#ship: all the world's against us ( maurice & alec )

[fixaidea]

Shipper tag game

I was tagged by @dual-domination :D

What ship were you completely obsessed with when you were a teenager, but now you don't care anymore? Completely obsessed is a bit strong, but I was really into Grindelwald/Dumbledore. It's probably easy to guess what turned me off the whole series in general.

Which ship would you consider your first one? I think it was Éowyn and Faramír from LotR.

Your first fanfic belonged to which couple? That's actually surprisingly easy to check because I didn't start to write shippy fic until my AO3 days - it's Enjolras and Grantaire from Les Mis.

Do you remember the first couple you saw a fanart over? I have no distinct memory of it, but it had to be something Harry Potter related, because my fandom life started on some forum dedicated to that.

Did you ever get into ship discourse? Not personally, but I did sit on the sideline with a bucket of popcorn. That, or going on and on about how and why I dislike certain ships, but I can't recall actually fighting anyone over them. (Most noteworthy are the Great Enjonine war of 2013 and the whole Reylo thing.)

Did you used to have any no-otp or have it currently? Reylo was part of the reason why I backed away from SW, it was bloody everywhere. Weirdly enough, Enjolras/Grantaire. Yes I ship it. No, not like that. The level of weird mischaracterisation these two suffered in fandom was off the charts, like, you had to seriously dig to even get some canon-era fic, everything else was modern AU with OCs that incidentally shared the name of the characters you wanted to read about.

Who were the couple in the last fanfic you read? Wu Xie and Zhang Qiling. ...Or possibly Wu Xie and Shen Wei, I can't remember which one I read last.

Currently, do you have any OTPs? The one I'm currently most obsessed over is PingXie.

Is there any couple that, to this day, you are extremely mad about not getting together? Honestly? Rey and Finn from Star Wars. They started out on such a great note! Like you coud actually feel that these two LIKED each other! ...Don't get me started on this one, I'll descend into a frothing diatribe against the Sequel Trilogy in 0,5 seconds flat. Disgraceful.

Is there any ship you used to dislike but now you think they are kind of interesting? I can't think of any.

Do you have any ship that, in the past, was considered normal but now you would be cancelled over? ...Maybe if I still enthusiastically shipped Grindeldore? My ships are usually either pretty vanilla or intentionally dark.

What was your favorite crack ship? This is a difficult question, because I usually take my weird crossovers more seriously than crack, but Enjolras and Captain America probably qualify?

Who is the couple you read more fanfics off? Huhh... that probably comes down to a draw between Enjolras and Grantaire from Les Misérables and Xie Lian and Hua Cheng from Heaven Official's Blessing.

What most of your ships usually have in common? There's often a 'two against the world' element. This applies across all sorts of genres from Maurice/Alec (Maurice) all the way to HuaLian.

What you absolutely hate in a ship? Negging and emotional abuse sold as '''banter'''. Plain old abuse sold as #relationshipgoals. Like if you're writing a dark ship that's all fine and well but don't ask me to pretend it's cute.

[fixaidea]

Obviously Alec had been conscious of what an enormous leap of faith he was making when he let the ship sail without him and trusted Maurice to show up at the boathouse, but still, the full weight of his decision - or rather what could have come of it - only hit him much, much later.

When it finally did, it came down on him like a tonne of bricks. He was sitting in a pub in Dover, beside Maurice, a ticket to France in each of their pockets. Besides them, at the bar, an old man was talking. Alec only gradually started to pay attention, but apparently he was complaining about his niece’s employer, and how he was making eyes at her.

‘Keeps promising the stars to her, the bastard. Marriage even!’

‘Well, let them marry!’ a young man commented ‘Would make her go right up in the world!’

The old man stared as if the youth sprouted another head.

‘Bollocks! You can’t think he would really do that! Folks like ‘im, they don’t sees the likes of us as people. We’re just things for ‘em to use. She’ll be lucky if this ain’t ending in a dead baby or her out on the street.’

Alec shifted a little, suddenly uncomfortable. The sentiment was familiar - there was a brief but horrible time, before the British Museum, when he believed Maurice to be just such a man.

‘But what if he means it? There must be exceptions, right?’ the unknown young man went on.

His old companion shook his head gravely.

‘No exceptions.’

Alec bristled at that. He wanted to brag, to tell them off, to show off his wonderful man, but of course he knew it was impossible. Still, he shot a sideways glance at Maurice - no use, the man was completely engrossed in a timetable.

Once back in their room and changed for bed, Alec settled on his back, letting his friend rest his head on his chest, just as he liked to do. He stared up at the ceiling. He wanted to sleep, but the exchange at the bar would not leave him be. Not that he was worried about his future, it was more like a retroactive dread and a sense of awe over how his impossible gamble paid off - against all chance and reason.

It hadn’t always been easy for Maurice, adjusting to their new life. It even included a memorable occasion of literally crying over spilled milk. Exhausted and frustrated over too little sleep, being constantly ordered about and belittled by bosses spilled over one night when he dropped and broke a jug. He spent the next five minutes staring at it with glassy eyes, seemingly not even realising he was crying. Still, he persisted. He adapted and learned, and never looked back at his old life. 

This, as much if not even more than all the embraces, the kisses, the shared laughter and the soft ‘I love you’s in bed, cemented Alec’s faith in the strength and sincerity of their bond.

Alec smiled and ran a hand through his sleeping lover’s hair. Maurice said it was a one in a thousand chance they’d met. He was wrong of course.

It was exactly a one-inna-millon chance.

But, Alec knew, one-inna-million chances were bound to crop up nine times out of ten.