#tashi is a throuple truther

[tarotofbadkitties]

I'm obsessed with Tashi's refusal to pretend she's changed her mind about wanting both Art and Patrick. At different times, Art and Patrick both come to her all insecure and passive-aggressive to demand she say they've got her forever and their bff is out of the running and she's really like lol nope every time. "My preference is both of you, but I'll trade you back and forth as needed if you two can't get along" is her final answer. I love that for her.

[cowboygideon]

I love so much how every time we see art and patrick before knee-gate, they're eating (or drinking) something "unhealthy." Like the hotdogs and the churros and the cigarettes, of course (which I'm now realizing are all phallic symbolism LMAO) plus the coca-colas and the beer. Because it just furthers this idea that Patrick is a kind of corrupting force to Art, who we know, as Ice, is a very controlled person. And then, during their final game, you have Art with his fuckass protein paste, or whatever, but Patrick with the banana, which obviously isn't unhealthy, but still something much more akin to the food of your average person—and he offers it to him! Jokingly, yeah, because he knows he's not going to take it, but also, like offering his hand, inviting Art to take part in his own corruption once again. Plus, a banana?? Could they have found a more dick-like food? Insanity.

Also I like that the one scene we have of the throuple in a room together (the party notwithstanding), Tashi is also drinking the beer. Because Patrick stokes the fire in her too, brings out a part of her that Art alone doesn't.

I was thinking about this because I saw a cut scene in the script, where Tashi and Art smoke a cigarette, and I found it really interesting. Because, for one, I understand why they'd cut it, since such a big part of the artashi dynamic is restraint, repression, both pushed further into the frigid parts of their personalities, so having them do something like that without Patrick around might remove some of that. But ALSO I think it was such a good scene because they both start coughing during it, and it sort of feels like their trying to make up for Patrick's absence with each other, but they fail. They need Patrick to push them completely out of their comfort zones—or else they'll just keep toeing that line between the familiar and the unfamiliar, safety and freedom.

Anyway, in conclusion, welcome back Adam and Eve and that fucking snake, enjoy your apple [polyamory].

[compress1repress]

tashi duncan - heat dies down by kaiser chiefs

my favourite master manipulator who has never done anything wrong in her life <3

[masterlist]

[tashism]

#this with the throuple

tashi reading the book you got her “just because”, art on his laptop researching his little side hobby (in my mind it’s film photography), patrick watching step brothers on the tv, you playing on your switch or phone. you’re all tangled and warm and silent, thumbs rubbing idly and the low murmur of the tv filling in the gaps. it’s the middle of the day, you all have something better to do, but you’re here. you’re here and consumed by each other, probably the happiest you’ve all ever been and ever will be. i yearn.

also @artdcnaldson i love all your bunny memes thank yew for this one

[gourdyshome]

expanding on this blurb about post-canon!tashiartrick ... assigning them build-a-bears!

the originals (made when patrick and art were 14-15, before they were too embarrassed to be close to each other) circa 2002-3

beartrick zweig on the left (property of art donaldson) and artie bunaldson on the right (property of patrick zweig)

post-canon!tashiartrick PLUS extra lilly bc i love her <3

patrick (left) art (right)

tashi (left) lilly (right)

[ofswordsandpens]

I think my favorite part of challengers is that convo between Patrick and Tashi where he's basically like "you want to fuck me so bad it makes you look stupid" and Tashi's looking at him like he's sprouted a second head but he's actually 100% right asdjfaskdflslkg

[andwordsarefutiledevicess]

this song... THIS SONG. it's peak art + patrick angst — like patrick watching art grow up and grow out of their relationship while patrick never does

anyways don't mind me just listening to this on repeat and thinking about art's blonde curls

[gourdyshome]

if you squint it looks like he's saying "patrick" here ... walk with me ...

artrick build a bear date where they both pick out stuffed animals that look like them & swap at the end. pat goes home with an "art" bear and he laughs and says it looks stupid but he never ever gives that thing away.

by the time he goes to visit tashi at stanford the fur is already matted at the top of its head, which patrick tucks under his chin when he sleeps.

when he sees her in atlanta, when they tumble into his shitty hotel room drunk and stupid and tangled in each other, he kicks the bear under his bed before she can see it. when he wakes up later that night - or rather, in the early hours of the next morning - and tashi's already gone, he fishes it out from under the bed, holds it in his hands, and cries.

after the challenger in 2019, after the dust has settled, after art and tashi formally, actually ask him to move in with them, patrick tries his best to hide the bear from art. he doesn't want to humiliate himself, after all. how pathetic is it hold onto a gag gift for over two decades? so he tucks it away in his backpack, the one he keeps an extra pair of clothes and his passport and some cash in, just in case this thing between the three of them doesn't work out. it isn't until art's doing some spring cleaning that he finds the bear, which is in pretty poor condition at that point. he doesn't say anything to patrick, but he goes to the basement and pulls out a tub of his old college stuff, digging for something specific. when pat and tashi get home from practice, there are two bears on his bed.

they never talk about it. they never needed to in the first place. and, around the time of his birthday that year, art casually brings up how lily's been wanting to go to the mall forever. it's implied, at this point, that they expect patrick to come.

when they get back home, there are three new bears on patrick - and tashi, and art's - bed, and this time, he tucks two of them under his chin at night.

RAHHHHHH RAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

[tarotofbadkitties]

The real answer to why the only possible outcome in Challengers is the throuple is that if they paired off in any fashion, the third person left out would work ceaselessly to break them up out of unquenchable rage at being abandoned. The movie was legit them repeatedly home-wrecking one another until all three had to come together, just like they did in the first night.

[cowboygideon]

seven year homoerotic friendship with a guy so traumatic you have to steal his girlfriend, marry her, and have a child together just to stave off the gay thoughts

[nicollekidman]

oh… i do think homoeroticism was top ten in challengers but it was so obvious art and patrick didn’t/couldn’t work long term in pretty much any way without tashi?? like she’s integral to their relationship. without her they don’t understand tennis (which is everything) (it’s a relationship for fifteen seconds there it’s like we were in love) like what??? i personally am a throuple truther but none of that has any legs without tashi. idk repression of homosexuality could feasibly be a topic if you want to think about art and patrick in our world but they live in the world of high stakes tennis so at that point you’re removing the characters from their context which imo renders most analysis pointless

no im with you like it's homoEROTICISM but neither of them are repressed in any meaningful or traditional way (that's not where the tension in their relationship comes from anyways). people want to act like art is in denial or unaware but baby. he knows. of course he does! he's a brat at the end of the day! art is simply like "i don't have time for that, i have a job (being the avatar for my wife's aborted tennis career)" meanwhile patrick is just bi and poor (for the bit).

[diyasgarden]

How's she supposed to survive with no heart?

Someone figure out and tell me how because this concept has ripped out my heart and i don't know how to go on.

Best Friend - based on @diyasgarden's betting on loosing dogs cats and her cat headcanons. definitely go check them out if you haven't yet!!

the story of tashi and her childhood best friend (1.86k words)

tw: i have not seen the movie so all my knowledge is via osmosis. writing some of these scenes was cathartic. enjoy me working through my own grief and know my tears wet the keyboard. i may have forgotten about art a little bit but this is tashi centric so im just going to say whoops and move on

Tashi was a lonely child. It was just a fact. Even with siblings wrapped around her and hanging off her arms, she swept through her childhood with few permanent attachments.

She was vibrant, regardless of her seclusion. The bounce of her curls and the seemingly infinite energy she possessed endeared her to teachers and classmates. Bright, sparkling curiosity filled her eyes. The librarian saw the most of her, incidentally. With clumsy fingers and boosted toes, she tipped titles from higher and higher shelves, thicker and thicker books filling her arms and her Princess Aurora backpack.

After playdates, summer camps and schedules packed high with unfamiliar names, her parents finally acquiesced. There would be no friend for their daughter, not one she wanted.

Instead, that Christmas, she received two very special presents. An oddly shaped thing with one blunt, cylindrical end and, on the other side, a curved, flat plane; the other was a larger, rectangular box that mewled periodically, its princess wrapping paper massacred with pinholes. She anguishes when she sees a prick right over the left side of Aurora's shimmering pink dress.

Her parents initially direct her towards the oddly shaped gift, no matter how the mewling box draws her ears. Under the light of the rainbowed tree, the LEDs reflecting their colors over her full face, she unknowingly, and with youthful gusto, unwraps her future.

Her very own tennis racket. The gift included the promise of lessons, starting after her holiday break. She'd been curious about her parents' rackets, the handles much too big for her young, soft palms. Now, she can try it all on her own—emulating the fierce girls she revered on TV.

A whine from the larger box draws her attention again, and eyes shining with anticipation turn to her parents. A single nod, and little legs are scampering across the hardwood as she runs to delicately peel off the paper.

The cardboard box under it is as pricked as the wrapping paper, the top untaped. Reaching past the unassuming packaging, she's jolted when something touches her. Soft, with points as pokey as the needle that made the holes. She's nothing if not fearless, however.

As the cardboard flaps are peeled back one by one, the thing, no, paw that reached out to grab her tugs on the last one. It's small, orange, with tiny claws puncturing shallowly. Her fingers, larger and without as sharp nails, gently pries it off so she can finally open the box.

A kitten. A kitten sits, dwarfed by the size of the box. When she reaches for it, it retreats—sniffing her fingers before deciding her a worthy companion. It's all but eager now, pressing into her hands until she picks it up and cradles it to her chest. Its teensy chest starts to rumble with a crackly purr.

"She's yours." Startles her out of her revere, so absorbed in the little body against hers. Her mother's words are said with a smile. She finally found a friend, one that didn't live in pages. "All yours."

Her father chimes in not long after.

"What's her name, Natasha?"

A pause. Tashi blinks, contemplation in the set of her pout and in the subtle furrow in her brow. Her eyes don't stray from the yellows of her newest companion.

"Serena," comes, the resolve in her tone sounding odd in the heightened pitch of a six-year-old.

She'd grow into it.

She'd soon learned her two favorite sounds: the thwack of a tennis ball and the thundering of Serena's purr.

They were familiar, and borderline ordinary. She heard the first over and over, for hours at a time, multiple times a week. Serena's purr, in the same vein, was the thing that greeted her with the sun and lulled her into sleep. Yet, she thought them spectacular. Whenever they reached her ears, that golden smile appeared.

She was always good. Always spectacular at tennis. Sweeping through matches flooded her veins with sweet adrenaline, sweat that dropped to the court marking her path to the stars. Even when she'd left them all behind, flown far away and was weightless in her tennis shoes, it'd say: I, Tashi Duncan, was here. I won.

The thing that brought her back to Earth was simple. Even with the lure of the stars, the rumbling, crackling purr and sweet meows, like the quake she experienced at eleven and the cracking boom of thunder she'd once feared, grounded her in her emotions. Her feelings, not for boys but for Serena overflowed from her heart and spilled out like a split dam, widening her smiles and filling her mind, motivating her game and keeping her present.

At seventeen she was up-and-coming. Her birthday fell a few days after the US Open, so on her last few days as a child, she bundled up with her familiar friend and boarded the metal plane. It would be her wings, giving her that taste of future freedom, of the sky she reached for.

Her transcendence faded in sleep, leaving just a girl and her cat, sleepy and covered in shed hair and so, so young.

She won. She won the Junior Open.

Everything's set in stone now. She can see her future playing out—at Stanford, tearing through the competition and tearing through the pages of novels (she never quite lost her love for words; instead it evolved from Junie B. Jones to Mary Shelley.) Then, she'd go pro, breaking out into the Grand Slams like a comet blazing by.

Art and Patrick were the unexpected twist.

Zweig and Donaldson. Fire and Ice. The perfect duo. One would be joining her at Stanford. The other? Leaving for the intense performance of the pros with her number stashed in his mobile—left sweating under the stage lights of expectations states away.

Whether he'd buckle under the intensity was to be seen. At least his green crash pad was well in place, waiting to be fallen back on.

Practice was routine.

Art was routine.

Serena was at home, with her parents.

The separation was killing her. Some days, especially hearing the thwack of the ball, she felt the ache of her halved heart. She knew she wouldn't go home to her second (first) favorite sound.

Red. There's a lot of red at Stanford, Tashi noticed. Even in her dorm room, the banner on her wall and poster above her bed, the jacket strewn over her chair and the sweaty shorts discarded on her floor. The red apples of Patrick's cheeks and the pinkening to his lips. She let her eyes close and welcomed their press and the darkness behind her eyelids.

They were good. They were fine. He was fine. Then they weren't.

Tashi always knew her heart was fragmented. Tennis, Serena, Patrick. Each one beat independent, for the most part. When they synced was euphoric.

One of her best memories was during her spring break. Patrick had a break before his next tournament, and they packed up in his dingy car to putter back to her parents'. Spending the week there, lounging like house cats, lobbing lazy forehands back and forth and falling asleep every night to Serena's crackling purr and Patrick's heavy arm over her.

It was the most alive she'd every felt.

The game. The game was all that mattered. Not Patrick flaking. Not the absence of her friend. Just the game. That was the piece of her heart still intact.

Then her knee pops sickeningly, releasing out from under her and all she could see was red.

Stanford fans in the stands and her opponent's flushed cheeks, Art's crimson shirt and the pain red-hot behind her eyelids.

The darkness when her eyes shut was a comfort once again. It hides the sight of her swelling, purpling knee. It doesn't stop the pain.

Maybe she'd slip into a blessed unconsciousness.

100 years, Maleficent proclaimed. The princess shall sleep.

She'd never play tennis again, that much was clear. The doctor been almost certain.

Art tried to make her feel better. All she could think of was a familiar rumble she ached for.

She was released to spend a few weeks at her parents, away from the worry of school and her emotional turmoil. A few weeks with Serena, to get back to their routine, to the purrs on her chest and the weaving beneath her feet.

Serena was a bit more careful staying underfoot after her first smell of her braced knee and the sight of her white crutches.

Maybe she'd log her as an emotional support pet, just so she wouldn't loose her whole heart when she went back.

She didn't get that far. She didn't even have the time to get the paper.

Serena fell from Tashi's bed and broke her pelvis a week in. The howl she made was a new noise. One she never should have made.

They spent the whole day at the emergency vet. Tashi's eyes had never been so red-rimmed. She cried, in that sterile waiting room, as they took Serena back and cooed sadly.

She fell into an exhausted sleep, buried in her mother's side with her lip still caught between her teeth.

The doctor's thought the break was suspicious. Cats are usually springier, the vet had said. Even the older ones, like her. She was kind, and caring. Her green scrubs, pattered with paw prints, slowly became orange with Serena's fur. Her hands were warm when they handed her the lab papers.

Bone cancer, the plain black text said, in it's painfully ordinary font. The type that, apparently, had crept through Serena's body and made itself a home in her lungs. It burrowed, unwanted, in the place that held her life. It infected the space right above her heart. Waiting longer, says the vet, would be cruel.

She didn't even look at the amount of tumors they found. Once she saw the double digits she shattered, just that bit more.

The vet gave her time to say her goodbyes. It was all they really could do.

Thirteen years. Thirteen years they'd grown together.

Serena was once bundled in too-big cardboard, clawing energetically at the walls and sinking pinprick claws into her shirt.

Now, she's swaddled in a soft blanket, looking fat and warm but so, so tired.

Tashi holds her on her aching knee and weeps. She presses warm lips press to the forehead of her first friend, her favorite thing. Slender arms cradle this beautiful baby cat to her chest. Serena is sedated, a little medicine for the pain. Her purr's crackling now, muted and rattling. A soft, small paw presses to Tashi's tear-streaked, tawny cheek.

It's time to go, she hears faintly. It feels like she has her head underwater. Her throat and lungs and fingers squeeze as the needle slides in, past fluffed, orange fur. Serena doesn't even flinch. Yet, Tashi feels like she's drowning.

Her form (little, so little. Her baby—) goes limp in her lap.

How's she supposed to survive with no heart?

The next morning arrives with silence. Not even the chirping of the birds.

She curls tight in a too-empty bed and feels her heart wither in her chest.

[ghostgirl-22]

do you think art ever officially came out, either publicly or privately?

did he come out to tashi, or do you think she always knew and he didn’t say anything about it? did he come out to patrick? did patrick come out to him?

did he ever come out to the public? he’s a high profile player but the tennis scene can be a bit traditionalist…

much to consider, i’d love to hear ur thoughts :>

Much to consider indeed!! <3

I think about this a lot actually. Personally I head canon Art doesn’t fully accept himself (or his queer identity) until after the infamous tie breaker point, and likely not until they get to the hotel room lol.

I waffle between whether he risked exploring that side of himself before that, either while he was married to Tashi (strap ons, random hookups with men, etc.) or before he and Tashi got together (in his post Patrick rising star phase) or if he just deprived himself till Patrick showed up again and if that was something that fueled his depression. His depression could also be fueled by the fact that none of those hookups was Patrick and there wasn’t that emotional connection tbh.

Either way I feel like Tashi would know about it. I think she clocked him from that time in the hoteland she definitely knows he likes both. I think both Art and Tashi want to believe they are traditional…And that’s why they are okay to cut Patrick out (which just contributes to their misery).

I can’t decide whether I think it’s religion for Art or maybe family expectations?? But I think he has a difficult time with the idea of not conforming to the standard in just every way. For Tashi, she flirts with both boys yes, but deliberately picks one. she’s very adamant Patrick doesn’t tell anyone they’re hooking up, and we see her wearing her crosses throughout the film so there’s definitely a traditional/religious aspect. I think she also has this (self imposed at times?) obligation to be a beacon in her family (Oldest daughter, superstar player, determined fighting spirit even in the face of adversity). Both her and Art need things to appear perfect… even if they aren’t.

Art falling apart in the game is this massive threat to their image. Most importantly hers, as his coach. If she loses him at this stage she’s terrified of fading into what she considers mediocrity which she believes she’s better than.

Do I think Art comes out after the challenger? Hell yes! I’m a throuple truther 🥹 But do I think he comes out publicly…? not so much. I think that’s much trickier and they have too much to lose and also it’s difficult to explain… more difficult than divorce or cheating or coming out. Like how do you say “we’re in a threesome now!”

Like you said tennis is a traditional sport and he’s a professional athlete. Though there’s a first time for everything. I could see them getting tangled up in crazy press, not to mention everyone has a camera…. And the press eventually exposing him. I sometimes imagine they have conspiracy theorists tennis addicts on Twitter who are like hm… why why was Donaldson hugging all over that man? Then they’re researching the lore and creating Reddit threads and Artrick fanfic hehe 🤭

I could see them eventually making one of those pr approved posts like “yeah so by the way it’s no one’s business but we’re in this triad” (a la Will and Jada lmaooo) but only if Tashi or Art get caught out with Pat and they have to spare themselves the divorce rumors. Idk. I’m just going on and on lol.

What do yall think?

[coldblooded-angel]

As a tennis throuple truther, I generally don’t believe Patrick loves Art more than Tashi. I definitely believe he’s loved him for much longer but I think it is more obvious in the latter part of the movie how much Patrick loves Art because he spent so long hiding it behind jokes and intimate touches that could be interpreted any which way. There was no way he would jeopardize the most important relationship in his life. He was assured that their friendship would last, he was content… until it falls apart.

Art is ice. He’s reserved and quiet, and though that balances out Patrick, it also makes him harder to understand (especially after the falling out). Patrick used to be able to read him but they’ve spent too long apart and now Patrick doesn’t know what to do except be more forward, more obvious.

In a way, Patrick is more sure of how Tashi feels about him than how Art feels. (He used to know, or he thinks he used to know but not quite).

There’s too much history there, too much yearning, too much heartbreak. Their relationship is loaded and while Patrick is sure of how much Tashi wants him and what she wants from him, he has no fucking idea what Art wants (mostly cuz Art doesn’t know either).

[bigtiddydumbass420]

Challengers rlly introduced me to tropes and stuff tht i previously thought I hated but some reason, i think my fav dyanmic is dom! Tashi and sub! Art . Like dont get me wrong i am a throuple TRUTHER but that dyanmic is tew good . One thing i will say regarding fics showing dom! Tashi and sub! Art is that I slighly disagree with how subby Art is? Like i can totally see having dom moments? Like after a gane where he wins i can def see him man handling Tashi and her being pleasntly surpised y'know

[princess-of-songs]

2, 3, 5, and/or 10 please!!

I wanted to answer all of them, so this will be long lol.

Ghost in the Machine is named after the song of the same name, by SZA and Phoebe Bridgers. It’s my favorite song off of SOS. The specific following lyrics screamed Patashi and Atlanta to me:

“Can you distract me from all the disaster?

Can you touch on me and not call me after?”

“I was yours for free

I don't get existential

I just think about myself and look where that got me

Standin' on my own in an airport bar or hotel lobby”

Ghost in the Machine always existed before I came up with the name. I got inspired to write after I read the script for the first time. Zendaya and Josh O’Connor are my favorite actors and I was so thrilled to see them work together. Someone linked the original script in a quote tweet and I remember falling in love with it. I am a throuple truther who greatly enjoys Artrick and Artashi but I’ll always have a soft spot for Patashi. Their relationship dynamic is my favorite. Initially when I was planning out the fic, I didn’t like Art at all. It was negative toward him. But once I saw finally saw the film, I finally got him and over time, I began to love him too. So that changed a good portion of the original outline. The biggest change was seeing the film unfortunately cutting out in my opinion, one of Tashi’s most important scenes. The conversation she shares with Patrick in the original script in Atlanta, reveals so much about how she’s feeling or at least allowing herself to feel. For the longest time, I tried to convince myself that I was okay with it being cut out. Zendaya and Josh get Tashi and Patrick so beautifully right as individual characters as well as their dynamic with the triangle plus their chemistry is so phenomenal and passionate, that I left Ghost in the Machine untouched. But then I saw a lot of people saying they loved Tashi and they wish she had more. So question popped up in my brain- what if I married what I like in the script with what I like in the film and I explore what happened offscreen to that short time they were together again? Ghost in the Machine was reborn and I hope to get over my nerves and publish it soon.

A snippet:

“You really can't let someone else be in control, can you?” Patrick surmised as he watched her roll off of him. Tashi tilted her head sideways at him as he remained lying there, drenched in sweat, taking deep breaths.

“I know you’re a fucking loser but I didn’t know you were a fucking idiot too.” Tashi huffed out in annoyance, rolling her eyes while Patrick's eyebrows furrowed.

“I’m confused.”

“Clearly.”

“How am I a fucking idiot now?”

“So you admit you are.” Tashi snorted, crossing her arms across her chest.

“If I’m an idiot, you are too. You’re just too afraid to admit it,” Patrick scoffed at her with that nasty smirk on his face.

———

What Was I Made For, popped up in my brain when I was thinking about who is Tashi without tennis and the burden of her dream not only being for herself but for her family and friends too.

———

‘Cause I got this feeling life’s alright, alright,” was inspired by Alright by Victoria Monét. The song screamed Tashi and it got my brain working. Tashi’s cross necklace that she keeps throughout her life and a lot of her choices, make me theorize there’s a possibility that she’s religious. I wanted to explore that and pair it with my question of what was Tashi thinking after she left Art and Patrick to their own devices. Things that have stood out to me is Tashi leaving the boys after they all kissed and it was bliss, her telling Patrick not to tell anyone that they had sex (even though Art is his best friend), in the original script-Tashi’s dad hadn’t met Patrick but he blamed him for everything that went wrong for Tashi, and lastly in my opinion, Tashi initially was heavily favoring Art more than Patrick. Being religious myself, a lot of that felt familiar.

A snippet:

“Boys are trouble at this age, Tashi. Play tennis, honor Jesus, and the rest will fall into place. Promise me, you won’t make the same mistakes that I made.” Nana had rarely ever been wrong. Tashi missed her. But right now, the cross was weighing her down. She needed to take a shower. A hot one of course.

That’ll relax her.

———

Off Guard was inspired by the song of the same name by Aluna and a tweet I’d seen where someone was posting the dorm room scene clip, something along the lines of “it looks like they could fight or fuck at any moment.” Like the previous wips, it got my brain wondering. What if Tashi and Patrick had love/hate sex after she said alright to him? What if he still left after that and she still got injured? What is the most chaotic route I could go story wise? Off Guard was born. Not trying to put my fictional sister through the wringer but I wondered how would Tashi handle another curveball thrown at her during that time?

———

@ghostgirl-22

On Hold is inspired by the song of same name by The xx. TBH in my option, the most ArtTashiPatrick to ever exist. I’ve always wanted to explore Tashi’s journey in her recovery process while she’s at Stanford up to the moment she realizes she’ll never be able to play how she wants to ever again. I also wanted to tackle on her blurry friendship with Art at the time, and her complicated feelings for Patrick in the midst of her frustration trying to heal and play again.

A snippet:

“How do you feel Natasha?” Dr. Nedoroscik asked finally, looking up from his chart. Lots and lots of notes. Tashi’s right eye twitched. It was one thing to mess up her name once. It was another to get it wrong every single time she visited. Was she already being forgotten?

Never let them see you crack.

“It’s Tashi,” Tashi responded politely but coolly, drumming her fingers against her thighs. God, she needed a manicure before she went back to Stanford. Her fingernails were chipped to hell from the swim exercises she did the other day.

“Oh, I am so sorry. It won’t happen again.” The doctor heartily chuckled, readjusting his glasses.

Sure and my knee giving out was a figment of my imagination.

———

Let’s begin was actually inspired by a scene in My Lady Jane. It heavily reminded me of Tashi and Patrick’s softer moments in the film. I’ve always wondered about that first night between them. I’m in the opinion that they both fell pretty hard for each other right away but they’re too full of themselves to actually verbalize it or show it in a way that the other one understands. I wanted to write about that.