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The coffee machine humming softly, before beeping then dispensing compressed bean juice onto the mug below.
The blue haired man took the mug and sipped the bitter liquid, relishing the taste. This is Il Dottore’s favorite breakfast. Caffeine. Well, apart from something else.
His eyes caught a blonde figure walking past him, stretching her arm while completely turning her pretty face somewhere else.
“Hmm?”
Dottore followed suit, his left arm caught her hips effortlessly.
“Why are you sulking this fine morning, my love?”
“What you want isn’t friends, it is family. But do they know this?”
Dottore bent down, observing Lumine’s expression from the side. Silence hung thick in the air.
“Okay, cut!” the director shouted. “Nice work you two. Prepare for next location, please.”
Dottore straightened his back, his eyes still trained on the blonde in front of him who’s currently being fussed by her manager. Paimon, was it? She fixed Lumine’s bangs while chattering with her high pitched voice.
During the entire time, Lumine still wouldn’t look at him.
“Come on, you have to change your outfit for the next scene. Back to the trailer,” Pantalone, his manager, broke his trance. Dottore followed him back into his trailer to change.
After changing his outfit and fixing his makeup, he was escorted to a new venue with the other actors. They’re shooting the boss fight now, the climax of season 6 of the hit TV series Teyvat Travails.
The crew members were putting finishing touch for the set so the actors chatted while waiting. As for Dottore, he revised his script while the makeup artist fixed his new mask. Fortunately it didn’t block his sight, so he could enjoy a pretty lady’s face whose as of now, still avoiding his gaze.
Sighing, he decided to focus on reading the script.
Hmm?
His eyes darted at Lumine’s figure, then at his lines, before back to Lumine again. She’s talking with Flins now, by the look of it they seemed to be synchronizing their correography for the finale.
Dottore’s lips quirked into a michievous smile. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to prank his beloved? Just a bit?
“... As her colleague, I have to admire her stubborn tenacity.”
The heretic grinned, extending his hand to the blonde protagonist.
“Now, it is time for you to take your place by my side,” he said, sweet as honey. The blonde protagonist looked surprised before frowning and tightening her grip at her sword.
Pause!
“There!” Lumine exclaimed, her finger pointing at the TV screen. Dottore smiled, quirking his head to the side.
“So what’s the problem?” he asked innocently. Lumine fumed.
“That line! That was not on the script, and it’s unnecessarily flirty! How did the director allow this?”
Dottore snorted, still trying not to laugh and responding to his dearest girlfriend’s inquiry.
“Is that why you’re sulking right now?” he asked. Lumine huffed, unlocking her phone this time and typing furiously. The next thing he knew she shoved her phone at his face.
“Not just that! Look at all these!”
Dottore took her phone and swiped at all the screenshots people posted on the social media about the season’s finale.
“Allow me to show you the world, Descender.”
“... Anything Columbina could do for you, I can do better.”
“I hope you’re not angry with me. It was only a month discrepancy...”
Not only that, also screenshots of him leaning over Lumine, perhaps too closely.
His character giving Lumine more than one chance when he said he gave everyone only one.
His character rewarding Lumine when she did as he ordered during the last fight.
Dottore, still maintaining his composure, asked sweetly yet again.
“And the problem with these are?”
“People are getting suspicious!” Lumine finally exploded. “They say your character is weirdly obsessed with my character and they started shipping us!”
“Us the characters or...?”
“Both!”
“Ah.”
Lumine huffed again, crossing her arms defensively. Seeing her acting so stinking cute, Dottore couldn’t hold it anymore. He pulled Lumine into a hug and crashing them both to the sofa. Lumine tried to wrestle out of his hold but ultimately failed, resigning into sitting at his lap, looking down at the blue haired man whom she’s been dating for 3 years now.
“My beloved starlight, you’re so upset people shipping us as a couple that you snubbed your dear boyfriend for days?” Dottore asked, twirling Lumine’s hair in his fingers. “Can’t say I’m not hurt by this. What is exactly wrong with that? We’re both consenting adults, no?”
Lumine lightly hit his chest. “You know dating is forbidden in my agency!”
Dottore snorted.
“My dearest, you know that one rule just applies to you, right?” he said, his hands holding Lumine’s face gently before delivering the final blow. “Because your brother is the CEO and he’s plagued by sister complex?”
Again, Lumine hit his chest lightly.
“Don’t say that about Aether. He’s just...” she trailed off for a second, trying to find the right word. “It’s just that we only had each other growing up.”
Dottore sighed. Sadly this was a recurring issue in their relationship, although it hadn’t really bother him, and hey, sneaking around behind Aether and everybody else was exhilarating in its own.
But perhaps it was finally time for a change.
“Arrange a meeting for the three of us then,” he said, uncharacteristically serious. “I promise I would break the news gently. And if he needs some convincing, I would try my best to do that.”
He caressed Lumine’s face lovingly. Lumine leaned into his hand, closing her eyes.
“Okay,” she whispered. “We can try.”
Dottore smiled.
“Great,” he said, before flipping her beneath him and caging her figure between his arms. “So, where’s my favorite breakfast at, love?”
Lumine chuckled.
“You goofball,” she said, pulling Dottore down. His lips crashed into hers and they both sighed contently.
Extra
Nefer stared at the heretic and the protagonist actors, one clearly avoiding the other.
She whispered at Lauma who’s currently getting her antler fixed; the boss fight required her to move frantically so it had to be strongly stuck on her head.
“Do they really think they were being slick? Dottore couldn’t even take his eyes off Lumine since the beginning of this season.”
Lauma laughed. “Seems so,” she whispered. “Rumor has it that Lumine’s got a strict brother.”
“So everyone knows but her brother?”
“Yup.”