Snowed In 59

All of the following is complete and total fiction. Not a word of it occurred, nor would it

Snowed In starring Lili Reinhart

(MF, Oral, Cons)

By MrMaxLord

The annoying thing about cliches is that by the time you realized you were in one it was too late to do anything but ride it out. They weren't necessarily bad by nature but always annoying by nature, or at least that was the thought that went Lili Reinhart's brain as she sat pretty much alone in an airport with her flight being grounded due to a snowstorm. Of course, that dire of a weather condition left the airport almost a ghost town. She'd barely seen anyone for the last few hours save for a few straggling workers and the lone other person waiting at her gate. Fortunately, none of these stragglers were bothering her.

She wasn't usually so anti-social but holiday travel tended to get on her nerves. It was one of the occasions where it truly wasn't the journey but the destination, especially this season. Though it wasn't the worst Uber ride she'd ever had the fact it was pouring rain on the ride over to LAX which made it a lot longer and possibly more dangerous ride given how chaotic LA drivers got in the rain. As native Clevelander she was still surprised at the absolute shock so many in the city of had when a single drop of rain fell from the sky. She was more used to it and learned to take some kind of comfort in the small victories, like her travel outfit not getting anything close to ruined by a stray puddle splash caused by a cab or anything when she exited the car. While in her summation it wasn't much more than casual; dark thermal tights, a dark skirt, a light creme sweater, an olive winter coat and black boots that stopped just below the knee. Not much, but still cute to her. Not getting splashed though would be the highlight of her trip.

A crowded airport was something Lili expected, even though she had planned expertly to avoid the highest of the high traffic. She knew there was no way to get around most of it during the holiday season. However, despite the chaos involved in even taking a red eye flight made her prepared to take the small blessing of a light passenger load on her plane as a positive sign, Lili soon found out what nature had in store. No sooner had the storm cleared more than enough for her flight to take off, more soon followed. While her flight wasn't redirected or anything, by the time her first plane had landed for the connecting flight rain had turned to snow and her next flight had been delayed. The wound had some fresh salt rubbed in when every one else on her flight seemed to have hit their destination but her.

So there she sat alone at her gate in a near-deserted airport in the middle of the night, an eerie silence echoing as even the people who were responsible for the top forty music being played through the speakers were either long gone or had just stopped caring. However, Lili wasn't all alone. There was the one lone person who was going to be on her flight as well who was suffering the same fate in the ghost town of an airport, sealed off from taking flight by a snowstorm. He was a handsome man, or was from what Lili could gather. The rare glimpses of his face not obscured by a tablet or a book showed a striking face with a five o'clock shadow. He had a head black hair under a beanie. Like herself, he was dressed for colder climate, but not as cold as it was going to get when their last plane landed. And probably best of all, he was leaving her alone. That was of course, a big plus in the blonde's eyes with her being a female pretty much alone with not even pepper spray on her in case of creeps. She's never even noticed the stranger looking her way once. All in all, she'd probably looked at him more in expecting him to be looking at her than anything else. Which of course made her intrigued as to what his focus was one as he wasn't just looking at his large tablet, he was doing something. What that was, Lili couldn't see and while it wasn't expected or necessarily wanted, it intrigued her almost to the point of making conversation.

However, despite her desire for anything but human contact as she waited for the snow to clear so she could finally take flight, conversation was about to forced upon her as she had to go to the restroom. While the airport didn't suddenly get a population boom and she swore even her breath could echo against the walls, leaving her carry-on bag was not something she wanted to do and it was a bit too cumbersome to take with her. Besides all that, she just didn't like having anything bigger than a purse with her in the stall if she had a choice. That of course, meant she had to ask the man across from her for a small favor.

With a soft sigh the blonde rose from her seat and walked the small distance to the man in the chair. Still he didn't seem to notice her as he was focused on his tablet. As Lili got closer she saw more of what was keeping the man's attention. As it turned out, the tablet was one meant for drawing which was exactly what he had been doing. However what he was drawing was still a mystery. That mystery would have to wait, as Lili had other priorities.

"Excuse me," she said, her voice breaking the stranger from his artistic trance.

"Yeah, what's up?" he asked, his eyes falling on her for the first time.

"My name's Lili and I was wondering if you could watch my bag while I go to the restroom?" she asked. "I know it's pretty empty in here but you never know."

"Yeah sure," he said. "Just let me save this...and we're good. You want me sitting by it or am I good to stay here and just make sure no one else goes near it?"

"You can stay in your seat," Lili said, a polite smile on her face. "Thanks."

"No problem."

With her bag being accounted for Lili made her way to the restroom. She remembered seeing on not too far away, and she was correct in that remembrance. However what her short term memory had omitted was that the restroom was closed for some reason. The reason didn't matter as much as the fact she needed to use it and was blocked and frankly didn't want to spend her time wandering the airport looking for a free one and leaving her luggage in the hands of a stranger. Having him watching it for a few minutes was one thing but anything more was pushing it.

Fortunately, the blonde spotted someone who might be able to help her, a security guard. He was a short fellow, white hair but almost completely bald on top. He looked like a mall Santa who'd just wrapped up the holiday gig and gone back to his real job as the most benign security guard on Earth.

"Excuse me," Lili said, getting the guard's attention.

"How may I help you young lady?" he replied, just missing the seasonally appropriate "ho ho ho" to round out his sentence.

"Is there a restroom nearby that's not closed?" she asked.

"Oh of course, just go down that corner over there through the double doors," he said, pointing out the location. "It's going to be the second door on the right. It's an employee bathroom but we've let travelers use it before."

Lili said her thanks and made her way to the area she was guided to. Once past the double doors she walked on concrete floors, the echo of her boots mixing with the buzzing of neon lights and a continual hum of various machinery. At the end of the hallway she turned right and found the door, exactly as described...on the outside at least. Upon opening the door however, Lili sound something much different.

Instead of white tiles and the lemon-tinged but still over sanitary smell of an airport bathroom she saw an empty cable spool turned on it's side to act as a table that was surrounded by folding chairs. Make-shift shelves made from wooden boards and cinder blocks along with second hand furniture obviously "borrowed" whenever the airport had a redesign. The last bit of decoration lost to time was an old Coke machine, and next to that a pleather couch with a person sitting on it, dressed in a Cinnabon uniform providing the overwhelming smell of weed which provided the other major difference Lili took note of.

"I take it this isn't the employee restroom?" Lili asked the stoned food court worker.

"Nope," they said, releasing a drag of smoke. "Let me guess, security guard who looks like Santa gave you directions?" Lili nodded. "Yeah, happens a lot this late. Anyway, it's a left, not a right."

"Thanks," Lili replied. "So, where am I then?"

"The officially unofficial break room for the food court and retail. Airport big guns don't know it exists so we get a bit more leeway. Plus they don't seem to really miss the outdated stuff like the vending machine or furniture from decades ago that was supposed to go to the junkyard. They also don't seem to notice a few missing cans of soda here and there. And since the soda machine is busted we don't pay a dime their either. Just press the button and get whatever you want except for New Coke, whatever that is. We put Mountain Dew there instead. And if it doesn't work you just hit it and sometimes you get a twofer."

"Nice," Lili said with a nod. "Mountain Dew's my favorite. It'd be kinda dangerous for me to have access to it for free."

"And security doesn't care enough to look around here obviously if one of them sends normies back here to look for a toilet."

"Cool," Lili said with an awkward nod. "Thanks for the directions."

"No problem," the worked said, taking another big drag on their joint as Lili exited the room and went to her original destination and once that task was done she returned to her seat to find the artist still dutifully watching her stuff. She'd half-expected him to be back on his tablet drawing but he kept his word.

"Thanks," Lili said, relieving him of his duty. "Really appreciate it."

"No problem," he replied. "Sucks to travel alone, that's something I know all too well, so we gotta help each other as fellow travelers."

"Can't argue that point." The pair exchanged nods before Lili returned to her seat and no sooner had the man's responsibility been lifted then he had returned to his drawing, which returned Lili's curiosity being piqued.

"I don't mean to bother you again," Lili said as the traveler's gaze went back to his tablet, his e-pen ready to go. "But I have to know, what are you working on?"

"Oh, no bother," he said. "A graphic novel I'm working on. Well, the second volume. And even that is technical."

"You do comics?" Lili asked, intrigued.

"Hopefully," he replied. "I mean I have an idea and I draw professionally but it's not really published. I mainly do design stuff for game studios and toy companies. Most independent publishers want you to have six issues in the can before they take you one so I'm doing them one better, I'm doing all three volumes at once then sending it in."

"But you said second volume."

"Yeah, I decided to print out a very limited run of what amounts to prequel. Kind of the like the Hobbit to the bigger story. So, technically a first volume but not really. I take those around to conventions and stuff and sell them and custom sketches. Which is what I'm travelling for. A week or rest then convention time. Want to build a buzz to go along with the completed first/second volume and let the publishers know all three are written and drawn. They just need to be colored...which my prequel/sample shows off I can also do. Hopefully someone bites and I get my trilogy published."

"What's it about?" Lili asked.

"Well, it's in that Lord of the Rings fantasy realm a bit but not completely. It's not like Game of Thrones grimdark but it's definitely more adult. But not as relentlessly hopeless either."

"You have any of those prequel books on you?" Lili asked. "Might be easier to show than tell."

"Yeah, I keep them in my carry on. Want to be sure the airline doesn't lose them." The artist opened up his carry-on and took out a soft cover copy of his book and handed it to Lili. "Just to be clear though, I'm handing this to you because you asked, not because of your job."

"You know what I do?" Lili asked as she took the book.

"Yeah, I've seen the show and I saw Hustlers too. Figured it wasn't exactly in good taste to bug you about it during this little inconvenience. Besides, I had work to do. But yeah, you're Lili Reinhart and you're from that Archie show."

"Focused and considerate, good combo." She then opened up the thick paperback and began to look at the images and was taken aback. The art was gorgeous. So detailed and vibrant but alive at the same time. There was a motion to the still drawings and wonderful use of color. There was peacefulness to it that flowed seamlessly into brutal violence and into sweet romance and eroticism. The creatures were gorgeous and otherworldly and the people were, for lack of a better term, hot. She hadn't expected to see nudity and sex so explicitly drawn. Not just that, but done so well it didn't seem filthy.

"Wow," she said, feeling a little hot under the collar. "Add talented to the list of descriptors as well. I take it this isn't really meant for the younger crowd."

"Far from it," he replied with a chuckle. "I mean I have that kind of story two, but this one kind of demanded to be let out first. I mean obviously there's a Game of Thrones influence but I didn't want it to be that hopeless so there's some Conan The Barbarian in there and some Tolkien. Swords, sorcery and old school fantasy with some modern brutality for the violence."

"And the sex?"

"Pin-up stuff. Also this one book called Dawn by the great artist, Joe Linsner. Doesn't go that far but it's kind of like pin-up girls in more action scenes and stuff like that. I wanted to do that, but also not shy away from a whole different kind of action. Probably should have warned you about that. Sorry."

"Don't be too sorry," Lili assured him. "I mean, it's very good. Not what I was expecting but that's far from being a bad thing. And to think, this is just the prequel." She set the book down and leaned forward in her seat a bit. "You know, if I got scripts as good as this I'd probably have stripped down more than I did on Riverdale by now."

"But you didn't even read it."

"But I saw enough to see the care put into every line drawn, and that's all any actor wants is some quality. You'd be shocked what a good script can convince you to do. I mean I was ready to strip down and do some pole-dancing to the point I took classes for Hustlers only to find out I wouldn't actually take off a stitch or take the stage."

"Well that's a shame."

"I don't think you're alone in that opinion, but who knows what the future may hold?" She said, sharing a wink with him. "So, Hank..."

"How'd you know my name?"

"Well, it is on the cover of the book you gave me," she said, reaching for the book and pointing it out right under the title. "The Broken World by Hank "Hex" Xavia". What does Hex mean?"

"It's how I sign my my art. My initials. Henry Eric Xavia."

"I like it, catchy." Lili also got to liking the fact she had fallen into being social. Of course, the fact that Hank was the delightful combo of charming and handsome obviously helped break down the walls poor weather and delays had helped put up. "You said you did game design stuff to right? Anything I might have played? Keep in mind you're speaking to a Nintendo girl."

"Came close to a few of their stuff honestly," he replied. "Like a hair away from being on a Zelda game. But there's a bunch of indie stuff I was hired for that's on their store. Mostly decent stuff but sometimes you just gotta make rent and will do whatever job comes your way."

"Oh I know all about that. I did more than my fair share of grocery and rent gigs before landing Riverdale. You have that and the cost of models and stuff. I mean I assume for some of this stuff you had to hire artist models, right? And actually paying for the print run."

"Yes to both, but not as much on the models. Mainly for the basic character designs and some of the pin-ups in the back. The rest of it just kind of comes from my own mind. Which is probably for the best. It'd be kind of weird to have the models pose in some of the more, you know, explicit poses. Awkward for us both. I mean it had to be weird on set for your show right. You had your fair share of intimate scenes on your show. It had to have been a little weird sometimes."

"I mean I wasn't totally nude but we pushed it pretty far for normal TV," acknowledged Lili. "And yeah, dancing in lingerie, making out and doing very sexually charged things with your friends can be very weird. However the set being full of people I trust, including scene partners, helps ease that a bunch." Lili smiled at him, her eyes giving off a hint of seduction. "Besides, sometimes it was a turn on. Being watched in the moment and also knowing you're going to be watched by even more later...shivers up the spine would be an understatement. I'm not really into the whole exhibitionist thing but I can really see why people would be. And I think we all have a little bit of voyeurism in us. We all like to watch."

"Especially when there's something worth watching."

"Speaking of," Lili said. "You said you're essentially freelance, right? Aside from the books you're working on for yourself, it's all just taking jobs as they come?"

"Pretty much, but something tells me you're not really talking about game design."

"No, I was thinking more of a drawing or painting of me. Done up like one of these sword and sorcery women in your book. Might be a fun piece for my living room."

"You could have anyone to do that," Hank said, intrigued by both her suggestion and tone. "Not that I would mind spending time just looking at you, but why me?"

"Because you draw beautiful women in sexual situations without it seeming trashy or like something from a thirteen-year old boy's hypersexualized imagination. They're sensual, sexy and they don't have completely weird proportions like tits bigger than a tire. It's classy with just the right amount of dirty."

"You're a fan of that?"

"Well, to be blunt," Lili said, cocking her eyebrow. "Those images in the book were hot. Hot enough to make me feel a little more social than I would be otherwise. I'm not exactly a people person when my flight's been delayed for hours and I'm stuck in an airport that's more akin to a ghost town than a travel hub."

"You're not alone in that," Hank added.

"Thanks, but the fact remains I wouldn't mind getting to know the artist behind such wonderful pictures."

"You don't have to hire me for a commission to do that."

"I'd consider the picture a perk," Lili countered. "Besides, I'm guessing to get a really good feel for how to draw me it'd have to be a bit old school. No photo references or Zoom stuff. Up close and personal, posing for you in your studio. Some place private."

""I wouldn't want to impose..."

"I think I'm the one doing the imposing," Lili said, cutting him off. "I assumed it was welcome."

"Very welcome," Hank replied. "Though for a commission like this, it might be best to get an early look at a subject."

"I think we can make that happen." With that sentence, they began to go in that direction. It didn't take much for them to find the Santa Claus security guard to watch their things. There was a quick story about wanting to find an open place in a food court but not wanting to lug their stuff around. It was a half truth. While they weren't looking for food they were in need to sate a different kind of hunger.

With their belongings being secured that right jolly old guard Lili lead Hank down the path he had given her, not accounting for the corrections given to her by the food court worker. When the door to the secret breakroom flew open this time it was empty. Lili grabbed a nearby chair, sticking it under the doorknob as the door shut, an extra bit of privacy to go along with the blonde fully locking the door.