#they're soulmates :) anyway.

[noornight]

Long distance besties. This definitely happened after the third movie (source: trust me bro)

Based on this

[cranberrymoons]

201->204 pipeline is legitimately crazy to me because buck is just having a nice normal day and talking about sexy firefighter calendars or whatever and then he turns around and his life changes because he sees eddie for the first time and his brain does legitimately just leak out of his ears because lmao?? look at this guy. What. WHAT. like honestly get real. who does this guy even think he is walking around and looking like that and existing or whatever. ugh. UGH. buck hates him he hates him he haaaaaates him so much because honestly how dare THIS guy, whoever he is, come in here looking like THAT. and buck is furious and angry and storming around and posturing in the gym and Eddie is just calmly and steadily watching this happen and he's standing back and observing until he figures out what this weird guy's insane deal is and then it clicks and he's like oh :) okay. and somehow (within like 48 hours of knowing him) he unlocks the buck buckley user manual in a way literally no one ever has before or since and he says the exact right thing to get buck to go directly from 😡 to 🥰 and then within like a week or two buck has appointed himself stepfather to eddie's child

[lotus-pear]

the besties ever!! (they will both exorcise you)

[haaam-guuuurl]

Love the flavor of soulmates that is a main m/f partnership dynamic that's mostly platonic but also romantic but also dysfunctional and yet completely essential - like these characters would not work without each other, but they barely work with each other, and most importantly they know each other carnally better than anyone else, but it's also not about sex at all it's about the partnership and navigating the highs and lows of intimacy and letting someone in, but also maybe they do fuck, but also maybe don't, but also...

[profoundmakerdreamerss-blog]

Guys, this is Tomarry to me; and you can't say otherwise because I can't hear you LALALALA —

[lizardkingeliot]

the best part of the writing process is not the actual writing it's thinking about the scene you get to write a couple scenes from now in which your darling lovesick vampire babes will share a hug so tender and intimate and tinged by over a century of longing and adoration you give yourself a tummy ache every time you spin it around inside your head

[v88sy]

You know, if there's absolutely no intention of bringing Tommy back, I want them to never speak of him again.

I don't wanna be baited, and then I can continue with my silly little head canon that they started talking again/are friends. Maybe even fucking in secret if Buck's single. 🤭

[redrobin-detective]

Something I wonder about Simon and Betty's relationship is how long they were together before the whole crown ordeal. But they were engaged, you say. My aunt (in)famously met my uncle and had a ring on her finger in 8 weeks. We've seen that both Betty and Simon were both weird outcasts, crazy determined and a pinch insane. I would not be surprised if they decided they'd met their one true love and got engaged super quick.

My point being, Betty's shifting to revolve around Simon and Simon's rose colored glasses of their relationship feels very much like New Love. They're people who love each other and love being a couple but still haven't quite figured out how to coexist together, as two people in a partnership. I feel like if they'd known each other longer, lived together longer, some of the issues we're seeing would have probably self resolved.

I don't think their relationship is toxic nor is it totally perfect. It's two lonely, most likely neurodivergent people in a relatively early relationship still figuring out how it works. Everything that happened afterwards: the crown, the seperation, the time travel, the magic/madness/sadness just exemplified issues they had both as individuals and as a couple.

[taesnix]

BACK from the void to present to you: Nico, who wears the most absolutely ridiculous socks ever because no one can see them.

Gods, he has so many.

Most of them are thick and warm for maximum comfort, and they go up to just under his knees with the stupidest little things and patterns on them. For summer, he has an equally impressive collection of crew socks that are still thick enough to not get easily worn out, but don't make him sweat buckets trudging under the sun.

Nico knows that he'll forever be a collector at heart but it's not like he wanted to choose socks of all things as his next prized possessions. He didn't wake up one day and decide "man, these things are pretty great, let's go amass an army's worth of SOCKS!" It just happened. He had no control over that. They just feel nice, okay. And perhaps the colour combos and sheer variety of everything makes him happy.

Is it kind of embarrassing? Yeah. Would he cease to exist if anyone found out? Holy shit, maybe. But it's not like anyone has been able to tell underneath his daily go-to of heavy jeans and combat boots, so he's been in the clear so far.

Until he gets distracted for a split second while sparring with Percy and riptide cuts a huge slash across his leg.

Nico's fast, so he's able to jump back just enough so that the sword barely catches any flesh, but his jeans unfortunately don't come out unscathed.

"Keep your head in the game, Neeks!" Percy teases with a grin. He's got an annoying glint in his eye to match and Nico just knows he's about to say something worse. "No matter who walks in."

And—shit. Nico feels his face flush scarlet despite him screaming internally at his body to not react. He pointedly does not look at the new blob of neon scrubs sitting next to Kayla in the stands. "Shut up, Jackson. Like you're any better when Annabeth so much as blinks at you."

Percy shrugs. "Hey man, at least I acknowledge it."

And—fine, he does. Nico will give him that. Jackson was peak levels of embarrassing about his girlfriend on a good day.

"I think you should go get that patched up," Percy smirks. He then makes a big show of squinting at the stands, pulling a similar face that Jason makes trying to read highway signs without his glasses. Basically, he looks really fucking stupid. "Impeccable timing, too! Whaddya know? There seems to be a free medic right there."

One day, Nico will kill him. It'll fix almost all of his problems, and gods know he'll always have too many at any given point in time. But he'll do it. Maybe Annabeth will even take pity and give him a pass.

Before Nico can even open his mouth and retort with something snarky, Percy raises his hands and hollers. "Hey, Will! The King here is in need of some dire medical attention!"

"No, I'm not!" Nico shouts when Will's eyes grow wider. "Nothing happened, I'm fine."

Percy snorts and claps him on the shoulder. "As if that's worked before. Good luck, little man. Same time tomorrow?"

And he doesn't wait for a response, just gives a one-handed salute and begins to make his way to the stands. Percy says something to Will as they pass by each other and Will's brows furrow.

One day.

"What happened?" Will asks as he jogs over. His blond curls rise and fall with every step and if you zeroed in on only them, the loose coils look like they're in zero gravity. Bouncing with an impossible grace as they get closer and closer.

Not that Nico was looking. Or that he'd even noticed at all. Man, is it getting hotter here? He should definitely drink some water soon.

"Nico?" Will waves a slow hand in front of his face. "You alright? Percy said his sword mostly caught your jeans, but you never know."

"Huh?" Nico chokes. Right, this is the dire medical attention part.

Will gives him a wobbly smile, like he's trying not to laugh but failing miserably. "Okaaay then. Can I check your leg?"

"Um, sure."

He's still so out of it that he doesn't hear his subconscious screaming at him why Will kneeling down to lift the denim is a terrible, horrible idea.

Nico feels the lithe fingers carefully cut down the fabric with scissors that have seemingly appeared from nowhere. He feels them gently peel back his jeans with a confident precision, minimizing the disturbance to the wound. He hears the faintest of gasps and he feels the other boy go completely still.

He tilts his head down to see what the issue is—surely Percy hadn't slashed him that bad—and then, like a statue, he freezes in place too.

In the most obnoxious shade of yellow possible, rows of mischievous rubber ducks beam back at both of them. He says mischievous because they've got annoying smirks and eyebrows strong enough to rival the Stoll brothers on the first of April. Which is quite a concerning amount. The smallest flecks of red from his cut take the whole "sinister menaces" thing to an unholy level.

Neither of them breathe for the next 30 seconds. Or maybe it's 30 years. Hell, if Nico knows now, his damn heart stopped working properly ages ago.

Then, either his saving grace or the final nail in his coffin, Will sucks in another shaky mouthful of air and clears his throat.

"You know," he starts, scarily neutral. Not a single waver in his voice. "I'm beginning to think Kayla's got a point."

Kayla talks a lot, running through an average 5 conversation topics in a record of 7 minutes with Nico himself, so that narrows it down by exactly nothing. "Uh, about what?"

Will doesn't reply, simply carrying on with cleaning and dressing his injury like he hadn't said anything. It drives Nico crazy, but he knows Will's priorities, so he holds his tongue. Will had drilled them into Nico's brain during his first infirmary stay; treat first, talk second.

So he waits. He lets Will dab the tiniest bit of nectar across the cut and wipe away blood. After a minute or two, his leg is wrapped neatly with a bandage, and suddenly, there's no more treating to be done.

"We're matching," Will finally says.

Nico blinks. Because—what.

"I mean, it's a slightly different shade, but eh, close enough to count."

Nico breaks out of his stupor when Will traces one of the ducks with his nail. Soft but accurate, light but impossible to ignore, like everything else he does.

"Yellow?" Nico whispers. He can't seem to muster up his voice to be louder than that.

Will looks up at him with a particular glint in his eye, and Nico's heart stops a second time.

"Mhm," he grins, dusting his knees as he stands up. He winks and it has no right to kickstart the thumping in Nico's chest. "Same wavelength."

"You're ridiculous," Nico lightly shoves at Will's shoulder and prays that his face isn't burning red.

Will just laughs and catches his hand, holding it in place. "Sure, but I'm also right."

"Are not."

"Are too."

"Are n—"

"Okay," Will interrupts, "I hate to break it to you, Neeks, but we're both wearing obnoxious shades of yellow. You've got the added bonus of sly rubber duckies, and my scrubs glow in the dark. Ergo, we're both ridiculous and both on the same wavelength."

Gods, who the hell says, "ergo". Why is Nico so enamoured with such an idiot.

"And how, exactly, does Kayla have a point here?" Nico sighs, ignoring that his hand is still on Will's shoulder and that Will is still holding it there. He'll take his silent wins as they come.

Now, Will's cheeks become a rosy red. It makes Nico want to trace a finger around his freckles to check if his skin has become warmer, too.

"Well..." He trails off. He glances down to Nico's leg again, where some of the damn ducks are peeking out behind his jeans.

With a grounding deep breath, Will shuts his eyes for a moment. When they open, he meets Nico's gaze head on, calm yet confident once more.

He's beautiful like this, like he always is.

Against his own will, Nico smiles. Will shines underneath the sun and his stupid blond curls are golden.

"She said we're soulmates. And I think she's right about that."

And Nico thinks she's right about that, too.

[glorious-spoon]

i don't really have a coherent thesis here because it's one am but buck and eddie's dynamic with each other is almost the exact opposite of their dynamic with everyone else

[ptieuca]

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

a thing about me: i love to design soulmate aus that are the most inconvenient for the focal characters

(because the premise essentially demands that they get some kind of destined, happily-ever-after love at the end of the story, i like to treat myself to a little (or a lot) of emotional torment first!)

anyway, i just realized that the funniest possible soulmate situation for labru is one of those "the first words they say to you" tattoo AUs, because

laios does not notice, lol

kabru overthinks whether/how to tell him because being soulmates complicates the narrative he's been building around conquering the dungeon

[rosie-tyler]

[djevelbl]

LET'S GOOOOOOO ghostlycerb on ao3 carrying the fandom

[viviandarkbloombartylusversion]

I will never really see bartylus as toxic BUT I cannot help the fact that whenever I listen to Love the way you lie by Eminem ft. Rihanna I think about them

[vampirehizzies]

thinking about the personality/motivation contrasts between cato and clove again... they both have aggression issues and a shared desire to win, but cato seems more eager to fulfill expectation/prove his worth and brute strength while clove has a more obvious sadism and gleefulness at maiming someone. not that he is squeamish about killing and she isn't, they are both careers after all, but she seems to appreciate that part more than what comes from being a victor while cato focuses on the rewards of being a victor. it's obvious from the way cato's really efficient with his kills - snapping necks or impaling with a sword is a pretty quick way to die - as opposed to clove who savors the moment and extends the suffering of a victim - we saw that at her interaction with katniss at the feast lol.

but it's not one or the other with them, it kind of blends a little. with the enthusiasm he uses that sword he shares clove's enjoyment of the competitive aspect and dealing pain onto others, even if it's more about physical strength/dominance to him. but then her brutality rivals his, since cato has a more get it done quick style with his kills but clove was going the extra mile to psychologically torture katniss and she kind of lost it and gave in to her rage in a similar way that cato does.

this is what makes them compatible as district partners and more if you're a shipper. in the book clove (with marvel's help) is able to rationalize and calm cato down after he goes ballistic with the supplies blowing up, and on the opposite end, he encourages her manic unhinged side by letting her have the katniss kill that he wanted and taking the step back. that push and pull balance in their mental states and strengths/weaknesses allows them to understand what the other needs, making them stronger together and helping them work toward what they both want.

tdlr: they balance each other out by sharing a similar brutality but choosing which aspects of that violence they focus on, and those differences are what make them a good team and a fascinating pairing of characters.