WHO: Griffin and Maylin Lee WHAT: Time at home and contemplating the future WHEN: October 18, 2019 | evening WHERE: Their home in Venice Beach, CA RATING: Fluff
"Finally asleep," Griffin said as he reached the bottom of the stairs, smiling across the room at his wife. A glance at the clock made the grin even wider. "Beat my record by three minutes, too. I think the new rocking chair is really helping. Turns out Grandma was right...again."
He chuckled as he tossed his wand onto the coffee table and sank onto the couch next to her, careful not to jostle the cushions enough to dislodge the book in her lap or upset the glass of wine in her hand. He slid an arm around her shoulders. "What's the area of study tonight?" His tone was teasing, though the question was a genuine one. "Awards season is still a couple of months off, so I assume it's nothing for me." His grin took on a goofy slant.
Maylin hadn’t been so engrossed in her work that she hadn’t noticed Griffin come downstairs. She smiled at him when he came down triumphant. “Reminds me to thank her the next time we are talking to her then,” she said regarding the rocking chair.
She took a sip of her wine before Griffin came to sit with her. He hadn’t jostled her and Maylin settled in against her husband’s side when he sat on the couch with his arm around her. “Do you think you’ll be going to the awards shows?” Maylin teased him and leaned over to kiss his cheek. “Or perhaps as my date?” she teased him even more. “I’m looking at the final details of the winter collection.”
Griffin clasped his free hand against his chest to match the expression of mock affront on his face. "Do I think? What part of this last year makes you think that Tony and I aren't a shoe-in for Best Duo? Have you seen the fan art?" His face relaxed back into its usual smile and he returned her kiss with one of his own at her temple. "Regardless, I'll always be your date. No one wants to look at me when you're on the red carpet."
He glanced over the visible pages. Fashion was most definitely not his Thing—as his current sweatpants and holey t-shirt could attest—but after the years with Maylin, he could at last recognize the design elements of what he was seeing, even if he didn't precisely understand the individual choices. "Everything in order? Or is this one of those 'send everything back' kind of years?"
Maylin giggled to herself at her husband pretending to be offended. “I’m not sure critics take fan art into account, my love, though I am perfectly aware of it.” Griffin had become significantly more popular since his romantic storyline with Tony W. It was better than fans fawning over him with some teenage girl anyway. She was not so secretly a fan herself.
What wasn’t a secret was Maylin’s absolute loathing of Griffin’s holey t-shirts. Sweatpants, she could tolerate (at home only) but Maylin systematically got rid of those t-shirts as the first opportunity. She didn’t mind adding to Griffin’s wardrobe and helping him pick out what to wear… but at home she refrained and he tested her. “Actually, everything does appear to be as right as rain. It’s not like the Fall collection at all where they all slacked when I was indisposed.” Maylin of course meant being at the end of her pregnancy, labour and the first few weeks of dealing with Phoenix being in the world.
"Well, they should. Some of that stuff is amazing." Griffin had had it plastered all over the walls of his trailer back on the Art & Soul set, but now it was unfortunately relegated to a box in the office. One of these days, he'd figure out how to immortalize it properly, but it seemed a little weird to have drawings of him kissing someone other than his wife hanging in his living room.
"And a little early, too, if my timetables aren't off?" Then again, every day it seemed like he was going to look up and Phoenix would be walking. The last two months had gone by fast—often far too fast, but he still wouldn't change it. "I guess having the boss lady checking in on them more has a way of making things run smoother. Odd how that happens, huh?"
Maylin was also relieved that she didn’t have to have a conversation with Griffin about framing his boy love Art & Soul fan art on the wall. It would be incredibly problematic when her parents came to visit… “That is a fan reflection of your acting, darling. You give more than enough for the critics to examine.” She did understand that Griffin did enjoy his fans, and they were certainly a different type of fan from his dueling career.
“By a couple days. I had to increase efficiency,” Maylin said and finally closed the book and set it aside. She also finished off her glass of wine. One glass was all she was allowed, and after nine months of no drinking, it was more than enough to remind her she was a lightweight right now. She was now hands free, and Maylin moved to cuddled up next to Griffin. “Have I told you how wonderful you are, today?”
"I'm pretty sure it's more a reflection of my muscles than my acting," Griffin teased. He only partially believed it, but praising his own abilities in anything other than a playful manner seemed like it might jinx things in the pre-award season, so he wasn't going there.
He wrapped the arm around her shoulders a bit tighter, sliding the other around to encircle her. "Not in at least the last hour, I think?" He kissed the top of her head. "Got to find any way to inflate my ego that I can, you know, since Phoenix isn't budging on the whole 'Mom's my favorite' thing." He smiled both at the thought of his son, but even more picturing Maylin holding the baby. Two months, and it still hadn't gotten old. Somehow, he doubted it ever would.
“I mean, I am partial to your muscles too,” Maylin teased back. She did understand that Griffin didn’t like to be too boastful, and she admired that about him as well.
She sighed very content as she felt the tight embrace of her husband’s arms. Maylin smiled at that thought too because well… they hadn’t even been married for a whole year yet either. “Well, you are wonderful,” she said and smirked at the comment of how she was Phoenix’s favorite thing. “That’s only because Mommy means food. It’s hard to compete,” she teased him.
"Aaaah, the food thing. I always wondered why you give me those adoring looks when I come bearing snacks." Griffin laughed and leaned down so that he could kiss the tip of her nose. "But no, that's not it. My boy's far too smart to only like you for one reason. Personally, I'm fond of these hands." He dropped one arm from around her to wind his fingers through hers.
“I’m not sure that is accurate,” Maylin said looking at Griffin with a laugh but was confused. “Sometimes you just annoy me when you come looking for snacks,” she teased, especially since he was kissing her nose. Maylin did smile at the further argument of Phoenix being smarter than that. “Phoenix is so cuddly. I love holding him.”
"I said bearing, not looking...but if you're gonna be ungrateful, see if I ever come with red velvet in hand ever again." Griffin gave her a pout. His expression quickly turned back to something that he'd started thinking of as his 'stupid dad grin' and not even caring that it had gotten him a few strange looks. Granted, he'd been outside the house and hadn't had his son with him at the time, but that hadn't stopped the goofy smiles from coming. "Especially when he's sleepy but keeps waking himself up."
Maylin reached to poke Griffin in his side when called her ungrateful. “I’ll never be ungrateful but sometimes you just are too tempting,” she teased, especially when he saw him pouting. Perhaps she also just needed to pay attention more.
She looked up to see when Griffin’s expression changed to her dad grin which she actually loved. “Well, as long as he’s not crying when he wakes up,” Maylin pointed out. “But I do love just… holding him. Watching him look at me, and feel him curl up.”
Griffin hugged her tight to his chest, overwhelmed for the moment with the joy that was his life. It wasn't the first time he'd been struck with it in the last year, for both personal and professional reasons, but it didn't stop the trailing feeling of disbelief that he could possibly be such a lucky bastard for so many reasons. "Me, too," he said softly, and this time when he leaned down, it was to catch her lips with his. "I love this, too."
Maylin giggled as Griffin hugged her tightly. Family had always been something she’d seen as responsibility while growing up or a means to help you be successful. Griffin proved her wrong. Their little family made her exceptionally happy. “I love this and I love you too,” she said after pressing her lips to his. And then immediately kissed him again, pressing her hand to his cheek to keep him there.