#la verse

Henry is actually the one to make up the fitted sheet joke, with Adam specifically in mind. He texts it to Ronan as the latest in a long, long line of "shitty pickup lines for you to tell your boyfriend."

Ronan has never once validated any of these lines, because 1. he doesn't need to pick up his live-in boyfriend and 2. if he did need a pickup line he could come up with one for himself and it'd be at least half less dumb than anything Cheng ever came up with. Henry keeps sending him more and more ludicrous lines, because 1. it's called romance, Lynch, do you not want Adam to feel special, but more to the point 2. it really really annoys Ronan.

So Adam looks at Ronan's phone one day and sees an incoming message, zero context, just a dude hitting on his boyfriend, and with zero anger or jealousy at all he just says "huh. I could have sworn Cheng was more afraid of me than he was horny for you."

Eli stood there she had smelled something familiar..a scent she knew all too well, it was her father..her damn father that was possessing her friend. It made sense though..Kyr was beating himself up for Ako’s death that happened almost a month ago..Gojin is still trying to recover from it. She shook her head and looked at Kyr.

“Oh uh..it’s nothing..just thought I smelled something..off” she said, she didn’t want to tell Kyr until she was sure about it..it could’ve been Habit or Keesh playing a nasty trick on her. Then again this did seem like something Exial would do..she sighed “just didn’t get much sleep, Habit was blaring music out loud so it was hard to get any sleep” she said, mostly lying. She was pretty good at lying, she had to with her human father, but most of the time he saw through her lies.

She could tell her father was smirking at her, she would have to deal with this on a later date..she had to tell her brothers and sister, if they would listen that is. “I’ll catch you later. I have to go find Habit or Keesh..Maybe Jezebel.” Lizzy said before passing by Kyr almost in a hurry, walking off to find her siblings only to bump into Scykato, she paused for a moment and shook her head.

“Sorry I wasn’t seeing where I was going..oh hey luv..” she said looking up at the other teen, with a frown, she hadn’t seen Gojin at school or anything so she wanted to make sure that he was okay. Eli normally wouldn’t care about what mortals feel but the time around…something felt different this time. “How’s Gojin doing?..I haven’t seen him today” Lizzy was concerned for Gojin, she didn’t want him to do anything stupid.

The scariest part of Halloween as an adult is not having plans. Nobody wants to be stuck at home with three-foot-tall Spidermen banging on the door for Twix bars.

There's someone outside the apartment when Adam leaves.

It startles him a little more than he can justify, a person in his doorway where he'd expected only empty air. He doesn't let it show as he steps outside and locks up behind him, turns his back to the man in front of their unit like his existence demands no immediate attention.

"You're Adam Parrish," the man says. A casual observance, like Adam's existence doesn't require much of his attention either.

Adam turns back around to meet his eyes. The guy doesn't blink. He doesn't let Adam push him around with silence, waits like he's said all he was planning to say.

"If you want something," Adam tells him, "you could try asking a question."

He inclines his head slightly towards the apartment, not even sparring Adam a full nod. "Is Ronan home?"

"What makes you think I'd give that information to a man lurking outside my doorway?"

"I'm his brother."

"I know," Adam replies. "Declan." He starts off down the hall.

Declan falls into step alongside him. "Gansey said you'd be helpful."

"Gansey is optimistic to the point of delusion, I'm not responsible for him."

"No, you're responsible for Ronan."

"I'm responsible for myself," Adam corrects him. "And right now I have to get to work."

"Should you give that information to men lurking outside your home?"

"If you follow me to my office, it'll give Ronan time to sneak out of the apartment." Declan's eyes dart back down the hall. "Assuming he's in the apartment to begin with," Adam tacks on, deliberately unhelpful.

The man works in film production, he knows exactly what parts of equipment to break that can't be quickly replaced for the shoot to keep going.

I thought it was funny.

It is a general good in writing to weave in details where you can, to make the world grounded and to give you some space for extra narrative beats and to build tone/setting/characterization, and Adam jumping into the shower felt like an easy place to work in some details, ie, what is in said shower.

But mostly I just thought it was funny.

Aurora is still alive in the LA verse as of the last chronological installment. I don't have a perfect outline of events in my head, but at some point Aurora owned the Pasadena ranch in her own name -- Ronan mentions in the first fic that she bought it after his father died (or, I think he says that she bought it "a few years back" -- but he means after his father died; the ranch isn't where he grew up, which is part of why he hates it). I'm thinking as Aurora's health declined at some point she passed ownership along, maybe to Ronan specifically or maybe to a trust or other legal entity that Ronan runs? I forget what specifically I had in mind when I wrote better place, but something along those lines.