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Chapter Text

Trying to keep his eyes trained on the headrest of his driver’s seat, Dani attempted to avoid looking out the window. He failed every so often, and was increasingly surprised at the amount of people he could see through the blacked out windows. His fingers drummed a steady rhythm against his thigh, the fidgeting evidently becoming so annoying that his advisor had to intervene.

“Stop, Dani,” Alberto covered the younger man’s hand with his, feeling the slightest bit of pressure against his palm, almost as if Dani couldn’t actually help himself.

“Better not crease the suit.” It was a feeble response and the little smile that accompanied it fell just short of a failure but, fuck, at least he was trying. He told himself he was used to this, that, really, it wasn’t that much of a step up from his previous position. But that was simplifying the situation so greatly that it was almost laughable. Before there were enough people around him to diffuse the responsibility; now… now the spotlight was fixed solely on him, a concept with which he’d always shared a love-hate relationship.

Either Alberto didn’t know what to say to that or chose not to say anything at all. Most likely the latter given his track record of handing out words of wisdom in his hour of need (then again, that was pretty much the exhaustive job description of an advisor). After all, what could he possibly say in a situation like that?

Cursing his curiosity, Dani let his gaze once more drift to the window and found himself coming up a little short of breath when he realised that they were almost there, having made the same journey many times before but under almost comically different circumstances. Only a matter of minutes and they would reach their destination.

And then the fun would really begin.

Deciding it would probably be worth putting his game face on now, he inhaled deeply, willing his heartbeat to slow a just a couple of beats per minute so that it was below ‘call a medical professional, I’m having a heart attack’. There was no need to be so anxious; he’d prepared for this moment (for far longer than he would allow himself to admit) and he was damned if he wasn’t going to enjoy it after the blood, sweat and tears he and his team had put into getting to this point over the past couple of years. This was his- their- moment, the proof that there really was no substitute for good, honest hard work (with one or two half-truths thrown in there along the way…)

The car slowed before coming to a complete halt and Dani descended into heart attach territory once again. Any moment that door would open and out he would step into a world that bore only a minute resemblance to the life he had led up until now.

Looking to his to his trusted friend, his confidant, and seeing nothing but pride in his expression, Dani felt that little bit taller. He may have been alone for the first time in his career but he wasn’t on his own. And that made all the difference.

“Are you ready to face the world, Mr Prime Minister?”

Dani didn’t get a chance to answer before the door on Alberto’s side was suddenly (or not so suddenly given that they were parked) opened and the older man was left with no choice but to get out, leaving him with but a few seconds to get his shit together.

When Dani finally (and gracefully) left the safety of his car, he saw only La Moneloa standing proud and massive in front of him, the newly elected Prime Minister didn’t have to force a smile.

*****

“And this is the staff room, the safe haven amongst all the madness.” The school’s principal, Mr Suppo, cracked a smile and Marc had to admit that it was a little bit terrifying. He didn’t doubt that the older man was right, but elected not to let his mind wander down that path before he had actually set foot in his classroom. Marc laughed out of pure nerves alone, grateful when his new boss moved on before things got awkward. “I suppose now would be a good time to introduce you to your new colleagues.”

Thankfully, most seemed to be making the most of their morning before nine o clock hit and there were only a couple of people dotted on the various chairs and couches. He plastered a grin on his face as they were introduced, exchanging names and years that they had been assigned. They all seemed pleasant enough, and Marc was content that he would fit quite naturally in with the more experienced of his co-workers.

“I’m sure you’ll be very happy here,” one said and all present agreed, and Marc felt like he really would. Once all introductions had been carried out, Livio led him in the direction of his classroom, so that he could suss the place out and get comfortable before the hordes of children poured through his door.

He couldn’t wait.

****

‘Final call for Iberia flight number IB9835 to Milan, please proceed to gate number 16C for departure.’

Maria ignored the announcement. Her flight, destined for Albufeira, had been delayed for some unspecified period of time due to some freak weather conditions surrounding the Portuguese city. Really, she should have expected something like this to happen; it was just one more big ‘fuck you’ in a year that she would happily have wiped from her memory.

As if on cue, her phone pinged in her hand and Maria felt the anger begin to bubble away inside her once again. That was until she saw it was from her mother and not… him. Even so, she didn’t open it. No doubt news had reached her family that her flight had been delayed, and they were, of course, making a last gasp effort to keep her from fleeing the country for the duration of the Christmas period. This marked the first time she would spend the holidays away from home and although some little niggly feeling in the pit of her stomach told her it was the wrong thing to do, Maria knew that she had to go.

Madrid, over the past two weeks, had been suffocating her. Every restaurant, every street corner, seemed to remind her of him. Her lowering instinctively to the now vacant spot on her finger, its nakedness now that there was no longer a delicate silver diamond ring rapped around it proving surprisingly hard to get used to.

No, Portugal was what she needed right now. When a friend of hers from her college days had suggested it after he’d heard the news (it still made her cringe, how fast it had travelled), she’d been sceptical but now, sitting there with a latte in front of her, waiting for a flight that would hopefully leave sometime in the near future, Maria knew that she had made the right decision.

Just a little while longer, then she would be able to disconnect from everything for a month of self-imposed solitude.

Her only hope? That it would help her in figuring out where the hell she would go from here.

****

“Good news.”

Long past sceptical about ‘good news’ actually meant, Valentino leaned back in his chair as his manager appeared before him, frowning as he caught sight of framed posters that adorned the wall just over the other man’s left shoulder. “Go on.”

“You’re booked for Nick Harris’ morning show next Thursday, prime spot and everything,” Uccio informed him, looking suitably pleased with himself. If that wasn’t an indication of how dire the situation was, Vale didn’t know what was.

“Harris? The same guy that slated me on numerous occasions in the nineties?”

“Well, given some of the incidents, it might have been warranted. But that was years ago. It’s all history now and, well, I don’t really think you have a choice to be perfectly honest. Box office opens in what? Three weeks? If you want to have any hope of attracting an audience then you need to get yourself out there again.”

He wanted to remind his friend that he had done so on numerous occasions, that- maybe- sleeping dogs should be left to lie. But the thought of that… well, it was nothing short of depressing. And Valentino didn’t see too much harm in giving it one last try. “All right, but if he makes so much as one snide comment about that incident in the lift with George Clooney-“

“I know, I know,” Uccio assured him, I’ll make sure he knows not to mention it.”

“And the 2001 Oscars too.”

“Oscars, got it.”

“Uccio?”

“Hmm?”

Chuckling humourlessly to himself for a moment, the actor rested his chin on his intertwined fingers. “How the fuck did we get here?”

Drugs. And multiple ex-wives. “I have no fucking clue.”

****

“Mr Lorenzo?”

“What?” Realising very quickly that he had been a bit too sharp, Jorge put on a smile as he turned to look at his head of HR. “Excuse me. What can I do for you, Alvaro?”

The blond chuckled to himself, not fooled one bit by the other man’s façade. Jorge Lorenzo wasn’t a cruel boss, not by any stretch of the imagination, but get him first thing in the morning when he hadn’t had time to have his morning coffee and somehow realise that the whole business isn’t actually as fucked up as he makes it out to be every night when he’s lying in bed and it was a different story.

“This is Alex, our new intern.”

Truth be told, Jorge hadn’t even noticed the tall man (if barely so) standing beside a smaller Alvaro. Without giving it another thought (interns came and went almost as often as toothbrushes needed to be changed), he extended his hand to shake his new employee’s. “Welcome. Nice to see a new face around here.” Quite a handsome face too, in an unusual kind of way…

Alex returned the gesture enthusiastically, with intensity in his eyes that alarmed the self-made business man just a little bit. “Thank you very much, sir. I’m very excited to be working here.”

“Jorge will do; I can’t remember the last time someone called me sir. I hope you’re eager to learn.”

“Most definitely. I can’t wait to get stuck into things.”

I’ll bet. Giving a small nod, Jorge smiled once again. “Well then, I won’t keep you. I’m sure that Alvaro has lots of fun induction awaiting you.”

“That’s true, I’ve pulled out all the big ones for your first day, starting with an exclusive look at our file management system.”

Inching towards his office that was only a matter of feet away, Jorge chuckled. “Alvaro, if you come across Aleix would you tell him that I’d like a word?”

“Absolutely,” he nodded dutifully before guiding their new addition away, stopping along the way to introduce him to others bustling about the place.

Retreating to his little safe haven, the CEO shrugged off his jacket, while balancing his thankfully still piping hot Starbucks cup, and hung it on the back of the door before making the short but familiar journey around the other side of his desk. After placing his coffee down next to his laptop, he unlocked his computer, scrunching his nose up when he saw that he’d gotten 70-plus emails since leaving the office the day before. Usually he kept on top of them but, well, he had been busy keeping on top of something else entirely the previous night.

As if on cue, his eyes roamed to the spot far right hand corner of his desk that homed a picture of himself and his husband on their wedding day, not too long ago. Another smile flickered on his face before he decided to knuckle down and get started on replying to all of these, so that he had some chance of actually getting out for lunch today.

Chapter Text

“How is it going so far?”

The sudden sounding of a voice close to his ear almost made Marc jump a foot into the air. Stuffing his hands into his pockets, the weather not arctic but not warm either, he turned to see the principal standing there next to him.

“Well. They seem like pretty nice children.” He turned his attention back to the mixture of his class and others tearing about the playground, seemingly all wholly invested in a giant game of tag. He’d been given the eight to nine year old group, unsure as to whether they were more well behaved than the others or whether it had been a case of first come, first served.

“They’ll all good kids,“ Livio agreed, rolling from his heel onto the balls of his feet, “I think they’ll enjoy having someone as young as you for a teacher. God knows it’s been quite a few years since I, and many other of the staff here, graduated.”

“Are they old enough to appreciate that?”

The other man gave a little shrug. “Maybe, maybe not. But you still have a different way of doing things, and change is always good.”

Marc supposed he was right. Although he was young and newly qualified with a new take on things, it still worried him that he lacked the experience in dealing with children that his colleagues had. “That’s what I’m counting on,” the twenty three year old admitted, laughing nervously.

Livio fell quiet for a moment, and Marc was just beginning to hope for something to pull him away from the situation before it got too awkward before his boss spoke again. “There was actually something I wanted to ask you- a favour of sorts…”

“Right…” Sounds good.

“We have a tradition here, an annual nativity play. The teacher that usually organises it is the one whose maternity leave you’re covering. I just wanted to ask if maybe you’d consider directing it this year.”

On the outside, he may have looked cool but on the inside Marc was close to screaming. In what world would giving the newby the job of directing the nativity play with only 4 weeks left to Christmas be a good idea. “Me? But isn’t it a bit late to organise now?”

“Not really. Adriana has been taking care of it up until now- distributing the scripts and delegating lines and everything. Now that she’s gone, all you have to do is pull it together.”

“So are we talking a small play put on for the other children?” He decided he could probably do that.

Again with that anxious pause. Marc was beginning to realise that Livio and silence meant no good. “Not quite. It will take place in the auditorium but parents will also be invited. Like I said, it’s a bit of a tradition. And the children love it so much.”

In other words: say yes or you will ruin their Christmas. “Well… if there’s no one else that can do it I guess I could. But I can’t promise that it would be anything spectacular.”

Livio laughed. “They’re children Marc, everything is spectacular to them.”

“I suppose…”

Lunchtime seemed to fly after that not-so-little request for the principal and, before he knew it, Marc found himself back at his desk, using the excuse of waiting for the children to settle down to check his phone.

Alex: I hope you haven’t been eaten alive yet

Marc: I’m hanging in there but you’re going to laugh… :/

Alex: Go on, this sounds like it’s going to be good

Marc: Guess who’s been given the prestigious (daunting) task of directing this year’s nativity play that will be performed for all the children and parents…

Alex: I had to step into the bathroom I’m laughing so much. You really are an easy target, aren’t you?

Marc: Be quiet :P It can’t be that bad, can it? All I have to do is get them to learn their lines

Alex: And help pull together costumes. And probably give a speech before and after the show

Marc: Oh god. What have I gotten myself into :/

Alex: You never know, if you ask our mother very nicely then she might give you some pointers

Marc: I can only hope…

Marc: How’s your first day going?

Alex: Good but busy. Kinda what I expected but more friendly?

Marc: And the boss? ;) I’m kinda jealous

Alex: Haha, yet to be determined!

Marc: :( I’ll ring you later and you can tell me everything? I have to go now because I think they’re starting to get restless and I don’t want to lose control of them completely

Alex: Sure, talk to you later! Enjoy your nine to two o clock job :P

****

Phone ringing for what seemed like the twentieth time in five minutes, Ricky cursed under his breath as he looked for a place to pull in. Someone had better have been dead or dying, or else he couldn’t see a reason for harassment like that. Waiting rather impatiently for an old woman to finally fully vacate the spot, Ricky eventually parked up. Just in time for the phone to ring again.

“Aleix, so help me god-“

“Sorry, it’s an emergency!”

“What kind of emergency? I’m trying to get to work.”

“I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it out before 9 this evening. We’ve been landed with this random audit and Jorge is about to blow a gasket.”

Ricky rested his hand against his forehead as what that would mean began to sink in. “Are you fucking kidding me? Jorge knows what’s happening tonight. It’s not like you can just blow this off- it’s your brother’s stag night and you’re best man.”

“I know, but he really needs me to stay. He’s probably going to be there until all hours but said I could leave around nine. It’s going to be fine, the stag is only going to be starting at 7:30ish anyway… I’ll get changed at the office and come straight to the bar at nine and everything will be fine. I just need you to take charge of everything until I get there.”

He honestly contemplated ringing his best friend and blackmailing him into letting Aleix go for a moment before deciding that, in the grand scheme of things, taking charge for two hours wasn’t exactly the end of the world. Well, if it weren’t for… extenuating circumstances anyway. “Fine. Just send me an email with everything I need to know and I’ll steer the ship until you get there.”

“Ricky, have I ever told you that I love you?”

Not often enough. “Please hang up and get back to work so that you’re not any later than absolutely necessary.” That wouldn’t be good for either his health or his sanity.

“Hanging up. Thanks again!” Aleix’s cheerful words of gratitude were the last thing he heard before the line went dead and Ricky once again cursed to himself. As it turned out, today would be infinitely worse than he could have possibly imagined.

****

“Alex.”

Jumping, Alex frowned when he saw that the delicate flower he had been piping on the previously flawless cake was now completely ruined. Looking up, he saw the head of catering staff standing in the kitchen doorway, eyeing him in a mixture of confusion and disbelief.

“Hmm?”

“Uh, you do remember what is scheduled to happen at 11?”

The older man’s words caused Alex’s brow to furrow for a moment before their meaning finally sank in and he discarded his piping bag by tossing it haphazardly onto the counter, causing a steak of butter icing to spill out onto the granite worktop. “Shit!” Almost getting himself in a tangle as he fought to take of his apron, he sighed in relief when he finally rid himself of it, practically sprinting after his colleague down the stairs and into the main foyer where the rest of the staff had already gathered.

Skidding to a halt, Alex slotted into line next to Ana, head of interiors, trying to catch his breath before the time finally came to meet the person at whose beck and call they would all remain for the foreseeable future.

“Cutting it close, aren’t we?” she commented, eyebrow arched and cheeky smile on her face that was so typically Ana.

“I’m here, aren’t I?” was his reply but Alex knew that she could probably hear his pulse from how fast and hard his heart was beating. It appeared he did make it just in the nick of time, gradual silence descending over the staff as a group came through the door, those around him just shuffling with excitement.

Their new boss made his way through the line of people waiting to greeting and welcome him, taking a moment or two to speak to each person. After a couple of minutes, he made his way onto Ana and Alex’s pulse quickened once more, praying to god he wouldn’t make a fool of himself. Breathe, he told himself, he’s just a person, like everyone else… Except, well, he wasn’t; was he?

“… Alex Marquez, our pastry chef.”

Oh shit. All too quickly, they were standing in front of him, the man in question small than he looked on the television and in the papers, but still somehow giving off the impression of being 7 foot tall. Brain failing for him for a minute, Alex felt his cheeks flush when the other man extended his hand, the baker reacting that little bit too slowly. “Pleasure to meet you, Alex.”

Words, Alex, words… “The pleasure is all mine, Mr Prime Minister.” They shook hands, the country’s new leader’s eyes lingering on him for a moment before he nodded before he moved onto Edgar, who stood on his other side.

Once he had made his way through the remaining staff members, Prime Minister Pedrosa thanked them all for their continued work before being led up the grand staircase, in the direction of his office.

“Well, that went well…” Alex muttered to himself, lingering in the foyer for a moment longer before following his fellow kitchen staff back to their stations.

****

“Can we dim the lighting a little bit?”

The light technicians were quick to react to the director’s request, the room getting just that little bit darker as Andrea stood there, almost naked as the day he was born with only flesh coloured boxers keeping him modest as the make-up artist contoured his chest(?) and someone else sprayed him with what he presumed to be baby oil. When he had dreamed about getting his big break in a movie, this hadn’t exactly been what he was imagining. But everyone had to start somewhere, right? And being almost naked on screen paid about as well as anyone would expect.

“Andrea?”

“Hmm?”

He looked up from his now-sculpted chest to find a similarly attired man standing in front of him. What surprised him most was that they didn’t look completely dissimilar and for a moment he wondered whether he, a stand in, had a stand in of his own.

“This is also Andrea. For clarity’s sake we’re now calling you Dovi and him Iannone, okay?”

Dovi probably would have laughed if he didn’t think it would earn him a disapproving look from the hard working make-up artist.

“Nice to meet you.”

“You too.”

“Iannone is your love interest’s stand in, so it might be a good idea to become a bit familiar with each other before we start filming your scenes.”

The set manager muttered something into his radio before disappearing once again, leaving the two of them standing there in identical states of undress. Dovi supposed that he would have to get used to the awkwardness fast or filming would be a nightmare.

“First time?” Iannone enquired, with a swagger that instantly told Dovi that this wasn’t his first time and he suddenly felt the weight of his inexperience.

“Yeah.”

“It’s not that bad, honestly. After a couple of minutes you get used to it. Especially if your partner is hot.” The other man winked at him and Dovi tried hard not to blush, given how exposed he was.

He decided that this would probably be the most interesting job he would ever have.