April 19, 33 AE

As it turned out, the last day that Quentin and Amira, who Elsie managed to convince to be called by her first name, were assigned to her was the day Jordan was returning from South Korea. So, of course, such an occasion called for a party.

While Elsie and Jordan's preferred method of celebration was going to a random bar and inviting whoever they knew to join them, that definitely did not fly with her security. Besides, it wouldn't be much of a party if some of the honorees were still technically working. Instead, they decided to keep it small and stay at Elsie's place with drinks, movies, and a karaoke machine, officially starting as soon as Amira and Quentin were off the clock.

In preparation, Elsie spent the day picking up supplies, that is, enough food and drinks to feed a mere six people. It was a sad reality, but it helped that nearly half of her guests were required to run errands with her and she could get their input directly.

While Elsie had tried to get the guardians to invite their own friends, Amira refused and coerced Quentin to do the same. Any additional attempts from Elsie were futile, so she took matters into her own hands and invited Mack as their only mutual acquaintance. Along with herself and the three guardians, the only other attendees were Jordan and Minyoung, who was obligated to show up. It didn't seem like much of a party in Elsie's opinion, but she would just have to make up for it with enthusiasm.

Jordan's flight arrived at noon, but he was immediately shuffled to various commitments and couldn't stop by until several hours later. After Elsie buzzed him into her building, she opened her front door a few minutes later to find him being searched by Amira.

"I told her this wasn't necessary," he insisted with his arms outstretched to his sides.

"We're still on duty and it's our job," Amira stated matter-of-factly. "Juneau, how's the package?"

Quentin had unenthusiastically been inspecting a canvas shopping bag and a case of drinks. "No suspicious items or liquids," he nearly groaned in response. "But can you guys save one of the strawberry flavored ones for me? They're my favorite."

"I'm not promising anything," Jordan said with a grin. "They're my favorite, too." 

Once inside, Elsie put on a movie to play in the background as she got them drinks while Jordan chatted in length about his nearly month-long stay in South Korea. Normally, Jordan was the quiet one of their duo, but extended trips back to his home country tended to send him off with a lot to talk about.

While he raved about the food, sights, and the time he got to spend with his fans, he also ranted about his mother, older sister, and former management company. At first, Elsie managed to follow along easily enough—she had heard most of Jordan's laments before—but things got tricky when he got too worked up and started mixing Korean into his tirade.

Thankfully, Minyoung showed up a few more minutes later to help translate. At one point, near the end of his rant, Jordan huffed angrily, seeming to have worked out most of his frustration, before muttering something bitterly in Korean. Minyoung paused with his drink to his lips, glancing between Jordan and Elsie, before saying, "I'm not going to translate that."

After Jordan's frustration was relieved, he declared that he was finally ready to have fun. As he began setting up the karaoke machine, with Minyoung nagging him about his inefficient process, Elsie stepped outside to check on the two guardians. They had just finished turning over to two Class 1 metas, and they allowed Elsie to listen in on the remainder of their conversation. Apparently, even the newcomers didn't know who would be relieving them, and they wouldn't know until their supervisors called them in the early hours of the morning.

After urging the two new metas to accept at least a plate of appetizers, much to Amira's annoyance, Elsie hustled the two guardians inside just in time to witness the first song.

While Jordan was a professional singer, he had a specific karaoke persona that was nowhere near as refined and "cool" as he was on stage. He energetically belted out songs that were completely out of his vocal range, including the instrumentals and other sound effects, and eventually Minyoung joined him to add to the harmonies and backup singing. The talented brothers earned a round of applause for their first two songs, to which they responded with a bow in front of the TV, swaying only slightly at their inebriation.

Quentin was voted unanimously to choose the next song, and after Amira rejected his pleas to join, Elsie stepped in to accompany him. Neither of them were very good singers, but Elsie only cared about volume and enthusiasm, and Quentin quickly followed the example she set. They managed to drag Amira into the next song, and together they produced an awful jumble of noises. Nevertheless, the Song brothers applauded them and their charisma, and Jordan took Elsie's place for the next round.

Mack arrived about an hour later, just as Jordan and Quentin were belting out some oldie hit. It was a very spirited rendition, complete with an energetic air guitar solo from Jordan standing on Elsie's couch. 

"That was very impressive," Mack said once they were done. He looked like he was trying to hold back his laughter behind a wide smile.

Jordan and Quentin, who had both been oblivious to Mack's entrance, were caught off guard. After his initial surprise, Quentin rolled his eyes and turned back to the TV to select the next song. Jordan, however, froze in place with his mouth slightly ajar. Elsie wasn't sure if his face was reddening because of the alcohol or his embarrassment, and he only seemed to get pinker when Mack approached him.

"Mackenzie Olomana," he introduced himself with a hand extended. "Call me Mack."

"Song Mins—I mean, Jordan. Song. Jordan Song." Jordan fumbled over his words as he feebly returned the handshake. "I sing songs."

"It's great to finally meet you. I'm a huge fan." Mack's grin grew even wider. "Even more so after that stunning performance."

"Thanks, I like you too." Jordan somehow turned even redder. "I meant your work. Like your movies. Not your workout. But that's nice, too. I mean, it must be good, I'm guessing." He cringed at his words and clamped his mouth shut.

Mack's laugh was loud enough to be heard clearly over the song Quentin chose. "Don't worry, I got it. Thanks. And I tend to make myself speechless, too."

Jordan grimaced. "I probably shouldn't, but I need another drink. Can I get you something?"

"I'll take one of those," Mack said as he nodded to the empty can in Jordan's hand. "It's obviously working wonders."

As Mack laughed good-humoredly, Jordan returned it with a stiff smile before making a beeline towards the kitchen, jerking his head at Elsie to follow. Elsie had a pretty good idea about what he wanted to talk about, and she wasn't at all ashamed as she followed.

"What the hell?" Jordan hissed at her once they were out of earshot. "Why didn't you warn me he was coming?"

Elsie rolled her eyes as she opened the fridge to get them drinks. "Because then you would've started acting weird."

"I was acting weird already!" Jordan exclaimed. He rubbed his hands over his face, groaning. "He saw my air guitar routine..."

"That was charming, not weird," Elsie corrected. She glanced at a container of some food item that looked expired and moved it to the back to deal with later. "The weird I'm talking about is how you act in public when you're all reserved and restrained and all that."

"I don't do that," Jordan said defensively, then added, "a lot. I didn't do that when Amira and Quentin came in."

"You also wouldn't try to impress either of them," Elsie pointed out.

Jordan opened his mouth to argue, but when he came up empty he could only groan again. "Why'd I have to stand on the couch?"

Elsie shrugged as she pulled out a bottle of beer for herself. "On the bright side, it made you taller."

"But I'm already the tallest one here! Let's face it, it made me look ridiculous."

"You looked endearing." She pulled out two cans of Jordan's hard seltzer, then filled the vacated spots with the drinks Mack brought. She stuffed the cold cans in Jordan's hands. "Just go out there and be yourself, okay?"

"But he's too hot," Jordan grumbled before he took a deep breath and marched confidently back outside.

Even though the party's attendance was paltry to what Elsie would've liked, the evening ended up being a blast. It took almost an hour for Jordan to loosen up, but afterwards he and Mack hung out for the remainder of the party. Minyoung, thankfully, never went into managerial mode the entire night, and he actually posted a few of his selfies with Elsie to his own social media, albeit a little begrudgingly. His worries about if he looked good or not were quickly relieved because within minutes, his post was flooded with comments from his old fans.

Quentin was as friendly and energetic as always, and eventually got Amira to do a karaoke solo. While her preferred song was a slow ballad, her performance was so overly dramatic that it was more comedic than emotional, and everyone, especially Quentin, was highly impressed.

It was a night to remember, and Elsie was sad to see everyone go shortly after midnight. At least they were all polite guests and they helped her clean up before they left because she definitely wouldn't have done it herself until Minyoung nagged her enough. With her tired mind and tidied living room, she deemed her couch clean enough to sleep on and passed out once her head met the cushions.

After what felt like mere minutes, Elsie awoke to the muffled sound of her phone ringing. It took her a while before she found it wedged between the couch cushions, mainly because she had her eyes closed during the entire search. She cleared her throat a few times before answering.

"Hello?" Her voice sounded like she just sung the screamo renditions of a dozen songs in a row, which is exactly what happened.

Her phone rang again, this time loudly in her ear. She jerked it away from her head, cursing, before glaring at the screen.

It was her phone's alarm that was ringing, most likely set by Minyoung the night before because Elsie definitely wouldn't have made herself voluntarily wake up before noon. After staring at the screen for a minute with the alarm continuing to blare obnoxiously, Elsie realized it had already been going off for half an hour.

She also had a calendar notification, also set up by Minyoung, that was alerting her about her hopefully last PT appointment, and it was scheduled for that day. Specifically, it was supposed to start in an hour.

Elsie swore as she scrambled to get ready. She was sure she only needed about thirty minutes to become decently presentable, but LA traffic required at least forty minutes for transit. Thankfully, it seemed like her weeks of PT had paid off and her right arm was able to painlessly keep up with her frantic movements, albeit a little stiffly.

She managed to be headed for the door in twenty-six minutes, having forgone hair brushing, eye makeup, and contacts in favor of a messy bun and glasses. Elsie was in the middle of debating whether or not she could get away with asking Quentin to grab her a cup of coffee when she opened her front door and was suddenly reminded that her guardian bodyguards had changed. And the universe was probably getting a kick out of making her life difficult because Elsie found herself face-to-face with the one and only Camilla Wyatt.

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NOTES

"Didn't the tags say 'action'/'superhero'/'scifi'/'WAR'? Is that still a thing?"

Oh, yes. Yes, it is. But not just yet. I promise, if you came here for some butt-kicking action, noble superheroics, scifi that makes you have to think back to that one chemistry class, or gritty/angsty warfront stuff, it'll happen. Stay tuned!

Thank you for reading, voting, and commenting!