} the world we live in

[Deleted]

I STILL WANT SOMETHING REAL

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The new twenty-four-year old was in a rush. Keani Beldivere had received a call just the day before to let her know that she was needed for a project. Of course, it was a challenge to prove her dedication to the Times. As a screenwriter, she was judged as a person with a split career. Her original plans were to work in journalism and do screenwriting on the side, but t he three projects she had just thrown at the Hollywood industry were demanding pieces that allowed little leeway. Even with her work on the blogs, the New York Times needed her. They needed more of her, so she was in New York to chase down the recent issues with Apple. With the poor Apple maps, sweat shop revelations, and poor iPhone 5 reviews, the company was in absolute turmoil, and Keani had been given an assignment to track down a few of those going on strike in front of the building. An interview in a chaotic area of the city was difficult, which didn't even include the fact that she was going to have to record most of her observations to write the assigned story. The fact that she was away from her high-budget film wasn't any better. What Blake would do without her, she didn't know, but she had to expect the best from her partner.

Keani's mind has been in clutters lately. With work filling her plate to the brim, she felt like she had no time to think about her personal life. She was out of touch with her baby brother, barely caught up with the life of her father, who was apparently beginning to consider dating again, and she had no time to wonder about Elijah Hayes. After spending a late night gushing about him to Danny and Jaiden during their brief visit to Virginia, she had thrown the thought out as impossible. Keani was no longer a romantic, instead a jaded sculpture of independence. The only men whom she relied on were merely platonic or familial. Elijah, however, was the kind of man who stuck to her brain and gave her hopeless thoughts about whether or not they would be in contact. She felt foolish for not giving him her business card, but what else could she do? She had to trust Fate. It was spiritual and borderline insane, but she was going for the external locus of control in a positive way. If it were meant to be, it would happen.

Those thoughts drifted away, though, almost yanked from her fingers when their place was replaced by thoughts of the upcoming story that was due the next day. Needless to say, her promotion was hanging in the air with her insane boss. Howard, the man in charge of the environmental journalism side of the whole paper, was arguing with the head board to keep the column in its running. With the controversy revolving around the particular field, Keani felt pressured, along with her boss, to prove that it was a necessary part of the paper. She specialized in the green portion of the blogs of the newspaper, but she wanted to delve further into the press. As a young person in the paper, she had years until she would establish her reputation as an experienced writer. For now, she was given odd jobs, blogs, and various stories that would never see the front page. She was working, though, and she had to keep a calm demeanor as she walked by the large glass cube in front of the building. Three of the men from the office were with her, also assigned to make observations and to prove that they could handle a short-notice project. Keani made her way into the crowd where the people were gathering. It seemed like they had yet to get riled up. She couldn't predict what was about to happen.

After recording the environment around her like a lab experiment, she approached various members of the crowd to interview them upon the strike and what they were there for. Each person seemed to have one of three possible issues with the company, and Keani scrutinized each one in detail. Once she could see that the crowd was becoming apprehensive, she split from it to verify that she had all of the information that she needed. The crowd was getting larger, however, and she felt frustrated and impatient with how little room she had around her. With the pushing and shoving, she was feeling belittled and disrespected. She tried to get further from the building and reached the area where various food kiosks stood. This crowd was there for food, but it was still a large group of people, so when someone bumped her shoulder, she whipped around, tired with the last straw. "This is a a sidewalk, not a stampede!" she cried, defiantly holding her hands at her sides with a pen and clipboard in hand.

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CREDIT TO OH HAI JENNERS ?! OF CAUTION 2.0

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It wasn't often Elijah got to indulge his childish side, his goofing around, pulling faces and cracking childish 'pull my finger' jokes kind of childish side. There weren't many people who could relate or understand it, hence why it rarely got to come out. But today he was out with his nephew, he had offered to take him off his brothers hand for the day. A sort of payback for letting him crash at his place for the past week and feeding him. It was a fair trade seeing as his brother and his wife probably hadn't spent enough time together in who knows how long. Logan was very particular about who he would stay with, which made it hard for them to find a sitter. And being his favourite uncle, though his only uncle too, it would mean they would get to spend some well needed time together. Elijah didn't get to see him often, one of the many problems of living on the other side of the country. He tried to make it down for birthdays and Christmas but that was no where near enough as he would have liked. But work got in the way, along with expenses and there was nothing he could do to change all of that. He could only make up for loss time in a space of a few hours. Which was what he intended to do.

He took him out to Times Square to the big Toys R' Us store and took a ride on the indoor Ferris Wheel. Elijah took this opportunity as a moment to spoil his only nephew, he treated Logan like his very own and he hoped to have a kid just as amazing as the little boy one day. Though during their day together most passerby's had assumed him to be Elijah's child, something that Elijah hadn't really bothered to correct for selfish reasons. After Times Square they went to central park and Elijah left him to play around the vast park. It wasn't the most exciting of days but he knew that Logan had had some fun and that was all that mattered to him really. They were strolling through the streets with no true aim in mind, a plan formulated by Elijah that Logan had went along with. It was their 'adventure' and they were explorers, exploring the hidden alcoves of New York. But Logan soon grew restless and hungry. he no longer cared to explore New York, he insisted he knew everywhere since he lived there, that exploring was a stupid game. Elijah only chuckled, like the men in his family Logan grew irritable when he was deprived of food. He shook his lead and led the little boy by his hand towards some food stalls.

"alright buddy, what do ya want?" he asked looking down at the little boy who was holding onto his hand. "There's hot dogs.. pretzels.. pizza?" he asked hoping to evoke a response from the boy "mama says that junk food is bad for you" the little boy looked up, all doe eyed and anxious "then we just wont tell your mama then, will we?" he ruffled the top of the boys hair playfully before directing him towards a pretzel vendor and ordering two for them. He handed the napkin covered pretzel to the boy before using his hand to guide him through the chaotic and hungry -which was never a good mix- crowd. He felt his shoulder bump against another and turned to apologise but was left dumb and without speech as he was verbally assaulted by the very woman he had not been able to stop thinking about. "You should try telling that to the other animals" he teased, referring to the jungle like scene before them. It was indeed like a herd of animals rushing to get somewhere. It was the very reason why he kept a steady hand on Logan's shoulders. The boy soon emerged at his side nibbling at his warm treat.

TAGGED keani/lam
OUTFIT here
NOTES woo! <33 apologies for the lateness

[Deleted]

I STILL WANT SOMETHING REAL

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When Keani turned to see her attacker, she did not expect to lay her eyes on Elijah Hayes. She was mortified. "I --" She stopped herself before she could say something she would regret -- or worse, something that would make her look foolish. She took a few moments to think about how strange it was that Elijah was in New York. At first, she actually didn't believe the notion. He was supposed to be in New Jersey... or on his way back. New York, though? He didn't seem to be a Times Square kind of guy. In her hidden daydreams of the man, she had envisioned lying on the top of a car and looking at stars in the Nevada desert. It was romantic and foolish to the point that the simple thought made her blush even more profusely than she was at the sight of her celebrity crush. "They're not animals. If they were, I certainly wouldn't treat them much differently from a human," she reasoned to him. Keani was a strong believer in animal rights, so she was being sincere.

Keani felt embarrassed for blowing up over a small bump on the shoulder. Granted, had it been anyone else, she would have held to her statement, but a person like Elijah didn't need scolding. It was obviously accidental, at least according to the confused expression on his face. She didn't know if she should reach out and touch him just to see if he was really in front of her face, acting like this was a normal situation. "I was being rude. I'm sorry," she told him, closing the space between them by taking a few steps in his direction. She didn't want to be separated from him again. After all, Fate had allowed them this moment.

Before she could do anything but stare with an even gaze at Elijah, she noticed a small child with him. It shocked her; she automatically thought the worst -- or, better yet, the most dramatic -- of the boy. He's a dad? she asked herself. She loved children, but this was... unexpected. She chose not to make the assumption vocal, however. Instead, she chose the smart route: asking him for clarification. "Who's this?" she asked with a grin on her face. She set the clipboard and pen in the same hand and used her right arm to support extra weight as she leaned down to meet him on an eye-to-eye level. The small boy seemed dutifully attached to his older companion. "Hi," she grinned. She held out the free hand at that moment, making sure to balance herself. She shook the small boy's hand confidently -- but not too firmly -- and released it. "Let's get out of this mess," she suggested as she led the two away from the bustle of the city crowd.

Aiming for any spot that offered less noise than the small food vicinity, Keani began to lead the two away from it and allowed them to fall into step with her just in case they had another spot in mind. There were benches here and there for others to sit at, but the tables looked unappealing, crowded, and dirty. Keani wasn't a high-maintenance person, but she preferred solitary benches over the uncleaned picnic-like tables. "I didn't know you were coming to New York, Elijah!" she exclaimed over the noise that continued until they were to reach a quieter part of the block. "Don't tell me you were looking for me," she joked innocently as she smiled at the small boy beside her friend.

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He grinned, she was as surprised to see him here as he was her. He remembered their first meeting clearly as if it had only happened yesterday. He remembered the tiny details like how her hair was styled, how her whole face seemed to light up when she laughed and how she had loosened up to him and showed him something that no all strangers were warranted. It seemed almost like a dream and that she was a figment of his over active imagination, no surely not. He couldn't possibly dream up everything in such detail, it was an impossible task. Instead he shook his head in disbelief at it all, he was tempted to pinch himself there and then. He nodded agreeing with her, though he wasn't actively involved in animal rights he still believed they ought to be treated fairly if not the same as humans. He treated his Bernese just as so, he couldn't imagine anyone wanting to cause the big guy any harm.

Elijah shook his head, dismissing her apologies. "It's okay, don't worry" he reassured her, there was no need for her apologies. The bump had been accident and he was certain there must have been a reason for her explosion, even if there wasn't he wouldn't of mind. He would've turned a blind eye to any wrong doing she may have done just because it was her. His brows rose in question before looking down and realising the root of the question. He smiled down at the boy as he watched their little interaction, Logan had held out his own hand and shook Keani's hand whilst telling her his name. There seemed to be no introduction from Elijah, the boy had it covered. Elijah agreed eagerly, standing in such a busy place was not fairing well. He could already see the irritated looks from the other patrons, the three were causing an obstacle in their race to feed themselves. He ambled alongside her with Logan in hand, he was busy eating his pretzel whilst Elijah was left to navigate for the two of them and fighting the urge to grab ahold of Keani's hand.

The further the walked, the quieter things became and Elijah was glad for that. He was never a fan of loud and hectic places. He preferred small niches dotted with only a handful of people, he was no loner but a large crowd was always overwhelming for him. "Neither did I" he confessed "it was last minute, I was planning on driving home when my brother's wife invited me to stay for a while and I figured why not?" he shrugged, he didn't have anything better to do and he was dreading the long drive back and though prolonging it would only make it worst he did so anyway. "I thought you would still be filming?" he asked, as he paused in front of a lone bench. He laughed lightly, though had he known she would be in the city he would have been doing just that. He wouldn't of passed up an opportunity to see her again for who knew when the next time would be? Today was a fluke, but he wasn't one to look a gift horse in its mouth so he didn't complain. He was glad for this moment. "Maybe a little" he joked along with her "but I think it's just luck rather than my tracking my abilities that managed to find you today" he grinned.

TAGGED keani/lam
OUTFIT here
NOTES <3

[Deleted]

I STILL WANT SOMETHING REAL

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Considering Keani's inherently cynical attitude regarding new friends, she was surprised that she was so glad to be seeing Elijah in the town she now called home. The fact that he was with her now was a pleasant surprise. Shockingly, she didn't feel the need to run away from someone who was obviously attracted to her. Instead of allowing herself the satisfaction of that notion, however, she denied it -- when Danny Crawford, her best friend, had asked about whether or not Elijah liked her, she had no idea how to react. Keani wasn't a flirt. As a woman in a fast-paced business, she was trained to be as professional as possible. Certainly, that had seeped into her personal relationships. She never intentionally flirted, but when she liked someone, she was sure it came out of her by accident. She was naive about it, but that didn't mean she was incapable of showing Elijah affection. The first impulse she felt at the sight of the man was to hug him, but she had more than enough self-control to conceal that. She hated playing it cool, but he was a near stranger. She had too much class to leap into any relationship with the next person she met at a diner.

Instead of drawing an answer from Elijah's lips, Keani's question was ignored. She knew it was unintentional -- at least, that was what she wished to believe about him. If he had a child, it was another layer to his personality. If he wanted to hide it, it would offend her. She didn't want to judge him for it. Yes, she was a twenty-four-year old who was still pursuing abstinence, but that didn't mean she was the type to point fingers at those who didn't follow her example. If she were that kind of person, she wouldn't have many friends. "So nice to meet you, Logan," she grinned, choosing to allow the question to be asked later. If Elijah didn't want to tell her that he had a son, it was fine. Because he didn't tell her who Logan was when asked, however, she felt like she had the right to make the assumption that Logan was Elijah's son. She didn't know how to feel about it, but she liked kids, so she was glad that Elijah was good with them. Something about a fatherly man was unfathomably attractive to a mature woman like Keani.

"Your brother's wife, I see," she nodded. "So I take it this isn't your son?" she asked, perplexed but still smiling through it. The framing of questions was always an interest of hers. She didn't want to sound like she didn't like the fact that Elijah had a child if Logan were his, but she wanted to laugh at the assumption with him if Logan weren't. Keani stared down at the boy while Elijah questioned her recent whereabouts. She crossed her right foot over her left as she stood and put her hands in front of her. "Well, I got a call from my job... so I had to run back and do some exercise. Since I'm young and working for The Times, I'm sort of... a toy to be played with," she explained at long length. It was true that working for such a prestigious company came with extreme expectations and numerous challenges regarding her age. Keani was young, but she also acted far more mature than most people expected. "I guess being twenty-four also means being vulnerable," she chuckled lightly. She was once bitter about the circumstance, but she knew that she was one of very few who was paid to write with some of the best journalists in the nation.

She stopped and took a seat at the bench that sat in front of them. It was empty, so she figured they should snag it while Logan finished his pretzel. She wasn't used to taking children around New York, so she had no idea where she would bring him if Elijah invited her to tag along. She was done with work for the day. She was exhausted, but she couldn't pass up the chance to get to know Elijah and whoever this Logan child was. "I never thought I'd see you again," she told Elijah honestly and wistfully. "What have you done today, Logan?" she asked him with a grin.

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