Chapter Text
Well I'm Mr. Popstar
And fans call me cute
Celebrity girlfriends
Arranged by the suits
So buy all our music
And dance to our songs
It's all karaoke
So just sing along
-Popstar by New Hallow
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Sharp black nails tapped impatiently on the mahogany desk. You knew these boys needed a manager, hell that’s why you were here in the first place, but this was just ridiculous. These boys were supposed to be here 15 minutes ago, and yet there was no sight of them. You hadn’t even officially started this job and you were already so done with it. Screw what Tara and Kenzie said about this being “your big break” a boy band might simply not be worth it.
With a sigh and a long drink from your hot black tea, you thought, ‘If they’re not here in the next five minutes I’m ripping up my contract and leaving.’ And as if they heard your thoughts there they were. Strolling into the office as if they hadn’t a care in the world. All dark clothes and chains, and so undeniably hot. Not that, that mattered with how much they’d annoyed you before you even spoke to them.
You knew who they were. Of course you did; not only was it about to be your job to know, but they were also the hottest boy band around, for a bit. DeepSpace 5, aka DS5 -gods did you hope they didn’t get another member- an every genre boy band made with men dripping with sex appeal and the kind of arrogance and detachment that for some reason made every woman’s knees weak (yourself unfortunately included).
They'd gotten pretty unpopular after too many bad run ins with the press. To put it bluntly, their PR was shit. Certain members had a tendencie to be rude to fans and interviewers alike. Others played up the playboy persona so much people thought they viewed women as objects, and to top it all off, they all came from extremely weatlthy families. So in short they were disrespectful, womanizing, ego maniac, rich manwhores, and obviously public opinion soured quickly. They only stayed popular for a year before people were sick of it. Which was why you were here, to fix it all. To show those things weren't them, it was what the ex-pr time wanted them to be, even if that weren't true. Unfortunatly this was an industry where someone always had to take the blame, and hell would have to be covered in ice and become the new home for the yeti before it became you. The problen children, as you see. them were these men in question.
Rafayel: one of the lead singers, and the most outgoing of the group, as well as the most flirtatious. Xavier: the drummer, and Rafayel’s exact opposite. The man has the least information out there of all of them, and is the most standoffish. If not for his good looks most would probably avoid him due to his attitude. Zayne: keyboard (and also medic for some reason). The dude is only slightly less anti-social than Xavier, but at least he still had enough manners to be nice. Caleb: the rapper, and backup vocals when needed. Pretty social guy, super popular, but you’re best friends with his step-sister, and the dude has a bit of an obsessive over-baring streak. Safe to say, you only like him slightly more than Xavier. Finally there’s Sylus: other lead vocalist and lyricist, he’s also loaded and the founder of the band. Apparently he met they guys in college and they just said ‘fuck it’ one day and started a band. Ya know, rich kid behavior doing shit on a whim.
Rafayel, being the drama king he is decided he was simply too good to sit in the chair like a normal person, and flipped it backwards, spreading his legs on either side, and leaning his arms and face on the backrest of the chair. The others, thankfully, decided to sit like civilized people.
Raf looked you up and down, not even trying to hide his interest as he said, “So you’re our new manager, huh Cutie.” You rolled your eyes, not even giving the flirting the time of day. “That would be correct, and seeing how you boys couldn’t even show up to this meeting on time I’d say you need me much more than I need you.”
The purple haired man chuckled at that, looking you up and down once more and smirked. “Well you’d be right about that cutie, I can see myself needing you quite often.” You didn’t miss the innuendo, but you did ignore it. Were these men hot as fuck, hell yeah, were you gonna make their heads bigger by telling them, even if they already knew it, hell no.
Zayne cleared his throat to try and clear the tension before he said, “I apologize for being late, Xavier slept in late and Rafayel refused to come before we stopped at his favorite coffee shop. I’m not trying to make excuses, but I am saying it’s not my fault at all.” You had to hold in a laugh at that one. These boys were not getting a single reaction out of you.
With a straight face you ran a hand through your hair before you said, “Well, don’t let it happen again, because believe me if you think I’m a bitch right now you’ll hate me once I actually start working you boys. Now, I suppose introductions are in order. My name is Y/N Blair. I’m your new manager. Nero hired me to whip you boys into shape, and if this morning is anything to go by, I’ll definitely have my work cut out for me. Obviously I don’t need you guys to introduce yourselves, so please don’t waste our time by trying to.” And with that you threw a maniella folder on the desk, ready to get down to business.
Sylus, it seems though, had other ideas. “Don’t tell me your all work and not play Ms. Manager. That’s simply no fun. We’ll be seeing each other quite often you know, the least we could do is have a bit of fun together.” He threw a wink and a smirk your way. He was prepared for the new manager, when he heard about you of course he did his research on you. He knew you pretty, but there was no world in which your photo did you any justice. You were a vision. The way you carried yourself with confidence and power, like even though you were in a room of men twice your size, you knew you were in control, and you’d make sure they knew it too.
The black of your stiletto nails contrasted with your skin so well, and it made him want to kiss your palms in reverence. You’re hair perfectly framed your face, with half of it colored dark purple, and the other half colored black, and fuck if he didn’t want to see it a mess at his hand. Make you break and submit under him. Watch all that power and fight slip from you. There was a reason Rafayel started flirting with you the second he saw you, and he damn well couldn’t blame the guy.
You sighed at his comment, they truly were going to be a handful. “Alright listen up popstars, we have a few things we need to work on before anything else. I’ll be working with you all both together and one on one. First things first, your public image is atrocious. Just because you’re hot and could sing doesn’t give you the right to be arrogant assholes, the playboy thing can only get you so far, especially when it started to look like you just don't respect women.” Rafayel leaned into Sylus. "You hear that, she thinks we’re hot.” The white haired man just chuckled in return.
“Second we’re gonna have each of you lean into a specific archetype, if you’re all too alike then you’ll become obsolete real quick, again. That’ll go into one on one time. I’m also gonna introduce you guys to a new choreographer, some of you may know her. That’s all just the tip of the iceberg. When I said I’d whip you boys into shape I meant it. We’re starting from scratch here. DS5 is about to have a whole new image.” With that you picked up your tea and eyed each of the boys while taking a sip. “Questions? Comment? Concerns?”
Caleb spoke up for the first time since he walked in. Walking behind your chair and whispering in your hear. “Sunshine, I think you’re a bit too high strung. I know we were late, and I’m so sorry, but don’t you think you could give us a bit of a break? Hmmm, for old times sake?” To that you just glared straight ahead of you, and unfortunately right at Xavier, who looked as though he’d started falling asleep.
“It seems your last manager did a worse job than I thought. I expect you all here bright and early tomorrow morning, 8am sharp. If you’re late I’ll have you doing drills, and you won’t like them.” With that you gathered your folders, and stood heading for the door. “See you boys tomorrow. Bright. And. Early.” The boys all stood there for a moment before turning to Caleb.
Xavier spoke first. “I thought you said she was chill. Maybe you and I have different definitions of the word because that was not chill.” He made air quotes when saying chill the second time. Caleb scratched his head at that. “Well, she’s chill when she’s not in work mode, but she’s also super big on punctuality. I’ve never been on the receiving end of it, but Kenzie says she’s a monster when people are late. Did I forget to mention that on the way here.”
Xavier knew that was on purpose, if the smirk on Caleb’s face was anything to go by. “Please, be honest puppy, you knew she’d get pissy, so you made sure you just happened to forget to get Xavier up, and you made sure we were out of the Siren’s favorite coffee blend. You just wanted to see her heated, and after seeing it myself I can’t say I blame you.” Sylus not calling it how he sees it challenge, clearly impossible.
“Honestly I say thanks for the show. She’s hot for sure, but something about that anger, well I simply can’t wait for these one-on-one sessions with our cute manager.” Rafayel ran a hand through his hair, he was getting hot all over just thinking about the angry look on your face.
Though Zayne and Xavier hadn’t verbalized it, they couldn’t help but agree. Anyone who claimed you weren’t a sight was a liar, and they couldn’t wait to see more of you.