And Taking Control • •

[stevie blaine underwood]

Stevie was stressed beyond reason. Her day hadn’t gone tragically wrong by any means. She wasn’t sure if she had sprained her wrist or if it was just aching like hell after rolling on it during a bad landing, but she had collared the guy she had been after that week. Most of the names given to her usually came without a fight once they saw that she had weapons she wasn’t afraid to use on them. They became shockingly cooperative when they glimpsed her baton or Taser that they didn’t need to know about the glock she carried, too. But there was always one in about a dozen who would want to fight and then flee. They saw a girl sent to do a job she shouldn’t be doing and didn’t care to think about how she might be trained or what she might be carrying. Stevie kind of enjoyed the showdown sometimes, but then those situations had also seen her carted off in the back of an ambulance on two occasions. It hadn’t been as fun when she was the one losing a pint of blood and crying out in pain. Who would’ve known that bullets hurt and knives stung like a bitch?

Still, Viktor Cartman was back in jail where he probably would have gone eventually anyway, and she had a cheque for her ten percent. Her body ached from the chase down and there was definitely going to be a bruise on her shoulder by the morning. However, with a five grand cheque she could live with such things. Stevie still felt pissed off though. It had been a long week. Her microwave had died on the Monday when she was trying to reheat Thai food for her dinner, then on Wednesday she had a root canal which made her feel like attacking her dentist with pepper spray when he was done, before getting home to find her window had been smashed by careless youths playing football out in the park next to her building. It was already being fixed when she got home, but it was still a total nuisance and added to the bad mood she tried to release out onto the gym bags the next night when she taught her class. She could only do so much though when she had a class to teach.

So, instead, she found herself at the end of Friday with a throbbing wrist that she was currently ignoring, and a need to de-stress. She needed Blair and their arrangement or whatever the hell it was that they had. The last year hadn’t exactly been something Stevie had planned out, but it existed and she liked it. It certainly cut out a need to scan a bar for a guy who wouldn’t be freaked out if he saw Kevlar hanging in her bedroom. She didn’t call ahead because she had stopped doing that a good few months back. Instead she just stopped to pick up a bottle of bourbon for the evening and then headed straight on over to Blair’s place. She got up to his apartment and knocked on the door, tapping her fingers against the frame impatiently. The minute the door swung open to reveal that familiar face she had known for so many years, Stevie spoke. “If you like that shirt I suggest you take it off before I rip it off.”

• • •

TAGGED! Blair Nathaniel Knight
WORDS! 569!
OUTFIT! Mad Moment!
LYRICS! Mr Brightside - - - The Killers
NOTES! <3

[Blair Nathaniel Knight]

Blair wasn’t certain when things with Stevie went from his best friend's little sister to sharing his bed with her when one of them was feeling that itch but it had in the last year. He was waiting for the other shoe to drop, for her brother to find out and for Blair to find himself with a shiny brand new black eye and a fight with his best friend. It was bound to happen eventually, he just sort of hoped that Stevie would be the one to break the news. He would be there, braced for a punch to be thrown but he would be there with her. Except they had no idea what they were, they hadn't classified their relationship. And though it was fun and Blair didn’t mind what they had, he didn’t like not knowing what things were. He may have been a writer first but he was still a journalist. And journalists were fickle creatures, they wanted their answers; damn near demanded them from time to time. He wasn't in the business of demanding answers from Stevie, he just wanted them so he had them.

He hadn't planned any overseas journalist jobs in over a year, not because he was sleeping with Stevie; not exactly. Though Stevie was a factor in his assignments. But she always had been. He'd thought of her brother as his own brother for so long though the thought that Stevie was like his sister had never crossed his mind a single time. She'd always been one of the guys. Still, he thought of everyone in his life when he took on those serious and often dangerous jobs overseas. He knew how badly it would hurt those he loved if he never came home and he didn't want that for any of them. And Stevie had come to mean a lot more to him over the past year so he was a little more hesitant than he'd been before to take on the riskier gigs. He would still take one if it interested him enough but as yet, none had. He hadn't thought about the fact that with Stevie occupying his bed whenever the mood struck, he hadn't felt compelled to eye the crowd in a bar, not worrying about putting in the time to single out a pretty girl and working her to become putty in his hands. If during a night out with Greg or anyone else, something did happen, he didn't have to feel bad about it but if it didn't well, a phone call or a knock on a door had that taken care of just as easily.

Convenience was another word for it but Blair had never been after convenient in his life ever. There were dangers and risks of their own in sleeping with Stevie and that adrenaline, knowing that at any second they could be caught was exciting. He hadn't seen Stevie in a couple days though and had assumed she'd been working a difficult case. He didn't know but he had been busy himself. He was already working on another book and figuring out all the little details took so much time that he just lost because he was so involved. His last book saw him losing four days entirely. He had gotten so much work done but the last day he remembered had been the Monday and when Greg had shown up for their usual poker game, it had been Thursday night! Blair assumed the knock at the door meant the pizza was there so he grabbed his wallet off the table as he went to answer the door, flipping it open at the same time he swung the door open. "Greg, Stevie must have gotten your message!" He called instead of answering the woman in front of him. He had known long before now that they needed to come up with some sort of code so situations like this didn't come up. But they hadn't gotten there yet, too busy tearing each other's clothes off to bother and just pushed it to the next time they were together. Thankfully it wasn't poker night or it would have just become the longest night of his entire life.

♦ ♦ ♦

Tag || stevie blaine underwood
Words || 711
Clothes || Naught Neighbour
Music || You Make That Look Good --Scotty McCreery
Notes || <3!

[stevie blaine underwood]

Stevie didn’t know quite how Blair had ended up in her bed that first time, his clothes spread all over her apartment with hers. She knew alcohol was involved, but the specifics had been foggy. She wasn’t the type to overthink things though. Stevie was the type to act first and then drink herself into a coma if it was a mistake. She was reckless, and not the type to hold back. It had landed her in many a predicament, and her brother often shook his head and moaned that one day he’d be representing her if she didn’t slow down and think things through every once in a while. Stevie never listened though, which was probably why she continued to sleep with Blair even though she knew Greg finding out the truth would lead to a fist fight and a whole load of trouble. Instead, she just clung to the secrecy, hoping that he didn’t discover that she was rolling in the sheets with his best friend. So far they had managed it for a year without rousing his suspicions, which either meant they were very good at sneaking around, or Greg was an idiot.

A year was a long time to share a bed with someone, but Stevie had decided not to read into that. She didn’t want to. It would only complicate the arrangement she had with Blair. Without feelings, it was tidy. They satisfied their needs, bitched about life, and didn’t need to worry about sneaking out in the morning. The only problem they did have was if Greg might show up unexpectedly, but he had yet to catch them with their clothes off – thankfully! Hell would be raised if he ever did, and Stevie didn’t need a fancy college degree to know that. She was fairly certain it was some unspoken rule that little sisters were off limits, even if they were old enough to make their own reckless, foolish decisions.

Stevie blinked at Blair, then swore under her breath. She struggled to open the bourbon bottle with the pain in her wrist, and then took a large swig of the strong, burning alcohol. Greg being here just downright ruined her plans and pissed her off more. “I need ice.” She told Blair, holding her slightly swollen wrist to her chest and stepping inside. She wanted to kill her brother. Or at the very least beat him to a pleading pulp. She had wanted to tear Blair’s clothes off and have her wicked way with him on every available surface. Now she had to act like this was all some happy plan following a text message on her phone which she hadn’t checked – mostly in case someone had offered her plans different to what she had in mind. “Why is he here?” Stevie hissed at Blair, before crossing further into his apartment where she saw and greeted the familiar frame of her brother. He frowned at the open bottle in her hand, but she stopped him before he could say anything. “I’ve earned this. And it’s numbing the pain. Ice? I mentioned ice.” She fell sourly on the couch, her bad mood worse now that she wasn’t pressed up already against the wall by Blair.

• • •

TAGGED! Blair Nathaniel Knight
WORDS! 546!
OUTFIT! Mad Moment!
LYRICS! Mr Brightside - - - The Killers
NOTES! <3

[Blair Nathaniel Knight]

How they'd managed to keep up the charade that there was nothing going on between them was beyond Blair. He wasn't that great of an actor and he damn well knew it. So how his best friend didn't see what was going on between Blair and Stevie was just shocking. He couldn't have written it into one of his plots lines, it just seemed too ridiculous to fathom. And yet, there they were, a year or more into their secret romantic entanglement and nothing at all from the man Blair considered a brother. Blair didn't want it to stop but he didn't want to get caught either. It was a fine line they were walking and it wasn't bound to end well. Hopefully by then, this thing will have sorted itself out, maybe fizzled out; though Blair highly doubted that.

He spent so much time sitting behind a computer screen that he didn't have a lot of time to meet new people. And when he wasn't writing his next New York Times bestseller, he was kitted out in all the latest military gear, keeping him as protected as he could be in a warzone. The truth was, he didn't need to go overseas anymore. He could easily stay home and live off the novels he created. The problem with that was all his novels were written under a pseudonym. He had wanted something with his name on it. And he hadn't thought he could be the novelist that he was and the award winning journalist. He felt like there would have been jokes and jabs and he didn't want that. He wanted those worlds, those parts of him separated. His close friends and his editor were the only ones that knew both his names.

Stevie had never been quiet when she showed up at his door. She was very vocal about what she wanted from her visit and normally Blair was more than happy to accommodate her. Tonight being the exception to that. He didn't want Greg to find out this way, he eventually wanted him to hear it from them, whether it was because it was old news, water under the bridge or because things escalated. "Hasn't said yet." He muttered back to her. She wasn't the only one frustrated about the night's events, though for entirely different reasons since he hadn't known Stevie would be stopping by. Blair had been on a roll with his latest novel and had wanted to finish up the chapter before he took a break. Greg knocking on his door stopped plan in it's tracks. Blair shut the door after Stevie and started towards the kitchen for the ice packs he kept in there specifically for Stevie. She was the only one who ever needed them, unless he got a twinge in his wrist from typing. "You did. Here." He said, handing over the pack.

♦ ♦ ♦

Tag || stevie blaine underwood
Words || 483
Clothes || Naught Neighbour
Music || You Make That Look Good --Scotty McCreery
Notes || <3!

[stevie blaine underwood]

Stevie was quite used to improvising, or acting in the moment. It was something her job required if she wanted to be successful. Being successful was the only way she was going to pay her bills. She was beyond being shocked or surprised by the stunts they could pull when criminals were skipping out on bail. The only thing that had shocked her in recent years had been when she first woke up next to Blair. She had no clear memory of how that had happened, but what she did know was that it happened again and again. He was a drug she needed a fix of. Stevie didn’t want to talk about what they were doing, but what she did know was that she needed him often. She didn’t even think about looking for another quick pick-me-up. It was always Blair who she called or just simply went to. Their arrangement meant they could do that. Whatever their unspoken arrangement actually was. They hadn’t given it a title or poured their feelings out over it, and Stevie was good with that. If they complicated matters then they risked losing everything they had ever had and she did consider Blair a good friend before they woke up together.

Greg was another matter entirely. She knew he would be beyond angry at them both if he discovered what they had been doing and how they had been sneaking around. The thought of having to deal with that was exhausting. Her brother had always been on her case about her life choices, nagging at her about the trouble she was going to land herself in. If he knew his little sister was sleeping with his best friend there would be hell to pay. Stevie would never hear the end of it. Knowing her luck it would probably end up being spread around the family and she’d have to hear everyone’s opinion on the matter.

Glaring in the direction of her brother, Stevie let out a low growl. “He lives to ruin my plans. That’s probably why he’s here.” She mumbled, momentarily wishing she had something to throw at Greg. It might make him a little suspicious, but as his baby sister she could think up a hundred excuses as to why she wanted to throw something at him. Stevie grumbled her thanks for the ice pack and wrapped it around her throbbing wrist. The chill was shocking, but immediately offset the pain. She took another swig from her bottle of alcohol, flipped her brother the bird, and then reached for her cell phone. Quickly she brought up her text messages and sent a fast one to Blair. It was a risky play when her brother was in the very same room as them, but Stevie had come here for one thing, and she couldn’t just switch those feelings off. “You look delicious. I need to bite into you. ” Once the message was gone, she dropped her phone to her lap and focused on icing her wrist. She was going to let the men carry the conversation for now, and hopefully toy a little with Blair.

• • •

TAGGED! Blair Nathaniel Knight
WORDS! 528!
OUTFIT! Mad Moment!
LYRICS! Mr Brightside - - - The Killers
NOTES! <3