#nhie moodboards

[purpleyin]

Never Have I Ever moodboards: Ben/Devi/Paxton - Devi celebrating Diwali with her partners

Made for @polyamships October 2022 #PolyamShippingDay & the prompt 'spark'.

[spencerbegins]

"Turns out we're a pretty good team, for two people who hate each other."

happy happy birthday to my dearest kay @thefabulousfab-3 !! 💗

[courtillyy]

moodboard: arospike aceflux paxton hall yoshida

[nikkiruncks]

Fabneesa moodboard

[parasiticflannel]

Never Have I Ever...

[catastrxblues]

INTRODUCTION !!

currently shadowbanned which means i can't interact in ANY way at all through this blog so sorry if you replied to my posts or mentioned me and i haven't responded 😭

“our sheer capacity for a feeling has got to be so unwieldy that we staggered under it, like atlas with the weight of the world.” — oliver marks, if we were villains.

palestine : masterlist | to help | thepalestineacademy | boycott | free palestine

⛧ okay so hi! i’m nadine. she/her. muslim. student. apparently an isfj. virgo. afternoons enthusiast. #1 full machine by gracie abrams enjoyer. think about everlark a lot.

┏ i like to read, watch, and sometimes write. but nowadays i really just prefer rotting and decaying on my bed because school is absolutely exhausting and i have no better idea than to use all my spare time for simply sleeping.

┏ STEM at heart, but sometimes all i really want to spend the rest of my life doing is reading, pondering over poems, learning to bake, crying over songs, writing in an immense amount and is good at it, working at a bookshop, collecting so many books that i have sagging bookshelves on the walls of my room, watching the moon, examining the stars, and enjoying the afternoon sun in a meadow or hills or somewhere with running creeks and flowers (but that's unrealistic so)

┏ i come on here to reblog, read fanfics, and rant about my obsessions (and also my life so sometimes this actually does feel like my little messy personal diary- that's a warning by the way)

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-> currently reading : the ballad of songbirds and snakes by suzanne collins, six of crows by leigh bardugo,

-> currently watching : gilmore girls s2, brooklyn nine-nine s1, the summer i turned pretty,

-> some favorites :

(books) the hunger games, percy jackson / riordanverse, a good girl’s guide to murder, hp & the marauders, nevermoor, if we were villains, anne of green gables, djats & tshoeh, keeper of the lost cities

(artists) taylor swift, gracie abrams, phoebe bridgers, lorde, conan gray, sabrina carpenter, olivia rodrigo, maisie peters

(movies) mcu, romcoms, little women, thg adaptations, legally blonde, clueless, bridge to terabithia, lady bird, barbie, heathers, before sunrise

(tv shows) bridgerton, stranger things, heartstopper, jatp, asoue (show), disney channel shit (both), alexa and katie, nhie, lost in space (2017)

*(the italic ones are the ones i currently actively (and sometimes intensely) hyperfixate on on this blog!)

(+) fictional characters

[ i also will like to add that i am a peeta mellark, katniss everdeen, percy jackson, annabeth chase, anne shirley, jo and amy march, pippa fitz-amobi, and ravi singh enthusiast & i will defend them to the end of the earth thank you <3 ]

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sideblogs & others

┏ i have a writing blog!! (@kitchentablebillsaredue) it’s not exactly a fanfic blog, just a blog to post all of my miscellaneous semi-personal mess <3 (it’s collecting dust right now because i didn’t realize how hard it will be to get myself to post some writings on even a small corner of the internet whoops)

┏ i created another (actual) sideblog because i was bored and i thought why not. it’s @andillwatchh (as in a reference to that famous little women 2019 scene) and it’s for some movies/shows insanity etc.

┏ another one thank you. @iborrowlibrarybooks mostly for bookish things & moodboards.

by no means this is a consistent fandom blog by the way, i'm just really annoying and can't stop talking. but yeah that's it!

[psychiccatpanda]

Tony Stark Bingo August Party - NHIE created a Tony/Pepper fanwork

So a bunch of us played Never Have I Ever during the most recent TSB Bingo Party and I'm sharing the links for the works shared here! Hope you enjoy! 😊

tinystark616 - It Was Always You (drabble and a moodboard). Rating: General. It was Pepper all along.

@somesortofitalianroast - The Charity Calendar (fanfic). Rating: Explicit. Tony "accidentally" signs the Avengers up for a lingerie photoshoot as part of a charity calendar. Turns out they don't have as many problems with the idea as he had thought. (Tony x Pepper is one of the background ships, but is not the main focus of the story).

@polizwrites - Enumerations (fanfic). Rating: General. A soft, domestic moment with her husband reminds Pepper how lucky she is to have him and their soon-to-be daughter.

@psychiccatpanda - The Way the Cookie Crumbles. (fanfic and moodboards) Rating: Teen+. Teachers Tony Stark and Pepper Potts have competed in almost everything since their junior year of high school when Tony auditioned for - and got - the best solo at the annual Christmas concert. This school year's starting out no differently. When Principal Coulson and celebrity baker and school alum, Nick Fury announce a cookie baking contest for Midtown High's faculty, to be judged at the annual Winter Carnival, Pepper and Tony have their work "cut out" for them.

@somesortofitalianroast - Sign on the dotted line. (fanfic) Rating: Teen+. Before officially agreeing to be the Avengers Alpha, Scott Lang wants to make sure that a) he and Tony Stark are compatible, and b) Pepper Potts won’t kill him in a jealous Alpha rage were he to need a Heat Share. (a/b/o)

@newnewyorker93 - The Problem with Almost. (fanfic) Rating: General. Pepper accidentally wakes Tony up after a nightmare.

@psychiccatpanda - Since We've No Place to Go... (fanfic) Rating: General. Pepper and Tony have each had a... less than awesome weekend away at a rented cabin the weekend before Christmas. Then it starts snowing.

[polizwrites]

WIP Update - 21 Dec 2022

 Had another nicely productive writing week  - I touched 8 fics (3 WIPs & 5 new works) for a total of  2472 words, taking me over 115k for the year!  

On Ao3, I posted  an Avengers bonding fic (with bonus pining!Steve),  a fluffy Bucky vs Natasha, Sam & Steve drabble,  a Thor & Bruce post-Ragnarok ficlet,  A WinterIron meet-cute (with bonus Morgan!),  a semi-cracky Bucky & Sam & Nebula ficlet,  a semi-cracky Sam, Bucky & Steve ficlet and a Stony secret relationship High School AU ficlet. The Stucky Bingo December 2022 Round Robin  that I participated in was also posted. 

On Tumblr, I posted  a SamBucky Christmas getting together ficlet (that will be on Ao3 later this week)

Am down to 12 active WIPs  (with a couple of maybe TBCs)  with my current   deadline being  the  Man with a Plan, Starkbucks  and Bucky Barnes bingos coming in close behind!  

See below cut for the WIPs  (arranged more or less by bingos/challenges/etc) I am working on  -   feel free to send me prompts or plot bunnies as well as asks regarding any of these projects   (or any other WIPs I’ve got out there) – they really help feed the Muse and keep me motivated!

Avengers Bingo [AvB] (Runs thru 24 Dec ) - ALL WRITTEN - Goal = BLACKOUT!

Fourteen fills posted (14 to Ao3)  and 0 WIPs -  Everything is written!!! I just need to edit and post to get my blackout on this 4x4 card!!! I decided to further challenge myself on this 16-square card by pairing up each square with a unique combo of 2 original MCU Avengers, with the final square being dealers’ choice. Thanks again to the STB Enthusiasts Discord folks for helping me match pairings to squares - I think they worked out pretty well overall!

* B4 - Age Gap    - Finished up Caught By the Rain and Blinded by the Lightning - a Thor/Tony  post CA:CW  PWP crossing over with TSB One Night Stand. It came in at  1256 words & is scheduled for Ao3 on 12/23.  

* D2 - Romeo & Juliet AU  -  Two Cliques: Alike in Dignity  posted this morning - Steve (jock) & Tony  (geek) trying out for title roles in R&J - despite their respective friend groups objections/grousing about the other clique. It came in at 327 words.

Man With a Plan (Steve Rogers) Bingo [MWAPB] (Runs thru 31 Dec)

Seventeen fills, two bingos (Row 5 & Col I) 3 WIPs - shooting for a Row 2/Column O bingo as well.  Since the event was pretty much abandoned by its creator (life happens, I get it),  I’m finishing this pretty much out of stubbornness and may carry some squares over for inspiration into the new year.

* I1 - Steve is here for TFAtWS  - Passing the Torch posted this morning - a moodboard for this square paired with a ficlet for  my  BBB  “Oh, hell no"  square - Bucky POV (with some extra insider info) of the events where Sam is given Cap’s shield.   It came in at 339 words.

* G4 - Canon Divergence post CA:TWS - possible  crossover with BBB  Kill List – Bucky wreaking havoc on Hydra bases and  Steve & Sam catch up with him. Not on my Bingo Attack plan list, so probably won’t get done.

* G5 - Friends to Lovers -  claimed this with   Never Have I Ever (But I’d Like to With You)  a pining!Steve POV of the team playing NHIE where he manages to get one over on Tony. Chapter 1 came it at 1000 words even and posted last Friday. Chapter 2 will switch to Tony POV and make good on this square.

*  O2 - Sex Pollen  -  A Dusting of Trouble  is in progress - Steve and Bucky get curious when they learn Teenage Groot’s pollen is an aphrodisiac. It crosses over with my SRB  - Groot square and am working on a scene so I can use my BBB KINK: Aftercare square as well.  It’s currently sitting at 505 words, and is scheduled for  12/29.  

* O5 - FREE - Filled this with a self-referential item:   Man with a Plan Bingo Badges - fairly basic graphics based on photos of my Steve Rogers SWC figures - participant, bingo blackout and stealth (for anyone who posted 5+ fills without a bingo)

StarkBucks Bingo - Round 3  (SBB_R3) - Ends 31 Dec

Fourteen fills (13 posted to Ao3), 3 WIPs - One bingo (Col N) and shooting for  Row 3, Col G and Row 4.

* B1 - “I wouldn’t mind wasting my time on you.“  - Possible crossover with  BBB - KINK: Seduction Mission?   Not on my Bingo Attack plan list, so probably won’t get done.

* I2 - Mistaken Identity - crossover with TSB K5 - Protectiveness -  “The Mechanic, The Soldier & The Artist” - mob/assassin AU with a Mr. & Mrs. Smith twist?   Not on my Bingo Attack plan list, so probably won’t get done.

* I3 - “Oh dear.” -  Wrote up a remix ficlet of  Leading Questions - Tony POV on the stressful interview and the immediate aftermath.  It came it at 255 words and is scheduled for 12/27.

* I4 - Canon: Avengers Academy  - will probably do Stuffed Marvels sketches of Tony and Winter, as I know very little about the game/canon.   It’s on my Bingo Attack plan list, but at the bottom, so don’t hold your breath.

* N3 - FREE - Filled this with An Act of Kindness, a fluffy meet-cute with Tony & Morgan needing a bit of help from the handsome stranger standing in line at the coffee shop.  It came in at 545 words and has a sequel coming as part of a stocking challenge that gets revealed on the 26th. 

* N5 - “Wanna make a bet?”  Used this in combination with the Day 18  Fictober (“I don’t think this is your problem.”)  and Flufftober  (Soulmate AU) prompts for  Marked-Up Soulmarks  - a soulmate AU where Tony discovers he and Steve have something (and someone) in common. I may expand on this before posting it to Ao3 and/or claiming it as an official fill. Currently coming in at 418 words.

* G4 - Pepper Potts -  continue  Open Up Your Heart (And Let the Truth Come Out) - Tony POV?  This is on my Bingo Attack plan list, but at the bottom, so don’t hold your breath.  

* O1 - Royalty - crossover with TSB - IronWidow  &  BBB   AU: Arranged Marriage -  pick Lady Natasha’s Consort and Lord Steve’s Companion  back up - the current chapter is sitting at 595 words and would need to be 800 min to fill all 3 squares.   It may not make this bingo’s deadline, but possibly BBB?    

* O5 - AU: Biker  - Grease 2  fusion  anyone?  😁  I watched the movie a month or so ago and took notes -  It’s not gonna be a faithful adaptation, but hopefully fun - had another mini-brainstorm on this  that led to last Friday’s  No Ordinary Boy ficlet, but that didn’t go far enough into the  story to count toward this square.   Will post this ficlet on 12/26 with the faint hope of getting more done before the deadline, but it’s  not on my Bingo Attack plan list, so don’t hold your breath!

Hero Hardships Bingo  [HHB]  (Runs thru 31 Dec)

Not really expecting to get anything more done on this card, unfortunately.  😔

* O3 - Dating a civilian -  this would fit perfectly with another chapter of Takin’ What They’re Givin’ (‘Cause I’m Workin’ for a Livin’) , for which I currently have a basic plot point or two rolling around in my head.   I do have about 1000 words on what would be the next chapter of TWTG, so… maybe I’ll whip it into shape and toss it out there? :: shrug::

Bucky Barnes Bingo - Round 4 [BBB_R4] (Runs thru 7 Jan 2023)

Seventeen fills,  four WIPs  & ideas for everything except one square  - Row 1 bingo achieved - shooting for Column B, Column K and maybe Row 3 as well.  Hoping we can carry squares over into the next round. 

* B3 - Sam Wilson|Falcon -  Chapter 2 of After One Or Two False Starts   is in good shape. It switches to Bucky POV and is currently sitting at 315 words.   Targeting 1/6 to post it.  

* U2 - AU: Roommate  - Still wanting to use the Meet Ugly prompt: 02. I bought a house three months ago but I’m finally moving in and discover you’ve been squatting because you’re homeless    – probably WinterHawk with  recovering!Bucky being the squatter in Clint’s apartment building.  However, this is not on my Bingo Attack plan list, so don’t hold your breath.

* U4 - AU: Arranged Marriage - will probably pick Lady Natasha’s Consort and Lord Steve’s Companion  back up for this one.  See SBB Royalty for details.

* C2 - “Oh, hell no” - see MWAP  I1 - Steve is here for TFaWS

*C3 - FREE Filled this with  A Disarming Request  - a Bucky & Nebula fic written in response to (and therefore spoiling) the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.  It came in at 306 words and was posted on Tuesday. 

* C4 - KINK: Aftercare - see  MWAPB Sex Pollen above

*C5 - “This might as well happen” -  Used this for the Sept BBB Round Robin  (crackfic - Emperor’s New Groove inspired)  wrote 276 words toward it. Looks like I’ll get to count it, just need to submit a square fill form. 

* K1 - Thighs - Ended up expanding on a 3 prompts --> summary game response and ended up with  Card Sharks. It’s a drabble where Bucky is playing strip poker with Steve, Natasha and Sam - and things are not going well (or going extremely well, depending on your point of view). 100 words and posted on Sunday. 

* K3 - KINK: Edging  - working on Hanging By A Moment -   (Bucky POV with toy play and Tony as a power bottom)  crossing over  with  TSB   K3 - KINK: Orgasm Denial/Edging  - - currently 639 words and just about done; it’s scheduled to post on 12/30. I might add an epilogue as a separate chapter to get  C4 - KINK: Aftercare square as well.

* Y2 - Never the fall that kills you -  this might be the title for a reverse hanahaki WinterIron prompt from @lacrimula-falsa ….   but is not on my Bingo Attack plan list, so don’t hold your breath.

* Y4 - KINK: Seduction Mission - crossover with SBB - B1 - “I wouldn’t mind wasting my time on you.”  & “It wasn’t wasted”  Not on my Bingo Attack plan list, so probably won’t get done.  Hopefully I can carry squares over into the next round!

Sam Wilson Bingo - Mini Holiday Round (SWB_MH) - Ends 20 Jan

Picked up a 3x3 card for this holiday event and already have 1 fill posted and another ready to go.  Shooting for a bingo/crossover with BBB squares.

*A1 - Secret Santa  Sam’s bound and determined to figure out who keeps leaving little gifts for him around the Compound. 

* B1 - Under the Mistletoe  - Posted Things Are Looking Up here on Tumblr last Friday as a Flash Fiction Friday fill - Bucky gets included in a Wilson Christmas tradition.  It is sitting at  553 words and will go up on Ao3 tomorrow.

* C1 - Christmas Morning   Better Be Good (For Goodness’ Sake) is written - secret relationship fluff that’s coming in at 353 words and will be posted to Ao3 on the 24th. 

Steve Rogers Bingo - Round 2  (SRB_R2) - Ends 31 Jan

Fifteen fills posted with 2 bingos (Row 3 & Row 1)   & 1 WIP at the moment   – aiming for 2 or 3 more bingos before the event wraps.

* A1 - Never Have I Ever -  see   MWAPB  FREE above.  

* A4 - Touch Attention/Denial  - I have an idea for this that will also fill (heh) my Stucky Bingo  KINK - Double Penetration square.

* B2 - Mile High Club -  This will be the second chapter of Never Have I Ever (But I Want To With You), picking up with Tony’s POV after the events of Chapter One. Rolling some things around in my head, but other projects are taking priority.   Possibly combine with TSB  Tony’s Poor Life Choices ?

* C4 - Groot - crossover with  MWAPB Sex Pollen - see above.

* E2 - Comics Nomad Steve  - SWC sketch of Nomad!Steve

* E4 - Mental Bondage - crossover with TSB KINK: Concubine -  Potential Title My Voice The Chain that Binds You

Tony Stark Bingo - Round 6  (TSB_R6)  [Ends 28 Feb]

Fifteen fills and three WIPs at the moment -    with  Vague Ideas for almost every other square.  

* T1 - One Night Stand - see AvB - B4 - Age Gap

* T2 - Doing Groceries - crossover with MWAP B3 - Farmer’s Market  - if I can bang out a  drabble/moodboard in time, otherwise will find something else to do with this.

* T3 - Pepper Potts/Rescue -  some sort of remix of/inspired by sabrecmc’s  Indecent Proposal  from Pepper’s POV.  At this point, I think I need to re-read the fic & take notes …  

* T4 - KINK: Concubine - see   SRB  E4 - Mental Bondage?  

*A5 - Scott Lang  - 27dragons shared an interesting plot bunny during the Sept TSB Discord party that I may end up using; that or a follow up to A Piece of the Action

* R1 - Tony’s Poor Life Choices - see SRB Mile High Club above.  

* R2 - IronWidow -  next chapter of Lady Natasha’s Consort and Lord Steve’s Companion ?  see  SBB Royalty above

* K2 - Secret Admirer -  carried this over from last round so I could try my hand a remix of Seeds of Love  (WinterIron hanahaki fic by the super-talented @hddnone).  Potential title:  Wraps Around My Heart, Refusing to Unwind

* K3 - KINK: Orgasm Denial/Edging -  see BBB KINK: Edging  

Stucky Bingo Round Four [SB_R4] (Ends 31 May 2023

Seven fills and one WIPs with a couple of other vague ideas.

* B1 - Mutual Pining - possible crossover with MWAPB - Friends to Lovers

* B4 - Artist/Muse - posted  A Work of Heart to Tumblr  on 10/29.  It came in at  at 650 words and filled Day 29 of   Fictober (”You love this, don’t you?”) , Flufftober (Leaves) and Whumptober (”Better me than you.”)  Coming to Ao3 on 12/28

* B5 - KINK: Double Penetration - see SRB   Touch Attention/Denial  above.

*I3 - “Open Wide” - used this in the Stucky Bingo December 2022 Round Robin  fic - managed a fluffy date  interpretation for this prompt  😁

* O4 - AU: Supernatural - got inspired by a dream to start a Stucky fantasy AU (magician!Steve/ensorcelled!Bucky) that @bill-longbow  is collaborating on with me.  This was supposed to fill my Man with a Plan Bingo Soulmates square, but I ran out of time on that bingo.   We’re currently sitting at 1640 words  (984-ish of which are mine).   Will probably continue on this sometime in January.   Current Last Line:  "My men will accompany you back to Brookline in the morning.”

I also adopted the Writing Format: Remix one of your fics  square  – am thinking of taking one of my Stony or WinterIron  No Powers fics and adapting it to a Stucky pairing – if you have any requests - hit me up!  

WinterIron - No Powers AU  –  Stony No Powers AU

————

On other creative fronts:  I have a a Gwenpool figure in progress -  still working on the figures for my three Marvel Trumps Hate  auction winners (5 of 7 done so far) – thanks so much for your generous support!!  Finally, I am prepping for a superhero con in March - so am pretty well booked up through at least the end of the year.

That said, if you’re looking for one of a kind gifts for birthdays or other celebrations in 2023, check  out Stuffed With Character   over on Facebook for a full list of my designs (now over 80!).   They’re  mostly Marvel and monsters, but I have some Star Wars, Star Trek, DC   and Disney figures as well. Plus I love to take custom design  requests  for any fandom!

[dammitanvi]

slow burn. enemies to friends to best friends to lovers. academic rivalry. soft spots. nerd flirtalk. what else do you need?

[courtillyy]

moodboard: bipolar autistic cupioro demigirl devi vishwakumar

[nikkiruncks]

Benvi moodboard

[doughnut-dreams]

ahh, one of my first ever moodboards. this is messy and def not well thought out, i know but i think it's cute :)

what do you guys think?

[catastrxblues]

welcome to the waiting room !⋆｡˚🌿✧˖

➸ greetings hi!!! i'm nadine. xvi. she/her. southeast asian. muslim. student. apparently an isfj. virgo. also bibble and phoebe bridgers enthusiast. late afternoons and afternoon sun my beloved <3

➸ other socials : spotify | storygraph | goodreads | letterboxd | serializd | pinterest | instagram | discord : soaperache

➸ (looking for a) creations (myth) : webweave, edits

➸ credits : divider i by @benkeibear, divider ii by @gigittamic, divider iii, super important bibble masterpost by julie <33333 @octoberconstellation -> if you want any of your edits to be removed from here please do say so!!! thank you! <3

important : thepalestineacademy.com, free palestine, on west papua (i)

┏ STEM at heart, but sometimes all i really want to spend the rest of my life doing is reading, pondering over poems, learning to bake, crying over songs, writing in an immense amount and be good at it, watching films and shows new and old, working at a bookshop, collecting so many books that i have sagging bookshelves on the walls of my room, watching the moon, examining the stars, and enjoying the afternoon sun in a meadow or hills or somewhere with running creeks and flowers (but that's unrealistic so)

books ✧ the hunger games + ballad, six of crows, percy jackson, a good girl’s guide to murder, hp (fuck jkr) & the marauders, if we were villians, anne of green gables, the kane chronicles, keeper of the lost cities, five survive, solitaire, circe, tsh, every other ya contemporaries because!!

artists ✧ taylor swift, gracie abrams, phoebe bridgers, lorde, conan gray, sabrina carpenter, olivia rodrigo, maisie peters, ariana, bridgit mendler,

movies + shows ✧ little women (2019), thg adaptations, before sunrise, mcu, romcoms, clueless, bridge to terabithia, lady bird, barbie, heathers, lemonade mouth, bridgerton, heartstopper, jatp, asoue (show), alexa and katie, nhie, lost in space (2017), full house, the edge of seventeen, matilda, tpobaw, bottoms,

albums ✧ all of taylor’s but mostly : folklore, evermore, speak now tv, and red tv. good riddance, superache, guts, emails i can’t send, stranger in the alps, melodrama, the good witch, and yes i added this section just to tell you how much i love folklore and evermore. they’re the first albums i have ever loved and they are so so special to me.

characters ✧ katniss everdeen, peeta mellark, the march sisters, all of the crows, anne shirley, sejanus plinth, percy jackson, annabeth chase, grover underwood, finnick odair, tigris snow, kamala khan, celine, remus lupin, pippa fitz-amobi, ravi singh, AND SO MANY MORE YOU HAVE NO IDEA

ships ✧ everlark, kanej, helnik, wesper, percabeth, odesta, pipravi, and soo many more i just can't think of any right now crying

check down below for some v cool moodboard and BIBBLE (first five are mastermind julie's creations!!!)

↳ personal tags i want to save : my reblogs of tumblr hall of fame posts (2) | i love you | save for later!! | rambles in shambles | long posts | my (unserious) edits | 💌 | ✉ | tagged (2) | album releases edition : sntv rants ✧ guts some incoherent thoughts ✧ 1989 tv know places we can hide

↳ some of my sideblogs : @electrictouchftvtv -> used to be a random writing blog, but got shadowbanned. @andillwatchh -> movies & shows sideblog @iborrowlibrarybooks -> i don’t know, book quotes / moodboards / aesthetic blog? haven’t used it in a while. @everlarkestt -> supposed to be a thg sideblog but it’s currently empty except like two posts because i’m lazy. @labyrintharchive -> I WANT TO BE LOVED. I CARE MORE TO BE LOVED.

[forasecondtherewedwon]

Runaway Ride

Fandom: Never Have I Ever Pairing: Devi/Paxton Rating: T Word Count: 4889

Summary: Kamala gets herself into a pickle, Devi needs to go to her, and Paxton has a car. Problem-solving has never been so simple, but that's how it is when your new boyfriend is Paxton Hall-Yoshida. Throw in a little hand-holding on the highway and this family crisis might just be the best date Devi will ever have.

When they finally took a break from dancing—disconnecting hands from hips and shoulders, lips from lips—Devi stepped away in a dreamy headspace. She almost collided with Jonah, but he didn’t tell her to look where she was going, only offered a shrewd, indulgent smile.

Actually, everybody was treating her like that; every eye that caught hers on her way to the table where she’d left her stuff was unjudgmental, admiring, straight up fairy-godmotherly. Devi hadn’t received this much notice since her dad’s death and her subsequent paralysis. And those looks had been pitying, freaked out. Positive attention was new and cool and she wondered, as she grabbed her phone out of her turquoise clutch, whether her socials would show more of the same when she opened them. Would people have snapped stealthy pics of her and Paxton dancing now that she’d been vaulted into the pseudo-celebrity strata of the high school hierarchy? Would the Insta posts be captioned with hashtags of their ship name? Paxi? Daxton? Vishwall-Yoshumar?

Devi never got to check.

Unlocking her phone, she found two missed calls from her mother. Maybe two wouldn’t have seemed like a whole lot to someone else, but Devi knew that, in order for her mom to risk rudeness by stepping away from the company she was hosting at home not once but twice, she’d need to be pretty frantic. Two missed calls from Nalini Vishwakumar were the equivalent of six or seven from any other mother.

Skirting the edges of the gym as she headed away from DJ Humanoid—that nit-witted saboteur of slow dances—Devi was about to call her mom back when her screen changed to an incoming call from Kamala. She pressed her other hand to her ear and answered it.

“Hey. Do you know what’s going on with my mom? She called me twice and, honestly, she knows I’m at the d—”

“Devi, shut up. Sorry,” Kamala sighed. “But I may have kidnapped your history teacher and now I’m panicking a little.”

Devi stopped in her tracks.

“You did what? Why is the sound weird?”

As she was trying to identify the background noise coming from Kamala’s end, her eyes swept over the crowd of her classmates and landed on Fabiola’s. Her friend had been smiling, mid-sway as she held Eve from behind and chatted with Sasha, but it fell off her face like Devi off Dr. Jackson’s roof. Fab disentangled herself from her girlfriend and crossed the room to stand with Devi. She was frowning, silently asking for an explanation for Devi’s distress, but Devi didn’t really have one yet.

“We’re in his car on the highway,” her cousin was saying. “He was a little drunk, so I’m driving.”

Devi had imagined that Kamala was exaggerating, but no, this was really starting to sound like a kidnapping.

“You better be on hands-free right now,” she lectured. Then, because she wasn’t exactly a paragon of road safety herself—barely an hour ago, she’d walked right out in front of Paxton’s jeep—didn’t wait for confirmation. “What the hell happened? Context, Kamala!”

“Well, as soon as I snuck out of the house—”

“But why did you sneak out?!”

“Devi, I can’t talk about that right now!” Devi’s eyebrows shot up at the clear and abnormal hysteria in her cousin’s voice. “I ran out of the house,” Kamala continued, “totally directionless, and the first thing that popped into my head was Manish’s invitation for me to come to karaoke…”

“Ew, what the fuck, don’t call Mr. K that.”

What? Fab mouthed at her, but Devi shook her head.

“That is his name and what he asked me to call him. Anyway,” Kamala said, sounding strained, “I went to your school and met up with him and now I’m driving his car and I think I might have shut my sari in the car door, but I’m scared to pull over and check because if I stop the car, I’m going to have to confront things and I think I’d rather not do that yet.”

“Kamala,” Devi said in a heavy, careful voice. “You have to pull over. I totally get what you’re saying because it sounds like something I might do—minus the part where you kidnapped Mr. K—” Fabiola’s eyes went dramatically wide as she was adjusting her tiara. “—but this isn’t you. You don’t run away from your obligations and elope with my teachers!”

“Manish and I didn’t elope. It isn’t in any way romantic.”

“For sure though? It’s not?” Devi heard another voice in the car ask.

“Mr. K, back off! Kamala’s in the middle of a crisis!” she shouted. “And please be drunk enough to forget that I yelled at you.”

“Devi, what should I do?” Kamala asked, sounding desperate in a sad way now.

“Where are you?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Ok, well, which direction are you heading in?”

“Um, either north or south.”

“You’re a disaster,” Devi muttered.

“What was that?”

“Uh… I said, don’t drive any faster. Try to read the next sign you pass so you can tell me where you are.”

“Alright,” Kamala said.

Devi tilted her phone away from her mouth so her cousin wouldn’t hear her frustrated sigh. She locked eyes with Fabiola.

“Kamala panicked at her engagement dinner and ran off with Mr. K. They’re either headed for Mexico or Canada, but I’ll know more in a minute.”

Fab blinked.

“Wow.”

“I know. It’s a lot. And this is me talking,” Devi emphasized.

“I don’t know if you would do anything this big. Mainly because you don’t have a driver’s license.”

“True.”

“Santa Barbara in twenty-six miles,” Kamala said in her ear.

“Damn, you made good time.”

“The traffic was quite manageable.”

“Try to calm down a little and get off the highway when you can. Don’t go past Santa Barbara. I’m coming to talk you down in person,” Devi said. “Oh, and don’t answer any of my mom’s calls; she’ll just stress you out.”

“That doesn’t seem very responsible. How about I send her a text when I stop to let her know I’m ok?”

Devi rolled her eyes.

“Suit yourself.”

“Thank you, Devi. But how will you get here?”

“Let me worry about that. Text me when you stop so I know exactly where I’m going.”

“I will.”

“’K. I’ll see you in a bit.”

Devi hung up and sighed massively, slumping into the wall and feeling a streamer crumple against her back. She and Fabiola stared at each other.

“What are you gonna do?” Fab asked.

“Be the hero my family needs, but not the one they deserve.”

“Are you misquoting Batman to justify doing something reckless?”

“First of all, rescuing Kamala isn’t reckless, and second of all, the movie isn’t called Batman, it’s The Dark Knight. Young-ish Christian Bale, hello.”

Fabiola pointed a finger at her own face.

“Young-ish out-of-touch lesbian, hello. At least I was close.”

Devi sighed again while Fab smiled sadly at her in obvious sympathy.

“It’s after ten at night. How am I gonna get to Santa Barbara?”

“Assuming you’re not going to ask your mom—”

“No.”

“Then you need a ride.”

“You need a ride? I’ll drive you.”

It was Paxton, walking up and tentatively taking Devi’s hand while darting uncertain glances at Fabiola. Devi felt her entire face light up.

“You don’t want to know where or why?” she teased.

His expression said those were insignificant details. Wow. Devi’d never had a fantasy where Paxton joined forces with her, bounty hunter-style, to track down a flighty Kamala, but this felt oddly romantic. Passionate even? They’d see where the night took them.

“You wouldn’t wanna leave the dance unless it was serious,” Paxton reasoned. “So, I’ll drive you. You wanna go now?”

“I guess we better. Lemme just grab my…”

“I’ll get it,” Fab said, raising a hand like the nerd she was as she volunteered.

She darted back through the dancers to grab Devi’s things and Devi watched their classmates part for their Cricket Queen. She was so proud of Fab. Also, she felt kinda bad for ditching such a momentous occasion. But Kamala needed her, and would totally do the same for her if she ever went off the deep end and kidnapped a dude while fleeing a proposal. Not that Devi could see herself fleeing a proposal (she glanced at Paxton as she thought this, then quickly away, thinking, Way too soon!). Carrying out a kidnapping? With a sufficiently convincing pro-and-con list, anything was possible.

“Basically, Kamala freaked and drove to Santa Barbara with a drunken Mr. K,” Devi said, because Paxton might not have asked to be informed, but she wanted him to know what he was getting himself into. Beyond that, she wanted to give him the chance to say, No way, Devi. I came here to look hot and dance up on you, nothing more.

“Oh shit,” was what he said.

“Damn right, oh shit. You still want to drive? This is going to take a while.”

She should probably have felt guilty about trying to subtly persuade him with her eyes, but not only was Paxton the least complicated option, he was also her first choice. If she maintained eye contact long enough, Devi figured it might trigger some kind of boyfriend override that made going for a long drive at night just as appealing as staying here and dancing with her butt pressed thrillingly to his groin when the teacher-chaperones weren’t looking.

“As long as we can hit up the bathrooms first. I was going to, but then I got talking to Trent, and then Marcus was doing a handstand…”

“Definitely,” Devi assured him. “Good call. Empty the tank. Oh, actually, that reminds me… how much gas do you have in your jeep? If we need to stop at a gas station, I’ll have to factor that in to the ETA I give Kamala.”

Paxton shook his head at her, smiling in what she liked to think was affectionate amusement.

“I filled it up on the way here. I needed a minute to, uh…” To her epic astonishment, he ducked his head self-consciously, cheeks pinking. “You know. Get my shit together. Up here.” He tapped his temple with his index finger. “I wanted to show up for you, like, completely. You know?”

Right as Devi was at dangerously high risk of sagging to the floor in blissful bonelessness, Fabiola sprang to her side, shoving the rest of her possessions at her.

“Ok, ok!” Devi said, harried.

She had to dump it all on the bathroom counter a minute later anyway, but after she’d done her pre-road trip pee, she came out and gave Fab a better thank-you.

“Your Highness,” Paxton told Fabiola with a nod.

Fab nodded back, smiling wryly.

“Prosecutor.”

“I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship,” Devi assessed, “but we gotta go! Say congrats to Eve for me again!”

“Sure. Drive safe!”

Devi and Paxton pushed through the doors together, striding quickly with his hand wrapped around hers. In the parking lot, she glanced sideways to see him digging his keychain out of his front pocket.

“Oh,” she said, “so I wasn’t just feeling that you were very happy to dance with me.”

Until they got into the jeep, it was too dark to see whether she’d gotten him to blush again, but she liked to think that she had. He was definitely smiling.

They got in and Devi carefully tucked her skirt around her legs, mind on Kamala’s cautionary tale. At least it was until Paxton leaned forward to shrug out of his jacket and she saw his shoulder muscles jump beneath his fitted button-down, his narrow black tie swinging forward. Dang. Fifty shades of Hall-Yoshida.

“Santa Barbara?” Paxton double-checked once he was settled behind the wheel, steering out of the student lot.

“Santa Barbara.”

Until they were on the highway and heading out of Los Angeles, Devi did her best to keep her worry about Kamala’s situation contained to the way she flapped her phone against her thigh. Usually, she was stressing about the problems right in front of her (when she wasn’t blatantly ignoring them, only to have that approach bite her in the ass later), but with whatever was going on with Kamala, she kinda had to look ahead.

Had she wanted Kamala to get engaged to Prashant that badly? Well, the best thing about Prashant was that you never knew when having additional hot relatives would be to your benefit. (Devi was already hoping that Mr. K would get over the more nerve-wracking elements of this night and just remember having fun with her stunning cousin… and that this could possibly translate into at least a month of generous grades, if she could somehow spin these shenanigans as an intentional blind date arranged by herself.) However, an engaged Kamala was wholly different from a married Kamala. She wouldn’t be around to watch nonsensical episodes of Riverdale, or be duped into hijinks, or listen to Devi when her mom was too tired, or bitch about her shitty lab-mates in exchange for sitting through Devi bitching about her complicated feelings on the subject of Aneesa dating her ex. She wouldn’t live with them anymore, and the family that had begun to miraculously fill out after her dad had died would be back down to three. And the other two members of it would be old (Sorry, Mom, she thought) and not at all prepared to champion her dating life or the cleavage-accentuating formal dress currently buoying it.

So, yeah, Devi was looking ahead—eyes glazed over as the yellow lights of cars slipped around them to prevent her vision from fully adjusting to the blue-black sky—and feeling more than a little nervous and scared of the Kamala-shaped hole she’d have in her life if her dazzling, dorky cousin left her house for one she might eventually fill with the most beautiful children the world had ever seen.

Thankfully, Paxton was there. It startled her when he took one hand off the wheel and felt across her lap to grab hers, loosely interlacing their fingers. Devi quit hitting her phone against her leg. She sent off their updated location to Kamala and then let her phone fall flat.

“Did she say where she was?” Her boyfriend’s voice was quiet in the car and she realized for the first time that her head had been too crammed with thoughts to put on any music.

“Carpinteria State Beach. Do you know the exit?”

“We’ll find it.”

“And if you want me to drive while you rest on the way back…”

Paxton laughed.

“No way. Safety first.”

“Says the guy driving one-handed,” Devi countered, not that she was eager to surrender the hand warming hers.

He turned his head just long enough to shoot her a look.

“Whoa, pal, eyes on the road!” she said. (She had a half-baked plan to call her boyfriend ‘pal’ a few times and thereby de-weaponize the word in a memory that still felt like a fading bruise, an almost-gone sore spot in who she and Paxton were before they were openly a them.)

“Sorry,” he said, staring out the windshield again. He grinned. “You look gorgeous.”

“Really?”

“So gorgeous.” Paxton’s voice was softer this time, the underlying laugh it had carried since she’d offered to drive his jeep drained out of it. It was nearly a sigh.

“Thanks. So do you.”

“You know, I feel fucking awful for hitting you with my car, but I still think I mighta felt worse if I’d walked in and seen you dancing with somebody else.”

Devi twisted their hands, touching the back of his to her thigh so she was sandwiching it between leg and palm for a moment, aiming for reassuring.

“I wanna say I would never be that flaky, but my previous offenses speak for themselves.”

“So does doing this with me.”

“Uh,” she droned, “to recap, you left a fun thing to do a huge favour for me. You’re talking about it like this is my act of redemption. I feel like if you examine it for a sec, you’ll see how I’m actually kind of a dick for accepting your help.”

“I want us to be together,” he said bluntly. “Here we are. Together.”

“It’s that simple?”

“I don’t see why it can’t be.”

“Huh. I think you’re really gonna be good for my tendency to overcomplicate a situation.”

Paxton laughed and unthreaded his fingers from Devi’s. But it wasn’t to release her for pointing out that this date was, in actual fact, the coordinated response to a family crisis; his fingertips moved lightly over her palm, momentarily trapped when her fingers flinched inward in reaction to how it tickled, then traced along the thin skin of her inner wrist. He wasn’t trying to pull away. He was lingering. Though his touch when he sunk his hand into her hair or drew her closer by her waist had always been fairly gentle, it had often had the faint aggression of hastiness to it, clutching her as they made out in her room, always listening for footsteps in the hallway. How Paxton touched her now was pure, exploratory tenderness. It made the hairs on the back of Devi’s neck stand up as a wave of shivers rushed up her spine and crested somewhere around the nape of her neck.

He must’ve felt that wave break, the foamy aftereffects in some tic of her arm or quickening of her pulse while his fingers skimmed gradually up the inside of her arm towards her elbow, because he chanced another quick glance at her.

“That feels good,” she explained.

Paxton looked forward, nodding slowly, and shifted in the driver’s seat.

“Good.”

She thought it must have felt good for him too, knowing he’d made her shiver.

—

The miles were flicking past for Paxton—another, another, another, as fast and steady as the dashed lines painted between the lanes, his arms cutting the water on the front crawl. He wanted Devi, beside him, to believe that he was paying attention to his driving, but he was honestly kinda zoned out. Like that time he’d swum to San Diego, he let his body go through the motions (in this case, twitching the wheel, putting on cruise control when traffic thinned so he didn’t have to focus on the pedals) while his mind floated freely.

Where it floated was to his girlfriend.

At ten years old, he’d been the last kid in his swim class to jump off the 10m board. It was optional—a treat after getting water up their noses turning somersaults below the surface and doing egg-beater legs in between—but all the other boys in the group had done it eagerly, shrieking on their way down to sloppy pencil dives. Paxton had climbed the stairs all the way to the top easily enough, even stepped onto the wide platform, bordered by metal railings and rough under his bare feet. He’d walked out to the end and frozen to find himself so high above the pool.

He hadn’t feared the water, he’d feared the air. Being so exposed on his own at the end of the diving board. Eventually, he’d retreated, then surprised the coach waiting down at the poolside by turning around and taking the jump at a run. Few memories felt as good as the sensation of giving himself back to gravity and letting it reunite him with the water. He’d just had to get past the exposure.

Same thing tonight, going to find Devi at the dance. Holding her hand in his had been him reaching the platform, but when they stood together, just inside the school’s doors, Paxton hadn’t known for sure whether he would take the leap or retreat. And not just for a running start this time, but in a way that turned his sixteen-year-old present self back into one of those nervous ten-year-olds who wimped out and had to take the coward’s way down—descending each step they’d climbed. He might not have run, and yet he hadn’t needed to back up and race into their relationship either. Momentum hadn’t carried them inside for everyone they knew to see them. It had been a calm approach, even if he’d been shaking on the inside when he saw Trent staring at them.

So maybe Paxton had learned something in the last six years, or maybe it was harder to feel exposed with somebody right next to you.

She really did look gorgeous, like he’d said, and because he didn’t want her to worry about his focus if she spotted him gazing at the side of her face while she texted her cousin, the glances he stole were of the knee region. Her dress’s overlay sparkled when the high lights of eighteen-wheelers passed them and the specific teal of the dress itself reminded him of a river he’d swum in once during an out-of-state family vacation. Natural and deep and fresh, and exasperating for his parents because he’d accidentally doggy-paddled himself all the way to a small waterfall and hadn’t heard them calling him back for dinner around the campfire. He felt all that about Devi, except for hoping for a different reaction from his parents when they met her.

Holy shit. He was going to have to introduce his girlfriend to his embarrassing hippy parents. But then, she’d already met Rebecca, so maybe they were set? A sister’s approval should count for a ton.

No, no, no, Devi would have to meet his parents. He was doing this. The two of them were doing this. Paxton exhaled determinedly through his nose and made himself concentrate on the remaining miles he needed to cover. His mind, anyway. His hand continued to stroke and search, covering his girlfriend’s hand with his until he had her fingers tucked away protectively under his own, and then caressing all the way up to the crook of her elbow so suddenly that she made a noise between a laugh and a yelp because he’d unintentionally tickled her. Man, she was cute.

The very end of their journey required the most concentration from Paxton; he finally took back his hand to have both on the wheel as he steered them off the highway and Devi’s got lonely or something, because it chased across to where he was sitting and landed on his thigh. His jaw clenched. He could feel the heat of her palm through his pantleg and congratulated himself on being a driving legend for driving smoothly to where they needed to park for beach access.

Devi had a pink sweater that she put on, but Paxton grabbed his jacket out of the back as well in case she needed it. It was almost midnight and a breeze rolled up off the water, rippling his tie and swishing Devi’s dress. He didn’t have to ask what they should do next—there was just one other car parked nearby and Devi’s cousin was already standing outside of it, raising a hand to wave sheepishly as they got out of his jeep.

“Here,” he said, holding out his jacket for his girlfriend to put her arms through the sleeves. “You guys talk. I’ll be down at the beach.”

Devi turned her back to him as she accepted the jacket, but she glanced over her shoulder with a look of concern.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. You’ll want privacy. I need to stretch my legs anyway.”

“Just don’t swim away, ok?” she requested. “I don’t think I can handle more than one rescue mission per night.”

Paxton could tell by her expression that it wasn’t entirely a joke. He grinned and gripped his lapels, now on Devi, reeling her in.

“I promise. You’d probably take the opportunity to try to drive the jeep home, and I don’t want to risk that.”

“Me committing grand theft auto or me getting hurt?”

“I bet they tested you for smartness,” he said, “but you think they have a test for being a smartass? You’d score high, Vishwakumar.”

“I know, I know, you don’t want me to get hurt.”

She was so infuriatingly flippant, rolling her big brown eyes at him.

“That’s right,” Paxton said plainly. There he was, up on the platform again.

Devi straightened his tie and let her hand rest flat on his chest. He remembered how overwhelmed she’d looked the first time he’d placed her palm there, right on his skin. Even now, it almost made him laugh.

“Ok,” she said, and he was surrendering himself to the sweet strength of gravity, propelled down to the beach while Devi stayed to talk to Kamala.

—

Devi had heard that there were tidepools here, and she was nervous about stepping into one and spearing some aquatic animal on her high heel. Well, she couldn’t magically improve her night vision, but she could take her shoes off and remove the possibility of impalement. They dangled from her fingers as she picked her way down to the beach.

Her boyfriend was sitting in the sand, staring out at the ocean. It just looked so romantic—with the stars the sky was too bright to see at home, and the waves, and the back of Paxton’s white shirt in the moonlight—that Devi decided to slip into the scene without saying anything at all.

A mistake. Paxton gasped and jumped. Apparently, he hadn’t heard her over the noise of the water.

“Sorry, sorry!” she said.

He sighed and smiled, getting to his feet.

“How’d it go?”

“I think it went well. She was feeling calm enough to drive, so she’s on her way home now. She’s gonna cover for me until we get back.”

“That’s good… but what about Mr. Kulkarni?”

“He was passed out in the passenger’s seat,” Devi stated. “I guess he’s kind of a lightweight? Kamala said she’s going to drive back to our school and leave him and his car in the parking lot. She’s planning to call my mom for a ride home. If it were me, I think I’d take the bus and try to sneak back into the house as quietly as possible, but Kamala still has a lot to learn about how to thoroughly dodge your problems.”

“And maybe about how to climb to the second floor of your house from the outside?” Paxton suggested with a meaningful smirk.

She did her best to return it, but the odds were that it didn’t look nearly as sexy on her. Then again, she had moonlight and midnight and well-displayed cleavage on her side.

“How’d you learn to do that so quietly anyway?” Devi asked, tossing her shoes to the sand and stepping forward to boldly wrap her arms around Paxton’s waist.

He’d had his hands in his pockets, but as soon as she’d begun to move towards him, he’d pulled them out. His arms encircled her, his hands on the back of his own black jacket. Although Devi wanted to offer him the jacket back—he felt slightly chilly through his shirt—she didn’t want the two of them to separate. Besides, body heat was a thing. This was practically what it was for. So Devi just pressed herself closer, breathing the scent of the ocean and Paxton’s fading cologne.

“Trent,” he said.

“Yeah, actually, that checks out.”

Were there boundaries between warming someone up while having a conversation and just hugging them? It wasn’t clear to Devi, but it felt good when they both went quiet for a while. She stood unevenly on the cold sand and listened to the thud of Paxton’s heart.

“You never said yes,” he said eventually, quietly.

“Yes to what?”

“I told you I came to the dance as your boyfriend and you never actually agreed to be my girlfriend. We kinda just started making out.”

Devi lifted her cheek from his chest so she could look at him. He didn’t appear disappointed, more like he was making an observation. Maybe he’d been reflecting, out here in the dark, while she and Kamala had talked.

“In my books, that’s an obvious yes,” she said, grinning. “What more do you need?”

She could see him trying not to smile.

“A little atmosphere would be nice,” Paxton said. “Maybe a long drive, or the beach. A full moon. Romance me, Vishwakumar.”

Devi vibrated with silent laughter. Or her heart was just beating really, really freaking hard.

“Sounds like you’ve got some pretty big expectations there.”

“And stars,” he added. “There should be a shitload of stars.”

With that, he took one hand off her back to point far above them. Devi tipped her head back, the light of the stars a friendly blur as she tried to pick one to settle on, just one. Paxton’s face coming forward to hover over hers blotted them out. Her boyfriend kissed her, light and ghosting and then firm and slow.

“On the other hand,” he said, pulling back a little, “I think we were onto something with the making out.”

Devi smiled and dug her toes into the sand to make herself taller, lips at the ready and realigned with his.

“We did set a precedent.”

[fivelittlebirdies]

Dang it, who do I have to [redacted] to get an Eleanor Wong only photo or gif set??

I'm looking and not coming up with any thing that is just her. Let me show my girl some appreciation!

[presidentlokis-hornyhelmet]

Paxton H-Y x Reader moodboard (mine) for my fic Bold, Sexy and Weird

Find it on AO3!

Tags: Fluff, Pining, Bisexual Fem Reader

❕A/N: I apologize in advance for Paxton being ooc in this fic. Tbh I haven't seen NHIE and just watched a youtube video of Paxton & Devi's story. I originally wrote this for my bff but then i thought why not post it here, LOL. Hope you enjoy it!

(Not beta'd, all mistakes/typos are mine.)