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pastelhooman · 11 months

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[WVW Exchange Event 2023!]

"The kisses on your lash, your ears, on the nose that keeps scrunching. The kisses on your hand, on your cheeks, and the exchanging soft words waiting for the break of day."

----- ID under break -----

A total of 6 pages of comics, starting with a close up shots of vash kissing sleeping wolfwood's nose, eyes, lashes, and he furrows them a bit. an overhead shot of the two of them in a motel room, on the bed with vash leaning over wolfwood from the left, laying soft kisses on him. their legs tangled. their normal outfits are thrown haphazardly on the floor, instead donning comfortable clothes. on the outside, the very first ray of lights are yet to shine.

"what a face you're making pfft" - vash says as he grabs both of wolfwood's cheeks, squeezing them a bit. wolfwood mumbles, "There's something that keeps landing on my face, it tickles." he grabs the hand that is on his right cheek. "Well you're letting it happens anyways right?" Vash muses, bringing the hand up to kiss on its knuckles. "Good morning Wolfwood. It's almost dawn"

"… Isn't it way too soon?" - wolfwood asks, but keeps to himself the prayers he's sending to god because the the boy on top of him was such a sight to behold. Vash flops down onto him, leaving the hand hanging and lace his own hand into Wolfwood's hair, peppering kisses to the side of his face. "Yep" - he answers - "But you woke up on your own tho" - facetiously. He giggles, saying that it was a joke after a beat of silence. A sigh, "don't make me upside you first thing in the morning." Wolfwood closes his eyes, hand combing through golden strands. "Heh, how merciful~" "We have a meet up with Milly and Meryl today, remember?" Vash reminds him, which does raise some vague memory. wolfwood hums, the other hand reaching around vash's torso, hugging him. " So, the sooner we arrive, the less likely she'll chew through my head." - Vash adds. "riiiight. And you were SO urgent in waking me up." in wolfwood's hold, both of them slowly turn to the right, towards the edge of the bed.

Well, you were just soooo cute, I couldn't help it! didn't thinkk you'll actually wakE UAA-!"

the bed creaks under the sudden shift in weight as wolfwood tosses vash over and under him, arms firmly hugging him, one at his back and one at his head, hungrily dives down to kiss. "!! Wolf-! Wait-!" Vash yelps, leg instinctively curls around the other's man hip to hang on, trying his damnest to grip on his shirt as HE is now half airborne, barely has any contact with the bed on his upper body. However, wolfwood seems to have another idea as he keeps deepening the kiss, pointedly holding Vash close, hands spread guarding the back of his head as both of them are sliding off the soft fabric.

"THUD!" a resounding fall, possibly enough to wake the room downstairs, followed shortly by laboured breaths amist wet smacks of lips. Heaves and huffs of air exchanging between the two bodies when the need to breath made itself necessary. They press close, cradling each other, and are lost to their own world. After a while they had to part. Metal arm shifts through black locks, caressing down to his nape and they hold eye contacts there, with lidded eyes, strands of saliva thins then breaks.

Wolfwood pushes up on his arms, looking smugly down at his now disheveled partner: "Now this is how it's done, Needlenoggin." he remarks. Vash tries to wrangle his thoughts back in order, but strings of Wolfwood's name and a wonderous question keeps filling his mind, of whether he should risk it all and have fun for a bit more. Regardless, snapping out of his trance, Vash sourly asks, with a wry smile and an aching head: "But did you really need to roll off the bed?" "Wrong side, whoops" - Wolfwood anwers unseriously, laughing as he finds the situation quite amusing.

----- End of ID -----

#sorry if the ID is weird it happens everytime i tried to ID my comics it turned into psuedo-fics-#the cap is the prompt btw #the exchange is basically secret santa except it was in may lol #it was incredibly fun to work on this!!#and originally i drafted this to be like 4 pages and it got longer and l o n g e r and i was like oh no #all is good i made the deadline dont worry #yeah only some ten minutes left before it was overdue lol #oh and the event was last month i just procrastinated and didnt post it on anywhere except fb mb #half the reason was because i do NOT know how to ID and half way through it was feeling like writing a fic and that took. time #didn't help that i started writing when i was very sleepy and basically forgot about it for weeks #wElL aNyWAys #hope you enjoy this <3 #i really really love the prompts that i was given there were 3 in total but i only did one #they were all superb #vashwood #woodvash #wvw #vwv #wv #vw #trimax #trigun #trigun maximum #trigun manga #vash the stampede #vash trimax #wolfwood #nicholas d wolfwood #wolfwood trimax #wvw exchange event 2023

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evsipepsi · 3 years

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STEREK (pt.4)

YES MY LIFE CONSISTS IN READING STEREK FF lol

Hunt the Mistletoe (words 2564 /⭐⭐⭐⭐ ): Stiles and Derek get stuck in a hunted house. Mistletoe happens.

You know me, i had plans (but they just disappeared) (words 8257/ ⭐⭐⭐⭐): Basic High School AU

Option C) Some Bad Guys are Werewolves, but Not All Werewolves are Bad Guys (words 9039 /⭐⭐⭐⭐): Derek Hale—the Incredible Meat that Thinks—needs a math tutor. Stiles Stilinski needs something that will look better on his college applications than 'passable D&D Dungeon Master.'

Werewolves love cuddles (words 1812 /⭐⭐⭐⭐): Derek wants cuddles, likes it when Stiles smells like them, and will do anything to make both happen

Recipe for the heart (words 7436 /⭐⭐⭐⭐):It's the last year of high school and Stiles is ready to leave everything behind but there's only one thing he wants to do before leaving for college; Conquer Derek's heart.

Coach and Kisses (words 5284/⭐⭐⭐⭐): In which Stiles gets Derek a couch, they chase an arguably adorable monster, fall down a not-rabbit hole, and Derek may or may not ruin his entire life by admitting that yeah, Stiles might sort of be attractive.

More Than What You're Feeling Now (words 3865 /⭐⭐⭐⭐): Derek starts showing up places. Stiles may be fooling everyone else--and that’s another awful thing in a long list of awful things that are making his life easier, that everyone else is too consumed with their own grief and guilt to notice his--but he can’t fool Derek.

Drunk and Honest (words 3110 / ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐): Stiles gets drunk and faces his feelings for Derek, while he is there. Well, it was bound to happen at some point.

The Way Back (words 4695 /⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐): Derek didn't sign the postcard. Didn't write anything on it at all, except for a return address on the right and a little black squiggle where he presumably checked to see if his pen still had ink.

A secret Santa disaster (words 2497 / ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐): The pack decides to do a Secret Santa exchange for Christmas. Derek pulls Stiles name. Derek has no idea what to get Stiles.

R.W.I.L.D.H. (words 3310 /⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐): R.W.I.L.D.H Derek squints at the print in confusion, his mind spinning with what it could mean. Derek gives in to his curiosity, lets out a sigh, and flips open the book.

Things To Do On The Dates You Aren't Having (words 5557 /⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐): "So are we dating now or what?" Stiles asks the third time he finds himself doing the obligatory postcoital cuddling with a certain sour wolf.

A not so easy arrangement (words 5314/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐): AU where Derek’s still the Alpha, and Erica and Boyd aren’t dead. Stiles and Derek have to fake-date because of werewolf reasons, but it shouldn’t be too hard because they’re already having sex together?

Survival Strategies and Interior Design (words 4710 /⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐): It takes Derek a lot longer than it should to realize what Stiles is doing.

I'd catch a grenade for you (you'd do the same) (words 4845 / ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐): Stiles takes a silver bullet aimed at Derek. It’s all very strangely light hearted after that.

36 Questions (words 8071 /⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐): The time in which Erica gives 36 questions to Stiles and Derek for a study

Not another teen road trip (words 5631 /⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐): the title says it all

Here's to You, Kiddo (words 6776 /⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐): A high school Sterek au with basketball star Derek and artist Stiles! And if you can incorporate Stiles having a tattoo related to his mom that'd be great but if not I love you anyways

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muggle-writes · 7 years

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WIP Masterpost

(last updated March 30, 2019)

The formatting got all screwed up on mobile, so here’s a template of the summaries below, so you can tell what should go together. Title (link if published) Premise approximate length and other publishing notes

Partially published

Fandom: 17776

Patience Ten isn’t as patient as she hopes Nine can be. It all works out in the end Short, multi-chapter

Fandom: Harry Potter

The One I’ve Been Looking For (formerly Colors) Soulmate au: You see in black and white until you first see your soulmate, then you can see in color. Harry/Ginny with other canon pairings (but not all couples are soulmates and not all soulmates get romantically involved for a variety of reasons) Meant as a one-shot, became definitively multi-chapter, will probably wind up fairly long. Even if it’s short, it’ll contain vignettes of scenes over at least the first four years Harry attends Hogwarts

(Series) The Star’s Journey An Astoria Greengrass-centric series featuring a friendship and later relationship with Ginny Weasley. Canon compliant (so far) Originally written for PurimGifts 2019 (which is why it’s a series of one-chapter fics, rather than a single ongoing fic). Currently has three installments, at least two more are planned

Fandom: Detective Conan

Eavesdropping Hakuba Saguru is sure Tokyo’s littlest detective is too close to a certain irritating classmate phantom thief. His investigations uncover secrets that are deeper than he could have imagined. Long, multi-chapter (was once regularly updated, hoping to get back to at least bimonthly updates)

Begin Again Trans!Shinichi, begins nearly-canon and explores how the plot would be different if Shinichi were a trans guy Long, multi-chapter, no defined ending (irregular update schedule, which is not helped by being written out of order)

Sphygmoid Soulmate AU (mainly platonic, multiple connections per person) reimagining of the early series. Stripes on your arms, in different colors, represent different people that love you. They turn black if that person has died, so what does this half-and-half stripe mean? Multi-chapter, probably 4-6 chapters total when it’s done. Character-driven

Crossover with Kri – The Unseen Essence Awakening Begins basically canon, but is also set in the Kri universe, so upon a traumatic event people begin to see their Kri – the external half of their souls. (mildly self-indulgent, likely to wildly diverge from canon because the Sleeping Kogoro gag is much harder to pull off when Kogoro’s Kri is not sleeping) Short, multi-chapter. Open/ambiguous ending Marked complete on AO3, because the three chapters I initially drafted are all published, but I keep writing more so they may eventually be added ...Someone remind me to update the link in the fic header from the Kri website (which is no more) to the google drive folder containing all the official content

Fandom: Magic Kaito (Despite the frequent overlap, I do tend to write these separately)

Reunion Kaito comes home to find his father in the Kid Room Originally done as a writing exercise in the KaiShin discord, experimental (writing bot) style 1-2 more chapters before it’s complete Might be “completed” in a “choose-your-own-adventure” style with an angst ending and a happy ending

Stripes of Fate Soulmate AU: everyone has a stripe of color on their wrist that matches their soulmate’s hair color. It changes when the soulmate changes their hair color by any mechanism so it continues to match. HakuKai, starting a few years before they meet each other Published for DCMK Secret Santa 2017 but has placeholder chapters that I intend to eventually fill in because I wanted to post a “complete” story (or at least get to the happy ending) in time for the gift exchange (lol the previous version of this WIP list predicted this to end up as 2-3 chapters) Currently 7 chapters including placeholders, perhaps as many as 10 or 12 when it’s truly complete

Not at all published

Fandom: Detective Conan/Magic Kaito

(no title yet - affectionately known as Angst 1) Angst: the wrong person gets their hands on the Apotoxin, and things get worse before they get better (no character death, mostly light-hearted ending?) Long, multi-chapter (will be posted all at once because I’m not cruel enough to publish it partially and leave readers hanging… or worried about my state of mind. Also it’s harder to write now that I’m in a better headspace, but writing it was therapeutic for a while)

(no title yet - affectionately known as Angst 2) Angst: the aftermath of DC Movie 17 if any of a few things had gone a little differently at the climax of the movie. (major character death). In later chapters, canon-typical gambit pileup (which is basically crackfic in comparison to my usual style). Mostly outside perspective of the events. Short, multi-chapter (as with Angst 1, will be published all at once so I don’t leave readers with angst-cliffhangers with my irregular posting schedule. This one is mostly written except I’m several scenes beyond the original intended ending and the story keeps coming so who knows when it’ll be done and ready to publish). On the other hand, I might publish the first part as serious angst, and the later part as a separate piece due to the difference in tone. Still probably all at once

(no title yet) Heiji and Shinichi come out (from prompt) One-shot (delayed because of a mild twist, of the sort that I want to make sure I’m writing it well and that takes a lot of thought and proofreading)

Crossovers:

Crossover with A Girl and Her Fed (no title yet) Rachel and Hope meet Conan and Jodie at a coffeeshop. Hope confuses Conan. Jodie asks Rachel to contact Josh about a case they once worked together (a case that she’s still on). Rachel watches Conan solve a case. Short, 2-4 chapter (delayed until I finally read Greek Key, in case something Hope does or experiences affects how I want to write Rachel here)

Crossover with Natsume Yuujinchou (no title yet) Heiji and Conan find Natsume early in the events of (Natsume) season 6 episode 1 and assume that Natsume has the same problem Conan does Short, 1-3 chapter

Crossover with Harry Potter (no title yet) Hakuba Saguru is actually Harry Potter in disguise (from prompt, expanded to: Harry, being The Harry Potter, has been given special permission to chase criminals across country lines. Harry is investigating a notorious criminal, known to Muggles as “the last wizard of the century”, and who wears white robes as though he once went to Mahoutokoro but got caught doing illegal magic) Short, 1-3 chapter

Fandom: Undertale

An Arm and a Leg Sans begs Papyrus to take Frisk for the evening, so he can take Toriel out on a date at the last minute, and Papyrus agrees despite having already arranged to go on his first date with Mettaton the same evening One-shot (originally from prompt with the premise above, delayed embarrassingly long because I mis-remembered while planning and wrote half of another story and then having to start over (plus college life) was hell on my motivation)

Fandom: Harry Potter

(no title yet) Dudley is the Chosen One (slightly modified prophecy, fairly divergent events once they get to Hogwarts) Long, multi-chapter (being written out of order and the first chapter isn’t ready yet - I do have a good beta on standby though)

Crossover with DCMK (see DCMK section)

Crossover with the specific already-a-crossover universe of Love Is All You Need To Destroy Your Enemies (no title yet) Hermione and Julie become friends. Wonderful chaos ensues. Short, multi-chapter (the background is established but the actual fic is pending a real plot. Tentatively approved by @davetheshady despite not yet having a plot)

Crossover with MCU (no title yet) Tony Stark turns out to be Harry’s biological father, and finds out near the end of Harry’s fourth year. Character driven Longer by wordcount than Eavesdropping despite nothing being posted yet. I’m waiting on posting it until I have a clearer idea of whether this is going to have a plot arc or be solely character driven. Currently in the form of a lot of disconnected scenes

Fandom: Natsume Yuujinchou

(no title yet) Touko-centric, the truth comes out (fluff, mostly) Short, 1-2 chapter

Crossover with Detective Conan (see DCMK section)

Not WIPs (published and complete)

Fandom: DCMK

The Truth Ran confronts Conan about being Shinichi one more time, and Shinichi, after some hesitation, decides it’s time for the truth (from prompt) One-shot

Movie Night Sato/Takagi fluff: enough said. (inspired by a screenshot of a pair of YikYak posts actually), 100% canon-compliant One-shot

Memory Conan is injured and Kaito has never been less interested in keeping a promise (gen, not angst) One-shot

Stripes of Fate arguably complete - see above 7+ chapters

Crossover with Kri – The Unseen Essence Awakening arguably complete - see above 3+ chapters

Fandom: Harry Potter

Distant As a Memory A glimpse into Hermione’s mind as she prepares to erase her parents’ memories Originally written for PurimGifts 2019. One-shot. Arguably complete, may add a follow-up chapter or two because I had to cut several ideas to stay within close to the event’s maximum wordcount

Dayenu Pesach is hard, the year Luna is 10. Jewish Lovegood family. Grief/mourning and a path to recovery Originally written for PurimGifts 2019 One-shot

Fandom: Dragonriders of Pern

Flights and Fights (and Happy Endings) (title subject to change) Rearranging characters’ Weyr assignments before the double mating flight in Dragonquest, leads to averted tragedy Minor character-centric (Varena, rider of gold Ralenth, yes her name shows up in the text at least once outside of the DragonDex at the end of the book) and throws out some of the more problematic word-of-god “truths” about mating flights. One-shot. Originally written for PurimGifts 2019. Lol what’s a maximum wordcount

Other/No Fandom

The Twins The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission through the eyes of Opportunity, written shortly after the news that JPL was sending their last commands to Oppy. Vaguely poetic One-shot. AO3 “corrected” the “Mars Rovers (Fandom)” tag to “Space Exploration RPF” so this is probably the only “RPF” I’ll ever write.

Related: I posted a timeline of real events, for comparison so people could easily check which events Oppy mentioned in The Twins, since the history of Curiosity and Opportunity aren’t as neatly condensed into a “canon”

#muggle's writing masterpost #muggle writes #blog maintenance #now that i have a writing blog i can make a masterpost for all of this #without feeling like i'm spamming people who aren't interested from my main blog

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stillgeekingout · 7 years

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iiiiiiit’s time for another chapter of the ultimate aaron milverton crossover fic!

this one got obnoxiously long but bear with me. also, you have to have read part 2 of shannen’s secret santa fic for rachel for parts of it to make sense.

previous: 1 here, 2 here, 3 here, 4 here, 5 here, 6 here

A week after returning to DC, Zoe Lasnammer got a phone call from a girl.

“Hello?”

“Zoe! Is that you?”

It wasn’t Hera-- they hadn’t actually exchanged numbers, and Zoe had decided not to stalk her on facebook (no sense getting a crush on a girl who lived so many states away). So she had put away the pink ladies jacket, a keepsake from an enjoyable weekend and nothing more.

“Sorry, who is this?” Zoe asked. The girl’s voice sounded familiar, but she talked to a lot of people because of work so that didn’t help to narrow anything down.

“It’s me! Violet!”

“Violet…?” She tried to rack her brain for someone she may have talked to recently.

“Violet Hunter! Remember? I saved your life from a bus?”

“Wait--the alien girl?” Zoe couldn’t believe that this girl she barely knew would actually be contacting her two years after their brief meeting.

“I told you I’d call if I was ever in DC again!” Violet sounded excited. “Anyway--”

“How did you get this number?”

“I just moved here with my wife and husband,” Violet went on as if Zoe hadn’t said anything, “and I was thinking we should get lunch or something!” Zoe vaguely remembered the girl telling her something about a proposal in the works. Must’ve worked out, she thought.

“Violet, listen, I… enjoyed meeting you but I don’t know if--”

“How about tomorrow? I’ll meet you on your lunch break. You don’t have to bring the aliens.” And with that, Violet hung up.

Zoe stared at her phone, unsure what exactly had just happened.

------

To: Aaron Milverton

Subject: Checking in

Hey bro, how’s everything going? I haven’t heard from you since the con, I want to know all the awesome stuff you and your chapter are achieving!

-Chad

The email from Chad came almost exactly one month after Aaron realized he had feelings for him. It had been a month of moving forward, of settling into his brand new Orlando B4B chapter, and most importantly, of attempting to distract himself from thoughts of Chad. He had almost started succeeding at it, too, before Chad apparently felt the urge to “check in” with him. Which meant that Chad was thinking about him. Which meant that of course Aaron would have to spend the rest of the day thinking about Chad thinking about him. All that progress, right down the drain.

It wasn’t like he had intended to cut Chad out of his life. But how was he supposed to carry on a friendship with Chad if the whole time he was thinking about how pretty (and unavailable) he was? How would he even go about starting that conversation? Hey dude, sorry I acted so weird before, it’s just that every time I see you or think about you I get all flustered and have to lie down. But it’s cool, what’s up with you? What a disaster.

Now, though, here was Chad breaking the awkward month-long silence. He had cared enough to reach out to Aaron and ask about his life. Even with romantic feelings set aside, Aaron found it reassuring that he hadn’t been imagining Chad wanting to be friends with him beyond just organizing the con. If only he could get over himself and enjoy that friendship for what it was.

He decided to text Kate. Ever since she found out that he hadn’t told her about his correspondence with Chad the first time around, she had been giving him a hard time about keeping secrets from her. Maybe she’d have advice. Either way, it’d make her feel like he was including her.

so chad emailed me

?????????

aaron you can’t just say that and not follow up with details

hellooooo

he just said he wanted to “check in” on my new chapter

idk what to say back

talk to him!!!

ok but. how.

tell him about the chapter you dork

He started typing “why, it’s not like that’ll change his mind about anything” then deleted it. Then he typed “idk if I really want to be friends with him when I’m finally starting to” and stopped again. Starting to what? Get over him? Stop thinking about him? Both of those went out the window as soon as he saw that email. His phone vibrated as he was typing his third attempt.

stop overthinking it bc I know that’s what you’re doing

Aaron smiled.

can’t help it

I know.

I think you’ll regret losing a potential friendship

but idk, if you really don’t think you can handle it maybe just break it off

that makes me sound so fragile lol

um, are you not?

shut up

stop texting me and write the damn email aaron

He sighed and tossed his phone aside.

Chad,

He watched his cursor blink on the screen for several minutes, then closed his email and opened a word document. He had seen enough movies to know never to write an “I’m not actually going to send this” email somewhere it could be sent accidentally.

Chad,

I don’t know if I’m happy to hear from you. I keep telling myself you’re just a crush and I’ll get over it soon, but it feels like more than that sometimes. I’ve had some weird dating experiences in the past… or I guess just the one. I told you a little about my ex-girlfriend (who I usually try not to think about) but what I didn’t tell you is that she was involved in my cousin’s murder, and she was basically using me to investigate him. It’s a long story, but I really liked her and it was hard to move on from that knowing that I never meant anything to her except evidence. So anyway ever since then I’ve just been extra cautious, I guess.

It’s kind of scary to like someone again, and I’m not sure if it makes it worse or better knowing ahead of time that the person in question isn’t going to want to date me. It does make me feel better that you’re not dating anyone, not just rejecting me specifically. I don’t know if I ever stood a chance with you, or if you even like guys, but I selfishly don’t want to have to imagine you with someone else.

That sounds really creepy. I’m sorry. It’s a really good thing I’m not actually going to send this.

Anyway, um, give me some time to decide if I still want to be friends. I do, logically, but we’ll see if I can stop thinking about your eyes and hair and smile and voice every time I’m reminded of you.

Time to write my normal email that I’m actually gonna send.

-Aaron

He closed word and opened his email again, feeling like he had gotten all the hard stuff out of the way.

Chad,

So good to hear from you-- thanks for following up! We’re doing really well here, we just started a beach clean-up project along with a few high schools along the coast that already have cleaning days set in place. Also, B4B is a registered club at UCF now so we’ve teamed up with them for some new initiatives…

He went on to describe everything his chapter had been doing since the con, taking care not to get too personal in case Chad really did just want to check in from a service standpoint. He finished the email with “what about you, how are things on your end? -Aaron” and sent it before he could over analyze it too much.

------

“Zoe! Hey, Zoe!”

Zoe was greeted at the steps of her job by an excitedly waving Violet Hunter. She sighed. She knew Violet’s heart was (probably) in the right place, but she didn’t overly feel like befriending this girl who was convinced that Blair and Alex were aliens (and who had stalked her to the point of finding out her phone number, the location she worked and the time of her lunch break).

“Hey, Violet,” she said. “I guess I won’t bother to ask how you found me.”

“You could,” said Violet proudly. “I did it alone, Sherlock lives here now too but she never helps me with this stuff.”

“Okay?” Zoe didn’t know who Sherlock was, and she didn’t actually want to know how Violet tracked her down.

“So, lunch?” Violet said brightly. “Sorry Eliza and John couldn’t make it, I wanted them to meet you. That’s my wife and husband.”

“Um, right. Hey, congratulations on that,” said Zoe, suddenly feeling very single next to a girl with two spouses.

“Thanks! I still wish we could’ve had Blair’s alien fountain magic for the proposal but I’m mostly just glad I didn’t have to do it.”

“There’s a sandwich place around the corner,” Zoe said, not wanting to talk about Blair with Violet.

“Great!” Violet started walking, and Zoe had to skip a little to catch up.

“So, what brings you to DC?” Zoe asked, figuring if Violet was going to insist on hanging out they might as well get to know each other.

“John and Eliza are working at the Smithsonian. And I’m sort of helping Sherlock.”

“Oh, ok.” She didn’t know where to go from there. She still didn’t know who Sherlock was.

“How are Blair and Alex?” Violet asked, narrowing her eyes. “Are you still their companion?”

“Again, I wouldn’t phrase it like that… but they’re fine.”

“And how does your family feel about you living with aliens?”

“Um, it’s just my mom. And she doesn’t know.”

“Ohhhh,” Violet said, then whispered, “Would she compromise the mission?”

“What? No,” said Zoe. “There is no mission.”

“Riiiiight,” said Violet, and winked. “Ooh, is this it? Yum.” They had reached the sandwich shop.

Zoe made small talk for the rest of lunch, but she was distracted by what Violet had said. It was a bit odd, she realized, that she had been living with Alex and Blair in DC for over two years and her mom still thought they were humans. Zoe had introduced them a couple times when her mom was visiting, but she never let them interact with her for long and she made sure Alex used the same human form every time. Her mom had a hard enough time figuring out “they” pronouns, how would she process the truth about Zoe’s godly friends?

But on the other hand, Zoe was used to telling her mom everything. This was such a big secret, one she had gotten used to keeping, but would she just continue it for the rest of her life? It was bad enough being so far away from her mom. Not being able to share every silly thing her friends said or did without heavily filtering her stories was draining after a while.

Zoe couldn’t believe it had taken a very confused (but well-meaning) conspiracy theorist stalker to make her see sense, but she resolved to tell her mom the truth while she was home for Thanksgiving. And at the end of lunch, she found herself agreeing to meet up with Violet again later that week.

------

Aaron,

Sounds fire! I’m really happy for you that you found a good group of people. We’ve been so blessed throughout this whole thing. I feel completely sure now that Blair is watching over us and that she’s proud of us. You indirectly gave me that knowledge through holding the con, and I continue to be grateful for it.

Anyway, enough about B4B, how are you? How’s Kate? How are your parents and Madison? Do they miss you?

-Chad

Aaron read the email several times. Chad continuing to thank him was silly. He owed Aaron no thanks, considering he had started everything in the first place. None of them would have been able to meet Blair, let alone know who she was, without his dedication. More than that, though, it struck him that Chad remembered not only Kate but his little sister’s name and cared enough to ask about both of them.

This time, he didn’t feel the need to write a fake response.

My family’s doing pretty well, I think. I’m going to visit for Thanksgiving so that should be good. Maybe they miss having me around but honestly Orlando is closer to Jacksonville than Doyle was. Maddie keeps saying she wants to come visit me so she can go to Disney World. I don’t think she gets that it’s not cheaper just because I live here now.

He went on to talk about his parents a little more and how he was sure they would buy Disney tickets for winter break to see the Christmas decorations even though they knew it would be miserable and crowded. Then he told Chad about Kate and her latest endeavors.

I’m really grateful to have her to talk to… it gets a little lonely here sometimes. The other members of my new chapter are really great but I don’t know them too well yet. It does make me miss my SACU group. We still talk a little and I’m always happy to hear from them but it’s just hard not to have that dynamic that I got used to over the past couple years, you know?

Chad’s response:

I know I can’t replace your school friends and I know you can still rely on Kate, but I want you to know I’m here for you too if you need someone else to talk to. I care about you, bro.

It was more than Aaron could handle. He shut his laptop and took deep breaths.

Over the next several weeks, they continued emailing back and forth. Sometimes Aaron confessed his true feelings in his secret word document, other times he texted Kate in frustration, but mostly he savored every time he saw that Chad had replied. He had tried to look at it as an opportunity for friendship, but it was futile. With every email he fell for Chad more and more.

Why did Blair have to encourage Chad’s sworn singledom? Would Chad be interested in something beyond friendly email correspondence if she hadn’t? Would that even matter, considering they didn’t live in the same place? Why couldn’t Aaron move on?

------

“Let’s go over it one more time,” said Zoe, putting her van in park in her mom’s driveway. “You guys don’t say anything until I bring it up. Then Alex will change forms, but only when I’ve said that it’s ok, and then--”

Blair sighed from the passenger seat, absentmindedly fiddling with the necklace she always wore. “Zoe, honestly, I don’t see what the big deal is. I told your mother we were gods years ago.”

“And then we’ll explain, but just the basics, and nothing about all those people you vaporized,” Zoe finished, ignoring her. “I don’t want her to think I’m living with serial killers.”

“Alex has never killed anyone, have you Alex?” Blair said, as though cutting it down to only one serial killer was helpful.

“Nope!” Alex said brightly. “Well I mean, unless you count the people in the fire…”

“No bringing up the fire either. No murders, no accidental arson, just two benevolent gods who happen to like living with a human… because she’ll believe that,” Zoe said, doubting her whole plan. “Agh, why didn’t I do this sooner? Now she’s going to know I’ve been lying to her for years.”

“It’s ok,” said Alex. “She’ll understand. And we’re here for you no matter what.”

Zoe took a deep breath, then unbuckled her seat belt. “Okay,” she said, exhaling. “Let’s do this.”

------

Hey bro, would you believe I have a layover in the JAX airport on my way to Miami for Thanksgiving? Made me think of you.Too bad I don’t have enough time to come visit, that would’ve been sweet. But dude, we’ll be in the same city for a few minutes at least. Kind of a nice thought.

-Chad

If he didn’t want to actually kill Aaron, Chad was going to have to stop being so cute. It was too much to deal with.

Chill, Aaron told himself, you’ll be in the slight geographical vicinity of each other for like, half an hour. Big whoop.

He managed to talk himself out of several hastily-concocted reasons to be at the airport on the same day as Chad’s layover; it wasn’t like he would get past TSA without a flight anyway. He attempted (unsuccessfully, for the most part) to push the email out of his mind.

Being home for Thanksgiving was a welcome distraction. Between helping his parents clean the house for guests and hanging out with his little sister, Aaron was almost busy enough to forget about his loneliness and his unrequited crush and all the other things that were bothering him. Key word: almost. He couldn’t help but occasionally remember that he and Chad would be in the same city and not be able to see each other.

On Tuesday morning, he and Madison were watching Moana on the couch when he got an email notification.

Hey dude! Hope your break is going well. Funny story, my second flight is majorly delayed so I’m stuck in Jacksonville until tonight! I don’t know how close you are to the airport or if you have stuff going on with the fam but did you want to get lunch or something? Btw, I’m realizing email probs isn’t the best for making plans- text me if you see this.

And then Chad had given Aaron his number.

The very first thing Aaron did was text Kate a screenshot of the email with many exclamation points. Then he opened a text to Chad and wrote “bro it’s aaron, omw to the airport now :)” Then he took off the smiley face, added an exclamation point, and sent it.

“Hey Maddie, I’ll be back later, okay?” he said, standing up. “I’m going to get lunch with my friend.”

“But you’re gonna miss away away!” Maddie said. “Away away” was what she called the song that the explorers sang in the flashback. Even two years after the movie had come out, she was obsessed with it. Aaron had already heard the soundtrack at least three times the day before.

“We can watch it again when I get back,” he said. “Promise.”

He told his parents he was meeting a friend from B4B who��d had an unexpected layover, then drove to the airport as fast as his law-abiding self would allow. As he was pulling into the pickup/dropoff section of the airport, his phone rang. He answered, not stopping to look who was calling.

“Hello?”

“Aaaaaaahhhhh!”

“Kate, chill,” he said. (Of course it wasn’t Chad.) “We’re going to lunch, it’s not like it’s a date.”

“I maintain my ‘aaaaahhhhh’,” Kate said. “Are you on your way to the airport?”

“Pulling in now, yeah.” He realized he hadn’t texted Chad to tell him where to go.

“Are you gonna eat there? Or are you going somewhere? Did he say anything else? Are you--”

“Kate!” Aaron cut her off. “I don’t know where we’re going. I have to tell him I’m here though, so--”

“Oh of course, I don’t want to hold you up!” But she kept talking anyway. “Aah I can’t believe he’s going to be in your car! Ok well remember every detail, I want the full story when you get home.”

“Obviously,” he said. “But nothing’s going to happen.”

“Mhmmmmm,” Kate said. “Ok, love you.”

“You too. Bye,” he said, and hung up.

Aaron texted Chad to tell him that he was outside and what his car looked like. Then he sat and waited nervously. Since the last time he had seen Chad, his feelings had only grown stronger. It was one thing to reply to emails where he could take time to compose a response. It would be quite another thing to carry on a conversation with Chad in person, something he had failed at every time he had attempted it so far. Not to mention they would be alone in his car.

Just then, he spotted Chad walking towards his car. He was exactly as gorgeous as Aaron remembered, even after being on a plane for several hours.

Be normal, he thought. You guys are friends. He doesn’t have to know about the rest of it.

He got out of the car to help Chad with his luggage, then wished he hadn’t because he felt silly. Not knowing what else to do then, he waved. “Hey, Chad!”

Chad caught sight of him, and his face lit up. “Aaron!” He rushed over to the car, setting down his bags and giving Aaron a standard one-arm frat boy hug, which Aaron tried not to make weird.

“Hey,” Aaron said. “Good to see you, man.” He wasn’t sure what else to say. As they got in the car, Aaron was glad that he was driving so it would be easy to resist looking at Chad too much. He didn’t know what he would do once they got to lunch.

“So, there’s a Chick-Fil-A we could go to, I don’t know what you’re in the mood for,” he said.

“Oh, um, actually I’m a vegetarian now,” said Chad. Of course he was.

“All right… Denny’s?”

“Fire,” said Chad. They drove in silence, which was awkward, but Aaron didn’t know what to say.

They had been seated at the restaurant and still hadn’t said anything. Aaron was wracking his brain for any conversation starter, but Chad talked first.

“Denny’s reminds me of college,” he said. “We had one on campus and we used to go there when we got hungry at 2 AM.”

“Same,” said Aaron. “I guess it’s a staple of the American university system.”

“True that,” said Chad, and the ice was broken. They went on talking throughout the meal as if nothing was strange between them. Aaron tried to enjoy it while he could, and also spent a lot of time looking down at his plate so as not to accidentally stare at Chad’s smile or his eyes. He kept repeating to himself that he and Chad were friends, that Chad wasn’t interested in him romantically, and that it didn’t matter either way because Chad had sworn off dating. He didn’t want to delude himself into thinking that his feelings could be reciprocated. Was an unrequited crush that you knew was doomed from the start better than uncertainty?

“Not to make light of your inconvenience, but I’m really glad you had that delay,” Aaron said when they had finished eating and were waiting on the check. “I’m glad we got to hang out.”

“Me too, bro,” said Chad, and he reached out and put his hand over Aaron’s, which was resting on the table. Aaron suppressed a nervous laugh, willing himself not to meet Chad’s eyes. He couldn’t help it-- he felt a little glimmer of hope bubbling up in the back of his brain.

“Chad…” he started to say, but the waiter showed up with their checks and Chad moved his hand away. Aaron would have left his hand under Chad’s for another hour if he could have. Pathetic.

Chad cleared his throat and blinked several times as if nothing had happened. Aaron hastily changed the subject. They left Denny’s and started heading back to the airport, Aaron wishing for something to fall in the middle of the road and stop them from getting there. He wanted to pass the airport and keep driving all the way up into Georgia and beyond. He never wanted to let Chad leave his car. Who knew when the next time they would see each other would be? But alas, they reached the airport with no problems.

They sat in the parked car for a few long moments. “It’s been really nice seeing you, dude,” Chad finally said.

“Yeah,” said Aaron, looking over at Chad and accidentally meeting his eyes. He thought he felt something shift in that moment, like there was some kind of possibility that maybe his bubble of hope hadn’t been completely unfounded. He leaned towards Chad an infinitesimal amount, and he couldn’t be sure, but he thought that Chad did the same. They stayed that way for another long moment before Chad suddenly cleared his throat again and jerked away.

“Uh, I need to go,” he said. “I don’t want to miss my flight.” He started to get out of the car and reach for his luggage in the backseat.

“Right, right of course,” Aaron said. As Chad said goodbye and walked away, Aaron felt all of his brief optimism leaving with him. Well, he would have a lot to tell Kate.

#I have Fully Accepted the violet stuff into my canon for this fic #this took so long to finish lol but I'm very excited about the next chapter #which won't be for another month so don't hold your breath or whatever #tajwash #blairgp #mine

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