PICTURE PERFECT // Jack Manifold X Reader

12

Jack led you and the twins to a little sandwich shop not too far from where you had just been shooting after you stowed your things in the car safely. The place wasn't too big, but there was a nice feel to it. From your booth at one of the windows, you had a good view of the rest of the place - all themed in turquoise and light grey and woody tones. The most interesting thing in the whole place though (in your opinion at least) was the old jukebox playing slow love songs from the corner.

You rested your arm on the table as you flipped through the menu. The twins were sharing a menu across from you, going back and forth about what they wanted to split. Next to you, Jack flipped through his own menu, humming idly.

"What are you getting?"

You glanced back down at the menu in front of you. "I was thinking about the fancy chicken sandwich thing. Looks interesting."

"Yeah, I was between that and a wrap." Jack said. "I think I'll probably go wrap..."

A few minutes later, a waitress came to collect your menus and your orders, carrying them back to the kitchens. It was then that the twins pulled out their phones, and Jack turned to you, one eyebrow raised.

Quietly, he asked. "They always like this?"

You nodded, a little smile coming to your face. "It's work, most of the time - you know, scheduling shoots and whatnot. Although sometimes it's reading. They have this one series they read over and over again - supposedly it's quite good."

"Bookworms, yeah?" Jack said. "What about you? You big into books?"

You shrugged. "The normal amount, I suppose. I was into them more when I was younger."

"Yeah." Jack said. "I've been meaning to try and get back into reading more now that I have more free time. That's the nice thing about doing YouTube full time - free time while things are rendering."

"Must be nice." You said. "It seems kind of stressful, having that many people watching you all the time, but the creative freedom is a major plus."

"Yeah, exactly." Jack said. "It's crazy how you can just do whatever you want online. Like, obviously I never thought I was going to build a career out of Minecraft, but if you do something for long enough and you do it well, people will start to notice. And there's a market for everything on the internet - even Minecraft roleplay, apparently."

"Well I mean, you're doing something right." You said. "You've got over a million subscribers, and you're putting out merch."

Jack smiled. "It seemed like the next thing to do, you know? Like, you get a million subscribers and you start working on merch. It's the YouTube circle of life."

You laughed a little at that. "I have to say, I was a little surprised when you reached out and said you needed a photoshoot for merch. Most of the other inquiries were about like, family events or portraits or things."

"I'm glad I reached out though." Jack said. "The pictures that you have on your website look really good, and you had the best rate out of any of the other photographers I looked at." He paused. "And, you were super nice and easy to work with, so that's a major plus."

You smiled at the praise - it was good to hear, especially since you had worried a little bit about this being your first ever job; you wanted to make a good impression, after all. "Thank goodness." You said. "I don't know what I would do if you left a terrible review."

Jack snickered. "One out of five stars. Didn't let me pay for the over time properly so I had to take them all out to lunch instead. Would not recommend."

You laughed, reaching over to grab you water and taking a sip. "I wasn't going to let you pay for time we didn't even properly use, c'mon. Those pictures won't even make the first round of cuts."

"So what kind of edits are you going to make?" Jack asked. "Like, is it photoshop-type things, or..?"

"Most fixes like lighting and weird shadows and red eyes." You said. "Simple stuff like that. Of course, I'll also probably put some filters on to make the designs really pop and things like that too. We did a whole unit in class on editing for commercial purposes, so I'll get to use all that knowledge."

"So you're not going to magically change my face into a more handsome version of me." Jack said, nodding along.

"I wouldn't have to change much, even if I did." You said, playing along. "Maybe add some hair, but that would be it-"

"Oi!" Jack laughed, running a hand over his head. "I've got some hair now. It's there!"

"Barely." You said, laughing along. "If you didn't have your eyebrows, I wouldn't be able to tell what color your hair would be."

"Bullshit." Jack said, pulling out his phone so that he could look at himself in the camera. "You can tell that it's brown without having to look at my eyebrows... right?"

You snickered to yourself as Jack kept running a hand over his head, fiddling with his hair. Across the table, Ty caught your eye, glancing up over the edge of his phone. There was a twinkle in his eye that you weren't expecting - and that you didn't quite know what it meant. You raised an eyebrow back at him, only for him to shrug and look back down, leaning over to show his sister something.

He was teasing you about something, you just didn't know it was. Maybe there was something on your face?

Still, it didn't matter too much, because the waitress was coming back with your food, and phones were being slid back into pockets as she set the plates down in front of you. The conversation changed to pop culture as you began to eat, and you grinned as Jack and Dawn got into a little bit of a fight about their favorite rappers.