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drabbles-mc · 8 months

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Fresh Start

Gabriela Castillo x Nacho Varga

For the loveliest @hausofmamadas as part of the Rare Pair Exchange!

Warnings: 18+, language, blood/injury, light angst

Word Count: 5.4k

A/N: I just really really love that I got to write these two together. I love them. I adore them. No one can take them from us, Kay. The braincell is alive and well. 😌

Niche Crossover Taglist: @narcolini @garbinge @withmyteeth @justreblogginfics @cositapreciosa

He’d driven until the car gave out. Then he walked until his legs had done the same. He had no idea where he was—somewhere in California he was pretty sure based off all the license plates he’d seen while he was on the road. Where in California? He couldn’t even hope to guess. Everything looked the same in the dark anyway.

He hadn’t shown up to the diner because he was hungry, although underneath all the pain and exhaustion he was sure that hunger was there somewhere. But it was one of the only places that had lights on, one of the only places that seemed like it was open and also maybe even a little bit safe.

He collapsed before he got his hand on the door, crumpled right into a heap on the sidewalk. He was fighting to keep his eyes open, fighting even harder to try and say something, maybe even call for help. It was like his voice had stopped working, and he didn’t know if that was because everything in his body was shutting down, or if it was because he’d gone so long without speaking that he’d nearly forgotten how to.

When she appeared in his narrowing field of vision, he was certain that it meant he was dying. There was no way that she wasn’t an angel sent there to take him to whatever was next for him. He could just barely register the warmth of her hands on his face. He saw the way her lips moved, but he couldn’t hear what she was actually saying. He tried to look at her for as long as he could before his body gave into the exhaustion and everything went black.

Gabriela knew better than to try and patch up a man who needed far more than just bandages and stitches from her. She knew so much better. That was the whole reason she found herself at the complete opposite end of California from where she’d started just a few short years ago. And yet, when she saw him go down outside the door of the diner, she couldn’t stop herself from rushing to his side. If she didn’t try, then what was the point of any of it?

Once she took in the sight of him, she knew that it was going to be more than just a caring act from a good Samaritan if she helped him. There was a familiar knot in her gut that told her that this man, whoever he was, whoever he ended up being, didn’t just turn up outside the diner because he got lost on a long drive.

Pressing her ear to his chest, she listened intently for a heartbeat, relief coursing through her when she heard it. She managed to get him back to consciousness, but barely. He was beyond out of it, not that she expected anything better than that.

“Come on,” she said, her voice quiet but strong, “we have to get you help.”

If she had still been the same woman she was a few years prior, she would’ve called 911. But she wasn’t so naïve anymore. Some things, she’d learned, you just don’t call the cops about. And even though she didn’t have all the details, or any details, really, she had the feeling deep in her gut that this was going to be one of those things.

Going through motions that felt far too familiar for comfort, she draped his arm over her shoulders before looping hers behind his back. He was able to contribute just enough to the efforts to get himself off the ground, but Gaby was doing most of the legwork once they were up. It wasn’t pretty, or graceful, but she managed to get him to her car and somehow into the passenger seat.

He was fading in and out the whole time, still half-convinced that the woman in the driver’s seat beside him was some manifestation of the grim reaper, there to usher him into the next life by speeding down backroads in her beat-up coup.

When she got him into her apartment and laid out on the couch, he passed out again. She expected that, just glad that she didn’t have to try and half-carry him anywhere else for the time being. He had one arm dangling off the edge of the sofa, the backs of his knuckles resting against the floor. Both his legs were on the cushions, but barely. She looked at him, trying to see past the dirt and dried blood. She was looking for anything fresh, anything that could actively be killing him.

Taking a deep breath, she ran her hands back through her hair before starting to carefully undo the buttons of his shirt. Most of the blood on it seemed dried, but she wanted to be sure. When the shirt fell open, she saw the white a-tank that he had on beneath. There was more blood staining that, but it still looked like most of it was dried. She lifted the bottom hem of the tank top, just enough to confirm that any injuries that he was dealing with, any cuts or gashes, were old enough to have begun to scab over.

She frowned as she looked him over, all the bruises that littered his abdomen. There was nothing fresh that she could see, so her assumption that what got to him was the exhaustion. Whatever blood he lost combined with the fact that he probably hadn’t stopped to rest or eat or drink much of anything in longer than any person should’ve.

There wasn’t much more that she could give him at this point. She thought about getting a cloth with some warm water and soap to start at least cleaning off his face. As she looked at him, it crossed her mind that it probably wouldn’t wake him up. There wasn’t much that would cause him to stir at this point.

Her movements were gentle, the way that they always were. She dragged the washcloth across his forehead, his cheekbones. Each swipe took away another layer of dirt, of sweat and blood that had dried and tried to etch itself into his skin. The small snake earring dangling from his ear moved each time the cloth cleaned away another layer. The frown on her face softened the more she cleaned him up. She knew that she shouldn’t build out a life for him before she’d even heard him speak, but her mind couldn’t help but to wander.

When she’d cleaned off his face as best she could, she stood up and pried herself away from him. She tossed the rag straight into the trash, the sinking feeling that no matter how much bleach she used, she would never see it as clean again. She took a quick shower, just enough to feel like she’d rinsed off the day. She threw her clothes into her hamper, pulling on an old t-shirt and shorts to sleep in. Part of her knew that she could just sleep in her bed and that she would most likely wake up before the man passed out in her living room, but it felt wrong to try and do so. Grabbing a pillow and the blanket off her bed, she went back to the living room and curled up on the chair beside the couch, the one that was usually reserved just for reading.

The sun hadn’t fully crept up over the horizon when Gaby came to. The light coming through her apartment windows was minimal, gray. She didn’t even want to check the time, didn’t want to involuntarily do the math to see how little sleep she’d gotten.

Then she realized what had pulled her from slumber so soon. The events of the night before all came rushing back to her, her eyes widening slightly as she turned and looked over at her sofa. She was expecting to see the man still passed out, but he wasn’t. He was sitting upright, looking just about as confused and unsettled as she felt in that moment. His hands gripped tightly onto the edge of the couch cushion as he watched her.

“Hi,” she said, her voice soft from sleep, but it also had the caution someone would use when trying to soothe an injured animal. Anything to make sure that they didn’t get hurt if it tried to lash out.

“Hi.”

“I didn’t know where to bring you,” she started to explain. “You…you passed out at my job last night.” She twisted her fingers into her blanket as she nodded towards the bloodstains on his clothes. “I, um, I didn’t know what happened, so I didn’t call anyone.”

He looked down at himself, brows knitting when he took in his actual state. “Right. Um. Thank you.”

“I’m Gabriela.”

His eyes wandered back up to her face. “Nacho,” the name came out before he could think better of it.

As soon as he heard what he’d said, he closed his eyes, chin tucking down towards his chest. He knew better than that, but the name rolled off his tongue before he could think of it. It was hard to lie to someone who had a face and eyes as kind as Gaby did. It was too late to take it back now. Trying to fumble and recover somehow would only put himself deeper into the hole he’d just dug.

There was a tiny lift to the end of Gaby’s mouth as she looked at him. There was something vaguely familiar about him even though she knew for a fact that she hadn’t ever met him before. Maybe it was just the look in his eyes. Something that reminded her of a life that she’d left behind.

“Nice to meet you,” she said, a small air of amusement in her tone.

It was just enough for Nacho to be able to catch it, enough to get him to look back over at her. He wanted to make some remark to the effect of, “It might be too soon to be saying things like that,” but he was painfully aware that he wasn’t in the position to be shooting down any spare kindness that anyone was willing to give him.

“You too.”

Nacho kept meaning to leave. He knew that he should. Whoever this girl was, whatever life she’d had for herself before he came tumbling into it, he knew that he didn’t deserve to be any part of it. The hours ticked by and it turned into a day. One day turned into two. After four days he forgot to keep counting. But he meant to leave. He really did.

Gaby never did get around to asking him where he came from, what had happened to him that landed him in a heap on the sidewalk outside the diner. Sometimes she wanted to. When she would see him freeze up at headlights coming in through her apartment windows, when his head would snap towards the sound of someone knocking on the door of the other apartments that she shared a hallway with. People didn’t end up like that because things for them had gone well. Sometimes when things were quiet, and good, and he was helping her cook dinner at the end of a long day, she thought about asking him about all of it. But it just never felt right enough. Maybe that was the lingering strands of naivety that she hadn’t managed to grow out of.

There was never a conversation about him leaving. There was never one about him staying, either. He just did. That first night after they’d introduced themselves, Gaby made a comment about the fact that the couch pulled out into a bed, and that was the end of it. She’d come out in the morning and it would be restored to its former glory, blanket and pillows stacked at the very end of it. Neat as they’d ever been. But they never talked about it.

Most of those first couple weeks were just them existing together in surprisingly comfortable silence together. That, or Nacho would listen to her talk about what happened at work. She’d get home late from her shifts at the diner, but he was almost always still up.

“I had to give him stitches,” she said with a shake of her head, wrapping up a story about one of the cooks slicing his finger open.

“Stitches?” Nacho repeated back. “You know how to do that?”

She chuckled softly as she got a glass of water for herself. “Of course I do.” She walked over, taking a seat next to him on the couch. “I used to be a nurse.”

The explanation didn’t do anything to sate his curiosity. “Used to be?”

That was the first time he saw real sadness cross Gaby’s face. It felt like it sent a real, physical pang of hurt through him to see her like that. He wanted to take the question back, tell her to forget that he ever asked. But it was too late—she was already telling him what happened. Honest in a way that he could never even hope to be.

“I used to live on the border,” she said, looking down at the glass of water in her hands, “and then I moved to Lodi for nursing school. I worked there for a little while after I graduated. Things got…bad, dangerous. The person I cared about the most wasn’t who I thought he was.” She shook her head as she thought back on it all, memories she tried so hard to push from her mind. “So I left. Moved again. Started over again.”

“I’m—”

“It’s okay,” she cut him off. “I’m used to it.” She laughed softly but it was more of a sad sound than anything else. “I’m good at it now.”

“Would you ever go back?” He paused. “To nursing, I mean.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know.” Taking a sip of her water, she finally forced herself to look Nacho in the eyes again. A tiny smile worked its way back onto her face. “Lucky for you though, hm?”

He chuckled, nodding. “Very lucky.”

“If you’d gotten to me sooner you might not have scarred so much,” she said, nodding towards his torso, the scar running across his stomach covered by the t-shirt that he was wearing.

“Too bad I didn’t know where I was going.”

It was the perfect time for him to finally say something, tell her at least the good parts of his life before all of this. He knew now that she wasn’t ever going to bring herself to ask him. Whether it was out of respect or something else entirely, he didn’t know. He wanted to tell her. Part of him wanted to tell her everything, lay it all out on the table. Each night went by and he tried to figure out if the risk was worth the reward—telling her everything and having her accept him regardless would send him clean over the moon. But telling her everything only for her to decide that she wasn’t going to let him be the reason that she would have to start over again wasn’t something that he was ready for, wasn’t something that he thought he could handle.

He couldn’t bring himself to do it. Not yet. “Really think the scar is that bad?” he asked, humor in his voice as he lifted his shirt up enough to expose it.

She let out a real laugh at that. Shaking her head as she playfully swatted his hand, causing his shirt to drop again. “Cállate.” She finished off what was left in the glass before standing up to put it in the sink. “Plenty of girls love it. You’ll be fine, hermoso, don’t worry.”

The smile that spread across Nacho’s face was involuntary, as was the warmth that went through his chest at her words. He found himself shaking his head, just as much at Gaby as at himself. He was still on the brink of chuckling to himself when she turned back around to face him.

“What?” she asked, still smiling.

“Nothing,” he replied, not sure how to answer with the truth of what he was thinking in that moment.

She raked her fingers back through her hair, pushing it all behind her shoulders. “I’m going to bed.” Walking through the living room to get to the door to her bedroom, she rested her hand on Nacho’s shoulder for a moment as she went by. “Goodnight, Nacho.”

He almost lifted his hand to place it on hers, but he stopped himself. “Goodnight.”

He watched her disappear into her bedroom, shutting the door softly behind her. The warmth that lingered in his chest was battling it out with the pervasive thought that he didn’t want to be another person who made her start over. He couldn’t be the next man who cost her something like that.

It was a few days later when Gaby walked out into the living room, her phone pinned to her shoulder as she spoke to Nacho. “Do you think you could help my cousin at his shop today?”

Confusion flooded Nacho’s features. “What?”

She shook her head. “It’s just him and one other guy right now and he called out.” She saw the way that he was still very clearly lost. “Cars. He’s a mechanic.”

“Gaby, I don’t—”

“You got my car running last week.”

“I’m not a mechanic. I know a little bit, but—”

“I’ll owe you,” she said, clearly desperate to help her family.

Nacho sighed, knowing that there was no way the conversation was going to end with him not helping. Nodding, he gave in. “Okay. Yea. I can try to help.”

She let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you so much.”

Nacho watched and listened as she got back onto the phone with her cousin. There was something comforting about listening to the two of them converse. He could only hear one half of the conversation, but even so, the sound of her laughing, of her going back and forth with him in Spanish, it was heartwarming and heavy all at once. He thought about his dad. He could only imagine what the man would think about the situation Nacho was in now, what he’d have to say about it.

Trying not to get lost in the thoughts of it, he pushed himself up off the couch so he could grab his boots and get ready to leave. He didn’t get far before Gabriela came back over to him, throwing her arms around him in a hug.

“Thank you,” she said, speaking more into his chest than anything else.

It took some doing, but he finally let himself hug her back. “It’s fine.”

Pulling back, she beamed up at him. “He’s excited to meet you. I’ve told him all about you.” She laughed when she saw the panic flash across Nacho’s face. “Don’t worry, hermoso—I only told him the good things.”

It became another one of those things that they never really talked about. One day never seemed to stay just one day with them. His whole adult life Nacho seemed to constantly find himself getting in over his head, landing himself in situations that snowballed no matter how much he tried to fight it. This was the first time it felt good, though. For once the spiral felt like it was going upwards instead of down. Instead of accidentally landing himself in a mess that he couldn’t get out of, it almost felt like he was starting to build something resembling a life for himself. One that had a very pivotal centerpiece to it.

He got home one evening and she had beaten him there. She had her music on loud as she moved effortlessly around the kitchen, pulling something together for dinner. Her hips swayed and even though he couldn’t hear her, Nacho was almost certain that she was singing along with the words that played.

When she turned around and saw him standing just inside the door, she gasped. The shock on her face quickly faded, nerves dissipating as she laughed and turned the volume down just slightly.

“I tried to say hello when I walked in,” he came to his own defense, a smirk on his face as he toed off his boots.

She chuckled, the lid to a pot in one hand and the other on her hip. “I’m sure.”

Walking over, he scanned over everything that she had on the stove and the countertops. “Can I help?”

She gave him a once-over. “You can go clean yourself up,” she suggested with a laugh. “I don’t want motor oil getting into my tamales.”

Nacho chuckled and shook his head, but he didn’t put up any real fight about it. “I’ll be right back.”

She hummed in acknowledgment. “I’ll be here.”

He only got a few steps out of the kitchen before she turned the music back up. Looking back over his shoulder, he couldn’t help but to watch her for a few more seconds as she went right back to dancing and cooking.

The air of intimacy between them was unlike anything Nacho had ever experienced before. And he didn’t even think that Gaby was even going out of her way to create it. That’s just how she was—soft, inviting. The closest he’d ever physically been to her was when she hugged him. Once. He’d spent years weaving in and out of relationships and situationships with other women, but none of them had ever felt so comfortable. All of that and he was still spending every night on the couch.

“Here,” he offered with a quiet chuckle as he reached over Gaby for plates on a shelf that was nearly out of her reach, “I got it.”

She laughed, letting her head drop in mock shame as Nacho reached over her. “Thank you.”

They navigated their shared space so easily. Brushing hands and arms, soft laughs crossing in the air between them. He wondered if Gaby felt it too. Wondered if she was like him, not saying anything about it for fear of shattering the fragile bubble around them.

“Thank you,” Nacho said as he was cleaning the dishes after dinner.

Gaby tilted her head slightly a smile on her face. There was a hint of confusion in her expression as she said, “I should be thanking you.” She laughed. “It’s nice not always having to be the one to do dishes all the time anymore.”

One end of Nacho’s mouth tugged up into a smile for half a second. “No, I mean, thank you. For,” he took a deep breath, “all of it.”

Recognition flooded her face. Walking over, she leaned back against the counter that was beside the sink. Even if Nacho was having trouble looking her in the eyes, she didn’t share the same hesitation. “You’re welcome.” There was a long pause between them, Gaby waiting for Nacho to finally say whatever was on the tip of his tongue, Nacho waiting for her to switch topics or walk away so he wouldn’t have to say it all. Then Gaby continued. “I’ve never asked, because I know what it’s like to try and leave everything behind. It’s not easy.”

Nacho chuckled before he could stop himself. “No, it’s not.”

She waited for him to look over at her for a moment before saying, “Maybe it’s too late for me to ask. Maybe I should have asked weeks ago. But do I need to be worried?”

He shook head. “No.”

She studied his face closely as he said that. That was a promise that she’d heard before and she still had to watch her whole life crumble down around her. “You promise?”

“Promise.” He meant it. He felt like he was as safe as he was ever going to be existing in the little universe they’d created for themselves. But he also knew that if he even heard so much as a murmur, felt even the slightest change in the wind, he’d leave. He owed her at least that much.

She let the word hang between them for a moment before nodding. “Okay.” Reaching over, she rested her hand on his shoulder. “Thank you for the dishes.”

The smile on his face was small, almost shy after all of that. “You’re welcome.” He let her get a couple steps away before he spoke up again, mouth acting independently from his brain. “That first night…”

The silence that took over the apartment was suffocating. It lasted for a few agonizingly long seconds before Gaby’s soft footfalls could be heard, slowly making her way back over to him. She didn’t say anything, just finding her place against the counter once more. Her eyebrows lifted, a silent invitation for him to keep talking.

“That first night,” he started again, hoping to get the full sentence out this time, “when I saw you, I thought I was dying.” He couldn’t stop the bit of a chuckle that found its way into his voice as he ended the sentence.

Gaby, despite herself, had to smile a little at that too. “I thought so too.”

“That’s fair,” he said with a nod. “But, when I thought I was dying,” his eyes were focused intensely on the plate that he was washing, “and I saw you, I swear I thought you were an angel or something.”

Gaby laughed. It wasn’t the first time that she’d heard something like that. When she worked at the hospital, tending to people who were in crisis, fading in and out of consciousness and some of them very much on the brink of dying completely, there had been more than one patient who said something to that effect. She always took it in stride, and she did this time too, but it felt different hearing it from Nacho. Maybe because it was the first time that either of them spoke about that night at all.

“Not quite,” she told him, her voice soft.

“I don’t know,” Nacho shrugged as he set the dishes in the drying rack, “I think I had it right.”

She rolled her eyes but she was still smiling. “You’re sweet.”

“You saved my life.”

“I don’t think you were dying,” she countered, her voice still light. “I think you were exhausted and dehydrated.”

“No, I mean,” he shut the sink off and dried his hands, “the rest of it, too.”

She smiled, not quite sure how to respond to what he was saying. So many times over the previous weeks she thought about bringing it up, but it never went quite like this when she played it out in her head. She watched him closely as he leaned back against the counter right beside her.

“I’m glad that you found me,” she said, giving him credit where he truly felt that none was due. He turned his head to look at her and she added, “And I’m glad that you stayed.”

The only way that Nacho could explain what he felt at the sound of her words was saying it was as though his heart had tripped over its own feet. The beat got knocked off-kilter, nearly tumbling down a flight of stairs as he let himself feel the weight of what she’d said.

“I’m glad too,” he finally forced himself to speak, his voice coming out as barely a whisper.

They stood there beside each other for a moment. The outsides of their arms pressed against the other’s, contact running all the way down to where the outsides of their feet were just barely touching. There was something in the way that Gaby hardly ever seemed to shy away from looking him, or anyone really, in the eyes. Sometimes Nacho thought it was because she had nothing in the way of shame resting on her shoulders, nothing that would make her feel like she shouldn’t meet someone’s gaze. He wondered what that was like.

His eyes averted from hers, but just for the briefest moment as they wandered to her lips. She had a soft smile on, something that seemed so constant and natural for her. It was far from the first time that Nacho looked at her when she was like that and thought about kissing her, wondering what it would be like to be able to taste that kind of softness and comfort.

It wasn’t the first time the thought had crossed his mind, but it was the first time he made a move to do something about it. Reaching over, he cupped the side of her face before he could make himself stop. His thumb grazed along her cheek, eyes studying every aspect of her face, like he was admiring but also looking for any sign that he should quit while he might’ve still been ahead.

She didn’t pull away. There was no doubt or hesitation present in the way that she gently leaned into the contact, pressing cheek to palm. Her eyes shut, a little too long to be a blink. When she opened them again, looking up at Nacho through her eyelashes, he thought that he was going to sink clean through the floor beneath them.

His voice trembled slightly, sounding like a man that he didn’t even recognize as he whispered a soft, “Gaby…”

She reached up, threading her fingers with his. “Mhm?” she hummed.

He didn’t know if he actually had words ready to say in response, but if he did they all fell to the wayside. Leaning in, he carefully pressed his lips to hers. It was soft, tentative, nervous in a way that he hadn’t been around a woman in a long time. Part of him was still expecting her to pull away, but she didn’t. She leaned into him, her hand moving to rest flat against his chest. The erratic beating of his heart thrummed against her palm, and he could feel that same warm smile curl her lips as she continued to kiss him.

It was everything he could’ve ever wanted it to be and more.

He was keenly aware of everything about her, the way her hands slid to interlock behind his neck, the way she gently pulled him so that he was in front of her, putting her between him and the counter behind her. Nacho’s hands dropped to her waist for a moment before sliding up, fingers splaying across her back as he fought the urge to grip onto her shirt and pull her tighter, like she was at risk of slipping away from him.

She felt it, too, the tension that was beginning to rear its head as his lips moved against hers. She pulled away, not far, just enough so that she could look him in the eyes and make him look at her.

“Hey,” she brought her hand to his cheek, “you’re okay.”

His shoulders sagged in relief as she voice washed over him. He let his forehead drop to rest against hers, eyes drifting shut for a moment as he tried to soak it in, not just feel what she was saying but actually believe it too. Her fingertips were so soft as they trailed down the side of his face, pads of her fingers as they roamed over the stubble that was beginning to grow in again.

Tilting her chin up just slightly, she kissed him again, tender and quick. Nacho smiled, letting out a breath he didn’t realize he’d started to hold. He pulled her closer, not out of fear, but because it just felt like the small span of space between them was too much. Gaby melted into him, hands on the sides of his neck, the tips of her fingers just barely interlocking behind.

“Come on, hermoso,” there was gentle laughter in her voice as she pushed against him, separating herself from the counter so she could start pulling him out of the kitchen, “let’s go to bed.”

It was a strange moment when Nacho realized that the couch wasn’t going to be bed. His eyes only drifted away from Gaby for a moment, looking back at where his blankets and pillows were all still stacked so neatly at the end of the sofa. But then he felt the way her fingers trailed against his palm and all of his attention went back to her.

He let her pull him across the threshold and into her room. He didn’t even have it in him to look around, his eyes fixed on her and her alone. As she flicked on the lights of her bedroom, the only thing Nacho could think was that he hoped that, just like everything else about them, this wasn’t going to be just one night.

#nacho varga #gaby castillo #gabriela castillo #ignacio varga #better call saul #bcs #mayans mc #mayansmc #mayans fx #mayans au #better call saul au #nacho varga x gabriela castillo #gabriela castillo x nacho varga #rare pair exchange #rare pair #rare pair exchange 2023 #my writing #fanfiction #drabblesmc

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postalninja · 8 months

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Final Fantasy VI Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Tina Branford | Terra Branford/Edgar Roni Figaro Characters: Tina Branford | Terra Branford, Edgar Roni Figaro, Locke Cole (mentioned) Additional Tags: First Meetings, First Impressions, Vulnerability, Pre-Relationship, developing feelings, One-Sided Flirtation Summary:

Desperately fleeing captivity from the Empire, Terra Branford is alone in the world. A young woman without a past, and with unexplained magical abilities, she seeks shelter and protection against those who would use her powers to inflict suffering upon others. When she meets Edgar, the young King of Figaro, she doesn't know whether or not she can trust him - and it may take some unexpected vulnerability on his part to put her mind at ease. --- Now that authors have been revealed, I can share this little Edgar/Terra fic I wrote for the RarePair Exchange! :)

#final fantasy vi #final fantasy fanfic #ff6 #terra branford #edgar roni figaro #edgar/terra #rare pair exchange #postal ninja fanfic

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caiti-creative-corner · 8 months

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Title: A Hidden Truth Written for Rare Pair Exchange 2023 Characters: Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Ares Rating: T Summary: They knew what the other gods thought of them . . . and it mattered little in the end. As long as they had each other, what did they care for the scorn of others?

LINK TO STORY

#hepheastus #aphrodite #ares #rare pair exchange #hephaestus x aphrodite x ares

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v-thinks-on · 8 months

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Finnick sidles up to old Haymitch, slinging an arm around his shoulder. He still stinks like alcohol, but from how he’s standing he must only be tipsy, and he’s watching the screens rather than the bar for a change.

“What a pleasant surprise,” Finnick says, leaning in close to let Haymitch taste his sober breath.

“Shove off,” Haymitch says, but he doesn’t knock Finnick’s arm away.

Haymitch’s lingering gaze has always betrayed where his proclivities lie, even though he’s usually too inebriated to try anything. It’s a shame because Haymitch was handsome once and could still be if he wore something more flattering than an ill-fit suit and didn’t constantly bite at the hand that fed him.

“Now, that’s no way to talk to an ally,” Finnick murmurs against Haymitch’s ear.

Haymitch tries to conceal a shudder and makes a half-hearted attempt to swat him away. “If there’s something you want, then talk.”

(Read More on AO3)

#v writes #The Hunger Games #Finnick Odair #Haymitch Abernathy #Finnick x Haymitch #Rare Pair Exchange #a pair I never thought I'd write in a fandom I never thought I'd write for but I think it turned out pretty well!

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mylittleredgirl · 11 months

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♡ dear rare pair creator ♡

thank you for creating something for me! i hope you're excited about whatever we matched on.

i'm pretty easily delighted, so i'm sure i will enjoy whatever you create. i'm including likes/dislikes and a few prompt ideas below in case they are useful to your process, but i LOVE being surprised by things i did not consider, so if you have another idea, please run with it!

general likes/dislikes are the same as on the exchange request, broken out into bullet points for easier reading:

general things I love:

happy/hopeful ending

episode-related fic

canon divergence

fix-its

friends to lovers

new or deepening relationship

pre-ship friendship/ust

pining

hurt/comfort

healing and recovery

reuniting after time apart

working through complications (e.g. working together while having a relationship, emotional baggage, traumas inflicted by canon, etc)

including other canon characters in the fic

polyamory dynamics

5 times

all ratings are welcome.

kinks enjoyed

soft dom/sub

praise kink

edging

aliens made them do it (or local canon equivalent)

overindulgence

masturbation

body worship (especially related to body image/weight gain/aging)

i have never said no to a quality blow job or hand job fic

sweet i-love-you sex works for me too!!

DNWs:

permanent character death

hurt no comfort

crossovers (except within extended canon universe, e.g. across star trek shows)

historical AUs

supernatural AUs where the characters are werewolves, etc (supernatural elements like telepathy/psychic powers/soulmates are fine)

vampires and zombies (ghosts and other canon-typical cryptids are ok!)

non-canon nicknames

bashing of characters or canon past relationships (except sam carter’s collection of questionable exes on SG-1, i can live with that).

🛸 the x-files

i fell back in love with late-season x-files this year! doggett/reyes was my fic writing origin story, and i am fully back on my bullshit with those two. i also LOVE the dynamic of the three agents in season nine, as people and friends, and it would be so interesting to explore as lovers. random prompt ideas:

john gets knocked around a lot — so what if it's monica's turn to be hurt/in danger on a case, and john's turn to find her or care for her afterward?

doggett/scully/reyes would be so complicated and interesting!! scully learning to trust anyone except mulder; how would it feel for john to spend time around william; there's a good chance this isn't monica's first poly rodeo, but what about the other two... etc etc any little bit about their dynamic would be fun to play with.

the real prompt for the ot4 would be "okay, but for real, how do they not kill each other?" but in a fun way.

🛰 babylon 5

this show is an old, old fave, so anything you write will feel like seeing beloved old friends again. pre-series, during, or post-series are all great, and i'm a fan of canon divergence! most of these characters get pretty traumatized by the narrative, and their relationships could be understandably fucked up as a result, but i like it when characters are good and loving at their core -- even if it looks messy while they figure themselves out.

i would love any fix-it that saves talia, with any combination of people involved

did lyta and talia know each other as young telepaths/psi cops interns?

for sinclair/sakai: i LOVE a reunion-of-exes-but-now-it's-right ship soooo much. anything along their journey, including a potential future where she goes with him to minbar or they otherwise reunite again, would be fun to read!

(note: i have read "to dream in the city of sorrows," so if you know it and want to use it as a backdrop for a sinclair/sakai future fic that's fine, but i'm NOT attached and would also love to see your canon divergence of choice!)

👽 stargate sg-1

clone sam/jack: i love it best when these two are still themselves, working through some angst and alienation from both their past and their new lives, but also with hope for a sweet future together. there's such a good opportunity for tension between what they were and what they are, both personally and for their relationship.

what's something that used to be normal, but feels so different now? (e.g. if one of them is in danger or injured... but could be anything!)

after they survive high school, what's next? when do their lives start to feel like their own?

janet fraiser/daniel jackson: these two often fall together very easily in the background of sam and jack fics, but they have lots of fun complications of their own (their professional lives; daniel's past; janet raising a traumatized child...), and they have so much potential to be good and loving and maybe a little snarky together.

heroes canon divergence where she survives but it’s a close thing — how does that impact them (either pre-relationship or established)?

something set off-world, since janet so rarely gets to travel through the gate...

👾 jake 2.0

this is an extremely niche pairing and so you are definitely not here to write this, but i love jake and diane sooooo much. if, by some rare pair miracle, you have seen this show (!!) i would adore ANYTHING about them!!

⚾️ deep space nine

i love this floating bicycle wheel in space and everyone inside it so much!!

julian/ezri: the canon execution of this pairing was not great, but somehow i still really ship it. it's complicated, there's war trauma, there's joining trauma, but i think they could recover together and be friends and lovers for real. i'll take anything from silly fluff to a messy deep dive, totally up to you.

what if the war has lasted longer, and it had taken longer for them to get together?

they could do with some shenanigans i think

miles/keiko/kira: there's so much potential here for fun and healing and cultural exchange, and at the end of the day, i just want kira to keep her new family.

during the series: what if they just keep delaying kira's move-out after the baby is born...

anything about getting the family (the whole ds9 family or just this family!) back together post-series

jadzia dax/lenara kahn: truly the closest we get to a canon soulmate au. i love them and want them to be happy 😭.

what if lenara was telling the truth, and just needed more time?

(note: i haven't read the ds9 post-series novels, but if you have and want to use them, i'm happy to memory beta anything i need to know to appreciate the fic!)

✨ voyager

b'elanna/kes: i believe that b'elanna loves and wants gentleness, even if she doesn't know what to do with it at first. i also adore kes as a character. her kindness! her powers, and how she is both drawn toward them and a little scared of them! her brief and vibrant life!

kes has no preconceptions about klingons, so how does that impact how b'elanna sees herself?

anything at all to do with kes's developing powers (and maybe how b'elanna reacts to them...?)

🍻 cheers

diane chambers/sam malone: this couple is an absolute disaster, but i would like them to annoy each other til death do they part. ideas:

how do they support each other (well or very badly) in their ongoing mental health/addiction challenges?

what if they stayed in touch on her writing retreat and/or she came back as promised?

if they did get married, diane would co-own the bar and i'm sure she would have ideas about what to do with it...

thank you again!! i hope this was useful and not overwhelming. you are totally welcome to toss it out and surprise me 💕 anonymous asks are turned on for this account if you have follow-up questions.

#dear author #rare pair exchange

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pleasetakethis · 7 months

Text

Coincidental Penalties

Written for the 2023 Rare Pair Exchange. Thank you to whoever nominated Mighty Ducks and enabled me to revisit my high school obsession with these characters!

Pairing: Adam Banks/Charlie Conway Rating: Explicit Word Count: 1.6k Tags: Aged-Up Character(s), College Hockey, Locker Room, First Time, Grinding, Coming Out, Kissing Summary: Adam and Charlie went to the University of Minnesota on athletic scholarships to play hockey for the Gophers. Only one problem: Adam stopped talking to Charlie completely over the summer before the school year started. New tension between them boiled over on the ice during practice and they dealt with the aftermath in the locker room.

Read @ AO3

#banksway #adam/charlie #adam banks/charlie conway #mighty ducks #mighty ducks fanfic #rare pair exchange #2023 rare pair exchange #bri writes #seriously i was o b s e s s e d in high school #so happy to revisit this fandom #since i was too insecure and anxious to write what i wanted to write back then

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miss-m-calling · 11 months

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Rare Pair Exchange 2023 letter

Dear writer,

Hello and thank you for writing for me! My requests are Mad Men, Starred Up, and Wild Things. I am requesting fic, and treats are enabled. :-)

General likes:

-pre-canon, canon, post-canon, canon-divergent, and missing-scene stories

-character-driven as well as plot-driven stories

-fics which mix humor and angst/serious business (when this fits the canon)

-characters at work and play

-group dynamics, family dynamics (including constructed families), professional partnerships, friendships, alliances, rivalries, intimate couples (new lovers/first times as well as long-term/established couples), UST-ridden couples who are not just UST-ridden but connected in other ways too

-irony, snark, humor, angst – all arising from the characters rather than the plot crowbaring it in

-linear, non-linear, and 5+1 stories

-hopeful endings, happy endings, bittersweet endings, “everything is awful but you’re here and maybe I don’t entirely hate that” endings

-worldbuilding

-spiky characters who keep their jagged edges and spikiness in adversity as well as when their lives are going well, square-peg-in-round-hole characters, tough characters with (maybe not so well) hidden vulnerabilities, characters who are their own worst enemies, characters who manage to get over themselves when the occasion calls for it, characters with conflicting values which may or may not be reconciled/resolved, characters who treat each other with respect and as equals even if they hate/annoy/can’t stand/love to dislike each other, characters who may not be exactly friends and may well irritate one another but manage to rub along to get the job done and maybe even grow to care about one another (much to their surprise/reluctance/discomfort), characters who just cannot get along with each other or find common ground

-workplace stories (this can mean anything from an actual workplace/casefic/procedural setting to anything that revolves around the canon world in which the characters live) in which the characters get to be competent

Shippy and smutty likes:

-(where it fits the characters) banter

-competitiveness or antagonism shading into attraction (this tension need not be resolved)

-”oh god why did it have to be you what did I do to deserve this“

-”come here and say it to my face/do that again/kiss me, you motherfucker”

-bickering yet loving couples

-characters who are serious about their romantic interests

-characters who think they are much better at flirtation than they actually are

-characters forced to work together only to prove much more compatible than they initially assumed

-fics which mix an exploration of characters’ professional and everyday lives with shipping

-characters who are incompatible in some important way (they are ideological enemies, cop and criminal, spies from opposite sides, or there has been betrayal!!!), and while they love and/or want each other, they’re not willing to change sides or abandon/compromise their identity/beliefs for the other’s benefit

-I don’t know how better to phrase this than: smut which fits the characters; how does their canon dynamics spill over into hubba hubba stuff?

-sexual scenarios that subvert expectations a little and surprise the characters themselves

-sexual scenarios that contain an element of competition or antagonism

-“this is a bad idea but we’re going for it hammer and tongs”

-not wanting to admit feelings or show vulnerability except oops it happens anyway, whether the characters acknowledge it or not

-characters getting way more into the sex or being more affected by it than they thought they would

-quick and intense sex, slow and intense sex, rough yet willing sex (when it fits the characters), unexpectedly emotional and/or tender sex

-masturbation while thinking of the other half of the ship (or not wanting to think about them only oops there they are in the fantasy!)

-first time sex

-established relationship, we-know-each-other-so-well sex

-”we’ve both wanted this and now we both know it so here we go diving in headfirst” sex

-you can go as veiled or as explicit as you like, but please avoid excessive medical jargon – I don’t find a lot of mention of “penis” or “clit” sexy.

Ship/smut DNWs:

MPREG, A/B/O, knotting D/s, formalized BDSM, painful sex, hard kinks (holding someone down playfully, hair pulling and such like, the odd spank are a-OK) scat, watersports knife/gun/blood play incest deaging/infantilization, mommy/daddy kink under-16yos in sexual situations humiliation body distortion/horror (feeding/weight kink, come inflation, vore, etc.) unrequested ships/pairings soulmates and soul marks pregnancy and children (can be mentioned if canon, just don’t make the whole fic about them) wedding setting/theme secondary characters shipping the main pair like it’s their job xeno, tentacles, bestiality noncon/dubcon

Other DNWs:

torture and abuse (this and noncon/dubcon can be mentioned, but please don’t dwell on it in loving detail or subject any of my requested characters to it) descriptions of vomit, shit, and piss (”He pissed up against a tree” and the like is fine), toilet humor lots of gore/blood (mention it, yes; lovingly describe it, no), cannibalism, serious illness or injury character bashing genderswap/genderbent characters, characters as kids/young teens issuefic, gender/sexuality/race/ethnicity/religion/ability/identity headcanons death of requested characters hopeless, unrelenting gloom/angst/horror RL holiday setting/theme, RL religions as a major theme (invented fictional holidays and rituals are fine) reference to RL current events 1st and 2nd person POV unrequested crossovers or fusions AUs which have nothing to do with canon fic written in lapslock, poetry as my main gift

Mad Men (TV)

Andy/Don Draper

Mad Men is a modern TV classic for all the obvious reasons: the writing, the acting, the costumes and sets and attention to period detail. I love so many characters in it even when they frustrate me. But what I really really really want in fic for it is more of the shippiness we get in the penultimate episode (S7E13 “The Milk and Honey Route”) between Don – the ad man, the man of two names, our deeply challenging yet always cool and charming antihero – and the young guy who cleans rooms in an Oklahoma motel and does a bit of hustling when the opportunity arises. Yes, Andy reminds Don somewhat of himself at Andy’s age: so hungry for money and life, so desperate to get out of his podunk town and poverty, glibly likeable but unpolished, not always smart with the risks he takes, too prone to guilt to get away with big crimes easily. Yes, Andy sees Don as a mark, but then Don also inadvertently teaches him a couple of life lessons and gives him the scot-free chance no one ever gave him (Don). And they have chemistry! And Don pushes Andy onto the motel bed in a fit of anger, and Andy doesn’t really do anything to defend himself, so there’s that too.

Exceptions to blanket DNWs: dubcon is fine, ambiguous/open/that vintage Mad Men melancholy-the-way-life-is-often-melancholy endings are fine.

Prompts:

-Of course I want porn for them! Sex may or may not make things less fraught between them. Any position is good, and I am partial to Don topping but I would be very curious about an Andy-topping scenario too!

-I also want them to continue Don’s road trip together. Maybe Don takes Andy further than the bus stop, or he gives Andy the car but Andy circles back around to “give him a lift.” Give me all the American West lore and landscapes, the sites (Grand Canyon! SoCal! The deserts! The badlands!) and tourist traps, the 1960s/1970s period detail, the road trip as a cultural trope (think On the Road, or My Private Idaho, or Badlands, or Thelma and Louse, or Carol/The Price of Salt, or American Honey).

-Or, wait for it… A road trip – with porn. Other towns, other motels, beds and bedrooms that preserve no trace of what happens in them. Car blowjobs. Quick and dirty and they never talk about it, or gradual and ever-more-intense exploration of a country and each other. Is it opportunistic or something more for either/both of them?

-Having Andy along for the ride may or may not do anything for Don’s soul-searching/slow-motion suicide attempt in the show’s final episodes, so feel free to go dark or angsty. Or, what does a happy ending mean for either of them, and do they even know?

-That scene where Don throws Andy on the bed – that, but make it porny.

-Andy makes a pass. Don blows him off… at first.

-Andy’s hustle isn’t just petty (or not so petty) thievery, it’s sex work. Don has never had to pay for it, and he may or may not want it that way with Andy – it would make things easier and less emotionally involving, but then again, the kid’s not exactly trustworthy. And Andy finds Don’s wealth and cool impressive, transactional relationships put him in control, but what if he wants something other than to be in control?

-How do they interact with their clothes on? Don doesn’t necessarily want to make Andy more like himself, even if Andy tries to pick up some of Don’s polish and people skills. Andy may think he doesn’t need the guilt, but Don would disagree. Now if only Don would stop correcting Andy’s grammar…

-Andy pulls short cons, and Don’s whole life has basically been one long con. Andy isn’t as good at the hustle as he thinks he is, while Don wishes he weren’t so locked into and skilled at playing his adopted role. What can they teach each other?

-Does Don tell Andy some or all of the truth about himself? Either because he still wants to find a more honest way to live, or because he figures they’ll be parting ways soon and Andy isn’t exactly a model citizen, so it doesn’t matter what Andy knows about him, or even because vulnerability has a way of creeping up on one? Or if Don doesn’t want to let Andy in that way, why doesn’t he?

-Andy gets them in trouble. Don gets them out of it. Or they get in trouble when the townsfolk in some Hicksville sniff out that they’re screwing (even if they’re not… yet), and they have to save each other’s hide.

-While traveling with Andy, Don still talks to Sally on the phone every week. Sally starts or tries to piece together what the nature of the men’s relationship is. What and how (or how much) does Don tell her? How does she react? (I love Sally, BTW, and I love her complex relationship with her father.)

Starred Up (2013)

Oliver Baumer/Eric Love

Yes I do ship it, I do, I do!

Ahem. Don’t get me wrong, I liked what the movie did with the father-son relationship and its influence on both men’s character development – but I really wish they hadn’t got Oliver out of the action before the story’s climax (not like that!). The final denouement with Love father and Love son was great, as was the hint at the end that Eric learned something in anger-management group and has a support network that will help him a lot. But. I would have wanted to see more of the intriguing dynamic between Eric the intelligent, semi-feral, yet not-incorrigible, young thug and Oliver the educated, dedicated, kind yet aware of his own potential for violence (what was he on about with “I need to be here”?), slightly older counselor. They had me at Oliver’s “I want him” and Eric later telling his father that Oliver’s a better man than Love Sr. Also the not-flirting and the push-pull in the scene when Oliver picks up Eric from his cell - yowza!

Exception to blanket DNW: dubcon is a-okay! If you decide to go there, my preferred flavors of dubcon for this canon are: power differential makes it a bad idea but they do it anyway; “I know you want this”; “if the answer’s no/you’re only doing this for a dare or to prove a point, then why are you enjoying this so much [as am I]?”; no no yes a.k.a. starts as dubcon (or one of them thinks they’re dubconning the other), becomes enthusiastic consent.

Also, if this is relevant or makes you nervous about writing for me, Eric would be 18-19, and Oliver is maybe 10-12 years older – and I like it!!! (The actors were 22 and 31 when the movie was made, FWIW.)

Prompts:

-I would love to see Oliver return to holding his group in prison, so the two of them can interact more, either in the movie’s immediate aftermath or years down the line, as it’s implied that Eric will be serving a long sentence. Give me more scenes from anger management or the ribald, honest, free-flowing conversations in group, either with the other men present (I liked Hassan and Tyrone especially, among the group members) or a one-on-one session.

-An oblique or open-but-undramatic admission/declaration that they both know there’s something there, even if they don’t know what to do with it. Or, one or both of them knows exactly what to do with it, and the push-pull that would result from that.

-Dirty talk: used for arousal, as a defense mechanism, as a form of flirtation. Eric using slurs to assert dominance, and Oliver not letting him hide behind profanity, when he can use colorful language to express emotion and/or sexual interest. There could definitely be some verbal taunting/flirting about who wants/is eager to do what or is good at doing something. There may be some sniping comments about logistics and (lack of) condoms and barebacking and what men get up to in prison. There probably wouldn’t be deep discussions about sexual identity.

-An emergency in the prison requires a lock-down, so Oliver gets temporarily stuck in Eric’s cell or another room with only Eric for company. Things get porny and/or emotional.

-Eric is eventually released (you can handwave this so it happens soon after the movie or have it happen years later) and crashes with Oliver while he adjusts to the outside world. You guessed it: things get porny and/or emotional.

-How do they get to the point where both can cross that line from friends/whatever the hell they are and become, to lovers? (There’s Eric’s personal history and general discomfort with vulnerability, plus all the ways prison sex can be or make things complicated, and if it helps, I headcanon Oliver as either gay or bi and at least somewhat closeted, at work especially.) Who initiates and “directs traffic”? How does their always-contentious dynamic shift during and after sex? Is the sex an isolated (series of) occasion(s), or a progression/escalation over multiple encounters (how would I love especially an escalating series of encounters, let me count the ways)? Eric might seem like the logical initiator and/or dominant partner as well as using the possibility of sex to manipulate and exert control, but then Oliver might (or might not!) surprise him and is definitely the one more in touch with himself as well as aware of his custodial duty toward the men in the group.

-At some point in their intimate relationship (probably not right at the start, and probably not in prison, though if you can make it happen in prison, more power to you!), Oliver decides he’s going to take his sweet time and make Eric fall absolutely apart with pleasure, while using dirty talk to both arouse and empower Eric to own his desires – by that point, Eric is in a place where he can let that happen and enjoy it, even if he still talks tough.

-Or how about this: Eric gets out, relationship happens or is in the process of being negotiated, and while physical intimacy is a whooooole neeeeeew woooorld, you know what else would be cool? Phone sex. Yep. Or even, Eric gets himself one of those secret prison burner phones (preferably hidden somewhere that’s not someone’s arse), and… phone sex after lights-out and lock-down. Maybe nothing (much) has happened physically (yet), so phone sex can be a building block to that or one facet of that deepening intimacy.

-For smut: any top/bottom (or switching) combo is good. Hand jobs incl. mutual, masturbation, blowjobs, 69, intercrural, frottage, anal fingering, finger sucking, rimming, anal – all good.

Wild Things (1998)

Ray Duquette/Sam Lombardo

This movie was pretty foundational for me in how it piled up the plot twists, trusting the sheer momentum of the pile-up to carry it through, and its casual depiction of various concurrent sexual relationships where not much raises any eyebrows. Even way back then, I thought it was weird that the dynamic between these two guys read as sexual but didn’t go there, when the film goes there with M/F, F/F, M/F/F… Then recently I read that it was indeed supposed to go there, but the financiers balked, because the 1990s. Surely it must be possible for Detective Duquette, hardass dirty cop extraordinaire, and Mr. Lombardo, Teacher of the Year and all-around treacherous hound dog, to just fuck the snot out of each other. That’s it, that’s my request: please give me smut for these two!

I like that the movie is (and knows that it is) a tale of unremitting sleaze, greed, revenge, and cynicism with an undercurrent of class war and absurdist humor. I like that both of my requested characters and really almost everyone else is an unrepentant asshole and just all-around terrible human being. I like that Ray is equally convincing in his put-on persona as a dogged cowboy cop and in his real self as a smug, empathy-free opportunist, who also isn’t quite as smart as he thinks he is, since he trusts Sam to take him sailing. I like that Sam keeps finding new depths of awfulness to plumb and is really a weakling who gets in way over his head, assuming everyone can be manipulated because everyone wants to fuck him. I like the humid, glitzy, dirty, kitschy South Florida setting. I like how the period tech detail (no smart phones, no blanket CCTV coverage, limited Internet and mobile comms) makes the story more plausible (or at least easier to pull off) than it might be today and makes it feel more like a classic noir. I like all that, and I want more of that with my smut, so let the sleaze and double-cross flag fly!

I’m less interested in getting together/first time fic for this pairing, unless you decide to write my pre-canon “how they met and their scheme developed” or “they knew each other in high school” prompts – I’m more interested in exploring their dynamic once it’s already established that they’re co-conspirators who fuck and don’t actually trust each other or anyone else.

Please treat the movie as a closed canon – it spawned a copycat franchise with new characters, let’s just pretend the sequels don’t exist.

Exceptions to blanket DNWs: a darker/unhappy/ominous/complicated/ambiguous ending is fine; major character death is fine; unrequested ships are fine (see below for how I’d like them handled); dubcon is fine, incl. extreme dubcon (just don’t have the victim not enjoy it at all – if they say they hate it but end up coming anyway, we’re good)

Some prompts, if you want to make me extra super specially happy and write a plot along with the smut? Sure, read on:

-Obvious prompt is obvious: that scene where we discover these two are in cahoots, only have Sam climb in the shower with Ray as an early draft of the script would have had him do, or otherwise make the incredibly glaring subtext – text.

-How did their first meeting go, when Sam buttonholed Ray on Suzie’s orders? Or how did their plot (and its intersections with the other plots/schemes) develop? Did they fuck right out of the gate, or did that ensue somewhere along the way?

-Or what if they’d known each other before that? Let’s say they’re both Blue Bay High alums, both not-rich boys in a rich town, both already seeming clean-cut but there’s a darkness there, not exactly friends probably, maybe one’s a year or two older, maybe they’re both jocks but it’s unclear which one could go all the way (or at least as far as an athletic scholarship at the University of Miami), working lousy part-time jobs, chasing girls or pretending to, hooking up with each other (just the one time or as a regular occurrence) and definitely not talking about it… Maybe that earlier connection didn’t end well? And then they lose touch till they meet again years later.

-Sam is really the center of the Venn diagram of the various schemes and double-crosses, which would only give Ray more reason to be suspicious of Sam’s loyalty. This plays into sex somehow (so many possibilities!)

-Even the best-laid plans can have unintended side-effects, like Sam getting run off the road by Frankie. Tell me a story about how a scheme goes sideways.

-This line: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.” Make of it what you will.

-While keeping up the façade that they loathe each other and Ray the cop is out to “nail” Sam any way he can, they meet in secret to touch base and, well, someone gets nailed. Maybe a callback to the scene at the police station, with the “Cocksucker!” “Come back here and say it to my face!” exchange.

-Divergence: Ray really does want to double-cross Sam and have him take the fall for one crime or another. Or Ray figures out sooner that Sam is helping Suzie set him up. Or Sam never intended to wait so long and go to the trouble of taking Ray out on the boat to get rid of him. Someone gets nailed in that context, maybe once the double-crosser’s true intentions are revealed? Of course, they’re double-crossing each other, so go wild (ha ha) with the colliding gambits.

-Change the ending: the ur-scheme really was between Sam and Ray and they really did kill Suzie on that beach, or Suzie dies on the boat, and the guys get to sail into the Caribbean sunset… and there’s no HEA for people like that. Even with the money and having got away with all their criming, they can’t trust each other and will turn on each other eventually. Or they get away with everything, split the money, part ways – and then something happens to throw them back together again. Or Gloria finishes putting the puzzle pieces together and tracks them down to arrest them or forces them to gather evidence against each other. Or something happens to get them involved in another scheme: one or both of them gets bored or greedy again, maybe Bill Murray tracks them down and offers/strongarms/blackmails them into helping run a scheme or tries to get the guys to part with some of the money. And also porn happens.

-Or a wild (ha ha ha) divergence: either their schemes fall apart and they get arrested separately, or Suzie leaves them for dead but they survive and get nabbed by the Coast Guard – and they end up sharing a jail cell. Prison sex? Prison sex while trying to make sure their trials end in acquittals or mistrials (this may or may not succeed)? Prison sex while blaming each other for how shit went down? Prison sex while blaming each other but also having no one else to rely on when they find themselves in gen pop, and one of them is ex-police, and the other never shook the rapes-high-school-girls rep? Prison sex when the other prisoners demand a show if Ray and Sam want to avoid gang rape (so “bad guys made them do it” or “bad guys made them do it but really just enabled them”)? Bring it!

-For the actual smut: any top/bottom (or switching) combo is good. Hand jobs incl. mutual, blowjobs, 69, intercrural, frottage, fingering, rimming, anal – all good. For threesomes (see below), also spit-roasting, double penetration (with a woman only), het anal, vaginal, cunnilingus, woman giving oral sex, woman on top, vaginal fingering, pegging, two people taking turns fucking the third, one guy doing the other while the other does their third – all good. If the muse calls, dirty talk – bring it; sexist or homophobic talk – bring it.

-I have this theory that Ray is mostly into men, while Sam maybe prefers women, but he never says no to busting a nut and he has to keep Ray “sweet” i.e., not make him more suspicious than he already is. Then there’s Sam’s whole “no little bitch can make me come,” which the unrated version (watch the unrated version, it’s worth it even if you’ve seen the R-rated cut!) makes clear is a real kink of his, so if you want to play around with that (Ray turns it against him somehow, maybe), go for it! Ditto the fact that Ray is into beating up sex workers – if he tried to get violent with Sam, that would be more of an equal fight. In general, feel free to play around with any and all this, or ignore it and give me your interpretation of their dynamic!

-In the spirit of the movie, I am also here for side ships and threesomes, canon or not, which include at least one of my requested characters and one of the other canon characters I list under *, so long as there’s also at least one scene with just the guys getting it on. One of them has something – a fling, a more established or on-and-off thing, spur of the moment, dubcon – with another character? One of them spies on or otherwise witnesses the other with someone else? One of them’s with someone else and can’t stop thinking about the sex he had with the other guy earlier? They have a threesome with someone as part of a scheme, a momentary impulse, a trust-building exercise, a vain attempt to stave off the impulse to just fuck each other, or whatever? (The third wheel may have the best orgasm of their life or doesn’t have to end up satisfied either sexually or emotionally, because these are two selfish goddamn men.) Bring it all on – just also have the guys fuck only each other at some point in the fic; their fucking can but doesn’t have to be the, heh, climax of the story.

*In no particular order, the third/unrequested-ship-builder can be: Kelly, Suzie, Sandra, Gloria, Frankie, Jimmy, Davy (Suzie’s friend/BF whom Ray killed pre-canon – miraculously he lives for fic purposes). Kelly, Suzie, Jimmy, and presumably Davy are 17-18, which is fine, no worries about breaking my underage DNW; please don’t make them any younger than that. Please don’t ship either Ray or Sam with characters I don’t list here.

#dear author letter #rare pair exchange #rare pair exchange 2023

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