amiserableseriesofevents

[amiserableseriesofevents]

Our little life is rounded with a sleep, Epilogue

A fond smile curls Buck's lips. “Fear not, it's all true,” he says rubbing his thumb over John's knuckles. Some of the concealer they put on the bruises of his neck has melted away with the heat and the sweat, John's marks faintly visible on his skin. It fills John with an overwhelming sense of belonging.

188,715w, Completed

[amiserableseriesofevents]

forever in my 'you don't believe in anything' 'i believe in you' season ❤️💚

[amiserableseriesofevents]

jesus christ. fine. ill say it. im sleepy. im sleepy, okay? do you know what being sleepy does to a person? to their spirit? i should be pitied.

[amiserableseriesofevents]

I've just written the last few words of Our Little Life, the such stuff boys' adventures are officially over 🥺

[amiserableseriesofevents]

[amiserableseriesofevents]

girls will have one (1) good day when they convince themselves they've never been unwell in their life and the next day the horrors will return

[amiserableseriesofevents]

── ★ ˙🌱 ̟ !! touch prompts

��⁾ knuckles brushing across a cheek

²⁾ a fist knotted in the collar of a shirt

³⁾ lips pressed against a brow-bone

⁴⁾ legs intertwined under covers

⁵⁾ shaking hands knotted together

⁶⁾ two fingers pressed against a pulse point

⁷⁾ unsure fingers braiding hair

⁸⁾ thighs wrapped around a waist

⁹⁾ feet kicked up into a lap

¹⁰⁾ hands guiding a spoon up to waiting lips

¹¹⁾ linked pinkies

¹²⁾ a head leaned against a stomach

¹³⁾ footsie under a dining table

¹⁴⁾ hands playing gently with hair

¹⁵⁾ a thumb pressing down on a bottom lip

¹⁶⁾ fingers scratching at a scalp

¹⁷⁾ a chest pressed warmly against a back

¹⁸⁾ foreheads leaned against one another

¹⁹⁾ hands kneading at sore muscles

²⁰⁾ fingertips tracing the notches of a spine

[amiserableseriesofevents]

⁴⁾ legs intertwined under covers 🙏🙏

Prompt from this list.

This list is going to kill me they're so cute.

.

Gale's toenails were flirtin' with that edge of too long.

As they lay in bed and he stroked his foot up from the jut of John's ankle, to just touch the fatty curve of his calf and back down again, it still felt nice. More of a scratch than a stroke, if John was being honest. It made him shiver, all pleasant.

They'd been dozing, after a day well spent. The evening had finally finished its lazy stretch into nightfall. They were sore, well-worked, and their minds were empty. A promise of a good sleep ahead.

"John." The drawl and gravel in Gale's voice was his giveaway for being bone tired.

"Mmm?" John didn't open his eyes. They were heavy. So heavy, and it felt so good to let them rest.

"The light."

The one in the hallway. A rose coloured touch of feminine taste a la Margie Spencer who'd surveyed their whole kingdom with disapproval on her last visit, and raided their bank accounts to rectify the situation to her liking.

It sat on a small table in the hallway, that existed purely to hold the lamp. When they wanted to chase the dark away, it let light trickle in the open door of their bedroom. When one of them was late to bed, it let the other sleep and prevented any stumbling in the dark. And on nights like tonight, it simply softened the haze of an already contented night.

It was a good lamp. John could admit it.

"'Bout it?" He knew what Gale wanted of course, but like hell John was giving it to him. He was too comfy. Not God or the Devil could get him outta this bed.

"It's on."

"So it is."

John felt Gale's foot stroke a little harder, digging into the meat of his calf and the arch of his foot and he nearly moaned at the relief.

"Jooohn."

No. Uh-uh. No way. He wasn't moving. Not for all the footsie in the world.

"You got legs," he said, and smooshed his face deeper into the pillow.

"Sure do." And Gale slipped his legs between John's, snuggled closer until his head rested below John's throat. His breaths tickled the warm, pliant skin there, and John felt the rumble of his words like a kiss. "M'comfy. Go get it."

John's smile betrayed him. He loved seeing Gsle like this: stripped of pretence or show, and willing to let himself stop and rest. Showing his belly to John and John alone.

"I'm comfy, too."

"Hmm." It was a considering, calculating hmm, even if it was buried under 16 hours of hard day.

Gale shifted, curled up like he was wont to do, except it brought his knees up to brush against Bucky's briefs, and the gasp fell out of him before he could catch it.

"Sneak," he hissed, and Gale's teeth grinned against his neck.

"What'chu gonna do about it?"

John trapped Gale's legs between his own and rolled them over. He let most of his weight rest on his lover, who was used to bearing it. Gale's eyes glinted in glimmering slivers in the half light, from under barely open eyelids. His mouth was pouting with sleep and his cheeks puffy and rosy.

If they'd painted fellas like Buck on the ceilings of churches when he was a kid, John would have been a much better and much worse Catholic than he already was.

Gale's legs opened to welcome him readily. His heels he ran down the full expanse of John’s legs. When John dipped to kiss him, he allowed a fat, lazy press of lips once, twice, before he was pushing John back with only a finger.

"Ah ah. Light first."

John groaned and collapsed onto his Buck. He heard the oof of air leave him before John threw himself out of the bed with the frustration of a man who knew he'd been beat and wanted to get it over with.

"Allergic to losing, Buck, I swear. Sneaky, no good, underhanded..." He took his review of Gale's character out to the hallway with him, but Gale's warm chuckling accompanied him all the way.

[amiserableseriesofevents]

I want to be their third

[amiserableseriesofevents]

Jake Gyllenhaal & Heath Ledger as Jack Twist & Ennis Del Mar Brokeback Mountain (2005) dir. Ang Lee

[amiserableseriesofevents]

he's literally so gorgeous and HIS HAIRRRRR im crying why does he hate growing it out 😭😭

[amiserableseriesofevents]

never been more jealous of a group of actors than i was during that last sequence of weapons...that must've been so fun to shoot....

[amiserableseriesofevents]

i don’t think i’ve ever heard such a collective uproar of laughter than when josh brolin kept having to throw that stoner across the room

[amiserableseriesofevents]

my only take from Weapons - the commentary on how community doesn't exist in america unless tragedy knocks at their doorstep. hard. even then what people form - it's not a community, more like a mob. and no one wants to work together (that mom who didn't want to share cctv footage). no one listens (911 operator didn't inform the police right away about the call from the drug addict; no matter how ridiculous that call sounded, they had to check it out bc it's been a month! and they had no leads! and yet...). no one talks (that teacher who saw Alex at the parking lot waiting alone). the system affects us all. it doesn't differentiate between big cities and small towns. it doesn't care and it will never care.

[amiserableseriesofevents]

for the prompt: ground (with john as the receiver) or injury (john as the sender) please! love your writing and i'm excited to see what do you with either one of these 💞

Hiiii! Sorry it took me a while, I didn't forget about you 🥰 I chose ground for the prompt, but I promise you I'm gonna write something for injury as well once I'm done with the final chapter of my (very) long fic!

[GROUND]: during a moment of intense emotional stress, the sender gently takes the receiver's face in their hands to ground them until they're calmer again.

Such-stuff verse, hurt/comfort, 1.6k

Gale wasn't yet familiar with all the symptoms of John's insomnia — if he had been, he swears he never would've let things get so bad.

Some signs were easier to identify — the shadows under John's eyes becoming darker and more prominent, the constant soreness he complained about especially in his bad knee, the way his tossing and turning in bed sometimes got to the point of waking Gale up.

The increase in his coffee consumption, his gnawing need of a cigarette, the number of drinks he'd order on a night out would worry Gale, prompt him to ask John if everything was good; but John always said it was just the stress for the new production, the first after The Tempest's success.

He said he was sleeping in the mornings when Gale was at school, and sometimes he did in the afternoons when they were together, Gale grading papers at his desk and John dozing away for half an hour, not much more. It was always an agitated sleep that made Gale want to lie down with him and hold him against his chest until he calmed down, but John insisted it was fine, he was fine.

His foul mood, he reserved for the guys. The mean comments, the jabs, the fits of temper, they were all just for the Company — it's fine, they're used to it, and the weight of doing a new production after the success of The Tempest is something they all feel so John's partially excused.

The breaking point for everyone comes one night at the Abbotts, halfway through the production. The guys and Helen are on stage rehearsing their latest scene, and Gale's sitting in the stalls with Marge as she takes notes and sketches some ideas for the costumes.

“Has John been losing weight or is it the light?” Marge asks him, her eye trained for measurements always on point; that's something else Gale's noticed, John eating less than usual, his body leaner under his touch.

“He's stressed out,” Gale answers, his eyes never leaving John on stage; he's handsome as ever in his old Yankees shirt, one Gale sometimes steals to sleep in, commanding the scene with his booming voice and his imposing physique, Gale's mountain of a man. But there's a little uncertainty in his step, a tilt to his body where he favors his good knee, that sets an alarm in Gale's head.

“Is he ok? He looks-” Marge starts but Gale's stopped listening as the scene on stage takes an unexpected turn.

He sees it happen as if in slow motion: John's foot failing him, the way he falters to keep his balance without success, tumbling down like a landslide smacking his bad knee first on the dark wood of the stage.

Someone curses out loud, probably Curt, and Gale's on his feet and halfway to the stage in a second; John's already picking himself up, grimacing and red in the face with embarrassment, one hand rubbing his knee. “I'm ok,” he announces. “I'm ok, just a tumble.”

“Bucky, your knee,” Bubbles tries. “You need some ice?”

“I'm ok,” John repeats standing up, the offended knee crunching. But he stands on it with just the slightest grimace, patting himself down as if to dust off. “Sorry, I lost my balance. Where were we?”

“Get the fuck out.”

Gale's almost startled by Harry's voice at his side, the director having left his spot in the audience. John looks at Crosby like he's grown another head. “Sorry?”

“Get the fuck out. Bucky I'm serious, step off that stage or I'll drag you by the hair.”

“What the fuck?” John says, appalled more than angry. “I don't understand, why-”

“Get the fuck out and go to sleep!” Harry bellows. “You're no fucking use when you're like this.”

“I know my lines to-”

“Yeah but you can't fucking stand up, you're basically falling asleep on your feet! You need to sleep Bucky, I say it not just for the show but for your health because if you keep going on like this you're gonna crash out and we'd be left with a vacant role to fill last minute and trust me when I tell you I don't want to repeat that experience. So either you get it together or you're sitting this one out. Am I clear?”

Harry's savagery is unexpected but as much as Gale wants to yell at him for yelling at John, he knows he's right. And John must know it too because as pale with anger as he is he doesn't lash out, he just tilts his chin up in defiance and walks off stage, storms out of the theatre slamming the stage door behind him.

Gale hesitates for a split second — the two of them and Brady came here together in Johnny's new car, they're all supposed to go back to the flat the same way. “Go with him,” Brady tells him with a tired sigh. “I'll find a lift.”

Gale nods, gathers their jackets and the keys and makes his way out quickly. John's waiting for him outside the theatre, all tense lines and stubborn silence; Gale hands him the keys but he shakes his head, then sits in the passenger seat with his face to the window and stays like that the whole ride home. It doesn't do Gale's nerves any good but he forces himself to stay calm.

Benny's on the couch with Meatball, and welcomes them with a surprised smile when he hears them coming in. “Hey, you're here already! That was a quick rehearsal- wait, where's Jack?” He asks, worried.

“Don't worry, he still has a job,” John answers, poisonous, and storms off to Gale's room. Gale wants to throttle him, to grab him from the scruff of the neck and force him to apologize to Benny; instead he takes a long, deep breath. “I'm sorry about that, it's the insomnia. He tripped and fell and Crosby told him to get it together or he'll take the role from him.”

“Ah, shit,” Benny says, sympathetically. “Jack told me he's been particularly irritated lately, is that why?”

“Yeah. Sorry, I gotta-” Gale says with an apologetic grimace, then follows John to the bedroom. He finds him sitting on the bed, legs spread and face buried in his hands, elbows digging in his knees. He's not crying but he's close, Gale can tell by the trembling line of his shoulders.

Gale rushes to him, gently prying John's palms off his face. He puts his hands there instead, strokes him gently and tilts John's head upward until he's looking at him with drowsy, red rimmed eyes. “John, what's going on?”

“Crosby's gonna kick me out.”

“He's not, he's just worried for you. I am too, that was a bad fall, you could've hurt yourself.”

“'S nothing,” John mumbles, his eyes avoiding Gale.

“C'mon darlin', tell me what's wrong,” Gale says, quietly.

“I'm just-” John sighs. “I'm just so fucking tired, Buck, all the fucking time and when night comes I can't fucking sleep. I don't think I've slept one full night in the past five months, sometimes I stay awake for twenty hours or more before I crash. Fuck, I haven't felt rested in forever.”

Gale nods. “I know, I can see it. Why's it?”

“I don't know Buck, it's always been a problem but not like this. I'm so nervous all the time, what if the show's not as good as The Tempest? What if I suck at this role and ruin the momentum? And it keeps me up at night, the people's disappointment, the errors I could make. I'm sick of it Buck, so sick of it.”

“You're not gonna disappoint anyone John, you know it. You just need some rest.”

“I know that, fuck!” John exclaims and tries to shrug him off but Gale holds tight, his fingers pressed against John's heated cheeks in a firm but gentle grip.

“It's ok,” Gale says, rubbing soothingly his thumbs on the dark shadows under John's eyes. “Is there anything you think might work?”

“Drinking helps, but I don't like being that drunk. You don't like me being that drunk.”

“I don't,” Gale agrees. “But there must be other ways.”

John chuckles dryly. “Not that I've known of in the past fifteen years of my life, Buck. I just have to push through, that's all.”

Gale shakes his head, his fingers still tracing the outline of John's face, slow and steady. “That ain't working really well, uh? I'll do some researches, I'm sure there's something out there that can help you. Is there anything I can do in the meantime?”

“This is helping, it's nice,” John says, bashful like it's costing him to admit it.

“What happened to speaking up about things?” Gale asks, his hands never leaving John's face.

“I don't wanna be a burden.”

“Pity, I love it. My absolutely favorite thing, carrying your burdens as if they're mine. Splits the weight, doubles the relief,” Gale says, an attempt of a joke that makes a pallid grin appear on John's lips.

There's a knock at the door and Benny's head appears. “Sorry to bother you, Jack's coming and he wants to know if anyone needs something from the store.”

Gale's about to say that they're good but John says, “Tell him to look for the calming herbal tea my mum had in the cupboard, the one in the blue box, he should know which one. Then maybe we could all have a cup? It's sweet and good for sleeping.”

It's his sheepish way to say sorry, and Benny smiles knowingly. “I'm always down for a new herbal tea. I'll tell you when Jack's here,” he says and leaves them alone again.

John inhales shakily, his eyes fluttering shut. “I'm sorry,” he says.

“There's no need. It's gonna be ok, I'll take care of you,” Gale tells him — that's the highest honor he can think of.

[amiserableseriesofevents]

Masters of the Air A.U.gust Event!

Monday 25th - Sunday 31st August 2025

Are you a fan of AUs? Do you like to explore your favourite MOTA characters in different settings, times, and universes? Are you fascinated by what havoc a slight deviation from canon events could wreak?

Then join in with our A.U.gust event!

✨️⬇️ Rules below ⬇️✨️

What is it?

This is a whole week dedicated to the incredible variety, depth and creativity behind AU fan works.

Who can take part?

Absolutely everyone who wants to. Whether you create fan works, or want to recommend your fave AUs, or simply want to like and reblog and comment during the event, we'd love to have you.

How do you take part?

You can either create something original or rec an already published work (self-rec is accepted too). Use of AI is not allowed.

All kinds of fan works are accepted: fanfiction, edits, gifs, art, moodboards and more. Any ships or no ships at all, it doesn't matter so long as the characters are from Masters of the Air.

Simply post your fan works during A.U.gust week (25-31 August) with the #MOTA A.U.gust 2025 tag, and tag @mota-collab in the post so we can reblog it.

We've created a prompt list for anyone looking for a little inspiration - there are literally universes worth of AUs out there to choose from! You can take as many of the prompts as you like, and create as many fan works as you like. You can even combine prompts if you're feeling particularly adventurous...

Prompt list

Big thanks to this list of Alternate Universes and this AU A-Z list which inspired our own.

You can also recommend your favourite AU fan works. You can send us a DM or an ask via the Mota Collab page, and just tell us:

The title of the fan work or what it is

The link to the fan work

And what it is you like about it.

If you don't want to send it to us, you can post recs on your own blog of course, again using the MOTA A.U.gust 2025 tag, and tag @mota-collab in the post so we can see it!

And of course, you can show creators and recs alike some love, by liking, commenting and reblogging posts 🥰

How do you see all the great fan works created or recommended for A.U.gust?

Simply follow the tag MOTA A.U.gust 2025. We'll also do a masterpost at the end of the event, and there will be an AO3 Collection for any fics posted or recommended on that platform.

We're here to help so if you have any questions ask below 👇 or drop us a DM.

[amiserableseriesofevents]

Stoat in his winter coat, Kodiak, Alaska

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