#* nicole — like all delicate things your body can know no permanence !

[slinglouis]

august fic rec!

hi friends! these are my favorite fics that i read during july while avoiding studying for my mcat & i think you should all read this month! if you have a fic you want me to check out this month please let me know, i’m always looking for more!

black with autumn rain by whimsicule -  93k

“Thank you,” Geoff says, taking a sip of his tea. “What did you tell him?”

Louis has a sip as well, lets the tea burn down his throat too quickly, too hot, and he feels it all the way down to his stomach. “The truth. Essentially,” he replies after a moment, licking his lips, relishing the slightly bitter taste of the brew that’s never quite strong enough for Louis’ liking. At least it’s not decaf. “That my dog scented it. That I didn’t touch the body. That I came here first thing.”

Geoff nods pensively. “Did he believe you?”

“Probably not. There’s only so many people who can drown on dry land before it gets fishy.”

or: Harry is a journalist, Louis has lots of secrets and the moors aren't exactly the ideal place to rekindle a lost romance.

Oh Glory by alivingfire - 21k

Tomlinson looks Liam over, tilting his head. “Are you a swimmer as well?”

“Yeah,” Liam says, a little cautiously. Harry wonders if it’s Tomlinson’s fame or the unimpressed eyebrow that’s making Liam wary. “Distance, I’m doing the 1500m. Harry here’s a sprinter.”

“Ah,” says Tomlinson, turning his glinting eyes back to Harry. “So you’re not an endurance man.” A beat passes, and his grin grows, wide and filthy. "Shame."

Harry Styles is Team Great Britain's newest swimmer, and has spent his whole life training for this moment, a chance at the gold medal in the Rio 2016 Olympics. All his training, hard work, and dedication to no distractions is tested when he's assigned to the same Rio apartment as Louis Tomlinson, British gymnast and Harry's childhood crush.

Howls Like a Beast (You Flower, You Feast) by @indiaalphawhiskey​ - 17k

“You don’t love me,” Louis had said, utterly blasé as he callously fractured the heart of a Harry that was just barely eighteen.

“I do,” Harry had insisted pleadingly, green eyes already watering.

Louis had rolled his eyes, exasperated and flippant in the way only beautiful, young boys could be when faced with the affections of a baby prince. He had run his finger down Harry’s cheek then, had forced him to look into his eyes as he delivered the final blow.

“You’ll change your mind once you’ve seen more of the world,” Louis had teased, pressing a brutally delicate kiss onto Harry’s lovely, pure cheek. “Once you’ve been properly defiled.” He had whispered filthily, delighted by the gasp he heard, the frantic pink blush that had rested high on Harry’s cheeks, the power he had felt at knowing he could make the Crown Prince squirm.

And down the long and silent street by whimsicule - 86k

The year is 1881 and if you’re alone in this world you might as well be dead, because starving dogs have no mercy.

Or: Wherein Louis and Harry are on the opposite ends of the social ladder, but their paths still cross on the filthy streets Louis calls his home. The odds are staked against them from the beginning, and even more when Louis' past finally catches up with him.

Run Like the Devil by benzos - 138k

Harry stops pouting, but his frown is still fixed in place. “Are you sure?” he asks. “You know it’s your soul you’re signing away.” He sounds…sad? No, that’s not right, but there’s something.

Christ. This is the most incompetent demon Louis’ ever met. If he hadn’t seen the red of his eyes he wouldn’t believe he was a demon at all. How’d he get this job if he isn’t trying to convince Louis to deal? Or is it just another trick? A ploy for sympathy?

“I’m sure,” Louis says. “Come over here and kiss me.”

*

Supernatural AU. Louis hunts demons; Harry's the strangest demon he's ever met, and he keeps fucking meeting him.

No Place Without You by @fackinglouis​ - 19k

Harry's in love with life and he's in love with the world.

Louis' in love with Harry and he doesn't think there's any way he can possibly compete.

A Wanderlust AU in which Harry doesn't have a permanent home and stays with Louis when he visits NYC.

Given a Chance by fabby - 170k

Five years after One Direction took their last tour, the last thing Louis Tomlinson ever expected to happen while on a tea run at the local Piggly Wiggly was to run into his ex-boyfriend and ex-bandmate Harry Styles.

The odds of them ever running into each other again had to be super slim, right?

Wrong.

What happens when you mix ex-boyfriends with a large serving of Small Town America? Will Louis and Harry be able to set aside their differences, or will Louis be able to stay breezy as fuck in the wake of Harry’s arrival?

(or, the one where Louis and Harry run into each other five years after One Direction ends and learn how to love each other again. Featuring: Reggie as the overweight labrador, Niall as Louis’ last grip on reality, and Nowheresville, North Carolina as the setting for Louis’ worst nightmare to come true.)

these bountiful silences by tommoandbambi - 123k

they live in a world where they can only say four words per day. harry meets some people that don't want to live that way.

we can only look behind by @hereforlou - 70k

His mum said there was no getting an idea out of his head once it was stuck in there and Harry thought she was right. It wasn’t like he did it on purpose - his ideas were just really sticky.

(Or, the one where Harry fixates through the years.)

Don’t Want Shelter by kingsofeverything - 77k 

Louis and Harry have known each other all their lives. Friends as children, they danced around each other as teenagers, and have spent the last twenty-five years either screaming at each other or not speaking at all. Except for that one time ten years ago…

When Hurricane Nicole threatens the coast, they end up stuck together in their families' old vacation home that they begrudgingly co-own.

During the storm, and in the months after, they’re both forced to reevaluate their history and what they mean to each other.

somewhere in between the lightning by jassy117, nauticalleeds, shiningdistractionwrites - 100k

As Louis took another bite, he thought back to how he had once believed that the hardest thing about being on Love Island would be Liam handling his social media. He had been wrong. It was Harry Styles, peeking over at Louis as he forked a pancake into his mouth, and gauging his reaction. It was having to quench the swelling of his heart, which felt simultaneously like hope and the breaking of a thousand pieces.r

A summer gone wrong (or very right) when, under Liam’s persuasion, Louis finds himself drunkenly applying for Love Island, and getting accepted. Oh, well. A summer spent on an island paradise couldn’t be all that bad, right?

Imagine his surprise when Louis arrives in sunny Majorca to find that his first love and ex-boyfriend, Harry, is another contestant, about to capture the hearts of everyone in the villa. Most normal people don’t have to face their ex on an otherwise straight TV show. Most normal people don’t fall for their ex again in front of the whole nation, either. Too bad this whole situation isn’t normal.

special mention bc an epilogue was added and this is one of my fav fics of all time: Collision by @tequiladimples (itjustkindahappened) - 225k

Mythology/Fairytale!AU in which Louis is a dainty fairy with a temper who wants to be intimidating and Harry hurts people. Naturally, they hate each other.

(Featuring Liam, the big and not-so-bad wolf who’s got a thing for humans, Zayn, a human with supernaturally good looks, and Niall, the cupid who just wants his job to be easier.)

[made-me-deep-blue]

Can you do number 3 and 19 with Kamilah from the fluff prompts?

“I can’t lose you too.”

“I can’t imagine my life without you.”

-

“You promised me, damn it! Now look at her!”

Avery was softly cradled in Kamilah’s arms after the vampires cleared the coast. More of Adam Vega’s men were coming after her, and it was obvious that staying in New York City wasn’t a safe choice. If only Nicole wasn’t working for that son of a bitch. She had contacts in almost every country that the Raines Corporation was branched out to.

A pang of guilt hit Adrian over like a bullet train. He didn’t mean to hurt his blood sister’s lover like that. However, knowing what kind of a person Avery was, she would’ve done the same thing to protect Kamilah.

“We have to go, Kamilah,” Jax said. “There isn’t much time before we have more company.”

“But where? The Council members would probably have taken over Adrian and Kamilah’s office buildings by now,” Lily asked.

“The Shadow Den,” Jax said. “Does any Council member other than you two know about the place?”

“It’s only the two of us, pup,” Kamilah said. “Great thinking, we can head over there.”

-

Kamilah had her jacket taken off and placed it on top of Avery as a makeshift blanket. One of the elders of the Shadow Den was still taking care of her, carefully draining out the remaining of the drug being injected into her bloodstream from the tranquilizer dart. Not only that, the elder was also tending to the scrapes and bruises on her arms and a cut on Avery’s forehead.

“Thank you, elder,” Kamilah said. “Your name is…?”

“Ilya Shelburg, former comedian,” the old lady said. “She’s all fixed up, you’re welcome to stay with her.”

“Thank you again, Ilya.”

After the old lady left the room, Kamilah walked over and sat beside Avery and leaned against the brick walls. Maybe Jax and Adrian were still fighting over who was the better gentleman to the vampire ladies of the Shadow Den, but it would be better for them to stay wherever they are instead of disturbing her alone time with her lover.

While waiting for Avery to wake up, she was reminiscing about her former female lovers who have died of old age or was killed because Kamilah was a vampire, and they decided to hit the soft spot which usually messed with Kamilah’s switches. Bad mistake.

There was one in particular who Kamilah thought resembled Avery the most. Her name was Chang Lin, a relative to the Empress Dowager, a nomarch she met in the 19th century. While Kamilah and the vampires took refuge in China, she met the chinese nomarch in a garden while she was ‘running away’ from Gaius’ clinginess for a while.

She was a precious gem for an Asian. Most of them usually have brow, dark brown or black eyes, but Chang Lin had cerulean blue eyes, a spectacular sight to witness. Other than her majestic features, she was also talented in playing the stringed Chinese instruments and also painting. Kamilah couldn’t even keep up with the number of times when her jaw would drop at the collection of Chang’s paintings since she started when she was 11.

Kamilah and Chang shared their first kiss under the moonlight at the Chinese normarch’s gardens. From then on, it was something else that Kamilah yearned for dearly. She wanted something permanent with Chang, to the point where she wanted to reveal her real identity and Turn her.

Chang Lin was a wonderful female normarch indeed. A little while later when Kamilah was told that Empress Dowager’s forces were after the vampires, she decided to go visit her lover in secrecy at the palace grounds one afternoon. When she couldn’t find her, Kamilah resolved to looking for her at the home which was a few streets away from the palace.

To her horror, she found Chang in her art studio, the alcohol from a cup spilled across the floor, and her brush stained with red ink held delicately in her hand. Columbine flowers decorated her skin, from head to toe. The flowers were drawn out from a small diamond birthmark on the back of her neck.

It then hit her that her flower blooming process was being sped up by a drug. Chang had been spiked. Her fate as a flower maiden of the Moonlight Garden…

Chang was a special case. She was a woman with a frail body who couldn’t take on such transformation. Sure Kamilah had seen the beautiful flowers grow on her body during the times they had pleasure in her bedroom and the scent of the Columbine flowers wafted through the air, but she remembered something distinctively. 

“I only can take on the flowers growing on a smaller part of my body when we have sex together. I don’t have much time left. A few months probably, but once the flowers grow all over me…I’ll die.”

Kamilah wept over Chang’s body. 

The next few days, she reigned terror in the palace grounds finding the culprit for spiking her lover. It was kind of sick to think that a whole palace stained and smelled of blood was an aesthetic of hers.

“Kamilah…?”

Kamilah snapped back to reality at the sound of her name. Avery’s cerulean blue eyes were staring back at her. They were tired, she could tell.

“My love,” Kamilah’s fingers instinctively ran over Avery’s cheek. Tears threatened to fall from her eyes just watching Avery so vulnerable and tired…as if she was about to-

“I was so worried, habibti. How are you feeling?”

“Fine, actually,” Avery said. “My head hurts, that’s all.”

“I lost my brother, and nearly lost my only blood brother yesterday, and I can’t lose you too.” Kamilah didn’t want to tell Avery about her affair with Chang Lin. She looked painstakingly similar with her past lover.

“You’re holding something back, Kamilah,” Avery reached out and stroked Kamilah’s cheek. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

“I…I can’t imagine my life without you, my love,” Kamilah sniffed and rubbed a stray tear away from her eye. “So don’t you dare die on me again.”

Avery gave out a raspy laugh.

“As if I’m going to die any sooner with you around.”

[twopoppies]

Latest and Greatest -  New Fic Recs 

There has been such a deluge of great fics recently that I felt the urge to collect a few of my recent favorites and recommend them in case you missed any of these. No particular theme...just that I loved them, thought they were beautifully written, and deserve as many eyes on them as possible!

Howls Like a Beast (You Flower, You Feast) by Anonymous

France, 1754. Château de Versailles.

“You don’t love me,” Louis had said, utterly blasé as he callously fractured the heart of a Harry that was just barely eighteen.

“I do,” Harry had insisted pleadingly, green eyes already watering.

Louis had rolled his eyes, exasperated and flippant in the way only beautiful, young boys could be when faced with the affections of a baby prince. He had run his finger down Harry’s cheek then, had forced him to look into his eyes as he delivered the final blow.

“You’ll change your mind once you’ve seen more of the world,” Louis had teased, pressing a brutally delicate kiss onto Harry’s lovely, pure cheek. “Once you’ve been properly defiled.” He had whispered filthily, delighted by the gasp he heard, the frantic pink blush that had rested high on Harry’s cheeks, the power he had felt at knowing he could make the Crown Prince squirm.

Yellow by 13ways / @13ways-of-looking

The city of Gotham turns blood red with a new, mysterious criminal element, a beautiful woman named the Blind Cupid.

She threatens to tear the fabric of the city apart, aided by her deadly protégé, the Cat.

Can Batman stop them?

Will he resist the bewitching allures of the Cat?

A Batman/ Catwoman AU

We’re What’s Right in This World by BriaMaria / @briannamarguerite

“Why did you talk like that in Brighton? If you weren’t planning on ever telling me?” Louis asked. “Is it because you think you’re going to die?”

“It’s war, Lou,” Harry said finally.

The words were a knife slipped between his ribs. Everything hurt and he was bleeding. He shifted up, his palms cradling Harry’s jaw, his lips against his boy’s. Not kissing, just resting there, so Louis could feel him. “Promise you’ll come back to me.”

Harry’s hands smoothed down the sides of Louis’ body. “You know I can’t do that. I’ll never lie to you.”

“Promise me. We’re going to have our cottage. And our dogs. And our breakfast in the garden where nothing grows because of the wind from the sea. Promise me.”

“I won’t.” Stubborn as always, his boy. “I’ll promise you, I’ll love you all my life. I���ll promise you, you’ll never leave my thoughts. I’ll promise you, you’re my forever and my always. But promising you something I can’t cheapens the things I can.” ---- Or the World War II AU where Harry goes off to fight and all Louis wants to do is be the boy who brings him home.

Walk That Mile by purpledaisy / @daisyharry

Harry stares at him, the line of his jaw standing out scarily. “I wanted to get the most out of this trip so I planned it carefully.” His voice is low and steady and somehow that’s worse than when he was yelling. “So far, you’ve put your sticky fingers on everything I’ve tried to do.”

“Sticky fingers?” Louis repeats, offended. “Are you saying it’s my fault you got stung by a bee? Had you been alone you would have gotten halfway to the Dotty Diner and ran the car off the road because of an allergic reaction, so don’t go blaming me.”

“Polk-A-Dot Drive In,” Harry spits before getting out of the car. He slams the door shut with a deafening reverb and Louis rolls his eyes. - A Route 66 AU where falling in love was never part of the plan.

No One Like You by MyOwnSpark / @myownsparknow

Dear Niall,

I was glad to have the chance to talk with you again at the AHA conference. Your idea that the Musee D’Orsay Tomlinson painting is in fact not a self-portrait is an intriguing one, and I may have discovered something that will have a bearing on that theory.

Some background: as you may remember, I’ve been researching for a book I’m writing about Harry Styles. I’ve been in communication with Styles’ last living descendant, who is in possession of a trunk that her family believed to have belonged to Styles himself. It held some personal items she presumes to be his, including two unmounted paintings and a small collection of letters.

Upon spending the last few days in Provins studying these items, I believe there to be a connection between Tomlinson and Styles, and I would very much like your opinion.

Are you up for a trip to France?

Sincerely, Liam Payne

Where Liam and Niall are art historians discovering the truth about two nineteenth century painters on opposite sides of an artistic divide.

hope you guessed my name by @juliusschmidt

Harry blows out a breath, testing.

Orange.

The flames dance in mid-air before flickering out. Tonight they are orange like the globe of the sun before it slips beneath the horizon.

Harry is a hungry devil and Louis is his unsuspecting prey.

Through Eerie Chaos by mediawhore / @mediawhorefics

For as long as anyone can remember, Old Hillsbridge Manor has always been believed to be haunted. Everyone in the village agrees and keeps a respectful, fearful, distance. New in town after a bad breakup and an internship that led to disappointment rather than a permanent job, Harry Styles figures taking pictures of the decrepit building could be a great new creative project. Or at least a much-needed distraction while he searches for a job and crashes at his parents’ new house. No one warned him about the apparitions though; about the music, the laughter, the people who flicker and vanish when you call after them, the echoes of a past that should be long gone… Harry has never believed in spirits but even he can admit that there’s something weird going on. What starts as mere curiosity evolves into a full-blown investigation and soon enough, Harry finds himself making friends with an aristocrat from the 1920s and struggling with finding the best way to tell him that he’s dead.

The Ghost Hunter AU where Niall lives to prove ghosts are real, Zayn is a skeptical librarian and Harry gets caught up in a century-old mystery and catches feeling in the process.

Strange How the Half Light by aheavenlyrush

It’s been two weeks now. Two weeks of tossing and turning in his bed, waking up sticky with sweat, head pounding.

“Your moon is so different from mine, did you know?” the boy, Harry, murmurs, and Louis flushes red, glad the dark of the night hides the blush on his cheeks. Thinking about sweaty nights thrashing around in his bed isn’t the best idea right now. Not here, next to this boy. Some mornings, Louis could swear he wakes up with Harry’s scent on his pillow.

In the light of the moon, Harry tells stories about the places beyond the stars, and Louis wonders about the curve of his lips.

Caught By the Sun by metal_eye / @metal-eye

"He came every summer. It wasn’t even a question. Harry and his parents—one step, one real—picked up their lives, packed it into a car, and drove long enough to land at the ends of the earth.

"The cabin had been in his family for a hundred years. There was no TV, no phone, no computer, no radio. There were decks of cards and plastic deer and marbles. There were skis and leaves and a tree house.

"And then there was Louis."

Or, Harry and Louis meet every summer at the lake.

Divine by metal_eye / @metal-eye

When angels fall.

Don’t Want Shelter by FullOnLarrie / @fullonlarrie

Louis and Harry have known each other all their lives. Friends as children, they danced around each other as teenagers, and have spent the last twenty-five years either screaming at each other or not speaking at all. Except for that one time ten years ago…

When Hurricane Nicole threatens the coast, they end up stuck together in their families' old vacation home that they begrudgingly co-own.

During the storm, and in the months after, they’re both forced to reevaluate their history and what they mean to each other.

I have a “to read” list a mile long....so I’m sure I’ll be adding to this! Let me know if you’ve read these and what you think...I always love screaming about great fics! 

[slashertrope-blog]

Tag drop ft. connections &. relationships

* &. gen ship — i swear that you're not missing anything if you run the wrong way when i hold out my hands !

* wolf — this is what you get for not believing in demons !

* andrew — do every stupid thing to try to drive the dark away !

* mother — you have confused the value of family with the idea of family values !

* father — shaking hands built to hold too tight !

* nicole  — like all delicate things your body can know no permanence !

* bradley  — some people are a lesson in what to avoid !

* jamie  — you would set yourself on fire to keep everyone else warm !

* aaron — he will live alone or in between !

* &. wolf  — you still visit me while i sleep ; your fingers trace my spine &. i listen to your breathe ; please stop haunting me !

* &. andrew  — i'm coming home to you with my own blood in my mouth !

* &. mother — you sliced me open &. called it creation ; i can still feel the knife !

* &. father — since i have been able to understand volume my father is the loudest quiet i've ever known !

* &. nicole — i dug a hole inside my heart to put you in your grave !

* &. bradely — you used to hand me scraps of kindness &. i would gnaw on them for days !

* &. jamie — you split me open in the most honest way there is !

* &. aaron — why build a room we can live in ; why build a shed for our fears !