Work Text:
Like, okay. WHAT IF, one night after her drink, Stella tries to go home but something has happened with her car. The driver usually hangs out in front, not in her usual limo of course, that would be too conspicuous; it's an older model that she bought just for this purpose... But that night, when she stumbles out, the car is just not there. Maybe it's been stolen (by the Etoiles Noires :p), or perhaps the driver had an emergency and he can't drive anymore, or he got arrested for being in a "stolen" car and he's at the police station trying to convince them that he REALLY IS Stella Spotlight's driver and not a crazy person in the middle of a breakdown.
And MJ is watching it all from the corner of her eye while closing the café, seeing Stella pacing back and forth (because no cell phones, right? So like how is Stella supposed to warn someone else to come get her?) And she can't really go out on foot or do anything that would get her noticed, so: STRANDED! At the Underground Café!
And finally, MJ is like, SIGH, I guess I'm going to have to get involved, because they can't leave Stella Spotlight in the dark in front of the café. She's definitely going to get robbed or harrassed in some way and that's bad for business (not the crime, everyone is used to that obviously, this is the Etoiles Noires watering hole. But if it comes out that celebrities are frequenting the café? It's going to tank its reputation.)
So MJ pokes their head out, like, "Er, sorry, Miss, or Ma'am? You can't really stay out there."
MJ means it more like, "Please go do this somewhere else or let me flag down the police" or something, but Stella's more like "No, of course, you're right" and she turns on her heels and marches back into the café. MJ's stunned, and then they rush to close and lock the door behind Stella.
And then.... I don't know! There's some awkwardness as MJ offers to run to the telegram office three blocks away (the nearest one has been out of order for weeks, Johnny and his pals people keep stealing the wires) and Stella is like, "There isn't anyone to warn anyway."
There's more awkwardness as MJ tries to hide the gossip magazines they keep behind the counter and drops the whole pile and Stella sees what they are, her own face on the cover with a degrading headline plastered across it.
And then finally they sit together and start to talk, and mabe share a drink or two, and... Who knows!! Maybe MJ starts yawning in the middle of Stella telling them about working with a legendary director who was an asshole, and Stella is like "Oh my god, how rude of me, this must be way past your bedtime," and MJ is like "Well, I'm not going to leave you here alone" (in MJ's head it's because Stella is clearly an alcoholic so leaving her in a place with alcohol unattended is clearly a terrible idea, but Stella misunderstands because people keep coming on to her, so that's her one way of reading social interactions.)
"Oh," she says, and then "Lead the way," and MJ is so shocked that they do; they walk up to their small appartment above the café with Stella Spotlight walking behind them, and it's so embarrassing because they haven't done their dishes in a while, but Stella doesn't say anything. She walks around the room (it doesn't take long) and sits on the couch gingerly, and MJ is like "You should take the bed" and Stella is like "Okay" because of course she's not going to sleep on someone's couch, and MJ is shocked because it's polite to at least pretend to refuse?
But then in the middle of the night, as MJ is tossing and turning on their old busted-up couch, Stella comes back to the main room, because she's scared of the night noises and the buzz of the neon sign outside the window bothers her. And she ends up lying down next to MJ on the couch, and perhaps sneaking closer and closer, and in the end they sleep like that, with Stella's head on MJ's shoulder. Or rather, Stella sleeps, and MJ stays awake all night, pondering what the fuck their life has turned into.
Also, they can never, ever tell Ziggy.
(And then idk about the kissing but surely it can happen at some point! Or not in this story, I don't know, perhaps that's a different setup altogether! Perhaps it's another scene where Stella's realized how lonely she's been, and she's spotted MJ's loneliness too, and so next time she goes to the café she actually tells her driver to get lost so she can spend the night at MJ's again, and something happens then? :D)