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countthelions · 18 hours ago

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How to Give a Knight a Punk Haircut

"I wonder if I should set a timer next time," Tanguish mused aloud. No one was there to hear him anyways. "Maybe it'll help me figure out what state you'll return in."

Well, he could always count on Helsknight being sweaty, and probably still swinging; sword or fist, it didn't seem to matter. Whenever he was pulled away by his hermit's connection, they were still more interested in decking each other in the face than doing literally anything else.

"Or give me time to ... uh, figure something out. How to help." This wasn't helping his own problem as much as he hoped it would. The house was so empty without Helsknight. Making noise, according to others, was supposed to help with the waiting. He didn't like waiting. His claws were too loud where they were tapping together in his lap. His tail kept curling and uncurling around his leg. He felt an itch. Not like he'd been abandoned - not really, it wasn't really like that - but like he needed to do something. He had cleaned up the half-finished lunch. He wasn't really hungry without someone to eat it with. He had wiped the table down. He had sat on the couch.

He had tried talking out loud. He used to be really good at holding a conversation with himself. But, looking around the room and seeing all the marks of two people occupying the cramped space, his mind couldn't let go of the idea there was supposed to be someone else here.

I wish they just got along, he thought sourly, then repeated it. "I wish you two got along. It would make my life much less stressful."

They couldn't hear him of course. With a small sigh, Tanguish stared down at the floor. He needed something to do. ... He could... count the bricks or something. Maybe it'll lull him into some sort of nap and when he woke, Helsknight would be back, he could fret, Helsknight could grumble, they'd make dinner, and everything would go back to normal. He traced the edges of the room. It wasn't the worst idea. There were probably better ideas, but - he shook his head. It was something.

One, two, oh that one's kinda lopsided, I wonder if it's the one I keep tripping on - uh, three.

The universe, in all its humor, picked that moment to dump Helsknight back into Hels. Him, and an ungodly amount of water, with an horrible screech from the knight's armor as it all clinked and clattered against itself and the chair he'd fallen into. Tanguish sprung to his feet.

"Fuckin' hels." Helsknight immediately cursed, groaning where he was all piled up. That was a good sign. Complaining meant he wasn't hurt, probably. Careful through the puddles, Tanguish made it over just in time for Helsknight to knock him right over with a wet pile of cloak.

"Ack-!"

"Oh Tanguish - hold on -"

Everything tasted wet, and miserable. And a bit like burnt hair. What was that last part again?

"Did something happen to uh," Tanguish only started the sentence before Helsknight took stock of himself with almost comically frantic pats of his person - like he'd lost something, or as if they had been fighting over something in particular - then found what he was looking for. He cursed about that then fled to the bathroom. The door slammed behind him. Tanguish blinked in the abrupt quiet. Okay? That was weird.

"Are you okay?" He called to the other room.

There was a muffled something that he supposed would work as a 'fine' by Helsknight standards. Tanguish blinked owlishly at all the water. What happened?

Maybe they fell off a bridge or something, he thought, looking around the room for something to mop the water up with. Quickly, because it was already starting to form ice crystals underneath his tail. If it all froze, even in the Hels heat, it would take ages to melt away. They had only a few kitchen towels. They'd need the bathroom ones too. Tanguish turned his attention towards it. The bathroom where... Helsknight had definitely locked himself inside.

Oh, he's cursing now. Tanguish didn't know there were that many gods and saints and other deities out there in the world, but Helsknight was cursing the lot of them like he found the full list and was going down it line by line. It was impressive, in some odd sort of way. There were more than just the names though. From what he could hear beneath the clank of armor being stripped off and dried, it sounded like something to do with fire, and heat, and how stupid the whole thing was - well I could've told you that part - and something something. All this meant was Tanguish would have to wait for the towels, and wait for Helsknight to remember Tanguish was here, and come get his help.

With a sigh, Tanguish got back to his feet, carefully climbing over the back of the couch to avoid the water spill, before sitting back down by the bathroom door. Idle hands followed the broken seams on his tail's spikes, picking off the small ice crystals that had already started to form from just that little water contact.

"It's probably not that bad," he finally piped up when Helsknight had picked on Herobrine to curse to next. It earns him a growl in response, which was enough of a warning to jump out of the way when his friend slammed open the door in dramatic frustration.

"What kind of fool picks a fight in a geyser field?!" is snapped his way, and Tanguish does, what he thinks, is an admirable job not immediately looking at whatever Helsknight was upset over with his appearance.

"Well, uh, you did." He answers instead, prepared for the blazing red glare to pin him down. All the spikes on his spine however, don't get the memo and twitch as if ready to help him be more aerodynamic in case his friend decides to chuck him out the window. But he doesn't do that. Helsknight only throws his hands up, storming to the other side of the small apartment to increase his range of pacing. That's permission enough for Tanguish to take the chance to see what happened.

They must've fallen into a geyser at some point - well duh. The water was a dead giveaway. Helsknight had stripped everything wet off his person, leaving him in just his thick pants. With all the skin visible, there was clearly no extra scars or wounds. Some bruises, but those would heal. No, what seemed to be the issue was his hair. Somehow it had gotten caught up in the heat, and like the straw of its color, burnt all up one side. It was all awkward spikes and shapes, and black as blackstone. It looked like he had met the wrong side of a ghast fireball. Then skidded on the ground to tangle up all the strands into an ugly blackened blob. Then -

"You don't need to make that face." Helsknight huffs, breaking Tanguish out of his staring. Oops.

"It's um unique." He offered, joining Helsknight in the main room. "Definitely a little, uh -"

"It's stupid."

"Yeah, alright it kind of is." He concedes. That's the point Helsknight wanted him to get to, so Tanguish could give him that at least. With a tilt of his head, Tanguish squinted until the burnt parts faded into the dark brick of the walls. Huh. With a little bit of -

"I do not want to hear wherever that thought is going."

"I didn't even say anything!" Tanguish complained. It was a good idea.

Helsknight only gave him the driest of stares.

"I think you could make it work."

He squinted further. That normally would be enough for Tanguish to be cowed, to drop the subject until Helsknight was ready to pick it up back up again. But, Helsknight had returned and dumped whatever water had gotten caught up in his armor all over the room when he reappeared, and then immediately sulked off to the bathroom instead of helping clean up the mess, so maybe Tanguish was annoyed with having to do that alone.

And this was a good idea.

"It'd make you look different from Wels," He offered. That lessened the stare. Helsknight glared over to the walls instead, hands clenching and unclenching, as if he was trying to not touch his hair and was barely succeeding.

"Fine." Helsknight bit out, grumbling under his breath but staying put. He looked awkwardly off to the side, managing to tilt the whole burnt side away as Tanguish scurried around the kitchen to get what he needed. Scissors obviously, which he was surprised to actually find in their drawers, and a knife, which he also finds, though it's an unfamiliar thing. Then, he turns to Helsknight. Who was still just standing there, looking all and all like a wet dog. But willing enough to try this idea. Tanguish knew he couldn't let him down. There just had to be a good way to do this.

Should he sit in a chair, then Tanguish could - no Helsknight was still too tall for that. He could stand on the table maybe - or - well, this might be the only option - "Here, sit uh, on the ground. You're too tall." That final sentence kept Helsknight from doing anything else but puffing up like a frustrated bird, before he put a hand on the table and leveraged himself down with an annoyed sigh.

"Don't cut me." was his final warning, before Tanguish's fingers met his hair.

Up close, the burnt parts looked even more uncomfortable than he thought. He tried sorting out the worst of the strands, wincing for the knight whenever they pulled on his scalp. Everything just looked angry, and unhappy. Even the hair that hadn't gotten burnt looked brittle and unkempt, wind-blown. It all snagged on his claws uncomfortably, but it needed to be done, no matter what small noises Helsknight huffed and grumbled.

"I thought you were going to cut my hair." Helsknight's low rumble broke Tanguish out of his thoughts.

"I am, I'm just, sorting it all first." He explained. "Does it hurt?" I'm trying to not pull but there's uh, a lot of knots of stuff."

"No, it's fine."

[pose in mind: tanguish sitting in the chair with helsknight sitting on the ground in front of him. he's leaning against tanguish's leg, one arm kinda curled around that same leg in idle placement, just to be somewhere that'll be out of the way. the lean lets tanguish tilt helsknight's head further to the side, to really cut down all of the burnt parts. they idly chatter as tanguish works on this part]

"Have you done this before?" Helsknight asked.

"Kinda," Tanguish says, tongue out in concentration as he clips around Helsknight's ear. "I helped Tango clean up for some sort of hermit party, uhm, when he, well, after one test of Decked Out, he had gotten a bit of frost bite from falling into his trapped pool and something about whatever charm was in that pool made his dungeon master enchantments go haywire. It grew his hair really fast for a few days and he kept just hacking it off with whatever sharp thing he had close by when I wasn't around."

Helsknight chuckled at the imagery, a loose sound. "I bet that looked stupid."

"It did. All the cut pieces made for a really funny braid, but at least putting it up like that got him to stop cutting it with his axe." It was dangerous too, to try cutting hair like that, wasn't it? What they were doing here was smarter at the very least. These were sort of good scissors, didn't snag when Tanguish crunched them over the burnt parts. Next he knew was the knife. It wouldn't be shaved all flat (though he'd seen that look before, somewhere in his mind's eye. Cleo maybe?) but at least with the knife he figured it could make it all be the same length.

He focused there next, warning Helsknight too. It was a blade, something sharper than the scissors - definitely sharper because it needed to - it would be close to Helsknight's head - but he wouldn't drop it or cut his ear (more than the chips that were already taken out of it from fighting) and maybe this -

"I trust you." His friend sighed, resting his cheek back onto Tanguish's knee, as if to show the permission granted. "You've gotten this far already."

Tanguish carefully held the knife, examining its edge.

"Where'd this one come from," he asked, before his nerves got to him. Maybe hearing Helsknight talk would help him calm down too.

"Probably the same place as the rest of them. EB likes to share, or brag," Helsknight chuckled. His words ramble off at that point, questioning what it looked like - thin, with some small copper swirls down its handle - and telling stories of the times it could be from. Maybe a bet, or chucked at Helsknight during a collective fight. Or stolen, probably stolen, if it had been just thrown at his head.

"So you stole it. Isn't that against your tenants?"

Helsknight shrugged, "he didn't ask for it back."

Tanguish inhaled quietly, and found his hands didn't shake quite as much as he thought they would. He smoothed a thumb over the rough cuts he'd done, flattening it all in one way, away from anything that would bleed - his neck, his ear, primarily - then followed that same path with the knife. It was much sharper than the scissors, and slid through the blackened parts like they weren't even there. What was left beneath was the soft fluff of unburnt hair, prickling up against Tanguish's fingers where he scruffed through the new length.

Just like he thought, with the one side long, and the other short, it was going to look very cool, very unique. Hopefully Helsknight liked it, when he was done. well, if he didn't, they could revisit that potion idea. Maybe whatever enchantments Tango had used for his dungeon look could be replicated. Tanguish would have to figure out some sort of lie though... he had a feeling Tango wouldn't be as keen to share it with Helsknight. But -

"It feels like you're done." Helsknight broke him out of his thoughts.

"Are you getting restless?" Tanguish was ready to tease.

"The floor isn't comfortable." He says, shifting as if his foot or something had fallen asleep. Which it very well could have done. Tanguish had no idea how long they'd been doing this. He sat back, hands moving through all the short sections to make sure there were no long pieces hiding - then once that felt right, he made sure all the longer pieces left were okay. A few he had trimmed up too. He didn't need to. Maybe it was just nice to be able to shift the knight's head wherever he wanted it to go. Just for a bit, to have that physical proof of that trust. The examination had to come to an end though. There was nothing left to check, and Helsknight was getting antsy.

"Yeah, I'm done." Tanguish said, releasing the knight from his grasp.

[Helsknight checks first by feeling it (while his foot wakes up) then off to the bathroom where their mirror is. Overcome with the sudden worry that he messed it all up, Tanguish doesn't follow, brushing off the bits of hair that got stuck to his pants before collecting all the pieces from the floor into a pile with the towel he had mopped up some of the water with.

"You did good." Turns out yeah, Helsknight doesn't mind it.

Tanguish looks over. Helsknight has his back to him - still looking in the mirror - tilting his head, brushing the free hair around, touching the shaved sections with scarred pads. There's little flecks, like stars, that glimmer through the shorter section. Oh -

"You said your hair used to be lighter, right?" Tanguish leans on the doorway, catching Helsknight's eyes in his reflection. He looks just as surprised as Tanguish does to see the old color poke through.

- some jests about wondering if doing it all would make it grow back, HK scowls at the idea of having to regrow it all. The half-shaved look make the expression even tougher, which the knight is lowkey delighted about. Maybe it'll keep people from bugging him on the streets (doubt). They wonder if shaving any of Tanguish's hair would make little puffs of fire grow in around the ice.

- Eh, touching it, it's not as soft, and definitely more made of ice than anything. It'd probably just make his scalp shiny, like that one time the fountain froze over.

- Helsknight's belly rumbles, reminding him what was interrupted by Wels. They get everything cleaned up, more towels down on the floor (which definitely started to ice over in one section (tanguish accidentally had his tail there oops), making some quick second lunch as they chat about hair

- It doesn't take long to fill the space back up with the noise of two people, as it should be.

#THE END IS NOT FULLY WRITTEN OUT #it is complete(tm) but the narrator voice dissolves #everything else is done #this was technically the piece i was talking about #then discovered oh. i literally had The Reaction left to write.#so s/o to hen this is for you <3 #redstone and skulk #helsknight #hermitcraft #lionwrites #if yall really like this i'll archive it too on ao3 #it feels uH very different from the main fic. more like one of the ficlets so here it goes

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tickly-trashcan · 2 years ago

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hey guys haha i have a kind of announcement thingy... it is not sunshine and rainbows unfortunately orz

(there will be a tl;dr at the end if yall dont wanna read all my random thoughts lol)

i am going to just be completely honest. i don't really want to write anymore. at least not on this blog...

i know that i have requests but i really have been struggling with... everything!! i just graduated and that was like a punch in the face because everything that i've been feeling for months really became... real??? like i thought i had just been hallucinating all the really bad feelings but it was real!!!

i've been lacking motivation with writing, and every time ive sat down to write i feel bad and terrible and it really is an awful feeling and i'm sick of it... and even when im not writing my silly goof tickle fics those feelings somehow creep into my brain and it's been making it really hard for me to write anything that ive enjoyed.

so... i think what im trying to say... is that i'm going to stop writing for this blog. it isn't because of anyone, i think that its just because ive been doing it for so long that it's become a genuine stresser for me, and i think that by separating myself from this blog, it'll be much easier for me to... exist!

i could go into a LOT more details about how ive been feeling but i really dont want to go too crazy since i am... on the internet lolol but i think that it would be better for me to not write anymore.

so what does this mean for this blog???

i'm not going to be deactivating this blog, and i'll make sure that all my links and such are up to date before i officially leave. I'm not going to like... sign out, and i'll still be active every now and then, but if you'd like to get my discord for any contact, please let me know! i'm not super active on discord right now either though, so please be aware of that lol

this blog is essentially going to be an archive. i'll go through my masterlists and update all of my other important posts, but otherwise, there probably won't be any new content from me.

I probably won't be active on ao3 either, but if you'd like to give my old works a peek as well, you're more than welcome. the link is right here if you're interested!

there's still some stuff that i'm working out as well in my personal life and in cleaning up some loose ends on this blog, so if i take a little bit in responding to anyone, that's why. i'm sorry this is kind of a bleak little post, but i really can't do it anymore.

to everyone who sent in a request in the last round of prompts, thank you so much because it really did make me excited, but i'm not going to be able to complete them... i really appreciate every single one of you, and i hope you can forgive me orz

TL;DR

I'm really really tired and have had a lot of negative feelings for a really long time, and I think that leaving this blog in terms of writing will be best for me in the long run. There will be no more new content from me, but I might still remain active with communications if I can. I'll be updating my blog until it's good enough to leave, and then I will no longer be a content creator.

(sorry that tl;dr sounds more negative than the rest of my post LOL i'm really fine i just... i need to rip the bandaid off and just... be done)

#announcement #important #update #sorry i was really negative in this my bad

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oldworldwidgets · 1 year ago

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Summary:

Charm's plan works like, well, a charm. Deacon accidentally reminisces.

oooohhhh boy i think yall r gonna like this one. we've begun to really Get In There with deacon...... i'll let u see what i mean by that. i hope u can still enjoy through the pain :P if ur willing, too, i'd really like feedback on this chapter too if u wanna drop a comment on ao3/here or hit me with some tags!!! but ofc, never feel obligated <3 thank u sm for reading and coming along to vault 81 with me.

and if you wanna start from the beginning, i got u!!! <3

#fallout 4 #deacon #oldworld.fic #deacon fallout 4 #fo4 #fallout 4 companions #fallout companions #fallout fanfic #deacon fallout 4 fanfic

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ao3feed-piltovers-finest · 15 days ago

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Sugar On Your Lips, Coffee On My Tongue

by AmbiguousWren

Inspired by fanart seen hereby Cliazia

Caitlyn, trying to strike out on her own and shake her connection to the Kiramman name, opens a coffee shop in the sub-neighborhood of Zaun.

Little does she realize Vi, a long time resident, is working at a long time establishment called The Last Drop just across the street.

What happens when paths cross? Read and find out

(look I'm really bad at summaries and I really want to start getting this posted for yall. So maybe I'll update it. I'm having a blast writing it tho so I hope you'll like it too!)

Words: 2469, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 5 of Arcane Fics

Fandoms: Arcane: League of Legends (Cartoon 2021)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/F

Characters: Caitlyn (League of Legends), Vi (League of Legends), Jinx (League of Legends)

Relationships: Caitlyn/Vi (League of Legends)

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Bar/Pub, probably, i legit don't know how to tag this right now cuz its kinda just vibes, Inspired by Fanart, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Meetings, Strangers to Lovers, Useless Lesbians, Eventual Smut, Fluff

Read on A03. from AO3 works tagged ‘Caitlyn/Vi (League of Legends)’

#ao3feed-piltovers-finest #a03feed-piltovers-finest #caitvi #arcane (league of legends) fanfiction

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rolandtowen · 4 years ago

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three times Zuko comes into the Jasmine Dragon coffee shop, and one time Sokka leaves with him. Set in the Neurodiverse Zukka AU, but can read as a standalone.

*banging pots and pans together* "Come over here and get yall Neurodiverse Zukka!"

Read it on Ao3 or under the cut!

TW: discussions of skin picking and implied child abuse

When Sokka pulls into the parking lot of the Jasmine Dragon, he is unsurprisingly the first car there. Being a freshman in town means getting the worst pick of shifts at local businesses. Sokka was hired on to work the opening shift, which means he wakes up at the ungodly hour of 5am to open the shop before the first round of sleep-deprived college students comes in. The pay isn't bad, Mr. Iroh is an incredibly fair man,

The bell on the door jingles on his way in, and he flips several light switches on, watching as the coffee shop slowly comes to life. He busies himself with getting the beans for the day grinding, pulling his first shot and dialing in the expresso. When he takes a sip, the espresso is spot on for the day, which is a relief. Having to make adjustments as customers start filing in is a nightmare.

Today's brew is floral and citrusy, so he decides to make himself and iced lavender latte - with oat milk, of course, because he's gotta do it for the gays - and he spends the next 20 minutes setting out pastries and fiddling with the display cases, making everything look perfect.

At 6am sharp, Sokka unlocks the front door and flips their sign to open, before retreating behind the bar to nurse his latte. Not even five minutes later, the door bell jingles, and Sokka sees a flash of dark hair, face obscured by a pile of textbooks and binders. The figure runs into one table, and then another, and Sokka is rushing out from behind the counter. He gets there just before textbooks go toppling everywhere, his hands taking a firm hold of the top bundle. As he pulls the books into his arms, he sees the face behind them.

Breathtaking golden eyes.

And.. a massive burn scar.

"Hi!" Sokka says, "I'm the barista on shift today - my name's Sokka." He would reach his hand for the other man to shake, but for the stack of textbooks in them.

Golden Eyes smiles.

"I'm Zuko, Zuko Sozin," he says, setting his remaining textbooks on the table by his side. Sokka follows suit.

"Hey, I think I've seen you before - are you taking Piandao's Intro to Biology class?"

"Uh, yeah - yeah! You sit a few rows in front of me." Zuko laughs. "Your doodles are uh, something alright."

Sokka knocks him good-naturedly on the shoulder. "I gotta keep my hands busy for my brain to focus." He looks down at the stack of books on the table. "What on earth are you studying, to have that many books?"

"Uh, Biology and Chemistry double-major, Pre-Med track." Sokka's eyes widen. "It's really not that much! I got a bunch of stuff out of the way with AP credits."

Sokka raises an eyebrow.

"Okay, it is a lot - but I'm really passionate about it. I want to be a doctor."

"Well, Dr. Sozin, what can I get started for you today?"

"Can I get a iced matcha, with a lot of honey?"

Sokka raises his other eyebrow. "A doctor with a sweet tooth?"

"Kind of?"

"Don't worry, I won't rat you out to your dentist. An iced matcha with extra honey?" Zuko nods and Sokka smiles. "You got it, doc."

ii.

Sokka falls into a routine at the Jasmine Dragon. He opens the shop every morning, and every morning of the fall semester so far, Zuko Sozin comes in at precisely 6:05am. Zuko will order an iced matcha with honey, and sits at a table by the window with his laptop and at least two textbooks open at all times. Then, at 11:50am - Sokka guess he has a class that starts at noon - Zuko leaves the shop, always making sure to throw his spare change into Sokka's tip jar.

He's so beautiful.

On a slow day, Sokka comes out from behind the safety of the counter and works up the courage to ask Zuko if he can study with him. Zuko looks shocked at first, but his lips quirk up in a smile as he gestures for Sokka to sit in the chair across from him, moving his textbooks to make room for Sokka's one book and laptop.

"What are you studying, Sokka?" Zuko appears to be genuinely interested.

"Oh, uh, social work, with a concentration in mental health." Sokka waits for Zuko to laugh at him. It never comes. He looks up at him over their laptops.

"That's really cool."

"You think so?"

"Yeah! I mean, some pre-med majors can be really pretentious, really dismissive of mental illness, but um - not me. I don't really have that luxury." Zuko laughs, as though at a joke with himself. "What's the Intro to Biology for, then?"

"Not all of us got our common core out of the way with AP credits, like some nerd I know." Zuko smiles at that, and looks back down at his laptop screen.

Sokka pulls his keys from his pocket and starts fidgeting with the stim toy he keeps on his keychain as he reads through his latest assignment for his Mental Illness and Society class. He bought it on Etsy, relieved to find a neurodivergent-owned shop after scrolling through a lot of stores that just seemed to be hopping on the 'trend' of selling fidget toys. He flips to the next page in his textbook, popping the buttons back and forth in a steady rhythm. He remembers Zuko's sitting across from him and stops abruptly.

"Is this annoying? Do you want me to stop?"

Zuko just cocks his head. "Why would I get a say in what you do? It's kind of your shop, right?"

"Um, to be polite?" Sokka laughs. "And you would be surprised how many customers I get who think they get to tell me what to do." His eyes settle on the half drunk latte in front of him. "It's not really my shop either, I just work the early morning shifts so Mr. Iroh can sleep in. If you ever get to stay past noon sometime, you'll see him come in. You can't miss him, short guy, talks in riddles. He's older, a war vet I think - I just get that impression from some of the stories he tells me. But anyway, did you want me to stop fidgeting?" Sokka looks back up to meet those golden eyes.

Zuko glitches for a second. "Oh! No, no, go for it - if it helps you to study, I'm all for it."

Sokka smiles, and looking at the way Zuko keeps picking at his cuticles gives him an idea. He digs into his backpack and pulls out another stim toy, an acupressure ring. ""Do you want to try this instead of maiming your hands?"

Zuko hesitantly holds out a hand and Sokka drops it into his palm. "You don't have to."

Sokka scoffs. "I know I don't have to - I want to. Come on, I wear it on my thumb sometimes -" and suddenly he's taking Zuko's hands into his and getting very close to Zuko's face. Zuko can smell espresso on his clothes and Sokka's hands are so warm against his. Calloused, sure, but warm. He holds Zuko's right hand gently, pressing the spiky ring onto his thumb. "And you can rub it back and forth with your pointer finger and it gives you that kind of prickly sensation that you get from skin picking, just without the skin picking." Sokka pulls his hands away and Zuko immediately misses them. "Give it a shot, tell me what you think."

Zuko tentatively rolls the ring over his thumb. Huh. The cute barista's right, the acupressure gives him that same prickly, scratchy feeling that picking at his nails and cuticles does. "Wow," he says, "I think you've converted me."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Then keep it, I've got a thousand more where that came from, ADHD perks."

Zuko instinctively opens his mouth to protest but the words die in his throat.

"You, you have ADHD?" He stops rolling the ring across his thumb.

"Yup." Sokka's lips popped on the 'p', and he turned to the next page in his textbook. "And I'm pretty sure you've got some spicy stuff happening your brain, too. But you don't have to tell me."

"How are you so open about it?"

Sokka's hand stills around the fidget. "My parents never treated me like I was deficient in any way - my brain just works differently, which means I have trouble with some 'normal' stuff. But I also strengths in areas that others don't have naturally. Accommodations aren't anything to be ashamed of."

"Sounds nice." All of the levity drops out of Zuko's voice.

Sokka levels a look at Zuko. He lets his eyes flit to the right side of Zuko's face and the scar there. He's seen it so many times, and the burns look so concentrated, almost... intentional. His stomach churns at the thought. The scar's old... and Zuko's at college now, he has to be safe - he has to be.

"Like I said, you don't have to tell me." Sokka's hand starts to fidget with the buttons again. "But I have it on good authority that I am a good listener."

"I'll... I'll keep that in mind." Zuko looks down at his hands, fingers rolling the ring back and forth against his thumb. "Thank you."

"Anytime, doc."

iii.

Somehow, fumbling through their collective social awkwardness, they manage to swap numbers.

At the end of the fall semester, Sokka texts Zuko for the first time.

S: hey, im gonna be a few minutes later. don't worry, im still coming.

Z: okay. thank you.

When Sokka finally pulls into the parking lot fifteen minutes late, he sees Zuko waiting outside the door, sitting on a bench, head buried in one of his chemistry textbooks.

"Hey," he puts his keys in the door. "You can just come in while I open, it won't take too long."

Zuko follows him inside, and he closes the door against the chill.

"You didn't have to text me," Zuko says, like it's a question.

"I wanted to," Sokka starts flipping on light switches. "I know you've got your routine, and I didn't want to stress you out when it got messed up."

"Why would that matter to you?"

"Um, I don't want you to be stressed? I kind of care about you."

"You... you care about me?" Zuko stands in the middle of the coffee shop, unmoving.

Sokka smiles. "Yeah, I think I do."

"Why?"

"I think we could be friends?"

"Oh." Zuko's face falls for a second - what Sokka has come to understand is his 'processing' face - and he looks back up a second later. "I think we could be friends too."

"Friendship with a barista has great perks, you know." Sokka laughs as he starts up the grinder. "Although the perks of a social worker friend aren't too bad either."

"How's that going? With your first semester ending?" Zuko sits on a stool at the bar and watches Sokka putter around behind it.

"Well, I'm going to pass Intro to Biology, not for lack of trying on Piandao's part - I swear he's trying to weed out all the humanities kids. It isn't even a weed out course!" He polishes an espresso glass furiously. "How are you doing?"

Zuko chokes. "Oh, I'm - I'm fine, you know it's a hard class and all -"

"You're getting an A, aren't you?" Sokka squints at him from behind a bag of coffee beans. "Curve breaker," he scoffs.

"Hey, it's not my fault that I'm, what did you call it? A 'burnt-out gifted kid with people pleasing tendencies'." Zuko crosses his arms and huffs at the memory of that conversation. Sokka had read him like a picture book. And it was not fair for one person to be that good at emotions.

"You are correct, I did indeed call you that." Sokka pulls the first shot of the morning. "And it looks like I was right."

"You know what you said the other week, about being a good listener?"

"Sure do," Sokka takes a sip of the espresso, swishing it around in his mouth before spitting it out. "What's on your mind?"

"Well, if we're going to be... friends, I just think you'd want to know that - I'm autistic." Zuko stares at Sokka searching his face for any cues about what the next words out of his mouth will be, waiting for the facade of friendship to drop. He furiously rolls the acupressure ring up and down his thumb.

"Okay, that's great!"

"...what."

Zuko's hands freeze and he squeezes the ring against his skin, feeling the pressure increase.

"That's great, I'm glad you felt safe enough to tell me that. I kind of guessed your parents weren't as accommodating as mine?"

Zuko laughs something sour. "No, no they were not." He looks up in surprise as Sokka puts an iced matcha, extra honey, in front of him. "You're right though, I do feel safe here. I feel safe with you." Zuko looks down at the acupressure ring on his thumb, softening his grip. "You could have totally ignored me, but you didn't. Or you could've been mean about my quirks - but you weren't. Why?"

"Well, for starters, you tip well." Sokka smiles and leans across the counter, bracketing Zuko's elbows in with his own. "But you're also a really great guy - you're passionate, you want to make people's lives better, and you're also like, really beautiful."

Zuko feels his cheeks flush. "You really think that?" His fingers still against the fidget again, but he doesn't feel the need to press it into his skin. He's captivated by Sokka's words. Surely, Sokka couldn't actually mean -

"Oh, yeah. Every bit." Sokka brushes his hand against one of Zuko's, the one with the fidget ring. "Can I hold your hand?"

"Yes, please, yes." After weeks, Sokka's hand is back in his, and Zuko thinks he's going to implode. "Can, can you hold both of my hands? With both of your hands?"

"Of course," Sokka's positively beaming, grabbing Zuko's hands and running his thumbs across his knuckles. "Now you're absolutely allowed to say no to my next question, and there are no hard feelings."

"Yes?"

"Can I kiss you?"

"Fuck yes."

The iced matcha is forgotten.

+ i

Sokka's feet hurt like hell. Mr. Iroh had called in him to work a double on Friday, and since he doesn't have any classes on Fridays, he foolishly agreed.

It won't seem so foolish once you see the paycheck, he reminds himself. He and Zuko have a deal. Zuko pays for his medical school with his job shelving books at the University library, and Sokka pays for their tiny apartment by caffeinating all of the other broke college kids in town. By some miracle, they seem to be able to make it work. Zuko graduated into the medical college a year early, which helps with tuition costs, and of course his brilliant boyfriend got all kinds of scholarships.

Sokka is indescribably proud of him.

The door bell jangles just as Sokka is wiping the crumbs off the last cafe table. "Hey, we're starting to close up for the night, so it'd better be a to-go order," he calls over his shoulder.

"Even for me?"

"Zuko!" Sokka drops his cloth immediately and spins around, pulling Zuko into a hug. Zuko taps the small of his back when he's ready to let go, and Sokka lets him go, beaming. "You came to visit me at work?"

"More like I picked up your favorite soup dumplings from Haru's across the street and thought we could walk home together?" Zuko shrugs, gesturing to the brown paper bag in his arms. "How's that sound to you?"

"Baby, that's just what I needed today." Sokka picks up his cleaning supplies. "Okay, I just need to put all of this away and then we can lock up and go home, how's that?"

"Great," Zuko smiles at him. "I may have also picked up some more Doctor Who DVDs from the library," he smirks.

"Oh, you trickster!" Sokka yells from the kitchen, before appearing again. "You used my one weakness, pork soup dumplings, against me in order to get your nerdy way."

"Oh, big talk coming from the guy who watches astronomy documentaries for fun," Zuko laughs as Sokka leads him out of the shop, switching off the lights and locking the door behind him. "If it were up to you, we'd be watching Cosmos all weekend, and I can only take so much of Neil deGrasse Tyson explaining the peculiarities of the moon."

"Hey, the moon is cool!"

"You are correct, the moon is very cool. It's freezing, because it's a rock. In space. With no atmosphere. Or life." Zuko deadpans, earning a light punch on the shoulder from Sokka.

"Fine, you get Doctor Who tonight, but Saturday is going to be all PBS Nova, baby. Brace yourself." Sokka takes Zuko's free hand into his as they start the walk home.

"Well, as long as you're there, I'm happy."

Notes:

fidgets in this work were inspired by those from shop StimBox

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