#and yes I know it's

[legolasghosty]

Ohh for the fluffy dialogue prompts can you do 2. “I feel like I can breathe better with you around.” for Willex please? <3

Yessss, I am so sorry about how long it's taken me to get to this!!! But here you go!!! Also... I am so very sorry for how angsty this got! Send me another ask and I'll get you some actual fluff next time! Yikes!

Alex waits till the hall light clicks off. Then he counts slowly to 100 to give his parents plenty of time to get to their room and shut the door. Once he's sure they're out of earshot, he slowly sits up and pulls his phone from under the pillow. There's a text from Willie on the screen from about five minutes ago.

Willie - I'm outside. Do you need help?

Alex quickly types out a negative response, then forces himself up and out of his bed. This won't take long, and the noise generated by a second person would greatly increase the chances of him getting caught.

He can't get caught. Not this time. Not after...

No. He's getting out tonight. Away from rules that don't make sense and pointed glances and people surrounding him, laying hands on his shoulders, all praying aloud at once and proclaiming victory over The Enemy when Alex collapsed to the floor, tears leaking from his eyes as he fought to keep from drowning.

He can't take it anymore. Not after that. He can't fake it.

Alex pulls out the half packed suitcase from under his bed. No time to be tidy, he just has to be fast and quiet.

The last couple of his comfy shirts and pants go into the suitcase, then some socks and underwear. One of his warmer coats and a white button down go in as well. Gotta be practical when running away from your homophobic family, right?

Willie promised to handle all the hygiene products, so Alex doesn't bother risking a trip to the bathroom for his toothbrush or shampoo. He adds all of the spare drumsticks he keeps at home to the suitcase. There aren't many. In goes a picture of him and his big sister when they were in middle school, and the cardboard box that holds all of Alex's ticket stubs and cards and things from his friends.

And that's it. There's other things in the room of course, but nothing Alex wants to take with him. Most of it doesn't even feel like it belongs to him anyways.

It belongs to Alexander Mercer, the quiet, serious boy who studies his Bible all the time and never talks back to his parents and blushes at the thought of holding hands with the pastor's daughter. Not Alex, the snarky, anxious wreck who wrestles with his friends and plays his drums till his hands tremble and curls up against his boyfriend's side at movie nights.

Alex takes a shaky breath. When was the last time he got a proper breath? Has he even been breathing the last hour or so? He's not sure.

He zips up the suitcase, grabs his fanny pack, and texts Willie that he's ready to go. He receives a heart and a thumbs up in less than 30 seconds.

It takes him a minute to get the window open. The last time it got opened was probably last fall or something. As he carefully removes the screen, something moving outside catches his eye.

"Alex?" comes a soft whisper.

"Yeah, right here," Alex responds, placing the screen on his bedroom floor.

Willie appears on the other side a moment later, the dim light from the street casting shadows over their face. Alex feels his lips twist up in his first real smile of the day.

"Hey," Willie murmurs, resting his hands on the window sill. "You wanna get out of here?"

Alex bites back a sob and nods.

It takes them a few minutes to get Alex's stuff out the window and into Willie's car. Once it's done, Willie guides Alex over to the passengers side and helps him in before running around to hop into their own seat.

Willie places the key in the ignition, then turns to Alex. "You sure?"

Alex doesn't hesitate. "Yeah. Let's get out of here."

Willie nods and turns the car on. They drive slowly out of Alex's neighborhood, then turn onto a bigger street. Alex tries to focus on the stores they're driving past to ground himself, but it doesn't work.

What does work is focusing on Willie. Paying attention to the strands of hair that have escaped their low bun to frame their face. Noticing the way his hoodie sleeves are bunched up around his elbows because Willie always runs warm. Taking in the way the tapping of their fingers against the steering wheel matches the beat of the music playing softly from the radio. Memorizing the determined glint in his eyes when the streetlights catch them.

Alex loves them. And he knows that a love like theirs can't be wrong. It's just love, just like anyone else's.

Willie pulls into their driveway and parks the car. Alex looks up at the dark Covington residence and takes in another shaky breath.

"You ready for this?" Willie asks, turning to Alex and holding out a hand.

Alex laces their fingers together and squeezes. The steady pressure of Willie's hand in his seems to relieve some of the tightness in his chest. The caring, concerned look in their eyes removes the huge weight pressing down on his shoulders. The gentle tone of his voice slows the massive waves battering Alex's mind.

"What?" Willie says then, smiling. "What's that look for?"

The question startles a chuckle out of Alex. "I feel like I can breathe better with you around," he answers softly.

"I'm glad," Willie murmurs.

He slowly raises his other hand to cup Alex's cheek, giving him plenty of time to pull away as they lean in. Alex doesn't, instead meeting them halfway in a sweet kiss.

After a second, Alex pulls back. "Shall we get inside?" he says.

Willie nods and gives him a wide smile. "I thought you'd never ask."

[nathaniacolver]

arcane ships be like

i love a show that teaches equality (😭😭😭)

[noodles-07]

to be fair to Cain if nobody had ever died before and I didn't know it was possible I would probably also hit my brother over the head with a rock if he was being really annoying

[some-pers0n]

I'm always entertained by people doing those "canon VS fanon" memes where both are misunderstanding characters to such a violent degree 'cause like

[pouletpourri]

"You just have to look closely."

[a-hollow-forest]

"people show their true colours in life threatening situations" no, they show you what they act like when they're mortally terrified, an emotion notorious for literally turning your entire brain off to the point where people who go into those situations as a profession need to be literally trained on how to not have that happen

[lazylittledragon]

can't believe we're all adults being forced into the club penguin level of censorship in 2024

[pangur-and-grim]

one thing that took me embarrassingly long to learn is "sometimes when people say things, they will not be true."

I used to tell people about this revelation and they'd be like yeah.....duh.....but like, why wouldn't my base assumption be that you're communicating to me in a straightforward manner. anyway, I get scammed a lot.

[batcavescolony]

Katniss is such an unreliable narrator. She says "Then something unexpected happens. At least, I don't expect it because I don't think of District 12 as a place that cares about me" girl you deliver strawberries to the Mayor, you hunt and trade for the district, when you fell at Prim being chosen someone caught you, when you went to Prim people parted for you, when you volunteered EVERYONE stopped. Idk how to tell you but I think you're a pillar of the community.

[sparrowlucero]

speaking of how to train your dragon and creature design, the shift from the really naturalistic art direction and character animation for the first movie's toothless- the face getting flatter, the eyes bigger and closer together, getting rid of the little realistic details like the dust collecting between the scales, the pink splotching where the scales end at the nostrils, the muted markings, the animation making a shift from largely realistic animal behavior to much more anthropomorphic- is such a huge downgrade to me, made worse because it's subtle in such a way that you will sound insane if you mention it

(huge L for the "the audience's capacity to find a creature cute and empathetic and expressive is directly proportional to how much it looks like a human baby" principle of character design because the first one is so so much cuter)

[pigswithwings]

the angel staying over at my house asked for a nightlight in their room and i told them buddy, don't you produce your own light? what're you gonna do with more? and they said they wanted to see why people like it so much. and also that the nightlight i own is blue and they've been trying to understand color. anyways i think they've stared at it for an hour now

[foundfamilynonsense]

Had a dream where mini golf was added to the Olympics. And one of the Olympic mini golf athletes lost the gold because she hit the windmill.

And she tweets with a picture of the windmill and the caption “bout to go through my Don Quixote phase” and honestly I think that’s the funniest thing my brain has ever come up with.

[eydilily]

i'll tell you what, its really cute

[trekkiesagainstchastity]

It doesn't matter if that fic has been in your drafts for years and is now self-indulgent to the point of parody. If Steven Moffatt is allowed to do it professionally, you are allowed to do it for fun.

[bereft-of-frogs]

There’s that post that’s like ‘everyone should get into a tiny niche fandom at least once’ fully agree, that was really fun -- but I would like to add that everyone should get into a fandom where their opinions run counter to major fanon because it really teaches you about sticking to your guns and trusting your interpretation of the text without having to rely on peer validation

because WHAT are people talking about sometimes

[ginnyw-potter-archive]

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yes, I'm self-aware thank you