Summary: Damien Nazario’s is about to turn upside down when he meets Eleanor Zhou.
Disclaimer: (most) characters belong to Pixelberry Studios. Damien is 100% human in here and Male!MC (Allen). Damien’s fc (Santiago Cabrera) gifs by @flynnomalleys and Ellie’s fc (Ni Ni) by @ivywrites(the gif used in Part 2 is @ileftthebuilding’s creation). Has anyone noticed that Ellie shared her surname with Aiden (HSS)? Yep, they’re cousins too (and Ellie is from Cedar Cove)
Pairing: Damien x OC (Ellie)
“Uh…” – Damien looked back at her, a little surprised by her sudden bluntness. – “I beg your pardon?”
But he would be lying if he said that he didn’t like listening to her cursing. Oh, he liked it, and more than he should. Seeing the swear word coming out of that pretty mouth of hers was hot.
God dammit, Damien. Get ahold of yourself, man.
“I mean, I’ve always known that they were both a little crazy. But not crazy enough to marry…” – she quickly glanced around, making sure no one could hear her. – “…robots.”
“Oh.” – he simply said. – “Don’t ask me. I don’t understand it either.” – Eleanor let out a low sigh, looking above her shoulder to the newlyweds outside, laughing about something.
“I just hope they know what they’re getting into.” – she muttered, a worrying expression on her face.
“Don’t worry. Hayden and Steve are great people. And they truly care and love your cousins.” – she nodded, but he could see that she was not fully convinced yet.
“I believe in you. It all just sound too surreal to me. I don’t know, what if they turn into evil robots?” – Damien snorted. – “Hey, this is serious!” – the woman had an angry expression on her face and their eyes locked for a moment, before they both burst off laughing. – “Okay, this sounded a little silly, I confess.”
“Yeah, it sounded.” – he agreed, still chuckling. “But I assure you that you have nothing to worry about. They’re their Perfect Matches, after all.” – he said the last sentence with bitterness in his voice.
Ellie stopped laughing instantly as her eyes suddenly shined mischievously:
“Someone sounds a little hurt…”
…What?
“I’m not.” – he stated, frowning.
“Well, your behavior says exactly the opposite.” – she said with a sly grin spreading through her red lips.
“What do you mean?” – he crossed his arms and stepped back.
“This. First, drinking as if there was no tomorrow and now acting so defensive.”
Damien was wordless. That was one of those rare times that he didn’t know what to say. Who was this woman who had just met him but could read him like an open book? Why he felt like he was under some kind of spell?
But before he could say or do anything, they heard Nadia calling for her:
“Ellie?! Where are you?! There’s someone that I want you to meet!”
Eleanor shouted back to her cousin saying that she was coming, before turning back at him.
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Nazario.”
And then, Eleanor Zhou turned around and Damien watched – still paralyzed by her – the woman in red walking outdoors to where her cousin was waiting for her.
…Jeez, he needed another drink.
Damien spent the day after the double wedding on his bed, completely hangover. After Allen’s and Nadia’s cousin had left him alone, he decided to leave the party. He knew that he was supposed to stay until the end – as their Best Man -, but it was being simply torture watch Allen all happy in Hayden’s arms.
But of course he couldn’t leave before saying goodbye to him. So he wished Allen and Hayden a safe honeymoon and told his best friend that he was happy for him one more time (and he truly was), before excusing himself. He left before Nadia had the opportunity to complain his early departure – thankfully, she was too busy introducing her cousin to one of her artists friends. Eleanor didn’t see him left the party too, thank God – and Damien went to his favorite pub, Archer and Hopps. And he spent the rest of the night there drinking. He wasn’t sure how he got home, but he suspected that his good old friend Flynn helped him to come home.
As soon as he felt a little better and less dizzy, on Sunday night, he took a quick shower and ordered Thai food for dinner. Damien opened his drink cabinet and pulled out a Bacardi before settling down on his couch and turning the TV on to watch the news while he ate (and drank some more).
He passed out on the sofa, wasted again.
Although she was on vacation from her work, Eleanor woke up bright and early on Monday. She was in New York and she would enjoy every single minute while she was there. She had already gone to Central Park the day before, reviving some of her childhood memories – Nadia’s mom would always take the three of them to spend a whole day there when she came to the Big Apple on holidays with her parents – and today she would go shopping!
…After she took Dipper on her morning stroll.
That was another reason why she took that one week vacation. Allen asked her to take care of his dog while he was away. Usually, he asked Nadia to take care of the dog, but she had her own honeymoon too, so he had to ask this favor to his other cousin. And Ellie gladly accepted it, since she herself had a 4 year old yellow Labrador Retriever, Freddie. She considered bringing him to NY, but he and Dipper could not get along and that would be a problem. Freddie didn’t like to share, especially Ellie’s love and attention. So she left him home in Northbridge, under the care of her best friend, Lucy.
Eleanor had just came back to Allen’s apartment in Brooklyn after taking Dipper for a walk, when she received an email. It was her boss asking her the layouts of the pages with the photoshoot pictures that Poppy sent the week before.
“Shit!” – she cursed, before running to her cousin’s bedroom to grab her laptop. She kept swearing, calling her boss names (she was on vacation after all!) as she tried to connect to Allen’s Wi-Fi…
…But she didn’t know his password. She searched for it throughout the whole apartment, any sign of what could be his password, but she found nothing. She tried a lot of combinations, but none of them worked.
Ellie cursed again and texted Allen (and Nadia) asking for it, but she knew that he wouldn’t answer her. He was on his god dammit honeymoon! He was busy. He wouldn’t be looking through his phone.
“Fuck!” – she yelled, after almost an hour trying to log on.
Then, she remembered something. She grabbed her phone again and scrolled through the contacts, stopping by a new name, listening to Allen’s words inside her head:
“If you need any help, Damien is the man! He’ll help you with anything! All you need to do is call him.”
And, without thinking twice, she pressed “call”.
Damien woke up with a terrible headache. He slowly sat up, rubbing his hand on his sore neck. He slept on the couch, again. And he was wearing the clothes from the day before and the TV was still on. He turned it off, realizing that the reason why his head seemed that it was going to explode was because someone was trying to knock his door down.
“Ugh… what time is it?” – he thought to himself, wobbling towards the door of his apartment. – “Is it Nadia? Why didn’t she simply came in? She has my key anyway…”
But the woman outside wasn’t Nadia.
“Finally!” – she yelled when he opened the door. It was Allen’s and Nadia’s cousin. The Third Park. And then he remembered that his friends were away on their honeymoons. Fuck. – “Oh my God, are you hangover?!”
“Uh… what? What are you doing here? How do you know where I live?” – he asked Eleanor, who looked disapprovingly at him, her arms crossed.
“Unbelievable.” – yep. She definitely was a Park. Her reaction was the same as Nadia’s. – “Don’t you have a little of self-love, Nazario?”
“You didn’t answer my questions. What–”
“Allen told me to call you if I needed any help so, just in case, he gave me your number and address. And I need help right now, so here I am.” – she shrugged. He didn’t move a muscle. – “Are you going to stand there and look at me the whole day or what?”
He gave her space to enter his apartment. She quickly glanced around. It looked… not a completely mess.
“But what are you doing here? In New York, I mean?” – he asked, still acting a little defensive.
“Allen asked me to take care of his dog while he’s away, so I’m living on his apartment this week.” – he opened his mouth to say something, but she interrupted him: – “Listen, if I knew that you were too busy sleeping, I wouldn’t have come here. But I really need your help. Of course I tried to contact him, but he won’t pick up, obviously. And I need your help, Damien.”
They looked at each other’s eyes for a few seconds, before he let out a sigh, crossing his arms.
“Alright. What can I do to help you?”
“I need Allen’s Wi-Fi password.”
Damien blinked a few times.
“…Do I look like someone who knows this?”
“No. But you’ve been to his house before, so I bet you have his Wi-Fi saved on your phone. All you need to do is come with me so, as soon as we get there, your phone will automatically connect and you’ll tell me what his password is.”
“…This actually makes sense.” – he confessed after a few seconds staring back at her. Eleanor rolled her eyes.
“Of course. I have a brain too, Nazario. And mine is not drowned on alcohol.” – she answered him, before opening the apartment door. – “Now, shall we?” – she said, with a grin.
As Eleanor said, as soon as they stepped on the hall of Allen’s apartment, Damien’s phone connected to his Wi-Fi. Dipper happily greeted them when they entered, the woman quickly typing the password on her laptop.
“YES!” – she yelled when it connected and soon opened her email.
The man looked around the apartment, feeling a little uncomfortable. It was strange being there with no sign of Allen.
“Uh… so I guess I better go now…”
“And drink until you pass out again? No! Stay here!” – Ellie said, her eyes glued on her computer. – “Make yourself comfortable, I know that’s what Allen would have said.”
Shit. She knew exactly what to say to convince him.
Hesitantly, he sat down on Allen’s couch, with Dipper following him, her tail wiggling.
“Hey girl, calm down.” – he awkwardly patted her on the head as she licked his hand. Damien never cared much about pets, but Dipper was a good dog.
He watched Ellie working on her computer sitting by the dinner table, speaking to herself, cursing her boss.
And then, Damien slowly fell asleep.
“Finally! Now I’ll see it only next Monday, when I go back to work!” – Eleanor spoke to herself as she turned the computer off. It took more time than she expected, but at least she was finally free.
And then, she remembered that Damien was there. He had been so quiet that she almost forgot about him.
She looked over her shoulder and saw the man sleeping on the couch, his neck on a strange angle, with Dipper sleeping on his feet. Ellie admired the view for a few seconds.
Yes, Damien Nazario definitely was handsome, even hangover and sleeping.
She carefully sat on the couch next to him. Dipper immediately woke up, her tail wiggling at the woman, who stroked her fur.
“Uh… hey, Damien…” – she said softly, trying to not startle him. – “Damien…?” – she gently squeezed his arm, finally waking him up. He blinked a few times, getting on his surroundings and then his sleepy dark brown eyes fell on her. She smiled. – “Hey. You fell asleep.”
“I… uh…” – he still was tongue tied. It was not every day that he was awakened so gently by a beautiful woman next to him. Eleanor stood up, walking around the living room.
“Why don’t we go grab something to eat? It’s 2 p.m. already and we still haven’t eaten.” – she grabbed her purse. – “Let me pay for your lunch. You know, for helping me. And I feel that we started off on the wrong foot. So consider this my redemption.”
He stood up too and walked towards her.
“You don’t need to; it was the least I could do. And I’m sorry if I was a little rude to you.”
“It’s okay, I was being a little rude myself. Showing at your house like that and demanding for your help. I would be in a bad mood too if I were I your shoes. But I thought Allen would at least had told you about helping me…”
“Well, he was head over heels because of the wedding. I bet he just forgot.” – he saw that mischievous grin on her lips again. – “What?”
“You do like him, uh?”
Damien said nothing, but the shade of red that suddenly raised on his face spoke to him. He simply turned around and opened the apartment door.
“Lunch. Let’s go grab some lunch.” – he said, stepping out on the hallway. Ellie let out an evil laughter before following him.
Damien took them to eat some kebab from a food cart.
“I love how you can find every piece of the world here in New York.” – Eleanor said, eating her own lunch. – “Especially on street food!”
“If you haven’t eaten something from a food cart, then you didn’t have a full New Yorker experience.” – Damien said, feeling satisfied. The kafta was great. – “Thanks for the lunch by the way. I forgot my wallet at home when someone came and kidnapped me.”
Eleanor giggled. He liked the sound of her laughter.
“I’m sorry, okay?!” – he chuckled back. – “But you’re not from here, are you?”
“No. But I’ve been living here for almost seven years. I’m Puerto Rican. And you… you’re not fully Korean, are you? Because of your surname.”
“No, I’m not. My father is Chinese, so this is why my surname is different from Nadia’s and Allen’s. Their fathers are my mom’s brothers.”
“So you’re half-Chinese and half-Korean.” – she nodded. – “Interesting. Nadia is mixed too. Only Allen is fully Korean. Although his parents met each other here.”
“That’s right. What an amazing thing is the globalisation, uh? I love it. Getting to know new places, new cultures, new people.”
They walked down the street, and Damien couldn’t hold back a smile listening to Ellie’s excitement. The more he knew her, the more he was intrigued by Eleanor Zhou, as he first felt when he met Allen and Nadia, six years ago… And the more it was confirmed that she was a Park. She had that cheerful view of life that he always admired on the Parks, even though she seemed more down to earth than her cousins.
“So. Where are we heading to now?”
“I’m going to work.” – he answered her. Those cases weren’t going to solve by themselves.
“I thought you were going to give me a fully New Yorker experience!” – she pouted.
“And I just did. You ate from a food cart. You should go eat a bagel next.”
“Jerk.” – she said and they shared a laugh. Damien felt like it’s been a while since he laughed this much. – “Alright, I guess I’ll have to carry my bags alone. Sigh.”
“You didn’t just said ‘sigh’. Who does it?”
“I do, when I am frustrated. Sigh.” – he chuckled. Eleanor was a little weird, but she was cute too.
Was it another Park trait? How could all of them be so adorably weird?
He hesitated for a second, wondering. Should he do it?
Damien knew that he should turn around and go away.
Don’t get involved with another Park.
“But, uh… maybe we could… go drink tomorrow night. If you feel up to a night out in New York, I mean.” – the words simply came out of his mouth before he could hold them back.
And then, he saw that sly grin on her face again.
“I don’t see why not. Pick me up at nine? On Allen’s apartment.”
“Okay. Uh, I better go now. You have fun shopping.”
“Wait, I better give you my number. Just in case, right?” – she said, stepping closer to him, before he walked away. Her brown eyes shined mischievously.
“Oh. Yeah, sure.” – he grabbed his phone and she told him her number. – “Okay. Uh… you have my number, right?”
“Yeah. See you tomorrow night, Damien.”
And he watched her walking towards the nearby subway station.
He looked down to his hand, her number still glowing on the screen of his phone.
Fuck.
Damien Nazario knew that he was screwed up.