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whisperofsong · 2 years

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Among The Stars

Chapter Eleven

Pairing: Riff x Latina! Reader

Summary: Riff and Olivia’s relationship no longer remains a secret and the revelation of their clandestine love has serious ramifications.

*Disclaimer: This is my lengthiest chapter to date and I have never been prouder to claim something as my own. I truly gave this chapter my everything and value any feedback you are willing to provide me. Thank you so much for your trust in me as a writer; I am overflowing with gratitude for all of YOU!

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Melodic chirping occurs outside my bedroom window and a thin veil of sunlight is strewn across my floor. My eyes adjust to my new state of consciousness, the warmth of the summer sun washing over me. My previous night with Riff was everything I could ever yearn for…the banter, flirtation, and intimate moments strung together solidified my love for him.

I remove myself from my bedsheets and hear muffled voices outside my bedroom door. When I glance at my alarm clock, it reads 8:07. It’s a bit early for company, especially on a weekday. I open my bedroom door and immediately halt. At the kitchen table are Mama, Papi, and…Bernardo. Although they were in the midst of conversation, their talking ceases upon seeing me standing by the threshold between my bedroom and the kitchen. I gulp, visibly apprehensive, while they all stare, visibly tense.

“What are you doing here?” I ask Bernardo, my voice coming out a bit more gruffly than I anticipated.

Before Bernardo can respond, my father inserts himself into the conversation. “He was telling us about your relationship with the gang leader.” Papi’s voice is so smooth and measured that we might as well be discussing the weather.

“Papi-“

“No, Olivia. No. You’ve been lying to Mama and me. For weeks. He’s corrupted you, mija.”

My face scrunches in hurt and anger and I transfer my emotion to Bernardo.

“You know nothing!”

“I know enough, Olivia. Quique saw you and Riff at the club last night. You were…” Bernardo pauses, his features displaying discomfort and disgust. “You were clearly together.”

“How could you?! Do you have nothing better to do than to come in here and uproot my happiness?!”

“Happiness?” Bernardo scoffs. “You’re delusional. That gringo’s filled your head with lies.”

“He hasn’t!” I scream.

“Olivia!” Papi’s commanding voice captures my attention and causes me to bristle. He almost never shouts and when he does, it’s a result of intense emotion. “Do not speak to Bernardo like that. He’s the good guy here. He’s doing this to protect you because apparently, you’re incapable of protecting yourself.”

“You don’t understand, Papi, Riff-“

“Es un bastardo!” (Is a bastard!) “He and his henchman parade these streets, wearing hate and violence as their badges. And yet you have the nerve to defend him? To sneak off to see him like a thief in the night?”

“I love him, Papi.” My declaration might as well have been a gunshot because nothing but stunned expressions are seen on my parents’ and Bernardo’s faces. Bernardo’s pulse throbs in his cheek while my mother is stiff. Papi, however, stares at me before slamming his hand on the table and abruptly standing up.

“Nonsense! This ends now.” He points his finger at me heatedly. “You are never to see that delinquent again. If he comes anywhere near here, I’ll call the police.”

“Papi, stop!”

“Hand over your phone, Olivia.”

“W-why?”

“I don’t trust you won’t communicate with him. Not after all that’s happened.”

I eye Papi somberly, willing him to reduce the harshness of his actions.

“Go get it,” Papi orders icily.

I go to my room to retrieve my phone and when I hand it to my father, he snatches it with such force that I jump.

“I’m sorry things had to be handled this way, Olivia,” Bernardo says. “But I’m not sorry for telling the truth. Riff is not a good man and the fact that you can’t see him for who he is proves you’re even more naive than I thought.”

I turn my head in the opposite direction of Bernardo because I refuse to look at him in this moment. He and his opinions can go to hell.

“Gracías, Bernardo,” Mama says softly, her eyes glossy.

Papi nods in agreement. “We owe you, Bernardo. Thank you for looking out for Olivia.”

“You don’t owe me anything, Mr. Ramirez.” With that, Bernardo hastily walks out the door and leaves the three of us to deal with the aftermath of his revelation.

Mama finally speaks up and looks me in the eye. “All this time that you’ve been spending with Theresa…you’ve been with him?”

“Yes,” I admit.

“And you’ve…spent nights with him?” Mama asks, insinuating the loss of my virtue.

“Yes, but nothing has happened. We only slept.”

Papi slams his hand on the table for the second time in a span of less than five minutes. “Stop lying to us! Do you think your mother and I are fools?”

“I’m not lying, Papi! Riff and I haven’t done…anything like that. He knows I’m not ready and respects my decision.”

Papi laughs bitterly. “You expect me to believe a man like that respects anything let alone your virtue?”

“He does. He respects me. Period. And he loves me as much as I love him.”

Mama sighs. “You’re confused, Olivia. This isn’t love.”

“It is, Mama. For years, I’ve been merely existing, but when he entered my life, he revived me. He’s made my life worthwhile and I love him. I love him so much.” My voice cracks upon uttering those last few words and my bottom lip trembles.

“How can you love a man like that?” Mama asks. “After everything Bernardo’s told us…”

“What exactly has he told you?”

“That you were with him at that dance weeks ago. That he came to see you the next evening at the diner. About what him and his gang do. How several of his friends….” Mama pauses, collecting herself as tears spring from her eyes. “…assaulted you. Is there truth to any of this?”

“Yes. But he wasn’t part of what his friends did to me. Riff would never hurt me,” I state confidently, knowing my words are true.

Papi renters the conversation. “Don’t you see? He already has hurt you. You’re deceiving your family, sacrificing your scruples, being disloyal to those in our community. How can you have feelings for someone who’s led you down this destructive path?”

“Because he’s willing to change. He wants to be better and he’s been doing better. He’s so good to me, Papi. Please give him a cha-“

“Enough.” Papi glares at me. “I don’t want to hear another word about that man.”

“His name is Riff, Papi.”

“I don’t care about his name because I don’t care to know any more about him than I already do.” After a few beats, Papi says, “Go to your room.”

Despite Papi’s instruction, I continue to stand there as tears silently fall, making my cheeks glisten.

“I was going to tell you both about him. Today actually.”

“And we’re expected to believe that?” Papi asks. He shakes his head and walks to his and Mama’s bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

Mama and I are left alone in the kitchen. Mama folds her hands, examining them as if she’s expected to write an extensive report about them. “I’ve always trusted you because of your commitment to doing what is right and leading selflessly.” She pauses and stops fiddling with her hands. “I no longer recognize you and I no longer trust you.”

My head droops, my shoulders sag, and my mouth wobbles as I cry without reservation.

Mama slowly rises from her seat at the kitchen table and makes her way to her closed bedroom door, leaving me alone with my heartbreak. My heartbreak is not specific, but extensive, as I grieve the loss of my united family, newfound happiness, and extraordinary love. What matters most to me is slipping through my fingers and all I can do is observe as my life, now frayed at the seams, is coming apart.

I make my way to bedroom in a resigned fashion, closing the door with my back pressed against it. I lean my head against the door and look up, my vision made blurry by the tears pooling within my eyes. All I want is to seek refuge in Riff’s arms, but I’m trapped in the war zone, disorder enveloping me.

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Riff’s POV

Although I don’t typically work weekdays at Lucky’s, their usual guy called out and they were desperate. I didn’t mind filling in for him, considering I could always use some additional cash. Plus, I saw a necklace in a jewelry shop the other day that reminded me of Olivia and want to set some money aside to get it for her.

When I walk into my apartment, I kick off my shoes and grab a soda out of the refrigerator. I’m lethargic after being on my feet for hours and want to increase my energy level so I can be somewhat awake when I call Olivia. I never thought I’d be the kind of guy itching to talk to his girl every day, but life has a way of surprising ya. I was mildly disappointed when I checked my phone before leaving the bar and didn’t have any messages from her. She probably got busy at the diner and I couldn’t hold that against her.

Once I’m comfortable on my bed, I press her name, the main name comprising most of my calls in my Recents list and eagerly anticipate being greeted by her voice. It rings and rings and when it eventually goes to voicemail, I hang up, deciding to call again in a few minutes.

No answer the second time either. After it goes to voicemail the third time, I’m too wired to sleep. I decide to go for a walk, hoping some fresh air and activity will reduce my restlessness.

While walking, I hear the scuffing of feet behind me. I turn around and spot a couple guys, but ignore them, brushing it off. However, in no time at all, several more guys appear ahead of me and under the artificial glow of the street lamps, I realize they’re Sharks as are the guys behind me. I stop walking and decide to face them. What have I got to be afraid of? I haven’t done anything illegal lately.

“Evening, boys. Nice night for a stroll, ain’t it?” I ask casually. They look at me expressionless and I shrug, unaffected by their standoffishness. When I attempt to move past them, one of them puts his hand against my chest, preventing me from moving forward. I look at his hand with a small smile as if to challenge him. “Is there a problem, muchacho?”

“You could say that,” utters a voice off to my left. I glance in this direction and am met with Bernardo striding up the sidewalk, his features hard and focused.

“Ya just couldn’t stay away, could ya?” I tease him.

“Seems I should be asking you that same question, although I already know the answer,” Bernardo replies.

My eyes form into slits as I study him in order to determine his angle.

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

“Enough with the games. I know about you and Olivia.”

“Afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Really?”

“Afraid so.”

“Care to explain why you were all over her last night at the club? Or do you have a twin we’ve yet to meet?”

Some of his Sharks snicker, clearly amused by their leader.

“Look, I don’t know what you think you know-“

“I saw you,” a different Shark remarks. He looks at me with nothing but contempt burning in his eyes.

“You’re going to stay away from Olivia.” Bernardo’s voice is rigid.

“And why would I do that?”

“Because we both know she means nothing to you. It’s a game to you, a ruse. An experiment. And it ends now.”

“It’s not a game to me,” I assert, my voice hardening at Bernardo’s accusation.

“No?” Bernardo feigns mulling this over. “Then what is it exactly?”

“I don’t owe you an explanation.”

Bernardo slightly smiles before responding. “And we don’t owe you any mercy.”

Before I can process his words, his fist darts out and slams into my jaw. I drop to the ground as a result of the intense blow. Two of his guys grab and hold me against a nearby chain link fence as Bernardo punches me without even breaking a sweat. There’s too many of them for me to fight back. When he punches me in the gut, a grunt signaling extreme discomfort leaves my body and I sink to my knees.

Bernardo shakes out his hand while grimacing at me. “You ever come near her again and you’ll be done, you hear me? Done.”

I can barely look up at him, clutching my stomach and hardly able to conceal the agony I’m in after Bernardo treated me like his personal punching bag. He and his guys walk away without another word, fading into the darkness of the night. My jaw is pounding and my stomach is killing me.

When I try to stand up, I wince. “Shit,” I breathe. Bernardo is one skilled fighter, I’ll give him that. Begrudgingly. I’m eventually able to peel myself off the ground and as I head home, I call Olivia again. No answer. “Dammit!” I groan out loud. All I want is to hear her voice and for her to come over so she can be my personal nurse.

Once I’m in my apartment, I grab a package of frozen vegetables and lay on my bed with the package resting against my jaw, hoping it decreases some of the swelling there. Eventually, my eyelids become heavy and close while the frozen vegetables slide off my face and land beside me with a soft rustling sound, but I’m too exhausted to do anything about it before morning.

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Olivia’s POV

The next morning, I don’t have to be at the diner until 10:00, which gives me plenty of time to make a stop that’s innocuous enough to not draw any attention.

I emerge from my bedroom to find the kitchen vacant, the place at the table where Papi is usually seated savoring his morning coffee empty. Breakfast dishes are drying in the rack beside the sink. He must have left early, likely to avoid seeing me and having to suffer through what would undoubtedly be a severely awkward encounter. Nevertheless, it hurt that he couldn’t even look at me as a result of the shame I brought upon our family.

The whole ordeal has curbed my appetite, so I grab a granola bar from behind one of the cabinets and hear the rhythmic hum of Mama’s sewing machine. I contemplate leaving without saying goodbye because I know she’s disappointed in me as well. However, if I’m going to mend my severed relationship with my parents and restore it to what it once was, such an immature act would get me nowhere.

I tentatively approach her bedroom and lightly knock against the doorframe. Mama looks up from her work. “Good morning,” she greets me dryly.

“Good morning, Mama. I’m heading out to Doc’s to grab a few things before my shift at the diner. Do you need anything?”

“No, thank you.” Her tone is polite yet strained with emotion. I linger in the doorway, expecting and perhaps hoping she’ll say more, but she doesn’t say a word. Instead, Mama fidgets with the item of clothing in her hand as if this demands all her attention.

“I better be off then,” I finally say.

“Goodbye, Olivia.”

“Bye, Mama.” I walk away, clutching my heart as it sighs with sadness.

On my way to Doc’s, my footsteps feel heavier and all this alone time with my thoughts is torturous. All I can consider is how rapidly things have gone downhill, the vision of Papi and Mama’s devastated expressions flashing in my mind. The anger Papi exhibited was like nothing I’ve ever seen in all twenty years of knowing and loving him. And to have it directed towards me? It was too much to bear.

The door to Doc’s jingles merrily as I open it and survey my surroundings. I’m worried I wasted a visit here until I hear shuffling behind the counter and notice a tall figure appear behind it. Tony is rummaging through a box of items while pieces of his hair fall into his face before he notices me standing here.

“Oh, hi, Olivia. Have you been standin’ there a while?”

I shake my head and give him a small smile. “I have to pick up a few things and also…I need to talk to you about Riff.”

Tony’s pleasant expression changes and a slight frown crosses his face as he appears to brace himself for the information I’m about to relay. “What’d he do this time?”

“Nothing,” I hastily reply. “Well…it’s what we both did really.” I gulp and temporarily close my eyes so I can maintain composure and explain myself clearly. “We’ve been…sneaking around. For weeks now and…one of the Sharks saw Riff and me the other night while we were at a club.”

Tony closes his eyes and sucks in a breath while he looks down as he processes the magnitude of the situation. I continue sharing the unnerving details. “Bernardo came to my family’s apartment this morning and told them about us. And now…” My fleeting composure crumbles and I begin to cry. “My phone was taken away and I’m forbidden to see him,” I disclose through choppy sobs. “He’ll worry about me, I know he will. And I can’t do that to Riff. I love him so much…too much, Tony.”

I cover my face with hands, soaking them with what seem to be endless tears. “My parents can barely look at me and I’ve completely lost their trust. I just…can’t deal with all this by myself. I need you to tell him what’s happened.”

“Of course. Absolutely.”

“Wait,” I say softly. “There’s more. I also need you to tell him not to do anything foolish. I’m certain he’ll want to see me, but under no circumstances can that be done. Bernardo and the Sharks will be watching me like a hawk while I’m at the diner and one of them will be walking me home every time I leave. And Riff definitely can’t come to my apartment. He’ll be taking a major risk and it will only further jeopardize our future together…if we even still have one,” I add in a remorseful tone.

“I’ll tell him all that, Olivia. But I’ve known Riff a lot longer and know he’s unlikely to listen. I’ll try, though. I promise.”

I nod firmly. “Thank you, Tony. Really. You have no idea how much I appreciate this.”

Tony reaches out his long arm and touches mine. “Don’t mention it.”

I then meander through the small store and select a few small necessities to purchase before thanking Tony one last time and exiting Doc’s, feeling slightly better than when I arrived. Please be receptive, Riff, I think to myself. Do this for us. Please.

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Riff’s POV

I’m drumming my fingers impatiently against the kitchen table, staring at my phone, when Tony walks through the door. It’s only 7:32 so the old bat must have released him early.

“Hey,” I greet him in a lackluster voice. I’ve yet to hear from Olivia and have stopped calling her after 7 unreturned phone calls and 5 unanswered text messages.

“Hey,” says Tony, closing the door behind him. “Someone of interest paid me a visit at Doc’s today.”

“Your parole officer?”

“No. Olivia.”

My heart is practically in my throat upon hearing this news and I rush over to Tony who’s still standing near the front door. “What’d she say? Why’d she come to see you? Is she alright?”

“Slow down, buddy boy. Give me a chance to say somethin’.”

“Is she alright?” I repeat.

Tony hesitates. “Depends on your definition of fine.”

My body tenses. “What’s wrong?”

“Bernardo told her parents about your relationship, about his friend seeing you two out the other night. He came over her place this mornin’ to break the news.”

“Shit!” I run my hands through my hair several times as I try to gather my scrambled thoughts.

“Her phone was taken away Riff, so she can’t contact ya. And she-“

I move around Tony and go to unlock the door. “I need to see her.”

“No, Riff.” Tony roughly grabs my arm, holding me back.

“Get off me, man.”

“No. She doesn’t want you coming to see her. It’ll only make things worse.”

“Newsflash, Tony. Things are already worse. How much worse can they possibly get?!”

“Try to see her and you’ll find out.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means her parents are pissed, Riff. It’s obvious she cares about you and she wants to protect you from whatever might happen. Although your face suggests you’ve already been through the ringer.”

“Bernardo beat me up last night. Multiple Sharks were there, too. Not even a fair fight. I didn’t think he’d tattle to her parents though. I should’ve known the asshole would-“

“Riff, stop. Anger isn’t gonna solve anything.”

“Yeah? Well neither is sittin’ here, doing nothin’. I need to see my girl, Tony.”

“And you will. But not now. You’ve gotta give people time to cool off.”

“How long’s that gonna take? A couple days?”

“More like a couple weeks…at best.”

I laugh bitterly and shake my head. “Ya know, it’s real easy for you to give orders when it’s not the love of your life being ripped away from you! Do you know what life was like prior to Olivia? Bleak. Empty.”

“What about the Jets?” Tony cuts in.

I shake my head. “They’re my guys and they’ll always be my guys. But they don’t make up for the love that’s been missin’ from my life.”

I swallow hard. “Olivia’s just…pulled me out of the darkness I’ve been living in and given me something worthwhile to run towards.”

Tony cocks his head to the side thoughtfully. “What’s that?”

“Light. Goodness. Because that’s what she is and I realize I want that in my life.”

Tony steps towards me and claps a firm hand on my shoulder. “Then you better respect Olivia’s wishes.”

I release an exasperated sigh before nodding in defeat. “Yeah, I guess so,” I say as I turn to gaze out the window, into the city where my beloved is, my heart aching for her.

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Olivia’s POV

The next several days are agonizing without Riff. Without knowing what he’s doing, how he’s feeling, how he’s faring as a result of our separation. Life before Riff was monotonous, but now? Life after Riff and not being able to be with him is dreadful. Every day, I don’t crawl out of bed until the last possible minute because I feel numb. I feel lifeless, limply laying there as memories of us together dance in my mind and torture me. Us laughing at the dance as a result of my inherent clumsiness, wearing his shirts and inhaling his intoxicating scent, me ensconced in Riff’s warm, muscular arms as he clings to me possessively, his lips molding to mine as if I’m his source of oxygen.

Without him, I’m miserable.

When I disclosed my recent misfortunes to Theresa, she was sympathetic and supportive. I could see she was troubled, not only because she now understood my parents viewed her differently, too, but also because she was powerless. As my best friend, she desired to take away my sadness, my crestfallen state noticeable at all times. I assured her that her company is sufficient, but I know she’s dissatisfied with not being able to do a thing.

At home, (if I can even refer to it as that), I feel like a stranger. I might as well be a weary traveler seeking nourishment and a place to rest because lately, that’s all I find there. Mama can still barely look at me and while Papi has no trouble looking at me, it’s often marked by disgust and, worst of all, significant disappointment. Aside from a question or two regarding my shifts at the diner, no words are exchanged between my parents and me.

It’s now Sunday, my day off from work, and we’re all gathered around the table, eating in silence. The shrill scraping of our utensils against our dinner plates pierces the silence, thereby amplifying the discomfort I feel.

“Will you ever forgive me?” I voice softly.

Mama looks up, but ignores my question. “Eat your dinner, Olivia.”

Papi takes a long sip of water before replying. “It’s difficult to forgive someone who shows no remorse for her actions.”

“That’s not true. I’m sorry for lying as long as I did to you and Mama. It was wrong and I know you’re hurt. It hurt me, too.”

“Nonsense. You wouldn’t have continued to deceive us if that’s how you felt.”

“I felt trapped, Papi. What was I supposed to do? Tell you about Riff and have you shut it down without even listening to what I had to say?”

He grits his teeth, but doesn’t say a word. Instead, he stabs a piece of broccoli with his fork and chews vigorously, taking his frustration out on his food.

“Would you have even considered Riff? Would he have been invited to our home and offered room at our table? Would you have inquired about his background? His likes and dislikes? His aspirations and intentions with me?”

Papi’s fork clatters to his plate, which makes Mama jump and close her eyes temporarily.

“No. A despicable man like him will never be welcome on our street let alone our home.”

“You claim he’s full of hatred and I won’t deny there’s truth to that. But hatred lies in your heart, too, Papi. How does that make you any better than him?”

“Olivia, don’t speak to your father that way,” Mama warns. “Show respect.”

“I am showing respect. I respect him enough to be honest with him.”

“Where was this need for honesty weeks ago?” Papi eyes me angrily.

“I’m being honest now. You hating Riff based solely on the limited information you know is just as shameful as Riff hating Puerto Ricans based on the limited information he knows. You can argue with me, punish me more, hurl insults at me, but that’s what I believe.” I dab the corners of my mouth with my now rumpled napkin and toss it on my plate before standing up. “I’m no longer hungry,” I state and carry my plate to the sink.

With my back turned to my parents, I turn on my heel and face Papi once more before retreating to my room. “You say you’re ashamed of me for my behavior. Well that makes two of us.” These words hang in the hair as I go into my room, shut the door, and lay sprawled across my bed, weeping for what feels like the umpteenth time.

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It’s now Thursday, meaning it’s officially been a week since I’ve seen Riff. A tiny part of me was hoping the gaping hole in my heart would shrink with each passing day or, at the very least, become more tolerable. Despite my hoping, the void that only Riff can fill has been magnified and I need to see him. I mentally weigh my options, knowing that if I disobey my parents, our relationship may never be repaired. Conversely, if I don’t see Riff, my heartache will consume me. I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t.

My shift at the diner begins at 3:00, but I’m not in the proper headspace to work today. I feel awful calling out ill from work when I’m physically able to be there. As for my emotional state? I’m a complete wreck.

After breakfast, I walk leisurely in the park and absorb my surroundings. An older woman feeding the greedy pigeons, two children having a picnic with their parents, and then…I see it. A younger couple, a little older than Riff and me, sitting on a bench. The woman is talking animatedly about something and the man beside her is gazing at her intently, his grin so wide that I can’t help but wonder if his face will be permanently stretched out as a result. He moves his hand to brush it against her cheek and their tender expressions cause tears to well in my eyes.

The lyrics I sang to Riff only a couple weeks ago at the karaoke bar enter my mind. “What’s the difference if I say I’ll go away when I know I’ll come back on my knees someday…” I blink back my tears and begin to make my way out of the park. I’ve made my decision and there’s no going back now.

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Adrenaline is coursing through my veins as I stand in front of Riff’s apartment door. I intend to knock politely, but my intentions are tainted by the emotion burning in my body. My small, but mighty fist pounds on the door and within seconds, it flies open. Tony.

“What the hell?” he asks.

I don’t even wait to be invited in; instead, I brush past him, looking around.

“Is he here?” I ask frantically.

“No…he’s out.”

“Where?” I ask, my frantic state only heightening.

“I have no idea. What are you doin’ here?”

“I have to see Riff. This time apart has been torturous.”

“Won’t your parents be pissed?”

“Livid. But I’m more concerned what will happen if I distance myself from Riff any longer.”

Tony scratches his head and makes a face equivalent to “Yikes.”

“Well, it’s almost 2:00 and I need to leave in a few minutes for my shift at Doc’s. You’re welcome to stay here until Riff gets home.”

I nod and hold myself, shaking from the adrenaline that has yet to subside. “Thanks, Tony. I didn’t mean to barge in like that.”

“Look, I may not be in love, but what you and Riff have is real and I’m rootin’ for ya.” He smiles sincerely at me before ducking into his room to finish getting ready. I relocate myself to the couch and it’s now sinking in that I’ve never sat on this couch before despite the many times I’ve been here. Riff and I have always ended up in his bedroom…my new favorite place to be…well, it rivals Riff’s arms.

Tony exits his bedroom and turns around to face me before walking out the door to Doc’s. “You know, I was always hopin’ I could somehow talk some sense into Riff and save him, but I couldn’t. You saved him instead.” His mouth forms a thin line and then he leaves, the door shutting with a soft click.

No, I think to myself. We saved each other.

I attempt to distract myself by turning on the TV. Maybe meaningless noise will drown out the barrage of thoughts assaulting my mind. Perhaps it’s the emotional strain this past week has placed on me or that I’ve seldom slept, but I drift off to sleep and when my eyes open again, it’s completely dark. I sit up on the couch, fumbling for my phone, and see it’s 9:13. I’ve been out for six hours and Riff still isn’t home. I decide that at the very least, I can turn on a light while I continue to wait.

I’m restless on the couch and carry myself to the window as the sudden urge to see the city takes over me. It’s lit up, a beacon of hope in the midst of the darkness that envelops it. I lean my head against the window and sigh wistfully as I reflect upon Tony’s words from earlier. Maybe this is what I do for Riff…provide him with light…and if that’s the case, how could I ever part ways with him?

The jingle of the lock breaks me from my thoughts and I look to the door to see what appears to be a tired and slightly disheveled Riff amble through the door. I don’t speak, wondering how long it will take him to notice my presence.

He rubs his eyes and warily looks by the window, his lifeless eyes irritated and bloodshot before he does a double take. His eyes come alive at the sight of me and without warning, I run the short distance to him and launch myself into his arms.

Riff releases a light grunt as he catches me and I wrap my legs securely around him, burying my face into the crook of his neck and breathing him in.

He tugs on my nape and brings my face close to his. “Am I dreaming?” he whispers against my lips.

“No,” I whisper in return. “I’m here, honey.”

I begin peppering his face with kisses, desperate to convey how much his absence has affected me, how much I adore him. He interrupts my actions by turning my chin towards him and kissing me. Tenderly at first and then feverishly. My body hums in response to him and I weave my hands in his hair. I match his passion and a rush of excitement surges through my entire body.

“Riff,” I whisper.

“Olivia,” he whispers in return.

We’re both panting as we exchange longing looks filled with desire. He continues to hold me in place with my legs hooked around his waist.

“I love you, Riff. And I’m confident I’ll always love you. You’re mine forever.”

“I’ll gladly be yours forever, Olivia. I love you, baby. So damn much.”

“Show me,” I say softly.

He looks at me and I sense he’s questioning what I’m insinuating.

“I want you to make love to me, Riff, and I want to make love to you.”

“Are you sure? I know this means a lot to you and it should. The last thing I want is for you to have regrets.”

I grab his nape in order to bring him closer to me. “Where you’re concerned, regrets don’t exist. I want this, Riff, and I’m ready. Please. Make love to me.”

I press my nose against his and delicately rub his cheeks with my fingers.

The corners of his mouth turn up into an impish smile before replying. “I don’t have to be asked twice. Especially when I want this as much as you.” He presses his lips to mine, caressing them and taking his time with me.

He begins to walk us towards his bedroom with me in his arms and when we arrive, he sits me on the edge of his bed. He turns on his bedside lamp and begins to remove his shirt from his body before I gently place my hand on his arm. His movements still and he looks at me with concern in his eyes. “Are you okay?”

I stand up slowly. “Yeah, it’s just…” I bite my lip, reluctant to reveal the reason behind my previous action. “I…want to be the one to undress you.” Immediately, I feel color rise to my cheeks and cover them bashfully.

“Hey, hey,” Riff says softly. He pries my hands away from my face and pulls me by my hips so that we’re pressed against each other. “There’s no need to be embarrassed. Everything we do tonight is special to me and I want to make this memorable for you, too. Okay?” He tucks his fingers under my chin so that we’re making eye contact.

I nod and smile.

“Now. Where were we?” he asks, a playful grin plastered on his face.

My fingers slowly move to the hem of his t-shirt and he raises his arms as I lift up his shirt. I toss it to the floor without breaking my gaze from Riff. I marvel at his taut stomach and defined abs. Now heat is rising to my cheeks for a different reason.

My hands travel to his chest and I press my lips against it several times. When I look up between kisses, Riff’s eyes are shut and his head is tipped slightly backwards.

I then begin to move lower, unbuttoning his jeans and then sliding down his zipper. Riff helps me in pushing down his pants so that he now remains in black briefs.

“Your turn,” he whispers sweetly and seductively and I’m left marveling at how he’s able to achieve this combination.

“Actually…I was hoping you’d do it.” I peer at him with shy eyes and a shaky breath leaves his body.

Wordlessly, Riff slowly pulls down my off-the-shoulder top, exposing my shoulders, and kisses each one before pulling it down further, thereby revealing my strapless bra.

“So beautiful, Olivia.”

I blush at his words, loving that I’m able to elicit this response from him.

He bends down to remove my shorts and when he’s stripped me of them, he kisses my thighs so sensually that I begin to tremble with satisfaction. I’ve always been self-conscious about my thighs, but with the way Riff is treating them, I no longer view them with such disdain.

He gently lays me on his bed and before I know it, we’re completely bare. I’m in the most vulnerable position I’ve ever been in and although I was expecting to feel petrified, I don’t feel anything remotely close to this. Instead, I feel relaxed and content because the man I love is gazing at me with such adoration and devotion in his eyes that there’s no need for me to feel anything else.

“I love you, Olivia. Forever.”

I love you. Forever, Riff.”

And then, time stops. Riff explores my body, touching and kissing me everywhere he can possibly reach, intertwining his hands with mine, proving how much I mean to him. I return these sentiments and revel in the entanglement of our bodies, unable to determine where we begin and end. Throughout our intimate experience, Riff constantly asks if I’m okay and if I want to stop. I assure him I’m where I want to be. Every. Time.

When we’re finished, he coaxes me into his arms and lays his head in the crook of my neck, breathing softly against me. “Thank you for seeing me, tonight, Olivia,” he whispers. “And for giving me my best memory yet.”

I slightly turn my head and kiss his cheek. “Think of all the memories we’ve yet to make.”

“Mmmm…” he drawls sleepily. “I can’t wait to dream about ‘em tonight.”

“Me, too, Riff,” I yawn. “Me, too,” I sigh happily before pure exhaustion and my purely euphoric state consume me.

@inkandpen22 @riffheartsgraziella @loverisi @westsidelegendary @sondheim1fan @ilovey0us0 @grxceordxr @dellaspinstales @jillo0315 @drowninginaseaofbooks @theforgottenmcrmy @shitemylife @disguisedbassethound

#west side story 2021 #riff #latina #mike faist #west side story fanfic

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harrysgloves · 4 years

Text

In the Middle

Harry Styles x Reader x Florence Pugh

Story Summary: Florence and Harry are smitten with their makeup artist on set.

Word Count: 10k (dear god I got carried away. I’m so sorry)

Warnings: Language // Threesome // MFF // Oral Sex (Female Receiving) // Unprotected Sex // Spanking (I couldn’t not include this) // Dirty Talk // W | W (obviously) // Mentions of religion (it’s more a metaphor.. not sure how to explain that?) //

Authors Note: Woooo boy, she’s finally done. Been working on this baby for a while so please comment. I’d love to hear your feedback! Also, the reader has an adopted last name in this... Not sure if that bothers anyone or not but if it does please tell me and I won’t do that in future fics.

>>><<<

It was your first day on this movie set and honestly, you were scared shitless. This movie was so star-studded you were almost positive that you'd say something stupid to at least one of them. That'd be just your luck, your first job as lead makeup artist and you'd let some gibberish crap fall out your mouth.

You took a deep breath, standing in front of the door to your trailer. Your trailer. It was so surreal, you were finally getting your lead moment, and all you could think about was 'I better not mess this up and get black listed.'

"Gonna open the door or are ya goin' to do makeup out 'ere?" The voice from behind you caught you off guard. You wished you wouldn't have let out the shriek when you jumped around to see the beautiful specimen of a man standing in front of you.

Of fucking course it had to be one of the main actors.

Your face heated. Your cheeks burned hotter than the sun when you heard him chuckle from his spot. His hands shoved deep in his pockets as he looked at you like you were the most amusing thing he'd seen in a while.

"Don't scare the poor girl." His co-star said as she walked up from behind him. Her hand slapped against his chest as she walked past him and towards you. His grin never faltered as you stood there completely starstruck and trying your best to not be a blubbering idiot.

"Here, lemme help." She said as she held out her hand. A sweet smile forming on her lips when you handed her the keys.

"Always make me out to be a dick, love." Harry mumbled to Florence when she finally found the right key to your trailer door.

"Easy to make you out to be a dick when you are one." She said with a shrug. He rolled his eyes but you could tell it was all in good fun. "If he messes with you, jus' tell me. I'll take care of him."

"Think she's gonna 'ave to talk to us 'fore she goes tellin' on me." He smiled widely as he teased you. Whatever shred of your usually vibrant personality had been completely washed away by nerves. You couldn't believe you were standing in either of their presence.

If only your 13 year old self could see you now. Even she would be telling you that you're a fucking idiot.

"We don't bite." Florence said as she pulled you inside your trailer. Your head nodded because honestly it was the only way to guarantee that you wouldn't say something stupid.

"Unless yeh want us to." Harry teased. Florence immediately shot him a look you'd never want to see directed at you.

"I'm good." You squeaked out. Your bag being quickly thrown on your table before you turned on all the lights to the place.

It was simple but it was completely yours. You were finally the head honcho, the boss, the shot caller. It was all up to you- how the makeup looked, how the prosthetic were applied. It was something you were pretty sure would never happen to you but knowing Olivia Wilde definitely had it's privileges.

You'd never imagined working on The Lazarus Effect would lead to almost a five year friendship with so many great opportunities. Plus, she didn’t judge you for your train-wreck of nerves you had your first day of work.

"So yeh know us. Wot's yeh name?" Harry asked you after mindless banter with Florence. Her head filled with curlers turned to look at you standing over Harry. The foundation you were dabbing on his face smeared slightly as your nerves picked back up.

You were never good at the talking part of the job. Not until you warmed up to people a bit. You were definitely more reserved of the makeup artist in the industry. You stuck to yourself for the most part and only your closet friends knew how you really were and you really preferred not getting mixed up in any celebrity business.

"Um, Y/N." You said as you sat the makeup brush down on your table before moving to start taking the curlers out of Florence's silky blonde hair. The perfectly formed curls bounced out, your fingers ran through them to diffuse them a bit.

"Been doing this long?" She asked as you busied yourself with hair. Trying your best to not pull or tug on it too hard and hurting her on accident.

"Not long." You said, the nerves you had dissipated a bit when you talked about something that you enjoyed doing. "Five years but I mostly did low budget horror films."

"Step up from that then, innit?" Harry asked, both their eyes burned into you. Your face immediately heated again at the attention.

"A bit." You said as you finally took the last roller out of Florence's hair. You were so close to being done and getting away from everybody long enough for your anxiety to let up. "First movie I get to be in charge of the makeup department."

"Explains the nerves." Florence hummed out as she sat up in the chair, fluffing her own hair a bit as she examined your work.

"Yeah, sorry about earlier. I get a little lost in the mornings without coffee." You paid close attention to them both smiling at you. Somehow feeling like you were missing a joke until they both spoke at the same time.

"You should do tea instead."

"Never going to happen. I need my coffee to function." You said pointedly, knowing deep in your heart that you would forever be a coffee lover.

"No way." Florence scoffed but you didn't miss that hint of a smirk on her lips as she looked towards Harry.

"'Aven't had the right tea."

"I'm not abandoning my one true love like that." You said with your arms crossed over your chest.

"Boyfriend doesn't get mad that coffee is your one true love?" Florence asked while Harry nodded his head in agreement.

You couldn't help the laugh that left your. A fit of giggles you didn't think you'd be letting out near them any time soon or ever. Your hand came up to tell them to give you a second to compose yourself. Their eyes moved back and forth between each other and you, confusion clearly etched into their expressions.

"You really think me, who couldn't even open the door this morning, is out hitting on people? Honestly, that's the best compliment I've ever gotten." You said as you turned back around to sit down the rest of the curlers in your hands. Random giggles still escaping from you as you shook your head in disbelief.

"They could've came onto yeh." Harry said like he was trying to figure you out. Another burst of laughter came from you when you turned back around, hands on your hips as you looked at both the ungodly beautiful people in front of you.

"I'm not really the type that attracts attention but really this was a great confidence booster." You smiled at them, whatever words both of them were about to say was interrupted by the knock on the trailer door.

"Hey, you guys are needed on set." Some assistant said quickly before walking away from the trailer.

"Guess we gotta go. We'll see you in a bit." Florence smiled brightly at you before turning and walking out the door with a cute bounce in her step.

"See yeh, love." Harry mumbled, his hand ran through his thick brown curls that you'd spent too much time styling for no reason. He followed her out the door. His long confidant strides quickly caught up with Florence. His arm around her shoulder talking to her as you shut the door.

Maybe working with them wouldn't be so bad. Maybe you'd even learn how to not be a total mess around famous people or maybe you could even make new friends. It was a nice thought you decided, they both seemed genuinely nice to you and you could always use new connections to get yourself out there a bit more.

>>>

It only took 4 hours and a shit ton of retouches on everyone's makeup to finally get to your break for the day. Your feet were sore, your whole body felt like it'd been beat up, and you still hadn't had any caffeine. If you didn't get any in you soon you'd be cast in the next remake of Godzilla.

You quickly jumped at the opportunity to run like the wind when it was announced it was lunch time. Your sprint towards freedom was stopped at the sound of your name being called out. You groaned quietly to yourself, cursing whatever god out there for hating you this much.

All you wanted was a damn coffee, was that too much to ask for?! You didn't think so, but apparently, someone out in the universe had it out for you today.

Fast footsteps sounded from behind you as you stood in your spot. Yes, you were making them come to you because fuck them for not realizing lunch time meant you didn't want to chitchat.

"Wanna grab lunch with us?" Her voice rang from behind you, making you feel like such an asshole for making her walk to you.

You turned around to see the group of people she wanted you to have lunch with. Which included everyone from the set. Not just her and Harry, everyone.

Your eyes widened as you looked at all of them. There was no way you could fake it through lunch with all those people you didn't know looking at you. Expecting you to be able to answer simple questions about yourself. Being able to carry on a semi decent conversation. You were exhausted at the mere thought of trying to not seem like a total nutcase for an entire hour.

"Thanks but I think I'm going to put on a pot of coffee in my trailer." You said as your eyes moved away from the crowd of people back to her. Her face couldn't hide emotions even in the slightest bit. Her eyebrows furrowed, lips rolled into her mouth, trying to not look disappointed but you could see the hint of it lingering behind her eyes.

"Sure. Have a good lunch." She said in a soft voice that made your heart feel like it was getting ripped out of your chest.

You stood and watched long enough to see her shaking her head at Harry. His arm around her shoulder as he frowned down at her before looking up to you. A soft smile across his lips before he bent down to say something lowly in Florence's ear.

You turned on the spot and headed for your trailer. A sigh of relief left you the second the door closed. You were always the type that needed recharge time. You had to be alone for a bit here and there during the day so you could unwind. Wash all the anxiety from being around people off you.

You hit the playlist you had saved on your phone as your chill out music. The coffee pot in your trailer gurgled in the background over your music. The slow soft beats filled the air around you. Swirling beautiful with the scent of the coffee.

You lived for this shit.

"Listen to the wind blow, watch the sun rise.

Running in the shadows, damn your love, damn your lies."

You were at the best moment, the cup of coffee in your hand, your voice echoing the words of the song you had a slight obsession with when a knock came from your door.

"Shit!" You yelled when the coffee from your cup splashed out at your knee-jerk reaction to the interruptive knock. The hot liquid barely missed you but still… you could cry over spilled coffee, right?

You threw down a towel you had in arms reach on the floor before scurrying to the door. Hoping it was Olivia here to tell you that she decided to go in a different direction and needed to replace you as head makeup artist.

"Scares like a cat." Harry said more to Florence than you when your head poked out of the door. You rolled your eyes but couldn't help the smile forming on your lips.

"You made me spill my coffee." You said with a fake pout. Harry's eye brightened as his dimpled smile came across his face.

"Good, we brought you something better." Florence chimed in, a cup of something that definitely wasn't coffee in her hand was now glaring at you. A bag of take out boxes in another.

"Ew." You scrunched your nose as you looked at the offensive cup. Your hand finally opened the door enough for them both to slip in.

"You guys didn't have to bring me lunch." You brows furrowed. Why were they being so nice to you? You had no idea. You weren't really the friendly type, not until you warmed up to people at least.

"Noticed yeh didn't 'ave lunch with yeh. Can't run on coffee and no food." Harry shrugged slightly. Like it wasn't a big deal that they somehow managed to notice you had no lunch with you that day. Your confusion grew more by the second. Maybe this was how people became friends? You weren't entirely sure.

"Love this song." Harry muttered before he plopped down on the love-seat in your trailer. His feet kicked up on the coffee table, obviously making himself at home in your space.

"It's a good one but nothing tops 'Dreams'." You said as you took a seat on one of your makeup chairs, Florence sat on the other side of Harry.

"You two have the same bad taste in music." She groaned as she fished out the first take out box from the bag she had in her hand. Your shocked gasp made her pause.

"How dare you say that about our Lord and Savior, Stevie Nicks. You should be ashamed of yourself." Your dramatic voice and Harry's laughter of agreement made her roll her eyes at you both. Quickly going back to unpacking the bag they brought for all three of you.

"Want us to turn on 'Wonderwall' for you?" You asked through a voice cracked with laughter. Her green eyes immediately snapped to yours, narrowing at you.

"Fuckin' hell, that was a good one." Harry mumbled out, his arm wrapped around her as he smiled widely at her fake pouting.

"See if I bring you lunch ever again." She mumbled under her breath. Finally done unloading the three take out boxes and all the utensils out of the bag.

You gave her a fake pout. Her eyes rolled when she handed you the box. You were too curious for your own good most of the time, right now though, you were scared to open this box and some weird ass Hollywood "lunch" would be staring back at you.

Harry's amused eyes kept meeting yours when you'd look up from your box to whatever the hell they were eating. Nothing but rabbit food and not the good kind either, whatever they were managing to shovel down their throats smelled like rotten eggs. You were trying your best to not be a whiny brat about getting free lunch when you heard Harry let out a chuckle from his side of the room. Florence immediately looked up to see you staring blankly at the box in front of you.

"Gonna open it up, kitten?" Harry asked with an infuriating smug smile on his lips. Your eyes rolled at the nickname but you couldn't deny it stirred something in you.

"We didn’t get you steamed kale." Florence giggled when the sigh of relief left you.

"Thank fuck. I thought I was going to have to gag that crap down." You smiled when you opened the box. A plate of harmless looking pasta sat in front of you. All the carbs and wonderful goodness in the world that you absolutely adored.

Leave the healthy shit for them, you thought.

"Wait!" She yelled from across the room, you jumped slightly at the loud sound making Harry laugh. "Got to try this first."

"No way. I'd rather eat the stinky kale then whatever's in this." You tried to push your hand away from the drink she was adamantly trying to hand you.

"Come on. Jus' fo' fun, yeah? Never 'ave to try anything new again with us if yeh don't like it." Harry said. Florence head snapped around to him quickly before looking back at you. A curt nod of her soft blonde curls told you she agreed with him.

You took the cup from her. Cautiously opening the lid to peak at the color of the drink. A bright green color stared back at you. Your nose scrunched up at the sight but the smell wasn't the worst, not compared to the steamed green leaves the other two were eating.

"Bottoms up. If I die, tell my parents I was forced to drink this." You mumbled out right before downing half the cup of cold green liquid. You hoped if you chugged it the way you did cheap beer when you were 19 would mean you wouldn't taste it much.

You were wrong but surprisingly you were thankfully you got a good taste because it was fucking delicious.

Your eyes brightened when you took the next sip. Slower this time to actually enjoy the drink.

"Told yeh she'd like it." Harry said with a smug smile across his face. The look of triumph directed toward Florence who pushed his shoulder with her own at his comment.

"Sod off, Harold."

"This is really good." You said in between drinks. A very prominent caffeine buzz started to hit you by the time you'd finished the last drop.

"Got more caffeine too." Harry smiled brightly. Florence rolled her eyes as she stabbed a piece of kale with her fork.

"Yeah, well, the pasta was my idea and I'm sure she'll love it." She grumbled like it was some sort of contest between them.

It didn’t take long for you to realize you actually liked hanging out with the both of them. They were able to keep up a conversation with ease, even whenever you didn't feel like talking they both could somehow sense it. They weren't draining to be around, which really surprised you.

The both of them could joke and tease. You and Florence ganged up on Harry. Harry and you on her. Florence and Harry on you. Nonstop teasing, jokes, and enough laughter you could feel your cheeks ache by the end of lunch.

You definitely could see yourself being genuine friends with both of them.

>>>

To say you three managed to get close fast was an understatement. You three practically became inseparable by the end of the first week of shooting. If all three of you weren't together at least two of you were and the other one wasn't far behind.

It quickly became a joke on set. People constantly had to find where the three of you had snuck off to. Which was usually to the food table that was set up for the actors but Harry insisted that it was for everyone, even though you knew it wasn't.

He didn't care though, he just wanted to make sure you actually ate for the day and not just down caffeinated drinks for a meal. Florence on the other hand, was more than willing to invite you to lunch every single day. Her pleas for you to join the two of them was impossible to turn down after a while.

You figured it was pointless anyways since they brought back food for you every time you said you weren't hungry. So today was the day you'd finally gave in to her cute pouting.

"This place looks like they have those really small dishes that cost more than my rent." You mumbled to Florence as you approached the building that looked like it had jumped out of a magazine.

"You'll love it!" She beamed brightly from beside you. You wanted to believe her, you really did, but you were more of a cheap bar food type of girl. In fact, the bar by your house now knew you by name whenever you walked through the door. Which was only slightly pathetic, but you didn't have many friends and you weren't that good at making new ones, so you weren't in any position to hurt her feelings by not liking this place.

Her hand slipped casually into yours as you neared closer to the building. Harry rounded the corner from parking his car right before you two crossed the street. His long legs stride easily over to you two, his arm around your shoulder.

That was another thing that had threw you a bit off guard at first. They both were so touchy. Your hair, your face, holding hands, hugging, hands resting on your thigh. One of them always had a hand on you any time they could. It was a little strange at first but you quickly realized this was just how they were with you.

And you'd be lying to yourself if you said you didn't enjoy it now.

"I can feel yeh bein' nervous from 'ere." Harry said so closely to your ear you could feel the soft touches of his lips against you.

Your breathing seemed to stop for a second before you swallowed the feeling and turned to him. Eyes wide as you glanced back to Florence, trying to tell him to shut up before she realized you didn't want to be eating French cuisine.

He chuckled, shaking his head before pulling you back to the table that was already set up for you guys.

This was fancy and you were so out of place. The small table in the corner tucked you guys away from everyone. The stark white linen over the table had you anxious from the moment you sat down. Who the fuck puts white on a table?! At least the dim lighting had your back. This way no one could see you choke on a snail as you faked your way through this lunch.

Florence hand rested on one of your legs, Harry's on the other, both of them deliberately choosing to ignore your anxious feet tapping on the floor.

"Sweetheart?" Harry called you out of your panic from looking at the menu that was in French. Screw your 14 year old self for taking 4 years of Spanish in high school. "I can order fo' yeah if you want."

"Oh, I think I'm gonna have the, um…" you paused, squinting at the menu of fancy font. "Langue de boeuf?"

"Okay, 'm not lettin' yeh eat tongue." Harry snickered when your nose scrunched up. Who in their right mind would ever want to eat that?

"Wait…" Florence said as she sat down her menu in front of her with her one free hand. Your eyes glinting over to see her looking so confused, yet so adorable with her scrunched brows pulled together. Her head tilted as she blinked a few times at you. "Do you- do you not like French food?"

"I've just… never had it before." You settled for a half-truth, not wanting to hurt her feelings.

"Your last name is François!" She said as her cheeks turned flaming red. Harry's snicker from beside you did nothing to help her embarrassment. Your hand quickly squeezed his, hard, under the table to tell him to stop.

"I'm adopted," You smiled widely at her surprised expression. It's not like she knew you were adopted and she really was being so sweet planning all this out, thinking you'd feel at home here. "And the only thing French about my dad is he knows how to say beget."

"God, I'm so sorry, if- if I'd known, I'd neve-"

"Flor, please," you smiled as you took her hands away from fiddling with her menu. "I never told you. It's not a big deal. Besides, now you two can order for me in your fancy French words."

You dismissed her worrying with a wave of your hand and a gently prod of the menu. If anything, this was the most heartwarmingly considerate thing anyone had ever done for you. At least she tried to include things with the three of you that you'd also like.

When the, equally nervous as you, waiter finally approached your table to take your drink orders you were glad those two were handling everything. It felt sort of like being spoiled and you'd take that any day of the week.

"I know you." The waiter, Grayson you learned from his name tag, said after a few awkward seconds of standing in front of the table. You were only half listening, assuming it was for either one of the obviously famous people sitting beside you. "Yeah! That's right you're Y/N Y/L/N-François!"

Your eyes widened, cheeks heated as you squirmed in your seat. Both Florence and Harry looking back and forth between you and your new fan.

"God, your makeup on insta is amazing. The special effects stuff is so good. Really, I'm a big fan." He gushed as you mumbled out a small thank you, your hand clutching the complementary cup of water in front of you like it was a life raft. "Here, you can have my insta handle. Maybe you can DM sometime."

His movements to start writing down his Instagram information came to a screeching halt when both Harry and Florence shot him glares. The tension grew thick between the three of them. Some sort of a weird show down as you tried to drink your water and ignore the awkwardness.

Maybe they didn't like their friends being bothered at lunch when they were with them? You weren't sure. In all honesty, this never happened to you but you could see why this would be annoying for them. They had to deal with it all the time.

This is what they'd do for any of their friends. Right?

The tension finally eased when the waiter left the table. Your cup finally placed back down on the white linen when you let out a sigh of relief. You weren't one for strangers and they both knew it. Maybe they were just telling that guy to screw off because of your nerves, yeah that was it.

The rest of the lunch went much better than you expected. Conversation between you three was never a problem but even the food was amazing.

The two of them had great taste.

"Come on. Gonna be late if we don't get out of here." Florence mumbled, her hand already in yours as she pulled you out of the seat. You didn't even have time to get a word out when Harry threw down an ungodly wad of money on the table.

"You didn't have to pay for me." You said when he caught up to you. His hand on your lower back as he guided you through the door.

"What kind of date would that be?" Florence said without thinking. Your confused eyes shooting to her briefly before looking at the horrified Harry. "Lunch date, meant lunch date, with friends."

"Oh," you said, still a bit confused but chugging through it so you didn't have any awkward conversations. "Still, thank you."

Harry's tensed shoulders relaxed when he gave you a nodd. His eyes shot daggers to Florence over your head as you three started walking.

"I'm sorry!" She mouthed silently to him. You were completely oblivious to the mimed conversation between the two as you walked in front of them.

>>>

"Lookin' sweet today, kitten." Harry's voice from behind you made you jump in your skin. Your hand over your chest like that would somehow stop your nerves.

"What's got you all dressed up?" Florence asked as they both stood in front of you on set.

Your hands fiddled with the tight black lace top you had on. It complemented your bust so well but it made you feel awkward and out of place, like everyone's eyes were on you. Plus the pants that hugged your ass tighter than cling wrap weren't helping with the shameless stares from people.

"Is- is it too much?" Your words stumbled over themselves as your face heated.

Maybe this was a bad idea.

"Yeh look gorgeous like always." A slight frown danced on his lips as he looked down towards you. He could tell something was up by your anxious movements. Your eyes flickering around the studio like you were constantly on the lookout for someone.

"Okay," you sighed, your hand running over your hair as you tried to calm yourself down. "You guys know the sound technician, James?"

Their faces solidified to stone at your words. Both of them rigid as they looked at you. Not a hint of emotion detectable in their expressions.

"He asked me out." You felt uneasy, unsure of the decision to go to lunch with him. You felt like you were going to die in a ball of nerves at any second. This was exactly why you didn't date.

Sure, you'd gone on a date here or there. Mostly when your very small friend group got tired of you third wheeling at all the couples activities. You'd then be set up with someone, it wouldn't work out because you were one shred away from being a nutcase, and that would be the end of it.

"You can't go out with him!" Florence said shrilly, her eyes widened as the words came out of her mouth.

"Why?" You asked, eyes glancing over to the guy in question.

"He uh- he uh," she stammered, her hand slapped Harry against his chest twice for him to answer for her.

"He sniffs people!" His words rushed out of his mouth. Your eyebrows scrunched together.

"What?" You asked, as Florence hand rubbed the temple of her head before shooting a deathly glance at Harry.

"Yeah, Harry, what?" She asked, obviously annoyed but you weren't sure why. It wasn't like she was about to go on a date with the guy.

"I saw him. He likes to, uhm, yeh know." Harry looked at the ground before his hands shoved into his pockets. "He sniffs peoples hair."

"Wow," your hopes of going on a date that didn't involve cheap beer and 25 cent chicken wings suddenly blew up into flames. "Well, thanks for telling me."

"It's okay, Y/N, we'll go out to lunch." Florence said softly, her hand in yours as she gidded you off the set.

"Thanks guys." You smiled softly, head rested against Harry's chest as you three walked.

>>>

"We've got to tell her." Florence spoke quietly as she snuggled into Harry's side. His duvet wrapped tightly around the both of them in his oversized bed.

"I don't know.." He glanced at the fallen face of his girlfriend. "This all could backfire and then she won't even want to be friends."

"But, things don't feel right. It's like she's our missing piece." Her bottom lip started to tremble, corners of her eyes held onto tears that she refused to let fall.

"I know, I feel it too." He sighed as he laid back on his pillow. Looking up at the ceiling. A large feeling grew in his stomach, despair. You didn't seem like the type who dated adventurously or tried different things in your life.

He wanted you. God, how they both wanted you. You, their missing piece. Your presence made the both of them feel that indescribable warmth of home in their chest. Your laugh, your smile, your terrible sense of humor, and the way you had no idea just how desirable you really were.

"One of us should make a move on her." Florence said, finally breaking the silence between the two of them.

"Think?"

"Think it'll be the only way to know for sure if she likes one of us or not."

>>>

That Friday morning started like all the other mornings since you'd been on this job. A new mystery cup of tea in your hands that Harry had brought for you that morning. Their makeup was done long ago but now they hid out in your trailer until some intern was forced to go and find them.

This had been your three's new morning routine for the past three weeks and surprisingly, you weren't bothered by having your quiet time interrupted by them. You were actually starting to look forward to these morning's.

"Do you want to come to dinner with us tonight?" Florence asked you from her spot on the love seat. Your head lifted from the trashy magazine you were mindlessly flipping through on the floor. You chuckled as you shook your head at her, turning back to the obvious lies written in ink.

"We won't make yeh eat anythin' weird, kitten." Harry smiled easily when he moved off the couch to sit by you. His arm around your shoulders when you looked up in disbelief.

"I could pick the place." You suggested a cheeky smug smirk across your face when they both looked like you'd asked them for a kidney. "See, I knew you two wanted to eat somewhere gross!"

"You always want tacos!" Florence groaned flinging herself against the now unoccupied side of the couch that Harry previously sat at. A pout on her face as she tried to get you to change your mind.

"I do not." You scoffed. Okay, maybe you did but still those two could use a real meal or two.

"What if we do food and a movie at mine?" Harry asked, interrupting yours and Florence's teasing back and forth.

"Yes!" She agreed eagerly, her bright eyes filled with excitement and you knew you couldn't say no even if you wanted to.

>>>

You had to admit, you were fucking nervous to go to Harry's house. The neighborhood your old Camero chugged through was definitely not like your neighborhood at all. It was all fancy houses, nice lawns, and security everywhere. You felt like you were a step away from breaking into the pentagon when you rolled up to the gate for the guard to let you in.

You stood anxiously on his front step. The 6 pack of Coors Light seemed like such a bad choice now. You mentally cursed yourself for being so stupid, how could you think someone who lived here would be okay with your cheap beer? You were four seconds away from faking a stomach ache and going home to your hole of an apartment when the door opened. Harry's smiling face with that cute little dimple popping out stared at you looking so out of place.

"Don't gotta be nervous, yeh know?" He asked when he took your hand in his, pulling you into the house.

"Well, you did say you two would bite." You crack a smile at his bark of a laugh. Nerves easily washing off you when you made it into his living room.

"Where's Flor?" You asked, eyebrows raised when you turned to him.

It wasn't that you minded being one-on-one with Harry. You two got along great but you figured the blonde would be here already, the two of them seemed inseparable.

"On her way." He shrugged, his ass hitting the seat of the couch, motioning for you to do the same.

"What're we going to watch?" You asked as you sat down beside him, his arm around you when sat back from placing the beer down on the floor.

"Anythin' yeh want." He said, his eyes trained on you as you wracked your brain for a film those two would watch with you without complaining.

"Only watch horror."

"No way, nope. Not watchin' a scary movie. Yeh'll never sleep." He joked, his arm tighter around you as he pulled you into his chest.

"Not sleeping here so it's not gonna be your problem." You poked back, your head leaning against him. God, he smelled amazing.

"Sure yeh are. Got beer with yeh, can't drive drunk, kitten." His fingers lifted your chin when he spoke to you. Your eyes meeting his briefly before they flickered to his lips.

Have they always looked that good? Or was the intoxicating scent of his cologne making you drunk on him?

You couldn't tell and honestly, you could care less what the reason was when his face seemed to inch closer to you. He was going to kiss you, you realized. Your breathing seem to halt in your throat when he was millimeters away from you. His nose pressed lightly to yours, setting your soul on fire.

Your stomach turned and flopped, that familiar chill of desire ran down your spine all the way to your core. Your hands wanted to grip onto him, kiss him with a passion when the doorbell rang.

You jumped in your skin. Your body jerked back from him. Your big round doe-eyes staring blankly into his face. He groaned, eyes squeezed shut, resting his forehead against yours.

"She's got the worst timin'." He muttered before getting up from the couch to answer the door. The breath you'd been holding in released when he left the room.

Did you really about kiss your friend? And not only was he a friend, he was a coworker. You groaned, hands covered your face as it burned in embarrassment. What the hell were you thinking? You knew better than to ever mix business and feelings, especially when it came to famous people.

Florence entering the room with her sweet smile put a stop to your insanely degrading thoughts. You'd simply just pretend this never happened. Push it to the back of your mind and forget it, yeah that would be the solution.

>>>

"Why do we gotta watch this scary shit?" Florence asked, her hands covering her eyes as Jason stalked through the forest after innocent teenagers.

"You've literally acted in horror movies." You smiled at her glare she shot at you. Her head laid on your shoulder as she whined loudly. Harry sat on the other side of her, his hand rested on her thigh.

You had no idea how to even begin to feel about that. An hour ago he was trying to kiss you and now he was rubbing her thigh. You didn't understand but refused to acknowledge the fact that the kiss almost even happened.

There was definitely tension between the three of you, awkward feelings floating in the air around his oversized living room. You tried your best to shove it down, to ignore whatever happened with you and Harry, especially since Florence was here and you had no idea what she would think.

"Let's take shots." She said as she flipped off the TV right as Jason's machete swung wildly through the air towards screaming teenagers.

"Trying to get us drunk?" Harry chuckled as he stood and walked to the kitchen. That smile on his face that could melt hearts.

"Duh. You two are being weird." She said as she eyed you up. Your face heating so much you swore you'd burst into flames. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just you know, stupid stuff." You waved your hand, dismissing her question. An unbelieving hum coming from her as Harry came back in with a bottle of tequila and shot glasses.

"Oh fuck," you groaned at the sight of the bottle, your old enemy that made you say the dumbest shit glared back at you.

"Gonna be able to keep up, kitty?" Harry asked as he sat down a full shot glass in front of you on his coffee table.

You wished you'd been the type of person who was smart enough to see a bad idea staring you in the face.

You were not that person.

The shot stung and burned your throat the whole way down your throat. The potent liquid turned your stomach into knots whenever it hit the acid there.

Maybe you'd regret this tomorrow morning but it'd make one hell of a story.

>>>

"Yeh never dated?" Harry asked, the upper half of his body swayed back and forth as he sat crossed legged on the floor of his living room.

"Nope." You answered back before shooting what had to be shot number 10 down your throat. The once burning drink now felt like water when it went down.

"Wait, are you a virgin?" Florence asked, her eyes wide as she stared at you. The serious look on her face made you bust out laughing.

"I'm not a virgin. I just don't date."

"But you're so pretty. Anyone would date you." Florence said, her hand brushing back the hair from your forehead that was beading alcohol induced sweat.

"Don't have the time. Always busy." You said with a sigh. Sure, you wanted to date but your working schedule made it impossible. You couldn't even have a cat you were so busy and you fucking loved cats.

"Ever date more than one person at the same time?" Harry asked when he looked up from his shot that sat in front of him. Testing the waters, he thought, if you said you'd never do that at least you'd be likely to not remember the next day.

"Nah." You shrugged, completely missing the look Florence shot Harry's way. A warning to not push the subject.

"Y'could." He suggested as the warm feeling of sleep started to surround your body. Your eyes feeling more and more heavy by the second.

"That means two people would actually have to like me." You gave a short laugh. Your eyes closing, head falling back to lay on the couch. You'd only rest them for a second, you thought.

"We like you." Florence said quietly from beside you. Her statement being answered with your soft snores.

"She's never gonna agree to it." Harry mumbled, the shot in front of him finally being thrown to the back of his throat.

"But-" Florence started, her hands running over your hair. "I don't know, Harry. I just like her so much. Things feel right when she's around."

"I know, sweetheart." He said as he stood from his spot. His arms encircled you, picking you up as Florence stood from her spot on the floor. The two of them and the passed out you made your way to his room. The big plush bed you would have loved was soft under your body. Your hands closed around the pillow under your head.

"I wanna keep her." Florence said as she laid down beside you. Her hand rested over yours as Harry climbed into bed on the other side of you.

"M'too but I think I scared her when I tried to kiss her." He said quietly, the both of them speaking in whispers over top of you.

Florence sighed, her lips pouting as she stared at your resting face. She knew weeks ago she liked you. Knew from the moment you laughed wholeheartedly at her terrible jokes that she wanted you. The same gleam bounced in Harry's eyes whenever he looked at you but you never noticed.

You never took any of their flirting seriously. Never paid a second thought to them asking you out or trying to take you to nice places.

It made a bit more sense to them now that they knew you never dated but how the hell could you not pick up on their shameless flirtation? Harry called you kitten for God's sake.

"Jus' gonna 'ave to be blunt." Harry said a while later. The both of them doing nothing else but listening to your soft snores.

"Tomorrow?"

"Yeah, tomorrow."

>>>

You woke up the next morning to a pounding in your head. Your eyes barely saw anything through the foggy vision of your sleepy eyes. You swallowed down that dry feeling in your throat - water, you needed water.

You groaned softly as you pushed yourself up from the bed that wasn't your own. You knew you'd end up crashing the night at Harry's but you didn't expect to end up in the same bed with him, with both of them.

You figured that was honestly better than you and Harry alone in the bed together, at least you know you didn't do anything with Florence laying next to you two.

You slipped out of bed, easily. The both of them didn't move a muscle as you snuck out of the house and towards your car. Maybe it was rude for you to run off like this but you needed to nurse your hangover at your own place.

You sighed, throwing your phone on your cluttered kitchen table when you finally made it home. The traffic was awful and of course everyone was laying on their horns like that would somehow help the long line of idle cars.

Your head was killing you when you sat in your shower. The water running over you was warm and much-needed. The hangover seemed to wash down the drain with your lavender soap.

You were calm, in your element, when frantic knocking at your door interrupted your shower. You cursed under your breath, cutting off the water quickly. Hoping it wasn't your elderly neighbor who always seemed to need help moving boxes on Saturday's.

"I'm coming, Ms. Thompson!" You yelled as the knocking grew more frantic. Your bathrobe tightly around you when you opened the door. The both of them looked like a mess of anxiety and worry.

"Uh, hi?" You said with the door barely opened enough for your head to stick out. Water dripping off you collected on the floor at your feet.

"Hi? Seriously?" Florence growled, her usually sweet and calm voice laced with irritation as she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at you.

"Where's yeh phone? We thought you wondered off in the middle of the night or sumthin'. We were bloody worried, Y/N." Harry said as you opened the door for them to come in.

"It's dead." You gestured to the useless piece of technology sitting on your table. Harry hands ran over his face as he shook his head. Florence's lips pursed as they both looked anywhere but at you.

"Am I missing something?" You finally asked after what felt like hours. "'Cause I feel like I'm being scolded by my parents right now."

"You can't be serious. God, Y/N," Florence fumed in a way you'd never seen before. The confusion in your mind growing larger by the second. "What would we have done if something happened to you?

"Uhhh…" your eyebrows furrowed together as you looked towards Harry for help. You had no idea what the hell you did to make them so worried about you.

"Can yeh sit down?" Harry asked you, his head nodded in a gesture towards your couch. Anxiety crawled through your skin as you walked over to sit on your plain and basic couch.

Harry's hands smoothing down the front of his pants and Florence foot tapping like mad on your floors did nothing to calm your racing mind. All three of you sat in tension on your couch. You were sandwiched between the both of them. Their shoulders pressed tightly against yours and maybe if it was under different circumstances you'd enjoy the close contact.

"We like you." Florence blurted out into the silence of your living room.

Your widening eyes looked at her in complete disbelief until you burst with laughter. The snorting chuckling sounds died quickly when they both seemed to clam up.

"You're serious?" You asked, both of them seemed too nervous to answer at first. Harry's concerned filled eyes connecting with yours briefly before looking at the ground, his hands, his rings. Anywhere else.

"We do but we get if 's weird fo' yeh. We can just forget it if yeh want us to go back to bein' friends." He rushed out nervously as you let out a breath of air.

"I'm just surprised someone, who doesn't sniff people, likes me." You mumbled, hand pushing back your damp hair out of your face. Harry's snort of a laugh and a shake of his head had your eyebrows pulled together before Florence called your attention again with her nerve wrecked voice.

"I can't believe you didn't notice." Her hands fiddled together with nerves. "We kept asking you out."

"I'm a bit dense." You said with a short laugh.

"Whaddya say?" Harry asked as he took his hand in yours. Florence doing the same with the other. Flutters in your stomach blossomed at their touch. One hand, soft and silky like satin, the other, rough and calloused at the tips but smooth towards the palm.

You swallowed the nerves down. Your mind filled with so many doubts, so many thoughts all at the same time. Anxiousness mixed with excitement. It was new, different, and you had so many questions.

"How- how would this work?" You asked, both sets of eyes brightening at your words.

"How ever you want." Florence rushed out. The prospect of you actually considering this had her heart racing almost out of her chest. Really, she'd agree to anything you wanted as long as it included you three being exclusive.

"We… just date?" You asked, your brows furrowed as you stared at your hands. Your mind trying to turn out the logistics was going to drive you absolutely insane.

"Well, yes but y'know… the three of us." Harry gestured to the three of you.

"Won't someone get jealous?" You asked him, your head tilted to the side as you watched his lips purse in consideration.

"Guess if one of us gets jealous we gotta talk 'bout it. Work it out." He said, Florence nodding her head in agreement from beside you.

"And.." you started to get nervous about your next question, the one that had been blaring in your mind since this conversation started. "The sex?"

"Already tryin' to bed us, kitten?" Harry joked as Florence shot him a glare. Your face heated and eyes widened, maybe this was a bad idea, you were already about to die from embarrassment.

"Shut up." She whispered yelled from beside you like you wouldn't be able to hear it. Harry's eyes rolled in his head that smug smirk on his face.

"We don't have to talk about that for a while if you don't want to. We can figure it out later." Florence said softly from beside you. Her hand taking yours again, her thumb ran soothing circles against the back of it.

You shrugged, your lip between your teeth as you thought about what it'd be like to have both of them. A familiar heat worked up in the bottom of your stomach.

God, even just picturing it was getting you started. You could only imagine what it'd be like when it actually happened.

"The little minx." Harry laughed as he leaned up to look at you the thoughts you were thinking clearly wrote across your face. "Think she wants t'give it a try before settling on an answer, Flor."

"Hmm," she hummed from beside you, a smile cracked on her face as she brushed the damp hair off your shoulder. "Think she needs some more convincing?"

"Yeah, looks like it to me." Harry words floated over you, through the air above you. Your mind tried to desperately grab at the words, make sense of them, but it was useless. You were already gone at the mere prospect of the rest of the day's events.

"Can I kiss you?" Her word brought you down to earth but only barely.

Her plush lips made you forget how sentences form or words could be spoken in the English language when they hesitantly met yours. They were soft, not demanding to take control. She let you come to her. Let you set the pace that you were comfortable with.

Your hand slid to the back of her neck, pulling her addictive gently touch harder into you. A heavenly sounded moan slid from her mouth when your tongue slipped its way in. You could have gotten lost in the way you moved so insync with each other when she pulled back.

Your deep breathing and closed eyes made her grin widely. Maybe you would be okay with this arrangement.

Harry's hand in yours again got your attention. Eyes snapped open to see the pretty blonde in front of you smiling smugly.

"Can I kiss yeh?" His thick accent somehow sounded richer in this moment. Your head turned to the other side to see his usually bright green eyes darken with lust. The sight of him like that could keep you satisfied for a month, maybe longer.

"Yes." You barely had the word out of your mouth when his lips pressed forcefully to yours. Demanding movements of his mouth led you in the kiss, determined hands grabbed your hips to lift you onto his lap. The sudden movement through you off balance. Your ass hitting his very prominent boner made you moan.

Holy shit, how the hell were you supposed to handle all of that?

You whimpered as he pulled you back from him. His hands running under the robe to your unclothed ass. His calloused fingers felt rough against your skin as he groaned, his head against the back of the couch as Florence moved over beside you two.

"We can stop 'ere." Harry said through gritted teeth when your hips moved over his, chasing the feeling of his retreating hands.

Florence hummed her agreement as you sat back fully on Harry's lap. Your mind ran circled around you. The last thing you were thinking right now was quitting this.

"I want to see you kiss." You said through your nerves both their wide eyes blinked up at you. Not thinking you'd be wanting to go any further.

Florence acted quickly, her hands on either one of Harry's cheeks as she pulled his lips to hers. The two of them were obviously familiar with the other. They'd been doing this for a while, you assumed.

Whatever worries you had about being jealous or not liking the three of you together all at one time quickly went out the window. They were fucking hot together. The sight of them wrestling for the lead sent a flood of arousal straight to your core. Your hips grinding against Harry's lap, desperate for any friction.

"Think we got her answer." Harry mumbled into Florence's mouth, a smile on his lips as she laughed. Your face heated as she faced you with that sweet smile.

"We better make sure she doesn't change her mind then."

>>>

It was an absolute mess of limbs as you three rushed to the bedroom. Lips against lips, tongues sliding against one another's to a point you weren't sure where Harry started and Florence ended.

"Gonna make yeh feel so good, princess." Harry's deep voice vibrated against you. His lips pressed tightly to your ear, turned upwards at the corners in a sinful smile. His hands gripped the back of your legs tighter, bringing them closer to God and you further and further away from ever having a front row ticket to the pearly gates.

If this was why you went to hell, it'd be fucking worth it.

Her teeth grazed the inside of your bare thighs. Just enough to get your attention back to her pretty head of blonde hair between your legs. Harry's head against your shoulder as he watched her work you into an absolute mess of whines and she hadn't even done anything yet.

"So sensitive, baby." She smiled against your skin. Her perfect white teeth biting a bit harder into you before sucking the flesh of your inner thigh into her mouth. Marking you as theirs.

You whimpered, head against Harry's shoulder as your fingers dug deep into his forearms that were holding your legs open for Florence. His throbbing erection leaking a river against your ass every time you squirmed in place.

Hot breath fanned against your core. Her dainty fingers ran through your exposed folds and maybe, if you had more shame, you would have held back the pornographic moan that came from you. But you couldn't help it, they'd been absolutely teasing you relentlessly. Wanting to see how you ticked.

"Please, fuck," your hoarse voice cracked as you looked down at her. She was laid on her stomach arms crossed in front of her as she shamelessly studied you. "Flor, please."

"We're getting there." She mumbled, her fingers stopped their movements, one finger slipped into your absolutely dripping pussy.

"Fuck." Harry breathed out as another moan fell from you. A subtle shift from his hips had another wet spot starting on your back.

"She's soaked, Harry." Florence held up her fingers that were doused in you up for him to inspect. A hum coming from him as he kissed against your neck that was littered with marks he'd left.

"Think y'can give us that answer now, pretty girl?" He smiled at your defiant 'humph', you were going to be so much fun to tease. "Come on, wanna hear y'say it. Then, yeh can get what y'want."

You debated it for a second, your pride or your relief.

"I wanna be your girlfriend." You mumbled through nerves. Never one to be vocal during sex wasn't going to be an option with them.

"Didn't hear yeh."

"Fuck," you groaned, face heating to blazing temperatures you didn't know existed outside of the sun. "I want to be your two's girlfriend!"

"No need to yell, baby." Florence said with a smug smile up to you.

"You both ca--" you started to tell them both to shove off when her tongue finally, finally, ran across your swollen clit.

You swore your eyes actually rolled back in your head.

"Told yeh we'd give yeh what you wanted." That smug smirk on his face as he watched you starting to fall apart.

Her tongue was flat and thick against your folds. Wild and untamed in it's adventures to find all the spots that made your toes curl. Her moans from your taste echoed through you.

"Holy shit," she breathed out, her mouth disconnected from you only briefly. Her thumb pressed on your clit, rubbing lightly. "Gotta taste her for yourself."

"Will after yeh finish. Don't wanna hog her all to m'self."

You felt like you were going to explode. Here there were, casually talking about you like you weren't even there. It was so fucking hot.

Her hands grasped onto Harry's thighs as her whole face practically buried itself into your core. You'd been eaten out before, but not like this.

Her tongue switched so effortlessly between slow, thick, long, strides to quick, tight, circles on your throbbing bundle of nerve endings. She seemed to be a step away from reading your mind. Two fingers pushing into you right when you needed them the most.

"Gonna cum, pup?" Harry grunted against your skin. His eyes never left the absolutely sinful scene in front of him. Kisses pressed against your neck, your shoulder, anywhere he could reach.

"Yes, fuck, oh-" your voice carried through your small apartment. So loud, so lustful, you didn't even recognize it was yours at first. Her fingers hitting that spot inside you so perfectly, your tightening walls couldn't take it anymore.

A release in a way you've never experienced before finally hit you. Your whole body shivered from the force of it. Eyes closed tightly, head against Harry's shoulder. It was so good it almost hurt.

When you finally started to surface from that hazy feeling of pure bliss you were being lowered onto the bed. Your legs that had been held open for so long ached and throbbed but it was so fucking worth it.

"Think y'can handle another one?" Harry smiled down to you as he hovered over the bed. Florence settling beside you, her hand over your hair to calm you down.

"Yeah." You barely breathed out, eyes connected with hers briefly. How the hell could someone look so sweet and adorable after wrecking you?

You hummed, head leaning up to give her a kiss. Lips connected with hers as you reached for Harry's hand. His cool rings relieved the burning hot skin of your hands as you pulled him to your guys level.

His lips replaced hers against yours. His hands taking time to explore the curves of your body, your chest. Fingers dancing against your budded nipples. Your overly sensitive body was aching for another release as you moaned into his smirking mouth. His hand kneading your flesh in brand new ways.

"Ass up, sweetheart." His cocky tone of voice had your heart beat picking right back up as you turned over onto your knees. You rested on your elbows, hand motioning for Florence to lay in front of you. Her eyes widened as she stared you down.

"Well, don't be shy." You smiled as she crawled over to you, her legs laid open on the bed as your arms wrapped around her thighs.

"Just, just, surprised this is happening." Her words stumbled out as your tongue started to explore her folds the way hers had done. Gently soft pressure against her core, hardly enough to taste her, teasing.

Payback for them taunting you in the beginning.

Her breathing caught in her throat, her elbows barely keeping her upright when you finally got a good taste of her and fuck, was she delicious. You moaned, hands dug into her thighs as your tongue slipped into her tight hole.

You could do this the rest of your fucking life.

Harry's distraction finally broke when Florence's eyes opened again. Green eyes meeting green eyes as her hand tugged your head down harder into her core. His tongue wet his lips before his hand traveled down between your legs, fuckin' hell you were soaking almost down to your knees.

He wanted to be gentle with you, soft, loving. Show you how much he liked you but when you shifted your ass back into him. Wiggling back and forth for him, he couldn't help himself. You little temptress. His hand landed firmly on your ass and what he didn't expect was the full fledged roar of a moan that came from you. His dick twitched from the sound.

"Fuck," your voice muffled by the her silky wet cunt. Her hand lifting your head up just enough to see your eyes as Harry started to slide into your velvet cave. His hand bruising your hip as he cursed under his breath.

"Feel good, H?" Florence wore that smug smile as his lust blown eyes met hers. His snappy comments and witty attitude put at bay by your contracting walls having a hard time keeping up with his girth.

"God, sweet girl, your pussy is fuckin' tight." He thrusted a bit further into your narrow opening, your hands dug deep into Florence's legs as you whimpered. Her hands ran over your hair as she shushed you.

"Oh my g--" you choked out as he finally settled fully in you. His hands pulled the round flesh of your ass back to see where you two were connected. He pulled out only a little just to push slowly back in. His head fall to his chest as your vortex sucked him back in. "Move, please, move."

Your hips only swayed slightly before he was pounding into you. You were thankfully you had a job in front of you to do or else you would have been reaching another orgasm in mere seconds. His length hitting that spot inside of you every single time.

You had to force yourself to concentrate, to not let your eyes roll back into your head whenever he pumped into you. Your tongue ran circles around her clit, your fingers slid into her easy. Nothing but moans filled your small apartment, your bed creaking from how hard he was thrusting into you.

You felt so sorry for your downstairs neighbors.

Her hand tightened in your hair as his hand tightened around your hip. You were pushed, pulled, tugged, manhandled, and holy fuck was it making your walls clench tighter. Your tongue was more determined than ever to make fast work of getting her off when you felt your fast approaching end over the horizon.

"Oh, oh," she moaned her hips bouncing down on your face as she fucked herself on your tongue and fingers.

"'M close." Harry grunted from behind you, his hand slapping down on your ass again.

You didn’t have the time or capacity to enjoy the stinging pain that went through your body. Tingling sensation all the way through your core when you felt the walls against your fingers start to contract. A wildly erotic moan came from her as Harry's hand reached around to rub fast pace circles on your clit.

Stars danced along your vision as your release hit you. Sloppy thrust of Harry's hips slowed down as a warmth filled you. Overrunning from your puffy, abused, pussy down your legs to the bedspread. Your body collapsed into the open arms of your now girlfriend as Harry leaned over your back.

"Why'd we wait so long to do that?" You asked once your mind cleared from the fog of your two orgasms. Laughs came from in front and behind you. Chaste kisses against whatever available skin was in their reach.

"We could always do it again, love."

#Harry Styles #Florence Pugh #Harry Styles x Reader #Florence Pugh x Reader #Harry Styles Fanfic #Florence Pugh Fanfic #Harry Styles Fanfiction #Florence Pugh Fanfiction #Fanfic #Fanfiction #W|W #Harry Styles x Florence Pugh #Writing #Mine #InTheMiddle #Harry Styles x You #Harry Styles x Y/N #Florence Pugh x You #Florence Pugh x Y/N

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goldengoddess · 3 years

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hi hi hi june! ok for your celebration can i get a grishaverse ship? literally anyone i dont have a gender preference (bi rights!). my name is lysandra ofc you know that already, im 5'5, i looove to read like its all i do all day lol, im a full-time ballerina (no my toes are not ok), i love winter 🥺, im a pisces and intp, i also listen to music 24/7 (big swiftie like the biggest swiftie) and as you know i love to write!

i hope youre doing good baby ily 💗

lys everytime u send me something i fall more in love w u,,, ballerina ??? and a pisces ??? ur perfection okay moving on! i love u too doll!

i ship you with nikolai lantsov <3

you and nikolai are the definition of the perfect couple. the example for everyone in ravka. what we all strive to have tbh. the two of you have this easy flirty banter that no one else is able to keep up with or replicate. lots of quick jabs at the other, always said with love and the best intentions (“lysandra, you’re looking a little pale darling, has my handsome face really taken your breath away so much?”). gifts you a library. like no joke. just decides one day that you deserve an entire room for yourself, just for your books and a quiet place to read. he likes it because it makes it easier to find you, considering 99% of the time he can find you there. it’s not an easy thing to make nikolai flustered, but you manage it every single time you dance for him. he becomes obsessed with ballet. the shoes. the music. how graceful you look when you perform. he skips his meetings just to sit and watch you rehearse. he massages your feet after very long practice days. while he does so, he tells you about his day. recounting every little detail (oh! and then i had to tell zoya, that no, i could not make it to the war council meeting because i had to come here and rub my lovers ballerina feet! yes lysandra this is just as important”). invites you to play in the snow during winter. blasts taylor swift constantly. asks you to explain all of the taylor easter eggs and to tell him which song is written about who. (“okay so, let’s summarize. taylor’s child is olivia rodrigo even though taylor has never had children? and we’re pretty sure she committed murder with her ex boyfriend?”). everything he does with you is gentle and loving and so purposely beautiful. he’s just so thankful everyday that he gets to love you and have him love you back.

#five hundred & june!#nikolai lantsov #nikolai lantsov x reader #shadow and bone #six of crows

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milquetoast-on-acid · 3 years

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Milquetoast watches Sophomore Jinx

Sophomore Jinx S1xE6 Special Victims Unit: Episode Review

what this episode is about: Benson and Stabler suspect a pair of college basketball players of murdering a female student, but officials don't want to draw negative attention to the school.

What I think this episode is about:

Father/Daughter Growing pains

________________________________________________________________

Oooooh! Maureen you are so busted!!! If only Elliot hadn't been called in the middle of the night she might never have been caught.

I never realized how much SVU had originally focused on Elliot’s home life in the first season. Maureen specifically has had a significant role the past few episodes. Lots of teenage angst and how that effects Elliot.

Elliot: "Breathe on me." - Maureen is so creeped out by that. And she seems so confused. Hint: he wants to know if you've been drinking. Elliot is so haunted by his work he is suspicious of everyone. What's interesting here is that Maureen seems to be having a hard time with Elliot leaving all the time to go to work. In the middle of the night, in the middle of their dinner, in the middle of a PTA meeting.

Beat Cop: "who's going to look for that? (a rock)" "me? (incredulous beat cop)" "You want us to go through the trash?" - Yes dip shit they do want you to look for that rock that killed the girl and go through the trash for evidence.

Elliot’s wardrobe in this show is always crap (thank goodness he gets himself a sense of style over in Italy). Olivia's clothes are so boring this season too.

Cragen: "triple the limit. There was a time when I yearned for a girl who could drink like that." Hahaha Cragen. This banter is gold. It's nice to see them hold inane conversation while also talking about the crime.

Love that the university is holding their own investigation into the woman’s death. Like that is going to do anything.

College Admin: "Riley your talking about a team mate."

Munch: "We weren't asking you." Good comeback, Munch. This is a murder investigation, if you have information about the crime you really should tell Munch and Cassidy.

"We're not here to play, handsome." ...huh? handsome? certainly doesn't sound like something he would say.

I love that Elliot's nickname for Cragen is jefe. I don't recall him using that later on in the show.

"Stress." - That's not why she changed. She was raped. told yah! I don't know why the victims father is playing coy about what happened to his daughter. Her rape could be connected to her death or her killer. Like why are you hiding that?

Oh look a suspect that speaks Munch.

God Elliot and Olivia, really have that walk down. They are SO damned in sync. I wonder how often do they have to practice walking together like that to walk like that.

"BED STUY" - That's a city name!? hahahaha

How about you report the rape to the police and let them investigate it? Instead of assuming that the girl is lying and propping up the rapist. And assuming that he didn't do it.

Dickie: "I could ate a whole cow right now." - YES dickie that's hilarious

Elliot or Olivia: "Getting that shouldn't be hard with a couple of horny collage students." .

OMG it's Revered Al Sharpton! hahahah

It's interesting that the suspect is telling Munch that he won't test positive even though he had sex with the victim because they used a condom. So...why tell? I'm not quite fitting the pieces together yet.

Elliot & Olivia: I love how they already know where the other one went to college. One year into their partnership and these two have had some conversations. So apparently Elliot wanted to go to Everglades University because it was top rated by Playboy mag for having the highest sexual temp. It's a funny conversation but I think it high lights the fact that Elliot got married really young and never got a chance to enjoy the single life. Never got a chance to enjoy life and figure out who the hell he is before he became a dad.

Michele Herd has some bomb arms!

I love how the suspects mom is just addressing Munch. Even when Cassidy interrupts she keeps on going ignoring him.

OMG! This priest! This is what I was talking about earlier. The university is like we will do our investigation and then give this guy who raped the victim a pass. All he did was give him a freaking TALK. Like WTH! "In our world, behavior modification means prison time." YES, SISTER you go Olivia! Tell him like it is! Like do you really think he's just going to stop raping women after he had a stern talking to from the priest.

There's that switch blade again. Cragen really likes that switch blade...what's he going to do with it besides point with it?

Awe this is a sweet talk between Elliot and Maureen. It's good he told Maureen why he was so mad at her. That he's scared he'll find her raped or murdered. He wants her safe and not to be sneaking around.

hahaha! I love this conversation between them. Hell, any conversation between Elliot and Olivia i'm here and i'm engaged! I love how different they view the victims little memorial. Elliot's like this is schmaltz and no way am I having that when I'm dead. Olivia is like it's sweet and it's an outpouring of emotion. Also Elliot is like I will totally haunt you if this happens to my grave. Which is too cute, they are already friends for life.

Olivia to Elliot: "He bashes her into the building. Oh no no, you meant he hits her over the head with the building." hahaha

Olivia reads french poetry? That's interesting!

OMG why are they ALL in the intergation room!?

Olivia: "It's kinda like a bad french film noir." And then of course they have to shoot their close ups like a film noir.

"It's detective, not miss." OMG OLIVIA! You are my champion!

Olivia called it she did fall into the building.

EWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!! Here's an example for you Cassidy on that sex crime you didn't know anything about in episode 2: "A Single Life"

"We don't bounce balls in the house." - hahaha! I love how the suspects mom is treating Cassidy like a little kid. "Watch your mouth." OMG! I love this woman! She's not holding back. She is all like this kid has NO manners! She would have sent his ass to boot camp if he had been her son.

________________________________________________________________

Final Thoughts: I didn't find the case all that engaging.

Father/Daughter Growing pains - I found the best part of the episode was the storyline between Elliot and Maureen. More of the father/daughter growing pains. How Maureen growing up is effecting Elliot because of what he sees on a daily basis.

Chemistry of the Cast - The banter in the squad room is good! They feel like they all know and enjoy teasing each other on the daily. Even though Cassidy is the newest additon (9 months about at this point) they all have a great rapport. They can talk about the crime or just noting inparticular and still it sounds great. They all feel comfortable even though the show is new at this point and so is the cast.

Elliot & Olivia - They had some great conversations really about nothing important to the storyline and I am here for that! The conversation they had about colleges was fun. The conversation they had the memorial was also fun. Overall with these two the banter is fun and lighthearted in this episode. Olivia is a straight up bad ass in this episode! She was on fire. No she wasn't yelling at anyone, she wasn't chasing anyone and she wasn't shooting her gun. But she killed it by chewing out various suspects, witness's and cops in this episode.

Best Line - "It's Detective, Not Miss." She's a woman in a mans world, and she commands respect after earning her place in it! You better respect her! Plus this feels so very true to her character. If Olivia ever gets married she won't be known by Mrs. She'll be Captain (or whatever rank she holds at the time).

#svu reviews #svu season 1 reviews #svu season 1 #law and order svu #law and order special victims unit #elliot stabler #olivia benson #maureen stabler #e/o #benson and stabler #bensler

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lizzybeth1986 · 5 years

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Quick Thoughts on TRH Book 1 Chapter 7

• More YEEHAW with a dash of bachelorette action, a sprinkle of rollin'-in-the-hay (literally) and one big dollop of "oh we're poor" to set up for next week's chapter.

• Screenshot credits:

Hana: @pixieferry

Drake: @thefirstcourtesan and BizzysChoices YouTube channel (@thefirstcourtesan also sent screenshots for Penelope's dancing scene from her Liam MC playthrough).

Maxwell: @thethots-plicken

• These are the tags you can block if you don’t want to see these posts: #long post, #trh quick thoughts, #trh qts, #trh qt reblogs.

• This is the only chapter that could potentially have no men in it, and you deliberately force the focus away from Hana? Now if that doesn't sound like the TRR writing team then I don't know what does.

• Why is Madeleine here? Go climb a pine tree in Fydelia or something.

• If you're going to give Drake a whole extended family, PB, at least get the family straight? Who is Leona, is she Bianca's sister? Jackson's sister? WHOSE SISTER IS SHE.

• Title: A Night Out In the Town

Alternative Title: The Mandatory Annual Courtly Maidens Meetup

Alternative to the Alternative Title: Hana Lee and the Audacity of this Bitch

(you know which one)

• This chapter works mostly for the nostalgia factor. There's plenty of it in these scenes.

• Bachelor parties and bachelorettes have pretty much been a long-standing tradition in TRR - there's always going to be that one chapter where someone gets a sendoff via a wild party (exactly how wild really depends on whoever is throwing it). The MC meets most of the original gang (except Hana) at Liam's bachelor party, and there have been at least 5 bachelor/bachelorette parties in the series so far (counting this one). I won't be surprised if they gave Penelope a dude in TRR Book 3 just for the express purpose of having another excuse to have another bachelorette party next book.

• The one really good thing about this chapter? It's that Hana will not stand for any nonsense from Madeleine:

She's not going to pretend Madeleine deserves to hold any space among her circle of friends, or even of acquaintances. She's not going to allow Madeleine to get away with not following the rules of an event she's planned, not when Madeleine failed to show the same courtesy to women in her court. If Madeleine insists on badgering the MC about her 'pregnancy', Hana is here to defend you. The message is loud and clear. This is Hana Lee's show, she is running it, and if you can't listen to what she says you can fall on a cactus.

• I only wish we were able to give her the kind of loyalty and protection from Madeleine, that Hana deserved. She did not deserve for us to allow the bullying done to her, to be brushed aside as a hazing ritual. Hell, even while knowing what Madeleine did to her, we didn't even get to check up on her.

Hana did not deserve for us to pretend that never happened to her, and she definitely did not deserve to have her own pain be treated over and over in the narrative like it didn't matter. Even now, her no-nonsense behaviour is rooted firmly in her concern for other people, like the MC and Savannah. Why can't the team ever allow Hana to do this for herself? Why can't the other characters ever step in to defend her the same way? Why am I allowed to (optionally) coddle Penelope twice in today's chapter in a way I never can for Hana?? Why should Hana always be the one protecting but hardly ever the one protected??

• So the ladies of the court have arrived, leaving a puzzled Bianca and a perpetually pissed-off Leona in their wake. Hana explains the situation: she invited Kiara, Olivia and Penelope along. Madeleine invited herself for the sole purpose of being nosy.

• ...in what universe is Madeleine a "public relations angel". Have you SEEN how badly you did your own job the last book??

• Olivia and Madeleine can't last two minutes without sniping at each other and this makes Savannah sad (not that they care, they're enjoying the back-and-forth banter) The MC elicits a promise from the two that Olivia will not stab Madeleine, and Madeleine will not "mentally and emotionally break Olivia". What's with Madeleine and constantly wanting to break people?

• Also you really think you can emotionally break Olivia??? She's from Lythikos, you pineapple!

• Hana mentions shopping to Bianca and Leona, and we have yet another hint that all is not well at the ranch.

• The ladies change at a store nearby, to outfits that suit the rustic theme for the event. Which means Savannah gets the opportunity to dress a little more glam on this day, and the ladies of the court get to dress down a bit. Well...except for Olivia, who prefers to change into her red Coronation gown. Here are the girls in order of preference:

Okay first off - I have to say this - FULL BODY SPRITES FOR THE LADIES FINALLY OMG!!! It's the first time I'm actually seeing them all like this: the last time we managed to see a change of outfits was when we had to choose their outfits for the wedding, and even then only the half-body sprites were used. The fact that we never get to see Olivia in a different outfit kind of makes me feel like they might be saving her sprite for a bigger diamond scene? Idk.

• Also how did no one either notice nor point out that Olivia was still wearing a gown?

• Hana stays in the outfit she wore the previous day, and you get to choose whether she keeps the hat or not. The denim short skirt and brown shrug is a lovely outfit on Kiara, and I like the necklace Penelope has on. I think my favourite is Savannah's? I love the rhinestones, the embellished belt, the flower design, and it's a beautiful silver colour that compliments Savannah's skin tone.

• Savannah may annoy the hell out of me but one thing you can't deny about her is she's HELLA fashionable (remember the Drake engagement scene where he says the lavender coloured dress was her choice? That dress was super pretty).

• The MC wearing gold for bachelorettes is kind of a theme with her now lol. Started with the gold theme for Madeleine's bachelorette, then a theme where she wore gold and everyone else was supposed to wear black for her own, and now every going country - but she and Savannah get to bring on the bling.

(Fun Fact: Both Madeleine's and Savannah's bachelorettes take place in Chapter 7 of their respective books, with very different outcomes)

• Our first stop after the country makeover is the bar! Which is Hana's choice, because she is the kind of lovely, wholesome human being who will fully commit to research for her friend's sister's bachelorette party.

Why are you lying Hana.

• So the MC helps Hana out first my selecting drinks. You have 5 options to choose from: beer, cocktails, champagne, one of those fire drinks, and sparkling water. Savannah is doubtful and then excited to try the fire drinks, loves fruity cocktails and enjoys the bubbly. Olivia is impressed when Savannah chugs her fire drink. Kiara is amazed at the sight of beer coming in bottles. Penelope is disappointed if we decide to order a very tame sparkling water. Madeleine raises her eyebrows if you try to take anything even remotely alcoholic because she has already decreed you pregnant.

• Next stop: dancing! You get to choose which lady you'd like to dance with, and if you're romancing Hana this opens up to a romantic scene!

Hana: is happy and enthusiastic if you're friends, whoops and giggles as you spin her. More slow dancing happening if you're married to her...definitely more romantic.

Kiara: is nervous at first because she doesn't know "the social mores of this establishment", but when the MC reassures her that no one cares, she lets go of her inhibitions and shakes her hips, enjoying herself.

Olivia: very competitive, is confident she can dance circles around the MC, starts doing martial arts instead. Savannah reminds her it's not a duel and Olivia's like "EVERYTHING'S A DUEL". I should take her to Kerala and have her learn kalaripayattu 😁 (also I'd be interested in seeing a three-way dance battle between Hana, Maxwell and Olivia plsthnx).

Savannah: Also enthusiastic and excited, v much the 'happy bride'. Both Savannah and the MC are comfortable in this setting.

Penelope: This comes with a reference to her social anxiety, because her initial nervousness has to do with the crowds. The MC makes space for her through dancing, and she winds up having fun while still feeling comfortable. Madeleine tries to make a smart-alec comment but pretty much no one gives a shit about her so it's okay.

Madeleine: does not exist.

• After this, Savannah shows the girls how to do a Texas Two-Step, which is baffling to them. Hana gets it down in like two minutes, and the MC depending on options can either do it perfectly, go off-beat then claim she created her own trend lol, or trip over herself and hurt her feet, following which Hana assumes she is doing the robot, and does it alongside her. Apparently she learned it during a summer class she took while her embroidery instructor was sick.

• I don't get it, what's with all these random embroidery references they keep throwing at Hana these days.

• Olivia and Kiki are still baffled by the two-step dance, so Savannah recommends more drinking! Madeleine and Olivia are competitive with each other and loving it, and Penelope and Kiara are confused about how they're supposed to drink tequila. The MC gets to show them how it's done. She can either do it right (pour the salt, drink the shot, suck the lime), or get it wrong (pour the shot, suck the salt, drink the lime). The highlight of this is definitely the last one (pour the salt, drink the salt, suck the salt!). Like, the MC actually tips the contents of an entire salt shaker into her mouth! Failplay MC is the very definition of chaotic energy.

• Kiki, like the awesome friend she is, asks Savannah if she'd like to flirt or do anything hot-guy-related, which Savannah laughs and refuses. The topic then comes around to her relationship with Bertrand and his insecurities regarding Chuck. She says she barely had a thing with him but she's afraid Bertrand might do something stupid (he might, actually). The MC can choose to reassure her.

• I don't get it like...okay? Why am I the one you're telling this to rather than your own fiancé? If he's the one having the insecurities, and you know they're there, what are you doing to alleviate that? I mean as far as I can see your aunt is pretty much dragging him the whole time for not magically acquiring ranch skills and I hardly see you even talking about that. I don't see you actually trying to talk to him. So why tell me all these things - go tell him and sort it out yourself.

• Because Savannah speaks about wanting a happy family in the wake of this conversation, the topic then returns to that of the MC's ongoing attempts to get pregnant.

• Madeleine is a nosy, entitled piece of shit. She just is. Raises her eyebrows at me when I'm drinking, makes terrible apple puns for a fetus that probably isn't even there yet, comes for a trip she's not even been fucking invited to so she can poke her entitled nose into my business. Even her show of 'sympathy' revolves around her and her problems. All this while she acts like a martyr for following a dress code (remember how she dragged Penelope for not getting a metallic dress on time and 'ruining' her dress code, but came to our bachelorette making excuses for not following our dress code?). I'm glad Hana was having none of it at least now.

The only differences between this scene in a Hana playthrough vs in the others is that Hana tries to get Madeleine to stop before the MC gets to give her answer ("Madeleine, please..."), and that she reacts sadly to the MC if she chooses to be openly sad about it.

• ...so the scene in the hotel in Chapter 5 (where the MC and Hana could talk about what Dr Ramirez said, if Hana was your LI) always had a "there, we spoke about it, now shut up" feel to me. Because now they've given the MC a voice regarding how she feels about this pregnancy (we can either deem it invasive, speak normally about it or be very, very sad and spill out how disappointed we are. The last option's dialogues is the one I put up).

It's surreal...to see an MC who can say this openly while Hana's condition and how it's affecting her is barely even addressed. It's even more surreal that even now we're still coddling Penelope to the high heavens, and how a lot of aggressive importance is still given to Olivia, while still ignoring what could be happening to Hana if she's married...or making even a chapter that has potentially no men in it about literally anyone but her.

• The nice thing is Savannah is quite supportive in all three options. Olivia diffuses the tension/seriousness by suggesting we have more drinks.

• Aha! Queen Amalas.

• So she claims she came down not to pressurize us into anything but to see the MC in an environment outside of the palace/estate and court, including how she behaves with other people. She has no friends but treats her servants well (and apparently tipped her waiter a thousand). But the little bits she adds in about our origins can be a little unnerving. While offering a Sarzac she mentions our home state New York and asks if we'd prefer a Manhattan, and suggests we would know about how important a good tip is since we worked as a waitress. The MC's reactions can range between friendly, curious or accusatory. Overall the general impression is that she's mysterious and alluring, but there's something about her that spells danger.

This is me rn:

• Anyway...so we leave with our drinks, and join the girls. Penelope is drunk and talking to a mechanical bull, Kiara is drunk and trying really hard to talk country to the same bull. Savannah deeply (I'm kidding) regrets not returning Kiara's kindness in teaching her French by teaching her American English, coz it would have saved her this moment of cringing in a bar rn.

• They raise a toast to either Savannah, or friendship, or "putting the past behind us". I don't want to raise a toast to any of these options.

• Savannah is emotional and speaks of how hard it was to fit in and how much she missed Cordonia and the people she knew in court when she was away bringing up Bartie, and how the MC "changed all that" (how??? Again, a lot of what she does is optional, not default! Plus a bulk of the work of finding her went to her own brother, and later a fumbling Bertrand - not the MC unless she really chose to help. My MC Esther gets these dialogues despite not bothering to help Savannah in any way) and how she is now friends with all of them.

• Diamond scene! The ladies of the court have never had sleepovers (for various reasons), so MC-who-had-a-way-more-normal-life to the rescue!

• We start off with a drink. Three are on offer and we get to choose one: Hana's special Hot Chocolate recipe ("like drinking a minty chocolaty hug"), Olivia's Lythikos Nog ("like drinking a buttery, spiced cloud") or the traditional Walker Hot Toddies from Savannah (basically hot water and whiskey made with lemon, honey and spices).

• Once that's out of the way, we start off with, as the MC calls it, "gossiping about our love lives". Penelope is asked first, and she gets to tell us about her ongoing relationship with Kiara's brother Ezekiel. Olivia is next, and depending on your choices she can openly speak about the fact that Liam didn't choose her, twice, and how she needs to move on. She can also choose not to talk about it if the MC tells the other ladies of the court to back off (which is funny, because the whole thing was her idea to begin with). There's not a lot of change to this dialogue in all the playthroughs, except for mentions of whether Liam was engaged to the MC or not.

• After this, the MC can choose to ask either Madeleine or Kiara the same question:

- Madeleine is defensive and reminds the MC that she "interfered" with her relationship status (wasn't even much of a relationship to begin with), but eventually makes it known that she doesn't believe in "sappy romance" and would rather marry to benefit her house or country instead (nice save there, PB).

- Kiara is surprised and fumbles with her answers, speaking at first about how busy her life currently is. But eventually she does tell you she has a type. The dialogue differs depending on whether the MC is married to Drake or not:

(Screenshots on the left are from my playthrough, and the ones on the right are from @thefirstcourtesan's Drake playthrough).

...I look at Madeleine's dialogue in this scene and need to remind myself that even broken clocks can be right twice a day.

• Repeat after me, Kiki: I deserve way better than a dude who might throw me under the bus just so he can kiss a Duchess' ass.

• Also most guys in Cordonia must have rippling abs, right. Considering that 90% of the male LIs in PB have six-pack abs.

• Interestingly, Olivia is allowed her feelings - and the confusion and mess that comes along with loving someone and not having that love returned - across playthroughs, but Kiara's has to be adjusted and shrouded in vagueness according to which MC she is speaking to. There are two factors at play there:

1. More often than not the narrative has taken Olivia's feelings more seriously than it has ever taken Kiara's. Of course part of it could be the childhood memories and the amount of time she spent with Liam, but we need to remember that the general attitude in the narrative towards Kiara's feelings constantly bordered on dismissiveness - and that wasn't even the worst of the treatment meted out to her.

2. Have you seen the amount of hate Kiara got from some Drake stans for as little as looking in the man's direction?? They'd tear her apart if she dared to even mention her crush in a Drake MC's playthrough!

• The ladies of the court now want to play literally anything else, so the MC pulls out the tried-and-tested Truth and Dare game out of her fancy cowboy hat. Here's the way it goes:

- The MC nominates Savannah, since she's the bride-to-be. Savannah goes for dare, and has to go by a nickname for the rest of the night (default: Bridechilla. I was really craving something so I went for Fried Chicken 🤣), or pose for a sexy photo which she can text to Bertrand. No response, but you can hear him faint upstairs. When asked to nominate someone, she nominates Penelope to ask a question.

- Penelope chooses Kiara, who picks 'truth'. She makes the MC choose for her instead. The MC does what the Choices universe calls a Wed, Bed or Dead which is really a way of saying FMK without having to write the F. You can give her an option between three women (Olivia, Penelope and Madeleine) or three men. Based on your playthrough, Kiara's list of men will vary (Liam, Maxwell and Bastien in a Drake playthrough, and Bradshaw, Bastien and Drake in other playthroughs). Her 'bed's are Olivia, Maxwell and Bastien, her 'wed's are Penelope (obviously), Liam (to be Queen) and Drake (also obviously), and her 'dead's are Madeleine (but obviously), Bastien and Bradshaw (coz CORDONIA RULEZ!). It's interesting to note that Kiara seems surprised/shocked by the idea when you ask her to choose between the girls, and Hana eases her into it by stating that they're all friends here. Which I found really sweet. Kiara then nominates Madeleine to choose someone.

(note: why is Savannah acting so shocked about Kiara choosing her brother for 'marry' when she spoke about liking him barely ten minutes ago???)

- Madeleine chooses Olivia, hoping to wriggle out any information about the mysterious mission Olivia seems to be on. Olivia cleverly tricks her, by reminding Madeleine that she didn't say truth or dare, and picking dare. With no option she asks Olivia to prank call someone. Olivia has three options:

1. Give Maxwell a phone call pretending to have tickets for a Celine Dion concert. He has to choose the best noble house. Sweet Maxwell cannot choose between his own house and ours, but loses out because the correct answer (obviously) is House Nevrakis lol. Savannah's best line comes from here: "Don't worry, his heart will go on" 🤣

2. Give Bertrand a call claiming to be a representative from the Cordonia Philharmonic Orchestra, and Olivia asks the same question to him. His answer is House Beaumont, without question, and Olivia gives him the same answer. The nice thing about this option is that it's coded such that if you chose Savannah's 'sexy photo' option, the narrative mentions that his voice is 'woozy' and he sounds like he recently came back to consciousness. Whereas if you chose the nickname option, these lines would not be included.

3. Give Drake a call claiming to be from a "secret whiskey enthusiast society". Drake somehow figures out that the caller is Olivia, thus leaving her very, very annoyed.

Once this is done, Madeleine nominates the MC, who chooses truth or dare instead of a person like the others did. Hana makes the suggestions this time.

If you choose dare to a single Hana, she asks you to pretend to lasso Savannah.

If you choose dare to a married Hana, she will ask you to kiss her.

If you choose truth, she asks you what law you'd pass if you had a chance, and you have to choose between a serious one like "restrictions on paparazzi", or jokey ones like naming a day after the MC or getting fancy hats from her subjects. The last one yields this adorable exchange:

- Before we can go any further, the girls notice Savannah feeling drowsy and decide to call it a night. The only people who have basically not been asked anything are Penelope (but she already did get to speak about her beau) and Hana (because no one bothers to ask her anything, she isn't even nominated).

• We return to the kitchen, where our LI is waiting for us. The MC tells them about the visit from Amalas, which the LI also views as suspicious, and the MC has a choice again in how she wants to react to this (the visit was invasive, she is impressed with Amalas' guts, she doesn't know what to make of her). They assure the MC that they'll alert the Walkers.

• LI Diamond scene! A cute scene at the hayloft where the MC and LI can have some private time away from the ranch. Those walls must be paper-thin. The first half deals with the couple talking about loving this glimpse of simplicity, and the second half has the MC choosing how she would have them seduce her. The closing bit mostly has the couple talking about how they feel at home with each other no matter where they are.

Liam: Gets a bit of a hero moment at the start of the scene, where a stray beam almost falls on the MC and he catches it. They joke about a couple of things, such as how 'adventurous' the barn is, and whether or not a rendezvous in a barn would qualify as being in the 'outdoors' 😂 In the second half of the scene, the MC can choose between a 'rough-and-tumble', or have Liam sleep with her in his usual tender way. He clearly has a preference for the second, but is more than game if the MC wants to try the first.

The music for Liam's scene, for some reason, is different (his background score for the first half is the romantic one from High School Story, and Drake's and Hana's is the romantic one from Big Sky Country. I'm not sure what Maxwell's is like because I have only seen screenshots of the scene) and he is the only LI who gets the option to keep his hat.

Ending Caption: Hay-pilly Ever After

Hana: The MC notices that Hana seems happy and at home at the ranch, and Hana points out how different the environment of the countryside ("cows outside, open air, no display cupboards") is so different from her home, where "there's gilt on the walls and silver in the display cupboards", and how she loves this space. The couple imagine together how it might have been if they met in a more humble setting (with the MC as a cowgirl and Hana as a salon owner), and how they would fall in love. In the second half, Hana expresses her desire to go a little wild, and the MC can choose between having her hands bound, or being blindfolded.

This scene tells us that Hana does an amazing impression of a Southern accent and I personally would love it if she could coach Kiara on doing one xD

Ending Caption: Country Courting

Maxwell: As he leads her to the loft, the MC has the option to point out that they have a bed, to which he quips that she's obviously not had as much camping experience as he does. They do a little dance in the barn, and they admit that they missed each other while she was gone. In the second half of the scene, the MC has the opportunity to tease Maxwell, beckoning him to chase her around the barn and catch her. I think he also tells her to "use your words" at one point.

I think this scene has the cutest ending, because they both have an impromptu yodelling duet after that.

Ending Caption: Oh, Darlin'

Drake: This scene is more nostalgic in nature because Drake is reliving his childhood, and admits that he didn't know how this trip back would turn out, or feel. He had no idea how different everything would be, nor what his emotions returning to the ranch would be like - and which Valtoria will always be home to him in some ways, the ranch's simple charm means something special to him. The couple can imagine this place to be either perfect for romance, or for bringing back their future children. In the second half of the scene, he confesses to fantasizing about the MC in the palace stables, and the couple indulge in a bit of role play. This also includes an option to take her against a wall.

The end of the scene has Drake tell the MC that being with her itself feels like a fantasy, one that sometimes still feels too good to be true....and therefore he never wants to take it for granted.

Ending Caption: Making Hay.

• We then see the couple going downstairs the next morning, where the MC manages to overhear a conversation between Leona and Bianca that indicates the ranch has no helpers before an auction that is supposed to bring in money for the wedding, and is in deep, deep trouble.

• So our next chapter will probably involve the people of the court working together to help save the ranch, perhaps some flashbacks? Idk. And perhaps because of their contributions, Leona may thaw a little. Who knows.

General Thoughts:

• Plenty of callbacks this chapter!!

- The bachelorette party itself has plenty parallels and could almost be seen as an inverse of Madeleine's bachelorette. Back then, the ladies of the court each began to express frustration and hurt at her controlling, bullying behaviour, Hana's confidence was left in tatters, Olivia was an outsider to the court not bound by their rules.

Here, Madeleine is a largely unwanted presence and pretty much everyone makes it clear that what she thinks no longer matters. Hana is at the peak of her confidence here. She makes it clear that if Madeleine wants to stay she has to follow their rules. Olivia still manifests as a mysterious outside figure, but more out of choice than out of necessity.

- The other indicator of this parallel is what Amalas tells the MC about wanting to know who she is dealing with. She mentions that she wants to see how the MC interacts with her "friends and servants", and it kind of gets me wondering just how much trouble Madeleine would have been in if a figure like Amalas managed to see her behaviour in Italy with courtiers like Penelope and Hana.

- The fire drink which the MC can optionally suggest for both Drake and Savannah to drink. Drake drinks it in a competitive spirit in his birthday party scene in Book 1, Savannah looks doubtful at first but sees it through, to which the MC will remark that "your brother would be proud".

- Savannah mentioning Bertrand giving someone at Cordonia Philharmonic Orchestra a "severe tongue lashing" 🤣 Which kinda was a term Bertrand used for himself in Book 2.

- Lady 'I didn't know I could dance until I actually did it' Kiara. In Book 2 Hana can compliment Kiara on her dancing skills, to which Kiara laughs and mentions that she had no idea she could dance either. She was super drunk back then, now she knows it while she's sober too! 😅

- Some bits in this chapter remind me of our time with the Beaumonts in Book 1? Like the scene where Penelope speaks to the mechanical bull while drunk, while kiiiinda resembles her drunken behaviour at the Beaumont Bash. Also the whole situation of helpers/staff dropping off at the last minute seems a little parallel to what happened twice to the Beaumonts? Once with the MC's boat and then with the Beaumont Bash to host the court. I kinda find that interesting because Bertrand has been in a similar situation and hopefully could feel...somewhat...useful? If he can manage to string more words together, that is.

- Hana daring her wife to kiss her during Truth and Dare, which is (if you bought that scene and actually picked that option) exactly how their first kiss happened 😁😁😁

• I kinda like it when we have chapters like these where the women of the court have a chapter to themselves, because the dynamics are fun and the women are all different in ways that tend to complement each other.

• Honestly, Savannah asking my MC to become her maid of honour was pretty jarring considering my MC doesn't care a single bit about her and has honestly done very very little (if at all) to help her. I mean I can kiiiiinda understand if the MC is her sister-in-law/future SIL via Drake or Maxwell maybe...but otherwise why couldn't Kiara be an option? How is it that Savannah mentions her struggles to fit in, yet Kiara genuinely helping her never even features? Not even once?

I honestly think that Kiara could have been as good a choice to be MoH - we could have either coded it based on our diamond choices with Savannah, or split it between MC for Drake and Maxwell stans, and Kiki for Hana and Liam stans. Or at least more of an acknowledgement of how they were friends before she left? Beyond an offhand "oh yeah you taught me French, not like that helped me in that completely foreign place where I was bringing up my baby, maybe I should have taught you to speak country". Because having Savannah give me a grand speech about how amazing I've been to her was nothing short of weird and it would have felt a lot more natural to see her at least remembering the friendship(s) she did make in court.

• In at least two points in the chapter, Penelope requires someone to handhold her into certain things. You have to create the space for her while dancing. You have to decide on what questions to ask Kiara coz Penelope doesn't want to decide those herself. I'd actually be glad about their commitment to writing her that way, if I didn't understand how much they've let Penelope get away with, and how much other characters in similar positions have to suffer because the same amount of thought is never given to them.

The failplay I did of all three books brought up a couple interesting (but also disheartening) points about how they dealt with Penelope's condition, and how they dealt with difficult situations other characters had to go through (esp Kiara and Hana). At this point Penelope just sounds extremely entitled to good treatment, without wanting to really give back much in return.

• Kiara...well...I love her in this. She was fun, tried new things out, got out of her comfort zone, and she had some marvellous lines in this chapter. I just think it's funny how huge the differences between the way Olivia's feelings are acknowledged regardless vs the way Kiara's can only be acknowledged if it doesn't affect the MC...and it kind of says something about how those feelings are viewed by those writers. Because as a reader who has been following this story thread closesly, I know the writers have either conveniently forgotten - or take very lightly - how shitty Drake has been to her.

• I mean...had it been just about him not being interested, I probably wouldn't have cared much. I would have either turned to fanfic to change that around a bit, that's something you can always do for a pair you want to see but know you can't in canon. But realizing that the man could openly suspect a woman he knew was stabbed at the same event he was shot, optionally pander to the MC's whims and dismiss what she was going through in the process, and to not feel any fucking remorse for it...I mean, Kiara doesn't deserve better just because Drake doesn't isn't interested in her - because no one should have to be obligated to show interest for another person...Kiara deserves better because this man has done very little for her in their few exchanges (esp Book 3) besides ridicule, mock, act rudely and unfairly to her, and finally getting away with the worst possible behaviour without any consequence (some of it is optional, but the suspicion was definitely default). And I know the writing will never admit that because Drake is their golden boy.

• Madeleine causes minimal damage this time and Hana totally owned her a couple times today...so I'm kinda happy with that. At least they made sure never to bring back any hints of that story they were planning with her for Hana...if there is one thing I'm only too happy they are retconning, it's that!

• Speaking of Hana - there are maybe a couple of things I'm happy about and a lot that I'm not. I like that that she can throw shade (though I wish to God they would have let her do it much earlier) at Madeleine, and my favourite bits involve Hana not allowing that woman to get away with shit that she never allowed other people to get away with when she was in power.

But there's also the fact that she's pretty much treated like the least important person in that room? Like I would have personally loved to see her be asked a cute fun question. I mean, by now both Liam and Drake have gotten individual character scenes, and I only get to see Hana in the context of a group scene with the ladies where she is mostly helping the others? I loved that we got the barn scene afterwards...but let's be honest the barn scene was mostly about the sex.

I honestly just found it weird that the one chapter with (optionally) no men in it still couldn't have some focus on her, or much effort put into her. Is asking for more than scraps for her, too much to ask for? (I feel like the answer to that would be yes).

• Olivia is upto something, and the livestream apparently hinted at her being important to the story. I mean what's new about that? Olivia is a favourite of the writers and they will continue to favour her while Hana is still relegated to the sidelines (and so will a huge chunk of this fandom). No lie, I really like Olivia, but why the heck aren't you giving the lone female LI that much attention?

• I also wonder how much of her mysterious work has to do with the reading up she was telling us about in the last book's epilogue.

• Queen Amalas...I still don't know what to make of her - she's a pretty interesting mix of intrigue and invasiveness I think. She's flirty and teasing, but the way she slipped in those tidbits about our past definitely raised my hackles a little bit. Could be a red herring...could be more. Who knows.

• The Olivia and Madeleine dynamics were great...Kiara is still an awesome, encouraging friend to Penelope, but for me the highlight was Hana and Kiara's bonding (that exchange about hats definitely was a winner).

(Is part of my joy because I ship them? Yes. Yes it is. You can pry that ship outta my cold dead hands PB!)

• The barn scene was lovely: it was nice that the couples got to explore their more adventurous/homely sides in the first half of the scene, and were able to go completely wild for the second half of it. I think it's nice we got to see what they'd mostly like to experiment with in bed from time to time.

• I guess that's all for this chapter. Texas might possibly take a week or two more? Idk. Let's see. Rescuing the ranch may take a chapter, and so will the wedding...there may be one in between probably to figure out BertVannah's relationship but I'm not going to spend diamonds to make them talk to each other, no.

• I kinda like the subtle shift to childhood experiences to certain scenes in this book, because it gives the MC who doesn't know what the place is like for a child an idea of what the others had to grow up with...and therefore how she may need to approach her parenting. A number of the group scenes in this half of the book have had to do with childhood experiences the royals and nobles may have missed out on (pets, sleepovers) and the return-to-childhood narrative is a smart way to deal with that, I think.

• That's it for this chapter, guys! See you on Friday (hopefully) with a Book 1 QT, and next week with the next chapter!

#long post #the royal heir #trh quick thoughts #trh qts #hana lee #olivia nevrakis #trr kiara #trr penelope #trr madeleine #savannah walker #king liam #maxwell beaumont #drake walker #bertrand beaumont

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