#firmly believe a man and a woman can have a meaningful platonic relationship

[fangirloverlode]

What are they watching?

(Left to right: Leon, Claire [platonically cuddling,] Chris, Jill, Rebecca.)

There’s something wrong with Leon’s face and I don’t know how to fix it. I like everything else though.

[monikafilefan]

Dead End Road ch4

This is chapter 4 of 5 and you can catch up or read all the way through here!!!

You're going to want to read this chapter ;) Trust me.

Tagging @today-in-fic @baronessblixen @peacenik0 @scully-eats-sushi @skullsmuldon @lappina @furiouskidcollectorlove @foxanddanapetrie

Has life on the run turned into something much more meaningful for Mulder and Scully?

“A woman or man of value doesn’t love you because of what he or she wants you to be or do for them. He or she loves you because your combined souls understand one another, complements each other, and make sense above any other person in this world.” -Shannon L. Alder

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Five minutes later, Mulder excused himself when he felt his bladder scream and stomach turn at the thought of his epiphany and wanting more for their life as a couple—not knowing if it would ever even matter in the scheme of all things “them”. He’d left Scully sitting there watching the events unfold to use the restroom in the building by the parking lot and finally relieve himself, but during the whole walk there and back, he couldn’t shake the notion that maybe this was as good as a life shared with Spooky Mulder would get. Would he be able to actually live with himself if their names were never cleared? What if she could be living a normal life visiting with her family and working as a doctor as she pleased, without him? What if Scully was off the hook already, free and clear? And the million dollar question that rolled around his brain consistently—what if he never would be?

A wedding was the last place he should be deliberating about where the hell their future was headed but he just couldn’t help it, even as it mocked him while throwing yet another normal act that they weren’t experiencing in his face. He felt horrible enough as it was—dragging his best friend through hell and back as his work partner and now he felt as if he was withholding a better future from his life partner now, too. He’d just hoped to hell that she felt differently.

He trudged back through the grass and around the decorated tree line to the back row seating where he spotted Scully’s red hair reflecting the sun's rays. Jesus, she was beautiful, he thought as he slid down into his seat next to her. She hadn’t turned to face him while looking off in the opposite direction, only instinctively reached out and held onto his hand with a firm grip. They had always had that connection, and some had said an otherworldly awareness of one another from very early on in their partnership. They could feel each other thinking, hurting, and sense that physical presence acutely. Since that time so long ago, it’s only gotten more intense. Even when they weren’t around one another for a short period of time, they missed that connection implicitly—as if something tethered within them was being pulled too tightly.

Mulder looked at her again more closely and that’s when he’d noticed the wide beautiful smile that lit up her face, slowly fading right in front of him. He instinctively knew why and he’d beaten himself up for that very same thing. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, tucking her into his embrace as he ran a hand along her thigh. Scully looked up into his swirling eyes and she knew what he had seen when he looked at her, what was written out in her own eyes plain as day.

“Scully, you can’t keep doing this to yourself. We can’t,” Mulder explained to her while he rubbed along her arm. “We can’t keep punishing ourselves for feeling joy, happiness. We did the right thing and you know that, you always have even though it hurts,” he said along her cheek and cut off her retort that he’d known was coming with a finger to her lips. “Yes, we did the right thing, Scully. We each did the right thing just in different ways, but for the same reason—unconditional love for our son.”

Scully sighed as she released the tension in her shoulders. She knew he was right. As much as she hated to admit it, he was usually right about most things when it came to the inner workings of her mind and heart. So while looking directly into his eyes and nodding, she admitted to herself and to him that she received the message loud and clear.

Maybe it will really all be worth it, Scully thought to herself. She held out anticipation that every close call, every heartache, every unselfish sacrifice would prove to give their lives—William’s life—a glimmer of hope. She had a deep feeling, a connection that she seemed to carry with her that they could be reunited in the end—that the darkness they’d kept hidden would eventually fade completely with the light of happiness they shared.

Mulder laid a gentle kiss on the top of her head—seemingly caught up in his own thoughts as Scully contemplated about marriage in general and the unconditional love that Mulder and herself felt not only for William, but for one another as well. As she glanced up at the Mother of the bride beaming in the front row, a conversation she had held with her own Mother on that very subject brought her comfort.

“Dana, I don’t know why you’re so reluctant to talk about it,” she added in defense, amused with her mouth half hidden behind her coffee mug.

“I’m not reluctant, Mom, I’m just…not sure if marriage is something for US ,” Scully argued, already uncomfortable after having her Mom walk in on her and Mulder wrapped up in a tight embrace with their tongues down each others throats.

This way was certainly not the way she had intended on sharing the news of the fact that she and Mulder had finally admitted out loud that they were in love—that they had jumped off that platonic cliff, into each other's hearts and bodies.

“Look, Mom, we’re in love and have been for—hell probably since that first couple of years as partners. But Mulder and I don’t need a piece of paper or a pair of rings to prove that we’re meant for one another—prove that we will watch each other’s backs, stand side by side as equals, and always share our love and respect. We’re partners, Mom, in every sense of the word, always.”

Scully felt the heat flush across her cheeks as she spoke the final words through her lashes, slightly embarrassed that she actually poured out her feelings to her Mother while Mulder stood listening just outside of the kitchen. But as her Mom grinned teary-eyed across the table from her, she suddenly realized in that very moment, that she would repeat every word with conviction in a heartbeat and didn’t give a goddamn WHO heard her.

The sudden wave of people rising to their feet around her for the woman in white caused Scully to snap her head up, and out of the memory that left her feeling warm and elated. She rose with Mulder’s arm still firmly draped around her, understanding her subconscious was really trying to remind her of why and for whom she chose the current path she was on.

Love.

She did it all for the frustrating, dangerous, intense, consuming, perfect love she had for Fox Mulder.  

And now, she wanted him to know she still felt that way—that she truly would always feel this way. Scully leaned back against Mulder’s hard warm chest and turned her head toward him as she sighed and linked his fingers with hers.

As the sky slowly darkened, Scully aptly watched the bride and groom as they took their places at the center of the ornately decorated archway while the Minister began the process of binding two people together under the eye of God.

As the they were told to be seated, Scully was struck with a jolt of nervousness. As much as she wanted to be bound to Mulder in yet another significant way, she was hesitant. Hesitant to wordlessly take that leap to convey how deeply her love and commitment ran considering where their lives were at that moment.

She turned her head to face him as the Minister began to speak and reinforced her grip on his hand with a strong squeeze, pulling their joined hands into her lap while his eyes danced over her face. Would he feel the same as her about essentially saying vows to one another even if he didn’t believe in God? He had hinted to marriage in the past but she had never taken his words at face value during those times for a multitude of reasons. Now she could kick herself for not pressing him for more details.

Was this even the right time to do this? For Christ’s sake not only was it their son’s birthday, whom they had given away to strangers, but she had spent hours this morning choking on her tears and fucking his father on the side of the road just to feel better about it. She squeezed her eyes shut and bowed her head. Mulder was right, she had to stop internally beating herself to death if she ever wanted to move on in this relationship with him.

The fact was, she wanted to be there—needed to be there with him. With him. Him, always him.

Paralyzed with the reminder that at more than one point, he was gone from her. Taken, tortured, killed, buried, unearthed alive, sent away, and sentenced to death. That feeling of hopeless loss of losing the other half of her that made her whole, the man who gave her life meaning and gifted her with true unyielding love was nothing she could ever really describe to him. Only during the late night visit to her deathbed did Mulder ever convey he’d physically known that fucking tortuous feeling of losing the love of your life as well as she had.

“Oh, Mulder, you have to let me go,” Scully sighed, tears leaking out of her eyes, rolling over the side of her nose and into the pillow. He squeezed her hands between his, almost to the point of pain, as if that could keep her from leaving the world. “Please, don’t do this to yourself. For me, Mulder, I have know—to have peace that you’ll be okay when I’m gone,” she chokes through the lump in her throat.

“Scully, please don’t—hearing you say that kills me,” Mulder’s body shook as he cried into their joined hands while leaning across the hospital bed, his face slick with grief. Sucking in a ragged breath he admitted, “If I could trade places with you, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I’d do anything for you!” he yelled passionately, licking his tears off his lips. Scully’s heart broke even more for the man she’d fallen for, but forced a sad smile for his consistent loyalty in finding a cure. “I would marry you right here, right now if I thought it could save you,” he said with a smirk, breaking the palpable tension of despair.

Little did she know back then, that he had wanted to marry her right then and there just because he was in love with her, and not just to make her smile or because her life was slipping through his fingers like the tears down his face.  

With that gut wrenching memory—that thought had supported her decision, solidified it. He was the man she wanted to marry, and she’d known that way back then. She wanted to be fused to Mulder in this way for the rest of their lives. Even if it wasn’t official or legal, it would be to them and she wanted to do it. She wanted to do it right now!

Mulder rested his hand that had been embracing her shoulders along her neck and moved the other hand around her upper arm, turning her slightly to face him. He stared hard into her eyes to try and read her thoughts and knew she needed to see how he felt in that very moment with her. God, he loved everything about her. Even her down-right fucking aggravating attributes that had his head spinning on many occasions just made him fall deeper and deeper for her. Her bravery, perseverance, loyalty, hardheadedness, and especially the way she loved him, served only as reminders that she was so much more than just the small yet significant pieces that made up Dana Scully as a whole.

So as his eyes danced back and forth between hers, he sent out his deeply ingrained love, affection, and trust for her from his soul and into her own. “Scully…” he breathed.

“The way you look at me, my God, Mulder,” she said shaking her head, voice raw and exposed. “You still make my heart pound just as hard as the day I met you. The intensity you express for what you’re so passionate about is overwhelming at times.” Scully licked her lips and watched every line and movement of his features as he beamed at her expression. She had to dip her chin and flick her eyes to their laced fingers when his gaze became too much. “From the beginning, you’ve been like a drug to me, and not in a bad way, Mulder,” she strongly whispered to quell any self-doubt on his part. “But it’s true in the way that I’m completely and utterly addicted to you, in every way possible. I need you almost as much as I want you.”

Mulder was grateful and slightly surprised by Scully’s blatant declaration of her feelings, but still grinned wildly while the love for his other half spread warmth through him in way of a low humming buzz. He brought their joined hands up to his lips and brushed them along the silky softness of the back of her hand. “And you love it,” he told her, with a glint in his eye.

Scully lifted her chin and raised her brow as the corners of her mouth curved upward. “And I love it.”

Mulder swallowed and started again, “Scully…” She angled her head toward him, donning her usual all-knowing Scully expression. He knew she could feel his anxiousness from his intention but she didn’t shy away from him. Then she smiled, an amazing heartfelt grin that knocked the breath right out of his chest. With his arm still wrapped around her shoulder while caressing her neck, he leaned in a little closer to her face as she moved their clutched hands into her lap and stroked his forearm, brushing her fingertips along the fine hairs. He nudged her cheek with his and told her, “I’ve always loved you, Scully, and it’s time we did this, for us.”

Scully’s eyes welled with unshed tears as he pressed two warm kisses along her cheek bone and leaned back to face her. It was her turn to assure him. “Yes, Mulder it’s about time, isn’t it?” she playfully stated.

As the groom started with his terms of endearment, “from that very first moment I met you, I knew my life would never be the same…” the couple took turns reminiscing and repeated their vows from the Minister. Mulder and Scully lightly laughed at one another as the couples words hit home. They took the opportunity to do the same as they spoke to one another the way they have since day one, with their eyes.

The soft murmuring of oaths and promises sent a surge of confidence into them both while they felt the momentous turning points in their lives they shared together flash back in their minds.    

Their expressions grew serious as they gazed into the depths of one another. The moss green and ocean blue colliding in that unique and undeniable way that only belonged to a pairing of soulmates. Those looks they shared, were everything. It was him in Antarctica; It was her in Alaska; It was him sobbing at her deathbed; It was her weeping at his funeral; It was them kissing over their sleeping son nestled between them. It was them. It was everything .

“Wow, Scully…” Mulder was struck speechless with the magnitude of the moment.

She brought her hands up to either side of his head, her fingers pressing into his temples and around his ears, holding him steady in her gaze. Mulder’s heart was racing with excitement as the realization of what they were doing finally sunk in. Her smile for him was ethereal and he felt himself falling for her—into her all over again.

Her forehead touched his as she softly spoke, “it was so easy to fall in love with you, Mulder, that it took me four years to realize I’d already fallen.” His nose nuzzled hers and she slowly fluttered her eyes. “Now there isn’t one second that passes by where I’m not aware of just how far gone I am for you.”

Scully knew she was eternally woven in Mulder’s quest after those very first few cases as his partner, but she was also internally woven into him , into his essence that desperately reached out for her own. It had just taken her a while to figure it out.

She loved Mulder so much more than mere words or jewelry could even express. In that moment, the perfect words being uttered, or rings being slid upon one another’s fingers didn’t matter. Only the two of them speaking from the heart in their own way, and sealing the promise of finality with their lips were what truly mattered.  

More thoughts and vows being repeated in the background had only supported the life commitment they were sharing in their own little world, and it urged them on to fully express their love.

“I take you, to be my wife. I vow to be your biggest fan and partner in crime.”

Mulder smirked and nudged Scully’s knee with his thigh and was gifted with a toothy grin from her in return. “You’re my best friend, my lover, and partner for life,” he breathed heavily, the words he’d been thinking about for so long rushed to the surface and practically poured out of him.

Scully hummed and felt a blush rise up her neck as she absorbed his words, realizing that her own thoughts on exactly what to say came to her easily. “Mulder, I promise that I will laugh with you, mourn with you, and grow old with you,” she choked out and gripped his face a little harder, emotions threatening to take over as she looked away and leaned the top of her head on Mulder’s shoulder to try to compose herself.

“I vow to love you faithfully and unconditionally through difficult and easy times.”

Mulder ran a hand up and down Scully’s back, lending her support as he touched his lips to the shell of her ear. “Scully…Dana, I will love and cherish you when we’re together,” he murmured into her ear and felt her press her mouth to his collarbone. “And I will do the same when we’re apart,” he promised, as Scully shuddered along his chest while the bride and groom’s voices faded into the background once again.

She lifted her head just enough to turn her face into his neck and spoke when her lips grazed his hot skin. “I will always support you and your dreams, no matter how crazy they are,” Mulder huffed out a laugh and she grinned into his shirt. Scully found it easier to speak without her voice breaking if she could do it without direct eye contact. “God, Mulder, I vow to respect our differences, knowing that they bind us together,” she told him with passion, lifting her head and facing him nose to nose.

Mulder gently wiped the tear stains from her face and held her chin, their faces just a breath away. “I promise to love you—to be your comfort and friend for the rest of my life,” he finished, sealing his commitment with a kiss to the bridge of her nose while he felt her nodding in agreement.

Saying his vows, those words seemed so inadequate to how he’d actually felt about her, how he’d felt for the longest time. Only voicing or repeating them to one another just seemed so…insignificant, compared to speaking them in their own distinctive way to one another with their eyes and touch.

His breath quickened and his eyes darkened on her with intent. “Forever, Scully,” Mulder touched his warm lips to the corner of her mouth as his voice vibrated along her skin. “For better or worse, I am yours and you are mine.”

Sucking in a shaky breath while her thumbs rubbed the sides of his warm face, she returned his affirmation, “I know I’m not the greatest at expressing myself, but I need you to hear this from me tonight. I am yours. For better or worse, Mulder, I’m yours.” Scully’s heartbeat hummed in her ears as her throat constricted, only allowing few words at a time to slowly move from her heart and out of her mouth. “Always. No matter what, that has been and always will be the truth. My truth.”  

Mulder bit his lip while he brought her delicate hands down from his face and cupped them between his larger ones, pressing them into his chest so she could feel his racing heart. Keeping his face touching hers, he swallowed hard and rasped out, “you are my touchstone, my purpose, my light in the dark...my Scully.” A lone tear trickled down the side of his nose that was nestled next to hers and then absorbed within her skin. A comforting analogy for them both.

Scully gasped when her own tear dropped down her face as his sentiment sent a wave of elation through her. Mulder smiled and moved a hand up to tuck a strand of her waving hair behind her ear, faces still languidly moving along each other.

“And you are mine,” Scully said softly through her own overwhelming emotions, mimicking her response to his outpour of love for her years before in the doorway of his apartment.

Mulder chuckled at the deeper meaning to her response as he ran his hand from her hair to around her neck and up to cradle the back of her head. Scully tilted ever so slightly and their mouths greeted each other with overwhelming intensity.

Mulder’s other arm wrapped tightly around her hips, pulling her flush at the same moment her hands had slid up his chest and around his back where they gripped fist fulls of his shirt, needing to be as close to one another as possible. With their limbs tangled and chests rubbing, their lips slid back and forth, barely balancing on the thin line of euphoric and erotic.  

In that moment as the words, “you may kiss the bride” echoed throughout the din of applause and cheers, Mulder and Scully kissed one another deeper and more passionately than they had ever kissed before while moaning into each other’s mouths, far outlasting the young bride and groom, even missing their departure down the aisle.

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[hussyknee]

@vote-deadpool4king

First of all, at no point in the series no matter how early has Iris ever been described as actually his sister in any way, shape or form. *Like* a sister? Yes. *Actually* a sister? Hell no. There is world of difference.

Can I believe a fic where Laurel or Felicity is regarded as something like a sister by Oliver years down the line? Yes. But they will never *call* each other brother and sister because they have had a romantic and sexual history in canon. Even if you write an AU and make them foster siblings who call each other brother and sister, it's still going to be very odd if you've spent multiple episodes seeing them in bed together or as romantic partners.

You wouldn't recast canonical siblings as love interests in fanon AUs... **remembers both SPN and Game of Thrones exist** nevermind.

But at least you agree that it's weird to do that. And yet no one seems to have a problem when people recast the primary canon romantic pairing as *actual* honest-to-God siblings. Introducing each other as "my sister" and "my brother".

I just read a slash AU where Barry steps into the Speed Force in S3, newly engaged, and time travels to S1 where he and Iris immediately start referring to each other as siblings. Not even *like* siblings. Straight up bro-sis. If that isn't an example of what it means to neutralize and desexualize and erase an m/f bond in order to facilitate a slash ship I don't know what is.

Seeing a woman with a significant m/f bond with a guy as being threatening to your OTP is what is misogynistic and sexist in slash stories. The demonizing of such characters and their desexualization (such as making them actual siblings) are both forms of neutralizing this perceived threat. Slash writers who cast Iris as his sister without demonizing her need not be given extra cookies. They are simply achieving the same sexist end through different means.

Now let us consider the Watsonian vs Doylist perspectives.

In-universe, my dear Watson, Barry and Iris are in fact foster siblings. They probably fell in love because they never saw each other as family, and if they never fell in love maybe in time they would have come to see each other as siblings. As of S1 however, it was firmly established that their relationship was not familal and Barry has been fantasizing about this girl for 14 years while Iris has long been in denial of her own feelings. You want to convince me these two can snap into an actual sibling relationship, you will have to work very hard.

In an AU where Barry and Iris never fell in love, it's not a requisite that OF COURSE they'd be siblings because as I keep saying, siblinghood describes the nature of the bond rather than its intensity and one can be close as siblings or share a deep non-romantic connection without ever considering each other brother and sister. The assumption that all strong platonic love must be familial is part of the culture of amatanormativity, which creates a false hierarchy of human connection.

But all right, in-universe it is not unfeasible that Barry and Iris could have grown up as siblings in an AU.

And now consider the Doylist perspective:

There is nothing inherently racist about Iris being Barry's sister. Just as there is nothing inherently wrong with a dead lesbian, a queer-coded disabled villain, a highly sexualized WoC etc. However, I just made a post pointing out that racists have a vested interest in desexualizing Iris and making the inter-racial romantic bond into a familial one. It doesn't matter if you aren't against Westallen or you think they could have been siblings or what not. Iris as Barry's sister is a political and racial statement now, because it furthers the invalidation of her character as a viable romantic interest. It says that:

1. I don't respect Iris as the female romantic lead in the canon universe

2. I don't care that racists have weaponized this narrative

3. I think a man's only meaningful relationships are only either romantic or familial and his female friends occupy a lower rung to both.

4. I am threatened by female characters with significant connections to the protagonist coming near my slash pairing without being relegated to villain or family.

5. I don't understand queer platonic pairings that can co-exist comfortably with romantic ones.

All things are inherently political whether you want them to be or not. Should that stop you writing that stuff? It's up to you. "Problematic" does not mean bad, wrong, dirty, taboo. It means "this topic is a political minefield. Please be aware of where you step and avoid if possible." I'm very much going to write some problematic stuff, on purpose even, but I will do it accepting both responsibility and consequence.

And yet, bushels of slash fanfic later, no one seems interested in saying "hey, I know that making Iris his sister was kind of a dick move, but there was a real reason for that." No acknowledgement that this is hurtful and contributes to a racist narrative and is plain gross. Just the repeated casual drive-by assertion that the black woman who was to be Barry's wife and have his children is now his actual sister.

I'm not okay with that.

EDIT: Please know that after three posts and multiple comments I have said all I am going to on this topic. Feel free to reblog but I wont be interacting with this post or answering any more asks or replies. Either you agree or you don't.