#ah lauren

[artchixs]

rewatched tgwdlm again <3

[sunleaffe]

young revolutionaries in love 💞

[elisela]

waking up + sterek pls and ty ilysm 🥹🥹🥰🥰

half my soul (as the poets say) sterek, long-distance relationship, au

.

The first blush of dawn wakes him. Stiles isn’t used to an east facing room—his childhood bedroom was orientated to the north, his dorm to the west—and already it’s on his list of things to look for when he eventually moves. He needs to get blackout curtains or he’s never going to get a decent night’s sleep, but it’s been low on his priority list. 

He yanks the pillow next to his over his face and gropes for his phone on the nightstand. “Siri, call Derek,” he directs, voice scratchy. Calling is such a familiar motion that he could probably navigate the screen without looking at it, but the last thing he wants is to mess up and be forced to talk to someone else at 4:36 in the morning. 

“Jesus, I just fell asleep,” is how Derek answers the phone. There’s warmth in his tone when he adds, “go back to sleep, baby,” and Stiles grins sleepily into the pillow. 

“Kay,” he says, setting the phone on the mattress next to him and turning on his side. The pillow on his face blocks the light but even with Derek’s not-really-there presence, it still takes too long before he does.

—

“You’re up early,” Stiles says, tapping the speaker button before letting the phone rest on his thigh. 

“Out of coffee,” Derek grunts in response, a non-answer to the question Stiles hadn’t asked. 

“Poor babe,” he says, grinning as he taps at his keyboard to send the fifth email he’d composed in the seven minutes he’s been in the office. He’d had visions of being terrorized by senior staff and forced to do nothing but coffee runs for the first few weeks, but his boss had handed over access to his computer after the first day of orientation and Stiles had been killing it ever since. He moves two more emails into a folder labeled “Begging for Handouts”—he never said his boss was nice to others—and picks his phone back up. “Didn’t you just go to the store yesterday?”

“Yeah,” Derek says. He yawns, stuttering on the last sound, so familiar and ordinary that it makes Stiles’ heart ache.

“Forgot to put it on the list?”

“Forgot the list.” There’s a pause while Stiles navigates the app on his phone, adding a breakfast sandwich along with the coffee, then Derek speaks again. “It’s too quiet without you.”

He double-presses the side button to check out, then screenshots and sends it to Derek. He hates being gone. He hates even more that he’s having a pretty good time checking out their new city and getting their apartment ready while Derek is stuck back in California, finishing up his last few weeks of work and cleaning their old apartment out before their lease ends. “It’s just a few more weeks,” he says, bending down to fish his earphones out of his messenger bag. 

“Yeah,” Derek says, and then, “you didn’t have to do that.”

“Oh, I did,” he says. “You still need a good letter of reference, can’t have you biting everyone’s heads off at work because you’re not properly caffeinated.”

—

“Morning,” Stiles mutters in the general direction of the phone. Derek will hear it, he thinks. Maybe. It probably doesn’t matter if he doesn’t. “What are you and Laura doing today?”

“She insists I take her to La Palmera for the last time,” Derek says with a heavy sigh, and Stiles grins despite his exhaustion. They’ve gone to La Palmera—Laura’s favorite restaurant—for the “last time” five times now since he left. “You?”

Laying in bed all day, probably. The string of late-night work sessions have him feeling run-down, and the weariness makes him miss Derek. If he were home—

“I miss you,” he says, rolling his face into the t-shirt he’d flung on his bed the night before despite it no longer smelling like his boyfriend. His eyes burn and he blinks, trying to keep his breathing steady. 

“I can cancel with Laura,” Derek offers after a moment, and Stiles shakes his head before he’s even done with the sentence.

“It’s just a few more weeks,” he says, clutching the shirt a little closer. “Go have fun with your sister.”

He doesn’t make it out of bed until almost dinner.

—

Stiles wakes up slowly—a vague awareness of his dream floating away, light filtering in through the window—and then, once he registers the breathing, all at once.

Derek is in his bed.

He blinks.

Derek doesn’t disappear.

Derek’s arm gives slightly when he pokes it, pushing in towards his body, and sleepy eyes blink open. “Go back to sleep,” he says, voice sandpaper-rough.

“You’re here,” Stiles says, inanely. He doesn’t dare raise his voice over a whisper in case this really is a delusion and it breaks the spell. 

“Missed you.” Derek rolls over and Stiles finds himself being pulled in towards his warm chest, head fitting automatically in the curve of his neck. “Flew out last night, couldn’t wait anymore. Stuff’ll be here in a few days.”

The weight lifts from his chest and he feels like his breath comes freely for the first time all summer. “You didn’t tell me.”

“Last minute thing,” Derek says; Stiles can feel the way he frowns against his temple. “Sleep. Please. You can pretend to be mad at me in the morning.”

It is morning, he wants to say, but—Derek. In his bed. 

“Kay,” he says, and falls asleep before he can say anything more. 

still taking prompts if you want to send one!

[novelconcepts]

There is so much nuance to the ep 6 scene between KJ and Lauren, I can’t get over it.

the motion older!KJ makes as they walk out, reaching for Lauren, realizing just in time that they are, in fact, in her hometown in Ohio and cutting short before she can land what was probably going to be an instinctive kiss

KJ coming in hot with the world’s most polite “hello!” and managing to make what must feel lightly like small talk for thirty seconds before dropping her voice to this shy, slightly-terrified question

the inability to hold eye contact. the faltering, wordless noises. the way she blinks like she’s seconds from just passing out in the middle of this theater--that is exactly how it feels to come out to someone for the first time. the edges of your vision go a little fuzzy, your heart is in your throat, you genuinely feel shaky, and all of that is so present in this performance

the sense of mild defeat in how she just lands on “movies” instead of “girls”, like she’s embarrassed she can’t just say it

the gentle ah hah expression on Lauren’s face as she realizes what this petrified kid is trying to ask her, and how smoothly she doesn’t correct her--just rolls with this safe code word

KJ’s nod and very tiny “uh-huh” without moving like any part of her face. like she’s reverting to standing as still as possible, protective coloring coming up in every inch of her frame

Lauren actually taking a minute to think about it before answering. and and then not giving the answer KJ asked for--”how did YOU know”--but what KJ actually needs to hear. what any kid in her position would: not everyone will get it, but everyone’s journey is their own, and there is no rush

(again, this is why I’m so delighted they wrote it the way they did--KJ and Lauren, not KJ and older!KJ, because older!KJ would have a definitive answer to give. it might be “I always knew, in the back of my mind” or it might be “when I was eighteen and kissed a girl for the first time”, but whatever the answer, it would cement KJ back into a box. this is your future, immutable, and there is no journey you could take that I haven’t already gone on. I’m so fucking glad they didn’t do this, that they let her have the reassurance that any timeline is the right one if it’s hers.)

again, that flutter-blink/quick breath combo that looks like she’s gonna pass out--but this time, there’s relief in it. it’s less “how do I say this Huge Thing” and more “oh thank god, she knows what I’m asking, she knows without me saying, and she’s being kind”

It is beautifully put together, such a gentle way of saying to this baby gay, “Nobody can tell you who you are except you, but whoever that winds up being is so okay. Listen to yourself. Trust yourself. You will be happy, I promise you.” It is a critical bit of advice so many queer people just don’t get, and to write it into KJ’s story is one of the show’s biggest kindnesses.

[heatherfield]

I was a great assistant! And I’m, like, very good at accents.

Headless: A Sleepy Hollow Story, Episode 6 + Unsolved Babesteries [x] [x]

Bonus:

[thateclecticbitch]

Hey.

Psst.

@binch-i-might-be

Over here.

I made something for you <3

I hope you like it :D

[dracolizardlars]

I find it funny that out of the 70 or so musical artists I listen to only an entire 3 of them are American btw. That's equal to the number that are Australian.

[yelenapines]

John Laurens : I owe you one. Alex (Hamilton): That’s ok. You can just date me and we’ll call it even

[betchiwilleatyou]

the way shes literally just saying "remember when i was sooo hot" and im like YES YEAH I REMEMBER I REMEMBER SO VIVIDLY I REALLY DO

[tehriz]

i feel like at least 95% of dudes who don’t like pride and prejudice are really objecting to the mere idea that a man realizing he’s an asshole and proactively changing his behavior is attractive to women

[eaaltyrt09]

Happy Birthday! Kiki!

My Baby turned 25! AAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

2/14/2023

[demo-wise]

disclaimer beforehand: i think it is DISGUSTING that israel is allowed at esc this year

palestinian flags specifically aren't banned. literally any flag other than competing countries are banned. that image is made by someone trying to spread anger about it which is like. that's... not real

i just wanted to let you know. hope you have a lovely night.

Hello! I’m so sorry, I wasn’t aware of this, I suppose I fell for the bait huh? I do agree though, the fact that Israel is allowed to compete or whatever is horrible, and really definitely should not be allowed. But I appreciate your information about the subject.

[salaciouscrumbb]

idc how cute you are, you force me to travel far away to see a disturbing grave desecration just so you can go to a football game which you are also planning to force me to attend? retribution must be had.

[thesewordsareallihavetogive]

bob the builder doesn't have Shit on me. i used three (3) whole tools to hang up some decor in my apartment. AND i busted out the step stool. i'm unstoppable

[imflyingfish]

I realise I actually really enjoy drawing mcyt inspired by adventure time princesses

[wally-b-feed]

Anthony Fineran (B 1981), Olive Lauren Ah, 2023