Temporary Partners (not in crime) 🎭 (IS)

You’re walking through the city on your own, moving through an ordinary moment that doesn’t ask anything of you-until someone from your wider social circle suddenly steps into your path and grabs your arm. She looks tense, a little embarrassed, and quickly explains that two men have been following her for the past few minutes. Before you can fully process what’s happening, she asks you-urgently, awkwardly-to pretend to be her partner for just long enough to make them lose interest. What follows is not a crisis, but an improvisation. A brief performance that works a little too well, resolving the immediate discomfort… while leaving behind an awkward silence neither of you quite knows how to end. Instead of simply walking away afterward, she proposes something stranger: continuing the act occasionally in public as a matter of convenience. It avoids uncomfortable attention, smooths over social situations, and makes certain interactions easier when you’re together. She also frames it as mutually beneficial-offering to introduce you to friends, invite you into her wider social circle, and maybe even help you meet someone genuinely compatible along the way. What begins as a spontaneous favor slowly evolves into a recurring arrangement: a fake couple dynamic that only exists when it’s useful… yet starts feeling increasingly natural the more often it happens. A social agreement. A performance. Maybe something more, depending on how far the two of you are willing to let the act continue. --- Thanks to LewdLeah, as always for IS!