starling.

Ethan and Anora had arrived early, neither wanting to sit in anticipation of the afternoon. They were drinking wine and waiting for his sister. The Vineyard was busy but not obnoxiously so, thankfully they'd kept the event limited. Illy leaned into Ethan so she could inform him of her other plans for their day. "You wanted to carve something on me," She reminded him of their discussion from the previous holiday. "I was thinking if Ghostface managed to catch me tonight... you could."

While he could understand the romantic value of the brunch, Ethan almost immediately regretted the momentary lapse in judgment when making the reservation once they arrived at the vineyard. This just wasn't them. Of course The Harrison's brand of romance wasn't exactly socially acceptable, so he supposed it hadn't been a complete misstep to celebrate their love so normally.

He grabbed a glass of wine and handed it off to Illy, taking a second for himself, sipping on it while they watched the other lovers arrive. His attention was pulled to his wife when she leaned in, a smirk tugging at his lips with her words.

"Guess it's a good thing Ghostface always gets his prey," he growled lowly in return, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, wrapping an arm around her waist and hugging her close. "I'll even be generous and let you decide where I carve my claim on you," he added playfully, nipping at her, pressing another kiss to her neck.

To the untrained eye they would look like any other couple in love. Which, in many ways they were, rare as those moment may have been.

Illy slipped from his arms with the arrival of his sister, hia grip easily relinquishing it's hold on her as he followed behind to greet the ever perfect Eff--Joey? Alright. He gauged his sister's reaction to her new nickname through a drink of his wine, wondering when Anora had become such a fan.

she tried not to hold too tight, containing her surprise that illy had greeted her so warmly in public. it gave her hope for the future of their relationship, no matter how rocky the start. "thank you." she smoothed her skirt in a show of modesty, though she hadn't thought much about the dress before she pulled it on, the long flowing sleeves and silk against the winery's softness. "stunning as ever, of course."

she turned to her brother, offering him an even bigger hug, his own affection bringing a bright smile to her face. "snapdragons." she corrected, gentle and unoffended. the detail mattered because it mattered to noah, he'd taken the time to set it all up so that she cold flourish. and so she made sure the point stood. "he's a man with a vision." and always on a clear path, something she could learn from. "and a great proprietary blend." she gestured around the other gathered people, before turning back to illy, "what are you drinking?"

"Yess.." She replies through teeth, further surprised by this stranger knowing her name. "And, no, jesus. Stop asking."

if she didn't want a hug, perhaps a handshake was out of the question. so, jo did what a harrison normally did. she found hospitality in another gesture. "i'm josephine, his sister. can i get you a drink?"

"Um, well, I don't know if you want every detail Effie," he started with a soft chuckle and smirk with clear insinuation to avoid the true evil behind his words. "But there's really not much to tell," he lied effortlessly as he took a seat next to her. "We were in town for some event, and I'll be honest I couldn't tell you for what because I didn't know or care to begin with," he openly admitted with a laugh, having no reason to hide his contention with the obligations of the lifestyle their level of status came with.

She was his sister.

She already knew Ethan hated those things.

She knew him so well.

"It also just so happened to be around our anniversary and...." His smile widened when he actually thought back to the wedding and the events leading up to it, feigning momentary interest in his wine as it swirled in his glass. He and Illy really had been meant for each other. "...honestly started out as a bet between us who could one up the gift exchange and she won with the wedding," he admitted further with another laugh. "Make sure and tell mom that and send me a video of her reaction," he added with a slight narrowing of his eyes as he gently pointed his glass her way.

"Really we'd been together awhile already, and you know as well as I do, that's already alot for me. So, the ring had always been the plan. I just let her think she was winning some kind of game," he went on knowingly, openly. Josephine, you sly devil you, pulling off Ethan's mask like this. "You tell anyone that, I'll kill you," he joked with a smirk.

"i haven't told her that i'm here." she offers finally, the best she could give him in this situation. she'd only told her parents that it was work. the harrisons could afford to buy a few more houses on the coast before they even questioned what it was she was trying to work on. as far as this world was concerned, there were two harrisons— three. and there wasn't a need for more. not when this all fit so perfectly into ethan's details.

"illy sounds like a lot of fun." someone who went along with ethan's games, who was able to support him. and in return, she already knew how much her brother cared. he went to the ends of the earth for the people who earned it, because he was good, he knew what it took. "the wedding suits you both." she took a sip of wine, again letting the taste wash away the fact that she hadn't been there. how could she have been, when he was painting the picture now, divulging the littlest details no one would have known at the time. "you deserve more games in your life."

it reminded her of when she'd returned from her year exile at boarding school. how the two had stolen away with a bottle of champagne, the only thing they could find. tucked in the depths of jo's closet, reciting the details of what happened to them. tracing the timelines so that it felt like they'd had each other— even as their parents had forced them apart.

"you found the antithesis of chaos." she gestured around the kitchen, the peaceful view out towards the port. there was nothing to be found in this town besides charm and quiet. "and people love reading about this kind of nice." it was the same reason she was here, more or less. "who does she write for?"

"he does!" she stood quickly, arms out to envelope the woman in a hug, though they quickly dropped to her sides, refusing to overstep the boundaries that ethan had always had. his wife would be used to the same— his wife. "you're illyana! oh, i've wanted to meet you." she ignores sluts, overlapping with her own words, rushing the question into the conversation, even if it might be rejected. "can i give you a hug?"

The winemaker might have been Jo Harrison’s biggest fan. He subscribed to multiple magazines just to follow her professional footprint. It originally started as a way to help make the distance feel a little more manageable but he found himself actually really enjoying the work. The articles and journals were interesting and engaging, even.

But having Jo in Carroll was better than any magazine and he was running out of excuses to keep her at the vineyard. The snapdragons were creative and just a little outlandish but it had worked.

“Good,” he grinned like (a bit of) an idiot. Her enjoyment made it all the better. Unreal was a good way to describe it. All of it, actually. Jo in Carroll with him. He'd gotten lucky when he realized Ethan was in town. He passed along the information and the rest was history.

Noah instinctively stood up straight when she took a spot next to him. He let his eyes linger on her profile before following her gaze. Oh, she was right. It did look like spring. The place felt a lot like the way it did when he'd stepped into Petals Floral–like he'd been transported somewhere else entirely. An eternal spring.

"i'm hardly a photographer." she pulled out her camera, positioning herself quickly and fiddling with the settings before the shutter clicked before she lost the moment. "not when the stage is set."

she took a few more photos, a small flow that often times resulted in just the right amount of choice. the camera turned, until its lens was on noah, surrounded by his work. click! "i needed the color." she lowered the camera, finally putting the strap around her neck. she might take more pictures, but they could hardly pretend she wasn't there to simply see her friend. "winter always fades my view."

the face in front of her was neither ethan nor noah. and the words were not friendly in nature. she wracked her brain, the immediate impetus to offer a glass of wine or water pushed away. "i'm sorry. your husband?"

Incredible indeed, he thought as he watched a smile lit up Josephine’s face. It was an expression Noah had the pleasure of witnessing over the years. But still, it felt like the first time he'd seen the sun. When she smiled, it seemed like delight rippled through her. Almost like a breeze that sent a shiver up her spine.

Noah would do anything for that smile. 

“I'm glad you think so,” he breathed.

He'd thought his interest in the photographer was fleeting when they met in France. But nothing with the winemaker had ever been fleeting. Or casual for that matter. No, instead, his eyes always found her first. He wanted to make her look at him. Really see him. 

So that's how he'd ended up with one hundred bouquets.

“No proposal,” he quickly added. He understood how Jo came to that conclusion. The vibrant flowers made the vineyard look like it belonged on the front of a wedding magazine. Not that the place needed much help to begin with. It was already dreamy and ethereal with its abundance of natural light and lush landscape. “I just thought the vineyard needed something bright to get us through January,” he shrugged. “Do you like it?”

"i think so." she turned back to him, confirming that she meant every word. her camera was still in her bag, or she might have snapped a picture then, capturing the winemaker himself among his own creation. she wasn't confident she would be able to do it justice, her own eyes barely able to grasp the scope of what he'd created.

"like it?" she looked back at him, wreathed in snapdragons and haloed in goodness. there wasn't an exact word for what she felt, she'd spent so long without expression in her home, traveling from a sterile los angeles home to production offices. this was the opposite, loud and expressive, asking for her to stay as long as she like and take it all in. "i'm still not sure it's real."

"Illyana," he told her of his better half. "We, uh," he chuckled to himself over how livid his mother was going to be when she finally found out the truth of how his wedding went down and how trashy it was for a Harrison to elope. "We got married by in Vegas. By Elvis," he added with a knowing smirk. Maybe Grace would drop dead from the shock. He could only be so lucky.

"For you Jo I always have time," he agreed, holding out a hand for her to lead the way despite knowing the house inside and out. He reached out to run a hand over her head as she walked past, but retracted the gesture before bringing it to fruition. He wasn't sure his nervous system could handle anymore affection than the hug they'd already shared, no matter how touched starved he was for his sister's comfort.

it's padded with a small smile, keeping the intention as light as could be. she did not materialize in carroll to give him anxiety, to punish him for forgoing telling her where he'd been the past few months. she wanted to live, a new found feeling in her heart. she knew she could not do so without knowing her brother was happy.

"vegas sounds just like you." she let him pour the wine, the space clearly welcome for his use. there were not yet stools at her kitchen counter, but she had a couch, big and white that stretched across much of the living room. she took her glass before settling down, tucking her feet under her as she watched her brother walk around her house.

Noah had ordered a hundred bouquets of snapdragons. Their soft sunset hues taunted him–reminding him of his moment of weakness. He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. How was he supposed to be explain a hundred bouquets?

Noah Smith had become quite the pushover. Maybe it was the insidious warm nature of Carroll it? 

When he'd invited Josephine Harrison to shoot at the vineyard, he'd planned to be casual about it. No big deal. He'd make the place look nice with a few bundles of winter flowers from the local florists but instead, he was left with this mess.

But, the prospect of seeing her smile had been enough to make him stupid. So stupid. Now, he had to find a place for all the vases and he'd run out of surfaces thirty bouquets earlier.

He glanced at his watch. Shit, Jo would be there any minute. He contempla his options, surveying his domain of flowers. They were lovely, he had to admit.

Letting out a sigh, he gave up. There was no getting out of this one after all. Maybe if he played his cards right, she'd think he'd done it on purpose as some kind of avante garde statement.

“Jo, hey,” Noah hadn't noticed the artist sneaky entrance, he'd been so lost in thought. “Make yourself at home. Can I get you anything?” His hand found the back of his neck absently, a bright smile spreading across his lips. It was good to see her–good to see this person who'd once been a staple in his life. When he looked at her, he was reminded of the endlessly green landscape of Bordeaux and the sun glinting off the Garonne River. It was like he was twenty four again.

"i didn't realize this was going to be a—" she broke, shaking her head still disbelief at the stage he'd set for her. she'd asked to take pictures of the winery because she loved the rolling hill of the vineyard, the beautiful arbors that noah had created in the midst of a coastal town. it'd felt like the perfect amount of work to add to her article, though she couldn't pretend to feign concern for the work. it had been an excuse, a reason to stay in town long enough to buy a house. now, it was much more important to her, because it was a hundred bouquets important to noah. "is there a proposal happening?"

She was real alright.

How had she found him?

Had she even been looking?

"Yea, well, you know how it is with mom and the wife's job sort of sends us all over the place," he told her with a nonchalant, vague motion and a scoff, shaking the rest of his disbelief away as he brought his eyes back to hers, his mind frazzled past recognition she hadn't been at the wedding. That no one had been at the wedding except Ethan, Illy, and Elvis.

He answered her question with a nod and closed the space between them, wrapping his arms around her just tightly enough to give away a homesickness he hadn't known he held until she was back in his arms. "I missed you," he admitted quietly, his voice almost a whisper.

"your wife." finally, she inhales, trying to reel back to his words before. "i want to meet your wife!" she finds the words, imbuing them with her good nature. she could have been hurt by the surprise, and in some ways she was. but none of that was ethan's fault— he hadn't driven anyone away. they'd all done a good enough job on their own. she still counted herself lucky to have received the greeting she did.

"do you have time for a glass of wine while i sign?" her kitchen was unused and immaculate, but there were two glasses to be found and a wine opener that might work if she handed to over to ethan. "i have half a cellar full already, and a few questions."

Ever since Illyana's generous Christmas gifts and the heightened excitement coursing through his veins, Ethan had been feeling extra anxious, nervous, uneasy, tense, on edge. And no amount of release had helped alleviate the rising pressure he felt with all the emotions surrounding his uncle's murder death. He was finally free of his demons, so why did he now feel more caged than ever?

He pushed out a breath as he half jogged up to the front door of Elio's old house, trying his best to push away to overwhelming need for something he couldn't quite put his finger on. A quiet grumble left him as he rang the bell and waited for the new tenant to answer the door. "Come on. Come on," he said quietly to himself, rushing them without their knowledge as he looked over the papers he'd brought for them to sign, finalizing the sale of the house and gaining his the large commission - as if he needed it.

His head turned with the sound of the lock, and he plastered on his friendliest smile. "Hi. It's Mr. Harrison. You're realtor from--" he started introducing himself as the door opened, but when he saw the woman standing on the other side, his heart dropped and all the color drained from his face. He felt faint. Had it suddenly gotten hotter? He was having an aneurysm and was dying. There was no other explanation for what he was seeing. His eyes had to be deceiving him.

"Jo?" he asked barely above a whisper.

What

The actual

she has the benefit of the calm in this situation, it's a greeting that she's been ready to give for days now since she pulled into the drive way of elio russo's former house. "you keep a low profile these days." realtor didn't suit him in her opinion, of all the possibilities in the world she always saw her brother doing something more abstract, something that she couldn't quite describe. as though he'd already earned skipping the mundanities of the world.

yet here they were as she closed the door behind him, letting him into her new home in carroll. she knew how she wanted this to go, she had a bottle of wine already picked out in the cellar and her afternoon free. she has hopes and dreams, and just one question: "can i give you a hug?"