#and their assumptions are nto coming from a bad place at all

[asitrita]

I just spent half a day arguing with someone who claims aph Spain is practically Arab because of Al Andaluz and I can't with people

That person didn't know any basic history. If Spain is Arab because of Al Andalus, India must be an exact copy of Britain and the quintessential Anglo Saxon society. And at least they do speak English, lol.

That person probably fed on all the Orientalist propaganda and ridiculous stereotypes about Spain. But the influence Arab culture had in Spain is minimal and superficial. Sure, there's some Arab influence, but it is pretty superficial and non transcendental to Spanish culture, society, or identity. Its biggest contribution to Spain was it acting as its adversary, hence reinforcing the Roman and Christian identity of Spain's population. They should just ask themselves what language do Spaniards speak and what is the predominant religion in Spain.

Also, just ask the person if they think Arabs are responsible for mass genocide in Spain and killed all native inhabitants so everyone in Spain is Arab now.

Tbh, I'm sure they don't even distinguish between Arab and North African/Berber culture, nor are aware of the process of Reconquista, let alone know the difference between Emirate and Caliphate, or the existence of the Taifa kingdoms.

Anyone who thinks Spain is an Arab country, or even somewhat Arab, because of Al Andalus, is either an ignorant/delusional fool, or a troll, or maybe both.

As for aph Spain, I would think nation personifications represent the people living in those regions. Since people living in Spain today are not Arab, not even remotely so, and are descendants of the Northern Christian people who repopulated the south + buckets of Christian people who lived in the south under Muslim rule but who never converted and were later assimilated again within a Christian, Greco-Roman, and Medieval European context and culture, I see absolute no reason to make aph Spain Arab, nor anything remotely similar. That would make as much sense as creating an OC of the Mexica (Aztec) empire and making him/her Spanish, or making India a Saxon warrior, or Nigeria a Viking sailor (actually, maybe even less sense, if that's even possible).

[notimefics]

When Will We Get The Time To Be Just Friends - H.C.

Word Count: 2.6K Requested? No, I wish! ahahah Warnings: Nothing much, some swearing and references to sex I guess A/N: So this idea came to me after listening to Hozier’s “Almost (Sweet Music)” and Amy Winehouse’s “Just Friends”. Two absolutely brilliant musics that I highly recommend you listen to while you read this. 

The silence between us as he put the plates in the washing machine and I plated the desert got unbearable and I decided that I had to say something. Some part of my brain also decided that I had to say the most stupid thing ever. 

“You seem happier,” I said, thankfully the stupid part of my brain refrained from also expressing the mixed feelings I got as a result. There were few things in the world that brought me more joy than seeing him happy, but it was also so painful to be aware that it nto because of me but because of her. 

Henry’s face fell and he looked pained, I cursed my brain for making stupid decisions. I shouldn’t have said anything. He hesitated for a second and then just blurted it out. 

“She laughs like you,” He said it so quickly that I was sure I had heard it wrong. A silence fell between us. 

“What?” I said, once again interrupting the silence.

“I didn’t notice it until tonight. But a while back Jack said a joke and you both laughed and she sounded almost exactly like you. I realised that that’s why I find her almost bearable,” 

“Oh,” I said shocked. We were silent again. 

“I know it’s fucked up,” He said, making him the one to break the silence this time. I wasn’t able to answer right away, it was all... so much! And then, I started laughing lightly. 

“It really is kind of fucked up, yeah,” I said with a chuckle. “Oh god! Now I’m thinking about whether I laugh like her or not! I hope you’re happy knowing that you’ve ruined laughing for me,” He laughed as well but after a second he was frowning again, his face fell a bit to the side and his shoulders slumped a little and he just looked tired. 

“Why can’t we be together?” He asked putting the plate he had been holding down on the counter. 

“Come on...” I whispered and looked down. “We’ve talked about this.”

“I know, I just... I need you to remind me,” I sighed, it wasn’t fair, but still I did as he asked.

“We can’t be together because we like each other so much. But our jobs means that we are always away from each other and if we started dating then we would resent each other. So we agreed, that even if we did have... other types of feeling for each other it was better to remain friends, when the alternative was that in a few weeks or months we would be hating each other,”

“You know, at the time it made so much sense,” He said and he was smiling as if it was a joke, but his eyes betrayed him. “Except now, every time I think about it it sounds dumber and dumber and I just want to be with you,” Henry said taking one step closer to me, resting his hand on my waist, eyes looking down at where his hand was. I couldn’t help but put my hand on top of his, longing for contact, my hand now looking so small in comparison to his. A small smile reached his lips as our hands touched. 

“Come on, I know we haven’t been any saints, but you have a girlfriend now and the guilt would kill you... if she doesn’t first,” I joked, but much like Henry, I’m afraid my eyes were probably betraying me as well. That and the fact that I wasn’t able to get away from him, not even to take my hand from its resting place on top of his. 

“That’s not what I meant,” he said softly, almost in a whisper. “It’s never what I mean when it comes to you. I mean actually being together,” He sad, finally looking up from where his hand rested, and looking into my eyes. 

“You have a girlfriend who is currently having dinner in my dining room with some of our friends and we’ve slept together got knows how many times without actually being together, like you put it. So forgive me for not knowing that it’s never what you mean,” I said, growing frustrated and finally being able to take my hand from his and taking a step back, away from him.

It was unfair. We had agreed that it was a bad idea to start dating. We had agreed! together! It was not fair for him to ask me to be the one to uphold it and remind us of that when I wanted to break their pact as much as he did, even if I knew it was a bad idea. It was not fair that he got to make me confused all over again. 

He groaned when I took a step back. “Well, I’m obviously going to break up with her now that I know about the laughter thing. I’m fucked up, but not that much!” 

Before I could answer Jack walked into the kitchen and I was thankful I had taken that step back.

“My god, how many deserts do you have to take you guys so long to brin--- Why the long faces?” He asked as soon as he got a good look at our faces. I think the tension between us was palpable. 

“Henry was just telling me he didn’t get a call back for a role he really liked,” I lied as I scratched my hear. Taking that opportunity to get away from Henry before we could say anything worse, I grabbed the plate with the desert and headed towards the door. 

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that man,” Jack says as I am passing him.

“Yeah, it’s all the worse because it was one of those roles of a lifetime, you know?” He said loud enough so I could hear it. He wasn’t fair. 

“Oh my god, is that meringue? I love meringue!” His girlfriend, Rose, said before I could in any way react to what he had just said. “It looks amazing!” 

“Thank you,” I said trying to smile at her and the other people in the table who were also commenting on the meringue. 

The rest of the night passed and I think I probably didn’t say more than 10 words except to say goodbye to my guests. I wanted to have a good time with my friends, that was all I wanted. That was why I planned this dinner and then as I was talking to Jack and Henry, Jack said in a mocking tone that I had to invite Henry’s girlfriend so we could all meet her. I didn’t even know he had a girlfriend, but I pretended that I wasn’t hurt and I invited her.

I knew that I wasn’t going to enjoy the dinner as much now that I had to deal with a constant reminder that I was not with Henry and was not going to be with him anytime soon. But it was bearable. And at times, Gemma and Julia were so much fun that they managed to distract me from that prospect (a prospect that was seating in the chair just next to mine). I was managing to get through the dinner! I was managing to be ok! But then he had to come and do this! 

I thought about all of this after they were gone and I finished cleaning everything up and putting my pyjamas. I tried to use my anger at him for being so unfair to force a realisation that he was actually a knob and that I didn’t like him. A task made that much harder because I knew he was actually a wonderful person. 

As I was to get into bed, accepting that I wasn’t going to get over Henry anytime soon and that only distance and time would allow for that, someone rang the door bell.

Someone must have forgotten a coat or a scarf or something. I walked to the door but at the last second decided to ignore it, hoping that whoever was on the other side of the door would think that I was asleep and would return in the morning. 

"Y/N!” I heard Henry’s voice calling from the other side. Oh now, I was definitely going to ignore it. Time and distance was what I needed from him, not being alone with him after a few drinks. I just wished he would stop talking so loudly, he’d wake up the neighbours. Still, I was ignoring him, so I turned around and silently started walking back to my bedroom.

“Come on Y/N, open up. I know you’re not asleep, I saw your light was on when I was getting out of the car.” I heard Henry say again, this time louder. Oh god, my neighbours were going to kill me. Uffing and puffing I rushed to the door. 

“Were you really ignoring me?” he said a little hurt as soon as I opened the door. 

“No, I was getting in my pyjamas so I couldn’t come right away,” I lied, always quick on my feet. 

“You always scratch your ear when you lie,” He said with a small smile and I quickly took my hand away from my ear. “It’s your tell,”

“I don’t have a tell,” I said as I moved aside for him to come in. 

“Why were you ignoring me?” He asked and I decided that maybe it was best if I just said the truth, then maybe we could move on. 

“Because I think that I need time and space from you, we both need it,” I said trying to be as calm and collected as a doctor explaining a diagnosis. 

“Don’t say that,” he said and everything about him, from his eyes to his shoulders to his voice expressed his sadness at my statement. All I wanted to do was to hug him and kiss him and tell him that I take it back, that I didn’t mean it. “I broke up with Rose,”

But we had agreed that it was a bad idea. 

“I think it’s for the best if we just stay apart for a little while,” I repeated

“Why?” He said throwing his hands in the air. “I meant it when I said that every time that I think about all those reasons we said I realise that they are bullshit!” 

“That’s not true,” I said trying to remain calm. 

“Oh really? Because the main reason for us not to be together is so that we can remain friends, but now you need time and space from me. So, I say that if we’re going to fuck up being friends we might as well do it for a good reason!” He said loudly, a certain desperation in his voice. 

“No because this would be temporary and then we could go back to being friends, but if we start dating and we break up... I don’t think we could come back from that,”

“What if I don’t want to come back?” He asked this time softly, almost as if it hurt to say it. “We are making all these rules based on the assumption that we will break up, what if we don’t?” 

“What?” I said with a chuckle. “And we get married and live happily ever after?”

“Is that so hard to imagine?” He asks with a frown when I don’t answer he smiles a little. “And wouldn’t it be worth risking everything?” He said walking towards me again but this time, with no one in the other room to catch us I wouldn’t be able to stop us if he touched me, so I took a step back making him look hurt again. 

“Henry, we made the assumption that we would break up because neither of us have jobs that are easy on relationships,” I told him softly. 

“Yeah, but it’s us. If we managed to stay friends for so long now, why would we not manage to have a relationship?” He asked. 

“It’s different, you know that” I told him. I was only able to argue with him because I have argued all of these things with myself, late at night when all I wanted to do was text him and tell him that I missed him. 

“Yeah, from friendship it might be. But is a relationship that different from what we had the last two times I was back, before we got all caught up in this nonsense of how we would ruin everything by being together,” 

The first time we slept together was when he went out to celebrate the fact that he was back home after shooting I can’t even remember where for too long. We went out with a bunch of friends but we were so drunk when we got to the club that we danced with almost no one else and then, we took a taxi with Jack and we dropped him off and then it was just me and him in the taxi and we couldn’t keep our hands off each other, so when the taxi stopped in front of my place we both got out. He was home for a week that time and we were together every day, Sometimes it was just breakfast or dinner because he had to be with his family and other people, but everyday we were together. Then he went shooting in LA and we called each other every night, well my every night his every afternoon. We didn’t say anything much on the phone, it was just us talking about our days, and it was easy and fun. And he was back not too long after that and it was still easy and fun and then before he left again he remembered about our friendship! How we couldn’t endanger it. 

“You brought it up!” I said angrily. I should have just ignored him and let him wake everyone up, at least I would have avoided this conversation. 

“Yes! Because I feel and act like god damned teenager and I was afraid of fucking things up with you, but I’m still fucking things up with you somehow so...!” We were silent again and I felt too tired to be angry. 

“You can’t do this to me,” I told him tiredly. “I was starting to resign, and accept that we were not going to be together and you come and you make love declarations and... you can’t do this,”

“I’m sorry. I really am.” He took another step forward and hrld my hands in his, and he looked at them as he spoke. “But don’t resign. Just... give me another chance.”

“And how do I know you won’t change your mind again?” I asked.

“Because, I changed my mind because I was afraid of how much I loved you and I still am but I know now that there is nothing I can do about it,” he smiles and squeezes my hand comfortingly. “What would I do without you making fun of me?”

“You’re head would get too big for your body... and that’s saying something,”

“See?” He said with a chuckle, I could fee his eyes on me but now I was the one looking at our hands. 

“It was a compliment if anything,” I told him with a little smile looking up at him.

“And you do need someone to warm your hands and feet,” He said remembering me of how whenever we’d wake up together he’d complain that my hands and feet were freezing and proceed to try and warm them up. 

“I love you, too,” I conceded finally. “But this is your last chance, yeah?”

“I won’t need another one.” He said and, with a brilliant smile he leaned in to kiss me. “Happily ever after remember?” 

I chuckled and nodded. “Happily ever after,”  A/N: I hope you liked this, if you did feel free to send a request and/or follow me and like this! Thanks a bunch!