Chapter Text
For being one of the two younger members of the group, Megan knew that she shouldn’t have even thought about sneaking a lick of alcohol. Yet, despite the illegality of her actions and Manon’s mysteriously missing drinks, she found herself on the edge of the scene, just far enough to be out of the picture, but still close enough to hear the activity around her.
You see, after a long week of rehearsals, Megan was about at her wits' end. All of the preparation for the Beautiful Chaos Tour has officially caught up to her, the team, and her fellow Kats. While their songlist only consisted of EPs, the attention that Katseye has gathered over the past year, and now their two Grammy nominations, this being their first real tour, is a huge deal.
She can picture it already, millions of fans across the United States screaming, cheering, singing, and dancing, all to their blood, sweat, and tears of hard work to get all the love and support across the globe… Megan feels a tear fall down her right cheek.
She can’t wait to feel all the love from the fans, and surprisingly, the motions and waves of tiredness they all will be feeling after each night and travel.
But it doesn’t matter.
The feeling of ‘We Fucking Did It’ is all that matters. Well, along with the accomplishment of all six young women.
Megan swigs the last of the glass down and takes a deep breath. It’s not like they were partying partying, it was more of a casual party with the six of them, their team, a few lucky influencers, and if they were lucky, hopefully, no big press junkies.
In retrospect, Megan was glad there weren’t any big press names there. She’s riding on the hope that their team is too busy managing the little-ish event so that they aren’t aware she’s just a little tipsy.
She takes a look around. It's a well-sized venue, nowhere extremely popular, but it's a nice, reserved restaurant with dim lights, faint music, and a swell of conversation. Megan is sure it literally could be anywhere in Los Angeles.
She lets out a hum that quickly turns into a small smile as she feels the buzz working. Megan sets the glass down on a side table next to her seat. She’s situated herself in a quiet opening from the main space of the restaurant. It's just herself, Manon’s now-empty glass that Megan swiped, a small circular side table, and an overly expensive, boring leather seat that Megan’s tall stature is encompassing.
Megan hears the change of songs as the new one fades in from the ceiling speakers; she’s sure she could have named it if she put her mind to it, but she just makes out her members from the corner of her eye, breaking the thought of the music.
She wonders if her life could be any better than it is.
Yes, she’s had to sacrifice family time and any broad personal matters, but she couldn’t have asked for a better group of girls to be surrounded by. No matter the time of day, they will always be there for her, and she will always be there for them.
Ever since she entered the program, the intimidation factor was met with the kindness factor, and all of her qualms were diminished. Megan thinks back to her meeting with each member for the first time in Dream Academy.
Lara, she can remember effortlessly, was the very definition of looks like she could kill you, but is a cinnamon roll. Her style and expression in her outfits and how freeing she must have felt definitely carried over to her confidence level. Lara can sing, blank point period. There is a reason she made it into the group in the first place.
Megan makes out their leader's profile vaguely in the dim light. Sophia, she recalls, was at the top of the chart in attitude. The way she so effortlessly cared about all of the girls in the program, in addition to her own self-esteem and confidence. It is a no-brainer as to why she is their leader even now.
Manon walks across to view the spread of dishes. Megan knows that the documentary is something they all tend to avoid in any conversation or interview. It’s all dramatized; they know that. But it still doesn’t reflect the way that Manon was painted versus what actually happened. Megan tries to reflect on any interaction between the two of them in the show, but is lost in the lights doubling in her vision.
She looks around the venue, trying to find a good time to call it quits, not wanting to cut short the formal amount of time spent at their own event, but Megan starts to feel a light dizziness as she cranes her neck. She spots the curly hair first, then the taller figure next to her.
Yoonchae was always a small mystery to her. Of course, Megan tried her best to welcome the foreign girl to the program, but it was definitely hard with the language barrier, and she was just so young compared to the spread of girls in the program. Megan doesn’t even remember what exactly started or alluded to their beef from the program to their early training days as Katseye, but all of that just to see the progress that they made to this very day has been worth it.
And Daniela…
Megan vows that she could be detained for just being in her presence, and she definitely could be arrested for how much the Latina is always, without fail, somewhere in her mind, regardless of the time of day. Usually, she will find her at night as Megan is trying her best to let sleep drown out the events of the day, but the thoughts and reminders of how Daniela is always so close, yet so unattainable, make her spiral.
Even her Lexapro couldn’t save her.
Megan always remembers everything about Daniela since their meeting. She was the first of the Kats with whom she grew close with while in Dream Academy. The first she always turned to after rehearsals was too much for her back strain. The first thing she clung to when she was lost in her spiraling thoughts.
The first.
Megan isn't sure if it's the alcohol working, but she lets her emotions run.
Daniela is always the first thing she thinks about. She’s not sure if she’s being selfish by always thinking about her compared to the rest of the girls, but there’s nothing she can really do about it now.
In fact, speaking of now, she’s not sure if she can really make out what’s going on around her. Megan’s sure that if someone had been looking at her for the past few minutes, she either looked spaced out and in her own thoughts (which, okay, she was), or she was visibly starting to look unwell in the way her face scrunched at her talking internally to herself.
Taking a relapse in her thoughts, the only thing now that Megan is hung up on is the way Daniela is effortlessly unaware of how she makes the other girl feel. Without a doubt, Megan is sure that the universe plays cruel jokes on her out of spite because she can’t name a single instance as to when Daniela of Katseye became just Dani.
Her Dani.
All the physical affection each of them gives unconditionally is a no-brainer. Love language constantly gets brought up in conversations with Eyekons in Weverse lives and in media interviews. So it isn't a surprise that Megan delves into every close encounter that Daniela offers. She takes every touch, smile, eye contact, and forehead kiss to her heart.
And god have mercy on her, but Megan knows it means so much more to her than it does to Dani. The push and pull of that fine line between friends and something Megan always dreams about…
Yeah, she’s going to have to take her feelings to the grave. No way in her current life will she be able to ever admit how much she’s fallen for Daniela Avanzini. And sure, maybe that’s why she swiped one… Or three? Of Manon’s drinks, (She isn't really sure how many, as long as they numb her unattainable love), but she’s at her wits' end.
All of her feelings are finally eating her alive. She’s beating her heart to pulp, and the blood is gushing out in loads of unrequited love, blocked by the sole factor of: Daniela Avanzini is straight.
Megan adjusts herself in the leather chair and lets the heaviness of her bones sink into it. She sighs as she rests her eyes from the light in her vision, letting the buzz wash over her.
Sophia walks up to join the rest of the girls as they have all almost come together. “Hey, has anyone seen Megan?”
“I thought she was with you?” Lara turns to Manon with a raised eyebrow.
“No, she was with me, then the next thing I know, I’m down a few drinks and Mei is gone,” Manon explains a bit frustratedly.
“What?!” Sophia exclaims.
“Shit.” Daniela curses.
“Yeah, shit.” Manon agrees.
“Only god knows what that girl is thinking right now.” Lara tries to joke.
“Not helping.” Daniela cuts her off a bit sternly.
“Okay, I hate to cut our time short, but we have bigger priorities right now.” It's almost as if Sophia has switched on a parent mode.
“Yeah.” Yoonchae finally speaks up.
So after a small briefing on who’s doing what, Sophia and Yoonchae were covering their goodbyes to their team, while Daniela and Lara were on the hunt for their dual cherry, and Manon was requested to have water and anything with carbs on standby, they split up.
And that's when, after 10 minutes, the group finally found the all-rounder slumped in a chair in the almost completely hidden corner of the venue, with a few glasses on the table beside her.
Sophia saw how Megan was blissfully unaware of the girls’ presence; clearly, she was pretty tipsy.
“Megan, helloo~” Lara started to call out to her, trying to lure her out of her slump.
“Hmn-” She stirs a bit.
Sophia, trying her best not to get too frustrated but still wanting to her her up and the girls out of the venue, calls out for her, “Megan, come on. It’s time to go! Yoonchae and I have your things.”
Still, Megan isn't too interested in leaving; she does sit up a bit more, though.
“Megan, let’s get you up so we can get out of here.” Lara starts to move towards Megan’s left arm to stand her up.
“Whaat?” She drawls out.
Lara starts again, “Come on, it's time to go. You weren’t supposed to have those any-”
“Hey! They were there, it was free range baby~,” Megan defends herself.
“No! That’s not what-” Manon jumps in before getting cut off by a stern voice.
“Megan.”
She stops fighting the other’s words.
Daniela, while she may be smaller in size compared to her, Megan is sure she could command the room with her sharp features when in use.
“Dani~” Megan is starting to feel the switch in behavior.
“Oh, please. Come on, Dani, just help Lara with her so we can all get home and take care of her.” Sophia directed them.
Lara grabbed her left and Daniela her right, together they stood her upright, holding her while she gathered her balance.
“Whoa! If you wanted to take me home, all you had to do was ask.” Megan let out a flirty laugh as she grabbed onto their arms.
Lara rolled her eyes, “We did!”
Daniela chucked at them, “Yeah, and you still didn't get up!”
“Come on, let's go to the car!” Yoonchae called from in front of them.
So here she found herself in a large SUV, planted between Lara and Daniela in the middle row, with Manon and Sophia in front of her and Yoonchae in the back. Megan can see the looks between Manon and Sophia as they talk, most presumably about her bad actions.
She doesn’t pay much mind to them; she’ll hear it when they get home.
Megan sinks deeper into her seat and turns to look out at the night sky in the city as the car is driving by. Except, she catches Daniela shift next to her.
That’s right, Megan suddenly feels a little hyper aware, and she looks down at herself, just now realizing she still has her hand laced with Dani’s. She smiles to herself as she turns her attention back to the window. Except her eyes catch the outline of Daniela’s face in the street lights.
She lets the alcohol take her, and she releases her hand from Daniela’s, bringing both of her hands now to cup Daniela’s cheeks and jawline.
“Uhhh, Megan?” Daniela says as she looks at her.
“Daniela, did you know that you are so pretty? Did I tell you that today? I think I should have told you, but you are very pretty~”
Daniela is visibly stunned, unsure of how to react.
Megan is still 19 and has never, or at least to her knowledge, had alcohol. This situation is completely new waters for them, and she guesses that Megan had to have a thought with enough motive to take Manon’s drinks.
“And it looks like we’ve figured out which type of drunk Megan is,” Lara states to no one in particular.
“Which one, please tell me it's not aggressive, we already can’t handle that on top of this situation.” Sophia pleads.
Manon turns back from the front row to look at them, “Oh.”
Megan is still holding Daniela by her face, but her eyes are studying the way the street lights are being captured in Daniela’s. She’s laser-focused on them.
“Manon, please tell me that isn't a bad ‘Oh’,” Sophia asks the older girl.
Manon lets out a small chuckle, “You don’t have much to worry about, Soph. She’s the clingy type, very affectionate.”
“Thank god. I can deal with that.”
“Dani, you have the most gorgeous eyes. Did you know?” Megan says this in a dead serious tone.
Daniela looks to Lara for help, but is only met with a smirk and a shrug. “Uh, thank you, Megan, I did not know.”
“Well, now you do,” Megan assures her, taking her right hand and boops her on the nose, then finally dropping her hands from Daniela’s face to lean her head on her shoulder for the rest of the car ride.
And the only thing that runs through Daniela’s mind is:‘What the fuck?’