A/N English is not my mother tongue, so I apologise in advance for any mistakes either grammatical or cultural.
It's a modern AU story about Chaol and Celeana.
Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine, they belong to Sarah J. Maas obviously.
July 2016, San Diego
"Hi, I'm Celaena and I've finally arrived in San Diego with Lysandra !" She moved her camera to the right, to show her smiling friend. "Hi guys !"
"It took us forever to get here and I just have to say, thank god I wasn't the one driving. I probably would have killed way too many people." She smirked while Lysandra rolled her eyes at her antics.
"Anyway. I'm gonna try to vlog as much as I can. But when I'm excited, I have this nasty habit to forget stuff." She shrugged giving the camera a tiny devilish smile.
"We are off to dinner because I'm super hungry." She got up looking for her bag, before following her brunette friend out of their hotel room. Her hair was in her face when she tried to see her reflection in the reverse camera screen. "Ugh. Lys take it please."
Lysandra grabbed the camera, and filmed her friend tying up her into a high bun. Celaena flipped her head back and lifted her arms up in exaggeration.
"Tadam !" Both women giggled so loudly that the people at the end of the corridor observed them strangely. "We are such an attraction. And here is the beginning of our adventure at Comic-Con 2016." She winked and then turned off her camera.
"On a scale from 0 to 10, how are you hungry ?" Asked Lysandra while walking toward the elevator.
"If you weren't my bestfriend I'd totally eat you." Celaena smirked at her friend. "Right now, I'm just gonna need your beauty to update my instagram."
They were alone in the elevator getting down to the hall. That gave them the opportunity to take several pictures with both their phones.
Celaena posted it on her instagram account, that was also linked to her twitter. She definitely was a girl of her time, always connected to social networks and keeping her followers updated to whatever she was doing. It simply was her life, her job, what she loved doing. Never did she feel forced to vlog, even though she wasn't 100% a regular at it.
"Did your cousin texted you ?" Lysandra asked when the doors opened. She's been glancing at her phone every two seconds. Even though Celaena was absorbed by her own activity, she couldn't miss how her best friend was acting, or rather how she failed to hide her fidgeting. Her cousin was such a jerk, not texting Lysandra on purpose.
"He just did. We gotta meet them at the restaurant, they arrived a few minutes ago." She put her sunglasses on top of her head, and linked her right arm with her friend's. "Are you two on a break once again ? It's like happening once a month or something ?" Lysandra gasped before glaring at her friend's beautiful blue eyes.
"We are not together, ugh. I just hate his rudeness. I told him to text me because I'm the one driving you everywhere, but no, this asshole just loves to piss me off." Lysandra kept rambling about Celaena's cousin all the way to the parking lot and even during the drive. In those moments Celaena loved to watch her, and how her face was so expressive and she didn't even realised it herself. It was such a spectacle, and so far she still not tired of it. When the car stopped at another parking lot she glanced at herself in the car mirror before getting out.
"You know, Aedion likes you and you like him too. But hey, both of you keep playing, it's very entertaining." She said.
"Well, maybe you should entertain me too ! Don't you ever have a crush on someone, seriously ?" Lysandra closed her car and adjusted her bag on her shoulder walking to the sidewalk.
"I do !" Replied Celaena. "Lots of them even."
"Real people, Celaena! Not fictional men and women from your books. What am I gonna do with you ?"
•
Everyone was sitting at a round table on the left corner of the restaurant. They all gave their orders and were waiting for them. Celaena got her camera out.
"We finally met up with everyone ! As you know I came with Lysandra and the rest drove up here later. Everyone's gonna introduce and give their username if they have one." The focus left Celaena's face to go left on a beautiful brown haired woman.
"Most of you must know me, I'm Lysandra and you can watch my videos at LysAndBooks." She finished her speech by a peace sign before the person sitting next to her took her place on the screen.
"Hi ! I'm Elide and I also do booktube videos at TinyElide." The youngest at the table smiled a little and turned her head to the blonde girl at her side who shook her head at her. They looked into each others eyes briefly.
"Here's my girlfriend Manon, unfortunately she doesn't do videos nor does she have any social media accounts." Elide stared at the lens knowing Manon was trying to hide herself as much as she could, but she still flipped them off. "I hope to see you all soon, and that you enjoyed my dear friend's vlog. Go Celaena !" The whole table laughed at Elide and her joyous mood. Such a shy tiny girl that can be as bubbly was always a sight for them.
"And the best to finish ! Aedion in the place to be. I'm NorthWolf on every social medias, so ladies check it out." He winked with his famous flirting smile, all the while moving his right hand into his long blond hair. His charming personality was oozing out of him like a powerful scent to get everyone on their knees. This man was a force of nature, totally unstoppable. Though his attitude was risible.
"Also QueenOfBooks who owns this channel is my cousin, so good looking people run into our family." Suddenly he grabbed the camera from Celaena's hands and put his left arm on her shoulder to film them both. Quickly he kissed her cheek before any protest could come out of her mouth.
"The whole Seattle gang is here tonight in San Diego and we're all gonna enjoy ourselves for the next few days." Said Celaena laughing hard. She got closer to Lysandra to be able to shot everyone in her vlog at the same time. "I have the bestest friends in the world, gosh. And I love you guys, you're all awesome and Be a Queen to your dream." They all smiled and waved.
Dinner was a nice reunion between all of them. Summer certainly was the time they spent the most together every year. Celaena was lucky to have her cousin and best friend with her all year long, but she still missed her petite friend Elide.
A while later, our dear blonde girl got out of her seat to smoke a cigarette before dessert was served. Leaning against a wall she closed her eyes letting the smoke out of her mouth. A voice got her out of her thoughts.
"Hum. Excuse me, do you have lighter ?" A tall guy with chestnut hair was looking at her, and the cigarette in her hand. He took her by surprised, but she quickly contained herself.
"Sure."
She got her lighter from her jeans back pocket, and extended her hand toward him. "Thanks." He shyly told her.
Celaena watched him lit his cigarette and she was not even ashamed of acting like that. Why would she ? For once an handsome guy was standing in front of her. Better enjoy it while it lasts.
"You saved my life. I really needed that. Thanks again." He told her giving her back the lighter.
They smoked in silence.
Her eyes were wandering around the street, but always went back to glimpse at the man. In the few minutes he stood next to her, she guessed he was one of the shy ones. Everytime she stared at him and he tried to do the same, he immediately averted his eyes from her. Celaena laughed internally. She always intimidated guys in some ways. Either this or they came to her like they owned her already. In her opinion it was cute, she liked this better.
Her cigarette consumed itself way faster than she thought. She could have another one, but her friends were waiting inside. No matter how handsome and polite this man was she couldn't stay. Her cigarette fell on the floor and she crushed it with her feet.
Blue eyes met brown eyes.
One bright smile offered to a tiny one.
"Uh. Thanks again." He suddenly said to Celaena when he saw her starting to walk away. "And have a good night."
"You too, Handsome." She answered softly.