#akara x sullivan
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The Dark Side of Unrequited
Pairing: Sullivan Meads x Akara Kitsuwon Words: 2k Read this on AO3. Premise: Kitsulli ft āHow can you even ask me that?ā in Sulliās POV, requested by @sullivanmeadows My requests are currently open!Ā
I donāt know how we got here. Only I do, and I donāt want to admit it. This conversation is so fucking ass backwards that it makes me cringe. āSulli, we need to talk about this.ā That sentence alone should have been a tell, but the distance between Akara and I these past weeks has been so heavy on my body that I feel it like a physical weight on my limbs.
We werenāt ever supposed to have this conversation. But itās starting. And now Iām staring at Akaraās face and I want Beckett or Moffy or Jane here to hold my hand and tell me I can do this because Iām not sure I have the strength.
āWill you please talk to me?ā He begs, and takes a step toward me. Weāre only a few feet apart, but his attempt to close the distance is enough to take my breath away. I wonāt be able to think if he comes any closer. When I take a step back, Akara pales like Iāve just mortally wounded him. āSulli, please.ā
Iām shaking my head before I can think to stop myself. āWe donāt have anything to talk about.ā The denial comes so naturally, I wonder how long Iāve been doing it. Since Moffy told me he thought I had feelings for Akara? Before?
How long have I wanted him? I canāt decipher the moment where our friendship turned into something more. When the feeling of his fingers in my hair stopped being playful and started setting my skin on fire. When I looked for him in a room not out of habit but because my body pulled toward his like we were magnetized.
āYes, we do.ā Akara urges. He makes a gutteral noise of distress that pulls at something deep in my stomach. Kits. I hate that heās suffering. I hate that Iām the cause. āYouāve barely spoken to me in weeks. Things have been weird with us since that day on the stairs in Greece -ā
āDo you want me to tell you youāre forgiven? Fine. Youāre forgiven. Now can we please drop this?ā
āNo!ā He snaps, and I can see the fracture behind his eyes as if itās in slow motion. As if heās glass and Iāve just taken a hammer to his most fragile edge. āNo, because this is killing me. We have to fix it. Please, just let me fix it.ā
I want to. More than anything I wish there was a magic phrase that would make this an easy situation. But thereās a reason I never wanted to talk about this with him. Because no matter how this conversation ends, we both lose.
āWe canāt talk about this.ā I tell him, hating every word. āI canāt let you. Kits, you love your job.ā
Silence stretches for a long moment. I can tell by his stance that he wants to reach for me. When you spend so much of your life with another person, you learn their every tell. The strain of his shoulders; heās forcing his arms to remain at his sides. The twitch of his fingers; he wants to grab my shoulders, to comfort me. The hard tension in his jaw; heās holding in as much of his emotion as he can to keep me from panicking.
Only Iām already panicking. The moment he said we needed to talk, the moment I realized where this was going, my chest seized and my breathing left my control. Iāve always been cautious, always towing the line of fear before taking quick steps back from the edge. But Iāve never been so thoroughly destroyed by terror before.
āAnd what if I love you more?ā
This is when I stop breathing. When Iām certain the world is punishing me. Iāve longed to hear those words with an intensity Iām just beginning to admit to myself, and at the same time I wish heād never uttered them. Because I know what SFO means to Akara, and I refuse to be the thing that takes that away from him. If we go down this road, thereās no guarantee itāll be accepted the way Moffy and Farrow were. SFO is already pushing too many boundaries, and Akara canāt be the one to break them.
Thereās ice in my lungs and glass in my throat as I try to speak. Every infinitesimal speck of air in my chest is a sharp knife of agony. I donāt want this. āI love you,ā wasnāt a phrase that was ever supposed to hurt.
Neither of us has dared to move. Not since he took a step forward and I took a step back. Thereās some guilt in me, realizing that Akara thinks Iām afraid of him. I can see it in the tight set of his mouth, the upward curve of his eyebrows, and the glaze over his eyes that matches mine.
Weāre both holding still, but we arenāt. Pur feet havenāt shifted, but Akara keeps leaning forward, like he wants to reach for me, and then thinks better of it. And Iām shaking so hard I can barely see his face. This wasnāt how this conversation was supposed to go. Fuck, I didnāt even want to have this conversation at all. Iād planned to avoid it forever, to deny and doubt and evade until it slipped away and were just Kits and Sulli again, friends who banter and laugh together.
But I know thatās not possible anymore. Things are irrevocably changed now. And it terrifies me.
The silence in the room is so heavy I feel as if I can hear our spirits shredding; paper hearts being crushed into crinkled, disfigured, unrecognizable things in our chests under each otherās hands. Weāre destroying something I thought indestructible.
āSulā¦ā Akara starts, but he chokes off his words.
Thereās so much emotion in his voice that I nearly take a step forward. But Iām paralyzed by my fear. I wish I was more like my mom in this moment - bold and flirtatious and never hesitating to speak from her heart. But Iām not her. My life has been swimming and my family. I never took the time to think about falling in love until it happened completely on accident. And now I have no idea what to do, because love isnāt simple. Itās messy and cracked and Iām afraid of cutting myself on itās rough edges.
āDo you want me off your detail?ā
My responding flinch to his words is so violent that I actually stumble back a few steps. I wonder if he can even hear my whisper, riddled with the shredding of my heart beneath the blades of agony sweeping over this moment, when I say, āHow can you even ask me that?ā
He eyes me warily. āYou didnāt say it back.ā
I close my eyes. I canāt keep looking at him; at the pain thatās so clearly written across his features that I can feel it as if it were my own. I know my parents love was never easy. Or my aunts or uncles. They all fought so hard to belong to each other, to ignore the world and dive into their own hearts before paparazzi and meddlers could taint that purity of their affections.
I know that Lily and Lo nearly killed each other with their love. I know that Connor and Rose used every once of their willpower to overcome their own fears and admit they belonged together. I know that my parents were in love for years before either dared to touch the other. I know they all suffered to be with the loves of their lives.
But I am not my aunts and uncles. Iām not my parents. And I canāt bear the thought of being the one that takes away from Akara everything heās worked for. Studio 9 and Omega are everything to him. I canāt picture him without them. They are so much more a part of him than I will ever be.
I canāt be selfish with him. Not with this.
Eyes still closed, I finally whisper. āI canāt.ā
Akara makes a choked noise. Something so terrible Iād only expect to hear it if someone were dying. My eyes snap open, and I can see there are tear stains on his cheeks. Heās still facing me, but he wonāt meet my gaze. Somehow thatās the worst part of all of this. That I can see every fracture racing across his heart, and he refuses to see mine. And then I remind myself that Iām the one saying no.
Because I love him, I wonāt let him destroy everything heās built. Because I love him, I wonāt take away the family heās built in SFO. Because I love him, Iām going to let him go before he ever really becomes mine.
After an eternity, Akara finally nods. He keeps his gaze on the ground as he says, āIāll see about transferring someone else to your detail tomorrow.ā
āWhat?ā I start, āKits, no-ā
āDonāt,ā he whispers, and it hear it like itās a plea to the gods. His eyes are bloodshot, red rimmed as he finally meets my gaze. āPlease donāt, okay? I canāt - I canāt look at you every day and pretend this,ā he gesture between the two of us, ānever happened. I just canāt.ā
Nothing's going right. My head is spinning. My heart is a broken winged bird in my chest, trying desperately to fly before crash landing again. This is not what I wanted. Denying him was supposed to save our friendship. It was supposed to make everything go back to the way it was before, or as close as we could.
āThis is your job-ā I start, and itās the wrong thing to say.
Akara gives a rueful look, tinged with hurt. āIām off duty.ā
āThatās not what I meant -ā
āThen what did you mean?ā He bites back, and thereās a sob in his throat but he swallows it back. Akara speaks for me, because he always knows what Iām thinking before I do. āThat you didnāt want me to lose my position with the Tri-Force? That youāre protecting me somehow? I wouldnāt have said anything if I hadnāt made up my mind for myself, Sulli.
āYou were worth the risk to me.ā He spits out the next words like they are venom, stinging his mouth. āIām just not the worth the risk for you.ā
He doesnāt wait for me to reply. He just shakes his head and towards toward the door. āIāll have someone from Alpha here tomorrow,ā is all he says, before he walks away.
I donāt chase after him, even though I want to. Iām caught on his words, replaying them over and over in my mind. You were worth the risk to me. But itās not the sentence itself. Itās the were. Past tense. Like heās already changed his mind. Like our ten minute conversation changes everything he felt about me.
This is the dark side of unrequited. Weāre both drowning in rejection, when I know we both ache to push ourselves together until we canāt distinguish where one starts and the other ends. Even as I sink to the ground in my entryway, head in my hands, I tell myself Iāve done that right thing. That Akara will thank me someday for not letting him throw his career away.
I hope Iām not lying to myself. I hope I am.
I canāt tell whatās worse; watching the person you love learn to be happy without you, or knowing you might be the thing that broke them.
#like us#like us series#kitsulli#akara x sullivan#sullivan x akara#callowaynetwork#wearecallowaydaily#i hate myself for writing this what up#writing*
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I CAN'T TELL YOU HOW HAPPY I AM RN
2x JANE & THATCHER, 1x MOFFY & FARROW, 1x OSCAR & JACK, 1x AKARA & SULLI
*Screenshot from Krista & Becca Ritchie's instagram post*
#like us series#maximoff#farrow#jack x oscar#akara x sulli#kitsulli#akara kitsuwon#sullivan meadows#cobaretti#jane x thatcher#thatcher moretti#jane cobalt#kbmritchie
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Like Us Challenge- Day 7 OTP or BROTP?
Julli (Jack x Sullivan)Ā
Jack approaches and catches her gaze.Ā
āYou must be Jack,ā Sulli holds out her hand.Ā
Jack falters for a brief second.Ā āUm...Iām JackāĀ
āJack Highlandā she adds, their handshake lasting a long beat.Ā
****
āHave you ever been attracted to someone? Have you ever thought about hooking up?āĀ
I swear theyāre acting like theyāre the only two in the room. Theyāve blocked us out.Ā
#like us series#likeuschallenge#julli#jack x sullivan#honestly the main reason I madeĀ this is because I don't really see any edits about jack#mostly akara and sulli#who i love too but i just wanted to try and even the playing field#just 8 more days and we'll finally know who she ends up with!#lol thisĀ probably won't get anyĀ reblog or likes but oh well#myedit
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well I already ship Sulli and Akara and this hasn't even been her book yet š
#damaged like us#like us series#dlu#sullivan meadows#akara kitsuwon#sulli x akara#don't disappoint me girls
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