#theo01

Tonight seemed longer than usual. After doing the routine checks on all equipment and fixing up whatever needed to be adjusted or cleaned and a quick fire drill at 2am most of the guys were either having some food or lounging around the rooms and chatting. Abe had decided to go to the impromptu fitness and get some exercise in to keep himself awake, having spent most of his 12-hour break looking over the workers who had finally agreed to come and finish up his bathrooms, promising a fix in a week.

Another firefighter walking in took him out of his zone and he got up from the mat, nodding. "I'll free up the equipment," he said, focusing enough to recognize the person. Another face he mostly knew of rather than know, from what he had heard the others discussing he had been away for a while and now was assigned the grave shift as it was the one to have free slots in the schedule for the month.

Anything before 11am on a Sunday was too early for Phoebe considering she was usually getting home from the casino as the sun rose, but there she was, sitting idly in the back corner of her favourite cafe at ten in the morning. Post-arrest hadn’t been kind to Phoebe, the magistrate having banned from her preferred place of work for three months in addition to her community service and fine... but she knew there were other things she could be doing with her spare time. Community orders not withstanding. 

Her head thumped softly and her mouth ached for a long sip of cold water so her body could begin the arduous task of flushing the expensive champagne from the night before from her system and when her server finally delivered the bottle of sparkling to her table, Phoebe almost gleefully took two long mouthfuls. She wasn’t allowed back in the casino for a bit, but that wasn’t going to stop her having fun. She knew too many people by now, too many who owed too much money to even step foot back in the casino (for a while, at least) so for now, the blonde was more than happy to refer to herself as a ‘roving’ member of Theo’s team. 

Theo. Speaking of, as she lifted the glass to her lips for a third time, her eyes landed on the king himself and she stood to greet him, “Tell me last night was horrible without me there,” Phoebe spoke quietly, much like she did when she used to call him from jail. The blonde knew it certainly wouldn’t have been an unsuccessful evening, but she needed to know her presence was missed. 

@theodcrehughes

Unreal. Harry wanted to adjust, to truly enjoy this place and peace. But behind his smiles and laughs, he was struggling, everything was just feeling too weird. Weird to explain, weird to process. He knew it wasn't something he had to worry about, it would pass, it was probably like what was experiencing those soldiers coming back home after months of mission. He saw some of those aspects in Frank, after his MSF trips. It will pass. But for now, Harry was just confused about all of this, he was hiding most of it, using humor as his first defense wall, like he always did.

His attention locked on the pond in front of him, the man was losing himself in those thoughts, thinking about this place, about those last years, about how to find some inner peace about all of this. Everything was still feeling unreal.

time seemed to move slower than usual, perhaps simply because asril would have preferred to have been anywhere but at the ball. had his father bothered to make a lasting appearance, then he would have tried to escape hours ago, but unsurprisingly he'd been nowhere to be found. and it left the high lord to fulfill a commitment that was not truly his own.

he grabbed a filled glass of fairy wine off a tray as it passed him and eagerly took a gulp. it was sweet and refreshing as it went down his throat and the liquid warmed his belly. his eyes scanned the room as they had so many other times that evening, however, this time his gaze settled on a face they'd been praying to the gods he could avoid. lucky enough for him, up until that very moment, asril hadn't crossed paths with any of emira's remaining family members. but there theodoros was and it pained him to know it was the closest he'd ever be again to seeing her. her features had been so similar, the eyes and the jawline were incomparable and it only brought back an unwelcome flood of memories. times he'd found himself getting lost in her sparkling eyes or the way her soft skin felt beneath his fingers.