It has been three months now, three long and annoying months without his brother, and now with Niall taking over the family business. The Waltons were old money, with their multiple farms around the area, and even with all the ignorance Niall has been getting from his dad, he still is trying his best to keep things going. Sometimes is still hard for him, he had a life out of Crescent Harbor and had to give up on almost everything to come back to town after so many years. He was tired, but as usual, there he was, enjoying his weekend by a local bar, having a couple beers with his suit hanging by the chair and enjoying some moment of social, it has been a while since last time he went out, his party boy side was begging for some alcohol and good conversation.
There were this Baseball game going on apparently, all the tvs were streaming the game and more than half the people by the bar had their eyes focused on it, Niall didn’t knew much about baseball so he was mostly on people watch, the person sitting nearby apparently were doing quite the same as some guys celebrated something about the game and they didn’t even looked at the tv. “You don’t seem to be watching the game, thanks, that actually made me feel like I’m not the weirdo here.” He nodded at them with a short smile. “Don’t know a thing about baseball.”
It was open mic night, and the offerings were just about as mixed as one could expect given the stage was open to the general public. But the food and drinks were good - and offered at Happy Hour discounts all night - and the last act wasn’t half bad, so Lachlan was happy. With the next act still in the process of setting up, he turned to his companion. “So, how many more drinks d’you think it’d take for you to consider going up there?”
Taking into consideration his nice and friendly vibes for any type of night out, it makes sense why Lachlan invited Niall for some happy hour with lots of independent singers who for sure had a tiktok career. It hasn’t been easy to readapt to the city, specially only three months after his brother’s passing, but he was giving a try. “Oh, no, not today dude, I left my Adele side at home, am here only exercising tonight, what people call it alcoholism I call liver crossfit.” He cheered the bootle in hands and took a sip. “Five years since last time I came into town and you’re already trying to see me destroy my social life, huh?”
Cristina hadn’t factored in cars during her run. When the trail appeared to be vacant, she let her dog off the leash as she would in the past. It had been a while since they’d ran in the city and she’d mistaken how close they were to a busy road when her dog ran off and didn’t immediately pause for his name. Her feet pounded the pavement in an attempt to catch up, losing Arlo’s leash in the process. A hand fell on the dog’s back and her german mix was quick to come to a stop just as they neared the intersection. Kneeling down to catch her breath, Cris only returned to her full height when she heard nearby steps. “Sorry, do you mind handing me the leash that’s right by you?” She didn’t dare release Arlo until she was sure he was clipped back onto his leash
By a certain distance, Niall watched as the woman sprinted to get her dog, he was out for a thoughtful walk with himself when it happened, something he has been doing quite a lot for the past two months since he came back to town and to that hell of a company, and of course, as the girl asked for some help, he immediatly took the leash to her, pushing away his thoughts for a second. "Everything okay? I wasn't paying attention, did your dog broke loose of his leash or something?"
𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧: late afternoon
𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞: a random sidewalk near ‘off the hook’ aquarium.
timmy seemed overly distracted most of the day. he was so distracted that he fell right into the shark exhibit.. thankfully no one saw besides the other diver and thankfully he already was geared up and ready to go. after examining the shark they needed to and finishing up the necessary paperwork afterwards he and his coworker both decided to call it an early night– timmy clearly needed some shut eye.
he tossed his backpack over his shoulder and started down the sidewalk to his bike. but got lost in thought once again and paused in his steps seemingly staring across the street. he wasn’t paying attention just standing in the middle of the sidewalk in his own world. it felt like he had been standing their an eternity when he was snapped out of it by the sound of another’s voice.
“o-oh! i’m sorry. i was just-” he stumbled over his words now embarrassed when he realized what he had done and how he probably looked like a major idiot. “oh gosh. i’m sorry what where you saying?”
It was weird to be back to that town after everything he lived there specially with his dad. So there he was, the least favorite son, the one his dad so much wanted out of his life, now spending hours in that office solving problems. As his eyes turned to the watch in his arm Niall decided he deserved a nice coffee and some cake, the only thing that could lift his spirits that night. His assistant wasn’t there to help since she left early so he had to go find his coffee himself, which ended up being a quite bad idea.
It’s been years since he left Crescent Harbor, everything seemed different than what he remembered, so he was standing there, walking down the street trying to remember where to find a nice coffee shop, by a certain distance, he spotted someone, a guy with his backpack his standing in the middle of the street maybe waiting for someone. “Hey!” He called out, trying to announce his presence while walking towards him. “Sorry to bother you but... do you know any place I could find a nice cup of coffee right now?”
The reaction of the other guy was quite weird, he looked like a zoombie, like the ones ready to start some Resident Evil national calamity, but after a few seconds he went alive again. “Welcome to the world of the living.” He added with a skeptical face “I was just asking if you knew any good place where I could get a coffee and maybe something to eat, everything looking different here.”
— If Victoria knew that they’d have to handle their car breaking down right in the middle of the street during rush hour, then they would’ve probably taken an Uber to this meeting. Thankfully, they were already on their way home, but, their car breaking down postponed their plans for a bit. And to make things even better, their phone had died literally five minutes ago, so they couldn’t even call their partner and ask them to pick Victoria up. Stepping out, they popped up the hood and sighed while waving off the smoke coming out from that bunch of metal. Upon noticing someone approaching, they ran their fingers through their hair, and swallowed their pride in order to ask for help.
“Do you know anything about cars? Think you could help me?”
Taking over the family company wasn’t an easy job, Niall was spending hours by the office with meetings, with their farms with thr crew and personaly making negotiations and supervising everything by the docks, it was a hard and stressfull job but things were getting a little better as he progressed. That night he was near the docks talking to some business partners, after the meeting he just wanted to get home and order dinner, while walking to his car with some paperwork in hands, Niall spotted someone who seemed in trouble, she seemed pissed, and her car seemed exausted, not that he had much knowledge on cars but that smoke was quite familiar to Niall. As he approached trying to offer some help, she noticed him. “I don’t know much but, few weeks ago my car had that smoke coming out of it and the guy who helped me said that the radiator had no water so the engine overheated, I might be able to help.”
FAMILY: Joel Walton (father), Marrie Clare Walton (mother), Mikel Walton (brother)
RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Single
ALIGNMENT: Lawful Neutral
——— 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐬𝐨 𝐟𝐚𝐫
Born into a quite complicated family, Niall was always the second place of his parents. The Waltons moved into town over thirty years ago when Niall’s father saw a huge opportunity for his company. The Walton grapes was one of the biggests producers of grapes for winery in the state, right behind the Cassilas, and not actually offering a threat, since Niall’s family’s company didn’t produced wine, only the finests grapes for wine companies all around the US.
His older brother was always dad’s favorite since he should be the one to follow his steps as the company’s CEO, while Niall was thankfully off the spotlight. He grew up like any rich kid, with special education, special treatments, special clothes, cars and birthdays, but those things never actually took his feet off the ground. He had normal friends, rich and “non-rich”, but as a guy born into a super conservative and traditional family, it all became a pain in the ass when Niall came out as gay. His mother needed a moment to try to understand why Niall choose that lifestyle as his brother didn’t much cared enough about Niall to care about who he been fucking him, but his dad was a different story, the man was pissed, and after that day, arguments and loud fights between the two of them were heard often around the house.
When Niall turned 19, his father kicked him back to Seattle, to study and try a life there, where he could be the “brat son” as much as he wanted and not be a pain to the family’s name or it’s reputation. That ended up being the best thing for Niall, as he joined law school and wanted to become a criminal lawyer, very much inspired by his Sherlock Holmes books. Seattle also offered him a nice and peacefull life, he started dating, made new friends and went to awesome parties like any young rich man would do. It felt like it was finally his turn in life.
He lived in Seattle for over 8 years, started working at a law firm, not exactly what he wanted but it was nice, been sngle for a while now and having a few casual hook ups around town, and only going back to see his family for the holidays where he and his dad weren’t exactly on speaking terms. He never planned to move back to Crescent Harbor, that small but nice town were a good place to live but Seattle were so much better. Unfortunately, once again, life was about to take a turn for him.
Niall’s older brother were ten years older than him, he was a serious man, but had quite a reputation around town for being a flirt and also kinda douche, something Niall would describe as a “regular white rich straight boy behaviour”, that was one of the reasons why the brothers were never actually close, but thankfully he took over the family business as his dad stepped down, leaving Niall with the freedom to decide what he wanted for his life. But, as for now, things changed. As his brother unfortunately passed away.
Losing his brother wasn’t easy on him, they weren’t close but he was family, and of course Niall loved him. The lost of a son also damaged his parents, they were old now, not really able to do much for the company by themselves, so Niall had to help. The next months after his brother’s passing, he had to quit his job in Seattle and try helping with the family business, his father, of course, was a real pain in the ass wanting to sell the company cause he didn’t believed in Niall not even a little. That was his family’s legacy, the young man was left with a hard choice and he had to choose for his family, so there he was, moving back to town, buying a house and trying to keep up with years and years of business his brother left behind while dealing with an annoying parent.
