#no beta we die like unnamed family members

[queercontrarian]

summary: rhysand and tamlin meet in the summer court. obviously they are just friends and neither of them wants anything more. they are totally normal about having feelings.

(that's it that's all you get. i suck at summaries)

cw: none but rhysand isn't very kind to himself

for @sjmromanceweek

It wasn’t hard to find Tamlin. It never was these days and it left Rhys wondering if he’d really become so familiar with him that he was somehow impossible to miss. It was already getting dark when he arrived on the beach and still it took only five minutes to locate the other prince.

To be fair, there weren’t a lot of people on the dunes near the shore of Adriata. They were just outside of city limits so there was no way the guard would know they were there, but Rhys still reached for his wrist and the band of pearls twisted around it. Just in case. He didn’t know how Tamlin had gotten them - a favor, maybe, from the princess - but they would get him out of all the trouble he could potentially get into tonight. A carte blanche.

He didn't get a greeting as he walked up to Tamlin, his friend only moved to the side to make space for him on the blanket, throwing his own jacket and bag into the sand next to him. There were some couples around, some families in small groups along the beach. It seemed like no one was paying attention to them but that didn't mean much. Rhys sighed and turned around to face the sea while his friend brushed the dust and dirt off of the blanket.

“Is anyone we know out here?” he asked, a bit louder than necessary to clear his throat.

“Haven't been recognized yet,” Tamlin replied, kicking his legs out again and leaning back. “Sit.”

Rhys cracked his knuckles, trying to distract himself from the way his heart skipped a beat or two. It was ridiculous to get this worked up over spending time with a friend, over hearing his voice, over a thing so small as a night out on the beach or a stupid charming accent. It wasn't normal - Rhysand would know; he had spent his entire life chasing “normal”. Tamlin was ruining years of hard work with a smile and Rhysand couldn't even hate him for it.

“I'll put a glamour up anyway,” he said, his voice steady as always as he got to work.

“I already did.”

“I know, and it's not good.” He could practically feel Tamlin rolling his eyes through the silence. It was true though. Tamlin had never been good with glamours, or any kind of learned magic in general. He could do the basics, and he was incredible with the magic he pulled from within but his hands were not made for the intricate work of spellweaving or any of the tricks Rhys had spent years of his life studying.

“You could always teach me how to do it better.” His heart stuttered again.

“Sure. I will, eventually,” he replied, the last threads of magic melting into the glamour. He threw it out around them like a net in the air and it shimmered against the night sky for a moment before becoming invisible to their eyes.

When Rhys finally turned around, Tamlin smiled. “Beautiful,” he said.

“Someone warn the ladies, the poet is out tonight,” Rhysand answered mockingly, glad that the sun was long gone so the blush creeping up his neck was hidden in the shadows. Tamlin ignored his comment.

“Maybe after the meetings end you can teach me, yes?”

Rhys sighed, unbuttoning his coat so he could sit. “If the meetings ever end. We've been at it for days; Dawn keeps blocking the vote.” He could feel how warm the sand still was under the blanket and for a moment he felt the urge to lay down, to take off his shoes and bury his feet in the sand. It wouldn’t be proper. It wasn't a normal thing to do for a prince.

“Well, Thesan isn't stupid,” Tamlin said easily.

“How would you know? You don't even show up to the meetings,” Rhys snapped, the frustration of the day bubbling out of him so suddenly it surprised both of them. He tried to soften his tone when he added, “I haven't seen you in a month. I’ve been here all week, you didn’t feel like coming over?” It was meant to sound playful but the hurt behind the joke stuck. Tamlin had been in Adriata for months, just a few miles across the delta from its sister city Apri. It would have been easy for Tamlin to winnow or to cross over by boat, hell, he could have shifted into a whale to swim the distance. But Tamlin only shook his head.

“With both Meilyr and Father in town? Not a chance.”

“So what, you just keep making me come to see you? That’s how it works?” Tamlin shrugged.

“You’re here, aren’t you?” he said, his sharp teeth gleaming for just a second under the moonlight as his lips twisted into a crooked grin.

“Oh fuck off,” Rhys groaned, leaning back on his hands just as Tamlin bumped his shoulder against his. The truth was that he didn't want Tamlin anywhere near his family. Here, he was warm and alive and happy, and Rhysand had missed him more than he cared to admit. He balled his hands into fists to stop himself from reaching out. Be normal.

“Don't take it so hard. Besides, it's easier to hide here where there are less people than in Apri. After all, we've already established that I suck at glamours,” Tamlin teased, brushing his long hair out of his face.

“I didn't mean it like that,” Rhys said, struggling to find a middle ground between apologetic and defensive.

“I know what you meant.”

They sat in companionable silence for a while. Tamlin seemed to be deep in thought and Rhys didn't quite know what to say without interrupting him or letting his heart jump off his tongue, so he just watched the crowd forming on the beach from their place high up on the dune. If this was fewer people than in Apri he didn't want to know what the streets there looked like. It was getting very dark now but he could still make out the colorful costumes the faeries were wearing, each one a hand-crafted, endlessly detailed masterpiece. Carnaval started tonight and he'd fully forgotten about it over setting up this meeting with Tamlin. He wondered if Tamlin had any plans to go into the city later to celebrate with his hosts. If he did he hadn't dressed for it, which Rhys hoped meant that he could keep him all night.

"Have you seen fireworks before?" Tamlin asked finally. Rhys cleared his throat, then nodded.

"Yes," he said quietly, "In Dawn. But it was only a small demonstration. As I understand, the spectacle tonight will be far more grand." Tamlin had never seen fireworks. His father did not care for them, and that was enough explanation. There were so many things the Spring Court missed out on because of the High Lord, and Rhys was set on introducing Tamlin to all of them.

Before he could dump everything he knew about the fireworks on Tamlin though his stomach rumbled. He'd skipped dinner to make it to Adriata in time and he was starting to feel it, even though he would never say. He didn't need to.

Tamlin wordlessly grabbed the bag he'd brought and carelessly tossed aside earlier. He opened it up with one hand and offered Rhys half a dozen small pastries wrapped in paper. His mind and his heart were racing as he accepted the food. Accepting food from a loved one - Rhys shook himself out of his stupor. Normal, he reminded himself. Just be normal.

"The one with spinach is mine, but you can have the rest."

"Are you serious?" Rhys asked, his voice measured as he carefully unfolded the paper. The smell alone made his mouth water: sweet and sugary and so, so delicious. Tamlin nodded.

“I know you like these and you never get to have them because your father doesn't eat them. So I thought I'd bring some,” he explained, finding the spinach pastry easily amongst the others and eating it all in one bite. Fighting down the fluttering in his chest, the feeling of all kinds of abnormal hunger, Rhys reached into his own pocket and dropped a small bag of dried fruit into the other male's lap.

"I brought these for you from Day." Tamlin swallowed so quickly Rhys feared for a second he'd choke.

"Candied lemon peel?" His friend ripped into the bag faster than Rhys could answer.

"Yes, and some other stuff. Figured you were running out again." He couldn't suppress his smile as he watched Tamlin pick through the sweets. He grabbed one of the pastries at random - blackberry, his favorite.

“I love you,” Tamlin said seriously, holding up a piece of candied fruit to the moon. “You're the best person that has ever happened to me.”

His heart stuttered again and Rhys tried not to choke on his pastry. It didn't mean anything. It never meant anything. The Spring Court was just like that. Tamlin used words like these all the time and it wasn't his fault that it meant more to Rhys than to him. He couldn't know the degree to which praise was earned in his family, how much love was based on conditions - presenting him with his preferred sweets was the very least Rhys was willing to do to hear those words from Tamlin's lips.

They both flinched when the first fireworks exploded over Apri, light and color bursting across the sky. Down by the water people were clapping and screaming, pointing at the display, the art unfolding high up in the air.

Rhysand blinked away the bright explosions, gaze slipping away to land on Tamlin instead. His friend was still staring at the sky, head tilted to the side.

"Do you like them?" he asked. Tamlin tilted his head to the side. Rhysand liked that Tamlin took the time to think things like these through. He liked a lot of things about Tamlin - too many things.

"I do," he said finally, "I just don't like how loud they are"

“Our stars are quiet,” Rhys said, “And twice as beautiful too.” Tamlin only looked up at him and smiled.

“Is that so?”

“Yes,” Rhys replied emphatically before lowering his voice into a forced casual drawl again. “You should come see them and convince yourself of it. It's nothing like this muted, tired sky.”

If he were honest he'd admit that he was dying to see Tamlin in his Court, under his sky. He wanted to show him the mountains, the Illyrian Steppes and the Rainbow in Velaris. Maybe Tamlin could write a poem about the beauty of the Night Court too. Maybe he'd learn to love it just as much. Maybe he could keep him there, make him a star next to his own on the firmament.

They were silent again, listening to the crowd shrieking with joy as the fireworks kept coming, the wind picking up the music played in Adriata and carrying it to the shore.

"I think there's a special kind of beauty in things that aren't made to be beautiful," Tamlin said finally. Rhys groaned.

"Oh, leave the poet at home for just one night will you,” he muttered, nudging his friend until he slipped off the blanket under them.

Tamlin chuckled but his expression turned earnest again when he said, "I would like to see them one day though, the stars you describe. They sound beautiful."

“I'll take you,” Rhys promised. He'd take him anywhere as long as he could be with him.

[takaraphoenix]

Writing a post about how much I need James Marsters and Dominic Sherwood to star in the same franchise reminded me that wait, I did a pitch for that before. 

Which in return reminded me that wait, I sat through a long and boring day at college last semester and actually did a more detailed pitch. And since I have absolutely nothing to do right now, hear me out.

It’s a TV show based around a pack of werewolves. More precisely, focusing on one particular werewolf who can turn at will while the others are bound by the moon. Also, there’s gays in it and basically most of my favorite actors. Really, it was mainly born from me making a list of TV actors I enjoy and would like to see in the same piece together and then I spun a plot around it. It turned into a bit of a mix between Shadowhunters and Teen Wolf, really. With maybe a slight dash of Vampire Diaries in there.

So let’s start with the cast, yes?

Dominic Sherwood as Heliodoro ‘Haley’ O’Rinn, an orphaned werewolf and the protagonist of our story.

Dylan O’Brien as Maximillian ‘Max’ Blythe, Haley’s best friend, a nerd with a lot of chaotic energy, who also turns out to be a sorcerer without knowing it.

Yaya DaCosta as Jessamine ‘Jess’ Kemp, Haley’s other best friend and the voice of reason in their chaotic trio. Also love interest to Max Blythe/Dylan O’Brien. She’s the human who runs with wolves and where they sometimes let their instincts win out over common sense, she is the one with a plan.

Alexandra Daddario as Menodora ‘Meena’ O’Rinn, Haley’s twin-sister, stricter than Haley and taking everything, including training, more seriously than him. The twins aren’t very close, but Meena is fiercely protective of her brother, even when she doesn’t like to show it.

Alyssa Milano as Dorothea O’Rinn, Haley and Meena’s mother who dies in the first episode but we will have regular flashbacks to the childhood of the twins and the things Meena, in particular, learned from her mother. Because she was the Alpha of the pack - and Meena was supposed to follow in her pawprints, so to speak.

James Marsters as Lucius O’Rinn, Haley and Meena’s father and the husband of Dorothea O’Rinn/Alyssa Milano. He was the aloof and fun parent who used to play a lot with little Haley while Meena learned all the important Alpha lessons from their mother.

John Laroquette as Conall O’Rinn, the grandfather of Haley and Meena, who raises them after their parents die when they are still small children. He lives in a secluded cabin in the woods, knowing he has to protect his grandchildren after their entire pack, including their parents, was killed.

Amy Acker as Riley Blakesley, the Alpha of the new pack moving into the territory over the following ten years since the O’Rinns and their pack were murdered. She is a one hundred percent badass and becomes a new mentor-figure to Meena O’Rinn/Alexandra Daddario after the twins meet her.

Jamie Chung as Sara Lin, the loyal Beta and second-in-command of Riley Blakesley/Amy Acker. Like her Alpha, she is a strong and fierce fighter. And she particularly has no time for Max Blythe/Dylan O’Brien’s nonsense.

Santiago Cabrera as Antonio ‘Tony’ Del Bosque, Haley’s love-interest and a member of Riley Blakesley/Amy Acker’s pack. He is reckless and gets into a lot of trouble, which is why he gets dragged into this mess.

Shemar Moore as Mark Chase, Tony Del Bosque/Santiago Cabrera’s best friend and Sara Lin/Jamie Chung’s love interest. Which always puts him into an awkward position, because he knows what his best friend is up to - and he should tell his girlfriend, for one because honesty is key to a healthy relationship and also because she is the pack’s second-in-command so honesty is key to staying healthy.

Jane Lynch as Cassandra Leclair, a powerful sorceress who will help our friends on their quest. She is the one who will enlighten Max Blythe/Dylan O’Brien about his heritage and she also finds out why the O’Rinn pack has been killed.

John Barrowman as Maximus Bloodworth, the main villain of our show, former best friend of Lucius O’Rinn/James Marsters, former apprentice to Cassandra Leclair/Jane Lynch and also the biological father of Max Blythe/Dylan O’Brien.

And with that, we have actually finished the cast list and gotten quite far on the story. But let’s focus on only the story now.

Dorothea O’Rinn/Alyssa Milano and Lucius O’Rinn/James Marsters are killed in our opening scene, along with their entire pack, leaving Haley O’Rinn/Dominic Sherwood and his twin-sister Meena O’Rinn/Alexandra Daddario as orphans.

All we see is a fire and a shadowy figure walking away from it.

The next scene, ten years later, the twins are living with their grandfather Conall O’Rinn/John Laroquette in a secluded cabin in the woods, keeping away from society as much as possible.

Only that Haley’s best friends from high school are two people that really can not be shaken off - Jess Kemp/Yaya DaCosta and Max Blythe/Dylan O’Brien.

Max and Haley have always gotten into a lot of trouble, even as little children. Jess was always the voice of reason behind them who essentially kept the two idiots alive. But when she starts to suspect there might be a cult in their small little hometown of Sunhaven, even Jess’ curiosity is piqued, so the trio goes and investigates.

It started five years ago, that new people moved there and were behaving weird. Living together in one big house, people who definitely were not family. But lately, there seemed to be more and more.

Jess’ suspicion is that Riley Blakesley/Amy Acker is some kind of cult-leader.

Only that she’s not. She’s an Alpha werewolf who was chased away from her own territory by hunters and considering the O’Rinn pack had been dead for ten years alrady, she figured she could claim the land.

First there is distrust and suspicion - Riley thinks the trio might be hunters, while they actually believe that Riley and her pack are a cult.

Conall O’Rinn has a lot of explaining to do. We’ll do that about mid-season.

Haley doesn’t know he’s a werewolf. He was only ten when their parents died and since he was not next in line, there was no reason to concern him with it. Well, in the back of his mind, he vaguely remembers wolves but he figured that was just his overly active imagination, you know? His twin-sister Meena however had been groomed to become the next Alpha from a young age and she always knew that they were both wolves.

That revelation causes a rift between the twins and it also makes Haley really freak out. Because, what? He’s a werewolf now? He always was a werewolf?

He runs away in a panic.

Not knowing what to do, Jess and Max go to seek help from the werewolf pack because who knows where Haley went and if something happened to him.

The Alpha however is still talking to grandpa O’Rinn and will not be disturbed - her loyal and fierce second-in-command Sara Lin/Jamie Chung makes sure of that. To appease her, her mate Mark Chase/Shemar Moore decides to get the meddling human kids out of the way.

Listening to their story though, he and his best friend Tony Del Bosque/Santiago Cabrera decide to thelp them find the runaway young wolf.

It’s Tony who finds Haley, trapped in a cave where he slipped and panicked. Only... the boy isn’t human when he finds him. Instead, he’s a beautiful white wolf. In the middle of a bright and sunny day. Something that should be absolutely impossible.

Now that needs to be reported to the Alpha. Because usually, young werewolves undergo their first change at age 25 - and it’s coming up for them. But it should only happen on a full moon. Wolves can’t just change at will.

Understandably freaked out, they look toward Riley for answers. The Alpha has to know what any of this means, right? Well, no, not really.

She instead sends them onto a quest to New York to visit a great sorceress - she might understand what strange magic is going on here.

While the pack-situation may not be sorted out, Riley does feel responsible for them so she sends Tony, Mark and Sara (the latter under great protests because she feels like babysitting is beneath her and that she ought to protect the Alpha and the pack) along with them. The journey is long and dangerous, after all. Sorcerers can’t be trusted and who knew what might lay along the way?

They travel cross country and encounter different supernatural creatures along the way, seeing the world with different eyes now. Jess grows incredibly fascinated by it all and starts documenting it, while Tony and Haley slowly fall in love with each other during the journey. Though neither is yet ready to admit anything.

Season 1 ends on a cliffhanger of Cassandra Leclair/Jane Lynch opening her door and greeting them - “I have been waiting to meet you, Sun Wolf.”.

Throughout the first season, we’d have a lot of flashbacks to the twins’ childhood. To their dad playing with Haley whenever their mom was teaching Meena about wolves. Most of the flashbacks would be Haley re-evaluating his memories, seeing the things in them that he, as an innocent child, had overlooked. And in those flashbacks, John Barrowman would repeatedly appear as their father’s best friend, though remaining unnamed for now and unassuming.

By the way, The Sun Wolf would also be the title of the show.

We open up season 2 where we left off in season 1 and Cassandra essentially tells Haley that there is nothing she can do for him. She only knows of a prophecy about a wolf who would walk the sun and that’s it.

The second season mainly takes place in New York, where Cassandra did however notice the magic pulsing through Max and starts teaching him about his powers. He never met his father, was raised by a single mother who never spoke a word of who Max’ father even was.

Haley all the while is majorly sulking because he feels like a freak, where Tony becomes a reassuring, gentle voice to him.

Jess gets her own plotline where she starts feeling left out. Between Haley the day-walking werewolf and Max the sorcerer, she was just... human. Her interest in magical creatures sparked in season one leads her to discover vampires though.

And while she doesn’t get turned, she gets into a lot of trouble with them. Weak from bloodloss and delirious with vampire-venom, she is used as bait to lure the others out. The vampires are out to kill them, but thankfully they brought Sara, Mark and Tony - aka three well-trained wolves - with them. Though Sara does most of the ass-kicking.

Afterward, we see the vampires reporting back to a shadowy figure where we can’t make out the face.

Sara decides to take Jess under her wing after this. She teaches the girl how to fight and how to defend herself and they share some bonding. Sara confides that she doesn’t always like being a werewolf, that all she ever wanted was a peaceful life. That turning every full moon is painful and a curse.

Jess learns to appreciate her humanity and embraces her role in their team. She gathers all the information she can - now no longer just a random journal about the supernatural they encountered, but clear evidence and everything they can find out about the Sun Wolf.

After Max’ training ends, Cassandra sends them on their way back home. They’re still bummed out that they didn’t really find any leads and she suggests they should talk to Max’ father about it - since he was a local sorcerer back when the O’Rinn pack was still in town, apparently (otherwise the siring of a son would have been hard, after all).

They get a name from her, because she recognized the signature of Max’ magic as that of a former student of hers. Maximus Bloodworth.

On their way back to Sunhaven, they are attacked by hunters.

In the final scene of season 2, we see the hunters report back to the same shadowy figure as the vampires earlier this season. The doorbell rings, interrupting the meeting. The figure walks toward the door and opens it to have our protagonists standing in front of him. “Are you Maximus Bloodworth? I think I’m your son”, says Max as the camera pans over his shoulder to reveal John Barrowman as not just Max’ father but also the one who had tried to kill them all along.

In season 3, we are finally returned to Sunhaven and have Maximus Bloodworth/John Barrowman relay the story of how the O’Rinn pack died from his perspective. Which, obviously, is a lie. He also tells them how he had fled, trying to save his own life, not knowing that Max’ mom was pregnant at the time. Which is... actually not a lie. Max is a factor he had not anticipated, so he changes his plans. He tries to sway them, to be the voice in Max’ ear, to appeal to the boys’ longing for a father-figure.

So season 3 sees a heavy focus on Max’ loyalty being torn between his friends and his father, with Maximus teaching him not just magic but dark magic that in its essence corrupts a sorcerer’s soul.

We are also shown that while they were off questing, Meena joined the pack and has taken to learning from Riley. That puts Meena and Sara at odds, because Sara sees her position as second-in-command threatened.

This season, Tony and Haley are actually finally going to get together. Because Max is so busy reuniting with his father, while Jess has completely buried herself in her research and in absorbing all the knowledge she can. In that time, Haley draws a lot of strength from Tony and here, back in the woods, he can actually train his shifting.

Now, Jess’ digging and researching brings her dangerously close to the truth, ending in an epic reveal. Because reading up on magic and wolves and sorcerers, she finds out that the first werewolf had been cursed by a sorcerer to walk the night under the full moon, using powerful light magic. So she finds out, or rather deducts, that it was powerful dark magic that enabled Haley to walk in the sunlight. The only powerful sorcerer anywhere nearby however was Maximus Bloodworth.

Max does not like to hear that. His dad was everything he had always pictured and more. And the dark magic he had unbeknowns been using had been corrupting him too.

The season ends with an epic show-down and fight between Max and Haley during which Jess gets hurt. In the end, Max flees with his father and we are left not knowing Jess’ fate.

Season 4 opens up in the hospital, where Jess is bitching to Sara about how much she hates it here.

The pack had done their best trying to find Max and his father and now they are trying to find out why Maximus would have done this in the first place.

Max all the while starts growing suspicious on his own. Now that they are no longer in a cozy lake house, having fun father-son bonding, he sees his father’s scheming and his underlings.

One day, he confronts his father and asks for the truth, demands to be trusted.

Maximus reveals that werewolves are bound to the moon. Instead, Maximus wanted to bind them to him. An army of obedient wolves, who can shift and attack and fight whatever day or night it is. He had used Meena and Haley as experiments when they were born, he had been trusted by their parents, had babysat them and spend a lot of time around them. And while the magic did not take with Meena, it took with Haley.

But when their mother found out about it and alerted the pack, it became too risky and Maximus intended to kill them all and only take Haley with him. Only that the twins had been with their grandfather at the time and the attack resulted in a large fire. Not knowing the twins had been gone to begin with and being unable to find them in the ashes now, Maximus assumed they had perished alongside their pack.

Only when Haley ran away and shifted at day, not far off from Maximus’ lake house, did he realize that his experiments had survived and been successful.

Panicked and disgusted does Max run away.

The pack however is not too welcoming toward the traitor. Sara in particular chases him off, because she had grown very protective over Jess since the vampire-incident in New York.

Not knowing what to do, Max finds himself returning to Cassandra Leclair in New York. The sorceress takes him in and she shares stories of his father’s youth. He had always had great potential, but also too much pride. He thought sorcerers were above all else. They were the ones who had created the curses of werewolves and vampires, they should be the ones to wipe them up. For that, he intended to pitch them against each other - since they had been rivals for as long as they existed.

While Max overcomes his addiction to dark magic at Cassandra’s and Jess goes through physical therapy at Sunhaven, Meena and Haley slowly reconnect again, because Meena knows how much it hurt Haley to lose his best friend like that. In the end, it is Meena who encourages Haley to go and search for Max - especially after Sara reveals that Max had dropped by weeks ago.

The twins go on this quest together and bond, sharing about their respective experiences. How Haley had always felt excluded by their mother favoring Meena. How Meena had always envied that Haley got to just grow up and be a child. Their parents were what had caused the rift between them.

In the end, Meena makes it to Cassandra’s. Bloodied and battered. And alone. Because Maximus knew that on the long run, Haley would come and seek out his best friend - and of course did Maximus know where his son went. He kidnapped the boy. And that’s how we end season 4.

Now, in the fifth and final season, the pack has to band together to track down Maximus and free Haley.

Jess and Max rekindle their friendship during this quest. They also find a new sense of appreciation for Tony, who is going completely crazy with worry for his boyfriend - and anger toward Meena for taking Haley on this quest without any form of backup.

Riley and Sara get to kick major ass. A lot of asses will be kicked this season, because Maximus also had his vampire experiments - and he had continued those over the past ten years. He has an army of vampires who can walk in the sunlight (which is why we had the vampires attack our team in season 2).

This season is very action packed and dramatic overall, so there’s not much to tell. In the end, they win, obviously. Riley, and other members of her pack, die during the fight. And we conclude the series with Meena becoming the rightful Alpha of the Sunhaven pack.

We see, battered and bruised but very much alive, Sara and Mark swearing their loyalty to their new Alpha who had proven herself during the final battle against the vampires.

We see Tony and Haley, happy and together, kissing in the sunset at the very cave they had first met.

We see Jess and Max opening up a book store - with a special section dedicated to magic, a book written by Jess laid out in the display.