“Okay, first, close your eyes.” Emily had been hard at work on the business behind the stream for weeks. What with the viewer count continuing to grow as it was, offers for sponsorships were beginning to come in daily now and the show was making enough to hire more crew. Which meant better equipment and better quality and Emily was buzzing with excitement. Honestly, the next step was moving to a studio-- though that was still months off-- and most of the time, it all felt too surreal. But that wasn’t the reason she’d called Brady. No, this was god tier excitement and Brady was the first one she was showing. She reached into her bag and pulled out the folded up material, keeping her eyes firmly on Brady’s to make sure hers stayed closed. “Our website goes live tomorrow with a store. We’ve only got shirts for now, just to gauge interest, but...” She unfolded the shirt, a grin stretched wide across her face. “Okay, open them.” Printed on the front of the plum-colored shirt was a picture from a scene a few episodes ago where Bex and Mystyk used Bex’s staff to pole vault over a stream of lava-- arguably the scene that had received the most fan art to date. She gave Brady only a moment to take in what she was seeing before she pressed on. “There are a few different designs, but I had to show you this one. I’ve been working with the designer for a few weeks and it has been so hard not to tell you. What do you think?”

There was a small smile on Emily’s lips, an upward curve at the corners of her mouth. Brady was sat in the passenger seat next to her, Redwood Bay a blur of gray and green out of the car window. The city as a whole felt as if it were in mourning-- and Emily herself, whom had no personal connections to the people they’d lost, not really, had been feeling that loss too. She’d canceled this week’s session out of respect for Lily and locked herself away for several days with as many bottles of wine. But she was tired of being sad. So she’d texted Brady, told her to get dressed-- casual, nothing she didn’t mind getting a little dirty-- and told her she was taking her out. And she wasn’t taking no for an answer. Emily’s intended destination didn’t make for a long car ride, and being horrible at surprises, she took it upon herself to fill up the time between the here and the there to yammer on mindlessly. Otherwise, she was likely to spoil it. “Thanks for coming with me,” Emily beamed, though she’d really given Brady no choice. “It was either this or I was going to sit through my seventh rewatch of Onward and I’m pretty sure I’ve cried so much that my body physically can’t do it anymore. If I could see my insides, they’d probably look like Spongebob out of water.” The building was coming into view now and she cast her eyes to Brady to gauge her reaction. She offered a small shrug as she pulled into the parking lot of the animal shelter. “So, I figured what’s better than puppies and kittens after the week we’ve had?”

After packing up the unsold items from the festival, Emily and Brady found a decent enough spot among the throng of people for the fireworks. Legs folded underneath her, Emily absently picked at the grass, occasionally glancing over at Brady. Something Lily said earlier in the day kept circling her mind and she couldn’t seem to shake the thought completely. She opened her mouth to say something-- anything, really-- when one of the kids from the one-shot they’d run earlier in the day caught her eye and smiled wide, waving excitedly. Emily returned the greeting just as enthusiastically before pressing her hand to her heart and leaning into Brady just as the first burst of color lit up the sky. She reached out and took Brady’s hand in hers and brought it to her forehead. “Do I feel warm? Because I think I’m dying of baby fever.”

Dean: hey Brady, how are you?

Dean: I’m sorry I didn’t get to hang out with you guys as much at the gala