{ the happy consequences }

“oh, you know your coffees, don’t you? that’s hot.” leah jests, an impressed smile hanging over pink lips. glad it’s not too hot, she takes a few sips and lets out a content hum as the perfectly acidic taste coats her tongue, jolting her awake. “need to ask you for the brand later cause it’s really good.” she’s somewhat of a coffee enthusiast herself — sound like an exaggeration but she doesn’t think she can go through her days, and especially not the ones where she’s hustling in the hospital — without her much needed caffeine fix. “very well, thanks to you.” she answers with a smile, “how about you?”

A grin grew as she complimented the coffee. "I have to import it. Not very many American stores stock it," He explained with a laugh before sipping more at his own coffee. "I'm glad you slept well! That's good," The man nodded. "I slept well yes," He was rather content with the situation. There was a comfortable feeling between the pair. "Do you have to rush off today? I dont have anything so we could go grab some food, or take a walk to the park if you were interested."

"I'm more useful if you get married in Vegas to someone you don't even remember meeting and you want to make sure you don't lose any of your savings in the separation," Simon pointed out with a light chuckle. "You're trying to make me wish I had an excuse to get out of this, aren't you?" he snorted, his tone implying he was only jesting. He oftentimes was comfortable with letting her to most of the talking after all. He was a good listener and Olive always had something interesting to say. Not all of it was drivel. "Coffee's on me. Before you say anything— I insist. You're doing me such a huge favor with all of this in the first place so it's the least I can do," Simon said before helping her gather everything up so the table was a little tidier. "The same order as before? Do you want a slice of cake or something with it?" he asked as he was getting up to grab them their coffees.

As Simon listed his uses, Olive nodded along. "Alright alright gotcha," She laughed. "Although to be honest, I reckon as long as the person I got married to wasn't a man, we'd be able to sort it our ourselves," The woman playfully grimaced before relaxing back into her chair and shrugged. "Let me have a little fun alright - Yes please, same again will do," She aided in tidying up the table and made sure to keep her dishes together. "A slice of banana loaf would be great." Olive flashed her friend a grin.

A small, amused puff of air escaped his nose at that response from her. "I suppose if that's what it takes..." Simon had tried to weigh out the options but she was right– this was not something that was going to happen without them taking action. "How do you even find these sorts of things out? I thought I was supposed to be the one who knew more about the legal side of things," his ego wasn't necessarily fragile, but he did feel like he should've been doing more. "It's not like it's usually blocked up with messages so at least I'll get some use out of that monthly phone bill."

"Unfortunately a large part of being a human rights activist often means dealing with the law. So ask me about laws to do with people, I probably know something however," She playfully threw her hands up. "If I accidentally steal something or there's a medical malpractice, I'll absolutely still be hitting you up." Olive sat up straight to stretch her back. They'd mostly jumped straight into business but Olive was also aware that they hadn't actually seen each other in a while. "Right, shall we get another coffee and actually catch up now buddy? I hope you're ready for your favourite extrovert to absolutely talk your ear off."

it seemed that luke's family was different compared to scarlette's, they didn't have events like this. in fact, the only person he was regularly in touch with was his younger sister; the two of them were close. "mhm. i guess so" smiling as she squeezed his arm, luke pulls her close, "i just want to make a good impression, that's all". this was quite a big deal, scarlette was the first been he'd been with for a long while, normally, luke didn't get this far with partners; he doesn't say anything; he just sits and listens as she lists the names off. "alright, i think i've got it -- adreena, wes and axle" luke replies, feeling proud of himself, "step father number four? wow, that's uh -- interesting".

Scarlette stayed silent as he recounted the information, giving a small nod with each correct detail. "Yep, you've got it," She said gently before resting her head on his shoulder. "Ha - Yeah," Her mother was a complicated topic. "Mom's never been that great at settling down. She's always been a bit chaotic," Her voice lowered. "It's basically why I ended up being a second parent to Cam, Jordy and Bee. I was only home for a few more years when Axle was born before I left for uni which - I did feel bad about. Cam had to step up then," Scar lifted her head and turned to fidget and fix his collar. "But that's a tale for another day, not right before you're about to meet Mom. I hope that you do end up getting to meet Cam, Jordy and Bee eventually. They're who I'm more in contact with than Mom." Scarlette pressed a kiss to her cheek before picking up her phone to check the time and see if she had any messages. "Feeling ready? Feeling good?"

luke sits on their childhood bed, eyes scanning around the room and taking everything in. he was feeling nervous about this weekend, you're gonna have to remind me of everyone's names by the way" he says "i might've already forgotten some of them".

Honestly one of the perks of a relationship that Scarlette had grown to love was having back up at family events. Many people assumed that because of how stereotypically perfect her life looked now, it had to have been the same as a child. That couldn't be further from the truth. "That is totally fine," She took a seat next to him on the bed and gave his arm a squeeze. "Mother is Adreena. The dude is potentially future step father number four. His name is - " Even Scarlette faltered. "Wes. It's Wes. Whether that's short for Wesley, Weston... Who knows. It's Wes," Her sentences were punctuated with dramatic expressions and head nods. "The only kid you'll see is the youngest. Axle. He's 15 now. Other siblings are Cameryn, Jordynn and Isobelle. Cam, Jordy and Bee. They've all left home. As far as I'm aware, they won't be visiting." With all the details prattled off, she exhaled slowly and rubbed her forehead in anticipation of the day.

A sharp intake at the sudden kiss on his cheek kept him from jumping this time around. "Just a cheese quesadilla? No churros? No drink?" Peter chuckled lightly. The laugh quickly faded at the mention of Audrey though. "Audrey. You got it right the first time," He said with a nod. In all honesty, the pair had broken up a day prior. It was fresh, and it was raw - and it wasn't something that he wanted to get into really with a drunken Lucie. "She's fine, yeah," It'd be left at that. "So what party were you at?" Hopefully a topic change would work.

He found himself chewing the inside of his cheek absentmindedly as he watched Olive sift through the paperwork. He hated when others hovered over him and yet he was doing exactly that to her right now. "Well then consider me grateful for your incredibly strong moral compass," Simon replied. "You can say that again," he muttered when she spoke about one of the many problems with the system. "Do you really think it's possible to get this to work though?"

"Well," Olive clapped her hands together. "Thank god my moral compass is basically my bread and butter," She chuckled before a more gentle look rested on her face. "No, yeah. As I said, it'll be hard and a lot of fighting for it but it's a battle that I've seen won," The woman nodded slowly before briefly flicking through the folder again. "It's also just going to mean a lot of me blowing up your phone."

Honestly, Angelita was only a partial fan. In fact, she'd only come along because her friend had really wanted to go and bought the tickets for both of them. Angie hadn't even clicked who he was before. She'd listened to the music but not looked at his face. So it wasn't until she was front row and he'd come out on stage that it had hit her. Yes, it was jarring. But she'd worked through it enough to get through the show... And then came the meet and greet. She inhaled through gritted teeth. "My friend. She's a fan," The woman was quick to explain, waving a hand at the woman who'd just gone before her. "I hadn't realised it was you to be honest. You're... doing really well for yourself, huh."

There'd been no point in trying to fight her seat belt choice - or perhaps he should say the lack thereof. "It's no problem," Peter was often awake late. Most of his clients booked during the day which meant that it was only really usually at night that he's able to work out himself. "Yeah yeah sure," He chuckled gently at her quip before another laugh came out. "If you could not sit up so quickly and startle me, that'd be great," Peter rolled his eyes as they pulled to some stop lots. "Taco Bell. Okay," He dreaded to think how long this trip was going to take. "And what're you planning on getting at Taco Bell?" And despite actually externally agreeing to her request, he adjusted his journey.

“you’re so smitten with me, it’s cute.” leah beams, a grin spreading over her features, before she leans in to bump his nose with hers and a chuckle follows. “great… don’t make me wait too long.” she teases, lips widening from the affectionate kiss on her forehead, before she lies back down on bed with a content sigh as her gaze follows him until he’s out of the bedroom and out of sight. almost doses off again before the aromatic waft of coffee brings her back from her drowsiness, making her open her eyes and slowly bring herself up again. “smells great,” she hums, before taking the mug from him with a thanks.

Making the coffee didn't take too long. Coffee is important in his culture so one thing he made sure of in his home is that coffee can be done quickly, and of a good quality. So he returned back to the room with a coffee for each of them. "It's Venezuelan," Fabian said proudly. After a few sips of his own, he set his mug down on a side so that he could quickly fix his hair and then put his camera away. "I hope you enjoy it," He returned back to his side of the bed with his coffee in hand. It was still relatively early days for the pair. They were still figuring each other and their habits, and their lives, out. "How did you sleep last night?"

“i mean… i did just wake up a minute ago.” leah jests, her comment more of a lighthearted jab at her untamed state rather than a critique towards his expertise in photography in any way, a self-deprecating remark and a playful tone. “are you always so generous with your compliments this early in the morning or am i just special?” she chuckles softly, before nodding with approval when he shows her the picture. “it’s amazing,” she agrees, before following suit and sits up to stretch her arms a little, drowsiness still heavy in her bones. “i’d never say no to that.” being somewhat of a coffee addict and all.

After a couple more stretches in bed, Fabian stood up slowly and then stretched out his spine. "If I think you look gorgeous, I'm going to tell you. Regardless of what time of day it is," The man was not scared of saying how he felt. There were many reasons as to why that may be, but they didn't matter. All he knew was that he never wanted to be in the position where a partner felt like they had to rush and tidy themselves up in the morning. "Then coffee is on the way." He walked around the bed to head to the door, but not before pressing a kiss to the top of her head. Fabian was a host by nature so was very content with making her drinks to have in bed. He liked taking care of people.

Simon was not good at accepting help nor was he any good at swallowing his pride. This was more or less a nightmare situation for him, but he didn't want to be an asshole either. They didn't deserve it after all. “Look, I don’t want to owe you anything," he sighed softly. "So let’s call this even, okay?”

Olive was looking through the files still when he commented - although his comment made her groan, roll her eyes and close it. "Dude, I'm doing this because it's the right thing. I'm helping because it's the good thing to do," She pursed her lips. "It's not gonna be easy but that's just because the system hates anyone who isn't a straight white man. But I've seen it done before."

"Come on. Are you going to tell me we're not passionate people that may let our ego get in the way?" Elias asked, looking at her with raised eyebrows. Elias bit his lip as Elena talked and what she said did make sense. Elias just knew he possessed quite an ego at times. "You know. It's kind of hard to disagree with you when you're topless." he said as he looked down at her chest and then back up at her with a little grin as he leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. "Okay." he mumbled against her lips. "But if this shit goes south, don't say I didn't warn you." he quipped as he smiled against her lips as he kissed her again, wrapping his arms around her waist as he turned them around so she was on top.

Elena sighed, tilting her head as he spoke. "Ego about what? We might sometimes do the same things but we work very differently, we do things differently, we have different styles. Whatever one of us doesn't get picked for obviously just wasn't meant for us," She shrugged before happily melting into a kiss. "You were the one who started panicking while I was already getting undressed," The woman took his lead and then settled herself on top of him. She leaned forward, hands on his shoulders where she began to gently massage. "And besides, worst comes to and a job does ruin this, it's not like our lives are super entangled. We can easily get away with avoiding each other." Elena finished with a laugh.