#everyone is soft basically

[cinnikiroll]

love letters and coffee stains

Summary: Hannah thought she'd be without a soulmate for her whole life. But then she noticed the coffee stain on Tammy's shirt.

Word Count: 1,728 words

If you like this fic, please do check out my other fanfics on AO3 under the username cinnikiroll. Here is a link to my profile, where I have fics from other fandoms for your viewing pleasure!

As the raindrops fell, beating a melancholy melody on the windowpane, Hannah Khoury awoke from a restless sleep.

It was still early. She didn't have to be at work for several hours, so she had time to relax before throwing herself into the stressful life of a NCIS agent. After changing into her work clothes and making a warm cup of coffee, she sat outside on her porch, which was protected from rain by an eave that jutted out over it.

Even on this miserable rainy day, New Orleans was bustling with people. Almost all of them were holding hands, sporting matching outfits or tattoos or other signs that they were soulmates, and happy ones at that.

Hannah looked down at her slender arm sadly. Ever since childhood, she had hoped to see a tattoo appear one day of a name, a promise that she did indeed have a soulmate and wasn't destined to be alone all her life.

But fate was cruel, and to this day, no tattoo had appeared.

Looking out at the happy couples surrounding her, she felt a bitter feeling arise in her chest, a mix of jealousy and hatred. Her hands trembled as she tried to control it, and her shaking hands inadvertently led to her coffee spilling all over her clean work shirt.

"Oh no! That was my last clean shirt!"

She cried out, trying frantically to clean the hot liquid off of her clothes.

It was too late, though, and a huge ugly stain ended up spreading across her chest. Looking down at the stain just exacerbated her feelings of bitterness, and she cursed in a soft voice, pouring the rest of her coffee- it was mostly grains anyway, all the good stuff had been spilled on her shirt- into the sink.

There were windows wherever she looked, exposing her to the omnipresent joy and mirth that existed in the outside world, even on such a miserable day. Staring out of the window above her sink, Hannah dreamed of a day where she didn't have to wake up in her bed alone, where she had someone to brighten her day. Woman, man, she didn't care. She just needed a companion, before her whole life became colorless and hopeless.

Her phone rang out with an alarm, shocking her out of her sorrowful reverie. It was already time to get to work? How was that possible? Had she really been daydreaming that long?

Turning her back to the city shrouded by gray clouds that were constantly diminishing in mass, her body silhouetted by the occasional shaft of sunlight piercing through the darkness, Hannah sluggishly moved to get her NCIS raincoat from her closet. An unremarkable gray umbrella rested against the back wall, and she picked that up too, just in case any of her coworkers needed shelter from the torrential downpour.

I'm so kind to everyone, yet I still have not found anyone to love me...

She sighed deeply, zipping up her raincoat and going out into the world that was slowly becoming more monochrome every day.

--------------------------------------------------------------

The drive to NCIS headquarters was uneventful as always. Couple after couple passed by, their visages blurred by the rain constantly dropping down on Hannah's windows and windshield.

Her hands were tense, knuckles white on the steering wheel as she cautiously drove below the speed limit. As much as she viewed her life as worthless without a soulmate, she wasn't willing to drive the speed limit or above in this weather. She didn't want to die- at least, not in such a horrible way.

As she neared the headquarters, she noticed her boss, Dwayne Pride, and his wife, Rita Devereaux, standing out in the rain. She was holding an umbrella over him as he fetched a bag from his car of what looked like beignets from Desiree's Beignets packed neatly into elegant little boxes. When their eyes met, he locked lips with her, and she dropped the umbrella in shock, trapping them in the rain.

Hannah's lip reading skills were consummate, and she easily determined exactly what the couple, who were obviously soulmates, were saying.

I'm sorry!

Rita exclaimed, hastily picking up the umbrella from the ground and covering her rather wet and flustered husband with it once again.

Dwayne laughed, not at all upset by the rain's sudden incursion on their intimate moment, and leaned close to kiss his wife on the cheek lightly.

Nothin' to worry about, darlin'. I personally think a little sprinkling of rain makes me look all the more attractive... not to mention you as well.

Rita's cheeks turned a beautiful, delicate pink with a blush at her husband's words, and Hannah looked away huffily.

She didn't want to torture herself by looking at what she could never have any longer. Her heart heavy with sorrow, she parked her car outside NCIS headquarters and entered, not even bothering to greet Dwayne, who looked away for his wife for a moment to wave at her and call her name.

Once inside, she collapsed at her desk, closing her eyes and trying to erase any images of happy couples and any negative emotions associated with them from her head. She needed to be focused on her cases now, not on her stupid feelings.

Engrossed in work, she didn't notice Tammy Gregorio, one of if not her favorite coworker, standing over her desk until the other woman touched her hand gently.

The simple act of an affectionate touch felt like a lightning strike to Hannah, who instantly stiffened and shot her gaze upwards to look at the other woman.

She touched me! Does that... does that mean...?

"Any new developments on the case?"

Tammy's New York accent may not have been attractive to some, but to Hannah, it was charming. She could listen to the other woman talk for hours, curled up with a warm cup of tea...

Lost in her own thoughts and desires, she didn't notice that her eyes had steadily been drifting downwards until they settled on something that made her heart stop.

Right on Tammy's chest, a coffee stain sat. That wouldn't be intriguing in the slightest, except for the fact that the shape, size, and location of the stain were the exact same as the shape, size, and location as Hannah's stain.

"You... have a coffee stain on your shirt."

Her voice was choked, staggered.

She couldn't believe that this was possible. That after all these years of hoping, begging, praying for a soulmate had finally bore fruit. And a beautiful fruit, nonetheless.

It was too good to be true. If she wasn't feeling jittery from the coffee she'd drunk earlier, she would've discounted the whole experience as a dream.

But this was real. And it was everything she'd ever hoped it would be.

"Yeah, I do. This damn coffee maker... it's so temperamental. I see why Quentin likes his fancy one so much better."

The deep, passionate laugh that emanated from their coworker upon hearing his name mentioned made Hannah cringe. She didn't know that her rapid fall in love had been witnessed, much less by a man such as Quentin Carter. Her face flushed pink, and she looked back down at her files, suddenly shy.

Tammy noticed the shift in her demeanor and softened her own demeanor up to match, moving over to stand by Hannah's side and take the other woman's hands in hers. She knew how obnoxious Quentin could be, how easily he riled everyone up. She didn't want Hannah- one of her favorite, if not her most favorite coworker- to be bothered by his narcissistic nature.

It was when she looked down to try and meet Hannah's eyes that she saw why the woman was so emotional.

Spread across her chest was a coffee stain exactly the same as the one Tammy had on her own chest.

Knowing what that could mean, the possibility that they were soulmates... it caused her to take several steps back in shock. Her mouth opened wide, her dark eyes moving rapidly between the two stains.

"We're-"

She could only get one word out, so overcome with the intensity of the situation.

Hannah shot up from her chair and pulled her into a tight embrace. Her lips teased the skin beneath Tammy's ear, and the tall Italian moaned softly at the tenderness of the caress.

"Soulmates.

The weight of that one word brought both women to their knees, collapsing onto the ground. They held one another, caressing each other passionately and loving one another to make up for the years of pain they'd sustained without soulmates.

Quentin's laughs increased in intensity until he was doubling over, but neither woman cared. They were in their own world, a world that nobody could interfere in.

And, in this world, Hannah finally felt happy.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Three Years Later

Hannah woke up yet again to a torrential downpour. Classic spring in New Orleans- either hot, humid, and miserable or lukewarm, rainy, and equally as miserable.

It was still early. She didn't have to be at work for a few hours. So she relaxed, making a cup of coffee and heading out to her porch.

This time, the porch was no longer unattended, and the world was no longer colorless.

Nestled under the vanilla-colored eaves, curled up comfortably in her NCIS raincoat, was Tammy Gregorio. Her folded hands boasted a beautiful diamond ring, shining on this cloudy day like a second sun.

And, just like their first meeting, a coffee stain covered her shirt.

"I love you, eshgham."

Hannah murmured, curling up on the already cramped chair and pulling her (thankfully shorter) wife into an embrace that said more than words ever could.

"I love you too, mio cuore."

The two women intertwined their fingers together, and watched as their monochrome worlds were dyed in each other's color.

The rain beat down steadily, a typically intimidating and saddening presence becoming a beautiful backdrop to their blooming romance.

"I'm so glad you're my soulmate," Hannah murmured lovingly, her lips and teeth slowly teasing Tammy's shoulder blades.

Tammy moaned in response, her body melting and becoming pliant in her wife's skillful hands.

Looking out at her world that had once been monochrome, she could see in full color the majesty of the sky.

And in that sky, she hoped that Hannah would forever stay her brightest star.

[ksdesign]

Glances 🌸

[astralhope]

I just love his little smile.

[perelka-l]

I was rereading second half of DN this weekend and I swear to god I can't believe anime just skipped this particular plot.

Bc a) Mello has more active part in story and actually had his own way of using Near b) those two kinda cooperating is sexy as hell c) more Mogi bc Mogi is amazing

(I really like the Polish translation of this moment "He is manipulated but not necessarily with he notebook" which imho has slightly different connotations)

Also, this fucker doing this I love him so much the little bastard

And this

(also Near and Light just hating each other so much is so so entertaining, like honestly their dynamic is 👌)

[bumblingbabooshka]

Tom & B'Elanna give off closeted gay vibes in that I think if you asked them to describe their ideal woman and man they would respectively describe a swimsuit model (bonus: who's Not Like Other Girls) and the lead in some sort of romantic novel. Nothing even close to a real person. The most generic you can get about straight romantic and sexual attraction.

[konveeart]

Sketchpage of my characters <33

I closed my eyes couple days ago and half-slept under the cloudy weather. It's the first time in years I get brave enough to draw my characters in a scene right after I experience it.. I sleep immediately at night (no complaints, I am indescribably grateful I don't experience insomnia), but I miss the time before I snooze where I dive into my headworld..

I've been doing so many things in-between working split shifts that I've given myself possibly another ibs episode, resulting in taking the day off yesterday. I felt ok by noon so "I'll draw for 2 hrs" became 7 ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ I'll do my best to take it easy for the next few weeks u u ^^^love how I wrote so and as soon as I recover I want to go back to doing a billion things!!

Since you're here, here's the full page~

It was super fun to draw and I am extremely shy about it but also super proud and I worked hard!!

[azure-clockwork]

How Does it Feel to Read Classic Sci-Fi?

Orson Scott Card: Two of the most interesting books you’ll ever read if you’re willing to look past a handful of things. And then you find the planet of Chinese people who worship having debilitating OCD. And the Mormonism. And the fact that the author is wildly homophobic and ought to read his own books.

Robert Heinlein (or at least the Wikipedia Summaries): I guess that’s a neat concept—oh, it’s a sex thing. Um. Gotcha.

Ray Bradbury: Man, I gotta read this thing for class huh. Well here’s hoping it’s good! *three hours later* oh. that’s why he’s famous. this will stick with me forever and I will never look at the phrase ‘soft rain’ the same again. christ. And then repeat 3x.

Isaac Asimov: Wow, this is such an interesting concept! I wonder how the exploration of it will influence the plot! Wait, hey, are you going to add any characters? Any of em? No like, with character traits other than ‘robot psychologist’ and ‘autistic’ and ‘woman’? None of em? No, ‘detective’ isn’t a character trait. Those are all just facts. Aaaand now I’m bored.

Ursula K. Le Guin: Hah, get a load of this guy! He’s never heard of nonbinary people before. Lol, what a riot; how dumb do you have to be to comprehend that these people aren’t men *or* women actually? Oh, wait, what’s happening. Oh shit, it was about society and love and learning to understand each other? And now I’m crying? And perhaps a better human being for it??

Andy Weir: Alright, this guy’s a really good writer. Funny, creative, knows so much engineering stuff…ooh, a new book! …I guess he can’t write women. Well, he wouldn’t be the first sci-fi writer…ooh another new book! And it’s more engineering problem solving and—wow. It’s not just women he can’t write. Please stop letting your characters talk to each other.

Lois Lowry: Oh, I remember this being fun when I was a kid! Wouldn’t it be fucked up to not see color? …upon reread, it would be fucked up to have your humanity stripped away, replaced with a tepid, beige ‘happiness’ for all time. Yeah.

Tamsyn Muir (let me have this ok): Haha, “lesbian necromancers in space” sounds fun. Lemme read this. Oh wow, yeah, this is right up my alley. OH GOD WHAT. NO. FUCK. OH SHIT WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING AND WHY IS IT REFERENCING THE BOOK OF RUTH AND HOMESTUCK BACK TO BACK!!! AHHHHHHHHH!! Now give me more please.

[skitskatdacat63]

I don't know how I'd ever convey this in art but. Thinking very deeply about how in boy king au, a very crucial part of characterization is that Seb is a wolf in sheep(or lamb more specifically)'s clothing and Fernando is a sheep in wolf's clothing.

Seb is very unassuming, very delicate, seemingly very vulnerable and malleable. But, deep down, he can be very ruthless. It's in the the way he hesitantly declares war, with a spark in his eye and a suppressed smirk. In the way he challenges someone to a card game or a horse race, proclaiming that he's not great, but winning every round and prancing around the room and mentioning it ad infinitum. The way he's able to instantly turn the tide in a debate in one fell swoop. By showing all his cards constantly and letting himself be vulnerable, he's making himself invulnerable. No one would ever consider him to be able to make big moves, so he wins every single time, because no one even thinks to expect it from him.

Fernando on the other hand, is constantly committed to having a looming presence and harsh reputation, but deep down, he's soft. He knows what happens to people when they're vulnerable, and he's not going to let himself be taken advantage of. The way he keeps a brave face when being informed of the marriage proposal, but goes back to his room and cries. The way he proclaims that he was always going to be the rightful ruler of Spain, but confides to Flavio that he never thought there was any real chance of it ever happening. The way he takes himself so seriously in public, but inside feels so giddy whenever he can make someone laugh. Everything to him always feels unstable and ready to crumble at any moment, and he's not willing to contribute to that by letting himself relax.

I think thats why it's very difficult for them to get along at first, because they have completely different approaches to how they carry themselves and make their way through life. Seb is confused at Fernando because he feels that he's very bland and overly serious at first, but truthfully he's not really seeing the actual Fernando. And Fernando finds Seb to be naive and easily taken advantage of, but that's because he's never seen Seb at his most cruel. Seb really loves when he eventually gets to see Fernando being vulnerable, and Fernando really admires and respects Seb when he sees him being serious. I think it just takes a while for them to show the other their full and complete selves, even the parts they can sometimes be ashamed of. There's this very compelling dichotomy in Seb laying out all his cards, but still being very difficult to read, and Fernando keeping his cards to his chest, but his intentions often being easily seen through.

[david-tennant-in-chairs]

David, get back here! We gotta celebrate 1000 followers!

That's better! 🍿

[fate-defiant]

Doodled this in aggie.io to try it out. Would anyone be interested in doing a drawing collab sorta thingy sometime?

[the-goblinprince]

the woke left did this to elias #not my elias

[coffiocake]

"The Girls on the Bus" might be my new favorite streaming serial. completely unrelated but I have a crush on Carla Gugino

[aria0fgold]

Of gems and pages au in the brain again. I was thinking like: It's an au, I don't have to think much bout the friendquests and act 5 happenings when my au is set in a new loop+ scenario and then I remembered... That new loop+ relies on the act 5's loop a bit so now I got to thinkin more about the thing.

Like, with the friendquests, it'll turn out a liiil differently in that it'd be Odile's suggestion for Siffrin to check up on the others considering that the Siff in this au has no recollection of practically anything with the many loops that had occurred. Odile figures out that the others needed help with something and considering how the timeloop appears to be connected with Siff, thinks that it's important for them to be helping the others instead of her. So the friendquests goes like this now:

Odile suggests Siff check up on the others then asks Siff about it afterwards to figure out the next step. She finds out about Mira's bonding proposals and the fact that Siff needed to know Bonbon's favourite foods (for that one, instead of the focus being on Siff choosing, it'd be Odile). After finding that out during loops, Odile drops it as a hint like "I think I saw Mira looking over some bonding proposals, although, don't tell her I said that." and "I should stock up for Boniface's favourite foods. I have a list here, but I don't really need it anymore. You can have it." Meanwhile for her friendquest, she'll be the one to outright ask Siff for help instead of the other way around.

Also, the Euphrasie sequence still has Siff be the one to talk to her, that's also the biggest hint that Odile got about the timeloops being connected to Siffrin (Odile might also try to be the one to talk to Euphrasie too thinking it'd help, but... it didn't). So yea, those are the possible changes to the friendquests. Now for Act 5... Since Odile doesn't really benefit much to the spells the others unlock during the friendquests, I think there's no reason for her to seek them out and try to speedrun it the way that Siff did in canon. So the Act 5 sequence in this au is just directed at Siff. Odile reaching her breaking point and just confronts Siff about it, but horribly...

During that moment, Siff Will loop several times but he won't even remember much of it and it just upsets Odile more and more cuz it's clear as day! It's so crystal clear that the timeloop is connected to Siffrin and their emotions and their wish! SO WHAT IS HIS WISH?! But the more Odile pushes them for the answer in such an aggressive manner, the more Siffrin doesn't wanna speak with how horrified he is. And then Odile notices that, notices just how horrible she went about it and finally just lets go, and takes a step back away from Siff to cool off (and take the orbs in the clocktower while everyone isn't around).

She waits until everyone goes in the clocktower to go to the House. Maybe she can get an answer out of the King instead, maybe if she kills him herself, Something would happen cuz clearly she's-- whatever being is responsible for this's-- "Chosen One" of handling the timeloops being controled by her family member. The way the House warps in Act 5 warps in a manner that "keeps her away," it wants to stall her basically. Courtesy of the theory by someone else about the House during Act 5 warps according to Siffrin's desire of getting to the King faster. So here, it warps to the desire of keeping Odile out cuz as hurt as Siffrin was during that whole argument, when she didn't arrive in the clocktower, he fears that she might be doing something dangerous. And he's right.

Also, during the battle with the King, Odile wasn't being frozen in time the way that Siffrin was in canon. In this au, Odile fights that back and for a split second her lvl reached 100 during then. That has repercussions... which will be: Her body cracking aka getting turned into stone for not only using up all of her craft power but Nearly breaking the limit of which the body can handle. I say Nearly, cuz before Odile can blast the King away with a force of a thousand suns, the family members got to her in time, which broke her focus on the attack and she collapsed from it but it still doesn't change the fact that she Did nearly went past the limit there. And now she's Dying-- But wait! We have new loop+ for that :D

[ofmdtereomaori]

shout out to Kiri Allen's suits

[utterlyazriel]

alright my tender oozing lil dumplings, now is the time to let me hear all your thoughts !! i'm open to listening to any idea you'd wanna see in the future in wtssf <3 if u had anything in mind, pls let me know !

[leqclerc]

Everyone’s always complaining about Abu Dhabi and how bad the racing is and how it’s a poor finale but have we considered the vibes are immaculate?? It’s just got that je ne sais quoi... All the drivers are giddy and bouncing off the walls like it’s the last week of school while at the same time trying to ward off depression bc it’s the last race for yet another colleague... there are dinner parties and magnificent sunsets and fireworks and group photos and secret santa and everything feels slightly dreamy and manic