i&#x27;m going in for the kill

I dunno! You’re properly perfect.

I can’t argue with you there.

Aw, Addie! You’re sooo cute. I love you so much.

And why wouldn’t you?

Yeah… Greyson loves me, right?

Of course, he does. Almost as much as I do.

Aw, you promise? I’m gonna start practising them puppy eyes now just incase this backfires on me.

Oh, Weston Dearest, you know you have Greyson wrapped around your little finger. Micah… we’ll work on him.

You were my favourite too. Don’t tell Micah or Greyer, though. I’ll get in trouble.

Oh, I’m definitely going to tell them though. But don’t worry, I’ll protect you.

Aw, well. I don’t think Wren’s gonna be owt like that, if I’m being honest. That sounds about right, though! And I always helped you up, didn’t I? That was right mean. Poor Addie.

Believe it or not, I’m glad to hear that. You always helped me up. You were much more chivalrous than either of my brothers. It’s why you were always my favourite.

Never ever? Well, ya can come and meet Wren! She’s harmless, promise ya. And aw, sandbox love never dies. Or summin’. They need a word for sandbox love that ain’t sandbox orientated, y’know?

Not until they’re walking in designer booties and their parents have decided that they can show them off now that they aren’t barfing all over the place. Swingpark love? I believe we spent a lot of time on the swingset until Greyson got terribly jealous and pushed me off.

She did. Aw, you should meet her, Addie. She’s so tiny and cute. Her toes are miniature. You’d hook a starving artist up with a lawyer? You’re a saint and a half!

Do you know, I’ve never met a newborn baby before? And only for you, darling.

Certainly not, Addie! She’s my new baby niece.

#west #ooc: west/addie friendship is a thing i need

Jasmine had a baby? That’s lovely. What’s lovelier is that it’s no longer necessary to organise money for a good lawyer to hold up your case in court.

I have a new tiny person living in my apartment. Her name is Wren and she’s proper sweet but takes up a lot of room for someone who can’t hold her head up on her own. I’m pretty sure we’re gonna be best mates, though.

I hope you didn’t kidnap her, Weston.

lord, i can't go back home this ole way // victor & adelaide

Adelaide’s husband was obviously experiencing some discomfort at having Victor in the room, unsure if it was merely the man’s presence or having been caught in the act. It was clearly something the woman was used to, having a couple of quickfire retorts at her disposal to fire off at both the man and the little blonde he’d dragged in behind him. Something about the man’s mere presence in the room automatically allied Victor and Adelaide, and something about that was extremely satisfactory. Sure, Victor had no actual beef with Adelaide’s husband. But he never shied away from a fight, and he could be pissed on her behalf, right?

Victor simply nodded along as Grigg began falling over his words, keeping silent as he slowly drove himself further and further into a state. He kept his disposition calm, the slight quirk of his lips and the raising of his eyebrows letting the other man know he was mocking him. It didn’t occur to Victor there was no actual reason for him to want to upset the other man, but he did want to upset him. The man probably would’ve stood there forever, seeing who could grip who’s hand tighter or stare the other down, if it weren’t for Adelaide. She may have been the size of Smurfette, but with a dramatic wave of her arm she had the two men sprung apart. Victor kind of hated that he was listening to her.

A scoff of laughter fell from the man’s lips, him clapping a large hand over his mouth to stop the inevitable chorus of booming laughter. He looked at Adelaide with glee, having never heard her say a dirty word before. Victor knew Adelaide had grown up with a couple of brothers, and that language was probably a byproduct of that. Victor was certain he and Ben passed over the ‘teaching your brother cuss words’ part of their relationship, because he was sure he’d heard Benji say ‘gosh darn it’ the other day.

“Hey, mate, I’m sure if Addie wanted to apologise for saying ‘dick’, she’d apologise for saying ‘dick’.” Victor snapped, something about the man rubbing him the wrong way. Geez, apologising for your wife. What a classy guy.

The attention was quickly turned from Grigg to his flavour of the month, although Adelaide made it sound a lot more like flavour of the week. The woman seemed to shrink under the attention from everyone in the room, and although Victor was immediately tempted to turn on the charm, something about Adelaide’s words let him know that would be a betrayal.

He waved at her gently, turning back to Adelaide with the words, “This is awkward, eh?”

The sheer look of discomfort that was splayed right across Grigg’s face only brought Adelaide joy and anyone who was an outsider to the marriage would perhaps think that she was the most horrible person there could be to find such a great sense of achievement in reducing her husband to… whatever he was right now. Perhaps she was a horrible person, Adelaide wouldn’t disagree with that, but that certainly wouldn’t wipe away the dangerous smile on her face.

She caught the excitable look on Victor’s face when she dared utter a foul word and it only served to make the dark haired woman roll her eyes at how easily pleased he seemed to be. The warm feeling in her stomach prompted her to entertain the idea that perhaps she liked having Victor on her side, but she would take a number of unpleasant people that she disliked more than Victor if they were to aid her in her power play against Grigg and his receptionist, although sweet little Lorraine was looking like a deer caught in headlights and Adelaide figured she was an unwilling participant in the whole scenario. It still did not endear the woman to her.

When she heard Victor snap, a short moment where he seemed to lose his cool before returning to his usual lazy stance, the journalist raised an eyebrow, wondering what had brought that on and doubting that it had anything to do with the way Grigg had spoken to her. His words contradicted that thought but she knew Victor and she knew that he did not hold her in any high respect, not enough to defend her anyway and so she simply boiled his out of the blue annoyance to his sudden dislike of Grigg. It wasn’t hard to hate the stuffy man after all, she’d suffered through it for years.

It occured to her belatedly that she hadn’t minded when he called her Addie.

Grigg looked like he was about to blow a fuse, floundering for the words he wanted to say and nervously eyeing the blonde man up and down as if wondering what he could pick out from his sparse vocabulary in order to get his point across and avoid getting hit.

“I don’t know who you think you are…” he huffed.

“Victor. This is Victor, we’ve covered this, dear,” Adelaide chimed in as if speaking to a small child, delivering a serene smile to the man who turned an alarming shade of crimson.

“I expect you to be gone from my house in the morning,” was all he said. Had Victor been about a foot smaller, Adelaide would not have been terribly surprised if he demanded that the other man leave right at that moment. But instead, all he did was tug gently at Lorraine’s arm before hurrying upstairs. The small woman squeaked a goodbye, looking mostly at Victor, as if she was worried that she would have her head bitten off if she so much as looked at Adelaide.

With narrowed hazel eyes, Adelaide watched as the two of them made themselves scarce, disappearing upstairs to engage in whatever horrendously gross activity. Satisfied that she wouldn’t be bothered by them again, Adelaide immediately let out a snort of genuine laughter, a hand going to her abdomen as he full body shook with giggles.

“He hates you,” she cheerfully declared to Victor, flopping back down on the sofa, her laughter never ceasing.

#thread: victor5

lord, i can't go back home this ole way // victor & adelaide

The man preoccupied himself tossing the remote from paw to oversized paw, having simply picked a channel and stuck with it due to the withering look Adelaide had been giving him. He didn’t have any particular interest in the cartoon that was currently flitting across the screen, although a chuckle did rise in his throat as one character used an oversized hammer to pummel the other into the ground. He tore his gaze away from the television as Adelaide piped up yet again, that same tone of distaste coating her words. The Brit was preparing himself for yet another round of witty banter with the woman when suddenly, he heard the door go.

The door clicked shut behind a couple Victor didn’t recognise, and for no reason whatsoever, Victor found himself glancing at Adelaide for an explanation. In her petite features, however, he only found a stormy look he was glad not to be on the receiving end of. In fact, it wasn’t as though her face had changed at all. It was stoic and pointed and yet, it sent a chill through Victor that let him know the man who’d just walked into the room was in deep trouble. Victor had always thought he’d been subject to a few particularly scathing looks from Adelaide, but it was nothing compared to this.

Standing behind the man, was a little blonde, not entirely unlike a girl Victor might pick up in a bar. She was hot, but she was trash. Everything about her was trash, and Victor knew, because he knew how to spot trashy girls. The kind of girls with low self esteem and loose sexual morals, the kind that would be easy to take home. If this man was Adelaide’s husband, as Victor assumed, Victor wondered why on Earth you’d want to date a girl like that when a woman like Adelaide was sitting at home.

For the first time, the man seemed to notice Victor, and Victor found himself glancing at Adelaide for some kind of reassurance. She wasn’t looking at him though, she was smiling now, and the blonde felt like a child that had been caught in a custody battle between his parents.

“Heyo.” Victor said, raising his palm in a mimicry of a hello. He tried not to feel too surprised that the dark haired woman had referred to him as a friend. He recognised that he was now merely a pawn in whatever game the two were playing.

When Adelaide gestured toward him, the man straightened up almost immediately. Normally, he would’ve taken a leisurely amount of time to piss her off. But Adelaide already had one misbehaving adult man in the room, there simply wasn’t room for Victor. He’d reverted back to being seven and complacent as hell.

“Classy.” he couldn’t help but breathe, gravitating toward Adelaide’s side almost automatically. He extended his hand toward the man, unsure as to whether it was the right thing to do or not.

“Grigg, huh?” he questioned, pointedly raising an eyebrow. “Well, that’s not a name, is it?”

It had almost been comforting to have Victor present himself as a nuisance to her that night. The idea of shutting out the noise of Grigg and his receptionist going at it was a thought caused her to feel rather nauseous, despite it being long since she had thought of Grigg as anything more than a financial gain. He gave her contacts and she brought in the money through her journalism and the two of them rarely uttered a word to each other outside of that—should they do so, it was rarely a warm one and nearly always a forced, stoic conversation that would better be suited to a poorly written sitcom.

Now, the idea of having Victor and Grigg in the same room was confusing to her as the men contrasted each other significantly. Victor was scruffy and seemingly devoid of any manners and Grigg was well put together in his crisp, clean cut suit but Adelaide practically revelled in the way his eyes widened ever so slightly when Victor pulled himself up to his full height.

The receptionist seemed to have no clue what it was she had walked into but the brunette was pleased to see that she looked somewhat put out and uncomfortable. Maybe she did have a little bit of sense amidst the cotton in her pretty little head after all. Of course, if she had any brains she would probably be high tailing it out of there as Adelaide was rather confident that if it came down to it and the claws came out, there’s be a rather bedraggled looking secretary sitting in her living room. She may have acted like a lady amongst her upper class Manhattanite ‘friends’, but Addie’s brothers had taught her a thing or two about throwing a good punch.

Hearing the greeting that Victor muttered, Adelaide glanced at him out of the side of her eyes, giving him a look that could only be described as a ‘weird look’ at the almost childish word he’d chosen to introduce himself with. Mentally shrugging it off, she turned back to Grigg who appeared to be struggling internally.

Getting the better of the other man was something that gave Adelaide a sick thrill and she wished Victor would step forward just to intimidate him even more. She started ever so slightly when she felt the man’s presence at her side, almost as if he had heard her thoughts, but her surprise was soon replaced with a smirk, particularly when she heard his muttered comment.

At once, she bit down hard on her bottom lip to hide the snort of laughter at Victor’s statement. Grigg’s eyes were practically bulging out of his head before he quickly composed himself and stepped forward to take Victor’s hand and give him a long winded explanation of how his parents came to pick his name whilst Adelaide simply fought to regain her own composure, too gleeful to properly act stoic and impassive.

Slowly, an eyebrow crept further and further upwards as she watched Grigg’s knuckles practically turn white as he held onto Victor’s hand, a false show of masculinity that she saw right through. Rolling her eyes, she immediately stepped between the two men, forcing their hands apart with as much dramatic flair as she could manage.

“Are we done trying to measure each other’s dicks?” she asked. Normally she was rarely this foul mouthed amongst anyone that was not Greyson or Micah but she delighted in the way Grigg’s face suddenly turned red. He was simply appalled.

“I—I apologise for my wife’s behaviour, I…” he trailed off suddenly, casting a nervous look at Victor’s tattered clothing and wondering if he should be apologising at all. Instead of finishing his sentence, he simply gestured to the woman next to him who looked like she would really rather not have any attention on her. Adelaide almost felt sorry for her. Almost.

“This is Lorraine,” Grigg said. “My receptionist.”

“This week,” Adelaide added sweetly before turning to Victor. “Victor, this is Lorraine. You’d like her.”

She shot the man a knowing, almost teasing smile. Where this sudden display of comradeship had came from, she didn’t know, but she would admit only to herself that it beat going against Grigg and his latest fling on her own.

#thread: victor5

cullen-bohannons

#benji

lord, i can't go back home this ole way // victor & adelaide

At the singular, snappy request of Adelaide, Victor picked his feet up off the ground to see a thin layer of mud caked on the underside of his boots. This action led to him looking behind him, taking note of the muddy footprints that had accidentally left an imprint on Adelaide’s carpet. The corners of his mouth quirked up half-aplogetically, a quiet ‘oops’ falling from his lips. He made no active effort to take off his boots, instead standing completely still so as not to smear any more dirt into the near-pristine carpet.

Glancing down at the floor, he noticed Adelaide padding around in her socks. It was an unusual sight to see the other woman so dressed down, and whereas Victor would normally have thought up some on-the-spot not-so-witty comment, he simply resisted the urge to look away. Seeing Adelaide in her own home, padding around in her socks, made Victor feel a lot more vulnerable than if she’d simply stripped off and began walking around in her birthday suit.

“Ah, that’s it.” Victor deadpanned, slight malice seeping into his tone to match hers. Their back and forth was hardly ever light or playful, but went straight to delivering blows and punches. Victor wasn’t sure he’d have it other way. “Ha. Ha.”

The man made a show of rolling his eyes in an exaggerated fashion, wondering just how long Adelaide had been practising telling him off in this precise manner, probably with a self-gratified smirk as she stared at her own reflection and tossed her hair or something. Yes, this was exactly how Victor assumed Adelaide spent her time.

“I can’t promise on the dirty jokes front.” he insisted, smiling down at her as she marched him backwards. He picked up his feet carefully, reminding himself of a show pony, before he collapsed backwards. He slipped on multiple, ridiculous throw cushions as he attempted to push himself up, his smile quickly turning to a scowl directed at Adelaide to show her he was less than pleased about being shoved.

“Yeah, yeah.” he mumbled, his tone bored as he immediately made a point of breaking both the ‘no touching’ and ‘no nosing around’ by leaning over and purposely turning a nearby lamp on and off, tugging the string that did so with a deep, hollow laugh.

Deciding to leave it on just to irritate the woman, his fingers moved to unpick his bootlaces, sliding each one off and dropping them to the ground. Small clumps of mud flecked from his boots and decorated the carpet as he did so, and Victor didn’t even have the decency to look sheepish. His socks were in almost a worse state than his boots, the colour of them being an off-white and full of holes.

“What happens if I need the loo?” he asked, his British accent creeping in as he caught the remote. “Is there a coat closet in this place?”

He sent the woman a toothy, teasing smile as he immediately began pushing buttons nonsensically, despite not being particularly interested in the television. Victor wasn’t overly engrossed by the media. He listened to music in his car some, and he went to go see Ben in his plays, but other than that he was entirely uninterested. He spent his free time with the dogs, and sometimes read Millie and Tessa’s cast-off paperback novels. He’d read anything, really.

“I suppose this is the part where I thank you, right?” he asked, leaning over the back of the sofa and stretching two, long arms across the back.

#thread: victor5 #ooc: i think this is my fave addie post that i've ever written #like yas queen slay

The night already looked like it was going to be a long and drawn out one for Adelaide who would most likely have to inhale and exhale while pinching the bridge of her nose like her therapist had told her to do. She’d been to a grand total of three therapy sessions in her whole life before deciding it was a waste of time, but that was one small trick she’d kept up her sleeve. She liked to think that it came in handy when dealing with someone as aggravating as Victor Forrester.

She watched with narrowed eyes as the man slid off his boots, fleck of whatever dirty substance he had stepped in flying over the previously pristine white carpet and she fought the urge to tell him off right then and there. The only thing that halted her and prevented her from doing so was the sudden throbbing that flared up in her temple, a sure sign of a headache that perfectly reflected just how Victor made her feel.

“The loo,” she repeated slowly, dragging the word out with a wry smile on her face. Despite herself, she couldn’t help but find his British dialect amusing even if he didn’t throw out the words with the same polite and dramatic eloquent flair that Ben did. Not at all willing to make it look like she enjoyed hearing him speak though she simply shrugged.

“You know where the door is,” she told him, nodding her head in the direction of the doorway he’d just walked through. She doubted that he would like to trek through the house to the bathroom upstairs so, if she was feeling generous later on when she’d somehow adjusted to the fact that Victor would be sleeping on her sofa, she decided that she might let him know where the guest bathroom downstairs was. If he was lucky.

Suddenly at a loss for what to do, Adelaide watched as the man used the remote to flick through the channels on the television. He went from news stations to reality shows to cartoons and she was about to grab the remote from him and demand that he settle on something, when he piped up and she drew him a knowing look. The dark haired woman knew fine well that the man in front of her, accustomed to sleeping his way into women’s hearts, probably had no intentions of thanking her.

“That’s what I’d expect from anyone with a bit of class,” she announced, airily. “But seeing as you appear to have been raised in the jungle-“

Whatever witty retort she had hanging on the tip of her tongue was soon swallowed when the door opened abruptly. Turning, Adelaide’s heart did a funny sort of twist in her chest when she realised that Grigg was standing there, ushering another woman behind after him. As predicted, she was a leggy blonde with a tiny waist and an outfit that practically screamed ‘thirsty receptionist’. It took all of Adelaide’s strength and willpower not to roll her eyes as she took in the sight of the woman giggling in an irritatingly high pitch. God, could she be any more generic?

Her dearest husband soon seemed to lose interest in his plaything momentarily when he spotted Victor. A smug smile appeared on Adelaide’s face as she watched a range of expressions flit over Grigg’s. He wasn’t used to hulking blondes making themselves at home on his sofa after all. As soon as he opened his mouth, Adelaide beat him to the punch, refusing to give him the satisfaction of asking the question he wanted to.

“This is Victor,” she announced, gesturing to the blonde, bypassing any warm hello’s that most wives would bestow on their husbands when he walked in after a hard day of work. “He’s a friend who’s staying here tonight.”

She knew that, later on, she’d regret referring to Victor as a friend as the man would most likely not let her forget that. For the moment though, she was focusing on the situation at hand and, with eyes twinkling, she gestured to the woman who’d been encouraged to step forward by Grigg, suddenly remembering she was there.

“It’s wonderful that we all have friends over to stay the night!” Adelaide smiled. To anyone else, it looked like a calm and relaxed smile but to Grigg, he knew it was a dangerous one and reached up to tug at his collar. He needn’t have bothered as the journalist had already spotted the lipstick stains that marked his throat and she was already revelling in the way he seemed so uncomfortable now that he had realised Adelaide wasn’t by herself. It was the first time that the woman had actually felt grateful for Victor’s presence.

She turned to him and with a smile that was half-warning and half-amused, gestured for him to stand.

“Victor, this is my husband, Grigg, and this is his receptionist of the week,” she explained, before clasping her hands together and sending sweet smiles around the ensemble of startled looking people.

lord, i can't go back home this ole way // victor & adelaide

Clutching his old phone quietly, Victor waited in the silence between his own comment and Adelaide’s response, watching the way his breath unfurled and became visible in the cold air. A smirk couldn’t help but cross his face at her words, despite having expected some kind of exasperated sigh from the receiving end of his phone. Instead, her voice took on a variation of a playful lilt that surprised even Victor, ripping an abrupt bark of laughter from him.

"I’ll be waiting." he insisted, moving to disconnect the call, before finding Adelaide had already taken the liberty of doing so. Instead, Victor merely pocketed the phone, not bothering to remove his hands from the depth of his pockets due to the cold weather. It would’ve been a harsh night to be sleeping in his car, he couldn’t help but think. He couldn’t afford to keep the thing running 24/7, and even if he could, it would be a damned stupid thing to do. He was just asking for his car to be stolen, then.

Shifting his weight from foot to foot, he only lifted his head when he heard the sound of a chain being taken from the door, a quiet rattling, followed by the sight of Adelaide popping her dark head around the door, before pulling it open entirely. It was a harsh gesture, hardly welcoming, but the mere fact she’d opened it at all was invitation enough for the Brit.

"No promises." he replied, forgoing wiping his feet on the mat in favour of merely barging inside. It wasn’t even out of sheer defiance, he was so in awe of the room he’d stepped into he hardly realised he’d been tracking muddy footprints all over Adelaide’s (presumably expensive carpet). He was filled with a sudden feeling of dread that no matter where he sat, he was sure to leave a dark imprint or a shadow on whatever pristine white furniture Adelaide had dotted around the apartment she shared with her husband.

Slinging his backpack from off his shoulder, he deposited it at his feet, trapping it between his legs protectively. He couldn’t imagine why Adelaide, or anyone here, for that matter, would pose a threat to the safety of his things, but he was simply used to keeping them close. He owned nothing of any value, excluding his car and whatever shares he had in the dog shelter, and even then, those weren’t things Victor could carry on him. He’d adapted to survive, meaning he only ever switched from his lazy, layabout ways to protect whatever little possessions he had.

"Bit big, isn’t it?" he commented, running a finger across the coffee table in a way he’d seen them do on television. He was pretty sure whatever dirt residue was left on his finger had already been there. He wondered if he ought to push the conversation they’d been having about dog adoption at the shelter. Adelaide had seemed somewhat fond of the dogs, especially the pregnant bitch, but he still could never imagine her owning one. He couldn’t imagine Adelaide taking care of anything, actually, save herself. The woman didn’t even spend the holidays with her brothers.

"Where am I, then?" he questioned, clapping his hands together as he looked at her earnestly. "Are there ground rules? Anything I’m not allowed to touch? Have you hidden all the things I might steal and-slash-or break?"

Given that she spent as little time as possible in the apartment, preferring to keep out of it as much as she could, Adelaide could hardly be described as ‘house proud’, yet she still found herself scowling when she spotted the dark marks Victor’s boots were leaving on the carpet. Sighing, she allowed the door to swing shut and placed her hand on her hips, narrowing her eyes at him even though he didn’t seem to be paying her any attention. If anything, it was her house that he seemed to be fascinated by and she fought the urge to wrinkle her nose.

“Shoes,” she said at once, pointing to the boots in an attempt to get him to take them off. She herself was padding around in her socks, forgoing her heels or boots for once in favour of taking one of the rare opportunities she had to relax. Of course, such a time was over now with the arrival of Victor which had seemed to immediately put her on edge again.

She raised an eyebrow when he dropped his bag at his feet then seemed to hover around it protectively as if it was in danger of being swept out from underneath him. She was almost certain that none of the people Grigg had hired to keep the place clean would be in any danger of picking it up and taking it home with them, but she managed to keep that to herself.

As the man scrutinised the apartment, Adelaide held her tongue. For some reason, she wanted to know what it was that he had to say about the place. Why his opinion was suddenly of importance was beyond her but she couldn’t lie and say that she wasn’t curious, even though she was absolutely positive that whatever remark he would have about it, she was sure to reply to with a harsh scoff.

Right on cue, he went on about the size of the place and she rolled her eyes, that scoff arriving as if it had been scripted. Fixing him with a steely look, she pushed away the idea that he was right, that the place was too big for two people who only seemed to converse when others were around them.

“You’re just used to more cramped quarters,” she replied, the snark clear in her tone. It was quite possibly a low blow but Adelaide’s hackles had risen and she wasn’t going to back down now. She’d be damned if she was letting Victor beat her in her own territory.

“No touching, no stealing, no dirty jokes, no snoring, no wandering upstairs, no nosing around, don’t even breathe on anything you think you shouldn’t,” she recited, the rules coming to her on the spot. Suddenly she moved and, with a surprising amount of strength for someone of her size, took him by the shoulders and steered him in the direction of the couch, pushing him down onto the sofa cushions and folding her arms, barely managing to hide a frown when his head still seemed to reach her shoulders despite the fact that he was sitting down.

“Try not to move from here if you can help it,” she told him, reaching for the TV remote and tossing it in his general direction.

#thread: victor4

lord, i can't go back home this ole way // victor & adelaide

Victor hated the subway. His car was both his lifeline and his cornerstone, and had literally been the only roof on his head more times than he could count. While his little lifeline was stuck in the shop, he needed to partake in public transport. The subway was pushy, uncomfortable, and on the rare chance he managed to get a seat, he was forced to sit with his legs uncomfortably forced into an almost foetal-position in order to give others room, lest they trip over him.

Huffing obnoxiously, Victor raised an arm to push a few loose, blonde tresses from his face - unknowingly elbowing the man next to him as he did so - wondering what on Earth the protocol was for crashing on the sofa of someone who time and time again had stated they couldn’t stand you. But still, things couldn’t be too terrible between he and Adelaide if she’d agreed to let him stay? The suggestion had mostly been done jokingly, but Victor had persisted in typical Victor fashion until Adelaide had (in his eyes) caved.

Victor hastily collected his belongings as his stop came up, throwing his oversized rucksack over one, broad shoulder. He scrabbled at his feet momentarily to grasp the lead that wasn’t there, too used to having a dog trailing at his feet. It seemed odd to not have a little ball of fluff blundering along beside him. People often wondered why he didn’t have his own pet with his love of dogs being so palpable, but explaining meant he’d have to explain his living condition to people, and so he merely shrugged.

Pulling up whatever useless ‘maps’ app he had on his outdated phone, he eventually managed to navigate himself to Adelaide’s home, but found himself pausing outside. What the hell was the protocol for this? Normally he would just stroll in, his cocky charm getting him in wherever he needed to be. But this was Adelaide’s home, her territory, the home she shared with her husband, of all things. This was a shitty idea. But retreating meant he’d have to admit to either Ben, or Millie, or Tessa the predicament he was in. And it would be a shame to do so, given he’d tried so hard to make sure Adelaide didn’t blab. Instead, he dialled Adelaide’s number, pressing his phone to his ear.

"I’m outside." he said, once she picked up. A smirk crossed his face, "Are you going to leave me out in the cold all night, or?"