Hacy Facebook Status: It's Complicated
Relationship Status: [Ignore Request]
It all began with Abigael and the Susans.
"We could use a fourth," Harry heard Abigael purr, as Macy's palpable rage grew, an atmosphere of tension permeating the ornately-decorated bedroom.
Hours later, he heard a chime from his Facebook app on the new phone that Maggie had convinced him to purchase in case the typical magical modes of communication failed.
He clicked on the silhouetted icon. "Relationship request" it read. From "Abigael Jameson-Caine." Harry frowned. What on earth was this? he thought to himself. In a separate Facebook message, he read the words:
Harry Darling,
I and the Two Susans respectfully request relationship confirmation: "Abigael, Susan 1, Susan 2, and Harry are in an open relationship."
Do be a dear and confirm? ~A
Harry looked around the Vera Manor kitchen table to ensure none of the Vera sisters were peeking over his shoulder, and hurriedly clicked "Ignore." A random thought popped into his brain at that particular moment—of the two Susans, which was Susan 1, and which was Susan 2? Did they ever bicker amongst themselves? Surely there must be a hierarchy of some sort—
"Harry?" startled, he whirled around and came face-to-face with a bleary-eyed Maggie. "What're you doing? It's kind of late to be up."
"Nothing," Harry answered, tucking his phone in his pocket. "Nothing at all."
Relationship Status: [Single]
He had just come from the graveyard, a week or so after having borne witness to Macy's ex-lover sacrificing himself to save all of Hilltowne, killing himself in the process. His dapper white pinstriped suit, his sky-blue shirt, and appropriately-matching olive tie was an implicit homage to the beauty of Springtime, and waiting there, by the trees, he had felt his brain melt clean away as he gazed at his beautiful charge, her corkscrew curls forming a veritable halo around her beautiful melanin visage, her lips crimson in the maquillage she donned for the occasion, though he silently believed she would have gone without and he would have still thought her the most stunning woman on earth. I think I love you, he thought, forgetting for half a millisecond that his Macy, the Charmed One before him, was fully capable of reading his thoughts. Oh my.
His years in the war gave him a heightened sense of perception, and he knew the moment Macy gave a sudden start that the odd prickling within his brain wasn't just his overactive imagination at play. Bollocks.
"Do you want to talk about what I heard?" Macy had offered. A consolation prize for his embarrassment, more like, he thought. He couldn't let this clumsy moment of his define the rest of their working relationship.
"Let's just pretend it never happened," he replied firmly, and Macy, darling Macy, took her cues from him accordingly. He offered Macy his arm, and to his relief, Macy took it as they walked through the verdant garden.
Once they had reached Vera Manor, he logged onto his Facebook account, reflecting on their earlier conversation. Macy had offered frank discussion rather than disgust at his innermost thoughts, all of which were written plain as day. Perhaps, if he classified himself as "Single" on his Facebook status, she would take notice?
Relationship Status: Single [Utterly Devastated]
It wasn't supposed to happen like this, Harry thought to himself as he stared through the transparent floor-to-ceiling glass conference hall doors of SafeSpace Seattle. Mace, he thought helplessly, watching Julian kiss her, why not me?
Maybe I'm not rich enough, or independent enough, he groused to himself. If I were taller, more—dare I say—modern, and suave, would she notice me then? He noticed Julian's close-cropped hair, salt-and-pepper goatee, and contemporary sweater shirts that were a marked contrast to his own dowdy ensembles.
He logged onto his Facebook app and noticed that Macy had changed her status to "In a Relationship with Julian Shea," which received a horde of 'thumbs-up' likes, 'surprised' emoticons, and a couple of 'heart' loves. None of which, he noticed to his surprise, came from Maggie or Mel. Apparently, Julian's dear Aunt Vivienne wasn't thrilled, as she commented below the relationship status: "We need to chat."
I've lost her, Harry thought to himself as he scrolled through the photos he had of them together. The selfie in which her curls laid ever-so-gently upon his shoulder. Perhaps in modern parlance this was termed something else entirely, but in those midnight hours he spent reviewing her photos from two years ago, he simply didn't give a damn.
Relationship Status: It's Complicated [I kissed Abigael]
To his credit, Harry had thrown out most of his old 'fuddy-duddy' jacket vest outfits, intent on transforming himself into a most modern gentleman worthy of his charge. Maggie, the fashion maven of the three, was the first to notice. "Nice threads, Har," she had remarked one morning at breakfast, as he strode through the kitchen intent of making himself a fresh cup of Earl Grey tea.
"Anyone you're trying to…impress?" Mel had not-so-subtly added. Harry ignored the two as he steeped his teabag in the piping hot water for a minute and a half exactly, then placed it in a tiny cup for later reuse.
Unfortunately, Macy was still with Julian, and still hadn't noticed his efforts made toward being a modern self-made gentleman. It's just a matter of time, he told himself. Just a matter of time.
To make matters infinitely more complicated, Abigael had cornered him in SafeSpace's basement.
"Did I scare you?" he heard her voice whisper, her visage mere inches away from his own, and somehow, he found his lips meeting hers, stone cold, devoid of vibrance that he craved so from the woman he could never have. And he surrendered in that moment to his tension and unwavering frustration—
And it had been the stupidest mistake of his life.
"Don't be a stranger, Harry," she murmured in his ear, and he blinked, as if in a daze. This wasn't how it was supposed to feel. This was, he understood, lust. Pure, unadulterated lust. Nothing more.
Somehow, when he orbed back to Vera Manor and sat in the kitchen waiting for the teakettle to boil, things didn't seem right. Macy had all but disappeared for the night, uncharacteristically for her, and he knew that somehow, she knew. Though he didn't know how that would have been possible. If Macy had walked in on them, she would have screamed at the pair. Used telekinesis to move boxes about. Break test tubes on Abigael's head were she furious enough.
Right?
Relationship Status: It's Complicated [Macy, make a decision already!]
Even though Julian and Macy were together (as far as he himself knew), he could still sense Macy making daggers at Abigael whenever they were in the same room, and he let that be known the next morning when he logged into his Facebook app and maintained his relationship status as "It's Complicated." Why on earth are you begrudging who I see, when you saw my innermost thoughts—and did nothing? He was frustrated at her inability to act, almost as much as he was upset at himself for lacking the courage to do anything about it.
"You should have what—and whomever—your heart desires, Macy," he remarked softly at one point, and it was as though a spark had been lit within Macy, an indeterminable epiphany of sorts? He hadn't the faintest idea. She deserved the best. But was he the right person for her? Did she need him and want him as he did her? Or was it Dark Harry that made her knees tremble, and her voice quaver as it had back when they traversed the edges of the sordid nightclub?
The decision was entirely hers.
Relationship Status: It's Complicated [Less is more?]
Sporting a button-down forest green shirt, he jauntily strode into the kitchen after their glass-shattering upstairs rendezvous, which nearly risked their getting caught in flagrante delicto by the other two Charmed Ones.
He contemplated, just for a moment, changing his relationship status to "in a relationship" with Macy Vaughn, but upon second thought, believed it too soon. He had barely had a moment with her, after all.
Relationship Status: It's Complicated [status update: AMAZING NIGHT!]
After an evening spent querying Maggie to erase his feelings, and his subsequent orbing to Epicenter Pico No. 23 in the Azores Islands (the family condo Macy inherited from Dexter and where she spent her spare time), he'd had the time of his life, walking through the screened doors to the balcony facing the cloudless starry sky and the distant ocean—walking to his beloved. Macy.
And what a night it had been.
He felt that Melanija Paradis' "Of Lorenz Theory & Love" AO3 fanfiction had encapsulated the sordid love story rather well, all things considered, though he didn't understand just why she had to include all the smut, even though it had happened, detail-for-detail.
In any event, he sat down at the Epicenter Pico No. 23 condo kitchen table and updated his Facebook status to read: "AMAZING NIGHT!"
No sooner had he done so, that he'd heard a ping notification from his app. Maggie. Who had commented with "ooooooooooh?" followed by a cluster of winking emoticons. The status had garnered a mysteriously high number of likes from Chloe, Mel, Maggie herself, and (to his surprise) a 'heart' love symbol from Macy herself, who winked at him from across the living room.
Relationship Status: In a Relationship with Macy Vaughn
After a few weeks, Harry found himself standing outside in the Vera Manor Garden alongside Macy; he pulled out his Facebook app. "Should we change our statuses?" he ventured carefully, hoping Macy wouldn't find his slight attachment to social media off-putting, as they admired the many glimmering tealights above them, the veritable beacons they were.
"Sure," she replied. He clicked on the relationship drop-down menu to "In a Relationship," adding Macy's name, which triggered a notification to Macy's own phone, which she pulled out.
"Relationship request" it read. From "Harry Greenwood." Macy and Harry grinned at each other as she hit "Confirm."
"Harry Greenwood is in a relationship with Macy Vaughn" the subsequent Facebook notification read on the main wall, which garnered 'heart' emoticons from Maggie and Mel, 'likes' from SafeSpace coworkers, and to no one's surprise, a 'surprised' emoticon from Abigael, who commented "if you ever get tired of domesticity, you know where to find me…"
Macy clicked on the upper tab of Abigael's comment, "find support or report comment," and clicked "spam," removing the verbiage entirely.
"I love you Macy," Harry murmured, drawing his now-girlfriend close. Could this really be happening?
"I love you too, Harry," Macy responded, as they kissed and whirled each other around under the cozy serenity of the Vera Manor tealights for what seemed an eternity.