Chapter Text
“No Max, your other left,” Estyn yelled out.
Today they were trying (again) to assemble the sets and this time they had enlisted Max. There was a dull thud as the plank slotted into place.
“Okay, that’s all done,” Trevor said, clapping his hands and stepping back to where Estyn was standing. They both looked at the walls, heads tilting slightly. Max was looking at the pair, almost confused.
“What are you guys looking at?” He asked, moving to stand on the other side of Estyn.
“Is it just me, or is it sort of…wonky?” They said, looking between the two guys. Trevor hummed,
“Yeah, that whole panel is off,” He said flatly.
“It is?” Max asked, squinting harder and craning his neck in the hopes that he could see it. He could not.
Trevor and Estyn shared a look and shrugged.
“If you can’t see it Max, then it can’t be too bad,” Trevor said, patting him on the shoulder and moving on to the next job.
“So, Estie, how has your first week been?” Max asked, appearing alongside them in the props closet. They raised their eyebrow.
“It’s pretty good, only 3 cut fingers, 5 grazes and 1 head bump,” They replied, clawing through the fresh mess to get to the right box “Although everyone seems hellbent on giving me a nickname.” Max let out a short laugh.
“I mean it’s got to be better than being called ‘kid’ the whole time.”
Estyn hummed to themselves.
“I suppose you’ve got a point - can you grab that box for me please,” Estyn asked, kicking a box lightly. Max gladly picked it up and trailed after Estyn.
“So… what is it you actually study?” He asked, catching up to them.
“Uh, English Lit is what I actually care about - I do sociology and Criminology too but like…” They trailed off, pushing through a door and keeping it open for Max.
“Is that like… solving cases?” Max asked, head tilted.
“No, it’s mostly pointing out what the police did wrong, it gets sort of depressing in the end.”
Max nodded solemnly as they walked all the way to the stage.
“Annie mentioned that you like to write plays.” Max put down his box and Trevor walked over, interested in this new conversation. Estyn shuffled on their feet.
“Sort of, I guess, I don’t know,” Estyn stammered out before starting to dress the set.
“You’ve never mentioned that one,” Trevor cut in, opening Max’s box.
“Yeah well, it’s not anything special - if anything I’m quite a bad writer, I’m definitely more of a director.” They set the table, 4 plates, 8 forks, no knives (for safety reasons) and a selection of spoons.
“Ahh,” Max said, “That’s probably why Chris doesn’t want you to stay around, he’s scared you’ll steal his job.”
“What?”
It was supposed to be a joke, Estyn was sure, but they felt their heart drop.
“Oh, I…” Max trailed off realising he might have made a mistake. Trevor was glaring at him, hard. The sort of glare the cast got when they would force Trevor into acting on stage, except it was so much worse. Estyn could feel their face getting hot - this was stupid, why did they want to cry?
“I’m,” They started, looking away and beginning to walk off, “I’m going to grab out the clothes pile before everyone else shows up.” and with that they left the room.
“I thought they knew,” Max said quietly, watching them go.
“I wasn’t going to tell them anything until we came to a firm decision,” Trevor replied, putting the books onto the shelf a bit too hard. Max handed him some more.
“I’m sorry,” he said, looking down. Trevor huffed, ruffling his hair before he sighed.
“I’m not the one you need to apologise to mate.”
The situation wouldn’t have felt so bad if it hadn’t been for the fact that Trevor was so close to convincing Chris, just that morning he had won one of their little arguments about it - Chris was so badly hung up on the health and safety, as if Estyn hadn’t proved themself to be able to get through it. Sure Trevor freaked out on the head bump, but Estyn stayed very calm.
Estyn was trying their best to stay calm in the dark of the prop room. They have no idea why that revelation made them feel so bad - it’s not as though they thought they would be able to stay here forever but…maybe a little bit longer than the required 3 weeks.
“I shouldn’t have let myself get so attached,” They mumbled.
Robert had the right idea, they thought to themself as they nestled into the piles on the floor, wanting to be swallowed whole. It was nice and quiet here, just far away from everything that all you could ever hear was no more than a mumble of the shouting from the stage. Estyn rolled over and let out a deep breath.
“Well there’s no point moping now, if I’ve only got a short time here, I need to at least enjoy it.” The words almost stung at their throat, but they were true. “At least with Trevor, I can pretend I’m here for longer.”
They took a deep breath, making sure to wipe any stray tears, before dragging the pile back out and onto the stage.
Everyone had now turned up for rehearsal and Estyn was glad not to have to talk about it, instead they crouched around the props, Trevor next to them and Annie hoving over the pairs shoulders.
“No, no, we can’t use that wig - remember, it creates way too much static,” She said, taking it from trevors hand and throwing it out to the stalls.
“What about this one?” Estyn asked, picking up a brown wig that seemed a little too crunchy.
“Nah, Sandra drenched it in hairspray-” Sandra made an offended noise from across the room, “never been able to get it out,” Trevor sighed before standing back up, “looks like we’re adding wig to the shopping list.”
He wrote on his notepad in surprisingly neat handwriting before huffing.
“I don’t even know why Chris is so adamant on us wearing wigs-” Trevor started, only to be interrupted.
“Because we have an unfortunate habit of getting hair caught in things,” Chris snapped, suddenly appearing at his office door. Everyone looked towards him.
“Anyway, Estyn, I need your help with some of this paperwork, I’m sure Trevor can manage for now.”
“Okay,” Estyn said, hooping to their feet and following Chris back into their office. They took a deep breath and tried to put Max’s earlier comment out of their mind. It was going to be fine.
Chris sat down at his desk and motioned for Estyn to sit across from him.
“I’ll be completely honest, I don’t know what half of these things want me to write down, I mean, what even is a-” he moved close to the page, squinting at the words, “Dis-Mah.”
His finger was pointing at a box titled ‘DISSMaH’.
‘Oh, that’s a Department Specific Student Mentor and Helper.”
Chris looked up, confused and tired.
“It’s like pastoral,” Estyn added when they saw his face.
“Ah, okay then,” He nodded slowly and picked up his pen, “and who is that?”
“Well it depends, sometimes it's Marrian, other times it’s Luke - although it could also be…” They trailed off, noticing Chris’s thousand yard stare. He looks as though he’s getting war flashbacks from all of the paperwork and convoluted answers.
“If you want, I can just do it - you can sign it when it’s done.”
Chris seemed hesitant at first, but after a few moments of silence he gave in, pushing the sheets towards Estyn and passing them a pen.
The pair sat at his desk for a good few hours as they worked through their respective paperwork. It was almost nice. Well, it would be nice if it weren’t for the fact that Estyn could feel themselves slowly going insane. One particularly unnecessarily difficult box forced a huff out of them as they quickly stood up, pushing their chair back and making Chris jump.
“HOW DO YOU DO THIS, I mean surely this phasing is a human rights violation,” They exclaimed, balling their hands into fists. After getting over the initial shock of their outrage, Chris let out a quiet little laugh.
“Those bureaucrats love their unneeded words,” He said, before managing to coax Estyn back into their seat.
“Here, let me take a look,” Chris said, holding out his hand expectantly.
They passed the sheet over with a grumble and sank down in their seat. He began to read, chewing on the end of his pen.
Finally he spoke.
“Hm, you’re not wrong, this one is pretty bad,” Estyn let out a noise of agreement, “I think I’ve got it though.”
He wrote down a few words before setting down his pen and sitting back himself. He looked at Estyn, thinking to himself.
“I think we need to take a break, maybe we should do a drink run for everyone?” Chris suggested. Estyn looked up, surprised at his words but desperate for a break. They nodded enthusiastically.
“Come on, fess up, how did you do it?”
Chris had gone to go find his coat and Trevor had Estyn stopped by the front door.
“I don’t know honestly. I just blew up over one of the questions and he was all like ‘we should take a break’ and I was desperate so I didn’t say no.” Estyn shrugged.
“What are you two talking about?” Chris said, finally returning.
“Nothing, I’m just drilling them on my order,” Trevor said, ruffling Estyn’s hair.
“Coffee, sod all milk, and half the shop of sugar,” They responded with a thumbs up.
Trevor shook his head in mock offence,
“You’re lucky that you’re so good at cleaning the paint brushes.”
“Come on, we better get going before the Cafe closes.” Chris pressed before leading out of the door.
The cool air hit Estyn like a ton of bricks.
“Jesus Christ, it’s barely October,” They huffed out, seeing their breath fog up before them. Their arms were crossed close into their body, fighting the urge to shiver as they tried to keep up with Chris.
“It’s weird to think that you’ve only been with us for a week, Trevor’s gotten very attached,” Chris remarked, almost to himself. Estyn had no idea how to respond.
“Well yeah, I do spend most of my time with him - he’s like a big brother or uncle or something,” They finally say, confused as to where this is going. It doesn’t go anywhere. Chris hums to himself before opening the door to the shop.
“Seriously Chris, we close in 5 - I’ve already started to clean the machines,” The barista yelled in a way that made it unclear if it was a joke or not.
“I know, I know, I’m sorry, At least we’ve got a list this time,” He reached out his hand to take the list from Estyn before he handed it over.
“We?” The barista asked, raising an eyebrow at Estyn before turning away to make the drinks. Chris didn’t register the question at first but soon kicked into gear.
“Ah yes, this is Estyn, their, uh, doing work experience with the theatre.”
The Barista turned around and looked Estyn up and down, eyes falling on the bruising that was still very clear on their face. She seemed torn between calling Estyn insane and ripping Chris into shreds.
“Don’t worry, he didn’t really want me to, I had to wear him down - Trevor treats me like a baby and won’t let me near anything that could kill,” Estyn says, not doing much to reassure the Barista.
“Well, if you’re happy then I guess it works,” She said, handing over the cups with some holders so they would be easier to carry. Chris counted them all up, thinking to himself before looking up.
“We’re one short - Estyn, did you order for yourself?” He asked.
Estyn shook their head slowly.
“One hot chocolate for the kid and we should be all set,” Chris said, pulling out his card to pay, “if that’s alright with you Estyn?”
They nodded, stifling a yawn as they realised how tired they were. They had been awake since 5am and the day was slowly nearing to 8pm, and when you put that with the emotional stress of the day, it was safe to say that they were really feeling it.
“Let’s get back to the others,” Chris said, passing them half of the drinks and pulling open the door. The pair thank the barista before heading back to the theatre.
They walked in silence for a few steps, but something was bothering Chris.
“Why didn’t you put down your drink order?” He asked.
Estyn shrugged.
“I don’t know, maybe I’m tired I guess, not thinking straight.”
A few more seconds of silence.
“I think it was the reading that tipped me over, sometimes I find it really hard, especially when they use stupid words,” Estyn found themself saying. Chris hums.
“That’s fair, they don’t seem to make it very readable - after a while it gives me really bad headaches, makes me quite irritable.”
Estyn looked up,
“Are you sure that’s not down to the fact that you also forget to eat and drink.”
Chris paused at the Theatre door and looked at them.
“You are spending too much time with Trevor, you’re beginning to sound like him.”
“Hey guys, drinks are here,” Max yells out, noticing the pair's arrival. Everyone crowds around as they both hand out the drinks to a chorus of thanks.
“I thought you weren’t supposed to get us drinks,” Robert grumbled out, a little bit huffy.
Estyn Shrugged at him before going to sit down between Trevor and Dennis. Vaness was next to Dennis, trying to stop him from drinking immediately and burning his tongue , while Annie disappeared to the kitchen. When she returned she had found a packet of biscuits and joined the group sitting around in a circle on the stage. Soon they were passing the biscuits around and chatting merrily and Estyn could feel their eyes getting heavier and heavier until…
“I think they’re asleep,” Trevor said, voice low so as to not wake them up.
“Is it just me or did Estyn seem a bit off today?” Annie asked. Chris began to nod.
“Yes, I did notice that they got quite angry at the paperwork, it seemed to really frustrate them,” Chris said looking at Trevor expectantly. He didn’t notice the way that Max seemed to be squirming until he spoke up.
“I accidentally said something today that upset them,” He said softly, “OW.”
Max yelled out when Sandra hit the back of his head and started to whisper-berate him. Trevor put his hand up, careful not to move too much and disturb the person sleeping on his shoulder.
“It’s not really his fault, he didn’t know.”
“So, what happened?” Annie asked. Trevor sighed before fixing his gaze on Chris.
“Estyn was talking about how they are into Directing and Max made a joke about that being why you didn’t want them to stay around…” He trailed off, leaving the group in silence.
It was Chris’s turn to feel like he wanted the world to swallow him up.
“It’s not that I don’t want them around, I just, I’m worried that they’re going to get hurt,” He managed to stutter out.
“That can’t be your only reason Chris - they know full well what they’re getting into, It’s not-”
Trevor suddenly stopped, looking down at Estyn.
The last thing they remember was that they were tired, so it was safe to say that it was a little disorientating to wake up on the stage. Something warm shifted under them, Trevor.
“Hey kid, It’s pretty late, you should really go home,” He said, noticing them wake up. He stood up, helping Estyn to their feet, stabilising them when they stumbled around, yawning and stretching.
“Are you able to get home alright?” He asked, helping Estyn track down their things and get to the door. They nodded, enough to satisfy him. He stood by the door, watching them until the end of the street before going back in to the group.