You woke up super early the next morning, early enough to go and take a shower before Eli would arrive. You then started preparing your photography material, starting with your camera, making sure it was in your bag; the batteries – you had bought one more battery in the past month just to be on the safe side -, making sure they were charged; your lenses, making sure you had the three of them, two in your bag and one on the camera itself – for the occasion you decided to start shooting with the 50mm because it had become quite easily your favorite focal length for portrait; a polarizing filter you had bought for yourself, in case you’d like to do something else than portrait during the day; a diffuser and a reflector, for better light conditions; and your lens cleaning kit, just in case there’d be ‘that one’ annoying little dust spot that would just keep being in the way.

The next step was getting the rest of your stuff ready for the day, waiting for your hair to dry, not dressed yet so you wouldn’t drench your shirt. You grabbed a few packs of tissues, knowing your allergies; your money, because you’d obviously need it to eat at some point since you’d spend the day moving from place to place, eventually eating in town; your cellphone, because you always had it with you just in case; your iPod, for the way back while Eli would go home his own way; and your earphones, because they wouldn’t be as much in the way as your headphones, and you, well, needed them to listen to your music on the way back home.

By the time you were done with that, your hair wasn’t done drying yet, so you went on your laptop and started reviewing a few portrait photos you loved, to gather inspiration for the day. It was still dark outside, which made you feel drowsy, but it was better like this. You wanted to take advantage of the sunrise to have a beautiful light. The place where you planned to start shooting saw the sun rising every morning, so it was the best place to get started. You chuckled, noticing you hadn’t even thought of that the day before, preoccupied as you were thinking about how you’d survive the LightRoom fun of those photos…

You sighed when you took a look at the time. Eli would be there in just a few minutes and your hair wasn’t dry yet. Oh well, you weren’t that obsessed with dry hair anyway, so you got dressed, choosing simple, comfortable clothes for the day: dark jeans and a black tank top. You had absolutely no plans to be in the photo yourself, so it didn’t matter if you didn’t look stylish. You still grabbed a black flower you really liked having in your hair, just for the sake of having it, and because it was useful to pin your bangs down when they kept getting in your face, and you added chains to your pants just because you liked having them. You added your spiky belt because your pants were too loose for you and because it was the only belt you had, and you nodded, looking at yourself in the mirror. Yep, add those snickers on and you were good to go.

You took a look at the time, and grabbed your bag and your keys before heading out, locking your door, walking down the corridor, jumping down the stairs until you were on ground level. You walked out of the building and chuckled when you saw Eli standing near a streetlight, eyes closed, chilling while waiting for you, his seemingly stuffed bag at his feet. And, his jacket, dude.

You silently grabbed your camera and approached, holding your chains into place so they wouldn’t jingle and alert him of your presence – saying it like this made you felt like an Assassin’s Creed character -, and you walked just close enough to get a few good pictures before he could even look up and notice you. The shutter made a lot of noise, but you didn’t care; the photos had been taken, it was done, he couldn’t complain, and you didn’t need to make him go back into the pose he had taken, probably without even noticing.

He smiled when he saw you, and you turned your camera off.

“Hey,” he said softly. “Ready to go?”

“Yep.”

“Didn’t you bring a jacket? Without the sun it’s actually pretty chilly…”

“I don’t need that. I’m always dying of overheat.”

“Well, tell me if you’re cold. I have hoodies and jackets in my bag. Along with other clothes if we want to change style in the middle of the day. For night photos, I also brought a scarf and a long coat, and- why are you looking at me like this?”

“… you’re way too used to photoshoots, dude. I feel like an idiot for not thinking about anything like that. you.”

He laughed softly, and you noticed he had put on makeup in a more stylized way than his usual delicate line of guyliner. Well, , eh.

“Sorry! I just thought that’s what usually happens, we have like tons of different clothes to put on, and stuff.”

“And you have makeup. More than usual.”

“Yeah, I did put some on… you noticed?”

How the am I supposed not to notice it, face. “Yeah.”

“Do you think it looks okay? I mean, usually I’m not the one putting it on, so I just did it accordingly to my memories…”

“Yeah, yeah, it looks passable,” you said apathetically, doing as if you didn’t really care to hide the fact that you just wanted to run home and cry in a corner from the hotness that was sprayed as a concentrate right up in your face.

You had always thought he was hot. But today, he was the definition itself of hotness. You had no idea of how you’d survive the day. You’d probably just try your best and throw yourself in the river at some point because you couldn’t stand it anymore. Nah, you wouldn’t do that, the water was disgusting and your camera would die from it. Plus, those photos would be left as RAW files on the memory card for eternity. Nah, you couldn’t do that, definitely. You were forced to survive the day for the sake of those RAW files.

“Anyway, let’s go,” you said softly, putting the cap on your lens and walking towards the school. Eli followed behind you, as he always did, not too close but not too far either. Just close enough to let you know he was following you, but not close enough to invade your privacy. A little gust of wind filled your nostrils with his oh God divine-smelling cologne, just to be one ing tease.

Three minutes later, you were exactly in the spot you wanted to be. Eli put his bag down in a safe place and walked to the wall, naturally and immediately taking on a badass pose. You mentally, briefly hated him to death for being so hot, but you did as if nothing happened and grabbed your camera, setting your stuff so you could take photos without them being blurred. Concentrated on the artistic side of photography, you decided you’d drool on your laptop later. For now, it was better to compose your photos correctly and use all of your photography experience and knowledge, which was not a lot for now, to at least have one good photo taken that day. You carefully looked at the background to make sure you didn’t make a streetlight pop out of his head or anything, and you took a few shots at that angle before moving, changing the angle while making him keep the pose. Since you weren’t very experienced, you wanted to try a LOT of angles with a single pose to see what would make him look better. You of course avoided having a perfect view of the inside of his nostrils, because it was obvious it wouldn’t be very flattering, and you also made sure to focus on his eyes, whether they were looking at you or not.

At some point the sun started rising, tinting the sky with a beautiful orange tint, and you took a few photos of the sky too before continuing the photoshoot.

You stayed there until your 4GB SD card got full. By then, the sun was already shining bright in the sky, and you changed for a 8GB SD card before putting your bag back on.

“Let’s go to Old Montreal and see what we can do over there,” you decided.

“Sure.”

He got his back too and followed you. You went to take the metro, got down at Beaubien just to go and buy a tripod – that he, of course, insisted on buying for you – before heading out to Champ-de-Mars, walking to the river, growling because you had to climb up before going down. You thought it was pretty stupid to have to do that, seeing how you had zero endurance because you hated sport with a passion, but hey, it was for the sake of photography, so you were okay with it. Kind of.

You smiled when you saw the river slowly flowing in front of you, and you leaned against the metal fence, breathing in deeply. Eli arrived next to you, smiling too, looking hotter than ever.

“Happy?” he asked softly, his dark eyes plunging into yours.

“Yeah. I like coming here. It’s pretty.”

“You don’t mind me being here with you? I must ruin it a little…”

You chuckled. Oh, that idiot. And it was so obvious, despite the fact that you were trying to hide it…

“It’s okay, I guess. I get to practice my photography skills. I never have anyone to practice on. Having an experienced model is pretty cool for this first ‘real’ photoshoot.”

“Then it’s okay that I’m here?”

“Yeah.”

He smiled widely, and you could feel waves of happiness just flowing out of him.

“I’m glad, then! By the way, your English became better over the past month.”

“I’m stuck speaking English everyday, so…”

“Your pronunciation’s better, too.”

“Your French is still as horrible, though.”

“Oh. Well, yeah. I’m not exactly good at learning languages…”

“Says a guy who fluently speaks Korean.”

“Hey, it was pretty tough for me to learn it… and I need to speak it everyday for work when I’m in Korea.”

“But Kevin understands your English perfectly.”

“AJ understands it pretty well too. But I need to practice my Korean more, so I speak in Korean with everyone.”

“And you tweet in English.”

“Because more fans understand English.”

“And yet you’re not even trying to practice your French?”

He looked down a little, chuckling sadly. “Well, I’ll be leaving in one month. So it won’t be very useful to learn it.”

You bit your lower lip discreetly. That idiot. But he was right. You had planned on hating him until the very end so he would leave you alone. You still wanted him gone. You didn’t hate him anymore, but you still wanted him gone. His hotness was impossible for you to handle. Your grades had actually dropped recently because he was always sitting next to you and preventing you from focusing in class.

“Still, you could practice it. I heard you went to Paris for a show. But you just spoke in English except for when you introduced yourself.”

He frowned, looking at you. “How do you know that? You actually watched it?”

Dozens and dozens of times, because your French sounds adorable and because Kevin looks too happy. “Yeah, once.”

“I see…” he said, looking back at the river. He straightened up. “Anyway, let’s keep on playing pros?”

You rolled your eyes. “You ARE pro, idiot.”

“So what? I like working with you. It’s different of having someone telling you what to do at all times. I like choosing a few poses myself, and being directed for others. And since this is just for fun, I don’t need to play a character. I can be myself.”

Oh. Cause ‘being himself’ involved being hot as Hell and making you nosebleed all over the place. Oh. Yeah, sure. Cause that was totally fair.

You rolled your eyes and chuckled. “Anyway, let’s continue this photoshoot.”

“Yep!”

He leaned against the fence, looking y as , and you sighed, pressing the shutter button.