13 AUG 33AE

With the issues that arose from Elsie's accident cleared up, the filming proceeded without any issues. While Camilla was still nervous about all of the eyes watching her when she was completely out of her element, Hitomi's words of encouragement from the night before were exactly what Camilla needed.

So even when the director explained to the guardians that they would be in the foreground of many of the shots, Camilla accepted the information just as if they were a mission brief and she did exactly what she was told. Apparently, the tactic worked, and at the end of the day, a few members of the crew even congratulated her on a job well done.

At first, Camilla just thought they were being nice. But on the second day, the director approached her with the wild idea to actually give her a line to say.

"We need Sam to interact with more of the minor heroes," the director explained. "She'll be fighting when an attack will knock her off her feet."

The director pointed at Camilla. "That's when you'll come in and you'll catch the villain she was fighting off-guard and blow them away or something. Afterwards, when you help her to her feet, she'll protect you from an attack from behind. And, if possible, we'd like to use practical effects for this one."

The director pointed at Pala, who had just joined the rest of the squad in costume. "You can help with that, right? We should have an extra villain uniform for you."

"Uh..." Pala said, glancing at Lee. When Lee simply shrugged, Pala nodded as well. "Sure, I could help."

Since the scene was a last-minute idea, it took a little longer to set up so that the crew was all on the same page. As they bustled around the set, Elsie and Camilla waited together in front of the cameras while the hair and make-up crews put the final touches on their appearances.

"Nervous?" Elsie asked with an excited grin on her face.

Camilla couldn't answer right away since one of the crew was perfecting a scratch on her bottom lip.

"Actually, not really," she replied once they were both deemed fit for the camera and the stylists cleared the set. "I thought I would be, but I'm actually looking forward to this a little."

"Right?" Elsie exclaimed. "I never would've thought we'd actually get to work together like this."

Her excitement made Camilla smile a little. "I think it helps though, the fact that you're here," she said before realizing what she was saying. "It's... comforting."

At Camilla's words, Elsie smiled even more.

The first take of the first portion of the scene began shortly after. Pala played the first villain that would knock Elsie off her feet, and they sent a continuous blast of air straight for Elsie. From off-camera, Camilla generated a shield of water that Elsie pretended to be controlling, then dropped it as soon as the wire rig Elsie was wearing yanked her backwards and sent her sprawling on a cushioned mat, as if Pala's attack had broken through.

They ran through several more takes, occasionally switching up the elements used at the director's instructions, before moving on to the second part.

For this part, Elsie started from her sprawled-out position on the ground, this time without the cushioned mat and wire rig, and Pala flew at her as if to deliver the finishing blow. But just before Pala could make contact, Camilla sent out her own "attack," sending Pala flying in the opposite direction. Camilla stayed where she was for a moment, silently counting to three like she had been instructed, then jogged up to Elsie who was struggling to push herself upright.

"Miss Summers, are you alright?" Camilla asked, extending a hand down to Elsie.

Elsie looked up at her, acting surprised, but not able to completely hide her excited smile from her expression. Thankfully, no one seemed to notice, and the scene continued.

"Yeah, thanks," Elsie replied as she took Camilla's hand and pulled herself to her feet.

After, Camilla and Elsie simply stared at each other, waiting for the next attack to come. It seemed to take forever though, and Camilla quickly got restless with impatience. Her irritation must've shown, because Elsie immediately looked like she was trying to stifle her laughter.

Finally, Camilla sensed a massive boulder flying towards her back, and after a knowing look from Elsie, Camilla built a wall of air at her back just as Elsie extended an arm towards the attack, as if she was the one controlling their defenses. For a second, Camilla forgot that she was supposed to be surprised by the sudden attack and Elsie's quick response.

Fortunately, the expression ended up appearing naturally when Elsie added her own blocking and took a step closer to her, wrapping her free arm around Camilla's waist and pulling her into a protective hug. While it wasn't enough to shock Camilla into dropping her defensive measures, it was a near thing, and she was immediately grateful that her training taught her how to keep her cool in unexpected situations.

"Are you alright?" Elsie asked as she leaned back slightly from Camilla.

Camilla nodded, dazed, and almost forgot she had a line of her own. "Yeah, thanks," she said after a moment, repeating Elsie's line from before.

It wasn't until the take finally ended, and the crew began to set up to run it again, did Elsie finally take a large step away from Camilla.

"Sorry about that," Elsie muttered sheepishly towards her feet. "I just... I guess I got too caught up in the scene."

Camilla shook her head, but she wasn't sure if Elsie could see with her eyes looking anywhere but at Camilla. "I thought that was great, actually. Even I thought it felt real."

"Really?" Elsie said, finally lifting her gaze. "Oh, thank god, I thought you'd be mad at me."

"Of course not," Camilla immediately said, then thought about her answer again. "Well, maybe if it was someone else. But you're fine."

Elsie beamed at Camilla's words, and they went to their initial spots to run the scene again.

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22 AUG 33AE

Filming ended without incident about a week later, and the entire cast and crew immediately began buzzing with excitement about the wrap party that would follow. The invitation was extended to the Lee Squad, which Lee surprisingly allowed, and they were all able to bring a plus one if they happened to be on-island at the time. The arrangement ended up working out perfectly since Elsie could bring Minyoung, Mack could bring Jordan, and Camilla could bring Hitomi.

The wrap party location was a restaurant not far from the hotel, so Elsie, Mack, Camilla, and their plus ones agreed to pile into Minyoung's small rental car for the short drive. Minyoung insisted that he be the driver since the car was rented under his name, and Hitomi automatically took the passenger's seat, then feigned a lack of knowledge of the English language when the others argued for her seat.

Eventually, they gave up, and Jordan, being the tallest, took the middle seat so he had space for his long legs. Elsie and Mack squeezed in on either side of him, and since Mack's muscular figure took up more space than the average person, Camilla ended up sitting on Elsie's lap.

"Is it not a rule that children need to be in car seats?" Hitomi asked from the passenger seat in perfect English.

"Oh, so now you can understand us?" Camilla replied bitterly, ignoring the way Elsie, Mack, and Jordan snickered in the background.

They arrived at the restaurant slightly later than most of the other attendees, so their entrance was met with boisterous and obnoxious cheers. Thankfully, the entire restaurant had been reserved for the event, so the only people they were annoying were the unfortunate staff.

While Camilla, Hitomi, and the Songs found a couple small tables that they slid together, Elsie and Mack were busy mingling with the rest of the cast and crew. At each table they stopped at, they were both offered to take a shot of whatever the group was having, and even though neither of them looked tipsy by the time they rejoined their own group, Camilla made sure to keep an eye on them both.

Since the restaurant served its dishes family-style and most of the food on the menu were apparently local favorites, Mack took charge of ordering everything, assuring the others that they could trust his food wisdom. While most of the group was fine with that, Minyoung adamantly refused to cooperate until Jordan forced a hand over his brother's mouth and waved at Mack to do what he liked. As it turned out, they ended up trying almost everything the restaurant had to offer when the neighboring tables passed around their own plates to share every time they came over to chat with Elsie and Mack, and Minyoung stopped making complaints once he had eaten his fill.

Overall, the event was loud, social, and crowded, and had Camilla been the same as she was half a year ago, she would have been miserable. Yet in the past few months, so much had changed. And Camilla was slowly starting to understand that, in an effort to protect herself, she had been missing out on more than she could've ever imagined. Even though the boisterous party wasn't exactly her idea of a good time, all it took was one glance around their table of six to realize that maybe it was the people, not the setting, that made everything worth it.

As Camilla's looked over their assorted group once more, her eyes landed on Elsie and was surprised when their gazes locked onto each other. Elsie seemed surprised too, judging by the way her expression shifted slightly under Camilla's eyes, but she didn't look away, so neither did Camilla.

For a moment they simply sat there, oblivious to the party around them with their focus only on each other. And while Camilla thought she would eventually grow uncomfortable under Elsie's scrutiny, she felt exactly the opposite, as if Elsie's eyes on her made her feel safe in such an unfamiliar environment. It was that feeling that flooded Camilla with an inexplicable warmth, and it was enough to spread a smile across her face.

Suddenly, Elsie's eyes widened and her expression froze, as if she just remembered or realized something important, and Camilla wondered if she had done something wrong. But before Camilla's mind could retrace everything she had done, the look on Elsie's face had disappeared, replaced by a small, gentle smile of her own. It was only there for a few seconds, before some of the sound crew came by to coax Elsie into joining them for another round of shots, but Camilla already had the sight memorized. And she made sure to imprint that image in her mind so she would never, ever forget it.

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