Hey!
So Mermaidodair said she'd like to see more modern AUs, so ta da! This one concerns a matter that I'm sure is very close to a lot of our hearts: fanfiction. I thought long and hard about a ship I could see Annie losing sleep over, and my eventual conclusion was Enjolras and Grantaire (E/R) from Les Miserables. You really don't need to have in-depth Les Mis knowledge to get this chapter, I promise. It will make sense without it. But for any Les Mis fans out there- Annie would so be an E/R shipper. She'd also ship Meponine. Tell me you guys see this.
I have written the next couple of stories out, I just need to type them up. So they should be up later today. Thank you ever so much for all your support!
It was nearly three o'clock in the morning.
She had to leave at eight if she wanted to get to work on time.
Really, really, Annie needed to get some sleep.
Her finger clicked on 'next chapter' seemingly without her permission.
Just one more, she tells herself sharply. One more chapter, and then you really need to go to bed.
"Grantaire opened his front door to find Enjolras, wearing a sheepish expression and holding out a bouquet of roses."
Who was she kidding? Annie wasn't going to finish after this chapter.
Damn her stupid shipper heart.
It took all of Annie's self-control not to fall asleep at her desk that morning. An hour's sleep, in total, was all she'd managed to get.
A small, triumphant part of her was happy to have finished that fanfiction though. Even if Enjolras had seemed a little out of character at times, it really was a great story. Ever so fluffy. She'd had to stop several times so that she could squirm in her seat and giggle to herself.
Annie absolutely loved fluffy fanfiction.
Still, now, as she sipped at her coffee and hit random keys on her keyboard in the hope that if the boss looked over he might think she was busy, Annie severely questioned her reasoning skills. Most people would have just gone to bed, surely?
"Looks like somebody had a busy night." Johanna said suggestively, stopping beside Annie's desk. Judging by the bundle of paper in her arms, she'd just been on a trip to the printer down the hall.
"It's not like that, Johanna." Annie insisted tiredly, taking another swig of her coffee and glancing at the little clock in the bottom right of her computer screen.
Eleven am. Damn it. Lunch break wasn't until half one.
"Sure it isn't." Johanna did not sound convinced. "So, come on then. Who's the lucky fellow?"
"There isn't one."
"No? Well, then, who's the lucky lady?"
"There isn't one, Johanna."
"Alright then," Johanna winked. "Don't worry; I'll get it out of you."
"Good luck with that." Annie called after her retreating form.
She checked the clock again. Two minutes past eleven.
Damn it.
Annie all but stumbled through the glass door to the bakery at exactly thirty-six minutes past one.
It wasn't until she reached the counter that she realised the usual baker, the Peeta Mellark after whom this bakery was named, was not there. In his place was a tall, green-eyed stranger who had put his hat on slightly lop-sided.
"Where's Peeta?" Annie blurted out before she could help herself. She'd found years ago that she had very little self-control when she was tired.
"He's away this week." The stranger explained. "On his honeymoon."
"Ah," Now it had been mentioned, Annie did vaguely recall Peeta introducing her to his fiancé a few weeks ago- Katniss, wasn't it? She seemed nice- shy, though Annie could relate to that. Peeta had refused to have her anywhere near the kitchen, instead asking his wife-to-be to simply hand out the goods he had already prepared. Apparently, she was a terrible cook, but Peeta 'loved her all the more because of it'.
They really were sweet together, even if their ship name was Peeniss.
"I'm taking over for the week." The green-eyed stranger continued on. "I'm an old friend of Peeta's. Finnick," It took Annie a moment to realise that this peculiar change of subject was his way of introducing himself. "Finnick Odair."
"I'm Annie." She said with a small, polite smile.
"A beautiful name for a beautiful lady," If Annie was perhaps not so tired, maybe she would have blushed. However, right now all she really wanted was to eat and then to go. "What can I get for you, Annie?"
"A Chelsea bun and a gingerbread man," It was a less than healthy lunch, sure, but Annie didn't go to the bakery to be healthy. If she wanted to eat something sensible, she'd have gone to the grocer's across the road and bought herself an apple.
Annie arrived home from work that day with every intention of whipping herself up a quick dinner, changing into her pyjamas and going to bed.
However, somewhere between going to bed and falling asleep, she wound up on her phone.
Smexysugarcube had published a new fanfiction.
After staying up all last night reading one of their previous stories, the sensible part of Annie's brain begged her not to click through to this one.
She bit her lip, and clicked it anyway.
She'd not had chance to put concealer over the bags under her eyes before she left the house, waking up only ten minutes before her train was due to leave and having to run down to the station whilst still zipping up her jacket, shoelaces untied.
"Seriously, when do I get to meet him?" Johanna asked, stopping next to Annie's desk grinning. "He seems like a lotta fun, and that's just going by the state your face is in."
"I couldn't sleep, Johanna." Annie mumbled sleepily. "There's no-one for you to meet."
Johanna winked and walked away.
Despite herself, Annie smashed her forehead against her keyboard in frustration.
She had never been more thankful for lunch-time in her life.
Stumbling into Mellark's, she headed up to the counter, grateful that it was once again empty of customers.
"What can I get for you today, Annie?" Finnick asked. Urgh, his voice was so annoyingly cheerful today. Annie immediately felt bad for thinking it, but it was true.
Sometimes, when you're grouchy and tired, annoyingly happy people only make it worse.
"Chocolate," Annie says, "Something with chocolate in. I need chocolate."
"Okay, okay, calm down." Finnick teases her, grabbing a couple of chocolate brioches from display cabinet in the counter with a pair of tongs. "Will two be enough?"
Annie nods, already fumbling about in her purse for the required money.
Only she can't find it.
"Oh, damn it!" She curses.
"Is something wrong?" Finnick asks, genuine concern on his face.
"I can't find my money." Annie confesses. "I think I must've left it at home. I was in such a rush this morning. And oh god, now I'm just wasting your time, because I can't pay, so you'll just have to put those back. Can you even do that? Oh my god, I'm so sorry!"
"Woah, woah, woah!" Finnick reaches across the counter and rests his hands on her shoulders. Usually physical contact from a stranger like this would be unnerving, but today. Today, Annie doesn't seem to care about such things. Too tired, she reasons. "It's alright. Please don't cry. Honestly, it's alright."
"Really?" Annie hadn't realised she was crying.
Oh god, she'd made such a fool of herself in front of this green-eyed stranger.
"Really," He promises, smiling softly and removing his hands from her shoulders. They feel cold without his touch. "Now, do you want a bag for these?"
"I told you, I can't pay for them."
"Doesn't matter," Finnick grinned at her. "These are on the house. You clearly need them."
"Thank you," Annie says, meaning it. "Yes, please, I'd like a bag."
He grabs a paper bag and uses the tongs to put the two chocolate brioches inside, handing it across the counter to her.
"Thank you," Annie repeats. "Thank you so much."
"No problem," He assures her. "Any time!"
A fic update!
Smexysugarcube is on fire with these!
Annie decides that dinner can wait, instead snuggling up beneath her favourite blanket on the sofa. Phone in hand, she begins to read the latest chapter.
"This chapter was inspired by a girl who came into the bakery where I'm working part-time, so I think it's only fair that I dedicate it to her. I'm sure someone like her has better things to be doing than reading gay Les Mis fanfic, so she'll never see this. But hey, a dedication's a dedication, am I right? So this one's for you, Annie."
She can't have read that right. Bakery, Annie- no, she did.
Heavens above! She'd met her favourite writer- twice!- and didn't tell them how talented they were, or that she loves their work.
They could have spent her lunch break squealing over E/R together.
Urgh, if only she'd known!
"Johanna!" Annie all but leaps across her desk to grab her best friend's hand.
"What?" Johanna asks, wrenching her hand free. "Jeez, you're perky this morning. Boy-toy give you some peace last night?"
"I met smexysugarcube!" Annie squeals. Because she has to tell someone.
Johanna reaches across to pat Annie on the head tentatively. "That's one hell of a nickname you've given your boy-toy there, Ann, sweetheart."
"Smexysugarcube?" She calls out experimentally as she enters Mellark's bakery.
"Ah," Finnick stands behind the counter, sporting a blush that just about reaches the very tips of his ears. "You saw that?"
"You ship E/R." She's being awkward and impolite and weird, but for once in her life she doesn't care, despite being wide awake. "You're my favourite author."
"Really?" Finnick asks, positively glowing with pride.
"Really!" Annie insists enthusiastically. She's already bounced up to the counter and is now resting her elbows atop it. "How do you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Write so well!"
"God-given gift," Finnick teases with a smirk. Then, more sincerely, "Would you like me to give you lessons?"
"In writing gay Les Mis fanfic?" She giggles, because somehow the thought of that is hilarious.
"No, silly," Finnick laughs. "Writing in general."
"I'd like that." She tells him, because having the ability to write even half so well as he can would be amazing. "I honestly would."