#romances I never tire of

[silbrith]

Favorite Holiday Reads

10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall. Sam -- please don't call him Samwise -- is the perfect cinnamon roll for a cold December night. Can he melt the heart of grumpy Jonathan? Will Sam's cat Gollum steal the best scenes? Will the quirky relatives' idea of Christmas cause a Titanic-sized disaster? Knowing the answers makes rereading even more satisfying!

Tagging anyone who would like to share their faves.

[altschmerzes]

if the only time you bring up A Secret Third Thing is when someone has suggested generally celebrating or uplifting platonic/queerplatonic fictional relationships in spaces that ordinarily obsess about romantic ones to the exclusion of all else perhaps consider why you’re doing that and also stop.

[littlelovelore]

wowie wowie wow

[soysaurus]

There's a trait that runs through every hero, regardless of if they've spent the last couple months in prison, rehab, or wrangling pyjamas onto a stubborn five-year-old: they're a workaholic.

Thank god Jason is not a hero. Roy, on the other hand, definitely is. He might be ‘inactive’ or ‘I’m just focusing on Lian right now, thanks’, but Jason has dropped by Roy's shitty apartment in Star often enough that he can confidently say Roy, no matter what, is a hero.

So he kicks him.

“Ow! What the fuck, Jaybird?” Roy glares as he brings his fingers to his lips, slurping up the bright orange liquid that’s currently coating half his sleeve.

More keeps dripping onto the floor in radioactive bursts, and the bowl is steaming. It has a chip in the side from when Jason was teaching Lian how to shoot, and Jason knows what the ceramic feels like when steam is escaping from every orifice. He had to use his Red Hood gloves to hold the damn thing last time. He had to do a lot of things, but Roy's fingers don't shake as he holds the bowl in one hand.

He kicks Jason lightly back. “You're a fucking asshole, Todd, ya know that?”

Jason's head is a slow buzz. It's a sound that he can feel spit behind his eyes, sing with sharp vowels and harsh chords. It's something that's attacking him from the inside-out, digging deep until he can feel the green of the pit flare in his throat.

“Fuck ‘ff,” he murmurs, turning his head to look anywhere but Roy. “Don't need your shit-ass soup. Don't need anythin’.”

He moves to stand, to sit, to do anything but be useless on the sofa.

Roy only needs one hand to hold Jason down, and Jason tells himself it's just this once. It's because Roy is a hero and Jason is anything but.

“Dude, you're, like, what? Two seconds from passing out my couch? Eat the damn soup.”

Jason doesn't look as the bowl is shoved in front of him. More sloshes over the sides, lapping at Roy's thumb. He needs to get his mind out of the gutter. He needs to remember why he came here in the first place.

Roy groans, deep and guttural with his head thrown back and all the muscles in his neck straining. Sometimes Jason wants to curl his fingers around the thick flesh, cord his soul into the pieces of Roy he can never get back, and take him. For real this time.

He looks at the damned fucking soup.

It's tomato or carrot, or maybe even something that has never been orange in the first place. Jason can feel the steam hitting his nose hairs but he can't smell anything. “Needs more seasoning,” he spits.

Roy sighs. The soup nips his fingers again as he plops down onto the sofa. Their thighs touch, brush, hold on tight enough to blur the lines.

“You're sick,” Roy says. He holds up a spoon. It's caked in red. “Here comes the aeroplane…”

Jason wants to punch him, and it's fine because even though Jason rescued Roy first, Jason was also the first who left. He was the first who walked away and didn't return. He was the first one who died, and then died again.

It's stupid. Roy likes to say he died too, but Jason doesn't like thinking about explosions. He can't think about anything right now anyway. His brain hurts. The words in his head buzz. A hot tip touches his lips but it's not the right kind.

“Open wide.” Roy's using his Dad voice, and it's horrifying. Jason can feel his heart in his lungs and sometimes he forgets Roy has green eyes too.

They're earthier. Grounded. They're nothing like the look Jason stares at Roy with when Lian's gone to bed and the bowl's still chipped and the dishes haven't been scrubbed but everyone is too tired to touch it.

Roy sighs. The spoon clatters into the bowl, and he sucks the soup from his thumb again. “Jay, you gotta work with me here. You're sick. Being a stubborn asshole isn't gonna change that. What're you even doing here, man? Thought you were tired.”

Jason has never said he's tired before. At least not to Roy. The voice in his head that glows green and grins acid is different. He thinks he loves the voice and also hates it. He doesn't know if it's himself or someone else.

“Shut up, Harper.” He sniffs without meaning to and promptly closes his mouth.

Roy's lips break into that sly grin that means he's going home with at least a couple numbers and a body or two hanging from his elbows. “Only if you eat the damn soup. Otherwise I'll keep going, baby. I can keep this up all night long.” He winks as if Jason doesn't know him. “You know I've got the stamina to prove it.”

Jason rolls his eyes. Kind of. It hurts and the world spins, and then Roy's whispering meaningless words into his ear. He thinks his eyes are open but then he blinks and sees the ceiling. He does a double take but his body doesn't move. The air swirls. Something pinches his hips, then his legs, and then Jason is in Roy's room and the sheets smell like his body wash.

There's another smell, something heady and unmistakably Roy. Jason's not in love because he's never been in love. He doesn't know what it looks like.

He smells soup.

A ceramic bowl clatters gently, and a duvet is tugged up to Jason's chin. The bed dips next to Jason's waist and Roy's hair is long. It isn't tied back, but it was before. With the lamp light, his eyelashes look brighter. Almost like they're glowing.

Jason's not in love because Roy could never love him. He's just not the type. He's someone who dedicates his life to one person and one person only, and Jason is nowhere near a hero.

The tip of the spoon touches his bottom lip. It's cooler.

“Open wide.”

Maybe it's because it's half-one in the morning or Jason's running a fever higher than he ever has before, or because he's only twenty-one and yet he has over half of Gotham's underground under his control. His chest clenches. Tim said Jason's going to end up with heart attacks if he keeps this going, and then Jason yelled about all the empty Red Bull cans littering Tim's floor.

Jason's only twenty-one but he's never been in love. He was, maybe, once when he was fifteen. But that was before the voice in his head was impossibly loud. He doesn't remember who it was, and they're probably gone.

He opens his mouth. Roy grins, sly and dirty. His Dad voice slips out: “Good boy.”

Jason's going to kill him. He doesn't remember why he came to Star City tonight. He doesn't remember a lot of things.

His chest tightens even more as he swallows, and maybe Tim is right. Maybe heart attacks are going to be what finally takes Jason out.

[ghostorbz]

I was supposed to play games after school but I did this instead. I am oh so very tired

@butter1knife

[reneedenoailles]

some of you piss me off so bad because why is it that it's the "red flag girlies" who are the problem and yet you "green flag" girls throw the sticks & stones constantly by calling us boring, wannabe different or edgy.

you're not morally superior for wanting to romance a man you'd date in real life comparing to me wanting to romance a man like amen, for example. and i say him because you guys will say amen girlies are the worst people of this fandom as if some of you guys' faves (livius) don't have insane fans.

i'm just really fatigued by this whole red flag/green flag thing and honestly just wish we could let go of those terms altogether. yeah, how does that sound ? getting rid of reductive terms shoving characters in boxes they barely belong in ?

on that note, if i see any of you refer to vincent as a "red flag" i'm going to run you over with a soulless truck.

[coolaidstain]

TIL that theres aphobes on Tumblr trying to claim that Jughead Jones has actually been gay coded the whole time and that saying he's ace is homophobic I fucking hate it here

[read-write-thrive]

platonic and romantic are not some sort of binary that relationships have to be divided into. they’re not even two ends of a linear spectrum. they’re fully just abstract concepts made up of culturally-dependant social behaviour and expectations that are continually forced upon people to reinforce religious, legal, and broader societal/cultural norms, often and repeatedly to the detriment of non-normative groups including, but not limited to, the queer community. and I am sick and tired of those norms being replicated in fucking fandom discourse, of all places

[karlachismylife]

Whenever I meet people that can only identify the most basic types of relationships like "friends", "lovers", MAYBE if I'm lucky "mentor and mentee" or even "found family" (just don't get me started on the whole "if they're sworn brothers, romantic relationship between them is incest" spiel), every time I honestly am sad for them.

I can't imagine my life without being achingly in love with a witch girl from my pack, knowing she loves me back just as well as I know we will never share more than a single cheek kiss, myriads of minutes spent holding hands and countless poems I wrote and she kept. This is not friends or lovers, this is love that exists in its own way.

I can't imagine my life without sighing after a pretty Arlequin with the most beautiful eyebrows and a cheeky grin, knowing you will never be on the same level and being genuinely happy to stay like a loyal adoring dog at his feet. This is not friends or mentor and mentee, this is love that exists in its own way.

I can't imagine my life without latching onto a big brother that didn't know your name when you already sensed he's going to be your big bro in the frightening new step of your life. Knowing it won't be as special for him, but he'll be the best big brother you could ask for, after you strike a conversation by telling him a fun fact about whale songs. This is not friends or found family, this is love that exists in its own way.

I can't imagine my life without feeling like broken mirror shards laying on the asphalt of a secluded town outskirts road, soaked in someone's rain and knowing that this person you call himinn minn will forever be just that - your unreachable, elusive rainy summer sky. Even in a cold, lonely winter. Exchanging words of love and hot whispers, feverish fantasies over their portaits, talking into the void they left after disappearing - and still knowing it all was the most beautiful of loves shared mutuially. This isn't lovers, this is my sea being in love with their sky, and this love exists in its own way.

I can't imagine my life without running away from the dystopian reality of grey panel buildings and people talking to butchers, so fucking alone, cold and filled with bitter cigarette smoke, only to find myself a hundred years back, in the body of a Silver Age poet falling in love with a fellow runaway in Paris, the one that hears him when no one else does. Knowing the promise "Я все равно тебя когда-нибудь возьму — одну или вдвоем с Парижем." is just that, a promise, and it's enough. This is not friends or lovers, this is love that exists in its own way.

Yearning, devotion, solace, connection, accidents that stay with you for life, worshipping, inspiring, leading, soothing, peace, rebellion. Heart bursting with acrylic paints and calm humming of a habit.

There are so many ways people get with other people. I pity those that had only ever known the basics, but I do hope that they're happy like this.

I am happy with my collection of people that I can only ever name by their nicknames, because I can never refer to them as friends, lovers, internet acquaintances.

[spacedlexi]

maybe if i just put these screenshots together youll understand why i think their relationship just Works so well as it pertains to the characters and themes of S4 in general

neither of them know what theyre doing, but theyre figuring it out Together. the old ways are dead. and together theyll build a new future thats worth fighting for

[silbrith]

For Dragon Lovers

National Appreciate a Dragon Day on January 16 is for the dragon lovers of the world. Count me as one of them! I've written about dragons in three of my fanfic series—Six-Crossed Knot, Tales from the Library, and Arkham Files—and even managed to sneak them into Caffrey Conversation. My preference is for lovable dragons with plenty of personality. I have no interest in reading about such magnificent creatures being killed. You won't be surprised that The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman and All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness rank high in my story recommendations. True, the dragon in All Souls Trilogy is actually a firedrake, but that's close enough.

Other recs:

Tales from Verania (5-book series) by T.J. Klune

Guards! Guards! (Discworld) by Terry Pratchett

Champion of the Scarlet Wolf (2-book series) by Ginn Hale

Dragon's Egg Blue by @penna-nomen. In my post about werewolves, I'd already recommended this gem of a Discworld fanfic. It's a must-read for dragon lovers too!

Smaug in The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien gets an honorable mention since he has personality in spades. I do wish he'd turned over a new leaf. Couldn't Gandalf have gotten to him before he became such a destroyer?

Who are your favorite dragons?

A special shout-out to @penna-nomen on her birthday! May all the dragons in your life be as adorable as Bonnie!

[watery-melon-baller]

theres people who only have one ship and people who don't have any ships and multishippers well im inventing a new kind of shipper and it's "all of these people are gay and a little in love with each other but the romance is up to interpretation"

[preciouslittle-bhaalbabe]

There's that needy little "mmph" again <3

[sailorshadzter]

hak & yona moments

[seeminglydark]

Drawing comics all day so here’s a little cool down smooch

Caro and Johnny are from my webcomic Mil-Liminal 💜

[thefabulousfab-3]

Why do tv writers hate romance????? Why does it always get shoved aside for petty ass drama that ends up doing nothing for the plot. Be better!!!!!