Serena had woken up at her desk, looking quite untidy and yawned glancing at the clock, earlier that afternoon to realise she'd fallen asleep doing edits and she was having a guest over in a couple hours. It then dawned on her after (much) caffeine that her apartment was a massive mess, Serena was an odd person for organisation. For one thing, her bedroom was always neat. Her closet was organised impeccably and colour coordinated.

But the rest of her apartment, tended to get quite a mess, the only area saved by the mess-bomb was the kitchen, which was always in perfect shining order.

So Serena spent a couple hours running around cleaning and then hastily jumped into the shower, she was still busy sorting out her wet hair when the doorbell rang and she hastily pulled on a a sleeveless teal top with the word 'Paramore!' emmblazened across it and dashed to the door to open it.

She swung it open, comb still in her hand and grinned wide. "Devon! Come in, I've got the show on my laptop, you just caught me finishing getting ready!" She leaned forwards to offer him a one armed hug.

Dress for success was often Devon’s motto. He tried to do what he could. He wasn’t specifically looking to impress Serena of course. They were friends after all, nothing more… No, but he could still dress up and look quite dashing while hanging with a friend. You never knew when you might decide to pup down to a tapas restaurant, the bar, whatever. This was New York City after all.

Thus Devon wore a rather asset-enhancing pair of Calvin Klein jeans, a thick cuffed black button down, and a thin but stylish peacoat he’d gotten on sale. He didn’t have to worry about getting cold after all and he’d gotten it on sale. The eyes he caught on the subway were kind of nice too. The dressing up was already worth it.

Devon was also a good quest and grabbed a bottle of Malbec. Wine was a good visit gift right? He sure hoped so as he’d grabbed two bottles. What was a night in with only one bottle? He dashed down the street with them and headed up to her apartment.

“No problem!” Devon grinned, chuckling as Serena threw open the door. He hugged her eagerly, “I like your shirt. You’ve heard Hayley with Churches’ Bury It, right?” As they separated he shut the door behind him and then shook the nylon bag he was holding. “I brought wine for our viewing pleasure.”

Serena giggled happily as her friend hugged her and closed the door, backing into her lounge, finishing brushing her hair and quickly putting it down onto the counter. Her hair was mostly dry at least, and she wasn't exactly a troll in terms of how she presented herself, but she definitely wasn't quite as well dressed as her friend. When she took a step back and looked him over her lips spread into a wide smirk.

"Were you by chance, attempting to pull several dates on your way over~" She teased, taking the bottle of wine with a wink and setting it down on the counter, opening a cupboard and pulling out a few crystal wine glasses and turned back to him with a grin. "Yeah I did! It was pretty good, but I'm still a sucker for the earlier stuff with Haley, I think Riot coincided pretty well with my rebellious teenage phase." She replied with glee.

As she drew out a fairly cheap but effective bottle opener she glanced back at him and grinned. "You do know how to be a very pleasing guest~" She poured them two reasonable sized glasses and placed his towards him on the counter before moving across to the corner with her writing desk and moving her laptop.

>> "Were you by chance, attempting to pull several dates on your way over~"

Devon laughed. “I wouldn’t be opposed. I haven’t had a date in a couple years,” he laughed again. “I’ve had almost two. One didn’t happen and the other wasn’t what I thought it was,” he winked. “I’m pretty happen with how that went though.”

He nodded eagerly at the wine glasses and then grinned as she recounted her teenage rebellion. Serena was beautiful, fun, and easy to be around. The gleeful mirth was something Devon had trouble holding onto sometimes. Serena got it pumping again; there were plenty of ways to get the heart beating. “Mine were probably too rebellious, but I grew out of it,” he shrugged and pulled out one of the wine bottles.

>> "You do know how to be a very pleasing guest~"

“Thanks,” he handed over the bottle. “And you a great host!” Devon slipped into a seat at the counter and shrugged his coat off over the back of it. He waited to sip the wine. Best to let it breathe plus he wasn’t about to drink until the host was ready.

Inclining his head to the writing desk, he asked, “Were you working on something?”

Serena didn't really ever come across males that she was attracted to, but she suspected that if she was into guys she'd have a hard time keeping her cool around Devon. He was very, very pretty. She dug around in her fridge for a moment before pulling out a set of fairly fresh brownies and setting them onto a plate with some other bits and bobs of snacks. She flashed Devon a smirk as he continued the conversation.

"Well to be honest~ 'Rebelious' for me meant I straightened my hair less and wore marginally more dark clothes~" She actually had been a very goodie goodie teenager, so to speak. Neglecting to glance over the reason she'd had quite an a-typical teenage growth phase she went and set down the snacks on the table near her very comfortable sofas and skittered over to her writing desk to move her laptop and tidy her physical notebooks away swiftly.

The sofa's, as opposed to the rest of the apartment, definitely had a much more lived in look. While they were leather, they weren't quite to the aesthetic standard of the rest of the place, and it was fairly obvious from the moment one sat on them that Serena had chosen for comfort more than visual appeal.

She flashed her friend another wide smile. "Wellll~ I've actually sent off the final manuscript and such already, my release is only going to be in the summer. I've just been doing some preliminary notes for the next installment~" Being fairly good friends, Devon had been told all about Serena's actual occupation of novelist.

Serena was amazing. Had he thought that enough? In case he hadn’t, he was now. Devon’s eyes widened at the sight of the brownies. Cheese, crackers, some cookies… Suddenly he was quite hungry but Serena brownies were the best brownies. She had the baker’s touch.

“Those look great,” Devon commented quietly as she piled up the plate.

>> "Well to be honest~ 'Rebelious' for me meant I straightened my hair less and wore marginally more dark clothes~"

Devon laughed a moment before grimacing, “Heh. Well, we all had our thing. Mine was a bit, uhm, darker? Lots of clouds.” He nodded eagerly, gradually grinning wider, before erupting in a few laughs. “Sorry, I had to.”

He jumped up from the counter, grabbed their wine glasses and brought them over to the sofa table. While she dashed over to the writing desk he went back to the counter and grabbed the open and the other wine bottle. Eventually with the food and the wine… who’d want to stand up, right?

Once that was settled, Devon moved to one of the sofas and plopped down, throwing a leg under him and an elbow on an armrest. Serena revealed in a not so surprising fashion she had indeed been working on a book, but to hear she’d already sent off her current project and was started on the next one? Devon grinned back at her bright smile.

“That’s wonderful!” he leaned forward and picked up his wine glass, nodding to hers as he did so. “Your readers are going to love you all the more. No one likes waiting years for a sequel,” he chuckled. “Now how about we toast your completed manuscript?”

Serena smiled earnestly and performed what was quite an elegant, if aired with sarcasm, curtsy. There were few things as pleasing to sharing your cooking and baking with friends, especially when they enjoyed it! Serena took a brownie for herself and nibbled at it cheerfully as she began to go about setting up the laptop for their viewing pleasure. "I'm glad that you approve~"

She took a small sip of wine and set the brownie down on the plate as she finished setting up the show, it was an adaptation of a urban fantasy series that the both of them had read and enjoyed, but she'd heard some tall tales of the adaptation and the liberties it took with the source material. She had also been informed that when viewed in company, or with alcohol. (In this case, both at the same time) It was an extremely amusing watch.

She flashed Devon a smile accompanied by a small blush. "Well... I suppose I'll have to wait a few months and see what they think... The first one doing well could have been a complete coincidence for all we know." Even as she said it, she knew how silly it sounded out loud, but still Serena had quite the bundle of nerves when it came to her writing.

She finally had it set up, and took the corner of the sofa coming off of the one her friend was seated at, at the right angle. She sat with her legs crossed underneath her and fiddled with the remote before leaning back and having another sip of wine. "Well! this should be interesting I guess."

“Bravo,” Tempest golf clapped at the curtsy. He grinned and then sipped his wine as she did. Her blush was adorable; how this girl was single he had no idea. Modesty he guessed, and clearly she could be a bit shy.

He put down his glass and eagerly picked up a brownie. Chocolate and a Malbec went well together. None of that chocolate red wine though. Granted he was in college and college kids did crazy things, but if you could drink (or drink illegally) why even try that? Good drinks, good food, and of course Serena had the show ready. This would be a good night.

>> "Well... I suppose I'll have to wait a few months and see what they think... The first one doing well could have been a complete coincidence for all we know."

“Uh huh,” he laughed. “I’m sure your readers will be ecstatic,” Devon grinned. “I’ve got it pre-ordered y’know, but I expect you to sign it!” He gestured to her laptop, “If stuff like this can find televised love your books are going to get you some offers too.”

Relaxing back into the sofa, Devon continued, “As interesting as I’m sure this is, I guess we should be happy they tried. Though honestly with it cancelled years ago maybe we’ll get lucky and HBO or something will pick it up.”

Serena found herself occasionally nibbling at the corner of the brownie she'd baked. It had turned out pretty well, even for her standards. She fiddled with the computer to try and get the settings right, making sure that the sound worked and the pesky mouse would stay off of the screen so they didn't have this infernal white triangular nuisance floating around in their viewing experience distracting them.

Serena flashed Devon another smile. "Thanks Devon, I do appreciate it." She wasn't the most confident writer in the world, that was for sure, so on occasion it was kinda nice to get reassurance from people who had read a breadth of novels. Especially when she valued those people's opinions. She gave a very visible and forced shudder. "Oh dear god don't say that, why would you wish that on me?"

Finally she had everything ready to go, clicked the play button, flicked the light switch and dived back into her corner of the sofa, snuggling up against it and drawing the glass of wine to her lips with a wide smirk at Devon. "And down the rabbit hole we go". They sat in mostly silence, watching the pilot episode and silently lamenting the casting choices in the show, though to be fair the acting wasn't awful bad... Just kind of bad.

Devon blew an exasperated breath from his lips as the pilot episode ended. A few extra sips of his wine – couldn’t overdo it – and he then went for another brownie. A wide-eyed, lifted brow smirk went to Serena as he shook his head, chewing all the while. Finally, he said, “So I like Paul as an actor. I’m cool with that. But a blond Susan? Seriously?”

He sighed and lamented, “I mean that’s Karrin. She’s the blond. Who is Connie?” His now brownie-less hand gestured a demonstrative angry flick at the computer. Blue eyes rolled. “I mean this is like watching that terrible Avatar movie. Awng? Sow-ka? Why would they change these things?”

Laughter followed. “I mean, if you ever sell film rights you need,” he paused, getting louder as he reached for another brownie and then stressed again, “need to put in writing you get approval on these things. Butcher must feel like a butcher went to town on his books!”

Devon shook his head again before setting down his wine glass. “Maybe if we’re lucky someone else will get the rights like HBO or something, not that they haven’t changed up Game of Thrones,” he smirked again. “If this was the rabbit hole, then I think I’m willing to lose my head,” he laughed again.

“How many of these did they make before it got cancelled?”

Serena threw her head back in laughter and shook her head, stopping to polish off her glass of wine and refill it. What the hell, she didn't have to be up in the morning. "Yeah, they definitely took some liberties with it. The thing I find interesting about adaptations for books, is a lot of the specific details about characters that help add flavour to them are missing."

She thought for a moment. "I remember when I was still living with my brother, we went to see the Percy Jackson adaptation. And the thing that annoyed me above ALL of the other inconsistencies was that Annabeth wasn't blonde." She replied. "I think what irks me more about the name and hair colour for Murphy though is the fact that she's tall." She added, taking another thoughtful sip of wine.

She smirked. "If I ever sell film rights I'm going to need to ask someone to get me a psyche eval" She responded in a teasing tone.

"It's pretty entertaining all things considered though, there are a lot of ways adaptations could go, and to be honest you can do worse than having Syfy do one." She paused. "They are cheesy, but they also released Lost Girl which I think is possibly one of the sexiest fantasy shows I've ever watched." Inhibitions, meet thy foe. Wine.

“I do like that Annabeth girl though,” Devon said with a quick series of nods. “The actress I mean, even if her hair wasn’t right… Tell me you didn’t like her a little?” He grinned, turning his head as a mischievous grin spread across his face. “She’s in the new Baywatch movie you know.”

He nodded with a chuckle and leaned forward before picking up his wine glass again. “It is odd these show makers would drop the important flavorful bits. They need more fans to make movies,” Devon sighed and then sipped. “And you’re right about Murph’s height. Her short stature and scrappiness give a good juxtaposition to how hard core she becomes is an important part of the dynamic with Dresden.”

“But I’ll gladly give you a,” he narrowed his eyes as he lowered his chin, “Hard talk if you try to sell things. Maybe if you can get Bo or Kenzi into the show you won’t mind as much? I’m a Kenzi fan all the way, not that Bo wasn’t hot. You’re right though, Syfy did it right. Isn’t that because it’s Canadian though? That premiere got me hooked fast.”

He nodded with a near duck face smirk. Sip sip again!

Serena shook her head. "The actress was pretty, but they got her character completely wrong. And they missed some scenes that are key to stuff later on in the story, like the water park bit. It's like when they filmed the last few Harry Potter films, and missed out all the symbolism about Harry being Teddy Lupin's godfather, but added a scene of Rupert and Emma snogging in the chamber of secrets?"

She sighed. "It was stupid, from a story telling perspective the other scenes were much more powerful, but because in the film making department an actress and an actor might be pretty or popular, they favour that instead." She added with another shake of her head.

"At least the Harry Potter films used appropriately aged actors though! The Percy Jackson film used like, a 17 year old to play an 11 year old. THAT was stupid." She added with exasperation. Some adaptations really wound her up. By contrast, at least the Dresden series captured the feel of the books reasonably well, even if the acting and character choices were a little off in some ways.

Queue a playful smirk. "Kenzi made the show, but Bo's personality carried a lot of the story, I really enjoy the independent character archetypes. Especially when independent aligns with sexy."

Devon nodded about Harry Potter though he didn’t know enough about Percy Jackson’s books. He was well read, but probably only in a classical fashion and not nearly as broadly as Serena. Her depth of knowledge and literary pedigree were superior, clearly. He did enjoy the passion for which she spoke on it though.

“Yeah,” he smirked over his wine glass. “They always favor the romantic drama where they can get it. Marketing and all that. These people and their ships. It’s all those fanfics and such on the internet.” And really, sometimes those characters were just popular. It wasn’t their fault they got that attention, right? Certainly publicists liked it.

It was difficult to know exactly why Hollywood made the decisions they did but it all seemed to come down to money. Who knew what they’d end up doing with mutants. People like Cafas Johnson were sure to draw eyes, provided those agents were careful how they approached the guy. Devon remembered their first conversation with questionable interest but they’d pulled it together. All the X-Men were bound to show up in film at some point; who knew how much they’d much up the stories and timelines though.

Thankfully it all came back to Lost Girl. Devon grinned, sipping at the wine again while Serena’s excitement shown through. “Yeah Bo had the attitude, Kenzi had the humor, the human perspective. A lot of good attitude and style in that show. I can appreciate that,” Devon chuckled, “And I know you do. I like that despite the different sides, there was this core group willing to throw in together to help solve whatever the problem was, investigate the issue, etc.”

The rest of the evening played out in much the same kind of way, they drank their way through 2 bottles of wine and got relatively merry, watching a few episodes of the silly T.V Show and getting a good laugh out of it, whilst nibbling at Serena's freshly baked brownies, with a joke or two about her having superior baking skills.

They kept going for a couple of hours before parting for the night, it was a good refreshing evening. Serena and Devon hung out fairly regularly from then on, doing little things like move nights and the like.