Eyes Still Smile • •

[Jaxon Vincent Liddell]

Jaxon felt a little lighter now that Jac was back home and back with him. It was like the gap in his personal circle of life was filled once more and that everything could continue without troubles. He was still a short tempered and irritable bastard sometimes, but he was also a lot happier when he woke up in the morning to Jac sleeping at his side or hearing her pottering around the apartment that had always been theirs. There were still demons lurking in his closet – they would never completely go away – but dealing with them was made so much easier just by knowing Jac was around. Even if they were both busy, if work was keeping Jax out at all hours, it was different. Maybe it was just knowing that he wasn’t coming home to a dark, empty apartment. Maybe it was the delirium of true love kicking in again like it had done back in their university days. He couldn’t get away with some of the stunts he had pulled back then; his body was frequently reminding him that age was a real thing that would one day catch up to his aching back and stiffening joints.

He was feeling a little of that now as he hauled the last of the boxes up the stairwell. His weekend without a story to hunt down and he was playing handyman for the woman he loved. Jax wasn’t really complaining when he teased her about that sort of thing. He was excited that Jac had found a way to turn her dream into something real. He was glad that he was a part of it, helping set up furniture and paint the walls of the space she had bought to set everything in motion. It just wouldn’t have been their relationship if he didn’t rib her a little about using him for free labour. Even if Jac hadn’t asked him for help, Jax would have offered it anyway. He wanted to be there, covered in paint, feeling a bit of a sweat building after the tenth trip up the stairs with something heavy. This wasn’t going to be his world, but he wanted to see what Jac was doing to make of it, what she could turn the blank walls and empty space into over time. Honestly, Jax wouldn’t have the first clue what to do if he stayed here after the set-up, but he enjoyed that there was something to talk about over dinner, to gripe about on Monday mornings when staying in bed was just too tempting.

“You sure you’re not trying to kill me here, Jac?” He dropped the last box carefully by the rest, standing up and cracking his back loudly. “It’s a good job you came home now and not next year. Not sure I’ll be running marathons up stairs by then.” He took a moment to look around what was most definitely a work in progress. He was only available for the rest of the weekend and maybe the next, but he knew it would probably take longer than that for Jac’s vision for the space to become a reality. Still, he would be there even when he wasn’t; cell phones were an ingenious invention, after all.

• • •

TAGGED! Jacqueline Rose Pucill
WORDS! 548!
LYRICS! Thinking Out Loud - - Ed Sheeran
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[Jacqueline Rose Pucill]

Jacqueline knew it was crazy and insane to ask a complete stranger if she wanted a job after a single cup of coffee. But Jac had always felt like she was a good judge of character and Bronte had a character Jac liked. The younger girl had spunk and Jac liked that about anyone who had it. She wanted people like that around her and her attitude had Jac asking her almost immediately after sitting down with their coffees if she wanted a job working with her. She would never say for her, though she was technically paying her Jac had always planned on her company being an open one within it. So far it was just the two of them but they were on equal footing, both taking care of what they were in charge of. And admittedly with everything still needing to be set to rights, there was a lot they were working through. Eventually, though, Bronte would be taking care of the office and all that went along with it while Jac would be taking care of the design floor. She was the face and the mind behind what they were trying to do and Bronte would be the brains making sure they stayed in the black.

Not that they wouldn’t. Jac had enough money to keep them floating for years if it would take to get them off the ground. Though, she knew already that thanks to the sample pieces she’d already whipped up, she had contracts with several small but high-end boutiques around the city. It was a start and really, it was all she wanted. Her work was meant to be created by her. Eventually, she knew she would have to bring in more people but right now, she only needed Bronte and Jax around to help move things where she wanted them. She had known starting a business would be tricky, time-consuming and a huge pain the neck but she had thought that last one would be figurative, not literal. And then she started moving things around to where she thought she wanted them. It had been stupid of her she knew, not to have a floor plan before she’d gotten the delivery men to drop her furniture off but the custom pieces were ready and she would be damned to an eternity in hell if she wasn’t going to have them in her space as soon as they were ready to be dropped off!

She was still head over heels in love with the pieces but they were currently covered in drop cloths in the corner so no dust or paint from the bits they’d needed to retouch would mar the pristine furniture. She wanted a little more use out of it before she went and ruined them. They had mannequins scattered about in various states of completion. Some were fully together, others were still in scattered pieces and a few were even still in their boxes, waiting to be set free but all were in the corner under more drop cloth. They were some of the first things Jac had brought up to space because she'd wanted something in there to say it was hers. Bronte, she knew, was supposed to be in sometime over the weekend to pick where she wanted her own space. It was such a beautiful, open floor plan, aside from the one corner where the bathrooms were still set from when space had been offices for whatever the old factory had been used for. "So take the service elevator next time." She teased, stepping over the drop cloths and partially opened boxes she'd been attempting to move into some sort of order. They would have used the elevator this time but it had been down for service, which was an amusing irony but with it only being a five-story building, Jac didn't think it would be too much trouble; of course, she wasn't making nearly as many trips as her wonderful soulmate was. Smiling, she wrapped her arms around his neck. "How about I make it up to you when we get home, hm?"

♦ ♦ ♦

TAG; Jaxon Vincent Liddell
WORDS; 689
LYRICS; I Love the Way You Love Me --John Michael Montgomery
NOTES; <3

[Jaxon Vincent Liddell]

Money meant jack-diddly-squat to Jaxon. He had lived in a small terraced house in York, where he could hear the neighbours coming and going at all hours. He had been raised by a single mother who had done her damned best to keep him happy. Jaxon knew money had very little to do with happiness. He had been happy as a little boy, and now he was happy because his soulmate was back in New York City and back in the bed they had once shared together. They could be penniless, living in rags, but he’d be happy with Jac around. He knew she always said she would come back to the city, but there had been a fear in the dark recesses of his mind that she would come back with a doctor, or a missionary worker, or just your average do-gooder who didn’t have a short fuse and who could look after Jac without having to keep stupid work secrets in an encrypted file on a back up drive to his laptop. He was thrilled when she came back alone, and his world returned to technicolour when he found out she still loved him as much as he loved her.

He had tried to stay away from the more dangerous story opportunities since Jac’s return. He knew it wouldn’t be forever, but he at least wanted her to settle back in and re-adjust to life with an investigative journalist. Jax didn’t want her coming home to find out he’d been shot chasing some drug lord in Queens. No, he was sticking to dodgy school canteens and councilmen who were taking money under the table for shady deals. It was boring work, with more paper chasing than actual writing, but it meant he was home for dinner most nights and could spend his weekends in Jac’s company. Jax wanted to enjoy it while it lasted, before the need to do something grittier began biting at his heels again. That, or until a editor position opened and beckoned him towards the private office and wage bump.

He fixed Jac with an incredulous look. “I’m fairly sure that service elevator is older than the building. It creaks like the pipes in my old home.” Nothing was more annoying than waking up at 4am because there was an air bubble in a water pipe. Jaxon’s mam had commented that ghosts wearing chains would make less noise than the water tank. Still, it meant that today Jax could sleep through just about anything; which was a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. He grinned down at his gorgeous girlfriend and wrapped his arms around her waist, fingers spanning across the small of her back. “That all depends on what you have in mind, Miss Pucill.” His grin widened with the boyish charm Jaxon had never grown out of it. It didn’t matter that he was in his thirties and age was starting to dig lines around his eyes, there were still times when Peter Pan flashed to life in his warm chestnut eyes.

• • •

TAGGED! Jacqueline Rose Pucill
WORDS! 518!
LYRICS! Thinking Out Loud - - Ed Sheeran
NOTES! <3 <3 <3