Chapter Text
"I am not being creepy, she just looks like someone I wanna buy a wedding ring for." Snow explained to Sej while pacing their room "She's just pretty and interesting and sings really well and I want her to have my babies. That's not weird, that's nature. Blame God."
Sejanus chortles "Man you meet this girl one time, give her a drive home and you dump Livia, your parents' insurance for all intents and purposes for both you and Rosie's Harvard admissions, and you don't even know her last name. That's insane, I'm not blaming God, I'm blaming your folks."
He felt he probably shouldn't mention his investigation of her background, especially since his new passion and impulsiveness affected his little sister. "Her last name is Baird, for now anyway."
"Oh 'for now' because it's gonna be Snow soon?" He asks mockingly, rubbing his hand on his head, shaved like his and all theirs have to be.
Snow looks over at his cot "Exactly." with no humor in his tone. "She's making me wanna live longer, now I have to worry about shit like melanoma and getting check-ups."
"Jesus Christ, you're fully serious about this." Sejanus mumbles surprised "Although she smokes so maybe you don't need to stress about your health too much."
"Yes, man! Damn! And I'll get her to quit, she just smokes because of how stressed out she always is." He puts his hands interlaced behind his head "She's making me think about shit like buying a farm in the middle of nowhere because people are the worst and starting a family with her. I want her away from car exhaust and the general public and have her drinking only the best water." He says, now that he's finally getting it. "Actually forget a farm, I want a compound, with a moat. This city's poison. She should be surrounded by animals and our children, and I don't mean rats and feral raccoons I mean like chickens and shit. I want a dog, and she does too, but I want one to help me heard sheep." He confesses before begrudgingly adding "I was supposed to go out in a blaze of glory and now I have to live to make sure I can still shovel snow for her when I'm 85 or something."
"Okay, careful now." Sej warns "I don't want you making a little baby with her and end up derailing all your plans, and her's too for all you know. That can be plan B."
"Plan B is I make more money and make more children with her, that's my plan B."
"And plan C?"
"EVEN. MORE. MONEY." Snow yells
"Welp," Sej says, fully laughing out loud at his agitation now "I wasn't exactly a super big fan of Livia's anyway and this new girl seems cool so I'm on board. Let me know if there's any shit I can help you with. Except agriculture, I don't like her that much and I hate gardening." He gets off the bed and heads to the bathroom, still chuckling at his best friend's declaration that made him sound a little manic. He's never had a crush before, so he can see how having his first one at eighteen might feel overwhelming.
Once alone, Snow takes his notes out of the book he was hiding them in. He was going to look over them before Sejanus barged into their barrack. So far he's figured out not only where she lives, for obvious reasons, but also her full name, her family members who live with her, how she lives, where she went to school, where she works besides The Ivy, and her birthday. It saddened him, how difficult her life was. She was practically a mother to her little cousin Maude, her parents are no where to be found, nor theirs, or anyone's really. Most of the other older kids help her, except for the one named Billy Taupe. He seems to only make more struggle for them all. Snow'll manage to get rid of him, in time.
For now, all he has to focus on is showing his Lucy Gray how much easier he can make her life. She doesn't deserve to be stuck in a place that limits her from her potential like where she is now. Working in a mediocre restaurant to make ends meet, with how talented and smart he's witnessed she is, it's tragic. It's not her fault her parents were incompetent and poor. He can't just witness someone like her trapped by her circumstances and not try to get her out. She has a performance tonight, he can go "have lunch" at the restaurant she works at, then offer her and the rest a ride. Except for that Billy kid, he can fair for himself. Of course, he'll have to eat before he goes, the food at that place is borderline inedible.
He anxiously knocks on the bathroom door, "Sej?"
"Yeah?" He hears from behind the door
"Wanna go to a show of theirs tonight? We don't have anything to do for these next two days anyway." Snow offers, it would look less suspicious if he wasn't alone.
"Sure, sounds fun." Sej says "Can I finish shitting now?"
********
"She shouldn't be working here." Snow mutters uncomfortably "The table is sticky and the food looks cold and burned at the same time."
"Why did you want to come here first anyway?" Sejanus asks "You ate already. I'm a garbage disposal but you're so picky, I can't believe you'd even set foot in here."
"How else was I going to offer her a ride to her gig tonight?"
"You're gonna offer her a ride?" Sej asks still reading the menu Lucy Gray gave them.
"Yeah, how else would I get closer to her?"
"Maybe asking her out like a normal person?" He sarcastically suggests
"She's too busy to start dating the traditional way." Snow explains looking over at her, looking cute in her waitress's uniform "I have to make it clear I know her life is complicated and difficult, that I'd make it easier on her and one way to show her is giving her rides."
Sej looks at Snow over the menu and asks "How do you know her life is all that? You had one car ride with her that was what, 30 minutes? And you had two other girls in there with you, it couldn't have been a heart to heart or anything."
Snow silently glares at the table, not looking up at Sejanus, feeling caught.
"...Dude, have you been stalking her?"
"Shut up, it's not stalking."
"Oh my god, you totally are."
"Shh!" He says angrily, with Lucy Gray approaching
"Alrighty, you two decide on anything yet?" She says smiling down at the both of them
"I'll just have a water for now, please." Snow says
"Same for me, thanks."
She dutifully turns around to get those for them, leaving the boys to discuss amongst themselves the semantics of his sleuthing.
"It's not stalking, I'm just trying to figure out the best way to approach her. I got pretty quickly that she wouldn't be open to dating at all during that car ride, at least not because I asked her to something lame like the movies or something." He explained himself
"Okay so becoming Mr.Fix-It will do the trick instead?" Sej asks, raising his brows.
"Maybe? We'll have to see. Lucy Gray is pretty much on her own." Snow says, grabbing the menu "It makes sense she'd have trust issues. She basically mother's Maude and Barbie is the only one that helps her really."
"Aww man, that fuckin sucks. Where are their parents?"
"Who knows.." he says sadly
It genuinely upsets him that a person as special as his Lucy Gray has been left to fend for herself from such a young age, not even a legal adult and she has so many responsibilities.
She then appears with their waters "Y'all need anymore time to find what you want?"
"I think I'll just have the Caesar salad." Snow says, figuring it's better to ask for things that don't need to be cooked.
"I'll have the lasagne." Sejanus says, smirking when he looks at Snow, knowing it just turned his stomach.
"Okay, we'll have those out in a jif." She turns around to put in their orders.
"She's really nice." Sej says "Then again she is working for tips though. But I'm sure she's also just usually nice."
"I want her to meet my parents soon."
"Terrible idea, your parents are like the most uptight people I've ever met, even more than you." Sej says
"Even my mom?" Snow asks
"Well okay I really just meant your dad, but still. Lucy Gray is a poor orphan girl working two jobs, not going to school for anything, and taking care of children she didn't even have."
"So he'll see she's hardworking and not afraid of challenges."
"And a total liability to the plans he's made for your future." Sej says, bursting Snow's bubble. "I know she's got you sprung and everything dude, but your folks aren't going to react well to you dumping Livia. To find out that you dumped Livia because you met this girl with very few prospects would only make him hate the Lucy more than he already would."
"My mom would like her."
"Absolutely, but that doesn't mean she'd want her with you. She might not judge her but your mom didn't marry your dad because he was such a sweet, understanding guy. Your mom played the game and played it well, as she should. So she'll think that's what Lucy is doing, too."
"Are you calling my mother a golddigger?" Snow asks outraged
"No, I'm calling her smart." Sej says "Your mom wanted to make sure her children had a good, safe home and could ask for nothing. She ensured that when she married Crassus, but she didn't marry him out of love. Anyone could see that, you know it too."
Snow couldn't argue this. Everyone could see his father parades around his mother like a trophy, the dutiful wife that gave him two perfect kids, a boy and a girl, keeps a great house and stays fit doing it. Everyone could also see how she bites her tongue constantly, avoids speaking to anyone associated with her husband, be that family, work or friends, what few he has, and only speaks to her children and the family she was born into. Apparently, on occasion Sejanus. Sensibly so, he's another son to her, almost competing with Danila Plinth.
"Maybe that's actually why you dumped Livia." Sej suggests
"What?"
"You saw your parents and decided that wasn't going to be you. Then instead you gravitated towards a girl the most unlike what your parents would choose for you." He says, shrugging. "You've never done anything that impulsive before. I've seen you deliberating on what socks to get at commissary, and they're all basically the same. Maybe this wasn't even really a decision you took, but something more. Something instinctive."
There was more merit in what his friend was saying than he'd care to admit.
She came back with his salad, looking better than he’d expected it to look, and set it down in front of his face, wafting some of her scent over to him and causing him to inhale the wild rose and ripe peach smell deeply.
“And here is your lasagne.” She says “If y’all need anything more, let me know.”
She walks off, with Snow looking at her longingly as she does.
“You’re drooling.” Sej says jocularly
“Shut up and eat your plate of dog food.” Snow snaps
They lunch in mostly silence, partly because Snow is thinking over what they discussed and partly because Sejanus doesn’t talk while he eats. The meal goes by quicker than he would’ve liked. It’s far too early for them to logically stay until it’s time for her next job. So he ordered another meal, this time a plate of spaghetti and meatballs, since it seemed unlikely they could mess that up.
“You’re actually going to eat that?” Sej asks
“I’ll eat what I can stomach then put most of it in napkins and go to the bathroom to flush them when she’s not looking.”
“Hey how do you know she’s going to stay here until she needs a ride? When does her shift end?” He asks
Snow pauses at this
“…Did you not think about that?”
“…”