(AN: I'm dropping the rest of this arch in here, so this is lengthy. The second half is also very snippety, and I just want to clarify beforehand, does not all take place on the same day. But I'm waaaay too lazy to go back and add anything like context to make that clear. Forgive me?)

Marco’s wife was named Ann, and they’d actually met on one of his official jobs. Or rather, she’d been the job. It was actually kind of a romantic story, because there he was protecting her, and one thing led to another and within a couple years they were married. Adam, now seven years old, had been the icing on the cake.

Marco had been grateful for a second chance to have a family. He’d never gotten over how badly he missed his cousins. And being a husband and father was actually more amazing than he’d ever dreamed.

Even so, he was kind of nervous when Ann brought Adam to visit. It was mostly just to see them—the university Ann taught at was on spring break, and Adam’s second-grade class was, too—but he also wanted Ann to meet Izzy since, after all, she’d just bought the company that was his livelihood. It seemed like a good idea to introduce his wife and his employer.

( Read more... )

    Consciousness came back to Michael slowly. He realized that he still couldn’t really move, but that he was lying down on a firm bed with a pillow under his head. He ached all over, but especially his chest. The air was cool but comfortable. A steady, slow beeping kept time like a metronome.

    He opened his eyes. Light flooded them and he squinted for a moment before opening them again. All he could see was an ugly textured ceiling. He tried to breathe deeply but discovered some kind of tube in his nose. His mouth, though, was free.

    “Ryan?”

    Dutchy called Isabella at almost four o’clock—the surgery had been in-progress for not quite three hours.

    “You okay?” she asked softly.

    “Yeah. I just…you guys aren’t watching TV?”

    “You are?”

    “No, but someone in the crowd has a radio. We’re listening.”

    “What crowd?”

    “Iz, there’s a whole…like, an encampment of supporters…prayer groups and stuff…everyone is waiting for news…Anyway, you’re not watching the news?”

    “No. What’s going on?”

    “The Supreme Court.”

Michael couldn’t move. A shock of crimson heat ran through is body. He heard screams. He heard Ryan scream his name. Then he felt ice, moving from his core outwards. He couldn’t see anything and he lost the sound of Ryan’s voice in the sea of screaming. He had sensations, slight ones that penetrated the ice coma; he felt tremors and inertia carried him forward. He struggled against it and tried not to hear the shrieking.

The noise, the inertia, the trembling all faded…everything faded…

He saw an angel. He heard a distinct word – “Clear!” – and saw the angel was luminescent, a glowing white that faded to green.

He was struck by lightning.

A/N: I did my best with the legalese and the medical stuff in this arch, but god knows it's not my strong point. So, um, there's that. This is one of the major archs of the non-sequel, though (thus it gets lyrics!), so...enjoy?

I'll hold you if you feel you'll fall
I'll hold your hand if you just need a friend
I'll hold the line so you can call
I'll hold the feelings you don't want to end

You know that it's true
When I hold you
There'll be no secrets
I believe it

I'll hold your tears if you must cry
I'll hold your breath if that won't make you blue
I'll hold the truth if you must lie
And I'll hold off choice till you know what to do

You know that it's true
When I hold you
There are no secrets
I believe it

So I will hold on
And if that's not what you're used to
Then I may refuse to
Hold off
Well, maybe that's not what you're used to
How can I refuse you?

Guy looked like shit, but no one in the room was willing to say so. Ryan and Michael didn’t know he was anything more than “kinda sick” and Sean sure as hell wasn’t going to say. He didn’t really need to, though, not when Guy couldn’t stop coughing and the sores started. Things were getting bad…and Sean didn’t know what to do.

So instead, they were pretending nothing was wrong. After months of pestering, Sean had agreed to take Guy out to the stupid estate to meet them officially, as his boyfriend. Even though he and Ryan had met a bunch of times in the store. Guy wasn’t eating much, though, and he was losing weight. For once, Sean wasn’t the skinniest person in the room.
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So we’re fast forwarding almost a year, here. What happened: Tony continued to cheat on Chris with Sean until the album was released. A chance meeting at the release party between Sean and Chris led to Chris finding out about this, which led to him and Tony very nearly breaking up. When the band left for the tour several days later, they were in limbo; several weeks in, however, Tony realized how very badly he missed Chris, had him fly out to spend the weekend with the band on tour, and they actually managed to have a long, honest talk. The agreement reached was that Tony was allowed to sleep with groupies while on tour (not when home), and that he was never, under any circumstances, to sleep with Sean again.

That was fine for quite awhile, a few months after the tour ended, in fact. The two of them had some general relationship troubles; Tony was, after all, a spoiled asshole, and he and Chris never had that much in common. But they made things work.

The problem was Sean. He and Guy developed a very vague, grudging friendship (meaning mostly quiet tolerance) through these months. When Tony returned, Sean expected things to be back to normal, meaning occasional hookups. He was both shocked and enraged, however, when Tony managed to actually be faithful to Chris and turned him down for meaningless sex. Sean reacted more or less how anyone would predict: he went out and got incredibly drunk.

Guy happened to be at the bar when he was drinking. They talked, and then Sean, who was incredibly drunk and horny and pissed, finally decided to screw Guy. And Guy turned him down. Sean did not deal with being turned down – twice in one night, no less – well.

( And then this happened. )

"Okay. That is it. I give up!" Guy threw his arms in the air dramatically. Sean barely looked up from his novel, and Guy continued ranting. "I get it, I get it, you don't like me, I should fuck off and not bother. So fine, I will leave you alone."

"Took you long enough," Spot mused, flipping a page of whatever he was reading this week. Guy couldn't keep up; it had been three weeks of this, and Sean went through about five books a week.

( Read more... )

Hey, I tagged all the old entries, go me!

Skipping ahead a bit, in honor of funkiechick's acceptance into her second year drama program..thingy, here's the introduction of her favorite OC.

Since the most recent bit posted (wherein Spot and Race, despite loathing each other with every fiber of their beings, sleep together), they've fallen into a pattern of... well, loathing each other, hooking up and having hot, angsty, angry sex (you know you wish we'd write smut) and then not speaking. At least, for awhile--until after the Sean Album debuted and broke sales records. At which point, Tony was interviewed by a cute music journalist named Chris Brown (incidentally, his frat brothers used to call him Skittery...) and they ended up going out a few times. Things looked like they might be headed to dating land, and, upon finding out, Sean sunk (even deeper) into depression, quit his (crappy) job, and generally went through a really rotten few weeks. With help and support from Jack (who is now married to Sarah and expecting kids--twins, eek) he eventually got hired at a slightly bettery crappy job at an indie record store/tourist attraction in Manhattan, The Turntable.

The evening/night manager is a guy named Guy.

( Guy, it's *late*, and you said we had a new employee. )

I hope y'all like Guy, because he's insanely important, and also, because there are, like, another 40 pages we've written all about him. Also because if you don't, Funkie will cry. (She loves him, like, a lot.)