heard your name in every love song {Ben Hardy}

3. i've got a new life (you would hardly recognize me)

[The Four Horsemen in X-Men Apocalypse have been confirmed to be Magneto, Storm, (Riot) Control, and Archangel.] Tweeted fandomwikia on April 9th, which was shortly followed by twitter user @cvssidyriots tweeting:

[sony execs really said 'you can have a canon villain ship and we will make them hot as a treat' and expected us humble bisexuals not to lose our minds???? @yourtwitter @benhardy0291]

Since then, you've been thinking about this tweet about three times per day. On April 9th, the director of Apocalypse confirmed that Ben would be playing Archangel, and you, in the private of your own home, with your bags already packed for Canada, lost any semblance of cool that you'd managed to cultivate.

Of course you're aware, in a kind of vague capacity, that you have fans. Not a lot, since your work was mostly small parts, or in stage productions, but even then there's gifs of you on tumblr, and you're pretty sure you're mentioned in the background of one or two Chris Evans fanfictions set on the set of Snowpiercer, not that you go out of your way to read them, but you'd never had fans the way big name actors had.

But it's only been two months since your role in Apocalypse had been announced, and there's fanart of you.

You'd sent Andrew the tweet, and his only response was to send you a link to Archive Of Our Own's Warren Worthington III | Archangel/Cassidy Temple | Riot Control tag, that already had over a hundred fics based on their comic iterations. The fandom calls them ArchRiot. You think you might scream.

When you arrived in Montreal, a few days after the announcement, you find that Marvel has sent a care package to your hotel room, which included a thick, meticulously bound copy of every single comic your character had ever been in. Homework. It's both exciting and daunting in equal measure.

Your agent texts, asking if you've arrived safely, you tell him you have. A few moments later, you get a notification, a message on twitter from Alexandra Shipp. Verified account. Your fellow Horseman. She's asking you if you want to come out to drinks tonight, with herself and the rest of the Horseman, and Oscar Isaac before the table read in a few days, and you're quick to agree.

And then you realise what you've agreed to.

Michael Fassbender. Alexandra Shipp. Oscar Isaac. Ben Hardy.

And in your mind, you're still just some theatre kid from London.

So you try and focus on what you can control. You have a shower, you pick a nice outfit, not too nice, but something you wouldn't mind getting photographed in. Idly you wonder if you're going to have to start worrying about paparazzi, and it's both horrifying and a little thrilling. You take your time getting ready, and even so you still have an hour before your meeting time. Google maps says it's only a five minute walk from the hotel, and you're pretty sure the production company has put you all in the same building, so you're all going to be showing up at about the same time and –

Read comics. Breathe deeply. Remember you earned this.

Fifteen minutes before six, and you're too antsy to continue. You've made it through a small number of the comics, but you've barely scratched the surface, and your nerves are making you itch. You look good, you note, making sure you look presentable when you leave, and as you make it to the elevator, someone calls out to you.

"Hey, Y/N, right? Can you hold the elevator?" It's a warm, friendly voice, unfamiliar but not unkind, and when you look, you see Alexandra Shipp smiling at you, seemingly have the same idea as you.

"Yeah," you smile, your tone bright, sticking a foot in the door to keep it from closing, "and you're Alexandra, right?" And she nods and confirms as much, stepping into the elevator with you, stowing her phone in her purse. In well-fitted jeans and a chunky, brightly coloured sweater, she looks so effortlessly casual and cool, but her smile goes a long way to making you less intimidated.