#hartmart

So tell me about how HartMart (I'm howling don't mind me) met and developed that painfully slowburn romance? What was their first impressions of each other? Anything you want to spill out about them!

Oh my gooooosssh. Thanks for the ask, @tryingtimi!

Dude, like. It's such a long story. Such a long, ridiculous story. I'll try to make it short. Deets under the cut. :)

Thanks to @aohendo for the tag! I have not been working on my manuscript proper, but here's the last little bit I wrote as part of a Martin x Eckehart side-story.

“Do you think I’m mean?” Eckehart huffed a laugh. “You’re no saint, that’s for sure.” “Saints die young,” Martin said. “Us devils stay til the end of the show, just to see how well the world burns.” They fell into a thoughtful silence. It pressed into them, suffocating. Finally, Martin said, “Well, I’m nice to you at least, aren't I?” “You’re pushy and cryptic and you make me look dirty when you stand next to me in photographs.”

Martin has only been drunk with Eckehart once. He is delightfully forthcoming.

Oh god I would love to.

Eckehart and Martin are the main characters of Second Serpent's political B-Plot. To make a long story very VERY short, they are both secretly planning to dismantle Schmidt & Foster (the corporation that runs New London), and help the average people form a republic. Well, Eckehart's planning to. Martin agrees to help him, despite the fact that Martin is famous for being Schmidt & Foster's #1 PR and cover-up guru, and also notoriously self-interested and hedonistic.

For a long time, Eckehart just assumes that Martin is playing him. By the time the story proper starts, they're ten years into a game of political-treason-chicken that they no longer care about and have entirely lost track of who's winning.

Throughout their friendship, they change under each others' influence. One-track-mind Eckehart comes to understand his personal preferences: what foods he likes, the types of art he enjoys-- what makes him happy that's not booze or punching things. Martin learns the value of putting effort into something that isn't himself, allowing himself to care just as deeply as Eckehart cares. His heart thaws and it is very sweet.

Have I mentioned that Martin and Eckehart have personal assistants?

Lila works for Martin Hightower. She is an enthusiastic, type-A personality whose idea of a good time is completing very difficult crosswords and watching competitive sports. Eckehart dismissed almost all of his father's staff when he took over the CEO position, and Advik was the only candidate who didn't suck up to him, so he got the job by default. He is, luckily, very good at his job.

They are oil and water, and though they may never end up in the story, I kind of love writing about them.

Silly semi-scene under the cut.

For the prompts: “Tell me something I can do for you today.”

Aw, thanks @flowerprose!

A little HartMart drabble. Pardon any grammatical errors.

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It had been close to two years since Hightower had been installed as his ADC Liaison, and six months since they had begun Eckehart’s whirlwind cultural exploration. Each day came accompanied by a new experience— Hightower quietly sliding a flavorful, expensive cup of coffee across his desk; a lunch-time hair appointment from a blessedly quiet, delicate barber; an evening at the Midtown library, enjoying the latest exhibition; a late-night drink at a bar he’d never been to, overlooking the Midtown skyline in a way he’d never seen before. New perspectives. Hightower arranged it all somehow, effortlessly, and without an ounce of grumbling.

Not that Eckehart would have expected the man to grumble. Hightower had insisted on the whole thing himself. Still, it wasn’t like the man didn’t have more pressing matters to attend to. Networking with the ADC Representatives and their assistants was a task enough without all of the extra work he piled on. This week, he was managing negotiations with Barclay’s labor unions and Barclay, for all his good qualities and loyalty to his district’s livelihood, was a piece of work on a good day. How Hightower managed, while still maintaining his prestine appearance and razor sharp tongue, was an absolute mystery.

1. What's the biggest wish the members of your otp have for the other? Is it a wish that could come true? Do they actively work towards it?

4. After a bad day, what would each member of your otp do to cheer the other up?

12. Was/is it difficult for the members of your otp to realise their feelings? Were they okay with those feelings or were they in denial? 

@bloodlessheirbyjacques ✨👀

@bloodlessheirbyjacques! Thank you!

SIGH. It's HartMart. Never not HartMart. (To be fair, they are the ONLY eventual canon coupling in the Second Serpent series.)

What's the biggest wish the members of your OTP have for the other? Is it a wish that could come true? Do they actively work towards it?

Eckehart (for Martin): What do you get the man who has everything? Martin, for all his charm and power, is incredibly lonely. He has secrets that he knows, with absolute certainty, that he will take to the grave with him. He's used to keeping people, even important people, at arm's length. No one is allowed to see the real him, because anyone who sees the real Martin automatically has power over him.

I suppose that if Eckehart had one wish for Martin, it would be for Martin to trust someone enough to let his walls down around-- for Martin to see that people find him worthy of kindness and praise without all the swagger and pretense.

Martin (for Eckehart): Eckehart is a tortured idealist-- kind and uncertain and feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. He is a man seeking redemption for his family's crimes, for centuries of lies and half-truths that have landed New London in a political stalemate. Eckehart will stop at nothing to end his family's hold on humanity, and he knows that at the end of the road he's started on, he will likely to imprisoned, banished, or killed. From day one as Schmidt & Foster CEO, he's been prepared to throw himself onto the pyre. He sees himself as a means to an end-- as an expendable chess piece that the world would be better off without.

Martin's biggest wish is for Eckehart for Eckehart to see himself through Martin's eyes: to see the same gentle, bleeding heart that Martin sees. Eckehart would be a fantastic leader, if only he saw his own self-worth, and admired his assets as well as his flaws.

So, I suppose their greatest wishes are for each to be more trusting, and to know their true, inherent worth. Oh. Oh god. I just made myself sad. HELP.

After a bad day, what would each member of your OTP do to cheer the other up?

Eckehart (for Martin): Martin so rarely has "bad days"-- at least, not ones that he lets onto. But, sometimes, even Martin can hide a waning mood (and he hides it less and less as their friendship goes on). Push comes to shove, Martin's love languages are gift giving and quality time.

So, on a bad day... Eckehart would bring Martin a coffee. He'd sit down face to face with him, no distractions, and crack a couple of jokes. He'd banter with him, because Martin loves that. Later, in some dating phase that the readers will never see, I can see Eckehart bringing home flowers and dinner, then asking Martin to eat with him.

Martin (for Eckehart): Eckehart is definitely a quality time/words of affirmation guy. On a bad day, Martin would remind Eckehart that he's doing his very best, and then take him somewhere to get his mind off of whatever's bothering him for a while, just to reregulate him. He'd take Eckehart for a walk, and give him some blush-inducing praise that Eckehart will tell himself he doesn't absolutely love.

Was/is it difficult for the members of your OTP to realize their feelings? Were they okay with those feelings or were they in denial?

Martin realizes his feelings early on, but I can't really explain how or why for spoiler reasons. Let's just say: He's not a man who's familiar with "love" but he does know what attraction feels like. Eckehart has all of the human compassion that Martin locked away a long time ago, so Martin assumed for a while that he just admired him. Didn't take him too long to fall head over heels... though, in many ways, he always had been.