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Getting Ajay to cave on taking her shift took a good 50 minutes, a lot of begging, and a promise that Fallon would deliver him a painting of Grogu from The Mandalorian in a maximum of five days.
When he had succumbed to her begging, Charlie grabbed all of her things and bolted out of the shop and into the passenger seat of Jacob's car.
"Hey, stranger." He murmured as she pressed a kiss to his cheek.
"Good day, Duck." She smiled at him as he shifted gears, and began to drive towards set.
"So, what was the catch with Ajay? Don't tell me, is he forcing you to go to ComicCon? Because I thought you might want to come with me for the Coba Kai panel." Jacob babbled as Charlie ran a finger lightly over his knuckles.
"Jacob, no reason to worry. Fallon's making him a painting of Grogu drinking a cappuccino, so I think he'll be more than satisfied."
Jacob's eyebrows raised. "Did you consult Fallon on this?"
Charlie gave him a sheepish shrug as her knee wobbled, a sign that she was a bit nervous.
"Okay, well," Jacob started. "I will defend your honor when she tries to kill you later. Remember when I asked her to paint us as Han and Leia?"
Charlie felt a laugh bubble in her chest. A month earlier, Jacob decided that their relationship mirrored her favorite fictional one, and asked Fallon, a amateur painter if she could paint them a hilarious portrait.
Fallon threw a caramel apple at his head in response.
"So, what's the reason I'm coming to set today?" Charlie questioned. Jacob's face burned fuchsia, a sign that he was hiding something. She'd been trying to figure out why he had been so secretive for days, but found he was quite a tough nut to crack.
"Because.... because... my hair is finally going to be a different color?" His sentence ended in question.
Charlie raised her eyebrows and gave him a nonchalant nod. "Yeah, makes sense, makes sense. Hope they make it super fucking green." She said, knowing it was his least favorite color.
Jacob's nose wrinkled. "My head would look like the Hulk shat on it if they did that. Hawk would never go green."
Laughter erupted from both of them, filling the car as they zipped down the road. Charlie didn't even realize it until they started nearing the gravel pathway leading up to set, but her eyes hadn't left his face the entire drive; she was, simply speaking, hooked.
They quickly left Jacob's car, with him walking around the other side to lace his fingers with hers. He quietly lead Charlie forward, ignoring Charlie asking him every two seconds, "are we there yet?"
Being on set was always interesting to her, as most of it was made up of trailers and random props organized in lines, housing the actors, writers, directors and staffers.
"PIERCE!" Xolo's voice echoed across the set as he walked towards them, wearing a black-and-white gi. His hair had clearly just been styled, a dazzling smile painting his face as he approached them. Running after him was Fallon, who gave Charlie a wave and skipped up to pull her into a tight squeeze. She was wearing a gi similar to Xolo's, and her braided hair was twisted into a beautiful intricate bun atop her head.
"Are you here to see me in my new gi? Fallon practically jumped my bones when she saw it." He quipped and winked in her direction as he wrapped her arms around his girlfriend's shoulders. Jacob rolled his eyes and gave Xolo a small push, his eyes widening as they silently communicated. Fallon gave a loud cough as they shared a look with her.
Charlie raised her eyebrows at her friends, who were now in what looked like a poorly executed staring contest.
"You guys are a bunch of fucking noobs. And I know I am definitely not here to see your new gi, Xolo, because Fallon told me all about it during our movie night." She lilted as Fallon flipped her the bird, her cheeks burning. "So, what's the kicker? Am I getting sacrificed?"
"Yes." Fallon deadpanned, and pulled her away from Jacob. "Which is why I have to take you to a super secret place now, and you have to say goodbye to your boyfriend forever."
Charlie snorted as her friend wiggled her eyebrows and gestured for her to follow. Charlie turned back to Xolo and Jacob, giving them a half-hearted shrug as grins split open their faces. Jacob gave her a quick salute, and Charlie went bounding down the gravel to catch up with her best friend.
She had followed her to a stop in front of one of the many trailers; Fallon knocked in a stupid pattern on the door, and Charlie heard footsteps walking towards it.
"That was not the pattern we agreed on!" A voice whisper-yelled. Charlie could recognize that tone as Leo from anywhere, and laughed at the thought of him taking this so seriously.
"Come on, Leo, don't be a bitch!"
"YOU JUST REVEALED MY NAME! I hate doing this with you. If you don't knock correctly, I will seriously use one of the nunchucks in here on you. No mercy."
Fallon turned to Charlie and silently mouthed "as if he could." Nevertheless, she caved, and knocked a pattern on the door that Charlie made out to sound like the lyrics of Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream'.
Leo emerged with a sly look. "You rang?"
The only thought that crossed Charlie's mind; that her brother was a real piece of work.
Charlie followed Fallon up the steps and into the trailer. As soon as she turned the corner, she stopped dead in her tracks.
Two familiar men were sat around a small, circular table, shuffling through paper with laptops sat open in front of them.
"Jon, Billy, this is Charlotte Pierce." Jacob and Xolo had appeared behind her, Jacob now clearly in charge.
"Charlie, Jon Hurwitz, and William Zabka."
Both Jon and William stood up and held out their hands for Charlie to shake, and she reciprocated robotically, her eyes glued to Billy.
"Mr. Zabka?" Charlie's voice initially cracked.
"Most people call me Billy. Sounds younger. What's up, kid?"
"This sounds crazy, but would you at any point consider kicking me in the face? I wrote a poem about it once. Would love for it to really happen."
She heard her friends behind her trying and failing to hold in their laughter as Billy's eyes widened, his head then throwing back into a hearty laugh. Jon began to cackle, and pointed a finger at Jacob, standing behind her.
"You were right, she's funny. She'll be good at this."
Charlie was still fraught with confusion. She was in the same room as two notable screenwriters, one fo them being a fucking movie star.
"If you don't mind me asking, um, good at what? As much as it's a pleasure to be in the same room as you both..." Charlie's voice trailed off as Billy gave her a respectful smile. "I still don't know why I'm here." She finishing with a sense of finality.
"Well," Jon picked up the uptake, "We work with your, ah, significant other, brother, and friends, and through them we gained word that you're a bit of a writer?" He ended with a question.
Charlie gave him a feeble nod. "I'd like to think amateur is the best title for me."
Her friends, all piled behind her, scoffed.
"Not an amateur," Leo sang.
"Farthest thing from it." Fallon agreed as Xolo nodded.
"C'mon, Bug, no selling yourself short," Jacob whined. He nodded at Jon to continue.
"Anyways, we're always looking for young talent to come on board. We old guys can loose our touch pretty quickly, plus, we view Cobra Kai as the beginning of an expanded Karate Kid universe."
"So," Billy continued for him, "When some of your drafts from school and otherwise showed up on Jon's desk, we decided to take a look. Liked what we saw. To put it simply, we want someone like you, a natural creative with real world experiences, on board."
Charlie felt like the world had flipped upside down, like her stomach had knotted itself up permanently. She even through about quickly trying to clean her ears to see if she was hearing this correctly.
She slowly turned towards her friends, only to see them all grinning at her, Fallon practically bouncing on the balls of her feet.
"So, like, working for you? Writing for you?"
"That would be the idea, yeah!"
"HELL YEAH!" Charlie vigorously responded. Hearing her choice words, she back pedaled a bit. "Oh, oh sorry, I mean, I would love to. I cannot thank you enough, really."
Both writers shot her smiles, and began putting together paperwork. Charlie again turned to her friends, her mouth hanging wide open.
"Which one of you did —"
She didn't even have the chance to finish her sentence before Fallon, Leo and Xolo pointed to a sheepish-looking Jacob, who rubbed the back of his head awkwardly as they all stared at him.
Charlie didn't care about the other people in the room, or repercussions, or whether it would be awkward or not. She just threw her arms around his neck, and kissed him harder than she had ever before.
He melted back into her touch, one hand lacing into her hair as the other pressed into the small of her back.
Kissing him felt like love being liquidated into her veins; all she could think about was him, and her love for him, and his love and respect for her, and how did he even do this? and moreandmoreandmoreandmore until he broke for breath, his forehead pushing against hers in the silence.
"I just fucking love you, Jacob Bertrand. Thank you."
"I think I'm going to show off your talent more often if it results in this."
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MY GIRL DOING BIG THINGS IN THE WORLD SO PROUD OF HER !!!
god i fucking love my babies so much i'm so proud of how this turned out :)
that being said, this was the final chapter before the epilogue, and as a pisces i own that i'm a uber emotional person so i will try to save my tears and thank you's for when that goes up this weekend.
i love you all more than you know. thank you doesn't even begin to explain my <3 4 you guys. :)
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