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clockvvorker · 5 years

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Therion's Past: An Insane Meta/Headcanon Post

[cracks knuckles] all right I'm taking this literally 2% seriously, almost skim seriously, but this is a very serious headcanon that I refuse to let die until squenix tells me otherwise. So, without further ado, I present:

Hornburgian Therion, Royalty Therion and Both Of Them Put Together In A Clusterfuck of Headcanons I Call Hornburgian Royalty

(Mega spoilers for the entire game, including & especially Gate of Finis!)

Some Note Before We Begin

I make use of biblical allusions and parallels between Therion of Christianity and Therion of Octopath Traveler, mostly near the end, and as neat little conjecture rather than concrete evidence towards my theories. Usually, I’ll more often than not be talking about Therion of Octopath Traveler, but if I ever feel the need to make the distinction (like when talking about both of them in the same sentence), I’ll use C!Therion for the Beast from Christianity, and OT!Therion for the Octopath Traveler character.

Like mentioned before, some of the later bits and pieces will just be conjecture and mutual allusions to add strength to arguments rather than to be held as evidence by itself, so take those with a grain of salt. The larger arguments, however.....I’m very serious about those.

I may have forgotten some things, so pardon if I have to go out and edit this to complete some thoughts that I may have left unfinished. This is close to 3,000 words long and I haven’t proofread it yet.

If you have anything to add regarding anything in this document, feel free to send it my way!

Royalty Therion; Or, The Most Likely Explanation But That's No Fun Now, Is It?

Honestly, it almost feels as though they wanted to hint at this but didn’t do it enough.

Starting off strong character-wise, we’ve got the glaring similarities between Therese and Therion, namely the fact that they’re the only known characters with ‘unnatural’ hair colors in the game- that is to say, silver (and white) hair isn’t normally found in nature, while everybody else has colors ranging from normal blond to black; ‘anime’ colored hair isn’t exactly prevalent in Orsterra. It could be coincidence, but so could everything else and so I like to interpret it as not. Instead, it could be genetics. Bloodline, a recessive gene passed down more easily through the royal family or a branch thereof. Not to mention, mind, that Therion's hair is, if not confirmed, then highly implied to be naturally white. After all, while gaining white hair from shock or mental stress has been used in anime before (my own knowledge only really extending to Allen Walker from D. Gray-Man), it's clearly shown that Therion has white hair before his ordeal with Darius, and not enough is known before their meeting to imply any shock large enough for such a biological change (as unrealistic as it is to begin with). As for hair dye....while enough can be said of a thief not wanting a hair color that sticks out like a sore thumb in the middle of Orsterra (in fact, there’s no strategic benefit, only loss, to dying his hair white), the lack of untouched roots also lends itself to the fact.

Also to note is that Therion actually shares his green eye color not with Therese but with Princess Mary, with whom Therese does also share a biological (if distant) relation.

Another thing I would like to address, while less related to their direct blood lineage, is the similarities in their name. It's mostly just convenient coincidence, but THERion and THERese both have seven letters and begin with the same four letters, albeit with different pronunciations; this could possibly lend itself to a naming trend within the family. Also, while I’ve noted time and time again that Therion is most likely derived from the name of The Beast in Christian lore, the origin of the word itself is quite literally greek for 'beast'. The hunted. Therese can also be derived from Greek. The meaning? 'Huntress'.

Hunter and hunted. The one who stayed, and the one who ran away. Everybody's names have had some sort of symbolism related to their path, however distinct (Tressa's name quite literally meaning 'third', as she is third in OCTOPATH order, and Ophilia's name is a direct foreshadowing to the death of her father and subsequent madness of her sister) or vague (Alfyn's name relating more closely to his action of chasing after the apothecary from his past, for example), and yet Therion's seems to be out of place. This could be the missing link.

Game mechanics wise, my reasoning gets iffier, but there’s still some evidence, or at least nice potential for world-building, going around. The most notable is the fact that the only known characters who wield swords in-game are trained mercenaries and knights, as well as Therion, who, as far as we know, had only traveled with Darius beginning at age 12. Other NPCs and enemy mobs preferred to use alternative weapons, namely daggers and spears. Sure, you can chalk this up to “okay but OT just needed another sword-using class to balance out the game mechanics”, but that’s no fun. Instead, I offer another explanation: Therion was formally trained in swordplay at a younger age, before he was introduced to Darius who wouldn't be able to teach him due to his own lack of training. Furthermore, because of this small time frame (roughly six years, if Therion started at the tender age of 6 as was the average for similar, real-life medieval societies), it's likely that Therion was either very gifted at swordplay to be able to learn it so quickly, pushed mercilessly by the person training him, or both- all likely assumptions for somebody with a noble birthright.

Hornburgian Therion; Or, More Fun And Also Still Plausible So Just Let Me Have This One Thing, Square Enix

Let's shift our gears here and talk geography for a minute; more specifically, I want to talk about four distinct locations related to both Therion and Hornburg. While the first two may be more obvious, Bolderfall and Hornburg itself, I'll be talking about the other two locations quite extensively as well: Saintsbridge and Riverford. While we know from the guidebook that Therion's first known location was his meeting with Darius in Saintsbridge, this also puts him in close proximity with Riverford- one of the pivotal locations, if not the most pivotal, pertaining to the Fall of Hornburg.

First, the obvious. Bolderfall and Hornburg have very similar geographic makeups; they’re both assumedly dry, arid locations with cliffs and other topologically similar features. Really, that’s all I have to say about that. There is potential for Therion having settled in an area similar to the home that he had lost in the war.

Yeah. That’s all I’ve got.

.....is what I would say, but wait, there’s more! Let’s take a look at the lower lefthand corner of the full map of Orsterra (shoutout to IGN for the high quality image).

We see that three- nay, four important points are located all in this area. “Four, but Hornburg isn’t located here!” No, I’m talking about the Orewell/Quarrycrest area where Darius betrays Therion, but that’s only important with regards to the actual story, not quite this meta, so it won’t be touched upon here.

The first place of importance is Saintsbridge, the city where Therion meets Darius for the first time. The second place, Bolderfall, where Therion begins his story path. And the third, Riverford. Now, the question here is, if Therion were from Hornburg, than how would he have ended up so far into Orsterra?

Riverford is the answer to that question. Riverford is most commonly known as the city where you fight Werner at the end of Olberic’s path; that is to say, he is the number two instigator of Hornburg’s ruin (number one being Lyblac). It’s revealed in the journals found in the Gate of Finis that, while orchestrating the fall of Hornburg, Werner also invests in the trust of ‘powerful men within Hornburg and without’. Adding onto that the fact that Werner has enough prestige and money to buy the entire city of Riverford after Hornburg falls, it would make sense for the area to also serve as an out-of-Hornburg base or otherwise sanctuary for Werner and his men before the fall.

In which case, since Riverford now has ties to Hornburg, how would Therion get there? The simplest answer is that he had arrived of his own free will. After all, Werner had been recruiting both mercenaries and ruffians alike, and a thief like Therion would surely be on Werner’s radar (granted his young age, however, this may not hold as much water). While serving under Werner, either as a ‘villain’ in his little act or as a courier or other role suited for a fleet-footed thief, there’s potential for Therion to travel back and forth between Riverford and Hornburg, therefore giving him a reason to be in both Riverford and Saintsbridge, as the next city on the road towards Hornburg (at least, considering the impassable terrain between Riverford and Marsalim).

The second answer, and I’ll go over this in the next section, is a little more extreme.

Therion was abducted.

Hornburgian Royalty AU; Or, Put On Your Pirate Hats Because We’re Sailing Into Crack Theory Territory Now Boys (Actually There’s A Lot Of Allusions And Parallels So Strap In We’re Going Meta-Diving)

Let’s put this all together, now. We’ve got Royal Therion and Hornburgian Therion. Why not both? However, while we can pull a few things from both previous headcanons - namely the knowledge of swordplay from Royal Therion and the geographical preference from Hornburgian Therion - there’s also one more story-based piece of information I want to look at.

Namely, the connection between Therion and Beowulf I, the first king of Hornburg.

I’m gonna pull these two pieces from The Records of House Ravus specifically as a basic gist of my reasoning:

“The dragonstones were bestowed upon the first Lord Ravus by the legendary King Beowulf I of Hornburg, and they have been passed down in our family ever since.”

[.....]

“It is said that the great sorcerer Odin Crossford used the power of the dragonstones to seal shut the Gate of Finis. Crossford had campaigned together with King Beowulf and aided him in the founding of Hornburg.”

There is a lot of allusion and generational referencing of the original closing of the Gate within the journals for the Gate of Finis, and this is only part of the excerpt itself. Odin Crossford, King Beowulf, and Lord Ravus are all tied into the lore behind the Dragonstones here, and we’ve obviously seen why the names Crossford and Ravus are so important (especially considering their kin also play major roles in the plot). King Beowulf gives the dragonstones to Odin Crossford to seal the Gate of Finis, and those dragonstones then go to the first Lord Ravus for safekeeping. We see that the most recent Lord Ravus (Cordelia Ravus’s father, assumedly) loses the dragonstones during a family strife, which connects the past Ravus to the future. Obviously, Graham and Kit Crossford act as two different keys to opening the Gate of Finis, which parallel Odin Crossford closing the Gate. So here we have a cyclical series of events, but there’s one thing missing. King Beowulf doesn’t have a seemingly present-day counterpart.....but who gave the dragonstones to the Ravus family?

Or a better question is, who gave the dragonstones to the Ravus family after he retrieved them all during the events of the game?

Now, we know that Cordelia is related to the first Lord Ravus through direct lineage; the same can be said for Graham (and Kit by extension) being directly related to Odin. Through this series of parallels, it also wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Therion, despite lacking a proper (known) surname, could also be related to the first King Beowulf (also without a surname, mind you, just as the late King Alfred is without a known surname) through direct blood lineage because of this parallel of roles.

I CAN ALSO GO INTO HOW THE NAME THERION, DESPITE MEANING ‘BEAST’, IS ALSO THE GREEK NAME GIVEN TO THE CONSTELLATION LUPUS, AKA THE WOLF, LIKE, Y’KNOW, IN BEOWULF, BUT I DON’T WANNA SOUND LIKE A CONSPIRACY THEORIST OR ANYTHING...........

........there’s actually a lot of real-life allusions connecting both Beowulf and Therion, including the role of dragons (although this one is shaky at best when you compare the dragon that mortally wounds Beowulf in the eponymous poem, directly opposed to the ‘dragon’ said to bestow power on C!Therion) and the role of royalty and divine power (also interesting to note that, while Beowulf from the poem is a direct king, C!Therion represents a king who is not and never was, leading back to possibly alluding OT!Therion as some sort of punished or escaped royalty). Literally all of this is pointless trivia, though, and doesn’t serve as hints or proof, but rather interesting tidbits that could lend itself to some alluded connection between the two. In other words? None of it matters, but I like to pretend it does.

Speaking of names, have you noticed the similarity between the pronunciations of Therion and Ferien, the kingdom that King Beowulf I was prince of before founding Hornburg? Because I did. It’s weird. Absolutely pointless to mention, but still really weird.

Supplement: Hornburg’s Collapse; Or, Erhardt, Darius, And Where Everything Fucking Fits

I’m not going to go into too much detail here, but with regards to specifically Hornburg Royalty, this is a hypothetical order of events; everything labeled to the furthest left is concrete canon, while every indented bullet is conjecture and theory. This is also where I go into a bit more detail about Therion’s kidnapping and subsequent arrival in Orsterra.

T-22: Therion is born

T-21: Erhardt’s village burns down

T-20: Werner forms the Black Brotherhood; this is the earliest possible moment for Erhardt to join the Black Brotherhood.

T-17: After three years of gathering intelligence, Werner begins to enact his plans; this is the earliest possible moment for Erhardt to join the royal guard.

T-17 - T-10: Somewhere in this time frame:

Hornburg falls victim to a war (civil war?)

Therion is abducted and taken to Riverford- potentially by Werner, but also potentially by Lyblac or another one of her cohorts

Therion subsequently escapes from Riverford and arrives in Saintsbridge, where he gets imprisoned

T-10: Therion meets Darius in Saintsbridge jail

T-8: Hornburg Falls

T-8 - T: Somewhere in this timeframe:

Erhardt travels to Wellspring

Olberic finds refuge in Cobbleston

T-6: Darius Betrays Therion

T: Present-Day Octopath

That leaves a ten-year gap (from T-20 to T-10, but mind you, Therion is two at the start of that gap, so it’s highly unlikely the timeframe is quite that large) for Therion to learn swordsmanship and thievery skills and ‘go missing’. Within that gap, Therion would also have to have been kidnapped, either by Werner or Lyblac. While Werner is much more active in the plot against Hornburg, it is equally likely that Lyblac is the one to ‘dispose’ of Therion; it would give reason for Therion to have been taken care of despite Werner’s lack of knowledge of the king having an heir, and would equally give reason for Therion to lack memories of being kidnapped by Lyblac, because something something goddess powers.

Takeaway; Or, Kiril Is Fucking Crazy, Seriously, You Don’t Have To Sugarcoat It, I Know Already

Nah, for real bro, I know almost all of this is based on pointless coincidences and pushpin-string evidence, but it’s something that’s been in my mind ever since I first played through the game last July. I guess I just......needed an outlet, and wanted to get this out before

And on the off chance that this is real? That somehow, no matter how small or insignificant, I managed to hit a single nail on the head with some of this conjecture and crack theory levels of reasoning?

YEAH FUCK Y’ALL, I KNEW IT THIS WHOLE FUCKIN’ TIME.

#octopath #octopath traveler #therion #c. therion #hc. therion #i know there's not much basis for hornburgian royalty therion but listen.......#i'm taking this headcanon to this hill and fucking dying there

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harper-clarington · 5 years

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Tender Touches || Romper

Where: Roman Lynn’s trailer

When: December 2, evening

Warnings: Being too cute, lots of emotions

Word Count: 8,950

Harper in bold, @roman-lynn in italics

Roman's stomach had been in knots since the uncovering of Sebrina Smythe's body. The last thing that he had expected while taking part in an all out brawl in the snow with Hunter Clarington was to stumble over evidence of the missing girl--much less her body. It had been a long 24 hours since the incident and despite his first instinct to stay inside and keep to himself, trying to scrub his brain of the graphic mental images , he decided to reach out to Harper.

He didn't want to leave his trailer, slightly worried that the Serpents would be slithering around, forming some sort of intricate plan for being blamed for Sebrina's untimely death. He snuck out, choosing not to take his motorcycle so as to not bring any attention to himself, especially since he was crossing over into the North Side. Within an hour, he had made it over to the Clarington residence, picked up Harper, and made it back to the South Side. They hadn't talked much on the way back, Roman leading Harper through the tree line in almost complete silence.

Upon them walking back to Sunnyside Trailer Park, Roman almost immediately noticed the smell of fire and heard a loud commotion. His heart beat in his chest, worried about the state of his home, his parent's, and his friend's. He took Harper's hand in his, turning to her with a concerned look in his eyes, "Stay close to me...and don't let go of my hand".

Harper had been feeling like shit since she got home from Sebastian's. She still hadn't talked to Hunter since finding out he'd known that Bri was alive because he simply didn't know how to approach the subject without screaming and never stopping. When Roman had invited her over, she'd jumped at the chance to get out of her house. The Clarington residence was huge, but at that moment it felt stifling.

Despite her low expectations for the South Side, she hadn't exactly been expecting the commotion that greeted the two of them when Roman led her to Sunnyside Trailer Park. She was fairly certain the place being on fire was unusual, even for this part of town.

She nodded, looking back at Roman and tightening her grip on his hand, feeling anxious all of a sudden, unsure what was happening and worried something would happen to them. "What's going on?" She hissed.

The chaos that was ensuing on Sunnyside Trailer Park was far from normal. Roman could see on the east side of the lot a small group of people forming; all holding various forms of weaponry between torches and baseball bats. The pandemonium was getting louder by the second and he could sense the anxiety coming off of Harper in palpable waves. He squeezed her hand, his thumb brushing over hers and let out a small sigh. "I--I'm not sure. They look like they're sticking to the East lot though, so we should be safe when we get to my place. Trust me."

Roman took a heavy breath and coaxed Harper to follow him in the direction of his trailer. He cautiously started walking, his head on a swivel as he gauged the situation around him. They walked for what felt like 30 minutes, stopping when he saw a shadow or heard the snap of a branch, until they finally got to his trailer. He walked up the wooden stairs, pulling his keys out of his pocket and with shaky hands, opened the front door. "After you," he said, trying to gain some composure as he invited her inside.

Harper relaxed a smidge at his words, and she let him lead her away from the angry crowd. Harper felt like her heart was going to beat out of her chest, not quite sure what was going on or what she'd just witnessed. Her grip on his hand stayed tight as they walked through the night, the sounds of the mob eventually falling away. "Is that kind of stuff normal?" She asked as they arrived at his trailer after a stress-inducing walk.

She released his hand reluctantly so that he could get the door open, following him up the stairs and past him into the trailer. The space was bigger than she'd expected looking in from the outside, and certainly cleaner too. "Thank you."

Roman cringed at Harper's question, a sinking feeling burying it's way into the pit of his stomach. Of course Harper's first impression of the South Side had to be a bad one, it wasn't really her fault, but he couldn't look past the fact that even without all the chaos she would still probably think the same. Roman closed the door, clicking the turn lock and setting the chain in place, "I--No, it's not." Roman ran a hand through his unkempt hair and leaned against the door, "The South Side isn't what the Ledger portrays us as. We're not all gang members and drug lords."

Roman toed off his shoes and left them at the door, walking over to Harper with almost a defeated look on his face. "I honestly don't know what the hell that is," he admitted, motioning towards the door. His trailer was kept and somewhat clean, a random pizza box and a small baggy of weed sitting on the arm of his couch. He hoped it didn't turn Harper away, seeing how the other half lived. "You want something to drink?". he asked, "I think I've just got water and beer."

Maybe a few weeks ago, Harper would have disputed that assertion...but the last week or so had opened her eyes to the reality that not everything was as it seemed on either side of town. "Yeah, I'm starting to see that," she said quietly. She slid her flats off and then went over to the couch, curling up on one of the cushions as Roman puttered around. His trailer was cleaner than she'd expected, and cozy in a way.

"It was scary, whatever it was," she admitted, looking back up to meet his eyes. "Water is fine, thank you." She'd considered the beer, but alcohol was probably not wise considering her mindset at the moment. Harper shrugged off her jacket, before draping it over the side of the couch. "Are you living alone? Or — or does anyone else live here with you?"

Roman hadn’t seen Harper like this; he knew that she was close with Sebrina Smythe, but didn’t realize how much her death really affected her. Roman was sympathetic, and despite this just being a sexual thing between them two, Roman couldn’t help but want to help. There were no feeling involved—just sex—and even that would eventually fizzle out.

Roman watched as Harper got somewhat comfortable on the couch, grabbing bottled water for the both of them before sitting down, sinking into the cushions and letting out a breath. “I’ve never seen anything like that, to be honest.” , he mumbled “That mob out there—they weren’t Southsiders.” Roman lifted the lid of the empty pizza box, tossing it on the coffee table, not knowing how to act with Harper. “Yeah, it’s—it’s just me. My mom lives a few trailers down, so it’s not like it’s lonely or anything.”

Harper took the bottle of water from him, unscrewing the lid and downing a third of it down in one go before she put the cap back on. She ran a hand through her hair, feeling exhausted. "I don't understand...what did they do? What did they want?" Harper wasn't particularly fond of the South Side of town herself, but coming down to it just to make a scene seemed like it was crossing a line.

She nodded as he explained. "Sorry if this is too personal...you don't have to tell me but is there a reason you don't live together? Did you just need your own space or..." she trailed off, unsure of what she was asking. She hugged her arms around herself again, letting her eyes fall shut and pretending that none of this week was real. She opened them again. "Do you want to put on a movie or something?"

Roman’s jaw clenched and his eye throbbed, an unfortunate result of his fight with Hunter. He could hear the uneasiness of his own voice as he spoke, answering all of Harper’s questions. “ Revenge? Someone to blame? This—Sebrina’s death...”, Roman sighed, “Everyone wants to know who to blame and who better than us, right?” Roman shrugged, it was nothing new to him.

Roman kicked his feet up on the table, an attempt to stave off some of the awkwardness between them, and pointed to the only picture he had of his family, framed and hung on the wall next to the TV. “Other than I’m 21 and don’t want to live at home anymore?” Roman laughed, unsure as to if the truth was worth it to explain. “Dad was a little too rowdy when he drank, typical piece of shit. Mom won’t leave him, even though she’s sick of it. I visit often enough—to cook together and hang out. But, to answer your question, I make good money doing construction, so here I am.”

Roman’s eyes were fixed on Harper, gauging her reaction to everything he was telling her. He didn’t trust many people, but again, Harper was different. “Is—that what you want? I’ve got Netflix and if you feel like you’re going kind of crazy, well—I’ve got some weed."

"That doesn't make any sense...vigilante justice doesn't achieve anything and the sheriff thinks it was Sebastian of all people," Harper said, shaking her head. "Besides, Darius and I were talking about this...it — strangling is too personal for it to have been — been a gang thing, right? Too messy, too much evidence....at least if she hadn't been frozen for two weeks."

Harper's eyes caught sight of the fading bruises on Roman's face, and she frowned, reaching out to trace them with one hand. "What kind of fight club do you and my brother have going on, honestly? I don't get your animosity."

She looked over at the photo curiously. She could certainly understand wanting your own space...although at her house, with it being so big, it wasn't exactly difficult to avoid her parents. "I...I'm sorry, about your parents, I mean," she whispered, reaching over to give his hand a squeeze. She wasn't sure what the boundaries were here...what she was and wasn't allowed to do, but she couldn't not when he was sharing something so personal.

Harper shrugged. "I'm not exactly going to be paying it a lot of attention but the background noise would be nice," she admitted. She wasn't much of a weed girl. Didn't like not having clear airways for dance, and she hated the smell, but....fuck it, today was a bad day. "I...sure, yeah. That'd be nice."

“Just because Sebastian is Sheriff Hummel’s number one suspect, doesn’t mean the rest of the town sees it that way.” People on all sides of town had their own viewpoints on who the murderer was, but no one has any concrete proof leading them as to why. Even Sheriff Hummel—whose accusation of Sebastian was baseless, for the most part. “This isn’t a gang thing, D is right. If it had been, we wouldn’t have found the body.”

Roman’s breath hitched as Harper traced over his bruises from his recent quarrel with her brother. “I—we—“, Roman didn’t know what to say, stumbling on the right words. “We’ve just never gotten along. He—we’re from two separate worlds.” Roman shrugged, that was really all there was to say on the topic. Roman didn’t like Hunter because he acted like an elite, entitled, North Sider. He couldn’t speak for why Hunter didn’t think well of him.

Roman reached across the couch, grabbing the small Ziploc baggie of weed and nodded his head. “My parents are who they are, nothing to be sorry about”, he murmured before taking opening the bag and smelling inside. “Have you smoked before?”

Harper frowned. She wished people actually cared about bringing Sebrina's killer to justice and finding out the truth instead of jumping to conclusions based on their own biases. Her best friend deserved better than to be fodder for town warfare. "That's...oddly comforting, I guess."

She brushed her fingers down his bruise once more, shaking her head, a little bemused, a little fond. "Boys. So what? So are we. I'm not going to pretend I haven't looked down on South Siders myself but....," she shrugged. "I don't know, this whole thing has opened my eyes to things not being as simple as they seem, I guess."

She didn't know what to say to that. Her parents marriage had always appeared fine, at least to her, so she couldn't exactly relate to being on the other side of that. "Uh...like once? Tenth grade? I was bad at it and not a fan of the smell," she admitted. "But this week can't get worse so teach me your ways."

Roman hesitated, gently placing his hand over her knee. He didn't know what to say to Harper, he didn't know how to empathize with how great her loss was, or begin to understand how she was feeling. He didn't want to scare her; telling her that while it seemed comforting to know that not everyone in Riverdale thought Sebastian was guilty, that the real killer was still at large. A fact he was sure she was well aware of.

Roman cocked his head, watching as Harper tried to fit together pieces of a puzzles that just didn't work. " So are we, Harper. But, I mean--you can't tell me that this isn't anything more than what it is." It was true; beyond the obvious split in social class, there was no way that Roman would let himself catch feelings, much less from a North Side girl like Harper who could chew him up and spit him out in a matter of days. He looked down at his lap, a slight twinge in his chest as he spoke, "I think they are as simple as they seem. You just have to look."

Roman took an already rolled joint of the baggie, tossing the rest onto the table. Putting the butt between his lips, he reached into his pocket for his lighter and lit the end. He took a deep inhale, feeling the smoke fill up his lungs and let out a smooth, slow exhale. "I'm surprised you've done it even once to be honest." Roman took the joint from his mouth and offered it to Harper, "Don't let me be a poor influence."

Harper frowned, drawing back a bit. "I don't know what you mean. They're not. If someone told me a month ago I'd feel so safe with a Serpent, I'd call them crazy but I do." She drew her legs up, wrapping her arms around them, annoyed by how dismissive the other was being. "Hell, you and Darius are the only people concerned enough for my safety to bother asking if I need a walk home or a ride somewhere. Hunter's too busy and my parents? They're occupied in their own world. So excuse me if I think we're all more than whatever stupid labels they stick on us."

A little embarrassed by her own outburst, she reached out for the joint, turning it over in her fingers and trying to remember what she'd done the last time she tried weed. "I wanted to win Prom Queen and that meant hanging out with every social group at school including the stoners. It worked, I won, but I had to smoke to do it," she explained, before placing the joint to her lips and inhaling. Someone, she fucked up on the exhale and ended up coughing, her lungs burning. "Ugh. I think I know why people like to bake this into brownies now."

Roman knew he had said all the wrong things, but he wasn’t lying. He took pride in being honest, no matter the consequence. Biting his lip, Roman ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “I—fuck. Harper that’s not what I meant. I—I just meant that I take things at face value.”

He shifted on the cushion at the mention of Darius. He had been the one to push them together-in a completely professional way-so what reason did he have to feel on edge at hearing his name come off Harper’s lips. “You honestly think that I can be anything other than a Serpent?”, he asked, genuinely interested in her answer.

Roman frowned, patting Harper gently on the back as she coughed from the smoke. He took the joint from her, holding it between his thumb and forefinger. “If I had the shit, I’d offer to make you a batch. I’m a somewhat decent cook”

Harper tilted her head, confused by what he meant. "I don't know what you mean then? Just because my brother doesn't like you doesn't mean I can't and the different sides of the tracks thing is just an excuse. Like...I'm not trying to make this more than it is. I just like spending time with you so who gives a shit?"

She paused at his question, leaning back into the cushions. "I don't know...maybe it's naive but I think anyone can be more than what they are if they really want to," she fiddled with one of her sleeves absently as she spoke, not fully realizing she was doing it. "Like...I don't know all that much about you besides your sexual prowess so I can't make any definitive judgements but I think so. What made you join in the first place anyways?"

She gratefully relinquished the joint, sucking in a fresh breath, turning a bit red. "Told you I was bad at that," she joked, before piquing up curiously at his next words. "Ooooh, chef Roman, consider me intrigued. What can you make?"

Roman’s heart stopped, his breathing gone shallow, his mind..confused. Maybe he was wrong, maybe living on one side of town versus the other didn’t actually matter in the end. Maybe he and Hunter could look past their differences. Maybe he and Harper—No.

“I like spending time with you too”, he said with a smile.

He blushed, a flush red rising to his cheeks. He thought back to the Serpents, remembering when he first joined at 16 years old. “I was 16 when I joined the Serpents, back when Dare’s old man was our leader. I wanted to join—wanted to feel like I belonged to something important.”

Bringing the joint up to his lips, Roman took in another drag, relishing in the way it worked into his chest. “It’s all about the exhale. Too fast and it hits you hard, too slow and you’ll end up coughing.”

Roman chuckled, reminiscing on his younger years, “Well, uh, if you didn’t know...I’m part Cuban. My mom—she taught me how to make fresh tortillas, empanadas, tostones.”, he said with a slight accent. “But, i know how to make other things too. “

Harper chewed on her lip. Part of her felt queasy at the idea that kids were being recruited into gangs that young — having the course of the future and the way people saw them altered by a decision they were making because they felt desperate. It didn't seem right. But vocalizing it might be...offensive in some way. Still, it seemed manipulative to make kids think that joining a gang was their only option. "Do you ever regret it?"

She smiled, trying to imagine a tiny Roman cooking with his mom. It was an adorable image. "Well you need to cook for me sometime, then. What else can you make?" She asked curiously, before reaching back out for the joint. "Let me try again."

“Not—no. There’s nothing to regret.” Roman shrugged, thinking nothing more of the Serpents, his indoctrination, or the current state of things. “There have been times when I’ve had to do things I don’t believe in 100% , but even then, the outcome has been decent.”

Roman passed the joint back to Harper, his hand on her back, just in between her shoulder blades. “Up to your lips, breathe in 5 seconds, out 4.” All this talk about food made Roman’s stomach growl, “Steak, burgers, i make a mean spaghetti”

Harper bit her lip, but didn't question it further. Who was she, from her glass tower, to question his choices? "Well that's good...I think having regrets is one of the worst things in life. It haunts you."

She took the joint between her fingers, leaning into his touch, and then slowly raised it to her lips, taking a slow breath in. She held it for a second, before releasing it, this time much smoother. "That was nicer," she murmured, smiling softly at him and passing the joint back. "You're a good teacher."

The sound of his tummy had her giggling, and she patted it lightly. "Maybe you should get something going right now. It sounds like you need it."

Roman took a third hit off the joint, this time feeling his thoughts go fuzzy around the edges. On his exhale, he choked out a laugh, “I can’t tell if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Should I be worried about corrupting you, Ms, Clarington?”

Roman’s stomach gurgled again and this time he was going to listen to his body. “Here. Come with me into the kitchen,”, he said standing up and stretching his hand out for hers. “I’ll teach you how to make empanadas.”

Harper rolled her eyes, but a smile was tugging at the corners of her lips. "I'm Miss Clarington now, am I? Fancy..,," she said, giggling. "But I don't know what it is either....maybe you should get worried once I start thinking this stuff doesn't smell like you killed a skunk."

She took the offered hand, allowing him to pull her off the couch. and she tangled their fingers together as he led her to the kitchen, excited to learn. She didn't exactly do a lot of cooking at home...they had a chef who made food for them after all, but....she was intrigued by the idea of it. "What kind are we making?"

Roman led Harper to the kitchen, picking her up by the waist and sitting her on the counter. “It’s not bad for you, depending on if you’re smart about it”, he called out over his shoulder as he opened a few cabinets gathering up the ingredients that they needed. “ It’s not Jingle Jangle—that shit gets you addicted after one go.”

Roman took the premade empanada discs out of the fridge, tossing them next to the rest of the ingredients on the counter. “Ground beef and cheese? If that’s cool with you?”

Harper yelped when she was picked up and then deposited on the counter, and she lightly smacked Roman in the shoulder once he pulled away. "Give a girl some warning next time!" She swung her legs as she watched Roman putter around the kitchen. "I just hate the smell...I think if I had the edible kind I'd be munching some all day. But yeah, no, you wouldn't catch me within 10 feet of jingle jangle. I've read some horror stories."

She knew there was a stereotype about rich people and drugs but Harper was so not about that life. "That sounds delicious. What do you need me to do?" She asked, feeling a bit useless. "I'll be honest, I don't cook much at all."

Roman placed his hands on either side of Harper's legs, their faces not but a few inches apart, and he winked. "Yes, Ms. Clarington", he joked playfully before pulling away. Roman knew he had promised to keep things non-sexual, but that was going to be difficult given the way she looked. She was cute like this, legs dangling off the counter and swinging just slightly, and Roman was fucked. Best to focus on the task at hand, he thought, his stomach growling again.

Roman wasn't all that surprised that Harper wasn't into drugs; there were a lot of well off people who could afford whatever they wanted that took advantage of trying a little bit of this and that. Hell, most of the Serpent's clientele were North Siders with too much time and money at their disposal. But, knowing that Harper was a dancer--it just didn't make sense.

Roman took out a pan, placing it on the stove top. "First step is that we've got to cook the beef.", Roman opened a bottle of olive oil and poured a little into the pan, just coating the bottom. He turned on the burner and then took a knife and opened the container of ground beef. "You wanna do it?", he asked

Harper rolled her eyes but there was no heat behind the gesture, vaguely amused by his antics. They were a good distraction from all the gloom she was feeling on the inside. She watched curiously as he padded around the kitchen, grabbing things and prepping to cook the meal, and she couldn't help but tilt her head to the side, admiring the way his arms looked in the shirt he was wearing.

"Um...sure," she replied, shaken out of her thoughts by his words. She slid off the counter and went over to the stove, taking the container from him. She glanced at the simmering oil dubiously, before holding her breath and flipping it into the pan, squeaking a little when it started fizzling.

Roman shook his head, unable to hold in a laugh as he watched Harper flip the entire container straight into the pan. It was painfully obvious that she didn't cook very often, if at all and he couldn't help but wonder what it was like to have someone take care of things like that for you. Roman was proud to be able to stand on his own two feet; knowing how to cook and clean the two things he always helped his mother out with as a kid.

"Careful of the oil", he warned. He took a spoon and began breaking up the meat, crumbling it so that it could cook faster. "What you want to do is just keep an eye on it. You don't want it to burn, but you don't want it to move it around too much so that it doesn't cook evenly through. Go ahead." Roman offered her the spoon, handle out, making it easier for her to grab.

Harper swatted at him. "Shush," she muttered, as she watched him expertly start breaking up the beef into little chunks. When she was little, she used to spend a lot of time in the kitchen watching their various chefs cook and bake, but as she'd grown up she'd had less and less time since she devoted more of her spare hours to her other interests. She could barely remember anything they'd explained to her at this point.

She took the spoon from Roman and nodded as his words, biting her lip as she started to slowly prod at the meat. It sizzled as it slid around and she flipped a few chunks over, curious. "What colour is it supposed to be when it's done?"

Roman bumped his hip against Harper, smiling at her fondly as she began stirring the ground beef around in the pan. He took a second to give her a once over, although it had been a tough few days, it looked like she was actually able to relax for a minute. Or so it seemed, he didn't want to assume how she was feeling, maybe she was just good at masking her emotions. Either way, Roman just wanted Harper to enjoy herself while she was here. Whatever that took.

"Brown?", he questioned , his tone slightly incredulous. His eyebrow went up in disbelief and he turned to face her, "You really haven't done this much, huh?". Roman took another pan out from the cabinet and set it on the stove top, he filled it up a quarter of the way with corn oil before turning back to Harper. "It's kind of cute", he admitted

Harper flushed at his tone, shrugging self-consciously. “There are different shades of brown,” she defended. “How dark are we talking?” She carefully broke up the beef so more, mixing it some more before leaving it to rest as she turned her head to look at him.

“Not really. I can press microwave buttons if I must but I’m kind of hopeless otherwise.” His compliment made her chest feel warm and she had to look away again to hide her blush. “I used to watch the chefs when I was a kid. Sometimes they’d let me pour or mix but I was too little to do much more than that.”

Roman shook his head in amusement, his brain conjuring up images of a young Harper, age 5 or so, mixing a bowl for cookies or something similar. His mind was stuck on one particular word, chefs, meaning multiple. He’d knew the Claringtons were rich, but apparently they were rich enough to have an entire Michelin 3-star staff.

“Like, fully cooked through brown. No signs of pink at all, but not burnt kind of brown.” He took a small packet of Sazón seasoning and ripped it open, tossing it on top of the ground beef.

“I was in the kitchen with my mom whenever I could.”, he said, his eye on the pan. “I still go over and cook with her sometimes”

Harper nodded, focused on mixing in the seasoning with the beef. The meat definitely needed some more time so she felt like she could relax a bit without burning it and ruining everything.

When Roman started talking about his mom, she couldn't help but smile. It sounded very sweet. Her own relationship with her mom was superficial at best. Bonding with the Clarington women was a lot of shopping, a lot of lectures about etiquette and being ladylike, and a lot of expectations about her place in the world. Harper was not very fond of it. "That sounds really nice...spending time with her like that, I mean."

Roman’s shrug was noncommittal, a small smile spreading across his lips as he reminisced on different times. He took the spoon from Harper and set it to rest on a paper towel while the meat cooked.

“You don’t have any memories like that with your mom?”, he asked curiously. His hand moved to Harper’s hip and his eyes glimmered as he stared at the girl before him. “We did stuff like that all the time...still do.”

Harper shrugged, turning away a little so she could watch the food and not his face. It felt weird to talk about something so personal...the only person that really understood the frustration she felt about her parents was Hunter and that was only because he shared a lot of the same frustrations.

"I mean we spent and still do spend time together," she said, slowly, not exactly sure how to phrase what she wanted to say. "I just don't think we do it for the same reasons you and your mom spend time together. Naomi Clarington really wants to have the picture perfect daughter and that means a lot of shopping and a lot of lecturing and all sorts of things like that."

Roman frowned, his eyebrows furrowing with confusion when Harper turned away. He withdrew his hand and stuffed it in the pocket of his jeans, shaking off whatever Harper had going on.

He didn’t like-like this girl, so why did he have such concern for his feelings? Shrugging internally, Roman made a mental note to bed someone else so he wasn’t so hyper focused on Harper. He didn’t need to spend his time and attention on this girl when they would surely be over in less than a month.

He turned his attention back to Harper who was talking about her mother. She seemed cold and uninviting, completely different than his own mother. “Well, who says you have to be picture perfect? That puts a lot on you, doesn’t it?”

Harper sucked in a breath, picking the spoon up again just so that she had something to hold on to to ground herself. She was not going to get emotional about her family standing in a goddamn trailer trying not to fuck up cooking food.

"We're Claringtons. It's kind of part of the job description. Perfect marriage, perfect kids. Hunter's going to be the perfect son who inherits all of dad's stuff and I am expected to marry well and become a pretty little housewife who exists to boost my husband's ego and makes him look good," she said, trying to keep the edge of bitterness out of her voice. She wasn't sure if she succeeded.

How was she supposed to explain that when she spent time with her mother, it mostly involved a lot of polite criticism about her body and her choices? That she was too skinny, spent too much time on school, and oh, Harper darling, are you /sure/ you don't want to fix that nose of yours?

Roman shifted on his feet, wanting to reach out to Harper but not ready for her to pull away from him again. His previous thoughts on the North Side were changing in front of him, just hearing how Harper talked about her mother. Despite the fact that she came from wealth, Harper seemed to have a specific set of unrealistic expectations that she was supposed to reach. And by the looks of it, that wasn't what Harper wanted.

"But--What do you want?", he asked, cocking his head. From his first conversation with Harper, he knew that she had an affinity for dance, but in all the time that he had spent talking to her and spending time with her, he had never once asked her anything real about herself. "What about dance? Ballet? You like that shit, right? What's the point of going to college if you're just meant to be some side piece? "

Harper wrapped an arm around herself, running her other hand through her hair as she watched the beef sizzle. There was hardly any pink left as far as she could tell. It was kind of nice to just be allowed to relax and cook and talk with no expectations of anything else.

But his question caught her off guard. No one had really asked her what she wanted before. They just expected her to do what was asked of her. Even going to school had been something she'd fought for.

"I like dancing. I've loved it since I was a kid... but if it doesn't work out I don't want to just sit at home," she explained. "My parents didn't think I needed college. Like a degree looks good...a lady with an education is worth more than one without....but a career was never on the cards. Mom thought I should just get a fluffy type degree like art history or humanities, but I wanted the interior design double major so that if I can't dance I can still do something. I hate the idea of just sitting pretty at home like she does. She's just a trophy for dad and she's perfectly happy to do it."

Roman glanced over at the sizzling pan and lifted it off the stove, the residual heat pressing into his hand. The meat was finished cooking and he needed to drain it so it wouldn’t get the empanadas too soggy on the inside. With his one free hand, he held a paper plate covered by a napkin and poured the meat, the excess fat getting soaked up by the napkin.

Roman hadn’t seen Harper dance, but he could see the passion that she had for it with every reply about the hobby. He didn’t think it should be something that should just be tossed to the side so lightly. “Whose to say that it won’t work out?”, he asked. Roman had big ideas for one day—whenever he could get the hell out of Riverdale. He had wanted to be a chef as a young boy, evident by his fascination with food, but real life stood in his way. It didn’t have to be like that for Harper though.

“Worth?”, Roman repeated, a slight flush rising up his neck out of irritation. “You’re not—what? Do you have a price tag on you or something?” Roman shook his head, utterly surprised that this was apparently how the higher class treated their kids. “Harp—“, he started, before stopping himself short.

Harper pushed herself up on the counter, so that she could swing her legs again while she watched Roman cook. There was something peaceful about just being in his tiny kitchen with him, watching him putter around and make food. Everything smelled so good already...she couldn't wait to try it once it was ready.

"I want it to.... I want to be a principal dancer somewhere huge but the arts are.... you can't exactly rely on them. That's reality," she said, shrugging. It wasn't a fact that upset her. She enjoyed interior design too. Having a career in it would be something she wouldn't mind. "And hell, even if you do make it, one bad injury and you're out forever. It's good to have a back up and I like interior design even if my parents think the idea of me working is ridiculous."

At his words she paused, looking down at her hands instead of meeting his eyes. When he put it that way, it felt even worse. "I'm not like... going to be sold. But there are expectations that are put on me and one of those expectations is that my main goal in life should be to better the family. I'm a woman so of course that means through marriage. It's stupid but....that's the Clarington thought process for you."

Roman took out the empanada discs and laid them flat on the counter top. He took a few spoonfuls of the ground beef and placed that on the side and topped it off with a handful of cheese before folding it in half. Taking the back tines of the fork, Roman closed the dough so that none of the filling could escape.

Finishing the first one, Roman turned to look at Harper sitting on the counter. “I’ve not seen you dance”, he said matter of factly, tilting his head in her direction. “I think you’re smart as shit to have a back up plan, just in case.” He rest his hand on Harper’s leg, “So, if you think it’s stupid, then what’s to come after graduation?”

Roman moved to add the filling to the second empanada, following the same order as the previous one. His stomach growled again, louder this time and he laughed to himself. “Wanna help?”, he asked.

Harper smiled at his touch as she watched him fill the discs. "You need to do that. I'm quite good at it." At the mention of graduation though, she sobered up considerably. She hadn't really though about what was next. Hunter was expected to follow in their dad's footsteps but she knew he didn't want to do that. If he could push back, so could she, right?

But she'd always done her rebelling in the shadows. She was daddy's little girl. She'd never had to confront her difference in opinion with her parents head on. "I'm...I'm not sure. I know they have plans for me but I don't think I want to do it. I just...I just want to be Harper."

She slid back down to the ground, and went over to him, peering over his shoulder as he filled the discs, and then wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning against his back. "Alright, alright, show me what to do, Gordon Ramsey."

Roman daydreamed for a second about sneaking into one of Harper’s rehearsals to watch her dance. With how flexible she was in the bed, he could only imagine what she was like on the stage. He made a mental note to add that to his calendar before he came back to. “I think ‘Just Harper’ is pretty great”, he said with a playful shrug.

Chuckling as Harper wrapped her arms around his back, Roman lifted one arm so that she could move to his side. “Can’t do anything from back there, chef.”, he joked. He handed Harper a spoon and continued with his previous movements, explaining the steps as he did so. “Meat first on one half of the dough, then a sprinkle of cheese. Close it off and then use the back of the fork to close it completely”

Harper flushed a little, and elbowed him as she went around to his side. "Shut up, nerd. That's cheesy as hell." But she could admit to herself that his words made a warm feeling spread through her chest. Maybe Just Harper was good enough.

She listened attentively as he explained how to fill the empanadas and then she tried to imitate what he was doing, spooning in some of the meat and then adding cheese, before closing it and forking it shut.

She looked from his to hers. Hers was....kind of similar? She probably needed more practise with closing them. "Is that...passable, teach?"

The empanada that Harper showed to him looked somewhat flimsy and Roman knew it would fall apart in the oil. He didn't want to judge her work, but he was a perfectionist in the kitchen. He sidled up behind her, taking her hands in his own and reworked the edge of the dough flat with both of their hands. His heart was beating faster than it had ever been and he couldn't help but take a moment to ogle at Harper from the side.

He took the fork and made small indentations on the empanada dough with the back tines. "Like that", he whispered into Harper's ear, lingering there for just a moment.

Harper flushed when Roman took her hands in his, but she allowed him to guide her though what the empanada was supposed to look like. She smiled a little as he helped her push down on the dough, and then admired his finished work, before spinning around so that she could lean up and kiss him, slow and sweet.

"You're a man who takes charge in the kitchen, who would've thought?" she murmured against his mouth, before darting out from his arms and sliding back onto the counter, acting as if nothing had happened. "What's next, chef?"

Everything stopped the moment Harper slid into him and kissed him. Time slowed as did his movements and the kiss, although it only lasted a mere second, felt like it lasted a lifetime. Harper's lips were soft and smooth and she smelled like strawberries--her shampoo, he remembered. His mind supplied him a memory of the shower they shared together no more than a week ago. Oh, how the turns had tabled. Fuck

As Harper pulled away from the kiss, scampering across the kitchen, Roman shook himself out of his daydream. A small smile played on his lips, the corner just turning up, and he laughed. "Two more and then we can fry 'em", he answered, moving back to the counter and taking the next disc to be prepared.

Harper nodded, unable to hide her smile at the look on Roman's face. Part of her wanted to kiss him again, but it was also nice just being here, watching him do what he was good at. "It's probably faster if you just finish them," she admitted, shaking her head a bit at her own incompetence. "I'm an excellent mixer though, so if you have anything you need me to stir, I am so good at that."

All thoughts of everything going on outside of the kitchen, outside of her and Roman, were a distant memory for a brief moment. There was no murders, no darkness, no dead best friend, no secrets. Everything was just....this.

Roman made quick work of preparing the final two discs, quietly filling and closing them up. He turned on the burner on the stove, allowing the pan he had filled with oil earlier to heat up. Frying anything was always an ordeal and it was quite easy to get burnt, so he figured they should move across the kitchen . He walked far enough away so that he could still see the stove, but any excess oil wouldn't pop and burn him. "Unfortunately, there's no mixing with this one. Maybe next time.", he added with a shrug.

Hearing the oil start to crackle, Roman moved swiftly across the floor. "You should probably stay back for this", he warned. He added the empanadas two at a time into the oil, each of them cooking within 3 minutes. Every time one set was finished, he'd add the next until they had all 6 of them made and ready to eat. He turned off the stove and brought the plate over to Harper, "You ready?"

Harper couldn't help but grin at the idea of another cooking or baking session. She was already looking forward to it, as strange as it felt to admit, even to herself. "Alright. Maybe we can make soup. Or bake a cake. That's not hard, is it?" She scooted back a little farther as he prepped for the frying. It's like her body was waking up a bit from her haze of grief, and she'd only just realized she was kind of starving too.

She inhaled deeply as Roman fried the empanadas, excited to eat them. "Uh yeah. They smell delicious," she said, reaching out carefully for one of the first one's he'd fried so that it wouldn't be as hot. She held it between her fingers and took a small, dainty bite, chewing and swallowing before sighing happily, her eyes fluttering shut. "This is so good. You're a wizard."

"I'm really not, but I appreciate the compliment", he quipped. The aroma of the empanadas--of his childhood, were making his stomach growl with anticipation. With the hot plate in hand, Roman moved quickly back towards the living room and set them down on the coffee table. He shook his hands to cool them down and took in a breath. "Can you grab some drinks from the fridge? Beer or water, whatever you want?"

Roman took a seat on the couch, sinking into the couch cushions for a minute before taking a bite of one of the empanadas. He hummed at the taste, exactly how his mother made them and smiled. "I take it back, these are delicious. I think it was because of you" Roman winked and grabbed the remote in his hand, turning on the TV. "Got something in mind you want to watch?"

Harper nodded, opening the fridge and grabbing two beers. She wasn't normally fond of it, but she kind of wanted some alcohol in no matter how small of a quantity as she could get. She followed him into the living room and set the beers down on the table before sliding onto the couch next to him, unsure how close she was allowed to get. She kind of craved some cuddling but they weren't dating, and she wasn't sure if that'd be weird.

"Oh shut up, I didn't even do anything. You are a wizard." She glanced at the TV and shook her head. "As long as it's not super gorey, I'm fine with whatever," she said shrugging and leaning back into the cushions. She reached over and took another empanada, taking another careful bite.

Roman sensed something off with Harper, but whether it was uneasiness or discomfort he wasn't sure. He thought that up to this point in their evening he had done a pretty decent job at keeping her mind occupied off of everything that was happening in Riverdale. He studied her mannerisms for just a moment, she was close but not too close. Roman took another bite of his empanada and started to scroll through Netflix.

"You don't have to sit all the way over there", he exaggerated, patting the little bit of empty space between them. Finishing his first empanada, Roman kicked his feet up and popped the cap on his beer. He sorted through his Netflix watch list, trying to determine what he thought Harper would like. "I'm still like way behind on Stranger Things, if you wanted to watch that. Or well, I'm open to whatever"

Harper tried not to look too eager as she sidled over to him, pressing against his side, but she needed his warmth to ground her in the moment. She curled her legs under herself and leaned against his shoulder, going a bit red. "I like Stranger Things. The kids are adorable. Especially Will. He's my favourite. I'm glad they've been giving him more screentime in season 2."

She went quiet, focusing on her empanada and the comforting feeling of their bodies pressed together on the couch as he loaded up the show, curious to see what episode he was on. It was easy, in that moment, to forge, however momentarily, that her best friend was dead and never coming back.

Roman lifted his arm, allowing for Harper to slink next to him and bury herself in his side. He couldn't help but run his thumb across her arm as she got comfortable. As she spoke about the show, he took another swig of his beer, nodding in agreement but laughing slightly. "Ok, so don't hate me but I'm still on Season 1." Setting his beer on the arm rest of the couch, Roman queued up the show.

He didn't have a lot of time normally to watch TV, so he fell behind quickly, failing to keep interests in shows once the hype had died down. But, having someone to watch it with him made him a little more eager. "Will's the one who's all wacked out, right? In the Upside Down or whatever."

The feeling of arms wrapped around her made her relax even more. She could easily see herself drifting off here. Despite everything going on, she felt safe with Roman, like nothing could hurt her. It was a scary feeling but an exhilarating one all the same. "That's okay. Even though I love that we get more of Will in the second season, the first one is objectively better. Even if season 2 also sort of explores the will they/won't they of Nancy and Jonathan a lot more."

She watched him queue up the episode. She couldn't quite remember what happened in that one, but she was sure it would all come back to her as soon as it started playing. "Yeah, he's the one who disappeared. They're trying to get him back using El."

Roman snickered to himself, relishing in the irony of Harper's comment. In what he had watched so far, he hadn't seen any sort of relationship build between Nancy and Jonathan, but it seemed that the tension was going to build. Much like himself and Harper, they seemed to be potentially burgeoning on the would they/wouldn't they territory. Although, Roman hoped that it wouldn't get that far. It had been years since he had actually been in a relationship and he quickly found that it just wasn't for him. He preferred the casual, laid back, hook up. Harper wasn't that.

"I'm not going to lie...I've not seen this in months. So, I barely remember what's happening or who these people even are. " Roman shrugged, pulling harper close. Yeah, she defintely wasn't that, he thought. What am I going to do?

"You'll fall back into it. I can fill you in on any blanks," she offered, as the song's familiar opening theme started to play. "Yeah, she's pretty fixated on Steve in the first season but things don't go great for them in season two." She bit her lip, feeling a bit embarrassed, but they were already blurring so many lines, she didn't think it'd hurt to ask. "Would you....would you okay with running your fingers through my hair? It...it helps me calm down."

She could feel her face burning at the request, but she just wanted to sink into him and focus on the show playing in front of them and forget about everything else. "Thanks for all this. It's...it's nice to pretend the world isn't on fire sometimes."

Roman playfully knocked into her side, biting his lower lip, "Hey, no spoilers" . In truth, he didn't really care about the show, much more content to just laze on the couch a beer in one hand. As the opening theme wrapped up, Roman looked to his side at Harper, her face flush with embarrassment and her eyes on his. "Yeah, of course.", he agreed, "That was kind of the whole point of this, huh"

Roman repositioned himself slighty, allowing Harper to do the same so that he could entangle his fingers in her hair. He slowly ran his fingers down the length of her dark hair, content to be able to do this for her, given what she had been going through. He hoped that he could just make her world melt away.

Harper settled into his side, content to just feel his fingers in her hair and watch the show. She felt safe, and like her troubles weren't going to bother her as long as she was here. She could see herself falling asleep just curled up against Roman, and she found that she didn't really mind.

#para #roman

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