#now I need fic where helen and declan meet

[seaemberthesecond]

This is one of the most underrated parts of Dream Thieves. Just so much to unpack.

Adam's indescribable horniness for Helen's kitten heels? Like, sir? Are you okay?

IMMEDIATELY projecting said horniness onto Declan? He's not even THERE. Why's he catching strays? Foul.

It's even more foul considering it's not remotely true. Dating Helen would be Declan's personal hell. For one, she's smart, loves meddling in people's lives, and has immense resources at her disposal. Helen Gansey and her sexy sexy shoes would be his worst nightmare. Forget dating, even being in the same room as her would make Declan start to dry-heave in panic.

And SECONDLY, you know Declan is at once wildly resentful, disgusted, and bewildered by eldest siblings who aren't massively parentified. Like, what do you MEAN your life's sole purpose isn't to protect your younger brother? Sounds fake, but ok. Couldn't be me though.

[abarbaricyalp]

Rushed Apologies and Their Consequences (Happy Valoween )

[I don’t care what Maggie said in her tweet. (Okay, I do, but I was already halfway done with this and so we’re going to disregard for 2800 words)

A stupid holiday fic that I knocked out in two good days (four bad ones with migraines). Not Valentine’s, but sappy enough to be.]

It begins in August with a rushed apology against his lips. Adam’s bag was already slung over his shoulder and his whole body was vibrating with energy. They’d only made it two weeks before Adam had let himself be convinced to come home. Adam with his new haircut, his curls in his face, the sides and back cropped close. Not Ronan close, but closer than Ronan was used to. His hand kept slipping on Adam’s hair, leaving small love bruises at the base of his skull or his shoulder instead, where Ronan held onto Adam like he was going to escape again.

Escape again. Adam had already put all the food Ronan insisted he took with him in the car. It was running behind them, a familiar purr while the shit-box remained on the blocks. No one else could leave town with the BMW but here Adam was, doing it anyway. Again. They’d been trading sad kisses for so long, Adam’s bag had dug a harsh mark on his shoulder, between two faint finger marks.

“I’m sorry,” Adam said again. Ronan could taste the sweat on his skin, the summer air thick around them. He moved his mouth to Adam’s jaw, up his new shaved sideburns into his flop of hair. He took a deep breath, getting more sun heat than shampoo. “I just don’t have time in my schedule now. Not until November.”

“Knew there was a reason it was so easy to get you down here so soon,” Ronan huffed, squeezing the back of Adam’s neck softly. Adam leaned into him, closed his eyes. Reacted just the way that made Ronan’s chest ache so badly.

Adam’s fancy new position was only a week old, despite his internship being closer to two years. But this was a real job and none of his time rolled over and he was stuck doing grunge work again, slaving away long hours and not able to ask for time off for at least six months. And knowing Adam, and Ronan does, even that won’t open a gate to more vacations.

“They’ll fix my schedule after the initial rush. By November, I’ll have weekends open again,” Adam promised. He squeezed his fingers on Ronan’s hip and coaxed him into another real kiss. Ronan wasn’t terribly upset. They were going into their third year navigating Adam’s college life. Things had come up before. There was one spring semester where Adam had only come home twice between the end of his winter break and the graduation in May. Spring Break was not one of those times. So, Ronan was pretty certain he could handle two months.

“Fucking answer my skype calls then,” he said gruffly, kissing the corner of Adam’s mouth.

“If I’m not working,” Adam said. He grinned, and it felt perfect on Ronan’s lips. “I’ve got to go, doll. I have work,” he murmured eventually, after they’d kissed and held and whispered nothings to each other for too long.

“I know. Just give me one more,” Ronan insisted. He tilted Adam’s face up with a hand on his jaw. Adam was weak and loose under him. They kissed again.

———-

 Ronan’s hair grew fast. It always had. His beard, his hair, his fucking pubes, even his leg hair the time Helen ripped a stripe off when they were fourteen at Gansey’s house. Adam shaved his head almost every two weeks when he was home and going a full month made Ronan look almost normal.

It’d been two months and no amount of begging got Adam down to Henrietta and no amount of Adam offering brought Ronan up to Boston. (“Your city wants to be hippie without fucking giving in and it isn’t punk either.”) Two months since they’d seen each other and Ronan was fucking itching out of his skin for just fucking eye contact.

By the time Halloween rolled around, Ronan had a full head of hair and he hated it. But he was playing a long con, dammit. And that required sacrifice. Sacrifice like not fist fighting Declan in Nino’s parking lot every time he scoffed at Ronan, because Declan’s a fucking pussy and would pull a handful of hair out of Ronan’s head to win. Sacrifice like suffering through Gansey’s, slightly drunken, speech at a party about how it shows Ronan’s growing past his childhood trauma. Sacrifice like biting his tongue and calling Blue and stripping down for her.

She kept an unimpressed eyebrow raised, clippers in hand. “Say again what you want me to do?”

Ronan self consciously, for once in his life, tugged his boxers higher on his waist before sitting down on the kitchen chair he’d dragged into the bathroom. The last thing he needed was for Blue to see the top of his crack because his stupid boxers rode down when he sat.

“Just, you know,” he waved his hand around, “the undercut thing.”

“Why would I do that to you?” she asked, still unimpressed, still dubious. She was home from a conservation trip early. She’d ended up so sick that they worried she’d risk the entire expedition. So there she was, recouping, and growling at Ronan without meaning too because her vocal cords went out with the cough.

“It’s for my Halloween costume. Come on, man, cut my damn hair.” Ronan was facing the mirror so he saw her roll her eyes and shove the flowy sleeves of her exercise shirt up.

“No one cuts their hair for a Halloween costume,” she grumbled. He almost didn’t hear it. “No one grows out their hair,” she added, louder, because then there was a comb between her teeth.

She balanced the clippers on Ronan’s shoulder and started pulling clips out of her hair, holding them between her lips with the comb. She gathered up as much of Ronan’s hair as she could in one fist and tied a rubberband around it. It\ was a sad excuse of a ponytail. A bun? He didn’t even know.

“God, you’ve got a lot of hair,” she muttered, tsking softly. “I don’t know how Adam has the patience to buzz it off so evenly.”

“He knows he’ll be fairly compensated,” Ronan answered with a lascivious grin. She buzzed the clippers against his bare neck in warning.

“How tall do you want the shaved part?” she asked, tucking his hair into clips.

“Does it matter? I’m going to shave it all off in the morning. Just make it look like Adam’s.”

Blue paused and then smirked at Ronan in the mirror. “You’re dressing up as your boyfriend for Halloween?” she teased. Ronan scowled at her and swatted at her hands.

Blue just laughed and went back to measuring the back of Ronan’s head with her hand. “Okay, well, Adam has a fade, since his hair is more wavy than curly. I don’t think you’d need it. Your curls will hide the hard edge of the shave.”

“Yeah, yeah, just get on with it, Sargent.”

Blue sighed, long suffering, and pressed the clippers against Ronan’s neck. He couldn’t help the initial shiver. It still fucking tickled after all this time and it’d been two months since he’s shaved his head.

“Don’t move,” Blue snapped and Ronan stilled again. The whole process barely took ten minutes. Blue stepped away and Ronan reached up to feel how high she’d shaved. It felt right, the short hair against his palm again. The ring Adam had given him, with no explanation, didn’t catch on anything and when he scratched his nails over the back of his head, it scritched wonderfully. In the mirror, he ran his hands over the side of his head. He looked ridiculous.  Like some kind of greaser who survived to the present day. He hated it and he loved it. Mostly he loved it because Adam was going to lose his shit over it. He hated everything else about it.

“Are you driving up to see him?” Blue asked. Ronan stood and scrubbed his hands through his hair to get the loose hair off. More fell from his shoulders, dark curls littered the floor. Blue threw a towel at him.

“Cheng’s throwing a party up there. He’s making Adam go. I’ll meet him there.”

“And I assume the poor guy doesn’t have a clue what you’re planning,” she added.

“Hell no. The shit doesn’t wanna come home for half a year, he can deal with being surprised now and then.”

Blue rolled her eyes and sighed. “Gansey’s making us go look for temporal areas and crossing spirits.”

“I thought that was St. Mark’s Eve.”

“You think the line between worlds is weak only once in 365 days?”

Ronan scoffed as he quickly rifled through his memories of spirits, ley lines, and temporal spaces.  “No,” he ventured with another scoff.

“You’re such a bad liar. It’s a good thing you don’t make a habit of it, isn’t it?”

“Fuck off, Sargent. I have to get going to make it to the party before Adam decides to leave.”

“Then you’ve only got a few hours, huh?”

“You know it and I know it,” Ronan agreed with a grin. “Get outta my house. Go find ghosts with your boyfriend. Say hi to our favorite if you hear him.”

Blue knocked her fist against Ronan’s shoulder and he reciprocated before she handed back the clippers and left just as quickly as she’d come. Ronan cleaned the mess, got himself dressed again, and headed out to the truck. He fucking hated driving it up to Boston, but Adam still had the BMW and he didn’t really have a choice, unless he wanted to risk getting stranded on the side of the road in the Shitbox, which was only partially working. Worse than the Pig even. And apparently the Pig wasn’t available for a multi-day joy ride either, if Gansey was off hunting the supernatural again. As if the supernatural had not always found its way to him.

He took one last longing look at the Barns and made sure the psychics hadn’t already texted him about the brat, before he backed out of the driveway entirely too quickly for the old truck.

 _______________

 Cheng’s party was already in full swing, even though it was only eight. Ronan parked in the garage, even though everyone else was parked on the street, and stepped out in a nicely fitted suit, old Harvard letter jacket thrown over his arm. He’d stolen the jacket from Gansey Sr. Ronan and Gansey III hated it enough that it was reviling just to hold it, but Adam had been meticulous in not leaving his hoodie anywhere Ronan could grab it and hide it. The suit came up just before his ankles, tucked neatly against his hips, a call back to Ronan’s favorite Fancy-Adam-Look when he’d forgotten a pair of slacks and had to make do with a pair of Gansey’s. But Gansey was significantly shorter than Adam and the pants had been too short. Still, everyone called him a trendsetter and Henry started wearing his slacks cuffed. Ronan was pretty sure Henry just wanted an in real life excuse to wear them like that, but whatever. His shirts always fit in the most delicious way because of how sculpted his arms were and how tight his waist was. He could walk into a common store, grab a shirt, and have it fit perfectly. Ronan didn’t have to worry about that. He just tailored his shirt tighter than he normally wore them.

And he’d thrown a little bit of product in his hair to keep his curls where they belonged, instead of falling all over his head like a wet perm.

All in all, he thought  he looked kind of like Adam. A caricature of Adam, at least. People would get the joke. Adam would definitely get the joke. And either Ronan was definitely getting laid tonight, or he’d get punched. Either way, he was going to see his boyfriend.

Ronan slung the jacket over his shoulder and stalked into the frat house Cheng was hosting his party in. Naturally, Cheng found him before Ronan found Adam.

“Attack dog! Who let you off your leash?” Cheng laughed, stumbling through the crowd, losing adoring fans along the way. “Ronan Lynch, no shit, you’re really here?” he laughed, slinging an arm around Ronan’s ribs. Across the room, Ronan catches a flash of blond snap up.

Without even waiting for Cheng to let go of him, Ronan was pushing through the crowd, meeting Adam halfway in a collision of confusion and joy.

“Ronan?” Adam asked, staring at Ronan’s chest instead of his face like that would have more answers. He brought his hand up to the straight line of buttons, the silly bow tie. Finally, he looked up at Ronan and choked on his next breath. “What the hell, Lynch?” he laughed, reaching up to run his fingers through Ronan’s hair gently before tugging on it just lightly. “That’s why you’ve been wearing a hat when you call? Bad shave job, my ass.” Adam was beaming up at Ronan and Ronan felt everything in his soul melt for the man in front of him.

He hugged his arms around Adam’s waist and leaned down to kiss him deeply. The letter jacket fell to the ground as Adam moved his hands over Ronan’s shoulder. He didn’t stop to grab the jacket until both he and Ronan had gone breathless and light-headed from kissing. He held it in front of him before looking at Ronan and scoffing indignantly.

“You’re dressed like me! God, you’re such a shit!” Adam laughed, throwing the jacket at Ronan before stepping into his arms again and pressing his face to Ronan’s chest. He could feel his strong heartbeat, ecstatic and bounding in his chest. Adam could listen to it all night, could find it under all the bad music and the shouting voices.

“What’re you supposed to be then?” Ronan asked after a few more moments of just taking Adam in again. It was more overwhelming than he’d expected. Getting Adam back was always like coming home. Like freezing rain when he was angry. Like opening the windows on the first spring day. Like waking up in fresh sheets.

Adam stepped back and gestured to himself. “I’m a cowboy. You can’t tell?” he teased. And Ronan would be able to tell if he wasn’t soaking in Adam in dirty jeans again. He’d stopped wearing them so much once he started school. Then it was all smart attire and clean dark wash. Ronan reached for his hips, pulling him close.

“You’re making all my stupid childhood fantasies a little bit dirtier,” he growled, leaning down to kiss Adam’s jaw.

“Mmm, maybe that was what I was going for,” Adam agreed. He brought a hand back up to Ronan’s head, pulling at his hair again. “Let’s get back home,” he murmured, tilting his head to kiss Ronan’s earlobe.

“Hell yeah, cowboy,” Ronan agreed, grabbing Adam’s hand and dragging him out of the house. Adam laughed and followed.

 ______________

 “Adam,” Ronan murmured, rolling over further to drop himself over Adam’s arm.  “Adam,” he insisted. He kissed Adam’s jaw and then his shoulder and down his arm. “Adam Parrish.”

Adam groaned and elbowed Ronan in the face before mumbling an apology into his pillow. “What, Lynch?”

“Come shave my head.”

“It’s not even seven in the morning,” Adam yawned, pulling the blanket free from under Ronan’s hip to hold it over his head. Ronan pulled the blanket away again.

“Yeah, but it’s been two months for me. I look like an idiot.”

“Thought you were s’posed to look like me?”

Ronan kissed Adam’s arm again, holding it hand to pull it to his lips, kissing his knuckles until he could get his lips around two of Adam’s fingers.

Adam groaned under him, turning over more and working his hips against the bed subtly. “Fine. Fine. I’ll shave your stupid head,” he mumbled, but didn’t move.

“Baby,” Ronan whined, shifting down to kiss the line of Adam’s spine, down to the dimples between his hips, just above his ass. “Baby, please,” he breathed softly, nuzzling his nose along Adam’s back.

Goosebumps erupted over Adam’s skin and he shivered under the attention before finally rolling over. Ronan face planted into his stomach but made do, kissing down his happy trail. “Stop that if you want me to go shave your head,” Adam warned in a yawn, one hand going to his hair and the other going to Ronan’s. He scratched his nails over Ronan’s scalp and combed his fingers through his beautiful curls. “Do we have to cut it?” he asked in a whine. They were both whiny that morning. They could do that to each other.

Ronan licked a strip over Adam’s hip bone. “Don’t I treat you good after you help me out?” he asked, scraping his teeth over Adam’s hip before he looked up at him. He watched Adam swallow and then bite his lip. ”Please dig out those terrible clippers of yours and take care of my hair. Then I’ll take care of you, baby.”

“Yeah,” Adam agreed thickly. “Yeah, alright, let’s get you shaved again, doll.”

Ronan leans up and kissed him, something soft and sweet and slow.

[Read on AO3 HERE]