#sometime you just have to word vomit a bit of wolfstar and call it a day

[tealeavesandtrash]

Wolfstar Micro Fic - @wolfstarmicrofic prompt: burn - 184 words

His touch is fire, electricity crackling like sparks. Remus cradles Sirius’ face in his hands, cards his fingers through silky dark hair, sparkling grey eyes looking up at him through thick lashes.

It’s a precious thing, to have Sirius and to hold him - a bright burning star that belongs only to him and it feels almost wrong to keep it all to himself, but in this moment it is just them. Just Sirius and Remus and the rest of the world is an irrelevant afterthought.

Sirius runs his hand along his skin, along his thighs, his chest, ghosting over silvery white scars. Scars like craters on the moon basking in the starlight. And that might be the most inmate part of it all. No one else will ever know him in such detail.

It is an all-encompassing tidal of emotion. Of love and passion and vulnerability and understanding. Remus can only bow over and let it engulf him. Sirius kisses him and Remus melts into his touch.

The world could be burning down around them and Remus wouldn’t care, wouldn’t give up this moment.

[sunflower-swan]

Wolfstar Chapter 15

A/N: Here’s what you need to know: I created this story for Writer’s Month 2020. Every day is a new prompt, and therefore a new chapter. This is an AU Wolfstar where Remus is a tattoo artist next door to Sirius who manages a flower shop. James and Lily are alive in this universe and own a coffee shop across the street. And to make parts of the story work with the prompts, Remus is about 10 years older than Sirius. It also takes place more or less in present time, minus Covid-19.

This is chapter 15 of a multi-chapter work. If you’d like to start from the beginning, here is chapter 1.

Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters. I just like to play with them.

Day 15 Prompt: Coffee Shop AU

Rating: Teen and Up

Word Count: 1448

Tags: humor, fluff, angst, smoking, cigarettes

Chapter 15

Remus

Otis Redding, “Cigarettes and Coffee”

But it seemed so natural, darling

That you and I are here

Just talking over cigarettes and drinking coffee, ooh now

Remus awoke on a hard concrete floor. His bones protested as he moved to a seated position. He leaned his back against the bars of the cage and let out an exhausted breath from the effort. Still seated, he Accio’d his wand, and began the arduous task of post-transformation clean-up. Once his skin was delicately pieced back together, he stood and turned around. It was only then he noticed Sirius lying on the ground outside the cage.

He stayed?

With a groan, he swung open the door of his cell.

“Sirius.” He nudged the man on the ground with his toe. “Sirius,” Remus repeated with a shake to his shoulder.

Finally Sirius began to stir. He let out an uncomfortable groan that only comes from sleeping on hard concrete. Unfortunately, Remus knew the sound well. One time he thought a mattress in the cell was a good idea. He had woken up to a destroyed mattress.

Sirius rubbed his hand over his face, then peered up at Remus standing over him. “Morning,” he croaked.

“Morning. How about some coffee?” Remus held his hand out to Sirius.

He grasped the hand, and Remus helped him to a standing position.

“You look like hell, Remus.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

~~~~~

After Remus took a shower and changed his clothes, the pair went across the street to the Cafe. Remus ordered the largest Cafe Mocha that James and Lily offered: an enormous mug of hot chocolate, with a shot of espresso, topped with an obscene amount of whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate syrup. Sirius ordered a small black coffee.

Sirius insisted on an outside table today. He chose a seat downwind of Remus, and as he sat down, he pulled out and lit a cigarette. He took a long draw with his eyes closed, then tilted his head back and exhaled so the smoke went behind him. Remus watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed.

Lily showed up with their drink orders. “Everything ok, fellas? Felt like a change of scenery?” She glanced awkwardly between Remus and Sirius.

“Everything is fine, Lily. Thanks. In about twenty minutes you can bring me another one of these.”

“Ok…” Lily raised her eyebrows, but didn’t question them further. She turned and went back into the Cafe.

Remus attempted to appear calm. He sipped his drink and watched his friend closely. Unable to handle the silence any longer he said, “I was bitten when I was young. Most employers are not generous or understanding in dealing with lycanthropes. It worked out to my benefit that I chose to be self-employed and can set working hours around the cycle of the moon.” It all sort of tumbled out at once, like word vomit. Better than actual vomit, that could sometimes happen the morning after. Might still happen anyway.

Sirius remained silent. He put out the butt of his cigarette and took a sip of his coffee. The bitterness caused him to make a face, but he took another sip.

“Sirius,” Remus pleaded, “please say something.”

“What do you want me to say, Remus?” He raised an eyebrow.

The irony of the question was not lost on Remus. Less than forty-eight hours ago, they had stood mere feet from where they were now sitting, and Remus had asked the same of Sirius.

“Fair enough.” Remus was shocked Sirius was sitting here at all. He was surprised when he found him sleeping on the floor outside the cage. Any sane person would have run the moment he transformed.

“Although...” Sirius tapped his fingers on the formica. “...it does explain the name of your place.”

The both looked across the street: ‘Mark of the Wolf, Tattoo Lounge’.

“I thought you were being artsy and deep when you came up with the name. Turns out I was wrong.” He looked back at Remus, and gave a lopsided grin. Sirius leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. “You were being quite literal.”

Remus chuckled and picked at his fingernails. “Yeah.” He finally looked up and met Sirius’ sparkling eyes. “You’re one to talk though.” Leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table, he glanced across the street at the Flower Loft. “Dog Among the Daisies, Flower Loft. Bit on the nose, don’t you think?”

Sirius threw his hands out to the side and shrugged, before clasping them under his chin. “So we’re both hiding in plain sight. What’s your point?”

“I don’t have a point. Merely pointing it out.”

Lily appeared with Remus’ second Cafe Mocha, and a coffee pot to refill Sirius’ cup.

“Thank you, Lily,” Sirius said.

“One more after this one, Lils,” Remus added, “and some chocolate cake with that one as well. If you have some?”

“Sure thing, Remus.” She smiled and left the men again.

Suddenly, Sirius began chuckling. His shoulders shook and he played with his cup of coffee between his hands.

“What’s so funny?” Remus asked.

Sirius’ eyes were alight when he looked up at Remus. A half smile tugged at his lips. “Uh...good metabolism?” he quoted Remus' words from a few months ago back to him.

“It’s...not an untrue statement.” Remus shrugged.

The heavy weight in Remus' chest dissolved. He hadn’t even realized he’d been carrying it around until it was gone. Knowing Sirius knew about this part of him, and he wasn’t running for the hills, was a positive sign. His lycanthropy wasn’t his only secret, but it was the biggest one. Remus felt  he carried more skeletons than most. More than anything he wanted to be completely open and honest. One thing at a time, he reminded himself. 

“So, what sort of work would you have wanted to do if you didn’t have this...furry little problem?” Sirius asked.

Remus snickered. Furry little problem…? He glanced at the building which housed the Potter’s Wheel Cafe. “Well, I actually really wanted to work at Rising Phoenix Roasters when I was younger. See, they hire artists to design magical specialty latte patterns.”

“That sounds cool.”

Remus nodded in agreement. “Still,” he shrugged, “I’ve got the Tattoo Lounge. You know?”

“Do you ever think about what it would have been like to work at Rising Phoenix Roasters?”

“Well…” Remus rested his chin in his hand. “I imagine it might be something like…”

Remus sat in the back room. The ‘Creators Room’ is what the baristas called it. It’s where wizards like Remus designed intricate latte and cappuccino art. The baristas mused that The Creators sole purpose was to torture them with the most complicated patterns imaginable. They were right.

All of the Creators were highly skilled in the pour of a perfect latte. Occasionally one might prove as adept at customer relations as they were in designing, but they were the exception and not the rule. The owners tried to put Remus behind the counter once. It turned into a fiasco. No, he was very happy and content to remain in the Creators Room.

The sounds of porcelain clanking, steamers swishing, and people chittering, along with the smell of espresso brewing, served as the backdrop of his muse. He had been working on this dragon art for the past week. It’s wing flap wasn’t quite right yet, so he pressed on.

His alarm went off, indicating his shift was over. Without the alarm, he would keep working until they shut the lights out on him. It had happened once. Or twice. All things considered, there were worse ways to earn a living.

Sirius looked at Remus in wonder. “Wow,” he whispered. “So why didn’t you just open your own coffee shop?”

“Crowds. Not a fan,” Remus replied. “Plus, like I told you, a tattoo is forever whereas a latte is temporary. You drink it, it’s gone, you forget about it. Besides,” he took a deep breath and looked into Sirius’ eyes, “if I wasn’t a tattoo artist, then I may never have met you.”

He watched Sirius blush and look into his coffee. Then he ran a hand over the back of his head. “This is true,” he said with a smile. “I know you’re not opening up today,” he added with a sigh and a glance at the time, “but I am, and I need to get going.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Remus was sad to see Sirius go, even if it was only across the street. “See you later?”

Sirius stood and reached for his wallet. “Definitely. And Remus, I wasn’t lying before. I really don’t care about your...condition. It’s only one night a month. The other thirty and one-half days you’re totally fine.”

Remus heart soared at these words. “Thanks, Sirius.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 16

[bixgirl1]

I think I saw you say somewhere that have a squick of self harming in fan fictions and that's what you don't like right? Do you have other ones and what do you like ?

Hi nonnie!  Yep, a squick is something that, when reading, a person tends to avoid. It can be an outright trigger or simply something that makes the reader crinkle their nose and shake their head before closing out. It’s a fairly universal term in fandom that helps to explain why you won’t/can’t/don’t like reading something, and the beauty of it is that, once the word is used, no further explanation is (or should be) required — because sometimes there is no further explanation, you know? Sometimes you just… don’t like something. 

As for my personal squicks/likes/and dislikes, that requires a longer answer, so I’m going to put it under a cut.

The short answer is yes and no. Self-harm can be a squick of mine — but it very much depends on how it’s handled, and its context. It’s something I’ll usually avoid reading if I see it in the tags and am not familiar enough with the author to feel safe reading it, which is something I take into account. If I see a story posted by an author that I’ve liked but have never read anything from them approaching that tag, I’ll probably wait to see if they’ll post a fic with similar but more gentle tags/content to see if their style/thought processes on the subject line up with my own. Other writers, whose work I’ve consumed to the point where I feel comfortable enough with their headspace, I’ll dive right in.

That being said, honestly, these days I have very few hardline squicks —  scat-play and/or vomit-play are two, and suicide and self-harm edge very close as well (with the caveat from above). When I was less familiar with fandom, more untried, I had — or thought I had — a lot. lol. That can happen, I think; it can be really terrifying to edge out of your comfort zone. But then you read absolutely every long, plotty drarry a writer offers, every short, hot bit of smut, and there are these other ones lingering with tags like incest or dub/non-con or major character death or infidelity, and think “hmmm.” All of those are still listed in my ‘know the author first’ file, but I’ve learned I can love some stories with those tags. But that’s me. Not everyone will want to venture out of their comfort zones, and that’s fine. Great, even! Fanfic allows us a lot of wonderful things, and one of those can be escapism. So never let anyone make you feel bad about sticking to the things you like; this is all just relevant to my personal fic tastes.

And regarding those, in answer to your other question — I know I’ve got a list somewhere, lj or dw maybe, with a pretty full list of my likes and dislikes and squicks, but I haven’t updated it in a long time, so:

(I’m applying these to Harry/Draco, but I’ll read a bunch of other pairings too. Harry/Teddy, Draco/Albus, some Jeddy and Scorbus, Harry/Sirius, a bit of Wolfstar, James Sirius/Albus Severus, Romione, and Pansmione are probably my faves)

Squicks and/or squick-ish content (ie, stuff my friends would never put in a gift fic for me. lol) I’ll only read if I know the writer very well and trust them (asterisks next to the ones I’m more rigid about):

-Suicide**

-Self-harm (especially cutting)**

-Vomit/scat play***

-Major character death

-Unhappily ambiguous endings

-Character bashing*** (to be fair, if a writer does this, I don’t usually like a lot of their stuff)

-Endings (happy or unhappy) where my preferred couple doesn’t end up together**

That’s it. And I make exceptions.

General fic dislikes that I’ll “psh” if I’ve read a couple of the writers things and like them, but that still have the ability to turn me off of a story real quick:

-Non-con

-Massive deviations from canon characterization. (Meaning: Draco is incredibly flamboyant and there’s no explanation or hints as to why/how he’d become so; Harry hates Ron; Ron is stupid; Hermione is a perky prop, etc. I’m perfectly fine reading most things if I understand why they’re that way.)

-Infidelity

-Also, when mental health issues are addressed (I tend to write about them a lot), I dislike grandstanding about them as much as I dislike them being glossed over, if that makes any sense. If I want to read detailed explanations about mental illness, I’ve got about two dozen textbooks I can refer to; alternately, if trauma is brought up in the fic, there needs to be (for me), some exploration of it.

-Permanent disability fics

-Fisting

-Muggle AU’s

-Mpreg — very rarely (usually just because I’m not often in the mood for it)

-Schmoopy fluff. (I don’t mind the sweet, but I don’t want to get cavities)

-Bloodplay

Now, for the fun ones!

Fic likes:

-Tropes. I’m a trope whore, I admit it. I love so many of them they should probably get a subcatagory of my favorites. lol.

-Forced Proximity

-Bed-Sharing

-Eighth Year

-Auror Partners

-Powerful!Harry

-Controlled!Draco (magically, for both; I like ‘em skilled as hell)

-Wandlore

-Master of Death lore

-Aristocratic Draco (or bad boy Draco, or fucked up Draco…I like Draco a lot, okay?)

-Flirting

-UST

-Pining

-Banter and snark

-Friends to lovers

-Lovers to friends to more

-Dub-con where they both enjoy it

-Sex Pollen

-Antagonism

-Veela/Creature Fic

-Smart Harry (let’s give the boy some credit, can we???)

-Harry, Ron, and Hermione staying close

-Rescuing/being protective (I don’t care who rescues and who does the rescuing, though I tend to think of Harry as the rescuer more often than not. But I like when there’s an exchange.)

-Life debts

-Legilimency

-Accidental (or, hell, intentional) bonding

-Humor

-Angst with a happy ending

-Harry’s and Draco’s hair/eyes being described as they are in the books

-The first time they call each other by their first names being significant

-Fics that focus as much (or more) on characterization and relationship development as they do on outside plot

And a bunch more of these too.

Sex and sexual kinks:

-Draco. God yes. Put him in robes or a sharp suit or torn jeans and mmmmmmsfdhdfhlgjhuihghlhd. I like Draco being noticed. (*whispers* Objectified, even, especially if Harry doesn’t realize he’s doing it.)

-Vice versa Harry.

-Rimming

-Spanking

-Rentboys

-Sexual power plays

-One of them being experienced, the other not so experienced.

-Both of them being hella experienced

-Topping from the bottom (and also the top).

-Bottoming from the top (and also the bottom lol)

-Dirty talk

-Trust games (blindfolds, tying someone up)

-Fingering

-Post-sex fingering

-Flaccid cocks getting played with; proprietary touches.

-First times

-Dom/sub dynamics (with clear boundaries and safewords)

-Gentle sex

-Extended foreplay

-Semi-public sex

-Magical sex objects

-Cleaning spells (thank fuck for the magical world, amiright?)

-Messy blowjobs

-Kissing. Lots of kissing.

-Angry sex that turns into more

-Frantic sex

-Partially-clothed sex

-Frotting/grinding

-Teasing

-I might have a bit of a foot kink? lol

-Confidence

-Timidity/nerves

-Coming untouched

-Handjobs

-Shower/bath

Aaannnd most other sexual kinks you don’t see listed under my squicks or dislikes.

So there you go. A non-comprehensive guide to what I like and look for in a fic. Like I said, I’m not too picky about my dislikes these days (if I was, I wouldn’t be reading puppy play or consensual non-con or double penetration, and there are fics with those contents that have blown me the fuck away), but it’s really a personal thing. Kink tomato, and Fic Tomato (which idk if the latter is a thing, but I hope everyone gets what I mean. lol).

Thanks so much for the ask, nonnie!  It was a bit of a treat to stop and really consider how my fic likes and dislikes have changed over the last couple of years. Highly recommend you making your own list — and never letting anyone make you feel bad about it! ;D