#crossovers gta edition

[wavemaker9]

new aesthetic for the worst boy, doug

[wavemaker9]

a quick aus vs aud thing

austin isn’t tactful mostly because he doesn’t care. he knows how to respond in a polite way when he needs to, but in most cases he doesn’t think it’s more beneficial than not doing that, and in any cases where he does. well. that’s why austin’s speaking very carefully around a person. 

audrey isn’t as tactful mostly because she’s less experienced with socializing. she still doesn’t care a SUPER lot about being very friendly and warm to people, but she’s a very isolated person even more so than aus. aus still usually has some family connection to him (and when he doesn’t. well. superpower au), but i think at least in most cases there wasn’t much/any extended family for audrey to rely on and she withdrew a lot and just kept to herself. when she can get more experience working with people, you can see she’s a bit more respectful, even shallowly, though even in those cases like gta au, it’s clear there’s still a disconnect of experience like when she actually gets friends via mel and her crew and it takes her a long while to learn how that’s different from work connections in like being able to rely on each other and things like that. 

[wavemaker9]

Khep wrote a fic about cami realizing she loves toni on a date following a “You’re beautiful” “you’re drunk” “these are not mutually exclusive” exchange i’d suggested, so i wrote a counter fic for toni finding out about this and then talking about when he first fell for her

Title: Mr. Romantic Characters: (GTA AU) Antonio, Camille

Camille is bright red, which only serves to make the task of trying not to laugh harder for Antonio. He can at least keep the small fit of chuckles that do escape from sounding too judgmental, not wanting to fluster the other more by making her believe he’s laughing at her when that isn’t the case. “No, no,” he tries to defend his reaction, lifting his arms a bit and waving them in and out to dismiss any embarrassment of hers. “I think it’s very cute! Very sweet!”

His effort is not as successful as he might like, for she still seems upset as she starts to step away, muttering that she wishes she hadn’t brought it up. He moves without thought, matching and then exceeding her pace so that he can make it to the gap in the counter, lifting up the surface part of it and sliding through the opening before setting it back down behind him. It’s always nice when he gets to come back here after hours with her. “Please, please, please,” he repeats once his attention can fall solely back onto her again, reaching hands out to try and catch her waist. One hand misses, but the other catches part of the apron she’s wearing, a soft pink covered in smudges of white from baking, neither color really clashing with the soft yellow shirt and tan skirt she’s wearing today. “I didn’t mean to upset you,” he reassures her, carefully tugging her back until he can loop his other arm around her as well. “I never do,” he adds, using the more secure hold to pull her into his arms.

She shows a mild pout at him, the sort that is small and unironic. He knows people who exaggerate such an expression, make it seem comedic in its largeness to either more definitively express their disapproval or to preemptively waive any teasing by owning to the pout right off the bat. Her frown is small, though, as she glances away, requesting once more that he forget the whole thing.

“I don’t wanna, though,” he counters back, starting to sway with her in his arms a bit. It’s a little habit he’s picked up since the two got together, something he’s found helps to ease her a bit after her more stressful evenings. “I like remembering it. I’m glad you told me.” He leans over slightly, to better get a look at her face, before a hand lifts from where it’d been resting on her hip to press on a cheek instead. “Thank you for telling me.”

“It’s not a big deal,” she says back in a sigh. “It’s just-,” she hesitates, before letting out another soft breath. She pulls free gently, not wanting to seem like she’s too upset or to hurt him any, before slumping a little against the counter. “It was a really romantic thing to say,” she finally offers, shrugging a little and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, partially from nerves, but also because it was genuinely falling into her face too much. “Most guys I’ve known in my life aren’t nearly as romantic as you when they’re sober, let alone when they’re drunk. I mean- most can figure out how to tell a girl she looks good, but not quite reach, ‘Your beauty and my being tipsy aren’t exclusive,’ or whatever.” She lets out a breath to try settling her nerves and getting some of the surely lingering pink off of her face. “It was just a really nice thing to say, Toni. Thank you.”

His smile returns, soft and warm on the edges, though there’s a hint of teeth in the center that betrays just a touch of pride at the compliment. “Of course,” he responds back, moving to stand next to her and lean against the counter as well. One hand presses on the edge of the counter by his hip while the other moves to rest on the wood right behind her back. “I’m glad I could set the bar so high.” She frowns again, insisting that she’s serious, to which he counters back quickly that he is, too. “You’re a lovely woman, Camille, inside and out.” The hand behind her now moves up, resting on the small of her back and rubbing a small circle with his thumb. “You make it so easy to love you, wholeheartedly, that the task becomes easy- even during the times when I have a little wine in me.” Here his smile grows wider at the joke, and he lets out a soft chuckle to further signify the humor intended on the last line.

He gets a smile and a look shot his way that appears to be part teasing and part skepticism. “Mmhmm,” she hums out in a drawn out, unconvinced tone. “And it can’t possibly be that you’re just Mr. Romantic all the time and you’d be this way with any woman you were dating.”

Toni lets out a quick laugh, before nodding, gaining a little teasing look to his eyes as well. “I’m glad we’re in agreement that it can’t possibly be that.” He leans in then as the laughter dies down, twisting around a bit so that he can brush his lips softly against hers. “Because personally? I’ve never been more certain that it’s you.”

He makes it too easy for her to melt into those words, and she’d let herself melt into that kiss, too, if she didn’t still have a little more work to do yet tonight. She gives him a couple more seconds, though, before finally pulling back. There’s a soft laugh that escapes her when he tries to lean in for a second, and she suggests that they can pick back up once she’s finished. He nods in agreement, but still steals a quick peck on the cheek, chalking it up as ‘something to tide him over,’ which gets another pseudo-scolding but fully flattered look shot his way.

She steps around him then, finding no surprise that Antonio once more moves with her, staying in step with a surprising ease. She remembers the first time they went dancing, how surprising it’d been to see how good he was at it, and then how she’d watched his steps from then on out and seen it all make sense. It was something she’d pieced together over the months they’d been together. The man moved like he was dancing, he spoke like he was singing, his fingers would brush her hand like he was strumming a guitar. Even back when they’d just been friends, he’d followed her up and down the counter as they talked like he was a dancer matching steps with his partner. He didn’t need to watch his feet, his eyes always stayed on her, another thing that turned her cheeks pink when she thought about it too much.

She remembers him mentioning once that he’d always been a fan of the pasodoble dance, and when he’d later shown her what it entailed, she hadn’t been very surprised at the time. How could someone like him, all handsome confidence and decisive step, not love a dance that would put his role in the focus compared to the partner who was to act like a cape for the other, adding highlight and flare but not the key lead? It was moments like these, though, off the dance floor and moving around each other in the shop or at their homes, that tested that idea. If he saw this as a dance, then he was, without question, letting her lead. She dictated the direction and pace, stepping from counter to backroom and back as items she needed for her tasks popped into mind. In turn, he kept in line with every step while still being careful to always be out of her way. He picks up items she needs without a word, carrying them effortlessly and flowing around her, her very own cloak. It’s another thing she finds herself in love with, yet envious of all at once; he has such a control over his very existence in a space that she wishes she could learn to be the same way, though it’s still very flattering that he would use it to help her out with her order prepwork.

“Camille?”

It’s very suddenly that she finds herself aware of both his voice and the hand in front of her face. The other of his is holding the lid of a box open so that she can sort different cookies into it. Sure enough, she’s in the middle of packing some of them, seemingly a bit distracted. Her face grows hot again and she tilts her head down to try and hide such a fact, muttering an apology as she returns to her task.

He doesn’t look upset at all, more a little amused if anything. His smile is gentle, but wide, another attempt to both show that he finds things funny, while not finding her funny. “You don’t gotta apologize for nothing, mi angelita,” he counters. “I got nowhere else to be but with you tonight.” He leans over slightly so that he can tap his shoulder against hers playfully, enough to feel the pressure but not bump her when she’s trying to carefully move items. “Besides, it’s your bakery. You wanna stare off the whole night through, who’s gonna stop you?”

“Apparently you,” she counters back with a quick laugh, matching his playful tone and even sparing a moment to bump his shoulder back before returning to her work of setting the cookies carefully into the box in little stacks.

Toni lets out an abrupt laugh upon realizing the truth to her statement, before replying, “My apologies! If I’d known, I woulda stayed quiet.”

Camille laughs, though it comes out as more of a chuckle, as she waves off that she’s glad to be back on task, declaring it wouldn’t have been a good use of time as she sets another stack of cookies carefully into place. They slide in easily, though she does half-falter on pulling her hands back out when the other counters that he wouldn’t say that. She turns to him, lifting an unconvinced eyebrow. “Oh really?”

“Yes, really,” he confirms without a moment’s hesitation. When she pulls her hand free from the box, he turns it effortlessly to make it easier to access the other, still empty side without possibly bumping into any that have already placed. “You know I could spend hours just looking at your beautiful face. That’d be a fine enough use of time to me.”

She can’t tilt her head any further down without making it hard to see what she’s doing, but the way her cheeks grow even hotter makes her want to cover her face completely. “Stop,” she scolds, then adds, to show that she’s not actually mad, “You’re such a flatterer.”

Antonio’s lips curl into a sharp frown and he quickly defends against the statement. “No, I’m not! I mean every word I say to you,” he insists. When she doesn’t reply back that she knows that, instead muttering a non-committed agreement instead, his frown falls further. “Camille, I do,” he says, voice becoming a little more serious in its tone. He swiftly twists the arm holding the box around so that it falls between her and the container. It’s the first time he’s gotten in her way tonight, but it’s clearly intentional to get her to focus on him. “Truly.”

Her hands, holding the next stack, try to nudge his arm out of the way, but find no progress to be made there. She sighs as she sets the stack to the side, before speaking up to admit that he just says these kinds of things a lot, is all.

Antonio’s frown holds, but it softens to seem less of offense, and more concern. His other hand lifts up to find her cheek, gently cupping it in his hand, seemingly more for touch than pressure. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. It’s just-,” there his expression eases entirely as he lets out a breathy chuckle, “to me, it feels like I never say it enough.” He leans forward again, brushing lips against lips once more before pulling back, showing her a smile. “I’ll try to cut back if that’d make you feel better, but I promise you, I’ve never told you nothing but the truth. Going on and on about how wonderful I think you are isn’t me trying to fool you or nothing, it’s just me always being in awe of you.” His thumb rubs against her jaw once before he slides the hand down, along her neck to her shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “Please don’t think of me as a liar just for loving you.”

She looks a little more soothed and offers up a confirmation that she doesn’t believe he’s lying, but her ultimately not being fully convinced is betrayed by the response ending there and by the still uncomfortable look in her eye. He squeezes her shoulder again, rubbing it a few times, before finally lifting his hand from her arm and moving the other aside to let her get back to work. He does understand the hesitation to a point. He grew up second guessing himself so much, too, and it took him many years of faking self-confidence until he had reached the point of actually finding it. Still, feeling like he understands her struggles doesn’t make seeing them any easier.

It’s another few beats before he finally speaks up, hands helping hold the box steady as Camille starts to close it up. “Would you like to hear my story?” There’s a second where she starts to look towards him, making a little humming noise to question the statement, before he catches himself and clarifies, “The first time I realized I loved you?”

There’s a clear curiosity there on her face in the first second, and though she seems interested, Antonio can pick up on a hint of resistance. He speaks up further to reassure he doesn’t want to turn this into a lecture on self-esteem or ramble on any more on how much he likes her if she doesn’t want him to. “I’ll stop, I promise!” he reassures with a large smile. “But you already shared your story, so I thought you might want to know mine. I can tell you another time instead, if you’d want?”

“No,” Camille answers. There’s a half second of what Antonio believes to be hesitation, though it might just be her focus as she works on completing the final steps to get the cookies ready for delivery in the morning. “I’m interested if you wouldn’t mind sharing.” She laughs, voice becoming a little more flustered, and says that it can’t be any more embarrassing than hers.

“I thought it was cute!” Antonio protests again, offering his hands forward to take the box once Camille’s finished with it. His arms drop a little to balance the added weight when it’s set in his hands. It’s not particularly heavy, given its contents, but it’s still easier to settle the weight in his hold this way. “Cross my heart,” he continues, raising his voice a little to be heard as he takes the box over to be stacked with the others in storage for the morning, “it was nothing you gotta be embarrassed over!”

When he steps back out, he can see that Camille has started wiping down the counters to clean up dust and crumbs from the busy day. He picks up a cloth as well, starting to follow after her once more, though this time to help dry off the areas already cleaned. “So,” he finally starts up again, after drying one shoulder width space of the counter. “The first time I fell in love with you-.”

She speaks up suddenly, turning her head a little to aim at him over her shoulder as she adds an extra request to the tale. “And this isn’t something like, ‘the first time I saw you,’ right?” She turns her head back to face forward again, but adds on a simple, half-musing statement that, as romantic as a line like that can be, it’s also very vague and wouldn’t actually mean much to her.

“No, no, no, you don’t gotta worry about that,” Antonio reassures, side stepping a little to move his work further down the cabinet. “I got a real moment- plenty of moments, if I’m honest, but I’ll only share the first.”

“Plenty?” Camille questions back, sounding somewhere between surprised and skeptical. She stops in her efforts for a moment, turning more fully to look at him, hand with the cloth resting against her hip.

Antonio turns as well, looking surprised himself, and then pleased to find she’s already facing him. “Of course ‘plenty’. Didn’t I say how lovely you were- that you made it easy to love you all the time?” His steps pick up as he sees her eyes start to roll a little, expression apparently falling fully into skepticism now, and he hurries to stand in front of her, catching a hand in his. “You doubt me so much!” he points out, voice a little teasing, but hoping to let a little bit of seriousness slip in so that she can know he’s not joking about all this. “Camille, I feel like I fall in love with you every day- often more than once.” He pulls gently on that hand, enough to guide but not tug, leading her into another kiss after he adds, “I could talk for days and days about all the times I’ve fallen for you.”

There’s a warm, dreamy sort of smile on Camille’s face when she breaks from that kiss, before she catches herself again and turns back to the cabinet, starting up work again. She laughs, a little rushed, and even partially turned away from him, Antonio can see the red in her face. When her laughter dies down, yet she’s clearly still flustered, she finally gets out a suggestion that they stick to the first time for now, given how late it is. Antonio chuckles again, before leaning over to press a gentle kiss to her neck as his hands rest against her shoulders, murmuring against the skin that he  thinks he can do that. His hold on her shoulders allows him to feel her breathe in deep at the touch, and it’s only when he steps away, returning to fetch the cloth he’d abandoned on the other side of the counter, that he can hear her finally manage to release it.

When he starts back up with his work, he takes another moment to decide how best to start the tale, before asking, “Do you remember how you kept baking all those holiday cookies at the end of last year?” He figures such a thing would be hard to forget, given exactly how many she’d seemed to be making around then, but he feels it would be better just to be sure.

She nods, before backing up with a verbal confirmation that she does, realizing he likely won’t be able to see her given their positioning. She muses absentmindedly that they were a lot of work decorating, but they made everyone so happy to see and taste, so she still considers them worth the effort. “Why?” she suddenly asks, flashing another look over her shoulder at him and asking if they’re the reason he fell in love with her.

“Yes,” he answers, then realizes how that actually must sound and corrects, “No- er. Not those specifically, but-.” He lets a second pause break up his words, resolving to starting over with a fresh sentence to correct the jumble he accidentally stumbled his tongue into. “There was one particular batch you made. It was just for samples, one of the special recipes you wanted to see how people liked before fully committing to it.”

Camille nods, though doesn’t speak up at the risk of interrupting, stepping across the space again to reach the final area needing wiping down. Moments after she moves, Antonio steps as well, sliding into the spot she had been standing in and starting his own work drying that area.

“They were going very fast- they were good! Cute shapes, delicious flavor. They were a quick favorite,” he explains as he works. “I’d been able to stop by earlier, and you’d given me one and set aside one for yourself. You’d wanted to try it, but other customers came and you got busy fast.”

Camille spares a small interruption this time, musing that the holidays do tend to get like that, with people wanting treats for different parties and get togethers. It’s always been a lot more work, but it’s at least also very good for business.

“Well, I came back at the end of the day and you were about to close up, but this man and his two sons hurried in- and he’d apologized about showing up last minute, but said he needed to get this order of his by that night and he couldn’t show up earlier because- oh, what was it?” Antonio falls quiet for a second of consideration before skipping over the detail with a simple, “He had this whole story of excuses, honestly, if I remember correctly.” He pauses again there, allowing a moment of laughter that bubbles up in his throat, shaking his head slightly at the memory. There’s a warmth slowly building to his words, one of charmed affection as he continues, “And I could see you were so tired from the day you’d had- this was before you had help, remember? -but you listened to the whole thing, acting very interested.”

He can pick up on the missing sound of fabric against countertop, and turns to move to the next spot, only to stop and half stumble when he sees she’s still standing there against the counter. It looks like she’s finished wiping things down, but instead of moving on to her next step, she’s stopped, leaning back against the surface and listening to his story. He interrupts himself to apologize, starting to turn back around, but she quickly scurries to her side to move out of his way, gesturing to signify the space is open. Another apology is clear on his face as he takes the spot, finishing drying the remaining spots there, though he stays silent on that, instead opting at Camille’s prompting to continue the story.

“Well, you went to get the order and- while you were back there, you must have heard? One of the boys saw the sample cookies- or cookie, I guess, cause there was only one left. And he kept asking his father if he could have it, and- his father wouldn’t let him have one if the other boy didn’t get one, too, and neither one wanted to have to share half a cookie with the other, so the father was trying to tell them they could haven’t one at all then.” His hand movements drift to a stop, and he’s staring off as he recalls the story, until he turns his attention back over to Camille. He stands up a little straight, facing her more fully as he sets the cloth down and to the side, stepping forward instead and reaching to take her hands in his. “And then you came out with the order and- I’d seen which cookie you’d set back for yourself, so I knew, but you didn’t even mention it to them. Just told them that you’d found an extra batch so both boys could have one. ‘What good news!’”

He lets out this breathy sort of chuckle that gets her to join along even if she can’t quite place the reason for doing so. His smile is so gentle, so warm, so contagious, and his eyes have locked onto her in a gaze that seems absolutely enamored by her once more. “He thanked you about seven times for finding the extra cookie for him, and then paid you for the order and made sure to give you a good tip, and then he left. And I remember sitting over there,” he nods towards a seat by the window, even if he doesn’t actually pull his eyes from her, “watching him go, watching him looking so happy, and the boys were just- they were ecstatic. They thought the pumpkin shapes were so cool, and you- you were beaming, too, which was especially impressive considering the day you said you ended up having. And I remember having two very distinct thoughts, just getting to watch how happy your bakery had made those people.”

His thumbs rub softly against the skin on her hands, grip just shy under firm, not holding them in place but still with a support that she can feel. “The first was, ‘God, I love this bakery,’ and then the second one, immediately after, was, ‘Oh, no, that’s not it…. I love this woman.’”

She’s lucky the grip isn’t firm, as it allows her just enough give to pull her hands from his so that she can wrap them around his neck instead, leaning forward immediately to catch him in a kiss. It’s just quick enough to catch him off guard where he stumbles back a little, but the wall is only a few steps behind him and manages to catch them both easily. He leans forward again once steadied, deepening the kiss as his arms find her waist, sliding around to the small of her back and hooking together there.

It’s Camille who breaks the kiss first after a few moments, pulling back sharply with a growing look of confusion on her face. Antonio seems surprised, both by the sudden separation as well as by her expression, asking what’s wrong.

“Pumpkins?” she asks, brow furrowing a little as she looks at him, waiting for confirmation. When he raises an eyebrow at her, waiting for what she means, she repeats, “Pumpkins? You said the cookies were pumpkins?”

Antonio blinks for a moment before nodding. “Yes? Well- technically jack-o-lanterns, I guess, but same thing. Why?”

She looks rather surprised that he hasn’t caught on to what’s confusing her so, before reminding him, “Antonio, we started dating in December.”

Antonio blinks again. “Yes?” An uncertain smile eases itself onto his face. “...And this happened around Halloween?” There’s another beat and then he offers, a little hesitantly as a guess at what’s perplexing her, “Were you… wanting the first time after we started dating?”

She was already rather red given the way Antonio’d been looking at her before, but here she flushes further again at the realization, before leaning forward to bury her face against his chest. It seems to confirm for him that that was the issue and he laughs, trying to pull her face back up to look at him. “Camille, please. Didn’t I say already how lovely you are? I couldn’t help myself but to fall for you a little early.”

She allows him to lift her chin up, but as soon as she’s looking at him again, she gives a half-scolding, “Mr. Romantic,” while lifting one of her hands up slightly to bat half-heartedly at his shoulder.

It only provokes another quick laugh out of him, and he drops the hand down again to join the other one around her back, pulling her a little tighter in his hold to kiss her once more before teasing back, “Only for you, Ms. Tunistra.”

[wavemaker9]

Sometimes you remember a term from a physics class and realize it’s a very good symbol for a couple of boys with differing ideas on what friendship is. Takes place after gil finds out toni has trust issues and has the guy brought out to his home so they can beat each other up over it because yknow. Healthy communication methods these boys have.

Title: Beat Frequency Characters: (GTA AU) Antonio, Gilbert, Matt (Mentioned)

There are more comfortable things to be sitting on when your whole body aches as his does, but there’s something about the soreness of bruises and scrapes on the uneven ground that feels very fitting to suffer through in this moment. Not that he would get up right now even if he felt it wasn’t. After all, it’s not the ground below him or the stars above that make him feel most at ease in this moment, but the occasional brush of arm against arm with the man to his side.

“I forgot how bright the stars can be,” Antonio says abruptly. His voice is still quiet, a whisper in the open air, but it pierces the hush like an arrow and almost startles himself with the disturbance of the silence. “I remember it being like this a lot back home.” Because over a decade in Los Santos, and Antonio still struggles to use the title to reference anything but that southern Spanish town. “We lived on the outskirts of town and every night was like this.”

Gilbert says nothing and Antonio turns to look at him. His breathing is steady enough for sleeping, but his eyes are open, awake, staring up at the sky as well. Antonio would have rather found him asleep, given what Gilbert being quiet can only ever mean. It’s understandable, he knows it, and it’s an improvement to the yelling and brawling from earlier. But he knows their fight has done little more than a bandage might do for a severed finger, which is what the Spaniard feels this is. He’s broken a level of trust with Gilbert that he didn’t even fully realize he had to begin with, and his struggles to repair it have largely been for naught; a disappointing but understandable fact that easily justifies the silence, even if it doesn’t make it any easier to hear.

Usually with Gilbert or Francis, Antonio can feel more comfortable in the silence. Long ago there stopped being an expectation with them, that need to keep a conversation going. Given everything, though, Toni feels anxious in those beats of quiet following his words. He wishes he hadn’t spoken up at all; just let the silence carry them further into the night. Unable to change anything about that, though, he tries again, offering, “You never get these views back in the city.” He doesn’t mean for his words to tint towards bitter when he speaks, but he can’t help it whenever he speaks negatively of Los Santos. It’s a poisonous town, and invites poison in every statement made about it.

“But you like it out there more,” Gilbert finally says. He twists slightly. Not completely, but his body tilts on the grass, rocking halfway onto an aching arm so that he can look at Toni more directly, before adding, “or at least refuse to leave.”

Toni frowns, because he knows that Gilbert is no longer talking about just missing the view, and he also knows that Gilbert is not wrong, exactly. For someone who curses the city so often, who refuses to call it his home, he’s certainly made himself comfortable in its depths. “You learn to live with windows as stars when you grow up with the light pollution,” he murmurs, voice quiet enough that the sentence might be mistaken as more for himself than Gilbert.

Gil sighs, a breath that is shorter, but feels long in the delay following it. “That’s an excuse,” he finally states flatly, before twisting around to lay on his back again. “But I guess most of the things you say seem like they are, so.” To his side, Toni lets out a sharp breath, and Gilbert can’t fully decide if it’s the breath of a man laughing or the breath of a man who’s been struck. “Tell me I’m wrong,” he declares, and decidedly keeps his eyes aimed up at the space above them. “Tell me I’m wrong without lying.”

“You aren’t,” Antonio says with a bit of finality. Any denial would just be more of an excuse, and sometimes one just has to accept the person they are; especially now. “I don’t mean to,” he adds after a few seconds, then lets out a chuckle that is much more easily placed as laughter, even if it’s got a sarcastic edge to it. “Though, I guess that’s an excuse, too, huh?”

It’s a rhetorical question, so it’s less concerning when Gilbert says nothing back this time. They both slip back into that low silence. There’s the clicking and chirping of bugs and the two steady rhythms of their breathing, but nothing more. That holds for a while, seconds turning to minutes, and Antonio lets himself lay there, listening. Their breathing isn’t in sync, not like he remembers it being many years ago. He makes a few half attempts to force the two rhythms to fall in line with each other, but the effort of holding or rushing his breath to keep in pace makes him feel like he’s breathing through a thick fog instead, and he eventually lets his breaths fall back into their own natural rhythm.

There’s something unsettling about that, too, though. Now that he’s fully noticed Gilbert’s breathing, there’s a tense sort of unease that it has started to slip into his brain. It takes him a few moments of rolling the feeling around in his head before he can recognize where its origin is likely placed, and he decides to speak up about it, both to cut off the silence once more now that it no longer eases him, as well as hoping that his words might add to the defense he desperately wants Gil to believe of him genuinely liking the other, even if he can’t fully trust him.

“Y’know, I remember doing this in the hospital, too,” Toni declares, and can see Gilbert’s head tilt in his direction out of the corner of his eye.

“Watching the stars?” Gilbert asks. He can figure that’s not the answer, but without a better guess, he at least wants to highlight to the other what a seemingly questionable sentence that’s just been made.

“Listening to you breathe,” Antonio answers back, sounding largely unfazed by the hint of sarcasm. His voice keeps a sort of distant quality to it, as if he were completely back in those moments. As if he were musing aloud to the crickets around them compared to answering the direct question from his friend. “I did that a lot.”

Gil’s quiet for a long beat, before he turns his head back away. “Yeah, the what? Five times you stopped by?” There his words taint with a bitter flavor to them, and he adjusts how he’s laying in the same way one pushes their shoulders back and straightens their posture when taking offense to something.

“It was more than that,” Antonio corrects, this time turning his head over to face Gil a little more. His voice eases back into being present ever so slightly, pulling himself back from the thought to counter the small jab. “I know it wasn’t as much as I should have, but I did make a number of trips.” He sighs, then, letting his focus turn back upwards, and his tone finds a distance again as he recalls, “I’d drape my jacket over the back of the chair before sliding it closer to your bed so I could sit right by you. A lot of the time I’d reach out to take your hand for a while.” His arm twitches, like he wants to reach out and do it now, but he worries Gil wouldn’t let him tonight, so he moves it instead to rest with the other one under his head like a makeshift pillow. “I missed getting to do it so much like when we three first became friends, and they always say that outside stimulation might help in those cases.”

Antonio doesn’t give any space this time for Gilbert to respond or not, carrying on with the same tone of musing about a casual thought he’d had. He imagines it must sound odd, to hear the whole thing talked about so calmly, so simply. He finds it easier to try not submerging himself any further in the thoughts and feelings of back then, though. He liked to linger on a lot of things about the past. Tiago had once joked about him having rose-colored eye contacts, the way he mused about better times so often. This, however, was something he’d rather remember as distantly as he could. “Sometimes I’d try to talk to you… or I’d sing or hum a song I remembered you liking. But sometimes I’d just stay quiet and listen. I’d hear you breathing, and it’d make me feel better because… well, that was better than what the doctors expected you’d be doing after that long. But then I’d think about it, and I’d think, ‘What if this is the last time though? What if this is the last time you hear him breathing? What if he takes his last by the next time you come back? What if you go to sleep and wake up to a world where he’s stopped?’” Antonio releases a worn sigh, and his elbows and shoulders sink slightly, resting further against the grass. But after a beat, he makes a small sound to signify a silver lining of a thought, “I hear you breathing now and it reminds me of that, but it also makes me glad I don’t gotta worry about that no more.”

Antonio finishes to find that Gilbert has turned back to half-face him again, leaning partially onto a side and using his arms to steady his positioning. Gil stares for a long while, not making a sound. But out of the corner of his eye, Toni can see brows tilted in confusion, or even frustration. Words seem to be on the other’s lips, just not fully ready to be said, and so they wait in silence until Gilbert finally speaks up.

“I don’t get it then,” Gilbert finally declares bluntly, and his mouth tilts slightly, pulling a more perplexed frown to his lips. “You say you were so worried, so why didn’t you come more often?”

“Because I was afraid, Gilbert.” It wouldn’t be unjustified to guess at there being a defensive edge on those words, but it’d be a mistake. More than anything, its blunt tone is just matter-of-fact. “I was afraid over you. Because they didn’t have any way to contact me, so I thought the only way I’d know you were dead was going back in. It didn’t work out that way, of course; Francis still knew how to reach me, but- you were Schrodinger's Gilbert as long as I was outside that room, but you might really be gone the next time I stepped in.”

He sighs, long and heavy, and lifts his head so he can lift his hands. They move, pressing palms at his forehead and dragging slightly down his face, holding until they cover his eyes and cheeks and rest right over his mouth. “And because I was afraid for myself, too, if’m honest. Because I was too focused on a million things to focus on the one that meant the most. That should a meant the most. Because I’d just almost lost one of my best friends and because I’d almost gotten hurt myself. Because I was pretty sure someone in my crew was trying to get me killed or fucked over, and I didn’t know who or why. Because I had so much to do to keep what I had built together, to keep my crew in one piece and to keep myself out of the bed next to you.” He moves his hands again, this time parting them slightly and giving another sigh. “Because I thought, like I always do, that what I was doing was for the best in the long run.” His gaze shifts, still staying stationary but adjusting so he’s not really looking at the stars anymore. His vision grows blurry at the change for a moment, before he finally moves his eyes over to Gil, allowing them to find focus again. “I know it’s just more excuses, but those are all the answers I got for you.”

It’s harder in the dark, but those green eyes find Gil’s. Much like Toni recognized the intent to speak, Gil knows here that this is the brunet signifying that he is finished and awaits further judgement as is deemed fit. Gilbert stares back. For a long while, their eyes stay locked, and then Gil turns away first. “Well,” he says, laying onto his back again and declaring dismissively, “you were wrong.”

“So I’ve heard,” Antonio responds back after a second or so.

Gilbert still feels like he doesn’t know his friend as much as he thought he did, but he at least knows the other well enough to pick up on that wording. His arms cross over his chest, interlocking as his eyes glare upwards, even if his head leans over slightly to further direct his words at the other. “You’re wrong a lot,” he states curtly.

There’s a breath-like laugh as Toni, hands still pressed over his eyes, acknowledges to having heard that as well. He could let his arms rest against the ground again, but without being able to see, he assumes Gilbert is giving him a judging look and would rather avoid it for the moment. Still, he doesn’t resist when a hand takes his, pulling it free to grip it in a tight hold for a moment instead. Gilbert is looking down at him again, leaned over to get a better angle at his face. The light from the nearby house lights up his features just enough to highlight the raised eyebrow and slanted half-frown he’s casting down at Toni.

“How’re you one of the smartest guys I know and still so fucking stupid about everything, Toño?” Gil asks, letting his lips slip an inch further into the territory of a frustrated pout.

Toni lets his mouth twitch up into the faintest mimic of a smile, and this time around, he laughs like a hum when he answers. “Hmm, it’s truly a puzzle, ain’t it, Gil?” It’s an effort, even small, to keep his lips even when Gilbert’s hand is pulled away, resting that arm back on its owner’s side. He can tell a part of Gilbert wants to speak further; to ask why he has to be like this. Why he can’t just admit when he’s wrong.

The issue is that Toni still doesn’t fully agree that he is wrong. He can recognize the choices he made weren’t ideal. He can recognize that he made a mistake. He can be sorry for not staying closer to his friend, whether emotionally, physically, or both. But that doesn’t make his priorities wrong. He acted on fear back then, sure, but that is the purpose of fear, after all. Antonio isn’t one to show it often, but he recognizes its usefulness when required. One mustn't let it rule their whole life, let it bring them to complete cowardice in the face of hardship, but fear itself exists to keep people alive in moments of true danger.

His actions have backfired here, driven a rather impressive wedge between himself and one of his very best friends. But everything else he has on this day? He doesn’t consider it wrong to have tried to protect it first. He can agree with Gilbert that friends are important. Even that friends should come first over many things. But there wasn’t much that sitting at Gilbert’s side day in and day out could truly do, and he’d needed to do so much. To keep going, to make sure everything else survived. To make sure that even if he did lose his friend, he’d have something at the end of all this.

If anything, he wants to flip the question back at Gilbert. To question why he can’t consider the idea that maybe he’s the one who’s wrong here. It’s Gilbert who seems to have missed out on the workings of the city they built their names in. Gilbert who seems to have unrealistic expectations about the way the world of Los Santos truly works. After all, Toni would likely be pleased, if the roles had been reversed, to hear that the other two had come seen him frequently in the hospital, but he also wouldn’t have been surprised if they hadn’t much or at all. They were friends, sure, but friendship in Los Santos was a funny thing, and it could mean such varying things to all sorts of people.

And that’s the thing that Antonio finds funniest of all. Again, their ideas on friendship mesh so well in so many ways. He really never had expected the three to get along as well as they did, but below the surface, they have so much in common on their feelings and priorities, that the three actually work quite well together. They feel as if on the same wavelength sometimes, and it’s comforting in the way of finding anyone like yourself in this world can be comforting.

Yet then, you get to that one core difference and it all falls apart. They both still value the others, still value their time shared together, but Toni has never expected kindness from Francis or Gilbert that wasn’t agreed upon with a handshake, not in the way of demanding it when it wasn’t there. They’re so close in ideas, but there’s some path that they seem to have split on down the way that divides them, and despite everything that’s happened, despite Gilbert’s overwhelming anger at him, he’s still not ready to call the road he’s taken the wrong one.

That wavelength has wavered too much. They are turn signals on a set of cars, syncing up for a few seconds before falling out of beat with each other and each following their own pace until all falling into line again. He breathes in, suddenly feeling the cold of the night air in his lungs for the first time since the sun set. It makes sense, Toni thinks, looking up towards Gilbert without truly looking at him, how their breaths sound together. Overlapping, sometimes matching, but never fully in sync.

His hands find the dirt below him and he leans forward, pushing himself into a sitting position that forces Gilbert to lean back into his own spot. Toni takes a beat, a long second with his hands pressed into the grass, before he breathes deep and pushes himself to his feet. He stares up, taking in the sight of the stars for a moment more, before turning his attention back to Gilbert and giving an easy smile. “It’s getting pretty late, doncha think?” He adds the words of a question, but it is a declaration as he brushes his clothes off some. “Still got a long drive to get back to the city.”

There’s a beat as Gilbert stands as well. One where the man could offer Toni stay the night, and they both recognize it. But, given the third person still waiting inside the house for his husband to come join him, they both know that’s not an offer that’s coming.

Antonio reaches forward first, because he knows he should but also because he wants to. His hands grab the sleeves of Gilbert’s shirt as he pulls him into a big hug. “It was good to see you out here. Wish it was under better circumstances, but y’know.” He can already hear in the back of his mind, the response for Toni to be less of a self-centered dick in the future and then it can be better circumstances. So he pushes on, adding, “Next time, just call me out here, yeah?”

Gilbert hugs back, wrapping sore arms around Antonio’s frame. “Next time,” he counters, “just come.”

As Toni pulls away, he raises an eyebrow, turning to glance more pointedly at the house, and Gilbert turns too, quiet for a moment, before looking back. “Call ahead,” Gilbert corrects, and it gets a genuine laugh out of the other.

When the laughter dies down, a slanted grin resting more uncomfortably than it normally does on Toni’s face, he shrugs and nods in acknowledgement, rubbing a hand on his neck but with the air of rubbing out a sore spot from the fight. “Fair enough.” He moves that hand level but forward, resting on a shoulder and squeezing reassuringly. “You’re still good out here?” It feels like such an out of place thing to ask, given the whole evening, but it also feels like it wouldn’t be right not to ask it before parting. It’s less inspired by practice and expectation when his eyes flicker back to the house again, and he adds, “He’s still good to you?”

“More than some people I could mention,” Gilbert answers instantly, and then his face seems to react with slight regret. Not enough to fully feel bad for having the thought, but maybe wishing he hadn’t said it.

Its tone is that of a joke, but there is a bite to those words that screams volumes given its context. It drives a short laugh out of Toni, a sharp sound that echoes in the empty air like a gunshot as his body recoils back half an inch. He hopes it can disguise as leaning back with the laugh. It doesn’t, and Gilbert finally corrects his answer, giving a simple comment on Matt being as wonderful as he always is.

“Good,” Antonio answers, “you deserve that.” He hopes that’s one of the things they can agree on, even if he’s not as confident as he’d like to be on that. “Truly. I know your faith in me is shaken just because I don’t trust you enough, but I do want what’s best for you. You’re my friend, Gilbert. I thought I lost you once. I don’t wanna see you hurt again for trusting the wrong people.”

The starlight catches those eyes as Gil’s gaze locks and holds with Toni’s. “And who’re you thinking are the wrong people here?”

Toni chuckles and lifts a hand, waving off the concern. “I didn’t mean anyone specific,” he tries to reassure, truthfully for once. He doesn’t get along with Matt, he doesn’t particularly care about him outside of small factors that don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, but Matt seems fine enough anyway. More so, Toni may not trust Gilbert wholly, but he trusts his sense of judgement on this, and if Gilbert is impressed by him, then Toni tries to keep his concern to a minimum. “I’m just sayin’, y’know? Take care of yourself.”

“Well, I know you apparently won’t stick your neck out to do it, so-.” Gilbert mutters it, but he keeps his mouth curled into a smirk so that any insult can be laughed off as teasing.

Sure enough, Toni places a hand over his heart and shoots back, “Ah, one final wound. And here I was thinking our fight was over.” But they both know that’s not the case. Things have fallen into rhythm for now, but they’ll veer and spread out and split again. It so seems to be their nature.

Gilbert gives a reassurance to Toni not to worry about him as they step further from the house. They won’t go all the way down to where the car is waiting, but Gilbert can still walk with him for now. The tone he uses when he speaks implies an understanding that he knows Toni won’t worry, and it’s enough to get Toni to speak up and admit he can’t help but to do it.

“You make it very easy to worry about you, Gil,” Toni tells him, flashing the hint of a smile at the other.

“Because I’m too trusting?”

“Because,” and he pulls Gil into another tight hug, “you are my friend. No matter what you think of me now, please don’t forget that?” He pats Gil’s back a couple times as the pale man grumbles out a pseudo-joking acknowledgement.

Toni pulls away, taking a few steps further down the path. His arm instinctively lifts in a wave when Gilbert does not step with him anymore, staying where he is standing and lifting his own hand to wave back as well. Antonio turns back forward when nothing more is said, heading towards the glow of headlights in the distance. There are still words on his tongue, but he reasons it too late to say anything more. The wavelengths have split, after all, and he figures it will be a while before they can match up again.

[wavemaker9]

Been talking about toni’s inability to completely trust people in GTA but I will say a good show of GTA Toni’s trust in at least Tiago, Gil, and Francis is that they’re like the only 3 crime kids he’ll let himself sleep around. 

I think like at least the majority of his ‘must be prepared for betrayal’ mindset really is just duty to crew. Like if Gil or Francis kill him, that sucks majorly, but he’s willing to take the risk that they won’t given past times they’ve had the opportunity and didn’t. But despite history, if someone fucks over his crew, he has to be ready to retaliate both for his position but way more so, that fucks the crew over internally if they seem weak or don’t make a show that hurting them gets you hurt back. And that fear of having to get revenge against Gil and Francis just on principal definitely lessens, especially so for Gilbert when he gets out of the business, but it’s still always there because he has to be prepared if it comes down to it, he can’t hesitate or flake on that. The three went easy on people like Arthur and Ivan for a while at the start because they seemed tolerable or even liked something about them, and look at how that went. He’s not wasting or risking good lives just because he got sentimental despite his best efforts, he won’t allow himself to. It’s honestly like really similar to nationverse toni? It’s just instead of feeling responsible for a nation, it’s a relatively big crew in a city. It’s almost the exact same thing of like, hard to trust or get involved with people.

Also i think i vaguely suggested that the whole thing with gil’s accident + the big job going bad thanks to arthur being a turning point in toni’s trust in people, but i really like it being a bigger thing. Like beforehand, toni was a lot rougher around the edges and whatever, but also him being more genuinely willing to trust people. Not completely, again that’s just how life in LS works for him, but that being how he managed to become such good friends with Tiago/Gil/Francis in the first place, because he met them earlier on when he was a little more open and he /was/ still open to having even loose friends back then. And then the shit with everything going down and Toni doesn’t just withdraw the crew to take the heat off him and the toros, or to find the potential leak of the information to arthur, but him even cutting ties with francis specifically because well they all gave arthur and ivan wiggle room and look at what happened, who can really say what francis’ plan is here, especially since toni’s the only other big name leader left and at this point francis could get rid of him to be the top level leader of los santos. toni needs to fall back completely to reset before he ends up in a coma with his crew falling apart, too.

Idk how upset Francis would be about that, but i imagine at least a little bitter, even if he plays it off? Like maybe I’m assuming wrong, especially since I still have no idea of what Francis was up to with all this, what his motivation within the city during his younger days was, etc etc. but him probably visiting Gil a lot more over those years, where as toni probably saw gil less as the years passed. God, Toni probably first avoiding visiting while Francis visits because of the change and then just doesn’t want to have the conversation he knows will have to happen when they talk again in the middle of a hospital over the comatose body of their friend. Francis only figuring out Toni still visits on occasion thanks to like nurses or times where Toni leaves something in the room for Gil. it’s probably seen as a shitty coping mechanism of toni’s and left at that? idk. Oh but ALSO! After Gil finds out about Toni’s trust issues, maybe complaining about it to Francis and only hearing then about the differences in how often Toni came to visit vs how often Francis did? Gil even more >( hey toni what the /fuck/. Hey toni why aren’t you apparently my fucking friend, toni??? (toni: /listen/)

But back to the sleeping thing. it’s not quite the wait it would have taken for Toni to sleep around Gil and Francis, but there def being a while where Toni is dating Cami, and still going over to her house or inviting her to his, even for the night, but he’s not sleeping while she’s there. She seems innocent but he wants to get a better feel about things before just believing that theory; he don’t trust like that. God, him nodding off once or twice while over without meaning to and always startling away. One time her trying to wake him up gently and he just ends up waking up snapping into ‘gotta defend self’ mode for a hot second before realizing it’s just her and having to immediately ease up and apologize. Probably makes some excuse about growing up in a particularly bad neighborhood where break ins occurred often so he had to be ready even in his sleep, and not able to shake the habit even now. It’s nice when he does start feeling like he can willingly sleep around her though.

Honestly like. Probably a similar idea of eating/drinking anything they made/left with them. I know the first fic with him was him complaining about Ivan not drinking his drink, but he wouldn’t have either. He’d like take it and hold it through most of the conversation, and maybe even make the gesture of almost drinking or lifting the glass close to his lips, but he wouldn’t drink it or touch it fully to his lips. I mean. Idk, maybe younger him might have been more lenient on that, he saw himself as more invincible than current toni does. older him knows that invincibility requires work in this city and that you don’t get it without putting in the effort to maintain it.

Bonus thought on that: toni trying to excuse his trust issues to gil at some point (or whoever, but i’m picturing gil), saying that sacrifices are needed if you want to be the best. And gil /immediately/ coming back, but are you the best??? Like /I/ usually think you’re pretty great, don’t get me wrong, but also /you never fucking seem happy with yourself/, so are you really the best? Just by /your/ standards? Just according to /you/???

[wavemaker9]

one thing i like the concept of is carmen initially being like :/ about cami because of how she’s introduced to her through toni, as this factor in toni potentially leaving the game when that feels like a waste of talent to carmen. but then also like. once she knows cami and occasionally comes back to talk to her more in her bakery, her reluctantly also having to acknowledge cami seems like a good person. initially was like her innocent sweetheart act is too strong, bleh. but then later like. okay no she’s actually just really nice and caring and whoops i’m her friend now too i guess, oopsie daisy. 

also we talked very briefly about cam and toni being friends but also cam and carmen being friends! carmen’s also a bit more openly judgey and prideful than toni is, so i feel like that might work even better with being friends with cam. honorary fourth member of fashion night team. 

[wavemaker9]

so far we have boys night, date night, probably a friend night or something for toni gil and francis, and in call yesterday we added fashion night which is cam austin and micha getting together to shittalk bad high fashion at like fashion shows and shit. started thinking on that more this morning and had a very good idea for it. basically it was suggested that cam invites the other boys out one time and i still like micha agreeing to that pretty easily, but austin less so. listen he enjoys judging people sure, but he can judge people at home on his own, it’s fine. him not being rude but rejecting cam’s offer, thank you but no thank you, you two have fun though. but i love him first agreeing from some other reason but then actually finding it's not that bad and being more open to it in the future. 

favorite idea is that the invite happens to come during one of the boys nights things, with the last time having been the time oliver brought austin to it. picturing some case where everyone's at the building the jawbreakers’ hq/oliver’s office is in. cam and micha had to show up for some reason and were in the building when cam offered the invites, and for another reason, oliver can't meet up with the boys for said boys night at an outside location so toni and ivan have to come to his office. toni and ivan catching austin before they see oliver and immediately like, hey austin~ you're coming to boys night again right~??? we had so much fun last time we'd just /love/ for you to come join us again tonight~~~! and austin in an immediate panic and trying to insist like oh well he would love to too but he can't what a shame, have fun without me. toni and ivan very amused like no cmon what have you got to do that's more fun than hanging out with us? :) and austin having to rush to think of an excuse and seeing cam and micha nearby heading out for the thing and quickly trying to pull their attention over to get them to help get him out of this, saying cam invited the group out and he already agreed so he really should keep his word. such a shame though, oh well, really, just heartbroken about not being able to hang out with you three tonight and have you insult and threaten him all night long, really kicking himself here. when cam and micha catch on, them covering for austin and confirming yep he already agreed, sorry boys. but then when toni and ivan finally back off to go meet up with oliver, cam and micha not letting austin back out at that point. no you said you were coming and we covered for you, cmon. i mean, would you rather back out of this too and then later ivan and toni end up finding out you lied to them to get out of their thing? if you think they give you shit /now/, imagine /then/. and austin finally caving and like okay okay i'll go out with you two but just tonight. except he actually kind of enjoys it and admits at the end of the night that he wouldn't be 100% opposed to doing this again.

[wavemaker9]

I think I mentioned already that toni wouldn’t like al because he’s got a lot of negatives that toni disapproves of, but he /would/ approve of al being able to be a diplomat. It’s something toni can also reluctantly approve of with austin, though even with austin, it’s very forced. He can appeal to people but it’s an effort to do so and he only puts that effort in because he’s such a coward. It being more natural and automatic would be seen as better by toni, so he’d at least give al that. If ever meeting al, toni later maybe even telling mel that, though probably more worded as ‘if you had this trait then that’d be better’ vs ‘you and he make a good team’ because besides that there’s not much else toni appreciates about al so nah. Toni telling mel that if she had her brother’s knack for making allies so easily, she’d be almost unstoppable. Her raising an eyebrow at him, questioning the word choice on ‘almost’, and him just laughing like, “well, y’know”.

[wavemaker9]

Okay i’m gonna scratch what i told avi before regarding toni’s crew. I’d initially said that it should be los toros and that the toros was technically wrong but toni was fine with it. However, since saying that, i’ve tried to correct times when i wrote the toros to los toros and idk it feels kind of awkward sometimes? Like i will hold onto the idea that it started as Los Toros and like. I think it’s like context of the sentence. Much like how toni picks and chooses other words for what sounds best, him feeling los toros is better sometimes and the toros is better other times. Like when talking in the crew, again most people he works with do speak spanish and specifically will often just fall to that instead of english, so it’s just always los toros there because the whole fucking thing is spanish, that’s a no brainer. But when speaking in english to something and speaking more casually, ‘the toros’ is probably more commonly what toni falls back on. ‘Toros’ is the part of the name that matters. Like i think it’s more the/los Toros than The/Los Toros. The ‘the’/’los’ isn’t inherently part of the name where it should be included every time you say it. Sometimes you just say ‘the Toros’ base’ or ‘he’s one of the Toros’ and that’s fine, that’s chill. Especially when using toros as an adjective, like you’d have to either be like ‘the los toros base’ or ‘los toros base’ which isn’t grammatically correct but ‘el toros base’ is just entirely unnecessary, el doesn’t even come up, you can just use the for the base. Most of the time toni specifically uses ‘los Toros’ is when specifically trying to make the name sound more impressive/impactive. “Who do you think you fucks are?” “(confident smirks) Los Toros. You’re in our territory now.” like at that point, Los Toros sounds better than The Toros. Honestly it feels like 90% of how toni carries himself is dependent on aesthetic. Gotta pick what looks/sounds the best for any given scenario, bye.

[wavemaker9]

Would gilbert be the same ‘no we’re Friends’ about toni and francis even in gta au tho? Because i do kind of like even gta gilbert being like no they’re my friends and that’s that and that coming up some day with gilbert trying to explain to toni like no you and francis are my pals and i’m not going to betray you on something like that with toni just like ok but that doesn’t make sense??? If ludwig figures out it’s more beneficial to your crew in the long run to try to take me out are you really gonna tell him not to?? I mean I don’t want it to be more beneficial but if it was- you’d really take a loss just to stay as my friend? and like touched for sure, that’s very sweet! but also. that just doesn’t make sense to a part of him. like a literal part of him is also like ‘you’re smarter than that??? You should be smarter than that.’ which is also funny because honestly if gil came back and asked him ‘would you betray me or francis to improve the toros’ position?’ like i honestly think he’d have to admit no he guesses no. but he’d make excuses as if that was the wrong answer? Like oh well the toros have maintained a better reputation & wouldn’t need the boost or oh i can’t think of a way that the crew would benefit that it wouldn’t also by having you and francis as an ally. Toni just admit you don’t wanna burn bridges with your friends that’s not a fucking bad thing. /toni/. 

Also i’ve only ever rp’d as toni with 1 france and that francis never cared as much about toni as toni did their francis in rps we did together, so might be wrong there but i always unintentionally picture francis as the same as toni is in this au and even more so maybe. Like I tend to picture francis is the most take them or leave them concerning his friends of the group which again, who knows how valid that is. especially since thinking back, i know the rper also just didn’t like me personally and could have very easily been letting some of that slip into how she portrayed francis, so there’s that too. maybe better characterization of francis paints him as way more loyal to friendships? i’ve never cared about france as a character at all so I could not tell you anything about how he was portrayed in aph or fandom, whoops!

[wavemaker9]

Carmen meeting Mel at some point for a job with toni or something and sizing her up since this is the one Toni told her had so much potential, judging her on some things and complimenting on others, but all in Spanish to Toni in earshot of Mel. In the middle of it, Mel finally speaking up in Spanish to correct some statement about her that's wrong and carmen surprised. asking to confirm she following along the whole time? Mel like not the whole time, some things were boring so i tuned them out. Carmen staring for a beat before shooting a look at Toni like you didn't tell me she knew Spanish.  Toni dismissive, oh no? I'm sure I did! Weird! I mean most people I work with speak Spanish so-. and her countering she heard he did a deal with those two Aussie boys, what? last month? “the one can barely speak english, what’s your excuse there, leño?”

Also her seeking out cami to meet once after finding out that's who toni's fallen for. She heads in to order while Toni waits outside. When she comes back, she takes a bite of cupcake and says she thinks she has diabetes now. Also the treats are sugary too, badum tsh. Her finally conceding when toni presses, yes yes cami seems wonderful, she likes cami very much, good pick, and her happy Toni seems happier, guy probably deserves it, but also she’s a little disappointed once toni admits to her that he wants to leave the business for cami. Toni’s good at what he does, he has both the skill and ambition to run this town, he’s proven that, and it’d be a damn shame to see someone with his fire let it die down, especially given how their deal benefits her and she couldn’t guarantee port keeping up a similar deal if he took over.  She’s sympathetic to toni though when he and cami go back to being just friends, since she could tell cami meant a lot to him and it wasn’t easy not picking the selfish option, but she’s also glad to a point too once he’s officially back to staying in the game.

[wavemaker9]

from the suggester of ‘gta ivan and toni’, comes ‘gta anya and carmen’

[wavemaker9]

i started considering actually have toni in gta online under the assumption i could change monster’s avatar into him and have him keep her levels and items, especially when i realized he’d be living on integrity which is just as good of an irony thing for him as for her. however, i just confirmed you can’t change gender on an avatar, you’d have to delete the character and create them new for that or seeing if a new account would allow me to get 2 new chars like. i’m /not/ working through all the levels I did for Toni, love that boy but absolutely not. sorry guys, you’re not getting toni or austin in online, blame jeff rockstar

[wavemaker9]

Human Doug in most cases is about 10-15 years older than Kyle, with Kyle usually being around 18-20 and Doug being 30-35. 

An exception to this I think would have to be supernatural AU, but only the original and not the reverse. See, in the reverse, he’s an angel possessing a rando’s body, so that guy can be 30-35 no problem. In original, doug was specifically a friend of kyle’s when kyle was young that the demon ended up picking out and taking the body of, which would be weirder with an age gap that big, like if kyle was like 5 at the time with doug being like 15-20. The age gap is important for keeping that controlling and largely uncomfy filter on their relationship though, so instead of just making him the same age, i’d still like to keep him at least a few years older, like Kyle being a preteen (10 or 12) when Doug was a teen (probably 3-5 years would work but I’ll probably think on that more later), so in current times when kyle’s probably in early 20s, since they run into the doug when the whole gang is together, doug’s probably only somewhere around 25 or so, maybe a few years extra max. 

Anyway, I was just going to bring that up to emphasize that was different, but also. The orig-reverse swap scenario, where orig and reverse (i think it was) ivan swap verses and end up in the other’s world for a bit. I had brought up doug being a difference when it was suggested kyle swap, just because seeing friend alive would be uncomfortable for him with his guilt, but instead if it’s ivan swapping, i want angel doug being called in/showing up for whatever reason and besides Ivan’s initial ‘hold on i’m sorry you said /angel/?? ?’ (Gil, half-grumbled: We can’t believe it either.), Ivan at some point just being like hey what happened? You’re like at least a decade older and time already did not seem to be treating you kindly in your 20s, with him being like ‘listen A, I don’t know what /your/ version of me was up to but remember we’re different, B, it’s not my fault, I’m just in the body okay? You think I like this frosted tips and tattoos look??’ (Ivan: Couldn’t you just dye the hair back to black then?|Doug: ...I mean… yeah, but…. Okay, so I like the frosted tips. Bite me.|Ivan:I’ll pass, thanks.)

Also unrelated to the age thing but! Gta au! Doug would have to have bright red contacts, probably just the irises mostly but occasionally switches to full eye contacts when really wanting to be an intimidating force on a job or something. which I feel is just another fucking thing for gil to be like ‘!!! hey what the fuck???’ about. ‘Kyle why does your shitty friend want to be me so badly?????’ Also would gil call him out directly on it? because i love the idea of doug just laughing at the idea and gil getting even more ready to throw down. kyle i’m gonna kick your shit friend’s ass k thx bye.

actually back to spn au, gil also annoyed with doug there too! also looks similar to him. OKAY BUT. /doug/ being the one to bring it up. i like it being a little later since i’d want it to be when he starts referring to the human doug and the history he had as his own to try and lull kyle into accepting him more. just looking over the others one day when the group is trying to research a monster, and leaning over to kyle like ‘you ever noticed gil dresses a lot like me? he always dressed like that or-?’ and kyle confirming yeah, that’s always been his bro alright. cue doug in a voice just slightly louder so gil can hear like, ‘hmm. makes sense then i guess, losing me as a friend so finding a replacement in doug lite over there.’ kyle a little surprised, comparing the two again, and then just snickering at the realization. though gil could get him back by making some coke/coke zero comment that basically calls doug a zero and that he’s a lesser version of gil. i’m so excited for these boys stepping on the other’s fashion in any AU’s that they can be. 

[wavemaker9]

GTA au, other people besides Ivan that Toni realistically sleeps with at least once

Oliver thanks to boys night. Probably rare if more than once. First time probably happens because they’re at least somewhat tipsy. Any times after that are more just ‘I mean we already did it and I’m interested in that right now. You wanna or should I find someone else?’

Arthur, wanna say a few-to-a-handful of times? More before Art fucked over Toni’s job that one time, and then it was probably a combo of how it ends up being with Oliver and Ivan, where drunk enough + fighting turns (even more) fun. I said the first time with Oliver was probably a little drunk, but I think it wouldn’t have to be with Arthur pre-’betrayal’. Could have been! But also could have just been enough flirty/threatening jabs at each other finally led to them sleeping together once, and then keeping it up as a Pseudo Competition With Benefits thing whenever it was convenient for either of them. That shit is definitely cut off after the whole fucking boat job thing, and it’s a while before whatever sitch ends up starting it back up again to be almost exclusively drunk angry sex.

With Oliver, I think he reminds Toni just a touch of Arthur, and so that’s why it needs extra help of liquor to get past that first step before it’s like ‘Might as well keep the option open since it’s already a thing, right?’

What about Cami? I think he’d try to woo her at one point and they probably have a brief thing, but he cuts that off later on specifically because he doesn't want to get attached and she's easy to get attached to. Not to mention like, she really is a sweet woman who he doesn’t want to see hurt, and so he figures she’s much safer not involved with him, even as a fling thing. Probably around the same time he cuts it off, she meets and starts befriending Cian, so that works out. 

I like Toni having a similar reaction to finding out Cami has a thing for Cian as to Ivan starting to date Kyle. Maybe actually a little jealous just because Cami did mean something somewhat romantically to him even if it wasn’t a major thing, but it’s mainly just. Oh, him??? Okay, u sure??? Toni judges everyone who doesn’t upgrade when they stop sleeping with him but the issue is he’s the fucking best so it’s impossible to upgrade????

Toni getting to know Cian through the friendship to Cami though and later on actually kind of liking him and being less judgy. Not impressive to begin with, but Cian’s a friendly, likeable guy who tries to do good in the world and seems to have some level of initiative for his work, so Toni can’t dislike him for long. Also probably warming up to him as Cian becomes a bigger force in the ‘patches up criminals’ line of work in LS and even patches up some of Toni’s crew members. Eventually kind of can justify that Cian is a lot like him in the friendly warm caring and casual way, but without like a lot of the ‘negative’ traits Toni has, so if Cami had to date anyone, he guesses Cian’d be a good pick for her.

Hey! Hey! Hey! Toni having to go to Cian himself at one point, either something a bit more serious than he has the experience to treat on his own or something where it’d be too complex to treat on himself like a wound in a place where he couldn’t easily reach it on his own body. Or just something where he’s injured in a way where he wouldn’t have the time to get back to his base for his own supplies, but Cian’s office would be close by. I just like 

A, Cian finding out the Antonio that Cami introduced him to and who seems super friendly and warm and harmless is also Madrileño, the leader of the Toros, specially because Toni shows up out of the blue with a serious stab wound or some shit. Or even better! He doesn’t realize Toni’s actually Madrileño, just assumes that, like the other Toros crew members that show up, he works for him instead, and Toni doesn’t deny it when asked. That’d open up the chance for one of my fave tropes, “I don’t realize you, X, are also Y, so I’m going to talk shit about Y to your face and you need to act like I’m not directly insulting you.” Probably cian not specifically talking shit about madrileño, but more just like ‘hey, if you’re working for him, i hope you know what you’re doing. Some people say he’s really nice, sure, but i’ve heard from a few too that he’s a vicious asshole, so. Just watch yourself, I guess’ Toni like mmhmm I’ll make sure to do that, thanks, hey quick question, only semi related, can you let me know who said Madrileño was an asshole? No reason, just curious. (Top of the list is Kyle, big surprise. CIAN TELLING TONI ABOUT THIS KID WHO STOPS BY EVERY SO OFTEN TO HELP OUT OR DROP OFF SUPPLIES HE FOUND OR WHATEVER AND EVERYTIME MADRILEÑO COMES UP BETWEEN THEM, THE KID RANTS ABOUT HOW ANNOYING HE IS AND FAKEY FAKEY AND IT’S ACTUALLY FUNNY HOW MAD THE GUY MAKES THIS KID. A BEAT BEFORE TONI “IS THE KID NAMED OZ BY CHANCE?” AND CIAN LIKE I- YEAH ACTUALLY IT IS, HOW’D YOU KNOW? AND TONI “LUCKY GUESS (LOOKS AT CAMERA LIKE HE’S IN THE OFFICE)”)

B, Toni having to address that not only is Cian okay, but okay to the point of him actually owing him something, and them talking as Cian patches Toni up allows Toni’s opinion of Cian to improve a lot.

Toni and Cian actually lowkey becoming friends. or at least more friendly, they’re not making lots of plans to hang out like toni does with others like gil and francis, but eventually toni can show up at cian’s clinic without cami also being there and they’re still nice to each other. If Cian’s clinic deals with any shit or needs supplies, Toni pulling similar strings like he did with cami’s shop to help out in small ways as he can. Later admitting to maybe actually having a close tie to madrileño, like a similar role as austin has to oliver or something like that. Not sure if cian’d be cool with that, though toni could probably talk him into accepting that it’s not a big deal, ‘leño won’t come back on your door saying you owe him or anything like that, trust me. Just think of it as support for helping the community; that he likes the work you’re doing and thinks you’re worth while! I promise you there’s no downside to taking this help’. Also it not being like a ‘and then he made it toros territory so other gangs stopped showing up’, like as mentioned, toni likes to be the best, but it’s no fun without some competition and also he doesn’t want to interfere that much or have the anger of having this resource denied to certain gangs come back on cian. He just wants to help cian separate of all that, it’s fine. 

Later later when cian finds out the secret for real! Like you could have just /told/ me /you/ wanted to donate that money, I would have been like two thirds less suspicious then! 

C, Cian also asking Toni while patching him up to be careful w/r/t Cami; if toni wants to be super involved in the criminal shit, cool whatever, but just please don’t get cami hurt by it, okay? Toni countering to ask why cian thinks they stopped dated? Though in a tone that’s not hostile or defensive, just like a ‘yeah no i’m already taking that into consideration too don’t worry about nothing’. Also toni asking if cian isn’t worried about himself or cami’s ties to him given his ties to crimes now and I just very much like cian joking that you never bite the hand that patches up your bullet wound haha.

I don't think he ever considers Mel for that. Like he's impressed with her, sure, more so than most, but it's never in a way of attraction, whether romantic, sexual, etc, yknow? Idk, maybe it’s just that they have interacted in AUs much but I don’t see him ever trying to take what shaky relay they have and make it platonic. Even in the version of the AU where she actually ends up meeting him first and allies more with him, it’s never more than that. I wanna say it’s not even specifically /friends/, they are business partners and he keeps it as such. Like people he meets as Antonio, like Cami and Cian, he allows himself to be a little more genuinely friendly toward. He still keeps up a line because slacking is how you get yourself or others killed, but I think Gil and Francis are the only people he meets as Madrileño that he would ever genuinely call his friends, best or otherwise. And even then, it’s much in the way that Mel and Micha are Austin’s best friends, in that like. Well there wasn’t much competition. Gil and Francis and Toni are all relatively close, they have a bond and they have each others’ backs in a way Toni does with probably no one else in LS, but I don’t know if he /truly/ considers them his /friends/ in the way that most people consider their friends their friends. I think he uses the term casually because it’s the best fitting one and because they’re pretty close, but there’s always this low level of disconnect and detachment available in the relay that Toni feels he could draw on in a second if needed that doesn’t feel like would be true for a /friend/. If Gil or Francis betrayed him in a serious way, he’d be displeased to lose their friendship, but he could cut ties to them in a second without any hesitation and to Toni that doesn’t feel like a /friend/, that feels like someone you hang out with a lot and have fun hanging out with them. Which he gets is usually the same, but not to him. He’d be upset at having to complete abandon connections to Cami. Cian I don’t think ever hits that level either, but I think there’s a friend-adjacent quality. But… basically it’s this indifference to the fate of that and where you appear on the scale of that is how much of a friend toni considers you as. Like I mentioned in main AU when toni offers mel a position in the toros, he makes it clear he’s not going to fight to get her to join, it’ll be just as beneficial to him albeit in different ways if she works for someone else. Even if she died, it’d be a shame, but the city would go on, it always does. And that’s why they’re not Friends. I guess it’s very similar to Ivan where he only actually starts to care about someone when they become Interesting, Toni only actually starts to care about someone when he finds a Preference about how their life proceeds. And capital P Preference. Toni can prefer mel not die and he’ll even offer help if she needs it, but it wouldn’t be at a loss. That would be anything from a favor owed down the line or even just an increase in reputation or /something/. But with Cami, he does that favor for her shop and besides keeping his favorite pastry stop and seeing something good allowed to exist in the commuity, he doesn’t really get anything out of it besides Camille being happy. I think part of the reason Toni offers the help to Cian is A, again, keeping a good effort in the community going, and B, a pseudo repayment to Cian’s help before, but C, he’s started to like Cian as a person at that point and wants to see the things Cian’s doing succeed so that Cian is happy about them. Same with Gil and Francis, and that actually might be why he has a hard time considering them friends. He does things for them that he doesn’t get anything major out of, like going to Gil’s wedding and whatever, but since 90% of their interactions are some sort of crime based, there are less chances for him to have to do something for them that doesn’t benefit the Toros and himself as Madrileño in some way, even as a show of power or something. They’re friends, of course, of course! But also, most of the nice things he does for them he ends up getting something out of it so maybe not as close friends as would be expected. Which is like a weird thing of like, he does a lot for them and vice versa, it’s just those things are considered crime-related so don’t count. Toni they’re your friends, oh my god. Anyway, this was a lot of breaking down how toni views people to say he probably wouldn’t try to sleep with mel. 

God a part of me very much doesn't want Kyle and Toni ever sleeping together but another part of me very specifically wants them to have an at least tipsy one night stand one time only. I don’t think I’ll roll with that because I don’t think there’d be a lot of time for it since Kyle isn’t in LS too long before meeting and hooking up with Ivan and it’d practically be impossible for him to land himself on Toni’s radar enough to get into his pants in that time. But still, funny idea. 

Toni and Summer! This doesn’t come up too much I don’t think but I know I’ve at least mentioned before that I was in the camp of those thinking Seasons associated with multiple nations associated with their season, and just didn’t spread it around. So Toni and Summer always have some relationship if possible in an AU, it’s not as strong as hers and Kyle’s of course, but Toni would have interacted with Summer in GTA AU, I’m sure. She heads a mercenary-for-hire group similar to Merryweather, though mostly situated in LS and the immediate area instead of just branching into it like Merryweather was. On one hand, it means less resources since she’s not leading a super rich company, but on the other, her place in the town + her manipulative sweet socializing situated her as sort of like local coffee shops in australia when starbucks tried to move in, and so her business stays alive until merryweather is back out of LS(!!! correct?). Toni probably worked for her when he was just starting out, then surpassed her and she became one of the groups the three tried to choke out of the city. Survived that too until gil’s near death and then built her brand back up from there to where it is now. But i think much like with kyle when he’s first working for her, her and toni had a brief non-romantic thing for a bit that stopped when he stopped doing jobs for her. She still tries to play on that and he humors her at a distance. No need to make an enemy of her, but they both know his thoughts about her are not as nice as his words, though both also know the same could be said about her as well. 

/god/ summer coming to boys night once as another all-smiles manipulative sort. Wasn’t even fucking invited, just found out about it/showed up at the right place and time and invited herself in and all three boys are like noooooo thanks??? But she won’t fucking leave.

Gil and Francis! Like each of them probably slept with each of the others at least once, right? No boundary friends + hanging out and getting super drunk and doing reckless shit = at least a /few/ times waking up in each others’ beds, right? There probably was a worry the very first time it happened between any of them that oh that’ll shake things up and make it weird but nah nothing ever really changed and it just became a thing that happened sometimes when they went out drink together. 

[wavemaker9]

sorbetshark replied to your post: sorbetshark replied to your post: ...

why does kyle continue to insult her by saying shes like doug and summer this is the fucking worst and she’d be SO offended

okay but i very much love the idea of like, early into knowing kyle and before having met doug, kyle mentioning that he sees them as alike since they do both call him ‘kid’, and her like ?? okay i guess i’m like his friend that’s good right? until she /meets/ doug later on and like flashes back to that comment and is just like /excuse me???/