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wambsgansshoelaces · 4 months

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Waiting For You

Chapter 1; Dolore

Siobhan Roy x fem!Reader

a/n: i’m in love with shiv thank you goodbye ! hope u enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it x love u all

Word Count: 3.308k

“How crude.”

You turn, seeing her for the first time. Her hips fill out her dress, the collar low cut. That was a lie, though. You’ve seen her plenty of times before. You were co-heads of News at Waystar Royco.

You can barely remember the first time you two met. Your family had been close enough to her father to bring you round often. You’d met when you were five, clicked, and haven’t separated since.

You do remember the first time you’d found her pretty- more than platonically. The feelings were big and, honestly, horrifying. You knew your parents would never accept any sort of same-sex relationship, let alone one that you had. She was, is always so damn ethereally breathtaking. And the tightening anxiety in your chest is telling you what it’s always said; this will never happen.

You and Siobhan Roy stand shoulder to shoulder, staring up at Michelangelo's David.

“You’re a spoilsport.”

“Nobody says that but my mother.”

You try to tune out the chatter around you. “How many people did he fucking invite?” you mutter to her.

“I don’t know. I can’t care enough to ask.”

You knew how she felt about her father remarrying for the third time. She didn’t like it the first time it happened when she was alive, obviously, and the new woman wasn’t an improvement. She was closer to him in age, thankfully, but was almost definitely a massive piece of shit he was marrying because she ‘gives him what he wants’, whatever that means.

The two of you, despite your initial not wanting to come, have to save face. After all, she was his daughter, and you have known him long enough to consider him close to you.

“Where are they, anyway?” you ask, peering out at the crowd.

“Probably fucking.”

“Ugh, you’re fucking gross.” She grins back at you, hooking her arm through yours. Your chest flutters at the touch. You drop your voice low. “You think he’ll do it?”

Kendall and Logan Roy are at war. After painful, elongated internal conflict, Kendall broke away with the support of a few major shareholders. He started his own company, and now there were two large media corporations dominating the world market- both pitted firmly against each other. You didn’t really see Kendall as a villain, nor did Shiv. Honestly, you think you prefer him over Logan.

And since Logan can’t take anything lightly, he’d secretly bought up shares within Kendall’s new company and, as per Shiv’s words, was getting ready for a proxy battle. You knew that the entire reason Kendall quit Waystar was because Logan had refused him the throne, over and over again, despite his promises. And now, his father was after him. Again. Shiv told you he was going to serve Kendall soon. You didn’t know when.

“God, I hope not. It’s too much to think about,” she says back. “It’s already enough that he’s running around shitting on so many journalists. Dad wouldn’t stand a chance against Kendall, if poor Kenny knew what was happening. Anyways, if Dad does anything dumb, we’re going to have to clean it up.”

The two of you take a stroll, arm in arm. Your heels click on the marble tile once you arrive back at the massive stone mansion rented out for you to stay in. Shiv redirects you to the bar. Even though you didn’t drink, you always accompanied her.

Her first glass of whiskey goes down slowly as you watch the people around you. Kendall is minding his business, his kids curled up against him, asleep. You have no idea where Roman is, and you think that’s for the best. Connor and Willa entertain their own group, his arms gesticulating in weird directions. Greg wanders around, drink in hand, chatting idly among the crowd.

Then there they are, at last. Logan, his soon-to-be wife right at his side.

“What’s her name, again?” you ask Shiv.

“Maria, I think.”

“That’s… really similar to Marcia.”

She lifts her shoulder in a shrug. “I don’t know what he sees in her. She runs some press/media company, and first time I met her to tell her to piss off on one of our news sects, she called me a cunt and then released that one paper with a picture of me sneezing.”

You sink into the couch you’re both sat in. “I don’t understand some people.”

“She wants my job. Technically also your job, but mine because she wants me gone.”

“Why?”

“Greedy,” is all Shiv says. “Her company is doing shit. But she stays afloat ‘cos she’s tethered to Dad.”

The elderly couple are making their rounds, greeting all who are gathered. Mostly everyone has flocked back from the art viewing, and the alcohol is beginning to flow. The two finally make it to you, and you and Shiv get to your feet.

“Logan,” you greet him, only giving Maria a slight not. He leans forward and claps a hand onto your shoulder.

“I’m glad you could make it. Tell your old geezer I say hi next time you see him.”

“He’s around here somewhere,” you laugh.

“The bitch has been avoiding me. He has some loudly wrong opinions on tie fabrics, eh, Y/N?” He laughs with you. Here, away from business, he’s a completely different person. You pray he doesn’t serve Kendall during your stay in Florence- this new Logan is a welcome change in persona. Shiv says nothing, eyeing Maria with her lips pursed.

“I haven’t seen you in a while,” Shiv says finally, whiskey in hand. The amber liquid swirls as her weight shifts from foot to foot.

“Work’s been busy,” Maria says back. “Lots of… digging to do.”

“Really? That must be such an interesting line of work,” Shiv replies immediately, “Anything juicy?”

Maria’s eyes meet hers. “Very.”

You and Logan exchange a glance.

“Well, if you ever need any help…,” Shiv begins, looking between her father and his fiance. “Y/N and I are pretty good.”

Maria presses her lips together in a thin line. “I’ll let you know. But, why talk of work when we are in Italia?” Her Italian accent twists all of her words, making them lilt, dance, and mingle together.

“Because,” Shiv says. “Business can’t just be left alone.”

Maria turns to you. “You share this sentiment?”

“I do,” you say, meeting Shiv’s gaze. “But I’m happy to be in Italy. It’s beautiful.”

“I think our shared ‘sentiment’ is that we take care of things we need to, even abroad,” Shiv continues.

This conversation has too much reading in between the lines than you’d like.

“Oh, don’t you worry, then. You’ll be able to enjoy the wedding day in peace.”

“Just the wedding day?” Logan asks, slightly miffed. “I think I should remind us we’ve agreed to ‘no business’, especially with Kendall and I’s… issues.”

You and Shiv exchange a glance. “No promises, Dad.”

“I’m being serious, Siobhan,” he says gruffly. “No funny business.”

Her whiskey’s all the way gone, now, and the two of you return to the bar. While you wait for her drink, you spot Roman pushing his way through the crowd towards you, buttoning up his dress shirt. He comes to lean against the countertop next to you, and leans close to whisper in your ear.

“Hey, my girlfriend told me to tell you that Maria’s a scheming bitch.”

You snort. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, when my girl was at work at her firm, she overhead a call being taken by one of her associates… She eavesdropped, and apparently, Maria’s been looking into the legal side of business.”

“Why aren’t you telling Shiv this?”

“Because I know you’ll know what to do with this better than she would. Besides, Maria gives me an icky feeling. Fucks with my ju-ju.” He gives your arm a pat. “Fuck my step mother up for me, will you? Thanks.”

You make a face at him and wave him off. He flips you off as he walks away.

Shiv’s now Ieaning against you, glass of presumably more whiskey raised to her plush lips. They’re stained a rich red, offsetting the orange of her hair and making her eyes glint in the bar light. Her lashes flutter against her creamy skin, staring at the bottom of her drink.

“Feeling okay?” you ask over the chatter.

Her cheek presses against your bare shoulder. She’d convinced you to wear some off-the-shoulder dress she said was the ‘pinnacle of style’. She sighs melodramatically.

“All of this bullshitery. Their wedding is all just another stunt. Business wise, press wise. I can’t escape the theatrics,” she whines, taking a sip from her drink.

“What do you mean?” you prod gently. She got a bit erratic when drunk, and even though she was just barely buzzed, you didn’t want to push her to do something rash.

“Their entire marriage.” She leans close, her breath fanning over your face. “I swear she’s marrying him for the money. But look at him, Y/N… he’s so in love.”

You both watch as the couple slow dance together on the makeshift dance floor. Logan’s gazing at her, positively smitten, like Shiv had said. Maria, on the other hand, peers over his shoulder disinterestedly as they twirl around.

“She could at less sell it better,” you mutter. Shiv’s head is back on your shoulder, and she downs the rest of her drink.

“Also,” Shiv begins, turning and flagging down the bartender, “Conner said he saw her at dinner with Wyatt Harson. That guy that runs that other company that’s also miraculously Dad’s biggest enemy.”

Maybe you were wrong about her not being drunk.

“How much have you had…?”

She takes her next drink. “I don’t remember. I don’t care.”

Shiv wasn’t much of a reckless drinker. Something is bothering her.

“Wanna get out of here?” you ask, trying to lure her away from the bar. She nods, taking your elbow.

“Let’s go sit in my room. It has a big-ass living area,” she murmurs, leading the way.

You leave the main atrium, Shiv gripping at her skirts as you make your way up the stairs. When finally in her room, she throws herself onto the sofa and sighs, relaxing.

“So many fucking people,” she groans. “All of them scheming and plotting and villainous. Makes my head fucking hurt.”

You sit next to her, dress skirt pooling at your feet. She’s already finished her drink, and she sets the glass on the small coffee table in front of you.

“Wanna tell me why you’re trying to drink yourself to a bout of early onset dementia?” you ask her softly.

Shiv frowns at you. “How do you know?”

“I’ve known you long enough.”

“I couldn’t say, out there. When there were so many people. When Dad was there.” She sniffs, readjusting so that her legs are propped up on the coffee table. “Maria’s after my job. After me, the company, whatever.”

“I don’t like her either, but we can’t just speculate.”

“I’m not speculating.” She takes a deep breath, centering herself, and probably staving off an oncoming headache. “She’s blackmailing me,” she admits quietly. “She’s dangling information above my head in exchange for garbage on Dad and Kendall’s dispute. She’s… I’m pretty sure she’s trying to take Dad down. Maybe she weaseled her way into the will, I don’t know. But I can’t say anything.”

“Shiv, what the fuck? Why didn’t you tell me?” You turn to face her completely, folding your leg under your body.

“It literally happened this morning. I gave her some bullshit lie, saying something about how Kendall was planning to serve Dad instead of the other way around, but lying is only going to work once.”

“What does she have on you?”

Shiv bites her lip, worrying at it with her teeth. “It’s… it’s bad. Like, in my own writing bad.”

“You’re Siobhan Roy. And I love you, Shiv, but you can just lie. You’ve done it before.”

“This is different, Y/N. I… I can’t. She, like, needs to die.”

You blow out a breath of air. “What do you want to do?”

“Kill her,” is her first answer. When you make a face, grimacing, she amends, “Try to figure out what she’s really doing.”

“Better,” you mutter. “How about we just… forget about it? For now, at least. She won’t have any time to do any sort of work, Shiv, promise. We’ll deal when we get back.”

She pouts. You feel your face go warm. Fucking hell, she's gorgeous. “And if she does have time?”

You shrug. “We deal anyway. But, come on, we should be enjoying ourselves. We’re in Florence. Can we just have fun?”

“We always have fun. You’re my only friend. My best one.” She takes your hand and gives it a tight squeeze. “And I really need to puke.”

“Buttering me up so I'll hold back your hair?”

She nods, lips pressing together. You shoo her into the bathroom, following and sitting by her side on the cool tile of bathroom floor. If it were anyone else, you’d have been disgusted, but this was a regular enough occurrence that you could keep her hair from her face with one hand and rub her back soothingly with the other.

After flushing the toilet, she groans. “Why’d you let me drink so much?”

“I literally only saw you drink three glasses. You snuck the other hundred. You should take a break from alcohol, don’t you think?”

She stays silent for a moment, staring into the toilet bowl. You’re sat flush against each other, your skin touching hers from shoulder to thigh.

“I’m sorry,” Shiv says under her breath. You almost don’t catch it.

“No you’re not,” you reply teasingly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

She chews at her lip before glancing sideways at you. “I feel like it’s always like this. You helping me when I do something stupid. I feel… I feel like I never do anything for you. And I don’t… It makes me feel so shitty.”

All you can do is look at her, stunned. In all your years of friendship, she’d never been so vulnerable. It’s the first time you’d ever even heard the words ‘I feel’ come consecutively from her mouth. You hold each others’ gaze, her glazing over with a sudden clarity.

You don’t say anything. You know she’ll talk when she’s ready.

After a few moments, she does.

“I… you’ve been around for so long. You’ve stuck with me for so long. And I… I… I don’t appreciate you enough. I don’t ever tell you how grateful I am to have you with me, that you’re literally my business partner, that we’re together 24/7. I know you mean well, and I’m a shitty person for thinking this, but whenever you’re supportive like this, you love me like this, a bit of me fucking dies inside because I know I’m never going to do something like this for you.”

Quietly, you ask, “But do you want to?”

“I do. I swear I do. You’re such an amazing friend, and I-”

“Shiv, stop.” You press the heel of your palm to the spot between your brows, trying to will away the forming migraine. “I just… Just try, okay? That’s all I ask.” Wordlessly, she leans towards you and gives you a loose hug, burying her face into your shoulder. You return it, pressing her to you tighter than you probably should. “You should go to bed,” you tell her. “You’ll be thankful for it in the morning.”

She sniffs. “There you go again. The perfect friend.” She wipes at her eyes, and you help her get to her feet. Her words bounce around in your brain. A friend. That’s what you are to her, and that’s it. Nothing more, you tell yourself. For your sake and hers.

Shiv’s changed into her pajamas, and you’re about to bid her goodnight so you can go rot in bed. Before you can, though, you remember something.

“Hey, can I ask something weird?”

“Always,” she says, crawling under the covers. You lean against the doorway to the bedroom.

“Don’t you think we should… warn Kendall? I feel horrible, just sitting here, waiting for him to get executed.”

She presses her lips together. “Why would we do that, though?”

“Why not? Honestly, I think he’s a better person, businessman, and boss than your dad is. And Logan’s been shitting on him for no reason his entire life. I’d feel like I wasn’t doing my due diligence if I didn’t say anything.”

She takes a second to think. “You think this can help in the long run?”

“From my point of view, we’re doing him a big-ass favor. And he’s the type of person to actually treat people around him the way they treat him.” You cross your arms over yourself, getting a little cold. “And I really wouldn’t mind jumping ship from Waystar to Kendall.”

“Don’t even think about it,” Shiv snaps suddenly. “Don’t flip. You can’t, and you won’t.”

An uncomfortable silence ensues. Through gritted teeth, all you say is, “Shiv.”

“I’m serious. I’m all for telling Kendall that he’s about to get fucked over, but you can’t abandon Waystar. Not if I’m going to still be there.” She catches the slight tremor that racks through your body from the chill. “But we won’t talk about that now. Like you said… We should be enjoying ourselves.” She breaks eye contact, looking down as she traces over the flowers printed on her duvet with her finger.

You sigh lightly, pushing off from the doorway. “Okay. I’ll go tell him before I go to bed.” You smooth out the wrinkles in your dress. “Good night, Shiv. Sleep well.”

So much for your earlier heart to heart. You turn, about to walk out into the hall.

“Good night, Y/N. Thank you.”

You give her a smile over your shoulder before shutting off the light and closing the door behind you.

You slowly make your way back downstairs, piecing together your speech in your head. The party is still going strong, and you feel like the noise has gotten ten times louder. You spot Kendall at the bar on his own, his thumb gently stroking the wedding ring sitting on his finger. You go to join him, and he gives you a soft hello and a small cupcake he’d mentioned was made by his wife.

“How are you feeling?” you ask quietly. “I know it’s been… a bit much.”

He laughs bitterly. “God. Dad’s been making my life hell. And I can only do so much to keep my wife, the kids, Rava out of it.”

You hum sympathetically. “Well, I hope what I’m about to tell you helps with that.” He turns to you, expectantly. “Mind if we take a stroll outside? The weather is always gorgeous.”

When the two of you are successfully away from any prying eyes and ears, walking through a garden, you let yourself relax. “Your dad has had a new investment interest.”

“Oh? I hadn’t heard.”

“Because it’s in your company.” He stops walking. “He’s secretly buying your shares, Kendall.”

“Oh my fucking god,” he says under his breath. “That’s why- shit, Y/N, that puts a lot into perspective.”

“Spike in purchases?” He nods, grim. “Yeah, thought so. And, uh, Ken?”

He doesn’t say anything.

“He’s going to proxy you.”

“That fucking dirt bag,” he hisses. His entire body tenses up, but he takes a breath, controlling himself. “Thank you, Y/N. This means a lot to me.”

“I thought you deserved to know.” A soft breeze blows back your hair from your face. “And between you and me… I’m glad to lend my help whenever you need it.”

Kendall nods slowly, hands clasping together.

“I’ll make sure to remember that.”

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