Lael

Apparently Three’s boy wasn’t in the training centre, so Wiress had volunteered to go searching for him. She wasn’t as much use in that environment as most of the other victors were anyway. She suspected he was hiding from their new escort, and had politely but firmly insisted she be the one to search for him when the overly exuberant woman tried to protest.

She decided to start at the bottom of the Tower and work up. Most of the rooms on the ground floor were deserted, but the sixth door she opened revealed a familiar face. Wiress was overcome by a rush of emotion. Lael really was a wonderful escort, and she missed having her around now that she was gone.

“You look good,” she commented. “Healthy, happy…. Tired, though. How’s Two?”

“Wiress!” Lael’s face brightened and she hopped up from the couch towards the Three mentor. She’d forgotten just how nice and lovely Wiress was, and perhaps distance made the heart grow fonder but the victor was always very nice to her.

She reached her arms out, then paused, remembering that Wiress had particular preferences towards things that Lael didn’t usually think about. “Do you mind if I hug you? I’ve missed you.”

The day had been long with all of the paperwork to do for Max and Briella, and to see a face that wasn’t just interested in seeing her for the sake of meeting someone that had been on television before was incredibly refreshing. And Wiress was just about the last person that would bother talking with her about the Birchelor or any kind of reality-television-related subject. At least Lael figured not.

The hustle and bustle of the pre-launch time was getting to Echo.  She was tired of it.  Her tributes were doing fine, she supposed.  That was what mattered, but Echo couldn’t take all the demands that came from sponsors wanting to know of Ripley and her partner would be stronger contenders than Ember and Demelza were last year, or as strong as Pixel the year before.  It was….a lot for Echo to handle and she just didn’t want to anymore.

After excusing herself away from a sponsor that had cornered her, she found herself slipping into a viewing room.  At least those would be empty until the tributes launched, or so she thought.  When she heard someone speak, she tensed only to relax upon realizing it was Lael.

“Guess I’m not the only one who thought this was a good place to hide?”

Lael perked up when she realized who it was.

“Echo!” she exclaimed with a grin. “It’s so nice to see you!”

There was something inexplicably relief-inducing about seeing one of the members of District Three walking through her door. Sure, she hated the snake and she did enjoy being on the Two team, but there was something about Three that no other District could really match up with. A special quirkiness.

“You said it,” Lael said with a sigh as she turned back to her work. “To say it’s been crazy would be an overstatement. How are you doing?”

There were a lot more sponsors to handle, though, and Lael had camped herself out in a viewing room to handle the paperwork while a television personality ran through the statistics and probabilities of each tribute. The curtain of the room was drawn to avoid any unwanted attention (it turned out being on a popular reality show invited more cameras into her life than expected), and Lael felt her heart drop into her stomach when she heard the door open behind her. 

“Oh hi,” she said, painting a smile onto her face as she turned around. As soon as she saw it wasn’t some paparazzi or Capitol influencer, though, she felt herself relax. “Don’t mind me. Just getting some work done.” // @ttwstarters

Maybe it was foolish for her to seek Lael out.  Birch seemed to think she was a great friend and all the past interactions Oakley had with her were very nice.  She seemed like a very good person.  There was absolutely no denying that, but if Birch had to do this she wanted to make sure Lael was looking out for his best interests.  Maybe then she could stop worrying.

“Private maybe?” she suggested with a half shrug.  She gave Lael a look then.  “It’s about Birch.”  She didn’t know if Lael was truly doing this out of the goodness of her heart or if there was a hope that Bitch would someday fall for her, either way….she just wanted to make sure he was safe and content.  

“And I don’t think I’ve had a chance to properly congratulate you on your engagement.”

“Oh,” Lael raised her eyebrows and paused for a second, then gained her composure back. Oakley wasn’t someone she was expecting to ask about Birch, of all people, but then again she supposed she didn’t really know a lot about Birch’s other personal relationships. “Yeah. Yeah! Of course.”

Were Birch and Oakley close enough for her to know that the engagement was a facade? Or was she just worried about her friend’s fiancée being from the Capitol? Lael truly couldn’t figure out what on earth Oakley could be wanting to discuss, but she had no reason to say no. 

“Thank you,” she smiled as she led Oakley to a nearby empty room. “Are you good today? I know you can be in a lot of pain sometimes.”

Lael closed the door behind them. “But yes, go ahead. Birch.”

“Always an over-achiever I see,” Birch replied with a laugh. “I don’t think I’d expect anything less from you though.” He appreciated the effort that Lael put into their public personas. It was more than he could have asked for anybody. “You know, I don’t find that you wear down as easily as I do when faced with all of that. What is your secret?”

Birch followed Lael’s gaze and let out a little breath. Anything for a story.  He gave the camera a little wave as Lael shut the two of them completely in the viewing room. “We’ll have to restock the caramel then - you know that’s my favourite.” Birch moved to his knees on the couch, leaning his head on his hands, his elbows resting on the back of the couch. “Hmmmm, I think cheese today. Mix it up a little.” 

One of the nicest changes at his home in Ten was the abundance of snacks that had made its way into his cupboards. When his parents lived there, his mom was not a fan of all of these snacks, preferring more healthy, straight from the source kind of foods. 

“Oh, by the way, if you ever need a quiet place to work you can always come up to the Tenth floor,” Birch mentioned, scratching at his stubble. “Makes it look like we can’t stay away from each other too.” 

Lael laughed lightly as she pulled out the bag of cheddar popcorn from the back of the cabinet, behind a set of files that just so happened to be hiding the snack from view. “Maybe you need to stop eating all the caramel, then.”

She fell back down onto the couch and popped a few kernels into her mouth before handing the bag off to Birch and picking up the remote. Lael flipped through a few channels before two familiar faces lit up her screen. 

“Oh. Oh yes. Our first date,” Lael laughed as it zoomed into the two of them strapped together on top of a Capitol building, getting ready to bungee jump. “This really was ridiculous, wasn’t it?”

She turned her head to look at Birch and smiled a bit. “Still is ridiculous, I guess. And I absolutely will be taking you up on that offer.”

@lael-lu

Being back in the Capitol brought with it a tornado of mixed emotions.  Oakley was glad to see her friends, to see Birch, but she also knew how much it hurt.  Despite his insistence that Lael was just a friend and she didn’t want to marry him, Oakley still felt the urge to talk to Lael, to make sure that she was doing her best to look out for him even when Oakley couldn’t be around.

It wasn’t that Oakley was  actively looking for Lael; she wasn’t.  She just found her and approached.  Everly was at her side and Oakley was back in her wheelchair.  The first day in the Capitol was already wearing her thin.

“Hey,” she started as she approached Lael with a small smile.  “Can we talk?”

Lael was craving something fresh and clean after the previous day, when she’d eaten nearly a whole pizza out of anxiety. The move to a new district was much more anxiety-inducing than she’d expected, and though it was going well for now, she found herself stress-eating the snacks packed away in the District Two pantry. Now she needed something fresh, so she was checking out an apple from a snack kiosk when she heard a voice behind her. 

She turned to see Oakley, and her face brightened. The mentor had always been one of the nicest people here, and Lael was always glad to see someone who was kind for no reason other than that being who they were. But she wanted to “talk”, which was always code for... something.

“Hi Oakley,” Lael smiled. “Of course! In private, or... do you want to grab a viewing room?”

Ares frowned at her words and looked down at the water bottle. He played with it a little bit in his hands, his thumb rubbing over the scratchy edge of the cap. He swallowed down his throat, tasting a little bit of vodka that was left over on the inside of his cheeks. He heard her next statement and he sighed through his nose before he looked up at her again, leaning back. His expression was a little annoyed, but it was gentler and calmer with her, knowing what they were both doing with one another since last year. He had done his damndest to abide by her wishes. 

“Lael,” Ares said with a heavy breath before he reached out for her hand. He wanted her touch again for just a moment. “A lot of people are mistaking why I’m drinking at all and I don’t think anybody has really understood it.” He looked up at her eyes as much as he could, given how he was slowly getting drunker and drunker. “If I didn’t, I’m afraid of freaking out in public, okay? It’s just best that I’m numb so I don’t feel anything than to risk the other way around. The other side of it all isn’t pretty, especially after… what happened.”

Ares was still nursing his broken heart and his loneliness, even though his loneliness was far more self-imposed now than it ever had been. It was best that most people stayed away from him for their own safety and he knew that. He felt dangerous, like anything he touched rotted and decayed. Maybe he’d decay Lael, too, but her touch, her body, her lips, everything brought him a small comfort when she was nearby.

Lael let out a deep breath. “I’m not going to pretend to understand, which is why I’m not going to lecture you. I’m not even... in a place to teach or whatever. I’m not your mom, so... sure.”

She wasn’t going to pretend that his belligerent drunkenness didn’t bother her, but Lael knew who she was to him. And a hookup wasn’t exactly someone who was responsible for monitoring drinking. But an escort’s job was to make sure her tributes and victors made it where they needed to go in one piece, so that’s what she was going to do. 

“Have you talked to the kids at all yet?” she asked. Lael would have to do some digging on Max and Briella but she liked their chances from a first glimpse. She wasn’t sure what her role would be yet on the new team, and how victors like Enobaria or Nolie liked to train the Two kids. 

Birch was glad that Lael was so good at this. It gave him motivation to match her acting skills and prowess with the reporters and paparazzi that hounded them whenever they were in the Capitol. He smiled happily at the kiss, knowing that was the right reaction. It had become so commonplace, he barely had to think about it now. 

“I think if Lael wasn’t so good at her job, I would try and convince her to stay in Ten. But, we’ve found a good balance between here and Ten. Besides, we don’t want to be away from the people here for that long,” he added, smiling. The questions had been continuing for the last little bit and he could feel his energy waning. His smile wasn’t quite reaching his eyes anymore. 

He tried to look more sheepish than relieved as Lael pulled him through the door and he waved one last time to the cameras. Birch was sure they would be speculating on what the two of them were doing in the viewing room, but that was a problem for another day. “Lael Lu, you are clearly a genius and my saviour,” he commented, wrapping her in a quick hug before flopping on the couch. “Is it really that easy now to see when I’m done with everything?”

Lael shut the door behind them before letting Birch give her a hug and falling down onto the couch beside him. She picked up the remote control and flipped it onto a nature documentary focusing on the ruins outside District 13. Something calming and non-Games-related. 

“You’re roommates with someone long enough, you start to be able to read them,” Lael laughed a little bit, then stood up. “And as of several months ago, it’s now my job to be able to deal with you. Not that it’s a bad job, but I want to be good at it.”

She stood up and made her way to the back of the room, tilting her head towards the thin sidelight next to the door where a camera was peering into the room. Lael smiled, walked over, and shut the curtain over the window, then walked back over to the cabinets. 

“Popcorn?” she asked. “I ran out of caramel, but I have cheese and butter flavored.”

Ares was suffering from slightly blurred vision from how much he had already been drinking since that morning. He woke up early because he had a nightmare, started drinking spiked coffee around six, Peacekeepers dragging him out by eight that morning after several cups of it. He was wired that morning, but after sneaking a couple of drinks and then spiking his water with vodka, he was getting to the point of having a pretty decent buzz going. It was not nearly enough. 

Still, as Lael approached him with her comment on his attitude, he sighed. He couldn’t be too rude to her. She had been nothing but good to him and it also helped she was getting him laid. He was still assisting with her cheating on Birch, which didn’t quite bother him as much as it would if it were a legitimate engagement. He knew the whole thing was a sham. It was easy to tell given how Birch had been before it all went down. 

“Enough,” Ares said as he untwisted the cap and took another drink out of it. “Done showing off for the cameras for now or what?”

Lael raised an eyebrow for a second, then drew a deep sigh and dropped her head to the side. 

“So I take it that nothing’s gotten any better since I saw you last winter,” she muttered, then took a long draw from her own bottle. Lael smoothed out her outfit, designed by the stylist from District Two, who clearly had a much different aesthetic than her previous one, though it wasn’t necessarily better or worse. “I suppose I’ll spare you the riot act on how getting drunk in public won’t make it any better.”

Lael hadn’t really had to take care of her victors before; District Three was a bunch of weirdos, but they were all put-together enough that she never worried about any of them. Maybe it was because they were all introverts who preferred being alone, or because they were just good at hiding all their own issues (though she’d caught Pixel red-handed with more than a few items belonging to sponsors several times). District Two was a whole different monster.

@ttwstarters

It took three Peacekeepers to get him out of his mansion and dragged to the Reaping that morning. He didn’t want to be there, didn’t want to go to the Capitol, he wanted to remain shut inside of his mansion like he had been over the last nearly eight months since his sister was killed. It didn’t help that he had gotten word that Leta would be transferred into the Tribute Tower tomorrow to start a new assignment there. He didn’t understand why she stayed with the Peacekeeper Corps now that they were responsible for their older sister’s murder. 

But of course, he wasn’t allowed to skip out on the Games, because that meant all of his future clients would be missing out on their latest meal. 

So Ares willingly stood at the Reaping, a little buzzed from that morning drinking coffee with a bit too much spike in it, but with his fellow Victors around, there was no way he could get his hands on booze without them biting his head off, so he went and sat alone, as he had begun to do, and fiddled around with the vial of nightlock in his pocket out of comfort.

Upon getting there with his two tributes, he hadn’t spoken to them at all and went to find a quiet corner to, once again, be alone. It wasn’t far from the action though, needing to be in the loop if he was going to train these kids right as opposed to last year. He stood off to the side, leaning against the wall as the crowds of people mingled and reunited since the Victory Ball. He purposely kept himself away, afraid of what he might do if he mingled at all. He felt he had caused enough damage already – no need to make it worse. 

He had unscrewed the cap of the water bottle he brought with him off of the train, half drunk by the time the train arrived and he managed to sneak in a little bit of vodka into it as he departed without the rest of them noticing. So he stood there, sipping on it periodically when someone caught sight of him and made his way to him. He groaned low in his breath and capped the bottle so they wouldn’t catch the scent of the booze.

“What?” he snapped.

Lael hadn’t interacted with Ares on the train ride from Two. It was her first reaping in a Career district, and while it certainly was a little different than her years in Three it had seemingly gone off without a hitch. The train ride felt a little awkward, since she didn’t really know the mentors from Two very well, and there weren’t to be any hints at all of what she’d been doing with Ares as of last year. At least, not if she didn’t want her reputation to be dumped in the trash.

Lael Lu caught cheating on her fiancé with District Two trainer and mentor Ares Carnahan. God, the tabloids would eat it up. She’d become a social pariah, lose her job, have to return home in shame to her family. Not to mention what that might do to Birch. 

But she couldn’t seem to stay away, especially not when she found him in a secluded area away from the rest of the crowd with that suspicious water bottle he’d been carrying around since the train. She took a swig from her own bottle- hers half-full of beer, but it only being her first- and turned to walk towards the mentor.

“Always with the harshness,” Lael breathed as she approached him. “You’re always so quick to snap at people, Ares. Now tell me, how many refills have you had of that ‘water’?”

“We’re doing very well, thank you for asking,” Lael grinned. “The distance was hard but we made it work. I went out to Ten a few times and he obviously came to the Capitol when he could. It got much easier when we moved in together and now we split our time between the Capitol and Ten.”

She turned her head up to get a look at Birch, and recognized the look on his face. It was time to get away from the cameras. He was good at this, and the crowds loved him, obviously, but he gave too much of himself to the facade. The exhaustion was clear to Lael, who had been living with him off and on for the last few months. 

“Now, if you’ll excuse us,” she smiled as she grabbed his hand and led him towards the nearest door to a viewing room. “I really could do with some alone time with my fiancé, if that’s ok.” // @birchpembrooke

It was so much easier to smile and to actually care about what Lael was saying compared to any of the other women here. He was actually friends with her - so much so that she had shared her secret stashes of snacks in the Tower. He appreciated that she was here, but he was endlessly curious as to why she had chosen to come on to this reality show. 

“I think surprise is a little bit of an understatement if I’m being honest. But a happy surprise, Lael.” He looked on with an expression of amusement as Lael went into the pocket of her dress and wrote him a little note. Birch accepted the note and immediately read it to himself. He couldn’t stop himself from knowing the secret. 

Satisfied, Birch tucked the note in his pocket and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “I’ll read it over and over again,” he said, trying to be cryptic for the cameras, but also acknowledge what she had told him. Birch knew he had a true friend here which was more than he could have asked for. 

“How did you know that I would be totally over the moon for your popcorn?” Birch asked, trying to steer the conversation to things that have happened so far tonight. It was the direction he had been given whenever there was a lull whether it was wanted by him or not. “Any other snacks you had thought about giving me?”

“Good, as long as it’s happy,” Lael responded with a grin. “Honestly, it was kind of last minute, so it’s a bit of a surprise for me, too.”

She remembered the Gamemaker- Plutarch- approaching her with the proposal, the reminder of the promotion offer and how much she disliked being on a floor with that giant snake. Lael wouldn’t have to stay on long, he had said, they just wanted to fill the roster with a couple of recognizable faces with good reputations, some girls the public would want to cheer for. 

So here Lael was, one of the people that the Capitol wanted to cheer for. Which, honestly, felt pretty good. It hadn’t been her idea, but it also hadn’t taken much convincing. 

“Oh, I just grabbed it on my way out,” she replied in regards to the popcorn. “But I know you raided my stock in the Tower during last Games, so maybe this’ll tide you over for a little bit.”

Lael’s hand touching his sent a shock wave of warmth through him. Her words were quiet and ginger, bringing his attention to her as she garnered it. The heat vanished as quick as it came, knowing that there wouldn’t be much to follow it. As she had said, she was engaged. She was happy. At least someone was. It felt like everyone was now. Her words made his heart sink and his eyes went with it, his frown deepening as the sadness in his hazel-brown eyes muted the color into a murky, muddy color. 

Ares only looked up again when her fingers went to move a strand of hair out of his face. He sighed through his nose and looked at her, his brow gently creasing. He was meant to be stronger than this. Ares had to teach himself growing up how to be a man and that meant bottling things up for everyone else’s benefit. He had to be rigid, but it was hard to be. His heart hadn’t just been broken – it was blown to pieces. To think that Lael thought he was being mean or rude to her, that confused him more and only made the sadness deepen. He hadn’t meant to. 

Ares closed his eyes as she spoke about Birch. He didn’t want to hear his name. He knew that this show that he was on wasn’t by his choice. This was the Capitol’s doing, but he enjoyed spending time with Lael. He didn’t want to hear about other people finding some sort of purpose, that there were people out there that depended on one another when Ares felt no connection to anybody in the world anymore. Lael had commented on the fact that she knew that he was sleeping with other girls and that only made his heart hurt. He looked away again, hardly able to look at her anymore. He was, but not in the way she was thinking. Lael was the only girl he was doing this with now that he was doing it willingly. Now, if he didn’t say so himself, Ares was being occasionally raped by Capitolites by getting these notes and bookings. But he had to no choice, because he was being punished for his sister’s mistakes.

She stood on her toes and gave him a kiss on the cheek, the warmth spreading again but died just as fast. He swallowed and nodded his head, saying nothing. It was hard to stand there and pretend that everything was okay. Every bit of his body language probably told her that it wasn’t. It was the same feeling with Thalia earlier. All he wanted was for someone not to criticize him, to actually be gentle with him, to have some sort of connection that made him feel like he wasn’t alone. 

Except he was, and even standing in a quiet closet with her, he knew that more than ever.

“You should get back to the party,” Ares said, his voice barely higher than a whisper, looking toward the floor, but his hand didn’t leave her shoulder. He wanted to have human touch for just a second longer. 

Lael could see he was deep in thought, pondering. It was no secret what had happened to his sister, and if she was just there as a physical release for him, or an excuse to get his mind off of everything, that was fine with her. But they were friends at this point, even if they were doing certain things that might have gone beyond the bounds of friendship, and she wanted to help. 

“We don’t have to talk about what I’m doing, or... anyone else, if you don’t want to,” she said, leaning down to pick up her purse from the floor. “But I’m here if you want to talk, ok?”

She took a deep breath. Ares didn’t have a great reputation around here, whether it was because he was picking fights with trainers pretty often or sleeping around or what. And Lael could kind of understand why he had earned that reputation. But part of her believed was selfishly using him because she was feeling desperate for a man’s touch, and maybe he was using her in the same way. 

Lael ran her hand down his arm for a minute before stepping closer in the tight closet. Physical touch felt healing right now, so she laid her head against his chest for a second before nodding. 

“I probably should,” she answered, her voice as soft as his. “And we can’t be seen, but... you know that.”

Ares felt her lips part from his and he sighed, closing his eyes for a moment and let his head dip a little before he let her slide from his hands and to the floor. He reached down to pull his pants up securing everything before buttoning and redoing his belt. He looked down at her, not saying much to her as she got herself righted. He rolled his sleeves back up to where they were considering they had fallen down somewhere in the middle of him holding her up against the wall. 

She spoke and he sighed again, nodding his head. His expression was dulled to a muted stoicism. He was well aware of the stupid show she was on and her engagement to Birch Pembrooke. Not that he liked it in the slightest. It was just another girl he was involved in that somehow had a connection to that guy. His eyes flicked to her left hand where her engagement ring sat, but all it did was provide him with yet another reminder of how alone he really was. 

“Yeah, I heard,” Ares said, his voice deadpanned. 

He said nothing else about it. He was a little more relaxed, but it didn’t cure all of what was going on with him. Instead, he looked down at her face and took notice of how a little discombobulated she still was. So he lifted his hand and gently ran his thumb on the edge of her lip where a bit of her lip color had been smeared. He made sure it looked presentable before he reached up to untangle a bit of hair at the top of her head that was sticking out and frizzing. He smoothed it out for her and then finally adjusted her dress straps. It was a gentler touch than he was used to providing, but he was too tired, and he wanted any excuse to be around someone else who wasn’t there to give him a hard time. 

“Hey,” Lael looked at him, holding his hand to her face for a second, liking the gentle touch after what had just transpired in this closet. But she didn’t like the tone of his voice. “You’re in a bad place, I get it. But if you want to keep doing this you’re going to have to be nice, at the very least.”

She reached her hand up, pulling a stray lock of hair out of his eyes. Lael would be lying to herself if she said that she didn’t care what people thought of her decisions, but she’d never made her decisions based on other peoples’ feelings. “Birch is nice. The nicest, actually. And he’s become... my best friend.”

Lael smiled a little as he adjusted her strap. “Besides, don’t say you’re getting jealous. Not based on what I know you’re doing with other girls. We both know what this is.”

She took another breath and went up on her toes to kiss him again, this time on the cheek. 

@lael-lu

It had been nearing the end of the night by the time he had run into Lael again. She had been entertaining people because of the stupid Birchelor thing that she had to deal with since being on that show. Ares still wasn’t entirely sure why she had done it in the first place. Still, he had been to preoccupied with how crappy his night had been to quite notice how much attention she had been getting that night. It only came to him when she walked up to him that he found it quite ironic that he had a history of having sex with the women that Birch inevitably would end up seeing. Perhaps he was buttering them up for him at this point. 

Ares had spent the first part of the party drinking, the next part of it dealing with the fallout of not drinking enough, falling into a panic attack twice, passing out once, before he ended up walking back into the ballroom to find a quiet place to sit and be alone. Until Lael walked up and started to ask questions. For some reason, Ares couldn’t bring himself to be angry toward her. She hadn’t come up accusing him of doing anything wrong. He was simply tired, his head hurt and his chest hurt, but he was wanting anything and everything that would help him alleviate the pain he was feeling. Thankfully, Lael had offered to help him.

As much as sex had been skewed for him since being thrust in the sex ring, remembering the fun night he and Lael had at the end of the 78th had convinced him otherwise. After discussing it and giving her a small warning, while she also gave him one due to the Birchelor fiasco, they went around Snow’s mansion to find somewhere to hide out. They eventually found a small walk-in closet that had nothing inside of it, turned on the light, and had sex. 

By the time they were done, Ares was far more sober than he wanted to be, but his body felt relaxed. He was holding Lael up against him while he had her pinned to the wall, mostly clothed still except for the necessary parts being stripped away. Once he finished, his breathing came heavy as he pressed his face into her neck for a moment, catching his breath before he leaned up, looked at Lael and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips.

Lael let Ares kiss her back for a few moments before pulling away, thoughts racing through her mind. He seemed better now than he had been twenty minutes ago, but she had a spotlight on her now. They had to be more careful. She pulled her dress back down and smoothed out the fabric, fixing her hair as well as she could in the closet. 

“That was stupid,” she breathed, adjusting her jewelry and bending down to pick up an earring that had fallen in the action. “I’m... I’m engaged. And everyone knows it, it’s not like... geez.”

But oh, had that been nice. She loved Birch. He was one of her best friends, but it wasn’t as if they’d done... any of the things that engaged couples did. At least not in private. In public, it was lovey-dovey, kisses on the forehead and pausing for photoshoots with them tacked to each others sides. In private, it was popcorn and movies and... friend stuff. Which was just how the both of them wanted it. 

Lael ran her left hand through her hair, the large ring on her finger snagging on a bit of hairspray before pulling through.

“We have to be careful, at least,” she said, looking back up at him. “Have I mentioned I was promoted to Two, by the way?”

It was only halfway through this very long night. Woman after woman had come up to him, talking to him and doing very random activities with him. It was a little taxing, but at least there were some normal or even funny moments during the evening. This conversation though, was a bit boring. He didn’t want to think it, but how long could this girl - Praxa, maybe? It sounded fake, if he was being honest - talk about the broken relationships of her friends? 

He heard the familiar voice and his shoulders sagged slightly at the intrusion. Birch turned and gave Lael a smile and nodded, before turning back to Praxa. “Thanks, it was really nice talking to you. Maybe we can pick up where we left off later?” Birch gave her an awkward hug before guiding Lael down a path away from that particular bench. 

Birch knew he had to choose his words carefully, but it was already evident on his face that he was much more comfortable. “How are you doing Lael? Having a good night so far?”

Lael had to hold herself back from jumping on Birch and wrapping him in a big hug. He had become one of her best friends, and she hadn’t believed she’d managed to keep this a secret from him. She grinned, knowing Birch was being careful and polite because of the cameras, but she wanted to poke and tease him just to make him feel more comfortable. 

“I’m doing great, Birch,” she smiled. “I can imagine... it’s a bit of a surprise seeing me here, and I hope it’s a good surprise! I, uh...”

Did she tell him that she was here for the promotion? Probably not while on camera, but... she held up a finger while she rooted around in the pocket of her dress. Lael always kept a pen and scrap piece of paper on her person just in case- it was part of her job to always be on top of things and maybe take notes. 

“I’m going to write you this note, and it’ll be our little secret,” she told him. 

They offered me a promotion if I came on the show. I’m here to help, and I really, really don’t want to be living on a floor with that snake anymore.

“Here,” she folded it tightly so no cameras could see what was in it and handed it to Birch. “You can read it now or, I don’t know, whenever.”