#gustave thread.

shit — so he hadn't been as quiet as he hoped, his body stiffening at the sound of heather's voice. the entire night came and went far too quickly for him to even remember what happened, which is a strange but welcomed surprise to take his mind off of the nightmare that ensued. "uh, no. sorry, just a bad dream," gustave huffs out with a sheepish smile, turning his head over his shoulder to pull the duvet a bit higher for her. "i didn't mean to wake you. go back to sleep."

"i hear you have to flirt with the bartender to get the password to down into the room downstairs. are you up for the task?" of course the speakeasy wouldn't be easy to get in, relatively speaking and contrary to its namesake. still, the prospect of it all is exciting, not having done something like this in quite some time. "i can certainly try but i'm not sure we'll be getting in tonight if that's the case."

"hmm... are they giving you a hard time again?" gustave doesn't expect her to delve too deep into details; hell, she'll likely not divulge anything at all given how close he is with her parents to begin with but as someone who is in charge of her paycheck, he believes part of her wellbeing also fits under the umbrella. "i'll take it. i try to remain reasonable," as stressful as releasing things can get sometimes. he's certainly never opted to raise his voice at her but there's still a great deal of guilt that comes with keeping her late like this. her words are taken with great consideration and as eyes scan over the pages marked with red ink, all gustave can really do in the moment is chuckle softly. "you definitely didn't go easy on me. i can see whole sentences crossed out...."

being an early bird had its perks sometimes. now that the world had seemingly gotten rid of midnight book releases, gustave was out the door just in time to make it to the bookstore to grab a copy of something his daughter had been anxiously waiting for, hoping to surprise her with it and some breakfast before she wakes up. the package secured, he now finds himself standing in line at the coffee shop, only for his eyes to drift off towards someone with brilliant orange hair. his eyes squint, racking his brain for recollection on where he'd seen her before, and then it hits him — "excuse me," he calls out quietly enough, tapping her on the shoulder so she knows which direction to turn her head. "are you, by any chance, heather tanner?"

"i'll be sure to let her know then. if anything, i'm the one she'll be upset with since i had no business going into her things." maelle was still a teenager, after all, and there's nothing more annoying than dad scrounging through her things because he solely drinks caffeine. "okay, harsh but fair... sometimes it's a thousand papercuts that deals the most damage, right? let's see what you've got there." maneuvering around in his home study so that he's now hovering over her shoulder behind her, gustave reaches over and thumbs a few pages, flipping them to see the extent of her markings. "wow, i was careless. and you're telling me that the content is still good? i'm surprised it's still comprehensible. now i know you're lying."

"i just want you to really think about what you're doing. what you're about to do."

the sudden movement, no matter how calm and collected, takes him by surprise and the touch jolts him out of his attempt at meditating back to normal. he'd almost forgotten entirely that she was there, also not used to having someone sleeping beside him in an otherwise rather large bed. "huh? o-oh, yeah, i'm — i'm sorry," he murmurs as apologetically as possible, reaching a hand up to gently rest over hers. "i didn't mean to wake you. you must be exhausted from the long night. get some more rest, i'm sure i'll fall asleep again in no time."