#ash i cannot thank you enough for bouncing ideas like the worlds angstiest hurt/comfort tennis match | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

emry-stars-art · 9 months

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i love your royal au so so much, it brings me life. I'm also about to go read your college au because it looks amazing and i just love your writing sm asdfghjk

also! i read in the tags of one of your posts that you want to talk about abram and branding. and i want to hear about abram and branding. so really it's a perfect match!

really though i just want you to know that youre amazingly talented and i love what youre making🥰 have some validation✨ you deserve it!!!

Two asks about the branding + two parts of the branding = I love you, it IS a perfect match! (Also ty very much I saw your ao3 comment as well and you’re SO nice ahhh)

Anyway find part one of Abram’s brands [here], welcome to part two (feat. a buuuuuunch of ideas from @jtl-fics ✨)

Find the royal au writing masterpost here 💕

In the morning, Abram wakes not on the carpet but in Day’s bed. He can make out Day’s blurry form across the room, hunched over and focused at his desk.

Abram stays there for a while, fighting sleep and crushing disappointment to try and figure out what he’s going to do now. If the prince doesn’t want him around anymore, he’ll have to go back to a cramped barrack room. He’ll need to gather his admittedly meager belongings, he’ll need to figure out how to handle sleeping around strangers.

He doesn’t bother to get up until there’s a knock at the door. Shortly after, Day comes to check on him, finally realizing Abram is awake. The prince is outside, Day tells him. He wants to see you.

Abram takes a long while to think, to panic a little, to let himself shake. But he tells Day he doesn’t need to send the prince away. Eventually Abram can get up and go to the hall.

Andrew’s been rehearsing this ever since he’d determined to come find Abram. He can’t just say we need to talk or I need to know or come with me. Even just at the door he can see how close Abram is to running. They don’t even need to have a real conversation. Andrew just needs to explain himself.

“Good morning,” Andrew says, though it’s closer to midday, and is happy with how easily Abram finds his eyes even with the blurry sight. He brushes his fingers against Abram’s knuckles the way he’s seen Day do when he wants to lead Abram somewhere. “I have much to tell you about.”

After a hesitation, Abram slides his hand up Andrew’s to take hold of his sleeve, silent agreement. Day watches them go from his doorway.

Much like every time before, Andrew is as transparent as he needs to be. Abram’s always needed clarity, now more than ever. Andrew tells him that yes, Day explained the brand. (Not much to lose in translation there. It was exactly what Andrew thought it was.) He’d explained Abram’s panic over it. Yes Andrew had been surprised and angry, but he doesn’t need Abram to leave. (He doesn’t want Abram to leave.) Nothing has to change. Andrew never needs to mention or see that brand again if Abram doesn’t want him to.

After that, Abram’s fears shift wildly, if not diminish. Where before Andrew brushing against the bandage, clothed or not, made Abram shudder in discomfort, now he thinks it wouldn’t be so bad. Andrew had been very clear that he didn’t think less of Abram, he’d even threatened High Prince Riko for it in such a way that Abram almost really laughed. It’s more convenient to have a second person able to help him with it until he can see well enough.

Maybe later, well into their courtship, Abram gets in his head about it again. Could be a trigger, could be something more about him and the prince and touch - Andrew doesn’t try to touch him much, he’d been avoiding even more casual contact ever since Abram returned from Evermore. Maybe Andrew doesn’t like to feel the new scars and marks.

(Of course, Andrew is just being conscientious of Abram’s new boundaries. He has no way of knowing those boundaries have changed since then until Abram tells him, but Abram still hasn’t quite figured out that kind of communication.)

Maybe Abram asks if Andrew is going to turn him away. Or if Andrew is only tolerating Abram’s touch, the feel of his skin. If it isn’t comfortable, Abram promises to never ask again, as long as it means he gets to stay at Andrew’s side.

Andrew takes a moment to process that.

He asks again, “Do you want me to touch you?”

“Not if you don’t want -”

“I already know what I want,” says Andrew. “Don’t concern yourself what you think I like and dislike. Do you want me to touch you?”

Abram gives a breath that shakes his shoulders.

“Yes.”

With communication comes understanding, comes Andrew realizing that Abram still hates that cattle brand. Abram thinks Andrew hates that brand. Or at least that it makes him want Abram less. Andrew can’t tell Abram not to hate it, but he can prove that he doesn’t. He takes Abram’s hip and presses his palm squarely over the place he knows the brand is.

“You don’t have to believe me now,” he says, “but there is not a single part of you I would not want to someday be allowed to touch.”

And miraculously, incredibly, finally; that isn’t something Abram dreads.

(And oh, when that day comes it would be a hip kiss to rival canon.)

#hhhhhhhhhhhhhhh #also. Andrew covering the brand with his hand both to hide it from immediate sight and to show again that he doesn’t shy away from it #makes me crazy #ash i cannot thank you enough for bouncing ideas like the worlds angstiest hurt/comfort tennis match #anyway ignore the inconsistencies in those drawings #and I’m sure there’s lots of points I missed on this #but here’s the important bits #fan art #my art #my writing #aftg #all for the game #neil josten #andrew minyard #kevin day #andreil #asks #royal au

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