Stephew Oneshots.

New York At Night

Matthew's hands hurt from clapping too hard. He and Steph had just emerged from the production Hamilton and his love for musical theatre was burning stronger than ever. The dance sequences, the harmonies in the songs and the upbeat pacing of the entire production made him want to throw himself back into acting projects again. The lighting, costume, set and music accompaniments only clinched what he felt to be an absolutely phenomenal production that he would love to see again in the future if it went on tour. As much as he loved his job, the sheer amount of consulting meetings alongside script writing and research time meant that he and Steph had little spare time to spend on fun activities like going to the theatre.

Frowning in thought, Matthew opened up the calendar on his phone and scrolled through what he had coming up. Maybe he could attempt to organise something with AJ and Peter from Random Encounters since he had been forced to pull away from so many projects due to personal commitments in the past. It was a shame really, he had loved working on the FNAF musical and was looking forward to working on the Phoenix Wright one but YouTube had gotten in the way yet again and forced him to cancel. A slight pang of guilt hit Matthew as he remembered the several promises he had made to the guys over at RE that he hadn't been able to fulfill. Made him seem a bit of a lousy person, although they did understand why he had to cancel – it wasn't like he just decided he didn't feel like attending.

Whilst Matthew sorted through ideas and future plans in his mind, Stephanie had interlaced her hand with his. Swinging their hands gently between one another, she hummed My Shot quietly as she did not want to disrupt Matthew's train of thought. Slipping the theatre program into her bag and zipping it up, she allowed her husband to randomly wander through the city, towing her along for the ride. Staring around at the city around her, she allowed her mind to drift to past memories. She had spent several years in this city, working as a consultant whilst Matthew desperately hunted for jobs. When he came up with the idea for Game Theory as a method of boosting his CV, Stephanie had thrown a lot of her spare time into it, desperate for Matthew both to find a job to help support them and also to give her husband some happiness. He loved theatre but the endless unemployment and disappointing auditions had been wearing him down massively, she saw it in his eyes every day when she asked how his day had gone.

"We should probably head back to the hotel now. Fastest route would be to take the subway and then walk a couple blocks."

Her husband's voice broke Steph from her reminiscing with the subtle reminder that they were wandering around a city at night. Looking at the streets around them, Steph's eyes drank in the city night life that they didn't get in their local neighbourhood. Their home gave them seclusion and quiet from the bustling life of the city which they had both grown sick of after New York but a part of Steph longed to stay in the city a bit longer. They rarely had any time to act spontaneously as their lives were so rigorously structured. YouTube gave them both creative freedom but alongside consulting and planning ahead with videos, they had a very fixed day-to-day schedule.

"Can we walk back? It's only half an hour. We could walk by the river?"

Steph stared up into her husband's eyes with a pleading expression, hoping that he would cave for once. They could both be very stubborn. Matthew was torn between keeping his wife happy and enjoying a quiet walk in the city, with the potential dangers of walking back through the city late at night. The riverbank at night could be very quiet and empty, meaning that there would be no witnesses around if something happened to them. He didn't want anything to happen to Stephanie but the logical part of his mind reminded him that the statistics of a couple getting mugged were much lower than that of a lone person getting mugged or attacked. Sighing, he nodded to Stephanie – grinning as Stephanie squealed with happiness and skipped towards to the riverbank, towing him along behind her.