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temnurus · 2 years ago

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Drarry As Parents Fic Recs

I answered a request for fics in which Draco and/or Harry were parents ages ago, & I figured I'd throw 'em up here for people to reference & share as they liked. There are even two non-explicit recs this time, y'all! Does this mean I'm slightly less of a degenerate yet? (Probably not, oh well, lol.) Anyway, onto the recs!

All I Want For Christmas (Is For You To Stop Talking) by Femme & Noe (E, 162.9k)

Thoughts: This fic manages to feel like a slow burn to me despite taking place over the course of a month, & not only that, it's one of my favorites. I loved Draco & Harry as dads, & the whole concept of them sniping at each other over a children's holiday pageant made me laugh heartily. This was so well-written, & I enjoyed every bit of it.

Queer Eye for the Drarry Guys by Blowfish_Diaries (T, 18.2k)

Thoughts: I mean, what can I say other than that this was perfection? The Fab Five giving Harry & Draco makeovers at the behest of their adoring (& meddling) son Teddy was too precious for words. This was so fluffy & domestic & sweet that it nearly rotted my teeth out my head. It was lovely how much they cared for Teddy & what great dads they obviously were. I was floating on a cloud for hours after reading this. It was that cute.

Let It Fall by Buildyourwalls (E, 116.3k)

Thoughts: This is one of the most staggering portrayals of grief in fic I've ever read. My heart went out to Draco & Scorpius, & I cried a grand total of seven times reading this. It was gorgeously written, & every single character was fleshed out & engaging to read. Harry & Draco's slowly growing relationship had me spellbound, & I was so wrung out by the time I finished reading this I couldn't pick up another fic for a full day, if not longer. This is a must read. It's absolutely gorgeous.

Pocket Full of Starlight (Never Let It Fade Away) by Femme & Noe (E, 46.3k)

Thoughts: Okay, okay. I usually try not to double up on authors in the same rec list, but this fic really is just that good. This is a Parent Trap AU, & how frigging cute is that?! Jamie & Scorpius' rivalry at Quidditch camp had me in stitches, & the tension between Harry & Draco was electrifying. I particularly loved their characterizations. I highly recommend this. It was fantastic!

'Twas Brillig by Queenie_Mab (E, 73.9k)

Thoughts: I loved Harry's kids & his relationship with them in this. The trans characters were incredibly relatable, & my heart went out to the younger in particular with her struggle in coming out. I won't go into more details so as not to spoil that part, but it was very nicely done. Harry's own struggle with his sexuality made my heart hurt for him, & the split with Ginny was messy & painful. His & Draco's coming together was a fascinating read, & the smut was hot as hell. The case fic aspect took a backseat for me here. I was much more invested in the character's personal journeys, but both aspects of the fic were very well done.

Burn the Witch by lettersbyelise (E, 95.8k)

Thoughts: The author wrote Draco beautifully as someone who really grew out of the prejudices his parents instilled in him & found his own mind & voice & purpose in a really meaningful way. I thought his relationship with Scorpius was beautiful, & their take on a child on the autism spectrum was handled with care & aplomb. Ernestina was one of my favorite OCs ever in a story. She's really fantastic.

Harry seemed to slip right into their lives so comfortably, & I liked how natural that felt. Like it was bound to happen (because of course it was, haha). I loved how fiercely protective he was of both Draco & Scorpius, & they caught his endless capacity for love just perfectly in this story. The action scenes were wrenching, though minor in the scheme of things. This was an absolutely gorgeous story.

A Big Black Sky by AlexMeg (E, 90.5k)

Thoughts: At first I almost stopped reading this because a noncon tag wasn't included by the author, but to be fair they did put trigger warnings at the beginning of the chapters. That in mind, I skimmed what I couldn't handle & carried on. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this fic. The depth of emotion was beautiful, & I was so touched by Draco's love for his son. Harry's protectiveness made me warm inside, & watching them make their slow, fumbling way toward being a family with Draco, Scorpius, Harry & Teddy all together was so satisfying. I think the author handled the subjects of domestic violence & sexual assault with as much grace & tact as one can while writing a difficult narrative. I honestly don't think a good parent Drarry rec list would be complete without it. Just mind the tags because it definitely pulls no punches with the content it covers.

Where the treetops glisten (and children listen) by manixzen (T, 16.2k)

Thoughts: This was so heartwarming & lovely that I couldn't stop smiling through nearly the entire thing. I loved the idea of Harry & Draco being forced to spend time together due to babysitting Teddy for a week, & the opportunities for adorable hi-jinks were abundant indeed! Teddy pitting Harry & Draco against each other by playing to their need to be seen as his favorite was hilarious. I won't give anymore away, but this was so fluffy & cute it made my mood instantly brighten just from reading it.

Turn by Saras_Girl (E, 306.7k)

Thoughts: A must-read for many Drarry fans, I couldn't help but include Turn in this list because Harry's relationships with his kids & Maura are prominent (& very touching) features. The fic itself is a glimpse into what could have been if Harry made a different choice one night in sixth year & how that chance takes him in a direction he never quite saw coming. The whole story is spellbinding & gripped me until the very end. I've read it five or six times at this point if that tells you anything, so if you haven't yet, you bloody well should!

Harry Potter and the Great Cat Caper by Kbrick (E, 78.6k)

Thoughts: I enjoyed this fic overall, & I laughed a lot in the first half. It takes a turn a bit further in, & I'm including a couple more specific warnings the author did not because I felt they warranted mention. They do warn at the beginning of the chapter in which it happens for the death of a pet, but there is a mistaken identity via Polyjuice plot point involving secondary characters that definitely needs a dubious consent tag due to them engaging in sex acts without disclosing the deception. That said, it does come through with a happy ending, & the Harry & Pansy friendship is definitely a standout in this.

#hp fandom #drarry #rec list #drarry rec list #Temnurus rec list #parents #parenting #kid fic #mind the tags #a couple are pure fluff #but others bring the angst #no worries tho #we all know i'm a big softie #happy endings only folks

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ananke-xiii · 6 months ago

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S12 Rewatch: the good, the okay, the bad and the ugly.

Okay, my spn s12 rewatch is complete! Time to recap!

The good:

American Nightmare: very good episode, compelling weaving of the American Gothic theme and the season’s overarching theme of family&love. David Perez has brilliantly written Magda as both Sam and Dean’s mirror, not an easy task but he managed it and it works perfectly. I very briefly touch upon it here.

Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox: delicious, delicious episode. I love Steve Yockey because he must hate the bunker as much as I do. I might be wrong but I think that in almost all of his episodes our fearless brothers are out and about, meeting new characters, expanding the horizon of the show outside the bunker’s confines. This ep in particular is close to perfection, I love it. Me rambling about it here.

The Raid: good rhythm, solid acting, dialogues are on point, Bob Berens did well with this episode. More thoughts here.

The Memory Remains: very good episode. Everything is thematically and logically weaved. Ketch sends Sam and Dean on a case as an excuse to raid their bunker. The case turns out to be about legacies&families and it’s a beautiful dark mirror to the Winchesters’ family history. I LOVED the imagery of the monster hidden in the basement, the meat plant as a horror setting, the tragedy that befalls those who don’t follow normative rules (the two kids that die in the episode are clearly coded as queer). The alternation between the BMoL’s scrounge of the bunker and the brothers investigating the case is very cool: both storylines give us a deeper insights into Sam and Dean’s life. John Bring wrote a very good episode. I wish he had written more of them!

The Future: I’m listing this episode here exclusively for Amanda Tapping’s directing choices. This episode is beautiful, the scenes are framed in a way that’s aesthetically pleasing to me. I think she managed to bring out more than the script was calling for. Actually, I think she managed to “save” the script where it’s weak. I just don’t understand why she made Sam and Dean look so gigantic compared to Cas, lol. Okay, it’s always like this but in this episode the Winchesters are… alarmingly bigger than usual. As far as the writing is concerned, I’m not sure I like Berens’ penchant for fanfic gaps. I’m okay with the “mixtape handover” missing scene, but what about Cas knowing that a. Sam and Dean actually have the Colt, b. Dean has stored the Colt under his pillow? I mean, he was in Heaven and ignored their calls so I’m guessing he knew about the Colt via Dean’s messages. But what about the frigging pillow? He went to Dean’s room sure to find it there. Sam didn’t even know it was there so how could Cas? What happened in those two weeks between “The Raid” (when Sam found the Colt in the BMoL’s base) and “Between Heaven and Hell” (when Cas was seduced by Kelvin and went back to Heaven?). And Dean has the Colt with him in “The Memory Remains”!Too many questioooooons, I AM CONFUSION, BERENS EXPLAIN!

The okay:

The Foundry: I liked the MoTW and how it’s entwined to the family theme, it’s believable and doesn’t feel forced. I liked the frostbite imagery, Berens doesn’t miss a beat and always reminds us that Mary was unjustly fridged.

Lily Sunder Has Some Regrests: ngl, very cool episode. But I feel like there was a little bit too much, a little bit too suddenly. I LOVE angel lore and this episode will forever be one of my favorites but it’s left me with more questions than explanations. Some of them are here.

Regarding Dean: the MoTW had huge potential but it wasn’t explored that much, it was more white noise in the background than anything else, which shame cause witches are cool. Nonetheless, okay episode, more here.

Stuck in the Middle (With You): this is another favorite episode of mine and probably the one that I’ve re-watched the most. It’s cool like that. But I don’t like Crowley’s ascension to the throne story/retcon. I think it cheapens the character. And why did he go to Ramiel? Back then there were two more princes of hell, why him specifically? Doesn’t make sense to me. And why did he go to him with three gifts like The Three Wise Men in One? Okay it serves as a huge red flag to Crowley’s unemotional demise. Still, me not likey.

Rock Never Dies: This episode has great potential but it feels so subdued to me. Even the actors’ performances are so lukewarm that the only one that stands out is the one from the guy playing Vince Vincent. Maybe that was the point, who knows. The pacing seems off to me and the characters are too defeated for an episode that’s so early in the season. But I loved seeing the brothers in black leather jackets so this goes to the “the okay” list :P.

Who We Are: I have mixed feelings about this episode. I think it’s one of those that are salvaged by the actors’ performances. This time they all brought their A-game, therefore the episode is okay. But I’m not sure how I feel about Sam leading some hunters with whom he has no relationship at all (and two of them killed him and his brother) to go and basically assassinate other humans. I dig the whole leader!Sam that Dabb was trying to unsuccessfully pull off during his tenure as showrunner. But it was weak. And coward since, in the end, it’s not Sam who cold- bloodedly kills Dr. Hess but Jody. I’m listing it in the “okay” really just because of the actors’ performances. The pacing was quite good too. Sam and Dean’s scene where they’re talking about how they thought they were going to die “blaze of glory” style is a veeeery good scene. I love it.

Twigs & Twine & Tasha Banes: cool episode, the parallels are paralleling and the themes are theming. I just wish they hadn't used the trite excuse “Cas is missing, Dean is depressed, let’s distract him with a case”. It’s a little bit lazy writing at this point because they’ve deployed this device several time by now (and they will use it again, alas!). I also wish they had showed us Sam and Dean talking about the BMoL with Max and Alicia cause, you know, they’re hunters and this is one of the main storylines of the season? Apart from that, solid episode.

Ladies Drink Free: Mixed feelings for this episode, too. I love Claire but I think the actress was not at the top of her game in this episode. I’d also loved at least a mention of Castiel, cause you know. But nothing, okay! And the girl’s death and possible Claire’s death too as fodder for Mick’s man pain? Mmm I’m not happy about that. Despite all this, the episode is still quite okay thanks to many “little” things such as Claire saying that that’s her life and she gets all the votes, Claire calling Sam an old skeezer (lol), Sam being quite excited by Kendrick’s largest collection of occult in the world and Dean skinny-dipping in the three-star hotel’s swimming pool. All the small things, as Blink 182 used to sing. All these small things make the episode enjoyable to watch.

The bad:

Keep Calm and Carry On: it’s a meh season opener. The only good thing is Mary and that’s it. I don’t get why they wasted two episodes on Toni Bevell and Ms Watt and then they backtracked and decided to have Mick and Ketch in their stead (also boo-hoo for the everlasting whitedudeism). I can understand Lady Bevell as she was in s11 last ep but Ms Watt? Why adding a new character if you already plan to kill her off right at the beginning of the season. Meh, bad.

Mamma Mia: only good thing about this ep is Mary reuniting with Sam, albeit for a 10 second scene. Not much else to say, tbh. Forgettable.

LOTUS: Guys, please. The President of the United States goes to a random motel and only one.ONE. agent goes to check the room and he doesn’t even check it properly? And why does Cas even need to hide in the closet if he can just wipe out the agent’s memories and he can’t be killed by bullets and surely not by combat? Also, Crowley can literally disappear and teleport other people away with him. Come.On. We’re all aware of the armor plot, all ready to suspend our disbelief but writers, please, put in some more effort.

All Along the Watchtower: the only reason I like this episode is for the little glimpses into Kelly&Cas’ little domestic and cultish dream-life. The rest? Meh. I mean, Lucifer conveniently showing up just like that? Castiel going after him into the rift to kill him with an angel blade (what was Dabb thinking when he wrote that? Who knows! He wrote Castiel as quite dumb, I must confess)? Crowley’s OOC suicide? I’d get it if he died in battle, the whole season was pointing to Crowley’s death. But sacrificing himself? No, I’m still not over it.

The British Invasion: when I first watched the episode I simply hated it. The cheap dark Harry Potter parallels? No, thank you. But, truth be told, upon re-watching it, I think it was not that bad-bad. Still, I’m gonna put it in “the bad” because Buckleming brought back Eileen in this episode just to kill her off a few episodes after and I’m tired of this shit.

Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell: Look, I don’t think David Perez really understood Crowley’s character. Or maybe it’s just me. But Crowley in his episodes is off. Like, on one hand Crowley comes off as more human, on the other he was the one who let the hellhounds free. In hindsight, I know this was a way to show Crowley as a sort of wavering character ready to be killed off in the sunset boulevard of the alternate universe. Do I have to like it, though? No. Also (and this is a very small thing but it irks me a lot because it was intentional), Dean being super gross and disgusting is so OOC. I don’t think that Dean is a real germ freak. Or so I hope for his sake because of the life he leads. Life in greasy diners and dusty motels is literal hell for a real germophobe. But I do think that he’s obsessed with clean clothes, showers and with staying clean as much as he's possible for him. So Dean wearing the same underwear for four consecutive days? No way, that’s not Dean Winchester.

The ugly:

The One You’ve Been Waiting For: The only SPN Nazi-themed episode that I enjoy is “The Vessel” and that’s because the real theme there is the Resistance. Not even Bed Edlund in s8 could make me like Nazi-themed SPN episodes so no dice here. I really liked Ellie, though. It’s a well written character and the actress was quite good. It’s a shame she was only there for one episode.

First Blood: Possibly my least favorite episode of the season. When I first watched it I kinda giggled the whole time for second hand embarrassment because it felt absurd. More here.

Family Feud: ugly, ugly episode. All I have to say about it can be found here.

There’s Something About Mary: Eileen’s death. I’m just saying this. Eileen’s death. I’ll never forgive them for how it was portrayed and how it was used for (very very weak) manpain. I don’t know what was going on inside Jared Padalecki’s mind when they filmed this episode but he totally seemed unconvinced, too. Just a very ugly episode.

13 overall good episodes against 10 not so good. I must concede that season 12 was NOT a bad season :P

#spn #supernatural #spn rewatch #spn s12 #my hatred for the BMoL did not win against the overall quality of this season LOL #this is a testament to the fact that I really tried to be objective :P #phd in spn s12

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lonita · 22 years ago

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A little bit of Marseille

When I was sixteen years-old I went to visit my mother in France for the first time. For the first three of the fives weeks it was just the two of us - her husband was still in Senegal finishing up some business for the company he was working for at the time - and it was just fabby. Since she didn't have a license, we spent most of our time in Marseille just tooling around the city. I think one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen was the Friday morning flower market in the downtown area - one side of the long main street was nothing but flowers from one end to the other. Gorgeous seems too plain a word for it, but sublime is a bit much, so let's just say it was both and somewhere in the middle. We did a lot of visiting of friends of hers - including one family who had a son about age 20 who loved Simple Minds and was absolutely the most gorgeous thing I'd ever seen in my life (up until that time, at least). My poor little teenage heart had a crush on him for months afterwards. Another one of her friends was the person who got me liking pine tree seeds. She served them with what was possibly the best roast of beef I've ever had in my life. Mmm. The apartment building where my mother and her husband own the apartment in Marseille, is not an apartment building at all really - it's a 200 year-old house that at one time belonged to the Hugarian ambassador to France. It's a bloody gorgeous place that faces the Mediterranean. I could, if I wanted, be out the door and in the ocean in less than five minutes. Watching the sunset over the Mediterranean is one of the most beautiful experiences you could imagine. Anyhow, the apartment building is a co-op - which is great in one sense, but not when it comes to having the facade of the building redone due to sea-salt and Mistral damage, because one of the current tenants is a real bitch. Doesn't want to have to pay for anything, but is the first to complain about anything that's wrong. I digress… The tenants had a big dinner in the back patio one day - more or less a combination of tenant meeting and "welcome the Canadian kid". The table was lovely, right down to the name cards on the plates. That's the one and only time I've ever been to a dinner that had name cards. Mine said "Fille de Canada", because they couldn't remember my name apparently, so they referred to me as the "daughter of Canada". The company, for the most part, was quite nice - even though I couldn't understand but maybe twenty words out of the mish-mash of French that was floating around my ears. None of them spoke English at all, though a few did try a little. It's funny how language barriers don't disguise certain things, though. You don't need language to tell you what kind of person someone is - not when their body language and tone of voice are doing all the work. That, coupled with the fact that I'm not an idiot, was enough to tell me that Madame Beirot's (I can't remember the precise spelling) boyfriend (who coughs like a frigging lunatic all night - trust me on this one. You could hear it through the walls) was a grobian () of most annoying demeanour. I don't know where the hell it was coming from, but this guy was one of the most patronising louts I've ever met. Perhaps it was my age, or the fact he's a jackass, but I could tell (despite the French) that he was being a shit. I mentioned it to my mother later on in the evening, and she confirmed. She wondered how I could tell. I just could. The oddest thing about the whole trip was getting used to topless women on the beach. After a while you just don't notice it anymore, but it does take some getting used to. It's hard, though, to sit down at a beach cafe table and not feel a little awkward talking to someone that you'd just seen bouncing around half-naked on the sand. * grobian [n] - A rude or clownish person; boor; lout

#journal

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ciaossu-imagines · 11 months ago

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You love Tennant as The Doctor and also love Donna? Hell yeah! Donna’s always been my favourite companion and I’m so glad you also love her and Tennant as The Doctor was always so nice to watch and he’s definitely my favourite. Though I also like Matt Smith because even though his era might not have been as well-written, it was always still fun watching the episodes because what he brought to the table. Also, Smith’s era has my favourite OST of the series in it so that might also be a reason why I’ll always love it.

Have you watched the 60th anniversary specials since it has Donna and Tennant as The Doctor again (though he’s still different than when he was 10)? I loved the episodes. They were so good and had such a beautiful ending. So I really recommend them if you haven’t had the chance to see them yet.

I love Tennant in anything but anytime he's on screen in Doctor Who is a true pleasure and blessing to all people. Like, the energy and pure acting skills of that man amaze me and I adore him. And Donna is my favourite companion by far, though there are several other companions I love too, of course. She just had enough sass and spunk to really be a good match-up with the Doctor and I loved, after Rose and Martha, that she held absolutely no romantic interest in the Doctor. It was a breath of fresh air and the two of them had fantastic chemistry on screen. Tennant's Doctor was my favourite of new Who, with Capaldi as my next favourite Doctor. I didn't mind Matt but for some reason, I never could connect with him as much. And it's not because he's a bad actor or was wrong for the role or anything, because the man definitely has talent and I've seen him in other things and been really impressed but overall, just never vibed with him and that's perfectly okay. I think that's my favourite thing about both old and new Who is that there is always going to be a Doctor and a companion for everyone.

And yes!! I won't spoil anything because it is still new - it's not like most other fandoms on here where the story has either been over for a while or I'm setting the headcanons in things that have been public knowledge for a bit, but in case anyone is not caught up on Doctor Who, I will not spoil that for anyone because just like....OH MY GOD. I cried. Literal tears of joy and so much happiness and I can't really think of any better ending for those two. It was everything I could have wanted and made me so frigging happy.

#admin chatter

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the-eclectic-fox · 1 year ago

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Convention Etiquette

First day of comic con down! Lots ...lots happened today. Good and bad ...mostly not great.

But one thing that happened all day that pissed me off to the point I actually blew up at the guy, was, every time there was someone at my table looking, he would call to them and draw them away from my table. Even if I was talking to them. Don't. Fucking. Do. That. Shit. It happened ALL DAY. So finally I'd had enough and I got in the guys face (he was twice my size and twice my weight but I've been awake for 43.5 hours). I, actually managing to bite my tongue and not yell or swear but said "Hey Bud, can you do me a favor? How about WAITING until the people are done looking at my table before calling them away. I paid just as much as you did to be here." He stuttered and tried to argue so I just raised my voice and said "THANK YOU." Then, my sarcasm got the better of me and when he let a customer pass my table before talking to them I applauded and said "there, was that so hard?" And probably louder than I needed to ...

So I got the stink eye the rest of the time ...

I got him black listed so I still think I came out on top.

Artists are a community. You do not compete, you do not bully, you do not shame, you do not steal. You build up, you help, you support. If people come to me and are looking for something that I don't have but have seen, I will direct them there. Hell, I bought a bunch of prints from an artist (like, a professional artist - more pro than my amateur ass) and he thanked me for supporting him like 5 times, like sweetie, it's what we do! Your work is stunning so take my money and start telling me all about how you created it! (He published books with work from like frigging Ramon Perez)

In new comic con tradition I got some new tattoos, which if I get the chance to stream this coming week you will get to see them! I'm slowly getting all my fingers tattooed. I have very high pain tolerance (I'm a ginger with neurological damage, my body has a weird relationship with pain) and my friend has a very light touch (I always recommend him to people with low pain tolerance or scared first timers) so the first few passes feel like nothing. And it's so nice cause like an hour before that his wife ran up behind me and humped my ass (I would explain my friend group ...but I really can't ...the worst is when she did it, I had to look and see who it was because so many of my female friends greet one another that way) and then I talked with him about art, comics, and how much bullshit AI art is. It was amazing, and how I started my day.

It was mostly down hill from there. To block the glaring sun they put up curtains ...but the curtains covered the vents for the AC. SO basically - a sauna. But my system has been a little messed up so my hands were like ice and trembling non-stop while the rest of me was overheating and sweating.

No one was buying anything and we were almost completely dead the entire day. We talked to a lot of people and NO ONE is impressed this year. The weather was beautiful and there was a fair going on not far from it so that really killed us. I'm hoping that the new trend of Sunday's being busier continues on because the asshole beside me left (not because of me, he was only there today anyways) and the Art Director specifically gave me the table to spread out to for Sunday so I'm gonna put all my clearance out and make it look nice.

I hope tomorrow is a better day but I'm starting to lose faith in Comic Cons in general (not just the local one).

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aroaceconfessions · 2 years ago

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Calling myself an ace lesbian feels so damn awkward, especially when for many sex is such a big part of the identity (which is not a bad thing, it just makes me self-conscious). I think it's literally stopping me from putting myself out there, 'cause I'm scared that sex will be expected of me by default and right away. To add insult to injury I'm also butch and everywhere I look there's this...very sexual approach to the identity? Which is not bad, butches deserve to feel sexy. I'm just afraid that "I met a butch at a bar and she was railing me in her car ten minutes later" is the general expectation, and I will be an inevitable disappointment.

But I love girls though. Aesthetically, very much. And those that I was immediately aesthetically attracted to — I start seeing as totally beautiful the moment we emotionally connect. Sensual attraction? God, yes, holding hands, cuddling, biting even, yes please. Romantically? I suspect I'm more of a demiromantic when it comes down to it. But, like theoretically — would love to be cheesy with a girl and make a girl happy and all that.

Hell, I'm pretty sure that with a certain level of trust sex would've been on the table, too. As an emotional thing and "make her feel good" thing.

But just because I feel like I'm invalid by taking out sex out of a "sexuality" and because it feels like everyone is an allo with allosexual expectations I'm just sitting here. Awkwardly. Which I shouldn't be. Because it's totally fine. It's frustrating.

Also no joke, the fact that all those other attractions are working full time kept me from identifying as an ace for so long. When really the fact that every time someone mentions sex my brain goes "Ah, right, people really do that, that's not a joke" should've clued me in. Also the fact that I'm 26 and I've never felt the need or urge or want to be sexual with anyone. Even with myself, really, although I suppose that's more of a libido problem.

I just want my brain to stop telling me that that makes me undesirable as a lesbian partner, because it literally frigging doesn't.

Perhaps I need to meet other asexual lesbians to calm down but where do I do that when we're not going to the clubs!!!

#lesbian #lesbian ace #lesbian asexual #ace lesbian #asexual lesbian #asexual #ace #acespec #aspec #demiromantic #dating #relationships

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babeydollx · 2 years ago

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2k Followers Celebration

Part 1 ;)

Oh my god I cannot believe that I actually hit 2k. It feels like I was just doing my 1k celebration. This is honestly crazy to me and I am so frigging grateful for all of you beautiful angels!

So for the first part of my 2k celebration, we are doing another prompt list! I ask that you only pick 3 prompts per request and please tell me if they are smut or fluff or else I can't write them!!

As far as characters, I will be writing for everyone I write for now so, you can pretty much pick anyone I write for or if your not sure of a character from one of them fandoms I write for then just ask me through asks or messages! Or if your not sure of a fandom I write for you can ask for that too!! :)

Smut Prompts

"Would you just shut up and kiss me already?"

"I really don't care. You still look hot and I'm trying not to fuck you senselessly right now."

"I don't want to hear your excuses anymore."

"I'm going to put some clothes on before you say anything else."

"Are you trying to turn me on or are you really just that oblivious."

"Were you just... getting off?"

"Come here, you can sit on my lap until I am done working."

"God, I love it when you say my name."

"Ah, he's/she's playing hard to get. That's cute."

"She may seem like lollipops and rainbows but I bet behind closed doors she's latex and whips."

"You're not taking me to bed. Ever." "Who said it had to be on the bed?"

"Would you reconsider if I was sober?"

"Don't ruin the sofa!" "I'll just have to cum inside of you then."

"I know they're just stuffed animals but, doesn't it feel weird? It's like they're watching us."

"Please, remind me again why we are having sex behind a tree?"

"Do you think they could hear us through the tent?" "Yes we could."

"Can you help me with this zipper?"

"I see you've started without me."

"Wanna taste?"

"I'm going to show you what a real fucking is."

"You're so sexy when you're all hot and bothered."

"You're bigger than I expected."

"Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?"

"I know for a fact that you can be a hell of a lot louder than that."

"How about you come help mommy/daddy out, huh?"

"The things that I want to do to you, baby."

"Were you dreaming about me again?"

"What do you mean not yet?! You can't expect me to not cum when you're fucking me so good!"

"Crawl to me."

Dryhumping/Clothed sex

Heavy kissing/heavy makeout

Fucking in the office.

Fluff Prompts

"I just want to relax in your arms."

"You look really good in my clothes."

"You're the most beautiful being on earth."

"I wish you could see the way I see you."

“What are you doing?” “I was trying to make pancakes but it didn’t exactly work”

“Come on. I’ll show you how to dance”

“Is that … is that a dog?”

“I’m gonna need someone to kiss at midnight”

“Get on my shoulders, you’ll see better”

*Fogs up mirror and writes a message*

“Not to be drastic, but I would jump off of a cliff for you”

“You’re my new pillow”

“Of course I waited for you”

“I’ll always come when you need me to”

“I wasn’t sure which flavor you wanted so I got all of them”

"I got you these to make you feel better since I know you started your period."

“Keep it. It looks better on you”

“I’m gonna go take a nap, wanna join?”

“Hmm? Oh sorry- I kinda zoned out while looking at your face … what are we talking about?”

“I would kill for you- not another person or anything. I’d kill a spider or someone’s hopes and dreams”

“I can’t say no to that face”

“You are more than your flaws”

“I’m just waiting it out until later when I can crawl into bed and cuddle you”

“Ask anyone- since I met you, I’ve changed for the better”

“Anyone with eyes can see how beautiful/talented you are”

“Ugh our kids are gonna be awesome”

“I saw this earlier and I thought of you”

“You’re leaving already? Nooooo~”

“I would give all of this up for you”

“Stop worrying about you? Stop worrying about you?! I can barely stop thinking of you!”

“Don’t move - I’ll get it for you”

Two people going grocery shopping together.

"We're having a baby!"

So, I did less prompts this time since there is a second part to this celebration! I can't wait to see your guys requests!

Tagging people below :)

@pankowforlife @wannabestarkeysgirl @adventuresinobx @smokingbeersdrinkingweed @strokesofstokes @bethoconnor @gillybear17 @valeriiecameron @blueicequeen19 @hoebx @cecewriting @outerbankspov

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tehcoop · 4 years ago

Text

I am an old. I'm an old, old fandom lurker wandering from one fandom to the other for the past (oh God) two decades. I've read in everything from Gundam Wing in my (not that) delinquent high school years to Due South to Stargate Atlantis, Harry Potter, Star Wars, yadda yadda yadda, on and on up to The Witcher, most recently.

And then The Old Guard.

Guys... Guys.

This movie smacked me in the face and shook me to my core. It was everything I've never known I wanted in an action movie because it just never occurred to me that it might exist. Two female leads! One of them is black! Eighty. Five. Percent female representation behind the scenes. 85%! Amazing character beats. Everyone has their own arc and motivations. No stereotyping. It's just beautiful.

And then there's Joe and Nicky.

I have never related so hard to characters or to a relationship in my life. I love my badass immortal husbands so much. It's ridiculous. I could gush for hours. I'm nothing like them, of course. I identify as a mostly straight, mostly cis, so white I reflect sunlight (though I hope I'm at least an ally to BIPOC) woman. There's nothing particularly badass about me. But I still relate like hell to these characters.

I love to laugh like Joe, and completely understand his protective instincts. And then there's Nicky. I relate to him more than any character I can think of currently. I'm introverted and can be kind of intense, but I'm also patient, kind, and nurturing. And if anyone does anything to hurt my family, especially my kids, I can rip you apart with just my words. (Seriously, I think my mother in law is afraid of me now after she got a talking to when I called her out for being shitty to my spouse. Our relationship is Much Better now).

Most importantly, I am deeply in love with my wonderful spouse who happens to be a trans woman.

And guys, I'm angry.

Remember, I'm an old. I've been searching for scraps hinting at any kind of queer love story in all kinds of media for decades. And I'm angry because I shouldn't have had to.

I shouldn't have to read into a maybe not on purpose significant glance. I shouldn't have gotten excited when two characters grabbed each other in anger because clearly they're so in love. I shouldn't have been delighted when an actor bit his lip to hint at a love story in film, or that a writer said that a character was gay years after the books were written. I made myself believe that those little bits of subtext were enough and somehow better than getting it outright because then we can tell our own stories, right guys? I preferred reading fan fiction because I could think of the hot guys I wanted to pair up in the way I wanted. I even stopped watching a lot of gay movies because they were always so sad and full of strife, and I just couldn't relate to them. I just wanted my fluffy romantic comedies. Fan fiction was literally the only place that I could see any kind of healthy queer relationship.

Which is how I got to be almost forty and still identifying as mostly straight even though I'm in a queer as hell relationship. In each of these canon stories, the character's sexuality was part of the conflict, and I was never particularly conflicted about mine. I just liked who I liked and craved a healthy, stable relationship. Or when I did see characters like Klaus in Umbrella Academy (who I love) who is comfortable with their sexuality, he's also so fantastically ridiculous that I can only laugh or cringe at him. I enjoyed many of these stories, but still related more to the Jane Austen heroines I saw in straight stories even while I preferred to chill by reading about say... John and Rodney accidentally making a baby or something.

And then Joe and Nicky come along. And they're beautiful. They're a goddamn interracial, interfaith, committed, happy, unkillable gay couple. In canon. They are the most married. They're 900 plus years of married. Their sexuality and relationship are incredibly important to who they are and to the story without being the conflict of the story. Or without being a walking stereotype of one thing or other. Instead, you have two men casually stating their love for each other, blatantly declaring it, cuddling, and kissing all while they each have their own stories, skills, and motivations.

I have literally never seen that before. Except at home, in my own house, where my spouse and I get to be our own people, but then support each other, tease each other, and cuddle at the end of the day. It was beautiful to see something that reflected the kind of love I always wanted and now get to have. In canon, on screen. Seeing Joe and Nicky's love makes me so deliriously happy that I'm incredibly angry I've never seen anything like that on screen before. Just imagine what it would have been like seeing that kiss in a crowded theater.

So why am I writing this? Because this movie is important. It's so goddamn important. I'm so happy it exists. And I want you all to know the actual weight of all the years of going without characters like this. What it means to say that I'm furious that I've never seen this before after decades of searching. How ridiculous it is that I still identify as mostly straight possibly because I've never really seen nuanced, flawed, real queer characters before. Instead, I've imagined and created evidence of gay relationships from nothing while ignoring the awful canon hetero relationships my favorite shows have forced on us. All while still unironically sighing over Mr Darcy and Clueless. I'm tired, y'all.

I want to see all the stories with all the people in various configurations. Romances, action, sci fi, fantasy, everything. The Old Guard did it. And they did it well. I'm done with the queer baiting. I don't think I can look at many of the fandoms I have loved throughout the years the same way again. I'm incredibly grateful to Gina Prince-Bythewood, Greg Rucka, Marwan Kanzari, Luca Marinelli, and the rest of the cast and crew for bringing me these already beloved characters. It's so refreshing to finally get what I've really wanted all these years. Representation absolutely fucking matters.

And now? I'm gonna go back to being a lurker. I'll read all the Old Guard fanfiction I can. I'll watch all the movies, read all the comics because I want more stories like this, dammit. I'll probably go back to giggling over and overanalyzing little character moments in all kinds of fandoms again. Mostly, I'll just go back to quietly taking care of my little family. And I might post something again in another couple of decades when my kids are off to college. And God, do I hope it doesn't take another couple decades to get more characters like this. I hope that my kids get all kinds of stories I never did growing up so that they can figure out who they are and who they relate to before they're almost forty frigging years old. It's about goddamn time.

Thank you for listening to my TED talk.

#joe x nicky #nicolo di genova #yusuf al kaysani #the old guard #2020 is the year we consume media that turns us queer #done with this shit #look i wrote a thing #oh dear God i wrote a thing #gonna go hide again now #i have no idea how to do a read more sorry guys #immortal husbands

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actualbird · 3 years ago

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did u get marius summer breeze card? oh my god the story on that. he is so boy

SR Twilight Beauty, is the one ur talking about yeah? if yes, then HELL YEAH I GOT THAT CARD (after tireless summer breeze grinding kjbkjds) A FEW DAYS AGO AND IMMEDIATELY 70'D IT TO GET ALL THE STORY.

UR RIGHT. HE IS SO BOY!!!!!

heres some assorted thoughts of mine from that card story (spoilers fo Marius SR Twilight Beauty ofc)

i know it was just an in passing few lines but since i love Family Lore, i was very interested to hear about marius' mom. she was an artist just like him!!! he didnt get to meet her (she died shortly after marius was born...did his birth have anything to do with it? thoughts in my brain) so all he had to know her by was her paintings and musical compositions. not to project my own "didnt get to meet this family member who died but wants to know how they thought" boogaloo onto marius, but maaaaan that pulled on my heartstrings a bunch. to try and know a person with what they left behind...

HE GOTTTT SOOOOO SHYYY AND FLUSTERED WHEN HIS SKETCHES OF MC GOT BLOWN BY THE WIND I AM NOT OVER IT HE IS SO BOY, BOY OF ALL TIME, I----

obsessed with this card's story theme of "capturing moments." what is an instance? how can we immortalize that? what will it mean for people who will see your interpretation in the future? will we get to gleam what they experienced when they saw it? reminds me of this quote from Kazuo Ishiguro “But in the end, stories are about one person saying to another: This is the way it feels to me. Can you understand what I’m saying? Does it feel this way to you?”

OBSESSED WITH HOW MARIUS SEES ART IN GENERAL. this is in relation not just to this card but all his stories, it just is sooooo apparent that art is so frigging important to him, he believes in it so much. i get a little peeved when i see ppl say that art is marius' "hobby" like i understand they probly didnt mean it dismissively but as a fellow BFA (Bastard of Fine Arts) it's like it is more than that, it is SO IMPORTANT TO HIM, IT IS---//am pulled away by the security guards before i can ramble more

he is....so boy.....

#asks #tears of themis #marius von hagen #ive been thinking a lot about marius and his art. what it means to him.#if i write a POETICS ESSAY for a FICTIONAL CHARACTER do NOT make fun of me for it okay

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coffeewithheroes · 4 years ago

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Hiya, nice to meet you V! Do you know the Tiktok trend that goes like, “why can’t friends just kiss each other?” If you do, would you mind doing some headcanons about how Iwaizumi and other characters of your choosing would react? tysm!!💕

a/n: nice to meet you anon! i’ve seen that trend before and omg i love it so much! i just love the friends to lovers troupe in general :) never be able to get over it i swear🤧

really went all out on my first answered request, hehe!

“why can’t friends just kiss each other?” ⪼ haikyuu hcs

IWAIZUMI

💌 Iwaizumi would probably already know about the trend, seeing as he’s got tiktok obsessed oikawa as a best friend.

💌 oikawa would probs tease Iwa about how you might use it on him one day, which earns him a good wack.

💌 luv you tooru get well soon

💌 might secretly hope that you make a move on him, but doesn’t get his hopes too high. there’s a chance that you’re not even interested in Tiktok impossible, or you’d rather confess to him the traditional way, OR, you might not even like him. again, impossible

💌 lucky for him, you LIVE for trends like these :)

💌 you’ll probably be at his house or something, thanking the stars above that Iwaizumi has finally granted you a break from studying, as well as the opportunity to make your move!

💌 you pull out your phone, and search for the sound, heart beat so loud you hope he can’t hear.

💌 remember to breathe, baby. because it’s go time.

💌 you press play.

💌 at this point, Iwa looks up from his own device, and has that “wait, what?” look on his face.

💌 you’re laughing at him to hide the sudden waves of embarrassment.

💌 not to worry dear, your efforts were not in vain.

💌 Iwaizumi is honestly so frigging happy that you did this. he can’t help but think about how cute you are.

💌 “you’re so stupid, you know that?” and yet, the opposite comes out of his mouth.

💌 but again, must i remind you not to worry?

💌 the next few moments are absolute heaven - Iwaizumi pulls your face towards his, and kisses you hard.

💌 damn, he’s been waiting for this.

OSAMU

💌 this would be something neither of you are expecting-

💌 it’s actually atsumu who set up the entire thing lmaooo

💌 the three of you usually walk home together after volleyball practice, but atsumu had faked being sick and went home early, leaving just osamu and yourself.

💌 whilst walking, you get a message from atsumu, a video.

💌 and you play it out loud of course, not expecting it to be something like this:

💌 “why can’t friends just kiss each other?”

💌 cue the awkward stares and silent curses of atsumu‘s name.

💌 you want to think of something, anything to say that will get osamu’s mind away from the words he just heard.

💌 but unlucky for us, our brains always run out on us when we need ‘em most, right?

💌 in the end, it’s osamu who breaks the silence.

💌 “well, why can’t we?”

💌 “there’s no rule against it...”

💌 “should we...”

💌 “I’m okay with it if you are?”

💌 the kiss is one of those which start off as simple pecks, but get all crazy after that 😳

💌 you know you can’t get too carried away though, being in the middle of the street and all.

💌 osamu takes you to his house instead of dropping you home, and atsumu can’t help but smirk victoriously at the sight of your bruised lips.

💌 looks like you got a lil’ bit carried away after all

💌 instead of thanking his matchmaker brother, you opt for giving him the finger.

💌 osamu’s pretty content with that solution too, so it’s all good!

TSUKISHIMA

💌 your mind immediately wanders to Tsukishima the moment you discover this Tiktok sound.

💌 things will either go really well, or really bad. and of course, you’re hoping for the latter.

💌 tsukishima’s a smart dude, and will immediately notice something is up the moment you pull out your phone and start grinning ear to ear.

💌 “what are you doing?” he really doesn’t waste time.

💌 “hey, do a tiktok with me.”

💌 “absolutely not.”

💌 but he doesn’t stop you when you set up your camera and press the three second countdown.

💌 when the question pops up, tsukishima is lowkey shocked

💌 like, what did i just hear? 👁👄👁

💌 you’re laughing your ass off at his reaction, but tsukishima wouldn’t be tsukishima if he allowed others to openly laugh at him in his presence or at all for that matter

💌 he gives you one of those “shut up” kisses :)

💌 and suddenly, the tables have turned, and he’s the one who’s making fun of your reaction!

BOKUTO

💌 bokuto’s actually the one who introduces you to the trend

💌 the hilarious thing is, he didn’t even mean it as a confession, he just wanted to show you one video which he found particularly cute!

💌 he’s super excited about it, so while he’s taking a break during practice, he whips out his phone from his bag, and shows you the video.

💌 it gets your heart pumping QUICKLY fr-

💌 you’re not actually sure how to react tbh. you know that there’s a chance bokuto was just showing it to you because he thought it was cute, not because he was indirecting the fact that the two of you should actually kiss.

💌 but my guy akaashi has got your back :D

💌 “bokuto-san, does that mean you would like to kiss y/n as well, seeing as she’s your friend?”

💌 “...hey, hey, hey! dude, you’re right!”

💌 bokuto does not hesitate-

💌 pulls you towards him, then tilts his head just right so that he can kiss you.

💌 it’s over in an instant, there’s literally no time to react.

💌 he isn’t trying even a little bit to hide the smile on his face.

💌 “i’ll give you more later, i have to go back to practice now, yeah?”

HOSHIUMI

💌 another one who knows his way around Tiktok - chances are, he found the trend before you did.

💌 hoping that you’ll understand why he’s calling it his new favourite trend, and get the hint that likes you and wants you to confess that way!!

💌 spoiler alert: you’re going to do it.

💌 the whole thing goes down during one of your weekend sleepovers.

💌 it’s three am, both of you are dead tired, and you’ve decided that you want a kiss before you head to sleep.

💌 loud enough for him to hear, not loud enough for his parents to wake up, you play the sound.

💌 “what? you— y/n!!”

💌 this cutie can’t even form words, he’s that happy!

💌 does not waste any more time trying to speak - he’s sure that you’d rather be kissing him.

💌 and you would :)

💌 hoshiumi starts off by placing kisses all over your face and neck, purposely avoiding your lips.

💌 because that’s his final prize, of course!

💌 it feels like forever has passed, before your lips finally touch his.

💌 it’s amazing, it’s sweet, it’s heartwarming, it’s all the synonyms which you can possibly come up with for those three words.

💌 the two of you fall asleep, legs tangled and all.

💌 his parents most likely have at least heard of tiktok. don’t know the trend specifically, but know that their son has finally managed to get himself a beautiful girlfriend! ❤️

KUROO

💌 here we go,,

💌 this whole situation is like a total accident.

💌 you were just scrolling through your for you page like we all do, when you came across the original video.

💌 “why can’t friends just kiss?”

💌 kuroo’s head turns so fast when he hears it.

💌 hasn’t seen the trend himself, but thank you to the man who made it, you’ve given kuroo an opportunity to kiss his crush 🙏

💌 “you know, that man is talking sense.”

💌 he’s smirking, he’s wiggling his eyebrows in a suggestive manner, and you’re trying to keep it together.

💌 don’t freak out, don’t freak out, don’t freak out

💌 “maybe we should kiss. like right now, and prove that friends are indeed allowed to kiss?”

💌 you’d like that, wouldn’t you? :))

💌 and so, when he leans in, you do absolutely nothing to stop him!

OIKAWA

💌 flipping heck, he’s so pretty

💌 soo...

💌 do 👏 this 👏 trend 👏 with 👏 him 👏 please 👏 and 👏 thank you............👏

💌 oikawa absolutely adores Tiktok, so you can bet your ass he knows about it.

💌 of course, doing something like this takes GUTS. confessing to anyone is a pretty difficult thing to do, especially with a good friend!

💌 you decide to confide in Iwaizumi in the matter, you know you can trust him not to say anything until after the big day.

💌 someone you can’t trust with a secret as big as this, is Matsukawa.

💌 accidentally overheard the convo between you and Iwaizumi, and thought it would be hilarious to accidentally spill the tea to his majesty.

💌 who is absolutely excited, by the way.

💌 when the big day arrives, you’re nervous as hell, and so is he.

💌 things go wrong, oh so wrong.

💌 oikawa’s sitting beside you on the couch. as soon as you take your eyes away from the tv and start paying attention to your phone, he starts watching.

💌 you don’t actually notice, too busy trying to calm yourself down.

💌 and then...

💌 before you even get to press play on the sound, oikawa is turning your head and pressing his lips against yours.

💌 it’s one of those simple, yet expertly executed kisses, the kind which makes you unable to open your eyes for a few seconds.

💌 “you uh...didn’t play the sound.”

💌 “you didn’t give me a chance to, idiot.”

💌 he’s just silly like that but i think i speak for everything when i say we wuv him sm 🥺

USHIJIMA

💌 Ushijima takes volleyball seriously, and he takes his studies seriously too.

💌 he’s been tutoring you for about one and a half hours now, and what the hell you’re so tired.

💌 but according to waka-baby, you haven’t done enough to deserve a break!

💌 (it’s true, you’ve only done about 3 questions since the topic is so boring lol)

💌 BUT THAT IS MOST DEFINITELY NOT THE POINT!

💌 begging and grovelling doesn’t work on Ushijima. and that’s when you think - what about Tiktoks?

💌 specifically the trend which has friends becoming lovers through a kiss after a single question.

💌 when Ushijima goes up to the counter to ask for more coffee, you take out your phone and quickly search for the sound.

💌 he’s not impressed by your choice to do this, but he forgets about that once he hears those sweet, sweet words.

💌 stays silent at first, as if in deep thought.

💌 “if i agree to this, will you get some work done?”

💌 “how about you agree to this, because you like me?”

💌 you used confidence! it was super effective!

💌 ushijima allows you to kiss him, and to him, your smile is brighter than the freaking sun.

💌 “lets get back to work.”

💌 but you and him both know that neither of you will be able to concentrate now :)

ATSUMU

💌 osamu’s the one who shows you the Tiktok. passed it on through kita, who’s just knowledgeable about everything??

💌 but are you sure you want to do this?

💌 h e c k y e s ☐ f r i c k n o ☒

💌 just kidding!!

💌 after showing you the video, osamu, the better twin, enlightened you about the fact that atsumu was planning to do the trend on you!

💌 cute, awh 🥺

💌 unlucky for him, you beat him to it! sorry not sorry

💌 you make your move the day before he wanted to make his.

💌 you play the sound, lowkey excited to see atsumu’s look of surprise.

💌 but...there isn’t one?

💌 what’s? going?? on???

💌 “‘you got played baby girl. ‘samu showed you the trend on purpose, and lied about me wanting to do the trend. all so that you’d be the first to admit that you like me.”

💌 he’s a little kid stuck in a teenager’s body, please forgive him.

💌 gives you one kiss for the sake of the video, and about twenty for messing around with you :))

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queenofbaws · 3 years ago

Text

UD: Baggage

Characters: Chris Hartley, Josh Washington, Ashley Brown Rating: T (Language) Word count: 5,506 Summary: For Chris, Josh, and Ashley, moving day is a lot like an episode of It’s Always Sunny: There’s chaos, there’s laughter, there’s yelling, Danny DeVito’s there...wait. What was that last one again? Author’s note: Well hey! This is my part of an art trade with the fantastic @lunchador! She asked for these three dorks moving in together and realizing, uh, well, they have a lot of junk to cram into one spot, and how on EARTH could I resist that??? Check out her part of our trade HERE!! ---

It was right around the fifth trip up the stairs that all the leasing agent’s talk about “health benefits” and “keeping the blood pumping” was so much horseshit. As he stumbled under the weight of the box in his arms and the pack on his back, Chris felt himself a man dying of thirst in a desert—oh what he’d give to turn his head to the side and see even the barest glimpse of an elevator oasis shimmering in the distance, to step into one of those beautiful air-conditioned closets and revel in their claustrophobia and bad pseudo-jazz.

But those were the dreams of a foolish man. A foolish, foolish man who’d just co-signed a lease for an apartment on the fourth fucking floor of a complex with exterior stairs and nary so much as a ramp in sight.

“I want to die!” he announced upon crossing the threshold. He’d meant for it to be a victorious cry: Honey, I’m home! It had come out as more of a wheeze.

From somewhere deeper in the apartment, Josh’s voice rang out clear as ever. “Yeah, get in line. Some of us were here first.”

Then, closer, “Are you seriously already violating the edgelord clause? Like…you realize I had them put that in the rental agreement for a good reason, riIIIAUGH!”

So much for catching his breath.

Boy he sure hoped there wasn’t anything important in that box, because it was not getting set down gingerly. It thudded when it landed…no sound of breaking glass, though, so that was reassuring. Chris wasn’t exactly used to the layout of the new place yet, but he headed for the sound of Ashley’s yelp with at least some measure of confidence, hurrying down the hall with the grimace of someone expecting to find one hell of a spider on the wall.

What jumped to meet him was a little bit bigger than that.

Lunging out of the bathroom to hang in the doorway like one of the godawful Halloween animatronics Josh’s dad stored in the Washington’s garden shed, Ashley stopped him in his tracks with nothing more than the look on her face.

“Holy shit, Ash! Why were you screaming like that?!”

For a long moment, she simply continued to stare at him, her brow furrowed, her lips pressed tightly together, her knuckles turning white as she clung to the doorframe. She took a long, steadying breath. “Why,” she began stiffly, answering his question with one of her own, “Is Danny DeVito in the frigging shower?!”

…not how he’d expected his valiant rescue to go, but hey, he was nothing if not a guy who could roll with the punches. “Huh! I don’t know this one. Uh, okay…” Sliding his backpack from one shoulder to the other, Chris narrowed his eyes and rubbed his hands together in excitement. In his best Seinfeld voice (something that inspired more secondhand embarrassment than awe) he asked, “Why was Danny DeVito in the shower?”

She stared at him for another beat, unblinking and unsmiling. Then, instead of delivering a real knee-slapper of a punch line, she took a couple steps back into the bathroom and yanked the shower curtain aside, revealing…

“Christ on a cracker!”

Lo and behold—there he was in all his shining glory. The man. The myth. Nay, the legend: Danny DeVito himself! He was looking a little more two-dimensional than Chris remembered, but hey, the camera added twenty pounds or whatever.

Josh appeared from seemingly out of nowhere (as he was wont to do), a dangerously overstuffed duffel bag hugged to his chest as he paused outside the door. “Awww…you guys found a new friend!” His expression was that of a proud parent watching their kids stumble through an Easter egg hunt; there was no doubt in either of their minds that had he not been struggling with the bag like that, he’d have been clutching his hands to his heart. “I was wondering when this meet-cute would go down.”

“Josh,” and oh, Chris might’ve been, but Ashley was not laughing, “Why did you bring a life-size standee of Danny DeVito into our apartment?”

“Yeah, and uh, not to be ‘that guy’ or anything, but while we’re on the subject, why’s he in the shower, of all places?”

The grin on Josh’s face told them in no uncertain terms he knew exactly what he was doing when he only answered one of their questions. “Uh, cuz he didn’t fit in the linen closet, duh?”

“Josh!”

He made as though to sling the bag over his shoulder then thought better of it, letting it fall to the ground before turning his hands out to her, palms-up, the poster child of feigned insult. “What was I supposed to do, Ash? Just leave him at home? All alone? With no one to appreciate him? Run the risk of showing up to visit for Christmas and find Ma finally made good on her promise to throw him in the recycling? I think not.”

“J—”

“I think fucking not.”

“We’re not keeping him in the bathroom.”

Chris did his best to rein in his snickering as Ashley fumed. She seemed caught between actual anger and actual hilarity, and Lord help him, but he didn’t want to be the unlucky sap who found out which was currently in the lead.

Josh, on the other hand, appeared only too willing to test the waters of her temper. “How about this, Encyclopedia Brown…you find me a better spot to put him, and so help me God I’ll put him there.”

“You want to fill our brand new apartment with mold. That’s what I’m hearing. You want to put a giant mold-magnet in our bathroom, the steamiest room in the place—”

“I think ‘giant’ is being generous, Ash,” Chris cut in, pretending to wither under the scornful look she shot him. “I’m just sayin’! From a technical standpoint…he’s, y’know…” Shrugging, he gestured towards America’s sweetheart, Daniel Michael DeVito, Jr., “…a slightly below average mold-magnet.”

“Chris.”

“At least based on the typical American male, that is.”

“Chris.”

“Now if we had a life-size cutout of Andre the Giant in the bathroom, I-I-I think the argument could be made that he would be a giant mold-magnet, but…” He met Josh’s eyes and returned his cheesy grin.

With a long-suffering groan Ashley glared towards the cardboard standee (her eyes full of what Chris felt fairly confident calling ‘murderous intent’) before yanking the shower curtain shut again. “I don’t know why I let myself think living with you dorks was going to be a good idea…now I’m gonna be sharing closet space with Danny DeVito…”

“Hey, ah ah ah…Golden Globe winner, Danny DeVito.” When she made the mistake of stepping out of the bathroom, Josh grabbed Ashley by the shoulder, giving her a joking little twirl. Once both of them were close enough he struck, draping his arms around their shoulders and setting all of his weight against them in a gesture as familiar as it was annoying. “I don’t know who you think you’re fooling,” he snickered, “I see that rosy glow in your cheeks—you’re fuckin’ stoked for the twenty-four-sev slumber party energy we’re gonna be bringing to this dump.”

Ashley sighed aloud at that, rolling her eyes to fulfill her role as resident fuddy-duddy of the group. It wasn’t an especially convincing sigh, though…not when the corners of her mouth were turned up like that, but she still made a point of folding her arms across her chest all the same. “Uh huh. Yeah. Well. Just so you know, if I open the pantry and find, like, Anne Hathaway, I’m out. I’m still not convinced this isn’t some elaborate ruse you guys cooked up just so you could get some Candid Camera prank footage while foisting laundry and dish duty on me.”

“Ohoho, Ash. Please.” His smile going barbed at the end, Josh hooked his elbow to yank her closer. “Don’t get it twisted—that’s exactly what this is.” He ignored her glare and, if possible, only sunk more of his weight into his lean when she tried to shove him away. “‘Elaborate.’ Pfft, nothing elaborate about it. I thought I was being pretty upfront with my nefarious purposes, actually.”

“For what it’s worth,” Chris added, rolling his shoulder to knock Josh’s arm away, finally removing his backpack and dropping it amongst the rest of the shit they needed to unpack, “My purposes were not nefarious in the slightest. Questionable? Perhaps. Shady? It’s possible! I mean, anything is, right? And I’m sure there are those people out there who could argue the term ‘duplicitous’ might even come into play, but nefarious? Nooo!”

Josh narrowed his eyes and glanced his way. “…aw shit. And here we go.”

“What?” Not one to let a good bit go to waste, Chris skirted around the two of them once he’d gotten rid of his bag, moving to Ashley’s other side if only so he could also use her as a human armrest (much to her vocal displeasure). “Whaaat?”

“Not even un-fucking-packed yet and you’ve already got Cochise using four-syllable words. Does your depravity know no bounds, woman?”

She hummed mischievously, and when she ducked away from the both of them, it was suddenly enough that he and Josh crashed into one another. “Maybe you’ll be the ones regretting living with me.” Stepping gingerly over both of their bags, Ashley turned over her shoulder for only a moment, pointing her finger squarely between Josh’s eyes. “Find somewhere else for him to haunt. I mean it. I don’t want or need Danny DeVito watching me pee!”

Chris watched as Josh raised his right hand in a sweet Boy Scout’s salute, his left tracing an X over his heart. It wasn’t until Ashley was well out of earshot that he leaned over just a bit, nudging Chris’s shoulder with his own. “Which bedroom did she call dibs on, again?”

It didn’t occur to him until much later that, uh, maybe he shouldn’t have answered that one.

***

He’d been so sure—so fucking sure—that this was going to be a good idea. Honestly, on paper it had looked like the sweetest deal of all time: Getting out of the shitty dorms with their shitty rules and moving into a place with his buds? That was what dreams were made of, baby, walls they could cover however they wanted, no such thing as “quiet hours” or “boy-girl” mixing or whatever the fuck else the university shoehorned into their room and board agreements, a fridge they could fill with whatever booze they wanted…

The deal wasn’t seeming so sweet just then, though. Oooh no it was not. Fun and frolic were the farthest things from his mind, what with the fabric of his shirt sticky with sweat and the smell of cheap plywood carving splintery gouges into his sinuses, all while on of those quote-unquote best buddies of his did her level best to tear through what little patience he had to his name.

“If you value your fingers,” he said, giving the drill’s trigger a warning squeeze or two, “I’d ask that you kindly remove that shit from my shelves, thanks.”

“Your shelves.” It wasn’t a question, wasn’t even a statement—it was instead a snippy aside that reminded him just a bit too much of something his mother might’ve mumbled to herself after being asked to wash the dishes. “I’m pretty sure they’re our shelves, so…” And then, as though she was literally trying to see how far and how hard she could push him before he filled her hands with holes enough to constitute a fine Swiss cheese, Ashley put a second armful of books onto the shelves.

“Only, uh…they’re not. Our shelves, I mean.” This was probably a conversation better suited for a time when he wasn’t acutely aware of how clammy every inch of his skin felt under his shirt, or when the muscles in his arms and shoulders weren’t still vibrating, but something about the sight of those paperback spines, each one neat and unwrinkled as though Ashley had gone to great pains to keep them looking fresh out of the shrink-wrap, set his teeth on edge. “I put them together,” he pointed out civilly enough, thinking that was one hell of a way to oversimplify the hours of work he’d put into the endeavor, “Ergo…my shelves, thanks.”

Ashley set her hands on her hips (the picture-perfect image of any bratty next-door neighbor or younger sister from a hip and quirky 90’s sitcom, if perhaps a touch sweatier) and cast an unimpressed look across the empty boxes the shelving units had come in, the floor of the living area littered with empty plastic bags that had once held screws and nuts and bolts and dowels galore. She took it all in, but by Josh’s measure, still didn’t appreciate even a fraction of the work he’d put into assembling the things. “They’re huge,” she pointed out.

“Sure are.”

“And I have like…three whole boxes that are just books.”

“Brag about it.”

She rolled her eyes and blew a frustrated breath upwards, ruffling the few tendrils of hair that had escaped her ponytail. “I think you can spare a couple sh—”

“No, Ash, I cannot. Wish I could! But I can’t.” Josh set the drill down with a thunk he hoped carried a note of finality with it, making a grand show of brushing his hands off on his jeans before hooking one of his besneakered feet around the nearest box of his. Once he’d pulled it over, he nudged the lid with the toe of his shoe, kicking it off to reveal the VHS tapes crammed from edge to edge, most still decorated with bright green video store stickers. “See, these shelves…these shelves right here—” he paused just long enough to pat them, “—are for displaying real, actual, legitimate art.” He grabbed a couple of the movies from the box and slid them onto the shelf at his eye-level with a sort of precision that bordered on reverence. “If you want bookshelves, maybe get yourself some, huh?”

If there was a God, if there was any kind of higher power at all, that would’ve been enough. She would’ve seen that he was tired and thirsty and fuck, just so fucking damp, and she would’ve dropped it.

But she didn’t.

Which really only sort of solidified his idea of the universe as a callous, uncaring nightmare void.

“Yeah, uh…preeetty sure you can spare a shelf or two.”

“Can’t.”

“There’s no way you’re filling three whole shelving units with movies, Josh.”

“If that’s genuinely what you think, Nancy Drew, then I hate to break it to you, but you have not been paying attention to my character arc.” Instead of digging his heels any deeper into that particular fight, he flashed her one last smarmy smirk and bent down to begin unpacking the movies in earnest; as an eldest sibling, he knew just how strong the ol’ Cain instinct was within him, and three or four million fights with the twins had taught him precisely how far he could be pushed before it started kicking in.

As it turned out, it didn’t take all that much.

And still Ashley pressed her luck, throwing her arms to her sides as she watched him load the shelves up with schlock. “You are so…ugh!” She whirled around to face the other side of the room, flicking an impatient gesture his way even as she asked Chris, “Are you hearing this?”

“Yeah-huh,” and that was not the tone of a man concerned with anything besides alphabetizing his N64 cartridges, “I’m hearing it all right. Shocking. Truly and majorly shocking. If you’re looking for my vote, I say pizza.”

“Oh my God. That’s not—”

Josh couldn’t help snorting. “Duly noted, Cochise.” He met Ash’s eyes for a second, popping his eyebrows in the way he knew she hated. “You heard the man. Don’t know what else to tell ya.” Straightening back up, he shoved another stack of movies onto the shelf. “The people have spoken.”

She looked between the two of them as though they weren’t speaking the same language she was…and then in a few quick strides, crossed the room to lean her arm against the side of the entertainment center, gesturing grandly towards it as a magician’s assistant might. “Know what I see here?” she asked, not waiting for either of them to answer. “Shelves. Big ones, too! So, uh…why can’t you guys share these?!”

And Chris, dear sweet Chris, had the nerve, the audacity, to reel backwards as though Ashley had just slapped his grandmàmà clean across the face. Sure, the guy couldn’t listen when she was trying to horn in on Josh’s hard work, but when it was his shit…ohoho, then it was an entirely different kettle of fish, wasn’t it? Typical.

“This is the entertainment center, Ash! It’s for consoles and games and—”

“Movies?” she cut in, looking awfully pleased with herself. “Pretty sure movies constitute ‘entertainment.’” Then she paused, narrowing her eyes and pursing her lips. “Well. Maybe not Josh’s movies, but…”

“Consoles. And. Games. I-I-I don’t get how this isn’t making sense to you guys.” He seemed not to be able to decide where to look—at the games he’d already lined up in their neat little rows, or the boxes upon boxes still stacked in the corner, waiting to be added to the collection. “There’s barely gonna be enough room for the Xbox shit, I’m not about to lose more space to a bunch of DVD cases, you kidding me?”

“You guys seriously don’t need all that room!”

“Kiiinda do, Ash.”

“Yeah, have you not been listening, like, at all?”

She groaned again, pressing her fingers hard into her temples as she made her case for the hundredth fucking time: “If you guys share. There will be space. For at least some of my books. Then we can all—”

He was a reasonable man—a patient man—but there came a point where too much was too much, and goddamn it, this was, in fact, too much. “Y’know, not for nothing, but I’m the asshole who spent his day building these fucking things, so I think maybe I should get a say about what goes where. The wall units are for movies and movies alone, please and thanks, so you two can war this one out however you want, but so help me God, if I see so much as a single Koontz between my box sets…”

“I need these for my stuff. Okay? Sorry, but like, I do. And I’m still probably gonna have to store a bunch of it under my bed anyway, so—”

“Then where am I supposed to put my books?!”

“In your closet.”

“Yeah, just go shove ‘em in your closet.”

“In my…there’s not enough freaking room in there! I let you guys put your stupid winter coats and boots in there, so there’s hardly enough space for like, a laundry hamper, much less all my books!”

“Well this may come as a shock, but I don’t care where you put the lending library, so long as it’s nowhere near my stuff.”

“Oh, but you can store your stuff in my room?”

One box down, only about five to go, Josh kicked the empty one away and set his arm on the next lowest shelf, giving himself a moment of rest by leaning forward on it. “That, I’ll remind you, was an offer you extended from the kindness in your own heart. Unfortunately for you, I have no heart, so…”

Chris raised a warning finger into the air. “Edgelord clause. That’s two in one day—pretty sure that mean’s dinner’s on you.”

He and Ash spun around at the same time, and though he couldn’t really get a good look at her face as he glared Chris’s way, he had the distinct sense she was fixing him with the same sort of exasperated expression. “Not helping!” they both snapped, only for Chris to lower his hand with an apologetic flourish. They met each other’s eyes after that, both frowning, both feeling more than mildly betrayed by that wavelength they seemed to share only during the most inopportune times…and then Ashley groaned again, grabbing the few books she’d tried to put on the shelf.

“Thank you,” Josh drawled, knowing he was only twisting the screw that much deeper. “Now was that really so ha—” Though Ashley’s aim was miserable and she would’ve missed him by a country mile even if he hadn’t, Josh ducked in time to miss the paperback she haphazardly tossed his way. “Hey, I can’t pay hospital bills and rent, princess. Watch it!”

***

In a shocking twist that no one (not even she) had seen coming, the arrival of the pizza and the occurrence of additional temper tantrums turned out to be related. Like, closely related.

Directly related, one might’ve even said.

There were still two slices of pizza left, so Ashley didn’t feel too guilty grabbing one of them, pointedly ignoring the dark grease stain saturating the entirety of the box. Had there actually been a table under it she might’ve paid it more mind, but…well, there wasn’t, so she couldn’t find much of a reason to fret. As it stood, their dinner had been set down on a couple of overturned laundry baskets and a plastic tub still full of cleaning supplies, the closest thing to a table they had to work with for the time being.

…wait.

As though she’d only been running on 5% brainpower up until that moment, it occurred to her to…look around. The shared space of the living area was still an absolute wasteland, full to bursting with boxes in various stages of unpack, piles of clothes hanging off the backs of doors and over—oh crud, were those chairs? How had they forgotten they had chairs? Had they really just sat on the floor, huddled around their takeout like a bunch of cavemen because they’d literally forgotten what furniture they owned?

The more she looked, the more ridiculous it became: The pristine entertainment center, the painstakingly organized shelves of old movies, the (admittedly pathetic) shoe rack she’d (poorly) repurposed to use as a (temporary) bookshelf…and everything else. But it wasn’t until her eyes fell on three huge, very suspiciously shaped lumps along the back wall that it really clicked.

She set her half-eaten slice back onto the box, hung her head in her hands, and laughed. What else was there to do? She laughed! And yeah, she heard the guys’ conversation taper off, and uh huh, she knew they were probably staring at her like she’d just popped out a second head or whatever, but as realization of their stupidity washed over her—really washed over her—all she could do was sit there and giggle and pray it wouldn’t turn into outright hysterics.

“Was it something I said?” Josh asked, the flatness of his voice only making her laughter worse.

“Something you said? Fuck you bro, I think we all know it was something I said. I’m the funny one in this mix-‘em-up, I thought I made that perfectly clear.”

“If it was something you said, Cochise, then this is one hell of a delayed reaction. I wouldn’t go bragging about the show-stopping quality of my jokes if it took Ash three point five business days to get back to me with feedback.”

Something, maybe the sound of her name, maybe exhaustion, let her come up for air. It wasn’t that the spell was broken—no, she felt another wave threatening to bubble out of her the second she let her guard down—but at least she had a moment of respite where she could fan her face with her hand and choke out a few words. “Hey guys?” she managed, snorting hard and having to take a deep breath to keep from losing herself again.

“…hey Ash?” Chris echoed. He was looking back and forth between her and Josh, and, much like earlier that morning, wore an expression that suggested he was waiting for the punch line of her joke, whatever that might’ve been.

“I, um…” She cleared her throat and pulled in another deep breath. She wanted to appear at least somewhat put-together for what she had to say, but Lord help her, that sense of calm didn’t seem to be forthcoming. “I was just wondering something.”

The two of them exchanged another look, and darn it! They weren’t making it easy on her. When they turned back to her, it was Josh who answered that time. “…uh huh…”

“Where are we sleeping tonight, exactly?” Ashley managed to hold herself together right until the moment she saw them react. Josh narrowed his eyes and Chris cocked his head to the side, both of them obviously thinking she was out of her goddamn mind, and that was it. The giggles returned with a vengeance, and she actually had to lie down, sprawling herself out on the floor in resignation. She threw one of her arms over her face like a Victorian lady with a case of the vapors, feeling her shoulders shaking against the nappy carpeting they’d no doubt ruin within the first month of living there.

“So this is it, huh? Doesn’t even take a whole day of living together and Cochise is using SAT words while you have a full-on Joker breakdown, huh? I—oh shit, I’m the only one who hasn’t been touched by this weird It Follows curse yet. I swear to Christ, if I wake up tomorrow seized by the throat with a compulsion to tell shitty dad-jokes…”

“Ash, I—” Oh, she could see so clearly in her mind’s eye the look that would be on Chris’s face when Josh’s comment caught up with him. “My dad-jokes aren’t shitty. How fucking dare you.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

“Okay. All right. Okay. Cool, you know what? How about you start providing the group with comedy gold, huh? See how easy it is to constantly be spitting out zingers.”

“Is that what you think you’re doing?”

“I—man, forget you, clearly Ashley’s going through something.”

“Yeah, I’ll say.”

Still on the floor, she threw both of her hands into the air, flaring her fingers out as dramatically as she could. “Where are we sleeping tonight?!” she repeated, waiting for a beat before forcing herself to sit back up, her face hot with overexertion and something bordering horribly on glee.

Chris, bless his heart, continued to look at her as though waiting for the joke to make sense. Josh, however, only narrowed his eyes further; he wasn’t expecting a joke, she knew, but some sort of M. Night Shyamalan revelation. “…in our rooms,” he said slowly, parsing each word out in a slow, deliberate manner, obviously trying to find the catch before she could point it out.

“Oh yeah?” She pulled her knees to her chest and hugged them there, leaning forward with a knowing smirk. “Where in our rooms?”

“Uh,” came Chris’s oh-so-helpful response.

Josh was squinting by then. Was he trying to read her mind? See through her eyes like her brain was the little advice doodad inside a Magic 8 ball? He could try all he wanted, he wasn’t going to get very far. “In our be—”

Ashley didn’t like to think of herself as an especially vindictive person, and certainly not a mean one…but…oh, but there was no denying she would’ve paid just about any amount of money on Earth to have a recording of the way Josh’s face dropped as the realization hit him too. Any amount of money. The joy of watching him go through each of the five stages of grief all in that one moment? She thought that could’ve gotten her through even the worst finals week.

“Mother…fuck.” There was a beat, and then a thud as Josh too slumped onto the floor, his hands on his stomach in a terribly corpse-like pose as he stared up at the ceiling. “You have got to be shitting me.”

“What?” When neither of them answered right away, Chris shoved aside one of the table-baskets and scooted closer between them. “What?”

Releasing a sound not entirely unlike a kettle that had been left on the stove for too long, Josh pointed towards the back wall and the mass of shit yet to be unpacked. “Can’t sleep in our beds.”

“Why not?!”

He thumped his hand on the ground to bring Chris’s attention to where he was pointing. “Can’t sleep in ‘em because we haven’t fucking assembled them.”

Almost as though she were seeing it through his eyes, Ashley watched as Chris followed the line of Josh’s finger, noticed the massive boxes resting against the wall, realized their sheets were all folded nice and neatly on top of them, and…yeah, there it was. The understanding that they hadn’t so much as touched anything other than their stupid shelves and stupid toys—including, of course, their bedframes.

Chris also flopped himself onto the ground.

Not one to be left out, Ashley slid to the carpet again, another giggle escaping her. “We’re so dumb.”

“We’re a little dumb,” Chris corrected, holding his hand up, his index finger and thumb pinched together. “Little dumb.”

“Well, I guess I did mention something about bringing the slumber party energy earlier…” With a grunt and a groan and a sigh, Josh propped himself up on his elbows, rolling his eyes in her direction. “Guess we’re just gonna have to do this the sleepover way, huh?”

“Good thing we have all these games set up…” she joked. “And allll these movies.”

From where he lay splayed out in a classic roadkill position, Chris moaned, “This again? God, can’t you see your constant fighting is tearing this family apaaaaaart?!”

“So glad I signed into an actual lease to live in these conditions. An actual, legal lease. With actual, legal money. And my actual, legal signature.”

“Blah blah blah, awfully big talk for someone who nearly just pissed themselves laughing.” For a moment (short but beautiful) Josh was quiet…and then, as though it had only just occurred to him, he nodded towards one of the open bedroom doors. “But if we’re doing this shit right, I think I saw Cochise stashing the sleeping bags in your closet right before I put my jackets in there. You wanna get those?”

“What am I, your maid?” But who was she kidding—now that her stomach was full and the prospect of living with these two dorks was really taking root, Ashley couldn’t help but grin like a fool. They could deal with squabbles and the occasional bout of hangry arguing, after all…especially if it meant getting to capture that buzzy energy of staying up too late and laughing a little too hard whenever they wanted. She got to her feet, making sure to poke Chris’s side with her toes before stepping over him. “You know you’re going to have to clear some room on the floor if all three of us are going to fit!” she called over her shoulder as she stepped into her room, rolling her eyes when she saw whichever one of them had been in her closet last had left the door open a sliver.

“Of course, Your Highness,” Chris called back, only for Josh to add, “Any other requests?”

“Yeah,” she snickered, throwing the closet door wide open, “You coulAAAAUUGHH!” There were not words for the terror that gripped her heart when she found herself staring into a pair of eyes, unblinking and all-seeing, couched there in the darkness of her closet. Her knees went out from under her, but only for a second!

Ashley scrambled back to her feet in time to see the other two leaning in the doorway, beaming ear-to-stupid-ear. She took it back—she took all that sappy, crappy stuff about being happy to live with them back! She was going to kill those two before this was all over, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. They’d just signed their own deaths warrants, is what they’d done! If this was an omen of things to come…oh, but she wasn’t ready for that thought, not when they were guffawing at her like that.

“Why,” she breathed, jabbing a furious finger over her shoulder, “Is Danny DeVito in my freaking closet?!”

“Well, Ash,” Josh said, oddly calm considering Chris was almost in tears beside him, “You did tell me to find somewhere else to put him. So really, when you think about it…” He spread his hands out as if in supplication and shrugged. “He’s in your closet because you wanted him there.”

Oh yeah.

She was going to kill them.

#until dawn #until dawn fanfiction #until dawn fic #chris hartley #josh washington #ashley brown #my fanfiction #queenie writes supermassive

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kickingitwithkirk · 4 years ago

Text

Greetings from Austin pt. III

Pairing: Alpha!Jensen Ackles x Alpha!Jared Padalecki x Omega!OFC

Summary: Jensen and Jared are at odds over a monumental decision that changes their lives in a way they couldn’t have envisioned.

WC: 3825

Warnings: a/b/o, bisexuality, biphobia, homophobia, angst, cursing, self doubt, depression/anxiety, married life/disagreements, medical stuff, sexual dysfunction, infertility/surrogacy

*flirting, m/m oral sex, Jensen’s insecurities are coming out, Jared gets arrested, both get counseling

A/N: This part consists of several time jumps over four month period.

A/N II: Hey, sorry took me a way longer to get done than planned, rewrote Oct 23 a dozen times alone and hoping makes sense, trying to flesh out characters more and has some stuff that plays into story line in later parts.

Part II

Masterlist

@winchesterandbeyondbingo square filled-Jensen Ackles

*Series Inspired by this art.

*no beta-all mistakes are mine

September 8th

7:30 am

Jensen was sitting in the makeup chair clenching his extra strong coffee container to help warm his hands. He’d spent a second, uncomfortable night in his trailer on location as Vancouver was having an unusual cold snap this time of year and with the covid restrictions the director decided that everyone needed to stay on site.

While he wasn’t happy about the weather, missing his own personal heater but at the same time grateful for a brief break from Jared now that they were heading towards the next phase of starting their family.

Jensen jokingly said they needed a code name since they were planning on keeping their plans a secret, even from their families, until the pups were born, playfully suggesting a cartoon from their childhoods.

Of course with Jared’s weird sense of humor, he loved it and started throwing ideas like operation: pound puppies.

“Penny for your thoughts.” Frieda said as she applied a concealer under his eyes to hide the dark smudges from not sleeping well.

“Huh?”

“You asked about my new job and haven’t heard anything I’ve said, wanna talk about it?”

“Sorry, not focusing very well today.”

“Yeah, we’re all feeling out of sorts with this being the last couple days.”

Jensen couldn’t believe he was down to his last two days of filming.

“Too bad this virus messed everything up, it would’ve been a hell of a send off if everybody could have been here.”

Alex and Misha had left right after they’d finished but Jim Beaver was back for the ending. It was only right for Bobby Singer to be there at the end, having been such a pivotal character in the brothers lives.

Frieda continues chatting about random things while finishing his makeup. A PA stuck his head in calling Jensen to the set. He stepped out of the trailer and smiled seeing his Baby sitting near the building being used as the exterior of Harvelle's Roadhouse.

***

September 12th

“Jen, I’m taking out the bags,” Jared calls out seconds before the apartment's front door shut.

Jensen was doing one last check around the place for any forgotten anything. Satisfied, he walked into the living room containing neatly marked boxes ready to be shipped back to Texas, relieved they had downsized from the big house Jared had years ago.

He stopped to gaze out the picture window when a pair of strong arms wrapped around his waist, molding his back to the muscular chest of his mate, who rested his chin on his shoulder quietly saying, “I’m gonna miss this view.” Jensen hummed in agreement tipping his head back as Jared nuzzled his neck.

“We need to get going if we’re gonna make Seattle by seven,” Jared softly muttered as they’d stood there for a few heartbeats longer before releasing him. They walked to the door and Jensen turned once more to gaze out the window at the view of Vancouver.

***

September 21st

“This has been a great trip but man, I’ll be glad to be in our own bed tonight.” Jared remarks as they drive past a green highway sign saying Austin 312.

“Can’t wait,” Jensen drowsily says having not slept much the last couple days. They had decided to road trip it back to Texas, stopping at a few places they had wanted to visit for awhile.

Jared somehow managed to finagal, okay so his mind numbing blow job combined with those lethal long fingers that always makes Jensen agree to anything got him a couple extra days in southern Colorado.

Jensen enjoyed the beautiful scenery and hiking in the mountains but hated camping out. Well, it wasn’t technically roughing it the way Jared liked but still.. a frigging yurt in late September?

Oy vay, what he did for love.

The sound of Jared singing along to some classic country song on the radio as he drove finally put Jensen completely out.

***

October 23rd

Turning from the open fridge with a puzzled expression on his face, Jared senses the same vague something he’s felt God knows how many times in the last couple months.

Shutting the door he walked over to the island counter where his husband was seated pushing his unfinished dinner around on his plate.

“Jen, what’s going on? Are you worried about the implantation? Dr. Rodgers said the embryos were healthy and optimistic the surrogate took this first try.”

What Jensen wants to ask, the question that’s plagued him since that day in August choosing their Omega surrogate...how the hell does he phrase it without upsetting Jared?

“Did you choose her because you knew she’d be the one I’d pick?”

Jensen slapped his hand over his mouth, eyes wide, disbelieving he blurted it out.

Jared worked to find a response squeaking an actual squeak before he could get control over his vocals, “That’s what I’ve been sensing!” Gripping the edge of the counter with his big hands, “Are you seriously going there again? I was honest about our interactions when I realized she was the one I knocked down at the clinic and FYI, you weren’t exactly in full control either Alpha!”

Jensen clenched his teeth at being reminded his inner need to be in control at all times slipped.

“I’ve racked my brains trying to figure it out how to ask something like that without upsetting you!” Jensen yells getting up and pacing around the kitchen.

Jared huffed, “So all this time instead of talking to me, you’ve conjured up some..”

“For the last two years I’ve gotten the sense you feel somethings missing, kept telling myself it’s your unfulfilled biology. But ever since you meet that Omega you’ve been.. I can’t explain it and now I’m second guessing our marriage Ja....” his rant abruptly cut off.

Jared’s eyes were glowing red, pinning him with an eerie wolf expression, the intensity disconcerting him. “I chose you, my husband, my soulmate, my everything!“ The words should have been reassuring but Jared’s voice was pitiless, something Jensen's never heard pass from his lips before.

Jared took a deep breath and with normalcy returning said, “I love you Jensen and I thought you understood, for me, in my mind, both of us having pups with the same donor means my offspring won’t be seen as just step relations but will grow up having strong familial ties with JJ, Arrow and Zeppelin.”

Jensen started to speak when a low, reverberating growl from Jared warning him not to interrupt.

“I consciously listened to my inner wolf when it came to choosing the person who is biologically the Om of our children and I,” Jared emphasizes tapping his chest with his long index finger, ”have no regrets but apparently you do.” Taking a deep breath Jared drops a non sequitur, ”The dogs need to be fed,” and walks away.

At the sound of Jared’s SUV leaving Jensen’s legs gave out and he drops to the floor curling up in a fetal position wrapping his arms over his head. Arlo and Koda laid down, one on each side, cocooning him between them.

***

Thanksgiving

“The kids are in a tryptophan coma,” Jensen announces as he walks in through the kitchen's back door. He had followed Danneel home afterwards helping get JJ and the twins cleaned up and put to bed, “they’ll be out till Monday.”

“Good, cause I’m dead on my feet,” Jared replies yawning while loading the dishwasher. It had been their turn to host the holiday with Danneel, the kids, Clif, Jared’s siblings and their broods.

“I told you to wait and I’d help finish the cleanup when I got back.” Jensen said as Jared started the machine.

“I figured you’d wanna stay awhile and be too tired and I didn’t want to deal with it tomorrow. All that’s left is to put the trash and recycling out, could you grab it?”

“On it,” Jensen picked up the bags walking around the side of the house dropping them into their designated receptacles.

When he came back in Jared was switching off the lights downstairs. They made their way up to the bedroom taking turns in the bath getting ready for bed.

Jensen was sitting with his back against the headboard checking his messages when Jared drops heavily next to him, “I plan on sleeping for the next three days.” He mutters resting his head against Jensen’s shoulder.

“Sounds good to me babe, I’m glad we didn’t schedule anything extra this weekend, be nice to spend some time alone.” He finishes wiggling his eyebrows.

“Hmm, do you remember last year's Thanksgiving?”

Jared closed the kitchen pantries door, pushing Jensen against it seductively lowering his fox slanted eyes huskily whispering, “I’m so fucking horny I need my dick you now.”

“Dude, we’re re in my sisters...“

“..you’ll have to be quiet,” Jared dove in for a deep, dirty kiss, grinding against Jensen until he was begging to be fucked.

“You’re the one who got us busted..oh fuck Jensen..so fucking tight..fuck..not gonna last..then later I get Mac saying it sounded like your dick...”

“Okay..buuut,” Jared tilts his head slowly running his tongue up the column of Jensen’s neck, “you gotta admit,” hand slipping under his sleep shirt, “our sex life,” long fingers tip toe up the smooth, freckled chest, pads teasing his left nipple as Jared nibbles on his earlobe, ”is never boring.”

Jensen groans, dropping his arm, still clinching the phone, tipping his head to expose more of his neck to Jared’s wondrous lips, enjoying the scratch of his short beard.

“I thought you were sleeping the next three days.”

Jared answers by removing his hand and straddling his husband's thick thighs taken the phone placing it on the nightstand and starts nibbling along the other side of Jensen’s sensitive neck, working his way to his slightly raised claim mark flattening his tongue licking the ultra sensitive spot that always drives his Alpha wild.

Jensen slides his hands up Jared’s back finding a grip in his shortened hair, unhappy about how much he’s cut off for Walker, unable to tangle his thick fingers into the soft tresses like he used to.

Finding a purchase he pulls hard making Jared groan at the pleasurable sensation tips his head back till it’s the perfect angle for Jensen to run his tongue across those candy pink lips, teasing them open to grant him access, continues teasing, alternating between caressing Jared’s tongue with his and sucking on his lips.

Moaning, Jared rocks his hips seeking friction, breaks their kissing long enough to work Jensen's sleep shirt off. They end up wrestling a few moments before Jared tosses it as Jensen’s lips attack his more desperately.

Tapping Jared’s thigh, Jensen rolls them kneeling between sleep pant clad legs watching as Jared reaches up gripping the strategically placed bar in their custom made headboard with both hands, his pecs flexing in anticipation of what’s to come.

Not breaking eye contact Jensen bends forward, his lips a hair's breadth from Jared’s, slowly slides backwards hovering, caressing the acres of golden skin beneath him with only his warm breath, pausing to hook his fingers in the pants waistband and pulling them with him as he continues journeying south.

Slowly making his way back north he leaves wet, open mouth kisses along the now naked, extra long, muscular legs he loves, sucking on the insides of both thighs, nipping hard enough to leave marks before arriving at his designated stop.

He hasn’t even touched Jared’s beautiful cock yet it’s fully engorged, resting against his flat stomach vigorously leaking precome. Jensen dips his tongue into his bellybutton lapping up the liquid collecting in it, cause fuck, he’s loves how more sweet than salty Jared’s always tasted.

Hips rolling Jared rubs his cockhead against Jensen’s tongue and he kitten licks the dribbling slit before resting his head on Jared’s lower stomach and wrapping his lips around the velvety head.

Shifting his grip on the bar Jared’s makes nonsensical noises, toes curling at the mixed sensations of his mates silky beard tickling his lower regions while sucking on his cockhead, alternates swirling his tongue over the nerves underneath and teasing his slit sending spikes of pleasure radiating through him.

After all these years Jared’s still amazed at Jensen’s knowledge of his body, his ability to keep him on the edge of not enough for however long he’s in the mood to play.

“..pleease...need to cum...got to..so fucking..uhh..Alpha!”

Raising up on a forearm Jensen starts bobbing up and down his shaft, pausing briefly on each downward pass, working his throat open to take Jared further in until he’s nose deep in dark, trimmed pubic hair. Holding his mate's substantial cock in his throat swallows around him as Jared’s knot inflates, pushing his jaws apart till it’s too much.

Letting the knot slip out from between his plump lips Jensen wraps a hand firmly around it and starts vigorously bobbing drawing out a litany of obscene noises, feels Jared’s balls drawing up and backs off swallowing the warm, thick, spurting liquid.

Leisurely licking until Jared hissed, too sensitive for anymore kisses the tip one last time crawls back up the bed searching for his pillow and face plants on it.

“Dude, you’ve finally sucked out my last brain cell.”

Purring deep in his chest, Jensen gives Jared a self satisfied smirk, who mutters, “wasn’t trying to give you a bigger head.”

Rolling onto his side Jensen displays his turgid cock needing attention, “okay, he’s the bigger head,” Jared concedes reaching down running his fingers over the weeping tip, wetting them with precome spreads it over the shaft firmly fisting Jensen’s pulsing thickness, moving his hand up and down excruciatingly slowly.

“So,” his honeyed voice lowers an octave watching Jensen dissolving into a breathy mess, “how does he want me?”

Jensen opens his mouth to answer when a phone rings. Glaring over his shoulder, “not mine,” he growls. Still stroking him Jared stretches for his, “it’s the clinic..hello? Dr. Rodgers, hey, how are you sir?” He lets go sitting up against the headboard.

Why’s the doctor calling them at such an odd time, on a holiday no less?

Jared's brow wrinkles before he turns to Jensen, eyes sparkling breaks out his wondrous smile making his dimples pop.

“Jensen, she’s pregnant!”

Jared's practically bouncing on their bed like he’s on a massive sugar high discussing what comes next with the doctor. Jensen feels his erection rapidly diminishing, gets up heading into the bath and turns on the shower.

Climbing in he crosses his arms against the far wall, resting his forehead against them closing his eyes as hot water bounces across his broad shoulders.

Jensen knows he should be elated. Jared’s getting the pup (or pups) he’s desired for years and the possibility of being a father himself again. Instead, his heart seized up in conflict.

***

After that god awful argument in October he ended up at Josh’s, who confessed his mate and him were seeing a counselor because they were having marital issues too. Spending the night drinking and reflecting Jensen came home the next morning to a still angry Jared cause he didn’t know where the fuck his husband was all night.

Filling him in about his talk with Josh, Jared seemed somewhat mollified but a few nights later...

Walker star Jared Padalecki arrested near the one year anniversary of Stereotype bar altercation.

· Jared Padalecki was arrested once again in Austin, Texas, early Sunday morning on one count of public intoxication…

When he got released Jared sat Jensen down pleading with him to sit in on his next therapy session, saying they couldn’t keep going on like this, it was tearing him apart.

He wants..no..needs Jensen to completely open up, stop trying to protect him and discuss what’s going on in his head, what he’s really feeling.

Jared’s therapist started off informing both of them he wasn’t a marriage counselor but after a brief conversation with Jared knew the situation was having a detrimental impact on his mental health.

He listened to them separately, then together, about their observations and thoughts on each other’s behaviors came up with a hypothesis:

Since Jared’s last depressive episode, his random thoughts/emotions were feeding more into Jensen’s deep seated insecurities over his mate’s open, flirtatious personality and how he perceives others attraction/interactions to him.

And now Jared’s inner wolf is demonstrating an intense attraction to an Omega, something never encountered before with past preferences in Beta females, with this new dynamic Jensen didn’t know how to handle it.

Jensen opened and closed his mouth several times sputtering before saying this was complete bullshit and stormed out.

***

Lost in thought Jensen didn’t notice his husband stepping into the open shower stall until his considerable frame was blocking the water, Jared’s voice drew him out of his musings.

“I can hear you thinking clear in the other room.”

Cupped Jensen’s face between his large hands he gazed into those spring colored eyes that captured his heart the moment he looked into them years ago, “Hey, no matter what happens next, we’re good.”

***

December 16th

Jared was sitting in his chair chatting with Lindsey and Keegan while the crew was finishing setting up for the next scene when his phone rang. He didn’t recognize the number but excuses himself, stepping away for some privacy answering.

“Hey, everything okay?” Lindsay asked after he hung up, concerned by the visible tension rolling off the big Alpha.

“Umm..I don’t know, I need to make another call...” Jared said, waving the phone, “yeah, let us know if you need anything.” Keegan says and Jared nodded his thanks.

The phone rang three times, “Hey Clif, I need a favor.”

***

December 19th

Clif pulled the SUV into the parking lot, “Are you sure this is the right place?” Jared inquires looking around taking in the old motel located in a very questionable area of Austin.

“This is the name the guy mentioned.” Clif replied, getting out heading for the office. Couple minutes later he climbed back in, “the manager said the laundry out back.” He started the vehicle and drove to the rear of the property.

Clif got out again and knocked on the building's door. An older Hispanic woman answered engaging him in a brief conversation before stepping back inside.

Clif nodded to Jared and as he got out of the vehicle that piquant scent hit him seconds before the door reopened. The person he’d spent days searching for froze in the doorway upon seeing him.

***

December 22nd

Jensen, claiming out of the Uber, grabbed his bag thanking the driver, walked up the front stone pathway relieved to be home from L. A. after a hopefully final costume fitting for his new role as Soldier Boy, this flying back and forth every week for the last couple months had gotten old real quick and he was looking forward to enjoying the holidays at home.

Jared’s parents were coming tomorrow and staying for a few days as was Danneel and their pups. Josh said he was still planning on dropping by a few hours Christmas Day since he and Mac were scheduled to spend most of the holiday with their parents.

Jensen felt that mixture of anger and sadness he got thinking about his parents. He was raised in their church and though he never believed in it, respected their choice.

Too bad they couldn’t reciprocate.

***

Alan and Donna belonged to an ultra conservative church. The foundations of child rearing was to be found in the good book and in the Ackles household-spare the rod, spoil the child-was gospel.

When they were growing up neither parent was the physically or emotionally demonstrative type, only showing their offspring a reserved affection, especially in public.

The saving grace was their Beta nanny who gave them unconditional love, especially Jensen, who was shy as a child already knowing he was different from his siblings. She instilled the confidence in them to discover who they truly were inside and encouraged Jensen to come out before moving to California.

Shortly after graduating he told his family about his bisexuality and his boyfriend was moving to L.A. with him.

Alan and Donna tried to stop him. He was to go to their pastor and confess his transgressions, beg forgiveness for his sins against the church and its teachings, threatening to pull the agreed upon six month financial support while he auditioned for parts before going to college if it didn’t work out.

Jensen refused, packed up, took his boyfriend and left. He got his first break shortly after and quickly learned Hollywood didn’t care what his sexual orientation was as long as he kept it behind closed doors.

His management agency decided early on to promote Jensen as the good guy/boyfriend type. They also set him up on dates to events with many up and coming female artists of the time. He had no problem playing along when he wasn’t actually dating a woman.

His big break came on the CW. After co-starring in a couple series for the network he was offered the chance to be a lead in a new series created by Eric Kripke.

At the audition he met former Gilmore Girls heartthrob, Jared Padalecki, flashing his infectious smile, dimples for days and the most beautiful, incredible color shifting eyes Jensen’s ever seen, he was done for.

Jensen might not have his biological parents in his life anymore but his now in-laws, the complete opposite of the Ackles, helped fill that hole.

It’s easy to see where Jared’s personality comes from. His Om, Sherrie, is overly affectionate, excessively physical and verbal with everyone she considers family, biological or not.

The first time he accompanied Jared home on a holiday break Jensen was literally bowled over by the five foot nothing Omega and instantly became part of her brood.

***

Barley getting the front door open Jensen is hit with the piquant scent of orange blossoms and spices he couldn’t quite place.

Dropping his carry-on bag in the foyer he followed the scent further into the house. Arlo sat up near the large picture windows facing the backyard where he and Koda are napping and gets up coming over to greet him.

“Hey big guy, where’s daddy at?” Jensen asked rubbing around his ears like he liked having thought Jared would still be on set before the holiday break.

He heads towards the kitchen where the scent seems to be coming from, “Babe is that coffee shop back open, what’s it called, has those sweet rolls you're obsessed with..” he abruptly stopped and blinks not believing what was in front of him.

More accurately who was in front of him.

“Babe is in his office and dinner will be ready in twenty.”

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?”

***

tbc

GFA: @babypink224221 @waywardjoy @let-me-luve-you @all-4-wincest

SPN: @donnaintx @lyarr24

Sam/Jared @idreamofplaid

Dean/Jensen: @flamencodiva

#jensen ackles #jared padalecki #j2 husbands #winchesterandbeyondbingo #alpha!jensen ackles #alpha!jared padalecki #alpha!jensenxalpha!jaredxomega!ofc #j2 au #j2 fanfic #j2alphas #a/b/o ofc #spn #supernatural #slow burn

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