning actress is pregnant with her first child. While the baby’s father is unknown, fans on social media are speculating that it is her ex-boyfriend and former co-star, Austin Butler. The two were spotted together at a restaurant with Y/n trying to hide her baby bump with an oversized shirt. Fans are also speculating if the pregnancy has anything to do with her absence from Hollywood and if she’ll even return to the silver screen.

Attached to the article were about fifty pictures of you sitting at lunch with Austin, your stomach absolutely not hidden by the flannel like you hoped. Your heart started to race as the realization set in. The secret was out, everyone knew you were expecting. All your hard work for the past eight months had been for nothing. Your reputation as everyone’s favorite cool and easy going actress was thrown out the window. Now, all anyone would see you as was the successful actress who stalled her career for a baby. You could see it now, every studio and director writing your auditions off because they knew you had a baby that you wanted to get home to rather than spending sixteen hours on set.

You could only imagine all the emails being sent between your publicist, PR team, and management at the moment.

“People think you’re pregnant with his baby.” Leah mumbled, her eyes were glued to the ground and she looked disappointed.

“That’s what you’re worried about?” You questioned with a harsher tone than intended. You didn’t understand why Leah wasn’t freaking out with you since she knew just how important your public image was to your career.

“Yes. She’s my baby, not his.” Leah looked up at you with pure sadness in her eyes. You let out a sigh and tried to slow down your racing thoughts. Leah was clearly upset at the thought of everyone believing you were having a baby with the man she was jealous of. Knowing how easy it was for your wife to walk off the edge, you decided she needed your attention more than your career did.

“Whose baby is it?” You questioned in a soft, more playful tone with a cocked eyebrow. Leah caught on and twisted her lips to stop a small smile from forming.

“Our baby. She’s our baby.” Leah reached for your hand and squeezed it tight.

“Yes, she is and everyone in our life knows that.”

“But the public doesn’t know.” Silence once again fell over the room as you thought about what your wife said. After a few moments, you understood just what she meant.

“Are you saying you want to tell everyone about us?”

“Yeah, I do. I want everyone to know that you’re my wife and you’re pregnant with our baby. If that’s okay with you.” Leah squeezed your hand again, silently letting you know that she was supportive of whatever you wanted. It was a moment you thought about since you got married, but you never thought the day would actually come where you’d tell the public you were together and started a family. Plus, the word was already out that you were pregnant, there was no reason to not confirm it.

“Yeah, I would like that.” Leah’s face lit up like a Christmas tree, making you smile too. She quickly jumped up and kissed you like her life depended on it. When you pulled away, you both had wide smiles.

“Should I call my PR team and have them come up with an announcement? It will take some of the pressure off us.”

“No, I already have an idea.” Leah announced matter-of-factly with a proud smirk.

“Oh really?”

“Mhm, I’ve been thinking about it for a while now.”

“What exactly are you thinking?”

“You’ll see.”

A few hours later, after responding to what felt like thousands of emails from your team in LA, you were curled up in bed and waiting for Leah to join you. While you absentmindedly flipped through tv channels a notification from Instagram flashed on your phone screen.

Leah Williamson tagged you in a post.

You opened the notification and were immediately greeted by one of your favorite pictures of you and Leah that Katie McCabe had sneakily taken at your last birthday party. You were sitting on the kitchen counter, your t-shirt strained against your newly round stomach, with Leah standing between your legs. Both her hands on either side of your stomach and she looked absolutely in love with you. You remembered the moment fondly, it was one of the first times Leah got to feel the baby kick.

The caption under the picture read

From my favorite actress, to my wife, to the mother of my child. I’ll love you forever.

Even though it had only been posted for barely a minute, the post already had thousands and likes and hundreds of comments.

“What do you think? Is it a good announcement?” Leah questioned as she leaned against the doorframe of your bedroom.

“It’s perfect.” You shared the post to your own stories with a few red hearts. Moments after sharing the post, you turned your phone off for the night. Since there was an eight hour time difference between LA and London, you knew most of your friends back home would see the post and want to text you. You simply chose to deal with all the texts in the morning.

“I’m glad we announced it. I was getting tired of pretending like we were just friends in public.” Leah said as she climbed into bed next to you. Once she was comfortable, you moved closer to her so you could lay your head on Leah’s chest. Her arm wrapped around your back to pull you closer while her other hand rested on your belly.

“I’m glad too. Now I can come to your matches without being paranoid that someone is going to see me there and post about it.” You looked up to see a smile tug at Leah’s lips. The blonde knew how stressful it was for you to show up to Arsenal matches and the thought of you finally being comfortable while watching her play made Leah happy.

“I can’t wait to look in the crowd and see you and the baby. You two will be my good luck charms.” Leah gently traced little patterns on your stomach. The thought of you standing in the crowd, holding your baby, and cheering the blonde on was enough to make Leah’s heart explode with joy.

“What are you going to do if she doesn’t like football?” You questioned, lifting your head slightly off Leah’s chest. She let out a sigh and shook her head.

“I think I’d probably just die.”

“You’re dramatic, you know that?” You let out a small laugh before laying your head back down.

“I’m dramatic? Says the one with two Oscars and only stars in dramatic films.”

“Without those dramatic films, we may have never met. You might have ended up with someone who isn’t dramatic.”

“Oh, that would be just awful.” The blonde said with pure sarcasm in her voice and playfully rolled her eyes.

“You love me and my drama.”

“Yeah, I do.”

You and Leah talked for a little while longer until you eventually fell asleep with your head still on her chest. Leah couldn’t help but watch you sleep. It was a habit she developed shortly after discovering you were pregnant. The blonde could stay awake all night watching your chest rise and fall. It was during quiet moments like that where Leah questioned just how lucky she was to have you. You could have anyone in the world, but you chose her and Leah was forever grateful for whatever she did to deserve you and your baby girl.

#leah williamson #leah williamson x reader #leah williamson x female reader #Leah Williamson imagine #woso #woso imagines

[thebomb-thebird-andtheburntbitch]

anon asked:

Hi! It says on your description thing that your requests are open? ( I’m sorry for this if they’re closed :’) )

I read your request rules and it said you take poly kiribaku and I was wondering if you could write a scenario of kiribaku with a fashion designer reader? reader makes them suits and an outfit for themselves from scratch for an event? Just kinda funny fluffy stuff with reader slowly getting more annoyed at them not cooperating ( mainly Bakugou cause he’s Bakugou lol ) but still managing to finish and make them cool suits and an outfit for themselves too :)

I’ve had this lil idea in my head for months now and I love your writing, so if you think you could do something with this I’d be very happy :)) ( sorry for the long request, if you don’t want to write this I wouldn’t mind, also sorry again if your requests are closed :’) )

thank you! :))

a/n: so sorry its a bit short anon, but i did what i could!

w.count: 1.1k

your office was currently a mess. an organized mess but a mess nonetheless and katsuki made sure you knew that by his sneering. it wasn't unusual for either of your boyfriends' to stop by your workplace for various reasons. forgot your lunch, bringing you papers you needed, maybe repairs to their hero suits since your stitching 'holds up better than others'. still, this time you were the one to strong-arm them into both coming by. or rather, strong-arm katsuki, since eijirou had no issues in popping by when you called.

your work office was filled with used and unused mannequins, your main desk, a separate desk littered with fabric scraps, your sewing machines, and straight pens left, right, and center. there was also a quiant little loveseat with two comfortable cushions you have for visiting clients.

that very loveseat is where both your boyfriends' currently parked their asses. you standing in front of them with your hands on your hips and a tape measure gripped in your palm.

"i dont see why we need all new shit," katsuki groans, his arms on the back of the loveseat, looking away from your unimpressed scowl. eijiou curls his lips in to try- and fail- to conceal the amused look on his face.

you had called them both here because of the next hero gala. the dates were finally sent out to those permitted to attend, and both of their names were on the roster. of course, they would be going- mostly because katsuki's pr team begged him to- and since they got to bring plus ones along, you would also be with them.

the two of them have always been wearing store bought formal wear or renting suits, but this was literally your area of expertise! you would get measurements from the two of them if it was the last thing youd do before making them outfits they can freely keep for such occasions.

eijirou had no qualms about the whole process. in fact, his measurements went smoothly aside from him flexing his arms when you were trying to get their circumference.

"yes, you're very muscular babe, now relax your arm or so help me," was what he got in return to his playful tomfoolery. checking off his waist and hips was also filled with banter since at least three times he had hugged you and kept joking about how he wasn't just going to not when you were right in front of him. that would be far too many wasted opportunities.

katsuki had been scrolling on his phone the whole time eijirou was prolonging his process by playing harmless pranks and showering you in goofy affection as he does. you almost wished you had measured him last to get the stubborn fool that is katsuki over with first though.

now, here you stand, impatiently waiting for him to get his ass up and get started.

"katsuki," you warn, his head tipping back in a groan. "i've got all day," you tell him as if you weren't bothered in the slightest. you were though, and annoyed to boot. while you did in fact have time, that doesn't mean you want it to be wasted in a battle of wits.

"what's the damn point of taking measurements? we've got plenty of shit at home to wear."

"no, you don't. I do, but you guys have nothing properly formal enough for a gala, and im sick of renting suits when i can just make something and save some money in the process. do you know how expensive it is to rent a suit? no, because you're loaded, so up."

"i did enough of this kinda shit growin' up, i aint dealing with it when im not even livin' with my folks anymore."

you roll your tongue across your teeth, squeezing the space between your eyes with your fingers and holding yourself back.

"come on, kats, don't be such a fun sponge," eijirou tries to help. knocking him lightly in the side with his elbow, katsuki just huffs and looks at the nearest clock as if gauging when your workday was supposed to end and how long he can keep this up.

"fine," you heave, tossing your measuring tape at his chest before it flops onto his legs. "have it your way."

"that's what I tho-"

"I'll just call mitsuki and she can give me your measurements." there was a slight pause after your claim settles into the air you three occupy.

"what?" he almost sounded like he didn't believe you. but oh how serious you are.

"go on, shoo." you walk back towards your main desk with your computer and grab your purse where you start digging around for your phone. "i have a phone call to make, so go somewhere else if you're not going to be useful. oh, eijirou you can stay though if you want."

"hey!" katsuki, pulling his arms off the back of the couch, both offended that he was being kicked out while his boyfriend got to stay and miffed because- were seriously going to call his mom? over his measurements? god, who knows what else could come out of that hag's mouth if you call her asking for that. the last thing he needed was you and his mother commenting on how small his waist was or worse.

you plant yourself in your desk chair and pull over a notepad and pen to write down the oncoming numbers you would be getting one way or the other. katsuki springs from the loveseat when he sees the phone line start dialing from across the room against your cheek.

the phone rings twice and you're ready to apologize for calling in the middle of the work day when she picks up, but before you could your phone was ripped from your hand and away from your cheek.

"wha- katsuki!" you utter in disbelief.

"ignore this," he huffs before hanging up the call and tossing your tape measure into your face.

"take your stupid ass measurements, but you don't get this back for a while." the blond tosses your phone over to kirishima who had been gleefully watching the free entertainment. the red head catches it easily and safely tucks it into his pocket.

"traitor," you send his way across the room and he just shrugs.

"sorry, boyfriend's orders."

"that's right," katsuki backs him up with his arms crossed and you return the sentiment by jabbing him in the side with the back of your pen. "now hurry up, this offer expires soon."

"i hate you," you groan as you get up and untangle your measuring tape to start the process of finally getting what you needed.

"no you don't."

"i wish i did."

"liar."

"shut up, im concentrating."

he hates to admit it, but the group of coordinating matching outfits you three all wear to the gala weeks later was totally worth pushing your buttons for. plus, it was cute to rile you up sometimes.

(mitsuki did call his cell later that day to explain why it's incredibly rude to hang up on his mother. he hung up on her again.)

#bakugou x reader #kirishima x reader #kiribaku x reader #kiribaku fluff #kiribaku x reader fluff #kiribaku x y/n #kiribaku x y/n fluff #bnha #boku no hero academia x reader #bnha x reader #bnha x y/n

[wonik1ss]

౨ৎ Work Adversaries ! — minji kim

pairing — non idol!minji x reader song rec : my problem - jordi + passion fruit - nmixx ( 1.3k ) warnings ! none ᯤ ^ ㅇ ^ happy reading ! ⸝⸝・ᘏᘏ

synopsis : on a fateful Wednesday afternoon 2 people cut ties with you. but with cupid on your side you have 2 different paths to take to hopefully get back together with these 2 people by Valentine’s Day end! val event !

“Y/n! Please come into my office!”

As you walked over to your boss's office, you quietly prayed for the best. Because you were easily swayable, he always overworked you.

“Yes boss..?”

“It looks like Sewon’s out sick. Can you do her work as well as yours?"

You hated when people said, ‘Can you’. It's not like you had an actual option to say no. You never did. No more the three days after you joined the company were you getting tossed around like a hot potato.

"Y/nie, can you turn on the computer for me?”

“Y/N, can you grab coffee for the whole floor?”

“Y/N, can you bend backwards to make sure this gets done before the due date?"

No, please, no presents, no thank yous. Your best friend Hanni always told you to say no, but it was so hard. One time someone ran away after attempting to ask for a favor!

"Yes, boss, I’m on it!”

You took the papers, bowed, and hung your head low. Not even five minutes later, you heard a commotion. You looked up from your cubicle to see your boss with a stone-faced girl.

“Everyone welcome Kim Minji! She will be working with us from now on"

You all clapped, and then you turned back to your computer.

“Y/n-shi..”. That was Niri; she always knew you always had piles of work but still asked for help. Meaning you did half her work every day.

"Hmm, Niri, what’s wrong?”

“Can you show Minji-shi around for me? I have to pick up my kid". In which she meant her snotty little puddle named Princess.

“Ok, just come back quickly" Niri nodded and then proceeded to clock out.

"Hi, Mrs. Kim" As you turned to face Minji, she just stared at you blankly.

“Ok, um, do you know where your cubicle is?”. Minji pointed to the one next to you.

"Ok, do you want me to help you with a few of your assignments?”

“No thanks. Can you just show me how everything works on that? I don’t have one at home"

As Minji pointed to the computer, you nodded as she sat down in her seat. Throughly surprised that she could actually talk. You walked over to the girl and hovered over her to instruct her on how the computer worked. Once you were done, she bowed, and you did too. Gosh, did you need some coffee?

You walked over, noticing Kaito and Somi near the water cooler. Shit. They always need-

"Babes, can you take out the trash for us? It would be a great favor." Kaito smirked at you as she tilted your chin up to him.

“Sure Kai..”. The boy dramatically bowed, and his friend laughed while they both left. You sighed and walked over to the coffee machine. What dicks. After you made your coffee, you straightened your tie for war.

As you approached your cubicle, you titled your head. Half your stack of Sewon’s work was done. Maybe you did it in the five minutes before Minji was introduced.

Just as you sat down, Minji peeked out of her cubicle.

“You can just call me Minji Y/nie"

You nodded, and the girl tried to crack a smile. very broken at that. In the next few days, more and more of your work was miraculously done before you even thought about touching it. This day, you decided to catch the person. Yu Xi rarely asked you for anything, so as soon as she entered the office, you offered to do half of her work. She begged you not to, but you fought hard for it. The girl gave you her work and a big hug with it.

This time, you left it at your desk and ran to the break room. You peeled them through the window, waiting. Five minutes later, you saw Minji peek over your desk. Maybe she was looking for you. Two seconds later, she took half your work. In the few days you knew Minji, you only said hi and bye to her. Why was she doing this for you?

“Lunch is on me, guys! The project was successful, so I’ll treat you all." Your eyes darted to Kaito, standing at his desk. Everyone clapped, and the boss laughed, taking Kaito off the desk and giving him a big hug. It's not like you did all of his work for the last week, right?

Hours later, you were drinking tiny sips of alcohol with a piece of cake in a bag next to you. Unlike the others, Yu Xi always got you a sweet when she asked for something. So now you were sandwiched at the end of the booth, between Yu Xi and Minji. Kaito was wasted and told some stories about his dead ghost aunt.

So you took this time to turn to Minji. The girl poured and turned to face you.

“Minji”

“Mm?”

“Why are you doing my work for me?”. The girl's eyes furrowed, and she rolled her eyes. Did you hurt her in a past life?

“Yeah, none of it is your work.”

“But-“

“It’s the work of your lazy coworkers". You knew it was true, so you just nodded.

“Thanks Minji.. I’ll try to say no". Then, for the first time ever, you saw Minji genuinely smile.

“It’s ok.. I enjoy your reaction when you see it’s already done"

You laughed, and just like that, you had made your second actual work friend. You slowly started to say no to some of your coworkers, and as a result, Minji treated you every other day. It even got to the point that Hanni even met her.

“Minji!”.Your face dropped. Minji wasn’t in her cubicle. You pouted and sent her a quick text: ‘U ok, Minji?’. You check two hours later and there is no response. Two days later, Minji showed up. Bags under her eyes, her hair tied up. You ran over to her, engulfing her in a hug.

"Minji, are you okay?" As you pulled away, all the taller girl did was blink twice and go to her cubicle. That’s how you ended up crying in the office bathroom stall. Until you heard a knock.

“Someone’s in here!”

“I know! Can you come out?" Weirdo

When you walked out, a tall girl dressed in all pink greeted you. Pink glasses, pink bag, pink suit, skirt, and heart eyes?

“Hear my card." You grabbed the card out of the girl's hand and laughed. It said ‘cupid 101’.

“Is this some kind of joke because Valentine’s Day is next week?”

“No.. I’m cupid.. the 101st actually." The girl pushed up her glasses. Just then, two girls walked into the bathroom. The taller girl cracked her knuckles and shot an invisible arrow at them. The girls turned to each other and started to make out. One pushing the other into a stall.

“See!”. Your eyes grew big.

“Why, why are you talking to me then?”

“You messed up! Minji’s your soulmate! Not platonically, and I’m here to help you fix your mess!”. Seeing as you were stunned, the pink girl spoke again.

“I’m Wonyoung, aka Cupid 101, and I’m going to make you go back in time with the knowledge you have now and fix the mistake you made with Minji.”

“I didn’t make a mistake!”

"Ya, but you made someone else.. butterfly effect, you know." The girl turned around in the mirrors and applied lipstick to her lips.

“What if I say no?”

“You’re alone for ever, duh." The girl said she was looking at you through the mirror.

“So what are you choosing? I got three other clients, girl." Wonyoung tapped on her pink watch.

“Yes?”. Wonyoung smiled.

“Good luck”. Suddenly, you heard a stall open, and you turned to see the two girls leaving the stall. Then Wonyoung was gone. Wonder when the traveling back will

“Y/n-shi! Please go to the cafe and get us lunch, please." Then you were suddenly five days back in time. The devil works hard, but Wonyoung works harder.

#kpop fanfic #kpop #kpop idol x reader #kpop imagines #kpopidol #kpop gg #kpop smau #kpop girls #reader x idol #reader insert #onwednesdaywewearpinkevent

[sjsmith56]

Customer Service - Part 2

Summary: Bucky makes it right with his former girlfriend. Second part of two part story.

Length: 3.8 K

Warnings: Angst, acknowledgement of emotional distancing.

<<Part 1

🔹 🔹 🔹

It had been several weeks since Bucky bought his suit at the store where I worked. He picked up the trousers that had been hemmed, waiting until I went on my lunch break to take them, so that we didn’t meet. Even though it was what I wanted, a part of me was hurt that he didn’t even try to see me. The suit looked good when I saw the TV coverage of the White House visit showing the Avengers receiving their commendation for a difficult mission that was successfully completed without the loss of life. Fashion blogs singled him out for the black monochromatic look he wore, saying it was obvious he had a professional stylist help him look so handsome and debonair. It was flattering and devastating to me at the same time. I knew I was good at my job, but I also knew that by remaining coldly professional with him I likely destroyed any chance of ever reconciling with him. C’est la vie.

We did notice an uptick in sales after the fashion blogs took note, as someone connected to the Avengers PR team mentioned our store, and the excellent customer service Bucky encountered in his search for a suit. The store manager was pleased, commending me for taking advantage of the lucky opportunity to sell a suit to an Avenger as well-known as Bucky Barnes. If he only knew the truth, that I only did it so I could see my former boyfriend once more. Then I noticed a couple of the other Avengers showing up, some of them like Joaquin Torres and Peter Parker browsing in the men’s wear selection, shyly waving at me when I became aware of their presence. Others, like Yelena Belova and Kate Bishop trying things on in the women’s wear or makeup departments. If I had been a suspicious person, I would have thought they were spying on me. But I wasn’t and they weren’t, at least not in the way I was expecting.

It wasn’t until I became aware of the celebrity gossip shows promoting the appearance of Bucky at several premieres and fashion events with some starlet on his arm that I understood why they had been at the store. As long as I was unaware of what was going on everything was alright. But as soon as Bucky moved on, I wasn’t alright; I wasn’t happy at all. When Sam showed up just before my lunch hour one day (with suspiciously accurate timing) I knew he was there for me.

“I’m fine,” I said to him, when he presented himself near the staff room door to intercept me.

“You’re not,” he said bluntly. “You’re allowed to leave the store for an hour, right? Come with me and we’ll talk. I’ll buy you lunch.”

Five minutes later we were in a small café, our hands around a couple of cups of coffee and an order placed for a Cobb salad for me, and burger with fries for him.

“Ever since he showed up at the White House wearing the suit you chose for him, the PR team has been pushing him to be more visible,” he said. “Apparently, he’s got the hottest look going for men right now and they want to take advantage of him being the first one to show up in public like that. He’s not dating any of them. In fact, he doesn’t even like doing it.”

“Could have fooled me,” I said. “Not that it matters since we broke up months ago. He’s free to see anyone he wants.”

“He doesn’t want anyone else,” declared Sam. “He only stayed away because that’s what you wanted; what you indicated the last time he saw you.”

“I know that,” I answered. “I created a monster. Now I have to live with my creation.”

He breathed out my name, but I just glared at him. Even though seeing Bucky out with those other women hurt, I knew objectively that he had no obligations to me, just as I had none to him. We were both free agents, free to do what we wanted or see whoever we chose to see. The fact I hadn’t even gone out on a single date since we broke up was beside the point. I could go with whoever I wanted, once I was ready. Sam gamely tried to make me feel better and even tried again to convince me to speak with Bucky, but I was pretty adamant. We were done. Taking some cash out of my purse for my part of the bill I left it on the table.

“Hey, no, this is my treat,” said Sam, putting it back in my hand. “Please, just think about things, will you?”

“You know, Sam, I would,” I said. “It’s just that when we were together, he never wanted to go out in public with me. Said he didn’t like the attention. I only wanted to go out maybe once a week to dinner or a movie and he wouldn’t do that for me. Yet, he manages to go out for the PR people several times a week with different beautiful women, meeting celebrities, rubbing shoulders with the famous people, people who don’t even matter to him. What does that say to me, the woman he supposedly loved. He needs to get his priorities straight, don’t you think?”

Sam’s face fell as he didn’t have a comeback for that because it was true. When I stepped outside it was raining which was just great, as it totally added to the crying I was trying not to do. By the time I got back to the store I had to excuse myself to the ladies' room and fix my makeup before I was presentable again. I threw myself into my job and tried to put any thought of James Buchanan Barnes out of my head.

That lasted another week until I was on the late shift, helping to close down the store at 9 pm. As a manager, it was my responsibility to go through the various departments, confirming that every till was closed off, the empty cash drawer left open to indicate the employer had bagged the money, minus the float, and taken both upstairs, where another manager confirmed they turned both amounts in. Security had already shooed the customers out, although there was always one or two who showed up with a minute or two left until the store closed, insistent they could get what they wanted quickly and at no inconvenience to the staff. Fortunately, the security staff were under strict orders to refuse entry to anyone arriving up to 5 minutes before closing, citing store security policy. A few years before someone had showed up, then hid in a storeroom and waited until they were certain they were alone, in an attempt to rob the safe. They weren’t alone, as the security system picked them up as soon as they exited the storeroom. By the time they made it up to the office the police were waiting with drawn guns.

It was 9:30 by the time I finished my duties and grabbed my purse and jacket, ready to take the train to my apartment, almost an hour’s ride away. I was tired, both emotionally and physically. After saying goodnight to the security guard on duty while he let me out, I headed towards the subway station when I heard my name being called. Turning around I saw Bucky, leaning against a car that was parked on the street. With a sigh, I approached him.

“What do you want?” I asked, knowing I was sounding abrupt, but I was too tired to care.

“Just to talk,” he said. “Get in, I’ll drive you home.” I looked around, trying to think of something, anything to say to him, as to why that wouldn’t be a good idea. “Please.”

He held the door open for me, waiting to make sure I was buckled in before he closed the door then he got behind the wheel and started up the car. Smoothly, he pulled into traffic and headed towards Queens. The sound system was on, connected to one of his jazz playlists. Turning it down so that it didn’t overwhelm us he drove quietly for a few moments.

“How are you?” he asked, finally.

“Fine.”

“Sweetheart, I know that fine means a lot of things, but it usually isn’t something good. Please, talk to me.”

“Alright, if you want to know the truth. I’m not fine. I work, I go home, force myself to eat something, then I watch TV until I fall asleep in front of it. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and drag myself to bed and other times I don’t, waking up in my clothes the next morning. Then I shower, force myself to eat breakfast and go to work. That’s my life. Satisfied?”

He breathed heavily, almost angrily, although his face seemed more upset than angry.

“Sam told me he talked to you.”

“And? What more do you want me to add, Bucky?”

“It wasn’t my idea to go out to these events,” he said. “It’s an obligation I would rather not have.”

“Right, yet you still do it. I only asked for us to go out on occasion like a real couple and you didn’t feel any obligation to do it for me, but you’ll do it for PR people. Did you not want people to know we were a couple?”

“Did you?” he countered. “I noticed that you didn’t say anything to the people you work with that we were a couple once upon a time. Were you ashamed of me?”

“No, I wasn’t,” I snapped. “I didn’t say anything to them because they’re a bunch of gossips who would have bugged me constantly for any juicy tidbits about the Avengers.” I looked out the window, shaking my head, while I trembled inside. “I didn’t need that in my life.”

Bucky looked away for a moment before looking at me. “What did you need? Because I feel there were a whole lot of things that I obviously didn’t know you wanted or needed. What did I miss?”

I knew if I started listing things that I would start crying so I said the only thing I could think of. “Everything.”

He looked stunned before he pulled over to an open spot, parking the car. Then he turned to me.

“Darlin’, look at me.” His voice was so silky and soft. When I turned towards him, I could feel the tears streaming down my cheeks, unchecked. “I’m so sorry that I hurt you. I honestly thought I was holding you back.”

“You see, this is why … I couldn’t do it anymore,” I cried. “You were so unavailable to me, even when we were in the same room. You didn’t tell me things; didn’t say anything about your thoughts or fears. I thought I wasn’t that important to you. I thought that what we had was physical more than anything. So, I withdrew as well, trying to protect myself from how much it hurt.” I looked at him, feeling the pain on his face in my gut. “Aren’t we a pair?”

“Is there any chance to make it right? I don’t want anyone else; I never did.”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I want to believe that I matter to you, I really do.”

I undid my seatbelt and opened the door, unable to take any more of it. Before I had even gone ten feet, Bucky was in front of me, blocking me from going any further. Every move I made to get past him; he countered it. It was too much, and I broke down completely, wailing like a baby. He enclosed me in his arms at that moment and held me, stroking my hair and rubbing my back, just letting me cry it out until I was spent. When I stopped crying, I didn’t know what time it was, or where we were. All I was aware of was the warmth of his body and the sound of his heart pounding as I laid my head against his chest. Then Bucky murmured something, and I wasn’t sure I heard him right, so I looked up at him.

“What did you say?”

“I said, let’s go home,” he repeated, looking into my eyes.

“Which home?”

My place was still quite a drive away in Queens. When we broke up, he had been living in a small flat in Brooklyn. It wasn’t the nicest place, but it was what his Army pension and a government stipend could afford. With a smile he kissed me.

“I have something to show you,” he said quietly, gazing at me with those blue eyes. I started to ask for details, but he placed his fingertips on my lips. “Let me show you, then you can ask me anything.”

Just the way he was looking at me, so softly and sweetly, I knew it was something important. We got back in the car and were soon on our way to Brooklyn. On a street in Prospect Heights, Bucky slowed up, then parked in front of a brownstone that had scaffolding set up in front of it. He turned the car off and pointed to it.

“With what I make with the Avengers and my lawsuit settlement finally coming through I decided to invest in a home. It needed some work as it was used as a rooming house for a long time. New plumbing, flooring, HVAC, windows, and then when it’s finished, painting and furnishings. Would you like to see it?”

I could see that it meant a lot to him, so I nodded, and he came around to open the car door for me, offering his hand to help me out, still very much a 1940s gentleman. He followed me up the steps then entered a number in the keypad which unlocked the door. Turning on the entryway light he stepped back to allow me to enter first. The floors were covered in a layer of protective paper. The walls had been refinished but still needed a final coat of plaster, then paint, and the windows needed trimming, but the lighting fixtures were up and as he turned them on, I could see that it would be a lovely home. He showed me the kitchen and unlocked the door to a terrace that led down to a small patio area with a shade tree. Returning back to the house we went upstairs to the second floor which had two bedrooms, one of them a large master with an ensuite bathroom and walk-in closet. The stairs led to a third floor with two more bedrooms. All of them had hardwood floors and had been painted in a soft grey colour. As we headed back down to the living room area, he told me more.

“The basement has an office and a workout room. I’ll need somewhere to stay fit.”

I looked at the back of his head, as he descended ahead of me on the stairs, puzzled by the last comment because I knew that Stark Tower had the best in terms of fitness facilities.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “Why are you showing me this now?”

He stepped out into the living room area, took a breath, then placed his hand on mine, playing with my fingers.

“When I agreed to be part of the Avengers, I never envisioned being in a relationship with anyone,” he began. “I thought it would be enough to pay back society for what I did as the Winter Soldier, maybe date a bit, and then someday, buy a bar somewhere on a tropical island and finish out my days there. Then I met you, and it threw me for a loop. I didn’t handle it well, convincing myself that you would realize I wasn’t a good bet. So, I held myself apart from you. I guess I was deliberately sabotaging our relationship, trying to see how far I could push you away before you left. Well, I found out and I hurt you in the process. I hurt us both because I rationalized that it was all for the better. Then I saw you again, at the store.”

“Sam told me you were there deliberately, to see me. You bought those boots on an impulse so you would have an excuse to come back.”

He didn’t deny it. “All those times you offered to help me buy a nice suit and I turned you down because I thought you were just being polite. Then I needed help for real and you were so detached and professional, that I figured it really was over between us. When the PR people said they wanted me to be out and about, showing how I had evolved from this jeans and T-shirt guy to someone who could represent the organization I said yes, thinking I should be a better team player. The others kept telling me you were hurting after the first PR pictures and videos came out. They could see it every time one of them came into the store then you admitted how much you were struggling to Sam. It just all came to a head how unfair I had been to you.”

“Tell me,” I demanded. “Tell me how you’ve been unfair. I want to know if you realize what you really did.”

He had the decency to look embarrassed. “I know that I wasn’t good at telling you how much you meant to me. When we were on missions, I know I should have called you or texted you more, just to say I was thinking of you and couldn’t wait for when I got back. It wasn’t fair asking you to look after me when I was hurt. I tried to rationalize it by convincing myself that because I would be healed the next day that it wouldn’t bother you, but it did, didn’t it?” I sobbed out loud then, and his face broke. “I guess the worst thing is that I was being selfish when I didn’t want to go out. Part of me tried to say it was time devoted to you, but the truth was that I was afraid to be out with you; not just because I was afraid of people judging me, wondering why I should have someone like you in my life when I’ve taken so many lives. There was hate mail, threatening to hurt my loved ones.” I stopped crying, as this was the first that I had heard of it. “So, I rationalized staying home so I could protect you, not thinking that it made you feel trapped.” He touched my face with a worried expression on his. “How am I doing?”

“What does this have to do with buying a house?” I asked. He took another deep breath.

“I’m retiring from active duty,” he said. “They’re recruiting a bunch of new people, some of them kids but with powers that make me look like a stick in the mud. In many ways I am a stick in the mud. I like my 40s music, I don’t get reality TV, and I haven’t had a break since 1943. I think I’ve earned the right to have a private life. I’ll still help train these new kids, and if there’s a big mission, I’ll consider going on it, but I want a home, and a family, with a wife and kids, and a dog, and a cat … all of it.”

“What else will you do?”

“Get my GED, go to college,” he replied. “Maybe be a house husband, cook the meals, clean the house, and look after my kids while my wife continues on her career, if that’s what she wants to do. I’m in a new century and there are parts of it I want to embrace as long as I have the right person with me.” He was touching my face again, with his fingertips just brushing against my jaw. “I asked you earlier what I could do to make it right. I already knew the answer. I make you the focus of my life. It’s all about you and should have been from the start. Let me make you happy, let me show you every day how much you matter.”

I wanted to believe him and by the look on his face he wanted me to believe him as well. He bought a house, a big one, to fill with love and laughter, children and pets, and he bought it for me. Not only that, but he was also willing to retire, and start doing something else with his life; embracing the life he wanted in the 1940s but wasn’t allowed to have until now, if only I was willing to embrace it with him.

“You know, I was thinking of getting out of retail,” I said. “The hours aren’t great for relationships, from Thanksgiving on through the New Year the crowds are ridiculous, and customer service isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. I’m at a point in my life where I’m ready to try something different.”

“Like what?” he asked, a soft smile on his face.

“Like marriage and a family, and a husband who adores me.”

“I can provide that,” he murmured, his arms moving around my waist. “If you’re sure that’s what you want, then I’m more than willing to help you get it.”

“Is that a proposal?” It became very still at that moment.

“No, but I can do that, too,” he said, not missing a beat. “That’s a promise.”

Our lips met then, and he poured every bit of his love for me into that kiss. We stood in that unfinished living room, the smell of plaster still in the air from the first coat put on the walls. There were no window coverings so anyone passing by would have seen Bucky Barnes and some woman kissing like there was nothing else in the world pressing upon them. When I got into his car after work, I was certain that this was it, the end was coming, and whatever was keeping us apart was too big to overcome. Instead, I found someone who wanted what I wanted, and was willing to change his life to make me happy. If he was willing to do that, then so was I. I never wanted him to quit the Avengers for me, but it was always going to be an option now, a choice that we could make together, when the time was right. The timing was perfect.

Short Fiction Masterlist

Please reblog if you liked this.

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes fanfiction #buckybarnes original female character #sam wilson #reconciliation #kiss and make up #james buchanan barnes fanfiction #james buchanan barnes #buckybarnesshortfic #bucky barnes short fiction

[heyhihellosworld]

𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁

Rúben Dias x reader

Word count: 2.3k

Summary: You and Ruben where adamant to keep your relationship out of work but things don't always go according to plan.

Warnings: Smut, fluff, angst

Notes: First one I post about Ruben but kinda liked it even though it's kinda messy and all over the place.

"Is Y/N in today?"

Lucy shook her head with a crooked grin, trying to bite in a smug smile "She will come in an hour or so" she proceeded to tell the Portuguese who nodded.

"Don't make things up Lucy" he muttered but a small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"Oh I am surely not Mr Dias" she smiled back, sitting back on her desk chair as he straightened up "Well, have a good day" he mumbled before hurrying up the stairs.

You knew you were late as you rushed through the entrance of the building, out of breath and stressed out.

"A certain someone asked for you this morning" Lucy grinned as you stopped at her reception desk. Hands full of your working bag, gym bag and files that you needed to go through after failed attempts at doing it during the weekend.

"Who?" you questioned, putting the bags down on the ground as you breathed heavily, being late to work was a bad habit but it did make your fitness better.

"Who do you think?" Lucy chuckled, folding her arms over her chest like it was the most obvious answer.

"Uh-uh Ruben?"

"Ding ding ding" she grinned, tapping her finger on the desk in tact with the sounds she did.

You rolled your eyes but couldn't help the little smile that tugged at your mouth. "Don't give me that look"

"I'm not giving you anything I am just asking you a question and pointing out something obvious"

You shook your head, warning her to continue. "I'm gonna go work, see you for lunch?" you hummed, picking up your bags and starting of to the stairs while she laughed at you "Don't try to hide the truth!" she shouted tempting you to flick her off behind your back but you held back and settled in your office. Putting the bags on the small chair by the door before settling in the spacey room which you proudly called your office.

Working as a PR manager for Manchester City had been a dream so far. Only being on the post for a month short you still had a lot to adjust to and a lot to learn but it had all been going great so far. Finding new friends by the staff and also befriending a few of the players. It was your dream job and landing it at your age was a dream in itself.

You spent the morning working through files of different events and matches. Writing player profiles and interview-templates.

The clock was about eleven when a knock made you stop and welcome the person inside.

"It's open" The door shot open and Ruben appeared, his small smile and two coffee cups in his hands making you smile widely.

"Hi, I know it's pretty late but thought you might want some coffee" You couldn't help but smile foolishly big as the Portuguese sat down the coffee at your desk. "Thank you Ruben, it's very nice" "So.... what are you doing?" he questioned, peeking over your shoulder to get a look at your files.

"Well, right now I am writing some files for Nick to pass on to Lucy and Pep regarding the Christmas event and this is your player profile template" "Wow okay, didn't really get that.. wait, that's mine?"

"Mhm"

"What does it say?" he questioned and you chuckled at him, turning to look at him briefly before opening the file up to full screen, showing him the template.

"It's basically empty. I'm gonna have to go around and fill in this information later on, some of it will probably be filmed and all but I have just filled in the basics so far, like your name, birthday, birthplace and so on"

"Mhm" he hued as his eyes scanned the document. He looked ridicolously good regardless what he was doing, it was beginning to become almost a little bit annoying, like how could someone be so beutidul only doing something so simple as reading.

"Are you supposed to know my favorite movie?" he grinned at you, meeting your eyes. "Well I don't know Mr Diaz, are you supposed to know how I look naked? I don't think so but still you do" you mused back, grinning at him as he huffed. His hands rested on the desk, next to you as he leant forward, head tiling to the left to watch you.

"Don't put those images in my head" "You are not getting anything here, it's workspace" you muttered, turning back to your computer and continuing filling in some information in his profile.

"Favorite snack?

"Isn't this supposed to be filmed?" he questioned, "Well maybe but I should start posting this before we can even proceed with the filming so I need to get a few done before, well most of them plus these are not great interview questions"

Ruben hummed, reading through the page now open on your screen as you were thinking.

"Is Jack still here?"

Ruben tilted his head and tutted in disapproval "why would you want him?" You couldn't help but to chuckle at him "Because I want to post his profile?" "Why not mine?"

"Well because I think it would be better to post his first. He is a very popular player and his transfer was a really big publicity thing so I feel like it would get attention to the series of profiles that will occur"

"Post mine first" he grumbled, shaking his head at you while you chuckled "Come on, let me do my work and go find Jack for me"

"I will not"

"Okay, fine. Then I will go myself" you said, standing up from the chair and walking around the table, looking over your shoulder to smirk at his grumpy expression.

"Stop" he grunted as you reached the door, you stopped and turned to him with a smirk. "What? Can't I do my job?" you teased but he only shook his head at you, beckoning you over to him. "You can but right now you can not go and look for Jack" "Why not?" You laughed but still walking to him until you stood chest to chest.

His eyes had that fire they always held when he was in the mood but you had been strict in your rule that no sexual acts where gonna take place at work.

You had already broken that rule twice, once in the changing room after a red-card and another time in the media room after a dinner party.

But you were still adamant on trying to keep it as much as possible. "You shouldn't be so bratty" he murmured. You looked up at him with a chuckle "I am not bratty Ruben, I am trying to do my work and I think Jack is a great player to start with for the profiles and people love him. He is hot, strong and a great player" you teased.

He grunted at that, pushing you against the desk. "Don't stand here and say Jack is hot or you will have a problem"

"Hmm" you hummed as response, feigning thinking. "He is" "Stop"

You couldn't help but to chuckle at him as you patted his chest reassuringly.

Ruben didn't find it funny though. Grabbing your thighs and hoisting you up on the table, standing in-between your thighs and pressing up against you.

"You say one more thing and you will be in trouble" he hissed, pressing his fingers into your thighs. You hummed slightly mockingly, sticking your tongue out from the corner of your lips with a smirk on your face.

"You're just such a brat sometimes" he muttered, pushing your skirt up until it pooled around your waist. He roughly pulled your legs apart and pushed his hand into your panties. You let out a gasp at the rough treatment but you loved it.

Ruben stood with his back against the door, blocking what he was doing with his fingers from any intruders.

"Gonna make you cum in your office and then maybe you will stop being such a brat and maybe stop talking about fucking Jack" His fingers started to rub at your clit. You bit your lip tightly, trying to conceal any sounds that threatened to come out.

Two of his fingers plunged into you starting to pump furiously and making it impossible to stay quiet.

"Ruben" you whined, begging him to slow down. Pressing your face into his chest to try to conceal your moans and whines when he didn't. "Please stop. I can't keep quite" you whined, rocking against his hand.

"Try harder Gathina" he murmured against the shell of your ear, his hot breath trailing down your neck.

He switched between slamming them in and out of you and hooking them against your spot, his thumb never leaving your clit. It felt electric and you knew you would be close within minutes.

Your legs started to shake as you neared your orgasm, the sounds being louder and louder and in the end even Ruben decided it was too much, trying to muffle them with kisses. Swallowing all of your sounds. "You're so close aren't you" he smirked at you chuckling as all you could do was nod.

Just as you were right there a knock echoed through the room before the door swung open. Ruben detached his mouth from yours in shock making you let out a loud moan as you were so so so close to orgasm. Desperately trying to move away from his fingers as you heard the door open.

"Oi! What the fuck!" Jack screeched out quickly exiting the office and closing the door, standing outside the door, waiting until you were ready.

"Ruben stop!" you whined but he continued, only a few more pumps of his fingers was all you needed to release biting your lips so hard they almost bled to not moan too loud for Jack's ears.

You tried to calm down, get your breathing under control and when you did you panicked. "Ruben what the fuck! Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck" You whined, watching as he licked his fingers clean before placing his hands on your shoulders to calm you down.

"Calm down y/n it was only Jack it's okay" "It's not okay! You are not gonna fired for this but I am!" You argued, gathering your bag and computer before hurrying out of the door. ignoring Rubens call of your name.

You opened the door to find Jack scratching his neck but a grin plastered on his face. You turned to him, pointing a finger at him "One word about this Grealish, and i'm talking about anything. One fucking word and you are dead"

Jack's eyes wiedened as you stormed off down the halls.

He whistled as he walked into the office where Ruben still stood, closing the door behind him.

"Soooo" Jack chuckled, pursing his lips at his teammate who mirrored his smile and chuckle. "What did I interrupt" "Nothing" Ruben hummed, shaking his head. "Nothing pft, that's bullshit you were fingering her on her office desk!" Jack burst, eyes wide and voice high.

"Okay okay, but seriously. You cannot say anything to anybody. If you do she can honestly loose her job"

"Hey, I won't but if you wanna keep it a secret ya know, maybe don't finger her in the office" he advised, walking towards the door. "Tell her I will meet her tomorrow and talk about the module she have done" he tilled, grinning as he walked out of the door.

Ruben sighed, taking the spare key from the drawer and locking the door behind him as he made his way down the stair. He was done for the morning, having a break until three when training was taking place again. "Hey Lucy have you seen y/n?" he questioned as he walked down the stairs.

Lucy looked up at the man, a slightly nervous look on her face "Uh, she, I"

"Lucy" Ruben deadpanned, knowing she knew exactly where you were.

"She just left home but she didn't want me to tell you that"

Ruben sighed "Thank you Lucy, I won't tell on you"

She nodded in appreciation as he quickly walked towards his car.

--

When Ruben unlocked the door to your apartment you were sitting on the sofa, lazy watching tv as you worked with your files. You knew who it was the second you heard the lock rustle.

"I don't want any visitors" You shouted towards the hallway but you couldn't help the small smile that tugged at your mouth. The time on your sofa had made you calm down slightly, knowing Jack would never tell on you.

"Shut up" Ruben chuckled, stopping in the doorway to look at you, his arm resting against the frame and a crooked grin on his face. "Sorry for running" you hummed, settling your computer aside as he approached you. Leaning down to kiss your lips softly.

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't risk your job like that"

"Well I appreciate that but it's not like I didn't willingly spread my legs for you" you hummed jokingly. "Well no but still" Ruben smiled, settling down next to you on the sofa.

"It's all okay, we just need to talk about a solution. I don't wanna have to hide us forever"

"We will find a solution" he nodded in agreement, kissing your lips again, just as soft and loving.

#ruben dias #ruben dias smut #ruben dias angst #ruben dias fluff #ruben dias x reader #ruben dias fanfiction #ruben dias imagine #footballer imagine #footballer fanfiction #footballer fanfic #football imagine #footballer x reader

[yelenasdiary]

Can I request a Scarlett fic where we are her spouse and she takes us to red carpets and things alike and during one of the interviews the interviewer is our childhood bully. We’ve told Scarlett about our childhood before but she’s never put a face to the name so at first she worried when we start acting anxious until the interviewer introduces themselves with their name as one of our old “friends” so she puts it together and just moves on leaving the interviewer with a side eye. Unfortunately there are still pictures people want her to take, and only her, so they ask us to get out of the shot, which we try doing only for her to wrap her arm around us more and pull us in “You’re my wife, not my plus one. You’re going to be in all my photos” Eventually she gets mad at the audacity some of the paparazzi have and just takes us home while kissing away our pout because we wanted to see some marvel friends that night and wanted some free sweets. That and we thought we ruined her imagine because later it’s going viral that “Scarlett Johansson is a rude celebrity” with just multiple videos of her ignoring the interviewer. To ease our worries she just says “Let PR deal with it”.

You're My Wife!

Pairing: Scarlett Johansson x Reader

Summary: Scarlett reminds not only you but the entire world who you are to her.

Slight Angst | Comfort | Fluff | Mentions of past bullying | 1.2K | 

AC: So sorry this took a while to get out, I hope you enjoy it! – I used Scar’s upcoming movie for this & I do apologise as I don’t know much about the new film! 

Scarlett loves taking you to her events, red carpets, movie premieres, business parties, all of it. She loved being able to show you off and honestly, you helped keep her nerves away. Anytime she started to feel nerves (which when she told you about it surprised you) all she had to do was look over at you and her nerves faded away.

You loved standing by your wife's side as she did her thing. Something about seeing the world stop for a moment and capture her beauty always made you feel so lucky that you always have that chance. 

With Asteroid City having its world premiere, you couldn't wait to be by Scarlett's side and supporting her. Everything was going well from the moment the two of you arrived, Scarlett held your hand as you both walked the carpet, stopping for a few moments so Scarlett could pose for the cameras before moving onto the interviewers.

You saw them from a distance, your childhood bully. The one who made high school a living hell, making up rumors about you, tormenting you daily, making sure you had nobody to sit with in class or at lunch. Your heart dropped when you noticed they were an interview and Scarlett was making her way over to them. You grip tightened in her hand the closer the two of you came closer. 

"Hi Scarlett, do you have a moment?" Claire, your childhood bully smiled kindly at your wife. Your eyes dropped to the microphone in her hand as you and Scarlett came to a stop. "Hi, of course" your wife smiled. 

You'd told Scarlett about the torment and hassles Claire gave you throughout high school and the affects her actions had on you. She knew of your bully's name, but you never bothered to show Scarlett a photo of her, never did you think this was going to happen, so you really didn't see a point. 

"Thank you! I'm Claire, it's lovely to meet you and Y/n, it's so good to see you again!" Claire looked between the two of you with a smile. Scarlett noticed how anxious you looked and how sweat began to pool from your palms, she looked back at Claire and held your hand a little tighter as she pulled you away from the situation. 

"Honey, you didn't have to-"

"I don't care. I'm not going to give her answers to make money from when she treated you so badly. She doesn't' deserve our time." Scarlett turned to you and gently brushed a lock of hair behind your ear. "But this is your job" you looked at your wife with a guilty feeling. "So? I don't have to do anything I don't want to do. I didn't want to answer her questions and I won't be" Scarlett assured you. Other interviewers called out for her to come over to them, but she didn't budge, not until she knew you were okay. 

"Thank you, baby, that meant a lot to me" you smiled softly. Scarlett returned the smile and placed a soft kiss on your lips before moving onto the next interviewer, making sure to give Claire a slightly side eye of disappointment as you both continued to walk away. 

Watching Scarlett do interviews was always something you loved the most at any event you went to, watching her talk about something she's worked so hard on, something she's excited about and seeing the sparkle in her eyes as she spoke was beautiful to you and you were stood by her side with pure proudness. 

As much as you were glad Scarlett didn't give your bully much more of her time, you couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable with Claire watching you and Scarlett from afar. She shook her head and rolled her eyes at you whenever you caught her watching the two of you. "Are you okay, darling?" Scarlett asked as the two of you were led to the center of the carpet again for photos. You nodded and smiled softly not wanting to worry your wife on her special night, but she knew you weren't okay and she couldn't help but hear what the paparazzi were yelling out. 

"Just Scarlett please!"

"Can we get you over please, Scarlett?"

"Can we get a few of just Scarlett please?" 

The camera's flashing was almost blinding as you tried to step away from the spotlight, wanting to give the paparazzi what they were asking for. Just Scarlett. But of course, Scarlett wasn't a fan of the idea as she wrapped her arms around you and gently pulled you closer. "Where are you off too?" she asked as she kissed your cheek, making you blush. 

"They need photos of you love, I'll just be over there when you're done" you explained while pointing to the end of the carpet.

"Y/n, you're my wife. You're not a plus one, if they want photos of me, they will get them with you beside me. I want you in all my photos and if they don't like that, that's their problem. I love you baby; I wouldn't be coming to these events without you" Scarlett assured you before pulling you closer and kissing you deeply. 

The two of you posed for the photos but the paparazzi were persistent on asking for solo photos of Scarlett, even after she kindly told them no. You could see she was starting to get frustrated with the level of low respect the paparazzi had for Scarlett and her answer to their request. "Honey, I love you but I'm just going to go other there wait for you" you spoke as you let go of her hand. 

Scarlett shook her hand and gently grabbed your hand and stormed off the red carpet without looking back. "Baby, what are you doing?" you asked in a worry. 

"We're going home, we don't need to be here. If they can't respect us, we don't need to be here. Besides, I'd rather go home and get into our pjs and cuddle" Scarlett opened the door of the limo for you. Who were you to argue with such a loving wife? A wife who has never once put up with the audacity of others being disrespectful to you or herself. 

The entire drive home Scarlett couldn't stop kissing your pouts away and telling you not to feel bad about you both leaving the event in a hurry. Her arms wrapped around you pulling you closer while she whispered how much she loved you between kisses. "But I was also kind of excited for the free candy and seeing the marvel crew again" you pouted at one point, Scarlett chuckled, "darling, I'll get you all the candy you want and how about we have the crew over for dinner next week?" she offered. You couldn't help but smile at the idea, "I guess that would be a lot more fun than a premiere" You pout but only because you knew it would earn you yet another loving kiss. 

The next morning you made Scarlett and yourself breakfast and hoped that Scarlett wouldn't see the headlines that circled the media. 

"Scarlett Johansson rudely leaves the red carpet!", "Scarlett Johansson's shrugs off interviewer with a glare!", "Is Scarlett Johansson Rude?" 

But no matter how much you wanted to make sure she wouldn't see them, she did and to your surprise, she didn't care about them. She came up behind you, wrapped her arms tightly around you and placed a kiss on your cheek, "Don't stress about them baby, let PR deal with it" she spoke softly as you poured her a coffee, "you're my wife, if they want me, they get you as well" she reminded.

Taglist: @red1culous | @bentleywolf29 | @splatasha-jumpinoff | @lissaaaa145 | @high--power | @parkerdaramitzzzz | @mmmmokdok | @wackymcstupid | @kiwiana145 | @shin-conan-kun | @nattyolw | @ripofflizzie | @goofy-goonie | @makegoodchoices | @apollo2907 | @wandaroman0ff  | @dumb-fawkin-bitch | @lovelyy-moonlight | @santana1437 | @ahintofchaos | @fluffyblanketgecko | @inluvwithfictionalwomen | @jaymieflorissssssss | @tita001 | @youralphawolf72 | @natashamaximoff69 | @hehehehannahthings | @pandaemonium111 | @secrettoallofyou | @romantic-slaps-on-the-asss | @marvel-fan-2021 | @mmmmokdok | @riveramorylunar | @ripofflizzie | @scarsw1fe | @toldthatdevil | @itsmv3 | @katiemay-025 | @aphrcdtes | @natsxwife | @maria-403 | 

#scarlett johansson #Scarlett Johansson x reader #fanfiction

[sgiandubh]

An intimate lunch

Coming back to this particular C pic, which has sparkled endless comments, today (still very busy days for me & I gave in and binged TCND - this explains the ungodly hour):

Dots have been connected (there are, after all, alternative Keepers of the Dots, a sobriquet I am therefore relinquishing, thanking again the friend who gifted it to me). And comments -ranging from stan blindness to unreasonable conspiracy theories - have been written too.

Tellingly enough, the wording of the Finch and Partners IG post was quite suggesting: 'an intimate lunch' means more than promo, almost a personal get together with, at the very least, carefully selected people.

Was she coat-tailing? Very probably, to the extent she is understandably interested in getting more acting (directing?) projects after OL. And to make it clear: there is nothing bad to it.

Did she know Cooper before? There is no way in hell to confirm it with 100% accuracy, but my guess is no. Someone, as it has been pointed out, obliged. These are the simple, expected minimum benefits of a PR agent, a Rolodex and of networking. And it is true: she has been consistently on Finch's list and invited at many of their events since at least 2016. Which is to say, since IFH? Oh. OK. No further questions, Your Honor.

Was it a reward for dragging along McIdiot at that Netflix gala, the day before? Even taking into account her visible lack of enthusiasm, I am afraid things are not as simple and mechanic as alternatively dangling the proverbial carrot and stick. It's a quid pro quo, not a reward. A part in a movie would be a reward - not a lunch in town: that would be selling herself very cheaply.

But of course, we are all idiots, as this reaction from a particularly ungifted Mordor pundit would like us to think:

This post is not about S, of course. And the posited question is a superb logical fallacy: S is 'never invited to any of these events', because his side projects are different and his social media communication strategy is different, too. She was not there because of S and no one on this side of the fandom seriously suggested it.

Also, let's not show more idiocy than you are naturally able of, denizens of Mordor: Cooper did not really need her 1 (one) Academy Awards vote. And do you know why? Well, her vote would not make any serious difference among the 7,999 others, this is why:

Yes, the Britannica: I know it pisses you, and many other people, mightily off.

But perhaps she was there also because of this?

Enlighten me, please, since I am such a forgetful idiot, what on Earth might have happened to The Cut? You know, the project she was shooting just before the SAG-AFTRA strike began?

Crickets. And, which is more alarming...

If proven correct, this IMDb info is not very good news and I would be bereft for her. Honestly. Check the link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26697087/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_cl_sm. It lists the entire crew, up to the last best boy. Whatever happened to C's part? Whatever happened to C? The movie is now announced in post-production. Surely we'll know very soon, one way or another. But if her part has been slashed out, it's only normal to be more active and scout any possible project opportunity.

Ultimately, the core problem remains unchanged: since she did not post this picture on her socials, she is still as uninterested in them as she's always been. Always. And sorry for repeating myself, but spare some scarce mention about make-up and attire (presumably to be nice to personal friends), she does not engage with this fandom. At all. That does not leave her stans with many options but to write their own fanfic, while accusing us (who may know a bit more than them, at any rate) of doing the same.

Smart girl, C. I am sure S&C divided their respective roles in the 'Coping with the Narrative' in-house production for a very long time and this is the most important thing of them all. The rest is babble, including this post.

#fandom

[anonymoushouseplantfan]

“Cdan is claiming she wants the lead in the rom com and is looking for who will play the male.” It’s bizarre to me that she won’t go to a charity event because she’s deeply insecure but masks it with “I’m too good for this” but at the same time wants to star in a rom com and launch an IG. Her acting has never been great and she’s not that interesting. It’s just odd that she’ll put herself out there for the things she has a poor track record in but hide away for the things she could be okay at. Meghan in small doses seems like the best strategy although that won’t bring in money.

This!

An article described her as “guarded.” That’s fine for a regular person, but how much reach are you realistically going to have as an influencer if you’re “guarded”? I bet a lot of prospective partners are asking that question.

And this pr drive is trying to address that by showing the kind of content she can do. But, frankly, it’s not an impressive showing. Dental appointments and lunches with hair colorists are not that compelling. She had a lunch with Cameron and Gwyneth where the celebs were not pictured, and now a Kardashian pic where she didn’t even show up. The calming patch got a lot of views, but only because everyone was so shocked at the obvious spon con. Heck, they even got the IG avatar wrong because someone mistook dahlias for peonies.

She’s not that good at this.

[yetanothersparrowofthedawn]

The Bomb

Masterlist

Word Count: 1.5k

Pairing: Jake Kiszka x Reader

Genre: Angst, Hurt, ex!Jake

Synopsis: Jake hasn’t healed even months after his ex-girlfriend Y/N said ‘I do’ to another man.

For a bit of context while I try and write what came before: Y/N is a super successful singer-songwriter although it’s not super relevant in this chapter. She has been close friends with the members of Greta Van Fleet, for several years. She had a loving yet terribly tumultuous relationship with Jake that didn't end very well (you’ll see), although they eventually figured out how to remain on good terms for everybody’s sake. But Jake was lightyears away from being ready to see her married to another man.

Warning: English isn’t my native language, so I apologize in advance for mistakes and awkward wordings to come. Also, I guess this fic could be triggering because it’s kind of really sad and angsty.

Previous Track: Happier than Ever

Chapter soundtrack : The Bomb – Florence + the Machine

"But if I was free to love you, You wouldn't want me, would you? Unavailability is the only thing that turns you on, Come here, baby, tell me that I'm wrong. I've blown apart my life for you, And bodies hit the floor for you, Break me, shake me, devastate mе Come here, baby, tell me that I'm wrong I don't love you, I just love the bomb."

Alright let’s get into this.

The Annual Benefit of the Barcelona Art Institute. The space was beautiful and the exhibition simply exquisite as Y/N wandered gracefully around the sumptuous halls of the venue, occasionally making small talks with fellow art enthusiasts, all the while enjoying a nice glass of champagne. She was deep in conversation with one of the curators about purchasing one of the paintings when she suddenly felt her phone vibrating in her purse.

‘Incoming call from Daniel’

Weird, she thought, it was late at night, and the band and her had already planned to have lunch all together the following day. They had, by some happy coincidence, found themselves in Barcelona at the same time and figured it would be a great opportunity to meet up, since they rarely got to anymore. The members of Greta Van Fleet were there for a concert and some PR business, while Y/N had flown out to attend a couple of events during the peak of social season. She softly excused herself and picked up right away.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Hey, YN,” she heard Danny’s voice, “Listen, I’m so, so sorry, I know that you’re at this Gala thing but, we kind of- have a situation over here…”

“You sound worried, is everyone okay?” YN asked, heading towards a quiet corner.

“Actually… no.” Danny said, “It’s Jake," YN's heart stopped, "he’s-he’s been acting weird all day and he just- kind of, um, freaked out a couple hours ago and walked out before the concert was even over.”

“Jesus, is he alright?” YN asked, a concerned look creeping on her face, “Is somebody with him?”

“Yeah, not really, he’s cooped up in his hotel room right now,” Danny replies, hesitation in his voice, “The staff is losing it, but he won’t let anybody in. He- he did, uh," he paused, "he mentioned you. Do you think- you could- come over? We wouldn’t normally ask but-”

“No, it’s okay, of course. Um, just- send me the address, I- I’ll be right there,” she hung up, racing out of the building, stilettos in hand, and immediately hailing a cab.

_______________

She rushed out of the elevator only to see the boys sitting at the end of the hallway, a defeated look on their faces.

“Y/N, thank god you’re there” Sam sighed in relief, jumping on his feet to greet her.

“Is he in there?” she asked urgently, eyes on the closed door.

“Yeah,” Danny replied, “he ended up opening the door, let Josh in, but- I don’t think he said much.”

Y/N walked past him and towards the hotel room. She knocked softly on the door before cracking it open, only to hear Jake’s gravelly voice shouting, “For crying out! I told you, I didn’t-”

 “It’s me,” she interrupted gently, venturing into the room. It was dark, but she still managed to catch a glimpse of what she assumed to be the outcome of her ex-boyfriend’s mood. Chair fallen over, open minibar and clothes scattered all over the floor of the luxurious suite.

Jake was sitting on the floor, arms wrapped around his knees and back facing her, but she could still see his shoulders moving up and down as tiny sobs seemingly racked through his body. Josh was on his knees in front of him, he looked up at YN as soon as she entered. Y/N gave him a weak nod as to indicate that he could leave. He got up and silently walked out of the room, making sure to squeeze her arm on the way out.

She let out a long sigh as she heard the door close behind her. What now? She decided to approach him slowly, the sound of her high heels against the waxed floor letting the boy know of her movements.

“Hey Jakey,” Y/N murmured, looking down at his shivering figure. But the boy kept his eyes on the floor, so she got down on her knees in front of him, “Danny called me… said you had a bit of a- a problem earlier.” She waited for him to speak for a few seconds but was only met with silence, so she carried on, “you know you can tell me any-”

“I, uh,” he interrupted with a hoarse voice, his puffy eyes finally looking up, only to see her all dressed up in her beautiful gown. “Fuck,” he sighed, “I’m sorr- you- you had your charity thing, damnit! I’m such a fuckup,” he started pulling on his hair, rocking back and forth slightly.

“Hey, it’s okay. I don’t- care about that,” she squirmed closer to him and delicately pulled his hands away from his face. Let’s just say she’d seen him looking better. “I care about you. Now tell me, what happened? The boys are worried out of their mind-”

“I’m sorry,” he muttered, “I-I really thought I’d be okay, I thought I could handle it, but- but then-” he paused, “And- and I just-” he looked back down in embarrassment, only for his eyes to catch the delicate gold band that sat in all its glory on her finger. A sour smirk appeared on his face, “Jesus, I’m such an idiot.”

“No, you’re not, we all have bad days… You’re probably tired. I remember touring was always hard on you guys’ nerves,” Y/N said with a strained smile, her hand brushing the boy’s long hair away from his face, desperately trying to avoid the clear possibility that she was the one responsible for his current state. “Come on, let’s get you into bed,” she helped him up and took a few steps backwards to pick up some of the mess from the floor but before she could lean forward, Jake had her engulfed in a tight hug, taking her by surprise.

“Thank you,” he breathed out, and she could smell the alcohol on his breath. Whiskey. “For being here, I mean.”

“I’ll always be here,” she replied with a faint smile, hugging him back, “you know that, right?”

He rested his head on top of hers and inhaled deeply, taking in the citrusy scent of her hair, before burying his face in the crook of her neck. Y/N tensed up as she felt his nose travelling across her skin, his lips pressing soft kisses along the surface of her collarbone.

“Jake,” she whispered, trying to reason with the boy, “wait-”

“Please-” he moaned sadly, his voice breaking as he held onto her for dear life, “Just- just this one time, please- I just- I really need you right now.”

“Jake, you know I can’t,” she sighed, delicately slipping from his embrace, “I’m marr-”

“Don’t-” he hissed, stomping away from her to take a seat at the end of the bed, “Please- just," he gulped, "don’t say it.” She brushed her fingertips against the skin of her neck in an attempt to replace the warmth that had disappeared along with his lips.

The boy’s chest was heaving as he stared at her gorgeous figure, his gaze travelling across every exposed inch of her skin. The skin that was once his to touch. As their eyes finally met, Y/N felt in her core that something very wrong was about to happen.

He had that look in his eyes. The same look he’d had the very first time they’d- been together. Like she was the sun. Jake suddenly got up and walked up to where she stood. He grabbed her by the waist and planted a firm kiss on her lips. They were soft, just like they always were. Heaven, he thought. But that certainly didn’t last long.

She shoved him away with a resentful look in her eyes. “You’re drunk,” she said firmly.

“I’m not,” he retorted, “I mean, I’m more sober than I’ve been these past eight months.”

Eight months, she thought, Jesus, this had been going on since the ceremony. But her thoughts were interrupted as Jake walked back towards her and vigorously pushed his lips back against hers.

“Oh, cut it out, will you!” she yelled, pushing him away once more, this time with more strength, making his drunken frame stumble back.

Jake stood there, frozen for a second, while she stared down at the floor, remorse invading her every bone. She wasn’t only feeling guilty about the fact that she’d let herself be in that situation in the first place, but also that deep down, she still felt there was no place on earth she’d rather be.

He took a step forward hesitantly and placed a hand against her cheek, his calloused index finger travelling down to meet her chin, gently lifting her head and forcing her to look him in the eyes.

She placed a trembling hand against his chest, ready to reject him once more.  Her tiny fist was clenching the fabric of his shirt as she took in a shaky breath, mentally begging for the willpower to turn around and walk out the door. But he had the look. And she felt her heart breaking as she was met with his tired eyes. This was all her doing.

In a leap of faith, he gently lowered his head and let his lips brush against her cheek, before going on a painfully slow journey towards her lips. Now, this wasn’t like the two previous kisses. This one was tender. Desperate.

Unable but to close her eyes at the contact, YN felt her resistance slip away and swiftly wrapped her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss, as he eagerly unzipped the back of her dress.

By the prick of my thumb, something wicked this way comes.

Next Track : Prayer Factory

Masterlist

Hope you liked it! This is going to be part of a long series and this is not even the beginning of the story, it just happened to be the first chapter I managed to actually finish, but I’ll make sure that it’s all easy to understand as I gradually post the rest. Please interact, people, always happy to get some reactions and feedback!!

#gretavanfleet #greta van fleet #greta van fleet fic #greta van fleet fanfic #greta van fleet fanfiction #greta van fleet imagine #greta van fleet imagines #greta van fleet x reader #jake kiszka x reader #jake kiszka fic #jake kiszka fanfic #jake kiszka fanfiction #jake kiszka imagine #jake kiszka imagines #greta van fic #jake gvf #jake kiszka #danny gvf #gvf #josh gvf #sam gvf #sam kiszka #josh kiszka #danny wagner #greta van smut #greta van fleet fan fiction #jacob thomas kiszka #jtk x reader #gvf fic #gvf fanfiction

[bwoahtastic]

"Nico for sure used to do karting under a fake name" obsessed with this idea.

Baby Nico and baby Lewis meeting at a karting competition and immediately becoming best friends. Lewis doesn't really hang out with the other kids because they're mean to him and they hate that he beats them, but Nico is nice to him, telling him what a good race he had and inviting him to join her for lunch. Lewis thinks that Nico is so cool. She knows so much about F1 and loves karting too, plus her dad knows so much and is nice to him, which can't be said about all of the parents (I feel like Keke would just shave off his moustache and suddenly become unrecognisable).

Nico and Lewis spend months emailing back and forth, and are always so excited to see each other at karting events. Lewis's sisters tease him SO MUCH about the photos he has of him and Nico, which annoys him so much because they're just friends shut up Nicola! (That's actually Lewis's sister's name btw) Lewis thinks it's a bit weird that Nico and her dad always travel with six really muscular guys (I do think Mika should be in charge of Nico's security), but Nico says that it's just for protection, and once Lewis's dad has talked about it with Keke and is totally fine with it, Lewis stops worrying.

Nico invites Lewis on holiday and he gets to do so many cool things for the first time with her. He gets to ride in a private plane, ride in a helicopter, go surfing and snorkeling and scuba diving. And through all of this he still has no idea that Nico is a princess. Everyone around them speaks in French, which Lewis doesn't understand, and he assumes that when the bodyguards call Nico princess, it's just a cute nickname. He just assumes that all of the weird stuff about Nico and her family is because they're rich, not because they're royal.

One night when they're teenagers, Nico and Lewis sneak out to go to a nightclub in the local town (Mika following them so he knows they're safe). They have a few drinks and get a little tipsy but mostly dance. Nico even helps Lewis flirt with a local girl, and Lewis makes sure that no one bothers Nico. Unfortunately, the paparazzi finds out that Nico is there, and when they leave, they get photographed. Mika steps in to make sure they're safe, but the pretty little princess of Monaco stumbling out of a Greek nightclub with an unknown boy is definitely making the papers.

The family rushes back to the palace in crisis mode to prevent the pr disaster and Lewis finally learns that his best friend is actually a princess. He's a bit hurt that she lied to him for so long, but when she tells him that she just wanted to be normal he forgives her. It does also explain quite a lot of the weird things she's said over the years. Lewis also meets Nico's little cousin Charles who is very sweet.

Lewis and Nico stay best friends throughout the years. She goes off to university, and he's making his way through the junior formula series but they always make time for each other. When he makes it in F1 she goes to as many races as possible. He doesn't win Monaco his first year, but she gives him a kiss on the cheek instead of Fernando, and it brings him luck throughout the year. Lewis is very protective of Nico as her flirting with Jenson becomes more serious, and more than once he warns Jenson of what he will do if Jenson hurts her.

Oh plss!

Lil 5 year old Nico begging her papa to race and her mum is unsure about how they will do it safely without anyone recognising them but Keke will happily shave his moustache because he is excited his little girl wants to share that with him! (And then he would wear a fake moustache outside of the racing lmao)

Lewis not having many friends in karting until this tiny blonde girl shows up and shares her candy with him while talking about the karting race ans she is so nice to him! Also Keke is kind to Lewis and even helps mend his kart after it breaks down.

Lewis and Nico emailing and always hanging out at races until Nico invites Lewis to come visit her when he is close to Monaco. They don't go to the Palace but to the apartment the family own too (Nico prefers it over the cold palace, ans maybe her parents divorced so papa lives there with her now)

Lewis gets to do all kinds of cool stuff eith Nico and he alwsys just assumes it's cos Nico is rich, has no clue for years until they get photographed outside a club and Nico panics so much!

They get whisked off to have the pr team talk to them about strategy and Lewis learns his best friend is the princess of Monaco... he would be so confused and a little hurt but Nico is still his best friend and he understands why she hid it!

Lewis also meeting little Charles who is Nico's shadow and comes ro snuggle her seeing Nico is upset! Cuties!

Nico qnd Lewis continuing to be friends as Lewis climbs his way up in motorsport and Nico goes to university, and Lewis is so happy to have her come along to races once he makes it to f1! He knows there is rumours about them dating, but Nico is like a sister to him!

And pls sksk Nico kissing Lewis's cheek instead of Fernando's (she does eventually give in and kisses his cheek too lol) and it brings him good luck!

Lesis being wary of jenson flirting with nico cos he is such a playboy, but he csn see Jenson is different around the princess, so kind and calm and so clearly in love!

#asks #royal au

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

One more thing I forgot to post re: Eugenie vs the Sussexes.

During the Platinum Jubilee when the Sussexes were doing the most to try to get pictures with the other royals or even to get them to Frogmore for LilD’s birthday, Eugenie would have been their natural and easy target ally.

Instead the Sussexes made a very public play for the Philips/ Tindalls. All the cousins were in the same room at Horse Guards, but the Sussexes were photographed variously with the junior Philips/ Tindalls and The Duke of Kent. The few Long lens pics into the room showed that no one was talking to Meghan or Harold except for one pic of Harold with Kent.

Then the Sussexes leave Horse Guards presumably to return to Frogmore, and miss the flypast. Eugenie posts lots of pics from the flypast which show that Zara, Beatrice are with her on a rooftop at SJP.

Later that afternoon/ early evening Zara, Mike, Beatrice, Edo, Jack and Eugenie are papped coming out of a London restaurant following group lunch, which Mike later revealed involved all the royal cousins+ spouses who weren’t on the balcony. Only the Sussexes don’t attend because they’d gone back to Frogmore. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10896165/Mike-Tindall-reveals-outstanding-cousins-lunch-Harry-Meghan-didnt-attend.html

The next day the Sussexes put out PR about a birthday party for LilD which they claim was attended by the Philips/ Tindalls and their children, but the two families were very visibly at the races most of that day and the distance between locations to attend both events would have been impossible especially as the Philips/ Tindall families had booked London hotels for Jubilee weekend and centred all their activities in/ around London give or take afew miles outside it. 

***********

I do remember these well. 

I don’t think Harry and Meghan not being in Eugenie’s Trooping video (remember how pissed everyone got at her because Wolfie’s face was visible, when Beatrice and Edo hadn’t been showing his face? ah, good times) is because of the falling out. I think it was just the logistics the Queen/Charles had put in place for handling the Sussexes. It was implied that Harry and Meghan were only invited to the official ceremonial events, and once something ended, they were herded back to their car and sent home to FrogCott to wait for tomorrow’s event. So what happened at the service of thanksgiving (where they left in a car that took them to FrogCott while everyone else bussed over to the guildhall for the reception) is what happened after Trooping: everyone else was carriaged/bussed back to Buckingham while the Sussexes were sent home and then all the cousins decided to go out for lunch.

Supposedly that’s why they left early  - they were upset by how closely they were being controlled by palace handlers regarding the events, but knew they couldn’t complain (publicly at least) because they needed the optics of being with Lili for her first birthday so they could use the public spotlight to pressure the BRF into giving them the Lilibet Meets Lilibet photo.

Also it has been alleged that Anne was livid the Sussexes got the photo ops they did with her grandchildren. I have also heard that Autumn and Zara were upset too, which is allegedly why they bailed on the birthday party after promising to go (I’m not sure I believe this one because Zara absolutely would’ve already had plans with her family for the weekend). I think what really happened with the birthday party is Harry invited them, they said “we’ll let you know,” which the Sussexes interpreted as “yes” and thus all the PR.

#ask #brf #platinum jubilee

[the-empress-7]

what happened between her and michelle

In addition to the Vogue “interview,” Meghan also ambushed Michelle at a book reading when she was in London promoting her first book (Becoming).

As I understand what happened (and I don’t remember where I learned it from), Meghan went to the arena where Michelle was appearing and demanded to see her. Michelle was on a very tight schedule to get back to the US — it had just been announced that President Bush (HW) was very ill and expected to pass away soon, and she needed to be in the US to participate in some of the ceremonies for his (eventual) funeral/mourning.

Anyway, Meghan showed up after the event, demanded to go backstage and see Michelle but she wasn’t on any guest list and hadn’t been cleared by Secret Service. Michelle gave her a few minutes and it came out some time later that both Michelle and the Secret Service were angry about the whole thing.

That was December 2018. Meghan’s Vogue came out Summer 2019. I’m thinking that there was still a grudge over Meghan’s behavior at the book reading and that’s why Michelle did the “interview” via email vs hopping on a phone call or actually meeting for that fish tacos lunch. I’m also pretty sure that Meghan’s behavior at the 2018 book reading, and then the follow-on gushy “we’re best friends who have lunch together” interview for Vogue is when Michelle noped out of wanting anything to do with Meghan, because shortly after that the Obamas’ denials that they were advising Meghan and Harry post-Megxit were swift, heavy, and immediate.

Yes! This was a crazy story, yet somehow only the beginning of Meghan's delusions. For those wondering the timing, this was December 2018. Despite pissing off MO, M put out PR asap.

[twopoppies]

I don’t know if this was always the plan or if he’s just doing PR filler because other things are on hold or to prove he’s 1000 miles from Louis, but I feel like I’m cringing my way thru every day and every sighting of Harry right now. Like, my face is one of these whenever these oh so organic events happen 🫤😬🙄. And honestly, like, the Lime bike shit is sending me. It’s such a hamfisted and idiotic partnership. I get he’s sledgehammering his way thru promo and stunts for what looks like multiple connections to fashion week, but I’m mostly like, “Harry, you good? Because PR desperation is not looking great on you.”

I guess I don’t really get why it bothers people when he’s just tooling around. It’s such a whatever to me. I agree the Lime thing is bizarre. But, I guess he figured he might as well make some money if he has to be out there. It might all make a lot more sense when we see if he’s got some projects coming up. But I always look at this stuff like it could be so, so much worse. So if all he has to do is ride a bike around or have lunch with TR, then I’m happy to see his face.

[stories-and-chaos]

Tarnished pt 23

[Helluva Boss AU where Blitzø’s childhood theft from Stolas’ palace is discovered and major consequences ensue for everyone involved.]

[Part 23/?? Word Count: 1857]

[CW: Drug abuse, addiction, gaslighting]

—————

Two weeks later, Blitzo sent another letter. It was thinner than the first. Barb gave it the same treatment, ‘RETURN TO SENDER’. The next one was even thinner, probably just one page in the envelope.

After she had that one sent back, he started sending postcards. Mostly they were generic landscape images from across the Rings. But not being in an envelope meant she saw snippets of the text on the blank side. Barb let Fizz know that Blitzo was sending mail, but never the content.

She didn’t mean to read any of them, but checking the address meant seeing what was written. There was a theme of ‘sorry, please talk to me, let me explain, I’m sorry, text, call, so sorry,’ in his scribbled handwriting. Knowing their dad’s account of events, her brother’s repeated requests for forgiveness just infuriated Barb.

She saw there were a few that mentioned her and their mom. Blitzo was asking if Fizz knew where they were. You’d know if you’d stuck around, traitor, she thought bitterly as she sent the postcards to be shredded. 

The frequent reminders of Blitzo’s existence kept her off balance. And Fizzarolli was spending more time in Lust. He kept denying any emotional attachment to Asmodeus but Barb saw the difference in how he talked about the Sin.  His absence left her somewhat at loose ends in her downtime.

The other survivors from their circus had scattered; few wanted to stay in Greed with all the established gangs and corruption. Barb, not wanting to be alone constantly, found other demons that shared her interests. One of those interests being drug use was incidental. 

After seven months, the postcards arrived less frequently. Barb didn’t really notice; she had access to stronger stuff and was getting fucked up on a regular basis. Fizz was paying her enough that she could afford it… for now. But as the next pageant got closer, she started missing more days.

At first it didn’t matter too much. Her friend was off being Ozzie’s boy toy. The PR team was finally filtering the mail somewhat. And just before the pageant, Blitzo sent a card saying, ‘I’ll leave you alone Fizz. You know where to find me. I’m sorry.’ That was one less stressor; Barb celebrated with a weekend long bender.

She managed to be clean for a few days before and after the clown pageant. She was able to function as Fizz’s security the whole time. Once again, he won. Once again, Mammon immediately signed him on with a year long contract.

This year though, the king of Greed had some things to talk about concerning Fizzarolli’s assistant. Whisking him behind closed doors for the rigamarole of the contract was the perfect moment to plant seeds of doubt about Barb in his mind.

“Y’know Fizzy, that assistant o’ yours…I know she’s your friend but she’s been slacking big time,” he said as they signed and initialed pages. “I’d hate for someone from your past to take advantage of you, yah?” Mammon had a look of intense concern as he finished his portion of the contract.

“I-I’ll talk to her, Mammon sir.” Fizz was already worried about Barb. He knew she’d gotten hooked on painkillers after the fire. She’d been sober for years but he could see the signs popping up. And if Mammon noticed, things were getting worse.

“Good boy Fizzy! ‘Cause we’re gonna be real busy again and we don’t need c**ts coasting off your success.”

The day after the pageant saw Fizz in Lust again, working with Ozzie on updating the Fizzies. Asmodeus took him out for lunch again. He’d told Mammon before the contest that he’d need the whole day with the winner for their work, preventing his fellow Sin from interrupting anything.

After lunch, Ozzie sprung an offer on Fizz. “I’d like you to work at my lounge club, Froggie. Get you some experience outside the Greed Ring and away from all those creeps.”

Fizz waved a dismissive hand. “Psh, I’ve always had creeps around, it’s not that big a deal. Besides, Barb’s got my back.”

“Yeeeeeeaaaah, about that,” Asmodeus said slowly.

“Oh not you too Oz! Mammon was just bitching to me last night about her!”

“Hey, I’m just saying…she’s having a bad time lately. I’m not gonna pry, but if even Mam has picked up on it? Your girl needs help.” Ozzie cupped Fizz’s cheek. “Look, I know she’s important to you. You’re basically family right?” Fizz nodded. “So I want to help. And moving you both out of Greed is a good way to start.”

Fizz sighed. “Yeah, she’s never really liked it there anyway. I can’t make her do anything though.”

“You know me babe; I ain’t about forcing anyone. Unless she’s in deep shit, too deep to handle or putting herself in danger? you gotta let her make her choices.” He leaned back in their private booth. “I’m serious about working at my lounge though. You’d make a great M.C. Fizzy-frog.”

Fizz agreed to perform at Ozzie’s, with the frequent scheduling starting in a few weeks. He had prior commitments with Mammon to take care of first. Doing nightly shows at the lounge would mean moving to Lust.

Before that, he wanted to talk with Barb. The first chance he got was almost a week later, after they were done at Mammon’s for the day. Fizz had to steal himself to talk to his friend so he went to her apartment after hyping himself up via a phone call with Asmodeus.

Barb, meanwhile, had taken a hit of her current drug of choice as soon as she got home. It was the first big high she’d had in the past two weeks. When Fizz showed up at her door unannounced, she could feel the drugs hitting her system. Although he looked serious and she was trying to focus on what he said, the chemical filter in her veins meant she really only caught a few words. Kind of like those snippets of Blitzo’s postcards.

“Barb, I know you’ve got a problem. You’ve been using drugs again, I can tell. We need to get you help, but we can’t do it here. Asmodeus offered me a gig, I’ll need to move to Lust. Please, come with me. I can’t stand seeing you destroy yourself. We’ll get away from all this shit in Greed. Get you some fucking help.”

Barb tried to string together what he was saying. What truly stuck with her was he was moving. Leaving for Lust and Asmodeus. Away from her. She growled angrily. “Urrrgh! Fine, go fuck off with your royal sugar daddy! I don’t need you!” She pushed him away from her. Her intoxication meant she didn’t have much control of her strength. Her push knocked him against the wall; if he hadn’t hit it with his prosthetic arm, it would have left bruises.

She stomped to the door and yanked it open. “Get the fuck out Fizz. The other imp looked stricken so she pushed him again. This one sent him into the hallway. Barb slammed the door shut, locked it and  put the chain on. He had a spare key, but even his extendable arms would struggle with the chain. She pressed her back against the door and slid down it as Fizz knocked desperately. He kept saying her name but she didn’t respond. She just curled up, silent and crying.

Eventually, he was gone. Her sense of time was completely distorted. Maybe it had been an hour, maybe just a couple minutes. She just wanted to forget about everything again. Fortunately, past Barb had picked up a baggie full of little friends from her dealer that were very good at helping her forget.

A few days later, she’d come down enough to realize she had to go work. That many pill-shaped friends weren’t cheap. But when she got to Mammon’s main offices, her keycard didn’t work. Barb tried multiple times, flipping the card in different directions but she continued to get error sounds. She was ready to punch the scanner when the door opened smoothly.

The shark demon that stepped out towered over Barb. “What do you want?” No politeness, just blunt demanding attitude.

“I want to get to work. Why isn’t my keycard working?” She waved the offending piece of plastic in front of the shark’s snout.

His concentric ringed eyes focused on the card, reading her name. “Barb Buckzo. Yeah, your position’s been…terminated.” He gave her a leering grin and flicked the card. His claw hit with enough force to send it spinning out of her hand and down the street.

“The fuck d’you mean, ‘terminated’? I’m Fizz’s  assistant and bodyguard!”

“Not no more. You haven’t been here for a week. Mr. Fizzarolii and Lord Mammon don’t need some lazy ass coasting on her buddy’s success.” He straightened up to his full height. The shark crossed his arms and continued to match her glaring look. “So you’re out, shoulda got a termination letter in yer mail.” 

Her jaw dropped. Those assholes! “I wanna talk to Fizz. Right now!” She tried to push past the beefy shark, but he outweighed her and Fizz combined. 

“Mr. Fizzarolli is busy. Lord Mammon is free for the next ten minutes if you wanna talk to him.” Barb growled, a rumbling hiss coming from her chest. “Thought so.” The shark went back inside and the door slid shut behind him.

Barb stood there, chest heaving. She had mostly come down from her high and there was no drugged filter between her and her emotions. After a few minutes of glaring at the locked doors, she started hurling nearby rocks at the building. Her aim was still good from all those years in the circus. But those doors were designed to withstand bullets; a valid concern with all the turf wars likely to pop up in this Ring.

All the rocks in Hell wouldn’t do much to the structure. Barb didn’t care; if anything it made her madder. She kept hurling the same rocks over and over, screaming obscenities all the while. Until she threw one that ricocheted back, hitting her directly on her circus brand and knocking her on her butt.

She sat there, dazed. The pain on her forehead belatedly hit and she rubbed the spot to find ichor welling from the scratch. “Fine. FINE, YOU HEAR ME! YOU CAN GO FUCK YOURSELVES! HAVE FUN BEING A PAMPERED WHORE FIZZ! YOU’RE JUST LIKE THAT TRAITOR BLITZO!” Barb turned away, rubbing her upper arms with both hands as she tried to keep the anger in the forefront. She flipped of the building as she walked home.

Not that the studio apartment would be home much longer. She was behind on rent and her landlord was ready to kick her out. Checking her mail, she found the termination letter; included was her severance check. Not enough to back pay everything. But enough to find somewhere else. Something cheaper and closer to the drug dens she was visiting more often. 

Within two days, she was gone, ghosting everyone in her life.

—————

<<First <Prev Next>

#helluva boss #helluva fanfiction #helluva au #helluva blitzo #helluva fizzarolli #fizzarolli #barbie wire #helluva asmodeus #asmodeus x fizzarolli #fizzmodeus #helluva mammon

[jeniffercheck]

i think i believe in getting saved (it’ll hit all at once)

shivlina: canon divergent, shivlina origins pre-season 1; my take on how they could’ve gotten together. CWs below the cut.

words: 14k

read here or on ao3

cw: no scenes of actual domestic violence but there are a few detailed descriptions, self harm is mostly referenced/implied with no graphic descriptions, mental health issues is for panic attacks/anxiety. there's a lot of humor but this fic gets decently dark at some points so please be safe

-

Karolina meets Shiv Roy on a Monday.

They’re closing a deal and Logan let them know late into Sunday evening that they were expected at the office bright and early. PR would need to draft the terms immediately in ways that the media could understand, and in ways that made it look like Waystar wasn’t losing prestige or power, which Karolina couldn’t say she isn’t concerned about with every new deal they seem to take on.

This normally wouldn’t be an issue; she generally thinks she’s excited to go to work and draft press releases for these otherworldly things, type out numbers she can’t even conceive of and be one of the people who gets to go out into the world and speak it into existence, but she’d barely had time to sleep over the weekend do a different, more pressing PR crisis at Waystar. A kid died in one of the theme parks. It wasn’t their fault. The autopsy disclosed an unknown heart problem that had been triggered during a rollercoaster ride. There’s no evidence as to whether or not the ride could’ve actually been the cause, rather than the incident just occurring while he happened to be on it, but that’s not the part that Karolina is fixated on.

The autopsy didn’t include that a successful combination of CPR and defibrillation have been shown to lower the risk of death from a cardiac event related to this disease, if treated in time.

She hasn’t been able to stop thinking about the after-action report she received.

Response Time: 15 minutes.

She kept looking at the paper, wondering if maybe a Xerox machine had hidden a dot somewhere between the one and the five, or if maybe they meant to put one but then thought it was five and whichever number they erased just wasn’t erased enough. She knows she had nothing to do with it, that she has no control over the on-site medical services in a theme park three states away from her with an entire management team of their own, but it’s hard, when you’re the one making the excuses. When it’s your face they see as they’re being made.

She also knows that the report will disappear. That when she goes to lunch later, she’ll come back and they’ll just be gone, and when she mentions it again, they’ll say that page didn’t exist and that she must be mistaken. She wonders briefly if any of this is even worth it, but she doesn’t have time to contemplate because her coffee order is being announced by the pick-up bar.

She picks up the coffee, and then a voice rings out.

“I think that’s mine.”

She looks up to find a redhead, looking unamused.

“Um, no…” Karolina says, trying to get a better read on the cup’s marking, “This was my order.”

She worries that the woman is going to start a fight with her in the middle of the coffee shop, which she absolutely does not have time for, and she checks her watch, thinking about just abandoning the coffee and heading off to the office. As she does so, the woman speaks up again.

“Wait—do I know you?”

Karolina looks up again, inspecting the woman closer, and then she realizes. Shiv Roy.

“I work for Waystar,” Karolina says. “I don’t think we’ve met before.”

Karolina thinks it must be weird, knowing there’s an entire ecosystem of people who know everything about your existence, yet you know nothing of theirs.

“Are you sure?” Shiv asks. “What’s your name?”

“Karolina,” Karolina says. “I’m in the PR department.”

Shiv’s eyes widen, and an amused smirk forms across her face.

“I know you,” she says. “Your press releases were all the rage when Kendall went on his last bender.”

She’s unsure of how she should respond to one Roy sibling being amused by another’s devastatingly public mental breakdown, but she figures she should just please whichever Roy is in front of her at any given moment, and right now, that means Shiv.

“Well, I wasn’t aware I had an audience,” she says. “I’m glad he’s doing better.”

“Right,” Shiv says. “We all are.”

Karolina can’t tell whether she’s being sarcastic or genuine, but she decides she doesn’t want to know, and anyway, she needs to get into the office to get all of this theme park shit squared away before the new deal briefing. She was left with the coffee in the grabbing war, but she offers it to Shiv instead, who immediately waves her off.

“No, take it,” Shiv says. “It’ll piss my dad off if I’m late.”

She’s smirking again and the flash of unbridled rebellion in her eyes is unmissable. It’s the kind of pleasure that can only be found in a child doing something specifically to mess with their parents.

“You’re coming into the office?” Karolina asks, surprised. She can already feel her sleep schedule go to ruin at the thought of the pages and pages of internal memos and presentations she’ll have to draft about what it means for another Roy to be entering the ranks of the C-Suite.

“Just election stuff,” Shiv says, as if she were reading Karolina’s mind. “Dad doesn’t like my candidate so, he dragged me all the way out here just to let me know.”

“Kind of him,” Karolina says, feigning a smile. If she sees Shiv squint at her inquisitively, she doesn’t let it show, and she holds up the coffee in front of her. “Um, thanks, and good luck, with the uh, pissing him off.”

“See you around?” Shiv says, her words trailing off like it’s some sort of proposal that Karolina better say yes to. She finds that she wants to, but Karolina will be the first to admit she finds no pleasure in pleasing.

“Bye, Shiv,” she says, not looking back to see the expression on Shiv’s face.

—

The deal goes through, and Logan is elated. The whole room is, really, but Karolina’s been mulling over this theme park case and can’t find it in her to be happy over something as trivial as money when they’ve got a negligent death on their hands. Karolina tries to leave the room as fast as possible, to go deal with this in the peace and quiet of her own office, but Logan stops her before she can escape.

“How’s that kid?” he asks her.

She grips her laptop tight against her chest, and in the heat of the moment, she can’t stop from snapping. Albeit calmly.

“You mean the dead one?” she asks, her voice tight.

She stares at Logan, and she knows her own expression is unreadable. Everyone in the room seems to hold their breath, but she just quirks an eyebrow.

“The situation,” Logan clarifies.

“It’s under control,” Karolina confirms, which really, is all she had to say in the first place.

“Very well,” he says, gesturing for her to leave.

She ignores Shiv’s impressed gaze on her way out.

—

The parents want to sue.

Logan agrees to settle, not uncommon for theme park accidents regardless of who is the faulty party, as long as the problem can be swept away as quickly as possible and kept out of public court records. She feels sick thinking about how she’d explained the situation.

Due to the waivers upon entry into the park and the necessary warning signage for each ride, we are under no liability when a park attendee suffers a medical incident due to their own personal negligence. In this particular case, there is still cause for concern in how we administered first aid, but if we settle with the parents now, we’ll still be able to control the narrative in the media.

Then, she empties her lunch into the toilet as she recounts the lawyers telling the parents Logan’s offer.

Give them one-seven and lifetime passes.

She pushes the shame back somewhere unreachable, and when she exits the stall, one Shiv Roy is reapplying her lipstick in the mirror.

“Didn’t think that was in anymore,” Shiv says, absentmindedly.

Karolina rolls her eyes as she walks to the sink, wondering why Shiv Roy suddenly thinks they’re sparring partners.

“I ate something bad for lunch,” Karolina says, feeling annoyed that she’s even trying to explain herself at all, and she rinses out her mouth and washes her hands, hoping it’ll cleanse away even a little bit of the guilt that’s still lingering.

She can feel Shiv’s eyes on her as she dries her hands and lifts her purse onto the counter, digging through it. She successfully ignores the unwanted attention until there’s a hand in front of her, holding out a piece of gum in a sleek, silver wrapper. She stares at it for a second, and then grabs it.

“Thanks,” she says, flicking her eyes to Shiv’s through the mirror.

Shiv shrugs, closing her own bag and propping it back on her shoulder.

“I liked the way you talked back to my dad,” she says, then leaves the bathroom.

Karolina wonders if a Roy liking anything about her is a good thing.

—

Somehow, Shiv gets her number.

Her immediate thought is no, because she thinks getting involved in any capacity with the political strategist-daughter of her temperamental boss is the last thing she should consider, especially during an election year, but Shiv says it’s strictly business and that she could use some advice and just a quick round of drinks?

So, what’s the harm? Worst case, Shiv does have ulterior motives and Karolina just has to tread lightly, best case, she genuinely wants advice and Karolina gets to restore some of the karmic balance in her morally disturbed life.

That’s how she finds herself sitting at a high top in a dingy dive bar, watching a news anchor read her press release about the theme park death on national television. Her words feel so sterile being read out to her, and she tries to gauge the reactions of the other patrons of the bar, but it doesn’t seem like anyone’s paying attention. She suddenly wonders if she cared too much, but then she remembers the way the mother had cried during the legal proceedings, and she doesn’t think she could have ever cared enough.

By the time Shiv shows up, Karolina’s on edge.

“Shiv, I’m not really authorized to give out advice that might conflict with the interests of Waystar,” she warns.

“The conflicts are all economic,” Shiv waves off. “Tax breaks and antitrust. Nothing that’ll take down the company, I promise.”

She’s not sure how much a promise is worth coming from Shiv, but she decides to stay cordial.

“Sure,” Karolina says. She’s also not sure how much the economy would warrant such a lengthy visit from his youngest child, but she lets it slide. ‘So, what do you need help with?”

“Narrative,” Shiv says. “How to spin something ugly, in your favor.”

Karolina’s strength.

“How ugly?” she asks.

“Pretty ugly.”

A number of options run through Karolina’s mind.

Denial. Payouts. Intimidation. Convoluted paper trails. Victim-blaming.

“Is this something you can stop from getting out?” she asks instead.

Shiv shakes her head, and Karolina sighs.

“For a political candidate, you obviously need to be in control. Ten steps ahead,” she says. “Simply ignoring allegations creates a sense of distrust but addressing them head-on after they’ve come out or minimizing them feels dishonest, especially if this is going to be a big story.”

“So…what?” Shiv asks, “You admit to it?”

“Whatever you say, it needs to be believable, and you need to say it first. It doesn’t have to be an admission of guilt,” Karolina says. “It can also be an admission of rehabilitation.”

Shiv writes something down in a small notebook she’d brought, and Karolina finds that she’s surprised by Shiv's reason for this meeting actually being true. Shiv looks up as she writes, and Karolina takes it as a sign to continue.

“Say it’s a DUI charge,” Karolina says. “You emphasize that the client has worked hard to move on from a troubled time in their past and they’ve been consistently making great strides in doing so. They attend regular AA meetings, they’ve been sober for ten years, they have a happy and wonderful family. Show that they’re human.”

“What if they’re a truly terrible human?” Shiv asks.

Karolina twists her beer bottle in her hand. It’s a fragile game, helping terrible people escape the consequences of everyday life. She just wishes she weren’t so good at it.

“Donations are a decent safety net,” Karolina says. “People like to see a rich man put his money where his mouth is.”

Shiv writes more on the notepad and Karolina takes a sip of her beer.

“I think I’ve seen one or two of these things on Kendall’s Instagram story before,” Shiv says as she looks up again.

“You have,” Karolina replies, unamused. She chews on her lip, starting to feel uneasy. “I assume it’s worse than a DUI?”

“Just a little,” Shiv says. “Any advice for something more…unconventional?”

Karolina’s been trying to avoid setting Shiv up for the truly amoral routes, but there are only a few ways that situations like this can go. Still, she opts for one of the easier-to-stomach strategies in her arsenal.

“I’d go with sex addict,” Karolina says. “It’s still stigmatized, but there’s some sympathy to be had if you’re labeling the problem as something that can be worked on. A lot of people won’t buy it but…some will.”

“That’s…” Shiv trails off.

“Horrible,” Karolina finishes for her.

“I was going to say smart,” Shiv says, “but horrible works too.”

Karolina feels sick again. She wonders if she looks it, because Shiv closes her notebook and leans back in her seat, trading her pen for a swig of beer.

“And what if you get paid the same amount, regardless of how this scandal affects the outcome of the election?”

Karolina raises her eyebrows and takes a deep breath as she thinks.

“Then…you suggest your client’s donation is very sizable, and you leave some room for legal action in their public statement, if needed,” Karolina says. “Like, that they’d be willing to speak with those they’ve affected to apologize, or something to that nature. The victim’s lawyers will come crawling.”

“And I can still sleep easy at night,” Shiv says.

Karolina averts her eyes.

“Sometimes,” she says, drinking her beer.

“Well,” Shiv says, “maybe that’s a pipe dream in this line of work.”

Karolina used to think it wasn’t, but the decisions add up. The choices add up.

“Is this your first?” she asks.

“Scandal?”

Karolina nods.

“No,” Shiv says, shaking her head. “My first as the lead, though.”

Karolina remembers her first. It was at some hedge fund straight out of college and the Chief Financial Officer was found embezzling. She wishes things were still that simple.

“You’ll get used to it,” Karolina says, seeing ATN has moved on from discussing the theme park. “Enough people won’t give a fuck.”

Shiv follows her eyes, frowning slightly at the TV. She turns back to Karolina, sympathetic eyes now boring into her. Shiv leans forward.

“I’m sorry about my dad being dismissive over that kid,” she says. “Obviously you know what he’s like, but…yeah. On behalf of the Roys. For whatever it’s worth.”

Karolina shifts in her seat. She’s not sure why this specific assignment is hitting so hard. Maybe it’s as simple as the fact that a kid died, but she’s also been running ragged the past few months with acquisition after acquisition and deal after deal. It’s possible she just needs a damn vacation.

“Thanks, Shiv,” she says. “I appreciate it, really.”

When she’s in bed that night, unable to close her eyes, she finds it doesn’t really make a difference.

—

She doesn’t see Shiv for another five weeks, until the annual Waystar Gala.

It’s usually a nice night. The Waystar team focuses on making sure the shareholders and board members feel like their money is worth something more than just brainwashing Middle America with right-wing news and shiny new cruises and theme parks. It should be a night where the executives are distracted and Karolina can slip away, not have to clean up twenty-billion messes that shouldn’t even exist, but she could never be so lucky.

The parents of the kid didn’t accept the terms of the settlement. Somehow, the red tape got muddled and the after-action report was discovered, so they’re suing for medical negligence. It’s impossible to spin now. Waystar killed a kid.

So, instead of drinking champagne and leaning against a wall somewhere with Gerri playing daughter or wife?, she’s in Logan’s suite-turned-war room, staring him down as he yells at her. He’s spouting something about, how the fuck did you miss this and this is why need killers in the room instead of soft crybabies who are worried about doing the right thing and back in my day if you died in a theme park that would just be the end of it and you’d just be fucking dead, which, Karolina doesn’t think is true, but she’s not going to argue that one with him right now. His rant goes on for a while, and she’s not brand new to being the target of his rage, but it’s definitely the most intense treatment she’s ever received, and it doesn’t help that it’s about a faulty death of a child and she’s being berated since it’s somehow her fault they got caught.

“Well?” Logan shouts when he’s finished, a cue that it’s her turn to get a word in.

“I have a meeting with legal scheduled,” Karolina says calmly. “We’re going to discuss what our exact options are, and we’ll work from there. If we have to hang some brass at the park, we will, but there’s a chance we can still sway the parents into settling if we offer enough.”

“Sure, drain my fucking pockets for a bunch of deadbeats,” Logan grumbles. “That’s all?”

“Unless you need something else?” she asks, which, she really hopes he doesn’t because she doesn’t think she can stand to be in this room longer than it takes to end the conversation. He watches her carefully, but she stands her ground, her hands gripped tight around her phone but her expression neutral.

“Fuck off,” he finally says.

She wastes no time leaving the room. Gerri knows better than to try and follow her, but Shiv tries to stop her on her way out of the suite to which she can only offer a raised hand a shaking head. She just needs to get outside. She finds her way to a staircase labeled with roof access, figuring a few floors up is quicker than fourteen floors down, and she briefly thinks about how this definitely has to be a disaster waiting to happen for the hotel, because of course, the only thing Karolina knows how to think about is managing the crises of wealthy people who have no regards for anything at all.

By the time she makes it up (the door was unlocked, by the way) she’s not entirely sure whether she’s totally out of breath due to the two flights of stairs or because she’s on the verge of needing a gallon of sedatives her in system, but her educated guess is that it’s definitely the sedatives and she should at least try to get her head on straight before she ruins her whole career because she couldn’t handle five minutes of reprimanding.

She feels the familiar swell of anxiety in her chest, and although it makes her feel better to know she’s not suddenly become a ‘soft crybaby,’ it doesn’t make her feel better to know an issue she thought was behind her is back, because really, the timing could not be worse. She frantically digs through her purse, hoping for some odd reason there’s a pill left over, but there’s nothing, her old emergency stash gone from years of dormancy. Her back is turned to the door she came out of, but she can hear the door swing open and a pair of heels slick toward her.

If she could just find a cigarette.

“How do you do that?” Shiv’s voice rings out, though it sounds distant and muffled, and she finally finds a smoke and a lighter.

She turns around, not quite able to figure out what Shiv is referencing. She’s using everything in her to just stay calm, hoping the encouraging infusion of nicotine can help soothe her quickly rising panic levels. Except she can’t hold her fucking hand steady enough to spark the lighter.

“Do what?” she asks, cigarette hanging out of her mouth and lungs inflating and deflating at a very rapid pace. She tries to spark the lighter again, but her shaking hand shifts just as she gets it and the flame nicks her thumb, causing her to drop the lighter in a quick yelp of pain, “Fuck!”

“Woah, woah,” Shiv says, rushing forward. She bends down and picks up the lighter, “It’s okay, come on, I’ll do it.”

Karolina looks to her briefly, still confused as to why Shiv’s even on the roof with her, but she nods, raising the cigarette back to her mouth, hand still trembling at an embarrassingly high rate. Shiv lights it and Karolina closes her eyes as she inhales, welcoming the dizzying distraction for the few seconds it lingers. She holds the smoke in for as long as she physically can, and then blows it out into a steady stream, making her way to a wall across from the edge of the rooftop. She leans against it, grateful she can move some of her energy from trying not to fall over to trying to breathe, and Shiv follows her.

“I didn’t know you smoked,” Shiv says, and Karolina thinks it’s a stupid thing to say, because why would Shiv even know whether or not she smoked?

“I don’t,” she says. “I quit.”

“Well, you’re doing a great job,” Shiv says, laughing to herself.

Karolina might laugh if they were under any other circumstance, but she can’t and she feels bad because her attempt probably comes out more like a strangled gasp of air than anything else. She’s definitely still a misstep away from hyperventilating her lungs out, so she can’t find it in herself to feel too bad.

“Sorry,” Shiv then backtracks, “I can leave—if you need—”

“No,” Karolina says, surprising herself. “You can stay.”

“Okay,” Shiv says. “Okay. Yeah, um…I’ll just, I’ll be right here.”

Karolina nods, closing her eyes and resting her head against the cool brick of the roof. Her neck tingles as she does so, but before she can spiral about what that means, she tries to focus on Shiv’s presence, the shifting of her dress against the brick and the sounds her heels make as she gets comfortable. She just tries to breathe through it, waiting for her body to catch up with her mind and realize she’s not in any immediate danger.

“I saw your, um…fuck—your story break,” Karolina says between deep breaths. She thinks she must sound incredibly silly trying to have a conversation like this when she can barely even breathe, but she thinks a conversation might help her through it. Force her to find some semblance of air. “The supportive wife on Good Morning America—it was a, um, it was a nice touch.”

She can’t gauge Shiv’s reaction, because her eyes are still closed, but she seems to take the hint as she carries the conversation on like nothing is actually wrong and they’re just casually having a smoke out on a rooftop.

“Well, I thought about the strategy you proposed, you know, victimize and humanize the client, so when the wife seemed amenable, I thought, why not take it one step further and turn the whole family unit into victims?” Shiv says. “If his wife can forgive him, you can too.”

“You gonna vote for him?” Karolina asks.

“You know, unfortunately, I’m still not a registered voter in the District of Columbia,” Shiv says, feigning disappointment. “So, I’ll just have to sit this one out.”

Karolina laughs, very briefly, trading it inward for another shallow breath. She pushes herself against the back wall harder, just willing it to keep her steady enough to not fucking topple to the ground.

“You sure you don’t want me to get someone?” Shiv asks. “Something?”

Karolina tries to think, but she can’t really go beyond what’s in front of her, and right now, that’s Shiv.

“I don’t know, um…the talking—that was helping,” Karolina manages to get out.

“Okay,” Shiv says, sounding slightly nervous. “Uh, beautiful weather out here to have a panic attack in, really, I must say. You picked a great night.”

Karolina can’t help her eyes from opening at that, even cracking a smile through the labored breaths.

“Jesus,” she says. “That was bad.”

“Well, this isn’t really something they teach you about in political strategist school, so,” Shiv says, though she looks a little proud of herself for the small bit of progress, even if wasn’t intentional.

“Maybe not when you buy your way through a degree,” Karolina says. She’s not sure the remark has her usual bite, which is probably good because it’s a risky joke when she doesn’t know Shiv that well, but Shiv actually laughs once Karolina’s said it.

“Fuck off,” Shiv says, an unlike her father, it sounds warm and comforting and she actually has a ghost of a smile.

Karolina tries backing off the wall, just a little bit, but the sudden movement brings back another bout of dizziness. She brings a hand to her forehead, as if she can somehow just will it to pass, but the aggressive thinking just sends her nerves skyrocketing again, as if she’s in quicksand and the struggle keeps making it worse. She tries quickly turning around, resting an arm against the wall and she hangs her head in the space next to arm, hoping the small enclosure can somehow create a false sense of stability.

“I’m sorry,” Karolina says. “I just need another second.”

She thinks she probably needs more than just a second, and she’s sure Shiv can guess that too, but Shiv obliges, and Karolina uses the silence to actually focus on her breathing, counting ins and outs, until the pattern is a little less erratic. Shiv doesn’t speak again until Karolina’s turned back around, no longer stumbling at just trying to stand.

“Does this happen often?” Shiv asks, her voice softer than Karolina has ever heard from her.

“Not anymore,” Karolina manages to say, and then immediately regrets it, because this is Shiv Roy and there’s really no reason to be divulging anything to her at all like she’s some kind of emotional dumping ground.

“I’m sorry, I—I shouldn’t—” Karolina shakes her head, still battling to find words in her malfunctioning head. “You can go. You don’t have to stay.”

“What, and go back down to that reenactment of the House of Usher?” Shiv chuckles. “I’d rather be up here. Watch the family crumble from afar.”

Karolina goes to take another drag of the cigarette, but it’s mostly burned out. Her hand is still shaking, though far less, and she’s able to take a steadier huff than before, getting what she can out of it and dropping it to the ground.

“Didn’t the whole house fall?” Karolina asks. “I’m not sure the roof would be the best place to stand.”

“In that case…” Shiv sounds nervous. “Do you want to get out of here?”

Karolina raps her knuckles against the wall, the statement makes her breath hitch again.

“To go where?”

“Uh, presumably an apartment,” Shiv says. “With a bed.”

Karolina laughs nervously and eyes Shiv, Shiv just staring back at her with a smug smile. Karolina stops laughing.

“Shiv, I don’t know what makes you think—”

“I’m joking,” Shiv says.

Karolina immediately sighs a relieved breath of air, nearly having forgotten that she was supposed to be trying to breathe at all.

“I mean, unless young, business-savvy redheads are your type,” Shiv says, still shining a sickeningly arrogant smile. “Though, maybe you’ve been eying one of the geriatrics downstairs? Might be tough competition for me.”

“God,” Karolina says, Shiv’s words finally making her laugh for real.

Shiv looks almost a little too proud of herself for making Karolina fully smile, and she wonders if there’s any hint of truth in Shiv’s initial invite, but she tries to not let her mind even go there. She does think it would be nice to just rid herself of this evening, but…with Shiv?

A softer expression then takes hold of Shiv’s face, and Karolina’s again surprised at this nicer side of a Roy. She wasn’t actually sure any of the bloodline had it in them.

“I’m serious, why don’t we just blow this fucking raisin farm,” she says. “Crack open a bottle of wine, get out of these heels…shit talk my dad?”

Karolina almost wants to say yes, but then she remembers the mountain of new paperwork she still has to get through the pounding headache that she knows is due any second.

“I appreciate the offer, really, but I think I just need to go home,” she says, hoping she comes across as genuine. For whatever reason, there’s still a small part of her that would like to take Shiv up on it. Maybe she would have if the night turned out differently. Shiv seems to accept the response easily, though Karolina’s sure Shiv is a pusher under the right conditions. In any case, she does feel ready to sleep for the next three days, and she knows it’s the right thing to do, so she texts Gerri to let her know that she hasn’t offed herself and that she’s just going to go home for the night, and pulls up her car service app.

“Hey, at least let me get you a ride?” Shiv asks, gesturing to Karolina’s phone. “Just so I know you’re okay.”

Karolina isn’t shocked at the gesture. She thinks maybe if her father treated employees like this, she’d also go out of her way to avoid a lawsuit waiting to happen, but there’s also a certain vulnerability to Shiv’s tone, like maybe she is doing it completely out of the goodness of her own heart. Maybe a small part of Karolina is hoping Shiv is doing it for selfish reasons as well. She’s finding that despite the circumstance, some small part of her has actually been enjoying Shiv’s company.

“Okay,” she finally says, nodding her head. “Um, and thank you for, you know, this…”

Her voice trails off, because really, she’d lying if she said she wasn’t a little embarrassed.

“Don’t mention it,” Shiv says. “I’ve seen worse.”

Karolina thinks back to her last Kendall Roy press release and cringes, deridingly feeling less bad about her episode. She follows Shiv to valet, and she uses the car ride to regain some of her energy, letting the potholes and honking taxis lull her back into a state of semi-normalcy. Shiv seems to respect the quiet, not really speaking beyond offering her water and asking whether she prefers the radio on or off, and Karolina feels a little bad that she’d underestimated Shiv’s capacity for genuineness.

When they get to her apartment, she pretends like she doesn’t want to change her mind and invite Shiv up.

—

Shiv starts texting her.

It beings with a checkup, asking her how she’s feeling and if Shiv can do anything for her, which, fine, fair enough, but then she starts texting more. Asking Karolina how her day’s going, sending her funny (in Shiv’s opinion) headlines about her brothers, asking for Karolina’s thoughts on her work, making suggestive passes that Karolina has to constantly dodge. She doesn’t notice at which point she gives into it, only realizing she’s gone too far when Shiv says she’s going to be back in town again for a few days and asks if they can go out to dinner. No, not asks. Insists.

Karolina, in all her stature and fortitude, can’t find it in her to say no.

Which has her rushing into a crowded restaurant after work on Friday night,

 “No worries,” Shiv says. “I’ve been having fun trying to guess what kind of fire you could’ve been putting out so late on a Friday. I wrote down my best guess, wanna hear them?”

“Sure,” Karolina says, her voice letting Shiv know that this is an indulgence and not anything more.

Shiv laughs to herself as she pulls out the list, and Karolina finds it cute.

“Ready?” Shiv asks.

“As I’ll ever be,” Karolina says.

“Karl and Frank have been outed as lovers?”

Karolina nearly chokes on her wine, “Karl wishes.”

“Dad purchased a sex shop chain.”

Karolina quirks an eyebrow, thinking Shiv sounds suspiciously hopeful about that one.

“That would be fun to explain to ATN viewers,” Karolina says. “But no.”

“Boring,” Shiv huffs. “Okay, next one. Roman gave out MDMA at his keynote?”

Karolina thinks her expression must actually be horrified, because Shiv immediately defends the guess.

“Don’t act like he wouldn’t do it,” Shiv says.

“I don’t even want to speak that into existence, Shiv,” Karolina says, letting out a disbelieving laugh. “That would be the worst day of my life.”

“And it would be the best day of mine,” Shiv says, as if she’s waxing poetic. “Okay. Ready for the last one?”

“I’m not sure I am,” she says, eying the crowd in the restaurant. Their table is secluded enough, but it takes one person hearing Shiv Roy out of context and running to page 6 to create a media frenzy. “But go on.”

“Shiv Roy and Karolina Novotney seen on a date?”

Karolina tries her best to look unamused, though she thinks she’s failing miserably, because she can feel her lip twitch upwards just a fraction, and Shiv can’t be bothered to wipe a dramatically shit-eating grin off her face.

“Close,” Karolina says, teasingly.

“Oh really?” Shiv asks, looking smug as ever.

Karolina rolls her eyes, mostly playfully, but then her expression falters a bit when she thinks about the actual hold-up. “It was the last of the theme park settlement. We were stuck in litigation all day, but the parents ultimately agreed to the settlement.”

Shiv leans forward across the table, all hints of humor discarded.

“And?”

Karolina looks down.

“Airtight NDA,” she says.

Shiv makes a noise of disapproval.

“Silenced,” Shiv says.

Karolina shrugs, “It’s what your father wanted.”

At least, that’s what she tries to keep telling herself.

“My dad also wants four wives and to own the entire island of Manhattan,” Shiv says, taking a sip of her wine. “Doesn’t mean it’s a good thing.”

Karolina can’t help her defenses rise.

“I’m not saying it’s right, Shiv,” she says. “I’m just saying it like it is.”

Shiv immediately looks sorry, and Karolina feels bad for snapping.

“Of course not,” Shiv says. “You’re just doing your job, I know.”

Karolina isn’t sure how to respond, worried that all she’s good for lately is just souring the mood, but Shiv seems intent on making it a good dinner.

“Hey, we’re due for a subject change, yeah?” Shiv says. “You grow up around here?”

“Pittsburg,” Karolina says. “I moved down here for college. Never left.”

“Really?” Shiv asks, intrigued. “What school?”

“Columbia,” Karolina says, and Shiv suddenly looks excited?

“I went to Barnard,” she says.

And Karolina can’t help but roll her eyes, because—

“Of course you did,” she says.

Shiv rolls her eyes in return, but then leans closer across the table, as if she needs to whisper.

“This kind of makes us sisters, doesn’t it?”

She wags her eyebrows and Karolina can’t help herself from falling to the bait.

“I hope not,” she says, and Shiv wastes no time going in.

“Oh, so you don’t want to be sisters?” she asks, feigning offense, then confusion. “I wonder why that is?”

Karolina pauses, knowing she has to tread lightly for the rest of this conversation.

“Shiv, I don’t think we should even go there.”

“Come on,” Shiv whines. “I can’t even make a joke?”

“Well, are you joking?”

Shiv seems to think, and then rests her chin in her palm, elbow on the table.

“Do you want me to be joking?”

Shiv sits there expectantly, waiting so patiently it’s almost defiant, and Karolina wills herself to just shut Shiv down.

“You are…” she trails off.

“Diabolical? Conniving? I’ve always been partial to cu—”

“Very pretty,” Karolina finishes.

Shiv pauses. She looks extremely satisfied, but not like she thinks she’s won yet.

“But?” Shiv asks.

“But,” Karolina draws out, “You’re my boss’s daughter.”

“Well, what, are you gonna send him a detailed report in the morning if we have sexual intercourse?” Shiv laughs. “He’s not gonna know.”

Karolina looks around, still concerned there could be prying ears or eyes, and she subconsciously toys with the silverware in front of her.

“I can’t assure that,” Karolina says, quirking an eyebrow at Shiv.

“If I want to keep my inheritance, you sure as shit can,” Shiv says. “Which I very much do.”

Karolina fully believes her on that front, but she’s still not sold on the idea. She likes Shiv, she really does, but…is this too far?

“Shiv, I really don’t think it’s appropriate.”

“I’m sorry, is there a clause somewhere in your contract that says it isn’t allowed?” Shiv asks. “You know my dad has been trying to pawn me off of the12th floor for years, right?”

Karolina eyes Shiv closely, looking for any hint of a set-up, or disingenuousness. She downs the rest of her wine, just as the waiter arrives with their meal.

“Buy my dinner and I’ll think about it.”

Shiv smirks.

“Deal.”

—

It’s not until they’re halfway undressed in Shiv’s bed, and Karolina’s hovering over her that Shiv says it.

“I have a boyfriend, by the way,” she says, hands paused around Karolina’s waist. “Do you care?”

Her immediate thought is yes, and this is wrong, and we shouldn’t be doing this, but she thinks through all of the truly awful shit she’s done recently and thinks that this won’t even take the cake. Fuck it.

“Do you?”

—

It doesn’t become a regular thing, but it’s about as regular as it can get when Shiv is constantly between DC and NYC. Karolina tries not to think about it too often. She keeps her head down and does her work, she dodges the usual comments and questions about her love life from male clients, she dodges Gerri’s questioning gaze when her answers seem less snarky and more serious than usual. So, maybe she isn’t keeping her head down, but it’s like, mid-level, for sure. And besides, does she have to entertain sleazy men all the time?

Shiv texts her more frequently, sending her something funny she thinks they’ll both enjoy or send something suggestive that she thinks Karolina will enjoy, which no, she doesn’t think it’s a crime for banning Shiv from trying to sext while she’s at work. That issue comes to a head when they’re on the jet traveling for a business meeting, and she can’t help but scrunch her face at Shiv texting, “Come on, everyone does it,” because, really, everyone?

“What is it?” Gerri says, at the same time Karl pipes up, “Bad news?” and she wonders how used they are to her being stoic as a fucking stone that the one time her expression shows any emotion, they think the company is on the verge of collapse. Though, she does fear for the health of the lot if they found out she’s fucking Shiv Roy while twenty-thousand feet up in the air.

“Nothing,” Karolina says, locking her phone. “I just read something.”

“Oh,” Karl muses sarcastically, “You just read something.”

He and Frank still look uneasy, but Gerri just looks suspicious. Karolina eyes her and Gerri pulls a face, as if to say, the fuck? and Karolina just makes a face back, as if to say, shut the fuck up, until she remembers that when a man is being annoying, she’s supposed to be snarky. That’s normal for her. Karolina Novotney makes fun of men and is definitely not fuck-buddies with Logan Roy’s daughter.

“I did,” she finally says. “Do you still remember how to read, Karl?”

His face freezes in the way that he knows he’s been bested, and Gerri and Frank just laugh at him until Logan shouts from the other end of the cabin and they all simmer down like a bunch of school children who have just been put in quiet time.

She resists picking up her phone for the rest of the flight.

—

Situations like that continue, Shiv pushing and pulling and Karolina trying her best to stay malleable. She’s having fun, she is, but she can’t stop thinking about Shiv’s boyfriend, how he’d feel if he found out. It’d be one thing if Karolina didn’t know, but the fact that she does and she’s still a willing participant—it doesn’t feel good. She lets it break her one night when Shiv is in town and they’re having one of their usual meets and she catches a glance at Shiv’s lock screen. He keeps texting her. Karolina does everything she can to not read his name, but she knows it’s him, especially since by the third ding she just flips the phone over.

“Shiv—wait,” Karolina says, lightly pushing Shiv off of her.

“What’s wrong?” Shiv immediately asks, eyes giving Karolina a once-over. She suddenly feels self-conscious in the bed, pants already gone and shirt almost entirely unbuttoned.

“Nothing,” Karolina says, almost as if on instinct, but then, “Not nothing, I’m just…I feel like this is…wrong.”

Karolina’s eyes quickly dart in the direction of the phone, and Shiv’s follow. Shiv sighs, and Karolina thinks if Shiv could pick any superpower in the world right now, she’d figure out how to explode common objects with her eyes.

“You’re worried about Nate?” Shiv asks, and Karolina wishes she didn’t just give him a name because it only makes this all a million times worse.

“It’s not really a nice thing to do to someone, Shiv,” Karolina says. “Fucking his girlfriend when I know he exists.”

Shiv scoffs, and Karolina braces herself for impact.

“You just successfully paid off a family suing Waystar for killing their kid and you’re worried about fucking over a guy you don’t even know?”

In Shiv’s defense, she does seem to regret the words as soon as they come out of her mouth, but the damage is already done once they do. Karolina tries to let them roll off of her, but a blatant reminder of the fact that she’s complete and utter shit doesn’t really help, especially when she hasn’t even finished beating herself up over it just yet. She gets out of the bed silently, not even able to look at Shiv (out of anger or shame, she’s not quite sure) and starts buttoning up her shirt.

“I shouldn’t have said that,” Shiv says, following her out of bed. “That wasn’t fair of me—”

“I know I’m not a good person, Shiv…it’s not some, secret,” Karolina says. “I go to work, and I cover up bad behavior and I make awful people sound like saints and I do it with a smile on my face because I’m good at it, I am. But I don’t need that to follow me home.”

“That’s not—”

“If I can just have one piece of my life where I’m not a villain just for existing, that would keep me sane,” Karolina says. “So, no, I don’t want to be your fucking—homewrecker, Shiv. I don’t need to imagine the upset face of your boyfriend every time I close my eyes, and I certainly don’t need the excess guilt, because I promise you, I already have enough.”

Her chest heaves and she has to take a few deep breaths to stop herself from completely breaking down over the outburst. She makes a mental note to schedule someone to talk to, because really, this is getting out of hand, but it certainly doesn’t help when your fuck-buddy insinuates that you personally covered up a murder.

Shiv seems slightly frozen in place, and Karolina gets it, because how can this girl even think about other people as if they’re humans with feelings when it’s blatantly clear that nobody has ever extended that same care to her?

“Karolina, I—”

“It’s okay,” Karolina interrupts, “It’s okay, Shiv, I’m sorry, that was—”

Shiv nods along encouragingly with a type of patience that feels almost undeserved when Karolina is the one that keeps putting them both in this fucking tired savior dynamic, but she really feels like this moment might be her breaking point because she doesn’t know how much longer she can keep pretending that it doesn’t feel like she walked into that theme park and ripped out that child’s heart herself.

“Will you just…I mean can you—can you just hug me?” she feels stupid for asking, she feels stupid standing here in Shiv’s penthouse just being absolutely pathetic, but she doesn’t know what else to do.

“Okay,” Shiv says quietly, and although there’s a supportive lull to her voice, the hug is still hesitant.

It’s not until Karolina actually starts crying that Shiv seems to understand that Karolina just needs to be comforted, and Karolina can feel this realization when Shiv just holds her tighter and then brings them back to the bed. Shiv lets Karolina lay in her arms, and she plays with Karolina’s hair, and occasionally whispers something that Karolina’s too distracted to understand but likes the sound of anyway, and she wishes that Shiv thought more highly of herself as a person who can be there for others, because she’s doing a pretty good job at it.

Sometime later, when Karolina’s stopped and she thinks Shiv has fallen asleep, Shiv speaks up.

“I’m breaking up with Nate.”

Which, Karolina doesn’t necessarily believe because it would’ve made the night a lot better if it had been brought up sooner, and she also doesn’t want to believe it because what does it mean if Shiv’s out there breaking up with people just so they can continue to fool around?

“Shiv, I’m not trying to give you an ultimatum here,” Karolina says, voice tired. “And I don’t want you to lie to me, either.”

If Shiv takes offense to the accusation, she doesn’t let it show. She just sighs and plays with Karolina’s hair again, and turns off the bedside lamp illuminating the room.

“It was a dead-end relationship long before you came into the picture.”

For some reason, Karolina believes that.

—

Shiv didn’t lie to her.

Karolina’s not a stalker, but it is her job to keep tabs on people, so why not keep tabs on the one person who happens to be with the same person she’s…involved with? The tabs are showing that he has a new girlfriend. Some blonde off of Capitol Hill with a degree from Georgetown and a few low-profile successes. A downgrade from Shiv. Karolina feels another twinge of guilt still lingering from the situation, but she’s been dealing with it better, thanks to actually following through with speaking to someone.

She tries to remember phrases like healthy guilt and unhealthy guilt. The theme park payoff is a grey area, but at the end of the day, she was just doing her job. Being the messenger doesn’t make you the bad guy: unhealthy guilty.

Fucking a woman who told you she had a boyfriend, but recognizing you were doing something wrong and attempting to fix it, only for her to break his heart: unhealthy guilt.

She finds it works for her, being able to put things into boxes and categories. She can be more rational about it all that way.

“I’m glad it’s helping,” Shiv says, one night as they’re laying on the couch after dinner. She’d been back in town more frequently because she has a high-profile election coming up that’s going to keep her busy. She said she wanted to spend all the time with Karolina that she could get. They’ve had a rotation of movies on that neither of them is paying attention to, just enjoying one another’s company.

“Me too,” Karolina says, shifting her arms closer around Shiv. “Thank you, for being there.”

Shiv just shrugs, always nonchalant when it comes to accepting gratitude.

“Just promise to be there for me too when I’m going through my menopausal midlife crisis.”

Karolina can’t see her face, but she can certainly hear the smirk in Shiv’s words, and she just scoffs.

“Just remember who’s controlling the PR narrative when you do,” she replies, and Shiv laughs, then looks up.

“You know you’d make me look like an angel,” Shiv says, then mimicking Karolina’s voice, “Waystar Royco is aware of Shiv Roy’s recent behavior and the Roy family is taking all of the measures necessary to ensure she is receiving the proper care at this time—”

Karolina rolls her eyes.

“How am I doing?” Shiv asks. Her playfulness has been the biggest surprise in getting to know her.

“Sounds like someone reads all of my press releases.”

“Well, you know I’m your biggest fan,” Shiv says, smiling.

Karolina blushes, something she’s found herself doing more and more around Shiv recently.

“I think I’m going to put in for a promotion at the end of the year,” Karolina says. Shiv looks surprised, but she definitely doesn’t look worried, so that has to be a good sign, right?

“Oh?” Shiv says. “Feeling bossy?”

The one thing that hasn’t surprised her is Shiv’s ability to make an innuendo out of any situation. Karolina knows she must pull a face because Shiv’s immediately sitting up, giving Karolina her undivided attention.

“Come on, tell me about this promotion,” she says.

“My boss suggested to me that he might be leaving,” Karolina explains. Hugo from Cruises has also been eying the position for a while, but, I don’t know. I think I’m better.”

“Well, my dad certainly likes you,” Shiv says.

Karolina frowns.

“You think?”

“You’re like, the only person I’ve never seen him insult for longer than a sentence without giving up,” Shiv says. “I think he respects you.”

“As much as he can respect a woman,” Karolina says.

“Still more than some people get,” Shiv says.

Karolina nods, letting that thought sit.

“I think you’d do amazing,” Shiv says. “You’re already doing half the leg work. They’d fall apart without you.”

Shiv lays back down, settling into Karolina’s chest again.

“Thanks, Shiv.”

Shiv just squeezes Karolina’s hand and turns her attention back to the movie. They’re like that for a while, and Karolina’s just getting into the plot again when Shiv speaks.

“Do you think we could ever…” she pauses. “Be a real couple?”

The question sends a sharp pang through her stomach. She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t thought about it. She’d also be lying if she told Shiv yes.

“I think if you want your father in your life and I want to continue having a career…” she shakes her head, not wanting to finish the sentence. “I don’t know, Shiv. I don’t think so.”

“It could work out,” Shiv reasons. “Maybe he’d find the idea of lesbians hot.”

“You’ve been hanging out with Roman too much,” Karolina says, not wanting to even consider the idea of Logan finding her hot.

“I think that would hurt Roman’s feelings if he knew you’ve been saying that,” Shiv says.

“He’ll cope,” Karolina says, eyes following some train-based action sequence that’s on the television.

“I’m not being serious-serious,” Shiv says, continuing the main conversation. “I just…think about it sometimes.”

Karolina sighs. This conversation just makes her sad, because she genuinely believes that it would be a dramatic fall from grace for Shiv if they were to actually do it.

“Maybe if you found another billionaire-heiress your own age who wasn’t in a high-level position at his flagship company,” Karolina says. “Maybe he’d stomach it enough to not disown you.”

“He’s not that bad,” Shiv says, though it doesn’t sound like she necessarily believes herself, and Karolina hesitates on responding.

She likes to think Logan might not be that bad deep down, but she hears the things he says behind closed doors and cleans the messes he makes in front of open ones. She’s sure Shiv’s seen more and worse, though, so she won’t press it. It’s not for her to decide whether or not Shiv should believe there’s good in her father.

“What’s your dad like?” Shiv asks.

Karolina’s breath hitches slightly at the question, and she knows Shiv isn’t going to get the answer she wants. She briefly considers lying, like it’ll help them both somehow if there’s an imaginary good father between them, but it’s useless.

“He was a very sad man who liked to hit my mother,” Karolina admits.

Shiv’s hand twitches against Karolina’s torso. Karolina doesn’t really scream issues the way Shiv and her siblings do, but she thinks that maybe it’s different when your dad isn’t the founder of a multi-billion-dollar Fortune 500. Maybe there’s less pressure to stay. Karolina’s father never had to pretend to love her. He just pretended to not hate her.

“Did he ever hit you?” Shiv asks.

Karolina thinks it would be a more upsetting question coming from anyone else. Because it is, a prying and awful question that she feels sick just even thinking about, but she finds she feels comfortable with Shiv. Maybe it was that first night on the rooftop, or maybe even as far back as the gum in the bathroom, but Shiv has consistently shown up for her. Karolina trusts her.

“Once,” Karolina says. “Right before I went away to college.”

He was mad that she was leaving. Mad she figured it all out without him, mad that he wasn’t a better father. Sometimes, if she’s not paying attention it’ll creep up on her, the way he slammed her against the wall of their living room and the picture frames behind her just shattered to the floor. How she had to sleep on her side for the first two weeks of school because she’d had to get stitched on the back of her neck and she couldn’t lay down any other way. The way he’d slapped her and pointed his finger in her face and just yelled when she tried to fight back.

Shiv just nods, like this all makes perfect sense. Like this is just how fathers should be expected to behave.

“Sometimes I wish he would just finally hit me,” Shiv says. “Then it might be easier to hate him.”

Karolina just holds Shiv tighter, intertwining their hands together. Shiv rubs her thumb along the side of Karolina’s hand, and Karolina battles all the different words swirling around in her head.

“It wouldn’t be,” she eventually says.

—

Shiv goes back to DC to work with the client. She calls Karolina a lot, like when she’s commuting to work or waiting for the office’s lunch order. Karolina laughs at her because she thinks it’s funny imagining Shiv Roy picking up the group lunch order for an office, but Shiv seems extra keen on impressing this client. Shiv won’t talk about him with her, which she does find odd.

Past clients would have her sending diaries worth of complaints and personal details, but this one gets virtually nothing out of her. At first, she thinks maybe Shiv’s just being respectful. Turning a new leaf because it’s her biggest client so far and she doesn’t want to accidentally cause trouble. Karolina can respect that.

They’re making out in Karolina’s bed, finishing off a short trip Shiv made back home for the weekend, when there’s just one question she can’t shake.

“Why don’t you ever say his name?” Karolina asks.

Shiv pauses over her immediately, one hand still on Karolina’s waist and the other much lower. She looks thoughtful, but Karolina would be lying if she didn’t think there was a twinge of annoyance in Shiv’s response.

“I don’t want this to be a thing, Karolina.”

Karolina stiffens.

She can’t help it when a shocked, “Oh,” leaves her mouth. Shiv’s fucking him.

Shiv sighs and runs a hand over her face. She reaches over Karolina and turns the lamp on, excusing herself to the bathroom.

It’s not until Shiv’s walking away from Karolina that she sees a small littering of bruises on the backs of Shiv’s arms. They don’t look new, but they don’t look old either. She tries not to jump to the worst-case scenario, especially given the new information she’s just acquired, and she pushes it to the back of her mind. Shiv likes it rough. She would know.

When Shiv returns, she just crawls back into the bed, seemingly giving up on their previous position.

“Do you want to…?” Karolina’s at a loss, because there’s usually only one thing Shiv wants, and it’s hard to stop her once she’s gotten started, but Shiv just shakes her head and lays down in Karolina’s lap.

“Ca we just stay here?” she asks.

“Of course,” Karolina says, relaxing into the pillows behind her. She runs a hand lazily through Shiv’s hair and lets her fingers brush over the remnants of the bruising she can now see up close. “Whatever you want.”

She pretends not to notice as Shiv silently cries.

—

Their calls become less frequent. The campaign trail is picking up, of course, Karolina doesn’t live under a rock, so she knows it’s a busy time, but ever since that weekend she’s been sick with worry.

After work, she decides to call Shiv and ask her to cut the shit. She’s feeling good about it, until a man picks up.

“What?” His voice is angry and mean.

“Uh…I’m sorry, is Shiv there?”

The line is silent until she thinks she hears Shiv’s voice, distant in the background of the other end.

She hears a, just give me my fucking phone, and then a, is that her? and Karolina has to stop herself from shouting at this man into the line because she’s afraid she’s already put Shiv in enough danger just by trying to call her.

There’s some indistinguishable arguing until his voice is back on the line, “Don’t call this number again,” and then the call cuts out.

She doesn’t call again, because she’s not an idiot, but she does pace for a good fifteen minutes before deciding to send Shiv an email from her burner account. It was from when they first started hanging out, and Karolina was paranoid about everything. She thinks now that maybe they were right to be careful back then, if this is where it’s led them.

She doesn’t get a response for two sleepless nights and three horrifyingly long days, until her phone wakes her up in the middle of the night, Shiv’s contact illuminating the room. It knocks the sleep out of her immediately.

“Shiv?” she says, worriedly.

“Can I come to your apartment?” Shiv asks, getting right to the point. Karolina tries to listen for anything wrong in her voice, but if there is, she’s doing a good job at hiding it.

“Where are you?” Karolina asks, turning on her lamp.

“At the airport,” Shiv says. “There’s a car coming, I—I don’t want to be—Can I just come over?”

“Yes, of course,” Karolina says. “The doorman will let you in, okay? Just come up when you’re here.”

Karolina waits anxiously in her living room. She turns on the TV, but the sound of the trashy late-night laugh-tracks becomes too overwhelming and she turns it off, opting to sit in silence while she waits, trying not to let her mind wander too much. Maybe they just got into a fight. A normal fight. She lets that thought consume her until she hears her front door handle twist, and she rushes into the foyer.

She gives Shiv space, and Shiv doesn’t say anything as she removes her coat, and then her hat, and Karolina tries to inspect her movements from the angle she’s at, but Shiv still hasn’t turned to look at her and when she starts to fuss with something in her bag it feels like might be avoiding it altogether. Karolina can feel an awful dread settle in her stomach.

“Shiv, will you please look at me?”

She can see Shiv’s eyebrow furrow and her chest rise a little faster.

“I just need to find something,” Shiv says, kneeling down with the bag. She’s still off to the side, not letting Karolina get a good view apart from her profile.

“Can you please just let me see your face?” Silence. “Shiv—”

“What?” Shiv shouts, finally fully looking at Karolina. For a moment, Karolina wishes she could go back in time and not push Shiv to turn around so quickly, because she doesn’t think she was ready for the way it feels having Shiv stare her down with a bruised and bloody eye. It’s not the worst Karolina’s ever seen, but the contrasting purples and reds on Shiv’s pale skin make it look more alarming, not to mention the fact that it’s Shiv. Her Shiv.

Shiv stands and Karolina takes a tentative step forward, careful not to invade Shiv’s space, and she notices there’s also a gash above Shiv’s eyebrows. It doesn’t look fresh, which she can only assume means this happens a few days ago, which also narrows down the suspects in confirming her suspicion.

“How’d that happen?” she asks, anyway.

Shiv looks deeply uncomfortable, and Karolina’s heart breaks at how small she looks.

“My phone, it—it hit me, accidentally,” Shiv says.

“Your phone hit you, accidentally,” Karolina says, not buying it.

Shiv nods, looking away from her.

“And was it in someone else’s hand, accidentally?” Karolina asks.

Shiv pretends to think, and Karolina can tell she’s staving off tears.

“Um..no, I think it—it might’ve been in the air, yeah,” she sniffs. “Like, maybe someone threw it.”

“So, someone threw your phone, and it accidentally hit you,” Karolina clarifies.

“But it wasn’t supposed to,” Shiv says.

“What was it supposed to hit, Shiv?”

Shiv shrugs.

“The wall?” she says, as if that makes it any better.

Which, it doesn’t. Because Karolina doesn’t buy the story and Shiv knows she doesn’t buy the story, but that’s still the only story she’ll ever get, and Karolina accepts this about Shiv. That Karolina will tear her heart open wide and Shiv will only ever meet her a quarter of the way. That doesn’t matter though, not now, at least, because Shiv clearly needs all of Karolina, whether she can face admitting it or not.

She approaches Shiv slowly, testing the waters of contact until she reaches an arm around Shiv and the floodgates finally open, anything she’d been holding in the last few months just pouring out. Karolina thinks that not long ago, the roles were reversed, but somehow, she’s not optimistic that there’s a clear way out of this one, the strange debt that Shiv thinks she owes to the various men who worm their way into her life.

For now, she just hugs Shiv and pretends like it might all be okay.

—

Shiv asks to stay for the week.

On one of the nights, Karolina finds Shiv on the balcony after waking up in the middle of the night to an empty bed. She’s toying with a carton of cigarettes, a lit one in her hand, just simmering away as Shiv watches.

“I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to use the first-hand smoke,” Karolina says, sitting down next to her. “Not the second.”

Shiv smiles, though it doesn’t nearly reach her eyes, and she taps the growing ash off of the cigarette before moving it towards Karolina, offering it to her. Karolina hesitates, thinking there are few things she could use more than a smoke right now, but decides not to take it. Shiv seems to remember then that they’ve spoken about this before.

“Sorry,” she says. “I forgot that you quit.”

“It’s okay,” Karolina says. “I’m a little grey about the rules sometimes.”

Shiv looks at her with an inquisitive gleam in her eye. That look usually means trouble, but tonight, it just feels pensive. Karolina hesitates again though, because she’s shared so much of her past with Shiv and she can’t remember the last time she let someone know this much about herself. She’s happy to share again though, if it means getting Shiv out of whatever headspace has her sitting out on a balcony at four in the morning.

“I was in a pretty serious relationship,” Karolina says. “We’d started talking about family planning, so…”

“Did you…?” Shiv’s voice drifts off, but Karolina can imagine the question.

“Get pregnant?” she finishes for Shiv, and Shiv nods. She shakes her head. “The first round didn’t take. Which isn’t uncommon, but…my partner, it gave her cold feet.”

“Was this recent?” Shiv asks, an edge of concern now coating her voice.

“No,” Karolina assures, grabbing Shiv’s empty hand in her own. “Almost ten years ago, now.”

The statement makes Karolina feel like a walking warning for Shiv. Like she better get her shit together now or she’ll end up a lonely workaholic with all those years of living and nothing material to show for it. Except Shiv doesn’t look alarmed, she just seems sad.

“Well, you’re a stronger person than me,” Shiv says. “I probably would’ve become the world’s most talented smoker after that.”

Karolina smiles sadly.

“I guess I’m good at letting things go.”

She doesn’t look at Shiv as she says it, but Shiv’s hand shifts in her own and she momentarily feels bad for saying it at all. She decides to change the topic, if only just a little bit.

“I didn’t know you smoked too,” she says. “I’ve never seen you do it.”

She feels Shiv tense up next to her.

“Oh, um…yeah, I don’t really,” Shiv says, stumbling through her answer. Karolina eyes the ashtray, noticing a couple of butts already in there, burned down to the brim, but she doesn’t think chain-smoking makes much sense for someone she’s never even seen bring a cigarette to their lips.

“You a secret pyro?” she asks, hoping to get even a small smile out of Shiv, but it doesn’t work.

“I don’t know what the fuck I am,” Shiv says, sighing. “Just, royally fucked up, maybe.”

Shiv lets go of Karolina’s hand and wraps her arm around her torso, her fingers stopping in a spot that makes Karolina go very still. She’s not sure how she didn’t put the pieces together sooner. She remembers seeing marred skin in that exact spot across Shiv’s hipbone. An inconsequential spot, the kind that nobody can ever get close enough to see unless they’re also receiving NDA and a lay in the pitch dark. It was faded then, and Karolina doesn’t think she would’ve noticed if they hadn’t screwed so many times, and when you’re paying attention to someone you like, you notice. The middle of an orgasm isn’t necessarily the time and place to ask about it though, so she never brought it up. It wasn’t her business anyway.

Right now, it feels a little bit like her business.

“Shiv…” Karolina says, sitting up. She’s sure Shiv can follow her eyes as they dart from the ash tray to Shiv’s hovering hand with the cigarette and clearly all over Shiv’s body as she looks for damage, and Shiv’s body tenses up in defense.

“No, it’s not—I haven’t done anything,” Shiv rushes out. It sounds like she’s trying to convince Karolina, but Karolina can only ever trust Shiv as far as her eye can see, and currently, she can’t see a lot.

“But you have?” Karolina asks.” Before?”

Because if Shiv can pry, then Karolina can pry too and she worries that she’s being too hard, being too mechanical, but this is scary and it’s right in front of her. Shiv looks away from her and taps more cigarette ash into the tray, the bulk of it almost burned out, as if it’s a timer that dictates when Shiv is going to stop entertaining this conversation.

“In college, I—” she cuts herself off. “I just needed something to make the pain different. Something I could see.”

Sometimes I wish he would finally just hit me.

Karolina’s breath hitches. Her gaze hovers over Shiv’s eye and Karolina wonders if she still thinks that.

“And what about right now?” Karolina asks.

Shiv cocks her head and her face twists in that way that Karolina knows she’s using everything in her to stay in a place of control.

“I just want to feel anything,” she says, in a low voice. A few silent tears finally escape her eyes, leaving tracks over the now lighter smothering of purple and yellow hues surrounding her eye. The bruise had gotten larger as it faded, trailing from her eye, to her hairline, and then slightly across her cheekbone.

Karolina shifts back next to her and coaxes Shiv into her arms, lightly taking the cigarette and putting the last of it out. If Shiv flinches at the crackle of the embers meeting the ashtray, Karolina doesn’t mention it.

Karolina knows that in the morning they won’t talk about this, that they’ll get out of bed and Shiv will say something dismissive like, “Last night was interesting, huh?” and Karolina will have to laugh it off, assure Shiv that Karolina still sees her as something formidable, like she’s not a little girl that the universe has tasked Karolina with fixing and that Karolina doesn’t hold all of the cards in their dynamic even though sometimes it feels like she actually does.

(She thinks deep down, that Shiv has to know. Every action they take, every step they’ve gone forward, has been due to Shiv’s brazenness, sure, but it’s all been contingent on Karolina saying yes. She has the power of veto, yet they both seem to ignore that until a reminder rips through their lives.)

She’ll make Shiv coffee, just the way Shiv likes it, and Shiv will spout off polling numbers for the man that Karolina is pretty sure she should find and publicly maim in the middle of Washington, and she’ll act happy. She’ll say, “That’s great, Shiv. Really, you’re doing a great job,” and Shiv will pretend she means it. It’s their dance.

Karolina thinks if she were a better person, she might not tolerate it.

—

Then, Shiv starts to slip from her. Not in noticeable ways, and not like before, but it’s noticeable to Karolina, and it feels like she’s being avoided. Like, their calls that had resumed frequency suddenly slow down again. When they do get a chance to talk it’s like Shiv is rushing through their conversations, itching to get on the line with someone else. When she asks what Shiv’s been up to, she just gets vague answers.

“Work. Sleep. Strategy meeting. Sleep. It’s all the same these days.”

Karolina tries not to care. Shiv was never hers, not really. She was an idea, a playmate. If she has to let her go, then whatever, she has to let her go, but that doesn’t stop it from hurting.

The confirmation eventually comes from the last person she ever thought it would, because Logan of all people asks Karolina the most bizarre question when he calls her in early before a morning briefing.

“What do you think about that Tom guy?” he asks.

“Tom?” she asks, feigning ignorance. Because of course she knows Tom. He’s the biggest kiss-ass below the top floor, not to mention the rumors. Which Karolina thinks should’ve been enough for her to get a clue, but maybe she was being obtuse on purpose. Maybe she thought Shiv would have the decency to tell her this time.

“From the Resorts Division,” he says. “Any rumblings about him? Errant behavior?”

Karolina has half a mind to lie, to say that she’s heard whispers that he could be trouble, that he’s a little too eager to make it to the top—but if Shiv’s happy…then fine. If it can’t be her, then fine.

“Nothing I’m privy to, sir,” she says, sending him a curt smile.

Logan makes a noise of contentment.

“Will you keep an eye on him?” he asks. “Let me know if the image down there is…inadequate.”

“Of course,” Karolina says, taking her seat.

She thinks it’s kind of fucked up that she has to give a presentation right after this news, like finding out the girl you’re fucking has probably been lying to you and seeing someone else should qualify for at least a half-day off or something, especially if your boss is the one who told you and the girl is his daughter, because really, is she seriously not even worth a, by the way?

They have plans to see each other that night. She’s going over to Shiv’s place and they’re supposed to make dinner together and do whatever the fuck it is that they do these days. How to bring it up tortures her all day until she gets there, and all she can do is act cold. She knows silent treatment is juvenile and bordering on cruelty, but she can’t help it. She’s just so angry.

“Okay,” Shiv finally says, putting her utensils down. “What’s wrong?”

The question makes Karolina halt, but then she finishes chopping the tomato in front of her, not slowing down until it’s fully cut. She slides the diced vegetable off the cutting board and into a bowl, and then sets it all down, wiping her hands clean.

“How long?” she asks, looking to Shiv.

“What?” Shiv asks, expression immediately confused.

Karolina can’t help but to roll her eyes, and she can’t stop the accusatory tone from coming out as she speaks.

“You know what.”

Which only makes Shiv angry, because if any of the Roys have a short fuse, it’s her.

“I’m not a fuckin’ mind reader, Kay,” she says.

Karolina can’t stop it as a sarcastic laugh escapes her, and she crosses her arms, still somehow in disbelief that Shiv won’t just fucking tell her.

“I seriously had to find out from Logan,” she says, almost to herself, and she turns away from Shiv.

“Yeah, still not getting whatever telepathic link you suddenly think we have,” Shiv says.

Karolina turns back around, almost willing Shiv to take the opportunity that Karolina’s giving her, to just tell her straight up so that Karolina can still pretend that Shiv cares about her the way she cares about Shiv. But Shiv doesn’t bite. It’s like Shiv can see Karolina at her worst but the one time the cards finally flipped she couldn’t take it. Shiv Roy would rather ruin it all than let Karolina be a witness to her vulnerability.

“Tom?” Karolina says, Shiv’s face finally dropping in recognition. “Does that name ring any bells?”

Shiv crosses her arms. If Karolina is going to give her a second chance to fix it, this would be the moment.

“Uh—No, I—that doesn’t sound..” Shiv clears her throat. “Doesn’t sound familiar, no.”

Karolina clearly hoped for too much.

“No?” she says. “Okay.”

She walks away from the kitchen, and starts going around the apartment, picking up various things she knows belong to her. She hadn’t realized how much their lives were intertwined at this point, and she wonders if that’s why it hurts so much. She spent so much time letting Shiv in, sharing parts of herself that nobody gets the privilege of these days and Shiv just couldn’t handle doing it back. She reminds herself that they could never be anything more than what they were, that it was always a dead end, but maybe she’d tricked herself. Let herself think briefly that they could make it work in their own, private and fucked up way.

“What are you doing?” Shiv asks, following her trail.

“I’m going home,” Karolina says, shoving her work files into her bag. “I’m going to run a bath, and I’m going to drink my wine, and I’m going to pretend you didn’t just lie straight to my fucking face.”

Shiv’s expression hardens, and she runs a hand across her face as if Karolina’s just told her something trivial that’s simply inconveniencing her day.

“Come on,” she says. “What do you want me to say?”

Karolina lets out a hostile huff of air, turning quickly from her bag to face Shiv.

“What do I want you to say?” she repeats. “How about, hey, Karolina, remember how you told me you weren’t comfortable seeing me if I was in a relationship? Well, this just in, I’ve actually been in one, so, get fucked I guess!”

She stalks away, heading for the door.

“You can’t be fucking serious,” Shiv says, quickly following her.

Karolina stops in her tracks abruptly and turns around, Shiv nearly running into her as she does so. One more chance.

“How long?” she asks.

“Queen of lies and manipulation wants to sit on moral high ground now,” Shiv says, a new bite in her voice. “Were Nate and TK not fully deserving of your mercy?”

Which is a low blow, because they’d talked about this. Karolina had almost let the guilt from Nate blow up her life and now Shiv’s weaponizing it against her. But if Shiv wants to go low, Karolina can go low.

“You’re admitting those were real relationships now?” Karolina asks. “I thought they were just placeholders for when you couldn’t find someone willing to hug you at night.”

Shiv laughs sharply, shaking her head.

“That’s real rich coming from you,” Shiv says. “At least I have people. Don’t you get lonely waiting for your young piece of ass to come visit you in secret once every two months? Might wanna get serious about love, babe. The clock’s ticking.”

Karolina’s face twists, and there are strings and strings of insults and blows she’d like to deal Shiv right now, but one simple word just takes hold.

“You’re rotten, Shiv.”

It’s at that moment that Shiv seems to realize the gravity of her actions, because she was right, Karolina is the queen of being a fucking bitch, and if she’s backing down from a fight, then you’ve probably gone too far. Shiv’s chest rises and falls in a small huff and she runs her hand through her hair, looking frustrated.

“I’m sorry,” she says, though it sounds forced and somehow, Karolina’s not quite buying that she means it.

“How long, Shiv?” she asks, even though she thinks the chances are over. She just needs to know. “I’m not asking again.”

Shiv’s body stiffens and she averts her eyes, the classic Siobhan Roy tell that Karolina is never going to get what she wants.

“I don’t know,” she says, shrugging. “A month? Two? Maybe, less—I, I don’t know, Karolina. I’m not keeping score of how many dates I’ve been on recently.”

“Jesus,” Karolina says to herself, not wanting to believe that Shiv had been lying to her for this long.

“I don’t understand why it’s such a big deal,” Shiv says, which makes Karolina snap, because Shiv does know. They’ve had endless conversations why it’s such a big deal and Shiv still chose to disrespect her. “Tom’s not even—”

“It’s not fucking about Tom, Shiv!” Karolina finally bursts. “It’s about you. Did you just think all this time we’ve been hanging out without fucking was just fucked up domestic foreplay? You’re my friend, and you lied to me. About something I really tried to trust you with.”

She thinks Shiv looks regretful, she thinks Shiv looks a little bit ashamed, and she also thinks Shiv looks sorry, but Karolina knows that she isn’t going to back down. Shiv is going to dig her heel in and make it worse because what else should she expect from a Roy who’s been backed into a corner?

“He’s never gonna know, Karolina,” Shiv argues, and Karolina can’t believe that months later they’re still having this conversation.

“But I’ll know,” Karolina says. “I’m going to have to go into work and see his fucking face every day, and the only thing I’ll be able to think about is how I’m fucking his girlfriend. Do you even care how that makes me feel?”

“I don’t see why it has to make you feel like anything,” Shiv says. “He doesn’t matter to you.”

It’s in that moment Karolina truly accepts that Shiv isn’t going to let her go. Can’t let her go. She feels like she walked into this, like from that first mischievous smile in the coffee shop she should’ve known that this would ultimately crash and burn. She sniffs, and realizes she’s crying. As she brushes away a tear, she sees the way Shiv jerks on instinct, like she knows there’s something catastrophically wrong with being the reason for Karolina to cry. Karolina just takes a calming breath.

“Shiv, I think we need to be done here.”

Shiv’s expression immediately falls, any anger and understanding immediately overcome with shock.

“You don’t mean that,” Shiv says, and if Karolina didn’t know any better, she’d think Shiv was about to start crying too.

“I do mean that,” Karolina says. “I don’t want to mean it, but I do.”

Shiv turns away from her for a second as if the mere sight of Karolina is suddenly too much, and Karolina gets it because looking at Shiv right now, it’s taking everything in her not to just fall to Shiv’s feet and take everything that she’s said back. It kind of feels like their worlds are falling apart, and in some sense, Karolina thinks they are.

“This couldn’t go on forever, right?” Karolina says, a sad resignation in her tone.

But Shiv grows slightly angry again, because Karolina knows this isn’t the outcome that she wanted, and Shiv certainly gets everything she wants. Karolina thinks that’s just what she tells herself.

“You’re making a mistake,” Shiv says, coldly.

“I’m making a choice that you don’t have the guts to make,” Karolina says.

If she were a better person, she would hug Shiv, one last time. If she were less selfish, she’d drop the act and she’d pour her heart out one last time, assure Shiv that things will be okay and one day they’ll move on from this, but she doesn’t. Instead, she picks up her bag, and those are the words Karolina leaves her with. She briefly wonders if she’s not so different from Shiv. If she also took the cowardly way out because leaving Shiv crying in her doorway was easier than begging Shiv to just be with her for real; but she’s not a better person, and she likes being selfish because it’s always been practical. Shiv Roy would’ve destroyed her, if she weren’t. Karolina almost let her.

So she goes home, and cries for a day, busying herself with emails and press inquiries and she lets it sink in all that she’s losing, all that she’s lost. She eventually finds the last of Shiv’s things, a sweater here and a book there, and ships them off, and has to move on. Pretend like none of it ever happened.

“You’ve been keeping an eye on Tom?” Logan asks one day, late into the next week. The thought of him still makes her hands curl in an undetectable fit of jealousy.

“He’s on vacation currently,” Karolina says. “There are rumblings that he went off to Paris.”

There are also rumblings that Siobhan Roy was spotted in Paris with a mystery man. Karolina swallows the anger of knowing he won, and she thinks it’s stupid, because he didn’t even know there was competition.

Logan seems pleased with the update, and she’s sure he’s seen the tabloids anyway.

“Very well,” he says.

When she goes to leave, he beckons her back.

“Yes, Logan?”

“I heard you put your hat in the ring to step up,” he says, shuffling papers on his desk. He pauses, and then looks up at her.

“I did, I…thought it might be time,” she says, arms wrapped tightly around her binder.

He eyes her and she holds her breath, thinking it’s funny how one man has seemingly held the key to everything in her life recently. She thinks she should hate him, then she remembers how Shiv can’t.

“We should have a talk about what that would mean for you,” Logan finally says. “Block out an appointment with Joan.”

She bites down the excitement in favor of keeping her exterior calm, simply nodding her head.

“Okay, I will,” she says. “Thank you, Logan.”

He returns to his work, not bothering to say you’re welcome, and Karolina takes that as her cue to exit the office. She unlocks her phone, not even realizing where her fingers are heading until she’s already there, hovering over Shiv’s contact. Her heart swells and her step falters for a moment. She hesitates, wanting so badly to just give in and press it. She knows she shouldn’t. She takes a deep breath, and then locks her phone.

Maybe not a better person, but at the very least, better off.

#succession #shivlina #shiv x karolina #shivlina fic #succession fic #shiv roy #karolina novotney #mine #wow #ok #duskfalls

[houseofbrat]

I have a theory. Bear with me.

What if - what if - the whole kate being ill is just a lie and a distraction ? And really, Kate's been put on notice and she's with her family,  who are suspiciously dead silent through all this, and the sickness story is just cover for William to debut as a single man. Something is very, very odd and off about this whole thing.

He just allowed pics of him and a woman getting cozy at the last event he did and he announced eartshot I'm Capetown without saying if he or kate would be able to attend. I have a feeling he'll be attending solo.

Doesn't it make sense? They could have all made a deal behind closed door on how to roll out the divorce narrative in a way that makes it gradual and let's the public get used to seeing the single dad with other women? 😮

And in return Kate gets a lot of control over the kids (other than the boarding school issue), lots of money to keep her comfortable and of course, bailing out her parents!

And this explains why kate wasn't at last year's earth shot (the story about George having exams is ridiculous) because they need to separate her from earthshot, it needs to be associated with william alone and lead us to the sexy (barf) single young (not) dad phase of his life, complete with lots of news stories about new romances to keep the press happy.

I could be out to lunch, but I don't think I am. 🤔

Here's what I agree with you on:

Kensington Palace isn't being honest about Kate and is engaging in deception. A deception that will harm both Will & Kate but will unquestionably hurt Kate more. And Kate didn't attend Earthshot in Singapore due to George's exams.

Here's what I don't agree with you on:

1. William having an affair. Having affairs is always a risky thing to do when you're married, regardless of fame, wealth, or royalty. William is not a huge risk taker, and certainly not in his personal life. He is a boring dude, who got the reputation for being a "catch" because he was good looking and a royal. That's it. 2. I haven't seen any pictures of William being "cozy" at the Air Ambulance Charity banquet, but I doubt they're that exciting. Also, if William was actually having an affair, Fleet Street would have posted some anecdote to support that insinuation by now. They haven't. Because he's not having one and isn't likely to in the near future. 3. I'm not sure whether or not William (or William along with Kate) will be going to Capetown for Earthshot. Earthshot has usually been held in November, which is eight to nine months away. What I do know is that it was the most lackluster location announcement I have seen regarding the Earthshot Prize to date. It literally looks like a slapdash announcement made to fit a deadline. You know, a situation where a homework assignment is due, but you aren't going to be turning in your best work, yet you turn something in anyway because it's better than getting a zero. That's what this announcement looked like. And the real question is: Why? Why make this kind of announcement on a Friday, which is pr dumping ground? Why did they not make this announcement next week on Monday or Tuesday, where they could also release more information, such as the dates of Earthshot Week? And also drum up more interest and excitement? Last year Singapore wasn't announced until 14 May, after the coronation. Why announce so early this year? It makes no sense.

So, yes, I have no doubt there are weird shenanigans going on at the Kensington Palace communication office and Adelaide Cottage. Kate is allegedly still so ill that William could only do a whopping two engagements this week, yet she is well enough to travel to Anmer Hall at Sandringham, whether it is by car or helicopter. Priorities.

However, William cannot even have his press office confirm that he can do his regularly scheduled engagements this month or in the future after he gets back from another vacation to Sandringham. He has done a whopping three engagements for the year. Meanwhile, King Charles--who has cancer and is receiving cancer treatments--will be back in London next week for some face-to-face meetings.

But we're not supposed to side-eye The Prince & Princess of Wales because if we do then we're just jelly haterz.

Even though all of the UK press knows that the way Will & Kate are conducting themselves is completely abnormal.

But, hey, if Will & Kate want a war with the UK press, then they'll get one. Never pick a fight with the press because the press lives for them, particularly in the UK.

Will & Kate shouldn't have violated certain agreements, but they did. And breaking an agreement with the UK press is like violating an armistice agreement, i.e. a declaration of war.

"They've broken the armistice."

And there isn't going to be a special place for Kate to jump to in order to get out of this one. No trip to Mustique will fix this.

Can't wait to watch it from the US of A.

#ask #my gif #lies lies lies #scandal! #ESCANDALO!!! #Prince & Princess OWN GOALS #kate middleton #Catherine The Princess of Wales #William The Terrible #William The Prince of Wales #prince william #british royal family #rumors...conjecture #Earthshot Prize #pr fail #twitter #Richard Palmer #fleet street #2024: Year of the Wood Dragon