#thread: 1

melodie hated being alone on valentine’s day so she had made the executive decision to invite her friend over for a night of movies, snacks and drinks. she got herself ready, she didn’t go all out, after all they were staying in but she still made herself look presentable. she went to the store and picked up snacks and wine and she got her apartment tidied up and ready for company. she sat on the couch and smiled as she looked around at her handiwork, snacks on the table, netflix on the tv, it was looking good. she nibbled on some chips while she waited for caden to show up and she beamed when she heard the buzzer of her apartment. she buzzed caden up and opened the door to greet her. “come in, come in. make yourself at home. we’re going to have a great boy free valentines.” she sat back down on the couch and turned the music on her speaker down a little. “so, we can watch a movie or we can just listen to music, drink and chat, it’s totally up to you, i’m cool with anything.” melodie sipped her glass of wine and rested her feet up on the table in front of her.

Slowly, cautiously, Krasmir dragged his gaze up across the table to land on that painfully handsome face. Of course he was handsome. That would complicate matters just as much as it would support them; the people want a handsome king, but the temptation to take advantage of their to-be business partnership would be ever-present. They would share a room. A name. A title. A kingdom, if the strategy was sound. The last thing Krasmir needed was more complications.

“I believe I can speak for myself,” the once-knight declared, physically cutting his companion off with a slow (but deliberate) chop of his hand. “As the lone and sole head of the Ballestrero name, and the tactician most called upon by our late king -- may he rest in peace -- it must be acknowledged that I am providing a dowry almost without compare.” He used the term not in jest, but with a slight cut of tone. “You will win my supporters for the throne, the entirety of my history of military successes, and access to respectable wealth.” Krasmir pulled a slow breath in through his nose. This wasn’t how he wanted to do this.

*BEEP BEEP BEEP*

Steven groaned. It wasn’t like the actor wasn’t use to early mornings by now, but when you didn’t end up getting much sleep the night before over ‘personal’ issues, well — it always ended up hurting just that little bit more. Letting out a huff, Steven blew his fringe away from his eyes and peered up at his alarm clock. Oh how it mocked him. He hadn’t even got the chance to set it a little forward either since moving back into the place, so the option to hit the snooze button was completely off the table. With one more frustrated groan, Steven brought his arm up to silence the little shitter. “Good fucking morning to you too.” With a bark in reply (even if the greeting hadn’t been directed towards him), Max jumped off the bed and bounced out of the room — obviously in search of his lead. It wouldn’t be long before he was back either. So knowing he’d be getting up sooner rather than later, Steven sat up in bed and ran his fingers through his hair — noting as he did, that perhaps a quick shampoo wouldn’t be the worst way to waste his time before his eventual meeting with Julianne. So, yeah, today was the day. Today was the day he was going to try and convince Julianne he deserved to see his son again.

Now he was long over the self-pity party for one he often threw himself whenever this train of thought would pop up in his head, so while yeah a few months ago he probably would have questioned himself for a good week and bit if he truly was ready to see Luca again, so much so he’d often talk himself out of it completely, Steven wasn’t going to do that this time around. He was ready. He knew it. His mum, Luc, and his dad could all see the changes — and that was even without seeing the small button he carried around in his wallet that declared the accumulative amount of days he’d been sober for. Which sounded pretty cheesy, but it was a self-preservation thing, so Steven did it anyway. Turning over in his bed, Steven reached out to his bed side table one more time, pressing his hand to his mouth and then placing it over the latest picture he had of Luca (Thanks to Jess), before climbing out of bed just as Max bounced back into the room. “Okay, okay! Dump time. I know.”

Still in nothing but a pair of gym shorts, Steven took Max outside and waited for the dog to do his business, while he allowed his thoughts to drift over to his son and Julianne again. It was still crazy to think his son had a half-sister now, let alone that all of that made Julianne a mum x2. Yeah she’s married — Julianne his ex fiancé was now Julianne Jeff Carter. Maybe there had been more to those jokes about his ‘stud’ factor than he’d allowed himself to believe. Shaking his head, Steven refused to let his conscious (lack of one that is), cast the blame in her direction. This was his fault. His fuck up. She hadn’t cheated on him or anything. He’d left. He was the one that got back into painkillers again, not her. Not Jeff. Stomach growling, Steven grabbed Max’s leash and pulled him back inside. He could tell Max wasn’t exactly pleased by the lack of anything actually resembling a responsible dog owner walk that Steven had promised him, but he didn’t have much of a choice — he was going to be late if he didn’t start moving. Ignoring Max’s glare — Steven ran back up the stairs into his room and grabbed out a blue v-neck, a pair of chinos, some clean jocks and some socks before hurrying into the bathroom.

With his head under the water, it wasn’t long before Steven was once again thinking about his son. It had been a good year and a bit since he’d actually seen him. He wasn’t even considered to be Luca’s dad anymore. No he’d lost his rights to call himself that a long time ago — but yeah now it was official. Documents and all. He’d been practically unstable that day, which gave Greg, his sponsor one heck of a long night and ended up losing Steven his 3 month sobriety button. With a sigh, Steven ran his hand threw his hair, pushing the shampoo out. He loved Luca. But even he knew he hadn’t done enough to show it. It wasn’t like Steven had wanted to leave them — but after he’d injured his leg while camping with Sidney and he ended up getting addicted to Vicodin again, he didn't have a choice. He’d been an addict most of his young adult life and he knew, he knew before anyone else would have even had the chance of knowing, that things were getting bad again. So after a night of trying to ween himself off it and failing — failing in the worse way possible. Steven left. He left without saying or doing anything. He just left and checked himself into a rehab facility back in Atlanta. Shaking his head from the mere memory of it, Steven turned off the shower, but kept his head resting against the tiled wall. He felt his chest tighten and his stomach empty. He wasn’t sure if he was simply remembering the pain of withdrawal, or was actually experiencing it again. Only this time it wasn’t a cold white pill making him ache through to the bone.

Picking his head back up off the wall, Steven once again reminded himself that today was a new day and he could either live in regret or move on and hopefully get his son back. Choosing option B, because it was the only option worth living for, Steven climbed back out of the shower and proceeded to get ready for his coffee with Julianne. Jules, like his son, deserved an explanation. He wasn’t going to assume she knew nothing. Of course she knew where he’d ended up. And he was sure if he had told anyone where he was, they would have told her and she would have flown over immediately… even despite his dick move to leave them without saying a thing. It was just who Jules was. Steven wasn’t going to lie. He missed her. He missed her as much as he missed Luca. But today wasn’t about that — and it couldn’t ever be about that again. She was married now. Happily — Steven had heard enough side conversations regarding the two whenever he was hanging out with his mum and Luc. It wasn’t like they straight up said Julianne and Jeff were happy. It was just all the between the lines shit, that Steven shouldn’t even be reading into, but just did — because of habit and because he loved her. So yeah, he wasn’t going to do anything shifty and try and convince her to get back with his new changed self, because one … dick move and two…. it wasn’t like Julianne would even — The point was … No. Just no.

After setting Max up outside, much to his dismay because Steven knew he’d rather stay inside on the bed, the brunette jumped on his bike and headed off towards the coffee house. He ended up going with the bike, because it was a lot harder to let his train of thought distract him while riding it. Too much to pay attention to — especially in LA. So by the time he was pulling up outside of Peet’s, the ache in his stomach hadn’t had time to resurface and make him feel queasy again. Which was good, because Steven hadn’t had breakfast yet and he really wanted something to eat. Noticing he was still a little early, Steven ordered himself a blueberry bagel with cream cheese and was still in the middle of it when she walked in.

Anatula stood silently beside her parents. She had opted out in choosing a patron goddess and instead chose to honor each goddess fully on their particular days. The markings on her face had been painted over with red, the paint spreading across most of her body in intricate markings which represented Din. The jewelry she wore was also accented with red jewels, the gold choker inlaid with rubies, as well as the headdress. Since the festival was celebrated with fire, Anatula chose the paint instead of any bits of clothing she would have liked to wear.

Paying little attention to the conversation her parents had with whichever noble they spoke to and only chiming in when necessary. A “handmaiden” stood behind her to see to her every need, something her parents insisted on when she saw absolutely no point. Anatula assumed the handmaiden was there simply to keep an eye on her in case she did anything unpleasant. The handmaiden was more or less a guard/babysitter for Anatula. She didn’t care, the would-be handmaiden was going to promptly ditched when the chance arrived. The festival was the one day where she could relax at least a little.

“Anatula,” her father spoke, gesturing to her to come closer in order to introduce her yet another noble. She cringed internally, wanting to use her magic to blow the noble away. It went on like this for a few hours, until it was almost time for the dance honoring the goddess Din. That was when she allowed to part ways from her parents, the handmaiden trailing behind her.

Anatula turned on her heel, “It’s best if we just part ways. Enjoy the festival on your own.” She said plainly, “But-”

“Listen, we can do this extremely easy way which is you turn and leave to enjoy yourself. Or I blast you across the city. I know it’s your job to watch over me but I can handle myself. If by any chance you happen to run into my parents which I doubt you will, just tell them I sent you to find some food for me.”

You are invited to my 7th birthday party on October 13th at my house. We're having a magic man and lots of cake. It is at 1 o'clock, I hope you will come. 

From your best friend, Logan.

At one point, nearing the last month of her pregnancy, William started trying to get her to be on full bed rest, though she refused, arguing that there were too many things she needed to do -- and that he liked the way she waddled around the house all the time.

Her eighth month of pregnancy was coming to an end, and Grell had been visibly excited about it. Their baby would be due anytime soon, and they still didn't know if it was a boy or a girl, though William kept saying that it would be a girl. She was sitting on the rocking chair in the nursery one day, by the window, embroidering. She wasn't very good at it, but it was the only thing William would let her do for the nursery anymore. William was sitting across from her, reading one of her books, though Grell caught him stealing a glance at her once in a while.

And then she stopped. She stopped and she put down her needle and raised her head up to look at him, a startled expression on her face.