#keyes-tothecrown

11:52pm Stop eating.  11:53pm But the pakora will go soggy overnight! xx  11:53pm STOP eating. 11:53 Say please. xx 11:54pm You are ri--

“Oh, sorry.” Julia murmured, narrowly avoiding a collision as she walked down the hallway. The carpet was plush, here, which her tired feet rejoiced for momentarily before realizing that her heels sunk into it, making each step a little more difficult than the last. Texting helped. Ben helped. Thinking of pakora helped.

She glanced up and gave a tight, polite smile. Her eyes didn’t focus right away, and it wasn’t thanks to too much drink, she was sure of it. But pakora sounded good. And malai kofta. And those honey pastry rounds. And -- 

“Oh, hey.”

Hi would have been better. A little less casual. Or hello! Hello was properly formal. At the sight of Theo, her spine stacked straight. Uneasiness filled the space between them, her gaze flitting quickly from him to the wall behind him. The room number glinted gold, and she twisted -- barely more than a twitch -- to glance at the room behind her. 254. Hers was 254-- no, 245. Thank fuck, she was almost there.

“Are you-- you’re not staying--”

Lines crossed her brow, she bobbed her head side to side and made a quick face. Rewind. What was she trying to say? Was it important?

Finger over her shoulder, she pointed to the room he’d just exited. “Are you here?”

@theo-henriksen

“Fuck’s sake!”

Malle put down the clementine she was eating, turning to watch the car ram right through a hedgerow. She looked around the little kitchen, as though expecting Jacob to materialize each time she needed him -- and found no one. She was four months pregnant, fairly unreasonable, and a little disappointed.

*clears throat*

Who is more affectionate? Jacob.

Who angers the easiest? Jacob.

Who is the one too drunk to drive home? Jacob.

Who’s the the one bandaging the other after a fight? Malle.

Who is the one to pull the other to try new things? Like the weird restaurant down the street or skydiving. Peter is constantly trying to get Jacob to try cuffing his sleeves.

Who is the driving/riding shotgun? Peter is driving. Jacob does not have a license and cannot be trusted.

Who has the weirder taste in music? They both like the sound of chilling silence.

Who tears up during movies? Peter.

palais garnier, paris, france. december 20, 2019.

“I officially told the press I would be seeing the ballet in Vienna,” Aaron insisted with an apologetic smile as the driver opened the door to their car. A white lie to shield the outing from too much attention. Aaron only missed The Nutcracker a few times in his life--once last  year, because of his father’s death, and perhaps when he was 10 because he had the flu. He came alone or with Mina, or occasionally a date, but as his first time attending as a king, he’d decided to invite Maddox Keyes.

Aaron was quite used to the flash bang of cameras and shouting of paparazzi. Playing it cool in this case proved to be a bit of a challenge as he stepped out of the car and thought about walking ahead of Maddox because the man was trying to be discreet. It didn’t seem right, but neither did lingering to offer a hand and remove all doubt that this outing was more than casual. Aaron never thought he would be navigating a battlefront of press because he had taken Maddox Keyes somewhere but, well--first time for everything.

Aaron did wait for Maddox to exit the car but kept his attention on the photographers with a polite smile and wave. Questions barraged them in multiple languages--French, German, English, Polish?--but the two were quickly ushered inside and taken to a private balcony where they were offered drinks. Aaron settled down into his seat and crossed one leg over the other, rather nonplussed and holding a glass of brandy. “Did...? I think... someone asked how we met. I don’t even know how to begin answering that.”

“Oh my god what is that.” Karolina pointed to a tall machine, lit by a string of blue-white LED lights wrapping around the glass door. Her nose, perfectly delicate, scrunched. The charms on her handbag clicked as it swung pointlessly off her forearm. Somewhere in the distance, a tiny dog yelped and was silenced. Her neck craned out, looking at her companion. He was delicious. 

Behind the lights, a swath of blue and red lit up: PEPSICO. The bottles, their labels slick, lined up in perfect columns. The marquee on the right-hand side read “FAST AND REFRESHING!!! 75 CENTS!!!” And for a moment, all was silent. A shadow eclipsed the scene: the long, angular neck of a predator looming -- and then it was gone. One of her heels, the bridge across her toe lined in pink fur, tapped plastic against tile. “Theo?? I want-”

The sound of breaking glass was secondary only to the vacuum of wet, humid air that came rushing into the empty building as the Creation Lab was breached. Crunch. 

Karolina Taisia Natalya Vasilia Voronina is lifted into the air by her left leg and swallowed into the jaws of a dinosaur in three successive chomps. “Eep!” She squeals.

Sacha: he is extremely artistic and absolutely loves art.

Charlie: she knows everything about dinosaurs there is to know due to a ten year long obsession with dinosaurs from the age four to fourteen.

after you, i don’t know what i believe in: a maddox/aaron moodboard

don’t even get me started on maddox keyes.