Page 93 of Total Creative Control

“I’m going to the bar,” Tag said, levelling a cool gaze at Lewis. “Another beer, Aary?”

“Aary?” Lewis snorted, just as Chika broke away from her laughing conversation with Marc.

“Hey, Aaron,” she said. “Is it true you writeLeechesfanfic?”

Shit.

Even at the best of times, Aaron hated having this conversation. Most people didn’t really get fanfic, and God knew Lewis actively despised it—as would no doubt become clear to everyone else in the next three minutes. But he wasn’t about to deny it; he wasn’t ashamed of his fanfic. Still, he couldn’t keep from casting a defiant glance at Lewis before he said, “I do, yeah.”

“That’s soawesome!” Chika beamed at Marc. “See? I told you.”

Marc gave him an odd look. Tag said, “Wait, wait. What’s fanfic?”

Chika stared, mouth agape. Aaron felt like staring too.

“You’ve never heard of fanfiction?” Chika said in disbelief. “Really?”

“No,” Tag said slowly. “Should I have?”

Aaron laughed. “Probably. All the kids are doing it these days.”

“Oh, totally.” Chika grimaced. “I used to write terrible One Direction fic at school.” She looked at Aaron curiously. “I didn’t know people still wrote it at your age, though.”

“Myage?” He tried not to splutter like a maiden aunt. “I’m twenty-seven!”

Chika giggled. “No, it’s cool. I’d love to read some. Do you post on AO3?”

“I do,” Aaron said cautiously. Did he want people at RPP reading his fic? No, he bloody well did not. It was personal, intimate. Only to be shared with those in the secret club. The idea of it being passed around, goggled at—mocked—by his colleagues was intolerable. “I’m not telling you my pseud, though. Sorry.”

Chika looked warily at Lewis. “He wouldn’t get in trouble, would he?”

Lewis glared, the divots between his brows deepening.

“Of course not,” Toni cut in, although she sounded less than enthusiastic. Aaron raised an eyebrow in her direction, and she shrugged. “I don’t have a problem with fanfic, Aaron, but I do wonder why you spend so much time working on material you can never use.”

“Never use?” he said. “What do you mean?”

“Well, obviously, you can’t sell it. I suppose you could change the names and repurpose—”

“It’s not about selling it.”

“Come on,” she said, smiling. “It’s an apprenticeship. A good one, I grant you, but beyond a certain point, writing fanfiction won’t help you become a professional writer.”

“Who says I want to be a professional writer?”

Toni gave him a baffled look. “Why wouldn’t you?”

“Never give anything away for free,” Marc warned him bleakly. “It’s your talent, yes? Your time. You deserve to be paid for it. And ifyougive it away for free, it cheapens the value of the product for the rest of us.”

Aaron looked between them both. “Wow,” he said. “You really don’t get it. Fanfic isn’t about any of that. It’s not an apprenticeship or a ladder up to something ‘better’. It’s valuable in its own right. It’s about the joy of writing for your own pleasure. And about sharing your work with a community of like-minded people. It’s about...” He didn’t want to sound sanctimonious, but it was the truth, so what the hell? “It’s about creativity for creativity’s sake.”

“Very noble,” Lewis said. In the low light of the ballroom, his eyes had darkened to shades of midnight. He was studying Aaron intently.

“Itisnoble,” Tag said loyally.

Lewis ignored him, his hot gaze prickling across Aaron’s skin.

Tag turned to look at Aaron. “I love how passionate you are,” he went on. “And I totally get it. I mean, obviously I want to make my living as an actor one day.”