#this is extremely self-indulgent for my aroace heart

[team7-headquarter]

I need a fanfic where Obito marries Rin and Sasuke and Naruto get together, so Kakashi and Sakura start platonically living together.

It's mostly a character study??? Maybe?? On how Kakashi already devoted himself to protecting her if Sasuke and Naruto weren't around, on how they are so similar, how it feels to be left behind even if your team doesn't realize it.

If you think about it?

Well, imagine Sakura and Kakashi both fell for an Uchiha and had a jinchuriki be in love with them, only for the Uchiha to be interested only in your jinchuriki friend. Soon they get together and you start to feel like you're in the middle of something you are not part of. You still know they love you a lot, but it's not like you can erase the romance you were waiting for from your dreams.

And then you can add the fact that Gai and Rock Lee are kinda obsessed (in the good sense!) with Sakura and Kakashi. Neither Sakura nor Kakashi find them annoying, since Rock Lee and Gai were a source of strength when their team couldn't be there for them. Gai and Lee are their inspiration in so many senses. It's just another relationship they share, weirdly, funnily.

Of course they have their unique bonds, like the one Sakura shares with Ino, or the one Kakashi has with Tenzo. It doesn't mean that the themes are not shared: You see, Tenzo's wood release and Ino's whole deal with flowers are all about bloom and growth. Tenzo is that solid surface Kakashi can rely on when he feels he can't keep standing, the scarecrow that needs something to keep him upright. Ino is that force urging Sakura to open up to the world, to stop hiding who Sakura is for the sake of others; Ino is the gardener and Sakura is the flower.

There's the issue with their parents, who were not bad people, but who weren't there for Kakashi and Sakura while they grew up. Even when they love their parents, there's a void there, a tension, some distance that resonates and makes the absence loud and clear. Who Kakashi and Sakura are is not a product of some parenting: it's personal effort and being obstinate to no end.

Kakashi and Sakura greatly value each other. The proof is in the way they refuse to let each other carry alone their burdens. It's never as clear as it is when Sasuke is involved: in the Land of Iron, they tried to kill Sasuke to take the burden of killing a friend from Naruto's shoulders, but also because Kakashi didn't want that for Sakura either and she didn't want Kakashi to deal with it alone. Later, in the fight with Kaguya, Sasuke compares Kakashi to Sakura in how useless they were because they were mere humans in a fight with (basically) some goddess.

Kakashi and Sakura both suffer for not being able to free their teammates from the hurt. There's no doubt they would if they could. Not being strong enough, not being fast or skilled enough, being "useless" is their greatest nightmare. There isn't a day that Kakashi and Sakura don't hate their own weaknesses, there's not a night that they don't hate themselves for not being able to do more.

I don't know... It'd be interesting to study Kakashi in a more romantic light while Sakura is able to have more of a platonic centric growth. It would be entertaining, at least. What if Kakashi finally confesses out loud that he was in love, but he can only do it because he knows Sakura might be the only other person alive who understands what it is like to love an Uchiha? What if it is Kakashi who helps Sakura realize how many friends are there for her? How she can find fulfilment outside of the promises and dreams that are no more?

I also like a lot to see serious platonic relationships with age gaps, where the adult doesn't take any advantage given the difference in their experience and shows they can learn from the younger one.

A relationship that can't be described with nuclear family roles (father & daughter), the type where hierarchical roles are part of the drama because they see each other as equals, but even then they can't shake their responsibilities for the sake of their bond (Kakashi forced to send Sakura on a dangerous mission because he's the Hokage and she's a kunoichi, or Kakashi very openly refusing to use his status as her former sensei to force her to do something she doesn't want to do).

They are friends, just not the typical one... They're two different types of mirrors, reflecting broken images. And if they find in each other a bit of all the things they've lost and missed and they have hoped for, not enough to replace the originals but enough to lessen the hurt? Then, it's only natural they find easy companionship in each other.

[luthnethril]

2024 Fic Round-Up / AO3 Wrapped

tagged by @queerofthedagger, thank you!! <3 i'll be doing your combined tag game too

Works Published: (30 total)

Total Words Published at end of year: 174k

Fandoms: Tolkien (mainly Silm) and DMBJ

Top 3 Ships:

Wu Xie/Zhang Qiling (pingxie) [7]

Maedhros/Maglor [3]

Fingon/Maedhros [3]

Top 5 Tags:

Ambiguous/Open Ending [14]

AU - Canon Divergence [14]

Time Travel [10]

Established Relationship [4]

Hurt/Comfort [4]

Top 3 Fics by Wordcount:

the gold and the rust (51k; daemags - Third Age)

plant my feet, loosen my hold (20k; Maglor - Fourth Age)

into the fire (15k; time travel, Maedhros - Years of the Trees)

Top 3 Fics by Kudos:

into the fire

no choice but to love you (3k; pingxie - Mob AU)

back from the edge (1k; time travel, Fingon - Amon Ereb)

Highest Everything (raw kudos, hits, comments): apparently it's into the fire at 1.5k Hits, 138 Kudos and 62 Comments

New Things I Tried: uh, some exploration of generally darker themes (at least compared to what my reading/writing experience in the tolkien fandom was last time a few years ago), writing new ships i was not into previously. Also writing/reading about a wider range of canon characters im not as obsessed about and making making more in-depth linguistic hcs/lore.

Fic I Spent the Most Time On: instinctively i would have said the daemags 51k one bc of the sheer amount of time i spent daydreaming about it, but i think it's actually the darkness got a hold on me (Maedhros/Maglor/Daeron; 7k) bc i wrote a terrible first draft, finished my second draft distracted while on a voice call and then re-wrote the entire thing for the final draft that i must have double-checked for typos at least like. 5 times before i posted it bc i wanted to make sure the plot and emotions made sense.

Fic I Spent the Least Time On: that should be back from the edge, i think i wrote that like. half an hour before i posted it with barely any read-back for typos and stuff.

Favourite Thing I Wrote: that is definitely the gold and the rust, which is an extremely self-indulgent monster of a fic and i really like how the prose i experimented with came out. but i have to say that tale of tinúviel is a close second because i did not expect to have so much fun with that one.

Favourite Thing(s) I Read: um, oh god. so much stuff. i think ive read entire tags since getting back into the fandom, it's a truly insane amount of fics that i could not possibly list everything here, but im going to make an indicative list with my top 5 that i've re-read the most throughout this year.

Concerning Lace by @clothonono; such a fun exploration of the family dynamics between the finwians during the Years of the Trees. i love all the cousins and siblings trying to get along

Mockingbird by @littlewhitemouseagain; really fun fic and really fun maedhros and maglor dynamic. i love maglor in this one

i've been so worried (you've been so still) by @welcomingdisaster; maglor in one of my favourite eras of him! i've grown so unreasonably fond of Ellind

The Sun Must Go on Rising by @tilion-writes; aroace maedhros has my entire heart and his friendship with fingon in the context of the (twist of the) myth here is. so good

lungs full or roses, heart full of thorns by anon; i have a soft spot for hanahaki fics and this is a maemags hanahaki fic. i recced to someone before it even finished it

and also a honorary mention of A Thread Unraveled by @theheirofashandfire, because it was on my marked for later list for three years and reading it started the tumble that landed me back in the tolkien fandom. a good time-loop is perhaps my most favourite trope.

Writing Goals for 2025: nothing super coherent; i never start out with planned-out goals because the existence of a goal inevitably leads me to failure. i'd like to get back into writing longfics and perhaps also write the post-canon daemags/maglor's wife that's vibrating around in my head.

i have no idea who has done this already so if you have, um. sorry, feel free to ignore the tag. @aredhels, @vryivs, @thescrapwitch, @polutrope, @welcomingdisaster, @melestasflight, @elvinye, @sallysavestheday

[skelebonecentral]

TSAMS Moon

okie dokie, here you go one lovely, sex positive aroace boy being ordered around.

words under the cut

Moon looked up when you came in and raised a brow, “Bad day?”

You were fidgeting and seemed agitated to the extreme. “Yes. Can we play around?”

He smirked and put his book of quantum physics away and nodded,  “sure. When do we start?”

“Now. Bedroom. Strip.” You pointed and he obliged, walking into this bedroom and shucking his pants gladly.

“Good boy,” you growled and Moon felt it zing through his body. He loved how aggressive you got when in the mood as compared to your usual caring, soft spoken self. “lay down.”

“Yes, Captain,” he said, using the preferred term of address for this ‘game’ you two played.

“That’s right, and who are you to me?” you looked furious, sounded furious, but he knew better.

“your cabin boy,” was the casual answer, and the evil grin that came to your face made him echo it.

“that’s right. You’re here to make my bed warm and play around. Now don’t you dare touch yourself unless I say so, right?”

“Yes, Captain,” was the perennial answer, and he watched eagerly as you were undressing.

“Tell me who you talked to today.”

“Sun, Solar, Earth, and Monty,” easy enough, he didn’t have a lot of contacts.

That got him a nod and another question, “have you jacked off since we last did this?”

He blushed, hating this kind of question but it was part of the game, “Yeah.”

“Time and reason,” you snapped back, fully nude now.

“two weeks ago, cause I was depressed and needed the distraction.” He could hear the reluctance in his voice, half nervous how you’d react.

But he got an indulgent smile as you crawled over top of him, “That’s good, then. I want my boy to take care of himself.” Good grief, and those soft hands were running over his stomach as you started gently grinding your hips against his. “My good boy…not doing a thing for two weeks without me.”

He hated the pitiful whine as you took one hand and began to tease his lower lips, thumb rubbing the soft spot of his clit while the other fingers slowly fit themselves inside one by one while his tendril writhed where it was trapped between the two of you, “You’re always so warm inside, Moon. It’s so sweet, feeling how soft and tender you are in there. Cold and analytical to everybody else, but vulnerable and so so good for me.”

Moon was already panting just from this, hearing you coo praises for the qualities he tried not to show anybody. He was getting so close to something, but you pulled back and he gripped the sheets tight to avoid making a noise.

“Now you get your reward for being good,” you cooed and lined yourself up, guiding his tendril into you as you slid down to be flush to his pelvis. “Mmn, you’re just the perfect size, Moon. So good for me, now start thrusting.”

Moon did as told, relieved to finally be able to buck upward and let his body do what it wanted, slamming upward over and over as you bounced from the impact.

“Touch me!” you hissed, leaned over him and mouth hanging open. His hands gripped your sides and held you in place as he kept pounding into your depths, “And d-don’t you dare hold back.”

Knowing he could made Moon go feral about it, snarling as he finally could chase the peak and got there quickly. Noticing he was going to cum first, Moon stuck his thumb against your clit and made it vibrate, easily spurring you to your peak just after he began shooting deep into you.

The blinding pleasure settled eventually and you were limp across Moon’s chest, holding him weakly as his left hand gently rested over your back.

“Thank you, Moon,” you groan softly, nuzzling into him.

“Hey, it makes you feel better and it gets my mind out of the driver’s seat for a bit. No complaints,” the lilt of amusement in his voice matched the light feeling in his metaphorical heart. No, he didn’t experience sexual attraction at all, but the act felt good, it made his dear friend feel good, and helped both of them with the stress and anxiety both experienced. It was one of the few times Moon felt totally comfortable being affectionate, here in the afterglow. “You wanna use our showers again?”

“Yeah.” You lift up, making it easy to feel the shake that always lingered in your body after orgasm, and pulled back, “One of these days, we’re going to have to actually talk first when we both feel bad.”

“ew, talking,” he snorted and the two of you laughed all the way to the showers.