The only wisdom is knowing you know nothing

❝ woah, woah, woah. don’t bring my boys into your schemes. ❞ kay walked into his living room and cradled thor’s head in his hands. ❝ you’re gonna corrupt them. ❞

❝ besides, no need to snoop, i’m all done in the kitchen. come on. ❞ he ruffled thor’s head and gestured for val to follow him into the kitchen. ❝ surprise! ❞ he said, sweeping an arm in front of him. he had set the table with his best dishes and plated their food already. there was caesar salad, potatoes au gratin, and ropa vieja. or, his attempt at ropa vieja. he had followed the online recipe exactly, but he didn’t know if it turned out right or not. which is why he had made extra potatoes, just to be safe.

“I would never do such thing.”She said smiling at him. “I’m the definition of innocence.” 

She followed her friend into the kitchen extremely curious of what he had done and found herself swallowing a lump as her eyes watered for a second before she  took a deep breath and turned to kay. “You know I hate when you do overtly nice things because I wanna tease you about them to keep the balance of the universe, but I can’t find anything to tease you about.” She said with a small pout. “So far at least, I gotta wait to taste the food first.” 

valerie

when: dec. 11, 2019 00:07 where: frozen pond on the outskirts of ellingham who: @forensicvalerie​ (closed)

❝ you know when i said i wanted more adventure in my life, this isn’t what i meant. ❞ elara scowled at valerie, shivering in her wet clothes. she didn’t entirely remember how they had gotten here, but it definitely involved a bottle of tequila and a compilation video of idiots in the snow on youtube. at least the cold water had mostly sobered her up. who knew that trying to skate on a frozen pond wasn’t a good idea, especially when it wasn’t quite as frozen as it looked. it was really something elara should have known, and she probably did, when she was sober enough to know things. ❝ i think i forgot what it’s like to be warm. ❞

who: Autumn (@deneigement)

Valerie looked at her wall unsure she honestly had no idea about interior design or aesthetics or like what things fit in what spaces so everything that was coming out of the other woman’s mouth seemed a little bit incomprehensible for the her. 

“So you are telling me that we could do a whole bookcase on that wall?” She asked a little surprised. “And then get a spot for a seat to fit perfectly in there? But like I like to read on weird positions I usually end up with my feet dangling from one side of the seat do you think that would be possible.”

Where: Kay’s house

Who: @detectivekay​

Valerie looked around,she was sitting on kay’s couch with strict instructions to not go anywhere else, not step in the kitchen and not try to snoop anywhere in the house. Which was a pretty boring thing to do for fifteen minutes,not that it was much but in general her ability to do nothing limited itself to about 5 minutes at a time, otherwise she needed to have her brain engaged in something and her phone had bored her a while ago.  She also knew he was probably arranging some sort of birthday surprise which made it hard to focus on anything else, she loved surprises after all and kay was very good at birthdays, maybe the best person she knew at least when it came o her birthdays not that anyone had made much of an effort before him. 

elara made a face. ❝ you couldn’t pay me to go back to london. new york, maybe, but not london. never london. montreal is beautiful, though. and a great party scene. you really wouldn’t go back? ❞ sometimes elara felt like she had left too many cities in her wake, too many bad memories, and ellingham was the one place she hadn’t ruined for herself. at least, not yet. ❝ aside from the lack of excitement, ellingham is pretty great. how long have you lived here? ❞

❝ you know, nothing you’ve said so far has convinced me it wasn’t the guy who scratched up my car. especially since you just called him hot ??? there is nothing hot about crime, val. he scratched up my car !! he lost his right to be hot when he chose to do that. ❞ kay was only half-kidding, he could tell val was in a weird headspace and he wanted to keep the mood light. 

❝ maybe you could take your own advice and just talk to the guy ? maybe he has feelings for you, too. you won’t stop feeling weird about it until you have answers. and you know i’m the leading expert on catching feelings for people who you didn’t expect to catch feelings for. so i know what i’m talking about. the best thing about your situation is that you aren’t ruining an existing relationship by talking about your feelings, since you guys have just hooked up. you have nothing to lose, val. ❞ 

“he is hot and you know it.” Valerie huffed. “And by the way I’m sure that for most people it’s the opposite, they seem to like the danger and edge that comes from certain criminals.” She said with a suggestive raise of her eyebrows just to annoy him. 

“One, you don’t use my own advice against me, you know I give advice I don’t follow it, like who does even?” She said shaking her head. “Second, feelings? Who said anything about feelings? There are no feelings here, absolutely none, I don’t know the dude enough to have feelings for him.” 

even if kay weren’t a detective, he would still know that val wasn’t telling him the whole story. he’d never seen her so worked up about a hook-up, so something was definitely up. and since it was literally his job to be nosy, he was going to push for details. ❝ that’s all ? ❞ he gave her an incredulous look. 

❝ i find that hard to believe. what’s the deal ? were they… really bad ? ❞ he tilted his head to the side. ❝ really good ? ❞ he raised his eyebrows. ❝ married ? old ? ❞ he made a face. ❝ did they vote conservative ? ❞ he tapped his fingers on the table. ❝ was it someone i’ve arrested ? it wasn’t the guy who scratched up my car last year, was it ? ❞

Val knew she had made a mistake as soon as she saw kay slip into what she called his interrogation mode and just as she predicted the questions flooded in much to her dismay. She rolled her eyes at him as he started but she couldn’t help but blush when he asked if it was really good. Stupid hormones. 

“I would never hook up with someone who voted conserva-Who do you think I am?” She answered offended shaking her head at him. “And not he isn’t married, nor is he a criminal, to my knowledge at least, and no he isn’t the guy who scratched up your car last year either...He was hot though I wouldn’t complain if it had been him.” 

⁓ ⁎ ❛ open starter ( étienne bellegarde )

WHEN: November 29th @ 16:46. WHERE: Winter Café. WHO: Étienne Bellegarde & OPEN.

“Look, I love my job. I truly do. But, honestly? It’s only been like three months, and now I already understand why my dad always says that kids made him go bald. And like, can you imagine me bald? No! Because I wouldn’t look good bald. I’d probably never get laid again, and let’s be real, that’d be a tragedy for the whole entire world. So. I need a break from correcting these dictées. And since you’re sitting right here, well… I’ve decided to enlist your help.”

“Bold of you to assume that I can help in any way, shape or form.” Valerie said sitting next to him and looking down at his papers. “But since you seem a little desperate and working with kids sounds awful I will do my best, what do you need?”

he cracked a small smile at her statement, because it was true. they were both prone to making bad decisions and not thinking too hard before making them, which was a recipe for disaster. he just wished she hadn’t chosen this moment to be reasonable. but then again, it was for the best, since this was one situation where he didn’t want to act with thinking and then have to deal with the consequences. 

he watched val finish her drink, his interest piqued. ❝ okay, now you’ve got my attention. i want details, so spill. who are they and what did they do that’s got you all strung out? ❞ he leaned forward, encouraging her to share what was on her mind. val was never one to hold back, so he was surprised with the vague answer she’d given.

Valerie looked around and order another drink she definitely was going to need it “It’s just...I just...” She made a weird gesture with her hands trying to gesticulate something. She honestly had no idea how to explain this and the worst was that she had no idea why it made her so confused, why it made her feel all tangled and weird and almost insecure. “I just hooked up with someone that’s all.” 

    ❝ WHAT DO YOU MEAN not a word to anyone else ? i’ve already posted it on my instagram story. did you not want the whole world to see it ? ❞ he’s definitely joking around, but he’ll still do his best to act like he’s not. ❝ people have already viewed it so i think it might be a bit too late to delete it, don’t ya’ think ? ❞

kay hadn’t even thought about how he would feel seeing hailie with someone else. of course it had happened in the past and kay hadn’t thought much about it beyond wanting hailie to be happy, but now, now that he had acknowledged his feelings for her, he didn’t know what he would do if she told him she was seeing someone. even the thought of it made his heart ache a little bit. he didn’t want things to change, but they already had. in the past, he had always played the role of the supportive best friend, teasing her about hook-ups, sitting and listening to her talk about dates (good and bad), bringing her ice cream and being there for her after a break-up. but he couldn’t do that anymore. it would be too hard.

kay sank down a little in his seat, frowning at his friend. ❝ really, val? now, of all times, you choose to be reasonable? i liked it better when you supported my bad ideas. ❞

he sighed, annoyed because he knew val was right, but he really didn’t want her to be. ❝ i just don’t want to make a decision i regret. what if i ruin our friendship for nothing? i could never forgive myself. i want to be sure that this isn’t something i’m going to get over. i can’t tell her until i’m sure. ❞

he ordered another drink and sat up a little straighter. ❝ thanks, val, ❞ he said in a low voice. he was feeling overwhelmed and he knew val was holding back on the teasing because she could tell and he was so grateful to her for understanding. she was the only person he trusted to take this seriously, which was funny since she was the one who teased him the most on a daily basis. that’s why they were best friends, though, because she would tease him 9 times out of 10, but be there for him for the one time he needed her.

he cleared his throat, desperately searching for a subject change. ❝ enough about me. what’s been going on with you? ❞ he hoped val would ignore the abrupt change in tone and just go with it. as much as he had been aching to talk about hailie, he hadn’t realized how much it would take out of him to talk about it, and he needed to take his mind off of it for a little while at least.

“Someone has to be reasonable in this friendship at some point, we wouldn’t be alive otherwise.” She said with a shrug trying to inject some humor into the situation. She had this sudden urge or just find the exact way she could fix this for him, just go get hailie and make sure they talked and opened up about each other or just lock them in some place until they got together. She just wished she could make everything better for him right now but she knew it was impossible, that’s not how life works, that’s not how relationship works no matter how much she wanted them to. 

She studied her friend silently, she wanted to ask him if he was sure he wouldn’t ruin the friendship by saying nothing if he couldn’t handle it either but she just stayed silent and nodded.

When he softly thanked her she just smiled awkwardly, she felt like she hadn’t helped at all, like she had left him in an even worse place than he had been when he went to her. She shook away the guilt, he needed to understand every aspect of the decision he was making, and she needed to make sure he did, that he wouldn’t walk into this blind with a set idea on his head and not thinking about the  actual consequences. She was helping him. In some way.