Page 78 of Filtration Play
“Don’t you dare try to out-drama me,” Micah teased. “I up and left my life in the middle of the night before I moved here.”
“Ah, that old chestnut,” Eva said. Micah flipped them off.
Ollie’s chest warmed at seeing how the crew here accepted each other as is. How they didn’t have to be perfect, and that they dealt with the messy as it came up, but everyone here seemed to be a little flawed, a little damaged. And the understanding that came with that was everything he’d been searching for.
Fin’s arm tightened around him, and they leaned in. The PDA wasn’t brand new, as they’d kissed him in public already, but the tenderness, the casual affection was. Fin might’ve been dancing around this for a while, but when they went in, they went all the fuck in.
Ollie hadn’t expected anything less from the hurricane love of their life.
From the moment he’d met Fin, they’d been this indomitable force, and even after watching them break, the way they returned to fight told him everything he needed to know about their character. If they were finally ready for a relationship, he trusted they would try, no matter what curveballs life threw at them.
“What about the show?” Ollie asked. If Fin and Hera were on the outs, that meant their show was getting canceled. His heart ached. He knew how much of themself they’d poured into those pictures.
Fin wrinkled their nose. “Sorry, I know we took all those photos and everything. Hera made it clear in the original post that the show was canceled. I mean, even if it wasn’t, I couldn’t possibly work with that dickbag after the extreme amounts of slander.”
“Dickbag feels relatively tame,” Nolan said. “Though I like cunts and cum-guzzlers too much to bequeath her the other classics.”
“She’s spoiled in every sense of the term.” Meg shrugged. “That was always a red flag for me. Hera’s so used to getting what she wants that she doesn’t respond well to no. And in this scene, being able to respect people’s nos, their boundaries, is one of the most important things.”
“She could pout and sulk with the best of them, but I figured her moods were harmless.” Fin picked at their nails. “I hate that I ever trusted her.”
Ollie leaned in a little closer, and Fin ran their fingers through his hair. Their body had tensed, but it relaxed from the contact. If they needed to touch him right now, he’d happily offer himself on a platter.Truth be told, he needed the connection just as much after everything he’d been through today. The soothing strokes quickly settled him, a rhythm there he adored.
“I played with her too,” Nolan said. “It wasn’t just you, babe.”
“And I can’t kick someone out for bad vibes,” Meg said. “Hera continued to push until she got ugly about it. People don’t think about subs being ones to violate boundaries or cause issues because of the sheer volume of the problematic Doms that get into kink for all the wrong reasons. But Hera’s toxicity would guaranteed cause serious trouble down the line.”
“Why couldn’t we do the show at Whipped?” Pixie asked.
Meg’s grin bordered on a smirk. “That’s a question I’ve been wondering myself.”
His chest warmed at the way this crew came together to support Fin, even if they hadn’t believed they would. Even if they hadn’t believed they were worth it. The two of them were far too similar in some ways.
Fin’s fingers stilled in Ollie’s hair. “Look, I know you guys would’ve, but I just…didn’t want handouts, I guess.”
“What about me made you think I’d blow smoke up your ass?” Meg arched a wicked brow.
“It’s true,” Micah said. “I’ve seen her be mean as fuck.”
Fin fixed their gaze on Meg. “Your loyalty.”
Ollie’s chest warmed with that truth. “Then they’d be loyal enough to tell you the truth.”
“Listen to your boyfriend, Fin,” Parker teased as he wrapped his arms around Micah, drawing him in tight.
“Okay, but can I express how disappointing it is to have this many people in my apartment, and it’s not for an orgy?” Fin said, even though their hazel eyes were glossy.
Nolan perched on the other side of the couch. “You had word out for the show at Hera’s, and there’s definite interest. Once we finish damage control over her temper tantrum, having an art show at Whipped sounds like the perfect community activity to draw everyone back in.”
“I don’t understand why you still want me there,” Fin muttered, the words barely audible. If anything made Ollie bold, it was that.
“Because they love you,” Ollie reminded them. This was a lesson he’d needed to learn with his own family, but seeing Fin’s struggle had inspired him to reach out to Julian. Had helped him to grow. “Just because you had a bad starter pack when it came to families doesn’t mean the deck you built is ruined.”
Fin stared at him. “Was that a board game analogy? I thought you hated board games.”
He grinned. “Ambivalent, not hate. And have you forgotten who my brother is? If you think I haven’t had to listen to Julian prattle about deck-building and collectible card games for years, you clearly don’t know my family.”
“I’d like to,” Fin said earnestly. Damn. That slammed straight into his solar plexus. He was so thrilled to introduce Fin to them.
