Les Champs Elysees

[Deleted]

Rachel Day

Santiago Ortiz was certainly changing his direction, and it had suddenly settled in Rachel's mind that this was an entire new place now. Well, okay, Paris was still beautiful Paris and it wasn't like it had been changing into anything different, but the people- her people- were different now. Santiago with a career change and whatever else she would eventually figure out, Lucian and Ashton had a child, and Myron had told her about what had happened to him with his brother and Madeleine. Yeesh. It was like missing an entire season of a television show. Rachel would have to catch up and adjust.

Hearing that Santiago would no longer be working at the Opera House wasn't much of a shock. Another time, another day it would have been for certain. Right now? Nothing could really shock Rachel all that much.

“You know the drill, Rachel,” Santiago said, “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”

Rachel grinned and rolled her eyes. They were so beyond that and they both knew it.

"I would have been dead a long time ago then, Santiago." She said back, and then something twisted in her stomach and she crinkled her face. Rachel felt a cold sweat break out from the corner of her forehead and she shook it off with a simple chuckle. "Wow, joking about death isn't really fitting right now." Rachel Day said, more to herself if anything. Joking about that was always such a lighthearted type of thing. Not when your heart was shot at did it become a little morbid.

Then it dawned on her- Santiago's response.

Turning back to Santiago, Rachel furrowed her brows, incredibly curious. "But if that's the case, does that mean you're back into..."

How does one say what it was he did exactly?

"The thingy ma-doo hickey that you use to do?"

That was one way...

[The Exodus]

Santiago Ortiz

Other prospects. As if Santiago had marketable skills. He could build a set. He could catch a fish. He could fire a gun. He could mix a couple drinks. He could dispose a body. He could recite the libretto to Don Giovanni. Other prospects. Santiago was an amalgam of unrelated skills. If he left the Garnier tomorrow morning, no one would hire him. He wouldn’t even know where to start looking.

He would just be an unemployed ex-gangster.

Ex everything. Commitment was never Santiago’s strong suit.

He wasn’t telling Rachel a damn thing because he didn’t know a damn thing. Not about his future and certainly not about these “prospects” he mentioned.

Rachel made a joke; Santiago ignored it. What prospects did he have? Gun for hire? Matching dramatic classical pieces to crime scenes for Hollywood? Turning the corps de ballet into hardened killers and crack dealers? Other prospects.

He hadn’t admitted it out loud, but he spent his lunch hour at the library researching private detective opportunities in the city. Catalina’s proposal was unique. Everything else was corporate hacking scams and unfaithful wives being hounded by middle-aged husbands. The police were the homicide detectives, not some stage manager who knew his way around the local crime syndicates. He should have never left Malaga. Done six months in jail, maybe a year, and gone back to the streets. Never come here, never got mixed up with the Garnier or Rachel or anything here.

“Should have” was stupid. Other prospects… What was there for a man like Santiago Ortiz to do, anyways?

"But if that's the case, does that mean you're back into... The thingy ma-doo hickey that you used to do?"


“Which thing I used to do?” Santiago asked, not looking at her. “Fishing? Bartending? Fixing up apartment buildings? Building sets? Or killing for turf, money and drugs?”

He looked over then and grinned. He laughed, bitterly amused. It was a deep sound, eerie in the quiet night and eerier still because Santiago seldom laughed. He sighed and shook his head. Maybe this was what insanity felt like: sleep deprivation compounded by stress and inappropriate mirth.

“I was given an interesting commission,” he said. “But it’s none of that. No. Don’t know if you remember Lorenzo Reyes. But a… mutual friend of ours is looking for him. He's missing. His sister wants me to find him or at least get her a lead or two. Might be worth making into a career someday.”

[Deleted]

Rachel Day



“Which thing I used to do?”

Rachel Day blinked. Seriously? If she had to think of another way to describe ‘what he use to do’ her brain would for certain begin smoking. There was no possible way she was just going to blatantly come out with it. Rachel had not mentioned it or heard herself say it out loud ever since he had told her, and there was something creepy about saying things out loud sometimes.

“Fishing? Bartending?-“

Rolling her eyes, she looked out the window to her side feeling her cheeks grow warm. She chose to not hear the other silliness of his list, because he knew what she was speaking about. Finally, the last one brought her eyes to snap forward.

“Or killing for turf, money and drugs?”

Rachel Day wished there were some codename for that or something. She had like, sensitive lotion on tonight or something, so things were easily setting her off. Just, that entire life seemed so real right now. Well, because it was.

When Santiago laughed, Rachel continued to look forward not really amused but not judging him. Never judging him.

“I was given an interesting commission,” he said. “But it’s none of that. No. Don’t know if you remember Lorenzo Reyes. But a… mutual friend of ours is looking for him. He's missing. His sister wants me to find him or at least get her a lead or two. Might be worth making into a career someday.”

Rachel’s features heightened, raising her eyebrow and looking over at him. It sounded like a Nancy Drew novel. Rachel Day could remember Lorenzo though, and when he had approached her at the bar. Just the thought of a man like him made a chill run up her spine. Rachel was shocked, though, that Santiago was taking this much of a career turn. He was on the other side.

“I would tell you to be careful, but…” She shrugged, looking straight ahead. “You can handle it.”

[The Exodus]

Santiago Ortiz

He felt strangely lighthearted tonight. Things were serious. Rachel was on the run from her father’s gang. Catalina had hired Santiago to find her missing brother. Quitting his job was a very real possibility for Santiago. And yet, for the first time in months, Santiago Ortiz knew he was alive. He was doing things again. Real things. Things that mattered, that made a difference for better or worse. He wasn’t just some stage manager or someone’s ex-something. He was needed. Necessary.

Santiago believed that you weren’t really living if you weren’t living in peril. Every day might be your last, make right now count. He didn’t mean that in an optimistic, carpe diem way. He meant it literally. Tomorrow, Lorenzo’s abductor—or, more likely, killer—might turn up in Santiago’s apartment and press the barrel of a gun to his head. The next day, Rachel’s father might come bursting through the doors to the Garnier, trying to tear the place apart looking for her. Hell, the cops might even figure out that Santiago Ortiz was not a licensed detective from Spain, but a criminal impersonating a law enforcement officer. So many risks; Santiago could feel his heart singing as it surged with blood.

“I would tell you to be careful,” Rachel said. “But… You can handle it.”

“Appreciate the concern,” Santiago said.

It sounded dry, sarcastic, but Rachel knew him well enough to know he meant it. She had to. Only a tiny handful of people actually cared if Santiago risked life and limb. He could count them on one hand. Life was short, nasty, brutish. You didn’t get long and good people were hard to come by. Maybe having Rachel back in his life was a blessing-in-disguise. He wasn’t one for hooking up with an ex, but having Rachel around gave Santiago one more person who cared about him, right when he needed someone to be there for him. Even if he was doing a lot to save her skin. Rachel never really understood how just being around was more than most people did for Santiago. She assumed she was a burden. She apologized profusely. It drove him nuts. Santiago didn’t like to admit it, but being tethered to the earth by people he loved kept him fighting day after day.


“If it goes well, I might go for my license. Get a real job and use outdated slang like Myron.”

Santiago looked over at Rachel and grinned. He was kidding, of course. He had to lighten the mood before he and Rachel got in too deep.

After all, he’d never be able to pull off talking like Myron without looking like an *sshole.

[Deleted]

Rachel Day

Everyone needed someone to care for them, and everyone needed to care about someone. At least, that’s what Rachel Day firmly believed. Although Santiago could handle just about anything as far as she was concerned from firsthand experience, it did not mean that Rachel shouldn’t care for his being. It was not her responsibility anymore to care as deeply as she use to when they were together, but she always would. Rachel Day would always love Santiago Ortiz, and that was that. So when she was now hearing of this news, something in her tummy twisted with worry, but she would never tell Santiago. Because the last person who was concerned with Santiago … was Santiago. Which, she found silly but it worked.

“Appreciate the concern.”

Santiago did. Just his vocal tone didn’t sound much like it, but Rachel knew him better. She wondered how vocal lessons would go for him if he ever decided to take some. Now, that was a show Rachel Day would pay to see. Santiago Ortiz had like, the smallest lowest vocal range when it came to how he spoke.

“If it goes well, I might go for my license. Get a real job and use outdated slang like Myron.”

Rachel laughed, imagining Myron’s mouth on Santiago and how that just would not work. Then she sighed, her face deepening in thought. Myro! “Goodness, I missed Myron.” She said, having talked to him a tad, but not as much as she wished she could have. Rachel Day always felt like connection with him ever since they wound up in New York City together when Myron’s family member passed and Rachel got to go home because of her mother. They bonded and ever since then they were Myro and Ray Day. It just got slightly awkward when Madeleine thought that they were a ‘thing’. With that came the realization that there was no longer Madeleine and Myron. Huh…

Looking over at Santiago she smirked, “You two still a-“ Rachel got out the finger bunny ears and wiggled them in quotations, using a word Myron often used, “bromance? Tell me at least that hasn't changed."

[The Exodus]

Santiago Ortiz

Rachel laughed. Again, it was that bark-like sound. But this time, Santiago didn’t jump, didn’t flinch. He expected it and let himself enjoy the sound. He didn’t make jokes often. Usually, didn’t do it on purpose. When he did, Santiago savored the reaction. Held it on his ears, let it echo through his mind. He was the same when causing pain, joy, amusement, sorrow, ecstasy. It didn’t matter what. Santiago was a watcher; he absorbed reaction.

Besides. It was funny. Thinking for even a moment Santiago could have a job and a vocabulary like Myron’s.

“Goodness, I missed Myron,” Rachel said with a sigh. “You two still a-“ Rachel got out the finger bunny ears and wiggled them in quotations, using a word Myron often used, “bromance? Tell me at least that hasn't changed."

Santiago snorted.

“That word,” he said, shaking his head. Bromance was not a word he wanted to be attached to, no matter how apt it was. “Yeah. We’re great.”

He didn’t say it out loud—he didn’t want to hurt Rachel’s feelings—but Santiago increasingly felt that his friendship with Myron was the only constant in his life. Careers could change. Women could come and go. Years would roll on by, take their toll. But “bromance” or not, his friendship with Myron was the only thing that hadn’t ended yet.

Yet. That cautionary word, stuck in Santiago’s vocabulary since childhood. He dismissed it.

His friendship with Myron was constant. Sometimes a blessing, sometimes irritating, but always there. Thank God.

“When are you gonna tell him you’re back in Paris?”

[plantnerd92]

Linnea Hepworth

The night before had been a good night full of flirting and looking around for any men she found particularly interesting. In fact, the past week had been a series of testing the waters for any quick catches. Really, she was shameless. She never slept with anyone, much to many a man's frustration, but she didn't really feel like giving her V-Card away to some random man. It was a personal sentiment. Even though her parents were divorced now, they had taught her since she was a little girl that waiting until after you were married was so much better than 'getting around'. No fear of pregnancy, and less chance of disease that way, too. Really, it was more an installment of fear than anything else.

Linnea paid for her coffee - black this time, as usual, and left with an newspaper under her arm. Sitting at a bench, she held her coffee in one hand, and opened her newspaper with the other, crossing her legs at the knee as she read while replenishing her caffeine system. However, she was unable to focus on her paper as her mind wandered. Maksim had suddenly popped into her head, and she began daydreaming about the charming man she worked for... who she regularly had heated make-out sessions with. Linnea frowned slightly, thinking about how long it had been since she had last gotten with him. There was no denying she was having Volkov withdrawals just thinking about it. Sighing, she pushed the thoughts out of her head, and forced herself to concentrate on reading her newspaper. Really, she looked just like her father during that particular mannerism.

[blueeyeddevil]

Maksim Volkov

It was his day off and Maksim planned to make the most of it. He dressed in a comfortable pair of jeans, a gray tee shirt and a black sweater rather than his usual suit. His hair was tied back as he turned his head up toowards the bright sunshine, enjoying the warmth of it against his face. It was amazing though, that on this great day that he still managed to not be able to forget his irritation over the night before. Something about seeing Linnea flirting with the guys around the Moulin Rouge had grated his nerves and he couldn't seem to figure out why that was. They had agreed that they were going to simply be friends with benefits essentially so there wasn't really any reason for him to be feeling this way. He just wanted forget the whole thing.

Of course that was impossible as he had come out of the coffee shop to find Linnea sitting on a bench right outside. His heart skipped a beat for a moment at just how beautiful she looked with the sun shining in her glossy hair. He took a deep breath and prepared himself. He refused to let any of the irritation show through. She was perfectly allowed to flirt and the truth was that last night he had begun to do the same thing. That was just how this friendship was going to work. He approached Linnea with a smile. "Hey you," he said, giving her a quick kiss on the lips. "Interesting news article? You're starting to frown." He was only slightly teasing...she seemed to be concentrating rather hard on what it was she was reading.

[plantnerd92]

Linnea Hepworth

Linnea was so intent on reading her paper, she didn't realize someone had approached her until a distinctly familiar male voice spoke, making her stomach clench with anticipation. "Hey you!" Linnea looked up and immediately was greeted by a warm, wonderful mouth meeting hers. Maksim made a move to pull away, but Linnea had dropped her paper on her lap, and reached up to grasp the front of his shirt, holding him there for just a moment longer as she returned his kiss with a lingering one of her own. She pulled away with a mischievous smile, and returned to her paper.

"Volkov," she said in acknowledgement.

"Interesting news article? You're starting to frown," Maksim said, teasing slightly. Linnea folded her paper and smiled sweetly at him.

"Not nearly as interesting as you are, my friend," she stated matter-of-factly at him as she saluted him with her coffee cup and took a sip of the piping hot liquid. Good grief, he smelled amazing. She wanted nothing more than to drag him off to some hidden corner and kiss him senseless. Actually, switch that. She wanted him to kiss her senseless. But she'd be happy with both.... at the same time... preferably right now. Linnea blinked. Was she really this horny? Dang.... She smiled with the devil dancing in her brown eyes like a misbehaving child.

"How have you been? It's been quite a while since our last 'chat'." Okay, that could be taken both ways. She liked talking to him as much as she liked making out with him. It was an honest fact. Their personalities clashed every now and then and they occasionally entertained a heated argument, but like she said, she didn't find anyone nearly as interesting in her sexy employer.

[blueeyeddevil]

Maksim Volkov

He was caught off guard for a moment as her hand curled around his shirt, keeping him anchored to the kiss for longer than he had originally intended. Not that he was complaining. Not in the least. Though he had to admit that it confused him as to how she could act this way, making out with him one minute and then flirting with other guys the next. He cursed mentally in Russian as he suddenly remembered that he wasn't suppose to care. He took a seat next to her, trying to get his mind on something else. He asked her if it was an interesting news story she seemed to be so focused on now.

"Not nearly as interesting as you are, my friend," she declared as she saluted him with her coffee. Maksim smiled but he kept getting lost in watching her lovely full lips. He watched them as she spoke and as they pulled into a smile now. He kept remembering how they tasted, the ferocity with which they caressed his own, they way they felt tracing his jaw. He had to force his mind out of the fog.

"How have you been? It's been quite a while since our last 'chat'." she said, her mind obviously in the same place his was. They certainly clashed at times but there just didn't seem to be any denying there was a mutual attraction between them. Was that really all there was though?

"You're right...we don't get a lot of time to 'chat' at work, do we," he said. A teasing smile flickered to his lips before quickly turning into a warmer, more genuine one. "I'm fine." He pasued for a moment, looking pointedly away from her as he sipped his coffee, already mentally berating himself for what he was about to say. "How have you been? You seemed to be hitting it off with several guys last night..."

...he was an idiot.

[plantnerd92]

Linnea Hepworth

"You're right... we don't get a lot of time to 'chat' at work, do we," Maksim said teasingly, a mischievous smile tugging at the corners of his lips. Linnea grinned wickedly, unable to help herself. Really, she found the whole ordeal to be rather funny. With Maksim, she liked to misbehave and not do the proper thing, though she never really liked to be proper anyway. Her abrasive personality deemed it to be so. Maksim's smile became more genuine, and it made warmth seep into Linnea, all the way from the top of her head to the tips of her toes.

"I'm fine." he replied, before pausing and looking pointedly away from her as he nursed his coffee. Linnea was a little confused, her lips pulling into a perplexed frown at his change in behavior. "How have you been? You seemed to be hitting it off with several guys last night..." Maksim mentioned. Linnea shrugged.

"It was nothing special..." she paused, before averting her eyes, and studying her red-painted nails with deep intent. "I trust you had a nice time with a few of the ladies you bought drinks for last night as well..." Wait a minute, why did she just say that? Did it really bother her that he went off and spent his time with other women? She had no room to talk! After pondering it for a moment, she decided that it bothered her a little, but it wasn't that big of a deal so she blew it off. Linnea turned to him, tucking her leg underneath her, as she rested her elbow on the top of the bench and propped her head up with her hand and held her coffee in the other.

"So. Do you have plans today? I say we make up for lost time. I enjoy our visits." It was true, not for just making out with him. She had to admit that she genuinely missed being around him, and wanted to bask in his company a while longer before their busy schedules snapped them up in their wretched jaws making it so they would have no time for anything considered enjoyable. Linnea winced at the thought. Yes, she wanted to get as much time with him as possible before she was sentenced to that figurative jail.

[blueeyeddevil]

Maksim Volkov

Going through his teen years in a rather privileged upbringing, Maksim had to admit that he was rather use to getting what he wanted and was not all that skilled at keeping his emotions to himself. Of course he was starting to regret this now as he asked Linnea about the men she had been flirting with the night before, wanting to know if she had met anyone that caught her attention. Something about the idea of Linnea being with another guy gave him a rather sour feeling in the pit of his stomach. He tried to play it off in a casual manner, making it seem like nothing at all.

"It was nothing special..." she admitted and Maksim found himself angry for feeling relieved. "I trust you had a nice time with a few of the ladies you bought drinks for last night as well."

Maksim raised an eyebrow at this statement. Was she feeling the same kind of thing he was regarding the situation between them? That would certainly make for a rather interesting turn of events. "They were nice enough," he began with a slight shrug. "But mostly I was doing because I thought it would be a good idea to try and get some female business coming in." It was true enough. Maksim didn't want the business he'd invested so much money in to become a sanctuary for pervy old men.

"So. Do you have plans today? I say we make up for lost time. I enjoy our visits." she said.

Maksim smiled at the thought of spending the day with Linnea. She was probably the most interesting person he'd met since arriving in Paris and he could talk to her for hours on end without running out of things to say. Granted, a great majority of it included arguments that ended with them making out somewhere, but still. "I'd love that. Here I was thinking my day off would be boring," he said with a smile. "What do you want to do first?" He took another sip of his coffee, trying to hide how glad he was about being able to spend some actual time with her for once.

[plantnerd92]

Linnea Hepworth

At Linnea's mention of Maksim's opposite gender interactions last night, he shrugged. "But mostly I was doing because I thought it would be a good idea to try and get some female business coming in."

Ahhh, so that's what it it was. Linnea sensed there were truth behind those words, but she had a funny feeling of 'not buying it.' She was almost positive there was something else behind it. Whatever. Linnea brushed it off, not wanting to bother with worrying about it. It would just give her gray hairs anyway. She changed the subject by asking if he had any previous engagements for that day. Maksim smiled in return.

"I'd love that. Here I was thinking my day off would be boring. What do you want to do first?" he asked, making Linnea laugh, and shoot him a look saying 'Do you really need to ask?' She couldn't decide if she wanted to make out with him first and go from there, or do who knows what first and make out later... She tried to hide the shiver of longing that crept up her spine when she couldn't get the memory of his hands running through her hair as his lips wandered over her neck out of her head. That's it, she couldn't stand it anymore.

"Why don't we head over to my apartment? I'm sure we can find something to do..." She tried to make it sound as innocent as possible, but the mischief danced in her brown eyes like mad. Linnea rolled up her newspaper and held it in one hand and her coffee in the other as she stood up, and nudged Maksim's foot with her toe.

"Well, come on then. Let's not waste the day now." The impatience she felt amused her, and Linnea found herself grinning like an idiot. This was just ridiculous. Would she ever grow up? No, probably not.

[blueeyeddevil]

Maksim Volkov

The look Linnea sent him was all the confirmation he needed to know that she was definately on the same page as he was. Suddenly he found himself forgetting all about the night before. He was only thinking about the say ahead and the time with spent with Linnea, hold each other tightly as their lips caressed on another. Honestly this day was turning out to be much more interesting that he had previously anticipated.

"Why don't we head over to my apartment? I'm sure we can find something to do..." she declared as she got up from the bench. With a playful smile she gave him a tap on the foot with her toe. "Well, come on then. Let's not waste the day now."

With a playful grin of his own, Maksim rose to his feet, towering over her. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close, leaning down till his lips were lingering just over her own. "Sounds like a plan," he murmured. "Let's go." He kept his arm around her waist as he walked with her in the direction of her apartment. He couldn't help the way she made him feel and honestly he never wanted to feel any other way.

[Deleted]

00c: OPEN SCENE.


Andi Foster

The view of the full moon tonight from the Paris bench on the empty street, was so much and more compared to what the stuffy Moulin Rouge after glow had to offer. Andi smiled warmly to herself, rocking her head to side and gazing up on the pretty view. It was just peaking through a hole in between a few trees, just like it was poking out just for her. With an exhausted sigh, she popped a kernel into her mouth from the bag she had managed to steal before running away from the club. It was Andi Foster's big debut tonight for her choreography, and it was more spectacular than she had ever believed it would be. Instead of joining the party, she had whisked off with a bag of popcorn in a fancy dress, and had a little party by herself. Paris at night was really beautiful.

She was suppose to be answering reporters, mingling with the wealthiest of Paris, and getting publicity right now. Andi had been ready for it. In New York City everyone took credit for her work. At nights she would go home and cry herself to sleep, promising herself that one day she would get the fame. What a bizarre selfish promise. Tonight she could have had all that. Before the performance, she glowed with excitement and nerves, taking up a few glasses of wine to calm down. Afterward, Andi felt something totally different than what she had imagined. She had taken in the standing ovation, the roar of the applause, and accepted the flowers, but that was all that she needed to end her night. Just seeing people enjoy her work, watching the performers get their moment with all the sweat and tears they had given Andi, and the smiles and reaction from the audience who needed a night out... Well, that's how she wanted her grand finale' to go tonight. Andi Foster didn't want fame. She just wanted to do what she loved to do.

No one had seen her escape, or at least no one had stopped her. Andi entered the after glow, tons of flashes blinding her. A reporter had come up to her, asking her something, but looking out in the sea of party people, she had kindly excused herself and gone to the food table to get her popcorn, and slithered her way out. Andi could feel the exhaustion seeping in. Her first week and a half of Paris and it had been a nonstop production of choreographing, rehearsals, and settling in. She didn't really know where she was heading until she found her pace was slowing down and her eyes growing heavy. When she stumbled upon that beautiful view in the sky and a bench with a street lamp lighting it up for her, Andi couldn't help but sit down.

She was nowhere near tipsy, but the wine had made her warm and if anything, had made her realize how tired she was. Andi smiled to herself, sliding down on the bench and leaning her head against it so she was looking up without craning her neck. The gust of the cool night hit against her arms but she didn't mind the goosebumps. Sliding out of her heels, she tucked her toes underneath the bench. It was silent and she had never been so content.

Trying to catch the popcorn in her mouth by throwing it up, Andi had made her 'miss' pile that formed around the bench. Laughing to herself, she tiredly released a breath, blinking before it soon got heavy. She was so happy and grateful, but she couldn't even imagine walking to her apartment. She could just sit here for a few minutes more...

The last vision Andi Foster saw before she closed her eyes shut was the glowing moon.