Doing a little digital spring cleaning tonight and I found the beginning of a Harry/Louis fic I swear I've never seen before in my life but I absolutely wrote, so it's definitely time to share. A shameless rip-off of the plot of Jilly Cooper's The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, which is an entire novel about a hot dude being paid by women with cheating husbands to make them jealous and stop cheating. Except in this one, Louis's masterminding the whole thing. Probably. I don't actually remember writing it.
The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous (would have been Harry/Louis in the end, if I'd ever written more than... this).
"We're broke," Louis says flatly, dropping down onto the sofa next to Harry and showing him his bank statement.
"We're not," Harry says, putting down his iPad. He's been playing online bingo again, which occasionally brings in enough money to cover going to Sainsbury's and putting stuff in the cupboards. He glances at the bank statement. "Are we?"
"Broke," Louis says, and he puts his feet in Harry's lap. "We've got ten days to have enough money in my account before the rent goes out. Any ideas?"
"None," Harry says.
Time was, they could have tapped Harry's parents for a loan, but there had been a small misunderstanding and for now, that was off the table. It was no use trying to get money out of Louis's mum; she hadn't got it and Louis wouldn't ask if she did. He was utterly devoted to her and wouldn't take a penny. "What happened to that TV work that Ben was talking about?"
"Still happening, I think. Just not right now. Not in the next ten days."
"Do you remember when we didn't care about this stuff, and we just partied and spent what we wanted?"
"You're still like that," Louis pokes him in the thigh with his toes. "Since when has an overdraft stopped you going out?" He dropped a crumpled envelope in Harry's lap. "That came for you, by the way."
"This crumpled?" Harry asks mildly.
"It may have had a small fight with the letterbox," Louis says, since the return address says R. Maddox, and Louis has always hated Ruby, right from the moment they'd met and she'd made an immediate play for Harry, right under her husband's nose.
"Invitation to a party on Saturday," Harry says, tossing it towards Louis. "Do you want to come?"
"Pretty certain it won't say my name on that invite."
"It doesn't. I'll sweet-talk you in. There's probably going to be a free bar, her husband's loaded."
"Won't say no to that," Louis says, and that's that.
~*~
The flat Louis and Harry lived in was a cramped, tiny attic space in Kentish Town, only cheap enough for them to live in because the landlady's mum lived downstairs and bullied her daughter into not putting up the rent because Harry was so charming and would spend ages with her in the kitchen, drinking tea and flirting. Louis she had no time for, but that was mostly because the first time she'd met him, he'd been so drunk he couldn't see straight, and he'd fallen over her bin and vomited in the begonias.
It was also close enough to Primrose Hill that they could lie when asked where they lived, and frankly that was helpful when it came to explaining why they were worth knowing at parties. They had, at one point, been on the cusp of hosting these parties themselves. They'd failed to win X Factor a few years ago, and been promised a record contract anyway. They'd done the cycle of parties, the five of them that had had a band together back then, but had never truly broken past the outside perimeter. The others had faded out of London after a time, leaving Harry and Louis to continue sharing a flat and jumping from job to job.
When Harry got up on Sunday, naked underneath his dressing gown, Louis was sitting at the little table in the kitchen with his laptop.
"Have you been to bed?" Harry asks, putting the kettle on.
"For a bit," Louis says. "I've found us a way to make money."
"It's too early for money," Harry says, which is his usual approach. He'd grown up having it, so he's never tempered his lifestyle to reflect the fact that right now, they don't have it.
"Never," Louis says. "So I got talking to Ruby Maddox last night."
"You hate each other."
"We were drunk. She credits you with saving her marriage, you know."
"She slept with me while her husband was in Paris. Funny way of saving her marriage."
"Made him so jealous he stopped screwing his PR girl," Louis says. "How'd you fancy doing it again?"
"Sleeping with Ruby Maddox?" Harry looks perplexed. "Could do, I suppose."
"No," Louis says. "Her friend Georgina Meadows."
"Could I sleep with Georgina Meadows?"
"Actively not sleep with Georgina Meadows," Louis says. "Her husband's left her for his PA."
"Do I know Georgina Meadows?"
"Not yet. But you will."
"I need a cup of coffee," Harry says. "And then another one."
~*~
They take Louis's beaten-up old Golf to meet Georgina Meadows that afternoon. It barely scraped through its last MOT, so come the next one, unless money comes from somewhere, they'll be car-less again.
"Who is she?" Harry asks. "Why am I meeting her?"
"She's going to pay you to flirt with her to make her husband jealous," Louis explains. "And let me do the business side of things, you'll go in easy because she's crying or something, and she's loaded and we're broke.”
“All right,” Harry says. “Let’s do it.”
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Now that the post is over 10k and my notes are straight-up unusable...
One thing I wish I'd spelled out more explicitly in the original post because I see this point getting lost on a lot of rebloggers who don't understand why the healthcare thing was such a big deal is like
The subtext I thought would be understood bc I lived back then but apparently has been lost today is that making sure queer employees and their partners had healthcare in the early 90s meant Disney was paying for a lot of AIDS treatment.
This is one reason fundie Christians were so upset and queer employees were so grateful. It's one reason why it was such a controversial decision. It was a major talking point amongst my family, who believed back then that AIDS was a punishment from God.
(Some still do, I think. We don't talk.)
I keep seeing people saying that Disney only chose that option "because of their bottom line" and it's like??? Were you listening??? Disney has been paying for that decision for literally decades, but they've stood by it.
Like... the 90s weren't like now! It wasn't profitable to cater to the queer population of the country back then. They weren't raking in money with this.
It's in no way a perfect company but I fully believe in criticizing people for the specific things they do wrong and praising them for the specific things they do right. Disney has fucked copyright, monopoly, and labor laws and I'm not about to defend that. But they are well known in FL for being friendly to both queer people and disabled people, and that is unambiguously a good thing.
(Like side note, I could talk about Disney and accessibility for days. I have traveled extensively while disabled and no one does it like Disney.)
I've had people reblogging the post like "I straight-up don't believe Disney is an industry leader in equal protections for queer employees" and it's like ??? do you think I just pulled this out of my ass? If you want more information, go look it up! You'll see that this is well-established history. It's not my fault y'all don't read! :|
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Dpx Dc AU: Ectoplasm is required for Ghosts to be visible to the human eye- And Danny creates his own ectoplasm.
Danny is visiting Jazz in Gotham and its weird how friendly everyone is. Like, the city gets a really bad rapport, everywhere he goes there is someone trying to strike up a conversation or answer his questions about getting around to the tourist spots. A few people even pointed out restaurants and ways to find off the beaten path gems! Jazz seems to role her eyes at him, but when he brings up her 'roommate' being kind of cute she flat out laughs.
Danny then comes to understand the Jazz doesn't have a roommate and that Ghosts in Gotham don't move far from their haunts- He's just been inadvertently turning these undead folks visible by accident of generating abnormal amounts of ectoplasm.
Which, is comforting in a way, he's never walking this dangerous city alone and really, most of the ghosts have been really friendly! They disappear once he's a few blocks away from them anyway.
---
Tim Drake is having a horrible day.
He'd been given intel that one of Black Mask's guys was going to snitch but that he'd died before given the opportunity to reach out to the GCPD. He tracks down the guy's last know whereabouts and yikes. Its next to the Theater. Tim was often grateful for his childhood obsessions, this time it backfired.
Tim and Bruce get into an argument about trust and respect and, worst of all, mental health. And even though Tim was vehemently against Batman accompanying Red Robin to the alleyway - that's exactly what happens.
They arrive and Bruce is closing up faster than a clam in the contaminated Gotham Bay- Clearly being in the Alley bothers him. No fucking shit. RR gets started on collecting evidence, there are a few extra blood splatters and a single left shoe... When a kid walks into the Alley.
"Uh, sorry to intrude-" The kid looks scared shitless, and runs away. And then, all of a sudden, Batman and Robin aren't alone in the Alley.
Tim can hardly believe his eyes as the dead man appears and quickly blabs Black Mask's bank passwords and what the plan had been- and While he's over joyed to have that closure, he turns around to Batman weeping in the arms of his parents.
The ghosts fade, and the emotions are certainly charged as this was never something Bruce or Tim would have ever dreamed of happening. Ghosts in Gotham. Talking, floating, granting closure.
"RR, Bats, come in." Oracle calls into their ears.
"Reporting in, but, uh, we need a minute."
"A minute? We have a case on 4th and-"
"O, we just saw the ghosts of the Waynes. It's going to be a minute."
"...Lots of Ghost reports lately then. Any chance you saw a kid looking like he could be adopted?"
"Yeah, actually, black hair and blue eyes. He was super polite before he ran away."
"We have work to do. Oracle, lets prioritize finding our person of interest and divert Nightwing and Robin to the case on 4th." Batman cut between them on the comms and he sounded... calmer than either of them anticipated.
---
Jazz is no longer laughing when Batman appears at her door explaining that he's looking for Danny (Who already flew away from town to get a good night's sleep before class on Monday). Turns out Danny reunited the man with his dead parents just briefly- and then the second guy appears and mentions how Danny had also given a guy who'd been murdered by a Mob enough time to explain the ongoing threats the city faced.
Jazz just rolls her eyes and says that it's not like the ghosts are going anywhere anytime soon and Danny will visit in another month. When pressed, she just explains that her brother is a weirdo. No of course he doesn't have powers. Gaslight and Girlbosses her way out.
And Jazz thinks that the game is up for at least another month, obviously when Danny visits more shit will stir up, but then this new guy appears.
Unlike the other Bats who are keen on watching her from a distance, the Red Hood knocks on her door. Are her eyebrows all the way into her hairline when Red Hood asks her to send his thanks along to Danny because somehow this whole situation led to his Dad expressing remorse for his actions and apologizing? Yes, yes they are.
But Jazz can smell Dissertation Data off of these vigilantes- Who is she to send them away? Jazz welcomes Red Hood into her place for a cup of tea and a small chat.
The story then devolves into Jazz getting shit done, Danny being cute by proximity and also bringing ghosts to the party, and the Bats having trauma resolve between them.
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