You're Always You is co-written by two separate authors: Alexis and Alice (ChemistryOfLife)

Throughout the story Alexis and I will rarely leave authors notes at the end of chapters. This will be our only time to ask you to consider following and reviewing as you read or following ChemistryOfLife if you are eager for more updates. There are a total of 59 chapters for You're Always You already prewritten on a document, and I anticipate posting every other day. If I forget, just shoot me a message!

The two authors went back and forth in writing a new chapter in their designated character's perspective. Alice wrote in the point of view of Lydia Petrov-Minett and Alexis from the point of view of David Minett.

Aside from the basic facts about the characters and plot determined by the coauthors at the beginning of the story, nothing was planned, mapped, or laid out in explicit detail ahead of time.

This is the story that the characters gave us to tell.

David Minett

"But I don't wanna."

"Alright, well, you're twenty-nine, not just nine, so get over it."

The man groaned and pulled a pillow over his head, listening to his wife laugh at him. "I hate adulting."

"Well," his wife murmured, and he felt her fingers on his back softly, rubbing at his spine. "Y'know, if you weren't an adult…."

"I thought you wanted me out of bed, not keeping you in it."

"David."

David chuckled, pulling the pillow off his head and replacing it where it belonged. He leaned over to kiss his wife lovingly, before getting out of bed and begrudgingly ready for work. He didn't...hate work, per se. It was alright. It paid...enough. It wasn't particularly unpleasant.

It was the getting up and the going that was the hard part.

Which kind of said something, didn't it, if he dreaded getting up even if he claimed work wasn't terrible.

Look, there were just lots of things he missed about being a kid, alright. Like, not having bills. That was a good one.

But, there were also lots of things that made being an adult bearable. Like, as his wife had pointed out, his wife.

Though, to be fair, they'd been together since they were very much not adults, but that wasn't the point. People said that money made the world turn, but David was confident that he could be penniless, and as long as he had his wife, Lydia, he'd still be as happy as ever. Hungry and smelly, definitely, but not unhappy.

Since Lydia didn't go to work as early as Dave did, he tended to get things going in the morning. Like, making breakfast and occasionally starting on things that would be finished later in the day. Which was fine, David was definitely more of a morning person than a night owl. So he lagged a bit getting up, but once he was up he was golden.

No jokes, please.

As per usual, once he had made breakfast, Dave brought it to Lydia in bed, who had gone back to sleep for another fifteen minutes and had to be awakened again. Though, the smell of food usually did the trick anyway.

"Ooh," she said, clapping her hands lightly. "French toast~."

David set it over her lap with a smile and a wink and said, "I know what you like."

Lydia leaned forward to kiss him happily, before shooing him off. "You're gonna be late," she chastised him, popping a piece of bacon into her mouth. "Go."

"Wouldn't be the first time," he reminded her.

"Exactly," she replied, frowning at him. "You're not allowed to be late unless we're making babies."

"Who says we're not~?" Dave said, starting move onto the bed.

"Get out," Lydia exclaimed through a fit of giggles, pushing him away. "Besides, I'm eating. I'm not into that."

The man chuckled, kissing his wife's cheek, and then her lips. "Alright, alright. You have a good day, sweetheart."

"You too," she murmured, rubbing his cheek. As David turned and left, he heard Lydia call after him, "I love you, Davie!"

"I love you too!" he called back, grabbing his keys and leaving home.

Alright, he would be honest. His job was decidedly inglorious. Not that it was unpleasant fundamentally, or gross, or something, it was just...boring. He sat watching screens all day. And while that was arguably all anybody did these days, usually people were looking at entertaining screens.

David spent all day watching normal people just wander around, waiting for somebody to be an asshole.

After getting out of the Army roughly seven or eight years ago, David felt like it was only appropriate he do something with that skill set. There was a reason ex-military going into law enforcement was a cliché, and that was because ex-military didn't always know how to...do anything else. Dave was no different. However, unlike his brother Brett, who was a cop, David was pretty sure he was done risking his life. He left the Army to be around for Lydia, and that would've been pointless if he went on to do more dangerous shit.

….

So he was just a security guard. Technically it was within his skills, but it wasn't dangerous much at all. Obviously there were days Dave got some excitement, but...he didn't hold his breath.

Besides, it gave him another uniform to wear, and Lydie did love his uniforms.

Still, it was boring. It was boring, and David wasn't even the kind of person to slack during work. Weaker people would fiddle with their phone or something in the downtime, and while Dave did some of that, he tried to keep his eyes on the cameras. That was his job. He did not want to get fired.

Keeping a stable job was important to him. Stable job meant stable income meant stable home. David's own father had been military, and his mother didn't take it well once there were kids in the middle. It...was what prompted them to get divorced when David was a freshman in high school. They were still cordial about things, it wasn't that they didn't love each other anymore, it was just that...they couldn't be parents together the way their lives were going at that moment in time.

Now that Dad was retired, they'd begun rekindling things which was dope, but...at the time, it had been hard, on the kids especially. And currently, David and Lydia were trying to make some kids. So, stability was important. He didn't want his kids to grow up feeling unstable, like he had at one point in his life.

And forget how unstable Lydia held felt as a kid, pretty much hating her parents. That was something David fixed damn quick, knowing for himself how important staying in touch and on good terms with family was with an unintentionally absentee dad. He didn't want that happening with his kids either.

That, and just...being a good husband in general was important to him, and helping bring home the bacon was part of that. David was always a bigger fan of bringing people up, not tearing them down, and being unable to hold a job would bring Lydia down.

She would support him, of course, she wouldn't complain about it, but it'd still bring her down. It'd put more on her shoulders, and Dave didn't want that.

They were a team. They did things together. They've been doing that for twelve years now, and he didn't intended on messing with that.

Once upon a time, he might've been a football player, but….David didn't think he'd have been happy doing that forever either, to be honest.

Security was boring, but it was the best he could've asked for. Whether or not that was a sad thing, eh….

At least it wasn't an all day thing. Nine-to-five, nice average hours. It got the job done.

Traveling in New York was….

Well, it was a bitch.

David took the subway more often than not, because fuck traffic, but it got him to work on time, thankfully, so that was that. As he clocked in for the day, he let out a soft sigh.

Nine-to-five, Davie. Nine-to-five. You can do it.

Knowing who was waiting for him at home made the boredom worth it.