Work Text:
bad idea!
To say Envy Adams loved herself is to say that the sky was blue, the sun was hot and water made you wet. And with all things considered why shouldn’t she love herself, she was an international sensation, her solo album, despite the leak, went double platinum in two weeks and now here she was. Top floor penthouse suite, staring down at the buzzing streets of New York, far from Toronto but not far enough.
It was about 1:30 in the morning when she made her first mistake of the night, she laid down on her four-poster bed and realised how big and empty it was. How cold and lonely the city was. How distant from everyone who ever cared about her she was. After swallowing the sudden pang of anxiety she went to her balcony and had a long draw on a cigarette.
It was there in the cold breeze of the New York night that she made her second mistake of the night, she took out her phone, the newest model of the hottest brand but that’s to be expected for her, and she scrolled on down her contacts and saw it, that number, His number. A sharp breath, the cold stinging her lungs, she stared at the number.
She hadn’t called that number since Canada, not since the clash, not since she last saw Him. Envy looked back to the bed, then out to the city skyline. In a moment of weakness, she pressed call.
“Hey, long time no talk” Envy said as coolly as she could.
“Yeah it has been” the voice on the other side responded, a slight quivering his voice, Envy smiled, she loved it when his voice did that.
“How’s life with Her?” The venom dripped from Envy’s lips hoping it would infect that woman from here, Envy couldn’t stand the idea that despite everything that had happened between them, despite everything that Envy was and had. He still ended up with her.
“Yeah about that” or did he? “She was with me for a bit and honestly at the time she felt worth it, she healed me up after the fights but after we all parted ways and it was just me and her with no distractions. I came to realize I didn’t feel anything for her, it was just the excitement of It all, I didn’t want her anymore” Envy bit her lip for a moment, her eyes flicked to her bed.
“Then who do you want?”
“You”
At this moment Envy ran through everything that the two had ever done together, the kisses, the sweet nothings and of course the hot passionate nights. Envy needed someone right now in the best and worst possible way.
“Can you come over?” she asked after a moment of silence she heard the line go dead and her front door open. “I thought you couldn’t do that?”
“She taught me how to do it, she was good enough for that” A bitter streak ran through his voice but Envy had to admit she was glad he knew how to appear instantly because right now she wanted to give in to her urges.
“I’m glad you’re here.” Envy said slowly walking up to him, her silhouette showing all her fantastic curves, her body that breaks all the ratings. The Man in the doorway stared hungrily at her.
Their lips crashed, tongues lapping against each other, moans bubbling up from deep in their chests, he grabs her waist bringing her closer to him, letting her feel all of him at that moment. His hands snake their way under her shirt and up her back, in a flash, her bra was undone and the thin cotton shirt was being lifted up. Stepping back he looks down a smile spreading wide across his face.
“Darling, you’re so pretty it hurts.” he said huskily, Envy crashed her lips against his, her hands running through his shaggy hair, despite everything she had ever said she truly loves it. The make-out grew more passionate as the two had a back and forth of pushing and pulling each other across the room. He finally wins, pinning her against the wall, he starts throwing her clothes on the floor.
Envy couldn’t believe she was doing this, her ex was currently working his way down her body, kissing and caressing each part of her, this man who lied and cheated and did everything to not get caught was currently in between her legs, making her knees weak before he finally slams her down onto the large empty bed.
As the night continued to more intense experiences Envy was impressed with the skill her partner was showing, the new techniques he had learned whilst they were separate was breaking all her personal records. Suddenly this moment of passion and pleasure turned bitter as Envy started to live up to her name.
That woman must have taught him all of this, they may have shared some firsts when they were younger but there was no way he learned to be this good on his own. No, in their time apart Envy knew that the woman who she never wanted to see again taught him all these new moves. And once that thought passed through her head Envy knew that this was a mistake.
“Darling are you ready for more?” he asked her slyly, a smirk growing on his face.
How could Envy, a woman who had all she ever dreamed of, talent, fans, money, success. How could she fall for something as dumb as a nostalgia fuck? A moment of weakness that now leads her to have this man who broke her heart panting like a dog on top of her. This was a bad idea.
“Hey, can we stop?” Envy asked quietly
“Um yeah sure. Are you okay?” Her ex shifted himself to sitting on the edge of the bed, they stared at each other for a moment before the reality of what they were doing hit them, Envy sighed.
“Look maybe you should go and clean yourself up, I think we should have a talk” He nods silently in return and walks towards her bathroom, Envy lies back and stares at her ceiling, listening to the rain-like patter of the shower, the sound slowly was becoming like white-nose to her. That was until it was interrupted by the vibration of a phone.
Grabbing hers off her bedside counter showed no notifications, the buzzing continued, coming from the pocket of the abandoned jeans on the floor. Now Envy Knew invading people’s privacy isn’t the best thing to do but considering the owner of the said phone was inside her only a few moments ago she thought an invasion of privacy was probably going to be the least talked about that evening. Envy unlocked the screen and suddenly all her deepest fears were realised.
*Hey babe! I got that thing from the place with the things, Can’t wait to see you later tonight! Love you xx*
The notification partially blocked off the image of him and her smiling sweetly, but Envy could see that the photo was recent, like it was taken a few hours ago recent. Fiery anger swelled within her and she couldn’t find a way to let it out, like a laser beam with no focusing, ready to burn the world down, that was until the bathroom door opened and out he stepped with a huge dumbass grin on his face.
“What’s up, babe?” He said with a huge grin plastered on his face, Envy rose up, put a calm smile on her face, walked slowly towards him and smacked him so hard across his face she could hear all the bones and ligaments in his neck react to the sudden whiplash.
“You are such a piece of shit! A lying cheating scumbag! Human garbage that should be scoured from the world and thrown into a black hole. I knew this was a bad idea from the start but this puts it over the edge” Envy shoved the phone back into the fumbling hands of the naked wet man as he stared back at her confused for a moment before his smirk returned to his face.
“What can I say, darling? Once a cheat always a cheat? Would that make you feel better? Keep in mind I’m only here because you asked me to be, the fact is I couldn’t give a shit about you or her. It’s a shame you found out this way though, could have really used with some of your cash. Maybe have played you to get me in the history books as one of the greatest bass players of all time. Ah well, you know what they say ‘live and let live’ shame I think I took all the skills I need from that bitch but it doesn’t matter, she is at least still a good piece of ass.” Gathering his clothes off the floor he glances back at Envy and flashes her one more grin “See ya around Natalie.”
This snapped it all for her in one fell swoop and she started throwing every single thing she could get her hands on aiming it all for his head.
“You. Do. Not. Have. The. Right. To. Call. Me. That!” Each word synced up with another object colliding with the retreating man’s torso and head. She gave out one last scream as he opened the door and vanished, hopefully, gone from her life forever. Sinking down back on to her bed she hung her head in disgust, she looked around her, seeing the aftermath of her poor choice. The bed covers thrown about, the awards and lamp and various items scattered all over the floor of her penthouse, a physical representation of a bad idea followed through.
Envy didn’t know how to feel, she felt; anger, fear, shame, bloodlust, righteous fury, jealousy and a pit of bile in her stomach. She wanted to scream, wanted to break everything, destroy him somehow but she knew that wouldn’t bring her any relief, however, she did know what does help her. Walking across the room to her desk, settling down with a notepad and pen she began to write.
Envy lived in a strange world, one-ups, level progression and teleportation were commonplace but the thing that really made her world feel weird was that when you are defeated in battle you just respawn back home. That’s how, despite his overwhelming loss, Gideon still ran his producing label, just with a little less attitude now. Envy didn’t mind working with him anymore, turns out being told you’re the worst and then getting cut to ribbons kind of puts a person’s ego in check.
Music had been a great source of therapy for Envy lately, pouring all her emotions, positive and negative, into her songs. Each lyric sheet a page of a diary, maybe that’s what her fans loved about her, a bit of vulnerability that she couldn’t express in person, Natalie breaking through the veneer of Envy. She began writing down the lyrics of what would be her next hit single, released only a few short weeks after the incident that inspired it all.
Envy now sat in a green room getting ready to go perform her new hit to a lucky underground gig. Here she was up in Toronto again, memories flooding back like a rising tide, even the venue she was in reminded her of the clubs she used to play in with the Clash.
A knock interrupted her train of thought.
“Miss Adams, a Journalist for a blog wants to meet you, says she still reads your blog?”
A smile crept onto her face. “Send her in please Phil.”
The door creaked open as a young Chinese woman came in, her eager eyes shimmering with literal stars, nervous energy radiating off of her like nuclear fission. A small voice recorder shaking in the poor girl’s hands, knees quaking as she makes her way to the couch in the room.
“Hh-hey En-en-envy, how have you been? Good… I imagine good, you’re good, your song is really good. The tour is really good… I’m rambling. Sorry.”
Envy smiled, somethings may change but others stay the same.
“Knives? Right?”
“Yea-yeah”
“I remember you coming to see me when I was with the Clash, sorry about the punch by the way.”
“It wasn’t as much the punch as it was the dismissal of my entire being.”
Envy nodded sadly. “Yeah, we weren’t exactly nice people back then.”
“To be fair to you, out of all the clash you were kind of the least dickish. Like that cyborg chick that punched me. And Todd, well Todd was a dick.” Knives clicked on her recorder, placed it down on to the small table and leaned forward with a small notepad. “So for ‘cutting edge music’ we have Envy Adams, formally of The Clash at Demon Head and now making a name for herself with a legendary startup solo career. Envy your first solo album went double platinum in just a few weeks, you have consistently toured sold-out shows since your debut performance at the Toronto Chaos theatre but that was nearly a year ago with no new music. What made you make this new single, by the way, I listened to it on my way here, it’s so good, so what was the titular ‘bad idea’”
Envy crossed her arms, pursed her lips tight and looked up at the ceiling lights, looking Knives directly in the eyes. “My ex came round after I called him late one night and it’s pretty self-explanatory.”
“Wow is there anything you want people to take away from hearing this song?”
“Yeah, Todd Ingram is a dick.”