Plié and Clout

Chapter 30: Puppy

this is long, as fuck

hey, also, emily wirtz??? thank you??? I was so confused when I had 25+ notifications, but like, you made my whole month dude. Fr. I'm smiling so big right now, it's 2am and I'm completely alone in my room grinning like an idiot. Thanks man, it means a lot :)

ALSO: Happy Pride, and stay safe. for the love of God there's a LOT of bad things going on right now and not many people have heard about operation pride fall, (look it up if you don't know, or want more information, it's scary) there's a lot of crap that might happen to people this month and the last thing I want is for one of you guys to get hurt. If you're scared for your safety, take yourself off the internet for the month, accounts on private, don't post on public ones, don't draw attention, just hold steady and don't get into trouble. Don't open links from strangers or DMs from strangers, don't accept random follow requests. Just breathe. This will pass and one day we'll all be loved by everyone, it's just not today, not yet. Soon, but not yet. 

this is a longer intro than normal, but I've got a little platform and I want to watch out for you guys. 

stay happy, stay gay, stay prideful, stay strong, I love you. 

-rabid

***

STEPH:

"Hey," I walk up to August's desk at the studio, picking up Jilly. She hasn't said anything yet and I want to check on her. Jilly is messing around talking to Maya and Luk anyway.

"Hey," She looks up at me, looking rather pained.

"You alright?" I reach out and touch her cheek, she leans into my hand, which is a good thing.

"Just cramping really bad, sorry."

"That's nothing to be sorry about, Aug," I run my thumb along her cheek. "I'll be back in a half-hour, okay? Go upstairs and lie down, get some water, I'm going to find, I don't know, something."

"You don't have to," She mumbles. I roll my eyes and lean across the counter to kiss her forehead.

"I'm going to, watch me." she gives me a halfhearted smile and ruffles my hair. "Alright, I'm going to go so I can get back, see you soon." She smiles and I round up my three kids.

"Where we dropping?" I ask. They're sitting three across the back seat.

"My house!" Maya laughs. "Straight ahead, we're up on O street."

"Sounds good." I snort. Maya talks, a lot. I mean, a lot. I drop them off, and we're good to go, silence in the car for me.

So I go home, and I change out of my 'work clothes' and get into an old hoodie and pants, then find a non-hockey related separate sweatshirt that she might want to steal, I don't know, and I grab my phone and keys and backpack, tossing them all back into the car then heading back to the studio.

"Aug?" I knock on her front door.

"Hey Steph." She opens the door, holding a mug of tea. "Honestly, I might be sick, so if you don't want to get the flu, I would suggest not staying."

"Nah, I've got an immune system, I'll be okay." She shrugs and steps aside, letting me past her into her house.

"Why did you bring a whole backpack, I just kind of thought you'd bring just you."

"Nope," I reach into the bag once I set it on the floor. "I brought you a sweatshirt, I don't know why, I just thought you'd like it." I look up and she's covering a smile with the mug of tea. There's a couple of other things in the bag, it's my normal day-travel bag for roadies, so it's full of random crap, but I like it.