I owe @atlasallura a favor and she wanted a snippet of the last chapter of the Shallura Model Au I’m working on.
She started to approach him but stopped short with a wide grin. A chuckle escaped him because she already knew the drill. He took his camera and did a few test shots of her to check the lighting. When he looked over the film, he couldn’t help but stare at her beauty. He snapped out of his trance when she spoke up. “How do they look?”
His steel grey eyes meet her ocean ones and for a second, he considers telling her about everything that burdens his mind. Instead, he pushes his foolish thoughts aside and sends her a boyish grin. “It’s perfect.” They both know he’s not talking about the lighting.
Setting down his camera, he takes a step towards her and offers his arm. As if it were natural, as if they’d done this a thousand times before, she casually loops her arm through his and allows him to escort her to the swing that waits for her in the center of the room. When they arrive at their destination, he reaches out to steady it so she could have a seat.
“I already double checked everything, so it should be safe,” he tells her as he gives the rope another test pull. “ If you feel uncomfortable at any point, let me know and we’ll immediately get you down.” She nodded but stood still. She eyes the swing for a few seconds and frowns up at him. He raises a brow. “Everything okay?” he asks when he notices her hesitation. “You aren’t afraid of heights, are you? Because if you are, we can have it lower to the ground or figure something else out altogether.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m not afraid of heights,” she says slowly as she continues to eye the swing then looks down at her expensive and unforgiving garment. “It’s just a tad too high and this dress is far too long. I’m just not sure how to approach this.”
Shiro took a step forward and noticed that she was right. If it wasn’t for the long dress, she would have had a chance. But with the dress in the way, there was no way she was getting on the swing without snagging or tearing the garment.
He looked around before his eyes found their target. “Hey, Lance,” he called out. “Give me a hand over here for a sec.” Within seconds, the boy was by his side and he didn’t need to be told what to do before he gathered the excess material of Allura’s dress and looped it up and over the swing. Shiro gently turned Allura to face him and before she could question what his plan was, she lets out a yelp of surprise when he grabs her by the waist and easily hoists her up and onto the seat.
“There. Is that okay? You feel comfortable?” he questioned. He didn’t want to take his hands from her until he was sure she was secure. She only could look at him wide-eyed with a slow nod. He nodded with a smile before he let go of her and turned to instruct the crane operator to lift the seat.
If it wasn’t for the makeup and Shiro being as dense as he was, he would have noticed the deep blush that crept across to Allura’s face. Fortunately for her, he didn’t notice but unfortunately for her, someone else did.
Lance rolled his tongue behind her as he fixed her garment around her and added finishing touches to her makeup. “Ay, Papi Chulo is handsome and strong. Wow, how lucky,” he whispered into her ear in Spanish. He could only laugh when her blush deepened.
Allura clenched her jaw and her grip on the ropes tightened. “Fuck off, Lance,” she growled as she nudged him in the chest with her shoulder. Lance gave an evil cackle and backed away. Probably to go spread gossip about what just happened. She definitely wasn’t ever going to hear the end of this.
A tiny bell went off and suddenly she was slowly being lifted into the air and a soft mattress was placed under her for safety precautions. There was also a man positioned under her to tug and pull at the rope attached to the swing to put her into motion so she wouldn’t have to.
“Turn on the fan, please,” Shiro’s voice rang out over the studio. He stood on a ladder at her same height just a few feet away with his camera around his neck. He turned to her with a smile. “You ready for the final shoot, Princess?”
Recovering quickly from his earlier display of strength, she gave him a wink. “More than ever.” Her usual flirtation is back full force, but now she can’t help but stare at the way his arms flexed under his sleeves, or how intense his eyes were.
He smiled and brought his camera to his eye. “Well, let’s get started, then.”
Just like always, she is absolute perfection. She knows exactly what she was doing and doesn’t need much direction. She has excellent control over her face and she pours just the right amount of playfulness into her eyes. He just had to make sure to capture her and the garment at the apex of her swing. Because of this, this shoot was going to take longer than usual because he couldn’t just snap away. It was a waiting game.
Tightening her grip on the ropes of the swing, Allura leans back and closes her eyes. Completely lost in the moment, she allows her head to roll back and it causes her silver curls to tumble over her shoulders. Her hair is like a curtain of twilight and the perfect ringlets dance and reflects the light just enough to once again put Shiro under a spell. For a second or two, he almost forgot that he was a photographer. He knows that he’s staring and he knows that his employees are watching him make a fool of himself, but he can’t bring himself look away. She is a dream that he never wants to wake up from.
When he finally snaps back to reality, she is still leaning back and he knows that he desperately needs a way to get her to stop being so...distracting. He clears his throat with the hopes of grabbing her attention. “Careful, Allura. We don’t want you to fall, now do we?” he warns her cautiously, but in reality, he didn’t want her to stop. Her movements are mesmerizing and the dress that flows gracefully behind her does nothing to help his dilemma.
She lets out a beautiful laugh before she speaks in a low, playful voice, “Oh, as if you’d ever let me fall without catching me.”
“You’re absolutely right.” He brings his camera to his view and continues to snap away at her because every frame was perfection. “I’d definitely find a way to get to you,” he promised.
Ignoring the whistles from some members of his crew, he snaps the exact moment she pulls herself up to look at him. Her eyes are burning alive with something he can’t decipher, her hair was tousled but somehow made her look more editorial, and her legendary predatory smirk was firmly in place. Without a doubt, he knew he’d caught her real reaction and not the model she was famous for.
He quickly snaps her picture for few more times before she was back to being the model. She is back to being the refined and professional model, but the mischievous look in her eyes doesn’t leave. It's then that Shiro knows that he had gotten to her just like she had gotten to him since the exact moment he met her.
He takes one last snap with his camera before he straightens his back and lets out a content sigh. “We got it,” he announces loud enough for the entire studio to hear. “That’s a wrap everyone,” He unloops the camera from around his neck and hands it down to Shay who stood at the base of the ladder before he climbs down.
He looks back up to Allura, who’s unreadable gaze never left him. As she is lowered down, her eyes follow his every move as he approaches her. To his surprise, the swing stops a little higher than where it started from and he knows that she can’t get down without some form of assistance. He looked to the crane operator in confusion and the man only gives him a wink in return.
He turns back to Allura who hasn’t moved an inch and she has the same look she had given him earlier when she wanted him to help her stand.
She raises a brow in question. “Well?”
He takes a step forward before he takes a hold of the rope to stop the swing from swaying. He can already feel where this conversation is going. “Well, what?”
She sends him a smirk. “You got me up here, I think it's only fair that you got me down,” she said coyly.
He smiles and shakes his head at her statement. Careful not to snag the expensive garment, he reaches up and he slides an arm under her legs while the other supports her back. She loops her arms around his neck as he lifts her up and off the swing. When she leans closer than necessary he gives her a look. “I’m starting to think that you like to be carried.”
She looked up at him. “And what if I do?” she challenged him.
He laughed to cover up his nerves. She’s pushing him and they both know it. “You know that’s what princesses like? Being carried everywhere.”
He expects the comment to lead to her retaliating with a sarcastic remark. He expects her to laugh it off and lightly hit his shoulder. He expected a lot of different ways she would take his comment. But he doesn’t expect for her to hold on to his neck tighter. He doesn’t expect her to lean closer into to him. He doesn’t expect her voice to sent shivers down his back as she speaks liquid gold laced with desire. “Then call me your princess.”
I promise I’m finishing this story soon, you guys. I just don’t know how soon and I’m still trying to figure out how to end it. T_T